Ambassador Power is WILD About Harry! | April 12, 2021
Harry S. Truman Legacy of Leadership Award
The Truman Library Institute proudly announces that the 2021 Harry S. Truman Legacy of Leadership Award will be presented to Ambassador Samantha J. Power during the 22nd Annual Wild About Harry celebration on May 6, 2021. Today, on the 76th anniversary of Harry Truman’s ascension to the presidency, Ambassador Power shared this personal video greeting reflecting on Truman’s global leadership and enduring legacy.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT OF AMBASSADOR POWER’S PERSONAL MESSAGE
Hi everybody.
I’m Samantha Power, and I am incredibly honored to be this year’s recipient of the Truman Legacy of Leadership Award. As someone who had the privilege of serving as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, I’m also very humbled.
Many are familiar with the famous images of Harry Truman in San Francisco leading the American delegation to the signing of the U.N. charter. But people often forget what he did after the big event.
He made a powerful case for why the United States needed to actually ratify the charter. He galvanized the public and the Senate to believe in this new institution. And he led the U.S. to become one of the very first nations to actually join the U.N. and make it a reality.
President Truman recognized how the security of Americans is connected to the security of people who live elsewhere. He understood that confronting shared threats required global cooperation.
And when he later traveled to New York City to lay the cornerstone of what would become the U.N. building on First Avenue, he said something worth remembering: “We must make our devotion to the ideals of the charter as strong as the steel in this building.”
Those ideals – preventing and ending conflict, catalyzing social and economic progress, advancing human rights – are as important today as they were in Truman’s time.
Democracies are once again facing a number of crises, as well as great uncertainty among our citizens about whether leaders can find a way to work together to respond.
From the U.N. to NATO to the Marshall Plan to advocating for refugee resettlement and addressing our own democratic shortcomings, President Truman offers a vision for what principled leadership can look like.
I hope you’ll join me, and everyone, on May 6 to reflect on Harry Truman’s presidency and what it can tell us about meeting the challenges of the present.
Wild About Harry! is much more than an entertaining and enlightening evening honoring President Truman. It is the Truman Library Institute’s only annual fundraising event benefiting Truman’s presidential library and legacy. As the nonprofit partner of the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, we depend on this vital support to fund research grants, scholarships, museum exhibits, public programming, civics education and outreach. Thank you for standing with Truman!
AMBASSADOR SAMANTHA J. POWER
Called “a powerful crusader for U.S foreign policy as well as human rights and democracy” by Forbes when it named her one of the “World’s 100 Most Powerful Women,” Samantha Power is recognized as a leading voice internationally for principled American engagement in the world. Power served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations from 2013 to 2017 and on the National Security Council as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights from 2009 to 2013. She was the founding executive director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and is currently a Professor of Practice at the Kennedy School and Harvard Law School. Earlier this year, President Biden nominated Power to lead the U.S. Agency for International Development.
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