Harry S. Truman

In 1960, the American sculptor Felix Weihsde Weldon, known worldwide for his more than 1,200 sculptures, created a brass statue of Harry S. Truman (1884-1972), the 33rd President of the United States of America. Truman served as President of the United States from 1945 to 1953, succeeding Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was responsible for some of the most crucial political decisions in modern international history, such as the dropping of the atomic bomb that effectively ended World War II, or the formation of NATO. Truman played a pivotal role in shaping post-war and, by extension, modern Europe and its relations with the Western and Eastern worlds. Thanks to the expenditure of the AHEPA expatriate organisation, the sculpture has been in the same place since 1963. It is a brass full-length statue installed on a marble pedestal. On the back of the statue, there is an engraved inscription in Greek and English concerning the expression of gratitude of the Greeks to Truman and his homonymous doctrine, while on the right side there are excerpts from the speech he gave on March 12th, 1947, during which he requested from the American Congress 400 million dollars for the military and economic aid of Greece and Turkey.