At Noon on Friday, May 25, 1945, Congressman Everett Dirksen met with President Harry Truman in the Oval Office of the White House.  “You were a wagon soldier in the last war, Mr. President.  So was I.  We don’t have much conception of how modern warfare operates.  But we do know something of what our boys have gone thru, and we’ve got to make sure that those who have taken it on the chin have not done it in vain.”

“You speak my language,” replied Harry Truman.

For the next 30 minutes, Illinois Congressman Everett M. Dirksen reported to President Harry Truman on the post-war challenges facing the United States.

Document Note: The president asked Dirksen to prepare a memorandum with his observations and recommendations.  The congressman sent it to the White House on June 4.  This memo is one of the site’s “anchor documents.”  [Source:  Collection 3, Truman, Harry S., Correspondence with Everett M. Dirksen, 1945-69, The Dirksen Congressional Center]