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Taken from Good Reads:

If we see that Germany is winning we ought to help Russia and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible, although I don't want to see Hitler victorious under any circumstances.

I've tried searching on Google Books but couldn't find a first-hand source for this statement. Did Harry S. Truman actually say this during World War II?

blahdiblah
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JonathanReez
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    [Wikipedia claims](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bait_and_bleed) he said it in 1941, in response to the German invasion of Russia (June 1941), and cites David McCullogh's 1992 biography *Truman*. The New York Times also printed the quote, likewise dated to 1941, in their [1972 obituary of Truman](https://www.nytimes.com/1972/12/27/archives/harry-s-truman-decisive-president-the-lightning-strikes-in-war.html) (subscription required). – Nate Eldredge Jul 28 '21 at 04:51
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    The US had a similar strategy for the Iran-Iraq war, as described [here](https://books.google.de/books?id=TkfCDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA369). It's always favourable to see your enemies weaken each other. – knallfrosch Jul 28 '21 at 12:02
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    The strategy is pretty much reasonable and predates the USA by at least 20 centuries. – fraxinus Jul 28 '21 at 12:17
  • This is basically nothing compared to some his private blurts. Like (1946) "Adjourn Congress and run the country. Get plenty of Atomic bombs on hand. Drop one on Stalin; put the United States to work and eventually set up a free world." Now that's a plan... Truman also had a somewhat wry sense of humor; he told a foreign leader (whom he didn't want to talk to) that he [Truman] spoke no French an "very little English." – Fizz Aug 05 '21 at 15:40

1 Answers1

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Yes, in so far as he allegedly told these lines a reporter from the New York Times and was then quoted in that way in the New York Times.

The sought snippet reads as (image slightly manipulated to show the date and source):

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In its surrounding context:

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In text form:

Senator Harry Truman, Democrat, of Missouri, suggested that the United States helps whichever side seemed to be losing.

“If we see that Germany is winning we ought to help Russia and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany and that way let them kill as many as possible, although I don’t want to see Hitler victorious under any circumstances. Neither of them think anything of their pledged word.”

— Turner Catledge, “Our Policy Stated”, New York Times, June 24, 1941, pp. 1, 7, (NYT archive subscription required to access this link)

Note: this is then subsequently always quoted to show “his firmness” towards “totalitarian adversaries”. Although at the time it was perhaps not always understood as really all that cynically “serious”, but even somewhat flexible, if not meaning that the above quote is to be read rather differently. Note the word “then” giving this a different spin:

enter image description here

There was another disturbing consequence of the war, and this happened at the Capitol. Several Senators and Representatives took the short view which Hitler and his advisers doubtless hoped they would take. Senator Truman proposed, though not too seriously, that the United States should help Russia to crush Germany and then, if that was succeeding, turn around and help Germany to offset the advantage. This suggestion is based on the familiar and comprehensible sentiment of “a plague o’ both your houses,” and flows from the cordial wish that both of the totalitarian States will be crushed in the combat.

— Arthur Krock: “The Government Is for Any One Who Fights Hitler”, New York Times, June 24, 1941, p. 18. (NYT archive)

This saying was never disputed, but also not repeated anywhere else apart from this quoted source. And the one time source is usually characterized as:

Truman’s philosophy of foreign affairs was, at best, nebulous. Just after Hitler had invaded the Soviet Union, Senator Truman had casually commented to a New York Times reporter:

“If we see that Germany is winning we ought to help Russia and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany and that way let them kill as many as possible.”

— Walter Isaacson & Evan Thomas: “The Wise Men. Six Friends and the World they made. Acheson, Bohlen, Harriman, Kennan, Lovett, McCloy”, Simon and Schuster: New York, 1986. p. 256.

Compare this with how David McCullough describes this as “when asked what he thought he spoke his mind” ( — David McCullough: “Truman”, Simon and Schuster: New York, 2003. p. 308 gBooks.)

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LangLаngС
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    Is it noted where he said it? To the journalist as part of an interview? Congressional record doesn't quote him saying it, though it was used to attack President Truman in 1948. – JonathanReez Jul 28 '21 at 08:31
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    @JonathanReez: No, the article doesn't say. It's just in a section together with similar quotes from other members of Congress, described as "Congressional reaction". – Nate Eldredge Jul 28 '21 at 15:30
  • Is the "us possible" a typo in your transcription, or a typo in the source you quoted? – Siguza Jul 30 '21 at 21:55