The husband-wife team of historians, Allis and Ronald Radosh, presents the book A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel.

On May 14, 1948, under the stewardship of President Harry S. Truman, America became the first nation to recognize the State of Israel just moments after sovereignty had been declared in Jerusalem. While acknowledging this event as one of his proudest moments, Truman also admitted that no issue was “more controversial or more complex than the problem of Israel.” As the president told his closest advisers, these attempts to resolve the issue of a Jewish homeland left him in a condition of “political battle fatigue.”

In A Safe Haven, Allis and Ronald explore the national and global pressures bearing on Truman and the people - including the worldwide Jewish community, key White House advisers, the State Department, the British, Arabs, and the representatives of the new United Nations – whose influence, on both sides, led to Truman’s decision.