“Truman and NATO” Round Table
A round table titled “Harry S. Truman and NATO – Vision of Alliance” has been held in the Journalists’ Dome in Zagreb on 26 October 2010. The conference was organized by the Faculty of Political Science and The U.S. Embassy in Croatia, with the aim of bringing up and discussing the role of former U.S. president in the creation of NATO. The central event of the Round Table was the presentation of an American professor Michael Devine, director of Truman Presidential Museum and Library in Kansas City.
When presenting some of the photographs and documents from the museum, Devine said that by participating in the creation of NATO, Truman gave the appropriate answer to Soviet expansionism, and completely deviated from the earlier U.S. practice of not joining to any pact. He recalled the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, which, along with NATO, made the key foundations of the new relations between the U.S. and Europe.
The discussion was attended by State Secretary of Ministry of Defence Pjer Simunovic, who believes that today’s NATO greatly expanded its importance. “Now it provides peace and stability to its members, but also to a large part of the world, and answers all the modern threats and challenges”, Simunovic said.
The round table was also attended by other experts, such as historians and political scientists Tvrtko Jakovina Damir Grubisa and Ivan Grdesic.