Tuesday · November 3, 2026
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American history, reported as it happened
Made for the 250th
19471776 Club

Truman goes on television from the White House, asking Americans to skip meat and eggs

The broadcast came not from the Oval Office but the Diplomatic Reception Room, with cameras inside the White House for the first time.

Europe's harvests had failed to recover from the war, and millions faced a hungry winter. On October 5, 1947, President Harry Truman sat before television cameras in the White House's Diplomatic Reception Room and asked Americans to cut back on food so more grain could reach Europe. Charles Luckman, chairman of the Citizens' Food Committee, appeared alongside him to lay out the specifics. It was the first live televised address ever broadcast from the White House…

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More from Cold War America
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