What I can see

US President Truman is shown standing with his legs slightly open. The hands are in an awkward posture with the right protruding somewhat, holding a document. The statue is bronze, 3.20m high and rests on a marble pedestal, in front of which the embossed emblem of the Greek-American donors is located. Around the statue are eight columns, 1.85m high, bearing texts of gratitude (both in Greek and English) of the Greek people for Truman and his speech for sending military and economic aid to Greece.

What I can't see

The post-civil war governments decided on the placement of the statue as a token of gratitude for the military and economic contribution of Truman to the right-wing’s victory. The work of Felix Welton was illegally placed without the knowledge of the municipal authorities and was inaugurated on the day of the funeral of the murdered left pacifist MP and activist Gregorios Lambrakis. Truman, apart from the nuclear bombs in Japan, was one of the key figures of American involvement in the Greek civil war after Britain. The famous “Truman Doctrine” to Greece and Turkiye was also the beginning of the Cold War, extending it later to the rest of Europe, in order to curb the influence of the USSR. For these reasons, the sculpture has been vandalised and disfigured more than any other. Four times bombs were placed and detonated, it has been covered with paint, its legs have been sawed and once it was pulled to the ground with ropes.

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