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Members of the Boards,

Last week, Truman co-founder and Board Member Matt Spence and I traveled to
the Zaatari refugee camp in northern Jordan, now home to nearly 80,000
Syrian refugees, and heard their stories. Earlier that week, in a different
Arab country, we met with some of the extraordinary American airmen who are
flying daily combat missions against ISIL. And as we traveled across the
region, our phones were buzzing with news from the campaign trail at home –
and we struggled to explain to high government officials and taxi drivers
alike the increasingly repugnant rhetoric coming from far too many who
aspire to America’s highest office.

Each of these challenges directly implicates our core values and mission.
Each of them, and many more, will continue to demand all of the combined
talents, brilliance, and effort of the nationwide community our
organizations bring together. And each of them is almost certain to come to
a head in 2016. Simply put, I believe that the coming year represents the
most serious collective challenge to our organizations’ values that we’ve
ever faced.

Fortunately, we have never been stronger. As we look ahead to all that we
face in 2016, it’s worth taking a moment to recognize all that we
accomplished together in 2015.

The partnership between the Truman National Security Project and Truman
Center for National Policy, as they exist today, is built on a simple
formula. First, bring together, train, and grow a remarkable community of
leaders, diverse in background but united by values. Second, empower that
community to develop concrete, actionable ideas that apply our shared
values to difficult problems. And third, fight for those values and ideas
together nationwide through advocacy, coordinated communications, and the
political process.

Last year, we proved together that we can deliver on every part of that
formula, with truly national impact.

First and foremost, we recruited and selected a remarkable incoming class
that will bring even more diverse, talented, motivated individuals to our
community.

Second, nearly 400 Truman members in 11 Expert Groups came together to
craft the first-ever Truman Framework: a powerful and truly representative
articulation of our shared worldview, the challenges we face as a nation,
and the concrete actions that leaders at every level can take to apply our
values to those challenges. The Truman Framework is already in use by three
Presidential campaigns, and hundreds of candidates for national and local
office, all before we've even had a hard launch. More importantly,
Framework -- and the inclusive process that created it -- is proof that
despite continuing and healthy debates on a host of issues, the Truman
community is deeply united in our approach to a broad set of major
challenges.

Our members are making themselves heard: last year, an average of 27 Truman
members appeared in the media each week. Truman members appeared 1,122
times in print, online publications, and on TV and radio in 2015.
Truman-authored op-eds appeared in 36 states.

And already, our combined efforts have been a driving force in making many
of the ideas in the Truman Framework a reality.

For instance, Truman has long recognized that frontline civilians take many
of the same risks as members of the military without the same level of
training or care. Thanks in large part to years of collaboration among
dozens of Truman members, this year the State Department opened a Frontline
Civilians Resilience Resource Center.

While the rhetoric around climate change remains as poisonous as ever, we
brought together state and local elected officials on both sides of the
aisle to take action by making the national security argument in a way that
few other organizations can.

We have seen firsthand what happens when we choose the military option
first. So we stood up and fought, in the way only this community can, to
secure and support a deal that offers our best chance to stop Iran from
acquiring a nuclear weapon, while avoiding another destructive war in the
Middle East. Members of our community were instrumental in every phase of
the diplomatic process – and the President of the United States said
publicly that our organization helped create the space for this deal to get
done.

The No Exceptions campaign was a driving force in opening every single job
in the US military to every qualified American, regardless of gender. Their
efforts proved, once again, that pluralism makes us stronger, and more
secure.

And most recently, when some politicians saw an opportunity to score
political points by turning America’s back on refugees fleeing violence,
Truman spoke with unique moral authority about why doing so would represent
an abandonment of American values – and how it would make us less safe.
That fight is far from over, and our voice on this issue is only going to
grow louder in the coming year.

Thanks to your leadership and support, we are stronger together than we
have ever been – and getting even stronger. The team and I have will have
some great news to share with you in the coming weeks about some extremely
talented new hires at HQ, a new web presence for the organization, new
online tools for the Truman community, and more.

We’re going to need every ounce of that strength in 2016. There is no other
enterprise like Truman capable of meeting these challenges like we can, and
no cavalry coming over the hill to do it for us. Given the stakes, we
understand our duty to fight for our values – and our very real duty to win.

Just like every other member of the HQ team, I’m grateful every day for the
chance to do this work, and for all of the opportunities that come with
this wonderful, challenging job. On behalf of everyone here, please accept
our continued thanks for your leadership, guidance, and support.

Mike


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*Michael Breen*President & CEO
Truman National Security Project & Truman Center for National Policy

Office: 202.216.9723 x2325
Cell: 603.828.9550

www.TrumanProject.org <http://www.trumanproject.org> & www.CNPonline.org
<http://www.cnponline.org>

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*Save the Date:* TruCon 2016 will be June 23-26 in Washington, DC