page_title: Buck passing
section_title: "The buck stops here"
hierarchical_section_title: Buck passing / "The buck stops here"
caption_attribution_description: Harry Truman poses for a photograph at the recreation of the Truman Oval Office at the Truman Library in 1959.
context_page_description: Buck passing, or passing the buck, or sometimes the blame game, is the act of attributing to another person or group one's own responsibility. It is often used to refer to a strategy in power politics whereby a state tries to get another state to deter or fight an aggressor state while it remains on the sidelines.
context_section_description: "The buck stops here" is a phrase that was popularized by U.S. President Harry S. Truman, who kept a sign with that phrase on his desk in the Oval Office. The phrase refers to the notion that the President has to make the decisions and accept the ultimate responsibility for those decisions. Truman received the sign as a gift from a prison warden who was also an avid poker player. It is also the motto of the U.S. Naval Aircraft Carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75).
  President Jimmy Carter arranged to borrow the sign from the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum. Footage from Carter's "Address to the Nation on Energy" shows the sign on the desk during his administration.
  The reverse of the sign reads, "I'm from Missouri." This is a reference to Truman's home state as well as Willard Duncan Vandiver's statement: "I'm from Missouri. You've got to show me."
caption: At the recreation of the Truman Oval Office at the Truman Library in 1959, the former President Truman poses by his old desk which has the famous "The Buck Stops Here" sign.
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