Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972) was the 33rd President of the United States of America (1945–1953). The final running mate of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944, Truman succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when Roosevelt died after months of declining health. Under Truman, the U.S. successfully concluded World War II; in the aftermath of the conflict, tensions with the Soviet Union increased, marking the start of the Cold War.
Truman was born in Missouri, and spent most of his youth on his family's farm. During World War I, Truman served in combat in France as an artillery officer in his National Guard unit. After the war, he briefly owned a haberdashery and joined the Democratic Party political machine of Tom Pendergast in Kansas City, Missouri. He was first elected to public office as a county official, and in 1935 became U.S. senator. He gained national prominence as head of the wartime Truman Committee, which exposed waste, fraud, and corruption in wartime contracts.
While Germany surrendered a few weeks after Truman assumed the Presidency, the war with Japan was expected to last another year or more. Truman ordered the use of atomic weapons against Japan, intending to force Japan's surrender and spare American lives in an invasion; the decision remains controversial. His presidency was a turning point in foreign affairs, as the nation supported an internationalist foreign policy in conjunction with European allies. Working closely with Congress, Truman assisted in the founding of the United Nations, issued theTruman Doctrine to contain communism, and passed the $13 billion Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe, including the Axis Powers of both world wars, whereas the wartime ally Soviet Union became the peacetime enemy, and the Cold War began. He oversaw the Berlin Airlift in 1948 and the creation of NATO in 1949. When communist North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950, he immediately sent in U.S. troops and gained UN approval for the Korean War. After initial success, the UN forces were thrown back by Chinese intervention and the conflict was stalemated through the final years of Truman's presidency. On domestic issues, bills endorsed by Truman often faced opposition from a conservative Congress, but his administration successfully guided the American economy through post-war economic challenges and started the racial integration of the military.
Corruption in Truman's administration, which was linked to certain members in the cabinet and senior White House staff, was a central issue in the 1952 presidential campaign which Adlai Stevenson, Truman's successor as Democratic nominee, lost to Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower. Popular and scholarly assessments of his presidency were initially negative, but eventually became more positive after his retirement from politics. Truman's 1948 election upset for his full term as president is routinely invoked by underdog candidates.
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[show]Early life and career[edit]
Harry S. Truman was born on May 8, 1884, in Lamar, Missouri, the oldest child of John Anderson Truman (1851–1914) and Martha Ellen Young Truman (1852–1947). His parents chose the name Harry after his mother's brother, Harrison "Harry" Young (1846–1916).[2] They chose "S" as his middle initial to please both of his grandfathers, Anderson Shipp Truman and Solomon Young. The "S" did not stand for anything, a common practice among the Scots-Irish.[3][4] A brother, John Vivian (1886–1965), was born soon after Harry, followed by one sister, Mary Jane (1889–1978).[5]
John Truman was a farmer and livestock dealer. The family lived in Lamar until Harry was ten months old, when they moved to a farm near Harrisonville. The family next moved to Belton, and in 1887 to his grandparents' 600-acre (240-ha) farm in Grandview.[6] When Truman was six, his parents moved to Independence, so he could attend the Presbyterian Church Sunday School. Truman did not attend a traditional school until he was eight.[7]
As a boy, Truman was interested in music, reading, and history, all encouraged by his mother, with whom he was very close—as president, he solicited political as well as personal advice from her.[8] He got up at five every morning to practice the piano, which he studied twice a week until he was fifteen.[9] Truman was a page at the 1900 Democratic National Convention atConvention Hall in Kansas City;[10] his father had many friends who were active in the Democratic Party and helped young Harry to gain his first political position.[11]
After graduating from Independence High School (now William Chrisman High School) in 1901, Truman worked as a timekeeper on the Santa Fe Railroad, sleeping in hobo camps near the rail lines.[12] He then worked at a series of clerical jobs, and was employed briefly in the mailroom of the Kansas City Star. He returned to the Grandview farm in 1906, where he remained until entering the army in 1917.[13] During this period, he courted Bess Wallace and proposed to her in 1911. She turned him down. Truman said that before he proposed again, he wanted to be earning more money than a farmer did.[14]
Truman is the most recent U.S. president to not have earned a college degree. When his high school friends went off to the state university in 1901, Truman enrolled in Spalding's Commercial College, a Kansas City business school, but only remained a semester. In 1923–25 he took night courses towards a law degree at the Kansas City Law School (now the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law), but dropped out after losing his government job.[15]
World War I[edit]
Truman had been turned down for appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, which was his childhood dream, because of poor eyesight.[15] He then enlisted in theMissouri Army National Guard in 1905, serving until 1911 in a Kansas City-based artillery battery.[16] At his induction, his eyesight had been an unacceptable 20/50 in the right eye and 20/400 in the left.[17] The second time he took the test, he passed by secretly memorizing the eye chart.[18]
With the onset of American participation in World War I Truman rejoined the Guard, although as the sole male in the family he was exempt from conscription. To his surprise, the men elected Truman as an officer, making him first lieutenant of a battery. Before deployment to France, Truman was sent to Camp Doniphan, Fort Sill, near Lawton, Oklahoma, for training. He ran the camp canteen with Edward Jacobson, a clothing store clerk he knew from Kansas City; under the two men the canteen returned $10,000 in dividends in six months.[16] At Fort Sill Truman met Lieutenant James M. Pendergast, nephew of Thomas Joseph (Tom) Pendergast, a Kansas City political boss, a connection that was to have a profound influence on Truman's later life.[19][20][21][22]
Now a captain, Truman in July 1918 became battery commander in an artillery regiment in France. His new unit, Battery D, 129th Field Artillery, 60th Brigade, 35th Infantry Division, was known for its discipline problems, and Truman was initially unpopular.[16] During a sudden attack by the Germans in the Vosges Mountains, soldiers began to flee. Using profanity that he had learned while working on the Santa Fe railroad, Truman encouraged his men to stay and fight; they were so surprised to hear Truman use such language that they immediately obeyed.[16]
On September 26, 1918, at the opening of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, Truman's unit joined in a massive pre-arranged assault barrage. They advanced with difficulty over pitted terrain to follow the infantry, and when they were west of Cheppy they set up an observation post. A decision by Truman to act against orders probably saved American lives. Through his binoculars on September 27, he saw an enemy artillery battery setting up across a river in a position allowing them to fire upon the neighboring 28th Division. Truman's orders limited him to targets facing the 35th Division, but he ignored this and patiently waited until the Germans had walked their horses far away from their guns before he opened fire and scattered the enemy. Truman was chewed out by his commander, Colonel Karl D. Klemm, but he was not court-martialed.[23][24]
In other action during the Meuse-Argonne fighting, Truman provided support for George S. Patton's tank brigade.[25] On November 11, 1918, his artillery unit fired some of the last shots of World War I towards German positions in Hermeville before the armistice took effect at 11 am.[26] Under Truman's command in France, the battery did not lose a single man, and his men presented Truman with a large loving cup after their return to the United States.[16]
The war was a transformative experience that brought out Truman's leadership qualities.[27] Despite beginning 1917 as a family farmer who had been unsuccessful in several business ventures, Truman's war record made possible his postwar political career in Missouri.[16]
Politics[edit]
Jackson County judge[edit]
At the war's conclusion, Truman was mustered out as a captain; he returned to Independence, and married Bess Wallace on June 28, 1919.[28] The couple had one child, Mary Margaret.[29]
Shortly before Truman's marriage, he and Jacobson had opened a haberdashery at 104 West 12th Street in downtown Kansas City. After brief initial success, the store went bankrupt during the recession of 1921.[8] Truman did not pay off the last of the debts from that venture until 1934, when he did so with the aid of a supporter.[30] Jacobson and Truman remained close friends, and Jacobson's advice to Truman on Zionism later played a role in the U.S. government's decision to recognize Israel.[31] In 1922, with the help of the Kansas City Democratic machine led by Tom Pendergast, Truman was elected a judge of the County Court of the eastern district of Jackson County—an administrative, not judicial, position similar to county commissioners elsewhere.[8]
Truman was not re-elected in 1924, losing in a Republican wave led by President Calvin Coolidge. His two years in the political wilderness selling automobile club memberships convinced him that a public service career was safer for a man approaching middle age who had never been successful in the private sector.[32] In 1926, with the support of the Pendergast machine, Truman was elected the presiding judge for the county court, and re-elected in 1930. Truman helped coordinate the "Ten Year Plan", which transformed Jackson County and the Kansas City skyline with new public works projects, including an extensive series of roads, construction of a new Wight and Wight-designed County Court building, and the dedication of a series of 12 Madonna of the Trail monuments honoring pioneer women.[32][33]
In 1933, Truman was named Missouri's director for the Federal Re-Employment program (part of the Civil Works Administration) at the request of Postmaster General James Farley. This was payback to Pendergast for delivering the Kansas City vote to Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential election. The appointment confirmed Pendergast's control over federal patronage jobs in Missouri and marked the zenith of his power. It also created a relationship between Truman and Roosevelt aide Harry Hopkins, and assured Truman's avid support for the New Deal.[34]
U.S. Senator[edit]
After serving as judge, Truman wanted to run for Governor or Congress, but Pendergast rejected these ideas. Truman thought that he would serve out his career in some well-paying sinecure at the county level. Instead, after four other men turned him down, Pendergast reluctantly backed Truman as a Democratic candidate for the 1934 U.S. Senate election for Missouri.[35] During the Democratic primary, Truman defeated two congressmen, John J. Cochran and Jacob L. Milligan, with the solid support of Jackson County, which was crucial to his candidacy, as were the contacts he had made statewide as a county official. Truman then defeated the incumbent Republican, Roscoe C. Patterson, by nearly 20 percentage points.[35][36][37]
Truman assumed office with a reputation as "the senator from Pendergast". Though he gave patronage decisions to Pendergast, Truman always maintained he voted his conscience. He later defended the patronage decisions by saying that by offering a little to the machine, he saved a lot.[37][38] In his first term as a U.S. Senator, Truman spoke out against corporate greed and the dangers of Wall Street speculators and other moneyed special interests attaining too much influence in national affairs.[39] He was largely ignored by President Roosevelt, and had difficulty getting calls to the White House returned.[37][40]
In 1940, United States Attorney Maurice Milligan and former governor Lloyd Stark challenged Truman in the Democratic primary. Truman was politically weakened by Pendergast's imprisonment for income tax evasion the previous year; the senator had remained loyal, claiming that Republican judges, not the Roosevelt administration, were responsible for the boss's downfall.[41] St. Louis party leader Robert E. Hannegan's support of Truman proved crucial; he would later broker the deal that put Truman on the national ticket. In the end, Stark and Milligan split the anti-Pendergast vote in the Senate Democratic primary, and Truman won by 8,000 votes. In the November election, Truman defeated Republican Manvel H. Davis by 51% to 49%.[42]
Late in 1940, Truman traveled to a number of military bases. The waste and profiteering he saw led him to use his subcommittee chairmanship in the Committee on Military Affairs to begin investigations into abuses while the nation prepared for war. A separate committee to conduct a formal investigation was set up under Truman; the Roosevelt administration supported this plan rather than weather a more hostile probe by the House of Representatives. Chairmanship of what came to be known as the "Truman Committee" made him a national figure.[43] Activities of the Truman Committee ranged from criticizing the "dollar-a-year men" hired by the government, many of whom proved ineffective, to investigating a shoddily built New Jersey housing project for war workers.[44] The committee is reported to have saved as much as $15 billion;[45][46] its activities put Truman on the cover of Time magazine.[47] According to the Senate's historical minutes, in leading the committee, "Truman erased his earlier public image as an errand-runner for Kansas City politicos" and "no senator ever gained greater political benefits from chairing a special investigating committee than did Missouri's Harry S. Truman."[48]
Vice presidency[edit]
Vice President Henry Wallace, though popular among Democratic voters, was viewed as too far to the left and too friendly to labor for some of Roosevelt's advisers. Knowing that Roosevelt might not live out a fourth term, both the President and several of his confidantes moved to replace Wallace. Outgoing Democratic National Committee chairman Frank C. Walker, incoming chairman Hannegan, party treasurer Edwin W. Pauley, strategist Ed Flynn, Chicago Mayor Edward Joseph Kelly and lobbyist George E. Allen all wanted to keep Wallace off the ticket.[49]Roosevelt told party leaders he would accept either Truman or Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. State and city party leaders strongly preferred Truman, and Roosevelt agreed. Truman himself did not campaign for the Vice-Presidential spot though he welcomed the attention as evidence that he had become more than the "Senator from Pendergast".[50]
Truman's nomination, dubbed the "Second Missouri Compromise", was well received, and the Roosevelt–Truman ticket went on to a 432–99 electoral-vote victory in the election, defeating Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York and Governor John Bricker of Ohio. Truman was sworn in as vice president on January 20, 1945.[51]
Truman's brief vice-presidency was relatively uneventful. Roosevelt rarely contacted him, even to inform him of major decisions; the President and Vice President met alone together only twice during their time together in office.[52] In one of his first acts as vice president, Truman created some controversy when he attended the disgraced Pendergast's funeral. He brushed the criticism aside, saying simply, "He was always my friend and I have always been his."[8] He had rarely discussed world affairs or domestic politics with Roosevelt and was uninformed about major initiatives relating to the war and the top-secret Manhattan Project, which was about to test the world's first atomic bomb.[53]
Truman had been vice president for only 82 days when President Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945.[53] That afternoon, Truman presided over the Senate as usual. He had just adjourned the session for the day and was preparing to have a drink in House Speaker Sam Rayburn's office when he received an urgent message to go immediately to the White House. Truman assumed that President Roosevelt wanted to meet with him, but Eleanor Roosevelt informed him that her husband had died after suffering a massive cerebral hemorrhage. Truman's first concern was for Mrs. Roosevelt. He asked if there was anything he could do for her, to which she replied, "Is there anything we can do for you? You are the one in trouble now!"[54][55]
Presidency 1945–1953[edit]
First term (1945–1949)[edit]
Assuming office; atomic bomb[edit]
For more details on this topic, see Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Shortly after taking the oath of office, Truman said to reporters:
Upon assuming the presidency, Truman asked all the members of FDR's cabinet to remain in place, and told them that he was open to their advice, but laid down a central principle of his administration: he would be the one making decisions, and they were to support him.[58] Although Truman was told briefly on the afternoon of April 12 that the Allies had a new, highly destructive weapon, it was not until April 25 that Secretary of War Henry Stimson told him the details. Truman benefitted from a honeymoon period in the aftermath of Roosevelt's death, and from the Allies' success in Europe, wrapping up the war there. Truman was pleased to be able to issue the proclamation of V-E Day on May 8, 1945, his 61st birthday.[59][60]
We have discovered the most terrible bomb in the history of the world. It may be the fire destruction prophesied in the Euphrates Valley Era, after Noah and his fabulous Ark.
“
”
Harry Truman, writing about the atomic bomb in his diary[61]
In the wake of Allied victory, Truman journeyed to Europe for the Potsdam Conference, and he was there when he learned that the Trinity test of the first atomic bomb on July 16 had been successful. He hinted to Joseph Stalin that the U.S. was about to use a new kind of weapon against the Japanese. Though this was the first time the Soviets had been officially given information about the atomic bomb, Stalin was already aware of the bomb project, having learned about it (through espionage) long before Truman himself did.[62][63][64]
In August, after the Imperial government refused surrender demands, Truman authorized the atomic bombing of Japan. Although it was not known how devastating the explosions and the aftermath would be, Truman, like most Americans, was not inclined to be merciful towards the Japanese in the wake of the long years of war. Truman always stated that his decision to bomb Japan saved life on both sides; military estimates for an invasion of the Japanese home islands were that it could take a year and result in 250,000 to 500,000 American casualties. He also knew that the program could cost $2 billion, and so he was not inclined to forgo an alternative that might quickly end the war. Hiroshima was bombed on August 6 and Nagasaki on the 9th. When the Japanese were still slow to surrender, Truman ordered a massive conventional air raid on Tokyo for August 13; Japanagreed to surrender the following day.[65][66]
Supporters of Truman's decision argue that, given the tenacious Japanese defense of the outlying islands, the bombings saved hundreds of thousands of lives that would have been lost invading mainland Japan. In 1954, Eleanor Roosevelt said that Truman had "made the only decision he could," and that the bomb's use was necessary "to avoid tremendous sacrifice of American lives."[67] Others have argued that the use of nuclear weapons was unnecessary and inherently immoral.[68] Truman wrote, later in life, that, "I knew what I was doing when I stopped the war ... I have no regrets and, under the same circumstances, I would do it again."[69]
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