Historical Figure
Harry S. Truman
1884–1972
President of the United States from 1945 to 1953
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Biography
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. As the 34th vice president in 1945, he assumed the presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt that year. Subsequently, Truman implemented the Marshall Plan in the aftermath of World War II to rebuild the economy of Western Europe, and established both the Truman Doctrine and NATO to contain the expansion of Soviet communism. A member of the Democratic Party, he proposed numerous New Deal coalition liberal domestic reforms, but few were enacted by the conservative coalition that dominated the United States Congress.
In Their Own Words (5)
If we see that Germany is winning we ought to help Russia and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible, although I don't want to see Hitler victorious under any circumstances. Neither of them thinks anything of their pledged word.
As quoted in The New York Times (24 June 1941); also in Time magazine (2 July 1951)) , 1941
Some of my best friends never agree with me politically.
Statement to a group of four congress freshmen (2 July 1947), as quoted in The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, p. 44 , 1947
The Russians are like us, they look and act like us. They are fine people. They got along with our soldiers in Berlin very well. As far as I am concerned, they can have whatever they want just so they don't try to impose their system on others.
Statement to a group of four congress freshmen (2 July 1947), as quoted in The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, p. 44 , 1947
We want no Gestapo or Secret Police. F.B.I. is tending in that direction. They are dabbling in sex life scandles [sic] and plain blackmail when they should be catching criminals. They also have a habit of sneering at local law enforcement officers.
Longhand note (May 12, 1945) , 1945
People are very much wrought up about the Communist bugaboo... the country is perfectly safe so far as Communism is concerned—we have too many sane people.
Letter to George H. Earle, former governor of Pennsylvania (received 28 February 1947); reported in The New York Times (3 April 1947), p. 17, quoting Earle. Reported in David McCullough, Truman (Simon & Schuster, 2003), p. 655 , 1947
Timeline
The story of Harry S. Truman, told in moments.
Commands Battery D of the 129th Field Artillery in France. His men are notoriously unruly. They'd gotten four previous commanders fired. Truman keeps order through a mix of profanity and competence. After the war he opens a haberdashery in Kansas City with a partner. It fails. He never fully pays off the debt.
Becomes the 33rd president when FDR dies. He's been vice president for 82 days. Nobody told him about the Manhattan Project. The next morning he tells reporters: "Boys, if you ever pray, pray for me now." Less than four months later he authorizes the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Wins reelection in the biggest upset in presidential polling history. Every major newspaper and poll predicts Thomas Dewey wins. The Chicago Daily Tribune prints "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN" on election night. He holds up the paper and grins. He'd whistle-stopped 31,000 miles in a railroad car.
Signs Executive Order 9981, desegregating the United States Armed Forces. Congress refused to pass his civil rights legislation. He does it by executive order instead. The military brass resists. He tells them it's not a request.
Dies in Kansas City at 88. His retirement was so financially modest that Congress passed the Former Presidents Act partly because of him. He refused corporate board seats, saying: "I could never lend myself to any transaction, however respectable, that would commercialize on the prestige and dignity of the office of the presidency."
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