Coming up on American History tv, a discussion with the author the book 1948. Harry trumans improbable victory and the year the transformed america. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the clifton park half moon public library. We are very pleased to have David Pietrusza with us this morning to talk about his latest book, 1948, Harry Trumans improbable victory and the year the transformed america. David is the author of a number of books. Hes been here to talk about some of them in the past. A book of 1920, the year six president s. 1960, lbj versus kennedy versus nixon. And ted williams, my life and pictures. Hes also written and produced a wmht documentary, local heroes, if you support his harry truman book talk about how lively it is. Illuminating portraits of what candidates and the even handed appraisal of drumming is especially compelling. The journey that he takes to get us to election day is one that he has definitely become the best at leaving. In his past, his work has been compared to theodore whites classic, the making of the president series. After three straight home runs, i think pietrusza is the undisputed champion of chronicling americans president ial campaigns. He holds a masters degree in history from the university of albany and has served on the city council of amsterdam, new york. He is the recipient of the 2011 excellence in letters and arts award of the Alumni Association at the university in albany. In addition to doing president ial biographies and elections, he is also a member of saber sabra, the baseball historian organization. Hes an edgar award finalist. Ladies and gentlemen, David Pietrusza. Thank you, natalie. Its great to be back here again. The question that people always ask me about my books is why did you write this book. Americans claim to hate politics, but we love elections. We love sports. My sports background, your sports background, the whole country is crazy about it. We love the competition. We love the hundred and 62 game series and things going down to the seventh game of the world series. We love hitting the home run. In 1948, its one of those moment elections. This is when the underdog comes back and pulls it out when everyone has written them off. That is Harry Trumans improbable victory. Thats the year, thats the election, the great iconic come back, the great surprise. A great surprise when the pundits are proved so spectacularly wrong. That is another thing we love. We love to be smarter than all the guys you see on tv and writing a newspaper columns. And harry truman, who was just an ordinary harry, the only president of the 20th century who doesnt go on to college. Hes a high school graduate. Not the only one since. Not the last one. The only one of the 20th century. You have to go back to andrew johnson, to abraham lincoln, to find such a comment man. And not just a common man, but a fellow who is been a failure at business. His famed haberdashery shop in Downtown Kansas City that goes bust. Hes left to pay off those debts for 20 years. He pays them off. He will not declare bankruptcy. He has a standard of honor and he will pay all of his deaths. He also has a standard of honor which marks him in his earlier political career. He is the product, and hes known for really most of his active political career as being the product of one of americas most spectacularly corrupt political machines. This is something that, like el smith in 1928, is never really able to transcend. Hes a product of tammy. He gets warped by Herbert Hoover for that in a number of other reasons. Harry truman is the product of this pendergast machine in kansas city. Hes the head of the county government for them. They steal millions and millions of dollars. Harry truman never takes a dime. He has to kind of wink at what goes on in some cases. He has to get things done. He would sit down and pour out his soul to private letters, which he never sent to anyone. He would hold up in this hotel and write out these letters which were found decades after his death, as he would wrestle with these questions. Mia Public Servant or am i a crook . Am i doing the right thing . Hes conflicted by this, but he stays in this machine and eventually determined to get out of local government. He wants to be a congressman. But hes such a puppet, hes such a nobody, even at that time, that its no harry, you cannot be a congressman. Can you be governor . No, you cannot be a governor. When they find someone to run for the senate in 1944. Okay. We now return to our regularly scheduled programming. So the machine cant find anyone to run for senate, the United States senate, and 1934. You would think they could. Its going to be a big democratic year. Harry pulls it off, but he goes into the senate again. Hes like a nobody. Then disaster strikes. 1939, pendergast on good friday goes to the federal pen for corruption. People say well thats the end of harry truman now. Whos going to want him . Whos going to want this pendergast puppet to still remain in the United States senate . His mentor is finished and so is he. He faces a three way primary and winds. He goes to all the small towns and court houses and masonic temples and every other place he knows in missouri. And wows them. He pulls it off. Its a valuable lesson when it comes to 1948 and the Democratic Party a split once again. But hes back in the senate, but who is he . Hes given an assignment. Look into all of these military bases. Defense contracting things were doing to win the war against hitler. Are we getting our bang for our buck . Are we spending our money wisely . Harry truman goes around, gets in his car with no staff and no expense and delivers a remarkable report that no we are not. We are wasting a hell of a lot of money while our boys are fighting and dying in europe and north africa and in the south pacific. Weve got to stop it and heres how. People say, gee whiz, he did that intelligently, honestly and in a non partisan manner. Maybe theres something to this harry truman guy. That takes us to 1944. Franklin roosevelt is looking for a fourth term. The war is still on and in 1940, he had dumped his Vice President , john gardner, who had grown a bit too conservative for a new deal. He puts in Henry Wallace, his secretary of the agriculture, who is a very left wing kind of new age kind of guy for back then. He forces wallace on the ticket in 1940. The Democratic Party does not really want him. In 1944, roosevelt is getting word back that if you keep this guy on the ticket, he could cost you 1 million votes. Roosevelt is a great politician. He knows what this means. He says ive forced Henry Wallace on the party once. I cant do it twice. I cant do it twice. Hes got to go. Not and so many words, not so many words, but he eventually slits wallace is throat. So who did he replace him with . The guy you replacing with is a guy whos not to southern, not to northern, not too conservative, not too liberal, respected by the union, but not really in the pocket of the unions. That is harry truman. He fits in all the slots. They put him on the ticket in 1944 and by april 1945, Franklin Roosevelt is dead. And harry truman goes to the white house and says to eleanor roosevelt, can i pray for you . She says no, we need to pray for you because you are the fellow who is in trouble now. He starts off very popular. The war is one. The atomic bombs are dropped on japan. There is vijay day. America is at peace finally. And harry truman reaches a popularity level of 87 . That goes downhill really fast. People, some of that is beyond his control, but there are reasons why his popularity drops. Hes not Franklin Roosevelt. Right now, all of the republicans are saying who is the next reagan . Boy, we miss reagan a lot. Back then, it was by god how we miss fdr among the democrats. And harry truman was no fdr. So there is a longing for the lost leader there. And also, he is prone to certain gaffes. His appointments are not always the strongest. There is talk of the missouri gang, as there was in ohio gang, of people sort of hangers on. Small timers who are put into positions way above their abilities. You see the old new dealers being shoved out of the cabinet. Not just Henry Wallace, who is fired by harry truman for being a pro stylist, really. Giving speeches against the truman Foreign Policy. But you also have, her with harry truman, the country turns against the party and the leader which brings us into war. If you dont believe me, ask either bush. Ask lyndon johnson. Woodrow wilson after world what happens to the Democratic Party. What happens to winston churchill, a pretty good war leader in 1945. Hes out the door. So this is a normal thing. The readjustment means a lot of things get thrown out including parties in power. Republicans take the house, and the senate in 1946. They are on a roll. Harry truman keeps going up and down in the popularity. By the spring of 1947, 1948, he is down in the low thirties, in terms of popularity. And its not only a republican democrat thing going on here, the Democratic Party is splitting three ways. Not just two ways, not just youve got some sort of carter, Teddy Kennedy thing going on, not a george Bush Buchanan going on, but its being split. The left, the center, and the right. On the right, you have the southern segregationist democrats. Franklin roosevelt had talked to good game with black civil rights. But he really hadnt done anything. Remember that the army and the navy in world war ii are still segregated. There is no move to desegregate anything in the country. Harry truman proposes a big Civil Rights Program at the beginning of the 1948 year. The southern democrats are simply aghast by this, and beyond, that they feel personally betrayed because they had thought of harry truman as one of their own. His mother, had been an internment camp run by the unions during the single war. Confederate sympathizers. And if you look at harrys statements, and you look at his private correspondence, he is not exactly a bleeding heart liberal on the topic. But, he puts it forward, and the southerners are aghast. They Start Talking about a strategy in which they will punish harry truman. They will punish the Democratic Party. They will make the Democratic Party come to its senses, on civil rights and states rights, and all of these things. And they will do this, by putting the election into the electoral college. And breaking a deal. And one of the people vowed in that, is a young man, young governor of South Carolina, named therman. Decorated war veteran, and former judge, considered progressive new deal kind of democrat. Thank you face of the south. Except, once he gets caught up in this, when the South Carolina legislators and such Start Talking against the truman Civil Rights Program, he joins the largely centered in mississippi and alabama groups, going to these region meetings talking about what they can do with harry truman. Now, the irony of this, and the irony of when therman starts being carried away by this, talking about how the federal government ban its will not force black people into our swimming pools and homes, and schools, its the ironies that he has a black illegitimate daughter. Thats one win of the Democratic Party in 1948. The other wing, which seems actually to be more troublesome to harry truman, is the Henry Wallace weighing. And that is, the extreme left wing of the Democratic Party, beyond their new dealers, beyond the eliana roosevelt, which is, in many cases, communist dominated. Communist party of the United States of america. Not just leftwing, not just radical, whatever, but actual party members. And as Wallace Wallace has a problem and this has not been cast aside twice, and both involve harry truman yet. Would not be human unless you are bitter about this. And they had the former Vice President of the United States with leftwing proclivitys anyway, and now he has two reasons to be against harry truman personally. And he is taught into, not a primary challenge, against truman, but a third party challenge. What is their strategy . Again, what is their strategy . Since the strategy is being dictated from extreme left wingers, from the people being controlled by really, moscow, when you get down to it. Its gotta be that, they are, again, not trying to win elections, but to send a message to truman. And say look, you change your Foreign Policy Democratic Party, you change your Foreign Policy harry truman, because we will punish you and we will give the election to the republicans. And then we will go back to the way it was, under Franklin Roosevelt, with the guy we can deal with. In 1944 the companys party in the United States had actually endorsed roosevelt. It was kind of like a big one happy family. So, truman is being squeezed on the left and on the right. He is in trouble and how can he hold together a coalition which will have enough electoral votes to win, if the south is going to be stolen away by the dixiecrats. And where does wallace hold the strings in the country . He doesnt in big states like new york, and new york city, and southern california, in illinois. Where he could be the balance of power in those states. And tips dates which the democrats should win into the republican problem. So the republican column, who is the republican going to be . Same answer at some point as we have now. Looking forward to thousand and 12, a very crowded, confused, field. Typical typical when you have a president , an incumbent who is vulnerable. When the opportunity is there, then a lot of opposition candidates come out. And the fore front runners at year governor dewey of new york, new york is the big kahuna, 45 electoral votes. You take, that you have a big like up on the presidency. Harold stasson, former governor of minnesota, now a punchline in american political history, because he ran and lost so many times times. And ran and lost so many times with absolutely no chance of success. Robert taft, senator from a higher, leader of the congressional republicans, de facto. Mr. Republican, mr. Conservative, but as i say, dull as paint, not charismatic. And the fourth, is not even in the country. General of the army douglas mcarthur, in tokyo, running the president empire of japan, and a popular guy. Can he pull it off from far away . He doesnt, hes entered in the wisconsin primary, he should wind that, he doesnt, he stumbled hes out fairly quickly. There are a lot of primaries that year, theres a New Hampshire primary, theres always a New Hampshire primary, there is the wisconsin primary, which mcarthur should win, and doesnt. He loses it to herald stasson which elevates stasson. Hes an outsider, hes a boy wonder. In 1938 he had been elected governor of minnesota, he was a youngest governor of any state ever, and he quits. He is reelected saying, you know, if you reelect me im gonna quit for before going in the navy, and he so popular hes going elected. Imagine being elected with a platform like that. He comes out, hes an internationalist, youve got the debate still going on of internationalism versus isolationism, stasson is on the extreme and of the republican internationalist brigade at that point. He is feisty, he is a real outsider, he winds in wisconsin, he wins in nebraska, and his poise to take the front runner status away from thomas dewey as the campaign heads into oregon. Now, again, notice ive only named for states. This is about the only four important primaries there are. Most of these things are still being done at party conventions, which means, in the back room, either in places like albany or columbus, or whatever. Or when you get to the convention. Now, oregon, is where we see something happening, which is being repeated again this year. Debates we are debating, we are debating, we are debating. And you see, at every stop saying, i want a Lincoln Douglas style debate on one topic, just me and this other guy in the room, and it doesnt matter who the guy is or who the guy, is or what the topic is. Hes calling for that sort of debate. What he should be calling out, historically, because hes a great historian, is a stasson dewey model debate. Because stasson dewey debate is the first one broadcast in president ial history. It is held in oregon, on one topic, two guys in the room, in the iron cage, on a topic, should the communist party of the United States of america should be outlawed . Stasson, the great liberal, in the affirmative. In the affirmative. Tom dewey in the negative. Now, we havent talked much about dewey. Dewey he was a governor of new york, pretty popular, he had been the nominee of the Republican Party in 1944. He had led on the first three ballots in 1940, before losing to wendell willkie. Quite remarkable because this year, 1948, hes only for you six years old. Thats about the age that obama was, thats only three years older than jack kennedy was. Hes a young man. And hes been on the verge of power and not National Notoriety before 1940. What is the 1940 . Hes an ex disk District Attorney, hes not even governor. He was a District Attorney of manhattan. He was mr. District attorney, crime buster the guy who went after the mob, who put them in jail, who went through the wall street guys he put him in jail. He did it all he was spectacular. As a distributor knee. But as governor he begins to trim the sales, hes looking at the polls, and as a candidate its the same way. So, people, even though he is the reported front runner, and hes the front runner in terms of delegates at this point, hes not particularly loved, in the party or among the population. But in this debate, he is the former District Attorney. Hes a great prosecutor, hes great with the jury, stasson what the prosecutor to. But evidently the prosecutors in manhattan have to be tougher than the ones in minnesota. And dewey cleans his clock, stasson is essentially left bleeding on the floor after that primary. Dewey when is it. But he could still be stopped at the convention, because because he doesnt have the votes, he doesnt have the low, but he knows how to make deals. And he makes a deal with the governor of pennsylvania, to push him over the top, and he was denomination. At that point, he is faced with a choice. Who do i make my Vice President ial candidate . Its a guy he wanted to pop on the tip for years before, and one of the guys you heard before, earl warren, governor of california. And this is one of the other cases where you look at there is his big liberal wing of the Republican Party and their. Dewey, stasson, warren, he might be the most liberal of all of them, warren doesnt want to do it. He didnt want to do it in 1944, he didnt do it in 48, but hes finally thinking you know if i keep turning these people down theyre gonna stop asking me to dance. If i want anything ever again, this could be it. So i better take it. So with great reluctance he becomes the dewey warning ticket. Which people think is just great. Its a fairly young, ticket its progressive its forwardthinking, its got geographic balance, its got new york, its got california, wow what a great ticket. And the democrats have got harry truman. Maybe now, earlier in the year the republicans were looking at a guy named david eisenhower. The grassroots wanted, they liked him, everybody likes him. They dont he, as a see republican, democrat, hes a general, thats good enough. Sort of like some big political version of white christmas, okay. Everybody loves a general. And they love him. He turned republicans down. Democrats, things are not Getting Better for harry truman, the convention is going into philadelphia, just everybodys having the conventions there that year. Lets go it ike. Lets go with ike. And this amazing incoherence coalition of democrats forms, united on one thing, staying in power. Southern segregation, its like richard russell, and. Northern rip liberals like humphrey, big city bosses of chicago, jersey city, members of franklin the roosevelt family. All of them come together. They want to stampede the convention for ike. I can find a dress back and says no. At the lastminute. Otherwise, it could have been eisenhower as the nominee and even as the president beating dewy. He does become president that year, of columbia university. For truman, its so bad at that convention. He gets on the phone and hes calling William Douglas, the Supreme Court justice, will you be my Vice President. Why him . Because William Douglas is a guy who is respected by the old new dealers. He has to get back in good graces with that wing of the party. He has to cement that tie to the new deal. And William Douglas supposedly says, i will not be a number two man to a number two man. He turned some down. Youve got a ticket which is a pretty good speaker, hes pretty well liked. Hes older than harry truman and harry truman is not a young man. They both come from border states. It does not look like much of the ticket. But, harry truman goes to the convention, he waits for hours to give his speech, he does not give it until like 1 00 in the morning. And the convention has just been all rolled up with everything. Hubert humphrey had gone to the floor and forced the floor fight on the civil rights plank. Each other democrats were mad enough going into this convention. Then Hubert Humphrey says, our plank on civil rights is not as strong as the republicans. It is the same mush that we were peddling in 1944. No, we need to move out of the shadow of states rights into the Bright Sunlight of civil rights. He forces a floor fight on to the convention, first win since 90 32, and he wins. The southern democrats, some of them anyway, walk out. They walk out. The convention is just dragging on into chaos. Then when they announce that harry truman is coming into the hall at 1 am, they unleash, they open up this big floral display of the liberty bell because they are in philadelphia. They fly out the doves of peace, which are all pigeons actually, and theyve been cooped up for hours now and they see all the lights and the noise and the bands and just go crazy. They are attacking things and flying into electric fans and landing on sam rayburns head. They are doing things that pigeons do. And harry truman has worn a white suit. Thats probably the low point. Harry truman starts off kind of slow and he kind of has to point to Alben Barkley to get some applause lines. Then hes going to get into whatever he is going to do. Im going to challenge the Republican Party and the do Nothing Congress to come back in a special session on turnip day and pass up program for the american people. The crowd goes wild. People say wow, this could be a horse race. When harry truman goes to start his campaign on labor day, as they traditionally do, they dont have enough money to get the train out of the station. They have to make frantic calls to do that. It is still dicey for him. They progressives under Henry Wallace come into philadelphia next. Pete seger is providing the music. You have a couple of delegates that become United States senators, one of which is george mcgovern. They kind of go off on to their little own, but their campaign is downward, downward, downward with the progressives. The big secrets meet again and they nominate strong thurman. All the while, things are going on in the world and in the country. As the conventions are meeting, uncle joe stolen decides hes going to blockade berlin. So what do you do . You start a world war . You send the convoys. In do you figure out to do an airlift to supply the people of west berlin before the riot and demand communism . America figures out how to do that. That is one of the things going on. Youve got the return of the peacetime draft. World war ii, it was a segregated army. The blacks are saying, we put up with that. We put up with that during the war. We are not putting up with that again. And Philip Randall says to harry truman, you do this again and im going to have a march on washington, before Martin Luther king, a march on washington. You know something . Weve taken polls and 30 of our black you will not register for the draft. If you have a segregated army and navy. This is when truman, with his back to the wall, in the middle of the election, knowing that the dixie crafts have already gone about as far as they can, and not sure where the black vote in the north will go, this is when he makes his decision to desegregate the armed services. This happens right in the middle of this. In the spring, actually in february, in february theres a special election in new york. Theres always a special election in new york for congress. Every week, we have a special election. This one was in the bronx, a pretty safe democratic seat. What happens is the republicans dont win, but Henry Wallace supporter wins and sent shockwaves through the Democratic Party. This movement may have legs. This is in a fairly heavily jewish area. Okay . Wallace had been taunting truman as being insufficiently pro israel. All the candidates are pretty much pro israel. Dewey, taft, truman, all of these guys. But truman has been having problems with the jewish community. They dont think he is sufficiently pro israel. What he does is 13 minutes after the state of israel independence, or statehood is proclaimed, we are the first country to recognize israel. Hes the first chief of state. This helps solve some of his problems on the left with the wallace vote. But its very chilling to see, its chilling to read i think in the New York Times and the next day, that out of egypt, out of cairo, Muslim Leaders are talking about the jihad against the United States of america. Many things are part of that year, which continue for a long time afterwards, and into today. As the election goes on, we also see now, harry truman has this turn a day special session of the legislature and the law of unintended consequences. He brings congress back in. Congress does not want to come back in the middle of an election, but they come in and hold some hearings on communists. Communists in government. They take some testimony and what this leads to is a guy called whitaker chambers going before the House Committee and saying that ill dirt his is a member of the communist party. A former under secretary of state. This is the beginning of the mccarthy era. The communists and government issue. It is also the beginning of Richard Nixons political career. Hes one of the few people who when this starts to happen says i smell right. I smell a rat. I do not believe this. They go after him and finally get him. But this is, again, one of the things which differentiates 1948 as starting so many Different Things. The campaign starts. In the spring, harry truman made an interesting discovery. Part of it was something he knew. He knew he was really bad giving a speech off script. Really bad. He was not just Franklin Roosevelt, he was really bad. When he was in the senate, he probably gave only three speeches or something in his whole career. He had very bad eyesight. He had trouble reading from a piece of paper and just giving a speech like this. He talks to a bunch of newspaper editors in the white house and just first to give the speech and people ask if the bar is still open. You know . Then he speaks off the cuff and even people who dont like him go that was pretty good. I kind of like that guy. Hes got something. Everybody notices this. This is one of these great moments where the light bulb goes on and then he does it again. He does it again when he actually speaks right after recognizing israel. He goes to a jewish group in washington and he does the same thing and he allows them. He says i have to keep doing this. I have to keep doing this because i stink doing it otherwise. He does. He goes on to a campaign. At first, theres a lot of gaffes and mistakes and errors. Then he kind of gets astride by the time he gets to california. Then he does it again after labor day. Now do we does the same thing. He has one of these whistle stop tours as well. , but dewey its not as lively. Hes not a spontaneous. Tom dewey originally had not wanted to be president or governor or an attorney, he wanted to be singer. He wanted to be a performer. Harry truman we remember as the piano player. Tom dewey was trained to be a concert vocalist. His wife had appeared on broadway. They were showbiz people. He knew how to present himself. He was really good, but he was too slick and it did not come across well. And his content was too much of much. Harry truman is rocking and shocking and as he leaves washington on his fall whistle stop tour, somebody says give him hell harry. He says i just given the truth and i think itll. He pretty much accuses tom dewey and the people behind him of being fascists. It is really over the top. Even his advisers are cringing from it. But its attack, attack, attack. Dewey is not attacking. People should notice things. People often see what i want to see. They know Harry Trumans a loser. They know tom dewey is the next president of the United States. They see these crowds getting bigger and bigger and bigger and more boisterous for harry truman. They say theyre just curious. They just want to see the president. They dont care. When they see the crowds not so big and not so enthusiastic for tom dewey, they should say shunt people want to see the next president of the United States . They dont. They dont make the connection. The roper polling organization stops pulling in mid october. I think its in the bag. Why waste money on this . Also, people see that it looks like humphrey is going to win in minnesota. It looks like they might win in West Virginia against whoever. Well, we might be in trouble with the senate. They dont connect the fact that the wheels are falling off the republican campaign. I think gallup has it down to five points. Thats within the margin of error. When you add in the fact the Third Party Candidates tend to just collapse as election day comes in, Henry Wallace collapses and those votes go to harry truman. So election day 1948 and its festivities. Republicans have their headquarters and they are ready to win. The democrats dont even put up a tote board in their headquarters in washington. Its like we dont want to know what these numbers are. Just let us die in peace. But the returns start to come in and they are not too bad for dewy at first. In fact, what happens is he wins the northeast. He wins the northeast. In part thanks to Henry Wallace. He carries new york and he carries maryland overt harry truman. He does well through the northeast. Pennsylvania is very republican state. Do we had carried the midwest in 1944 against roosevelt, he had not carried the east. He concentrates on the northeast. And, dewey he starts to ignore the midwest. Early, on in the truman reelection effort, there was a campaign document, and that said you can safely go to the south, which was not exactly right. Although, heres a fun fact, roosevelt had won the presidency four times without needing one electoral votes from the south. Without needing one of those votes. Tremendous visors said, you know, the farmers, the mid west, the far west the far west is looking for irrigation projects, infrastructure, the farmer in the midwest is looking for government help. And harry truman was a missouri dirt farmer, he understood these people, okay. He goes, and hes gala paying the republican side of these issues, and also inflation. Inflation. Hes got 7 inflation in the country, and he is walloping the congress about doing nothing about it, now he also has prosperity, hes got prosperity and theres a cold war, but its not a hot war. Nobody is dying so hes got peace and prosperity. And what do they mean by that . No eight nine 10 unemployment, no Great Depression, 3. 8 unemployment in 1948. James carville said it its the economy stupid kind of people are gone through a Great Depression in the world, are this is, but the song is really not im just glad about harry its happy days are here again. This is really did beginning of the fifties. This is the peace and prosperity of the fifties beginning already then. I mean you get that bump, of korea, but otherwise very similar. So, the return start coming in, and its starting to look like a horse race. Where is harry . Harry goes to a launch in the independence missouri, his hometown, he sneaks out the back door into a waiting limousine, and drives off to a pretty much vacant resort, favored by politicians and gangsters, outside of town. Checks into the room, nobody knows hes there, he is hidden from the press, he is hidden from the nation, really, checks into a room, and is determined that he is not going to follow this on a minute by minute bases. There is a bottle of whiskey on the night stand, and a hannity sandwich. And that is his Election Night celebration, he turns out the lights, its probably about 9 00. Every so often his secret service people, wake him up, to tell him hes won this state, or hes doing well in that state. Each time they wake him up is just annoying, they are known him more and more. But finally, they give him the news which causes him to say i think i won. I think i won. Lets go down to kansas city, lets go down to headquarters. And harry truman has amazingly pulled it off. The ball really new york for tom dewey is an empty place, for Henry Wallace, for all of these things have fallen apart. But harry truman has proven one thing, as the great political philosopher, lawrence peterborough fellow missouri stated, it aint over until its over. And harry truman prove that right, in 1948, and us for this talk its now officially over. [applause] thank you. Weve got time for some questions, and thank you deal is you go to that microphone, so that the people in our cspan audience can hear you, and then i will attempt to evade your questions. [laughs] any takers . Most unusual. What we have one, yeah go right up there, yes. Your book contains a lot of quotes from harry truman that are blatantly anti semitic and anti black. Absolutely. How do you scare that harry truman, sorry talking to the mic . Okay. Yeah thats actually going to cspan, so speak up. Pretend youre me. Startle over . Go ahead. Your book has a lot of antisemitic quotes from harry, anti black votes, how do you square that harry truman with a harry truman that recognizes israel, that pushes for progressive civil rights blank . People are complex. People are complex and they have really different parts of them and they see Different Things differently at different times. Harry trumans partner in the haberdasher, was a guy named jacobson, he has a very Good Relationship with jacobson, his motherinlaw, trumans motherinlaw, who he did not have a Good Relationship with, was so antisemitic she would not allow jacobson into the house, okay. Truman is has sympathy for the jewish people, he has sympathy for black people when they are being lynched, when they are being treated patently unfairly, but, i mean, he does not even after the president s, his writing the memories in the 1955, this is not some private letter, that he doesnt want social equality with black people. And you get into the 1960s, and the Kennedy Campaign kind of has to hide, it because they keep declaring the sit in demonstrators as communists. But people can compartmentalize things, and i think he does that, and people are contradictory. And truman is just a spectacular example of that, and i think we cannot exclude a certain amount of Political Capital a shun in this. Truman and that document i was talking about, his blueprint for reelection, says youve got to hold on to the black vote up north, and particularly, if dewey isnt on many, you have trouble, you will lose new york, you will lose ohio, you will lose period. So there is that political calculation, just as i alluded to, where hes given a lot of credit for integrating the armed services, but its usually not mentioned that philippe randall has to go into his head in the middle of this election, the southerners have gone off, theyve done when i say theyve done all the damage they can, the southern strategy is to dump the democrats off the ballots. And once truman knows that he still on the ballot in all these states, he knows he could pull it off in large parts of the south, like texas, and georgia. But up to that point its dicey for him. So, again, people have different parts churchill, for example, has some remarkably antisemitic statements. And franklin d. Roosevelt, who of course very friendly to jewish people, its very interesting to see what he wouldve done with the state of israel, because he was talking with the arabs just before he died, with the saudis, about everything. Ive read he was part of the board of directors which instituted the numerous classes at harvard which put in a quota system against jews. And who is really his best friend among candidate members . So people are contradictory, there is contradictions along every person in this room, and harry truman is just disengaging example of it. Anyone else . Is it true that when Truman Truman didnt run in 52, stevenson ran against ike, that he simply jumped in their without any secret Service Protection and wrote back to independence, missouri . Well theres a new book on that. Actually, well not as good as my book, but it came out maybe a year ago. And yes, it indicates that four, years before i was gonna do a book on this election i visited independents missouri, and visited the truman home. And its like, gee, this kind of, thats real a lonely im on the floor, isnt it . I mean, you go to the high part, some of these other president ial homes, and they are pretty modest. Even the house of coolidge, before his president , and its really modest, its like you know, someplace you would see in amsterdam, or something. And, afterwards, he does move into a big place. Harry truman never moves into a big place. And his circumstances are sufficiently modest, that he is the guy, this is why we have president ial pensions. Up to that point, you know, we really dont have that, and they may be independently wealthy, like hoover, who had accomplished something more than truman did, very modest on the payroll, his whole life. Federal or local, kind of government. So, truman, really is a very modest guy, he might have been taking all of these long walks to save on gasoline, i dont know. Next . The photograph that you have on your sign, what can you tell us about this picture of Truman Holding up the newspaper from the Chicago Daily . Okay i, like the cover, i think its a great cover. And the picture is about two days out for the election day. It is in st. Louis, one of his Campaign Campaign aides has brought in the photograph and here he is, just in love with it, as you can see only seen half is phase. And what happens is, you know, again, people not seeing what they should be seeing, but also, you know we had some labor, these are also times of labor difficulties. Truman threatens to put this deal workers and the coal workers, coal miners, in jails in 46. And we have the tafthartley act, by the republicans, and there is a labor labor troubles at the Chicago Tribune that night. And, there will be a delay in setting the headlines by about three hours. So they get on their phones, and a correspondent the tribune does in washington, and its like is to say . Can we go with this . Nothing could go wrong. Its in the bag. It was not in the bag. Oddly enough, the correspondent was penchant off right after this. [laughs] that was the end of his career. You dont see him with george will on sundays, or anything after that. So that is a story, that story, and of course once he gets back to back washington, he is greeted by this immense crowd at union station, maybe the biggest or second biggest crowd ever to assemble in washington, they are lining the streets, they are going crazy. And i think its best truman said to his daughter, you know there werent as many people out here when we left washington. Everyone loves a front runner. Okay, and ive got one other one. Again, about a photograph. This picture i had the president playing the piano, with a young woman sitting on the top, what information do have about that . Well thats International Press club, the piano is still there, its in the harry truman lounge, i think the 13th or 14th floor, and harry truman was then not president , he was Vice President. And hes at the press club, hes playing the piano, and lauren is there, who is then only about 19 years old. And she sits on the piano, actually, china reclines on that. And so when i introduce her in my cast of characters, at the beginning of the book, i say the legs on Harry Trumans piano. In this picture did two things. It really infuriated mrs. Truman. And it caused people to wonder who this guy was. And did he have the gravitas to be president , or was he just hacked from the pendergast michigan again. So while its become iconic, at the time it was, shall we say, problematic. Because you know, there werent different standards of president ial treatment at the time. Even, this whistle stuff to, our it was somewhat unusual for president , remember, president s dont even go to the convention, the national convention, until 1932, with Franklin Roosevelt. So, ive been given the signal that time is just about up, so were gonna wrap it up, so we dont get caught in the middle of even answer. And i wish to thank you all for coming, today, youve been a great audience, thank you very much. [applause] up next in American History tv, harry truman speech at the 1948 Democratic National convention, in philadelphia. Our leader, and the next president of the United States,. [applause]
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