It seems safe to say that few people, if any, have come to the presidency of the United States who seem so unqualified for that job, as harry truman did in april of 1945. When he became president , no one knew anything about him. What they did know was not reassuring. It was made worse by the fact that he followed one of the legendary president s in all of american history, franklin d. Roosevelt. In contrast, this little man for from missouri seemed ordinary, even as appearance. Harken back to the days of an earlier president ial misfit, Warren Harding. At least Warren Harding looked like a president. Truman said i look like any other 50 people you meet and he did. He seemed to be hard to caricature, he had no particular distinctive features, sort of generic person. Even his name, by the way, seemed inadequate. Harry s. Truman. You know what the s stood for . Nothing. He simply added the s because he thought his given name was insufficient. He added the s. Did not stand for anything. Looks werent the only thing that seemed average about truman. His character would be characterized as mediocre if that. He was for example the first president since Grover Cleveland and the only in the 20th century not to have a college education. He had been an average student in school and thereafter tried his hand at different occupations. Including farming, banking, with little success at either. Nor was he much more successful socially, it seems. The only woman he dated or courted, was bess wallace, whose family was or thought it was far superior to the trumans. So trumans affection for bess was unrequited for many, many years. Allegedly, she was the only person he ever courted. Until finally she acquiesced. Not with the blessings of her mother, by the way, who never seem to think harry was suitable for her daughter, not even after he was president. But trumans greatest success early in life, in his 30s, was as an artillery commander in france during world war i. Thereafter he retired to missouri, where he went in with a friend and they started a haberdashery business, leading to his often being referred to as haberdasher harry. He became involved in local politics. A logical progression, natural progression, because truman was, if not terribly successful, always regarded as a likable fellow. And plenty smart despite a lack of formal education. In 1934 truman had been elected to the u. S. Senate from missouri where he remained until chosen by fdr as his Vice President ial running mate in 1944. Roosevelt felt it necessary to drop his then Vice President , henry wallace, who had become regarded as too radical and chummy with the soviets. Roosevelt chose truman because he was not wellknown enough to detract from roosevelts own candidacy. Well, truman was well aware of his limitations as Vice President. There is a story one day he was walking down the street with a friend of his in washington. And they walked past the white house. The friend said to him, harry, turn around and take a look, you will live there soon, to which truman replied, i am afraid that i am, and it scares the hell out of me. When that did come to pass on april 12, 1945, the realization that he would now be president made him feel, as he told reporters, the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me. There is ample reason for truman to feel awestruck. In addition to his limitations, it came at a time of extreme crisis. Yet once he moved into the white house, truman performed with considerable ability, far exceeding the dire expectations Many Americans had at the time. The greatest immediate problem. There he is with roosevelt and being sworn in as president with his wife and daughter. Bess and margaret. The greatest problem confronting him at the time was several matters to deal with foreign affairs. One of his first major decisions was when he announced the organizational meeting of the United Nations would take place in San Francisco as scheduled in late april, 1945. By that action, truman assured the nation that the roosevelt plan proposed for collective security would be carried out. Within a month after he took office, the United Nations charter was signed. The most dangerous problem facing truman and the most immediate was the continuing war in the pacific against japan. Although germany surrendered within a few weeks after his taking office in early may of 1945, japan was another matter. In the spring and early summer of 1945, it was widely believed by military strategists, that to bring about the defeat of japan which was fighting desperately fanatically, desperately by this point, was believed to be necessary to invade the home islands. That was calculated to require as many as 5 million troops, with a possible casualty toll in excess of one million men. So even with aid from russia, which they had promised, it was a pretty dismal prospect. But there were a small handful of men in the u. S. That work on at work on the development of a highly secret project, known as the Manhattan Project. And it was one that we will get to in a moment. It was topsecret. It was a project that would ultimately mean no invasion of japan would be necessary. And it also would mean the world would never be the same again. Harry truman did not know anything about the development of the atomic bomb when he became president. He had never divulged word of that operation, roosevelt had never told him about the operation. In fact, roosevelt seldom spoke to truman at all after he was sworn in, allegedly talk to him talked to him twice after inauguration. The closest truman came to find finding out about the Manhattan Project was during his days as chairman of the senate investigating committee, that made him aware of large expenditures of money, for this mysterious project. Truman threatened to hold an investigation. Well, this incident was prevented only by a plea from a highly agitated secretary of war stimson. Henry stimson said to truman, sir, i cannot tell you what it is, but it is the greatest project in the history of the world. It is most topsecret. Many people engaged in the work have no idea what it is. And we who do would appreciate your not going to those plans. For one of the few times in his life, truman backed down and did not hold those investigations. The result of this is when he became president , he knew nothing of the bomb, which was probably less than Joseph Stalin knew. It was after trumans first Cabinet Meeting in late april, 1945, that secretary stimson told truman about development of this mighty new weapon. Some days later he received the scientific explanation of it from a member of the Manhattan Project staff. Not everyone was confident in the bomb. Admiral lahey remained after the conference to give truman the benefit of his knowledge on the matter. Speaking of the bomb, he said, that is the biggest thing we have ever done. That damn thing will never go off, and i say that as an expert on explosives. It was about this time truman embarked on what would be the last of the highlevel wartime conferences. Which was to be held at potsdam, in july of 1945. And at this meeting, with atlee, who replaced Winston Churchill meeting with atlee and Joseph Stalin, the main purpose of the meeting was to coordinate the final war effort, what they hoped would be the final war effort. And since the bomb had not yet been tested, and there were many who shared admiral leahys skepticism about whether it would work, truman was still intent on getting the russians to pledge they would enter the war against japan which they had pledged but still had not done and which they were not due for would not do for some time. Stalin promised to do that, the soviets would enter the war eventually. But during this potsdam conference, a message whose implications were such that russian intervention would not make any difference, this message came from alamogordo, new mexico, the testing grounds. It read, in code, operated on this morning, diagnoses not complete, results seem satisfactory, already exceed expectations. In other words, the bomb had been tested, and it worked. A few days later, truman casually mentioned to stalin that the United States developed a new weapon of unusual destructive force. As truman later recalled, the russian leader showed no particular interest. All he said was that he was glad to hear it and hoped we would make good use of it against the japanese. Well, make good use of it is what the United States did. When word of the successful test reached truman at potdam, he, along with atlee, issued the socalled potsdam declaration or ultimatum in which the japanese were warned to surrender unconditionally or face prompt and utter destruction. It did not specific mention the atomic bomb, nor did it mention the emperor could be retained. It made no concessions. It just said they would face destruction. Two days later the japanese rejected that ultimatum, calling it unworthy of public notice. A little over a week after that, a b29, named the enola gay, took off from guam carrying a single bomb, which at 8 15 a. M. On the morning of august 6, 1945, that bomb was dropped on hiroshima. Between 60,000 and 70,000 persons were killed. Still no japanese surrender. Two days later interim,lly, in the russia did declare war on japan. The second bomb was dropped on nagasaki on august 9, and the following day, august 10, the japanese did at last surrender, bringing world war ii to an end. But, the historiographical battle was just beginning, the battle over the decision to use the bomb, and whether or not it was justified. Studies by these revisionist historians who question the use of the bomb have focused on a number of significant questions. To what degree was the bomb a decisive factor to bring the war to an end . Was it really necessary, or was it used primarily for reasons other than simply strategic ones . Well get to that. Now, it may be assumed the initial reaction most americans to the news of the bombing of hiroshima and the ensuing japanese surrender was simply one of relief. That the war was finally over. They were also gratified for getting a form of revenge against japan for the invasion of pearl harbor. And i suspect that most people accepted it out of as a legend it as a legitimate weapon. The soldiers themselves thought if the japanese are germans had or germans had the bomb, they would not have hesitated to use it against us. Moreover, some claimed, as did secretary stimson, that the bomb actually saved lives in the long run, because it eliminated the necessity for the continuing use of the firebomb raids against japan, which were killing thousands and thousands of people as the war went on. So stimson said, the use of the bomb was, in his words, the least abhorrent choice. But, those mushroom clouds had scarcely dissipated over the pacific before certain critics began to question that use. And support was given to critics by a report of the u. S. Strategic bombing survey, which estimated that, and this is a quote, by the end of the year, japan would have surrendered, even if the atomic bomb had not been dropped, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated. So the big question fundamental is how close was japan to surrender . I do not think anybody has a conclusive answer to that. What the critics suggest was perhaps there was some alternative to actually dropping the bomb. Couldnt we have odne done Something Else . Perhaps, they say. Maybe a test of the bomb that the japanese could watch. If the japanese could see it tested on some deserted Pacific Island . The answer to that given by defenders of the use of the bomb, first of all, it would not do sufficient damage to impress the japanese. It had to destroy things and if you drop it on an island, there is nothing to destroy. Theres a big cloud but nothing is obliterated, no buildings, so it might not have been that impressive. Another consideration is, it might not have worked at all, and would have been an embarrassment to bring the japanese leaders out and say this is what is going to happen to you, if you do not surrender, watch this. And then he drops it, thought. Thud, not very impressive. And then others who say we do did not have bombs to waste. Do you know how many we had at that time . Two, and we dropped both of them. In light of these things, theres been another turn in atomic historiography, by some scholars of this period, say, i will give you a quote. One of them said, the dropping of the atomic bombs was not so much the last military act of the second world war, as it was the first major operation of the cold diplomatic war. Now, the bases of this is, it is predicated on the belief japan was essentially ready to surrender, so it was not necessary militarily. Then why was it necessary . The revisionists claim truman and his associates knew this full well. But that they dropped the bomb to display they had determined the soviets were going to be our big adversary. They wanted to impress the soviets, to show them the power we possessed so the soviets would be more tractable in the postwar world. I could see some plausibility to that. But i tend to agree with the observation of another historian, and this is a quote. The decision to use the bomb was taken in good faith, not to unleash a weapon in vengeance against a ruthless enemy, but primarily to bring an end to a barbaric war. Secondarily, to derive the benefits of a timely victory. Whatever position you take, whether you agree with the revisionists or not, it might be well to remember it was never really a debatable question among the persons responsible for making this decision. Churchill made it clear in his memoirs that he supported the use of the bomb. And trumans position was certainly clear. This is what he wrote in his memoirs. Let there be no mistake about it, he wrote. I regarded the bomb as a military weapon. I never had any doubt that it should be used. Later, he said, quote, i could not worry about what history would say about my personal morality. I made the only decision i ever knew how to make. I did what i thought was right. Right. And, he said he could not have lived with himself, if another american soldier had died, with him knowing that the war could have ended and saved that person. He continued to stoutly maintain the decision to use the bomb. One vignette that i think is illustrative. The story is, the scientist robert oppenheimer, instrumental in developing the bomb. He was like many scientists. They helped develop it, but then when it was used, they had second thoughts about it. Oppenheimer was one of those. He called upon truman one day in the oval office and explained that the bomb having been used he said now, we scientists i feel i have blood on my hands. Whereupon truman took out his handkerchief and said, here, do you want to wipe your hands off . And then, after oppenheimer left, truman said to an associate, i do not want to see that son of a bitch in this office ever again. Soon was touched off the cold war with the soviet union. The basis was the spread of soviet communism in Eastern Europe after the war. The soviet armies occupied much of Eastern Europe, and continued to stay there, until the russians established control over those countries. The u. S. Response to this was developed by a career diplomat, george kennan. His philosophy was containment. The idea is the United States should do whatever is necessary to contain the spread of communism, not to destroy it. Some attacked it and said it was not Strong Enough because it not it did not go after it and get rid of it, but it said two we must contain the spread of communism. In order to do that the u. S. Undertook initiatives. In 1947, the truman doctrine was a plan that gave aid to two countries in particular, that were believed to be in danger of falling to communism, greece and turkey. That was expanded to the Marshall Plan developed by george c. Marshall, noted general in world war ii, and secretary of state under truman. The Marshall Plan expanded the concept of aid to countries in danger of succumbing to communism to any country that would accept it. So, many European Countries did benefit from the Marshall Plan. And essentially the spread of communism in europe was pretty much stopped at that point. It was not eradicated where it existed, but it did not essentially spread. Then, there was, later on in trumans presidency, the berlin airlift in 1948, where the u. S. Flew supplies into west berlin. When the east germans tried to block it off and force the western powers out. So the berlin airlift allowed west berlin to survive. Then, later, as an implementation of this, there was the establishment of nato, the north atlantic treaty organization, in 1949. While this was going on, truman had all kind of domestic problems. Economic particularly the postwar period was troubled by inflation. Even now when people talk about the rate of inflation so bad, almost as bad as postworld war ii or worse than that. At that time, a tremendous inflation. It touched off a series labor disputes were rife. The country was almost brought to a halt by nationwide strikes. One was the railroad strike. Truman had an interesting possible solution. The threatened strike. They were threatening to strike and truman let it be known if they did strike, he would draft the Railroad Employees into the military. You can imagine your job, youre going to work and the next thing you know youre drafted. He didnt follow through on that and the strike was avoided. It is indicative of the labor disputes that took place at the time. All of this eventually led to the passage of the tafthartley act, still maybe the primary labor act. Among other things it did, it was regarded as antilabor. Labor was strongly opposed to tafthartley. It permitted states, a federal law that permitted states to pass what we refer to as right to work laws and a number of states did and virginia was one of them. There were also rumblings of civil rights issues. Trumans views on those, support of such arguments for civil rights in various ways, alienated much of the segregationist south. In any case, this brings us to the 1948 election. An interesting one, to say the least. Most people thought truman had absolutely no chance to be reelected. He was widely regarded as a failure. It was almost universally conceded that new york governor tom dooley would defeat him. Because of his bungling of domestic affairs, truman was discredited. There was a frontpage headline that said truman should quit. In his various blunders, agree egregious in themselves, were compounded by personal uncouthness. Trumans behavior set the record then for four letter words, and unbecoming behavior. One example thats often cited, his daughter margaret was, as was truman, a musician. Truman played piano and did so publicly. People thought it was terrible that he also performed publicly. And margret was a singer. I do not know how good. Whereupon truman as president of the United States sent him the following note. , buter met you, he wrote if i ever do you will need a new nose. Here we have the president ready to punch out a newspaper critic. It was unseemly. A lot of truman jokes going around. To aresident was late press conference because he was stiff in the joints and could not put his foot in the month. Even his secretary said you forget about harry until he makes a mistake. Even truman himself admitted to his demise early and in his administration when he admits labor is managed metamanagement and both are metame. Molotov is met at bevin and both are metame and so are the arabs, jews, and. By 48 1948 he changed his mind and decided he would run for election and he was challenged not only by dewey but the Strom Thurmond and progressive, seemingly communist sympathizer henry wallace. With attacks from all sides, to be a formidable candidate. Must to fdr in 1944. It seemed hopeless, until truman decided that he would undertake a Whistle Stop Campaign and take the case right to the people. Television was in existence but it was not a medium used very much. If you want to reach the people, truman said i have got to go out to the people. Not just big cities but little towns. Andould stop and come out typically he would come out and introduce his wife and sometimes his daughter, margaret. And then he would make a short, pointed speech attacking boldly attacking the republicans. From which he got the reputation people shouted to him from the crowds, give them hell, harry. Responded all i do is tell the truth and the republicans think it is hell. Out ines he would come his pajamas. Just the kind of things some people found unbecoming of a president , but that was his style. Now, the pollsters were unanimous one magazine polled 50 allegedly top political scientists in the United States and asked their prediction, out of the 50 clinical scientists, wey, bigredicted de polls the roper poll and the gallup poll roper stopped , taking polls, and gallup who perhaps should have quit continued to predict right up to it and even during election day that dewey would win easily. Well, that Chicago Tribune headline i guess was the most famous journalistic faux pas in history, there is truman winning as he held at the early addition of that newspaper with the press, with the headline dewey defeats truman. As you know, there has never been a president dewey. Now it was a close election. Truman won the popular vote by about 2 million, he got 24 million votes to 22 million for dewey. Thurmond and wallace got together about 3 million votes. He won the electoral college. Against all odds, he had snatched victory from jaws of defeat. Dewey whoht it was had snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. It seems like he was going to end, this reminds me as it always does when i talk about this election of a famous anecdote. It was that allegedly dewey was so confident in winning and everybody else was, allegedly dewey said to his wife as he retired to bed on election night, he said to his wife, just think, tomorrow night you are going to be sleeping with the president elect of the United States. To which, when the votes came in the next morning, misses dewey turned to her husband and said, well, tom, im not going over to the white house, nor is harry coming over here. I think it is an interesting figured, but i always it was apocryphal. I thought it was indicative of the times and a cute story, but i always thought it was apocryphal. One time i told it and a student when i said it was apocryphal the students were nodding and nodding vigorously, i said what is it . She said, no that is a true , story. And i said what how do you know that is a true story . And she said Something Like that her mother had been this is a long time ago, her mother had been misses deweys College Roommate and the two had remained in touch and that she was told misses dewey said that really did happen. Whether or not its true, it is an interesting story and indicative of how what a big upset it was even within the dewey household apparently. Well historians have analyzed , this election ever since trying to figure out how it happened. I did not have a picture of dewey, but maybe you can picture a dapper figure, a little mustache. In any case, someone would describe him as looking like the bride groom on top of a wedding cake. Some people jokingly said that dewey lost by a whisker and you get the point there. It has been suggested it was due to his overconfidence, a lack of Campaign Effort on the part of the republicans, trumans aggressive campaign, the Whistle Stop Campaign and so on. But when you boil it all down, i think you might come to the conclusion that the election turned on a widespread feeling in the country that was epitomized by a statement made by an iowa farmer who said this, this explains it. How the polls were so wrong. He said i talked about voting for dewey all summer, but when voting time came, i just could not do it. I remembered all the good things that have come to me under the democrats and so, in a way, dewey running against truman was in essence as if it was hoover running against roosevelt. Dewey was still running against roosevelt. Remembering that people still remember the Great Depression was not that far in the past, people remembered it clearly and they were reluctant to vote republican and they did not. This election in 1940 is still the Gold Standard of president ial upset i suppose, 2016 was i guess considered well it was not predicted lets , put it that way. Normally almost invariably a , candidate running behind in polls will still pull out, remember 1948 because of that stunning upset. Well, truman then now had a second term, a term of his own. She may have wondered before it was over he may well have wondered if it was worth it. This program he called the fair deal, which was an extension of the new deal programs. There were some advances. The minimum wage was increased to . 70 an hour, there was some federal support for housing projects. The main success, and i think most historians would agree, the main domestic success of the truman presidency came in the area of civil rights. These are they still seem significant, particularly his decision his order to integrate, racially integrate the armed forces. World war ii had been fought by segregated units and truman determined that should come to an end. There is an enormous outcry, that will never work, the whites and blacks are not going to work well, that was the only way it the order and it did work. The other thing he did was to order in and to discover nation in federal employment. Prior to that you could not hire somebody because they were colored. It worked, the federal employment was integrated by order of truman. Truman was really the first actively problack, procivil rights president since lincoln. Which, by the way truman became quite unpopular in the segregated south. Now his Second Administration , was besmirched by two particular developments. One was the alger hiss controversy. Hissis a story, the alger story is a long one that could and did in my classes take up probably a whole lecture just because it is a fascinating story. In any case, in brief, hitch was alger hiss was a state Department Official and he was accused alger hiss was accused of having been a communist by a journalist who was admitted a former communist. He had recanted. He pointed to hiss as an example of communist infiltration of the federal government. Hiss was a sophisticated harvard educated diplomat, chambers was a rather unappealing figure, but in any case to make a long story short, it turned out that whereas hiss never it was never proven that he was a communist who did the things that chambers said and he never admitted to anything until his death and that was until he lived a long time after that. This case could arouse arguments for decades thereafter. Did you believe hiss or did you believe chambers . It was a very bitterly contested controversy. The point i should be making with regard to this presentation on truman is the effect it had on truman. He said, when asked about the hiss affair, he said it was a red herring that the republicans are using to try to use to cover up their lack of program that they dont have a program, they just use it as a red herring in the red herring covers up the try to throw off the scent of anyway. This was perceived as truman defending hiss, which meant that truman was soft on communism and so forth. It hurt truman politically, this made him appear to be weak on communism. Interestingly, it was during this time that truman established the Truman Administration established the federal employer the federal Employee Loyalty program which was, in essence well, let me well, i think i will redo this quotation read it you this quotation. You will see i think is the template for mccarthyism which to erupt. Truman felt they had to do something with regard to federal employees being charged as communists and so forth, so this Loyalty Program despite its obvious threat to Civil Liberties was empowered to quote discharge any employee without extending to such employee any hearing whatsoever. If there was any suspicion of disloyalty however remote, that is a pretty broad, sweeping statement. In the five years that followed, the Truman Administration checked the loyalty on 4 million individuals, brought charges against only 9000. Some of those resigned, fewer than 3000 underwent formal hearings of whom the government dismissed 379 for a grand total of 0. 002 of all those who were investigated and even among those who were dismissed, there is not a single clearcut case of espionage. But yet, the ground was laid some would say, in fact i just , read an article today, a new book on mccarthy that says that indeed, mccarthy was just following the blueprint established by the truman Loyalty Program. In any case, that was one thing that damaged his trumans Second Administration. The other, was the korean war. That wart began in june of 1950, it was intended to protect south korea from north koreas aggression, which indeed is when it started, north korea boldly invaded south korea. The war went badly for the u. S. , joined thethe u. S. Efforts to stop the effort of north korea under the aegis of the United Nations. Things are going bad as his head for the u. S. And the south koreans until they until the commander of the forces in korea none other than douglas macarthur, the great hero of the world war ii in the pacific. Macarthur was regarded as a genius strategic move at which he ordered an attack to cut off the north korean forces. It worked, the North Koreans had to retreat and they did whereupon u. N. Forces followed them, chased them as they headed to the border of china whereupon china entered the war bringing disaster to the american to the United Nations forces who then had to make a hasty retreat in which many casualties were suffered. In the face of that reversal, macarthur had another idea and that it was he should be allowed to expand the war by attacking into china itself and in particular, to bomb supply lines in manchuria and hinted at least that he might think the use of atomic weapons might be appropriate against the chinese. Well, yes, in china against the North Koreans and the chinese. Bear in mind that hiroshima was quite fresh in peoples mind at that time. The idea of another atomic attack well truman at this soured on somewhat macarthur apparently. He told him in essence, ordered that the war not be pushed into china. Macarthur continued to demand that he extend the war into china, he said there is no substitute for victory. It became increasingly clear that macarthur was determined to defy the president , his commanderinchief to expand the war and as soon as that came became clear, truman could not tolerate it and so to the shock of the public that regarded macarthur as an iconic hero, truman on april 11, 1951 removed the wartime hero from his command in the pacific. To say that was unpopular would be an extreme understatement, most of the American People rally to support of macarthur and condemned truman. The public resented the treatment of the pacific hero who in the minds of most of america was a larger figure than truman himself. That is a view shared by macarthur, whose ego was monumental. Trumans secretary of state dean atchison warned truman that if you remove macarthur you will have the biggest fight of your administration and that is exactly true and less truman removed him. He explained that in a particularly blunt fashion to general eisenhower, dear ike wrote truman, i was sorry to have to reach a parting of the waves with the big man in asia, but he asked what and i had to give it to him. Atchinson was of course correct in predicting an in honest backlash against truman. Taft in ohio who is known as mr. Republican suggested impeachment, so did the Chicago Tribune. The Chicago Tribune had a frontpage editorial that read, president truman must be impeached and convicted, he is unfit morally and mentally for his high honors. And yet, though highly condemned in many corners at that time, historians have subsequently come to the general conclusion that truman was what he was doing was actually fulfilling his constitutional obligations in discharging macarthur. As one put it rather bluntly, the issue at stake was no less than the continuation of civilian supremacy of the president s authority to foreigne the nations policy, or more succinctly, the central question was who was president , truman or macarthur . By his shocking action, truman removed all doubt despite the fact that it caused him considerable unpopularity at the time. In the face of such criticism and with his standing having dropped to an alltime president ial Approval Rating of low, truman pretty announced in 1952 that he would not be running for reelection. What about the Second Amendment that prohibited a third term . He fell within that, he would have seemed to be prohibited by that, but as the incumbent president , he was exempted from that prohibition. Some democrats protested that truman should run again and so forth, but many of them probably breathed a sigh of relief that they would be rid of the man who was so widely unpopular. Well, few president s have it seems to me the lectures in my classes would say that truman not have won, because never would have won, he never would have won, but then i thought well, what about 48 . They said the same thing, on the other hand, in he wouldve been against general eisenhower and i dont think you could have one that one. Now with the Approval Rating he had, so just as well he did not run. He left office so thoroughly unpopular, nearly disgraced as truman was in 1952. The passage of time has caused this perception to fate and in fact, truman has been subsequently ranked quite well by historians almost incredibly if you know his standing was like in 1952, almost incredibly he has come to be considered one of the great president s by historians. Generally, he has been ranked recently as one of the near grace, just one step below the near greats, just one step below the level of washington, lincoln, and fdr. It is not difficult to understand why this has happened, and number of factors are involved in this high rating. One is it he carried on the liberal tradition of fdr in most and most historians being of persuasion applaud this. He is also in tradition with the common man, within the jacksonian ideal of equality. I cant quote it off the top of my head, but one editorial said when he was running in 1948 it said, harry came into a job unfit for it, but he did the best he could and although he was overwhelmed, he went down fighting with all he had. One historian said truman was an average man who turned out to be an above average president that his greatness lies having done great in battle that anybody had any reason to anticipate. Finally, there is the matter of what might be called negative reference, that is he looks good, generally, compared to much of what came after him. Especially in terms of honesty and personal integrity. So far as i know nobody has ever impugned his integrity. He has become to some extent a bit of a folk hero in that regard. Historical interpretation of truman for the most part has been favorable. Interestingly, there is a revisionist interpretation work reversing the reason for his high reputation. Usually those who defended him his foreignded policy, that he was so successful at blocking the spread of communism. The new assessment by some claims just the reverse, they say that his Foreign Policy was too belligerent, it was responsible for the years of conflict with the soviet union. A more restrained policy would have prevented the development of the cold war and so they are generally critical of his Foreign Policy. On the other hand, such critics have reappraised his domestic policy more favorably. They point out that even though the fair deal did not achieve full success, truman did well within the conservative spirit of the times to achieve as much as he did including extension of social security, the raising of the minimum wage and so on. More importantly they point out , truman actually broadened the reform agenda of the new deal by advocating federal responsibility in such areas as health care, education, and most significantly, civil rights. Truman was unquestionably the president who gave impetus to the rights of black americans , thereby paving the way for the brown decision in 1954 but also lay the groundwork for the subsequent advances in civil rights under future democratic administrations. What the historical evaluation of truman will be in the years ahead remains to be seen, revisionism can play strange tricks. He apparently would not have cared much about what people said about him. He had that rare quality, rare in anyone and especially in a president. The rare quality of not taking himself too seriously. He had few illusions or cares about his supposed greatness or lack thereof and at one point while still president , he quote there are probably a million , people in this country who job could do the job better than i. He put it similarly in a letter to his daughter, he wrote your dad will never be record among the great that you can be sure he did his best. When i quote about the bomb not going off, he made a comment that some would say came close to his success when he said quote, the only thing you have to worry about is bad luck. I never had bad luck. He never seemed concerned about his place in history. Do your duty, he said, and history will do you justice. And whether or not that is true, truman did not seem to care. He never wanted to mince words or search for an elegant phrase when a simple one would suffice. She said he wanted only one epitaph for posterity, that would be the one he had seen one time on a tombstone out in the old west and that epitaph said simply, he did his damndest. There are few who deny that truman did indeed
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