Harry S Truman

Harry S. Truman never wanted to be president of the United States. When Franklin Roosevelt selected Senator Truman for his vice presidential running mate in 1944, the senator from Missouri tried to refuse the offer, but FDR would not take "no" for an answer. Senator Truman had chaired an important committee that kept an eye on military procurement during the World War II and had little patience with manufacturing tycoons whom he saw as profiteers. It is estimated that he saved the government some $15 billion.

Although Vice President Truman, like every other close observer of the president, knew that Franklin Roosevelt's health was poor, he was nevertheless shocked and stunned upon Reeve receiving word that the president had died some three months into his fourth term. In a famous exchange, when Harry Truman saw Eleanor Roosevelt in the White House just after the president had died, in answer to the vice president's question of what he could do for the widow, she answered, "No, Harry, what can I do for you? For you are the one in trouble now." Thus began the administration of a man who never wanted to be president, and who took office while his country was engaged in a two-ocean war. Although the end of the conflict was in sight, at least in Germany, there was much fighting left to be done, and prospects for a peaceful postwar world were precarious at best.

Harry Truman when was the last president of the United States who never went to college. He was, however, well educated, for he read widely all his life, especially in history. He was a down to earth, no-nonsense politician who had survived insinuations stemming from his contacts with the Missouri Pendergast political machine. Blunt and outspoken, sometimes to a fault, he was famous for the sign on his desk that read "The buck stops here."

Although much of his presidency involved controversy, which led to him being one of the least popular American presidents during his tenure, in retrospect he has emerged as a strong and capable president who was a man of integrity and honesty. His firing of American hero General Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War was a very unpopular move; in retrospect, however, it has been judged a necessary and courageous act which was supported by his military advisers in Washington.

Harry Truman's wife, Bess, dislike ad Washington intensely, and with her husband working seven days a week and preoccupied with the business of running the country in very complicated time, she took her daughter Margaret and went back to Missouri, leaving Harry free to run the country. Although the President was distressed by her departure, historians have been forever grateful for Mrs. Truman's decision, for the president wrote for her faithfully almost daily, and his letters are an important source of information about the nation and the world during his time in office.

More TBA | Updated February 14, 2008