US Presidents For Dummies

by Marcus Stadelmann

  On hearing the news of FDR’s death, Winston Churchill said to U.S. journalist Edward R. Murrow, “One day the world, and history, will know what it owes to your president.”

  Figure 16-2: President Roosevelt’s funeral procession.

  Courtesy of the Library of Congress

  Chapter 17

  Stopping the Buck at Harry Truman

  In This Chapter

  Working hard

  Assuming the presidency

  Struggling to be successful in his second term

  H arry Truman is one of the most underrated presidents in U.S. history. When Truman left office in 1953, many observers considered his presidency a failure. But this view has changed over time. Today, Harry Truman is ranked among the great presidents in U.S. history. People credit him with saving western and southern Europe from Soviet domination. He also receives credit for establishing NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization), which provides for the common defense of member countries.

  Truman is the president who decided that the Soviet Union needed to be stopped from expanding, and his policies achieved this objective. For this accomplishment alone, he deserves to be named one of the great presidents. Domestically, Truman was ahead of his time in the area of civil rights and welfare reform, but many of his proposals didn’t become law until the 1960s.

  Truman’s Early Political Career

  In 1924, Truman approached the Pendergast family, the dominant Democratic family in Missouri, about running for public office. They liked Truman, so they ran him for judge of the eastern part of Jackson County, Missouri, even though he had no background in law. Because the Pendergasts controlled state politics at the time, Truman won the position.

  Truman excelled as a judge. He actually reduced the county’s debt by 60 percent while he was in charge of the infrastructure budget.

  Truman lost his reelection bid, despite his solid record, when the powerful Ku Klux Klan, an organization that promotes supremacy of the white race and holds anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic views, opposed him.

  The local Democrats asked Truman to join the Ku Klux Klan, an organization that was popular and powerful in Missouri politics at the time. Truman refused because he didn’t want to be associated with the Klan’s anti-black and anti-Catholic views.

  The Pendergast family came to the rescue, getting Truman elected as the presiding judge for all of Jackson County in 1926. The position put Truman in control of all the county’s employees and infrastructure. Truman found the county administration in shambles, with corruption running rampant, so he set to work to reform it. He fired many of the employees who held their positions based on patronage or party ties. He even toured counties throughout the country, looking for the most effective methods of governing a county.

  Truman did such a great job that he easily won reelection. By 1934, he was a well-known reformer in Missouri, famous for his honesty. He was ready to enter national politics.

  The last farmer president

  Harry Truman was born in Missouri in 1884. When he was 6 years old, his family settled in Independence, Missouri. Truman made the city his lifelong residence. Even though he received a poor education — he didn’t even go to school until he was 8 years old — Truman was a bright child. He learned many subjects by teaching himself. Truman didn’t play sports. Instead, he stayed home and read. He enjoyed military history and playing the piano.

  Truman graduated from high school in 1901, but his family was too poor to send him to college. He’s the last U.S. president not to have a college degree.

  Truman worked many menial jobs to support himself, eventually becoming a farmer. He took over his grandmother’s farm near Kansas City and worked the land for the next 10 years. While working as a farmer, he became active in local Democratic politics. Truman proved to be a good farmer but a bad investor. He invested in lead mines and oil fields and lost most of his money.

  Truman joined the military when World War I broke out. Because he was as blind as a bat and wore very thick glasses, he memorized the eye chart so that he could pass the army’s exam. He saw action in France and returned home a major.

  When Truman returned to the United States in 1919, he married his long-time girlfriend, Bess Wallace. They met in Sunday school when he was 6 and she was 5, and started dating as teenagers. Together they opened a men’s clothing store in Kansas City. The store went under in 1922. Instead of declaring bankruptcy, Truman paid all his debts over the next two decades. Having nothing else to do, Truman turned to politics.

  Entering the Senate

  In 1934, the Pendergast family approached Truman and asked him to run for the U.S. Senate. Truman accepted and ran a spirited campaign, pledging to support President Roosevelt’s New Deal programs. His campaign — and his reputation for being an honest man — helped him win a position in the Senate.

  Truman almost lost his new position as soon as he arrived in Washington, because of his connection to the Pendergast family’s political machine. The Pendergast family was under investigation by the federal government after criminal elements started to dominate the political machine they ran in Missouri. The head of the family, Tom Pendergast, actually went to prison.

  The federal government investigated Truman but found no evidence of wrongdoing on his part. When asked about his relationship with the Pendergast family, Truman said, “Three things ruin a man. Power, money, and women. I never wanted power. I never had any money, and the only woman in my life is up at the house right now.” Truman kept his job, and the people of Missouri reelected him in 1940.

  Making his mark in the Senate

  After overcoming a poor start, Truman excelled in his new position. As senator, Truman was a quiet, hard-working man who soon earned his peers’ respect. During his term, he successfully passed major legislation, including the following:

  The Civil Aeronautics Act (1938): This act regulated the aviation industry by establishing the Civil Aeronautics Board and placing it in charge of U.S. airlines.

  The Transportation Act (1940): Truman chaired a subcommittee proposing major regulatory changes to the railroad industry. His recommendations resulted in the Transportation Act.

  The Truman Committee (1941): This was Truman’s major accomplishment as a senator. After Truman was encouraged by his constituents to check into suspected fraud in the defense industry, the Senate assigned him the task of chairing a congressional committee to investigate.

  Truman toured the country and found out that the military had handed out defense contracts for paybacks. Truman also discovered cheaply produced armaments, which didn’t work well. To top it off, Truman revealed $25 million earmarked for a nonexistent program in Canada. By the time he completed his task in 1943, he had saved the country over $15 billion, as the investigation led to many policy changes. Truman’s work was portrayed prominently by the media of the times, and he became nationally known.

  Receiving the vice-presidential nomination

  In 1944, everybody expected Franklin Roosevelt to run for a fourth term. The country was at war, and a change in leadership might have undermined the war effort. The big question was who would be Roosevelt’s running mate. The current vice president, Henry Wallace, was a liberal who supported union rights and civil rights, which made him unacceptable to southern Democrats. So Roosevelt went searching for someone else. He found Truman, who had supported Roosevelt’s foreign and domestic policies from the beginning.

  Truman really didn’t want the job, but he didn’t dare turn down his president. So he became the vice-presidential nominee for the Democratic Party. He campaigned vigorously for the ticket and became the vice president of the United States in January 1945.

  President Harry S. Truman (1945–1953)

  With Franklin Roosevelt’s sudden death on April 12, 1945, Harry Truman, shown in Figure 17-1, became president. Upon hearing of Roosevelt’s death, Truman said, “I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me.”

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p; Figure 17-1: Harry Truman, 33rd president of the United States.

  Courtesy of the Library of Congress

  Getting up to speed on the war effort

  Truman and Franklin Roosevelt were never close. Truman wasn’t privy to many of Roosevelt’s secrets and strategies. For example, Truman wasn’t aware that the United States had two atomic bombs ready. To make matters worse, Truman wasn’t informed about Allied strategy in Europe — he had never met with Russian leader Joseph Stalin or British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and he had no experience in foreign affairs.

  Truman spent his first month in office being briefed by Franklin Roosevelt’s aides. His first official foreign policy decision was to hold a conference in San Francisco to establish the United Nations (see Chapter 16). He then got the Senate to approve U.S. membership.

  Waging peace in Europe

  Truman became president on April 12, 1945 and World War II ended in Europe on May 8, 1945. In July, Truman traveled to Europe to attend the Potsdam Conference to discuss postwar European affairs with the major Allied leaders, Stalin and Churchill, and later Clement Atlee, who followed Churchill as prime minister of Great Britain. Figure 17-2 shows Truman, Stalin, and Atlee meeting in Potsdam, Germany.

  Figure 17-2: Atlee, Truman, and Stalin at the Potsdam Conference.

  Courtesy of the Library of Congress

  Truman was especially interested in getting the Soviet Union involved in the war with Japan. Even though the war in Europe was over, the United States was still losing close to 1,000 soldiers a day in the Pacific. Truman believed that with the help of the Soviets, the war would be over sooner rather than later.

  An aggressive ideology

  Since the Russian Revolution of 1917, the term communism has referred to a form of government in which the state nationalizes private property and controls the economy and the lives of its people. In theory, the state does what is best for the public and meets all public needs.

  At first, the Soviets hoped that communism would spread rapidly throughout the world, with little help from them. When this didn’t happen, Stalin started spreading communism by force, with the ultimate objective of destroying every other form of government. Only world communism was acceptable to Stalin.

  Soviet President Gorbachev abandoned the concept of world communism in the late 1980s.

  Dropping the A-bomb

  On July 26, Truman issued the Potsdam Declaration, calling for Japan’s unconditional surrender. If the Japanese didn’t accept the terms, Truman was ready to use the atomic bomb. His military advisors told him that sending U.S. troops to invade Japan could result in the deaths of up to half a million U.S. soldiers.

  On August 6, 1945, Truman, trying to avoid the potential deaths of so many soldiers, authorized U.S. bombers to drop a nuclear bomb on the city of Hiroshima, killing about 70,000 men, women, and children. Three days later, he sent planes to drop a second atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki, killing 40,000 more civilians. At the same time, the Soviet Union invaded Japanese-controlled Manchuria and Korea.

  The Japanese government surrendered on August 14, 1945. World War II was finally over.

  Stopping the spread of communism and recognizing Israel

  When World War II came to an end in 1945, a power vacuum existed in Europe. The former great powers on the continent — Germany, France, and Great Britain — were in shambles. The Soviet Union, under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, tried to take advantage of the confusion.

  The Soviet Union expanded aggressively. By 1946, it had control of most of eastern Europe. Stalin decided to break the Yalta and Potsdam agreements, which called for holding free elections and establishing democracy in eastern Europe; instead, he imposed communist dictatorships on eastern European countries.

  But control of the eastern European countries wasn’t enough for Stalin. He then sought to expand into southern Europe. The Soviet Union began to actively support communist uprisings in Turkey and Greece. In 1947, Great Britain informed the United States that it could no longer afford to support the anti-communist government of Greece. Truman knew that he had to act.

  To save Greece and Turkey from Soviet control, he proposed the Truman Doctrine (see the next section). The Soviet Union, in turn, perceived Truman’s actions as aggression, and the Cold War — the ideological and political conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States — began. The wartime friendship between the United States and the Soviet Union came to an end.

  President Truman supported the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which called for the establishment of a Jewish home state in Palestine. The United Nations separated Palestine into two parts to create the state of Israel in 1948. Truman supported the reorganization and recognized the new Israeli state right away.

  Implementing the Truman Doctrine

  In March 1947, President Truman addressed Congress. In his speech, he outlined what was to become known as the Truman Doctrine, saying, “I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.” The doctrine called for military and economic aid for Greece and Turkey — to save the countries from communist rebels. Congress agreed with the provisions of the doctrine and approved $400 million to help the two countries.

  Official U.S. foreign policy became one of containment of communism, though there was no intention to try to overthrow already-existing communist regimes. Any government threatened by communism could call upon the United States for aid.

  The Truman Doctrine saved Greece and Turkey from communism. Both countries joined NATO and became close U.S. allies.

  Instituting the anti-communist Marshall Plan

  Truman was also worried about western Europe in 1947. The Communist party became the largest political party in France. Many people flocked to it because the economic conditions in France were so bad. The Communist party promised to end unemployment and provide for the basic needs of all. The same happened in Italy. Suddenly it looked like the communists might come to power democratically in these two major European countries. Something needed to be done.

  Together with his secretary of state, George C. Marshall, Truman came up with the European Recovery Plan. This plan, also referred to as the Marshall Plan, called for rebuilding the war-torn European continent.

  The Marshall Plan was both economic and political in nature. The United States offered billions of dollars in loans to any European country that applied for it. As a condition for the aid, the European country had to buy U.S. goods with the money, thereby stimulating the U.S. economy.

  Marshall announced the plan in June 1947, and every western European country accepted the offer of aid. Some eastern European countries wanted to accept aid, but the Soviet Union prevented them from doing so. The last democratic government in eastern Europe, Czechoslovakia, asked for aid under the Marshall plan, but the Soviet Union intervened, destroying democracy and killing the country’s democratically elected prime minister.

  Under the Marshall Plan, the United States provided Europe with over $13 billion in economic aid between 1947 and 1951.

  Truman knew that he could help undermine communist efforts in Europe by restoring economic prosperity to the continent. He was right. He single-handedly saved western European democracies. This accomplishment was one of the greatest successes in the history of U.S. foreign policy.

  Airlifting food to Berlin

  The four victorious Allies from World War II — the United States, France, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union — divided Germany and its capital, Berlin, into four zones after their victory. Each ally received one zone to control. Great Britain was on the verge of financial collapse in 1947. The country couldn’t afford to run its zone, so the United States took it over in 1948. Later that year, the French zone fused with the U.S. zone, creating Trizonia.

  With control of three zones, the United States established a new independent West German state. Currency reform took p
lace, and Truman asked for a new, democratic constitution. Alarmed, the Soviet Union shut off all access to the western part of Berlin, which was located within the Soviet zone of occupation. The idea was simple — prevent food from getting into West Berlin and starve the Germans into submission.

  Truman implemented the Berlin airlift in June 1948. For the next 11 months, the United States flew supplies and food to the city, feeding close to two million people. At one point, a U.S. plane landed in Berlin every minute of the day. By May 1949, the Soviet Union caved in. Truman won again.

  Reforming the country

  With the end of World War II, Truman turned his attention to reforming his own country, with a special focus on civil rights and social reform. He called his program the Fair Deal — a continuation of Roosevelt’s New Deal programs.

  Truman proposed the creation of a Fair Employment Practices Commission to stop discrimination against blacks. He also requested an increase in unemployment benefits, national healthcare insurance to cover every U.S. citizen, wage and price controls to slow inflation, public housing, and a higher minimum wage.