by Roy Jenkins
3 M. Truman, op. cit.. p. 257. ‘Ready for’ was an odd phrase. It is not clear why Truman thought that Choate and Princeton should be premature in 1952 when Groton and Harvard had produced very satisfactory results in 1932, 1936, 1940 and 1944. What he probably meant was that he hoped he had educated the American people away from the need for an Ivy Leaguer. But where did this leave his respected, beloved and much maligned Dean Acheson? Groton and Yale was at least as bad as Choate and Princeton. The answer I think is that Truman had an instinctive view of the shape of an American administration which was the inverse of the old-style view of an English cricket team. Truman thought that the (elected) captain should be a ‘pro’, assisted by as many competent gentlemen as were qualified to make the team work well. The MCC believed in leadership from a gentleman and technical skill from the professionals.
† Although there was no actual precedent the gulf was not as wide as in most other democracies. William Howard Taft had gone (with a short gap) from the White House to the Chief Justiceship, and Earl Warren’s vice-presidential candidature in 1948 was to be considered no bar to his appointment as Chief Justice (after Vinson’s death) by Eisenhower in 1953.
4 It might, of course, have led to the earlier introduction of a system to save presidential time, for it is difficult to believe that the two hours which is about the minimum that even a quick signer would need to deal with 600 papers represented a very sensible employment of the Chief Executive’s time.
5 A large part of Truman’s excessive resentment of Eisenhower’s politicking in 1952 stemmed from his overestimate of their previous intimacy; Eisenhower was always a conventional domestic conservative, who voted for Dewey in 1948, and had little regard for the policies of the Fair Deal or for Truman’s personal style.
7 No more was ever heard of this idea.
8 Not the same man as the remarkably confusingly named and positioned other Charles E. Wilson, then head of General Motors, who was soon to be Eisenhower’s first Secretary of Defense and the author of one of the great business aphorisms of the century: ‘What is good for General Motors is good for America.’
9 However his diary entry on the day after the dinner struck one ambiguous note. ‘The Governor has decided to take a trip around the world, and write a travelogue about it. He is going for his own education. A good thing I think.’ (Off the Record, p. 279)
10 ‘Supposedly’ because there had previously in this century only been a changeover between Presidents of different parties on three occasions, and on one of them the outgoing President (Wilson) was too ill to do any honours, on another the incoming President (Franklin Roosevelt) was too immobile to go into the White House before the ceremony. Taft, I believe, did provide some pre-ceremony sustenance for Wilson (and no doubt for himself too) but this hardly amounted to a tradition.
11 The novel had been seven years published, but not, I think, read by Truman.
1 Perversely, in view of general demographic trends, there were many more long retirements in the first 70 years of the Republic than in the subsequent 140. John Adams, Martin Van Buren and Millard Fillmore exceeded Truman’s post-presidential years. Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Quincy Adams (who went back to the Congress for 17 years), and John Tyler all rivalled him. Since the Civil War only Taft (Hoover and Truman apart), survived for much more than a decade.
2 The three were Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison and James Buchanan, who all ended their terms a bare few months older than was Truman. Since Truman, first Eisenhower and then President Reagan became the only presidents to be in office over the age of 70.
3 It had been offered in 1953, but had to be twice postponed. Truman valued the honour, laughed at the hat, and made an odd comment on the university: ‘A most colorful, solemn and dignified educational institution.’ (Off the Record, p. 336)
4 In 1948 the results had been nearly the same. Jackson was given last place among the ‘greats’ instead of first place among the ‘near-greats’. The ‘near-great’ list then read: T. Roosevelt, Cleveland, J. Adams, Polk.
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