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Harry S. Truman.
”Early Life Harry S. Truman, the oldest of three children born to Martha Ellen Young Truman
and John Anderson Truman, was born in his family’s small frame house in Lamar, Missouri, in
1884. Truman had no middle name; his parents apparently gave him the middle initial S.
because two family relatives names started with that letter.
When Truman was six years old, his family moved to Independence, Missouri, where he
attended the Presbyterian Church Sunday school. There he met five-year-old Elizabeth
Virginia (“Bess”) Wallace, with whom he was later to fall in love. Truman did not begin regular
school until he was eight, and by then he was wearing thick glasses to correct extreme
nearsightedness. His poor eyesight did not interfere with his two interests, music and reading.
He got up each day at 5 AM to practice the piano, and until he was 15, he went to the local
music teacher twice a week. He read four or five histories or biographies a week and acquired
an exhaustive knowledge of great military battles and of the lives of the world’s greatest
leaders.
Early Career
In 1901, when Truman graduated from high school, his future was uncertain. College had been
ruled out by his family’s financial situation, and appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at
West Point was eliminated by his poor eyesight. He began work as a timekeeper for the Santa
Fe Railroad at $35 per month, and in his spare time he read histories and encyclopedias. He
later moved to Kansas City, where he worked as a mail clerk for the Kansas City Star, then as
a clerk for the National Bank of Commerce, and finally as a bookkeeper for the Union National
Bank. In 1906 he was called home to help his parents run the large farm of Mrs. Truman’s
widowed mother in Grandview, Missouri.
For the next ten years, Truman was a successful farmer. He joined Mike Pendergast’s Kansas
City Tenth Ward Democratic Club, the local Democratic Party organization, and on his father’s
death in 1914 he succeeded him as road overseer. An argument soon ended the job, but
Truman became the Grandview postmaster. In 1915 he invested in lead mines in Missouri, lost
his money, and then turned to the oil fields of Oklahoma. Two years later, just before the
United States entered World War I, he sold his share in the oil business and enlisted in the
U.S. Army. He trained at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, but returned to Missouri to help recruit others. He
was elected first lieutenant by the men of Missouri’s Second Field Artillery.
World War I
World War I began in 1914 as a local European war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia.
Though U.S. President Woodrow Wilson tried to remain neutral, the United States was drawn
into the war in April 1917.
Truman sailed for France on March 30, 1918, and as a recently promoted captain was given
command of Battery D, a rowdy and unmanageable group known as the Dizzy D. Truman
succeeded in taming his unit, and the Dizzy D distinguished itself in the battles of Saint-Mihiel
and Argonne. In April 1919 Truman, then a major, returned home, and on June 28 he married
Bess Wallace.
The following November, Truman and Eddie Jacobson opened a men’s clothing store in
Kansas City. With the Dizzy D veterans as customers the store did a booming business, but in
1920, farm prices fell sharply and the business failed. In the winter of 1922 the store finally
closed, but Truman refused to declare bankruptcy and eventually repaid his debts.
Entrance Into Politics
Truman turned to the Pendergasts for help. Jim Pendergast, Mike’s son, persuaded his father
to give Truman permission to enter a four-way Democratic primary for an eastern Jackson
County judgeship, which was actually a job to supervise county roads and buildings. Mike
refused to support Truman. In addition, one of the other candidates was supported by the Ku
Klux Klan. Truman was advised to join the Klan, but he objected to its discriminatory policies
against blacks, Jews, and Roman Catholics. Nonetheless, by campaigning on his war record
and Missouri background, Truman won the primary and in the general election. In January
1923 he was sworn into his first public office. A year later the Trumans’ only child, Mary
Margaret, was born.
United States Senator
After a long, hard battle, Truman soundly defeated his Republican opponent. On January 3,
1935, Truman was sworn in as the junior senator from Missouri.
Truman’s common sense and knowledge of government and history impressed two of the
Senate’s most influential men. One was vice president John Nance Garner, and the other was
Arthur H. Vandenberg, Republican senator from Michigan. With their aid, Truman was named
to two important committees, the Appropriations Committee and the Interstate Commerce
Committee. Truman also joined the subcommittee on railroads, becoming vice-chairman and,
later, acting chairman. Despite pressures from powerful railroad companies, including the
Missouri Pacific Railroad, he recommended major regulatory changes that were embodied in
the Transportation Act of 1940.
1940 Election
To no one’s surprise, two Missouri Democrats challenged Truman for his Senate seat in the
primary. One was Governor Lloyd Stark, whom Roosevelt supported, and the other was
Maurice Milligan, whose nomination for a second term as U.S. district attorney Truman had
opposed in the Senate. Truman began his primary fight with no political backing, no money,
and two popular reformers as opponents. He traveled the state, making speeches about his
record in short, simple language. He won the primary, and despite his Pendergast association,
mentioned frequently by his Republican opponent, he won in November. His reelection was so
unexpected that when he returned to the Senate, his colleagues gave him a standing ovation.
Second Term
In 1941 the United States government was preparing for World War II, a conflict that had
begun in Europe in 1939. The government was building army camps and issuing defense
contracts. Even before his second term began, Truman’s constituents had written him about
waste and confusion in the defense program. Truman toured the camps and defense plants
and discovered appalling conditions. Back in the new Senate he denounced the defense
program, demanded an investigation, and was named the head of the investigating committee.
The Truman Committee
During the next two years the Truman committee produced detailed reports on the defense
programs. Committee members frequently visited defense installations to substantiate the
testimony of contractors, engineers, and army and government personnel. Truman’s success
in uncovering fraud and waste led the Senate in 1942 to give the committee $100,000, an
increase of $85,000 over the first year. It was estimated that the Truman committee saved the
country $15 billion and spent only $400,000.
The committee also put Truman on the national stage. With increasing frequency, leading
Democrats mentioned Harry S. Truman as a potential 1944 vice-presidential candidate.
Vice President of the United States
Before the Democratic National Convention opened in July 1944, it was assumed that
Roosevelt would run for a fourth term, but his health became a matter of great concern to party
leaders, whose most difficult task was to name his running mate. The current vice president
was Henry A. Wallace, a strong proponent of using the federal government to regulate big
businesses, protect the civil rights of minorities, and encourage labor unions. Wallace’s liberal
views offended many of the more conservative leaders of the Democratic Party, and they
encouraged Roosevelt to find someone more appealing to mainstream voters. Among the
leading contenders were Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, and Senators Alben W.
Barkley, James F. Byrnes, and Truman. Truman was nominated on the second ballot. After a
whirlwind campaign and overwhelming victory, Truman took the oath of office as vice president
on January 20, 1945.
Truman then engineered the Senate confirmation of Roosevelt’s appointment of Henry
Wallace as secretary of commerce and Federal loan administrator, attended the funeral of
Tom Pendergast despite wide criticism, and cast the tie-breaking Senate vote that ensured that
the United States would continue delivering supplies to U.S. allies after the war was over.
However, he saw very little of the president. Soon after the inauguration, Roosevelt left
Washington for the month-long Yalta Conference, where the Allies discussed military strategy
and political problems, including plans for governing Germany after the war.
When Roosevelt returned in March, he met with Truman in two short meetings. When
Roosevelt left for Warm Springs, Georgia, on March 30, Roosevelt had still not informed his
vice president about the conduct of the war or the plans for peace. Thirteen days later, Truman
was summoned to the White House, where Eleanor Roosevelt told him, “Harry, the president is
dead.”
President of the United States
Wartime President
Truman’s first month in office was largely devoted to briefings by Roosevelt’s aides. He asked
the founding conference of the United Nations to meet in San Francisco on April 25, as had
been planned before Roosevelt’s death. When victory in Europe seemed certain, he insisted
on unconditional German surrender, and on May 8, 1945, his 61st birthday, he proclaimed
Victory-In-Europe Day (V-E Day).
Truman convinced the San Francisco conference delegation of the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics (USSR) that the general assembly of the new world peace organization should have
free discussions and should make recommendations to the security council. On June 26 he
addressed the final conference session, and six days later he presented the United Nations
Charter to the Senate for ratification.
From July 17 to August 2, 1945, Truman attended the Potsdam Conference in Germany,
meeting with Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and
Clement Attlee, Churchill’s successor as British prime minister. The conference discussed how
to implement the decisions reached at the Yalta Conference. As presiding officer, Truman
proposed the establishment of the council of foreign ministers to aid in peace negotiations,
settlement of reparations claims, and conduct of war crimes trials. He also gained Stalin’s
promise to enter the war against Japan. In this first meeting with the other Allied leaders,
Truman confirmed his earlier favorable impression of Churchill, while he called the Soviets, in
one of his typically blunt statements, “pigheaded people.”
On July 26, Truman issued the Potsdam Declaration, which called for Japan’s unconditional
surrender and listed peace terms. He had already been informed of the successful detonation
of the first atomic bomb at Alamogordo, New Mexico, ten days earlier. Military advisers had
told Truman that a potential loss of about 500,000 American soldiers could be avoided if the
bomb were used against Japan. When Japan rejected the ultimatum, Truman authorized use
of the bomb. On August 6, 1945, at 9:15 AM Tokyo time, the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima,
virtually destroying the city. The Supreme Allied Headquarters reported that 129,558 people
were killed, injured, or missing and 176,987 made homeless. Stalin sent troops into Manchuria
and Korea on August 8, and the following day a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.
About one-third of the city was destroyed, and about 66,000 people were killed or injured.
Japan sued for peace on August 14. The official Japanese surrender took place on September
2, 1945, aboard the U.S.S. Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay.
Domestic Affairs
Reconversion
With the war ended, Truman turned to the problem of reconverting the country to peacetime
production without causing the inflation and unemployment that followed World War I. His
message to the Congress of the United States on September 6, 1945, requested a permanent
Fair Employment Practices Commission to aid blacks; wage, price, and rent controls to slow
inflation; extended old-age benefits; public housing; a national health insurance program; and
a higher minimum wage. His program was met with bitter opposition by congressional leaders
who felt he wanted to move too far and too fast.
Congress’s price control bill was so weak that on June 19, 1946, Truman vetoed it, saying it
gave a choice “between inflation with a statute and inflation without one.” When he finally
signed a bill the following month, prices had already risen 25 percent, and basic commodities
had risen 35 percent.
Mounting Opposition
Demobilization had proceeded smoothly, but increased prices led to strikes for higher wages,
particularly in basic industries. Truman had always been on the side of labor, but he would not
allow strikes to paralyze the nation. He used executive orders and court injunctions to end the
strikes, offending labor unions in the process.
Truman was the central figure in three controversial issues concerning the military. First, he
insisted on transferring control and development of nuclear energy from the military to the
civilian Atomic Energy Commission and on placing authority to use the bomb solely with the
president. Second, he persuaded Congress to unify the armed forces under a civilian secretary
of defense. Third, Truman ordered the armed forces of the United States desegregated after
Congress refused to do so. This decision, plus the military requirements of the Korean War,
ended most discrimination in the U.S. Army and gave black men an opportunity for economic
advancement denied them in many other areas.
Truman had at first retained Roosevelt’s Cabinet, but he soon felt uncomfortable with it. By
September 1946 only Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal remained. New Deal
supporters particularly objected to the removal of Secretary of Commerce Henry A. Wallace,
although he had publicly criticized Truman’s foreign policy, including its increasingly hostile
attitude toward the USSR.
Congressional Election of 1946
As the congressional campaigns began, even Democrats were divorcing themselves from
Truman’s programs. By using the Democratic discontent and the issues of rising inflation,
scarcity of meat, and labor unrest, the Republicans scored a resounding victory, capturing both
houses of Congress.
In his 1947 State of the Union message, Truman requested a law to strengthen the
Department of Labor, establish a labor-management relations commission, and end
jurisdictional and secondary strikes. Instead, Congress presented him with its
Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947, the Taft-Hartley Act that greatly weakened the
position of labor unions. The act outlawed union-only workplaces; prohibited certain union
tactics like secondary boycotts; forbade unions to contribute to political campaigns;
established loyalty oaths for union leaders; and allowed court orders to halt strikes that could
affect national health or safety. Truman vetoed the bill, but on June 23, 1947, the bill was
passed over his veto.
Instead of writing anti-inflation legislation, Congress voted a tax-cut bill giving 40 percent of the
relief to those with incomes in excess of $5000. The bill became law over Truman’s veto. The
president once again failed to gather support for his employment, national health, or social
security measures.
Foreign Policy
Truman Doctrine
Although the United States and the USSR had been allies against Germany during the war,
this alliance began to dissolve after the end of the war, when Stalin, seeking Soviet security,
began using the Soviet Army to control much of Eastern Europe. Truman opposed Stalin’s
moves. Mistrust grew as both sides broke wartime agreements. Stalin failed to honor pledges
to hold free elections in Eastern Europe. Truman refused to honor promises to send
reparations from the defeated Germany to help rebuild the war-devastated USSR. This hostility
became known as the Cold War.
In 1947 British Prime Minister Attlee told Truman that a British financial crisis was forcing
Great Britain to end its aid to Greece. At the time the USSR was demanding naval stations on
the Bosporus from Turkey, and Greece was engaged in a civil war with Communist-dominated
rebels. The president proposed what was called the Truman Doctrine, which had two
objectives: to send U.S. aid to anti-Communist forces in Greece and Turkey, and to create a
public consensus so Americans would be willing to fight the Cold War. Truman told Congress
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.” Congress fulfilled his
request for $250 million for Greece and $150 million for Turkey.
Marshall Plan
Truman’s trip to Potsdam and reports from former President Herbert Hoover (1929-1933), who
headed a postwar food commission, gave him an intimate knowledge of the problems of
war-torn Europe. With General George C. Marshall, who was now secretary of state, Truman
drew up the European Recovery Plan for the economic rehabilitation of free Europe. This act,
also known as the Marshall Plan, was designed to rebuild the European market, which would
benefit U.S. trade, and to strengthen democratic governments in Western Europe. The United
States wanted to counter the influence of the USSR, which it was beginning to see as its main
rival. The U.S. government also believed that West Germany, the zone occupied by U.S.,
British, and French forces, would have to be rebuilt and integrated into a larger Europe.
After careful planning, Marshall announced in June 1947 that if Europe devised a cooperative,
long-term rebuilding program, the United States would provide funds. When the USSR learned
that the United States insisted on Soviet cooperation with the capitalist societies of Western
Europe and an open accounting of how funds were used, the USSR established its own plan to
integrate Communist states in Eastern Europe. Under the Marshall Plan, the United States
spent more than $12.5 billion over a four-year period.
Berlin Airlift
The Marshall Plan and the amazing postwar recovery of West Germany highlighted the Soviet
Union’s failure to stabilize the economy of the zone it occupied, East Germany. To embarrass
the Allies the Soviets closed off all Allied access to the city of Berlin, which was surrounded by
Soviet-controlled East Germany but the western part of which was under Allied control.
Truman recognized that an accessible Berlin was vital for European confidence in the United
States. On June 26, 1948, he ordered a full-scale airlift of essential products into the city that
continued until May 12, 1949, when the blockade was lifted.
Israel
Since his early days in the White House, Truman supported the British Balfour Declaration of
1917, which had promised the Jews support for a national homeland in Palestine. He
sympathized with the Jewish survivors of Nazi Germany, and in November 1947 he supported
the UN plan to partition Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states. In the face of
sustained pressure from pro-Arab delegations and from those who feared the loss of Arabian
oil, Truman recognized the State of Israel on May 14, 1948.
Presidential Election of 1948
When Truman decided to run for a full term, he was faced with a major split in the Democratic
Party. In 1948 Truman had asked for an end to Jim Crow laws, which maintained segregation
in the South. He also proposed laws to punish those responsible for the hanging of blacks
without trials, called lynching; laws to protect the voting rights of blacks; and a fair employment
practices commission to end job discrimination. All of these angered Southern Democrats.
When Northern Democrats inserted these positions into the 1948 Democratic Party platform, a
group of Southerners led by Governor J. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina left the party and
formed the States’ Rights Democrats, or Dixiecrats. Henry Wallace and his supporters had
also left to form the Progressive Party, and in addition, some influential Democrats thought
victory would be possible only if the popular General Dwight D. Eisenhower could be drafted.
The prospects were dim as Truman and his running mate, Senator Alben W. Barkley, set out
on their campaign.
Truman received the Democratic Party nomination, and in his acceptance speech, he told the
convention he would reconvene Congress on July 26 to give the Republicans a chance to
carry out their party’s platform pledges. When the special session ended without passing any
important legislation, Truman had his campaign weapon. He embarked on a cross-country
whistle-stop tour, defending his record and blasting the “do-nothing Republican 80th
Congress.” No one knows who first shouted, “Give ’em Hell, Harry!” but the phrase became the
campaign slogan of 1948.
While thousands publicly and privately conceded the election to the Republican candidate,
New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, Truman continued to campaign, making as many as 16
speeches in one day. A few hours after the polls closed on November 2, the Chicago Tribune
issued an early edition with the headline DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN, but when the ballots
were counted, Truman beat Dewey by more than 2 million votes.
Second Term as President
Foreign Affairs
Truman’s inaugural address proposed four points of action. The first was support of the United
Nations, the second was a continuation of the Marshall Plan, the third was collective defense
against Communist aggression, and the fourth was aid to underdeveloped countries.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Truman’s third point was developed into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a
regional defense alliance, created by the North Atlantic Treaty signed on April 4, 1949.
NATO’s purpose was to enhance the stability, well-being, and freedom of its members by
means of a system of collective security. The defense plan was greeted warmly by Western
Europe, which saw Stalin tighten the USSR’s grip on the countries of Eastern Europe and
threaten the rest of Europe. The Senate ratified the treaty, but only after debating it at length.
Truman then placed Eisenhower in command of the defense organization.
Korea
At the end of World War II Korea was divided, and a Communist regime was established in
North Korea and an anti-Communist one in the South. Considerable civil strife in the South and
growing opposition to South Korea’s president, Syngman Rhee, persuaded the North Korean
leader, Kim Il Sung, that he would be welcomed by many South Koreans as a liberator intent
on reuniting the two Koreas. At the same time, Kim would also undermine ongoing opposition
to his own regime in North Korea.
A war began on June 25, 1950, when the North Korean army, equipped mainly by the USSR,
crossed the border and invaded South Korea. The United States immediately sent supplies to
Korea and quickly broadened its commitment in the conflict. On June 27 the UN Security
Council, with the Soviet Union voluntarily absent, passed a resolution sponsored by the United
States calling for military sanctions against North Korea. Three days later, President Truman
ordered U.S. troops stationed in Japan to Korea. American forces, those of South Korea, and,
ultimately, combat contingents from 15 other nations were placed under United Nations
command. The action was unique because neither the UN, nor its predecessor, the League of
Nations, had ever used military measures to repel an aggressor. The UN forces were
commanded by the U.S. commander in chief in East Asia, General Douglas MacArthur.
Although the official policy of the United States and the United Nations was to limit the war to
Korea to prevent the entrance of the USSR, early sucA war began on June 25, 1950, when the
North Korean army, equipped mainly by the USSR, crossed the border and invaded South
Korea. The United States immediately sent supplies to cesses persuaded Truman to move
troops into North Korea. As UN soldiers approached the Chinese border, however, China, after
several warnings to the United States, crossed into North Korea and began driving UN forces
back toward the South. In response, MacArthur publicly requested an extension of the war into
Communist China itself, but now Truman abandoned the idea of reunifying Korea by force and
returned to the original goal of stopping the invasion of South Korea. When MacArthur then
publicly attacked this policy, Truman relieved MacArthur of his command in April 1951 and
replaced him with Lieutenant General Matthew Ridgway. Until July 1953 UN forces mostly
engaged in a series of probing actions known as the active defense.
Point Four
Truman’s Point Four—aid to underdeveloped countries—stemmed from his belief “that we
should make available to peace-loving peoples the benefits of our store of technical knowledge
in order to help them realize their aspirations for a better life.” Congress debated Point Four for
nearly 18 months before approving it on June 5, 1950. By offering technical and scientific aid
to those who requested it, Point Four helped reduce famine, disease, and the economic
hardships of 35 African and Asian nations by 1953.
Domestic Affairs
Fair Deal
Although he had a Democratic Congress, Truman’s Fair Deal domestic program again met stiff
opposition. Congress approved his public housing bill, expanded social security coverage,
increased minimum wages and passed stronger farm price support bills, as well as
flood-control, rural electrification, and public power measures. However, the legislators
rejected his request to have the Taft-Hartley Act repealed, his plans for agricultural
stabilization, for construction of the Saint Lawrence Seaway, and for the creation of public
hydroelectric companies in the Missouri Valley and Columbia Valley. They also rejected his
civil rights proposals. However, he strengthened the civil rights section of the Justice
Department by executive orders, and he appointed blacks to a few high offices.
Cold War at Home
There was also a Cold War at home. Some of Truman’s opponents considered MacArthur’s
removal to be evidence that the administration was lenient on Communism. This was despite
the fact that Truman had begun investigating applicants for government jobs in 1946; that he
had led the fight to aid Greece and Turkey when the British could no longer do so; and that
Truman had used that issue to create new security and intelligence agencies such as the
Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council.
Some Republicans nevertheless believed that Truman had not done enough. In 1948
American writer and editor Whittaker Chambers testified before Representative Richard Nixon
and the House Committee on Un-American Activities that he had been a Communist in the
1920s and 1930s and a courier in transmitting secret information to Soviet agents. He charged
that State Department member Alger Hiss was also a Communist, and that he had turned
classified documents over to Chambers to be sent to the Soviet Union. Hiss denied the
charges but Chambers produced microfilm copies of documents that were later identified as
classified papers belonging to the Departments of State, Navy, and War, some apparently
annotated by Hiss in his own handwriting. The Department of Justice conducted its own
investigation, and Hiss was indicted for perjury, or lying under oath. The jury failed to reach a
verdict, but Hiss was convicted after a second trial in January 1950 (see Hiss Case).
In China the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek, which had been supported by the
United States, was unable to withstand the advance of Communist forces under Mao Zedong
(Mao Tse-tung). By the end of 1949 government troops had been overwhelmingly defeated,
and Chiang led his forces into exile on Taiwan. The triumphant Mao formed the People’s
Republic of China. Truman critics charged that the administration had failed to support Chiang
Kai-shek against the Communists. Many people were also alarmed in September 1949, when
Truman announced that the USSR had developed an atomic bomb.
In February 1950 Wisconsin Senator Joseph R. McCarthy charged in a speech in Wheeling,
West Virginia, that the State Department knowingly employed 205 Communists. He later
reduced the number to 57, and after an investigation all of the charges were found to be false.
McCarthy continued to accuse other officials of Communist sympathies. Without any evidence,
he was eventually discredited, and the word McCarthyism came to refer to accusations of
subversive activities without any evidence.
These incidents and others convinced Congress to pass the Internal Security Act of 1950,
called the McCarran Act, over Truman’s veto. The act forced the registration of all Communist
organizations, allowed the government to intern Communists during any national emergencies,
and prohibited Communists from doing any defense work. The act also prohibited the entrance
into the United States of anyone who was a member of a “totalitarian” organization.
Seizure of the Steel Mills
Despite the administration’s efforts to prevent a strike that would close the country’s steel mills,
a strike date was set for early April 9, 1952. Just hours before the scheduled strike, before a
nationwide radio audience, Truman directed Secretary of Commerce Charles Sawyer to seize
the mills to ensure their production to support the war efforts. However, on June 2, 1952, the
Supreme Court of the United States in a 6 to 3 decision on Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. v.
Sawyer declared the seizure unconstitutional. The Court held that Truman
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