Harry
S. Truman was born on May 8, 1884 in Lamar, Missouri. When
Truman was six years old, his parents moved the family to
Independence, Missouri, and it was there that Truman would
spend the bulk of his formative years. After graduating
from high school in 1901, Truman worked at a series of clerical
jobs before he decided to become a farmer in 1906, an occupation
in which he remained for another ten years.
With the onset of American participation in World
War I, Truman enlisted in the National Guard, was chosen
to be an officer, and then commanded a regimental battery
in France. At the war's conclusion, Truman returned to Independence
and married his long-time love interest, Bess Wallace, and
they would have one child, Margaret, shortly thereafter.
In 1922, Truman was elected to local office with the help
of the Kansas City Democratic machine, led by Boss Tom Pendergast,
and, although he was defeated for reelection in 1924, he
easily won in 1926 and then again in 1930. Truman performed
his duties in this office diligently, and won personal acclaim
for several popular public works projects. In 1934, the
Pendergast machine selected him to run for Missouri's open
Senate seat, and he ran as a New Dealer in support of President
Roosevelt. Once elected, Truman supported the president
on most issues and became a popular member of the Senate
club.
Having always taken a keen interest in foreign affairs, Truman first gained
national prominence in his second term when his preparedness
committee made a scandal of military wastefulness by exposing
fraud and mismanagement. His advocacy of common-sense, cost-saving
measures for the military gained him wide respect, and he
emerged as a popular choice for the vice-presidential slot
in 1944. Yet he was barely installed as vice president when
FDR died on April 12,
1945, elevating him to the presidency.
Quite naturally, Truman was initially preoccupied with
foreign policy: the Allied conference in Potsdam, the conclusion
of the war in Europe, and then in August, with the decision
to use atomic weapons against Japan. Realizing that the
interests of the Soviet Union were quickly becoming incompatible
with the interests of the United States in the absence of
a common enemy, Truman's administration articulated an increasingly
hard line against the Soviets. Nonetheless, as a Wilsonian
internationalist, Truman strongly supported the creation
of the United Nations, and he sent
a distinguished American delegation to the UN's first General
Assembly that included former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
Although some people were distrustful of his expertise on
foreign matters, Truman was able to win broad support for
the Marshall Plan, and then for the Truman Doctrine, which
sought to contain Soviet power in Europe.
As he readied for the approaching 1948 election, Truman made clear his identity as a
Democrat in the New Deal tradition, advocating universal health insurance, modest civil rights
legislation, and the repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act in a broad legislative program that he called
the "Fair Deal." While it was widely expected that Truman would lose, he campaigned furiously
and managed to pull off one of the greatest upsets in presidential election history by defeating
Thomas Dewey and earning a term in the White House in his own right.
Shortly after Truman's inauguration, he presented his Fair
Deal program to Congress, but it was not well received and
only one of its major bills was enacted. A few months later
the nation's attention was focused solidly on foreign policy
once again with the fall of China to Mao Zedong's Communists.
The incident would prove to be catastrophic for the administration,
because it signaled the end of the Democrats' ability to
manage the early Cold War in the eyes of the American public.
Within a year of Nationalist China's collapse, Alger Hiss
had been exposed as a former Communist, North Korea had
invaded South Korea, and Senator Joseph McCarthy had publicly
accused the State Department of being riddled with Communists.
The Hiss case damaged the Truman White House and Senator
McCarthy initially commanded broad public support, but events
at home took a backseat to the war in Korea where General
Douglas MacArthur had won the imagination of the American
people. MacArthur advocated extending the war into China,
but when Truman disagreed with him MacArthur publicly aired
his views and the president retaliated by relieving him
of command. It was a deeply unpopular action that seriously
wounded Truman's credibility with the American people. His
unpopularity grew even more pronounced as the military situation
in Korea became increasingly stalemated. Realizing that
in all probability he could not be reelected, Truman declined
to run and instead retired to Independence in January of
1953.
Truman's years were hardly behind him, however. He would
live until 1972, during which time he wrote his memoirs,
remained active in politics, and occasionally commented
on political and public policy issues. By the time of his
death in December 1972, Truman's presidential image had
been significantly rehabilitated by the longer view of history
and he had come to be regarded as a genuinely great American
president.
Throughout their long association with one another, ER's
relationship with President Truman was complex, yet affectionate.
Although she was initially concerned that a Truman White
House would be significantly more conservative than her
husband's administration, ER soon found herself supporting
most of the president's initiatives. She drew fire from
some liberals for supporting the Korean
War and for backing the Truman Doctrine, yet it was
clear to any astute observer that ER was willing to break
with the administration over public policy issues on which
they disagreed. When it appeared as if the president
would
refuse to recognize the state of Israel, ER threatened
to resign rather than remain in the service of his administration.
He frequently sought her advice on a wide variety of issues,
and largely relied on her to ensure the success of American
participation at the UN. Despite their mutual respect,
however, ER agonized over whether to endorse his candidacy
in 1948
because she disapproved of his cabinet choices and felt
that he had behaved like a "weak and vacillating person."
(1)
Nonetheless, ER
eventually came out in support of Truman, and his reelection ensured that she
would continue to
represent the United States at the UN.
After Truman left the White House in 1953, he and ER continued
to exert their influence over Democratic politics. Both
addressed the 1956 Democratic National convention and both
maneuvered behind-the-scenes on behalf of their respective
candidates. Truman tried to swing the Convention in favor
of Averell Harriman, while ER continued to support her
old
friend Adlai Stevenson
– Stevenson won the nomination. Despite this occasional
rivalry, however, Truman and ER always remained grateful
for, and respectful of one another's accomplishments. ER's
biographer, Joseph Lash,
noted that for Truman, ER always was the "First Lady
of the World."
(2)
Notes:
- Joseph Lash, Eleanor: The Years Alone (New York:
W. W. Norton & Company, 1972), passim.
- Lash, Eleanor: The Years Alone, photo caption.
Sources Used
American National Biography. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1999, 857-863.
Black, Allida M. Casting Her Own Shadow: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Shaping of Postwar
Liberalism. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996, 51-85.
Graff, Henry F., ed. The Presidents: A Reference History. 2nd ed. New York: Simon and
Schuster Macmillan, 1996, 443-458.
Lash, Joseph. Eleanor: The Years Alone. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1972, 23, 36-37, 142-145, 210, 214, 296.