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U.S Presidents — Harry S. Truman

OVERVIEW Name: Harry S. Truman President: # 33 Term Number(s): 40, 41 Term Length: 7.9 Took Office: April 12, 1945 Left Office: January 20, 1953 Age when Elected: 60 Party: Democratic Also Known As: "Give ’Em Hell Harry" BIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION Education: Kansas City Law School (2 years) Occupation: Small businessman (haberdasher), farmer Other Governmental Position: 34th Vice President of the United States, United States Senator from Missouri. Military Service: Captain in United States Army, Missouri National Guard Religion: Southern Baptist Spouse(s): Elizabeth Virginia Wallace Truman (June 28, 1919) Children: Mary Margaret Truman Birthdate: May 8, 1884 Birthplace: Lamar, Missouri Deathdate: December 26, 1972 Deathplace: Kansas City, Missouri Age at Death: 88 Cause of Death: minor lung congestion; complexity of organic failures; collapse of cardiovascular systems Place of Internment: Truman Library in Independence, Missouri Signature FIRST ELECTION Election: Not elected President, succeeded President Franklin D. Roosevelt. SECOND ELECTION Election Year: 1948 Main Opponent: Thomas E. Dewey Voter Participation: 62.50%   Electoral Popular States Click for larger image Winner 303 (84.50%) 24,179,347 (49.60%) 28 Main Opponent 189 (35.59%) 21,991,292 (45.10%) 16 total 531 48,793,535 48 CABINET AND COURT APPOINTMENTS Vice President: vacant, Alben W. Barkley Secretary of State: Edward R. Stettinius, Jr. (1945), James F. Byrnes (1945–1947), George C. Marshall (1947–1949), Dean G. Acheson (1949–1953) Secretary of the Treasury: Henry Morgenthau, Jr. (1945), Fred M. Vinson (1945–1946), John W. Snyder (1946–1953) Secretary of War: Henry L. Stimson (1945), Robert P. Patterson (1945–1947), Kenneth C. Royall (1947) Secretary of the Navy: James V. Forrestal (1945–1947) Secretary of Defense: James V. Forrestal (1947–1949), Louis A. Johnson (1949–1950), George C. Marshall (1950–1951), Robert A. Lovett (1951–1953) Secretary of the Interior: Harold L. Ickes (1945–1946), Julius A. Krug (1946–1949), Oscar L. Chapman (1949–1953) Secretary of Agriculture: Claude R. Wickard (1945), Clinton P. Anderson (1945–1948), Charles F. Brannan (1948–1953) Secretary of Commerce: Henry A. Wallace (1945–1946), W. Averell Harriman (1946–1948), Charles W. Sawyer (1948–1953) Secretary of Labor: Frances Perkins (1945), Lewis B. Schwellenbach (1945–1948), Maurice J. Tobin (1948–1953) Attorney General: Francis Biddle (1945), Tom C. Clark (1945–1949), J. Howard McGrath (1949–1952), James P. McGranery (1952–1953) Postmaster General: Frank C. Walker (1945), Robert E. Hannegan (1945–1947), Jesse M. Donaldson (1947–1953) Supreme Court Assignments: Harold Hitz Burton (1945), Fred M. Vinson (1946), Tom C. Clark (1949), Sherman Minton (1949) PRESIDENT'S BIOGRAPHY During his few weeks as vice president, Harry S. Truman scarcely saw President Roosevelt, and received no briefing on the development of the atomic bomb or the unfolding difficulties with Soviet Russia. Suddenly these and a host of other wartime problems became Truman's to solve when, on April 12, 1945, he became president. He told reporters, "I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me." Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri, in 1884. He grew up in Independence, and for 12 years prospered as a Missouri farmer. He went to France during World War I as a field artillery captain. Returning, he married Elizabeth Virginia Wallace, and opened a haberdashery in Kansas City. Active in the Democratic party, Truman was elected a judge of the Jackson County Court (an administrative position) in 1922. He became a senator in 1934. During World War II he headed the Senate war investigating committee, checking into waste and corruption and saving perhaps as much as 15 billion dollars. As President, Truman made some of the most crucial decisions in history. Soon after V-E Day, the war against Japan had reached its final stage. An urgent plea to Japan to surrender was rejected. Truman, after consultations with his advisers, ordered atomic bombs dropped on cities devoted to war work. Two were Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japanese surrender quickly followed. In June 1945 Truman witnessed the signing of the charter of the United Nations, hopefully established to preserve peace. Thus far, Truman had followed his predecessor's policies, but he soon developed his own. He presented to Congress a 21-point program, proposing the expansion of Social Security, a full-employment program, a permanent Fair Employment Practices Act, and public housing and slum clearance. The program, Truman wrote, "symbolizes for me my assumption of the office of president in my own right." It became known as the Fair Deal. Dangers and crises marked the foreign scene as Truman campaigned successfully in 1948. In foreign affairs he was already providing his most effective leadership. In 1947 as the Soviet Union pressured Turkey and, through guerrillas, threatened to take over Greece, Truman asked Congress to aid the two countries. He enunciated the program that bears his name—the Truman Doctrine. The Marshall Plan, named for his secretary of state, stimulated spectacular economic recovery in war-torn western Europe. When the Russians blockaded the western sectors of Berlin in 1948, Truman created a massive airlift to supply Berliners until the Russians backed down. Meanwhile, he was negotiating a military alliance to protect Western nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, established in 1949. In June 1950, when the Communist government of North Korea attacked South Korea, Truman conferred promptly with his military advisers. There was, he wrote, "complete, almost unspoken acceptance on the part of everyone that whatever had to be done to meet this aggression had to be done. There was no suggestion from anyone that either the United Nations or the United States could back away from it." A long, discouraging struggle ensued as United Nations forces held a line above the old boundary of South Korea. Truman kept the war a limited one, rather than risk a major conflict with China and perhaps Russia. Deciding not to run again, he retired to Independence. Truman died on December 26, 1972, at age 88 and after a stubborn fight for life. FIRST LADY'S BIOGRAPHY Elizabeth Virginia Wallace Truman Whistle-stopping in 1948, President Harry Truman often ended his campaign talk by introducing his wife as "the Boss" and his daughter, Margaret, as "the Boss's Boss," and they smiled and waved as the train picked up steam. The sight of that close-knit family gallantly fighting against such long odds had much to do with his surprise victory at the polls that November. Strong family ties in the southern tradition had always been important around Independence, Missouri, where a baby girl was born to Margaret ("Madge") Gates and David Wallace on February 13, 1885. Christened Elizabeth Virginia, she grew up as "Bess." Harry Truman, whose family moved to town in 1890, always kept his first impression of her—"golden curls" and "the most beautiful blue eyes." A relative said, "there never was but one girl in the world" for him. They attended the same schools from fifth grade through high school. In recent years, the Trumans' daughter has written a vivid sketch of Bess as a girl: "a marvelous athlete—the best third baseman in Independence, a superb tennis player, a tireless ice skater—and she was pretty besides." She also had many "strong opinions... and no hesitation about stating them Missouri style—straight from the shoulder." For Bess and Harry, World War I altered a deliberate courtship. He proposed and they became engaged before Lieutenant Truman left for the battlefields of France in 1918. They were married in June 1919; they lived in Mrs. Wallace's home, where Mary Margaret was born in 1924. When Harry Truman became active in politics, Mrs. Truman traveled with him and shared his platform appearances as the public had come to expect a candidate's wife to do. His election to the Senate in 1934 took the family to Washington. Reluctant to be a public figure herself, she always shared his thoughts and interests in private. When she joined his office staff as a secretary, he said, she earned "every cent I pay her." His wartime role as chairman of a special committee on defense spending earned him national recognition—and a place on the Democratic ticket as President Roosevelt's fourth-term running mate. Three months after their inauguration, Roosevelt was dead. On April 12, 1945, Harry Truman took the president's oath of office—and Bess, who managed to look on with composure, was the new first lady. In the White House, its lack of privacy was distasteful to Mrs. Truman. As her husband put it later, she was "not especially interested" in the "formalities and pomp or the artificiality which, as we had learned... inevitably surround the family of the president." Though she conscientiously fulfilled the social obligations of her position, she did only what was necessary. While the mansion was rebuilt during the second term, the Trumans lived in Blair House and kept social life to a minimum. They returned to Independence, Missouri, in 1953. After her husband's death in 1972, Mrs. Truman continued to live in the family home. There she enjoyed visits from Margaret and her husband, Clifton Daniel, and their four sons. She died in 1982 and was buried beside her husband in the courtyard of the Harry S. Truman Library. MAJOR EVENTS 1945: Truman authorizes dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 1945: End of World War II. 1945: United Nations is created. 1945–1946: Nuremberg Trials. Former leaders of defeated Nazi Germany are tried for war crimes. 1947: Truman Doctrine, the plan to contain the spread of Communism by Russia during the Cold War. 1947: Taft-Hartley Act. Law created to monitor labor union activities. 1948: Israel created. 1948–1952: Marshall Plan: a plan to assist European countries with post-war recovery. 1949: NATO Treaty: an organization of collective defense is established. 1950–1953: Korean Conflict. U.S. aids South Korea when North Korea invades in 1950. 1951: Twenty-second Amendment ratified; sets term limit for president at two terms maximum. 1952: Hydrogen bomb detonated. TRIVIA 1. Harry Truman would rise at 5a.m. to practice the piano for two hours. 2. The "S" in Harry S. Truman does not represent a name but was merely an initial. 3. Truman decided to drop atomic bombs on Japan to end World War II.