Harry S. Truman
Truman by David McCullough
Tier One
They don’t get much better than this. The only single-volume presidential biography that I feel is better than this is Grant by Ron Chernow. And it’s close. This is everything you want from a biography. It is expansive and exhaustive. It is entertaining and thought-provoking. It takes a figure you likely never really thought about and brings him to life. It is exquisite—a biography for the ages.
The presidency had been shaped for the past twelve years by a man who was larger than life. A figure that so towered over our national politics that people didn’t even think about his Vice President. Why would you? FDR would rule forever.
And he was famously not a man to care much about his Vice President. John Nance Garner, FDR’s Vice President from 1933 – 1941, allegedly once said, “The vice presidency is not worth a bucket of warm spit.” (I’m not sure he actually said this, but it’s a great line). This is not solely because the office itself is toothless and morbid. You’re simply waiting around for someone to die. There have been countless other presidents, from the first, John Adams, all the way up to the present, who have bemoaned (privately or publicly) the pointlessness of that office. But under FDR, it appears to have been particularly neutered. Some presidents go out of their way to include the Vice President in the nation's governance. FDR did not. He was president. He was in charge. And sometimes, as was the case with Truman, he hardly knew the man who would replace him in the event of tragedy.
FDR likely would’ve preferred to keep his previous Vice President, Henry Wallace, on the ticket in 1944, but he was deemed too liberal for the more conservative faction of the Democratic Party. FDR didn’t want to risk losing the election at such a critical time for the nation and the world at large, so he acquiesced. He gave a list of two people, one of whom was Truman, and the rest is history.
Truman’s Vice Presidency was, in fact, toothless. He cast some tie-breaking votes in The Senate and presided over official events. Then, after eight two days as Vice President, the man from Kansas with a shadowy past became president. His predecessor, a towering figure in American history, died just as the war neared its end and the nation prepared for brighter days. It was as if FDR made some cosmic deal with the devil to get us through that war, and just as it was about to end, his time ran out.
Of course, it wasn’t quite over yet. Germany surrendered just under a month after FDR died. All that remained was Japan and a decision that Truman will always be remembered for.
He was unaware of the Manhattan Project before assuming the presidency. This, in retrospect, given what we know FDR understood about his failing health, was a horrific oversight. Not having your Vice President at least aware of a military advancement of that scale is indefensible. Truman was not a man with much, if any, foreign policy expertise. He was a domestically minded Senator and could’ve benefited greatly from one of the great foreign policy minds in our nation’s history’s advice. At the very least, he should’ve been aware of the project so that he could sit with it and understand the ramifications.
The magnitude of the weapons created in Los Alamos was not lost on Truman. He understood the power at his disposal. Perhaps he did not envision how the world would change due to his decision. Perhaps he truly believed that there was no alternative. I have my doubts about both, but either way, he dropped the bombs. Both of them.
The argument was, and still is, that this decision saved lives. Not only American lives but Japanese civilians as well. I find that a facile argument that does not stand up to scrutiny. All the reading I have done on the subject seems to indicate that Japan was prepared to surrender before dropping the bombs. The US military made the alleged estimates on loss of life, and other experts strongly contest those findings. Japan wanted to negotiate, and Truman and his advisors were unwilling to do so.
Furthermore, they were determined to end the war in the Pacific before the Soviets joined the fight. They did not want to share that victory with anyone else. I believe that they also wanted a demonstration of the vast power they had at their disposal, which would set the post-war world balance firmly in the favor of the United States. As such, they dropped both.
Still, I understand the weight of this decision. He was a man thrust into the most stressful and fraught situation imaginable. One day, he went to sleep a man without real responsibility, and the next day, he woke up with the fate of millions of lives in his hands. He made the decision that ensured the end of a long and bloody conflict. It was likely unnecessary, but it is easy for me to sit here in the comfort of my home, looking back at another man’s decision, and say what he should’ve done. Being in that room, at that time, I wonder what choice I would’ve made.
I won’t go into the destruction and loss of innocent lives that dropping those bombs caused. I also won’t delve into the way this shaped the post-war world. It is enough to say he made a decision, and I believe, according to this wonderful book, that decision weighed heavily on him for the remainder of his life.
Contrary to popular opinion, Truman's presidency did not end with the dropping of the bomb. Foreign policy occupied most of the headlines. The Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, Berlin Airlift, the formation of NATO, the Korean War, the creation of the CIA and NSC, and the integration of the armed forces all happened under Truman. FDR was the person most responsible for shaping the modern presidency, but Truman’s footprint is not to be dismissed. He shaped the post-war world to a considerable degree.
Aside from his foreign policy, he has a fascinating and varied domestic record. He proposed what came to be known as the Fair Deal, an extension of Roosevelt’s famous New Deal policies. Among these proposals were national health insurance, an aggressive Civil Rights program (something FDR never pushed for), and a housing act to make it easier for returning GIs to buy homes. These policies were not well received by a Democratic majority Congress. Southern Democrats would not stomach his Civil Rights proposals, and little of the Fair Deal became a reality.
Alternatively, in many ways, the Red Scare (technically the second one, but it’s the more well-known of the two) began under Truman. It would not be fair to place the blame for this horrific moment in American history at the feet of Truman. It was a widespread effort spearheaded by Joseph McCarthy and, to a lesser extent, Richard Nixon and Robert Kennedy. But Truman did create the Federal Employees Loyalty Program in response to Republican accusations that his administration was crawling with communists. Perhaps he should’ve pushed back on this. He initially criticized the famous Alger Hiss trial and McCarthy in the process. Still, Truman understood the political temperature of the nation and wasn’t willing to risk his administration’s agenda on principle.
There’s so much more to say about the Red Scare and Truman’s presidency as a whole. I spent too much time discussing the dropping of the bombs (a common pitfall when remembering Truman), and for that, I apologize. I also didn’t mention any of Truman’s early life (it’s somewhat appalling that I haven’t until now mentioned anyone named Pendergast or their political organization that unfairly tainted Truman’s accomplishments) and his climb from the mail room at The Kansas City Star to the presidency. It was a circuitous and fascinating journey, but you’ll have to read McCullough’s brilliant book to learn more.
For all his failings and mistakes, Truman was a good man and an overlooked president. He was thrust into that office when the world hung on a knife’s edge. Mistakes are bound to occur, but on balance, he was a good president. I’ll leave you with this quote by Truman that I think of often. “It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”