Harry
S. Truman, to son of a farmer, was born in Lamar, Missouri, on 8th
May, 1884. After an education in Independence, Missouri, he farmed
on his parents' land. In 1917, soon after the United States entered
the First World War, he enlisted in the army.
Truman served on the Western Front and
achieved the rank of captain.
On returning from the war Truman ran an unsuccessful haberdashery
before studying law in Kansas City. Truman became active in local
politics. A great admirer of Woodrow Wilson,
Truman joined the Democratic Party
and in 1922 was elected county judge (1922-24). This was followed
by eight years as presiding judge, a post he held until being elected
to the Senate in 1934.
Truman loyally supported Franklin D. Roosevelt
and his New Deal policies, and in 1944
he was asked to replace Henry Wallace
as his vice president. Truman only served 82 days as vice president
when Roosevelt died on 12th April, 1945. In his first address to Congress
he promised to continue Roosevelt's policies. In July he attended
the Potsdam Conference and in August authorized the dropping of the
atom bomb on Hiroshima.
Henry Wallace, Secretary of Commerce,
favoured co-operation with the Soviet Union. In private he disagreed
with Truman about what he considered to be an aggressive foreign policy.
Wallace went public about his fears at a meeting in New York in September,
1946. As a result, Truman sacked Wallace from his administration.
On 12th March, 1947, Truman announced details to Congress of what
eventually became known as the Truman Doctrine.
In his speech he pledged American support for "free peoples who
are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside
pressures". This was followed by the Marshall
Plan, a proposal to offer American financial aid for a programme
of European economic recovery.
Truman showed a stronger interest in civil rights than previous presidents.
He was a proud defender of the Fair Employment
Act that he had instigated during the war to prevent discrimination
against African Americans, Jews and other minority groups. A supporter
of the Wagner Act, he opposed the Taft-Hartley
Bill which limited labour action, claiming it was bad for industry
and workers alike. When Congress passed it he denounced it as a "slave-labor
bill".
At the Democratic National Convention of 1948, Storm
Thurmond led the opposition to Truman and his Fair Deal proposals
that included legislation on civil rights, fair employment practices,
opposition to lynching and improvements
in existing public welfare laws. When Truman won the nomination, Southern
Democrats formed the States' Rights Democratic Party (Dixiecrats)
and Thurmond was chosen as its presidential candidate.
It was thought that with two former Democrats, Strom
Thurmond and Henry Wallace standing,
Truman would have difficulty defeating the Republican
Party candidate, Thomas Dewey. However,
both Thurmond and Wallace did badly and Truman defeated Dewey by 24,105,812
votes to 21,970,065.
Truman had difficulty getting Congress to pass his Fair Deal program
and most of these measures were not enacted during his term in office.
He was criticised for not doing more to halt the activities of Joe
McCarthy. After losing power, Truman described McCarthyism
as: "The use of the big lie and the unfounded accusation against
any citizen in the name of Americanism or security. It is the rise
to power of the demagogue who lives on untruth; it is the spreading
of fear and the destruction of faith in every level of society."
In 1950 group of Conservative senators, including Pat
McCarran, John Wood, Karl
Mundt and Richard Nixon sponsored a
measure to deal with members of the Communist
Party. Truman opposed the measure arguing that it "would
betray our finest traditions" as it attempted to "curb the
simple expression of opinion". He went on to argue that the "stifling
of the free expression of opinion is a long step toward totalitarianism."
Congress overrode Truman's veto by large margins: House of Representatives
(248-48) and the Senate (57-10) and the Internal
Security Act became law in 1950.
On 25th June, 1950, North Korean Communist forces invaded the Republic
of South Korea, crossing the 38th parallel at several points. Truman
immediately announced that he would use American forces for the defence
of South Korea.
Truman upset conservative forces in the United States when he took
the side of Dean Acheson, the Secretary
of State, in his dispute with General Douglas
MacArthur during the Korean War. Acheson
and Truman wanted to limit the war to Korea whereas MacArthur called
for the extension of the war to China. Joe
McCarthy once again led the attack on the administration: "With
half a million Communists in Korea killing American men, Acheson says,
'Now let's be calm, let's do nothing'. It is like advising a man whose
family is being killed not to take hasty action for fear he might
alienate the affection of the murders."
In April 1951, Truman removed General Douglas
MacArthur from his command of the United Nations forces in Korea.
McCarthy called for Truman to be impeached and suggested that the
president was drunk when he made the decision to fire MacArthur: "Truman
is surrounded by the Jessups, the Achesons, the old Hiss crowd. Most
of the tragic things are done at 1.30 and 2 o'clock in the morning
when they've had time to get the President cheerful."
Dean Acheson was the main target of McCarthy's
anger as he believed Truman was "essentially just as loyal as
the average American". However, Truman was president "in
name only because the Acheson group has almost hypnotic powers over
him. We must impeach Acheson, the heart of the octopus."
In 1952 Truman decided not to stand again and retired to private life,
publishing two volumes of Memoirs in 1955 and 1956. Harry S.
Truman died on 26th December, 1972.
Cliff
Berryman, Harry Truman and
Henry
Wallace, Washington Evening Star (1944)
(1)
Harry S. Truman, speech in Sedalia, Missouri (1940)
I believe in the brotherhood of man, not merely the brotherhood of
white men but the brotherhood of all men before law. In the years
past, lynching and mob violence, lack of schools and countless other
unfair conditions hasten the progress of the Negro from the country
to the city. They have been forced to live in segregated slums, neglected
by the authorities. Negroes have been preyed upon by all types of
exploiters. The majority of our Negro people find but cold comfort
in shanties and tenements.
(2)
Harry S. Truman, memo on J. Edgar Hoover
(12th May, 1945)
We want to Gestapo or Secret Police. FBI
is tending in that direction. They are dabbling in sex life scandals
and plain blackmail when they should be catching criminals. They also
have a habit of sneering at local law enforcement officers. This must
stop. Cooperation is what we must have.
(3)
Harry
S. Truman,
Year of Decisions (1955)
The task of creating the atomic bomb had been entrusted to a
special unit of the Army Corps of Engineers, the so-called Manhattan
District, headed by Major General Leslie R. Groves. The primary effort,
however, had come from British and American scientists, working in
laboratories and offices scattered throughout the nation.
Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer,
the distinguished physicist from the University of California, had
set up the key establishment in the whole process at Los Alamos, New
Mexico. More than any other one man, Oppenheimer is to be credited
with the achievement of the completed bomb.
My own knowledge of these
developments had come about only after I became President, when Secretary
Stimson had given me the full story. He had told me at that time that
the project was nearing completion and that a bomb could be expected
within another four months. It was at his suggestion, too, that I
had then set up a committee of top men and had asked them to study
with great care the implications the new weapon might have for us.
At
Potsdam, as elsewhere, the secret of the atomic bomb was kept closely
guarded. We did not extend the very small circle of Americans who
knew about it. Churchill naturally knew about the atomic bomb project
from its very beginning, because it had involved the pooling of British
and American technical skill.
On July 24th I casually
mentioned to Stalin that we had a new weapon of special destructive
force. The Russian Premier showed no unusual interest. All he said
was that he was glad to hear it and hoped we would make "good
use of it against the Japanese".
(4)
Paul Tibbets was interviewed by Studs
Terkel in the Guardian
on 6th August 2002.
Studs Terkel:
You came back, and you visited President Truman.
Paul Tibbets:
We're talking 1948 now. I'm back in the Pentagon and I get notice
from the chief of staff, Carl Spaatz, the first chief of staff of
the air force. When we got to General Spaatz's office, General Doolittle
was there, and a colonel named Dave Shillen. Spaatz said, "Gentlemen,
I just got word from the president he wants us to go over to his office
immediately." On the way over, Doolittle and Spaatz were doing
some talking; I wasn't saying very much. When we got out of the car
we were escorted right quick to the Oval Office. There was a black
man there who always took care of Truman's needs and he said, "General
Spaatz, will you please be facing the desk?" And now, facing
the desk, Spaatz is on the right, Doolittle and Shillen. Of course,
militarily speaking, that's the correct order: because Spaatz is senior,
Doolittle has to sit to his left.
Then I
was taken by this man and put in the chair that was right beside the
president's desk, beside his left hand. Anyway, we got a cup of coffee
and we got most of it consumed when Truman walked in and everybody
stood on their feet. He said, "Sit down, please," and he
had a big smile on his face and he said, "General Spaatz, I want
to congratulate you on being first chief of the air force," because
it was no longer the air corps. Spaatz said, "Thank you, sir,
it's a great honour and I appreciate it." And he said to Doolittle:
"That was a magnificent thing you pulled flying off of that carrier,"
and Doolittle said, "All in a day's work, Mr President."
And he looked at Dave Shillen and said, "Colonel Shillen, I want
to congratulate you on having the foresight to recognise the potential
in aerial refuelling. We're gonna need it bad some day." And
he said thank you very much.
Then he
looked at me for 10 seconds and he didn't say anything. And when he
finally did, he said, "What do you think?" I said, "Mr
President, I think I did what I was told." He slapped his hand
on the table and said: "You're damn right you did, and I'm the
guy who sent you. If anybody gives you a hard time about it, refer
them to me."
(5)
President Truman, speech to Congress (12th March, 1947)
The gravity of the situation which confronts the world today necessitates
my appearance before a joint session of the Congress. The foreign
policy and the national security of this country are involved. One
aspect of the present situation which I wish to present to you at
this time for your consideration and decision concerns Greece and
Turkey.
The United
States has received from the Greek government an urgent appeal for
financial and economic assistance. Preliminary reports from the American
economic mission now in Greece and reports from the American ambassador
in
Greece corroborate the statement of the Greek government that assistance
is imperative if Greece is to survive as a free nation.
I do not
believe that the American people and the Congress wish to turn a deaf
ear to the appeal of the Greek government. Greece is not a rich country.
Lack of sufficient natural resources has always forced the Greek people
to work hard to make both ends meet. Since 1940, this industrious
and peace-loving country has suffered invasion, four years of cruel
enemy occupation, and bitter internal strife.
When forces
of liberation entered Greece they found that the retreating Germans
had destroyed virtually all the railways, roads, port facilities,
communications, and merchant marine. More than a thousand villages
had been burned. Eighty-five percent of the children were tubercular.
Livestock, poultry, and draft animals had almost disappeared. Inflation
had wiped out practically all savings. As a result of these tragic
conditions, a militant minority, exploiting human want and misery,
was able to create political chaos which, until now, has made economic
recovery impossible.
The seeds
of totalitarian regimes are nurtured by misery and want. They spread
and grow in the evil soil of poverty and strife. They reach their
full potential when the hope of a people for a better life has died.
We must keep that hope alive. If we falter in our leadership, we may
endanger the peace of the world - and we shall surely endanger the
welfare of our own nation.
At the present moment in world history nearly every nation must choose
between alternative ways of life. The choice is often not a free one.
One way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished
by free institutions, representative government, free elections, guarantees
of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom
from political oppression.
The second way of life is based upon the will of a minority forcibly
imposed upon the majority. It relies upon terror and oppression, a
controlled press and radio, fixed elections, and the suppression of
personal freedom. I believe 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.
(6)
Harry S. Truman, speech (29th June, 1947)
We can no longer afford the luxury of a leisurely attack upon prejudice
and discrimination. There is much that state and local governments
can do in providing positive safeguards for civil rights. But we cannot,
any longer, await the growth of a will to action in the slowest state
or the most backward community. Our national government must show
the way.
(7)
Harry S. Truman, executive order (26th July, 1948)
Whereas it is essential that there be maintained in the armed services
of the United States the highest standards of democracy, with equality
of treatment and opportunity for all those who serve in our country's
defense:
Now, Therefore,
by virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United
States by the Constitution and the statutes of the United States,
and as Commander in Chief of the armed services, it is hereby ordered
as follows:
(1) It
is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall
be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed
services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin.
This policy shall be put into effect as rapidly as possible, having
due regard to the time required to effectuate any necessary changes
without impairing efficiency or morale.
(2) There
shall be created in the national military establishment an advisory
committee to be known as the President's Committee on Equality of
Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services, which shall be composed
of seven members to be designated by the President.
(3) The
committee is authorized on behalf of the President to examine into
the rules, procedures, and practices of the armed services in order
to determine in what respect such rules, procedures and practices
may be altered or improved with a view to carrying out the policy
of this order. The committee shall confer and advise with the secretary
of defense, the secretary of the Army, the secretary of the Navy,
and the secretary of the Air Force, and shall make such recommendations
to the President and to said secretaries as in the judgment of the
committee will effectuate the policy hereof.
(8)
Harry S. Truman, speech (18th August, 1948)
The main difficulty with the south is that they are living eighty
years behind the times and the sooner they come out of it the better
it will be for the country and themselves. I am not asking for social
equality, because no such thing exists, but I am asking for equality
of opportunity for all human beings and, as long as I stay here, I
am going to continue that fight.
When the mob gangs can take four people out and shoot them in the
back, and everybody in the country is acquainted with who did the
shooting and nothing is done about it, that country is in a pretty
bad fix from a law enforcement standpoint.
When a mayor and a city marshal can take a Negro sergeant off a bus
in South Carolina, beat him up and put out one of his eyes, and nothing
is done about it by the state authorities, something is radically
wrong with the system.
(9)
Harry S. Truman, veto of the Internal Security
Act (22nd September, 1950)
The idea of requiring Communist organizations to divulge information
about themselves is a simple and attractive one. But it is about as
practical as requiring thieves to register with the sheriff. Obviously,
no such organization as the Communist Party is likely to register
voluntarily.
The basic error of this bill is that it moves in the direction of
suppressing opinion and belief. This would be very dangerous course
to take, not because we have sympathy for Communist opinions, because
any governmental stifling of the free expression of opinion is a long
step toward totalitarianism.
We can and we will prevent espionage, sabotage, or other actions endangering
our national security. But we would betray our finest traditions if
we attempted, as this bill would attempt, to curb the simple expression
of opinion. This we should never do, no matter how distasteful the
opinion may be to the vast majority of our material. The course proposed
by this bill would delight the Communists, for it would make a mockery
of the Bill of Rights and of our claims to stand for freedom in the
world.
(10)
Harry S. Truman, New York Times (17th November, 1953)
It is now evident that the present Administration has fully embraced,
for political advantage, McCarthyism. I am not referring to the Senator
from Wisconsin. He is only important in that his name has taken on
the dictionary meaning of the word. It is the corruption of truth,
the abandonment of the due process law. It is the use of the big lie
and the unfounded accusation against any citizen in the name of Americanism
or security. It is the rise to power of the demagogue who lives on
untruth; it is the spreading of fear and the destruction of faith
in every level of society.
(11)
Douglas Miller, The Fifties: The Way We Really Were (1977)
Though Truman would later complain of the "great wave
of hysteria" sweeping the nation, his commitment to victory over
communism, to completely safeguarding the United States from external
and internal threats, was in large measure responsible for creating
that very hysteria. Between the launching of his security program
in March 1947 and December 1952, some 6.6 million persons were investigated.
Not a single case of espionage was uncovered, though about 500 persons
were dismissed in dubious cases of "questionable loyalty."
All of this was conducted with secret evidence, secret and often paid
informers, and neither judge nor jury. Despite the failure to find
subversion, the broad scope of the official Red hunt gave popular
credence to the notion that the government was riddled with spies.
A conservative and fearful reaction coursed the country. Americans
became convinced of the need for absolute security and the preservation
of the established order.
(12)
Harry S. Truman, Washington Post (21st December, 1963)
For some time I have been disturbed by the way the CIA has
been diverted from its original assignment. It has become an operational
and at times a policy-making arm of the government... I never had
any thought that when I set up the CIA that it would be injected into
peacetime cloak-and-dagger operations. Some of the complications and
embarrassment that I think we have experienced are in part attributable
to the fact that this quiet intelligence arm of the President has
been so removed from its intended role that it is being interpreted
as a symbol of sinister and mysterious foreign intrigue and a subject
for cold war enemy propaganda.
Available from Amazon Books
(order below)
