Episode 17: Harry S. Truman
Show Notes
Overview
Today’s episode is all about Harry S Truman, the 37th president of the United States, a man with the unenviable task of following Franklin Roosevelt, AND of overseeing the end of the largest war in human history. “Is there anything I can do for you?” he asked when consoling the newly-widowed Eleanor Roosevelt. Harry, she said, “is there anything WE can do for YOU, for YOU are the one in trouble now.”
That date was April 12, 1945. The war still raged in Europe and the Pacific, and amazingly, it would be another two weeks before Truman was first formally briefed on a new and terrible type of bomb, an atomic bomb, with hope it might bring the fighting to a speedy end.
Unlike so many other presidents we’ve studied thus far this season, Truman never planned or even really dreamed he’d one day sit in the Oval Office. He was not, like a Roosevelt, a Kennedy, or a Bush, to the manor born. He was instead our last President without a college degree, raised in America’s heartland, which is where he returned when finally done with Washington.
A bit of a reminder about this man from Missouri. Born there in 1884, he loved to read, especially about history, and dreamed of going to West Point, but had neither the good eyesight nor the connections admission required. Too poor to afford college on his own, he instead spent his youth on the family farm, before unsuccessfully trying his hand at business.
A captain in the National Guard, his artillery unit shipped out to France in 1917, where Truman distinguished himself as a leader. He was that rare combination of officer: his troops not only did what he ordered, but liked and respected him at the same time.
By all accounts Truman liked his time in the army as well, the death and destruction he witnessed notwithstanding, but returned at war’s end once more to Missouri, this time to open a men’s clothing store. It failed, but not before he caught the eye of Thomas Pendergrast, whose political machine effectively ran everything in Eastern Missouri. Pendergrast thought Truman would make a good county judge. In 1934, he thought Truman would make a good United States Senator. He could be trusted. He was loyal.
Ok, here’s where things get really interesting, for our story especially. No one in the Democratic Party dreamed of challenging FDR’s pursuit of a fourth term in 1944. They did, however, fight about who would join him on the ticket. Here we find ourselves amidst one of the truly fascinating hinge moments of history, the ultimate ‘what-if,’ because let’s face it, Roosevelt by 1944 was not a well man. One doctor brought in to give him a clean bill of health instead predicted there was little chance of him living out another four year term.
And here’s where race critically enters the story. FDR already had a vice-president. Henry Wallace. A darling of the liberal left, Wallace carried the progressive banner of the previous generation…which made him dangerous Southern Democrats who feared what a liberal on race relations in the White House might do. Roosevelt was a politician, able to barter and deal with people he didn’t agree with. Wallace, on the other hand, was a dreamer, and dreamers are dangerous.
They turned instead to Harry Truman, nobody’s definition of a radical. Raised with southern sympathies in Missouri, with family connections to the old Confederacy, Truman gave every appearance of understanding that civil rights was not something a Democrat could champion if he hoped to stay in office for long.
Well, sometimes looks can be deceiving. Once in office Truman took to heart his responsibility to every American, and in time this included racial minorities too. Now, let’s be clear: he was still a man of his times, full of the same prejudices we’d not endorse today. But he also considered it his duty as president to uphold the law, and to make sure it was fairly applied. In 1947 he became the first president to address the NAACP, declaring “the only limit to an American’s achievement should be his ability, his industry, his character.” He appointed blue-ribbon commissions to propose solutions to racial inequality, and issued an executive order desegregating the military. Critics might fairly say promised more than he did, but the promises were at least something.
Even in his own party, which saw Southern Democrats form their own “Dixiecrat” party in 1948, running Strom Thurmond for President on the explicit platform of reinstating Jim Crow and maintaining segregation. Thurmond won 39 electoral votes, a sign of trouble to come for the Democratic Party, and an opportunity for Republicans. But that’s a later show.
Truman got the last laugh in 1948, of course, winning one of the great upsets in Presidential history. Behind in the polls, he started gaining once he threw away his prepared speeches, and began speaking from his heart. Voters trusted him. He was plainspoken, honest, and decisive. They liked him, but ultimately not his policies very much, and he spent most of his presidency fighting some of the lowest approval ratings on record.
One more thing about Truman, who left office in 1953 as one of the least popular presidents in history: he’s now considered one of the best. Why? Well, historians started looking anew at his presidency with fresh eyes once enough time had passed for passions to wane and his administration’s documents to be become available. There’s a lesson there: transparency leads to good history, which in turn leads to a more favorable judgement from we, the historians, who ultimately get the final say.
So let’s hear what the historians have to say. We spoke this week with two scholars of the Truman era. First, we learned from the writer A.J. Baime, a New York Times bestselling author of The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months that Changed the World, and Dewey Defeats Truman: The 1948 Election and the Battle for America’s Soul. Then, we spoke to Retired U.S. Army Colonel, Dr. Krewasky Salter, executive director of the First Division Museum at Cantigny Park and guest curator of The National Museum of African American History and Culture’s exhibit, “Double Victory: The African American Military Experience.”
Together our scholars pointed out three key themes:
First, that the person in charge really does matter. Truman broke with his party to speak out on Civil Rights. Another president, and it might have been a very different story indeed.
Second, the symbolic importance of Truman’s 1948 Executive Order desegregating the military. Though African Americans in particular had already been serving, and fighting, in America’s wars since before the Constitution became law in 1789.
Third, that the verdict of history can change. It certainly did for Truman.
Guests:
A.J. Baime is the New York Times bestselling author of Dewey Defeat Truman, The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months that Changed the World. Previous books include The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War (2014) and Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans (2009), both of which were optioned for major motion pictures. Baime is a longtime regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, and his articles have also appeared in the New York Times, Popular Science, Men's Journal, and numerous other publications.
He holds an M.A. in literature from NYU and currently lives in Granite Bay, California. Visit A.J. at Facebook.com/ajbaime.
Follow Mr. Baime on Twitter.
Dr. Krewasky A. Salter is a United States Army Colonel (Ret.) currently serving as Executive Director, First Division Museum, where he is expanding military history interpretations through the lens of the 1st Infantry Division. Within his first year the museum has added half a dozen new and inclusive interpretations associated with the 1st Infantry Division. He is also a (Guest) Associate Curator and Military Subject Matter Expert at the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of African American History and Culture, where he curated the permanent inaugural exhibition titled: Double Victory: The African American Military Experience, and the temporary exhibition titled: We Return Fighting: The African American Experience in World War I which opened on December 13, 2019 and will close on June 14, 2020. He serves on the Army Historical Foundation Board of Directors.
Krewasky is the author, contributing author, advisor and/or editor to more than seven books, including The Story of Black Military Officers, 1861–1948 and Dream A World Anew: The African American Experience and the Shaping of America. Krewasky has worked on two documentaries, including serving as the Associate Producer and Senior Historian for the United States Army sponsored documentary titled: Unsung Heroes: The Story of America’s Female Patriots and has appeared on C-Span, Comcast Newsmakers, CBS This Morning, and several local broadcast media outlets. Dr. Krewasky has over seven years of academic teaching experience, including teaching Military History at the United States Military Academy, West Point; Military Strategy at the Command and General Staff College, Leavenworth; Military Leadership at Howard University, Washington, D.C.; and African American History at several other institutions as an adjunct professor.