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Henry I

2008-11-11T21:44:37Z

AshleyS: spelling

King '''Henry I''' of [[England]] was born in 1068 and reigned from 1100 until his death in 1135. He was the third son of [[William the Conqueror|William I]] (the Conqueror) and younger brother of [[William Rufus|William II]] (Rufus), whom he succeeded. He was also Duke of [[Normandy]] from 1106 to 1135.

Henry took swift advantage of his brother’s death from an arrow wound whilst hunting in the [[New Forest]] and his eldest brother Robert’s absence on the [[First Crusade]] to secure the Treasury at [[Winchester]], and have himself crowned at London within 3 days of the event. At his coronation he proclaimed a charter promising just rule. Shortly after he gained support amongst the [[English]] when he married Matilda of [[Scotland]], who was directly descended from [[Anglo-Saxon]] royalty.

The early years of his reign saw him defending his realm against the returned Robert, and in 1106 he defeated Robert in Normandy, imprisoned him, and reunited England and Normandy under the one rule as his father had done. He was to spend a great part of his reign defending Normandy against [[France]], and the machinations of certain of his barons, however England was generally peaceful for the rest of his reign.

His reign is considered successful within certain limits, as he was the founder of the English judicial system, and centralized and simplified the financial workings of the Crown by the formation of the “Exchequer”, a term still in use today as the nation’s treasury. However, the death of his son at sea in 1128 meant he had no male heir, and the last years of his life were spent attempting to have his daughter, [[Matilda]], accepted as his successor. He married her to Geoffrey of [[Anjou]] in 1128, accepting the end of the Norman dynasty in a vain attempt to avert the civil war that was to follow.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Henry I}}
{{Nb english monarchs}}

Barack Hussein Obama

2008-11-11T21:39:43Z

AshleyS: Undo revision 554678 by JohnBarnes (Talk) revert vandalism

'''Barack Hussein Obama II''' (born in Honolulu,<ref>[http://www.factcheck.org/UploadedFiles/birth_certificate_5.jpg Large, high-resolution picture of his birth certificate]</ref><ref>[http://www.kitv.com/politics/17860890/detail.html?rss=hon&psp=news KITV Honolulu report]</ref> August 4, 1961) is the [[Democratic party|Democratic]] junior [[Senator]] from [[Illinois]] (2004 - present) and President-elect of the United States.<ref>[http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/obama_wins_presidency/2008/11/04/147788.html?utm_medium=RSS]</ref> On November 4, Obama and his running mate [[Senator Joseph Biden]] won the presidency after spending a record-shattering $650 million, most of which came from anonymous donors never disclosed by Obama. President-elect Obama will likely become the first [[Muslim]] [[President]], and may use the [[Koran]] to be sworn into office at his inauguration on [[January]] 20, 2009.<ref>Christian Science Monitor, ''At swearing in, congressman [Keith Ellison, D Minnesota, who is a Muslim] wants to carry Koran. Outrage ensues.'', by Jane Lampman, December 07, 2006, retrieved on 10/16/2008 [http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1207/p01s03-uspo.html]"In Congress, newly elected representatives do not put their left hands on any book. They raise their right hands, and are sworn in together as the speaker of the House administers the oath of office. Some do carry a book, according to House historians, and some choose to photograph a private swearing-in afterward with their hand on the Bible."</ref><ref>Obama hoped to become President when he was sworn in as U.S. Senator in 2004, and did not use a Koran at that time. Subsequently Democratic House member Keith Ellison established the precedent for being sworn in using the Koran, and there is no guarantee that Obama would not do likewise if sworn in as President. [http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/sliming_obama.html FactCheck.org, Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, ''Sliming Obama'', January 10, 2008, retrieved on 10/16/2008]</ref>

Obama has espoused the socialist idea of "spreading the wealth" in other words raising the tax rates on business and the wealthy to a burdensome level in order to redistribute their income to low income individuals, many of whom don't currently pay taxes. From which John McCain replied "He's running for Redistributor In Chief, I'm running for Commander In Chief." <ref>[http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/10/31/mccain-hungry-upset-obama-eyes-landslide/ McCain Attacks Obama's Faith in Americans] Fox News, 10-31-2008</ref> The slogan "From each according to their ability to each according to their need" is an idea originally proposed by [[Karl Marx]] and is clearly the inspiration for the centrally planned economy Obama will introduce to the US in January 2009. In addition, his health care plan forces employers to purchase health care or pay a fine and will force many into a poorly run single payer system. The socialization of health care will force taxpayers to pay for healthcare for those who refuse to purchase it themselves. Obama also revealed his deep Marxist/Leninist roots in the design of the poster<ref>[http://andrightlyso.com/2008/07/24/obama-lenin-gaffe/ Obama's direct copy of a Lenin poster for his Berlin visit]</ref>for his 'visit' to Berlin in July 2008. The clear parallels between the poster design and Lenin's earlier poster was obviously a deliberate yet hidden hint to his European, socialistic audience as to his political roots and beliefs.

[[Image:Democrat Obama during the Pledge.jpg|325px|thumb|right|Obama, on the campaign trail, stands with folded hands while [[Bill Richardson]] and [[Hillary Clinton]] honor the flag by placing their hands over their heart during the [[National Anthem]]. [http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Obama_doesnt_put_hand_over_heart_1022.html See Video] ]]

The October 2008 crimes against Academy Award winner Jennifer Hudson's family highlight Obama's record against law and order, as he voted against making it a crime in Illinois "for convicts on probation or on bail to have contact with a street gang".<ref>[http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/obamas-crime-votes-are-fodder-for-rivals-2007-03-13.html]</ref> The person of interest in the murders of Hudson's mother, brother, and 7-year-old nephew is the estranged husband of Hudson's sister and a convicted felon who had violated his parole conditions. <ref>[http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-julian-king-autopsy-1029,0,2752431.story]</ref> "'We've got 75,000 gang members - that's almost six gang members to one police officer.'"<ref>"More people have been murdered in Chicago this year than in New York - even though New York's population is three times greater. When Hudson's mother, brother and nephew were killed last month, they pushed the city's homicide total for the year to 436 and counting. New York has had 430 homicides." [http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2008/11/01/2008-11-01_chicago_buried_in_murders.html]</ref>

Obama is the first person having ties to a known former terrorist to gain control over America's nuclear weapons.<ref>http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/7127</ref><ref>http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/08/26/obama-associate-bill-ayers-unrepentant-for-acts-of-terror/</ref> Author and blogger Jack Cashill compared the writing style of Bill Ayers' 2001 memoir, ''Fugitive Days'', with Barack Obama's earlier 1995 book, ''Dreams From My Father'', and came to the conclusion that Ayres had ghostwritten Dreams.<ref>www.cashill.com, ''Who Wrote “Dreams From My Father"?'', by Jack Cashill, October 9, 2008, retrieved on 10/16/2008 [http://www.cashill.com/natl_general/who_wrote_dreams_from.htm] Jack Cashill compared the writing style of Bill Ayers' 2001 memoir, ''Fugitive Days'', with Barack Obama's earlier 1995 book, ''Dreams From My Father'', and came to the conclusion that Ayers had ghostwritten ''Dreams''. Cashill states that a computer comparison of Obama's so-called autobiography with that of the terrorist Bill Ayers, supports the theory that Ayers actually wrote parts of Obama's book. "In assessing the signature of sample passages from Dreams," the experienced analyst found "a very strong match to all of the Ayers samples" that he processed. He did not address the possibility that Ayers had plagiarized from Obama's earlier book.</ref> <ref>[http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=77815]</ref> Dr. Peter Millican, who was hired to do a computer analysis comparing the two works, called the charges "very implausible". <ref>[http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/11/02/report-professor-paid-g-prove-ayers-wrote-obamas-autobiography/comments/]"Dr. Peter Millican -- a distinguished philosophy professor at Hertford College in Oxford, England -- ... was reportedly paid to use a computer software program to find suspected similarities between Obama's best-selling 2004 autobiography "Dreams from My Father" and Ayers' memoir "Fugitive Days." But Millican called the charges "very implausible" after a preliminary review of the two works."</ref> Ayers admitted that he was "guilty as hell" in planting bombs in the 1970s, and that he has no regrets and felt he "should have done more."<ref>[http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/7127]</ref>

Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver, where Obama received his Democratic Party nomination, recently criticized Obama as the "most committed" [[abortion]]-supporting candidate "since the ''[[Roe v. Wade]]'' abortion decision in 1973.<ref>http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=14088</ref> Obama said "the first thing I'd do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act."<ref>[http://christiannewswire.com/news/560716251.html]</ref> That bill "would invalidate virtually all state and federal limitations on abortion, and would make partial-birth abortion legal again."<ref>[http://www.lifenews.com/nat3961.html], http://www.lifenews.com/nat3961.html, Pro-Life Voters Must Work Overtime to Stop Pro-Abortion Barack Obama, June 4, 2008</ref> Indeed, Obama was upset with the decision of the [[United States Supreme Court|Supreme Court]] not to strike down the law passed by the [[United States Congress]] to prohibit partial-birth abortion, believing that partial-birth abortion is guaranteed right of the [[United States Constitution|Constitution]] and that there should be no ability to legislate against it.

Doctors from the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons have stated that Obama uses techniques of mind control in his speeches and campaign symbols. For example, one speech declared, "a light will shine down from somewhere, it will light upon you, you will experience an epiphany, and you will say to yourself, 'I have to vote for Barack.'"<ref name="mind control">http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/0089 . The doctors observe that "Obama's logo is noteworthy. It is always there, a small one in the middle of the podium, providing a point of visual fixation ... [that] resembles a crystal ball, a favorite of hypnotists."</ref>

==Obama will likely be the first Muslim President==
[[Image:OBAMA MUSULMAN.jpg|thumb|President Obama wearing traditional African garb, a gift from his hosts while visiting Kenya<ref>[http://sweetness-light.com/archive/obama-wore-muslim-gear-during-kenya-trip]</ref>]]
The evidence that Obama is a Muslim includes:

*Obama's background, education, and outlook are [[Muslim]], and fewer than 1% of Muslims convert to Christianity.<ref>http://www.religionnewsblog.com/17736/barack-obama-2</ref><ref>http://www.faithfreedom.org/oped/sina31103.htm. During the third and fourth grades, Obama learned about Islam for two hours each week in religion class, according to the LATimes. [http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.obama16mar16,0,1634059,print.story?coll=bal_news_nation_promo Campaign downplays his connection during boyhood in Indonesia, Baltimore Sun, March 16, 2007]</ref>
*Obama's middle name (Hussein) references '''Husayn''', who was the grandson of [[Muhammad]], which most Christians would not retain.<ref> Oxford Dictionary of First Names, 2nd edition (2007).[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/277459/al-Husayn-ibn-Ali]. Only after Obama became politically ambitious did he declare himself to be a [[Christian]], yet he never replaced his [[Muslim]] name "Hussein" with a Christian one as most do when they undergo a religious conversion. For example, when Saul became a Christian, he changed his name to "Paul"; when the famous boxer Cassius Clay converted to [[Islam]], he took the Muslim name of [[Muhammad Ali]]. "It is common for those converting to a new religion to change their name on conversion"[http://www.ukdp.co.uk/pages/religiousconversion.php] or adopt a Christian name at [[baptism]].[http://www.answers.com/topic/christian-name]</ref>
*Obama recently referred to his "Muslim faith."<ref>Obama declared, "John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith."[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQqIpdBOg6I]</ref>
*Obama said the Muslim call to prayer is "one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset," and recited "with a first-class [Arabic] accent" the opening lines: Allah is Supreme! ... I witness that there is no god but Allah ...."<ref>http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=78309</ref>
*Obama stated that the autobiography of Malcolm X, a Nation of Islam leader who became a Muslim, inspired him in his youth.<ref>For example, Obama writes in his own autobiography, "Only Malcolm X's autobiography seemed to offer something different. His repeated acts of self-creation spoke to me. The blunt poetry of his words, his unadorned insistence on respect, promised a new and uncompromising order, martial in its discipline, forged through sheer force of will. ... [E]ven as I imagine myself following Malcolm's call, one line in the book stayed with me. He spoke of a wish he'd once had, the wish that the white blood that ran through him, there by an act of violence, might somehow be expunged."[http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/04/does_obama_know_america.html]</ref>
*Obama raised nearly $1 million and campaigned for a [[Kenyan]] presidential candidate who had a written agreement with [[Muslim]] leaders promising to convert Kenya to an Islamic state that bans Christianity.<ref> [http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=78324] Text of the agreement, as three images: [http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=78323]</ref>
*Obama's claims of conversion to Christianity arose after he became politically ambitious, lacking a date of conversion or baptism.<ref>In his book, Obama oddly claims to have been baptized without giving his age or date, and later gave a date that postdates his political ambition (1992).</ref>
*On the campaign trail Obama has been reading "The Post-American World" by Fareed Zakaria,<ref>http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=fa8cf1bf-2cc8-4d6e-b72d-a07d406e19ff</ref> which is written from a Muslim point-of-view.<ref>http://www.villagevoice.com/2005-08-09/news/the-interpreter/</ref>
*Contrary to [[Christianity]], the Islamic doctrine of [[taqiyya]] encourages adherents to deny they are Muslim if it advances the cause of Islam.
*Obama uses the Muslim Pakistani pronunciation for "Pakistan" rather than the common American one.<ref>Obama repeatedly pronounced "Pakistan" as "Pokiston" in the first presidential debate.</ref>
*Many of Obama's statements about religion conflict with Christianity, leading one group to demonstrate with a 7-part video series, "Why Barack Obama is Not a Christian."<ref>http://www.christianadc.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=23073&articleId=3249</ref>
*Obama was thoroughly exposed to Christianity as an adult in Chicago prior to attending law school, yet no one at law school saw him display any interest in converting. Obama unabashedly explained how he became "churched" in a 2007 speech: "It's around that time [while working as an organizer for the Developing Communities Project (DCP) of the Calumet Community Religious Conference (CCRC) in Chicago] that some pastors I was working with came around and asked if I was a member of a church. 'If you're organizing churches,' they said, 'it might be helpful if you went to a church once in a while.' And I thought, 'I guess that makes sense.'"<ref>[http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=15363 Obama, ACORN, and the churches] SperoNews, October 7, 2008</ref>
*Obama is mentioned as helping to organize the 1995 million man march led by black [[Muslim]] leader [[Louis Farrakhan]] from the [[Nation of Islam]]. <ref>[http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=9291850 Louis Farrakhan Biography] Biography.com</ref>

Obama tries to downplay his [[Islamic]] background by claiming that his [[Kenya|Kenyan]] [[Muslim]] father was a "confirmed [[atheist]]" before Obama was born, but in fact less than 1% of Kenyans are atheists, agnostics or non-religious.<ref>http://www.adherents.com/Na/Na_14.html</ref> There is apparently no evidence of any Christian activities or local church participation by Obama while he was in Massachusetts from 1988 to 1991, nor of Barack Obama's joining of a Mosque (The Islamic house of worship) at any time in his life. Finally, Obama abruptly left his radical Christian church in Chicago in 2008 when it became politically controversial, without first finding another church to join.

__TOC__ 

==Obama and Elitism==

Obama has consistently shown himself to be an elitist who looks down on "ordinary" Americans. Asked to explain why working-class [[Democrats]] do not support him while campaigning for the [[Pennsylvania]] primary, Obama replied "it's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7344532.stm</ref> In response to outrage when his remarks were unexpectedly publicized, Obama did not recount his statement but instead replied, I "didn't say it as well as I should have."<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7344532.stm</ref> Although many rural counties went for McCain, Obama carried the state with 54.6% of the vote, compared to 44.3% for John McCain.<ref>[http://www.electionreturns.state.pa.us/ElectionsInformation.aspx?FunctionID=13&ElectionID=28&OfficeID=1]</ref>

In an attempt counter the view by many that Obama is an elitist, he began running campaign ads claiming that he "worked his way through college and Harvard Law." This claim is at best an exaggeration, as Obama only held summer jobs while in college and law school<ref>http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/obamas_work_claim.html</ref>, and he would have likely benefited from special scholarships not available to most students.

Obama almost always reads from prepared text on a [[teleprompter]] and rarely allows tough questions.<ref>After one debate against [[Hillary Clinton]] in Philadelphia, the Obama campaign announced that the questions were too difficult and that Obama would not agree to future debates with her.</ref><ref name="teleprompter">The Daily Standard, ''Obama Unplugged Lost without a Teleprompter'', by Dean Barnett, 02/12/2008[http://www.weeklystandard.com/content/public/articles/000/000/014/728ofzey.asp]</ref> Indeed, when unable to read from prepared text he often fails at articulating his positions and is caught tripping over his own feet.<ref>This was first displayed in the Saddleback Forum, and has occurred subsequently also.</ref> His most recent debate performances illustrate that he may have been extensively coached over the course of 2008, although he still repeatedly fumbles at moments where he moves off his memorized remarks.

==Insights==

Obama displayed ignorance about American history when he said, "Throughout our history, America's confronted constantly evolving danger, from the oppression of an empire, to the lawlessness of the frontier, '''from the bomb that fell on Pearl Harbor''', to the threat of nuclear annihilation."<ref>http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2008/07/obama_ignorance_watch_1.asp</ref>

Obama has described himself as a constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago.<ref>[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/03/30/politics/p132303D74.DTL&type=politics]</ref> He held the position of Lecturer, an adjunct position, from 1992 to 1996.<ref>[http://www.law.uchicago.edu/media/index.html]</ref> He held the position of Senior Lecturer from 1996 until his election to the senate in 2004.<ref>[http://www.law.uchicago.edu/media/index.html]</ref> Dan Ronayne, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, has pointed that Obama was only a senior lecturer and not a full professor. <ref>[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/03/30/politics/p132303D74.DTL&type=politics]</ref>The University states that Senior Lecturers are regarded as professors, although not full-time or tenure track.<ref>[http://www.law.uchicago.edu/media/index.html]</ref>

In his 1995 memoir, ''Dreams from My Father'', Obama admitted using illegal drugs, including cocaine and marijuana, which he referred to as "blow" and "pot" respectively, in his high school years and into his college years, before claiming to choose a different path in life.<ref>http://www.nbc5.com/politics/3444371/detail.html</ref><ref>http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/02/26/obamas_senate_foreign_relations_work/</ref>

Obama wore an American flag lapel pin after [[9/11]], but later stopped wearing it without adequate explanation.<ref>http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2007/10/when_did_obama_stop_wearing_a.html</ref> Presumably it would have hurt him with anti-military campaign donors.<ref>In 2007, at critical moments in his campaign for the nomination, Obama had difficulties securing the support of anti-war activists. [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/04/politics/main2645861.shtml]</ref> Recently, he has begun wearing one again for reasons that are likely political pandering.

In his memoirs, Obama claimed a ''[[Life]]'' magazine article about a man who had become ill after trying to lighten his skin color by chemical means had a major impact on him. In fact, ''Life'' never published any such article.<ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/26/AR2007032601583.html</ref><ref>"Then there's the copy of Life magazine that Obama presents as his racial awakening at age 9. In it, he wrote, was an article and two accompanying photographs of an African-American man physically and mentally scarred by his efforts to lighten his skin. In fact, the Life article and the photographs don't exist, say the magazine's own historians." [http://newsbusters.org/node/11641]</ref>

Obama said that "[t]here was something stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, [[Alabama]], because some folks are willing to march across a bridge. So they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born." In fact, Obama was born in 1961 and the Selma march took place in 1965.<ref>http://michellemalkin.com/2008/05/21/barack-obama-gaffe-machine/</ref>

Obama states that he has consistently opposed the [[Iraq War]] since 2002, a claim and position that former President [[Bill Clinton]] criticized as "the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen."<ref>http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN1131516320080111</ref> In his famous 2002 speech<ref>http://www.barackobama.com/2002/10/02/remarks_of_illinois_state_sen.php</ref> at an anti-war rally, Obama said that he was against "dumb wars" and expressed some reservations about the Iraq War because he disagrees with the ideological agendas of the Bush administration, but he did not explicitly oppose the war. In his 2004 Democrat Convention speech, Obama said that he did not know how he would have voted on the Iraq War.

Obama's campaign "is proud to be actively participating in over 60 local and state wide [[homosexual]] Pride events over the summer."<ref>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/jcitron/gG5VLs</ref>

Obama claimed to have visited 57 states while campaigning for President of the United States.<ref> [http://www.mediaresearch.org/BozellColumns/newscolumn/2008/col20080528.asp Barack Potatoe Obama?]</ref> <ref>http://www.stoptheaclu.com/archives/2008/05/12/obamas-freudian-slip-there-are-57-islamic-states/</ref>

==Charitable Giving==

In the years 2000 through 2004, before becoming a United States Senator and being in the public spotlight, Obama gave 1% of his earnings to charity even though he made $250,000 per year. Since becoming a national figure, that amount has jumped to 6%.<ref>http://patterico.com/2008/10/31/obama-and-bidens-charitable-giving-they-dont-want-to-spread-their-own-wealth-around/</ref>. Obama's small donations are consistent with atheism and were perhaps influenced by his nonbelieving mother. According to a study by the Barna Group, atheists give less per capita in donations than religious Americans <ref>http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdateNarrow&BarnaUpdateID=272 The Barna Update, 2007</ref>.

==Aunt is in the United States Illegally==

At the end of October 2008 it came to light that Obama's aunt is in the United States illegally and has been since 2004 when her request for asylum was turned down. She has been living in public tax payer funded housing in Boston. This may have some bearing on Obama's immigration policy given that a member of his own family is in violation of current US immigration law. There are also questions about how much Obama knew about this.<ref>[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27481680 Obama's Aunt Living in US Illegally]</ref> The Obama campaign issued a statement to the effect that they had no knowledge of this situation and returned the donation she made to his campaign; in the United states it is illegal to accept campaign contributions from people who are not currently citizens or legal residents of the united states. <ref>http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/01/obama.aunt/index.html</ref>

==Statements==
Obama has been noted by several independent sources as misquoting historical events and statements by famous persons. A notable example came after Obama's win in the [[North Carolina]] democratic primary. Obama was quoted as saying, "I trust the American people to understand that it is not weakness, but wisdom to talk not just to our friends, but to our enemies as Roosevelt did, and Kennedy did, and Truman did." (Franklin Delano) Roosevelt spoke with none of the [[Axis]] or [[Japanese]] leaders and the the only communication that was sent to them was unconditional surrender. (President) [[Harry Truman]] took over for FDR and continued his unconditional surrender philosophy as well as ending [[World War II]] with an atomic bomb.<ref>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/05/obama_needs_to_study_history_b.html</ref>

==Early life and education==
Barack Hussein Obama II is said to have been born in [[Honolulu]], [[Hawaii]] to Barack Sr. and Ann Dunham in 1961, but there is some evidence that he may have actually been born in Kenya. In 1967, he moved with his mother and new stepfather to Jakarta, [[Indonesia]]. He attended a [[Catholic]] elementary school for two years, followed by an Indonesian public school for two years. Media scrutiny in the light of Obama's campaign for President revealed that the Indonesia public school was not a madrassa, teaching Islam. His days off of school in observance of Islamic holidays were spent praying in a Mosque with his stepfather. <ref>[http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/pipes_obama_muslim/2008/10/09/138898.html Obama 'Lying' About Muslim Past, Expert Says] NewsMax, October 9, 2008</ref> After Indonesia, he returned to the United States with his mother where he attended the Punahou School, the leading private preparatory school in [[Hawaii]], until he graduated in 1979.

For college, Obama initially attended Occidental College in Los Angeles, [[California]], before transferring to [[Columbia University]] in New York, [[New York]] and graduating without honors with a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in political science. Obama refuses to describe his academic performance at Columbia despite commenting about New York during this period and despite disclosures of the academic record for all other major-party presidential candidates since at least 2000.<ref>http://www.nysun.com/new-york/obamas-years-at-columbia-are-a-mystery/85015/</ref>

After working as a community organizer in New York City and Chicago, Illinois, Obama enrolled at [[Harvard]] Law School. He became a member of the ''Harvard Law Review'', which uses racial quotas, in 1989. He was then elected by popular vote as its first African American president in 1990, a story that was immediately promoted in the [[New York Times]].<ref>http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE2DC1631F935A35751C0A966958260&scp=3&sq=Obama%201990&st=cse</ref> He graduated ''magna cum laude'' with his J.D. in 1991, but did not serve in a clerkship. Federal clerkships are the typical post-graduate position for top law students.

Obama has described himself as a constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago.<ref>[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/03/30/politics/p132303D74.DTL&type=politics]</ref> He held the position of Lecturer, an adjunct position, from 1992 to 1996.<ref>[http://www.law.uchicago.edu/media/index.html]</ref> He held the position of Senior Lecturer from 1996 until his election to the senate in 2004.<ref>[http://www.law.uchicago.edu/media/index.html]</ref> Dan Ronayne, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, has pointed that Obama was only a senior lecturer and not a full professor. <ref>[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/03/30/politics/p132303D74.DTL&type=politics]</ref>The University states that Senior Lecturers are regarded as professors, although not full-time or tenure track.<ref>[http://www.law.uchicago.edu/media/index.html]</ref>

==Legal career==
Following law school, Obama continued his work as a community organizer in Chicago as the director of Illinois Project Vote. In 1993 he was hired as an associate at the Chicago law firm Miner, Barnhill & Galland, P.C., and began lecturing in Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago Law School. He remains on the faculty on leave of absence through today. During this time he wrote his first book, ''Dreams from My Father'', detailing his background, his youth, and his education. ''Dreams'' was published in 1995.

==Senate career==
Obama was elected to the Illinois State Senate for the first time in 1996 and served there for the next eight years. Following a failed campaign for the House of Representatives, Obama ran for the open Senate seat from Illinois in 2004. Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. He won a seat in the [[U.S. Senate]] after [[liberals]] obtained the release of confidential and personally embarrassing divorce records of his opponent, Jack Ryan, forcing him to resign from the race and be replaced by the out-of-state candidate [[Alan Keyes]].

A March 16th, 2005 AP article puts Senator Obama on record to ban oil drilling in the Alaska frontier known as ANWR <ref>http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0316-13.htm</ref>

His 2007 voting record in the U.S. [[Senate]] makes him as its most [[liberal]] member. Among fellow Senate Democrats, he was further left than liberals like [[Ted Kennedy]], [[John Kerry]], [[Dianne Feinstein]], [[Charles Schumer]], [[Russ Feingold]], [[Carl Levin]], [[Joseph Biden]] and [[Harry Reid]].<ref>[http://nationaljournal.com/voteratings/sen/lib_cons.htm?o1=lib_composite&o2=desc]</ref> He has grown steadily more liberal since arriving at the Senate: the same analysis assessed him as 10th most liberal in 2006<ref>[http://www.nationaljournal.com/members/news/2007/voteratings/sen/lib_cons.htm?o1=lib_composite&o2=desc]</ref> and 16th most liberal in 2005.<ref>[http://www.nationaljournal.com/members/news/2007/voteratings/sen/lib_cons.htm?o1=lib_composite&o2=desc]</ref>

In late 2006, Obama's second book, ''The Audacity of Hope'', was published. Its title was supplied by the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., a minister who has stated that "racism is how this country was founded and how this country was run .... We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God."<ref>http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/03/14/obama_condemns_pastors_remarks.html</ref> The book contains more of Senator Obama's personal story including the roles of both family and politics. ''Audacity'' spent 30 weeks on the ''New York Times'' Nonfiction Best Sellers list.<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/27/books/bestseller/0527besthardnonfiction.html?_r=1&oref=slogin New York Times Best Sellers Non Fiction]</ref>

Senator Obama is the chairman of an important subcommittee that has oversight of our efforts in Afghanistan. He has not held a single hearing on Afghanistan even though American forces are risking their lives in a theatre of war. Since joining Foreign Relations, Obama has missed three meetings on a "new strategy" in [[Afghanistan]], a country he only visited in 2008.<ref>[http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/obama-absent-at-afghanistan-hearings-2008-03-01.html</ref> Barack Obama clinched his party's nomination for President after 16 straight months of campaigning.

In June 2008, Obama voted with the Democratic party to kill the sunset provision of the [[Bush]] tax cuts. By letting these tax cuts expire, single mothers with two kids will pay an additional $1,800 annually. Married couples with incomes of $50,000 will pay an additional $2,180 annually. Elderly couples will pay an additional $2,000 annually and a family of four will pay 191% more per year in taxes. Barack Obama often claims to be for taxing the rich their fair share. By voting to eliminate the Bush tax cuts, Obama is taxing most middle class and blue collar families.

Obama and the Democratic-led Congress has voted for the upgraded GI Bill despite the opposition from the President, the Secretary of Defense, the Pentagon, the generals in combat zones and the GOP Presidential nominee. It was crafted to increase veteran benefits. Yet, the strain on our military is great.<ref>[http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/05/mccain_to_obama_dont_demagogue.php] http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/05/mccain_to_obama_dont_demagogue.php , McCain To Obama: Don't Demagogue The GI Bill, May 22, 2008</ref> The bill would cost $2.8 to $4 billion per month. Some argue that this bill depletes the US's volunteer military personnel by enticing them to leave service rather than be re-deployed.

As senator, Obama has requested nearly $936 million in earmarks which averages to $500,000. per day over four years, <ref>[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122108935141721343.html?mod=googlenews_wsj Obama Can't Win Against Palin] Wall Street Journal, September 11, 2008</ref> for which the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste has given him a rating of 10% in 2007 (18% lifetime).<ref>[http://councilfor.cagw.org/site/DocServer/2007_Senate_Ratings_Final.pdf?docID=3242 2007 Senate Scorecard]</ref> A score of 100% represents voting against all pork, and 0% represents voting ''for'' all pork. Democrats averaged 5% in 2007, whereas Republicans averaged 60%. <ref>[http://councilfor.cagw.org/site/News2?abbr=CCAGW_&page=NewsArticle&id=11590 CCAGW Releases ''2007 Congressional Ratings'']</ref>

According to a Fox News report on October 5th, Obama has taken more than $126,000. in campaign contribution from [[Fannie Mae]] in a little over three years. This ranks him second, only Chris Dodd has received more campaign contribution dollars from Fannie Mae.

=== Bills co-sponsored ===
Obama's principal legislation was S. 2433, which was an attempt to force the U.S. to increase its foreign aid by hundreds of billions of dollars under the guise of reducing global poverty, which was subsequently blocked by [[conservatives]].<ref>http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=/Politics/archive/200802/POL20080225a.html</ref>

Obama did support and co-sponsor a bill championed by [[Tom Coburn]] and known as the Coburn-Obama Government Transparency Act of 2006, which was signed into law by President [[George W. Bush]] on Sept. 9, 2006. This law created a website that will list the federal government's grants and contracts.<ref> http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060926.html</ref>

Between Jan 13, 2007 and March 13, 2008, Sen. Obama has sponsored 120 mostly [[liberal]] resolutions and bills in the Senate.<ref>http://thomas.loc.gov/</ref> His supporters cite the following less liberal examples, but this list is not representative:{{fact}}

*S.117 : A bill to amend titles 10 and 38, United States Code, to improve benefits and services for members of the Armed Forces, veterans of the Global War on Terrorism, and other veterans, to require reports on the effects of the Global War on Terrorism, and for other purposes.

*S.133 : A bill to promote the national security and stability of the economy of the United States by reducing the dependence of the United States on oil through the use of alternative fuels and new technology, and for other purposes.

*S.453 : A bill to prohibit deceptive practices in Federal elections.

*S.713 : A bill to ensure dignity in care for members of the Armed Forces recovering from injuries.

=== Accomplishments while serving on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee ===

In February 2008, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved Obama's proposal on a new strategy to reduce poverty throughout the world.

Obama worked with Sen. Lugar writing legislation aimed at improving conventional and nuclear non-proliferation efforts. This legislation was signed by [[George W. Bush|President Bush]] in January 2008.

In June 2007 the Senate passed his resolution condemning violence by the [[Zimbabwe]] government. It also passed legislation co-sponsored by Obama that financed a Special Court for Sierra Leone to prosecute former [[Liberia | Liberian]] President [[Charles Taylor]]. <ref> http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/02/26/obamas_senate_foreign_relations_work/ </ref>

Barack Obama continued to collect money for a 2010 Senate re-election campaign as late as June 2008, and has filed reports recently indicating that money is still pouring into this fund. This is especially notable because it is an efficient way of sidetracking donations from his Presidential race. The website<obamasenate2010.gov> is now defunct.

==Presidential campaign==
[[Image:obama.jpg|thumb|right|Senator Barack Obama]]
Senator Obama began his candidacy for President of the United States on February 10, 2007, in Springfield, Illinois. His announcement speech largely avoided specific campaign issues and focused on his general political message of hope for the future. It also attempted to strongly invoke the memory of Abraham Lincoln and his "House Divided" speech.<ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/02/10/obama.president/index.html "Obama declares he's running for President"] 11 February 2007, www.CNN.com </ref>

Obama's campaign has been financed largely by [[leftist]] donors opposed to the war and to the [[American]] military in general. Obama has encouraged this by refusing to wear the customary flag on his lapel during appearances (asserting that he would prefer his patriotism to be represented through his actions rather than an arbitrary symbol) and by other less-than-patriotic gestures and symbols, such as declining to put his hand over his heart during a patriotic recitation. In an appearance on May 16 where he addressed President Bush's statements that some politicians would prefer appeasing terrorists through negotiations, Senator Obama once again wore the flag pin as he did following 9-11.

By early April 2007, his campaign generated over $25 million from over 100,000 contributors. $23.5 million of that money will be available for the Democratic Primary.<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/us/politics/05obama.html Obama Shows His Strength in a Fund-Raising Feat on Par With Clinton], 4 April 2007, Jeff Zeleny and Patrick Healy,'' The New York Times''</ref> After the first Democratic presidential debate in Columbia, South Carolina, Obama's image as an "articulate" spokesman came into question after his failure to state right away that he would retaliate in case of further terrorist strikes against the United States.<ref>[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/27/AR2007042702162.html?hpid=moreheadlines Clinton Campaign Tries to Keep Heat on Obama Over Debate Response], Dan Balz, ''Washington Post'' April 28, 2007.</ref><ref>Chicago Sun-Times,
[http://www.suntimes.com/news/sweet/362269,CST-NWS-sweet29.article 'I was a little nervous' at debate'], Lynn Sweet,
April 29, 2007,</ref>

During a fund raising event in Virginia in May 2007 Obama told donors,
{{Cquote|This week there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died. An entire town destroyed.<ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,271357,00.html Transcript: 'Special Report with Brit Hume,' May 9, 2007], retrieved from ''FOX News'', 06/13/07.</ref>}}

In reality, the tornado which touched down in Kansas cost the lives of nine people in the town of Greensburg, and twelve overall in Kansas.

Speaking regarding his knowledge of the Afghanistan conflict, Obama points the finger at U.S. troops and American policy "...just airraiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous problems there." <ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,293365,00.html Barack Obama Caught on Tape Accusing U.S. Troops of 'Killing Civilians'] Fox News, August 15, 2007</ref> [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrW4fOGIMVY See Video]

By August it appeared Obama was running to be left off the ticket completely rather than the much ballyhooed Hillary/Obama ticket the [[mainstream media]] was pushing. After a series of ill-advised foreign policy statements, Obama was openly criticized as a lightweight even by liberals, in much the same vein as [[John Edwards]] and [[Dan Quayle]] had been depicted. First, Obama said he would have face-to-face meetings with two of Florida's most feared enemies, [[Fidel Castro]] and [[Hugo Chavez]]. Florida is a key state to any presidential ambitions. Then Obama claimed that he would be willing to invade the sovereign territory of a U.S. ally without prior consultation. Finally, Obama broke the cardinal rule of declaring he would not use nuclear weapons, removing the element of bluff U.S. Presidents had vitally depended upon throughout the [[Cold War]] era. The incidents all added up to a picture of a candidate ill-prepared and ill-advised, lacking in a basic understanding of the office of the Presidency, and failing to surround himself with appointees able to make up for his deficiencies. However, Obama won the Iowa Democratic caucuses, pushing [[Hillary Clinton]] into third place, and went on to become the unofficial Democratic nominee.

At a campaign event in Elkhart, Indiana, a seven-year-old girl asked Barack Obama why he wants to be President. He replies,
'''"America is …, uh, is no longer, uh … what it could be, what it once was. And I say to myself, I don’t want that future for my children."''' <ref>[http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-blumer/2008/08/09/mostly-mia-obamas-downer-america-delivered-7-year-old Media Mostly MIA on Obama's 'America No Longer What It Once Was' Downer Delivered to 7 Year-Old] Newsbusters.org, August 9, 2008</ref>

Obama became the presumptive Democratic nominee on June 3rd after receiving a majority of pledged delegates and superdelegates. His only remaining primary opponent, [[Hillary Clinton]], conceded the race on June 7th. On August 23, Joe Biden was announced as Obama's vice-presidential nominee. Obama became the official Democratic nominee on August 27 at the Democratic National Convention, when Hillary Clinton's motion to end the roll call vote of the states and select Obama by acclamation was passed.

On June 5th, Obama spoke at Briston, Virginia- Healthcare Town Hall forum regarding Political Action Committees and his campaign. "Well, we’re here today because we know that if we’re going to make real progress, this time must be different. Throughout my career, in Illinois and the United States senate, I’ve worked to reduce the power of the special interests by leading the fight for ethics reform. I’ve sent a strong signal in this campaign by refusing the contributions of registered federal lobbyists and PACs. And today, I’m announcing that going forward, the Democratic National Committee will uphold the same standard and won’t take another dime from Washington lobbyists or special interest PACs. They do not fund my campaign. They will not fund our party. And they will not drown out the voices of the American people when I’m President of the United States."

On June 6th, an [[AP]] article <ref>[http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/D/DEMOCRATS_MONEY?SITE=KING&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT Transcript: 'Democratic Party returns lobbyist, PAC money ,' June 6, 2008]</ref> presented the rules for lobbyist donations to the DNC and for the Presidential nominee. Obama does accept money from lobbyists who do not do business with the federal government and he also accepts money from spouses and family members of lobbyists. And the DNC ban is also not retroactive, which means the DNC will keep lobbyist and PAC contributions it received earlier in the election cycle. Retroactive period being the date Barack Obama started his campaign, February 10, 2007. The DNC possibly the day after the November 2006 Congressional elections until June 5th, 2008. In addition, Barack Obama's ban does not apply to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee nor to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Unlike [[John McCain]], Barack Obama has not disclosed the lobbyists working in his campaign.

Senator Obama visited U.S. troops in Iraq in 2006<ref>[http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=3794382 Obama visits troops in Iraq]</ref> and in Afghanistan and Kuwait in 2008<ref>[http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=3794382 Obama visits troops and officials in Afghanistan and Kuwait]</ref>

Obama's tax plan calls for increasing taxes on the wealthiest 1% of Americans, while cutting taxes for the middle class. According to the non-partisan [[Tax Policy Center]], most Americans would pay less taxes than under Senator McCain's plan.<ref>[http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?ID=411749 An Updated Analysis of the 2008 Presidential Candidates' Tax Plans: Updated September 12, 2008]</ref> According to another non-partisan group, Americans for Tax Reform, tax-payers would clearly be burdened by an Obama Presidency.<ref>[http://www.atr.org/content/html/2008/june/0616-obama_mccaintaxes.html McCain vs. Obama on Taxes] Americans For Tax Reform, June 2008</ref>

===Campaign financing===
Obama is the first presidential candidate to reject public financing. He broke his promise to accept it in the hope that his powerful fund-raising machine would generate far more money than the $84.1 million McCain is getting in public funding. Indeed, on August 14th, the Obama campaign announced it had received donations from 2 million individuals, setting new records. Obama raised $272 million for the primaries and expects to raise $300 million for the general election. However the Republican National Committee has been raising much more than the Democratic National Committee and each candidate had about $100 million in cash on September 1. Each expects to spend about $300 million by November. However, Obama is obliged to devote much of his time to fund raising among supporters rather than campaigning among undecided voters.<ref> see [http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/stumper/archive/2008/09/09/was-obama-right-to-opt-out-of-public-financing.aspx Andrew Romano, "Was Obama Right to Opt Out of Public Financing?," ''Newsweek'' (Sept. 9, 2008) online]</ref> Among his backers is homosexual pornography baron [[Terrence Bean]].

===Secrecy===

The Democratic party feels it necessary to keep all questions about Obama at a safe distance. It is an unprecedented move to keep secrets about a presidential candidate. The following questions remain sealed from the public. <ref>[http://obamawtf.blogspot.com/2008/08/who-sent-obama-why-has-he-refused-to.html Who sent Obama? Why has he refused to release these basic documents?] ObamaWTF.blogspot.com</ref>

# Certified Copy of original Birth certificate(see certificate controversy below)
# Columbia College records
# Columbia Thesis paper
# Campaign donor analysis requested by 7 major watchdog groups
# [[Harvard]] College records
# Illinois State Senate records
# [[Illinois]] State Senate schedule
# [[Law]] practice client list and billing records/summary
# Locations and names of all half-siblings and step-mothers
# Medical records (only the one page summary released so far)
# Occidental College records
# Parent's [[Marriage]] Certificate
# Record of baptism
# Selective Service Registration
# Trips schedules for trips outside of the United States before 2007
# Scholarly articles
# Access to his Grandmother (Obama's Grandmother has since passed away from cancer [http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g3m4YaeYwDHXS6hHdZJi8pm6cZdAD947RJKO0])
# List of all campaign workers that are lobbyists

Obama keeps donations secret by exploiting a loophole that allows campaigns to refuse to divulge donations under $200.00. This is useful to the candidate because many of his contributions are from dubious foreign or illegal sources. It is described as the "largest pool of unidentified money that has ever flooded into the U.S. election system, before or after the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reforms of 2002." <ref>http://www.newsmax.com/timmerman/Obama_fundraising_illegal/2008/09/29/135718.html</ref>

===Tone===

Many observers have criticized Obama's campaign for its incivility. For instance, John McCain's wife Cindy noted that Obama is running "the dirtiest campaign in American history."

Obama's smears usually fall into two categories: race-baiting and distortions. On October 10, 2008, Obama surrogate Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) typified the campaign by comparing Sen. McCain to racial segregationists and Klansmen. "Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division," Lewis exclaimed before comparing Sen. McCain to segregationist Democrat George Wallace, further noting that he, "...never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged [the attacks in which] four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama." <ref>http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/11/mccain.lewis/index.html?eref=rss_politics</ref> This is particularly harsh to Sen. McCain because he fondly admires Lewis. <ref>http://www.rickwarrennews.com/transcript/civil_forum_transcript-04.txt</ref>

As for the distortions and personal attacks, Obama mocks Sen. McCain's for his age and Gov. Palin for being a woman and outsider. For instance, Obama responded with a subtle reference to Alzheimer's disease when Sen. McCain criticized his foreign policy in May 2008, alleging that Sen. McCain "lost his bearings" <ref>http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0508/Obama_McCain_offensive_losing_his_bearings.html</ref>. Senior Adviser Mark Salter noted, "He used the words 'losing his bearings' intentionally, a not particularly clever way of raising John McCain's age as an issue. This is typical of the Obama style of campaigning." <ref>http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/05/salter_obama_attacked_mccains.php</ref>. In reference to Gov. Palin, Obama was caught for his quiet hiring of Winner & Associates to disseminate a sexist smear video against her. <ref>http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/194057.php</ref> Some argue this is a FEC violation because it lacked obligatory label denoting it was sponsored by the Obama Campaign. <ref>http://eclipseweb.blogspot.com/2008/09/vicious-anti-sarah-palin-smear-campaign.html</ref> One of the biggest distortions by Obama is that 95% of all taxpayers will get a tax cut. <ref>[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122385651698727257.html?mod=googlenews_wsj Obama's 95% Illusion] Wall Steet Journal, October 13, 2008</ref> Without the distortion, Obama is proposing income re-distribution because those families that pay no taxes, one-third, will get money from the wealthy top 5%.

Another feature of the Obama campaign is the unruly audience. CNN reported in October of 2008 <ref>http://www.findinternettv.com/Video,item,3565842635.aspx</ref>, that people are calling John McCain a terrorist at these events. According to Sen. McCain, "I've heard the [label terrorist], unfortunately, at Senator Obama's rallies being said about me. There's always a fringe element." Other eyewitness reports are harsher <ref>http://theinvigilator.blogspot.com/2008/10/on-front-of-disgust.html</ref>.

==Election==

Senator Obama won the 2008 Presidential election, with over 52% of the popular vote. He carried every state that [[John Kerry]] won in 2004, in addition to Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Florida, and Indiana. He beat John McCain by nearly 200 electoral votes.<ref>[www.cnn.com/election]</ref>

== Positions and Qualifications ==
Obama is [[pro-abortion]]. The leading abortion providers and PAC supporters have wholeheartedly endorsed Barack Obama. The National Abortion Rights Action League [[NARAL]] has given Barack a 100% rating for his efforts in Congress 2005, 2006 and 2007 <ref>http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/elections/statements/obama.html</ref>. EMILY's List, a political action committee that funds female candidates who support abortion rights backs Barack Obama<ref> [http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/06/emilys_list_bac.html],EMILY's List backs Obama, June 6,2008</ref> The nation's largest abortion business, Planned Parenthood has begun the process necessary to endorse pro-abortion presidential candidate Barack Obama. <ref>[http://www.lifenews.com/nat3971.html], http://www.lifenews.com/nat3971.html, Planned Parenthood Begins Process to Endorse Pro-Abortion Barack Obama, June 10,2008</ref>The board of directors of the pro-abortion group's political operation met on Friday June 6, 2008 and unanimously voted to recommend an endorsement for Obama. Obama has steadfastly advocated support for partial birth abortion as an Illinois legislator. Barack's wife, Michelle Obama, wrote a fundraising letter<ref>[http://www.prolifeblogs.com/articles/archives/2006/10/post_5.php], http://www.prolifeblogs.com/articles/archives/2006/10/post_5.php, February 17,2004</ref> in support of partial birth abortion and against the proposed ban. Barack voted against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act to give a child who survived an abortion procedure life support healthcare. Obama wanted the life terminated even if he or she survived outside the mother's womb.<ref>[http://www.citizenlink.org/content/A000007034.cfm], http://www.citizenlink.org/content/A000007034.cfm, Obama Blocked Born Alive Infant Protection Act</ref> With Obama no longer in the state Senate, the Born Alive legislation passed in 2005.

In the context of sex, he quipped about his daughters, <ref>http://michellemalkin.com/2008/03/30/sunday-meditation-obama-and-the-punishment-of-unborn-life/</ref>{{QuoteBox|"If they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby."}} Obama makes it clear if his daughters had an unplanned pregnancy, he would support terminating the life of his grandchild and it is undeniable that Michelle Obama agrees with that decision.
[[Image:Features ayers1.jpg|175px|thumb|right|[[Weather Underground]] co-founder Bill Ayers<ref>http://foia.fbi.gov/weather/weath1a.pdf</ref> stomps on the American flag in this 2001 pose for Chicago Magazine.]]

Obama, having been asked about his associations with [[William Ayers]], an unrepentant [[terrorist]],<ref>[http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/August-2001/No-Regrets/]</ref> he explained that the views of his associates are not necessarily his own. Ayers and his wife, [[Bernardine Dohrn]], hosted a fundraiser for Obama in their home in 1995 at the start of Obama's political career. Obama compares his friendship with Ayers whose actions led to the loss of a life to his friendship with pro-life doctor and representative Tom Coburn<ref>[http://www.lifenews.com/nat3894.html]http://www.lifenews.com/nat3894.html, LifeNews.com, April 25,2008</ref>
Obama explained that his friendship with Ayers, shouldn't be construed as implying he endorsed the terrorist-like tactics Ayers used to drive home his political point. Barack Obama brought up the pro-life colleague to make the dubious comparison that he's friends with other people who take "extreme" positions or would use terrorist tactics.
"The fact is, is that I'm also friendly with Tom Coburn, one of the most conservative Republicans in the United States Senate, who during his campaign once said that it might be appropriate to apply the death penalty to those who carried out abortions"

Obama has no military or executive experience and little foreign policy experience.<ref>"Fresh doubts over Barack Obama's foreign policy credentials were expressed on both sides of the Atlantic last night, after it emerged that he had made only one brief official visit to London – and none elsewhere in Western Europe or Latin America. ... Mr. Obama had failed to convene a single policy meeting of the Senate European subcommittee, of which he is chairman."[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article3080794.ece]</ref> Yet he is the favorite of the leftist attack site "MoveOn.org" for the [[Democratic]] nomination for [[President of the United States]] in the [[2008 Presidential Election|2008 election]],<ref>MoveOn.org reportedly favored Obama by 70-30% over Clinton. [http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/02/moveonorg_obama.html]</ref> campaigning to the left of [[Hillary Clinton]].<ref>For example, Obama promised not to use nuclear weapons against terrorists, a promise Hillary Clinton refused to make. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/02/AR2007080202288.html]</ref>

He has no clear personal achievement that cannot be explained as the likely result of [[affirmative action]]. Some examples border on the absurd: Obama has no background in [[physics]], yet it is claimed that "Obama analyzed and integrated [[Albert Einstein|Einstein]]'s [[theory of relativity]], the [[Heisenberg uncertainty principle]], as well as the concept of curved space as an alternative to [[gravity]], for a Law Review article that Tribe, for whom Obama worked as a research assistant, wrote titled, 'The Curvature of Constitutional Space'." <ref>http://cbs2chicago.com/politics/barack.obama.harvard.2.334825.html</ref> Obama's "research" for Constitutional Law Professor Tribe on this article also raises issues about preferences, as Obama had not yet even completed any law school courses<ref>Obama did not start his second year of law school until September 1989, the earliest he could have taken constitutional law, yet this article must have been written, submitted and accepted prior to that time to be published in the November 1989 issue of the Law Review.</ref> on the [[Constitution]].<ref>The liberal Professor Tribe saw the best law students for several decades, yet insisted that Obama was the "best student I ever had" and the "most exciting research assistant." [http://www.cmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071114/NEWS01/711140429/1217/NEWS98]</ref>

Throughout his career, Obama repeatedly ducked controversial stands in a transparent attempt to make it easier to be elected to higher office. In example, as a state senator in [[Illinois]], he voted "present" rather than "aye" or "nay" nearly an astounding 130 times.<ref>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/20/us/politics/20obama.html</ref> During that same period, he was planning to run for the [[House of Representatives]], which was unsuccessful, and then for [[U.S. Senate]], which was successful after his opponent Jack Ryan, a millionaire school teacher, was smeared with a court-ordered disclosure of confidential divorce records that both he and his ex-wife wanted to remain sealed. A newspaper that favored Obama took the unusual step of suing to force the confidential divorce information to become public, and a California judge opened the records at a pivotal time in the campaign.<ref>http://www.nbc5.com/politics/2898641/detail.html</ref><ref>http://www.nbc5.com/news/3289561/detail.html</ref><ref>http://www.nbc5.com/politics/3444371/detail.html</ref>

Barack Obama is often praised for his speeches, except when he is not able to read them from a [[teleprompter]]. "Shorn of his Teleprompter, we saw a different Obama. His delivery was halting and unsure. ... The prepared text for his remarks, as released on his website, sounded a lot like a typical Obama speech. ... [But with] no Teleprompter signaling the prepared text, Obama failed to deliver the speech in his characteristically flawless fashion."<ref name="teleprompter" /> The [[New York Times]] noted that "Mr. Obama excels at inspirational speeches read from a teleprompter before television cameras, critics have noted, but many of his other speeches on the campaign trail have failed to electrify."<ref>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/fashion/20speechwriter.html?_r=2&ex=1358485200&en=bb179297e5f61acb&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&oref=slogin&oref=slogin</ref> When Obama ridiculed [[Hillary Clinton]] for being like [[Annie Oakley]], it is apparent that he was not writing his own speeches.<ref>"Some Obama adviser probably earned his or her dollars for that cut," the USA Today wrote. [http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/columnist/raasch/2008-04-17-2008-04-17-raasch_N.htm]</ref>

Obama often makes reference to his "two decades of experience" in public service work. During most of that time he claims experience, he was either going to school, working for a law firm, writing a book, or organizing community events.

== Political views ==
Obama's political views have been subjected to controversy even before he put himself forward as a presidential candidate. Former House majority leader [[Tom DeLay]] has described Obama's record in the Illinois Senate as that of a [[Communism|“Marxist leftist".]]<ref>[http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_121306/content/stop_the_tape.guest.html|Sexy Rock Star Obama Whines About His Ears], RushLimbaugh.com, December 13 2006</ref> In May 2007, Obama (and Sen. Hillary Clinton) voted against funding the Iraq War for the first time.<ref>[http://uspolitics.about.com/od/legislatio1/a/HR2206.htm HR 2206 - Emergency Appropriations], Kathy Gill, Your Guide to U.S. Politics: Current Events. May 26 2007.</ref><ref>[http://more.gov.mtopgroup.com/2007/05/votes-hr-2206-iraq-supplemental.html Votes - H.R. 2206: Iraq Supplemental], May 28, 2007. Retrieved from Deeper Inside the Mountain, June 4, 2007.</ref>

Obama's views on [[gun control]] is focused on an opinion article in the [[Wall Street Journal]]:<ref>David Kopel, "The Democrats and Gun Control," Wall St.J., Page A19, April 17, 2008 [http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB120839466717921537-lMyQjAxMDI4MDE4NzMxOTc0Wj.html]</ref>

:As a state senate candidate in 1996, Mr. Obama endorsed a complete ban on all handguns in a questionnaire. The Obama campaign has claimed he "never saw or approved the questionnaire," and that an aide filled it out incorrectly. But a few weeks ago, Politico.com found an amended version of the questionnaire. It included material added in Mr. Obama's handwriting.

After [[D.C. v. Heller]], Obama claimed to support Second Amendment rights.

Obama has said, "Doing the Lord's work is a thread that runs through our politics since the very beginning," and "it puts the lie to the notion that [[separation of church and state]] in America means somehow that faith should have no role in public life."<ref>[http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2007/06/17/news/iowa/8db7c1a17d2b51f9862572fd000fc9f4.txt Obama says religion has place in politics], By Todd Dorman, ''Sioux City Journal'', June 18, 2007.</ref>

He believes children should be taught sex education in kindergarten, although in what he refers to as "an age-appropriate manner".<ref>"Barack Obama reaffirmed to [[Planned Parenthood]] this week that he believes elements of sex education should begin in kindergarten." [http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=3395856 (ABC News)] July 20, 2007 </ref>

Obama spoke at the May 1, 2006, illegal immigration march in Chicago.<ref>http://nomoreblather.com/barack-obama-and-the-immigration-marches Immigration marches</ref>

::''We are hungry for change!'' S.C. January 26, 2008.

Barack Obama, in his short stint as Senator of Illinois, has made clear his opposition to the [[U.S. Military]] in policy and in rhetoric. Obama has spent much energy to argue that the Iraq War should have never been waged and that we should not be there at all, in any way. In 2002, as an unknown Chicago representative to the state of Illinois, he declared his opposition to "dumb wars". At the time, America was united in the stance against terrorism and the prospects of a rogue enemy with WMD worried the United States. Obama, has said that he does not know whether he would have voted for or against the Iraq War. Since elected to Congress, he voted against the Emergency War Supplemental. Obama did not oppose his party debating the bill long past the timeframe requested. This action directly affects troop deployment in combat zones. Obama has repeatedly called for the return of troops in Iraq. Barack Obama has a no confidence vote for the 'Surge' before the measure was put forth by General Petraeus to Congress. Obama would not denounce MoveOn.org's slander NY Times advertising against the General.

Senator Obama often refers to the office that he seeks, without the proper respect of those that came before him. When talking of the President, he frequently refuses to call him [[George W. Bush|President George Bush]] or even Mr. George Bush. Obama has also disrespectfully called him 'George Bush'. Oddly, when Bill Clinton spoke with Obama on September 11th, 2008 predicting he would win handily, Obama responded, "There you go, you can take it from the President of the United States."<ref>http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/11/campaign.wrap/index.html</ref> It appears Obama will use the term for a former President, but will not do the same for the actual President. Examples of Obama's treatment of our current President:
* "I am happy to have a debate with John McCain and George Bush about foreign policy," Obama said <ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/05/16/obama.bush.mccain/], CNN Obama blasts Bush McCain, May 16, 2008</ref>
* "For all his talk about independence, the centerpiece of John McCain's economic plan amounts to a full-throated endorsement of George Bush's policies," <ref>[http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/06/10/obama_takes_the_offensive_vs_mccain/] Boston Globe Obama takes offensive vs. McCain, June 10, 2008</ref>
* "George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists." <ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7403386.stm], BBC Obama attacks Bush over Iran , May 15, 2008</ref>
* Obama called the U.S. economy a disaster thanks to "John McCain's President, George W. Bush" <ref>[http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/obama_mccain/2008/08/18/122924.html No More Hugs: Obama Tears Into McCain] AP, August 18, 2008</ref> Side note, George W. Bush is also Barack Obama's President.

== Foreign policy experience ==
In his presidential campaign, Obama stated<ref>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mayhill-fowler/obama-says-no-to-foreign_b_95357.html</ref> that "foreign policy is the area where I am probably most confident" and then cited "having lived in Indonesia for four years, having family that is impoverished in small villages in Africa". He lived in Indonesia from age 6 to 10, and he later discovered that his father had some other children in Africa.

While campaigning, he has visited several foreign countries. In [[Russia]] and the former Soviet republics, he met with representatives of the International Republican Institute and National Democratic Institute to discuss democracy in the former Soviet republics. He also met with Russian military officials and visited several nuclear and biological weapons destruction sites in Russia, [[Ukraine]], and [[Azerbaijan]] with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-IN). On the same tour, he visited London, UK, and met with [[Tony Blair]], sitting UK Prime Minister.<ref>http://obama.senate.gov/press/050823-obama_to_visit/</ref>

Obama visited South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Chad; he discussed his tour of Robben Island prison, met with U.S. troops, and visited refugee camps of the people fleeing Darfur. He also addressed Africa's growing [[AIDS]] epidemic. <ref>http://obama.senate.gov/podcast/060906-090606_africa_t/</ref>

During a ten-day-long tour of the Middle East, he talked with government leaders in Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, and Israel. <ref> http://obama.senate.gov/news/060113-obama_wraps_up/</ref>

==Religious affiliations==

Obama and his wife (reared a Baptist) have been active members since 1988 at the Trinity [[United Church of Christ]]<ref>http://www.tucc.org/about.htm</ref> in Chicago. The church embraces [[black liberation theology]] and its emphasis on empowering oppressed groups against establishment forces. This denomination was the first in America to ordain gays, women and blacks as ministers.<ref>[http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/31079.html], http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/31079.html, Obama's church pushes controversial doctrines, March 20, 2008</ref> According to his sister, Obama was baptized at this church the same year.<ref>[http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/30/america/30obama.php?page=2 http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/30/america/30obama.php?page=2]</ref> Obama describes his conversion in ''The Audacity of Hope''. The title of this book is taken from one of Pastor Wright's sermons.
In April 2008, Obama disavowed Pastor Wright's views. In May 2008, Obama left his church. His response blames the media and not the rhetoric on display <ref>[http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/05/31/obama-resigns-church-membership-in-chicago/], Obama Drops Church Membership in Chicago, may 31, 2008</ref>{{QuoteBox|“It’s not fair to the other members of the church who seek to worship in peace..."}} Wright had been making inflammatory comments and posting his sermons online for sale. These include the statements "G-d damn America" and describing the September 11th attacks, he said "We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost."<ref>[ http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Story?id=4443788 Obama's Pastor: G-d Damn America, U.S. to Blame for 9/11]</ref> In addition, Rev. Wright blamed America saying "We supported Zionism shamelessly while ignoring the Palestinians and branding anybody who spoke out against it as being anti-Semitic."

[[Image:Barack Obama Jeremiah Wright.jpg|thumb|Barack Obama and Jeremiah Wright.]]

[[Daniel Pipes]] claims that Obama was raised a [[Muslim]] because he attended classes on the Koran while attending a Muslim school.<ref>[http://www.danielpipes.org/article/5286 Was Barack Obama a Muslim</ref> Obama did attend a school administrated by Muslims but [[CNN]] reports that it was a non-religious public school attended by students of many faiths, not a [[madrassa]].<ref>http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/22/obama.madrassa/</ref>

{{QuoteBox|In Indonesia, I'd spent 2 years at a Muslim school, 2 years at a Catholic school. In the Muslim school, the teacher wrote to tell mother I made faces during Koranic studies. In the Catholic school, when it came time to pray, I'd pretend to close my eyes, then peek around the room. Nothing happened. No angels descended. Just a parched old nun and 30 brown children, muttering words. Sometimes the nun would catch me, and her stern look would force my lids back shut. But that didn't change how I felt inside."}}<ref>Dreams from My Father, by Barack Obama, p.142 Aug 1, 1996 </ref>

Obama has described his upbringing as occurring in a non-religious environment.

{{QuoteBox|In sum, my mother viewed religion through the eyes of the anthropologist that she would become; it was a phenomenon to be treated with a suitable respect, but with a suitable detachment as well. Moreover, as a child I rarely came in contact with those who might offer a substantially different view of faith. My father was almost entirely absent from my childhood, having been divorced from my mother when I was 2 years old; in any event, although my father had been raised a Muslim, by the time he met my mother he was a confirmed atheist, thinking religion to be so much superstition.

And yet for all her professed secularism, my mother was in many ways the most spiritually awakened person that I've ever known. She had an unswerving instinct for kindness, charity, and love, and spent much of her life acting on that instinct, sometimes to her detriment. Without the help of religious texts or outside authorities, she worked mightily to instill in me the values that many Americans learn in Sunday school: honesty, empathy, discipline, delayed gratification, and hard work. She raged at poverty and injustice.}}<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1546579-4,00.html My Spiritual Journey] Time Magazine, October 2006</ref>

== Books ==

* ''Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.'' (B. Obama and, allegedly, William Ayers) ISBN 0307383415
* ''The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream.'' (B. Obama) ISBN 0307455874
* ''Barack Obama in His Own Words.'' (B. Obama and Lisa Rogak) ISBN 0786720573
* ''Change We Can Believe In. Barack Obama's Plan to Renew America's Promise.'' (B. Obama)
* ''The Case Against Barack Obama. The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media's Favorite Candidate. '' (David Freddso) ISBN 1596985666
* ''The Obama Nation. Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality.'' (Jerome R. Corsi) ISBN 1416598065
* ''Obama Unmasked. Did Slick Hollywood Handlers Create the Perfect Candidate?'' (Floyd Brown and Lee Trexler) ISBN 0936783591
* ''Obama: The Man Behind The Mask.'' (Andy Martin) ISBN 0965781240
* ''The Audacity of Deceit. Barack Obama's War on American Values.'' (Brad O'Leary) ISBN 1935071025

==Published criticism==
On April 11, 2007, staff writers of ''The Boston Globe'' reported the criticisms of several black commentators regarding Obama's apparent hesitation to join the race to condemn acclaimed radio personality [[Don Imus]],<ref>[http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/04/11/obamas_silence_on_imus_alarms_some_blacks/ Obama's silence on Imus alarms some blacks], Rick Klein and Joseph Williams, ''The Boston Globe'', April 11, 2007.</ref> who made a racially insensitive remark<ref>[http://www.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUSN1237895620070412|title=Furor over Imus puts heat on other broadcasters], Daniel Trotta, Reuters, 2007-04-12.</ref> on the air during the April 4 broadcast. Obama did not comment on Imus's remarks until well after prominent civil rights leaders [[Al Sharpton]] and [[Jesse Jackson]] had called Imus to account and after Imus was suspended by MSNBC and CBS Radio. Obama later weighed in on April 10 by saying, "The comments of Don Imus were divisive, hurtful, and offensive to Americans of all backgrounds." 

The ''Globe'' reported that Obama's perceived delay in addressing Don Imus's remarks was described by Melissa Harris Lacewell, a professor of politics and African-American studies at Princeton University, as "miss[ing] an opportunity to prove himself to blacks and white liberals who would have wanted Obama take the lead in denouncing Imus."<ref>[http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/04/11/obamas_silence_on_imus_alarms_some_blacks/ Obama's silence on Imus alarms some blacks], Rick Klein and Joseph Williams, ''The Boston Globe'', April 11, 2007.</ref><ref>[http://time-blog.com/real_clear_politics/2007/04/obama_race_and_the_election.html Obama, Race, and The Election,] ''Real Clear Politics.com''</ref>

In June 2007 the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' reported Obama had actually received nearly three times more campaign cash from indicted slum landlord Tony Rezko<ref>[http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/353829,CST-NWS-rez23.article Barack Obama and his slumlord patron], Tim Novak, Chicago Sun-Times, April 23, 2007.</ref> and his associates than Obama has publicly acknowledged.<ref>[http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/432197,CST-NWS-obama18.article Rezko cash triple what Obama says], Chris Fusco and Tim Novak, ''Chicago Sun-Times'', June 18, 2007.</ref>

Executive vice president Wayne LaPierre of the [[NRA]] accuses Barack Obama of "mouthing pro-Second amendment words and pandering to gun owners" on the campaign trail.<ref>[http://www.gopusa.com/news/2008/may/0514_nra_mccain.shtml], http://www.gopusa.com/news/2008/may/0514_nra_mccain.shtml, NRA chief stresses common ground with McCain, Associated Press, May 14, 2008</ref>

[[McCain]] Aide Says Obama Has Sept. 10 Mind-Set "an extremely dangerous and extremely naive approach toward terrorism" <ref>[http://www.newsmax.com/politics/mccain_obama/2008/06/17/105265.html], AP McCain Aide Says Obama Has Sept. 10 Mind-Set, June 17, 2008</ref>

===Birth Certificate Controversy===
During the democratic primaries the Clinton Campaign lead a smear campaign against the validity of Barrack Obama's Hawaii Birth cirtificate, claiming that it is false and that he is intelligible for Presidency. <ref>[http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTgxZmIwNTg0OWVhMWJkODNmZjI4ZjY4Mjg2OWRmNzI= http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTgxZmIwNTg0OWVhMWJkODNmZjI4ZjY4Mjg2OWRmNzI=]</ref> After initially refusing to produce a birth certificate in response to such rumors, the Obama campaign eventually endorsed a document posted on the Daily Kos as
authentic.<ref>[http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/12/11012/6168/320/534616 Obama's Birth Certificate]</ref> The response is split regarding the birth certificate. Some commentators, such as those at the National Review, are satisfied with the document.<ref>[http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NWVjN2I1MjlhM2ZjZjRjYzBkODAxZjZkZGQyYWNkMDk= http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NWVjN2I1MjlhM2ZjZjRjYzBkODAxZjZkZGQyYWNkMDk=]</ref> However, some analysts claim that the birth certificate is false.<ref>[http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Politics/12939.htm http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Politics/12939.htm]</ref>

On August 21st, 2008, Factcheck.org published an article regarding the controversy.<ref>[http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html Born in the U.S.A.]</ref> The site stated, "FactCheck.org staffers have now seen, touched, examined and photographed the original birth certificate. We conclude that it meets all of the requirements from the State Department for proving U.S. citizenship." In addition, the site posted high-resolution photographs of the birth certificate, which clearly showed the raised seal, stamp of Hawaii state registrar Alvin T. Onaka, and certificate number. The birth date corresponds to a birth announcement published in the ''Honolulu Advertiser '' on Sunday, August 13, 1961. <ref>http://texasdarlin.wordpress.com/2008/07/23/obama-was-born-in-hawaii-wrong-can-of-worms/</ref>

A Philadelphia attorney, Phillip Berg, has filed a lawsuit against the DNC and Barack Obama. Berg maintains that Sen. Obama is not a natural born U.S. citizen or that, if he ever was, he lost his citizenship when he was adopted in Indonesia. Berg also cites what he calls "dual loyalties" due to his citizenship and ties with Kenya and Indonesia. The "dual loyalties" which have not been shown to exist do not violate any constitutional or legal precedents and would make Sen. Obama a poor choice for President, not an invalid choice.

Obama website Fight The Smears has confirmed that Obama was once a Kenyan citizen until 1982. Attorney Philips Berg's lawsuit is being challenged by the Obama Campaign. Instead of producing the original birth certificate in court and paying a number of legal fees and taking several days out of his busy campaigning schedule the Obama campaign had the case dropped on the grounds that it lacked any supporting evidence. <ref>http://neighbors.denverpost.com/viewtopic.php?t=10815605</ref> The fact that Mr. Berg's dual arguments were mutually contradictory may also have contributed.

The state of Hawaii announced that the document is legitimate and official, Since the state of Hawaii is the issuing body they have ultimate authority with regards to the matter.<ref>http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20081031/BREAKING01/81031064/0/BREAKING04</ref> If states are no longer regarded as a valid authority on citizenship of those born within them then no one is eligible for President because no one can prove that they are natural born citizens.

==See also==
*[[Previous Breaking News/Barack Obama|Articles about '''Barack Obama''' from previous "Breaking News"]]
*[[Essay: The Special Interests Candidate]]
*[[The Honorable James David Manning]]
*[[Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)]]
*[[New Party]]

==Further reading==
*[[Peter Hitchens|Hitchens, Peter]] [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=511901&in_page_id=1811 ''The Black Kennedy: But does anyone know the real Barack Obama?''] [[Daily Mail]]. Accessed 4 February 2008.

==Sources==

*[http://www.barackobama.com/ Offical Obama for President Website]
*[http://obama.senate.gov/about/ Official Senate Website]
*[http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/pfd2005/N00009638_2005.pdf Barack Obama Personal Financial Disclosures Summary: 2005], retrieved from opensecrets.org 17 June 2007.
*[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=O000167 Biographical Directory of the United States Congress]
*[http://www.law.uchicago.edu/faculty/obama/cv.html University of Chicago Law School] Faculty Listing
*[http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=12782369 Barack Obama Biography] from Biography.com
*[http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/barack_obama/index.html?inline=nyt-per New York Times Topics, Barack Obama]
*[http://youtube.com/watch?v=zUdjhKbImwE Documentary on Barack Hussein Obama]
*[http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=9490 Voting Record of Barack Hussein Obama]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Obama, Barrack}}

{{2008 presidential candidates}}

[[Category:United States Senators]]
[[Category:Democratic Party]]
[[Category:Liberals]]
[[Category:Muslims]]

Censorship

2008-11-11T21:33:45Z

AshleyS: /* The First Amendment and censorship in the U. S. */ spelling

'''Censorship''' is the suppression of statements or information for ideological reasons. Current examples include:

*the banning of [[prayer]] in the classroom<ref>See, e.g., [[classroom prayer]].</ref>
*the rejection of [[pro-life]] advertisements<ref>See, e.g., "[[Canadian]] City Backpedals on Decision to Censor [[Pro-life]] Bus-shelter Ads." [http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jun/08060506.html]</ref>
*the destruction of [[conservative]] newspapers on college campuses.<ref>http://www.thebulletin.us/site/index.cfm?newsid=19383118&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=576361&rfi=8</ref>
*the banning of mention of [[intelligent design]] in school.<ref>See, e.g., [[Expelled:No Intelligence Allowed]].</ref>
*protesting and disrupting invited conservative speakers on campuses.<ref>[http://www.nysun.com/new-york/at-columbia-students-attack-minuteman-founder/41020/ At Columbia, Students Attack Minuteman Founder] Ny Sun, October 5, 2006</ref>
*Censorship can also take the form of ostracizing students for expressing [[pro-life]] or other [[conservative]] views.<ref> See, e.g., [[liberals and friendship]].</ref>
*Censorship is sometimes based on a misuse of [[copyright]], as in the unsuccessful attempt to censor the movie [[Expelled:No Intelligence Allowed]] about [[intelligent design]].<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7432860.stm</ref>

Political censorship involves a government preventing information from reaching its citizens. Perhaps the most well-known contemporary example of this is China's censorship of the [[Google]] search engine, known as the "Golden Shield Project", which prevents Google from displaying search results of some human rights websites, websites promoting Tibetan independence, references to the 1989 Tianamen Square protests, and others. A famous example in fiction is George Orwell's novel ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'', in which the main character works as a civil servant in the department responsible for altering or destroying historical information which the government wishes to keep secret. The rationale behind political censorship is that the political party in power can protect itself from revolution if the public is kept uninformed.

The term '''censorship''' derives from ''censor'', the title of the Roman official who conducted the census and supervised public morality.

==The First Amendment and censorship in the U. S.==
In the United States, the [[First Amendment]] states that "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." Broadly speaking, the First Amendment is designed to prevent the government from exercising censorship. However, the government sometimes censors political and religious speech anyway.

More specifically, the government should not exercise "prior restraint." That is, a citizen should not need advance permission from the government in order to publish something, unless it threatens [[national security]]. This does not mean that publication may not have consequences: a citizen can be sued for publishing [[libel]], or incarcerated for disclosing military secrets, but the consequences typically occur ''after'' publication, not before.

Censorship is sometimes applied to prohibit obscenity that goes against common standards of public [[morality]]; under US law the first amendment does not protect material considered legally obscene. The definition of obscenity has and continues to vary, with the current Supreme Court definition being the [[Miller test]]. In practical terms, this allows harmful material such as pornography to be criminalized without violating the first amendment.

Censorship may also be directed at religious ideas, as in the Saudi Arabia prohibition on preaching Christianity, liberal restrictions on public expressions of religion or the Roman Catholic Church's now-recinded ''Index Librorum Prohibitorum''.

Certain language and images that may have been censored in the past are typically common fare in the American media today. On the other hand, while nudity, for example, may be acceptable on mainstream French television, that is much less likely to be accepted in American television and even less acceptable in conservative Muslim countries.

== Quotes ==
*''"All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently the first condition of progress is the removal of censorship.'' '''[[George Bernard Shaw]]<ref>"The Author's Apology, preface to "Mrs. Warren's Profession".</ref>

== References ==

<references/>

==See also==
*[[Fairness Doctrine]]

[[Category:Law]]
[[Category:Politics]]

Brooklyn

2008-11-11T21:30:30Z

AshleyS: geographic details

'''Brooklyn''' is one of the five boroughs of [[New York City]], situated at the southwestern tip of Long Island. Sometimes referred to as "America's Fourth Largest City", including on some "welcome" signs into the borough, in actuality Brooklyn is a political subdivision of New York City (however if it was its own city it would indeed be the fourth largest, after New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago). Brooklyn is also [[coterminous]] to Kings County. It is the most populated borough in the city. and the borough with the largest land area.

Brooklyn is composed of a number of "neighborhoods", many of which have acheived a degree of fame on their own, such as Greenpoint, Flatbush, Coney Island, Williamsburg, and Bedford-Stuyvesant. Brooklyn has been the birthplace of many famous Americans, such as actresses Barbara Stanwyck and [[Clara Bow]], directors Woody Allen and Spike Lee, and singer Barbara Streisand, to name just a few.

[[Category:New York]]

Franklin D. Roosevelt

2008-11-11T21:20:23Z

AshleyS: spelling

{{President
|image=509px-FDR in 1933.jpg
|seq=32
|term_start=March 4, 1933
|term_end=April 12, 1945
|party=Democratic
|vp= John N. Garner
|vp_dates=1933-1941
|2vp=Henry A. Wallace
|2vp_dates=1941-1945
|3vp=Harry Truman
|3vp_dates=1945
|4vp=
|4vp_dates=
|previous=Herbert Hoover
|next=Harry Truman
|seq2=
|term2_start=
|term2_end=
|party2=
|vp2=
|vp2dates=
|2vp2=
|2vp2dates=
|3vp2=
|3vp2dates=
|4vp2=
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|previous2=
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|birth_date=January 30, 1882
|birth_place=Hyde Park, New York
|death_date=April 12, 1945
|death_place=Warm Springs, Georgia
|spouse=[[Eleanor Roosevelt]]
|spouse2=
|religion=[[Episcopalian]]
}}
'''Franklin Delano Roosevelt''' was the 32nd [[President of the United States of America]], 1933-45, leading the U.S. from the darkest days of the [[Great Depression]] to victory over Germany and Japan; he built the '''New Deal Coalition''' which dominated American politics into the 1960s, and is still fondly remembered by liberals. His [[New Deal]] was a very large, complex interlocking set of programs designed to produce relief (which meant jobs for the unemployed), recovery (of the GDP), and reform (by which he meant regulation of Wall Street and the economy), as well as reelection (in 1936, 1940 and 1944) and realignment of the political system. Conservatives strongly opposed many, but not all, of the New Deal programs. Conservatives abolished most of the relief programs when unemployment practically ended in the 1940s. Most of the regulations on business were ended about 1975-85, except for the regulation of Wall Street by the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]], which still exists. The major surviving program is [[Social Security]], which Roosevelt passed in 1935.

Conservatives at the time denounced his bids for presidential power, including building a national political machine through the [[WPA]] (it lasted from 1935 to 1943), attempting to take control of the Supreme Court by adding new liberal judges (an attempt which failed, 1937), and trying to purge the Democratic party of conservative congressman (an attempt which failed in 1938). The failures of those attempts can be attributed to the [[Conservative Coalition]].

After 1938 FDR turned his attention to [[World War II]]. he was a strong advocate of support for China against Japan; most conservatives agreed. He also was a strong supporter of military aid to Britain. Conservatives split on that, with the "isolationists" opposed, and others like [Henry Stimson]] in favor. Once Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. into the war, conservatives strongly supported the war effort and generally approved his military leadership, although highly critical of his close cooperation with [[Stalin]] and the Soviet Union.

He was the first and only President to be elected four times, breaking the traditional two-term-limit precedent established by [[George Washington]].<ref> Tradition was restored by the 22ndAmendment in 1947.</ref>

Roosevelt's health failed rapidly in 1944-45, even as he ran for reelection. He died On April 12, 1945. Despite polio which crippled him starting in the early 1920s, he exuded a sense of confidence and hope for the future that made for a charismatic personality.

Conservative scholars have argued that some relief efforts actually helped to prolong the [[Great Depression]]. However, government spending and prosperity combined after World War II, the most costly war in American history.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0829/p15s01-cogn.html|author=Francis, David R. |title=More Costly than "The War to End All Wars"|date=2005-08-29|accessdate = 2006-10-24 |work=Christian Science Monitor}}</ref> The amount spent on the New Deal was less than the $21 billion borrowed by the government over two years during World War I.<ref>David M. Kennedy, Freedom From Fear, page 178</ref>

==Early life==
Franklin Roosevelt studied law at Columbia University where he failed to graduate. Secretary of Labor [[Frances Perkins]], the first woman ever appointed to a cabinet post and knew FDR from his early manhood up to his death, says he was not a student, that he knew nothing of economics and that he admitted he had never read a book on the subject. <ref>''The Roosevelt I Knew,'' Frances Perkins, New York, Viking Press, 1946. p. 34.</ref>

== Election of 1932 ==
The Democrats made Government non-intervention under the Hoover administration an issue in the campaign of 1932, charging that Hoover's laissez faire approach was not working. After Roosevelt had taken office, former Democratic New York Governor Al Smith, saw Roosevelt's ultimately expansive policies as a departure from the ideals of Conservatives and supported Republican candidates in subsequent elections.

While the Democrats were damning Hoover as a big spender, at the same time he was refusing to be drawn into big spending, the Democratic House passed a bill appropriating $1,500,000,000 for old-fashioned [[pork-barrel]] outlays.

Because of Hoover's hesitance to utilize government spending to bail the nation out of the depression, he became incredibly unpopular, paving the way for Roosevelt's landslide victory in the presidential election of 1932, winning 472 electoral votes (nearly 90% of the total) and 22,800,000 popular votes (57% of the total) to defeat incumbent president Herbert Hoover.<ref>1932 Presidential Election Results http://www.uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?f=0&year=1932</ref> He was running primarily on the platform that he would help the country recover from the Great Depression with his New Deal.

== First Term ==
===Foreign policy===
On November 16, 1933, when the Roosevelt administration granted diplomatic recognition to the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics]], the USSR pledged itself to refrain "from interfering in any manner in the internal affairs of the United States." This occurred three weeks after the founding of the [[Comintern]] affiliated [[American League for Peace and Democracy]]. The process of Communist “influence” in American life was accelerated. This “influence,” as described by [[Communist party]] defector [[Louis Budenz]], was to “infiltrate key government posts, undermine the patriotism of well meaning people in strategic or confidential positions, and win over those whose words, spoken and written, have an effect on American [[public opinion]];” it was checked “partially during the [[Molotov-Ribbentrop pact|Hitler-Stalin alliance]], it went all out in the course of the [[Second World War]]."<ref>Men Without Faces, The Communist Conspiracy in the U. S. A., By Louis Budenz, New York Harper & Brothers, 1950, [http://americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=//PDFsml_AD/Men_Without_Faces-Louis_Francis_Budenz-1950-315pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=238&PHPSESSID=03d3557b41f249f71349e6d730cc8498 pg. 2] pdf.</ref>

Numerous [[Attorney General's list|Comintern affiliate]] organizations sprung up in the ensuing years, including the [[American Youth Congress]] in 1934 and the [[League of American Writers]] in 1935. [[KGB]] officers traveled the country in the guise of diplomatic and consular officials, conducting [[espionage]] activities <ref>[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/10.gif Anonymous letter to Hoover], undated (received 7 August 1943), National Security Agency Venona Collection. "[[SEMENOV]] works in AMTORG, is robbing the whole of the war industry in America. SEMENOV has his agents in all the industrial towns of the U.S.A., in all aviation and chemical war factories and in big industries."</ref> freely and offering bribes.

On February 28, 1934, Elliott Roosevelt, son of the President, and [[Anthony Fokker]] each received half a million dollars for selling fifty military aircraft to the Soviet government. <ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,756770-2,00.html ''Son's Scheme''], Time magazine, Oct. 19, 1936,</ref>

===New Deal===
:''For Main Article see '''[[New Deal]].'''''
[[Image:Flatgrowth.JPG|thumb|300px|right|Real Output and Growth remained stagnant throughout the New Deal largely due to government involvement. The Depression came back with a vengeance in 1937-1938 because of the [[economic planner]]s over emphasis on consumption, and deemphasis and persecution of producers--the people who make the economy work. ''Source:New Deal Policies and the Persistence of the Great Depression.''<ref>''New Deal Policies and the Persistence of the Great Depression: A General Equilibrium Analysis, ''Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian, Journal of Political Economy, volume 112 (2004), pages 779–816.</ref>]]
FDR is also famous for his [[New Deal]], a set of [[economic planning]] experiments that were instilled in the hope of ending the [[Great Depression]]. After many years, unemployment was finally brought down to reasonable levels as World War II began and the draft opened up more opportunities for people to move into the workforce. [[Economic growth]] was generally occurring, but the nation wasn't back on its feet until the war progressed.
Enforcement of the [[Anti-trust Act]] was considered as an essential instrument to prevent [[cartel]]s and trusts in restraint of trade which had been viewed as deadly to the system of [[free enterprise]]. On the campaign trail Roosevelt called loudly for its strict enforcement. Yet immediately upon Roosevelt's accession to office the Anti-trust Act was suspended in order to cartelize every industry in America on the Italian [[fascist]] corporative model. <ref>''The Roosevelt Myth'', John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948, Book 1, Chapter 4, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/cgi-bin/framed/2767/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Four___The_New_New_Deal.htm ''The New New Deal''].</ref> The National Recovery Act (NRA) and the [[Agricultural Adjustment Act]] (AAA) were plans to take the whole industrial and agricultural life of the country under the wing of the government, organize it into vast farm and industrial cartels, as they were called in Germany, cooperatives as they were called in Italy, and operate business and farms by economic planning schemes dictated and carried out under the supervision of government. It is also worth noting that World War II was total warfare on both sides. Even the Allied Powers such as the British took control of the nation's economy. Such intervention was very much necessary in order to gain every advantage possible against the enemy. Centralized planning allowed for greater efficiency, yet some civil liberties were suppressed in the effort. <ref>http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=420</ref>

The AAA reported to the Secretary of Agriculture but was independent of the Department of Agriculture bureaucracy. [[Harold Ware]] was a [[Communist Party USA]] (CPUSA) official in the AAA and founded the [[Ware group]]. The group consisted of young lawyers and economists, had about 75 members in 1934 and was divided into about eight cells. The AAA was later found [[unconstitutional]], but by that time the Communist operatives had established jobs in government employment. [[Alger Hiss]], [[Lee Pressman]], [[John Abt]], [[Charles Kramer]], [[Nathan Witt]], [[Henry Collins]], [[George Silverman]], [[Marion Bachrach]], [[John Herrmann]], [[Nathaniel Weyl]], [[Donald Hiss]] and [[Victor Perlo]] were all members of the Ware group. [[Harry Dexter White]], who was involved in the most auspicious policy [[subversion (political)|subversion]] as Director of the Division of Monetary Research in the [[Treasury Department]], was also affiliated with the group. The Ware group was the CPUSA's covert arm at this time. Each of these agents not only provided classified documents to Soviet intelligence, but was involved in political influence operations as well.

In 1934, a Congressional Investigation was held to examine statements by Dr. William A. Wirt, who headed the U.S. [[Department of Education|Office of Education]]. Dr. Wirt had attended a dinner party with several Brain Trusters at the home of his secretary, [[Alice Barrows]]. Barrows began working for the Office of Education in 1919 and was secretly a member of the [[Communist Party of the United States]] (CPUSA) which advocated the violent overthrow of the United States Constitution. Several of the Brain Trusters present at the dinner revealed to Wirt they were CPUSA members. Wirt testified,
{{Cquote|I was told they believe that by thwarting our then evident economic recovery, they would be able to prolong the country’s destitution until they had demonstrated to the American people that the Government must operate business and commerce. By propaganda, they would destroy institutions making long term capital loans—and then push Uncle Sam into making these loans. Once Uncle Sam becomes our financier, he must also follow his money with control and management. <ref>Hearings, House Select Committee To Investigate Certain Statements of Dr. William Wirt, 73rd Congress, 2nd Session, April 10 and 17, 1934. </ref><ref>''Dr Wirt faces the cameras and tells all'', Literary Digest v. 117 (April 21 1934) p. 7.</ref><ref>FBI Silvermaster file [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster053.pdf Volume 53 June 1946], p. 78 pdf.</ref>}}

A June 1945 [[VENONA project]] decryption of Soviet [[KGB]] wartime cables from the Washington D.C. KGB Office to Moscow's Eighth Department, the political intelligence wing, relayed information on matters regarding Attorney General Francis Biddle. KGB agent [[Charles Kramer]], who served on the staff of several U.S. Senate Subcommittees, and Barrows are the sources of the information. <ref>Venona 3706 KGB Washington to Moscow, 29 June 1945.</ref> Mary Van Kleek who headed the Russell Sage Foundation and also served on the Board of the National Council, visited Washington weekly to meet with Barrows and [[Greg Silvermaster|Nathan Gregory Silvermaster]].

During [[World War II]] Barrows was the Executive Secretary of the the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship. This organization was declared in 1953 to be a [[Glossary_of_espionage_terms#Fronts_and_cutouts|Communist front]] organization by the [[Subversive Activities Control Board]] (SACB). In its Findings of Fact, the SACB said the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship,
{{Cquote|advances positions...markedly pro-Soviet and...anti-United States Government...is a Communist-action organization which has as its primary purpose to advance the objectives of the world Communist movement under the [[hegemony]] of the Soviet Union; it has the policy to support and defend the Soviet Union under any and all circumstances...We conclude that the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship, Inc., is substantially directed, dominated, and controlled by the Communist Party of the United States...and is primarily operated for the purpose of giving aid and support to...the Soviet Union, a Communist foreign government." <ref>United States. Subversive Activities Control Board. [http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=usfexec;cc=usfexec;q1=Barrows;rgn=full text;idno=81242.0001.001;didno=81242.0001.001;view=image;seq=511;page=root;size=s;endseq=3;frm=frameset Reports of the Subversive Activities Control Board.] Washington. United States Government Printing Office. 1966. Vol. 1, p. 501.</ref>}}

====Civilian Conservation Corps====
:''Main article [[Civilian Conservation Corps]]''

Soon after President Roosevelt's inauguration in March 1933, he announced the establishment of the CCC camps to take the "boys" (age 17-23) off the street corners; they were paid $30 a month, of which $25 went to their families. The U.S. Army ran the camps, which provided a generation of young Army officers with leadership experience, as 2.5 million young men spent 6-months or 12-months in the camps. However there were no uniforms or military drills. Of all the New Deal innovations, perhaps the most generally applauded was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). It was strongly approved at the time by conservatives and liberals alike, including most religious and business leaders as a way to save the boys who were perpectually unemployed and drifting into gangs. The CCC was ended in 1943 when the need had vanished.

===Social Security===
An Old Age Social Security Bill was passed during his first term which provided for workers who reach the age of 65 a pension of $8 a week at most. The plan had to be pushed through against his procrastination until finally in the 1934 congressional elections the Republicans denounced him for his tardiness. When he did finally consent to a bill, it contained a plan for building a huge reserve fund that would extract billions from the workers' payrolls without any adequate return. Over the protest of the President, the Congress finally took that provision proposed by Roosevelt out of the law. <ref> ''Roosevelt Myth'', Book 3, Chapter 14, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Fifteen___The_Roosevelt_.htm ''The Roosevelt Myth''], John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948.</ref>

===Taxation===
FDR, in a letter to journalist Roy W. Howard, wrote,
:"What is known as consumer taxes, namely the invisible taxes paid by people in every walk of life, fall relatively much more heavily upon the poor man than on the rich man." <ref>Franklin D. Roosevelt, letter to Roy W. Howard, September 2, 1935. </ref>

[[Robert H. Jackson]], then serving as [[Internal Revenue Service]] General Counsel, observed in Congressional testimony that prior to FDR’s election, "we find those taxes bearing most heavily on the well-to-do contributed 68% per cent of the government's total internal revenue and customs receipts, while miscellaneous taxes and customs receipts, bearing most heavily upon the consumer contributed only 31.8%” By 1935 the situation was reversed with “taxes based on ability to pay contributed 38.7% . . . there has been an increase in the proportion of revenues contributed by taxes on consumption to 61.3%."<ref>Testimony of Robert Jackson, Assistant General Counsel, Treasury Department, Committee on Finance, U . S. Senate, August 6, 1985.</ref>

===Economic growth===
New capital made available for investment amounted to $348,000,000 in 1935. This was less than 1/10th of the amount available in 1929. By contrast, the British economy had nearly recovered to its 1929 levels by 1935, and the amount available for investment was almost twice as much as the United States.

{| style="background:white; color:blue" border="1" class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! United States <ref>Standard Statistics Co., ''New Honey for Operating and Producing.''</ref>
! Great Britain <ref>Midland Bank, London, ''New Issues for British Companies,'' converted from £ to $ at $4.8665.</ref>
|-
| 1927
| $3,201,000,000
| $710,509,000
|-
| 1928
| 3,062,000,000
| 983,033,000
|-
| 1929
| 3,668,000,000
| 759,174,000
|-
| 1930
| 3,039,000,000
| 394,186,500
|-
| 1931
| 1,006,000,000
| 155,728,000
|-
| 1932
| 321,000,000
| 248,191,500
|-
| 1933
| 177,000,000
| 296,856,500
|-
| 1934
| 356,000,000
| 350,388,000
|-
| 1935
| 348,000,000
| 666,710,500
|-
|}

===Congress of Industrial Organizations===
By 1935 membership in labor unions had sunk to a low figure as a result of [[unemployment]]. There were men around the President at this time that saw the tremendous possibilities of organizing labor as a political force. An industrial union is one in which all the people engaged in a single industry are included without regard to the type of skills at which they work. The industrial union was the one great instrument by which all labor could be organized and the President was urged to promote this idea as the starting point in building up a powerful political labor movement. There were three large industrial unions at that time, [[John L. Lewis]]’s [[United Mine Workers]] (UMW), the International Ladies Garment Workers Union of David Dubinsky and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of [[Sidney Hillman]].

Roosevelt tried to sell the plan to John L. Lewis of the UMW, and William Green, head of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Green and the AFL opposed the idea of industrial unions and refused, but under the leadership of Lewis, a new group of unions was formed called the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). The Comintern directed [[Lee Pressman]] <ref>FBI Report, [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster082.pdf Underground Soviet Espionage (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government], October 21, 1946, United States Government, pgs. 298 - 300 pdf. "Leon Pressman, alias Lee Pressman, served as General Counsel for the [[Agricultural Adjustment Administration]] from 1933 to 1935; in 1935 he was appointed General Counsel for the [[Works Progress Administration]]. In 1937 he was appointed to the General Counsel for the National [[Congress of Industrial Organizations]] (CIO). Pressman was also associated with various Communist front organizations. Pressman was a known contact of [[Anatoly Gorsky]], New York [[KGB]] Rezident, and KGB Agents [[Alger Hiss]] and [[Harry Dexter White]]. </ref> of the [[Ware group]] to assume the position of general counsel<ref>FBI Silvermaster file, [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster132.pdf Vol. 132, pg. 109] pdf. "Pressman is said to have run arms to Spain during the Civil War via Mexico and to have worked with General Mark Moren in the project. Moren was involved in the [[Rubens Robinson]] passport case in 1938." See also Underground Espionage Agent, Adolf Berle notes, September 2, 1939. [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page100.html]</ref><ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,789421,00.html ''32,000 & Mrs. Rubens''], Time magazine, Feb. 07, 1938. "In the first years of the Soviet Union, to escape from Russia was difficult and dangerous. Today it has become almost impossible, an attempt tantamount to suicide. Barbed and electrically charged wire, searchlight-equipped watch towers. 24-hour frontier patrols aided by bloodhounds and police dogs guard every mile of border. .... Weak from [[scurvy]] and [[dysentery]], Konarski told correspondents: 'The camp contains about 32,000 prisoners. They are kept there until [[death]] results from hard work, bad food and consequent sickness. I met two [[American citizen]]s in the camp, Arthur Hanley, a chemical engineer from California, and Edward Rose, a machinist from Boston, Mass. They said they came to Russia in 1921 as volunteer workers. Rose said he was [[arrest]]ed in Leningrad in 1923. Hanley was caught trying to escape from Russia to Latvia in 1925. Each was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, but, although they have served out their sentences, they are still being held. They told me they know of three other native-born Americans who are held prisoner in other Soviet camps.'...Mrs. Ruth Marie Rubens (alias Robinson), one U. S. citizen officially known to be in jail in Moscow (TIME, Dec. 27 [1938]). In Moscow on December 9 able, active U. S. Charge d'Affaires Loy W. Henderson learned that Mrs. Rubens had "disappeared"' from the big Hotel National next door to the U.S. Embassy. On January 18 the Soviet Foreign Office finally admitted that Mrs. Rubens was under arrest, failed to say on what charge.... hundreds of Germans are today in Soviet jails and for years German diplomatic & consular officials have not been allowed to see them."</ref> where he became known as "Comrade Big." The year 1936 was a period of furious organizing work by it among the unskilled workers of the country. As Lewis, Dubinsky, and Hillman set about organizing millions of workers they were immediately up against the problem of finding skilled organizers to promote and manage the new unions.

There had been in the United States a [[Communist]] labor organization known as the Trade Union Unity League which took its instructions directly from [[Moscow]]. It is estimated that ten or fifteen thousand Communists were in these unions. In 1934, Moscow directed the Communist party in the United States to dissolve the Trade Union Unity League unions and to march the members of those unions into the American Federation of Labor. The purpose was not to advance the cause of labor unions or to get better working conditions for the members, but to use the apparatus of the labor union as an instrument of [[revolution]]. The Communist leaders saw in the rise of the CIO a better opportunity for their own revolutionary objectives than in the AFL and instructed their members to withdraw from the AFL and go into the CIO where they achieved disproportionate influence. <ref>''The Soviet World of American Communism'', Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, and Kyrill M. Anderson, Yale University Press, 1998, Document 13, pp. 58-68. ISBN 0-300-07150-7. </ref>

Lewis was interested in bringing into existence industrial unions like his own, in which he had always believed. Roosevelt was interested in bringing into American labor unions as many voters as possible and in capturing their leadership to build a powerful labor faction which could control the Democratic party and which he and his allies could control through the vast power of the government and the vast powers of labor leaders, along with the immense financial resources that so great a labor movement would have. The Communists were interested in getting into key positions as union officers, statisticians, economists, etc., in order to utilize the apparatus of the unions to promote the cause of revolution. By the early part of 1938, over three million workers had been organized. Lewis was later to split with FDR. <ref>''Communists and the CIO: From the Soviet archives'', Harvey Klehr and John E. Haynes, Labor History, Volume 35, Issue 3 Summer 1994 , pages 442 - 446. [http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a772103056~db=all?tab=references]</ref><ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,788129-4,00.html ''Turning Point?''], Time magazine, Monday, Jul. 12, 1937.</ref>

== Third Term ==
It is fairly certain that early in 1939, if not a little sooner, FDR made up his mind to seek a third election in the [[United States presidential election, 1940|presidential election of 1940]]. FDR realized the political difficulties involved in a third nomination so he wanted to make it appear as a "draft Roosevelt" movement. He discussed other candidates with his aids, among the names were Democratic National Committee Chairman [[James Farley]], whom FDR rejected because he was [[Roman Catholic]]. The name of Paul McNutt was urged; FDR was angry McNutt would even permit his name to be discussed. FDR told Farley: "I consider it bad taste on his part to be letting his name be used when he is still a member of my administration." Roosevelt sent him as High Commissioner to the Philippines and jokingly asked: "Is that far enough?"<ref>''The Roosevelt Myth'', Book 1, Ch. 6, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Seven___The_Third_Term.htm ''The Third Term''], John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948.</ref> Historian [[Doris Kearns Goodwin]] in her book ''No Ordinary Time'' explored the decision to seek a third time and concludes FDR probably decided to enter the war at the same time he decided to run again, although he was politically unable to enter the war until the [[Japanese]] [[attack on Pearl Harbor]].

Administrative Assistants to Roosevelt included [[James Forrestal]], [[Lauchlin Currie]]<ref>Committee on Un-American Activities, "The Shameful Years: Thirty Years of Soviet Espionage in the United States," 82d Congress, 2d Session, 1951, pp. 15-17; [http://www.counterintelligencetraining.com/BK/ci_centre_bibliography.htm Required Reading List for Counterintelligence, Counterterrorism, Intelligence and Security Professionals,]The Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies, Alexandria, VA.</ref> and [[David K. Niles]]. Their function was "to get, information and to condense and summarize it for [Roosevelt's] use." <ref>''Roosevelt and Hopkins : An Intimate History'', Robert E. Sherwood, New York Harper and Brothers, 1948, [http://americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Roosevelt_and_Hopkins-An_Intimate_History-Robert_E_Sherwood-1948-1034pgs-GOV-POL.sml.pdf&id=252&PHPSESSID=03d3557b41f249f71349e6d730cc8498 pg. 226] pdf.</ref> Forrestal later was to jump from a 16th story window of Bethesda Naval Hospital psychiatric ward. <ref>''The Secret War Against the Jews: How Western Espionage Betrayed the Jewish People'', John Loftus and Mark Aarons, New York : St.Martin's Press, 1994. [http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/vegyes_/secretwar_06.rtf]</ref> Currie and Niles were to be found working for the [[KGB]].<ref>''Uncovering Stalin's Spies'' Julius W. Friend, International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence, (2000) Vol. 13 No. 3, pgs. 381 - 384. [http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/index/UN1VH8U16UMXEFGF.pdf]</ref><ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/publications/publi00039.cfm ''The Venona Story''], Robert L. Benson, Center for Cryptological History, National Security Agency. One of the special reports issued in July 1948 (1948 was a presidential election year) gives the earliest translation found that mentions friends of [[David Niles]], an important advisor to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman, "will arrange anything for a bribe." Venona message 786 New York KGB to Moscow, 1 June 1944, [http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/01_Jun_1944_R3_m1_p1.gif pg. 1], [http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/01_Jun_1944_R3_m1_p2.gif pg. 2]).</ref> Currie alerted his KGB controllers that "the United States was on the verge of breaking the Soviet code."<ref>''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'', Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, Washington, DC, Regnery, 2000, [http://books.google.com/books?id=mVpWH51F7toC&pg=PA27&lpg=PA27&dq=lauchlin+currie+break+code&source=web&ots=Yj2NHYwgxB&sig=sbZ3789Tz0jd7xPRiC6EEdeuJ48 pg. 27.] Herbert Romerstein was the Chief, Office to Counter Soviet Disinformation and Active Measures, U.S. Information Agency from (1983-1989), Staff member, U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (1978-1983), and Minority Chief Investigator, House Committee on Internal Security (1971-1975). [http://www.iwp.edu/faculty/facultyID.9/profile.asp]</ref>

=== Commander in Chief ===
[[Image:Josephstalin.jpg‎|thumb|325px|right|Roosevelt, a long-time advocate of [[Fascism#Beliefs|corporate statism]], was a great friend of [[Soviet]] leader [[Joseph Stalin]], despite the latter's war crimes and use of genocide as a political tool. Upon meeting him face-to-face for the first time at the [[Yalta Conference]], he greeted him warmly: 'I am glad to see you. I have tried for a long time to bring this about'.<ref>http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/AD_Issues/amdipl_6/stefan.html</ref> ]]
In August 1939 Stalin made an alliance with Hitler that allowed Hitler to invade Poland; the two divided P{oland and eastern Europe between them, as Germany turned toward France and Britain. With Roosevelt strongly supporting France and Britain, the American Communist Party began attacking Roosevelt in the wildest terms and did so for the next twenty-two months. It used antiwar slogans like "The Yanks Are Not Coming" and "Hands Off." It set up a "perpetual peace vigil" across the street from the White House. Communist party leader Earl Browder announced that FDR, head of the "war party of the American bourgeoisie," was no better than the Communists great enemy, FBI head J. Edgar Hoover.<ref>James G. Ryan, ''Earl Browder: The Failure of American Communism,'' (1997), p. 168. </ref> In the 1940 election, pro-Moscow elements in the CIO forced John L. Lewis to turn against Roosevelt and support the liberal Republican [[Wendell Willkie]]. Roosevelt meanwhile moved right, and brought into top jobs the GOP vice presidential nominee from 1936, Frank Knox (a conservative who became Secretary of the Navy) and conservative Republican lawyer [[Henry Stimson]], who took over the War Department. Rejecting advice from the far left, 90% of CIO members voted for Roosevelt, who was easily elected to a third term.

[[John P. Davies]] was assigned to Gen. [[Joseph Stilwell]] as Stilwell's adviser in China. Hopkins made a note at the time: "The President indicated his strong dissatisfaction with the way the whole show was running in China. He stated that Stillwell obviously hated the Chinese and that his cablegrams are sarcastic about the Chinese and this feeling is undoubtedly known to the Generalissimo."<ref>Roosevelt and Hopkin, Sherwood, pg. 739.</ref> Roosevelt and Hopkins biographer [[Robert Sherwood]] wrote that Gen. [[George C. Marshall]] told Hopkins his only serious disagreement with
Hopkins was on the issue of Stilwell. Sherwood adds that "he was unquestionably a serious nuisance to Roosevelt and there were many times when he was on the verge of recalling him."<ref> Roosevelt and Hopkin, Sherwood, pg. 740.</ref>

Roosevelt was determined to help [[England]] against [[Germany]] and at one point [[Winston Churchill]] even moved into the [[White House]] while [[Britain]] was at war. Roosevelt said in May 1941: "You know I am a juggler, and I never let my right hand know what my left hand does ... I may have one policy for Europe and one diametrically opposite for North and South America. I may be entirely inconsistent, and furthermore I am perfectly willing to mislead and tell untruths if it will help win the war."<ref>http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2008/05/deception_for_country_not_for.html</ref>

On May 19, 1942, pressured by Communist union officials of the American Communications Association, [[CIO]], Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, informed Rear Admiral Adolphus Staton that Communist radio operators were not to be removed from their ships. Less than six months earlier, Congress, with the lone dissenting vote of [[Vito Marcantonio]], enacted Public Law 351, which authorized the Secretary of the Navy to have all radio operators with a [[subversion (political)|subversive]] background taken off their ships. Rear Admiral Staton had recommended the removal of a number of Communists. In the presence of Rear Admiral S. C. Hooper and others, Knox instructed Rear Admiral Staton "that, in the opinion of the President, membership or suspected membership in the CPUSA was not sufficient to deprive a radio operator of his job." <ref>''America's Tragedy-Today'', Major Hamilton A. Long, (NY: Post Printing), pgs. 15-25.</ref> Expounding a memorandum bearing President Roosevelt's initials, Knox brushed aside the objections of Staton and Hooper, declaring that the order came from the President himself. Because the presidential command defied the law of the land, it was not put into writing. Consequently, the Communist radio operators returned to their ships and Rear Admirals Hooper and Staton were put on the inactive list.

Stalin publicly disbanded the [[Comintern]] in 1943. A Moscow message to all stations on 12 September 1943, message number 142, relating to this event is one of the most interesting and historically important messages <ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/venona/venon00008.cfm Venona 142(a) Moscow to Canberra 12 September 1943]. Text reads: "change in circumstances - and in particular the dissolution of the [[Comintern]] - necessitates a change in the method used by the workers of our residencies to keep in touch with the leaders of the local [[Communist_Party_of_the_United_States_of_America#Secret_apparatus|Communist]] organizations on intelligence matters. 
2. Our workers, by continuing to meet the leader of the Communists, are exposing themselves to danger and are giving cause [''orgs of''] local authorities to suspect that the Comintern is still in existence. 
3. We propose: 
a. That personal contact with leaders of the local Communist organizations should cease and that Communist material should not be accepted for forwarding to the Comintern. 
b. That meetings of our workers may take place only with special reliable undercover [ZAKONSPIRIROVANNYJ] contacts of the Communist [D% organizations], who are not suspected by the [''orgs of''] local authorities, exclusively about specific aspects of our intelligence work (acquiring [1 group unidentified] contacts, leads [NAVODKI], rechecking of those who are being cultivated, etc.). For each meeting it is necessary to obtain our consent. 

Representative of the Soviet Union. 

No. 4084 
Lt. Gen. [[P.M. Fitin]]. 

Notes: [a] This message is known to have been sent also to NEW YORK, SAN FRANCISCO, and OTTAWA.</ref> in the entire corpus of [[VENONA]] translations. This message clearly discloses the [[KGB]]'s connection to the Comintern and to the national Communist parties. <ref>''Counterintelligence Reader'', National Counterintelligence Center, United States, [http://www.fas.org/irp/ops/ci/docs/ci2/2ch4_a.htm Vol. 2, Ch. 4], n.d.</ref> Shortly afterwards Rear Admiral Staton, a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, was asked to testify before the Cox Committee of House of Representatives on the [[White House]] efforts to protect Communists in the Armed Forces. Staton complied in executive session. Before he could appear in public hearings, [[Adlai Stevenson]], assistant to Secretary Knox, instructed him that "there were White House orders" forbidding him to testify. <ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,777835,00.html ''Cox's Circus''], Time magazine, Monday, Jul. 19, 1943.</ref> By that time Counter-Intelligence officers had obtained irrefutable proof that the CPUSA had developed an extensive plan to abolish the Armed Forces' counter-subversive system. <ref>Long, op.cit., pg. 12.</ref>

Roosevelt himself was responsible for the order of January 1, 1944 which abolished the entire setup of the Counter-Intelligence Corps in the [[War Department]].<ref>Long, op.cit., pg. 12.</ref> On February 19 the War Department issued the order which purposely disorganized the counter-subversive reporting system of the Armed Forces. <ref>Long, op.cit., pg. 13</ref> On May 19, the day after learning of the secret order to destroy the War Department records on subversives, Senator [[StyIes Bridges]], a member of the Military Affairs Committee, demanded an explanation from Secretary of War [[Henry Stimson]]. Lieutenant General McNarney, Army Chief of Staff deputy, was "vague, evasive and obstructive." Bridges told McNarney "he could forgive an officer who makes a mistake or loses a battle, but that an officer who betrays the security of his country should be taken out and shot." McNarney admitted the order had been issued from "higher authority." After much wrangling, Secretary Stimson in a letter of May 27 promised to prevent the destruction of records on subversives. <ref>Long, op.cit., pgs. 28-31.</ref>

The War Department, on December 30, 1944, issued a secret order which expressly condoned "divided loyalty" and established as a guiding rule that "the subversive-suspect should be given the benefit of all reasonable doubt."

===Big Three conferences===
:''See also '''[[Teheran conference]]'''''

At the [[Teheran conference]] it was secretly agreed to let the Soviet Union have not only eastern Poland but also part of Finland, the Baltic States and parts of Romania. It was secretly agreed to support the Yugoslav Communist, [[Joseph Broz Tito]], and desert the pro-Western, anti-totalitarian friend, General Mihailovich. Roosevelt told a joint session of Congress upon his return to the United States that no secret arrangements had been made.

:''See also '''[[Yalta conference]]'''''

At the [[Yalta conference]] a [[reparations]] commission was set up. The Soviet Union wanted the amount to be 20 billion dollars of which the USSR would take half. It was agreed that labor might be taken as a possible source of reparations. This was a way of authorizing the seizure of human beings to work as [[slave]]s and is the basis of the crime perpetrated after hostilities ceased to which Franklin Roosevelt agreed. <ref>''Speaking Frankly'', James F. Byrnes, New York: Harper & Bros., 1947, p. 29.</ref>

Roosevelt also agreed at Yalta to have all fugitive Soviet nationals or citizens of satellite nations and tens of thousands of [[POW]]'s who elected to stay this side of the [[Iron Curtain]], returned to the Soviet Union. This was in contravention of the Geneva Convention. The ''Saturday Evening Post'' commented:
{{Cquote|With this shameful agreement as their authority, Russian [[KGB|MVD]] agents strode through the displaced-persons camps after the war and put the finger on thousands who had managed to escape the Soviet tyranny. These miserable victims were herded into boxcars and driven back to death, torture or the slow murder of the Siberian mines and forests. Many killed themselves on the way. Also under a Yalta agreement, the Russians were permitted to use German prisoners in forced labor as an item in 'reparations account.' For such inhumanities there is no excuse.<ref>''Saturday Evening Post'', Editorial, April 11, 1953, pg. 12.</ref>}}

Roosevelt not only made agreements secret from the American people but secret from his closest advisers in the government. He made agreements with Stalin hostile to the objectives of Churchill and kept secret from Churchill. He made secret agreements with [[Chiang Kai-shek]] secret from both Churchill and Stalin. He made secret agreements in derogation of Chiang Kai-shek's interests without Chiang Kai-shek's knowledge. And he made many secret agreements which no one in the U.S. State Department knew about until after his death and then learned about only at embarrassing moments from Soviet Foreign Minister [[Vyacheslav Molotov]]. <ref>''Roosevelt Myth'', Book 3, Ch. 13, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Thirteen___The_Final_Bet.htm ''The Final Betrayal''], Flynn, 1948.</ref>

== Fourth Term ==
In February 1944 Congress rejected Roosevelt's demand for a $10,500,000,000 tax increase and cut it to $2,300,000,000. Roosevelt vetoed it saying this was a "bill not for relief of the needy but of the greedy."
Senator [[Alben Barkley]], Democratic leader, rose on the floor of the Senate to say the veto was "a calculated and deliberate assault upon the legislative integrity of every member of Congress." The entire Senate united in a roar of applause. Barkley declared that after seven years of carrying the [[New Deal]] banner for Roosevelt, he would resign his post as Democratic majority leader and he called on every member of the Congress to preserve its self respect and override the veto. The Senate overrode it 72 to 14 and the House 299 to 95.

After the [[Comintern]] was disbanded Roosevelt was offered the nomination of the [[Communist]] dominated [[American Labor Party]] and he had accepted their nomination in the [[Presidential election of 1944]]. It was 825,000 votes from [[Earl Browder]] and [[Sidney Hillman]]'s American Labor Party that gave him his majority in New York State. His administration was now the hopeless prisoner of these demanding and ruthless radical labor leaders,<ref>''Roosevelt Myth'', Book 3, Ch. 12, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Twelve___The_Atlantic_Ch.htm ''The Atlantic Charter Is Scrapped''], Flynn, 1948.</ref> who had shown their ability to elect or defeat the Democratic party, who had filled all the departments and bureaus with their agents and who had insinuated their experts into the CIO labor unions and their propagandists into the radio, the movies and all the great instruments of communication and opinion - a fact which Mr. Roosevelt's successors would have to face when the war ended. <ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20060820054409/http://www.nwc.navy.mil/press/review/2000/summer/re2-su0.htm ''The Venona Progeny''], Hayen B. Peake, Naval War College Review, Summer 2000, Vol. LIII, No. 3. "[[Venona]] makes absolutely clear that they had active agents in the U.S. State Department, Treasury Department, Justice Department, Senate committee staffs, the military services, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the [[Manhattan Project]], and the [[White House]], as well as wartime agencies. No modern government was more thoroughly penetrated." [[Hayden B. Peake]] is the curator of [[Central Intelligence Agency]]’s (CIA) Historical Intelligence Collection. [http://intellit.muskingum.edu/alpha_folder/P_folder/peake.html]</ref>

So thorough was [[KGB]] penetration of the Roosevelt Administration, that when [[Army Signals Intelligence]] cryptographer [[Meredith Gardner]] extracted the names of [[Hans Bethe]], [[Niels Bohr]], [[Enrico Fermi]], [[Harold Urey]], [[Edward Teller]] and 11 other scientists working on the [[Manhattan Project]] from a December 2, 1944 KGB encypherment,<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/venona/venon00014.cfm Venona 1699 New York to Moscow, December 2, 1944].</ref> KGB agent [[William Weisband]] watched him do it.<ref>VENONA: Soviet Espionage and the American Response, 1939-1957, Robert Louis Benson and Michael Warner, eds., (Washington, D.C.: [[National Security Agency]], Central Intelligence Agency, 1996) [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/preface.htm]; The ''Baltimore Sun'' (Laura Sullivan, "SPY'S ROLE LINKED TO US FAILURE ON KOREA," 6/29/00) reported that a report newly declassified by the US National Security Agency (NSA) shows that [[William Weisband]] alerted the Soviets to extensive US eavesdropping in 1948, resulting in a complete blackout of information from the communist bloc for more than two years. This crippled the NSA's intelligence gathering efforts in the late 1940s and begins to explain why the US was caught unprepared for the [[DPRK]]'s 1950 invasion of the [[ROK]]. NSA historian David A. Hatch, who authored the report, said, "This report answers several significant questions. Up until now, there has been a great lack of knowledge surrounding some of these events ... and this should help sharpen [the public's] understanding." [Ed. note: This article was included in the US Department of Defense's Early Bird news service for June 29, 2000.] [http://www.nautilus.org/archives/napsnet/dr/0006/JUN29.html#item8] </ref>

[[Strom Thurmond]] also supported FDR's decision to seek a fourth term, and referred to Roosevelt as having been the world’s greatest leader. <ref>[http://www.kevinbaker.info/c_wtm.html What Trent Meant], Kevin Baker.</ref>

== Reflections on Christianity ==

FDR said this about the Bible in an address on October 6, 1935:

:"We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a nation, without reckoning with the place the [[Bible]] has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic."

:"Where we have been the truest and most consistent in obeying its precepts, we have attained the greatest measure of contentment and prosperity."<ref>Quoted in DeMar, ''The Untold Story'', p. 60 and Gabrial Sivan, ''The Bible and Civilization'' (New York: Quadrangle/The New York Times Book Co., 1973), p. 178.</ref>

FDR became famous for delivering "fireside chats" over the new medium of [[radio]], and on March 9, 1937 he declared:

:"I hope that you have re-read the [[United States Constitution| Constitution]] of the United States in these past few weeks. Like the Bible, it ought to be read again and again."

While running for his third time in a Brooklyn speech, Roosevelt said,

:"I am certain that the rank and file of patriotic Republicans do not realize the nature of this threat. They should remember, and we must remember, what the collaborative understanding between Communism and Nazism has done to the processes of democracy abroad...

:"Those forces hate democracy and Christianity as two phases of the same civilization. They oppose democracy because it is Christian. They oppose Christianity because it preaches democracy. Their objective is to prevent democracy from becoming strong. <ref>''Roosevelt and Hopkins'', Sherwood, 1948, pgs. 193-194 (pgs. 211 - 212 pdf).</ref>

As [[World War II]] broke out in Europe, FDR warned:

:"Those forces hate [[Democracy]] and [[Christianity]] as two phases of the same civilization."

The following year, on May 27, 1941, FDR stated in one of his radio addresses:

:The Nazis are as ruthless as the Communists in the denial of God.

"In his second inaugural address, FDR pledged to do his utmost by 'seeking Divine guidance.' He took that mission further on January 25, 1941, when he wrote a personal prologue to a special edition of the [[New Testament]], which was distributed to millions of U.S. soldiers. 'As Commander-in-Chief,' Roosevelt wrote, 'I take pleasure in commending the reading of the Bible to all who serve in the armed forces of the United States.' He believed that all American soldiers should have the opportunity to read the words of [[Christ]] in preparing for battle. Once, when joining those soldiers aboard a warship with Winston Churchill, FDR asked the crew and prime minister to join him in singing the hymn 'Onward Christian Soldiers.' In his final inaugural address, FDR affirmed, "So we pray to Him for the vision to see our way clearly ... to achievement of His will.' "<ref>God and George W. Bush (New York: Regan Books, 2004), p. 176</ref>

When American soldiers were landing on the beaches of Normandy, Roosevelt led the nation in prayer during a radio broadcast. <ref>Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, [http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/odddayp.html Franklin Roosevelt's D-Day Prayer], June 6, 1944.</ref>

==Legacy==
[[Image:Dcrosmor.jpg|right|thumb|330px|Statue of the president at [[The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial]] in Washington D.C.]]

Roosevelt is an admired but still hotly debated president. Many credit Roosevelt with helping the United States survive the Great Depression and with providing solid leadership during World War II. Others, especially conservatives, assert that he uselessly expanded the welfare state, abused executive powers, and badly botched diplomacy before and during World War II.

Roosevelt's image now appears on the [[Dime]].

==See also==
*[[New Ordeal]]
*[[Michael Whitney Straight]]

==Further reading==
*H.W. Brands, ''Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt'' (2008)
*Smith, Jean Edward. ''FDR'' (2007) [http://www.amazon.com/FDR-Jean-Edward-Smith/dp/1400061210/ref=pd_ts_b_3?ie=UTF8&s=books excerpt and text search]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

== External Links ==
* [http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=176 "The Mythology of Roosevelt and the New Deal," by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.onpower.org/history_greatdepression.html/ Great Depression]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?issueID=12&articleID=139 "On the Brink of World War II: Justus Doenecke’s ''Storm on the Horizon''," by Ralph Raico]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/working_papers/article.asp?id=1499 "Government and the Economy: The World Wars," by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=113 "How War Amplified Federal Power in the Twentieth Century," by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/store/book_detail.asp?bookID=65 ''Depression, War and Cold War'', by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/article.asp?id=138 "Wartime Prosperity?", by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/issues/article.asp?id=1431 Pearl Harbor]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/article.asp?id=1468 FDR: The Man, the Leader, the Legacy], Ralph Raico, Future of Freedom Foundation, April 1, 2001. Retrieved from The Independent Institute.org 06/17/07.


{{USPresidents}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roosevelt, Franklin D.}}

[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:Democratic Party]]
[[Category:People who were Educated at Home]]

Talk:Homosexual Historical Revisionism

2008-11-11T21:17:08Z

AshleyS: /* But but but */ Freddie Mercury

I have to argue that Alexander at the minimum engaged in long term homosexual relations. This was not uncommon in the greek culture of his day. [[User:EternalCritic|EternalCritic]] 18:00, 10 November 2008 (EST)
:I had occasion to reread Xenophon's ''The Persian Expedition'' recently. Some of the Greeks had their boys along with them. That isn't revisionism...it's primary source. [[User:AlanE|AlanE]] 18:28, 10 November 2008 (EST)

::But that does not mean they had them along for sexual purposes, as gay liberals claim.--[[User:Saxplayer|Saxplayer]] 20:32, 10 November 2008 (EST)
:::I am not going to go through and look for it, but the context was certainly sexual. It was a 1940's translation...Rex Warner...and I remember the class sniggering about it in the late fifties when it was read for our curriculum.[[User:AlanE|AlanE]] 21:12, 10 November 2008 (EST)
:::I've just thought...it seems ironic - or appropriate - that I have just been getting rid of the red links on [[Edward II]]. Including [[Berkeley Castle]].[[User:AlanE|AlanE]] 21:34, 10 November 2008 (EST)

''not supported with any citations see conservapedia commandments.'' Quite right. Do you want cites that claim the individual was gay, or cites that claim that they aren't, or one of each, or what? What would be the best way to proceed? I think the article needs examples.--[[User:Hsmom|Hsmom]] 22:03, 10 November 2008 (EST)

:The article has examples: Jesus, Paul, Robin Hood. The attempt before Conservative's edit to paint ASchlafly as a homosexual is just what a liberal considered humor, and I think you're unlikely to find any citations for it. [[User:BHarlan|BHarlan]] 22:28, 10 November 2008 (EST)

::Correction: I misread. Apparently, it was a different Schlafly, but I'm sure the same applies: this was just a liberal smear that would indicate that anyone was accusing any Schlafly of perversion, even though the intent was that John was not homosexual. Backhanded smears are common [[liberal style]].
::Even if I am wrong, it's just more evidence that liberals love to accuse prominent conservatives of homosexuality, especially if they share a name or lineage with other prominent conservatives like [[Aschlafly]]. [[User:BHarlan|BHarlan]] 00:04, 11 November 2008 (EST)

:::You are right BHarlan, that is why I started this article. Homosexual activists try to appropriate our history by blithely making these outrageous claims that "so and so was gay" with no evidence. This article is designed to highlight, and counter, their ridiculous assertions.--[[User:Saxplayer|Saxplayer]] 07:32, 11 November 2008 (EST)

It's possible you started this article as a parody. I removed the Liberace reference.

We may need an article on famous closet gays who falsely denied their homosexuality. --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] [[User talk:Ed Poor|Talk]] 09:38, 11 November 2008 (EST)

Fred Mercury was certainly gay, I don't understand his inclusion in this. I thought John Schlafly was openly gay, but I don't think he should be included in the list, for obvious reasons, anyway. [[User:DrSandstone|DrSandstone]] 12:27, 11 November 2008 (EST)

== Smear, smear, smear ==

There are three claims in the article that the purpose of claiming various figures are gay is to smear various groups of people, but this doesn't hold water. First of all, some conservatives think that being called a homosexual is a smear, but certainly gays wouldn't think that, right? So while you might think it is a smear, it is not an "attempt to smear". Second of all, even if it ''were'' their intent, there's not been presented any evidence to this fact. [[User:HelpJazz|Help]][[User talk:HelpJazz|Jazz]] 15:36, 11 November 2008 (EST)

== But but but ==

I was going to put this along with my above comment, but I think I will keep them separated for clarity. Every claim of "being gay" has a reference of someone calling that person gay, but none of them have references that show that these people were not, in fact, gay. In other words, it's not HHR to call a spade a spade, so in order to claim HHR we need to show that these people were not gay. [[User:HelpJazz|Help]][[User talk:HelpJazz|Jazz]] 15:39, 11 November 2008 (EST)

:I was rather puzzled by the presence of [[Freddie Mercury]], a noted pervert, who died of AIDS, on that list. I suspected that Mercury's name might have been added by a vandal, but I wasn't sure. —[[User:AshleyS|Asphalt P. Stanky]] 16:17, 11 November 2008 (EST)

Harry Truman

2008-11-11T21:10:11Z

AshleyS: spelling

{{President|
|name=Harry S. Truman
|image=HTruman.jpg
|country=the United States
|seq=33
|party=Democratic
|term_start=April 12, 1945
|term_end=January 20, 1953<ref>http://home.comcast.net/~sharonday7/Presidents/AP060301.htm</ref>
|vp=None
|vp_dates=1945-1949
|2vp=Alben Barkley
|2vp_dates=1949-1953
|previous=Franklin D. Roosevelt
|next=Dwight D. Eisenhower
|seq2=34
|office2=vice
|party2=
|term2_start=January 20, 1945
|term2_end=April 12, 1945
|pres2=Franklin D. Roosevelt
|previous2=Henry A. Wallace
|next2=Alben W. Barkley
|birth_date=May 8, 1884
|birth_place=Lamar, MO
|death_date=December 26, 1972
|death_place=Kansas City, MO
|spouse=Bess Wallace Truman
|spouse2=
|religion=[[Baptist]]
}}

'''Harry S. Truman,''' (1884-1972) a [[liberal]] [[Democrat]] from [[Missouri]], was the president of the United States from 1945-1953, taking over when [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] died in April 1945. He took the decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order to force Japan's surrender. Angered at the Soviet Union's seizure of eastern Europe, he moved away from FDR's [[détente]] to a policy of [[containment]], reinforced by the Truman Plan (1947) to resist Communist subversion, the [[Marshall Plan]] (1948-51) to rebuild and modernize western Europe's economies, and the [[NATO]] military alliance of 1949. Truman, advised by [[Dean Acheson]] and the State Department, set the policies to oppose the Soviet Union as the [[Cold War]] began.

Ignoring Asia, he later saw America's close ally China fall to the anti-American Communists under [[Mao Zedong]] in 1949; the US and China fought each other to a draw during the undeclared [[Korean War]], 1950-53. Truman fired his top general, [[Douglas MacArthur]], during this conflict and saw his popularity plunge.

As the war ended, the massive problem of reconverting the 45% of the economy devoted to war production baffled Truman. Listening to liberal advisors, he refused to end extremely unpopular price controls, and was unable to stop a massive wave of strikes in major industries in 1945-46. Voter dissatisfaction to the Republican capture of Congress in 1946; with Senator [[Robert A. Taft]] as the conservative Republican spokesman, Congress repealed many of the wartime restrictions on business and lowered taxes. Taft rewrote the labor laws in the [[Taft-Hartley Act of 1947]], balancing the rights of unions, management and the public interest; it became law over Truman's signature and remains in effect.

Truman began with very high popularity ratings, but they plunged to the lowest on record. Democrats were unable to stop his renomination in 1948, but the far left nominated FDR's vice president [[Henry A. Wallace]], and southern conservative Democrats nominated Dixiecrat [[J. Strom Thurmond]]. Observers almost unanimously expected victory for the Republican candidate, Governor [[Thomas E. Dewey]], liberal from New York. Total astonishment greeted Truman's stunning election victory, as he reassembled the [[New Deal Coalition]] for the fifth consecutive victory, pulling in on his coattails a Democratic Congress.

Although the Democrats organized Congress in 1949, the [[Conservative Coalition]] of Northern Republicans and Southern Democrats was in control, and Truman was to pass any of his liberal [[Fair Deal|Fair Deal program]]. Nevertheless he he pursued civil rights through executive orders, especially a 1948 order to end racial discrimination in the military. Blacks remained in segregated units, but were to receive equal treatment. Truman's failures to deal with "Korea, Communism and Corruption" forced him to withdraw from reelection in 1952 and gave the Republicans an opportunity to crusade against him and elect [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] in 1952.

Overshadowed at first by his predecessor, [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], Truman established a reputation as a blunt, unsophisticated fighter for the common man, who took responsibility for his actions because, he said, "the buck stops here." His stunning reelection victory in 1948 baffled the experts and has inspired underdogs ever since. He is more popular in 2008 than ever. His policy positions make him a heroic icon for liberals.

==Early life==

Truman was born on a farm near Lamar, in western Missouri, and grew up on a farm near Independence, Missouri. His grandparents had been Confederate sympathizers who had been rounded up by the Union army in the Civil War.<ref> His middle initial, S, does not stand for anything, but was chosen because his parents could not decide whether to name him for his grandfather Shippe or for his grandfather Solomon.</ref> After graduating from high school in Independence, with good skills in history and music, he decided against college and became a bank clerk in Kansas City. Always a joiner, he was active in the Missouri National Guard. From 1906 to 1917 he managed his father's 600-acre farm at [[Grandview, Missouri]]. During World War I his National Guard regiment was mobilized in 1917, he entered the Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, sailing for France in 1917 as a lieutenant. Truman was soon promoted to captain in Battery D, 129 Field Artillery Battalion, 35th Division, A.E.F., and returned to the United States a major in 1919, after combat at St. Mihiel and in the Argonne offensive. He was in an artillery unit, and learned about gas warfare; he was never wounded, He married Elizabeth "Bess" Wallace on June 28, 1919; they had one daughter, Margaret, who married a ''New York Times'' editor. With an army buddy he invested his savings in a Kansas City haberdashery, but this venture was a failure.

==Pendergast machine==
Discouraged by his lack of business success and without funds, Truman sought the help of friends. His farm background, his war record, his Masonic connections, his Baptist Church affiliations, and his genial personality recommended him to [[Thomas J. Pendergast]], the Democratic political boss of Kansas City and much of western Missouri. Pendergast, an Irish Catholic, had a strong base among the Irish Catholics and used Truman to reach out to Protestants, farmers and veterans. He made Truman the overseer of highways for Jackson County.

In 1922 Truman was elected a county judge; needing some legal knowledge he studied nights for two years at Kansas City Law School; it was his only education beyond high school, although he read history. In the 1924 GOP landslide he was defeated for reelection, but in 1926 he was returned to office as presiding judge of the court, the duties of which also involved administrative supervision of many county expenditures, including $60 million for public works. He almost joined the [[Ku Klux Klan]], but withdrew his application when he realized his Irish Catholic allies bitterly opposed the KKK; Truman then campaigned against the Klan.
==Senate==
In 1934 Pendergast arranged for Truman's nomination as United States Senator on the Democratic ticket; he was elected in the democratic landslide as a supporter of Roosevelt and the New deal. His first term in office was uneventful, except for a failed effort to prevent the renomination of Maurice Milligan for U.S. District Attorney for the Western District of Missouri; Milligan had obtained the conviction of 35 Pendergast "ward leaders" for vote frauds.

===World War II===
He was re-elected in 1940 after a terrific battle against [[Lloyd Stark]], Truman became nationally infamous as chairman of the "Truman Committee". Ostensibly for the purpose of investigating waste, fraud and inefficiency in government contracts, the committee allowed Truman and his associates to interfere in many aspects of Executive policy on the prosecution of the war. The committee frequently tampered with or even canceled contracts with legitimate suppliers of essential war materials when they would not deal with Truman's Kansas City patrons, the Pendergasts. Its formal name was the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program. Nevertheless, he was an energetic and forthright supporter of the [[New Deal]] and won widespread party favor for his attacks on business malfeasance in war production. He forced changes in the aircraft and ship construction programs, and worked well with other border state Democrats, especially [[Alben Barkley]] of Kentucky, the Majority Leader.

===FDR picks a new vice president===
In 1944, after Vice-President [[Henry A. Wallace]] had been rejected by leading Democrats as too far to the left, Truman supported his friend former senator [[James F. Byrnes]] of South Carolina for that office. Catholics vetoed Byrnes, who had left that faith. Truman himself became Roosevelt's choice as a compromise vice presidential candidate, and the two were elected.

Roosevelt had been in ill-health since his return from the [[Teheran conference]]. At the 1944 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, DNC Chairman Bob Hannegan went for instructions to President Roosevelt's private railway car just before the July convention officially began. Roosevelt had decided to dump incumbent Vice-President [[Henry Wallace]]. Worried over dissension on the choice of a successor, Roosevelt told Hannegan: "Go on down there and nominate Truman before there's any more trouble. And clear everything with Sidney." <ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,791619,00.html "Clear everything with Sidney"], [[Time magazine]], Sep. 25, 1944.</ref> The President could not make the selection of Truman until [[Sidney Hillman]] <ref>''The Roosevelt Myth'', John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948, Book 2, Ch. 8, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Eight___The_Shock_Troops.htm ''The Shock Troops of the Third New Deal'']</ref>, Director of the Political Action Committee for the Congress on Industrial Organizations (CIO) approved it. <ref> ''Roosevelt Myth'', Book 3, Ch. 10, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Ten___Politics__Disease_.htm ''Politics, Disease and History''], Flynn, 1948.</ref> When Harry Truman walked into the smoke-filled room <ref>[http://www.booknotes.org/Transcript/index_print.asp?ProgramID=1109 ''Truman''], Interview with David McCullough, C-Span Booknotes, July 19, 1992. Retrieved August 6, 2007.</ref> of DNC at headquarters at the Stevens Hotel in Chicago, Soviet spies [[John Abt]], [[Lee Pressman]], and [[Nathan Witt]], were on hand." <ref>''The Yalta Betrayal'', Felix Wittmer, Claxton Printers, 1953, pg. 75.</ref>

==Presidency==
Roosevelt ignored Truman between the election in November 1944 and the inauguration in January; even as Vice president Truman was not consulted on national policies, and not informed of major decisions, nor of the atomic bomb. Although he realized Roosevelt's health was failing rapidly, he made no preparations for assuming the presidency and did not even build up a staff of advisors. Truman succeeded to the Presidency upon the death of FDR on April 12, 1945.

President Truman pledged that in office he would carry on the liberal domestic policies of Roosevelt. He distrusted most of FDR's cabinet and set about to assemble his own team.

===Winning World War II===

During his term as President, he presided over the conclusion of [[World War II]] in both [[Europe]] and [[Japan]].
On April 25 his telephoned speech opened the San Francisco Conference establishing the [[United Nations]]. A week later Germany surrendered, and from July 17 to August 2, 1945, Truman attended the [[Potsdam Conference]] with Britain's [[Winston Churchill]] (soon replaced by the new prime minister [[Clement Attlee]]) and [[Joseph Stalin]] of the Soviet Union.

===Atomic bomb===
The alternative Truman faced was to order use of the atomic bomb which might shock the Japanese into surrender, or order the planned invasion of Japan's home islands; casualty estimates for Americans ranged very widely. Casualty estimates for Japan ranged into the millions. Secretary of War [[Henry Stimson]] made the real decision: to drop atomic bombs on [[Hiroshima]] and [[Nagasaki]]. Japan immediately surrendered on terms that allowed Emperor [[Hirohito]] to stay on the throne and not be tried as a war criminal. Truman put General [[Douglas MacArthur]] in charge of occupying and controlling Japan; MacArthur remained in charge until the peace treaty was finally signed in 1951.

Truman kept control of the bomb in civilian hands—the Air Force and State Department did not even know how many bombs existed until 1948, when only eight had been built. The postwar military strategy was not built around nuclear weapons.

====Debating the decision====

=====Conservatives and liberals=====

In general, conservatives and liberals alike have applauded and supported the a-bomb decision because it shortened the war, and prevented hundreds of thousands or millions of casualties. The New Left or "revisionist" interpretation argues that the bomb was not necessary to end the war and that no invasion was necessary. They have no evidence to support that argument. They do have fragments of evidence that give weak support to the argument that one American goal was to intimidate the Soviet Union. The revisionists believe the US should have stayed friends with the Soviets, and that Truman was guilty for starting the Cold War (which they consider a bad thing). Morally the revisionists assume the USA was no better or worse than the Soviets—admitting to Soviet atrocities, they argue that socialism was morally superior to capitalism, which itself was a great evil the US intended to spread. In terms of the bomb, Secretary of State James Byrnes did make some offhand references to influencing Moscow, but his comments did not reflect the policy of the State Department or White House, and certainly not those of Stimson, who was by far the most important decision-maker.
Vice President Truman had been kept uninformed about the atomic bomb; he had little interest in military affairs and his chief military aide, General Harry Vaughan, was a drinking buddy likewise unfamiliar with what was happening in the war. Truman therefore relied entirely on his Secretary of War, [[Henry Stimson]]. At Potsdam he approved the atomic bomb targets selected by Stimson and, on the way home, he authorized the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki three days later.

====How the decision was made====
The decision to drop the atomic bomb has been the focus of one of the most heated debates among both scholars and the public since 1945. After 1945 the debate was dominated by "traditionalist" scholars, who argued that the U.S. had no choice but to drop the bomb as a way to bring World War II to an end. The traditionalists were succeeded in the 1960s by "revisionists," who asserted that the dropping of the bomb was done to intimidate Stalin, not end the war. The leading revisionist historians emerged from the "new left" movement of the 1960s and rejected any notion of the moral superiority of America or capitalism to the Soviet Union. They thought the Cold War and containment were poor policies and generally favored détente, along the lines proposed by Henry Wallace. They include Gar Alperovitz, Barton J. Bernstein, Kai Bird, Diane Shaver Clemens, Bruce Cumings, Richard Freeland, Lloyd Gardner, Gabriel Kolko, Walter LaFeber, Thomas Paterson, Harvard Sitkoff, Ronald Steel, Athan Theoharis, and William A. Williams (the leader of the "Wisconsin School"). The revisionists are not monolithic, but they usually agree that Truman and his advisers were wrong whether the issue is the Cold War, Korea, or the atomic bomb. Revisionists had argued that Truman's goal at Potsdam was to prevent Soviet entry into the war against Japan, and the atomic bomb was used to scare them off. However in 1983 archivists discovered a letter Truman wrote to his wife from Potsdam on July 18, 1945: "I've gotten what I came for-- Stalin goes to war August 15 with no strings on it . . . I'll say that we'll end the war a year sooner now, and think of the kids who won't be killed! That's the important thing."<ref>''New York Times'' March 14, 1983. </ref>

In the 1990s, a more nuanced historical approach emerged searching for a middle ground, offering a number of more credible studies, essentially arguing that neither the traditional nor the revisionist interpretations were entirely satisfactory.<ref>J. Samuel Walker, "Recent Literature on Truman's Atomic Bomb Decision: a Search for Middle Ground." ''Diplomatic History'' 2005 29(2): 311-334. Issn: 0145-2096 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]</ref>

==Domestic affairs==
===Reconversion of the economy to peacetime===
The process of reconversion to peacetime was rocky. It was impossible to bring soldiers home fast enough, and they and their families protected loudly. All war contract were canceled, shutting down munitions plants and throwing millions of workers (many of them women) out of jobs, just as the 12 million service members were coming home. Truman sought to retain price controls against the vehement opposition of business but yielded somewhat in the face of bitter popular opposition. Large-scale strikes disrupted the economy, especially a coal miners strike and a threatened nationwide strike by railroad workers. He threatened to draft the railroad workers and the strike was called off; unions began to oppose him but he regained union support by his later attempts to veto or repeal the [[Taft-Hartley]] labor relations law. Truman's opposition to tax cuts, his insistence on price controls, and his lack of aggressive support of labor programs weakened his party. To voters frustrated with shortages and controls, Truman seemed indecisive and inconsistent; his efforts to deal with a postwar wave of strikes managed to alienate both organized labor and those who wanted more restraints on unions. Voters who normally supported liberal and labor candidates stayed home, resulting in a Republican landslide in 1946, giving the GOP a majority in both houses of Congress. Ohio Senator [[Robert A. Taft]] became the main GOP spokesman in Congress, tangling often with Truman.
===Moving left===
Gradually Truman created his own administration, using the '''''Fair Deal''''' label to express its goals in domestic affairs. Truman systematically removed the Roosevelt cabinet and inner circle of advisors. The most dramatic episode was firing [[Henry A. Wallace]] in 1946 because of his outspoken criticism of the administration's foreign policy as too harsh on the Soviet Union. Liberals saw themselves in a struggle with conservatives for Truman's soul after the 1946 election. Linked to the President through top aide [[Clark Clifford]], these liberals included Oscar Ewing, former party official and director of the Federal Security Agency, Leon Keyserling, member of the President's Council of Economic Advisors, and David Morse, assistant secretary of labor. They embraced the memo plotting 1948 campaign strategy written by former Roosevelt adviser James Rowe, which urged Truman to "move to the left and focus on building a coalition of groups that centered on organized labor, liberals, and northern urban African Americans."<ref> The memo until 1991 was mis-attributed to Clifford, who passed it along to Truman.</ref> Liberals had national support from the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), led by [[Walter Reuther]], [[Eleanor Roosevelt]], Joseph Rauh, James Rowe, [[Reinhold Niebuhr]], [[Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.]], [[Hubert Humphrey]], and [[Ronald Reagan]]<ref> Reagan was an energetic liberal supporter of Truman. He moved to the right in the late 1950s.</ref> . The ADA was hostile to the Soviet Union, battled American Communists and fellow travelers like Wallace, and supported the purge of Communists from the [[CIO]] labor unions. Truman agreed with the ADA and moved left after 1946.<ref> Steven M. Gillon, ''Politics and Vision: the ADA and American Liberalism, 1947-1985'' (1987).</ref>

However he could not tolerate [[Henry A. Wallace]] and the far left, which had considerable Communist support. When Wallace, then Secretary of Commerce, in 1946 denounced Truman's tough stand against Stalin, Truman fired Wallace.

In 1947 Truman asked Congress for stand-by price controls, rationing, and bank and consumer credit control as parts of an anti-inflation program, but his ideas were ignored by the Republicans who controlled Congress. In his state of the union message of Jan. 7, 1948, Truman called for rent control, increased social security benefits, universal military training, national health insurance, and other social legislation. The next week he again asked for passage of his anti-inflation measures. In February 1948 he asked for civil-rights legislation, including a federal anti-lynching law, a federal fair employment practices commission, a permanent civil rights commission, and abolition of the poll tax--measures that enraged many Southern Democrats. None of his proposals became law. More successful was Truman's drive to increase the efficiency of the executive branch; he appointed a commission headed by former President [[Herbert Hoover]] which recommended numerous changes, including unification of the armed services.

===Civil Rights===
Disgusted by violence against black veterans in the deep South, Truman called for the extension of the wartime [[FEPC]] program that called for fair employment practices, but Congress refused and it ended. He created the Presidential Commission on Civil Rights in 1946 by executive order (with no congressional approval needed); it recommended desegregation of local public facilities and the removal of restrictive covenants that prevented blacks and Jews from purchasing houses in restricted neighborhoods. The Commission generated attention but no action.<ref> Steven F. Lawson, ed. ''To Secure These Rights: The Report of Harry S. Truman's Committee on Civil Rights.'' (2004)</ref> Indeed, Congress refused to pass any civil rights legislation before 1957. Truman therefore decided to use his executive powers, and focused on guaranteeing equal opportunity in the military and the civil service. The Army and Navy operated segregated units, and refused to be part of a "social experiment" in integration.<ref> Bernard C. Nalty, ''Strength For the Fight: A History of Black Americans in the Military'' (1986)</ref> The Air Force, however, was much more willing. Between 1941 and 1951 it went from a segregated force to the first truly integrated service. Key generals became convinced that segregation was a drag on efficiency, and the Air Force decided to integrate in April 1948. before Truman issued his famous Executive Order 9981 on July 26, 1948, calling for equal opportunity in all the armed services. It allowed segregation but called for "equality of treatment and opportunity." In the face of opposition from some high-ranking officers, the Air Force moved cautiously, but by 1951 the last black unit was dissolved and the Air Force was completely integrated.<ref> Alan L. Gropman, ''The Air Force Integrates, 1945-1964.'' (2nd ed 1998) [http://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/Publications/Annotations/gropmanintegrates.htm online edition]. </ref> Order 9981 created the Fahy Committee to implement the new policy. Truman's order did not actually integrate the Army--it used segregated units during the Korean War--but it opened the way for integration in the early 1950s.<ref> Richard M. Dalfiume, ''Desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces: Fighting on Two Fronts, 1939-1953.'' (1969)</ref> Public opinion was generally favorable except in the deep South (which voted against Truman in 1948).

==1948 election==
As the presidential election of 1948 approached, no one thought Truman could be reelected. Truman's policies had alienated left right and center, but the party had no real alternative. Neither Roosevelt nor Truman had groomed a likely successor. Party leaders considered asking [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] to run, but he refused. Liberals led by Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota inserted a strong civil rights plank in the platform, causing a walkout of the deep South. Truman was renominated by default, with Barkley as the vice-presidential candidate. Truman thrilled the convention by announcing his plan to call the Republican-controlled Congress back into special session to "ask them to pass the laws to halt rising prices, to meet the housing crisis--which they say they are for in their platform." When this special session accomplished little, as Truman expected, it gave the president a chance to attack the "Do Nothing" Congress.

Both the left and right wings of the party split off and ran their own candidates. Henry Wallace, the candidate of the Progressive Party, was expected to divert labor, leftist and black votes, while [[J. Strom Thurmond]] was the "Dixiecrat" candidate whose supporters controlled the Democratic party in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina.<ref> Thurmond received only 15% of the vote in the other Southern states. Kari Frederickson, ''The Dixiecrat Revolt and the End of the Solid South, 1932-1968.'' (2001) </ref> Truman exploited his multiple opponents, driving a wedge between the liberals and the Communists who controlled the Wallace movement, and holding the line in the outer South. Most of all he exploited the difference between the conservative Republicans who controlled Congress, and the liberal Republican candidate [[Tom Dewey]]. Truman crusaded against the Republicans as evil rich men, blasting them as fascists and denouncing the 80th Congress for its failure to help the average citizen.<ref>''Time'' magazine reported that "His irresponsible implication that a vote for Thomas Dewey was a vote for fascism horrified his soberer followers." ''Time'' Jan 3, 1949 at [http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/personoftheyear/archive/stories/1948.html]</ref> "Give 'em hell" fury delivered in 275 speeches over 21,928 train-miles had more impact that Truman's promises of more money for federal housing, higher social security and unemployment benefits, free medical care for everyone, the continued subsidy of farm prices, and a fair deal for minorities. The pollsters misjudged the election, as did all the traditional pundits. Truman rallied enough of the [[New Deal Coalition]] to win by 2.2 million votes, and carry in a Democratic Congress on his coattails. The key farm states of the farm states of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Ohio that Dewey had carried in 1944 now switched to Truman, giving a solid victory in the electoral college of 303 for Truman, 189 for Dewey, 39 for Thurmond, and none for Wallace.<ref> Harold I. Gullan, ''The Upset That Wasn't: Harry S. Truman and the Crucial Election of 1948'' (1998); Gary A. Donaldson, ''Truman Defeats Dewey'' (1998) </ref>

==Second Term: Fair Deal==
During Truman's second term as president, he pressed for civil rights legislation, compulsory national health insurance, and other domestic measures that he called his "Fair Deal" program. Almost nothing was passed by Congress, which was controlled by the [[Conservative Coalition]]. His seizure of the steel industry to prevent a strike was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

In foreign affairs, Truman brought in [[Dean Acheson]] as Secretary of State, and promoted the Point Four program of aid to underdeveloped countries. The policy of containing Communism was operationalized by the creation, in 1949, of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to oversee the integration of the military forces of its member nations in Western Europe and North America. A further step was taken in 1951 with the establishment of the Mutual Security Agency to coordinate U.S. economic, technical and military aid abroad.
===Agriculture===
Truman won the farm vote in 1948 by charging the GOP shoved "a pitchfork in the farmer's back", but was unable to get new farm programs passed. His second secretary of agriculture, Charles F. Brannan promoted the Brannan Plan, intended to bring widespread changes to farm policy. Brannan proposed to replace market price supports with direct income payments to farmers. His plan set ceilings on the amount a farmer could receive and limited the program to farmers who did not exceed a set production mark. The Brannan Plan was supposed to foster the "family-sized farm" while providing affordable food for consumers. While Brannan could count on support from the left, especially the National Farmers Union (which was small), labor unions (which were powerful), and consumer groups (which were weak), he was opposed by leading farm economists and the national Farm Bureau (which was large) and the national Chamber of Commerce (representing business). The head of the Farm Bureau decried the plan as intrusive, a form of "creeping socialism," and expensive. The Farm Bureau, dominated by conservatives, resisted any curbs on full agricultural production. A bloc of Midwestern Republican and southern Democratic congressmen opposed replacing market mechanisms with outright government payments to farmers and setting limits on supports to individual farms. The Brannan Plan went nowhere and instead, the conservative farm bloc passed the Agricultural Act of 1949 with high price supports.<ref> See Dean (2006)</ref>

==National Security==
===Truman Doctrine and origins of Cold War===
In early 1947 the British government, which was socialist but anti-Communist, secretly told Washington its treasury was empty and it could no longer give military and economic aid to Greece or Turkey, requested the U.S. take over. Acheson convinced Truman to act quickly lest Greece be taken over by its communist partisans who were at the time strongly supported by the Soviet government working through the communist Bulgarian and Yugoslav governments. If Greece fell, Turkey would be helpless and soon the eastern Mediterranean would fall under Stalin’s control. In a dramatic message to Congress on March 12, 1947, President Truman said that the U. S. must take immediate and resolute action to support Greece and Turkey.<ref> Turkey did not have an insurrection, but it was such a bitter rival of Greece that it had to get money if Greece did.</ref> The Republican Congress, after extensive hearings, approved this historic change in U. S. foreign policy in a bill signed May 22, 1947. Thus was born the “Truman Doctrine.” Greece suppressed the insurgents; both Greece and Turkey joined NATO.<ref>
Joseph C. Satterthwaite, "The Truman Doctrine: Turkey," ''Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,'' Vol. 401, (May, 1972), pp. 74-84 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1039114 in JSTOR]</ref>
===Recognition of Israel===
Truman usually followed the advice of the State Department in national security matters, largely ignoring the Pentagon and Congress. In the case of recognition of the independent state of Israel in 1948, however, he overruled the urgent pleas of the State Department and immediately recognized Israel. State had warned that recognition would anger the Arabs in the Middle East; Truman, howver, was more responsive to domestic politics, where support for Israel was widespread.<ref> Michael T. Benson, ''Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel'' (1997) [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-S-Truman-Founding-Israel/dp/0275958078/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221429694&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]; for the State Departmenrt perspective see Evan M. Wilson, "The American Interest in the Palestine Question and the Establishment of Israel," ''Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,'' Vol. 401, (May, 1972), pp. 64-73 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1039113 in JSTOR]</ref>

===Religion===
Truman, a Southern Baptist, sought religious allies in the Cold War. He tried to unite the world's religions in a spiritual crusade against communism, sending his personal representative to Pope [[Pius XII]] to coordinate not only with the Vatican but also with the heads of the Anglican, Lutheran, and Greek Orthodox churches. "If I can mobilize the people who believe in a moral world against the Bolshevik materialists," Truman wrote in 1947, "we can win this fight." Since the [[Roman Catholic Church]] was his strongest religious ally in the moral battle against international communism, Truman put Rome first in his global strategy, even trying to confer formal diplomatic recognition on the Vatican. At home, he received solid support from Catholics, who were a major element of the [[New Deal Coalition]], but overwhelming resistance from Protestants, especially Southern Baptists who rejected anything "popish." Truman's political-diplomatic effort to formalize a public, faith-driven, ecumenical international campaign failed.<ref> Elizabeth Edwards Spalding, "True Believers" ''Wilson Quarterly'' 2006 30(2): 40-44, 46-48. Issn: 0363-3276 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]</ref>

===Loss of China===
[[Chiang Kai-shek]], America's wartime ally and head of the Nationalist forces in China, was caught between two wars—a war on China by [[Japan]] and a war with [[Mao Zedong]] and the Chinese Communists. The U.S. policy was to avoid a civil war and to threaten to withhold additional aid to the Nationalists unless they worked out a compromise. No compromise was possible, and Truman refused to send in combat troops to fight the civil war. General [[George Marshall]], who spent a year in China as Truman's emissary, testified that combat aid might have prevented a Communist victory, but General David Barr's military mission to China was specifically instructed not to supply this kind of assistance. <ref>Military Situation in the Far East, Hearings before the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, 82nd Congress (Washington, 1951), p. 558.</ref> General [[Albert C. Wedemeyer]] recommended this approach in his report on his 1947 fact-finding mission, but Marshall personally suppressed the report. <ref>Tang Tsou, ''America's Failure in China, 1941-1945'', Chicago 1964, pg. 457.</ref> Chiang believed that the [[Truman Doctrine]] to [[Containment|contain]] the spread of [[International Communism]] directed from Moscow would be extended to China, and ordered an offensive as soon as word of the new policy reached him. <ref>Richard C. Thornton, ''China: A Political History, 1917-1980'', Boulder CO 1982, pg. 208.</ref>

[[Dean Rusk]], Assistant Secretary of State in charge of the Far Eastern Division, said on May 18,1951 what the critics had been saying,
{{Cquote|The independence of China is gravely threatened. In the Communist world there is room for only one master. . . . How many Chinese in one community after another are being destroyed because they love China more than they love [[Soviet Russia]]? The freedoms of the Chinese people are disappearing. Trial by mob, [[democide|mass slaughter]], banishment to [[slavery|forced labor]] in [[Manchuria]] and Siberia. . . . The peace and security of China are being sacrificed by the ambitions of the Chinese conspiracy. China has been driven by foreign masters into an adventure in foreign aggression.}}
John T. Flynn observes that critics of the [[FDR]] and Truman Administrations who had been saying this earlier were denounced as “[[Fascists]].”<ref>''While You Slept: Our Tragedy in Asia and Who Made It'', John T. Flynn, New York: The Devin-Adair Company, 1951, [http://www.mises.org/books/whileyouslept.pdf pg. 161] pdf.</ref> Rusk continued,
{{Cquote|We do not recognize the authorities in [[Peiping]] for what they pretend to be. It is not the government of China. It does not pass the first test. It is not Chinese. . . . We recognize the [[Kuomintang|Nationalist government of the Republic of China]] even though the territory under its control is severely restricted. <ref>Hearings before the Senate Committee on Armed Services and Committee on Foreign Relations (also known as the Mac Arthur Inquiry), June 2, 1951.</ref>…we believe it more authoritatively represents the views of the great body of the people of China, particularly their demand for independence from foreign control….That government will continue to receive important aid and assistance from the United States.}}

===Risks in Korea===
Conditions inviting the North Korean attack were created by the [[United Nations]] which issued a resolution for withdrawal of both Soviet and American troops. Troops began withdrawing September 15, 1948, leaving only about 7500 Americans lightly armed. This left in South Korea 16,000 Koreans and 7500 Americans, both groups lightly armed, against 150,000 fully armed North Korean Communists. General Roberts, head of the U. S. Military Mission said the South Koreans were not permitted to arm adequately.
The Korean part of Wedemeyer's report was suppressed. Wedemeyer said:
{{Cquote|American and Soviet forces . . . are approximately equal, less than 50,000 troops each, [but] the Soviet-equipped and trained North Korean People's (Communist) Army of approximately 125,000 is vastly superior to the United States-organized constabulary of 16,000 Koreans equipped with Japanese small arms. The North Korean People's Army constitutes a potential military threat to [[South Korea]], since there is strong possibility that the Soviets will withdraw their occupation forces and thus induce our own withdrawal."<ref>Hearings before the Senate Committee on Armed Services and Committee on Foreign Relations, June 6, 1951.</ref>}}

Wedemeyer warned that this would take place as soon as "they can be sure that the [[North Korea]]n [[puppet government]] and its armed forces . . . are strong enough . . . to be relied upon to carry out Soviet objectives without the actual presence of Soviet troops."
===Communists inside US===
The bipartisan statutory [[Moynihan Secrecy Commission]] concluded, "President Truman was almost willfully obtuse as regards American Communism." <ref>Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy. Senate Document 105-2. 103rd Congress. Washington, D.C. United States Government Printing Office. 1997. [http://www.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/04dpm.pdf Chairman's Forward, pg. XL] pdf.</ref>
===Foreign policy: détente to containment===
Truman had no knowledge or interest in foreign policy before becoming president, and depended on the State Department for foreign policy advice.<ref> By 1946 he had two valuable aides Clark Clifford and George Elsey.</ref> Truman shifted from FDR's détente to [[containment]] as soon as [[Dean Acheson]] convinced him the Soviet Union was a long-term threat to American interests. They viewed communism as a secular, millennial religion that informed the Kremlin's worldview and actions and made it the chief threat to American security, liberty, and world peace. They rejected the moral equivalence of democratic and Communist governments and concluded that until the regime in Moscow changed only American and Allied strength could curb the Soviets. Following Acheson's advice, Truman in 1947 announced the [[Truman Doctrine]] of containing Communist expansion by furnishing military and economic American aid to Europe and Asia, and particularly to Greece and Turkey. He followed up with the [[Marshall Plan]], which was enacted into law as the European Recovery Program (ERP) and led ultimately to [[NATO]], the North Atlantic Alliance for military defense, signed in 1949. On May 14, 1948, Truman announced recognition of the new state of [[Israel]], making the United States the first major power to do so.

==Korean War==
The [[Korean War]] began at the end of June 1950 when North Korea, a Communist country, invaded South Korea, which was under U.S. protection. Without consulting Congress Truman ordered General [[Douglas MacArthur]] to use all American forces to resist the invasion. Truman then received approval from the United Nations, which the Soviets were boycotting. UN forces managed to cling to a toehold in Korea, as the North Koreans outran their supply system. A counterattack at Inchon destroyed the invasion army, and the UN forces captured most of North Korea on their way to the Yalu River, Korea's northern border with China. Truman defined the war goal as [[rollback]] of Communism and reunification of the country under UN auspices. China intervened unexpectedly, drove the UN forces all the way back to South Korea. The fighting stabilized close to the original 38th parallel that had divided North and South. MacArthur wanted to continue the rollback strategy but Truman arrived at a new policy of containment, allowing North Korea to persist. Truman's dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur in April 1951 sparked a violent debate on U.S. Far Eastern policy, as Truman took the blame for a high-cost stalemate with 37,000 Americans killed and over 100,000 wounded.

Truman fired his ineffective defense secretary Louis Johnson, and brought back [[George Marshall]].
===NSC-68===
The top-secret [[NSC-68]] policy paper was the grounds for escalating the Cold War, especially in terms of spending on rearmament and building the hydrogen bomb. The integration of European defense was given new impetus by continued U.S. support of NATO, under the command of General Eisenhower. Truman committed the US to contain Communist expansion in Vietnam, where the Communists under [[Ho Chi Minh]] were trying to overthrow the French colonial regime. The State Department insisted that France give more autonomy to the Vietnamese. The US paid for about 80% of the French war costs. The problem was that the French were more interested in preserving their grandiose empire, and less interested in stopping Communism, while the US opposed colonial empires and saw Communism as the great threat to world peace and stability.

Following NSC-68, Truman's last four budgets saw expenditures on national security quadruple from $13 billion in 1950 to $50 billion in 1953.

===1952 election===
On the political front, revelation of scandals in the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, in the Bureau of Internal Revenue and even the White House<ref> Truman's wife accepted an expensive deep freeze appliance in 1945; with General Vaughan as the fixer, the donor was given special privileges in Europe. </ref> opened the administration to attack.

Truman sought reelection in 1952 despite his dismal showing in the polls. He was defeated in the New Hampshire primary by Senator [[Estes Kefauver]] of Tennessee, and withdrew. Truman supported Illinois Governor [[Adlai Stevenson]]. Eisenhower won the GOP nomination and crusading against the Truman administration's failures regarding "Korea, Communism and Corruption," was elected in a landslide, ending 20 years of Democratic control of the presidency.

==Retirement==
Truman returned to his home in Independence, Missouri. He devoted himself to creating the Truman Library there; it was dedicated in July 1957 and is a part of the National Archives. With a staff of assistants he wrote his memoirs in two well-received volumes, gave many interviews, and intervened occasionally in Democratic national politics on behalf of liberal candidates such as [[Adlai Stevenson]].

He died on December 26, 1972.

==Evaluations==
Already by the 1960s he had become a hero to liberals and Democrats, nostalgic over the successes of the [[New Deal Coalition]] that sputtered and collapsed in the 1960s. Even Republicans came to forget the nasty days and celebrated Truman as the hero of the underdogs and the man who rebuilt Europe through the Marshall Plan and stood up to Communism through NATO.

Truman's reputation among scholars has gone from very low when he left office, to high after 1990. He is now widely considered to have been a tough-minded, decisive, and effective leader who ably guided the nation through the perilous waters of the early Cold War and whose policy of containment essentially laid the foundations for American "victory" in that prolonged conflict in 1989. For many historians, the down-to-earth Midwesterner now merits consideration as one of the greatest American presidents. In recent years presidential aspirants of both parties have claimed Truman as their own, especially if their election chances seem as hopeless as Truman's did in 1948. His reputation has been bolstered by scholarly biographies by Ferrell (1994), Hamby (1995), and especially McCullough's Pulitzer prize-winning popular biography (1992). The in-depth analysis by Leffler (1992), cautiously praised the Truman administration's essential wisdom in handling a myriad of problems.

While Truman's public image was headed up, his reputation among scholars declined in the 1970s. Kirkendall concluded in 1974 that negative appraisals of Truman and his administration "may in fact have become the dominant interpretation, at least among the younger scholars."<ref> Kirkendall, ''Truman Period as a Research Field: A Reappraisal 1972'' (1974) p 6</ref> In terms of foreign policy a strong negative view comes from Offner (2002) who argues that Truman was a "parochial nationalist" whose "uncritical belief in the superiority of American values and political-economic interests," conviction that "the Soviet Union and Communism were the root cause of international strife," and "inability to comprehend Asian politics and nationalism" intensified the postwar conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, precipitated the division of Europe, and set Sino-American relations on a path of long-term animosity. Rather than being a great statesman who carefully weighed various policy alternatives, Offner asserts that Truman's myopia "created a rigid framework in which the United States waged long-term, extremely costly global cold war". As his title suggests, the Cold War was at best a Pyrrhic victory for the United States.<ref> Quotes from Offner (2002) p. xii</ref>

Truman became the model of the underdog who fights back and wins when the experts unanimously predict defeat. Gerald Ford, who had bitterly denounced Truman as a young Congressman proudly proclaimed the Missourian as his hero and conspicuously displayed a bust of Truman in the oval office after Ford became president in 1974. In the 1976 campaign both Ford and his Democratic rival, [[Jimmy Carter]], outdid one another in claiming to be cast from the Truman mold. By 1980 when the Gallup Poll asked "Of all the Presidents we've ever had, who do you wish were President?", Harry Truman finished an impressive third behind Kennedy and FDR.

====notes====

==Further reading: basic books and articles==
* Burnes, Brian. ''Harry S. Truman: His Life and Times'' (2003), popular biography [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-S-Truman-Life-Times/dp/0974000930/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Dallek, Robert. ''Harry Truman'' (2008) short, popular biography by scholar. [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Truman-Presidents-President-1945-1953/dp/0805069380/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221386001&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Donovan, Robert J. ''Conflict and Crisis: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1945-1948'' (1977); ''Tumultuous Years: 1949-1953'' (1982) detailed 2-vol political history by well-informed journalist; well balanced
* Fleming, Thomas J. ''Harry S. Truman, President'' (1993) for middle school audience.
* Graff, Henry F., ed. ''The Presidents: A Reference History''. 2nd ed. 1996, 443–458. ISBN 0-684-80471-9; by leading scholar
* Hamby, Alonzo L. ''Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman'' (1995), the best scholarly biography; written by conservative historian who likes HST
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "An American Democrat: A Reevaluation of the Personality of Harry S. Truman," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 106, No. 1 (Spring, 1991), pp. 33-55 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2152173 in JSTOR]
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "Truman, Harry S."; [http://www.anb.org/articles/07/07-00307.html; ''American National Biography'' Online Feb. 2000] by a leading conservative historian
* Kirkendall, Richard S. ''Harry S. Truman Encyclopedia'' (1990), very useful articles on people, events and policies in HST's career
* Kirkendall Richard S. "Harry S Truman a Missouri Farmer in the Golden Age," ''Agricultural History,'' Vol. 48, No. 4 (Oct., 1974), pp. 467-483 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/3741384 in JSTOR]
* McCullough, David. ''Truman''. (1993), 1120 pp ISBN 0-671-86920-5 best-selling biography; moderate in tone; Pulitzer Prize [http://www.amazon.com/Truman-David-McCullough/dp/0671869205/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* McCullough, David. ''Harry S. Truman'', short essay [http://www.pbs.org/newshour/character/essays/truman.html online edition]
* Offner, Arnold A. ''Another Such Victory: President Truman and the Cold War.'' (2002) 640pp, New Left and hostile to HST; [http://books.google.com/books?id=P5tbHSsBS-AC&pg=PP1&dq=intitle:another+intitle:victory+inauthor:offner&num=30&as_brr=0&sig=pWo43stsPrIrtTfZXJicvWB3zCY excerpts and text search]
* [http://www.amazon.com/American-Experience-Truman/dp/B000BYRCG0/ref=pd_bbs_4/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1193347436&sr=8-4 ''American Experience: Truman'' (2006), from PBS]
* [http://www.amazon.com/Classic-President-Harry-Truman-Films/dp/B000JD7MV8/ref=sr_1_14/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1193347436&sr=8-14 "Classic President Harry S Truman Films: 1945-1965'' (2006) 40 newsreels, 101 minutes]

==Advanced bibliography==
These are secondary source by scholars; unless noted they are generally liberal and supportive of Truman.
===Biographies===
* Burnes, Brian. ''Harry S. Truman: His Life and Times'' (2003); popular biography; [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-S-Truman-Life-Times/dp/0974000930/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Cochran, Bert. ''Harry S. Truman and the Crisis Presidency'' (19730, 432 pages; portrays a cynical courthouse politician
* Donovan, Robert J. ''Conflict and Crisis: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1945-1948'' (1977); ''Tumultuous Years: 1949-1953'' (1982), good, detailed 2-vol political history by well-informed journalist
* Ferrell, Robert H. ''Harry S. Truman: A Life'' (1994), brief overview
* Fleming, Thomas J. ''Harry S. Truman, President'' (1993) for middle school audience.
* Gosnell, Harold Foote. ''Truman's Crises: A Political Biography of Harry S. Truman'' (1980)
* Graff, Henry F., ed. ''The Presidents: A Reference History''. 2nd ed. 1996, 443–458. ISBN 0-684-80471-9
* Hamby, Alonzo L. ''Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman'' (1995), very well received scholarly biography [http://www.amazon.com/Man-People-Truman-Oxford-Paperbacks/dp/0195124979/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193438333&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "The Liberals, Truman, and the FDR as Symbol and Myth," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 56, No. 4 (Mar., 1970), pp. 859-867 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1917522 in JSTOR]
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "Truman, Harry S."; [http://www.anb.org/articles/07/07-00307.html; ''American National Biography'' Online Feb. 2000]
* Kirkendall, Richard S. ''Harry S. Truman Encyclopedia'' (1990)
* McCullough, David. ''Truman''. . ISBN 0-671-86920-5 best-selling biography; Pulitzer Prize [http://www.amazon.com/Truman-David-McCullough/dp/0671869205/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Miller, Richard Lawrence. ''Truman: The Rise to Power'' (2002), critical evaluation emphasizing corruption of Pendergast machine

===Foreign policy===
* Appleman, Roy E. ''South to the Naktong, North to the Yalu (June-November 1950)'' (United States Army in the Korean War) (1960); official U.S. Army history, [http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/korea/20-2-1/toc.htm online version]
* Beisner, Robert L. ''Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War'' (2006), 800pp; a standard scholarly biography; covers 1945-53 only
* Benson, Michael T. ''Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel'' (1997) [http://www.questia.com/read/15103137 online edition]
* Berger, Henry. "Bipartisanship, Senator Taft, and the Truman Administration," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 90, No. 2 (Summer, 1975), pp. 221-237 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2148235 in JSTOR]
* Bernstein Barton J. "Roosevelt, Truman, and the Atomic Bomb, 1941-1945: A Reinterpretation," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 90, No. 1 (Spring, 1975), pp. 23-69 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2148698 in JSTOR], influential New left essay
* Blair, Clay ''The Forgotten War: America in Korea, 1950-1953'', Naval Institute Press (2003) revisionist study that attacks Truman and top Army leaders for near-criminal incompetence
* Divine, Robert A. "The Cold War and the Election of 1948," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 59, No. 1 (Jun., 1972), pp. 90-110 [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8723%28197206%2959%3A1%3C90%3ATCWATE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-C in JSTOR]
* Frazier, Robert. "Acheson and the Formulation of the Truman Doctrine" ''Journal of Modern Greek Studies'' 17#2 (1999), pp. 229-251 online at [[Project Muse]]
* Gaddis, John Lewis. "Reconsiderations: Was the Truman Doctrine a Real Turning Point?" ''Foreign Affairs'' 1974 52(2): 386-402. ISSN 0015-7120
* Giangreco, D. M. "'A Score of Bloody Okinawas and Iwo Jimas': President Truman and Casualty Estimates for the Invasion of Japan," ''Pacific Historical Review,'' Vol. 72, No. 1 (Feb., 2003), pp. 93-132 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/3642102 in JSTOR] shows Truman was indeed by very high invasion casualties
* Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi. ''Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan.'' (2005). 382 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Racing-Enemy-Stalin-Truman-Surrender/dp/0674016939/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193349212&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Hogan, Michael J. ''A Cross of Iron: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of the National Security State, 1945-1954'' (2000) [http://www.amazon.com/Cross-Iron-National-Security-19451954/dp/0521795370/ref=sr_1_34/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347927&sr=8-34 excerpt and text search]
* Ivie, Robert L. "Fire, Flood, and Red Fever: Motivating Metaphors of Global Emergency in the Truman Doctrine Speech." ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 1999 29(3): 570-591. ISSN 0360-4918 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001303753 online edition]
* Lacey, Michael J. ed. ''The Truman Presidency'' (1989), major essays by scholars
* Matray, James I. "Truman's Plan for Victory: National Self-Determination and the Thirty-Eighth Parallel Decision in Korea," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 66, No. 2 (Sep., 1979), pp. 314-333 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1900879 in JSTOR] Truman planned rollback of Communism in North Korea
* Merrill, Dennis. "The Truman Doctrine: Containing Communism and Modernity" ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 2006 36(1): 27-37. ISSN 0360-4918
* Offner, Arnold A. "'Another Such Victory': President Truman, American Foreign Policy, and the Cold War." ''Diplomatic History'' 1999 23(2): 127-155. ISSN 0145-2096
* Ojserkis, Raymond P. ''Beginnings of the Cold War Arms Race: The Truman Administration and the U.S. Arms Build-Up'' (2003) [http://www.questia.com/read/102018810 online edition]
* Pelz, Stephen. "When the Kitchen Gets Hot, Pass the Buck: Truman and Korea in 1950," ''Reviews in American History'' 6 (December 1978), 548-55. Online at Project MUSE
* Pierpaoli, Paul G. Jr.; ''Truman and Korea: The Political Culture of the Early Cold War.'' University of Missouri Press, 1999 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=108668070 online edition]
* Smith, Geoffrey S. "'Harry, We Hardly Know You': Revisionism, Politics and Diplomacy, 1945-1954," ''American Political Science Review'' 70 (June 1976), 560-82. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-0554(197606)70%3A2%3C560%3A%22WHKYR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-%23 in JSTOR]
* Spalding, Elizabeth Edwards. ''The First Cold Warrior: Harry Truman, Containment, And the Remaking of Liberal Internationalism'' (2006) [http://www.amazon.com/First-Cold-Warrior-Containment-Internationalism/dp/0813123925/ref=sr_1_22/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347812&sr=8-22 excerpt and text search]
* Wainstock, Dennis D. ''Truman, MacArthur, and the Korean War'' (1999) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23387043 online edition]
* Walker, J. Samuel. ''Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs against Japan'' (1997) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=35245486 online complete edition]; [http://www.amazon.com/Prompt-Utter-Destruction-Truman-Against/dp/080785607X/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193348187&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Walker, J. Samuel. "Recent Literature on Truman's Atomic Bomb Decision: A Search for Middle Ground" ''Diplomatic History'' April 2005 - Vol. 29 Issue 2 Pp 311-334 fulltext in [[EBSCO]]

===Domestic policy and politics===
* Bernstein Barton J. "The Truman Administration and the Steel Strike of 1946," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 52, No. 4 (Mar., 1966), pp. 791-803 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1894347 in JSTOR]
* Billington, Monroe. "Civil Rights, President Truman and the South," ''Journal of Negro History,'' Vol. 58, No. 2 (Apr., 1973), pp. 127-139 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2716825 in JSTOR]
* Dean, Virgil W. "Charles F. Brannan and the Rise and Fall of Truman's 'Fair Deal' for Farmers." ''Agricultural History'' 1995 69(1): 28-53. Issn: 0002-1482
* Dean, Virgil W. ''An Opportunity Lost: The Truman Administration and the Farm Policy Debate.'' 2006. 275 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Opportunity-Lost-Truman-Administration-Policy/dp/0826216501/ref=sr_1_10/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193434622&sr=1-10 excerpt and text search]
* Derickson, Alan. "'Take Health from the List of Luxuries': Labor and the Right to Health Care, 1915-1949." ''Labor History'' 2000 41(2): 171-187. Issn: 0023-656x Fulltext: in Taylor and Francis, Swetswise, Ingenta, and [[Ebsco]]
* Donaldson, Gary A. ''Truman Defeats Dewey'' (1998)
* Farhang, Sean, and Ira Katznelson. "The Southern Imposition: Congress and Labor in the New Deal and Fair Deal," ''Studies in American Political Development'' (2005), 19: 1-30; [http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=324401 online edition]
* Freeland, Richard M. ''The Truman Doctrine and the Origins of McCarthyism: Foreign Policy, Domestic Policy, and Internal Security, 1946-48'' (1989), revisionist; New left attack on Truman for being too anti-Communist
* Fried, Richard M. ''Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective.'' 1990. [http://www.questia.com/read/79027083 online complete edition]; [http://www.amazon.com/Nightmare-Red-McCarthy-Era-Perspective/dp/0195043618/ref=sr_1_11/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193514847&sr=8-11 excerpt and text search]
* Gardner, Michael R. ''Harry Truman and Civil Rights: Moral Courage and Political Risks.'' (2002) 296 pp.[http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=105233906 online edition]
* Hamby, Alonzo. ''Beyond the New Deal: Harry S. Truman and American Liberalism'' (1973), the most sophisticated biography; by a prominent conservative historian
* Hartmann, Susan M. ''Truman and the 80th Congress'' (1971) [http://www.questia.com/read/77360404 online edition]
* Heller, Francis H. ''Economics and the Truman Administration'' (1982) [http://www.amazon.com/Economics-Truman-Administration-Francis-Heller/dp/0700602178/ref=sr_1_9/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193434622&sr=1-9 excerpt and text search]
* Karabell, Zachary. ''The Last Campaign: How Harry Truman Won the 1948 Election'' (2001) [http://www.amazon.com/Last-Campaign-Harry-Truman-Election/dp/0375700773/ref=sr_1_24/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=11973347812&sr=8-24 excerpt and text search]
* Koenig, Louis W. ''The Truman Administration: Its Principles and Practice'' (1956) [http://www.questia.com/read/8522614 online edition]
* Komarek de Luna, Phyllis. ''Public versus Private Power during the Truman Administration: A Study of Fair Deal Liberalism.'' Peter Lang, 1997. 253 pp.
* Lacey, Michael J. ed. ''The Truman Presidency'' (1989), major essays by scholars
* Lee, R. Alton. ''Truman and Taft-Hartley: A Question of Mandate.'' (1966) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=99000111 online edition]
* Leuchtenburg, William E. ''The White House Looks South: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson.'' (2005). 668 pp.
* Levantrosser, William F. ed. ''Harry S. Truman: The Man from Independence'' (1986). 25 essays by scholars and Truman aides. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23428395 online edition]
* McCoy, Donald. ''The Presidency of Harry S. Truman'' (1984), standard scholarly survey by conservative historian; [http://www.amazon.com/Presidency-Harry-S-Truman-American/dp/0700602550/ref=sr_1_8/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193514606&sr=8-8 excerpt and text search]
* Marcus, Maeva ''Truman and the Steel Seizure Case: The Limits of Presidential Power'' (1994) [http://www.questia.com/read/22816992 online edition]
* Phillips, Cabel. ''The Truman Presidency: The History of a Triumphant Succession'' (1966), by a journalist who interviewed many key players
* Pierpaoli, Paul G. Jr. ''Truman and Korea: The Political Culture of the Early Cold War.'' (1997). ISBN 0-8262-1206-9. focus on the homefront [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=16627966265512 online review]
* Ryan, Halford R. ''Harry S. Truman: Presidential Rhetoric'' (1993) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=27994601 online edition]
* Sitkoff, Harvard. "Harry Truman and the Election of 1948: The Coming of Age of Civil Rights in American Politics," ''Journal of Southern History,'' Vol. 37, No. 4 (Nov., 1971), pp. 597-616 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2206548 in JSTOR]
* Theoharis, Athan. "The Truman Administration and the Decline of Civil Liberties: The FBI's Success in Securing Authorization for a Preventive Detention Program," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 64, No. 4 (Mar., 1978), pp. 1010-1030 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1890734 in JSTOR], leftwing attack on Truman for being too harsh on possible subversives
* Theoharis, Athan. ''The Truman Presidency: The Origins of the Imperial Presidency and the National Security State'' (1979), revisionist, New left attack on HST
* Theoharis, Athan. ''Seeds of Repression: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of McCarthyism'' (1977), New Left attack on HST for being so hostile to domestic Communists
* Thompson, Francis H. ''The Frustration of Politics: Truman, Congress, and the Loyalty Issue, 1945-1953.'' 1979. 246 pp.
* Vaughan, Philip H. "The Truman Administration's Fair Deal for Black America." ''Missouri Historical Review'' 1976 70(3): 291-305. Issn: 0026-6582

===Primary sources===
* Bernstein, Barton J., Ed. ''The Truman Administration: A Documentary History'' (1966); 2nd edition published as ''Politics and Policies of the Truman Administration'' (1970), revisionist
* [http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/publications/ERP/ Council of Economic Advisors, ''Economic Report of the President'' (annual 1947- )], complete series online; important analysis of current trends and policies, plus statistcial tables
* Ferrell, Robert H. ed. ''Dear Bess: The Letters from Harry to Bess Truman, 1910-1959'' (1983)
* Ferrell, Robert H. ed. ''Off the Record: The Private Papers of Harry S. Truman'' (1980).
* Merrill, Dennis. ed. ''Documentary History of the Truman Presidency, (1995- ) 35 volumes; available in some large academic libraries.
* Miller, Merle ''Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman'' (1974)
* Neal, Steve. ed. ''HST: Memories of the Truman Years.'' (2003)280pp; long excerpts from 20 oral history interviews (some of which are online at the Truman Library site).
* Neal, Steve. ed. ''Miracle of '48: Harry Truman's Major Campaign Speeches & Selected Whistle-Stops'' (2003); 43 speeches
* Truman, Harry S. ''Where the Buck Stops: The Personal and Private Writings of Harry S. Truman'' edited by Margaret Truman (1990) [http://www.amazon.com/Where-Buck-Stops-Personal-Writings/dp/0446391751/ref=pd_bbs_sr_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221386001&sr=8-6 excerpt and text search]
* Truman, Harry S. ''Memoirs'' 2 vol (1955). [http://tera-3.ul.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/reader.pl?call=30151&search= vol 1 online]
* Truman, Margaret. ''Harry S. Truman''. (1973). memoir by his daughter
* Truman, Harry S. ''The Autobiography of Harry S. Truman'' edited compilation of excerpts by Robert H. Ferrell (2002) [http://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Harry-S-Truman/dp/0826214452/ref=pd_bbs_sr_5/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-5 excerpt and text search]
* [http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/ ''The Public Papers of the Presidents'' contain most of Truman's public messages, statements, speeches, and news conference remarks. Documents such as Proclamations, and Executive Orders]

==Historiography==
* Ferrell, Robert H. ''Harry S. Truman and the Cold War Revisionists.'' 2006. 142 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Truman-Cold-War-Revisionists/dp/0826216536/ref=sr_1_6/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193349212&sr=8-6 excerpt and text search]
* Geselbracht, Raymond. "Creating the Harry S. Truman Library: The First Fifty Years," ''Public Historian'', 28 (Summer 2006), 37–78.
* Hartmann, Susan M. "The 1948 Election and the Configuration of Postwar Liberalism" ''Reviews in American History'' 28.1 (2000) 105-111 in [[Project Muse]]
* Heller, Francis H., ed. ''The Korean War: A 25 Year Perspective'' (1977), essays by scholars
* Heller, Francis H., ed. ''The Truman White House: The Administration of the Presidency, 1945-1953'' (1980), essays by scholars
* Heller, Francis H., ed. ''Economics and the Truman Administration'' (1981), essays by scholars
* Kirkendall, Richard S. ed. ''Harry's Farewell: Interpreting and Teaching the Truman Presidency'' (2004) essays by scholars
* Kirkendall, Richard S., ed. ''The Truman Period as a Research Field: A Reappraisal 1972'' (1974)
* Tull, Charles J. "The State of the Art in Truman Research," in William F. Levantrosser, ed. ''Harry S. Truman: The Man from Independence'' (1986), 1-31 aides. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23428395 online edition]
* Walker, J. Samuel "Recent Literature on Truman's Atomic Bomb Decision: a Search for Middle Ground." ''Diplomatic History'' 2005 29(2): 311-334. Issn: 0145-2096 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]

==External links==
*[http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/ht33.html Biography]
*[http://www.trumanlibrary.org Presidential Library]
*[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/index.php The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb], Truman Library.
*[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/small/mb12a.htm President Truman to Senator Richard B. Russell], August 9, 1945.
====notes====
<references/>

{{USPresidents}}
{{USVicePresidents}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Truman, Harry}}

[[Category:Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:Vice Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:Democratic Party]]

Harry Truman

2008-11-11T21:08:47Z

AshleyS: spelling

{{President|
|name=Harry S. Truman
|image=HTruman.jpg
|country=the United States
|seq=33
|party=Democratic
|term_start=April 12, 1945
|term_end=January 20, 1953<ref>http://home.comcast.net/~sharonday7/Presidents/AP060301.htm</ref>
|vp=None
|vp_dates=1945-1949
|2vp=Alben Barkley
|2vp_dates=1949-1953
|previous=Franklin D. Roosevelt
|next=Dwight D. Eisenhower
|seq2=34
|office2=vice
|party2=
|term2_start=January 20, 1945
|term2_end=April 12, 1945
|pres2=Franklin D. Roosevelt
|previous2=Henry A. Wallace
|next2=Alben W. Barkley
|birth_date=May 8, 1884
|birth_place=Lamar, MO
|death_date=December 26, 1972
|death_place=Kansas City, MO
|spouse=Bess Wallace Truman
|spouse2=
|religion=[[Baptist]]
}}

'''Harry S. Truman,''' (1884-1972) a [[liberal]] [[Democrat]] from [[Missouri]], was the president of the United States from 1945-1953, taking over when [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] died in April 1945. He took the decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order to force Japan's surrender. Angered at the Soviet Union's seizure of eastern Europe, he moved away from FDR's [[détente]] to a policy of [[containment]], reinforced by the Truman Plan (1947) to resist Communist subversion, the [[Marshall Plan]] (1948-51) to rebuild and modernize western Europe's economies, and the [[NATO]] military alliance of 1949. Truman, advised by [[Dean Acheson]] and the State Department, set the policies to oppose the Soviet Union as the [[Cold War]] began.

Ignoring Asia, he later saw America's close ally China fall to the anti-American Communists under [[Mao Zedong]] in 1949; the US and China fought each other to a draw during the undeclared [[Korean War]], 1950-53. Truman fired his top general, [[Douglas MacArthur]], during this conflict and saw his popularity plunge.

As the war ended, the massive problem of reconverting the 45% of the economy devoted to war production baffled Truman. Listening to liberal advisors, he refused to end extremely unpopular price controls, and was unable to stop a massive wave of strikes in major industries in 1945-46. Voter dissatisfaction to the Republican capture of Congress in 1946; with Senator [[Robert A. Taft]] as the conservative Republican spokesman, Congress repealed many of the wartime restrictions on business and lowered taxes. Taft rewrote the labor laws in the [[Taft-Hartley Act of 1947]], balancing the rights of unions, management and the public interest; it became law over Truman's signature and remains in effect.

Truman began with very high popularity ratings, but they plunged to the lowest on record. Democrats were unable to stop his renomination in 1948, but the far left nominated FDR's vice president [[Henry A. Wallace]], and southern conservative Democrats nominated Dixiecrat [[J. Strom Thurmond]]. Observers almost unanimously expected victory for the Republican candidate, Governor [[Thomas E. Dewey]], liberal from New York. Total astonishment greeted Truman's stunning election victory, as he reassembled the [[New Deal Coalition]] for the fifth consecutive victory, pulling in on his coattails a Democratic Congress.

Although the Democrats organized Congress in 1949, the [[Conservative Coalition]] of Northern Republicans and Southern Democrats was in control, and Truman was to pass any of his liberal [[Fair Deal|Fair Deal program]]. Nevertheless he he pursued civil rights through executive orders, especially a 1948 order to end racial discrimination in the military. Blacks remained in segregated units, but were to receive equal treatment. Truman's failures to deal with "Korea, Communism and Corruption" forced him to withdraw from reelection in 1952 and gave the Republicans an opportunity to crusade against him and elect [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] in 1952.

Overshadowed at first by his predecessor, [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], Truman established a reputation as a blunt, unsophisticated fighter for the common man, who took responsibility for his actions because, he said, "the buck stops here." His stunning reelection victory in 1948 baffled the experts and has inspired underdogs ever since. He is more popular in 2008 than ever. His policy positions make him a heroic icon for liberals.

==Early life==

Truman was born on a farm near Lamar, in western Missouri, and grew up on a farm near Independence, Missouri. His grandparents had been Confederate sympathizers who had been rounded up by the Union army in the Civil War.<ref> His middle initial, S, does not stand for anything, but was chosen because his parents could not decide whether to name him for his grandfather Shippe or for his grandfather Solomon.</ref> After graduating from high school in Independence, with good skills in history and music, he decided against college and became a bank clerk in Kansas City. Always a joiner, he was active in the Missouri National Guard. From 1906 to 1917 he managed his father's 600-acre farm at [[Grandview, Missouri]]. During World War I his National Guard regiment was mobilized in 1917, he entered the Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, sailing for France in 1917 as a lieutenant. Truman was soon promoted to captain in Battery D, 129 Field Artillery Battalion, 35th Division, A.E.F., and returned to the United States a major in 1919, after combat at St. Mihiel and in the Argonne offensive. He was in an artillery unit, and learned about gas warfare; he was never wounded, He married Elizabeth "Bess" Wallace on June 28, 1919; they had one daughter, Margaret, who married a ''New York Times'' editor. With an army buddy he invested his savings in a Kansas City haberdashery, but this venture was a failure.

==Pendergast machine==
Discouraged by his lack of business success and without funds, Truman sought the help of friends. His farm background, his war record, his Masonic connections, his Baptist Church affiliations, and his genial personality recommended him to [[Thomas J. Pendergast]], the Democratic political boss of Kansas City and much of western Missouri. Pendergast, an Irish Catholic, had a strong base among the Irish Catholics and used Truman to reach out to Protestants, farmers and veterans. He made Truman the overseer of highways for Jackson County.

In 1922 Truman was elected a county judge; needing some legal knowledge he studied nights for two years at Kansas City Law School; it was his only education beyond high school, although he read history. In the 1924 GOP landslide he was defeated for reelection, but in 1926 he was returned to office as presiding judge of the court, the duties of which also involved administrative supervision of many county expenditures, including $60 million for public works. He almost joined the [[Ku Klux Klan]], but withdrew his application when he realized his Irish Catholic allies bitterly opposed the KKK; Truman then campaigned against the Klan.
==Senate==
In 1934 Pendergast arranged for Truman's nomination as United States Senator on the Democratic ticket; he was elected in the democratic landslide as a supporter of Roosevelt and the New deal. His first term in office was uneventful, except for a failed effort to prevent the renomination of Maurice Milligan for U.S. District Attorney for the Western District of Missouri; Milligan had obtained the conviction of 35 Pendergast "ward leaders" for vote frauds.

===World War II===
He was re-elected in 1940 after a terrific battle against [[Lloyd Stark]], Truman became nationally infamous as chairman of the "Truman Committee". Ostensibly for the purpose of investigating waste, fraud and inefficiency in government contracts, the committee allowed Truman and his associates to interfere in many aspects of Executive policy on the prosecution of the war. The committee frequently tampered with or even canceled contracts with legitimate suppliers of essential war materials when they would not deal with Truman's Kansas City patrons, the Pendergasts. Its formal name was the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program. Nevertheless, he was an energetic and forthright supporter of the [[New Deal]] and won widespread party favor for his attacks on business malfeasance in war production. He forced changes in the aircraft and ship construction programs, and worked well with other border state Democrats, especially [[Alben Barkley]] of Kentucky, the Majority Leader.

===FDR picks a new vice president===
In 1944, after Vice-President [[Henry A. Wallace]] had been rejected by leading Democrats as too far to the left, Truman supported his friend former senator [[James F. Byrnes]] of South Carolina for that office. Catholics vetoed Byrnes, who had left that faith. Truman himself became Roosevelt's choice as a compromise vice presidential candidate, and the two were elected.

Roosevelt had been in ill-health since his return from the [[Teheran conference]]. At the 1944 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, DNC Chairman Bob Hannegan went for instructions to President Roosevelt's private railway car just before the July convention officially began. Roosevelt had decided to dump incumbent Vice-President [[Henry Wallace]]. Worried over dissension on the choice of a successor, Roosevelt told Hannegan: "Go on down there and nominate Truman before there's any more trouble. And clear everything with Sidney." <ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,791619,00.html "Clear everything with Sidney"], [[Time magazine]], Sep. 25, 1944.</ref> The President could not make the selection of Truman until [[Sidney Hillman]] <ref>''The Roosevelt Myth'', John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948, Book 2, Ch. 8, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Eight___The_Shock_Troops.htm ''The Shock Troops of the Third New Deal'']</ref>, Director of the Political Action Committee for the Congress on Industrial Organizations (CIO) approved it. <ref> ''Roosevelt Myth'', Book 3, Ch. 10, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Ten___Politics__Disease_.htm ''Politics, Disease and History''], Flynn, 1948.</ref> When Harry Truman walked into the smoke-filled room <ref>[http://www.booknotes.org/Transcript/index_print.asp?ProgramID=1109 ''Truman''], Interview with David McCullough, C-Span Booknotes, July 19, 1992. Retrieved August 6, 2007.</ref> of DNC at headquarters at the Stevens Hotel in Chicago, Soviet spies [[John Abt]], [[Lee Pressman]], and [[Nathan Witt]], were on hand." <ref>''The Yalta Betrayal'', Felix Wittmer, Claxton Printers, 1953, pg. 75.</ref>

==Presidency==
Roosevelt ignored Truman between the election in November 1944 and the inauguration in January; even as Vice president Truman was not consulted on national policies, and not informed of major decisions, nor of the atomic bomb. Although he realized Roosevelt's health was failing rapidly, he made no preparations for assuming the presidency and did not even build up a staff of advisors. Truman succeeded to the Presidency upon the death of FDR on April 12, 1945.

President Truman pledged that in office he would carry on the liberal domestic policies of Roosevelt. He distrusted most of FDR's cabinet and set about to assemble his own team.

===Winning World War II===

During his term as President, he presided over the conclusion of [[World War II]] in both [[Europe]] and [[Japan]].
On April 25 his telephoned speech opened the San Francisco Conference establishing the [[United Nations]]. A week later Germany surrendered, and from July 17 to August 2, 1945, Truman attended the [[Potsdam Conference]] with Britain's [[Winston Churchill]] (soon replaced by the new prime minister [[Clement Attlee]]) and [[Joseph Stalin]] of the Soviet Union.

===Atomic bomb===
The alternative Truman faced was to order use of the atomic bomb which might shock the Japanese into surrender, or order the planned invasion of Japan's home islands; casualty estimates for Americans ranged very widely. Casualty estimates for Japan ranged into the millions. Secretary of War [[Henry Stimson]] made the real decision: to drop atomic bombs on [[Hiroshima]] and [[Nagasaki]]. Japan immediately surrendered on terms that allowed Emperor [[Hirohito]] to stay on the throne and not be tried as a war criminal. Truman put General [[Douglas MacArthur]] in charge of occupying and controlling Japan; MacArthur remained in charge until the peace treaty was finally signed in 1951.

Truman kept control of the bomb in civilian hands—the Air Force and State Department did not even know how many bombs existed until 1948, when only eight had been built. The postwar military strategy was not built around nuclear weapons.

====Debating the decision====

=====Conservatives and liberals=====

In general, conservatives and liberals alike have applauded and supported the a-bomb decision because it shortened the war, and prevented hundreds of thousands or millions of casualties. The New Left or "revisionist" interpretation argues that the bomb was not necessary to end the war and that no invasion was necessary. They have no evidence to support that argument. They do have fragments of evidence that give weak support to the argument that one American goal was to intimidate the Soviet Union. The revisionists believe the US should have stayed friends with the Soviets, and that Truman was guilty for starting the Cold War (which they consider a bad thing). Morally the revisionists assume the USA was no better or worse than the Soviets—admitting to Soviet atrocities, they argue that socialism was morally superior to capitalism, which itself was a great evil the US intended to spread. In terms of the bomb, Secretary of State James Byrnes did make some offhand references to influencing Moscow, but his comments did not reflect the policy of the State Department or White House, and certainly not those of Stimson, who was by far the most important decision-maker.
Vice President Truman had been kept uninformed about the atomic bomb; he had little interest in military affairs and his chief military aide, General Harry Vaughan, was a drinking buddy likewise unfamiliar with what was happening in the war. Truman therefore relied entirely on his Secretary of War, [[Henry Stimson]]. At Potsdam he approved the atomic bomb targets selected by Stimson and, on the way home, he authorized the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki three days later.

====How the decision was made====
The decision to drop the atomic bomb has been the focus of one of the most heated debates among both scholars and the public since 1945. After 1945 the debate was dominated by "traditionalist" scholars, who argued that the U.S. had no choice but to drop the bomb as a way to bring World War II to an end. The traditionalists were succeeded in the 1960s by "revisionists," who asserted that the dropping of the bomb was done to intimidate Stalin, not end the war. The leading revisionist historians emerged from the "new left" movement of the 1960s and rejected any notion of the moral superiority of America or capitalism to the Soviet Union. They thought the Cold War and containment were poor policies and generally favored détente, along the lines proposed by Henry Wallace. They include Gar Alperovitz, Barton J. Bernstein, Kai Bird, Diane Shaver Clemens, Bruce Cumings, Richard Freeland, Lloyd Gardner, Gabriel Kolko, Walter LaFeber, Thomas Paterson, Harvard Sitkoff, Ronald Steel, Athan Theoharis, and William A. Williams (the leader of the "Wisconsin School"). The revisionists are not monolithic, but they usually agree that Truman and his advisers were wrong whether the issue is the Cold War, Korea, or the atomic bomb. Revisionists had argued that Truman's goal at Potsdam was to prevent Soviet entry into the war against Japan, and the atomic bomb was used to scare them off. However in 1983 archivists discovered a letter Truman wrote to his wife from Potsdam on July 18, 1945: "I've gotten what I came for-- Stalin goes to war August 15 with no strings on it . . . I'll say that we'll end the war a year sooner now, and think of the kids who won't be killed! That's the important thing."<ref>''New York Times'' March 14, 1983. </ref>

In the 1990s, a more nuanced historical approach emerged searching for a middle ground, offering a number of more credible studies, essentially arguing that neither the traditional nor the revisionist interpretations were entirely satisfactory.<ref>J. Samuel Walker, "Recent Literature on Truman's Atomic Bomb Decision: a Search for Middle Ground." ''Diplomatic History'' 2005 29(2): 311-334. Issn: 0145-2096 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]</ref>

==Domestic affairs==
===Reconversion of the economy to peacetime===
The process of reconversion to peacetime was rocky. It was impossible to bring soldiers home fast enough, and they and their families protected loudly. All war contract were canceled, shutting down munitions plants and throwing millions of workers (many of them women) out of jobs, just as the 12 million service members were coming home. Truman sought to retain price controls against the vehement opposition of business but yielded somewhat in the face of bitter popular opposition. Large-scale strikes disrupted the economy, especially a coal miners strike and a threatened nationwide strike by railroad workers. He threatened to draft the railroad workers and the strike was called off; unions began to oppose him but he regained union support by his later attempts to veto or repeal the [[Taft-Hartley]] labor relations law. Truman's opposition to tax cuts, his insistence on price controls, and his lack of aggressive support of labor programs weakened his party. To voters frustrated with shortages and controls, Truman seemed indecisive and inconsistent; his efforts to deal with a postwar wave of strikes managed to alienate both organized labor and those who wanted more restraints on unions. Voters who normally supported liberal and labor candidates stayed home, resulting in a Republican landslide in 1946, giving the GOP a majority in both houses of Congress. Ohio Senator [[Robert A. Taft]] became the main GOP spokesman in Congress, tangling often with Truman.
===Moving left===
Gradually Truman created his own administration, using the '''''Fair Deal''''' label to express its goals in domestic affairs. Truman systematically removed the Roosevelt cabinet and inner circle of advisors. The most dramatic episode was firing [[Henry A. Wallace]] in 1946 because of his outspoken criticism of the administration's foreign policy as too harsh on the Soviet Union. Liberals saw themselves in a struggle with conservatives for Truman's soul after the 1946 election. Linked to the President through top aide [[Clark Clifford]], these liberals included Oscar Ewing, former party official and director of the Federal Security Agency, Leon Keyserling, member of the President's Council of Economic Advisors, and David Morse, assistant secretary of labor. They embraced the memo plotting 1948 campaign strategy written by former Roosevelt adviser James Rowe, which urged Truman to "move to the left and focus on building a coalition of groups that centered on organized labor, liberals, and northern urban African Americans."<ref> The memo until 1991 was mis-attributed to Clifford, who passed it along to Truman.</ref> Liberals had national support from the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), led by [[Walter Reuther]], [[Eleanor Roosevelt]], Joseph Rauh, James Rowe, [[Reinhold Niebuhr]], [[Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.]], [[Hubert Humphrey]], and [[Ronald Reagan]]<ref> Reagan was an energetic liberal supporter of Truman. He moved to the right in the late 1950s.</ref> . The ADA was hostile to the Soviet Union, battled American Communists and fellow travelers like Wallace, and supported the purge of Communists from the [[CIO]] labor unions. Truman agreed with the ADA and moved left after 1946.<ref> Steven M. Gillon, ''Politics and Vision: the ADA and American Liberalism, 1947-1985'' (1987).</ref>

However he could not tolerate [[Henry A. Wallace]] and the far left, which had considerable Communist support. When Wallace, then Secretary of Commerce, in 1946 denounced Truman's tough stand against Stalin, Truman fired Wallace.

In 1947 Truman asked Congress for stand-by price controls, rationing, and bank and consumer credit control as parts of an anti-inflation program, but his ideas were ignored by the Republicans who controlled Congress. In his state of the union message of Jan. 7, 1948, Truman called for rent control, increased social security benefits, universal military training, national health insurance, and other social legislation. The next week he again asked for passage of his anti-inflation measures. In February 1948 he asked for civil-rights legislation, including a federal anti-lynching law, a federal fair employment practices commission, a permanent civil rights commission, and abolition of the poll tax--measures that enraged many Southern Democrats. None of his proposals became law. More successful was Truman's drive to increase the efficiency of the executive branch; he appointed a commission headed by former President [[Herbert Hoover]] which recommended numerous changes, including unification of the armed services.

===Civil Rights===
Disgusted by violence against black veterans in the deep South, Truman called for the extension of the wartime [[FEPC]] program that called for fair employment practices, but Congress refused and it ended. He created the Presidential Commission on Civil Rights in 1946 by executive order (with no congressional approval needed); it recommended desegregation of local public facilities and the removal of restrictive covenants that prevented blacks and Jews from purchasing houses in restricted neighborhoods. The Commission generated attention but no action.<ref> Steven F. Lawson, ed. ''To Secure These Rights: The Report of Harry S. Truman's Committee on Civil Rights.'' (2004)</ref> Indeed, Congress refused to pass any civil rights legislation before 1957. Truman therefore decided to use his executive powers, and focused on guaranteeing equal opportunity in the military and the civil service. The Army and Navy operated segregated units, and refused to be part of a "social experiment" in integration.<ref> Bernard C. Nalty, ''Strength For the Fight: A History of Black Americans in the Military'' (1986)</ref> The Air Force, however, was much more willing. Between 1941 and 1951 it went from a segregated force to the first truly integrated service. Key generals became convinced that segregation was a drag on efficiency, and the Air Force decided to integrate in April 1948. before Truman issued his famous Executive Order 9981 on July 26, 1948, calling for equal opportunity in all the armed services. It allowed segregation but called for "equality of treatment and opportunity." In the face of opposition from some high-ranking officers, the Air Force moved cautiously, but by 1951 the last black unit was dissolved and the Air Force was completely integrated.<ref> Alan L. Gropman, ''The Air Force Integrates, 1945-1964.'' (2nd ed 1998) [http://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/Publications/Annotations/gropmanintegrates.htm online edition]. </ref> Order 9981 created the Fahy Committee to implement the new policy. Truman's order did not actually integrate the Army--it used segregated units during the Korean War--but it opened the way for integration in the early 1950s.<ref> Richard M. Dalfiume, ''Desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces: Fighting on Two Fronts, 1939-1953.'' (1969)</ref> Public opinion was generally favorable except in the deep South (which voted against Truman in 1948).

==1948 election==
As the presidential election of 1948 approached, no one thought Truman could be reelected. Truman's policies had alienated left right and center, but the party had no real alternative. Neither Roosevelt nor Truman had groomed a likely successor. Party leaders considered asking [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] to run, but he refused. Liberals led by Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota inserted a strong civil rights plank in the platform, causing a walkout of the deep South. Truman was renominated by default, with Barkley as the vice-presidential candidate. Truman thrilled the convention by announcing his plan to call the Republican-controlled Congress back into special session to "ask them to pass the laws to halt rising prices, to meet the housing crisis--which they say they are for in their platform." When this special session accomplished little, as Truman expected, it gave the president a chance to attack the "Do Nothing" Congress.

Both the left and right wings of the party split off and ran their own candidates. Henry Wallace, the candidate of the Progressive Party, was expected to divert labor, leftist and black votes, while [[J. Strom Thurmond]] was the "Dixiecrat" candidate whose supporters controlled the Democratic party in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina.<ref> Thurmond received only 15% of the vote in the other Southern states. Kari Frederickson, ''The Dixiecrat Revolt and the End of the Solid South, 1932-1968.'' (2001) </ref> Truman exploited his multiple opponents, driving a wedge between the liberals and the Communists who controlled the Wallace movement, and holding the line in the outer South. Most of all he exploited the difference between the conservative Republicans who controlled Congress, and the liberal Republican candidate [[Tom Dewey]]. Truman crusaded against the Republicans as evil rich men, blasting them as fascists and denouncing the 80th Congress for its failure to help the average citizen.<ref>''Time'' magazine reported that "His irresponsible implication that a vote for Thomas Dewey was a vote for fascism horrified his soberer followers." ''Time'' Jan 3, 1949 at [http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/personoftheyear/archive/stories/1948.html]</ref> "Give 'em hell" fury delivered in 275 speeches over 21,928 train-miles had more impact that Truman's promises of more money for federal housing, higher social security and unemployment benefits, free medical care for everyone, the continued subsidy of farm prices, and a fair deal for minorities. The pollsters misjudged the election, as did all the traditional pundits. Truman rallied enough of the [[New Deal Coalition]] to win by 2.2 million votes, and carry in a Democratic Congress on his coattails. The key farm states of the farm states of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Ohio that Dewey had carried in 1944 now switched to Truman, giving a solid victory in the electoral college of 303 for Truman, 189 for Dewey, 39 for Thurmond, and none for Wallace.<ref> Harold I. Gullan, ''The Upset That Wasn't: Harry S. Truman and the Crucial Election of 1948'' (1998); Gary A. Donaldson, ''Truman Defeats Dewey'' (1998) </ref>

==Second Term: Fair Deal==
During Truman's second term as president, he pressed for civil rights legislation, compulsory national health insurance, and other domestic measures that he called his "Fair Deal" program. Almost nothing was passed by Congress, which was controlled by the [[Conservative Coalition]]. His seizure of the steel industry to prevent a strike was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

In foreign affairs, Truman brought in [[Dean Acheson]] as Secretary of State, and promoted the Point Four program of aid to underdeveloped countries. The policy of containing Communism was operationalized by the creation, in 1949, of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to oversee the integration of the military forces of its member nations in Western Europe and North America. A further step was taken in 1951 with the establishment of the Mutual Security Agency to coordinate U.S. economic, technical and military aid abroad.
===Agriculture===
Truman won the farm vote in 1948 by charging the GOP shoved "a pitchfork in the farmer's back", but was unable to get new farm programs passed. His second secretary of agriculture, Charles F. Brannan promoted the Brannan Plan, intended to bring widespread changes to farm policy. Brannan proposed to replace market price supports with direct income payments to farmers. His plan set ceilings on the amount a farmer could receive and limited the program to farmers who did not exceed a set production mark. The Brannan Plan was supposed to foster the "family-sized farm" while providing affordable food for consumers. While Brannan could count on support from the left, especially the National Farmers Union (which was small), labor unions (which were powerful), and consumer groups (which were weak), he was opposed by leading farm economists and the national Farm Bureau (which was large) and the national Chamber of Commerce (representing business). The head of the Farm Bureau decried the plan as intrusive, a form of "creeping socialism," and expensive. The Farm Bureau, dominated by conservatives, resisted any curbs on full agricultural production. A bloc of Midwestern Republican and southern Democratic congressmen opposed replacing market mechanisms with outright government payments to farmers and setting limits on supports to individual farms. The Brannan Plan went nowhere and instead, the conservative farm bloc passed the Agricultural Act of 1949 with high price supports.<ref> See Dean (2006)</ref>

==National Security==
===Truman Doctrine and origins of Cold War===
In early 1947 the British government, which was socialist but anti-Communist, secretly told Washington its treasury was empty and it could no longer give military and economic aid to Greece or Turkey, requested the U.S. take over. Acheson convinced Truman to act quickly lest Greece be taken over by its communist partisans who were at the time strongly supported by the Soviet government working through the communist Bulgarian and Yugoslav governments. If Greece fell, Turkey would be helpless and soon the eastern Mediterranean would fall under Stalin’s control. In a dramatic message to Congress on March 12, 1947, President Truman said that the U. S. must take immediate and resolute action to support Greece and Turkey.<ref> Turkey did not have an insurrection, but it was such a bitter rival of Greece that it had to get money if Greece did.</ref> The Republican Congress, after extensive hearings, approved this historic change in U. S. foreign policy in a bill signed May 22, 1947. Thus was born the “Truman Doctrine.” Greece suppressed the insurgents; both Greece and Turkey joined NATO.<ref>
Joseph C. Satterthwaite, "The Truman Doctrine: Turkey," ''Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,'' Vol. 401, (May, 1972), pp. 74-84 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1039114 in JSTOR]</ref>
===Recognition of Israel===
Truman usually followed the advice of the State Department in national security matters, largely ignoring the Pentagon and Congress. In the case of recognition of the independent state of Israel in 1948, however, he overruled the urgent pleas of the State Department and immediately recognized Israel. State had warned that recognition would anger the Arabs in the Middle East; Truman, howver, was more responsive to domestic politics, where support for Israel was widespread.<ref> Michael T. Benson, ''Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel'' (1997) [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-S-Truman-Founding-Israel/dp/0275958078/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221429694&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]; for the State Departmenrt perspective see Evan M. Wilson, "The American Interest in the Palestine Question and the Establishment of Israel," ''Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,'' Vol. 401, (May, 1972), pp. 64-73 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1039113 in JSTOR]</ref>

===Religion===
Truman, a Southern Baptist, sought religious allies in the Cold War. He tried to unite the world's religions in a spiritual crusade against communism, sending his personal representative to Pope [[Pius XII]] to coordinate not only with the Vatican but also with the heads of the Anglican, Lutheran, and Greek Orthodox churches. "If I can mobilize the people who believe in a moral world against the Bolshevik materialists," Truman wrote in 1947, "we can win this fight." Since the [[Roman Catholic Church]] was his strongest religious ally in the moral battle against international communism, Truman put Rome first in his global strategy, even trying to confer formal diplomatic recognition on the Vatican. At home, he received solid support from Catholics, who were a major element of the [[New Deal Coalition]], but overwhelming resistance from Protestants, especially Southern Baptists who rejected anything "popish." Truman's political-diplomatic effort to formalize a public, faith-driven, ecumenical international campaign failed.<ref> Elizabeth Edwards Spalding, "True Believers" ''Wilson Quarterly'' 2006 30(2): 40-44, 46-48. Issn: 0363-3276 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]</ref>

===Loss of China===
[[Chiang Kai-shek]], America's wartime ally and head of the Nationalist forces in China, was caught between two wars—a war on China by [[Japan]] and a war with [[Mao Zedong]] and the Chinese Communists. The U.S. policy was to avoid a civil war and to threaten to withhold additional aid to the Nationalists unless they worked out a compromise. No compromise was possible, and Truman refused to send in combat troops to fight the civil war. General [[George Marshall]], who spent a year in China as Truman's emissary, testified that combat aid might have prevented a Communist victory, but General David Barr's military mission to China was specifically instructed not to supply this kind of assistance. <ref>Military Situation in the Far East, Hearings before the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, 82nd Congress (Washington, 1951), p. 558.</ref> General [[Albert C. Wedemeyer]] recommended this approach in his report on his 1947 fact-finding mission, but Marshall personally suppressed the report. <ref>Tang Tsou, ''America's Failure in China, 1941-1945'', Chicago 1964, pg. 457.</ref> Chiang believed that the [[Truman Doctrine]] to [[Containment|contain]] the spread of [[International Communism]] directed from Moscow would be extended to China, and ordered an offensive as soon as word of the new policy reached him. <ref>Richard C. Thornton, ''China: A Political History, 1917-1980'', Boulder CO 1982, pg. 208.</ref>

[[Dean Rusk]], Assistant Secretary of State in charge of the Far Eastern Division, said on May 18,1951 what the critics had been saying,
{{Cquote|The independence of China is gravely threatened. In the Communist world there is room for only one master. . . . How many Chinese in one community after another are being destroyed because they love China more than they love [[Soviet Russia]]? The freedoms of the Chinese people are disappearing. Trial by mob, [[democide|mass slaughter]], banishment to [[slavery|forced labor]] in [[Manchuria]] and Siberia. . . . The peace and security of China are being sacrificed by the ambitions of the Chinese conspiracy. China has been driven by foreign masters into an adventure in foreign aggression.}}
John T. Flynn observes that critics of the [[FDR]] and Truman Administrations who had been saying this earlier were denounced as “[[Fascists]].”<ref>''While You Slept: Our Tragedy in Asia and Who Made It'', John T. Flynn, New York: The Devin-Adair Company, 1951, [http://www.mises.org/books/whileyouslept.pdf pg. 161] pdf.</ref> Rusk continued,
{{Cquote|We do not recognize the authorities in [[Peiping]] for what they pretend to be. It is not the government of China. It does not pass the first test. It is not Chinese. . . . We recognize the [[Kuomintang|Nationalist government of the Republic of China]] even though the territory under its control is severely restricted. <ref>Hearings before the Senate Committee on Armed Services and Committee on Foreign Relations (also known as the Mac Arthur Inquiry), June 2, 1951.</ref>…we believe it more authoritatively represents the views of the great body of the people of China, particularly their demand for independence from foreign control….That government will continue to receive important aid and assistance from the United States.}}

===Risks in Korea===
Conditions inviting the North Korean attack were created by the [[United Nations]] which issued a resolution for withdrawal of both Soviet and American troops. Troops began withdrawing September 15, 1948, leaving only about 7500 Americans lightly armed. This left in South Korea 16,000 Koreans and 7500 Americans, both groups lightly armed, against 150,000 fully armed North Korean Communists. General Roberts, head of the U. S. Military Mission said the South Koreans were not permitted to arm adequately.
The Korean part of Wedemeyer's report was suppressed. Wedemeyer said:
{{Cquote|American and Soviet forces . . . are approximately equal, less than 50,000 troops each, [but] the Soviet-equipped and trained North Korean People's (Communist) Army of approximately 125,000 is vastly superior to the United States-organized constabulary of 16,000 Koreans equipped with Japanese small arms. The North Korean People's Army constitutes a potential military threat to [[South Korea]], since there is strong possibility that the Soviets will withdraw their occupation forces and thus induce our own withdrawal."<ref>Hearings before the Senate Committee on Armed Services and Committee on Foreign Relations, June 6, 1951.</ref>}}

Wedemeyer warned that this would take place as soon as "they can be sure that the [[North Korea]]n [[puppet government]] and its armed forces . . . are strong enough . . . to be relied upon to carry out Soviet objectives without the actual presence of Soviet troops."
===Communists inside US===
The bipartisan statutory [[Moynihan Secrecy Commission]] concluded, "President Truman was almost willfully obtuse as regards American Communism." <ref>Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy. Senate Document 105-2. 103rd Congress. Washington, D.C. United States Government Printing Office. 1997. [http://www.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/04dpm.pdf Chairman's Forward, pg. XL] pdf.</ref>
===Foreign policy: détente to containment===
Truman had no knowledge or interest in foreign policy before becoming president, and depended on the State Department for foreign policy advice.<ref> By 1946 he had two valuable aides Clark Clifford and George Elsey.</ref> Truman shifted from FDR's détente to [[containment]] as soon as [[Dean Acheson]] convinced him the Soviet Union was a long-term threat to American interests. They viewed communism as a secular, millennial religion that informed the Kremlin's worldview and actions and made it the chief threat to American security, liberty, and world peace. They rejected the moral equivalence of democratic and Communist governments and concluded that until the regime in Moscow changed only American and Allied strength could curb the Soviets. Following Acheson's advice, Truman in 1947 announced the [[Truman Doctrine]] of containing Communist expansion by furnishing military and economic American aid to Europe and Asia, and particularly to Greece and Turkey. He followed up with the [[Marshall Plan]], which was enacted into law as the European Recovery Program (ERP) and led ultimately to [[NATO]], the North Atlantic Alliance for military defense, signed in 1949. On May 14, 1948, Truman announced recognition of the new state of [[Israel]], making the United States the first major power to do so.

==Korean War==
The [[Korean War]] began at the end of June 1950 when North Korea, a Communist country, invaded South Korea, which was under U.S. protection. Without consulting Congress Truman ordered General [[Douglas MacArthur]] to use all American forces to resist the invasion. Truman then received approval from the United Nations, which the Soviets were boycotting. UN forces managed to cling to a toehold in Korea, as the North Koreans outran their supply system. A counterattack at Inchon destroyed the invasion army, and the UN forces captured most of North Korea on their way to the Yalu River, Korea's northern border with China. Truman defined the war goal as [[rollback]] of Communism and reunification of the country under UN auspices. China intervened unexpectedly, drove the UN forces all the way back to South Korea. The fighting stabilized close to the original 38th parallel that had divided North and South. MacArthur wanted to continue the rollback strategy but Truman arrived at a new policy of containment, allowing North Korea to persist. Truman's dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur in April 1951 sparked a violent debate on U.S. Far Eastern policy, as Truman took the blame for a high-cost stalemate with 37,000 Americans killed and over 100,000 wounded.

Truman fired his ineffective defense secretary Louis Johnson, and brought back [[George Marshall]].
===NSC-68===
The top-secret [[NSC-68]] policy paper was the grounds for escalating the Cold War, especially in terms of spending on rearmament and building the hydrogen bomb. The integration of European defense was given new impetus by continued U.S. support of NATO, under the command of General Eisenhower. Truman committed the US to contain Communist expansion in Vietnam, where the Communists under [[Ho Chi Minh]] were trying to overthrow the French colonial regime. The State Department insisted that France give more autonomy to the Vietnamese. The US paid for about 80% of the French war costs. The problem was that the French were more interested in preserving their grandiose empire, and less interested in stopping Communism, while the US opposed colonial empires and saw Communism as the great threat to world peace and stability.

Following NSC-68, Truman's last four budgets saw expenditures on national security quadruple from $13 billion in 1950 to $50 billion in 1953.

===1952 election===
On the political front, revelation of scandals in the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, in the Bureau of Internal Revenue and even the White House<ref> Truman's wife accepted an expensive deep freeze appliance in 1945; with General Vaughan as the fixer, the donor was given special privileges in Europe. </ref> opened the administration to attack.

Truman sought reelection in 1952 despite his dismal showing in the polls. He was defeated in the New Hampshire primary by Senator [[Estes Kefauver]] of Tennessee, and withdrew. Truman supported Illinois Governor [[Adlai Stevenson]]. Eisenhower won the GOP nomination and crusading against the Truman administration's failures regarding "Korea, Communism and Corruption," was elected in a landslide, ending 20 years of Democratic control of the presidency.

==Retirement==
Truman returned to his home in Independence, Missouri. He devoted himself to creating the Truman Library there; it was dedicated in July 1957 and is a part of the National Archives. With a staff of assistants he wrote his memoirs in two well-received volumes, gave many interviews, and intervened occasionally in Democratic national politics on behalf of liberal candidates such as [[Adlai Stevenson]].

He died on December 26, 1972.

==Evaluations==
Already by the 1960s he had become a hero to liberals and Democrats, nostalgic over the successes of the [[New Deal Coalition]] that sputtered and collapsed in the 1960s. Even Republicans came to forget the nasty days and celebrated Truman as the hero of the underdogs and the man who rebuilt Europe through the Marshall Plan and stood up to Communism through NATO.

Truman's reputation among scholars has gone from very low when he left office, to high after 1990. He is now widely considered to have been a tough-minded, decisive, and effective leader who ably guided the nation through the perilous waters of the early Cold War and whose policy of containment essentially laid the foundations for American "victory" in that prolonged conflict in 1989. For many historians, the down-to-earth Midwesterner now merits consideration as one of the greatest American presidents. In recent years presidential aspirants of both parties have claimed Truman as their own, especially if their election chances seem as hopeless as Truman's did in 1948. His reputation has been bolstered by scholarly biographies by Ferrell (1994), Hamby (1995), and especially McCullough's Pulitzer prize-winning popular biography (1992). The in-depth analysis by Leffler (1992), cautiously praised the Truman administration's essential wisdom in handling a myriad of problems.

While Truman's public image was headed up, his reputation among scholars declined in the 1970s. Kirkendall concluded in 1974 that negative appraisals of Truman and his administration "may in fact have become the dominant interpretation, at least among the younger scholars."<ref> Kirkendall, ''Truman Period as a Research Field: A Reappraisal 1972'' (1974) p 6</ref> In terms of foreign policy a strong negative view comes from Offner (2002) who argues that Truman was a "parochial nationalist" whose "uncritical belief in the superiority of American values and political-economic interests," conviction that "the Soviet Union and Communism were the root cause of international strife," and "inability to comprehend Asian politics and nationalism" intensified the postwar conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, precipitated the division of Europe, and set Sino-American relations on a path of long-term animosity. Rather than being a great statesman who carefully weighed various policy alternatives, Offner asserts that Truman's myopia "created a rigid framework in which the United States waged long-term, extremely costly global cold war". As his title suggests, the Cold War was at best a Pyrrhic victory for the United States.<ref> Quotes from Offner (2002) p. xii</ref>

Truman became the model of the underdog who fights back and wins when the experts unanimously predict defeat. Gerald Ford, who had bitterly denounced Truman as a young Congressman proudly proclaimed the Missourian as his hero and conspicuously displayed a bust of Truman in the oval office after Ford became president in 1974. In the 1976 campaign both Ford and his Democratic rival, [[Jimmy Carter]], outdid one another in claiming to be cast from the Truman mold. By 1980 when the Gallup Poll asked "Of all the Presidents we've ever had, who do you wish were President?", Harry Truman finished an impressive third behind Kennedy and FDR.

====notes====

==Further reading: basic books and articles==
* Burnes, Brian. ''Harry S. Truman: His Life and Times'' (2003), popular biography [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-S-Truman-Life-Times/dp/0974000930/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Dallek, Robert. ''Harry Truman'' (2008) short, popular biography by scholar. [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Truman-Presidents-President-1945-1953/dp/0805069380/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221386001&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Donovan, Robert J. ''Conflict and Crisis: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1945-1948'' (1977); ''Tumultuous Years: 1949-1953'' (1982) detailed 2-vol political history by well-informed journalist; well balanced
* Fleming, Thomas J. ''Harry S. Truman, President'' (1993) for middle school audience.
* Graff, Henry F., ed. ''The Presidents: A Reference History''. 2nd ed. 1996, 443–458. ISBN 0-684-80471-9; by leading scholar
* Hamby, Alonzo L. ''Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman'' (1995), the best scholarly biography; written by conservative historian who likes HST
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "An American Democrat: A Reevaluation of the Personality of Harry S. Truman," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 106, No. 1 (Spring, 1991), pp. 33-55 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2152173 in JSTOR]
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "Truman, Harry S."; [http://www.anb.org/articles/07/07-00307.html; ''American National Biography'' Online Feb. 2000] by a leading conservative historian
* Kirkendall, Richard S. ''Harry S. Truman Encyclopedia'' (1990), very useful articles on people, events and policies in HST's career
* Kirkendall Richard S. "Harry S Truman a Missouri Farmer in the Golden Age," ''Agricultural History,'' Vol. 48, No. 4 (Oct., 1974), pp. 467-483 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/3741384 in JSTOR]
* McCullough, David. ''Truman''. (1993), 1120 pp ISBN 0-671-86920-5 best-selling biography; moderate in tone; Pulitzer Prize [http://www.amazon.com/Truman-David-McCullough/dp/0671869205/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* McCullough, David. ''Harry S. Truman'', short essay [http://www.pbs.org/newshour/character/essays/truman.html online edition]
* Offner, Arnold A. ''Another Such Victory: President Truman and the Cold War.'' (2002) 640pp, New LEft and hostile to HST; [http://books.google.com/books?id=P5tbHSsBS-AC&pg=PP1&dq=intitle:another+intitle:victory+inauthor:offner&num=30&as_brr=0&sig=pWo43stsPrIrtTfZXJicvWB3zCY excerpts and text search]
* [http://www.amazon.com/American-Experience-Truman/dp/B000BYRCG0/ref=pd_bbs_4/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1193347436&sr=8-4 ''American Experience: Truman'' (2006), from PBS]
* [http://www.amazon.com/Classic-President-Harry-Truman-Films/dp/B000JD7MV8/ref=sr_1_14/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1193347436&sr=8-14 "Classic President Harry S Truman Films: 1945-1965'' (2006) 40 newsreels, 101 minutes]

==Advanced bibliography==
These are secondary source by scholars; unless noted they are generally liberal and supportive of Truman.
===Biographies===
* Burnes, Brian. ''Harry S. Truman: His Life and Times'' (2003); popular biography; [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-S-Truman-Life-Times/dp/0974000930/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Cochran, Bert. ''Harry S. Truman and the Crisis Presidency'' (19730, 432 pages; portrays a cynical courthouse politician
* Donovan, Robert J. ''Conflict and Crisis: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1945-1948'' (1977); ''Tumultuous Years: 1949-1953'' (1982), good, detailed 2-vol political history by well-informed journalist
* Ferrell, Robert H. ''Harry S. Truman: A Life'' (1994), brief overview
* Fleming, Thomas J. ''Harry S. Truman, President'' (1993) for middle school audience.
* Gosnell, Harold Foote. ''Truman's Crises: A Political Biography of Harry S. Truman'' (1980)
* Graff, Henry F., ed. ''The Presidents: A Reference History''. 2nd ed. 1996, 443–458. ISBN 0-684-80471-9
* Hamby, Alonzo L. ''Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman'' (1995), very well received scholarly biography [http://www.amazon.com/Man-People-Truman-Oxford-Paperbacks/dp/0195124979/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193438333&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "The Liberals, Truman, and the FDR as Symbol and Myth," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 56, No. 4 (Mar., 1970), pp. 859-867 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1917522 in JSTOR]
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "Truman, Harry S."; [http://www.anb.org/articles/07/07-00307.html; ''American National Biography'' Online Feb. 2000]
* Kirkendall, Richard S. ''Harry S. Truman Encyclopedia'' (1990)
* McCullough, David. ''Truman''. . ISBN 0-671-86920-5 best-selling biography; Pulitzer Prize [http://www.amazon.com/Truman-David-McCullough/dp/0671869205/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Miller, Richard Lawrence. ''Truman: The Rise to Power'' (2002), critical evaluation emphasizing corruption of Pendergast machine

===Foreign policy===
* Appleman, Roy E. ''South to the Naktong, North to the Yalu (June-November 1950)'' (United States Army in the Korean War) (1960); official U.S. Army history, [http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/korea/20-2-1/toc.htm online version]
* Beisner, Robert L. ''Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War'' (2006), 800pp; a standard scholarly biography; covers 1945-53 only
* Benson, Michael T. ''Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel'' (1997) [http://www.questia.com/read/15103137 online edition]
* Berger, Henry. "Bipartisanship, Senator Taft, and the Truman Administration," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 90, No. 2 (Summer, 1975), pp. 221-237 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2148235 in JSTOR]
* Bernstein Barton J. "Roosevelt, Truman, and the Atomic Bomb, 1941-1945: A Reinterpretation," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 90, No. 1 (Spring, 1975), pp. 23-69 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2148698 in JSTOR], influential New left essay
* Blair, Clay ''The Forgotten War: America in Korea, 1950-1953'', Naval Institute Press (2003) revisionist study that attacks Truman and top Army leaders for near-criminal incompetence
* Divine, Robert A. "The Cold War and the Election of 1948," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 59, No. 1 (Jun., 1972), pp. 90-110 [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8723%28197206%2959%3A1%3C90%3ATCWATE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-C in JSTOR]
* Frazier, Robert. "Acheson and the Formulation of the Truman Doctrine" ''Journal of Modern Greek Studies'' 17#2 (1999), pp. 229-251 online at [[Project Muse]]
* Gaddis, John Lewis. "Reconsiderations: Was the Truman Doctrine a Real Turning Point?" ''Foreign Affairs'' 1974 52(2): 386-402. ISSN 0015-7120
* Giangreco, D. M. "'A Score of Bloody Okinawas and Iwo Jimas': President Truman and Casualty Estimates for the Invasion of Japan," ''Pacific Historical Review,'' Vol. 72, No. 1 (Feb., 2003), pp. 93-132 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/3642102 in JSTOR] shows Truman was indeed by very high invasion casualties
* Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi. ''Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan.'' (2005). 382 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Racing-Enemy-Stalin-Truman-Surrender/dp/0674016939/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193349212&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Hogan, Michael J. ''A Cross of Iron: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of the National Security State, 1945-1954'' (2000) [http://www.amazon.com/Cross-Iron-National-Security-19451954/dp/0521795370/ref=sr_1_34/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347927&sr=8-34 excerpt and text search]
* Ivie, Robert L. "Fire, Flood, and Red Fever: Motivating Metaphors of Global Emergency in the Truman Doctrine Speech." ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 1999 29(3): 570-591. ISSN 0360-4918 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001303753 online edition]
* Lacey, Michael J. ed. ''The Truman Presidency'' (1989), major essays by scholars
* Matray, James I. "Truman's Plan for Victory: National Self-Determination and the Thirty-Eighth Parallel Decision in Korea," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 66, No. 2 (Sep., 1979), pp. 314-333 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1900879 in JSTOR] Truman planned rollback of Communism in North Korea
* Merrill, Dennis. "The Truman Doctrine: Containing Communism and Modernity" ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 2006 36(1): 27-37. ISSN 0360-4918
* Offner, Arnold A. "'Another Such Victory': President Truman, American Foreign Policy, and the Cold War." ''Diplomatic History'' 1999 23(2): 127-155. ISSN 0145-2096
* Ojserkis, Raymond P. ''Beginnings of the Cold War Arms Race: The Truman Administration and the U.S. Arms Build-Up'' (2003) [http://www.questia.com/read/102018810 online edition]
* Pelz, Stephen. "When the Kitchen Gets Hot, Pass the Buck: Truman and Korea in 1950," ''Reviews in American History'' 6 (December 1978), 548-55. Online at Project MUSE
* Pierpaoli, Paul G. Jr.; ''Truman and Korea: The Political Culture of the Early Cold War.'' University of Missouri Press, 1999 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=108668070 online edition]
* Smith, Geoffrey S. "'Harry, We Hardly Know You': Revisionism, Politics and Diplomacy, 1945-1954," ''American Political Science Review'' 70 (June 1976), 560-82. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-0554(197606)70%3A2%3C560%3A%22WHKYR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-%23 in JSTOR]
* Spalding, Elizabeth Edwards. ''The First Cold Warrior: Harry Truman, Containment, And the Remaking of Liberal Internationalism'' (2006) [http://www.amazon.com/First-Cold-Warrior-Containment-Internationalism/dp/0813123925/ref=sr_1_22/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347812&sr=8-22 excerpt and text search]
* Wainstock, Dennis D. ''Truman, MacArthur, and the Korean War'' (1999) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23387043 online edition]
* Walker, J. Samuel. ''Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs against Japan'' (1997) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=35245486 online complete edition]; [http://www.amazon.com/Prompt-Utter-Destruction-Truman-Against/dp/080785607X/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193348187&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Walker, J. Samuel. "Recent Literature on Truman's Atomic Bomb Decision: A Search for Middle Ground" ''Diplomatic History'' April 2005 - Vol. 29 Issue 2 Pp 311-334 fulltext in [[EBSCO]]

===Domestic policy and politics===
* Bernstein Barton J. "The Truman Administration and the Steel Strike of 1946," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 52, No. 4 (Mar., 1966), pp. 791-803 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1894347 in JSTOR]
* Billington, Monroe. "Civil Rights, President Truman and the South," ''Journal of Negro History,'' Vol. 58, No. 2 (Apr., 1973), pp. 127-139 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2716825 in JSTOR]
* Dean, Virgil W. "Charles F. Brannan and the Rise and Fall of Truman's 'Fair Deal' for Farmers." ''Agricultural History'' 1995 69(1): 28-53. Issn: 0002-1482
* Dean, Virgil W. ''An Opportunity Lost: The Truman Administration and the Farm Policy Debate.'' 2006. 275 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Opportunity-Lost-Truman-Administration-Policy/dp/0826216501/ref=sr_1_10/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193434622&sr=1-10 excerpt and text search]
* Derickson, Alan. "'Take Health from the List of Luxuries': Labor and the Right to Health Care, 1915-1949." ''Labor History'' 2000 41(2): 171-187. Issn: 0023-656x Fulltext: in Taylor and Francis, Swetswise, Ingenta, and [[Ebsco]]
* Donaldson, Gary A. ''Truman Defeats Dewey'' (1998)
* Farhang, Sean, and Ira Katznelson. "The Southern Imposition: Congress and Labor in the New Deal and Fair Deal," ''Studies in American Political Development'' (2005), 19: 1-30; [http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=324401 online edition]
* Freeland, Richard M. ''The Truman Doctrine and the Origins of McCarthyism: Foreign Policy, Domestic Policy, and Internal Security, 1946-48'' (1989), revisionist; New left attack on Truman for being too anti-Communist
* Fried, Richard M. ''Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective.'' 1990. [http://www.questia.com/read/79027083 online complete edition]; [http://www.amazon.com/Nightmare-Red-McCarthy-Era-Perspective/dp/0195043618/ref=sr_1_11/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193514847&sr=8-11 excerpt and text search]
* Gardner, Michael R. ''Harry Truman and Civil Rights: Moral Courage and Political Risks.'' (2002) 296 pp.[http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=105233906 online edition]
* Hamby, Alonzo. ''Beyond the New Deal: Harry S. Truman and American Liberalism'' (1973), the most sophisticated biography; by a prominent conservative historian
* Hartmann, Susan M. ''Truman and the 80th Congress'' (1971) [http://www.questia.com/read/77360404 online edition]
* Heller, Francis H. ''Economics and the Truman Administration'' (1982) [http://www.amazon.com/Economics-Truman-Administration-Francis-Heller/dp/0700602178/ref=sr_1_9/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193434622&sr=1-9 excerpt and text search]
* Karabell, Zachary. ''The Last Campaign: How Harry Truman Won the 1948 Election'' (2001) [http://www.amazon.com/Last-Campaign-Harry-Truman-Election/dp/0375700773/ref=sr_1_24/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=11973347812&sr=8-24 excerpt and text search]
* Koenig, Louis W. ''The Truman Administration: Its Principles and Practice'' (1956) [http://www.questia.com/read/8522614 online edition]
* Komarek de Luna, Phyllis. ''Public versus Private Power during the Truman Administration: A Study of Fair Deal Liberalism.'' Peter Lang, 1997. 253 pp.
* Lacey, Michael J. ed. ''The Truman Presidency'' (1989), major essays by scholars
* Lee, R. Alton. ''Truman and Taft-Hartley: A Question of Mandate.'' (1966) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=99000111 online edition]
* Leuchtenburg, William E. ''The White House Looks South: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson.'' (2005). 668 pp.
* Levantrosser, William F. ed. ''Harry S. Truman: The Man from Independence'' (1986). 25 essays by scholars and Truman aides. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23428395 online edition]
* McCoy, Donald. ''The Presidency of Harry S. Truman'' (1984), standard scholarly survey by conservative historian; [http://www.amazon.com/Presidency-Harry-S-Truman-American/dp/0700602550/ref=sr_1_8/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193514606&sr=8-8 excerpt and text search]
* Marcus, Maeva ''Truman and the Steel Seizure Case: The Limits of Presidential Power'' (1994) [http://www.questia.com/read/22816992 online edition]
* Phillips, Cabel. ''The Truman Presidency: The History of a Triumphant Succession'' (1966), by a journalist who interviewed many key players
* Pierpaoli, Paul G. Jr. ''Truman and Korea: The Political Culture of the Early Cold War.'' (1997). ISBN 0-8262-1206-9. focus on the homefront [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=16627966265512 online review]
* Ryan, Halford R. ''Harry S. Truman: Presidential Rhetoric'' (1993) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=27994601 online edition]
* Sitkoff, Harvard. "Harry Truman and the Election of 1948: The Coming of Age of Civil Rights in American Politics," ''Journal of Southern History,'' Vol. 37, No. 4 (Nov., 1971), pp. 597-616 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2206548 in JSTOR]
* Theoharis, Athan. "The Truman Administration and the Decline of Civil Liberties: The FBI's Success in Securing Authorization for a Preventive Detention Program," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 64, No. 4 (Mar., 1978), pp. 1010-1030 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1890734 in JSTOR], leftwing attack on Truman for being too harsh on possible subversives
* Theoharis, Athan. ''The Truman Presidency: The Origins of the Imperial Presidency and the National Security State'' (1979), revisionist, New left attack on HST
* Theoharis, Athan. ''Seeds of Repression: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of McCarthyism'' (1977), New Left attack on HST for being so hostile to domestic Communists
* Thompson, Francis H. ''The Frustration of Politics: Truman, Congress, and the Loyalty Issue, 1945-1953.'' 1979. 246 pp.
* Vaughan, Philip H. "The Truman Administration's Fair Deal for Black America." ''Missouri Historical Review'' 1976 70(3): 291-305. Issn: 0026-6582

===Primary sources===
* Bernstein, Barton J., Ed. ''The Truman Administration: A Documentary History'' (1966); 2nd edition published as ''Politics and Policies of the Truman Administration'' (1970), revisionist
* [http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/publications/ERP/ Council of Economic Advisors, ''Economic Report of the President'' (annual 1947- )], complete series online; important analysis of current trends and policies, plus statistcial tables
* Ferrell, Robert H. ed. ''Dear Bess: The Letters from Harry to Bess Truman, 1910-1959'' (1983)
* Ferrell, Robert H. ed. ''Off the Record: The Private Papers of Harry S. Truman'' (1980).
* Merrill, Dennis. ed. ''Documentary History of the Truman Presidency, (1995- ) 35 volumes; available in some large academic libraries.
* Miller, Merle ''Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman'' (1974)
* Neal, Steve. ed. ''HST: Memories of the Truman Years.'' (2003)280pp; long excerpts from 20 oral history interviews (some of which are online at the Truman Library site).
* Neal, Steve. ed. ''Miracle of '48: Harry Truman's Major Campaign Speeches & Selected Whistle-Stops'' (2003); 43 speeches
* Truman, Harry S. ''Where the Buck Stops: The Personal and Private Writings of Harry S. Truman'' edited by Margaret Truman (1990) [http://www.amazon.com/Where-Buck-Stops-Personal-Writings/dp/0446391751/ref=pd_bbs_sr_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221386001&sr=8-6 excerpt and text search]
* Truman, Harry S. ''Memoirs'' 2 vol (1955). [http://tera-3.ul.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/reader.pl?call=30151&search= vol 1 online]
* Truman, Margaret. ''Harry S. Truman''. (1973). memoir by his daughter
* Truman, Harry S. ''The Autobiography of Harry S. Truman'' edited compilation of excerpts by Robert H. Ferrell (2002) [http://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Harry-S-Truman/dp/0826214452/ref=pd_bbs_sr_5/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-5 excerpt and text search]
* [http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/ ''The Public Papers of the Presidents'' contain most of Truman's public messages, statements, speeches, and news conference remarks. Documents such as Proclamations, and Executive Orders]

==Historiography==
* Ferrell, Robert H. ''Harry S. Truman and the Cold War Revisionists.'' 2006. 142 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Truman-Cold-War-Revisionists/dp/0826216536/ref=sr_1_6/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193349212&sr=8-6 excerpt and text search]
* Geselbracht, Raymond. "Creating the Harry S. Truman Library: The First Fifty Years," ''Public Historian'', 28 (Summer 2006), 37–78.
* Hartmann, Susan M. "The 1948 Election and the Configuration of Postwar Liberalism" ''Reviews in American History'' 28.1 (2000) 105-111 in [[Project Muse]]
* Heller, Francis H., ed. ''The Korean War: A 25 Year Perspective'' (1977), essays by scholars
* Heller, Francis H., ed. ''The Truman White House: The Administration of the Presidency, 1945-1953'' (1980), essays by scholars
* Heller, Francis H., ed. ''Economics and the Truman Administration'' (1981), essays by scholars
* Kirkendall, Richard S. ed. ''Harry's Farewell: Interpreting and Teaching the Truman Presidency'' (2004) essays by scholars
* Kirkendall, Richard S., ed. ''The Truman Period as a Research Field: A Reappraisal 1972'' (1974)
* Tull, Charles J. "The State of the Art in Truman Research," in William F. Levantrosser, ed. ''Harry S. Truman: The Man from Independence'' (1986), 1-31 aides. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23428395 online edition]
* Walker, J. Samuel "Recent Literature on Truman's Atomic Bomb Decision: a Search for Middle Ground." ''Diplomatic History'' 2005 29(2): 311-334. Issn: 0145-2096 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]

==External links==
*[http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/ht33.html Biography]
*[http://www.trumanlibrary.org Presidential Library]
*[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/index.php The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb], Truman Library.
*[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/small/mb12a.htm President Truman to Senator Richard B. Russell], August 9, 1945.
====notes====
<references/>

{{USPresidents}}
{{USVicePresidents}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Truman, Harry}}

[[Category:Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:Vice Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:Democratic Party]]

Harry Truman

2008-11-11T21:08:21Z

AshleyS: link

{{President|
|name=Harry S. Truman
|image=HTruman.jpg
|country=the United States
|seq=33
|party=Democratic
|term_start=April 12, 1945
|term_end=January 20, 1953<ref>http://home.comcast.net/~sharonday7/Presidents/AP060301.htm</ref>
|vp=None
|vp_dates=1945-1949
|2vp=Alben Barkley
|2vp_dates=1949-1953
|previous=Franklin D. Roosevelt
|next=Dwight D. Eisenhower
|seq2=34
|office2=vice
|party2=
|term2_start=January 20, 1945
|term2_end=April 12, 1945
|pres2=Franklin D. Roosevelt
|previous2=Henry A. Wallace
|next2=Alben W. Barkley
|birth_date=May 8, 1884
|birth_place=Lamar, MO
|death_date=December 26, 1972
|death_place=Kansas City, MO
|spouse=Bess Wallace Truman
|spouse2=
|religion=[[Baptist]]
}}

'''Harry S. Truman,''' (1884-1972) a [[liberal]] [[Democrat]] from [[Missouri]], was the president of the United States from 1945-1953, taking over when [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] died in April 1945. He took the decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order to force Japan's surrender. Angered at the Soviet Union's seizure of eastern Europe, he moved away from FDR's [[détente]] to a policy of [[containment]], reinforced by the Truman Plan (1947) to resist Communist subversion, the [[Marshall Plan]] (1948-51) to rebuild and modernize western Europe's economies, and the [[NATO]] military alliance of 1949. Truman, advised by [[Dean Acheson]] and the State Department, set the policies to oppose the Soviet Union as the [[Cold War]] began.

Ignoring Asia, he later saw America's close ally China fall to the anti-American Communists under [[Mao Zedong]] in 1949; the US and China fought each other to a draw during the undeclared [[Korean War]], 1950-53. Truman fired his top general, [[Douglas MacArthur]], during this conflict and saw his popularity plunge.

As the war ended, the massive problem of reconverting the 45% of the economy devoted to war production baffled Truman. Listening to liberal advisors, he refused to end extremely unpopular price controls, and was unable to stop a massive wave of strikes in major industries in 1945-46. Voter dissatisfaction to the Republican capture of Congress in 1946; with Senator [[Robert A. Taft]] as the conservative Republican spokesman, Congress repealed many of the wartime restrictions on business and lowered taxes. Taft rewrote the labor laws in the [[Taft-Hartley Act of 1947]], balancing the rights of unions, management and the public interest; it became law over Truman's signature and remains in effect.

Truman began with very high popularity ratings, but they plunged to the lowest on record. Democrats were unable to stop his renomination in 1948, but the far left nominated FDR's vice president [[Henry A. Wallace]], and southern conservative Democrats nominated Dixiecrat [[J. Strom Thurmond]]. Observers almost unanimously expected victory for the Republican candidate, Governor [[Thomas E. Dewey]], liberal from New York. Total astonishment greeted Truman's stunning election victory, as he reassembled the [[New Deal Coalition]] for the fifth consecutive victory, pulling in on his coattails a Democratic Congress.

Although the Democrats organized Congress in 1949, the [[Conservative Coalition]] of Northern Republicans and Southern Democrats was in control, and Truman was to pass any of his liberal [[Fair Deal|Fair Deal program]]. Nevertheless he he pursued civil rights through executive orders, especially a 1948 order to end racial discrimination in the military. Blacks remained in segregated units, but were to receive equal treatment. Truman's failures to deal with "Korea, Communism and Corruption" forced him to withdraw from reelection in 1952 and gave the Republicans an opportunity to crusade against him and elect [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] in 1952.

Overshadowed at first by his predecessor, [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], Truman established a reputation as a blunt, unsophisticated fighter for the common man, who took responsibility for his actions because, he said, "the buck stops here." His stunning reelection victory in 1948 baffled the experts and has inspired underdogs ever since. He is more popular in 2008 than ever. His policy positions make him a heroic icon for liberals.

==Early life==

Truman was born on a farm near Lamar, in western Missouri, and grew up on a farm near Independence, Missouri. His grandparents had been Confederate sympathizers who had been rounded up by the Union army in the Civil War.<ref> His middle initial, S, does not stand for anything, but was chosen because his parents could not decide whether to name him for his grandfather Shippe or for his grandfather Solomon.</ref> After graduating from high school in Independence, with good skills in history and music, he decided against college and became a bank clerk in Kansas City. Always a joiner, he was active in the Missouri National Guard. From 1906 to 1917 he managed his father's 600-acre farm at [[Grandview, Missouri]]. During World War I his National Guard regiment was mobilized in 1917, he entered the Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, sailing for France in 1917 as a lieutenant. Truman was soon promoted to captain in Battery D, 129 Field Artillery Battalion, 35th Division, A.E.F., and returned to the United States a major in 1919, after combat at St. Mihiel and in the Argonne offensive. He was in an artillery unit, and learned about gas warfare; he was never wounded, He married Elizabeth "Bess" Wallace on June 28, 1919; they had one daughter, Margaret, who married a ''New York Times'' editor. With an army buddy he invested his savings in a Kansas City haberdashery, but this venture was a failure.

==Pendergast machine==
Discouraged by his lack of business success and without funds, Truman sought the help of friends. His farm background, his war record, his Masonic connections, his Baptist Church affiliations, and his genial personality recommended him to [[Thomas J. Pendergast]], the Democratic political boss of Kansas City and much of western Missouri. Pendergast, an Irish Catholic, had a strong base among the Irish Catholics and used Truman to reach out to Protestants, farmers and veterans. He made Truman the overseer of highways for Jackson County.

In 1922 Truman was elected a county judge; needing some legal knowledge he studied nights for two years at Kansas City Law School; it was his only education beyond high school, although he read history. In the 1924 GOP landslide he was defeated for reelection, but in 1926 he was returned to office as presiding judge of the court, the duties of which also involved administrative supervision of many county expenditures, including $60 million for public works. He almost joined the [[Ku Klux Klan]], but withdrew his application when he realized his Irish Catholic allies bitterly opposed the KKK; Truman then campaigned against the Klan.
==Senate==
In 1934 Pendergast arranged for Truman's nomination as United States Senator on the Democratic ticket; he was elected in the democratic landslide as a supporter of Roosevelt and the New deal. His first term in office was uneventful, except for a failed effort to prevent the renomination of Maurice Milligan for U.S. District Attorney for the Western District of Missouri; Milligan had obtained the conviction of 35 Pendergast "ward leaders" for vote frauds.

===World War II===
He was re-elected in 1940 after a terrific battle against [[Lloyd Stark]], Truman became nationally infamous as chairman of the "Truman Committee". Ostensibly for the purpose of investigating waste, fraud and inefficiency in government contracts, the committee allowed Truman and his associates to interfere in many aspects of Executive policy on the prosecution of the war. The committee frequently tampered with or even cancelled contracts with legitimate suppliers of essential war materials when they would not deal with Truman's Kansas City patrons, the Pendergasts. Its formal name was the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program. Nevertheless, he was an energetic and forthright supporter of the [[New Deal]] and won widespread party favor for his attacks on business malfeasance in war production. He forced changes in the aircraft and ship construction programs, and worked well with other border state Democrats, especially [[Alben Barkley]] of Kentucky, the Majority Leader.

===FDR picks a new vice president===
In 1944, after Vice-President [[Henry A. Wallace]] had been rejected by leading Democrats as too far to the left, Truman supported his friend former senator [[James F. Byrnes]] of South Carolina for that office. Catholics vetoed Byrnes, who had left that faith. Truman himself became Roosevelt's choice as a compromise vice presidential candidate, and the two were elected.

Roosevelt had been in ill-health since his return from the [[Teheran conference]]. At the 1944 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, DNC Chairman Bob Hannegan went for instructions to President Roosevelt's private railway car just before the July convention officially began. Roosevelt had decided to dump incumbent Vice-President [[Henry Wallace]]. Worried over dissension on the choice of a successor, Roosevelt told Hannegan: "Go on down there and nominate Truman before there's any more trouble. And clear everything with Sidney." <ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,791619,00.html "Clear everything with Sidney"], [[Time magazine]], Sep. 25, 1944.</ref> The President could not make the selection of Truman until [[Sidney Hillman]] <ref>''The Roosevelt Myth'', John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948, Book 2, Ch. 8, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Eight___The_Shock_Troops.htm ''The Shock Troops of the Third New Deal'']</ref>, Director of the Political Action Committee for the Congress on Industrial Organizations (CIO) approved it. <ref> ''Roosevelt Myth'', Book 3, Ch. 10, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Ten___Politics__Disease_.htm ''Politics, Disease and History''], Flynn, 1948.</ref> When Harry Truman walked into the smoke-filled room <ref>[http://www.booknotes.org/Transcript/index_print.asp?ProgramID=1109 ''Truman''], Interview with David McCullough, C-Span Booknotes, July 19, 1992. Retrieved August 6, 2007.</ref> of DNC at headquarters at the Stevens Hotel in Chicago, Soviet spies [[John Abt]], [[Lee Pressman]], and [[Nathan Witt]], were on hand." <ref>''The Yalta Betrayal'', Felix Wittmer, Claxton Printers, 1953, pg. 75.</ref>

==Presidency==
Roosevelt ignored Truman between the election in November 1944 and the inauguration in January; even as Vice president Truman was not consulted on national policies, and not informed of major decisions, nor of the atomic bomb. Although he realized Roosevelt's health was failing rapidly, he made no preparations for assuming the presidency and did not even build up a staff of advisors. Truman succeeded to the Presidency upon the death of FDR on April 12, 1945.

President Truman pledged that in office he would carry on the liberal domestic policies of Roosevelt. He distrusted most of FDR's cabinet and set about to assemble his own team.

===Winning World War II===

During his term as President, he presided over the conclusion of [[World War II]] in both [[Europe]] and [[Japan]].
On April 25 his telephoned speech opened the San Francisco Conference establishing the [[United Nations]]. A week later Germany surrendered, and from July 17 to August 2, 1945, Truman attended the [[Potsdam Conference]] with Britain's [[Winston Churchill]] (soon replaced by the new prime minister [[Clement Attlee]]) and [[Joseph Stalin]] of the Soviet Union.

===Atomic bomb===
The alternative Truman faced was to order use of the atomic bomb which might shock the Japanese into surrender, or order the planned invasion of Japan's home islands; casualty estimates for Americans ranged very widely. Casualty estimates for Japan ranged into the millions. Secretary of War [[Henry Stimson]] made the real decision: to drop atomic bombs on [[Hiroshima]] and [[Nagasaki]]. Japan immediately surrendered on terms that allowed Emperor [[Hirohito]] to stay on the throne and not be tried as a war criminal. Truman put General [[Douglas MacArthur]] in charge of occupying and controlling Japan; MacArthur remained in charge until the peace treaty was finally signed in 1951.

Truman kept control of the bomb in civilian hands—the Air Force and State Department did not even know how many bombs existed until 1948, when only eight had been built. The postwar military strategy was not built around nuclear weapons.

====Debating the decision====

=====Conservatives and liberals=====

In general, conservatives and liberals alike have applauded and supported the a-bomb decision because it shortened the war, and prevented hundreds of thousands or millions of casualties. The New Left or "revisionist" interpretation argues that the bomb was not necessary to end the war and that no invasion was necessary. They have no evidence to support that argument. They do have fragments of evidence that give weak support to the argument that one American goal was to intimidate the Soviet Union. The revisionists believe the US should have stayed friends with the Soviets, and that Truman was guilty for starting the Cold War (which they consider a bad thing). Morally the revisionists assume the USA was no better or worse than the Soviets—admitting to Soviet atrocities, they argue that socialism was morally superior to capitalism, which itself was a great evil the US intended to spread. In terms of the bomb, Secretary of State James Byrnes did make some offhand references to influencing Moscow, but his comments did not reflect the policy of the State Department or White House, and certainly not those of Stimson, who was by far the most important decision-maker.
Vice President Truman had been kept uninformed about the atomic bomb; he had little interest in military affairs and his chief military aide, General Harry Vaughan, was a drinking buddy likewise unfamiliar with what was happening in the war. Truman therefore relied entirely on his Secretary of War, [[Henry Stimson]]. At Potsdam he approved the atomic bomb targets selected by Stimson and, on the way home, he authorized the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki three days later.

====How the decision was made====
The decision to drop the atomic bomb has been the focus of one of the most heated debates among both scholars and the public since 1945. After 1945 the debate was dominated by "traditionalist" scholars, who argued that the U.S. had no choice but to drop the bomb as a way to bring World War II to an end. The traditionalists were succeeded in the 1960s by "revisionists," who asserted that the dropping of the bomb was done to intimidate Stalin, not end the war. The leading revisionist historians emerged from the "new left" movement of the 1960s and rejected any notion of the moral superiority of America or capitalism to the Soviet Union. They thought the Cold War and containment were poor policies and generally favored détente, along the lines proposed by Henry Wallace. They include Gar Alperovitz, Barton J. Bernstein, Kai Bird, Diane Shaver Clemens, Bruce Cumings, Richard Freeland, Lloyd Gardner, Gabriel Kolko, Walter LaFeber, Thomas Paterson, Harvard Sitkoff, Ronald Steel, Athan Theoharis, and William A. Williams (the leader of the "Wisconsin School"). The revisionists are not monolithic, but they usually agree that Truman and his advisers were wrong whether the issue is the Cold War, Korea, or the atomic bomb. Revisionists had argued that Truman's goal at Potsdam was to prevent Soviet entry into the war against Japan, and the atomic bomb was used to scare them off. However in 1983 archivists discovered a letter Truman wrote to his wife from Potsdam on July 18, 1945: "I've gotten what I came for-- Stalin goes to war August 15 with no strings on it . . . I'll say that we'll end the war a year sooner now, and think of the kids who won't be killed! That's the important thing."<ref>''New York Times'' March 14, 1983. </ref>

In the 1990s, a more nuanced historical approach emerged searching for a middle ground, offering a number of more credible studies, essentially arguing that neither the traditional nor the revisionist interpretations were entirely satisfactory.<ref>J. Samuel Walker, "Recent Literature on Truman's Atomic Bomb Decision: a Search for Middle Ground." ''Diplomatic History'' 2005 29(2): 311-334. Issn: 0145-2096 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]</ref>

==Domestic affairs==
===Reconversion of the economy to peacetime===
The process of reconversion to peacetime was rocky. It was impossible to bring soldiers home fast enough, and they and their families protected loudly. All war contract were canceled, shutting down munitions plants and throwing millions of workers (many of them women) out of jobs, just as the 12 million service members were coming home. Truman sought to retain price controls against the vehement opposition of business but yielded somewhat in the face of bitter popular opposition. Large-scale strikes disrupted the economy, especially a coal miners strike and a threatened nationwide strike by railroad workers. He threatened to draft the railroad workers and the strike was called off; unions began to oppose him but he regained union support by his later attempts to veto or repeal the [[Taft-Hartley]] labor relations law. Truman's opposition to tax cuts, his insistence on price controls, and his lack of aggressive support of labor programs weakened his party. To voters frustrated with shortages and controls, Truman seemed indecisive and inconsistent; his efforts to deal with a postwar wave of strikes managed to alienate both organized labor and those who wanted more restraints on unions. Voters who normally supported liberal and labor candidates stayed home, resulting in a Republican landslide in 1946, giving the GOP a majority in both houses of Congress. Ohio Senator [[Robert A. Taft]] became the main GOP spokesman in Congress, tangling often with Truman.
===Moving left===
Gradually Truman created his own administration, using the '''''Fair Deal''''' label to express its goals in domestic affairs. Truman systematically removed the Roosevelt cabinet and inner circle of advisors. The most dramatic episode was firing [[Henry A. Wallace]] in 1946 because of his outspoken criticism of the administration's foreign policy as too harsh on the Soviet Union. Liberals saw themselves in a struggle with conservatives for Truman's soul after the 1946 election. Linked to the President through top aide [[Clark Clifford]], these liberals included Oscar Ewing, former party official and director of the Federal Security Agency, Leon Keyserling, member of the President's Council of Economic Advisors, and David Morse, assistant secretary of labor. They embraced the memo plotting 1948 campaign strategy written by former Roosevelt adviser James Rowe, which urged Truman to "move to the left and focus on building a coalition of groups that centered on organized labor, liberals, and northern urban African Americans."<ref> The memo until 1991 was mis-attributed to Clifford, who passed it along to Truman.</ref> Liberals had national support from the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), led by [[Walter Reuther]], [[Eleanor Roosevelt]], Joseph Rauh, James Rowe, [[Reinhold Niebuhr]], [[Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.]], [[Hubert Humphrey]], and [[Ronald Reagan]]<ref> Reagan was an energetic liberal supporter of Truman. He moved to the right in the late 1950s.</ref> . The ADA was hostile to the Soviet Union, battled American Communists and fellow travelers like Wallace, and supported the purge of Communists from the [[CIO]] labor unions. Truman agreed with the ADA and moved left after 1946.<ref> Steven M. Gillon, ''Politics and Vision: the ADA and American Liberalism, 1947-1985'' (1987).</ref>

However he could not tolerate [[Henry A. Wallace]] and the far left, which had considerable Communist support. When Wallace, then Secretary of Commerce, in 1946 denounced Truman's tough stand against Stalin, Truman fired Wallace.

In 1947 Truman asked Congress for stand-by price controls, rationing, and bank and consumer credit control as parts of an anti-inflation program, but his ideas were ignored by the Republicans who controlled Congress. In his state of the union message of Jan. 7, 1948, Truman called for rent control, increased social security benefits, universal military training, national health insurance, and other social legislation. The next week he again asked for passage of his anti-inflation measures. In February 1948 he asked for civil-rights legislation, including a federal anti-lynching law, a federal fair employment practices commission, a permanent civil rights commission, and abolition of the poll tax--measures that enraged many Southern Democrats. None of his proposals became law. More successful was Truman's drive to increase the efficiency of the executive branch; he appointed a commission headed by former President [[Herbert Hoover]] which recommended numerous changes, including unification of the armed services.

===Civil Rights===
Disgusted by violence against black veterans in the deep South, Truman called for the extension of the wartime [[FEPC]] program that called for fair employment practices, but Congress refused and it ended. He created the Presidential Commission on Civil Rights in 1946 by executive order (with no congressional approval needed); it recommended desegregation of local public facilities and the removal of restrictive covenants that prevented blacks and Jews from purchasing houses in restricted neighborhoods. The Commission generated attention but no action.<ref> Steven F. Lawson, ed. ''To Secure These Rights: The Report of Harry S. Truman's Committee on Civil Rights.'' (2004)</ref> Indeed, Congress refused to pass any civil rights legislation before 1957. Truman therefore decided to use his executive powers, and focused on guaranteeing equal opportunity in the military and the civil service. The Army and Navy operated segregated units, and refused to be part of a "social experiment" in integration.<ref> Bernard C. Nalty, ''Strength For the Fight: A History of Black Americans in the Military'' (1986)</ref> The Air Force, however, was much more willing. Between 1941 and 1951 it went from a segregated force to the first truly integrated service. Key generals became convinced that segregation was a drag on efficiency, and the Air Force decided to integrate in April 1948. before Truman issued his famous Executive Order 9981 on July 26, 1948, calling for equal opportunity in all the armed services. It allowed segregation but called for "equality of treatment and opportunity." In the face of opposition from some high-ranking officers, the Air Force moved cautiously, but by 1951 the last black unit was dissolved and the Air Force was completely integrated.<ref> Alan L. Gropman, ''The Air Force Integrates, 1945-1964.'' (2nd ed 1998) [http://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/Publications/Annotations/gropmanintegrates.htm online edition]. </ref> Order 9981 created the Fahy Committee to implement the new policy. Truman's order did not actually integrate the Army--it used segregated units during the Korean War--but it opened the way for integration in the early 1950s.<ref> Richard M. Dalfiume, ''Desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces: Fighting on Two Fronts, 1939-1953.'' (1969)</ref> Public opinion was generally favorable except in the deep South (which voted against Truman in 1948).

==1948 election==
As the presidential election of 1948 approached, no one thought Truman could be reelected. Truman's policies had alienated left right and center, but the party had no real alternative. Neither Roosevelt nor Truman had groomed a likely successor. Party leaders considered asking [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] to run, but he refused. Liberals led by Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota inserted a strong civil rights plank in the platform, causing a walkout of the deep South. Truman was renominated by default, with Barkley as the vice-presidential candidate. Truman thrilled the convention by announcing his plan to call the Republican-controlled Congress back into special session to "ask them to pass the laws to halt rising prices, to meet the housing crisis--which they say they are for in their platform." When this special session accomplished little, as Truman expected, it gave the president a chance to attack the "Do Nothing" Congress.

Both the left and right wings of the party split off and ran their own candidates. Henry Wallace, the candidate of the Progressive Party, was expected to divert labor, leftist and black votes, while [[J. Strom Thurmond]] was the "Dixiecrat" candidate whose supporters controlled the Democratic party in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina.<ref> Thurmond received only 15% of the vote in the other Southern states. Kari Frederickson, ''The Dixiecrat Revolt and the End of the Solid South, 1932-1968.'' (2001) </ref> Truman exploited his multiple opponents, driving a wedge between the liberals and the Communists who controlled the Wallace movement, and holding the line in the outer South. Most of all he exploited the difference between the conservative Republicans who controlled Congress, and the liberal Republican candidate [[Tom Dewey]]. Truman crusaded against the Republicans as evil rich men, blasting them as fascists and denouncing the 80th Congress for its failure to help the average citizen.<ref>''Time'' magazine reported that "His irresponsible implication that a vote for Thomas Dewey was a vote for fascism horrified his soberer followers." ''Time'' Jan 3, 1949 at [http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/personoftheyear/archive/stories/1948.html]</ref> "Give 'em hell" fury delivered in 275 speeches over 21,928 train-miles had more impact that Truman's promises of more money for federal housing, higher social security and unemployment benefits, free medical care for everyone, the continued subsidy of farm prices, and a fair deal for minorities. The pollsters misjudged the election, as did all the traditional pundits. Truman rallied enough of the [[New Deal Coalition]] to win by 2.2 million votes, and carry in a Democratic Congress on his coattails. The key farm states of the farm states of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Ohio that Dewey had carried in 1944 now switched to Truman, giving a solid victory in the electoral college of 303 for Truman, 189 for Dewey, 39 for Thurmond, and none for Wallace.<ref> Harold I. Gullan, ''The Upset That Wasn't: Harry S. Truman and the Crucial Election of 1948'' (1998); Gary A. Donaldson, ''Truman Defeats Dewey'' (1998) </ref>

==Second Term: Fair Deal==
During Truman's second term as president, he pressed for civil rights legislation, compulsory national health insurance, and other domestic measures that he called his "Fair Deal" program. Almost nothing was passed by Congress, which was controlled by the [[Conservative Coalition]]. His seizure of the steel industry to prevent a strike was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

In foreign affairs, Truman brought in [[Dean Acheson]] as Secretary of State, and promoted the Point Four program of aid to underdeveloped countries. The policy of containing Communism was operationalized by the creation, in 1949, of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to oversee the integration of the military forces of its member nations in Western Europe and North America. A further step was taken in 1951 with the establishment of the Mutual Security Agency to coordinate U.S. economic, technical and military aid abroad.
===Agriculture===
Truman won the farm vote in 1948 by charging the GOP shoved "a pitchfork in the farmer's back", but was unable to get new farm programs passed. His second secretary of agriculture, Charles F. Brannan promoted the Brannan Plan, intended to bring widespread changes to farm policy. Brannan proposed to replace market price supports with direct income payments to farmers. His plan set ceilings on the amount a farmer could receive and limited the program to farmers who did not exceed a set production mark. The Brannan Plan was supposed to foster the "family-sized farm" while providing affordable food for consumers. While Brannan could count on support from the left, especially the National Farmers Union (which was small), labor unions (which were powerful), and consumer groups (which were weak), he was opposed by leading farm economists and the national Farm Bureau (which was large) and the national Chamber of Commerce (representing business). The head of the Farm Bureau decried the plan as intrusive, a form of "creeping socialism," and expensive. The Farm Bureau, dominated by conservatives, resisted any curbs on full agricultural production. A bloc of Midwestern Republican and southern Democratic congressmen opposed replacing market mechanisms with outright government payments to farmers and setting limits on supports to individual farms. The Brannan Plan went nowhere and instead, the conservative farm bloc passed the Agricultural Act of 1949 with high price supports.<ref> See Dean (2006)</ref>

==National Security==
===Truman Doctrine and origins of Cold War===
In early 1947 the British government, which was socialist but anti-Communist, secretly told Washington its treasury was empty and it could no longer give military and economic aid to Greece or Turkey, requested the U.S. take over. Acheson convinced Truman to act quickly lest Greece be taken over by its communist partisans who were at the time strongly supported by the Soviet government working through the communist Bulgarian and Yugoslav governments. If Greece fell, Turkey would be helpless and soon the eastern Mediterranean would fall under Stalin’s control. In a dramatic message to Congress on March 12, 1947, President Truman said that the U. S. must take immediate and resolute action to support Greece and Turkey.<ref> Turkey did not have an insurrection, but it was such a bitter rival of Greece that it had to get money if Greece did.</ref> The Republican Congress, after extensive hearings, approved this historic change in U. S. foreign policy in a bill signed May 22, 1947. Thus was born the “Truman Doctrine.” Greece suppressed the insurgents; both Greece and Turkey joined NATO.<ref>
Joseph C. Satterthwaite, "The Truman Doctrine: Turkey," ''Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,'' Vol. 401, (May, 1972), pp. 74-84 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1039114 in JSTOR]</ref>
===Recognition of Israel===
Truman usually followed the advice of the State Department in national security matters, largely ignoring the Pentagon and Congress. In the case of recognition of the independent state of Israel in 1948, however, he overruled the urgent pleas of the State Department and immediately recognized Israel. State had warned that recognition would anger the Arabs in the Middle East; Truman, howver, was more responsive to domestic politics, where support for Israel was widespread.<ref> Michael T. Benson, ''Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel'' (1997) [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-S-Truman-Founding-Israel/dp/0275958078/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221429694&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]; for the State Departmenrt perspective see Evan M. Wilson, "The American Interest in the Palestine Question and the Establishment of Israel," ''Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,'' Vol. 401, (May, 1972), pp. 64-73 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1039113 in JSTOR]</ref>

===Religion===
Truman, a Southern Baptist, sought religious allies in the Cold War. He tried to unite the world's religions in a spiritual crusade against communism, sending his personal representative to Pope [[Pius XII]] to coordinate not only with the Vatican but also with the heads of the Anglican, Lutheran, and Greek Orthodox churches. "If I can mobilize the people who believe in a moral world against the Bolshevik materialists," Truman wrote in 1947, "we can win this fight." Since the [[Roman Catholic Church]] was his strongest religious ally in the moral battle against international communism, Truman put Rome first in his global strategy, even trying to confer formal diplomatic recognition on the Vatican. At home, he received solid support from Catholics, who were a major element of the [[New Deal Coalition]], but overwhelming resistance from Protestants, especially Southern Baptists who rejected anything "popish." Truman's political-diplomatic effort to formalize a public, faith-driven, ecumenical international campaign failed.<ref> Elizabeth Edwards Spalding, "True Believers" ''Wilson Quarterly'' 2006 30(2): 40-44, 46-48. Issn: 0363-3276 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]</ref>

===Loss of China===
[[Chiang Kai-shek]], America's wartime ally and head of the Nationalist forces in China, was caught between two wars—a war on China by [[Japan]] and a war with [[Mao Zedong]] and the Chinese Communists. The U.S. policy was to avoid a civil war and to threaten to withhold additional aid to the Nationalists unless they worked out a compromise. No compromise was possible, and Truman refused to send in combat troops to fight the civil war. General [[George Marshall]], who spent a year in China as Truman's emissary, testified that combat aid might have prevented a Communist victory, but General David Barr's military mission to China was specifically instructed not to supply this kind of assistance. <ref>Military Situation in the Far East, Hearings before the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, 82nd Congress (Washington, 1951), p. 558.</ref> General [[Albert C. Wedemeyer]] recommended this approach in his report on his 1947 fact-finding mission, but Marshall personally suppressed the report. <ref>Tang Tsou, ''America's Failure in China, 1941-1945'', Chicago 1964, pg. 457.</ref> Chiang believed that the [[Truman Doctrine]] to [[Containment|contain]] the spread of [[International Communism]] directed from Moscow would be extended to China, and ordered an offensive as soon as word of the new policy reached him. <ref>Richard C. Thornton, ''China: A Political History, 1917-1980'', Boulder CO 1982, pg. 208.</ref>

[[Dean Rusk]], Assistant Secretary of State in charge of the Far Eastern Division, said on May 18,1951 what the critics had been saying,
{{Cquote|The independence of China is gravely threatened. In the Communist world there is room for only one master. . . . How many Chinese in one community after another are being destroyed because they love China more than they love [[Soviet Russia]]? The freedoms of the Chinese people are disappearing. Trial by mob, [[democide|mass slaughter]], banishment to [[slavery|forced labor]] in [[Manchuria]] and Siberia. . . . The peace and security of China are being sacrificed by the ambitions of the Chinese conspiracy. China has been driven by foreign masters into an adventure in foreign aggression.}}
John T. Flynn observes that critics of the [[FDR]] and Truman Administrations who had been saying this earlier were denounced as “[[Fascists]].”<ref>''While You Slept: Our Tragedy in Asia and Who Made It'', John T. Flynn, New York: The Devin-Adair Company, 1951, [http://www.mises.org/books/whileyouslept.pdf pg. 161] pdf.</ref> Rusk continued,
{{Cquote|We do not recognize the authorities in [[Peiping]] for what they pretend to be. It is not the government of China. It does not pass the first test. It is not Chinese. . . . We recognize the [[Kuomintang|Nationalist government of the Republic of China]] even though the territory under its control is severely restricted. <ref>Hearings before the Senate Committee on Armed Services and Committee on Foreign Relations (also known as the Mac Arthur Inquiry), June 2, 1951.</ref>…we believe it more authoritatively represents the views of the great body of the people of China, particularly their demand for independence from foreign control….That government will continue to receive important aid and assistance from the United States.}}

===Risks in Korea===
Conditions inviting the North Korean attack were created by the [[United Nations]] which issued a resolution for withdrawal of both Soviet and American troops. Troops began withdrawing September 15, 1948, leaving only about 7500 Americans lightly armed. This left in South Korea 16,000 Koreans and 7500 Americans, both groups lightly armed, against 150,000 fully armed North Korean Communists. General Roberts, head of the U. S. Military Mission said the South Koreans were not permitted to arm adequately.
The Korean part of Wedemeyer's report was suppressed. Wedemeyer said:
{{Cquote|American and Soviet forces . . . are approximately equal, less than 50,000 troops each, [but] the Soviet-equipped and trained North Korean People's (Communist) Army of approximately 125,000 is vastly superior to the United States-organized constabulary of 16,000 Koreans equipped with Japanese small arms. The North Korean People's Army constitutes a potential military threat to [[South Korea]], since there is strong possibility that the Soviets will withdraw their occupation forces and thus induce our own withdrawal."<ref>Hearings before the Senate Committee on Armed Services and Committee on Foreign Relations, June 6, 1951.</ref>}}

Wedemeyer warned that this would take place as soon as "they can be sure that the [[North Korea]]n [[puppet government]] and its armed forces . . . are strong enough . . . to be relied upon to carry out Soviet objectives without the actual presence of Soviet troops."
===Communists inside US===
The bipartisan statutory [[Moynihan Secrecy Commission]] concluded, "President Truman was almost willfully obtuse as regards American Communism." <ref>Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy. Senate Document 105-2. 103rd Congress. Washington, D.C. United States Government Printing Office. 1997. [http://www.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/04dpm.pdf Chairman's Forward, pg. XL] pdf.</ref>
===Foreign policy: détente to containment===
Truman had no knowledge or interest in foreign policy before becoming president, and depended on the State Department for foreign policy advice.<ref> By 1946 he had two valuable aides Clark Clifford and George Elsey.</ref> Truman shifted from FDR's détente to [[containment]] as soon as [[Dean Acheson]] convinced him the Soviet Union was a long-term threat to American interests. They viewed communism as a secular, millennial religion that informed the Kremlin's worldview and actions and made it the chief threat to American security, liberty, and world peace. They rejected the moral equivalence of democratic and Communist governments and concluded that until the regime in Moscow changed only American and Allied strength could curb the Soviets. Following Acheson's advice, Truman in 1947 announced the [[Truman Doctrine]] of containing Communist expansion by furnishing military and economic American aid to Europe and Asia, and particularly to Greece and Turkey. He followed up with the [[Marshall Plan]], which was enacted into law as the European Recovery Program (ERP) and led ultimately to [[NATO]], the North Atlantic Alliance for military defense, signed in 1949. On May 14, 1948, Truman announced recognition of the new state of [[Israel]], making the United States the first major power to do so.

==Korean War==
The [[Korean War]] began at the end of June 1950 when North Korea, a Communist country, invaded South Korea, which was under U.S. protection. Without consulting Congress Truman ordered General [[Douglas MacArthur]] to use all American forces to resist the invasion. Truman then received approval from the United Nations, which the Soviets were boycotting. UN forces managed to cling to a toehold in Korea, as the North Koreans outran their supply system. A counterattack at Inchon destroyed the invasion army, and the UN forces captured most of North Korea on their way to the Yalu River, Korea's northern border with China. Truman defined the war goal as [[rollback]] of Communism and reunification of the country under UN auspices. China intervened unexpectedly, drove the UN forces all the way back to South Korea. The fighting stabilized close to the original 38th parallel that had divided North and South. MacArthur wanted to continue the rollback strategy but Truman arrived at a new policy of containment, allowing North Korea to persist. Truman's dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur in April 1951 sparked a violent debate on U.S. Far Eastern policy, as Truman took the blame for a high-cost stalemate with 37,000 Americans killed and over 100,000 wounded.

Truman fired his ineffective defense secretary Louis Johnson, and brought back [[George Marshall]].
===NSC-68===
The top-secret [[NSC-68]] policy paper was the grounds for escalating the Cold War, especially in terms of spending on rearmament and building the hydrogen bomb. The integration of European defense was given new impetus by continued U.S. support of NATO, under the command of General Eisenhower. Truman committed the US to contain Communist expansion in Vietnam, where the Communists under [[Ho Chi Minh]] were trying to overthrow the French colonial regime. The State Department insisted that France give more autonomy to the Vietnamese. The US paid for about 80% of the French war costs. The problem was that the French were more interested in preserving their grandiose empire, and less interested in stopping Communism, while the US opposed colonial empires and saw Communism as the great threat to world peace and stability.

Following NSC-68, Truman's last four budgets saw expenditures on national security quadruple from $13 billion in 1950 to $50 billion in 1953.

===1952 election===
On the political front, revelation of scandals in the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, in the Bureau of Internal Revenue and even the White House<ref> Truman's wife accepted an expensive deep freeze appliance in 1945; with General Vaughan as the fixer, the donor was given special privileges in Europe. </ref> opened the administration to attack.

Truman sought reelection in 1952 despite his dismal showing in the polls. He was defeated in the New Hampshire primary by Senator [[Estes Kefauver]] of Tennessee, and withdrew. Truman supported Illinois Governor [[Adlai Stevenson]]. Eisenhower won the GOP nomination and crusading against the Truman administration's failures regarding "Korea, Communism and Corruption," was elected in a landslide, ending 20 years of Democratic control of the presidency.

==Retirement==
Truman returned to his home in Independence, Missouri. He devoted himself to creating the Truman Library there; it was dedicated in July 1957 and is a part of the National Archives. With a staff of assistants he wrote his memoirs in two well-received volumes, gave many interviews, and intervened occasionally in Democratic national politics on behalf of liberal candidates such as [[Adlai Stevenson]].

He died on December 26, 1972.

==Evaluations==
Already by the 1960s he had become a hero to liberals and Democrats, nostalgic over the successes of the [[New Deal Coalition]] that sputtered and collapsed in the 1960s. Even Republicans came to forget the nasty days and celebrated Truman as the hero of the underdogs and the man who rebuilt Europe through the Marshall Plan and stood up to Communism through NATO.

Truman's reputation among scholars has gone from very low when he left office, to high after 1990. He is now widely considered to have been a tough-minded, decisive, and effective leader who ably guided the nation through the perilous waters of the early Cold War and whose policy of containment essentially laid the foundations for American "victory" in that prolonged conflict in 1989. For many historians, the down-to-earth Midwesterner now merits consideration as one of the greatest American presidents. In recent years presidential aspirants of both parties have claimed Truman as their own, especially if their election chances seem as hopeless as Truman's did in 1948. His reputation has been bolstered by scholarly biographies by Ferrell (1994), Hamby (1995), and especially McCullough's Pulitzer prize-winning popular biography (1992). The in-depth analysis by Leffler (1992), cautiously praised the Truman administration's essential wisdom in handling a myriad of problems.

While Truman's public image was headed up, his reputation among scholars declined in the 1970s. Kirkendall concluded in 1974 that negative appraisals of Truman and his administration "may in fact have become the dominant interpretation, at least among the younger scholars."<ref> Kirkendall, ''Truman Period as a Research Field: A Reappraisal 1972'' (1974) p 6</ref> In terms of foreign policy a strong negative view comes from Offner (2002) who argues that Truman was a "parochial nationalist" whose "uncritical belief in the superiority of American values and political-economic interests," conviction that "the Soviet Union and Communism were the root cause of international strife," and "inability to comprehend Asian politics and nationalism" intensified the postwar conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, precipitated the division of Europe, and set Sino-American relations on a path of long-term animosity. Rather than being a great statesman who carefully weighed various policy alternatives, Offner asserts that Truman's myopia "created a rigid framework in which the United States waged long-term, extremely costly global cold war". As his title suggests, the Cold War was at best a Pyrrhic victory for the United States.<ref> Quotes from Offner (2002) p. xii</ref>

Truman became the model of the underdog who fights back and wins when the experts unanimously predict defeat. Gerald Ford, who had bitterly denounced Truman as a young Congressman proudly proclaimed the Missourian as his hero and conspicuously displayed a bust of Truman in the oval office after Ford became president in 1974. In the 1976 campaign both Ford and his Democratic rival, [[Jimmy Carter]], outdid one another in claiming to be cast from the Truman mold. By 1980 when the Gallup Poll asked "Of all the Presidents we've ever had, who do you wish were President?", Harry Truman finished an impressive third behind Kennedy and FDR.

====notes====

==Further reading: basic books and articles==
* Burnes, Brian. ''Harry S. Truman: His Life and Times'' (2003), popular biography [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-S-Truman-Life-Times/dp/0974000930/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Dallek, Robert. ''Harry Truman'' (2008) short, popular biography by scholar. [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Truman-Presidents-President-1945-1953/dp/0805069380/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221386001&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Donovan, Robert J. ''Conflict and Crisis: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1945-1948'' (1977); ''Tumultuous Years: 1949-1953'' (1982) detailed 2-vol political history by well-informed journalist; well balanced
* Fleming, Thomas J. ''Harry S. Truman, President'' (1993) for middle school audience.
* Graff, Henry F., ed. ''The Presidents: A Reference History''. 2nd ed. 1996, 443–458. ISBN 0-684-80471-9; by leading scholar
* Hamby, Alonzo L. ''Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman'' (1995), the best scholarly biography; written by conservative historian who likes HST
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "An American Democrat: A Reevaluation of the Personality of Harry S. Truman," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 106, No. 1 (Spring, 1991), pp. 33-55 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2152173 in JSTOR]
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "Truman, Harry S."; [http://www.anb.org/articles/07/07-00307.html; ''American National Biography'' Online Feb. 2000] by a leading conservative historian
* Kirkendall, Richard S. ''Harry S. Truman Encyclopedia'' (1990), very useful articles on people, events and policies in HST's career
* Kirkendall Richard S. "Harry S Truman a Missouri Farmer in the Golden Age," ''Agricultural History,'' Vol. 48, No. 4 (Oct., 1974), pp. 467-483 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/3741384 in JSTOR]
* McCullough, David. ''Truman''. (1993), 1120 pp ISBN 0-671-86920-5 best-selling biography; moderate in tone; Pulitzer Prize [http://www.amazon.com/Truman-David-McCullough/dp/0671869205/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* McCullough, David. ''Harry S. Truman'', short essay [http://www.pbs.org/newshour/character/essays/truman.html online edition]
* Offner, Arnold A. ''Another Such Victory: President Truman and the Cold War.'' (2002) 640pp, New LEft and hostile to HST; [http://books.google.com/books?id=P5tbHSsBS-AC&pg=PP1&dq=intitle:another+intitle:victory+inauthor:offner&num=30&as_brr=0&sig=pWo43stsPrIrtTfZXJicvWB3zCY excerpts and text search]
* [http://www.amazon.com/American-Experience-Truman/dp/B000BYRCG0/ref=pd_bbs_4/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1193347436&sr=8-4 ''American Experience: Truman'' (2006), from PBS]
* [http://www.amazon.com/Classic-President-Harry-Truman-Films/dp/B000JD7MV8/ref=sr_1_14/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1193347436&sr=8-14 "Classic President Harry S Truman Films: 1945-1965'' (2006) 40 newsreels, 101 minutes]

==Advanced bibliography==
These are secondary source by scholars; unless noted they are generally liberal and supportive of Truman.
===Biographies===
* Burnes, Brian. ''Harry S. Truman: His Life and Times'' (2003); popular biography; [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-S-Truman-Life-Times/dp/0974000930/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Cochran, Bert. ''Harry S. Truman and the Crisis Presidency'' (19730, 432 pages; portrays a cynical courthouse politician
* Donovan, Robert J. ''Conflict and Crisis: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1945-1948'' (1977); ''Tumultuous Years: 1949-1953'' (1982), good, detailed 2-vol political history by well-informed journalist
* Ferrell, Robert H. ''Harry S. Truman: A Life'' (1994), brief overview
* Fleming, Thomas J. ''Harry S. Truman, President'' (1993) for middle school audience.
* Gosnell, Harold Foote. ''Truman's Crises: A Political Biography of Harry S. Truman'' (1980)
* Graff, Henry F., ed. ''The Presidents: A Reference History''. 2nd ed. 1996, 443–458. ISBN 0-684-80471-9
* Hamby, Alonzo L. ''Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman'' (1995), very well received scholarly biography [http://www.amazon.com/Man-People-Truman-Oxford-Paperbacks/dp/0195124979/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193438333&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "The Liberals, Truman, and the FDR as Symbol and Myth," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 56, No. 4 (Mar., 1970), pp. 859-867 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1917522 in JSTOR]
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "Truman, Harry S."; [http://www.anb.org/articles/07/07-00307.html; ''American National Biography'' Online Feb. 2000]
* Kirkendall, Richard S. ''Harry S. Truman Encyclopedia'' (1990)
* McCullough, David. ''Truman''. . ISBN 0-671-86920-5 best-selling biography; Pulitzer Prize [http://www.amazon.com/Truman-David-McCullough/dp/0671869205/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Miller, Richard Lawrence. ''Truman: The Rise to Power'' (2002), critical evaluation emphasizing corruption of Pendergast machine

===Foreign policy===
* Appleman, Roy E. ''South to the Naktong, North to the Yalu (June-November 1950)'' (United States Army in the Korean War) (1960); official U.S. Army history, [http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/korea/20-2-1/toc.htm online version]
* Beisner, Robert L. ''Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War'' (2006), 800pp; a standard scholarly biography; covers 1945-53 only
* Benson, Michael T. ''Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel'' (1997) [http://www.questia.com/read/15103137 online edition]
* Berger, Henry. "Bipartisanship, Senator Taft, and the Truman Administration," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 90, No. 2 (Summer, 1975), pp. 221-237 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2148235 in JSTOR]
* Bernstein Barton J. "Roosevelt, Truman, and the Atomic Bomb, 1941-1945: A Reinterpretation," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 90, No. 1 (Spring, 1975), pp. 23-69 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2148698 in JSTOR], influential New left essay
* Blair, Clay ''The Forgotten War: America in Korea, 1950-1953'', Naval Institute Press (2003) revisionist study that attacks Truman and top Army leaders for near-criminal incompetence
* Divine, Robert A. "The Cold War and the Election of 1948," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 59, No. 1 (Jun., 1972), pp. 90-110 [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8723%28197206%2959%3A1%3C90%3ATCWATE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-C in JSTOR]
* Frazier, Robert. "Acheson and the Formulation of the Truman Doctrine" ''Journal of Modern Greek Studies'' 17#2 (1999), pp. 229-251 online at [[Project Muse]]
* Gaddis, John Lewis. "Reconsiderations: Was the Truman Doctrine a Real Turning Point?" ''Foreign Affairs'' 1974 52(2): 386-402. ISSN 0015-7120
* Giangreco, D. M. "'A Score of Bloody Okinawas and Iwo Jimas': President Truman and Casualty Estimates for the Invasion of Japan," ''Pacific Historical Review,'' Vol. 72, No. 1 (Feb., 2003), pp. 93-132 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/3642102 in JSTOR] shows Truman was indeed by very high invasion casualties
* Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi. ''Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan.'' (2005). 382 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Racing-Enemy-Stalin-Truman-Surrender/dp/0674016939/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193349212&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Hogan, Michael J. ''A Cross of Iron: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of the National Security State, 1945-1954'' (2000) [http://www.amazon.com/Cross-Iron-National-Security-19451954/dp/0521795370/ref=sr_1_34/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347927&sr=8-34 excerpt and text search]
* Ivie, Robert L. "Fire, Flood, and Red Fever: Motivating Metaphors of Global Emergency in the Truman Doctrine Speech." ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 1999 29(3): 570-591. ISSN 0360-4918 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001303753 online edition]
* Lacey, Michael J. ed. ''The Truman Presidency'' (1989), major essays by scholars
* Matray, James I. "Truman's Plan for Victory: National Self-Determination and the Thirty-Eighth Parallel Decision in Korea," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 66, No. 2 (Sep., 1979), pp. 314-333 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1900879 in JSTOR] Truman planned rollback of Communism in North Korea
* Merrill, Dennis. "The Truman Doctrine: Containing Communism and Modernity" ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 2006 36(1): 27-37. ISSN 0360-4918
* Offner, Arnold A. "'Another Such Victory': President Truman, American Foreign Policy, and the Cold War." ''Diplomatic History'' 1999 23(2): 127-155. ISSN 0145-2096
* Ojserkis, Raymond P. ''Beginnings of the Cold War Arms Race: The Truman Administration and the U.S. Arms Build-Up'' (2003) [http://www.questia.com/read/102018810 online edition]
* Pelz, Stephen. "When the Kitchen Gets Hot, Pass the Buck: Truman and Korea in 1950," ''Reviews in American History'' 6 (December 1978), 548-55. Online at Project MUSE
* Pierpaoli, Paul G. Jr.; ''Truman and Korea: The Political Culture of the Early Cold War.'' University of Missouri Press, 1999 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=108668070 online edition]
* Smith, Geoffrey S. "'Harry, We Hardly Know You': Revisionism, Politics and Diplomacy, 1945-1954," ''American Political Science Review'' 70 (June 1976), 560-82. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-0554(197606)70%3A2%3C560%3A%22WHKYR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-%23 in JSTOR]
* Spalding, Elizabeth Edwards. ''The First Cold Warrior: Harry Truman, Containment, And the Remaking of Liberal Internationalism'' (2006) [http://www.amazon.com/First-Cold-Warrior-Containment-Internationalism/dp/0813123925/ref=sr_1_22/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347812&sr=8-22 excerpt and text search]
* Wainstock, Dennis D. ''Truman, MacArthur, and the Korean War'' (1999) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23387043 online edition]
* Walker, J. Samuel. ''Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs against Japan'' (1997) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=35245486 online complete edition]; [http://www.amazon.com/Prompt-Utter-Destruction-Truman-Against/dp/080785607X/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193348187&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Walker, J. Samuel. "Recent Literature on Truman's Atomic Bomb Decision: A Search for Middle Ground" ''Diplomatic History'' April 2005 - Vol. 29 Issue 2 Pp 311-334 fulltext in [[EBSCO]]

===Domestic policy and politics===
* Bernstein Barton J. "The Truman Administration and the Steel Strike of 1946," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 52, No. 4 (Mar., 1966), pp. 791-803 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1894347 in JSTOR]
* Billington, Monroe. "Civil Rights, President Truman and the South," ''Journal of Negro History,'' Vol. 58, No. 2 (Apr., 1973), pp. 127-139 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2716825 in JSTOR]
* Dean, Virgil W. "Charles F. Brannan and the Rise and Fall of Truman's 'Fair Deal' for Farmers." ''Agricultural History'' 1995 69(1): 28-53. Issn: 0002-1482
* Dean, Virgil W. ''An Opportunity Lost: The Truman Administration and the Farm Policy Debate.'' 2006. 275 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Opportunity-Lost-Truman-Administration-Policy/dp/0826216501/ref=sr_1_10/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193434622&sr=1-10 excerpt and text search]
* Derickson, Alan. "'Take Health from the List of Luxuries': Labor and the Right to Health Care, 1915-1949." ''Labor History'' 2000 41(2): 171-187. Issn: 0023-656x Fulltext: in Taylor and Francis, Swetswise, Ingenta, and [[Ebsco]]
* Donaldson, Gary A. ''Truman Defeats Dewey'' (1998)
* Farhang, Sean, and Ira Katznelson. "The Southern Imposition: Congress and Labor in the New Deal and Fair Deal," ''Studies in American Political Development'' (2005), 19: 1-30; [http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=324401 online edition]
* Freeland, Richard M. ''The Truman Doctrine and the Origins of McCarthyism: Foreign Policy, Domestic Policy, and Internal Security, 1946-48'' (1989), revisionist; New left attack on Truman for being too anti-Communist
* Fried, Richard M. ''Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective.'' 1990. [http://www.questia.com/read/79027083 online complete edition]; [http://www.amazon.com/Nightmare-Red-McCarthy-Era-Perspective/dp/0195043618/ref=sr_1_11/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193514847&sr=8-11 excerpt and text search]
* Gardner, Michael R. ''Harry Truman and Civil Rights: Moral Courage and Political Risks.'' (2002) 296 pp.[http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=105233906 online edition]
* Hamby, Alonzo. ''Beyond the New Deal: Harry S. Truman and American Liberalism'' (1973), the most sophisticated biography; by a prominent conservative historian
* Hartmann, Susan M. ''Truman and the 80th Congress'' (1971) [http://www.questia.com/read/77360404 online edition]
* Heller, Francis H. ''Economics and the Truman Administration'' (1982) [http://www.amazon.com/Economics-Truman-Administration-Francis-Heller/dp/0700602178/ref=sr_1_9/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193434622&sr=1-9 excerpt and text search]
* Karabell, Zachary. ''The Last Campaign: How Harry Truman Won the 1948 Election'' (2001) [http://www.amazon.com/Last-Campaign-Harry-Truman-Election/dp/0375700773/ref=sr_1_24/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=11973347812&sr=8-24 excerpt and text search]
* Koenig, Louis W. ''The Truman Administration: Its Principles and Practice'' (1956) [http://www.questia.com/read/8522614 online edition]
* Komarek de Luna, Phyllis. ''Public versus Private Power during the Truman Administration: A Study of Fair Deal Liberalism.'' Peter Lang, 1997. 253 pp.
* Lacey, Michael J. ed. ''The Truman Presidency'' (1989), major essays by scholars
* Lee, R. Alton. ''Truman and Taft-Hartley: A Question of Mandate.'' (1966) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=99000111 online edition]
* Leuchtenburg, William E. ''The White House Looks South: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson.'' (2005). 668 pp.
* Levantrosser, William F. ed. ''Harry S. Truman: The Man from Independence'' (1986). 25 essays by scholars and Truman aides. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23428395 online edition]
* McCoy, Donald. ''The Presidency of Harry S. Truman'' (1984), standard scholarly survey by conservative historian; [http://www.amazon.com/Presidency-Harry-S-Truman-American/dp/0700602550/ref=sr_1_8/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193514606&sr=8-8 excerpt and text search]
* Marcus, Maeva ''Truman and the Steel Seizure Case: The Limits of Presidential Power'' (1994) [http://www.questia.com/read/22816992 online edition]
* Phillips, Cabel. ''The Truman Presidency: The History of a Triumphant Succession'' (1966), by a journalist who interviewed many key players
* Pierpaoli, Paul G. Jr. ''Truman and Korea: The Political Culture of the Early Cold War.'' (1997). ISBN 0-8262-1206-9. focus on the homefront [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=16627966265512 online review]
* Ryan, Halford R. ''Harry S. Truman: Presidential Rhetoric'' (1993) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=27994601 online edition]
* Sitkoff, Harvard. "Harry Truman and the Election of 1948: The Coming of Age of Civil Rights in American Politics," ''Journal of Southern History,'' Vol. 37, No. 4 (Nov., 1971), pp. 597-616 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2206548 in JSTOR]
* Theoharis, Athan. "The Truman Administration and the Decline of Civil Liberties: The FBI's Success in Securing Authorization for a Preventive Detention Program," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 64, No. 4 (Mar., 1978), pp. 1010-1030 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1890734 in JSTOR], leftwing attack on Truman for being too harsh on possible subversives
* Theoharis, Athan. ''The Truman Presidency: The Origins of the Imperial Presidency and the National Security State'' (1979), revisionist, New left attack on HST
* Theoharis, Athan. ''Seeds of Repression: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of McCarthyism'' (1977), New Left attack on HST for being so hostile to domestic Communists
* Thompson, Francis H. ''The Frustration of Politics: Truman, Congress, and the Loyalty Issue, 1945-1953.'' 1979. 246 pp.
* Vaughan, Philip H. "The Truman Administration's Fair Deal for Black America." ''Missouri Historical Review'' 1976 70(3): 291-305. Issn: 0026-6582

===Primary sources===
* Bernstein, Barton J., Ed. ''The Truman Administration: A Documentary History'' (1966); 2nd edition published as ''Politics and Policies of the Truman Administration'' (1970), revisionist
* [http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/publications/ERP/ Council of Economic Advisors, ''Economic Report of the President'' (annual 1947- )], complete series online; important analysis of current trends and policies, plus statistcial tables
* Ferrell, Robert H. ed. ''Dear Bess: The Letters from Harry to Bess Truman, 1910-1959'' (1983)
* Ferrell, Robert H. ed. ''Off the Record: The Private Papers of Harry S. Truman'' (1980).
* Merrill, Dennis. ed. ''Documentary History of the Truman Presidency, (1995- ) 35 volumes; available in some large academic libraries.
* Miller, Merle ''Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman'' (1974)
* Neal, Steve. ed. ''HST: Memories of the Truman Years.'' (2003)280pp; long excerpts from 20 oral history interviews (some of which are online at the Truman Library site).
* Neal, Steve. ed. ''Miracle of '48: Harry Truman's Major Campaign Speeches & Selected Whistle-Stops'' (2003); 43 speeches
* Truman, Harry S. ''Where the Buck Stops: The Personal and Private Writings of Harry S. Truman'' edited by Margaret Truman (1990) [http://www.amazon.com/Where-Buck-Stops-Personal-Writings/dp/0446391751/ref=pd_bbs_sr_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221386001&sr=8-6 excerpt and text search]
* Truman, Harry S. ''Memoirs'' 2 vol (1955). [http://tera-3.ul.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/reader.pl?call=30151&search= vol 1 online]
* Truman, Margaret. ''Harry S. Truman''. (1973). memoir by his daughter
* Truman, Harry S. ''The Autobiography of Harry S. Truman'' edited compilation of excerpts by Robert H. Ferrell (2002) [http://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Harry-S-Truman/dp/0826214452/ref=pd_bbs_sr_5/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-5 excerpt and text search]
* [http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/ ''The Public Papers of the Presidents'' contain most of Truman's public messages, statements, speeches, and news conference remarks. Documents such as Proclamations, and Executive Orders]

==Historiography==
* Ferrell, Robert H. ''Harry S. Truman and the Cold War Revisionists.'' 2006. 142 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Truman-Cold-War-Revisionists/dp/0826216536/ref=sr_1_6/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193349212&sr=8-6 excerpt and text search]
* Geselbracht, Raymond. "Creating the Harry S. Truman Library: The First Fifty Years," ''Public Historian'', 28 (Summer 2006), 37–78.
* Hartmann, Susan M. "The 1948 Election and the Configuration of Postwar Liberalism" ''Reviews in American History'' 28.1 (2000) 105-111 in [[Project Muse]]
* Heller, Francis H., ed. ''The Korean War: A 25 Year Perspective'' (1977), essays by scholars
* Heller, Francis H., ed. ''The Truman White House: The Administration of the Presidency, 1945-1953'' (1980), essays by scholars
* Heller, Francis H., ed. ''Economics and the Truman Administration'' (1981), essays by scholars
* Kirkendall, Richard S. ed. ''Harry's Farewell: Interpreting and Teaching the Truman Presidency'' (2004) essays by scholars
* Kirkendall, Richard S., ed. ''The Truman Period as a Research Field: A Reappraisal 1972'' (1974)
* Tull, Charles J. "The State of the Art in Truman Research," in William F. Levantrosser, ed. ''Harry S. Truman: The Man from Independence'' (1986), 1-31 aides. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23428395 online edition]
* Walker, J. Samuel "Recent Literature on Truman's Atomic Bomb Decision: a Search for Middle Ground." ''Diplomatic History'' 2005 29(2): 311-334. Issn: 0145-2096 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]

==External links==
*[http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/ht33.html Biography]
*[http://www.trumanlibrary.org Presidential Library]
*[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/index.php The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb], Truman Library.
*[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/small/mb12a.htm President Truman to Senator Richard B. Russell], August 9, 1945.
====notes====
<references/>

{{USPresidents}}
{{USVicePresidents}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Truman, Harry}}

[[Category:Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:Vice Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:Democratic Party]]

Harry Truman

2008-11-11T21:06:43Z

AshleyS: /* World War II */ fix

{{President|
|name=Harry S. Truman
|image=HTruman.jpg
|country=the United States
|seq=33
|party=Democratic
|term_start=April 12, 1945
|term_end=January 20, 1953<ref>http://home.comcast.net/~sharonday7/Presidents/AP060301.htm</ref>
|vp=None
|vp_dates=1945-1949
|2vp=Alben Barkley
|2vp_dates=1949-1953
|previous=Franklin D. Roosevelt
|next=Dwight D. Eisenhower
|seq2=34
|office2=vice
|party2=
|term2_start=January 20, 1945
|term2_end=April 12, 1945
|pres2=Franklin D. Roosevelt
|previous2=Henry A. Wallace
|next2=Alben W. Barkley
|birth_date=May 8, 1884
|birth_place=Lamar, MO
|death_date=December 26, 1972
|death_place=Kansas City, MO
|spouse=Bess Wallace Truman
|spouse2=
|religion=[[Baptist]]
}}

'''Harry S. Truman,''' (1884-1972) a [[liberal]] [[Democrat]] from [[Missouri]], was the president of the United States from 1945-1953, taking over when [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] died in April 1945. He took the decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order to force Japan's surrender. Angered at the Soviet Union's seizure of eastern Europe, he moved away from FDR's [[détente]] to a policy of [[containment]], reinforced by the Truman Plan (1947) to resist Communist subversion, the [[Marshall Plan]] (1948-51) to rebuild and modernize western Europe's economies, and the [[NATO]] military alliance of 1949. Truman, advised by [[Dean Acheson]] and the State Department, set the policies to oppose the Soviet Union as the [[Cold War]] began.

Ignoring Asia, he later saw America's close ally China fall to the anti-American Communists under [[Mao Zedong]] in 1949; the US and China fought each other to a draw during the undeclared [[Korean War]], 1950-53. Truman fired his top general, [[Douglas MacArthur]], during this conflict and saw his popularity plunge.

As the war ended, the massive problem of reconverting the 45% of the economy devoted to war production baffled Truman. Listening to liberal advisors, he refused to end extremely unpopular price controls, and was unable to stop a massive wave of strikes in major industries in 1945-46. Voter dissatisfaction to the Republican capture of Congress in 1946; with Senator [[Robert A. Taft]] as the conservative Republican spokesman, Congress repealed many of the wartime restrictions on business and lowered taxes. Taft rewrote the labor laws in the [[Taft-Hartley Act of 1947]], balancing the rights of unions, management and the public interest; it became law over Truman's signature and remains in effect.

Truman began with very high popularity ratings, but they plunged to the lowest on record. Democrats were unable to stop his renomination in 1948, but the far left nominated FDR's vice president [[Henry A. Wallace]], and southern conservative Democrats nominated Dixiecrat [[J. Strom Thurmond]]. Observers almost unanimously expected victory for the Republican candidate, Governor [[Thomas E. Dewey]], liberal from New York. Total astonishment greeted Truman's stunning election victory, as he reassembled the [[New Deal Coalition]] for the fifth consecutive victory, pulling in on his coattails a Democratic Congress.

Although the Democrats organized Congress in 1949, the [[Conservative Coalition]] of Northern Republicans and Southern Democrats was in control, and Truman was to pass any of his liberal [[Fair Deal|Fair Deal program]]. Nevertheless he he pursued civil rights through executive orders, especially a 1948 order to end racial discrimination in the military. Blacks remained in segregated units, but were to receive equal treatment. Truman's failures to deal with "Korea, Communism and Corruption" forced him to withdraw from reelection in 1952 and gave the Republicans an opportunity to crusade against him and elect [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] in 1952.

Overshadowed at first by his predecessor, [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], Truman established a reputation as a blunt, unsophisticated fighter for the common man, who took responsibility for his actions because, he said, "the buck stops here." His stunning reelection victory in 1948 baffled the experts and has inspired underdogs ever since. He is more popular in 2008 than ever. His policy positions make him a heroic icon for liberals.

==Early life==

Truman was born on a farm near Lamar, in western Missouri, and grew up on a farm near Independence, Missouri. His grandparents had been Confederate sympathizers who had been rounded up by the Union army in the Civil War.<ref> His middle initial, S, does not stand for anything, but was chosen because his parents could not decide whether to name him for his grandfather Shippe or for his grandfather Solomon.</ref> After graduating from high school in Independence, with good skills in history and music, he decided against college and became a bank clerk in Kansas City. Always a joiner, he was active in the Missouri National Guard. From 1906 to 1917 he managed his father's 600-acre farm at Grandview, Missouri. During World War I his National Guard regiment was mobilized in 1917, he entered the Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, sailing for France in 1917 as a lieutenant. Truman was soon promoted to captain in Battery D, 129 Field Artillery Battalion, 35th Division, A.E.F., and returned to the United States a major in 1919, after combat at St. Mihiel and in the Argonne offensive. He was in an artillery unit, and learned about gas warfare; he was never wounded, He married Elizabeth "Bess" Wallace on June 28, 1919; they had one daughter, Margaret, who married a ''New York Times'' editor. With an army buddy he invested his savings in a Kansas City haberdashery, but this venture was a failure.

==Pendergast machine==
Discouraged by his lack of business success and without funds, Truman sought the help of friends. His farm background, his war record, his Masonic connections, his Baptist Church affiliations, and his genial personality recommended him to [[Thomas J. Pendergast]], the Democratic political boss of Kansas City and much of western Missouri. Pendergast, an Irish Catholic, had a strong base among the Irish Catholics and used Truman to reach out to Protestants, farmers and veterans. He made Truman the overseer of highways for Jackson County.

In 1922 Truman was elected a county judge; needing some legal knowledge he studied nights for two years at Kansas City Law School; it was his only education beyond high school, although he read history. In the 1924 GOP landslide he was defeated for reelection, but in 1926 he was returned to office as presiding judge of the court, the duties of which also involved administrative supervision of many county expenditures, including $60 million for public works. He almost joined the [[Ku Klux Klan]], but withdrew his application when he realized his Irish Catholic allies bitterly opposed the KKK; Truman then campaigned against the Klan.
==Senate==
In 1934 Pendergast arranged for Truman's nomination as United States Senator on the Democratic ticket; he was elected in the democratic landslide as a supporter of Roosevelt and the New deal. His first term in office was uneventful, except for a failed effort to prevent the renomination of Maurice Milligan for U.S. District Attorney for the Western District of Missouri; Milligan had obtained the conviction of 35 Pendergast "ward leaders" for vote frauds.

===World War II===
He was re-elected in 1940 after a terrific battle against [[Lloyd Stark]], Truman became nationally infamous as chairman of the "Truman Committee". Ostensibly for the purpose of investigating waste, fraud and inefficiency in government contracts, the committee allowed Truman and his associates to interfere in many aspects of Executive policy on the prosecution of the war. The committee frequently tampered with or even cancelled contracts with legitimate suppliers of essential war materials when they would not deal with Truman's Kansas City patrons, the Pendergasts. Its formal name was the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program. Nevertheless, he was an energetic and forthright supporter of the [[New Deal]] and won widespread party favor for his attacks on business malfeasance in war production. He forced changes in the aircraft and ship construction programs, and worked well with other border state Democrats, especially [[Alben Barkley]] of Kentucky, the Majority Leader.

===FDR picks a new vice president===
In 1944, after Vice-President [[Henry A. Wallace]] had been rejected by leading Democrats as too far to the left, Truman supported his friend former senator [[James F. Byrnes]] of South Carolina for that office. Catholics vetoed Byrnes, who had left that faith. Truman himself became Roosevelt's choice as a compromise vice presidential candidate, and the two were elected.

Roosevelt had been in ill-health since his return from the [[Teheran conference]]. At the 1944 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, DNC Chairman Bob Hannegan went for instructions to President Roosevelt's private railway car just before the July convention officially began. Roosevelt had decided to dump incumbent Vice-President [[Henry Wallace]]. Worried over dissension on the choice of a successor, Roosevelt told Hannegan: "Go on down there and nominate Truman before there's any more trouble. And clear everything with Sidney." <ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,791619,00.html "Clear everything with Sidney"], [[Time magazine]], Sep. 25, 1944.</ref> The President could not make the selection of Truman until [[Sidney Hillman]] <ref>''The Roosevelt Myth'', John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948, Book 2, Ch. 8, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Eight___The_Shock_Troops.htm ''The Shock Troops of the Third New Deal'']</ref>, Director of the Political Action Committee for the Congress on Industrial Organizations (CIO) approved it. <ref> ''Roosevelt Myth'', Book 3, Ch. 10, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Ten___Politics__Disease_.htm ''Politics, Disease and History''], Flynn, 1948.</ref> When Harry Truman walked into the smoke-filled room <ref>[http://www.booknotes.org/Transcript/index_print.asp?ProgramID=1109 ''Truman''], Interview with David McCullough, C-Span Booknotes, July 19, 1992. Retrieved August 6, 2007.</ref> of DNC at headquarters at the Stevens Hotel in Chicago, Soviet spies [[John Abt]], [[Lee Pressman]], and [[Nathan Witt]], were on hand." <ref>''The Yalta Betrayal'', Felix Wittmer, Claxton Printers, 1953, pg. 75.</ref>

==Presidency==
Roosevelt ignored Truman between the election in November 1944 and the inauguration in January; even as Vice president Truman was not consulted on national policies, and not informed of major decisions, nor of the atomic bomb. Although he realized Roosevelt's health was failing rapidly, he made no preparations for assuming the presidency and did not even build up a staff of advisors. Truman succeeded to the Presidency upon the death of FDR on April 12, 1945.

President Truman pledged that in office he would carry on the liberal domestic policies of Roosevelt. He distrusted most of FDR's cabinet and set about to assemble his own team.

===Winning World War II===

During his term as President, he presided over the conclusion of [[World War II]] in both [[Europe]] and [[Japan]].
On April 25 his telephoned speech opened the San Francisco Conference establishing the [[United Nations]]. A week later Germany surrendered, and from July 17 to August 2, 1945, Truman attended the [[Potsdam Conference]] with Britain's [[Winston Churchill]] (soon replaced by the new prime minister [[Clement Attlee]]) and [[Joseph Stalin]] of the Soviet Union.

===Atomic bomb===
The alternative Truman faced was to order use of the atomic bomb which might shock the Japanese into surrender, or order the planned invasion of Japan's home islands; casualty estimates for Americans ranged very widely. Casualty estimates for Japan ranged into the millions. Secretary of War [[Henry Stimson]] made the real decision: to drop atomic bombs on [[Hiroshima]] and [[Nagasaki]]. Japan immediately surrendered on terms that allowed Emperor [[Hirohito]] to stay on the throne and not be tried as a war criminal. Truman put General [[Douglas MacArthur]] in charge of occupying and controlling Japan; MacArthur remained in charge until the peace treaty was finally signed in 1951.

Truman kept control of the bomb in civilian hands—the Air Force and State Department did not even know how many bombs existed until 1948, when only eight had been built. The postwar military strategy was not built around nuclear weapons.

====Debating the decision====

=====Conservatives and liberals=====

In general, conservatives and liberals alike have applauded and supported the a-bomb decision because it shortened the war, and prevented hundreds of thousands or millions of casualties. The New Left or "revisionist" interpretation argues that the bomb was not necessary to end the war and that no invasion was necessary. They have no evidence to support that argument. They do have fragments of evidence that give weak support to the argument that one American goal was to intimidate the Soviet Union. The revisionists believe the US should have stayed friends with the Soviets, and that Truman was guilty for starting the Cold War (which they consider a bad thing). Morally the revisionists assume the USA was no better or worse than the Soviets—admitting to Soviet atrocities, they argue that socialism was morally superior to capitalism, which itself was a great evil the US intended to spread. In terms of the bomb, Secretary of State James Byrnes did make some offhand references to influencing Moscow, but his comments did not reflect the policy of the State Department or White House, and certainly not those of Stimson, who was by far the most important decision-maker.
Vice President Truman had been kept uninformed about the atomic bomb; he had little interest in military affairs and his chief military aide, General Harry Vaughan, was a drinking buddy likewise unfamiliar with what was happening in the war. Truman therefore relied entirely on his Secretary of War, [[Henry Stimson]]. At Potsdam he approved the atomic bomb targets selected by Stimson and, on the way home, he authorized the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki three days later.

====How the decision was made====
The decision to drop the atomic bomb has been the focus of one of the most heated debates among both scholars and the public since 1945. After 1945 the debate was dominated by "traditionalist" scholars, who argued that the U.S. had no choice but to drop the bomb as a way to bring World War II to an end. The traditionalists were succeeded in the 1960s by "revisionists," who asserted that the dropping of the bomb was done to intimidate Stalin, not end the war. The leading revisionist historians emerged from the "new left" movement of the 1960s and rejected any notion of the moral superiority of America or capitalism to the Soviet Union. They thought the Cold War and containment were poor policies and generally favored détente, along the lines proposed by Henry Wallace. They include Gar Alperovitz, Barton J. Bernstein, Kai Bird, Diane Shaver Clemens, Bruce Cumings, Richard Freeland, Lloyd Gardner, Gabriel Kolko, Walter LaFeber, Thomas Paterson, Harvard Sitkoff, Ronald Steel, Athan Theoharis, and William A. Williams (the leader of the "Wisconsin School"). The revisionists are not monolithic, but they usually agree that Truman and his advisers were wrong whether the issue is the Cold War, Korea, or the atomic bomb. Revisionists had argued that Truman's goal at Potsdam was to prevent Soviet entry into the war against Japan, and the atomic bomb was used to scare them off. However in 1983 archivists discovered a letter Truman wrote to his wife from Potsdam on July 18, 1945: "I've gotten what I came for-- Stalin goes to war August 15 with no strings on it . . . I'll say that we'll end the war a year sooner now, and think of the kids who won't be killed! That's the important thing."<ref>''New York Times'' March 14, 1983. </ref>

In the 1990s, a more nuanced historical approach emerged searching for a middle ground, offering a number of more credible studies, essentially arguing that neither the traditional nor the revisionist interpretations were entirely satisfactory.<ref>J. Samuel Walker, "Recent Literature on Truman's Atomic Bomb Decision: a Search for Middle Ground." ''Diplomatic History'' 2005 29(2): 311-334. Issn: 0145-2096 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]</ref>

==Domestic affairs==
===Reconversion of the economy to peacetime===
The process of reconversion to peacetime was rocky. It was impossible to bring soldiers home fast enough, and they and their families protected loudly. All war contract were canceled, shutting down munitions plants and throwing millions of workers (many of them women) out of jobs, just as the 12 million service members were coming home. Truman sought to retain price controls against the vehement opposition of business but yielded somewhat in the face of bitter popular opposition. Large-scale strikes disrupted the economy, especially a coal miners strike and a threatened nationwide strike by railroad workers. He threatened to draft the railroad workers and the strike was called off; unions began to oppose him but he regained union support by his later attempts to veto or repeal the [[Taft-Hartley]] labor relations law. Truman's opposition to tax cuts, his insistence on price controls, and his lack of aggressive support of labor programs weakened his party. To voters frustrated with shortages and controls, Truman seemed indecisive and inconsistent; his efforts to deal with a postwar wave of strikes managed to alienate both organized labor and those who wanted more restraints on unions. Voters who normally supported liberal and labor candidates stayed home, resulting in a Republican landslide in 1946, giving the GOP a majority in both houses of Congress. Ohio Senator [[Robert A. Taft]] became the main GOP spokesman in Congress, tangling often with Truman.
===Moving left===
Gradually Truman created his own administration, using the '''''Fair Deal''''' label to express its goals in domestic affairs. Truman systematically removed the Roosevelt cabinet and inner circle of advisors. The most dramatic episode was firing [[Henry A. Wallace]] in 1946 because of his outspoken criticism of the administration's foreign policy as too harsh on the Soviet Union. Liberals saw themselves in a struggle with conservatives for Truman's soul after the 1946 election. Linked to the President through top aide [[Clark Clifford]], these liberals included Oscar Ewing, former party official and director of the Federal Security Agency, Leon Keyserling, member of the President's Council of Economic Advisors, and David Morse, assistant secretary of labor. They embraced the memo plotting 1948 campaign strategy written by former Roosevelt adviser James Rowe, which urged Truman to "move to the left and focus on building a coalition of groups that centered on organized labor, liberals, and northern urban African Americans."<ref> The memo until 1991 was mis-attributed to Clifford, who passed it along to Truman.</ref> Liberals had national support from the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), led by [[Walter Reuther]], [[Eleanor Roosevelt]], Joseph Rauh, James Rowe, [[Reinhold Niebuhr]], [[Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.]], [[Hubert Humphrey]], and [[Ronald Reagan]]<ref> Reagan was an energetic liberal supporter of Truman. He moved to the right in the late 1950s.</ref> . The ADA was hostile to the Soviet Union, battled American Communists and fellow travelers like Wallace, and supported the purge of Communists from the [[CIO]] labor unions. Truman agreed with the ADA and moved left after 1946.<ref> Steven M. Gillon, ''Politics and Vision: the ADA and American Liberalism, 1947-1985'' (1987).</ref>

However he could not tolerate [[Henry A. Wallace]] and the far left, which had considerable Communist support. When Wallace, then Secretary of Commerce, in 1946 denounced Truman's tough stand against Stalin, Truman fired Wallace.

In 1947 Truman asked Congress for stand-by price controls, rationing, and bank and consumer credit control as parts of an anti-inflation program, but his ideas were ignored by the Republicans who controlled Congress. In his state of the union message of Jan. 7, 1948, Truman called for rent control, increased social security benefits, universal military training, national health insurance, and other social legislation. The next week he again asked for passage of his anti-inflation measures. In February 1948 he asked for civil-rights legislation, including a federal anti-lynching law, a federal fair employment practices commission, a permanent civil rights commission, and abolition of the poll tax--measures that enraged many Southern Democrats. None of his proposals became law. More successful was Truman's drive to increase the efficiency of the executive branch; he appointed a commission headed by former President [[Herbert Hoover]] which recommended numerous changes, including unification of the armed services.

===Civil Rights===
Disgusted by violence against black veterans in the deep South, Truman called for the extension of the wartime [[FEPC]] program that called for fair employment practices, but Congress refused and it ended. He created the Presidential Commission on Civil Rights in 1946 by executive order (with no congressional approval needed); it recommended desegregation of local public facilities and the removal of restrictive covenants that prevented blacks and Jews from purchasing houses in restricted neighborhoods. The Commission generated attention but no action.<ref> Steven F. Lawson, ed. ''To Secure These Rights: The Report of Harry S. Truman's Committee on Civil Rights.'' (2004)</ref> Indeed, Congress refused to pass any civil rights legislation before 1957. Truman therefore decided to use his executive powers, and focused on guaranteeing equal opportunity in the military and the civil service. The Army and Navy operated segregated units, and refused to be part of a "social experiment" in integration.<ref> Bernard C. Nalty, ''Strength For the Fight: A History of Black Americans in the Military'' (1986)</ref> The Air Force, however, was much more willing. Between 1941 and 1951 it went from a segregated force to the first truly integrated service. Key generals became convinced that segregation was a drag on efficiency, and the Air Force decided to integrate in April 1948. before Truman issued his famous Executive Order 9981 on July 26, 1948, calling for equal opportunity in all the armed services. It allowed segregation but called for "equality of treatment and opportunity." In the face of opposition from some high-ranking officers, the Air Force moved cautiously, but by 1951 the last black unit was dissolved and the Air Force was completely integrated.<ref> Alan L. Gropman, ''The Air Force Integrates, 1945-1964.'' (2nd ed 1998) [http://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/Publications/Annotations/gropmanintegrates.htm online edition]. </ref> Order 9981 created the Fahy Committee to implement the new policy. Truman's order did not actually integrate the Army--it used segregated units during the Korean War--but it opened the way for integration in the early 1950s.<ref> Richard M. Dalfiume, ''Desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces: Fighting on Two Fronts, 1939-1953.'' (1969)</ref> Public opinion was generally favorable except in the deep South (which voted against Truman in 1948).

==1948 election==
As the presidential election of 1948 approached, no one thought Truman could be reelected. Truman's policies had alienated left right and center, but the party had no real alternative. Neither Roosevelt nor Truman had groomed a likely successor. Party leaders considered asking [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] to run, but he refused. Liberals led by Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota inserted a strong civil rights plank in the platform, causing a walkout of the deep South. Truman was renominated by default, with Barkley as the vice-presidential candidate. Truman thrilled the convention by announcing his plan to call the Republican-controlled Congress back into special session to "ask them to pass the laws to halt rising prices, to meet the housing crisis--which they say they are for in their platform." When this special session accomplished little, as Truman expected, it gave the president a chance to attack the "Do Nothing" Congress.

Both the left and right wings of the party split off and ran their own candidates. Henry Wallace, the candidate of the Progressive Party, was expected to divert labor, leftist and black votes, while [[J. Strom Thurmond]] was the "Dixiecrat" candidate whose supporters controlled the Democratic party in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina.<ref> Thurmond received only 15% of the vote in the other Southern states. Kari Frederickson, ''The Dixiecrat Revolt and the End of the Solid South, 1932-1968.'' (2001) </ref> Truman exploited his multiple opponents, driving a wedge between the liberals and the Communists who controlled the Wallace movement, and holding the line in the outer South. Most of all he exploited the difference between the conservative Republicans who controlled Congress, and the liberal Republican candidate [[Tom Dewey]]. Truman crusaded against the Republicans as evil rich men, blasting them as fascists and denouncing the 80th Congress for its failure to help the average citizen.<ref>''Time'' magazine reported that "His irresponsible implication that a vote for Thomas Dewey was a vote for fascism horrified his soberer followers." ''Time'' Jan 3, 1949 at [http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/personoftheyear/archive/stories/1948.html]</ref> "Give 'em hell" fury delivered in 275 speeches over 21,928 train-miles had more impact that Truman's promises of more money for federal housing, higher social security and unemployment benefits, free medical care for everyone, the continued subsidy of farm prices, and a fair deal for minorities. The pollsters misjudged the election, as did all the traditional pundits. Truman rallied enough of the [[New Deal Coalition]] to win by 2.2 million votes, and carry in a Democratic Congress on his coattails. The key farm states of the farm states of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Ohio that Dewey had carried in 1944 now switched to Truman, giving a solid victory in the electoral college of 303 for Truman, 189 for Dewey, 39 for Thurmond, and none for Wallace.<ref> Harold I. Gullan, ''The Upset That Wasn't: Harry S. Truman and the Crucial Election of 1948'' (1998); Gary A. Donaldson, ''Truman Defeats Dewey'' (1998) </ref>

==Second Term: Fair Deal==
During Truman's second term as president, he pressed for civil rights legislation, compulsory national health insurance, and other domestic measures that he called his "Fair Deal" program. Almost nothing was passed by Congress, which was controlled by the [[Conservative Coalition]]. His seizure of the steel industry to prevent a strike was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

In foreign affairs, Truman brought in [[Dean Acheson]] as Secretary of State, and promoted the Point Four program of aid to underdeveloped countries. The policy of containing Communism was operationalized by the creation, in 1949, of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to oversee the integration of the military forces of its member nations in Western Europe and North America. A further step was taken in 1951 with the establishment of the Mutual Security Agency to coordinate U.S. economic, technical and military aid abroad.
===Agriculture===
Truman won the farm vote in 1948 by charging the GOP shoved "a pitchfork in the farmer's back", but was unable to get new farm programs passed. His second secretary of agriculture, Charles F. Brannan promoted the Brannan Plan, intended to bring widespread changes to farm policy. Brannan proposed to replace market price supports with direct income payments to farmers. His plan set ceilings on the amount a farmer could receive and limited the program to farmers who did not exceed a set production mark. The Brannan Plan was supposed to foster the "family-sized farm" while providing affordable food for consumers. While Brannan could count on support from the left, especially the National Farmers Union (which was small), labor unions (which were powerful), and consumer groups (which were weak), he was opposed by leading farm economists and the national Farm Bureau (which was large) and the national Chamber of Commerce (representing business). The head of the Farm Bureau decried the plan as intrusive, a form of "creeping socialism," and expensive. The Farm Bureau, dominated by conservatives, resisted any curbs on full agricultural production. A bloc of Midwestern Republican and southern Democratic congressmen opposed replacing market mechanisms with outright government payments to farmers and setting limits on supports to individual farms. The Brannan Plan went nowhere and instead, the conservative farm bloc passed the Agricultural Act of 1949 with high price supports.<ref> See Dean (2006)</ref>

==National Security==
===Truman Doctrine and origins of Cold War===
In early 1947 the British government, which was socialist but anti-Communist, secretly told Washington its treasury was empty and it could no longer give military and economic aid to Greece or Turkey, requested the U.S. take over. Acheson convinced Truman to act quickly lest Greece be taken over by its communist partisans who were at the time strongly supported by the Soviet government working through the communist Bulgarian and Yugoslav governments. If Greece fell, Turkey would be helpless and soon the eastern Mediterranean would fall under Stalin’s control. In a dramatic message to Congress on March 12, 1947, President Truman said that the U. S. must take immediate and resolute action to support Greece and Turkey.<ref> Turkey did not have an insurrection, but it was such a bitter rival of Greece that it had to get money if Greece did.</ref> The Republican Congress, after extensive hearings, approved this historic change in U. S. foreign policy in a bill signed May 22, 1947. Thus was born the “Truman Doctrine.” Greece suppressed the insurgents; both Greece and Turkey joined NATO.<ref>
Joseph C. Satterthwaite, "The Truman Doctrine: Turkey," ''Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,'' Vol. 401, (May, 1972), pp. 74-84 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1039114 in JSTOR]</ref>
===Recognition of Israel===
Truman usually followed the advice of the State Department in national security matters, largely ignoring the Pentagon and Congress. In the case of recognition of the independent state of Israel in 1948, however, he overruled the urgent pleas of the State Department and immediately recognized Israel. State had warned that recognition would anger the Arabs in the Middle East; Truman, howver, was more responsive to domestic politics, where support for Israel was widespread.<ref> Michael T. Benson, ''Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel'' (1997) [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-S-Truman-Founding-Israel/dp/0275958078/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221429694&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]; for the State Departmenrt perspective see Evan M. Wilson, "The American Interest in the Palestine Question and the Establishment of Israel," ''Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,'' Vol. 401, (May, 1972), pp. 64-73 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1039113 in JSTOR]</ref>

===Religion===
Truman, a Southern Baptist, sought religious allies in the Cold War. He tried to unite the world's religions in a spiritual crusade against communism, sending his personal representative to Pope [[Pius XII]] to coordinate not only with the Vatican but also with the heads of the Anglican, Lutheran, and Greek Orthodox churches. "If I can mobilize the people who believe in a moral world against the Bolshevik materialists," Truman wrote in 1947, "we can win this fight." Since the [[Roman Catholic Church]] was his strongest religious ally in the moral battle against international communism, Truman put Rome first in his global strategy, even trying to confer formal diplomatic recognition on the Vatican. At home, he received solid support from Catholics, who were a major element of the [[New Deal Coalition]], but overwhelming resistance from Protestants, especially Southern Baptists who rejected anything "popish." Truman's political-diplomatic effort to formalize a public, faith-driven, ecumenical international campaign failed.<ref> Elizabeth Edwards Spalding, "True Believers" ''Wilson Quarterly'' 2006 30(2): 40-44, 46-48. Issn: 0363-3276 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]</ref>

===Loss of China===
[[Chiang Kai-shek]], America's wartime ally and head of the Nationalist forces in China, was caught between two wars—a war on China by [[Japan]] and a war with [[Mao Zedong]] and the Chinese Communists. The U.S. policy was to avoid a civil war and to threaten to withhold additional aid to the Nationalists unless they worked out a compromise. No compromise was possible, and Truman refused to send in combat troops to fight the civil war. General [[George Marshall]], who spent a year in China as Truman's emissary, testified that combat aid might have prevented a Communist victory, but General David Barr's military mission to China was specifically instructed not to supply this kind of assistance. <ref>Military Situation in the Far East, Hearings before the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, 82nd Congress (Washington, 1951), p. 558.</ref> General [[Albert C. Wedemeyer]] recommended this approach in his report on his 1947 fact-finding mission, but Marshall personally suppressed the report. <ref>Tang Tsou, ''America's Failure in China, 1941-1945'', Chicago 1964, pg. 457.</ref> Chiang believed that the [[Truman Doctrine]] to [[Containment|contain]] the spread of [[International Communism]] directed from Moscow would be extended to China, and ordered an offensive as soon as word of the new policy reached him. <ref>Richard C. Thornton, ''China: A Political History, 1917-1980'', Boulder CO 1982, pg. 208.</ref>

[[Dean Rusk]], Assistant Secretary of State in charge of the Far Eastern Division, said on May 18,1951 what the critics had been saying,
{{Cquote|The independence of China is gravely threatened. In the Communist world there is room for only one master. . . . How many Chinese in one community after another are being destroyed because they love China more than they love [[Soviet Russia]]? The freedoms of the Chinese people are disappearing. Trial by mob, [[democide|mass slaughter]], banishment to [[slavery|forced labor]] in [[Manchuria]] and Siberia. . . . The peace and security of China are being sacrificed by the ambitions of the Chinese conspiracy. China has been driven by foreign masters into an adventure in foreign aggression.}}
John T. Flynn observes that critics of the [[FDR]] and Truman Administrations who had been saying this earlier were denounced as “[[Fascists]].”<ref>''While You Slept: Our Tragedy in Asia and Who Made It'', John T. Flynn, New York: The Devin-Adair Company, 1951, [http://www.mises.org/books/whileyouslept.pdf pg. 161] pdf.</ref> Rusk continued,
{{Cquote|We do not recognize the authorities in [[Peiping]] for what they pretend to be. It is not the government of China. It does not pass the first test. It is not Chinese. . . . We recognize the [[Kuomintang|Nationalist government of the Republic of China]] even though the territory under its control is severely restricted. <ref>Hearings before the Senate Committee on Armed Services and Committee on Foreign Relations (also known as the Mac Arthur Inquiry), June 2, 1951.</ref>…we believe it more authoritatively represents the views of the great body of the people of China, particularly their demand for independence from foreign control….That government will continue to receive important aid and assistance from the United States.}}

===Risks in Korea===
Conditions inviting the North Korean attack were created by the [[United Nations]] which issued a resolution for withdrawal of both Soviet and American troops. Troops began withdrawing September 15, 1948, leaving only about 7500 Americans lightly armed. This left in South Korea 16,000 Koreans and 7500 Americans, both groups lightly armed, against 150,000 fully armed North Korean Communists. General Roberts, head of the U. S. Military Mission said the South Koreans were not permitted to arm adequately.
The Korean part of Wedemeyer's report was suppressed. Wedemeyer said:
{{Cquote|American and Soviet forces . . . are approximately equal, less than 50,000 troops each, [but] the Soviet-equipped and trained North Korean People's (Communist) Army of approximately 125,000 is vastly superior to the United States-organized constabulary of 16,000 Koreans equipped with Japanese small arms. The North Korean People's Army constitutes a potential military threat to [[South Korea]], since there is strong possibility that the Soviets will withdraw their occupation forces and thus induce our own withdrawal."<ref>Hearings before the Senate Committee on Armed Services and Committee on Foreign Relations, June 6, 1951.</ref>}}

Wedemeyer warned that this would take place as soon as "they can be sure that the [[North Korea]]n [[puppet government]] and its armed forces . . . are strong enough . . . to be relied upon to carry out Soviet objectives without the actual presence of Soviet troops."
===Communists inside US===
The bipartisan statutory [[Moynihan Secrecy Commission]] concluded, "President Truman was almost willfully obtuse as regards American Communism." <ref>Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy. Senate Document 105-2. 103rd Congress. Washington, D.C. United States Government Printing Office. 1997. [http://www.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/04dpm.pdf Chairman's Forward, pg. XL] pdf.</ref>
===Foreign policy: détente to containment===
Truman had no knowledge or interest in foreign policy before becoming president, and depended on the State Department for foreign policy advice.<ref> By 1946 he had two valuable aides Clark Clifford and George Elsey.</ref> Truman shifted from FDR's détente to [[containment]] as soon as [[Dean Acheson]] convinced him the Soviet Union was a long-term threat to American interests. They viewed communism as a secular, millennial religion that informed the Kremlin's worldview and actions and made it the chief threat to American security, liberty, and world peace. They rejected the moral equivalence of democratic and Communist governments and concluded that until the regime in Moscow changed only American and Allied strength could curb the Soviets. Following Acheson's advice, Truman in 1947 announced the [[Truman Doctrine]] of containing Communist expansion by furnishing military and economic American aid to Europe and Asia, and particularly to Greece and Turkey. He followed up with the [[Marshall Plan]], which was enacted into law as the European Recovery Program (ERP) and led ultimately to [[NATO]], the North Atlantic Alliance for military defense, signed in 1949. On May 14, 1948, Truman announced recognition of the new state of [[Israel]], making the United States the first major power to do so.

==Korean War==
The [[Korean War]] began at the end of June 1950 when North Korea, a Communist country, invaded South Korea, which was under U.S. protection. Without consulting Congress Truman ordered General [[Douglas MacArthur]] to use all American forces to resist the invasion. Truman then received approval from the United Nations, which the Soviets were boycotting. UN forces managed to cling to a toehold in Korea, as the North Koreans outran their supply system. A counterattack at Inchon destroyed the invasion army, and the UN forces captured most of North Korea on their way to the Yalu River, Korea's northern border with China. Truman defined the war goal as [[rollback]] of Communism and reunification of the country under UN auspices. China intervened unexpectedly, drove the UN forces all the way back to South Korea. The fighting stabilized close to the original 38th parallel that had divided North and South. MacArthur wanted to continue the rollback strategy but Truman arrived at a new policy of containment, allowing North Korea to persist. Truman's dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur in April 1951 sparked a violent debate on U.S. Far Eastern policy, as Truman took the blame for a high-cost stalemate with 37,000 Americans killed and over 100,000 wounded.

Truman fired his ineffective defense secretary Louis Johnson, and brought back [[George Marshall]].
===NSC-68===
The top-secret [[NSC-68]] policy paper was the grounds for escalating the Cold War, especially in terms of spending on rearmament and building the hydrogen bomb. The integration of European defense was given new impetus by continued U.S. support of NATO, under the command of General Eisenhower. Truman committed the US to contain Communist expansion in Vietnam, where the Communists under [[Ho Chi Minh]] were trying to overthrow the French colonial regime. The State Department insisted that France give more autonomy to the Vietnamese. The US paid for about 80% of the French war costs. The problem was that the French were more interested in preserving their grandiose empire, and less interested in stopping Communism, while the US opposed colonial empires and saw Communism as the great threat to world peace and stability.

Following NSC-68, Truman's last four budgets saw expenditures on national security quadruple from $13 billion in 1950 to $50 billion in 1953.

===1952 election===
On the political front, revelation of scandals in the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, in the Bureau of Internal Revenue and even the White House<ref> Truman's wife accepted an expensive deep freeze appliance in 1945; with General Vaughan as the fixer, the donor was given special privileges in Europe. </ref> opened the administration to attack.

Truman sought reelection in 1952 despite his dismal showing in the polls. He was defeated in the New Hampshire primary by Senator [[Estes Kefauver]] of Tennessee, and withdrew. Truman supported Illinois Governor [[Adlai Stevenson]]. Eisenhower won the GOP nomination and crusading against the Truman administration's failures regarding "Korea, Communism and Corruption," was elected in a landslide, ending 20 years of Democratic control of the presidency.

==Retirement==
Truman returned to his home in Independence, Missouri. He devoted himself to creating the Truman Library there; it was dedicated in July 1957 and is a part of the National Archives. With a staff of assistants he wrote his memoirs in two well-received volumes, gave many interviews, and intervened occasionally in Democratic national politics on behalf of liberal candidates such as [[Adlai Stevenson]].

He died on December 26, 1972.

==Evaluations==
Already by the 1960s he had become a hero to liberals and Democrats, nostalgic over the successes of the [[New Deal Coalition]] that sputtered and collapsed in the 1960s. Even Republicans came to forget the nasty days and celebrated Truman as the hero of the underdogs and the man who rebuilt Europe through the Marshall Plan and stood up to Communism through NATO.

Truman's reputation among scholars has gone from very low when he left office, to high after 1990. He is now widely considered to have been a tough-minded, decisive, and effective leader who ably guided the nation through the perilous waters of the early Cold War and whose policy of containment essentially laid the foundations for American "victory" in that prolonged conflict in 1989. For many historians, the down-to-earth Midwesterner now merits consideration as one of the greatest American presidents. In recent years presidential aspirants of both parties have claimed Truman as their own, especially if their election chances seem as hopeless as Truman's did in 1948. His reputation has been bolstered by scholarly biographies by Ferrell (1994), Hamby (1995), and especially McCullough's Pulitzer prize-winning popular biography (1992). The in-depth analysis by Leffler (1992), cautiously praised the Truman administration's essential wisdom in handling a myriad of problems.

While Truman's public image was headed up, his reputation among scholars declined in the 1970s. Kirkendall concluded in 1974 that negative appraisals of Truman and his administration "may in fact have become the dominant interpretation, at least among the younger scholars."<ref> Kirkendall, ''Truman Period as a Research Field: A Reappraisal 1972'' (1974) p 6</ref> In terms of foreign policy a strong negative view comes from Offner (2002) who argues that Truman was a "parochial nationalist" whose "uncritical belief in the superiority of American values and political-economic interests," conviction that "the Soviet Union and Communism were the root cause of international strife," and "inability to comprehend Asian politics and nationalism" intensified the postwar conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, precipitated the division of Europe, and set Sino-American relations on a path of long-term animosity. Rather than being a great statesman who carefully weighed various policy alternatives, Offner asserts that Truman's myopia "created a rigid framework in which the United States waged long-term, extremely costly global cold war". As his title suggests, the Cold War was at best a Pyrrhic victory for the United States.<ref> Quotes from Offner (2002) p. xii</ref>

Truman became the model of the underdog who fights back and wins when the experts unanimously predict defeat. Gerald Ford, who had bitterly denounced Truman as a young Congressman proudly proclaimed the Missourian as his hero and conspicuously displayed a bust of Truman in the oval office after Ford became president in 1974. In the 1976 campaign both Ford and his Democratic rival, [[Jimmy Carter]], outdid one another in claiming to be cast from the Truman mold. By 1980 when the Gallup Poll asked "Of all the Presidents we've ever had, who do you wish were President?", Harry Truman finished an impressive third behind Kennedy and FDR.

====notes====

==Further reading: basic books and articles==
* Burnes, Brian. ''Harry S. Truman: His Life and Times'' (2003), popular biography [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-S-Truman-Life-Times/dp/0974000930/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Dallek, Robert. ''Harry Truman'' (2008) short, popular biography by scholar. [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Truman-Presidents-President-1945-1953/dp/0805069380/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221386001&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Donovan, Robert J. ''Conflict and Crisis: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1945-1948'' (1977); ''Tumultuous Years: 1949-1953'' (1982) detailed 2-vol political history by well-informed journalist; well balanced
* Fleming, Thomas J. ''Harry S. Truman, President'' (1993) for middle school audience.
* Graff, Henry F., ed. ''The Presidents: A Reference History''. 2nd ed. 1996, 443–458. ISBN 0-684-80471-9; by leading scholar
* Hamby, Alonzo L. ''Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman'' (1995), the best scholarly biography; written by conservative historian who likes HST
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "An American Democrat: A Reevaluation of the Personality of Harry S. Truman," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 106, No. 1 (Spring, 1991), pp. 33-55 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2152173 in JSTOR]
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "Truman, Harry S."; [http://www.anb.org/articles/07/07-00307.html; ''American National Biography'' Online Feb. 2000] by a leading conservative historian
* Kirkendall, Richard S. ''Harry S. Truman Encyclopedia'' (1990), very useful articles on people, events and policies in HST's career
* Kirkendall Richard S. "Harry S Truman a Missouri Farmer in the Golden Age," ''Agricultural History,'' Vol. 48, No. 4 (Oct., 1974), pp. 467-483 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/3741384 in JSTOR]
* McCullough, David. ''Truman''. (1993), 1120 pp ISBN 0-671-86920-5 best-selling biography; moderate in tone; Pulitzer Prize [http://www.amazon.com/Truman-David-McCullough/dp/0671869205/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* McCullough, David. ''Harry S. Truman'', short essay [http://www.pbs.org/newshour/character/essays/truman.html online edition]
* Offner, Arnold A. ''Another Such Victory: President Truman and the Cold War.'' (2002) 640pp, New LEft and hostile to HST; [http://books.google.com/books?id=P5tbHSsBS-AC&pg=PP1&dq=intitle:another+intitle:victory+inauthor:offner&num=30&as_brr=0&sig=pWo43stsPrIrtTfZXJicvWB3zCY excerpts and text search]
* [http://www.amazon.com/American-Experience-Truman/dp/B000BYRCG0/ref=pd_bbs_4/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1193347436&sr=8-4 ''American Experience: Truman'' (2006), from PBS]
* [http://www.amazon.com/Classic-President-Harry-Truman-Films/dp/B000JD7MV8/ref=sr_1_14/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1193347436&sr=8-14 "Classic President Harry S Truman Films: 1945-1965'' (2006) 40 newsreels, 101 minutes]

==Advanced bibliography==
These are secondary source by scholars; unless noted they are generally liberal and supportive of Truman.
===Biographies===
* Burnes, Brian. ''Harry S. Truman: His Life and Times'' (2003); popular biography; [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-S-Truman-Life-Times/dp/0974000930/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Cochran, Bert. ''Harry S. Truman and the Crisis Presidency'' (19730, 432 pages; portrays a cynical courthouse politician
* Donovan, Robert J. ''Conflict and Crisis: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1945-1948'' (1977); ''Tumultuous Years: 1949-1953'' (1982), good, detailed 2-vol political history by well-informed journalist
* Ferrell, Robert H. ''Harry S. Truman: A Life'' (1994), brief overview
* Fleming, Thomas J. ''Harry S. Truman, President'' (1993) for middle school audience.
* Gosnell, Harold Foote. ''Truman's Crises: A Political Biography of Harry S. Truman'' (1980)
* Graff, Henry F., ed. ''The Presidents: A Reference History''. 2nd ed. 1996, 443–458. ISBN 0-684-80471-9
* Hamby, Alonzo L. ''Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman'' (1995), very well received scholarly biography [http://www.amazon.com/Man-People-Truman-Oxford-Paperbacks/dp/0195124979/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193438333&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "The Liberals, Truman, and the FDR as Symbol and Myth," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 56, No. 4 (Mar., 1970), pp. 859-867 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1917522 in JSTOR]
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "Truman, Harry S."; [http://www.anb.org/articles/07/07-00307.html; ''American National Biography'' Online Feb. 2000]
* Kirkendall, Richard S. ''Harry S. Truman Encyclopedia'' (1990)
* McCullough, David. ''Truman''. . ISBN 0-671-86920-5 best-selling biography; Pulitzer Prize [http://www.amazon.com/Truman-David-McCullough/dp/0671869205/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Miller, Richard Lawrence. ''Truman: The Rise to Power'' (2002), critical evaluation emphasizing corruption of Pendergast machine

===Foreign policy===
* Appleman, Roy E. ''South to the Naktong, North to the Yalu (June-November 1950)'' (United States Army in the Korean War) (1960); official U.S. Army history, [http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/korea/20-2-1/toc.htm online version]
* Beisner, Robert L. ''Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War'' (2006), 800pp; a standard scholarly biography; covers 1945-53 only
* Benson, Michael T. ''Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel'' (1997) [http://www.questia.com/read/15103137 online edition]
* Berger, Henry. "Bipartisanship, Senator Taft, and the Truman Administration," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 90, No. 2 (Summer, 1975), pp. 221-237 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2148235 in JSTOR]
* Bernstein Barton J. "Roosevelt, Truman, and the Atomic Bomb, 1941-1945: A Reinterpretation," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 90, No. 1 (Spring, 1975), pp. 23-69 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2148698 in JSTOR], influential New left essay
* Blair, Clay ''The Forgotten War: America in Korea, 1950-1953'', Naval Institute Press (2003) revisionist study that attacks Truman and top Army leaders for near-criminal incompetence
* Divine, Robert A. "The Cold War and the Election of 1948," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 59, No. 1 (Jun., 1972), pp. 90-110 [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8723%28197206%2959%3A1%3C90%3ATCWATE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-C in JSTOR]
* Frazier, Robert. "Acheson and the Formulation of the Truman Doctrine" ''Journal of Modern Greek Studies'' 17#2 (1999), pp. 229-251 online at [[Project Muse]]
* Gaddis, John Lewis. "Reconsiderations: Was the Truman Doctrine a Real Turning Point?" ''Foreign Affairs'' 1974 52(2): 386-402. ISSN 0015-7120
* Giangreco, D. M. "'A Score of Bloody Okinawas and Iwo Jimas': President Truman and Casualty Estimates for the Invasion of Japan," ''Pacific Historical Review,'' Vol. 72, No. 1 (Feb., 2003), pp. 93-132 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/3642102 in JSTOR] shows Truman was indeed by very high invasion casualties
* Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi. ''Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan.'' (2005). 382 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Racing-Enemy-Stalin-Truman-Surrender/dp/0674016939/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193349212&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Hogan, Michael J. ''A Cross of Iron: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of the National Security State, 1945-1954'' (2000) [http://www.amazon.com/Cross-Iron-National-Security-19451954/dp/0521795370/ref=sr_1_34/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347927&sr=8-34 excerpt and text search]
* Ivie, Robert L. "Fire, Flood, and Red Fever: Motivating Metaphors of Global Emergency in the Truman Doctrine Speech." ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 1999 29(3): 570-591. ISSN 0360-4918 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001303753 online edition]
* Lacey, Michael J. ed. ''The Truman Presidency'' (1989), major essays by scholars
* Matray, James I. "Truman's Plan for Victory: National Self-Determination and the Thirty-Eighth Parallel Decision in Korea," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 66, No. 2 (Sep., 1979), pp. 314-333 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1900879 in JSTOR] Truman planned rollback of Communism in North Korea
* Merrill, Dennis. "The Truman Doctrine: Containing Communism and Modernity" ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 2006 36(1): 27-37. ISSN 0360-4918
* Offner, Arnold A. "'Another Such Victory': President Truman, American Foreign Policy, and the Cold War." ''Diplomatic History'' 1999 23(2): 127-155. ISSN 0145-2096
* Ojserkis, Raymond P. ''Beginnings of the Cold War Arms Race: The Truman Administration and the U.S. Arms Build-Up'' (2003) [http://www.questia.com/read/102018810 online edition]
* Pelz, Stephen. "When the Kitchen Gets Hot, Pass the Buck: Truman and Korea in 1950," ''Reviews in American History'' 6 (December 1978), 548-55. Online at Project MUSE
* Pierpaoli, Paul G. Jr.; ''Truman and Korea: The Political Culture of the Early Cold War.'' University of Missouri Press, 1999 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=108668070 online edition]
* Smith, Geoffrey S. "'Harry, We Hardly Know You': Revisionism, Politics and Diplomacy, 1945-1954," ''American Political Science Review'' 70 (June 1976), 560-82. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-0554(197606)70%3A2%3C560%3A%22WHKYR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-%23 in JSTOR]
* Spalding, Elizabeth Edwards. ''The First Cold Warrior: Harry Truman, Containment, And the Remaking of Liberal Internationalism'' (2006) [http://www.amazon.com/First-Cold-Warrior-Containment-Internationalism/dp/0813123925/ref=sr_1_22/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347812&sr=8-22 excerpt and text search]
* Wainstock, Dennis D. ''Truman, MacArthur, and the Korean War'' (1999) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23387043 online edition]
* Walker, J. Samuel. ''Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs against Japan'' (1997) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=35245486 online complete edition]; [http://www.amazon.com/Prompt-Utter-Destruction-Truman-Against/dp/080785607X/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193348187&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Walker, J. Samuel. "Recent Literature on Truman's Atomic Bomb Decision: A Search for Middle Ground" ''Diplomatic History'' April 2005 - Vol. 29 Issue 2 Pp 311-334 fulltext in [[EBSCO]]

===Domestic policy and politics===
* Bernstein Barton J. "The Truman Administration and the Steel Strike of 1946," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 52, No. 4 (Mar., 1966), pp. 791-803 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1894347 in JSTOR]
* Billington, Monroe. "Civil Rights, President Truman and the South," ''Journal of Negro History,'' Vol. 58, No. 2 (Apr., 1973), pp. 127-139 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2716825 in JSTOR]
* Dean, Virgil W. "Charles F. Brannan and the Rise and Fall of Truman's 'Fair Deal' for Farmers." ''Agricultural History'' 1995 69(1): 28-53. Issn: 0002-1482
* Dean, Virgil W. ''An Opportunity Lost: The Truman Administration and the Farm Policy Debate.'' 2006. 275 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Opportunity-Lost-Truman-Administration-Policy/dp/0826216501/ref=sr_1_10/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193434622&sr=1-10 excerpt and text search]
* Derickson, Alan. "'Take Health from the List of Luxuries': Labor and the Right to Health Care, 1915-1949." ''Labor History'' 2000 41(2): 171-187. Issn: 0023-656x Fulltext: in Taylor and Francis, Swetswise, Ingenta, and [[Ebsco]]
* Donaldson, Gary A. ''Truman Defeats Dewey'' (1998)
* Farhang, Sean, and Ira Katznelson. "The Southern Imposition: Congress and Labor in the New Deal and Fair Deal," ''Studies in American Political Development'' (2005), 19: 1-30; [http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=324401 online edition]
* Freeland, Richard M. ''The Truman Doctrine and the Origins of McCarthyism: Foreign Policy, Domestic Policy, and Internal Security, 1946-48'' (1989), revisionist; New left attack on Truman for being too anti-Communist
* Fried, Richard M. ''Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective.'' 1990. [http://www.questia.com/read/79027083 online complete edition]; [http://www.amazon.com/Nightmare-Red-McCarthy-Era-Perspective/dp/0195043618/ref=sr_1_11/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193514847&sr=8-11 excerpt and text search]
* Gardner, Michael R. ''Harry Truman and Civil Rights: Moral Courage and Political Risks.'' (2002) 296 pp.[http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=105233906 online edition]
* Hamby, Alonzo. ''Beyond the New Deal: Harry S. Truman and American Liberalism'' (1973), the most sophisticated biography; by a prominent conservative historian
* Hartmann, Susan M. ''Truman and the 80th Congress'' (1971) [http://www.questia.com/read/77360404 online edition]
* Heller, Francis H. ''Economics and the Truman Administration'' (1982) [http://www.amazon.com/Economics-Truman-Administration-Francis-Heller/dp/0700602178/ref=sr_1_9/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193434622&sr=1-9 excerpt and text search]
* Karabell, Zachary. ''The Last Campaign: How Harry Truman Won the 1948 Election'' (2001) [http://www.amazon.com/Last-Campaign-Harry-Truman-Election/dp/0375700773/ref=sr_1_24/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=11973347812&sr=8-24 excerpt and text search]
* Koenig, Louis W. ''The Truman Administration: Its Principles and Practice'' (1956) [http://www.questia.com/read/8522614 online edition]
* Komarek de Luna, Phyllis. ''Public versus Private Power during the Truman Administration: A Study of Fair Deal Liberalism.'' Peter Lang, 1997. 253 pp.
* Lacey, Michael J. ed. ''The Truman Presidency'' (1989), major essays by scholars
* Lee, R. Alton. ''Truman and Taft-Hartley: A Question of Mandate.'' (1966) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=99000111 online edition]
* Leuchtenburg, William E. ''The White House Looks South: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson.'' (2005). 668 pp.
* Levantrosser, William F. ed. ''Harry S. Truman: The Man from Independence'' (1986). 25 essays by scholars and Truman aides. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23428395 online edition]
* McCoy, Donald. ''The Presidency of Harry S. Truman'' (1984), standard scholarly survey by conservative historian; [http://www.amazon.com/Presidency-Harry-S-Truman-American/dp/0700602550/ref=sr_1_8/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193514606&sr=8-8 excerpt and text search]
* Marcus, Maeva ''Truman and the Steel Seizure Case: The Limits of Presidential Power'' (1994) [http://www.questia.com/read/22816992 online edition]
* Phillips, Cabel. ''The Truman Presidency: The History of a Triumphant Succession'' (1966), by a journalist who interviewed many key players
* Pierpaoli, Paul G. Jr. ''Truman and Korea: The Political Culture of the Early Cold War.'' (1997). ISBN 0-8262-1206-9. focus on the homefront [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=16627966265512 online review]
* Ryan, Halford R. ''Harry S. Truman: Presidential Rhetoric'' (1993) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=27994601 online edition]
* Sitkoff, Harvard. "Harry Truman and the Election of 1948: The Coming of Age of Civil Rights in American Politics," ''Journal of Southern History,'' Vol. 37, No. 4 (Nov., 1971), pp. 597-616 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2206548 in JSTOR]
* Theoharis, Athan. "The Truman Administration and the Decline of Civil Liberties: The FBI's Success in Securing Authorization for a Preventive Detention Program," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 64, No. 4 (Mar., 1978), pp. 1010-1030 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1890734 in JSTOR], leftwing attack on Truman for being too harsh on possible subversives
* Theoharis, Athan. ''The Truman Presidency: The Origins of the Imperial Presidency and the National Security State'' (1979), revisionist, New left attack on HST
* Theoharis, Athan. ''Seeds of Repression: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of McCarthyism'' (1977), New Left attack on HST for being so hostile to domestic Communists
* Thompson, Francis H. ''The Frustration of Politics: Truman, Congress, and the Loyalty Issue, 1945-1953.'' 1979. 246 pp.
* Vaughan, Philip H. "The Truman Administration's Fair Deal for Black America." ''Missouri Historical Review'' 1976 70(3): 291-305. Issn: 0026-6582

===Primary sources===
* Bernstein, Barton J., Ed. ''The Truman Administration: A Documentary History'' (1966); 2nd edition published as ''Politics and Policies of the Truman Administration'' (1970), revisionist
* [http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/publications/ERP/ Council of Economic Advisors, ''Economic Report of the President'' (annual 1947- )], complete series online; important analysis of current trends and policies, plus statistcial tables
* Ferrell, Robert H. ed. ''Dear Bess: The Letters from Harry to Bess Truman, 1910-1959'' (1983)
* Ferrell, Robert H. ed. ''Off the Record: The Private Papers of Harry S. Truman'' (1980).
* Merrill, Dennis. ed. ''Documentary History of the Truman Presidency, (1995- ) 35 volumes; available in some large academic libraries.
* Miller, Merle ''Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman'' (1974)
* Neal, Steve. ed. ''HST: Memories of the Truman Years.'' (2003)280pp; long excerpts from 20 oral history interviews (some of which are online at the Truman Library site).
* Neal, Steve. ed. ''Miracle of '48: Harry Truman's Major Campaign Speeches & Selected Whistle-Stops'' (2003); 43 speeches
* Truman, Harry S. ''Where the Buck Stops: The Personal and Private Writings of Harry S. Truman'' edited by Margaret Truman (1990) [http://www.amazon.com/Where-Buck-Stops-Personal-Writings/dp/0446391751/ref=pd_bbs_sr_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221386001&sr=8-6 excerpt and text search]
* Truman, Harry S. ''Memoirs'' 2 vol (1955). [http://tera-3.ul.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/reader.pl?call=30151&search= vol 1 online]
* Truman, Margaret. ''Harry S. Truman''. (1973). memoir by his daughter
* Truman, Harry S. ''The Autobiography of Harry S. Truman'' edited compilation of excerpts by Robert H. Ferrell (2002) [http://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Harry-S-Truman/dp/0826214452/ref=pd_bbs_sr_5/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-5 excerpt and text search]
* [http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/ ''The Public Papers of the Presidents'' contain most of Truman's public messages, statements, speeches, and news conference remarks. Documents such as Proclamations, and Executive Orders]

==Historiography==
* Ferrell, Robert H. ''Harry S. Truman and the Cold War Revisionists.'' 2006. 142 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Truman-Cold-War-Revisionists/dp/0826216536/ref=sr_1_6/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193349212&sr=8-6 excerpt and text search]
* Geselbracht, Raymond. "Creating the Harry S. Truman Library: The First Fifty Years," ''Public Historian'', 28 (Summer 2006), 37–78.
* Hartmann, Susan M. "The 1948 Election and the Configuration of Postwar Liberalism" ''Reviews in American History'' 28.1 (2000) 105-111 in [[Project Muse]]
* Heller, Francis H., ed. ''The Korean War: A 25 Year Perspective'' (1977), essays by scholars
* Heller, Francis H., ed. ''The Truman White House: The Administration of the Presidency, 1945-1953'' (1980), essays by scholars
* Heller, Francis H., ed. ''Economics and the Truman Administration'' (1981), essays by scholars
* Kirkendall, Richard S. ed. ''Harry's Farewell: Interpreting and Teaching the Truman Presidency'' (2004) essays by scholars
* Kirkendall, Richard S., ed. ''The Truman Period as a Research Field: A Reappraisal 1972'' (1974)
* Tull, Charles J. "The State of the Art in Truman Research," in William F. Levantrosser, ed. ''Harry S. Truman: The Man from Independence'' (1986), 1-31 aides. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23428395 online edition]
* Walker, J. Samuel "Recent Literature on Truman's Atomic Bomb Decision: a Search for Middle Ground." ''Diplomatic History'' 2005 29(2): 311-334. Issn: 0145-2096 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]

==External links==
*[http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/ht33.html Biography]
*[http://www.trumanlibrary.org Presidential Library]
*[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/index.php The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb], Truman Library.
*[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/small/mb12a.htm President Truman to Senator Richard B. Russell], August 9, 1945.
====notes====
<references/>

{{USPresidents}}
{{USVicePresidents}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Truman, Harry}}

[[Category:Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:Vice Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:Democratic Party]]

Harry Truman

2008-11-11T21:05:17Z

AshleyS: /* World War II */ more about like effect of the Truman Committee; punctuation, spelling

{{President|
|name=Harry S. Truman
|image=HTruman.jpg
|country=the United States
|seq=33
|party=Democratic
|term_start=April 12, 1945
|term_end=January 20, 1953<ref>http://home.comcast.net/~sharonday7/Presidents/AP060301.htm</ref>
|vp=None
|vp_dates=1945-1949
|2vp=Alben Barkley
|2vp_dates=1949-1953
|previous=Franklin D. Roosevelt
|next=Dwight D. Eisenhower
|seq2=34
|office2=vice
|party2=
|term2_start=January 20, 1945
|term2_end=April 12, 1945
|pres2=Franklin D. Roosevelt
|previous2=Henry A. Wallace
|next2=Alben W. Barkley
|birth_date=May 8, 1884
|birth_place=Lamar, MO
|death_date=December 26, 1972
|death_place=Kansas City, MO
|spouse=Bess Wallace Truman
|spouse2=
|religion=[[Baptist]]
}}

'''Harry S. Truman,''' (1884-1972) a [[liberal]] [[Democrat]] from [[Missouri]], was the president of the United States from 1945-1953, taking over when [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] died in April 1945. He took the decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order to force Japan's surrender. Angered at the Soviet Union's seizure of eastern Europe, he moved away from FDR's [[détente]] to a policy of [[containment]], reinforced by the Truman Plan (1947) to resist Communist subversion, the [[Marshall Plan]] (1948-51) to rebuild and modernize western Europe's economies, and the [[NATO]] military alliance of 1949. Truman, advised by [[Dean Acheson]] and the State Department, set the policies to oppose the Soviet Union as the [[Cold War]] began.

Ignoring Asia, he later saw America's close ally China fall to the anti-American Communists under [[Mao Zedong]] in 1949; the US and China fought each other to a draw during the undeclared [[Korean War]], 1950-53. Truman fired his top general, [[Douglas MacArthur]], during this conflict and saw his popularity plunge.

As the war ended, the massive problem of reconverting the 45% of the economy devoted to war production baffled Truman. Listening to liberal advisors, he refused to end extremely unpopular price controls, and was unable to stop a massive wave of strikes in major industries in 1945-46. Voter dissatisfaction to the Republican capture of Congress in 1946; with Senator [[Robert A. Taft]] as the conservative Republican spokesman, Congress repealed many of the wartime restrictions on business and lowered taxes. Taft rewrote the labor laws in the [[Taft-Hartley Act of 1947]], balancing the rights of unions, management and the public interest; it became law over Truman's signature and remains in effect.

Truman began with very high popularity ratings, but they plunged to the lowest on record. Democrats were unable to stop his renomination in 1948, but the far left nominated FDR's vice president [[Henry A. Wallace]], and southern conservative Democrats nominated Dixiecrat [[J. Strom Thurmond]]. Observers almost unanimously expected victory for the Republican candidate, Governor [[Thomas E. Dewey]], liberal from New York. Total astonishment greeted Truman's stunning election victory, as he reassembled the [[New Deal Coalition]] for the fifth consecutive victory, pulling in on his coattails a Democratic Congress.

Although the Democrats organized Congress in 1949, the [[Conservative Coalition]] of Northern Republicans and Southern Democrats was in control, and Truman was to pass any of his liberal [[Fair Deal|Fair Deal program]]. Nevertheless he he pursued civil rights through executive orders, especially a 1948 order to end racial discrimination in the military. Blacks remained in segregated units, but were to receive equal treatment. Truman's failures to deal with "Korea, Communism and Corruption" forced him to withdraw from reelection in 1952 and gave the Republicans an opportunity to crusade against him and elect [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] in 1952.

Overshadowed at first by his predecessor, [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], Truman established a reputation as a blunt, unsophisticated fighter for the common man, who took responsibility for his actions because, he said, "the buck stops here." His stunning reelection victory in 1948 baffled the experts and has inspired underdogs ever since. He is more popular in 2008 than ever. His policy positions make him a heroic icon for liberals.

==Early life==

Truman was born on a farm near Lamar, in western Missouri, and grew up on a farm near Independence, Missouri. His grandparents had been Confederate sympathizers who had been rounded up by the Union army in the Civil War.<ref> His middle initial, S, does not stand for anything, but was chosen because his parents could not decide whether to name him for his grandfather Shippe or for his grandfather Solomon.</ref> After graduating from high school in Independence, with good skills in history and music, he decided against college and became a bank clerk in Kansas City. Always a joiner, he was active in the Missouri National Guard. From 1906 to 1917 he managed his father's 600-acre farm at Grandview, Missouri. During World War I his National Guard regiment was mobilized in 1917, he entered the Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, sailing for France in 1917 as a lieutenant. Truman was soon promoted to captain in Battery D, 129 Field Artillery Battalion, 35th Division, A.E.F., and returned to the United States a major in 1919, after combat at St. Mihiel and in the Argonne offensive. He was in an artillery unit, and learned about gas warfare; he was never wounded, He married Elizabeth "Bess" Wallace on June 28, 1919; they had one daughter, Margaret, who married a ''New York Times'' editor. With an army buddy he invested his savings in a Kansas City haberdashery, but this venture was a failure.

==Pendergast machine==
Discouraged by his lack of business success and without funds, Truman sought the help of friends. His farm background, his war record, his Masonic connections, his Baptist Church affiliations, and his genial personality recommended him to [[Thomas J. Pendergast]], the Democratic political boss of Kansas City and much of western Missouri. Pendergast, an Irish Catholic, had a strong base among the Irish Catholics and used Truman to reach out to Protestants, farmers and veterans. He made Truman the overseer of highways for Jackson County.

In 1922 Truman was elected a county judge; needing some legal knowledge he studied nights for two years at Kansas City Law School; it was his only education beyond high school, although he read history. In the 1924 GOP landslide he was defeated for reelection, but in 1926 he was returned to office as presiding judge of the court, the duties of which also involved administrative supervision of many county expenditures, including $60 million for public works. He almost joined the [[Ku Klux Klan]], but withdrew his application when he realized his Irish Catholic allies bitterly opposed the KKK; Truman then campaigned against the Klan.
==Senate==
In 1934 Pendergast arranged for Truman's nomination as United States Senator on the Democratic ticket; he was elected in the democratic landslide as a supporter of Roosevelt and the New deal. His first term in office was uneventful, except for a failed effort to prevent the renomination of Maurice Milligan for U.S. District Attorney for the Western District of Missouri; Milligan had obtained the conviction of 35 Pendergast "ward leaders" for vote frauds.

===World War II===
He was re-elected in 1940 after a terrific battle against [[Lloyd Stark]], Truman became nationally infamous as chairman of the "Truman Committee". Ostensibly for the purpose of investigating waste, fraud and inefficiency in government contracts, the committee allowed Truman and his cronies to interfere in many aspects of Executive policy on the prosecution of the war. Its formal name was the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program. Nevertheless, he was an energetic and forthright supporter of the [[New Deal]] and won widespread party favor for his attacks on business malfeasance in war production. He forced changes in the aircraft and ship construction programs, and worked well with other border state Democrats, especially [[Alben Barkley]] of Kentucky, the Majority Leader.

===FDR picks a new vice president===
In 1944, after Vice-President [[Henry A. Wallace]] had been rejected by leading Democrats as too far to the left, Truman supported his friend former senator [[James F. Byrnes]] of South Carolina for that office. Catholics vetoed Byrnes, who had left that faith. Truman himself became Roosevelt's choice as a compromise vice presidential candidate, and the two were elected.

Roosevelt had been in ill-health since his return from the [[Teheran conference]]. At the 1944 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, DNC Chairman Bob Hannegan went for instructions to President Roosevelt's private railway car just before the July convention officially began. Roosevelt had decided to dump incumbent Vice-President [[Henry Wallace]]. Worried over dissension on the choice of a successor, Roosevelt told Hannegan: "Go on down there and nominate Truman before there's any more trouble. And clear everything with Sidney." <ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,791619,00.html "Clear everything with Sidney"], [[Time magazine]], Sep. 25, 1944.</ref> The President could not make the selection of Truman until [[Sidney Hillman]] <ref>''The Roosevelt Myth'', John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948, Book 2, Ch. 8, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Eight___The_Shock_Troops.htm ''The Shock Troops of the Third New Deal'']</ref>, Director of the Political Action Committee for the Congress on Industrial Organizations (CIO) approved it. <ref> ''Roosevelt Myth'', Book 3, Ch. 10, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Ten___Politics__Disease_.htm ''Politics, Disease and History''], Flynn, 1948.</ref> When Harry Truman walked into the smoke-filled room <ref>[http://www.booknotes.org/Transcript/index_print.asp?ProgramID=1109 ''Truman''], Interview with David McCullough, C-Span Booknotes, July 19, 1992. Retrieved August 6, 2007.</ref> of DNC at headquarters at the Stevens Hotel in Chicago, Soviet spies [[John Abt]], [[Lee Pressman]], and [[Nathan Witt]], were on hand." <ref>''The Yalta Betrayal'', Felix Wittmer, Claxton Printers, 1953, pg. 75.</ref>

==Presidency==
Roosevelt ignored Truman between the election in November 1944 and the inauguration in January; even as Vice president Truman was not consulted on national policies, and not informed of major decisions, nor of the atomic bomb. Although he realized Roosevelt's health was failing rapidly, he made no preparations for assuming the presidency and did not even build up a staff of advisors. Truman succeeded to the Presidency upon the death of FDR on April 12, 1945.

President Truman pledged that in office he would carry on the liberal domestic policies of Roosevelt. He distrusted most of FDR's cabinet and set about to assemble his own team.

===Winning World War II===

During his term as President, he presided over the conclusion of [[World War II]] in both [[Europe]] and [[Japan]].
On April 25 his telephoned speech opened the San Francisco Conference establishing the [[United Nations]]. A week later Germany surrendered, and from July 17 to August 2, 1945, Truman attended the [[Potsdam Conference]] with Britain's [[Winston Churchill]] (soon replaced by the new prime minister [[Clement Attlee]]) and [[Joseph Stalin]] of the Soviet Union.

===Atomic bomb===
The alternative Truman faced was to order use of the atomic bomb which might shock the Japanese into surrender, or order the planned invasion of Japan's home islands; casualty estimates for Americans ranged very widely. Casualty estimates for Japan ranged into the millions. Secretary of War [[Henry Stimson]] made the real decision: to drop atomic bombs on [[Hiroshima]] and [[Nagasaki]]. Japan immediately surrendered on terms that allowed Emperor [[Hirohito]] to stay on the throne and not be tried as a war criminal. Truman put General [[Douglas MacArthur]] in charge of occupying and controlling Japan; MacArthur remained in charge until the peace treaty was finally signed in 1951.

Truman kept control of the bomb in civilian hands—the Air Force and State Department did not even know how many bombs existed until 1948, when only eight had been built. The postwar military strategy was not built around nuclear weapons.

====Debating the decision====

=====Conservatives and liberals=====

In general, conservatives and liberals alike have applauded and supported the a-bomb decision because it shortened the war, and prevented hundreds of thousands or millions of casualties. The New Left or "revisionist" interpretation argues that the bomb was not necessary to end the war and that no invasion was necessary. They have no evidence to support that argument. They do have fragments of evidence that give weak support to the argument that one American goal was to intimidate the Soviet Union. The revisionists believe the US should have stayed friends with the Soviets, and that Truman was guilty for starting the Cold War (which they consider a bad thing). Morally the revisionists assume the USA was no better or worse than the Soviets—admitting to Soviet atrocities, they argue that socialism was morally superior to capitalism, which itself was a great evil the US intended to spread. In terms of the bomb, Secretary of State James Byrnes did make some offhand references to influencing Moscow, but his comments did not reflect the policy of the State Department or White House, and certainly not those of Stimson, who was by far the most important decision-maker.
Vice President Truman had been kept uninformed about the atomic bomb; he had little interest in military affairs and his chief military aide, General Harry Vaughan, was a drinking buddy likewise unfamiliar with what was happening in the war. Truman therefore relied entirely on his Secretary of War, [[Henry Stimson]]. At Potsdam he approved the atomic bomb targets selected by Stimson and, on the way home, he authorized the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki three days later.

====How the decision was made====
The decision to drop the atomic bomb has been the focus of one of the most heated debates among both scholars and the public since 1945. After 1945 the debate was dominated by "traditionalist" scholars, who argued that the U.S. had no choice but to drop the bomb as a way to bring World War II to an end. The traditionalists were succeeded in the 1960s by "revisionists," who asserted that the dropping of the bomb was done to intimidate Stalin, not end the war. The leading revisionist historians emerged from the "new left" movement of the 1960s and rejected any notion of the moral superiority of America or capitalism to the Soviet Union. They thought the Cold War and containment were poor policies and generally favored détente, along the lines proposed by Henry Wallace. They include Gar Alperovitz, Barton J. Bernstein, Kai Bird, Diane Shaver Clemens, Bruce Cumings, Richard Freeland, Lloyd Gardner, Gabriel Kolko, Walter LaFeber, Thomas Paterson, Harvard Sitkoff, Ronald Steel, Athan Theoharis, and William A. Williams (the leader of the "Wisconsin School"). The revisionists are not monolithic, but they usually agree that Truman and his advisers were wrong whether the issue is the Cold War, Korea, or the atomic bomb. Revisionists had argued that Truman's goal at Potsdam was to prevent Soviet entry into the war against Japan, and the atomic bomb was used to scare them off. However in 1983 archivists discovered a letter Truman wrote to his wife from Potsdam on July 18, 1945: "I've gotten what I came for-- Stalin goes to war August 15 with no strings on it . . . I'll say that we'll end the war a year sooner now, and think of the kids who won't be killed! That's the important thing."<ref>''New York Times'' March 14, 1983. </ref>

In the 1990s, a more nuanced historical approach emerged searching for a middle ground, offering a number of more credible studies, essentially arguing that neither the traditional nor the revisionist interpretations were entirely satisfactory.<ref>J. Samuel Walker, "Recent Literature on Truman's Atomic Bomb Decision: a Search for Middle Ground." ''Diplomatic History'' 2005 29(2): 311-334. Issn: 0145-2096 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]</ref>

==Domestic affairs==
===Reconversion of the economy to peacetime===
The process of reconversion to peacetime was rocky. It was impossible to bring soldiers home fast enough, and they and their families protected loudly. All war contract were canceled, shutting down munitions plants and throwing millions of workers (many of them women) out of jobs, just as the 12 million service members were coming home. Truman sought to retain price controls against the vehement opposition of business but yielded somewhat in the face of bitter popular opposition. Large-scale strikes disrupted the economy, especially a coal miners strike and a threatened nationwide strike by railroad workers. He threatened to draft the railroad workers and the strike was called off; unions began to oppose him but he regained union support by his later attempts to veto or repeal the [[Taft-Hartley]] labor relations law. Truman's opposition to tax cuts, his insistence on price controls, and his lack of aggressive support of labor programs weakened his party. To voters frustrated with shortages and controls, Truman seemed indecisive and inconsistent; his efforts to deal with a postwar wave of strikes managed to alienate both organized labor and those who wanted more restraints on unions. Voters who normally supported liberal and labor candidates stayed home, resulting in a Republican landslide in 1946, giving the GOP a majority in both houses of Congress. Ohio Senator [[Robert A. Taft]] became the main GOP spokesman in Congress, tangling often with Truman.
===Moving left===
Gradually Truman created his own administration, using the '''''Fair Deal''''' label to express its goals in domestic affairs. Truman systematically removed the Roosevelt cabinet and inner circle of advisors. The most dramatic episode was firing [[Henry A. Wallace]] in 1946 because of his outspoken criticism of the administration's foreign policy as too harsh on the Soviet Union. Liberals saw themselves in a struggle with conservatives for Truman's soul after the 1946 election. Linked to the President through top aide [[Clark Clifford]], these liberals included Oscar Ewing, former party official and director of the Federal Security Agency, Leon Keyserling, member of the President's Council of Economic Advisors, and David Morse, assistant secretary of labor. They embraced the memo plotting 1948 campaign strategy written by former Roosevelt adviser James Rowe, which urged Truman to "move to the left and focus on building a coalition of groups that centered on organized labor, liberals, and northern urban African Americans."<ref> The memo until 1991 was mis-attributed to Clifford, who passed it along to Truman.</ref> Liberals had national support from the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), led by [[Walter Reuther]], [[Eleanor Roosevelt]], Joseph Rauh, James Rowe, [[Reinhold Niebuhr]], [[Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.]], [[Hubert Humphrey]], and [[Ronald Reagan]]<ref> Reagan was an energetic liberal supporter of Truman. He moved to the right in the late 1950s.</ref> . The ADA was hostile to the Soviet Union, battled American Communists and fellow travelers like Wallace, and supported the purge of Communists from the [[CIO]] labor unions. Truman agreed with the ADA and moved left after 1946.<ref> Steven M. Gillon, ''Politics and Vision: the ADA and American Liberalism, 1947-1985'' (1987).</ref>

However he could not tolerate [[Henry A. Wallace]] and the far left, which had considerable Communist support. When Wallace, then Secretary of Commerce, in 1946 denounced Truman's tough stand against Stalin, Truman fired Wallace.

In 1947 Truman asked Congress for stand-by price controls, rationing, and bank and consumer credit control as parts of an anti-inflation program, but his ideas were ignored by the Republicans who controlled Congress. In his state of the union message of Jan. 7, 1948, Truman called for rent control, increased social security benefits, universal military training, national health insurance, and other social legislation. The next week he again asked for passage of his anti-inflation measures. In February 1948 he asked for civil-rights legislation, including a federal anti-lynching law, a federal fair employment practices commission, a permanent civil rights commission, and abolition of the poll tax--measures that enraged many Southern Democrats. None of his proposals became law. More successful was Truman's drive to increase the efficiency of the executive branch; he appointed a commission headed by former President [[Herbert Hoover]] which recommended numerous changes, including unification of the armed services.

===Civil Rights===
Disgusted by violence against black veterans in the deep South, Truman called for the extension of the wartime [[FEPC]] program that called for fair employment practices, but Congress refused and it ended. He created the Presidential Commission on Civil Rights in 1946 by executive order (with no congressional approval needed); it recommended desegregation of local public facilities and the removal of restrictive covenants that prevented blacks and Jews from purchasing houses in restricted neighborhoods. The Commission generated attention but no action.<ref> Steven F. Lawson, ed. ''To Secure These Rights: The Report of Harry S. Truman's Committee on Civil Rights.'' (2004)</ref> Indeed, Congress refused to pass any civil rights legislation before 1957. Truman therefore decided to use his executive powers, and focused on guaranteeing equal opportunity in the military and the civil service. The Army and Navy operated segregated units, and refused to be part of a "social experiment" in integration.<ref> Bernard C. Nalty, ''Strength For the Fight: A History of Black Americans in the Military'' (1986)</ref> The Air Force, however, was much more willing. Between 1941 and 1951 it went from a segregated force to the first truly integrated service. Key generals became convinced that segregation was a drag on efficiency, and the Air Force decided to integrate in April 1948. before Truman issued his famous Executive Order 9981 on July 26, 1948, calling for equal opportunity in all the armed services. It allowed segregation but called for "equality of treatment and opportunity." In the face of opposition from some high-ranking officers, the Air Force moved cautiously, but by 1951 the last black unit was dissolved and the Air Force was completely integrated.<ref> Alan L. Gropman, ''The Air Force Integrates, 1945-1964.'' (2nd ed 1998) [http://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/Publications/Annotations/gropmanintegrates.htm online edition]. </ref> Order 9981 created the Fahy Committee to implement the new policy. Truman's order did not actually integrate the Army--it used segregated units during the Korean War--but it opened the way for integration in the early 1950s.<ref> Richard M. Dalfiume, ''Desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces: Fighting on Two Fronts, 1939-1953.'' (1969)</ref> Public opinion was generally favorable except in the deep South (which voted against Truman in 1948).

==1948 election==
As the presidential election of 1948 approached, no one thought Truman could be reelected. Truman's policies had alienated left right and center, but the party had no real alternative. Neither Roosevelt nor Truman had groomed a likely successor. Party leaders considered asking [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] to run, but he refused. Liberals led by Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota inserted a strong civil rights plank in the platform, causing a walkout of the deep South. Truman was renominated by default, with Barkley as the vice-presidential candidate. Truman thrilled the convention by announcing his plan to call the Republican-controlled Congress back into special session to "ask them to pass the laws to halt rising prices, to meet the housing crisis--which they say they are for in their platform." When this special session accomplished little, as Truman expected, it gave the president a chance to attack the "Do Nothing" Congress.

Both the left and right wings of the party split off and ran their own candidates. Henry Wallace, the candidate of the Progressive Party, was expected to divert labor, leftist and black votes, while [[J. Strom Thurmond]] was the "Dixiecrat" candidate whose supporters controlled the Democratic party in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina.<ref> Thurmond received only 15% of the vote in the other Southern states. Kari Frederickson, ''The Dixiecrat Revolt and the End of the Solid South, 1932-1968.'' (2001) </ref> Truman exploited his multiple opponents, driving a wedge between the liberals and the Communists who controlled the Wallace movement, and holding the line in the outer South. Most of all he exploited the difference between the conservative Republicans who controlled Congress, and the liberal Republican candidate [[Tom Dewey]]. Truman crusaded against the Republicans as evil rich men, blasting them as fascists and denouncing the 80th Congress for its failure to help the average citizen.<ref>''Time'' magazine reported that "His irresponsible implication that a vote for Thomas Dewey was a vote for fascism horrified his soberer followers." ''Time'' Jan 3, 1949 at [http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/personoftheyear/archive/stories/1948.html]</ref> "Give 'em hell" fury delivered in 275 speeches over 21,928 train-miles had more impact that Truman's promises of more money for federal housing, higher social security and unemployment benefits, free medical care for everyone, the continued subsidy of farm prices, and a fair deal for minorities. The pollsters misjudged the election, as did all the traditional pundits. Truman rallied enough of the [[New Deal Coalition]] to win by 2.2 million votes, and carry in a Democratic Congress on his coattails. The key farm states of the farm states of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Ohio that Dewey had carried in 1944 now switched to Truman, giving a solid victory in the electoral college of 303 for Truman, 189 for Dewey, 39 for Thurmond, and none for Wallace.<ref> Harold I. Gullan, ''The Upset That Wasn't: Harry S. Truman and the Crucial Election of 1948'' (1998); Gary A. Donaldson, ''Truman Defeats Dewey'' (1998) </ref>

==Second Term: Fair Deal==
During Truman's second term as president, he pressed for civil rights legislation, compulsory national health insurance, and other domestic measures that he called his "Fair Deal" program. Almost nothing was passed by Congress, which was controlled by the [[Conservative Coalition]]. His seizure of the steel industry to prevent a strike was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

In foreign affairs, Truman brought in [[Dean Acheson]] as Secretary of State, and promoted the Point Four program of aid to underdeveloped countries. The policy of containing Communism was operationalized by the creation, in 1949, of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to oversee the integration of the military forces of its member nations in Western Europe and North America. A further step was taken in 1951 with the establishment of the Mutual Security Agency to coordinate U.S. economic, technical and military aid abroad.
===Agriculture===
Truman won the farm vote in 1948 by charging the GOP shoved "a pitchfork in the farmer's back", but was unable to get new farm programs passed. His second secretary of agriculture, Charles F. Brannan promoted the Brannan Plan, intended to bring widespread changes to farm policy. Brannan proposed to replace market price supports with direct income payments to farmers. His plan set ceilings on the amount a farmer could receive and limited the program to farmers who did not exceed a set production mark. The Brannan Plan was supposed to foster the "family-sized farm" while providing affordable food for consumers. While Brannan could count on support from the left, especially the National Farmers Union (which was small), labor unions (which were powerful), and consumer groups (which were weak), he was opposed by leading farm economists and the national Farm Bureau (which was large) and the national Chamber of Commerce (representing business). The head of the Farm Bureau decried the plan as intrusive, a form of "creeping socialism," and expensive. The Farm Bureau, dominated by conservatives, resisted any curbs on full agricultural production. A bloc of Midwestern Republican and southern Democratic congressmen opposed replacing market mechanisms with outright government payments to farmers and setting limits on supports to individual farms. The Brannan Plan went nowhere and instead, the conservative farm bloc passed the Agricultural Act of 1949 with high price supports.<ref> See Dean (2006)</ref>

==National Security==
===Truman Doctrine and origins of Cold War===
In early 1947 the British government, which was socialist but anti-Communist, secretly told Washington its treasury was empty and it could no longer give military and economic aid to Greece or Turkey, requested the U.S. take over. Acheson convinced Truman to act quickly lest Greece be taken over by its communist partisans who were at the time strongly supported by the Soviet government working through the communist Bulgarian and Yugoslav governments. If Greece fell, Turkey would be helpless and soon the eastern Mediterranean would fall under Stalin’s control. In a dramatic message to Congress on March 12, 1947, President Truman said that the U. S. must take immediate and resolute action to support Greece and Turkey.<ref> Turkey did not have an insurrection, but it was such a bitter rival of Greece that it had to get money if Greece did.</ref> The Republican Congress, after extensive hearings, approved this historic change in U. S. foreign policy in a bill signed May 22, 1947. Thus was born the “Truman Doctrine.” Greece suppressed the insurgents; both Greece and Turkey joined NATO.<ref>
Joseph C. Satterthwaite, "The Truman Doctrine: Turkey," ''Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,'' Vol. 401, (May, 1972), pp. 74-84 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1039114 in JSTOR]</ref>
===Recognition of Israel===
Truman usually followed the advice of the State Department in national security matters, largely ignoring the Pentagon and Congress. In the case of recognition of the independent state of Israel in 1948, however, he overruled the urgent pleas of the State Department and immediately recognized Israel. State had warned that recognition would anger the Arabs in the Middle East; Truman, howver, was more responsive to domestic politics, where support for Israel was widespread.<ref> Michael T. Benson, ''Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel'' (1997) [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-S-Truman-Founding-Israel/dp/0275958078/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221429694&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]; for the State Departmenrt perspective see Evan M. Wilson, "The American Interest in the Palestine Question and the Establishment of Israel," ''Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,'' Vol. 401, (May, 1972), pp. 64-73 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1039113 in JSTOR]</ref>

===Religion===
Truman, a Southern Baptist, sought religious allies in the Cold War. He tried to unite the world's religions in a spiritual crusade against communism, sending his personal representative to Pope [[Pius XII]] to coordinate not only with the Vatican but also with the heads of the Anglican, Lutheran, and Greek Orthodox churches. "If I can mobilize the people who believe in a moral world against the Bolshevik materialists," Truman wrote in 1947, "we can win this fight." Since the [[Roman Catholic Church]] was his strongest religious ally in the moral battle against international communism, Truman put Rome first in his global strategy, even trying to confer formal diplomatic recognition on the Vatican. At home, he received solid support from Catholics, who were a major element of the [[New Deal Coalition]], but overwhelming resistance from Protestants, especially Southern Baptists who rejected anything "popish." Truman's political-diplomatic effort to formalize a public, faith-driven, ecumenical international campaign failed.<ref> Elizabeth Edwards Spalding, "True Believers" ''Wilson Quarterly'' 2006 30(2): 40-44, 46-48. Issn: 0363-3276 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]</ref>

===Loss of China===
[[Chiang Kai-shek]], America's wartime ally and head of the Nationalist forces in China, was caught between two wars—a war on China by [[Japan]] and a war with [[Mao Zedong]] and the Chinese Communists. The U.S. policy was to avoid a civil war and to threaten to withhold additional aid to the Nationalists unless they worked out a compromise. No compromise was possible, and Truman refused to send in combat troops to fight the civil war. General [[George Marshall]], who spent a year in China as Truman's emissary, testified that combat aid might have prevented a Communist victory, but General David Barr's military mission to China was specifically instructed not to supply this kind of assistance. <ref>Military Situation in the Far East, Hearings before the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, 82nd Congress (Washington, 1951), p. 558.</ref> General [[Albert C. Wedemeyer]] recommended this approach in his report on his 1947 fact-finding mission, but Marshall personally suppressed the report. <ref>Tang Tsou, ''America's Failure in China, 1941-1945'', Chicago 1964, pg. 457.</ref> Chiang believed that the [[Truman Doctrine]] to [[Containment|contain]] the spread of [[International Communism]] directed from Moscow would be extended to China, and ordered an offensive as soon as word of the new policy reached him. <ref>Richard C. Thornton, ''China: A Political History, 1917-1980'', Boulder CO 1982, pg. 208.</ref>

[[Dean Rusk]], Assistant Secretary of State in charge of the Far Eastern Division, said on May 18,1951 what the critics had been saying,
{{Cquote|The independence of China is gravely threatened. In the Communist world there is room for only one master. . . . How many Chinese in one community after another are being destroyed because they love China more than they love [[Soviet Russia]]? The freedoms of the Chinese people are disappearing. Trial by mob, [[democide|mass slaughter]], banishment to [[slavery|forced labor]] in [[Manchuria]] and Siberia. . . . The peace and security of China are being sacrificed by the ambitions of the Chinese conspiracy. China has been driven by foreign masters into an adventure in foreign aggression.}}
John T. Flynn observes that critics of the [[FDR]] and Truman Administrations who had been saying this earlier were denounced as “[[Fascists]].”<ref>''While You Slept: Our Tragedy in Asia and Who Made It'', John T. Flynn, New York: The Devin-Adair Company, 1951, [http://www.mises.org/books/whileyouslept.pdf pg. 161] pdf.</ref> Rusk continued,
{{Cquote|We do not recognize the authorities in [[Peiping]] for what they pretend to be. It is not the government of China. It does not pass the first test. It is not Chinese. . . . We recognize the [[Kuomintang|Nationalist government of the Republic of China]] even though the territory under its control is severely restricted. <ref>Hearings before the Senate Committee on Armed Services and Committee on Foreign Relations (also known as the Mac Arthur Inquiry), June 2, 1951.</ref>…we believe it more authoritatively represents the views of the great body of the people of China, particularly their demand for independence from foreign control….That government will continue to receive important aid and assistance from the United States.}}

===Risks in Korea===
Conditions inviting the North Korean attack were created by the [[United Nations]] which issued a resolution for withdrawal of both Soviet and American troops. Troops began withdrawing September 15, 1948, leaving only about 7500 Americans lightly armed. This left in South Korea 16,000 Koreans and 7500 Americans, both groups lightly armed, against 150,000 fully armed North Korean Communists. General Roberts, head of the U. S. Military Mission said the South Koreans were not permitted to arm adequately.
The Korean part of Wedemeyer's report was suppressed. Wedemeyer said:
{{Cquote|American and Soviet forces . . . are approximately equal, less than 50,000 troops each, [but] the Soviet-equipped and trained North Korean People's (Communist) Army of approximately 125,000 is vastly superior to the United States-organized constabulary of 16,000 Koreans equipped with Japanese small arms. The North Korean People's Army constitutes a potential military threat to [[South Korea]], since there is strong possibility that the Soviets will withdraw their occupation forces and thus induce our own withdrawal."<ref>Hearings before the Senate Committee on Armed Services and Committee on Foreign Relations, June 6, 1951.</ref>}}

Wedemeyer warned that this would take place as soon as "they can be sure that the [[North Korea]]n [[puppet government]] and its armed forces . . . are strong enough . . . to be relied upon to carry out Soviet objectives without the actual presence of Soviet troops."
===Communists inside US===
The bipartisan statutory [[Moynihan Secrecy Commission]] concluded, "President Truman was almost willfully obtuse as regards American Communism." <ref>Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy. Senate Document 105-2. 103rd Congress. Washington, D.C. United States Government Printing Office. 1997. [http://www.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/04dpm.pdf Chairman's Forward, pg. XL] pdf.</ref>
===Foreign policy: détente to containment===
Truman had no knowledge or interest in foreign policy before becoming president, and depended on the State Department for foreign policy advice.<ref> By 1946 he had two valuable aides Clark Clifford and George Elsey.</ref> Truman shifted from FDR's détente to [[containment]] as soon as [[Dean Acheson]] convinced him the Soviet Union was a long-term threat to American interests. They viewed communism as a secular, millennial religion that informed the Kremlin's worldview and actions and made it the chief threat to American security, liberty, and world peace. They rejected the moral equivalence of democratic and Communist governments and concluded that until the regime in Moscow changed only American and Allied strength could curb the Soviets. Following Acheson's advice, Truman in 1947 announced the [[Truman Doctrine]] of containing Communist expansion by furnishing military and economic American aid to Europe and Asia, and particularly to Greece and Turkey. He followed up with the [[Marshall Plan]], which was enacted into law as the European Recovery Program (ERP) and led ultimately to [[NATO]], the North Atlantic Alliance for military defense, signed in 1949. On May 14, 1948, Truman announced recognition of the new state of [[Israel]], making the United States the first major power to do so.

==Korean War==
The [[Korean War]] began at the end of June 1950 when North Korea, a Communist country, invaded South Korea, which was under U.S. protection. Without consulting Congress Truman ordered General [[Douglas MacArthur]] to use all American forces to resist the invasion. Truman then received approval from the United Nations, which the Soviets were boycotting. UN forces managed to cling to a toehold in Korea, as the North Koreans outran their supply system. A counterattack at Inchon destroyed the invasion army, and the UN forces captured most of North Korea on their way to the Yalu River, Korea's northern border with China. Truman defined the war goal as [[rollback]] of Communism and reunification of the country under UN auspices. China intervened unexpectedly, drove the UN forces all the way back to South Korea. The fighting stabilized close to the original 38th parallel that had divided North and South. MacArthur wanted to continue the rollback strategy but Truman arrived at a new policy of containment, allowing North Korea to persist. Truman's dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur in April 1951 sparked a violent debate on U.S. Far Eastern policy, as Truman took the blame for a high-cost stalemate with 37,000 Americans killed and over 100,000 wounded.

Truman fired his ineffective defense secretary Louis Johnson, and brought back [[George Marshall]].
===NSC-68===
The top-secret [[NSC-68]] policy paper was the grounds for escalating the Cold War, especially in terms of spending on rearmament and building the hydrogen bomb. The integration of European defense was given new impetus by continued U.S. support of NATO, under the command of General Eisenhower. Truman committed the US to contain Communist expansion in Vietnam, where the Communists under [[Ho Chi Minh]] were trying to overthrow the French colonial regime. The State Department insisted that France give more autonomy to the Vietnamese. The US paid for about 80% of the French war costs. The problem was that the French were more interested in preserving their grandiose empire, and less interested in stopping Communism, while the US opposed colonial empires and saw Communism as the great threat to world peace and stability.

Following NSC-68, Truman's last four budgets saw expenditures on national security quadruple from $13 billion in 1950 to $50 billion in 1953.

===1952 election===
On the political front, revelation of scandals in the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, in the Bureau of Internal Revenue and even the White House<ref> Truman's wife accepted an expensive deep freeze appliance in 1945; with General Vaughan as the fixer, the donor was given special privileges in Europe. </ref> opened the administration to attack.

Truman sought reelection in 1952 despite his dismal showing in the polls. He was defeated in the New Hampshire primary by Senator [[Estes Kefauver]] of Tennessee, and withdrew. Truman supported Illinois Governor [[Adlai Stevenson]]. Eisenhower won the GOP nomination and crusading against the Truman administration's failures regarding "Korea, Communism and Corruption," was elected in a landslide, ending 20 years of Democratic control of the presidency.

==Retirement==
Truman returned to his home in Independence, Missouri. He devoted himself to creating the Truman Library there; it was dedicated in July 1957 and is a part of the National Archives. With a staff of assistants he wrote his memoirs in two well-received volumes, gave many interviews, and intervened occasionally in Democratic national politics on behalf of liberal candidates such as [[Adlai Stevenson]].

He died on December 26, 1972.

==Evaluations==
Already by the 1960s he had become a hero to liberals and Democrats, nostalgic over the successes of the [[New Deal Coalition]] that sputtered and collapsed in the 1960s. Even Republicans came to forget the nasty days and celebrated Truman as the hero of the underdogs and the man who rebuilt Europe through the Marshall Plan and stood up to Communism through NATO.

Truman's reputation among scholars has gone from very low when he left office, to high after 1990. He is now widely considered to have been a tough-minded, decisive, and effective leader who ably guided the nation through the perilous waters of the early Cold War and whose policy of containment essentially laid the foundations for American "victory" in that prolonged conflict in 1989. For many historians, the down-to-earth Midwesterner now merits consideration as one of the greatest American presidents. In recent years presidential aspirants of both parties have claimed Truman as their own, especially if their election chances seem as hopeless as Truman's did in 1948. His reputation has been bolstered by scholarly biographies by Ferrell (1994), Hamby (1995), and especially McCullough's Pulitzer prize-winning popular biography (1992). The in-depth analysis by Leffler (1992), cautiously praised the Truman administration's essential wisdom in handling a myriad of problems.

While Truman's public image was headed up, his reputation among scholars declined in the 1970s. Kirkendall concluded in 1974 that negative appraisals of Truman and his administration "may in fact have become the dominant interpretation, at least among the younger scholars."<ref> Kirkendall, ''Truman Period as a Research Field: A Reappraisal 1972'' (1974) p 6</ref> In terms of foreign policy a strong negative view comes from Offner (2002) who argues that Truman was a "parochial nationalist" whose "uncritical belief in the superiority of American values and political-economic interests," conviction that "the Soviet Union and Communism were the root cause of international strife," and "inability to comprehend Asian politics and nationalism" intensified the postwar conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, precipitated the division of Europe, and set Sino-American relations on a path of long-term animosity. Rather than being a great statesman who carefully weighed various policy alternatives, Offner asserts that Truman's myopia "created a rigid framework in which the United States waged long-term, extremely costly global cold war". As his title suggests, the Cold War was at best a Pyrrhic victory for the United States.<ref> Quotes from Offner (2002) p. xii</ref>

Truman became the model of the underdog who fights back and wins when the experts unanimously predict defeat. Gerald Ford, who had bitterly denounced Truman as a young Congressman proudly proclaimed the Missourian as his hero and conspicuously displayed a bust of Truman in the oval office after Ford became president in 1974. In the 1976 campaign both Ford and his Democratic rival, [[Jimmy Carter]], outdid one another in claiming to be cast from the Truman mold. By 1980 when the Gallup Poll asked "Of all the Presidents we've ever had, who do you wish were President?", Harry Truman finished an impressive third behind Kennedy and FDR.

====notes====

==Further reading: basic books and articles==
* Burnes, Brian. ''Harry S. Truman: His Life and Times'' (2003), popular biography [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-S-Truman-Life-Times/dp/0974000930/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Dallek, Robert. ''Harry Truman'' (2008) short, popular biography by scholar. [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Truman-Presidents-President-1945-1953/dp/0805069380/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221386001&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Donovan, Robert J. ''Conflict and Crisis: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1945-1948'' (1977); ''Tumultuous Years: 1949-1953'' (1982) detailed 2-vol political history by well-informed journalist; well balanced
* Fleming, Thomas J. ''Harry S. Truman, President'' (1993) for middle school audience.
* Graff, Henry F., ed. ''The Presidents: A Reference History''. 2nd ed. 1996, 443–458. ISBN 0-684-80471-9; by leading scholar
* Hamby, Alonzo L. ''Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman'' (1995), the best scholarly biography; written by conservative historian who likes HST
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "An American Democrat: A Reevaluation of the Personality of Harry S. Truman," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 106, No. 1 (Spring, 1991), pp. 33-55 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2152173 in JSTOR]
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "Truman, Harry S."; [http://www.anb.org/articles/07/07-00307.html; ''American National Biography'' Online Feb. 2000] by a leading conservative historian
* Kirkendall, Richard S. ''Harry S. Truman Encyclopedia'' (1990), very useful articles on people, events and policies in HST's career
* Kirkendall Richard S. "Harry S Truman a Missouri Farmer in the Golden Age," ''Agricultural History,'' Vol. 48, No. 4 (Oct., 1974), pp. 467-483 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/3741384 in JSTOR]
* McCullough, David. ''Truman''. (1993), 1120 pp ISBN 0-671-86920-5 best-selling biography; moderate in tone; Pulitzer Prize [http://www.amazon.com/Truman-David-McCullough/dp/0671869205/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* McCullough, David. ''Harry S. Truman'', short essay [http://www.pbs.org/newshour/character/essays/truman.html online edition]
* Offner, Arnold A. ''Another Such Victory: President Truman and the Cold War.'' (2002) 640pp, New LEft and hostile to HST; [http://books.google.com/books?id=P5tbHSsBS-AC&pg=PP1&dq=intitle:another+intitle:victory+inauthor:offner&num=30&as_brr=0&sig=pWo43stsPrIrtTfZXJicvWB3zCY excerpts and text search]
* [http://www.amazon.com/American-Experience-Truman/dp/B000BYRCG0/ref=pd_bbs_4/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1193347436&sr=8-4 ''American Experience: Truman'' (2006), from PBS]
* [http://www.amazon.com/Classic-President-Harry-Truman-Films/dp/B000JD7MV8/ref=sr_1_14/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1193347436&sr=8-14 "Classic President Harry S Truman Films: 1945-1965'' (2006) 40 newsreels, 101 minutes]

==Advanced bibliography==
These are secondary source by scholars; unless noted they are generally liberal and supportive of Truman.
===Biographies===
* Burnes, Brian. ''Harry S. Truman: His Life and Times'' (2003); popular biography; [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-S-Truman-Life-Times/dp/0974000930/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Cochran, Bert. ''Harry S. Truman and the Crisis Presidency'' (19730, 432 pages; portrays a cynical courthouse politician
* Donovan, Robert J. ''Conflict and Crisis: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1945-1948'' (1977); ''Tumultuous Years: 1949-1953'' (1982), good, detailed 2-vol political history by well-informed journalist
* Ferrell, Robert H. ''Harry S. Truman: A Life'' (1994), brief overview
* Fleming, Thomas J. ''Harry S. Truman, President'' (1993) for middle school audience.
* Gosnell, Harold Foote. ''Truman's Crises: A Political Biography of Harry S. Truman'' (1980)
* Graff, Henry F., ed. ''The Presidents: A Reference History''. 2nd ed. 1996, 443–458. ISBN 0-684-80471-9
* Hamby, Alonzo L. ''Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman'' (1995), very well received scholarly biography [http://www.amazon.com/Man-People-Truman-Oxford-Paperbacks/dp/0195124979/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193438333&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "The Liberals, Truman, and the FDR as Symbol and Myth," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 56, No. 4 (Mar., 1970), pp. 859-867 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1917522 in JSTOR]
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "Truman, Harry S."; [http://www.anb.org/articles/07/07-00307.html; ''American National Biography'' Online Feb. 2000]
* Kirkendall, Richard S. ''Harry S. Truman Encyclopedia'' (1990)
* McCullough, David. ''Truman''. . ISBN 0-671-86920-5 best-selling biography; Pulitzer Prize [http://www.amazon.com/Truman-David-McCullough/dp/0671869205/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Miller, Richard Lawrence. ''Truman: The Rise to Power'' (2002), critical evaluation emphasizing corruption of Pendergast machine

===Foreign policy===
* Appleman, Roy E. ''South to the Naktong, North to the Yalu (June-November 1950)'' (United States Army in the Korean War) (1960); official U.S. Army history, [http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/korea/20-2-1/toc.htm online version]
* Beisner, Robert L. ''Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War'' (2006), 800pp; a standard scholarly biography; covers 1945-53 only
* Benson, Michael T. ''Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel'' (1997) [http://www.questia.com/read/15103137 online edition]
* Berger, Henry. "Bipartisanship, Senator Taft, and the Truman Administration," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 90, No. 2 (Summer, 1975), pp. 221-237 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2148235 in JSTOR]
* Bernstein Barton J. "Roosevelt, Truman, and the Atomic Bomb, 1941-1945: A Reinterpretation," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 90, No. 1 (Spring, 1975), pp. 23-69 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2148698 in JSTOR], influential New left essay
* Blair, Clay ''The Forgotten War: America in Korea, 1950-1953'', Naval Institute Press (2003) revisionist study that attacks Truman and top Army leaders for near-criminal incompetence
* Divine, Robert A. "The Cold War and the Election of 1948," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 59, No. 1 (Jun., 1972), pp. 90-110 [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8723%28197206%2959%3A1%3C90%3ATCWATE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-C in JSTOR]
* Frazier, Robert. "Acheson and the Formulation of the Truman Doctrine" ''Journal of Modern Greek Studies'' 17#2 (1999), pp. 229-251 online at [[Project Muse]]
* Gaddis, John Lewis. "Reconsiderations: Was the Truman Doctrine a Real Turning Point?" ''Foreign Affairs'' 1974 52(2): 386-402. ISSN 0015-7120
* Giangreco, D. M. "'A Score of Bloody Okinawas and Iwo Jimas': President Truman and Casualty Estimates for the Invasion of Japan," ''Pacific Historical Review,'' Vol. 72, No. 1 (Feb., 2003), pp. 93-132 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/3642102 in JSTOR] shows Truman was indeed by very high invasion casualties
* Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi. ''Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan.'' (2005). 382 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Racing-Enemy-Stalin-Truman-Surrender/dp/0674016939/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193349212&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Hogan, Michael J. ''A Cross of Iron: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of the National Security State, 1945-1954'' (2000) [http://www.amazon.com/Cross-Iron-National-Security-19451954/dp/0521795370/ref=sr_1_34/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347927&sr=8-34 excerpt and text search]
* Ivie, Robert L. "Fire, Flood, and Red Fever: Motivating Metaphors of Global Emergency in the Truman Doctrine Speech." ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 1999 29(3): 570-591. ISSN 0360-4918 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001303753 online edition]
* Lacey, Michael J. ed. ''The Truman Presidency'' (1989), major essays by scholars
* Matray, James I. "Truman's Plan for Victory: National Self-Determination and the Thirty-Eighth Parallel Decision in Korea," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 66, No. 2 (Sep., 1979), pp. 314-333 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1900879 in JSTOR] Truman planned rollback of Communism in North Korea
* Merrill, Dennis. "The Truman Doctrine: Containing Communism and Modernity" ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 2006 36(1): 27-37. ISSN 0360-4918
* Offner, Arnold A. "'Another Such Victory': President Truman, American Foreign Policy, and the Cold War." ''Diplomatic History'' 1999 23(2): 127-155. ISSN 0145-2096
* Ojserkis, Raymond P. ''Beginnings of the Cold War Arms Race: The Truman Administration and the U.S. Arms Build-Up'' (2003) [http://www.questia.com/read/102018810 online edition]
* Pelz, Stephen. "When the Kitchen Gets Hot, Pass the Buck: Truman and Korea in 1950," ''Reviews in American History'' 6 (December 1978), 548-55. Online at Project MUSE
* Pierpaoli, Paul G. Jr.; ''Truman and Korea: The Political Culture of the Early Cold War.'' University of Missouri Press, 1999 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=108668070 online edition]
* Smith, Geoffrey S. "'Harry, We Hardly Know You': Revisionism, Politics and Diplomacy, 1945-1954," ''American Political Science Review'' 70 (June 1976), 560-82. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-0554(197606)70%3A2%3C560%3A%22WHKYR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-%23 in JSTOR]
* Spalding, Elizabeth Edwards. ''The First Cold Warrior: Harry Truman, Containment, And the Remaking of Liberal Internationalism'' (2006) [http://www.amazon.com/First-Cold-Warrior-Containment-Internationalism/dp/0813123925/ref=sr_1_22/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347812&sr=8-22 excerpt and text search]
* Wainstock, Dennis D. ''Truman, MacArthur, and the Korean War'' (1999) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23387043 online edition]
* Walker, J. Samuel. ''Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs against Japan'' (1997) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=35245486 online complete edition]; [http://www.amazon.com/Prompt-Utter-Destruction-Truman-Against/dp/080785607X/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193348187&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Walker, J. Samuel. "Recent Literature on Truman's Atomic Bomb Decision: A Search for Middle Ground" ''Diplomatic History'' April 2005 - Vol. 29 Issue 2 Pp 311-334 fulltext in [[EBSCO]]

===Domestic policy and politics===
* Bernstein Barton J. "The Truman Administration and the Steel Strike of 1946," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 52, No. 4 (Mar., 1966), pp. 791-803 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1894347 in JSTOR]
* Billington, Monroe. "Civil Rights, President Truman and the South," ''Journal of Negro History,'' Vol. 58, No. 2 (Apr., 1973), pp. 127-139 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2716825 in JSTOR]
* Dean, Virgil W. "Charles F. Brannan and the Rise and Fall of Truman's 'Fair Deal' for Farmers." ''Agricultural History'' 1995 69(1): 28-53. Issn: 0002-1482
* Dean, Virgil W. ''An Opportunity Lost: The Truman Administration and the Farm Policy Debate.'' 2006. 275 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Opportunity-Lost-Truman-Administration-Policy/dp/0826216501/ref=sr_1_10/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193434622&sr=1-10 excerpt and text search]
* Derickson, Alan. "'Take Health from the List of Luxuries': Labor and the Right to Health Care, 1915-1949." ''Labor History'' 2000 41(2): 171-187. Issn: 0023-656x Fulltext: in Taylor and Francis, Swetswise, Ingenta, and [[Ebsco]]
* Donaldson, Gary A. ''Truman Defeats Dewey'' (1998)
* Farhang, Sean, and Ira Katznelson. "The Southern Imposition: Congress and Labor in the New Deal and Fair Deal," ''Studies in American Political Development'' (2005), 19: 1-30; [http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=324401 online edition]
* Freeland, Richard M. ''The Truman Doctrine and the Origins of McCarthyism: Foreign Policy, Domestic Policy, and Internal Security, 1946-48'' (1989), revisionist; New left attack on Truman for being too anti-Communist
* Fried, Richard M. ''Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective.'' 1990. [http://www.questia.com/read/79027083 online complete edition]; [http://www.amazon.com/Nightmare-Red-McCarthy-Era-Perspective/dp/0195043618/ref=sr_1_11/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193514847&sr=8-11 excerpt and text search]
* Gardner, Michael R. ''Harry Truman and Civil Rights: Moral Courage and Political Risks.'' (2002) 296 pp.[http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=105233906 online edition]
* Hamby, Alonzo. ''Beyond the New Deal: Harry S. Truman and American Liberalism'' (1973), the most sophisticated biography; by a prominent conservative historian
* Hartmann, Susan M. ''Truman and the 80th Congress'' (1971) [http://www.questia.com/read/77360404 online edition]
* Heller, Francis H. ''Economics and the Truman Administration'' (1982) [http://www.amazon.com/Economics-Truman-Administration-Francis-Heller/dp/0700602178/ref=sr_1_9/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193434622&sr=1-9 excerpt and text search]
* Karabell, Zachary. ''The Last Campaign: How Harry Truman Won the 1948 Election'' (2001) [http://www.amazon.com/Last-Campaign-Harry-Truman-Election/dp/0375700773/ref=sr_1_24/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=11973347812&sr=8-24 excerpt and text search]
* Koenig, Louis W. ''The Truman Administration: Its Principles and Practice'' (1956) [http://www.questia.com/read/8522614 online edition]
* Komarek de Luna, Phyllis. ''Public versus Private Power during the Truman Administration: A Study of Fair Deal Liberalism.'' Peter Lang, 1997. 253 pp.
* Lacey, Michael J. ed. ''The Truman Presidency'' (1989), major essays by scholars
* Lee, R. Alton. ''Truman and Taft-Hartley: A Question of Mandate.'' (1966) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=99000111 online edition]
* Leuchtenburg, William E. ''The White House Looks South: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson.'' (2005). 668 pp.
* Levantrosser, William F. ed. ''Harry S. Truman: The Man from Independence'' (1986). 25 essays by scholars and Truman aides. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23428395 online edition]
* McCoy, Donald. ''The Presidency of Harry S. Truman'' (1984), standard scholarly survey by conservative historian; [http://www.amazon.com/Presidency-Harry-S-Truman-American/dp/0700602550/ref=sr_1_8/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193514606&sr=8-8 excerpt and text search]
* Marcus, Maeva ''Truman and the Steel Seizure Case: The Limits of Presidential Power'' (1994) [http://www.questia.com/read/22816992 online edition]
* Phillips, Cabel. ''The Truman Presidency: The History of a Triumphant Succession'' (1966), by a journalist who interviewed many key players
* Pierpaoli, Paul G. Jr. ''Truman and Korea: The Political Culture of the Early Cold War.'' (1997). ISBN 0-8262-1206-9. focus on the homefront [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=16627966265512 online review]
* Ryan, Halford R. ''Harry S. Truman: Presidential Rhetoric'' (1993) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=27994601 online edition]
* Sitkoff, Harvard. "Harry Truman and the Election of 1948: The Coming of Age of Civil Rights in American Politics," ''Journal of Southern History,'' Vol. 37, No. 4 (Nov., 1971), pp. 597-616 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2206548 in JSTOR]
* Theoharis, Athan. "The Truman Administration and the Decline of Civil Liberties: The FBI's Success in Securing Authorization for a Preventive Detention Program," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 64, No. 4 (Mar., 1978), pp. 1010-1030 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1890734 in JSTOR], leftwing attack on Truman for being too harsh on possible subversives
* Theoharis, Athan. ''The Truman Presidency: The Origins of the Imperial Presidency and the National Security State'' (1979), revisionist, New left attack on HST
* Theoharis, Athan. ''Seeds of Repression: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of McCarthyism'' (1977), New Left attack on HST for being so hostile to domestic Communists
* Thompson, Francis H. ''The Frustration of Politics: Truman, Congress, and the Loyalty Issue, 1945-1953.'' 1979. 246 pp.
* Vaughan, Philip H. "The Truman Administration's Fair Deal for Black America." ''Missouri Historical Review'' 1976 70(3): 291-305. Issn: 0026-6582

===Primary sources===
* Bernstein, Barton J., Ed. ''The Truman Administration: A Documentary History'' (1966); 2nd edition published as ''Politics and Policies of the Truman Administration'' (1970), revisionist
* [http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/publications/ERP/ Council of Economic Advisors, ''Economic Report of the President'' (annual 1947- )], complete series online; important analysis of current trends and policies, plus statistcial tables
* Ferrell, Robert H. ed. ''Dear Bess: The Letters from Harry to Bess Truman, 1910-1959'' (1983)
* Ferrell, Robert H. ed. ''Off the Record: The Private Papers of Harry S. Truman'' (1980).
* Merrill, Dennis. ed. ''Documentary History of the Truman Presidency, (1995- ) 35 volumes; available in some large academic libraries.
* Miller, Merle ''Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman'' (1974)
* Neal, Steve. ed. ''HST: Memories of the Truman Years.'' (2003)280pp; long excerpts from 20 oral history interviews (some of which are online at the Truman Library site).
* Neal, Steve. ed. ''Miracle of '48: Harry Truman's Major Campaign Speeches & Selected Whistle-Stops'' (2003); 43 speeches
* Truman, Harry S. ''Where the Buck Stops: The Personal and Private Writings of Harry S. Truman'' edited by Margaret Truman (1990) [http://www.amazon.com/Where-Buck-Stops-Personal-Writings/dp/0446391751/ref=pd_bbs_sr_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221386001&sr=8-6 excerpt and text search]
* Truman, Harry S. ''Memoirs'' 2 vol (1955). [http://tera-3.ul.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/reader.pl?call=30151&search= vol 1 online]
* Truman, Margaret. ''Harry S. Truman''. (1973). memoir by his daughter
* Truman, Harry S. ''The Autobiography of Harry S. Truman'' edited compilation of excerpts by Robert H. Ferrell (2002) [http://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Harry-S-Truman/dp/0826214452/ref=pd_bbs_sr_5/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-5 excerpt and text search]
* [http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/ ''The Public Papers of the Presidents'' contain most of Truman's public messages, statements, speeches, and news conference remarks. Documents such as Proclamations, and Executive Orders]

==Historiography==
* Ferrell, Robert H. ''Harry S. Truman and the Cold War Revisionists.'' 2006. 142 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Truman-Cold-War-Revisionists/dp/0826216536/ref=sr_1_6/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193349212&sr=8-6 excerpt and text search]
* Geselbracht, Raymond. "Creating the Harry S. Truman Library: The First Fifty Years," ''Public Historian'', 28 (Summer 2006), 37–78.
* Hartmann, Susan M. "The 1948 Election and the Configuration of Postwar Liberalism" ''Reviews in American History'' 28.1 (2000) 105-111 in [[Project Muse]]
* Heller, Francis H., ed. ''The Korean War: A 25 Year Perspective'' (1977), essays by scholars
* Heller, Francis H., ed. ''The Truman White House: The Administration of the Presidency, 1945-1953'' (1980), essays by scholars
* Heller, Francis H., ed. ''Economics and the Truman Administration'' (1981), essays by scholars
* Kirkendall, Richard S. ed. ''Harry's Farewell: Interpreting and Teaching the Truman Presidency'' (2004) essays by scholars
* Kirkendall, Richard S., ed. ''The Truman Period as a Research Field: A Reappraisal 1972'' (1974)
* Tull, Charles J. "The State of the Art in Truman Research," in William F. Levantrosser, ed. ''Harry S. Truman: The Man from Independence'' (1986), 1-31 aides. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23428395 online edition]
* Walker, J. Samuel "Recent Literature on Truman's Atomic Bomb Decision: a Search for Middle Ground." ''Diplomatic History'' 2005 29(2): 311-334. Issn: 0145-2096 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]

==External links==
*[http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/ht33.html Biography]
*[http://www.trumanlibrary.org Presidential Library]
*[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/index.php The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb], Truman Library.
*[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/small/mb12a.htm President Truman to Senator Richard B. Russell], August 9, 1945.
====notes====
<references/>

{{USPresidents}}
{{USVicePresidents}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Truman, Harry}}

[[Category:Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:Vice Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:Democratic Party]]

Harry Truman

2008-11-11T21:01:30Z

AshleyS: /* How the decision was made= */ punctuation

{{President|
|name=Harry S. Truman
|image=HTruman.jpg
|country=the United States
|seq=33
|party=Democratic
|term_start=April 12, 1945
|term_end=January 20, 1953<ref>http://home.comcast.net/~sharonday7/Presidents/AP060301.htm</ref>
|vp=None
|vp_dates=1945-1949
|2vp=Alben Barkley
|2vp_dates=1949-1953
|previous=Franklin D. Roosevelt
|next=Dwight D. Eisenhower
|seq2=34
|office2=vice
|party2=
|term2_start=January 20, 1945
|term2_end=April 12, 1945
|pres2=Franklin D. Roosevelt
|previous2=Henry A. Wallace
|next2=Alben W. Barkley
|birth_date=May 8, 1884
|birth_place=Lamar, MO
|death_date=December 26, 1972
|death_place=Kansas City, MO
|spouse=Bess Wallace Truman
|spouse2=
|religion=[[Baptist]]
}}

'''Harry S. Truman,''' (1884-1972) a [[liberal]] [[Democrat]] from [[Missouri]], was the president of the United States from 1945-1953, taking over when [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] died in April 1945. He took the decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order to force Japan's surrender. Angered at the Soviet Union's seizure of eastern Europe, he moved away from FDR's [[détente]] to a policy of [[containment]], reinforced by the Truman Plan (1947) to resist Communist subversion, the [[Marshall Plan]] (1948-51) to rebuild and modernize western Europe's economies, and the [[NATO]] military alliance of 1949. Truman, advised by [[Dean Acheson]] and the State Department, set the policies to oppose the Soviet Union as the [[Cold War]] began.

Ignoring Asia, he later saw America's close ally China fall to the anti-American Communists under [[Mao Zedong]] in 1949; the US and China fought each other to a draw during the undeclared [[Korean War]], 1950-53. Truman fired his top general, [[Douglas MacArthur]], during this conflict and saw his popularity plunge.

As the war ended, the massive problem of reconverting the 45% of the economy devoted to war production baffled Truman. Listening to liberal advisors, he refused to end extremely unpopular price controls, and was unable to stop a massive wave of strikes in major industries in 1945-46. Voter dissatisfaction to the Republican capture of Congress in 1946; with Senator [[Robert A. Taft]] as the conservative Republican spokesman, Congress repealed many of the wartime restrictions on business and lowered taxes. Taft rewrote the labor laws in the [[Taft-Hartley Act of 1947]], balancing the rights of unions, management and the public interest; it became law over Truman's signature and remains in effect.

Truman began with very high popularity ratings, but they plunged to the lowest on record. Democrats were unable to stop his renomination in 1948, but the far left nominated FDR's vice president [[Henry A. Wallace]], and southern conservative Democrats nominated Dixiecrat [[J. Strom Thurmond]]. Observers almost unanimously expected victory for the Republican candidate, Governor [[Thomas E. Dewey]], liberal from New York. Total astonishment greeted Truman's stunning election victory, as he reassembled the [[New Deal Coalition]] for the fifth consecutive victory, pulling in on his coattails a Democratic Congress.

Although the Democrats organized Congress in 1949, the [[Conservative Coalition]] of Northern Republicans and Southern Democrats was in control, and Truman was to pass any of his liberal [[Fair Deal|Fair Deal program]]. Nevertheless he he pursued civil rights through executive orders, especially a 1948 order to end racial discrimination in the military. Blacks remained in segregated units, but were to receive equal treatment. Truman's failures to deal with "Korea, Communism and Corruption" forced him to withdraw from reelection in 1952 and gave the Republicans an opportunity to crusade against him and elect [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] in 1952.

Overshadowed at first by his predecessor, [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], Truman established a reputation as a blunt, unsophisticated fighter for the common man, who took responsibility for his actions because, he said, "the buck stops here." His stunning reelection victory in 1948 baffled the experts and has inspired underdogs ever since. He is more popular in 2008 than ever. His policy positions make him a heroic icon for liberals.

==Early life==

Truman was born on a farm near Lamar, in western Missouri, and grew up on a farm near Independence, Missouri. His grandparents had been Confederate sympathizers who had been rounded up by the Union army in the Civil War.<ref> His middle initial, S, does not stand for anything, but was chosen because his parents could not decide whether to name him for his grandfather Shippe or for his grandfather Solomon.</ref> After graduating from high school in Independence, with good skills in history and music, he decided against college and became a bank clerk in Kansas City. Always a joiner, he was active in the Missouri National Guard. From 1906 to 1917 he managed his father's 600-acre farm at Grandview, Missouri. During World War I his National Guard regiment was mobilized in 1917, he entered the Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, sailing for France in 1917 as a lieutenant. Truman was soon promoted to captain in Battery D, 129 Field Artillery Battalion, 35th Division, A.E.F., and returned to the United States a major in 1919, after combat at St. Mihiel and in the Argonne offensive. He was in an artillery unit, and learned about gas warfare; he was never wounded, He married Elizabeth "Bess" Wallace on June 28, 1919; they had one daughter, Margaret, who married a ''New York Times'' editor. With an army buddy he invested his savings in a Kansas City haberdashery, but this venture was a failure.

==Pendergast machine==
Discouraged by his lack of business success and without funds, Truman sought the help of friends. His farm background, his war record, his Masonic connections, his Baptist Church affiliations, and his genial personality recommended him to [[Thomas J. Pendergast]], the Democratic political boss of Kansas City and much of western Missouri. Pendergast, an Irish Catholic, had a strong base among the Irish Catholics and used Truman to reach out to Protestants, farmers and veterans. He made Truman the overseer of highways for Jackson County.

In 1922 Truman was elected a county judge; needing some legal knowledge he studied nights for two years at Kansas City Law School; it was his only education beyond high school, although he read history. In the 1924 GOP landslide he was defeated for reelection, but in 1926 he was returned to office as presiding judge of the court, the duties of which also involved administrative supervision of many county expenditures, including $60 million for public works. He almost joined the [[Ku Klux Klan]], but withdrew his application when he realized his Irish Catholic allies bitterly opposed the KKK; Truman then campaigned against the Klan.
==Senate==
In 1934 Pendergast arranged for Truman's nomination as United States Senator on the Democratic ticket; he was elected in the democratic landslide as a supporter of Roosevelt and the New deal. His first term in office was uneventful, except for a failed effort to prevent the renomination of Maurice Milligan for U.S. District Attorney for the Western District of Missouri; Milligan had obtained the conviction of 35 Pendergast "ward leaders" for vote frauds.

===World War II===
He was reelected after a terrific battle in 1940. Truman gained national prominence for serving as chairman of the Truman Committee to investigate waste, fraud and inefficiency in government contracts. Its formal name was the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program. He was an energetic and forthright supporter of the [[New Deal]] and won widespread party favor for his attacks on business malfeasance in war production. He forced changes in the aircraft and ship construction programs, and worked well with other border state Democrats, especially [[Alben Barkley]] of Kentucky, the Majority Leader.

===FDR picks a new vice president===
In 1944, after Vice-President [[Henry A. Wallace]] had been rejected by leading Democrats as too far to the left, Truman supported his friend former senator [[James F. Byrnes]] of South Carolina for that office. Catholics vetoed Byrnes, who had left that faith. Truman himself became Roosevelt's choice as a compromise vice presidential candidate, and the two were elected.

Roosevelt had been in ill-health since his return from the [[Teheran conference]]. At the 1944 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, DNC Chairman Bob Hannegan went for instructions to President Roosevelt's private railway car just before the July convention officially began. Roosevelt had decided to dump incumbent Vice-President [[Henry Wallace]]. Worried over dissension on the choice of a successor, Roosevelt told Hannegan: "Go on down there and nominate Truman before there's any more trouble. And clear everything with Sidney." <ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,791619,00.html "Clear everything with Sidney"], [[Time magazine]], Sep. 25, 1944.</ref> The President could not make the selection of Truman until [[Sidney Hillman]] <ref>''The Roosevelt Myth'', John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948, Book 2, Ch. 8, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Eight___The_Shock_Troops.htm ''The Shock Troops of the Third New Deal'']</ref>, Director of the Political Action Committee for the Congress on Industrial Organizations (CIO) approved it. <ref> ''Roosevelt Myth'', Book 3, Ch. 10, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Ten___Politics__Disease_.htm ''Politics, Disease and History''], Flynn, 1948.</ref> When Harry Truman walked into the smoke-filled room <ref>[http://www.booknotes.org/Transcript/index_print.asp?ProgramID=1109 ''Truman''], Interview with David McCullough, C-Span Booknotes, July 19, 1992. Retrieved August 6, 2007.</ref> of DNC at headquarters at the Stevens Hotel in Chicago, Soviet spies [[John Abt]], [[Lee Pressman]], and [[Nathan Witt]], were on hand." <ref>''The Yalta Betrayal'', Felix Wittmer, Claxton Printers, 1953, pg. 75.</ref>

==Presidency==
Roosevelt ignored Truman between the election in November 1944 and the inauguration in January; even as Vice president Truman was not consulted on national policies, and not informed of major decisions, nor of the atomic bomb. Although he realized Roosevelt's health was failing rapidly, he made no preparations for assuming the presidency and did not even build up a staff of advisors. Truman succeeded to the Presidency upon the death of FDR on April 12, 1945.

President Truman pledged that in office he would carry on the liberal domestic policies of Roosevelt. He distrusted most of FDR's cabinet and set about to assemble his own team.

===Winning World War II===

During his term as President, he presided over the conclusion of [[World War II]] in both [[Europe]] and [[Japan]].
On April 25 his telephoned speech opened the San Francisco Conference establishing the [[United Nations]]. A week later Germany surrendered, and from July 17 to August 2, 1945, Truman attended the [[Potsdam Conference]] with Britain's [[Winston Churchill]] (soon replaced by the new prime minister [[Clement Attlee]]) and [[Joseph Stalin]] of the Soviet Union.

===Atomic bomb===
The alternative Truman faced was to order use of the atomic bomb which might shock the Japanese into surrender, or order the planned invasion of Japan's home islands; casualty estimates for Americans ranged very widely. Casualty estimates for Japan ranged into the millions. Secretary of War [[Henry Stimson]] made the real decision: to drop atomic bombs on [[Hiroshima]] and [[Nagasaki]]. Japan immediately surrendered on terms that allowed Emperor [[Hirohito]] to stay on the throne and not be tried as a war criminal. Truman put General [[Douglas MacArthur]] in charge of occupying and controlling Japan; MacArthur remained in charge until the peace treaty was finally signed in 1951.

Truman kept control of the bomb in civilian hands—the Air Force and State Department did not even know how many bombs existed until 1948, when only eight had been built. The postwar military strategy was not built around nuclear weapons.

====Debating the decision====

=====Conservatives and liberals=====

In general, conservatives and liberals alike have applauded and supported the a-bomb decision because it shortened the war, and prevented hundreds of thousands or millions of casualties. The New Left or "revisionist" interpretation argues that the bomb was not necessary to end the war and that no invasion was necessary. They have no evidence to support that argument. They do have fragments of evidence that give weak support to the argument that one American goal was to intimidate the Soviet Union. The revisionists believe the US should have stayed friends with the Soviets, and that Truman was guilty for starting the Cold War (which they consider a bad thing). Morally the revisionists assume the USA was no better or worse than the Soviets—admitting to Soviet atrocities, they argue that socialism was morally superior to capitalism, which itself was a great evil the US intended to spread. In terms of the bomb, Secretary of State James Byrnes did make some offhand references to influencing Moscow, but his comments did not reflect the policy of the State Department or White House, and certainly not those of Stimson, who was by far the most important decision-maker.
Vice President Truman had been kept uninformed about the atomic bomb; he had little interest in military affairs and his chief military aide, General Harry Vaughan, was a drinking buddy likewise unfamiliar with what was happening in the war. Truman therefore relied entirely on his Secretary of War, [[Henry Stimson]]. At Potsdam he approved the atomic bomb targets selected by Stimson and, on the way home, he authorized the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki three days later.

====How the decision was made====
The decision to drop the atomic bomb has been the focus of one of the most heated debates among both scholars and the public since 1945. After 1945 the debate was dominated by "traditionalist" scholars, who argued that the U.S. had no choice but to drop the bomb as a way to bring World War II to an end. The traditionalists were succeeded in the 1960s by "revisionists," who asserted that the dropping of the bomb was done to intimidate Stalin, not end the war. The leading revisionist historians emerged from the "new left" movement of the 1960s and rejected any notion of the moral superiority of America or capitalism to the Soviet Union. They thought the Cold War and containment were poor policies and generally favored détente, along the lines proposed by Henry Wallace. They include Gar Alperovitz, Barton J. Bernstein, Kai Bird, Diane Shaver Clemens, Bruce Cumings, Richard Freeland, Lloyd Gardner, Gabriel Kolko, Walter LaFeber, Thomas Paterson, Harvard Sitkoff, Ronald Steel, Athan Theoharis, and William A. Williams (the leader of the "Wisconsin School"). The revisionists are not monolithic, but they usually agree that Truman and his advisers were wrong whether the issue is the Cold War, Korea, or the atomic bomb. Revisionists had argued that Truman's goal at Potsdam was to prevent Soviet entry into the war against Japan, and the atomic bomb was used to scare them off. However in 1983 archivists discovered a letter Truman wrote to his wife from Potsdam on July 18, 1945: "I've gotten what I came for-- Stalin goes to war August 15 with no strings on it . . . I'll say that we'll end the war a year sooner now, and think of the kids who won't be killed! That's the important thing."<ref>''New York Times'' March 14, 1983. </ref>

In the 1990s, a more nuanced historical approach emerged searching for a middle ground, offering a number of more credible studies, essentially arguing that neither the traditional nor the revisionist interpretations were entirely satisfactory.<ref>J. Samuel Walker, "Recent Literature on Truman's Atomic Bomb Decision: a Search for Middle Ground." ''Diplomatic History'' 2005 29(2): 311-334. Issn: 0145-2096 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]</ref>

==Domestic affairs==
===Reconversion of the economy to peacetime===
The process of reconversion to peacetime was rocky. It was impossible to bring soldiers home fast enough, and they and their families protected loudly. All war contract were canceled, shutting down munitions plants and throwing millions of workers (many of them women) out of jobs, just as the 12 million service members were coming home. Truman sought to retain price controls against the vehement opposition of business but yielded somewhat in the face of bitter popular opposition. Large-scale strikes disrupted the economy, especially a coal miners strike and a threatened nationwide strike by railroad workers. He threatened to draft the railroad workers and the strike was called off; unions began to oppose him but he regained union support by his later attempts to veto or repeal the [[Taft-Hartley]] labor relations law. Truman's opposition to tax cuts, his insistence on price controls, and his lack of aggressive support of labor programs weakened his party. To voters frustrated with shortages and controls, Truman seemed indecisive and inconsistent; his efforts to deal with a postwar wave of strikes managed to alienate both organized labor and those who wanted more restraints on unions. Voters who normally supported liberal and labor candidates stayed home, resulting in a Republican landslide in 1946, giving the GOP a majority in both houses of Congress. Ohio Senator [[Robert A. Taft]] became the main GOP spokesman in Congress, tangling often with Truman.
===Moving left===
Gradually Truman created his own administration, using the '''''Fair Deal''''' label to express its goals in domestic affairs. Truman systematically removed the Roosevelt cabinet and inner circle of advisors. The most dramatic episode was firing [[Henry A. Wallace]] in 1946 because of his outspoken criticism of the administration's foreign policy as too harsh on the Soviet Union. Liberals saw themselves in a struggle with conservatives for Truman's soul after the 1946 election. Linked to the President through top aide [[Clark Clifford]], these liberals included Oscar Ewing, former party official and director of the Federal Security Agency, Leon Keyserling, member of the President's Council of Economic Advisors, and David Morse, assistant secretary of labor. They embraced the memo plotting 1948 campaign strategy written by former Roosevelt adviser James Rowe, which urged Truman to "move to the left and focus on building a coalition of groups that centered on organized labor, liberals, and northern urban African Americans."<ref> The memo until 1991 was mis-attributed to Clifford, who passed it along to Truman.</ref> Liberals had national support from the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), led by [[Walter Reuther]], [[Eleanor Roosevelt]], Joseph Rauh, James Rowe, [[Reinhold Niebuhr]], [[Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.]], [[Hubert Humphrey]], and [[Ronald Reagan]]<ref> Reagan was an energetic liberal supporter of Truman. He moved to the right in the late 1950s.</ref> . The ADA was hostile to the Soviet Union, battled American Communists and fellow travelers like Wallace, and supported the purge of Communists from the [[CIO]] labor unions. Truman agreed with the ADA and moved left after 1946.<ref> Steven M. Gillon, ''Politics and Vision: the ADA and American Liberalism, 1947-1985'' (1987).</ref>

However he could not tolerate [[Henry A. Wallace]] and the far left, which had considerable Communist support. When Wallace, then Secretary of Commerce, in 1946 denounced Truman's tough stand against Stalin, Truman fired Wallace.

In 1947 Truman asked Congress for stand-by price controls, rationing, and bank and consumer credit control as parts of an anti-inflation program, but his ideas were ignored by the Republicans who controlled Congress. In his state of the union message of Jan. 7, 1948, Truman called for rent control, increased social security benefits, universal military training, national health insurance, and other social legislation. The next week he again asked for passage of his anti-inflation measures. In February 1948 he asked for civil-rights legislation, including a federal anti-lynching law, a federal fair employment practices commission, a permanent civil rights commission, and abolition of the poll tax--measures that enraged many Southern Democrats. None of his proposals became law. More successful was Truman's drive to increase the efficiency of the executive branch; he appointed a commission headed by former President [[Herbert Hoover]] which recommended numerous changes, including unification of the armed services.

===Civil Rights===
Disgusted by violence against black veterans in the deep South, Truman called for the extension of the wartime [[FEPC]] program that called for fair employment practices, but Congress refused and it ended. He created the Presidential Commission on Civil Rights in 1946 by executive order (with no congressional approval needed); it recommended desegregation of local public facilities and the removal of restrictive covenants that prevented blacks and Jews from purchasing houses in restricted neighborhoods. The Commission generated attention but no action.<ref> Steven F. Lawson, ed. ''To Secure These Rights: The Report of Harry S. Truman's Committee on Civil Rights.'' (2004)</ref> Indeed, Congress refused to pass any civil rights legislation before 1957. Truman therefore decided to use his executive powers, and focused on guaranteeing equal opportunity in the military and the civil service. The Army and Navy operated segregated units, and refused to be part of a "social experiment" in integration.<ref> Bernard C. Nalty, ''Strength For the Fight: A History of Black Americans in the Military'' (1986)</ref> The Air Force, however, was much more willing. Between 1941 and 1951 it went from a segregated force to the first truly integrated service. Key generals became convinced that segregation was a drag on efficiency, and the Air Force decided to integrate in April 1948. before Truman issued his famous Executive Order 9981 on July 26, 1948, calling for equal opportunity in all the armed services. It allowed segregation but called for "equality of treatment and opportunity." In the face of opposition from some high-ranking officers, the Air Force moved cautiously, but by 1951 the last black unit was dissolved and the Air Force was completely integrated.<ref> Alan L. Gropman, ''The Air Force Integrates, 1945-1964.'' (2nd ed 1998) [http://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/Publications/Annotations/gropmanintegrates.htm online edition]. </ref> Order 9981 created the Fahy Committee to implement the new policy. Truman's order did not actually integrate the Army--it used segregated units during the Korean War--but it opened the way for integration in the early 1950s.<ref> Richard M. Dalfiume, ''Desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces: Fighting on Two Fronts, 1939-1953.'' (1969)</ref> Public opinion was generally favorable except in the deep South (which voted against Truman in 1948).

==1948 election==
As the presidential election of 1948 approached, no one thought Truman could be reelected. Truman's policies had alienated left right and center, but the party had no real alternative. Neither Roosevelt nor Truman had groomed a likely successor. Party leaders considered asking [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] to run, but he refused. Liberals led by Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota inserted a strong civil rights plank in the platform, causing a walkout of the deep South. Truman was renominated by default, with Barkley as the vice-presidential candidate. Truman thrilled the convention by announcing his plan to call the Republican-controlled Congress back into special session to "ask them to pass the laws to halt rising prices, to meet the housing crisis--which they say they are for in their platform." When this special session accomplished little, as Truman expected, it gave the president a chance to attack the "Do Nothing" Congress.

Both the left and right wings of the party split off and ran their own candidates. Henry Wallace, the candidate of the Progressive Party, was expected to divert labor, leftist and black votes, while [[J. Strom Thurmond]] was the "Dixiecrat" candidate whose supporters controlled the Democratic party in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina.<ref> Thurmond received only 15% of the vote in the other Southern states. Kari Frederickson, ''The Dixiecrat Revolt and the End of the Solid South, 1932-1968.'' (2001) </ref> Truman exploited his multiple opponents, driving a wedge between the liberals and the Communists who controlled the Wallace movement, and holding the line in the outer South. Most of all he exploited the difference between the conservative Republicans who controlled Congress, and the liberal Republican candidate [[Tom Dewey]]. Truman crusaded against the Republicans as evil rich men, blasting them as fascists and denouncing the 80th Congress for its failure to help the average citizen.<ref>''Time'' magazine reported that "His irresponsible implication that a vote for Thomas Dewey was a vote for fascism horrified his soberer followers." ''Time'' Jan 3, 1949 at [http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/personoftheyear/archive/stories/1948.html]</ref> "Give 'em hell" fury delivered in 275 speeches over 21,928 train-miles had more impact that Truman's promises of more money for federal housing, higher social security and unemployment benefits, free medical care for everyone, the continued subsidy of farm prices, and a fair deal for minorities. The pollsters misjudged the election, as did all the traditional pundits. Truman rallied enough of the [[New Deal Coalition]] to win by 2.2 million votes, and carry in a Democratic Congress on his coattails. The key farm states of the farm states of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Ohio that Dewey had carried in 1944 now switched to Truman, giving a solid victory in the electoral college of 303 for Truman, 189 for Dewey, 39 for Thurmond, and none for Wallace.<ref> Harold I. Gullan, ''The Upset That Wasn't: Harry S. Truman and the Crucial Election of 1948'' (1998); Gary A. Donaldson, ''Truman Defeats Dewey'' (1998) </ref>

==Second Term: Fair Deal==
During Truman's second term as president, he pressed for civil rights legislation, compulsory national health insurance, and other domestic measures that he called his "Fair Deal" program. Almost nothing was passed by Congress, which was controlled by the [[Conservative Coalition]]. His seizure of the steel industry to prevent a strike was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

In foreign affairs, Truman brought in [[Dean Acheson]] as Secretary of State, and promoted the Point Four program of aid to underdeveloped countries. The policy of containing Communism was operationalized by the creation, in 1949, of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to oversee the integration of the military forces of its member nations in Western Europe and North America. A further step was taken in 1951 with the establishment of the Mutual Security Agency to coordinate U.S. economic, technical and military aid abroad.
===Agriculture===
Truman won the farm vote in 1948 by charging the GOP shoved "a pitchfork in the farmer's back", but was unable to get new farm programs passed. His second secretary of agriculture, Charles F. Brannan promoted the Brannan Plan, intended to bring widespread changes to farm policy. Brannan proposed to replace market price supports with direct income payments to farmers. His plan set ceilings on the amount a farmer could receive and limited the program to farmers who did not exceed a set production mark. The Brannan Plan was supposed to foster the "family-sized farm" while providing affordable food for consumers. While Brannan could count on support from the left, especially the National Farmers Union (which was small), labor unions (which were powerful), and consumer groups (which were weak), he was opposed by leading farm economists and the national Farm Bureau (which was large) and the national Chamber of Commerce (representing business). The head of the Farm Bureau decried the plan as intrusive, a form of "creeping socialism," and expensive. The Farm Bureau, dominated by conservatives, resisted any curbs on full agricultural production. A bloc of Midwestern Republican and southern Democratic congressmen opposed replacing market mechanisms with outright government payments to farmers and setting limits on supports to individual farms. The Brannan Plan went nowhere and instead, the conservative farm bloc passed the Agricultural Act of 1949 with high price supports.<ref> See Dean (2006)</ref>

==National Security==
===Truman Doctrine and origins of Cold War===
In early 1947 the British government, which was socialist but anti-Communist, secretly told Washington its treasury was empty and it could no longer give military and economic aid to Greece or Turkey, requested the U.S. take over. Acheson convinced Truman to act quickly lest Greece be taken over by its communist partisans who were at the time strongly supported by the Soviet government working through the communist Bulgarian and Yugoslav governments. If Greece fell, Turkey would be helpless and soon the eastern Mediterranean would fall under Stalin’s control. In a dramatic message to Congress on March 12, 1947, President Truman said that the U. S. must take immediate and resolute action to support Greece and Turkey.<ref> Turkey did not have an insurrection, but it was such a bitter rival of Greece that it had to get money if Greece did.</ref> The Republican Congress, after extensive hearings, approved this historic change in U. S. foreign policy in a bill signed May 22, 1947. Thus was born the “Truman Doctrine.” Greece suppressed the insurgents; both Greece and Turkey joined NATO.<ref>
Joseph C. Satterthwaite, "The Truman Doctrine: Turkey," ''Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,'' Vol. 401, (May, 1972), pp. 74-84 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1039114 in JSTOR]</ref>
===Recognition of Israel===
Truman usually followed the advice of the State Department in national security matters, largely ignoring the Pentagon and Congress. In the case of recognition of the independent state of Israel in 1948, however, he overruled the urgent pleas of the State Department and immediately recognized Israel. State had warned that recognition would anger the Arabs in the Middle East; Truman, howver, was more responsive to domestic politics, where support for Israel was widespread.<ref> Michael T. Benson, ''Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel'' (1997) [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-S-Truman-Founding-Israel/dp/0275958078/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221429694&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]; for the State Departmenrt perspective see Evan M. Wilson, "The American Interest in the Palestine Question and the Establishment of Israel," ''Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,'' Vol. 401, (May, 1972), pp. 64-73 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1039113 in JSTOR]</ref>

===Religion===
Truman, a Southern Baptist, sought religious allies in the Cold War. He tried to unite the world's religions in a spiritual crusade against communism, sending his personal representative to Pope [[Pius XII]] to coordinate not only with the Vatican but also with the heads of the Anglican, Lutheran, and Greek Orthodox churches. "If I can mobilize the people who believe in a moral world against the Bolshevik materialists," Truman wrote in 1947, "we can win this fight." Since the [[Roman Catholic Church]] was his strongest religious ally in the moral battle against international communism, Truman put Rome first in his global strategy, even trying to confer formal diplomatic recognition on the Vatican. At home, he received solid support from Catholics, who were a major element of the [[New Deal Coalition]], but overwhelming resistance from Protestants, especially Southern Baptists who rejected anything "popish." Truman's political-diplomatic effort to formalize a public, faith-driven, ecumenical international campaign failed.<ref> Elizabeth Edwards Spalding, "True Believers" ''Wilson Quarterly'' 2006 30(2): 40-44, 46-48. Issn: 0363-3276 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]</ref>

===Loss of China===
[[Chiang Kai-shek]], America's wartime ally and head of the Nationalist forces in China, was caught between two wars—a war on China by [[Japan]] and a war with [[Mao Zedong]] and the Chinese Communists. The U.S. policy was to avoid a civil war and to threaten to withhold additional aid to the Nationalists unless they worked out a compromise. No compromise was possible, and Truman refused to send in combat troops to fight the civil war. General [[George Marshall]], who spent a year in China as Truman's emissary, testified that combat aid might have prevented a Communist victory, but General David Barr's military mission to China was specifically instructed not to supply this kind of assistance. <ref>Military Situation in the Far East, Hearings before the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, 82nd Congress (Washington, 1951), p. 558.</ref> General [[Albert C. Wedemeyer]] recommended this approach in his report on his 1947 fact-finding mission, but Marshall personally suppressed the report. <ref>Tang Tsou, ''America's Failure in China, 1941-1945'', Chicago 1964, pg. 457.</ref> Chiang believed that the [[Truman Doctrine]] to [[Containment|contain]] the spread of [[International Communism]] directed from Moscow would be extended to China, and ordered an offensive as soon as word of the new policy reached him. <ref>Richard C. Thornton, ''China: A Political History, 1917-1980'', Boulder CO 1982, pg. 208.</ref>

[[Dean Rusk]], Assistant Secretary of State in charge of the Far Eastern Division, said on May 18,1951 what the critics had been saying,
{{Cquote|The independence of China is gravely threatened. In the Communist world there is room for only one master. . . . How many Chinese in one community after another are being destroyed because they love China more than they love [[Soviet Russia]]? The freedoms of the Chinese people are disappearing. Trial by mob, [[democide|mass slaughter]], banishment to [[slavery|forced labor]] in [[Manchuria]] and Siberia. . . . The peace and security of China are being sacrificed by the ambitions of the Chinese conspiracy. China has been driven by foreign masters into an adventure in foreign aggression.}}
John T. Flynn observes that critics of the [[FDR]] and Truman Administrations who had been saying this earlier were denounced as “[[Fascists]].”<ref>''While You Slept: Our Tragedy in Asia and Who Made It'', John T. Flynn, New York: The Devin-Adair Company, 1951, [http://www.mises.org/books/whileyouslept.pdf pg. 161] pdf.</ref> Rusk continued,
{{Cquote|We do not recognize the authorities in [[Peiping]] for what they pretend to be. It is not the government of China. It does not pass the first test. It is not Chinese. . . . We recognize the [[Kuomintang|Nationalist government of the Republic of China]] even though the territory under its control is severely restricted. <ref>Hearings before the Senate Committee on Armed Services and Committee on Foreign Relations (also known as the Mac Arthur Inquiry), June 2, 1951.</ref>…we believe it more authoritatively represents the views of the great body of the people of China, particularly their demand for independence from foreign control….That government will continue to receive important aid and assistance from the United States.}}

===Risks in Korea===
Conditions inviting the North Korean attack were created by the [[United Nations]] which issued a resolution for withdrawal of both Soviet and American troops. Troops began withdrawing September 15, 1948, leaving only about 7500 Americans lightly armed. This left in South Korea 16,000 Koreans and 7500 Americans, both groups lightly armed, against 150,000 fully armed North Korean Communists. General Roberts, head of the U. S. Military Mission said the South Koreans were not permitted to arm adequately.
The Korean part of Wedemeyer's report was suppressed. Wedemeyer said:
{{Cquote|American and Soviet forces . . . are approximately equal, less than 50,000 troops each, [but] the Soviet-equipped and trained North Korean People's (Communist) Army of approximately 125,000 is vastly superior to the United States-organized constabulary of 16,000 Koreans equipped with Japanese small arms. The North Korean People's Army constitutes a potential military threat to [[South Korea]], since there is strong possibility that the Soviets will withdraw their occupation forces and thus induce our own withdrawal."<ref>Hearings before the Senate Committee on Armed Services and Committee on Foreign Relations, June 6, 1951.</ref>}}

Wedemeyer warned that this would take place as soon as "they can be sure that the [[North Korea]]n [[puppet government]] and its armed forces . . . are strong enough . . . to be relied upon to carry out Soviet objectives without the actual presence of Soviet troops."
===Communists inside US===
The bipartisan statutory [[Moynihan Secrecy Commission]] concluded, "President Truman was almost willfully obtuse as regards American Communism." <ref>Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy. Senate Document 105-2. 103rd Congress. Washington, D.C. United States Government Printing Office. 1997. [http://www.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/04dpm.pdf Chairman's Forward, pg. XL] pdf.</ref>
===Foreign policy: détente to containment===
Truman had no knowledge or interest in foreign policy before becoming president, and depended on the State Department for foreign policy advice.<ref> By 1946 he had two valuable aides Clark Clifford and George Elsey.</ref> Truman shifted from FDR's détente to [[containment]] as soon as [[Dean Acheson]] convinced him the Soviet Union was a long-term threat to American interests. They viewed communism as a secular, millennial religion that informed the Kremlin's worldview and actions and made it the chief threat to American security, liberty, and world peace. They rejected the moral equivalence of democratic and Communist governments and concluded that until the regime in Moscow changed only American and Allied strength could curb the Soviets. Following Acheson's advice, Truman in 1947 announced the [[Truman Doctrine]] of containing Communist expansion by furnishing military and economic American aid to Europe and Asia, and particularly to Greece and Turkey. He followed up with the [[Marshall Plan]], which was enacted into law as the European Recovery Program (ERP) and led ultimately to [[NATO]], the North Atlantic Alliance for military defense, signed in 1949. On May 14, 1948, Truman announced recognition of the new state of [[Israel]], making the United States the first major power to do so.

==Korean War==
The [[Korean War]] began at the end of June 1950 when North Korea, a Communist country, invaded South Korea, which was under U.S. protection. Without consulting Congress Truman ordered General [[Douglas MacArthur]] to use all American forces to resist the invasion. Truman then received approval from the United Nations, which the Soviets were boycotting. UN forces managed to cling to a toehold in Korea, as the North Koreans outran their supply system. A counterattack at Inchon destroyed the invasion army, and the UN forces captured most of North Korea on their way to the Yalu River, Korea's northern border with China. Truman defined the war goal as [[rollback]] of Communism and reunification of the country under UN auspices. China intervened unexpectedly, drove the UN forces all the way back to South Korea. The fighting stabilized close to the original 38th parallel that had divided North and South. MacArthur wanted to continue the rollback strategy but Truman arrived at a new policy of containment, allowing North Korea to persist. Truman's dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur in April 1951 sparked a violent debate on U.S. Far Eastern policy, as Truman took the blame for a high-cost stalemate with 37,000 Americans killed and over 100,000 wounded.

Truman fired his ineffective defense secretary Louis Johnson, and brought back [[George Marshall]].
===NSC-68===
The top-secret [[NSC-68]] policy paper was the grounds for escalating the Cold War, especially in terms of spending on rearmament and building the hydrogen bomb. The integration of European defense was given new impetus by continued U.S. support of NATO, under the command of General Eisenhower. Truman committed the US to contain Communist expansion in Vietnam, where the Communists under [[Ho Chi Minh]] were trying to overthrow the French colonial regime. The State Department insisted that France give more autonomy to the Vietnamese. The US paid for about 80% of the French war costs. The problem was that the French were more interested in preserving their grandiose empire, and less interested in stopping Communism, while the US opposed colonial empires and saw Communism as the great threat to world peace and stability.

Following NSC-68, Truman's last four budgets saw expenditures on national security quadruple from $13 billion in 1950 to $50 billion in 1953.

===1952 election===
On the political front, revelation of scandals in the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, in the Bureau of Internal Revenue and even the White House<ref> Truman's wife accepted an expensive deep freeze appliance in 1945; with General Vaughan as the fixer, the donor was given special privileges in Europe. </ref> opened the administration to attack.

Truman sought reelection in 1952 despite his dismal showing in the polls. He was defeated in the New Hampshire primary by Senator [[Estes Kefauver]] of Tennessee, and withdrew. Truman supported Illinois Governor [[Adlai Stevenson]]. Eisenhower won the GOP nomination and crusading against the Truman administration's failures regarding "Korea, Communism and Corruption," was elected in a landslide, ending 20 years of Democratic control of the presidency.

==Retirement==
Truman returned to his home in Independence, Missouri. He devoted himself to creating the Truman Library there; it was dedicated in July 1957 and is a part of the National Archives. With a staff of assistants he wrote his memoirs in two well-received volumes, gave many interviews, and intervened occasionally in Democratic national politics on behalf of liberal candidates such as [[Adlai Stevenson]].

He died on December 26, 1972.

==Evaluations==
Already by the 1960s he had become a hero to liberals and Democrats, nostalgic over the successes of the [[New Deal Coalition]] that sputtered and collapsed in the 1960s. Even Republicans came to forget the nasty days and celebrated Truman as the hero of the underdogs and the man who rebuilt Europe through the Marshall Plan and stood up to Communism through NATO.

Truman's reputation among scholars has gone from very low when he left office, to high after 1990. He is now widely considered to have been a tough-minded, decisive, and effective leader who ably guided the nation through the perilous waters of the early Cold War and whose policy of containment essentially laid the foundations for American "victory" in that prolonged conflict in 1989. For many historians, the down-to-earth Midwesterner now merits consideration as one of the greatest American presidents. In recent years presidential aspirants of both parties have claimed Truman as their own, especially if their election chances seem as hopeless as Truman's did in 1948. His reputation has been bolstered by scholarly biographies by Ferrell (1994), Hamby (1995), and especially McCullough's Pulitzer prize-winning popular biography (1992). The in-depth analysis by Leffler (1992), cautiously praised the Truman administration's essential wisdom in handling a myriad of problems.

While Truman's public image was headed up, his reputation among scholars declined in the 1970s. Kirkendall concluded in 1974 that negative appraisals of Truman and his administration "may in fact have become the dominant interpretation, at least among the younger scholars."<ref> Kirkendall, ''Truman Period as a Research Field: A Reappraisal 1972'' (1974) p 6</ref> In terms of foreign policy a strong negative view comes from Offner (2002) who argues that Truman was a "parochial nationalist" whose "uncritical belief in the superiority of American values and political-economic interests," conviction that "the Soviet Union and Communism were the root cause of international strife," and "inability to comprehend Asian politics and nationalism" intensified the postwar conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, precipitated the division of Europe, and set Sino-American relations on a path of long-term animosity. Rather than being a great statesman who carefully weighed various policy alternatives, Offner asserts that Truman's myopia "created a rigid framework in which the United States waged long-term, extremely costly global cold war". As his title suggests, the Cold War was at best a Pyrrhic victory for the United States.<ref> Quotes from Offner (2002) p. xii</ref>

Truman became the model of the underdog who fights back and wins when the experts unanimously predict defeat. Gerald Ford, who had bitterly denounced Truman as a young Congressman proudly proclaimed the Missourian as his hero and conspicuously displayed a bust of Truman in the oval office after Ford became president in 1974. In the 1976 campaign both Ford and his Democratic rival, [[Jimmy Carter]], outdid one another in claiming to be cast from the Truman mold. By 1980 when the Gallup Poll asked "Of all the Presidents we've ever had, who do you wish were President?", Harry Truman finished an impressive third behind Kennedy and FDR.

====notes====

==Further reading: basic books and articles==
* Burnes, Brian. ''Harry S. Truman: His Life and Times'' (2003), popular biography [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-S-Truman-Life-Times/dp/0974000930/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Dallek, Robert. ''Harry Truman'' (2008) short, popular biography by scholar. [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Truman-Presidents-President-1945-1953/dp/0805069380/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221386001&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Donovan, Robert J. ''Conflict and Crisis: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1945-1948'' (1977); ''Tumultuous Years: 1949-1953'' (1982) detailed 2-vol political history by well-informed journalist; well balanced
* Fleming, Thomas J. ''Harry S. Truman, President'' (1993) for middle school audience.
* Graff, Henry F., ed. ''The Presidents: A Reference History''. 2nd ed. 1996, 443–458. ISBN 0-684-80471-9; by leading scholar
* Hamby, Alonzo L. ''Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman'' (1995), the best scholarly biography; written by conservative historian who likes HST
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "An American Democrat: A Reevaluation of the Personality of Harry S. Truman," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 106, No. 1 (Spring, 1991), pp. 33-55 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2152173 in JSTOR]
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "Truman, Harry S."; [http://www.anb.org/articles/07/07-00307.html; ''American National Biography'' Online Feb. 2000] by a leading conservative historian
* Kirkendall, Richard S. ''Harry S. Truman Encyclopedia'' (1990), very useful articles on people, events and policies in HST's career
* Kirkendall Richard S. "Harry S Truman a Missouri Farmer in the Golden Age," ''Agricultural History,'' Vol. 48, No. 4 (Oct., 1974), pp. 467-483 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/3741384 in JSTOR]
* McCullough, David. ''Truman''. (1993), 1120 pp ISBN 0-671-86920-5 best-selling biography; moderate in tone; Pulitzer Prize [http://www.amazon.com/Truman-David-McCullough/dp/0671869205/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* McCullough, David. ''Harry S. Truman'', short essay [http://www.pbs.org/newshour/character/essays/truman.html online edition]
* Offner, Arnold A. ''Another Such Victory: President Truman and the Cold War.'' (2002) 640pp, New LEft and hostile to HST; [http://books.google.com/books?id=P5tbHSsBS-AC&pg=PP1&dq=intitle:another+intitle:victory+inauthor:offner&num=30&as_brr=0&sig=pWo43stsPrIrtTfZXJicvWB3zCY excerpts and text search]
* [http://www.amazon.com/American-Experience-Truman/dp/B000BYRCG0/ref=pd_bbs_4/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1193347436&sr=8-4 ''American Experience: Truman'' (2006), from PBS]
* [http://www.amazon.com/Classic-President-Harry-Truman-Films/dp/B000JD7MV8/ref=sr_1_14/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1193347436&sr=8-14 "Classic President Harry S Truman Films: 1945-1965'' (2006) 40 newsreels, 101 minutes]

==Advanced bibliography==
These are secondary source by scholars; unless noted they are generally liberal and supportive of Truman.
===Biographies===
* Burnes, Brian. ''Harry S. Truman: His Life and Times'' (2003); popular biography; [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-S-Truman-Life-Times/dp/0974000930/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Cochran, Bert. ''Harry S. Truman and the Crisis Presidency'' (19730, 432 pages; portrays a cynical courthouse politician
* Donovan, Robert J. ''Conflict and Crisis: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1945-1948'' (1977); ''Tumultuous Years: 1949-1953'' (1982), good, detailed 2-vol political history by well-informed journalist
* Ferrell, Robert H. ''Harry S. Truman: A Life'' (1994), brief overview
* Fleming, Thomas J. ''Harry S. Truman, President'' (1993) for middle school audience.
* Gosnell, Harold Foote. ''Truman's Crises: A Political Biography of Harry S. Truman'' (1980)
* Graff, Henry F., ed. ''The Presidents: A Reference History''. 2nd ed. 1996, 443–458. ISBN 0-684-80471-9
* Hamby, Alonzo L. ''Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman'' (1995), very well received scholarly biography [http://www.amazon.com/Man-People-Truman-Oxford-Paperbacks/dp/0195124979/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193438333&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "The Liberals, Truman, and the FDR as Symbol and Myth," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 56, No. 4 (Mar., 1970), pp. 859-867 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1917522 in JSTOR]
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "Truman, Harry S."; [http://www.anb.org/articles/07/07-00307.html; ''American National Biography'' Online Feb. 2000]
* Kirkendall, Richard S. ''Harry S. Truman Encyclopedia'' (1990)
* McCullough, David. ''Truman''. . ISBN 0-671-86920-5 best-selling biography; Pulitzer Prize [http://www.amazon.com/Truman-David-McCullough/dp/0671869205/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Miller, Richard Lawrence. ''Truman: The Rise to Power'' (2002), critical evaluation emphasizing corruption of Pendergast machine

===Foreign policy===
* Appleman, Roy E. ''South to the Naktong, North to the Yalu (June-November 1950)'' (United States Army in the Korean War) (1960); official U.S. Army history, [http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/korea/20-2-1/toc.htm online version]
* Beisner, Robert L. ''Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War'' (2006), 800pp; a standard scholarly biography; covers 1945-53 only
* Benson, Michael T. ''Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel'' (1997) [http://www.questia.com/read/15103137 online edition]
* Berger, Henry. "Bipartisanship, Senator Taft, and the Truman Administration," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 90, No. 2 (Summer, 1975), pp. 221-237 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2148235 in JSTOR]
* Bernstein Barton J. "Roosevelt, Truman, and the Atomic Bomb, 1941-1945: A Reinterpretation," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 90, No. 1 (Spring, 1975), pp. 23-69 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2148698 in JSTOR], influential New left essay
* Blair, Clay ''The Forgotten War: America in Korea, 1950-1953'', Naval Institute Press (2003) revisionist study that attacks Truman and top Army leaders for near-criminal incompetence
* Divine, Robert A. "The Cold War and the Election of 1948," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 59, No. 1 (Jun., 1972), pp. 90-110 [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8723%28197206%2959%3A1%3C90%3ATCWATE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-C in JSTOR]
* Frazier, Robert. "Acheson and the Formulation of the Truman Doctrine" ''Journal of Modern Greek Studies'' 17#2 (1999), pp. 229-251 online at [[Project Muse]]
* Gaddis, John Lewis. "Reconsiderations: Was the Truman Doctrine a Real Turning Point?" ''Foreign Affairs'' 1974 52(2): 386-402. ISSN 0015-7120
* Giangreco, D. M. "'A Score of Bloody Okinawas and Iwo Jimas': President Truman and Casualty Estimates for the Invasion of Japan," ''Pacific Historical Review,'' Vol. 72, No. 1 (Feb., 2003), pp. 93-132 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/3642102 in JSTOR] shows Truman was indeed by very high invasion casualties
* Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi. ''Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan.'' (2005). 382 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Racing-Enemy-Stalin-Truman-Surrender/dp/0674016939/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193349212&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Hogan, Michael J. ''A Cross of Iron: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of the National Security State, 1945-1954'' (2000) [http://www.amazon.com/Cross-Iron-National-Security-19451954/dp/0521795370/ref=sr_1_34/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347927&sr=8-34 excerpt and text search]
* Ivie, Robert L. "Fire, Flood, and Red Fever: Motivating Metaphors of Global Emergency in the Truman Doctrine Speech." ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 1999 29(3): 570-591. ISSN 0360-4918 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001303753 online edition]
* Lacey, Michael J. ed. ''The Truman Presidency'' (1989), major essays by scholars
* Matray, James I. "Truman's Plan for Victory: National Self-Determination and the Thirty-Eighth Parallel Decision in Korea," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 66, No. 2 (Sep., 1979), pp. 314-333 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1900879 in JSTOR] Truman planned rollback of Communism in North Korea
* Merrill, Dennis. "The Truman Doctrine: Containing Communism and Modernity" ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 2006 36(1): 27-37. ISSN 0360-4918
* Offner, Arnold A. "'Another Such Victory': President Truman, American Foreign Policy, and the Cold War." ''Diplomatic History'' 1999 23(2): 127-155. ISSN 0145-2096
* Ojserkis, Raymond P. ''Beginnings of the Cold War Arms Race: The Truman Administration and the U.S. Arms Build-Up'' (2003) [http://www.questia.com/read/102018810 online edition]
* Pelz, Stephen. "When the Kitchen Gets Hot, Pass the Buck: Truman and Korea in 1950," ''Reviews in American History'' 6 (December 1978), 548-55. Online at Project MUSE
* Pierpaoli, Paul G. Jr.; ''Truman and Korea: The Political Culture of the Early Cold War.'' University of Missouri Press, 1999 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=108668070 online edition]
* Smith, Geoffrey S. "'Harry, We Hardly Know You': Revisionism, Politics and Diplomacy, 1945-1954," ''American Political Science Review'' 70 (June 1976), 560-82. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-0554(197606)70%3A2%3C560%3A%22WHKYR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-%23 in JSTOR]
* Spalding, Elizabeth Edwards. ''The First Cold Warrior: Harry Truman, Containment, And the Remaking of Liberal Internationalism'' (2006) [http://www.amazon.com/First-Cold-Warrior-Containment-Internationalism/dp/0813123925/ref=sr_1_22/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347812&sr=8-22 excerpt and text search]
* Wainstock, Dennis D. ''Truman, MacArthur, and the Korean War'' (1999) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23387043 online edition]
* Walker, J. Samuel. ''Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs against Japan'' (1997) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=35245486 online complete edition]; [http://www.amazon.com/Prompt-Utter-Destruction-Truman-Against/dp/080785607X/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193348187&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Walker, J. Samuel. "Recent Literature on Truman's Atomic Bomb Decision: A Search for Middle Ground" ''Diplomatic History'' April 2005 - Vol. 29 Issue 2 Pp 311-334 fulltext in [[EBSCO]]

===Domestic policy and politics===
* Bernstein Barton J. "The Truman Administration and the Steel Strike of 1946," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 52, No. 4 (Mar., 1966), pp. 791-803 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1894347 in JSTOR]
* Billington, Monroe. "Civil Rights, President Truman and the South," ''Journal of Negro History,'' Vol. 58, No. 2 (Apr., 1973), pp. 127-139 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2716825 in JSTOR]
* Dean, Virgil W. "Charles F. Brannan and the Rise and Fall of Truman's 'Fair Deal' for Farmers." ''Agricultural History'' 1995 69(1): 28-53. Issn: 0002-1482
* Dean, Virgil W. ''An Opportunity Lost: The Truman Administration and the Farm Policy Debate.'' 2006. 275 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Opportunity-Lost-Truman-Administration-Policy/dp/0826216501/ref=sr_1_10/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193434622&sr=1-10 excerpt and text search]
* Derickson, Alan. "'Take Health from the List of Luxuries': Labor and the Right to Health Care, 1915-1949." ''Labor History'' 2000 41(2): 171-187. Issn: 0023-656x Fulltext: in Taylor and Francis, Swetswise, Ingenta, and [[Ebsco]]
* Donaldson, Gary A. ''Truman Defeats Dewey'' (1998)
* Farhang, Sean, and Ira Katznelson. "The Southern Imposition: Congress and Labor in the New Deal and Fair Deal," ''Studies in American Political Development'' (2005), 19: 1-30; [http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=324401 online edition]
* Freeland, Richard M. ''The Truman Doctrine and the Origins of McCarthyism: Foreign Policy, Domestic Policy, and Internal Security, 1946-48'' (1989), revisionist; New left attack on Truman for being too anti-Communist
* Fried, Richard M. ''Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective.'' 1990. [http://www.questia.com/read/79027083 online complete edition]; [http://www.amazon.com/Nightmare-Red-McCarthy-Era-Perspective/dp/0195043618/ref=sr_1_11/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193514847&sr=8-11 excerpt and text search]
* Gardner, Michael R. ''Harry Truman and Civil Rights: Moral Courage and Political Risks.'' (2002) 296 pp.[http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=105233906 online edition]
* Hamby, Alonzo. ''Beyond the New Deal: Harry S. Truman and American Liberalism'' (1973), the most sophisticated biography; by a prominent conservative historian
* Hartmann, Susan M. ''Truman and the 80th Congress'' (1971) [http://www.questia.com/read/77360404 online edition]
* Heller, Francis H. ''Economics and the Truman Administration'' (1982) [http://www.amazon.com/Economics-Truman-Administration-Francis-Heller/dp/0700602178/ref=sr_1_9/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193434622&sr=1-9 excerpt and text search]
* Karabell, Zachary. ''The Last Campaign: How Harry Truman Won the 1948 Election'' (2001) [http://www.amazon.com/Last-Campaign-Harry-Truman-Election/dp/0375700773/ref=sr_1_24/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=11973347812&sr=8-24 excerpt and text search]
* Koenig, Louis W. ''The Truman Administration: Its Principles and Practice'' (1956) [http://www.questia.com/read/8522614 online edition]
* Komarek de Luna, Phyllis. ''Public versus Private Power during the Truman Administration: A Study of Fair Deal Liberalism.'' Peter Lang, 1997. 253 pp.
* Lacey, Michael J. ed. ''The Truman Presidency'' (1989), major essays by scholars
* Lee, R. Alton. ''Truman and Taft-Hartley: A Question of Mandate.'' (1966) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=99000111 online edition]
* Leuchtenburg, William E. ''The White House Looks South: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson.'' (2005). 668 pp.
* Levantrosser, William F. ed. ''Harry S. Truman: The Man from Independence'' (1986). 25 essays by scholars and Truman aides. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23428395 online edition]
* McCoy, Donald. ''The Presidency of Harry S. Truman'' (1984), standard scholarly survey by conservative historian; [http://www.amazon.com/Presidency-Harry-S-Truman-American/dp/0700602550/ref=sr_1_8/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193514606&sr=8-8 excerpt and text search]
* Marcus, Maeva ''Truman and the Steel Seizure Case: The Limits of Presidential Power'' (1994) [http://www.questia.com/read/22816992 online edition]
* Phillips, Cabel. ''The Truman Presidency: The History of a Triumphant Succession'' (1966), by a journalist who interviewed many key players
* Pierpaoli, Paul G. Jr. ''Truman and Korea: The Political Culture of the Early Cold War.'' (1997). ISBN 0-8262-1206-9. focus on the homefront [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=16627966265512 online review]
* Ryan, Halford R. ''Harry S. Truman: Presidential Rhetoric'' (1993) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=27994601 online edition]
* Sitkoff, Harvard. "Harry Truman and the Election of 1948: The Coming of Age of Civil Rights in American Politics," ''Journal of Southern History,'' Vol. 37, No. 4 (Nov., 1971), pp. 597-616 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2206548 in JSTOR]
* Theoharis, Athan. "The Truman Administration and the Decline of Civil Liberties: The FBI's Success in Securing Authorization for a Preventive Detention Program," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 64, No. 4 (Mar., 1978), pp. 1010-1030 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1890734 in JSTOR], leftwing attack on Truman for being too harsh on possible subversives
* Theoharis, Athan. ''The Truman Presidency: The Origins of the Imperial Presidency and the National Security State'' (1979), revisionist, New left attack on HST
* Theoharis, Athan. ''Seeds of Repression: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of McCarthyism'' (1977), New Left attack on HST for being so hostile to domestic Communists
* Thompson, Francis H. ''The Frustration of Politics: Truman, Congress, and the Loyalty Issue, 1945-1953.'' 1979. 246 pp.
* Vaughan, Philip H. "The Truman Administration's Fair Deal for Black America." ''Missouri Historical Review'' 1976 70(3): 291-305. Issn: 0026-6582

===Primary sources===
* Bernstein, Barton J., Ed. ''The Truman Administration: A Documentary History'' (1966); 2nd edition published as ''Politics and Policies of the Truman Administration'' (1970), revisionist
* [http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/publications/ERP/ Council of Economic Advisors, ''Economic Report of the President'' (annual 1947- )], complete series online; important analysis of current trends and policies, plus statistcial tables
* Ferrell, Robert H. ed. ''Dear Bess: The Letters from Harry to Bess Truman, 1910-1959'' (1983)
* Ferrell, Robert H. ed. ''Off the Record: The Private Papers of Harry S. Truman'' (1980).
* Merrill, Dennis. ed. ''Documentary History of the Truman Presidency, (1995- ) 35 volumes; available in some large academic libraries.
* Miller, Merle ''Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman'' (1974)
* Neal, Steve. ed. ''HST: Memories of the Truman Years.'' (2003)280pp; long excerpts from 20 oral history interviews (some of which are online at the Truman Library site).
* Neal, Steve. ed. ''Miracle of '48: Harry Truman's Major Campaign Speeches & Selected Whistle-Stops'' (2003); 43 speeches
* Truman, Harry S. ''Where the Buck Stops: The Personal and Private Writings of Harry S. Truman'' edited by Margaret Truman (1990) [http://www.amazon.com/Where-Buck-Stops-Personal-Writings/dp/0446391751/ref=pd_bbs_sr_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221386001&sr=8-6 excerpt and text search]
* Truman, Harry S. ''Memoirs'' 2 vol (1955). [http://tera-3.ul.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/reader.pl?call=30151&search= vol 1 online]
* Truman, Margaret. ''Harry S. Truman''. (1973). memoir by his daughter
* Truman, Harry S. ''The Autobiography of Harry S. Truman'' edited compilation of excerpts by Robert H. Ferrell (2002) [http://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Harry-S-Truman/dp/0826214452/ref=pd_bbs_sr_5/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-5 excerpt and text search]
* [http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/ ''The Public Papers of the Presidents'' contain most of Truman's public messages, statements, speeches, and news conference remarks. Documents such as Proclamations, and Executive Orders]

==Historiography==
* Ferrell, Robert H. ''Harry S. Truman and the Cold War Revisionists.'' 2006. 142 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Truman-Cold-War-Revisionists/dp/0826216536/ref=sr_1_6/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193349212&sr=8-6 excerpt and text search]
* Geselbracht, Raymond. "Creating the Harry S. Truman Library: The First Fifty Years," ''Public Historian'', 28 (Summer 2006), 37–78.
* Hartmann, Susan M. "The 1948 Election and the Configuration of Postwar Liberalism" ''Reviews in American History'' 28.1 (2000) 105-111 in [[Project Muse]]
* Heller, Francis H., ed. ''The Korean War: A 25 Year Perspective'' (1977), essays by scholars
* Heller, Francis H., ed. ''The Truman White House: The Administration of the Presidency, 1945-1953'' (1980), essays by scholars
* Heller, Francis H., ed. ''Economics and the Truman Administration'' (1981), essays by scholars
* Kirkendall, Richard S. ed. ''Harry's Farewell: Interpreting and Teaching the Truman Presidency'' (2004) essays by scholars
* Kirkendall, Richard S., ed. ''The Truman Period as a Research Field: A Reappraisal 1972'' (1974)
* Tull, Charles J. "The State of the Art in Truman Research," in William F. Levantrosser, ed. ''Harry S. Truman: The Man from Independence'' (1986), 1-31 aides. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23428395 online edition]
* Walker, J. Samuel "Recent Literature on Truman's Atomic Bomb Decision: a Search for Middle Ground." ''Diplomatic History'' 2005 29(2): 311-334. Issn: 0145-2096 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]

==External links==
*[http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/ht33.html Biography]
*[http://www.trumanlibrary.org Presidential Library]
*[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/index.php The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb], Truman Library.
*[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/small/mb12a.htm President Truman to Senator Richard B. Russell], August 9, 1945.
====notes====
<references/>

{{USPresidents}}
{{USVicePresidents}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Truman, Harry}}

[[Category:Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:Vice Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:Democratic Party]]

Harry Truman

2008-11-11T21:00:47Z

AshleyS: /* Conservatives and liberals */ punctuation

{{President|
|name=Harry S. Truman
|image=HTruman.jpg
|country=the United States
|seq=33
|party=Democratic
|term_start=April 12, 1945
|term_end=January 20, 1953<ref>http://home.comcast.net/~sharonday7/Presidents/AP060301.htm</ref>
|vp=None
|vp_dates=1945-1949
|2vp=Alben Barkley
|2vp_dates=1949-1953
|previous=Franklin D. Roosevelt
|next=Dwight D. Eisenhower
|seq2=34
|office2=vice
|party2=
|term2_start=January 20, 1945
|term2_end=April 12, 1945
|pres2=Franklin D. Roosevelt
|previous2=Henry A. Wallace
|next2=Alben W. Barkley
|birth_date=May 8, 1884
|birth_place=Lamar, MO
|death_date=December 26, 1972
|death_place=Kansas City, MO
|spouse=Bess Wallace Truman
|spouse2=
|religion=[[Baptist]]
}}

'''Harry S. Truman,''' (1884-1972) a [[liberal]] [[Democrat]] from [[Missouri]], was the president of the United States from 1945-1953, taking over when [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] died in April 1945. He took the decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order to force Japan's surrender. Angered at the Soviet Union's seizure of eastern Europe, he moved away from FDR's [[détente]] to a policy of [[containment]], reinforced by the Truman Plan (1947) to resist Communist subversion, the [[Marshall Plan]] (1948-51) to rebuild and modernize western Europe's economies, and the [[NATO]] military alliance of 1949. Truman, advised by [[Dean Acheson]] and the State Department, set the policies to oppose the Soviet Union as the [[Cold War]] began.

Ignoring Asia, he later saw America's close ally China fall to the anti-American Communists under [[Mao Zedong]] in 1949; the US and China fought each other to a draw during the undeclared [[Korean War]], 1950-53. Truman fired his top general, [[Douglas MacArthur]], during this conflict and saw his popularity plunge.

As the war ended, the massive problem of reconverting the 45% of the economy devoted to war production baffled Truman. Listening to liberal advisors, he refused to end extremely unpopular price controls, and was unable to stop a massive wave of strikes in major industries in 1945-46. Voter dissatisfaction to the Republican capture of Congress in 1946; with Senator [[Robert A. Taft]] as the conservative Republican spokesman, Congress repealed many of the wartime restrictions on business and lowered taxes. Taft rewrote the labor laws in the [[Taft-Hartley Act of 1947]], balancing the rights of unions, management and the public interest; it became law over Truman's signature and remains in effect.

Truman began with very high popularity ratings, but they plunged to the lowest on record. Democrats were unable to stop his renomination in 1948, but the far left nominated FDR's vice president [[Henry A. Wallace]], and southern conservative Democrats nominated Dixiecrat [[J. Strom Thurmond]]. Observers almost unanimously expected victory for the Republican candidate, Governor [[Thomas E. Dewey]], liberal from New York. Total astonishment greeted Truman's stunning election victory, as he reassembled the [[New Deal Coalition]] for the fifth consecutive victory, pulling in on his coattails a Democratic Congress.

Although the Democrats organized Congress in 1949, the [[Conservative Coalition]] of Northern Republicans and Southern Democrats was in control, and Truman was to pass any of his liberal [[Fair Deal|Fair Deal program]]. Nevertheless he he pursued civil rights through executive orders, especially a 1948 order to end racial discrimination in the military. Blacks remained in segregated units, but were to receive equal treatment. Truman's failures to deal with "Korea, Communism and Corruption" forced him to withdraw from reelection in 1952 and gave the Republicans an opportunity to crusade against him and elect [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] in 1952.

Overshadowed at first by his predecessor, [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], Truman established a reputation as a blunt, unsophisticated fighter for the common man, who took responsibility for his actions because, he said, "the buck stops here." His stunning reelection victory in 1948 baffled the experts and has inspired underdogs ever since. He is more popular in 2008 than ever. His policy positions make him a heroic icon for liberals.

==Early life==

Truman was born on a farm near Lamar, in western Missouri, and grew up on a farm near Independence, Missouri. His grandparents had been Confederate sympathizers who had been rounded up by the Union army in the Civil War.<ref> His middle initial, S, does not stand for anything, but was chosen because his parents could not decide whether to name him for his grandfather Shippe or for his grandfather Solomon.</ref> After graduating from high school in Independence, with good skills in history and music, he decided against college and became a bank clerk in Kansas City. Always a joiner, he was active in the Missouri National Guard. From 1906 to 1917 he managed his father's 600-acre farm at Grandview, Missouri. During World War I his National Guard regiment was mobilized in 1917, he entered the Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, sailing for France in 1917 as a lieutenant. Truman was soon promoted to captain in Battery D, 129 Field Artillery Battalion, 35th Division, A.E.F., and returned to the United States a major in 1919, after combat at St. Mihiel and in the Argonne offensive. He was in an artillery unit, and learned about gas warfare; he was never wounded, He married Elizabeth "Bess" Wallace on June 28, 1919; they had one daughter, Margaret, who married a ''New York Times'' editor. With an army buddy he invested his savings in a Kansas City haberdashery, but this venture was a failure.

==Pendergast machine==
Discouraged by his lack of business success and without funds, Truman sought the help of friends. His farm background, his war record, his Masonic connections, his Baptist Church affiliations, and his genial personality recommended him to [[Thomas J. Pendergast]], the Democratic political boss of Kansas City and much of western Missouri. Pendergast, an Irish Catholic, had a strong base among the Irish Catholics and used Truman to reach out to Protestants, farmers and veterans. He made Truman the overseer of highways for Jackson County.

In 1922 Truman was elected a county judge; needing some legal knowledge he studied nights for two years at Kansas City Law School; it was his only education beyond high school, although he read history. In the 1924 GOP landslide he was defeated for reelection, but in 1926 he was returned to office as presiding judge of the court, the duties of which also involved administrative supervision of many county expenditures, including $60 million for public works. He almost joined the [[Ku Klux Klan]], but withdrew his application when he realized his Irish Catholic allies bitterly opposed the KKK; Truman then campaigned against the Klan.
==Senate==
In 1934 Pendergast arranged for Truman's nomination as United States Senator on the Democratic ticket; he was elected in the democratic landslide as a supporter of Roosevelt and the New deal. His first term in office was uneventful, except for a failed effort to prevent the renomination of Maurice Milligan for U.S. District Attorney for the Western District of Missouri; Milligan had obtained the conviction of 35 Pendergast "ward leaders" for vote frauds.

===World War II===
He was reelected after a terrific battle in 1940. Truman gained national prominence for serving as chairman of the Truman Committee to investigate waste, fraud and inefficiency in government contracts. Its formal name was the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program. He was an energetic and forthright supporter of the [[New Deal]] and won widespread party favor for his attacks on business malfeasance in war production. He forced changes in the aircraft and ship construction programs, and worked well with other border state Democrats, especially [[Alben Barkley]] of Kentucky, the Majority Leader.

===FDR picks a new vice president===
In 1944, after Vice-President [[Henry A. Wallace]] had been rejected by leading Democrats as too far to the left, Truman supported his friend former senator [[James F. Byrnes]] of South Carolina for that office. Catholics vetoed Byrnes, who had left that faith. Truman himself became Roosevelt's choice as a compromise vice presidential candidate, and the two were elected.

Roosevelt had been in ill-health since his return from the [[Teheran conference]]. At the 1944 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, DNC Chairman Bob Hannegan went for instructions to President Roosevelt's private railway car just before the July convention officially began. Roosevelt had decided to dump incumbent Vice-President [[Henry Wallace]]. Worried over dissension on the choice of a successor, Roosevelt told Hannegan: "Go on down there and nominate Truman before there's any more trouble. And clear everything with Sidney." <ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,791619,00.html "Clear everything with Sidney"], [[Time magazine]], Sep. 25, 1944.</ref> The President could not make the selection of Truman until [[Sidney Hillman]] <ref>''The Roosevelt Myth'', John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948, Book 2, Ch. 8, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Eight___The_Shock_Troops.htm ''The Shock Troops of the Third New Deal'']</ref>, Director of the Political Action Committee for the Congress on Industrial Organizations (CIO) approved it. <ref> ''Roosevelt Myth'', Book 3, Ch. 10, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Ten___Politics__Disease_.htm ''Politics, Disease and History''], Flynn, 1948.</ref> When Harry Truman walked into the smoke-filled room <ref>[http://www.booknotes.org/Transcript/index_print.asp?ProgramID=1109 ''Truman''], Interview with David McCullough, C-Span Booknotes, July 19, 1992. Retrieved August 6, 2007.</ref> of DNC at headquarters at the Stevens Hotel in Chicago, Soviet spies [[John Abt]], [[Lee Pressman]], and [[Nathan Witt]], were on hand." <ref>''The Yalta Betrayal'', Felix Wittmer, Claxton Printers, 1953, pg. 75.</ref>

==Presidency==
Roosevelt ignored Truman between the election in November 1944 and the inauguration in January; even as Vice president Truman was not consulted on national policies, and not informed of major decisions, nor of the atomic bomb. Although he realized Roosevelt's health was failing rapidly, he made no preparations for assuming the presidency and did not even build up a staff of advisors. Truman succeeded to the Presidency upon the death of FDR on April 12, 1945.

President Truman pledged that in office he would carry on the liberal domestic policies of Roosevelt. He distrusted most of FDR's cabinet and set about to assemble his own team.

===Winning World War II===

During his term as President, he presided over the conclusion of [[World War II]] in both [[Europe]] and [[Japan]].
On April 25 his telephoned speech opened the San Francisco Conference establishing the [[United Nations]]. A week later Germany surrendered, and from July 17 to August 2, 1945, Truman attended the [[Potsdam Conference]] with Britain's [[Winston Churchill]] (soon replaced by the new prime minister [[Clement Attlee]]) and [[Joseph Stalin]] of the Soviet Union.

===Atomic bomb===
The alternative Truman faced was to order use of the atomic bomb which might shock the Japanese into surrender, or order the planned invasion of Japan's home islands; casualty estimates for Americans ranged very widely. Casualty estimates for Japan ranged into the millions. Secretary of War [[Henry Stimson]] made the real decision: to drop atomic bombs on [[Hiroshima]] and [[Nagasaki]]. Japan immediately surrendered on terms that allowed Emperor [[Hirohito]] to stay on the throne and not be tried as a war criminal. Truman put General [[Douglas MacArthur]] in charge of occupying and controlling Japan; MacArthur remained in charge until the peace treaty was finally signed in 1951.

Truman kept control of the bomb in civilian hands—the Air Force and State Department did not even know how many bombs existed until 1948, when only eight had been built. The postwar military strategy was not built around nuclear weapons.

====Debating the decision====

=====Conservatives and liberals=====

In general, conservatives and liberals alike have applauded and supported the a-bomb decision because it shortened the war, and prevented hundreds of thousands or millions of casualties. The New Left or "revisionist" interpretation argues that the bomb was not necessary to end the war and that no invasion was necessary. They have no evidence to support that argument. They do have fragments of evidence that give weak support to the argument that one American goal was to intimidate the Soviet Union. The revisionists believe the US should have stayed friends with the Soviets, and that Truman was guilty for starting the Cold War (which they consider a bad thing). Morally the revisionists assume the USA was no better or worse than the Soviets—admitting to Soviet atrocities, they argue that socialism was morally superior to capitalism, which itself was a great evil the US intended to spread. In terms of the bomb, Secretary of State James Byrnes did make some offhand references to influencing Moscow, but his comments did not reflect the policy of the State Department or White House, and certainly not those of Stimson, who was by far the most important decision-maker.
Vice President Truman had been kept uninformed about the atomic bomb; he had little interest in military affairs and his chief military aide, General Harry Vaughan, was a drinking buddy likewise unfamiliar with what was happening in the war. Truman therefore relied entirely on his Secretary of War, [[Henry Stimson]]. At Potsdam he approved the atomic bomb targets selected by Stimson and, on the way home, he authorized the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki three days later.

====How the decision was made=====
The decision to drop the atomic bomb has been the focus of one of the most heated debates among both scholars and the public since 1945. After 1945 the debate was dominated by "traditionalist" scholars, who argued that the U.S. had no choice but to drop the bomb as a way to bring World War II to an end. The traditionalists were succeeded in the 1960s by "revisionists," who asserted that the dropping of the bomb was done to intimidate Stalin, not end the war. The leading revisionist historians emerged from the "new left" movement of the 1960s and rejected any notion of the moral superiority of America or capitalism to the Soviet Union. They thought the Cold War and containment were poor policies and generally favored détente, along the lines proposed by Henry Wallace. They include Gar Alperovitz, Barton J. Bernstein, Kai Bird, Diane Shaver Clemens, Bruce Cumings, Richard Freeland, Lloyd Gardner, Gabriel Kolko, Walter LaFeber, Thomas Paterson, Harvard Sitkoff, Ronald Steel, Athan Theoharis, and William A. Williams (the leader of the "Wisconsin School"). The revisionists are not monolithic, but they usually agree that Truman and his advisers were wrong whether the issue is the Cold War, Korea, or the atomic bomb. Revisionists had argued that Truman's goal at Potsdam was to prevent Soviet entry into the war against Japan, and the atomic bomb was used to scare them off. However in 1983 archivists discovered a letter Truman wrote to his wife from Potsdam on July 18, 1945: "I've gotten what I came for-- Stalin goes to war August 15 with no strings on it . . . I'll say that we'll end the war a year sooner now, and think of the kids who won't be killed! That's the important thing."<ref>''New York Times'' March 14, 1983. </ref>

In the 1990s, a more nuanced historical approach emerged searching for a middle ground, offering a number of more credible studies, essentially arguing that neither the traditional nor the revisionist interpretations were entirely satisfactory.<ref>J. Samuel Walker, "Recent Literature on Truman's Atomic Bomb Decision: a Search for Middle Ground." ''Diplomatic History'' 2005 29(2): 311-334. Issn: 0145-2096 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]</ref>

==Domestic affairs==
===Reconversion of the economy to peacetime===
The process of reconversion to peacetime was rocky. It was impossible to bring soldiers home fast enough, and they and their families protected loudly. All war contract were canceled, shutting down munitions plants and throwing millions of workers (many of them women) out of jobs, just as the 12 million service members were coming home. Truman sought to retain price controls against the vehement opposition of business but yielded somewhat in the face of bitter popular opposition. Large-scale strikes disrupted the economy, especially a coal miners strike and a threatened nationwide strike by railroad workers. He threatened to draft the railroad workers and the strike was called off; unions began to oppose him but he regained union support by his later attempts to veto or repeal the [[Taft-Hartley]] labor relations law. Truman's opposition to tax cuts, his insistence on price controls, and his lack of aggressive support of labor programs weakened his party. To voters frustrated with shortages and controls, Truman seemed indecisive and inconsistent; his efforts to deal with a postwar wave of strikes managed to alienate both organized labor and those who wanted more restraints on unions. Voters who normally supported liberal and labor candidates stayed home, resulting in a Republican landslide in 1946, giving the GOP a majority in both houses of Congress. Ohio Senator [[Robert A. Taft]] became the main GOP spokesman in Congress, tangling often with Truman.
===Moving left===
Gradually Truman created his own administration, using the '''''Fair Deal''''' label to express its goals in domestic affairs. Truman systematically removed the Roosevelt cabinet and inner circle of advisors. The most dramatic episode was firing [[Henry A. Wallace]] in 1946 because of his outspoken criticism of the administration's foreign policy as too harsh on the Soviet Union. Liberals saw themselves in a struggle with conservatives for Truman's soul after the 1946 election. Linked to the President through top aide [[Clark Clifford]], these liberals included Oscar Ewing, former party official and director of the Federal Security Agency, Leon Keyserling, member of the President's Council of Economic Advisors, and David Morse, assistant secretary of labor. They embraced the memo plotting 1948 campaign strategy written by former Roosevelt adviser James Rowe, which urged Truman to "move to the left and focus on building a coalition of groups that centered on organized labor, liberals, and northern urban African Americans."<ref> The memo until 1991 was mis-attributed to Clifford, who passed it along to Truman.</ref> Liberals had national support from the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), led by [[Walter Reuther]], [[Eleanor Roosevelt]], Joseph Rauh, James Rowe, [[Reinhold Niebuhr]], [[Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.]], [[Hubert Humphrey]], and [[Ronald Reagan]]<ref> Reagan was an energetic liberal supporter of Truman. He moved to the right in the late 1950s.</ref> . The ADA was hostile to the Soviet Union, battled American Communists and fellow travelers like Wallace, and supported the purge of Communists from the [[CIO]] labor unions. Truman agreed with the ADA and moved left after 1946.<ref> Steven M. Gillon, ''Politics and Vision: the ADA and American Liberalism, 1947-1985'' (1987).</ref>

However he could not tolerate [[Henry A. Wallace]] and the far left, which had considerable Communist support. When Wallace, then Secretary of Commerce, in 1946 denounced Truman's tough stand against Stalin, Truman fired Wallace.

In 1947 Truman asked Congress for stand-by price controls, rationing, and bank and consumer credit control as parts of an anti-inflation program, but his ideas were ignored by the Republicans who controlled Congress. In his state of the union message of Jan. 7, 1948, Truman called for rent control, increased social security benefits, universal military training, national health insurance, and other social legislation. The next week he again asked for passage of his anti-inflation measures. In February 1948 he asked for civil-rights legislation, including a federal anti-lynching law, a federal fair employment practices commission, a permanent civil rights commission, and abolition of the poll tax--measures that enraged many Southern Democrats. None of his proposals became law. More successful was Truman's drive to increase the efficiency of the executive branch; he appointed a commission headed by former President [[Herbert Hoover]] which recommended numerous changes, including unification of the armed services.

===Civil Rights===
Disgusted by violence against black veterans in the deep South, Truman called for the extension of the wartime [[FEPC]] program that called for fair employment practices, but Congress refused and it ended. He created the Presidential Commission on Civil Rights in 1946 by executive order (with no congressional approval needed); it recommended desegregation of local public facilities and the removal of restrictive covenants that prevented blacks and Jews from purchasing houses in restricted neighborhoods. The Commission generated attention but no action.<ref> Steven F. Lawson, ed. ''To Secure These Rights: The Report of Harry S. Truman's Committee on Civil Rights.'' (2004)</ref> Indeed, Congress refused to pass any civil rights legislation before 1957. Truman therefore decided to use his executive powers, and focused on guaranteeing equal opportunity in the military and the civil service. The Army and Navy operated segregated units, and refused to be part of a "social experiment" in integration.<ref> Bernard C. Nalty, ''Strength For the Fight: A History of Black Americans in the Military'' (1986)</ref> The Air Force, however, was much more willing. Between 1941 and 1951 it went from a segregated force to the first truly integrated service. Key generals became convinced that segregation was a drag on efficiency, and the Air Force decided to integrate in April 1948. before Truman issued his famous Executive Order 9981 on July 26, 1948, calling for equal opportunity in all the armed services. It allowed segregation but called for "equality of treatment and opportunity." In the face of opposition from some high-ranking officers, the Air Force moved cautiously, but by 1951 the last black unit was dissolved and the Air Force was completely integrated.<ref> Alan L. Gropman, ''The Air Force Integrates, 1945-1964.'' (2nd ed 1998) [http://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/Publications/Annotations/gropmanintegrates.htm online edition]. </ref> Order 9981 created the Fahy Committee to implement the new policy. Truman's order did not actually integrate the Army--it used segregated units during the Korean War--but it opened the way for integration in the early 1950s.<ref> Richard M. Dalfiume, ''Desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces: Fighting on Two Fronts, 1939-1953.'' (1969)</ref> Public opinion was generally favorable except in the deep South (which voted against Truman in 1948).

==1948 election==
As the presidential election of 1948 approached, no one thought Truman could be reelected. Truman's policies had alienated left right and center, but the party had no real alternative. Neither Roosevelt nor Truman had groomed a likely successor. Party leaders considered asking [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] to run, but he refused. Liberals led by Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota inserted a strong civil rights plank in the platform, causing a walkout of the deep South. Truman was renominated by default, with Barkley as the vice-presidential candidate. Truman thrilled the convention by announcing his plan to call the Republican-controlled Congress back into special session to "ask them to pass the laws to halt rising prices, to meet the housing crisis--which they say they are for in their platform." When this special session accomplished little, as Truman expected, it gave the president a chance to attack the "Do Nothing" Congress.

Both the left and right wings of the party split off and ran their own candidates. Henry Wallace, the candidate of the Progressive Party, was expected to divert labor, leftist and black votes, while [[J. Strom Thurmond]] was the "Dixiecrat" candidate whose supporters controlled the Democratic party in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina.<ref> Thurmond received only 15% of the vote in the other Southern states. Kari Frederickson, ''The Dixiecrat Revolt and the End of the Solid South, 1932-1968.'' (2001) </ref> Truman exploited his multiple opponents, driving a wedge between the liberals and the Communists who controlled the Wallace movement, and holding the line in the outer South. Most of all he exploited the difference between the conservative Republicans who controlled Congress, and the liberal Republican candidate [[Tom Dewey]]. Truman crusaded against the Republicans as evil rich men, blasting them as fascists and denouncing the 80th Congress for its failure to help the average citizen.<ref>''Time'' magazine reported that "His irresponsible implication that a vote for Thomas Dewey was a vote for fascism horrified his soberer followers." ''Time'' Jan 3, 1949 at [http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/personoftheyear/archive/stories/1948.html]</ref> "Give 'em hell" fury delivered in 275 speeches over 21,928 train-miles had more impact that Truman's promises of more money for federal housing, higher social security and unemployment benefits, free medical care for everyone, the continued subsidy of farm prices, and a fair deal for minorities. The pollsters misjudged the election, as did all the traditional pundits. Truman rallied enough of the [[New Deal Coalition]] to win by 2.2 million votes, and carry in a Democratic Congress on his coattails. The key farm states of the farm states of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Ohio that Dewey had carried in 1944 now switched to Truman, giving a solid victory in the electoral college of 303 for Truman, 189 for Dewey, 39 for Thurmond, and none for Wallace.<ref> Harold I. Gullan, ''The Upset That Wasn't: Harry S. Truman and the Crucial Election of 1948'' (1998); Gary A. Donaldson, ''Truman Defeats Dewey'' (1998) </ref>

==Second Term: Fair Deal==
During Truman's second term as president, he pressed for civil rights legislation, compulsory national health insurance, and other domestic measures that he called his "Fair Deal" program. Almost nothing was passed by Congress, which was controlled by the [[Conservative Coalition]]. His seizure of the steel industry to prevent a strike was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

In foreign affairs, Truman brought in [[Dean Acheson]] as Secretary of State, and promoted the Point Four program of aid to underdeveloped countries. The policy of containing Communism was operationalized by the creation, in 1949, of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to oversee the integration of the military forces of its member nations in Western Europe and North America. A further step was taken in 1951 with the establishment of the Mutual Security Agency to coordinate U.S. economic, technical and military aid abroad.
===Agriculture===
Truman won the farm vote in 1948 by charging the GOP shoved "a pitchfork in the farmer's back", but was unable to get new farm programs passed. His second secretary of agriculture, Charles F. Brannan promoted the Brannan Plan, intended to bring widespread changes to farm policy. Brannan proposed to replace market price supports with direct income payments to farmers. His plan set ceilings on the amount a farmer could receive and limited the program to farmers who did not exceed a set production mark. The Brannan Plan was supposed to foster the "family-sized farm" while providing affordable food for consumers. While Brannan could count on support from the left, especially the National Farmers Union (which was small), labor unions (which were powerful), and consumer groups (which were weak), he was opposed by leading farm economists and the national Farm Bureau (which was large) and the national Chamber of Commerce (representing business). The head of the Farm Bureau decried the plan as intrusive, a form of "creeping socialism," and expensive. The Farm Bureau, dominated by conservatives, resisted any curbs on full agricultural production. A bloc of Midwestern Republican and southern Democratic congressmen opposed replacing market mechanisms with outright government payments to farmers and setting limits on supports to individual farms. The Brannan Plan went nowhere and instead, the conservative farm bloc passed the Agricultural Act of 1949 with high price supports.<ref> See Dean (2006)</ref>

==National Security==
===Truman Doctrine and origins of Cold War===
In early 1947 the British government, which was socialist but anti-Communist, secretly told Washington its treasury was empty and it could no longer give military and economic aid to Greece or Turkey, requested the U.S. take over. Acheson convinced Truman to act quickly lest Greece be taken over by its communist partisans who were at the time strongly supported by the Soviet government working through the communist Bulgarian and Yugoslav governments. If Greece fell, Turkey would be helpless and soon the eastern Mediterranean would fall under Stalin’s control. In a dramatic message to Congress on March 12, 1947, President Truman said that the U. S. must take immediate and resolute action to support Greece and Turkey.<ref> Turkey did not have an insurrection, but it was such a bitter rival of Greece that it had to get money if Greece did.</ref> The Republican Congress, after extensive hearings, approved this historic change in U. S. foreign policy in a bill signed May 22, 1947. Thus was born the “Truman Doctrine.” Greece suppressed the insurgents; both Greece and Turkey joined NATO.<ref>
Joseph C. Satterthwaite, "The Truman Doctrine: Turkey," ''Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,'' Vol. 401, (May, 1972), pp. 74-84 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1039114 in JSTOR]</ref>
===Recognition of Israel===
Truman usually followed the advice of the State Department in national security matters, largely ignoring the Pentagon and Congress. In the case of recognition of the independent state of Israel in 1948, however, he overruled the urgent pleas of the State Department and immediately recognized Israel. State had warned that recognition would anger the Arabs in the Middle East; Truman, howver, was more responsive to domestic politics, where support for Israel was widespread.<ref> Michael T. Benson, ''Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel'' (1997) [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-S-Truman-Founding-Israel/dp/0275958078/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221429694&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]; for the State Departmenrt perspective see Evan M. Wilson, "The American Interest in the Palestine Question and the Establishment of Israel," ''Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,'' Vol. 401, (May, 1972), pp. 64-73 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1039113 in JSTOR]</ref>

===Religion===
Truman, a Southern Baptist, sought religious allies in the Cold War. He tried to unite the world's religions in a spiritual crusade against communism, sending his personal representative to Pope [[Pius XII]] to coordinate not only with the Vatican but also with the heads of the Anglican, Lutheran, and Greek Orthodox churches. "If I can mobilize the people who believe in a moral world against the Bolshevik materialists," Truman wrote in 1947, "we can win this fight." Since the [[Roman Catholic Church]] was his strongest religious ally in the moral battle against international communism, Truman put Rome first in his global strategy, even trying to confer formal diplomatic recognition on the Vatican. At home, he received solid support from Catholics, who were a major element of the [[New Deal Coalition]], but overwhelming resistance from Protestants, especially Southern Baptists who rejected anything "popish." Truman's political-diplomatic effort to formalize a public, faith-driven, ecumenical international campaign failed.<ref> Elizabeth Edwards Spalding, "True Believers" ''Wilson Quarterly'' 2006 30(2): 40-44, 46-48. Issn: 0363-3276 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]</ref>

===Loss of China===
[[Chiang Kai-shek]], America's wartime ally and head of the Nationalist forces in China, was caught between two wars—a war on China by [[Japan]] and a war with [[Mao Zedong]] and the Chinese Communists. The U.S. policy was to avoid a civil war and to threaten to withhold additional aid to the Nationalists unless they worked out a compromise. No compromise was possible, and Truman refused to send in combat troops to fight the civil war. General [[George Marshall]], who spent a year in China as Truman's emissary, testified that combat aid might have prevented a Communist victory, but General David Barr's military mission to China was specifically instructed not to supply this kind of assistance. <ref>Military Situation in the Far East, Hearings before the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, 82nd Congress (Washington, 1951), p. 558.</ref> General [[Albert C. Wedemeyer]] recommended this approach in his report on his 1947 fact-finding mission, but Marshall personally suppressed the report. <ref>Tang Tsou, ''America's Failure in China, 1941-1945'', Chicago 1964, pg. 457.</ref> Chiang believed that the [[Truman Doctrine]] to [[Containment|contain]] the spread of [[International Communism]] directed from Moscow would be extended to China, and ordered an offensive as soon as word of the new policy reached him. <ref>Richard C. Thornton, ''China: A Political History, 1917-1980'', Boulder CO 1982, pg. 208.</ref>

[[Dean Rusk]], Assistant Secretary of State in charge of the Far Eastern Division, said on May 18,1951 what the critics had been saying,
{{Cquote|The independence of China is gravely threatened. In the Communist world there is room for only one master. . . . How many Chinese in one community after another are being destroyed because they love China more than they love [[Soviet Russia]]? The freedoms of the Chinese people are disappearing. Trial by mob, [[democide|mass slaughter]], banishment to [[slavery|forced labor]] in [[Manchuria]] and Siberia. . . . The peace and security of China are being sacrificed by the ambitions of the Chinese conspiracy. China has been driven by foreign masters into an adventure in foreign aggression.}}
John T. Flynn observes that critics of the [[FDR]] and Truman Administrations who had been saying this earlier were denounced as “[[Fascists]].”<ref>''While You Slept: Our Tragedy in Asia and Who Made It'', John T. Flynn, New York: The Devin-Adair Company, 1951, [http://www.mises.org/books/whileyouslept.pdf pg. 161] pdf.</ref> Rusk continued,
{{Cquote|We do not recognize the authorities in [[Peiping]] for what they pretend to be. It is not the government of China. It does not pass the first test. It is not Chinese. . . . We recognize the [[Kuomintang|Nationalist government of the Republic of China]] even though the territory under its control is severely restricted. <ref>Hearings before the Senate Committee on Armed Services and Committee on Foreign Relations (also known as the Mac Arthur Inquiry), June 2, 1951.</ref>…we believe it more authoritatively represents the views of the great body of the people of China, particularly their demand for independence from foreign control….That government will continue to receive important aid and assistance from the United States.}}

===Risks in Korea===
Conditions inviting the North Korean attack were created by the [[United Nations]] which issued a resolution for withdrawal of both Soviet and American troops. Troops began withdrawing September 15, 1948, leaving only about 7500 Americans lightly armed. This left in South Korea 16,000 Koreans and 7500 Americans, both groups lightly armed, against 150,000 fully armed North Korean Communists. General Roberts, head of the U. S. Military Mission said the South Koreans were not permitted to arm adequately.
The Korean part of Wedemeyer's report was suppressed. Wedemeyer said:
{{Cquote|American and Soviet forces . . . are approximately equal, less than 50,000 troops each, [but] the Soviet-equipped and trained North Korean People's (Communist) Army of approximately 125,000 is vastly superior to the United States-organized constabulary of 16,000 Koreans equipped with Japanese small arms. The North Korean People's Army constitutes a potential military threat to [[South Korea]], since there is strong possibility that the Soviets will withdraw their occupation forces and thus induce our own withdrawal."<ref>Hearings before the Senate Committee on Armed Services and Committee on Foreign Relations, June 6, 1951.</ref>}}

Wedemeyer warned that this would take place as soon as "they can be sure that the [[North Korea]]n [[puppet government]] and its armed forces . . . are strong enough . . . to be relied upon to carry out Soviet objectives without the actual presence of Soviet troops."
===Communists inside US===
The bipartisan statutory [[Moynihan Secrecy Commission]] concluded, "President Truman was almost willfully obtuse as regards American Communism." <ref>Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy. Senate Document 105-2. 103rd Congress. Washington, D.C. United States Government Printing Office. 1997. [http://www.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/04dpm.pdf Chairman's Forward, pg. XL] pdf.</ref>
===Foreign policy: détente to containment===
Truman had no knowledge or interest in foreign policy before becoming president, and depended on the State Department for foreign policy advice.<ref> By 1946 he had two valuable aides Clark Clifford and George Elsey.</ref> Truman shifted from FDR's détente to [[containment]] as soon as [[Dean Acheson]] convinced him the Soviet Union was a long-term threat to American interests. They viewed communism as a secular, millennial religion that informed the Kremlin's worldview and actions and made it the chief threat to American security, liberty, and world peace. They rejected the moral equivalence of democratic and Communist governments and concluded that until the regime in Moscow changed only American and Allied strength could curb the Soviets. Following Acheson's advice, Truman in 1947 announced the [[Truman Doctrine]] of containing Communist expansion by furnishing military and economic American aid to Europe and Asia, and particularly to Greece and Turkey. He followed up with the [[Marshall Plan]], which was enacted into law as the European Recovery Program (ERP) and led ultimately to [[NATO]], the North Atlantic Alliance for military defense, signed in 1949. On May 14, 1948, Truman announced recognition of the new state of [[Israel]], making the United States the first major power to do so.

==Korean War==
The [[Korean War]] began at the end of June 1950 when North Korea, a Communist country, invaded South Korea, which was under U.S. protection. Without consulting Congress Truman ordered General [[Douglas MacArthur]] to use all American forces to resist the invasion. Truman then received approval from the United Nations, which the Soviets were boycotting. UN forces managed to cling to a toehold in Korea, as the North Koreans outran their supply system. A counterattack at Inchon destroyed the invasion army, and the UN forces captured most of North Korea on their way to the Yalu River, Korea's northern border with China. Truman defined the war goal as [[rollback]] of Communism and reunification of the country under UN auspices. China intervened unexpectedly, drove the UN forces all the way back to South Korea. The fighting stabilized close to the original 38th parallel that had divided North and South. MacArthur wanted to continue the rollback strategy but Truman arrived at a new policy of containment, allowing North Korea to persist. Truman's dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur in April 1951 sparked a violent debate on U.S. Far Eastern policy, as Truman took the blame for a high-cost stalemate with 37,000 Americans killed and over 100,000 wounded.

Truman fired his ineffective defense secretary Louis Johnson, and brought back [[George Marshall]].
===NSC-68===
The top-secret [[NSC-68]] policy paper was the grounds for escalating the Cold War, especially in terms of spending on rearmament and building the hydrogen bomb. The integration of European defense was given new impetus by continued U.S. support of NATO, under the command of General Eisenhower. Truman committed the US to contain Communist expansion in Vietnam, where the Communists under [[Ho Chi Minh]] were trying to overthrow the French colonial regime. The State Department insisted that France give more autonomy to the Vietnamese. The US paid for about 80% of the French war costs. The problem was that the French were more interested in preserving their grandiose empire, and less interested in stopping Communism, while the US opposed colonial empires and saw Communism as the great threat to world peace and stability.

Following NSC-68, Truman's last four budgets saw expenditures on national security quadruple from $13 billion in 1950 to $50 billion in 1953.

===1952 election===
On the political front, revelation of scandals in the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, in the Bureau of Internal Revenue and even the White House<ref> Truman's wife accepted an expensive deep freeze appliance in 1945; with General Vaughan as the fixer, the donor was given special privileges in Europe. </ref> opened the administration to attack.

Truman sought reelection in 1952 despite his dismal showing in the polls. He was defeated in the New Hampshire primary by Senator [[Estes Kefauver]] of Tennessee, and withdrew. Truman supported Illinois Governor [[Adlai Stevenson]]. Eisenhower won the GOP nomination and crusading against the Truman administration's failures regarding "Korea, Communism and Corruption," was elected in a landslide, ending 20 years of Democratic control of the presidency.

==Retirement==
Truman returned to his home in Independence, Missouri. He devoted himself to creating the Truman Library there; it was dedicated in July 1957 and is a part of the National Archives. With a staff of assistants he wrote his memoirs in two well-received volumes, gave many interviews, and intervened occasionally in Democratic national politics on behalf of liberal candidates such as [[Adlai Stevenson]].

He died on December 26, 1972.

==Evaluations==
Already by the 1960s he had become a hero to liberals and Democrats, nostalgic over the successes of the [[New Deal Coalition]] that sputtered and collapsed in the 1960s. Even Republicans came to forget the nasty days and celebrated Truman as the hero of the underdogs and the man who rebuilt Europe through the Marshall Plan and stood up to Communism through NATO.

Truman's reputation among scholars has gone from very low when he left office, to high after 1990. He is now widely considered to have been a tough-minded, decisive, and effective leader who ably guided the nation through the perilous waters of the early Cold War and whose policy of containment essentially laid the foundations for American "victory" in that prolonged conflict in 1989. For many historians, the down-to-earth Midwesterner now merits consideration as one of the greatest American presidents. In recent years presidential aspirants of both parties have claimed Truman as their own, especially if their election chances seem as hopeless as Truman's did in 1948. His reputation has been bolstered by scholarly biographies by Ferrell (1994), Hamby (1995), and especially McCullough's Pulitzer prize-winning popular biography (1992). The in-depth analysis by Leffler (1992), cautiously praised the Truman administration's essential wisdom in handling a myriad of problems.

While Truman's public image was headed up, his reputation among scholars declined in the 1970s. Kirkendall concluded in 1974 that negative appraisals of Truman and his administration "may in fact have become the dominant interpretation, at least among the younger scholars."<ref> Kirkendall, ''Truman Period as a Research Field: A Reappraisal 1972'' (1974) p 6</ref> In terms of foreign policy a strong negative view comes from Offner (2002) who argues that Truman was a "parochial nationalist" whose "uncritical belief in the superiority of American values and political-economic interests," conviction that "the Soviet Union and Communism were the root cause of international strife," and "inability to comprehend Asian politics and nationalism" intensified the postwar conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, precipitated the division of Europe, and set Sino-American relations on a path of long-term animosity. Rather than being a great statesman who carefully weighed various policy alternatives, Offner asserts that Truman's myopia "created a rigid framework in which the United States waged long-term, extremely costly global cold war". As his title suggests, the Cold War was at best a Pyrrhic victory for the United States.<ref> Quotes from Offner (2002) p. xii</ref>

Truman became the model of the underdog who fights back and wins when the experts unanimously predict defeat. Gerald Ford, who had bitterly denounced Truman as a young Congressman proudly proclaimed the Missourian as his hero and conspicuously displayed a bust of Truman in the oval office after Ford became president in 1974. In the 1976 campaign both Ford and his Democratic rival, [[Jimmy Carter]], outdid one another in claiming to be cast from the Truman mold. By 1980 when the Gallup Poll asked "Of all the Presidents we've ever had, who do you wish were President?", Harry Truman finished an impressive third behind Kennedy and FDR.

====notes====

==Further reading: basic books and articles==
* Burnes, Brian. ''Harry S. Truman: His Life and Times'' (2003), popular biography [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-S-Truman-Life-Times/dp/0974000930/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Dallek, Robert. ''Harry Truman'' (2008) short, popular biography by scholar. [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Truman-Presidents-President-1945-1953/dp/0805069380/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221386001&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Donovan, Robert J. ''Conflict and Crisis: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1945-1948'' (1977); ''Tumultuous Years: 1949-1953'' (1982) detailed 2-vol political history by well-informed journalist; well balanced
* Fleming, Thomas J. ''Harry S. Truman, President'' (1993) for middle school audience.
* Graff, Henry F., ed. ''The Presidents: A Reference History''. 2nd ed. 1996, 443–458. ISBN 0-684-80471-9; by leading scholar
* Hamby, Alonzo L. ''Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman'' (1995), the best scholarly biography; written by conservative historian who likes HST
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "An American Democrat: A Reevaluation of the Personality of Harry S. Truman," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 106, No. 1 (Spring, 1991), pp. 33-55 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2152173 in JSTOR]
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "Truman, Harry S."; [http://www.anb.org/articles/07/07-00307.html; ''American National Biography'' Online Feb. 2000] by a leading conservative historian
* Kirkendall, Richard S. ''Harry S. Truman Encyclopedia'' (1990), very useful articles on people, events and policies in HST's career
* Kirkendall Richard S. "Harry S Truman a Missouri Farmer in the Golden Age," ''Agricultural History,'' Vol. 48, No. 4 (Oct., 1974), pp. 467-483 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/3741384 in JSTOR]
* McCullough, David. ''Truman''. (1993), 1120 pp ISBN 0-671-86920-5 best-selling biography; moderate in tone; Pulitzer Prize [http://www.amazon.com/Truman-David-McCullough/dp/0671869205/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* McCullough, David. ''Harry S. Truman'', short essay [http://www.pbs.org/newshour/character/essays/truman.html online edition]
* Offner, Arnold A. ''Another Such Victory: President Truman and the Cold War.'' (2002) 640pp, New LEft and hostile to HST; [http://books.google.com/books?id=P5tbHSsBS-AC&pg=PP1&dq=intitle:another+intitle:victory+inauthor:offner&num=30&as_brr=0&sig=pWo43stsPrIrtTfZXJicvWB3zCY excerpts and text search]
* [http://www.amazon.com/American-Experience-Truman/dp/B000BYRCG0/ref=pd_bbs_4/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1193347436&sr=8-4 ''American Experience: Truman'' (2006), from PBS]
* [http://www.amazon.com/Classic-President-Harry-Truman-Films/dp/B000JD7MV8/ref=sr_1_14/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1193347436&sr=8-14 "Classic President Harry S Truman Films: 1945-1965'' (2006) 40 newsreels, 101 minutes]

==Advanced bibliography==
These are secondary source by scholars; unless noted they are generally liberal and supportive of Truman.
===Biographies===
* Burnes, Brian. ''Harry S. Truman: His Life and Times'' (2003); popular biography; [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-S-Truman-Life-Times/dp/0974000930/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Cochran, Bert. ''Harry S. Truman and the Crisis Presidency'' (19730, 432 pages; portrays a cynical courthouse politician
* Donovan, Robert J. ''Conflict and Crisis: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1945-1948'' (1977); ''Tumultuous Years: 1949-1953'' (1982), good, detailed 2-vol political history by well-informed journalist
* Ferrell, Robert H. ''Harry S. Truman: A Life'' (1994), brief overview
* Fleming, Thomas J. ''Harry S. Truman, President'' (1993) for middle school audience.
* Gosnell, Harold Foote. ''Truman's Crises: A Political Biography of Harry S. Truman'' (1980)
* Graff, Henry F., ed. ''The Presidents: A Reference History''. 2nd ed. 1996, 443–458. ISBN 0-684-80471-9
* Hamby, Alonzo L. ''Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman'' (1995), very well received scholarly biography [http://www.amazon.com/Man-People-Truman-Oxford-Paperbacks/dp/0195124979/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193438333&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "The Liberals, Truman, and the FDR as Symbol and Myth," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 56, No. 4 (Mar., 1970), pp. 859-867 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1917522 in JSTOR]
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "Truman, Harry S."; [http://www.anb.org/articles/07/07-00307.html; ''American National Biography'' Online Feb. 2000]
* Kirkendall, Richard S. ''Harry S. Truman Encyclopedia'' (1990)
* McCullough, David. ''Truman''. . ISBN 0-671-86920-5 best-selling biography; Pulitzer Prize [http://www.amazon.com/Truman-David-McCullough/dp/0671869205/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Miller, Richard Lawrence. ''Truman: The Rise to Power'' (2002), critical evaluation emphasizing corruption of Pendergast machine

===Foreign policy===
* Appleman, Roy E. ''South to the Naktong, North to the Yalu (June-November 1950)'' (United States Army in the Korean War) (1960); official U.S. Army history, [http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/korea/20-2-1/toc.htm online version]
* Beisner, Robert L. ''Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War'' (2006), 800pp; a standard scholarly biography; covers 1945-53 only
* Benson, Michael T. ''Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel'' (1997) [http://www.questia.com/read/15103137 online edition]
* Berger, Henry. "Bipartisanship, Senator Taft, and the Truman Administration," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 90, No. 2 (Summer, 1975), pp. 221-237 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2148235 in JSTOR]
* Bernstein Barton J. "Roosevelt, Truman, and the Atomic Bomb, 1941-1945: A Reinterpretation," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 90, No. 1 (Spring, 1975), pp. 23-69 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2148698 in JSTOR], influential New left essay
* Blair, Clay ''The Forgotten War: America in Korea, 1950-1953'', Naval Institute Press (2003) revisionist study that attacks Truman and top Army leaders for near-criminal incompetence
* Divine, Robert A. "The Cold War and the Election of 1948," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 59, No. 1 (Jun., 1972), pp. 90-110 [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8723%28197206%2959%3A1%3C90%3ATCWATE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-C in JSTOR]
* Frazier, Robert. "Acheson and the Formulation of the Truman Doctrine" ''Journal of Modern Greek Studies'' 17#2 (1999), pp. 229-251 online at [[Project Muse]]
* Gaddis, John Lewis. "Reconsiderations: Was the Truman Doctrine a Real Turning Point?" ''Foreign Affairs'' 1974 52(2): 386-402. ISSN 0015-7120
* Giangreco, D. M. "'A Score of Bloody Okinawas and Iwo Jimas': President Truman and Casualty Estimates for the Invasion of Japan," ''Pacific Historical Review,'' Vol. 72, No. 1 (Feb., 2003), pp. 93-132 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/3642102 in JSTOR] shows Truman was indeed by very high invasion casualties
* Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi. ''Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan.'' (2005). 382 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Racing-Enemy-Stalin-Truman-Surrender/dp/0674016939/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193349212&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Hogan, Michael J. ''A Cross of Iron: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of the National Security State, 1945-1954'' (2000) [http://www.amazon.com/Cross-Iron-National-Security-19451954/dp/0521795370/ref=sr_1_34/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347927&sr=8-34 excerpt and text search]
* Ivie, Robert L. "Fire, Flood, and Red Fever: Motivating Metaphors of Global Emergency in the Truman Doctrine Speech." ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 1999 29(3): 570-591. ISSN 0360-4918 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001303753 online edition]
* Lacey, Michael J. ed. ''The Truman Presidency'' (1989), major essays by scholars
* Matray, James I. "Truman's Plan for Victory: National Self-Determination and the Thirty-Eighth Parallel Decision in Korea," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 66, No. 2 (Sep., 1979), pp. 314-333 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1900879 in JSTOR] Truman planned rollback of Communism in North Korea
* Merrill, Dennis. "The Truman Doctrine: Containing Communism and Modernity" ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 2006 36(1): 27-37. ISSN 0360-4918
* Offner, Arnold A. "'Another Such Victory': President Truman, American Foreign Policy, and the Cold War." ''Diplomatic History'' 1999 23(2): 127-155. ISSN 0145-2096
* Ojserkis, Raymond P. ''Beginnings of the Cold War Arms Race: The Truman Administration and the U.S. Arms Build-Up'' (2003) [http://www.questia.com/read/102018810 online edition]
* Pelz, Stephen. "When the Kitchen Gets Hot, Pass the Buck: Truman and Korea in 1950," ''Reviews in American History'' 6 (December 1978), 548-55. Online at Project MUSE
* Pierpaoli, Paul G. Jr.; ''Truman and Korea: The Political Culture of the Early Cold War.'' University of Missouri Press, 1999 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=108668070 online edition]
* Smith, Geoffrey S. "'Harry, We Hardly Know You': Revisionism, Politics and Diplomacy, 1945-1954," ''American Political Science Review'' 70 (June 1976), 560-82. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-0554(197606)70%3A2%3C560%3A%22WHKYR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-%23 in JSTOR]
* Spalding, Elizabeth Edwards. ''The First Cold Warrior: Harry Truman, Containment, And the Remaking of Liberal Internationalism'' (2006) [http://www.amazon.com/First-Cold-Warrior-Containment-Internationalism/dp/0813123925/ref=sr_1_22/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347812&sr=8-22 excerpt and text search]
* Wainstock, Dennis D. ''Truman, MacArthur, and the Korean War'' (1999) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23387043 online edition]
* Walker, J. Samuel. ''Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs against Japan'' (1997) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=35245486 online complete edition]; [http://www.amazon.com/Prompt-Utter-Destruction-Truman-Against/dp/080785607X/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193348187&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Walker, J. Samuel. "Recent Literature on Truman's Atomic Bomb Decision: A Search for Middle Ground" ''Diplomatic History'' April 2005 - Vol. 29 Issue 2 Pp 311-334 fulltext in [[EBSCO]]

===Domestic policy and politics===
* Bernstein Barton J. "The Truman Administration and the Steel Strike of 1946," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 52, No. 4 (Mar., 1966), pp. 791-803 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1894347 in JSTOR]
* Billington, Monroe. "Civil Rights, President Truman and the South," ''Journal of Negro History,'' Vol. 58, No. 2 (Apr., 1973), pp. 127-139 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2716825 in JSTOR]
* Dean, Virgil W. "Charles F. Brannan and the Rise and Fall of Truman's 'Fair Deal' for Farmers." ''Agricultural History'' 1995 69(1): 28-53. Issn: 0002-1482
* Dean, Virgil W. ''An Opportunity Lost: The Truman Administration and the Farm Policy Debate.'' 2006. 275 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Opportunity-Lost-Truman-Administration-Policy/dp/0826216501/ref=sr_1_10/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193434622&sr=1-10 excerpt and text search]
* Derickson, Alan. "'Take Health from the List of Luxuries': Labor and the Right to Health Care, 1915-1949." ''Labor History'' 2000 41(2): 171-187. Issn: 0023-656x Fulltext: in Taylor and Francis, Swetswise, Ingenta, and [[Ebsco]]
* Donaldson, Gary A. ''Truman Defeats Dewey'' (1998)
* Farhang, Sean, and Ira Katznelson. "The Southern Imposition: Congress and Labor in the New Deal and Fair Deal," ''Studies in American Political Development'' (2005), 19: 1-30; [http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=324401 online edition]
* Freeland, Richard M. ''The Truman Doctrine and the Origins of McCarthyism: Foreign Policy, Domestic Policy, and Internal Security, 1946-48'' (1989), revisionist; New left attack on Truman for being too anti-Communist
* Fried, Richard M. ''Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective.'' 1990. [http://www.questia.com/read/79027083 online complete edition]; [http://www.amazon.com/Nightmare-Red-McCarthy-Era-Perspective/dp/0195043618/ref=sr_1_11/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193514847&sr=8-11 excerpt and text search]
* Gardner, Michael R. ''Harry Truman and Civil Rights: Moral Courage and Political Risks.'' (2002) 296 pp.[http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=105233906 online edition]
* Hamby, Alonzo. ''Beyond the New Deal: Harry S. Truman and American Liberalism'' (1973), the most sophisticated biography; by a prominent conservative historian
* Hartmann, Susan M. ''Truman and the 80th Congress'' (1971) [http://www.questia.com/read/77360404 online edition]
* Heller, Francis H. ''Economics and the Truman Administration'' (1982) [http://www.amazon.com/Economics-Truman-Administration-Francis-Heller/dp/0700602178/ref=sr_1_9/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193434622&sr=1-9 excerpt and text search]
* Karabell, Zachary. ''The Last Campaign: How Harry Truman Won the 1948 Election'' (2001) [http://www.amazon.com/Last-Campaign-Harry-Truman-Election/dp/0375700773/ref=sr_1_24/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=11973347812&sr=8-24 excerpt and text search]
* Koenig, Louis W. ''The Truman Administration: Its Principles and Practice'' (1956) [http://www.questia.com/read/8522614 online edition]
* Komarek de Luna, Phyllis. ''Public versus Private Power during the Truman Administration: A Study of Fair Deal Liberalism.'' Peter Lang, 1997. 253 pp.
* Lacey, Michael J. ed. ''The Truman Presidency'' (1989), major essays by scholars
* Lee, R. Alton. ''Truman and Taft-Hartley: A Question of Mandate.'' (1966) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=99000111 online edition]
* Leuchtenburg, William E. ''The White House Looks South: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson.'' (2005). 668 pp.
* Levantrosser, William F. ed. ''Harry S. Truman: The Man from Independence'' (1986). 25 essays by scholars and Truman aides. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23428395 online edition]
* McCoy, Donald. ''The Presidency of Harry S. Truman'' (1984), standard scholarly survey by conservative historian; [http://www.amazon.com/Presidency-Harry-S-Truman-American/dp/0700602550/ref=sr_1_8/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193514606&sr=8-8 excerpt and text search]
* Marcus, Maeva ''Truman and the Steel Seizure Case: The Limits of Presidential Power'' (1994) [http://www.questia.com/read/22816992 online edition]
* Phillips, Cabel. ''The Truman Presidency: The History of a Triumphant Succession'' (1966), by a journalist who interviewed many key players
* Pierpaoli, Paul G. Jr. ''Truman and Korea: The Political Culture of the Early Cold War.'' (1997). ISBN 0-8262-1206-9. focus on the homefront [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=16627966265512 online review]
* Ryan, Halford R. ''Harry S. Truman: Presidential Rhetoric'' (1993) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=27994601 online edition]
* Sitkoff, Harvard. "Harry Truman and the Election of 1948: The Coming of Age of Civil Rights in American Politics," ''Journal of Southern History,'' Vol. 37, No. 4 (Nov., 1971), pp. 597-616 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2206548 in JSTOR]
* Theoharis, Athan. "The Truman Administration and the Decline of Civil Liberties: The FBI's Success in Securing Authorization for a Preventive Detention Program," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 64, No. 4 (Mar., 1978), pp. 1010-1030 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1890734 in JSTOR], leftwing attack on Truman for being too harsh on possible subversives
* Theoharis, Athan. ''The Truman Presidency: The Origins of the Imperial Presidency and the National Security State'' (1979), revisionist, New left attack on HST
* Theoharis, Athan. ''Seeds of Repression: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of McCarthyism'' (1977), New Left attack on HST for being so hostile to domestic Communists
* Thompson, Francis H. ''The Frustration of Politics: Truman, Congress, and the Loyalty Issue, 1945-1953.'' 1979. 246 pp.
* Vaughan, Philip H. "The Truman Administration's Fair Deal for Black America." ''Missouri Historical Review'' 1976 70(3): 291-305. Issn: 0026-6582

===Primary sources===
* Bernstein, Barton J., Ed. ''The Truman Administration: A Documentary History'' (1966); 2nd edition published as ''Politics and Policies of the Truman Administration'' (1970), revisionist
* [http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/publications/ERP/ Council of Economic Advisors, ''Economic Report of the President'' (annual 1947- )], complete series online; important analysis of current trends and policies, plus statistcial tables
* Ferrell, Robert H. ed. ''Dear Bess: The Letters from Harry to Bess Truman, 1910-1959'' (1983)
* Ferrell, Robert H. ed. ''Off the Record: The Private Papers of Harry S. Truman'' (1980).
* Merrill, Dennis. ed. ''Documentary History of the Truman Presidency, (1995- ) 35 volumes; available in some large academic libraries.
* Miller, Merle ''Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman'' (1974)
* Neal, Steve. ed. ''HST: Memories of the Truman Years.'' (2003)280pp; long excerpts from 20 oral history interviews (some of which are online at the Truman Library site).
* Neal, Steve. ed. ''Miracle of '48: Harry Truman's Major Campaign Speeches & Selected Whistle-Stops'' (2003); 43 speeches
* Truman, Harry S. ''Where the Buck Stops: The Personal and Private Writings of Harry S. Truman'' edited by Margaret Truman (1990) [http://www.amazon.com/Where-Buck-Stops-Personal-Writings/dp/0446391751/ref=pd_bbs_sr_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221386001&sr=8-6 excerpt and text search]
* Truman, Harry S. ''Memoirs'' 2 vol (1955). [http://tera-3.ul.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/reader.pl?call=30151&search= vol 1 online]
* Truman, Margaret. ''Harry S. Truman''. (1973). memoir by his daughter
* Truman, Harry S. ''The Autobiography of Harry S. Truman'' edited compilation of excerpts by Robert H. Ferrell (2002) [http://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Harry-S-Truman/dp/0826214452/ref=pd_bbs_sr_5/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-5 excerpt and text search]
* [http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/ ''The Public Papers of the Presidents'' contain most of Truman's public messages, statements, speeches, and news conference remarks. Documents such as Proclamations, and Executive Orders]

==Historiography==
* Ferrell, Robert H. ''Harry S. Truman and the Cold War Revisionists.'' 2006. 142 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Truman-Cold-War-Revisionists/dp/0826216536/ref=sr_1_6/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193349212&sr=8-6 excerpt and text search]
* Geselbracht, Raymond. "Creating the Harry S. Truman Library: The First Fifty Years," ''Public Historian'', 28 (Summer 2006), 37–78.
* Hartmann, Susan M. "The 1948 Election and the Configuration of Postwar Liberalism" ''Reviews in American History'' 28.1 (2000) 105-111 in [[Project Muse]]
* Heller, Francis H., ed. ''The Korean War: A 25 Year Perspective'' (1977), essays by scholars
* Heller, Francis H., ed. ''The Truman White House: The Administration of the Presidency, 1945-1953'' (1980), essays by scholars
* Heller, Francis H., ed. ''Economics and the Truman Administration'' (1981), essays by scholars
* Kirkendall, Richard S. ed. ''Harry's Farewell: Interpreting and Teaching the Truman Presidency'' (2004) essays by scholars
* Kirkendall, Richard S., ed. ''The Truman Period as a Research Field: A Reappraisal 1972'' (1974)
* Tull, Charles J. "The State of the Art in Truman Research," in William F. Levantrosser, ed. ''Harry S. Truman: The Man from Independence'' (1986), 1-31 aides. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23428395 online edition]
* Walker, J. Samuel "Recent Literature on Truman's Atomic Bomb Decision: a Search for Middle Ground." ''Diplomatic History'' 2005 29(2): 311-334. Issn: 0145-2096 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]

==External links==
*[http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/ht33.html Biography]
*[http://www.trumanlibrary.org Presidential Library]
*[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/index.php The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb], Truman Library.
*[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/small/mb12a.htm President Truman to Senator Richard B. Russell], August 9, 1945.
====notes====
<references/>

{{USPresidents}}
{{USVicePresidents}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Truman, Harry}}

[[Category:Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:Vice Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:Democratic Party]]

Harry Truman

2008-11-11T21:00:04Z

AshleyS: /* Atomic bomb */ punctuation

{{President|
|name=Harry S. Truman
|image=HTruman.jpg
|country=the United States
|seq=33
|party=Democratic
|term_start=April 12, 1945
|term_end=January 20, 1953<ref>http://home.comcast.net/~sharonday7/Presidents/AP060301.htm</ref>
|vp=None
|vp_dates=1945-1949
|2vp=Alben Barkley
|2vp_dates=1949-1953
|previous=Franklin D. Roosevelt
|next=Dwight D. Eisenhower
|seq2=34
|office2=vice
|party2=
|term2_start=January 20, 1945
|term2_end=April 12, 1945
|pres2=Franklin D. Roosevelt
|previous2=Henry A. Wallace
|next2=Alben W. Barkley
|birth_date=May 8, 1884
|birth_place=Lamar, MO
|death_date=December 26, 1972
|death_place=Kansas City, MO
|spouse=Bess Wallace Truman
|spouse2=
|religion=[[Baptist]]
}}

'''Harry S. Truman,''' (1884-1972) a [[liberal]] [[Democrat]] from [[Missouri]], was the president of the United States from 1945-1953, taking over when [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] died in April 1945. He took the decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order to force Japan's surrender. Angered at the Soviet Union's seizure of eastern Europe, he moved away from FDR's [[détente]] to a policy of [[containment]], reinforced by the Truman Plan (1947) to resist Communist subversion, the [[Marshall Plan]] (1948-51) to rebuild and modernize western Europe's economies, and the [[NATO]] military alliance of 1949. Truman, advised by [[Dean Acheson]] and the State Department, set the policies to oppose the Soviet Union as the [[Cold War]] began.

Ignoring Asia, he later saw America's close ally China fall to the anti-American Communists under [[Mao Zedong]] in 1949; the US and China fought each other to a draw during the undeclared [[Korean War]], 1950-53. Truman fired his top general, [[Douglas MacArthur]], during this conflict and saw his popularity plunge.

As the war ended, the massive problem of reconverting the 45% of the economy devoted to war production baffled Truman. Listening to liberal advisors, he refused to end extremely unpopular price controls, and was unable to stop a massive wave of strikes in major industries in 1945-46. Voter dissatisfaction to the Republican capture of Congress in 1946; with Senator [[Robert A. Taft]] as the conservative Republican spokesman, Congress repealed many of the wartime restrictions on business and lowered taxes. Taft rewrote the labor laws in the [[Taft-Hartley Act of 1947]], balancing the rights of unions, management and the public interest; it became law over Truman's signature and remains in effect.

Truman began with very high popularity ratings, but they plunged to the lowest on record. Democrats were unable to stop his renomination in 1948, but the far left nominated FDR's vice president [[Henry A. Wallace]], and southern conservative Democrats nominated Dixiecrat [[J. Strom Thurmond]]. Observers almost unanimously expected victory for the Republican candidate, Governor [[Thomas E. Dewey]], liberal from New York. Total astonishment greeted Truman's stunning election victory, as he reassembled the [[New Deal Coalition]] for the fifth consecutive victory, pulling in on his coattails a Democratic Congress.

Although the Democrats organized Congress in 1949, the [[Conservative Coalition]] of Northern Republicans and Southern Democrats was in control, and Truman was to pass any of his liberal [[Fair Deal|Fair Deal program]]. Nevertheless he he pursued civil rights through executive orders, especially a 1948 order to end racial discrimination in the military. Blacks remained in segregated units, but were to receive equal treatment. Truman's failures to deal with "Korea, Communism and Corruption" forced him to withdraw from reelection in 1952 and gave the Republicans an opportunity to crusade against him and elect [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] in 1952.

Overshadowed at first by his predecessor, [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], Truman established a reputation as a blunt, unsophisticated fighter for the common man, who took responsibility for his actions because, he said, "the buck stops here." His stunning reelection victory in 1948 baffled the experts and has inspired underdogs ever since. He is more popular in 2008 than ever. His policy positions make him a heroic icon for liberals.

==Early life==

Truman was born on a farm near Lamar, in western Missouri, and grew up on a farm near Independence, Missouri. His grandparents had been Confederate sympathizers who had been rounded up by the Union army in the Civil War.<ref> His middle initial, S, does not stand for anything, but was chosen because his parents could not decide whether to name him for his grandfather Shippe or for his grandfather Solomon.</ref> After graduating from high school in Independence, with good skills in history and music, he decided against college and became a bank clerk in Kansas City. Always a joiner, he was active in the Missouri National Guard. From 1906 to 1917 he managed his father's 600-acre farm at Grandview, Missouri. During World War I his National Guard regiment was mobilized in 1917, he entered the Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, sailing for France in 1917 as a lieutenant. Truman was soon promoted to captain in Battery D, 129 Field Artillery Battalion, 35th Division, A.E.F., and returned to the United States a major in 1919, after combat at St. Mihiel and in the Argonne offensive. He was in an artillery unit, and learned about gas warfare; he was never wounded, He married Elizabeth "Bess" Wallace on June 28, 1919; they had one daughter, Margaret, who married a ''New York Times'' editor. With an army buddy he invested his savings in a Kansas City haberdashery, but this venture was a failure.

==Pendergast machine==
Discouraged by his lack of business success and without funds, Truman sought the help of friends. His farm background, his war record, his Masonic connections, his Baptist Church affiliations, and his genial personality recommended him to [[Thomas J. Pendergast]], the Democratic political boss of Kansas City and much of western Missouri. Pendergast, an Irish Catholic, had a strong base among the Irish Catholics and used Truman to reach out to Protestants, farmers and veterans. He made Truman the overseer of highways for Jackson County.

In 1922 Truman was elected a county judge; needing some legal knowledge he studied nights for two years at Kansas City Law School; it was his only education beyond high school, although he read history. In the 1924 GOP landslide he was defeated for reelection, but in 1926 he was returned to office as presiding judge of the court, the duties of which also involved administrative supervision of many county expenditures, including $60 million for public works. He almost joined the [[Ku Klux Klan]], but withdrew his application when he realized his Irish Catholic allies bitterly opposed the KKK; Truman then campaigned against the Klan.
==Senate==
In 1934 Pendergast arranged for Truman's nomination as United States Senator on the Democratic ticket; he was elected in the democratic landslide as a supporter of Roosevelt and the New deal. His first term in office was uneventful, except for a failed effort to prevent the renomination of Maurice Milligan for U.S. District Attorney for the Western District of Missouri; Milligan had obtained the conviction of 35 Pendergast "ward leaders" for vote frauds.

===World War II===
He was reelected after a terrific battle in 1940. Truman gained national prominence for serving as chairman of the Truman Committee to investigate waste, fraud and inefficiency in government contracts. Its formal name was the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program. He was an energetic and forthright supporter of the [[New Deal]] and won widespread party favor for his attacks on business malfeasance in war production. He forced changes in the aircraft and ship construction programs, and worked well with other border state Democrats, especially [[Alben Barkley]] of Kentucky, the Majority Leader.

===FDR picks a new vice president===
In 1944, after Vice-President [[Henry A. Wallace]] had been rejected by leading Democrats as too far to the left, Truman supported his friend former senator [[James F. Byrnes]] of South Carolina for that office. Catholics vetoed Byrnes, who had left that faith. Truman himself became Roosevelt's choice as a compromise vice presidential candidate, and the two were elected.

Roosevelt had been in ill-health since his return from the [[Teheran conference]]. At the 1944 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, DNC Chairman Bob Hannegan went for instructions to President Roosevelt's private railway car just before the July convention officially began. Roosevelt had decided to dump incumbent Vice-President [[Henry Wallace]]. Worried over dissension on the choice of a successor, Roosevelt told Hannegan: "Go on down there and nominate Truman before there's any more trouble. And clear everything with Sidney." <ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,791619,00.html "Clear everything with Sidney"], [[Time magazine]], Sep. 25, 1944.</ref> The President could not make the selection of Truman until [[Sidney Hillman]] <ref>''The Roosevelt Myth'', John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948, Book 2, Ch. 8, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Eight___The_Shock_Troops.htm ''The Shock Troops of the Third New Deal'']</ref>, Director of the Political Action Committee for the Congress on Industrial Organizations (CIO) approved it. <ref> ''Roosevelt Myth'', Book 3, Ch. 10, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Ten___Politics__Disease_.htm ''Politics, Disease and History''], Flynn, 1948.</ref> When Harry Truman walked into the smoke-filled room <ref>[http://www.booknotes.org/Transcript/index_print.asp?ProgramID=1109 ''Truman''], Interview with David McCullough, C-Span Booknotes, July 19, 1992. Retrieved August 6, 2007.</ref> of DNC at headquarters at the Stevens Hotel in Chicago, Soviet spies [[John Abt]], [[Lee Pressman]], and [[Nathan Witt]], were on hand." <ref>''The Yalta Betrayal'', Felix Wittmer, Claxton Printers, 1953, pg. 75.</ref>

==Presidency==
Roosevelt ignored Truman between the election in November 1944 and the inauguration in January; even as Vice president Truman was not consulted on national policies, and not informed of major decisions, nor of the atomic bomb. Although he realized Roosevelt's health was failing rapidly, he made no preparations for assuming the presidency and did not even build up a staff of advisors. Truman succeeded to the Presidency upon the death of FDR on April 12, 1945.

President Truman pledged that in office he would carry on the liberal domestic policies of Roosevelt. He distrusted most of FDR's cabinet and set about to assemble his own team.

===Winning World War II===

During his term as President, he presided over the conclusion of [[World War II]] in both [[Europe]] and [[Japan]].
On April 25 his telephoned speech opened the San Francisco Conference establishing the [[United Nations]]. A week later Germany surrendered, and from July 17 to August 2, 1945, Truman attended the [[Potsdam Conference]] with Britain's [[Winston Churchill]] (soon replaced by the new prime minister [[Clement Attlee]]) and [[Joseph Stalin]] of the Soviet Union.

===Atomic bomb===
The alternative Truman faced was to order use of the atomic bomb which might shock the Japanese into surrender, or order the planned invasion of Japan's home islands; casualty estimates for Americans ranged very widely. Casualty estimates for Japan ranged into the millions. Secretary of War [[Henry Stimson]] made the real decision: to drop atomic bombs on [[Hiroshima]] and [[Nagasaki]]. Japan immediately surrendered on terms that allowed Emperor [[Hirohito]] to stay on the throne and not be tried as a war criminal. Truman put General [[Douglas MacArthur]] in charge of occupying and controlling Japan; MacArthur remained in charge until the peace treaty was finally signed in 1951.

Truman kept control of the bomb in civilian hands—the Air Force and State Department did not even know how many bombs existed until 1948, when only eight had been built. The postwar military strategy was not built around nuclear weapons.

====Debating the decision====

=====Conservatives and liberals=====

In general, conservatives and liberals alike have applauded and supported the a-bomb decision because it shortened the war, and prevented hundreds of thousands or millions of casualties. The New Left or "revisionist" interpretation argues that the bomb was not necessary to end the war and that no invasion was necessary. They have no evidence to support that argument. They do have fragments of evidence that give weak support to the argument that one American goal was to intimidate the Soviet Union. The revisionists believe the US should have stayed friends with the Soviets, and that Truman was guilty for starting the Cold War (which they consider a bad thing). Morally the revisionists assume the USA was no better or worse than the Soviets--admitting to Soviet atrocities, they argue that socialism was morally superior to capitalism, which itself was a great evil the US intended to spread. In terms of the bomb, Secretary of State James Byrnes did make some offhand references to influencing Moscow, but his comments did not reflect the policy of the State Department or White House, and certainly not those of Stimson, who was by far the most important decision-maker.
Vice President Truman had been kept uninformed about the atomic bomb; he had little interest in military affairs and his chief military aide, General Harry Vaughan, was a drinking buddy likewise unfamiliar with what was happening in the war. Truman therefore relied entirely on his Secretary of War, [[Henry Stimson]]. At Potsdam he approved the atomic bomb targets selected by Stimson and, on the way home, he authorized the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki three days later.
====How the decision was made=====
The decision to drop the atomic bomb has been the focus of one of the most heated debates among both scholars and the public since 1945. After 1945 the debate was dominated by "traditionalist" scholars, who argued that the U.S. had no choice but to drop the bomb as a way to bring World War II to an end. The traditionalists were succeeded in the 1960s by "revisionists," who asserted that the dropping of the bomb was done to intimidate Stalin, not end the war. The leading revisionist historians emerged from the "new left" movement of the 1960s and rejected any notion of the moral superiority of America or capitalism to the Soviet Union. They thought the Cold War and containment were poor policies and generally favored détente, along the lines proposed by Henry Wallace. They include Gar Alperovitz, Barton J. Bernstein, Kai Bird, Diane Shaver Clemens, Bruce Cumings, Richard Freeland, Lloyd Gardner, Gabriel Kolko, Walter LaFeber, Thomas Paterson, Harvard Sitkoff, Ronald Steel, Athan Theoharis, and William A. Williams (the leader of the "Wisconsin School"). The revisionists are not monolithic, but they usually agree that Truman and his advisers were wrong whether the issue is the Cold War, Korea, or the atomic bomb. Revisionists had argued that Truman's goal at Potsdam was to prevent Soviet entry into the war against Japan, and the atomic bomb was used to scare them off. However in 1983 archivists discovered a letter Truman wrote to his wife from Potsdam on July 18, 1945: "I've gotten what I came for-- Stalin goes to war August 15 with no strings on it . . . I'll say that we'll end the war a year sooner now, and think of the kids who won't be killed! That's the important thing."<ref>''New York Times'' March 14, 1983. </ref>

In the 1990s, a more nuanced historical approach emerged searching for a middle ground, offering a number of more credible studies, essentially arguing that neither the traditional nor the revisionist interpretations were entirely satisfactory.<ref>J. Samuel Walker, "Recent Literature on Truman's Atomic Bomb Decision: a Search for Middle Ground." ''Diplomatic History'' 2005 29(2): 311-334. Issn: 0145-2096 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]</ref>

==Domestic affairs==
===Reconversion of the economy to peacetime===
The process of reconversion to peacetime was rocky. It was impossible to bring soldiers home fast enough, and they and their families protected loudly. All war contract were canceled, shutting down munitions plants and throwing millions of workers (many of them women) out of jobs, just as the 12 million service members were coming home. Truman sought to retain price controls against the vehement opposition of business but yielded somewhat in the face of bitter popular opposition. Large-scale strikes disrupted the economy, especially a coal miners strike and a threatened nationwide strike by railroad workers. He threatened to draft the railroad workers and the strike was called off; unions began to oppose him but he regained union support by his later attempts to veto or repeal the [[Taft-Hartley]] labor relations law. Truman's opposition to tax cuts, his insistence on price controls, and his lack of aggressive support of labor programs weakened his party. To voters frustrated with shortages and controls, Truman seemed indecisive and inconsistent; his efforts to deal with a postwar wave of strikes managed to alienate both organized labor and those who wanted more restraints on unions. Voters who normally supported liberal and labor candidates stayed home, resulting in a Republican landslide in 1946, giving the GOP a majority in both houses of Congress. Ohio Senator [[Robert A. Taft]] became the main GOP spokesman in Congress, tangling often with Truman.
===Moving left===
Gradually Truman created his own administration, using the '''''Fair Deal''''' label to express its goals in domestic affairs. Truman systematically removed the Roosevelt cabinet and inner circle of advisors. The most dramatic episode was firing [[Henry A. Wallace]] in 1946 because of his outspoken criticism of the administration's foreign policy as too harsh on the Soviet Union. Liberals saw themselves in a struggle with conservatives for Truman's soul after the 1946 election. Linked to the President through top aide [[Clark Clifford]], these liberals included Oscar Ewing, former party official and director of the Federal Security Agency, Leon Keyserling, member of the President's Council of Economic Advisors, and David Morse, assistant secretary of labor. They embraced the memo plotting 1948 campaign strategy written by former Roosevelt adviser James Rowe, which urged Truman to "move to the left and focus on building a coalition of groups that centered on organized labor, liberals, and northern urban African Americans."<ref> The memo until 1991 was mis-attributed to Clifford, who passed it along to Truman.</ref> Liberals had national support from the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), led by [[Walter Reuther]], [[Eleanor Roosevelt]], Joseph Rauh, James Rowe, [[Reinhold Niebuhr]], [[Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.]], [[Hubert Humphrey]], and [[Ronald Reagan]]<ref> Reagan was an energetic liberal supporter of Truman. He moved to the right in the late 1950s.</ref> . The ADA was hostile to the Soviet Union, battled American Communists and fellow travelers like Wallace, and supported the purge of Communists from the [[CIO]] labor unions. Truman agreed with the ADA and moved left after 1946.<ref> Steven M. Gillon, ''Politics and Vision: the ADA and American Liberalism, 1947-1985'' (1987).</ref>

However he could not tolerate [[Henry A. Wallace]] and the far left, which had considerable Communist support. When Wallace, then Secretary of Commerce, in 1946 denounced Truman's tough stand against Stalin, Truman fired Wallace.

In 1947 Truman asked Congress for stand-by price controls, rationing, and bank and consumer credit control as parts of an anti-inflation program, but his ideas were ignored by the Republicans who controlled Congress. In his state of the union message of Jan. 7, 1948, Truman called for rent control, increased social security benefits, universal military training, national health insurance, and other social legislation. The next week he again asked for passage of his anti-inflation measures. In February 1948 he asked for civil-rights legislation, including a federal anti-lynching law, a federal fair employment practices commission, a permanent civil rights commission, and abolition of the poll tax--measures that enraged many Southern Democrats. None of his proposals became law. More successful was Truman's drive to increase the efficiency of the executive branch; he appointed a commission headed by former President [[Herbert Hoover]] which recommended numerous changes, including unification of the armed services.

===Civil Rights===
Disgusted by violence against black veterans in the deep South, Truman called for the extension of the wartime [[FEPC]] program that called for fair employment practices, but Congress refused and it ended. He created the Presidential Commission on Civil Rights in 1946 by executive order (with no congressional approval needed); it recommended desegregation of local public facilities and the removal of restrictive covenants that prevented blacks and Jews from purchasing houses in restricted neighborhoods. The Commission generated attention but no action.<ref> Steven F. Lawson, ed. ''To Secure These Rights: The Report of Harry S. Truman's Committee on Civil Rights.'' (2004)</ref> Indeed, Congress refused to pass any civil rights legislation before 1957. Truman therefore decided to use his executive powers, and focused on guaranteeing equal opportunity in the military and the civil service. The Army and Navy operated segregated units, and refused to be part of a "social experiment" in integration.<ref> Bernard C. Nalty, ''Strength For the Fight: A History of Black Americans in the Military'' (1986)</ref> The Air Force, however, was much more willing. Between 1941 and 1951 it went from a segregated force to the first truly integrated service. Key generals became convinced that segregation was a drag on efficiency, and the Air Force decided to integrate in April 1948. before Truman issued his famous Executive Order 9981 on July 26, 1948, calling for equal opportunity in all the armed services. It allowed segregation but called for "equality of treatment and opportunity." In the face of opposition from some high-ranking officers, the Air Force moved cautiously, but by 1951 the last black unit was dissolved and the Air Force was completely integrated.<ref> Alan L. Gropman, ''The Air Force Integrates, 1945-1964.'' (2nd ed 1998) [http://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/Publications/Annotations/gropmanintegrates.htm online edition]. </ref> Order 9981 created the Fahy Committee to implement the new policy. Truman's order did not actually integrate the Army--it used segregated units during the Korean War--but it opened the way for integration in the early 1950s.<ref> Richard M. Dalfiume, ''Desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces: Fighting on Two Fronts, 1939-1953.'' (1969)</ref> Public opinion was generally favorable except in the deep South (which voted against Truman in 1948).

==1948 election==
As the presidential election of 1948 approached, no one thought Truman could be reelected. Truman's policies had alienated left right and center, but the party had no real alternative. Neither Roosevelt nor Truman had groomed a likely successor. Party leaders considered asking [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] to run, but he refused. Liberals led by Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota inserted a strong civil rights plank in the platform, causing a walkout of the deep South. Truman was renominated by default, with Barkley as the vice-presidential candidate. Truman thrilled the convention by announcing his plan to call the Republican-controlled Congress back into special session to "ask them to pass the laws to halt rising prices, to meet the housing crisis--which they say they are for in their platform." When this special session accomplished little, as Truman expected, it gave the president a chance to attack the "Do Nothing" Congress.

Both the left and right wings of the party split off and ran their own candidates. Henry Wallace, the candidate of the Progressive Party, was expected to divert labor, leftist and black votes, while [[J. Strom Thurmond]] was the "Dixiecrat" candidate whose supporters controlled the Democratic party in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina.<ref> Thurmond received only 15% of the vote in the other Southern states. Kari Frederickson, ''The Dixiecrat Revolt and the End of the Solid South, 1932-1968.'' (2001) </ref> Truman exploited his multiple opponents, driving a wedge between the liberals and the Communists who controlled the Wallace movement, and holding the line in the outer South. Most of all he exploited the difference between the conservative Republicans who controlled Congress, and the liberal Republican candidate [[Tom Dewey]]. Truman crusaded against the Republicans as evil rich men, blasting them as fascists and denouncing the 80th Congress for its failure to help the average citizen.<ref>''Time'' magazine reported that "His irresponsible implication that a vote for Thomas Dewey was a vote for fascism horrified his soberer followers." ''Time'' Jan 3, 1949 at [http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/personoftheyear/archive/stories/1948.html]</ref> "Give 'em hell" fury delivered in 275 speeches over 21,928 train-miles had more impact that Truman's promises of more money for federal housing, higher social security and unemployment benefits, free medical care for everyone, the continued subsidy of farm prices, and a fair deal for minorities. The pollsters misjudged the election, as did all the traditional pundits. Truman rallied enough of the [[New Deal Coalition]] to win by 2.2 million votes, and carry in a Democratic Congress on his coattails. The key farm states of the farm states of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Ohio that Dewey had carried in 1944 now switched to Truman, giving a solid victory in the electoral college of 303 for Truman, 189 for Dewey, 39 for Thurmond, and none for Wallace.<ref> Harold I. Gullan, ''The Upset That Wasn't: Harry S. Truman and the Crucial Election of 1948'' (1998); Gary A. Donaldson, ''Truman Defeats Dewey'' (1998) </ref>

==Second Term: Fair Deal==
During Truman's second term as president, he pressed for civil rights legislation, compulsory national health insurance, and other domestic measures that he called his "Fair Deal" program. Almost nothing was passed by Congress, which was controlled by the [[Conservative Coalition]]. His seizure of the steel industry to prevent a strike was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

In foreign affairs, Truman brought in [[Dean Acheson]] as Secretary of State, and promoted the Point Four program of aid to underdeveloped countries. The policy of containing Communism was operationalized by the creation, in 1949, of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to oversee the integration of the military forces of its member nations in Western Europe and North America. A further step was taken in 1951 with the establishment of the Mutual Security Agency to coordinate U.S. economic, technical and military aid abroad.
===Agriculture===
Truman won the farm vote in 1948 by charging the GOP shoved "a pitchfork in the farmer's back", but was unable to get new farm programs passed. His second secretary of agriculture, Charles F. Brannan promoted the Brannan Plan, intended to bring widespread changes to farm policy. Brannan proposed to replace market price supports with direct income payments to farmers. His plan set ceilings on the amount a farmer could receive and limited the program to farmers who did not exceed a set production mark. The Brannan Plan was supposed to foster the "family-sized farm" while providing affordable food for consumers. While Brannan could count on support from the left, especially the National Farmers Union (which was small), labor unions (which were powerful), and consumer groups (which were weak), he was opposed by leading farm economists and the national Farm Bureau (which was large) and the national Chamber of Commerce (representing business). The head of the Farm Bureau decried the plan as intrusive, a form of "creeping socialism," and expensive. The Farm Bureau, dominated by conservatives, resisted any curbs on full agricultural production. A bloc of Midwestern Republican and southern Democratic congressmen opposed replacing market mechanisms with outright government payments to farmers and setting limits on supports to individual farms. The Brannan Plan went nowhere and instead, the conservative farm bloc passed the Agricultural Act of 1949 with high price supports.<ref> See Dean (2006)</ref>

==National Security==
===Truman Doctrine and origins of Cold War===
In early 1947 the British government, which was socialist but anti-Communist, secretly told Washington its treasury was empty and it could no longer give military and economic aid to Greece or Turkey, requested the U.S. take over. Acheson convinced Truman to act quickly lest Greece be taken over by its communist partisans who were at the time strongly supported by the Soviet government working through the communist Bulgarian and Yugoslav governments. If Greece fell, Turkey would be helpless and soon the eastern Mediterranean would fall under Stalin’s control. In a dramatic message to Congress on March 12, 1947, President Truman said that the U. S. must take immediate and resolute action to support Greece and Turkey.<ref> Turkey did not have an insurrection, but it was such a bitter rival of Greece that it had to get money if Greece did.</ref> The Republican Congress, after extensive hearings, approved this historic change in U. S. foreign policy in a bill signed May 22, 1947. Thus was born the “Truman Doctrine.” Greece suppressed the insurgents; both Greece and Turkey joined NATO.<ref>
Joseph C. Satterthwaite, "The Truman Doctrine: Turkey," ''Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,'' Vol. 401, (May, 1972), pp. 74-84 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1039114 in JSTOR]</ref>
===Recognition of Israel===
Truman usually followed the advice of the State Department in national security matters, largely ignoring the Pentagon and Congress. In the case of recognition of the independent state of Israel in 1948, however, he overruled the urgent pleas of the State Department and immediately recognized Israel. State had warned that recognition would anger the Arabs in the Middle East; Truman, howver, was more responsive to domestic politics, where support for Israel was widespread.<ref> Michael T. Benson, ''Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel'' (1997) [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-S-Truman-Founding-Israel/dp/0275958078/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221429694&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]; for the State Departmenrt perspective see Evan M. Wilson, "The American Interest in the Palestine Question and the Establishment of Israel," ''Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,'' Vol. 401, (May, 1972), pp. 64-73 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1039113 in JSTOR]</ref>

===Religion===
Truman, a Southern Baptist, sought religious allies in the Cold War. He tried to unite the world's religions in a spiritual crusade against communism, sending his personal representative to Pope [[Pius XII]] to coordinate not only with the Vatican but also with the heads of the Anglican, Lutheran, and Greek Orthodox churches. "If I can mobilize the people who believe in a moral world against the Bolshevik materialists," Truman wrote in 1947, "we can win this fight." Since the [[Roman Catholic Church]] was his strongest religious ally in the moral battle against international communism, Truman put Rome first in his global strategy, even trying to confer formal diplomatic recognition on the Vatican. At home, he received solid support from Catholics, who were a major element of the [[New Deal Coalition]], but overwhelming resistance from Protestants, especially Southern Baptists who rejected anything "popish." Truman's political-diplomatic effort to formalize a public, faith-driven, ecumenical international campaign failed.<ref> Elizabeth Edwards Spalding, "True Believers" ''Wilson Quarterly'' 2006 30(2): 40-44, 46-48. Issn: 0363-3276 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]</ref>

===Loss of China===
[[Chiang Kai-shek]], America's wartime ally and head of the Nationalist forces in China, was caught between two wars—a war on China by [[Japan]] and a war with [[Mao Zedong]] and the Chinese Communists. The U.S. policy was to avoid a civil war and to threaten to withhold additional aid to the Nationalists unless they worked out a compromise. No compromise was possible, and Truman refused to send in combat troops to fight the civil war. General [[George Marshall]], who spent a year in China as Truman's emissary, testified that combat aid might have prevented a Communist victory, but General David Barr's military mission to China was specifically instructed not to supply this kind of assistance. <ref>Military Situation in the Far East, Hearings before the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, 82nd Congress (Washington, 1951), p. 558.</ref> General [[Albert C. Wedemeyer]] recommended this approach in his report on his 1947 fact-finding mission, but Marshall personally suppressed the report. <ref>Tang Tsou, ''America's Failure in China, 1941-1945'', Chicago 1964, pg. 457.</ref> Chiang believed that the [[Truman Doctrine]] to [[Containment|contain]] the spread of [[International Communism]] directed from Moscow would be extended to China, and ordered an offensive as soon as word of the new policy reached him. <ref>Richard C. Thornton, ''China: A Political History, 1917-1980'', Boulder CO 1982, pg. 208.</ref>

[[Dean Rusk]], Assistant Secretary of State in charge of the Far Eastern Division, said on May 18,1951 what the critics had been saying,
{{Cquote|The independence of China is gravely threatened. In the Communist world there is room for only one master. . . . How many Chinese in one community after another are being destroyed because they love China more than they love [[Soviet Russia]]? The freedoms of the Chinese people are disappearing. Trial by mob, [[democide|mass slaughter]], banishment to [[slavery|forced labor]] in [[Manchuria]] and Siberia. . . . The peace and security of China are being sacrificed by the ambitions of the Chinese conspiracy. China has been driven by foreign masters into an adventure in foreign aggression.}}
John T. Flynn observes that critics of the [[FDR]] and Truman Administrations who had been saying this earlier were denounced as “[[Fascists]].”<ref>''While You Slept: Our Tragedy in Asia and Who Made It'', John T. Flynn, New York: The Devin-Adair Company, 1951, [http://www.mises.org/books/whileyouslept.pdf pg. 161] pdf.</ref> Rusk continued,
{{Cquote|We do not recognize the authorities in [[Peiping]] for what they pretend to be. It is not the government of China. It does not pass the first test. It is not Chinese. . . . We recognize the [[Kuomintang|Nationalist government of the Republic of China]] even though the territory under its control is severely restricted. <ref>Hearings before the Senate Committee on Armed Services and Committee on Foreign Relations (also known as the Mac Arthur Inquiry), June 2, 1951.</ref>…we believe it more authoritatively represents the views of the great body of the people of China, particularly their demand for independence from foreign control….That government will continue to receive important aid and assistance from the United States.}}

===Risks in Korea===
Conditions inviting the North Korean attack were created by the [[United Nations]] which issued a resolution for withdrawal of both Soviet and American troops. Troops began withdrawing September 15, 1948, leaving only about 7500 Americans lightly armed. This left in South Korea 16,000 Koreans and 7500 Americans, both groups lightly armed, against 150,000 fully armed North Korean Communists. General Roberts, head of the U. S. Military Mission said the South Koreans were not permitted to arm adequately.
The Korean part of Wedemeyer's report was suppressed. Wedemeyer said:
{{Cquote|American and Soviet forces . . . are approximately equal, less than 50,000 troops each, [but] the Soviet-equipped and trained North Korean People's (Communist) Army of approximately 125,000 is vastly superior to the United States-organized constabulary of 16,000 Koreans equipped with Japanese small arms. The North Korean People's Army constitutes a potential military threat to [[South Korea]], since there is strong possibility that the Soviets will withdraw their occupation forces and thus induce our own withdrawal."<ref>Hearings before the Senate Committee on Armed Services and Committee on Foreign Relations, June 6, 1951.</ref>}}

Wedemeyer warned that this would take place as soon as "they can be sure that the [[North Korea]]n [[puppet government]] and its armed forces . . . are strong enough . . . to be relied upon to carry out Soviet objectives without the actual presence of Soviet troops."
===Communists inside US===
The bipartisan statutory [[Moynihan Secrecy Commission]] concluded, "President Truman was almost willfully obtuse as regards American Communism." <ref>Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy. Senate Document 105-2. 103rd Congress. Washington, D.C. United States Government Printing Office. 1997. [http://www.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/04dpm.pdf Chairman's Forward, pg. XL] pdf.</ref>
===Foreign policy: détente to containment===
Truman had no knowledge or interest in foreign policy before becoming president, and depended on the State Department for foreign policy advice.<ref> By 1946 he had two valuable aides Clark Clifford and George Elsey.</ref> Truman shifted from FDR's détente to [[containment]] as soon as [[Dean Acheson]] convinced him the Soviet Union was a long-term threat to American interests. They viewed communism as a secular, millennial religion that informed the Kremlin's worldview and actions and made it the chief threat to American security, liberty, and world peace. They rejected the moral equivalence of democratic and Communist governments and concluded that until the regime in Moscow changed only American and Allied strength could curb the Soviets. Following Acheson's advice, Truman in 1947 announced the [[Truman Doctrine]] of containing Communist expansion by furnishing military and economic American aid to Europe and Asia, and particularly to Greece and Turkey. He followed up with the [[Marshall Plan]], which was enacted into law as the European Recovery Program (ERP) and led ultimately to [[NATO]], the North Atlantic Alliance for military defense, signed in 1949. On May 14, 1948, Truman announced recognition of the new state of [[Israel]], making the United States the first major power to do so.

==Korean War==
The [[Korean War]] began at the end of June 1950 when North Korea, a Communist country, invaded South Korea, which was under U.S. protection. Without consulting Congress Truman ordered General [[Douglas MacArthur]] to use all American forces to resist the invasion. Truman then received approval from the United Nations, which the Soviets were boycotting. UN forces managed to cling to a toehold in Korea, as the North Koreans outran their supply system. A counterattack at Inchon destroyed the invasion army, and the UN forces captured most of North Korea on their way to the Yalu River, Korea's northern border with China. Truman defined the war goal as [[rollback]] of Communism and reunification of the country under UN auspices. China intervened unexpectedly, drove the UN forces all the way back to South Korea. The fighting stabilized close to the original 38th parallel that had divided North and South. MacArthur wanted to continue the rollback strategy but Truman arrived at a new policy of containment, allowing North Korea to persist. Truman's dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur in April 1951 sparked a violent debate on U.S. Far Eastern policy, as Truman took the blame for a high-cost stalemate with 37,000 Americans killed and over 100,000 wounded.

Truman fired his ineffective defense secretary Louis Johnson, and brought back [[George Marshall]].
===NSC-68===
The top-secret [[NSC-68]] policy paper was the grounds for escalating the Cold War, especially in terms of spending on rearmament and building the hydrogen bomb. The integration of European defense was given new impetus by continued U.S. support of NATO, under the command of General Eisenhower. Truman committed the US to contain Communist expansion in Vietnam, where the Communists under [[Ho Chi Minh]] were trying to overthrow the French colonial regime. The State Department insisted that France give more autonomy to the Vietnamese. The US paid for about 80% of the French war costs. The problem was that the French were more interested in preserving their grandiose empire, and less interested in stopping Communism, while the US opposed colonial empires and saw Communism as the great threat to world peace and stability.

Following NSC-68, Truman's last four budgets saw expenditures on national security quadruple from $13 billion in 1950 to $50 billion in 1953.

===1952 election===
On the political front, revelation of scandals in the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, in the Bureau of Internal Revenue and even the White House<ref> Truman's wife accepted an expensive deep freeze appliance in 1945; with General Vaughan as the fixer, the donor was given special privileges in Europe. </ref> opened the administration to attack.

Truman sought reelection in 1952 despite his dismal showing in the polls. He was defeated in the New Hampshire primary by Senator [[Estes Kefauver]] of Tennessee, and withdrew. Truman supported Illinois Governor [[Adlai Stevenson]]. Eisenhower won the GOP nomination and crusading against the Truman administration's failures regarding "Korea, Communism and Corruption," was elected in a landslide, ending 20 years of Democratic control of the presidency.

==Retirement==
Truman returned to his home in Independence, Missouri. He devoted himself to creating the Truman Library there; it was dedicated in July 1957 and is a part of the National Archives. With a staff of assistants he wrote his memoirs in two well-received volumes, gave many interviews, and intervened occasionally in Democratic national politics on behalf of liberal candidates such as [[Adlai Stevenson]].

He died on December 26, 1972.

==Evaluations==
Already by the 1960s he had become a hero to liberals and Democrats, nostalgic over the successes of the [[New Deal Coalition]] that sputtered and collapsed in the 1960s. Even Republicans came to forget the nasty days and celebrated Truman as the hero of the underdogs and the man who rebuilt Europe through the Marshall Plan and stood up to Communism through NATO.

Truman's reputation among scholars has gone from very low when he left office, to high after 1990. He is now widely considered to have been a tough-minded, decisive, and effective leader who ably guided the nation through the perilous waters of the early Cold War and whose policy of containment essentially laid the foundations for American "victory" in that prolonged conflict in 1989. For many historians, the down-to-earth Midwesterner now merits consideration as one of the greatest American presidents. In recent years presidential aspirants of both parties have claimed Truman as their own, especially if their election chances seem as hopeless as Truman's did in 1948. His reputation has been bolstered by scholarly biographies by Ferrell (1994), Hamby (1995), and especially McCullough's Pulitzer prize-winning popular biography (1992). The in-depth analysis by Leffler (1992), cautiously praised the Truman administration's essential wisdom in handling a myriad of problems.

While Truman's public image was headed up, his reputation among scholars declined in the 1970s. Kirkendall concluded in 1974 that negative appraisals of Truman and his administration "may in fact have become the dominant interpretation, at least among the younger scholars."<ref> Kirkendall, ''Truman Period as a Research Field: A Reappraisal 1972'' (1974) p 6</ref> In terms of foreign policy a strong negative view comes from Offner (2002) who argues that Truman was a "parochial nationalist" whose "uncritical belief in the superiority of American values and political-economic interests," conviction that "the Soviet Union and Communism were the root cause of international strife," and "inability to comprehend Asian politics and nationalism" intensified the postwar conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, precipitated the division of Europe, and set Sino-American relations on a path of long-term animosity. Rather than being a great statesman who carefully weighed various policy alternatives, Offner asserts that Truman's myopia "created a rigid framework in which the United States waged long-term, extremely costly global cold war". As his title suggests, the Cold War was at best a Pyrrhic victory for the United States.<ref> Quotes from Offner (2002) p. xii</ref>

Truman became the model of the underdog who fights back and wins when the experts unanimously predict defeat. Gerald Ford, who had bitterly denounced Truman as a young Congressman proudly proclaimed the Missourian as his hero and conspicuously displayed a bust of Truman in the oval office after Ford became president in 1974. In the 1976 campaign both Ford and his Democratic rival, [[Jimmy Carter]], outdid one another in claiming to be cast from the Truman mold. By 1980 when the Gallup Poll asked "Of all the Presidents we've ever had, who do you wish were President?", Harry Truman finished an impressive third behind Kennedy and FDR.

====notes====

==Further reading: basic books and articles==
* Burnes, Brian. ''Harry S. Truman: His Life and Times'' (2003), popular biography [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-S-Truman-Life-Times/dp/0974000930/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Dallek, Robert. ''Harry Truman'' (2008) short, popular biography by scholar. [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Truman-Presidents-President-1945-1953/dp/0805069380/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221386001&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Donovan, Robert J. ''Conflict and Crisis: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1945-1948'' (1977); ''Tumultuous Years: 1949-1953'' (1982) detailed 2-vol political history by well-informed journalist; well balanced
* Fleming, Thomas J. ''Harry S. Truman, President'' (1993) for middle school audience.
* Graff, Henry F., ed. ''The Presidents: A Reference History''. 2nd ed. 1996, 443–458. ISBN 0-684-80471-9; by leading scholar
* Hamby, Alonzo L. ''Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman'' (1995), the best scholarly biography; written by conservative historian who likes HST
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "An American Democrat: A Reevaluation of the Personality of Harry S. Truman," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 106, No. 1 (Spring, 1991), pp. 33-55 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2152173 in JSTOR]
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "Truman, Harry S."; [http://www.anb.org/articles/07/07-00307.html; ''American National Biography'' Online Feb. 2000] by a leading conservative historian
* Kirkendall, Richard S. ''Harry S. Truman Encyclopedia'' (1990), very useful articles on people, events and policies in HST's career
* Kirkendall Richard S. "Harry S Truman a Missouri Farmer in the Golden Age," ''Agricultural History,'' Vol. 48, No. 4 (Oct., 1974), pp. 467-483 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/3741384 in JSTOR]
* McCullough, David. ''Truman''. (1993), 1120 pp ISBN 0-671-86920-5 best-selling biography; moderate in tone; Pulitzer Prize [http://www.amazon.com/Truman-David-McCullough/dp/0671869205/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* McCullough, David. ''Harry S. Truman'', short essay [http://www.pbs.org/newshour/character/essays/truman.html online edition]
* Offner, Arnold A. ''Another Such Victory: President Truman and the Cold War.'' (2002) 640pp, New LEft and hostile to HST; [http://books.google.com/books?id=P5tbHSsBS-AC&pg=PP1&dq=intitle:another+intitle:victory+inauthor:offner&num=30&as_brr=0&sig=pWo43stsPrIrtTfZXJicvWB3zCY excerpts and text search]
* [http://www.amazon.com/American-Experience-Truman/dp/B000BYRCG0/ref=pd_bbs_4/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1193347436&sr=8-4 ''American Experience: Truman'' (2006), from PBS]
* [http://www.amazon.com/Classic-President-Harry-Truman-Films/dp/B000JD7MV8/ref=sr_1_14/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1193347436&sr=8-14 "Classic President Harry S Truman Films: 1945-1965'' (2006) 40 newsreels, 101 minutes]

==Advanced bibliography==
These are secondary source by scholars; unless noted they are generally liberal and supportive of Truman.
===Biographies===
* Burnes, Brian. ''Harry S. Truman: His Life and Times'' (2003); popular biography; [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-S-Truman-Life-Times/dp/0974000930/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Cochran, Bert. ''Harry S. Truman and the Crisis Presidency'' (19730, 432 pages; portrays a cynical courthouse politician
* Donovan, Robert J. ''Conflict and Crisis: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1945-1948'' (1977); ''Tumultuous Years: 1949-1953'' (1982), good, detailed 2-vol political history by well-informed journalist
* Ferrell, Robert H. ''Harry S. Truman: A Life'' (1994), brief overview
* Fleming, Thomas J. ''Harry S. Truman, President'' (1993) for middle school audience.
* Gosnell, Harold Foote. ''Truman's Crises: A Political Biography of Harry S. Truman'' (1980)
* Graff, Henry F., ed. ''The Presidents: A Reference History''. 2nd ed. 1996, 443–458. ISBN 0-684-80471-9
* Hamby, Alonzo L. ''Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman'' (1995), very well received scholarly biography [http://www.amazon.com/Man-People-Truman-Oxford-Paperbacks/dp/0195124979/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193438333&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "The Liberals, Truman, and the FDR as Symbol and Myth," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 56, No. 4 (Mar., 1970), pp. 859-867 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1917522 in JSTOR]
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "Truman, Harry S."; [http://www.anb.org/articles/07/07-00307.html; ''American National Biography'' Online Feb. 2000]
* Kirkendall, Richard S. ''Harry S. Truman Encyclopedia'' (1990)
* McCullough, David. ''Truman''. . ISBN 0-671-86920-5 best-selling biography; Pulitzer Prize [http://www.amazon.com/Truman-David-McCullough/dp/0671869205/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Miller, Richard Lawrence. ''Truman: The Rise to Power'' (2002), critical evaluation emphasizing corruption of Pendergast machine

===Foreign policy===
* Appleman, Roy E. ''South to the Naktong, North to the Yalu (June-November 1950)'' (United States Army in the Korean War) (1960); official U.S. Army history, [http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/korea/20-2-1/toc.htm online version]
* Beisner, Robert L. ''Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War'' (2006), 800pp; a standard scholarly biography; covers 1945-53 only
* Benson, Michael T. ''Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel'' (1997) [http://www.questia.com/read/15103137 online edition]
* Berger, Henry. "Bipartisanship, Senator Taft, and the Truman Administration," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 90, No. 2 (Summer, 1975), pp. 221-237 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2148235 in JSTOR]
* Bernstein Barton J. "Roosevelt, Truman, and the Atomic Bomb, 1941-1945: A Reinterpretation," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 90, No. 1 (Spring, 1975), pp. 23-69 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2148698 in JSTOR], influential New left essay
* Blair, Clay ''The Forgotten War: America in Korea, 1950-1953'', Naval Institute Press (2003) revisionist study that attacks Truman and top Army leaders for near-criminal incompetence
* Divine, Robert A. "The Cold War and the Election of 1948," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 59, No. 1 (Jun., 1972), pp. 90-110 [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8723%28197206%2959%3A1%3C90%3ATCWATE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-C in JSTOR]
* Frazier, Robert. "Acheson and the Formulation of the Truman Doctrine" ''Journal of Modern Greek Studies'' 17#2 (1999), pp. 229-251 online at [[Project Muse]]
* Gaddis, John Lewis. "Reconsiderations: Was the Truman Doctrine a Real Turning Point?" ''Foreign Affairs'' 1974 52(2): 386-402. ISSN 0015-7120
* Giangreco, D. M. "'A Score of Bloody Okinawas and Iwo Jimas': President Truman and Casualty Estimates for the Invasion of Japan," ''Pacific Historical Review,'' Vol. 72, No. 1 (Feb., 2003), pp. 93-132 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/3642102 in JSTOR] shows Truman was indeed by very high invasion casualties
* Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi. ''Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan.'' (2005). 382 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Racing-Enemy-Stalin-Truman-Surrender/dp/0674016939/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193349212&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Hogan, Michael J. ''A Cross of Iron: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of the National Security State, 1945-1954'' (2000) [http://www.amazon.com/Cross-Iron-National-Security-19451954/dp/0521795370/ref=sr_1_34/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347927&sr=8-34 excerpt and text search]
* Ivie, Robert L. "Fire, Flood, and Red Fever: Motivating Metaphors of Global Emergency in the Truman Doctrine Speech." ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 1999 29(3): 570-591. ISSN 0360-4918 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001303753 online edition]
* Lacey, Michael J. ed. ''The Truman Presidency'' (1989), major essays by scholars
* Matray, James I. "Truman's Plan for Victory: National Self-Determination and the Thirty-Eighth Parallel Decision in Korea," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 66, No. 2 (Sep., 1979), pp. 314-333 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1900879 in JSTOR] Truman planned rollback of Communism in North Korea
* Merrill, Dennis. "The Truman Doctrine: Containing Communism and Modernity" ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 2006 36(1): 27-37. ISSN 0360-4918
* Offner, Arnold A. "'Another Such Victory': President Truman, American Foreign Policy, and the Cold War." ''Diplomatic History'' 1999 23(2): 127-155. ISSN 0145-2096
* Ojserkis, Raymond P. ''Beginnings of the Cold War Arms Race: The Truman Administration and the U.S. Arms Build-Up'' (2003) [http://www.questia.com/read/102018810 online edition]
* Pelz, Stephen. "When the Kitchen Gets Hot, Pass the Buck: Truman and Korea in 1950," ''Reviews in American History'' 6 (December 1978), 548-55. Online at Project MUSE
* Pierpaoli, Paul G. Jr.; ''Truman and Korea: The Political Culture of the Early Cold War.'' University of Missouri Press, 1999 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=108668070 online edition]
* Smith, Geoffrey S. "'Harry, We Hardly Know You': Revisionism, Politics and Diplomacy, 1945-1954," ''American Political Science Review'' 70 (June 1976), 560-82. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-0554(197606)70%3A2%3C560%3A%22WHKYR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-%23 in JSTOR]
* Spalding, Elizabeth Edwards. ''The First Cold Warrior: Harry Truman, Containment, And the Remaking of Liberal Internationalism'' (2006) [http://www.amazon.com/First-Cold-Warrior-Containment-Internationalism/dp/0813123925/ref=sr_1_22/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347812&sr=8-22 excerpt and text search]
* Wainstock, Dennis D. ''Truman, MacArthur, and the Korean War'' (1999) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23387043 online edition]
* Walker, J. Samuel. ''Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs against Japan'' (1997) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=35245486 online complete edition]; [http://www.amazon.com/Prompt-Utter-Destruction-Truman-Against/dp/080785607X/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193348187&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Walker, J. Samuel. "Recent Literature on Truman's Atomic Bomb Decision: A Search for Middle Ground" ''Diplomatic History'' April 2005 - Vol. 29 Issue 2 Pp 311-334 fulltext in [[EBSCO]]

===Domestic policy and politics===
* Bernstein Barton J. "The Truman Administration and the Steel Strike of 1946," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 52, No. 4 (Mar., 1966), pp. 791-803 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1894347 in JSTOR]
* Billington, Monroe. "Civil Rights, President Truman and the South," ''Journal of Negro History,'' Vol. 58, No. 2 (Apr., 1973), pp. 127-139 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2716825 in JSTOR]
* Dean, Virgil W. "Charles F. Brannan and the Rise and Fall of Truman's 'Fair Deal' for Farmers." ''Agricultural History'' 1995 69(1): 28-53. Issn: 0002-1482
* Dean, Virgil W. ''An Opportunity Lost: The Truman Administration and the Farm Policy Debate.'' 2006. 275 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Opportunity-Lost-Truman-Administration-Policy/dp/0826216501/ref=sr_1_10/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193434622&sr=1-10 excerpt and text search]
* Derickson, Alan. "'Take Health from the List of Luxuries': Labor and the Right to Health Care, 1915-1949." ''Labor History'' 2000 41(2): 171-187. Issn: 0023-656x Fulltext: in Taylor and Francis, Swetswise, Ingenta, and [[Ebsco]]
* Donaldson, Gary A. ''Truman Defeats Dewey'' (1998)
* Farhang, Sean, and Ira Katznelson. "The Southern Imposition: Congress and Labor in the New Deal and Fair Deal," ''Studies in American Political Development'' (2005), 19: 1-30; [http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=324401 online edition]
* Freeland, Richard M. ''The Truman Doctrine and the Origins of McCarthyism: Foreign Policy, Domestic Policy, and Internal Security, 1946-48'' (1989), revisionist; New left attack on Truman for being too anti-Communist
* Fried, Richard M. ''Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective.'' 1990. [http://www.questia.com/read/79027083 online complete edition]; [http://www.amazon.com/Nightmare-Red-McCarthy-Era-Perspective/dp/0195043618/ref=sr_1_11/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193514847&sr=8-11 excerpt and text search]
* Gardner, Michael R. ''Harry Truman and Civil Rights: Moral Courage and Political Risks.'' (2002) 296 pp.[http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=105233906 online edition]
* Hamby, Alonzo. ''Beyond the New Deal: Harry S. Truman and American Liberalism'' (1973), the most sophisticated biography; by a prominent conservative historian
* Hartmann, Susan M. ''Truman and the 80th Congress'' (1971) [http://www.questia.com/read/77360404 online edition]
* Heller, Francis H. ''Economics and the Truman Administration'' (1982) [http://www.amazon.com/Economics-Truman-Administration-Francis-Heller/dp/0700602178/ref=sr_1_9/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193434622&sr=1-9 excerpt and text search]
* Karabell, Zachary. ''The Last Campaign: How Harry Truman Won the 1948 Election'' (2001) [http://www.amazon.com/Last-Campaign-Harry-Truman-Election/dp/0375700773/ref=sr_1_24/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=11973347812&sr=8-24 excerpt and text search]
* Koenig, Louis W. ''The Truman Administration: Its Principles and Practice'' (1956) [http://www.questia.com/read/8522614 online edition]
* Komarek de Luna, Phyllis. ''Public versus Private Power during the Truman Administration: A Study of Fair Deal Liberalism.'' Peter Lang, 1997. 253 pp.
* Lacey, Michael J. ed. ''The Truman Presidency'' (1989), major essays by scholars
* Lee, R. Alton. ''Truman and Taft-Hartley: A Question of Mandate.'' (1966) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=99000111 online edition]
* Leuchtenburg, William E. ''The White House Looks South: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson.'' (2005). 668 pp.
* Levantrosser, William F. ed. ''Harry S. Truman: The Man from Independence'' (1986). 25 essays by scholars and Truman aides. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23428395 online edition]
* McCoy, Donald. ''The Presidency of Harry S. Truman'' (1984), standard scholarly survey by conservative historian; [http://www.amazon.com/Presidency-Harry-S-Truman-American/dp/0700602550/ref=sr_1_8/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193514606&sr=8-8 excerpt and text search]
* Marcus, Maeva ''Truman and the Steel Seizure Case: The Limits of Presidential Power'' (1994) [http://www.questia.com/read/22816992 online edition]
* Phillips, Cabel. ''The Truman Presidency: The History of a Triumphant Succession'' (1966), by a journalist who interviewed many key players
* Pierpaoli, Paul G. Jr. ''Truman and Korea: The Political Culture of the Early Cold War.'' (1997). ISBN 0-8262-1206-9. focus on the homefront [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=16627966265512 online review]
* Ryan, Halford R. ''Harry S. Truman: Presidential Rhetoric'' (1993) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=27994601 online edition]
* Sitkoff, Harvard. "Harry Truman and the Election of 1948: The Coming of Age of Civil Rights in American Politics," ''Journal of Southern History,'' Vol. 37, No. 4 (Nov., 1971), pp. 597-616 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2206548 in JSTOR]
* Theoharis, Athan. "The Truman Administration and the Decline of Civil Liberties: The FBI's Success in Securing Authorization for a Preventive Detention Program," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 64, No. 4 (Mar., 1978), pp. 1010-1030 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1890734 in JSTOR], leftwing attack on Truman for being too harsh on possible subversives
* Theoharis, Athan. ''The Truman Presidency: The Origins of the Imperial Presidency and the National Security State'' (1979), revisionist, New left attack on HST
* Theoharis, Athan. ''Seeds of Repression: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of McCarthyism'' (1977), New Left attack on HST for being so hostile to domestic Communists
* Thompson, Francis H. ''The Frustration of Politics: Truman, Congress, and the Loyalty Issue, 1945-1953.'' 1979. 246 pp.
* Vaughan, Philip H. "The Truman Administration's Fair Deal for Black America." ''Missouri Historical Review'' 1976 70(3): 291-305. Issn: 0026-6582

===Primary sources===
* Bernstein, Barton J., Ed. ''The Truman Administration: A Documentary History'' (1966); 2nd edition published as ''Politics and Policies of the Truman Administration'' (1970), revisionist
* [http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/publications/ERP/ Council of Economic Advisors, ''Economic Report of the President'' (annual 1947- )], complete series online; important analysis of current trends and policies, plus statistcial tables
* Ferrell, Robert H. ed. ''Dear Bess: The Letters from Harry to Bess Truman, 1910-1959'' (1983)
* Ferrell, Robert H. ed. ''Off the Record: The Private Papers of Harry S. Truman'' (1980).
* Merrill, Dennis. ed. ''Documentary History of the Truman Presidency, (1995- ) 35 volumes; available in some large academic libraries.
* Miller, Merle ''Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman'' (1974)
* Neal, Steve. ed. ''HST: Memories of the Truman Years.'' (2003)280pp; long excerpts from 20 oral history interviews (some of which are online at the Truman Library site).
* Neal, Steve. ed. ''Miracle of '48: Harry Truman's Major Campaign Speeches & Selected Whistle-Stops'' (2003); 43 speeches
* Truman, Harry S. ''Where the Buck Stops: The Personal and Private Writings of Harry S. Truman'' edited by Margaret Truman (1990) [http://www.amazon.com/Where-Buck-Stops-Personal-Writings/dp/0446391751/ref=pd_bbs_sr_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221386001&sr=8-6 excerpt and text search]
* Truman, Harry S. ''Memoirs'' 2 vol (1955). [http://tera-3.ul.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/reader.pl?call=30151&search= vol 1 online]
* Truman, Margaret. ''Harry S. Truman''. (1973). memoir by his daughter
* Truman, Harry S. ''The Autobiography of Harry S. Truman'' edited compilation of excerpts by Robert H. Ferrell (2002) [http://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Harry-S-Truman/dp/0826214452/ref=pd_bbs_sr_5/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-5 excerpt and text search]
* [http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/ ''The Public Papers of the Presidents'' contain most of Truman's public messages, statements, speeches, and news conference remarks. Documents such as Proclamations, and Executive Orders]

==Historiography==
* Ferrell, Robert H. ''Harry S. Truman and the Cold War Revisionists.'' 2006. 142 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Truman-Cold-War-Revisionists/dp/0826216536/ref=sr_1_6/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193349212&sr=8-6 excerpt and text search]
* Geselbracht, Raymond. "Creating the Harry S. Truman Library: The First Fifty Years," ''Public Historian'', 28 (Summer 2006), 37–78.
* Hartmann, Susan M. "The 1948 Election and the Configuration of Postwar Liberalism" ''Reviews in American History'' 28.1 (2000) 105-111 in [[Project Muse]]
* Heller, Francis H., ed. ''The Korean War: A 25 Year Perspective'' (1977), essays by scholars
* Heller, Francis H., ed. ''The Truman White House: The Administration of the Presidency, 1945-1953'' (1980), essays by scholars
* Heller, Francis H., ed. ''Economics and the Truman Administration'' (1981), essays by scholars
* Kirkendall, Richard S. ed. ''Harry's Farewell: Interpreting and Teaching the Truman Presidency'' (2004) essays by scholars
* Kirkendall, Richard S., ed. ''The Truman Period as a Research Field: A Reappraisal 1972'' (1974)
* Tull, Charles J. "The State of the Art in Truman Research," in William F. Levantrosser, ed. ''Harry S. Truman: The Man from Independence'' (1986), 1-31 aides. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23428395 online edition]
* Walker, J. Samuel "Recent Literature on Truman's Atomic Bomb Decision: a Search for Middle Ground." ''Diplomatic History'' 2005 29(2): 311-334. Issn: 0145-2096 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]

==External links==
*[http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/ht33.html Biography]
*[http://www.trumanlibrary.org Presidential Library]
*[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/index.php The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb], Truman Library.
*[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/small/mb12a.htm President Truman to Senator Richard B. Russell], August 9, 1945.
====notes====
<references/>

{{USPresidents}}
{{USVicePresidents}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Truman, Harry}}

[[Category:Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:Vice Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:Democratic Party]]

J. Strom Thurmond

2008-11-11T20:58:22Z

AshleyS: Redirecting to Strom Thurmond

#REDIRECT [[Strom Thurmond]]

Harry Truman

2008-11-11T20:57:53Z

AshleyS: /* 1948 election */ spelling

{{President|
|name=Harry S. Truman
|image=HTruman.jpg
|country=the United States
|seq=33
|party=Democratic
|term_start=April 12, 1945
|term_end=January 20, 1953<ref>http://home.comcast.net/~sharonday7/Presidents/AP060301.htm</ref>
|vp=None
|vp_dates=1945-1949
|2vp=Alben Barkley
|2vp_dates=1949-1953
|previous=Franklin D. Roosevelt
|next=Dwight D. Eisenhower
|seq2=34
|office2=vice
|party2=
|term2_start=January 20, 1945
|term2_end=April 12, 1945
|pres2=Franklin D. Roosevelt
|previous2=Henry A. Wallace
|next2=Alben W. Barkley
|birth_date=May 8, 1884
|birth_place=Lamar, MO
|death_date=December 26, 1972
|death_place=Kansas City, MO
|spouse=Bess Wallace Truman
|spouse2=
|religion=[[Baptist]]
}}

'''Harry S. Truman,''' (1884-1972) a [[liberal]] [[Democrat]] from [[Missouri]], was the president of the United States from 1945-1953, taking over when [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] died in April 1945. He took the decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order to force Japan's surrender. Angered at the Soviet Union's seizure of eastern Europe, he moved away from FDR's [[détente]] to a policy of [[containment]], reinforced by the Truman Plan (1947) to resist Communist subversion, the [[Marshall Plan]] (1948-51) to rebuild and modernize western Europe's economies, and the [[NATO]] military alliance of 1949. Truman, advised by [[Dean Acheson]] and the State Department, set the policies to oppose the Soviet Union as the [[Cold War]] began.

Ignoring Asia, he later saw America's close ally China fall to the anti-American Communists under [[Mao Zedong]] in 1949; the US and China fought each other to a draw during the undeclared [[Korean War]], 1950-53. Truman fired his top general, [[Douglas MacArthur]], during this conflict and saw his popularity plunge.

As the war ended, the massive problem of reconverting the 45% of the economy devoted to war production baffled Truman. Listening to liberal advisors, he refused to end extremely unpopular price controls, and was unable to stop a massive wave of strikes in major industries in 1945-46. Voter dissatisfaction to the Republican capture of Congress in 1946; with Senator [[Robert A. Taft]] as the conservative Republican spokesman, Congress repealed many of the wartime restrictions on business and lowered taxes. Taft rewrote the labor laws in the [[Taft-Hartley Act of 1947]], balancing the rights of unions, management and the public interest; it became law over Truman's signature and remains in effect.

Truman began with very high popularity ratings, but they plunged to the lowest on record. Democrats were unable to stop his renomination in 1948, but the far left nominated FDR's vice president [[Henry A. Wallace]], and southern conservative Democrats nominated Dixiecrat [[J. Strom Thurmond]]. Observers almost unanimously expected victory for the Republican candidate, Governor [[Thomas E. Dewey]], liberal from New York. Total astonishment greeted Truman's stunning election victory, as he reassembled the [[New Deal Coalition]] for the fifth consecutive victory, pulling in on his coattails a Democratic Congress.

Although the Democrats organized Congress in 1949, the [[Conservative Coalition]] of Northern Republicans and Southern Democrats was in control, and Truman was to pass any of his liberal [[Fair Deal|Fair Deal program]]. Nevertheless he he pursued civil rights through executive orders, especially a 1948 order to end racial discrimination in the military. Blacks remained in segregated units, but were to receive equal treatment. Truman's failures to deal with "Korea, Communism and Corruption" forced him to withdraw from reelection in 1952 and gave the Republicans an opportunity to crusade against him and elect [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] in 1952.

Overshadowed at first by his predecessor, [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], Truman established a reputation as a blunt, unsophisticated fighter for the common man, who took responsibility for his actions because, he said, "the buck stops here." His stunning reelection victory in 1948 baffled the experts and has inspired underdogs ever since. He is more popular in 2008 than ever. His policy positions make him a heroic icon for liberals.

==Early life==

Truman was born on a farm near Lamar, in western Missouri, and grew up on a farm near Independence, Missouri. His grandparents had been Confederate sympathizers who had been rounded up by the Union army in the Civil War.<ref> His middle initial, S, does not stand for anything, but was chosen because his parents could not decide whether to name him for his grandfather Shippe or for his grandfather Solomon.</ref> After graduating from high school in Independence, with good skills in history and music, he decided against college and became a bank clerk in Kansas City. Always a joiner, he was active in the Missouri National Guard. From 1906 to 1917 he managed his father's 600-acre farm at Grandview, Missouri. During World War I his National Guard regiment was mobilized in 1917, he entered the Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, sailing for France in 1917 as a lieutenant. Truman was soon promoted to captain in Battery D, 129 Field Artillery Battalion, 35th Division, A.E.F., and returned to the United States a major in 1919, after combat at St. Mihiel and in the Argonne offensive. He was in an artillery unit, and learned about gas warfare; he was never wounded, He married Elizabeth "Bess" Wallace on June 28, 1919; they had one daughter, Margaret, who married a ''New York Times'' editor. With an army buddy he invested his savings in a Kansas City haberdashery, but this venture was a failure.

==Pendergast machine==
Discouraged by his lack of business success and without funds, Truman sought the help of friends. His farm background, his war record, his Masonic connections, his Baptist Church affiliations, and his genial personality recommended him to [[Thomas J. Pendergast]], the Democratic political boss of Kansas City and much of western Missouri. Pendergast, an Irish Catholic, had a strong base among the Irish Catholics and used Truman to reach out to Protestants, farmers and veterans. He made Truman the overseer of highways for Jackson County.

In 1922 Truman was elected a county judge; needing some legal knowledge he studied nights for two years at Kansas City Law School; it was his only education beyond high school, although he read history. In the 1924 GOP landslide he was defeated for reelection, but in 1926 he was returned to office as presiding judge of the court, the duties of which also involved administrative supervision of many county expenditures, including $60 million for public works. He almost joined the [[Ku Klux Klan]], but withdrew his application when he realized his Irish Catholic allies bitterly opposed the KKK; Truman then campaigned against the Klan.
==Senate==
In 1934 Pendergast arranged for Truman's nomination as United States Senator on the Democratic ticket; he was elected in the democratic landslide as a supporter of Roosevelt and the New deal. His first term in office was uneventful, except for a failed effort to prevent the renomination of Maurice Milligan for U.S. District Attorney for the Western District of Missouri; Milligan had obtained the conviction of 35 Pendergast "ward leaders" for vote frauds.

===World War II===
He was reelected after a terrific battle in 1940. Truman gained national prominence for serving as chairman of the Truman Committee to investigate waste, fraud and inefficiency in government contracts. Its formal name was the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program. He was an energetic and forthright supporter of the [[New Deal]] and won widespread party favor for his attacks on business malfeasance in war production. He forced changes in the aircraft and ship construction programs, and worked well with other border state Democrats, especially [[Alben Barkley]] of Kentucky, the Majority Leader.

===FDR picks a new vice president===
In 1944, after Vice-President [[Henry A. Wallace]] had been rejected by leading Democrats as too far to the left, Truman supported his friend former senator [[James F. Byrnes]] of South Carolina for that office. Catholics vetoed Byrnes, who had left that faith. Truman himself became Roosevelt's choice as a compromise vice presidential candidate, and the two were elected.

Roosevelt had been in ill-health since his return from the [[Teheran conference]]. At the 1944 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, DNC Chairman Bob Hannegan went for instructions to President Roosevelt's private railway car just before the July convention officially began. Roosevelt had decided to dump incumbent Vice-President [[Henry Wallace]]. Worried over dissension on the choice of a successor, Roosevelt told Hannegan: "Go on down there and nominate Truman before there's any more trouble. And clear everything with Sidney." <ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,791619,00.html "Clear everything with Sidney"], [[Time magazine]], Sep. 25, 1944.</ref> The President could not make the selection of Truman until [[Sidney Hillman]] <ref>''The Roosevelt Myth'', John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948, Book 2, Ch. 8, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Eight___The_Shock_Troops.htm ''The Shock Troops of the Third New Deal'']</ref>, Director of the Political Action Committee for the Congress on Industrial Organizations (CIO) approved it. <ref> ''Roosevelt Myth'', Book 3, Ch. 10, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Ten___Politics__Disease_.htm ''Politics, Disease and History''], Flynn, 1948.</ref> When Harry Truman walked into the smoke-filled room <ref>[http://www.booknotes.org/Transcript/index_print.asp?ProgramID=1109 ''Truman''], Interview with David McCullough, C-Span Booknotes, July 19, 1992. Retrieved August 6, 2007.</ref> of DNC at headquarters at the Stevens Hotel in Chicago, Soviet spies [[John Abt]], [[Lee Pressman]], and [[Nathan Witt]], were on hand." <ref>''The Yalta Betrayal'', Felix Wittmer, Claxton Printers, 1953, pg. 75.</ref>

==Presidency==
Roosevelt ignored Truman between the election in November 1944 and the inauguration in January; even as Vice president Truman was not consulted on national policies, and not informed of major decisions, nor of the atomic bomb. Although he realized Roosevelt's health was failing rapidly, he made no preparations for assuming the presidency and did not even build up a staff of advisors. Truman succeeded to the Presidency upon the death of FDR on April 12, 1945.

President Truman pledged that in office he would carry on the liberal domestic policies of Roosevelt. He distrusted most of FDR's cabinet and set about to assemble his own team.

===Winning World War II===

During his term as President, he presided over the conclusion of [[World War II]] in both [[Europe]] and [[Japan]].
On April 25 his telephoned speech opened the San Francisco Conference establishing the [[United Nations]]. A week later Germany surrendered, and from July 17 to August 2, 1945, Truman attended the [[Potsdam Conference]] with Britain's [[Winston Churchill]] (soon replaced by the new prime minister [[Clement Attlee]]) and [[Joseph Stalin]] of the Soviet Union.

===Atomic bomb===
The alternative Truman faced was to order use of the atomic bomb which might shock the Japanese into surrender, or order the planned invasion of Japan's home islands; casualty estimates for Americans ranged very widely. Casualty estimates for Japan ranged into the millions. Secretary of War [[Henry Stimson]] made the real decision: to drop atomic bombs on [[Hiroshima]] and [[Nagasaki]]. Japan immediately surrendered on terms that allowed Emperor [[Hirohito]] to stay on the throne and not be tried as a war criminal. Truman put General [[Douglas MacArthur]] in charge of occupying and controlling Japan; MacArthur remained in charge until the peace treaty was finally signed in 1951.

Truman kept control of the bomb in civilian hands--the Air Force and State Department did not even know how many bombs existed until 1948, when only eight had been built. The postwar military strategy was not built around nuclear weapons.

====Debating the decision====

=====Conservatives and liberals=====

In general, conservatives and liberals alike have applauded and supported the a-bomb decision because it shortened the war, and prevented hundreds of thousands or millions of casualties. The New Left or "revisionist" interpretation argues that the bomb was not necessary to end the war and that no invasion was necessary. They have no evidence to support that argument. They do have fragments of evidence that give weak support to the argument that one American goal was to intimidate the Soviet Union. The revisionists believe the US should have stayed friends with the Soviets, and that Truman was guilty for starting the Cold War (which they consider a bad thing). Morally the revisionists assume the USA was no better or worse than the Soviets--admitting to Soviet atrocities, they argue that socialism was morally superior to capitalism, which itself was a great evil the US intended to spread. In terms of the bomb, Secretary of State James Byrnes did make some offhand references to influencing Moscow, but his comments did not reflect the policy of the State Department or White House, and certainly not those of Stimson, who was by far the most important decision-maker.
Vice President Truman had been kept uninformed about the atomic bomb; he had little interest in military affairs and his chief military aide, General Harry Vaughan, was a drinking buddy likewise unfamiliar with what was happening in the war. Truman therefore relied entirely on his Secretary of War, [[Henry Stimson]]. At Potsdam he approved the atomic bomb targets selected by Stimson and, on the way home, he authorized the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki three days later.
====How the decision was made=====
The decision to drop the atomic bomb has been the focus of one of the most heated debates among both scholars and the public since 1945. After 1945 the debate was dominated by "traditionalist" scholars, who argued that the U.S. had no choice but to drop the bomb as a way to bring World War II to an end. The traditionalists were succeeded in the 1960s by "revisionists," who asserted that the dropping of the bomb was done to intimidate Stalin, not end the war. The leading revisionist historians emerged from the "new left" movement of the 1960s and rejected any notion of the moral superiority of America or capitalism to the Soviet Union. They thought the Cold War and containment were poor policies and generally favored détente, along the lines proposed by Henry Wallace. They include Gar Alperovitz, Barton J. Bernstein, Kai Bird, Diane Shaver Clemens, Bruce Cumings, Richard Freeland, Lloyd Gardner, Gabriel Kolko, Walter LaFeber, Thomas Paterson, Harvard Sitkoff, Ronald Steel, Athan Theoharis, and William A. Williams (the leader of the "Wisconsin School"). The revisionists are not monolithic, but they usually agree that Truman and his advisers were wrong whether the issue is the Cold War, Korea, or the atomic bomb. Revisionists had argued that Truman's goal at Potsdam was to prevent Soviet entry into the war against Japan, and the atomic bomb was used to scare them off. However in 1983 archivists discovered a letter Truman wrote to his wife from Potsdam on July 18, 1945: "I've gotten what I came for-- Stalin goes to war August 15 with no strings on it . . . I'll say that we'll end the war a year sooner now, and think of the kids who won't be killed! That's the important thing."<ref>''New York Times'' March 14, 1983. </ref>

In the 1990s, a more nuanced historical approach emerged searching for a middle ground, offering a number of more credible studies, essentially arguing that neither the traditional nor the revisionist interpretations were entirely satisfactory.<ref>J. Samuel Walker, "Recent Literature on Truman's Atomic Bomb Decision: a Search for Middle Ground." ''Diplomatic History'' 2005 29(2): 311-334. Issn: 0145-2096 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]</ref>
==Domestic affairs==
===Reconversion of the economy to peacetime===
The process of reconversion to peacetime was rocky. It was impossible to bring soldiers home fast enough, and they and their families protected loudly. All war contract were canceled, shutting down munitions plants and throwing millions of workers (many of them women) out of jobs, just as the 12 million service members were coming home. Truman sought to retain price controls against the vehement opposition of business but yielded somewhat in the face of bitter popular opposition. Large-scale strikes disrupted the economy, especially a coal miners strike and a threatened nationwide strike by railroad workers. He threatened to draft the railroad workers and the strike was called off; unions began to oppose him but he regained union support by his later attempts to veto or repeal the [[Taft-Hartley]] labor relations law. Truman's opposition to tax cuts, his insistence on price controls, and his lack of aggressive support of labor programs weakened his party. To voters frustrated with shortages and controls, Truman seemed indecisive and inconsistent; his efforts to deal with a postwar wave of strikes managed to alienate both organized labor and those who wanted more restraints on unions. Voters who normally supported liberal and labor candidates stayed home, resulting in a Republican landslide in 1946, giving the GOP a majority in both houses of Congress. Ohio Senator [[Robert A. Taft]] became the main GOP spokesman in Congress, tangling often with Truman.
===Moving left===
Gradually Truman created his own administration, using the '''''Fair Deal''''' label to express its goals in domestic affairs. Truman systematically removed the Roosevelt cabinet and inner circle of advisors. The most dramatic episode was firing [[Henry A. Wallace]] in 1946 because of his outspoken criticism of the administration's foreign policy as too harsh on the Soviet Union. Liberals saw themselves in a struggle with conservatives for Truman's soul after the 1946 election. Linked to the President through top aide [[Clark Clifford]], these liberals included Oscar Ewing, former party official and director of the Federal Security Agency, Leon Keyserling, member of the President's Council of Economic Advisors, and David Morse, assistant secretary of labor. They embraced the memo plotting 1948 campaign strategy written by former Roosevelt adviser James Rowe, which urged Truman to "move to the left and focus on building a coalition of groups that centered on organized labor, liberals, and northern urban African Americans."<ref> The memo until 1991 was mis-attributed to Clifford, who passed it along to Truman.</ref> Liberals had national support from the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), led by [[Walter Reuther]], [[Eleanor Roosevelt]], Joseph Rauh, James Rowe, [[Reinhold Niebuhr]], [[Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.]], [[Hubert Humphrey]], and [[Ronald Reagan]]<ref> Reagan was an energetic liberal supporter of Truman. He moved to the right in the late 1950s.</ref> . The ADA was hostile to the Soviet Union, battled American Communists and fellow travelers like Wallace, and supported the purge of Communists from the [[CIO]] labor unions. Truman agreed with the ADA and moved left after 1946.<ref> Steven M. Gillon, ''Politics and Vision: the ADA and American Liberalism, 1947-1985'' (1987).</ref>

However he could not tolerate [[Henry A. Wallace]] and the far left, which had considerable Communist support. When Wallace, then Secretary of Commerce, in 1946 denounced Truman's tough stand against Stalin, Truman fired Wallace.

In 1947 Truman asked Congress for stand-by price controls, rationing, and bank and consumer credit control as parts of an anti-inflation program, but his ideas were ignored by the Republicans who controlled Congress. In his state of the union message of Jan. 7, 1948, Truman called for rent control, increased social security benefits, universal military training, national health insurance, and other social legislation. The next week he again asked for passage of his anti-inflation measures. In February 1948 he asked for civil-rights legislation, including a federal anti-lynching law, a federal fair employment practices commission, a permanent civil rights commission, and abolition of the poll tax--measures that enraged many Southern Democrats. None of his proposals became law. More successful was Truman's drive to increase the efficiency of the executive branch; he appointed a commission headed by former President [[Herbert Hoover]] which recommended numerous changes, including unification of the armed services.

===Civil Rights===
Disgusted by violence against black veterans in the deep South, Truman called for the extension of the wartime [[FEPC]] program that called for fair employment practices, but Congress refused and it ended. He created the Presidential Commission on Civil Rights in 1946 by executive order (with no congressional approval needed); it recommended desegregation of local public facilities and the removal of restrictive covenants that prevented blacks and Jews from purchasing houses in restricted neighborhoods. The Commission generated attention but no action.<ref> Steven F. Lawson, ed. ''To Secure These Rights: The Report of Harry S. Truman's Committee on Civil Rights.'' (2004)</ref> Indeed, Congress refused to pass any civil rights legislation before 1957. Truman therefore decided to use his executive powers, and focused on guaranteeing equal opportunity in the military and the civil service. The Army and Navy operated segregated units, and refused to be part of a "social experiment" in integration.<ref> Bernard C. Nalty, ''Strength For the Fight: A History of Black Americans in the Military'' (1986)</ref> The Air Force, however, was much more willing. Between 1941 and 1951 it went from a segregated force to the first truly integrated service. Key generals became convinced that segregation was a drag on efficiency, and the Air Force decided to integrate in April 1948. before Truman issued his famous Executive Order 9981 on July 26, 1948, calling for equal opportunity in all the armed services. It allowed segregation but called for "equality of treatment and opportunity." In the face of opposition from some high-ranking officers, the Air Force moved cautiously, but by 1951 the last black unit was dissolved and the Air Force was completely integrated.<ref> Alan L. Gropman, ''The Air Force Integrates, 1945-1964.'' (2nd ed 1998) [http://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/Publications/Annotations/gropmanintegrates.htm online edition]. </ref> Order 9981 created the Fahy Committee to implement the new policy. Truman's order did not actually integrate the Army--it used segregated units during the Korean War--but it opened the way for integration in the early 1950s.<ref> Richard M. Dalfiume, ''Desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces: Fighting on Two Fronts, 1939-1953.'' (1969)</ref> Public opinion was generally favorable except in the deep South (which voted against Truman in 1948).

==1948 election==
As the presidential election of 1948 approached, no one thought Truman could be reelected. Truman's policies had alienated left right and center, but the party had no real alternative. Neither Roosevelt nor Truman had groomed a likely successor. Party leaders considered asking [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] to run, but he refused. Liberals led by Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota inserted a strong civil rights plank in the platform, causing a walkout of the deep South. Truman was renominated by default, with Barkley as the vice-presidential candidate. Truman thrilled the convention by announcing his plan to call the Republican-controlled Congress back into special session to "ask them to pass the laws to halt rising prices, to meet the housing crisis--which they say they are for in their platform." When this special session accomplished little, as Truman expected, it gave the president a chance to attack the "Do Nothing" Congress.

Both the left and right wings of the party split off and ran their own candidates. Henry Wallace, the candidate of the Progressive Party, was expected to divert labor, leftist and black votes, while [[J. Strom Thurmond]] was the "Dixiecrat" candidate whose supporters controlled the Democratic party in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina.<ref> Thurmond received only 15% of the vote in the other Southern states. Kari Frederickson, ''The Dixiecrat Revolt and the End of the Solid South, 1932-1968.'' (2001) </ref> Truman exploited his multiple opponents, driving a wedge between the liberals and the Communists who controlled the Wallace movement, and holding the line in the outer South. Most of all he exploited the difference between the conservative Republicans who controlled Congress, and the liberal Republican candidate [[Tom Dewey]]. Truman crusaded against the Republicans as evil rich men, blasting them as fascists and denouncing the 80th Congress for its failure to help the average citizen.<ref>''Time'' magazine reported that "His irresponsible implication that a vote for Thomas Dewey was a vote for fascism horrified his soberer followers." ''Time'' Jan 3, 1949 at [http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/personoftheyear/archive/stories/1948.html]</ref> "Give 'em hell" fury delivered in 275 speeches over 21,928 train-miles had more impact that Truman's promises of more money for federal housing, higher social security and unemployment benefits, free medical care for everyone, the continued subsidy of farm prices, and a fair deal for minorities. The pollsters misjudged the election, as did all the traditional pundits. Truman rallied enough of the [[New Deal Coalition]] to win by 2.2 million votes, and carry in a Democratic Congress on his coattails. The key farm states of the farm states of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Ohio that Dewey had carried in 1944 now switched to Truman, giving a solid victory in the electoral college of 303 for Truman, 189 for Dewey, 39 for Thurmond, and none for Wallace.<ref> Harold I. Gullan, ''The Upset That Wasn't: Harry S. Truman and the Crucial Election of 1948'' (1998); Gary A. Donaldson, ''Truman Defeats Dewey'' (1998) </ref>

==Second Term: Fair Deal==
During Truman's second term as president, he pressed for civil rights legislation, compulsory national health insurance, and other domestic measures that he called his "Fair Deal" program. Almost nothing was passed by Congress, which was controlled by the [[Conservative Coalition]]. His seizure of the steel industry to prevent a strike was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

In foreign affairs, Truman brought in [[Dean Acheson]] as Secretary of State, and promoted the Point Four program of aid to underdeveloped countries. The policy of containing Communism was operationalized by the creation, in 1949, of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to oversee the integration of the military forces of its member nations in Western Europe and North America. A further step was taken in 1951 with the establishment of the Mutual Security Agency to coordinate U.S. economic, technical and military aid abroad.
===Agriculture===
Truman won the farm vote in 1948 by charging the GOP shoved "a pitchfork in the farmer's back", but was unable to get new farm programs passed. His second secretary of agriculture, Charles F. Brannan promoted the Brannan Plan, intended to bring widespread changes to farm policy. Brannan proposed to replace market price supports with direct income payments to farmers. His plan set ceilings on the amount a farmer could receive and limited the program to farmers who did not exceed a set production mark. The Brannan Plan was supposed to foster the "family-sized farm" while providing affordable food for consumers. While Brannan could count on support from the left, especially the National Farmers Union (which was small), labor unions (which were powerful), and consumer groups (which were weak), he was opposed by leading farm economists and the national Farm Bureau (which was large) and the national Chamber of Commerce (representing business). The head of the Farm Bureau decried the plan as intrusive, a form of "creeping socialism," and expensive. The Farm Bureau, dominated by conservatives, resisted any curbs on full agricultural production. A bloc of Midwestern Republican and southern Democratic congressmen opposed replacing market mechanisms with outright government payments to farmers and setting limits on supports to individual farms. The Brannan Plan went nowhere and instead, the conservative farm bloc passed the Agricultural Act of 1949 with high price supports.<ref> See Dean (2006)</ref>

==National Security==
===Truman Doctrine and origins of Cold War===
In early 1947 the British government, which was socialist but anti-Communist, secretly told Washington its treasury was empty and it could no longer give military and economic aid to Greece or Turkey, requested the U.S. take over. Acheson convinced Truman to act quickly lest Greece be taken over by its communist partisans who were at the time strongly supported by the Soviet government working through the communist Bulgarian and Yugoslav governments. If Greece fell, Turkey would be helpless and soon the eastern Mediterranean would fall under Stalin’s control. In a dramatic message to Congress on March 12, 1947, President Truman said that the U. S. must take immediate and resolute action to support Greece and Turkey.<ref> Turkey did not have an insurrection, but it was such a bitter rival of Greece that it had to get money if Greece did.</ref> The Republican Congress, after extensive hearings, approved this historic change in U. S. foreign policy in a bill signed May 22, 1947. Thus was born the “Truman Doctrine.” Greece suppressed the insurgents; both Greece and Turkey joined NATO.<ref>
Joseph C. Satterthwaite, "The Truman Doctrine: Turkey," ''Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,'' Vol. 401, (May, 1972), pp. 74-84 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1039114 in JSTOR]</ref>
===Recognition of Israel===
Truman usually followed the advice of the State Department in national security matters, largely ignoring the Pentagon and Congress. In the case of recognition of the independent state of Israel in 1948, however, he overruled the urgent pleas of the State Department and immediately recognized Israel. State had warned that recognition would anger the Arabs in the Middle East; Truman, howver, was more responsive to domestic politics, where support for Israel was widespread.<ref> Michael T. Benson, ''Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel'' (1997) [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-S-Truman-Founding-Israel/dp/0275958078/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221429694&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]; for the State Departmenrt perspective see Evan M. Wilson, "The American Interest in the Palestine Question and the Establishment of Israel," ''Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,'' Vol. 401, (May, 1972), pp. 64-73 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1039113 in JSTOR]</ref>

===Religion===
Truman, a Southern Baptist, sought religious allies in the Cold War. He tried to unite the world's religions in a spiritual crusade against communism, sending his personal representative to Pope [[Pius XII]] to coordinate not only with the Vatican but also with the heads of the Anglican, Lutheran, and Greek Orthodox churches. "If I can mobilize the people who believe in a moral world against the Bolshevik materialists," Truman wrote in 1947, "we can win this fight." Since the [[Roman Catholic Church]] was his strongest religious ally in the moral battle against international communism, Truman put Rome first in his global strategy, even trying to confer formal diplomatic recognition on the Vatican. At home, he received solid support from Catholics, who were a major element of the [[New Deal Coalition]], but overwhelming resistance from Protestants, especially Southern Baptists who rejected anything "popish." Truman's political-diplomatic effort to formalize a public, faith-driven, ecumenical international campaign failed.<ref> Elizabeth Edwards Spalding, "True Believers" ''Wilson Quarterly'' 2006 30(2): 40-44, 46-48. Issn: 0363-3276 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]</ref>

===Loss of China===
[[Chiang Kai-shek]], America's wartime ally and head of the Nationalist forces in China, was caught between two wars—a war on China by [[Japan]] and a war with [[Mao Zedong]] and the Chinese Communists. The U.S. policy was to avoid a civil war and to threaten to withhold additional aid to the Nationalists unless they worked out a compromise. No compromise was possible, and Truman refused to send in combat troops to fight the civil war. General [[George Marshall]], who spent a year in China as Truman's emissary, testified that combat aid might have prevented a Communist victory, but General David Barr's military mission to China was specifically instructed not to supply this kind of assistance. <ref>Military Situation in the Far East, Hearings before the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, 82nd Congress (Washington, 1951), p. 558.</ref> General [[Albert C. Wedemeyer]] recommended this approach in his report on his 1947 fact-finding mission, but Marshall personally suppressed the report. <ref>Tang Tsou, ''America's Failure in China, 1941-1945'', Chicago 1964, pg. 457.</ref> Chiang believed that the [[Truman Doctrine]] to [[Containment|contain]] the spread of [[International Communism]] directed from Moscow would be extended to China, and ordered an offensive as soon as word of the new policy reached him. <ref>Richard C. Thornton, ''China: A Political History, 1917-1980'', Boulder CO 1982, pg. 208.</ref>

[[Dean Rusk]], Assistant Secretary of State in charge of the Far Eastern Division, said on May 18,1951 what the critics had been saying,
{{Cquote|The independence of China is gravely threatened. In the Communist world there is room for only one master. . . . How many Chinese in one community after another are being destroyed because they love China more than they love [[Soviet Russia]]? The freedoms of the Chinese people are disappearing. Trial by mob, [[democide|mass slaughter]], banishment to [[slavery|forced labor]] in [[Manchuria]] and Siberia. . . . The peace and security of China are being sacrificed by the ambitions of the Chinese conspiracy. China has been driven by foreign masters into an adventure in foreign aggression.}}
John T. Flynn observes that critics of the [[FDR]] and Truman Administrations who had been saying this earlier were denounced as “[[Fascists]].”<ref>''While You Slept: Our Tragedy in Asia and Who Made It'', John T. Flynn, New York: The Devin-Adair Company, 1951, [http://www.mises.org/books/whileyouslept.pdf pg. 161] pdf.</ref> Rusk continued,
{{Cquote|We do not recognize the authorities in [[Peiping]] for what they pretend to be. It is not the government of China. It does not pass the first test. It is not Chinese. . . . We recognize the [[Kuomintang|Nationalist government of the Republic of China]] even though the territory under its control is severely restricted. <ref>Hearings before the Senate Committee on Armed Services and Committee on Foreign Relations (also known as the Mac Arthur Inquiry), June 2, 1951.</ref>…we believe it more authoritatively represents the views of the great body of the people of China, particularly their demand for independence from foreign control….That government will continue to receive important aid and assistance from the United States.}}

===Risks in Korea===
Conditions inviting the North Korean attack were created by the [[United Nations]] which issued a resolution for withdrawal of both Soviet and American troops. Troops began withdrawing September 15, 1948, leaving only about 7500 Americans lightly armed. This left in South Korea 16,000 Koreans and 7500 Americans, both groups lightly armed, against 150,000 fully armed North Korean Communists. General Roberts, head of the U. S. Military Mission said the South Koreans were not permitted to arm adequately.
The Korean part of Wedemeyer's report was suppressed. Wedemeyer said:
{{Cquote|American and Soviet forces . . . are approximately equal, less than 50,000 troops each, [but] the Soviet-equipped and trained North Korean People's (Communist) Army of approximately 125,000 is vastly superior to the United States-organized constabulary of 16,000 Koreans equipped with Japanese small arms. The North Korean People's Army constitutes a potential military threat to [[South Korea]], since there is strong possibility that the Soviets will withdraw their occupation forces and thus induce our own withdrawal."<ref>Hearings before the Senate Committee on Armed Services and Committee on Foreign Relations, June 6, 1951.</ref>}}

Wedemeyer warned that this would take place as soon as "they can be sure that the [[North Korea]]n [[puppet government]] and its armed forces . . . are strong enough . . . to be relied upon to carry out Soviet objectives without the actual presence of Soviet troops."
===Communists inside US===
The bipartisan statutory [[Moynihan Secrecy Commission]] concluded, "President Truman was almost willfully obtuse as regards American Communism." <ref>Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy. Senate Document 105-2. 103rd Congress. Washington, D.C. United States Government Printing Office. 1997. [http://www.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/04dpm.pdf Chairman's Forward, pg. XL] pdf.</ref>
===Foreign policy: détente to containment===
Truman had no knowledge or interest in foreign policy before becoming president, and depended on the State Department for foreign policy advice.<ref> By 1946 he had two valuable aides Clark Clifford and George Elsey.</ref> Truman shifted from FDR's détente to [[containment]] as soon as [[Dean Acheson]] convinced him the Soviet Union was a long-term threat to American interests. They viewed communism as a secular, millennial religion that informed the Kremlin's worldview and actions and made it the chief threat to American security, liberty, and world peace. They rejected the moral equivalence of democratic and Communist governments and concluded that until the regime in Moscow changed only American and Allied strength could curb the Soviets. Following Acheson's advice, Truman in 1947 announced the [[Truman Doctrine]] of containing Communist expansion by furnishing military and economic American aid to Europe and Asia, and particularly to Greece and Turkey. He followed up with the [[Marshall Plan]], which was enacted into law as the European Recovery Program (ERP) and led ultimately to [[NATO]], the North Atlantic Alliance for military defense, signed in 1949. On May 14, 1948, Truman announced recognition of the new state of [[Israel]], making the United States the first major power to do so.

==Korean War==
The [[Korean War]] began at the end of June 1950 when North Korea, a Communist country, invaded South Korea, which was under U.S. protection. Without consulting Congress Truman ordered General [[Douglas MacArthur]] to use all American forces to resist the invasion. Truman then received approval from the United Nations, which the Soviets were boycotting. UN forces managed to cling to a toehold in Korea, as the North Koreans outran their supply system. A counterattack at Inchon destroyed the invasion army, and the UN forces captured most of North Korea on their way to the Yalu River, Korea's northern border with China. Truman defined the war goal as [[rollback]] of Communism and reunification of the country under UN auspices. China intervened unexpectedly, drove the UN forces all the way back to South Korea. The fighting stabilized close to the original 38th parallel that had divided North and South. MacArthur wanted to continue the rollback strategy but Truman arrived at a new policy of containment, allowing North Korea to persist. Truman's dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur in April 1951 sparked a violent debate on U.S. Far Eastern policy, as Truman took the blame for a high-cost stalemate with 37,000 Americans killed and over 100,000 wounded.

Truman fired his ineffective defense secretary Louis Johnson, and brought back [[George Marshall]].
===NSC-68===
The top-secret [[NSC-68]] policy paper was the grounds for escalating the Cold War, especially in terms of spending on rearmament and building the hydrogen bomb. The integration of European defense was given new impetus by continued U.S. support of NATO, under the command of General Eisenhower. Truman committed the US to contain Communist expansion in Vietnam, where the Communists under [[Ho Chi Minh]] were trying to overthrow the French colonial regime. The State Department insisted that France give more autonomy to the Vietnamese. The US paid for about 80% of the French war costs. The problem was that the French were more interested in preserving their grandiose empire, and less interested in stopping Communism, while the US opposed colonial empires and saw Communism as the great threat to world peace and stability.

Following NSC-68, Truman's last four budgets saw expenditures on national security quadruple from $13 billion in 1950 to $50 billion in 1953.

===1952 election===
On the political front, revelation of scandals in the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, in the Bureau of Internal Revenue and even the White House<ref> Truman's wife accepted an expensive deep freeze appliance in 1945; with General Vaughan as the fixer, the donor was given special privileges in Europe. </ref> opened the administration to attack.

Truman sought reelection in 1952 despite his dismal showing in the polls. He was defeated in the New Hampshire primary by Senator [[Estes Kefauver]] of Tennessee, and withdrew. Truman supported Illinois Governor [[Adlai Stevenson]]. Eisenhower won the GOP nomination and crusading against the Truman administration's failures regarding "Korea, Communism and Corruption," was elected in a landslide, ending 20 years of Democratic control of the presidency.

==Retirement==
Truman returned to his home in Independence, Missouri. He devoted himself to creating the Truman Library there; it was dedicated in July 1957 and is a part of the National Archives. With a staff of assistants he wrote his memoirs in two well-received volumes, gave many interviews, and intervened occasionally in Democratic national politics on behalf of liberal candidates such as [[Adlai Stevenson]].

He died on December 26, 1972.

==Evaluations==
Already by the 1960s he had become a hero to liberals and Democrats, nostalgic over the successes of the [[New Deal Coalition]] that sputtered and collapsed in the 1960s. Even Republicans came to forget the nasty days and celebrated Truman as the hero of the underdogs and the man who rebuilt Europe through the Marshall Plan and stood up to Communism through NATO.

Truman's reputation among scholars has gone from very low when he left office, to high after 1990. He is now widely considered to have been a tough-minded, decisive, and effective leader who ably guided the nation through the perilous waters of the early Cold War and whose policy of containment essentially laid the foundations for American "victory" in that prolonged conflict in 1989. For many historians, the down-to-earth Midwesterner now merits consideration as one of the greatest American presidents. In recent years presidential aspirants of both parties have claimed Truman as their own, especially if their election chances seem as hopeless as Truman's did in 1948. His reputation has been bolstered by scholarly biographies by Ferrell (1994), Hamby (1995), and especially McCullough's Pulitzer prize-winning popular biography (1992). The in-depth analysis by Leffler (1992), cautiously praised the Truman administration's essential wisdom in handling a myriad of problems.

While Truman's public image was headed up, his reputation among scholars declined in the 1970s. Kirkendall concluded in 1974 that negative appraisals of Truman and his administration "may in fact have become the dominant interpretation, at least among the younger scholars."<ref> Kirkendall, ''Truman Period as a Research Field: A Reappraisal 1972'' (1974) p 6</ref> In terms of foreign policy a strong negative view comes from Offner (2002) who argues that Truman was a "parochial nationalist" whose "uncritical belief in the superiority of American values and political-economic interests," conviction that "the Soviet Union and Communism were the root cause of international strife," and "inability to comprehend Asian politics and nationalism" intensified the postwar conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, precipitated the division of Europe, and set Sino-American relations on a path of long-term animosity. Rather than being a great statesman who carefully weighed various policy alternatives, Offner asserts that Truman's myopia "created a rigid framework in which the United States waged long-term, extremely costly global cold war". As his title suggests, the Cold War was at best a Pyrrhic victory for the United States.<ref> Quotes from Offner (2002) p. xii</ref>

Truman became the model of the underdog who fights back and wins when the experts unanimously predict defeat. Gerald Ford, who had bitterly denounced Truman as a young Congressman proudly proclaimed the Missourian as his hero and conspicuously displayed a bust of Truman in the oval office after Ford became president in 1974. In the 1976 campaign both Ford and his Democratic rival, [[Jimmy Carter]], outdid one another in claiming to be cast from the Truman mold. By 1980 when the Gallup Poll asked "Of all the Presidents we've ever had, who do you wish were President?", Harry Truman finished an impressive third behind Kennedy and FDR.

====notes====

==Further reading: basic books and articles==
* Burnes, Brian. ''Harry S. Truman: His Life and Times'' (2003), popular biography [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-S-Truman-Life-Times/dp/0974000930/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Dallek, Robert. ''Harry Truman'' (2008) short, popular biography by scholar. [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Truman-Presidents-President-1945-1953/dp/0805069380/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221386001&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Donovan, Robert J. ''Conflict and Crisis: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1945-1948'' (1977); ''Tumultuous Years: 1949-1953'' (1982) detailed 2-vol political history by well-informed journalist; well balanced
* Fleming, Thomas J. ''Harry S. Truman, President'' (1993) for middle school audience.
* Graff, Henry F., ed. ''The Presidents: A Reference History''. 2nd ed. 1996, 443–458. ISBN 0-684-80471-9; by leading scholar
* Hamby, Alonzo L. ''Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman'' (1995), the best scholarly biography; written by conservative historian who likes HST
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "An American Democrat: A Reevaluation of the Personality of Harry S. Truman," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 106, No. 1 (Spring, 1991), pp. 33-55 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2152173 in JSTOR]
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "Truman, Harry S."; [http://www.anb.org/articles/07/07-00307.html; ''American National Biography'' Online Feb. 2000] by a leading conservative historian
* Kirkendall, Richard S. ''Harry S. Truman Encyclopedia'' (1990), very useful articles on people, events and policies in HST's career
* Kirkendall Richard S. "Harry S Truman a Missouri Farmer in the Golden Age," ''Agricultural History,'' Vol. 48, No. 4 (Oct., 1974), pp. 467-483 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/3741384 in JSTOR]
* McCullough, David. ''Truman''. (1993), 1120 pp ISBN 0-671-86920-5 best-selling biography; moderate in tone; Pulitzer Prize [http://www.amazon.com/Truman-David-McCullough/dp/0671869205/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* McCullough, David. ''Harry S. Truman'', short essay [http://www.pbs.org/newshour/character/essays/truman.html online edition]
* Offner, Arnold A. ''Another Such Victory: President Truman and the Cold War.'' (2002) 640pp, New LEft and hostile to HST; [http://books.google.com/books?id=P5tbHSsBS-AC&pg=PP1&dq=intitle:another+intitle:victory+inauthor:offner&num=30&as_brr=0&sig=pWo43stsPrIrtTfZXJicvWB3zCY excerpts and text search]
* [http://www.amazon.com/American-Experience-Truman/dp/B000BYRCG0/ref=pd_bbs_4/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1193347436&sr=8-4 ''American Experience: Truman'' (2006), from PBS]
* [http://www.amazon.com/Classic-President-Harry-Truman-Films/dp/B000JD7MV8/ref=sr_1_14/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1193347436&sr=8-14 "Classic President Harry S Truman Films: 1945-1965'' (2006) 40 newsreels, 101 minutes]

==Advanced bibliography==
These are secondary source by scholars; unless noted they are generally liberal and supportive of Truman.
===Biographies===
* Burnes, Brian. ''Harry S. Truman: His Life and Times'' (2003); popular biography; [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-S-Truman-Life-Times/dp/0974000930/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Cochran, Bert. ''Harry S. Truman and the Crisis Presidency'' (19730, 432 pages; portrays a cynical courthouse politician
* Donovan, Robert J. ''Conflict and Crisis: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1945-1948'' (1977); ''Tumultuous Years: 1949-1953'' (1982), good, detailed 2-vol political history by well-informed journalist
* Ferrell, Robert H. ''Harry S. Truman: A Life'' (1994), brief overview
* Fleming, Thomas J. ''Harry S. Truman, President'' (1993) for middle school audience.
* Gosnell, Harold Foote. ''Truman's Crises: A Political Biography of Harry S. Truman'' (1980)
* Graff, Henry F., ed. ''The Presidents: A Reference History''. 2nd ed. 1996, 443–458. ISBN 0-684-80471-9
* Hamby, Alonzo L. ''Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman'' (1995), very well received scholarly biography [http://www.amazon.com/Man-People-Truman-Oxford-Paperbacks/dp/0195124979/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193438333&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "The Liberals, Truman, and the FDR as Symbol and Myth," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 56, No. 4 (Mar., 1970), pp. 859-867 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1917522 in JSTOR]
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "Truman, Harry S."; [http://www.anb.org/articles/07/07-00307.html; ''American National Biography'' Online Feb. 2000]
* Kirkendall, Richard S. ''Harry S. Truman Encyclopedia'' (1990)
* McCullough, David. ''Truman''. . ISBN 0-671-86920-5 best-selling biography; Pulitzer Prize [http://www.amazon.com/Truman-David-McCullough/dp/0671869205/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Miller, Richard Lawrence. ''Truman: The Rise to Power'' (2002), critical evaluation emphasizing corruption of Pendergast machine

===Foreign policy===
* Appleman, Roy E. ''South to the Naktong, North to the Yalu (June-November 1950)'' (United States Army in the Korean War) (1960); official U.S. Army history, [http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/korea/20-2-1/toc.htm online version]
* Beisner, Robert L. ''Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War'' (2006), 800pp; a standard scholarly biography; covers 1945-53 only
* Benson, Michael T. ''Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel'' (1997) [http://www.questia.com/read/15103137 online edition]
* Berger, Henry. "Bipartisanship, Senator Taft, and the Truman Administration," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 90, No. 2 (Summer, 1975), pp. 221-237 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2148235 in JSTOR]
* Bernstein Barton J. "Roosevelt, Truman, and the Atomic Bomb, 1941-1945: A Reinterpretation," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 90, No. 1 (Spring, 1975), pp. 23-69 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2148698 in JSTOR], influential New left essay
* Blair, Clay ''The Forgotten War: America in Korea, 1950-1953'', Naval Institute Press (2003) revisionist study that attacks Truman and top Army leaders for near-criminal incompetence
* Divine, Robert A. "The Cold War and the Election of 1948," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 59, No. 1 (Jun., 1972), pp. 90-110 [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8723%28197206%2959%3A1%3C90%3ATCWATE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-C in JSTOR]
* Frazier, Robert. "Acheson and the Formulation of the Truman Doctrine" ''Journal of Modern Greek Studies'' 17#2 (1999), pp. 229-251 online at [[Project Muse]]
* Gaddis, John Lewis. "Reconsiderations: Was the Truman Doctrine a Real Turning Point?" ''Foreign Affairs'' 1974 52(2): 386-402. ISSN 0015-7120
* Giangreco, D. M. "'A Score of Bloody Okinawas and Iwo Jimas': President Truman and Casualty Estimates for the Invasion of Japan," ''Pacific Historical Review,'' Vol. 72, No. 1 (Feb., 2003), pp. 93-132 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/3642102 in JSTOR] shows Truman was indeed by very high invasion casualties
* Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi. ''Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan.'' (2005). 382 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Racing-Enemy-Stalin-Truman-Surrender/dp/0674016939/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193349212&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Hogan, Michael J. ''A Cross of Iron: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of the National Security State, 1945-1954'' (2000) [http://www.amazon.com/Cross-Iron-National-Security-19451954/dp/0521795370/ref=sr_1_34/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347927&sr=8-34 excerpt and text search]
* Ivie, Robert L. "Fire, Flood, and Red Fever: Motivating Metaphors of Global Emergency in the Truman Doctrine Speech." ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 1999 29(3): 570-591. ISSN 0360-4918 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001303753 online edition]
* Lacey, Michael J. ed. ''The Truman Presidency'' (1989), major essays by scholars
* Matray, James I. "Truman's Plan for Victory: National Self-Determination and the Thirty-Eighth Parallel Decision in Korea," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 66, No. 2 (Sep., 1979), pp. 314-333 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1900879 in JSTOR] Truman planned rollback of Communism in North Korea
* Merrill, Dennis. "The Truman Doctrine: Containing Communism and Modernity" ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 2006 36(1): 27-37. ISSN 0360-4918
* Offner, Arnold A. "'Another Such Victory': President Truman, American Foreign Policy, and the Cold War." ''Diplomatic History'' 1999 23(2): 127-155. ISSN 0145-2096
* Ojserkis, Raymond P. ''Beginnings of the Cold War Arms Race: The Truman Administration and the U.S. Arms Build-Up'' (2003) [http://www.questia.com/read/102018810 online edition]
* Pelz, Stephen. "When the Kitchen Gets Hot, Pass the Buck: Truman and Korea in 1950," ''Reviews in American History'' 6 (December 1978), 548-55. Online at Project MUSE
* Pierpaoli, Paul G. Jr.; ''Truman and Korea: The Political Culture of the Early Cold War.'' University of Missouri Press, 1999 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=108668070 online edition]
* Smith, Geoffrey S. "'Harry, We Hardly Know You': Revisionism, Politics and Diplomacy, 1945-1954," ''American Political Science Review'' 70 (June 1976), 560-82. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-0554(197606)70%3A2%3C560%3A%22WHKYR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-%23 in JSTOR]
* Spalding, Elizabeth Edwards. ''The First Cold Warrior: Harry Truman, Containment, And the Remaking of Liberal Internationalism'' (2006) [http://www.amazon.com/First-Cold-Warrior-Containment-Internationalism/dp/0813123925/ref=sr_1_22/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347812&sr=8-22 excerpt and text search]
* Wainstock, Dennis D. ''Truman, MacArthur, and the Korean War'' (1999) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23387043 online edition]
* Walker, J. Samuel. ''Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs against Japan'' (1997) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=35245486 online complete edition]; [http://www.amazon.com/Prompt-Utter-Destruction-Truman-Against/dp/080785607X/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193348187&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Walker, J. Samuel. "Recent Literature on Truman's Atomic Bomb Decision: A Search for Middle Ground" ''Diplomatic History'' April 2005 - Vol. 29 Issue 2 Pp 311-334 fulltext in [[EBSCO]]

===Domestic policy and politics===
* Bernstein Barton J. "The Truman Administration and the Steel Strike of 1946," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 52, No. 4 (Mar., 1966), pp. 791-803 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1894347 in JSTOR]
* Billington, Monroe. "Civil Rights, President Truman and the South," ''Journal of Negro History,'' Vol. 58, No. 2 (Apr., 1973), pp. 127-139 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2716825 in JSTOR]
* Dean, Virgil W. "Charles F. Brannan and the Rise and Fall of Truman's 'Fair Deal' for Farmers." ''Agricultural History'' 1995 69(1): 28-53. Issn: 0002-1482
* Dean, Virgil W. ''An Opportunity Lost: The Truman Administration and the Farm Policy Debate.'' 2006. 275 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Opportunity-Lost-Truman-Administration-Policy/dp/0826216501/ref=sr_1_10/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193434622&sr=1-10 excerpt and text search]
* Derickson, Alan. "'Take Health from the List of Luxuries': Labor and the Right to Health Care, 1915-1949." ''Labor History'' 2000 41(2): 171-187. Issn: 0023-656x Fulltext: in Taylor and Francis, Swetswise, Ingenta, and [[Ebsco]]
* Donaldson, Gary A. ''Truman Defeats Dewey'' (1998)
* Farhang, Sean, and Ira Katznelson. "The Southern Imposition: Congress and Labor in the New Deal and Fair Deal," ''Studies in American Political Development'' (2005), 19: 1-30; [http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=324401 online edition]
* Freeland, Richard M. ''The Truman Doctrine and the Origins of McCarthyism: Foreign Policy, Domestic Policy, and Internal Security, 1946-48'' (1989), revisionist; New left attack on Truman for being too anti-Communist
* Fried, Richard M. ''Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective.'' 1990. [http://www.questia.com/read/79027083 online complete edition]; [http://www.amazon.com/Nightmare-Red-McCarthy-Era-Perspective/dp/0195043618/ref=sr_1_11/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193514847&sr=8-11 excerpt and text search]
* Gardner, Michael R. ''Harry Truman and Civil Rights: Moral Courage and Political Risks.'' (2002) 296 pp.[http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=105233906 online edition]
* Hamby, Alonzo. ''Beyond the New Deal: Harry S. Truman and American Liberalism'' (1973), the most sophisticated biography; by a prominent conservative historian
* Hartmann, Susan M. ''Truman and the 80th Congress'' (1971) [http://www.questia.com/read/77360404 online edition]
* Heller, Francis H. ''Economics and the Truman Administration'' (1982) [http://www.amazon.com/Economics-Truman-Administration-Francis-Heller/dp/0700602178/ref=sr_1_9/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193434622&sr=1-9 excerpt and text search]
* Karabell, Zachary. ''The Last Campaign: How Harry Truman Won the 1948 Election'' (2001) [http://www.amazon.com/Last-Campaign-Harry-Truman-Election/dp/0375700773/ref=sr_1_24/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=11973347812&sr=8-24 excerpt and text search]
* Koenig, Louis W. ''The Truman Administration: Its Principles and Practice'' (1956) [http://www.questia.com/read/8522614 online edition]
* Komarek de Luna, Phyllis. ''Public versus Private Power during the Truman Administration: A Study of Fair Deal Liberalism.'' Peter Lang, 1997. 253 pp.
* Lacey, Michael J. ed. ''The Truman Presidency'' (1989), major essays by scholars
* Lee, R. Alton. ''Truman and Taft-Hartley: A Question of Mandate.'' (1966) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=99000111 online edition]
* Leuchtenburg, William E. ''The White House Looks South: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson.'' (2005). 668 pp.
* Levantrosser, William F. ed. ''Harry S. Truman: The Man from Independence'' (1986). 25 essays by scholars and Truman aides. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23428395 online edition]
* McCoy, Donald. ''The Presidency of Harry S. Truman'' (1984), standard scholarly survey by conservative historian; [http://www.amazon.com/Presidency-Harry-S-Truman-American/dp/0700602550/ref=sr_1_8/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193514606&sr=8-8 excerpt and text search]
* Marcus, Maeva ''Truman and the Steel Seizure Case: The Limits of Presidential Power'' (1994) [http://www.questia.com/read/22816992 online edition]
* Phillips, Cabel. ''The Truman Presidency: The History of a Triumphant Succession'' (1966), by a journalist who interviewed many key players
* Pierpaoli, Paul G. Jr. ''Truman and Korea: The Political Culture of the Early Cold War.'' (1997). ISBN 0-8262-1206-9. focus on the homefront [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=16627966265512 online review]
* Ryan, Halford R. ''Harry S. Truman: Presidential Rhetoric'' (1993) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=27994601 online edition]
* Sitkoff, Harvard. "Harry Truman and the Election of 1948: The Coming of Age of Civil Rights in American Politics," ''Journal of Southern History,'' Vol. 37, No. 4 (Nov., 1971), pp. 597-616 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2206548 in JSTOR]
* Theoharis, Athan. "The Truman Administration and the Decline of Civil Liberties: The FBI's Success in Securing Authorization for a Preventive Detention Program," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 64, No. 4 (Mar., 1978), pp. 1010-1030 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1890734 in JSTOR], leftwing attack on Truman for being too harsh on possible subversives
* Theoharis, Athan. ''The Truman Presidency: The Origins of the Imperial Presidency and the National Security State'' (1979), revisionist, New left attack on HST
* Theoharis, Athan. ''Seeds of Repression: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of McCarthyism'' (1977), New Left attack on HST for being so hostile to domestic Communists
* Thompson, Francis H. ''The Frustration of Politics: Truman, Congress, and the Loyalty Issue, 1945-1953.'' 1979. 246 pp.
* Vaughan, Philip H. "The Truman Administration's Fair Deal for Black America." ''Missouri Historical Review'' 1976 70(3): 291-305. Issn: 0026-6582

===Primary sources===
* Bernstein, Barton J., Ed. ''The Truman Administration: A Documentary History'' (1966); 2nd edition published as ''Politics and Policies of the Truman Administration'' (1970), revisionist
* [http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/publications/ERP/ Council of Economic Advisors, ''Economic Report of the President'' (annual 1947- )], complete series online; important analysis of current trends and policies, plus statistcial tables
* Ferrell, Robert H. ed. ''Dear Bess: The Letters from Harry to Bess Truman, 1910-1959'' (1983)
* Ferrell, Robert H. ed. ''Off the Record: The Private Papers of Harry S. Truman'' (1980).
* Merrill, Dennis. ed. ''Documentary History of the Truman Presidency, (1995- ) 35 volumes; available in some large academic libraries.
* Miller, Merle ''Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman'' (1974)
* Neal, Steve. ed. ''HST: Memories of the Truman Years.'' (2003)280pp; long excerpts from 20 oral history interviews (some of which are online at the Truman Library site).
* Neal, Steve. ed. ''Miracle of '48: Harry Truman's Major Campaign Speeches & Selected Whistle-Stops'' (2003); 43 speeches
* Truman, Harry S. ''Where the Buck Stops: The Personal and Private Writings of Harry S. Truman'' edited by Margaret Truman (1990) [http://www.amazon.com/Where-Buck-Stops-Personal-Writings/dp/0446391751/ref=pd_bbs_sr_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221386001&sr=8-6 excerpt and text search]
* Truman, Harry S. ''Memoirs'' 2 vol (1955). [http://tera-3.ul.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/reader.pl?call=30151&search= vol 1 online]
* Truman, Margaret. ''Harry S. Truman''. (1973). memoir by his daughter
* Truman, Harry S. ''The Autobiography of Harry S. Truman'' edited compilation of excerpts by Robert H. Ferrell (2002) [http://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Harry-S-Truman/dp/0826214452/ref=pd_bbs_sr_5/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-5 excerpt and text search]
* [http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/ ''The Public Papers of the Presidents'' contain most of Truman's public messages, statements, speeches, and news conference remarks. Documents such as Proclamations, and Executive Orders]

==Historiography==
* Ferrell, Robert H. ''Harry S. Truman and the Cold War Revisionists.'' 2006. 142 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Truman-Cold-War-Revisionists/dp/0826216536/ref=sr_1_6/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193349212&sr=8-6 excerpt and text search]
* Geselbracht, Raymond. "Creating the Harry S. Truman Library: The First Fifty Years," ''Public Historian'', 28 (Summer 2006), 37–78.
* Hartmann, Susan M. "The 1948 Election and the Configuration of Postwar Liberalism" ''Reviews in American History'' 28.1 (2000) 105-111 in [[Project Muse]]
* Heller, Francis H., ed. ''The Korean War: A 25 Year Perspective'' (1977), essays by scholars
* Heller, Francis H., ed. ''The Truman White House: The Administration of the Presidency, 1945-1953'' (1980), essays by scholars
* Heller, Francis H., ed. ''Economics and the Truman Administration'' (1981), essays by scholars
* Kirkendall, Richard S. ed. ''Harry's Farewell: Interpreting and Teaching the Truman Presidency'' (2004) essays by scholars
* Kirkendall, Richard S., ed. ''The Truman Period as a Research Field: A Reappraisal 1972'' (1974)
* Tull, Charles J. "The State of the Art in Truman Research," in William F. Levantrosser, ed. ''Harry S. Truman: The Man from Independence'' (1986), 1-31 aides. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23428395 online edition]
* Walker, J. Samuel "Recent Literature on Truman's Atomic Bomb Decision: a Search for Middle Ground." ''Diplomatic History'' 2005 29(2): 311-334. Issn: 0145-2096 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]

==External links==
*[http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/ht33.html Biography]
*[http://www.trumanlibrary.org Presidential Library]
*[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/index.php The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb], Truman Library.
*[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/small/mb12a.htm President Truman to Senator Richard B. Russell], August 9, 1945.
====notes====
<references/>

{{USPresidents}}
{{USVicePresidents}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Truman, Harry}}

[[Category:Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:Vice Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:Democratic Party]]

Harry Truman

2008-11-11T20:56:52Z

AshleyS: /* Loss of China */ spelling

{{President|
|name=Harry S. Truman
|image=HTruman.jpg
|country=the United States
|seq=33
|party=Democratic
|term_start=April 12, 1945
|term_end=January 20, 1953<ref>http://home.comcast.net/~sharonday7/Presidents/AP060301.htm</ref>
|vp=None
|vp_dates=1945-1949
|2vp=Alben Barkley
|2vp_dates=1949-1953
|previous=Franklin D. Roosevelt
|next=Dwight D. Eisenhower
|seq2=34
|office2=vice
|party2=
|term2_start=January 20, 1945
|term2_end=April 12, 1945
|pres2=Franklin D. Roosevelt
|previous2=Henry A. Wallace
|next2=Alben W. Barkley
|birth_date=May 8, 1884
|birth_place=Lamar, MO
|death_date=December 26, 1972
|death_place=Kansas City, MO
|spouse=Bess Wallace Truman
|spouse2=
|religion=[[Baptist]]
}}

'''Harry S. Truman,''' (1884-1972) a [[liberal]] [[Democrat]] from [[Missouri]], was the president of the United States from 1945-1953, taking over when [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] died in April 1945. He took the decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order to force Japan's surrender. Angered at the Soviet Union's seizure of eastern Europe, he moved away from FDR's [[détente]] to a policy of [[containment]], reinforced by the Truman Plan (1947) to resist Communist subversion, the [[Marshall Plan]] (1948-51) to rebuild and modernize western Europe's economies, and the [[NATO]] military alliance of 1949. Truman, advised by [[Dean Acheson]] and the State Department, set the policies to oppose the Soviet Union as the [[Cold War]] began.

Ignoring Asia, he later saw America's close ally China fall to the anti-American Communists under [[Mao Zedong]] in 1949; the US and China fought each other to a draw during the undeclared [[Korean War]], 1950-53. Truman fired his top general, [[Douglas MacArthur]], during this conflict and saw his popularity plunge.

As the war ended, the massive problem of reconverting the 45% of the economy devoted to war production baffled Truman. Listening to liberal advisors, he refused to end extremely unpopular price controls, and was unable to stop a massive wave of strikes in major industries in 1945-46. Voter dissatisfaction to the Republican capture of Congress in 1946; with Senator [[Robert A. Taft]] as the conservative Republican spokesman, Congress repealed many of the wartime restrictions on business and lowered taxes. Taft rewrote the labor laws in the [[Taft-Hartley Act of 1947]], balancing the rights of unions, management and the public interest; it became law over Truman's signature and remains in effect.

Truman began with very high popularity ratings, but they plunged to the lowest on record. Democrats were unable to stop his renomination in 1948, but the far left nominated FDR's vice president [[Henry A. Wallace]], and southern conservative Democrats nominated Dixiecrat [[J. Strom Thurmond]]. Observers almost unanimously expected victory for the Republican candidate, Governor [[Thomas E. Dewey]], liberal from New York. Total astonishment greeted Truman's stunning election victory, as he reassembled the [[New Deal Coalition]] for the fifth consecutive victory, pulling in on his coattails a Democratic Congress.

Although the Democrats organized Congress in 1949, the [[Conservative Coalition]] of Northern Republicans and Southern Democrats was in control, and Truman was to pass any of his liberal [[Fair Deal|Fair Deal program]]. Nevertheless he he pursued civil rights through executive orders, especially a 1948 order to end racial discrimination in the military. Blacks remained in segregated units, but were to receive equal treatment. Truman's failures to deal with "Korea, Communism and Corruption" forced him to withdraw from reelection in 1952 and gave the Republicans an opportunity to crusade against him and elect [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] in 1952.

Overshadowed at first by his predecessor, [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], Truman established a reputation as a blunt, unsophisticated fighter for the common man, who took responsibility for his actions because, he said, "the buck stops here." His stunning reelection victory in 1948 baffled the experts and has inspired underdogs ever since. He is more popular in 2008 than ever. His policy positions make him a heroic icon for liberals.

==Early life==

Truman was born on a farm near Lamar, in western Missouri, and grew up on a farm near Independence, Missouri. His grandparents had been Confederate sympathizers who had been rounded up by the Union army in the Civil War.<ref> His middle initial, S, does not stand for anything, but was chosen because his parents could not decide whether to name him for his grandfather Shippe or for his grandfather Solomon.</ref> After graduating from high school in Independence, with good skills in history and music, he decided against college and became a bank clerk in Kansas City. Always a joiner, he was active in the Missouri National Guard. From 1906 to 1917 he managed his father's 600-acre farm at Grandview, Missouri. During World War I his National Guard regiment was mobilized in 1917, he entered the Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, sailing for France in 1917 as a lieutenant. Truman was soon promoted to captain in Battery D, 129 Field Artillery Battalion, 35th Division, A.E.F., and returned to the United States a major in 1919, after combat at St. Mihiel and in the Argonne offensive. He was in an artillery unit, and learned about gas warfare; he was never wounded, He married Elizabeth "Bess" Wallace on June 28, 1919; they had one daughter, Margaret, who married a ''New York Times'' editor. With an army buddy he invested his savings in a Kansas City haberdashery, but this venture was a failure.

==Pendergast machine==
Discouraged by his lack of business success and without funds, Truman sought the help of friends. His farm background, his war record, his Masonic connections, his Baptist Church affiliations, and his genial personality recommended him to [[Thomas J. Pendergast]], the Democratic political boss of Kansas City and much of western Missouri. Pendergast, an Irish Catholic, had a strong base among the Irish Catholics and used Truman to reach out to Protestants, farmers and veterans. He made Truman the overseer of highways for Jackson County.

In 1922 Truman was elected a county judge; needing some legal knowledge he studied nights for two years at Kansas City Law School; it was his only education beyond high school, although he read history. In the 1924 GOP landslide he was defeated for reelection, but in 1926 he was returned to office as presiding judge of the court, the duties of which also involved administrative supervision of many county expenditures, including $60 million for public works. He almost joined the [[Ku Klux Klan]], but withdrew his application when he realized his Irish Catholic allies bitterly opposed the KKK; Truman then campaigned against the Klan.
==Senate==
In 1934 Pendergast arranged for Truman's nomination as United States Senator on the Democratic ticket; he was elected in the democratic landslide as a supporter of Roosevelt and the New deal. His first term in office was uneventful, except for a failed effort to prevent the renomination of Maurice Milligan for U.S. District Attorney for the Western District of Missouri; Milligan had obtained the conviction of 35 Pendergast "ward leaders" for vote frauds.

===World War II===
He was reelected after a terrific battle in 1940. Truman gained national prominence for serving as chairman of the Truman Committee to investigate waste, fraud and inefficiency in government contracts. Its formal name was the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program. He was an energetic and forthright supporter of the [[New Deal]] and won widespread party favor for his attacks on business malfeasance in war production. He forced changes in the aircraft and ship construction programs, and worked well with other border state Democrats, especially [[Alben Barkley]] of Kentucky, the Majority Leader.

===FDR picks a new vice president===
In 1944, after Vice-President [[Henry A. Wallace]] had been rejected by leading Democrats as too far to the left, Truman supported his friend former senator [[James F. Byrnes]] of South Carolina for that office. Catholics vetoed Byrnes, who had left that faith. Truman himself became Roosevelt's choice as a compromise vice presidential candidate, and the two were elected.

Roosevelt had been in ill-health since his return from the [[Teheran conference]]. At the 1944 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, DNC Chairman Bob Hannegan went for instructions to President Roosevelt's private railway car just before the July convention officially began. Roosevelt had decided to dump incumbent Vice-President [[Henry Wallace]]. Worried over dissension on the choice of a successor, Roosevelt told Hannegan: "Go on down there and nominate Truman before there's any more trouble. And clear everything with Sidney." <ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,791619,00.html "Clear everything with Sidney"], [[Time magazine]], Sep. 25, 1944.</ref> The President could not make the selection of Truman until [[Sidney Hillman]] <ref>''The Roosevelt Myth'', John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948, Book 2, Ch. 8, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Eight___The_Shock_Troops.htm ''The Shock Troops of the Third New Deal'']</ref>, Director of the Political Action Committee for the Congress on Industrial Organizations (CIO) approved it. <ref> ''Roosevelt Myth'', Book 3, Ch. 10, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Ten___Politics__Disease_.htm ''Politics, Disease and History''], Flynn, 1948.</ref> When Harry Truman walked into the smoke-filled room <ref>[http://www.booknotes.org/Transcript/index_print.asp?ProgramID=1109 ''Truman''], Interview with David McCullough, C-Span Booknotes, July 19, 1992. Retrieved August 6, 2007.</ref> of DNC at headquarters at the Stevens Hotel in Chicago, Soviet spies [[John Abt]], [[Lee Pressman]], and [[Nathan Witt]], were on hand." <ref>''The Yalta Betrayal'', Felix Wittmer, Claxton Printers, 1953, pg. 75.</ref>

==Presidency==
Roosevelt ignored Truman between the election in November 1944 and the inauguration in January; even as Vice president Truman was not consulted on national policies, and not informed of major decisions, nor of the atomic bomb. Although he realized Roosevelt's health was failing rapidly, he made no preparations for assuming the presidency and did not even build up a staff of advisors. Truman succeeded to the Presidency upon the death of FDR on April 12, 1945.

President Truman pledged that in office he would carry on the liberal domestic policies of Roosevelt. He distrusted most of FDR's cabinet and set about to assemble his own team.

===Winning World War II===

During his term as President, he presided over the conclusion of [[World War II]] in both [[Europe]] and [[Japan]].
On April 25 his telephoned speech opened the San Francisco Conference establishing the [[United Nations]]. A week later Germany surrendered, and from July 17 to August 2, 1945, Truman attended the [[Potsdam Conference]] with Britain's [[Winston Churchill]] (soon replaced by the new prime minister [[Clement Attlee]]) and [[Joseph Stalin]] of the Soviet Union.

===Atomic bomb===
The alternative Truman faced was to order use of the atomic bomb which might shock the Japanese into surrender, or order the planned invasion of Japan's home islands; casualty estimates for Americans ranged very widely. Casualty estimates for Japan ranged into the millions. Secretary of War [[Henry Stimson]] made the real decision: to drop atomic bombs on [[Hiroshima]] and [[Nagasaki]]. Japan immediately surrendered on terms that allowed Emperor [[Hirohito]] to stay on the throne and not be tried as a war criminal. Truman put General [[Douglas MacArthur]] in charge of occupying and controlling Japan; MacArthur remained in charge until the peace treaty was finally signed in 1951.

Truman kept control of the bomb in civilian hands--the Air Force and State Department did not even know how many bombs existed until 1948, when only eight had been built. The postwar military strategy was not built around nuclear weapons.

====Debating the decision====

=====Conservatives and liberals=====

In general, conservatives and liberals alike have applauded and supported the a-bomb decision because it shortened the war, and prevented hundreds of thousands or millions of casualties. The New Left or "revisionist" interpretation argues that the bomb was not necessary to end the war and that no invasion was necessary. They have no evidence to support that argument. They do have fragments of evidence that give weak support to the argument that one American goal was to intimidate the Soviet Union. The revisionists believe the US should have stayed friends with the Soviets, and that Truman was guilty for starting the Cold War (which they consider a bad thing). Morally the revisionists assume the USA was no better or worse than the Soviets--admitting to Soviet atrocities, they argue that socialism was morally superior to capitalism, which itself was a great evil the US intended to spread. In terms of the bomb, Secretary of State James Byrnes did make some offhand references to influencing Moscow, but his comments did not reflect the policy of the State Department or White House, and certainly not those of Stimson, who was by far the most important decision-maker.
Vice President Truman had been kept uninformed about the atomic bomb; he had little interest in military affairs and his chief military aide, General Harry Vaughan, was a drinking buddy likewise unfamiliar with what was happening in the war. Truman therefore relied entirely on his Secretary of War, [[Henry Stimson]]. At Potsdam he approved the atomic bomb targets selected by Stimson and, on the way home, he authorized the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki three days later.
====How the decision was made=====
The decision to drop the atomic bomb has been the focus of one of the most heated debates among both scholars and the public since 1945. After 1945 the debate was dominated by "traditionalist" scholars, who argued that the U.S. had no choice but to drop the bomb as a way to bring World War II to an end. The traditionalists were succeeded in the 1960s by "revisionists," who asserted that the dropping of the bomb was done to intimidate Stalin, not end the war. The leading revisionist historians emerged from the "new left" movement of the 1960s and rejected any notion of the moral superiority of America or capitalism to the Soviet Union. They thought the Cold War and containment were poor policies and generally favored détente, along the lines proposed by Henry Wallace. They include Gar Alperovitz, Barton J. Bernstein, Kai Bird, Diane Shaver Clemens, Bruce Cumings, Richard Freeland, Lloyd Gardner, Gabriel Kolko, Walter LaFeber, Thomas Paterson, Harvard Sitkoff, Ronald Steel, Athan Theoharis, and William A. Williams (the leader of the "Wisconsin School"). The revisionists are not monolithic, but they usually agree that Truman and his advisers were wrong whether the issue is the Cold War, Korea, or the atomic bomb. Revisionists had argued that Truman's goal at Potsdam was to prevent Soviet entry into the war against Japan, and the atomic bomb was used to scare them off. However in 1983 archivists discovered a letter Truman wrote to his wife from Potsdam on July 18, 1945: "I've gotten what I came for-- Stalin goes to war August 15 with no strings on it . . . I'll say that we'll end the war a year sooner now, and think of the kids who won't be killed! That's the important thing."<ref>''New York Times'' March 14, 1983. </ref>

In the 1990s, a more nuanced historical approach emerged searching for a middle ground, offering a number of more credible studies, essentially arguing that neither the traditional nor the revisionist interpretations were entirely satisfactory.<ref>J. Samuel Walker, "Recent Literature on Truman's Atomic Bomb Decision: a Search for Middle Ground." ''Diplomatic History'' 2005 29(2): 311-334. Issn: 0145-2096 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]</ref>
==Domestic affairs==
===Reconversion of the economy to peacetime===
The process of reconversion to peacetime was rocky. It was impossible to bring soldiers home fast enough, and they and their families protected loudly. All war contract were canceled, shutting down munitions plants and throwing millions of workers (many of them women) out of jobs, just as the 12 million service members were coming home. Truman sought to retain price controls against the vehement opposition of business but yielded somewhat in the face of bitter popular opposition. Large-scale strikes disrupted the economy, especially a coal miners strike and a threatened nationwide strike by railroad workers. He threatened to draft the railroad workers and the strike was called off; unions began to oppose him but he regained union support by his later attempts to veto or repeal the [[Taft-Hartley]] labor relations law. Truman's opposition to tax cuts, his insistence on price controls, and his lack of aggressive support of labor programs weakened his party. To voters frustrated with shortages and controls, Truman seemed indecisive and inconsistent; his efforts to deal with a postwar wave of strikes managed to alienate both organized labor and those who wanted more restraints on unions. Voters who normally supported liberal and labor candidates stayed home, resulting in a Republican landslide in 1946, giving the GOP a majority in both houses of Congress. Ohio Senator [[Robert A. Taft]] became the main GOP spokesman in Congress, tangling often with Truman.
===Moving left===
Gradually Truman created his own administration, using the '''''Fair Deal''''' label to express its goals in domestic affairs. Truman systematically removed the Roosevelt cabinet and inner circle of advisors. The most dramatic episode was firing [[Henry A. Wallace]] in 1946 because of his outspoken criticism of the administration's foreign policy as too harsh on the Soviet Union. Liberals saw themselves in a struggle with conservatives for Truman's soul after the 1946 election. Linked to the President through top aide [[Clark Clifford]], these liberals included Oscar Ewing, former party official and director of the Federal Security Agency, Leon Keyserling, member of the President's Council of Economic Advisors, and David Morse, assistant secretary of labor. They embraced the memo plotting 1948 campaign strategy written by former Roosevelt adviser James Rowe, which urged Truman to "move to the left and focus on building a coalition of groups that centered on organized labor, liberals, and northern urban African Americans."<ref> The memo until 1991 was mis-attributed to Clifford, who passed it along to Truman.</ref> Liberals had national support from the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), led by [[Walter Reuther]], [[Eleanor Roosevelt]], Joseph Rauh, James Rowe, [[Reinhold Niebuhr]], [[Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.]], [[Hubert Humphrey]], and [[Ronald Reagan]]<ref> Reagan was an energetic liberal supporter of Truman. He moved to the right in the late 1950s.</ref> . The ADA was hostile to the Soviet Union, battled American Communists and fellow travelers like Wallace, and supported the purge of Communists from the [[CIO]] labor unions. Truman agreed with the ADA and moved left after 1946.<ref> Steven M. Gillon, ''Politics and Vision: the ADA and American Liberalism, 1947-1985'' (1987).</ref>

However he could not tolerate [[Henry A. Wallace]] and the far left, which had considerable Communist support. When Wallace, then Secretary of Commerce, in 1946 denounced Truman's tough stand against Stalin, Truman fired Wallace.

In 1947 Truman asked Congress for stand-by price controls, rationing, and bank and consumer credit control as parts of an anti-inflation program, but his ideas were ignored by the Republicans who controlled Congress. In his state of the union message of Jan. 7, 1948, Truman called for rent control, increased social security benefits, universal military training, national health insurance, and other social legislation. The next week he again asked for passage of his anti-inflation measures. In February 1948 he asked for civil-rights legislation, including a federal anti-lynching law, a federal fair employment practices commission, a permanent civil rights commission, and abolition of the poll tax--measures that enraged many Southern Democrats. None of his proposals became law. More successful was Truman's drive to increase the efficiency of the executive branch; he appointed a commission headed by former President [[Herbert Hoover]] which recommended numerous changes, including unification of the armed services.

===Civil Rights===
Disgusted by violence against black veterans in the deep South, Truman called for the extension of the wartime [[FEPC]] program that called for fair employment practices, but Congress refused and it ended. He created the Presidential Commission on Civil Rights in 1946 by executive order (with no congressional approval needed); it recommended desegregation of local public facilities and the removal of restrictive covenants that prevented blacks and Jews from purchasing houses in restricted neighborhoods. The Commission generated attention but no action.<ref> Steven F. Lawson, ed. ''To Secure These Rights: The Report of Harry S. Truman's Committee on Civil Rights.'' (2004)</ref> Indeed, Congress refused to pass any civil rights legislation before 1957. Truman therefore decided to use his executive powers, and focused on guaranteeing equal opportunity in the military and the civil service. The Army and Navy operated segregated units, and refused to be part of a "social experiment" in integration.<ref> Bernard C. Nalty, ''Strength For the Fight: A History of Black Americans in the Military'' (1986)</ref> The Air Force, however, was much more willing. Between 1941 and 1951 it went from a segregated force to the first truly integrated service. Key generals became convinced that segregation was a drag on efficiency, and the Air Force decided to integrate in April 1948. before Truman issued his famous Executive Order 9981 on July 26, 1948, calling for equal opportunity in all the armed services. It allowed segregation but called for "equality of treatment and opportunity." In the face of opposition from some high-ranking officers, the Air Force moved cautiously, but by 1951 the last black unit was dissolved and the Air Force was completely integrated.<ref> Alan L. Gropman, ''The Air Force Integrates, 1945-1964.'' (2nd ed 1998) [http://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/Publications/Annotations/gropmanintegrates.htm online edition]. </ref> Order 9981 created the Fahy Committee to implement the new policy. Truman's order did not actually integrate the Army--it used segregated units during the Korean War--but it opened the way for integration in the early 1950s.<ref> Richard M. Dalfiume, ''Desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces: Fighting on Two Fronts, 1939-1953.'' (1969)</ref> Public opinion was generally favorable except in the deep South (which voted against Truman in 1948).

==1948 election==
As the presidential election of 1948 approached, no one though Truman could be reelected. Truman's policies had alienated left right and center, but the party had no real alternative. Neither Roosevelt nor Truman had groomed a likely successor. Party leaders considered asking [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] to run, but he refused. Liberals led by Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota inserted a strong civil rights plank in the platform, causing a walkout of the deep South. Truman was renominated by default, with Barkley as the vice-presidential candidate. Truman thrilled the convention by announcing his plan to call the Republican-controlled Congress back into special session to "ask them to pass the laws to halt rising prices, to meet the housing crisis--which they say they are for in their platform." When this special session accomplished little, as Truman expected, it gave the president a chance to attack the "Do Nothing" Congress.

Both the left and right wings of the party split off and ran their own candidates. Henry Wallace, the candidate of the Progressive Party, was expected to divert labor, leftist and black votes, while [[J. Strom Thurmond]] was the "Dixiecrat" candidate whose supporters controlled the Democratic party in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina.<ref> Thurmond received only 15% of the vote in the other Southern states. Kari Frederickson, ''The Dixiecrat Revolt and the End of the Solid South, 1932-1968.'' (2001) </ref> Truman exploited his multiple opponents, driving a wedge between the liberals and the Communists who controlled the Wallace movement, and holding the line in the outer South. Most of all he exploited the difference between the conservative Republicans who controlled Congress, and the liberal Republican candidate [[Tom Dewey]]. Truman crusaded against the Republicans as evil rich men, blasting them as fascists and denouncing the 80th Congress for its failure to help the average citizen.<ref>''Time'' magazine reported that "His irresponsible implication that a vote for Thomas Dewey was a vote for fascism horrified his soberer followers." ''Time'' Jan 3, 1949 at [http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/personoftheyear/archive/stories/1948.html]</ref> "Give 'em hell" fury delivered in 275 speeches over 21,928 train-miles had more impact that Truman's promises of more money for federal housing, higher social security and unemployment benefits, free medical care for everyone, the continued subsidy of farm prices, and a fair deal for minorities. The pollsters misjudged the election, as did all the traditional pundits. Truman rallied enough of the [[New Deal Coalition]] to win by 2.2 million votes, and carry in a Democratic Congress on his coattails. The key farm states of the farm states of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Ohio that Dewey had carried in 1944 now switched to Truman, giving a solid victory in the electoral college of 303 for Truman, 189 for Dewey, 39 for Thurmond, and none for Wallace.<ref> Harold I. Gullan, ''The Upset That Wasn't: Harry S. Truman and the Crucial Election of 1948'' (1998); Gary A. Donaldson, ''Truman Defeats Dewey'' (1998) </ref>

==Second Term: Fair Deal==
During Truman's second term as president, he pressed for civil rights legislation, compulsory national health insurance, and other domestic measures that he called his "Fair Deal" program. Almost nothing was passed by Congress, which was controlled by the [[Conservative Coalition]]. His seizure of the steel industry to prevent a strike was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

In foreign affairs, Truman brought in [[Dean Acheson]] as Secretary of State, and promoted the Point Four program of aid to underdeveloped countries. The policy of containing Communism was operationalized by the creation, in 1949, of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to oversee the integration of the military forces of its member nations in Western Europe and North America. A further step was taken in 1951 with the establishment of the Mutual Security Agency to coordinate U.S. economic, technical and military aid abroad.
===Agriculture===
Truman won the farm vote in 1948 by charging the GOP shoved "a pitchfork in the farmer's back", but was unable to get new farm programs passed. His second secretary of agriculture, Charles F. Brannan promoted the Brannan Plan, intended to bring widespread changes to farm policy. Brannan proposed to replace market price supports with direct income payments to farmers. His plan set ceilings on the amount a farmer could receive and limited the program to farmers who did not exceed a set production mark. The Brannan Plan was supposed to foster the "family-sized farm" while providing affordable food for consumers. While Brannan could count on support from the left, especially the National Farmers Union (which was small), labor unions (which were powerful), and consumer groups (which were weak), he was opposed by leading farm economists and the national Farm Bureau (which was large) and the national Chamber of Commerce (representing business). The head of the Farm Bureau decried the plan as intrusive, a form of "creeping socialism," and expensive. The Farm Bureau, dominated by conservatives, resisted any curbs on full agricultural production. A bloc of Midwestern Republican and southern Democratic congressmen opposed replacing market mechanisms with outright government payments to farmers and setting limits on supports to individual farms. The Brannan Plan went nowhere and instead, the conservative farm bloc passed the Agricultural Act of 1949 with high price supports.<ref> See Dean (2006)</ref>

==National Security==
===Truman Doctrine and origins of Cold War===
In early 1947 the British government, which was socialist but anti-Communist, secretly told Washington its treasury was empty and it could no longer give military and economic aid to Greece or Turkey, requested the U.S. take over. Acheson convinced Truman to act quickly lest Greece be taken over by its communist partisans who were at the time strongly supported by the Soviet government working through the communist Bulgarian and Yugoslav governments. If Greece fell, Turkey would be helpless and soon the eastern Mediterranean would fall under Stalin’s control. In a dramatic message to Congress on March 12, 1947, President Truman said that the U. S. must take immediate and resolute action to support Greece and Turkey.<ref> Turkey did not have an insurrection, but it was such a bitter rival of Greece that it had to get money if Greece did.</ref> The Republican Congress, after extensive hearings, approved this historic change in U. S. foreign policy in a bill signed May 22, 1947. Thus was born the “Truman Doctrine.” Greece suppressed the insurgents; both Greece and Turkey joined NATO.<ref>
Joseph C. Satterthwaite, "The Truman Doctrine: Turkey," ''Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,'' Vol. 401, (May, 1972), pp. 74-84 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1039114 in JSTOR]</ref>
===Recognition of Israel===
Truman usually followed the advice of the State Department in national security matters, largely ignoring the Pentagon and Congress. In the case of recognition of the independent state of Israel in 1948, however, he overruled the urgent pleas of the State Department and immediately recognized Israel. State had warned that recognition would anger the Arabs in the Middle East; Truman, howver, was more responsive to domestic politics, where support for Israel was widespread.<ref> Michael T. Benson, ''Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel'' (1997) [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-S-Truman-Founding-Israel/dp/0275958078/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221429694&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]; for the State Departmenrt perspective see Evan M. Wilson, "The American Interest in the Palestine Question and the Establishment of Israel," ''Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,'' Vol. 401, (May, 1972), pp. 64-73 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1039113 in JSTOR]</ref>

===Religion===
Truman, a Southern Baptist, sought religious allies in the Cold War. He tried to unite the world's religions in a spiritual crusade against communism, sending his personal representative to Pope [[Pius XII]] to coordinate not only with the Vatican but also with the heads of the Anglican, Lutheran, and Greek Orthodox churches. "If I can mobilize the people who believe in a moral world against the Bolshevik materialists," Truman wrote in 1947, "we can win this fight." Since the [[Roman Catholic Church]] was his strongest religious ally in the moral battle against international communism, Truman put Rome first in his global strategy, even trying to confer formal diplomatic recognition on the Vatican. At home, he received solid support from Catholics, who were a major element of the [[New Deal Coalition]], but overwhelming resistance from Protestants, especially Southern Baptists who rejected anything "popish." Truman's political-diplomatic effort to formalize a public, faith-driven, ecumenical international campaign failed.<ref> Elizabeth Edwards Spalding, "True Believers" ''Wilson Quarterly'' 2006 30(2): 40-44, 46-48. Issn: 0363-3276 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]</ref>

===Loss of China===
[[Chiang Kai-shek]], America's wartime ally and head of the Nationalist forces in China, was caught between two wars—a war on China by [[Japan]] and a war with [[Mao Zedong]] and the Chinese Communists. The U.S. policy was to avoid a civil war and to threaten to withhold additional aid to the Nationalists unless they worked out a compromise. No compromise was possible, and Truman refused to send in combat troops to fight the civil war. General [[George Marshall]], who spent a year in China as Truman's emissary, testified that combat aid might have prevented a Communist victory, but General David Barr's military mission to China was specifically instructed not to supply this kind of assistance. <ref>Military Situation in the Far East, Hearings before the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, 82nd Congress (Washington, 1951), p. 558.</ref> General [[Albert C. Wedemeyer]] recommended this approach in his report on his 1947 fact-finding mission, but Marshall personally suppressed the report. <ref>Tang Tsou, ''America's Failure in China, 1941-1945'', Chicago 1964, pg. 457.</ref> Chiang believed that the [[Truman Doctrine]] to [[Containment|contain]] the spread of [[International Communism]] directed from Moscow would be extended to China, and ordered an offensive as soon as word of the new policy reached him. <ref>Richard C. Thornton, ''China: A Political History, 1917-1980'', Boulder CO 1982, pg. 208.</ref>

[[Dean Rusk]], Assistant Secretary of State in charge of the Far Eastern Division, said on May 18,1951 what the critics had been saying,
{{Cquote|The independence of China is gravely threatened. In the Communist world there is room for only one master. . . . How many Chinese in one community after another are being destroyed because they love China more than they love [[Soviet Russia]]? The freedoms of the Chinese people are disappearing. Trial by mob, [[democide|mass slaughter]], banishment to [[slavery|forced labor]] in [[Manchuria]] and Siberia. . . . The peace and security of China are being sacrificed by the ambitions of the Chinese conspiracy. China has been driven by foreign masters into an adventure in foreign aggression.}}
John T. Flynn observes that critics of the [[FDR]] and Truman Administrations who had been saying this earlier were denounced as “[[Fascists]].”<ref>''While You Slept: Our Tragedy in Asia and Who Made It'', John T. Flynn, New York: The Devin-Adair Company, 1951, [http://www.mises.org/books/whileyouslept.pdf pg. 161] pdf.</ref> Rusk continued,
{{Cquote|We do not recognize the authorities in [[Peiping]] for what they pretend to be. It is not the government of China. It does not pass the first test. It is not Chinese. . . . We recognize the [[Kuomintang|Nationalist government of the Republic of China]] even though the territory under its control is severely restricted. <ref>Hearings before the Senate Committee on Armed Services and Committee on Foreign Relations (also known as the Mac Arthur Inquiry), June 2, 1951.</ref>…we believe it more authoritatively represents the views of the great body of the people of China, particularly their demand for independence from foreign control….That government will continue to receive important aid and assistance from the United States.}}

===Risks in Korea===
Conditions inviting the North Korean attack were created by the [[United Nations]] which issued a resolution for withdrawal of both Soviet and American troops. Troops began withdrawing September 15, 1948, leaving only about 7500 Americans lightly armed. This left in South Korea 16,000 Koreans and 7500 Americans, both groups lightly armed, against 150,000 fully armed North Korean Communists. General Roberts, head of the U. S. Military Mission said the South Koreans were not permitted to arm adequately.
The Korean part of Wedemeyer's report was suppressed. Wedemeyer said:
{{Cquote|American and Soviet forces . . . are approximately equal, less than 50,000 troops each, [but] the Soviet-equipped and trained North Korean People's (Communist) Army of approximately 125,000 is vastly superior to the United States-organized constabulary of 16,000 Koreans equipped with Japanese small arms. The North Korean People's Army constitutes a potential military threat to [[South Korea]], since there is strong possibility that the Soviets will withdraw their occupation forces and thus induce our own withdrawal."<ref>Hearings before the Senate Committee on Armed Services and Committee on Foreign Relations, June 6, 1951.</ref>}}

Wedemeyer warned that this would take place as soon as "they can be sure that the [[North Korea]]n [[puppet government]] and its armed forces . . . are strong enough . . . to be relied upon to carry out Soviet objectives without the actual presence of Soviet troops."
===Communists inside US===
The bipartisan statutory [[Moynihan Secrecy Commission]] concluded, "President Truman was almost willfully obtuse as regards American Communism." <ref>Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy. Senate Document 105-2. 103rd Congress. Washington, D.C. United States Government Printing Office. 1997. [http://www.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/04dpm.pdf Chairman's Forward, pg. XL] pdf.</ref>
===Foreign policy: détente to containment===
Truman had no knowledge or interest in foreign policy before becoming president, and depended on the State Department for foreign policy advice.<ref> By 1946 he had two valuable aides Clark Clifford and George Elsey.</ref> Truman shifted from FDR's détente to [[containment]] as soon as [[Dean Acheson]] convinced him the Soviet Union was a long-term threat to American interests. They viewed communism as a secular, millennial religion that informed the Kremlin's worldview and actions and made it the chief threat to American security, liberty, and world peace. They rejected the moral equivalence of democratic and Communist governments and concluded that until the regime in Moscow changed only American and Allied strength could curb the Soviets. Following Acheson's advice, Truman in 1947 announced the [[Truman Doctrine]] of containing Communist expansion by furnishing military and economic American aid to Europe and Asia, and particularly to Greece and Turkey. He followed up with the [[Marshall Plan]], which was enacted into law as the European Recovery Program (ERP) and led ultimately to [[NATO]], the North Atlantic Alliance for military defense, signed in 1949. On May 14, 1948, Truman announced recognition of the new state of [[Israel]], making the United States the first major power to do so.

==Korean War==
The [[Korean War]] began at the end of June 1950 when North Korea, a Communist country, invaded South Korea, which was under U.S. protection. Without consulting Congress Truman ordered General [[Douglas MacArthur]] to use all American forces to resist the invasion. Truman then received approval from the United Nations, which the Soviets were boycotting. UN forces managed to cling to a toehold in Korea, as the North Koreans outran their supply system. A counterattack at Inchon destroyed the invasion army, and the UN forces captured most of North Korea on their way to the Yalu River, Korea's northern border with China. Truman defined the war goal as [[rollback]] of Communism and reunification of the country under UN auspices. China intervened unexpectedly, drove the UN forces all the way back to South Korea. The fighting stabilized close to the original 38th parallel that had divided North and South. MacArthur wanted to continue the rollback strategy but Truman arrived at a new policy of containment, allowing North Korea to persist. Truman's dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur in April 1951 sparked a violent debate on U.S. Far Eastern policy, as Truman took the blame for a high-cost stalemate with 37,000 Americans killed and over 100,000 wounded.

Truman fired his ineffective defense secretary Louis Johnson, and brought back [[George Marshall]].
===NSC-68===
The top-secret [[NSC-68]] policy paper was the grounds for escalating the Cold War, especially in terms of spending on rearmament and building the hydrogen bomb. The integration of European defense was given new impetus by continued U.S. support of NATO, under the command of General Eisenhower. Truman committed the US to contain Communist expansion in Vietnam, where the Communists under [[Ho Chi Minh]] were trying to overthrow the French colonial regime. The State Department insisted that France give more autonomy to the Vietnamese. The US paid for about 80% of the French war costs. The problem was that the French were more interested in preserving their grandiose empire, and less interested in stopping Communism, while the US opposed colonial empires and saw Communism as the great threat to world peace and stability.

Following NSC-68, Truman's last four budgets saw expenditures on national security quadruple from $13 billion in 1950 to $50 billion in 1953.

===1952 election===
On the political front, revelation of scandals in the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, in the Bureau of Internal Revenue and even the White House<ref> Truman's wife accepted an expensive deep freeze appliance in 1945; with General Vaughan as the fixer, the donor was given special privileges in Europe. </ref> opened the administration to attack.

Truman sought reelection in 1952 despite his dismal showing in the polls. He was defeated in the New Hampshire primary by Senator [[Estes Kefauver]] of Tennessee, and withdrew. Truman supported Illinois Governor [[Adlai Stevenson]]. Eisenhower won the GOP nomination and crusading against the Truman administration's failures regarding "Korea, Communism and Corruption," was elected in a landslide, ending 20 years of Democratic control of the presidency.

==Retirement==
Truman returned to his home in Independence, Missouri. He devoted himself to creating the Truman Library there; it was dedicated in July 1957 and is a part of the National Archives. With a staff of assistants he wrote his memoirs in two well-received volumes, gave many interviews, and intervened occasionally in Democratic national politics on behalf of liberal candidates such as [[Adlai Stevenson]].

He died on December 26, 1972.

==Evaluations==
Already by the 1960s he had become a hero to liberals and Democrats, nostalgic over the successes of the [[New Deal Coalition]] that sputtered and collapsed in the 1960s. Even Republicans came to forget the nasty days and celebrated Truman as the hero of the underdogs and the man who rebuilt Europe through the Marshall Plan and stood up to Communism through NATO.

Truman's reputation among scholars has gone from very low when he left office, to high after 1990. He is now widely considered to have been a tough-minded, decisive, and effective leader who ably guided the nation through the perilous waters of the early Cold War and whose policy of containment essentially laid the foundations for American "victory" in that prolonged conflict in 1989. For many historians, the down-to-earth Midwesterner now merits consideration as one of the greatest American presidents. In recent years presidential aspirants of both parties have claimed Truman as their own, especially if their election chances seem as hopeless as Truman's did in 1948. His reputation has been bolstered by scholarly biographies by Ferrell (1994), Hamby (1995), and especially McCullough's Pulitzer prize-winning popular biography (1992). The in-depth analysis by Leffler (1992), cautiously praised the Truman administration's essential wisdom in handling a myriad of problems.

While Truman's public image was headed up, his reputation among scholars declined in the 1970s. Kirkendall concluded in 1974 that negative appraisals of Truman and his administration "may in fact have become the dominant interpretation, at least among the younger scholars."<ref> Kirkendall, ''Truman Period as a Research Field: A Reappraisal 1972'' (1974) p 6</ref> In terms of foreign policy a strong negative view comes from Offner (2002) who argues that Truman was a "parochial nationalist" whose "uncritical belief in the superiority of American values and political-economic interests," conviction that "the Soviet Union and Communism were the root cause of international strife," and "inability to comprehend Asian politics and nationalism" intensified the postwar conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, precipitated the division of Europe, and set Sino-American relations on a path of long-term animosity. Rather than being a great statesman who carefully weighed various policy alternatives, Offner asserts that Truman's myopia "created a rigid framework in which the United States waged long-term, extremely costly global cold war". As his title suggests, the Cold War was at best a Pyrrhic victory for the United States.<ref> Quotes from Offner (2002) p. xii</ref>

Truman became the model of the underdog who fights back and wins when the experts unanimously predict defeat. Gerald Ford, who had bitterly denounced Truman as a young Congressman proudly proclaimed the Missourian as his hero and conspicuously displayed a bust of Truman in the oval office after Ford became president in 1974. In the 1976 campaign both Ford and his Democratic rival, [[Jimmy Carter]], outdid one another in claiming to be cast from the Truman mold. By 1980 when the Gallup Poll asked "Of all the Presidents we've ever had, who do you wish were President?", Harry Truman finished an impressive third behind Kennedy and FDR.

====notes====

==Further reading: basic books and articles==
* Burnes, Brian. ''Harry S. Truman: His Life and Times'' (2003), popular biography [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-S-Truman-Life-Times/dp/0974000930/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Dallek, Robert. ''Harry Truman'' (2008) short, popular biography by scholar. [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Truman-Presidents-President-1945-1953/dp/0805069380/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221386001&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Donovan, Robert J. ''Conflict and Crisis: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1945-1948'' (1977); ''Tumultuous Years: 1949-1953'' (1982) detailed 2-vol political history by well-informed journalist; well balanced
* Fleming, Thomas J. ''Harry S. Truman, President'' (1993) for middle school audience.
* Graff, Henry F., ed. ''The Presidents: A Reference History''. 2nd ed. 1996, 443–458. ISBN 0-684-80471-9; by leading scholar
* Hamby, Alonzo L. ''Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman'' (1995), the best scholarly biography; written by conservative historian who likes HST
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "An American Democrat: A Reevaluation of the Personality of Harry S. Truman," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 106, No. 1 (Spring, 1991), pp. 33-55 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2152173 in JSTOR]
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "Truman, Harry S."; [http://www.anb.org/articles/07/07-00307.html; ''American National Biography'' Online Feb. 2000] by a leading conservative historian
* Kirkendall, Richard S. ''Harry S. Truman Encyclopedia'' (1990), very useful articles on people, events and policies in HST's career
* Kirkendall Richard S. "Harry S Truman a Missouri Farmer in the Golden Age," ''Agricultural History,'' Vol. 48, No. 4 (Oct., 1974), pp. 467-483 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/3741384 in JSTOR]
* McCullough, David. ''Truman''. (1993), 1120 pp ISBN 0-671-86920-5 best-selling biography; moderate in tone; Pulitzer Prize [http://www.amazon.com/Truman-David-McCullough/dp/0671869205/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* McCullough, David. ''Harry S. Truman'', short essay [http://www.pbs.org/newshour/character/essays/truman.html online edition]
* Offner, Arnold A. ''Another Such Victory: President Truman and the Cold War.'' (2002) 640pp, New LEft and hostile to HST; [http://books.google.com/books?id=P5tbHSsBS-AC&pg=PP1&dq=intitle:another+intitle:victory+inauthor:offner&num=30&as_brr=0&sig=pWo43stsPrIrtTfZXJicvWB3zCY excerpts and text search]
* [http://www.amazon.com/American-Experience-Truman/dp/B000BYRCG0/ref=pd_bbs_4/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1193347436&sr=8-4 ''American Experience: Truman'' (2006), from PBS]
* [http://www.amazon.com/Classic-President-Harry-Truman-Films/dp/B000JD7MV8/ref=sr_1_14/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1193347436&sr=8-14 "Classic President Harry S Truman Films: 1945-1965'' (2006) 40 newsreels, 101 minutes]

==Advanced bibliography==
These are secondary source by scholars; unless noted they are generally liberal and supportive of Truman.
===Biographies===
* Burnes, Brian. ''Harry S. Truman: His Life and Times'' (2003); popular biography; [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-S-Truman-Life-Times/dp/0974000930/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Cochran, Bert. ''Harry S. Truman and the Crisis Presidency'' (19730, 432 pages; portrays a cynical courthouse politician
* Donovan, Robert J. ''Conflict and Crisis: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1945-1948'' (1977); ''Tumultuous Years: 1949-1953'' (1982), good, detailed 2-vol political history by well-informed journalist
* Ferrell, Robert H. ''Harry S. Truman: A Life'' (1994), brief overview
* Fleming, Thomas J. ''Harry S. Truman, President'' (1993) for middle school audience.
* Gosnell, Harold Foote. ''Truman's Crises: A Political Biography of Harry S. Truman'' (1980)
* Graff, Henry F., ed. ''The Presidents: A Reference History''. 2nd ed. 1996, 443–458. ISBN 0-684-80471-9
* Hamby, Alonzo L. ''Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman'' (1995), very well received scholarly biography [http://www.amazon.com/Man-People-Truman-Oxford-Paperbacks/dp/0195124979/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193438333&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "The Liberals, Truman, and the FDR as Symbol and Myth," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 56, No. 4 (Mar., 1970), pp. 859-867 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1917522 in JSTOR]
* Hamby, Alonzo L. "Truman, Harry S."; [http://www.anb.org/articles/07/07-00307.html; ''American National Biography'' Online Feb. 2000]
* Kirkendall, Richard S. ''Harry S. Truman Encyclopedia'' (1990)
* McCullough, David. ''Truman''. . ISBN 0-671-86920-5 best-selling biography; Pulitzer Prize [http://www.amazon.com/Truman-David-McCullough/dp/0671869205/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Miller, Richard Lawrence. ''Truman: The Rise to Power'' (2002), critical evaluation emphasizing corruption of Pendergast machine

===Foreign policy===
* Appleman, Roy E. ''South to the Naktong, North to the Yalu (June-November 1950)'' (United States Army in the Korean War) (1960); official U.S. Army history, [http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/korea/20-2-1/toc.htm online version]
* Beisner, Robert L. ''Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War'' (2006), 800pp; a standard scholarly biography; covers 1945-53 only
* Benson, Michael T. ''Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel'' (1997) [http://www.questia.com/read/15103137 online edition]
* Berger, Henry. "Bipartisanship, Senator Taft, and the Truman Administration," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 90, No. 2 (Summer, 1975), pp. 221-237 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2148235 in JSTOR]
* Bernstein Barton J. "Roosevelt, Truman, and the Atomic Bomb, 1941-1945: A Reinterpretation," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 90, No. 1 (Spring, 1975), pp. 23-69 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2148698 in JSTOR], influential New left essay
* Blair, Clay ''The Forgotten War: America in Korea, 1950-1953'', Naval Institute Press (2003) revisionist study that attacks Truman and top Army leaders for near-criminal incompetence
* Divine, Robert A. "The Cold War and the Election of 1948," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 59, No. 1 (Jun., 1972), pp. 90-110 [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8723%28197206%2959%3A1%3C90%3ATCWATE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-C in JSTOR]
* Frazier, Robert. "Acheson and the Formulation of the Truman Doctrine" ''Journal of Modern Greek Studies'' 17#2 (1999), pp. 229-251 online at [[Project Muse]]
* Gaddis, John Lewis. "Reconsiderations: Was the Truman Doctrine a Real Turning Point?" ''Foreign Affairs'' 1974 52(2): 386-402. ISSN 0015-7120
* Giangreco, D. M. "'A Score of Bloody Okinawas and Iwo Jimas': President Truman and Casualty Estimates for the Invasion of Japan," ''Pacific Historical Review,'' Vol. 72, No. 1 (Feb., 2003), pp. 93-132 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/3642102 in JSTOR] shows Truman was indeed by very high invasion casualties
* Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi. ''Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan.'' (2005). 382 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Racing-Enemy-Stalin-Truman-Surrender/dp/0674016939/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193349212&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Hogan, Michael J. ''A Cross of Iron: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of the National Security State, 1945-1954'' (2000) [http://www.amazon.com/Cross-Iron-National-Security-19451954/dp/0521795370/ref=sr_1_34/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347927&sr=8-34 excerpt and text search]
* Ivie, Robert L. "Fire, Flood, and Red Fever: Motivating Metaphors of Global Emergency in the Truman Doctrine Speech." ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 1999 29(3): 570-591. ISSN 0360-4918 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001303753 online edition]
* Lacey, Michael J. ed. ''The Truman Presidency'' (1989), major essays by scholars
* Matray, James I. "Truman's Plan for Victory: National Self-Determination and the Thirty-Eighth Parallel Decision in Korea," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 66, No. 2 (Sep., 1979), pp. 314-333 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1900879 in JSTOR] Truman planned rollback of Communism in North Korea
* Merrill, Dennis. "The Truman Doctrine: Containing Communism and Modernity" ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 2006 36(1): 27-37. ISSN 0360-4918
* Offner, Arnold A. "'Another Such Victory': President Truman, American Foreign Policy, and the Cold War." ''Diplomatic History'' 1999 23(2): 127-155. ISSN 0145-2096
* Ojserkis, Raymond P. ''Beginnings of the Cold War Arms Race: The Truman Administration and the U.S. Arms Build-Up'' (2003) [http://www.questia.com/read/102018810 online edition]
* Pelz, Stephen. "When the Kitchen Gets Hot, Pass the Buck: Truman and Korea in 1950," ''Reviews in American History'' 6 (December 1978), 548-55. Online at Project MUSE
* Pierpaoli, Paul G. Jr.; ''Truman and Korea: The Political Culture of the Early Cold War.'' University of Missouri Press, 1999 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=108668070 online edition]
* Smith, Geoffrey S. "'Harry, We Hardly Know You': Revisionism, Politics and Diplomacy, 1945-1954," ''American Political Science Review'' 70 (June 1976), 560-82. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-0554(197606)70%3A2%3C560%3A%22WHKYR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-%23 in JSTOR]
* Spalding, Elizabeth Edwards. ''The First Cold Warrior: Harry Truman, Containment, And the Remaking of Liberal Internationalism'' (2006) [http://www.amazon.com/First-Cold-Warrior-Containment-Internationalism/dp/0813123925/ref=sr_1_22/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347812&sr=8-22 excerpt and text search]
* Wainstock, Dennis D. ''Truman, MacArthur, and the Korean War'' (1999) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23387043 online edition]
* Walker, J. Samuel. ''Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs against Japan'' (1997) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=35245486 online complete edition]; [http://www.amazon.com/Prompt-Utter-Destruction-Truman-Against/dp/080785607X/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193348187&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Walker, J. Samuel. "Recent Literature on Truman's Atomic Bomb Decision: A Search for Middle Ground" ''Diplomatic History'' April 2005 - Vol. 29 Issue 2 Pp 311-334 fulltext in [[EBSCO]]

===Domestic policy and politics===
* Bernstein Barton J. "The Truman Administration and the Steel Strike of 1946," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 52, No. 4 (Mar., 1966), pp. 791-803 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1894347 in JSTOR]
* Billington, Monroe. "Civil Rights, President Truman and the South," ''Journal of Negro History,'' Vol. 58, No. 2 (Apr., 1973), pp. 127-139 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2716825 in JSTOR]
* Dean, Virgil W. "Charles F. Brannan and the Rise and Fall of Truman's 'Fair Deal' for Farmers." ''Agricultural History'' 1995 69(1): 28-53. Issn: 0002-1482
* Dean, Virgil W. ''An Opportunity Lost: The Truman Administration and the Farm Policy Debate.'' 2006. 275 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Opportunity-Lost-Truman-Administration-Policy/dp/0826216501/ref=sr_1_10/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193434622&sr=1-10 excerpt and text search]
* Derickson, Alan. "'Take Health from the List of Luxuries': Labor and the Right to Health Care, 1915-1949." ''Labor History'' 2000 41(2): 171-187. Issn: 0023-656x Fulltext: in Taylor and Francis, Swetswise, Ingenta, and [[Ebsco]]
* Donaldson, Gary A. ''Truman Defeats Dewey'' (1998)
* Farhang, Sean, and Ira Katznelson. "The Southern Imposition: Congress and Labor in the New Deal and Fair Deal," ''Studies in American Political Development'' (2005), 19: 1-30; [http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=324401 online edition]
* Freeland, Richard M. ''The Truman Doctrine and the Origins of McCarthyism: Foreign Policy, Domestic Policy, and Internal Security, 1946-48'' (1989), revisionist; New left attack on Truman for being too anti-Communist
* Fried, Richard M. ''Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective.'' 1990. [http://www.questia.com/read/79027083 online complete edition]; [http://www.amazon.com/Nightmare-Red-McCarthy-Era-Perspective/dp/0195043618/ref=sr_1_11/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193514847&sr=8-11 excerpt and text search]
* Gardner, Michael R. ''Harry Truman and Civil Rights: Moral Courage and Political Risks.'' (2002) 296 pp.[http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=105233906 online edition]
* Hamby, Alonzo. ''Beyond the New Deal: Harry S. Truman and American Liberalism'' (1973), the most sophisticated biography; by a prominent conservative historian
* Hartmann, Susan M. ''Truman and the 80th Congress'' (1971) [http://www.questia.com/read/77360404 online edition]
* Heller, Francis H. ''Economics and the Truman Administration'' (1982) [http://www.amazon.com/Economics-Truman-Administration-Francis-Heller/dp/0700602178/ref=sr_1_9/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193434622&sr=1-9 excerpt and text search]
* Karabell, Zachary. ''The Last Campaign: How Harry Truman Won the 1948 Election'' (2001) [http://www.amazon.com/Last-Campaign-Harry-Truman-Election/dp/0375700773/ref=sr_1_24/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=11973347812&sr=8-24 excerpt and text search]
* Koenig, Louis W. ''The Truman Administration: Its Principles and Practice'' (1956) [http://www.questia.com/read/8522614 online edition]
* Komarek de Luna, Phyllis. ''Public versus Private Power during the Truman Administration: A Study of Fair Deal Liberalism.'' Peter Lang, 1997. 253 pp.
* Lacey, Michael J. ed. ''The Truman Presidency'' (1989), major essays by scholars
* Lee, R. Alton. ''Truman and Taft-Hartley: A Question of Mandate.'' (1966) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=99000111 online edition]
* Leuchtenburg, William E. ''The White House Looks South: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson.'' (2005). 668 pp.
* Levantrosser, William F. ed. ''Harry S. Truman: The Man from Independence'' (1986). 25 essays by scholars and Truman aides. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23428395 online edition]
* McCoy, Donald. ''The Presidency of Harry S. Truman'' (1984), standard scholarly survey by conservative historian; [http://www.amazon.com/Presidency-Harry-S-Truman-American/dp/0700602550/ref=sr_1_8/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193514606&sr=8-8 excerpt and text search]
* Marcus, Maeva ''Truman and the Steel Seizure Case: The Limits of Presidential Power'' (1994) [http://www.questia.com/read/22816992 online edition]
* Phillips, Cabel. ''The Truman Presidency: The History of a Triumphant Succession'' (1966), by a journalist who interviewed many key players
* Pierpaoli, Paul G. Jr. ''Truman and Korea: The Political Culture of the Early Cold War.'' (1997). ISBN 0-8262-1206-9. focus on the homefront [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=16627966265512 online review]
* Ryan, Halford R. ''Harry S. Truman: Presidential Rhetoric'' (1993) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=27994601 online edition]
* Sitkoff, Harvard. "Harry Truman and the Election of 1948: The Coming of Age of Civil Rights in American Politics," ''Journal of Southern History,'' Vol. 37, No. 4 (Nov., 1971), pp. 597-616 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2206548 in JSTOR]
* Theoharis, Athan. "The Truman Administration and the Decline of Civil Liberties: The FBI's Success in Securing Authorization for a Preventive Detention Program," ''Journal of American History,'' Vol. 64, No. 4 (Mar., 1978), pp. 1010-1030 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1890734 in JSTOR], leftwing attack on Truman for being too harsh on possible subversives
* Theoharis, Athan. ''The Truman Presidency: The Origins of the Imperial Presidency and the National Security State'' (1979), revisionist, New left attack on HST
* Theoharis, Athan. ''Seeds of Repression: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of McCarthyism'' (1977), New Left attack on HST for being so hostile to domestic Communists
* Thompson, Francis H. ''The Frustration of Politics: Truman, Congress, and the Loyalty Issue, 1945-1953.'' 1979. 246 pp.
* Vaughan, Philip H. "The Truman Administration's Fair Deal for Black America." ''Missouri Historical Review'' 1976 70(3): 291-305. Issn: 0026-6582

===Primary sources===
* Bernstein, Barton J., Ed. ''The Truman Administration: A Documentary History'' (1966); 2nd edition published as ''Politics and Policies of the Truman Administration'' (1970), revisionist
* [http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/publications/ERP/ Council of Economic Advisors, ''Economic Report of the President'' (annual 1947- )], complete series online; important analysis of current trends and policies, plus statistcial tables
* Ferrell, Robert H. ed. ''Dear Bess: The Letters from Harry to Bess Truman, 1910-1959'' (1983)
* Ferrell, Robert H. ed. ''Off the Record: The Private Papers of Harry S. Truman'' (1980).
* Merrill, Dennis. ed. ''Documentary History of the Truman Presidency, (1995- ) 35 volumes; available in some large academic libraries.
* Miller, Merle ''Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman'' (1974)
* Neal, Steve. ed. ''HST: Memories of the Truman Years.'' (2003)280pp; long excerpts from 20 oral history interviews (some of which are online at the Truman Library site).
* Neal, Steve. ed. ''Miracle of '48: Harry Truman's Major Campaign Speeches & Selected Whistle-Stops'' (2003); 43 speeches
* Truman, Harry S. ''Where the Buck Stops: The Personal and Private Writings of Harry S. Truman'' edited by Margaret Truman (1990) [http://www.amazon.com/Where-Buck-Stops-Personal-Writings/dp/0446391751/ref=pd_bbs_sr_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221386001&sr=8-6 excerpt and text search]
* Truman, Harry S. ''Memoirs'' 2 vol (1955). [http://tera-3.ul.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/reader.pl?call=30151&search= vol 1 online]
* Truman, Margaret. ''Harry S. Truman''. (1973). memoir by his daughter
* Truman, Harry S. ''The Autobiography of Harry S. Truman'' edited compilation of excerpts by Robert H. Ferrell (2002) [http://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Harry-S-Truman/dp/0826214452/ref=pd_bbs_sr_5/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193347436&sr=8-5 excerpt and text search]
* [http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/ ''The Public Papers of the Presidents'' contain most of Truman's public messages, statements, speeches, and news conference remarks. Documents such as Proclamations, and Executive Orders]

==Historiography==
* Ferrell, Robert H. ''Harry S. Truman and the Cold War Revisionists.'' 2006. 142 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Truman-Cold-War-Revisionists/dp/0826216536/ref=sr_1_6/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193349212&sr=8-6 excerpt and text search]
* Geselbracht, Raymond. "Creating the Harry S. Truman Library: The First Fifty Years," ''Public Historian'', 28 (Summer 2006), 37–78.
* Hartmann, Susan M. "The 1948 Election and the Configuration of Postwar Liberalism" ''Reviews in American History'' 28.1 (2000) 105-111 in [[Project Muse]]
* Heller, Francis H., ed. ''The Korean War: A 25 Year Perspective'' (1977), essays by scholars
* Heller, Francis H., ed. ''The Truman White House: The Administration of the Presidency, 1945-1953'' (1980), essays by scholars
* Heller, Francis H., ed. ''Economics and the Truman Administration'' (1981), essays by scholars
* Kirkendall, Richard S. ed. ''Harry's Farewell: Interpreting and Teaching the Truman Presidency'' (2004) essays by scholars
* Kirkendall, Richard S., ed. ''The Truman Period as a Research Field: A Reappraisal 1972'' (1974)
* Tull, Charles J. "The State of the Art in Truman Research," in William F. Levantrosser, ed. ''Harry S. Truman: The Man from Independence'' (1986), 1-31 aides. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23428395 online edition]
* Walker, J. Samuel "Recent Literature on Truman's Atomic Bomb Decision: a Search for Middle Ground." ''Diplomatic History'' 2005 29(2): 311-334. Issn: 0145-2096 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]

==External links==
*[http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/ht33.html Biography]
*[http://www.trumanlibrary.org Presidential Library]
*[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/index.php The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb], Truman Library.
*[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/small/mb12a.htm President Truman to Senator Richard B. Russell], August 9, 1945.
====notes====
<references/>

{{USPresidents}}
{{USVicePresidents}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Truman, Harry}}

[[Category:Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:Vice Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:Democratic Party]]

Tim McVeigh

2008-11-11T20:52:16Z

AshleyS: Redirecting to Timothy McVeigh

#REDIRECT [[Timothy McVeigh]]

Socialism

2008-11-11T20:49:01Z

AshleyS: /* Criticism of socialism */ mention Obama

[[Image:Backrdv12n2.jpg|right|400px|thumb|The caption reads, "Long live the great undefeatable flag of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin!"]]
'''Socialism''' uses government power to redistribute wealth.
In [[totalitarian]] countries such as [[USSR]], [[China]], [[Cuba]], [[North Korea]], etc., it has caused widespread shortages of basic goods and services. These Communist countries used an "[[Iron Curtain]]" to keep their citizens from emigrating.
Although this acts as a drag on the economy, in democratic countries of the industrialized west, some socialist ideas have been put into practice with varying degrees of success.

==Controversy==
The ideology of '''Socialism''' is subject to a variety of interpretations. From a conservative perspective, socialism is an economic system whereby the means of production are seized and monopolized by the government without compensation to the builders of the [[capital]], and where investments, production, distribution, income, prices, and economic justice are administered by a government [[nomenklatura]] that regulate the transfer of money, goods (including capital goods), and services primarily through taxation and regularized and institutionalized aggressive coercion. However, the majority of socialists would reject this description. Democratic socialists advocate a system of governance based on the principles of [[solidarity]], [[equality]] and [[liberty]], viewing these principles as interconnected, with increased socio-economic equality associated with increased practical freedom to fulfill human potential. In many countries, such as the United Kingdom, socialist movements have been built on Christian and co-operative bases, embracing the notion that individuals should 'treat others as they would wish to be treated', and arguing that all individuals have a moral responsibility for the welfare of other members of their society. Socialism seeks to prioritize human welfare over other goals, such as profit and wealth accumulation by elites; it views increased redistribution of wealth as vital to securing greater freedom and happiness for the bulk of the people, and deplores the devastating effects of gross inequality on society in terms of increased crime, mental illness, unhappiness and lack of life chances.

==Key elements==

As a political ideology based on the expropriation of wealth, socialism stresses the privileges of the nomenklatura over the rights of workers and earners. Many of the most notoriously oppressive dictatorships have been socialist, such as the [[Soviet Union]] and [[National Socialist]] Germany. As an economic theory, socialism calls for redistribution of wealth, through taxation of private wealth coupled with "[[Progressivism|progressive]]" social policy or directly via [[nationalization]] and public ownership of property without compensation to owners. Wage earners suffer under Socialism, as it is hard to get paid in a system that discourages private persons from accumulating income.

Although socialist ideas such as the provision of [[unemployment benefits]], state [[pension]]s, [[universal health care]], and state control of key industries have been common throughout the developed world in the modern era, the [[United States]] has tended to reject socialism as an ideological position. However, current political figures from the Democratic party, such as [[Barack Obama]] embrace many socialist ideals (such as "spreading the wealth") and are likely to try to implement them if given the opportunity. In other parts of the world, such as Europe, Africa, Asia, and South and Central America, there has generally been more explicit support for socialism as a doctrine, and socialist parties have been among the most successful political forces of the last 100 years.

While socialism has often been [[atheistic]] in character, and many leading socialists (most prominently Karl Marx) have been critical of the role of religion - and conservative religion in particular - which they criticize for lending support to an unjust social order, some Socialists have been Christians, and there has been considerable interplay between Christian and Socialist ideas. [[Christian socialists]] have asserted that early Christian communities, in particular, displayed certain traits, such as the holding of possessions in common,<ref>Acts 2:44: "Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need."</ref> the rejection of conventional sexual mores and gender roles,{{fact}} the provision for communal education, etc., that could be considered similar to socialism. See, for instance, Arnold Toynbee, the British historian, has responded to this,

:"the Marxian excerpt from a Christian Socialism is an experiment which is doomed to failure because it has denied itself the aid of the spiritual power which alone is capable of making Socialism a success. ….'Christianity', they say, 'is the opiate of the People'; and, in the [[Soviet Union]]… Christianity or of any other theistic religion have been debarred… from admission to membership of the All-Union Communist Party. In fact, Communism has been definitely and militantly anti-Christian. Thus the campaign against Christianity which is to-day an integral part of the propaganda of [[Marxian Socialism]] is a challenge to the living generation of Christians …we latter-day Christians may still turn a Marxian attack upon Christianity to good account … a re-awakening of the Christian social conscience has been the one great positive practical achievement of Karl Marx" <ref>Arnold Toynbee, ''A Study of History'', Annex II to Vol. V, Part C (i) (c) 2, p. 585-586, Marxism, Socialism, and Christianity.</ref>

Communist persecution notwithstanding, the earliest Christians were decidedly living in a manner consistent with the aims of socialism. Acts 4:32-5:11 not only describes community redistribution of property, but describes punishment of a husband and wife for failing to completely share the proceeds from selling their land.

[[Marx, Karl|Karl Marx]] considered socialism to be a transitory stage between capitalism and communism. In his view, socialism is summed up by the expression: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." A major criticism of socialism is that it infringes individual rights in favor of the populace. In a very real sense, politics in the western world throughout the 20th century was shaped by the conflict between socialist and capitalist governmental policies.

Although socialist parties are common in Europe, the leading examples all currently embrace some free enterprise, individual property rights and certain other aspects of capitalism although leading European Socialists are very critical of America. In many European countries socialism has been changing to [[Social democracy]].

== Britain, the Labour Party and socialism ==

At its inception, the [[Labour Party]] borrowed socialist ideas by committing itself to a program of nationalization under 'Clause 4' of their Constitution, but was always fundamentally committed to the British State and the [[Westminster model]] of parliamentary government. Clause 4 was formally dropped after the election of [[Tony Blair]] as Party leader, signaling the creation of 'New' Labour.<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/21/newsid_2515000/2515825.stm</ref> The British governments of 1945-1950 and 1950-1951 under [[Clement Atlee]] implemented the nationalization of several industries and utilities, including coal, steel, water, railways and electricity. The best known example is the [[nationalization of health care]] to create the [[National Health Service]] (NHS). This made - literally overnight - health care "free" at the point of delivery for everybody in Britain.

Since the election to government of the Labour Party in 1997, many "[[progressive]]" measures have been introduced, such as the Minimum Wage, Child Tax Credits, union recognition legislation, increased maternity and paternity leave, the Child Trust Fund, refurbishment of [[council housing]], free bus travel for the elderly, increased paid leave for all workers, free nursery-school places, and large cuts in unemployment.<ref>[http://www.towerhamlets.labour.co.uk/a1c1ce9b-1488-7bb4-a528-14436f084ba3]</ref> In addition, over a million children and a million pensioners have been [[lifted out of poverty]];{{fact}} however, many in the [[Labour Movement]] are extremely critical of [[New Labour]]'s tentative approach to reducing [[inequality]], and are frustrated that the government has not been more willing to make the case to the public for the [[redistribution of wealth]].

==World socialism==

US liberal politicians often echo the rhetoric of [[world socialism]]: <ref>Before Congress adjourned last week on another of its lengthy holidays, Speaker [[Nancy Pelosi]] repeated a phrase she has previously used about the war in Iraq. She again referred to it as "the Bush policy of unending war in Iraq." [http://www.townhall.com/columnists/CalThomas/2007/05/29/unending_war Cal Thomas] Tuesday, May 29, 2007 </ref>

*"Because George W. Bush [is] among the most menacing and belligerent [presidents] in American history. [He has] outlined a program of limitless and perpetual warfare, on every continent, and against any regime that stands in the way of the rapacious American ruling class.... like Hitler and the Nazis, [[American militarism]] has embarked on a campaign of world conquest and world domination... [President Bush has issued] a declaration of the unbridled appetites of the military and of the most ruthless, corrupt and criminal sections of the American ruling elite ...Like Hitler, Bush presents an upside-down view of the world in which small and weak states are mortal threats to the most powerful and heavily armed..." (World Socialist Web Site, 31 January 2002)

== Criticism of socialism ==
Socialism is often criticized by many people, including [[Bill O'Reilly]]. In his book ''''Culture Warrior'''' O'Reilly starts the book out by painting a bleak picture of what America would look like with a socialistic government. He states problems such as lawlessness, lack of morals and ethics and an overbearing politically correct "feel good" government.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=XPY4AAAACAAJ&dq=Culture+Warrior |title=Google books |accessdate=2008-02-22}}</ref>

Socialism is usually considered by most to be a weaker form of a communistic government, where a small few control and impose their beliefs onto other people. For example, Europe is used as an example of socialism. Most of the region is controlled by the [[European Union]] who impose restricts on religion and freedom of speech while promoting an "equal" and [[Political correctness|politically correct]] society.

Many people believe that [[Barack Obama]] will introduce socialistic policies into the government of the United States of America. Whether this occurs remains to be seen, but it seems likely at this juncture.

==Other Socialist Countries (Current )==
==[[Cuba]]==
Communist leader [[Fidel Castro]] violently overthrew the Cuban government in the 1950's and has declared Cuba to be Communist since then. Today, Cuba faces copious economic problems and the people lack their Fundamental Rights. ([[Raul Castro]] now runs the country, having taken it over from his ailing brother Fidel.)

==North Korea==

North Korea's form of communism is in the form of "Juche" - a doctrine established by Kim Il Sung and carried on by current leader Kim Jong Il. The country has little to no electrical power at night outside the capital, which can be verified by looking at nighttime satellite photos. <ref>http://epod.usra.edu/archive/epodviewer.php3?oid=87488</ref>

==Different strands of socialism==
*[[Communism]]
*[[Social democracy]]
*[[National socialism]] (Nazism)
*[[Fascism]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.mises.org/etexts/hayekintellectuals.pdf The Intellectuals and Socialism], By F.A. Hayek, ''The University of Chicago Law Review'', (Spring 1949), pp. 417-420, 421-423, 425-433.
*[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9109587/socialism Socialism] Encyclopædia Britannica.
*[http://www.aim.org/wls/category/socialism/ What Liberals Say - Category: Socialism], [[Accuracy In Media]]
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China]
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_countries]

[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Socialism]]

Communism

2008-11-11T20:46:30Z

AshleyS: /* Notable communists */ alphabetize list

[[Image:Captive-nations-01b----07-19-06.jpg|thumbnail|180px|right|A monument to the Captive Nations stands at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.]]
'''Communism''' is a [[political]] system based on [[Karl Marx]]'s proposed establishment of a "classless society" by means of eliminating [[private property]]. However, no Communist country has ever achieved its stated goal of creating a classless society (often called "small-c communism"); each has been dominated by a self appointed ''[[Nomenklatura]]''. It has been estimated that in less than the past 100 years, governments under the banner of communism have caused the death of somewhere between 40,472,000 to 259,432,000 human lives.<ref>[http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/finalconflict/fcrevb102.html The Black Book of Communism]</ref><ref>[http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/lelivrenoir.htm The Black Book of Communism]</ref><ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM</ref><ref>[http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm Source List and Detailed Death Tolls for the Twentieth Century Hemoclysm]</ref><ref>[http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/blog/template_permalink.asp?id=365 Memory and Ideology]</ref><ref>[http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=2526 The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression]</ref> Dr. R. J. Rummel, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii, is the scholar who first coined the term democide (death by government). Dr. R. J. Rummel's mid estimate regarding the loss of life due to communism is that communism caused the death of approximately 110,286,000 people between 1917 and 1987.<ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM</ref>

Today, communism continues to rule over one-fifth of the world's people.<ref>[http://www.victimsofcommunism.org/history_communism.php Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation], Documenting Communism's Crimes Against Humanity.</ref>
__TOC__
 

==Theory==

[[Image:HammerAndSickle.png|thumb|left|180px|The [[hammer and sickle]], the international symbol of communism, stand for the uprising of the peasants (the sickle) and the workers (the hammer). In certain countries, it is considered to be offensive in the same manner as the [[swastika]] is.]]
Communism is based upon [[Marxism]], a philosophy which uses [[materialism]] to explain all physical and social phenomena.

Economically, communism advocates a [[socialist]] economy in which the public owns the "[[means of production]]". In countries where communism has been imposed, the government has taken ownership of farms, factories, stores and so on in the name of the people; see "[[dictatorship of the proletariat]]". This drives all [[free market|market-based]] economic activity underground and leads to inefficiencies and shortages. In both the Soviet Union and Red China, the number of people who starved to death when the government confiscated their farm products (animals and grain) is estimated in the tens of millions of souls.

Members of the ruling party (see [[Nomenklatura]]) have special stores in which ordinary people are barred, stores which are immune to the shortages which the lower class must endure (see [[queuing]]).

Various communist doctrines have evolved or been adapted to the time and place they have been implemented. Marxism, developed by [[Karl Marx]], and its modifications under [[Vladimir Ilyich Lenin| Vladimir Lenin]], [[Joseph Stalin]], and [[Mao Zedong]], advocates the overthrow of the existing order by a revolution of the proletariat, the social group which does not control the means of production. The goal of Marxism is supposedly to create a classless society which would result in no longer the need for any [[government]].

The most famous government to label itself "communist" is the former [[USSR]] or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; the Communist Party controlled its government from 1922 to 1991. This government was officially [[atheist]] and attempted to suppress all religion. Like many authoritarian regimes, it tried to cultivate reverence for the state as a psychological substitute for religion. Left-wing critics of the USSR charged that it was communist in name only, and had betrayed the revolution which founded it. George Orwell expressed this viewpoint eloquently in his 1945 fable ''[[Animal Farm]]''.

Marxist theory is intended to appeal to its adherents with the phrase, "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs", which essentially states point blank a worker does not get paid according to his abilities, and there is no [[incentive]] within the economic theory. Another quote by Marx was, "The theory of the Communism may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property," or as some have phrased it, legalized theft.

== Communism and militant atheism ==

[[Karl Marx]] coined the saying "Religion is the Opiate of the people". Karl Marx also wrote: "Communism begins from the outset (Owen) with [[atheism]]; but [[atheism]] is at first far from being communism; indeed, that [[atheism]] is still mostly an abstraction."

[[Vladimir Lenin]] similarly wrote: "A Marxist must be a materialist, i. e., an enemy of religion, but a dialectical materialist, i. e., one who treats the struggle against religion not in an abstract way, not on the basis of remote, purely theoretical, never varying preaching, but in a concrete way, on the basis of the class struggle which is going on in practice and is educating the masses more and better than anything else could."

The [[atheism]] in communist regimes has been and continues to be [[militant atheism]] and various acts of repression including the razing of thousands of religious buildings and the killing, imprisoning, and oppression of religious leaders and believers.<ref>http://www.academia.org/campus_reports/2000/March_2000_4.html</ref><ref>http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/frroman1.aspx</ref><ref>http://www.nysun.com/article/23082?page_no=1</ref><ref>http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/5/7/120250.shtml</ref><ref>http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_26_116/ai_56249447</ref><ref>http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35818</ref><ref>http://theworldnow.wordpress.com/tag/around-the-world/asia/china/</ref>

Marxists justification for its persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church was based upon the claim that the Church was a "willing tool of Tsarism."<ref>http://www.marxist.com/religion-soviet-union170406-6.htm</ref>

The clergy openly stated its support for the counter-revolution (White Revolution). Lenin proclaimed that a communist regime must show itself to be merciless toward the question of religion. There was no place for the church in Lenin's regime. This led to anti-religious decrees and propaganda. All church property was expropriated by the new Soviet government. <ref>http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-42047/Union-of-Soviet-Socialist-Republics#277888.hook</ref>

During the late 1930's and later 1940's the restrictions on church activity were loosened as Stalin needed all the support he could get for the war. This doctrine of co-operation between the church and state continued through out the existence of the Soviet republics and the other Warszawa pact nations. Though never going as far as a leader of the Soviet Union asking [http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/simon_barrow/2007/03/hiding_behind_god.html god to bless the country] the clause in the Soviet Unions constitution addressing the separation of church and state was rendered useless.

== Communism and Atrocities and Repression ==

Modern communist regimes have engaged in mass killings on a scale of millions of individuals.<ref>http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/bcaplan/museum/comfaq.htm#part3</ref> A work entitled ''[[The Black Book of Communism]]'' published by the [[Harvard]] Press focuses on the crimes, terror, and repression of modern communist regimes over a 70 year period.<ref>http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/COUBLA.html</ref> This book is fairly controversial partly due to the various estimates regarding the millions of people who died under communist regimes.<ref>http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/finalconflict/fcrevb102.html</ref><ref>http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/lelivrenoir.htm</ref><ref>http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm</ref>
<ref>http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/blog/template_permalink.asp?id=365</ref><ref>http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=2526</ref>

Similarly, a influential book which concerns itself with Russian communist torture, repression and atrocities is [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]]'s ''[[The Gulag Archipelago]]'' which won Solzhenitsyn a [[Noble Prize]].<ref>http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/01/home/solz-gulag.html</ref> In 1983, Alexander Solzhenitsyn in which he gave his explanation of the cause of why millions of people died under Russian communism:

<blockquote style="background: #F9F9F9; border: 1px solid #AAAAAA; padding: .3em;">
"Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.
</blockquote>

<blockquote style="background: #F9F9F9; border: 1px solid #AAAAAA; padding: .3em;">
Since then I have spend well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened."<ref>http://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=276</ref>
</blockquote>

In communist [[North Korea]], abuse and killing in prison camps is occurring today.<ref>http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=5596</ref><ref>http://www.kimsoft.com/korea/nkdefec3.htm</ref> In addition, the North Korean government practices brutal repression and atrocities against North Korean Christians.<ref>http://www.nysun.com/article/23082?page_no=1</ref><ref>http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/5/7/120250.shtml</ref>

In 1999, the publication [[Christian Century]] reported that "China has persecuted religious believers by means of "harassment, prolonged detention, and incarceration in prison or `reform-through-labor' camps and police closure of places of worship."<ref>http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_26_116/ai_56249447</ref> In 2003, owners of Bibles in China were sent to prison camps and 125 Chinese churches were closed.<ref>http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35818</ref> China continues to practice religious oppression today.<ref>http://theworldnow.wordpress.com/tag/around-the-world/asia/china/</ref>

==Communists cite scripture==

Some Communist ideology has made its way into the Church as a [[Social Gospel]], interpreting the Gospel as less redemptive of sin and more of a public works campaign and activism. The often cite Jesus feeding the masses and warnings to the wealthy who believed self-seeking is all this world has to offer. Communists often cite the Acts of the Apostles, as early Christians practicing some form of sharing for the common good:

:And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. (Acts 2:44-45, KJV)

:Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold,

:And laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.

:And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus,

:Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet.(Acts 4:34-7, KJV)

But as Arnold Toynbee has pointed out, this Marxist view denies the most crucial points,

:The passage in the Acts represents the philanthropy of the primitive Christian Society as flowing from a God-given grace which was the fruit of a belief in the divinity of Jesus. In other words, the charity which is here depicted as moving the primitive Christians to go—in their mutual concern for one another's welfare—to the extreme length of sharing all their worldly goods is not a mere love of Man for Man (which is the limited literal meaning of the word ‘philanthropy’), but is a spiritual relation to which God is a party as well as His human creatures. In fact, this Christian Socialism is a practical application, on the economic surface of life, of the fundamental religious truth that the brotherhood of Man is a consequence of the fatherhood of God - a truth which is driven home with special force by a religion which teaches that God is not only the father and creator of Man, but also his savior who has been incarnate in human shape and has suffered, and triumphed over, Death.<ref>Arnold Toynbee, ''A Study of History'', Annex II to Vol. V, Part C (i) (c) 2, p. 585, ''Marxism, Socialism, and Christianity''.</ref>

==Demise of Communism==

Between 1989 and 1991, many communist governments fell. The [[Berlin Wall]] in [[Germany]], which had become a symbol for the division between the West and communist states, was torn down largely in response to Ronald Reagan in 1989, and there was also a large revolution against Romanian dictator [[Nicolaie Ceausescu]]. In 1991, the USSR broke up into several countries - each which reformed to capitalism. Some of these remained under autocratic governments, but some have embraced [[democracy]].

Although Communism's influence has decreased dramatically in Europe, it still has a strong presence in Asia, where the most famous country governed by a communist one-party system is [[China]], but others (such as [[North Korea]], [[Laos]], and [[Vietnam]]) remain. There is considerable debate as to the extent to which these governments actually implement communist policies. China has not democratized (note especially the crushing of the [[Tiananmen Square protests of 1989]]), but its economic policies have been called "red capitalism" by some commentators, as there is a growing sector that behaves in a less-regulated, free market style. China's economy manufactures a wide variety of products that are sold to non-communist countries, and there is quite obvious tolerance of economic inequality, with some provinces struggling with poverty while others prosper. One of the only remaining Modern communist countries, [[Cuba]], is still kept under economic sanctions by the USA.

President Ronald Reagan speaking to the British House of Commons at the Palace of Westminster said,
{{Cquote|What I am describing now is a plan and hope for the long term -- the march of freedom and democracy which will leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash heap of history as it has left other tyrannies which stifle the freedom and muzzle the self-expression of the people.<ref>President Ronald Reagan [http://www.iri.org/history_ReaganSpeech.asp Speech to the British Parliament], June 8, 1982. Retrieved from International Republican Institute 05/24/07. </ref>}}

==Apologists of communism==

Apologists for communism like to say that the atrocities of communism were not really because of communism.
They say that Communist ideals were internally contradicted, so no government ever met the official definition of "communist".
Many states have, however, proclaimed themselves as communist.

==Notable communists==

Notable communists include:
*[[Fidel Castro]]
*[[Friedrich Engels]]
*[[Che Guevara]]
*[[Vladimir Lenin]]
*[[Karl Marx]]
*[[Joseph Stalin]]
*[[Genrikh Yagoda]]

==See also==
*[[Communist Party of the United States of America]]
*[[Cold War]]
*[[Capitalism]]
*[[Iron Curtain]]
*[[Socialism]]
*[[Korean Airlines Flight 007]] for the connection of the shootdown by the Soviets of KAL 007, with 269 people aboard, on Sept. 1, 1983 with the heightened U.S./Soviet confrontations of 1983-4.

==Notes and references==
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
*[http://www.memorialsighet.ro/en/colectie.asp?id=3 Memorial to the Victims of Communism and the Resistance]
*[http://www.aim.org/wls/category/communism/ What Liberals Say - Category: Communism], [[Accuracy In Media]]

[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Communism]]
[[Category:Forms of Government]]

Talk:Literature

2008-11-11T20:34:48Z

AshleyS: /* Inappropriate examples? */ new section

==Content?==
This page is almost absurdly devoid of content about one of the great topics of... well, life. It is simply insane that there are huge articles devoted to a thousand different iterations of homosexual topics, but that this is the page for something so vital to a full life and educated mind. Literature is a word commonly used to denote the great books, so at least some discussion of literary study or criticism would be good. Instead the page's content is essentially a copied dictionary definition, a copied encyclopedia definition, a mediocre metaphysical poem, and a terribly written quote from a free online study guide. It's a travesty.--[[User:Gigg|Gigg]] 22:59, 21 February 2008 (EST)
:I hate to sound patronizing, but... please improve it? That's what Wikis are for, right? This is still a very young (albeit successful!) project, so your help would be appreciated.-[[User:MexMax|MexMax]] 23:00, 21 February 2008 (EST)
::I am afraid I am one of those who has fallen for that "superficial, fallacious liberal logic" in my quest to be "long in academic degrees but short in intellectual achievements of [my] own". Any contributions I would make would be invariably biased towards neutrality, at the least. But I couldn't pass some of these articles without at least pointing them out so they can be improved. There must be at least someone with some background in literary studies who is competent to improve this... they could hardly make it worse. Bon chance, though.--[[User:Gigg|Gigg]] 23:06, 21 February 2008 (EST)
:::It's easy to criticize, but...
:::Honestly, I'd add, but it seems like you know the subject better. It's not my specialty, really , so I'd rather someone who feels impassioned about it contributes. I could add "''Atonement'' is a pretty good book," but, again...-[[User:MexMax|MexMax]] 23:11, 21 February 2008 (EST)
::::I understand, and I hope someone who is impassioned does stop by. I heard about this site on Wikipedia, and I think it is an interesting idea. Ultimately, however, I disagree with its intent, and do not think my contributions would be consistent with what is desired here (a conservative Christian viewpoint). I would not feel comfortable contributing, so the most help I feel I can give is by pointing out weaknesses. I don't know how many users there are here, though, so I am sure now that it has been pointed out the matter will be remedied soon enough. Bon chance.--[[User:Gigg|Gigg]] 23:15, 21 February 2008 (EST)
:::::It's hard to make "literature" controversial :-). You're welcome to give it a try, but I understand your reluctance, while I don't think it's necessary. May the Wikibug bite you in the end... :-)-[[User:MexMax|MexMax]] 23:22, 21 February 2008 (EST)
::::::I wouldn't have thought it was possible to politicize [[deconstruction]] either, but apparently it can be done. You seem good-natured, so I wish you well.--[[User:Gigg|Gigg]] 23:25, 21 February 2008 (EST)

==Yeesh==
I want to remove all the quotes and the "examples." They are clumsy and have no place here. Examples should be linked to, not put on the page itself. And quotes should be highly topical and pithy, not nigh-irrelevant.--[[user:TomMoore|Tom Moore]][[User talk:TomMoore|fiat justitia ruat coelum]] 22:44, 27 May 2008 (EDT)

:I think that linking to them on separate pages would be an excellent idea. [[User:DanH|DanH]] 22:46, 27 May 2008 (EDT)

:: I see you point, but I do not agree with it. I think it is important to have examples at hand and the quote shows an important aspect of that art. So sorry to see things in a different way. --[[User:Joaquín Martínez]], [[User talk:Joaquín Martínez|talk]] 22:49, 27 May 2008 (EDT)

:::The quotes would still be present if linked to on different pages consisting of those quotations, but the article would look easier to read, and important parts of the quotes could be emphasized or bolded. [[User:DanH|DanH]] 22:50, 27 May 2008 (EDT)

:::Well, Joaquin, you're a sysop. So I guess that's that. Never mind then, I guess the page as-is does illustrate at least one lesson.--[[user:TomMoore|Tom Moore]][[User talk:TomMoore|fiat justitia ruat coelum]] 22:55, 27 May 2008 (EDT)

:::: Sysop or not, it is a pleasure to be in touch with the art, and examples do precisely that! --[[User:Joaquín Martínez]], [[User talk:Joaquín Martínez|talk]] 22:59, 27 May 2008 (EDT)

:::::I'm not going to argue with you. I've been blocked too much to do that; I know what happens when you disagree with the people in charge. Please, do what you want here, I'm leaving it all to you :)--[[user:TomMoore|Tom Moore]][[User talk:TomMoore|fiat justitia ruat coelum]] 23:00, 27 May 2008 (EDT)

If you see in my edit, I save the new material that you added and got with you into an academic exchange of ideas. Never have used any threat and never will as long as we offer reasons and explanations. What is not correct is to make a massive clean up. Sometimes it takes me days to find the right image or the right information. That is why I try to care them. --[[User:Joaquín Martínez]], [[User talk:Joaquín Martínez|talk]] 23:10, 27 May 2008 (EDT)

:Or better yet, new pages could be started for each type of literature that could have more examples so that more examples could be used to better show the types of literature. [[User:DanH|DanH]] 22:51, 27 May 2008 (EDT)

:: That is a better idea. The quotes have been highlighted for long. --[[User:Joaquín Martínez]], [[User talk:Joaquín Martínez|talk]] 22:56, 27 May 2008 (EDT)

== Inappropriate examples? ==

I hate to make a fuss on my first day here, but I am concerned that Lord Byron may not be the most appropriate example to use here. He is at least as well-known for his shameful, disgusting, and anti-family exploits as for any literary accomplishments he may possess. It is well-documented that he had many extra-marital affairs and at least one illegitimate child, and there is some evidence that some of these were homosexual in nature. He was also a drug abuser.

I do not want to censor Conservapedia, but shouldn't we choose the best possible examples whenever possible? I believe we have a resonsiblity to the chidlren on the internet to provide wholesome role models whenever we can. Literature is a huge field. Can't we find a more morally upright exemplar than Byron? —[[User:AshleyS|Asphalt P. Stanky]] 15:34, 11 November 2008 (EST)

Multiplication

2008-11-11T20:28:27Z

AshleyS: mention and link associative property

In its most elementary form '''multiplication''' is the repeated [[addition]] of [[whole numbers]] or [[integers]].
:For example, <big><math>3\times 2 = 2 + 2 + 2 = 6</math></big>

The result of a multiplication is the ''product''. The numbers which are multiplied together are called ''factors''.

In this context, it is also one of the most well-known [[commutative]] operations: It yields the same result, regardless of placement of numbers.

:For example <big><math>3\times 2 = 2\times 3</math></big>.

Multiplication also possesses the [[associative property of multiplication|associative property]].

The opposite of multiplication is [[division]].

== Properties of Multiplication ==

* Multiplying any number by 1 yields that same number again. E.g. <math>8\times 1 = 1</math>
* Multiplying any number by 0 yields 0. E.g. <math>7\times 0 = 0</math>

==See also==
*[[Multiplication Property of Equality]]
*[[Arithmetic]]

[[Category:Algebra]]

User talk:DeanS

2008-11-11T20:23:22Z

AshleyS: /* Username change */ new section

Just tell me how could we protect better the Mormon articles? --[[User:Joaquín Martínez]], [[User talk:Joaquín Martínez|talk]] 12:31, 1 July 2008 (EDT)

:What do you mean by "protect better" Joaquín? This is a wiki and we try to avoid protecting the articles. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 13:23, 1 July 2008 (EDT)

: OK, I will do my best to patroll them. At present I am out of home. Just keep doing your wonderfull work. --[[User:Joaquín Martínez]], [[User talk:Joaquín Martínez|talk]] 13:31, 1 July 2008 (EDT)

::Joaquín, Thanks for Patrolling the articles and dealing with JimmyP. As I mentioned on the church talk page, he needs to explain in detail why he has a problem with that link. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 13:27, 23 August 2008 (EDT)

:: I am out of town. I will be back untill August 6th. Thanks for your help. --[[User:Joaquín Martínez]], [[User talk:Joaquín Martínez|talk]] 14:16, 30 July 2008 (EDT)

::: Good to hear from you Joaquín. I hope you have a great vacation! --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 17:26, 30 July 2008 (EDT)

Hi DeanS, what a great article 'Breaking Speaker Pelosi's News Blackout'. I love the strategy, proud of my GOP 'ers, it is so patriotic!--[[User:Jpatt|jp]] 00:50, 5 August 2008 (EDT)

:Thanks Jpatt! Now if only President Bush would make Congress come back in session to deal with this issue. They don't deserve a five-week vacation. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 02:11, 5 August 2008 (EDT)

== Thanks, Bro! ==

I thought your guys are gonna ignore me again, but Nah, I got wrong ideas. Thank you, May the Lord bless you! [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Template:Mainpageright&oldid=497248] I wish I was brave enough to do that! But only I'm could is to support them to do so, "sigh".--[[User:TagoPagdaluhong|TagoPagdaluhong]] 11:36, 8 August 2008 (EDT)

:Your welcome Tago. I think the pic is a nice addition as well. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 11:39, 8 August 2008 (EDT)

::I must say, that picture is much better view then the source had.--[[User:TagoPagdaluhong|TagoPagdaluhong]] 11:50, 8 August 2008 (EDT)

:::I agree. I followed the pic to its source and was rewarded with this version. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 11:58, 8 August 2008 (EDT)

== Conservapedia:Featured articles. ==

Your opinion is needed in: [[Holy Days]], [[Architecture]], [[Great Flood]] and [[Deconstruction]].
--[[User:Joaquín Martínez]], [[User talk:Joaquín Martínez|talk]] 13:39, 19 October 2008 (EDT)

:Done. Thanks for the reminder. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 14:03, 19 October 2008 (EDT)

:: Thank you! --[[User:Joaquín Martínez]], [[User talk:Joaquín Martínez|talk]] 15:24, 19 October 2008 (EDT)

==Welcome==

Thanks for the welcome! This website is actually a god-send, a perfect oppurtunity to actually make use of my summer holidays. Hey by the way, I was wondering what CP's policy on science articles are, as this will probably be the aspect I'll be contributing to quite a lot. Thanks again- [[User:Jl2000|Jl2000]]

:Just start editing and you'll find out soon enough ;-) --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 15:21, 8 August 2008 (EDT)

:I researched this person's edits and found much of the material to be false. There was also information on that other site which made it very clear that he was just another of their parodists. [[User:Jinxmchue|Jinxmchue]] 15:58, 8 August 2008 (EDT)

::Interesting. They're supposed to be on a boycott of CP right now. ;-) --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 16:29, 8 August 2008 (EDT)

==Christian solidarity==

Hi, Dean. I like your [[:Image:Beijing arrests.jpg]] but I couldn't edit the caption. Can you crop the image and put the caption in the image link? --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] [[User talk:Ed Poor|Talk]] 09:30, 9 August 2008 (EDT)

:Hi Ed. How about this cropped image? The caption is in the image info. [[:Image:Beijing arrests2.jpg]] --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 13:24, 9 August 2008 (EDT)

== Thanks and a request or two. ==

Thanks for pointing me at that list of admins. Two things - [[Conservapedia:User rights]] is full of broken links but is locked - can you or someone else fix these? Also can you unlock [[Rape]] for me as well - the current wording includes the phrase "seducing a child" - as seduction as a concept can suggest an element of consent I'd like to rephrase the article. Thanks in advance. [[User:DefenderofTrue|DefenderofTrue]] 21:39, 14 August 2008 (EDT)

==Pre-screening of News stories==

Just curious - why the "No article prescreening" policy, and why delete what I thought were constructive comments, instead of responding to them on the page? --[[User:DinsdaleP|DinsdaleP]] 20:44, 20 August 2008 (EDT)

:The reason there will be no article pre-screening by you (or other liberals) is because myself or another admin will be prescreening the articles.

:I deleted your comments because those project pages are only for project members, and I'm not going to have nonmembers influencing the project. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 20:58, 20 August 2008 (EDT)

::Okay, all that makes sense, but if you read my post, I wasn't suggesting that I pre-screen, because I know non-conservatives like me aren't welcome on the sub-project. I had the sense that there was no pre-screening by anyone, and your edit-comment seemed to bear that out. Thanks for clarifying.

::Also, can I ask a blunt but serious question? Do you ever find that the labels of "liberal" and "conservative" are taken wayyy too seriously here, resulting in an all-or-none, black-and-white division between the two perspectives? I never post here to make trouble, only to offer a viewpoint that's usually more nuanced than the black-hat/white-hat exchanges that often take place. I hate labels myself, because in my case I'm libertarian on most social issues, conservative on fiscal ones, and still trying to figure out the spiritual - "Unitarian/Universalist" is probably closer than "Agnostic", but neither one is a strong enough fit to apply to myself.

::So if you want to create sub-projects for the true-believers only, go for it. I've just observed that while this is Conservapedia and not Neutralapedia, the "feel" of the place has become more polarized and combative, with less tolerance for dissent or even respectful disagreement, and a corresponding drop in the number and quality of contributors.

::As I said though, good luck with the news project, and I'll post my comments on the Main:Talk page. --[[User:DinsdaleP|DinsdaleP]] 21:17, 20 August 2008 (EDT)

:::Dinsdale, You said, "I wasn't suggesting that I pre-screen". What is this? [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Talk:Wikiproject:News&diff=prev&oldid=502069 "... I'd be glad to participate in article screening..."]

:::No, I don't find the labels are taken ''too'' seriously here. I have a problem with liberals and their way of thinking. Liberal viewpoints are wrong.

:::I find very little of the "respectful disagreement" from liberals; mostly I see great examples of [[Liberal Style]], vandalism, parody, troublemaking, obscenity, etc.

:::Your comments here are respectful; therefore I have responded in kind. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 21:39, 20 August 2008 (EDT)

::::Thanks for the courteous response. As for my statement on volunteering, the ''complete'' statement was "I'd be glad to participate in article screening but I don't qualify to be on this sub-project." Hey, I'd love night-editing rights, too, but I'm about as qualified to get that, too ;-) --[[User:DinsdaleP|DinsdaleP]] 22:05, 20 August 2008 (EDT)

:::::LOL --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 22:21, 20 August 2008 (EDT)
==Didn't mean to step on toes==
I'm just a huge fan of Cherone's and his ability to not alienate people when discussing Christianity and why abortion is wrong. So, I'd rather stick his "line in the sand" in there, if you don't mind. He has stated that anyone who really wants to be taken seriously in this debate at least needs to recognize that a woman has a right to live, if / when a baby directly threatens that. It's a position, being a woman wanting children, I happen to share. :-) If you really think it's liberal bias, let me know or a third party know, and we can "let the majority vote" (as it were).--[[User:MHayes|MHayes]] 22:43, 20 August 2008 (EDT)

: Btw, I DO mind. There is NO majority vote when an administrator removes liberal bias. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 22:59, 20 August 2008 (EDT)

::I guess I don't understand what "liberal bias" is in this case, then. Are you asserting that Cherone is a liberal? I really have no idea his political preference, just what he has said about abortion. --[[User:MHayes|MHayes]] 23:01, 20 August 2008 (EDT)

:::No, I'm not saying that Cherone is a liberal. See my comments at [[Talk:Extreme]] --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 23:16, 20 August 2008 (EDT)

==Wikinews==
DeanS, Wikinews, my spelling error on the Ayers story. Unrepentent should be unrepentant.-- [[Image:50 star flag.png|14px]] [[User:Jpatt|jp]] 10:31, 21 August 2008 (EDT)

Could you add int link for Stephanie Tubbs Jones? Tanks in advance!--[[Image:50 star flag.png|14px]] [[User:Jpatt|jp]] 12:43, 21 August 2008 (EDT)

:Thanks Jp. This mistake has been [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Template:Mainpageright&curid=66589&diff=502572&oldid=502384 corrected].

:The wikilink was added [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Template:Mainpageright&curid=66589&diff=502578&oldid=502572 here]. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 12:53, 21 August 2008 (EDT)

==Thank you!==
For stepping in. Whoever that person was, he was doing bad things to my blood pressure :) --[[User:JessicaT|KotomiT]][[User talk:JessicaT|''Hajimemashite!'']] 10:07, 22 August 2008 (EDT)

:You're welcome Jessica. He was an imposter and was dealt with accordingly. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 10:10, 22 August 2008 (EDT)

I got really annoyed... --[[User:DiEb|DiEb]] 10:32, 22 August 2008 (EDT)

:No wonder you were annoyed. I'm sorry this happened to you. We have enemies of this site, and they don't care who gets hurt or how much damage/disruption they cause. This incident reminds me of homicide bombers. All they care about is themselves and how much damage they can cause.

:Be on the alert for imposters. You can check their contributions like [http://www.conservapedia.com/Special:Contributions/JasonH this]. JasonH's contribs started today. Also JasonH created his account [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Special:Log&user=JasonH today]. Since we know [http://www.conservapedia.com/Special:Contributions/Jinxmchue the real Jinxmchue] has been editing for a while, that would also be a clue that JasonH was an imposter. Finally, he used this obvious deceitful <nowiki>[[User:JasonH|Jinxmchue]]</nowiki> [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=User_talk:DiEb&diff=prev&oldid=503259 signature.] --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 10:59, 22 August 2008 (EDT)

==Thank You for the Unblock==

I appreciate being restored given that my comments aren't mainstream here, and I appreciate the benefit of the doubt. --[[User:DinsdaleP|DinsdaleP]] 19:52, 22 August 2008 (EDT)

:Phillip explained why I was wrong, and I wanted to fix my mistake. Even though I don't agree with your views, I won't block you for expressing them. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 19:58, 22 August 2008 (EDT)

== Wikinews Project ==

Mr. DeanS,

Why exactly do you think I'm a liberal? I've tried to make it clear that I am anything but.

--[[User:JosephG|JosephG]] 23:52, 22 August 2008 (EDT)

:Joseph, I don't think you're a liberal. I thought I explained the reason clearly in the email. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 00:36, 23 August 2008 (EDT)

I see you have had great success with wanted pages via Wikinews. Since you have run out of new topics, I thought to suggest adding some words from [[Special:Wantedpages]]. Just to keep the pac motivated.-- [[Image:50 star flag.png|14px]] [[User:Jpatt|jp]] 15:43, 11 September 2008 (EDT)

:Jp, even though that is an interesting suggestion, I prefer to link to items on the news section; since this is a news project. If you want to suggest items, look at the news articles and see where the wikilinks are missing. Sometimes it's because the poster didn't bother to use existing wikilinks; other times it's because the article hasn't been created yet. It's quite challenging to go through the news articles and find these wikilinks. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 16:14, 11 September 2008 (EDT)

:: No problem. Before I submit a news item, I wikilink almost every word then use the preview to see which is or isn't listed. If you like, I can immediately add words that don't appear to the wanted section. -- [[Image:50 star flag.png|14px]] [[User:Jpatt|jp]] 16:45, 11 September 2008 (EDT)

:::That would be great! If you could add missing wikilinks for the other suggestions, that would be even better. ;-) --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 16:51, 11 September 2008 (EDT)

:Jp, I have reconsidered your idea to use the Conservapedia wanted articles. Just using the news wikilinks was okay, but including the general wanted articles is even better. Plus these articles also add to their count. If you want to add articles, add them to the bottom of the [[Wikiproject:News/Wanted_page#Conservapedia_wanted_articles|Conservapedia wanted articles]] section. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 09:53, 15 September 2008 (EDT)

:: Response to 'add missing wikilinks for the other suggestions', I would but do not have access to mainpage:right. -- [[Image:50 star flag.png|14px]] [[User:Jpatt|jp]] 12:25, 16 September 2008 (EDT)

:::What I mean is that you can add the missing wikilinks ''before'' the suggestion is posted.
:::Thanks for continuing to add new wanted articles.
:::What do you think about the section on revising the news postings? --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 12:32, 16 September 2008 (EDT)

::::I am fine with adding wikilinks before postings, even if they do not get posted.
::::My pleasure to help CP
::::Sounds interesting but I am not sure I understand. Do you mean, create a short essay/summary, then link back? -- [[Image:50 star flag.png|14px]] [[User:Jpatt|jp]] 12:39, 16 September 2008 (EDT)

:::::Once you add the revised headline summary, I will replace my headline with your revised headline on the Main Page. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 12:46, 16 September 2008 (EDT)

Hey DeanS, what is your policy if we created a news item that wasn't posted. But then the item was created and posted by a SysOp? Do I still get credit? --'''Jpatt'''[[User:Jpatt| ]] 20:29, 22 October 2008 (EDT)

:I believe you should still get the credit. Add a comment below your suggestion and you will get the credit. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 21:45, 22 October 2008 (EDT)

== Outdated news item ==

The main page has a news item that says: "According to RealClearPolitics, for the first time in the 2008 Presidential race, John McCain overtakes Barack Obama in the Electoral College poll 274 to 264." You may want to remove that from the main page since it is no longer accurate, and the link provided leads to a page showing Obama leading McCain 273 to 265 (that is what is how right now, anyway). [[User:KimEide|KimEide]] 13:54, 25 August 2008 (EDT)

:Done. Thanks for the alert. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 14:22, 25 August 2008 (EDT)

== IP's ban ==

(Not sure if this is proper procedure, but I'm still fairly new).

I disagree with your ban of Impm; there was no 'edit war' that could be perceived based on his recent (see five minutes ago) edits of the Barack Obama article. [[User:Jirby|Jirby]] 14:45, 25 August 2008 (EDT)

:Jirby, MYOB or ''you'' will be blocked. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 14:50, 25 August 2008 (EDT)

== Wow, they're really obsessed with me ==

How many people have created accounts referencing me? Quite a few, it seems. At least 3, to my recollection, including today's "Lowjinx." [[User:Jinxmchue|Jinxmchue]] 00:02, 27 August 2008 (EDT)

:They're obsessed alright; with you, all of the Conservapedia sysops and Conservapedia itself. They are also obsessed with vandalism, parody, deceit, and every other element of the [[Liberal Style]].

:I prefer to call them "possessed". They are possessed of a lying and evil spirit. They're sowing wickedness, and will reap wickedness at the judgment day.
--[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 01:01, 27 August 2008 (EDT)

::A little less [[Wikipedia:Avoid personal remarks|talk]], please. --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] [[User talk:Ed Poor|Talk]] 07:28, 29 August 2008 (EDT)

==Good, steady work==

Dean, thank you for your longstanding, careful attention to the main page. No one keeps up with current events as well as you do.

I also like your "wiki gnome" work, like [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Indian-American&curid=72030&diff=506590&oldid=506571 this minor copy edit]. --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] [[User talk:Ed Poor|Talk]] 07:29, 29 August 2008 (EDT)

:You're welcome Ed. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 10:53, 29 August 2008 (EDT)

==False quotes in News story on Obama speech==

I wasn't sure if you saw my comments about the false statements in the headline about the Obama speech. Do you consider the headline correct in it's current form? --[[User:DinsdaleP|DinsdaleP]] 13:24, 29 August 2008 (EDT)

:Yes, I read your comments. I would like Chippeterson to respond to you and provide a link for reference. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 13:59, 29 August 2008 (EDT)

::Understandable, but here's a [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/28/us/politics/28text-obama.html link] to the transcript of the speech, which clearly shows the headline is false and misleading. Chippeterson should respond, but only a sysop has the ability to edit news postings on the main page, and as the link shows, it's wrong. --[[User:DinsdaleP|DinsdaleP]] 14:10, 29 August 2008 (EDT)

:::Bear in mind that ''The New York Times'' is the leading liberal news source, so their "factual" claims must often be given close scrutiny. They have even misreported science news, e.g., publishing the assertion about open water at the North Pole (which was later shown to be historically inaccurate) just in time to influence public policy on [[global warming]].

:::Although liberals refer to the NY Times as the "newspaper of record", conservatives don't give it as much credence. (They have the legal write to print opinion as fact, you know; see [[First Amendment]].) --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] [[User talk:Ed Poor|Talk]] 09:36, 30 August 2008 (EDT)

:It's not '''"the"''' transcript (as in the only one possible); you left out "as recorded by CQ Transcriptions". Part of the strategy of liberal news media is to pick their sources carefully to give the impression they want. If you do a little research, you can find where a Boston Globe editor declared this quite openly. Would you like that as a [[writing assignment]]? --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] [[User talk:Ed Poor|Talk]] 09:40, 30 August 2008 (EDT)

== Republican Convention Headline ==

Last phrase should read "Democratic Vice Presidential nominee", not "Democrat Vice Presidential nominee." Thanks --[[User:Jareddr|Jareddr]] 12:40, 3 September 2008 (EDT)

:Fixed. Thanks for the correction. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 13:21, 3 September 2008 (EDT)

== RIP Bill Melendez ==

Thanks for that news, sad as it is. An unsung hero and icon of American culture whose legacy will live forever in our hearts. [[User:Jinxmchue|Jinxmchue]] 00:24, 4 September 2008 (EDT)

:Thanks Jinx. The article was submitted by Benp and I just posted it. Can you start an article for [[Bill Melendez]]? --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 00:29, 4 September 2008 (EDT)

::I'll have to see how soon I can get to it. Going to bed now. Have some yard work to do in the morning and work work from the afternoon through tomorrow morning. [[User:Jinxmchue|Jinxmchue]] 01:21, 4 September 2008 (EDT)

:::No problem Jinx. Thanks for your contributions. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 01:31, 4 September 2008 (EDT)

==Sysop Q==
How does one become a sysop? I've only been here a few days. [[User:JY23|JY23]]

:See [http://www.conservapedia.com/Conservapedia:Administrators Conservapedia:Administrators/Promotion]. Sysops are selected as needed from the best of the best contributors, there is no popularity contest to determine promotion. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 18:17, 4 September 2008 (EDT)

== Re: New article request process ==

Didn't know about the process ([http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Wikiproject%3ANews%2FWanted_page&diff=511110&oldid=511109]) Sorry, [[User:Nerd|Nerd]] 16:19, 5 September 2008 (EDT)

:That's fine. I usually just do it myself, and after you tried to do it, I realized I needed to write a process. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 16:32, 5 September 2008 (EDT)

::Cool. [[User:Nerd|Nerd]] 16:37, 5 September 2008 (EDT)

==Pictures==
DeanS, could you upload these photo's for me for the [[John McCain]] and [[Joe Biden]] articles, thanks.

http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/89ddfcef-3a43-49a6-99c4-b7f41986b56c_mn.jpeg

http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/john-mccain-4.jpg [[User:Chippeterson|Chippeterson]] 8 September 2008

:Here you go: [http://www.conservapedia.com/Image:Biden_on_Meet_the_Press.jpg Biden on Meet the Press] and [http://www.conservapedia.com/Image:McCain_on_Meet_the_Press.jpg McCain on Meet the Press]. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 23:32, 8 September 2008 (EDT)

I appreciate it. [[User:Chippeterson|Chippeterson]]9 September 2008
===Other Pictures===
Also DeanS, there are some articles with no pictures at all and could really use them. I was hoping you could upload these.

http://www.moderate-america.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/colin_powell-277x300.jpg

http://www.gcva.us/dpts/vote/TimKainePic.jpg

http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/pix/ray_nagin_cp_8482804.jpg

http://www.fantasycongress.com/public/img/senators/graham_lindsey_SC.jpg [[User:Chippeterson|Chippeterson]] 9 September 2008

:Here you go: [http://www.conservapedia.com/Image:Colin_Powell.jpg Colin Powell], [http://www.conservapedia.com/Image:TimKaine.jpg Tim Kaine], [http://www.conservapedia.com/Image:Ray_Nagin.jpg Ray Nagin] and [http://www.conservapedia.com/Image:Lindsey_Graham.jpg Lindsey Graham]. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 02:52, 10 September 2008 (EDT)

:Chippeterson, I deleted the Ray Nagin photo from Conservapedia and reverted the article because it could have been an AP photo and we're not allowed to use AP photos. The cbc.ca site uses a lot of AP photos and I wasn't able to determine if this was an AP photo. I don't mind uploading pics for you, I just need you to double-check the source and ensure they're non-AP photos before I can upload in the future. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 13:42, 10 September 2008 (EDT)

I'll be more careful from now on DeanS. How about this one of Nagin from answers.com. http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en-commons/thumb/7/74/225px-Nagin2June2006.jpg [[User:Chippeterson|Chippeterson]] 10 September 2008

:Chippeterson, thanks for understanding. Here's the pic for [http://www.conservapedia.com/Image:Ray_Nagin2.jpg Ray Nagin]. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 18:28, 10 September 2008 (EDT)

==Betty Ford==
I just wrote an article on [[Betty Ford]] and it could use her picture. Could you upload this. Thanks. http://z.about.com/d/womenshistory/1/7/q/A/betty_ford.jpg

:Here you go: [http://www.conservapedia.com/Image:Betty_Ford.JPG Betty Ford]. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 22:07, 10 September 2008 (EDT)

==Night Edits==
DeanS, i think somebody left the spicket on. Can you close new user signup til daylight hours? Thanks -- [[Image:50 star flag.png|14px]] [[User:Jpatt|jp]] 01:16, 11 September 2008 (EDT)

:I noticed that too and already took care of it. Thanks for the reminder. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 01:25, 11 September 2008 (EDT)

::Yesterday it was turned off around 2. I thought it was just later now than it used to be. [[User:HelpJazz|Help]][[User talk:HelpJazz|Jazz]] 01:33, 11 September 2008 (EDT)

:::It varies. I'm not going to go into details, but you can email Andy if you have further questions. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 01:36, 11 September 2008 (EDT)

::::Naw, I understand. [[User:HelpJazz|Help]][[User talk:HelpJazz|Jazz]] 01:37, 11 September 2008 (EDT)

== "Debate about news articles is not allowed on this project." ==

This makes absolutely no sense. Somebody suggests a news item on [[Wikiproject:News/Suggestions]], but comments about these ''suggestions'' have to be posted on [[Talk:Main Page]] ''before the suggestions are posted on the main page''? Talk about convoluted! Nobody would know what I'm objecting against, so I would have to preface it with "Somebody suggested a news item on this and that page, and I'll now comment on it here". But I can see that my objection had zero impact either way, so posting it again in the "proper" place won't do a thing, will it? McCain is excused for not knowing how to send a mail because he can't use a keyboard (sorta kinda). Right. --[[User:DirkB|DirkB]] 16:28, 13 September 2008 (EDT)

:DirkB, although it doesn't make sense to you, there is a reason for this rule. I want that page to contain suggestions only. I don't want liberals debating about the suggestions. From what I've seen on the Talk:Main Page, liberals like to discuss some of the articles, other editors reply, and this goes back and forth. I don't care whether you or other liberals agree with the suggested article. You can have these endless discussions on the Talk:Main Page after it's posted, not on the suggestions page. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 16:45, 13 September 2008 (EDT)

::I don't think he liked your reply... [[User:Bugler|Bugler]] 16:52, 13 September 2008 (EDT)

:::Too bad. I'm not here to please the liberals.
:::Good block, btw. You better get ready to defend the permablock from Philip, etc. ;-) --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 16:57, 13 September 2008 (EDT)
::::<sigh> [[User:Bugler|Bugler]] 16:59, 13 September 2008 (EDT)

== {{User|DRamon}} ==

Do you think he should be unblocked? Perhaps I was a little harsh, seeing as he has been creating content. I took a look at his edits after he edited another user's userpage, though the user has now reverted back to Ramon's version. Earlier this issue was brought up in Schlafly's talkpage. I mainly blocked him for this [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Islam&diff=prev&oldid=517564]. The parodists have been having fun with that list. Also he had been warned before. Take a look at his edits, is he a parodist? Do you think unblock? [[User:HenryS|HenryS]] 01:37, 17 September 2008 (EDT)

:I do think DRamon should be unblocked and I don't see him as a parodist. If you want to warn him for editing someones user page that would be appropriate. Thanks for asking. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 01:46, 17 September 2008 (EDT)
::User is unblocked. [[User:HenryS|HenryS]] 01:54, 17 September 2008 (EDT)
:::Thanks Henry. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 02:04, 17 September 2008 (EDT)

== Inappropriate user name ==
A new user has joined with the user name : Tony Blair. could you please look into it?--[[User:Carolyn|Carolyn]] 09:05, 19 September 2008 (EDT)

:He's a vandal and has already been blocked. Thanks for the alert. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 09:07, 19 September 2008 (EDT)

== Satan... Carrot Top... ==

You have to at least admit that was pretty funny. It's rare that the vandals and parodists are actually funny instead of stupid. [[User:Jinxmchue|Jinxmchue]] 15:09, 19 September 2008 (EDT)

:That's why I changed the block comment. ;-) --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 15:27, 19 September 2008 (EDT)

==Wiki support==
DeanS, as a member of Wikiproject: News, I feel you have spoiled me with attentiveness and clear direction. As a member of Wikiproject: Religion, I have no such contact, no direction, no replies. It is frustrating but I can live with that. I wanted to pick your brains about site structure that I have unable to find in the help section. Category's seem to have boundaries. A rule of thumb, no more than three, correct? Multiple category's on similar topics not looked upon as correct? e.g. Catholic Church and Christianity. Sub-categories have more precedent than category tagging? -- [[Image:50 star flag.png|14px]] [[User:Jpatt|jp]] 15:33, 19 September 2008 (EDT)

:Thanks for the compliment, Jp. I don't have the same passion for categories and I defer an answer to those who have more interest. I would suggest you start a Wikiproject:Categories and go from there. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 15:58, 19 September 2008 (EDT)

==Fred1776==

Was it really necessary to revert that last edit by Fred1776? It was on a talk page, and was not rude in anyway. Robust, certainly, but neither rude nor insulting. "Liberalist version whatever"'s edits were vandalism: this was an opinion. It's one I happen to share and I am sure that many on this site share. Surely Aschlafly is not such a tender soul that he needs protecting from this. It might make unpleasant reading, but it's surely nicer and more decently put than a "mild" rebuke from Bugler --[[User:Toffeeman|Toffeeman]] 16:55, 19 September 2008 (EDT)

:Lecturing the site owner is not appropriate, period. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 18:54, 19 September 2008 (EDT)

== Something's not right with that mainpage edit ==

It looks like you posted the same story twice, though I see what you meant to do. [[User:Jinxmchue|Jinxmchue]] 19:28, 19 September 2008 (EDT)

:I thought about taking off the second link, but I wanted to provide twice as much fun for the liberals. I'm going to change it now. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 19:32, 19 September 2008 (EDT)

:: Just wanted to point out mispelling of 'organization' in the human rights watch story. I don't know if we should be promoting HRW. I believe their foundations are the monitoring|promotion of homosexual rights.-- [[Image:50 star flag.png|14px]] [[User:Jpatt|jp]] 11:55, 20 September 2008 (EDT)
:::Organisation is correct English in the home of that tongue! As for HRW's Liberal bias - well, if even ''they'' are condemning Chavez... [[User:Bugler|Bugler]] 12:03, 20 September 2008 (EDT)

:::Misspelling corrected. Btw, ''misspelling'' has two s's. I don't believe we're promoting HRW, just that we agree with them in this instance. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 12:09, 20 September 2008 (EDT)

::::As you can tell, my grammar and spelling needs much improvement. The news headline: Could the he U.S. mortgage, needs a fix'n. -- [[Image:50 star flag.png|14px]] [[User:Jpatt|jp]] 14:15, 20 September 2008 (EDT)

:::::Fixed. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 14:25, 20 September 2008 (EDT)

Jpatt, I think you may be confusing HRW with HRC (Human Rights Campaign), which *is* an organization based on the promotion of homosexual rights. It's easy to get the two confused, which was probably the intent when they came up with the name for HRC. -[[User:Foxtrot|Foxtrot]] 14:44, 21 September 2008 (EDT)

==Another brainless attempt to hack my account==
This time from IP 24.21.149.251. Could you do me a favour and give them a daisycutter? Thanks, [[User:Bugler|Bugler]] 05:32, 25 September 2008 (EDT)

:Done. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 08:30, 25 September 2008 (EDT)
::Thanks, Dean [[User:Bugler|Bugler]] 08:36, 25 September 2008 (EDT)

== ChristMaster2000 ==

A user called Christmaster2000 keeps writing 'McCain = The end of the world' at the top of pages. Can you stop him?--[[User:CPalmer|CPalmer]] 09:41, 26 September 2008 (EDT)

:Where? I don't see the changes? --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 12:15, 26 September 2008 (EDT)

::There was one on [[Athletics]], which I've reverted, plus a few others. Actually he seems to have been blocked already - I thought he was active because his change was still on the Athletics page.

== Thanks for unblocking me ==

Thank you. [[User:Sideways|Sideways]] 09:36, 28 September 2008 (EDT)

:Your welcome. Philip convinced me to undo your block. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 09:49, 28 September 2008 (EDT)

== Archive mainpageright ==

Since you're a regular who archives the main page, can you do so sometime soon? [[User:Jallen|Jallen]] 03:48, 6 October 2008 (EDT)

:Done. Btw, Conservative took [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Template:Mainpageright&diff=prev&oldid=529716 my] [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Main_Page/Previous_Conservapedia_Breaking_News&diff=next&oldid=530094 archive] and [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Template:Mainpageright&diff=next&oldid=530125 restored] it to the Main page when he added the ''Evolutionary Racism of Hitler and Darwin'' section to the bottom of [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Template%3AMainpageleft&diff=530432&oldid=529771 Mainpageleft]. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 08:11, 6 October 2008 (EDT)

==Berg lawsuit==
Since the claims made on the mainpage In the News headline were [http://www.obamacrimes.com/index.php/component/content/article/1-main/27-alert-contrary-to-internet-rumor-there-has-not-yet-been-a-court-ruling-on-obama-dnc-motion-to-dismiss shown to be false] four days before the headline was posted on Conservapedia, will you please remove the entry?--[[User:Brossa|Brossa]] 16:30, 8 October 2008 (EDT)

:Done. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 17:46, 8 October 2008 (EDT)
::Thank you.--[[User:Brossa|Brossa]] 18:30, 8 October 2008 (EDT)
`

== News- Debate ==

Shouldn't the second presidential debate be discussed in the news section? [[User:Corry|Corry]] 23:16, 8 October 2008 (EDT)

:Done. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 00:07, 9 October 2008 (EDT)

==Family Values==
I made a grammar burp. No such thing as won't. Also, count me in on the previous news project.--'''Jpatt'''[[User:Jpatt| ]] 10:55, 11 October 2008 (EDT)

:I disagree with saying "won't" is a grammar burp. "Won't" is correct. "Won't" is a contraction of "will not". [http://www.edufind.com/English/grammar/Tenses14.cfm]
:Thanks for agreeing to participate in the previous news subproject. I'm going to set up a special page for our coordination and will link to it from your talk page and the subproject. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 11:51, 11 October 2008 (EDT)

== Let's block registration wave ==

Dean, let's permanently block everyone registered between 11:30 and noon. I think they're fake. Thanks.--[[User:Aschlafly|Aschlafly]] 12:03, 11 October 2008 (EDT)

:Andy, I blocked the IP 93.106.19.228 - it was the same one for all 101 accounts.
:08:57, October 11, 2008 DeanS (Talk | contribs | block) blocked 93.106.19.228 (Talk) with an expiry time of 5 years (account creation disabled) ‎ (Abusing multiple accounts: 101 accts set up from 08:30, October 11, 2008 to 08:43, October 11, 2008)
:I blocked the rest of them. They're all blocked now. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 12:31, 11 October 2008 (EDT)

:: Great effort. I thought the IP might be the same, such that blocking one would block all. But it didn't hurt to block the names also, in case someone tried to access it from a different IP.

:: In the future, I have an even more powerful way to delete the accounts.

:: Thanks again for your alert effort.--[[User:Aschlafly|Aschlafly]] 12:34, 11 October 2008 (EDT)

== Wikinews/subproject ==
Definetely, your idea is a must. Though, explain to me about '''Suggestions for new Previous Breaking News summaries.''' Is this the same as Rewrite current headlines?--'''Jpatt'''[[User:Jpatt| ]] 18:11, 11 October 2008 (EDT)

:No, it's not the same. Rewriting the current headlines is for someone that wants to improve headlines on the current Main page. The ''Suggestions for new Previous Breaking News summaries'', is like the other Previous Breaking news, but the page hasn't been created yet. I want us to create those pages and link them to our Conservapedia articles and incorporate their content into the corresponding articles. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 19:21, 11 October 2008 (EDT)

:: Once additions are made, would you suggest strikethrough font the listing?--'''Jpatt'''[[User:Jpatt| ]] 20:32, 11 October 2008 (EDT)

:::Once additions are made, move the listing to this new section: [[Wikiproject:News/Previous_Breaking_News#Completed_updates_to_September_2008|Completed updates to September 2008]]. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 00:42, 12 October 2008 (EDT)

::: The sheer size is overwhelming. We need an army of helpers.--'''Jpatt'''[[User:Jpatt| ]] 00:34, 13 October 2008 (EDT)

::::I totally agree. Since this is a long term project, I'm hoping we can make progress while recruiting others to join our efforts. I would like to have a competition similar to the other subprojects - Wanted pages and News suggestions. Any ideas? --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 00:42, 13 October 2008 (EDT)

::::: Competition is your best bet. I can suggest members pick categories that they are fond of- like ACLU. Then their responsibility includes News additions, past and future, ACLU posts.--'''Jpatt'''[[User:Jpatt| ]] 01:12, 13 October 2008 (EDT)

::::::Interesting idea. Let's say you picked the ACLU subject. Then someone else picked Barack Obama. How would the competition work? --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 01:19, 13 October 2008 (EDT)

I just want to say that I think this is a bad idea. I realize Jpatt worked very hard on the recent additions to [[ACLU]] and I commend him for that, but I don't think the additions help the article. Since news headlines, by their nature, aren't broadly descriptive, they don't fit well in most articles. They end up being made into lists, which I don't think satisfy the "conscise" requirement of the commandments. Additionally, most of the sources for the news article are blogs or internet news sites which generally aren't up to the standards needed for regular articles. Maybe there will be times when a news headline or two is relevant to an article, but I think wholesale moving of headlines is not appropriate. [[User:HelpJazz|Help]][[User talk:HelpJazz|Jazz]] 18:58, 13 October 2008 (EDT)

:I am just following orders for the Wikinews/subproject. I will wait for DeanS to rule before adding any more.--'''Jpatt'''[[User:Jpatt| ]] 23:02, 13 October 2008 (EDT)

::Where are the rules? [[User:HelpJazz|Help]][[User talk:HelpJazz|Jazz]] 23:26, 13 October 2008 (EDT)
::Oh, I found them. [[User:HelpJazz|Help]][[User talk:HelpJazz|Jazz]] 23:29, 13 October 2008 (EDT)

:Thanks for your efforts Jp. I'm glad you decided to wait before adding more headlines.
:I agree with a couple of HelpJazz's points. I don't think the wholesale moving of headlines is appropriate either. The idea is to use the news links as a ''reference'' to improve the article. We need to discuss the details on the corresponding previous news talk page.
:I also don't see how we can do this as a competition. We want quality instead of quantity on these edits.
:I disagree that this is a bad idea. While inserting the headlines directly into the article isn't the right approach, I believe the news links provide unique material that can improve the article.
:I also disagree with the notion we shouldn't use blogs or internet news sites as resources. The mainstream media doesn't provide much material we can use because of their liberal bias. Conservative truth is found in these blogs and we will continue to use these in our articles and news items.
:In summary, I think we need to be careful how we use these news items. If done in the proper way, these links can provide valuable reference material for our articles. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 01:32, 14 October 2008 (EDT)

==FYI==
Hello Dean. As a Mormon, I feel you should know that User Conservative has been promoting the blogs of a man named Mariano Grinbank who writes such blogs as [[Atheism is Dead]], [[Richard Dawkins : Scientist or Activist?]], [[Atheism Dissected]] and others (I say “promoting” because these blogs would not warrant encyclopedia entries on their own; they are hosted by popular free blog sites and have little traffic). There is nothing wrong with this, however the same Mariano is a dedicated anti-Mormon who writes a blog [http://www.lifeanddoctrinemormonism.blogspot.com/ attacking Mormonism], calling it “offensive religion”, and saying “Mormonism has sought to discredit Christianity”, and “everything that Mormonism does, everything it teaches, everything it stands for is an offense against Christianity.” I don’t think this is the sort of character Conservapedia should be promoting. [[User:SamJ|SamJ]] 09:28, 27 October 2008 (EDT)

:Thanks for the info. I have no problem with Conservative promoting the blogs against Atheism and Richard Dawkins. I'm also aware that there are several anti-Mormons on this site. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 09:36, 27 October 2008 (EDT)

::My concern isn't about the anti-atheism blogs, which I'm sure are fine for this site, but the fact that these links prominently link to the same writer's anti-Mormon blog, which Conservapedia is therefore indirectly promoting. A reader who finds one of these blogs through Conservapedia and finds it convincing may easily look at the other links to the other blogs and be led to a screed condemning Mormonism. That is my concern, but if you don't object then that's fine. I just felt you should be informed. [[User:SamJ|SamJ]] 09:51, 27 October 2008 (EDT)

:::Your objection is noted. I hope you will make some positive contributions to Conservapedia. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 09:57, 27 October 2008 (EDT)

== My talk page ==

According to [[Conservapedia:Guidelines]] I am in control of my own talk page. I have no intention of getting embroiled in an edit war here, but why is this not being respected? [[User:Corry|Corry]] 18:18, 29 October 2008 (EDT)

:See [[Conservapedia:Commandments]] # 5. Advertisements are prohibited. --[[User:DeanS|DeanStalk]] 18:32, 29 October 2008 (EDT)

== Username change ==

I apologize for using an inappropriate username. I did not see a statement of Conservapedia's username policy on the account creation page. May I suggest that you folks add one there? It might prevent misunderstandings and hard feelings in the future. —[[User:AshleyS|Asphalt P . Stanky]]

James K. Polk

2008-11-11T20:20:53Z

AshleyS: /* Goals */ spelling

{{President
|image=Poos.jpg
|seq=11
|term_start=March 4, 1845
|term_end=March 4, 1849<ref>http://www.trivia-library.com/a/11th-us-president-james-k-polk.htm</ref>
|party= Democratic
|vp=George M. Dallas
|previous=John Tyler
|next=Zachary Taylor
|birth_date=November 3, 1795
|birth_place=Pineville, North Carolina
|death_date= June 15, 1849
|death_place=Nashville, Tennessee
|spouse=Sarah Childress Polk
|spouse2=
|religion=[[Methodist]]
}}

'''James Knox Polk''' was the 11th [[President of the United States of America]]. He lived from 1795 to 1849.<ref name="EncyclopediaPresidents">Encyclopedia of Presidents James K. Polk by Dee Lillegard, Children's Press, 1988.</ref>He was elected in the [[United States presidential election, 1844|1844 Presidential Election]] as a Democrat and served as president from 1845-1849.<ref>http://www.trivia-library.com/a/11th-us-president-james-k-polk.htm</ref>

As President, Polk had four goals; One, acquire [[New Mexico]] and [[California]] from Mexico; Two, acquire all of of part of the Oregon Territory; Three, lower tariffs; and four, establish and Independent Treasury.

===Goals===
In 1846, Polk launched an invasion of [[Mexico]] in response to Mexican soldiers ambushing an American scouting party. The Whig Congressman [[Abraham Lincoln]] said that the area of Texas that American soldiers entered was in dispute, and was later criticized for his "Spot Resolution" that said that the Mexican War was started on the wrong spot. After two years of fighting, and capturing [[Mexico City]], Mexico signed a treaty in which they sold New Mexico and California to the United States.

In 1846, faced with the possiblity of war on two fronts, Polk made a treaty with Great Britain in which the [[Oregon Territory]] was to be split in half, with the United States getting the southern half.

Polk's Tarriff Act of 1846 lowered tarriffs from 35 to 25%. It was to remain unchanged until 1857.

In 1846, Polk's Independent Treasury Bill passed Congress. The act would remain in place until 1913.

Having completed all of his goals, Polk declined to run for a second term as he said before he was elected. He shortly afterwards retired at Polk Place, [[Nashville]] where he died on June 15, 1849<ref>http://www.ipl.org/div/potus/jkpolk.html</ref>. He was the first President to be outlived by his mother.<ref name = "EncyclopediaPresidents"/>

==Notes & References==
<references/>

{{USPresidents}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Polk, James K.}}

[[Category:Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:Democratic Party]]

User:AsphaltPStanky

2008-11-11T20:20:09Z

AshleyS: Redirecting to User:AshleyS

#REDIRECT [[User:AshleyS]]

User:AshleyS

2008-11-11T20:19:32Z

AshleyS: short introduction

Hello. I am named is Ashley P. Stanky after my maternal grandfather, Thomas Cornes Ashley. But all my friends call me Asphalt, and I hope you will too.

I was born in 1954 in [[Pumpkin Center, North Carolina]].

I look forward to contributing to counteracting the systemic liberal media bias by helping to develop Conservapedia into the world-class information resource it deserves to be.