Harry S. Truman

by Ferrell, Robert H.

• ISBN13: 9781568027661
• ISBN10: 1568027664
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-12-01
• Publisher: Cq Pr

Summary

Each volume in the new American Presidents Reference Series is organized around an individual presidency and gathers a host of biographical, analytical, and primary source historical material that will analyze the presidency and bring the president, his administration, and his times to life. The series focuses on key moments in U.S. political history as seen through the eyes of the most influential presidents to take the oath of office. Unique headnotes provide the context to data, tables and excerpted primary source documents.''''Harry Truman was born on May 8, 1884. He served with distinction during World War I as a commander of an artillery battery, and he ultimately attained the rank of major. In 1922, with the support of political boss Tom Pendergast, Truman was elected as a county judge. He lost reelection, but then won again as presiding judge in 1926 and 1930. In 1934 Truman was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he supported President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal policies and entry into World War II. When Vice President Henry Wallace alienated Democratic Party leaders, Truman was nominated for vice president. On April 12, 1945, eighty-two days into Truman's vice presidency, Roosevelt died in Warm Springs, Georgia. At the age of sixty-one, Truman was sworn in as the thirty-third president of the United States. ''''Key events during the Truman presidency include victory in World War II and Truman's decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan, the start of the cold war with the Soviet Union and its eastern European satellites, the Marshall Plan, the Berlin airlift, the Fair Deal, price-control legislation, and the McCarthy hearings. In March 1952 Truman announced that he would not seek reelection. Harry S. Truman died on December 26, 1972.''''This new volume on the presidency of Harry S. Truman will cover'''' campaigns, elections, and the Pendergast connection,'' Senator Truman, particularly his chairmanship of the Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program,'' FDR, World War II, and the atomic bomb decision,'' Joseph McCarthy, the cold war, and the police action in Korea,'' civil rights.''

Author Biography

Robert H. Ferrell is the author and editor of many books on American foreign relations, the presidency, and military affairs. Retired from Indiana University, he lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Introduction	3	(4)
A Common Man	7	(52)
Farm and Army	8	(2)
County and Nation	10	(3)
From Freshman Senator to Leadership	13	(2)
Second-Term Senator	15	(2)
Vice President	17	(1)
President	18	(3)
Retirement	21	(2)
Bibliographic Essay	23	(1)
Documents
The Education of a President	23	(2)
An Essay on Courage	25	(1)
Kansas City	26	(3)
World War I	29	(1)
The First of 1,268 Letters	30	(1)
A Typical Letter from a Farmer	31	(2)
Harry Proposes	33	(1)
Bess Disposes	34	(2)
Pendergast	36	(2)
The Possibility of Being County Collector	38	(1)
In the Senate	39	(2)
Truman and the Vice Presidency	41	(2)
The Death of Franklin D. Roosevelt	43	(2)
Address before a Joint Meeting of the Congress, April 16, 1945	45	(3)
The Days of a President, Diary, November 1, 1949	48	(1)
Truman and His Staff, Diary, January 16, 1947	49	(1)
Truman's Decision Making, Diary, December 19, 1947	50	(1)
White House Ghosts, Diary, January 6, 1947	50	(1)
The New White House, Diary, March 2, 1952	51	(2)
The Assassination Attempt, Letter, November 17, 1950	53	(1)
Character	54	(1)
Service, 1954	55	(4)
Campaigns and Electoral Strategies	59	(50)
Early Interest in Politics	59	(1)
County Campaigns	60	(4)
Election of 1940	64	(1)
Vice President: 1944	65	(3)
Presidential Election of 1948: Personalities	68	(2)
The Presidential Election of 1948: Republican and Democratic Strategies	70	(4)
Bibliographic Essay	74	(1)
Documents
Election as Eastern Judge, 1922	75	(1)
Decision, Opponents, Organization, 1940	76	(2)
Campaigning through Missouri, 1940	78	(2)
Welcome Back to the Senate, Letters, August 9 and 10, 1940	80	(2)
How Truman Achieved the Vice-Presidential Nomination in 1944	82	(2)
Acceptance Speech, Philadelphia, July 15, 1948	84	(3)
Message to the Special Session of the 80th Congress, July 27, 1948	87	(3)
Western Campaign Speech, September 23, 1948	90	(1)
Campaigning, Letter, October 5, 1948	91	(1)
Address in Harlem, New York, October 29, 1948	92	(3)
The Dexter, Iowa, Speech, September 18, 1948	95	(2)
Middle Western Campaign Speeches, October 30, 1948	97	(4)
Final Campaign Speech, October 30, 1948	101	(2)
1948 Presidential Election	103	(3)
Return to Washington, Letter, November 7, 1948	106	(3)
Administration Policies	109	(54)
Foreign Policy: Europe	109	(3)
Foreign Policy: East Asia	112	(1)
Foreign Policy: The Middle East	113	(1)
Foreign Policy: Latin America	114	(1)
The Fair Deal	115	(1)
Inflation	116	(2)
Labor	118	(2)
Fiscal Policy	120	(2)
Bibliographic Essay	122	(1)
Documents
The Truman Doctrine, March 12, 1947	123	(3)
The Marshall Plan: Address at Harvard University Commencement, June 5, 1947	126	(3)
American Rights in Berlin, July 6, 1948	129	(1)
The North Atlantic Treaty, April 4, 1949	130	(2)
Occupation Policy in Japan	132	(3)
Secretary of State Dean Acheson to President Truman on China Policy, Memo, July 30, 1949	135	(2)
Truman and the Zionists, Diary, July 21, 1947	137	(1)
Point Four Program	138	(2)
The Fair Deal, January 5, 1949	140	(3)
Special Message to Congress on the Nation's Health Needs, April 22, 1949	143	(3)
Unused Speech on Price Controls, October 1946	146	(1)
Special Message to Congress Urging Industrial Peace, May 25, 1946	147	(3)
The President and the United Mine Workers, Diary, December 11, 1946	150	(2)
Veto of the Taft-Hartley Bill, June 20, 1947	152	(2)
Employment Act, February 20, 1946	154	(3)
Economic Report, January 7, 1949	157	(6)
Crises and Flashpoints	163	(66)
Hiroshima and Nagasaki	163	(3)
The Korean War	166	(3)
Civil Rights	169	(3)
Loyalty Program	172	(2)
The Mess in Washington	174	(3)
Steel Decision	177	(1)
Bibliographic Essay	178	(2)
Documents
The Order to Drop the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima, July 25, 1945	180	(1)
Presidential Statement Announcing Dropping of a Nuclear Bomb on Hiroshima, June 6, 1945	181	(3)
Afterthoughts on Nuclear Weapons, 1958	184	(1)
Statement by the President on the Violation of the 38th Parallel in Korea, June 26, 1950	185	(1)
Statement on Sending Ground Troops to Korea, June 30, 1950	186	(1)
Statement by the President concerning His Meeting with Gen. Douglas MacArthur on Wake Island, October 15, 1950	187	(2)
Truman and the Dismissal of Gen. Douglas MacArthur from His Far Eastern Commands, 1950--1954	189	(4)
An Early Effort for Civil Rights, Speech, June 15, 1940	193	(1)
The Main Difficulty with the South, Letter, August 18, 1948	194	(1)
To Secure These Rights	195	(3)
Address before the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Lincoln Memorial, June 29, 1947	198	(2)
Fair Employment Practices within the Federal Government, Executive Order 9980, July 26, 1948	200	(3)
The President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity within the Armed Services, Executive Order 9981, July 26, 1948	203	(1)
Truman and Civil Rights, Letter, January 12, 1953	204	(1)
The President's Loyalty Program, Executive Order 9835, March 22, 1947	205	(3)
The Internal Security (McCarran) Act, September 23, 1950	208	(3)
Truman's Veto of the Internal Security Bill, September 22, 1950	211	(3)
The Accusations of Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, Unsent Letter	214	(1)
Maj. Gen. Harry Vaughan and the ``5 Percenters''	215	(2)
Statement by the President on Reorganization of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, January 2, 1952	217	(2)
The Steel Takeover, April 8, 1952	219	(4)
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, June 2, 1952	223	(6)
Institutional Relations	229	(38)
Executive	229	(4)
Legislature	233	(1)
Judiciary	234	(2)
The Military	236	(3)
The Media	239	(2)
Bibliographic Essay	241	(1)
Documents
The Dismissal of Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, Memorandum, February 13, 1946	242	(2)
The Dismissal of Secretary of Commerce Henry A. Wallace, Letters, September 19 and 21, 1946	244	(2)
Truman on George Marshall, Diary, January 8, 1947	246	(1)
The Dismissal of Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson, Diary, September 14, 1950	246	(3)
Statement by the President on Receiving the Final Report of the Hoover Commission, May 26, 1949	249	(2)
The Work of Congress, Letter, March 28, 1947	251	(1)
Dissent in the Supreme Court, Letter, June 11, 1946	252	(1)
The National Security Act, July 26, 1947	253	(2)
Atomic Energy Act, August 1, 1946	255	(3)
The U.S. Proposal for the International Control of Atomic Energy, June 14,1946	258	(2)
Presidential Statement on Soviet Explosion of a Nuclear Device, September 23, 1949	260	(1)
Letter to the Richmond Times-Dispatch (Unsent), July 9, 1947	261	(1)
The Newspaper Press, Letter, May 12, 1948	262	(1)
The Press and the President's Salary, Letter, February 12, 1949	263	(4)
Retirement	267	(44)
Contemporary Judgments	269	(2)
Retirement: The Democratic Party	271	(2)
Retirement: The Republican Party	273	(3)
Legacy	276	(1)
Bibliographic Essay	277	(1)
Documents
Unsent Letter to Adlai Stevenson, August 1952	277	(2)
The Campaign Revisited, Diary, November 15, 1952	279	(1)
The President-Elect's Visit to the White House, Diary, November 20, 1952	280	(1)
The President's Analysis of Defeat, December 22, 1952	281	(3)
President of the United States, Undelivered Farewell Speech	284	(3)
Definitions, February 10, 1959	287	(1)
The Nixon Danger, Letter, August 22, 1959	288	(2)
The Most Serious Situation, Letter, January 7, 1959	290	(1)
Whoever Is Nominated, Letter, June 30, 1960	291	(1)
History Says, Letter, June 25, 1960	291	(2)
The ``Immature Boy,'' Letter, August 26, 1960	293	(1)
Forgiveness, Letter, January 24, 1961	294	(1)
Presidential Advice, Letter, June 28, 1962	295	(1)
Eisenhower in 1948, Diary, July 25, 1947	295	(1)
An Unsent Letter to President Eisenhower, November 28, 1956	296	(1)
On the Republicans, Letter, December 11, 1956	297	(1)
Letter to Sherman Minton, September 6, 1958	298	(2)
Tributes in Eulogy of Harry S. Truman: Remarks of Senator J. W. Fulbright of Arkansas	300	(1)
Tributes in Eulogy of Harry S. Truman: Remarks of Rep. Ella T. Grasso of Connecticut	301	(2)
Tributes in Eulogy of Harry S. Truman: Remarks of Sen. Edmund S. Muskie of Maine	303	(2)
Tributes in Eulogy of Harry S. Truman: Remarks of Sen. Mike Gravel of Alaska	305	(2)
Tributes in Eulogy of Harry S. Truman: Honesty	307	(1)
Tributes in Eulogy of Harry S. Truman: A member of Battery D, 129th Field Artillery Regiment, 35th Division	308	(3)
Appendix A: Notable Figures of the Truman Presidency	311	(16)
Appendix B: Key Events in Truman's Life	327	(7)
Appendix C: Cabinet Members, Truman Administration	334	(1)
Index	335