Truman Presidential Library and Museum

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Truman Presidential Library and Museum 223 No Main St., Independence, MO.

Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States (1945–1953). As the 34th vice president, he succeeded Franklin D. Roosevelt, who died less than three months after he began his fourth term. Truman faced some of the most complex issues to ever face any world leader.

Internationally these decisions included the decision to drop the atomic bomb to end World War II, the daunting task of re-building both Europe and Japan, the changing of American foreign policy. The bombings of Japan are still be debated. Whereas, some of Truman’s highest military officers, including Eisenhower and MacArthur condemned it as barbaric and unnecessary, the view of Admiral William D. Leahy, Truman’s own chief of staff, was typical:

"The use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. . . . My own feeling was that in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make wars in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children."

He was involved in the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and National Security Council (NSC), the recognition of the State of Israel, the response to the Cold War and our involvement in the Korean War were also decisions that Truman faced.

Domestic issues proved equally challenging with issues of labor unrest, expansion of the GI bill for returning veterans, a proposal for national health care and the issuing of four civil rights executive orders made Truman not particularly popular during his terms in office. Yet today, Truman is thought to be one of the best presidents in U.S. history.

We saw the famous plaque on his desk in the replica of the Oval Office that says "The Buck Stops Here"

On March 30, 1945, Roosevelt went to Warm Springs to rest before his anticipated appearance at the founding conference of the United Nations. On the afternoon of April 12, Roosevelt said, "I have a terrific headache" and was carried into his bedroom. The doctor diagnosed that he had suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage. At 3:35 p.m. that day, he died.

Allied forces occupied most of Germany by the end of April 1945. German forces fighting in Italy were the first to surrender unconditionally to the Allies. Representatives of the German command in Italy signed the surrender on April 29, and it became effective on May 2, 1945. Five days later, on May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered unconditionally to the western Allies, ending the war in Europe.

V-E Day: May 8, 1945, the day that marked victory in Europe for the Allies in World War II. The defining events were the German's unconditional surrender to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower at Rheims, France, and to the Soviets in Berlin on May 7. President Harry S. Truman announced the event over the radio in the United States at 9 am.

A reporter in Tokyo said, “Most of us were unable to report on accurate conditions because the conditions were horrifying beyond imagination. Tokyo has become no more than scorched earth.” Within months of the year 1945, more of Japan was destroyed than had been destroyed in Germany in the previous five years of the war. However, that victory came at a high cost. In Tokyo alone, one city, over one hundred thousand people died and more than one million of those who had not fled remained without homes.

On July 17, 1945, President Harry Truman, who had been in office since April 12, met for the first time with Soviet leader Josef Stalin. They conferred — two months after the defeat of Nazi Germany — at the Potsdam Conference, held outside Berlin, which had been convened by the victorious Allies to frame post-World War II policies in Europe.

Russia declared war on Japan and invaded Japanese-ruled Manchuria.

Peace is proclaimed. The Japanese unconditionally surrendered to the allies ending the Second World War. On September 2, 1945, US General, Douglas MacArthur, accepted Japan's surrender thus formally ending the Second World War.

The farther the nation got beyond V-E day the more strikes there were upwards of 100,000 workers. The Labor Department's Conciliation Service reported that the daily average of strikes had risen from 20 before V - E Day to about 40.

In Detroit, a jurisdictional flare-up affecting 900 men closed the Packard Motor Car Co. to 21,000 workers. At an aircraft supply plant, 3,500 walked out because there was no meat in their lunch sandwiches. (Detroit's entire meat supply was threatened by a strike in slaughterhouses.)

In Akron's rubber plants, 16,700 workers were out. In the Pittsburgh, Toledo and a half-dozen other places, the glass industry counted 15,000 workers out.

In Chicago's second truck drivers' strike in a month the U.S. Army stepped in, swiftly deployed more than 10,000 troops from eastern and western camps to run the trucks. (Some of the soldiers were just back from duty in the Pacific.)

There was no clear pattern to the disputes. Many of the strike reasons were trivial.

Was it just me, or did everyone else have a Formica table like this at some point when they were growing up? I can even remember sitting at our kitchen table which was very similar, and the sisters doing their school work. EBay was selling a set like this for $399. And would you say that is a Servel, Westinghouse or GE refrigerator?

Happy Chandler, the newly installed Baseball Commissioner, was quoted as saying that: "if they (African-Americans) can fight and die on Okinawa, Guadalcanal (and) in the South Pacific, they can play ball in America." Branch Rickey agreed, but everyone knew that the first Black to break through the color barrier would not only have to be talented enough to play in the majors but strong enough to withstand with dignity the inevitable racial taunts that would be hurled his way. Jackie Robinson was their man.

“Now I'm playing against you in a World Series!" Rickey stormed and removed his jacket for greater freedom. Robinson's hands clenched, trembled from the rising tension. "I'm a hotheaded player. I want to win that game, so I go into you spikes first, but you don't give ground. You stand there and you jab the ball into my ribs and the umpire yells, 'Out!' I flare up - all I see is your face-that black face right on top of me -'

Rickey's bespectacled face, glistening with sweat, was inches from Robinson's at this point. He yelled into the motionless mask, 'So I haul off and punch you right in the cheek!'

An oversized fist swung through the air and barely missed Robinson's face. He blinked, but his head didn't move.

'What do you do?' Rickey roared.

'Mr. Rickey,' he whispered, 'I've got two cheeks. That it?'"

The top Packard sold for $3,106, middle car $2913, and bottom car $2906. My dad bought a house from the local Packard dealer, I remember them to be exquisite cars.

The Korean War (a police action as I recall) was not a total war, and a complete victory was not its goal. Korea was fought as a political war for political goals: initially to insure that the boundary at the 38th parallel would be maintained. (That policy was later changed to complete unification, but without success.) It was a limited goal and clearly within the framework of Truman's overall foreign-policy strategy. Korea was not the only factor Truman had to consider. It must be kept in mind that Truman's first priorities lay in Europe where the principle enemy was the Soviet Union--not Korea or China. He was much more concerned with building up the defenses in Western Europe and maintaining a cohesive NATO alliance.

Truman was clearly within his constitutional authority as the sole voice of foreign policy in the U.S. Government to relieve General MacArthur as Commander-in-Chief of the Far East.

When you have a popular military commander who has seemingly accomplished the impossible and a President who is not very popular and who is struggling for support at home and abroad, it could be very difficult not to bow to the intimidation of the military. President Harry Truman and General Douglas MacArthur were just two such people. The "controversy" between Truman and MacArthur centered not on military issues but on the right of a President to demand compliance to his policies as Command-in-Chief of the armed forces.

These were not personal issues or petty disagreements between a commander and his subordinate. Truman was backed by the Constitution of the United States. Article II, Section 2 gives a President the right and power to utilize the armed forces as an instrument to carry out that foreign policy. This section of the Constitution also sanctions the President as Chief Diplomat.

There is not doubt that MacArthur was a knowledgeable and experienced commander. However, the facts do not bear out that he was not without blame for the debacle of Korea in underestimating the Chinese strength and will to fight. He can be brought to task also for not recognizing Truman's policy of containment that did not give per-eminence to Asia but though Western Europe where the threat of Soviet domination was already prevalent, that his role was to carry out U.S. policy in Korea and not to enmesh himself in questioning what that policy was. Traditionally, a military man is above politics or at least not involved publicly, and certainly not in public conflict with superiors. Truman rose above the conflict to preserve the right of the President to formulate foreign policy as he sees fit in consultation with his advisors.

He was the last president without a college degree and was not involved in politics until he was almost 40 years old. He tried farming, oil and land ventures, a men's clothing store among others before he discovered his love for public service. In fact his mother-in-law didn't have a high opinion of him until he reached the White House.

According to noted Truman historian, Robert H. Ferrell,

"Harry S. Truman, one surely must say, enjoyed an honorable relationship with the Democratic boss of Kansas City, Thomas J. Pendergast, during the years when he was a county official in Missouri, down to the time in 1939 when as a U.S. senator he saw the boss sent to Leavenworth for income tax evasion.” Pendergast was instrumental in support and encouragement to Truman to enter politics.

The title of the mural is “Independence and the Opening of the West” by Thomas Hart Benton.

His reading told him that settlers leaving for the west from Independence, MO might have met first with Pawnee Indians as they crossed into Kansas territory. On the left, or western, side of the mural, he planned to feature a seven-foot-high Pawnee warrior. Benton was a daily presence at the Truman Library for about six months. He arrived early every morning. He was a small man, not much over five feet tall, and though he was 70 years old, he could still climb up on the scaffolding every day.

Benton is recognized as one of the great Missourian artists, his murals are known as “three point” paintings where the eye goes to more than the dominating point in the painting but to three points of interest, we saw his murals throughout the Capitol in Jefferson City.

The is the interior courtyard of the library.

Harry and Bess final resting place. He died December 26, 1972 at age 88 and she died October 18, 1982

The Truman Home at 219 North Delaware, Independence, MO offers a glimpse at the personal life of the 33rd President of the US. There tours one can take most days of the week.