Truman, Harry S.

Truman, Harry S. (b. 8 May 1884, d. 26 Dec. 1972). 33rd US President 1945–53 Born at Lamar, Missouri, his parents could never decide whether the S in his name stood for the name of his paternal or maternal grandfather, and so it remained just an initial. From working on the farm, he fought in World War I, and then opened a haberdashery store, which effectively bankrupted him. He studied law at night school in Kansas City (1923–5), and then built up a law practice. At this time, he also entered local politics as a Democrat. He became a presiding justice at Jackson County Court and then Senator for Missouri in 1935, backed by a notoriously corrupt party machine run by Tom Pendergast. It was typical of Truman's loyalty to his friends that he attracted adverse criticism in his later political life by refusing to abandon Pendergast.

In the Senate he quickly gained a reputation for scrupulous integrity, and was made chairman of a Special Commission Investigating National Defense which uncovered considerable graft, waste, and inefficiency in the federal administration of President Roosevelt. Ironically, this brought him to Roosevelt's attention and he was selected to run as Vice-President in 1944. Having met the President only twice, he himself became President on Roosevelt's death after 82 days in office and with little experience of government. At home he aimed to develop his predecessor's New Deal policies, though many of his efforts were foiled by opposition from Southern Democrats allied with Republicans in Congress.

His lack of political experience did little to ease his problems in foreign policy. At the Potsdam Conference, he was unable to prevent Stalin from extending Soviet influence over Eastern Europe. Nevertheless, he was perhaps much more sombre about Stalin than his predecessor. He authorized the dropping of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end the war in Japan without further loss of US troops, insisting on unconditional Japanese surrender. In September 1945 he decided to confront the Soviet Union by ending lend-lease. He accepted the division of Europe through the Iron Curtain from 1947, after the Soviet refusal of Marshall Aid, and his announcement of the Truman Doctrine.

In 1948 he won the presidential election against the Republican Thomas E. Dewey, contrary to the prediction of the polls, the commentators, the journalists, and many fellow politicians. In his State of the Union message in January 1949 he put forward his Point Four and Fair Deal programs. Although Congress allowed little of the latter to pass into law, he did manage to achieve his 1949 Housing Act, which provided for low-cost housing on a considerable scale. By his executive authority he had already ended, in July 1948, racial segregation in the armed forces, and in schools financed by the federal government. He continued in his policy to secure western Europe from Soviet encroachment through the creation of the first peacetime military pact in which the USA was involved, NATO.

However, his efforts to support Chiang Kai-shek proved futile, and could not prevent the victory of Mao's Chinese Communist Party in the Chinese Civil War. This proved a major setback to American confidence in its ability to prevent the spread of Communism. He took US troops into the Korean War, insisting that this be under UN auspices, a policy that was revived under Bush and Clinton after the end of the Cold War. In 1951 he dismissed General MacArthur for insubordination and publicly advocating all-out war with Communist China. This demanded courage, since MacArthur was very popular and the anti-Communists were approaching the full tide of their strength. He did not run for re-election in 1952, although he remained active in politics long after his retirement, as his reputation grew as one of the strongest and most successful Presidents, especially in foreign policy.