Truman, Harry S. 

Born: May 8, 1884, Lamar, Missouri; Died: December 26, 1872, Kansas City, Missouri.  Democrat.  33rd President of the United States, 1945-1953.  Vice President of the United States, 1945-1945.  U.S. Senator from Missouri, 1935-1945.  President who approved the use of atomic bombs against Japan in World War II.  Known for implementing the Marshall Plan to rebuild Western Europe’s economy.  Established Truman Doctrine and NATO against Soviet and Chinese Communism.  Co-Founder of the United Nations.  Supported newly independent Israel.  A World War I veteran, Truman assumed office after the death of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on April 12, 1945, during the final months of World War II, and after serving only 82 days as Vice President.  A month later, May 8, the Nazis surrendered and Truman issued the proclamation of V-E Day.  In August, the Japanese refused to surrender, so, with the invasion of mainland Japan imminent, Truman approved the dropping of two atomic bombs which he believed would save many lives on both sides.  An atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6.  Nagasaki was struck three days later.  After the war the remainder of his presidency was marred by many labor strikes, and Truman reacted by vowing to destroy union leaders, calling them “Communist Bridges.”  Truman’s approval rating dropped from a postwar 82% to 32%, and Senator William Fulbright of Arkansas even went so far as to suggest to Truman that he resign.  Recognizing the dangers of communism, Truman began to cooperate closely with Republican leaders on foreign policy.  Domestically, however, Truman remained a New Deal Democrat, advocating for national health insurance and housing reforms.  Truman was also a Wilsonian internationalist who supported the creation of the new United Nations, hoping the new organization would be able to assist in standing against the Soviet Union, which had expanded its influence into Eastern Europe.  The Marshall Plan aimed to restart the floundering European economy, because, as Truman pointed out, “Communism flourishes in economically deprived areas.”  The policies put into motion in an effort to prevent the spread of communism launched the United States into a new war devoid of direct conflict that became known as The Cold War.  As the Soviet Union began to close off access to Berlin, Truman approved a joint effort with the allies to initiate the Berlin Airlift in order to supply the blockaded sectors of the city under allied control.  The campaign delivered food, coal, and other supplies using military aircraft.  The USSR granted ground access less than a year later, but the airlift continued for months afterward.  In 1948, despite a 36% approval rating, and after the party tried to grant the Democratic nomination to World War II General Dwight D. Eisenhower (who would later become a Republican Party President), Truman pulled off the nomination.  Then, after attacking the GOP’s principles limiting federal intrusion into domestic issues, and issuing Executive Order 9981, racially integrating the U.S. Armed Forces (which risked losing Dixiecrat support, but won over a significant portion of the black vote), and while fighting against two Democrat Party revolts, one by Strom Thurmond who declared his candidacy for the presidency on a Dixiecrat ticket, and one by former Vice President Henry Wallace who defected to the Progressive Party, Truman squeaked through with narrow victories in a few critical States, and held on to his progressive midwestern base and most of the Southern States, winning the 1948 Election with 303 electoral votes (to Republican Thomas Dewey’s 189, Thurmond’s 39, and Wallace’s 0).  The media reported, during the election, that Dewey was going to be the inevitable victor.  The margin of victory for Dewey was so large that the three major polling organizations stopped polling well before the election date, thus missing the moment that Truman must have surged past Dewey.  The Chicago Tribune, when only a few returns were in, printed newspapers with the headline, “Dewey Defeats Truman.”  Truman’s second inauguration was the first ever televised nationally.  A year and a half after his electoral victory in 1948 the North Korean army invaded South Korea, starting the Korean War.  In 1951 the Twenty-Second Amendment was ratified, limiting the President to two terms.  A grandfather clause in the amendment allowed Truman to run again, and he seriously considered running for another term in 1952.  He considered enlisting Eisenhower to be his running-mate, but Ike was more interested in seeking the Republican Party nomination.  Truman was entered in the New Hampshire primary, and was defeated handily.  A couple weeks later he formally announced he would not seek another term.  Fear of communist infiltration became a major campaign issue, and the Democrats lost to Republican Candidate Dwight Eisenhower in 1952.  The GOP win ended a twenty year Democrat Party run in the White House.