{"id":60525,"date":"2020-08-05T20:15:19","date_gmt":"2020-08-06T00:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/?post_type=lecture&#038;p=60525"},"modified":"2024-04-30T10:20:28","modified_gmt":"2024-04-30T14:20:28","slug":"harry-s-truman","status":"publish","type":"lecture","link":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/lecture\/harry-s-truman\/","title":{"rendered":"Harry S. Truman: The Accidental President and the Triumph of True Grit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"wp-block-umw-hero alignfull umw-custom-block umw-hero umw-hero--dark-text umw-hero--white umw-hero--with-no-media\"><div class=\"umw-hero__inner\"><div class=\"umw-hero__media\"><\/div><div class=\"umw-hero__title\"><div class=\"container\"><div class=\"umw-hero__title__wrapper\"><div class=\"umw-hero__eyebrow\">harry s. truman<\/div><h1 class=\"umw-hero__title__header\">The Accidental President and the Triumph of True Grit<\/h1><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-umw-hero-ctas alignfull\"><div class=\"umw-hero__links\"><div class=\"container\"><div class=\"umw-hero__links__wrapper\">\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n<div class=\"wpv-view-output\" data-toolset-views-view-editor=\"80f42fb9475e16ee08c796864bd147df\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-toolset-views-view-editor wpv-gutenberg-view-wrapper-61885\">\n\n\n<div id=\"wpv-view-layout-61885-CATTR6191a4629d802367bd63f4023238f2c3\" class=\"js-wpv-view-layout js-wpv-layout-responsive js-wpv-view-layout-61885-CATTR6191a4629d802367bd63f4023238f2c3\" data-viewnumber=\"61885-CATTR6191a4629d802367bd63f4023238f2c3\" data-pagination=\"{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;61885&quot;,&quot;query&quot;:&quot;normal&quot;,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;disabled&quot;,&quot;effect&quot;:&quot;fade&quot;,&quot;duration&quot;:500,&quot;speed&quot;:5,&quot;pause_on_hover&quot;:&quot;enabled&quot;,&quot;stop_rollover&quot;:&quot;false&quot;,&quot;cache_pages&quot;:&quot;enabled&quot;,&quot;preload_images&quot;:&quot;enabled&quot;,&quot;preload_pages&quot;:&quot;enabled&quot;,&quot;preload_reach&quot;:1,&quot;spinner&quot;:&quot;builtin&quot;,&quot;spinner_image&quot;:&quot;\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/wp-content\/plugins\/toolset-blocks\/embedded\/res\/img\/ajax-loader.gif&quot;,&quot;callback_next&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;manage_history&quot;:&quot;enabled&quot;,&quot;has_controls_in_form&quot;:&quot;disabled&quot;,&quot;infinite_tolerance&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;max_pages&quot;:1,&quot;page&quot;:1,&quot;base_permalink&quot;:&quot;\/greatlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/lecture\/60525?wpv_view_count=61885-CATTR6191a4629d802367bd63f4023238f2c3&amp;wpv_paged=WPV_PAGE_NUM&quot;,&quot;loop&quot;:{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;data&quot;:[],&quot;id&quot;:0}}\" data-permalink=\"\/greatlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/lecture\/60525?wpv_view_count=61885-CATTR6191a4629d802367bd63f4023238f2c3\">\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n          <h2 class=\"lectureDate\">Lecture Date: October 6, 2020<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Presidential Great Lives, 2020 Truman\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/452576209?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"533\" height=\"300\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<div class=\"topicSummary\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"239\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2020\/08\/Harry-S.-Truman-239x300.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium alignright\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" style=\"\" srcset=\"\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2020\/08\/Harry-S.-Truman-239x300.jpg 239w, \/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2020\/08\/Harry-S.-Truman-816x1024.jpg 816w, \/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2020\/08\/Harry-S.-Truman-768x963.jpg 768w, \/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2020\/08\/Harry-S.-Truman-909x1140.jpg 909w, \/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2020\/08\/Harry-S.-Truman.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 239px) 100vw, 239px\" \/><p>When Vice President Harry S. Truman learned of President Franklin D. Roosevelt\u2019s sudden death on April 12, 1945, the realization that he would now be President made him feel, he told reporters, \u201clike the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Truman had ample reason to be thunderstruck. And the American people generally shared his trepidation. They knew little about this successor to the legendary FDR, and what they did know was not reassuring.<\/p>\n<p>For one thing, he had been Vice President only during Roosevelt\u2019s fourth term and thus in office for only a few months. His career prior to that was undistinguished, having held sundry jobs with indifferent success before winning election to the US Senate in 1934.  <\/p>\n<p>Plain in both appearance and speech, he did not look or sound \u201cpresidential.\u201d In short, few people have ever attained the presidency so seemingly ill-equipped for the job. Yet it was his fate to be faced with some of the most crucial problems of 20th century America. <\/p>\n<p>With World War II nearing its conclusion in Europe, the most immediate problem confronting Truman was trying to defeat Japan.  His decision to employ the atomic bomb for that purpose was surely one of the most wrenching decisions any President ever had to make \u2013 but one that he adamantly defended, declaring with characteristic certitude in his memoirs that he \u201cregarded the bomb as a military weapon and never had any doubt that it should be used.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p>Once the war was over, other problems abounded at home as the nation struggled to convert to peacetime status. Rampant inflation, labor unrest, civil rights stirrings\u2014all plagued the new President. And on a personal level, his salty language and general lack of decorum appalled critics who felt that he demeaned the dignity of his high office. <\/p>\n<p>Such was his plight that many observers doubted he would seek re-election in 1948\u2014and when he did, they gave him no chance of defeating Republican Thomas Dewey (who had run relatively well, albeit unsuccessfully, against FDR four years earlier). His chances were diminished further by the emergence of two additional parties: the Progressive Party, whose candidate Henry Wallace\u2019s liberal agenda threatened to syphon off votes of left-leaning Democrats, and Strom Thurmond\u2019s Dixiecrat Party, which attracted Southern conservatives offended by Truman\u2019s civil rights sympathies.<\/p>\n<p>Against such obstacles, Truman\u2019s upset victory remains to this day the foremost political example of a victorious underdog, made more memorable by the iconic Chicago Tribune early-edition headline: \u201cDewey Defeats Truman.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The challenges of his second term, both at home and abroad, turned out to be so vexatious that Truman may well have wondered whether his re-election to what he once called \u201cthe great white jail on Pennsylvania Avenue\u201d had been worth it after all. To be sure, there were some successes -- for example, his outlawing of racial discrimination in federal employment and his desegregation of the armed forces. <\/p>\n<p>But such developments tended to be overshadowed by the incipient anti-communism crusade of the McCarthy era, as well as by the Korean War, for whose protraction Truman was commonly blamed.<\/p>\n<p>In light of his widespread unpopularity, Truman declined to seek reelection in 1952, leaving office amidst a perception of failure. Yet, unlikely as it seemed at the time, Truman has consistently received high marks from historians, some of whom have adjudged his performance as only one notch below the consensus \u201cgreats\u201d such as Washington and Lincoln.<\/p>\n<p>Why such favorable evaluations? Partly, perhaps, because Truman personified \u201cthe little man,\u201d a theme often attractive to historians\u2014plus his views on race relations were enlightened for his time. Or maybe the best explanation is simply that, as one historian put it: \u201cHis greatness lies largely in having done greatly better than anyone had any reason to anticipate.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>One of the most striking aspects of this development is that Truman himself probably would not have had much concern about it. \u201cDo your duty,\u201d he once said, \u201cand history will do you justice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Never one to mince words or to seek an elegant phrase when a simple one would suffice, he commented on one occasion that he wanted only one epitaph for posterity, and it was one he had seen on a tombstone in the Old West: \u201cHe did his damnedest.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Come to think of it, given his tendency to bluntness and his penchant for profanity, those words do seem apt indeed.<\/p>\n<p>Published in the <a href=\"https:\/\/fredericksburg.com\/opinion\/commentary-historians-have-been-kind-to-give-em-hell-harry\/article_636d8ac4-98e9-54e6-a23f-6688ed41ab1a.html\"><em>Free Lance-Star<\/em><\/a> October 3, 2020<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"lectureSpeaker\" style=\"padding-top: 1em;\">Speaker: William B. Crawley<\/h2>\n<div class=\"speakerInfo\">\n<p>UMW Professor Emeritus of History<br \/>\nDirector of Great Lives<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"umw_cb_additional_links":[[]],"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_advisory_expires_time":"","_advisory_meta_include":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"season":[1187],"class_list":{"0":"post-60525","1":"lecture","2":"type-lecture","3":"status-publish","5":"season-fall-2020","6":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.9 (Yoast SEO v26.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Harry S. 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