May 11, 2026 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Harry S. Truman was never expected to become president of the United States. He grew up as a farm boy in rural Missouri, and though he later served as Franklin D. Roosevelt’s vice president, he was not Roosevelt’s first choice for the role, nor did Truman initially seek it.
But his presidency would shape the course of history. Truman oversaw the end of World War II with the use of the atomic bomb, introduced the Truman Doctrine to confront Soviet expansion, and led the country into the beginning of the Korean War. Here’s the story of Truman’s presidency and how his decisions helped shape the modern United States.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories.
They show where America is the star and the American people,
and we'd love to hear your story. Send them to
our American Stories dot com. There's some of our favorites
up next, a story about the only president from the
state of Missouri, Harry S.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Truman.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Here's our own Monta Montgomery to get us started.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Harry Truman was born May eighth, eighteen eighty four in
the mar Missouri, but his family would soon move to
the town he's most associated with. Here's MPs Ranger Doug
Richardson with more.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
It was likely in eighteen ninety That's Truman family settled
in Independence, mostly so that Harry could attend the better schools,
and for the rest of his life, Truman described Kansas
City as a suburb of Independence.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
He believed that, well, it's good to be back home
and what I call the center of the world, Independence, Missouri.
Speaker 5 (01:11):
I think it's the greatest town in the United States.
And I've been all over the country, and I've been
to Europe, South America and several other places, but I
still like to come back home.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
And I'll continue to feel that way as long as
I live, and I think you'll find everybody in Independence
flee the same way about this town, because it's the
center of things for most of us, and it's the
center of things for me, and I'm rather than happy
to be here and to stay here for the rest
of my life.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Truman would graduate from those schools his family moved to
Independence for in nineteen oh one, meeting his future wife
Bess Wallace in the process, but his plans for higher
education didn't pan out.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Her.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Truman's father suffered a financial reversal of sorts, and it
appears as it of John Anderson. Truman lost at the
time about forty one thousand dollars as a result of
some not so great investments, and that pretty much dashed
(02:13):
any hope of Harry Truman continuing into college. So to
this date, Harry Truman is the last president that we've
had in this country who did not have a college education.
He is very conscious about self conscious about that.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
So Harry Truman went to Kansas City and entered the workforce.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
He served as a payroll clerk on the railroad. He
served in a bank. He actually roomed with a brother
of Dwight David Eisenhower but then Truman's mother, father, brother,
and sister were asked to return to the family farm
in Grandview. Harry Truman's grandmother was now getting older. Her brother,
Harry's uncle, Harrison, for whom Harry Truman was named, wanted
(02:56):
to include the Trumans, and by nineteen oh six, Harry
Truman gave up a pretty good job at a bank
in Kansas City and went to work on the farm.
It was while working on that farm that Truman really
taught himself the art of agriculture, all at a time
where they weren't using a lot of high tech farming equipment.
(03:16):
We're still talking mules and horses and plows. He's doing
jobs that need to be done, but jobs that he
doesn't necessarily like to do, putting rings and pigs, ears
and bailing hay and all of that. But it was
on that farm that Harry Truman's mother said he learned
common sense, and she said that it was something that
(03:39):
he could never have gained in town. Now. While living
on the farm too, Truman served briefly on a school board,
He served briefly as the postmaster of Grandview. He got
involved in the Masons, and so he built these community
relations too, and in a way, working on the farm
and being part of all all of this helped bring
(04:02):
an introverted young man out as you get in towards
the middle of the nineteen tens. After Harry Truman's father
died in Grandview in the farm home in November of
nineteen fourteen. So Truman is now the principal farmer on
the farm. But when what we now call World War
One broke open in Europe, Truman stepped up. He had
(04:29):
earlier been in reserve unit in Kansas City.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
When I was twenty one years old, I joined an
organization in Kansas City known as Battery, thee of the
Missouri Battalion of fil Artillery. I couldn't join before I
was twenty one because my mother and father were afraid
I'd have to wear a blue uniform.
Speaker 5 (04:51):
And I did.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
Now wore that blue union farm I'd to see my
old grandmother. She looked at me. I thought I looked
mighty pretty in that uniform, said Harry, that's the first
time a uniform of that color has been in this
house since.
Speaker 5 (05:03):
The Civil War. Don't you bring it back. I didn't
even be sure of that.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
But Truman was now into his thirties. He was, in essence,
legally blind. His brother said that the only reason that
the Army probably took him was Harry Truman might have
fudged the eye exam. He knew that he memorized the chart.
But regardless of that, Harry Truman re enlisted in the
(05:28):
United States Army and became attached to an American artillery battery,
and they saw some heavy action.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
After I'd been in France about a month, I was
promoted to the captain and then was put in command
of batter d That battery had quite an experience where
he started out in the Voige mountains.
Speaker 5 (05:50):
We found out exactly what it meant to be under fire.
Then we moved over to the mews.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Argon Drive at Samidu sector. That called it, and there
were three thousand rounds when he got through fire in
that Bride reached up as fast as we could and
went into position up between Verdun and Sheppey. And how
we were in that position, I had a chance to
shoot out three batteries on the German side. In doing that,
(06:17):
I was firing outside the sector. The colonel called me
up and asked me if I was firing outside I said, yes, Colonel,
I just put some German batteries out of business. He says,
you quit firing over there. Well, he was way back,
and I knew he'd never get up with me. So
I kept on fire and knocked out the other two batteries,
which paid off in the election of nineteen hundred and
(06:38):
forty eight.
Speaker 5 (06:38):
These were Pennsylvania batteries.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
And I got into a town where two of these
batteries came from.
Speaker 5 (06:44):
And if you don't think I carried those two.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Towns off, your being sure enough, because they found out
that I was the battery that saved them from getting
the shot up.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Harry Truman could be proud, and his men could be
proud that he lost not one man in battle in
World War One.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
And when we continue more on the life of Harry
Truman here on our American story. Folks, if you love
(07:28):
the stories we tell about this great country, and especially
the stories of America's rich past, know that all of
our stories about American history, from war to innovation, culture
and faith, are brought to us by the great folks
at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all the
things that are beautiful in life and all the things
that are good in life. And if you can't get
to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free
(07:50):
and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu to
learn more. And we returned to our American stories and
(08:11):
the story of Harry S. Truman. When we last left off,
Doug Richardson, a ranger at the Harry S. Truman National
Historic Site in Independence, Missouri, was telling us about Truman's
early life and service in World War One. Truman would
return from the war and marry his childhood sweetheart, Bess Wallace,
and together they would move into two nineteen North Delaware
(08:35):
Street in Independence. Let's continue with his story.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
One of the decisions Harry Truman did make after coming
home from the war, he was not going to return
to the farm. So one of the relationships that Harry
Truman struck up in his wartime service was with a
fellow by the name of Eddie Jacobson. They ran a
canteen together on base when they were preparing to go
to war, and so when they came home from the war,
(09:00):
they decided to open up a Happydasari in downtown Kansas
City on Plus Street. He called it to shirt store,
and at first the business was booming, but then the
economy started to take a nosedive, and when it came
to the shirt store, unfortunately, Harry Truman and his partner
(09:21):
lost their shirts. Truman's partner ended up filing for bankruptcy.
Harry Truman did not, and there's a lot of speculation
as to why. A lot of us believe that it
was becaused. By this time, Harry Truman had been approached
by some members in the famous notorious whatever word you'd
like to use, Pendergas family about getting in the local politics.
(09:41):
And I think you'd be hard pressed to find any
politician who would love to enter politics with a bankruptcy
under their belt.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
The Pendergast family were more or less the Democratic Party's
kingmakers in Kansas City at the time, and Tom Pendergast,
their leader, was notoriously corrupt. At one point, he received
a large amount of money from insurance companies. A lot
of that money went to friends, and he was eventually
arrested for tax evasion. Here's Harry Truman's friend, Rufus B.
(10:10):
Burris on Pendergas.
Speaker 6 (10:13):
Mister Tom Pendergas, his own right, was not a crook
in his own ways. He had done a great deal
of good for the citizens of Kansas City, but there
were one hundred and twelve insurance companies that corrupted mister
Pendergas at a time when he is greatly indebted on
account of being a deputye of the horse.
Speaker 5 (10:32):
Races where he had lost.
Speaker 6 (10:33):
And for that reason, it's hard to say that a
man is a crook because somebody that is in the
high place took advantage of a man that was in
dire trouble and distress at the time he was.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
But Truman was approached to get involved in local politics
under the system of the day what the rest of
the country probably called county commissioners. Here they were called
county judges, and he was asked to run as the
eastern district judge for Jackson County. A great story. He's
native to this area, his family had ties to the
(11:03):
Western Trails. He was a soldier, served into Great War,
and that's always a wonderful bonus to somebody who's getting
into elected politics. And Truman won. Now, unfortunately, when it
came time for reelection, he lost a bit for reelection
and had a couple of years sort of into wilderness
where he he'sld a lot of mobile memberships, almost like
(11:24):
the TRIPAA. But then he was elected for a couple
of terms as presiding Judge of Jackson County. And what's
so neat is that to this very day there is
evidence of Harry Truman's influence in local politics. Harry Truman
supervised the enlarging oven building up the Independence Courthouse, He
(11:45):
modernized the roads here, hospitals, and what's remarkable is that
almost all of these investments either came in at or
below budget. Of course, Harry Truman would admit he could
never have achieved success in electoral politics without the influence
of Pendergas family. But one thing that's frequently forgotten is
(12:09):
that when Truman was judge here in Jackson County, sometimes
there was conflict with the Pendergasts, but Pendergast, Thomas Pendergast,
recognized that it was actually in the Pendergas best interests
to let Harry Truman be an honest politician. So a
famous example, when Truman was rebuilding some of the roads
(12:31):
here in Jackson County, some of the influencers in the
Pendergas machine wanted to use pender Gas cement and concrete
and they just happened not to be the lowest bidder.
But Pendergass was smart enough to recognize let Truman be Truman,
and that was a political asset. Now Truman was reaching
sort of crossroads when his second term as Presiding Judge
(12:54):
was nearing its end. He could not run again. What
would be next for him? He had found politics to
his liking. Now today a lot of people probably think
of the word politics or politician as a pejorative. Truman
never did. To him, it was a noble job. Well again,
through the intercession of the Pendergasts, he was nominated to
(13:16):
run as a United States Senator, and it was a
tough campaign. It was a really tough campaign. Sometimes he
didn't have enough money to get a hotel room, so
he slept in his car. It was a true grassroots
campaign really both times. He was elected in nineteen thirty
four to serve as Missouri's junior Senator, and then re
elected in nineteen forty. He entered the United States Senate
(13:39):
with a little bit of a cloud over his head.
Some called him the Senator from Pendergast, But as he
got into his second term, Truman made a name for
himself in what was eventually called the Truman Committee. He
didn't like that, but it was a committee that investigated waste, fraud,
and abuse in military spending. And the Truman Committee and
(13:59):
his work ended up saving the American taxpayers billions of dollars,
which was important as we got closer and then passed
December seventh of nineteen forty one. I think Truman would
tell you he would have been perfectly content to have
spent the rest of his political life in the United
States Senate. He was happy. He just loved everything about it.
(14:21):
But fate played another hand at the Democratic National Convention
in nineteen forty four, when, through a fascinating series of
discussions in political machinery, Truman ended up being nominated as
vice president under Franklin Roosevelt as Roosevelt was trying to
win his fourth term as President of the United States.
(14:41):
One of the most fascinating photographs that have mister and
Missus Truman together is at that convention, because you can
see in her face, this is not what she wants.
This is not what she wants at all, And it
was said that it was frosty for a little while.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
I got to the hotel that evening after I'd been nominated.
There was a secret serviceman down one hallway went this way,
and a secret serviceman down this hallway, went this way,
and one stand in front of the door, and Margaret
and missus Truman both began to cry, I want to
know of me if they'd have to go through that
or the rest of the rest of their lives. And
(15:18):
I said, I am very much afraid that you will,
as somebody takes a notion to shoot me, as the
do sometimes when a fellow gets in my position.
Speaker 5 (15:26):
And then that made him cry worse.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
And thus, in January of nineteen forty five, Harry Truman
became Vice President of the United States. So instead of
being a member of the United States Senate, he was
now presiding officer of the United States Senate, and he
didn't like that as much. That's where he happened to be.
On April twelfth of nineteen forty five, Truman and the
(15:48):
Speaker of the House and others were prepared to convene
what was called the Board of Education, which is fancy
named for a poker game, and so the cards were
being dealt. Vice President Truman was told that Franklin Roosevelt's
press secretary had called Harry Truman was told to call
(16:10):
the White House, and all who were there said that
the look on Harry Truman's face was indescribable. Very quickly,
in short order, Truman rushed from the United States Capital
to the White House, and once escorted into the White House,
Eleanor Roosevelt placed her hands on the Vice President and said, Harry,
(16:30):
the president is dead. And Truman said, Missus Roosevelt, is
there anything I can do for you? And Missus Roosevelt
looked him in the eyes and said, no, Harry, is
there anything I can do for you? For you are
the one in trouble now.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
No vice president ever has the opportunity become properly prepared
to become president and succeed to that great office. Every president,
when he goes into office, takes some time to familiarize
himself with the duties. John Marshall said, there was only
one heartbeat between the vice president and the White House,
(17:09):
and he knew exactly what he was talking about. And
I experienced that situation. But when the vice president does
take over, he must assume the office of the presidency
and do the very best.
Speaker 5 (17:21):
To make it work.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
And when we continue more of the life of President
Harry S. Truman here on our American Stories. And we
(18:08):
returned to our American stories and the story of Harry S.
Truman when we last left off, Vice President Truman had
just found out from Eleanor Roosevelt the President Franklin D.
Roosevelt had died and he was about to become president.
Here's Truman's daughter, Margaret Truman Daniel, reflecting on that day.
Speaker 7 (18:33):
I remember April the twelfth, nineteen forty five very well.
It was the birthday of a good friend of mine
who lived next door to us in Washington. I also
had a date for the theater and for dinner.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
We were going on to.
Speaker 7 (18:45):
The birthday party later. Naturally, I never made it to
the theater. My father called and I thought his voice
sounded a little strange, but I didn't know why. He said,
I'd like to speak to your mother. He had to
tell me that three times, and finally I got the message,
which something must be really wrong. I call mother to
the phone, and when she came off the phone, there
(19:07):
were tears in her eyes and she told me that
President Roosevelt had just died. And then I remember we
went down to the White House, and I believe that
that was sworn in at seven o eight or nine something.
That everything was very quiet, and naturally everyone extremely sad.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
At seven oh nine pm April twelfth, nineteen forty five,
the cabinet was gathered, with just a few exceptions, members
of the Supreme Court came, the Chief Justice came, and
under a big portrait of Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman took
the oath of office as president. Their silent film footage
of that, and when you look at that, it's remarkable
(19:52):
to look at Missus Truman and Margaret Truman standing next
to him, because it's obvious that Missus Truman had but
crying quite a bit, and it's likely because everybody was
shocked at the death of Franklin Roosevelt. But now Missus
Truman knew that her world was about to change as well.
(20:16):
And the thing about it, Harry Truman did sort of
everything late in life. He married late, he served late
in World War One, he wasn't really known outside of
Jackson County, Missouri until he was fifty and now sixty
he's President of the United States. And it is not
to sound overly romantic it is just an exceptional American story.
(20:40):
So the very first decision that Harry Truman made as
President of the United States was allowing Missus Roosevelt to
use an army plane to go down and be with
her husband in Georgia. Now, shortly after that oath of office,
the Secretary of War took President Truman aside and said,
I need to talk to you about something very important,
(21:01):
but didn't say what it was. It wasn't for a
few more days that Harry Truman was made fully aware
of what we now call a Manhattan Project in the
atomic bone. Truman had only been vice president for just
over eighty two days and had rarely even seen Roosevelt
while he was vice president, and now Truman had to
(21:22):
really seriously study everything, including this weapon. Now, a few
days after Truman became President of the United States, Hitler
committed suicide. Mussolini was executed by the Italians, and on
Truman's birthday, he got a great birthday president. He was
(21:44):
able to announce the world that Germany had surrendered.
Speaker 6 (21:50):
This is a.
Speaker 8 (21:51):
Solemn but a glorious hour.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
I only wish that Franklin D.
Speaker 5 (21:56):
Roosevelt had lived to witness this day.
Speaker 8 (22:00):
Generalizenhauer informs me that the forces of Germany have surrendered
to the United Nations. The flags of freedom fly all
over Europe. For this victory, we join in offering our
thanks to the Providence which has guided and sustained us
(22:21):
through the dark days of adversity. I call upon the
people of the United States, whatever their faith, to unite
in offering joyful thanks.
Speaker 5 (22:32):
To God for the victory we have won.
Speaker 8 (22:35):
And to pray that He will support us to the
end of our present struggle and guide us into the
ways of peace.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
One thing I like to think about. He made his
first trip home as President of the United States in
late June of nineteen forty five, and again he had
never been able to complete college. But when he came
home in late June of nineteen forty five, what is
now UMKC gave him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree,
and the voice, the timbre of his voice receiving that
(23:08):
is just indescribable. But then on June twenty eighth of
nineteen forty five, it was his wedding anniversary, he waved
at the reporters and he stepped inside of two nineteen
North Delaware Street, and there were no public events for
the day. It was Harry Truman and his wife and Margaret.
He received a power, He received a feeling from his
(23:32):
family that some people may feel after drinking a case
of mountain dew. Perhaps he just drew strength from them,
and he felt it when they weren't there, and he
started to refer to the White House as the Great
White jail or the Great White sepulcher. And Missus Truman
because she was still taking care of her mother. Missus
Truman would frequently come home to Independence and he felt
(23:54):
very lonely, and he was a demon letter writer, sometimes
a couple a day, and they could talk on the
phone and all of that. When he went to Potsdam,
Germany to meet with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin, to think,
a man who just a few years before had a
short story Kansas City, and now he's meeting the two
most powerful men in the world. The best part of
(24:15):
the day for him was talking to his wife on
the phone. And it was meeting with these two that
Harry Truman started to help shape the world that we
are in right now. Pick up your newspaper, watch your
TV news. You're going to hear the United nations in
the news. You're going to hear the North Atlantic Treaty
(24:37):
Organization in the news. You're going to hear all of this.
This is the world that Harry Truman helped start to
create in the post World War era. And it was
on his way home from Potsdam that he issued the
order to use these bombs against the Japanese Empire.
Speaker 4 (25:00):
I told Stalin about the atomic explosion and explained to
him that we had the most powerful explosive that had
ever been discovered in the history of the world, and
that we expected to use it on Japan. He smiled
at me and bowed and said he was glad we
had the explosive, and he hoped that then the Japanese war.
(25:21):
I don't think he knew what I was talking about,
because he didn't.
Speaker 5 (25:24):
Display any surprise at all.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
He just thought we had something extra that we were
going to use, maybe in a long gun like.
Speaker 5 (25:31):
The Germans had used on Paris.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Now, Harry Truman made an address to the country about
the dropping of the bombs, and I often wonder how
many people heard the phrase atomic bomb, probably for the
first time in their lives. But for the rest of
his life, Triman never second guessed himself.
Speaker 4 (25:52):
Well, I thought it was a blessing. I thought it
could be used and made a blessing. I never worried
about its being a curse. I never had any such
feeling at all. Thought of that as a weapon of war.
And there's a weapon that was powerful enough to win
that war if we made a demonstration of it in
New Mexico. The word came to me in Potsdam just
exactly what had happened. Two pages on legal type paper,
(26:15):
and there was a long, weepy proposition, and I showed
it to the members of the cabinet that were there,
and I said, now we're in a shape to win
the war with very few casualties on our side.
Speaker 5 (26:28):
One of the weapon that did win the war, and
it did. That's what I was interested.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
In, and all of those decisions. We can never stop
remembering that our presidents are human. They don't necessarily have
a big ass on the chest. They're human. I just
can't help but think that at some point it sort
of did anguish him, and that missus Truman was a
(26:52):
sounding board, consolation, whatever phrase you would like to use.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
And what a story we're hearing from selling shirts to
being in charge of the weapons of mass destruction that
no country had made nor used. When we come back
more of this remarkable story President Truman's story here on
our American story, and we returned to our American stories
(27:39):
and the story of Harry S.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Truman.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
When we last left off, NPS ranger Doug Richardson was
telling us about Truman seeing the US into victory in
both theaters of World War II. Truman would soon turn
his attention to the devastated city of Berlin and Europe
as a whole, with the Marshall Plan, an astounding effort
to kickstart the rebuilding of Europe and save lives from starvation.
(28:05):
Here's Truman talking about the Berlin Airlift, a big part
of that effort.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
So I stumbled all the planes that I could get
my hands on from one end of the frequent world
to the other. And we ran those planes to Berlin
and kept them alive and furnished them with coal and
everything else they had to have to get through that winter.
And in about eleven months we got to the point
where we could land the plane ever sixty three seconds.
Speaker 5 (28:32):
Which is quite a record. And we say, Berlin, that's
all of us too.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
It Truman was able to with the Congress, and if
we think today a divided Congress is a new phenomenon,
absolutely not. Truman was able to finangle with the Congress
incredible legislation that lifted tens of millions out of poverty
in Europe. This is an international.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Story with Europe saved. Truman was able to turn his
attention to issues at home, including civil rights. But the
ball only really started moving forward after a terrible incident.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
A sergeant with the United States Army who was African
American came home and his.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
Home was in North Carolina, and as he tried to
go home, he was stopped by one of the police
officers down there, sheriff, I think, and he protested that
he was just on his way home. They charged him
as being drunken disheartly, and he wasn't drunk at all.
He got hit over the head of the black jack
and hit across the face of the billy club and
(29:40):
blinded him for life.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
His name was Isaac Woodard, and when Harry Truman heard
the story of the violence against Sergeant Woodard, it outraged him. Now,
it is absolutely true that Harry Truman, growing up in
western Missouri, did have some personal biases, but was able
(30:03):
to rise above them via an executive order of desegregating
the military and the federal workforce. And so he started
the ball rolling for the post World War civil rights
legislation and decisions from the judiciaries. And you can make
a case tying the blinding of Isaac Woodard to the
(30:25):
decision of the war in court Brown v. Board of Education.
And so, as President of the United States, Harry Truman
spoke to the NAACP, first president to do so, and
he's talking about equal rights for Americans, and he said,
and when I say Americans, I mean all Americans. And
so Truman, as President of the United States, started to
(30:49):
transform the presidency itself and the relationship of the government
to the people.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
In every state in the Union, in every community is
a small minority who are radicals, bigots, their coal and
they're not confined to anyone's state or anyone section. You
will find a few of them anywhere you want to go.
Their objective is to attain their ends by direct means.
(31:21):
They don't understand this government of ours, which is your
representative government. And the men who wrote the Constitution knew
exactly what they were doing.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Well Truman had a very good honeymoon period politically in
nineteen forty five, then going into nineteen forty six. It
was really the midterms in nineteen forty six where Republicans
ended up taking the control of Congress.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
And moving into the nineteen forty eight general, things weren't
looking much better for Truman.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
Pull numbers were atrocious.
Speaker 4 (31:56):
All those people who took polls were of the opinion
that I could be elected. In fact, there was some
doubt as to whether I could even be nominated by
the Democratic Convention or not.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
There were times when Truman was on his train barnstorming
the country, the legendary whistle Stopped tour across the country.
There were places where the train just stopped dead in
the tracks because there was no money to continue, so
people started to pass the hat around and just to
get to the next town. But despite his poll numbers,
(32:28):
when Truman started that whistle Stop tour, and they would
go to these sometimes small towns, sometimes big towns, big cities,
they just weren't prepared for what they were seeing, these
these big crowds. And Harry Truman was not necessarily the
best orator, but he was very honest orator and powerful. Now,
how confident was Truman that he was going to win,
(32:50):
I don't know. At one point during the campaign he
met with Thomas Dewey and joked with them and said, well, Governor,
do me a favor when you moved into the White
House fixed deployment. But you know, truth be told. When
he came election night, he came home, he voted, and
then Truman escaped to the Elms Hotel in Excelsior Springs and.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
Finally succeeded in getting re elected, believe it or not,
and it was surprised to everybody. I remember that there
was one gentleman who was broadcasting on the night of
the election in nineteen hundred and forty eight, and he
was telling the people exactly why I was not going
to win.
Speaker 5 (33:28):
I heard him about six o'clock.
Speaker 4 (33:30):
I went over to Excelsia Springs, took one of those
hot bats over there and went upstairs to the suite
that they'd given me, and the radio hadn't be turned on,
and Calvin Borne was telling him all about why I
wouldn't win. At that time, I had about a million,
two hundred thousand posts, and the other fellow had nine
hundred thousand, but Calvin Barnes Haid just waited to come in.
Speaker 8 (33:51):
Well.
Speaker 4 (33:52):
I had him to wake up about twelve o'clock and
listened again. The radio was still on at that time.
I was about to have two million, one hundred thousand
folks and the other fella had about a million, eight
hundred thousand.
Speaker 5 (34:03):
But I was still going to lose. I'd back bed
and went asleep.
Speaker 4 (34:08):
Very soon the Secret Service chief came in and woke
me up about four o'clock. He said, as the president,
you'd better get up and listen to this.
Speaker 5 (34:17):
I got up.
Speaker 4 (34:18):
I had about two million, four hundred thousand folks and
the other fella had about two million, one hundred thousand.
Speaker 5 (34:23):
And I turned around him.
Speaker 4 (34:24):
I said, Jim hun us up the horses, and you've
got to go back to Kansas City.
Speaker 5 (34:28):
Now we're in trouble for another four years. And we were.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
Now. When Truman was asked what the most difficult decision
from his presidency is almost eight years was, he just
jumped right away and said Korea. Many people would expect
him to say the atomic bomb. Now it's Korea. On
whether or not the United States become engaged in the
battle in Korea under the umbrella of the United Nations,
and in part because of the Korean War and the
(34:58):
relieving of Douglas Arthur. That's one of the reasons why
Harry Truman decided not to run for reelection in nineteen
fifty two. He could have the twenty second Amendment did
not apply to him, but he decided not to. You know,
could he have won. It all comes down to the
electoral college. You know, he might have known the math,
but I think a lot of it was he felt
(35:20):
he had done his duty, served in the Senate for
about ten years, as President of the United States for
about eight years. And I think one person who helped
him make that decision was that beautiful blonde haired lady
who was now gray with the beautiful blue whyes so
she had for the rest of her life. I think
she was ready to come home, and I think.
Speaker 5 (35:39):
He was too.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
So Truman had these incredibly low poll numbers, and so
he was surprised on January twentieth of nineteen fifty three,
when they were getting ready to leave Washington to come
home to Independence that have set. Over ten thousand people
gathered at the train station, and you know, Truman's world change.
You know, at that time, there was no presidential pension
(36:01):
for former presidents, no Secret Service protection for former presidents.
Truman's income dropped from one hundred thousand dollars a year
as a presidential salary to just over one hundred dollars
a month in an army pension. But he came home
and there was just really no question they were going
to come home to two nineteen North Delaware Street. I
(36:22):
really do believe that who we are today is the
summary of who we have been, and that's what Harry
Truman was when he becomes president of the United States.
He had been a student, He had been a railroad
time keeper, he had been a bank teller, he had
been a farmer, he had been a shirt salesman, and
(36:47):
he had had some successes, but he had had some failures.
A business failed, he lost reelection. I think it's a
rare human being who doesn't have a combination of successes
and failures. I think about that a lot, because one
time Winston Churchill, of all people, looked at Harry Truman
and said, you know, when we first met at Potsdam,
(37:08):
I resented you because you were not Franklin Roosevelt. But
Churchill said, you, mister President, have probably done more than
any other human being and saving Western civilization. And that
is the legacy of a man from Independence and Granby
(37:30):
in Missoury.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
And a terrific job on the production by Monty Montgomery.
A special thanks to NPS ranger Doug richardson sharing the
story with us by President Truman. Also thanks to screen
Jim's collection with the Harry S. Truman Library. And what
a life lived saving Western Europe with the Marshall Plan
dropping the bomb and that was a tough call, but
(37:58):
he did it and never looked back. Last, but not
least like Calvin Coolidge, he just went home. The story
of Harry S. Truman here on our American Story
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories.
They show where America is the star and the American people,
and we'd love to hear your story. Send them to
our American Stories dot com. There's some of our favorites
up next, a story about the only president from the
state of Missouri, Harry S.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Truman.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Here's our own Monta Montgomery to get us started.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Harry Truman was born May eighth, eighteen eighty four in
the mar Missouri, but his family would soon move to
the town he's most associated with. Here's MPs Ranger Doug
Richardson with more.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
It was likely in eighteen ninety That's Truman family settled
in Independence, mostly so that Harry could attend the better schools,
and for the rest of his life, Truman described Kansas
City as a suburb of Independence.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
He believed that, well, it's good to be back home
and what I call the center of the world, Independence, Missouri.
Speaker 5 (01:11):
I think it's the greatest town in the United States.
And I've been all over the country, and I've been
to Europe, South America and several other places, but I
still like to come back home.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
And I'll continue to feel that way as long as
I live, and I think you'll find everybody in Independence
flee the same way about this town, because it's the
center of things for most of us, and it's the
center of things for me, and I'm rather than happy
to be here and to stay here for the rest
of my life.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Truman would graduate from those schools his family moved to
Independence for in nineteen oh one, meeting his future wife
Bess Wallace in the process, but his plans for higher
education didn't pan out.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Her.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Truman's father suffered a financial reversal of sorts, and it
appears as it of John Anderson. Truman lost at the
time about forty one thousand dollars as a result of
some not so great investments, and that pretty much dashed
(02:13):
any hope of Harry Truman continuing into college. So to
this date, Harry Truman is the last president that we've
had in this country who did not have a college education.
He is very conscious about self conscious about that.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
So Harry Truman went to Kansas City and entered the workforce.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
He served as a payroll clerk on the railroad. He
served in a bank. He actually roomed with a brother
of Dwight David Eisenhower but then Truman's mother, father, brother,
and sister were asked to return to the family farm
in Grandview. Harry Truman's grandmother was now getting older. Her brother,
Harry's uncle, Harrison, for whom Harry Truman was named, wanted
(02:56):
to include the Trumans, and by nineteen oh six, Harry
Truman gave up a pretty good job at a bank
in Kansas City and went to work on the farm.
It was while working on that farm that Truman really
taught himself the art of agriculture, all at a time
where they weren't using a lot of high tech farming equipment.
(03:16):
We're still talking mules and horses and plows. He's doing
jobs that need to be done, but jobs that he
doesn't necessarily like to do, putting rings and pigs, ears
and bailing hay and all of that. But it was
on that farm that Harry Truman's mother said he learned
common sense, and she said that it was something that
(03:39):
he could never have gained in town. Now. While living
on the farm too, Truman served briefly on a school board,
He served briefly as the postmaster of Grandview. He got
involved in the Masons, and so he built these community
relations too, and in a way, working on the farm
and being part of all all of this helped bring
(04:02):
an introverted young man out as you get in towards
the middle of the nineteen tens. After Harry Truman's father
died in Grandview in the farm home in November of
nineteen fourteen. So Truman is now the principal farmer on
the farm. But when what we now call World War
One broke open in Europe, Truman stepped up. He had
(04:29):
earlier been in reserve unit in Kansas City.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
When I was twenty one years old, I joined an
organization in Kansas City known as Battery, thee of the
Missouri Battalion of fil Artillery. I couldn't join before I
was twenty one because my mother and father were afraid
I'd have to wear a blue uniform.
Speaker 5 (04:51):
And I did.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
Now wore that blue union farm I'd to see my
old grandmother. She looked at me. I thought I looked
mighty pretty in that uniform, said Harry, that's the first
time a uniform of that color has been in this
house since.
Speaker 5 (05:03):
The Civil War. Don't you bring it back. I didn't
even be sure of that.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
But Truman was now into his thirties. He was, in essence,
legally blind. His brother said that the only reason that
the Army probably took him was Harry Truman might have
fudged the eye exam. He knew that he memorized the chart.
But regardless of that, Harry Truman re enlisted in the
(05:28):
United States Army and became attached to an American artillery battery,
and they saw some heavy action.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
After I'd been in France about a month, I was
promoted to the captain and then was put in command
of batter d That battery had quite an experience where
he started out in the Voige mountains.
Speaker 5 (05:50):
We found out exactly what it meant to be under fire.
Then we moved over to the mews.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Argon Drive at Samidu sector. That called it, and there
were three thousand rounds when he got through fire in
that Bride reached up as fast as we could and
went into position up between Verdun and Sheppey. And how
we were in that position, I had a chance to
shoot out three batteries on the German side. In doing that,
(06:17):
I was firing outside the sector. The colonel called me
up and asked me if I was firing outside I said, yes, Colonel,
I just put some German batteries out of business. He says,
you quit firing over there. Well, he was way back,
and I knew he'd never get up with me. So
I kept on fire and knocked out the other two batteries,
which paid off in the election of nineteen hundred and
(06:38):
forty eight.
Speaker 5 (06:38):
These were Pennsylvania batteries.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
And I got into a town where two of these
batteries came from.
Speaker 5 (06:44):
And if you don't think I carried those two.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Towns off, your being sure enough, because they found out
that I was the battery that saved them from getting
the shot up.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Harry Truman could be proud, and his men could be
proud that he lost not one man in battle in
World War One.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
And when we continue more on the life of Harry
Truman here on our American story. Folks, if you love
(07:28):
the stories we tell about this great country, and especially
the stories of America's rich past, know that all of
our stories about American history, from war to innovation, culture
and faith, are brought to us by the great folks
at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all the
things that are beautiful in life and all the things
that are good in life. And if you can't get
to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free
(07:50):
and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu to
learn more. And we returned to our American stories and
(08:11):
the story of Harry S. Truman. When we last left off,
Doug Richardson, a ranger at the Harry S. Truman National
Historic Site in Independence, Missouri, was telling us about Truman's
early life and service in World War One. Truman would
return from the war and marry his childhood sweetheart, Bess Wallace,
and together they would move into two nineteen North Delaware
(08:35):
Street in Independence. Let's continue with his story.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
One of the decisions Harry Truman did make after coming
home from the war, he was not going to return
to the farm. So one of the relationships that Harry
Truman struck up in his wartime service was with a
fellow by the name of Eddie Jacobson. They ran a
canteen together on base when they were preparing to go
to war, and so when they came home from the war,
(09:00):
they decided to open up a Happydasari in downtown Kansas
City on Plus Street. He called it to shirt store,
and at first the business was booming, but then the
economy started to take a nosedive, and when it came
to the shirt store, unfortunately, Harry Truman and his partner
(09:21):
lost their shirts. Truman's partner ended up filing for bankruptcy.
Harry Truman did not, and there's a lot of speculation
as to why. A lot of us believe that it
was becaused. By this time, Harry Truman had been approached
by some members in the famous notorious whatever word you'd
like to use, Pendergas family about getting in the local politics.
(09:41):
And I think you'd be hard pressed to find any
politician who would love to enter politics with a bankruptcy
under their belt.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
The Pendergast family were more or less the Democratic Party's
kingmakers in Kansas City at the time, and Tom Pendergast,
their leader, was notoriously corrupt. At one point, he received
a large amount of money from insurance companies. A lot
of that money went to friends, and he was eventually
arrested for tax evasion. Here's Harry Truman's friend, Rufus B.
(10:10):
Burris on Pendergas.
Speaker 6 (10:13):
Mister Tom Pendergas, his own right, was not a crook
in his own ways. He had done a great deal
of good for the citizens of Kansas City, but there
were one hundred and twelve insurance companies that corrupted mister
Pendergas at a time when he is greatly indebted on
account of being a deputye of the horse.
Speaker 5 (10:32):
Races where he had lost.
Speaker 6 (10:33):
And for that reason, it's hard to say that a
man is a crook because somebody that is in the
high place took advantage of a man that was in
dire trouble and distress at the time he was.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
But Truman was approached to get involved in local politics
under the system of the day what the rest of
the country probably called county commissioners. Here they were called
county judges, and he was asked to run as the
eastern district judge for Jackson County. A great story. He's
native to this area, his family had ties to the
(11:03):
Western Trails. He was a soldier, served into Great War,
and that's always a wonderful bonus to somebody who's getting
into elected politics. And Truman won. Now, unfortunately, when it
came time for reelection, he lost a bit for reelection
and had a couple of years sort of into wilderness
where he he'sld a lot of mobile memberships, almost like
(11:24):
the TRIPAA. But then he was elected for a couple
of terms as presiding Judge of Jackson County. And what's
so neat is that to this very day there is
evidence of Harry Truman's influence in local politics. Harry Truman
supervised the enlarging oven building up the Independence Courthouse, He
(11:45):
modernized the roads here, hospitals, and what's remarkable is that
almost all of these investments either came in at or
below budget. Of course, Harry Truman would admit he could
never have achieved success in electoral politics without the influence
of Pendergas family. But one thing that's frequently forgotten is
(12:09):
that when Truman was judge here in Jackson County, sometimes
there was conflict with the Pendergasts, but Pendergast, Thomas Pendergast,
recognized that it was actually in the Pendergas best interests
to let Harry Truman be an honest politician. So a
famous example, when Truman was rebuilding some of the roads
(12:31):
here in Jackson County, some of the influencers in the
Pendergas machine wanted to use pender Gas cement and concrete
and they just happened not to be the lowest bidder.
But Pendergass was smart enough to recognize let Truman be Truman,
and that was a political asset. Now Truman was reaching
sort of crossroads when his second term as Presiding Judge
(12:54):
was nearing its end. He could not run again. What
would be next for him? He had found politics to
his liking. Now today a lot of people probably think
of the word politics or politician as a pejorative. Truman
never did. To him, it was a noble job. Well again,
through the intercession of the Pendergasts, he was nominated to
(13:16):
run as a United States Senator, and it was a
tough campaign. It was a really tough campaign. Sometimes he
didn't have enough money to get a hotel room, so
he slept in his car. It was a true grassroots
campaign really both times. He was elected in nineteen thirty
four to serve as Missouri's junior Senator, and then re
elected in nineteen forty. He entered the United States Senate
(13:39):
with a little bit of a cloud over his head.
Some called him the Senator from Pendergast, But as he
got into his second term, Truman made a name for
himself in what was eventually called the Truman Committee. He
didn't like that, but it was a committee that investigated waste, fraud,
and abuse in military spending. And the Truman Committee and
(13:59):
his work ended up saving the American taxpayers billions of dollars,
which was important as we got closer and then passed
December seventh of nineteen forty one. I think Truman would
tell you he would have been perfectly content to have
spent the rest of his political life in the United
States Senate. He was happy. He just loved everything about it.
(14:21):
But fate played another hand at the Democratic National Convention
in nineteen forty four, when, through a fascinating series of
discussions in political machinery, Truman ended up being nominated as
vice president under Franklin Roosevelt as Roosevelt was trying to
win his fourth term as President of the United States.
(14:41):
One of the most fascinating photographs that have mister and
Missus Truman together is at that convention, because you can
see in her face, this is not what she wants.
This is not what she wants at all, And it
was said that it was frosty for a little while.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
I got to the hotel that evening after I'd been nominated.
There was a secret serviceman down one hallway went this way,
and a secret serviceman down this hallway, went this way,
and one stand in front of the door, and Margaret
and missus Truman both began to cry, I want to
know of me if they'd have to go through that
or the rest of the rest of their lives. And
(15:18):
I said, I am very much afraid that you will,
as somebody takes a notion to shoot me, as the
do sometimes when a fellow gets in my position.
Speaker 5 (15:26):
And then that made him cry worse.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
And thus, in January of nineteen forty five, Harry Truman
became Vice President of the United States. So instead of
being a member of the United States Senate, he was
now presiding officer of the United States Senate, and he
didn't like that as much. That's where he happened to be.
On April twelfth of nineteen forty five, Truman and the
(15:48):
Speaker of the House and others were prepared to convene
what was called the Board of Education, which is fancy
named for a poker game, and so the cards were
being dealt. Vice President Truman was told that Franklin Roosevelt's
press secretary had called Harry Truman was told to call
(16:10):
the White House, and all who were there said that
the look on Harry Truman's face was indescribable. Very quickly,
in short order, Truman rushed from the United States Capital
to the White House, and once escorted into the White House,
Eleanor Roosevelt placed her hands on the Vice President and said, Harry,
(16:30):
the president is dead. And Truman said, Missus Roosevelt, is
there anything I can do for you? And Missus Roosevelt
looked him in the eyes and said, no, Harry, is
there anything I can do for you? For you are
the one in trouble now.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
No vice president ever has the opportunity become properly prepared
to become president and succeed to that great office. Every president,
when he goes into office, takes some time to familiarize
himself with the duties. John Marshall said, there was only
one heartbeat between the vice president and the White House,
(17:09):
and he knew exactly what he was talking about. And
I experienced that situation. But when the vice president does
take over, he must assume the office of the presidency
and do the very best.
Speaker 5 (17:21):
To make it work.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
And when we continue more of the life of President
Harry S. Truman here on our American Stories. And we
(18:08):
returned to our American stories and the story of Harry S.
Truman when we last left off, Vice President Truman had
just found out from Eleanor Roosevelt the President Franklin D.
Roosevelt had died and he was about to become president.
Here's Truman's daughter, Margaret Truman Daniel, reflecting on that day.
Speaker 7 (18:33):
I remember April the twelfth, nineteen forty five very well.
It was the birthday of a good friend of mine
who lived next door to us in Washington. I also
had a date for the theater and for dinner.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
We were going on to.
Speaker 7 (18:45):
The birthday party later. Naturally, I never made it to
the theater. My father called and I thought his voice
sounded a little strange, but I didn't know why. He said,
I'd like to speak to your mother. He had to
tell me that three times, and finally I got the message,
which something must be really wrong. I call mother to
the phone, and when she came off the phone, there
(19:07):
were tears in her eyes and she told me that
President Roosevelt had just died. And then I remember we
went down to the White House, and I believe that
that was sworn in at seven o eight or nine something.
That everything was very quiet, and naturally everyone extremely sad.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
At seven oh nine pm April twelfth, nineteen forty five,
the cabinet was gathered, with just a few exceptions, members
of the Supreme Court came, the Chief Justice came, and
under a big portrait of Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman took
the oath of office as president. Their silent film footage
of that, and when you look at that, it's remarkable
(19:52):
to look at Missus Truman and Margaret Truman standing next
to him, because it's obvious that Missus Truman had but
crying quite a bit, and it's likely because everybody was
shocked at the death of Franklin Roosevelt. But now Missus
Truman knew that her world was about to change as well.
(20:16):
And the thing about it, Harry Truman did sort of
everything late in life. He married late, he served late
in World War One, he wasn't really known outside of
Jackson County, Missouri until he was fifty and now sixty
he's President of the United States. And it is not
to sound overly romantic it is just an exceptional American story.
(20:40):
So the very first decision that Harry Truman made as
President of the United States was allowing Missus Roosevelt to
use an army plane to go down and be with
her husband in Georgia. Now, shortly after that oath of office,
the Secretary of War took President Truman aside and said,
I need to talk to you about something very important,
(21:01):
but didn't say what it was. It wasn't for a
few more days that Harry Truman was made fully aware
of what we now call a Manhattan Project in the
atomic bone. Truman had only been vice president for just
over eighty two days and had rarely even seen Roosevelt
while he was vice president, and now Truman had to
(21:22):
really seriously study everything, including this weapon. Now, a few
days after Truman became President of the United States, Hitler
committed suicide. Mussolini was executed by the Italians, and on
Truman's birthday, he got a great birthday president. He was
(21:44):
able to announce the world that Germany had surrendered.
Speaker 6 (21:50):
This is a.
Speaker 8 (21:51):
Solemn but a glorious hour.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
I only wish that Franklin D.
Speaker 5 (21:56):
Roosevelt had lived to witness this day.
Speaker 8 (22:00):
Generalizenhauer informs me that the forces of Germany have surrendered
to the United Nations. The flags of freedom fly all
over Europe. For this victory, we join in offering our
thanks to the Providence which has guided and sustained us
(22:21):
through the dark days of adversity. I call upon the
people of the United States, whatever their faith, to unite
in offering joyful thanks.
Speaker 5 (22:32):
To God for the victory we have won.
Speaker 8 (22:35):
And to pray that He will support us to the
end of our present struggle and guide us into the
ways of peace.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
One thing I like to think about. He made his
first trip home as President of the United States in
late June of nineteen forty five, and again he had
never been able to complete college. But when he came
home in late June of nineteen forty five, what is
now UMKC gave him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree,
and the voice, the timbre of his voice receiving that
(23:08):
is just indescribable. But then on June twenty eighth of
nineteen forty five, it was his wedding anniversary, he waved
at the reporters and he stepped inside of two nineteen
North Delaware Street, and there were no public events for
the day. It was Harry Truman and his wife and Margaret.
He received a power, He received a feeling from his
(23:32):
family that some people may feel after drinking a case
of mountain dew. Perhaps he just drew strength from them,
and he felt it when they weren't there, and he
started to refer to the White House as the Great
White jail or the Great White sepulcher. And Missus Truman
because she was still taking care of her mother. Missus
Truman would frequently come home to Independence and he felt
(23:54):
very lonely, and he was a demon letter writer, sometimes
a couple a day, and they could talk on the
phone and all of that. When he went to Potsdam,
Germany to meet with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin, to think,
a man who just a few years before had a
short story Kansas City, and now he's meeting the two
most powerful men in the world. The best part of
(24:15):
the day for him was talking to his wife on
the phone. And it was meeting with these two that
Harry Truman started to help shape the world that we
are in right now. Pick up your newspaper, watch your
TV news. You're going to hear the United nations in
the news. You're going to hear the North Atlantic Treaty
(24:37):
Organization in the news. You're going to hear all of this.
This is the world that Harry Truman helped start to
create in the post World War era. And it was
on his way home from Potsdam that he issued the
order to use these bombs against the Japanese Empire.
Speaker 4 (25:00):
I told Stalin about the atomic explosion and explained to
him that we had the most powerful explosive that had
ever been discovered in the history of the world, and
that we expected to use it on Japan. He smiled
at me and bowed and said he was glad we
had the explosive, and he hoped that then the Japanese war.
(25:21):
I don't think he knew what I was talking about,
because he didn't.
Speaker 5 (25:24):
Display any surprise at all.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
He just thought we had something extra that we were
going to use, maybe in a long gun like.
Speaker 5 (25:31):
The Germans had used on Paris.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Now, Harry Truman made an address to the country about
the dropping of the bombs, and I often wonder how
many people heard the phrase atomic bomb, probably for the
first time in their lives. But for the rest of
his life, Triman never second guessed himself.
Speaker 4 (25:52):
Well, I thought it was a blessing. I thought it
could be used and made a blessing. I never worried
about its being a curse. I never had any such
feeling at all. Thought of that as a weapon of war.
And there's a weapon that was powerful enough to win
that war if we made a demonstration of it in
New Mexico. The word came to me in Potsdam just
exactly what had happened. Two pages on legal type paper,
(26:15):
and there was a long, weepy proposition, and I showed
it to the members of the cabinet that were there,
and I said, now we're in a shape to win
the war with very few casualties on our side.
Speaker 5 (26:28):
One of the weapon that did win the war, and
it did. That's what I was interested.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
In, and all of those decisions. We can never stop
remembering that our presidents are human. They don't necessarily have
a big ass on the chest. They're human. I just
can't help but think that at some point it sort
of did anguish him, and that missus Truman was a
(26:52):
sounding board, consolation, whatever phrase you would like to use.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
And what a story we're hearing from selling shirts to
being in charge of the weapons of mass destruction that
no country had made nor used. When we come back
more of this remarkable story President Truman's story here on
our American story, and we returned to our American stories
(27:39):
and the story of Harry S.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Truman.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
When we last left off, NPS ranger Doug Richardson was
telling us about Truman seeing the US into victory in
both theaters of World War II. Truman would soon turn
his attention to the devastated city of Berlin and Europe
as a whole, with the Marshall Plan, an astounding effort
to kickstart the rebuilding of Europe and save lives from starvation.
(28:05):
Here's Truman talking about the Berlin Airlift, a big part
of that effort.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
So I stumbled all the planes that I could get
my hands on from one end of the frequent world
to the other. And we ran those planes to Berlin
and kept them alive and furnished them with coal and
everything else they had to have to get through that winter.
And in about eleven months we got to the point
where we could land the plane ever sixty three seconds.
Speaker 5 (28:32):
Which is quite a record. And we say, Berlin, that's
all of us too.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
It Truman was able to with the Congress, and if
we think today a divided Congress is a new phenomenon,
absolutely not. Truman was able to finangle with the Congress
incredible legislation that lifted tens of millions out of poverty
in Europe. This is an international.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Story with Europe saved. Truman was able to turn his
attention to issues at home, including civil rights. But the
ball only really started moving forward after a terrible incident.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
A sergeant with the United States Army who was African
American came home and his.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
Home was in North Carolina, and as he tried to
go home, he was stopped by one of the police
officers down there, sheriff, I think, and he protested that
he was just on his way home. They charged him
as being drunken disheartly, and he wasn't drunk at all.
He got hit over the head of the black jack
and hit across the face of the billy club and
(29:40):
blinded him for life.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
His name was Isaac Woodard, and when Harry Truman heard
the story of the violence against Sergeant Woodard, it outraged him. Now,
it is absolutely true that Harry Truman, growing up in
western Missouri, did have some personal biases, but was able
(30:03):
to rise above them via an executive order of desegregating
the military and the federal workforce. And so he started
the ball rolling for the post World War civil rights
legislation and decisions from the judiciaries. And you can make
a case tying the blinding of Isaac Woodard to the
(30:25):
decision of the war in court Brown v. Board of Education.
And so, as President of the United States, Harry Truman
spoke to the NAACP, first president to do so, and
he's talking about equal rights for Americans, and he said,
and when I say Americans, I mean all Americans. And
so Truman, as President of the United States, started to
(30:49):
transform the presidency itself and the relationship of the government
to the people.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
In every state in the Union, in every community is
a small minority who are radicals, bigots, their coal and
they're not confined to anyone's state or anyone section. You
will find a few of them anywhere you want to go.
Their objective is to attain their ends by direct means.
(31:21):
They don't understand this government of ours, which is your
representative government. And the men who wrote the Constitution knew
exactly what they were doing.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Well Truman had a very good honeymoon period politically in
nineteen forty five, then going into nineteen forty six. It
was really the midterms in nineteen forty six where Republicans
ended up taking the control of Congress.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
And moving into the nineteen forty eight general, things weren't
looking much better for Truman.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
Pull numbers were atrocious.
Speaker 4 (31:56):
All those people who took polls were of the opinion
that I could be elected. In fact, there was some
doubt as to whether I could even be nominated by
the Democratic Convention or not.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
There were times when Truman was on his train barnstorming
the country, the legendary whistle Stopped tour across the country.
There were places where the train just stopped dead in
the tracks because there was no money to continue, so
people started to pass the hat around and just to
get to the next town. But despite his poll numbers,
(32:28):
when Truman started that whistle Stop tour, and they would
go to these sometimes small towns, sometimes big towns, big cities,
they just weren't prepared for what they were seeing, these
these big crowds. And Harry Truman was not necessarily the
best orator, but he was very honest orator and powerful. Now,
how confident was Truman that he was going to win,
(32:50):
I don't know. At one point during the campaign he
met with Thomas Dewey and joked with them and said, well, Governor,
do me a favor when you moved into the White
House fixed deployment. But you know, truth be told. When
he came election night, he came home, he voted, and
then Truman escaped to the Elms Hotel in Excelsior Springs and.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
Finally succeeded in getting re elected, believe it or not,
and it was surprised to everybody. I remember that there
was one gentleman who was broadcasting on the night of
the election in nineteen hundred and forty eight, and he
was telling the people exactly why I was not going
to win.
Speaker 5 (33:28):
I heard him about six o'clock.
Speaker 4 (33:30):
I went over to Excelsia Springs, took one of those
hot bats over there and went upstairs to the suite
that they'd given me, and the radio hadn't be turned on,
and Calvin Borne was telling him all about why I
wouldn't win. At that time, I had about a million,
two hundred thousand posts, and the other fellow had nine
hundred thousand, but Calvin Barnes Haid just waited to come in.
Speaker 8 (33:51):
Well.
Speaker 4 (33:52):
I had him to wake up about twelve o'clock and
listened again. The radio was still on at that time.
I was about to have two million, one hundred thousand
folks and the other fella had about a million, eight
hundred thousand.
Speaker 5 (34:03):
But I was still going to lose. I'd back bed
and went asleep.
Speaker 4 (34:08):
Very soon the Secret Service chief came in and woke
me up about four o'clock. He said, as the president,
you'd better get up and listen to this.
Speaker 5 (34:17):
I got up.
Speaker 4 (34:18):
I had about two million, four hundred thousand folks and
the other fella had about two million, one hundred thousand.
Speaker 5 (34:23):
And I turned around him.
Speaker 4 (34:24):
I said, Jim hun us up the horses, and you've
got to go back to Kansas City.
Speaker 5 (34:28):
Now we're in trouble for another four years. And we were.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
Now. When Truman was asked what the most difficult decision
from his presidency is almost eight years was, he just
jumped right away and said Korea. Many people would expect
him to say the atomic bomb. Now it's Korea. On
whether or not the United States become engaged in the
battle in Korea under the umbrella of the United Nations,
and in part because of the Korean War and the
(34:58):
relieving of Douglas Arthur. That's one of the reasons why
Harry Truman decided not to run for reelection in nineteen
fifty two. He could have the twenty second Amendment did
not apply to him, but he decided not to. You know,
could he have won. It all comes down to the
electoral college. You know, he might have known the math,
but I think a lot of it was he felt
(35:20):
he had done his duty, served in the Senate for
about ten years, as President of the United States for
about eight years. And I think one person who helped
him make that decision was that beautiful blonde haired lady
who was now gray with the beautiful blue whyes so
she had for the rest of her life. I think
she was ready to come home, and I think.
Speaker 5 (35:39):
He was too.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
So Truman had these incredibly low poll numbers, and so
he was surprised on January twentieth of nineteen fifty three,
when they were getting ready to leave Washington to come
home to Independence that have set. Over ten thousand people
gathered at the train station, and you know, Truman's world change.
You know, at that time, there was no presidential pension
(36:01):
for former presidents, no Secret Service protection for former presidents.
Truman's income dropped from one hundred thousand dollars a year
as a presidential salary to just over one hundred dollars
a month in an army pension. But he came home
and there was just really no question they were going
to come home to two nineteen North Delaware Street. I
(36:22):
really do believe that who we are today is the
summary of who we have been, and that's what Harry
Truman was when he becomes president of the United States.
He had been a student, He had been a railroad
time keeper, he had been a bank teller, he had
been a farmer, he had been a shirt salesman, and
(36:47):
he had had some successes, but he had had some failures.
A business failed, he lost reelection. I think it's a
rare human being who doesn't have a combination of successes
and failures. I think about that a lot, because one
time Winston Churchill, of all people, looked at Harry Truman
and said, you know, when we first met at Potsdam,
(37:08):
I resented you because you were not Franklin Roosevelt. But
Churchill said, you, mister President, have probably done more than
any other human being and saving Western civilization. And that
is the legacy of a man from Independence and Granby
(37:30):
in Missoury.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
And a terrific job on the production by Monty Montgomery.
A special thanks to NPS ranger Doug richardson sharing the
story with us by President Truman. Also thanks to screen
Jim's collection with the Harry S. Truman Library. And what
a life lived saving Western Europe with the Marshall Plan
dropping the bomb and that was a tough call, but
(37:58):
he did it and never looked back. Last, but not
least like Calvin Coolidge, he just went home. The story
of Harry S. Truman here on our American Story
Host
Lee Habeeb
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