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Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman[b] (May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as a United States senator from Missouri from 1935 to 1945 and briefly as the 34th vice president in 1945 under Franklin D. Roosevelt. Assuming the presidency after Roosevelt's death, Truman implemented the Marshall Plan in the wake of World War II to rebuild the economy of Western Europe and established both the Truman Doctrine and NATO to contain the expansion of Soviet communism. He proposed numerous liberal domestic reforms, but few were enacted by the conservative coalition that dominated the Congress.

"Harry Truman" redirects here. For other uses, see Harry Truman (disambiguation).

Harry S. Truman

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Henry A. Wallace

Alben W. Barkley

Roscoe C. Patterson

Frank P. Briggs

Elihu W. Hayes[2]

Eugene I. Purcell[3]

James E. Gilday[5]

Henry Rummel[3]

(1884-05-08)May 8, 1884
Lamar, Missouri, U.S.

December 26, 1972(1972-12-26) (aged 88)
Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.

Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, Independence, Missouri

Democratic

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(m. 1919)​

Margaret

Cursive signature in ink

 United States

United States Army

Colonel (Army Reserve)

Truman was raised in Independence, Missouri, and during World War I fought in France as a captain in the Field Artillery. Returning home, he opened a haberdashery in Kansas City, Missouri, and was elected as a judge of Jackson County in 1922. Truman was elected to the United States Senate from Missouri in 1934. Between 1940 and 1944, he gained national prominence as chairman of the Truman Committee, which was aimed at reducing waste and inefficiency in wartime contracts.


Truman was elected vice president in the 1944 presidential election and assumed the presidency upon Roosevelt's death in April 1945. It was only when Truman assumed the presidency that he was informed about the ongoing Manhattan Project and the atomic bomb. Truman authorized the first and only use of nuclear weapons in war against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, leading to Japan's surrender and the end of the world war. Truman's administration engaged in an internationalist foreign policy by working closely with Britain. Truman staunchly denounced isolationism. He energized the New Deal coalition during the 1948 presidential election, despite a divided Democratic Party, and won a surprise victory against Republican Party nominee Thomas E. Dewey that secured his own presidential term.


Truman presided over the onset of the Cold War in 1947. He oversaw the Berlin Airlift and Marshall Plan in 1948. With the involvement of the US in the Korean War of 1950–1953, South Korea repelled the invasion by North Korea. Domestically, the postwar economic challenges such as strikes and inflation created a mixed reaction over the effectiveness of his administration. In 1948, he proposed Congress pass comprehensive civil rights legislation. Congress refused, so Truman issued Executive Order 9980 and Executive Order 9981, which prohibited discrimination in federal agencies and desegregated the U.S. Armed Forces.


Investigations revealed corruption in parts of the Truman administration, and this became a major campaign issue in the 1952 presidential election, although they did not implicate Truman himself. He was eligible for reelection in 1952 but, with poor polling, he chose not to run. Truman went into a retirement marked by the founding of his presidential library and the publication of his memoirs. It was long thought that his retirement years were financially difficult for Truman, resulting in Congress establishing a pension for former presidents, but evidence eventually emerged that he amassed considerable wealth, some of it while still president. When he left office, Truman's administration was heavily criticized. Despite this controversy, scholars rank Truman in the first quartile of American presidents. In addition, critical reassessment of his presidency has improved his reputation among historians and the general population.[7]

Military service

National Guard

Due to the lack of funds for college, Truman considered attending the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, which had no tuition, but he was refused an appointment because of poor eyesight.[34] He enlisted in the Missouri National Guard in 1905 and served until 1911 in the Kansas City-based Battery B, 2nd Missouri Field Artillery Regiment, in which he attained the rank of corporal.[38] At his induction, his eyesight without glasses was unacceptable 20/50 in the right eye and 20/400 in the left (past the standard for legal blindness).[39] The second time he took the test, he passed by secretly memorizing the eye chart.[40] He was described as 5 feet 10 inches tall, gray eyed, dark haired and of light complexion.[41]

includes the Wallace House at 219 N. Delaware in Independence and the family farmhouse at Grandview, Missouri (Truman sold most of the farm for Kansas City suburban development including the Truman Corners Shopping Center).

Harry S. Truman National Historic Site

Harry S. Truman Birthplace State Historic Site is the house where Truman was born and spent 11 months in Lamar, Missouri.

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 – The Presidential library in Independence

Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum

 – Truman's winter getaway at Key West, Florida

Harry S. Truman Little White House

Electoral history of Harry S. Truman

a 1975 hit song by the band Chicago

"Harry Truman"

List of members of the American Legion

List of presidents of the United States

(film)

Truman

Truman Day

Truman National Security Project

Burnes, Brian (2003). Harry S. Truman: His Life and Times. Kansas City, MO: Kansas City Star Books.  978-0-9740009-3-0.

ISBN

(2008). Harry S. Truman. New York: Times Books. ISBN 978-0-8050-6938-9.

Dallek, Robert

(1998). The Man of Independence. University of Missouri Press. ISBN 0-8262-1190-9.

Daniels, Jonathan

(1983). Tumultuous Years: 1949–1953. New York: W. W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-01619-2.

Donovan, Robert J.

Ferrell, Robert H. (1994). . Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press. ISBN 978-0-8262-1050-0.

Harry S. Truman: A Life

Hamby, Alonzo L., ed. (1974). . Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath & Co. ISBN 978-0-669-87080-0.

Harry S. Truman and the Fair Deal

Hamby, Alonzo L. (1995). . Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-504546-8.

Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman

Judis, John B. (2014). Genesis: Truman, American Jews, and the Origins of the Arab/Israeli Conflict. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.  978-0-374-16109-5.

ISBN

(1970). The Truman Doctrine and the Origins of McCarthyism. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-8147-2576-4.

Freeland, Richard M.

Giglio, James N. (2001). Truman in Cartoon and Caricature. Kirksville, Missouri: Truman State University Press.  978-0-8138-1806-1.

ISBN

Kirkendall, Richard S. (1989). . Boston: G. K. Hall Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8161-8915-1.

Harry S. Truman Encyclopedia

McCoy, Donald R. (1984). . Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-0252-0.

The Presidency of Harry S. Truman

(1992). Truman. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-86920-5.

McCullough, David

Margolies, Daniel S. ed. A Companion to Harry S. Truman (2012); 614pp; emphasis on historiography; see Sean J. Savage, "Truman in Historical, Popular, and Political Memory," pp. 9–25.

excerpt

(1974). Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman. New York: Putnam Publishing. ISBN 978-0-399-11261-4.

Miller, Merle

Mitchell, Franklin D. (1998). . Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press. ISBN 0-8262-1180-1.

Harry S. Truman and the News Media: Contentious Relations, Belated Respect

(2004). "Harry Truman". In Brinkley, Alan; Dyer, Davis (eds.). The American Presidency. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-618-38273-6.

Oshinsky, David M.

(2011). 1948: Harry Truman's Improbable Victory and the Year That Transformed America. New York: Union Square Press. ISBN 978-1-4027-6748-7.

Pietrusza, David

(2020). Saving Freedom. New York: Harper Collins.

Scarborough, Joe

Harry S. Truman Library & Museum

Harry S. Truman National Historic Site

White House biography

Official


Media coverage


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Public Domain This article incorporates public domain material from Records of the Adjutant General's Office. National Archives and Records Administration.