The Truman Library
 

So after nearly 25 years in the KC area, we finally went to the Truman Museum today; and we will be going back soon. What a great review of that period of American history. And I took notes. A few of the tidbits that I brought home:

Farming taught him that hard work alone did not guarantee success.

He first proposed a system of national health insurance in 1945. In 1965, LBJ travelled to the Truman Library to sign the Medicare Act.

The Marshall plan was described as “the most unsordid act in human history.” It is truly amazing the extent to which we invested in rebuilding Europe.

I liked a line he used in accepting the nomination for his own run for the presidency “Senator Barkley and I will win this election and make the Republicans like it.” Like today, the conservative columnists inaccurately denigrated his leadership ability.

He pissed off labor during his first presidency by intervening in strikes. As a result, the GOP took over congress during the mid-term elections. When Truman was running for his own presidential term, he told a labor gathering that “if you stay home like you did last time and let these reactionaries stay in power you’ll deserve any blow you get.” Sound like a message to the working people of today?

Truman was moved by the conditions he saw Blacks suffer after the war, and introduced civil rights legislation, which was defeated in Congress. Truman took some steps on his own by integrating the military and issuing an executive order banning discrimination in federal jobs. Truman’s efforts toward civil rights caused Strom Thurmond to leave the Democratic party (good riddance) and run as a third party candidate for president (winning four states). A statement from Thurmond: “There are not enough troops on the Army to force the Southern People to admit Negroes into our theaters, swimming pools & homes.”

Finally, showing his true wisdom, he stated: “I salute baseball as our greatest sport.”

I’m going to have to find a good Truman biography.

Regards,

D-Ray

Truman by David Mccllough is a popular one ...I read it 20 years ago...very good and sort of light reading but very informative....

If you want a really good one with a true historian's insight by a real Truman expert with a vast knowledge of the Cold War this one

Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman, by Alonzo Hamby.
I have not read it but I have taken classes by the author in another lifetime....

That museum was one of the first things my ex-wife and I did when I moved to town in '99.

I am always impressed.

Note: Post Presidency, Truman spent a lot of time in his office there and would even answer the phone. Imagine that! "Truman Library, this is Harry..."

+1. Very good and imminently readable. It's my favorite McCullough book of the 3-4 I've read.

I bet Dubya's Presidential Library would be entertaining. Probably mostly comic books, scattered with revisionist history.;)

I love that.

So, the failed haberdasher has a nice library? :D

Pete

Just like the failed oil tycoon. The difference is that the tycoon was also a failed president.

John

Just as Truman was considered...

Btw I was messing about with the failed haberdasher comment. I like saying it, haberdasher, haberdasher ;)

Pete

Yeah, I had to write that one down.

One thing I liked about the library was that it provided some balance. There were many opinions available that the use of the a-bomb was unnecessary. There was plenty of coverage about Truman's connections to Pendergrast. There were copies of editorials and essays in opposition to many of the acts he took during his presidency.

One parallel I like to this election is the moderate president taking on a slick governor after having dealt with a do-nothing congress. Dewey just looked like the smarmy banker that we see in the movies or on TV - think Mr. Drysdale in Beverly Hillbillies.

Regards,

D-Ray

Just as about every president is considered if you ask the right analysts.

Regards,

D-Ray

The right analysts being, as a rule, those from the opposing party. That being said, the absence of George W Bush, or even any reference to him, from the RNC Convention speaks volumes.

John