# Harry S. Truman

| Harry S. Truman |
| --- |
| Official portrait, 1947 |
|  |
| 33rd President of the United States |
| **In office** April 12, 1945 – January 20, 1953 |
| Vice President | * *None* (1945–1949)
* Alben W. Barkley (1949–1953)
 |
| Preceded by | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Succeeded by | Dwight D. Eisenhower |
| 34th Vice President of the United States |
| **In office** January 20, 1945 – April 12, 1945 |
| President | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Preceded by | Henry A. Wallace |
| Succeeded by | Alben W. Barkley |
| United States Senator from Missouri |
| **In office** January 3, 1935 – January 17, 1945 |
| Preceded by | Roscoe Patterson |
| Succeeded by | Frank Briggs |
|  |
| Personal details |
| Born | (1884-05-08)May 8, 1884 Lamar, Missouri |
| Died | December 26, 1972(1972-12-26) (aged 88) Kansas City, Missouri |
| Nationality | American |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Height | 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) |
| Spouse(s) |
 Bess Truman ​(m. 1919)​ |
| Military service |
| Rank | major, colonel (reserve) |
|

Harry Truman's voice

Truman Speaks about the Bombing of Hiroshima Recorded August 9, 1945
 |

**Harry S. Truman** (May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972) was the 33rd President of the United States from 1945 to 1953 after President Franklin D. Roosevelt died in office. Truman served as the 34th vice president of the United States for a short time, from January to April 1945.

As president, Truman made important foreign policy decisions, such as using atomic weapons on Japan to end World War II; rebuilding Europe, most of which was destroyed during the war, by the Marshall Plan; fighting the Cold War; and getting the U.S. involved in the Korean War.

## Early years

The Trumans' wedding day
Harry S. Truman was born on May 8, 1884, in Lamar, Missouri. The initial "S" in Truman's name has no meaning.

Truman was raised in Independence, Missouri. He lived for 12 years as a Missouri farmer.

The presidential election of 1892 happened when Truman was eight years old. Truman wanted Grover Cleveland, a Democrat like the rest of Truman's family, to win. Cleveland won.

Truman joined the United States Military in 1917. He went to France in World War I and became a captain in the field artillery.

Truman left the military in 1919. That same year, he married Elizabeth Virginia Wallace, nicknamed Bess. He opened a clothing store in Kansas City.

On February 17, 1924, Bess had a baby girl and named her Mary Margaret Truman.

## Political life

Truman was active in the Democratic Party. In 1922, he was elected judge of Jackson County Court.

Two years later, Truman lost the next county judge election. However, in 1926, he was elected county judge again.

In 1934, Truman was elected Senator of Missouri. He became a member of the Interstate Commerce Committee. He was also the vice-chairman of a subcommittee on railroad safety.

In 1940, Truman ran for re-election to the Senate. First he would have to beat another Democrat, Governor Lloyd Stark, in a primary election. The primary election would decide which Democrat would go on to face a Republican candidate in the final elections in November.

President Franklin Roosevelt and St. Louis Mayor Bernard Dickmann wanted Stark to win. Truman had a hard time getting money. Most people thought that he would lose. However, about a month before the primary election, the railroad unions said that they wanted Truman to win. Then, two days before primary election day, Dickmann also said that he wanted Truman to win.

Roosevelt/Truman poster from 1944
Truman won by about 8,000 votes. He also won the election in November.

Truman became the head of a committee that looked at how much money the United States was spending on defense during World War II. He found billions of dollars of spending that he thought was a waste and could be cut out of U.S. was spending. Truman supported Roosevelt's leadership of the country in the war but wanted to make the government less wasteful and more effective. He became well known for leading that committee.

## Vice Presidency, 1945

In 1944, President Roosevelt ran for re-election again. Roosevelt was in bad health and he did not have much longer to live. The Democrats realized that whoever they selected as Vice President could be the next President. (In the U.S. government, if the President dies, the Vice President automatically becomes the new President.)

Henry Wallace, Roosevelt's former vice president, was not chosen because he had a friendly attitude toward the Soviet Union, which was a dictatorship. Roosevelt wanted Truman as his vice president, and Truman was chosen.

They won the election, and Roosevelt began his fourth term as president. On April 12, 1945, shortly after his fourth inauguration, Roosevelt died, and Truman became president.

## Presidency, 1945–1953

Hiroshima after being hit by the first atomic bombAbout becoming president, Truman said, "it felt like the moon, the stars, and all of the planets had fallen upon me."

Truman had become President during the last few months of World War II. While Truman was Vice President, Roosevelt never told him much about the war. At that time, people did not think of the Vice Presidency as an important job in politics. Because of this, Truman entered the presidency knowing not much more than the average person about what the U.S. military was doing in the war.

Germany surrendered less than a month after Truman became president, which ended the war in Europe. However, the Japanese kept fighting. The Allies II made the Potsdam Declaration, which told Japan that unless it surrendered, it would face "prompt and utter destruction." Japan did not surrender and so Truman ordered the first atomic bomb to be dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6th, 1945. Three days later, Truman ordered the second atomic bomb to be dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. The country surrendered, and the war ended.

The huge destructive power of the atomic bombs razed both cities and killed over 100,000 people, with many more dying of radiation-nduced illnesses over subsequent years. People who disagreed with the decision, like General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who later became President, believed that it was a cruel and inhumane attack on innocent people and that Japan was already close to being beaten. Other people thought that it was a good decision because it ended the war early. Truman thought that if the U.S. had invaded Japan, instead of using the bombs to end the war quickly, many more Americans would have died.

In June 1945, Truman became the first president in office to use air travel within the country.

### After the war

Soldiers load milk on an airplane headed to West Berlin during the Berlin Airlift
After the war, Truman wanted Europe, most of which was destroyed during the war, to be rebuilt by the Marshall Plan. Germany was divided into two parts. The Soviet Union controlled East Germany. The United States, Britain, and France controlled West Germany. During the Soviet blockade of West Berlin, Truman ordered the Berlin Airlift, which flew in tons of food to West Germany to feed the starving people.

Truman also helped create the United Nations, an organization that was based on the League of Nations. It still exists today. Its goal is for different countries to work together to help humanity and to promote peace.

After World War II, the Soviet Union and the United States were the only two powerful countries left. With Germany being divided, tensions began to increase between the two countries, and the Cold War began. This was a war where the Soviet Union and the United States did not fight directly, but both wanted to have more influence than the other in the world. The Soviet Union wanted to spread communism around the world. (Communism is the belief that the government should own the economy to make everybody equal.) Truman believed in a policy called containment: the Americans should contain communism and stop it from spreading. Truman declared the Truman Doctrine, which said the United States should give money to Turkey and Greece so that they could be strong enough to defend themselves from communism.

Truman sent Congress his "Fair Deal." It was based on Roosevelt's New Deal. It gave more money to education, more money to farmers, and a higher minimum wage for workers. Labor union leaders asked him for higher wages and more benefits.

Various reforms relating to labor, social security, agriculture and housing were also carried out under Truman.

After coal miners went on strike, Truman had the Department of the Interior take over the mines. While Truman sympathized with the working class, when there was a huge railroad strike, Truman believed it was illegal. He also thought it was unfair to people who could not get to work because the railroads were not running. He reacted by threatening to draft them if they did not return to work.

Truman ended segregation in the military and allowed blacks and whites to fight together.

### 1948 election

*Further information: 1948 United States presidential election*

In 1948, Truman ran for a second term as president against Thomas Dewey. He was the underdog, and everyone thought that vhe would lose. The *Chicago Tribune* published a newspaper on the night of the election with the title "Dewey Defeats Truman." To everyone's surprise, Harry Truman won the election.

### Korean War

On June 25, 1950, North Korea, with the support of China, attacked South Korea to unite Korea under communism.

The U.S. fought the Korean War to defend South Korea and keep communism from spreading there. General Douglas MacArthur wanted to bomb China. Truman thought that was too dangerous to do and so he fired MacArthur. Many people respected MacArthur and so they were angry at Truman. He made Mathew B. Ridgeway general.

During the end of his term, Truman's approval rating was at an all-time low. He was very unpopular because thousands of Americans died in the Korean War, there was a medium amount of corruption in his government, and people were accusing many of Truman's employees of being communists. He left office on January 20, 1953. The armistice occurred about six months later although there is still a state of war between the Koreas.

As time passed, Truman's reputation got greatly improved. Many historians now believe that Truman was one of the greatest presidents.

## Later life and Death

Harry S. Truman moved back to Missouri. He died on December 26, 1972 in Kansas City, Missouri of multiple organ failure caused by pneumonia at the age of 88.

## Related pages

* Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
* Marshall Plan
* Cold War
* Truman Doctrine
* Korean War

## Other websites

* WW2DB: Harry Truman
* White House biography on Truman Archived 2006-07-06 at the Wayback Machine