Coolidge served as the Mayor of Northampton, Massachusetts. He later served as the Governor of Massachusetts. As governor, he became famous because of his response during the Boston Police Strike. Coolidge fired the police who went on strike and gave the jobs to unemployed World War 1 veterans (he gave the same bonuses that the striking policemen asked for to the veterans).
In 1920, he was nominated Vice President under Warren G. Harding. The Harding-Coolidge team won easily. Harding died in 1923 and Coolidge became the next President. He was inaugurated at his family farm in Vermont by his father John Calvin Coolidge Sr.
Coolidge finished Harding's term and was elected in 1924 to continue to be the country's president.
Coolidge was president during a prosperous economy and the country did not face many challenges. He believed that the federal government should be as small as possible. He supported tax cuts and wanted the federal government to keep its hands off the economy. Some think this is linked to the Great Depression.
Coolidge was criticized for refusing to give subsidies to farmers and when a giant flood happened in Mississippi during 1927, he did not want the federal government to be involved. This was part of his belief of federalism, that the country's problems should be solved mainly by state governments and local governments rather than the federal government.
He did not run for re-election in 1928 and published his autobiography the following year.
The legacy of Calvin Coolidge is mixed. People who support more federal government involvement in the economy do not like him. People who support less federal government involvement in the economy like him.
Calvin Coolidge was nicknamed "Silent Cal" because he did not talk much. There is a story that at a dinner party, a woman once told Coolidge that she could get more than two words out of him, to which he replied "You lose."
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 - December 26, 1972) was the 33rd President of the United States, from 1945 to 1953. He became president when President Franklin D. Roosevelt died in office.
As president, Truman made important foreign policy decisions, such as using atomic weapons on Japan to end World War II; repairing Europe (which was destroyed during the war); beginning the Cold War, and getting the U.S. involved in the Korean War.
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. He wanted Grover Cleveland, a Democrat like Truman's family, to win. Grover Cleveland did win.
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. He opened a clothing store in Kansas City.
On February 17, 1924, Bess had a baby girl and named her Mary Margaret Truman.
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, he was elected county judge again in 1926.
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 both wanted Stark to win. Truman had a hard time getting money. Most people thought 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, Bernard Dickmann also said that he wanted Truman to win.
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 what the 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.
In 1944, President Roosevelt ran for re-election again. Roosevelt was in bad health and he did not have much longer to live. The Democratic Party realized that whoever they selected as Vice President could be the next president of the United States. (In the U.S. government, if the President dies, the Vice President automatically becomes the new president.)
Henry A. Wallace, Roosevelt's former Vice President, was not chosen because he had a friendly attitude toward the Soviet Union, which many people saw as 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, Franklin Delano Roosevelt died. Truman became president.
About 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 World War II. 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 World War II.
Nazi Germany surrendered less than a month after Truman became president. This ended the war in Europe. However, the Japanese kept fighting. The Allies of World War II made the Potsdam Declaration, telling Japan to surrender or it would face "prompt and utter destruction." Japan did not surrender, 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. Japan surrendered and the war ended.
The huge destructive power of the atomic bombs razed both cities, and killed over one hundred thousand people, with many more dying of radiation induced illnesses over subsequent years. People who disagreed with the decision, like General and future president Dwight Eisenhower, believe it was a cruel and inhumane attack on innocent people, when Japan was already close to being beaten. Other people thought 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.
After the war, Truman ordered Europe (which was destroyed during the war) to be repaired with the Marshall Plan. Germany was divided into two parts after the war. 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 which was based on the League of Nations. The United Nations still exists today. Its goal is for different countries to work together to help humanity and to promote peace.