Before
delving into the 1950’s, it is important to understand the preceding era and
the individuals who came out of it. We shall begin by exploring the early
career of Harry S. Truman who would become the 33rd President of the
United States. Truman had the daunting task of following the charismatic and
beloved Franklin Delano Roosevelt after the death of the New Deal creator on
April 12, 1945. As President, Truman led the country through the final weeks of
World War II and made the fateful decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan.
The decisions made by Truman during his administration are a reflection of an
evolution of a unique politician and so we will begin much earlier by looking
at those influences that led to Truman’s foray into politics via the United
States Senate.
Harry S.
Truman was born May 8, 1884, in Lamar Missouri. His bad eyesight kept him from the
usual boyhood activities, and later the Military Academy. With the Great
Depression, Truman’s Haberdashery store failed. A sense of honor supported his
refusal to file for bankruptcy, a decision that kept him in debt for 20 years.
At the age of 40, Truman found himself without a job. He had always been a
personable man, and going into politics seemed natural. With the help of Thomas
Joseph Pendergast and his political machine, Truman was elected to the Senate
in 1934, quickly making friends with both moderate and conservative Democrats. With
Pendergast imprisoned for tax evasion, Truman had to fight hard for re-election
in 1940, embarking on the campaign trail without the well-oiled Jackson County
democratic machine. After securing his position in the Senate, Truman rose to
fame as the chair of the Special Senate Committee to Investigate the National
Defense Program, more commonly known as the Truman Committee.
In 1940,
Congress was preparing itself for involvement in World War II by allocating $10
billion in defense contracts. By 1941, there were rumors of contract misdemeanors,
and Truman decided to take it upon himself to look into these reports. Truman
toured countless military bases and found that each contractor was being paid a
fixed price, despite a lack of oversight and accountability of the quality of the
work.
A 1941
Wall Street Journal article explained, the investigations were opened for three
reasons: the first was that the new defense plants were being built disproportionately
in the East; the second, was to explore the “rumors of skullduggery” and third was
that Congress was not satisfied with the work being done.
The
Truman Committee exposed abuses without obstructing military strategy, unlike
the
Joint Committee on the Conduct of the
War, a Lincoln era board that only caused the president problems. Truman’s efforts won him national fame
as he saved the government millions of dollars while improving defense
production. This attention made Truman the obvious choice for FDR’s Vice Presidential
candidate in 1944. Truman became the Vice President at 60
years age.
The decision of Truman as Vice President
was very calculated. Most of the Democratic
Party leaders were convinced that FDR would be unable to finish his fourth
term, and they did not feel Henry A. Wallace, next in line to the Presidency,
had the degree of competency needed to handle the office. Truman, a well
respected and much liked member of the Senate seemed to have the qualities best
suited to negotiate presidential policies through the Congress. As a nominee, Truman also recognized the President’s
deteriorating health, noting during a meeting at the White House, the physical
decay of FDR who poured more cream onto the table then in his coffee cup. It
was at this same meeting that FDR mentioned the atomic bomb, though only in
general terms. Truman was very well informed on domestic policy but knew very
little about military strategy and foreign policy. Complicating this situation,
Truman rarely saw FDR, meeting privately with him only twice, once on March 8
and once on March 19. The implications
of this lack of intelligence would shortly become evident. Truman served as
Vice president for only 83 days and spent the time as a self-described “political
eunuch”. On April 12, 1945 Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of
the United States died, and Truman told reporters, “Boys
if you ever pray, pray for me now… When they told me yesterday what had
happened, I felt like the moon, the stars and all the planets had fallen on
me.”
