Harry Truman

This is a guy who revisionist historians have really rehabilitated. Actually, he was a bigoted, narrowly partisan little mope who had a lower standing when he left office than did George W. Bush. The only reason that Truman didn't run for re-election was that Estes Kefauver, the hard drinking, coon-skin cap wearing U. S. senator from Tennessee, beat Truman in the New Hampshire Primary in 1952. Truman couldn't have won another term if he'd been unopposed on the ballot.I was ten years old when he left office and I can remember the conversations of the grownups at family occasions and such. He was not liked, and my people were all Democrats!The Korean War wrecked his presidency.

You will find that in many cases, many successful leaders do not have much education, as compared to others.  Harry Truman is an example of that.  He is one of the presidents that did not attend any college.  He also had a very hard-core attitude when it came to making big decisions.  When he had a confrontation with Douglas MacArthur, Truman was not afraid to relieve him of command.  It was a wise decision considering that MacArthur was a power-hungry, loose cannon. When the US, Britain, and France were helping Western Europe rebuild, the Soviet Union did everything it could to drive out the Allies so it could continue its conquest of Europe, despite the fact that Hitler had been defeated. The Red Army would have kept on going until they reached the beaches of Portugal.  Truman made it very clear to his advisers and committee that we are staying in Europe to help rebuild.  He was, in no way, intimidated by Joseph Stalin. He was not afraid to order the deployment of the atomic bomb.  H... Read more

Hiroshima. The pictures I've seen, stories I've heard lead me to believe it is unforgivable. We could have shown them an example of what the bomb could do. We could have ended it with blockades and conventional air raids. If we had allowed them to keep their emperor who was viewed as a demi-god, they would have surrendered. But no. They still pay for it today with higher cancer rates. We're the only ones who ever used the bomb. What does that say about us?

Well, that was a fantastically ignorant analysis of the use of the A-bomb. I think its odd that we put this all on Truman and ignore all but the fact that he dropped the most horrible weapon used in warfare. The bomb was a tough call and Truman made the right call, especially when you consider the alternative to the bomb, an invasion that would have killed 20 times what the bomb did in Japanese. I didn't even mention this yet, but we had 400,000 Purple Heart medals on order for the invasion that we are still handing out today thanks to that nasty creation. Thank you for dropping the little F'er. Twice.

Harry Truman was one of America's greatest presidents, maybe the greatest. Washington got America off to a great start, Lincoln preserved the union, and Truman save America. As can be seen by analyzing history and current events, a small gang massacred the Russian Royal family, co-opted the Russian government, and used Russia as a base from which to instigate Class Warfare all over the globe. FDR was in bed with, or intimidated by the Class War instigators. If FDR had gone after the war-for-profit gang rather than getting in bed with them, WWII would has lasted two months, and there would have been no millions of deaths, no holocaust, no Cold War, no Korea, no Vietnam , no nuclear weapons, no instigation of global religious war, etc. The Class War instigators had enormous momentum before Truman took office. They, with the help of FDR, had destroyed all of the nations that opposed them, had Europe under their heel, expanded their control into China and Asia, and were... Read more

Made one good decision and many other bad ones, just another ******* Yank.

You have to give Truman 5 stars for ending WWII. In what must have been one of the hardest decision any single man had to make, he gave the go ahead to drop two atomic weapons on Japan. At a high cost of life but which probably saved millions of other lives. Considering the fact that no one was exactly sure what would happen, it was a huge gamble that paid off.

Harry S. Truman should've been tried for crimes against humanity. Hiroshima ring a bell?

Hands down, both my parents considered Harry S Truman the best president of their lifetime. He was one tough pit bull of a president. I find it surprising that someone here would allege that Truman was a Klansman, when he was a major proponent of Israel's fledgling survival. Would a Klansman really do that? Another famous Truman quote on Nixon was, He talks out of each side of his mouth and lies out of both of them. I kind of think the Democrats wish they had a guy like Harry Truman running for Prez.

They don't make 'em like Harry Truman any more. When told that FDR wanted to make him his running mate, his first response was Tell him to go to hell. He also threatened to give a black eye to a critic who panned his daughter's singing ability. I would have voted for him just for his comedic gifts. While stumping for Kennedy in 1960 he told a Texas crowd that anyone who voted for Nixon should go to hell. No wonder they called him Give 'Em Hell, Harry. Were he around today, I can just imagine his opinions on the Bush acolytes.

Recently,a big deal has been made about some negative comments said and wrote about Jews.But,the fact is people tend to make some dumb comments.When it really counted,Truman delivered US support to Israel's founding.In fact,it is doubtful,that Israel would have come into being in 1948 if Roosevelt had remained in power.

FDR did a poor job of preparing Truman for the dangerous times he faced. FDR died in April, 1945, less than 4 months after his 4th term began. He brought Truman in to very little of the difficult decisions which lay ahead, but Truman faced them with courage and objectivity, and he cared about his primary mandate: the survival of the USA. The decisions he made throughout his presidency were all predicated on that mandate. Not a long track record of leadership but when important decisions needed to be made, he made them with boldness and courage, without much consideration for his own self-interest. Amen, Castlebee, whatever happened to guys like this?

Not many presidents have entered office under more difficult circumstances than Truman. Handled the situation as well if not better than anyone else could have. A great leader and president.

When Harry Truman was told of President Roosevelt's death, he asked Mrs Roosevelt if there was anything he could do for her to which she replied Is there anything we can do for you for you are the one in trouble now. Luckily for the nation, Harry Truman was an honorable man and made a decent President. But his years in the Oval Office were difficult ones. He came into office during the bloodiest, cosliest and deadliest war up to that time in the world, and he made the harrowing decision to drop the hydrogen bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order to end the world. Truman also set in motion the post World War II foreign policy doctrine, he continued on with Roosevelt's New Deal reform with his Fair Deal, and was even partly instrumental in Civil Rights. Because of his integrity, will power, tenacity, stubborness and basic goodness Truman was one of the best President's of the 20th century.

He loved having communists on his staff and worked hard to insure communisms survival. Besides losing China to the Reds he nearly lost Korea if it wasn't for MacArthur.

Very overrated and totally out of his depth. Moved without prudence in nuking the Japs, not once, but twice. Mishandled the Korean engagement and was totally helpless in the face of the Cold War hysteria that needlessly wracked this nation for the better part of a decade. Had no political capital when he tried to sell civil rights, a long overdue item, to Congress. He did alright in maintaining the legacy of the New Deal, but that was just continuing the good work started and nurtured by FDR. This guy wasn't too bright, but at least he was honest, especially by contemporary standards.

He was good enough.....for me to sh*t on.

Yeah....How peaceful. To drop bombs on schools of little children in Japan. How moral! Let's see.....Let's fry those babies,hmmmm! I wonder why Harry S. Truman would have thought of abortion. And he was also in the KKK. Great leader, huh?

had a tough decision and made it,that is what a leader does

Regardless of his Presidential accomplishments, Truman stands in my eyes as one of the most important leaders in the past 70 years. He had so much thrust onto him when Roosevelt died- it must have been so difficult to make the decisions which he was faced to make with very little knowledge of what was going on. He was the first President since Benjamin Harrison to propose Civil Rights laws (that's over 60 years folks), even though they failed miserably in the Congress. He was a man of integrity, honesty and vision, and when he left office, went back to being the same old Man from Independence.

Over rated hater and pathetic failure. Lost Eastern Europe and China before he woke from his stupor.

The life and times of Harry Truman are finally getting the respect that it deserves from scholars. He led the country through some of the most momentous times in our history. Everybody, including Truman himself, said that he was just an everyday American. But he was certainly a very gifted and talented man leading the country at the right time. President Truman made his own fair share of mistakes, but he never made them because he meant ill-will, unlike later Presidents like Johnson and Nixon. One big mistake he made was attempting to draft striking rail workers. It was around 1946-47; the U.S. economy was adjusting from war-time production to peace time production. The result was rampant inflation and shortages. It seemed as if every single industry at the time was picketing for higher wages, but the rail workers going on strike would threaten the very lifeblood of the country, its transport industry. President Truman, as much as he was a friend of organized labor, was not about to to... Read more

He started the disgraceful 'Red Scare.' Was a decent president, though.

This may have been our boldest president of the 20th century. He made his decisions, on his own, without regard for anything but what was best for the people of this country. When asked about the decision to drop the atomic bomb on the Japanese at the end of WWII, Harry said that he never worried about it because it never cost any U.S. servicemen lives. He said his hardest decision was to send troups to Korea, because he knew it would cost U.S. lives. His approach was straightforward, common-sense, with no beating around the bush. My favorite Harry Truman quote is this. "Never kick a fresh turd on a hot day." Those are words to live by.

I certainly wouldn't have wanted to have been in the position to make the decisions he had thrust on him. He finished bringing the country through a gruesome time with guts and gusto. What happened to guys like this?

One of the truly great leaders of this country. Roosevelt left him with many problems, mostly because he never told anything that was going on. Harry should have been at Yalta.

A common man who was an uncommon leader. He had guts and vision.

Can you imagine what it must have been like for Harry Truman when FDR died? All of a sudden, this very regular man from Missouri is sitting across the table from Stalin and Churchill, basically setting the political and economic structure for most of the industrial world in the second half of the 20th century. His basic decency and sound judgement carried the U.S. through one of the most politically treacherous times in the past 100 years.