Harry Truman is the president of the United States with an unusual fate. His presidency, in fact, was random, and the decisions made are controversial, sometimes tragic. It was Truman who approved the bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs. However, the 33rd president firmly believed in the correctness of the decision, believing that the shocking act of aggression saved millions of lives, leading Japan to surrender. Subsequently, he initiated the Cold War with the USSR.
Unpopular president
Truman is the lowest-rated US president in history. Among the unpopular American leaders, a Missouri native set a peculiar anti-record: in December 1951, only 23% of Americans considered his activity to be positive. Even Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal had a higher rate of 24%.
In 1953, when he resigned, only 31% of the population rated his board positively, 56% negatively. But here’s the paradox: in 1982, a survey was conducted among historians who is the most outstanding leader of the nation, and experts assigned Truman the 8th place in the list of all American presidents.
A study of the archives showed that Truman is the president of the United States with a strong-willed character. In difficult, uncomfortable situations, he did not substitute partners and subordinates, independently made decisions, even if they were not popular. He claimed responsibility, but he never left the chosen path. So the unpopular politician rose to the level of an American national hero.
Truman, US President: biography
Truman's biography does not contain any extraordinary facts. Born in the family of a small farmer on May 8, 1884. He graduated from the school in Independence, Missouri. Together with his brother, he tried to become a bank employee, but there was no money for college. Father lost his property as a result of speculation on the grain exchange.
The nationality of US President Harry Truman is not advertised (Jewish roots can be traced), but it is known that he was a sincere believer, a Baptist, and later joined the Freemasons. From 1906 to 1907, Harry worked with his father and brother on his grandmother's farm. In 1914, his father died, and Truman himself ran the farm. He introduced a crop rotation and, breeding cattle, achieved success. He also invested in zinc-lead mines, participated in oil scams.
The beginning of political activity
Truman's interest in politics arose in his youth. With the outbreak of World War I, he enters the national guard, fights in the fields of France. In April 1919, leaves the military service with the rank of captain and marries Elizabeth Ferman. Together with a partner, he opens a men's clothing store.
The crisis of 1921-1922 undermined the business of the future president, leaving Truman with $ 25,000 of debt. Lesson learned: business is not for him, and Truman becomes an official. Harry, according to reviews, was a terrible speaker. He saw his political future in the ranks of the Democrats - Party No. 1 in the South.
The young officer was known in the constituency and was warmly supported by front-line comrades. As a judge in Jackson County, he was responsible for:
- road conditions;
- sewage discharge;
- nursing home management;
- help to citizens.
From Senator to Vice President
This is in the future Truman - the US president, whose photo will adorn the tabloids of that time. In the meantime, Harry is a promising, but little-known politician. He effectively leads the district, clearly observing party guidelines, so the party will subsequently help him become a senator after the 1934 election.
At the age of 50, Truman comes to Washington as a senator from Missouri’s home state. He is a supporter of the "new course" of Roosevelt (the previous president), is involved in lawmaking. The first important task is to help regulate the growing air traffic. Then the senator makes a name for himself, revealing the illegal fraud of a number of railway managers. After his re-election to the Senate in 1940, he heads an emergency committee, which is responsible for research on promising weapons programs.
The events of Pearl Harbor and the pulling into the US war put this committee in the first roles. Harry becomes so popular that in 1944 he holds the position of vice president. Even then, he openly began to advocate for American participation in the reform of international organizations after the end of the war. However, the paradox: as Vice President Truman does not participate in military conferences, he is indirectly informed about the creation of the atomic bomb, the Manhattan project.
The president is dead. Long live the president!
Roosevelt's death on April 12, 1945 automatically (according to the Constitution) makes Harry the leader of the country. From now on, Truman is the president of the United States. Years of reign: 04/12/1945 - 01/20/1953. The war in Europe is nearing completion, Soviet-American relations are deteriorating due to the problems of Eastern Europe. In addition, Truman continues to adhere to the political and economic projects of the Roosevelt administration, this creation:
- United Nations.
- IMF.
- World Bank.
Truman, US President: Foreign Policy
Harry Truman is interested in a normal relationship with Stalin, but wants to avoid problems with Churchill. He is annoyed by the Soviet-Polish agreements (previously Poland was in the zone of influence of the USA), he considered the communist USSR a police state, not much different from Hitler and Italy Mussolini.
On August 6, aboard the August cruiser, he receives a message about the use of the first atomic bomb in Hiroshima (Japan). By the way, on July 24, the president informed Stalin about the new weapon, however, he kept silent that it was a superbomb: “We have developed the most terrifying weapon in history. It will be applied against Japan. The goals are military targets, but not children and women. ”
Atomic tragedy
Truman is the president of the United States, who for the first time dared to test nuclear weapons in humans. He was struck by the fierce warfare of the Japanese: a daring attack on Pearl Harbor, the death marches of prisoners, the numerous torture of prisoners of war in the Philippines. Harry realized that when invading large Japanese islands, numerous casualties were inevitable.
For Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he was mercilessly criticized and criticized after half a century. However, Truman himself believed that by dropping bombs on Japan, he saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of American soldiers and millions of Japanese who would be killed during the invasion of the country. Therefore, in 1951, when General MacArthur demanded the use of atomic weapons in the Korean conflict , the president refused.
He constantly thinks about using a bomb, especially when China joined the war on the side of North Korea. Harry saw in the bomb a political weapon that could be used against the USSR if it was about US security. Fortunately, the war ended in parity.
World after the war
The post-war redistribution of the world was clearly different from the expectations of major players: the USA, USSR and Great Britain. The Soviet government refused to cooperate with the IMF and the World Bank - in those institutions that, in the opinion of the American authorities, should have been central to the restoration of the world economy.
But in 1947, Cominform, an international communist organization, appeared. The USSR is nurturing the ideas of the world revolution. Eastern Europe, the Balkans and China support this idea. Truman understands: there is a relationship between well-being, psychological self-awareness, and defense. If Europeans weary of war cannot be given confidence, then Moscow will be able to influence the population of Western democracies. These contradictions have become key in the relationship between the two superpowers.
Doctrine of Truman
Truman, the president of the United States, became Stalin's main opponent. The containment policy first appears as a double containment of the USSR and Germany. It suggested the establishment of a global military equilibrium of states and the creation in Japan and Europe of new power centers against Soviet policy.
None of the subsequent US presidents influenced the development of post-war Europe like Truman did. 1947 was the year of the birth of the “Truman Doctrine”. Congress, in order to prevent the Communist parties from taking power, provides significant military and economic assistance to Greece and Turkey.
Great Britain is no longer able to confront the USSR in this region, and the United States is becoming the main force of the Mediterranean. Next was the Marshall Plan, which brought Western Europe out of stagnation and ended the economic chaos. The democracies of Western Europe approached economic and political cooperation - the creation of NATO (1947).
Like the Berlin "air bridge", NATO development showed that the US leader was aware of the psychological power of political decisions. Despite the rhetoric, Harry still understood that the United States was not ready to play the role of "world gendarme." The policy of the Truman administration in the 1950s is primarily a policy of economic containment of Soviet expansionism. For this, they introduced bilateral economic assistance, sanctions, liberalized trade and foreign exchange policy. In a word, the maximum possible measures to deter Soviet influence.
Domestic policy
Surprisingly, such energetic foreign policy steps in the states themselves were perceived negatively. Harry Es Truman's rating has been steadily declining. Historians characterize the domestic politics of that period as the “internal war” of the incumbent president with liberal advisers to the previous president Roosevelt. In 1946, Republicans conquered most places in Congress. The Democratic Party plunged into crisis. Conservatives of the South do not trust Truman's racial policies. Public opinion and the press "buried" the current president. Everything changes the Berlin crisis. Harry abolishes racial distribution in the army; he believes in a public fair deal. True, Congress did not give the green light to its reform system.
The relations of Truman with the trade unions did not work out. To all the problems is also added a conflict in the steel industry. Harry orders the steel mills to be used by the government until the conflict ends. The Supreme Court declares that this is contrary to the Constitution.
Controversial is Truman’s decision to control left-wing political dissidents, which led to the restriction of civil rights and ideological persecution of the Communists under the leadership of Senator McCarthy. The loyalty program remains the controversial page of the Truman presidency.
Relations with Congress were saddled with his Fair Course program. She controlled prices, loans, industrial products, exports, salaries, and rents. The Republican majority of Congress hacked this program. Conflicts with Congress escalated during Truman's second term as president. Republicans attributed to him a political loss to China. Due to domestic political criticism, Harry announced in the spring of 1952 that he was refusing the subsequent nomination of his candidacy. Congress has already approved constitutional amendments limiting the presidency to two terms. However, this did not concern Truman, because he was only president for six years. In his memoirs he writes: "To be president means to be very lonely." The 33rd president in Kansas City died on 12/26/1972, at the age of 88.