Independence Missouri the port of embarkation for “grand prairie ocean”

1840s push westward to Missouri for land from Kentucky and east

Early 1830s Joseph Smith and Mormons arrived in Jackson City Missouri and settled, but driven out to Illinois by late 1830s

Civil War in Missouri started in 1854 with Kansas-Nebraska Act and brutal violence that followed

Harry Truman born 1884 outside Kansas City

Got glasses when he was 9 and quickly became a reader of everything

Bessie a year older than Harry in school, lived a few blocks away; athletic

Huge fan of history, generals especially

Harry’s history teacher Margaret Phelps on history: “It cultivates every faculty of the mind, enlarges sympathies, liberalizes thought and feeling, furnishes and approves the highest standards of character.”

Harry essay on courage: “The virtue I call courage is not in always facing the foe but in taking care of those at home… A true heart, a strong mind and a great deal of courage and I think a man will get through the world.”

Seriously studied and loved piano

Self-described sissy as a kid who loved studying and music and hated fighting

Father John lost everything on wheat futures in 1901 when Harry graduated high school: no West Point or college but job as construction timekeeper on Santa Fe railroad

Saw Theodore Roosevelt speak from railcar in Kansas City in 1903

Joined National Guard in 1905 at 21

Boarded with Eisenhower’s older brother Arthur in Kansas City while bank teller before returning to family farm to help father

Neat, polite, down to earth, honest, admitted wrong

Joined Masons in 1909 in family tradition

“You know when people can get excited over the ordinary things in life, they live.” Letter to Bess

Started long correspondence with Bess: proposed to her but she denied him

Admittedly racial prejudiced against blacks and Asians

Mother gifted him car in 1914 for work on farm

Father John died in 1914 and Harry took over farm

Enlisted in 1917 and left farm to sister Mary Jane and mother, though could’ve avoided as farmer and hated guns: swept up in patriotism

Lieutenant then captain in training: shipped out March 1918 from New York

George Marshall assistant to General Pershing

Finally returned home in May 1919 and married Bess in June, moved into her mother’s

Started high-end haberdashery store in Kansas City with war buddy Jacobson and made high ROI in first year, but failed the next in depression

Would be strapped for money for 20 years paying off debt

Pendergast of Irish catholic immigrants who came to Kansas City in 1876 and built up gambling/liquor business and Democratic political machine

Son Tom took over with much acclaim: quiet, generous, analytical

“Repeaters” voted early and often

Organization furnished lots of help and goods to citizens in exchange for “gratitude expressed at the polls”

Rival Shannon faction known as Rabbits vs. Pendergast’s Goats

“Fifty-Fifty Agreement” divided patronage evenly between factions, but off and on and battles continued

Brother Mike Pendergast the enforcer hothead

Harry tapped by Pendergasts for county judge

Brief brush with KKK when running for judge, but then denied their support due to anti-Catholicism

Close primary but soldier vote put him ahead: enjoyed being judge but soon reengaged Masons and army reserve

Bess had two miscarriages before Mary was born in 1924

Elected presiding judge 1926-1934, earned stellar bipartisan reputation

Lobbied for county bond for road repair (a pet project) and courthouse renovation, and got both

Worried about entrapment with women so avoided any opportunities for it

In 1933 appointed director of Missouri federal reemployment service, to channel unemployed laborers into public works jobs

In 1934 tapped by Pendergast for US Senate (his fourth choice)

Consistent supporter and voter of New Deal; stained by Pendergast

In 1939 Pendergast indicted by FBI for tax evasion

In Senate speech lambasted federal DA Milligan (a Roosevelt man) who investigated voter fraud and Pendergast in Kansas City; lone no vote in Senate

Missouri governor Stark ran against Harry in 1940; ran struggling bare bones campaign

Favored racial equality and fairness in law but not socially

Chaired special committee on national defense, which looked for waste and mismanagement

Produced report damning inefficiency of Roosevelt’s Office of Production Management; report spurred new War Production Board

Remained ever cheerful and brisk even as personal toll of job and war wore on him

Put Bess on office payroll, which he’d criticized others for doing but needed the money

“Investigator Truman” on the cover of Time in March 1943, about being watchdog and surprising success

April 1943 spoke at rally supporting European Jews against Hitler’s atrocities

Truman Committee’s deterrent effect probably helped save millions; also spurred production of Higgins boats

Roosevelt’s VP Wallace too intellectual, liberal, mystical, so top Democrats sought other VP for 1944, especially since Roosevelt’s health was declining

James Byrnes (head of the Office of War Mobilization after Senate and Supreme Court) was favorite but Truman, least-harmful option, slowly climbed list until convention

Truman forces strategy was to flood first-ballot with nominations to deny Wallace majority

Richard Rovere: “No one ever contrived less at his own elevation than Harry Truman at Chicago.”

Bess not happy; could have been fear of her father’s suicide becoming public

1944 inauguration first wartime one since 1864 and first at White House due to Roosevelt’s ailing

Truman first VP to have Secret Service protection

Was VP for 82 days

Elevated White House pool photographers to same level as journalists

With brisk walking and volubility he provided stark contrast with cagey and wheelchair-bound Roosevelt

Roosevelt had started political surveillance with FBI wiretaps of White House staff courtesy of Hoover, but Truman shut down and kept distance, infuriating Hoover

Invited Herbert Hoover to the White House, who’d been unwelcome under Roosevelt

While bomb being developed, had to decide whether to invade Japan or bomb/blockade

Spoke at first United Nations meeting in San Francisco in June 1945

Went to Potsdam in July 1945 and saw devastation of the war; also received word of atomic bomb test

Stalin 5’5”, personally likable and fatherly but with a mask, hardly budged on demands for Poland territory

Truman and Churchill decided to split Indochina (Vietnam) for “operational purposes” between China and Britain

After Potsdam Stalin told Khrushchev that Truman was worthless

Hiroshima bomb dropped as Truman was shipping back from Potsdam

Wanted to consolidate armed forces under single Secretary of Defense

Approval rating in 80s but dropped as struggled to navigate postwar period and new domestic demands of inflation, unemployment, Congress; 32% by mid-1946

Common criticism he was too eager to agree

Stalin declared in February 1946 inevitability of war and began rearmament

Truman introduced Churchill at his “iron curtain” speech at Missouri university

Planned to draft striking rail workers and said so in address to Congress, then notified the strike had ended

Republican sweep in 1946 elections set Truman free from Roosevelt shadow

Appointed Marshall to State to unanimous approval; had intangible aura of Washington

White House staff and cabinet appreciated Truman’s work ethic, reliability, amiability, groundedness

Marshall to staff reporting on European crisis: “Avoid trivia.”

Vetoed anti-union Taft-Hartley Act (overridden) but showed taking a stand

Congress passed National Security Act which unified armed forces under Defense, set up NSC and CIA

Bess described as serene, shy, stubborn, somber in front of crowds

After passage of Marshall Plan Truman wrote US is “first great nation to feed and support the conquered. … to create independent republics from conquered territory [Cuba and Philippines]. Our neighbors are not afraid of us.”

“All the President is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.”

Unsure of running in 1948, but felt compelled to fight for Democratic heritage

Spoke at NAACP at Lincoln Memorial and established Civil Rights Commission, whose report was shocking to Truman

Would need black, Jewish, farmer, and western votes to win in 1948

Letter to fellow southerner: “The main difficulty with the South is that they are living eighty years behind the time and the sooner they come out of it the better it will be for the country and themselves. I am not asking for social equality, because no such things exist, but I am asking for equality of opportunity for all human beings, and, as long as I stay here, I am going to continue that fight. When the mob gangs can take four people out and shoot them in the back, and everybody in the [surrounding] country is acquainted with who did the shooting and nothing is done about it, that country is in a pretty bad fix from the law enforcement standpoint. … I am going to try to remedy it and if that ends up in my failure to be reelected, that failure will be in a good cause.”

Proposal for south portico for more private space along with White House renovations met with derision

Decision to recognize Israel right away strongly influenced by old Jewish friend Jacobsen but also by Russian encroachment in Mediterranean; Marshall almost resigned over it

Dewey heavy favorite to win; J Edgar Hoover began supplying him info before election with hopes of becoming attorney general

Countrywide whistle-stop tour was decisive in victory: 24 million to 21 million

Berlin airlift successfully ended May 1949 when Stalin backed down

NATO ratification in July 1949; first peacetime military alliance since Constitution

Met MacArthur at Wake Island in summer 1950 after successful Inchon battle and all was positive

Two Puerto Rican nationalists attempted assassination at Blair House to bring attention to their cause; Truman commuted death sentence to life

US pressed past 38th parallel, then China invaded Korea and harsh winter set in

After insubordination MacArthur fired, which caused uproar; congressional hearings revealed joint chiefs agreed with Truman

Closely supervised White House gutting and renovation; insisted on keeping continuity and authenticity

Seized steel mills ahead of strike but lost Supreme Court challenge 6-3 in liberal court

Continually prodded Stevenson to run; Eisenhower campaigned with McCarthy and failed to pay tribute to Marshall, which enraged Truman

Invited Eisenhower to post-election White House meeting, a new precedent

No pension or Secret Service protection, and they’d barely been able to save much of presidential salary, but book deal helped

Died in 1972 at 88