Introduction and Thesis
Harry S. Truman is known as the 33rd President of the United States. He assumed the Presidency of the nation in April of 1945 when President Franklin Roosevelt died due to a stroke. He may not have desired to campaign and assume the Presidency of the United States, but his term in office ushered in a new age in the field of international relations, a new outlook on race relations in the country, and for the United States to assume a greater role in world politics as well.
Overview of the Presidency
Harry S. Truman had been in office as the Vice-President of the United States when the serving President, Franklin Roosevelt, suddenly passed away on April 12, 1945. His first act as President was to ask the current Cabinet members to remain in their positions, but then he would emphasize that he was there to make the decisions and that they would all have to support the same. The first critical decision he made during his term was the decision to drop atomic bombs on the Japanese locations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He was already aware of the successful testing of these bombs. With the refusal of the Japanese to accede to the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, the decision to drop these bombs on the Japanese suddenly became an option for Truman. The use of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulted in the loss of about 200,000 lives, with many others maimed for life due to the radiation produced by the bombs. (Alexrod, 2009). In his memoirs, Truman would state that he thought that dropping these bombs was the way to end the war, and to save many more lives as possible. Plans to invade mainland Japan were underway, and the Americans were fearful of a Japanese attack on the US mainland. Either event would cost both sides hundreds of thousands of lives. He also mentioned that the fact that this decision was a military one, to avoid another invasion of Normandy that would again cost many more lives. In five days, the Japanese surrendered to the Americans, ending the Second World War in the Pacific Theater (US History, 2016).
After the Second World War, the presidency of Harry S. Truman focused on the transition of the economy of the nation from a wartime economy to a peacetime one. There was the task of avoiding the rise of unemployment coming from the veterans who were now discharged from the Armed Forces, and who now needed to find work in order to feed their families. The country was now experiencing an inflation rate of about 6%, along with housing and consumer product shortages (Miller Center, 2012). A series of railway, steel and coal workers’ strikes caused the popularity of Truman to decline significantly. However, he was able to settle the rail workers’ strike (McCoy, 1984). Congress and the Senate passed the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947, even if Truman had vetoed this act (Peters and Woolley, 2016). This law was said to severely restrict the freedoms of unions. He then continued to be an advocate for national health insurance, which shows his concern for the citizenry, and that he did not want to play politics at the expense of others (Markel, 2015).
In the period prior to the elections of 1948, Truman supported the creation of the United Nations. However, with the increasing political influence of the Soviet Union in Europe, he was quick to recognize the sympathies of the Americans, and proposed the implementation of the Truman Doctrine, which centered on the containment of Communism, as well as the Marshall Plan, which aimed to provide aid to the countries in Europe decimated by the war (Holsti, 1996). The Truman Doctrine is also based on the President’s ideology that Communism is alive in economies that are faltering and suffering. The President then caused the creation of the Berlin Airlift, which provided vital life-sustaining supplies to individuals trapped in the Soviet Blockade of Berlin after the Second World War (Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, 2016).
During his second term as President, his popularity plummeted. This was due to his decision not to push through with the invasion of Chinese forces backing up North Korea during the Korean War, which led to a rift between him and the famous General Douglas MacArthur. His dismissal of MacArthur was even more unpopular with the American public (Roper Center, 2010). For the rest of his second term, President Truman was occupied with charges that he had been too soft on communism, and that there was an elaborate network of spies working in the US government (Evans, 2007). However, despite the low ratings, he submitted a civil rights agenda to Congress in 1948 which included fair employment policies for African-Americans.
Significance of the Truman Presidency
The main significance of the Truman Presidency is that his term actually was a demonstration of just how much power the Office of the President of the United States held. His decision in dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki though, were not spur-of-the-moment or bloodthirsty decisions. Based on the literature so far, one could say that the decision to drop these bombs on these two Japanese cities was a war decision. He also thought that by doing so, he would be able to put an immediate end to the war in the Pacific. The war in Europe had already ended, and a protracted war in the Pacific was not going to be too good for the United States (Kramer and Kauzlarich, 2011). The war in the Pacific also had to end already. He was not racist or a mass murderer, he simply wished to put an end to the war. This would have not only benefited the United States, but would also have some advantages for Japan, which did not have as much resources as the Americans at the time. Truman did have a lot of power on his hands, but he made decisions that were to benefit both sides somehow. More lives would have been lost on both sides if the United States had proceeded with a Normandy-like invasion of the Japanese mainland. The position of the President did have a lot of power, but Truman showed everyone else how that power ought to be used.
Another significance of the Presidency of Harry S. Truman lies in its turnaround from the previously-espoused Monroe Doctrine. This policy involved the imminent aggression of the United States against any nation (European or otherwise) intending to colonize any territory in North or South America (Internet Archive, 2016). The Truman Doctrine emphasized the cooperation of a group of states or sovereign nations in order to “neutralize” a competing state. During his term, the United Nations and more importantly, the National Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed. The United States began to openly support its allies economically and also in the form of military aid. At the heart of the Truman Doctrine was its policy of containment – the main Cold War policy of the United States. Truman wanted to free all those subjugated by the Soviets, but also wished to stop the further spread of Communism elsewhere (Larson, 1985). The Truman Presidency heralded international cooperation against the threat of Communism around the world, and ushered in an age of international aid as well to countries allied with the United States in need of development aid.
President Truman was especially very honest. While a local politician in Missouri, he was associated with Democrat Party Leader Tom Pendergast. The latter was then convicted of voter fraud and tax evasion, and was incarcerated. Despite this event, Truman still was elected to office as he openly discussed his friendship with Pendergast, and he welcomed any investigation into this friendship. Being the ethical individual he was, he still continued working in office afterwards (Bio, 2016). In the free mail service of the Senate, many senators included their personal mails in this service. Then Senator Truman was quick to sort out his mails, and include only the business mails in the said service (Bio, 2016). His honesty and integrity is one of the characteristics and traits that ought to be in any President, or leader, for that matter.
Influence of President Truman Today
When there is a disaster or a major political event that threatens the balance of power or peace across the globe, the United States is usually at the forefront of the events. This is because of the Truman Doctrine. The fact that aid was provided to Turkey and Greece to stave off the threat of Communism just after the end of the Second World War is testament to the doctrine itself. The transition from isolation to supporting interests across the globe is the direct result of this doctrine. The United States led a coalition of nations and invaded Iraq in the first quarter of 2003. It was perceived that Iraq was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction aimed at the allies of the United States in the Middle East. President Bush had declared that Iraq was in possession of uranium, which was supported by British intelligence reports (Duffy and Carney, 2003). One could say that the battle cry for the Truman Doctrine today is “perpetual war for perpetual peace”. US troops have been sent to Iraq, with a mission to rescue thousands of Yazidis being persecuted by the ISIS (Tehrani, 2014).
Thus when there are success stories of refugees saved by US troops, or when citizens are saved from persecution, the action of US troops is a consequence of the Truman Doctrine. The United States has half of its “body” (if it had one) into foreign affairs. It wishes to keep the balance of power between and among allies around the world, and hence it makes its presence felt in these “problematic” areas (Tehrani, 2014). This in turn has led the US military to grow into perhaps the biggest and most progressive military group in the whole world.
There also those who are unaware that President Truman was perhaps one of the first American white politicians to pay attention to civil rights, especially to racial discrimination. While working in county politics back in Missouri, he had worked already with several African Americans. He was a believer in the principle of fair play, and that white people could work together with people from other ethnic backgrounds. The arrival of Truman in Washington was quite timely as this coincided with the activity of the NAACP to put an end to the lynching in the South, and on issues such as segregation in education and in the military. Truman supported the Costigan-Wagner Anti-Lynching Bill of 1935 which was eventually filibustered. However, as a Senator, he continued to support educational programs for African Americans, and often spoke in public about the “brotherhood of men apart from the brotherhood of White men” (Taylor, 2013, 39). Truman’s beliefs eventually culminated in his signing in 1948 of Executive Order 9981, which instructed the eradication of discrimination in the military, and the elimination of the same in all the military support services (Taylor, 2013). This action could have been a precursor to the evolution of the civil rights movement that began in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Thus, today, there is the thought always that the absence of discrimination (allegedly) today was brought about by President Harry S. Truman.
Conclusion
The legacy of President Harry S. Truman is quite different from the other Presidents of the United States. He will be remembered as an unassuming man who was called to perform his duty as the leader of an emerging world power, and he did his job well. He was a pioneer in civil rights, granting equal rights to African Americans in the Armed Forces, such that their service to the country would be rewarded fairly, and so that discrimination could be eliminated within. He was honest, and he really posited that his decision to drop the atomic bomb was a professional war decision – in order to save more lives, and in order to put an end to the war that was running for over four years already.
While he looked so simple, when one now reflects on his accomplishments, one is in awe of the fact that he helped bring America to its superpower stature today. He changed the foreign relations landscape of the country from existing in semi-isolation, to organizing alliances to fight the threat of Communism across the globe. He initialized the flow of aid to those countries in need of help so that they may not be overcome by the Soviets as well. He actually promoted a new wave of diplomacy, with international cooperation as the focus, even with the Soviets (who Truman did not like to come face-to-face with during the Korean War). Having just come out of one world war, he did not wish to enter into another, this time with the Russians as the main enemy. While much has been said about US “interference” in other sovereign states, many other states would have been decimated without the help of the United States. It is for these reasons therefore that Harry S. Truman should be considered as an exceptional President.
References
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Harry S. Truman Library and Museum. 2016. The Airlift Begins. Retrieved from: http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/BERLIN_A/PAGE_11.HTM
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Internet Archive. The Monroe Doctrine (1823). Retrieved from: https://web.archive.org/web/20120108131055/http://eca.state.gov/education/engteaching/pubs/AmLnC/br50.htm
Kramer, R. and Kauzlarich, D. 2011. Nuclear Weapons, International Law, and the Normalization of State Crime, in State Crime, Current Perspectives, D. Rothe and C. Mullins, eds., New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
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Tehrani, C. 2014. Why Does the US Keep Getting Involved in Conflict? Retrieved from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/caroline-tehrani/why-does-the-us-keep-getting-involved_b_5666898.html
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