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Harry Truman's politics. The farmer's son with the atomic bomb

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Truman Harry Potter, Truman Harry Potter
Garry Es Truman(English Harry S. Truman, his middle name was simply the initial C "S", given in honor of the names of his grandfathers - father of Anderson Shipp (Shipp) Truman and mother of Solomon Young; May 8, 1884, Lamar, Missouri - December 26 1972, Kansas City, Missouri) - US statesman, 33rd US President in 1945-1953, from the Democratic Party.

1 Early years
- 1.1 World War I
2 Politics
- 2.1 Jackson County Judge
- 2.2 US Senator
- 2.3 Vice President
3 Presidency
- 3.1 End of World War II
- 3.2 Cold War
- 3.3 Marshall Plan
- 3.4 NATO
- 3.5 China
- 3.6 Vietnam
- 3.7 Korean War
- 3.8 Domestic policy
- 3.9 Truman Doctrine
- 3.10 Attempt
4 After the presidency
5 Freemasonry
6 Interesting facts
7 Image in cinematography
8 Notes
9 References

early years

Truman was born on May 8, 1884 in Lamar, the second child of John Anderson Truman and Martha Ellen Truman. He had a brother John Vivian (1886-1965) and a sister Mary Jane Truman (1889-1978).

His father worked as a farmer. 10 months after the birth of H. Truman, the family moved to Harronsville. When he was 6 years old, everyone moved to Independence. G. Truman went to school for 8 years; his hobbies were music, reading and history. At the grain exchange, his father went bankrupt, and G. Truman could not go to college and worked at an elevator.

World War I

Lieutenant Truman

In 1905, Truman was drafted into the Missouri National Guard and served there until 1911. Prior to being sent to France, he worked in Fort Sill, Oklahoma. During the First World War, he commanded the D artillery battery of the 129th Field Artillery Regiment of the 60th Brigade of the 35th Infantry Division. During a surprise attack by German forces in the Vosges, the battery began to dissipate; Truman ordered to return to the starting position. While Truman was in command of the battery, not a single soldier was killed.

Politics

After 1914, Truman developed an interest in politics. He welcomed the election of Woodrow Wilson to the presidency.

Jackson County Judge

In 1922, thanks to the mayor of Kansas City, Tom Pendergast, Truman became a district court judge in the eastern district of Jackson. Although he failed to re-elect a district judge in 1924, he was elected by him in 1926 and 1930.

US Senator

In 1934, Truman was elected US Senator. He was a supporter of the "New Deal" proposed by Roosevelt. In 1940, he chaired an emergency committee to investigate the federal government's weapons program.

If we see that Germany is winning, then we should help Russia, and if Russia is winning, then we should help Germany, and thus let them kill as much as possible, although I do not want to see Hitler in the victors under any circumstances. ... None of them think about keeping their promises Original text (eng.)

If we see that Germany is winning we ought to help Russia and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible, although I don’t want to see Hitler victorious under any circumstances. Neither of them thinks anything of their pledged word

Harry Truman (New York Times, 24.06.1941)

Vice President

Roosevelt, Truman and Wallace in November 1944

In November 1944, Franklin Roosevelt, before the presidential election, settled on Truman's candidacy for the post of vice president. The Democratic party leadership has strongly opposed the re-election of Vice President Henry Wallace. On January 20, 1945, Roosevelt's fourth term began. Truman took over as vice president, and on April 12, 1945, when Roosevelt died, Truman became president of the United States. “Despite Roosevelt's deteriorating health, Truman has never been involved in key foreign policy decisions during his three months as vice president. Nor was he brought up to date on the atomic bomb project "(Kissinger G. Diplomacy. Ch. 17).

Presidency period

When Truman became president of the United States, he faced a difficult situation - in Europe, the defeat of Nazi Germany was coming to an end, and relations with the USSR were deteriorating.

End of World War II

Clement Attlee, Truman and Joseph Stalin at the Potsdam Conference Postage stamp of Russia, 1995: Berlin (Potsdam) Conference

Truman believed that Roosevelt, at the Yalta conference, made too many concessions to Stalin. Disagreements arose over the liberation of Europe and especially Eastern Europe. On July 24, Truman informed Stalin that the United States had created an atomic bomb, without saying so directly. He hoped that the war with Japan would be over before the USSR declared war on it. In his Potsdam diary, the President wrote: “We have developed the most terrible weapon in the history of mankind ... These weapons will be used against Japan ... so that military objectives, soldiers and sailors are targets, not women and children. Even if the Japanese are wild - merciless, cruel and fanatical, then we, as leaders of the world, for the common good cannot drop this terrible bomb on either the old or the new capital. " August 1945 Truman initiated the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After that, US troops occupied Japan.

Cold war

After the war, relations between the USSR and the United States began to deteriorate. On March 5, 1946, Winston Churchill, then in the United States, received an invitation from Westminster College (Missouri) in Fulton (Missouri) to lecture on "world affairs." Churchill stipulated that Truman should accompany him to Fulton and be present at the speech he gave. On March 12, 1947, Truman announced his doctrine, which included aid to Turkey and Greece in order to save them from "international communism." This was one of the key events of the beginning of the Cold War.

Marshall plan

In 1947, the Marshall Plan was developed, which assumed the restoration of the economies of European countries on certain conditions. 17 countries participated in the program.

The reconstruction plan, developed at a meeting of participants from European states, was announced on June 5, 1947. The same assistance was offered to the USSR and its allies, but the Soviet Union refused to participate.

The plan was in effect for four years, starting in April 1948. During this period, $ 13 billion in economic and technical assistance was allocated to help rebuild the European countries united in the Organization for European Economic Cooperation.

NATO

Truman was a supporter of the creation of a military NATO bloc. He proposed to do this in order to stop the expansion of the Soviet Union in Europe. On April 4, 1949, the United States, Canada and a number of European countries signed an agreement to create a new military alliance. 1952 Greece and Turkey joined the bloc.

China

On October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China. The overthrown Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan under the cover of US troops. With their knowledge, Taiwan organized military raids on Chinese cities until a Soviet air force was deployed in the area of Shanghai.

Vietnam

In 1945, Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam proclaimed the independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) in the liberated territory. However, France began a colonial war against Vietnam. After the DRV was officially recognized by the USSR and China in 1950, the United States began to provide significant military and economic assistance to France. In 1950, France was allocated $ 10 million, in 1951 - another $ 150 million.

War in korea

Truman signs a proclamation declaring a state of emergency in the United States in connection with the events in Korea. December 16, 1950 Main article: Korean war

On June 25, 1950, the North Korean army launched an offensive against South Korea. Almost immediately, the United States intervened in the war, having managed to enlist the support of the UN. After suffering heavy defeats in the first month, later American troops were able to stop the advance of the North Koreans, and in September they launched a successful counteroffensive. The DPRK was saved from complete destruction by China, which sent significant military forces to help it. After a new series of defeats by UN troops, the front line stabilized, and trench warfare began in Korea.

The Korean War was one of the most important events in US foreign policy in the first half of the 1950s. Its procrastination and its sterility, which became obvious by 1952, had a negative impact on the political rating of Truman, who did not run for the next presidential election. The victory of Republican candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower was largely due to his promises to end hostilities in Korea.

Mainly due to the Korean War, Truman remained in US history as the lowest-rated president during his tenure.

Domestic policy

During Truman's presidency, relations with trade unions remained tense. In 1947, the famous Taft-Hartley Act (Labor Management Relations Act of 1947) was passed, significantly restricting the right to strike. In the same year, Truman made the first attempts at racial desegregation, which caused a split in the Democratic Party and the emergence of a group of dixicrates. A program to ensure the country's security was adopted, Joseph McCarthy enjoyed influence in the Senate, who believed that the communists infiltrated the government, which led to a significant violation of civil rights and freedoms and the persecution of communists (McCarthyism). In 1948 Truman introduced the Fair Deal program, which included the control of prices, loans, manufactured products, exports, wages and rents. However, Congress was controlled by Republicans who were against it. Throughout his term, he opposed Congress and vetoed if something seemed wrong to him.

Truman Doctrine

Main article: Truman Doctrine

The concept of the Truman Doctrine evolutionarily came to replace the concept of the Monroe Doctrine, the President of the United States from 1817 to 1825. The Monroe Doctrine postulated isolationism as the culmination of politics in the subsequent period. In practice, this meant that the United States hinted to Great Britain about the inadmissibility of interfering in the internal affairs of the young, newly created states. From this concept, it followed that the United States paid attention mainly to internal development than external.

During Truman's time, the Monroe concept no longer satisfied the ambitions of the ruling classes, since the United States, as a result of World War II (1939-1945), gained power as an economic superpower. The essence of the concept: interference in the internal affairs of states with the aim of countering the communist threat, since, allegedly, the interests of the United States suffered from the fall of the democratic regime.

Assassination attempt

Main article: The assassination attempt on Truman

On November 1, 1950, two Puerto Ricans, Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo, tried to assassinate Truman at his own home. They were unable to enter his house - Torresola was killed and Collazo was wounded and arrested. The latter was sentenced to death in the electric chair, but at the last moment Truman commuted his execution to life imprisonment.

After the presidency

Truman did not run for election in 1952. Dwight Eisenhower became the President of the country. In 1957 Truman opened his library at Independence. In 1963, Lyndon Johnson became president, who carried out many of Truman's plans.

Truman died at 7.50 am on December 26, 1972 from pneumonia in Kansas City. Buried in the courtyard of the Truman Library.

In 1995, the film "Truman" was made about him.

In Freemasonry

US President Harry Truman in Masonic vestments

On February 9, 1909, Harry Truman was ordained to Masonic Lodge Belton, Missouri. In 1911 he took part in the founding of the Grandview Lodge, where he became its first Honored Master.

In September 1940, during his Senate campaign, Truman was elected Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Missouri. Truman later said that the Masonic elections brought confidence in his victory in the general election.

In 1945, he was elevated to 33 ° (Sovereign Supreme Inspector General) of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, and became an honorary member of the High Council of Jurisdiction in Washington DC under the Supreme Council of Southern Jurisdiction.

In 1959, he was awarded an honorary award in honor of 50 years of service to the Masonic order.

The aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) off the coast of Virginia during initial sea trials before entering service on July 25, 1998.

There was a sign on Harry Truman's desk that read "The Chip Goes No Further." Truman made this phrase from the everyday life of poker players as his motto.
"Truman" is the Finnish nickname for the American-made Soviet steam locomotives of the E series, some of which, for political reasons, ended up on the railways of Finland.
The ZIL-157 truck was called "Truman".
Sheriff Harry Truman, the hero of the popular television series "Twin Peaks" in the 90s, is named after him.
The US Navy aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) is named after him.

Image in cinematography

Flags of Our Fathers (2006; USA) directed by Clint Eastwood as President Truman David Patrick Kelly.

Notes (edit)

Alden Whitman. Harry S. Truman: Decisive President. 1941-06-24. The New York Times. Retrieved May 31, 2015.
The die is cast (Russian). Historic.Ru. Retrieved May 31, 2015.
Kissinger G. Diplomacy The Cold War Begins - Electronic Library of World History
1 2 ISSN 1996-8469
Karpachev, Sergey Pavlovich "Secrets of Masonic Orders", M .: "Yauza-Press", 2007, 182 p. - ISBN 978-5-903339-28-0
The Masonic Presidents Tour - Harry Truman - Thirty-third President
Harry s truman

Links

Truman on IMDB
Truman Doctrine
Nikolay Zlobin. Truman. "Continent" (2001, No. 110). Retrieved September 8, 2012. Archived from the original on October 18, 2012.

US presidents (list)
1-10	George Washington John Adams Thomas Jefferson James Madison James Monroe John Quincy Adams Andrew Jackson Martin Van Buuren William Harrison John Tyler
11-20	James Polk Zachary Taylor Millard Fillmore Franklin Pierce James Buchanan Abraham Lincoln Andrew Johnson Ulysses Grant Rutherford Hayes James Garfield
21-30	Chester Arthur Grover Cleveland Benjamin Garrison Grover Cleveland William McKinley Theodore Roosevelt William Taft Woodrow Wilson Warren Harding Calvin Coolidge
31-40	Herbert Hoover Franklin Roosevelt Harry Truman Dwight Eisenhower John F. Kennedy Lyndon Johnson Richard Nixon Gerald Ford Jimmy Carter Ronald Reagan
41-44	George Herbert Walker Bush Bill Clinton George Walker Bush Barack Obama

US Vice Presidents (list)
John Adams Thomas Jefferson Aaron Burr George Clinton Elbridge Jerry Daniel Tompkins John Calhoun Martin Van Buren Richard Johnson John Tyler George Dallas Millard Fillmore William King John Breckinridge Hannibal Gamlin Andrew Johnson Schuyler Colfax Henry Wilson William Wheeler Chester Arthur Thomas Hendrix Levi Morton Adlai Stevenson Garrett Hobart Theodore Roosevelt Charles Fairbanks James Sherman Thomas Marshall Calvin Coolidge Charles Dawes Charles Curtis John Garner Henry Wallace Harry Truman Alben Barkley Richard Nixon Lyndon Johnson Hubert Humphrey Spiro Agnew Gerald Ford Nelson Rockefeller Walter Mondale George Herbert Walker Bush Dan Quayle Al Gore Dick Cheney Joe Biden

Franklin Roosevelt's office
Vice President	John Garner (1933-1941) Henry Wallace (1941-1945) Harry Truman (1945)
Secretary of State	Cordell Hull (1933-1944) Edward Stettinius (1944-1945)
Minister of Finance	William Woodin (1933-1934) Henry Morgenthau (1934-1945)
Minister of War	George Dern (1933-1936) Harry Woodring (1936-1940) Henry Stimson (1940-1945)
Attorney General	Homer Cummings (1933-1939) Frank Murphy (1939-1940) Robert Jackson (1940-1941) Francis Biddle (1941-1945)
Postmaster general	James Farley (1933-1940) Frank Walker (1940-1945)
Minister of the Navy	Claude Swanson (1933-1939) Charles Edison (1940) Franklin Knox (1940-1944) James Forrestal (1944-1945)
Minister of Internal Affairs	Harold Ickes (1933-1945)
Minister of Agriculture	Henry Wallace (1933-1940) Claude Wickerd (1940-1945)
Minister of Commerce	Daniel Roper (1933-1938) Harry Hopkins (1939-1940) Jesse Jones (1940-1945) Henry Wallace (1945)
Minister of Labor	Francis Perkins (1933-1945)

Cabinet Harry Truman
Vice President	absent (1945-1949) Alben Barkley (1949-1953)
Secretary of State	Edward Stettinius (1945) James Byrnes (1945-1947) George Marshall (1947-1949) Dean Acheson (1949-1953)
Minister of Finance	Henry Morgenthau (1945) Frederick Vinson (1945-1946) John Snyder (1946-1953)
Minister of War	Henry Stimson (1945) Robert P. Patterson (1945-1947) Kenneth Roal (1947)
Defense Minister	James Forrestal (1947-1949) Louis Johnson (1949-1950) George Marshall (1950-1951) Robert Lovett (1951-1953)
Attorney General	Francis Biddle (1945) Tom Clarke (1945-1949) Howard McGrath (1949-1952) James McGrenery (1952-1953)
Postmaster general	Frank Walker (1945) Robert Hannegan (1945-1947) Jesse Donaldson (1947-1953)
Minister of the Navy	James Forrestal (1945-1947)
Minister of Internal Affairs	Harold Ickes (1945-1946) Julius Krug (1946-1949) Oscar Chapman (1949-1953)
Minister of Agriculture	Claude Wickerd (1945) Clinton Anderson (1945-1948) Charles Brennen (1948-1953)
Minister of Commerce	Henry Wallace (1945-1946) W. Averell Harriman (1946-1948) Charles Sawyer (1948-1953)
Minister of Labor	Francis Perkins (1945) Lewis Schwellenbach (1945-1948) Mouris Tobin (1948-1953)

Person of the Year (according to Time magazine)

Charles Lindbergh (1927) Walter Chrysler (1928) Owen Jung (1929) Mahatma Gandhi (1930) Pierre Laval (1931) Franklin Roosevelt (1932) Hugh Johnson (1933) Franklin Roosevelt (1934) Haile Selassie I (1935) Wallis Simpson ) Chiang Kai-shek + Song Meiling (1937) Adolf Hitler (1938) Joseph Stalin (1939) Winston Churchill (1940) Franklin Roosevelt (1941) Joseph Stalin (1942) George Marshall (1943) Dwight Eisenhower (1944) Harry Truman(1945) James Byrnes (1946) George Marshall (1947) Harry Truman(1948) Winston Churchill (1949) American Soldier (1950)

Complete list 1927-1950 1951-1975 1976-2000 from 2001

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Truman, Harry Information About

Truman was born on May 8, 1884 in Lamar, the second child of John Anderson Truman and Martha Ellen Truman. He had a brother John Vivian (1886-1965) and a sister Mary Jane Truman (1889-1978).

His father worked as a farmer. 10 months after the birth of H. Truman, the family moved to Harronsville. When he was 6 years old, everyone moved to Independence. At the age of 8, H. Truman went to school; his hobbies were music, reading and history. At the grain exchange, his father went bankrupt, and G. Truman could not go to college and worked at an elevator.

World War I

In 1905, Truman was drafted into the Missouri National Guard and served there until 1911. Before leaving for France, he worked in Fort Sill, Oklahoma. During the First World War, he commanded the D artillery battery of the 129th Field Artillery Regiment of the 60th Brigade of the 35th Infantry Division. During a surprise attack by German forces in the Vosges, the battery began to dissipate; Truman ordered to return to the reverse position. While Truman was in command of the battery, not a single soldier was killed.

Politics

After 1914, Truman developed an interest in politics. He welcomed the election of Woodrow Wilson to the presidency.

Jackson County Judge

US Senator

In 1934, Truman was elected US Senator in Franklin Roosevelt's cabinet. He was a supporter of the "New Deal" proposed by Roosevelt. In 1940, he chaired an emergency committee to investigate the federal government's weapons program.

Vice President

Presidency period

When Truman became president of the United States, he faced a difficult situation - in Europe, the defeat of Nazi Germany was coming to an end, and relations with the USSR were deteriorating.

End of World War II

Truman believed that Roosevelt, at the Yalta conference, made too many concessions to Stalin. Disagreements arose over the liberation of Europe and especially Eastern Europe. On July 24, Truman informed Stalin that he had created an atomic bomb, without saying it directly. He hoped that the war with Japan would be over before the USSR declared war on it. In his Potsdam diary, the President wrote: “We have developed the most terrible weapon in the history of mankind ... These weapons will be used against Japan ... so that military objectives, soldiers and sailors are targets, not women and children. Even if the Japanese are wild - merciless, cruel and fanatical, then we, as leaders of the world, for the common good cannot drop this terrible bomb on either the old or the new capital. " In August 1945, Truman initiated the atomic attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After that, US troops occupied Japan.

Cold war

After the war, relations between the USSR and the United States began to deteriorate. On March 5, 1946, Winston Churchill, then in the United States, received an invitation from Westminster College in Fulton to give a lecture on "world affairs." Churchill stipulated that Truman should accompany him to Fulton and be present at the speech he gave. On March 12, 1947, Truman announced his doctrine, which included aid to Turkey and Greece in order to save them from "international communism." This was one of the key events of the beginning of the Cold War.

Marshall plan

In 1947, the Marshall Plan was developed, which involved the restoration of the economies of European countries on certain conditions. The United States gave aid to those who accepted the program, and those countries, in response, had to break with the socialist countries and expel the communists from the government. 17 countries participated in the program.

NATO

Truman was a supporter of the creation of a military NATO bloc. He proposed to do this in order to stop the expansion of the Soviet Union in Europe. On April 4, 1949, the United States, Canada, a number of European countries and Turkey signed an agreement to create a new military alliance.

China

Vietnam

War in korea

Mainly due to the Korean War, Truman remained in US history as the lowest-rated president during his tenure.

Domestic policy

During Truman's presidency, relations with trade unions remained tense. In 1948, the well-known Taft-Hartley Act was passed, significantly restricting the right to strike. In the same year, Truman made the first attempts at desegregation, which caused a split in the Democratic Party and the emergence of a group of dixicrates. A program to ensure the country's security was adopted, Joseph McCarthy enjoyed influence in the Senate, who believed that the communists infiltrated the government, which led to a significant violation of civil rights and freedoms and the persecution of communists (McCarthyism). In 1948, Truman introduced the Fair Deal program, which included the control of prices, loans, manufactured products, exports, wages, and rents. However, Congress was controlled by Republicans who were against it. Throughout his term, he opposed Congress and vetoed it if it felt wrong.

Assassination attempt

On November 1, 1950, two Puerto Ricans, Griselio Torresola and Oscar Colazzo, attempted to assassinate Truman at his own home. However, they were unable to enter his house - Torresola was killed and Colazzo was wounded and arrested. The latter was sentenced to death in the electric chair, but at the last moment Truman commuted his execution to life imprisonment.

After the presidency

In 1952, Truman did not run for the 1952 election. Dwight Eisenhower became the President of the country. In 1957 Truman opened his library in Independence. In 1964, Lyndon Johnson became president, who carried out many of Truman's plans.

Truman died at 7.50 am on December 26, 1972 from pneumonia in Kansas City. Buried in the courtyard of the Truman Library. 34 years later, on the same day, another US president, Gerald Ford, died.

Outside the United States, many aspects of Truman's policy (especially external) are often criticized, but American historians consider him one of the most prominent presidents.

In 1995, the film "Truman" was made about him.

Statements

Regarding Churchill's proposal to help the USSR in the outbreak of war with Germany: “If we see that Germany is winning the war, we should help Russia; if Russia is winning, we should help Germany, and let them kill each other as much as possible, although I I do not want to see Hitler in the winners under any circumstances. " (eng. "If we see that Germany is winning we ought to help Russia and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible, although I don't want to see Hitler victorious under any circumstances ".) New York Times, 24.06.1941

There was a sign on Harry Truman's desk that read "The Chip Goes No Further." Truman made this phrase from the everyday life of poker players as his motto.

Harry S. Truman - 33rd President of the United States- was born on May 8, 1884 in Lamar (Missouri), died on December 26, 1972 in Kansas City (Missouri). President of the United States from April 12, 1945 to January 20, 1953.

At one time, Harry S. Truman was an extremely unpopular president. In December 1951, only 23% of Americans positively assessed its activities. Even Richard Nixon, at the lowest point in the Watergate scandal, had a higher score with 24%. When the president left office in 1953, only 31% of the population agreed with his rule, while 56% rejected him. The opposite of these figures is the assessment of Truman by historians and the public after his death. An opinion poll among historians in 1982 ranked him eighth on the list of American presidents. In the 1980 Gallup poll, he even ranked third after John F. Kennedy and Fran-Wedge D. Roosevelt. The unloved, unpopular president rose in this way after his death to an American folk hero. If there is a lot of research about Truman's presidency, then the years of his inauguration as president in Washington, when he was a senator in Missouri, are much less researched.

Harry Truman was born to the family of a small farmer. In 1890, his father John Anderson True Maine settled in Independence (Missouri), where Harry graduated from high school. He did not get a chance to attend college, as his father lost everything in speculating in the grain exchange and was forced to sell his house in Independence and move to Kansas City, where he found work in an elevator. Truman, together with his brother, decided to choose the activity of a bank clerk. From 1906 to 1907, he worked with his father and brother on the grandmother's farm. When his father died in 1914, Truman took over the business and was clearly successful. Unlike other farmers in the region, Truman introduced crop rotation and began raising cattle. Together with his partner, he simultaneously invested in zinc and lead mines in Oklahoma and participated in oil wells, which, however, turned out to be poor. At this time, an interest in politics awoke in him. He welcomed the election of Woodrow Wilson as President of the United States, joined the National Guard, and fought in World War II under the command of General Pershing at the front in France. In April 1919, he retired from the army with the rank of captain, married Elizabeth Wallace Ferman, his youthful love from Independence, who was always in the background and later almost did not participate in public life in Washington, but whom Truman always informed about important political decisions. Together with his partner, Truman opened a men's dress shop in his homeland. Economic recession 1921 - 1922 led to the closure of the store. That left $ 25,000 in debt that Truman had to repay over the next decade.

After the collapse of the business, Truman seized the opportunity to be elected as a government official. Truman was a terribly bad speaker, but he also had many advantages: he was a supporter of the Democrats, the most powerful party in the South, he was known in the electoral district and he was supported by former colleagues in the regiment. His main activities as “presiding judge” in Jackson County included responsibility for maintaining the county's roads, wastewater disposal, and managing a nursing home. local Democratic party leadership led by Tom Pendergest, he managed to create a modern district administration. Thus, Truman came into close contact with the patronizing system of the American parties at the time. In 1934, Truman managed to run for Senator in the 1934 election.

At the age of 50, Truman came to Washington as a senator for Missouri. He had no experience in federal politics, but as the “presiding judge” of a large district, he saw what the federal government could do for a depressed population in need. The first meeting with President Roosevelt was successful, and Truman turned out to be a staunch supporter of the "new course". He plunged headlong into work, and he was lucky to be appointed to one of the committees. For example, he helped formulate the Air Traffic Regulatory Act, made a name for himself in pursuing illegal manipulation of railroad managers, and drafted the 1940 Transportation Act with Bert Wheeler of Virginia. After his re-election with a slight advantage in 1940, he chaired an emergency committee to investigate the federal government's weapons program. Thanks to these activities, which gained great importance after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Truman nevertheless achieved national fame, which opened the way for him in 1944 to the post of vice president. The Truman Committee, as it soon became known, oversaw American military activity, provided constructive, non-sensational criticism, and was soon adopted by various political groups and institutions. The chairman spoke out openly on foreign policy issues and advocated American participation in international organizations after the end of the war, which in a partially isolationist country was not at all self-evident.

The main reason for Truman's rise to the post of vice president was that the democratic party leadership strongly opposed the re-election of vice president Henry Wallace, who was seen as a left-wing and dreamer with no influence on the Senate. Truman's vice presidency after the victory of the Democrats with a relatively small advantage in November 1944 passed without sensations. He did not take part in military conferences and he was not informed about the Manhattan project, the creation of the atomic bomb.

When Truman assumed the presidency after Roosevelt's death on April 12, 1945, he was faced with a dramatic situation. The war in Europe was drawing to a close. Soviet-American relations at the last conference deteriorated significantly. Conflicts began over the development of Eastern Europe and over the system of lending or leasing, which Truman ended a few days before the German surrender. On the other hand, Truman continued the most important political and economic projects of the Roosevelt administration: the creation and construction of the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Truman was interested in good relations with Stalin and at the same time, like Roosevelt, had problems with the policies of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. He spoke positively about his first meeting with Stalin at the Potsdam conference in his diary. After the election as British Prime Minister Clement Attlee, whom he considered a weak man, Truman began to appreciate his predecessor, while his positive attitude towards Stalin quickly waned. He was angered by the Soviet-Polish agreement on the Oder-Neisse line. The communist system was considered a police state, which was no better than Hitler's Germany or Mussolini's Italy. When he was aboard the cruiser Augusta on his way back to the United States, he received a message on August 6 about the explosion of the first atomic bomb in Hiroshima. Truman informed Stalin on July 24 about the new weapon, without making it clear that it was an atomic bomb. It was clear to him that this would significantly reduce the war against Japan, perhaps ending before the Russians made their announcement against Japan. In his Potsdam Diary, the President wrote: “We have developed the most terrible weapon in the history of mankind ... These weapons will be used against Japan ... so that military objectives, soldiers and sailors are targets, not women and children. Even if the Japanese are wild - merciless, cruel and fanatical, then we, as leaders of the world, for the common good, cannot drop this terrible bomb on either the old or the new capital. "

Subsequently, the dropping of bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was often criticized. Perhaps it would be better to warn the Japanese, do a test discharge, or at least leave more time between the two uses. But these arguments do not take into account the fact that there were only two nuclear warheads at our disposal, the tests could fail, and the bomb was created in order to use it. Truman may have been impressed, as the quote shows, by the Japanese conduct of the war: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise blow, the Japanese carried out deadly prisoner marches in the Philippines, and there were numerous reports of prisoner torture during the war. ... Truman himself believed that he should not regret the decision, since, in his opinion, it saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans and Japanese who would have been killed in the invasion. However, he constantly dealt with this topic. When General MacArthur demanded an extension of the Korean War in 1951, Truman refused to give permission. His thoughts were constantly circling around the use of the atomic bomb, especially when China entered the war on the side of North Korea. But, as during the Berlin blockade of 1948, and when Secretary of the Army Kenneth Royall approved a preemptive strike, he rejected it for moral and strategic-diplomatic reasons. Truman saw in the atomic bomb, first of all, a political weapon, which in the future could be used only in direct military confrontation with the Soviet Union, if it comes to the existence of the United States.

After the end of the world war, it became clear that the al-jansa of the victors could not be preserved. True, there were free elections in Hungary and Czechoslovakia, but not in Poland, Romania and Bulgaria. Together with the French occupation power, the Soviet administration in Germany was not subordinate to the central economic administration in occupied Germany. Also, the unilateral transfer of territories east of the Oder and Neisse to Poland before the peace treaty contributed to the aggravation of tensions. Similar conflicts arose in Korea, where the Soviet Union was in favor of a satellite state, and in Iran, where it tried to acquire areas of special interest. The Soviet government refused to cooperate in the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, institutions that were envisaged by the American planners as central to the restoration of the world economy.

Of course, the reasons for these frictions were not only the actions of Stalin, but for Truman it was indisputable that he was opposed by a statesman who did not keep his word. From this, Truman concluded that the Soviet Union in no way intends to cooperate with the West to maintain a balance of power, but will try to extend its power wherever possible. Totalitarian states, Truman thought, and with him most Americans, rely on military force or the threat of violence to advance their interests. The formation of the Cominform in 1947 seemed to indicate that the Soviet Union would continue to act as the political and ideological spearhead of the communist world revolution.

The development in Eastern Europe and the successes of the communist parties in Western Europe, the Balkans and China supported this interpretation. Although the American diplomat George Kennen, a brilliant connoisseur of Russian history, never tried to explain Soviet foreign policy from a purely ideological point of view, his "long telegram" from Moscow in January 1946 nevertheless contributed to the hardening of Washington's position. Kennen saw in the Soviet Union the state as the successor to the tsarist regime, with its autocratic institutions and a tendency towards isolation from the outside world. Also published by Kennen in 1947 in Foreign Affairs, a work on the causes of Soviet behavior confirmed this assessment of the situation and made an impression on Truman.

It was not far from the assumption of a Soviet threat to Western Europe, no matter how one-sided and problematic it was, to the need to support and ensure the security of Western Europe in the interests of US national security. Western Europe and Japan were given strategic importance to defend the United States. Neither the Pentagon, nor the state department, nor the secret services, nor President Truman himself expected a direct military confrontation with the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union suffered severely from the German attack and war, and it will take years to rebuild the country. More significant was the fact that Soviet policy was supposed to lead to a psychological impact on the population of equally weakened Western democracies. For Truman, there was a direct relationship between economic well-being, psychological self-awareness, and defense capability. If the Europeans failed to instill confidence in a speedy recovery, then it could have been foreseen that Moscow would gain massive influence.

These considerations gave rise to the "policy of containment", which was initially directed against the Soviet Union and Germany as a "double containment". It was supposed to establish a global military balance of powers and at the same time create new power centers in Europe and Japan, which could in the future anchor themselves against Soviet policy. Soviet and revisionist historians in the United States and elsewhere argued in the 1960s and 1970s that the United States reacted to Soviet politics. As new research shows, it is possible that the West stopped attempts to cooperate before Stalin did. New studies of British politics, however, show that both Churchill's Conservative governments and Attlee's Labor governments, even before the American leaders, came to the conclusion that long-term cooperation with the Soviet Union was impossible.

None of the American presidents influenced the development of post-war Europe as decisively as Truman. In 1947, he proclaimed the "Truman Doctrine" when he called on Congress to provide Greece and Turkey with military and economic assistance to keep them safe from an alleged communist seizure of power. With the UK no longer able to act as a counterweight to the Soviet Union in the region, the United States became the dominant power in the Mediterranean region and pledged to provide all of its economic potential to contain communism.

Even more important was the Marshall Plan. The main goals of the planners in Washington were to prevent further economic stagnation in Western Europe, to end the economic chaos that was considered a breeding ground for the spread of communist ideology, and to induce democracy in Western Europe to economic and political cooperation. Revisionist historians reproached Truman for tying West Germany firmly to the West with the Marshall Plan, legitimizing the division of Germany and Europe. These documents appear after the political turn in the world in 1989-1990. in a new light.

As with George Marshall's election as Foreign Secretary in 1947, Truman was also fortunate to be named successor to Dean Aixon in 1949. Marshall and Axson loyally supported Truman's policies, were convinced of the special importance of Western Europe in the global conflict with the Soviet Union, and helped defend foreign policy in internal political clashes.

The decision to create NATO (1947) also fell on Truman's first term as president. Like the Berlin "air bridge", the development of NATO clearly showed that Truman recognized the psychological significance of political decisions. The creation of NATO and the Berlin "air bridge" was to be understood as political signals to the Soviet Union. Both actions dealt with defensive measures. The peoples of Western Europe had to create the impression that the United States had closely linked its fate with the further development of democracy.

In the postwar period, one could definitely talk about American hegemony in Western Europe. Truman did not succumb to the initial impulse to urgently reduce overseas activity, but pursued a foreign policy that assumed economic and military obligations and at the same time acted as a catalyst for the political unification of Europe. This role of America would have been impossible if the United States had not found, especially in Great Britain, in the Benelux countries and after the formation of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn, partners who would understand the presence of Americans in Europe as a necessity for national survival. The Marshall Plan and the associated American production campaign should also be viewed from this point of view.

Despite the general rhetoric, Truman had neither the intention nor the military means to use the United States as a "world gendarme." The Long Telegram and Mr. X's article did not contain specific recommendations, but were an urgent request from author George Kennen to draw the attention of the American public to global security policy issues after 1945 and remind them of their increased responsibility. More than this, nothing happened at first. The security policy of the Truman administration until 1950 was about a policy of economic containment of real or perceived Soviet expansionist aspirations. Bilateral economic aid, sanctions, trade liberalization, and foreign exchange policies were introduced to stem the rise of Soviet influence. But while the expansion of military and political security structures had not yet been undertaken, the Truman Doctrine was intended primarily to influence the American public and the opposing Congress, which was supposed to provide funds for economic stabilization in Europe.

The main purpose of the Marshall Plan should also be viewed in the context of security policy. It was an attempt to stop the undermining of Western Europe, carried out through the spread of hunger, poverty and hopelessness. The Marshall Plan replaced failed bilateral aid to European states and was supposed to create a balance of power in Europe. The coup in Czechoslovakia in the spring of 1948 and the Soviet blockade of Berlin have not yet led to a significant expansion of military equipment. The redeployment of B-29 bombers to England was, first of all, a method of conducting psychological warfare, since these aircraft were not at all suitable for atomic weapons. Truman's restraint in expanding military activity was also manifested in his decision in no way to interfere with American ground forces in the conflict between Mao Tse-tung and Chiang Kai-shek. The limited financial resources required a concentration of efforts on Europe, which was carried out.

Against this background, the creation of NATO meant not so much the formation of a military alliance, although this also took place, as a political addition to the policy of economic containment. The starting point was the demands of Great Britain and France for American support. The NATO treaty did not contain an automatic commitment to defend Europe, but made such action subject to congressional consent. Only since 1951 has NATO had American troops at its disposal. Neither the military nor Truman proceeded from the assumption that a permanent US presence in Europe was associated with the creation of NATO.

The Truman administration's policy, however, changed in the wake of the successful tests of the first Soviet atomic bomb and the National Security Council analysis of American security policy, which became known as NSC 68 (1950). A decisive milestone for Truman, however, was the North Korean attack on South Korea in June 1950, and the conflict was interpreted as a "second Greece" and as the beginning of military aggression at the initiative of the Soviet Union. This may have been a super-reaction, since the situation in Asia was actually difficult to compare with the situation in Europe. But it became clear to Truman and his advisers that the Soviet Union was pursuing a global expansionist policy with China,

In policy towards Palestine, there were serious differences between the White House and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Truman was positive about the creation of an Israeli state in Palestine, as he sympathized with the victims of mass destruction. He believed that the Department of State was overly advocating for Arab states and American oil interests, and he saw an opportunity to win Jewish votes for the September 1948 elections in supporting Jewish immigration to Palestine. Truman's decision to recognize the State of Israel in May 1948 did not yet mean the American guarantee of survival, but it marked the beginning of the US's entry into the development of the Middle East crisis.

In recent years, the domestic policies of the Truman administration have received increased attention. Truman identified himself with the "New Deal," but he had great difficulty with Roosevelt's liberal advisers, who reproached him for neglecting the president's legacy or not expanding it. Ultimately, the issue was more about personal style in politics than significant differences, and in 1948 many liberal New Dealists supported Truman in the presidential race. After the Republicans won the majority in both houses of Congress in the 1946 midterm elections, Truman's chances in 1948 were extremely poor. The Democratic Party was in crisis, and the president received competition from his own ranks, both from conservative southerners, who distrusted his racial policies, and from the left around former Vice President Welles. Although opinion scholars and the press have already "buried" Truman and declared the winner of the Republican rival Thomas E. Dewey, under the influence of the Berlin crisis, the president succeeded in a sensational comeback in the form of the minimal majority of votes since 1916.

The abolition of racial division in the army belonged to Truman's great guiding internal political reforms. It would not be wrong to consider the time of Truman's rule as the beginning of the civil rights movement, since in addition to the army, the president cared about the interests of the colored population in society. As a senator, he advocated the equality of citizens of color in the world of work. He voted to abolish the electoral tax in certain states, supported a statutory ban on lingering, and looked after the interests of his colored voters in Missouri. As President, he proposed to Congress that a standing committee be created to ensure an equal chance of education and profession for blacks. But the resistance of the conservative Democrats in the southern states, the so-called "Dixiecrats", made further reforms very difficult. Fundamentally, Truman believed in civil rights for all Americans, a public "fair deal," as he called it. Although he ultimately failed to secure congressional approval for his reform system, it is remarkable that revisionist historians, for all their sharp criticism of his foreign policy, are very positive about his civil rights policy.

Truman's relationship with the leaders of the large trade unions has been subject to great fluctuations. Immediately after the war, when, in connection with the transition from a military to a peaceful economy, a conflict arose over wage increases and stabilization measures, they were rather fierce. The improvement came during the 1948 presidential race, when Truman was able to use his veto against the Taft-Hartley Act, issued by conservative forces in Congress to reduce union power. The deterioration set in again when Truman advocated wage and price controls during the Korean War.

If the relationship between President Truman and the trade unions was often contradictory, then his attitude towards large industry was no better. When in 1952 a conflict arose in the steel industry, the cause of which, according to the president, was the inflexible position of industrialists, without thinking twice, on April 8, 1952, Truman ordered the transfer of steel foundries to the government until the conflict was resolved. The Supreme Court declared this emergency measure in early June 1952 as unconstitutional, and it lasted until the end of July, when employers and trade unions reached a compromise.

Tru-Man's most controversial domestic political decisions include the loyalty program, an attempt to ensure the national security of the United States also through the control of left-wing political dissidents. This led not only to the restriction of civil liberties and the ideological persecution of the alleged communists in government under the leadership of Senator Joseph McCarthy, but also to the poisoning of the domestic political climate in the United States. In this context, Tru-man is often accused of over-emphasizing the Soviet threat to the United States in order to win Congress to support his policies in Europe and Asia, and thereby unleashed anti-communist harassment. Recently, there have been objections to such an interpretation that the American public, at the latest since 1946, was increasingly anti-Soviet, thus reacting to Soviet policy in Eastern Europe, and that Truman was only trying to control Congress. Despite this, the "misguided loyalty program," as it has been called, remains the most problematic head of Truman's presidency.

The relationship between Harry Truman and the American Congress was weighed down by many factors: after his election as president in 1948, he introduced the 25-point program, Fair Deal. It covered the control of prices, loans, industrial products, exports, wages and rent. Promised expanding civil law, cheap housing, a minimum wage of 75 cents an hour, abandoning the Taft-Hartley Act, compulsory health insurance, better social security, and federal assistance for the education system. In view of the Republican majority in Congress, this ambitious program could not be carried out, but it indicated the direction of expansion according to European standards of the still undeveloped American social system.

Conflicts between Truman and Congress intensified during Truman's second term as president, as Republicans attributed to the president a sharp "defeat for China" to Mao's communists. During two terms, Truman opposed 4 Congresses, in which each time the majority was on the right of his domestic policy. Truman did not hesitate to make extensive use of his veto power to reflect Republican initiatives and stay on course. The greatest successes of his presidency, undoubtedly, is the fact that he managed to oblige the Republican-controlled 80th Congress of 1946-1948. to a supra-partisan foreign policy ”. In view of the growing domestic political criticism, Truman in the spring of 1952 announced his rejection of the next nomination as a candidate. By this time, Congress had already passed the 22nd amendment to the constitution, which limited the presidency to two terms. Truman would not have been affected by this anyway, since he had only served as president for 6 years. He chose as his successor the Governor of Illinois, Adlai Stevenson, who, however, was clearly inferior to the popular General Dwight D. Eisenhower. In his memoirs, Truman wrote that being president means being "lonely, very lonely during big decisions." From Independence, where the Harry S. Truman library was opened in 1957, the ex-president closely followed political events and was glad when in 1961, in the person of John F. Kennedy, a Democrat entered the White House and when Lyndon B. Johnson, many of his plans and reforms have been implemented since 1964.

Truman died on December 26, 1972 at the age of 88 in Kansas City. At his funeral, Johnson praised him as a "twentieth century giant," who has made an impact on the world like no one else before him - an assessment that is shared by most American historians today. This posthumous positive assessment, not least of all, was facilitated by the fact that with the opening of the archives it becomes clearer and clearer that Truman, despite many personal attacks, had a strong will, in difficult situations he made all decisions, even if they were not. popular, and never deviated from the accepted.

In preparing the material, an article by Hermann-Josef Rupiper "Unpopular Creator of the Post-War World" was used.

On APRIL 12, 1945, Vice President Harry Truman was urgently summoned to the White House. Mrs. Roosevelt met him, who, putting her hand on his shoulder, said: "Harry, the president is dead." For a moment Truman was speechless, then said, "How can I help you?" To which Eleanor Roosevelt replied: “How, Harry, can I help you? Now all the problems are on your shoulders. "

An hour later, in the presence of administration officials, members of the government and his family, Truman took the oath of office as president of the country. “I, Harry S. Truman,” he said, holding his right hand on the Bible, “solemnly vow to honestly serve as President of the United States and will do everything to preserve, protect and safeguard the United States Constitution,” and unexpectedly kissed the Bible. The ceremony lasted one minute. America received a new, 33rd president.

Returning home, Truman first called his 92-year-old mother, who told her 60-year-old son, "Harry, do your best, but play by your own rules."

A bespectacled man with a girly mouth ...

TRUMAN was born in a remote village in the house of a farmer, from an early age he tended cattle and helped his father plow the land. He studied at a public school in the small provincial town of Independence of Missouri and only at the age of 39 he entered the Kansas City University, but was forced to leave it a year later, as he did not have money to pay for his studies.

Much later, Truman admitted: “I have never been popular. Popular were the guys who won the games and had big, strong fists. I've never been like this. Without my glasses, I was blind as a bat, and to tell the truth, I was to a certain extent a mommy's boy. If there was a fight, I always ran away ... ”Not being able to participate in active games, Harry devoted a lot of time to reading the Bible, history books, biographies, and learned to play the piano. "A bespectacled man with a girly mouth," he would say one day, "I was always afraid of girls my age and older."

Harry first saw his future wife Elizabeth Wallace in Sunday school when he was five and she was four. As Truman recalled, he fell in love at first sight. They graduated from high school in one year, and no matter what Harry did, his heart was given to Bess.

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Becoming unexpectedly president, Harry Truman confessed: "I'm too small for this job." He often called his residence "White Prison", emphasized that the president's work is "a terrible job", because he is forced to listen to insults "from all sorts of liars and demagogues", urged parents "not to raise their children in the desire to become president." On the 26th day of his presidency, the war in Europe ended. May 8, 1945, his 61st birthday, Truman proclaimed Victory Day.

Dual relationships

In June 1941, answering a question about his attitude to the German attack on the USSR, Truman said: “If we see that Germany is winning, we must help Russia, and if Russia is winning, we must help Germany. We must give them the opportunity to kill each other as much as possible, although under any conditions I do not want to see Hitler win. "

At the beginning of the summer of 1945, the president wrote in his diary: “Every time we are on good terms with the Russians, some idiotic clever man suddenly attacks them halfway through ... I am not afraid of Russia. They have always been our friends, and I see no reason why they shouldn't always be. The only problem is the crazy American communists. We have only one million of them, but they are loyal to Stalin, but not to the President of the United States. I would gladly send them to Russia. I'm sure Uncle Joe will immediately send them to Siberia or a concentration camp. But I cannot do this, and I would not do it if I could ... There is no socialism in Russia. This is a hotbed of special privileges ... "

At the time, Truman was greatly annoyed that Moscow had violated almost all of the agreements concluded in Yalta. This irritation was first spilled out openly when Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov stopped in Washington on his way to a conference in San Francisco and paid a visit to Truman. Truman told the Soviet guest that the United States was ready to fulfill all the agreements it had concluded, and in a sharp form expressed his bewilderment that the USSR was violating them one by one. The US President spoke especially harshly about Soviet policy in Poland and the attitude towards the UN. The US will do what is necessary to create the UN, the president said, and if the USSR does not want to do this, then "it can go to hell." Molotov was shocked. “No one in my life has ever talked to me like that,” he said. "Observe the treaties, and you will not be talked to like that," Truman objected.

A little later in his diary Truman writes: “I have no faith in any totalitarian states, be it Russia, Germany, Spain, Argentina, Dago or Japan. They are all built on the false premise that the lie is true and that the old, exposed Jesuit formula that the end justifies the means, the rights, and that it is necessary to maintain the power of government. I do not agree and do not believe that this formula will help humanity to fulfill its hopes. "

"Blood on my hands"

The US President immediately ordered the use of the atomic bomb against Japan until August 10. “I told Secretary of War Stimson,” Truman wrote on July 25 in his diary, “to use the bomb to destroy military targets, soldiers and sailors, but not children and women. Even if the Japanese are savages and barbarians, ruthless and fanatical, we, as the leaders of the world, cannot drop this terrible bomb on the old capital (Kyoto) or the new (Tokyo) ... We both agreed with this. The target will be purely military, and we will warn the Japanese and offer to surrender in order to save lives. I'm sure they won't, but we will give them that opportunity. No doubt it is great that the people of Hitler or Stalin did not develop this atomic bomb. It is the most terrible discovery ever made, but it may be the most rewarding. "

On August 6, an American B-29 plane dropped an atomic bomb, nicknamed the Kid, on Hiroshima. Although Hiroshima - the city where the headquarters of the Japanese army was located, and Nagasaki - the center of the military and naval industry - were in fact chosen because of their strategic importance, the Japanese were still not warned of the attack. Truman's advisers feared that, having received such information, the Japanese would transfer prisoners of war from the armies of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition to places of possible atomic strikes. At one point, more than 75 thousand residents of the city were killed, tens of thousands will soon die from radiation. Never before in the history of mankind have there been so many victims from one explosion. The news reached the ship on which the president was returning home from Europe only 12 hours later. Secretary of War Stimson wrote in a telegram: “A big bomb dropped on Hiroshima at 7.15 pm Washington time. The first reports show a complete success, more impressive than the recent test. " Truman exclaimed: "This is the most outstanding event in history!"

Truman's opponents to this day, recalling this remark, speak of his insensitivity. Truman's supporters, defending him, say that this bomb was for him, in fact, the end of the war. This meant that the lives of 250 thousand American soldiers, who, according to the calculations of the American command, should have died in the invasion of Japan, were saved. To this can also be added at least a quarter of a million Japanese who would have died in the event of a military invasion by the Allies. And, of course, we must not forget about the colossal losses that the Soviet troops would have suffered. On August 8, the USSR declared war on Japan. This happened six days earlier than the deadline agreed in Potsdam with the allies, because the Kremlin, not without reason, believed that the war could end without the USSR and that it would not get the opportunity to take part in the disposal of the results of the victory in the East.

However, even after the destruction of Hiroshima and the entry of the USSR into the war, the Japanese authorities did not announce their surrender. On August 9, Truman decides to drop another bomb. The original targets were Kokura and Nogata, but due to bad weather it was decided to send a bomb plane to Nagasaki. At 11 am the bomb, nicknamed Fat Man, killed 70 thousand people.

One of the creators of the bomb, Robert Oppenheimer, in the fall of 1945 asked for a meeting with the president and told him that he was in a terrible state and felt blood on his hands. Truman was very angry at the sight of the "whimpering" scientist. “The blood is on my hands,” he said. “These are all my problems,” and conveyed to the assistants that he hoped never to see this person again.

For the THIRD term (although he had such an opportunity) Truman did not become nominated. Speaking in Washington in March 1951, he said: “I'm not going to be a re-election candidate. I have served my country for a long time and, I believe, effectively and honestly. I will not accept the new nomination. I don't feel like I have to spend another four years in the White House. "

Truman called his most important decision as President the decision to participate in repelling the communist attack on South Korea and noted that radical changes in the Soviet Union would be caused by problems in the satellite countries. The Soviet bloc is strong and possesses large resources, Truman said, but the communists have one weak point - “in the long term, the strength of our free society, its ideas will prevail over a system that has no respect for either God or man ... The free world is growing stronger, becomes more united and attractive to people on both sides of the Iron Curtain. The Soviets' hopes for easy expansion are dashed. The time will come for changes in the Soviet world. No one can say for sure when and how this will happen: through a revolution, conflicts in satellites, or through changes within the Kremlin. Whether the communist leaders themselves will voluntarily change the course of their policies or it will happen in a different way, but I have no doubt that these changes will take place. "

Until the end of his life, Truman remained harsh in his judgments. For example, on one of his trips to New York, when asked how he assessed the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Martin Luther King, Truman replied: “I would not give it to him,” while stating that equality is an inalienable right all Americans. But, added the former president, he personally would not want to be associated with blacks. During a trip to Europe in 1956, he met Pablo Picasso, who made an unpleasant impression on Truman. After the trip, he received a letter from Roosevelt University, where it was said about the possibility of providing financial assistance to the artist. "It seems to me," Truman replied, "that a university named after Roosevelt should support one of our talented artists, not this French communist cartoonist."

IN THE BEGINNING of December 1972, Truman was forced to go to the hospital, from where he never returned home. His hospital room cost $ 60 a day, but was paid for by a health insurance program that he pushed through Congress as part of the Fair Deal. The health insurance card that President Lyndon Johnson presented to Truman in 1965 at a special ceremony was # 1. On December 26, 1972, Truman's personal physician, Wallace Gram, announced the organs, which led to the collapse of the cardiovascular system. " He was 88 years old, 7 months and 18 days old.

In preparing the article, materials from the magazine "Continent" were used

Harry Truman is an American politician, the 33rd President of the United States, a representative of the Democratic Party. Born May 8, 1884 in Lamar, Missouri, the son of a farmer John Anderson Truman.

At the age of 8, Harry Truman went to school. From the very beginning of his studies at school, he was fond of music and reading history books. After graduating from high school, Truman was drafted into the Missouri National Guard, where he served from 1905 to 1911. He could not continue his studies in college, since by this time his father's household had gone bankrupt. The future president took part in the First World War, was the commander of an artillery battery. An interesting fact, for the entire time of his command, G. Truman did not lose more than one soldier.

Truman received a good impetus to start his political career through the apparatus of the Democratic Party and already in 1922, thanks to the support of veterans, was elected to the post of judge of Jackson County. He held this post twice, from 1922 to 1924. and from 1926 to 1930. In 1934 Truman was elected to the Senate.

Following the election in 1944, Truman becomes vice president. F. Roosevelt found in him a replacement for G. Wallace, against whom the party leadership spoke out. After the sudden death of F. Roosevelt on April 12, 1945, Truman took over as President of the United States.

From the very beginning, Truman tried to show that he adheres to a tougher position on the actual issue of the division of Europe at that time and in relation to the USSR as a whole. As a result, some controversy arose over the liberation of Eastern Europe.

G. Truman initiated the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

It is with this President of the United States that the period of world history, which is called the "cold war", begins. March 12, 1947 Truman proclaims the doctrine of "containment", which implies the use of economic and military leverage to prevent the spread of communism. Within the framework of this doctrine, the United States offers assistance to Turkey and Greece in the fight against communism. At the same time, the Marshal's plan was developed, according to which 17 European countries should receive economic assistance from the United States for recovery after the war.

H. Truman was an active supporter of the creation of a bloc, which, in his opinion, should have served as a defense against communist expansion. On April 4, 1949, an agreement was signed on the creation of NATO.

Truman and Eisenhower

In domestic policy, G. Truman adhered to a position aimed at softening racial and economic contradictions in society. He has repeatedly spoken in Congress with a proposal to pass a number of bills related to higher wages and social security. One of the projects he proposed was called the "Economic Bill of Rights." Several other bills called "fair course", proposed to Congress during the second term, have not been passed. Over time, the 33rd president lost the confidence of voters. His activity in domestic politics went unnoticed. G. Truman decided not to stand for election in 1952.

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