American Experience: Truman (3/3)

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] in the fall of 1945 america was still celebrating the end of the greatest war in history and harry s truman was the unlikely leader of the world's greatest nation [Music] never in my wildest dreams truman wrote did i ever think or wish for such a position he came from an obscure background without money without the privilege of education with no uh sense that he is a figure of destiny to become in his lifetime the most powerful human being on earth he was only a high school graduate a farmer until he was 33. a haberdasher gone bankrupt at 38. no one in washington had ever heard of harry truman before he was 50. here was a little haberdasher from missouri a small businessman for him to step in the shoes of the great fdr there was an enormous feeling of let down americans had doubted harry truman and harry truman had doubted himself but they had rallied behind him and he had led them to victory [Music] [Applause] but now even as americans celebrated their patriotic harmony was beginning to come apart truman would find it easier to lead the country in war than to govern it in peace he would say sherman was wrong peace is hell [Music] 12 million gi's were coming home they wanted jobs and houses and cars coffee butter and meat on the table after years of going without they longed to get on with their lives but harry truman knew he couldn't give them all they wanted you can't imagine a president having more on his shoulders than president truman did in those days after the end of the war the whole thing came down in his head there had not been planning very well on post-war policy because the economist had been given to understand that the war might last until 1946 in any case war was japan all of a sudden the atomic bomb threw everything out of kildr for four long years americans everywhere had worked together to fight and defeat fascism now that spirit of cooperation had vanished labor and business were once again at each other's throats during the war the government had kept a tight lid on wages and prices and in return the unions had agreed not to strike now their patriotic sacrifice over workers walked off the job they wanted higher wages and they wanted truman to hold the line on prices the expectations of working people zoomed because they wanted to make up for all the years that were lost you know when you keep people in a straitjacket for as many years as the war lasted you you have an explosion truman was determined to keep prices from rising but facing increasing pressure from businessmen who wanted to set prices themselves truman wavered he held the line on some prices and let others go up he doesn't give the country any sense of direction and he comes to be the person that a public fed up with one strike after another blames for labor disorder but the president was determined to prove that he could lead the nation that he could carry on in the tradition of franklin roosevelt on september 6 1945 truman proposed an increase in the minimum wage aid for housing and a bill for the first prepaid medical insurance in the nation's history but a coalition of republicans and conservative southern democrats refused him everything the presidency truman wrote was like riding a tiger a man has to keep on riding or be swallowed [Music] christmas morning 1945. truman woke to find the capital covered in ice and snow bess and margaret were in independence and the president missed them i've never known an individual who loved his wife and his daughter and his family so deeply but they of course were always interested in trying to get excuses to go back to independence anxious to see his family desperate to escape the turmoil in washington he ordered the presidential plane to fly him home editorials would call the flight foolhardy absurd one of the most hazardous sentimental journeys ever undertaken the plane buffeted by sleet and snow arrived an hour late when he finally gets to the wallace house on delaware street bess was furious at him for taking so long to get out there for taking such a big risk three days later back in washington for lorne truman wrote bess a letter well i'm here in the white house the great white sepulchre of ambitions and reputations you can never appreciate what it means to come home as i did the other evening after doing at least a hundred things i didn't want to do and have the only person in the world whose approval and good opinion i value look at me like i'm something the cat dragged in he finished the letter but best never got it he left it tucked deep inside his desk drawer [Music] the new year brought a new wave of strikes 5 000 before the year was over [Music] as a democrat truman needed union support but he had removed the lid on prices appeasing businessmen and the unions were angry the cost of almost everything skyrocketed and working men and women demanded that their wages keep up at one point more than a million workers walked off the job at the same time truman believed that the unions were holding the country hostage and personally betraying him while harry supported labor and the right to strike he was never happy when there was a strike he was seeing it as a small businessman and it could wreck a small business he just didn't like strikes of any kind and he was very frank about that [Music] then in may the railway workers went out forcing the country to a standstill [Music] truman was furious while negotiators searched for a compromise a frustrated truman proposed a solution no president had ever dared he threatened to draft the striking railway workers into the army that kind of a threat wasn't even made during the war and i think everyone in the labor movement were quite shocked by that but they felt well this is a an off-the-cuff truman threat but he won't carry through on that but truman stuck by his plan when his attorney general questioned its constitutionality truman told him we'll draft him and think about the law later it was as high-handed as unconstitutional a measure as imaginable but he meant it because he saw the country being the very life of the country at stake [Music] never before had there been a total nationwide rail strike more than 17 000 passenger trains 24 000 freight trains nearly all of them had stopped running the country was paralyzed telegrams flooded the white house zero hour is here who was to rule our nation why don't you go ahead and act in this national crisis less talk and more action truman's annoyed at criticism he thinks people are not taking him seriously enough and maybe he's still got this sneaking suspicion to overcome that he's not quite up to the job truman faced every new challenge with feelings of inadequacy this leads to a buildup of anger that erupts every once in a while with particularly vivid consequences in the presidency deeply troubled truman sat down at his desk and drafted one of the strangest speeches ever to come from a president's pen i am tired of government being flouted he wrote let us give the country back to the people hang a few traitors make our own country safe for democracy tell russia where to get off come on boys let's do the job he called man i want to get your reaction to this speech and i started out my god this is the worst i ever saw i believe it was his way of letting off steam it finally answers said do you intend to give that speech i think he said well not quite this speech on may 25th 1946 even while negotiations to settle the strike continue the president went before a joint session of congress this is no longer a dispute between labor and management it has now become a strike against the government of the united states itself [Applause] i request the congress immediately to authorize the president to draft into the armed forces of the united states all workers who are on strike against their government he was getting to the crescendo and i got a call he said the railroad strike has been settled and i wrote on a piece of paper and i took it to les bithell the secretary and this then takes it up enormously dramatic [Applause] word has just been received that the rail strike has been settled on terms proposed by the president [Music] great chairs great cheer and it was they worked out the details afterwards and the railroads were running [Music] the strike was over but truman had paid a high price his gut response had cost him the support of the unions he so desperately needed the labor leaders and the liberals in general are shocked horrified not without reason and from this point on it is going to be very very tough for truman to drum up labor liberal enthusiasm for the democratic ticket in the 46 elections the 1946 midterm elections would be for truman a disaster republicans blame the president for america's problems and most americans seem to agree truman's popularity plummeted it seems to me that truman really hits rock bottom in the 1946 campaign for an awful lot of people he's still very much in the shadow of fdr he wasn't coping very well and people were beginning to make fun of him to error is truman i'm just mild about harry there were periods there when truman didn't look up to the job republicans would say yeah he was a little man came out of nowhere the haberdasher there were shortages of practically everything bread meat housing and inflation was threatening to undermine the economy prices had shut up six percent in a single month what this meant was that millions and millions of potential democratic voters people who had voted for roosevelt they said to heck with it they bungled it and the republicans said had enough that was their slogan people agreed with them truman gets blamed they stay home the republicans sweep to power the republicans want control of the senate the house of representatives even the state governorships the elections of 46 were a republican sweep a huge turnaround and why not because everyone voted republican but because the democrats the new dealers the labor people they stayed home discredited by his own party voted down by the american people harry truman pundits were saying was an embarrassment [Music] the disastrous election over truman fled to his vacation hideaway on florida's key west dear bess i'm seeing no outsiders i don't give a damn how put out they get i'm doing as i damn please for the next two years and to hell with all of them the only regret i have is that you are not here you know i guess i'm a damn fool but i'm happier when i can see you even when you give me hell i'd rather have you around than not bess continued to spend as much time as she could in independence when asked how it felt to be first lady she replied so so she looked her husband said approvingly exactly as a woman of her age should look [Music] when bess and harry truman had first moved into the white house bess's mother madge wallace had moved in too after more than a quarter of a century she continued to call her son-in-law mr truman she didn't care much for the presidents she never did that was i guess the thing that sticks out in my mind she was a lovely lady but uh she just never never we could never figure it out why she didn't just didn't care for the president i think that she felt that ms bess was above him even though he was president he was beneath miss bess he was a failure it is haberdashery she will tell you oh she she didn't mind telling you that even though he was the president of the united states that she didn't care much farm or for his mother i'm sorry but that's the way it was as 1947 began harry truman had been president for nearly two years humiliated in the midterm elections he had little hope of advancing the legacy of franklin roosevelt's new deal through the stubborn republican-controlled congress but in the two years to come the president who had been rejected at home would make decisions that would determine the fate of the world for the next half century europe was devastated the war had left a continent in ruins as poverty and starvation spread chaos threatened to overwhelm the western democracies some feared the election of communist governments others stalin and the red army [Music] the russian dictator remained an enigma his intentions unclear stalin did not yet have the atomic bomb but the soviet union was a great military power its army spread across eastern europe poised to enforce stalin's will at potsdam truman had been impressed with stalin even like the man when the war ended the president like most americans had clunked to the hope that stalin would not impose communism on eastern europe but truman's optimism dwindled as he saw poland romania yugoslavia bulgaria east germany fall behind the communist iron curtain many americans still argued that the russians were not a threat to the united states but in the beginning of 1946 truman said he was growing tired babying the soviets i do not think we should play compromise any longer he wrote his secretary of state unless russia is faced with an iron fist another war is in the making one month later stalin declared that communism and capitalism were incompatible he called war inevitable russia and america were moving into two opposing camps [Music] the turning point came in greece and turkey where truman feared further communist expansion in a civil war in greece greek communists threatened to topple the monarchy in turkey the soviet union was demanding control of the strategic dardanelle straits two local conflicts would become the catalyst for a worldwide struggle against communism i think at this point truman begins to see stalin as an expansionist dictator and at that point you can begin to see truman change and believe that the only thing that the soviets understand as he says is strength not negotiations truman had changed his mind now he would have to change the minds of still ambivalent americans he would have to convince congress that a crisis in two faraway countries threatened the security of the united states that 400 million dollars in military aid was needed to save greece and turkey truman had to go to this republican congress that had gotten into power in the elections of 1946 by promising to cut taxes and to cut eight overseas truman was now going to have to go to these penny-pinching republicans and get 400 million dollars the question was how did you do this under secretary of state dean atchison had the answer atchison would one day become secretary of state and truman would call him his top brain man in the cabinet in 1947 atchison truman and secretary of state george marshall gathered together a bipartisan group of the most influential men in congress and atchison laid out truman's request for aid in the starkest terms if you want the congress to support the appropriations needed there has to be a bit of a crisis atmosphere and so atchison made a very impassioned speech and he laid it on very heavily about how the russians would sweep across europe what atchison said was if the soviets could win in greece and in turkey then they would be in a position where there would be soviet pressure on italy on the mediterranean once that pressure was established there would be pressure on western europe and pretty soon the united states would be standing alone senator vandenberg who is the leader of the republicans said to atchison and to truman if you can get that kind of a view across the american people will support you there was a story that vandenberg said to truman mr president you're going to have to scare hell out of the american people whether or not vandenberg said that that's exactly what harry truman did [Music] president harry s truman comes before a joint session of congress to make a momentous announcement a tense atmosphere prevails for the nation's lawmakers realize that this may be the curtain raiser for events that will shape the destiny of america and the world the gravity of the situation which confronts the world today necessitates my appearance before a joint session of the congress i believe that it must be the policy of the united states to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures he was reminding americans of what gradually had been sinking into the public consciousness that the aim of the soviet union was to expand its hegemony over as much of the world as it possibly could and that was not to be permitted we would help free peoples maintain their freedom if we falter in our leadership we may endanger the peace of the world and we shall surely endanger the welfare of this nation the midwestern politician understood exactly how you sell these kinds of things the american people because what he did was to give a definition to the world that americans could understand and which they could become committed to because what truman said was the world is essentially now divided in two on one side of the totalitarian and the enslaved peoples on the other side are the free peoples he then looked at the republicans and said which side are you on if you are on the side of the free peoples give me the 400 million dollars that put the republicans in a terrible terrible position which is exactly of course what atchison and truman had in mind and truman got his 400 million dollars uh within a matter of weeks president truman signed the bill for 400 million dollar aid to greece and turkey the president had committed americans to a battle against communism all across the world the policy became known as the truman doctrine i was scared by it i wondered how far-reaching this was going to be what does it really mean this is a sweeping sweeping decision asking for an open-ended faith in a policy of protecting the free people and bringing freedom where it didn't exist around the world and that was a that has no limits had no limits and it was awfully hard to know exactly where those limits were it led to a more absolute view of the conflict and i once remonstrated with atchison about this in my innocence i was very young then and he made it clear to me that if you want to get things done you have to get congressional support and you have to do what's necessary to get it this was essentially what came to be the the language of the administration that became more and more alarmist the president would resist communist aggression abroad he had issued a declaration of cold war but in western europe there was more to fear from starvation and chaos than from the red army it had been the worst winter in living memory the war had been over for more than two years and western europe seemed on the verge of collapse if western europe was not helped and quickly mass starvation would break out and there was the real danger that western europe would begin moving to the left very rapidly the analysis made within the state department at this point indicated that the way to deal with this was not militarily the way to deal with this was economically to pump in between eight and 17 billion dollars so that the europeans would have the money to buy food from the united states food and other resources truman had already managed to persuade a reluctant congress to give him 400 million dollars for the truman doctrine now he convinced congress to give him 13 billion more no president had ever received so much money to aid people who weren't americans he called his economic aid program the marshall plan after his secretary of state george marshall a man who commanded the respect of the entire country some of the white house staff suggested to president truman they didn't much like this idea of general marshall getting credit for it truman was very firm on that the congress will do anything that george marshall wants if my name is on it it probably will become controversial i don't want it to become controversial i want it to succeed it's the marshall plan we'll have no more talk about changing the name [Music] truman would later say that the truman doctrine and the marshall plan were two halves of the same walnut the truman doctrine was the military political commitment the marshall plan was the 13 billion dollars finally an economic commitment to rebuild what truman called the free peoples of the world he became very popular very quickly no one expected that sort of altruism that sort of sweeping thing coming out of it this was much bigger than anybody had realized a great appeal of the marshall plan was that these billions that were being appropriated were being spent in the united states to farmers and manufacturers that money wasn't spent in europe but it was spent here and that was a great appeal to congress this was a terribly important decision also it was a compassionate one and understood as such it was a real badge of honor for harry truman [Music] while the president was rescuing europe and mobilizing americans to fight communism overseas republicans charged that there were communists here at home in truman's own administration in the 30s republicans had claimed that there were communists in roosevelt's new deal now they were demanding the truman take action and there were lots of pressures developing about communist infiltrating our whole system and he felt obliged to do something he did not believe there were disloyal employees he did not believe that he said on a number of cases our enemy is abroad our enemy is not here at all truman was in a terrible position here because if he had not done anything he would have been open to the accusation that he was tough on communism abroad but he was overlooking communists within his own government whatever few there were [Music] on march 21st 1947 against his own better judgment the president issued an extraordinary executive order he established a loyalty program making the political beliefs of every federal employee subject to investigation by the fbi truman trying to mobilize public opinion for the cold war exaggerated the communist menace he presented the cold war as a kind of crusade against communist totalitarianism and you don't break up your crusade into this is the european part we'll focus on this and let's not look at the american part it was a total crusade [Music] harry truman was leading america in a new kind of war and he prepared the country as it had never been prepared before he created the department of defense [Music] he established the national security council and the cia the central intelligence agency putting the united states in the business of peacetime spying for the first time in its history soon there would be another first nato america's first peacetime alliance a bulwark set in western europe against communism truman was changing the way americans looked at the world and at themselves i think truman's great contribution to american politics was to figure out how to get americans to commit themselves to a war which was cold rather than hot a war which had not been declared a war which is extremely complex and yet which truman defined as a rather simple war between the slave and the free peoples this is how we got americans to commit themselves to the cold war in which russian and american soldiers were beginning to peer across boundaries at each other the cold war had begun and it would last for the next half century [Music] after three years in office truman was at last enjoying being president of the united states [Music] dozens of newspapers described the new harry truman calm forceful radiating authority he had decided that he really liked the job and that he was pretty good at it and he took the presidency very seriously but he didn't take harry truman all that seriously all the time [Music] and sometimes he didn't seem very presidential and of course his opponents saw those as wonderful opportunities to belittle him [Music] reporters made fun of his shirts and his poker games criticized his cronies and his fondness for good bourbon but truman always remained himself he never made any effort to create a public relations image he was what he was and he never pretended otherwise and it was earthy it was uh it came out of the heartland of america with all its virtues and its limitations too he always said he was a farmer from missouri trying to do his damnedest uh i think he gave everyone the impression no matter what your position was that you were an important part of what he was trying to achieve i remember the very first time that president united states invited me as a junior staff member to come to dinner president truman sat down at the piano i began to soar into the clouds and afterwards he turned from the piano and looked at me and sort of smiled and said you know he said if i hadn't gotten into trouble by getting into politics i would have made a hell of a good piano player in a whorehouse this was of course brought me down to earth he tended to look down on himself as a person yet he revered the presidential office and one time in a mood of reflection he said you know the president really is two people and one of them is the present and then he sort of straightened his chair and you could feel the sense of obligation that he had which lifted him and his his dignity and his sense of principled commitment and then he sort of slumped a little bit and said and then there's also the president as a human being and the wear and tear that goes with a job truman had said many times he never wanted to be president now he had changed his mind he wanted the job for four more years he had failed his party in 1946 he wanted to redeem himself in 1948 but he was about to risk fracturing the democrats by reaching out to americans who by tradition and culture he had dismissed nearly all his life in the south segregation ruled by law and custom as it had for generations all across america african-americans confronted poverty prejudice limited opportunity and black sailors and soldiers who had fought overseas for america's freedom didn't like what they found when they returned home here we are in the end of world war ii we had defeated one of the great races in human history hitler of course mussolini and japan the whole climate said we are going to remain the same even though the war aims we had were lofty and idealistic and beautiful and and presaged a new world and so forth but you are still a [ __ ] the united states was advertised as the arsenal for democracy but when it comes to the race question things have got to remain the same in 1946 a horrible series of racial murders in the south shocked america truman was outraged african-american leaders clamored for anti-lynching laws but didn't expect much from the president from missouri it seems a pretty sure about that privately he believed that most blacks were inferior to most whites and i think it's fair to say that neither he nor best would have been pleased if margaret had brought sydney poitier home for dinner but he also came from a background that said everyone deserved an equal chance in life on june 28 1947 truman wrote his sister a letter i've got to make a speech tomorrow to the society for the advancement of colored people and i wish i didn't have to make it mama won't like what i say there is no justifiable reason for discrimination because of ancestry or religion or race or color no president had ever before addressed the nearly 40 year old naacp truman became the first as he spoke to a rally of thousands at the lincoln memorial a southerner by birth and inclination he argued for equal rights for all americans we cannot any longer awake the growth of a will to action in the slowest state or the most backward community our national government must show the way well i think everybody was thrilled and i think the appearance that he had with the naacp resounded all over truman proved to be quite a surprise he was very different from what we had thought of in terms of a person of his background but truman hesitated to put civil rights legislation before congress he feared that if he acted to help african americans he would lose the support of southern democrats there's a great conflict here and politically truman has to choose is he going to go with the south or is he going to go with the northern liberals and the black constituency and the civil rights program they favor [Music] on february 2nd 1948 truman became the first president to send a special message to congress on civil rights he called for anti-lynching laws abolition of the poll tax establishment of a commission on civil rights desegregation of the armed forces it was a great message you hadn't had anything like that before [Music] prior to that we couldn't even get a president to make an oratorical statement he recognized the chances of much legislation any legislation getting through that congress was practically nil the point was you had to start sometime and he was going to start southern newspapers called truman civil rights legislation a dismaying document based on a pernicious fallacy here we have the making of a veritable gestapo most of the southern senators felt it went too far senator byrd senior was in the senate at that time and he uh he felt that some of the civil rights legislation went too far and he opposed it equal this equal that the whole thing just reached as it in in terms of how the southerners looked at it with concessions to [ __ ] let's put it the way this is what they said i recall mrs leonard thomas one of the alabama national committee man came to truman and said to him please don't force miscegenation on the south please tell the south that you really don't believe and you're going to take back what you've said about civil rights and truman looked at her and pulled out a copy of the bill of rights and said i'm the president of all the people i want you to know that i'm not going to take back a word of what i said the battle over civil rights was a political disaster a gallup poll showed that the vast majority of americans opposed the president's stand civil rights was hurting truman's chances for re-election at the same time as his civil rights message was splitting the democratic party the issue of what was to happen in palestine comes to the fore since the end of the 19th century the jewish people had aspired to establish a homeland in palestine now after the devastation of the holocaust jews fiercely lobbied truman to recognize a new jewish state there even enlisting eddie jacobson his old partner in the haberdashery to win truman to their cause but secretary of state george marshall feared that arabs claiming palestine as their own would cut off the world's supply of oil and throw the middle east into turmoil marshall was the american that harry truman admired more than any other now for truman to go against george marshall was for him one of the most difficult moments in his entire presidency forced to choose between the advice of george marshall and his sympathies for the jewish people truman on may 14 1948 gave de facto recognition to israel he did what he thought was right and at the same time won the votes of jewish citizens in 1948 truman would need all the votes he could get in spite of his triumphs overseas many americans still questioned his effectiveness at home [Applause] on june 21st the republicans convened in philadelphia [Applause] after three days of celebrating free enterprise and denouncing harry truman they nominated for president the urbane progressive governor of new york thomas dewey i pray god that i may deserve this opportunity to serve our country in all humility i accept the nomination [Applause] four years earlier dewey had run a strong race against the undefeatable franklin roosevelt this time around republicans giddily anticipated victory against roosevelt's standing harry truman [Music] he still appeared to a lot of americans to be a little guy an ordinary man someone who utterly lacked the charisma of his predecessor roosevelt americans still really wondered whether someone who appeared to be so much like themselves could really handle the duties and responsibilities of the presidency [Music] in july the democrats gathered in the same philadelphia hall where two weeks earlier the republicans had given their nomination to thomas dewey for the first time television was there to report the a story which is rescued the american economy of free enterprise truman watched from the oval office what newsweek magazine would call the worst managed most dispirited convention in american history [Music] there was no air conditioning and it was from the beginning a sweltering convention in the hotel rooms as well as in the hall it was a dismal convention from the start because the convention thought that they were going to nominate a loser no one in that convention hall thought truman could win the democratic party was splitting apart and no one thought harry truman could hold it together left-leaning democrats had already turned to the progressive party and their candidate for president henry wallace [Applause] conservative southern democrats furious over truman stand on civil rights were threatening to walk out of the convention the delegation from mississippi could not be true to the people of that great state if they did not join in in the end three dozen southern delegates bolted you goodbye two days later they formed their own party the dixiecrats and it seemed another devastating blow to truman's prospects the combination of the southerners walking out and henry wallace leading his own progressive party campaign plus all the gloom and doom that seemed to prevail throughout the democratic party spelled only defeat spelled a very bleak future but as harry truman arrived in philadelphia he was anything but bleak in a small windowless room beneath the convention floor he sat with vice presidential nominee albin barkley and waited they kept him waiting till almost two o'clock in the morning everybody was exhausted they felt demoralized they didn't many of them want harry truman to be their candidate the southerners had walked out of the convention and so at two o'clock in the morning out came harry truman in his white linen suit and he stood up there and he said senator barkley and i'll win this election and make these republicans like it don't you forget that he's a fighter truman is not about to slink out of town with his tail between his legs the republican platform cries about cruelly high prices truman had come into the presidency bewildered and frightened now the delegates sat stunned as a fire-breathing truman tore into the republicans the republican platform comes out for slum clearance and low rental housing i've been trying to get them to pass that housing bill ever since they met the first time truman challenged the republicans to live up to their promises i am therefore calling this congress back into session on the 26th of july if there's any reality behind that republican platform we ought to get some action out of the short session of the 80th congress they could do this job in 15 days if they want to do it they'll still have time to go out and run problems [Music] truman had come out fighting but still no one thought he could win all the polls made him a sure loser everybody thought he was going to lose i mean that's not just a figure of speech even members of his own family his mother-in-law was quite sure that harry truman was going to lose truman's republican opponent was everything truman was not educated smooth sophisticated tom dewey was prepared he said to turn back 16 years of democratic rule i pledge to you that on next january 20th there will begin in washington the biggest unraveling unsnarling untangling operation in our nation's history [Applause] from the beginning dewey was transfixed by poles and by time agony and everyone else's boosting imperfect president [Music] was very pleased with himself very pleased with what he's done very sure that he was going to go on and be a great figure they were so confident that some of the dewey people had already bought houses in washington on september 17th truman set out on what would become one of the most famous campaigns in american history he was saying goodbye to everybody and so forth and alvin barkley a very good-hearted man came up and said give him hell harry and truman said something i'll give him hell i'll get him hell albert we had nothing to write about the train's starting out on a sunday afternoon so everyone's writing about giving help from then on give him hell harry would become harry truman's battle cry [Music] during the next six weeks truman would travel 22 000 miles crisscrossing the country three times [Music] the issues he said were simple the republicans wanted to turn back the clock destroy franklin roosevelt's new deal truman was going to stop them if you give the republicans complete control of this government you might just as well turn it over to the special interests and we'll start on a boom and bust cycle and try to go through just what we did in the 20s and end up with a crash which in the long run will do nobody any good but the communists truman kept up a grueling pace giving no quarter to his opponents when the progressive party candidate henry wallace argued for cooperation with the soviet union truman attacked wallace as a communist pawn when the segregationist dixiecrat party nominated strom thurman truman desegregated the armed forces winning the votes of black americans and changing the american military forever the armed forces the seat of segregation the seat of racism and to have him issue that order for whatever reason was a great leap forward in history [Music] [Applause] [Music] campaigning as if he had already won tom dewey took no risks offered no surprises his whole campaign was being run according to what the polls were telling them to do don't rock the boat don't say anything to antagonize anyone don't say anything controversial just be calm smooth speak in platitudes we believe in honesty loyalty fair play concern for our neighbors the innate ability of men to achieve these convictions arched over by our faith in god are the inner meaning of the american way of life he didn't seem to have much empathy if that's the word he wouldn't cuddle up to tom dewey the dewey campaign was very efficient it was very carefully orchestrated the official drink on board the dewey train was the martini the card game was bridge on the truman train things were quite different the drink of the hour was nearly always bourbon and the and the card game was poker [Music] truman kept that train really moving and he traveled and traveled and traveled but he seemed to draw energy from it he loved it and as he progressed he got better and the more he traveled the more the crowds turned out and the larger the crowds were every town we pulled into had a high school band that played the missouri waltz before this president spoke and everybody got so sick of that always there was a missouri wall [Music] and truman i'm told hated the missouri waltham everywhere on the missouri wall was a damn good campaigner he loved to get out and mix with people and he knew how to talk their language you know he was no highfalutin guy he could be understood by every factory worker every coal miner every textile worker every housewife i've been in politics a long time it makes no difference what they say about you if it isn't so they can prove it on you you're in a bad fix indeed he understood people he especially understood people of his area the midwest the farmers vote for your farms vote for the standard of living that you've won under a democratic administration get out there on election day and vote for your future [Music] you know i covered every inch of the truman whistle stop campaign i was every farmyard and main street in the restaurant and i see these big crowds and i think well dewey has bigger crowds whatever i felt i thought dewey was going to win i didn't know anyone who thought otherwise anybody [Music] as the campaign drew to a close the new york times was predicting dewey would run away with the election the gallup poll was so certain of the outcome it stopped polling before the end of october the night of the election the head of the secret service went to new york to be with mr dewey because he clearly was going to be the next president and uh it just looked like a sure thing and the only one who who didn't think it was a sure thing was harry truman one evening three or four days before the election an anxious best truman went quietly to see her husband's aide clark clifford she said clark do you think harry really believes that he can win and i said he gets every assurance of it mrs truman she says well he keeps saying he's going to win well i said that's the way he feels i said he's going to feel that way right up to the end but she said it's so hard to find anybody else who thinks that he can win i think she felt that he did not have any chance of winning on election night to escape reporters truman checked into a hotel in excelsior springs just outside of independence he had a ham and cheese sandwich a glass of buttermilk and went to sleep [Music] when he woke up he learned he had pulled off the greatest upset in the history of american politics not one pollster or radio commentator or newspaper columnist had got it right no one had dared predict a truman victory [Applause] [Music] [Applause] i've sent the following wire to president truman heartiest congratulations to you on your election and every good wish for a successful administration i urge all americans to unite behind you in support [Applause] [Music] truman came through as a feisty fighter and we love that you know the labor movement came around to admire truman we knew that on basic issues he would stand with the people including working people against special interests and that he was concerned and determined to help carry through the legacy of fdr we'll never know how many people voted for him because even though they thought he was going to lose they liked him certainly a very great many people said later i voted for harry truman even though i was sure he was going to lose because i liked him it was the high point of his political life he had made all the smarties look foolish i'm most happy most happy to have together all the september democrats in the october democrats and the monday democrats and the tuesday democrats and the wednesday he got a tremendous welcome when he came back to washington just tremendous one of the biggest turnouts the town had seen [Applause] he just glowed with it but boy he came back to a tough second term just a tough second time 64 years old truman had redeemed himself and his party but in the next four years he would need all his missouri optimism to confront the challenges he would meet abroad and the frustrations he would suffer at home every segment of our population and every individual have a right to expect from our government a fair deal at home truman once again evoked the spirit of franklin roosevelt and asked congress to support what he now called the fair deal a higher minimum wage civil rights aid to education health insurance for all americans congress refused one critic called it the same old dog with a new name overseas truman was facing a new threat from the soviet union in reaction to america's efforts to strengthen west germany the russians had blockaded western-controlled berlin cutting all rail highway and water traffic in and out of the city two and a half million berliners had only enough food to last a month but truman would force the communists to back down in a daring move truman ordered a full-scale airlift to fly food and supplies for more than a year to the beleaguered berliners truman had once again confronted the soviet union with a show of strength but his efforts to stand firm were challenged by two blows that came in swift succession in late august of 1949 truman learned from american intelligence that the soviets had exploded an atomic device and this shocked truman america's monopoly on the atomic bomb had ended just weeks later china the most populous country in the world fell to mount sidon's communists in congress and in the country there was a feeling that something must be wrong in washington something must be wrong in the government and out of this fear and this uncertainty arose the voice of senator joe mccarthy who began to rant and rave about communist conspiracy and high treason in high places as americans grew increasingly frightened by a world that seemed to be spinning out of control the pressure on truman mounted to spend more money on defense early in 1950 the national security council tried to convince the president to quadruple military spending but truman turned their request aside he believed that the best way to fight communism was by building a strong america and to truman that began with a balanced budget there is a story that harry truman made his defense budget somewhat like this he would take the amount of money coming in to the government every year he put it on a piece of paper he'd subtract from that figure whatever was needed for education running the government so on whatever was left was the defense budget for that year but then in early summer everything changed harry truman was about to confront the communists one more time and he would need all his stamina and grit to keep from going under saturday june 24th 1950 was a baking hot summer day in independence missouri truman was home spending the weekend with his family in the house where he and bess had lived with bess's mother ever since they were married thirty years before at nine o'clock he received a phone call from secretary of state dean atchison mr president atchison said i have very serious news the north koreans have invaded south korea supported by tanks and artillery seven north korean infantry divisions some ninety thousand men had launched a surprise attack the crisis that would haunt truman for the rest of his years in office had begun not long after truman had become president korea was divided at the 38th parallel into two hostile parks a soviet supported north and an american back south now the north had attacked the south with just one goal to unify korea under communist rule he was convinced from the very beginning that the soviets were behind this he had no doubts at all of that we'd seen it as they'd taken over the satellite countries in eastern europe as they had poked and prodded and pressed elsewhere his initial response was that this was a soviet directed attack and that he was being directly challenged by stalin stalin did support the invasion but at north korea's insistence and it was from a safe distance by sending soviet supplies and advisors what the united states got involved with in 1950 was not aggression from the soviet union what we got involved with was an incredibly bloody civil war in korea there are as many as a hundred thousand koreans killed before the korean war of 1950 occurred and i think it's fair to say that truman knew very little about this background as truman headed back to washington he turned to the war that had ended just five years before to help him understand the war he was facing now communism was acting in korea he wrote just as hitler and the japanese had acted earlier if the communists were permitted to force their way into the republic of korea no small nation would have the courage to resist threats and aggression as his plane touched down at national airport the president appeared grim by god he would tell his advisors i'm going to let them have it that same evening truman authorized weapons and supplies to reinforce the south koreans [Music] the next day he ordered american planes to strike at the north korean army truman hoped that america's show of strength would force the north koreans to back down he did not want to send american soldiers to fight a land war in asia but truman was being pushed closer and closer to the abyss on june 27 just three days after launching their attack the north korean army overran seoul the capital of south korea that evening truman appealed to the united nations for help we started the united nations he told an aide it must be made to work for the first time the world organization devoted to peace authorized an army to wage war but truman knew that american soldiers would carry the burden of the fighting and the president unwilling to risk american lives withheld the order that would send them into action i think the truman thought that by getting the united nations to condemn the attack that by beefing up south korean forces he could probably handle the situation the communists would learn their lesson would back off and we'd be back to before the war he was concerned that he might be taking the world into another terrible war and of course this time it would be an atomic war because now it was known that both sides had the atomic bomb [Music] by june 30th less than a week after the fighting began the situation seemed hopeless american supplies and planes had not been enough to stop the relentless advance of the north korean army the president was going to have to send american boys i heard him say i know that someday i will have to stand before the throne of god and account for every young life that is about to be lost because of what i am about to do but in the fulfillment of the oath that i took when i became president i have no choice as one of the young men who might be covered by that i was quite impressed that's the first time i realized we were not dealing with a bankrupt haberdasher on june 30th the president approved the use of a combat team and two divisions in korea what the chinese or the russians would do now he wrote in his diary he did not know what he believed was that the president of the united states had to stand firm i'm not going to tremble like a psychopath before the russians he told a worried senator i'm not going to surrender our rights or the rights of the south koreans truman hopes this is going to be a quick enterprise and we can take care of it [Music] clearly he and perhaps some of the people in his administration have underestimated the formidable character of the north korean army the first americans thrown into action were green their enemy was not well trained in combat arden the north koreans pushed the americans further and further south across unknown terrain through drenching downpours and punishing heat [Music] truman's cuts in the defense budget had left america unprepared for the war it now faced by july and august of 1950 korea was a full-fledged conventional war truman made the decision at this point to bust the defense budget harry truman who had opposed high defense budgets had sent a 13 billion defense budget in 49 by the end of 1950 he is sending in a defense budget of 50 billion dollars and the united states is now beginning to move into the period of the modern defense budget while the massive rearmament of america began at home news from the front remained grim at the end of july 4 000 americans were dead almost 14 000 wounded or missing the north koreans were so much stronger than we initially realized that they really practically pushed us right off into the sea the united nations army now clung to only a tiny corner of the southeastern tip of korea truman had expected to overwhelm the communists to hurl them back above the 38th parallel into north korea instead after just six weeks the war seemed lost with disaster looming a daring plan was devised by the head of united nations forces the fabled hero of world war ii whose exploits in the pacific had made his name a household word general douglas macarthur it's somewhat difficult today to imagine the aura around general douglas macarthur the size of the shadow he cast americans looked upon him as a kind of god an infallible god he was only about five foot nine but if you're in his presence you would swear that he was about six foot six he always dominated any group and he had all the props the open collared shirt the sunglasses the crushed hat the pipe he made his own laws he took unclear directives and interpreted them his own way he was very much the american caesar to save his army trapped on the tip of korea macarthur sent a message to truman asking him to approve one of the most daring operations in american military history and i always remembered this he said tell the president i will land at inchon on the 15th of september and between the hammer of this landing in the anvil of the eighth army i will smash and destroy the armies of north korea and the air stood up on the back of my neck on september 15 1950 with truman's full support macarthur struck without warning at the port of inchon 30 miles from seoul the risks were enormous dangerous 30-foot tides enemy guns trained on mine-infested waters one pentagon strategist called it a 5 000 1 shot [Music] but macarthur's gamble paid off the north koreans were caught completely by surprise inchon fell in less than a day i salute you all truman cabled macarthur and say to all of you from all of us at home well and nobly done 13 days later soul was retaken at the same time u.n armies in the south were fighting their way north with the enemy in full retreat and suddenly the north koreans instead of being this invincible invading army were caught in a giant pincer in less than two weeks macarthur had turned the war around general macarthur life magazine wrote is a great soldier and a great american by late september un forces had pushed the communists back above the 38th parallel the line separating the two armies before the war began there macarthur's army halted the objectives were to restore the status quo the initiative was not an intent to capture north korea and unify korea that was not the intent at all but tempting the president and all his advisers was the chance to drive the communists once and for all from the peninsula by crossing the 38th parallel and pursuing them into north korea truman faced a dangerous decision he knew that to order the troops across that line risked provoking north korea's ally china that the chinese army was already massing on the north korean border that the chinese government had already issued explicit warnings the prevailing wisdom around the president was that the last thing in the world that the united states should do would be to get involved with a major land war with the chinese but with the enemy in retreat truman's native optimism took over on september 27th macarthur received a memorandum from the joint chiefs of staff approved by the president your military objective it read is the destruction of the north korean armed forces and across they went having been warned through diplomatic channels that if they proceeded across the parallel that the chinese would come into the war but it was felt that that was a bluff [Music] two weeks later truman prepared to leave america on a mission that caught everyone by surprise i have a whale of a job before me truman wrote his cousin have to talk to god's right-hand man truman was heading for a tiny island in the middle of the pacific to meet with general douglas macarthur the general had been making trouble for the president macarthur's outspoken anti-communist opinions had inflamed an already tense situation with the chinese many feared macarthur wanted to retake the communist chinese mainland macarthur had a contempt for higher authority he was the supreme authority that's the way he saw himself he was not troubled by the constitutional limits upon generals he was not troubled by any obligations he had i'm sure he had a certain contempt for the president i don't think there's much doubt on that truman had never liked macarthur in his diary the president described the general as mr prima donna brass hat a play actor and a bunko man it's a very great pity we have to have stuffed shirts like that in key positions truman wrote that men were so dissimilar here is this imperious figure very much different than the midwestern common man who was true as truman headed for wake island in the meeting with his domineering general he was determined to let macarthur know who was boss truman put on his best public face but tensions ran high from the moment the president got off the plane and as i recollected macarthur shook hands with the president he did not salute him which struck me as a young officer right away you know that sort of odd many years later i was in independence missouri and i saw mr truman and i said mr president can i ask you an indiscreet question he said walters there were no indiscreet questions there are only indiscreet answers and i'm a specialist in them go right ahead i said at wake island when you emerge from the airplane and starting down the stairs and he interrupted me he said did i notice that macarthur did not salute your goddamn right i noticed it and i knew i was going to have trouble with him [Music] in a dilapidated chevrolet truman and macarthur set off for a private meeting with them was truman's secret service agent floyd boring oh man attention i'll say your attention you could you could almost feel it you know the tension in there boring overheard the president lace right into the general never said howdy or nothing the president said to him i'm the commander-in-chief and he was mad i'm the commander-in-chief you're just you're a general in the army remember that why do you insist on going into china we don't want to do that he said i want you to stop it otherwise you're going to be recalled we're going to get rid of you general mccarthy didn't say anything yeah he knew the old man was mad the tension still lingered later that afternoon as the formal meeting got underway in a pink cinderblock shack truman quickly moved the discussion to his most nagging fear truman said all the intelligence sources we have indicate that the chinese are preparing to come into the war what happens if the chinese come in macarthur answered and said they will not enter the war and if they do i shall make of them the greatest slaughter in the history of warfare macarthur assured the president that the war would be over by christmas the conference ran less than three hours this their first meeting was to be there last truman and macarthur would never see each other again truman thought the meeting with macarthur had been successful he'd been encouraged by macarthur's assurance that he could begin sending troops back home by christmas so he came home confident and comfortable and of course just a few weeks later contrary to macarthur's assessment the chinese entered in force and things just fell apart on november 24th more than a quarter of a million chinese communist soldiers poured into korea [Music] in spite of the assurances he had given the president macarthur hopelessly outnumbered was powerless to stop him four days later the president received a cable from his beleaguered general we face an entirely new war this command is now faced with conditions beyond its control and its strength one observer described the president as he reported the news to his aides his mouth grew tight his cheeks flushed for a moment it almost seemed as if he would sob then in a voice that was incredibly calm and quiet he said this is the worst situation we have had yet we'll just have to meet it as we've met all the rest victory had appeared almost within reach now in the bitter korean winter macarthur's forces reeled under the communist attack macarthur told the president he feared his army was about to be destroyed macarthur's behavior in this time period is very strange this is macarthur the invincible the infallible but he had failed he was talking about evacuating the eighth army from korea and being macarthur it couldn't have been his fault it must have been someone else's fault the general urged the president to wage all-out war he wanted to blockade the chinese coast and bomb the chinese mainland truman refused in an atomic age he feared provoking a third world war boiled down macarthur wanted to fight the war to win the war on the other hand truman wanted to confine the war to the korean peninsula he wanted to keep it as small and affair as possible as the communists continued to punish macarthur's army the general told reporters that he was fighting under an enormous handicap truman ordered the general to stop talking to reporters macarthur escalated his demands i think it's fair to say macarthur panicked at one point in late december he's asking truman to target 26 different areas within china for the dropping of nuclear bombs i think without the top reference would have been to use small nuclear weapons on the masses of chinese and you figured two or three the chinese would stop and withdraw president was not prepared to make that decision each day truman's war became more and more unpopular newspaper reports and photographs of american boys captured wounded and killed upset and confused ordinary citizens to a nation accustomed to the glorious victories of world war ii to unconditional surrender to even forcing an enemy to surrender with an atomic bomb truman's limited war seems senseless this was probably the worst part of the president's administration for him the casualties we were taking the protest from families and the difficulty of understanding what a limited war meant i mean why not nukem the pressure on truman grew increasingly intense he was working 18-hour days and the strain was starting to show [Music] one morning with united states marines trapped at a reservoir in north korea truman met with his advisors we were working on a speech and mr truman came in from his office and sat down in a very dejected way and he said you know normally i sleep like a baby but this time i could hardly sleep all night long i was thinking about those boys up at the reservoir and then he slumped in his chair and he he said you know there must be a thousand people in this town who can do the job better than i can there isn't much you can say to that and he took off his glasses and put them on the table and that was a startling thing for me because i'd been accustomed to seeing his eyes rather large his face and i realized when he took his glasses off it was because they were very thick lenses and it magnified his eyes and when he took his glasses off his eyes appeared small in his face and it changed his appearance to me i stared at him as long as i could politely do and then he put his elbows on the table and he sank his his thumbs into his eye sockets and sat there for a while and we were all quiet and then finally he raised his head and took his glasses and put them on he said but the job is mine to do so i have to do the best i can let's go on with the drafting [Music] tension and exhaustion were taking their toll on truman victory in korea would have been the crowning achievement of his presidency proof that his determination to hold the line against communism was working instead truman faced disaster and in the days after the chinese attack he drifted this was the darkest time of his years in the presidency it was a very bleak prospect that the american people faced and the president was being besieged on all sides on december 5th his beloved friend and press secretary charlie ross died of a heart attack truman had known ross since high school and the sudden loss of his lifelong friend was a terrible blow and truman was deeply upset deeply distraught and that was the same night that the president's daughter margaret truman was having a first concert ever singing in constitution hall in washington margaret had studied to become a singer and the grieving president kept his promise to hear her perform his pent-up frustrations waiting like a stick of dynamite ready to explode [Music] paul hume the washington post's respected music critic had no idea what was in store for him as he joined the sellout crowd here were the members of the congress the supreme court all the big shots they were all there to hear her sing which would have been wonderful had she been able to sing well [Music] as soon as she started to sing i could tell that she did not have the basic technical control of the voice that you need the pitch wasn't there the tone wasn't there [Music] she just didn't have what it took i would have been thrilled if i could have written a rave review what i wrote was she is flat a good eel of the time more last night than at any time we have heard her in past years there are few moments in her recital when one can relax and feel confident that she will make her go which is the end of the song the next day truman opened the washington post to page 12 and found paul hume's devastating critique of his daughter's singing the president erupted furious he dashed off a scathing response the letter came in and i opened it up and i couldn't believe it and i gasped i've just read your lousy review of margaret's concert someday i hope to meet you when that happens you'll need a new nose a lot of beefsteak for black eyes and perhaps a supporter below that's strong language from the president of the united states when the letter became public newspapers across the country berated the president for his lack of self-control the chicago tribune even questioned truman's mental competence and emotional stability he was a man who was being battered and besieged from every side he had to blow his stack about something it seems to me and the something was paul hume's review the white house was flooded with letters and telegrams one letter came from distraught parents who enclosed a purple heart as you have been directly responsible for the loss of our son's life in korea truman read you might just as well keep this emblem one major regret is that your daughter was not there to receive the same treatment as our son by early 1951 the communists had retaken soul and inchon and driven macarthur's forces below the 38th parallel again the general urged the president to widen the war again the president refused [Music] then on january 25th the longest retreat in american military history ended macarthur's bleak assessments had been wrong his field commander general matthew ridgeway took united nations forces on the offensive assaulting the communists with tanks and artillery ridgeway began driving them back by the end of march forces under ridgeway's command had reached the 38th parallel once again there the war stalemated [Music] more than 50 000 american soldiers had been killed or wounded south korean casualties numbered over 160 thousand truman cautiously began exploring the possibility of negotiations with the chinese to stop the fighting and restore a divided korea what truman wanted and what the american policy makers wanted let's get out of there as decently as we could at just that moment macarthur stepped in and undermined the president's plan the general issued his own proclamation demanding the chinese commander surrender to him the president was in a rage macarthur had wrecked his hope for negotiations i was ready to kick him into the north china sea truman said later i was never so put out in my life i guess in the back of his mind macarthur figured this is a captain of artillery what does he know about this war and in truman's mind i'm the president i decide american foreign and military policy with general macarthur making more and more statements that were calling into quest national policy some of truman's advisers began to urge that he relieved the general well that's something you just don't casually do you don't relieve a commander in the field in the midst of major hostilities but when macarthur sent a letter to the house minority leader criticizing the president's conduct of the war truman had had enough this looks like the last straw he wrote his diary rank insubordination truman knew the firestorm he would face he knew he would be attacked in the press but he also knew that eventually the people and history would see that he had done the right thing on april 11th macarthur was having lunch in tokyo when his wife handed him a brown signal core envelope i deeply regret the message read that it becomes my duty as president and commander-in-chief of the united states military forces to replace you as supreme commander truman had fired one of the most popular generals in american history and he did it very abruptly and he did it knowing full well what would happen [Applause] macarthur came home to a hero's welcome [Applause] [Music] on capitol hill republicans attacked truman senator joseph mccarthy told a press conference the son of a [ __ ] ought to be impeached [Music] the president was deluged with wild telegrams denouncing him as a pig a little man a judas who was he this little pipsqueak captain from world war one to fire the great beloved awesome general macarthur macarthur is received in a tumultuous fashion in every city ticker tape parades joined session of congress he addressed the congress he made that famous speech but i still remember the refrain of one of the most popular barrack ballads of that day which proclaimed most proudly that old soldiers never die they just fade away old soldiers never die they simply fade away i've never been quite sure what that meant but it sounds sounds great and like the old soldier of that ballot truman wasn't listening i now close as macarthur spoke the president met with his secretary of state then took a nap later he read what the general had said and privately remarked it's a bunch of damn bull truman took it all in stride he said this will blow over bring the general home let him uh have his ticker tape parades that's okay all this will be gone in a few months and it was the stalemate in korea continued on july 10 1951 peace talks began but they would bog down and drag on for the rest of truman's days in office the war in korea would go on in the end taking more than 54 000 american lives truman's only comfort was in knowing that he had kept the struggle from spreading that he had prevented the horror of a full-scale nuclear war the last two years of the administration are by far the toughest of truman's presidency he really begins to feel the stress and in early 1952 when he's still toying around with the idea of running for president bess tells him she doesn't think he could survive another term she says she doesn't think she could either she had been biting her time gritting her teeth from the time he first took the oath of office in 1945 i think she would have left him had he chosen to run again on march 29 1952 truman told his fellow americans what many already suspected i shall not be a candidate for reelection i have served my country long and i think efficiently and honestly i shall not accept a renomination i do not feel that it is my duty to spend another four years in the white house with his fair deal and civil rights programs crushed the war stalemated in korea truman knew it was time to go his ratings were lower than nixon's on the day he resigned i mean it was probably as low an approval rating as any president ever had only one person responded with unadorned glee when you made your announcement an aide told the president mrs truman looked the way you do when you draw four aces she'd had enough and she thought harry truman had had enough he'd done his duty he'd done it well it was time to call it quits that july the democrats convened in chicago to nominate adlai stevenson for president [Music] truman told stevenson adelaide if a knucklehead like me can be president and not do too badly think what a really educated smart guy like you could do in the job [Music] [Applause] [Music] but the republicans had already nominated the hero of d-day general dwight david eisenhower [Applause] [Music] democrats truman didn't stand a chance when the campaign was over truman's democrats had suffered a devastating defeat after 20 years in the wilderness the republicans had recaptured the white house the spotlight was on the new president and the outgoing president was suddenly a citizen again driving away in a car having to stop at a red light for the first time in seven years after the ceremony truman had lunch with his staff and cabinet for the last time and when his old friend the retiring secretary of treasury john schneider arrived he saw the president standing looking out the window and snyder went over and said what are you looking out the window for and truman turned around and said an hour ago if i had said something it would have gone around the world in 15 minutes all around the world he said now i could talk for two hours and no one would give a damn on january 20th 1953 harry truman private citizen set out for home i'm not sure they expected anybody would turn up to say farewell but when they saw the immense crowd that had come and the cheering and the affection that was expressed by the crowd they were simply overwhelmed [Music] [Applause] [Music] and i went back to independence with him and it was a scream he would walk through the train and someone was sitting in a in a compartment reading a paper i was saying hello here's harry here's president truman he wanted we'd come to a stop and he go up and buy a newspaper at the newsstand the new favorite guy and he was having a great high time out of it and so i think were they it was just a joyous ride back to independence after nearly 20 years in washington harry and bess truman came home but with his popularity rating being so low and all of that the general assumption was there would be maybe a few friends at the railroad station to greet them instead as i recall i think the crowd was 10 000 people [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] biggest crowd ever turned out in the little town [Music] mrs truman was so touched by this that she said that this makes all these last years in the white house worth it [Music] truman went on to live in the old house on north delaware street that had once been his mother-in-law's there he would spend the rest of his life [Music] [Music] in the years to come americans grew accustomed to seeing harry truman pictured walking the streets of independence or hearing him bluntly speak his mind now he was one of them and they seemed more fond of citizen truman than president trump gradually his reputation revived americans began to remember the former president as that feisty man from missouri who worked hard and wasn't afraid to speak his mind they remembered the truman who said the buck stops here he's a believable man that's one of the reasons he is so appealing to us he has no privileged background he doesn't have a great voice he isn't handsome he has no glamour but in that makeup is iron real iron in 1961 eight years after he had left the white house harry truman was invited back by president john kennedy once again truman sat down at his old piano and played the music he had practiced every morning as a boy [Music] truman passed his final years still rising early still taking his morning walk just as he had done all his life i tried never to forget who i was and where i'd come from and where i'd go back to truman said harry truman was a vindication of the democratic idea of leadership here is a man out of the heartland of america an ordinary guy not a high-powered intellectual but a man of common sense and a man of personal decency [Music] on december 26 1972 harry truman died he was 88 years old 10 years later bess was buried beside him in the courtyard of the library that was named in his honor [Music] when franklin roosevelt died truman said i felt there must be a million men better qualified than i to take up the presidential task but the work was mine to do and i had to do it and i tried to give it everything that was in me tomorrow night in a joint project with the new york times frontline world investigates the business of human smuggling across the busy ports of entry between mexico and the united states as masses of people attempt to cross illegally every day with the help of increasingly organized and expensive smugglers crimes at the border tuesday night at nine here on gbh2 charlie rose is next [Music]

Channel: Conrad Nagel

Views: 70,533

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Id: LeoSTCsx958

Length: 110min 35sec (6635 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 23 2022