Harry Truman is the President of the United States with an unusual fate. His presidency, in fact, was accidental, and the decisions made are controversial, sometimes tragic. It was Truman who approved the bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs. However, the 33rd President firmly believed in the correctness of the decision, believing that the shocking act of aggression saved millions of lives by inducing Japan to capitulate. Subsequently, he initiated the Cold War with the USSR.
Unpopular president
Truman is the lowest-rated US president in history. Among unpopular American leaders, the native of Missouri set a kind of anti-record: in December 1951, only 23% of Americans considered his activities positive. Even Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal had a higher rate of 24%.
In 1953, when heleft his position, only 31% of the population positively assessed his rule, 56% - negatively. But here's the paradox: in 1982, a survey was conducted among historians who is the most prominent leader of the nation, and experts took Truman 8th in the list of all American presidents.
A study of the archives showed that Truman is a strong-willed president of the United States. In difficult, uncomfortable situations, he did not set up partners and subordinates, he independently made decisions, even if they were not popular. He assumed responsibility, while never deviating from the chosen path. So an unpopular politician rose to the level of an American folk hero.
Truman, US President: biography
Truman's biography does not contain any extraordinary facts. Born in the family of a small farmer on May 8, 1884. He graduated from high school in Independence, Missouri. Together with his brother, he tried to become a bank employee, but there was no money for college. Father lost his estate as a result of speculation on the grain exchange.
The nationality of US President Harry Truman is not advertised (Jewish roots are traced), but it is known that he was a sincere believer, a Baptist, later joined the Masons. From 1906 to 1907, Harry, along with his father and brother, worked on his grandmother's farm. In 1914, his father died, and Truman managed the farm himself. He introduced crop rotation and, breeding cattle, achieved success. He also invested in zinc and lead mines,participated in oil scams.
Beginning of political activity
Truman's interest in politics woke up at a young age. With the outbreak of the First World War, he joins the National Guard, fights on the fields of France. In April 1919, he left military service with the rank of captain and married Elisabeth Ferman. Opens a menswear store with a partner.
The crisis of 1921-1922 undermined the future president's business, leaving Truman with $25,000 in debt. Lesson learned: business is not for him, and Truman becomes an official. Harry is said to have been a terrible public speaker. He saw his political future in the ranks of the Democrats, the No. 1 party in the South.
The young official was known in the constituency and warmly supported by front-line comrades. As a Jackson County Judge, he was responsible for:
- road condition;
- wastewater disposal;
- nursing home management;
- help citizens.
From Senator to Vice President
This is in the future Truman - the President of the United States, whose photo will adorn the tabloids of that time. In the meantime, Harry is a promising but little-known politician. He effectively leads the district, strictly following party guidelines, so the party will later help him become a senator after the 1934 election.
At the age of 50, Truman as a senator from his native state of Missouri comes to Washington. He is a supporter of the New Deal of Roosevelt (the previous president), participates in lawmaking. The first important assignment is assistance in regulating the growing air traffic. Then the senator makes a name for himselfexposing the illegal machinations of a number of railroad managers. After his re-election to the Senate in 1940, he heads the emergency committee, which is responsible for research into advanced weapons programs.
The events of Pearl Harbor and the involvement of the United States in the war bring this committee to the forefront. Harry becomes so popular that in 1944 he takes the position of vice president. Even then, he openly began to advocate American participation in the reform of international organizations after the end of the war. However, a paradox: as Vice President Truman does not participate in military conferences, he is indirectly informed about the creation of the atomic bomb, the Manhattan project.
The President is dead. Long live the president
Roosevelt's death on April 12, 1945 automatically (according to the Constitution) makes Harry the leader of the country. Truman is now President of the United States. Years of government: 1945-12-04 - 1953-20-01. The war in Europe is drawing to a close, Soviet-American relations are deteriorating due to the problems of Eastern Europe. In addition, Truman continues to adhere to the political and economic projects of the Roosevelt administration, this creation:
- United Nations.
- IMF.
- World Bank.
Truman, US President: foreign policy
Harry Truman is interested in normal relations with Stalin, but he also wants to avoid problems with Churchill. He was annoyed by the Soviet-Polish agreements (previously Poland was in the zone of influence of the United States), considered the communist USSR a police state, littledifferent from Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy.
On the sixth of August, while on board the Augusta cruiser, he receives a message about the use of the first atomic bomb in Hiroshima (Japan). By the way, back on July 24, the president informed Stalin about the new weapon, though he kept silent about the fact that it was a superbomb: “We have developed the most terrifying weapon in history. It will be used against Japan. The targets are military targets, but not children and women.”
Nuclear tragedy
Truman is the President of the United States, who for the first time dared to test atomic weapons on people. He was struck by the fierce conduct of the war by the Japanese: the daring attack on Pearl Harbor, the death marches of prisoners, the numerous torture of prisoners of war in the Philippines. Harry knew that in the event of an invasion of the major Japanese islands, numerous casu alties were inevitable.
For Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he was mercilessly criticized and criticized half a century later. However, Truman himself believed that by dropping bombs on Japan, he saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of American soldiers and millions of Japanese who would have been killed during an invasion of the country. Therefore, in 1951, when General MacArthur demanded the use of atomic weapons in the Korean conflict, the president refused.
He constantly thinks about using the bomb, especially when China joined the war on the side of North Korea. Harry saw the bomb as a political weapon that could be used against the USSR when it came to US security. Fortunately, the war ended with parity of forces.
The world after the war
The post-war redistribution of the world was clearly differentfrom the expectations of major players: the USA, the USSR and the UK. The Soviet government refused to cooperate with the IMF and the World Bank - in those institutions that, according to the American authorities, were to become central to the restoration of the world economy.
But in 1947, Cominform appears - an international communist organization. The USSR is nurturing the ideas of a world revolution. Eastern Europe, the Balkans and China support this idea. Truman understands that there is a relationship between we alth, psychological self-awareness, and defense capability. If war-weary Europeans are not given confidence, then Moscow will be able to influence the population of Western democracies. These contradictions have become key in the relationship between the two superpowers.
Truman Doctrine
Truman, President of the United States, became Stalin's main opponent. The policy of containment first emerged as a double containment of the USSR and Germany. It assumed the establishment of a global military balance of states and the creation of new centers of power in Japan and Europe against the policy of the USSR.
None of the subsequent US presidents influenced the development of post-war Europe like Truman. 1947 was the birth year of the Truman Doctrine. The Congress, in order to prevent the communist parties from taking power, provides Greece and Turkey with significant military and economic assistance.
Great Britain is no longer able to resist the USSR in this region, and the United States becomes the mainthe power of the Mediterranean. Next was the Marshall Plan, which brought Western Europe out of stagnation and ended economic chaos. The democracies of Western Europe approached economic and political cooperation - the creation of NATO (1947).
Like the Berlin airlift, the development of NATO showed that the US leader was aware of the psychological power of political decisions. Despite the rhetoric, Harry still understood that the United States was not ready to play the role of "the world's gendarme." The policy of the Truman administration in the 1950s was primarily a policy of economic containment of Soviet expansionism. To do this, they introduced bilateral economic assistance, sanctions, liberalized trade and monetary policy. In a word, the maximum possible measures to contain Soviet influence.
Domestic policy
Surprisingly, such vigorous foreign policy steps were perceived negatively in the states themselves. Harry S Truman's ratings steadily declined. Historians characterize the domestic politics of that period as an "internal war" between the incumbent president and the liberal advisers of the previous president, Roosevelt. In 1946, the Republicans won most of the seats in Congress. The Democratic Party plunged into crisis. Southern conservatives distrust Truman's racial politics. Public opinion and the press "buried" the incumbent president. The Berlin crisis changes everything. Harry abolishes racial distribution in the army, he believes in a public fair deal. True, Congress did not approve his reform system.
Truman's relationship with the unions did not work out. Added to all the problemsconflict in the steel industry. Harry orders the steel mills to be taken over by the government until the end of the conflict. The Supreme Court declares that this is against the Constitution.
Truman's decision to control left-wing political dissidents is also controversial, which led to the restriction of civil rights and ideological persecution of the Communists under the leadership of Senator McCarthy. The loy alty program remains a controversial page of the Truman presidency.
Relations with Congress have been burdened by its Fair Deal program. It controlled prices, credits, industrial products, exports, wages and rents. The Republican majority in Congress killed this program. Conflicts with Congress escalated during Truman's second term as president. Republicans attributed him a political loss to China. Due to domestic political criticism, in the spring of 1952, Harry announced that he was refusing to subsequently nominate his candidacy. Congress has already approved additions to the Constitution that limit the presidency to two terms. However, this did not concern Truman, because he was president for only six years. In his memoirs, he writes: "To be president means to be very lonely." The 33rd president died in Kansas City on 1972-26-12, at the age of 88.
