Posted on 05/11/2018 8:12:25 AM PDT by Rummyfan
When President Harry S. Truman left office in January 1953, most Americans were glad to see him go. Since the introduction of presidential approval ratings, Truman’s 32 percent rating was the lowest for any departing president except for that of Richard Nixon, who 21 years later resigned amid the Watergate scandal.
Americans were tired of five consecutive Democratic presidential terms. The Depression and World War II were both over, and people wanted a different sort of leadership that could jump-start the economy.
The outsider Truman had been an accidental president to begin with. When an ailing President Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for an unprecedented fourth term in 1944, worried Democrat insiders panicked. They feared that far-left-wing Vice President Henry Wallace might end up president if Roosevelt died in office.
Party pros replaced Wallace with the obscure Truman, a Missouri senator. They assumed that if worse came to worst, the non-entity Truman would be a token caretaker president.
Earlier, Truman had been immersed in scandal, owing to his ties to corrupt Kansas City political boss Tom Pendergast.
When Truman took office after Roosevelt’s death in April 1945, he knew relatively nothing about the grand strategy of World War II. No one had told him anything about the ongoing atomic-bomb project.
But for the next seven-plus years, Truman shocked the country.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Nothing.....................
A more interesting aspect: the Japanese surrender also ended up saving several breeds of dogs that originated in Japan. The Hokkaido, Akita, Shiba, Kishu, Shikoku and Tosa breeds that originated in Japan would be extinct right now had we been forced to invade the country.
But getting back on topic, Truman would be considered a conservative by 2018 standards, especially in regards to religion.
Nothing, that’s why it doesn’t end in a period.
We want a President who will enforce the laws and borders.
That was why Trump was elected.
Both parties have been preventing US from doing that for decades.
President Truman did NOT have a middle name. He added the S because if fit a public personna and sounded good.
Please see #27.
I can’t believe the idiocy of some who think using atomic weapons on japan wasn’t the best solution. Japan would have been wiped from existence! The war machine that was ready to invade would have been the largest in world history. Mind you the bombing raids that would come prior to soften it up would have made Hiroshima look like a 4th of July fire work. Literally millions of conventional bombs were being readied to drop.
An uncle, a Navy Commander and skipper of a LST (Laarge Slow Target) division always credited Harry S Truman’s ordering the bombs dropped with saving his life and those of his entire group.
Scheduled for FIRST wave of landings on Japanese soil. He had already penned a “farewell letter” to my grandparents. Thanks to Harry that letter was burned, not sent.
I read that Truman wrote a lot of angry letters that he never mailed. He let out steam by writing them. He put them into a desk drawer and kept them there.
Sadly (and oddly) he was just seen as a nobody to hold the VP spot until the end of FDR’s 4th term, as if FDR was going to live more than a few months.
And because of that, he was cut off at the knees by the FDR crew, that were almost politically out of steam, but still ran the show when he took over.
Truman knew he had to “color inside the lines” if he was to be anything other than a figurehead.
You’re right on!
My Dad would have been involved in the second phase of the invasion. He was in the initial occupation of Japan and he said what they found underground was amazing. It would have been horrendous.
I had an old Tech Sgt in the USAF tell us that Truman desegregated the Armed forces AFTER Chinese units in Korea found they could hit black infantry and they would always fold.
There is on line some photos of smiling black POWs captured in Korea.
I don’t know if this is true or not but HE was there at the time.
My dad fought in Europe, and then was sent back to the USA to train for the Invasion of Japan.
When the bombs were dropped everyone gave a sigh of relief as they new “it” would be over before being deployed to the Pacific.
We had just immigrated to California from Scotland while Truman was President. We adored him, and even more so when he took on his daughter’s attacker. There was a man who spoke his mind and political niceties be damned. Personally, I think President Trump is a man of his ilk, adore Trump, too.
July 26, 1948
Executive Order 9981 was an executive order issued on July 26, 1948, by President Harry S. Truman. It abolished racial discrimination in the United States Armed Forces and eventually led to the end of segregation in the services.
Korean War/Dates
Jun 25, 1950 – Jul 27, 1953
Well before the Korean War..............
October 1950
Those who escaped envelopment and capture were forced back north. UN forces rapidly approached the Yalu River—the border with China—but in October 1950, mass Chinese forces crossed the Yalu and entered the war.
My old Sgt must have been wrong. He was not the brightest one on the shelf.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.