Free Republic

Upon entering office, Barack Obama knew little about foreign policy. But then neither did Vice President Harry S. Truman when Franklin Delano Roosevelt died suddenly on April 12, 1945. President Obama often invokes the supposed mess abroad—especially in Iraq and Afghanistan—left to him by George W. Bush. But Mr. Obama's inheritance is mild compared to the myriad crises that nearly overwhelmed the rookie President Truman. All at once Truman had to finish the struggle against Hitler, occupy Europe, and deal with a nominally allied but increasingly bellicose and ascendant Soviet Union. Within months of taking office he had to make...

War Strategy: When Bush and Petraeus proposed the surge in Iraq, Democrats demanded that the general testify before Congress. So why has the Senate blocked a similar invitation to our commander in Afghanistan? Those with memories longer than the 24-hour news cycle recall that in the dark days of the Iraq War, David Petraeus was summoned to Washington to explain the surge strategy that would eventually lead to victory in Iraq. Democrats hoped for a show trial. MoveOn.org took out a full-page ad in the New York Times labeling the commanding general of our efforts in Iraq "General Betray-us." Then...

We have not yet reached a Harry Truman v Douglas MacArthur moment in Washington — the extraordinary day in April 1951 when the US President fired his top general for disagreeing with him on his Korean War policy. Yet this much is now clear: a potential battle now looms between Barack Obama and his top generals over Afghanistan that could define, even destroy, his presidency. After only nine months as Commander-in-Chief, President Obama has reached a critical point in determining whether to order a surge of additional troops into Afghanistan. It is a strategy that is being demanded by General...

How Will We Judge the Korean War in a Century? [...] What I am arguing is will this be the consensus twenty years from today (or forty years after this article was written). I mean, yes, most ordinary South Koreans enjoys such material prosperity that probably only a select few and I mean a very select few in North Korea could only begin to dream about. I am saying that had the Korean War run its course without intervention from the United States (or equivalently had Harry S. Truman not settled on a policy, the Truman Doctrine, where not winning...

U.S. naivete not only wrongly interfered with the natural development of East Asia, but in particular with respect to Korea, the greatest tragedy was that by the U.S. interfering in what was basically a civil war, the peninsula saw all the carnage and destructionthat would've played out anyways had the U.S. not interfered, but the wardid nothing to unify the nation ("Containment"). Moreover, the perverse state that North Korea finds herself to be in is a direct result of the natural order of things being prevented from occurring. Other Sinic nations experienced similar bouts of reconciliation, but with the fruits...

Today marks the 64th anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bomb by the United States on Japan, August 6, 1945. The decision by President Harry Truman to drop the bomb has been roundly criticized by revisionist historians and others on the Left. Some have even gone so far as to call Truman a "war criminal" for doing so. They could not be more wrong. The United States had already suffered hundreds of thousands of casualties at the hands of Japan, in a war Japan started. The Japanese had shown in battle after battle their willingness to fight to...

The trouble with many of the past ratings of America's presidents is that the "consensus" has been arrived at by academics who act alike, do alike, and think alike. In the view of many, they are suspect of viewing history exclusively through the prism of Ivy League faculty lounge discourse. Alvin Stephen Felzenberg (Ph.D.) — who has taken a fresh and comprehensive look at the nation's chief executives in his book The Leaders We Deserved (and a Few We Didn't): Rethinking the Presidential Rating Game — does not challenge the credentials of the conventional historians. Rather, as he explains in...

Bill covers the WW2 nuke bombing of Japan. Video at the link...

"Here's what I think of the atom bombs. I think if you dropped an atom bomb fifteen miles offshore and you said, "The next one's coming and hitting you," then I would think it's okay. To drop it on a city, and kill a hundred thousand people. Yeah. I think that's criminal."

A follow-up to Wednesday night’s Kinsleyan gaffe: He’s sorry, he’s just not sure why he’s sorry. The closest we get to an explanation is that the decision to drop the bomb was “complicated,” but of course that’s why Cliff May brought it up — to draw a parallel with the decision to waterboard terrorists. The moral calculus about how far to go in roughing up jihadis to save how many lives is difficult, as was the calculus about how many lives would be saved in the long run by incinerating Japanese kids in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end the war....

Although historians have debated the issue for decades, Jon Stewart has no question about this controversial matter: former President Harry S. Truman is a war criminal for dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945.

It comes at about the 5:50 mark. Cliff May asks Stewart whether Truman's use of the atomic bomb was a war crime, Stewart ruminates and then responds with an unequivocal "yes." He's certainly not the only American who would take that view, but it's a useful reminder that the most vocal and popular criticism of the Bush administration's war on terror policies comes from people who, if they were being as honest as Stewart, would also judge Lincoln (suspension of habeas), FDR (internment), and Truman (use of nuclear weapons) as war criminals or tyrants or worse. Stewart repeats the charge...

Via Goldfarb, the key exchange comes at around 5:50. Hundreds of thousands of lives saved by averting a U.S. invasion of the Japanese home islands, and all this tool can do is point a finger and mumble “yes” in response to whether Truman’s a war criminal or not. Behold the face of mindless anti-torture absolutism. Like what you see?

In August 1951, with a little more than a year left to Harry S. Truman's presidency, historian Henry Steele Commager published an essay in Look magazine with this prediction: "By all normal standards, [Truman's] Administration has been one of almost . . . unparalleled success . . . the verdict of history will not be the same as the verdict of contemporary critics." At the time, Truman's popularity hovered in the low 20s and most Americans considered his presidency a failure. Look's editors even published a note declaring "doubts" about "whether history will accord Harry S. Truman as generous a...

Poe: "They are leftists, dedicated to overthrowing our Constitutional system," and "they will go to any length to conceal their radicalism from the public." Understanding the Alinsky Method of "Community Organizing" Written by Bob Dill Sep 24, 2008 at 12:00 AM Meet the Real Obama and Cult of Alinsky " The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 1:9 KJV) It is becoming readily apparent that the "change" being proposed vaguely by Sen. Barack Obama is...

After his breathtaking victory against Thomas Dewey in the 1948 election, President Truman dove headfirst into his second term. Unfortunately, he would find this term quite different from the first, which was filled, for the most part, with great successes but increasing unpopularity among the American people. The Rise of Communism The vast majority of Truman's second term would consist of the very beginning of that pseudo-conflict which would remain present in America's consciousness for nearly four more decades - the Cold War. It didn't take long after the end of World War II for America to realize that the...

<p>CNN's Election Center 2008 hosts an Election Tracker that allows you to view their company's most up to the minute predictions. As of early morning Election Day, CNN had Obama winning at 51%, McCain with 44% and leaving 5% of voters ready to cast their ballot claiming to be 'unsure'. CNN also allows you to predict the election yourself by giving you the CNN ELECTORAL MAP CALCULATOR. In this function you predict the outcome by selecting states you think either candidate will win. This could be something fun to do with family, friend or co-workers.</p>

ContentType:Spot Development; ContentElement:FullStory; Breaking:True; By MIKE GLOVER and DAVID ESPO Associated Press Writers DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Despite John McCain's prediction of an upset, Barack Obama reached for a landslide Friday, invading his rival's home state with TV ads and building a lead in early voting in key battlegrounds as the presidential race headed into a hectic final weekend. McCain charged that Obama, bidding to become the first black president, "began his campaign in the liberal left lane of politics and has never left it. He's more liberal than a senator who calls himself a socialist," he added in...

HOW MCCAIN COULD PULL OFF A FINAL WEEK UPSET What does McCain have to do to pull off a similar shift this time? 1. Use the stock market crash to highlight the tax issue. With the Dow Jones dropping each day by hundreds of points, this election is being held against a backdrop of economic fear unlike any since the Depression. Almost every reputable economist agrees that it would be catastrophic to add to the economy's woes by raising the capital gains tax. But Obama is on record as favoring an increase from 15% to 20% and suggested during the...

WV4Hillary Presidential Member = >1000 Posts Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 1,453 Poster Rank: #87 (Oct. 26, 2008): Dewey v Truman: Holy Crap, Read This!! (Really) Replace: Truman = McCain Dewey = Obama Republican Controlled Congress = Democrat Controlled Congress Republican = Democrat and vice versa Given Truman's sinking popularity and the seemingly fatal three-split in the Democratic Party, Dewey appeared unbeatable. Top Republicans believed that all their candidate had to do to win was to avoid major mistakes; in keeping with this advice, Dewey carefully avoided risks. He spoke in platitudes, avoided controversial issues, and was vague on what...

For the past sixty years, whenever a presidential candidate is down in the polls days before Election Day, Harry Truman's victory in 1948 inevitable comes up. Of all the comebacks, Truman's still ranks as the most startling, down to the premature headline published by the staunch Republican media mogul Robert McCormick's Chicago Tribune the day after the election: "Dewey Defeats Truman!" A month before the election, Thomas Dewey, the Republican governor of New York, had a double digit lead over Truman. Most pollsters simply stopped polling, believing that voters made their minds up well before Election Day. Of the 50...

Five weeks and one vice-presidential debate after joining the Republican ticket, Sarah Palin is not going away. As she proved Thursday night in St. Louis, for those who hoped to make her Dan Quayle, she is not obliging. Already she is rewriting the conventional wisdom that says running mates can only hurt, not help a ticket. Her appeal recalls that of Harry Truman, another vice-presidential selection whom opponents discounted at their peril. Not long to politics, Palin's story is relatively short. She was a two-term city council member and then two-term mayor of small town Wasilla, Alaska. In 2006, she...

Here is video in two parts of Sen. John McCain speaking yesterday at the Harry S Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, where he focused on the Economic Crisis facing America. Toward the end of his remarks, McCain also talked about the character and leadership of President Harry Truman. . . . . (Watch Video)

GLOBAL VIEW By BRET STEPHENS Palin and the 'Experience' Canard September 16, 2008; Page A23 If nothing else, the media meltdown over Sarah Palin's candidacy for the vice presidency has exposed the not-unsuspected truth that, when it comes to historical ignorance and political amnesia, our cultural panjandrums are in a class by themselves. ABC's Charlie Gibson is only the latest to offer himself upon the altar of self-parody with his pop-quizzing of the Alaska governor during their interview last week. Gibson: "Do you agree with the Bush doctrine?" Palin: "In what respect, Charlie?" Which was a sensible answer, given that...

On 27 occasions, presidents have called both houses into session to deal with a crisis. The most recent of these special sessions -- and the first one since 1856 -- met at the behest of President Harry S. Truman on this day in 1948. With less than four months remaining before Election Day, Truman's approval rating stood at 36 percent. His GOP opponent, New York Gov. Thomas Dewey, looked like a sure winner. So in search of a bold political gesture, the president turned to the provision in the Constitution that allows the president "on extraordinary occasions" to convene one...

The weekly Economist for June 12 placed Iraq on its cover once again. The timing of the cover story was significant. Nine days earlier the Democrats had settled on their presidential nominee -- Barack Hussein Obama -- for the November election. The Iraq story had been downgraded by the mainstream media when the Democratic primary contest intensified and when the good news from Iraq, according to the Economist, was "far better than it was only a few months ago." The good news from Iraq is indeed far better than merely good. The military surge President George W. Bush ordered in...

The stature and repute of our public figures are shaped, as I have written before, by this thing called Kultursmog . It is our political culture, a kultur utterly polluted by politics, left-liberal politics. For instance, it renders the Clintons, as reporter John F. Harris hymned in a recent hagiography, "the two most important political figures of their generation." Continues...================================================================= Still a hero after all these years Anyone who has been following the MSM for the past eight years and has had nothing but the MSM to go by might be forgiven for believing Bush to be some bungling nincompoop,...

In this earlier thread I commented on the incredible ignorant statement by Obama that FDR and Truman talked to our enemies: The other side can label and name-call all they want, but I trust the American people to recognize that it’s not surrender to end the war in Iraq so that we can rebuild our military and go after al Qaeda’s leaders. I trust the American people to understand that it’s not weakness, but wisdom to talk not just to our friends, but our enemies – like Roosevelt did, and Kennedy did, and Truman did. Its a breathtaking quote and...

Business, meaning research by historians and nourishment for history hobbyists, is brisk at the Harry S. Truman Library on this 60th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift, the desegregation of the armed services, recognition of the state of Israel and the improbable election of the president responsible for many momentous policies. The library is a place, and now is a time, to ponder the transformation Truman wrought in the presidency and the Constitution, and why that transformation should be debated before the next president is selected. With a mere 15 million pages of documents, this library is minuscule: The Clinton Library...

INDEPENDENCE, Mo.—Business, meaning research by historians and nourishment for history hobbyists, is brisk at the Harry S. Truman Library on this 60th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift, the desegregation of the armed services, recognition of the state of Israel and the improbable election of the president responsible for many momentous policies. The library is a place, and now is a time, to ponder the transformation Truman wrought in the presidency and the Constitution and why that transformation should be debated before the next president is selected. With a mere 15 million pages of documents, this library is minuscule: The Clinton...

After 50 years, an American state secret has been revealed, about the arrest of 12,000 people because of Hoover’s “red” paranoia. The former director of the FBI, Edgar Hoover made plans for the arrest of 12,000 American citizens which he considered to be threats to national security – documents reveals that no longer bear the status of state secret. Hoover sent this request to the president at the time Harry Truman at the beginning of the Korean war during the 50s. He justified the move as necessary for protection from “treason, spies and sabotage”. For now there is no evidence...

Floyd M. Boring, a Secret Service agent who guarded five presidents and took part in the gunfight that foiled an attempt by Puerto Rican nationalists to assassinate President Harry S. Truman, died Friday at his home in Silver Spring, Md. He was 92. His death was confirmed by the Collins Funeral Home of Silver Spring. On the afternoon of Nov. 1, 1950, Truman was taking a nap at Blair House, where he was living while the White House, across Pennsylvania Avenue, was being renovated. Boring was stationed outside Blair House with several uniformed White House guards, while two Secret Service...

A former Secret Service officer [Floyd Boring] who helped thwart the attempted assassination of President Harry Truman has died. Boring changed the course of history when he and White House police officers took on two armed men during a shootout near Blair House, where Truman was staying during White House renovations.

A former Secret Service officer who helped thwart the attempted assassination of President Harry Truman has died. Floyd Boring, 92, died Feb. 1 of congestive heart failure at his home in Silver Spring, Md. Boring changed the course of history when he and White House police officers took on two armed men during a shootout near Blair House, where Truman was staying during White House renovations. Boring had just gotten to work Nov. 1, 1950, when the Puerto Rican nationalists arrived to kill Truman. One of the would-be assassins, Oscar Collazo, shot a White House police officer. When they heard...

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. - Margaret Truman Daniel, the only child of former President Harry Truman, died Tuesday. She was 83. Daniel died in Chicago following a brief illness, according to a statement from the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Independence. She had been living in an assisted living facility for the past several weeks and was on a respirator, the library said. Daniel, a longtime resident of New York City, was also the author of mystery novels, many of them set in Washington D.C.; books on the White House; and biographies, including books on her father and her mother,...

During his tenure as President George W. Bush's defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld often likened the administration's foreign policy decisions to those of the Truman administration during the first years of the Cold War. As President George W. Bush makes his way to Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states with a stated agenda of advancing the goal of Palestinian statehood, it is worth examining president Truman's achievements and comparing them with those of President Bush. President Harry S Truman was in some ways an accidental president. Elected vice president in Franklin Delano Roosevelt's fourth term in...

A newly declassified document shows that J. Edgar Hoover, the longtime director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had a plan to suspend habeas corpus and imprison some 12,000 Americans he suspected of disloyalty. Hoover sent his plan to the White House on July 7, 1950, 12 days after the Korean War began. It envisioned putting suspect Americans in military prisons. Hoover wanted President Harry S. Truman to proclaim the mass arrests necessary to “protect the country against treason, espionage and sabotage.” The F.B.I would “apprehend all individuals potentially dangerous” to national security, Hoover’s proposal said. The arrests would be...

WASHINGTON - Former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had a plan to suspend the rules against illegal detention and arrest up to 12,000 Americans he suspected of being disloyal, according to a newly declassified document. Hoover sent his plan to the White House on July 7, 1950, less than two weeks after the Korean War began. But there is no evidence to suggest that President Truman or any subsequent president approved any part of Hoover's proposal to house suspect Americans in military and federal prisons. Hoover had wanted Truman to declare the mass arrests necessary to "protect the country against...

A 1950 Plan: Arrest 12,000, Suspend Due Process By TIM WEINER A newly declassified document shows that J. Edgar Hoover, the longtime director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had a plan to suspend habeas corpus and imprison some 12,000 Americans he suspected of disloyalty. Hoover sent his plan to the White House on July 7, 1950, 12 days after the Korean War began. It envisioned putting suspect Americans in military prisons. Hoover wanted President Harry S. Truman to proclaim the mass arrests necessary to “protect the country against treason, espionage and sabotage.” The F.B.I would “apprehend all individuals potentially...

Historians debate whether his stature will increase after he leaves office WASHINGTON — If Harry S. Truman did it, why can't George W. Bush? Truman came back from the political abyss — his public approval rating sank as low as 22 percent thanks in large part to America's entry into the Korean War and his handling of labor disputes at home — to become regarded by historians as one of the nation's top 10 presidents. Lately, some Bush administration officials and White House associates have predicted that President Bush — mired in an unpopular war in Iraq and saddled with...

This year marks the 62nd anniversary of the atomic bombings of Japan. Every year at this time anti-American hyperbole is at a fever pitch. The revisionist historians that abound in American academia have a field day. They rant about the “racist” decision to bomb defenseless cities, all the while leaving out the complete and utter destruction of Dresden Germany. A city largely populated by white Germans! Pay no attention to Dresden they had it coming. The hue and cry from communists masquerading as professors is nearly drowned out by the cacophony of traitors who agitate for withdrawal from the mid-east...

Our efforts in Iraq are a lot like our efforts were in Korea, because we are fighting for the freedom of millions we are fighting against an "ism" we are training the military of the newly freed country the Democrats want us to abandon the newly freed country, about 4 years after we freed it, even though they know there are serious threats to the new country -------------------------- Our efforts in Iraq are a lot different than our efforts in Korea, because we freed S. Korea two times (in 1945, and the early 50's) we abandoned S. Korea in 1949...

115 youths in all. All younger than 18.No one demanded that WMDs needed to be found in 1950 Korea, in order to justify freeing South Koreans from potential domination by Kim Jong-Il's father, Kim Il-sung.. Name -- State -- Date of death Donald R Abel -- Pennsylvania   4 Nov 1950 James V Ashbaugh -- Ohio   6 Dec 1950 Donald L Bakie -- Maryland   2 Nov 1950 Ronald R Barker -- Virginia   2 Dec 1950 Robert A Jr Best Jr --Wisconsin   2 Dec 1950 Curtis L Bowman -- Virginia   24 Dec 1950 Donald W Boyd...

Durbin questions Bush on comparison to Truman By Christi Parsons Chicago Tribune (MCT) WASHINGTON - Senior lawmakers met with President Bush on the brink of their holiday break Friday, but what broke out between the president and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., was far more than polite chitchat. After Bush brought up the memory of President Harry Truman during a discussion of Iraq, Durbin objected, leading to a disagreement that both sides were later eager to expound upon. "He drew an interesting parallel," Durbin recounted after the meeting. "He said Harry Truman, with the Truman Doctrine, came up with the right...

The Election Aftermath Barry Farber Monday, Nov. 13, 2006 The elections of Nov. 7 made me feel like the Jewish grandmother in an old joke that deserved a longer shelf-life than it got. Her granddaughter approached her gingerly and said, "Grandma. I really have to talk to you even though what I have to say may upset you terribly." The grandmother says, "What is it, my child? "You know you and I have always talked about important things." "Well," tremulated that young woman. "I'm in love and I intend to get married and he's not Jewish!" The grandmother, rupturing all...

We know that the cost of freedom is high. But we are determined to preserve our freedom--no matter what the cost. I know that our people are willing to do their part to support our soldiers and sailors and airmen who are fighting in Korea. I know that our fighting men can count on each and every one of you. Our country stands before the world as an example of how free men, under God, can build a community of neighbors, working together for the good of all. That is the goal we seek not only for ourselves, but for...

Today's Democrats are nothing like Presidents Roosevelt, Truman and Kennedy, who with courage and decisive action kept on top of their jobs and aggressively confronted one national defense crisis after another. Jimmy Carter, elected during the Cold War with the Soviet Union, and (1) believing Americans had an inordinate fear of communism, (2) lifted U.S. citizens' travel bans to Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia and (3) pardoned draft evaders. President Carter (4) also stopped B-1 bomber production, (5) gave away our strategically located Panama Canal and (6) made human rights the central focus of his foreign policy. That led...

Today's Democrats are nothing like Presidents Roosevelt, Truman and Kennedy, who with courage and decisive action kept on top of their jobs and aggressively confronted one national defense crisis after another .........

Keeping an eye on the Los Angeles Times is a thankless task because, as James Lileks noted not long ago, nobody really cares what is in the Los Angeles Times. The New York Times and the Washington Post – those papers matter, but not the poor, circulation stagnant and curiously irrelevant Lost Angeles Times. The paper matters in Hollywood, and a tiny bit in Sacramento, but beyond those precincts, hardly at all. Still, it could be a serious player given its monopoly on the creative center of the world's entertainment complex and as the only paper with resources sufficient to...