Report by student of Mr. Yager’s 1999 8th grade History Class, honored with ‘Best Presidential Report’.

Harry S. Truman was born on Thursday, May 8, 1884 in Lamar, Missouri to John Anderson Truman and Martha Ellen Young. To celebrate the birth of his first of two sons, John Truman nailed a mule shoe above the doorway and planted a new pine seedling to grow with his son.

Harry was haunted in his youth with both poor eyesight and many accidents, despite the efforts of his loving family to protect him. At one point in his childhood, he was very nearly paralyzed by the disease diphtheria.

After his brother Vivian’s first haircut (given by Harry’s grandfather, Solomon Young, with the disapproval of Harry’s mother), Harry decided to comb his hair differently. Standing on a chair to look at the mirror, Harry fell off and broke his collarbone. This was his first of many broken bones.

Harry’s mother was a college graduate and stressed the importance of reading with Harry. She would make Harry read the large text in their Bible. Yet, she noticed that he had trouble reading the fine print in the newspaper. After Harry was unable to see the fireworks on Independence Day, she drove him fifteen miles to Kansas City to get his eyes checked. The eye doctor, Dr. Thompson, diagnosed the problem as acute myopia, or in other terms, Harry was terribly nearsighted because he had very flat eyes.

Harry was fitted with very thick and very expensive glasses. The glass were also very fragile, so Harry was not allowed to play sports or participate in rough games. The doctor agreed with this, because he felt there was a good chance the glasses could break and the shattered glass could ruin Harry’s eyes.

Still, Harry was respected by other kids his age because of his ability to play the piano and how smart he was. Harry loved to read.

When Harry was ready to go to school, at the age of six, the Trumans moved to Independence. In his first year of high school, all went well. But in January 1984, when Harry was in his second year at Independence High School, both Vivian and Harry developed severe cases of diphtheria, a very serious disease in those days which generally attacks the throat and other air passages. Mary Jane, Harry’s younger sister, was sent off to stay at Harry’s grandparents to prevent her from contracting the disease.

Luckily for Vivian, he was cured quickly, but poor Harry had trouble recovering. Harry’s legs, arms, and throat would be paralyzed for months.

Nearly six months later, Harry finally regained his strength and went to summer school to catch up on the work he missed. Not only did he catch up, however, he skipped a grade, too.

When Harry graduated from high school, he wanted to attend either West Point or Annapolis, both military schools, because the Trumans could not afford the price to send Harry to a regular college. But Harry was rejected at both because of his poor eyesight. So Harry attended Spalding’s Commercial College for one year, but then dropped out.

Harry took on various jobs, such as a bank clerk, which he really did not enjoy. Harry then decided to take on the responsibility of his family’s farm in 1906, and was a farmer until 1917 when he was called to fight in World War I. Harry would speak of himself as a farm boy, even though he grew up and mostly lived in Independence. His mother once said, “It was on the farm that Harry got his common sense. He didn’t get it in town.”

With a war on, Harry was now accepted by West Point Military Academy, despite his poor eyesight. Upon graduating, he became an officer in the U.S. Army and was sent off to war. Harry fought in several battles while serving as the commanding officer of his unit. Harry was always a good leader and was highly respected by his troops.

Harry returned from the war in 1919, at age thirty-five. Later that year, he would marry Elizabeth “Bess” Wallace, who was in his graduating class of 41 people at Independence High School. Harry had known Bess since he was six and she was five.

In 1920, Harry took out a $15,000 loan to start a business in men’s clothing with a friend . At first the business, which was named Battery D but nicknamed “Dizzy D”, went very well. But then came a short depression and local men could not afford to buy suits. Harry’s men’s store soon went out of business. For the next fifteen years, Harry worked hard on paying off his debts. He was simply too honest to declare bankruptcy.

In 1923, Harry was elected county judge of Jackson County. A county judge was really just an administrator, not an actual court judge, yet it was the start of Harry’s political life. In the following year, Harry and Bess gave birth to their first and only child. They named her Mary Margaret, but called her Margaret for short.

After Harry’s term was up, he lost reelection. But in 1926 Harry became the presiding judge (leader) of the Jackson County Court. Harry served in this position for eight years. Then everything came together for Harry. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1934, the first big step in his career as an important Democrat. And for the next ten years, he served as a Senator from Missouri.

As Senator, Truman did a lot of things, but most importantly he helped to stop fraud in defense contract spending. This was very important because the United States was fighting in World War II and the United States needed to spend its money wisely. Thanks to Harry, the country saved a bunch of money. This amount may have been as much as fifteen billion dollars. This is how he was noticed by President Roosevelt.

After Harry’s noteworthy work in the Senate, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Harry to be his vice president, replacing Henry Agard Wallace, in his next reelection campaign. Reluctantly, Harry agreed and in 1944, Roosevelt and Truman won the election. Harry was now the Vice President of the United States of America.

However, Harry was only vice president for eighty-two days. For on April 12, 1945, President Roosevelt died of cardiovascular disease. Harry S. Truman, a college drop-out from Lamar, Missouri, was now President of the United States. He went literally “from precinct to president,” as Harry liked to say. Harry’s agreement to be vice president paid off. Who would have thought that when he started his political career as a county judge for a county no one had ever heard of, he would become the most powerful man in the world.

Truman became President near the end of World War II. The United States had already been in the war for four years. In 1945 Harry went to Potsdam, Germany to meet with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, who were both on our side in the war. Both Truman and Churchill knew that Stalin would want a lot of land after the war was over. The three decided to break Germany into occupation zones.

Yet the most important and controversial decision President Truman, or probably any president, ever had to make was to drop atomic bombs on Japan. The U.S. was also at war with Japan because, in 1941, Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor without warning or a declaration of war.

The atomic bombs were such a secret that Truman didn’t even know that American scientists were developing these super weapons when he was Vice President. Once the bomb was built and tested, Truman had to decide whether or not to drop them on Japan. He was pretty sure that if he ordered the dropping of one or more of the atomic bombs, Japan would surrender, and a lot of lives would be lost. But if the United States didn’t drop the bomb, he was convinced that a lot more Americans would likely die before Japan was defeated. So on August 6, 1945, President Truman ordered one of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima. Then three days later on August 9, Truman ordered that another bomb be dropped on Nagasaki. Truman told the world on the radio about his decision and said that he chose these targets because both cities were devoted to fighting the war. Soon after this, Japan did in fact surrender. Truman never doubted that he had made the right decision and defended this decision until the day he died.

President Truman made some other very important decisions, too, that helped the countries of Europe feed their people and allowed them to be free and have democracies. These decisions were the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan.

President Truman was also there when the United Nations was established, in June 1945, after the war. Truman also was a big part of the establishment of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, to help defend our allies in Europe against Communism.

Back here in America, President Truman decided to give men of all races the right to have good jobs in the Army, Navy, and Air Force and to work together rather than to be in separate groups. This decision was called Desegregation of the Armed Forces. Harry also urged other civil rights reforms.

Before leaving office, President Truman presented Congress with a twenty-one point program, which included proposing the expansion of Social Security benefits, a full-employment program, a permanent Fair Employment Practices Act, and public housing and slum clearance programs. Truman wrote that his twenty-one point program, “symbolizes for me my assumption of the office of President in my own right”. Congress voted for this program which became known as the Fair Deal.

And then, Truman’s short term was up, for it was 1948. Truman then decided to run for reelection. Many, including the media, thought that he would lose to Thomas E. Dewey, for the polls had Dewey crushing Truman.

Truman nearly put his reelection in jeopardy by sending a civil rights message to Congress when he knew that it would affect his electoral prospects in 1948.

In 1948 Truman rode all over the country in a train telling people what he had already done as President and what he would do if he was reelected with Vice President Allen W. Barkley. Harry worked very hard and won the election by a narrow margin.

Many media sources predicted that Dewey would win and one Chicago newspaper printed its prophecy before all the votes were actually in. The next day Truman was given the news that he had won the election and a copy of this Chicago paper. When Truman was publicly announced as the President-elect, he defiantly held up the paper to show the world the incorrect headline “Dewey Defeats Truman”.

In his second term as President, Truman had to finally deal with Stalin. Stalin and the Soviet Union wanted to take over the entire city of Berlin in Germany, which the Soviets controlled only part of. Berlin was in the middle of the Soviet sector of Germany. The problem for Stalin was, however, that the United States and our other friends controlled the other part of Berlin. So Stalin had his troops stop all food shipments coming over land to the city. Stalin hoped he would make the city surrender. But Truman didn’t give in. He had food flown in by planes and dropped into the city. This was known as the Berlin Airlift. So, in the end, Stalin had to give up his takeover plan.

Another big event that happened during Truman’s second term was the Korean War. In 1950 Truman had to send American troops to defend South Korea because South Korea had been invaded by Communist North Korea. North Korea was on the Soviet Union and Stalin’s side. This war was not very popular among American people, though. Many people in this country believed then that we didn’t need to be the peacekeepers of the world.

Later, Truman wrote about the war, that after conferring with his military advisors, there was “complete, almost unspoken acceptance on the part of everyone that whatever had to be done to meet this aggression had to be done. There was no suggestion from anyone that either the United Nations or the United States could back away from it.”

Truman kept the war a limited one because he did not want to risk a major conflict with China or Russia.

During the war, President Truman had to fire General Douglas MacArthur, who was the most decorated military officer ever, because he did not follow Truman’s orders. Firing MacArthur was the most unpopular thing he did as President. But this was necessary because in the armed forces, you must take orders from the people who rank above you, and the President of the United States of America is the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Navy and all other Armed Services in America and out-ranks all generals.

In 1952, Truman’s second term as President was up and he chose not to run again. Harry Truman left Washington, D.C. aboard a train, waving to his many supporters.

Truman remained active in politics after he retired. He soon wrote his memoirs (two volumes, 1955-56) and a book, Mr. Citizen (1960). He also gave extensive lectures. His biggest project after his term as President was up was helping establish the Truman Library. In the final years of his life, he had almost become a folk hero. Harry S. Truman died on December 26, 1972, at the age of eighty-eight. His wife Bess would live for another ten years. To this day, Truman is remembered as both a hardworking man and a hardworking president.

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