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In short: a US Democratic politician; vice-president of US 1945; 33rd president of US 1945-1953
According to a review of David McCullough's 1993 book "Truman," "Truman was a compromise candidate for vice president, almost an accidental president after Roosevelt's death 12 weeks into his fourth term. Truman's stunning come-from-behind victory in the 1948 election showed how his personal qualities of integrity and straightforwardness were appreciated by ordinary Americans, perhaps, as McCullough notes, because he was one himself. His presidency was dominated by enormously controversial issues: he dropped the atomic bomb on Japan, established anti-Communism as the bedrock of American foreign policy, and sent U.S. troops into the Korean War."
In quotes :
"Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.
"Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship.
"All the President is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway."
Cracker-barrel plain in speech and looks, this seemingly ordinary man turned out to be one of our most dynamic presidents. It was Harry S. Truman who ordered the atomic bomb dropped, halted Communists in Turkey and Greece, initiated the Marshall Plan, NATO and the Berlin Airlift, ordered desegregation of the armed forces, established the CIA and the Defense Department, committed U.S. forces to Korea and upheld the principle of civilian control over the military by firing Gen. Douglas MacArthur. McCullough ( Mornings on Horseback ) has written a surefooted, highly satisfying biography of the 33rd president, one that not only conveys in rich detail Truman's accomplishments as a politician and statesman, but also reveals the character and personality of this constantly-surprising man--as schoolboy, farmer, soldier, merchant, county judge, senator, vice president and chief executive. The book relates how Truman (1884-1972) overcame the stigma of business failure and debt (as well as the accusation that he was "bellboy" to Kansas City's Pendergast machine) and acquired a reputation for honesty, reliability and common sense. McCullough pays considerable attention to Truman's family, especially his fervent and touching courtship of Bess Wallace, the idolized love of his life. Her mother never felt Truman was good enough for her daughter, even after he became president. The book's re-creation of the 1948 presidential campaign, during which Newsweek 's poll of 50 political writers predicted that the incumbent would lose the election to Thomas Dewey, is the most complete account of that surprise victory to date. The book is an impressive tribute to a man whose brisk cheerfulness and self-confidence were combined with a God-fearing humility; a great and good man who, in McCullough's opinion, was a great president.More
Who were the greatest Presidents of the United States?
President Truman : ... "I'll name the ones that I consider made the greatest contribution to the maintenance of the republic. Washington, of course, that's established; then Jefferson, who turned the government over to the people; and Jackson, who continued that policy; then James K. Polk, who expanded the country to the Pacific and gave us space as a continental power and a chance to grow into one of the greatest republics. James K. Polk paid the same price for that part of the country that Thomas Jefferson paid for Louisiana. Don't forget that. Then Abraham Lincoln, of course, who saved the Union; he kept the Union from breaking apart. There might have been four or five countries, just like in Central America if that war had been successful.... Then, the next of the great ones was Grover Cleveland; he restored the Presidency to its proper place in the set-up of the government. he refused to be browbeaten by the Congress. And after Grover Cleveland came Theodore Roosevelt, who started the program of taking the government out of the hands of the great exploiters and putting it back into the hands of the people. Woodrow Wilson then came along in 1912 and followed through on that. If it hadn't been for World War One, he would have been very successful in obtaining what he set out to do in his first message. Then, when he finally worked on the peace treaty, he tried his level best to arrange world affairs so that we could not enter into another debacle like the First World War. he was not successful on account of...[the] isolationists.... They helped to bring on the Second World War. Then along came Franklin Roosevelt, who set the Presidency along the same lines as the ones I've names. He set the Presidency where it belonged and got the situation developed so that when the Second World War was over, we were able to establish the United Nations...."
Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin, and the music of Florodora, Strauss waltzes, Gershwin and Debussy. NOT that damned "Missouri Waltz."
Alfred Tennyson's poems. Didn't care much for Washington Post Music Critic Paul Hume's opinions on Margaret Truman's voice. Read Missouri and Federal Law books and the King James Bible frequently.