Video: 'Biography of Harry S. Truman: Atomic Bombs, Communism, Korean War'
(Thursday, May 8, 1884) — Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the United States (1945-1953) and the 34th vice President of the United States under Franklin D. Roosevelt (1945), was born today in Lamar, Missouri.
His middle initial, “S,” is not an abbreviation of one particular name. Rather, it honors both his grandfathers, Anderson Shipp Truman and Solomon Young, a somewhat common practice in the American South at the time.
Truman was elected vice president in the 1944 presidential election and assumed the presidency upon Roosevelt’s death in April 1945. It was only when Truman assumed the presidency that he was informed about the ongoing Manhattan Project and the atomic bomb.
Truman authorized the first and only use of nuclear weapons in war against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, leading to Japan’s surrender and the end of the world war.
Video: 'Harry S. Truman: The Accidental President'
Truman’s administration engaged in an internationalist foreign policy by working closely with Britain. Truman staunchly denounced isolationism.
Truman presided over the onset of the Cold War in 1947. He oversaw the Berlin Airlift and Marshall Plan in 1948.
In 1948, he proposed Congress pass comprehensive civil rights legislation. Congress refused, so Truman issued Executive Order 9980 and Executive Order 9981, which prohibited discrimination in federal agencies and desegregated the U.S. Armed Forces.
Domestically, the postwar economic challenges such as strikes and inflation created a mixed reaction over the effectiveness of his administration.
Video: 'The Story of Harry S. Truman'
He energized the New Deal coalition during the 1948 presidential election, despite a divided Democratic Party, and won a surprise victory against Republican Party nominee Thomas E. Dewey that secured his own presidential term.
With the involvement of the U.S. in the Korean War of 1950–1953, South Korea repelled the invasion by North Korea.
Investigations revealed corruption in parts of the Truman administration, and this became a major campaign issue in the 1952 presidential election, although they did not implicate Truman himself.
He was eligible for re-election in 1952, but with poor polling, he chose not to run.
When he left office, Truman’s administration was heavily criticized, though critical reassessment of his presidency has improved his reputation among historians and the general population.
