Harry S. Truman

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Harry S. Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri, in 1884, and grew up in Independence, where he prospered for 12 years as a farmer. Truman served as a captain in the Field Artillery during World War I. Following his return, he married and opened a haberdashery in Kansas City.


"During his few weeks as Vice President, Harry S. Truman scarcely saw President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and received no briefing on the development of the atomic bomb or the unfolding difficulties with Soviet Russia. Suddenly these and a host of other wartime problems became Truman's to solve when, on April 12, 1945, he became President. He told reporters, 'I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me.'"


"In June 1945 Truman witnessed the signing of the charter of the United Nations, hopefully established to preserve peace. Thus far, he had followed his predecessor's policies, but he soon developed his own. He presented to Congress a 21-point program, proposing the expansion of Social Security, a full-employment program, a permanent Fair Employment Practices Act, and public housing and slum clearance. The program, Truman wrote, 'symbolizes for me my assumption of the office of President in my own right.' It became known as the Fair Deal."



"When the Russians blockaded the western sectors of Berlin in 1948, Truman created a massive airlift to supply Berliners until the Russians backed down. Meanwhile, he was negotiating a military alliance to protect Western nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), established in 1949."

"In June 1950, when the Communist government of North Korea attacked South Korea, Truman conferred promptly with his military advisers. There was, he wrote, '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.'"



Taken from the official Biography for Harry S. Truman.

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