Defend the Indefensible: Harry S. Truman

ok but what the hell kind of url is that

I knew you'd like that.

for a guy whose reputation has just soared and soared in the last few decades, to the point where you hear politicians citing him as a role model more than FDR, truman sure was universally detested in his day -- he still holds the record for an all-time low approval rating at the end of his term.

funny bob dylan quote, when someone asked him if he ever dreamed of being president as a boy: "who'd want to be harry truman?"

The best dressed of 20th century presidents. The dude could wear a double-breasted suit.

World War I vet as well -- his letters home and related papers here. A sample from one of the many to his then-fiancee Bess:

I wrote you several letters from the last town I was in and told you how I came back to the regiment, am a Captain and a lot of things like that. Now some other censor has decided that we should not have mentioned places and I am much afraid all that mail is destroyed. Some day they will get the things all straightened out.

Your letters of the 14th and 19th of June were here at camp when I arrived and you may be sure I am most happy to get them. You couldn't possibly write me a silly letter. I am disappointed that you should think of tearing up one they are so very valuable. We work like thunder and cuss the things we have to do sometimes especially when some chippie whose (sic) been to school since the war began and has never seen a man nor a horse tries to make things clear and easy for us when along comes a letter from home saying we are heroes and puffing us all up until we don't have a worry in the world but to make good and win the war.

We moved from our billets at the beautiful old French town I told you of and are now at a large artillery camp with the whole brigade. We are going to shoot every day for a while and then we hope to shoot some Huns.

You've no idea how sorry I am to hear of your mother's illness and I most sincerely hope you have succeeded in making her well again. I should certainly like to see Fred* washing dishes. I bet he can't do it any better than I can. Your cornbread I know would be the finest to be had as would anything else you'd make. I wish I could only have a hunk of it. We get plentyto eat but of course it's not like yours and mother's cooking. I hope your grandfather[19] is much better now and that by the time you read this letter that you won't have a thing to worry about but how quickly I'll be home to march down the aisle with you.

I'm amused by this one as well -- a friendly little 'yeah, hope I'll be able to make the reunion!' note in the middle of the electoral campaign of his life.

According to the McCullough bio, he really was as no-nonsense as his publicists claimed – in the best sense of the word. The consequences could be dire, too. I'm still struggling to understand the situation at Potsdam: to what degree did Truman comprehend the complex series of nods and hints that FDR gave Stalin re Soviet intentions in Berlin and Eastern Europe, and Churchill's own written go-ahead to Stalin about keeping Poland, the Baltic states, etc.

alfred -- check out charles mee's "meeting at potsdam" for some good insight into that.

truman actually came to regret the creation of the CIA and recommended in an interview with merle miller late in life that it be disbanded and replaced with a more accountable agency.

oh, well that makes up for it

A lot of Truman can be blamed on FDR's clandestine semiotics: he told so many advisors so many different things, and met Truman just twice after inauguration, that it's no wonder Truman had to improvise.

david brooks longs for the days of a tight-knit "bipartisan" washington oligarchy:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/01/opinion/01brooks.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin

could play the piano AND callously incinerate hundreds of thousands

That Merle Miller "oral biography" of Truman is pretty wild to read.

Especially when HST uses the word "nigger" on every other page.

OMG he used the word "chippie"! That is my favorite word for a floozy!

"Nigger" however is not my favorite anything.

created the illegal CIA

Congress approved its charter.

http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/specialy/twinpeaks/foto/twin_peaks_12.jpg

can't believe no-one did this

truman deserves some shit for creating the CIA but it was a reasonably defensible agency until eisenhower took over and started using it to overthrow liberal foreign governments.