Truman was actually a very effective and honest senator. Prewar, we gained public attention for fighting waste in defense contracting, making sure the public got something like a dollar’s worth of goods for a dollar. He was selected to be vice president in a back room deal in 1944 because Democratic Party bosses feared that Roosevelt would not survive his fourth term and did not want Soviet sympathizer and fellow traveler Henry Wallace to become president. The difference between Wallace and Truman is like the difference between Obama and JFK.
For all his faults, there is no doubt that Truman loved his country. Truman loved and admired her armed forces as well. He served in combat as an artillery captain in France. Truman was far from alone in his inability to esteem General MacArthur as only MacArthur could, and among those who shared his estimation were a great many senior military officers.
Truman got so many of the big issues right: his estimation of Stalin, his integration of the armed forces, his recognition of Israel. Perhaps there is some ideal president who could have done everything better, but in all likelihood any other president would have made far more missteps than Truman did while playing his hand without the benefit of hindsight.
... and don’t forget the A-Bomb. Thank God for Harry Truman.
Thank you for giving a far more comprehensive and gentlemanly reply to DingleBerry than I ever could/would have.
:-)
I’d like to see another HST come up from either political party...
I don’t disagree with anything you write. But he got to Washington as part of one helluva political machine. He was not a naive country boy—as many portray him. And corrupt would be another way of describing his early career. Once he got to DC he started seeing REAL corruption.