Probably the most successful businessman to ever become president was Herbert Hoover (sure other presidents had been wealthier, but Hoover was completely self-made) and NOBODY would call Hoover a good president.
Harry Truman was a failure as a businessman and by nearly all accounts one of the best presidents of the 20th Century.
The USSR was in charge of American Troops during parts of
the Korean Police Action.
All Military plans were run through the USSR while they
were in charge.
Which led to SEATO and the Vietnam war which the
politicians of both parties were determined not to win.
Too bad he was a liberal Democrat.
Wagglebee: Harry Truman was a failure as a businessman and by nearly all accounts one of the best presidents of the 20th Century.
Are you a conservative freeper or a liberal historian?
Truman was an unqualified (least qualified in recent history till Obama) product of a corrupt Kansas City political machine (another similarity to Obama) and an epic fail on domestic and foreign policy.
He was horrendously unpopular for most of his Presidency. "To err is Truman" was the saying. After his death haughty historians decided they liked him and suddenly he's "great".
Add in misplaced adulation for him fulfilling his minimum job requirement during WW2, the popular and foolish myth that democrats were "good and honorable" before the 60's and a lot of bizarre simpatico on the part of Bush and other prominent Republicans cause he was a "War President" (zippity do dah) and you a have a popular image that is in starker contrast with reality than perhaps any other President.
From a issues perceptive and from a popularity perspective he was crap. Communism exploded as the Soviets occupied and enslaved millions and he did nothing expect give billions of taxpayer dollars away to Western Europe and mismanage the Korean War.
As a typical union owned dem he vetoed the much needed Taft-Hartley act. Read his speeches on domestic policy, sounds exactly like Al Gore. Pure class warfare 'GOP wants to take the bottle of our your babies' mouth' crap.
It's a testament to how bad FDR, Johnson, Carter and Clinton (though in writing this I'm feeling maybe Clinton was as quite as harmful) were that he's not the worst modern President.
Perhaps this post qualifies as a tirade but I'm sick of the casual admiration some freepers have for this awful socialist President. If FR existed in the late 40's every thread would have been about how much Truman needed to take a long walk off a short pier. Some liberal eggheads decide he was great and people just swallow it.