Truman, Harry (1884–1972)

BASED ON HIS early life as a Missouri farmer, cattleman, and failed investor, Harry Truman seemed an unlikely candidate for the highest political office in the United States. On April 12, 1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR, 1882–1945) died at the Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia, after winning an unprecedented fourth term in November 1944. In that election, Truman had been on the ticket with Roosevelt for the first time. After only a few weeks as vice president and with insufficient time to settle into politics on such a large scale, Truman became the 33rd president of the United States.

One of Truman's major tasks as president was to continue Roosevelt's war on white-collar crime, particularly the ban on war profiteering and the fight against waste and corruption in government contracts. Once the war was over, Truman's Department of Justice turned its attention to policing crimes that evolved from the Cold War. This task was made more complicated by the antics of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, which insisted that there were communists strategically placed at all levels of American government. Federal prosecutors were forced to walk a tightrope between prosecuting genuine white-collar crimes and pursuing the alleged crimes reported by participants in what became known as the Red Scare.

As the new president, Truman accepted the responsibility of leading the country through the final days of World War II and establishing the United States as the major player in a new interdependent world and serving as the guiding force of the newly established United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Truman's most momentous decision came early in his presidency when he made the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945, and on Nagasaki, Japan, three days later in order to bring World War II to a formal close.

Roosevelt was admittedly a hard act to follow, but Truman had already made a name for himself during his 10 years in the Senate through hard work and ingenuity, often bucking the political machines that ruled political parties in the 1940s. After being notified by a number of sources about the waste and corrupt practices of government contractors and subcontractors, Senator Truman managed to convince his colleagues to establish the Senate Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, which became known as the Truman Committee that investigated the military and defense industries and ultimately saved the government over $15 billion.

This committee became the vehicle by which Truman received FDR's attention and admiration and launched Truman as a vice presidential candidate. As president, Truman followed many of Roosevelt's plans for postwar America and adhered to almost all of FDR's plans for the United Nations. Truman did, however, develop his own leadership style and implemented new policy initiatives. In addition to his stint in Congress, Truman had served in World War I and as a judge in Missouri. This experience gave him a unique perspective on how the three branches of government worked together.

Although Truman became president through the death of FDR, in the 1948 election he was forced to run on his own record as the leader of the post-war Democratic party. When the Republican[Page 816] Congress refused to implement his policies, Truman called them into special session. Truman then made their inaction a major element of his campaign. During the election, Truman promised to establish the Fair Deal policy, continuing the liberalism that had turned the country around during the Great Depression. Truman's Fair Deal consisted of over 30 propositions for government initiated reforms that centered around four major groups.

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