Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman
Official portrait, c. 1947
33rd President of the United States
In office April 12, 1945 – January 20, 1953
Vice President	None (1945–1949)[a] Alben W. Barkley (1949–1953)
Preceded by	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Succeeded by	Dwight D. Eisenhower
34th Vice President of the United States
In office January 20, 1945 – April 12, 1945
President	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded by	Henry A. Wallace
Succeeded by	Alben W. Barkley
United States Senator from Missouri
In office January 3, 1935 – January 17, 1945
Preceded by	Roscoe C. Patterson
Succeeded by	Frank P. Briggs
Presiding Judge of Jackson County, Missouri
In office January 1, 1927[1] – January 1, 1935[1]
Preceded by	Elihu W. Hayes[2]
Succeeded by	Eugene I. Purcell[3]
Judge of Jackson County, Missouri's Eastern District
In office January 1, 1923[4] – January 1, 1925[4]
Preceded by	James E. Gilday[5]
Succeeded by	Henry Rummel[3]
Personal details
Born	(1884-05-08)May 8, 1884 Lamar, Missouri, U.S.
Died	December 26, 1972(1972-12-26) (aged 88) Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.
Resting place	Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, Independence, Missouri
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Bess Wallace ​ (m. 1919)​
Children	Margaret Truman
Parent	Martha Ellen Young (mother)
Relatives	Clifton Truman Daniel (grandson) Clifton Daniel (son-in-law)
Occupation	Farmer haberdasher politician
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch/service	United States Army
Years of service	1905–1911 (National Guard) 1917–1919 (Army) 1920–1953 (Army Reserve)
Rank	Colonel (Army Reserve)
Commands	Battery D, 129th Field Artillery Regiment, 35th Division 1st Battalion, 379th Field Artillery Regiment, 102nd Infantry Division 379th Field Artillery Regiment, 102nd Infantry Division
Battles	World War I Battle of Saint-Mihiel Meuse–Argonne offensive Defensive Sector
Awards	World War I Victory Medal Armed Forces Reserve Medal (2)
Harry S. Truman's voice Excerpt from a radio broadcast regarding the Potsdam Conference Recorded November 1948

Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972) was an American lawyer and politician who was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a United States senator from Missouri from 1935 to 1945 and briefly in 1945 as the 34th vice president of the United States under Franklin D. Roosevelt. Assuming the presidency after Roosevelt's death, Truman implemented the Marshall Plan in the wake of World War II to rebuild the economy of Western Europe and established both the Truman Doctrine and NATO to contain the expansion of Soviet communism. He proposed numerous liberal domestic reforms, but few were enacted by the conservative coalition that dominated Congress.

Truman was raised in Independence, Missouri, and during World War I fought in France as a captain in the Field Artillery. Returning home, he opened a haberdashery in Kansas City, Missouri, and was elected as a judge of Jackson County in 1922. Truman was elected to the United States Senate from Missouri in 1934. Between 1940 and 1944, he gained national prominence as chairman of the Truman Committee, which was aimed at reducing waste and inefficiency in wartime contracts.

Truman was elected vice president in the 1944 presidential election and became president upon Roosevelt's death in April 1945. Only then was he told about the ongoing Manhattan Project and the atomic bomb. Truman authorized the first and only use of nuclear weapons in war against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Truman's administration engaged in an internationalist foreign policy by working closely with Britain. Truman staunchly denounced isolationism. He energized the New Deal coalition during the 1948 presidential election, despite a divided Democratic Party, and won a surprise victory against Republican Party nominee Thomas E. Dewey that secured his own presidential term.

Truman presided over the onset of the Cold War in 1947. He oversaw the Berlin Airlift and Marshall Plan in 1948. With the involvement of the US in the Korean War of 1950–1953, South Korea repelled the invasion by North Korea. Domestically, the postwar economic challenges such as strikes and inflation created a mixed reaction over the effectiveness of his administration. In 1948, he proposed Congress pass comprehensive civil rights legislation. Congress refused, so Truman issued Executive Order 9980 and Executive Order 9981, which prohibited discrimination in federal agencies and desegregated the U.S. Armed Forces.

Investigations revealed corruption in parts of the Truman administration, and this became a major campaign issue in the 1952 presidential election, although they did not implicate Truman himself. He was eligible for reelection in 1952 but, with poor polling, he chose not to run. Truman went into a retirement marked by the founding of his presidential library and the publication of his memoirs. It was long thought that his retirement years were financially difficult for Truman, resulting in Congress establishing a pension for former presidents, but evidence eventually emerged that he amassed considerable wealth, some of it while still president. When he left office, Truman's administration was heavily criticized. Despite this controversy, scholars rank Truman in the first quartile of American presidents. In addition, critical reassessment of his presidency has improved his reputation among historians and the general population.^[6]

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