Peter Beck's Reviews > Truman

"Truman" is like a balm to the soul given the endless sewage spewing from Trump and his sycophants. Honesty, modesty, loyalty, diligence, and thoughtfulness are the first first words that come to mind to describe HST after reading "Truman." How I miss those qualities in a president.

After struggling through the first chapter on Harry's family background, I found "Truman" hard to put down. David McCullough is such a great writer and has the sources to back him up. I grew up hearing my father frequently exclaim Truman's most well-know sayings, "If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen" and "The buck stops here." He recently told me Truman remains his favorite president (and the first that he can remember). Truman is now in my top five.

McCullough does not describe Truman as an "accidental president," but in many ways he was. Few thought he would be nominated as FDR's vice president in 1944. Reading "Truman" leads me to conclude that the two qualities that catapulted him were his competence running the Senate's "Truman Commission" (military procurement oversight) and inoffensiveness to the Democrats' key constituencies.

I thought McCullough went into just the right amount of detail about Truman's decision to drop the atomic bombs on Japan (about 20 pages) and Truman's election in 1948 (a full chapter), which remains the biggest come-from-behind presidential election victory of all time.

McCullough did not go into enough detail about the lengths the Truman Administration went to try keep China from going Communist (other than that he dispatched Gen. George Marshall), given that "losing China" (as if it was America's to lose) would become a key element in McCarthy/Nixon's Commie witch hunt.

I also wish McCullough had gone into more detail about the origins of the Korean War, especially given that Truman himself points to it as the biggest decision he faced during his presidency. In particular, McCullough states, "Describing the perimeter of American interests in the Pacific in an extemporaneous speech at the National Press Club in January [six months before the outbreak of war], [Secretary of State] Acheson had not even included Korea. (The charge made later that the speech had thus inspired the Communist attack on South Korea would prove groundless)" (p. 777). I have a problem with McCullough's parenthetical statement as most Korean War specialists would insist Acheson was signaling that the U.S. would not intervene if the North attacked the South. Unfortunately, McCullough does not try to defend his statement or provide a footnote to substantiate it.

I had been lugging the "Truman" behemoth around for over 25 years. I bought it during grad school because of my study of Korea. One advantage of waiting so long to read it was that I could read Smith's brilliant "FDR" (2007) first. It is the perfect lead-in as it literally ends with Truman being sworn in. It also helps you appreciate just how different Truman was from FDR, or as one of Truman's more colorful aides put it, it was like the difference between "caviar" and "ham and eggs." You also develop a better understanding of some of the key individuals that served both presidents, like Stimson, Marshall, Ike and Gen. MacArthur. Most interestingly, Churchill comes across as a much heavier drinker in "FDR" than in "Truman."

My main reason for giving four rather than five stars is that at least 100 pages should be cut. I thought Edmond Morris's 800+ pages on TR before he became president was just right, but 340 pages is too much for Harry. I would also delete detailed dinner menus and the section on corruption scandals during Truman's second term as they were trivial in significance.

Having read "John Adams" first, I couldn't help but wonder why McCullough focused on these two presidents for his most fulsome biographies. They seemingly have even less in common than FDR and Truman. I suspect it is that both had such compelling relationships with their families and a key friend (Jefferson for Adams and Acheson for Truman). We can appreciate these relationships because McCullough could pour through and quote from the THOUSANDS of letters each one left. In contrast, Jefferson, Madison and many others remain enigmatic. For example, we still have no idea what Jefferson thought of his mother or his wife, not to mention his favorite slave mistress.

So what's next? First I want to tell you what I will not be reading. I found a copy of Hamby's "Man of the People" (1994) at one of my libraries for $1. Steve had noted that Hamby provides a great assessment of Truman, but after an hour I determined the book adds almost nothing. After taking a break to read "The Final Founding Father" (Monroe), as a result of Steve's reviews I plan to read "Eisenhower: A Soldier's Life" and "Eisenhower: The White House Years." I'll also read "Acheson" when I make my second presidential bio pass through. I had also put "American Cesar" on my list, but MacArthur comes across so poorly in "Truman" that I am having second thoughts...