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Harry Truman

Filed Under American History 

I’ve been thinking about possible similarities between Harry Truman and Sarah Palin, not so much because they are alike, but because the modus operandi of the attacks on Palin could have been used against Harry Truman

  • Truman had no formal college education
  • Truman was a serial failed enrepreneur
  • Truman was part of the corrupt Prendergast machine in Kansas City

There is no real similarity there, but imagine if Harry Truman was a Republican candidate today – I can certainly see a scenario in which the left would attack him in the same way they attack Palin ( a dumb rural hick). Truman certainly had none of the intellectual accomplishments that the Washington intelligentsia require as a pre-requisite for office. But look at what this “dumb hick” accomplished:

  • The end of the Second world war
  • The setting of boundaries with the USSR
  • The Berlin airlift
  • The Marshall Plan
  • The Korean War (not necessarily an accomplishment, but a significant event)
  • The recognition of Israel
  • The Senate confirmation of NATO

And that’s only foreign policy. My favourite act of his was threatening to call up striking miners into the military. Maggie would have approved.

Truman left office with the lowest Presidential approval rating in history (22 points), but he is probably my favourite President not called Abe, even surpassing Reagan in my view.

OK, the Palin thing doesn’t really work, it was an idea I ditched, but I thought the occasional historical discussion would be interesting and Harry Truman is a great place to start.

His Wikipedia page

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Comments

9 Responses to “Harry Truman”

  1. THX1138 on July 16th, 2009 10:41 pm

    Guys Just wanted to say I’m off to America for 3 weeks in the morning I will try and pop in as much as possible.

    Have a great time … I miss you all already :)

  2. Ronnie on July 17th, 2009 8:57 am

    Have a great time THX. I hope you don’t get blogger’s twitch.

  3. Ronnie on July 17th, 2009 9:00 am

    This is a response to Hayward’s post about Truman which he made on one of the recent ‘we hate the air that Obama breathes and the baseball jackets that he wears’ threads.

    Hayward, I largely agree with your point about the A-bombing of Japan but you have to remember that the two ‘live tests’ were more about impressing Stalin than anything else.

  4. Conservative Cabbie on July 17th, 2009 9:05 am

    Ronnie/Hayward

    If the bombs hadn’t been dropped on Japan, someone would have got an itchy finger at some time, most likely when they had access to much more powerful bombs. Not very nice for the residents of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, but I think many more lives would have been lost if they hadn’t been dropped. It’s telling that nuclear weapons haven’t been used since.

  5. Hayward Maberley on July 17th, 2009 9:14 am

    Mr Cabbie, Ronnie,
    Yes it was an error on my part to leave out the fact that Uncle Joe, no longer the “nice guy” had to have impressed upon him that he was not the only tough kid on the block.

    If it was done fro that reason, and that reason alone, that makes it a culpable act in my estimation. Shorten the war, bring the troops home OK, but the other. Loss of moral compass I would say.

  6. Verity on July 18th, 2009 2:34 am

    CC – I think both Maggie and RR would regard Harry Truman as a fine thinker and a brave man. As indeed he was. I suspect the Iron Duke would rather have approved, as well.

    And Napoléon might have tipped his swanky hat

    It is indeed, telling, CC, that nuclear weapons have not (yet) been employed since. And frankly, no one more richly deserved them than the Japanese of that era.

    My point is, with Harry Truman as the very brave catalyst, the USSR had an itchy instinct that RR and Thatcher might be similarly inclined. President Reagan said, “Bring down this wall!” and students on the other side grabbed the moment and brought it down themselves. Without a nuclear bomb. But it would not have happened without previous nuclear bombs bravely ordered by President Harry Truman.

  7. Verity on July 18th, 2009 2:55 am

    Oh, we were supposed to be relating this to Sarah Palin.

    If she can face a 1,500 lb moose coming at her at speed and can take stand her ground and take it out with one shot, she’d have the nerve.

  8. Conservative Cabbie on July 18th, 2009 7:48 am

    Verity

    No, we don’t have to relate it to Palin, I find Truman fascinating and happy to talk just about him.

    Truman had two assets that compensated for his non-intellectual mind. Very good advisors and a skill at making good decisions that he stuck too. That’s the type of politician we need nowadays.

  9. Ronnie on July 18th, 2009 8:02 am

    Oh not the moose again… :-)

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