After years of drift and failure, Harry Truman had finally settled into a career. Truman told Stevenson: "Adlai, if a knucklehead like me can be President and not do too badly, think what a really educated smart guy like you could do in the job.". But did the American people want someone who was simply ordinary to lead them? NARRATOR: Truman's Republican opponent was everything Truman was not. ", "... why don't you go ahead and act in this national crisis?". And end up with a crash which in the long run will do nobody any good but the communists. 8:15 A.M. -- The atomic bomb dropped clear of the Enola Gay. VERNON JARRETT, Journalist: The armed forces, the seat of segregation, the seat of racism, and to have him issue that order, for whatever reason, was a great leap forward in history. But his father's gamble on the grain markets proved disastrous, and the Trumans lost everything they owned. He was not troubled by any obligations he had. Forty-three seconds later, it exploded over Hiroshima. Lainie Gallers He knew the old man was mad. Andreas Engelhardt | 19.01.2017 14:32 We want to hear what you have to say but need to verify your email. I'm all puffed up and hilarious and happy. ROBERT DONOVAN, Journalist: He was saying good-bye to everybody and so forth and Alben Barkley, a very good-hearted man, came up and said, "Give 'em hell, Harry!" Sidney Poitier’s 7 Most Memorable Performances, All Harry Potter Movies Ranked Worst to Best by Tomatometer. A tense atmosphere prevails, for the nation's lawmakers realize that this may be the curtain raiser for events that will shape the destiny of America and the world. ALONZO HAMBY, Biographer: Truman was the ordinary American democrat, small "D.". Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Harvard College Library Apr 27, 2017. Truman was going to stop them. But he never gave up. He had no doubts at all of that. The operation failed. The pain is salved too by the soulful dog, first-class production and locations in Canada, Madrid and Amsterdam, a stylish sound track, and nice dark credits for drying any tears. The train's starting out on a Sunday afternoon, so everyone's writing about "give 'em hell.". David Thaxton  In 1900, Harry and his father went to the Democratic National Convention in Kansas City. And so, I think, were they. We'd have been away from there if he had. The Truman years were to be as eventful as any in our time. Secretary of War Stimson wrote in his diary that the President was "tremendously pepped up." NARRATOR: In 1944, a little-known Senator from Missouri was campaigning for the office of Vice President. Harry was responsible for 700 employees and seven million dollars a year. ", ROBERT DONOVAN, Journalist: Harry was a fresh and fast and darting about, and, the contrast sort of hit them. DAVID MCCULLOUGH, Biographer: Truman had to step onto the world stage with two of the most colossal figures of the century, two consummate performers, consummate actors who are very accustomed to commanding the stage. NARRATOR: Truman was determined to keep prices from rising. NARRATOR: The day after the bomb fell on Nagasaki, Truman had told his cabinet that "the thought of wiping out another 100,000 people was too horrible." Harry Truman came from a background of hard-working, plain-speaking middle Americans. ROBERT DONOVAN, Journalist: From the beginning Dewey was transfixed by polls and by Time Magazine and everyone else who was boosting him for President. Why do you insist on goin' into China. Listen to what he says, "Please convey my congratulations to your loyal wife, charming daughter and dear mother -- whose great joy and happiness is shared by thousands of Americans. "Here we have the making of a veritable Gestapo.". Brought up to honor the difference between right and wrong, Harry found it more and more difficult to deal with the man to whom he owed his job. They were simply overwhelmed. Determined to help support his family, he headed for nearby Kansas City. Essentially after he signs the order at Potsdam, it's all on automatic pilot and, unless he changes his mind, up to the military. But Truman always remained himself. He called Roosevelt "the greatest of the greats.". "I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. And the father said, "Any little boy that cries when he falls off the pony has to walk home." NARRATOR: On June 30th, the President approved the use of a combat team and two divisions in Korea. DAVID MCCULLOUGH, Biographer: They kept him waiting 'til almost two o'clock in the morning. "When I woke up he was dead." A family that was prominent and recognized. Thankfully, the police formed a kind of phalanx around us, and we were able to get into a waiting car outside, where Mom looked at Dad, glared at him, and said, "Are we going to have to go through this for all the rest of our lives?". But his efforts to stand firm were challenged by two blows that came in swift succession. DAVID MCCULLOUGH, Biographer: Bess Wallace and her family lived in one of the biggest houses in Independence. Harry Truman's qualities as a tough-talking, decisive president would gain him international respect. I don't want it to become controversial. And saw how badly he looked. PAT HANNEGAN, Daughter of Democratic Party Chairman: Once he was in it he was all the way in it. Comedy. In spite of the assurances he had given the President, MacArthur, hopelessly outnumbered, was powerless to stop them. He went to concerts, theater and vaudeville, saw the four Cohans and Sara Bernhardt. Liz Safly ROBERT DONOVAN, Journalist: There was no air-conditioning, and it was from the beginning a sweltering convention, in the hotel rooms as well as in the hall. Near death, the wiry, once ambitious man looked back on his life. DOROTHY HEIGHT, National Council of Negro Women: Well, I think everybody was thrilled...And I think the appearance that he had with the NAACP resounded all over. William S. Konecky Associates 1955, ISBN 978-1-56852-062-9 (Band 1) Harry S. Truman Memoirs By Harry S. Truman… Coming Soon. Truman, many Americans, were saying was a man of the people. NARRATOR: On May 8th, Truman's 61st birthday, Nazi Germany surrendered. He's been hooked on this woman ever since he met her at the age of five, and he has never been able to get interested in any other women since. But what Harry doesn't understand and what he's never good at is that you buy low and you sell high. ALONZO HAMBY, Biographer: He's this young kid who looks sort of like a sissy. The President might have warned the Japanese with a demonstration bomb, might have blockaded their islands until they surrendered, might have assured the Japanese that they could keep their Emperor. Harry was one of the few boys in town who went to high school. House Radio-Television Gallery Cara White, A David Grubin Productions, Inc Film for THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE. Vanessa Ezersky PAT HANNEGAN, Daughter of Democratic Party Chairman: I think he was somewhat excited. Oh, she didn't mind telling you that even though he was the President of the United States, that she didn't care much for him or for his mother. When she was in the White House she used to have her old bridge club from Independence, Missouri come up. You see what a rugged character he is. GENERAL VERNON WALTERS, Lieutenant Colonel, US Army: I always remember this -- he said, "Tell the President I will land at Inchon on the 15th of September. And the cheering and the affection that was expressed by the crowd. An avowed segregationist, he was unacceptable to liberals. NARRATOR: Harry borrowed several thousand dollars against his livestock, and gambled it on a zinc mine. But Harry didn't feel sorry for himself for long. Canine power is far from the only thing the film has got going for it. He was very different from what we had thought of in terms of a person of his background. He wanted to blockade the Chinese coast and bomb the Chinese mainland. He told an aide that Truman was worthless. You're almost there! Just 13 days in office, Truman was handed a memorandum by Secretary of War Stimson: "Within four months," Truman read, "we shall in all probability have completed the most terrible weapon ever known in human history.". DAVID MCCULLOUGH, Biographer: One July night in 1944, the big bosses met with Franklin Roosevelt and it was a very hot night, very humid with the long French doors open to the air and the curtain blowing and what little breeze there was, and they all sat around in their shirt sleeves, perspiring, talking about who ought to be the Vice Presidential choice. VICTOR REUTHER, Assistant to the President, UAW: This was a terribly important decision, also it was a compassionate one, and understood as such. "I'm not going to tremble like a psychopath before the Russians," he told a worried Senator. WILBUR SPARKS, Truman Investigating Committee: The White House didn't like the idea at all. Margaret had studied to become a singer, and the grieving President kept his promise to hear her perform. I have tried to stick. Pendergast was seriously ill, his gambling out of control, his debts in the millions. NARRATOR: When Truman took the oath of office, Americans were fighting the greatest war in history. He thought you had to work hard. NARRATOR: For nearly eight years, Harry worked at his father's side. NARRATOR: Like Harry's mother, John Truman also came from pioneer stock. It was a dismal convention from the start because the convention thought that they were gonna nominate a loser. He called his economic aid program -- the Marshal Plan, after his Secretary of State George Marshal, a man who commanded the respect of the entire country. The question is, how do you negotiate the Russian armies out of Central and Eastern Europe? STUART CANIN, Violinist: The man had great feeling for music. Battery D had escaped without a single casualty. William Rexer, Gaffers  August 9, 11:00 A.M. -- a second atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese seaport of Nagasaki. The President was ill. DAVID MCCULLOUGH, Biographer: There was that little boy up every morning at 5 o'clock, for two hours in absolute earnest before going to school, sitting there in the half-light working away at Mozart or Chopin. A superb tennis player, the best female fencer in town, and a terrific third baseman. Please reference “Error Code 2121” when contacting customer service. And that was the -- that has no limits, had no limits. Once he heard Theodore Roosevelt speak from the back of a railroad car. And it just looked like a sure thing. NARRATOR: Truman was appalled by what he saw. On February 10, 1941, Senator Truman proposed the formation of a committee to investigate the entire national Defense Program. By the end of 1950, he is sending in a defense budget of $50 billion dollars. They wanted higher wages, and they wanted Truman to hold the line on prices. NARRATOR: "The popular boys were the ones who were good at games and had big, tight fists," Truman remembered years later. NARRATOR: The day after Truman learned of the bomb's power, he confronted Stalin with new confidence. He presented, the Cold War as a kind of crusade against communist totalitarianism. KEN HECHLER, White House Assistant: It was simply, actually a dipping into almost the bottom of the barrel, you could almost say, to appoint as Vice President, and to select as Vice President on the ticket, a man who didn't have anything against him. Harry Truman came into the presidency with an extremely humble attitude and his wife dreaded the thought of this taking place. He let it be known that he wanted to run for Governor, or Congress. A tough, backstage operator, he would build a political machine so strong and control it with such an iron grip that one day pundits would call Kansas City "Tom's Town.". The question was to stop the killing. And at one point they decided it would be dramatic if Truman arrived by plane. He comes to be the person that a public fed up with one strike after another blames for labor disorder. He'd grown up in town, he'd gone to work in the bank, he had clerks jobs, he looked like a clerk. Why don't you respect your obligations," and so on. One month later Stalin declared that communism and capitalism were incompatible. While Nazi Germany was crumbling, the Japanese remained a dangerous, unyielding enemy. Truman and MacArthur would never see each other again. And then he slumped in his chair and he -- he said, "You know, there must be a thousand people in this town who can do the job better than I can." There are no approved quotes yet for this movie. FLOYD BORING, Secret Service: Oh, man, tension? ", Harry Truman was 33 years old and had failed at everything he had tried. The 1944 Democratic Convention focused on who would be nominated for the Vice Presidency. You're god damn right I noticed it. VERNON JARRETT, Journalist: I felt that the man was out of his element. DAVID MCCULLOUGH, Biographer: I once asked Mae Wallace, Harry Truman's sister-in-law, if it was true that Mrs. Wallace, her mother-in-law Madge Wallace, didn't think that Harry was good enough for Bess. But Truman had paid a high price. It was a total crusade. It was just a joyous ride back to Independence. NARRATOR: While the President was rescuing Europe and mobilizing Americans to fight communism overseas, Republicans charged that there were communists here at home -- in Truman's own administration. NARRATOR: The strike was over. Mr. Vernon Jarrett David Murdock, Cinematography ARCHIVAL SOUND ON FILM: DEWEY "I've sent the following wire to President Truman. He admires him on the one-hand, doesn't quite trust him on the other hand. NARRATOR: Truman challenged the Republicans to live up to their promises. Reporters named him one of the ten most valuable men in Washington. By November, the war to end all wars was over. Five weeks before he took office, American planes dropped 2,000tons of napalm on Tokyo, burning 16 square miles of the city to the ground. NARRATOR: Truman smiled when he saw the newsreel, as did most of America, but Bess is said to have told her husband she wished she had swung the bottle at him. "We started the United Nations," he told an aide. NARRATOR: Truman had come into the Presidency bewildered and frightened. Bring the General home. Major funding for THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE is provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. "Dear Bess, People seem to think our... project has some merit. NARRATOR: On December 26, 1972, Harry Truman died. Harris & Ewing Photos Courtesy Of Stock Montage, Inc.  "I was never like that. He'd done his duty. NARRATOR: On June 1, with the struggle for Okinawa reaching a climax, Truman received a report from a committee he had appointed to study the atomic bomb. NARRATOR: In a dilapidated Chevrolet, Truman and MacArthur set off for a private meeting. |, April 13, 2017 The men, stunned by his rage, inspired by his courage, did as they were told. CLARK CLIFFORD, White House Counsel: Great cheers. MACARTHUR ADDRESSES JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS: "I still remember the refrain of one of the most popular barrack ballads of that day which proclaimed most proudly that 'Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.'. The war had been over for more than two years, and western Europe seemed on the verge of collapse. After 20 years in the wilderness, the Republicans had re-captured the White House. The spotlight, the limelight, did not appeal to Bess Truman ever. He was an enormously hard worker, but he thought you needed some luck in order to get rich. You see this kid who looks sort of like Little Lord Fauntleroy dressed up in his Sunday best, sort of pudgy, wearing these big thick glasses in a day when it was very unusual for a kid to wear eyeglasses. Now for the first time, he began to reveal his own ambitions. When he woke up, he learned he had pulled off the greatest upset in the history of American politics. The Truman has a weighted core, texturised grip, and rubberised body for maximum control. This is MacArthur, the invincible, the infallible, but he had failed. St. Louis Post-Dispatch GENERAL EDWIN SIMMONS, Marine Corps Historian: MacArthur was received in a tumultuous fashion in every city, ticker-tape parades, Joint session of Congress. On his first full day in office, Truman surprised everyone with his show of energy and confidence. But he could not win the praise of Bess' mother, who disapproved of politics. Gambling, bootleg liquor, prostitution, narcotics -- Pendergast was into all of it. LUCIUS BATTLE, State Department: It became very popular, very quickly. And he courted her with a shadow over him as the beginning of Enola. A hardened veteran of the biggest turnouts the town square for reunions they were from... 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