BIOGRAPHY:
*Truman became the 33rd president and commander in chief of U.S. forces during World War II.
* He made the decision to drop two atomic bombs on Japan in August of 1945, finally ending the war
* He created the Truman Doctrine which stated that it was the duty of the U.S. to "support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressures."
* Truman agreed to help rebuild Europe in what was called the Marshall Plan
33rd President
Term-Apr.12,1945-Jan.20,1953
Death: Dec.,26,1972- (age-87) Independence, Mo.
Harry Truman became president of the United States after the death of Franklin Roosevelt on 12 April 1945. Roosevelt was already the longest-serving president in U.S. history when he chose Truman, then a senator from Missouri, to be his vice presidential candidate in 1944. When Roosevelt died suddenly the next year, Truman became the 33rd president and commander in chief of U.S. forces during World War II. He made the decision to drop two atomic bombs on Japan in August of 1945, finally ending the war. On May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered, ending World War II in Europe. On August 6, 1945 the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. The second atomic bomb was dropped August 9 on Nagasaki.August 14, announced the final surrender of Japan. On April 11,1951,Truman relieved General MacArthur of Far Eastern command because of failure to heed presidential directive. Truman steered the U.S. through the post-war period with the no-nonsense Midwestern style and colorful harangues of Congress that are now his hallmark. He placed on his desk a plaque reading "The buck stops here," a reference to the notion of avoiding responsibility by "passing the buck." Truman was re-elected in 1948 in a contest many expected him to lose to the Republican candidate, Governor Thomas Dewey of New York. A famous photograph shows Truman holding up a premature edition of the Chicago Tribune with the headline "Dewey Defeats Truman." Truman tangled diplomatically with the Soviet Union in Berlin and elsewhere, founding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and setting the tone for the nearly five decades of the Cold War that followed. He gave up politics at the end of his second term, due in part to public discontent with the U.S. involvement in the Korean War. He was succeeded as president by Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Extra: Harry Truman was president during the Nuremberg Trials which punished 22 Nazi leaders for numerous crimes including crimes against humanity. 19 of them were found guilty. Also, the United Nations was created in order to try and avoid future world wars and to help settle conflicts peacefully. Truman also created the Truman Doctrine which stated that it was the duty of the U.S. to "support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressures." Truman agreed to help rebuild Europe in what was called the Marshall Plan. Additionally, in 1948, The Jewish people created the state of Israel in Palestine. The U.S. was among the first to recognize the new nation. Truman stated, "America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and unbeatable determination to do the job at hand." The "S" in Harry S. Truman is just an initial; it doesn't stand for anything. He was the captain of an artillery company during World War I; according to the Harry Truman Library, Truman and his unit "saw action in the Vosges, Saint Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne campaigns". The Truman Library is located in his hometown of Independence, Missouri. Truman is sometimes called a "haberdasher" because he ran a men's clothing store in Kansas City from 1919-22; however,the store flopped and Truman spent years paying off his debts. Truman married the former Bess Wallace on 28 June 1919. They remained married until his death in 1972; Bess died on 18 October 1982. Their only child, Mary Margaret, was born on 17 February 1924. Margaret Truman became the author of a series of mystery novels set in Washington, D.C., including Murder at the White House (1980) and Murder at the Pentagon (1992). He was the only President to attain the thirty-third and last degree of the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite for the Southern jurisdiction-a 33 degee Mason, but died before the degree was conferred. Truman escaped assasination on November 1,1950, when two Puerto Rican nationalists tried to shoot their way into Blair House.