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Memoirs #2
Memoirs, Vol 2: Years of Trial and Hope
Written with the same honesty and passion that made the first volume of Harry S. Truman's memoirs—1945: Year of Decision—so compelling, this book explores in detail the extraordinary problems the president had to face in the years after World War II. Truman recounts the story of the explosive China situation and George Marshall's patient and brilliant handling of it—and examines the creation of the Truman Doctrine, the history of the Marshall Plan, the Berlin airlift, and the enormously complicated problem of creating a Jewish homeland. The climax of Years of Trial and Hope comes with Truman's dramatic discussion of the Korean War and his dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur for repeatedly refusing to follow orders from both the Joints Chiefs of Staff and the president himself. He also talks about his decision to not run for the presidency in 1952, offering his strong opinions about the Stevenson and Eisenhower campaigns, and concluding with a memorable account of his White House meeting with President-elect Eisenhower shortly before the end of his term. Filled with astute observations of major historical events and the leaders who shaped them, Truman offers readers an incisive look at postwar American history.
594 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1955
133 people are currently reading
397 people want to read
About the author
Harry Truman
286 books70 followersHarry S. Truman was the thirty-third President of the United States (1945–1953). As vice president, he succeeded Franklin D. Roosevelt, who died less than three months after he began his fourth term.
During World War I Truman served as an artillery officer. After the war he became part of the political machine of Tom Pendergast and was elected a county judge in Missouri and eventually a United States Senator. After he gained national prominence as head of the wartime Truman Committee, Truman replaced vice president Henry A. Wallace as Roosevelt's running mate in 1944.
As president, Truman faced challenge after challenge in domestic affairs. The disorderly reconversion of the economy of the United States was marked by severe shortages, numerous strikes, and the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act over his veto. He confounded all predictions to win re-election in 1948, largely due to his famous Whistle Stop Tour of rural America. After his re-election he was able to pass only one of the proposals in his Fair Deal program. He used executive orders to begin desegregation of the U.S. armed forces and to launch a system of loyalty checks to remove thousands of communist sympathizers from government office, even though he strongly opposed mandatory loyalty oaths for governmental employees, a stance that led to charges that his administration was soft on communism. Truman's presidency was also eventful in foreign affairs, with the end of World War II and his decision to use nuclear weapons against Japan, the founding of the United Nations, the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe, the Truman Doctrine to contain communism, the beginning of the Cold War, the creation of NATO, and the Korean War. Corruption in Truman's administration reached the cabinet and senior White House staff. Republicans made corruption a central issue in the 1952 campaign.
Truman, whose demeanor was very different from that of the patrician Roosevelt, was a folksy, unassuming president. He popularized such phrases as "The buck stops here" and "If you can't stand the heat, you better get out of the kitchen." He overcame the low expectations of many political observers who compared him unfavorably with his highly regarded predecessor. At one point in his second term, near the end of the Korean War, Truman's public opinion ratings reached the lowest of any United States president, but popular and scholarly assessments of his presidency became more positive after his retirement from politics and the publication of his memoirs. He died in 1972. Many U.S. scholars today rank him among the top ten presidents. Truman's legendary upset victory in 1948 over Thomas E. Dewey is routinely invoked by underdog presidential candidates.
During World War I Truman served as an artillery officer. After the war he became part of the political machine of Tom Pendergast and was elected a county judge in Missouri and eventually a United States Senator. After he gained national prominence as head of the wartime Truman Committee, Truman replaced vice president Henry A. Wallace as Roosevelt's running mate in 1944.
As president, Truman faced challenge after challenge in domestic affairs. The disorderly reconversion of the economy of the United States was marked by severe shortages, numerous strikes, and the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act over his veto. He confounded all predictions to win re-election in 1948, largely due to his famous Whistle Stop Tour of rural America. After his re-election he was able to pass only one of the proposals in his Fair Deal program. He used executive orders to begin desegregation of the U.S. armed forces and to launch a system of loyalty checks to remove thousands of communist sympathizers from government office, even though he strongly opposed mandatory loyalty oaths for governmental employees, a stance that led to charges that his administration was soft on communism. Truman's presidency was also eventful in foreign affairs, with the end of World War II and his decision to use nuclear weapons against Japan, the founding of the United Nations, the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe, the Truman Doctrine to contain communism, the beginning of the Cold War, the creation of NATO, and the Korean War. Corruption in Truman's administration reached the cabinet and senior White House staff. Republicans made corruption a central issue in the 1952 campaign.
Truman, whose demeanor was very different from that of the patrician Roosevelt, was a folksy, unassuming president. He popularized such phrases as "The buck stops here" and "If you can't stand the heat, you better get out of the kitchen." He overcame the low expectations of many political observers who compared him unfavorably with his highly regarded predecessor. At one point in his second term, near the end of the Korean War, Truman's public opinion ratings reached the lowest of any United States president, but popular and scholarly assessments of his presidency became more positive after his retirement from politics and the publication of his memoirs. He died in 1972. Many U.S. scholars today rank him among the top ten presidents. Truman's legendary upset victory in 1948 over Thomas E. Dewey is routinely invoked by underdog presidential candidates.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 28, 2017
Volume II picks up following the conclusion of the momentous year of 1945. This volume takes Truman through the next seven years until he retires in January of 1953, after serving not quite eight years as President. We see a more confident Truman emerge here. He is no longer hobbled by the fact that FDR kept him in the dark about virtually everything during Truman's three month vice-presidency. WWII is now over, the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan had already been made, and he had time to fill out his Cabinet to his liking.
About 25% of the book is taken up with talking about the Korean War. Despite all of the critical things that occurred during Truman's time in office, he is probably most remembered for two: dropping atomic bombs on Japan to force the end of WWII, and committing United States forces to the Korean War. Truman begins this part with a discussion of where the situation was at in Korea when fighting broke out, and how it came to be that basically the northern half of the country was Communist while the southern half was not. He then brings in General Douglas MacArthur, and proceeds to explain in detail all of the problems that his administration had with the vainglorious general. This may be too detailed for some, but anyone interested in how a president exercises power and exactly when and where he decides to use it, will find this of value. Truman explains his thought process behind his eventual decision to relieve MacArthur of command. Truman, and many others, repeatedly tried to avoid this circumstance, and if anything Truman let MacArthur's insubordination go on too long (Truman himself admits to this). He knew that firing the general would create a political firestorm for him, and also possibly damage the morale of the troops fighting in Korea. However, MacArthur really left him no choice. As Truman stated, the Constitution placed the President in charge of the military, and Truman would have not been respecting his own office had he continued to allow MacArthur to not only stray from administration policy but be openly hostile. This decision was enormously unpopular at the time, and Truman was vilified by many people. But it has withstood the test of time, as has Truman's initial decision to intervene in Korea, and today it is widely regarded as superb example of a president needing to maintain the authority of his office and not allowing himself to be dictated to by a commander in the field.
While Truman was able to write about MacArthur without seeming bitter - indeed he went out of his way to praise MacArthur's abilities as a general and as a soldier - he could not maintain the same tone when speaking of his successor as president, Dwight Eisenhower. The latter was quite involved in Truman's administration, serving in various important positions (Army Chief of Staff, NATO Supreme Commander). Historians have disagreed over exactly what all transpired to rupture their relationship, but in any event, by the time that Eisenhower was running for president in 1952, there was no love lost on either side. As in most personal conflicts, there are things that either man could have done or said to have kept the dissolution of their relationship from happening. While Truman certainly had his faults like all of us do, I am personally inclined to pin more of the cause on Eisenhower here (this is not based on just the reading of this book) as the correspondence between the two shows Ike as being cold and aloof, and he was not upfront with Truman - maintaining that he would not be running for the Republican nomination in 1952 up until almost the moment that he declared.
At any rate, Truman abruptly concludes the book on this somewhat negative note: Eisenhower assuming the presidency. He writes of the strained transition period, and then suddenly the book ends. No reflections on his time in the White House, if he missed it, his thoughts on living in Washington D.C. for eighteen years, or saying good-bye to all of the people that he worked with over the years. There was very little mention of his wife, Bess, or his daughter, Margaret. He did write a nice passage about his mother's death in 1947, and how he was sad that she did not live to see him elected president in his own right in 1948.
Overall, this volume seemed more personal in tone than the first one did. Truman wrote with more vigor and customary bluntness than before, and it comes out throughout the book. Even when writing about the 1948 campaign and election, he gave a brief history of election campaigns in the U.S. and provided his commentary on many former presidents and the circumstances that brought them to the White House. While not spell-binding in style - in some parts, the narrative does drag - this is a worthwhile read for anyone interested in Truman, his presidency, the early Cold War, or American history during this period.
About 25% of the book is taken up with talking about the Korean War. Despite all of the critical things that occurred during Truman's time in office, he is probably most remembered for two: dropping atomic bombs on Japan to force the end of WWII, and committing United States forces to the Korean War. Truman begins this part with a discussion of where the situation was at in Korea when fighting broke out, and how it came to be that basically the northern half of the country was Communist while the southern half was not. He then brings in General Douglas MacArthur, and proceeds to explain in detail all of the problems that his administration had with the vainglorious general. This may be too detailed for some, but anyone interested in how a president exercises power and exactly when and where he decides to use it, will find this of value. Truman explains his thought process behind his eventual decision to relieve MacArthur of command. Truman, and many others, repeatedly tried to avoid this circumstance, and if anything Truman let MacArthur's insubordination go on too long (Truman himself admits to this). He knew that firing the general would create a political firestorm for him, and also possibly damage the morale of the troops fighting in Korea. However, MacArthur really left him no choice. As Truman stated, the Constitution placed the President in charge of the military, and Truman would have not been respecting his own office had he continued to allow MacArthur to not only stray from administration policy but be openly hostile. This decision was enormously unpopular at the time, and Truman was vilified by many people. But it has withstood the test of time, as has Truman's initial decision to intervene in Korea, and today it is widely regarded as superb example of a president needing to maintain the authority of his office and not allowing himself to be dictated to by a commander in the field.
While Truman was able to write about MacArthur without seeming bitter - indeed he went out of his way to praise MacArthur's abilities as a general and as a soldier - he could not maintain the same tone when speaking of his successor as president, Dwight Eisenhower. The latter was quite involved in Truman's administration, serving in various important positions (Army Chief of Staff, NATO Supreme Commander). Historians have disagreed over exactly what all transpired to rupture their relationship, but in any event, by the time that Eisenhower was running for president in 1952, there was no love lost on either side. As in most personal conflicts, there are things that either man could have done or said to have kept the dissolution of their relationship from happening. While Truman certainly had his faults like all of us do, I am personally inclined to pin more of the cause on Eisenhower here (this is not based on just the reading of this book) as the correspondence between the two shows Ike as being cold and aloof, and he was not upfront with Truman - maintaining that he would not be running for the Republican nomination in 1952 up until almost the moment that he declared.
At any rate, Truman abruptly concludes the book on this somewhat negative note: Eisenhower assuming the presidency. He writes of the strained transition period, and then suddenly the book ends. No reflections on his time in the White House, if he missed it, his thoughts on living in Washington D.C. for eighteen years, or saying good-bye to all of the people that he worked with over the years. There was very little mention of his wife, Bess, or his daughter, Margaret. He did write a nice passage about his mother's death in 1947, and how he was sad that she did not live to see him elected president in his own right in 1948.
Overall, this volume seemed more personal in tone than the first one did. Truman wrote with more vigor and customary bluntness than before, and it comes out throughout the book. Even when writing about the 1948 campaign and election, he gave a brief history of election campaigns in the U.S. and provided his commentary on many former presidents and the circumstances that brought them to the White House. While not spell-binding in style - in some parts, the narrative does drag - this is a worthwhile read for anyone interested in Truman, his presidency, the early Cold War, or American history during this period.
January 22, 2016
Recaps the Truman presidency that started with the death of FDR at the end of World War II. Truman organizes the book by covering a separate topic into its own chapter, for instance, the first chapter is about the creation and organization of the Atomic Energy Commission. The largest portions of the book is directed toward the Korean War and the post WWI Cold War against the Russians. There is a impressive listing of accomplishments, the creation of the modern day Defense Department, the Office of Strategic Services that became the Central Intelligence Agency, and Truman's efforts to control farm prices and to nationalize the steel industry to appease the steel workers union. Truman also tried to institute national health care because he was concerned so many WWII draftees weren't healthy enough to serve in the war.
The Truman Administration was also instrumental in the creation of Israel. Originally sold as a plan to deposit 100,000 Jewish refugees into Palestine after WWII because no European nation would accept them, it grew into the separate state of Israel. The US agreed to pay the Arab states $59 million to accept the refugees, but that was just the beginning of the problems we continue to have today in that area of the world.
The Marshall Plan was instituted after WWII partially to rebuild Europe but also because Russia was moving into economically devastated countries and setting up Communist governments. Much of Truman's foreign policy was reacting to the Soviets in areas all over the world. The Korean War was one such Russian inspired excursion by the North Koreans and the Communist Chinese. Truman's firing of General Douglas MacArthur at the end of war was a huge political event
Considering Truman's entire presidency was only 6 years, there was a lot of event, foreign and domestic, that are still being felt today.
Truman was a "big government" liberal who searched for a Federal solution to every issue. He never held a job in the private section. After he served in WWI he became a county official where he lived and worked his way up the Democratic political ladder. The book doesn't suggest why Roosevelt selected him as Vice President. When he ran for re-election in 1948 he felt he was the only one who could possibly deal with the presidency and when he left the job to Eisenhower in 1952 he wonders how the man who was the Supreme Commander of the US Armed Forces in WWII could possibly handle the job.
Truman writes in a clear cut style and includes transcripts of speeches and letters in his support. It's a long book, but easy to read. Truman wrote it to make sure his views were presented fairly after he was gone from the scene and it fulfills that purpose.
The Truman Administration was also instrumental in the creation of Israel. Originally sold as a plan to deposit 100,000 Jewish refugees into Palestine after WWII because no European nation would accept them, it grew into the separate state of Israel. The US agreed to pay the Arab states $59 million to accept the refugees, but that was just the beginning of the problems we continue to have today in that area of the world.
The Marshall Plan was instituted after WWII partially to rebuild Europe but also because Russia was moving into economically devastated countries and setting up Communist governments. Much of Truman's foreign policy was reacting to the Soviets in areas all over the world. The Korean War was one such Russian inspired excursion by the North Koreans and the Communist Chinese. Truman's firing of General Douglas MacArthur at the end of war was a huge political event
Considering Truman's entire presidency was only 6 years, there was a lot of event, foreign and domestic, that are still being felt today.
Truman was a "big government" liberal who searched for a Federal solution to every issue. He never held a job in the private section. After he served in WWI he became a county official where he lived and worked his way up the Democratic political ladder. The book doesn't suggest why Roosevelt selected him as Vice President. When he ran for re-election in 1948 he felt he was the only one who could possibly deal with the presidency and when he left the job to Eisenhower in 1952 he wonders how the man who was the Supreme Commander of the US Armed Forces in WWII could possibly handle the job.
Truman writes in a clear cut style and includes transcripts of speeches and letters in his support. It's a long book, but easy to read. Truman wrote it to make sure his views were presented fairly after he was gone from the scene and it fulfills that purpose.
February 29, 2016
Give 'em hell, Harry
Long winded and dry. They say history repeats itself. Maybe, at any rate Harry certainly does. Nonetheless, the events chronicled represent a very critical period in our nation's history. Being told from the perspective of the chief executive makes it even more relevant.
President Truman had to deal with Russia, China and Korea in tense situations that could have resulted in WW-III. Planning for the coming atomic age, a steel industry strike, a rogue General MacArthur, legislative conflicts, and lack of Supreme Court backing. What more could a President desire.
Long winded and dry. They say history repeats itself. Maybe, at any rate Harry certainly does. Nonetheless, the events chronicled represent a very critical period in our nation's history. Being told from the perspective of the chief executive makes it even more relevant.
President Truman had to deal with Russia, China and Korea in tense situations that could have resulted in WW-III. Planning for the coming atomic age, a steel industry strike, a rogue General MacArthur, legislative conflicts, and lack of Supreme Court backing. What more could a President desire.
February 13, 2015
Superb book authored by a great president.
The years after President Roosevelt died were filled with events requiring action and personal conviction. President Truman was responsible for dropping two atomic bombs on Japan to end the second world war. He had to make key decisions on Berlin, Greece, and Korea. President Truman was a simple man, yet, his legacy lives on for all of his contributions to our country. This book should required reading at all levels in our educational system.
The years after President Roosevelt died were filled with events requiring action and personal conviction. President Truman was responsible for dropping two atomic bombs on Japan to end the second world war. He had to make key decisions on Berlin, Greece, and Korea. President Truman was a simple man, yet, his legacy lives on for all of his contributions to our country. This book should required reading at all levels in our educational system.
October 14, 2010
Though such a memoir is clearly bound to present the author in a favorable light, this is a revealing, useful account by a president who faced a set of challenges and crises that easily match those confronted in any other era. Very worthwhile.
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August 1, 200892T
May 1, 2013
Truman rocks. That's all.
May 23, 2015
Truman brings his honesty and his biases to this review of his Presidential years. It is straightforward as he was.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews