Truman

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) was a British statesman who served as prime minister from 1940 to 1945 and 1951 to 1955. He was in government during both the First and Second World Wars. Churchill is best remembered as the leader who led Britain to victory in World War II. He also ruled Britain at a time when it was a dissolving colonial empire.

Born in Oxfordshire, England to a privileged family, Churchill fought in the British Army in different parts of the British Empire, including British India, the Second Boer War, and the Anglo-Sudan War. Ideologically, Churchill was an imperialist.

Throughout his long political career, Churchill was both a member of the Liberal Party (1904-1924) and the Conservative Party (1900-1904, 1924–1964), which he headed (1940-1955). He became Home Secretary in 1910 and oversaw the Navy in 1911. In the 1920s and 1930s, Churchill held different political posts such as the Secretary of State and the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Churchill became Prime Minister in 1940 during World War II. He worked effectively with the Soviet and American Allies to attain victory in Europe in 1945. Out of office, he gave his famous “Iron Curtain” speech in 1946 warning of a world split in two during the early Cold War. In 1953, he received the Nobel Prize in literature.

Dean Gooderham Acheson (1893-1971) was an American statesman and Truman’s secretary of state between 1949 and 1953. He oversaw American foreign policy during the early years of the Cold War and focused on challenging the Soviet Union.

Born in Middletown, Connecticut, Acheson graduated from both Yale University and Harvard Law School. He was a clerk for the Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis and worked in law until entering politics as undersecretary of the treasury for Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration. During World War II, Acheson worked for the State Department as an assistant secretary and undersecretary (1945-1947). During the Truman administration, Acheson shaped both the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan.

As Truman’s secretary of state, Acheson challenged what he considered George Kennan’s insufficiently aggressive foreign policy toward the Soviet Union. He was one of the architects of NATO. Acheson also supported the non-recognition of China after the 1949 revolution. Despite returning to private law practice, Acheson remained an advisor for Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. His 1970 book Present at the Creation received the Pulitzer Prize.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) was the 32nd president of the United States. Roosevelt was the only American president to serve more than two terms. He is best known for his 1930s New Deal policies to combat the Great Depression and as the leader navigating the country through most of World War II.

Roosevelt was born in Hyde Park, New York. A New York State Senate member between 1911 and 1913, he enjoyed a long political career. During the Woodrow Wilson presidency, Roosevelt was the assistant secretary of the Navy (1913-1920). In 1929, he became the governor of New York until his election as president, which he held between 1933 and 1945. The 22nd Amendment of the Constitution introduced in 1951 limited the president’s tenure to two terms. Roosevelt was partially paralyzed due to polio, but the disability did not impact his rise to political power.

In the 1930s, Roosevelt introduced massive federal programs as part of his New Deal to alleviate the problems of the Depression. He attempted to improve relations in the Americas through the Good Neighbor Policy (1933). Despite official neutrality in the initial stages of World War II, Roosevelt’s war strategy involved aiding the Allies through Lend-Lease. After the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the President led the country into war on multiple fronts: Asia-Pacific, North Africa, and, eventually, Europe. His careful diplomatic style provided a balance between Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin in the Grand Alliance. He died a month short of seeing victory in Europe.

George Kennan (1904-2005) was an American statesman and historian. A specialist in international relations and foreign policy toward the Soviet Union, he is best known for his Cold War-era containment theory. A prolific writer and academic, Kennan earned National Book Awards and Pulitzer Prizes.

After graduating from Princeton in 1925 with a degree in History, Kennan worked in the foreign service living in Europe until 1929. He then entered Berlin University to specialize in Russian studies. When the US recognized the Soviet Union in 1933, he aided the US ambassador William Bullitt and worked in Europe until World War II. The Nazis interned Kennan until 1942. During the war, the diplomat worked in Moscow and Lisbon.

Kennan’s “Long Telegram” (1946) and “The Sources of Soviet Conduct” (1947), published in Foreign Affairs under the pseudonym Mr. X, left a tremendous impact on American foreign policy in the Cold War period. However, Kennan later thought that US leadership focused on the more aggressive parts of his theory and ignored other important aspects such as the fact that the Soviet Union wanted to avoid war. Kennan led the State Department’s policy planning under Truman (1947-1949) and was a counselor to the State Department (1949-1950). Briefly working as an ambassador to the Soviet Union, Kennan spent the rest of his working life as a scholar teaching at Princeton.

George Catlett Marshall Jr. (1880-1959) was an American statesman and the United States Army Chief of Staff. Marshall is best known for his role in the Second World War, the Marshall Plan for European recovery, and his tenure as Secretary of State (1947-1949) and Secretary of Defense (1950-1951) for President Truman.

Born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, Marshall graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1901 becoming lieutenant of infantry the following year. During World War I, he held several posts such as chief of operations of the 1st Division. Marshall’s military career continued to grow, and he became Chief of Staff in September 1939 and General of the Army in December 1944. In his role as Chief of Staff, the US troops grew to exceed eight million.

Between 1947 and 1951, Marshall held the roles of the Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense in the Truman administration, respectively. He left these positions due to health issues.

The European Recovery Program unofficially bears his name. At this time, Marshall participated in the establishment of NATO. In 1953, his postwar work earned him the Nobel Prize for Peace. 

Thomas Joseph (TJ) Pendergast (1872-1945) was an influential political boss who operated in Jackson County as well as Kansas City, Missouri. He was known, specifically, for helping Truman’s early political career, hence the negative nickname “the senator from Pendergast" (235).

Born in St Joseph, Missouri, Prendergast was of Irish Catholic descent. His brother James was an alderman in the city council for Kansas City in the 1890s with TJ succeeding him briefly until 1916. Afterward, TJ became chairman of the Jackson County Democratic Club. What TJ was best known for, however, was a vast network of friends and relatives that he used to influence politics in the area. At times, this network involved corruption such as the preferential handling of government contracts and even voter fraud. Ultimately, federal investigations ensued, while TJ amassed large debts due to gambling. He went to prison for tax evasion.

TJ and his nephew, Jim Pendergast, helped Truman run in the election for an administrative county judge. It was this position that launched his political career. However, later, the Pendergast connection caused harm to Truman’s reputation.

Joseph Stalin (Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, 1878-1953), was the Secretary-General of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union between 1922 and his death in 1953. The pseudonym Stalin translates as “man of steel.” He is best known for his authoritarian rule in the largest country in the world after the 1917 Russian Revolution, overseeing a command economy focused on industrial production, and leading the Soviet Union to victory in World War II.

Born to an impoverished family in Gori, Georgia, Stalin attended an Orthodox Christian seminary. He began reading ideological literature such as Karl Marx and joined the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party in 1889. Until 1917, he pursued radical politics for which he was arrested repeatedly and exiled to Siberia. Stalin was an active participant in the 1917 Revolution and Civil War.

After the death of the revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin in 1924, Lenin rose to possess extensive political power by the late 1920s. He pursued a policy of collectivism and industrialization. Overall, Stalin transformed the Soviet Union into a command economy in which all industries were under state control.

During the war, Stalin worked effectively with his American and British counterparts in the Grand Alliance. Among the Allied nations, Soviets under Stalin suffered by the far the most causalities and inflicted the most casualties on the Axis powers. However, the ideological differences between the liberal-democratic US and the communist Soviet Union led to the Cold War after 1945.

Mary Jane Truman (1889-1978) was Harry S. Truman’s sister. She was the youngest of the three Truman children born on a farm outside Grandview, Missouri. Growing up, McCullough writes, she was their father’s favorite child, while Harry was their mother’s. Mary Jane was a pianist at the First Baptist Church of Grandview for several decades.

When Truman headed to war in 1917, it was she and their mother that had to take care of the farm. McCullough reveals, “The worries and responsibilities that had weighed so heavily on Harry since their father’s death were all now hers, and she would be more alone than ever he had been” (100). Mary Jane had to manage the farm, hire help, purchase supplies, and organize the farm’s sales. After Truman’s departure, McCullough writes, “she was to have little life of her own or any society much beyond Grandview” (100). She also took care of their mother until her death in 1947.

Bess Truman, née Elizabeth Virginia Wallace, (1885-1982) was Truman’s wife and the First Lady between 1945 to 1953. Letter exchanges between Harry and Bess throughout their lives serve as a significant information source for McCullough.

Born in Independence, Missouri, Bess excelled in academics and athletics. However, she was unable to attend college due to her father’s financial problems. Bess and Harry knew each other since childhood. They married in 1919 after his service in World War I. The couple had one child, Margaret, in 1924.

Historians believe that the suicide of her father left a tremendous impact on Bess both personally and socially. McCullough describes how suicide would have negatively impacted a family’s social standing at this time. It was, perhaps, for this reason, that Bess was always very protective of her family’s privacy.

In her role as the First Lady, Bess focused on social events but disliked media attention. Her social anxiety and the need for privacy made the media contrast her with her predecessor, Eleanor Roosevelt, known for her vast social influence. In private, Bess advised her husband throughout his political career.

Harry S. Truman (1884-1972) was the 33rd American president. Truman was best known for leading the US to victory in World War II, for using atomic weapons against Japan’s civilian population, for the Truman Doctrine, and for navigating the Cold War, including the Korean War. Truman was the first leader of the US in its superpower status following the Second World War.

Growing up in Missouri, Truman held various jobs from banking to farming. Failing to be admitted to West Point due to poor eyesight, he went on to serve in World War I. Truman’s political career began when he joined the Democratic Party. He served as a county judge and then became a senator in 1935. In 1944, he became Franklin D. Roosevelt’s vice president and replaced him when the president died in April 1945.

At the end of World War II, Truman participated in the Potsdam Conference and chose to drop atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Japan signed an official surrender the next month. In the late 1940s, the president announced the Truman Doctrine which effectively made the Cold War global, established the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), launched the Marshall Plan featuring economic aid for European postwar recovery, and helped established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In 1948, Truman was reelected, running against Dewey, in what was believed to be an astonishing win. In 1950, Truman sent Douglas MacArthur, who led the occupation troops in Japan, to participate in the Korean War, and then fired him for insubordination. The war ended in an armistice in 1953. Truman retired from politics that same year.

John Anderson Truman (1851-1914) was the father of Harry S. Truman, John Vivian Truman, and Mary Jane Truman. He was born in Independence in Jackson County, Missouri, into a farming family. John Truman married Mattie (Martha) Young in 1881. When John Truman made poor financial decisions in the early 1900s, he had to work as a night watchman. Then he returned to farming and made Harry his partner. McCullough writes that John Truman had a close relationship with his daughter, whereas Mattie Truman had such a relationship with Harry. However, the one interest that John Truman shared with his eldest son was politics. It was he who introduced him to the Democratic Party.

John Vivian Truman (1886-1965) was Harry Truman’s younger brother and the middle child of the family. Vivian lived in Missouri his entire life, much of which was spent in Grandview. In 1911, he married Luella Campbell.

Vivian joined the Jackson County Democratic Club and was a charter member of the Masonic Lodge in the area. He worked as a county election commissioner. Starting in 1948, Vivian worked as the Kansas City regional director for the Federal Housing Administration of western Missouri. He publicly stated that he was uninterested in advancing politically, like his brother, and had no reason to be in Washington.

Margaret Truman (1924-2008) was the only child of US President Harry Truman and Bess Truman. Margaret was a classical soprano, a media personality, a writer, and a socialite.

In 1946, Margaret graduated from George Washington University. For the next 10 years, she pursued a music career performing in concerts with different orchestras such as the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Margaret also professionally recorded with the music label RCA Victor. Starting from 1957, she moved on to writing for different publications and working in television such as co-hosting Weekday. In 1956, Margaret married Clifton Daniel who became the New York Times managing editor in the 1960s. The couple had four sons.

Margaret went on to write several books including the biographies of each of her parents, in 1973 and 1986, respectively. She also released Letters from Father: The Truman Family's Personal Correspondence (1981) and Where The Buck Stops: The Personal and Private Writings of Harry S. Truman (1989). The latter were important sources for Truman’s biographies. Ghostwriter Donald Bain also co-wrote several crime novels with Margaret Truman.