The Battling Bastards of Bataan

[syscom3]

Truman did very well after the end of WW2.

The public was in no mood to keep a large military. The economic slowdown was a natural reaction to the return of millions of veterans and the conversion of the manufacturing base from military to commercial.

Dont forget he wasnt a push over from the commies. He responded appropriately in Europe with the Marshall Plan, Berlin blockade and the commie trouble making in Greece.

[renrich]

Yep, when I was much younger and had all the answers I disliked Truman a great deal. Now, I look back and realise he stepped up and made some tough calls the right way. He wasn't perfect, (who is?) but his leadership re the atom bomb, Marshall Plan, Berlin Airlift, Korea was pretty good. Funny, how Bush may have the potential to remind one of Truman sometime in the future. As was mentioned Truman was highly partisan and Mac's dalliance with the Republican party pretty much earned Truman's enmity forever.

[FLYBOYJ]

Originally Posted by syscom3

Truman did very well after the end of WW2.

He was not liked by the American public - his 1948 election squeaker was proof of that.

[syscom3]

Originally Posted by FLYBOYJ

He was not liked by the American public - his 1948 election squeaker was proof of that.

As the years and decades went by, he looked a lot better.

[FLYBOYJ]

Originally Posted by syscom3

As the years and decades went by, he looked a lot better.

History painted him better because of his decisiveness to use the atomic bomb and his anti-communist stance. His administration was riddled with corruption and controversy. Although he was considered be many the last great democrat president, I think the end result gave 8 years of a republican White House.

Scandals and controversies
In 1950, the Senate, led by Estes Kefauver, investigated numerous charges of corruption among senior administration officials, some of whom received fur coats and deep freezers for favors. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was involved. In 1950, 166 IRS employees either resigned or were fired,[121] and many were facing indictments from the Department of Justice on a variety of tax-fixing and bribery charges, including the assistant attorney general in charge of the Tax Division. When Attorney General Howard McGrath fired the special prosecutor for being too zealous, Truman fired McGrath.[122] Historians agree that Truman himself was innocent and unaware—with one exception. In 1945, Mrs. Truman received a new, expensive, hard-to-get deep freezer. The businessman who provided the gift was the president of a perfume company and, thanks to Truman's aide and confidante General Harry Vaughan, received priority to fly to Europe days after the war ended, where he bought new perfumes. On the way back he "bumped" a wounded veteran from a flight that would have taken him back to the US. Disclosure of the episode in 1949 humiliated Truman. The president responded by vigorously defending Vaughan, an old friend with an office in the White House itself. Vaughan was eventually connected to multiple influence-peddling scandals.[123]
Charges that Soviet agents had infiltrated the government bedeviled the Truman administration and became a major campaign issue for Eisenhower in 1952.[124] In 1947, Truman set up loyalty boards to investigate espionage among federal employees.[125] Between 1947 and 1952, "about 20,000 government employees were investigated, some 2500 resigned 'voluntarily,' and 400 were fired."[126] He did, however, strongly oppose mandatory loyalty oaths for governmental employees, a stance that led to charges that his administration was soft on communism.[127]

In 1953, Senator Joseph McCarthy and Attorney General Herbert Brownell, Jr. claimed that Truman had known Harry Dexter White was a Soviet spy when Truman appointed him to the International Monetary Fund.[128] [129]. Truman described the civil rights Selma marches as silly. He stated that the marches would not "accomplish a darned thing".[130]

Harry S. Truman

[syscom3]

After 20 years of democratic domination in politics, it was inevitable the GOP would win one.

Ike ended up following many of Trumans policies regarding the Soviets and communism.

Probably the single best thing to happen to Ike was the massive expansion of the consumer economy in the 50's.

[ccheese]

MacArthur was also a very vindictive person. He personally ordered General
Homma returned to the Phillipines to stand trial for war crimes rather than
let him be tried by the War Crimes Commission. He also ordered Gen. Homma
shot by firing squad rather than hang the man, thus preserving Homma's
honor.

Charles

[syscom3]

I like what Gen Kreuger (8th Army) had to say about Doug .... "I'd rather jump into a sack of rattlesnakes than to get on his bad side".