Thursday, April 22, 2010

Momoirs by Harry S. Truman Vol. One. (2)


Year of Decisions. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc. 1955. (2).

Why Read It? Truman had to end the war, decide on the atomic bomb and then shift to a peacetime economy in which he had to fight a Cold War with the Soviets, fight the Korean War, battle through labor troubles and to remind everyone of the necessity to maintain civilian control of the military through relieving MacArthur of his command. Although he appeared to be a normal U.S. citizen, he was anything but. His character was almost the ideal of a U.S. President. His decisions were well thought out and decisive. He was well known for his plain spokenness.

Ideas:
“Many of the people who are actually engaged in the work [construction of the A-bomb] have no idea what it is.” p. 10. ……….. “From my reading of American history, I knew there was no cut-and-dried answer to the question of what obligations a President by inheritance had in regard to the program of his predecessor….” p. 12. ………. “Boys,…if you ever pray, pray for me now. I don’t know whether you fellows ever had a load of hay fall on you, but when they told me yesterday what had happened, I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me. I’ve got the most terribly responsible job a man ever had.” p. 19. ………. “My real concern at the moment, however, was divided between the war situation on the one hand and the problems of the coming peace on the other.” p. 21. ………. “Already we were at odds with the Soviet government over the question of setting up a truly representative Polish government…an ominous trend.” p. 32. ………. “Everyone, including myself, still continued to think of Roosevelt as the President.” p. 29.

To be continued.

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