Memooirs by Harry S. Truman, Vol. One (6).

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

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:

“I saw it takes men to make history or there would be no history. History does not make the man.” p. 120. ………. “Especially in reading the history of American presidents did I become aware of the value of knowing what has gone before.” p. 120. ………. “I learned of General McClellan, who traded his leadership for demagoguery and eventually defied his commander in chief. and was interested to learn how President Lincoln dealt with an insubordinate general. These lessons were to stand me in good stead years later when I was to be confronted with similar problems.” p. 120. ………. “I learned of the unique problems of Andrew Johnson, whose destiny it was to be thrust suddenly into the Presidency to fill the shoes of one of history’s great leaders. When the same thing happened to me,, I knew just how Johnson had coped with his problems, and I did not make the mistakes he made.” p. 120. ………. “History taught me about the periodic waves of hysteria which started with the witch craze, the Alien and Sedition Acts…the Know-Nothing movement…the anti-Masonic…anti-Catholicism movements…the Ku Klux Klan…the Red Scare of 1919. When the cycle repeated  itself during my administration in the form of anti-communist hysteria and indiscriminate branding of innocent persons as subversives, I could deal with the situation calmly because I knew something about its background… When we are faced with a situation, we must know how to apply the lessons of history in a practical way.” p. 120.

To be continued.

Memoirs by Harry S. Truman, Vol. One (5)

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

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:

“Churchill climaxed this appeal to  Stalin by painting a picture of what the world might be like if divided into two camps…. ‘It is quite obvious that their quarrel would tear the world to pieces….’ ‘But do not, I beg you, friend Stalin, underrate the divergences which are opening about matters which you may think are small to us, but which are symbolic of the way the English-speaking democracies look at life.’ ” p. 109. ………. “Among the many burdensome duties and responsibilities of a President, I soon experienced the constant pressure and necessity of making immediate decisions.” p. 111. ………. “The glasses were a great help in seeing but a great handicap in playing. I was so carefully cautioned by the eye doctor about breaking my glasses and injuring my eyes that I was afraid to join in the rough-and-tumble games in the schoolyard and the back lot.” p. 116. ………. “My time was spent in reading, and by the time I was thirteen or fourteen years old, I had read all the books in the Independence Public Library and our big old Bible three times through.” p. 116. ………. “…an English teacher, Miss Tillie Brown, who was a genius at making us appreciate good literature. She also made us want to read it.” p. 118. ………. “My debt to [the study of] history…for my awakening interest as a young lad in the principles of leadership and government.” p. 119. ………. “In school, history was taught by paragraphs. Each great event in history was written up in one paragraph. I made it my business to look up the background of these events to find out who brought them about.” p. 119. ………. “I wanted to know what caused the successes or the failures of all the famous leaders of history.” p. 119. ………. “…a leader is a man who has the ability to get other people to do what they don’t want to and like it.” p. 119.

To be continued.

Memoirs by Harry S. Truman, Vol. One (4)

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

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:

“Molotov: “I Have never been talked to like that in my life.” HST: “Carry out your agreements and you won’t get talked to like that.” P. 82. ………. “Stimson…seemed at least as much concerned with the role of the atomic bomb in the shaping of history as in its capacity to shorten the war.” p. 87. ………. “From the time I first sat down in the President’s chair, I found myself part of an immense administrative operation. There had been a change of executives, but the machinery kept going on in its customary routine manner….” p. 87. ………. “…and I had to find time to read the urgent messages in between visitors.” p. 88. ………. “The essence of our problem here, is to provide sensible machinery for the settlement of disputes among nations.” p. 95. ……….”Labor-management relations had grown tense and explosive because of the wage and price controls of the war years….” p. 96. ………. “It is terrible—and I mean terrible—nuisance to be kin to the President of the United States…. A guard has to go with Bess and Margaret everywhere they go—and they don’t like it. They both spend a lot of time figuring how to beat the game, but it just can’t be done. In a country as big as this one there are necessarily a lot of nuts and people with peculiar ides. The seem to focus on the White House and the President’s kin.” p. 107.

To be continued.

Memoirs by Harry S. Truman, Vol. One (3)

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

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:

“He [Harry Hopkins] was a dedicated man who never sought credit or the limelight, yet willingly bore the brunt of criticism, just or unjust.” p. 30. ………. “All Presidential messages must begin with the President himself. He must decide what he wants to say and how he wants to say it. Many drafts are usually drawn up, and this fact leads to the assumption that Presidential speeches are ‘ghosted.’ The final version, however, is the final word for the President himself, expression his own convictions and his policy. These he cannot delegate to any man if he would be President in his own right.” p. 36. ………. “I had hurried to the White House to see the President, and when I arrived, I found I was the President.” p. 44. ………. “I decided also to continue the practice established by my predecessor of barring direct quotation of my replies [in press conferences]  and comments while permitting indirect quotation.” p. 47. ………. “I felt as if I had lived five lifetimes in my first five days as President.” p. 53.

“I had each member of the Cabinet lay important matters before the Cabinet as a whole, and each person present was given an opportunity to discuss the subjects that were under consideration to have his views.” p. 55. ………. “The relationship between the President and the Vice-President is complicated, and it is complicated further by the fact that the Vice-President  is in between the legislative and the executive branches of the government without, in the last analysis, being responsible to either. The Vice-President cannot become completely acquainted with the policies of the President, while the senators, for their part, look on him as a presiding officer only, who is outside the pale as far as the senatorial club is concerned.” p. 57. ………. “Nations which can plan and fight together shoulder to shoulder in the face of such obstacles of distance and of language and of communication as we have overcome, can live together and can work together in the common labor of the organization of the world for peace,: p. 65. ………. “The Soviet Union, Harriman replied, had two policies which they thought they could successfully pursue at the same time. One was the policy of cooperation with the United States and Great Britain, and the second was the extension of Soviet control over neighboring states by independent action.”

To be continued.

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.

Memoirs by Harry S. Truman. Vol. 1 (1)

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

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  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:

“Very few are ever authorized to speak for the President. No one can make decisions for him. No one can know all the processes and stages of his thinking in making important decisions.” p. ix. ……….. “…the one purpose that dominated me in everything I thought and did was to prevent a third world war.” p. x. ………. HST to Eleanor Roosevelt on learning of the death of FDR from her: “Is there anything I can do for you?” Eleanor Roosevelt: “Is there anything we can do for you? For you are the one in trouble now.” p. 5. ………. “I spoke to the Cabinet…. It was my intention…to continue both the foreign and domestic policies of the Roosevelt Administrations. I made it clear, however, that I would be President in my own right and that I would assume full responsibility for such decisions as had to be made. I told them that I hoped they would not hesitate to give me their advice—that I would be glad to listen to them. I left them in no doubt that they could differ with me if they felt it necessary but that all final policy decisions would be mine. I added that once such decisions had been made, I expected them to support me.” p. 9.

To be continued.

Kennedy. Theodore C. Sorenson (27).

Special Counsel to the Late President. New York: Bantam Books. 1966.

Why read it? To understand Kennedy’s philosophy of the Presidency. His humor. His wisdom. He could think on his feet. His ability to own up to his mistakes and to learn from them. To appreciate the vast range of responsibilities faced by the President. His style. You won’t learn any of the details of his extra-marital affairs in this book. It focuses on John Kennedy, an American who was elected President by one of the narrowest margins in history. He instilled a spirit of confidence in the American people, and his assassination destroyed that spirit.

Ideas:

JFK: “A man does what he must…in spite of personal consequences, in spite of…dangers—and that is the basis of all human morality.” Profiles in Courage. p. 843. ………. “Life for him [JFK] had always been dangerous and uncertain, but he was too interested in its opportunities and obligations to be intimidated by its risks.” p. 843. ………. “H had so much more to do and to give that no religion or philosophy can rationalize his premature death as though it served some purpose….” p. 846. ………. “The world’s loss is the loss of what might have been.” p. 847. ………. “He had learned so much from the first and second Cuban crises, from his travels and talks with foreign leaders, from his successes and failures.” p. 849. ………. “Prime Minister Macmillan once wrote: ‘It is not the things that one did in one’s life that one regrets, bur rather the opportunities missed.’ ”

Jacqueline Kennedy: “He believed that one man can make a difference and that every man should try.” p. 852. ………. “He stood for excellence in an era of indifference—for hope in an era of doubt—for placing public service ahead of private interests—for reconciliation between East and West, black and white, labor and management.” p. 852. ………. “He had confidence in men and gave men confidence in the future.” p. 852. ………. “The public complacency…was partly due to a sense of hopelessness—that wars and recessions and poverty and political mediocrity could not be avoided, and that all the problems of the modern world were too complex to be understood, let alone unraveled.” p. 852. ………. “Customarily [history and posterity] reserve the mantle of greatness for those who win wars, not for those who prevent them.” p. 853.

The end. My next book for this blog, Books and Ideas, is entitled Memoirs by Harry S. Truman.