The First 100 Days: Harry Truman Showed Decisiveness and Intelligence
Shortly after Truman took office, Germany did surrender unconditionally, but Japan fought on. Thirteen days after taking office, on April 25, Truman received a detailed briefing from Secretary of War Henry Stimson on the development of the atomic bomb. On July 25, after he was informed that the first test of the weapon had shown its enormous destructive force, he confirmed an order to use the bomb against Japan. He wanted to force Tokyo to surrender unconditionally and to spare the United States from making what his military planners said would be a horrendously costly invasion of the Japanese homeland. "I could not bear this thought," Truman said, "and it led to the decision to use the atomic bomb." The bombs were dropped on Hiroshima August 6 and Nagasaki August 9. An estimated 150,000 civilians died. The Japanese surrendered August 14.
There were many other problems—how to contain the aggressive and recalcitrant Soviet Union, how to deal with a civil war in China, how to construct the postwar world, how to rebuild the American economy in peacetime. It wasn't long before Truman fully realized the burdens he carried, and he started referring to the White House as the "big white jail." On another occasion, he said, "Being a president is like riding a tiger. You have to keep on riding or be swallowed."
But in his first 100 days, he showed his decisiveness, his intelligence, and his personal sense of duty. And those became the hallmarks of the Truman era.
- Read more about George Washington's first 100 days.
- Read more about Franklin Roosevelt's first 100 days.
- Read more about history.
Reader Comments
Truman rose, aided by Cathoiic Tammany Hall bosses
Truman, a Christian capitalist, hated anti-Capitalist Reds and was surrounded by advisers who felt the same way. FDR and Stalin were good friends, planning warm peaceful coexistence after the war. But FDR died and Truman announced his Truman Doctrine, to "Contain Communism." Keeping its Yalta agreement to the minute, to declare war on Japan as soon as Germany surrendered, the Red Army crossed the Manchurian border to take Japan from Its West. But Truman, heeding advisers, nuked two cities to prevent the USSR from having anything to say in postwar Japan. Christian MacArthur ran Japan and kept many fascist Japanese in power because they knew how to operate government. MacArthur was adulterous with a woman he kept in an apartment for some time. Truman was not a good president. FDR was surprised when the Party suggested him as VP.
Harry Truman
We always loved the man, he didn't talk like most politicians he told it like it was. He was a good man.
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