Where the Buck Stops: The Personal and Private Writings of Harry S. Truman

Harry S.Truman, 1884- 1972 Harry S.Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri, in 1884. He grew up in Independence, and worked for 12 years as a farmer in Missouri. He went to France during World War I as a captain in the Field Artillery. Upon his return from the war, he opened a haberdashery in Kansas City. Truman was elected a judge of the Jackson show more County Court as a member of the Democratic Party in 1922. He became a Senator in 1934. During World War II he headed the Senate war investigating committee, checking into waste and corruption and saving perhaps as much as 15 billion dollars. Soon after V-E Day, the war against Japan had reached its final stage. An urgent plea to Japan to surrender was rejected. Truman, after consultations with his advisers, ordered atomic bombs dropped on cities devoted to war work. Two were Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A surrender quickly followed. In June 1945 Truman witnessed the signing of the charter of the United Nations, hopefully established to preserve peace. At this point in his presidential career, Truman presented to Congress a 21-point program, proposing the expansion of Social Security, a full-employment program, a permanent Fair Employment Practices Act, and public housing and slum clearance. The program became known as the Fair Deal. Dangers and crises marked the foreign field as Truman campaigned successfully in 1948. Truman's most effective leadership was apparent in foreign affairs. In 1947 as the Soviet Union pressured Turkey and, through guerrillas, threatened to take over Greece, he asked Congress to aid the two countries, enacting the program that bears his name; the Truman Doctrine. The Marshall Plan, named for his Secretary of State, stimulated economic recovery in war-torn western Europe. When the Russians blockaded the western sectors of Berlin in 1948, Truman created a massive airlift to supply Berliners until the Russians backed down. Meanwhile, he was negotiating a military alliance to protect Western nations, called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and established in 1949. In June 1950, the Communist government of North Korea attacked South Korea. A long, discouraging struggle ensued as U.N. forces held a line above the old boundary of South Korea. Truman kept the war a limited one, rather than risk a major conflict with China and perhaps Russia. Deciding not to run again, he retired to Independence. He died December 26, 1972 at the age of 88. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Mary Margaret Truman, daughter of President Harry S. Truman, was born on February 17, 1924 in Independence, Missouri. She graduated from George Washington University in 1946. She was also known as Margaret Truman or Margaret Daniel. She was an American singer who later became the successful author of a series of murder mysteries and a number of show more works on U.S. First Ladies and First Families, including a biography of her father, President Harry S. Truman. The only child of Harry Truman and First Lady Bess Truman; she was called "Margaret" for most of her life. Truman made her concert debut with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 1947 and her first television appearance on Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town. She substituted for Edward R. Murrow on Person to Person, and later had her own radio shows (Weekday in the 1950s and Authors in the News in the 1960s). She was active with organizations such as the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation and the Truman Centennial Committee. She published her first book, Souvenir: Margaret Truman's Own Story in 1956. She also wrote a series of mysteries set at historic locations in Washington, D. C. She died on January 29, 2008 following a brief illness. (Bowker Author Biography) show less