Harry S. Truman: Difference between revisions

Finding himself President after the sudden death of [[Franklin D Roosevelt]], Harry S Truman was President until 1953. As such, it was Truman who gave the order to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Truman did not have the "need to know" about the Manhattan Project until FDR died (hell, [[Josef Stalin]] and his spies knew about the Manhattan Project before Truman did). Thus he took the decision to use them in a bit of an information vacuum, something historians have subsequently either downplayed or over-emphasized. He also desegregated the US military in 1948, because of his disgust over the way African-American war veterans were treated; the fact that it also saved some tax dollars getting rid of that ridiculous redundancy helped sell it too.

 

 

He's featured in a famous article, where the Chicago Tribune famously boasted, based on inaccurate opinion polling, "''Dewey Defeats Truman''" (he didn't). If you look at the example picture, you can see how happy he is. This can be considered his [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]], especially when one considers that he had to contend with ''two'' third-party splinter candidacies during his campaign, one from Henry Wallace (a leftist who opposed Truman's anti-Communism) and another from Strom Thurmond (a Southern segregationist who opposed Truman's support for [[Civil Rights Movement|civil rights]]). His later presidency, however, was a slew of unpopular, nuanced decisions and a slide in the polls.

* In ''[[Watchmen]],'' Rorschach frequently expresses admiration for 'decent men' like Truman and his father. It's shown in several in-story documents that he wrote an essay in his youth expressing how good it was that he dropped the bomb, because he saved many more lives by ending World War II. This is particularly ironic given that Rorschach claims to be a moral absolutist and attacks {{spoiler|Veidt}} for killing millions in {{spoiler|a fake 'alien' attack on New York}} to prevent World War III from breaking out.

** Rorschach is being nuanced himself here (shock horror.) He's more than capable of calculating that an evil act will perpetuate a greater good; note that he doesn't try very hard to escape Veidt or stop Manhattan from nuking him- it's just that, as a costumed vigilante, ''he is outside the law and so is Veidt, whereas Truman was acting as executive officer with authority to use a munition against a declared enemy.'' That's why Veidt's actions are irreconcilable to him. Being capable of extrapolating from that, Rorschach must conclude that it is not the mere fact that Veidt made that choice which is the moral absolute that has been wronged, it is that ''Veidt had no authority to make that choice.'' Seeing how he himself doesn't have that authority either, he's more than willing to [[Suicide By Cop]].

* In ''[[MASH|M*A*S*H]]'', it is often mentioned that Truman is President.

** In one episode (called "Dear Harry", I think) Hawkeye actually writes a letter to Truman describing conditions in Korea and imploring him to end the war.

* [[Locked Out of the Loop]]: During his tenure as Vice President, he suffered from this because the VP was pretty much a placeholder--even though by that time it was getting noticed that presidents elected in years ending in 0 [[William Henry Harrison|expired]] [[Abraham Lincoln|before]] [[James Garfield|their]] [[William McKinley|terms]] [[Warren Harding|did]] and [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]] had been elected in ''194'''0'''''--oh, and he had polio<ref>Ironically, this wasn't what killed him.</ref>. Unsurprisingly, this backfired when [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]] followed this pattern 3 months into his fourth term and Truman became President.

** Oh, they ''were'' aware of FDR's potential death. See [[Thanatos Gambit]] below.

* [[Papa Wolf]]: His daughter, Margaret, was an aspiring concert soprano. When one of her concerts was poorly reviewed, he informed the critic that he would need "a new nose and plenty of beefsteak, [[Groin Attack|and perhaps a supporter below]]."

* [[Tear Jerker]]: During the Korean War, a soldier was killed and had received the Purple Heart for his heroic duties. However, the soldier's family sent the Purple heart ''back'' to Truman with a letter telling him how he it was his fault that their son died. For the rest of his days, Truman kept that Purple Heart on his desk as a reminder about all of the difficult decisions that came with being President.