Harry S. Truman Research Paper

“Boys, if you ever pray, pray for me now. I don’t know if you fellas ever had a load of hay fall on you, but when they told me what happened yesterday, I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me,” Harry S. Truman told reporters soon after he took the oath of office.

Just 82 days after becoming Franklin Roosevelt’s vice president, Harry S. Truman was catapulted to the presidency by Roosevelt’s passing. Vigorous, hard-working and simple, he had grown up working the soil of his father’s farm and understood the struggles of the people on the farms and in the small towns.

As a boy, Truman got up and five every morning. His interests included music, reading, war, and history, all encouraged by his mother. His father had many friends who were active in the Democratic Party who helped young Harry gain his first political position. Truman is the most recent president who never earned a college degree

Truman came to call his first year as President a “year of decisions”—including the approval of dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan on August 6 and 9, 1945. The result was Japan’s surrender on August 14.

The Truman Doctrine expressed America’s willingness to provide military aid to countries resisting communist insurgencies. The Marshall Plan strove to revive the economies or European nations to make them more prosperous in the hope communism wouldn’t thrive. A military barrier confronting the Soviet-dominated part of Europe was built based on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Truman recognized Israel in 1948, showing his support for democracy as well as a commitment to a homeland for the Jewish people. When North Korea invaded South Korea in June 1950 was the only time during his presidency when a communist nation invaded a non-communist one. Truman waged an undeclared war in