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Harry S. Truman biography

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Quick Facts

  • PLACE OF BIRTH: Lamar, Missouri
  • PLACE OF DEATH: Kansas City, Missouri
more about Harry S.

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Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States (19451953).

Synopsis

Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States. He succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his fourth term. Truman's presidency is best known for defeating Nazi Germany, founding the United Nations, the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe, the Truman Doctrine to contain communism.

( Researcher's Note) (born May 8, 1884, Lamar, Mo., U.S.—died Dec. 26, 1972, Kansas City, Mo.) 33rd president of the United States (1945–53), who led his nation through the final stages of World War II and through the early years of the Cold War, vigorously opposing Soviet expansionism in Europe and sending U.S. forces to turn back a communist invasion of South Korea. (For a discussion of the history and nature of the presidency, presidency of the United States of America.)

Early life and career

Truman was the eldest of three children of John A. and Martha E. Truman; his father was a mule trader and farmer. After graduating from high school in 1901 in Independence, Mo., he went to work as a bank clerk in Kansas City. In 1906 he moved to the family farm near Grandview, and he took over the farm management after his father's death in 1914. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Truman—nearly 33 years old and with two tours in the National Guard (1905–11) behind him—immediately volunteered. He was sent overseas a year later and served in France as the captain of Battery D, a field artillery unit that saw action at St. Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne. The men under his command came to be devoted to him, admiring him for his bravery and evenhanded leadership.

Returning to the United States in 1919, Truman married Elizabeth Wallace (Bess Truman), whom he had known since childhood. With army friend Edward Jacobson he opened a haberdashery, but the business failed in the severe recession of the early 1920s. Another army friend introduced him to Thomas Pendergast, Democratic boss of Kansas City. With the backing of the Pendergast machine, Truman launched his political career in 1922, running successfully for county judge. He lost his bid for reelection in 1924, but he was elected presiding judge of the county court in 1926, again with Pendergast's support. He served two four-year terms, during which he acquired a reputation for honesty (unusual among Pendergast politicians) and for skillful management.

In 1934 Truman's political career seemed at an end because of the two-term tradition attached to his job and the reluctance of the Pendergast machine to advance him to higher office. When several people rejected the machine's offer to run in the Democratic primary for a seat in the U.S. Senate, however, Pendergast extended the offer to Truman, who quickly accepted. He won the primary with a 40,000-vote plurality, assuring his election in solidly Democratic Missouri. In January 1935 Truman was sworn in as Missouri's junior senator by Vice Pres. John Nance Garner.

He began his Senate career under the cloud of being a puppet of the corrupt Pendergast, but Truman's friendliness, personal integrity, and attention to the duties of his office soon won over his colleagues. He was responsible for two major pieces of legislation: the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938, establishing government regulation of the aviation industry, and the Wheeler-Truman Transportation Act of 1940, providing

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