Harry Truman

trubluluc

Most are too young to even know the name. But....
you ought to.

-Luc

Harry Truman.

When President Truman retired from office in 1952, his income was substantially a U.S. Army pension reported to have been $13,507.72
a year. Congress, noting that he was paying for his stamps and personally licking them, granted him an "allowance" and, later, a retroactive
pension of $25,000 per year.

When offered corporate positions at large salaries, he declined, stating, "You don't want me. You want the office of the president,
and that doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the American people and it's not for sale." Even later, on May 6, 1971, when
Congress was preparing to award him the Medal of Honor on his 87th birthday, he refused to accept it, writing,
"I don't consider that I have done anything which should be the reason for any award, Congressional or otherwise."

We now see that the Clintons have found a new level of success in cashing in on the presidency, resulting in untold wealth. Today, many in Congress also
have found a way to become quite wealthy while enjoying the fruits of their offices. Political offices are now for sale.

Was good old Harry Truman correct when he observed, "My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician.
And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference."

schwarcw

Harry was a unique man. He used to walk his dog daily until very near his death.

Some snippets from Wilpedia:

He will be remembered for many things. Dropping the bomb on Japan, Strikes and economic upheaval, forming the United Nations, Truman Doctrine, which formalized a policy of containment, and the Marshall Plan, which aimed to help rebuild postwar Europe, and starting the Cold War. The Fair Deal, Recognition of Israel, Berlin Airlift, and the formation of NATO. Truman was a strong supporter of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which established a formal peacetime military alliance with Canada and many of the democratic European nations that had not fallen under Soviet control following World War II. The importance of this treaty, which Truman successfully guided through the Senate in 1949, is hard to overstate. It checked Soviet expansion in Europe, and sent a clear message to communist leaders that the world's democracies were willing and able to build new security structures in support of democratic ideals. The United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, Portugal, Iceland, and Canada were the original treaty signatories; Greece and Turkey joined in 1952. Soviet espionage and McCarthyism, the start of the Korean War.

Assassination attempt. On November 1, 1950, Puerto Rican nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo attempted to assassinate Truman at Blair House. On the street outside the residence, Torresola mortally wounded a White House policeman, Leslie Coffelt, who shot Torresola dead before expiring himself. Collazo, as a co-conspirator in a felony that turned into a homicide, was found guilty of murder and was sentenced to death in 1952. Truman later commuted his sentence to life in prison.

Steel industry seizure attempt. In response to a labor/management impasse arising from bitter disagreements over wage and price controls, Truman instructed his Secretary of Commerce, Charles W. Sawyer, to take control of a number of the nation's steel mills in April of 1952. Truman cited his authority as Commander in Chief and the need to maintain an uninterrupted supply of steel for munitions to be used in the war in Korea. The Supreme Court found Truman's actions unconstitutional, however, and reversed the order in a major separation-of-powers decision, Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer. The 6–3 decision, which held that Truman's assertion of authority was too vague and was not rooted in any legislative action by Congress, was delivered by a Court composed entirely of Justices appointed by either Truman or Roosevelt. The high court's reversal of Truman's order was one of the notable defeats of his presidency.

Upon turning 80, Truman was feted in Washington and asked to address the United States Senate, as part of a new rule that allowed former presidents to be granted "privilege of the floor." Truman was so emotionally overcome by the honor and by his reception that he was barely able to deliver his speech.[143] He also campaigned for senatorial candidates. A bad fall in the bathroom of his home in late 1964 severely limited his physical capabilities, and he was unable to maintain his daily presence at his presidential library.

In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Medicare bill at the Truman Library and gave the first two Medicare cards to Truman and his wife Bess to honor his fight for government health care as president.

On December 5, 1972, he was admitted to Kansas City's Research Hospital and Medical Center with lung congestion from pneumonia. He subsequently developed multiple organ failure and died at 7:50 a.m. on December 26. Bess Truman died nearly ten years later, on October 18, 1982.[144] He and Bess are buried at the Truman Library.

He will also be noted as having one of the lowest public ratings of a US President. When he left office in 1953, Truman was one of the most unpopular chief executives in history. His job approval rating of 22 percent in the Gallup Poll as of February 1952 was actually lower than Richard Nixon's was in August 1974 at 24 percent, the month that Nixon resigned. Public feeling toward Truman grew steadily warmer with the passing years, however, and the period shortly after his death consolidated a partial rehabilitation among both historians and members of the general public. Since leaving office, Truman has fared well in polls ranking the presidents. He has never been listed lower than ninth, and most recently was seventh in a Wall Street Journal poll in 2005. He has also had his critics. After a review of information available to Truman on the presence of espionage activities in the U.S. government, Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan concluded that Truman was "almost willfully obtuse" concerning the danger of American communism.


Give 'Em hell Harry!!!

SKsolutions

Great posts -which render clearly the marked contrast of what the office has become.

markmarc

I highly recommend everyone read David McCollough's masterpiece biography "Truman". The prose makes it an easy read. i just wish all politicians had to read it before starting their political career.