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THE MAKING OF A NATION - June 27, 2002: Harry Truman
By David Jarmul
VOICE 1:
THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America.
(Theme)
The House of Representatives of the Congress closed for business early on the rainy
afternoon of April twelfth, nineteen-forty-five. The House Democratic leader, Sam Rayburn,
stepped down from his chair and invited a friend to come by his office for a drink. "Be there
around five o'clock," Rayburn said. "Harry Truman is coming over."
The Second World War was not yet over. But it was a quiet afternoon in Washington.
President Franklin Roosevelt was in the state of Georgia. He was resting after his recent trip to Yalta to meet with
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. The president's wife, Eleanor, was at
the White House, working on a speech supporting the new United Nations organization.
Vice President Harry Truman was at the Senate. But he was not interested in the debate. He spent most of his
time writing a letter to his mother and sister back in the state of Missouri. When the debate finished, he went to
the office of House leader Rayburn to join him for a drink. It was an afternoon Truman would never forget.
VOICE 2:
Rayburn and his other friend were talking in the office before Truman arrived. Suddenly the telephone rang. It
was the White House. A voice asked whether Vice President Truman had arrived yet. "No," Rayburn replied.
"Tell him to call the White House," the voice said, "as soon as he gets there."
Truman entered a minute later. He immediately called the White House. As he talked, his face became white. He
put down the phone and raced out the door to find his car.
VOICE 1:
Truman arrived at the White House within minutes. An assistant took him up to the private living area for the
president. Mr. Roosevelt was waiting for him there. "Harry," she said to Truman, "the president is dead."
Truman was shocked. He asked Missus Roosevelt if there was anything he could do to help her. But her reply
made clear to him that his own life had suddenly changed. "Is there anything we can do for you?" Missus
Roosevelt asked the new president. "You are the one in trouble now."
VOICE 2:
Within hours, the world knew the news. Franklin Roosevelt was dead. Americans were shocked and afraid.
Roosevelt had led them since early nineteen-thirty-three. He was the only president many young Americans had
ever known. Who would lead them now.
The answer was Harry Truman, the vice president. Truman had been a surprise choice for
vice president. Delegates at the Democratic presidential convention of nineteen-forty-four
chose him to be with Roosevelt only after considering several other candidates. Roosevelt
and Truman easily defeated their Republican Party opponents. And, when Roosevelt died,
Truman became president.
VOICE 1:
Truman lacked the fame, the rich family, and the strong speaking voice of Franklin
Roosevelt. He was a much simpler man. He grew up in the central state of Missouri. Truman
only studied through high school and some night-time law school classes. He worked for
many years as a farmer and a small businessman, but without much success.
Truman had long been interested in politics. When he was almost forty years old, he finally
won several low-level jobs in his home state. By nineteen-thirty-four, he was popular enough
in the state to be nominated and elected to the United States Senate. And he won re-election
six years later.
VOICE 2:
April 16, 1945:
Harry Truman
Most Americans, however, knew little about Truman when he became president. They knew making his first
he had close ties to the Democratic Party political machine in his home state. But they also speech as
president.
had heard that he was a very honest man. They could see that Truman had strongly supported (Photo - Library of
President Roosevelt's "New Deal" programs. But they could not be sure what kind of Congress)
president Truman would become.
VOICE 1:
History gave Truman little time to learn about his new job. In one of his first weeks as president, Truman signed
a paper on his desk without reading it completely. Only later did he learn that his signing the paper had stopped
the shipment of American goods to Britain under the "lend-lease" program.
Truman's mistake caused problems for people in both the United States and Britain.
But it also taught the new president how much power he now had, and how
carefully he must use it.
VOICE 2:
The most important power he now possessed was the power of atomic weapons.
And, soon after he became president, he faced the decision to use that terrible power
or not.
Truman understood the tragic importance of using atomic bombs to end World War
Two. Yet he firmly believed that using such bombs was the only way to force Japan to surrender. So in August,
nineteen-forty-five, he gave the orders to drop atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The war in Europe had ended several months earlier. Truman met in Potsdam, Germany, with British Prime
Minister Winston Churchill and soviet leader Joseph Stalin to plan the peace.
The three leaders agreed that their nations and France would occupy Germany jointly. They also agreed to end
the Nazi party in Germany, to hold trials for Nazi war criminals, and to break up some German businesses.
Foreign ministers of the Allied nations later negotiated peace treaties with Germany's wartime allies and other
countries, including Italy, Hungary, and Romania.
The east European nations all agreed to protect the political and economic freedom of their citizens. However,
western political experts were becoming more fearful each day that the soviet union would block any effort for
real democracy in eastern Europe.
VOICE 1:
Truman did not trust the soviets. And as he made plans for Asia, he promised himself that he would not allow
Moscow any part in controlling Japan. For this reason, the allied occupation of Japan was mainly American.
The American leader in Japan, General Douglas MacArthur, acted quickly to hold a series of trials for Japanese
war crimes. He also launched a series of reforms to move Japan toward becoming a modern Western democracy.
Women were given the right to vote. Land was divided among farmers. Shinto was ended as the national religion.
And the educational system was reorganized.
Japan began to recover very soon, becoming stronger than ever before as an economic power.
VOICE 2:
While Truman and other world leaders dealt with the problems of making peace, they also were trying to
establish a new system for keeping the peace.
The United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, and the other Allies had formed the United Nations as a wartime
organization. But soon after Truman took office, they met in San Francisco to discuss ways to make the United
Nations a permanent organization for peace.
At the same time, many of the world's economic experts were meeting to organize a new economic system for the
world. They created the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to help nations rebuild their
economies.
VOICE 1:
At the center of all the action was Harry Truman. It was not long before he showed Americans and the world that
he had the ability to be a good president. He was honest, strong, and willing to make decisions.
"I was sworn-in one night and the next morning I had to get right to the job at hand," Truman remembered years
later. "I was afraid. But, of course, I didn't let anybody know that. And I knew that I would not be called on to do
anything that I was not able to do. That's something I learned from reading history.
"People in the past have had much bigger problems. Somehow, the best of them just went ahead and did what
they had to do. And they usually did all right.
"The job I had in the White House was not so very different from other jobs," Truman said. "I didn't let it worry
me. Worrying never does you any good. So I have never worried about things much. "
(Theme)
VOICE 2:
You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of
America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt. Our program was written by David
Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION.
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