April 12, 1945 and the non-accidental President Harry Truman.

Through all the years of studying history my singular favorite President of the United States has been Harry S. Truman and this winter with my study of books on the Great Depression, World War II, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt I have not changed my mind.  The press called him the "accidental President"…but he wasn’t…he was chosen.

When Franklin Roosevelt ran for his unprecedented fourth term he choose not to go with Vice President Wallace instead he went with Senator Harry S. Truman.  Many thought this was an odd move, but in studying the time closely you begin to realize that Roosevelt knew he was going to died in office and he needed a man capable of handling the peace negotiation after the war that was coming to a swift end in Europe, and a man who could deliver action to end the war in the Pacific with Japan.

Truman had worked for years in the Senate and had done a superb job on the Truman Committee on the Railroad situation and of stopping waste in the contracting of our military bases during the war.  In fact Truman was considered a true Democrat who did his President’s will and a sincere and honest man… a very rare commodity in Washington.  A man who could carry on his goal of gathering the World's powers into and organization to keep the world at peace. (The United Nations)

At the last Democratic National Convention before his death Roosevelt was adamant that he dump Wallace and that he put Truman on the ticket.  The trouble was Truman did not want the job.  He loved being in the Senate and it took much badgering and a direct call to Roosevelt to get him to accept the offer. 

The telling moment in history for me is when Truman meets the President before they start the campaign and the President asks Harry how he was going to campaign.  Truman replied “by air”.  Roosevelt turned to him and said, …”No…one of us has to be alive to be President!” 

Roosevelt knew he was a dying man and at that meeting Truman knew it as well when he saw how ill he looked.  Truman also knew the terrible weight that was about to descend on him, and at that point he didn’t even know about the Atomic Bomb!

On the evening of April 12, 1945 Truman became President number 33 and immediately took the reins of the government.  He was sworn in at the White House that evening.  On the following Monday he gave a speech addressing Congress at its conclusion he said, … “I have in my heart a prayer.  As I have assumed my heavy duties, I humbly pray Almighty God, in the words of King Solomon: “Give therefore they servant an understanding heart to judge Thy people, that I may discern between Good and bad:  for who is able to judge this… Thy so great a people?”

These words of one of my other favorite people in history, King Solomon who asked God for “Wisdom” not money…something we need in rulers today!  

Wish we could find another Harry Truman!

"A video of President Roosevelt's home and resting place from a visit I did on April12th last year!!"

Thoughts of Eleanor Roosevelt and the end of the war with Japan!

I had a number of people email me about my blog on Eleanor Roosevelt this week and on my blog on the anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki.  As I rested last night I wondered what Eleanor thought about the end of the war with Japan, a war that ended on August 14, 1945.

Luckily I had been to Val-Kill and Hyde Park as well as the FDR Library, and figured correctly that her many columns must be preserved and available on line….they are!

So here is her released statement on the ending of the War with Japan published on the “day after” ..August 15, 1945 held via her request.

ER……When word was flashed that peace had come to the world again, I found myself filled with very curious sensations. I had no desire to go out and celebrate. I remembered the way the people demonstrated when the last war ended, but I felt this time that the weight of suffering which has engulfed the world during so many years could not so quickly be wiped out. There is a quiet rejoicing that men are no longer bringing death to each other throughout the world. There is great happiness, too, in the knowledge that someday, soon, many of those we love will be at home again to give all they have to the rebuilding of a peaceful world.

One cannot forget, however, the many, many people to whom this day will bring only a keener sense of loss, for, as others come home, their loved ones will not return.

In every community, if we have eyes to see and hearts to feel, we will for many years see evidences of the period of war, which we have been through. There will be men among us who all their lives, both physically and mentally, will carry the marks of war; and there will be women who mourn all the days of their lives. Yet there must be an undercurrent of deep joy in every human heart, and great thankfulness that we have world peace again.

Sadly, we never really have had “world peace” again….and now the wars…. though just as horrible…the impact of them like Iraq and Afghanistan”….are really only felt by those who have lost someone or have someone fighting there.

The wars no longer are in our thoughts daily, and most of us have given little up nor thought much about them except for the jiber-jaber in the news about the tight US budget or the cost in terms of $$$ that our taxes must pay!  Only saddened when a local soldier is lost….

Take a trip to Hyde Park and the FDR Library as well as Val-Kill, and realize that we were lucky to have these elected people in power at that time….

We had the right choice for President of the United States and for Vice President….though we couldn’t choose the right First Lady....We got her anyway she was the best part of the deal!

A Trip to Hyde Park..Springwood

The world's worst day in modern time

Today has a dubious place in the history of not only the United States... but of the world.  On this date in 1945, the last nuclear bombed to be dropped in war was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.  It is estimated that over 60,000 - 80,000 people died immediately and thousands more followed from related injuries and radiation.

Today we are willing to go to war to prevent "suspicious-hostile" countries from getting the bomb...but really...would any country drop a bomb on another knowing that in a few minutes the retaliation will wipe their country off the face of the earth..and them too I might add ..????

We now have many people who believe that dropping the bomb was not necessary..but it took two such bombs to get Japan to surrender!  Though we hate to think about the horror this act caused it might also be good for us to reflect on the outcome over all....there has never been another dropped!

Fat Man, as the bomb was named, started an era of negotiation and fear that has managed to keep nuclear weapons at bay...tho..the terribleness of war has pervaded every continent except our own....

As we look back we must wonder at the decision of Truman's to do this and the fact that he said he never regretted doing it!

***It is interesting to note that the energy released from the tsunami that hit Indonesia in 2004 was 1500 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and the energy released from the   tsunami that hit Japan in 2011 was 600 million times more powerful that that bomb.