biogrpahy of Harry S. Turman?

Question

I have a report that is to write a biography about Harry Turman. the 33rd president.

and i really want to know wat he did with his presidential powers.

thanx

Answer 1

Truman, Harry S.
On April 12, 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage. That same day Vice President Harry S. Truman was sworn in to succeed him.

Truman became president at a particularly critical time. World War II was coming to an end, and the Cold War with the Soviet Union was in its beginning stages. The new president was immediately called on to make a number of difficult and important decisions. A man of down-to-earth directness, he learned quickly and was willing to act vigorously. As a result, he was able to establish many of the basic foreign policies adopted by the United States following World War II. These included the Truman Doctrine to restrain Communist expansion and the Marshall Plan to aid war-devastated countries. Truman also is remembered for his resistance to the Soviet blockade of West Berlin and for his action in halting Communist aggression in South Korea.

Truman's domestic policy was known as the Fair Deal program. It emphasized the need for greater employment opportunities and for increased civil rights for members of minority groups.


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Early Years
Harry S. Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri, on May 8, 1884. He was the eldest of three children of Martha Ellen Young and John Anderson Truman. Because his parents could not decide which of his grandfathers to name him after, they gave young Harry the letter "S" instead of a middle name.

When Harry was 6, the Trumans moved to Independence, Missouri. There he grew up, a bookish boy, so nearsighted that he had to wear thick glasses. After he finished high school, his father's financial difficulties prevented Harry from entering college. He held a number of jobs, eventually becoming a bank clerk. In 1906, at the age of 22, he went to work on the family farm, where he spent the next 11 years.

The entrance of the United States into World War I in 1917 gave Truman an opportunity to show his abilities. Soon after war was declared, he received his commission as a first lieutenant in the Missouri National Guard. In March, 1918, he left for France with the 35th Division. Truman commanded a field artillery battery in several campaigns. Throughout the fighting he managed to maintain firm discipline among his unruly men yet retain their affection. He said afterwards: "I've always been sorry I did not get a university education in the regular way. But I got it in the Army the hard way--and it stuck."

After his discharge from the Army in 1919 with the rank of captain, Truman married his childhood sweetheart, Bess Wallace. Their only child, a daughter named Mary Margaret, was born in 1924. Soon after his marriage Truman entered into a partnership with one of his army friends and opened a men's clothing store in Kansas City. But in the postwar depression of 1921 the store failed. Truman lost his life savings and owed $20,000 in debts. He refused to go into bankruptcy, however, and instead scraped for 15 years to pay off the money he owed.


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He Enters Politics
Truman's friends urged him to enter politics. Like his father, he was a Democrat with strong views. In 1922, Truman won election as one of three judges of the Jackson County Court. His friends called him Judge Truman, but his duties were administrative rather than judicial. Since he felt that his new responsibilities called for a knowledge of law, he studied at night for two years at the Kansas City School of Law. In 1926 he was elected presiding judge, an office he held until 1935.

During these years Truman was allied with the notorious political machine of Kansas City boss Thomas J. Pendergast (1870-1945). In spite of this, Truman maintained his reputation as a man of strict honesty and unusual efficiency. Pendergast complained frequently that Truman was "the contrariest cuss in Missouri" but respected him as a popular vote-getter. In 1934 he backed Truman for election to the United States Senate.

During his first term in the Senate, Truman seldom spoke and was handicapped by his tie with Pendergast. With difficulty he won re-election in 1940. In his second term as a senator, however, he became famous.

The Truman Committee.
Truman felt that Missouri was not getting its fair share of defense contracts. He also was disturbed by reports of inefficiency and corruption in the defense program. He proposed that the Senate investigate the national defense program. A committee was formed, with Truman as chairman. It was called the Senate War Investigating Committee, but was better known as the Truman Committee. The Truman Committee became a financial watchdog for President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration during World War II. By uncovering corruption and waste, the committee saved the government hundreds of millions of dollars--perhaps as much as$15,000,000,000. And by its efficiency it caused government officials and defense contractors to be more careful.




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Vice President and President
The success of the committee and his support of Roosevelt's policies led Truman's political supporters to back him for the Democratic nomination for vice president in the election of 1944. President Roosevelt was running for a fourth term, and he and Truman were elected easily.

During his 12 weeks as vice president Truman saw little of Roosevelt. He received nospecial briefings on the major political issues, so he was not prepared for the responsibilities that fell on him when Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945. The day after Truman's inauguration he remarked to reporters: "Boys, if you ever pray, pray for me now"

On May 8, 1945, the unconditional surrender of the German forces ended the war in Europe. But Truman still had to win the war against Japan. In addition, the Soviets had begun taking political control of the countries of Eastern Europe. This violated the agreements reached with President Roosevelt and British prime minister Winston Churchill at the Yalta Conference.

The Atomic Bomb.
In July 1945, President Truman went to Potsdam, Germany, to meet with Churchill and Soviet premier Joseph Stalin. While there, Truman received word of the first successful test of the atomic bomb. Truman made no progress with Stalin at Potsdam. However, he was able to warn Japan that unless it surrendered, it faced complete devastation. When the Japanese ignored the ultimatum, Truman ordered the atomic bomb dropped on Japan. The target, the city of Hiroshima, was struck on August 6. Despite the horrible destruction, Japan did not surrender until a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, on August 9.

On September 2, aboard the battleship Missouri, the Japanese signed the surrender documents. "Let there be no mistake about it," Truman said later. "I regarded the bomb as a military weapon and never had any doubt that it should be used." For more information, see the article World War II.


The United Nations.
On June 26, 1945, in San Francisco, Truman had witnessed the signing of the charter establishing the United Nations. He hailed it as a "declaration of great faith by the nations of the earth--faith that war is not inevitable, faith that peace can be maintained." In this same spirit, Truman proposed international control of atomic energy to harness it for peaceful uses. But the Soviet Union refused to accept the American plan submitted to the United Nations in 1946. Instead, Soviet leaders worked at top speed to develop their own bomb.


Postwar Issues.
With the long war finally over, millions of Americans were eager to return to peaceful pursuits. The armed forces were quickly demobilized (disbanded), and wartime economic controls were rapidly abandoned. In September 1945, President Truman sent Congress a message containing his recommendations for domestic legislation. Among other things, he asked for expanded social security, an increase in the minimum wage, a permanent Fair Employment Practices Act, a bill to provide full employment, and public housing and slum clearance. Additional recommendations called for federal aid to education and for health insurance, medical care, and federal control of atomic energy.

Congress enacted only two of Truman's recommendations. In 1946 it passed the Atomic Energy Act, which created the Atomic Energy Commission to exercise control over the research and development of atomic energy. Congress also passed a limited version of the president's full employment program, the Maximum Employment Act, which established the Council of Economic Advisers to assist the president and issue a yearly report on economic conditions.

Meanwhile, the United States was making the difficult transition to a peacetime economy. A scarcity of goods, rising prices, and workers' strikes for higher wages led to inflation. Voters, tired of wartime and postwar shortages, gave Republicans control of both houses of Congress in 1946. And in 1947, over Truman's veto, it passed the Taft-Hartley Act, which placed certain restrictions on labor unions.


The Truman Doctrine.
Gradually, Truman realized that more vigorous measures had to be taken if the spread of Communism by the Soviet Union was to be stopped. In March 1947 he became especially alarmed by Soviet pressure on Turkey and by Soviet aid to Communist guerrillas in Greece and asked Congress to provide funds for their armed forces. He also set forth the policy that came to be called the Truman Doctrine: "to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation"


The Marshall Plan.
The need to help war-torn Europe led to Truman's proposal, in July 1947, of what came to be known as the Marshall Plan, after Secretary of State George C. Marshall. Under the plan, $13 billion in aid was sent to the nations of Western Europe, which brought about their rapid economic recovery. Truman also called for aid, under his Point Four program, to developing nations of Africa and Asia. (For more information, see the biography of George C. Marshall.)


The Election of 1948.
In 1948, Truman prepared to run for election for a term as president in his own right. His Republican opponent was Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York. In addition, the president was faced with a split in his own party.

In spite of predictions of his defeat by every poll-taker in the United States, Truman planned a vigorous campaign. He told his vice-presidential running mate, Senator Alben W. Barkley of Kentucky, "I'm going to fight hard. I'm going to give them hell." He denounced what he called the "do-nothing" Congress and appealed to voters to support welfare and civil rights legislation, aid to farmers, and repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act.

To practically everyone's surprise but his own, Truman defeated Dewey by more than 2 million popular votes and by an electoral vote of 303 to 189. (Two other parties, the Dixiecrats and the Progressives, won 39 and 0 electoral votes respectively.) The Democrats also regained control of both houses of Congress.


The Berlin Airlift, NATO, and China.
In 1948, Soviet forces blockaded the western sectors of Berlin, the former capital of Germany, which had been under the control of the four main Allied powers since the end of World War II. Truman did not want to risk war by sending land convoys through the Soviet lines. Instead, he ordered that West Berlin be supplied by air, which forced the Soviets to lift the blockade in 1949. To meet any further Soviet military threats to Western Europe, Truman helped shape a new alliance called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). For more information, see the articles Berlin and North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Meanwhile, Truman was severely criticized for not sending massive military aid to President Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Chinese government before mainland China fell to Communist forces in 1949. The Nationalists then withdrew to Taiwan.


The Korean War.
Communist North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950. Truman called for armed assistance to the South Koreans under a United Nations command headed by the United States. When Communist China came to North Korea's aid, Truman refused to allow the UN commander, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur, to bomb bases within China for fear that it might lead to all-out war. When MacArthur publicly opposed Truman's policy, the president fired him, amid great controversy.

An armistice in Korea was not achieved until July 1953, after Truman had left office. For more information, see the article Korean War.


Retirement.
After leaving office in January 1953, Truman returned to his home in Independence, Missouri. He traveled widely, published his memoirs, and enjoyed the status of an elder statesman. He died on December 26, 1972, and was buried in Independence.

Answer 2

Harry S Truman

During his few weeks as Vice President, Harry S Truman scarcely saw President Roosevelt, and received no briefing on the development of the atomic bomb or the unfolding difficulties with Soviet Russia. Suddenly these and a host of other wartime problems became Truman's to solve when, on April 12, 1945, he became President. He told reporters, "I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me."

Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri, in 1884. He grew up in Independence, and for 12 years prospered as a Missouri farmer.

He went to France during World War I as a captain in the Field Artillery. Returning, he married Elizabeth Virginia Wallace, and opened a haberdashery in Kansas City.


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Active in the Democratic Party, Truman was elected a judge of the Jackson County Court (an administrative position) in 1922. He became a Senator in 1934. During World War II he headed the Senate war investigating committee, checking into waste and corruption and saving perhaps as much as 15 billion dollars.

As President, Truman made some of the most crucial decisions in history. Soon after V-E Day, the war against Japan had reached its final stage. An urgent plea to Japan to surrender was rejected. Truman, after consultations with his advisers, ordered atomic bombs dropped on cities devoted to war work. Two were Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japanese surrender quickly followed.

In June 1945 Truman witnessed the signing of the charter of the United Nations, hopefully established to preserve peace.

Thus far, he had followed his predecessor's policies, but he soon developed his own. He presented to Congress a 21-point program, proposing the expansion of Social Security, a full-employment program, a permanent Fair Employment Practices Act, and public housing and slum clearance. The program, Truman wrote, "symbolizes for me my assumption of the office of President in my own right." It became known as the Fair Deal.

Dangers and crises marked the foreign scene as Truman campaigned successfully in 1948. In foreign affairs he was already providing his most effective leadership.

In 1947 as the Soviet Union pressured Turkey and, through guerrillas, threatened to take over Greece, he asked Congress to aid the two countries, enunciating the program that bears his name--the Truman Doctrine. The Marshall Plan, named for his Secretary of State, stimulated spectacular economic recovery in war-torn western Europe.

When the Russians blockaded the western sectors of Berlin in 1948, Truman created a massive airlift to supply Berliners until the Russians backed down. Meanwhile, he was negotiating a military alliance to protect Western nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, established in 1949.

In June 1950, when the Communist government of North Korea attacked South Korea, Truman conferred promptly with his military advisers. There was, he wrote, "complete, almost unspoken acceptance on the part of everyone that whatever had to be done to meet this aggression had to be done. There was no suggestion from anyone that either the United Nations or the United States could back away from it."

A long, discouraging struggle ensued as U.N. forces held a line above the old boundary of South Korea. Truman kept the war a limited one, rather than risk a major conflict with China and perhaps Russia.

Deciding not to run again, he retired to Independence; at age 88, he died December 26, 1972, after a stubborn fight for life.

Answer 3

He utilized his political powers extremely well by stopping General Mac Arther from nuking N. Korea and China which would have been a global disaster. Sir Truman gets the credit as a strong political leader.

Answer 4

HARRY POTTER, infant! i won't be able to have self assurance a number of you even could desire to think of approximately that. Twilight would not even study to HP. HP pwns you all. I pity those undesirable females squealing "Twilight!" and swearing that sometime Edward Cullen will marry them. merely depart that unhappy, baseball-enjoying gay vampire on my own, dears.

Answer 5

Check Wikipedia One thing he did is order the nuclear bomings of Japan near the end of WWII

Answer 6

http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/ht33.html
Click on this.