What Happened to Harry Truman’s House?

This House: "Uncover the hidden treasures and intimate spaces of Harry Truman's home in Independence, Missouri. From his surprising beginnings to his iconic presidential moments, experience Truman's legacy through the rooms and objects that meant the most to him." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAcVGXt72Oc&t=79s

Trump’s Presidential Immunity: Supreme Court Holds Historic Hearing

I share former Rep. Liz Cheney's frustration, even outrage, as she wrote in a NYTimes op-ed, that it appears the Supreme Court will not rule swiftly enough on Donald Trump's immunity claim that he can stand trial before the 2024 election on charges related to January 6, 2021. “It cannot be that a president of …

NATO’s 75th Anniversary: It Has Helped Stabilize Europe. Clifton Truman Daniel Recalls His Grandfather’s Momentous Act

If NATO existed in 1914 and 1939, European nations, Britain, and the U.S. abided by a collective security treaty -- that an attack on one of them would be treated as an attack on them all -- World War I and World War II would have been prevented, President Harry Truman contended. Indeed, since NATO …

Harry Truman and the Birth of Israel in 1948

The Truman Library in Independence, MO. hosted a 75th-anniversary observance of the birth of the nation of Israel in 1948. "An event honoring the 75th anniversary of Israel's declaration of independence and President Harry S. Truman's world-altering recognition of the new democracy featuring Ambassador Michael Herzog, Israeli Ambassador to the United States. This event took …

In 1948, A Popular Phrase Was ‘To Err Is Truman’

Back in 1995, I visited Independence, MO, the home of President Harry S. Truman, and recalled how he was the original "Comeback Kid." At the end of 1946, his presidential popularity was 32 percent and the Republicans had just taken both the House and the Senate for the first time in 16 years. A "Dump …

Renowned Historian David McCullough Dies At 89

"His research — on Adams, Truman and so much more — was deep, his writing was lively, and his narrator’s voice in documentary films was familiar to millions." NYT obituary. 60 Minutes profile from 2012: Morley Safer spoke with the author and historian in a sweeping interview that touched on McCullough's career, negative political campaigning, …

8 Years of Harry Truman’s Presidency Changed the World Dramatically

PBS American Experience on Harry Truman (1997): "He was a farmer, a haberdasher gone bankrupt, an unknown politician from Missouri who suddenly found himself President. Of all the men who had held the office, he was the least prepared. Yet Harry Truman would have some of the most difficult decisions any president would have to make. Many …

Truman and Eisenhower in the 1950s Developed Chilly Relationship

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bXZb7dTGqQ President Harry Truman in 1945 told the Allied Commander, Gen. Dwight Eusenhower, that he was so impressed by his performance in WW2 that he would help him launch a political career. But then the ambitions of the two men conflicted. Truman was a Democrat and perceived, often unfairly, as an unpopular bumbler. Eisenhower, extraordinarily …

Churchill’s ‘Iron Curtain’ Speech Helped Frame the Cold War

HistoryNet "On March 5, 1946, shortly after World War II, Churchill delivers his "Sinews of Peace" speech at Westminster College in Missouri, famously coining the term the "Iron Curtain" to describe growing Soviet aggression." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHVmT1TfkSY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMt7zCaVOWU CriticalPast: "Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain speech" regarding USSR and Eastern Bloc, at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, early in …

What Was the Marshall Plan?

"Good deed foreign policy" was enacted by the US in the aftermath of WWII, to invest billions in rebuilding the smoldering continent of Europe in the hopes that countries would become not only become allies but markets for American products and viable democracies like the US and not be tempted by Soviet communism. https://youtu.be/tMXjsVLOznc From …