In the November election, Truman defeated Republican Manvel H. Davis by 51–49 percent. St. Louis party leader Robert E. Hannegan's support of Truman proved crucial; he later brokered the deal that put Truman on the national ticket. In his first term, Truman spoke out against corporate greed and the dangers of Wall Street speculators and other moneyed special interests attaining too much influence in national affairs. Truman then thought he might serve out his career in some well-paying county sinecure; circumstances changed when Pendergast reluctantly backed him as the machine's choice in the 1934 Democratic primary election for the U.S. Also in 1926, he became president of the National Old Trails Road Association, and during his term he oversaw dedication of 12 Madonna of the Trail monuments to honor pioneer women. Instead there were proxy wars, fought by client states and proxies of the United States and Soviet Union. Due to the antagonism on both sides and each countries' search for security, a tense worldwide contest developed between the two states as the two nations' governments vied for global supremacy militarily, culturally, and politically. Economic and propaganda warfare against the communist world became part of the American toolbox. The result was the Truman Doctrine of 1947–48 which made it national policy to contain Communist expansion. He testified before Congress to have money appropriated to have presidential papers copied and organized. Truman's predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, had organized his own presidential library, but legislation to enable future presidents to do something similar had not been enacted. The only other living former president at the time, Herbert Hoover, also took the pension, even though he did not need the money; reportedly, he did so to avoid embarrassing Truman. He wrote, "Bonds, land, and cash all come from savings of presidential salary and free expense account. It should keep you and Margaret comfortably." He likely betory casino registration had around $7,500 (equivalent to $131,000 in 2024) in cash and government bonds when nominated for vice president. Eisenhower defeated Stevenson decisively in the general election, ending 20 years of Democratic presidents. They won the election and Truman became the Vice President. In 1944, Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for Presidency for the 4th time. When he returned from war, he again had to struggle to find a secure job. His leadership during the final stages of World War II, the beginning of the Cold War, and the Korean War reflects his commitment to U.S. interests and international stability. He was defeated for reelection in 1924, but won election as presiding judge in the Jackson County Court in 1926. Today, visitors to Harry S. Truman National Historic Site can experience the surroundings Truman knew as a young man of modest ambition through his political career and final years as a former president. President Harry S Truman took America from its traditional isolationism into the age of international involvement. Official websites use .govA.gov website belongs to an official governmentorganization in the United States. In 2004, international relations scholars Rachel Kleinfeld and Matthew Spence founded the Truman National Security Project.

• In one notable instance of bipartisanship, Congress passed the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, which replaced the secretary of state with the Speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate as successor to the president after the vice president.
• Truman did not campaign for the vice-presidential spot, though he welcomed the attention as evidence that he had become more than the "Senator from Pendergast".
• Executive Order 9980, also in 1948, made it illegal to discriminate against persons applying for civil service positions based on race.
• From 1919 to 1922 he ran a men's clothing store in Kansas City with his wartime friend, Eddie Jacobson.
• Truman did not know what to do about China, where the Nationalists and Communists were fighting a large-scale civil war.

Worldwide defense

South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond, a segregationist, declared his candidacy for the presidency on a Dixiecrat ticket and led a full-scale revolt of Southern "states' rights" proponents. Truman took a considerable political risk in backing civil rights, and many seasoned Democrats were concerned the loss of Dixiecrat support might seriously weaken the party. A sharp address given by Mayor Hubert Humphrey of Minneapolis—as well as the local political interests of a number of urban bosses—convinced the convention to adopt a stronger civil rights plank, which Truman approved wholeheartedly. At the 1948 Democratic National Convention, Truman attempted to unify the party with a vague civil rights plank in the party platform. In the spring of 1948, Truman's public approval rating stood at 36 percent, and the president was nearly universally regarded as incapable of winning the general election. Is flat a good deal of the time—more last night than at any time we have heard her in past years ... When Attorney General J. Howard McGrath fired the special prosecutor in early 1952 for being too zealous, Truman fired McGrath. The high court's reversal of Truman's order was one of the notable defeats of his presidency. Truman cited his authority as commander in chief and the need to maintain an uninterrupted supply of steel for munitions for the war in Korea. On November 1, 1950, Puerto Rican nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo attempted to assassinate Truman at Blair House. Truman called the Act "the greatest danger to freedom of speech, press, and assembly since the Alien and Sedition Laws of 1798", a "mockery of the Bill of Rights" and a "long step toward totalitarianism".

Second term (1949–

The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 caused Truman advocates to claim vindication for Truman's decisions in the postwar period. After a review of information available to Truman about 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. Upon turning 80 in 1964, Truman was feted in Washington, and addressed the Senate, availing himself of a new rule that allowed former presidents to be granted privilege of the floor. Truman's statement garnered a response from Martin Luther King Jr., who wrote a letter to the former president stating that he was "baffled" by the accusation, and demanded a public apology. Max Skidmore, in his book on the life of former presidents, wrote that Truman was a well-read man, especially in history. Nevertheless, the Trumans always lived modestly in Independence, and when Bess Truman died in 1982, almost a decade after her husband, the house was found to be in poor condition due to deferred maintenance.

Military service

In that speech, Truman laid out the need to end discrimination, which would be advanced by the first comprehensive, presidentially proposed civil rights legislation. The main mission of the committee was to expose and fight waste and corruption in the gigantic government wartime contracts. Despite his supportive stance on civil rights during his presidency, Truman expressed criticism of the civil rights movement during the 1960s. Truman worked to garner private donations to build a presidential library, which he donated to the federal government to maintain and operate—a practice adopted by his successors. In February 1948, the president submitted a civil rights agenda to Congress that proposed creating several federal offices devoted to issues such as voting rights and fair employment practices.

Approval rating falls; Republicans win Congress in 1946

• In 1951, William M. Boyle, Truman's longtime friend and chairman of the Democratic National Committee, was forced to resign after being charged with financial corruption.
• Following a tough Democratic primary victory in 1940, he won a second term in the Senate, and it was during this term that he gained national recognition for leading an investigation into fraud and waste in the U.S. military.
• Truman and his generals considered the use of nuclear weapons against the Chinese army, but ultimately chose not to escalate the war to a nuclear level.
• Yet clearly he largely failed to achieve his Wilsonian aim of securing perpetual peace, making the world safe for democracy, and advancing opportunities for individual development internationally.
• It is unclear to what extent President Truman was briefed of the Venona intercepts, which discovered widespread evidence of Soviet espionage on the atom bomb project and afterward.
• The committee reportedly saved as much as $15 billion (equivalent to $260 billion in 2024), and its activities put Truman on the cover of Time magazine.

Marshall believed the paramount threat to the United States was the Soviet Union and feared Arab oil would be lost to the United States in the event of war; he warned Truman the United States was "playing with fire with nothing to put it out". Secretary of Defense James Forrestal warned Truman of the importance of Saudi Arabian oil in another war; Truman replied he would decide his policy on the basis of justice, not oil. The Berlin Airlift was one of Truman's great foreign policy successes; it significantly aided his election campaign in 1948. On November 4, 1952, Truman authorized the official, though at the time, confidential creation of the National Security Agency (NSA). He won bipartisan support for both the Truman Doctrine, which formalized a policy of Soviet containment, and the Marshall Plan, which aimed to help rebuild postwar Europe. As a Wilsonian internationalist, Truman supported Roosevelt's policy in favor of the creation of the United Nations and included Eleanor Roosevelt on the delegation to the first UN General Assembly.

Harry S Truman

Truman was elected vice president in the 1944 presidential election and became president upon Roosevelt's death in April 1945. Between 1940 and 1944, he gained national prominence as the chairman of the Truman Committee, which aimed to reduce waste and inefficiency in wartime contracts. His term lasted just 82 days, however, during which time he met with the president only twice. The committee made it a practice to issue draft reports of its findings to corporations, unions, and government agencies under investigation, allowing for the correction of abuses before formal action was initiated. Truman’s domestic and foreign policies have a lasting impact on American history, shaping the nation’s approach to global conflict, economic recovery, and civil rights.

Harry S. Truman – 33rd President of the United States

In August, the Japanese government refused surrender demands as specifically outlined in the Potsdam Declaration. Truman loved to spend as much time as possible playing poker, telling stories and sipping bourbon. Truman had been vice president for 82 days when President Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945. In an event that generated negative publicity for Truman, he was photographed with actress Lauren Bacall sitting atop the piano at the National Press Club as he played for soldiers. In one of his first acts as vice president, Truman created some controversy when he attended the disgraced Pendergast's funeral. Truman envisioned the office as a liaison between the Senate and the president. It was long believed that Truman's retirement years were financially difficult, resulting in Congress establishing a pension for former presidents. He was eligible for reelection in 1952 but he chose not to run due to poor polling. Congress refused, so Truman issued Executive Order 9980 and Executive Order 9981, which prohibited discrimination in agencies of the federal government and desegregated the United States Armed Forces. Domestically, the postwar economic challenges such as strikes and inflation created a mixed reaction over the effectiveness of his administration. Truman's administration engaged in an internationalist foreign policy by working closely with Britain. Truman authorized the first and only use of nuclear weapons in war against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.