26 December 2018 | Author/Destination: Editorial / Redaktion | Rubric: Portrait
Reading Time: 10 minutes
Offical portrait of Harry S. Truman at White House © Greta Kempton – Harry S. Truman Library
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd
President of the United States (1945–1953), taking office upon the death of
Franklin D. Roosevelt. A
World War I veteran, he assumed the presidency during the waning months of
World War II and the beginning of the
Cold War. He is known for implementing the
Marshall Plan to rebuild the economy of Western Europe, for establishing the
Truman Doctrine and
NATO against Soviet and Chinese Communism, and for intervening in the
Korean War. In domestic affairs, he was a moderate
Democrat whose liberal proposals were a continuation of Franklin Roosevelt’s
New Deal, but the conservative-dominated Congress blocked most of them. He used the veto power 180 times,
more than any president since, and saw 12 overridden by Congress; only
Grover Cleveland and Franklin D. Roosevelt used the veto more often, and only
Gerald Ford and
Andrew Johnson saw so many veto overrides. He is the only world leader to have
used nuclear weapons in war. He
desegregated the U.S. Armed Forces, supported a independent
Israel and was a founder of the
United Nations.
read more…
