Part One
1. Blue River Country
“Lord, grant”: Gilbert, Westering Man, 21.
One side-wheel steamer: Blue Springs (Missouri) Examiner, April 26, 1989.
One traveler described: Waugh, “Desultory Wanderings…,” Missouri Historical Society, April 1950.
“The Missouri is constantly’: Parkman, Oregon Trail, 14.
in a letter from Missouri dated July 24, 1846: Nancy Tyler Holmes to Mary Jane Holmes, Harry S. Truman Library (cited hereafter as HSTL).
“As for myself’: Anderson Shipp Truman to Mary Truman, September 16, 1846, HSTL.
“grand prairie ocean”: Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies, 59.
“Mules, horses”: Parkman, Journals, Vol. 2, 419.
“To live in a region:” History of Jackson County, 73.
“rich and beautiful uplands’: Gregg, 163.
“without other warrant”: History of Jackson County, 255.
Mormons must leave or be “exterminated”: Ibid., 268.
a lone assassin: Ibid., 257.
“Awful cold”: Quoted in Slaughter, Missouri Farm Family, 45.
“a gun and an axe”: John W. Meador, Oral History, HSTL.
“She was a strong woman”: HST quoted in Miller, Plain Speaking, 62.
In 1850, his recorded wealth: U.S. Census, 1850.
at nearly $50,000: U.S. Census, 1860.
a man “who could do pretty much anything”: HST quoted in Miller, 62.
“The wagons were coupled”: Deseret News, August 15, 1860, 188.
In the spring of 1849: History of Jackson County, 96.
In 1851 cholera struck again: Ibid.
“Come on then, gentlemen”: Quoted in Oates, To Purge This Land with Blood, 80.
“enough to kill every God-damned abolitionist”: Ibid., 89.
John Brown…come to “regulate matters”: Ibid., 130.
A Jackson County physician named Lee: History of Jackson County, 272.
“They asked me”: Ibid., 300.
Quantrill struck Kansas: Monaghan, Civil War on the Western Border, 286; Josephy, Civil War, 373.
Jim Crow Chiles: Sheley, “James Peacock and ‘Jim Crow’ Chiles,” Frontier Times, May 1963.
In the formal claim Harriet Louisa Young filed: U.S. House of Representatives, 59th Congress, 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. No. 901, June 19, 1906.
Recollection of Martha Ellen Young: Berger, “Mother Truman’s Life Not All Frontier Toil,” Kansas City Times, June 30, 1946 (reprinted from The New York Times).
“It is heartsickening to see”: Brownlee, Gray Ghosts of the Confederacy, 126-27.
“I hope you have not turned”: John Truman to Anderson Truman, October 8, 1861, HSTL.
the Red Legs had arrived: Daniels, Independence, 36.
Anderson loaded his five slaves: Ethel Noland, Oral History, HSTL.
“They never bought one”: Ibid.
He was “universally hated”: Mary Paxton Keeley, Oral History, HSTL.
To black people he was a living terror: Donald R. Hale, “James Chiles—A Missouri Badman,” The West, October 1968.
“to see them jump”: Ibid.
the confrontation on the west side: Ibid.
it was said of John A. Truman: History of Jackson County, 986.
a three-drawer burl walnut dresser: Martha Ann Truman Swoyer, author’s interview.
The couple’s own first home: Kornitzer, “The Story of Truman and His Father,” Parents Magazine, March 1951.
Lamar Democrat: June 28, 1883.
a Baptist circuit rider: Steinberg, The Man from Missouri, 20.
“Baby is real sick now”: Letter of Mary Martha Truman, April 7, 1885, HSTL.
he was chasing a frog: Autobiography, 3.
his mother, for fun: Ibid.
2. Model Boy
the happiest childhood: Harry S. Truman, Memoirs (cited hereafter as Memoirs), Vol. I, 113.
The farm was “a wonderful place”: Ibid., 115.
“I became familiar with every sort of animal”: Ibid.
“there were peach butter”: Ibid., 114.
The child liked everybody: Ibid., 124.
“flat eyeballs”: Daniels, The Man of Independence, 49.
Mamma taught that punishment followed: Autobiography, 33.
enough to “burn the hide off: HST quoted in Miller, Plain Speaking, 63.
John Truman acquired a house: Memoirs, Vol. I, 115.
“I do not remember a bad teacher”: Ibid., 118.
“When I was growing up”: Ibid., 124-25.
“He just smiled his way along”: Jackson (Mississippi) Daily News, December 21, 1947.
diphtheria: Memoirs, Vol. I, 116-17.
“didn’t scare easy”: Daniels, 53.
“not once,” he said: Quoted in Miller, 48.
“It was just something you did”: Ibid., 52.
“Harry, do you remember”: Daniels, 57.
“It’s a very lonely thing”: Quoted in Miller, 277–78.
Caroline Simpson taught: Steinberg, The Man from Missouri, 24.
“To tell the truth”: Quoted in Miller, 32.
“They wanted to call him”: Henry P. Chiles, Oral History, HSTL.
“intended for a girl” anyway: HST to EW, April 8, 1912, in Ferrell, ed., Dear Bess (cited hereafter as Dear Bess), 80.
He patented a staple puller: Original patents, HSTL.
automatic railroad switch: Parents Magazine, March 1951.
“A mighty good trader”: Ibid.
“fight like a buzz saw”: Quoted in Steinberg, 17.
“A fiery fellow”: Stephen Slaughter, author’s interview.
“No one could make remarks”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 124.
“He had no use for a coward”: Parents Magazine, March 1951,
“Our house became headquarters”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 117-18.
“Harry was always fun”: Ethel Noland, Oral History, HSTL.
“If I succeeded in carrying”: “Pickwick Papers,” May 14, 1934, HSTL.
“No! No! Harry was a Baptist”: Mary Paxton Keeley, Oral History, HSTL.
men with their blazing torches: Paxton, Memoirs, 22.
cows to milk: Autobiography, 30.
“in regard to integrity”: An Illustrated Description of Independence, Missouri, ca. 1902.
“There was conversation”: Quoted in Miller, 32.
“No town in the west”: An Illustrated Description of Independence, Missouri.
“Harry always wanted to know”: Amanda Hardin Palmer, Oral History, HSTL.
“The community at large”: Independence (Missouri) Examiner, August 23, 1901.
“Never, never give up”: Parents Magazine, March 1951.
“In those days”: Quoted in Miller, 62.
“Oh! Almighty and Everlasting God”: HST Diary, in Ferrell, ed., Off the Record (cited hereafter as Off the Record, 188.
“There must have been a thousand”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 121.
“In a little closet”: Ibid., 122.
“the biggest thing that ever happened”: Ibid.
“I don’t know anybody”: Noland, Oral History, HSTL.
“He had a real feeling for history”: Quoted in Miller, 50.
“Reading history, to me”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 119.
“the salt of the earth”: Ibid., 118–19.
“It cultivates every faculty”: Course of Study and Rules and Regulations of the Independence Public Schools, March 15, 1909, HSTL.
HST composition books: Collection of James F. and Mary Ann Truman Swoyer.
“Mothers held him up as a model”: Leviero’, “Harry Truman, Musician and Music Lover,” The New York Times Magazine, June 18, 1950.
he genuinely adored the great classical works: Ibid.
“all right,” John Truman said: Parents Magazine, March 1951.
picnics every August at Lone Jack: Miller, 66–67.
HST at 1900 Democratic National Convention: Daniels, 58.
Caesar’s bridge: Miller, 33.
“over a good deal”: Noland, Oral History, HSTL.
“‘Progress’ is the cry”: The Gleam, Independence High School Annual, May 1901.
3. The Way of the Farmer
“I’m fine. And you?”: Quoted in Miller, Plain Speaking, 12.
“plunged” into railroads: Ethel Noland, Oral History, HSTL.
“He got the notion he could get rich”: Daniels, The Man of Independence, 59.
“mud horse”: Ibid.
Tasker Taylor tragedy: Independence Sentinel, August 23, 1902.
“A very down-to-earth education”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 123.
“He’s all right”: Jonathan Daniels interview notes, July 28, 1949, HSTL.
“Are you good at figures?”: April 24, 1903, HSTL.
“He is an exceptionally bright young man”: A D. Flintom to C. H. Moore, April 14, 1904, HSTL.
“Trueman,” as Flintom spelled it: A. D. Flintom to C. H. Moore, July 27, 1904, HSTL.
“never so happy as when”: Autobiography, 20.
Wallace suicide: Jackson Examiner, June 19, 1903.
“an attractiveness about him”: Ibid.
“Why should such a man”: Ibid.
wedding of Madge Gates to David Wallace: Kansas City Journal, June 15, 1883.
“[Bessie] was walking up and down”: Mary Paxton Keeley, Oral History, HSTL.
“Ties Collar Cuffs Pins”: HST Expenses Diary, HSTL.
A note from “Horatio”: HST to EN, February 2, 1904, HSTL.
A performance by Richard Mansfield: Autobiography, 22.
“They wanted to see him grin”: Quoted in Miller, Plain Speaking, 84.
“I was twenty-one”: Autobiography, 27.
dress uniform episode: Ibid., 28.
“when a bachelor”: Dahlberg, Because I Was Flesh, 1.
Virgil Thomson, who was to become: Thomson, Virgil Thomson, 3.
“Harry and I had only a dollar a week”: Daniels, 70.
Trumans move back to Grandview: Steinberg, The Man from Missouri, 32.
His friends were sure: Noland, Oral History, HSTL.
“and woe to the loafer”: Autobiography, 36.
“Well, if you don’t work”: Robert Wyatt, Oral History, HSTL.
“The simple life was not always”: Stephen Slaughter, author’s interview.
“My father told me”: Quoted in Daniels, 76.
Yet John Truman was happier: Parents Magazine, March 1951.
“Yes, and if you did a good job”: Gaylon Babcock, Oral History, HSTL.
A few days later: Renshaw, “President Truman. His Missouri Neighbors Tell of His Farm Years,” The Prairie Farmer, May 12, 1945.
Harry also kept the books: HST Account Books, HSTL.
“The coldest day in winter”: HST to EW, May 19, 1913, Dear Bess, 125.
“finest land you’d find”: Quoted in Miller, 89.
“always bustling around”: The Prairie Farmer, May 12, 1945.
“The ground was terribly hard”: Ibid.
“He was so down-to-earth”: Pansy Perkins, Oral History, HSTL.
“He always looked neat”: Slaughter, author’s interview.
“Harry was a very good lodge man”: Babcock, Oral History, HSTL.
“Frank Blair got Harry interested”: Slaughter, author’s interview.
“Papa buys me candy”: HST to EW, April 27, 1911, Dear Bess, 30.
“To be a good farmer in Missouri”: Vivian quoted in Parents Magazine, March 1951.
“You know as long as”: HST to EW, October 16, 1911, Dear Bess, 52.
“Well, I saw her”: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 32.
“Isn’t she a caution?”: HST to EW, March 19, 1911, Dear Bess, 25.
“I’m always rattled”: HST to EW, postmark illegible, ibid., 134.
“Say, it sure is a grand thing”: HST to EW, February 13, 1912, ibid., 73.
“It is necessary to sit”: HST to EW, July 8, 1912, HSTL.
“This morning I was helping”: HST to EW, January 26, 1911, Dear Bess, 21.
“I have been to the lot”: HST to EW, April 1, 1912, ibid., 80.
“I’m horribly anxious for you”: HST to EW, April 8, 1912, ibid., 81.
“You know when people can get excited”: HST to EW, March 19, 1911, ibid., 25.
“you’ve no idea”: HST to EW, May 17, 1911, ibid., 33.
“I am by religion”: HST to EW, February 7, 1911, ibid., 22.
“Lent and such things”: HST to EW, March 19, 1911, ibid., 24.
“I have been reading David Copperfield”: HST to EW, May 3, 1911, ibid., 31.
“you know, were I an Italian”: HST to EW, June 22, 1911, ibid., 39.
“You know that you turned me down”: HST to EW, July 12, 1911, ibid, 40.
In August, he announced: HST to EW, August 27, 1911, ibid., 44; September 5, 1911, 45.
“I was reading Plato’s Republic”: HST to EW, November 6, 1912, ibid., 103.
“He had found he could get”: HST to EW, May 23, 1916, ibid., 200.
“girl mouth”: HST to EW, November 19, 1913, ibid., 145.
“so long as he’s honest”: HST to EW, June 22, 1911, ibid., 39.
“Did you ever sit”: HST to EW, November 1, 1911, ibid., 57.
“We never rated a person”: Slaughter, author’s interview.
“Just imagine how often”: HST to EW, November 1, 1911, Dear Bess, 57.
“hat-full of debts”: HST to EW, December 21, 1911, ibid., 64.
two reasons for wanting to be rich: HST to EW, January 25, 1912, ibid., 69.
“I really thought once I’d be”: HST to EW, May 23, 1911, ibid., 36.
“I am like Mark Twain”: HST to EW, May 17, 1911, ibid., 34.
“You know a man has to be”: HST to EW, July 12, 1911, ibid., 41.
“who knows, maybe I’ll be”: HST to EW, May 23, 1911, ibid., 36.
“Sucker! Sucker!”: HST to EW, October 22, 1911, ibid., 53.
three hundred bales of hay: HST to EW, August 12, 1912, ibid., 93.
“I have been working like Sam Hill”: HST to EW, September 30, 1913, ibid., 137.
father in a “terrible stew”: HST to EW, postmarked November 11, 1913, HSTL.
“Politics is all he ever advises me”: HST to EW, August 6, 1912, Dear Bess, 92.
“I don’t think we would have traded him for anybody”: Slaughter, author’s interview.
“I never understood”: Ibid.
“Politics sure is the ruination”: HST to EW, postmark illegible, Dear Bess, 132.
“I told him that was a very mild remark”: HST to EW, May 26, 1913, ibid., 126.
He was the one person: Noland, Oral History, HSTL.
another try in an Indian land lottery: HST to EW, September 30, 1913, Dear Bess, 138.
“all puffed up”: HST to EW, November 4, 1913, ibid., 141–42.
“How does it feel to be engaged to a clodhopper”: HST to EW, November 10, 1913, ibid., 143.
“I know your last letter word for word”: HST to EW, November 19, 1913, ibid., 145.
“Oh please send me another like it”: Ibid.
“Mrs. Wallace wasn’t a bit in favor of Harry”: Ardis Haukenberry, author’s interview.
“We have moved around quite a bit”: HST to EW, February 16, 1911, Dear Bess, 24.
“Yes, it is true that Mrs. Wallace did not think”: May Wallace, author’s interview.
mother’s operation for a hernia: HST to EW, March 20, 1914, Dear Bess, 161.
“I hope she lives to be”: HST to EW, January 26, 1914, ibid., 157.
Mamma gave him the money for an automobile: HST to EW, May 12, 1914, ibid., 168.
“Harry didn’t like onions”: May Wallace, author’s interview.
“I started for Monegaw Springs”: HST to EW, no postmark. Dear Bess,183.
“Imagine working the roads”: HST to EW, August 8, 1914, ibid., 172.
“If anyone asks him how he’s feeling”: HST to EW, September 28, 1914, ibid., 176.
“good letters” helped “put that backbone into me”: HST to EW, September 17, 1914, ibid., 175.
his father, who refused to let the nurse: HST to EW, November 1914, ibid., 178.
“I remember the Sunday afternoon”: Slaughter, History of a Missouri Farm Family, 71.
“I was with him”: Daniels, 74.
“Harry and I often got up”: Parents Magazine, March 1951.
“An Upright Citizen”: Independence Examiner, November 3, 1914.
“I have quite a job on my hands”: HST to EW, November 1914, Dear Bess, 178.
“quiet wheat-growing people”: Cather, One of Ours, 143.
“gave it everything he had”: Quoted in Miller, 90.
“I almost got done planting”: HST to EW, April 28, 1915, Dear Bess, 182.
“It’s right unhandy to chase”: HST to EW, Grandview, 1915, ibid., 181.
he traveled to Texas; HST to EW, February 16, 1916, ibid., 185.
“There’s no one wants to win”: HST to EW, February 19, 1916, ibid., 187.
“This place down here”: HST to EW, date illegible, ibid., 193.
“I don’t suppose”: HST to EW, June 3, 1916, ibid., 201.
“I can’t possibly lose forever”: HST to EW, April 24, 1916, ibid., 198.
“The mine has gone by the board”: HST to EW, May 19, 1916, ibid., 199.
He could “continue business”: HST to EW, May 23, 1916, ibid., 200.
“It’s about 111 degrees in the shade”: HST to EW, July 30, 1916, ibid., 206.
“Wish heavy for me to win”: HST to EW, July 28, 1916, ibid.
“Keep wishing me luck”: HST to EW, August 4, 1916, ibid., 207.
buying and selling oil leases: Steinberg, 39.
“signed also by Martha E. Truman”: Ibid, 39.
“came up every time with something else”: HST to EW, August 5, 1916, Dear Bess, 209.
“Truman was surrounded by people, people, people”: Daniels, 81.
“If this venture blows”: HST to EW, January 23, 1917, Dear Bess, 213.
“In the event this country”: Daniels, 83.
Teeter Pool discovered: Memoirs, Vol. I, 127.
He said $11,000 at the time: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 56.
If his part in his father’s debts: HST to EW, April 28, 1915, Dear Bess, 182.
he was never meant for a farmer: Noland, Oral History, HSTL.
“Riding one of these plows all day”: HST, “Autobiographical Sketch,” HSTL.
“It takes pride to run a farm”: HST to MET and MJT, September 18, 1946, in Ferrell, ed., Off the Record, 96.
4. Soldier
“It is the great adventure”: HST to EW, September 15, 1918, Dear Bess, 271.
“we got through”: Quoted in Miller, Plain Speaking, 93.
Some people thought her the best looking: Gaylon Babcock, Oral History, HSTL.
“It was quite a blow”: Steinberg, The Man from Missouri, 42.
She must not tie herself: HST to EW, July 14, 1917, Dear Bess, 225.
the reasons to go to war: HST to EW, January 18, 1918, HSTL.
there wasn’t a German bullet: HST to EW, February 1, 1918, Dear Bess, 242.
“Galahad after the Grail”: Autobiography, 41.
passes eye exam: U.S. Army Medical Records, August 9, 1917, HSTL.
On July 4, 1917, when Harry turned up: HST to EW, July 4, 1918, HSTL.
“It was sure enough cold”: HST to EW, October 9, 1917, HSTL.
“A tent fifty yards away”: HST to EW, October 18, 1917, Dear Bess, 231–32.
“all the Lillian Russells”: HST to EW, September 30, 1917, ibid., 228.
artillery terms: Lee, The Artillery Man, 326.
“I have been squads east”: HST to EW, February 3, 1918, Dear Bess, 242.
“I learned how to say Verdun”: HST to EW, October 27, 1918, HSTL.
“He made us feel”: HST to EW, January 27, 1918, Dear Bess, 241.
“one of our most effective officers”: Thomson, Virgil Thomson, 35.
“I have a Jew in charge”: HST to EW, October 28, 1917, Dear Bess, 233.
“Each day Harry would write a letter”: Mayerberg, “Edward Jacobson: President Truman’s Buddy,” Liberal Judaism, August 1945.
“I guess I should be very proud”: HST to EW, February 3, 1918, Dear Bess, 242.
“real good conversation”: HST to EW, February 23, 1918, ibid., 245–46.
“Jacobson says he’d go”: HST to EW, November 24, 1917, ibid., 238.
“I didn’t know how crazy”: HST to EW, January 10, 1918, ibid., 240.
Tiernan provides whiskey: HST to EW, October 23, 1917, ibid., 232.
“We elected Klemm”: Truman interview with Jonathan Daniels, November 12, 1949.
“He taught me more about handling men”: Autobiography, 44.
“You speak pretty good English”: Ted Marks, Oral History, HSTL.
“No man can be that good”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 128.
Berry would stalk up and down: Steinberg, 43.
“I suppose you will have to spend”: HST to EW, March 16, 1918, HSTL.
“I’d give anything in the world”: HST to EW, March 20, 1918, Dear Bess, 251.
“The phone’s yours”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 129.
“On leave in New York”: HST to EW, March 24 and March 26, 1918, Dear Bess, 252–53.
a “Kike town”: HST to EW, March 27, 1918, ibid, 254.
“Israelitist extraction”: HST to EN, ca. 1918, HSTL.
“I imagine his vision”: Harry Vaughan, Oral History, HSTL.
“There we were watching”: Autobiography, 45.
He ached for home: HST to EW, April, 1918, Dear Bess, 256.
arrival at Brest: Autobiography, 45.
At the hotel in Brest: HST to EW, April 14, 1918, Dear Bess, 257.
The whole surrounding countryside: HST to EW, April 23, 1918, ibid, 260.
“The people generally treat us fine”: HST to EW, April 12, 1918, ibid, 259.
“I’m for the French more and more”: HST to EW, June 27, 1918, ibid, 264.
They also knew how to build: HST to EW, May 19, 1918, ibid, 262.
“They are the most sentimental people”: HST to EW, June 2, 1918, HSTL.
“Je ne comprends pas”: HST to EW, April 17, 1918, Dear Bess, 259.
determined to drink France dry: HST to EW, April 14, 1918, ibid, 258.
“Wandering through dark streets”: Quoted in Freidel, Over There, p. 80.
“Personally, I think Harry”: Edgar Hinde, Oral History, HSTL.
“Wish I could step in”: HST to EW, April 17, 1918, Dear Bess, 259.
the first-class coach: HST to EN, May 17, 1918, HSTL
account of château: HST to EW, April 28, 1918, Dear Bess, 260.
“You’d never think that a war”: HST to EN, May 1, 1918, HSTL.
“and then the clock on the Hôtel de Ville”: HST to EW, April 28, 1918, HSTL.
“I’ve studied more and worked harder”: HST to EW, May 26, 1918, HSTL.
“We had a maneuver yesterday”: HST to EW, May 26, 1918, HSTL.
Sundays at church: HST to EW, April 28, 1918, Dear Bess, 261.
“and I’m for helping them”: HST to EW, May 5, 1918, ibid.
discovered volumes of music: HST to EW, May 19, 1918, HSTL.
“He had maps”: Arthur Wilson, Oral History, HSTL.
“I just barely slipped through”: HST to EW, June 14, 1918, Dear Bess, 263.
“old rube” from Missouri: HST to EW, June 27, 1918, ibid, 263.
value of a university education: HST to EW, July 22, 1918, ibid, 267.
“No I haven’t seen any girls”: HST to EW, June 27, 1918, ibid, 264.
“I look like Siam’s King”: HST to EW, June 19, 1918, HSTL.
“That was one of the things”: Cather, One of Ours, 319.
“Dear Harry, May this photograph”: EW inscribed photograph, HSTL.
“They were a pretty wild bunch”: Hinde, Oral History, HSTL.
“a sitting duck”: Eugene Donnelly quoted in Miller, 97.
“a stirring among the fellows”: Ibid, 96.
“a rather short fellow”: Vere Leigh, Oral History, HSTL.
“You could see that he was”: Edward McKim, Oral History, HSTL.
“I could just see my hide”: Autobiography, 46.
“Never on the front”: “Pickwick Papers,” HSTL.
Ridge recollection: Miller, 96.
“He was so badly scared”: “Pickwick Papers,” HSTL.
“And then we gave Captain Truman”: Leigh, Oral History, HSTL.
“He didn’t hesitate at all”: Ibid.
“I didn’t come over here”: Daniels, The Man of Independence, 95.
“Well, I would say”: Wilson, Oral History, HSTL.
“You soldier for me”: Ibid.
“soldier, soldier, all the time”: Lee, 33–34.
“Talk about your infantryman”: HST to EN, August 5, 1918, HSTL.
“You’ve no idea what an immense responsibility”: HST to EW, August 13, 1918, HSTL.
train passing close enough to Paris: War Diary of Captain Keith W. Dancy, Battery A, Liberty Memorial, Kansas City, Missouri.
“It was just a quiet sector”: Frederick J. Bowman, Oral History, HSTL.
“It was surely some steep hill”: HST to EW, November 23, 1918, HSTL.
“we were firing away”: Leigh, Oral History, HSTL.
“gasping like a catfish”: Columbus (Kansas) Daily Advocate, August 16, 1950.
“I led the parade!”: Walter Menefee, Oral History, HSTL.
“I got up and called them everything”: Daniels, 96.
“The men think I am not much”: HST to EW, September 8, 1918, HSTL.
“It was literally true”: Lee, 67.
Bennett Clark incident: Steinberg, 47.
“Well, I was scared green”: HST to EW, November 23, 1918, HSTL.
“September 10. Leave Coyviller”: HST War Diary, HSTL.
“Who can ever forget”: Lee, 75.
“So slow was our progress”: Ibid, 72.
“American drive begins”: HST War Diary, HSTL.
“The great adventure”: HST to EW, September 15, 1918, Dear Bess, 271.
“We were doing our best to finish”: HST to EW, September 15, 1918, HSTL.
“And there was an order out”: Floyd Ricketts, Oral History, HSTL.
“like a crazy man”: McKim, Oral History, HSTL.
Tiernan’s coat: Ibid.
“The Colonel insults me shamefully”: HST War Diary, HSTL.
“The weather was bad”: Ricketts, Oral History, HSTL.
“the history of the world”: Miller, 101.
“If all priests were like him: Ibid, 103.
“I stripped the battery for action”: HST to EW, November 23, 1918, HSTL.
“Everything was now in readiness”: Lee, 93.
“Just a word to you”: Toland, No Man’s Land, 403.
Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, who took off: Ibid, 432.
“That gun squad worked”: Harry E. Murphy, Oral History, HSTL.
“My guns were so hot”: HST to EW, November 23, 1918, HSTL.
“confusing in the extreme”: Marshall, Memoirs of My Services in the World War, 160.
At a crossroads near Cheppy: Truman, “The Military Career of a Missourian,” HSTL.
“Truman didn’t panic”: Leigh, Oral History, HSTL.
“Truman sent back the data”: McKim, Oral History, HSTL.
“You know…when you’re in the artillery”: Leigh, Oral History, HSTL.
“The artillery fire has been something”: Minder, This Man’s War, 328.
“Well, men,” Miles said: Lee, 167.
“The coolness, the steady courage”: Ibid., 168.
“It isn’t as bad as I thought”: HST to EW, October 8, 1918, Dear Bess, 274.
“He was the Captain”: Leigh, Oral History, HSTL.
“The most terrific experience”: HST to EW, October 8, 1918, Dear Bess, 274.
“all the comforts of home”: HST to EW, October 30, 1918’, ibid., 276.
consistently clean and dapper: Vaughan, Oral History, HSTL.
“where every time a shell lights”: HST to EW, November 1, 1918, Dear Bess, 277–78.
“When the moon rises”: HST to EW, October 30, 1918, ibid., 276.
sends a poppy: HST to EN, November 1, 1918, HSTL.
“He handed me a piece”: Meisburger quoted in Peoria Journal-Star, May 6, 1970.
“My battery fired the assigned barrages”: Weintraub, A Stillness Heard Round the World, 169.
“When the firing ceased”: Ibid.
“People went so wild”: Ibid, 170.
“You’ve no idea”: HST to EN, December 18, 1918, HSTL.
“We were just—”: Leigh, Oral History, HSTL.
“what you’d expect at the Gaiety”: HST to EN, December 18, 1918, HSTL.
Paris tour: HST to EW, November 29, 1918, Dear Bess, 283.
“as wild as any place”: HST to EN, December 18, 1918, HSTL.
“a dandy place”: HST to EW, November 29, 1918, Dear Bess, 283.
“beautifully sung”: HST to EW, December 18, 1918, ibid., 284.
“To keep from going crazy”: Steinberg, 50.
“Every day nearly someone”: HST to EW, January 12, 1919, Dear Bess, 292.
“Would as leave lost a son”: HST War Diary, HSTL.
“It’s some trick to keep”: HST to EN, January 20, 1919, HSTL.
the possibility of running for political office: HST to EW, November 1, 1918, Dear Bess, 277.
“I can’t see what on earth”: HST to EW, December 19, 1918, ibid., 287.
“thirsted for a West Point education”: HST to EW, December 14, 1918, ibid., 286.
“back to God’s country again”: HST to EW, November 1, 1918, ibid., 277.
“Maybe have a little politics”: HST to EW, December 14, 1918, ibid., 285.
“We’ll be married anywhere”: HST to EW, February 18, 1919, ibid., 296.
“You may invite the entire 35th Division”: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 77.
“As far as we’re concerned”: HST to EN, January 20, 1919, HSTL.
he bought a wedding ring: Truman, 78.
violently seasick nearly the whole way: HST to EW, April 24, 1919, Dear Bess, 297–98.
Part Two
5. Try, Try Again
“I’ve had a few setbacks”: Quoted in Miller, Plain Speaking, 70.
nineteenth-century man: Ibid., 43.
“I want you to be happy”: HST to EWT, July 9, 1925, Dear Bess, 319.
“It was characteristic”: Leuchtenburg, Perils of Prosperity, 83.
“I have always wondered”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 127.
answering letters from the mothers and fathers: Miller, 97.
“Well, I remember when he came back”: Ethel Noland, Oral History, HSTL.
last heated argument: HST to EWT, June 29, 1949, Dear Bess, 558.
Truman wedding: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 79–80.
“I hope you have the same success”: Unidentified letter from member of Battery D, Waco, Texas, to HST, July 15, 1919; HSTL.
“Well, Mrs. Truman, you’ve lost Harry”: Ted Marks, Oral History, HSTL.
Mary Jane had cooked noon dinner: Miller, 107.
“You’ve just never seen such a radiant”: Noland, Oral History, HSTL.
“a very, very difficult person”: Miller, 106.
“I didn’t know”: Quoted in Daniels, The Man of Independence, 100.
“Twelfth Street was in its heyday”: Ibid., 105–06.
“We’d all drop in”: Edward McKim, Oral History, HSTL.
“But Harry seemed glad”: Miller, Harry S. Truman, 155.
“You can’t quit them”: Quoted in Miller, Plain Speaking, 92.
“I see no reason”: Unidentified letter to HST, December 14, 1919, HSTL.
“Well, sir, don’t forget me”: Eugene Donnelly to HST, October 4, 1920, HSTL.
“We’d have done anything for him”: Quoted in Miller, Plain Speaking, 97.
husband never worked as hard: Ibid., 112.
Battery D reunion: E. J. Becker to HST, March 22, 1921, HSTL.
“He would get out and go’: Marks, Oral History, HSTL.
Dr. A. Gloom Chaser: HSTL.
war memorial ceremonies: Kansas City Times, October 17, 1921.
“That was when we took”: Quoted in Daniels, 119.
“high jinks”: McKim, Oral History, HSTL.
a sign of anti-Semitism: Miller, Plain Speaking, 106.
Eddie’s frayed suit: Daniels, 109.
“It was a nice store”: Edgar Hinde, Oral History, HSTL.
“There goes Harry”: Gaylon Babcock, Oral History, HSTL.
“a nice boy”: HST to EWT, September 20, 1921, Dear Bess, 312.
“I’ve got friends”: Quoted in Reddig, Tom’s Town, 28.
“There is no kinder hearted”: Kansas City Times, March 26, 1892.
“No deserving man”: Quoted in Dorsett, The Pendergast Machine, 21.
reputation of saloon keepers: Kansas City Star files, undated.
“I never needed a crooked”: Quoted in Reddig, 32.
“His support of any man”: Ibid., 72.
“Brother Tom will make”: Ibid.
Thomas Joseph Pendergast: Ibid., 33.
“Yes. Why not?”: O. K. Armstrong, “Crusade in Kansas City,” This Week, March 13, 1938.
“He was a master!”: Matt Devoe, author’s interview.
“that fellow could probably talk”: Conn Withers, author’s interview.
“Oh, he was a wonderful man”: Geraldine Ketchum, author’s interview.
“No, I never had a sense of evil”: Monsignor Arthur Tighe, author’s interview.
Tom kept to himself: Mason, Truman and the Pendergasts, 33.
“You can’t make a man good”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 12, 1937.
“We have the theory”: Ibid.
“Let the river take its course”: Mason, 25.
“Politics is a business”: Kansas City Star, March 31, 1966.
“When a man’s in need”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 12, 1937.
happy to be “repeaters”: Ketchum, author’s interview.
woman in the hospital laundry: Ibid.
“Oh, I knew it was illegal”: Ibid.
“When we come over the hill”: Reddig, 34.
“Stealing elections”: Quoted in Mason, 46.
Fifty-Fifty Agreement: Dorsett, 62–63.
“enforcer of loyalty”: Reddig, 97.
“tenacious fighting type”: Unidentified obituary of Pendergast, September 2, 1929.
Mike passed over because of temper: Robert Pendergast, author’s interview.
idea of running Harry: Joseph and Catherine Pruett, author’s interview.
If Captain Truman was all Jim said: Ibid., and Robert Pendergast, author’s interview.
“They are trying to run me” HST to Ernest Schmidt, February 4, 1922, HSTL.
“Now, I’m going to tell you” Quoted in Daniels, 114.
“Old Tom Pendergast wanted”: Harry Vaughan, Oral History, HSTL.
“Went into business all enthusiastic”: “Pickwick Papers”, HSTL.
“I loved him as I did my own daddy”: Ibid.
“feeling fairly blue”: Daniels, 109.
“Well, I’ve got to eat”: Ibid., 110–.
“mess up” his life with politics: Ibid., 110–.
“They always like to pick winners”: Noland, Oral History, HSTL.
auditorium at Lee’s Summit: Lee’s Summit Journal, March 9, 1922.
“thoroughly rattled”: Quoted in Truman, Mr. Citizen, 156.
“I was scared worse”: HST Diary, September 23, 1952, in Ferrell, ed., Off the Record 271.
“I knew Harry Truman”: Stephen Slaughter, author’s interview.
“the poorest effort of a speech”: Hinde Oral History, HSTL.
“If you’re going to be in politics”: Quoted in Miller, Plain Speaking, 128.
“We’d do whatever was necessary”: Ibid.
sacks of cement: Memoirs, Vol. I, 137.
to arrive by airplane: McKim, Oral History, HSTL.
“I am now going to tell you”: Independence Examiner, July 18, 1922.
“I want men for road overseers”: Quoted in Daniels, 142.
“You have heard it said”: Ibid., 118.
Edgar Hinde urged Harry: Hinde, Oral History, HSTL.
“They didn’t just hate Catholics”: Quoted in Reddig, 113.
“The smell of old ‘alky’ ” Independence Examiner, August 1, 1922.
Shannon henchmen: Ibid., August 2, 1922.
Gibson’s 45-caliber: Ibid.
Fifty-fifty was finished: Kansas City Times, September 2, 1929.
“We ran the county”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 137.
“When a road project” Independence Examiner, July 9, 1919.
suffered a second miscarriage: Truman, 88.
“I wish you would send me”: HST to Ralph Truman, February 23, 1923, HSTL.
“It is now 10:20”: Quoted in Truman, 90.
She would wait for hours: Ibid.
“You be a good girl”: HST to EWT, July 21, 1923, Dear Bess, 314.
Nurse Kinnaman’s account of baby’s birth: From reporter Champ Clark’s files dated February 1951, Time-Warner archives.
“He has the most magnetic personality”: Quoted in Schlesinger, The Crisis of the Old Order, 376–77.
“He kept his feelings to himself” Quoted in Miller, Plain Speaking, 127.
“The record of the county court”: Kansas City Star, July 17, 1924.
“To even talk about throwing” Independence Sentinel, undated, General Family Files, HSTL.
Klan rally: Daniels, 126.
“You did what your gang told you”: Henry P. Chiles, Oral History, HSTL.
Kansas City Automobile Club: Autobiography, 59.
“This is almost like campaigning”: HST to EWT, November 9, 1926, Dear Bess, 323.
“If one thing did not work”: Marks, Oral History, HSTL.
called the Citizens Security: Daniels, 134–35.
“kind of a cold bird”: Mary Salisbury Bostian, author’s interview
“Anybody who’s ever been a friend”: Hinde, Oral History, HSTL.
“used me for his own ends”: Pickwick Papers”, HSTL.
“a no-good bastard”: Jonathan Daniels interview notes, September 25, 1949, HSTL.
run for county collector: Memoirs, Vol. I, 139.
Collector’s job: Daniels, 138.
“No criticism or scandals”: Independence Examiner, July 27, 1928.
“Every subject of debate”: New Republic, April 30, 1945.
“We intend to operate”: Independence Examiner, January 3, 1927.
spinning about in Judge Truman’s swivel chair: Robert Pendergast, author’s interview.
nervous breakdown: Ibid.
“You Can’t do it”: Quoted in Daniels, 145.
“I told the voters”: Ibid., 146.
“Here were hundreds of square miles”: Results of County Planning, 7, 9.
Farm on Blue Ridge Boulevard: Ibid., 97.
“Oh! If I were only John D. Rockefeller”: Pickwick Papers, HSTL.
“a loudmouthed, profane, vulgar”: FOIPA No. 297,745, FBI.
“What the hell do you do”: Ibid.
The facts about Canfil: Ibid.
“Fred’s a little rough” Quoted in Steinberg, The Man from Missouri., 257.
“Character excellent”: FOIPA No. 297,745, FBI.
an equestrain bronze of Andrew Jackson: Steinberg,95.
“I wanted a real man”: Quoted in Miller, Plain Speaking, 139.
“that I either had to run away”: HST to EWT, February 12, 1931, Dear Bess, 343.
“and every person I’ve ever had”: “Pickwick Papers”, HSTL.
exceptionally fit: U.S. Army Personnel Records, 1925, 1936, HSTL.
“I haven’t had a headache”: HST to EWT, July 13, 1927, Dear Bess, 329.
“We didn’t have any equipment”: Vaughan, Oral History, HSTL.
“I’ve been around Legion conventions”: Hinde, Oral History, HSTL.
“Three things ruin a man”: Quoted in New York Post December 29, 1972.
“I never wanted power”: Ibid.
Truman buying seat covers: Kansas City Star, November 14, 1990.
attempt to kidnap Margaret: From reporter Champ Clark’s file dated February 1951, Time-Warner archives.
“While it looks good”: HST to EWT, August 27, 1933, Dear Bess, 358.
“Politics should make a thief”: HST to EWT, May 7, 1933, ibid., 353.
“The Boss wanted me”: “Pickwick Papers”, HSTL.
Meeting with Pendergast: Daniels, 146–47.
Harry’s later account: “Pickwick Papers”, HSTL.
“Didn’t I tell you boys”: Daniels, 147.
“And That’s God’s truth”: Miller, Plain Speaking, 137.
“He, in times past”: “Pickwick Papers”, HSTL.
“Loved the ladies”: Ibid.
“Since childhood at my mother’s”: Ibid.
“This sweet associate of mine” Ibid.
Pendergast lecturing: Ibid.
To little Sue Ogden: Sue Ogden Bailey, author’s interview.
“And this was a disaster!”: Margaret Truman Daniel, author’s interview.
Sue Ogden’s memories: Bailey, author’s interview.
“I never heard a squabble’: Vietta Garr quoted in Kansas City Star, April 18, 1945.
“I was an only child”: Margaret Truman Daniel, author’s interview.
“I could twist him”: Ibid.
“My manners were expected”: Truman, 109.
“Her presence”: Margaret Truman Daniel, author’s interview.
“Yes, I spoiled him”; Kansas City Star April 18, 1945.
“She liked Mamma Truman”: Truman, 109.
Once when she offered food: J.C. Truman, author’s interview.
189The Capture of the Clever One: Margaret Truman Daniel, author’s interview.
“I want her to do everything”: HST to EWT, July 17, 1929, Dear Bess, 338.
“The car was washed” Margaret Truman Daniel, author’s interview.
“Straight, absolutely straight”: Ibid.
“He read all the weather maps”: Ibid.
“How does Harry put up”: Mary Shaw Branton, author’s interview.
“It was very hard”: Margaret Truman Daniel, author’s interview.
picked Number 369: Sue Gentry in Independence Examiner, April 25, 1979.
Harpie Club: Daniels, 152.
“He liked his walk”: Margaret Truman Daniel, author’s interview.
the town directory: Independence City Directory, 1934.
“Just think of all those wasted years”: HST to EWT, July 22, 1930, Dear Bess, 339.
“Have you practiced your music?”: HST to EWT and MT, July 10, 1932, ibid., 347.
“You may yet be the first lady”: Daniel, 117.
over lunch with…Eric Sevareid: Sevareid, “A Truly Great Man,” McCall’s, March 1973.
“He loved politics”: Marks, Oral History, HSTL.
hadn’t he been a late bloomer: Noland, Oral History, HSTL.
“There, he struck his gait”: Ibid.
6. The Senator from Pendergast
“Friends don’t count”: Autobiography, 74.
Francis M. Wilson: Kansas City Star, February 2, 1982.
“It was my big day”: Autobiography, 71.
Excelsior Springs seclusion: Ibid.
“It will be much better”: HST to Robert Ragland, January 17, 1923, HSTL.
“long as the Big Boss”: HST to EWT, April 14, 1933, Dear Bess, 348.
“understood political situations”: Autobiography, 83.
Big Boss began letting votes go: Dorsett, The Pendergast Machine, 106–07.
“I had a fine talk”: HST to EWT, April 23, 1933, Dear Bess, 350.
“Uncle Tom’s Cabin”: Kansas City Star, July 4, 1976.
McElroy would later claim: Art Brisbane, “Kansas City Needs an Honest Boss Tom,” Kansas City Star, May 3, 1982.
Pendergast would listen attentively: Kansas City Times, April 21, 1986.
“Why shouldn’t they be?”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 12, 1937.
“The machine did small favors”: Dorothy Davis Johnson, author’s interview.
“the most efficient city government”: Reddig, Tom’s Town, 128.
“kind of gentleness”: Monsignor Arthur Tighe, author’s interview.
“See…there just wasn’t any law”: John Doohan, author’s interview.
“The clubs stayed open all night”: Ibid.
Kidnapping of McElroy’s daughter: Reddig, 255–56.
“Now Jim”: Congressional Record, February 20, 1934.
“Union Station massacre”: Reddig, 257-59.
new county courthouse: Independence Examiner, September 7, 1933.
“During the six and one half years”: Ibid.
“During these years of strenuous service”: Ibid.
“maneuvered out”: Quoted in Memoirs, Vol. I, 141.
Truman meeting with Jim Pendergast and Aylward: James Aylward, Oral History, HSTL; correspondence in the collection of Joe and Catherine Pruett.
Pendergast offer to Joe Shannon: Daniels, The Man of Independence, 167.
“A very pleasant sort of fellow”: Quoted in Helm, Harry Truman, 32–33.
“Tomorrow, today, rather”: “Pickwick Papers,” HSTL.
“It was 104 yesterday”: Letter from Jim Pendergast to Kathleen Pendergast, postmarked July 4, 1934, Pruett Collection.
opening Truman rally: Kansas City Star, July 7, 1934.
“a congressman’s congressman”: Quoted in Childs, I Write from Washington, 96–97.
“wheels-with-wheels”: Ibid.
“It will be remembered that”: News-Press, July 6, 1934, Fred Canfil Scrapbooks, HSTL.
Johnny Lazia killing: Kansas City Journal-Post, July 10, 1934.
“tell him I love him”: Ibid.
“There were at least ten thousand”: Jim Pendergast letter to Kathleen Pendergast, undated, Pruett Collection.
“It seems my old friend”: Kansas City Star, July 11, 1934.
a huge picnic in Clay County: News-Press, July 16, 1934, Fred Canfil Scrapbooks, HSTL.
“For this bellhop of Pendergast’s”: Kansas City Star, July 29, 1934.
“Judge Truman is unobtrusive”: St. Louis Globe-Democrat (undated), Fred Canfil Scrapbooks, HSTL.
“mendacity and imbecility”: El Dorado Springs (Missouri) Gazette, July 23, 1934.
“Why, Senator Clark is”: United Press, July 30, 1934, Fred Canfil Scrapbooks, HSTL.
Since 1930, more than eighteen thousand: Missouri Historical Review, Vol. 29, July 1935.
“such as to make any human”: Kansas City Star, July 31, 1934.
“Fact is, I like roads”: Hersey, Aspects of the Presidency, 37.
Canfil would check out room: HST to EWT, October 25, 1942, Dear Bess, 491.
scrapbook of the campaign: Fred Canfil Scrapbooks, HSTL.
“why, if Harry ever goes”: Kansas City Times, August 1, 1934.
On the day of the primary: Autobiography, 67.
“without significance”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 8, 1934.
a “push-over”: Autobiography, 68.
“skinny and all one color”: Mary Shaw Branton, author’s interview.
Fred Canfil descriptions: FOIPA No. 297,745, FBI.
“green as grass”: Quoted in Helm, 7.
Hatch and Schwellenbach friendly: Ibid., 70.
“He took the trouble”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 144.
“Harry, don’t start out with”: Ibid.
the Senator from Pendergast: Miller, Plain Speaking, 158.
“Here was a guy”: Steinberg, The Man from Missouri. 125.
“doglike devotion”: Quoted in Helm, 13.
“It was quite an event”: Steinberg, 130.
“He came to the Senate”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 15, 1945.
“He was a better man”: Ibid.
his own passkey: Kansas City Journal-Post (undated), Messall Scrapbooks, 1933–41, HSTL.
“By the time his colleagues”: Ibid.
“If you will send us”: HST to L.T. Slayton, February 5, 1935, HSTL.
“political monster”: Congressional Record, February 30, 1935, 2352–59.
Thereafter Long refused to speak: Memoirs, Vol. I, 146.
“He sits in the back row”: Kansas City Journal-Post (undated), Messall Scrapbooks, 1933–41, HSTL.
“He speaks rarely”: Ibid.
“I’m going to be better informed”: HST to EWT, December 11, 1935, Dear Bess, 382.
“I’ll take all the dinners”: HST to EW, December 6, 1937, ibid., 408.
He burned them all: Memoirs, Vol. I, 157.
“I was a New Dealer from the start”: Ibid., 149.
“As the old political saying goes”: Quoted in Barkley, That Reminds Me, 155.
“I liked Harry”: Claude Pepper, author’s interview.
“a hot wave”: HST to EWT, August 15, 1935, Dear Bess, 377.
read Southall Freeman: HST to EWT, July 9, 1955, ibid., 369.
“No one has done more”: HST to EWT, August 19, 1935, ibid., 378.
“a grand big house”: HST to EWT, June 29, 1935, ibid., 366.
“Found a rather nice place”: HST to EWT, July 17, 1935, ibid., 372.
bus fare and bathing suit: HST to EWT, July 3, 1935, ibid., 367.
“big enough for two”: HST to EWT, December 5, 1937, ibid., 407.
“I am hoping to make”: HST to EWT, June 28, 1935, ibid., 365.
“Pendergast was as pleased”: HST to EWT, July 29, 1935, ibid., 374.
“as pleased to see me”: HST to EWT, August 11, 1935, ibid., 376.
“Pendergast and the very blond”: Childs, 111.
“Confidentially, I had a fine visit”: Lloyd C. Stark to HST, March 22, 1935, HSTL.
Pendergast at Wilson’s funeral: Kansas City Star archives.
“He won’t do”: Jonathan Daniels interview notes, November 12, 1949, HSTL; Daniels, The Man of Independence, 181.
“The old man had better judgment”: Quoted in Daniels, 181.
“the most grateful man”: Autobiography, 73.
“Kind of hard on Bennett”: HST to EWT, June 22, 1935, Dear Bess, 365.
“And while I heard”: Quoted in Helm, 10.
“The vast expenditures”: Childs, 110.
Pendergast ill: Kansas City Times, January 27, 1945.
“We all found Truman”: Quoted in Louchheim, ed., The Making of the New Deal, 243.
“But he showed no signs”: Ibid.
“When the Senator from Missouri”: Quoted in Steinberg, 127.
“He was always going out of his way”: Ibid., 126.
“Never in all the years”: Mildred Dryden, Oral History, HSTL.
liked Harry Truman “instinctively”: Barkley, 155.
“H. is worn out”: EWT to EN, undated, HSTL.
“tell” Harry how to vote: Helm, 51.
“Jim Aylward phoned me”: Ibid.
By going to Pendergast: Daniels, 180.
tired of being “pushed around”: Helm, 53.
“The pressure on me”: HST quoted in Barkley, 155–56.
“I always admired him”: Ibid.
“I just can’t stand it”: HST to EWT, January 5, 1935, Dear Bess, 391.
he “played hooky”: HST to EWT, February 11, 1937, ibid., 397.
“This so-called committee work”: HST to EWT, November 7, 1937, ibid., 403.
“Not once did I ever see him”: Quoted in Helm, 11.
“a sense of continually being tired”: U.S. Army Medical Records, September 13, 1937, HSTL.
“They are charming people”: HST to Marvin Mclntyre, October 11, 1936, FDRL.
“That son-of-a-bitch”: Steinberg, 167.
“A couple of kids”: HST to EWT, October 29, 1937, Dear Bess, 402.
“Today is my father’s birthday”: HST to EWT, December 5, 1937, ibid., 407.
Brandeis teas: Daniels, 185–86.
“slightly awesome institution”: Childs, 43.
not accustomed to meeting such people: Daniels, 186.
Brandeis had spent more time: HST to EWT, December 13, 1937, Dear Bess, 409.
“It was a rather exclusive”: HST to EWT, December 13, 1937, ibid., 100.
“certainly in agreement on the dangers”: HST quoted in Miller, 151.
December 20, 1937, speech: Congressional Record, December 20, 1937, 2482–95.
“It probably will catalogue me”: HST to EWT, December 12, 1937, Dear Bess, 409.
The speech was front-page news: The New York Times, December 21, 1937.
Max Lowenthal comments about pressure: Daniels, 185.
“an innate part of his personality”: Gosnell, Truman’s Crises, 129.
“We must not close our eyes”: Messall Scrapbooks, HSTL.
Pendergast betting: Reddig, 278; Kansas City Star, December 27, 1974.
“Don’t ever take any money”: Quoted in Kansas City Star, March 1, 1984.
Truman speech on February 15, 1938: Congressional Record, February 15, 1938, 1962–64.
“The manner in which the juries”: John Oliver, author’s interview.
“in view of my speech”: Kansas City Star, September 15, 1978.
“They figure they’ll need”: HST to EWT, November 17, 1938, Dear Bess, 412.
“If it is true”: Reddig, 303–04.
“Please help Sam Finklestein”: T.J. Pendergast to HST, undated, HSTL.
“I am sure he had”: Helm, 47.
“I am very sorry”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, undated, Messall Scrapbooks, HSTL.
“The terrible things”: HST to EWT, October 1, 1939, HSTL.
“He was broke”: Edgar Hinde, Oral History, HSTL.
“Looks like everybody got rich”: HST to EWT, October 27, 1939, Dear Bess, 426.
“I believe if I did know him”: Kansas City Star, May 22, 1939.
“At no time”: Quoted in Daniels, 196.
“He has earned the high estimate”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 12, 1939.
“If Governor Stark runs”: Associated Press (undated), Messall Scrapbooks, HSTL.
“I do not think”: HST to EWT, August 8, 1939, Dear Bess, 418.
“Tell them to go to hell”: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 130.
“the wise boys”: Quoted in Drew Pearson column (undated), Messall Scrapbooks, HSTL.
Washington premiere: HST to EWT, October 18, 1939, Dear Bess, 426.
mortgage on the farm: Daniels, 192.
“mighty blue”: HST to EWT, September 22, 1939, Dear Bess, 419.
“I am of the opinion”: Miscamble, “The Evolution of an Internationalist,” Australian Journal of Politics and History, August 1977.
“You know it makes some of us”: HST to EW, November 11, 1939, Dear Bess, 428.
“a pleasure trip”: HST to EWT, November 16, 1939, ibid., 430.
“a regular fellow”: HST to EWT, November 22, 1939, ibid., 431.
“This, you know”: HST to EWT, December 1, 1939, ibid., 432.
“I guess I’m not built”: HST to EWT, December 1, 1939, ibid.
“Harry, I don’t think”: Quoted in Daniels, 198.
“if he gets only two votes”: Quoted in Helm, 126.
reelection announcement: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 5, 1940.
opposed to FDR third term: Ibid.
“There is no indispensable man”: Hassett, “The President Was My Boss,” Saturday Evening Post, November 28, 1953.
“We borrowed clerks”: John Snyder, Oral History, HSTL.
“A United States Senator…sleeping”: Quoted in Miller, 166.
“At sixteen”: Quoted in Truman, Harry S. Truman, 139.
“While the President is unreliable”: HST to EWT, September 24, 1939, Dear Bess, 420.
Bernard Baruch contribution: Byrnes, All in One Lifetime, 101.
America “ought to sell”: Miscamble, “Evolution of an Internationalist.”
Tom Evans, who was twelve years: Evans, Oral History, HSTL.
“Cut your speech”: Quoted in Daniels, 202.
“I just wanted to come down”: Ibid.
“I believe in”: HST quoted in Helm, 137.
“When we are honest enough”: Speech before National Colored Democratic Association Convention, July 14, 1940, HSTL.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch cartoon: March 29, 1940.
“enough errors to give me”: Quoted in Daniels, 205
“The decent, honest”: St. Louis Globe-Democrat (undated), Messall Scrapbooks, HSTL.
Truman urged to release letter: Daniels, 205.
Stark’s chauffeur: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 141.
“Lloyd’s ambitions”: Ibid., 132–33.
foreclosure on farm: Kansas City Star, July 17, 1940, Messall Scrapbooks, HSTL.
thought he was having a heart attack: HST to EWT, November 15, 1941, Dear Bess, 468.
the shame she would feel: HST to EWT, August 13, 1940, ibid., 442.
“I’m thinking August 6”: HST to EWT, June 23, 1940, ibid., 440.
“Will call you from Sedalia”: Ibid.
“Anyway we found out”: HST to EWT, August 9, 1940, ibid., 441.
“He finally ended up”: Daniels, 209.
Bob Hannegan: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 24, 1944.
“Well…I guess”: Hinde, Oral History, HSTL.
it was Bess who answered: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 145.
“the machine vote”: Lloyd C. Stark to FDR, August 9, 1940, FDRL.
“I thought Wheeler and Jim Byrnes”: HST to EWT, August 10, 1940, Dear Bess, 441.
“Has my certification of election”: Edwin A. Halsey, telegram to HST, December 13, 1940, HSTL.
7. Patriot
“War has many faces”: Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream, 164.
“Locksley Hall” poem in wallet: Hillman, ed., Mr. President, 206.
“As I watched those white fires”: Quoted in Flower and Reeves, eds., The Taste of Courage, 135.
“We have everything to lose”: Kansas City Times, May 2, 1941.
Clark was destroying himself: HST to EWT, October 3, 1941, Dear Bess, 466.
“My relief of mind”: Pogue, George C. Marshall: Ordeal and Hope, 59.
Marshall told him he was too old: HST “Autobiographical Sketch,” HSTL.
Washington a different city: Green, Washington, 466–73; Brinkley, Washington Goes to War.
“a little investigation”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 165.
automobile odysseys: Ibid.
“getting ruined…And there were men”: Quoted in Miller, Plain Speaking, 175.
“There’s too much that is wrong”: Helm, Harry Truman, 151.
“It is a considerable sin”: Schlesinger and Bruns, Congress Investigates. A Documented History, 1792–1974, 3121.
it “must be assumed that”: Pogue, 108.
Nye Committee: Baruch, Public Years, 269.
“The thing to do”: Time, March 8, 1943.
Byrnes $10,000 committee funding: Memoirs, Vol. I, 166.
“Looks like I’ll get something”: HST to EWT, March 19, 1941, Dear Bess, 456.
“The political situation”: HST to EWT, August 1, 1939, ibid., 416.
Hugh Fulton: Memoirs, Vol. I, 167.
departure of Messall: Tom Evans, Oral History, HSTL.
“What are you fishing for?” Executive Session, June 8, 1942, Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, United States Senate, NA.
“You give a good leader”: Papers of George C. Marshall, Vol. 2, 483.
“There was no attempt”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 171.
saved the government $250 million: Riddle, The Truman Committee, 147.
gallbladder attack: U.S. Army Medical Records, 1941, HSTL; Truman, Bess W. Truman, 200–01.
“My standing in the Senate”: HST to EWT, June 19, 1941, Dear Bess, 457.
“If we see that Germany”: The New York Times, June 24, 1941.
“Last year he ran”: U.S. Army Medical Records, 1941, HSTL.
pressed by Vandenberg: Schlesinger and Bruns, 3127.
“Well I spent yesterday”: HST to EWT, August 21, 1941, Dear Bess, 461–62.
“studious avoidance of dramatics”: Salter, ed., Public Men In and Out of Office, 12.
“’Slightly built, bespectacled”: Tri-County News, Long City, Missouri (undated), Messall Scrapbooks, HSTL.
“Mr. Lewis, you are not seriously”: John L. Lewis testimony, March 26, 1943, Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, United States Senate, NA, 55.
“Standard Oil” and I. G. Farben: HST Broadcast, “Rubber in America,” Blue Network, June 15, 1942, printed copy, HSTL.
“First of all”: Truman before Senate, October 29. Congressional Record, 77th Congress, 1st Sess., 1941, Vol. XXCVII, 8303.
The record of the OPM: January 15, 1942, Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, United States Senate, 77th Congress, 2nd Sess., 6.
Lilienthal on war with Japan: Lilienthal, Journals, Vol. I, 408.
“No matter what happens”: Boardman, From Harding to Hiroshima, 250.
“We have fought to get you”: Schlesinger and Bruns, 3131.
“Well at last I am sitting”: HST to EN, December 14, 1941, HSTL.
“Harry Truman was one of the”: Riedel, Halls of the Mighty, 173–75.
it would “impair our activity”: Gosnell, Truman’s Crises, 161.
unanimous reports: McCune and Beal, “The Job That Made Truman President,” Harper’s, June 1945.
“so close that a chorus girl”: Sevareid, 213.
“the return of Ceres”: HST to EWT, April 26, 1942, Dear Bess, 473.
Still he couldn’t sleep: HST to EWT, April 30, 1942, ibid., 474.
he called for a second front: Miscamble, “Evolution of an Internationalist,” Australian Journal of Politics and History, August 1977.
“If I were the executive”: Closed Hearing on Wright Aeronautical Corporation, May 24, 1943, Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, United States Senate, NA, 13.
Glenn Martin Company: Memoirs, 184.
Carnegie-Illinois Steel hearing: March 23, 1943, Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, United States Senate, NA, 820.
Stewart testimony: Ibid., 817.
“He cheated more than he was supposed”: Ibid., 833.
McGarrity testimony: Ibid., 837.
Irwin Works investigation: Ibid., 843–74.
“I don’t know anything about”: Ibid., 886.
Benjamin Fairless testimony: Ibid., 896–97.
asked by a reporter for his personal comment: Washington Post, March 24, 1943.
Canol Project: Testimony of General Brehon Somervell, December 20, 1943, Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, United States Senate, NA.
“The committee damns it up and down”: Drury, A Senate Journal, 29.
“all the desperate assertions”: Ibid.
reading Shakespeare and Plutarch: HST to EWT, June 18, 1942, Dear Bess, 477.
as if he had just stepped: Margaret Truman Daniel, author’s interview.
“One day in a typical”: Riedel, 174.
“I went up to the front desk”: The New Yorker, November 23, 1987.
“I am more surprised every day”: HST to EWT, August 21, 1942, Dear Bess, 487.
“The man from Missouri”: Pepper, with Gorey, Pepper, 129.
never heard him even try: Margaret Truman Daniel, author’s interview.
“One time, one Christmas”: Ardis Haukenberry, author’s interview.
“You have a good mind”: HST to MT, March 13, 1942, Truman, Letters from Father, 40.
“Tell my baby”: HST to EWT, July 22, 1942, Dear Bess, 480–81.
to “only just drop in”: HST to EWT, April 30, 1942, ibid., 474.
“Well this is the day”: HST to EWT, June 28, 1942, ibid., 480.
“one of the most useful”: Helm, 228.
Truman and his committee known nationwide: Washington Star (undated), HSTL.
that “often a threat”: Business Week, June 26, 1943.
The whole country was greatly indebted: The Nation, January 24, 1942.
“objectivity at the total expense”: Krock, Memoirs, 220.
286Look poll: May 16, 1944.
He spoke at a huge rally: Chicago Daily News, April 15, 1943.
“hotels, filling stations”: HST to EWT, December 21, 1939, Dear Bess, 436.
merely talking about the Four Freedoms: Chicago Daily News, April 15, 1943.
Summer 1943 speaking tour: Miscamble, “The Evolution of an Internationalist.”
“History has bestowed”: Ibid.,
“We want aluminum”: Schlesinger and Bruns, 3129.
saved…as much as $15 billion: Memoirs, Vol. I, 186.
“He seems to be a generally”: Drury, 29.
“There are a number of times”: Ibid, 106.
“Now that’s a matter”: Telephone conversation between HST and Stimson, June 17, 1943, HSTL
“I know something about”: HST to Lewis Schwellenbach, July 15, 1943, HSTL.
“In my humble opinion”: Memorandum to Mildred Dryden, December 3, 1943, HST Senate Papers, HSTL.
“I have sent an investigator”: HST to Senator Thomas, November 30, 1943, HST Senate Papers, HSTL.
“COLONEL MATHIAS”: Fred Canfil to HST, December 7, 1943, HSTL.
“Whenever he finds out”: HST to EWT, October 25, 1942, Dear Bess, 491.
“The United States was engaged”: Martin, My First Fifty Years in Politics, 100–01.
“He threatened me with dire consequences”: Stimson Diary, Yale University.
8. Numbered Days
being talked of as candidate: HST to EW, May 7, 1943, HSTL.
“Leadership is what we Americans”: Truman, “We Can Lose the War,” American Magazine, November 1942.
key man in the “conspiracy”: Quoted in HST memorandum to Jonathan Daniels, HSTL.
Flynn admires Wallace: The New Yorker, September 8, 1945.
First meeting with FDR: Flynn, You’re the Boss; Allen, Presidents Who Have Known Me.
“I felt that he would never”: Flynn, 179.
Secretly, he was under: Bishop, FDR’s Last Year, 94.
Hannegan on Wallace: Brown, James F. Byrnes of South Carolina, A Remembrance (manuscript), 255–56.
Byrnes influence on FDR: Ibid., 259.
“I did conclude”: Quoted in Byrnes, All in One Lifetime, 221.
“Now, partner”: Quoted in Brown, 258.
somebody else “we have got”: Quoted in Daniels, The Man from Missouri, 243.
Loss of New York: Flynn, 180.
“The Negro has not only”: Quoted in Brown, 264–66.
When they went through the list: Flynn, 181.
“His record as head”: Ibid.
FDR asked a favor: Anna Rosenberg, author’s interview.
smuggle in jars of caviar: Ibid.
“I don’t want to be”: Quoted in Helm, Harry Truman, 220.
the word from “informed sources”: Drury, A Senate Journal, 215–16.
“The Madam doesn’t want”: Max Lowenthal, Oral History, HSTL.
“It is funny”: HST to MT, July 9, 1944, Margaret Truman, Letters from Father, 55.
“opened up on politics”: Wallace, The Price of Vision, 361.
“Mr. President, if you can find”: Ibid., 362.
“Think of the catcalls”: Ibid.
“It was as though”: Drury, 216.
“Jimmy Byrnes”: Quoted in Brown, 269.
the decisive meeting: Allen, 128–29.
“I gathered that he felt”: Ickes Diary, July 16, 1944, LC.
“the only one who had”: Wallace, 366.
a new Gallup Poll: Allen, 130.
“Well, I am looking”: Wallace, 367.
“Look at the expressions”: Quoted in Brown, 276.
“Mr. President, all I have heard”: Ibid.
“You are the best qualified”: Quoted in Byrnes, 222.
“I don’t understand it”: Ibid., 223.
“I told them so”: Ibid, 224–25.
“We have to be”: Ibid.
Byrnes went directly down: Ibid.
Truman accepted at once: Ibid., 226.
Truman to nominate Barkley: Barkley, That Reminds Me, 189.
As Alben Barkley would write: Ibid., 190.
Arthur Krock: The New York Times, July 16, 1944.
“Roosevelt could, of course”: Allen, 130.
“The train stood”: Tully, F.D.R., My Boss, 276.
“Dear Bob”: Robert Hannegan to FDR, July 14, 1944, HSTL.
“By naming Truman”: Tully, 276.
“The President has given”: Quoted in Byrnes, 226.
“Well, you know Jimmy”: Ibid., 226–27.
Hannegan showing note to no one: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 21, 1944.
He was determined to stay out: Salter, ed., Public Men In and Out of Office. 4–5.
“Hell, I don’t want”: Ibid.
“I don’t want that”: Quoted in Truman, Harry S. Truman, 183.
“I’m satisfied”: Tom Evans, Oral History, HSTL.
Writing years later, Margaret: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 227.
they “got Truman”: Edward McKim, Oral History, HSTL.
“I’m sure he wanted”: Quoted in Steinberg, The Man from Missouri, 203.
it wasn’t so much: John Snyder, author’s interview.
“that miserable time”: HST to Mrs. Emmy Southern, May 13, 1945, in Ferrell, ed., Off the Record, 23.
“scared to death”: Childs, “He Didn’t Want the Job,” Liberty, September 23, 1944.
“I have been associated”: Washington Post, July 18, 1944.
“the coolest and cruelest”: Drury, 218.
“already soaring campaign stock”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 18, 1944.
“It was generally regarded”: Claude Pepper, author’s interview.
Hannegan’s corner suite: Life, July 31, 1944.
“Do you want to see it?”: Washington Post, July 28, 1944.
“Clear it with Sidney”: Quoted in Byrnes, 227.
Sidney Hillman: Time, July 24, 1944.
Hillman’s support: HST “Autobiographical Sketch,” HSTL.
“It’s Byrnes!”: Quoted in Flynn, 182.
“I browbeat the committee”: Ibid.
200,000 Negro votes: Byrnes, 228.
“Bob, it’s Truman”: Steinberg, 213.
An hour or so later: Byrnes, 229.
Turner Catledge account: The New York Times, July 19, 1944.
“If I were you”: Quoted in Barkley, 190.
“Feel sorry for me”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 19, 1944.
secret caucus: Time, July 31, 1944.
“the stage manager”: Barkley, 191.
“Whenever Roosevelt”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 192.
“Oh, shit”: George Elsey, Notes, Ayers Papers, HSTL.
“Well, if that’s the situation”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 193.
“Ye gods!”: Truman, Souvenir, 66.
“In a political”: Wallace, 368; Time, July 31, 1944.
“What is the job”: Quoted in Burns, Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom, 507.
“I sat there”: Claude Pepper, author’s interview.
“And then when I got”: Ibid.
“So I called Bob”: Quoted in Miller, Plain Speaking, 194.
Martha Ellen Truman: Ibid., 149.
Interviewed by reporters: Washington Star, July 20, 1944.
Bennett Clark…pulled himself together: Miller, 194.
“a good deal of pressure”: The New York Times, July 22, 1944.
Truman and hot dog: Truman, Souvenir, 67.
“Christ Almighty”: Time, July 31, 1944.
he accepted “with all humility”: The New York Times, July 22, 1944.
“Now, give me a chance”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 22, 1944.
“the Missouri Compromise”: Life, July 31, 1944.
“the Common Denominator”: Kansas City Star, July 22, 1944.
“I don’t object to Truman”: Baruch, The Public Years, 339.
one of the weakest candidates: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 23, 1944,
“the mousy little man”: Time, July 31, 1944.
“Poor Harry Truman”: New Republic, July 31, 1944.
“unusual capacity”: Kansas City Star, July 22, 1944.
“He has known the dust”: The New York Times, July 22, 1944.
an excellent choice: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 22, 1944.
Even Richard Strout: New Republic, July 31, 1944.
“On the credit side”: Drury, 220.
“Are we going to have to”: Quoted in Truman, Bess W. Truman, 231.
“Dad tried to be cheerful”: Ibid., 233.
Margaret learns of grandfather’s suicide: Ibid., 234.
“He seized my arm”: Ibid.
“I wish I could tell you”: Ibid., 235.
looking over the old gray Victorian house: Life, August 21, 1944.
“I had hoped”: Walton, Henry Wallace, Harry Truman and the Cold War, 20–21.
the critical part played by Ed Flynn: The New Yorker, September 8, 1945.
“People seemed to think”: Daniels, 259.
his father’s “irritability”: Roosevelt and Shalett, Affectionately, F.D.R., 351–52.
FDR seizure: Ibid.
FDR lunch with Truman: There has been speculation that at this lunch Roosevelt told Truman about the atomic bomb. The source is an interview with Truman’s friend Tom Evans made many years later as part of the Truman Library’s oral history program. There is no possibility that it is correct, since the President’s daughter, Anna Roosevelt Boettiger, was also present at the lunch, as were a half dozen or so photographers, cameramen, and servants. Nor would Roosevelt have brought up the matter on such an occasion in any event.
“I wonder why we are made”: HST to EWT, December 28, 1945, Off the Record, 75.
“I am not a deep thinker”: Wallace, The Price of Vision, 373.
“smarter by far”: Martin, My First Fifty Years in Politics, 176.
FDR told Truman not to travel: Memoirs, Vol. I, 5.
FDR’s hand shook: Truman, Harry S. Truman, p. 203.
“You should have seen”: Ibid., 201.
He was greatly concerned: Harry Vaughan, Oral History, HSTL.
Ed McKim and Truman: McKim, Oral History, HSTL.
“Harry is a fine man”: Hatch, Franklin D. Roosevelt, 376.
“There never was a greater”: HST to EWT, June 15, 1946, Dear Bess, 526.
“He’s so damn afraid”: HST to EWT, December 21, 1941, ibid., 470.
“You know how it is”: Drury, 327.
“he lies”: Ickes Diary, December 16, 1944, LC.
“Harry, what the hell”: Quoted in Miller, 199; also Miller Tapes, LBJL.
“You can’t afford”: Audio Collection, HSTL.
Recruitment of Matt Connelly: Matt Connelly, Oral History, HSTL.
“I’m glad to see you, Harry”: Steinberg, 225.
it was “the farmer-neighborliness”: McNaughton and Hehmeyer, This Man Truman, 182.
Truman dream about FDR: Pearson, “The Man Who Didn’t Want to Be President,” Vertical file, HSTL, April 16, 1945.
A rumor spread: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 204.
Klan story: Hearst papers, October 26, 1944.
Curley speech: Connelly, Oral History, HSTL.
Chicago Tribune attacks: October 17, 1944.
“hotter than a depot stove”: HST to EWT, July 25, 1945, Dear Bess, 521.
Teamsters appearance: Burns, Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom, 523.
“He improved visibly”: Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins, 825.
“I was shocked”: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 240.
“And he knew”: Harry Easley, Oral History, HSTL.
“I still think”: Quoted in Hassett, Off the Record with F.D.R., 294.
only if it was “absolutely urgent”: Leuchtenburg, In the Shadow of FDR, 6.
“The amiable Missourian”: Time, February 5, 1945.
“He circulated around”: Gunther, Procession, 256–57.
Truman answered, “People”: Ibid., 260.
“the most natural thing”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 15, 1945.
“Harry looks better than he has”: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 247.
“I used to get down here”: HST to MET and MJT, April 11, 1945, Off the Record, 13.
“Truman says simply”: Frank McNaughton Papers, December 14, 1944, HSTL.
Pendergast’s death: Washington Post, January 27, 1945.
Pendergast funeral: Miller, 210.
“I was just a kid”: Lauren Bacall, author’s interview.
“Anything can happen”: Washington Post, February 11, 1945.
Bess was furious: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 245.
“I saw the President”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 3.
April 12 Pendergast letter: T.J. Pendergast to HST, April 7, 1945, HSTL.
“We will see”: Ibid.
“It’s wonderful, this Senate”: Drury, 410.
Senator Hawkes: Congressional Record, April 12, 1945, 3284.
Senator Reed: Ibid, 3285.
“I have a Missouri”: Remarks by Former President Harry S. Truman, 88th Congress, 2nd Sess, Sen. Doc. No. 88, May 8, 1964.
remarked…that Roosevelt was fortunate: Drury, 410.
“Truman doesn’t know”: Ibid.
“Dear Mamma and Mary”: HST to MET and MJT, April 12, 1945, HSTL.
Tells Harry Vaughan: HST to MET and MJT, April 16, 1945, HSTL.
“Steve Early wants you”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 4.
as “quickly and as quietly”: HST to MET and MJT, April 16, 1945, HSTL.
“I ran all the way”: HST to MET and MJT, April 16, 1945, HSTL.
“Harry, the President is dead”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 5.
“Is there anything we”: Ibid.
Part Three
9. The Moon, the Stars, and All the Planets
“So ended an era”: Drury, A Senate Journal, 412.
“Yes, it’s true”: Quoted in Yank, 122.
“The armies and fleets”: The New York Times, April 13, 1945.
Stettinius…with tears streaming: Memoirs, Vol. I, 6.
“It was a very somber”: Stimson Diary, April 12, 1945, Yale University.
Margaret feeling as if under anesthesia: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 229.
Truman would later tell his mother: HST to MET and MJT, April 16, 1945, HSTL.
first decision as President: HST Diary, April 12, 1945, in Ferrell, ed., Off the Record, 15–16.
brief remarks to the Cabinet: Memoirs, Vol. I, 9–10.
a matter of utmost urgency: Ibid., 10.
had conducted himself admirably: Stimson Diary, April 12, 1945.
“I guess the party’s off’: Edward McKim, Oral History, HSTL.
immediately to sleep: Miller, Plain Speaking, 215.
“What a great, great tragedy”: Lilienthal, Journals, April 14, 1945, Vol. I, 693.
“From a distance”: Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 429.
“It seems very unfortunate”: Ibid.
Eisenhower shaken: Eisenhower, Eisenhower at War, 1943–1945, 763–64.
Lester Atwell: Quoted in Flower and Reeves, eds., The Taste of Courage, 996.
“He’s got the stuff’: Quoted in McNaughton Papers, April 13, 1945, HSTL
“a grand person”: Vandenberg, ed., The Private Papers of Senator Vandenberg, April 13, 1945, 167.
“Oh, I felt good”: John J. McCloy, author’s interview.
He was straightforward: Acheson, Present at the Creation, 104.
“I hate to confess it”: Stone, The War Years 1939–1945, 274.
“GET IN THERE”: Telegram from Jim Pendergast to HST, April 12, 1945, HSTL.
“I can’t really be glad”: Quoted in Off the Record, 17.
“a jewel”: HST Diary, April 15, 1945, ibid., 19.
“There have been few men”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 13.
Truman later wrote: Ibid., 29.
“It seemed still”: Quoted in Daniels, The Man of Independence, 27.
“Eddie, I’m sorry”: Quoted in Truman, Harry S. Truman, 234.
“everything from Teheran”: HST Diary, April 13, 1945, Off the Record, 17.
“What a test”: Kansas City Star, April 15, 1945.
Truman left the White House: Drury, 412.
“Isn’t this nice”: Quoted in ibid., 413.
“Boys, if you ever pray”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 19.
“For just a moment”: Drury, 413.
“executive contempt for Congress”: Vandenberg, April 13, 1945, 167.
Stettinius report: Quoted in Memoirs, Vol. I, 15.
“never did talk”: Truman, Letters from Father, March 3, 1948, 106.
“It is needless”: Washington Post, April 13, 1945.
“I’m President Truman”: Paul Horgan, Oral History, HSTL.
“I still can’t call”: Wallace, The Price of Vision, 448.
“He’s the only one”: HST to Eleanor Roosevelt, September 1, 1945, Off the Record, 63.
“Have confidence”: Barkley, That Reminds Me, 197.
“I have come down here”: Quoted in Hardeman and Bacon, Rayburn: A Biography, 311–12.
“No…He just made it”: HST Diary, April 14, 1945, Off the Record, 18.
not on trial: Bishop, FDR’S Last Year, 646.
“But after all”: Morgenthau, Diaries, Vol. III, 423.
“Terrible”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 31.
“Mr. President”: Ibid, 42.
“With great humility”: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States. Harry S. Truman…(cited hereafter as PP, HST), April 16, 1945, 2.
“bond of friendship”: Washington Star, April 17, 1945.
“At this moment”: PP, HST, April 16, 1945, 3.
“He’s one of us”: McNaughton Papers, April 14, 1945, HSTL.
“your ability to discharge”: Henry Luce to HST, April 17, 1945, HSTL.
“May I say”: Archibald John Brier to HST, April 17, 1945.
“Good luck, Harry”: Quoted in Donovan, Conflict and Crisis, 19.
“Well, I have had”: HST to MET and MJT, April 16, 1945, HSTL.
First press conference: PP, HST, April 17, 1945, 8–13.
“direct” performance: Leahy, I Was There, 349.
lived five lifetimes: Memoirs, Vol. I, 53.
Three days later: PP, HST, April 20, 1945, 16–19.
“naturally smart boy”: Newsweek, August 15, 1949.
“He made first-class citizens”: George Tames, author’s interview.
“Stick with me”: Quoted in Smith, ed., Merriman Smith’s Book of Presidents: A White House Memoir, 56.
“He was alert”: George Elsey, author’s interview.
“See, with President Roosevelt”: Floyd Boring, author’s interview.
“tragically inadequate”: Daniels, 27.
“To the White House this morning”: Hassett, “The President Was My Boss,” Saturday Evening Post, November 28, 1953.
“Missourians are most in evidence”: Ayers Diary, April 17, 1945, HSTL.
“the lounge of the Lion’s Club”: Quoted in Steinberg, The Man from Missouri, 13.
McKim was “weird”: Jonathan Daniels, Oral History, HSTL.
Prohibition gangster: Ayers Diary, April 17, 1945, HSTL.
“We were all a strange lot”: Rosenman, “Harry S. Truman: Man from Independence,” American Heritage (unpublished), 70.
“Well, he was a sergeant”: Matt Connelly, Oral History, HSTL.
“The fact is”: Ayers Diary, May 14, 1945, HSTL.
“balance and tact”: Ibid.
“Tell them I don’t authorize”: Harry Vaughan, Oral History, HSTL.
“Hoover’s hatred”: Sullivan, The Bureau, 38.
“We want no Gestapo”: HST Memorandum, May 12, 1945, Off the Record, 22.
“honest and friendly”: Quoted in Churchill, The Second World War. Vol. VI: Triumph and Tragedy, 484.
“He’ll make enemies”: Drury, 418.
“I don’t think you know”: Samuel Rosenman, Oral History, HSTL.
“It was a wonderful relief’: Stimson Diary, April 18, 1945.
“Changes in the battle situation”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 51.
Leahy was struck: Leahy, 348.
“to get on the inside”: Rigdon, with Derieux, White House Sailor, 183.
“I pray you believe”: Quoted in Snyder, The War, 520.
“a keen appreciation”: Kennan, Memoirs, 1925–1950, 233.
“And anyway the Russians”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 70–71.
“I can testify”: Quoted in Halle, The Cold War as History, 38.
“Averell is right”: Quoted in Truman, Harry S. Truman, 255.
“It would be one”: Harriman and Abel, Special Envoy to Churchill and Stalin, 437.
“We must not permit”: Quoted in Truman, Harry S. Truman, 437.
“Russia will emerge”: OSS File, April 2, 1945, HSTL.
April 6 cable: Gaddis, The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 201.
not a man of his word: Morgan, F.D.R., A Biography, 762.
“minor misunderstandings”: Harriman and Abel, 439–40.
“I would minimize”: Ibid.
“barbarian invasion”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 73.
happy with 85 percent: Gaddis, 203.
“The White House upstairs”: Quoted in Truman, Bess W. Truman, 260.
like a ghost house: West, with Kotz, Upstairs at the White House, 58.
“go to hell”: Quoted in Forrestal Diaries, 50.
“for fear we are rushing”: Stimson Diary, April 23, 1945.
Forrestal strongly disagreed: Forrestal Diaries, 50.
no intention of issuing: Memoirs, Vol. I, 78.
“until we have done”: Ibid., 79.
“I am very sorry”: Stimson Diary, April 23, 1945.
“I have never been talked to”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 82.
Bohlen’s account: Bohlen, Witness to History, 213.
“a little taken aback”: Harriman and Abel, 453.
the best news he had heard: Vandenberg, 176.
“I think it is very important”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 85.
“Mr. President, I don’t like”: Quoted in Morison, Turmoil and Tradition, 609.
“a real man”: HST to Jonathan Daniels, February 26, 1950, unsent, Off the Record, 174.
“Within four months”: Stimson Diary, April 25, 1945.
“The President took”: Ibid.
Truman told him to go ahead: Stimson and Bundy, On Active Service in Peace and War, 616.
“The President did not show”: Quoted in Sherwin, A World Destroyed, 293.
“This is a big project”: Quoted in Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb, 625.
“It might perhaps”: Quoted in Sherwin, 284.
Truman measurements: Paul Shinkman to Eben Ayers, May 10, 1945, HSTL.
“It’s a tough job”: Stone, The War Years. 1939–1945, 281–82.
“He ought to surrender it”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 91.
“at a brisk trot”: West, with Kotz, 61.
“We have received so much mail”: MJT to HST, April 24, 1945, HSTL.
“I do hope”: MJT to HST, May 1, 1945, HSTL.
“I arrived home”: MJT to HST, May 7, 1945, HSTL.
“You both have done”: HST to MET and MJT, April 21, 1945, HSTL.
“This is a solemn”: PP, HST, May 8, 1945, 44.
“straight one-two to the jaw”: Sherwin, 172.
“like people from across”: Wallace, 450–51.
“His sincerity”: Ayers Diary, May 26, 1945, HSTL.
“show them how much”: Churchill, 437.
“it is my present intention”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 216.
“Mr. President, in these next two months”: Churchill, 497.
May 12 Churchill telegram: Gilbert, Winston Churchill. Never Despair, 6.
“It is a very, very hard position”: HST to Mrs. Emmy Southern, May 13, 1945, Off the Record, 23.
“air of quiet confidence”: Eden, Memoirs, 621.
“To have a reasonably”: HST Diary, May 22, 1945, Off the Record, 35.
Martha Ellen Truman’s visit: The New York Times, May 12, 1945.
prefer to sleep on the floor: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 266.
“Oh, you couldn’t help but”: Floyd Boring, author’s interview.
“My bedroom is pink”: Truman, Souvenir, 98.
story of the old-fashioneds: West, with Kotz, 75.
“stand no fakers”: Fields, My 21 Years at the White House, 122.
“correct but not formal”: West, 58.
“He knew when a stenographer’s”: Smith, 60.
“this was the first time”: Fields, 120.
“Not built right”: HST to EW, March 19, 1941, Dear Bess, 455.
“The President seemed relieved”: Quoted in Donovan, 28.
“And that was about all”: Lilienthal, Journals, Vol. I, 698.
“Saw Herbert Hoover”: HST Diary, June 1, 1945, Off the Record, 40.
“I can’t understand it”: HST Diary, May 27, 1945, ibid., 38.
“push ahead as fast”: Quoted in Rhodes, 646.
“visual effect of an atomic bombing”: Quoted in Sherwin, 208.
“with reluctance”: Quoted in Wyden, Day One, 163.
“a remarkable document”: Ibid., 154.
“The idea of”: Yale University Atomic Bomb File, HSTL.
“Have been going through”: HST Diary, June 1, 1945, Off the Record, 39.
“as a new weapon”: Stimson Diary, May 31, 1945.
June 6 Stimson meeting: Stimson Diary, June 1 and 6, 1945.
“What a puny effort”: C. L. Sulzberger, World War II, 114.
“outdoing Hitler”: Stimson Diary, June 6, 1945.
“the earliest possible date”: Quoted in Morison, 621.
“The ultimate responsibility”: Stimson and Bundy, On Active Service in Peace and War, 617.
“straight military objective”: Cray, General of the Army, 538.
“We must offset”: Quoted in Pogue, George C. Marshall: Statesman 1945–1959, 17.
“The opinions of our scientific”: Quoted in Bundy, Danger and Survival, 71.
“shock value”: Stimson, On Active Service, 617.
“We regarded the matter”: Quoted in Mosley, Marshall, 337–38.
“only by men”: Quoted in Rhodes, 637.
“His general demeanor”: Quoted in Wyden, 143.
“render the Russians”: Ibid., 142.
“Oppenheimer didn’t share”: Ibid., 143.
“the damn thing”: Quoted in Phillips, The Truman Presidency, 54.
“We are on our way”: Quoted in Truman, Souvenir, 109.
“I hope—sincerely hope”: HST Diary, June 1, 1945, Off the Record, 40.
“Don’t think over six”: Ibid.
“Just two months ago”: HST to EWT, June 12, 1945, Dear Bess, 515–16.
“He’s a nice fellow”: HST to EWT, June 19, 1945, Ibid., 516.
“I’m always so lonesome”: HST Diary, June 1, 1945, Off the Record, 40.
A Gallup Poll: Donovan, 21.
“And as usual”: Ayers Diary, June 18, 1945, HSTL.
“Nothing really important”: Foreign Relations of the United States, Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), 1945, Vol. I, 92.
“always been our friends”: HST Diary, June 7, 1945, Off the Record, 44.
First time Hopkins thanked: Miller, 225.
“Mr. Prima Donna”: HST Diary, June 17, 1945, Off the Record, 47.
“He wants an estimate”: Quoted in Sherwin, 336.
“I have to decide”: HST Diary, June 17, 1945, Off the Record, 47.
June 18, 1945, meeting: Feis, The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II, 10.
“We were beginning”: John J. McCloy, author’s interview.
June 26, 1945, speech: PP, HST, June 26, 1945.
“Dad loved”: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 266.
“I shall attempt”: HST, Speech Files, June 27, 1945, HSTL.
“I am anxious”: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 279–280.
July 2, 1945, speech: PP, HST, July 2, 1945, 153–55.
no buzzer: Woolf, “President Truman Talks About His Job,” The New York Times Magazine, July 15, 1945.
he would “soon go under”: Ibid.
“Punish her war criminals”: Stimson Diary, May 16, 1945.
Morgenthau meeting: Morgenthau, 466.
Morgenthau didn’t know: Jonathan Daniels interview with HST, November 12, 1949, HSTL.
“I am getting ready”: HST to MET and MJT, July 3, 1945, HSTL.
“How I hate”: HST Diary, July 7, 1945, Off the Record, 49.
10. Summer of Decision
“Today’s prime fact”: Stimson quoted in Compton, Atomic Quest, 219.
“like a moving circus”: HST to MET and MJT, January 27, 1947, HSTL.
“It seems to take two warships”: HST to MT, July 14, 1945, HSTL.
“You who have not seen”: Film Collection, HSTL.
Truman on Fred Canfil: Hersey, Aspects of the Presidency, 39.
“At the end of the war”: O. Müller Grote to HST, February 10, 1956, HSTL.
a “nightmare of a house”: The New York Times, August 3, 1945.
“They erected a couple of”: HST Diary, July 16, 1945, in Ferrell, ed., Off the Record, 50.
“wholly inadequate”: Foreign Relations of the United States, Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), 1945, Vol. II, 9.
“He comes from Owensborough”: HST to MET and MJT, January 27, 1947, HSTL.
Bohlen, too, was struck: Bohlen, Witness to History, 226.
“astonishingly well prepared”: Harriman and Abel, Special Envoy to Churchill and Stalin, 485.
“Mr. Russia” and “Mr. Great Britain”: HST Diary, July 7, 1945, Off the Record, 49.
“half so badly”: HST to EWT, February 19, 1916, Dear Bess, 187.
“I’ve studied more”: HST to EWT, May 26, 1918, HSTL.
“Haven’t you ever been”: Woolf, “President Truman Talks About His Job,” The New York Times Magazine, July 15, 1945.
Prime Minister padding down the hall: Wilroy and Prinz, Inside the Blair House, 7–8.
Eleanor Roosevelt had written: Lash, Eleanor: The Years Alone, 29.
“I must confess, sir”: See note for page 874, Chap. 17.
“He says he is sure”: Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill. Never Despair, 61.
“We had a most pleasant”: HST Diary, July 16, 1945, Off the Record, 51.
“Very Secret, Urgent”: Foreign Relations of the United States, Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), 1945, Vol. I, 876.
Sato responded: Ibid., 883.
“good soldiers and millions”: HST Diary, July 16, 1945, Off the Record, 52.
“It is a terrible thing”: The New York Times, July 17, 1945.
“I never saw such destruction”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 341.
“absolute ruin”: HST Diary, July 16, 1945, Off the Record, 52.
modern war…“brought home”: Leahy, I Was There, 396.
“I thought of Carthage”: HST Diary, July 16, 1945, Off the Record, 52.
He kept thinking: HST to EWT, July 20, 1945, Dear Bess, 520.
“This is what would have happened”: Gilbert, 61.
Anne O’Hare McCormick column: The New York Times, July 18, 1945.
“Operated on this morning”: Foreign Relations of the United States, Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), 1945, Vol. II, 1360.
“Promptly a few minutes”: HST Diary, July 17, 1945, Off the Record, 53.
The truth was: Volkogonov, Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy, 499.
As Stalin got out of the car: George Elsey, author’s interview.
“I got to my feet”: HST Diary, July 17, 1945, Off the Record, 53.
“A little bit of a squirt”: Film Collection, HSTL.
Stalin sure Hitler was alive and in hiding: Byrnes, Speaking Frankly, 68.
“as agreed at Yalta”: Foreign Relations of the United States, Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), 1945, Vol. II, 1586.
“You could if you wanted to”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 541.
“and I felt hopeful”: Ibid., 342.
“The truth is he is a very likeable person”: Byrnes, 45.
“honest—but smart as hell”: HST Diary, July 17, 1945, Off the Record, 53.
“He’ll be in the Jap War”: Ibid.
Time magazine on Stalin: Time, February 5, 1945.
“There was little in Stalin’s demeanor”: Bohlen, 340.
“When one man dies”: Antonov-Ovseyenko, The Time of Stalin: Portrait of Tyranny, 278.
“I was impressed”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 340–42.
“Since the Yalta Conference”: Foreign Relations of the United States, Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), 1945, Vol. II, 643.
“Churchill said he should like”: Ibid, p. 54.
“So tomorrow we will have prepared”: Ibid., 61.
“Let’s divide it”: Ibid, p. 59.
“woolly and verbose”: Gilbert, 65.
HST took as act of disloyalty: HST to MT, July 29, 1945, HSTL.
“The boys say”: HST to EWT, July 18, 1945, Dear Bess, 519.
“Churchill talks all the time”: HST to MET and MJT, July 18, 1945, HSTL.
“Doctor had just returned”: Foreign Relations of the United States, Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), 1945, Vol. II, 1360–61.
HST appeared extremely pleased: Churchill, 554.
“at any rate they had something”: Ehrman, Grand Strategy, 302–03.
“lull the Japanese”: Foreign Relations of the United States, Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), 1945, Vol. II, 1588.
Stalin’s disclosure: Bohlen, 236.
The Generalissimo must visit: HST Diary, July 18, 1945, Off the Record, 54.
“We cannot get away”: Foreign Relations of the United States, Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), 1945, Vol. II, 96.
“I’m not going to stay”: HST Diary, July 18, 1945, Off the Record, 54.
To Bess, earlier in the day: HST to EWT, July 18, 1945, Dear Bess, 519.
“Believe Japs”: HST Diary, July 18, 1945, Off the Record, 54.
“sick of the whole business”: HST to EWT, July 20, 1945, Dear Bess, 520.
“A young Army captain”: The New York Times, August 14, 1945.
“The old man loves music”: HST to EWT, July 20, 1945, Dear Bess, 520.
“He was direct, unpretentious”: Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 444.
Eisenhower opposed use of the bomb: Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 443.
Eisenhower would concede: Eisenhower, Eisenhower at War, 1943–1945, 692.
truly believed that “Manhattan”: HST Diary, July 18, 1945, Off the Record, 54.
“But all of us wanted”: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 316.
“We are here today”: PP, HST, July 20, 1945, 195.
“of lasting inspiration”: Clay, Decision in Germany, 44–45.
“General, there is nothing”: Bradley and Blair, 444–45.
“Uncle Joe looked”: HST Diary, July 20, 1945, Off the Record, 55.
“immensely powerful document”: Stimson Diary, July 21, 1945.
“successful beyond the most optimistic”: Groves Memorandum, Foreign Policy of the United States, Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), 1945, Vol. II, 1362.
HST and Byrnes both looked pleased: Stimson Diary, July 21, 1945.
“It was apparent”: Murphy, Diplomat Among Warriors, 273.
“We will not recognize”: Foreign Relations of the United States, Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), 1945, Vol. II, 216.
the Russians had no intention: Leahy, 406.
“Started with caviar”: HST to MET and MJT, July 23, 1945, HSTL.
“He talked to me confidently”: HST to EWT, July 22, 1945, Dear Bess, 521.
“Watch the President”: Moran, Diaries, 303.
“There was no pretense”: Rigdon, with Derieux, White House Sailor, 183–84.
“swagly.” “He never came on”: Floyd Boring, author’s interview.
“I thought it was nice”: Emilio Collado, Oral History, HSTL.
“I’m going to mass”: HST to EWT, July 22, 1945, HSTL.
“Although it was a target”: Stimson and Bundy, On Active Service in Peace and War, 625.
“prosecute the war against Japan”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 391.
“alone with his work”: Stimson Diary, July 24, 1945.
July 23, 1945, cable: Foreign Relations of the United States, Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), 1945, Vol. II, 1374.
“said that was just what he wanted”: Stimson Diary, July 24, 1945.
HST wrote of a consensus: Memoirs, Vol. I, 415.
“I asked General Marshall”: HST to Professor F. Cate, undated letter, HSTL.
battle casualties during HST’s three months in office: Army Battle Casualties and Nonbattle Deaths in World War II, Department of the Army.
“We had only too abundant”: Charlton Ogburn, Jr., author’s interview.
“The basic policy of the present”: Combined Intelligence Committee Report, July 8, 1945, HSTL.
conscription of Japanese people: The New York Times, August 5, 1985.
“the spirit of mercy”: Bohlen, 231.
“At no time, from 1941 to 1945”: Stimson and Bundy, 613.
“I know FDR”: Daniels, The Man of Independence, 281.
“I’ll say that we’ll end”: HST to EWT, July 18, 1945, Dear Bess, 519.
“It is just the same as artillery”: The New York Times, May 3, 1959.
“We knew the Japanese were determined”: Lilienthal, Journals, Vol. II, 198.
A petition drawn up: Wyden, Day One, 180.
“Are not the men”: Compton, 242.
“It is hard to imagine”: Evan J. Young of Clinton Laboratories to M.D. Whittaker, undated, HSTL.
“What a question”: Compton, 247.
“The historic fact”: Churchill, 553.
“Truman made no decision”: George Elsey, author’s interview.
“The final decision”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 419.
HST later told Arthur Compton: Compton, 245.
“I casually mentioned to Stalin”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 416.
Stalin’s response offhand: Bohlen, 237.
“If he had had the slightest idea”: Churchill, 580.
“not grasped the importance”: Byrnes, 263.
“No one who played”: Ibid., 265.
“We have discovered”: HST Diary, July 25, 1945, Off the Record, 55.
“The idea of using the bomb”: Harriman and Abel, 490.
“We are asking for the reorganization”: Foreign Relations of the United States, Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), 1945, Vol. II, 360.
“If a government”: Ibid.
an iron fence had descended: Ibid., 362.
“I do not want to fight”: Foreign Relations of the United States, Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), 1945, Vol. II, 313.
“The question is not ripe”: Ibid., 373.
Churchill full of foreboding: Moran, 306.
“What a pity”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 389.
old order passing: HST Diary, July 30, 1945, Off the Record, 58.
It was too bad about Churchill: HST to MET and MJT, July 28, 1945, HSTL.
“enslaved as a race”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 392–93.
“kill it with silence”: Sherwin, A World Destroyed, 236.
“Mr. Attlee is not so keen”: HST to MET and MJT, July 29, 1945, HSTL.
“We shall see”: HST to EWT, July 29, 1945, Dear Bess, 522.
HST in an optimistic mood: Forrestal Diaries, 79.
“The time schedule on Groves’ ”: Foreign Relations of the United States, Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), 1945, Vol. II, 1374.
“Suggestion approved”: Declassified “Urgent—Top Secret Message,” Stimson to HST, July 30, 1945: HST’s handwritten message on back, HSTL.
“Everything seemed momentous”: Elsey, author’s interview.
“We have accomplished a very great deal”: HST to EWT, July 25, 1945, Dear Bess, 521.
“Pray for me”: HST to EWT, July 29, 1945, ibid., 522.
“We are at an impasse”: HST Diary, July 30, 1945, Off the Record, 58.
“It is a question of give and take”: PP, HST, August 9, 1945, 209.
foolishness in the extreme: Kennan, Memoirs, 259, 290.
“Marshal Stalin I have accepted”: Murphy, 278.
Stalin broke in: Ibid., 279.
HST called Russians pigheaded: HST to MET and MJT, July 31, 1945, HSTL.
“police government”: HST Diary, July 26, 1945, Off the Record, 57.
“They went away”: Donovan, 73.
“I like Stalin”: HST to EWT, July 29, 1945, Dear Bess, 522.
“The President seemed to have been”: Ayers Diary, August 7, 1945, HSTL.
Stalin was a fine man: Wallace, The Price of Vision, 490.
“Stalin is as near”: Daniels, The Man of Independence, 23.
“an innocent idealist”: HST to Dean Acheson, March 15, 1957, unsent, Off the Record, 348–49.
“for operational purposes”: Foreign Relations of the United States, Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), 1945, Vol. II, 1321.
Discussion of Poland’s frontier: Ibid., 597–601.
Stalin on HST: Khrushchev, Khrushchev Remembers, 221.
“That will save two days”: HST to MET and MJT, July 31, 1945, HSTL.
HST found the King “very pleasant”: HST Diary, August 5, 1945, Off the Record, 59.
“Here was the greatest news story”: Smith, Thank You, Mr. President, 256.
“completely rested”: Official log of the Augusta, HSTL.
“Results clear-cut”: Memoirs, Vol. 1, 421.
“This is the greatest thing”: Smith, 257.
“Big bomb dropped”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 421.
“Please keep your seats”: The New York Times, August 7, 1945.
“He was not actually laughing”: Smith, 258.
“We were all excited”: Elsey, author’s interview.
“Sixteen hours ago”: PP, HST, August 6, 1945, 196–200.
“But even if my legs”: Kansas City Star, July 28, 1965.
“Some of our scientists”: Leahy Diary, August 8, 1945, LC.
“ultimatum to end all ultimatums”: The New York Times, August 8, 1945.
Stimson and Marshall worried: Mosley, Marshall. Hero for Our Times, 338.
“Additional bombs”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 420.
“For the second time”: L.A. Times, August 9, 1945.
Russell telegram to HST: Richard B. Russell to HST, undated, HSTL.
HST note to Russell: HST to Richard B. Russell, August 9, 1945, HSTL.
“I realize the tragic significance”: PP, HST, August 9, 1945, 212.
“Would it not be wondrous?”: Washington Times, August 6, 1985.
“Could we continue”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 428.
Stimson said the emperor: Ibid.
“we’d tell ’em how to keep him”: HST Diary, August 10, 1945, Off the Record, 61.
“subject to the Supreme Commander”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 429.
“all those kids”: Wallace, 474.
“Nearly every crisis seems to be”: HST to MET and MJT, August 12, 1945, HSTL.
“it began like the days”: Ayers Diary, August 14, 1945, HSTL.
“might get a story”: Sue Gentry, author’s interview.
“I have received this afternoon”: PP, HST, August 14, 1945, 216.
“I felt deeply moved”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 437.
“This is a great day”: The New York Times, August 15, 1945.
“The only thing new”: Miller, Plain Speaking, 69.
“Everyone had been going”: HST to MET and MJT, August 17, 1945, Off the Record, 62.
Part Four
11. The Buck Stops Here
“Everybody wants something”: HST to MET and MJT, September 22, 1945, HSTL.
more prima donnas per square foot: HST to MET and MJT, October 23, 1945, HSTL.
“You can’t do anything worthwhile”: PP, HST, October 7, 1945, 380.
“cut out the foolishness”: Ibid., October 10, 1945, 394.
“We must go on”: Ibid., September 6, 1945, 291.
Wallace’s estimate of drop in GNP: Wallace, The Price of Vision, 495.
“The Congress are balking”: HST to MET and MJT, October 23, 1945, HSTL.
“Anything else, Mr. President?”: PP, HST, September 18, 1945, 326.
“If anyone in the government”: HST to EWT, June 22, 1945, Dear Bess, 523.
“The pressure here”: HST to MET and MJT, October 13, 1945, HSTL.
“We can’t stand another global war”: PP, HST, October 7, 1945, 381.
“did everything…mouth of a cannon”: Quoted in Phillips, The Truman Presidency, 129.
“in the doldrums”: Ayers Diary, October 19, 1945, HSTL.
call for universal military training: PP, HST, October 23, 1945, 404, 413.
HST shows new presidential flag: Ibid., October 25, 1945, 415–417.
“It was disintegration”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 509.
“Tiny lines had grown”: Gunther, Procession, 260.
Encounter with Oppenheimer: Lilienthal, Journals, Vol. II, 118.
“See what a son-of-a-bitch”: Quoted in Wallace, 519.
Marshall ends call abruptly: Miller, Plain Speaking, 252.
“paid much less attention”: Samuel Rosenman, Oral History, HSTL.
“Mr. President, you should know”: Wallace, 530.
“wild accidents”: Quoted in Lerner, Actions and Passions, 219.
“one of the most hazardous”: Time, December 8, 1947.
“Well I’m here in the White House”: HST to EWT, December 28, 1945, Dear Bess, 523–24.
“able and conniving”: HST Diary, July 7, 1945, in Ferrell, ed, Off the Record, 49.
“I told him I did not like”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 550.
“a horse’s ass”: Clifford quoted in Jonathan Daniels interview notes, HSTL.
Acheson impressions of HST: Acheson, Present at the Creation, 136.
HST longhand letter for Byrnes: HST to James F. Byrnes, January 5, 1946, unsent, Off the Record, 79–80
“1946 is our year of decision”: PP, HST, January 3, 1946, 1.
“This is a disaster”: Quoted in Goulden, The Best Years 1945–1950, 113.
“I personally think there is”: PP, HST, January 24, 1946, 92.
The “blunt truth”: Time, January 14, 1946.
Chicago Tribune cartoon: Reprinted in Time, February 4, 1946.
“at best, undistinguished”: MacKaye, “Things Are Different in the White House,” Saturday Evening Post, April 20, 1946.
People were “befuddled”: HST to MET and MJT, January 23, 1946, HSTL.
“An oil man”: Ayers Diary, January 18, 1946, HSTL.
Ickes resignation: The New York Times, February 14, 1946.
a chronic “resigner”: Quoted in Miller, 226.
“There would have been no rest”: HST to MET and MJT, February 7, 1946, HSTL.
American Mercury article: Crawford, “Everyman in the White House,” February 1946.
“appears to consider it necessary”: Leahy Diary, February 21, 1946, LC.
Stalin statement on war: Donovan, 187.
Justice Douglas reaction: Ibid.
“I will call you Harry”: Ross Diary, March 7, 1946, HSTL.
“Harry, what does a sequence count?”: Quoted in Daniels, The Man of Independence, 279.
“He took a boy’s delight”: Ross Diary, March 7, 1946, HSTL.
Churchill wish to be born American: Gilbert, Winston Churchill. Never Despair, 146.
“You stop drinking”: Ibid., 147.
“do nothing but good”: Ibid.
HST and Churchill on eagle’s head: Ross Diary, March 9, 1946, HSTL.
“Iron curtain” speech: Quoted in Gilbert, 198.
HST denies knowing what Churchill would say: Wallace, 558.
HST pleads “no comment”: PP, HST, March 8, 1946, 145.
“the Long Telegram”: Donovan, 187–88.
“here and now”: Matt Connelly Papers, HSTL.
“He was in his study”: Ross Diary, March 23, 1946, HSTL.
Mary Jane’s reaction to HST press conference: Mary Jane Truman, Oral History, HSTL.
492Life article: Busch, “A Year of Truman,” April 8, 1946.
“Here is to be seen”: The New York Times Magazine, April 7, 1946.
494Time article: May 6, 1946.
“I can hold a Cabinet meeting”: PP, HST, May 2, 1946, 227.
“Big money has too much”: HST to MET and MJT, January 23, 1946, HSTL.
“I’m going to give you the gun”: Quoted in Daniels, 325.
“We have a society”: The New York Times, May 22, 1946.
“That’s the way he is”: Ibid., May 26, 1946.
a “complicated”: J. C. Truman, author’s interview.
“This was the fifth day”: Ayers Diary, May 23, 1946, HSTL.
HST meeting with veterans: Washington Star, May 24, 1946.
“There were poignant scenes”: Newsweek, June 3, 1946.
Telegrams flooding the White House: White House Correspondence File, HSTL.
“At home those of us”: HST speech draft, undelivered, Clifford Papers, HSTL.
“In the manner of Lincoln”: Phillips, 115.
“I’d never been in the White House”: Clark Clifford, author’s interview.
“Alone of all the Truman entourage”: Quoted in Allen and Shannon, The Truman Merry-Go-Round, 61.
“The President is intelligent”: Clifford, with Holbrooke, Counsel to the President, 274.
“I come before the American people”: PP, HST, May 24, 1946, 274.
“He said they had verbally agreed”: Clifford interview, Daniels notes, HSTL.
“For the past two days”: PP, HST, May 25, 1946, 277.
“Spotlights ablaze”: New Republic, June 3, 1946.
“he could be tough”: The New York Times, May 26, 1946.
“Draft men who strike”: New Republic, June 3, 1946.
“I was the servant”: Film Collection, HSTL.
“Nothing about the Wallace affair”: George Elsey, author’s interview.
“If Mr. Slaughter is right”: PP, HST, July 18, 1946, 350.
HST’s health: Ross Diary, July 20, 1946, HSTL.
“Had the most awful day”: HST to MET and MJT, July 31, 1946, HSTL.
“She’s on the way out”: HST to EWT, August 9, 1946, Dear Bess, 530.
“Be good and be tough”: MT [Margaret Truman] to HST, June 14, 1946, Truman, Letters from Father, 142.
“I still have a number of bills”: HST to EWT, August 10, 1946, Dear Bess, 530.
“It’s just wonderful”: MacDonald, “President Truman’s Yacht,” Naval History, Winter 1990.
“See, he had no airs”: Clifford, author’s interview.
“He always plays a close hand”: Ted Marks, Oral History, HSTL.
“The Williamsburg”: MacDonald, “President Truman’s Yacht.”
“This is a paradise”: HST to MT, August 23, 1946, Truman, Letters from Father, 69.
“did all sorts of antics”: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 366.
“The furniture was taking headers”: HST to EWT, September 2, 1946, Dear Bess, 534.
“Night before last”: HST to EWT, September 9, 1946, ibid., 535.
disliked living there: HST to EWT, September 3, 1946, ibid., 534.
“You better lock your door”: Truman, Letters from Father, 144.
“I’m in the middle”: HST to EWT, September 10, 1946, Dear Bess, 536.
HST press conference: PP, HST, September 12, 1946, 426–29.
“If the President”: Ross Diary, September 21, 1946, HSTL.
Wallace account: Wallace, 612–13.
tried to skim through it: HST Diary, September 17, 1946, Off the Record, 94.
Reston column: The New York Times, September 13, 1946.
“The criticism continued to mount”: Ross Diary, September 21, 1946, HSTL.
“I’m still having Henry Wallace trouble”: HST to MET and MJT, September 18, 1946, HSTL.
“Henry told me”: HST to EWT, September 20, 1946, Dear Bess, 539.
“Everything’s lovely”: Quoted in Acheson, 192.
“Henry is the most peculiar fellow”: HST to MET and MJT, September 20, 1946, HSTL.
“He wants to disband”: Quoted in Donovan, 227.
Byrnes telegram: Byrnes, Speaking Frankly, 241–42.
“so nice about it”: HST to EWT, September 21, 1946, Dear Bess, 539.
“I would rather be anything”: HST to MET and MJT, September 20, 1946, HSTL.
“No man in his right mind”: HST to MT, September 9, 1946, Truman, Letters from Father, 71.
“a liar, double-crosser”: HST to MT, September 17, 1946, ibid., 75.
“Sept. 26, 1918”: HST Diary, September 26, 1946, Off the Record, 98.
Ickes called him “stupid”: Time, September 30, 1946.
32 percent poll results: Gallup, The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion 1935–1971, 604.
“Nothing on meat”: PP, HST, October 10, 1946, 447.
Truman continues electronic surveillance: Gentry, J. Edgar Hoover, 344.
“The shrill pitch of abuse”: Time, October 28, 1946.
he alone was formally dressed: Ibid.
“Here was a man”: Kilgore quoted in Steinberg, The Man from Missouri, 288.
“never seemed to have a problem”: Fields, My 21 Years in the White House, 187.
“We went to the Waldorf: HST to MT, October 26; 1946, Truman, Letters from Father,81.
Jefferson City stop: Time, November 11, 1946.
“Probably no President”: Phillips, 161.
12. Turning Point
“This is a serious course”: PP, HST, March 12, 1947, 179.
Lippmann on HST: Steel, Walter Lippmann and the American Century, 455.
“My dear Harry”: WC to HST, May 12, 1947, quoted in Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill. Never Despair, 326.
Acheson alone…was waiting: Acheson, Present at the Creation, 200.
“The captain with the mighty heart”: Ibid., dedication page.
“so fast they were falling all over”: Clark Clifford, author’s interview.
Lilienthal in rain: Lilienthal Journals, Vol. I, 54.
“the kind of grim gaiety”: Ibid., 118.
“Oh, God, it was the chance”: Clifford, author’s interview.
“now a free man”: Quoted in Time, April 7, 1947.
“I’m doing as I damn please”: HST to EWT, November 18, 1946, Dear Bess, 540.
“How can there be immunity”: Goldman, The Crucial Decade—And After, 29.
“He told me that he would”: HST Diary, January 1, 1947, in Ferrell, ed, Off the Record, 107.
“Bob is not austere”: Time, January 20, 1947.
HST walks to Union Station: Ayers Diary, January 6, 1947, HSTL.
“your appointment as Secretary of State”: Mosley, Marshall: Hero for Our Times, 390.
“I thought that the continuing harping”: Cray, General of the Army, 17.
Marshall did not possess the intellectual brilliance: Halle, The Cold War as History, 113.
“It was a striking and commanding force”: Acheson, 140–41.
exit office backwards: Paul Horgan, author’s interview.
“He never made any speeches”: Miller, Plain Speaking, 251.
“Sometimes he would sit”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 112.
“He was a man you could count on”: Quoted in Miller, 250.
“On the one hand”: Pogue, George C. Marshall. Statesman, 141–42.
“He gave a sense of purpose”: Bohlen, Witness to History, 259.
“Gentlemen, don’t fight”: Quoted in Pogue, 148.
Acheson found working with the general: Lilienthal, Journals, Vol. II, 159.
“The more I see and talk”: HST appointment sheet, February 18, 1947, Off the Record, 109.
“Marshall is a tower”: HST Diary, May 7, 1948, ibid., 134.
“I am surely lucky”: HST appointment sheet, February 18, 1947, ibid., 109.
“He no longer moans”: Gaddis, The United States and the Origins of the Cold War,1941–1947, 347.
“His eye is clear”: Quoted in Time, January 27, 1947.
48 percent poll rating: Time, February 10, 1947.
“They brought back all the pageantry”: West, with Kotz, Upstairs at the White House, 91.
“The papers say today”: HST to MET and MJT, February 9, 1947, Off the Record, 108.
“I was somewhat nervous”: HST to MET and MJT, February 13, 1947, HSTL.
“despite all the denying”: West, 91.
Lilienthal nomination hearings: Lilienthal, Journals, Vol. II, 141–42.
“far from anger or temper”: Ibid., 141.
“I believe in”: Ibid., Appendix B, 646–48.
HST supports Lilienthal: Ibid., 144.
Taft opposes nomination: Time, February 24, 1947.
“Courage: What is it?”: Lilienthal, Journals, Vol. II, 160.
“Now Mary, don’t you work too hard”: HST to MET and MJT, February 27, 1947, HSTL.
Lincoln McVeigh reported rumors: Memoirs, Vol. II, 99.
Greece a “ripe plum”: Ibid.
“little hope of independent survival”: Quoted in Donovan, Conflict and Crisis, 277.
“the only one in Government”: Gaddis, 346, note.
“It is not alarmist”: Quoted in Pogue, 164.
“The Soviet Union was playing”: Acheson, 219.
Vandenberg told the President: Ibid.
“and I expressed my emphatic”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 103.
Mexico City visit: Newsweek, March 17, 1947.
Clifford memo: appears in full in Krock, Memoirs, Appendix, 419–82.
“The impact of having it all”: George Elsey, Oral History, HSTL.
“If we go in”: Matt Connelly Papers, HSTL.
most important of his career: Ayers Diary, March 8, 1947, HSTL.
“I believe it must be”: Clifford, Counsel to the President, 136.
“too much rhetoric”: Bohlen, 261.
“If you take his advice”: Lilienthal, Journals, Vol. II, 163.
“I want no hedging”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 105.
Truman Doctrine speech: PP, HST, March 12, 1947, 176–80.
“Well, I told my wife”: Time, March 24, 1947.
“A vague global policy”: Quoted in Steel, 438–39.
a “universal pattern”: Hartmann, Truman and the 80th Congress, 61.
would “of course” act: Acheson, 225.
“I guess the do-gooders”: Newsweek, March 24, 1947.
“If Mr. L is a communist”: HST, draft unreleased statement, March 1947, Off the Record, 113.
“no part of a communist”: Vandenberg, ed., The Private Papers of Senator Vandenberg, 355.
“the most important thing”: Lilienthal, Journals, Vol. II, 166.
“[He is] very strongly anti-FBI”: Clark Clifford Papers, HSTL.
“The long tenure”: Martin, My First Fifty Years in Politics, 163.
“I am not worried”: PP, HST, April 3, 1947, 190.
“It was a political problem”: Bernstein, Loyalties, 195–98.
“The Republicans are now taking”: Frank McNaughton Papers, March 28, 1948, HSTL.
“If I can prevent”: HST to EW, September 27, 1947, Dear Bess, 550.
“Yes, it was terrible”: Joseph Rauh quoted in Bernstein, 196.
“I think it’s one of the proudest”: Clifford, author’s interview.
“There was much to be done”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 104.
“You don’t sit down”: Elsey, Oral History, HSTL.
Kennan leaves the room: Kennan, Memoirs, 328, note.
meeting with newspaper editors: PP, HST, April 7, 1947, 207–10.
“He was…an extremely thoughtful”: Elsey, Oral History, HSTL.
“When he went to lunch”: Quoted in Heller, The Truman White House, 46.
“Lots of times I would be”: Clifford, author’s interview.
“He spent virtually every waking”: Quoted in Heller, 119.
HST would like to have been history teacher: Ayers Diary, April 26, 1947, HSTL.
Clifford insists HST not be FDR: Markel, “Truman As the Crucial Third Year Opens.”
“In many ways President Truman”: Quoted in Heller, 120.
“It just has to be said”: Elsey, author’s interview.
“There is nothing in life”: Quoted in Farrar, Reluctant Servant, 195.
“priceless gift of vitality”: Acheson, 730.
the nation “again has leaders”: Hardeman and Bacon, Rayburn: A Biography, 328.
Marshall’s return of April 26, 1947: Memoirs, Vol. II, 112; Bohlen, 262–63; Kennan, 325.
The Soviets, it seemed: Marshall quoted in Pogue, 196.
“The patient is sinking”: Ibid., 200.
“Avoid trivia”: Kennan, 326.
Clayton memo: Pogue, 206.
Marshall speech: Mosley, 404–05.
“We grabbed the lifeline”: Quoted in Pogue, 217.
“play it straight”: Bohlen, 264.
part played by Acheson: Clark Clifford address, American Ditchley Foundation, April 5, 1984.
“anything that is sent up”: Clifford, author’s interview.
Halle’s comments on staff: Halle, 115–16.
“And you and I have both lived”: Quoted in Miller, 264.
“While he was responding”: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 383.
“If she wants to be a warbler”: HST to MET and MJT, January 30, 1947, HSTL.
“She’s one nice girl”: HST to MET and MJT, February 19, 1947, HSTL.
Mrs. Thomas J. Strickler: Kansas City Star, April 18, 1946.
“Margaret went to New York”: HST to MET and MJT, January 30, 1947, HSTL. ’
“Here’s a little dough”: HST to MT, February 28, 1947, Truman, Letters from Father, 89.
Margaret Truman’s radio debut: Kansas City Star, March 7, 8, 9, and 17, 1947.
“Perhaps, sheer naivete”: Truman, Souvenir, 162.
“Wish I could go along”: HST to MT, May 14, 1947, Truman, Letters from Father, 92.
“Whenever she wakes up”: Time, June 2, 1947.
“When I say all Americans”: PP, HST, June 29, 1947, 311–13.
“I did not believe”: White, A Man Called White, 348.
“Almost without exception”: White, How Far the Promised Land, 74.
he meant “every word of it”: White, A Man Called White, 348.
“But I believe what I say”: HST to MJT, June 28, 1947, HSTL.
reminiscing to Bess: HST to EWT, July 26, 1947, Dear Bess, 549.
“Goodbye, Harry”: HST Diary, November 24, 1952, Off the Record, 275.
“Well, now she won’t have to suffer”: Steinberg, The Man from Missouri, 295.
“Everything had changed”: Truman, Souvenir, 174.
“I couldn’t hold a press conference”: PP, HST, August 5, 1948, 365.
“Someday you’ll be an orphan”: HST to MT, August 1, 1947, Truman, Letters from Father, 96.
“You should call your mamma”: HST to MT, December 3, 1947, Truman, Harry S. Truman, 404–05.
“I called up Daddy”: Truman, Souvenir, 191.
a hit as a vaudeville team: Daniels, “The Lady from Independence,” McCall’s, April 1949.
She would laugh so hard: Parks and Leighton, My Thirty Years Backstage at the White House, 28.
“She’s the only lady I know”: Randall Jessee quoted in the Dallas Morning News, February 9, 1976.
“Mrs. Truman came with great apologies”: Marquis Childs, author’s interview.
“the white gloves type”: Reathel Odum, author’s interview.
“They both had the gift”: Nixon, In the Arena, 231.
“one of the finest women”: Robert Lovett, Oral History, HSTL.
HST’s reliance on Bess: Quoted in Means, “What Three Presidents Say About Their Wives,” Good Housekeeping, August 1963.
Bess laughs at pretensions: Daniels, “The Lady from Independence.”
“And then…the minute the doors”: Lindy Boggs, author’s interview.
“Propriety was a much stronger influence”: Alice Acheson, author’s interview.
“Just keep on smiling”: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 265.
“She didn’t want to discuss”: Margaret Truman Daniel, author’s interview.
Bess Truman questionnaire: Time, November 10, 1947.
“She seems to think Harry”: Asbury, “Meet Harry’s Boss, Bess,” Collier’s, February 2, 1949.
Bess interested in Monroe administration: Daniels, “The Lady from Independence.”
“Mrs, Truman was no fussier”: West, 83.
“might as well have been in Independence”: J. B. West, author’s interview.
“And he listened to her”: Ibid.
Bess’s emotional separation: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 272.
“Suppose Miss Lizzie”: HST to EN, June 22, 1949, Off the Record, 157.
“Marshall and Lovett”: HST to EWT, September 23, 1947, Dear Bess, 549–50.
“Yesterday was one of the most hectic”: HST to EW, September 30, 1947, ibid., 550–51.
“Twenty-nine years!”: HST to EWT, June 28, 1948, Dear Bess, 554.
Greta Kempton portrait: Greta Kempton, author’s interview; Kempton letter to the author, June 20, 1984; Kempton, “Painting the Truman Family,” Missouri Historical ’ Review, April 1973; “An Interview with Greta Kempton,” Whistlestop, Vol. 15, no. 2, 1987.
a handwritten note from Churchill: Gilbert, Winston Churchill. Never Despair, 351.
“In all the history of the world”: HST speech draft, undelivered, April 1948, Off the Record, 133.
13. The Heat in the Kitchen
Eisenhower again declined: Donovan, Conflict and Crisis, 338.
“Mr. Truman was a realist”: Quoted in Phillips, The Truman Presidency, 197, note.
“give everything”: Ayers Diary, January 19, 1948, HSTL.
“Aside from the impossible”: HST to MET and MJT, November 14, 1947, HSTL.
“President Truman did not want to run”: Quoted in Donovan, 338.
“blessed with a tough hide”: Phillips, 140.
“The greatest ambition”: Quoted in Ross, The Loneliest Campaign, 9.
“get into the fight”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 171–72.
“What I wanted to do personally”: Ibid., 174.
speech before Congress: PP, HST, January 7, 1948, 1.
message to Congress: Ibid., February 2, 1948, 121.
press conference on civil rights: Ibid., February 5, 1948.
black Democrats at rear table: Time, March 1, 1948.
“But my very stomach turned”: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 429.
Privately could speak of “niggers”: Rex Scouten, author’s interview; Miller, Plain Speaking, 195.
“Harry is no more”: Jonathan Daniels interview with Mary Jane Truman, October 2, 1949, HSTL.
“The main difficulty”: HST to Ernest W. Roberts, August 18, 1948, in Ferrell, ed., Off the Record, 146.
murder of four blacks: To Secure These Rights: Report of the President’s Committee on Civil Rights, 22.
“The wonderful, wonderful development”: Clark Clifford, author’s interview.
“strike for new high ground”: Quoted in Ross, 19.
Clifford on golf course: David Acheson, author’s interview.
Clifford decided not to tell HST: Clifford, author’s interview.
“This is, as you know”: James Rowe, Jr., to William Sand, July 8, 1971.
“In the Roosevelt and Truman years”: George Elsey, author’s interview.
“The Politics of 1948”: Memorandum by James H. Rowe, Jr., Miscellaneous Historical Documents, HSTL.
“We were telling the President”: James H. Rowe, Jr., author’s interview.
HST kept memo in bottom drawer: Ibid.
“To a politician of Harry Truman’s”: Washington Post, undated, Vertical Files, HSTL.
Hill and Sparkman call for HST’s resignation: Ayers Diary, March 23, 1948, HSTL.
instant disapproval: Washington Star, May 25, 1965.
“Back Porch Harry”: Time, January 26, 1948.
Jefferson himself: PP, HST, April 15, 1948, 217–18.
Washington Star: Donovan, 351.
“The awnings you will remember”: HST to MJT, January 30, 1948, HSTL.
“Had to be renewed”: HST to George Rothwell Brown, January 20, 1948, HSTL.
danger of second floor falling: Ayers Diary, March 6, 1948, HSTL.
Ross “terrifically upset”: Ibid., February 6, 1948, HSTL.
“You can guard yourself: Ibid., December 30, 1947, HSTL.
his most difficult dilemma: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 416.
“humanly possible”: Chicago Tribune, April 15, 1948.
“could not be allowed to continue”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 138.
“definitely and preeminently”: Harrison quoted in Eban, An Autobiography, 59.
“would they be welcomed”: Ibid.
Niles sensed HST’s sympathy with Jews: Steinberg, The Man from Missouri, 304.
“I’m a man of no importance”: Steinberg, “Mr. Truman’s Mystery Man,” Saturday Evening Post, December 24, 1949.
“just politics”: Clifford, author’s interview.
“And his own reading”: Weisberger, interview with Clark Clifford, American Heritage, December 28, 1976.
justice not oil: HST quoted in Wallace, The Price of Vision, 607.
no wish to send American troops: PP, HST, August 6, 1945, 228.
“What I am trying to do”: HST to Joseph H. Ball, November 24, 1945, unsent, HSTL.
“The action of some of our American Zionists”: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 420.
he wished more people: Donovan, 319
“I am not a New Yorker”: Quoted in Wallace, 605
“Terror and Silver”: HST Memorandum to David Niles, May 13, 1947, HSTL.
“Jesus Christ couldn’t please them”: Quoted in Wallace, 607.
“I’m so tired”: HST to MJT, February 11, 1948, HSTL.
not a great many Arab constituents: Donovan, 322.
Forrestal thought less of HST: Forrestal Diaries, 309, 363.
“Kaplan sells shirts”: Quoted in Donovan, 317.
“And when the day came”: Washington Star and Daily News, December 31, 1972.
“carelessly pro-Zionist”: Jenkins, Truman, 116.
Kennan on Palestine: Pogue, George C. Marshall: Statesman. 356.
Henderson worried about consequences: The New York Times, March 26, 1986.
“Some White House men”: Daniels, The Man of Independence, 317.
“Look here, Loy”: Loy Henderson, Oral History, HSTL.
“conflicting objectives”: Rusk, As I Saw It, 147–48.
“I know how Marshall feels”: Quoted in Daniels, 318.
“We went for it”: Clark Clifford interview with Jonathan Daniels, October 26, 1949.
Eddie Jacobson account: Washington Post, May 6, 1973.
“he [Truman] and he alone”: Ibid.
Jewish delegation swept up: The New York Times, November 30, 1947.
“There were Jews in tears”: Eban, 99.
“a triumphant vindication”: The New York Times, November 30, 1947.
turning point in history: New York Herald-Tribune, November 30, 1947.
“one of the few great acts”: Ibid., December 1, 1947.
“push the Jews”: Weisberger interview with Clark Clifford, American Heritage, December 28, 1976.
Forrestal report to HST: Forrestal Diaries, March 4, 1948, 386.
“Things look black”: HST to MT, March 3, 1948, Truman, Letters from Father, 108.
“a new tenseness”: Forrestal Diaries, 387.
“lifted me right out”: Smith, Lucius D. Clay, 466–67.
to move atomic bombs: Lilienthal, Journals, Vol. I, 302.
“The Jewish pressure”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 160.
Niles grew so emotional: Letter from Joseph Alsop to Martin Sommers, June 1, 1948, LC.
either “give in”: Ibid.
“So I called him ‘Cham’ ”: Film Collection, HSTL.
They had met secretly: Memoirs, Vol. II, 161.
“You can bank on us”: Daniels, The Man of Independence, 318.
“I was extremely happy”: Weizmann, Trial and Error, 459.
Kennan’s paper: Donovan, 370.
“playing with fire”: Forrestal Diaries, 373.
“the political situation”: Lash, Eleanor: The Years Alone, 127.
no “bending”: Pogue, 361.
“On five occasions”: Clark Clifford interview with Jonathan Daniels, October 26, 1949.
“pro-Arab”: Loy Henderson, Oral History, HSTL.
“I pointed out that the views”: Ibid.
“Oh, hell, I’m leaving”: Ibid.
Frank Goldman call to Jacobson: Kansas City Times, May 13, 1965.
Connelly warned Jacobson: Adler, Roots in a Moving Stream, 210.
“always had a brother’s interest”: Kansas City Times, May 13, 1965.
HST suddenly tense: Ibid.
“In all the years of our friendship”: “Two Presidents and a Haberdasher—1948,” American Jewish Archives, April 1968.
“disrespectful and mean”: Ibid.
“Harry, all your life”: Ibid.
HST reaction to Jacobson: Ibid.
Jacobson has drink: Kansas City Times, May 13, 1965.
“It is the most serious situation”: HST to Eleanor Roosevelt, March 16, 1948, Off the Record, 126.
“It was better to do that”: Ayers Diary, March 16, 1948, HSTL.
Joint Session speech: PP, HST, March 17, 1948, 182–86.
“And when he left my office”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 161.
HST and Weizmann reached “understanding”: Ibid.
“A land of milk and honey”: The New York Times, March 21, 1948.
“whimsical and cynical action”: Letter from Tucson Jewish Community Council, undated, White House Correspondence File, HSTL.
“vacillating”: Letter from Democratic Council, undated, Whittier, California, White House Correspondence File, HSTL.
“This change can mean”: Judge P. Tinley to HST, March 25, 1948, HSTL.
“Oh, how could you stoop”: Samuel A. Sloan to HST, March 19, 1948, HSTL.
“Black Friday”: “Two Presidents and a Haberdasher—1948.”
“There wasn’t one”: Ibid.
Weizmann certain what HST had meant: Adler, 211.
Jacobson must not forget: “Two Presidents and a Haberdasher—1948.”
“This morning I find”: HST Diary, March 20, 1948, Off the Record, 127.
“the striped pants boys”: HST to MJT, March 21, 1948, HSTL.
“Truman was in his office”: Clark Clifford interview with Jonathan Daniels, October 26, 1949; Daniels interview notes, HSTL.
“The President’s statement”: Ayers Diary, March 20, 1948, HSTL.
“the wisest course”: The News York Times, March 21, 1948.
“This gets us nowhere”: Quoted in Steinberg, The Man from Missouri, 307.
“Send final draft”: Foreign Relations of the United States. Vol. V: The Far East, South Asia and Africa, 645.
“striped pants conspirators”: HST to MJT, March 21, 1948, HSTL.
“prejudice the character”: PP, HST, March 25, 1948, 190, 192.
Eleanor Roosevelt resignation: Lash, 130.
“The choice for our people”: Weizmann, 474.
“very strongly”: “Two Presidents and a Haberdasher—1948.”
“the President looked worn”: Lilienthal, Journals, Vol. II, 320.
“It is a scream”: HST to MJT, April 8, 1948, HSTL.
Gallup Poll: Gallup, The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion 1935–71, 727.
“When he [Truman] vetoed”: The New York Times, April 4, 1948.
“You will be addressing all of us”: Weisberger interview with Clifford.
“I want you to know”: George C. Marshall to HST, May 8, 1948, HSTL.
Marshall speech: As reported in Frank McNaughton Papers, December 18, 1948, HSTL.
May 12, 1948, meeting: Clay, General of the Army, 658, 661.
“As I talked”: Address by Clark Clifford, American Ditchley Foundation, April, 5, 1984; Clark Clifford, author’s interview.
“This is just straight politics”: Ibid.
“General, he is here”: Ibid.
“I had really prepared!”: Clifford, author’s interview.
“everything this country should represent”: Ibid.
“Behold, I have set the land”: Clifford, letter to the author.
“No matter what the State Department”: Clark Clifford interview with Jonathan Daniels, October 26, 1949, HSTL.
“the sharpest rebuke ever”: Clifford, author’s interview.
“the great one of the age”: HST appointment sheet, February 18, 1947, Off the Record, 109.
“That brought the meeting”: Clifford, author’s interview.
“righteous goddamn Baptist”: Clark Clifford interview with Jonathan Daniels, October 26, 1949, HSTL.
“didn’t know his ass”: Ibid.
“That was rough as a cob”: Clifford, author’s interview.
“I will cross that bridge”: PP, HST, May 13, 1948, 253.
“Marshall was the greatest asset”: Clifford, author’s interview.
Lovett would have to persuade: Ibid.
Marshall called HST: Ibid.
“That is all we need”: Ibid.
“This is very unusual”: Ibid.
name of new country left blank: Ibid.
reaction of American delegation: The New York Times, May 16, 1948.
“temporary, unofficial ambassador”: Adler, 212.
“There is a great deal to be said”: Washington Star, May 16, 1948.
“The difficulty with many career”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 165.
“God put you in your mother’s womb”: Quoted in Steinberg, 308.
“In my opinion”: Henderson, Oral History, HSTL.
Marshall never spoke to Clifford again: Pogue, 377.
“I told him that it was”: Isaacson and Thomas, The Wise Men, 433,
Crestline, Ohio: PP, HST, June 4, 1948, 284.
Omaha stop: Ayers Diary, June 7, 1948, HSTL.
“I don’t give a damn”: Edward McKim, Oral History, HSTL.
“President Truman was at his best”: Omaha Morning World-Herald, June 8, 1948.
“walled-in”: Krock, Memoirs, 242.
“It almost overwhelms me”: PP, HST, June 6, 1948, 288.
“My goodness!”: Ibid., June 8, 1948, 303.
Butte, Montana, stop: Idaho Daily Statesman, June 9, 1948.
“I am sorry I had gone to bed”: New York Sun, June 9, 1948.
“down to Berkeley”: Donovan, 400.
“They told me at a little town”: HST to MJT, June 8, 1948, HSTL.
Carey Airport gaffe: Montana Standard, June 9, 1948.
“I have been in politics”: PP, HST, June 8, 1948, 301.
a many-versed song: Kansas City Star, March 23, 1969.
“a spectacle of himself”: Steinberg, 312.
Eugene, Oregon, stop: PP, HST, June 11, 1948, 329.
“about two acres of people”: Ibid., June 14, 1948, 348.
“You know, this Congress”: Ibid., June 10, 1948, 314.
“blackguarding Congress”: Redding, Inside the Democratic Party, 178.
telegrams to mayors: Ibid.
Berkeley-commencement address: PP, HST, June 12, 1948, 336–40,
“Our policy will continue”: Ibid., 340.
“they clung to the roofs”: Los Angeles Times, June 15, 1948.
HST jabbed his forefinger: Donovan, 401.
June 18 return to Washington: Time, June 28, 1948.
a “gone goose”: Ibid.
Dewey acceptance speech: Time, July 5, 1948.
“We stay in Berlin”: Forrestal Diaries, 454–55.
“We stay in Berlin”: Pogue, 301.
“we were nose to nose”: Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 481.
“had no direct role whatever”: George Elsey, Oral History, HSTL.
“A ball game or two”: HST Diary, June 18, 1948, Off the Record, 140.
“I am not a quitter”: Krock, 241.
“You have the choice”: Ickes quoted in Donovan, 389.
decided it was time for Eisenhower: Hartmann, Truman and the 80th Congress, 186.
Eisenhower did not want nomination: Steinberg, 309–10.
Jimmy Roosevelt wired: Goulden, The Best Years, 1945–1950, 381.
“a hard and possibly losing fight”: Ross, 113.
“I am simply aghast”: Lilienthal, Journals, Vol. II, 378–79.
“All right, let him go”: Ayers Diary, July 6, 1948, HSTL.
“double-crossers all”: HST Diary, July 6, 1948, Off the Record, 141.
“I don’t think he would be a candidate”: HST to James W. Gerard, April 27, 1948, HSTL.
Krock story: Krock, Memoirs, 242.
Pepper proposing Eisenhower draft: Newsweek, July 19, 1948.
“I wanted to tell you”: Krock, 243.
“In a telephone conference”: Ibid.
“final and complete”: Newsweek, July 19, 1948.
“Truman, Harry Truman”: Goldman, The Crucial Decade—and After, 83.
“no time for politics as usual”: Ross, 115.
“None of us”: Phillips, 218.
’We got the wrong rigs”: The New York Times, July 12, 1948.
“You could cut the gloom”: Barkley, That Reminds Me, 200.
Douglas wished to stay on Court: HST Diary, July 12, 1948, Off the Record, 141.
“I stuck my neck”: Ayers Diary, July 13, 1948, HSTL.
“But if memory does not betray”: Redding, 188–89.
If Barkley was what convention wanted: Newsweek, July 26, 1948.
Barkley gone to bed: HST Diary, July 13, 1948, Off the Record, 142.
Barkley never told HST he wanted to be VP: Ross, 119.
“I don’t want it passed”: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 12.
“Talking about the vice-presidency”: Ayers Diary, July 13, 1948, HSTL.
“A Negro alternate from St. Louis”: HST Diary, July 13, 1948, Off the Record, 142.
“sellout” to states’ rights: Ross, 121.
“We were inherently stronger”: Douglas, In the Fullness of Time, 137.
“Young man, that’s just what”: Goulden, 385.
“There are those who say”: Ross, 125.
southern “walkout” would destroy: Hardeman and Bacon, Rayburn: A Biography,337.
as “crackpots”: HST Diary, July 14, 1948, Off the Record, 143.
“No privacy sure enough”: Ibid.
“Hard to hear”: Ibid.
“a very agreeable visit”: Barkley, 203.
“an interesting and instructive evening”: HST Diary, July 14, 1948, Off the Record, 143.
“hot, horrible night”: Tom Evans, Oral History, HSTL.
“They did what you do”: Elsey, author’s interview.
“Harry Truman’s a goddamn liar”: Hardeman and Bacon, 338.
“Senator Barkley and I”: PP, HST, July 15, 1948, 406.
“Our task is to fill”: Smith, 500,
“Now it is time for us”: PP, HST, July 15, 1948, 406.
“Everybody knows that I recommended”: Ibid., 408.
“He walked out there”: Clifford, author’s interview.
“They sensed”: Lerner, Actions and Passions, 233.
“Of course, it was politics”: Daniels, 356.
“devilishly astute”: Martin, My First Fifty Years in Politics, 178.
“Arrived in Washington”: HST Diary, July 15, 1948, Off the Record, 144.
“to reduce us to the status”: Ross, 131.
“the segregation of the races”: Ibid.
“but Truman really means it”: Steinberg, 315.
“on the basis of interest”: Ross, 158.
“We stand against the kings”: Time, August 2, 1948.
Forrestal and atomic bomb: HST to EWT, July 23, 1948, Dear Bess, 555.
“It is hot and humid”: HST Diary, July 19, 1948, Off the Record, 145.
“We’ll stay in Berlin”: Ibid.
“If we wished to remain”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 124.
a “very big operation”: Davidson, The Berlin Blockade, 105.
“We were proud of our Air Force”: Quoted in Tusa, The Berlin Airlift, 167.
“But every expert knows”: Quoted in Davidson, 125.
“My muttonhead Secretary”: HST to EWT, July 23, 1948, Dear Bess, 555.
“There is considerable political”: Memorandum by James H. Rowe, Jr., Miscellaneous Historical Documents, HSTL.
“I am going through a terrible”: HST to WC, July 10, 1948, Truman, Letters from Father, 110.
“The President greeted us rather solemnly”: Lilienthal, Journals, Vol. II, 388–89.
“This is no time”: Ibid., 391.
“If what worried the President”: Ibid.
Truman held Forrestal: Forrestal Diaries, 461.
seemed lately unable to “take hold”: Lilienthal, Journals, Vol. II, 386.
“I went down the river”: HST to MJT, July 26, 1948, HSTL.
“No, we’re not going to give”: Quoted in Donovan, 411.
“They sure are in a stew”: HST to EWT, July 23, 1948, Dear Bess, 66.
“For a number of years”: Phillips, 369.
“a ‘red herring’ “: PP, HST, August 5, 1948, 433.
“Entirely”: Ibid., August 12, 1948, 438.
floor of Margaret’s room: HST to MJT, August 10, 1948, HSTL.
“Can you imagine?”: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 329.
“Margaret’s sitting room”: HST to MJT, August 10, 1948, HSTL.
“old Abe’s bed”: Ibid.
14. Fighting Chance
“It will be the greatest”: HST to MJT, October 5, 1948, HSTL.
“There were no deep-hid schemes”: Ross, “How Truman Did It,” Collier’s, December 24, 1948.
“It’s going to be tough”: Ibid.
“I have a terrible feeling”: HST Diary, September 13, 1948, in Ferrell, ed., Off the Record, 149.
“Every grade crossing”: The New Yorker, October 9, 1948.
“I’m going to give ’em hell”: Time, September 27, 1948.
Gallup Poll: Gallup, The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion 1935–1971, 757.
“My whole inclination”: Time, September 13, 1948.
“Cadillac Square”: Matt Connelly, Oral History, HSTL.
“You remember the big boom”: PP, HST, September 18, 1948, 504.
plow the straightest furrows: Ibid., 506.
“You stayed at home in 1946”: Ibid., 501.
“Understand me, when I speak”: Ibid., September 20, 1948, 518.
“Selfish men have always”: Ibid., September 21, 1948, 531.
“sharp speeches”: Donovan, Conflict and Crisis, 425.
These “little speeches”: Ross, “How Truman Did It.”
“Oh, I wish my grandfather”: PP, HST, September 21, 1948, 531.
“They tell me [he said at Mojave]”: Ibid., September 23, 1948, 554.
“I’m here on a serious mission”: Ibid., September 22, 1948, 544.
“In 1946, you know”: Ibid., September 20, 1948, 512, 514.
“Give ’em hell”: Clark Clifford, author’s interview.
“I never gave anybody hell”: The New York Times, December 27, 1972.
“It will be a picture”: The New Yorker, October 9, 1948.
Los Angeles speech: PP, HST, September 24, 1948, 559.
“We are not quite holding our own”: Tusa, The Berlin Airlift, 235.
“That’s good”: Ross, “How Truman Did It.”
a “Research Division”: George Elsey, Oral History, HSTL.
“He gives every appearance”: Clifford, author’s interview.
the “evil forces”: Time, October 11, 1948.
HST never mentioned Dewey: Clifford, author’s interview.
“If you wanted anything”: The New Yorker, October 16, 1948.
“sort of rube reputation”: Daniels, The Man of Independence, 358.
Description of Dewey campaign: The New Yorker, October 16, 1948.
“Tonight we enter upon a campaign”: Ross, The Loneliest Campaign, 193.
“We cannot win without”: Quoted in Donovan, 420.
“Smile, governor”: Smith, Thomas E. Dewey and His Times, 26.
“You have to know Mr. Dewey well”: Ross, The Loneliest Campaign, 32.
“like a man who has been”: The New Yorker, October 16, 1948.
“It is written in the stars”: Smith, 17.
carnal relations: Ibid., 34.
“When you’re leading”: Ibid., 30.
“We always asked them”: Ross, The Loneliest Campaign, 166.
“How long is Dewey”: Life, October 25, 1948.
“get down in the gutter”: Quoted in Smith, 515.
“Isn’t it harder in politics?”: New Republic, November 1, 1948.
“We resurrected the president’s”: Sullivan, The Bureau, 44.
“The tragic fact is”: Time, October 4, 1948.
“We’ll have no thought police”: Quoted in Smith, 508.
“We hit Salt Lake City”: Quoted in Ross, The Loneliest Campaign, 207.
“Then we went into Texas”: PP, HST, September 29, 1948, 629.
“He is good on the back”: Quoted in Hardeman and Bacon, Rayburn: A Biography, 340.
“they’d shoot Truman”: Quoted in Steinberg, 325.
“an eloquence close to”: Daniels, 362.
“Our government is made up”: PP, HST, September 26, 1948, 210.
“I am going over to Bonham”: Ibid., September 27, 1948, 591.
“So in making their speeches”: Ibid., 589.
“Some things are worth fighting for”: Ibid., 593, 595.
“They came in droves”: Truman, Souvenir, 231.
“I know every man, woman, and child”: Hardeman and Bacon, 341.
“Shut the door, Beauford”: Quoted in Truman, Harry S. Truman, 37.
“A great many honors”: Baruch, The Public Years, 399.
“one jump ahead of the sheriff’: Ross, “How Truman Did It.”
“There is nothing like that”: PP, HST, September 30, 1948, 650.
“Now, whatever you do”: Ibid., October 1, 1948, 664.
“The early morning haze”: Quoted in Goulden, The Best Years 1945–1950, 399.
“We made about a hundred and forty”: HST to MJT, October 5, 1948, HSTL.
“classic unities of politics”: Redding, Inside the Democratic Party, 202.
“Another hell of a day”: HST Diary, September 14, 1948, Off the Record, 149.
selections from Dewey speeches: Goulden, 400.
HST campaign movie: Redding, 254.
“He paused dramatically”: Barkley, That Reminds Me, 204.
“If we could only get Stalin”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 215.
“every possible precaution”: Ibid., 216.
“There is much confusion”: Ayers Diary, October 6–7, 1948, HSTL.
“He got up and went out”: Daniels, 29.
“If Harry Truman would just”: Goulden, 414.
Dewey with blind drawn: Smith, 536.
“I grew up on a farm”: PP, HST, October 11, 1948, 737.
If HST called Bess the Boss; Truman, Bess W. Truman, 330.
“If you don’t want to go”: PP, HST, October 11, 1948, 736–37.
Willard, Ohio, stop: Willard Times; Joseph Dush, author’s interview; materials supplied by Harlene Staptf Palkuti.
“I have had the most wonderful”: PP, HST, October 11, 1948, 740.
“I have lived a long time”: Ibid., 743, 747.
“And there it was!”: Clifford, author’s interview.
“So I walked in”: Ibid.
“I was with Truman”: Douglas, In the Fullness of Time, 138.
“I just wonder tonight”: PP, HST, October 12, 1948, 760.
“Now, I call on all liberals”: Ibid., October 13, 1948, 774.
“a lot of surprised pollsters”: Time, October 25, 1948.
“I think he’s doing pretty well”: Ross, The Loneliest Campaign, 215.
“The only way to handle Truman”: Patterson, Mr. Republican. A Biography of Robert A. Taft, 424–25.
“That’s the first lunatic”: Time, October 25, 1948.
Boston Post editorial: October 27, 1948.
“If you’re winning”: Clifford, author’s interview.
“Strain seemed to make him”: Daniels, 361.
“He was not putting on”: Elsey, author’s interview, and Oral History, HSTL.
“For years afterward”: Clifford, Oral History, HSTL.
“We’ve got them on the run”: HST to MJT, October 20, 1948, HSTL.
“The airlift will be continued”: Tusa, 245.
“Say you don’t look so good!”: PP, HST, October 23, 1948, 839.
“The newspapers had convinced them”: Douglas, 138.
attack on Dewey: Ross, The Loneliest Campaign, 235.
“An element of desperation”: Clifford, author’s interview.
“They have scattered reckless abuse”: Smith, 536.
“The confetti, ticker-tape”: The New York Times, October 29, 1948.
“There is one place”: Quoted in Ross, The Loneliest Campaign, 237.
“Such a weak and vacillating”: Lash, Eleanor: The Years Alone, 153.
“There never has been a campaign”: The New York Times, November 1, 1948.
“I became President”: PP, HST, October 30, 1948, 934.
“pullet poll”: Life, November 15, 1948.
“Were it not for all”: Ayers Diary, November 1, 1948, HSTL.
“We all, of course, stayed awake”: Gerard McAnn, author’s interview.
Maloney and his men: Smith, 40.
“We waited and waited”: Sue Gentry, author’s interview.
“We couldn’t believe it”: Ibid.
“What a night”: Truman, Souvenir, 242.
“And all of a sudden”: Jim Rowley, author’s interview.
“his first case of nerves”: Letter from Jerome K. Walsh to Morris J. Ernst, undated, HSTL.
“He just seemed the same old”: Lyman Field, author’s interview.
“He displayed neither tension”: Letter from Jerome K. Walsh to Morris J. Ernst, undated, HSTL.
“Thank you, thank you”: Time, November 8, 1948.
Bankhead telegram: Goulden, 421.
“I think the mistake was”: Clifford, author’s interview.
“shook the bones”: Baltimore Sun, November 7, 1948.
“The farm vote switched”: Thomas Dewey to Henry Luce, undated, L. C.
“You’ve got to give the little man”: Vandenberg, Private Papers, 460.
Taft comment: Steinberg, 332.
Republican Policy Committee Report: December 17, 1948, HSTL.
“Labor Did It”: Ross, The Loneliest Campaign, 255.
“The bear got us”: Smith, 543.
“Far from costing Dewey”: Quoted in Phillips, 250–51.
“I couldn’t have been more wrong”: Life, November 15, 1948.
“What’s the matter with that fellow”: The New York Times, November 28, 1948.
“I kept reading”: Goldman, The Crucial Decade, 87.
“But when voting time came”: Ibid.
“the common man’s man”: Life, November 15, 1948.
“It seemed to have been”: Donovan, 438.
“There was personal humiliation”: New Republic, November 15, 1948.
“There has been a danger”: Ayers Diary, November 4, 1948, HSTL.
Luce memo: November 11, 1948, Time-Warner archives.
“His personality was against him”: Henry Luce memorandum, November 5, 1948, Ibid.
“I think the press”: T. S. Matthews memorandum to Henry Luce, November 4, 1948, Ibid.
“Of course, we did not intentionally”: J. J. Thorndike, Jr., memorandum to Henry Luce, November 5, 1948, Ibid.
90 percent of the credit: Hardeman and Bacon, 342.
“You have put over”: George C. Marshall to HST, November 4, 1948, HSTL.
“I think that Harry Truman grew”: Ross, “How Truman Did It.”
“I think Dewey’s whole campaign”: Clifford, author’s interview.
“no desire to crow”: HST to the Washington Post, November 6, 1948, HSTL.
Part Five
15. Iron Man
“Clearly he was conscious”: Washington Evening Star, January 20, 1949.
“his day of days”: Truman, Souvenir, 255.
“It is the President’s desire”: Seale, The President’s House, Vol. II, 1027.
“I have the job”: Washington Post, January 20, 1949; Time, January 31, 1949.
State of the Union message: PP, HST, January 5, 1949, 1.
H. V. Kaltenborn impersonation: Ibid., January 19, 1949, 110.
“I was not in any way elated”: Ibid.
“Wonderful, wonderful”: Washington Post, January 21, 1949.
Battery D reunion: Washington Evening Star, January 20, 1949.
prayer service: Washington Post, January 21, 1949.
inaugural address: PP, HST, January 20, 1949, 112–16.
“How strange”: Washington Evening Star, January 20, 1949.
“The clear sunlight”: The New York Times, January 21, 1949.
“At the reviewing stand”: J. B. West, author’s interview.
“There never was a country”: Payne, Report on America, p. 3.
“The parade was the most fun”: Lilienthal, Journals, Vol. II, 448.
“the fellow who was having”: Washington Post, January 22, 1949.
“It can almost be stated”: Bohlen, Witness to History, 284.
“fifty percent better”: Lilienthal, Journals, Vol. II, 527.
“He looks more relaxed”: Ibid., 463–64.
“He was great down in Key West!”: James Rowley, Jr., author’s interview.
“The President is as close to being”: Time, May 16, 1949.
“He won’t take hold”: Lilienthal Journals, Vol. II, 386.
“No commentator”: Time, March 7, 1949.
HST fair with Forrestal: Forrestal Diaries, 551.
“The best boss I have ever known”: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 345.
“a man who, while he reflects”: Forrestal Diaries, 529.
“the mess we are in”: Eisenhower Diaries, 152–53.
his “baffled” look: Washington Post, January 21, 1949.
Forrestal was insane: Pearson, Diaries, 1949–1959, 42.
“a very sick man”: Krock, Memoirs, 253–57.
Secret Service Report: March 31, 1949, HSTL.
“out of his mind”: Lilienthal, Journals, Vol. II, 506.
Bess was “terribly shaken”: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 346.
25,000 Pentagon employees: Time, June 6, 1949.
“Unwittingly”: Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 503.
“in high good humor”: Time, April 25, 1949.
Cardinal Spellman: Goldman, The Crucial Decade—and After, 130–31.
“Hysteria finally died down”: PP, HST, June 16, 1949, 294.
“The military situation”: Acheson, Present at the Creation, 305.
morning press conference: PP, HST, August 4, 1949, 408.
“The unfortunate but inescapable”: Acheson, 303.
“his general’s stars”: Time, August 22, 1949.
“I do these people a courtesy”: Dunar, The Truman Scandals and the Politics of Morality, 70.
“an expression of friendship”: Time, September 12, 1949.
Was it true, asked McCarthy: Ibid.
“Ross and I”: Ayers Diary, August 12, 1949, HSTL.
“After all I am”: Abel, The Truman Scandals, 42–43.
“I think that Mr. Truman”: Barkley, That Reminds Me, 212.
When Vaughan offered to resign: Dunar, 64.
“a whole box of trouble”: Lilienthal, Journals, Vol. II, 569.
“as if I frequently found him”: Ibid.
“The President was reading a copy”: Ibid., 570–71.
“I believe the American people”: PP, HST, September 23, 1949, 485.
“We keep saying”: Lilienthal, Journals, Vol. II, 577.
“this grim thing”: Ibid., 584.
“We can never tell”: HST to EWT, June 29, 1949, in Ferrell, ed., Off the Record, 158.
“Never in my wildest dreams”: HST to EN, September 8, 1949, ibid., 163–64.
rats in the White House: Floyd Boring and Rex Scouten, author’s interviews.
“Very discreet”: West, with Kotz, Upstairs at the White House, 111.
“Had dinner by myself”: HST Diary, November 1, 1949, Off the Record, 168–69.
“a fine man”: HST to Jonathan Daniels, February 26, 1950, unsent, ibid., 174.
“It was a great thing”: Dean Acheson, Oral History, HSTL.
Acheson descriptions: Time, February 28, 1949; The New Yorker, November 12 and 19, 1949; The New York Times, October 13, 1971; Clark Clifford and George Elsey, author’s interviews.
“You owe it to Truman”: Isaacson and Thomas, The Wise Men, 547.
“a peculiar organization”: HST to David H. Morgan, January 28, 1952, Off the Record, 235.
“At lunch at the Capitol”: Acheson, 107.
“You know all of us”: HST to EN, September 24, 1950, Off the Record, 194.
“deeply loving and tender nature”: Sevareid, Conversations with Eric Sevareid, 73.
“Well, this is the kind of person”: Ibid.
“It was good of you to see us off”: HST to Dean Acheson, November 28, 1949, HSTL.
“And then he was so fair”: Sevareid, 74.
“He was not afraid of the competition”: Acheson, 732–33.
“not pretending to be better”: McLellan, Dean Acheson, 19.
“Today you hear much talk”: Ibid., 173–74.
“Acheson is a gentleman”: Lilienthal, Journals, Vol. II, 565.
“I told Kennan”: McLellan, 176.
“How can you persuade”: Isaacson and Thomas, 487.
“The day will come”: Time, January 23, 1950.
“Today, by the grace of God”: PP, HST, January 4, 1950, 3.
“I should like to make it clear”: Acheson, 360.
“I think anyone who has known”: Ibid.
“This newspaper has felt”: New York Herald-Tribune, January 27, 1950.
“wonderful about it”: Acheson, 360.
“I look at that fellow”: Quoted in Goldman, 125.
“blow them off the face of the earth”: Lilienthal, Journals, Vol. II, 585.
“Like a patient”: Time, January 30, 1950.
an “atmosphere of excitement”: Lilienthal, Journals, Vol. II, 628–29.
“eloquently and forcefully”: Acheson, 349.
“We must protect the President”: Lilienthal, Journals, Vol. II, 630.
he felt he must express: Ibid., 632.
“Can the Russians?”: Quoted in Donovan, Tumultuous Years, 156.
“It is part of my responsibility”: PP, HST, January 31, 1950, 138.
“I hope I was wrong”: Lilienthal, Journals, Vol. II, 633–34.
“General annihiliation beckons”: Quoted in Goldman, 137.
“How much are we going”: Weinstein, Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case, 507.
“The air was so charged”: Block, The Herblock Book, 144.
205 “known communists”: Reeves, Life and Times of Joe McCarthy, 224, 237.
“When this pompous diplomat”: Bernstein and Matusow, eds., The Truman Administration, 407.
“I will not turn my back”: Washington Post, June 25, 1950.
“keep talking and if one case”: Reeves, 263.
“top Russian espionage agent”: Time, April 3, 1950.
“In an age of atomic energy”: Krock, In the Nation: 1932–1966, 145–46.
“One of the happiest sessions”: Lilienthal, Journals, Vol. II, 635.
“You see everybody”: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 351.
“What has made me so jittery”: Ibid.
“a ballyhoo artist”: Donovan, 166.
plunged to 37 percent: Time, April 24, 1950.
Little White House press conference: PP, HST, March 30, 1950, 232–38.
Federal Bar Association speech: Ibid, April 24, 1950, 269.
“I think our friend”: Quoted in Donovan, 170.
Maragaret Chase Smith: Acheson, 365.
the “lure in power”: HST Diary, April 16, 1950, Off the Record, 177.
“I am not a candidate”: Ibid.
NSC-68: Acheson, 374.
“bludgeon the mass mind”: Ibid.
“with us for a long, long time”: PP, HST, May 9, 1950, 335.
“a grand visit”: HST to Stanley Woodward, June 24, 1950, Off the Record, 184.
“We would not build”: PP, HST, June 24, 1950.
nation’s worst air disaster: The New York Times, June 25, 1950.
“There are lots of places”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 25, 1950.
Dean Acheson call: Memoirs, Vol. II, 332.
“My first reaction”: Ibid.
“It would appear”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 334.
“Dad took it”: Truman, Souvenir, 275.
departure so swift: Memoirs, Vol. II, 332.
Bess looking as she had the night FDR died: The New York Times, June 26, 1950.
“By God, I am going to”: Quoted in Donovan, 197.
“I remembered how”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 332–33
Rusk had seen no likelihood of war: Rusk, As I Saw It, 161.
Blair House meeting: Memoirs, Vol. II, 333.
dinner meeting: Smith, “Why We Went to War in Korea,” Saturday Evening Post, November 11, 1950.
a “darkening report”: Acheson, 406.
“a dagger pointed at the heart”: Rusk, 162.
“We must draw the line”: Bradley and Blair, 534–35.
“Underlying these discussions”: Ibid., 535.
“He pulled all the conferees together”: The New York Times, June 28, 1950.
“I thought we were still holding”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 335.
“the complete, almost unspoken”: Ibid., 334.
“so as not to give him too much”: Bradley and Blair, 536.
“It was our idea”: Donovan, 199.
“as Hermann Goering”: Jenkins, Truman, 164.
“Our estimate is that a complete collapse”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 337.
adding “not yet”: Department of State Memorandum for the Secretary, June 30, 1950, HSTL.
“We had no war plan”: Bradley and Blair, 539.
“Everything I have done”: Phillips, The Truman Presidency, 289.
“Too little, too late”: Washington Post, June 27, 1950.
“The attack upon Korea”: PP, HST, June 27, 1950, 492.
“Although the President”: Alsop, “Why Has Washington Gone Crazy?”, Saturday Evening Post, July 29, 1950.
“These are days”: Washington Post, June 28, 1950.
“We’ll have a dozen Koreas”: Eisenhower Diaries, 175.
“You may be a whiskey guzzling poker playing”: Harry Abel to HST, June 27, 1950, HSTL.
“I have lived and worked”: Time, July 10, 1950.
“We are not at war”: PP, HST, June 29, 1950, 504.
“The only assurance for holding”: MacArthur, Reminiscences, 334.
“Must be careful not to cause”: HST Diary, June 30, 1950, Off the Record, 185.
“Now, your job as President”: Sevareid, 74.
“Memo to Dean Acheson”: Acheson, 415.
16. Commander in Chief
“There was nothing passive”: Elsey, “Memoir: Some White House Recollections, 1942–1953,” Diplomatic History, Summer 1988.
“This is the Greece”: Quoted in Phillips, The Truman Presidency, 297.
“walk with the weary man’s”: Time, July 10, 1950.
Bradley meeting with HST: Time, August 21, 1950.
“The size of the attack”: PP, HST, July 19, 1950, 538.
as if a few troops of Boy Scouts: Ridgway, The Korean War, 17.
“Guys, sweat soaked”: Knox, The Korean War, Pusan to Chosin, 71.
“What a place to die”: New York Herald-Tribune, July 6, 1950.
Acheson, however, disagreed: Acheson, Present at the Creation, 414.
“Later when Robert Taft”: Heller, The Truman White House, 13.
HST said he would “back out”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 340.
her father’s anguish: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 357.
telegrams and letters to White House: White House Correspondence File, HSTL.
“The influence of Louis Johnson”: Joseph Alsop, author’s interview.
July 14 meeting: Acheson, 421.
July 19 message to Congress: PP, HST, July 19, 1950, 527–37.
press conference: Ibid., July 27, 1950, 560–64.
“He would have saved himself”: Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 542.
“an inordinate egotistical desire”: HST Diary, September 14, 1950, in Ferrell, ed., Off the Record, 192.
a “pathological condition”: Bradley and Blair, 542.
HST confiding Harriman’s story: Ayers Diary, July 3, 1950, HSTL.
“A most interesting morning”: HST Diary, September 14, 1950, Off the Record, 192.
“Mr. Prima Donna”: HST Diary, June 17, 1945, ibid., 47.
“little regard or respect”: Ayers Diary, July 1, 1950, HSTL.
Dulles advised HST: Ibid.
HST’s little regard for generals: HST memorandum, April 24, 1954, Off the Record, 303.
“likes horses with blinders on”: Miller, Plain Speaking, 220.
“fluid but improving”: Ayers Diary, August 12, 1950, HSTL.
HST’s uppermost concern: Memoirs, Vol. II, 351.
“catch him alone”: Quoted in Heller, 14.
MacArthur assured HST: Memoirs, Vol. II, 351.
“with all his dramatic eloquence”: Bradley and Blair, 546.
the riskiest military proposal: Ibid., 544.
“I made it clear to the President”: Quoted in Heller, 14.
“as fast as you can”: Bradley and Blair, 546.
“This means not the usual”: Osborne, Life and Time, August 21, 1950.
“the wildest kind”: Bradley and Blair, 556.
“the gravest misgivings”: Ibid., 547.
“Nothing could be more fallacious”: Manchester, American Caesar, 568.
“his lips white”: Bradley and Blair, 551.
rank insubordination: Ibid.
“the height of arrogance”: Ibid.
HST rejects idea of relieving MacArthur: Memoirs, Vol. II, 355–56.
HST asks Johnson to have MacArthur’s statement withdrawn: Bradley and Blair, 551.
“The JCS inclined toward postponing”: Ibid., 547.
“a failure could be a national”: Ibid., 545.
“It was a daring strategic conception”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 358.
“Hell and high water”: HST to EWT, September 7, 1950, Off the Record, 189.
“I’ll do it”: Ibid.
“Can you think of anyone?”: Ibid.
Johnson told he must quit: HST Diary, September 14, 1950, ibid., 193.
a “military miracle”: Ridgway, 44.
“I salute you all”: Quoted in Phillips, 313.
“Troops could not be expected”: Acheson, 445.
to “feel unhampered”: Ridgway, 45.
“an almost superstitious awe”: Ibid., 61.
warnings a bluff: Spanier, The Truman-MacArthur Controversy and the Korean War, 87.
“and I did not feel”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 368.
“the perfect answer”: Wiltz, “Truman and MacArthur: The Wake Island Meeting,” Military Affairs, December 1978.
“good election year stuff”: Donovan, Tumultuous Years,284.
“While General MacArthur”: Acheson, 456.
“I’ve a whale of a job”: HST to Nellie Noland, October 13, 1950, Off the Record, 196.
“Two men can sometimes learn”: Time, October 23, 1950.
“I don’t care what they say”: Ibid.
MacArthur had arrived the night before: Ibid.
Harriman exchange with MacArthur: Bradley and Blair, 573.
“grave responsibility”: Ibid.
MacArthur greeting: New York Herald-Tribune, October 15, 1950.
“I have been worried”: Quoted in Donovan, 285.
MacArthur assured him victory was won: Memoirs, Vol. II, 365.
“seemed genuinely pleased”: Ibid.
“I had been warned”: MacArthur, Reminiscences, 361.
Vernice Anderson incident: Jessup, “Research Note/The Record of Wake Island—A Correction,” The Journal of American History, March 1981.
when MacArthur received transcript: Bradley and Blair, 575.
“He was the most persuasive fellow”: Quoted in Manchester, 592.
“the formal resistance”: Substance of Statements Made at Wake Island Conference on October 15, 1950, compiled by General Omar Bradley, declassified, 1, HSTL.
By January: Ibid.
Dean Rusk concerned: Rusk, As I Saw It, 169.
“Hell no!”: Ibid.
“They are the happiest”: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950. Vol. VII: Korea, 953
the French couldn’t “clean it up”: Substance of Statements Made at Wake Island Conference, 17.
MacArthur declined lunch: Ibid.
“Whether intended or not”: Bradley and Blair, 576.
“The communiqué should be submitted”: Substance of Statements Made at Wake Island Conference, 23.
MacArthur asked the President: MacArthur, Reminiscences, 362.
“Eisenhower doesn’t know the first thing”: Ibid., 363.
“the very complete unanimity of view”: PP, HST, October 15, 1950, 672.
“his vision, his judgment”: Donovan, 288.
a “glorious new page”: PP, HST, October 17, 1950, 674.
“On this one”: Rusk, 169.
“Come up to Pyongyang”: Newsweek, October 23, 1950.
“Goodbye, sir”: Time, October 23, 1950.
“I like them more”: Truman, Letters from Father, 97.
“He would treat us”: Rex Scouten, author’s interview.
Floyd Boring’s wife: Floyd Boring, author’s interview.
“The house was so quiet”: West, with Kotz, Upstairs at the White House, 116.
“I’d come out more or less”: Boring, author’s interview.
mistaken for divinity students: Life: November 13, 1950.
assassination attempt: Boring, author’s interview; Scouten, author’s interview; Life, November 13, 1950; The New York Times, November 2, 1950; Time, November 12, 1950; Whistle Stop, Fall 1979.
“Why, of course”: Time, November 12, 1950.
“It is important”: PP, HST, November 1, 1950, 693.
“But Truman was…just a symbol”: Kansas City Times, September 11, 1979.
“A President has to expect”: The New York Times, November 2, 1950.
HST insisted he was in no danger: PP, HST, November 2, 1950, 696.
so “unnecessary”: HST to Dean Acheson, November 2, 1950, HSTL.
“[Leaving the airport)”: HST Diary, November 5, 1950, Off the Record, 198.
“really a prisoner now”: HST to EN, November 17, 1950, ibid.
“The Korean death trap”: Donovan, 295.
“All the piety”: Ibid., 297.
Bess had seldom seen HST so downhearted: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 363–64.
“Some Republicans interpret”: PP, HST, November 16, 1950, 714.
“Then there were those”: Ridgway, 61.
“If this operation is successful”: Manchester, 606.
“a terrible message”: Ibid., 608.
“We’ve got a terrific”: Hersey, Aspects of the Presidency, 27.
“The Chinese have come in”: Ibid.
“alone and inescapably”: Ibid., 28.
seven thousand letters: Heller, 47.
“We can blame the liars”: Ibid., 30.
“His mouth drew tight”: Ibid., 28.
“We have got to meet this thing”: Ibid., 30;
“We face an entirely new war”: Quoted in Acheson, 469.
November 28, 1950, meeting: Ibid., 469, 471.
“There was no doubt”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 378.
“We can’t defeat the Chinese”: Acheson, 471.
the “imperative step”: Ibid.
“The threat of a larger war”: Bradley and Blair, 599.
“hordes of Chinese Reds”: Washington Star, November 28, 1950.
“A lot of hard work”: Memoirs Vol. II, 388.
“Remember, photographers are”: Truman, Letters from Father, 99.
“He ‘used’ the press”: Phillips, The New York Times, December 31, 1972.
“a fat no good can of lard”: HST to MJT, July 25, 1947, Off the Record, 115.
“the Sop Sisters”: HST to EWT, June 11, 1950, Ibid., 179 and 41, note.
“The prostitutes of the mind”: Poen, Strictly Personal and Confidential, 24.
“You might tell the gentleman”: HST to Joseph J. McGee, November 22, 1950, Off the Record, 199.
November 30, 1950, press conference: PP, HST, 724–728.
“No, it doesn’t mean”: Ibid., 727.
the “wildest days” ever: Ayers Diary, November 30, 1950, HSTL.
“the use of any weapon”: PP, HST, November 30, 1950, 727.
HST ill-advised: Bradley and Blair, 604.
in a crucial few days: Acheson, 466.
“I have the unhappy conviction”: Ibid.
“well remember”: Ridgway, 61.
“someone expressed what everyone”: Acheson, 475.
“You can relieve any commander”: Ridgway, 62.
Rusk proposes relieving MacArthur: Acheson, 476.
“I should have relieved”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 384.
“We must get him out”: HST Diary, December 2, 1950, Off the Record, 202.
“It looks very bad”: Ibid.
“Mr. President, the Chinese”: Rusk, 170.
“I’ve had conference after conference”: HST Diary, December 9, 1950, Off the Record, 204.
“[The President] thought that if”: Quoted in Donovan, 317.
He would not use the bomb: Ibid., 318.
“Charlie seemed in good form”: Ayers Diary, December 5, 1950, HSTL.
Death of Charlie Ross: Washington Post, December 6, 1950.
“The friend of my youth”: PP, HST, December 5, 1950, 737.
“Ah, hell”: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 545–46.
previous Ross heart attacks: Washington Post, December 6, 1950.
HST keeps Ross death from Margaret: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 546.
“Afterward, Dad was effusive”: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 366.
“really pretty bad that night”: John Hersey, author’s interview.
Hume review: Washington Post, December 6, 1950.
“That’s exactly what I want”: Traubel, St. Louis Woman, 211.
“longhand spasm”: HST to Dean Acheson, April 8, 1957, HSTL.
“Charlie Ross would never have”: Elsey, author’s interview.
“Mr. Hume: I’ve just read”: HST to Paul Hume, December 7, 1950.
“In the first place”: Time, December 18, 1950.
To Margaret he said: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 547.
“When he would write”: Elsey, Oral History, HSTL.
“a propaganda machine”: Time, September 18, 1950.
“I can only say”: Time, December 18, 1950.
letters and telegrams to White House: General Correspondence File, HSTL.
letter from the Bannings: HSTL.
“The Eighth Army is yours”: Ridgway, 83.
“never uttered wiser words”: Acheson, 512.
“brilliant, driving”: Bradley and Blair, 608.
“The troops are tired”: Ibid., 619.
“Under the extraordinary”: Quoted in Donovan, 346.
to recognize the “state of war”: Manchester, The Glory and the Dream, 550.
atomic bombs: Schaller, Douglas MacArthur, 225.
“go down that trail”: Rusk, 170.
“infinite patience”: Acheson, 515.
“steps which might in themselves”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 438, 436.
“We were at our lowest”: Bradley and Blair, 620.
“Eighth Army in good shape”: Ibid., 623.
“rolling forward”: Ridgway, The Korean War, 106.
to look “beyond MacArthur”: Bradley and Blair, 623.
Ridgway thought HST a great and courageous man: Ridgway, author’s interview.
“mainly a prima donna”: Bradley and Blair, 623.
“While General MacArthur was fighting”: Acheson, 517.
“the really terrifying strength”: Ridgway, 111.
“tired and depressed: Goulden, Korea, 453.
“just ordered a resumption”: Ridgway, 109.
“not only his nerves”: MacArthur, Reminiscences, 393.
“snapped his brilliant”: Bradley and Blair, 626.
“The enemy, therefore”: MacArthur, 388.
his “pronunciamento”: Acheson, The Korean War, 101.
“unforgiveable and irretrievable act”: Bradley and Blair, 627.
“Whom the gods would destroy”: Acheson, Korean War, 100.
“I couldn’t send a message”: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 559.
“This was a most extraordinary”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 441–42.
“disbelief with controlled fury”: Acheson, Korean War, 102.
“Gallup Poll: The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion 1935–1971, 970.
“If you are going to get on”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 443–45.
“What are we in Korea for”: Martin, My First Fifty Years in Politics, 203.
“Mr. President, this man is not”: Roger Tubby Diary, April 5, 1951.
“I did not know”: Bradley and Blair, 629.
“The situation could be resolved”: Acheson, Korean War, 104.
“If you relieve MacArthur”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 447.
“I don’t express any opinion”: HST Diary, April 5, 1951, Off the Record, 211.
“at the apex of a situation”: MacArthur, 394.
“The wind died down”: Martin, 207.
because they knew the kind of abuse: Bradley and Blair, 633.
MacArthur firing would provoke: Ibid.
“There was no question”: Phillips, 346–47.
He told Bradley to prepare: Memoirs, Vol. II, 448.
Speculation about MacArthur: Washington Post, April 10, 1951.
“So you won’t have to read about it”: Tubby Diary, April 12, 1951.
a supposed “major resignation”: Bradley and Blair, 636.
“There was a degree of panic”: Elsey, author’s interview.
“He’s not going to be allowed”: Phillips, 343.
“Discussed the situation”: HST Diary, April, 9, 1951, Off the Record, 211.
“Well, the little man”: Rusk, 172.
would have retired “without difficulty”: Schaller, 239.
HST’s “mental instability”: Donovan, 360; Goulden, 495.
“Our only choice”: Washington Post, April 12, 1951.
Tom Connally reminded: Ibid.
Chicago Tribune editorial: April 12, 1951.
“This is the biggest windfall”: Washington Post, April 18 1951.
“In the days ahead”: Letter from W. O. Douglas to HST, April 11, 1951, HSTL.
“It makes not the slightest”: The President vs. the General,” Sermon by Dr. Duncan E. Littlefield, April 15, 1951, Fountain Street Baptist Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan, HSTL.
“The most obvious fact”: New York Herald-Tribune, April 13, 1951.
“bourbon and Benedictine”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 14, 1951.
Gallup Poll: Goldman, The Crucial Decade, 203.
HST booed at Griffith Stadium: Washington Post, April 21, 1951.
April 11, 1951, broadcast: PP, HST, April 11, 1951, 223–27.
“The only politics I have”: Time, April 30, 1951.
“I was sorry to have to reach”: HST to Eisenhower, April 13, 1951, HSTL.
mock “Schedule for Welcoming…”: HSTL.
“I address you”: New York Herald-Tribune, April 20, 1951.
“When I joined the Army”: MacArthur, 405.
“The hopes and dreams”: Quoted in Manchester, 661.
“We heard God speak”: Ibid.
“I honestly felt that if the speech”: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 563.
“a bunch of damn bullshit”: Quoted in Miller, Plain Speaking, 337.
“After I looked at that wreckage”: Time, May 14, 1951.
“a very distressing necessity”: Ibid.
“Having made this courageous decision”: Bradley and Blair, 637.
“Courage didn’t have anything”: Quoted in Phillips, 350.
“Truman’s conflict with MacArthur”: Rusk, 172.
MacArthur to Samuel Eliot Morison: Morison, The Oxford History of the American People, 1072.
May 18 dinner: PP, HST, May 18, 1951, 292–93.
Tullahoma, Tennessee, speech: Ibid., June 25, 1951, 357–63.
17. Final Days
“I have tried to give it”: PP, HST, January 15, 1953, 1202.
“I walk two miles”: HST Diary, January 3, 1952, in Ferrell, ed., Off the Record, 226.
“Mr. President, this is my first”: PP, HST, July 12, 1951, 387.
HST served bowl of milk toast: Tubby Diary, May 21, 1951.
“You constantly tell me to relax”: Ibid., April 13, 1952.
a framed verse: Hersey, Aspects of the Presidency, 108.
it was all worth the effort: Tubby Diary, October 15, 1951.
“I know what a soldier goes through”: PP, HST, January 15, 1953, 1200.
Sergeant John Rice: The New York Times, August 29, 1951.
“mysterious, powerful” conspiracy: Reeves, The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy, 372.
a “pithy and bitter” summary: Hersey, 137–38.
“Three pungent comments”: Ibid.
HST announces Marshall stepping down: PP, HST, September 12, 1951, 516.
Hassett would bring him funny items: Tubby Diary, June 24, 1951.
Hassett an alcoholic: Ibid., September 18, 1951.
the “chiselers” within: Ibid., early June, 1951.
“He tended to live”: George Elsey, author’s interview.
“an overeducated S.O.B.”: Douglas, In the Fullness of Time, 222.
he had “gone too far”: Ibid., 223.
“real crooks and influence peddlers”: Ibid.
“You have been loyal to friends”: Ibid., 224.
“You bastards”: Quoted in Goldman, The Crucial Decade—and After, 196.
“With staggering impact”: Ibid., 198–99.
HST and Army football scandal: Tubby Diary, August 3 and 8, 1951.
“I did nothing improper”: Douglas, 224.
He liked people: Tubby Diary, August 3, 1951.
“He was dressed in flashy”: Ibid., September 13, 1951.
“Ah, me. I wonder”: Ibid., early June, 1951,
like Warren G. Harding: Ibid., September 13, 1951.
“Poker, poker”: Ibid., April 2, 1951.
“Truman has to take strong action”: Ibid., early June, 1951.
“He does not like to dwell”: Ibid., October 15, 1951.
Boyle background: Kansas City Star, August 31, 1951.
“I like people who can”: HST to MT, December 3, 1944, Truman, Letters from Father, 60.
Charles Binnagio: The New York Times, April 7, 1950; Life, April 17, 1950.
“So Boyle is not only stupid”: Tubby Diary, early June, 1951.
“It’s all right”: Ibid.
“I have the utmost confidence”: PP, HST, August 9, 1951, 454.
Murphy memorandum: Charles S. Murphy to HST, August 9, 1951, HSTL.
Gabrielson revelations: Time, October 15, 1951.
Elsey report: Dunar, The Truman Scandals, 128.
“Let’s say continue”: PP, HST, December 13, 1951, 641.
“Boss, you’re going to have to run”: Tubby Diary, October 15, 1951.
“Once I’m outa the White House”: Ibid.
Gallup Poll: The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion 1935–71, 1032.
“From that day forward”: Tubby Diary, January 16, 1952.
“Dealing with Communist Governments”: HST, private longhand note, January 27, 1952, HSTL.
Churchill trip to Washington: Gilbert, Winston Churchill, Never Despair, 675.
“What Churchill did was great”: Acheson, Present at the Creation, 595.
Churchill acknowledged American nuclear power: Tubby Diary, January 16, 1952.
HST’s “great decision”: Gilbert, 676.
“The last time you and I sat”: This often repeated tribute appears to have been recorded by Joe Short, who was on board the Williamsburg. It is paraphrased in Roger Tubby’s diary and would later appear in Margaret Truman Daniel’s book about her father and in several obituaries at the time of Truman’s death.
“the great white jail”: HST to EWT, September 13, 1946, Dear Bess, 536.
Hersey tour of White House: Hersey, 88.
“It is the President’s desire”: Winslow Diary, January 14 1949, OCWH (Office of the Curator, White House).
Congressional Commission established: Scale, The President’s House, Vol. II, 1029.
“The character and extent”: The White House Report of the Commission of Public Buildings, 91.
“The decision between these plans”: Ibid., 48.
Rabaut argued for dismantling: Renovation Commission Hearing Minutes, July 19, 1949, HSTL.
“They took the insides all out”: HST Diary, March 2, 1952, Off the Record, 243.
for proper underpinning: Seale, Vol. II, 1034.
“faithful reproductions”: The White House Report of the Commission of Public Buildings, 93.
“The President has authorized”: Seale, Vol. II, 1039.
description of bomb shelter: Tubby Diary, July 26, 1951.
for “morale reasons”: Ibid.
False radar report: Ibid.
“He considered it his project”: Rex Scouten, author’s interview.
“It is absolutely essential”: HST to Les Larson, June 12, 1951, HSTL.
HST forced into politics: Hersey, 88.
communing with White House spirits: Seale, Vol. II, 1047.
Winslow memo to HST: H. G. Grim to Lorenze S. Winslow, September 13, 1951, HSTL.
“I want it distinctly”: HST to William Adams Delano, August 25, 1950, HSTL.
“moving at the double quick”: The New York Times, March 15, 1952.
“Bess and I looked over”: HST Diary, March 27, 1952, Off the Record, 246.
“The President was an inexhaustible”: The New York Times, May 4, 1952.
“the most logical and qualified”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 489.
Eisenhower lunch with HST: Krock, Memoirs, 267-68.
“You can’t join a party”: Ambrose, Eisenhower, Soldier and President, 259-60.
“He told me Arthur Krock’s story”: Sulzberger, A Long Row of Candles, 693.
“Dear Ike: The Columnists”: HST to Dwight D. Eisenhower, December 18, 1951, Off the Record, 220.
“a grand man”: PP, HST, January 10, 1952, 21, 22.
“I’m sorry to see these fellows”: Tubby Diary, April 13, 1952.
“Can we elect?”: HST Diary, July 6, 1952, Off the Record, 261.
“He proved in that contest”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 491.
“He comes of a political family”: Ibid.
Stevenson talked his way past the guards: Martin, Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, 523.
“I told him I would not run”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 491.
“He was overcome”: HST Diary, March 4, 1952, Off the Record, 245.
“He apparently was flabbergasted”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 492.
“full of admiration”: Quoted in Martin, 523.
“Stevenson was impressed”: Ibid., 524.
“Adlai, if a knucklehead like me”: McKeever, Adlai Stevenson, His Life and Legacy, 179.
“If Eisenhower were the Republican”: Ibid., 178.
“[He] came to tell me”: HST Diary, March 4, 1952, Off the Record, 245.
Clifford advice to HST: Clifford, with Holbrooke, Counsel to the President, 283.
“Anybody who works closely”: Quoted in Martin, 544-45.
“Not at all”: Acheson, 632.
“I shall not be a candidate”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 492.
“I found myself shouting”: Quoted in Martin, 547.
“When you made your announcement”: Tubby Diary, April 3, 1952.
Did he plan to run: PP, HST, April 3, 1952, 233-34.
“I was stunned by”: Quoted in Martin, 553.
HST response to Stevenson: Ibid.
his amazing stamina: Tubby Diary, April 13, 1952.
“inability to get on top”: Dunar, 119.
with this farcical denouement: Phillips, The Truman Presidency, 413.
“I want you to know”: Dunar, 119.
“when I’m not so shaky”: Tubby Diary, April 13, 1952.
“McGrath, Korean truce talks”: Ibid.
HST appointment schedule: HSTL.
“These are not normal times”: PP, HST, April 8, 1952, 246.
“The President has the power”: Tubby Diary, April 6, 1952.
“Secretary of Defense Lovett”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 469.
“The attitude of the companies”: Ibid., 468.
“The plain fact of the matter”: PP, HST, April 8, 1952, 249.
HST looked so exhausted: Tubby Diary, April 13, 1952.
“very desirable”: PP, HST, April 9, 1952, 251.
one of the most high-handed acts: Washington Post, April 10, 1952.
“Nothing in the Constitution”: Ibid.
“Under similar circumstances”: PP, HST, April 17, 1952, 273.
“I believe that the contemplated strike”: Time, May 12, 1952.
“read it, read it”: Tubby Diary, May 3, 1952.
“[I] had never seen him”: Ibid.
an “outstanding” lawyer: Memoirs, Vol. II, 475.
“We cannot with faithfulness”: Donovan, “Truman Seizes Steel,” Constitution, Fall 1990.
“Today a kindly President”: Ibid.
“damn fool from Texas”: Miller, Plain Speaking, 242.
“a bit testy”: Donovan, “Truman Seizes Steel.”
“No enemy nation could”: Newsweek, August 4, 1952.
“The Court and Congress got us”: Tubby Diary, May 30–June 1, 1952.
“If the doctor had come in”: Ibid, July 21, 1952.
“It’s a lockout”: Ibid.
“This should lead to”: PP, HST, July 24, 1952, 501.
any red-blooded Democrat: Time, July 7, 1952.
“You never know what’s in you”: Tubby Diary, July 2, 1952.
“We followed you before”: Time, July 21, 1952.
“If Harry Truman turns out”: Ibid., July 7, 1952.
“I have been trying”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 496.
“I am going to take my coat off: Ibid., 497.
“The people are wise”: Time, August 4, 1952.
“Sacrifice, patience”: Quoted in McKeever, 201.
“Stevenson made his decision”: Time, August 4, 1952.
“Dear Governor: Last night”: HST to Adlai Stevenson, July 26, 1952, Off the Recora 263.
“He was affronted by”: Quoted in McKeever, 198.
“I have come to the conclusion”: HST to Adlai Stevenson, early August 1951, Off the Record, 266.
“Can Stevenson really clean up”: Martin, 644.
“rather ridiculous”: HST to Adlai Stevenson late August 1952, unsent, Off the Record, 268.
“Oh, Stevenson will get”: Tubby Diary, August 21, 1952.
“His eloquence was real”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 497.
HST would do everything possible: Tubby Diary, August 13, 1952.
“There’s a man of granite”: Ibid.
“When you vote the Democratic ticket”: PP, HST, September 29, 1952, 621.
“What I’ve always had in mind”: HST to Dwight Eisenhower, August 16, 1952, Off the Record, 263-64.
“a modern Cromwell”: Tubby Diary, September 17, 1952.
“This will help us”: Ibid., September 22, 1952.
“I nearly choked to hear him”: Ibid., September 14, 1952.
“I feel as if I killed them”: Ibid., September 22, 1952.
“red-hot anger”: Reeves, 439.
“Do I need to tell you”: Ibid., 440.
“very sad and pathetic”: PP, HST, October 4, 1952, 711.
“lay off Ike for a while”: Tubby Diary, early October, 1952.
“The general whose words”: PP, HST, October 7, 1952, 738.
“betrayed his principles”: Ibid., October 10, 1952, 784.
“Why, General Marshall was responsible”: Quoted in Miller, 370.
“Just how low”: Quoted in Donovan, 401.
“Ike was well informed”: Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 650.
no one could have beaten Eisenhower: HST memorandum, December 22, 1952, Off the Record, 282.
“if you still desire”: Donovan, 402.
“I sincerely wish”: HST Diary, November 15, 1952, Off the Record, 273.
“an orderly transfer”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 505.
he wished someone had done: Tubby Diary, November 24, 1952.
“not very graciously”: HST Diary, November 20, 1952, Off the Record, 274.
“He’ll sit right here”: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 603.
“The White House is quiet”: HST Diary, November 24, 1952, Off the Record, 275.
“Since last September Mother Wallace”: Ibid.
“She was a grand lady”: HST Diary, December 6, 1952, ibid., 279.
32 percent: Gallup, 1102.
43 percent: Ibid.
“I wonder how far Moses”: HST Memorandum, 1954(?), Off the Record, 310.
“It bears down on a country boy”: HST to EN, January 2, 1952, Off the Record, 287.
felt “repudiated”: Tubby Diary, February 1, 1953.
reminiscences with staff: Ibid, February 2, 1953.
916Look magazine article: Commager, “A Few Kind Words for Harry Truman,” Look, August 1951.
“Flying back over the flatlands”: Tubby Diary, February 3, 1953.
“Certainly no man”: PP, HST, January 16, 1953, 1203.
“In personality, conversation”: Brown, Through These Men, 41.
farewell address: PP, HST, January 15, 1953, 1197-1202.
“in the manner of his going”: New York Herald-Tribune, January 19, 1953.
Inauguration day: HST Diary, January 20, 1953, Off the Record, 287.
“I was glad I wasn’t”: West, with Kotz, Upstairs at the White House, 126.
“I ride with Ike”: HST Diary, January 20, 1953, Off the Record, 257.
“the very many courtesies”: Ambrose, 296.
“It was a shocking moment”: Eric Sevareid, author’s interview.
“The street in front of Dean’s house”: HST Diary, January 20, 1953, Off the Record, 288.
“an absolutely wonderful affair”: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 610.
“There’s the best friend”: Washington Post, January 21, 1953.
“I’m just Mr. Truman”: The New York Times, January 21, 1953.
“Crowd at Harper’s Ferry”: HST Diary, January 20, 1953, Off the Record, 288.
Part Six
18. Citizen Truman
“Been going over”: HST to Dean Acheson, April 18, 1953, HSTL.
“Who knows”: HST to EW, May 23, 1911, Dear Bess, 36.
“I tried never to forget”: Miller, Plain Speaking, 10.
“Rumors have it”: Independence Examiner, January 22, 1953.
Burrus had picked out house: Rufus Burrus, author’s interview.
exploit or “commercialize”: Associated Press, January 23, 1953.
a Miami real estate developer: Samuel Q. Goldman to HST, October 7, 1952, HSTL.
Toyota offer: HST to Paul Butler, March 3, 1959, HSTL.
“I still don’t feel”: Quoted in Ferrell, Harry S. Truman and the Modern American Presidency, 153.
“where everybody seemed”: HST to Dean Acheson, February 7, 1953, HSTL.
“take the grips up”: Ray Scherer, author’s interview.
HST set off for Grandview: Tubby Diary, February 5, 1953; Independence Examiner, January 23, 1953.
That was good land: George Elsey, Oral History, HSTL; author’s interview.
“A cold wind whipping”: Tubby Diary, February 5, 1953.
“More than any other single”: Harry S. Truman, Mr. Citizen, 25.
“He was utterly lost”: Osborne, “Happy Days for Harry,” Life, July 7, 1958.
“Diamond Head”: HST Diary, April 1953, in Ferrell, ed., Off the Record, 290.
“This morning at 7 A.M.”: HST Diary, May 20, 1953, Ibid., 292.
“A shovel (automatic)”: Ibid.
“a real tryout”: Truman, 64.
“Everything went well”: HST to Vic H. Housholder, November 29, 1953, Off the Record, 298.
“I admitted the charge”: Ibid.
“There goes our incognito”: Truman, 65.
“You’re a sight for sore eyes”: The New York Times, June 22, 1953.
“like a dream”: Truman, 67.
“If you’d go again”: The New York Times, June 29, 1953.
“He was very nice”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 6, 1953.
“The book is doing fine”: HST to Acheson, November 5, 1953, HSTL.
Paul Douglas observation: Quoted in Manchester, The Glory and the Dream, 663.
“As for the United States”: July 27, 1953.
“The war is over”: Manchester, 663.
“Of course I’m happy”: HST to Bela Kornitzer, August 7, 1953, HSTL.
“I’m not a writer!”: Francis Heller, author’s interview.
Hillman and Noyes: Miller, 20.
Promising to “protect” HST: Heller, author’s interview.
recording machine: Heller, “The Writing of the Truman Memoirs,” Presidential Studies Quarterly, Winter 1983.
Royce highly disorganized: Heller, author’s interview.
HST annoyed: Heller, “The Writing of the Truman Memoirs.”
“lively” and “honest”: Elston, The World of Time Inc., 299.
“The cream of the White House”: Williams, “I Was Truman’s Ghost,” Presidential Studies Quarterly, Spring 1982.
“His approval or criticism”: Ibid.
HST begins his day: Erskine, “Truman in Retirement,” Collier’s, February 4, 1955.
“She had golden curls”: Memoirs, Vol. 1, 116.
“I always try to be”: HST Diary, July 8, 1953, Off the Record, 293.
“After I’d passed”: Ibid.
“When we moved”: Memoirs, Vol. 1, 115.
“In the fall of 1892”: Ibid., 116.
How could father be called failure: Steinberg, The Man from Missouri, 15.
“I have been working on”: HST to Acheson, January 28, 1954, HSTL.
“Our tribal instinct”: HST to Acheson, St. Patrick’s Day, 1954, HSTL.
“I used to say”: Osborne, “Happy Days for Harry.”
auction at the Armory: Independence Examiner, November 19, 1954.
“I’m worried about our world”: HST to Acheson, May 28, 1954, HSTL.
Truman stricken at Call Me Madam: Kansas City Star, June 19, 1954.
gall bladder operation: The New York Times, June 21, 1954.
“a hell of a time”: HST to Acheson, October 14, 1954, HSTL.
“When the papers tell us”: Acheson to HST, June 21, 1954, HSTL.
“When you get acquainted”: Ibid.
“It is touching”: Acheson to EWT, June 30, 1954, HSTL.
“going great guns”: HST to Acheson, January 11, 1955, HSTL.
“The material is more interesting”: Acheson to HST, June 21, 1955, HSTL.
“Page 114, line 3”: Ibid.
“She was his true”: Ken McCormick, author’s interview.
“We’d left home”: HST Diary, June 24, 1955, Off the Record, 317.
“I never really appreciated”: Elston, 299.
“I expect to use, probably”: HST to Samuel S. Vaughan, October 22, 1955, HSTL.
“when we see him”: Samuel S. Vaughan, author’s interview.
“I had no idea”: Ibid.
“There, that one’s all slicked up”: Paul Horgan, author’s interview.
“I will autograph”: HST to Ken McCormick, July 1, 1955, Off the Record, 319.
only as “my history”: Heller, author’s interview.
“Altogether, it well”: The New York Times Book Review, November 6, 1955.
called Margaret “skinny”: HST to Acheson, January 11, 1955, HSTL.
“When I hear”: HST to Acheson, January 25, 1955, HSTL.
“Margie has put one over”: HST to Acheson, March 26, 1956, HSTL.
“He strikes me as a very nice”: HST to Acheson, March 26, 1956, HSTL.
“Consolation is just what”: Acheson to HST, March 27, 1956, HSTL.
“rain, rain, rain”: HST Diary, June 21 (?), 1956, Off the Record, 336.
“I was so afraid”: HST to Acheson, July 20, 1956, HSTL.
welcome in Rome: Time, May 28, 1956.
Henry Luce tour: The New York Times, May 20, 1956.
Paul Schultheiss: Independence Examiner, May 19, 1956.
“He is considered the greatest”: HST Diary, May 27–29, 1956, Off the Record, 329.
“[Harry] Truman and his wife lunched”: Berenson, Sunset and Twilight, 436.
“I found that it was somewhat”: HST Diary, June 4, 1956, Off the Record, 332.
“squeezed” from the people: HST Diary, June 1956, ibid., 333.
“We crossed the Channel”: HST Diary, June 21 (?), 1956, ibid., 336.
“Never, never in my life”: Kansas City Times, June 20, 1956.
“Truest of allies”: The New York Times, June 21, 1956.
“Mr. Truman is very popular”: Kansas City Times, June 20, 1956.
“Every person born”: Ibid., June 21, 1956.
“Give ’em, hell, Harricum!”: Ibid.
“I think we in this room”: The New York Times, June 22, 1956.
“A good many of the difficulties”: The Times (London), June 22, 1956.
“And—not least of all”: Ibid.
visit to London: HST Diary, June 21 (?), 1956, Off the Record, 336.
“England is prosperous”: Ibid., 337.
“It was all over too soon”: HST Diary, June 24, 1956, ibid., 338.
“He told me that he could do”: Ibid.
“Too bad he’s not campaigning”: Kansas City Times, June 29, 1956.
“Never [said the United Press]”: Independence Examiner, June 28, 1956.
“lacks the kind of fighting spirit”: McKeever, Adlai Stevenson, 376.
“Harry S. Truman had the Democratic”: The New York Times, August 12, 1956.
“When I arrived in Chicago”: HST to Acheson, August 29, 1956, HSTL.
“I have never wanted to pose”: HST to LBJ, December 11, 1956, LBJL.
“Dad sat there for a long time”: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 621.
“I expect to be knee deep”: HST to Acheson, June 7, 1957, HSTL.
“Mr. Truman, who has abiding”: The New York Times, July 7, 1957.
labor union contributions: “Contributions of Labor Unions to Harry S. Truman Library, Inc.,” HSTL.
“Hey there, farmer!” HST telephone conversation with Sam Rayburn, July 15, 1958, Off the Record, 364.
net profit: Kirkendall, ed., The Harry S. Truman Encyclopedia, 129.
“Had it not been”: HST to John W. McCormack, January 10, 1957, Off the Record, 346.
“As you know, we passed”: Ibid.
“I would be proud”: HST to Acheson, October 15, 1952, HSTL.
“Mr. Truman is deeply”: Acheson to Thomas Bergin, July 12, 1954, HSTL.
HST and Yale librarian: Chester Kerr, author’s interview.
“I have never had a better time”: HST to Acheson, April 16, 1958, HSTL.
“Yale still rings”: HST to Acheson, May 15, 1958, HSTL.
“He’s so damn happy”: Osborne, “Happy Days for Harry.”
getting a bigger kick: Phillips, “Truman at 75,” The New York Times Magazine, May 3, 1959.
“a man overflowing with life”: Ibid.
“She says I am just like”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 10, 1959.
“You know this five day week”: HST to Acheson, April 10, 1968, HSTL.
“where he can sit”: Unidentified article, February 3, 1960, Vertical Files, HSTL.
“Mr. Truman was one of the most thoughtful”: Essay by Phillip C. Brooks, February 16, 1971, HSTL.
HST and Benton’s drinking: Kansas City Star, March 14, 1989.
“Well, what the hell”: Benton, An Artist in America, 351.
“When a good politician”: Kansas City Star, April 27, 1959.
“I like being a nose buster”: HST to Acheson, April 20, 1955, HSTL.
“She and I spent”: HST to Acheson, February 19, 1959, HSTL.
“Do you suppose any President”: HST to Acheson, November 24, 1959, HSTL.
“It’s not the pope”: Miller Tapes, LBJL.
Kennedy’s notes: “Interview with Truman,” Dictated to Mrs. Evelyn Lincoln, 12:00 Noon, January 10, 1959, HSTL.
“Just tell him it was Harry Truman”: John Zentay, author’s interview.
“stub his toe”: Acheson to HST, April 14, 1960, HSTL.
“I hate to say this”: Ibid.
“without doubt”: Kansas City Star, May 13, 1960.
Acheson letter: Acheson to HST, June 27, 1960, HSTL.
“You’ll never know”: HST to Acheson, July 9, 1960, HSTL.
“I am going to Los Angeles”: HST to Agnes E. Meyer, June 25, 1960, Off the Record, 386.
“Your coming here is considered”: Memorandum from Hillman and Noyes to HST, undated, Post-Presidential Files, HSTL.
“rigged—or you will be charged”: Ibid.
HST press conference: The New York Times, July 3, 1961.
“I listened to your press”: Acheson to HST, July 17, 1960, HSTL.
“He could not have been”: Notes from Conversation of United Press Newsman with JFK, undated, HSTL.
“blue as indigo”: HST to Acheson, August 26, 1960, unsent, Off the Record, 390.
“Don’t get discouraged”: HST to Samuel Rosenman, August 22, 1960, HSTL.
“Now you are in for it”: Acheson to HST, August 12, 1960, HSTL.
“A nap after lunch”: “Memo on Mr. Truman’s Trips,” David Stowe Papers, HSTL.
“Although he moves into and through”: “Notes on Truman Trips During 1960 Presidential Campaign,” David Stowe Papers, HSTL.
“The campaign is ended”: HST to Acheson, November 21, 1960, HSTL.
“I’ve had a lot of fun”: HSTL research staff phone conversation with Paul Hume, December 21, 1979, HSTL.
“See, I told you”: Ibid.
“You know, she remembered”: Peggy Scott, author’s interview.
“You are making a contribution”: HST to Acheson, July 7, 1961, Off the Record, 395.
“Needless to say”: Ibid.
“I had thought he was not”: Merle Miller, author’s interview.
“Don’t try to make a play actor”: Aurthur, “The Wit and Sass of Harry S. Truman,” Esquire, August 1971.
“I think there were people”: Miller, author’s interview.
inclined to exaggerate: Miller, 13.
“Goddamn an eyewitness”: Miller Tapes, LBJL.
“He had something like Bryan”: Ibid.
“I haven’t seen him”: Ibid.
“He was a good man”: Ibid.
“came back rich with detail”: Aurthur, “Harry Truman Chuckles Dryly,” Esquire, September 1971.
“Because if while I’m talking”: Ibid.
“My God, he’s not old”: Miller, author’s interview.
hated long hair: Byron Stewart, Jr., author’s interview; Miller, 456.
“People in Independence”: Miller Tapes, LBJL.
“There were times”: Miller, author’s interview.
HST appalled by Bay of Pigs: HST to Acheson, May 3, 1961, HSTL.
“This is a terrible weakness”: Acheson to HST, July 14, 1961, HSTL.
“Keep writing”: HST to Acheson, July 18, 1961, HSTL.
“You must remember”: HST to Acheson, September 25, 1961, Off the Record, 397.
“If and when that happens”: HST to Acheson, December 20, 1962, HSTL.
“I just don’t like”: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy and His Times, 230.
“Matt Connelly has been”: HST to RFK, January 24, 1962, HSTL.
HST sends letter of gratitude: HST to JFK, December 3, 1962, HSTL.
“That old lady”: HST to Acheson, May 14, 1963, Off the Record, 407.
“Having come so close”: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 418.
HST put to bed at Blair House: Wilroy and Prinz, Inside Blair House, 117.
Secret Service protection: Robert Lockwood, author’s interview.
“Thank you very much”: Remarks by Former President Harry S. Truman, Being the Occasion of Mr. Truman’s 80th Birthday, May 8, 1964, 88th Congress, 2nd Sess., Sen. Doc. No. 88.
HST falls: HST to Acheson, January 12, 1965.
“He doesn’t look a thing”: Ferrell, Harry S. Truman and the Modern American Presidency, 159.
“He would say ‘You’re doing…’ “: Thomas Melton, author’s interview.
“sad amazement” at HST’s appearance: Merriman Smith, UPI, July 31, 1965.
“Quite often we have”: Melton, author’s interview.
Nixon visit: Independence Examiner, March 21, 1969.
asked what he had played: Elizabeth Safly, author’s interview.
HST with grandchildren in baseball cap: Photo Archives, HSTL.
“Oh, to have a good comfortable”: Margaret Truman Daniel, author’s interview.
“No, young man”: Ken McCormick, author’s interview.
December 5 illness: Research Hospital and Medical Center, press release, December 5, 1972, HSTL.
December 6 “critical”: Ibid., December 6, 1972, 10:23 P.M. CST, HSTL.
“very serious”: Ibid, December 14, 1972, 9:00 A.M., CST, HSTL.
he answered, “Better”: Ibid., December 10, 1972, 2:00 P.M., HSTL.
“warm, sweet and most appreciative”: Quoted in Belton (Missouri) Star-Herald, December 28, 1972.
“He squeezed my hand”: Ibid.
“very, very small”: The New York Times, December 26, 1972.
Bess almost exhausted: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 421.
“Keep it simple”: Ibid., 422.
“This whole town”: Time, January 8, 1973.
staff watching grave filled in: Safly, author’s interview.
“He was not a hero”: Washington Star, December 29, 1972.
Alden Whitman interview: Whitman, Come to Judgment, xvii.
“I’m not sure”: Eric Sevareid, author’s interview.