all over his face, and to me, that he had the strength to--to keep his--his--his composure, though you could see how broken up he was and the strain that he was going through, and s--give that talk the way that he did, and--and bring it off--i don't know any other human beings under similar circumstances that could have done it with--with--with the--anything ma--more controlled than he did. c-span: here's the back photograph of the book--henry kissinger and the president looking out from the oval office, and then we flip it around and you can see the cover of it, and this is the book, and our guest has been the photographer for this book, with a text by tom wicker, who was a guest many years ago on booknotes. fred j. maroon our guest, "the nixon years, 1969 to 1974. " thank you very much for joining us.

>> guest: thank you for inviting me. ..

>> the almanac, the homespun wit and wisdom of vermont, and coolidge, and ted williams, a life in pictures. he has also written and produced a wm8 t documentary, local heroes, baseball and capital district diamonds. it reviews for his harry truman book talk about how likely it is eliminating portraits of four candidates and the even-handed appraisal of german is especially compelling.

the journey that he takes to get as to election day is one that he has definitively become the best of leading. in his past as workers been compared to theodore white's classic the making of the president series. after three straight home runs i think the undisputed champion of chronicling americans presidents of campaigns. he holds a master's degree in history from the it university of albany and has served on city council in amsterdam, new york and is the recipient of the 2011 excellence in letters and arts award of the alumni association at the university albany. in addition to doing presidential biographies and elections he is also a member of the saber. baseball historian organization. he is a casey winning judge and jury and an edgar award finalist for his book on arnold rothstein.

ladies and gentlemen, david pietrusza. [applause] >> thank you, natalie. it is great to be back here again. and the question that people always ask me about my books is why did you write this book? and americans claim to hate politics, but we love elections. we love sports. our sports background. your sports background, the whole country is crazy about it. we love the competition. 1162 game series and thing is going down to the seventh game of the world series. we love the home run, and we love bill buckner and mookie wilson. in 1948, it's one of those moments elections.

this is win the underdog comes back and pulls it out when everyone has written them off. that is harry truman's improbable victory. that is the year that was, the election that was among the great surprise when the abundance are proven so spectacularly wrong. that is another thing we love. we love to be smarter than all the guys you see on tv and reading the newspaper columns. and harry truman who was just an ordinary harry, only -- the only president of the 20th-century here does not go on to college. a high-school graduate. not the only $0.1, not the last one. the only one of the 20th century, you have to go back to andrew johnson and abraham lincoln to find such a common

man. and not just the common man, but a fellow who has been a failure at business, his fame haberdashery stop in downtown kansas city that goes bust and he is left to pay off those bets for 20 years and pays them all off. he will declare bankruptcy. he has a standard of honor. and he will pay all his debts. he also has a standard of honor which marks them in his earlier political career riskiest the product, and he is known for really most of his active political career as being the product of one of america's most spectacularly the corrupt political machines. this is something that, like al smith in 1928, never really able to transcend. a product of tammany, and he gets what by herbert hoover for that and the number of other reasons. harry truman is the product of

the spender gas machine in kansas city. he is the head of the county government. they steal millions and millions of dollars. harry truman never takes a dime. he has to kind of winking at what goes on in some cases. he has to get things done. he would sit down and poor out his soul to private letters college and never sent to anyone. all up in his hotel and right up these letters which were found decades after his death as he would wrestle with these questions. and my public servant or am i a crook. am i doing the right thing? he is conflicted by this, but he stays in this machine. he eventually determines to get out of local government. he wants to be a congressman. he is such a puppet, such a nobody, even at that time that it is like, no, you can't be a

congressman. can i be a governor? no. you can't be governor. when the machine can't find anything to run for united states senate in 1934, okay. we now return to our regularly scheduled programming. so the machine can't find anyone to run for senate, united states senate in 1934. you would think they could. a big democratic year. harry pulls it off, but the goes into the senate again. he's like a nobody. and nobody. and then disaster strikes. 1939, prendergast on good friday goes to the federal pen for corruption. people say, well, that's the end of harry truman now. who's going to want him to make

is going to want this prendergast puppet still to remain in the united states senate? his mentor is finished. and so a c. he faces a 3-way primary. he wins. he goes to all those small towns and courthouses, masonic symbols and every other place zeno's in missouri and wows them. pulls off. it's a valuable lesson when it comes to 1948 and the democratic party is split once again. but he is back in the senate. to is the? he has been given an assignment. look into all of these military bases. defense contractor in things we're doing to win the war against hitler and tojo. are we getting the bang for the buck? are we spending our money wisely? harry truman goes around and gets in his car and really no staff, no expense, delivers a remarkable report.

no, we're not. wrist to help a lot of money. our boys are fighting and dying in europe and north africa and in the south pacific. we have to stop them. here's how. people say, as u.s., he did that intelligently, honestly, in a non-partisan manner. maybe there's something to this hairy charming guy. but state system 1944. franklin roosevelt was looking for a fourth term. the war is still long. and in 1940 he had done to is vice-president who had grown a bit too conservative for the new deal, and he puts and henry a. wallace, his secretary of the agriculture who is of very left wing, kind of new-age guy for back then.

he forces wallace on the ticket in 1940. the democratic party does not really one of. and in 1944 rose about is getting the word back. you keep this guy on the ticket. he could cost you a million votes. roosevelt is a great politician. he knows what this means. and he says, i forced henry wallace on the party once. i can't do it twice. i can't do it twice. he has got to go. not in so many words, not in so many words, but he eventually slips wallace's throat. so who does he replace him with? the guy you're places a much as a guy who is not @booktv, not to northern, not to conservative, not too liberal. respected by the unions, but not really in the pocket of the unions. that is harry truman. he fits in all the slots. it put him on the ticket in

1944, and by april 1945 franklin roosevelt is dead. harry truman goes to the white house and says to eleanor roosevelt, can i pray for you? she says, no. we need to pray for you. you were the fellow who is in trouble now. he starts off very popular. america is at peace finally. and harry truman reaches popularity level of 87%. sic transit gloria monday. that goes downhill real fast. people, somewhat beyond his control, but there are reasons why his popularity drops.

he is not for a gun roosevelt. right now all the republicans by saying who is the next reagan? we miss him a lot. and back then it was, by god, by god, how we miss fd are among the democrats. and harry truman was no fdr. so there is a longing for the lost leader there. also, he is prone to certain gas. his appointments are not always the strongest. there is talk of the missouri game as there was an ohio gang with warren harding, people just sort of hangers on, small timers who are put into positions way above their abilities. you see the old new deal is being shut out of the cabinet, not just henry wallace who is fired by harry truman for being uprose stalinist really giving speeches against the german foreign policy, but you also

have where with harry truman the country turns against the party and the leader, which brings us into war. if you don't believe me, ask either bush. asked lyndon johnson, woodrow wilson after world war one, what happens to the democratic party. what happens to winston churchill, a pretty good or leader in 1945. he is out the door. the readjustment means a lot of things to turn now. republicans take the house and the senate in 1946. harry truman keeps going up and down in the popularity. by the spring of 1947 -- 1948 he is down and the low 30's in terms of popularity.

and it's not only a republican democrat thing going on, the democratic party is splitting three wace, not just two ways, not just you have some sort of carter teddy kennedy thing going on, not a george bush pat buchanan thing going on. it is being split. the left, center, and the right. on the right you have the southern segregationist democrats. franklin roosevelt had talked a good game was black civil-rights he really hadn't done anything. remember that the army and navy in world war ii are still segregated. there is no move to desegregate anything in the country. harry truman proposes of big civil rights program at the beginning of 1948.

the southern democrats are simply aghast by this, and beyond that they feel personally betrayed because they had thought of harry truman as one of their own. his mother had been in an internment camp run by the end of the civil war. confederate synthesizers. and if you look at perry's statements and you looked at his private correspondence, he has not exactly a bleeding heart liberal on the topic. but he puts this board, and the southerners are aghast. they start talking about a strategy in which they will punish harry truman. it applies the democratic party. it will make the democratic party come to its senses on civil rights and states rights and all of these things. they will do this by putting the election into the electoral college and brokering a deal.

in one of the people involved in that is a young man, young governor of south carolina named j. strom thurmond. decorated war veteran, former judge, and consider that the time to be the progressive liberal new deal kind of democrat, the new face of the south. except that once he gets caught up in this, when the south carolina legislators and such start talking against the german civil rights program he joins with the dixiecrats largely centered in mississippi and alabama in going to these regional meetings to see what can we do? now the irony of this and the irony of this when thurman starts being carried away by this, talking about federal government's bayonet's will not force black people into our swimming pools commend our homes, our schools is the irony

of the j. strom thurmond has a black illegitimate daughter. that is one wing of the democratic party in 1948. the other wing, which seems actually to be more troublesome and harry truman is the henry wallace wing, and that is the extreme left-wing of the democratic party beyond the new dealers, beyond the eleanor roosevelt, hubert humphrey, which is in many cases communist-dominated. communist party united states of america, not just left-wing, radical whenever, but actual party members. and wallace has a problem and that he has been cast aside not once but twice. both times involving harry truman. you would not be human unless you were bitter about this. he had this bitter former vice

president of the united states with left-wing proclivities in the wake, and now he has two reasons, two reasons to be against harry truman personally. he is talked into not a primary challenge against german, but a third-party challenge. what is their strategy? again, what is their strategy tax is the strategy is being dictated from the extreme left-wing years, from the people being controlled by really moscow when you get down to it, it has got to be there again trying to not win an all action, but to send the message determine and say, look, you change your foreign policy democratic party, you change your foreign policy, harry truman, because we will punish you and we would give the election to the republicans. and then we will go back to the way it was under franklin roosevelt with a guy that we can deal with. in 1944 the communist party in the united states had actually endorsed franklin roosevelt.

it was kind of one big happy family. so, truman is being squeezed on the left and on the right. he is in trouble. and how can he hold together a coalition which will have enough electoral votes to win if the south is going to be stolen away from him by the dixiecrats and where does henry wallace will the strength? not all over the country, but in big states like new york, new york city, in southern california, in illinois where he can be the balance of power in the states. tips states which is a democrat should win into the republican column. so, the republican column. to is the republican going to be? same answer at some point as we have now, looking forward to

2012. a very crowded confused field. typical. typical when you have a president, an incumbent who is vulnerable. when the opportunity is there then a lot of opposition candidates, out and the floor -- the four front runners that year , governor thomas e. dewey of new york, new york is the big kahuna, 45 electoral votes. you take that, you have a big leg up on the presidency. harold's the stassen, former governor of minnesota, now a priceline in american political history because he ran and lost so many times and ran and lost so many times with absolutely no chance of success. senator from ohio, leader of the congressional republicans.

mr. republican, mr. conservative, but, as they say, dollars paint. not charismatic. and the fourth is not even in the country. general of the army, douglas macarthur, in tokyo, running the former -- i guess still present empire of japan. and a popular guy. bud can he pull it off from far away? he doesn't. he is entered in the wisconsin primary. he should win that. he doesn't. he stumbles. he's out fairly quickly. there are not a lot of primaries that year. there is a new hampshire primary , always the new hampshire primary. there is the wisconsin primary, which macarthur should win and doesn't. he loses it to harold stassen, which elevates stassen. cessna is an outsider.

he is a boy wonder. in 1938 he had been elected governor of minnesota, the youngest governor of any state ever. then he quits. he is reelected saying, you know, if you re-elect me adequate informants in go into the navy. so popular he is still elected. imagine being elected with a platform like that. he comes out, he is an internationalist. you have got the debate still going on. internationalism versus isolationism. he is on the extreme end of the republican internationalist brigade at that point. he is feisty. he is a real outsider. he wins in wisconsin, nebraska, and he is poised to take the front runner status away from thomas e. dewey as the campaign heads into oregon. now, again, i have only named for states. this is about the only four important primaries.

most of these days are still being done in party conventions, which means in the back room, either in places like albany or columbus forever or when you get to the convention. now, ore. is where we see something happening, which is being repeated again this year. debates. we are debating, debating, debating. you see newt gingrich at every stop saying, i want a lincoln douglas style debate on one topic, just me and this other guy and the room, and it doesn't matter who the guy is are the gallas' a what the topic is. he is calling for that sort of debate. but he should be calling on his starkly because he is a great historian is a stassen-dewey model debate because the stassen best to read debate is the first broadcast debate in presidential history. it is held in a radio station in

portland oregon and on one topic. two guys in the room in the iron cage on the topic, should the communist party of the united states of america be on what? harold, the great liberal, in the formative, in the affirmative. tom dewey, tom dewey in the negative. now, we have not talked much about thomas dewey. dewey was the governor of new york, a pretty popular guy. he had been the nominee of the republican party in 1944. he had led on the first three ballots in 1940 before losing to wendell willkie. quite remarkable, because this year 1948, he's only 46 years old. that's about the a's that obama was killed only three years older than jack kennedy. he is a young man. and he has been on the verge of power and national notoriety, even before that, 1940.

in 1940 he is next to -- x district attorney, not even governor, the district attorney of men and. he was mr. district attorney, crime buster, the guy who went after the mob, put them in jail, when after the wall street guys, put them in jail. he did it all. he was spectacular as a district attorney. but as governor he began to trim his sails. he is looking at the polls, and as a candid if it is the same weight. so people, even though he is the purported front runner and he is the front runner in terms of delegates at this point, he is not particularly loved in the party or among the population, but in this debate he is the former district attorney. he's a great prosecutor, agree with the jury. the prosecutor, but evidently the prosecutors in manhattan have to be tougher than the

prosecutors in minnesota. and the weeklies is clock. stassen is essentially left bleeding on the floor after that primary. do you when is it, but he still could be stopped. he could be stopped at the convention, because, because he doesn't have the votes, he doesn't have the low, but he knows how to make deals. he makes a deal with the governor of pennsylvania to portion of the top, and he wins the nomination. at that point he is faced with a choice. today i make my vice presidential candidate? it's a guy you wanted to put on the ticket for years before, and one of these as yet heard of, earl warren, governor of california, and this is another one of these cases where we look at -- there is this big liberal wing of the republican party. do we, stassen, warren. warren may be the most liberal

of all of them. warren does not want to. didn't want to in 1944, doesn't want to end 48, but he's finally thinking, you know, if i keep getting these people down there will stop asking me to dance. fifty-one anything ever again this could be it. so i better take it. so great reluctance it becomes the dewy-more in ticket, which people think is just great. it's great. a fairly young ticket, it's progressive, forward thinking, it has geographic balance, it has new york, california. while. what a great ticket. and the democrats have got harry truman. maybe not. earlier in the year the republicans were looking at a guy named dwight david eisenhower. the grass roots wanted ike. they like. everybody like cyc. they don't know what he is, republican, democrat.

he's a general. that's good enough, sort of like some big political version of white christmas. everyone loves the general. and they love him. he turns the republicans down. democrats, things are getting better for harry truman. the convention is going into philadelphia. just about everyone, republicans , democrats, progressives. let's go with mike. let's go with mike. and this amazing incoherent coalition of democrats forms united by one thing, staying in power. southern segregationists like richard russell and strom thurmond, northern liberals like hubert humphrey, big city bosses of chicago, jersey city, members of franklin d. roosevelt family, all of them come together and one eye. they want to stampede the convention.

he finally draws back and says no at the last minute. otherwise it could have been eisenhower as the nominee and even as the president beating doing, but he says no. not his year. he does become president a year of columbia university. for years more for the presidency. so chairman, truman it's so bad, so bad at that convention, he gets on the phone and he is calling william of douglas, the supreme court justice. will you be my vice presidents. why him? because he is a guy who is respected by the old new dealers. he has to get back in good graces with that one of the party. he has to cement that tied to the new deal. and william of douglas supposedly says i will not be a number two man to a number two man. he turned some down. so he takes alvin barkley, this

democratic leader of the senate, and you haven't ticket which is a pretty good speaker. he's kind of well liked. he is older than harry truman, and harry truman is not a young man. they both come from border states. it does not look like much of a ticket. does not look like much of a ticket. but harry truman goes to the convention, waits for hours to give his speech. he doesn't give it until 1:00 in the morning. and the convention has just been all royal up with everything. hubert humphrey had gone to the floor and forced a floor fight on the civil-rights plank.

we need to move out of the shadow of states' rights into the bright sunlight of civil rights. the forces of floor fight on to the convention. first one says 1932 says probation, and he wins. he wins and the southern democrats, some of them anyway, walkout, walkout. the convention is dragging on into chaos, and then when they announce harry truman is coming into the hall at 1:00 a.m. passed in the media that you could get, they unleashed -- they open up this big floral display of the liberty bell because their in philadelphia, and they fly out the doves of peace, which are all pigeons actually come in they have been cooped up for hours now, and see all lights and the noise and the fans and they just go crazy. and they are attacking things and flying into electric fans and landing on sam rayburn said.

and they're doing things that pigeons do. and harry truman is wearing a white suit. [laughter] well, that is probably the low point. harry truman starts of kind of slow and the kind of has to point to how than barkley to get some applause lines. and then he gets into what he is going to do. and i'm going to challenge the republican party and the do-nothing congress to come back in a special session and pass a program for the american people. in the crowd goes wild. people say, wow. this could be a horse race. maybe there is something going on here. but when harry truman goes to detroit to start his campaign on labor day, as democrats traditionally do, he does not have enough money to get the train at the station and they have to make some frantic calls

to do that. it's still very dicey for him. the progressives under henry wallace come into philadelphia next. they have their convention. it's very interesting to see the people who show up, and we hear these and later on. pcr is providing the music. paul wilcoxson is providing the music. you have a couple of delegates there have become united states senators, one of which is george mcgovern. in the kind of go off on to their own, but their campaign is downward, downward, down or with the progressives. the dixiecrats' meet again. they nominated strom thurmond. all the while things are going on in the world and in the country. as the conventions and meetings, uncle joe stalin decides he's going to block it berlin. what do you do? start a world war, said the convoys send, or do you do an

airlift? do you figure out how to do an airlift to supply the people of west berlin before their right and demand that communism. and america figures out how do that. that is one of the things going on. you have the return of the peacetime draft. now world war ii, it was a segregated army. the blacks of saying, okay, we put up with that. we put up with that during the war. we're not putting a put it again. a. philip randolph says to harry truman, you do this again and i'm going to have a march on washington. before monolithic thing, march on washington. you know something, we have taken polls. 30 percent of our black youth will not register for the draft.

this is when truman with his back to the wall in the middle of the election knowing that the dixiecrats have already gone about as far as they can and not sure where the black vote in the north will go, this is when he makes his decision to desegregate the armed services. this happens right in the middle of this. in the spring -- actually come into the jury there is a special election in new york. always a special alexian for congress. every week we have a special alexian. this one was in the bronx. a pretty safe democratic seats, and what happens is republicans don't win, but henry wallace supporter wins and sends shockwaves through the democratic party. it's like, well, this movement may have legs. this is in a fairly heavily jewish area. wallace had been on -- taunting

chairman as being insufficiently pro-israel. all the candidates are pro-israel, and dewey, after all these guys. truman, but chairman has been having problems with the jewish community. they don't think he is sufficiently pro is well. and what he does is 13 minutes after the state of israel independence or state had is proclaimed he is the first chief of state, the first country to recognize israel. and this helps solve some of his problems on the left with though wallace vote, but it is very chilling to see, a chilling to read in the new york times that day on the next day that out of egypt, out of cairo muslim leaders are talking about a jihad against the notice to its american. many things are part of that year which continues for a long

time after words. and as the election goes on we also see -- now, harry truman has this special session legislature, and the law of unintended consequences. he brings congress back again. congress does not want to come back in the middle of an election, but they come in and hold some hearings on communists , economists and government. they take some testimony, and what this leads to is a guy named whitaker chambers going before the house activities committee and saying that dodger his is a member of the communist party. and this is the beginning of the mccarthy era, coming as the government is it. also the beginning of richard nixon's political career because he is one of the few people who when this starts to happen says

i smell a rat. i do not believe. they go after him and finally get him. but this is, again, one of the things which differentiates 1948 s starting so many different things. the campaign starts. in the spring harry truman had made an interesting discovery. well, he kind of new. part of it was something he knew. he knew -- he was really bad, giving a speech of a script. he was in just back and roosevelt. he was bad. when he was in the senate probably only gave three speeches a something his whole career. very bad eyesight. he had trouble reading from a piece of paper and just giving a speech like this. but he talks to a bunch of newspaper editors and the white house. first to give his speech. is the bar still open? and then he speaks off the cuff. even people who don't like him go, hey, that was pretty good.

a kind of like that guy. he has something. and everybody notices this. this is one of this great moments with no light bulb goes on, and then he does it again. he does it again when he speaks right after recognizing israel. he goes to a jewish group in washington and as the same thing and he wasn't. he says, boy, i have to keep doing this because i stayed during an otherwise. he does. he goes across the country in the spring on his first whistle stop campaign. first there is a lot of mistakes, a lot of errors. the kind of gets his stride the time he gets to california. then he does it again after labor day. now, do we does the same thing. he has one of these muscles stop tours as well. but dewey is not as lively, not

as spontaneous. he originally did not want to be president or governor or attorney, he wanted to be a singer, a performer. harry truman, we remember as the piano player. tom dewey was trained to be a concert vocalist. his wife has appeared on broadway. showbiz people. so he knew how to present himself. he was really good, but he was too slick, and it did not come across well. his concept was too much. rocking in socking. as he leaves washington was a stop tour somebody says given hell. he says yeah, well. and he does. used to say, well, i'd just tell him the truth and i think it's hell. but he, in many cases is very rough. very rough, and in speeches in

chicago, for example, he pretty much accuses tom dewey in the people behind him of being fascists. really over the top. even his a visors are cringing, but its attack and attack attack . do we is not attacking. and people should notice these things. people often see what they want to see. they made up their mind, they don't need any more data or the state is irrelevant, so they know that harry truman is a loser. they know is the next president of the united states. so they see these crowds getting bigger and bigger and bigger and more boisterous for harry truman. it's like, they're just curious. they just want to see the president. they don't care. and when they see the crowds not so big and not so enthusiastic for tom dewey they should say, shouldn't people want to see the next president of the united states? and they don't. they don't make the connection.

the roper polling organization stopped polling in mid october. they think it's in the bag. why waste money on this? also, people see that the mall well, it looks like humphrey will win in minnesota, and it looks like they might win in west virginia against whoever. and it's like a well, we might be in trouble. we might -- they're going to lose seats. they don't connect the fact that the reels are falling out to republican campaign all over the place because they have made up their mind that this is safe. a week before the election, and nothing gallup has a down the five points, nearly within the margin of error. and then when you add in the fact that third-party candidates tend to just collapsed as election day comes in, henry wallace collapses, and those votes go to harry truman.

so, election day 1948, it's all festivities in new york at the hotel roosevelt. republicans have their headquarters there, ready to win. the democrats don't even put up a tote board in their headquarters in new york and washington. it's like, we don't want to know what these numbers are. just let us die in peace. but the returns start to come and. they're not too bad at first. in fact among what happens is he wins the northeast. he wins the northeast. in part thing stan wallace. he carries new york, and he carries maryland over harry truman, thanks to henry wallace. he does well through the northeast. pennsylvania is very republican state.

do we had carried the midwest in 1944 against franklin roosevelt. he had not carry the northeast. he concentrates on the northeast in doing that he starts to ignore the midwest. early on in the german reelection effort there was a campaign document developed, and it said, you can safely ignore the south, which was not exactly right. although, here's the fun facts. franklin roosevelt won the presidency four times without needing won electoral votes from the south. without needing one of those gloves. harry truman's advisers say, you know, the farmers, the midwest, the far west, the far west is looking for irrigation projects, and for structure. the farmer in the midwest is looking for government health. and harry truman was a misery dirt farmer. he understood these people.

he goes, and he is walloping the republicans on these issues and also inflation, inflation. he has got 7 percent inflation in the country, and he is walloping the congress about doing nothing about it. now he also has prosperity. he has prosperity, and they're is a cold war, but it ain't a hot war. nobody is dying. peace and prosperity. what do i mean by posterity? no eight, nine, the present unemployment, no great depression. 3 percent unemployment in 1948. james carville said it. it is the economy, stupid. the people who had gone through the great depression and world war, this is -- the song really is not i'm just wild about harry it is happy days are here again. this is really the beginning of the 50's.

this is the peace and prosperity of the fifties beginning already then. i mean, you get the ball of korea. otherwise very similar. so their returns start coming in , and it's starting to look like a horse race. where is harry? harry goes to a luncheon and independence missouri, his hometown. he sneaks up the back door into a waiting limousine and drives off to a pretty much make in resort favored by politicians and gangsters outside a town, checks into a room. nobody knows she's there. these hidden from the press, hidden from the nation really. he checks into a room and is determined that he is not going to follow this on a minute-by minute basis. there is a bottle of whiskey on the nightstand and a ham and cheese sandwich.

that's his election night celebration. he turns out the lights, probably about 9:00. every so often his secret service people we cannot to tell when he has won this state or is doing well in that state. each time that we can up they just ignore him more and more, but finally they give him the news which causes him to say, i think of one. i think of one. let's go down to kansas city, let's go down the headquarters. and harry truman has amazingly pulled off. the ballroom in new york for tom dewey is an empty for one place. for henry wallace, strom thurmond, all these things have fallen apart. harry truman has proven one thing. as the great political philosopher, lawrence, peter

berra, a fellow missouri and stated, it ain't over till it's over. and harry truman prove that so right in 1948. and as for this talk, it's now officially over. [applause] thank you. we have time, we have time for some questions. and the deal is, you go to that microphone so that the people in our c-span audience can hear you , and then i will attempt to update your questions. any takers? it's most unusual. well, we have one. yes. go right up there. yes. >> okay. your book contains a lot of quotes from harry truman that are blatantly anti-semitic and

anti-black. >> absolutely. >> audi's square that harry truman -- i'm sorry. talking to the mike. >> that's going to c-span. speak up. pretend you're me. >> start all over. >> go head. >> your book has a lot of anti-semitic quotes from harry, anti-black close. how do you square that harry truman to harry truman that recognizes israel compasses -- pushes for a progressive civil-rights. >> people are complex. people are complex, and they have really different parts of them, and they see different things differently at different times. harry truman's partner in the haberdashery was a guy named jacobson. so he has a very good relationship with jacobson. his mother in law, the germans mother-in-law hated not have a great relationship with was so antisemitic she wouldn't allow

tickets and into the house. truman has sympathy for the jewish people. he has sympathy for black people when they are being lanced, when they're being treated badly unfairly, but i mean, he does not even after the presidency he is writing his memoirs. 1955, this is not some private letter that he doesn't want social equality with black people. you get into the 1960's and he is -- the kennedy campaign kind of has to hide him because he is declaring the sit-in demonstrators as communists. but people compartmentalize things. i think he does that. and people are contradictory. and truman is just a spectacular example of that, and i think we

can't -- we cannot exclude a certain amount of political calculation in this. truman and that document i was talking about, his blueprint for reelection says you have got to hold on to the black vote up north and particularly if dewey is the nominee you have trouble. you will lose new york, ohio, so there is that political calculation, just as i alluded to wear, you know, he has been given a lot of credit for integrating the armed services, but it is usually not mentioned that philip randolph as a gun to his head in the middle of this election. the suddenness of gone off, done all the damage. and i said to have done all the damage they can, the southern strategy, the dixiecrat strategy is to dump the democrats off the

balance. once chairman knows he is still on the ballot in all these states he knows to get pulled off in large parts of the south like taxes in georgia. but up to that point it's dicey for him. again, people have different parts. churchill, for example. churchill has some remarkably interesting the statements. franklin d. roosevelt who, of course, very friendly to jewish people, it's very interesting to see what he would have done with the state of israel because he was talking with the arabs to before he dies with the saudis. well, we will consult you and everything. i have read that he was part of the board of directors which instituted the new taurus glasses at harvard which put in a quota system against jews. and who is really his best friend among cabinet members, is

more involved. so people are contradictory. there is contradictions among every person in this room, and harry truman is just this amazing example of it. anyone else? >> is it true that when german -- well, truman did not run in 52. stevenson ran against bike. he simply -- the simply jump in the car without the benefit of any secret service protection or a thing and drove back to it independence missouri? >> there is a new book on that. actually -- well, not as new as my book, but it cannot be year ago. and, yes, which indicates that before -- years before i was going to do a book on this election i've visited independence missouri. and have visited the terminal. and it's like, gee whiz, this

kind of -- real linoleum on the floor. isn't it? demint this was not -- i mean, you go to the -- you go to hyde park or you go to some of these other presidential homes. they're pretty modest. even calvin coolidge is. you go to his house before his president's and its really modest. it is like, you know, some place you would see in amsterdam with the hoses something. okay tonight but afterward he does have to move into a big place to be harry truman never moves into the big place. his circumstances are sufficiently modest he is the guy -- he is why we have presidential pensions up to that point. you know, we really don't have that. they may be independently wealthy like herbert hoover or they're able to have accomplished something more than truman did, you know, very

modest on apparel is a life federal or local county government. so true men really is of very modest guy. he might have been taking all of these to save on gasoline. i don't know. next. >> photographs. the photographs that you have on your side, what can you tell us about this picture of a german holding up this is bigger from the chicago daily? >> okay. i like that cover. that's a great cover. and the picture is about two days out from the election. it's in st. louis. one of his campaigns, campaign aides has brought in the photograph, and harry is just in love with it, as you can see, seeing half his face. and what happens is, you know, again, people not seeing what they should be seeing, but also we had some labor.

also times of labour difficulties. truman's threaten to put the steelworkers in the coal workers, coal miners in jail and 46. we have the taft-hartley act by the republicans. there is a labor troubles at the chicago tribune that night. and there will be a delay in setting the headlines by three hours. so they get on the phone to their correspondent, arthur having sears. the tribune does in washington. it's like, is this safe? can we go with this? nothing could go wrong. it is in the bag. it was not in the back. oddly enough the correspondent was pensioned off right after this. that was the end of his career. you don't see him with george will on sundays or anything after that. so that's the story. and, of course call once to get

back to washington he is greeted by this immense crowd had union station, and there is this, maybe the biggest or second biggest crowd ever to assemble in washington. they're lining the streets, going crazy. i think it's best german his sister or daughter, you know, there were not as many people out here when we left washington . everyone loves the front runner. >> okay. and i have one other. again, about a photograph. this picture, the president playing the piano with a young woman sitting on the topple what information do you have about that? >> well, that is at the national press club. the piano is still there. it's in the harry truman launched. thirteenth, 14th floor. and harry truman was then not president. he was vice president. he's at the press club playing the piano. lauren bacall is there, who is

only about 19 years old. and she sits on the piano. actually, it kind of reclines. so when i introduce her in my cast of characters at the beginning of the book as saying bowlegs son harry truman's piano and this picture did two things. it really infuriated mrs. german , and it caused people to wonder who this guy was. did he have the gravitas to be president, or was he is hacked from the pending guest machine again? so while it has become iconic, at the time it was to michelis said problematic. there were different standards a presidential dignity at that point. even this will stop toward is somewhat unusual. remember, presidents don't even