african-american and or black citizens throughout the various regions were, blacks were living. and so and then a couple of other person should mention there was a woman india edwards. she was in charge of the women's division of the democratic national committee. of course, she was in charge of mobilizing women. vote for truman, but she, on a woman named winnie tipton spragg, who was a columnist and, a writer for the chicago defender newspaper, and she was brought into the the committee. and she was a she was a india edwards's deputy. and her job was to mobilize the black vote. and very important people that largely have been ignored.

india. edwards was white. the rest of them were were were black. so i just point this out because they're fairly characters in this in in the elect in the election and the annals of truman's presidency. so let me let me get to resilience. i can maybe i'll get to so i'm a michigan guy so i think that michigan okay so but i think truman was tough as a michigan wolverine. so when he he did a a preliminary swing and a

preliminary swing in may of 1948 across the country to kind of hone his truman on the four and the four then magellan in may of 1948 he organized a train trip across america and the west coast and back to hone his campaign skills. he did the fixes the way spoke and developed a develop a voice that would attract. when the real when the campaign came up in in the false this was early may yeah. and it was a it was sort of a break you know they were they're trying to just, you know, figure out how to to how to handle him. it.

but when when the ferdinand magellan got to los angeles and truman was by jimmy roosevelt. now we're talking about jimmy roosevelt and yeah, see, the cards were stacked against truman at this point. and i'll tell why jimmy roosevelt comes into the picture. yeah. he faced at the time a southern revolt. and he had the far left of the democratic party was against the there was a third party candidacy by by wallace and there was a stop a dump they called it a dump truman movement orchestrated by roosevelt sons. so when the the so with when the trend train reached los angeles jimmy he lived out there he came

in to truman's hotel suite. jimmy roosevelt was an alpha male. 64. big shoulders. he tried to intimidate truman. there was a secret service man in the room who testified to this. truman stuck his finger in roosevelt's chest and said, you said your. father asked to take this job. and i i'm doing it. he would roll over in his grave if he knew what you were doing to me. and then he just said, that will be all, you know, good day. good day. marched him to the door. so. all right, the the famous whistle stop campaign began on september 17th, 1948, on ferdinand magellan. again across the midwest to, the

far west, california, back and and about the middle of october. but and we're talking about his resilience here about the middle of october. bess and harry invited india edwards who was on the train to to join them for breakfast and harry and harry said during that conversation to, india said, india, you know, there are only two people who believe can win this election only. and two of them are sitting here. and one of them and one of them is not my wife. which is true. she didn't think he could win. and but truman knew india. edwards got at every whistle stop and went into the crowd, talked to the people, got a

sense of what they were thinking. so. so she was all in. one of the very, very few people who was all in at that time. so, you know, that that fall of 1948 was a rip roaring rollicking roadshow and the. it the crowds the crowds were surprisingly massive and they were growing, growing as they proceeded across the country. and i have to say this, but. like trump, truman was a showman. he made outrageous, undocumented claims he he he made as he got that people from the crowd would shout out and they love to him

on give them hell, harry. and and he get me he and so he attacked the the the the the. he called them the the wall street republicans who were the gluttons of privilege. he continually attacked the do nothing 80th congress was dominated by the republicans. he he told lies. he told lies about the evils of the gop. no question about it. and of the reporters wrote that he got away with murder. but that was truman, that he had his voice at that point. it was close to you know. well, it was it reminded me? not so. when they were approaching the end of the the the whistle stop campaign, as they began to approach it, and everyone except

truman was exhausted, clark, one of his major aides, couldn't to get off that train. i'm not sure he believed truman would win and and, in fact, probably almost everyone on the train made it mainly the reporters they they believed the pundits and the polls which predicted that truman didn't have a chance of winning in the final days. and so there was a you know, that was the kind of mood at near end. now, the last major he gave was in harlem, october 29th. it was the place packed mostly blacked and it it was the only speech that he gave on rights throughout the entire campaign campaign. and he sensed, as he advanced to

the podium, that there was an ominous silence, that he couldn't figure out. and he realized they were praying. yeah. it it chokes me up at time because, you know, what he said was of the things he said during his speech was that that he pledged his commission on civil the of his commission on civil rights would become a living reality. not during his presidency, but it was the beginning of the modern civil rights movement, in my view. so 5 a.m., you know, after the day after the election, truman was in a hotel west independence alone. he was wakened by his secret

service agent. i think his name is jim raleigh. and he told him this is a 5 a.m. or so of the day after the election. told truman that illinois had delivered its eight electoral votes to truman. and truman put on his glasses and and gotten rose out of bed, said we've got to be boys. let's let's harness the horses. we have four years of trouble ahead of us. and he did. let's not talk about the second term. so that's what he said. then after christmas, he brought he took his staff and some of his cronies, friends to key west and howard mcgrath, head of the republican national committee, was there. former senator, and he had just

gotten a memo from a guy named phillip nash, a young staffer who was monitoring the black vote, and howard mcgrath told truman that he believed it was his opinion that, the reason they won that election at last moment, surprising everyone, it was the most surprising in presidential history. and i include a you know trump in that i think more surprising then and then trump's victory 2016. he believed that the blacks him took were the reason why they won course there probably several reasons but that was his opinion. so in conclusion yeah this the story of the rebirth and transition and i take the position that is the most consequential and productive transition from a dying president in the history of if in the history our presidential

politics the republic. thank you very. any questions here? come on come on up to the mikes. we got an academic here. well, of a michigan alum and retired from university of pittsburgh. but i a question and it has to do with the soviet union not deciding to invade japan to the last minute and had they done the soviet union not deciding to declare war against japan, the last possible moment had done it earlier. would that have not necessity aided the dropping of the bomb if they had been able to be persuaded to go earlier against? well, you know, what they did is they went to manchuria. i'm not sure they i don't think they even they wanted invade the

tokyo plane where it would be a mass slaughter because every single japanese used every single japanese citizen would be involved in that. so i would say. i don't think that's a reason. it's a what if, you know, it's a whatever, right. i think that they had to drop the bomb no matter what. you know, hirohito stalling it could you know, they dropped the bomb in hiroshima and they waited. they waited and waited. and all they got was critic crickets. so i, i think they had to do it. okay. thank you. this just a footnote. putting together a couple of things you said about walter, the executive secretary of the icp, who nobody knows anything about anymore. a great story. a great, great. i read autobiography not too

long ago, and he he attended the democratic in 1944. and he said that when the time came to ballot for vice president, the delegates all how sick fdr was and they knew without question they were choosing the next president of the states. i know. and that has really stayed me. yeah, that's a that's a good point. this walter white guy, he was white, actually, but he was black. he was, you know, a decent of slaves. and i think one of the presidents of the united states sired some of his ancestors. but he actually was white. so he passed and was in new york city. he passed as white to out to upper upper new york society. but he was the head of this this committee. and was a legendary character. yes. hi. well, i grew up in the hudson

valley. i'm a member of the truman library institute. i'm a fan of truman. and i do i up to pick up the chapter 11 in your book. and i have enjoyed every page of it, but i do have a question for you. is it a quibble? no, it's not a quibble. it's a it's an open question. back when eddie jacobson visited the visited truman two times and in in your book, you mention that margaret pooh poohed it and said that eddie was like hundreds of other people that harry truman knew. however, i don't think harry would have admitted hundreds of other people. but i wanted to see him. but i wanted to get your opinion on why margaret truman would have pooh the idea of eddie it's a mystery. i mean, i really because no. that he was a good friend.

you know, i have that photograph and you see the photograph in there in their later years. you know, he let him in the white, you know, saturday morning. so and, you know eddie was was instrumental in helping truman reach his decision to recognize israel by getting haim weitzman there twice into into truman's white house. so i don't understand. i saw that. and i thought i have to mention it. i know that. did not want a -- in her house. now whether margaret i never i never heard that about margaret but i know for a fact that she did not and she did not she was anti-semitic and you'd mentioned the meeting, walter white, and then talked about truman's

background in terms of civil rights. and then he made this drama stick change. is there other other other significant things that you collaborated with this background that made that happen? yes, it it slowly evolved. it began with a speech when truman was second term as senator at sedalia, missouri it was a famous speech he made called the brotherhood of man speech. and it was sort of the first time when he turned the corner on civil rights for it was know it was it was nuanced it wasn't very strong but it called brotherhood of man. but that was the beginning of his his education and his evolvement of of civil rights. so there were a lot of steps that came before the the lincoln memorial speech. you know, most people don't know about that. lincoln speech, but that was that was just amazing to have happened back then as early then

and and so you know a lot of people say well it might have been politics that drove his and it was partly politics obviously but but he he meant it he meant it. and he actually when he sat down after he gave that speech, he whispered to walter white, i mean, every word i said and in the effort, climb out of roosevelt's shadow. how many people did truman replace in the cabinet, say, over the four months of before the end, the war, before the end of the year, or, say, on the anniversary in 46. it took him a long time to replace new deal or the new deal cabinet that he inherited actually, it was harry hopkins who you've got to get own people in here and even. you know, harry happy's was a new dealer for the you know, but he just said, you know, you can't and maybe harry hopkins in

thanks so much some of the people in the cabinet but he said get get rid of these people and so but it took him a long time and you know wallace was the last to go. he had to fire wallace and you know, but gradual he let them go. and i can't tell you. it went into 1946. i know that. and i can't remember when last when wallace actually got fired. but it might. yeah, well, when fall of 46. 45 or 46. yeah, that's when i was the same guy. and who's it went out at the same time. yeah, yeah, yeah. so it's only a little over a year. yeah. it took him a while it didn't he gradually the first person he, i think he did get rid of was frances perkins and he actually said i don't want a woman in my cabinet. you didn't say that to her. yeah he did. he did. i'm sorry. and on that note we are going to

wrap up this session. thank you very much.

come ladies, gentlemen, in 1957 to let's look congress in rochester, buffalo, syracuse

watertown, utica, albany and. a very special welcome to those who are joining us today from station wmub rf tv, binghamton. i hope you'll be with us often during the coming year as i try to bring to you some of those prominent down the washing, see to the day when this program is being shown over most of these stations. our guest today will be sworn in as vice president of the united. states. the vice president has frequently then a visitor in upstate new york. he's made thousands of friends through the communities where this program will be shown with the help the president he has made the office vice president and essential living instrument of government policy. i don't want to take up too much

time and him because he so well and so favorably known to you. it's a pleasure and honor to have with me from this opening program this year. our good friend nixon, the vice president of the united states. --, i'm delighted to have you here with me today. and i'm very happy to be with you on this program. and first, want to congratulate you for the fact that your program is constantly expanding and that you've added new station. thank you. i want to get right into the heart of our problem, and i want to talk to you about that's been much in the news lately and that's your recent visit. the hungarian border, your eloquent statements about the unpair l-l courage of the hungarian people. now, some since your return from have said that the hungarian refugees who have come and to other countries ought have stayed there in their country to

fight. how do you feel about that? i should say that perhaps those who have reached that conclusion simply, aren't aware of the facts and the circumstances which caused the refugees to leave hungary in the first place. interviewed a great number of them. when i in austria and also after i returned to the united states and visited camp kilmer and i have found that for the most part those came out of hungary came out of there. if they'd stayed, they wouldn't been allowed to live, to fight. and by coming out, they at least obtained freedom and also the ability stay alive and possibly to go back their country at a later time. because we have to realize that many of those who came out were either freedom fighters or help the freedom fighters and therefore marked for, uh, for our extinction by the communist. do you think there likely to be other uprisings in other countries behind the iron curtain? does revolt america really

signify setback for the international communist conspiracy? well, there's no but that this marks perhaps most significant setback for the international communistic conspiracy that it has suffered since it came to power in the soviet union, because here we see for the first time in a nation, was dominated by the communist a very important failure of the communist appeal, the communist appeal. and that is its failure to win the intellectuals, to win the students and to win the workers, they were the ones that led the revolution. and as far as other countries concerned, i think that we do not know what course the uprisings will take, but certainly communists are in deep trouble in all of the satellite countries and. there isn't much question, but that we can expect some additional type of activity directed against the communist leaders of those countries until, the those leaders, these the people, the independence and

the freedom that the majority of them want. it's been charged in some quarters, mr. vice president, that many of the hungarians that have been admitted to this country were members of the party at one time. from your of our screening procedures and so on, what is your evaluation of the danger from that source? well, let me say, ken, that you're an expert on that field yourself, because of your service on the judiciary committee and your of immigration affairs. i can only give you my appraisal and my appraisal is that there is no signifier and security risk to the united states from hungary and refugees. we have to remember this that having lived in a communist country, that some of these young people had to to some organizations that were perhaps dominated by communists in order to hold a job. but on the other hand, i think they have proved their devotion to liberty and their the fact that they oppose communism by the fact that many of them either fought against the communist or supported