and so he had, he went to truman, and truman signed. this was a mistake, harry truman.and then dewey, the only one he signed, it said, it sure was! thomas dewey. but truman did sign, he was in missouri when he got one of these papers. he signed it. the photograph came from a newspaper itself. he signed many of these. really briefly, how come dewey didn't defeat truman? >> because truman got more votes. [laughs] >> okay, that's easy enough. >> really, was it wasn't even close! that was the interesting thing about it. it wasn't even close. truman won -- he lost in congress in 46. terrible, terrible defeat, a vote of no confidence, almost. in 1948 he got the senate and the house back along with winning the presidency. it was a great victory for him. that paper is really, that's a beautiful copy you have. the copy of the truman library is more beat up nowadays. and there are very, very few of them. as you said they were just sent out to the suburbs. the very early additions, you're right. >> you know, there are going to be fewer as time goes on. the paper newspapers are aci

do we and truman and so he had it went to truman and truman signed it. this a mistake harry truman. and then dewey the only one he signed. he said it sure was thomas doing but but truman did sign it was in missouri when this when he got one of these papers and he signed this the photographs this came from a newspaper itself, and he signed many of these really briefly. how come do we didn't treat defeat truman? oh, see what because drew got more votes. okay, that's easy enough. you know, really it really was it wasn't even close. that was the interesting thing about it. it wasn't even close truman. i mean the truman got triple one. he lost congress in 46 terrible terrible defeat of almost a vote of confidence or dope a vote of no confidence and in 1948. he got the senate in-house track along with winning the presidency. it was it was it was it was a great a great victory for him and and that paper is really that's a beautiful copy you have i the copy of the truman libraries sort of more sort of beat up than that one is and they're very very few of them because as you said they were t

in 1992 on c-span book notes program david mccullough discussed his biography of president harry truman the book was awarded the pulitzer prize for biography and instrumental in changing attitude about the truman presidency. here's a portion of the interview. >> the number of presidents that were already assassinated why would the government have protections for them. >> it was not done i would've the government have a pension they were pensions of army officers and everybody else but no pension for the president he had very little money he had to borrow some money, quite secretly which dean cosigned to pay for the move back home. this is not well-known and it doesn't mean he didn't have money he did have money but he needed cash to cover the expenses of moving out of the white house and when he got home in order to provide himself some income he undertook the writing of his autobiography, his memoirs which no other president has done except for herbert hoover, herbert's time in office was briefer than truman's and truman's presidency covered far more tumultuous history, to undertake th

every president since truman has sounded like truman. he talks about how in this post world war ii world, sharing our know-how to keep the rest of the world out of communism. he knew that parts of the developing world found communism attractive. host: after the overturning of roe v. wade, did you look at that issue historically? guest: history of the right to privacy. i had a constitutional scholar from yale on to talk about this issue a couple of times and a historian from early american history to talk about abortion was commonplace in colonial america. there are a lot of layers to that story. there is the legal one. this is not just about constitutional scruples. whether the 14th amendment protects the right to privacy, and protects an abortion. there is also a conservative religious movement that sought to end abortion on a federal level. i think a lot of young people are giving up on politics. philip schafly proved what is possible on the others. you can find her speeches online talking about this as well. after goldwater had lost,

is quite excited about that then out stepped president truman former president truman. i was just astonished. and i remember thinking my god, he is in color. because we only had black and white television, black-and-white newspapers. and i think the fact he had very high color he radiated good health. it made him seem very vital, but a person. he certainly did not seemed like a little man to me. to me at that moment he was 6-foot eight. but i never spoke to him. i never met him. i have often thought, wouldn't it be interesting if you could go back in time and i would be able to reach out and touch him on the shoulder 1956? that fall night in saint mr. president, going to write your biography someday. >> knowing what you know about him, what you think you think about this? >> guest: i'm sure they're some of it he would not like. this is after all an honest attempt to see the complete man with his flaws and faults two. but i would hope in some he would think i understood him better than other people have. he was a much, much more complicated, complex, keenly intelligent a

that year, for example, the truman white house depicting the bombing of japan.the title, at the beginning of the end, was provided by the president himself in an early interview. make your film, gentlemen, and put this message into your picture, tell the men and women of the world that they are at the beginning or the end, truman said. it was meant to suggest that the world was at a tipping point because of the harnessing of atomic energy. while in the senate, truman had formed a special committee to investigate the national defense program and served as its chair from 1941 through 1945. nd washingtasked with investigal war plans, truman had sent inspectors to find out what's the extraordinary installations in tennessee in washington were being used for. unbeknownst to all but those with the most top secret clearance, these were two of the three manhattan project locations where the atomic bomb was being developed. secretary of war, henry simpson, astronauts look into these installations, explaining that it was the greatest project in the history of the world an

as late as 1945, when harry truman took office.the vice president didn't actually even receive secret service protection, and went about his day on his own around washington, checking in from time to time, whether anyone needed him. within a few short years, though, as soviet missiles reduced monumental decisions to only 15 minute windows, such prolonged periods were the president incommunicado or the presidents whereabouts unknown be history. they need to command such powerful weapons on a hair trigger alert pushed the office of the president into a new era of technology, new procedures, built around a commander in chief, who required instant, reliable communications, powerful new transportation, and detailed instructions that ensured that there would never be a leadership vacuum. a different way of thinking about so many of the presidential toys that we think of, the majesty of air force one, the -- hawking armored limousine's and the expensive motorcades is to think of them as communications tools necessary to remain in contact

[laughter] host: those were the words of former president truman. he spoke of those finishing their tour of duty, those put on the sidelines, his care for them. pick up on that in light of the president's words. guest: i'm not sure the veterans administration was authorized for that. certainly, that was the group that would be helped by this medicaid/medicare legislation which was joint legislation, part of the great society bill passed in 1965. truman tried and failed to get national health insurance pass ed, so this was a partial victory for him. the basic problem is the whole thing was set up the wrong way from the get-go. you had medicare providing only partial coverage to the elderly. they still had to buy supplemental policies. that is still the case today. you have medicare being quite expensive. you also have premiums not fully indexed to inflation so we will see people facing very high medicare part b bills that will go much higher through time as inflation makes that happen. for medicaid, we have this program for the poor that says if you

winston churchill comes to america, truman invites him to make the famous iron curtain speech. this is a wake-up call to the world, churchill says stalin can no longer be trusted, these are no longer allies, we got to change foreign-policy. total scandal in america. the idea is to keep working with stalin. churchill put differently, he can't be trusted. one of the soviet sniper clocks working at a soviet embassy in canada defects to the west and defects with a huge bundle of explosive documents that reveal soviets have been spying on the american nuclear program, what is taking place with western allies developing a nuclear warhead. these two events are really important and the third thing, don't know how well known it is, george kennan, the famous diplomat in the american embassy in moscow writes his famous long telegram, in a similar tone to churchill set out the facts that the soviets cannot be trusted. in 1946 these three things happen, with haole continually banging on the drum, this is when truman begins to change his foreign-policy completely and you end up with the trum

president truman accompanied him there by train. cartoons of course who were going to miss out on that. here are the campaign trains. this is a good opportunity, bob to talk about what is a whistle stop and truman whistle stop campaign. >> the whistle stop referred to some place, city, some town that the train would come in and blow the whistle to tell the public the president is here. you'd see a crowd it's amazing how many people you'd find in even a small town on the president of the united states was coming through. but anyway that was. phrase came from fact it would blow the whistle really loud really low to let the people know the president was coming to town. >> this is actually, this is a very, very famous photo the paper was prematurely published he did not in fact defeat truman. the reason i included it he is on the rear platform of the magellan holding that paper up and of course he's got a gigantic smile on his face because he just won the election as president. >> in the late evening of november 2 show that paper in the

the truman whistle stop campaign? >> a whistle stop referred to some place, some city, some town, that the train would come in and the engineer would blow the whistle announcing to the public that the president is here. you'd see a crowd a lot like the picture you're seeing now, i don't know where it was, it's amazing how many people you would find, even in a small town when the president of the united states was coming through. but anyway, that came from the fact that they would blow the whistle really loud to let the people know the president was coming to town. >> this is actually, this is a very very famous photo where the paper was prematurely published. do we did not in fact defeat truman. he is showing this, the only reason i've included is cassis on the rare platform of the magellan holding that paper up. of course, he has a gigantic smile on his face because he just won election as president. >> it was the first addition, it came out, i guess, in the lee evening of november 2nd, which was the day of the elect

not long after the bills adoption president truman went on official trip to brazil. while on this trip his motorcade almost drove over the edge of a precipice. speaker martin recalled that quote truman while on a visit to south america came dangerously close to plunging down a mountainside in his auto. the news was a sobering reminder of how near i was living day to day on the edge of great responsibility unquote. as was the case with tyler and johnson barson switching the white house could easily have a curve. each of these examples until instances when a lawmaker could easily have become acting president due to the possibility of a vacancy in both the presidency and the vice presidency. what about situations in which both the president and the vice president are incapacity? history affords at least one such example here as well. in 1985 president reagan underwent surgery to move polyps from his intestine. prior to being anesthetized reagan transferred the powers and duties of his office vice president george bush under section 3 of the 25th amendment while acting p

the key cities both churchill and truman and roosevelt. >> it's fascinating. we're almost out of time, we're getting the heads up that we're going to move to some audience questions in a minute. last question i have for you, i think we have time to slip on more in is, you know, this is history that took place a very long time ago but one thing that's fascinating about this book is that it also shows how we got to now. the legacy of this time has led both indirectly and seemingly directly to the way we live now. and i'm curious what you think the most lasting legacy of the events that you cover in this book is today? >> i think, our relations with russia are almost at a new cold war period. the russian ambassador to the uk described them as close to frozen the other day. i don't think the story is gone away at all, i think it's ever-present. how do you deal with this country? particularly now, that you've got putin in charge, completely lawless band of gangsters running a place. it's a very relevant story, what do you do. we came out of the events in my book wa

truman carried this poem when he went to france as an artillery captain in the first world war. he carried the poll in his pocket on april 12th, 1945, when he was suddenly summoned from the u.s. capital building to the white house and told that he had become president. truman became president the month the united states and the united nations was born in san francisco. by then however, andk dreams of a world made tranquil by universal law had melted in the cauldron of war. today, we know what churchill never doubted. nations are here to stay. nations not super national entities, are the prime movers of history. and the united states which churchill loved as much as he loved his american mother, it is more indispensable than ever. i'll give you just one example. churchill firmer -- certainly appreciate and applaud. the two thirds of the planet that is covered with water, the oceans, the great global common, will be policed and kept orderly by the united states navy or it will not be orderly. we are 75 years on from one at churchill's urging here, the united states unfurled a flag

truman?icality to you, or what are we supposed to do about stuff like this? because it seems, it was always abundant to rachel and me. but after reading this book, it will be clear to everybody that zach, if he needs to be, here should be here. >> it would be nice if at times, the system was more humanized. not only that, it's very clear what the contract of the visa, that program states. and it's actually now been reduced to 12 months. zak served for almost four years. we found supplemental documentation from that army unit. we now have that as well. with that sub mental information, his last application was still denied. we've put their appeal in, and we are still waiting. so, you can infer what you would from that process, but it surely doesn't not seem to be working. >> in the spirit that it is intended. >> zak, when we last photo, as i said, your face was covered, you were frightened, i could tell you we're front and. and i'm seeing hearing from you tonight, that might be the last time y

truman had put in his pocket that year in 1910, a copy of tennessee's poem oxley whole. it includes these lines about a world without wars. the world subdued by international law, world tranquil. so the word no longer the battle plagues, and the parliament man, federation of the world. there the common sense of most, and they round and and they kindly at the universal 19 and nice words, not church chilean, churchill knew better read and truman carried this poem when he went to france and captain in the first world war. they carried the poem in his pocket on april 12, 1945 when he was suddenly summoned from the u.s. capitol building to the white house to be told that he had become president truman became president the nations was born in san francisco and by then however, dreams of the world may tranquil, universal law has melted into the culvert of war read and today we know what churchill, the nations are here to stay. nations supranational entities, the prime movers of history in the united states which churchill loved as much as he loved his american mother, is more i

of all, president truman of the united states, the reason is very simple truman simply needed the support of the soviet union in the war against japan in the pacific. he gave the rest a promise that after the victory over germany, the soviet troops, at least from the front, would be transferred to the far east in order to liquidate the kwantong army. this is more than a million japanese soldiers and officers who were near the borders of the soviet union in northern china in majura, and truman, who wanted to achieve victory, understood perfectly well over japan that while this kwantong army is located there on the territory of china, victory cannot wait for 1 million japanese troops - this is a very big force. and the throne said churchidu. that we will not participate in this operation is unthinkable. we need the support of the soviets in the fight against japan in the first place there was a leak of data and the soviet union learned about the planned planning of this operation with these documents. you can get acquainted in the state archive in the archives of the gru e counterintelligen

so, truman articulated what was called the truman doctrine, which is key to, which he announced, and it was k -- he announced it was the duty of the united states to uphold global freedom, and communism must be contained. that national security depends on nuclear power, a strong military and civilian preparedness to mobilize in defense of peace. in this, in t, 1950, he initiated the federal civil defense administration, which was charged with creating a national civil defense program. and the first directors spoke enthusiastically of a new home front for the cold war, propelled by a growing consciousness of the need for civil defense. message of the early fcda propaganda prove relatively simple. if americans embrace the concept of civil defense, they could survive a nuclear war. while the new u. s. military experimented with a variety of indoctrination projects to sculpt the perfect nuclear soldier, the fdca arrived at this for the civilians. the organization launched a range of leaflets, tours, short films, hoping to mold the civilian into a new theater of conflict. but it was opera

i like truman. >> really? >> truman would be quite a good president.t's really interesting how he ended up as fdr's running mate in 1944. fdr the first eight years with turner as his vice president. in 1940, henry wallace became vice president. he was the vice president between 40 and 44 he was very liberal. by 1944 a lot of people in the dam they knew that he was not in good health. they didn't necessarily know he was gonna die a few months into his next term but they knew he was not in good health. southerners and conservative were not thrilled with wallace. they thought he was too liberal. too much on the side of civil rights for blacks. he was also pretty eccentric. what we would call today, he followed a lot of new age spiritual beliefs. they get behind and they convince roosevelt to dump wallace in 1944 and nominate someone else. truman was a compromise candidate. he didn't even want to be vice president. they convinced him to run, there was a big to do with the convention. wallace did not want to go easily. he gave a big nominating speech in fav

this is an early picture of truman president truman with churchill at winston churchill and joseph stalin the world leaders at the global leaders at this point and looking pretty happy at the end of the world though. we new trouble was brewing certainly before the end of the war george cannon wrote the the long telegram a famous document studied and is worth studying many times over and he wrote it from from russia, and it's called long the long telegram because indeed it's very long for a telegram spanning soviet culture and other other issues it became the basis for what was called the containment theory of dealing with the soviet. in other words if you contained the soviet union because of the nature of the people indeed the entire culture and political system would implode so it was known as the containment theory. however if we read the document there is lots of information about culture about people's and even about the threats to americans via women religious organizations labor unions all of which we see in these cards. so truman articulated what was called the the truman doctrine

i like truman. really. i mean true truman the quite a good president and it's really interesting how he became how he ended up as fdr's running mate in 1944 because fdr of courses first eight years, john yance garner. we just quoted was his vice president and then in 1940. he henry wallace became vice president. he was president vice president between 40 and 44. he was very liberal and by 1944 a lot of people in a democratic party. they i mean they knew roosevelt was not in good health. they didn't say no. he's gonna die a few months into his next term, but they knew he was not good health and some southerners and conservatives were not thrilled with wallace because they thought he was too liberal and they thought he was too much on the side of civil rights for blacks, and he was also pretty eccentric. you know, he's what we today called you followed a lot of new age spiritual beliefs. so he was a bit eccentric and so they they got behind and they convinced roosevelt to dump wallace and 1944 and nominate so

and truman took. his case up. he was then truman took his case up talked to you by the, naacp. and you know if he was truman, a real who was a real hero when it came to -- when it came to civil rights civil rights.. he is really giving you can kind of that. credit for it but he was the first presidential he was the first presidential candidate to every campaign at harlem. candidate ever to campaign--. truman said to his attorney general, you've got to look into this, and if if necessary, if, right necessary, and if right bring charges wing charges against chief of police against this chief of. police. that was just unheard of in the south in >> 1946. was this the same time that truman integrated the armed forces? >> it was the first time, that was about 1950. >> but he was the first to try. it's a new happened to him, but he was the first to make it a policy. >> and what it was supply for the rest of his life, he never knew the truman had come in for him and that a trial took place and that the judge in the trial was actually citing a bunch of precedents for the time going forw

this is from the truman collection.e talks about what he was trying to achieve in the creation of cia and its central nature. [video clip] >> i set up the original central intelligence agency which coordinated all the intelligence services were then in the government for the benefit of the president. they used to make reports to the president with piles of papers like that, he did not have time to go through all of them. i had all of the intelligence supports, some were just duplicates of what was already told. so they were arranged so that every morning the president would have a report of the intelligence of the united states, he can go over it in 15 minutes, and he can then veto whatever was necessary. susan: you write that the intelligence community has undergone a number of reorganizations since the original founding, and the organizations have followed three general patterns. halting development, organizational fragmentation, democratic tensions. can you speak to the first 20 years of the cia operations, and where

president truman outlined taiwan is part of china, which is a funny thing for a president to say. he wanted to make sure the u.s. and china did docket into a war. six months later, the korean war happened. we put our fleet in the straight and that prevented china from unifying with taiwan. they did invade the other large island in the area, which is also a province of china. there is that history. andrew's point is important to consider. it is a civil war. many americans went to taiwan to study chinese. some of the most important artifacts from chinese culture are at the museum in taiwan, in taipei. we understand this as a civil war, which is basically what it is. you realize the u.s. should have no role. just like we should have had no

in the postwar period with in potsdam, truman got a message. it's a little boy about the atomic bomb. when he told stone and about his the soviet ledia showed little interest. uncle joe didn't understand truman, thought it, stalin already knew everything. the issues raised and he also lay down in potsdam and above all, europe's post war architecture. germany was to pay reparations and be deprived to part of its territories. koenigsberg and its surrounding areas. could it be seated to the ussr? mm. we say using that gift to my memphis sure. she doesn't deserve, usually assess course. i also replied, you pull my sheer brain yolanda, new master for a none of the new esther campbell mush nice from article dublin. yeah. could scrub the relish of she cheer, patrone chic arturo hall, stylish shepherd. lead pushed, widely ushered the nurse with a japanese read as the most was the idea that the soviet might come in the civil war, proven undisturbed this style and assures him that the russians are coming in on schedule human rights. in his diary, his sal

post harry truman renovation, president truman ordered that all of these different lincoln era items and associated lincoln items be moved into this particular space. so, this photograph is from the eisenhower administration. periodically there is some different changes to it. but for the most part,, it remained a bedroom. even though herbert hoover called at the lincoln study, fdr called at the lincoln study. and then the lincoln bedroom after harry truman. but there was this interest about what to do with this room to sort of restore some of the historical elements. you're calling at the lincoln bedroom, why not go back to the true lincoln era when lincoln actually used the space. so, i wanted to ask our panelists to talk us through this project. but all went into it and how it came about and how it was executed. i move the floor open to whoever would like to start. >> these two. >> during lincoln's time, that room was not the bedroom, it was his office. the lincoln era furnishings were not placed in their, in the lincoln bedroom, created in 1945 under president truman. so, up unti