truman was happy with that. so it's really hard to add that up and put a dollar figure on things that we might not ever even have known about. well, of course, fdr spoke to the american people and to congress throughout the war, regularly. here he is. one month after pearl harbor in 1942, in a state of the union address. this production of ours in the united states must be raised far above present level, even though it will mean that this location of the lives and occupations of millions of our own people. we must raise our sights along the production line. let no man say it cannot be done. it must be done. and we have undertaken to do it. i have just sent a letter of direct to the appropriate department and agencies of our government ordering that immediate steps be taken. first to increase our production rate of our planes so rapidly that in this year,. 1942, we shall produce. 60,000 planes, ten cargo. and 10,000, by the way, more than the goal that we set a year and a half ago. this includes 45,000 combat pla

and truman truman regarded. this as roosevelt's legacy, in my view, and unspoken bequest to his successor. so general leslie groves, the head of the manhattan project, used to say that, if you could call it a decision, you could call truman having made decision. it was a decision to, not intervene. it was a decision essentially to not upset existing plans. now, truman truman was the only one who could have said no to the use of any atomic bomb and make it stick. but. but and he was criticized, obviously not saying no. criticized back then. criticized today. criticized probably forever. but his rationale. it had to be done to force the japanese to surrender and i think he was right and. he used to say. truman used to say this about the bomb said a quarter of a million of the flower of young american manhood is was worth a couple of japanese cities. roosevelt's shadow roosevelt's and macarthur macarthur. anticipating the the surrender order and occupation of japan. harry truman made a fateful decision in august of

and truman truman regarded. this as roosevelt's legacy, in my view, and unspoken bequest to his successor. so general leslie groves, the head of the manhattan project, used to say that, if you could call it a decision, you could call truman having made decision. it was a decision to, not intervene. it was a decision essentially to not upset existing plans. now, truman truman was the only one who could have said no to the use of any atomic bomb and make it stick. but. but and he was criticized, obviously not saying no. criticized back then. criticized today. criticized probably forever. but his rationale. it had to be done to force the japanese to surrender and i think he was right and. he used to say. truman used to say this about the bomb said a quarter of a million of the flower of young american manhood is was worth a couple of japanese cities. roosevelt's shadow roosevelt's and macarthur macarthur. anticipating the the surrender order and occupation of japan. harry truman made a fateful decision in august of

truman, truman and democracy truman and civil rights. truman grew up in a racist misery. i have to say that. a former slave state. his two sets of grandparents enslaved african americans. his mother refused to sleep in the lincoln bedroom when she visited her son at the white house. there is a story behind that. truman used the n word liberally throughout his life deep into his retirement years. his views it did evolve mid 1947. early spring that year a man named walter white the head of the naacp at the time suggested to truman that he needed to give a major, the time was ripe he says for him to give a major speech on civil rights. a month or two later it was early june 1947, early june of 1947 on the steps of the lincoln memorial howard university acquired -- choir singing above him. held to supporters and their friends. he began by saying deep conviction has reached a turning point. a turning point in their efforts to guarantee freedom and equality for all americans and that he emphasized it when i say all americans i mean all americans. and then he went on to pledge s

truman, truman and democracy, civil rights truman and civil rights. oh, truman grew in a racist missouri. i have to say that a former slave state back and forth. he has his two sets of grandparents enslaved africans americans. his mother refused to sleep in the lincoln bedroom when she visited her son at the white house. there's a story behind that. truman used the n-word liberally throughout his life, deep into his retirement years. but his views did evolve amid. 1947 and early, early spring that year, a a man named walter white, the head of the acp at the time, suggested to truman, that he needed to give a major the time was right. he said for him to give a major speech on civil rights. a month or two later. it was early of 1947, early june in 1947, on the steps of the lincoln memorial with the howard university choir singing above him held forth to a crowd of 10,000 acp supporters in their friends, and he began by saying. it is my deep conviction that the nation has reached a turning point, turning point in its efforts to guarantee freedom and equa

but harry truman. what's interesting is that in january of 1948, he actually a slight lead over dewey, according to the gallup poll. but by the summer that had really evaporated. dewey was ahead at least 11 points, according to polls. he retained that sort of lead. pollsters stopped polling and in early october over, newsweek magazine asked 50 top political experts who they thought was going to win presidential election. all 50 of them, said dewey. and right before the election, betting houses were giving 15 to 1 odds on dewey. truman, on the other hand, told some of his friends that he thought he could get as many as 340 electoral votes the weekend before the election. so he didn't quite make that, but he did win. he was not surprised, but pretty much everybody else was. it was it really that close either? was it? it wasn't that close. no, it was in the electoral college. you know, he he substantially surpassed what he needed. he needed. 266 electoral votes in 1948. and he wound up with 303. and on th

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 unde

but harry truman. what's interesting is that in january of 1948, he actually a slight lead over dewey, according to the gallup poll. but by the summer that had really evaporated. dewey was ahead at least 11 points, according to polls. he retained that sort of lead. pollsters stopped polling and in early october over, newsweek magazine asked 50 top political experts who they thought was going to win presidential election. all 50 of them, said dewey. and right before the election, betting houses were giving 15 to 1 odds on dewey. truman, on the other hand, told some of his friends that he thought he could get as many as 340 electoral votes the weekend before the election. so he didn't quite make that, but he did win. he was not surprised, but pretty much everybody else was. it was it really that close either? was it? it wasn't that close. , wasn e electoral college. you know, he he substantially surpassed what he needed. he needed. 266 electoral votes in 1948. and he wound up with 303. and on the other h

how would you describe harry truman and thomas dewey as campaigners? well truman was was fiery.he was fiery. he was he was fired up and. it's not clear how well he would have done in the television age, which is known for being somewhat unforgiving of people who who are too hot, you know. but this was not age. and truman was campaigning mostly by traveling around by train or going to small towns speaking, you know, in the towns as he went through, sometimes people call this the whistle stop campaign and sometimes he would speak in larger venues, to be sure. but he was always on the and sometimes i think even verged into what one might consider demagoguery was a major speech that he gave in chicago about a week before the election in which he basically accused dewey of being a fascist and the people around him as being fascists. and so, you know. petrova dewey didn't really respond in. dewey did not really fight back. and was because he thought that the race was more or less in the bag. there were a few moments when he started wonder, but his advisers would always assure him, no,

here at the truman library. matthew is an associate producer for national public radio, and he has reported from four continents from four npr news and other outlets. he is the of six other books, including one of my favorites, harry truman's adventure the true story, a great american road trip, which was named one of the best books of 2009 by the washington post. in addition to reporting and writing, matthew has held jobs as a convenience store clerk. gas station attendant, halloween costume salesman and a hot dog vendor in a traveling circus. even he's a vegetarian. he holds a degree folklore from the university of pennsylvania. in his bio, he modestly says, i'm an award winning journalist and author, but so is practically every other journalist and author author. please join me in welcoming matthew algeo. thank you. kelly. so all good bits were there. took most my shtick. make. i'm actually going to take this out for a little bit. i really need to thank kelly azalea. kurt at the truman library. not just for t

truman was very much on the atck. not just a tactic dewey about congress the 80th congress that have been elected in 1946 midterms. and so he made a big deal of some the differences of opinion between the republicans in congress andgrgr dewey tried to drive a wedge between them. that's what was going on in that election. from dewey's standpoint not primarily at issues election. >> host: let's give you a snapshot of what america was like a 1948 the president of course was harry truman. he was finishing franklin roosevelt's fourth term of the population about 147 million that's compared to about 330 million today. still less than half. there are 48 states. the cold war was ongoing the marshall plan was in motion was a postwar recession as professor bowsher said the segregation of the military had just occurred in july. in a macro sense what was that like to live in america at that time? >> it t was a new world. it seemed to be full of a lot of possibilities. but it was also scary international events he could enter the

here at the truman library. matthew is an associate producer for national public radio, and he has reported from four continents from four npr news and other outlets. he is the of six other books, including one of my favorites, harry truman's adventure the true story, a great american road trip, which was named one of the best books of 2009 by the washington post. in addition to reporting and writing, matthew has held jobs as a convenience store clerk. gas station attendant, halloween costume salesman and a hot dog vendor in a traveling circus. even he's a vegetarian. he holds a degree folklore from the university of pennsylvania. in his bio, he modestly says, i'm an award winning journalist and author, but so is practically every other journalist and author author. please join me in welcoming matthew algeo. thank you. kelly. so all good bits were there. took most my shtick. make. i'm actually going to take this out for a little bit. i really need to thank kelly azalea. kurt at the truman library. not just for t

truman doesn't initially. by that truman wants to keep defense spending. but in the wake of the korean war, truman okays the approval for a massive rearmament drive, which gathers pace after the chinese intervention. and that comes from the fact that if america shows resolve in korea. if america builds up its military capacity, stirling can be deterred. but there's an opposing school of thought behind closed doors within the pentagon sometimes within the republican party, which argues that if war with the soviet union is inevitable, if the soviets will have nuclear weapons within four years, probably best to get the war over and done with now and the whole notion of a preventive strike, louis, who's defense secretary, started the war, is muttering about this. certain journalists secretary, navy francis matthews makes a speech in august 50 advocating a preventive. and it's quite a lot of muttering behind closed doors, which gathers pace at moments when the korean war is going badly. so in the summer of 1950, but particularly in december, january 1950, 51, w

and clifton truman daniel. here he is and of course, i would also like to to welcome our moderator, the kurt graham director of the harry truman presidential library and museum. and as you will see from our from our attendees, unfortunate ali, ulysses grant dietz was unable to join us this evening. so we do apologize for that. but ladies and gentlemen, the 2024 presidential families forum. thank you very much, dr. kurt graham. the floor is yours. for. his. just turn your phones up. okay. well, good evening. good afternoon. whoever we are, it's great to. great to be here with you. i have to say a couple of things for. oh, here we are. that let me start that over. good evening. welcome. great to see you all. great to have you here. i, i feel a little bit like some dude that's like following, you know, the winning cast into the oscars or something, you know, these famous descendants. i mean, there's just such a such a great pleasure to be with such wonderful people, too. but i just wanted to say, before we start i

truman decided otherwise. and he hopped on the back of that train and crisscrossed the country twice in two months. that was when elections lasted two and half months and not 2 1/2 years. nevertheless he got on the train and went around the country and took his case directly to the people. he said, i came in here so you could look at me,'s you could listen to me, get my thoughts and ideas. talk to us a little bit about that moment and whether that season, and he was on the road on the rails as it were, what kind of research was he doing in terms of -- i mean, what was it about getting his own party fired up -- don't worry, we are not being attacked. i feel very confident about that. i'm looking over at clinton, he would be panic is something else are going on. we are good. okay. it's a sense that celebration. they are so bring the sunset. we are selling the presidency. it's great. we are also waiting. clifton. >> it's obviously the democrat boat and republican boat firing at each other. well, grandpa's researc

truman, just wanted to point one thing out. poor ike. he's going to have a hard time being president. he is so used to having people respond. i think that definitely, the general had a lot to offer his country. he had served. also, to the presidency. he and truman, were a little bit surprised that they were not on the same page. the democrats didn't realize that i was even republican. they were making these overtures to him. i think that is nurturing. >> they didn't be part of the military in those days. >> there are still people where i think it is several of the last chairman joint chiefs, and some of those people, no matter who appoints them, no matter what initiation they serve or crossover, with other parties, i think of the general that was appointed under obama. he was part of the donald trump era. some of those people, they serve the country. they don't serve a party. some of them don't vote. they don't feel that they should have a hand in picking the commander in chief. so, speaking of these great elections. william knows i am b

it also made senator truman a national figure. the truman committee's investigations ranged far and wide, sometimes even including household goods like this umbrella that you can see here in the case. the tag on the umbrella there marked by the committee, said that it was an illustration of waste and material and manpower because of its shoddy construction. and it didn't last very long. so in wartime, even a regular consumer goods were considered to be critical. wartime commodities. the truman committee also requested tips from the american public, which he received many of. there are many, many letters that he received where individual americans were pointing out things that they had witnessed of of waste, fraud or abuse. and we have one letter here that from somebody to from a citizen to truman thanking him for his for his actions, uncovering, uncovering the fraud. he was one of many people who wrote in to truman to express either tips or their their support at the conclusion of this investigation. after saving billions of dolla

and and truman capote. i helped to bring these two together, popular fiction and literature into a new genre called true crime, or the nonfiction novel. so to get us to try to understand this, i would i want us to look at a that truman capote gives to george plimpton. and it was published in the new york. in january 16th,. 1966. and it quote the story behind a nonfiction novel. and here capote, he describes this idea of a nonfiction novel and this idea would be a first of its kind in the world of literature. so. you could the question being asked by george plimpton, and then we have the answer given by truman capote side, like to ask if somebody would be able to read what capote says. okay. okay, great. thank you. not really. during the last year, i've learned a good deal about ime and, the origins of the homicide mentality stl is a layman's knowledge, and i don't pretend to anything deeper. the motivati factor in my choice of material that is choosing to ite a accou of an actual murder case was altogether

and and truman capote. i helped to bring these two together, popular fiction and literature into a new genre called true crime, or the nonfiction novel. so to get us to try to understand this, i would i want us to look at a that truman capote gives to george plimpton. and it was published in the new york. in january 16th,. 1966. and it quote the story behind a nonfiction novel. and here capote, he describes this idea of a nonfiction novel and this idea would be a first of its kind in the world of literature. so. you could the question being asked by george plimpton, and then we have the answer given by truman capote side, like to ask if somebody would be able to read what capote says. okay. okay, great. thank yo not really. during the last year, i've arned a good deal about crime and, the origins of theicid mentality still is a layman's knowledge, and i don't pretend to anything . the motivating factor in my choice of materat i choosing to write a account of an actual murder case was aler lit the decision w

it also made senator truman a naonal fige. the truman committee's investigations ranged far and wide, sometimes even including household goods like this umbrella that you can see here in the case. the tag on the umbrella there marked by the committee, said that it was an illustration of waste and material and manpower because of its shoddy construction. and it didn't last very long. so in wartime, even a regular consumer goods were considered to be critical. wartime commodities. the truman committee also requested tips from the american public, which he received many of. there are many, many letters that he received where individual americans were pointing out things that they had witnessed of of waste, fraud or abuse. and we have one letter here that from somebody to from a citizen to truman thanking him for his for his actions, uncovering, uncovering the fraud. he was one of many people who wrote in to truman to express either tips or their their support at the conclusion of this investigation. after saving billions of dolla

the truman committee also requested tips from the american public, which he received many of. there are many, many letters that he received where individual americans were pointing out things that they had witnessed of of waste, fraud or abuse. and we have one letter here that from somebody to from a citizen to truman thanking him for his for his actions, uncovering, uncovering the fraud. he was one of many people who wrote in to truman to express either tips or their their support at the conclusion of this investigation. after saving billions of dollars of taxpayer money. the senate decided that the committee, the truman committee, had been so effective at saving saving money and identifying fraud that they decided to make the committee permanent. and they created the permanent subcommittee on investigations, known as sy. and even today, sy is still investigating to four for accountability of government and to uncover waste and fraud. this photograph is of hart mountain relocate asian center near cody, wyoming. it was one of ten japanese american incarcerates and camps built

the truman administration was already kind of entering an embattled period, and truman himself had come to political success in kansas city, missouri, under the the watch of a entrenched democratic political machine. so there was this idea that this this hearing was going to not reflect well on democrats around the country. and this was something that would have to be controlled. so within his party, there was folks who weren't interested in this. on the flip side, senate republicans wanted to make sure that they could get involved in this because they saw this as a potential issue for them to run on in the 1950 midterm elections. and then in the following elections. and so there was a rival proposal to have a committee, the congress committee, run this investigation, ultimately through lots of negotiation. senate democratic leadership came up with the idea of creating a special committee that would be appointed by the vice president, alvin barkley, and that then the membership could be both republican and democrat. and maybe this would make everyone happy, essentially, and give senator