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

when bess truman came in to see the white house on tour, before truman was going to take over, after fdr had died, she was appalled. louise on the wall where the pictures had been, the carpet seemed threadbare and she just couldn't imagine living in that gloomy place. truman moved in. the roosevelt's moved 13 van loads of furniture and objects and memorabilia out. they were very great accumulators. the place looked like an old hotel people had moved out of and had big cracks in the wall. you should see the pictures. it began to creak a lot and it began to worry. people in the east room, the ceiling, sag and plaster begins to fall. the wooden is rotting and is deemed a fire hazard. it is obvious that drastic changes needed everywhere in the white house. but the first alteration truman makes is to add an amenity to the family quarters, enhancing private life here at the white house. as you look at film of the white house shot by president truman, the south portico is missing. one key feature that you see today, something controversial during its time but cherished by all first families

were harry truman and solemnly swear. i, harry truman, do solemnly swear. you will faithfully execute the office of president of the united states. but i will faithfully the office of president of the united states and will to the best of your ability, will. to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the united states. preserve protect and defend the constitution of the united states. all help you, god. so help me god. nation and the world. a solemn president declared that the vice president, mr. chief justice and senator. i accept with humility, the honor which the people have conferred upon me. i accept that with a resolve to do all that i can for the welfare of this nation and, for the peace of the world. american people stand firm in the faith which has inspired this nation from the beginning. we believe that all men have a right to, equal justice under the law and equal opportunity in the common good. we believe that all have a right to freedom of thought and expression. we believe that all men are created equal because

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 crime and, the origins othe homicide mentality still is a layman's knowledge, and i do't pretend to anything deeper. the motivating factor in my choice of material that is choosing to write a account of an actual rder case was altoge

margaret truman, president and mrs. truman's daughter, was playing her piano up on the residence floor, and the leg of that piano went through the floor into the ceiling below. so president truman knew that it was his responsibility to care for this wonderful house into the future. the timbers were still wooden. it was still the infrastructure from the house had been rebuilt after the british fire. so the truman's moved across the street to blair house. the president's guest house for four years, and the entire interior of the white house was dismantled down to the suent. you could stand in the north door, look down three levels to dirt. they rebuilt it with steel infrastructure to modernize it. very careful, detailed notes had been taken as to where everything was. it was completely rebuilt with all of the rooms virtually exactly as they were. and that was an amazing gift of president truman to all the presidencies that would follow. pretty sacrificial to give up four years of living in the white house as president of

administration of president truman, in the weeks and months after the dropping of the two atomic bombsand nagasaki, said that it was the decision to drop those weapons which broughtjapan to the point of surrender and ended the war. and had they not done so, they argued, the war would've gone on for many more months, possibly years injapan itself, and it would have cost millions of lives — japanese lives and american lives — and therefore, the americans said they had no choice. what do you say to that argument? after the war, there were many, many thousands of japanese survivors of hiroshima and nagasaki — you were one of them. how do you believe they were treated by the post—war government? and do you believe that, to this very day, the survivors of the atomic bombs have not been given the care and the compensation that they should have had? but even after the end of the american occupation, in the decades afterwards, when the japanese government was rebuilding the country with very great success, in terms of the economic revolution injapan, it still seems you and your organisation, ni

truman was my favorite because of that. say the most successful president in my memory was lyndon johnson. who had his great society program. the civil-rights act, only one part of it. with medicaid and medicare, and a massive program for the war against poverty. i was governor when he put into effect the elementary school act. i went up and testified in favor of that act as a governor. all those things transformed the life of america. he was courageous enough to control budget deficits even when faced with terrible threats to the budget. during the vietnam war. he imposed taxes and other things to make it possible. he has been the most successful president. >> this question is from one of our students. how can young people be a positive force in the political process today? >> i would like for the young people in coming generations to strive for transcendence in political affairs. for superlative accomplishments. not just in your own profession but in the political life of america. i would like for our country to become a

>> president harry truman. pres. truman: [indiscernible] >> and president dwight eisenhower.sident eisenhower: we sense with all our faculties that forces of good and evil are armed and opposed as rarely before in history. >> watch 7:00 p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span2. and next, researchers testify on the impact of micro-plastics, including the amount humans are ingesting, the health implications from it, and our water and waste way systems. this joint hearing before two senate subcommittees is 90 minutes.

and carter actually put truman's famous sign, the buck stops here at his desk in the oval office, andout my conversations with president carter, we had a couple of great sessions where we mostly just talked about truman. at the time truman left office in 1953, he was deeply unpopular and for the next 30 years, people just assumed that he was a pale shadow of franklin roosevelt and made a lot of mistakes, and in the 1980s, truman is basically building the postwar world which has kept us from having another world war all these years. he built those institutions, nato the most prominent example. carter's accompaniments are below that but much more significant than the conventional wisdom would suggest. >> chris is no longer on the phone with us, we hope to have him later, but with regard to the way he was brought up, this is a man who has talked about never wearing shoes growing up in georgia, he would go along the dusty roads, even when he was going to school, the difference between his upbringing and rising all the way to being the most powerful person in the world as president, did he

country is striving for a peaceful world yet of the military need to make keep that peace in harry truman's own work. it marks the beginning not only of a new administration, but of a period that will be eventful, perhaps decisive for themy frie. before i begin expression of those thoughts that i deem appropriate to this moment, would you me the privilege of uttering a little private prayer my own and i ask you bow your heads, almighty god, as we here at this moment, my associates in my future associates in the executive branch of government join me in beseeching that our make full and complete our dedication to the service of the people in this throng and our fellow citizens everywhere. give us we pray the to discern clearly right wrong and allow all our words and actions to be governed there by and by the laws of this land. a especially we pray that our concern shall be for all the people, regardless of station race. our calling may cooperation be permitted, and these are mutually of those who, under the concepts of our constitution, hold to differing political base. so that all may work

harry truman, a democrat. he was a good democrat president. john f. kennedy was one. harry truman. but the democrat party now -- there are still good model democrats out there. but they have allowed the radical left -- the democrats are just upset because they got beat, really beat bad. and african-americans voted for donald trump. hispanics voted for him. all different kinds, especially christians and catholics and people like me and my family -- i am not saying he is a perfect man. there is nobody on this earth that is perfect. the only one that was perfect was jesus, but to just go on like she was going on, i feel sorry for her. i am going to pray for her. host: here is grant in illinois, independent. caller: a couple things to mention. first, thought it was interesting and goes to show you the variety of callers you get. you had one caller yesterday that wanted biden to face a firing squad and getting back to mr. trump and the speech he gave yesterday, i agree that the fentanyl issue is a national crisis and needs to be addressed, but my understanding is much of the fentanyl is

truman wanted the shift of the eagles' gaze to be aspirational. he wanted it to be america on the march. but america committed to peace. and so, carry on, my friends. and we are all lucky that you will. now, we came here to do something manifestly manageable. to unveil a portrait. [laughter] it's been said that being president of the united states is the toughest job in the world. i wouldn't know. [laughter] but the person with the single most difficult task in 2024 was a man named steve paulson. he had to paint my portrait. [laughter] and this afternoon we get to honor steve for generously taking on this mission and i am truly very grateful to him for his talent, which you'll see, his patience, which you have to take my word for, and even afterwards, for his friendship. by the way, in getting to know him, i concluded he must be a pretty religious guy because when he finished trying to capture me on the canvas, i kept hearing him say, may god forgive me. so wait and see what you see here. and jasmine, his wife, was just a terrific cohort along thi

[cheers and applause] and, we are the party of a courageous fighter, harry truman. [cheers and applause] and as truman said, he just told the truth and they thought it was hell. we are the party of a gallant man, john fitzgerald kennedy. [cheers and applause] we are the party of a great leader, lyndon johnson. [cheers and applause] we are the party of a great man who should have been president and would have been one of the greatest presidents in history,. a great man who epitomized the spirit of the democratic party. we are also the party of governor jerry brown and secretary edward kennedy. stephanie: --[cheers and applause] i would like to say a personal word to senator kennedy. you are a tough competitor and a superb campaigner and i can attest to that. before the convention, a magnificent segment of the democratic party is before the people of this country and what a democratic victory has done this year. i reach out to you tonight in your valiant passionate campaign. i need you. [cheers and applause] and i need your idealism and your dedication working for us.

truman comes around and basically signs off on it. and, you know, why does it matter today? well, you know, i think you can put both kennan's own strategy and this nsc 68 in a sort of in one category, in the category that often gets understood, is that the purpose these strategies are not go to war with the soviet union. the purpose is to win without war and that i think is what's elemental today and we really can't lose track of in terms where we go with with revisionist coalitions. absolutely. and that's that's a critical element here that think know matters in today's grand strategy. this idea of winning without war, which was novel at the time, having just having just fought and having just gone to war. right. and then something else that so that whole idea which today in washington i think is very important in in a lot people looking at the contemporary issue of china mean the question is how do you have a peaceful, long victory? i think people are by definition taking kind of minutes and others as the role models for what a real

carper: oh, gosh, was it harry truman? harry truman used to say -- he would say -- i can't remember -- let me think. one of the former leaders -- thomas jefferson used to say that people know the truth, they won't make a mistake. today a lot of people friendly don't know the truth. you don't know the truth, you make the wrong people --you make the right decisions and support the wrong people. that's a real challenge. so -- >> what will you miss about washington and the senate? sen. carper: as it turns out, we can come back here. [laughter] my wife and i live in wilmington, delaware, which is a 90-minute train ride. my guess is we will come back and visit from time to time and a chance to see my former colleagues and give them encouragement. i don't expect to miss the place. about the last 50 years of service in the navy and treasury, congress, governor, senate. it's not that i've had my fill, i've been blessed to have the opportunity to serve for this long and a lot of different roles, and i've helped a lot of other people

i don't think harry truman ever told a lie. think he told the truth to the american people all the time, whether it was good or bad news. i think he was at first real pronounced champion of human rights, or at least in my lifetime. and he demonstrated it in very difficult ways by bringing a successful conclusion to the second world war, when we could have been abusive and and condemnatory and destroyed the society of germany and italy and japan. instead, it was his background wisdom and judgment that led all of these countries to survive the war not with destruction, but with a new breath of freedom and a commitment to democracy, which has persisted in all three countries. i think he was quite generous too. obviously the marshall plan. so which was just announced by george marshall, could have very well have been called the truman plan, but so he was generous to his cabinet officers. i just have you could see a great admiration for him in many ways. when you were president, had you thought a lot about what you wanted to be as a

when she was still a princess she met truman.eter: because of course joe kennedy was fdr's ambassador for a while. mr. charter: this is a really interesting point that emerges from her formative years in the run-up to the war. kennedy becomes a rather unpopular ambassador in britain, because he, for one, cannot see why on earth america should get involved in the war in europe and makes that pretty clear. that is not what fdr is thinking. however, fdr is campaigning on keeping america out of any war in europe. so there's this contradiction in what is being presented to the public a bit. and there's hits -- this chafing behind the scenes were fdr wants joseph kennedy to get with the program, that america will support the u.k. if it really comes to it, but while he is campaigning for his reelection, he's not going to commit to send british troops into mainland europe, for example. and so they fall out and eventually joseph kennedy is recalled. but not before quite a famous, or quite an intriguing meeting happens. because kennedy's s

bush, clinton -- and truman . that's 14.ut the subtitle of your book is 70 years and 13 president. who was left out? mr. charter: obviously he is part of american history, but sadly, not one that the queen met while he was sitting president. lbj. there are reasons for this, which i go into in the book. there are accidental, if you like, reasons that when jfk was assassinated, she was planning -- she would have liked to have gone to the funeral. she could not go pretty her doctors prevented her because she was too heavily pregnant at the time. when churchill died a couple of years later, lbj wanted to come but he got sick during his inauguration in january 1965. and his doctors prevented him from traveling to the u.k.. so if it were not for those unfortunate accidents of history, they would have met. but what happened of course was that lbj's full term became completely overwhelmed with vietnam and he was angry with the british under their prime minister who would not commit troops to vietnam. and he basically had little time

while he was out of office, but he was friendly with truman during the wartime period. it is best known for the phrase, an iron curtain is falling over europe in that same speech he outlined what he thought would be the special relationship between britain and its commonwealth and america not just militarily, by the way , culturally and scientific research and education as well. but it's also become rather associated with the fact that at the time britain and europe was still heavily dependent upon american -- in funding to rebuild after the second world war. some historians view it as a little bit of a dependency where it is a special pleading, special on one side more than the other, but with the queen managed to do through her reign was established this term of churchill's as a partnership of equals in terms of the level of involvement with trade and investment between the countries as that has become much more important. >> for those who are semi- familiar with the u.s. british history, some of sounds familiar from the cr. how accurate is that serious? >> we could d

and when he got the opportunity to write that with truman, truman then asked him to retire.ore he unveed the policy. so ben davis senior's name was removed from all the documentation, and then, even for ben junior, he would become a four star general. buit it took a very long time and what happened in 1967, he was eligible to become a four star general. america's first black four star general. but lbj at that time didn't feel he could get any more political gains out of allowing that promotion. he was done. that was it. the presidents really used ben junior and senior, really, as political allies to get votes and move policy through. and it wasn't until 1998, after 12 years of lobbying by senator john mccain, that bill clinton promoted him to full four star general. but with that promotion came in my life, one of the most emotional moments in our family, because in order to get the fourth star, which they're acknowledging, we did not get in the 60s, okay, so there's no confusion here. we're going to the white house grounds to get it from the president. so we know the regal n

truman, who integrated the u.s. military called marshall the architect of victory in world war ii. marshall spent most of his life, 49 years devoted to america's defense. another example of a great defense leader was james forestall the first secretary of defense under the truman administration who served from 1947 to 194849. he played a role in re-organizing our military to meet the requirements of world war ii landscape. when the u.n. was just being founded. there was a lot of imagination and intellect that created institutions after the civil war. forestall worked for the secretary of the navy handling extensive contracts and built his office into an efficient organization and served as the sick of the navy in 1944 guarding our navy through world war ii and the difficult years of demobilization following the vurnd of japan. he set a high standard for leading our men and women to maintain the security of our nation. during the eisenhower administration, charles e. wilson had a major internal organization and implemented the new look defense concept that elevated strategic air pow

. >> president harry truman. >> i believe the countries that oppose us will abandon their delusions.> and president dwight eisenhower. >> we sense that forces of good and evil are armed and opped as rarely before in history. >> wistoric inaugural speeches7:00 eastern on american history tv on c-span2. ♪ >> sunday, don scott talks about his life, including spending almost eight years in prison. >> i had never been in trouble before. i had served my country. i was hoping i would get more grace. the judge probably could have given me more time than he did. i remember hearing my mother when he said 10 years, she could not believe it, and that yelp of pain, it always stays with me. it always lets me know how fragile our freedom is and how perilous it is. if you make one wrong move sometimes, it can literally be the end of your life as you know it. >> virginia's democratic house speaker dawn scott sunday night -- don scott on c-span's "q&a." >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government funded by

>> harry truman left office extremely unpopular, and he was thought to be an inappropriate successoreat fdr. now, because of books by david mccollough and others who wrote books about truman, people see him as one of our great presidents. post-world war ii he helped end the war because he dropped the atomic bomb. many think it was necessary. >> he never doubted? >> he never doubted it. self-doubt wasn't his thing. he believed it was the right decision. he was responsible for nato, the u.n., the world bank, the imf, and the cia, which he created as well. he recognized israel. even though his secretary of state threatened to resign over it. he was a person who has risen up, a person who has gone down, i would say, or two that have gone down a lot, one is andrew jackson. remember, democrats used to say we're going to have a jefferson jackson day dinner. they don't have that anymore. he's seen as racist and very anti-native american and did things that killed a lot of people in the native american community in particular. he's not well respected today by scholars. another person i would

this involved the uss harry s truman and the uss gettysburg, shown here in file video. central command says two u.s. navy pilots were forced to eject over the red sea when their fighter jet was shot down, and it's believed the guided missile cruiser, the gettysburg, mistakenly fired on the f, a 18 fighter as it flew over the truman. both pilots survived. they have been recovered. one was hurt, but not seriously. all right, we're back in 60s. just ahead. a rare find in the red kettle. the surprising donation that could bring in thousands of dollars to a good cause. plus long lines to make sure children have a gift on christmas. the huge turnout for a south bay toy drive. and we're off to a foggy and at times soggy start to the weekend. as you see here in our storm ranger mobile doppler radar. rain at times and more as we wrap up the weekend. details on this and strger stormson an extra special gift ahead of the holidays. it struck gold, literally. check it out. the organization says it discovered a rarare gold coin in one of its red kettles. you're looking at it right he

>> truman needs somebody, some electric personality, to really sell the idea of a permanent alliance, which is something america had never done. >> the soviets had taken over eastern europe and were trying to extend their control across the continent. eisenhower took the nato job, an order announcing his assumption of command. he made a forceful case for the new alliance to the nation. >> if we americans seize the lead, we will preserve and be worthy of our own past. our children will dwell in peace. they will dwell in freedom. they will read the history of this decade with tingling pride. >> but there was one man eisenhower was especially eager to convince. the republican frontrunner for president, robert taft. before the 1952 republican primary, eisenhower met with taft and proposed a deal he. eisenhower would withdraw publicly from consideration for the nomination on one condition that taft endorse. nato. but taft refused. >> he says, i'm not doing it. i've been an isolationist all my life. i believe america should look inward, not outward. i would never say such a thing. >> eisenh

my favorite political leader is harry truman so i have that and a copy of the back stops here. i tried to get the original but i had to get the copy made. and george washington the founder of or country an admirable leader on a global scale and benjamin franklin because i think his wisdom bears a lot to what our nation's founders decided would be in the constitution. >> this little memento oh, god i see is so great and my boat is so spall, where did that come from? president carter: i served with withed a miller rickover and when i was elected president he gave me that. it was kind of a reminder of being humble and depend on god's guidance and the other is just to commemorate my admiration for president truman and remember when an issue gets to the over office it is too difficult or complicated for mayors or governors or congress to address. the president has the ultimate decision to make. >> how much time did you spend in the overall office as a working office? president carter: a lot. i came over here at 7:00 every morning and would read the secret reports from the state depa