Review: Truman

I had been meaning to read Truman by David McCullough for years, but what finally compelled me to read the bio was a biography of Wild Bill Donovan by Douglas Waller, which I reviewed earlier. Though he appears only briefly in Waller’s book, the well known no-nonsense style and common sense of Truman as portrayed in the book captivated me enough to commit to reading Truman when I finished the Donovan bio.

Many of Truman’s accomplishments and Horatio Alger rise are well known and require little elaboration. He was indeed as “common” a man who ever occupied the White House, embodying the uniquely American belief that anyone could become president. He was a college dropout (for financial reasons), a reluctant but committed farmer, and a failed haberdasher and businessman, who first found his footing and penchant for leadership as an artillery officer in World War I, serving despite being over age and poor eyesight. His one great passion was politics—a family preoccupation—and he soon found himself involved in local politics, then U.S. Senator, then Vice President. Though it’s not clear whether the party bosses (and President Franklin Roosevelt) understood that they were choosing the next president by selecting Truman as vice president since FDR’s failing health was by then an open secret in Washington, DC, Truman clearly rose to the occasion and then some.

There’s little in Truman’s biography to suggest that he would later be widely considered as one of the nation’s great presidents. Timing helped of course—he was a “wartime” president who presided over the end of World War II (making the fateful decision to drop the atom bomb) and the start of the “cold” war. But successfully meeting momentous challenges require clear-eyed leadership and smart decisions. Truman’s innate American prairie common sense and a no-nonsense leadership style were central to his success, as were strong Cabinet appointments like Dean Acheson and George Marshall, with whom he had strong personal and professional ties. But he also was a great student of history and of leadership, and had great respect for the presidency. Truman’s administration encompassed the Marshall Plan, the founding of the U.N., the Berlin Airlift, the founding of Israel, and established the Truman Doctrine which essentially guided U.S. foreign policy through the end of the Cold War. (As an ardent amateur architect, he also was responsible for renovating the White House, spending several years at a temporary residence while the chief executive mansion was renovated. It had literally been deemed unsafe and ready to collapse when he took office.)

One of the most remarkable revelations for me was that he was the product of one of the most powerful political machines in the country in Kansas City, Missouri. Though Truman was beholden to its boss, Tom Pendergast, through much of his career, there’s little evidence that Truman ever compromised himself, a remarkable feat, despite the attempt by rivals to use this association against him. (Indeed, while reading the biography, I wondered whether the corrupt senator in Frank Capra’s 1939 film, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, was partly based on Truman. In the film, Claude Raines plays a senator who is in the pocket of a corrupt political boss and bears a resemblance to Truman.) True to character, Truman remained loyal to Pendergast to a fault and never denied his connection to the man, causing a minor stir when he attended Pendergast’s funeral as vice president.

Perhaps not as revelatory is the portrayal of the Soviets in the book. Truman was truly committed to avoiding another world war and finding a way to peacefully co-exist with the U.S.S.R. Indeed, though Truman was always realistic and clear-eyed, he thought he would be able to reasonably negotiate with them. Indeed, he admitted both privately and, occasionally publicly (to much derision) that he personally liked “Uncle Joe” Stalin and at least could see where he stood. Over time, however, Truman came to realize that the Soviets thrived on instability and were expert at exploiting uncertainty, so he eventually came to recognize and accept the reality of the Cold War.

Also fascinating is the discussion of Truman’s “surprise” victory over challenger Thomas A. Dewey in 1948, which resulted in the iconic “Dewey Beats Truman” flub headline in the Chicago Tribune. With polling still in its infancy, the book shows that Truman may not have been as far behind as common wisdom (and the press) assumed. Truman did build momentum on one of the last great train whistle-stop campaigns of its kind, but it’s clear that his support in rural areas was greatly overlooked and underestimated. Dewey also did himself no favors by coasting and playing it safe since the polls had him so far out ahead. But ultimately the book notes that, still in its post-war boom, the U.S. was experiencing unprecedented growth and prosperity. So while there was some fatigue given Truman was seen as an extension of FDR’s unprecedented 12 years in office, it’s likely voters asked themselves, “Why rock the boat?” and decided to stay with Truman.

What’s striking about Truman was his genuine Capra-esque trust in the wisdom of the people and the common man. McCullough notes that Truman in his manners and values was essentially a 19th century man. He was also a fervent Democratic partisan and the product of staunch Confederate southerners—yet Truman’s vision, principles and values enabled him to rise above the provincialism and prejudices that were part of his environment and upbringing. Though in private his language and remarks could reveal the kind of easy racism that made  him to be a product of his time and place, he nevertheless became an early champion of civil rights (even though it seriously threatened his chances of re-election, he refused to back down on his civil right positions and was the first president to address the NAACP, which he did at the Lincoln Memorial) and at every State of the Union he always proposed universal health care.

Truman tells the remarkable story of a common man.

America's First Modern Spy Chief

Between the San Diego Comic-Con and the release of Rob Hanes Adventures #13, there hasn’t been mention of much else at this blog lately, so I’m pleased to provide some relief from the PR-oriented slant of my comments from the past few months....

First up are reviews of a couple books I've read in recent months, Wild Bill Donovan: The Spymaster Who Created the OSS and Modern American Espionage by Douglas Waller and Truman by David McCullough.

As the title explicitly explains to the uninitiated, William Joseph “Wild Bill” Donovan was the founder of the OSS, the spy agency that was founded during World War II, later to morph into the CIA during the Cold War. A Medal of Honor winner in the First World War, Donovan was a scrappy, self-made man with street smarts (as a Catholic, he was initially an “outsider”), who was also ambitious and restless. Though he was a lawyer by profession and a partner in an affluent law firm, he used his position as an opportunity to engage in international travel and intrigue, often volunteering (whether welcome or not) to size up and gather intelligence on the people he met and the places he visited. (As an indication of both his prominence and resourcefulness, during a trip overseas before the war he wrangled a private meeting with Italy’s Benito Mussolini and smooth-talked him into having his military staff provide him with tours and briefings of Italy’s military and political goals, capabilities and operations.) Donovan's activities convinced him of the importance of intelligence gathering and, after persistent prodding, he convinced President Franklin Roosevelt—who was a bit of a spy buff himself—to create and appoint him head of what became the OSS. Though each man came from rival political parties, both knew the value of information.

The book reveals the agency in its infancy to be often amateurish and slapdash, predictably attracting wannabes who sometimes had more chutzpah than common sense. This was partly a reflection of Donovan’s own personality and his predilection to abruptly jump from one interest to another. Furthermore, none of this should be a surprise since, up until then, the U.S., didn’t have much of a tradition in spycraft, particularly compared to Great Britain, which had a hand in the founding of the OSS. Indeed, the British played a key role in pushing Donovan to found the agency and providing him with assistance in building it; Donovan early on recognized that war was coming and strongly supported the British, so they saw him as a friend and a key contact within Roosevelt’s inner circle (though they probably misread the degree of influence he actually had with the president). While Donovan was occasionally criticized for being too dependent on the British—or, worse, being nothing but their puppet—to his credit he did become wary of his relationship with them and, once the OSS found its legs, he certainly marched to his own drummer, often operating at odds with his British counterparts in different theaters of operation around the world. Contrary to the more under-the-radar approach of the British, he OSS’s operations and ambitions were certainly as much a reflection of Donovan’s outsized cowboy personality as his desire to ensure the OSS made its mark.

Not surprisingly, Donovan seemed to spend as much time fighting political battles in Washington as he did fifth columnists and Axis enemies. This was in large part due to FDR’s style: the president liked to play people and agencies against each other and fancied the OSS as his own private spy agency (he initially funded it in secret without Congress’s knowledge), with little thought or planning devoted to how its work fit in with similar operations within the military, the FBI and various other U.S. information agencies. (Not unexpectedly in retrospect, Hoover despised Donovan and worked hard to discredit both the OSS and Donovan himself.) Working at cross-purposes and stepping on other agencies’ turfs were not uncommon occurrences.

The book also sheds light on many of the side clashes and political maneuverings that went on during the war outside of the better known theaters of operations in Europe and the Pacific. In some ways, the OSS’s activities were particularly important in these areas in the absence of an overt American military presence. Places like Switzerland and Turkey were hotbeds of espionage—not too unlike the kind of intrigue romanticized in the film Casablanca—where many spies’ identities were widely known and informants switched sides on a dime (or, rather, for a dime). Other hotspots in the Mediterranean, the Middle East and especially Eastern Europe also provided openings for opportunists, nationalists and political factions to settle scores, engage in criminal acts and/or assert sovereignty, often playing Ally advisors and agents against their Axis counterparts. In these instances, the U.S. and the British often parted ways and clashed, partly because the British were more engaged in realpolitik and focused on preserving the British Empire while finding the morality that often drove American policy as idealistic if not downright disingenuous and delusional.

Though the value of Donovan’s work—or at least the OSS’s—came to be appreciated within the U.S. government by the end of the war (even within the military), after the death of FDR, the agency’s future became uncertain. FDR’s successor, Harry Truman, eventually came to see the value of an intelligence agency as the Cold War emerged, but had no trust or confidence in Donovan, despite Donovan’s best efforts to gain it. Eventually, Donovan was squeezed out and the CIA was founded. Some of the men who worked under Donovan (not all happily) would work for the new agency. A few—most notably Allen Dulles—would even go on to serve as CIA director.

After his work with the OSS wound down, Donovan remained active but restless: he helped prosecute war crimes in Nuremburg (though he eventually had a falling out with the lead prosecutor) and briefly served as ambassador to Thailand (where he tried to re-engage in spy activity). It’s clear, however, that Donovan spent much of his remaining years trying to recapture the excitement and influence he had achieved with the OSS during the war. But though his service was honored and appreciated, the world had changed. Nevertheless, the passing of time showed that many of his innovations and ideas about the importance and work of intelligence to be prescient and valuable. So while the establishment of the CIA was intended to signal a clean break from the OSS and the start of a more professionalized intelligence service, credit must still be given to Donovan for laying down the groundwork for the modern CIA.

Next:Truman by David McCullough