Book: The Accidental President: Harry Truman & the Four Months That Changed the World
Author: AJ Baine
Pages: 360
I chose this book because I was in Key West a year ago with my family on vacation. While there, we toured “The Little White House,” a Navy Officer house that President Truman used frequently during his second term because the climate was good for his lungs. At the time, I did not know much about Harry Truman and wanted to learn more.
What I learned from this book was that Harry Truman & I have quite a bit in common:
1) He is from a farm, like myself. He had several failed businesses during his early life, like I did.
2) He is hard-working, honest and believes in getting things done – as I do.
3) He enjoyed a couple glasses of bourbon per day – I like bourbon.
Some interesting aspects of this book is that Harry Truman started out as a county judge in Missouri. Ten years later, he was the president of the United States, after serving as a US Senator in between. He was also the only the second President born west of the Mississippi. The other one, Tyler, also succeeded a president who died in office. He did not have a college degree, but gained quite a bit of experience as an artillery battalion captain in WWI where no lives were lost on his watch. He is considered to be one of the top ten presidents in US history. He considered himself a Jeffersonian Democrat, meaning that his job was to support farmers, merchants and family values of US people while protecting them from special interest groups. His management style was almost exactly opposite of FDR’s. Harry read all policy papers and tried to have meetings to make decisions – not to have meetings that just led to more meetings.
While the Soviets had about forty times the number of people killed in WWII and many think that their sacrifices were what won the war, they could not have done it without the Lend-Lease Act of the United States that provided them and Great Britain with war materials and food commodities that allowed them to continue fighting. During Truman’s nearly two full terms in office, he was responsible for the Marshall Plan, Truman Doctrine, Berlin Airlift, founding the CIA, Department of Defense and the Atomic Energy Commission and committing troops to fight in Korea. He was chastised for firing General Douglas MacArthur and for being the first country to recognize Israel.
The following lessons were learned for increasing my prospects for success after prison:
1) Do the work. President Truman was known for getting up early and working hard. While he may have worked until 9 or 10 pm, he believed in a good night’s sleep so that he could start the next day on the right foot. These are good principles to live by.
2) Surround yourself with good knowledgeable people whom you trust. Within four months, he replaced nearly all of FDR’s Cabinet with his own people. Some of this was due to the fact that the war was winding down and different skillsets were required to run the country on its own as opposed to one focused on war. I also believe in surrounding myself with people I trust. Although I have only been in prison for 8 days, I already found 2 fellow prisoners who are similar to me in nature and who I trust. The same thing must happen when I get out and most of these are friends who I knew when I went into prison. I am lucky to have good trustworthy people on the outside who support me.
3) Read – Harry Truman read every paper given to him to get a good understanding of the issue at hand. FDR was known for not reading most papers but focusing on big picture policy. I think that reading is one of the most important things you can do and that is why I have completely finished four books and written book reports on them. I have two more books that are about 50% completed. This is better than playing cards, boardgames or watching TV/movies with the other prisoners. I did take the libert of watching the OSU/Texas game, but that is because I am an OSU Alumni.