% Lessons from Harry Truman :Decisive leadership courage and integrity ability and the courage to stand alone 2025 120pg

A book by Timeless Lessons Press     “The buck stops here.” 28/3/26

May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under This Roof” John Adams.1800. The first President in the White House.

1945 April till 1953 Jan. When he left office as the 33rd President his approval rating were amongst the lowest in the world. Today historians consider that he was amongst the most consequential leaders. 8years less 82 days. He was a man of  moral clarity and with honesty, accountability and decisiveness. He had a sense of personal responsibility and learned how to navigate corruption without succumbing. He always believed that the right action however unpopular is the highest form of leadership.

Born in 1884. He was very bookish, loyal to his family and beside scripture at a young age had read the histories of Rome and Greece and biographies of Andrew Jackson and Napoleon. He wanted to attend West Point but failed the vision test. In 1905 joined the National Guard. 1914 his father died and he took over running the farm. WW1 he enlisted in the Field Artillery, He did not cheat, drink or take bribes. He became president while America was still at war in both Europe and the Pacific, and had only met Roosevelt twice. he believed in work well done promises kept and you owned decisions.  Complaining never harvested a field he learned on the farm. Roosevelt had humor, Churchill poetry but Truman endurance. When scandals later erupted in his administration, he faced them head on. His speeches were plain direct and unpolished.

WW1 he emerged as a leader  capable of commanding men, making decisions under fire, and standing firm in chaos. In 1918 he was a captain in command of Battery D who had, had a reputation before he arrived as being  unruly and impossible to control, In the mud of France he learned that trust was the currency of leadership. His soldiers would remain fierce loyal and even when he was president he received their letters addressed to Captain Harry. He understood that poor decisions and waste and corruption cost lives.

Failure more than success reveals who you are. He and his friend Eddie opened the Truman &Jacobson haberdashery when the soldiers were returning from the war and Kansas was booming. The shop became a veteran meeting place,  but came the crash or recession of 1921 people stopped buying clothes. Truman resolved not to declare bankruptcy but to pay the people back and it took him 15 years. A man who never has been knocked down has no idea how to get up again. "If I am not true to my word on small things, how can I ever be trusted on the great things"

Going into politics was a moral minefield. Kansas City Democrats was run by Tom Prendergast the most corrupt machine in the  country but they saw his potential. Votes were bought , jobs were traded for loyalty. With Prendergast help Truman ran for Eastern District judge at Jackson County, this was a administrative overseeing budgets. Curiously Truman could not be bought.  However when this position was lost to Republican in 1924 he returned to the family farm, but later he got this job back again. Later Prendergast needed a candidate for the Senate, here he never made speeches of promises he couldn't keep. Prendergast  was later put in prison for Tax evasion.

Washington in the 1930s was a city of patronage. But Truman said if something is wrong I can't vote for it. Remembering the inefficiencies of WW1 He proposed a committee to investigate waste and mismanagement in defense production and this was later called the Truman Committee. Companies were charging the government 3 time the price for substandard goods. Workers complained about the unsafe conditions, wasted  materials and fraud. Waste costs lives and faulty equipment killed soldiers. . Refusal to look away when the truth is inconvenient. After Pearl Harbour the US mobilization was unmatched in history, Wherever money flowed freely corruption followed.

He was warned that  to investigate waste during the war was political suicide as it would be resented by powerful industrialists and officials. "Then that is exactly what we need to do.  I'm not after headlines, I want results" The Truman Committee had over 400 hearings and 51 reports.  When an executive accused the committee of harming morale Truman replied " What harms moral is when a soldier dies because of a faulty gun."  The press called him the Treasury Watchdog. It is estimated that he saved the taxpayer $15 billion. 

Henry Wallace was meant to be voted for vice president but he was too polarizing for Roosevelt. "Truth always strengthened democracy"  Truman was vice President for only 82 days. "Leadership without humility becomes tyranny in disguise."  A leader has to make decisions and live with them.---------------------------------

 Ending the war quickly would limit Soviet influence, Wars end when the ideas that refuel war are resolved, and he believed that cooperation with the defeated Germans was important.   

In Europe Stalin refused to honor agreement he had made and would keep Soviet troops in all land occupied, he would not hold free elections. There is no difference between a totalitarian state and gangster , you can't appease either one. Britain informed America  that without help Turkey and Greece would fall to communism and global responsibility was being handed over to the US. This led to the Truman Doctrine 1947 March, that the US would stand against expansion of tyranny, and Congress would support his request for aid to Greece and Turkey. However he stated that American strength must rest on arms but also democratic ideals.

1947 June Secretary of State George Marshall gave a speech at Harvard University. Truman understood that victory without reconstruction  would lead to what followed WW1 and they must not allow conditions that would breed dictators. The Marshall Plan or the European Recovery Program was to rebuild infrastructures, stabilize currencies and restore production. This was the end of US return to isolationism. The cost of peace if far less than the cost of war. Europeans countries began to coordinate their economies and this led to the European Union resulting in not only recovery but unity. Truman's insistence of including Germany and Italy was controversial but visionary. Truman never claimed credit but praised Marshal as the greatest man of the age.

1948 June till May 1949 The US Britain and France unified the territories  that they occupied and made into an economically stable West Germany and the Deutsche Mark was introduced to revive trade. When the Soviets closed the roads to West Berlin. The airlift was introduced. Truman would not back down. He showed that the arsenal of democracy mightiest weapon was endurance, but it also showed unity and NATO resulted.

After winning the elections in 1948 Truman raised the minimum wage from 40 to 75 cents a hour. Extended social security to 10 million more Americans, initiated a housing program but was not able to advance in national  health. He called for anti lynching laws. end to poll taxes and desegregated the armed forces by executive order in  1948 July. " The test of government is how much it can do for the poor man to help himself."" Democracy is not self sustaining it must be nourished by fairness , defended by courage and guided be conscience"

Truman was the president who took a moral stand, he supported a cause not because it was popular but because it was right." He was apposed by the "Dixiecrats" Democrats who stood for states rights .If you wish to inspire freedom abroad you must practice it at home. With segregation he said " We cannot any longer afford the luxury of separate but equal." The military would become the laboratory of integration.  Appointed more black judges than any previous president. Met Civil Rights leaders including NAACP.  In 1947 July he spoke at their gathering at the Lincoln Memorial.  I swore on oath to uphold the Constitution and " it does not say for whites only."  He showed that moral courage is not measured by applause but by doing what is right.

The Korean War showed the limits of power. Truman believed in containment to preserve peace. This war broke out in 1950 and General Douglas MacArthur  with UN forces launched an amphibious landing at Inchon behind enemy lines and caught the North Koreans off guard and liberated Seoul and drove them north. MacArthur wanted to move them beyond the 28 parallels but Mao warned that they would not tolerate foreign troops so close to its territories. Thousands of Chinese troops crossed the Yula River. Truman fired MacArthur because he did not respect the authority of the President. The people can elect a new president  but can't elect a new General. In a democracy power must remain accountable especially  during a war. The hardest thing in being a leader is knowing when not to fight. Generals advise but presidents decide.

After he left office corporate boards offered him positions, he answered "You don't want to pay for my knowledge you want to pay for my name and that is not for sale."  Dignity does not depend on riches. When asked what he missed most about being president answer " The music of the marine band"  " When you are in charge you  can't blame anyone else"  If you want a friend in Washington get yourself a dog. Friendship and power rarely exist. Leadership does not require grandeur but gravity.

He entered the presidency without popularity and left it with less. His approval rating sank as low as 22%. He said "I cant make people like me I can only do my job."  He told the public what it didn't believe that communism could not be defeated overnight. I'll leave my defense to history it has a longer memory that newspapers. The Presidency is a trust not a trophy. He declined a official visit to Queen Elizabeth II. as he said a man shouldn't go sightseeing at the expense of the taxpayers.

He died aged 88 in 1972 and buried with only the naval band playing and no pageantry. His legacy was that he had a modest background and no wealth and no university degree.. He understood power as a loan and not a possession. He called himself "the Common Man President"  The only thing new in the world is the history you don't know. Courage need not come with grandeur, and greatness does not require perfection. He never hid from his mistakes, he faced them and learned from them. About the Atomic bomb he said " Sometime you do terrible things to prevent worse ones. 36,000 Americans died in the Korean War. and it was labeled the Truman War. You have to keep sowing the seed even if you wont be there to harvest. To work hard even when no-one notices. He represented America of small towns and big hearts. A man's honor is his best protection.  Truman's legacy is not the wars he fought but the peace he achieved, not the speeches he gave but the example he set. Do your duty without expectation of reward.

The opening of archival records, and major biographical works like David McCullough's 1992 biography

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HARRY TRUMAN – PART 1 TO END OF SECOND WORLD WAR.  by  Neville Berman

Harry Truman was born in a house in Missouri. His parents were dirt poor.  After finishing school, he could not afford to go to university and he took a job as a bank clerk. He left the job in order to help run the family farm.  In 1917 he enlisted in the army and was sent to France. His buddy was Eddie Jacobson. 

After returning home he married Elizabeth “Bess” Wallace and they had one daughter.  

He also went into partnership with Edie Jacobson in a haberdashery business. The business failed and despite having no money Truman decided that he wanted to enter politics.  

Tom Pendergast .  He helped Truman to be elected first as a Judge in Jackson County, and then in 1934 to be elected as the Missouri SENATOR.   He was reelected in 1940. 

Everything in America changed on December 7, 1941. The next day President Roosevelt addressed a joint session of the Senate and the House. His speech will always be remembered for his opening sentence. 

Yesterday December 7, 1941 a day that will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air force of the Empire of Japan. After the speech he called for a declaration of war against Japan. The vote was 82-0 in the Senate and 388-1 in the House. Janette. Three days later Germany declared war on America and America declared war on Germany.  Americas isolation policy was over.   

Three months later the Senate established a committee to investigate price fixing, fraud and overpricing in awarding military contracts. Harry Truman was appointed to head the committee and it became known as the TRUMAN COMMITTEE. It saved billions of dollars and Truman appeared on the cover of TIME MAGAZINE. 

The farmer from Missouri was now a national figure. 

In January 1944 Roosevelt e made a speech calling for a Second Bill of Rights for ALL Americans. This alarmed the Southern states. All Americans obviously included Blacks. 

Henry Wallace, the Vice President had voted against a bill that would make lynching a Federal Crime. It was clear that the Blacks would never support Wallace and if the Roosevelts Second Bill of Rights passed, the Southern States would also not vote for  Roosevelt.

 Without the Black vote and without the support of the Southern States the Democrats were in danger of losing the election due in November 1944. Something had to be done. 

The Democratic Party National Committee met and decided that a replacement for Wallace needed to be found.   

Roosevelt would not be attending the convention as he would be in San Diego on his way to the Pacific for meetings with MacArthur. He would address the convention in a radio address.  

 

One month before the start of the convention the Democratic National Committee finally got a meeting with Roosevelt. 

Roosevelt opened the meeting by saying he wanted Wallace to be his running mate. Nobody agreed with him.

He then asked for other nominees.   Every name suggested was rejected.

He finally asked Bob Hannegan the Chairman of the Committee if he had any suggestions. 

Hannagan suggested Harry Truman. He said he was a national figure and highly respected for his honesty.  He would definitely bring in the Black vote and as he was the Senator from Missouri the Southern States would support him. He was definitely an asset. Everyone agreed, including Roosevelt.   

Roosevelt then asked members of the committee to inform Wallace and Brynes, the two leading contenders to be Roosevelts running mate to withdraw their nominations as his running mate.   He then closed the meeting.  

Roosevelt hardly knew Truman and had only met Truman once. 

The next day both Wallace and Brynes refused to withdraw.

The day before the convention, Roosevelt announced to  the press that “’the delegates at the convention needed to choose his running mate, and if I was a delegate I would choose Wallace.”

On the first morning of the convention Brynes announced that he was withdrawing his nomination.  

Wallace now believed he had the nomination in the bag. 

What he did not realize was that the National Committee that ran the convention, did not want him to be Roosevelts running mate.  The convention was about to become a  confrontation of epic proportions.  

In the afternoon Truman was called to a meeting of the National Committee. It was a set up. 

At the agreed upon time, Roosevelt called from San Diego. The call was put on speaker phone. Roosevelt said, “Bob, have you got that fellow lined up yet.” No replied Hannegan – He is the contrariest, gaddam mule from Missouri I ever dealt with.  

Everyone in the room now realized that Roosevelt was talking about Truman. Roosevelt then said “Tell the senator that America is in a war, and if the democratic party loses the election, it will be his responsibility. He then slammed down the phone.  

Truman realized that the President had just asked him to stand as his running mate. Truman could not refuse the President. He decided to run.

The latest poll showed 65 % for Wallace and 2% for  Truman. 

The National Committee that was in charge of the Convention understood what was happening.  

  

In the first round of voting delegates are bound to vote according to the mandate from their caucus. 

There were 12 candidates proposed and no one got over 50 % . The committee decided to call an immediate 2nd round vote. In a second- round vote, the delegates are free to vote for whoever they choose.  

 

Maryland and Oklahoma were the first two states to vote. They both pledged all their votes for Harry Truman. Pandemonium broke out.

Two hours later the final vote was announced. 1,031 for Truman and 105 for Wallace. Truman was now officially Roosevelts running mate. 

In Nov 1944 - Roosevelt was elected for an unprecedented 4th term as President and was sworn in in January 1945. 

At 5 past 5 on the afternoon of April 12, Truman got a message to come immediately to the White House. He arrived a few minutes later and was ushered into a room where Elanor Roosevelt was waiting for him.  She said to him.  “Harry the President is dead.” 

Two and a half hours later Harry Truman was sworn in as the 33rd President of the United States, He was the 7th VP to be sworn in in this manner.  Truman had spent only 82 days as vice president. 

The farmer from Missouri who had no money, never went to university, and never ran a successful business, had just become the President of the most powerful country in the world.   

The next morning Truman received the first of his daily briefings on world affairs.  He was a good listener and a fast learner. 

After 13 days as President, Truman was scheduled to meet individually with two important advisors.   

The first one was Henry Stimpson, the Secretary of War. He arrived caring a folder marked TOP SECRET. The folder was about the Manhattan Project. After reading it, Stimpson strongly advised against using the bomb.     

The next advisor was Leslie Groves. He advised Truman that only the shock of having whole cities destroyed in seconds by nuclear bombs would end the war and save hundreds of thousands of American lives.  He advised Truman to use the bombs.  

On May 9, 1945 - Germany surrendered unconditionally.

However, the War in the Pacific was far from over. 

Truman asked George Marshall to prepare a plan for defeating Japan. Marshall estimated that would take at least a year and that more than 1 million soldiers would be needed and that up to 200,000 – 250,000 would be killed or injured. 

Truman then signed an order authorizing the military to use the bombs as required.   

On July 17, 1945 the Potsdam Conference attended by Truman, Churchill and Stalin began. 

At the meeting Stalin demanded that Germany pay $10 billion + Germany’s entire industrial base needed to be destroyed in order to ensure that Germany would never again be in a position to attack Russia. Stalin demanded 50% of the German war ships + submarines. Churchill said all the navy ships should be destroyed. Stalin said You can destroy your half, I will keep my half.  No one laughed. 

When the fact that Soviet solders were raping hundreds pf thousands of women of all ages was brought up, Stalin waved it away as the spoils of war. 

It was clear Russia was not going to be ally in the future. 

During the meeting Churchill was recalled to Britain. He had been defeated in an election and was no longer Prime Minister. He was replaced by Clement Atlee 

One thing that did happen at Potsdam that became known as the POSTDAM DECLARATION. It demanded that Japan surrender unconditionally or face prompt and utter destruction.  Japan refused.   

 On August 6, 1945 the first a atomic bomb named Little Boy, was dropped on Hiroshima and 3 days later the second atomic bomb named Fat Man, was dropped on Nagasaki. 

Between 150,000 and 246,000 people were killed almost all of whom were civilians. 

6 days later Emperor Hirohito addressed the nation on radio. He said that Japan had agreed to an American proposal.  Everyone understood that Japan had surrendered. 

On September 2, 1945 the formal signing took place aboard the USS Missouri. The war was finally over.

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First half hour  Truman Talk given at the History club on 10/9/26

May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under This Roof” John Adams.1800. The first President in the White House.  “The buck stops here.” 

1945 April till 1953 Jan. When he left office as the 33rd President his approval rating was amongst the lowest in the world. Today historians consider that he was amongst the most consequential leaders. 8 years less 82 days. He was a man of  moral clarity and with honesty, accountability and decisiveness. He had a sense of personal responsibility and learned how to navigate corruption without succumbing. He always believed that the right action, however unpopular, is the highest form of leadership.

 Missouri his grandfather was a slave owner; they were Presbyterians.. They moved to Independence, Missouri. He acted as a Shabbos goy for Jewish Neighbors. Truman wore glasses as a kid and was made fun of. Graduating at  school he worked at a bank as he had no money to go to college.  

Born in 1884   in Lamar Missouri, .His mother Martha  encouraged him to read and he read every history book available at the Independence library as well as encyclopedias. He was very bookish, loyal to his family and beside scripture at a young age had read the histories of Rome and Greece and Washington , Lincoln, Andrew Jackson were his heroes. He had maps on his wall and knew world Geography well. He wanted to attend West Point but failed the vision test. In 1905 joined the National Guard, by knowing the eye chart by heart. 1914 his father died and he took over running the farm as he had to support his mother.. WW1 he enlisted in the Field Artillery,  Aged 33 he went to reenlist  in 1917 leading his Missouri National Guard where he earned respect with the Irish and German, Catholic soldiers he led into combat till Armistice day.   In 1918 he was a captain in command of Battery D who had, had a reputation before he arrived as being  unruly and impossible to control, In the mud of France he learned that trust was the currency of leadership. His soldiers would remain fiercely loyal and even when he was president he received their letters addressed to Captain Harry. He understood that poor decisions and waste and corruption cost lives. WW1 he emerged as a leader  capable of commanding men, making decisions under fire, He did not cheat, drink or take bribes. “ Roosevelt had humor, Churchill poetry but Truman endurance. “

Failure more than success reveals who you are. He and his friend Eddie opened the Truman &Jacobson haberdashery when the soldiers were returning from the war and Kansas was booming. The shop became a veteran meeting place,  but after the crash or recession of 1921 people stopped buying clothes. Truman resolved not to declare bankruptcy but to pay the people back and it took him 15 years. A man who never has been knocked down has no idea how to get up again. "If I am not true to my word on small things, how can I ever be trusted on the great things"

Going into politics was a moral minefield. Kansas City Democrats was run by Tom Prendergast, the most corrupt machine in the  country but they saw his potential. Votes were bought , jobs were traded for loyalty. With Prendergast help Truman ran for Eastern District judge at Jackson County, this was an administrative overseeing budgets. Curiously Truman could not be bought.  However when this position was lost to the Republican in 1924 he returned to the family farm, but later he got this job back again. Later Prendergast needed a candidate for the Senate, here he never made speeches of promises he couldn't keep.  

Washington in the 1930s was a city of patronage.. At 50 he became a senator and devoted himself to the New Deal. In 1939 Pendergast was convicted; he had been totally corrupt, he ran the political machine in  which he  had helped Truman in politics. When he died Truman went to his funeral despite being told it was politically unwise. In 1937 Truman  had pointed out that they should be contemplating another war as conditions in Europe could explode at any time but Truman said if something is wrong I can't vote for it. Remembering the inefficiencies of WW1 He proposed a committee to investigate waste and mismanagement in defense production and this was later called the Truman Committee. Companies were charging the government 3 time the price for substandard goods. Workers complained about the unsafe conditions, wasted  materials and fraud. Waste costs lives and faulty equipment kills soldiers. . Refusal to look away when the truth is inconvenient. After Pearl Harbour the US mobilization was unmatched in history, Wherever money flowed freely corruption followed. 

He was warned that  to investigate waste during the war was political suicide as it would be resented by powerful industrialists and officials. "Then that is exactly what we need to do.  I'm not after headlines, I want results" The Truman Committee had over 400 hearings and 51 reports.  When an executive accused the committee of harming morale Truman replied " What harms morale is when a soldier dies because of a faulty gun."  The press called him the Treasury Watchdog. It is estimated that he saved the taxpayer $15 billion. 

FDR  was warned by his doctor to make a good choice for  Vice President and he would not survive a 4th term. . 

1944 Henry Wallace was meant to be voted for vice president but he was too polarizing for Roosevelt. Wallace was too cosy with trade unions, outspoken against segregation,, he was considered idealistic and erratic.  In FDR's fourth election campaign he was against Thomas Dewey and could not take a chance.  Harry Hopkins was the one who advised FDR to take Truman.  Truman was old, but he had no enemies and would hurt the ticket the least.   Truman was not enthralled by the idea as he loved  working for the Senate, he knew Bess his wife  disliked Washington and the social pressures there, or the White House but preferred the quiet life. “If you want a friend in the White House, get a dog.” This would be the first wartime election since Lincoln beat  General Mc Clellan in 1864.  His daughter Margaret played first lady and she went onto writing crime novels  about the White House.

Harry was 60 when he became the 33rd  President with  no planning for the role. "Truth always strengthened democracy" and elected he was  dubbed the "Missouri Compromise." Truman was vice President for only 82 days.  

 1945 April 12,,Truman was inaugurated.  "Leadership without humility becomes tyranny in disguise" When scandals later erupted in his administration, he faced them head on. His speeches were plain direct and unpolished.  A leader has to make decisions and live with them.---  He became president while America was still at war in both Europe and the Pacific, and had only met Roosevelt twice. He believed in work, well done promises kept and you owned decisions. 

 Truman had told the FDR  staff that he was keeping them all on.  Hopkins advised him he must slowly appoint his own people and so the first change he made  was secretary of labour Francis Perkins was replaced by  Clinton Anderson. Truman did not want a woman in the cabinet. She had held this post for 12 years and had established Social Security. Yet he later appointed Elenor Rooseveld to the role of US delegate at the UN. The war would only end with Unconditional Surrender.

Harry Hopkins was the best person who could tutor Truman on the situation. They knew each other from the New Deal years in 1933 when Hopkins was in Missouri directing laborer's to Public Works jobs.

Extra1941 Dec Pearl Harbour attack killed 2500 Americans 20 naval vessels and 300 airplanes.   

1945April FDR died. We now had a transition from the aristocrat of Hyde Park NY to the little guy from Missouri. He was the oldest to become president since James Buchanan(1857 -1861) the second from west of the Mississippi since Herbert Hoover.

The US at this stage had 12 million in the military of a population of 140million. US factories were producing 45% of the world's armaments and 50% of the world's goods. Chief of Staff George Marshall was 65 and his military judgement was never challenged.Truman trusted Marshall’s judgement.

Henry Stimson was secretary of war at 77. Admiral Leahy was the one  who met with the president every morning since Pearl Harbour to explain the situation. It was only now that Truman learned about the Manhattan project.

 

Haven: the dramatic story of how 1000 WW2 refugees and how they came to America by Ruth Gruber 2010 320pg

  20/3/26  To be edited.

1000 refugees were brought to the States as guests of the President Roosevelt in 1944 transported on army ship from Anzio and Cassino, to a camp in Oswego ,NY. This camp was under the War Relocation Authority(WRA) part of the Dept. of Interior. Organized by Harold L. Ickes , secretary for the Interior. Brought on the USNS Henry Gibbins an army tranport.  This ship is also documented by the book The English GI: World War II Graphic Memoir, the story of Bernard Sandler.

1924 a quota system was implemented in bringing immigrants to the US, it was designed in such a way that mostly Western European could enter the States so as to make it more difficult for Easter European to enter i.e. Jews and Orientals. About 675,000 a year could enter the USA. This 1000 was outside the quota. Britain had closed the doors of Palestine.  The 100,000 Japanese Americans interned and relocated to camps were also under the WRA. just after Pearl Harbour. theoretically this thousand were being given refuge while the war was on but could not get visas and so were supposed to be sent back to Europe at the end.

Harald Ickes  sent Ruth to represent his dept. as she had got her degree in Germany and spoke Yiddish as well. She had to get vaccines for smallpox, typhus tetanus and plague. In flying an army plane they were taught that if a plane (C54) was shot down and had to ditch. They had to know how to inflate the Mae West vests and open the collapsible life boat. The landed in Newfoundland and then the Azores but must not meet the natives as their was plague and use mosquito repellent, and never eat uncooked vegetables. Venereal disease was also rampant in the tropics. The Casablanca which had a smell of goats. In Algeria the army was building a refugee camp to take in 40,000 refugees.

Information about the holocaust had come to American but the government decided to suppress this.

Yugoslavian refugees and others found their way into Italy. Refugees here would be treated as prisoners of war for whom no quotas were required.

1944 April the first shipment of Hungarian Jews were shipped to Auschwitz. The US war effort was hampered in Italy by refugees clogging the roads, needing shelter food and medical car. While the British were there trying to stop refugees from getting to Palestine.

The Germans under Albert Kesselring  were fighting the allied invasion. This was the same time as the  van Stoffenburg plot against Hitler. In Naples she was aware of British , French Italian Senegalese and Gurkhas soldiers .

The Henry Gibbins had the1000 refugees on the forward adn wounded solders in the stern. They were part of a convey a flotilla of 29 vessels 13 warships escorting 16 troop and cargo ships including POW ships that were a protective cover. 100,000 German POWs were keeping farms and factories going. The refugees were 982 people. 874 Jewish, 73 Catholic, 28 Greek Orthodox and 7 Protestant. 525 male and 457were female,.from 18 different countries. They were a cross section of population to make they a self sustaining group. A microcosm of a small town. Teenagers hadn't been to school for 5 years and younger children who had not been to school at all. German was the lingua franca but many spoke no German. Ruth organized English lessons on the deck. They also started classes in American history and English literature. Many had fled the Drancy concentration camp Near Paris others at Gurs like Lion Feuchwanger the novelist.. Some Gaulist groups had helped people escape to Spain. Brigade Blanch was a Belgium partisan brigade that some Jews survived in. Some had climbed La Madonna della Finetra Pass to escape the Germans. Others had refuge in a convent and only god chestnuts to eat. Many had trekked through the fighting lines to escape. Ruth got many of the stories of survival of refugees. The story of the Pentcho of 500 refugees on a boat that broke down and they landed on an island and were transferred  to Rhodes by the Italians.

The Mediterranean was dangerous as it had Nazi bombers and U-boats. At one time feeling in danger a smokescreen was put up and all suffered the smell..

A women over the age of 40 gave birth to a baby. The professional singers offered to entertain the troops and the put on concerts for them, this improved the atmosphere as wounded soldiers had blamed Jews for the war.

Arriving in New York you can see the Statue of Liberty and on its plinth is a poem by Emma Lazarus a Sephardi Jewess, The New Colossus 1883 welcoming immigrants. 

The most widely listened to radio commentator  was that of Father Coughlin a Detroit priest and vituperative anti-Semite.

They were taken to the Oswego camp and allocated rooms or houses according to family size. Not by intellectual class as they had wanted, or by ethnicity. They were told if there is a knock on the door it is a friendly one. It was the first time many had had bedsheets for years. The town Oswego had a population of 22,000. Most were ther from the 19 Century  early 20 C , Quebec from Germany , Ireland , Poland Italy , majority Roman Catholics. The town was surrounded by the Oswego river. This had been an army camp but was recently closed. The town had lost income when the camp closed and begged the movement to fill the camp again. It was now a refugee camp. Next to this was Fort Ontario 1955 to protect the British from the French. Rabbi Stephen Wise came to visit the camp adn Ruth showed him around.

Life Magazine showed photos of the camp in 1944 taken by Alfred Eisenstadt. Many remembered photos of this period are his work.

 Hungary under Admiral Horty,  while Germany was a co- belligerent he would not allow the Nazi's to touch Hungarian Jews. However now Adolf Eichmann was sent to round up the Jews in  March 1944. 

Food and shelter were provided by the government. A 10 man committee was organized to keep up the moral and maintain the spirit so to education. The towns reaction to the refugees had been favorable. Previously negro soldiers had been in the camp and the public worried they  would rape their daughter but the turned out to be respectable youngster. Later illiterate soldiers had been sent for  remedial training and they also turned out to be better than expected. They requested that the local schools be opened to their children  and this was very successful. German was the common lingua franca however the Yugoslavc and Italian and other wanted to move away from this now hated language.

Open house day where the whole town of Oswega was invited. The refugee children who had lost years of education became grinds and this set an example that the local followed.

Eleanor an her friend Elinor  the wife of Henry Morgenthau arrived to visit. She wrote in her syndicated column "My Day" on the camp.

Many refugees had been running climbing mountains etc to escape and never had, had proper foot ware and needed arch supports or orthopedic shoes as well as false teeth.

1+945 8th May VE day the War in Europe ended with German unconditional surrender.. General Eisenhower instructed that poles liberated from German camps must not be forced to return to Poland. 

President Truman sent Earl . G. Harrison to investigate the DP camps in Europe. Hitler had murdered a million children and there were few old people alive. Antisemitism had not died with Hitler's suicide. Truman now asked the New British PM Clement Attlee to allow 100,000Jewish refugees into Palestine. The refugee problem had become a world problem.

All over Europe UNRRA set up camps for millions of displaced people. Here in Oswego you had displaced people with refugees who had absorbed the spirit of democracy. Eventually a government subcommittee agreed for them to stay, despite the quota. Roosevelt had done something sly by inviting  the 1000.  These people all had the qualifications to be accepted into the US  and so were taken to the Canadian border where they were processed by the border guard. The Oswego resident spread all over the country so to family they had others had wanted to be in small towns.

After 1946 the Oswego camp became the temporary housing project for war veterans and their families. In 1951 The New York state turned it into a historical museum and park about the French and Indian Wars and WW2. There is a plaque, From 1944 to 46 fort Ontario served as a haven for survivors of the European holocaust.

The book now covers reunions of the refugees and most of them succeeded in life, became Americans and had families.

% George Marshall: Defender of the Republic by David L Roll 2019, 586 pg

 

   18/3/26  

1880 to 1959 Marshall went to a Military High School but his parents did not intend him to go into the army but he enrolled to become an officer.

He was a very modest man and said he wanted to be buried as an ordinary military officer. He fought 3 active wars and the cold war. He discouraged Pershing from going into politics and Eisenhower went into politics despite his advice, and never took any political stand.

1914 he was leading an exercise in the Luzon Peninsula incase Japan invaded after seeing Japan beat Russia in 1904-1905. There Henry Hap Arnold recognized that he would one day be a Chief of Staff.

1902 He married Lily Carter Coles who could not have children she died in 1927

1946 Together: Annals of an Army Wife, by Katherine Tupper Marshall.

George Marshall served under 10 US presidents, he was the one who led the containment against the Soviet Union. He fought in 4 wars 3 hot and one cold.

In 1904 Japan won the Russo Japanese War and 5 years later occupied Korea after a Korean had assassinated  a Japanese statesman to stop Japanese encroachment on Korea. Marshall in 1914 was in the Philippines doing a military exercise in case Japan decided to now invade.

1916 Wilson expanded the regular  army with the National Defense Act to 175,000 and 450,000 to the National Guard. Americans who fought the Germans in WW1 were called the "dough boys" and 9 and a half million men registered for the draft on June 5th 1917.

John Pershing was 57 when he was appointed by Wilson the lead the American Expeditionary forces in Europe, this was the only time he met Wilson. Pershing left with the vanguard for Europe which included George Patton. The French had lost 2 million men since the beginning of the battles. The Germans were suffering from being cut off from food and fuel by the British blockade. Pershing resisted the calls to include  the doughboys in the French or British units and wanted  them to preserve their identity as an American Force.

Marshall was the only one who stood up to Pershing when he thought a decision was wrong and others though it would end Marshalls career but Pershing realized Marshall ability and turned to him for advice.

1918 March, Ludendorff's long awaited Spring Offensive was meant to split the English and French forces,  failed.  The British and French now agreed to a unified command with Marshall Ferdinand Foch as supreme commander. Pershing agreed to allow Foch to select a sector that would fight as part of the America Army. General Phillipe Pertain was the one  who selected the positions. The Big Red One was the first American division bloodied in the war 

It became Marshall custom to go at midnight to reconnoiter the battle field close to the German lines to prepare to capture the heights of Cantigny. He also sent out soldiers to capture German prisoners and to identify positions  of enemy guns, sniper posts and strongpoints. Cantigny village was in the American hands after the first hour with few  casualties. After a few counter battle the Germans finally left altogether. This showed the French that the Americans were serious fighters.

Approximately 116,516 American soldiers died during World War I, with 53,402 dying in battle and another 63,114 due to disease and non-combat incidents.

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1945 April 12th -Harry Truman

James Baynes was appointed Truman's secretary of State.

  1939 to November  1945 George Marshall  Chief of Staff,  2 weeks after VJ day handed in his resignation  On his  holiday Truman phoned him and asked him to go to China.. The civil war between Communist China and Nationalist China. The Soviet in Manchuria were providing the Communists help. Patrick Hurley the US ambassador claimed that Truman's government were siding with the communists. He was one of the first to plant the seed of Mc McCarthyism and Red baiting. The US would not intervene militarily to influence the China internal strife. China was supposed to be under a coalition government and the US was withdrawing troops from China. Marshall  sent a message to Truman that he could not achieve this coalition and was wasting his time in China.  This was one of Marshals few failures.

In 1937 Nanking had been China's prominent  city and in 1937 the rape of Nanking the Japanese had bayoneted as many as 300,000 civilians. It was Chiang's capital and  It was also the place of the mausoleum of Sun Yatsan, the first leader (1912-1925) of the Chinese Republic. 

Marshal could not trust the Generalissimo. He met Chou en Lai the most important person from the CCP who represented Mao in Chunking.. After the Japanese  surrender most towns in Manchuria were occupied by The Red army. No agreement  made were kept by both sides. This was an area that dry loess caused dust everywhere.

1946 March This was when Churchills Fulton speech was made about the Iron Curtain across Europe. Churchill was also anxious about Manchuria.  In Washington Secretary of State James Byrnes was resigning due to ill health and Truman wanted Marshal for the job. The Republicans supported a campaign that claimed the Democrats were appeasing the Communists. Truman had announced that the US would not take sides in the Chinese problems. The Communist victories were attributed to superior morale and leadership, not military equipment.

1947 the US law was changed so that the line of succession on the death of the President is vice President then Speaker of the house. Marshal became the fiftieth Secretary of State. 

1949 Mao on capturing Nanking proclaimed the Peoples Republic of China and the Generalissimo fled to Formosa (Taiwan) China was lost by Chiang Kai-shek's corrupt demoralized and unpopular government, despite massive economic aid provided by the USA. In the last 4 months the Communists had captured 75% of Chaings US financed weapons.

1949 August The Soviets detonated their first nuclear bomb. Senator McCarthy now burst on the US scene, till he was censured by the Senate in 1954 He accused State Dept. workers of being communists and queers. who sold out China. In 1945 Roosevelt had spurned a secret offer of Mao to come to Washington and establish a working relationship.

 When Marshal entered the department of state he found there was no planning dept. and  appointed George Kennan to set this us. G.K was the leading expert on Soviet Issues. He was the one who came out with the policy of containment to halt Soviet expansionism. The was formalized by the Truman Doctrine.

The British ambassador Archibald Kerr asked the US for money to help Greece which was being taken over by communist insurgents. Also in Turkey the Soviets were demanding a revision of the Dardanelles treaty. In fact the entire Middle East was in danger of Russia intentions.

Winter 1946-7 was the coldest since 1880 with coal shortages and people dying from exposure and hunger from bad harvest and lack of transport. Marshall was at the Paris Conference and Molotov was demanding reparation from Germany. for the Soviets. Marshall realized that the Soviets wanted to forestall the recovery of Europe, see it fall into economic ruin and social chaos to make the countries ripe for their domination.

 Kennan's dept. was given 2 weeks to come up with a plan now sad down and Kennan drew up what was to be called the Marshal Plan which was the integration of European Economies. The US would provide  Billions of $ of goods because the US was in need of markets. This assistance was offered to all Europe including the Soviets and satellites. Kennan knowing that Stalin would not accept this plan as he would not allow the Soviet economy to open to Western inspection. " Let the Soviets take  responsibility for dividing Europe". Meanwhile there was a Soviet coup in Hungary.

Marshal gave his Harvard Speech and the world realize that American had changed its policy of retreat into isolationism and was offering help for it friends and enemies alike to European Integration for trade and production. Truman realized that to get it to pass Congress it could not be called the Truman plan and so it was called the Marshal plan. The actual getting the bill through Congress was done by Republic Senator Arthur Vandenberg. 8

Reparation would not be paid to Russia from the American zone. Russia considered that their achievement of WW2 was bringing these countries under their control.  22 countries  including Turkey but excluding  Russia and Spain were invited to a gathering in Paris. All the Easter block countries refused to participate, Czechoslovakia wanted to join but  because of Stalin's control had to cancel their decision. 16 nations now became the Western Bloc.

The French feared the German resurgence to get the aid they had to agree to the liberalization of  trade barriers throughout Western Europe. Interim aid was sent so that the could survive the winter.

1948 in the spring the main recovery plan started. The plan costing between $12 and $17 billion would not endanger Americas security nor was it likely to cause inflation and bringing increase taxes. A news bureau was set up to advertise and explain the plan. "The future of the free world and Europe hangs in balance"  

 The European Recovery Plan was the key to the struggle against "government tyranny" Marshal could not have realized at the time that the Common Market and later the European Union was to follow. Marshall had explicitly blamed the Soviets and Communist Party for exploiting the economic chaos in Europe and that if Congress failed to pass the bill the Soviets would gain. The Soviet backed communist coup of Czechoslovakia galvanized Washington into a sense of urgency.. Remember a decade earlier Hitters invasion of  Czechoslovakia had triggered WW2. 11 days after the Soviet invasion Jan Masaryk the  Czechoslovakia foreign minister was found dead  assassinated. Former President Herbert Hoover's support was a major tipping point for the wavering Republics. 1948 April , 11 days after Truman signed, the bill 150 ships were on their way carrying cargoes to Bordeaux Liverpool , Rotterdam , Genoa. This was an International New Deal. The last of these $ were spent in 1952.  

1948 April 6th Finland agreed to a Mutual Defense Pact with Russia though she retained her independence. Thus Finland was forced to be a neutral country between Russia and the West. This was replaced by a  new treaty in 1992  on the fall of the USSR. Finland finally joined NATO in 2023.

1948 June The Vandenberg Resolution. This paved the way to the formation of NATO

Berlin Crises

1948 June General Lucius Clay began circulating the "west mark" and this caused the split with the Soviets. They circulated the "ostmark" into East Germany and all East Berlin. This challenged the sovereignty of West Berlin and Stalin cut off all road transport to West Berlin, all roads canals, rail and electricity. They could not cut off the air as it was written into the agreement. Marshal predicted that the Soviets would back down if West Berlin was supplied by air. For 11 months till May 49 Berlin was supplied by air. About 1500 flights a day. Stalin gave up on this as it failed to achieve its goals and became an embarrassing, ineffective, and costly diplomatic disaster for the Soviet Union, it made a  laughing stock of the Red Army.

Truman's support for Israel was despite Marshal advise. Truman insisted that the US supported partition and was the first country to recognize Israel as a State. Marshal had supported trusteeship and not partition. 1)He was worried that US troops might have to get involved. 2)The Arabs would be driven into the arms of the Soviets. 3) The US might be denied access to Middle East Oil. However one thing that Marshall was correct was that there would be no end to the conflict. Truman understood that a partitioned Palestine and Jewish state could solve the Jewish refugee problem in Europe and recognized  Israel 11 minutes after it announced independence to keep it in the Western camp.

Truman won the 1948 election because he ran a strong whistle stop campaign. For Labor challenged the Taft-Hartley Act that significantly restricted labor union powers. As a farmer he supported the Federal price support.. His civil rights initiatives gained the support of African Americans, and in 1948 by executive order desegregated the army. The pollsters got their figures wrong because they stopped polling before the late momentum of his campaign and predicted a Thomas E. Dewey victory for the Republicans.

Korea

1949-50 Louis Johnson was secretary of defense but was using that position to try and advance his political position. Marshal was appointed in his place and was not you in the position when the Korean War broke out. Korea was a Japanese colony and when the war ended the norther half on the 38th capitulated to the Red Army with the south to the US. The Soviets boycotted election here and installed Kim Il sung they then pulled out and left a well trained and equipped army of 135,000 men the North Korean Peoples army. Kim though he could easily capture the south and got the go ahead from Stalin, while Ho Chi Minh attacked the French in Vietnam. .The Chinese gave back up support. The US was supported by the UN to defend South Korea. Truman declared war without Congresses support as he thought it would be short. McArthur led the American troops, and Marshall was immediately called by Truman.

Marshal said they must avoid action that back Chiang in a renewed war against the Chinese Communists. McArthur made an  surprise amphibious landing near Inchon that was successful. They were able to divide the communists and recapture Seoul and the North Koreans started withdrawing so as to not be caught in a trap. MacArthur wanted to cross into the north in hot pursuit and depose Kim. However the Chinese troops started crossing he Yula River into North Korea. 

Truman relieved McArthur over the radio before he could resign. America must not go into communist territory and fall into a Soviet trap as power to contain the Soviets in Europe would be  weakened.. General Matthew  Ridgeway took succeeded MacArthur. He later took Eisenhower NATO position when he retired from the army and shattered the better part of 14 Chinese Communist Divisions. McArthur was a potential candidate for presidency in 1952 but never got far on the primaries. MacArthur's strategy was said to be at the wrong place, at the wrong time, at the wrong enemy.

 McArthur "Old soldiers never die the just fade away" i.e. quiet passing in dignity to the next generation.

The Soviet Government informed Kennan that they wanted a solution to the Korean question.1.8million Americans had fought  in the Korean war 33,652 killed 7747 missing in action and 92,134 wounded. The Communist Chinese suffered between 360,000 to 1,500,000 deaths.

1951 Dean Acheson  Secretary of State concluded the Japanese Peace treaty or San Francisco Peace Treaty that came into effect in 1952.

Anne Rosenberg a expert in labor relation became assistant secretary for manpower. They failed to bring about universal military training.

 Epilogue

1953 Marshall was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the European Recovery Program or. He thanked the late Senator Vandenberg who died in 1951, Churchill received the Prize for literature on the same day. The  Marshal Plan was at a time when the US  was short of money but this contained the Soviet Union and repay in future trade with American companies. The command of Overlord went to Eisenhower when it was Marshal's for the taking but he was magnanimous.

1943 and 1947 .Time proclaimed Marshall "Man of the Year" on it cover 

Time Line 

1929-1933 President  Herbert Hoover

1933President  Franklin D Roosevelt 

1943 and 1947Time proclaimed Marshall "Man of the Year" on its cover 

1945 -President Harry Truman 

1947 -1949 George Marshall  Secretary of State

1949 August The Soviets exploded an atomic bomb.

1949  October Mao declared the Peoples Republic of China

1953 President Dwight D Eisenhower