DVD: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000UWLG7Y/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=d...
http://thefilmarchive.org/
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 -- December 26, 1972) was the 33rd President of the United States (1945--1953). As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice-president and the 34th Vice President of the United States (1945), he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his historic fourth term.
During World War I, Truman served in combat in France as an artillery officer in his National Guard unit. After the war, he joined the Democratic Party political machine of Tom Pendergast in Kansas City. He was elected a county official and in 1934 United States senator. After he had gained national prominence as head of the wartime Truman Committee, Truman replaced vice president Henry A. Wallace as Roosevelt's running mate in 1944.
Truman faced many challenges in domestic affairs. The disorderly postwar reconversion of the economy of the United States was marked by severe shortages, numerous strikes, and the passage of the Taft--Hartley Act over his veto. He confounded all predictions to win election in 1948, helped by his famous Whistle Stop Tour of rural America. After his election, he passed only one of the proposals in his Fair Deal program. He used executive orders to end racial discrimination in the armed forces and created loyalty checks that dismissed thousands of communist supporters from office. Truman's presidency was also eventful in foreign affairs, with the defeat of Nazi Germany and his decision to use nuclear weapons against Japan, the founding of the United Nations, the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe, the Truman Doctrine to contain communism, the beginning of the Cold War, the Berlin Airlift, the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Chinese Civil War, and the Korean War. Corruption in Truman's administration, which was linked to certain members in the cabinet and senior White House staff, was a central issue in the 1952 presidential campaign and helped cause Adlai Stevenson, Truman's successor for the Democratic nomination for the presidency, to lose to Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1952 presidential election.
Truman, in sharp contrast to the imperious Roosevelt who kept personal control of all major decisions, was a folksy, unassuming president who relied on his cabinet. He popularized such phrases as "The buck stops here" and "If you can't stand the heat, you better get out of the kitchen." His approval ratings in the polls started out very high, then steadily sank until he was one of the most unpopular men to leave the White House. Popular and scholarly assessments of his presidency eventually became more positive after his retirement from politics. Truman's legendary upset victory in 1948 over Thomas E. Dewey is routinely invoked by underdog presidential candidates.
When he left office in 1953, Truman was one of the most unpopular chief executives in history. His job approval rating of 22% in the Gallup Poll of February 1952 was lower than Richard Nixon's was in August 1974 at 24%, the month that Nixon resigned. American public feeling toward Truman grew steadily warmer with the passing years, and the period shortly after his death consolidated a partial rehabilitation among both historians and members of the public. As early as 1962, a poll of 75 distinguished historians conducted by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr. ranked Truman among the "near great" presidents. Since leaving office, Truman has fared well in polls ranking the presidents among Americans. He has never been listed lower than ninth, and most recently was fifth in a C-SPAN poll in 2009.
Truman has been honored on two U.S. postage stamps, the first issued in 1973 and the second stamp in 1984.
He has also had his critics. After a review of information available to Truman on the presence of espionage activities in the U.S. government, Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan concluded that Truman was "almost willfully obtuse" concerning the danger of American communism. As early as the late 1960s, revisionist historians began attacking Truman. Today, the consensus among historians is that "Harry Truman remains a controversial president."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Truman
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Truman American Experience Part 1 of 2by constructivereconcil6,424 views
Very cool
iammrbeat 5 days ago
@jgrugnale88 yes, but the documentary said '32nd person,' which is correct because Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms. So there had been 33 presidents during Truman's time, but only 32 different people.
paintthetyler in reply to jgrugnale88 (Show the comment) 2 months ago
How sad.
MikeSears100 2 months ago
Thanks for uploading this documentary
TRUEMAN8919 5 months ago
@jgrugnale88 Yes, he was. DDE 34, JFK 35, LBJ 36, RMN 37, GRF 38, JEC 39, RR 40, GHWB 41, WJC 42, GWB 43 and BHO 44. I think the only difference in terms of numerical sequntial order would be out of balance with the list of presidents would be vice presidents and for obvious reasons.
8corporal in reply to jgrugnale88 (Show the comment) 6 months ago
I m pretty sure Truman was 33rd president, right?
jgrugnale88 7 months ago