Contributors
making very few intelligent statements on foreign policy. Even General Eisenhower was given to vacant statements like "Nothing guides Russian policy so much as a desire for friendship with...
...enthusiasm for world trade, international organization, and self-determination for all nations...
...After balancing the costs and benefits of using America's terrible new weapon, Truman chose to end the war quickly...
...Respect and prestige are essential if a man is to govern...
...And then there was this new enthusiasm at home, an enthusiasm for ambrosia...
...True, a section of the American people remained skeptical of communist Russia, and some had even tempered their expectations for the postwar period...
...It was a re-enactment of the frivolous period following World War T. A chorus went up to "bring the boys home...
...Imagine what less realistic persons were saying...
...His proposals were a dramatic departure from the past...
...The situation was desperate...
...point...
...During his first administration a policy of prudent containment was outlined and given definition in the Truman Doctrine, which made it "the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures...
...Somehow Truman managed...
...Most Americans wanted to "'get out of" Asia and Europe...
...They would not sign treaties, repatriate prisoners of war, or show any interest in relieving the devastated areas of Europe...
...Military appropriations were slashed, and Americans either showed no interest in their world responsibilities or maundered on delusively about the United Nations...
...In July, 1945, he went to Potsdam and tried to fill FDR's position between the two remaining giants of the Grand Alliance, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin...
...In reviewing his foreign policy achievement, one cannot help but note the mark of his strong character...
...All were unrealistic notions...
...anymore...
...He replaced Byrnes with a very sound Secretary of State, George C. Marshall, and he followed Marshall's counsel...
...To the contrary, their interest was in reparations...
...Joyee Goldberg is a graduate student in history at Indiana University and Assistant Managing Editor of The Alternative...
...Even General Eisenhower was given to vacant statements like "Nothing guides Russian policy so much as a desire for friendship with the United States...
...Life magazine proclaimed Lenin "perhaps the greatest man of modern times," and jabbered on that "the Russians are one hell of a people...
...Roger Rosenblatt is an assistant professor of English and the director of the Expository Writing Program at Harvard University...
...First the ministry of the interior would come under Red domination...
...Not many people knew what the Russians were up to and few appreciated tile difficulty of ending a world war...
...Their worlds were as wide apart as can be imagined...
...Charles S. ltyneman is a Distinguished Service professor of government at Indiana University...
...During this time the average man from Independence, Missouri had his arms full trying to run the government...
...After the glamorous Roosevelt it was very hard to respect a simple man like Truman...
...Many of the ravaged nations were without the essentials of life and were incapable of providing them...
...Then allegations of impropriety would be directed at the other branches of government...
...Then chaos, and finally Red dominance...
...It initially cost four hundred million dollars, and was a bold demard~e...
...Before he could implement a policy of firmness for dealing with the rapacious communists, another old enthusiasm rushed through the American people --the enthusiasm for peacetime jubilation, then 9" normalcy...
...At this time FDR had been making vague commitments, and his policies may have been in a state of flux...
...He ended Japanese hostilities by ordering use of the atomic bomb...
...Truman made some minor and expected errors, and his Secretary of State, James F. Byrnes, was callow and in other ways unacceptable...
...As 1945 faded into 1946, they became obdurate...
...With such enthusiasms loose in the land, with imperious politicians' and advisers of the Roosevelt administrations often contemptuous, Truman, the only American president in this century without a college education, tried to guide America through the last months of World War II and into the postwar era...
...In the midst of the meeting the British snatched Churchill from his side and Truman was left with Attlee to confront the serpentine Soviet dictator...
...It came at a time in which resolutions and farsightedness were necessary to assure world peace and a measure of freedom for war-torn Europe...
...Paul H. Weaver is an assistant professor of government at Harvard University and the Associate Editor of The Public Interest...
...who) to a remarkable degree ...look like Americans, dress like Americans and think like Americans...
...He intended to be elected in 1948 and he manifested his seriousness by launch...
...He is editor of the "American Secretaries of State and Their Diplomacy" series, and has written -- among many books --Peace in Their Time (1952), American Diplomacy and the Great Depression (i957), and American Diplomacy (1959...
...Cooper is a graduate student at Harvard and the Editor of Counter...
...The Soviets had not been very cooperative at Yalta and were even less cooperative at Potsdam...
...C. Bascom Slemp is the chief Washington correspondent of The Alternative...
...What democracy and freedom meant to Truman must have been incomprehensible to a tyrant like Stalin, so given to paranoia and treachery...
...At any rate his propensity for loose administration and procrastination would have left American foreign policy in somewhat of a mess even if his premises had been well-founded and congruent with Russian strategic interests, which they were not...
...The precipitous American withdrawal and disarmament encouraged Soviet expansion...
...Many Roosevelt advisers suspected Truman's competence...
...ing new policies that were singular and intelligent...
...Though Americans in 1939 had indicated in opinion polls that if forced to choose between fascism and communism they would prefer the former, by 1942 they had reversed their positions, and influential elements of the American press were actually leading cheers for the Soviet way of life...
...Robert H. Ferrell is a professor of American Diplomatic History at Indiana University...
...But the more educated and influential Americans remained enthusiastic about Russia's willingness to promote the ideals of the Atlantic Charter...
...Two bombs were dropped and the Japanese sued for peace...
...As President he asserted himself as a confident leader determined to do his duty...
...Many politicians sniffed at the thought that Truman would do more than fill out FDR's term...
...Enunciated on March 12, 1947, it directed economic and military aid to Greece and Turkey, lest they fall into communist hands...
...he is also the Literary Editor of The Alternative...
...Churchill soon was describing Europe as "a rubble heap, a charnel house, a breeding ground of pestilence and hate...
...It was not until 1946 and 1947 that Americans became sufficiently aware of Russian truculence to support a sensible policy against it...
...We can only speculate about how many of their difficulties were born of guile.and how many were born of the insurmountable misunderstandings of two men cultured in two diametrically opposed polltical philosophies...
...In Eastern Europe the democracies drifted imperceptibly into communist tyranny...
...8 The Alternative April 1973...
...He was President of the American Political Science Association in 1961-62, and he is the author of several books, including The Supreme Court on Trial (1963), and Popular Government in America (1968...
...It is important to grasp the political and intellectual problems that hobble a politician during such times...
...Steadily the war ended...
...Through it all Truman had to contend at home with the men of enthusiasms: enthusiasm for our noble Russian allies, who were not very genial Contributors Philip C. Brooks has recently retired as the Director of the Harry S. Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, and as Secretary of the Harry S. Truman Library Institute...David Brudnoy is an associate professor of history at Merrimack College, national affairs commentator on WGBH-TV in Boston, and an associate of The Alternative...
...During all of this time Truman was trapped in the ambiguous grasp of past commitments and policies made by his predecessor...
...It was a time of pother...
...He sweated away earnestly and energetically...
...They began challenging him almost immediately...
...Just })efore the Potsdam meetings America perfected the atomic bomb, and Truman had to decide how to go about prudently informing Stalin of it and of its significance to the war...
...By now Truman was gaining a realistic perception of Russian intentions, but his realism was not shared by many of his fellow citizens...
Vol. 6 • April 1973 • No. 7
