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...
...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...
...Imagine what less realistic persons were saying...
...They would not sign treaties, repatriate prisoners of war, or show any interest in relieving the devastated areas of Europe...
...As 1945 faded into 1946, they became obdurate...
...During this time the average man from Independence, Missouri had his arms full trying to run the government...
...Respect and prestige are essential if a man is to govern...
...Somehow Truman managed...
...Charles S. ltyneman is a Distinguished Service professor of government at Indiana University...
...Truman made some minor and expected errors, and his Secretary of State, James F. Byrnes, was callow and in other ways unacceptable...
...As President he asserted himself as a confident leader determined to do his duty...
...Life magazine proclaimed Lenin "perhaps the greatest man of modern times," and jabbered on that "the Russians are one hell of a people...
...Then chaos, and finally Red dominance...
...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 reviewing his foreign policy achievement, one cannot help but note the mark of his strong character...
...anymore...
...But the more educated and influential Americans remained enthusiastic about Russia's willingness to promote the ideals of the Atlantic Charter...
...It was a time of pother...
...Even General Eisenhower was given to vacant statements like "Nothing guides Russian policy so much as a desire for friendship with the United States...
...Roger Rosenblatt is an assistant professor of English and the director of the Expository Writing Program at Harvard University...
...It is important to grasp the political and intellectual problems that hobble a politician during such times...
...8 The Alternative April 1973...
...Many of the ravaged nations were without the essentials of life and were incapable of providing them...
...who) to a remarkable degree ...look like Americans, dress like Americans and think like Americans...
...Churchill soon was describing Europe as "a rubble heap, a charnel house, a breeding ground of pestilence and hate...
...Robert H. Ferrell is a professor of American Diplomatic History at Indiana University...
...C. Bascom Slemp is the chief Washington correspondent of The Alternative...
...It was not until 1946 and 1947 that Americans became sufficiently aware of Russian truculence to support a sensible policy against it...
...enthusiasm for world trade, international organization, and self-determination for all nations...
...He replaced Byrnes with a very sound Secretary of State, George C. Marshall, and he followed Marshall's counsel...
...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...
...Cooper is a graduate student at Harvard and the Editor of Counter...
...point...
...Most Americans wanted to "'get out of" Asia and Europe...
...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...
...In Eastern Europe the democracies drifted imperceptibly into communist tyranny...
...Not many people knew what the Russians were up to and few appreciated tile difficulty of ending a world war...
...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...
...Many Roosevelt advisers suspected Truman's competence...
...Their worlds were as wide apart as can be imagined...
...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...
...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...
...He intended to be elected in 1948 and he manifested his seriousness by launch...
...Steadily the war ended...
...Military appropriations were slashed, and Americans either showed no interest in their world responsibilities or maundered on delusively about the United Nations...
...True, a section of the American people remained skeptical of communist Russia, and some had even tempered their expectations for the postwar period...
...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...
...ing new policies that were singular and intelligent...
...First the ministry of the interior would come under Red domination...
...And then there was this new enthusiasm at home, an enthusiasm for ambrosia...
...During all of this time Truman was trapped in the ambiguous grasp of past commitments and policies made by his predecessor...
...Many politicians sniffed at the thought that Truman would do more than fill out FDR's term...
...After balancing the costs and benefits of using America's terrible new weapon, Truman chose to end the war quickly...
...The precipitous American withdrawal and disarmament encouraged Soviet expansion...
...His proposals were a dramatic departure from the past...
...They began challenging him almost immediately...
...Then allegations of impropriety would be directed at the other branches of government...
...The Soviets had not been very cooperative at Yalta and were even less cooperative at Potsdam...
...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...
...Enunciated on March 12, 1947, it directed economic and military aid to Greece and Turkey, lest they fall into communist hands...
...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...
...He sweated away earnestly and energetically...
...It initially cost four hundred million dollars, and was a bold demard~e...
...Joyee Goldberg is a graduate student in history at Indiana University and Assistant Managing Editor of The Alternative...
...All were unrealistic notions...
...By now Truman was gaining a realistic perception of Russian intentions, but his realism was not shared by many of his fellow citizens...
...he is also the Literary Editor of The Alternative...
...To the contrary, their interest was in reparations...
...Paul H. Weaver is an assistant professor of government at Harvard University and the Associate Editor of The Public Interest...
...Two bombs were dropped and the Japanese sued for peace...
...The situation was desperate...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...What democracy and freedom meant to Truman must have been incomprehensible to a tyrant like Stalin, so given to paranoia and treachery...
...It was a re-enactment of the frivolous period following World War T. A chorus went up to "bring the boys home...
...After the glamorous Roosevelt it was very hard to respect a simple man like Truman...
...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...
Vol. 6 • April 1973 • No. 7
