Harry S. Truman

"The Korean war is the wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and with the wrong enemy." Omar Bradley, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff

The Library's Perfect Title

Truman, David McCullough's masterful biography, is the Kansas City Public Library board's perfect choice of titles for the mural of a bookshelf now being painted on the front wall of the new downtown library's jumbo garage. I would not go as far as the general who said he would kiss Truman's corpse if it were dug up because Truman dropped atomic bombs on Japan, but I would kiss the hand of the person who first suggested the selection of this title, even if that person were a neoconservative trustee.

I am not a Truman fan. I do not approve of the use of weapons of mass destruction except in the case of a nuclear attack or a pre-emptive invasion of my current country by an overwhelming force threatening the existence of the state; I believe Iraq would have been justified in using weapons of mass destruction on invading U.S. troops; but that would probably amount to suicide by cop, so to speak. I am glad that Truman dismissed General MacArthur's plan to nuke Manchuria and China, even though I think the plan might have worked well. I forgot about the Korean police action until the Vietnam police action came along. Then, instead of hating krauts and Japs and the like, I hated the police chiefs.

Needless to say, I am a war baby. I was weaned with toy machine guns and war movies. General Eisenhower was a glamorous hero in my newsreel. I never thought much of Truman until I read Truman. He did not look heroic enough to me. McCullough's biography is favorable to Truman. Biographers do tend to take a liking to their subjects. Whether or not Truman was as good a man as many people say he was, I am not competent to say. Superficially, Truman seems to be a sort of Goody Two Shoes. But McCullough is an ethical journalist; his book is not a whitewash; he drags plenty of dirt out from under the carpet.

Mc McCollough's careful compilation and organization of old and brand new sources is a boon to anyone who wants to know almost everything one needs to know about Truman and his relation to his troubled times. Harry Truman, Pendergast's ethical "office boy," might look like a boring bureaucrat; he might sound like your average backroads Democrat accustomed to using the N-word; but consider what the uncommon common man was up against, and decide for yourself whether or not he was therefore a "great man," whether or not the Senator from Pendergast who became President was truly representative of the American spirit. Consider whether or not the wars hot and cold were really worth waging; consider his admirable advancement of civil rights and the difference he drew between "equal opportunity" and "social equality." You will not be bored. McCullough's polished rhetoric is the icing on the cake, making the monumental work most interesting to behold.

The Kansas City Library has certainly met its title-selection criterion with David McCollough's Truman. We can only wish that the selection of titles for the other categories be equally appropriate. Truman is of course a work of inordinate interest to Kansas Citians, to residents of Andrew Jackson's county in the Great Blue Country, to Midwesterners and Southerners at large. For them, the biography is must reading. Furthermore, all who read this masterpiece will agree that it has a rightful place among the world's classics.