Harry S. Truman

President of the United States from 1945 to 1953; politician (1884–1972)

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United States rank#114
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Lived 1884–1972, aged 88United States

United States PoliticiansPolitician

Wikipedia
156 languages
Cross-language footprint
Rank in United States
#114
Politicians
Era
1884–1972
Aged 88
Known for
When the Wind Blows
1986

Summary

Updated 2026-08-14

He dropped atomic bombs on two Japanese cities, established the architecture of the Cold War, and won an election almost no one thought he could. The accidental president who stepped into Franklin Roosevelt's shoes and remade the postwar world.

Biography

About

Born in Lamar, Missouri in 1884, Truman fought in France as a Field Artillery captain during World War I, then returned to open a haberdashery in Kansas City before entering politics as a Jackson County judge in 1922. He rose to national prominence chairing the Truman Committee between 1940 and 1944, targeting wartime contract waste, which carried him to the vice presidency in 1944. When Roosevelt died in April 1945, Truman learned of the Manhattan Project only after assuming office, then authorized the first and only use of nuclear weapons against Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He implemented the Ma…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman

said1969

The Russians are liars – you can't trust them. At Potsdam they agreed to everything and broke their word.

— Statement to Richard Nixon and his wife Pat in 1969, as quoted in The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, p. 44

Harry S. Truman

said2 Jul 1947

Some of my best friends never agree with me politically.

— Statement to a group of four congress freshmen (2 July 1947), as quoted in The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, p. 44

Harry S. Truman

said2 Jul 1947

The Russians are like us, they look and act like us. They are fine people. They got along with our soldiers in Berlin very well.

— Statement to a group of four congress freshmen (2 July 1947), as quoted in The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, p. 44

Harry S. Truman

said29 Jun 1947

It is my deep conviction that we have reached a turning point in our country's efforts to guarantee freedom and equality to all our citizens.

— Speech to the NAACP (June 29, 1947)

Harry S. Truman

said28 Feb 1947

People are very much wrought up about the Communist bugaboo... the country is perfectly safe so far as Communism is concerned—we have too many sane people.

— Letter to George H. Earle, former governor of Pennsylvania (received 28 February 1947); reported in The New York Times (3 April 1947), p.

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