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HARRY TRUMAN'S Excellent Adventure

Chicago Review Press

Contents

Preface...............................................................11 Washington, D.C., Inauguration Day, 1953............................52 Independence, Missouri, Winter and Spring, 1953.....................193 Hannibal, Missouri, June 19, 1953...................................394 Decatur, Illinois, June 19-20, 1953.................................575 Indianapolis, Indiana, June 20, 1953................................756 Wheeling, West Virginia, June 20-21, 1953...........................857 Frostburg, Maryland, June 21, 1953..................................998 Washington, D.C., June 21-26, 1953..................................1119 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 26-27, 1953........................13310 New York, New York, June 27-July 5, 1953...........................14111 Pennsylvania (or, Abducted), July 5-6, 1953........................16512 Columbus, Ohio, July 6-7, 1953.....................................18113 Richmond, Indiana, July 7, 1953....................................19314 Indianapolis, Indiana, July 7-8, 1953..............................20315 St. Louis, Missouri, July 8, 1953..................................211Epilogue..............................................................217Postscript............................................................227Acknowledgments.......................................................233Sources...............................................................235Bibliography..........................................................239Index.................................................................251

Chapter One

On January 20, 1953-his last day in the White House-Harry Truman awoke at five-thirty, as usual. He skipped his customary morning walk and, after breakfast, attended to the final business of his presidency. His last official act was the signing of a letter to James A. Campbell, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, on the occasion of the seventieth anniversary of the federal civil service system. (The system was instituted after one of Truman's unlucky predecessors, James Garfield, was assassinated by Charles Guiteau, the proverbial "disappointed office seeker.") In the letter, Truman decried what he called "recent reckless attacks" on civil servants, referring to Republican charges that the federal bureaucracy was infested with communists.

At 8:45, the president began saying good-bye to the White House staff, bounding from room to room, shaking hands with every stenographer, cook, maid, doorman, secretary, mailroom clerk, and telephone operator. The good-byes were heartfelt. Few presidents were as beloved by the White House help. Truman remembered their birthdays. He called them when they were sick. "He has been a wonderful guy to work for," one unidentified White House employee told a reporter that day. "You just wanted to do things for him."

Around eleven o'clock, Truman retired to the Red Room. An eighteenth-century French clock on the mantelpiece loudly ticked off the seconds as Truman and his wife, Bess, waited for his successor to arrive. The Trumans had invited Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower to join them inside the White House for coffee before riding to the inauguration. It was a tradition that stretched back nearly 150 years, to 1809, when Madison called on Jefferson. It wasn't always convivial or comfortable, particularly when the presidents were from different parties, but it symbolized, palpably, the peaceful and democratic transfer of power.

Awaiting Eisenhower, Truman's emotions must have been mixed. The two men had once been cordial, even friendly. Truman had admired Eisenhower, the general who'd done so much to win the war that Truman had unexpectedly inherited as commander in chief. When Eisenhower announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination early in 1952, Truman was effusive, notwithstanding Ike's party affiliation. Eisenhower was "a grand man," Truman told reporters soon after Ike's announcement. "I am just as fond of General Eisenhower as I can be."

But the presidential campaign had soured their relationship. At a campaign stop in Wisconsin, Eisenhower had redacted from his speech a tribute to General George Marshall, who had served Truman as secretary of state and, later, as secretary of defense. Marshall, who would win the Nobel Peace Prize later that year, was a favorite target of Senator Joseph McCarthy, who called him all but a traitor for the "loss of China" to Mao's communist forces. Eisenhower apparently expunged the tribute to avoid alienating McCarthy in his home state. (Unbeknownst to Ike, an unedited copy of the speech had been distributed to reporters beforehand.) When Truman, who considered Marshall closer to God than most men, heard this, he was apoplectic. In Utica, New York, Truman, campaigning for the Democratic candidate, Adlai Stevenson, told a crowd, "I had never thought the man who is now the Republican candidate would stoop so low." Privately, Truman called Eisenhower a "coward" for kowtowing to McCarthy.

Truman and Eisenhower had even had a hat spat: Eisenhower wanted to wear a homburg to his swearing in. Truman thought the occasion befitted a more formal top hat, but, conceding it was Ike's prerogative to choose the headgear for his inauguration, he wore a homburg. (John F. Kennedy would turn the tables on Eisenhower eight years later. JFK donned a silk top hat, forcing Ike to wear one too. Since then the presidential hat wars have abated markedly.)

At eleven-thirty, the president-elect's limousine finally pulled up to the White House. Ike sent word inside that he and Mamie would not be joining the Trumans for coffee. Tradition be damned: Ike didn't want to step foot inside the executive mansion until he was the executive. It was a snub, plain and simple, a "shocking moment," according to the newsman Eric Sevareid, who was there. Truman was furious, but he walked outside and greeted Eisenhower with all the faux warmth he could muster. "Truman was gracious," Sevareid told Truman biographer David McCullough. "He showed his superiority by what he did."

Truman joined Eisenhower in an open limousine, a huge black Lincoln, for the short ride to the Capitol. Their wives (and the Trumans' daughter, Margaret) rode behind them in a separate car. Truman and Eisenhower smiled and waved to the crowds lining Pennsylvania Avenue, but barely spoke to each other.

After a ride that must have seemed much longer than the two miles it actually was, the limousine pulled up to the east side of the Capitol, where a temporary platform had been constructed for the inauguration ceremonies. Truman climbed up to the dais and was seated in a plush leather chair just behind the podium.

Eisenhower's running mate, Richard Nixon, was sworn in first. While repeating the oath, Nixon failed to repeat the word support when he was supposed to swear to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States." The omission was barely noticed. At twelve-thirty-a half-hour late-Eisenhower was sworn in by Chief Justice Fred Vinson. (Vinson had been appointed by Truman, and he is still the last chief justice appointed by a Democrat.) Eisenhower was now president of the United States. Truman, as he had put it in his farewell...