Truman

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 1992

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-2

Part 1, Chapters 3-4

Part 2, Chapters 5-6

Part 2, Chapters 7-8

Part 3, Chapters 9-10

Part 4, Chapters 11-12

Part 4, Chapters 13-14

Part 5, Chapters 15-17

Part 5, Chapter 17-Part 6, Chapter 18

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Part 5, Chapter 17-Part 6, Chapter 18Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 17 Summary: “Final Days”

Truman’s focus in the final days of his presidency was on the Korean War and domestic economic conditions. Despite exiting politics, Truman displayed concern about his successor. He approached different candidates, such as Dwight Eisenhower. Eisenhower was immensely popular but previously rejected a presidential run. He declined Truman’s invitation only to have his Republican nomination announced soon after. Eventually, Truman convinced Adlai E. Stevenson II to run in the primaries, and Stevenson eventually became the Democratic nominee. However, Eisenhower easily defeated him.

Other domestic issues that Truman had to resolve were firing tax collectors for corruption and dealing with the steel industry. Truman’s sympathies with the steelworkers who requested a pay raise were surpassed by his distrust of corporations. On April 9, 1952, Truman nationalized the steel mills, and the work continued. This decision caused a constitutional crisis, as the federal district judge ruled it illegal. The case went to the Supreme Court, which ruled it unconstitutional. The strike proceeded and became, McCullough says, “the longest, most costly steel strike in the nation’s history” (1028).

On the positive side, Truman chose a project that was reasonable to complete before the end of his tenure: the renovation of the White House. After extensive construction, the historic building reopened to the public in April 1952, and, feeling proud of his accomplishment, the President held his own televised tour. That same year, Bess’s mother passed away. Truman tallied his accomplishments as President. In his view, they were the establishment of the Defense Department, the CIA, the National Security Council, the Marshall Plan, the Atomic Energy Commission, the Marshall Plan, the Point Four Program, and the Berlin Airlift. On January 15, 1953, he delivered his farewell address, which McCullough describes as “Truman at his best” (1044).

Chapter 18 Summary: “Citizen Truman”

In the final chapter of Truman, the former President returns home to Missouri. McCullough summarizes the subsequent events of his life until his death on December 26, 1972. On the one hand, Truman could now do what he wanted, without having the rigorous schedule of a top-level politician. After marrying the journalist Clifton Daniel, his daughter Margaret went on to have four boys. As a result, Truman got to enjoy having four grandsons.

Truman also developed a letter-based friendship with Acheson to whom he wrote regularly. McCullough says that Truman “sorely missed the company and stimulations of just such people as the worldly Acheson” (1075). Yet despite being retired, Truman did not fully leave public life. He began working on his Memoirs just as the armistice was signed in Korea, and they were published in 1955. The book received positive reviews. He decided to launch what became the Truman Presidential Library & Museum fundraising extensively. McCullough says that he also spent time “attending dinners, making speeches around the country, and writing thousands of letters” (1068). President Lyndon Johnson was unable to get Truman’s endorsement of the Vietnam War. In 1969, Richard Nixon visited Truman personally and toured his Library.

Chapter 17-18 Analysis

The final two chapters of Truman discuss the end of his presidency and examine his legacy. McCullough shows a leader who was in good health yet exhausted psychologically. Despite this, Truman was concerned about his successor and spent a considerable time courting candidates such as Eisenhower and Stevenson. Truman also wanted to complete one manageable task before his departure, which is why he chose the extensive White House renovations. These renovations also expressed his lifelong interest in history. It was his interest in history that also pushed him to write his Memoirs and establish the Truman Library in the 1950s. A young farm boy who developed an interest in Hannibal and other military leaders was now a historical personality himself. In other ways, Truman watched history pass him by—Stalin died in 1953, and Truman often disagreed with his successors, Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy.

In foreign policy, the president who sought to avoid war found himself engaged in one in Korea at the end of his second term. Yet he did not seem to fully appreciate the direct relationship between his Truman Doctrine of containing the Soviet Union and the growing number of crises in which the US was becoming involved as the Cold War progressed. The US was now leading NATO in Europe to contain the Soviet Union, fighting in Korea, and soon to get engaged in Vietnam. These events illustrate McCullough’s War and Character theme.

McCullough wraps up this biography by mirroring the first chapter. After his tenure as president, Truman returned home to Missouri where he was born, and where, at the age of 88, he died. He was able to enjoy his retirement by doing the things that ordinary people do, such as driving a car and spending time with his four grandchildren. However, he was never able to return to being ordinary. Truman maintained correspondence and developed a deeper friendship with Acheson, continued to pay close attention to politics, and was visited by other presidents.