Truman

"America loves you, Harry Truman," the band Chicago sang, but the truth was that Truman's popularity with the public when he left office was actually lower than Nixon's when the latter resigned facing impeachment. Which is not to say that Truman wasn't a fascinating character: a failed farmer, ore miner, oil driller, and haberdasher, Truman would join the Washington Senate primarily on the influence of a corrupt Boss Tweed type, and later be hastily chosen as a compromise candidate for the Vice-Presidency slot beside an ailing FDR. When Roosevelt succumbed 82 days into his fourth term, an insecure, unprepared Truman would be forced into the Presidency and immediately faced with a horrible decision: consigning untold Americans to death in an invasion of Japan or dropping the newly invented atomic bomb. Like he did in his superlative LBJ, writer/producer David Grubin here draws a compelling portrait of the common man from Missouri, chronicling his singleminded pursuit of Bess Wallace (who would finally agree to be his wife, but loathed Washington, and spent as much time away as possible), his distinguished WWI career, his incredible triumph over Thomas Dewey in the 1948 election (remember the classic, wrong headline "Dewey Defeats Truman"?), and his fights with the American Caesar (MacArthur) in the Korean war. Hosted by and featuring Truman biographer David McCullough, this excellent episode in The American Experience (the best show on television, period) is highly recommended. Other titles in the Presidents series include: Nixon, FDR (VL-5/95), The Kennedys, Eisenhower (VL-3/94), LBJ (VL-1/92) and TR, The Story of Theodore Roosevelt (VL-3/97). (R. Pitman)