Why wasn't President Harry Truman popular?

[Eric J in MN]

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_03_18_atrios_archive.html#117475020337405961

It all makes for a continued hard slog for the president: Just 36 percent approve of his job performance overall, very near his career low of 33 percent last month. Bush hasn't seen majority approval in more than two years — the longest run without majority support for any president since Harry Truman from 1950-53

[hadrons]

1. Korea and recession/inflation .....

Korea wasn't much more popular than Iraq is now

[ClintonTyree]

2. "Hoovervilles" for one....

shanty towns and slums where many had to live because they couldn't afford anything else. The economy under Hoover was in the tank. The toilet tank.

[Eric J in MN]

I asked about Truman. NT

NT

[Bucky]

19. "Trumanvilles" then

Giant fake cities designed to monitor every move you made throughout your life and then broadcast your very existance to millions of bored viewers on cable television. Pretty awesome technology for 1951, but obviously not the best use of taxpayers' money.

[ClintonTyree]

24. I guess I was thinking Hoover....

because he's compared to Bush so much. Soooorry! ;)

[grasswire]

3. I recall that my great grandparents hated Truman...

...but they also hated Roosevelt. I wish I knew more about their reasoning. It certainly wasn't in their best interest to vote for Republicans, as they were injured in the Depression and could use government help as much as anyone.

[sallyseven]

4. He was with the ordinary people.

The fat cat repukes were pissed at him for beating Dewey who was a loser. I was only a young girl at the time but I remember the people liking him. Korea was a bad war but it helped the South Koreans from being over run by the North. That was when Communism was the order of the day.

[rzemanfl]

5. Douglas MacArthur. n/t

[grasswire]

6. He fired McArthur

From one web site: In 1947 Harry S Truman promulgated the Truman Docrine —— the anti—Soviet containment policy of the Cold War. Although he was a lifelong Democrat, the hard Left hated Truman with a passion for that. Henry Wallace, who came very close to inheriting FDR's presidency, was a vehement critic of the idea of breaking with Uncle Joe Stalin. Truman's Cold War policy became hotly controversial, and he lost a great deal of popularity.

And from Wikipedia: In domestic affairs, Truman faced challenge after challenge: a tumultuous reconversion of the economy marked by severe shortages, numerous strikes, and the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act over his veto. After confounding all predictions to win re-election in 1948, he was able to pass almost none of his Fair Deal program. He used executive orders to begin desegregation of the U.S. armed forces and to launch a system of loyalty checks to remove thousands of Communist sympathizers from government office. He was nevertheless under continuous assault for much of his term for supposedly being soft on Communism. Corruption in his administration reached the cabinet and senior White House staff; in one of many scandals, 166 of his appointees resigned or were fired in the aftermath of revelations of financial misbehavior in the Internal Revenue Service <1>. Republicans made corruption a central issue in the 1952 campaign.

Truman's presidency was eventful in foreign affairs, starting with victory over Germany, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the surrender of Japan and the end of World War II, the founding of the United Nations, the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe, the Truman Doctrine to contain Communism, the beginning of the Cold War, the creation of NATO, and the Korean War. The war became a frustrating stalemate, with over 30,000 Americans killed. <1> Highlighting what he considered to be Truman's failures, Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower ended 20 years of Democratic rule in 1952 by defeating Adlai Stevenson, Truman's choice to lead his party's ticket. In retirement, Truman wrote his well-regarded Memoirs.

Truman, whose demeanor was very different from that of the patrician Roosevelt, was a folksy, unassuming president. He popularized such phrases as "The buck stops here" and "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen." He overcame the low expectations of many political observers who compared him (unfavorably) to his highly regarded predecessor. Truman was forced out of his re-election campaign in 1952 after losing the first primary. At one point in his second term, his public opinion ratings were the lowest on record<2>, but some US scholars today rank him among the top ten Presidents. Truman's legendary upset victory in 1948 is routinely invoked by underdog presidential candidates.

[Eric J in MN]

7. Thank you.

Seems like Truman didn't have the support of conservatives to begin with, and liberals didn't like the Korean War and loyalty oaths.

[Frances]

8. Good summary Eric J

Also, people who had been for FDR when they were poor (for example, Ronald Reagan) began to prosper after World War II. They wanted to identify with the haves (GOP).

Of course, Bush took this to a whole new level and made the GOP the party of the have-mores as he so famously said.

The huge irony is that the have-mores gained their "more" with the help of the have-nots who belong to fundamentalist churches. These fundamentalists were "had," in my opinion.

[dflprincess]

26. The funny thing about him getting so much bad press over MacArthur

was that, per my friend's dad who was in the Pacific during WWII, no one who served in that theater thought much of MacArthur and loved it when Truman fired him (and my friend's dad is a life long Republican). According to my mom, my father (also a Pacific veteran) happened to be in NYC on business when MacArthur's funeral observances. He called her (apparently after a night of ummm business talks) and announced that he and his boss (also a Pacific vet) along with some other guys they'd run into thought they'd head over to the armory where the general was lying in state so they could dance on his casket.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

29. My late father served in the Pacific in WWII and he always referred to

MacArthur as "Dugout Doug". Daddy always said the one of the best things Truman ever did was firing him. The other thing my father admired Harry for was putting an end to segregation in the US Armed Forces.

[rasputin1952]

27. He was also a CPT in the Artillery during WWI, and learned much

on his own. He understood war and sacrifice.

He was truly a "self-made man". He had failed at business, but was a straight forward speaker who left little doubt about he was talking about. He was also fearless; when living at Blair House, as the WH was renovated, there was an attempt on his life by some "communists" just outside Blair House on the street. The encounter left a SS agent dead along w/2 of the "communists", a third was wounded and arrested. truman comes popping out the door at the first shots to find out what was going on...the SS quickly got him back inside, but he had no problem going into a firefight as president...:)

Truman was a remarkable fellow in many ways, he had the brass to fire MacArthur, who really did need to be fired; he took on Stalin; he took on N Korea and the Chinese; he accepted and put into motion the Marshall Plan, which saved Europe from imminent USSR domination; he felt it fine to order the dropping of two atomic bombs to bring to close a war that was about to become much bloodier and longer. He also set in motion desegregation of the military, a great step forward for the future of minorities.

[kenny blankenship]

9. FDR was one hell of a tough act to follow

Then you had Korea. For reasons average citizens could either not understand at all, or only understand in mantra-form as "Communism is bent on World Domination!" the U.S. became involved in a war that dragged on and on, occasionally threatening to become WWIII. The citizenry had had enough of war and expected to go back to a long period of peace after WWII. The Korean conflict came as an extremely rude surprise and killed almost as many Americans in about 4 years as Vietnam would later do in about 10 years, depending on how you figure the beginning and ending of our war in Vietnam. Since Truman couldn't deliver a clear cut victory and prudently refused to escalate the local war to full scale superpower Armageddon, a wide swathe of the electorate became convinced he was doing badly. (the last war had been an Armageddon type war so that's what we understood and felt all wars should be) He fired the popular General MacArthur for his rash insubordinate plan to start a direct war with China on Chinese soil (which almost certainly would have unleashed WWIII over in Europe). The problem was that MacArthur had started to put the plan into motion, and generals are supposed to take orders from Presidents not the other way 'round. The Republicans invited the disgraced MacArthur to give a speech to a joint session of Congress (which they had just captured) to send a big Fuck You to Truman, as thanks, one supposes, for keeping them alive. Republican Presidential candidate Dwight Eisenhower said "I will go to Korea" as if that would magically solve our problems obtaining victory on the battlefield. It didn't. Truman left office at the end of his term in disgrace but as time has dragged on, and more Americans have come to understand the world and its affairs in shades of gray instead of black and white, Truman's stock has steadily risen. Like Kennedy after him, Truman fought some hard fights against enemies of our country and enemies of democracy (see also the Berlin Airlift), but simultaneously he had to fight off the stupidest and maddest elements of his own country that demanded that he march world civilization off a cliff. Without the Truman-Kennedy kind of prudent restraint--maybe best demonstrated by Kennedy's refusal to bomb and invade Cuba in 1962--we would probably not even be alive today.
(Still breathing? Not radioactively mutated? THANK A DEMOCRAT!)

[hadrons]

10. There was a scandal involving the release of Paul Ricca and Johnny Rosselli

Paul "The Waiter" Ricca was boss of the Chicago mob from 1943-1957 and Johnny Rosselli was the Chicago's mob West Coast man ... and both had ties to Tom Pendergast's Kansas City political machine (where Truman owned his success too) ... Murray "The Camel" Humphreys the Chicago mob's political "fixer," called Truman's Attorney General Tom C. Clark and magically the mobsters were granted parole 3 years into their 10 year sentences.

The outcry was huge against this move.

[sutz12]

11. Really? Truman was out in 1952 How does that track? nt

[dsc]

12. he didn't leave until Jan of 53

[hadrons]

15. the mobsters were released in 1947, but the damaged carried over for years ....

some people may have overlooked it when times were good for them, but when things went sour and it was time to dump on Truman it was quickly remembered.

Edit: I see what you're referring to with the dates; Paul "The Waiter" Ricca ran things from jail (with Tony Accord who was on the outside) ... Ricca was also the guy who recommended that Sam Giancana replace him as acting boss (Ricca has a soft spot for Giancana) which also caused lots of problem for another Democratic President.

[sutz12]

18. Thanks for the clarification....the original post was unclear to me. nt

[AnneD]

13. While it may be true that Truman may have gone through a

spell without support....I believe the polls then were more honest than now. I think Bush has been longer with out majority support and I would be willing to bet he is hovering around in Nixon territory.
I like Truman, just like I like Johnson. They were Democratic leaders with spines AND testicles and they did what they needed to do, no apologies and no handwringing.

[dsc]

14. actually they were more biased then than now

that is one reason Truman's victory was such a shock.

[AnneD]

17. I'm remember the headline and photo....

but I think the polls are more seriously rigged now. And I think the use of push polls was unheard of then. Polling was in it's infancy so there were some things to learn (like better questioning, etc which could explain the gaffe). Now polls are used to sway opinion, not gage it.

[dsc]

20. It was a methodolgy problem but not in the questions

The problem was the polls were phone polls and back then only wealthy people had phones. They also stopped polling weeks before the election. The polls used by real pollsters are much better designed.

[AnneD]

21. Good point....

How many folks have land lines anymore. If I don't recognize your number-I don't pick up.

Edited to add that I remember folks speaking highly of him where I lived. If they knocked anything, it was his piano playing.

[tammywammy]

16. I suggest this book if you want to learn more about Truman

http://www.amazon.com/Truman-David-McCullough/dp/0671869205/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-8248881-4612662?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174764439&sr=8-1


It's an excellent book on Truman.

[Rageneau]

22. The MSM hated Truman just like it did Carter, Clinton, FDR, Gore -- any real Democrat.

The only exceptions being JFK, whom the chattering class swooned over, and LBJ, whom they feared.

[Alexander]

23. He was portrayed as a corrupt redneck who couldn't govern.

He was the protege of Boss Pendergast, a Missouri kingmaker who specialized in corruption and graft. Political machines were starting to decline and the MSM liked to portray them as hopelessly corrupt, including Truman, who was only tangentially affiliated with one.

Also, there were very few Southern presidents in recent memory then (the last one was Andrew Johnson in the 1860s) and the idea of a president from the South bothered a lot of people. My, how times change.

Plus, at the time lots of people were on the nutjob McArthur's bandwagon, so when he wanted to invade China and Truman fired him to prevent WWIII, Truman was seen as the bad guy.

Ironically, since the US had taken about 80% of the Korean penninsula, McArthur's desire to invade China scared the hell out of the Chinese, who send waves of troops into Korea to help the North Koreans. The US probably would've "won" the Korean War had McArthur kept his yap shut.

Yet the MSM still clung to their "war hero" mantra, like they did with Eisenhower and the younger Bush. Plus, the beginning of the 2nd Red Scare took place right around this time, and Truman was often accused of having communists in his government.

[ProudDad]

25. Because he wasn't Roosevelt

When FDR died most Americans had to wrack their brains to determine who was going to be the new president...

[sandnsea]

28. They called him a commie

Just like they did to FDR, JFK and every other Democrat. This current crop of Dem haters are much worse, but it is not new. And it was not caused by Vietnam. Republicans do not like the working people.