Lessons on American Presidents.
Ready-To-Print Handouts, MP3 & Online Quizzes - Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States (1945-1953). Truman was in Missouri in 1884 and grew up on his family’s . He went to France during World War I as a captain. Returning, he married Elizabeth Virginia Wallace, and a wool shop in Kansas City. Truman was the only president who after 1897 without a college degree. His eyesight halted his studies.

Active in the Democratic Party, Truman was a judge of the Jackson County Court (an administrative position) in 1922. He became a Senator in 1934. During World War II he the Senate war investigating committee, checking into and corruption and saved up to $15 billion and thousands of . His efforts put him on the of ‘Time’ magazine in 1943.

Truman became president in 1944. He succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died. He reporters, "I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had on me." As President, Truman made some of the most crucial in history, including the nuclear attacks on Japan, the defense of Berlin against communism, and America’s into the Korean War.

In June 1945 Truman witnessed the of the charter of the United Nations and negotiated the alliance that NATO. After WWII, he presented to Congress his “Fair Deal” to the USA and introduce greater social welfare. He also oversaw the Marshall Plan, which economic recovery in war-torn Western Europe. He decided not to run for a third . He died in 1972 aged 88.