“He’s so damn afraid”: HST to EWT, December 21, 1941, ibid., 470.
“You know how it is”: Drury, 327.
“he lies”: Ickes Diary, December 16, 1944, LC.
“Harry, what the hell”: Quoted in Miller, 199; also Miller Tapes, LBJL.
“You can’t afford”: Audio Collection, HSTL.
Recruitment of Matt Connelly: Matt Connelly, Oral History, HSTL.
“I’m glad to see you, Harry”: Steinberg, 225.
it was “the farmer-neighborliness”: McNaughton and Hehmeyer, This Man Truman, 182.
Truman dream about FDR: Pearson, “The Man Who Didn’t Want to Be President,” Vertical file, HSTL, April 16, 1945.
A rumor spread: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 204.
Klan story: Hearst papers, October 26, 1944.
Curley speech: Connelly, Oral History, HSTL.
Chicago Tribune attacks: October 17, 1944.
“hotter than a depot stove”: HST to EWT, July 25, 1945, Dear Bess, 521.
Teamsters appearance: Burns, Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom, 523.
“He improved visibly”: Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins, 825.
“I was shocked”: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 240.
“And he knew”: Harry Easley, Oral History, HSTL.
“I still think”: Quoted in Hassett, Off the Record with F.D.R., 294.
only if it was “absolutely urgent”: Leuchtenburg, In the Shadow of FDR, 6.
“The amiable Missourian”: Time, February 5, 1945.
“He circulated around”: Gunther, Procession, 256–57.
Truman answered, “People”: Ibid., 260.
“the most natural thing”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 15, 1945.
“Harry looks better than he has”: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 247.
“I used to get down here”: HST to MET and MJT, April 11, 1945, Off the Record, 13.
“Truman says simply”: Frank McNaughton Papers, December 14, 1944, HSTL.
Pendergast’s death: Washington Post, January 27, 1945.
Pendergast funeral: Miller, 210.
“I was just a kid”: Lauren Bacall, author’s interview.
“Anything can happen”: Washington Post, February 11, 1945.
Bess was furious: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 245.
“I saw the President”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 3.
April 12 Pendergast letter: T.J. Pendergast to HST, April 7, 1945, HSTL.
“We will see”: Ibid.
“It’s wonderful, this Senate”: Drury, 410.
Senator Hawkes: Congressional Record, April 12, 1945, 3284.
Senator Reed: Ibid, 3285.
“I have a Missouri”: Remarks by Former President Harry S. Truman, 88th Congress, 2nd Sess, Sen. Doc. No. 88, May 8, 1964.
remarked…that Roosevelt was fortunate: Drury, 410.
“Truman doesn’t know”: Ibid.
“Dear Mamma and Mary”: HST to MET and MJT, April 12, 1945, HSTL.
Tells Harry Vaughan: HST to MET and MJT, April 16, 1945, HSTL.
“Steve Early wants you”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 4.
as “quickly and as quietly”: HST to MET and MJT, April 16, 1945, HSTL.
“I ran all the way”: HST to MET and MJT, April 16, 1945, HSTL.
“Harry, the President is dead”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 5.
“Is there anything we”: Ibid.
Part Three
9. The Moon, the Stars, and All the Planets
“So ended an era”: Drury, A Senate Journal, 412.
“Yes, it’s true”: Quoted in Yank, 122.
“The armies and fleets”: The New York Times, April 13, 1945.
Stettinius…with tears streaming: Memoirs, Vol. I, 6.
“It was a very somber”: Stimson Diary, April 12, 1945, Yale University.
Margaret feeling as if under anesthesia: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 229.
Truman would later tell his mother: HST to MET and MJT, April 16, 1945, HSTL.
first decision as President: HST Diary, April 12, 1945, in Ferrell, ed., Off the Record, 15–16.
brief remarks to the Cabinet: Memoirs, Vol. I, 9–10.
a matter of utmost urgency: Ibid., 10.
had conducted himself admirably: Stimson Diary, April 12, 1945.
“I guess the party’s off’: Edward McKim, Oral History, HSTL.
immediately to sleep: Miller, Plain Speaking, 215.
“What a great, great tragedy”: Lilienthal, Journals, April 14, 1945, Vol. I, 693.
“From a distance”: Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 429.
“It seems very unfortunate”: Ibid.
Eisenhower shaken: Eisenhower, Eisenhower at War, 1943–1945, 763–64.
Lester Atwell: Quoted in Flower and Reeves, eds., The Taste of Courage, 996.
“He’s got the stuff’: Quoted in McNaughton Papers, April 13, 1945, HSTL
“a grand person”: Vandenberg, ed., The Private Papers of Senator Vandenberg, April 13, 1945, 167.
“Oh, I felt good”: John J. McCloy, author’s interview.
He was straightforward: Acheson, Present at the Creation, 104.
“I hate to confess it”: Stone, The War Years 1939–1945, 274.
“GET IN THERE”: Telegram from Jim Pendergast to HST, April 12, 1945, HSTL.
“I can’t really be glad”: Quoted in Off the Record, 17.
“a jewel”: HST Diary, April 15, 1945, ibid., 19.
“There have been few men”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 13.
Truman later wrote: Ibid., 29.
“It seemed still”: Quoted in Daniels, The Man of Independence, 27.
“Eddie, I’m sorry”: Quoted in Truman, Harry S. Truman, 234.
“everything from Teheran”: HST Diary, April 13, 1945, Off the Record, 17.
“What a test”: Kansas City Star, April 15, 1945.
Truman left the White House: Drury, 412.
“Isn’t this nice”: Quoted in ibid., 413.
“Boys, if you ever pray”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 19.
“For just a moment”: Drury, 413.
“executive contempt for Congress”: Vandenberg, April 13, 1945, 167.
Stettinius report: Quoted in Memoirs, Vol. I, 15.
“never did talk”: Truman, Letters from Father, March 3, 1948, 106.
“It is needless”: Washington Post, April 13, 1945.
“I’m President Truman”: Paul Horgan, Oral History, HSTL.
“I still can’t call”: Wallace, The Price of Vision, 448.
“He’s the only one”: HST to Eleanor Roosevelt, September 1, 1945, Off the Record, 63.
“Have confidence”: Barkley, That Reminds Me, 197.
“I have come down here”: Quoted in Hardeman and Bacon, Rayburn: A Biography, 311–12.
“No…He just made it”: HST Diary, April 14, 1945, Off the Record, 18.
not on trial: Bishop, FDR’S Last Year, 646.
“But after all”: Morgenthau, Diaries, Vol. III, 423.
“Terrible”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 31.
“Mr. President”: Ibid, 42.
“With great humility”: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States. Harry S. Truman…(cited hereafter as PP, HST), April 16, 1945, 2.
“bond of friendship”: Washington Star, April 17, 1945.
“At this moment”: PP, HST, April 16, 1945, 3.
“He’s one of us”: McNaughton Papers, April 14, 1945, HSTL.
“your ability to discharge”: Henry Luce to HST, April 17, 1945, HSTL.
“May I say”: Archibald John Brier to HST, April 17, 1945.
“Good luck, Harry”: Quoted in Donovan, Conflict and Crisis, 19.
“Well, I have had”: HST to MET and MJT, April 16, 1945, HSTL.
First press conference: PP, HST, April 17, 1945, 8–13.
“direct” performance: Leahy, I Was There, 349.
lived five lifetimes: Memoirs, Vol. I, 53.
Three days later: PP, HST, April 20, 1945, 16–19.
“naturally sm
art boy”: Newsweek, August 15, 1949.
“He made first-class citizens”: George Tames, author’s interview.
“Stick with me”: Quoted in Smith, ed., Merriman Smith’s Book of Presidents: A White House Memoir, 56.
“He was alert”: George Elsey, author’s interview.
“See, with President Roosevelt”: Floyd Boring, author’s interview.
“tragically inadequate”: Daniels, 27.
“To the White House this morning”: Hassett, “The President Was My Boss,” Saturday Evening Post, November 28, 1953.
“Missourians are most in evidence”: Ayers Diary, April 17, 1945, HSTL.
“the lounge of the Lion’s Club”: Quoted in Steinberg, The Man from Missouri, 13.
McKim was “weird”: Jonathan Daniels, Oral History, HSTL.
Prohibition gangster: Ayers Diary, April 17, 1945, HSTL.
“We were all a strange lot”: Rosenman, “Harry S. Truman: Man from Independence,” American Heritage (unpublished), 70.
“Well, he was a sergeant”: Matt Connelly, Oral History, HSTL.
“The fact is”: Ayers Diary, May 14, 1945, HSTL.
“balance and tact”: Ibid.
“Tell them I don’t authorize”: Harry Vaughan, Oral History, HSTL.
“Hoover’s hatred”: Sullivan, The Bureau, 38.
“We want no Gestapo”: HST Memorandum, May 12, 1945, Off the Record, 22.
“honest and friendly”: Quoted in Churchill, The Second World War. Vol. VI: Triumph and Tragedy, 484.
“He’ll make enemies”: Drury, 418.
“I don’t think you know”: Samuel Rosenman, Oral History, HSTL.
“It was a wonderful relief’: Stimson Diary, April 18, 1945.
“Changes in the battle situation”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 51.
Leahy was struck: Leahy, 348.
“to get on the inside”: Rigdon, with Derieux, White House Sailor, 183.
“I pray you believe”: Quoted in Snyder, The War, 520.
“a keen appreciation”: Kennan, Memoirs, 1925–1950, 233.
“And anyway the Russians”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 70–71.
“I can testify”: Quoted in Halle, The Cold War as History, 38.
“Averell is right”: Quoted in Truman, Harry S. Truman, 255.
“It would be one”: Harriman and Abel, Special Envoy to Churchill and Stalin, 437.
“We must not permit”: Quoted in Truman, Harry S. Truman, 437.
“Russia will emerge”: OSS File, April 2, 1945, HSTL.
April 6 cable: Gaddis, The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 201.
not a man of his word: Morgan, F.D.R., A Biography, 762.
“minor misunderstandings”: Harriman and Abel, 439–40.
“I would minimize”: Ibid.
“barbarian invasion”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 73.
happy with 85 percent: Gaddis, 203.
“The White House upstairs”: Quoted in Truman, Bess W. Truman, 260.
like a ghost house: West, with Kotz, Upstairs at the White House, 58.
“go to hell”: Quoted in Forrestal Diaries, 50.
“for fear we are rushing”: Stimson Diary, April 23, 1945.
Forrestal strongly disagreed: Forrestal Diaries, 50.
no intention of issuing: Memoirs, Vol. I, 78.
“until we have done”: Ibid., 79.
“I am very sorry”: Stimson Diary, April 23, 1945.
“I have never been talked to”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 82.
Bohlen’s account: Bohlen, Witness to History, 213.
“a little taken aback”: Harriman and Abel, 453.
the best news he had heard: Vandenberg, 176.
“I think it is very important”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 85.
“Mr. President, I don’t like”: Quoted in Morison, Turmoil and Tradition, 609.
“a real man”: HST to Jonathan Daniels, February 26, 1950, unsent, Off the Record, 174.
“Within four months”: Stimson Diary, April 25, 1945.
“The President took”: Ibid.
Truman told him to go ahead: Stimson and Bundy, On Active Service in Peace and War, 616.
“The President did not show”: Quoted in Sherwin, A World Destroyed, 293.
“This is a big project”: Quoted in Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb, 625.
“It might perhaps”: Quoted in Sherwin, 284.
Truman measurements: Paul Shinkman to Eben Ayers, May 10, 1945, HSTL.
“It’s a tough job”: Stone, The War Years. 1939–1945, 281–82.
“He ought to surrender it”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 91.
“at a brisk trot”: West, with Kotz, 61.
“We have received so much mail”: MJT to HST, April 24, 1945, HSTL.
“I do hope”: MJT to HST, May 1, 1945, HSTL.
“I arrived home”: MJT to HST, May 7, 1945, HSTL.
“You both have done”: HST to MET and MJT, April 21, 1945, HSTL.
“This is a solemn”: PP, HST, May 8, 1945, 44.
“straight one-two to the jaw”: Sherwin, 172.
“like people from across”: Wallace, 450–51.
“His sincerity”: Ayers Diary, May 26, 1945, HSTL.
“show them how much”: Churchill, 437.
“it is my present intention”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 216.
“Mr. President, in these next two months”: Churchill, 497.
May 12 Churchill telegram: Gilbert, Winston Churchill. Never Despair, 6.
“It is a very, very hard position”: HST to Mrs. Emmy Southern, May 13, 1945, Off the Record, 23.
“air of quiet confidence”: Eden, Memoirs, 621.
“To have a reasonably”: HST Diary, May 22, 1945, Off the Record, 35.
Martha Ellen Truman’s visit: The New York Times, May 12, 1945.
prefer to sleep on the floor: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 266.
“Oh, you couldn’t help but”: Floyd Boring, author’s interview.
“My bedroom is pink”: Truman, Souvenir, 98.
story of the old-fashioneds: West, with Kotz, 75.
“stand no fakers”: Fields, My 21 Years at the White House, 122.
“correct but not formal”: West, 58.
“He knew when a stenographer’s”: Smith, 60.
“this was the first time”: Fields, 120.
“Not built right”: HST to EW, March 19, 1941, Dear Bess, 455.
“The President seemed relieved”: Quoted in Donovan, 28.
“And that was about all”: Lilienthal, Journals, Vol. I, 698.
“Saw Herbert Hoover”: HST Diary, June 1, 1945, Off the Record, 40.
“I can’t understand it”: HST Diary, May 27, 1945, ibid., 38.
“push ahead as fast”: Quoted in Rhodes, 646.
“visual effect of an atomic bombing”: Quoted in Sherwin, 208.
“with reluctance”: Quoted in Wyden, Day One, 163.
“a remarkable document”: Ibid., 154.
“The idea of”: Yale University Atomic Bomb File, HSTL.
“Have been going through”: HST Diary, June 1, 1945, Off the Record, 39.
“as a new weapon”: Stimson Diary, May 31, 1945.
June 6 Stimson meeting: Stimson Diary, June 1 and 6, 1945.
“What a puny effort”: C. L. Sulzberger, World War II, 114.
“outdoing Hitler”: Stimson Diary, June 6, 1945.
“the earliest possible date”: Quoted in Morison, 621.
“The ultimate responsibility”: Stimson and Bundy, On Active Service in Peace and War, 617.
“straight military objective”: Cray, General of the Army, 538.
“We must offset”: Quoted in Pogue, George C. Marshall: Statesman 1945–1959, 17.
“The opinions of our scientific”: Quoted in Bundy, Danger and Survival, 71.
“shock value”: Stimson, On Active Service, 617.
“We regarded the matter”: Quoted in Mosley, Marshall, 337–38.
“only by men”: Quoted in Rhodes, 637.
“H
is general demeanor”: Quoted in Wyden, 143.
“render the Russians”: Ibid., 142.
“Oppenheimer didn’t share”: Ibid., 143.
“the damn thing”: Quoted in Phillips, The Truman Presidency, 54.
“We are on our way”: Quoted in Truman, Souvenir, 109.
“I hope—sincerely hope”: HST Diary, June 1, 1945, Off the Record, 40.
“Don’t think over six”: Ibid.
“Just two months ago”: HST to EWT, June 12, 1945, Dear Bess, 515–16.
“He’s a nice fellow”: HST to EWT, June 19, 1945, Ibid., 516.
“I’m always so lonesome”: HST Diary, June 1, 1945, Off the Record, 40.
A Gallup Poll: Donovan, 21.
“And as usual”: Ayers Diary, June 18, 1945, HSTL.
“Nothing really important”: Foreign Relations of the United States, Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), 1945, Vol. I, 92.
“always been our friends”: HST Diary, June 7, 1945, Off the Record, 44.
First time Hopkins thanked: Miller, 225.
“Mr. Prima Donna”: HST Diary, June 17, 1945, Off the Record, 47.
“He wants an estimate”: Quoted in Sherwin, 336.
“I have to decide”: HST Diary, June 17, 1945, Off the Record, 47.
June 18, 1945, meeting: Feis, The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II, 10.
“We were beginning”: John J. McCloy, author’s interview.
June 26, 1945, speech: PP, HST, June 26, 1945.
“Dad loved”: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 266.
“I shall attempt”: HST, Speech Files, June 27, 1945, HSTL.
“I am anxious”: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 279–280.
July 2, 1945, speech: PP, HST, July 2, 1945, 153–55.
no buzzer: Woolf, “President Truman Talks About His Job,” The New York Times Magazine, July 15, 1945.
he would “soon go under”: Ibid.
“Punish her war criminals”: Stimson Diary, May 16, 1945.
Morgenthau meeting: Morgenthau, 466.
Morgenthau didn’t know: Jonathan Daniels interview with HST, November 12, 1949, HSTL.
“I am getting ready”: HST to MET and MJT, July 3, 1945, HSTL.
“How I hate”: HST Diary, July 7, 1945, Off the Record, 49.
10. Summer of Decision
“Today’s prime fact”: Stimson quoted in Compton, Atomic Quest, 219.
“like a moving circus”: HST to MET and MJT, January 27, 1947, HSTL.
“It seems to take two warships”: HST to MT, July 14, 1945, HSTL.
“You who have not seen”: Film Collection, HSTL.
Truman on Fred Canfil: Hersey, Aspects of the Presidency, 39.
“At the end of the war”: O. Müller Grote to HST, February 10, 1956, HSTL.
David McCullough Library E-book Box Set Page 549