Still he couldn’t sleep: HST to EWT, April 30, 1942, ibid., 474.
he called for a second front: Miscamble, “Evolution of an Internationalist,” Australian Journal of Politics and History, August 1977.
“If I were the executive”: Closed Hearing on Wright Aeronautical Corporation, May 24, 1943, Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, United States Senate, NA, 13.
Glenn Martin Company: Memoirs, 184.
Carnegie-Illinois Steel hearing: March 23, 1943, Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, United States Senate, NA, 820.
Stewart testimony: Ibid., 817.
“He cheated more than he was supposed”: Ibid., 833.
McGarrity testimony: Ibid., 837.
Irwin Works investigation: Ibid., 843–74.
“I don’t know anything about”: Ibid., 886.
Benjamin Fairless testimony: Ibid., 896–97.
asked by a reporter for his personal comment: Washington Post, March 24, 1943.
Canol Project: Testimony of General Brehon Somervell, December 20, 1943, Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, United States Senate, NA.
“The committee damns it up and down”: Drury, A Senate Journal, 29.
“all the desperate assertions”: Ibid.
reading Shakespeare and Plutarch: HST to EWT, June 18, 1942, Dear Bess, 477.
as if he had just stepped: Margaret Truman Daniel, author’s interview.
“One day in a typical”: Riedel, 174.
“I went up to the front desk”: The New Yorker, November 23, 1987.
“I am more surprised every day”: HST to EWT, August 21, 1942, Dear Bess, 487.
“The man from Missouri”: Pepper, with Gorey, Pepper, 129.
never heard him even try: Margaret Truman Daniel, author’s interview.
“One time, one Christmas”: Ardis Haukenberry, author’s interview.
“You have a good mind”: HST to MT, March 13, 1942, Truman, Letters from Father, 40.
“Tell my baby”: HST to EWT, July 22, 1942, Dear Bess, 480–81.
to “only just drop in”: HST to EWT, April 30, 1942, ibid., 474.
“Well this is the day”: HST to EWT, June 28, 1942, ibid., 480.
“one of the most useful”: Helm, 228.
Truman and his committee known nationwide: Washington Star (undated), HSTL.
that “often a threat”: Business Week, June 26, 1943.
The whole country was greatly indebted: The Nation, January 24, 1942.
“objectivity at the total expense”: Krock, Memoirs, 220.
286Look poll: May 16, 1944.
He spoke at a huge rally: Chicago Daily News, April 15, 1943.
“hotels, filling stations”: HST to EWT, December 21, 1939, Dear Bess, 436.
merely talking about the Four Freedoms: Chicago Daily News, April 15, 1943.
Summer 1943 speaking tour: Miscamble, “The Evolution of an Internationalist.”
“History has bestowed”: Ibid.,
“We want aluminum”: Schlesinger and Bruns, 3129.
saved…as much as $15 billion: Memoirs, Vol. I, 186.
“He seems to be a generally”: Drury, 29.
“There are a number of times”: Ibid, 106.
“Now that’s a matter”: Telephone conversation between HST and Stimson, June 17, 1943, HSTL
“I know something about”: HST to Lewis Schwellenbach, July 15, 1943, HSTL.
“In my humble opinion”: Memorandum to Mildred Dryden, December 3, 1943, HST Senate Papers, HSTL.
“I have sent an investigator”: HST to Senator Thomas, November 30, 1943, HST Senate Papers, HSTL.
“COLONEL MATHIAS”: Fred Canfil to HST, December 7, 1943, HSTL.
“Whenever he finds out”: HST to EWT, October 25, 1942, Dear Bess, 491.
“The United States was engaged”: Martin, My First Fifty Years in Politics, 100–01.
“He threatened me with dire consequences”: Stimson Diary, Yale University.
8. Numbered Days
being talked of as candidate: HST to EW, May 7, 1943, HSTL.
“Leadership is what we Americans”: Truman, “We Can Lose the War,” American Magazine, November 1942.
key man in the “conspiracy”: Quoted in HST memorandum to Jonathan Daniels, HSTL.
Flynn admires Wallace: The New Yorker, September 8, 1945.
First meeting with FDR: Flynn, You’re the Boss; Allen, Presidents Who Have Known Me.
“I felt that he would never”: Flynn, 179.
Secretly, he was under: Bishop, FDR’s Last Year, 94.
Hannegan on Wallace: Brown, James F. Byrnes of South Carolina, A Remembrance (manuscript), 255–56.
Byrnes influence on FDR: Ibid., 259.
“I did conclude”: Quoted in Byrnes, All in One Lifetime, 221.
“Now, partner”: Quoted in Brown, 258.
somebody else “we have got”: Quoted in Daniels, The Man from Missouri, 243.
Loss of New York: Flynn, 180.
“The Negro has not only”: Quoted in Brown, 264–66.
When they went through the list: Flynn, 181.
“His record as head”: Ibid.
FDR asked a favor: Anna Rosenberg, author’s interview.
smuggle in jars of caviar: Ibid.
“I don’t want to be”: Quoted in Helm, Harry Truman, 220.
the word from “informed sources”: Drury, A Senate Journal, 215–16.
“The Madam doesn’t want”: Max Lowenthal, Oral History, HSTL.
“It is funny”: HST to MT, July 9, 1944, Margaret Truman, Letters from Father, 55.
“opened up on politics”: Wallace, The Price of Vision, 361.
“Mr. President, if you can find”: Ibid., 362.
“Think of the catcalls”: Ibid.
“It was as though”: Drury, 216.
“Jimmy Byrnes”: Quoted in Brown, 269.
the decisive meeting: Allen, 128–29.
“I gathered that he felt”: Ickes Diary, July 16, 1944, LC.
“the only one who had”: Wallace, 366.
a new Gallup Poll: Allen, 130.
“Well, I am looking”: Wallace, 367.
“Look at the expressions”: Quoted in Brown, 276.
“Mr. President, all I have heard”: Ibid.
“You are the best qualified”: Quoted in Byrnes, 222.
“I don’t understand it”: Ibid., 223.
“I told them so”: Ibid, 224–25.
“We have to be”: Ibid.
Byrnes went directly down: Ibid.
Truman accepted at once: Ibid., 226.
Truman to nominate Barkley: Barkley, That Reminds Me, 189.
As Alben Barkley would write: Ibid., 190.
Arthur Krock: The New York Times, July 16, 1944.
“Roosevelt could, of course”: Allen, 130.
“The train stood”: Tully, F.D.R., My Boss, 276.
“Dear Bob”: Robert Hannegan to FDR, July 14, 1944, HSTL.
“By naming Truman”: Tully, 276.
“The President has given”: Quoted in Byrnes, 226.
“Well, you know Jimmy”: Ibid., 226–27.
Hannegan showing note to no one: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 21, 1944.
He was determined to stay out: Salter, ed., Public Men In and Out of Office. 4–5.
“Hell, I don’t want”: Ibid.
“I don’t want that”: Quoted in Truman, Harry S. Truman, 183.
“I’m satisfied”: Tom Evans, Oral History, HSTL.
Writing years later, Margaret: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 227.
they “got Truman”: Edward McKim, Oral History, HSTL.
“I’m sure he wanted”: Quoted in Steinberg, The Man from Missouri, 203.
it wasn’t so much: John Snyder, author’s interview.
“that miserable time”: HST to Mrs. Emmy Southern, May 13, 1945, in Ferrell, ed., Off the Record, 23.
“scared to death”: Childs, “He Di
dn’t Want the Job,” Liberty, September 23, 1944.
“I have been associated”: Washington Post, July 18, 1944.
“the coolest and cruelest”: Drury, 218.
“already soaring campaign stock”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 18, 1944.
“It was generally regarded”: Claude Pepper, author’s interview.
Hannegan’s corner suite: Life, July 31, 1944.
“Do you want to see it?”: Washington Post, July 28, 1944.
“Clear it with Sidney”: Quoted in Byrnes, 227.
Sidney Hillman: Time, July 24, 1944.
Hillman’s support: HST “Autobiographical Sketch,” HSTL.
“It’s Byrnes!”: Quoted in Flynn, 182.
“I browbeat the committee”: Ibid.
200,000 Negro votes: Byrnes, 228.
“Bob, it’s Truman”: Steinberg, 213.
An hour or so later: Byrnes, 229.
Turner Catledge account: The New York Times, July 19, 1944.
“If I were you”: Quoted in Barkley, 190.
“Feel sorry for me”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 19, 1944.
secret caucus: Time, July 31, 1944.
“the stage manager”: Barkley, 191.
“Whenever Roosevelt”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 192.
“Oh, shit”: George Elsey, Notes, Ayers Papers, HSTL.
“Well, if that’s the situation”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 193.
“Ye gods!”: Truman, Souvenir, 66.
“In a political”: Wallace, 368; Time, July 31, 1944.
“What is the job”: Quoted in Burns, Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom, 507.
“I sat there”: Claude Pepper, author’s interview.
“And then when I got”: Ibid.
“So I called Bob”: Quoted in Miller, Plain Speaking, 194.
Martha Ellen Truman: Ibid., 149.
Interviewed by reporters: Washington Star, July 20, 1944.
Bennett Clark…pulled himself together: Miller, 194.
“a good deal of pressure”: The New York Times, July 22, 1944.
Truman and hot dog: Truman, Souvenir, 67.
“Christ Almighty”: Time, July 31, 1944.
he accepted “with all humility”: The New York Times, July 22, 1944.
“Now, give me a chance”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 22, 1944.
“the Missouri Compromise”: Life, July 31, 1944.
“the Common Denominator”: Kansas City Star, July 22, 1944.
“I don’t object to Truman”: Baruch, The Public Years, 339.
one of the weakest candidates: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 23, 1944,
“the mousy little man”: Time, July 31, 1944.
“Poor Harry Truman”: New Republic, July 31, 1944.
“unusual capacity”: Kansas City Star, July 22, 1944.
“He has known the dust”: The New York Times, July 22, 1944.
an excellent choice: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 22, 1944.
Even Richard Strout: New Republic, July 31, 1944.
“On the credit side”: Drury, 220.
“Are we going to have to”: Quoted in Truman, Bess W. Truman, 231.
“Dad tried to be cheerful”: Ibid., 233.
Margaret learns of grandfather’s suicide: Ibid., 234.
“He seized my arm”: Ibid.
“I wish I could tell you”: Ibid., 235.
looking over the old gray Victorian house: Life, August 21, 1944.
“I had hoped”: Walton, Henry Wallace, Harry Truman and the Cold War, 20–21.
the critical part played by Ed Flynn: The New Yorker, September 8, 1945.
“People seemed to think”: Daniels, 259.
his father’s “irritability”: Roosevelt and Shalett, Affectionately, F.D.R., 351–52.
FDR seizure: Ibid.
FDR lunch with Truman: There has been speculation that at this lunch Roosevelt told Truman about the atomic bomb. The source is an interview with Truman’s friend Tom Evans made many years later as part of the Truman Library’s oral history program. There is no possibility that it is correct, since the President’s daughter, Anna Roosevelt Boettiger, was also present at the lunch, as were a half dozen or so photographers, cameramen, and servants. Nor would Roosevelt have brought up the matter on such an occasion in any event.
“I wonder why we are made”: HST to EWT, December 28, 1945, Off the Record, 75.
“I am not a deep thinker”: Wallace, The Price of Vision, 373.
“smarter by far”: Martin, My First Fifty Years in Politics, 176.
FDR told Truman not to travel: Memoirs, Vol. I, 5.
FDR’s hand shook: Truman, Harry S. Truman, p. 203.
“You should have seen”: Ibid., 201.
He was greatly concerned: Harry Vaughan, Oral History, HSTL.
Ed McKim and Truman: McKim, Oral History, HSTL.
“Harry is a fine man”: Hatch, Franklin D. Roosevelt, 376.
“There never was a greater”: HST to EWT, June 15, 1946, Dear Bess, 526.
“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 Vaug
han: 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.
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