Exclusive Book Excerpt: Truman and the birth of Israel.

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The cover story of this week's Newsweek is Truman, and how many of the candidates - of both parties - are trying to position themselves like him.

And then there is a chapter from Michael Beschloss' new book: Presidential Courage and one chapter about how Truman - after getting so many conflicting requests and comments, and with anti-semitism in his background, certainly in his wife, did support the UN vote to partition Palestine and then to recognize the new nation:


As the Wednesday afternoon sun slanted through the tall windows of the Oval Office, Gen. George Marshall, Harry Truman's secretary of State and the architect of victory in World War II, took a chair beside the president's. Sitting in front of the president's desk, befitting his more junior position, was Truman's White House counsel, Clark Clifford. On Friday, May 14, 1948, at midnight, two days from now, the British would withdraw from Palestine. The United Nations had resolved to divide the region into one Jewish state and one Arab state, with ancient, holy Jerusalem as an international city. Despite the U.N. plan, five Arab armies were ready to kill the fledgling Jewish state.

Clifford implored Truman to recognize the new nation as soon as it was declared. If the U.S. granted legitimacy, so would its allies, allowing the Jewish state to survive. But Marshall advised Truman to keep his distance, warning that the Jews could never stave off Arab legions who far outnumbered them. If they came "running to us for help," the U.S. would have to say no. In what Clifford called "a righteous Goddamned Baptist tone," Marshall said, "If you follow Clifford's advice ... I would vote against you." Shaken to be condemned by the national hero he called "the great one of the age," Truman later warned Clifford, "I can't afford to lose General Marshall!"

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18507657/site/newsweek/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18507657/site/newsweek/