Harry Truman: Why was he so unpopular when he was president?

[Poiuyt]

And what happened since then to change America's opinion of him?

[HereSince1628]

1. Something about a war in Korea, and he tried to nationalize the steel industry

and he bucked up against a WWII hero, known for bugging out and promising to return

Trying to nationalize steel damned near got him impeached. But back then they took impeachment as something serious, not as revenge for having impeached another president 25 years earlier...

[SemiCharmedQuark]

3. Yes, when the steel workers tried to strike, he tried to seize the steel mills.

Good one!

:thumbsup:

[SemiCharmedQuark]

2. He was largely unpopular because of the Korean War and heavy inflation.

Also corruption within his government.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. According to my grandmother,it was because he cussed

And he fired McArthur. Both sets of grandparents were ardent Republicans. I could understand the maternal grandparents being so--he was a doctor. But the paternal ones always puzzled me, as he was a blue collar union worker. But both were mighty worried about the Chinese.

I can imagine what they'd think about today's politicians--Bush giving us the finger and politicians cussing, and China bailing us out.

[Beregond2]

5. The use of the A bomb. Firing MacArthur.

His outspokenness. Lots of reasons. But a lot of it was just the fact that he was very much the "common man," and after three terms of the patrician Roosevelt, he just didn't fit the mold of what people thought a President should be.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

6. The post-WW2 rebuilding of Europe did a lot to burnish his image.

I highly recommend "The Candy Bombers" by Andrei Cherny (and not just because I know the author personally). It's an account of the Berlin Airlift and what was arguably the finest moment for America on the world stage.

[jacksonian]

7. a lot of things

but the Korean War and the firing of MacArthur.

I think at the time firing MacArthur was very unpopular, but as time went on Douglas became seen as a wacko extremist. Nowadays Truman seems rather heroic for standing up to him.

[Aristus]

8. Proof again that we've learned nothing from the few great men who have inhabited the White House.

How many times have you heard the idiotic tough-talk refrain: "We should just bomb ___________ into radioactive glass!"?

That is basically what MacArthur's strategy to end the war in Korea was. He and war-crazed yahoos like Curtis LeMay seemed to think that the Bomb was an easy way to win any war. If you get into a tight spot, just drop the Bomb, and everything will be skippy. No consequences, no repercussions, no blowback. To them, the agonizing deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocents are compensated by the elimination of an problem too small for such a horrific solution.

Truman was great enough and smart enough to do an unpopular thing for the right reasons. B*sh thinks he's the same kind of man, blissfully unaware of the difference between himself and Truman: Truman did unpopular things for the right reasons; B*sh does things that are popular at the time, even though they may be for all the wrong reasons, and when they become unpopular, he sees himself as "Trumanesque". :eyes: