Harry S. Truman

POLITICAL PARTY
Democrat

RELIGION
Baptist

EDUCATION
Spalding's Commercial College; Kansas City Law School

VITALS
5 ft 9 in / 167 lbs

CAREER
1905-11 Missouri National Guard
1906-17 Farmer, Grandview, Missouri
1917-19 Captain, U.S. Army, Battery D, 129th Field Artillery, 35th Division, France
1919-21 Haberdasher, Kansas City, Missouri
1922-24 Judge, Jackson County Court
1924-26 Salesman, Kansas City
1926-34 Presiding Judge, Jackson County Court
1935-45 U.S. Senator, Missouri
1945 U.S. Vice President (Roosevelt)

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
November 2, 1948
Popular: Truman 24,179,345 (50%) Thomas Dewey 21,991,291 (45%) Strom Thurmond 1,176,125 (2%) Henry Wallace 1,157,326 (2%)
Electoral: Truman 303 Dewey 189 Thurmond 39

VICE PRESIDENT
Alben W. Barkley (1949-53)

ADMINISTRATION
German surrender, Potsdam Conference, Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Japan. Japan surrender (1945); Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, Department of Defense, National Security Council, Central Intelligence Agency (1947); State of Israel, Berlin Blockade, Desegregated Armed Forces (1948); Fair Deal, North Atlantic Treaty, White House renovations (1949); Korean War, Assassination attempt (1950); 22nd Amendment (Presidential term limits)(1951); Douglas MacArthur fired, Hydrogen bomb (1952)

SUPREME COURT APPOINTMENTS
Harold Burton, Fred M. Vinson (chief), Tom Clark, Sherman Minton

FIRST LADY
Elizabeth "Bess" Virginia Wallace (1945-53)

POST-PRESIDENCY
1947-72 Author, lecturer

“But America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.”
Special Message to the Congress: The President's First Economic Report, January 8, 1947

Portrait of Harry S. Truman by Martha Greta Kempton, 1947.