POTUS in action: Presidents doing stuff

Jimmy Carter and an aide hop a fence at La Guardia to make a connection during the 1976 campaign

Future President Ike Eisenhower with General Omar Bradley and Winston Churchill on a tour of military bases

Candidate JFK riding a mule in the Chicago stockyards in the 1960 campaign

Gerald Ford Exercising

President George W. Bush fishing for bass

President Harry S. Truman bags a whopper

Cal Coolidge, 4th of July 1927

President Ronald W. Reagan, 1981

President Teddy Roosevelt hunts for bear, ca 1905

President Woodrow Wilson throws out the first baseball, 1916

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President Harry S. Truman's angry response to a music critic who panned his daughter Margaret

By Jack Brummet, Presidents/Music Ed.

In 1950, President Harry S. Truman wrote a much loved reply to Washington Post music critic Paul Hume’s review of his daughter, Margaret's singing appearance  (Hume: “Miss Truman cannot sing very well").

The president fired off his response: 

"I've just read your lousy review of Margaret's concert. I've come to the conclusion that you are an ‘eight ulcer man on four ulcer pay.’

 “It seems to me that you are a frustrated old man who wishes he could have been successful. When you write such poppy-cock as was in the back section of the paper you work for, it shows conclusively that you're off the beam and at least four of your ulcers are at work. 

“Some day I hope to meet you. When that happens you'll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below!”

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An angry letter to President Harry S. Truman, and an angry letter he seemed to take to heart

By Jack Brummet
Democratic Party Affairs Editor

click to enlarge

This angry letter was sent to President Harry Truman in 1953 by George Banning's father.  Banning was killed serving in the Korean War.

I'm sure Presidents at war get letters like this all the time.  Now, HST had a pretty thick skin, but something in this letter must have gotten under his skin.  When HST died some 20 years later, the letter--along with the Purple Heart Mr. Banning sent--was found in his desk.

Scan of this letter is courtesy of the Truman Library.

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It was 64 years ago today that FDR died in office and Harry S. Truman became Presidenrt

On this day in 1845, following the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, the vice president, succeeded to the presidency. Truman's presidency saw a number of major events in world affairs:-- we "won" the war in Europe, and Japan, the UN came alive,  the Truman Doctrine--an attempt to contain Communusm--led to the Cold War,  NATO was born, and the Korean War began.  Needless to say, we also became the first (and, thankfully, last [for now]) country to drop an atomic bomb on fellow humans. 

click to enlarge - Harry got into hot water with First Lady Bess over this photo of Betty Bacall perched on his piano, showing some serious gams and eyes...
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POTUS 33 - President Harry S. Truman

click to enlarge

Harry Truman did not want to be vice president, and he didn't have to be for long. He was VPOTUS 83 days before FDR died in his fourth term of office.

He hoped to play the piano for a living, but opened a haberdashery with a fellow army buddy that went bust. Harry refused to declare bankruptcy and worked his entire life to pay the debts from the business. He got into politics.

In his bid for re-election in 1948, he was dubbed the loser to Thomas Dewey as newspaper headlines read DEWEY WINS when in fact Truman was the winner. You've seen the famous photograph of Harry holding the 'paper declaring Dewey the winner.

When bad reviews appeared in the press following his daughter Margaret's singing debut in NYC, he threatened to punch the reviewer in the nose.


click to enlarge. This photo with Lauren Bacall got Harry
into hot water with Bess. I can see why.

The President never removed his suit jacket while working in the Oval Office. Harry was not a shirt-sleeve guy.

When Japan refused to surrender in World War II, he made the decision to drop nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, two cities devoted to war work. He may have ended the war, but he let the genie out of the bottle, and we've never been able to put the genie back.

In June 1950, when the Communist government of North Korea attacked South Korea, Truman again went to war: "There was no suggestion from anyone that either the United Nations or the United States could back away from it." A brutal struggle ensued as U.N. forces held a line above the old border of South Korea. Truman kept the war a limited one, and avoided engaging either China or Russia.

He retired in early 1953, succeeded by President Eisenhower.
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