In the wake of the Watergate scandal, the subsequent Congressional hearings, and Gerald Ford’s unlike ascension as America’s only chief executive to become president by way of resignation, the popular band Chicago captured the mood of the country in an obscure tune aptly named, “Harry Truman.”
It was a catchy tune, and the song – debuted in late 1974 on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve special – was critically well-received, with nostalgic lyrics and a style reminiscent of Randy Newman. The song tapped into a political discontent sweeping the nation and the lyrics were as plain-spoken as the bespectacled man from Missouri:
America’s wondering, “How we got here?”
Harry, all we get is lies.
We’re getting safer cars,
Rocket ships to Mars,
From men who’d sell us out
To get themselves a piece of power.
What Chicago had intuited – perhaps better than any pollster of the era – was a national longing for a particular style of leadership: blunt, unadorned, and morally accountable. When Truman left office in 1953, his approval ratings hovered near historical lows. But by the early 1970s, something had shifted. The retrospective view of Truman had softened into admiration and then hardened into reverence.
The Education of a PLainsman
Truman was born on May 8, 1884, in Lamar, Missouri, a small town whose modesty, in retrospect, seems entirely appropriate to the man who would one day emerge from it. He came from a family of farmers and traders, frugal people who believed in the value work, thrift, and honesty with equal fervor. Growing up on a farm served to forge the habits that would later define him: rising early, physical labor, disdain for self-importance, and love of history.
Although poor eyesight barred him from West Point, he never gave up on a yearning for military service and joined the National Guard. When the United States entered the First World War, Truman answered the call and joined the ranks of the Army. At 33, he was older than most of his peers but used age and experience to advantage. Commanding Battery D, 129th Field Artillery – a notoriously undisciplined and unruly unit of Irish-Catholic Kansans – Truman led them with distinction through unpretentious competence and a fierce loyalty to his men.
Their respect for Truman was cemented in the Argonne, where his loyalty to the troops was repeatedly tested by the regimental commander, whose unusual and often senseless behavior repeatedly but men’s lives at risk. Truman stood his ground numerous times in defiance, even firing out of sector twice during battle – an act that could have led to a court martial – to destroy enemy guns on the advance. General John J. Pershing personally recognized Truman’s quick thinking and initiative, a timely intervention. Decades later, former defense secretary Robert Gates recalled the actions of the simple man from Missouri: “Truman understood that in a democratic society, common decency builds a respect. It’s a respect that prompts people to give their all for a leader.”
The Long Road to the West Wing
Truman returned home after the war, married his childhood sweetheart Bess Wallace, and entered politics with the confidence of a man who had learned, in the worst possible classroom, exactly what he was made of.
He served two terms as a county judge, earning a reputation for honest public works spending at a time when graft was the default setting. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1934, where he outworked nearly everyone around him and chaired the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program during World War II – the “Truman Committee” – which saved the federal government an estimated fifteen billion dollars through relentless oversight of military contracting.
His hard work and broad appeal caught the attention of Franklin Roosevelt in 1944, who saw in Truman a vice-presidential candidate who could help to unite the Democratic Party at a critical time. Roosevelt was visibly failing, and the party needed a running mate without enemies, without radical associations, and without the stench of ideology – a moderate candidate acceptable to every wing of the Democratic coalition. Truman fit every criterion.
The Plain-Spoken Legacy
Eighty-two days after inauguration, Roosevelt was dead. Truman – who had not been briefed on the Manhattan Project and had met privately with FDR only twice since become Vice President – was now the President. He later said he felt as though the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on him. He was right. And he did not flinch.
Truman’s legacy is often measured in terms of landmark decisions – the decision to use the bomb to bring an end to World War II, the implementation of the Marshall Plan, the establishment of NATO, the integration of the armed forces, the Berlin Airlift, and America’s entry into the Korean War – consequential enough to fill many careers. His deeper legacy is one of character in leadership.
1. Clarity over charisma.
Truman was a portrait of authenticity. When he spoke, he did so with absolute lucidity, allowing followers to calibrate their own bearings. Leaders who speak plainly in plain times are adequate; leaders who speak plainly in catastrophic times are indispensable.
2. The Buck Stops Here.
Years ago, I spoke at an event at the Truman Museum and was presented with a facsimile of his famous desk plaque. It wasn’t a slogan; it was his personal covenant. The willingness to own outcomes – good and bad – is the rarest currency in leadership.
3. Moral courage as strategy.
Truman’s political prowess was driven by an unparalleled moral seriousness. In leadership, the truest measure of genuine conviction is the willingness to pay the political price that often comes with standing up for your values.
4. Integrity without reward.
When Truman left the White House in 1953, he and Bess returned to Independence and lived modestly on his Army pension. There is a particular kind of trust that accrues only to leaders who are visibly uninterested in personal enrichment, and Truman understood this intuitively.
5. The wisdom of the long view.
Truman was an avid student of history. He governed by historical analogy, aligning the present crisis with the longer arc of human experience and rooting his decisions in the lessons of the past. He believed strongly that a leader who reads nothing governs only the moment, but a leader who reads deeply governs time.
As I made my morning commute last week, the words from “Harry Truman” cast a familiar melody on the car’s sound system. The song was almost a political eulogy, a nostalgic plea for something lost – the plain-speaking, decisive, buck-stops-here quality that Truman had embodied. Paradoxically, perhaps, Harry Truman became an icon precisely because he never tried to be one.
America needs you, Harry Truman.
