Harry Truman rose to a monumental occasion. May the world find his leadership again

If we were not in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, and our new normal had not yet shuttered businesses and cultural institutions, the flag at the Truman Library would be at half-staff in honor of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who died 75 years ago today.

Roosevelt’s death was more than a transition in presidential power: It was the passing of an era. He had been president for more than a dozen years — the only president many younger Americans had ever known. His warm and familiar radio voice, his soaring and assuring rhetorical strains, his wartime leadership that produced the promise of peace all made his passing more than a change in leadership. It was a crisis.

No one felt that crisis more acutely than the man who just 82 days before still bore the title of senator — a relatively obscure, Midwestern senator at that.

Vice President Harry Truman was summoned to the White House late in the afternoon of April 12, 1945. He later recounted that when he learned of FDR’s death, he felt that the sun, the moon and the stars had all fallen on him. Indeed, the fate of the war-torn world now rested squarely on his shoulders. But what kind of shoulders were they, and what could the world expect from a Missouri farmer who had failed in business, was the product of machine politics and had never even gone to college?

The question that swirled around Truman as he assumed the presidency was put bluntly: Can he swing the job? It was, to be sure, a big job to swing.

It was not enough to deliver victory in World War II. To Truman fell the task of orchestrating peace and rebuilding the nation and the world. And peace for Truman was more than the absence of fighting. It was the presence of justice, both at home and abroad.

Times of crisis always test the mettle of our leaders. But in this case, not only did Truman swing the job, he did so with such grace, humility and clarity that we talk about it still.

In rising to the presidency, Truman suddenly confronted a series of monumental decisions that few presidents before or since have faced. If people know anything about Harry Truman, they know he dropped two atomic bombs to end the war with Japan. But in the remaining 7 1/2 years of his presidency, he also established the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, undertook the Berlin Airlift, supported the establishment of the United Nations and NATO, recognized the newly declared state of Israel, desegregated the armed forces and the federal workforce, and reinforced civilian supremacy over the military.

In all of this, Truman didn’t just make decisions. He was decisive.

Moreover, his decisiveness was born of personal courage and a moral core. He not only consistently did what he believed to be the right thing, but he did so for the right reasons, always willing to pay a political price rather than backpedal on his principles.

An unflinching optimist, Truman confronted his global crisis by ushering in a new normal that demonstrated to the world that it is perfectly normal to seek more fairness, more freedom and more opportunity for more people.

Legendary journalist Walter Cronkite once characterized the 33rd president as a man “uniquely of his time” and opined that “we will never see his like again.” Let us hope history will show Cronkite was wrong — that we do in fact find another Harry Truman. At the very least, let it show that we never gave up the search.

This story was originally published April 12, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Harry Truman rose to a monumental occasion. May the world find his leadership again."