Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman Most Americans in the 1950s did not expect that Harry Truman would become one of their most highly regarded presidents. By 1952, just before he announced his decision not to run again, only 25% of the people thought he was doing a good job. Within a decade, however, most American historians regarded him as one of the nation's greatest presidents. Obviously, Truman was not so effective in domestic affairs as his predecessor, Franklin Roosevelt, …

…to maintain the Western presence in that city, which was surrounded by the Russian-occupied zone of Germany; and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the nation's first peacetime military alliance. Truman's Point Four program helped new nations develop economically. These steps, which added up to a policy of "containment" of communism, constituted unprecedented U.S. involvement in Europe during peacetime. Truman not only made the decisions but used all his power to get the policies accepted.