Harry Truman and Robert Duvall: Why you will not find here any pictures or videos of Robert Duvall near the bitter end here

By Nicholas Stix

Why you will not find here any pictures or videos of Robert Duvall at the bitter end here

Harry S. Truman (1884-1972), "Give 'em Hell, Harry," became President of the United States when FDR died of a massive stroke on April 12, 1945. That's a date that every American of a certain age should know by heart.

Before he ran for the Senate and won, Harry Truman was a tough, Missouri dirt farmer (according to his mother-in-law, who was not a fan), failed haberdasher, and county "judge." He would have been nothing, had he not had the backing of the Kansas City political machine boss, Tom Pendergast (July 22, 1872 – January 26, 1945).

There are pictures of Truman campaigning in his town at the plaza, in 100 degree Missouri heat.

Pendergast went to prison. When he died in disgrace, of all the many public figures across the "show-me state" who owed him favors, not a single one showed up at his funeral to pay his last respects. With one exception. New Vice President-elect Harry S. Truman attended his mentor's funeral. When scribes criticized the Vice President for attending the convicted felon's funeral, Harry responded simply,

"He was always my friend and I have always been his."

The thing that charmed Nana the most about President Truman was the way he would go for a brisk walk every morning, while in his sixties. Reporters half his age would huff and puff, while trying to keep up with the commander-in-chief.

Late in Harry S. Truman's second (first elected) term (1945-1949), his popularity was so low that he decided against seeking a third term. (Although Truman was only elected president once, in 1949, FDR died so early in what would have been his fourth term in office, that Truman had virtually an entire term in office.) Although Truman was widely admired for his decisive leadership in foreign affairs, in dropping The Bomb on Japan in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and in providing the Marshall Plan to Western Europe, after The War, his desire to handcuff American industry after the war, by making rationing perpetual, turned the country against him.

When Harry turned 80, in 1964, a gaggle of reporters went to his hometown of Independence, Missouri to interview the old chief. Tired, old Truman told them, "Remember me as I was, not as I am."