American Experience

More about the film Truman

In April 1945, with the death of Franklin Roosevelt, an America at war had a new untried, unfamiliar commander-in-chief, a man as different from Roosevelt as any could be. Yet there he was and as the country would discover there was a lot more than met the eye.

Harry Truman came from a background of hard-working, plain-speaking middle Americans. He was a farmer, a World War One veteran, a failed haberdasher, and the devoted husband of the enigmatic Bess Wallace Truman. By a combination of grit, luck, machine politics, uncommon ability and strength of character, he wound up president at one of history's most difficult turning points. He faced decisions no one could have been prepared for, including the decision to use the atomic bomb to end the Second World War.

With the war over, a host of domestic problems nationwide descended on the still green president. And they were only the start. Europe was in ruins. Joseph Stalin ruled supreme over the Soviet Union. In Churchill's indelible words, an iron curtain had descended "from Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic."

The Cold War commenced. The Truman years were to be as eventful as any in our time. And at the center of all this is the story of the testing and growth of the seemingly ordinary man from Independence, Missouri, who liked to say, "If you can't stand the heat, you better stay out of the kitchen."

Film Credits
Credits for the American Experience documentary program Truman.

Program Transcript
Truman transcript.

Interviews
Read and listen to what historians have to say about Truman.

Further Reading
A list of related books, articles, and Web sites.