Transcript: Chapter 29

MARSHALL SHULMAN: This was probably the worst part of the president's administration for him, the casualties we were taking, the protests from families, and the difficulty of understanding what a "limited war" meant. I mean "Why not nuke 'em?"

NARRATOR: The pressure on Truman grew increasingly intense. He was working 18-hour days, and the strain was starting to show. One morning, with United States Marines trapped at a reservoir in North Korea, Truman met with his advisers.

MARSHALL SHULMAN: We were working on a speech and Mr. Truman came in from his office and sat down, in a very dejected way, and he said, "You know, normally I sleep like a baby, but this time I could hardly sleep all night long. I was thinking about those boys up at the reservoir." And then he slumped in his chair and he said, "You know, there must be a thousand people in this town who can do the job better than I can." There isn't much you can say to that. And he took off his glasses and put them on the table. And that was a startling thing for me because I had been accustomed to seeing his eyes rather large in his face, and I realized when he took his glasses off, it was because they were very thick lenses and it magnified his eyes. And when he took his glasses off, his eyes appeared small in his face, and it changed his appearance to me. I stared at him just as long as I could politely do and then he put his elbows on the table and he sank his -- his thumbs into his eye sockets and sat there for a while. And we were all quiet. And then finally he raised his head and took his glasses and put them on. He said, "But, the job is mine to do, so I have to do the best I can. Let's get on with the drafting.

NARRATOR: Tension and exhaustion were taking their toll on Truman. Victory in Korea would have been the crowning achievement of his presidency, proof that his determination to hold the line against Communism was working. Instead, Truman faced disaster, and in the days after the Chinese attack, he drifted.

DAVID MCCULLOUGH: This was the darkest time of his years in the presidency. It was a very bleak prospect that the American people faced, and the president was being besieged on all sides.

NARRATOR: On December 5, his beloved friend and press secretary Charlie Ross died of a heart attack. Truman had known Ross since high school, and the sudden loss of his lifelong friend was a terrible blow.

DAVID MCCULLOUGH: And Truman was deeply upset, deeply distraught and that was the same night that the president's daughter, Margaret Truman, was having a first concert ever singing, in Constitution Hall, in Washington.

Margaret had studied to become a singer, and the grieving president kept his promise to hear her perform. His pent-up frustrations waiting like a stick of dynamite ready to explode.

NARRATOR: Paul Hume, the Washington Post's respected music critic, had no idea what was in store for him as he joined the sell-out crowd.

PAUL HUME, Music Critic: Here were the members of the Congress, the Supreme Court, all the big shots... and they were all there to hear her sing, which would have been wonderful had she been able to sing well. As soon as she started to sing, I could tell that she did not have the basic technical control of the voice that you need. The pitch wasn't there. The tone wasn't there. She just didn't have what it took. I would have been thrilled if I could have written a rave review.

What I wrote was... "She is flat a good deal of the time, more last night than at anytime we have heard her in past years. There are few moments in her recital when one can relax and feel confident that she will make her goal, which is the end of the song."

NARRATOR: The next day, Truman opened the Washington Post to page 12 and found Paul Hume's devastating critique of his daughter's singing. The president erupted. Furious, he dashed off a scathing response.

PAUL HUME: The letter came in and I opened it up and I couldn't believe it, and I gasped.

NARRATOR: "I've just read your lousy review of Margaret's concert..."

"Some day I hope to meet you. When that happens you'll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below!"

PAUL HUME: That's strong language from the president of the United States.

NARRATOR: When the letter became public, newspapers across the country berated the president for his lack of self-control. The Chicago Tribune even questioned Truman's "mental competence and emotional stability."

DAVID MCCULLOUGH: He was a man who was being battered and besieged from every side. He had to blow his stack about something, it seems to me. And the something was Paul Hume's review.

NARRATOR: The White House was flooded with letters and telegrams. One letter came from distraught parents who enclosed a Purple Heart.

"As you have been directly responsible for the loss of our son's life in Korea," Truman read, "you might just as well keep this emblem... One major regret is that your daughter was not there to receive the same treatment as our son."

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