April 15, 1945
When Franklin D. Roosevelt died in Warm Springs GA, only six weeks after his unprecedented fourth inaugural, it was a shock to the world.
Those who knew FDR more intimately, knew well that he had battled infirmity for a long time, but had shown a dramatic decline in the past few months. But perhaps no one was as stunned as his newly elected Vice President Harry S Truman, a much lower figure on the world stage totem pole.
Truman and FDR had known each other for a decade, but it was superficial. In truth, FDR’s opinion of the Junior Senator from Missouri was lukewarm at best. As time went on, and World War II brought the reluctant USA into its clutches, Roosevelt’s evaluation of Truman improved somewhat. As Chairman of the “Truman Committee,” tasked with investigating waste, corruption and mismanagement in war-related production industries, the Missourian displayed admirable administrative competence – and saved the country millions of dollars, and likely many lives as well.
Still, between their inauguration on March 4 and FDR’s death, the two had only met once – and that was a pleasant-but-casual lunch meeting. HST was definitely NOT in FDR’s loop.
FDR and Churchill…and Stalin: The First Big-3
Asst. Secretary of the Navy FDR first met a currently superfluous Winston Churchill toward the end of WWI, and neither seemed impressed with the other. But it was just a perfunctory meeting between two men with posh-boy chops and famous names and pedigrees – and currently both held minor political credentials.
Nevertheless, once FDR became US President, a still-retired Churchill paid better attention, as Herr Hitler began trampling over Europe, and Stalin became a trampling runner-up in Russia. Uncle Sam and John Bull began a personal correspondence, which increased to both men’s delight over the next few years.
Once they met again, mere months before Pearl Harbor catapulted the US into WWII, the relationship became a true friendship. Not a blank check of complete agreement, but an affectionate cementing of common aims and philosophies.
Once the Russians and the Nazis broke their tentative and suspicious “pact,” and the USSR allied itself with their tentative and always suspicious “friendship” toward the Allies, the three world leaders needed to meet face-to-face.
Josef Stalin, of course, was neither posh nor wealthy. He had no pedigree, and changed his birth name from Dzhugashvili to Stalin (meaning “steel”) once he he joined the Bolsheviks, thus creating an identity as a strong revolutionary.
All three were formidable and astute, canny politicians who could turn on the charm, shape-shift and morph themselves easily. FDR, perhaps the most politically imaginative, played the good-cop to the bad-cop image he thrust upon the ideological wary-conservative Churchill. Outwardly compatible, all three were guarded.
Harry, Winston and Uncle Joe: The Second “Big”
Within months after FDR, Churchill and Stalin met for the second and last time, much had transpired in the world. FDR was dead. The Second World War had ended in Europe. The War in the Pacific was still active. Churchill, the Lion of Great Britain during the War, was seventy, and losing his political hold on his exhausted nation. Stalin alone, remained his inscrutable self.
The three world leaders needed to reassess the situation and chart a course for a new “world order” for the rest of the 20th century. Churchill was not as formidable, although his opinion of Stalin was just as suspicious as ever, and would worsen. Stalin believed that the “Lion” had likely been declawed. Truman, of course, was an unknown quantity. A couple of years younger than FDR, at 61 he was the youngest of the triumvirate. Unimpressive in physical appearance and bearing, not particularly eloquent, and lacking in political clout – even in his own country. But HST was not naive. He knew the entire world was watching – mostly him.
Despite the pleasant professions of cooperation, a mutual trust among the three was very circumspect. At best. Naïveté was not in anyone’s nature. Harry Truman, a self-made man and the last US President without a college education, was a voracious reader, especially history. Intelligent and insightful, he understood the essence of history, and was deeply in awe of his new role. And he knew his non-pedigreed background and self-confidence was poles away from Churchill. He was more comfortable with Stalin. Both were fellows who grew up the agrarian hard way, an understanding in itself. He found himself liking “Uncle Joe,” and believed they might be able to work together. Maybe.
Truman’s most pressing goal (and that of his advisors) was to recruit Russia into joining the war in the Pacific. The US had developed a stunning weapon that could end the war instantaneously. Another maybe. But if it did not work, the Japanese could prolong hostilities for months or more, with horrendous casualties. And there had been enough already. Stalin’s most pressing goal was to incorporate Eastern Europe into its own communist empire, but he agreed. The Russians were not fond of the Japanese anyway. And they were used to casualties. Churchill’s goal was to stay politically viable and get a clear picture of Truman; he already had one of Stalin.
According to lore, Truman wrote that Churchill talked continuously and very fast, and he (HST) didn’t understand a word he said. Then he added that Stalin only grunted, but he understood him completely.
Sources:
McCullough, David – Truman – Simon & Schuster, 1992
Truman, Margaret – Harry S Truman – William Morrow & Co., 1973
https://www.americanheritage.com/i-hardly-know-truman
https://www.trumanlibrary.org/
https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/harry-s-truman/
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