Its all Harry Truman's fault

[BOSSHOG]

59 years ago today (26 July 1947) President Truman signed the National Security Act creating:

- The Department of Defense
- The National Security Council
- The Central Intelligence Agency
- and the Joint Chiefs of Staff

[JDPriestly]

1. He is the most overrated of all presidents.

[Zynx]

3. How do you figure?

Are you going to blame current events on things he did 60 years ago? That's preposterous. That would be like blaming George Washington for the Civil War because he did nothing to resolve the long term debate about slavery.

[Zynx]

2. Other than the CIA, those other things were just reorganizations.

In addition, if you read a damn thing about Harry Truman other than some diatribe written by a disgruntled Henry Wallace supporter, you would realize that he was one of our greatest presidents.

[BOSSHOG]

4. I suspect you are

directing your responses to the number one poster and not me. I am a big Harry Truman fan. Maybe a little sarcasm and this day in history mixed in.

[SOS]

5. Gore Vidal

has written extensively on Truman setting up a permanent security state.
Highly recommended reading.

[Lisa]

6. ... and if he hadn't gone back to Missouri ...

... maybe he could have kept the CIA from helping British petroleum interests from overthrowing the democratically-elected Mossadegh government in Iran. Because if Iran hadn't been radicalized by the Shah's brutal dictatorship, perhaps Islamic fundamentalism wouldn't have gained such a hold ... Iran would be a stable, peaceful country today, and maybe there wouldn't have been an Iran-Iraq war, or Saddam Hussein, or a lot of things which have contributed to today's mess.

Stephen Kinzer ("All the Shah's Men") credits the Truman administration with refusing to meddle in "regime change" in the Middle East -- apparently the involvement in Iran, Iraq, and a lot of other countries around the world commenced virtually from the moment the next government took office.

[SaveElmer]

7. Actually it is all John Adams and Thomas Jefferson's fault...

That whole independance thing...

[alvarezadams]

8. Truman was responsible for other things

His first mistake was to "learn the (foreign policy) ropes" under the aegis of the GOPer Henry L. Stimson and some of the more hawkish generals. Stimson was a hawk that made "Scoop" Jackson look like a wuss and a valid example for the likes of the atrocious Dulles brothers.

Truman also didn't have the will or capacity to stand up to McCarthy - neither could he stand up to the massive corporate PR campaigns against the New Deal that were the kernel of today's $1 billion/year conservative indoctrination industry.

The job was far too big for the man.

[CTyankee]

9. Well, the Marshall Plan was put into effect during his admin.

That was a monumental success and built up our democratic allies in Europe.

On the domestic front, we have the GI bill, VA loans, and the first racial integration of the military. Many thousands of veterans, such as my husband, got a college education and were enabled to buy a home because of the Truman Administration.

I still have issues with Truman on dropping the atomic bomb on Japan and I don't know a lot about his other policies. But on the above, you've got to give credit where it is due.

[alvarezadams]

10. Absolutely