Truman's inaugural address came as the world began its recovery from World War II, and underscored the split in values between democratic and communist philosophies, which he called out as a "false philosophy".
Harry S. Truman was probably the first neoconservative President who see the world simply as in the mentality of good vs evil or the right vs wrong, democracy vs. totalitarianism.
Throughout the comments section, I have been witness to views expressed by multiple users attacking Truman's decision to detonate the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I would therefore like to provide some clarification as to the context of that decision and to offer a defense of it. The reason Truman made the decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was because he recognized the vast human cost that Operation Downfall would have entailed. Since the beginning of the war, not a single Japanese company had ever surrendered to the Americans in their struggle to maintain control over Pacific islands, so it logically follows that the Japanese military apparatus would fight to the death in the struggle to keep a foreign power off of the Japanese home islands. Before his decision to drop the atomic bomb, Truman had ordered a military commission to provide an estimate of the amount of lives that such an invasion would cost; the results he obtained from that commission, in terms of both military and civilian lives, vastly outnumbered the lives that were ultimately lost due to the atomic bombs. Bombing cities (which, of course, are full of civilians), as you probably know, has been nothing new, whether in terms of the entire scope of history or during the Second World War alone (Battle of Britain, firebombing of Dresden). The firebombing campaign against Tokyo overall cost many more lives than the atomic decimation of Hiroshima. The times necessitated that a "shock" be delivered to the Japanese citizenry and the imperial government such that it would bring a swift conclusion to the war, and Truman recognized that detonating atomic bombs, no matter the civilian cost, would bring upon that goal.
Would be 136 today. The buck stops here. I remember when he died, Dec. 26th, 1972. They broke into the TV show I was watching with a Special Report. Remember those? Now every news show says "Breaking News" for every little news item...or even none at all!
Roughly two years later, President Truman fired General Douglas MacArthur, which was a wise and prudent move by the President. During the Korean War, the General wanted to use nuclear weapons on the army of Red China, north of the Yalu River.
First ever televised inauguration. You can tell by the image and sound it's not movie. It's actually impressive to have good footage of events 71 years ago. Don't you ever wonder what Washington's inaguration would look like on 4k TV? or Lincoln's? This is the closest you'll ever get.
2020. This is the 9th of 100 speeches that I'm watching to make my research on public speaking. The previous one was JFK's inaugural address. As I go on, I get attached more and more to the content. I'm trying to stay indifferent and avoid any emotional involvement, though it gets harder with every new speech. Before I picked up these speeches almost randomly, but now I want to follow a chronological order and see at least one speech of each American president. Unfortunately, a couple of centuries ago we didn't have such amazing technologies as we have now, so the most interesting political puppets are beyond my reach. I enjoy listening to Truman especially when he talks about the differences between communism and democracy and gets angry attaching "false" philosophy. His attempt to mock the ideals that he's never bothered himself trying to understand looks very comical. Today, I have a discussion with my friends and one of them said that the best public speakers are comedians. I don't know why, but watching comedians often makes me sad, whereas politicians almost always compel me to laugh heartily.
Truman did not have a higher education. He tried to study concrete issues as much as he could, but I doubt he ever read much philosophy except for the ancient Greeks and Romans.
He is attacking realities, and the actual 'ideals' that underly them, beyond initial words. That is not exactly the problem Whatever you tihnk about the content, this is a very celarly navel-gazing way to commentate it by you.
@@mareksicinski3726 And you are the one who knows the difference between actual 'ideals' and 'realitis', don't you? Anyway, am I not free to indulge into navel-gazing way to commentate it?
Greatest President ever? How about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, FDR, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Andrew Jackson? I don't think Harry S. Truman was greater than those Presidents.
@@jameskrten1164regan🤡. Regan botched aids. If not for ussr moderate gorbachev would of blown us up in the cold war and is responsible for rampant mental health crisis in america
Yea, for anyone there is his or her best president. All depends on historical period and contributions. For someone even Trump is the greatest in Universe). But sure, Trump will never be remembered, while President Truman indeed made a remarkable and tremendous tribute to human race history!
Harry S. Truman was probably the first neoconservative President who see the world simply as in the mentality of good vs evil or the right vs wrong, democracy vs. totalitarianism.
@@serenacerchi5346 yuuup. I'm reading that right now. It wasn't even his ideas. nothing mere a gimmick that became popular among the Americans because Americans love to feel powerful....
Can anyone imagine how Truman would do competing in the 2020 Democritter primaries? He'd get zero votes, even if the Democritters could learn to count.
