Harry Truman: Conflict and Crisis – clip

Richard Pious / Columbia University

When Harry S. Truman became President, he asked the press corps to pray for him. Public and pundits alike saw him as a machine politician unlikely to possess the vision or political skills necessary for success in the Oval Office. Yet within five years Truman had made decisions that ended World War II, established policies of reconstruction in Western Europe, created new American interests in the Middle East, and relied on military power to contain the expansion of communist regimes.