Mr. Truman's war : the final victories of World War II and the birth of the postwar world

Mr. Truman's War tells, for the first time, the full tumultuous story of the beginning of Harry Truman's presidency. In this brief, dramatic period, the man from Missouri made the awesome decisions for the final victories of World War II and the controversial judgments that led the world into our era. These five months encompassed not only destruction and defeat of the Nazis' Thousand-Year Reich and the Empire of Japan, but the dropping of the first atomic bomb, the birth of the United Nations, the death of colonialism, and the beginning of the Cold War. The story begins on April 2, 1945. At five P.M., Harry Truman was summoned to the White House to learn that Franklin D. Roosevelt was dead and he was the President of the UNited States. He suddenly had to deal with Winston Churchill, Josef Stalin, and such prime movers as Charles de Gaulle, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and Douglas MacArthur. The man who came to the presidency in steel-rimmed glasses and a bow tie had been a farmer and a county commissioner back in Missouri. He had fought as an artillery lieutenant in France during World War I, but otherwise had no experience with world affairs, FDR had chosen him as his vice president only five months earlier as a purely political compromise, and then had excluded him from all international discussions. There was no time for on-the-job training. The need for decisions was immediate and urgent. Truman quickly discovered that he had a God-given ability to decide swiftly--and not look back. Without hesitation, he ordered the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He refused Churchill's repeated request that he leave American troops in the Russian occupation zone of Germany. He cut off supplies to de Gaulle's French army. He insisted that Japan surrender "unconditionally." Truman began his presidency hoping that the superpowers would work together. At the summit meeting in Potsdam, he confronted Stalin and Churchill in person for the first time. He was determined not to be beaten at the poker table where the Great Powers played for the future of the world. Could he find a way to reconcile two irreconcilable power centers? Mr. Truman's War reaches its climax in Tokyo Bay as the Japanese surrender on the deck of the USS Missouri. During five tense and surprise-filled months Harry Truman became the most confident and powerful leader in the world. Includes bibliographical references (pages 361-368) and index. xvii, 411 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm