Jeffrey Frank

I finished Jeffrey Frank’s, The Trials of Harry S. Truman: The Extraordinary Presidency of an Ordinary Man, 1945-1953. Just 452 pages of reading not including the photos at the end. An interesting book that truly discusses the Trials of an ordinary but good man who became President.

The books strengths are in the painting of a simple man who though not college educated continued to rise despite setbacks throughout his life. Rather like Ulysses S. Grant who had despite numerous business failings found his true identity as military leader, Harry Truman despite numerous setbacks found his strength in politics, first and foremost as a senator who led the Truman Committee and then blossomed as the president during the end of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War.

He endured the decision to drop the bomb on Japan, led the world in fighting communism with the Truman Doctrine, The Marshall Plan, the formation of NATO, the recognition of Israel and the first hot war of the era the Korean War.

His failure include bucking to pressure to instill loyalty oaths, the taking over of the steel mills and his slowness in dealing with General Douglas MacArthur.

A man less afraid of making a bad decision than no decision.

My biggest complaint is that the book often too quickly glosses important events, but still an interesting book that is willing to identify both the strength and weaknesses of Harry Truman. Not David McCullough’s Truman bit still a worthy addition to the scholarly study of Harry Truman.… (plus d'informations)

An entertaining, informative popular history account of the frequently tortured relationship between two leading political figures. The decision to focus more intensely on Nixon's point of view is justifiable but one result is that the portrait of Eisenhower at times verges on caricature.

The voice artist on the audio book-- Arthur Morey-- is simply outstanding. He offers just the right amount of inflection to distinguish between characters. His pacing and (there must be a better phrase) "flatness-to-emotion ration" is just perfect.… (plus d'informations)

This is a well written and researched story. Ike of course, is DDEisenhower, and this book allows the reader to see the former five star general at his best and worst. He is clearly a lot smarter than given credit by many people, but he is also a racist jerk. Dick is Richard M Nixon, who was picked by Ike to be his running mate without knowing anything about him, and is clearly more progressive than we thought, except for Vietnam, where he adopted his old policies. The idiot tries to get rid of the war (Kissinger knowingly gave him stuff from the Paris Peace talks) but is done in by it.… (plus d'informations)