Chapter Thirty-Two - The Regular Guy Who Made the Most Unbelievable Calls

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

The Regular Guy Who Made the Most Unbelievable Calls

SO.
HARRY S. Truman.
Born in 1884 in Missouri.
Farmer. Failed haberdasher. Small-town grit.
No Ivy League. No war medals. No fame.

He came up the hard way—through local politics and loyalty.
Made it to the Senate.
Then got picked as FDR’s VP in 1944 mostly because he didn’t rock the boat.

And then—BAM.

April 12, 1945.
FDR dies.
Truman gets a phone call and suddenly becomes President of the United States during World War II with almost no warning.

Quote?

“I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me.”

First thing he finds out?

“Oh yeah, we’ve been secretly building a weapon that can vaporize cities.”

(The Manhattan Project.)

Truman had to make the decision to drop the atomic bomb—
twice.

Hiroshima. Nagasaki.
Hundreds of thousands dead.

The war ends.
Japan surrenders.
The world enters the nuclear era.

Still one of the most controversial decisions any president has ever made.

But Truman wasn’t done.
Now came the rebuilding.

He:

• Helped found the United Nations
• Oversaw the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe
• Helped form NATO
• Desegregated the U.S. military
• Recognized the state of Israel
• Fought against the spread of communism with the Truman Doctrine

And then?
The Cold War begins.

In 1950, the Korean War kicks off.
U.S. troops head to the peninsula.
China enters the fight.
Things get messy.

Truman fires General MacArthur, a war hero, for trying to escalate the conflict and ignore civilian control.

Bold move.
Unpopular, but right.

By 1952, Truman was worn out.
He didn’t run again.
Went home to Missouri.
No money, no pension—just walked back to regular life like a boss.

Over time, his legacy grew.
People saw that behind the plain style and thick glasses was a man who made impossible choices—and owned them.

So here’s to Harry S. Truman.
The man from Missouri.
The everyman who had to call the shots no one ever wants to make.

Rest in decision, Harry.
You didn’t ask for the job—
but you sure as hell did the job.