Word: cliffords
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...Clifford Wilson...
...five years Clifford was a close Truman aide of one kind or another, casting his discerning eye almost hourly over this extraordinary leader at work and play, or at least what Truman called play, like eight-handed poker where he mostly talked politics and people - and tended to be too optimistic about the strength of his cards...
Truman never changed. He had virtually no affectations, Clifford noted, and no inferiority complex. He viewed his days as a farmer as a blessing, a source of strength. In Truman's mind that put him on a par with his Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, the aristocratic product of Groton, Yale and Harvard; not above, but certainly not below. They loved each other...
...next meeting was in 1945, when Truman, three months after becoming President, was preparing for the Potsdam conference and Clifford, a Navy lieutenant, was going to run the naval aide's office during the President's absence. Truman, from his desk in the Oval Office, looked up at the 6-ft. 2-in. Clifford and said, "Big fellow, isn't he?" There was the rock-bottom Truman again - unadorned, direct, kindly, humorous...
Truman called up from his memory a precedent for almost every decision he made. Clifford calculated that Truman must have known more history than any other President since Wilson. He understood the reasons for, and evolution of, policy. The Truman Doctrine began with aid for Greece and Turkey because he saw the area as vital to freedom and stability for all Europe...