Word: phillipses
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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For evidence, the author cites the same things that all other Truman appreciators have cited before him. Truman's undeniable decisiveness (Hiroshima and Korea); his vision (aid to Greece, the Marshall Plan, the Truman Doctrine); and especially his 1948 victory at the polls, which confounded the pollsters, the press...
This is dangerous ground to occupy, and despite his fervor Phillips uneasily senses that it is. Time and again, his Truman testimonials, having run out of plausible foundation, drift lamely into the damnation of faint praise. The fact that Truman increased the White House staff from 600 to 1,200...
Moreover, Phillips' full catalogue of Truman's presidential faults seriously undercuts his basic proposition. He concludes, in retrospect, that the Hiroshima bomb was probably unnecessary-Japan was already suing for peace. He admits that the Potsdam agreements encouraged Soviet imperialism. He blames Truman for an unconscionably rapid postwar...
No Sweat. This inconsistent recital is further weakened by its setting; it is a very careless and graceless book. Its narrative course defies sensible plotting: after opening, for example, with Roosevelt's death, it leaps ahead to Hiroshima, then back to Truman's first faltering steps as President...
For all its shortcomings, The Truman Presidency is bound to ignite controversy. After all, one sure way to start an argument is to say that Harry Truman was a good President, and another sure way is to say that he wasn't. Phillips' book says both.