Presidency of Harry S. Truman

Historical Context Note

Lucas Paul Richert (University of Saskatchewan)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Domains

Changes of government, elections and reigns

Dates

Date of occurrence 1945-04-12-1952-03-04

Places

United States (Location)

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

On 12 April, Vice-president Harry S. Truman became president of the United States following the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The next few months required tremendous energy and Truman demonstrated that he possessed political acumen, a formidable personality, and a willingness to take difficult wartime decisions. In May, Germany unconditionally surrendered. In July, Truman met Churchill and Stalin at the Potsdam Conference. In August and then September, Truman opted to drop newly developed atomic bombs on key Japanese cities to force an end to the war in the Pacific. Following the cessation of hostilities between Japan and the United States, Truman was forced to address the issue of Soviet expansionism and European poverty. Thereafter, Truman announced that the United States would…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

578 words

Citation: Richert, Lucas Paul. "Presidency of Harry S. Truman". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 October 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=497, accessed 26 November 2024.]

Presidency of Harry S. Truman

Domains

Dates

Places

Resources

Save this article

Leave Feedback