Summary of Ascent to Power by David L. Roll: How Truman Emerged from Roosevelt's Shadow and Remade the World

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Summary of Ascent to Power by David L. Roll: How Truman Emerged from Roosevelt's Shadow and Remade the World

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Ascent to Power tells the story of Franklin Roosevelt's presidency from 1944 to 1948. Roosevelt, in failing health, chose Senator Harry Truman as his vice president. After FDR's death, Truman was thrust into the presidency, facing challenges like Germany's collapse, Europe's ruins, UN organization, and the Soviet Union's growing hostility. Truman's legacy, including his come-from-behind campaign in 1948, civil rights advocacy, and liberation of millions from militarist governments, continues to impact the world today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: XinXii
• Release date: Apr 29, 2024
• ISBN: 9783989838505

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PROLOGUE

Death and Rebirth

On July 9, 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt and Senator Harry Truman were preparing for their road trips to St. Louis and Independence. Truman was writing a letter to his daughter, Margaret, while the president was driving alone to St. Louis and then to his home in Independence. They were traveling north through Maryland to Shangri-La (later Camp David), where they planned to spend the day and early evening at FDR's rustic retreat on a trout stream in the Catoctin Mountains.

As they traveled, Truman and Franklin considered the Democratic National Convention and FDR's health. FDR had decided to announce his candidacy at a press and radio conference two days after returning from the trip to Shangri-La. During the long Sunday they spent together, Franklin had to consider whether he was strong enough healthwise to take on another term. According to a memo suppressed until 2007, FDR had been informed by his personal physician that due to heart failure, he would be unable to complete a full four-year term and had a serious responsibility concerning who would be his Vice President.

On July 11, President Roosevelt read aloud a letter from him to Bob Hannegan, stating that if nominated, he would reluctantly, but as a good soldier... accept and serve in the office if I am so ordered by the Commander in Chief of us all—the sovereign people of the United States. Truman was also worried about the condition of his automobile tires during wartime rationing.

This book is a riveting account of the final months of Franklin Roosevelt's presidency, the transition of power to Harry Truman, and the liberation of tens of millions of people who survived World War II. Truman began his presidency unprepared, with no guidance from FDR or his staff. He inherited the unrealistic hope that he could achieve lasting peace by perpetuating his predecessor's policy of cooperation and accommodation with the Soviet Union. With the help of George Marshall, Dean Acheson, George Kennan, and Arthur Vandenberg, Truman managed to fashion a more confrontational policy that contained the Soviets without escalating to a hot war, revived Western Europe, supported General Douglas MacArthur's liberal reforms in Japan, and midwifed the state of Israel, a home for Holocaust survivors.

The book focuses on the transition, the long shadow cast by the dead president, Truman's struggle to emerge, and how decisions during the years of transition, 1944 through 1948, impacted the peoples who survived the sword. The decisions made by Truman, such as the Marshall Plan, the Truman Doctrine, NATO, the Berlin Airlift, and the recognition of Israel, had profound impacts on the economies of West Germany and Japan.

The transition from FDR to Truman was not smooth, with Americans distrusting and ridiculing him. Despite facing postwar problems like reconversion of the U.S. economy, inflation, and labor strikes, Truman reached beyond FDR's New Deal and promoted a substantive civil rights agenda, a precursor to the 1960s civil rights legislation.

The book explores the life journeys of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman, who met for the first time in the White House on St. Valentine's Day 1935. Both were born into inherited wealth and privilege in 19th-century America, while Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri. They both attended Harvard and Columbia Law School before marrying Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, his distant cousin.

FDR entered politics in 1910 and was elected to the New York State Senate. He later became assistant secretary of the navy by President Woodrow Wilson. Truman worked hard on his family farm and reenlisted in the Missouri National Guard during World War I. After the war, he married Elizabeth Bess Wallace and opened a men's clothing store in Kansas City. However, the store closed in 1922 due to a nationwide depression.

Franklin's political ambitions and marriage to Eleanor barely survived the discovery of love letters from Lucy Mercer, Eleanor's young social secretary. Eleanor and Franklin developed one of the most successful husband-wife political partnerships in American history. In 1920, the Democrats nominated FDR as their vice presidential candidate, but he lost the ticket to Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge.

In 1922, Truman ran for eastern judge of Jackson County, but lost his reelection bid due to a rival political boss switching parties and supporting Truman's Republican opponent. FDR was fitted with leg braces and focused on swimming three times a day to walk again. With the encouragement of Eleanor and his political guru, Louis Howe, Roosevelt made his first political appearance at the Democratic National Convention in 1924, where he delivered a speech to nominate Al Smith for president.

In 1928, Truman won the position of presiding judge for Jackson County, which he held until 1934. He turned a blind eye to the money lining the pockets of the Pendergast family and saved the county millions of dollars. Truman had a reputation for honesty, integrity, and efficiency, and his legacy as presiding judge was the construction of a new road and bridge system.

In 1928, Roosevelt was mentioned as a potential Democratic candidate for the presidency, but he knew he could not possibly succeed without first holding an important elective office—namely, the governorship of New York. FDR entered the gubernatorial race, winning a two-year term as governor. With the nation sinking into a depression in 1930, Roosevelt easily won a second two years as governor by blaming lack of leadership in Washington and the failure of Republicans to curb speculation on Wall Street.

In October 1933, Truman accepted a second job, director of the U.S. Employment Service in Missouri, part of a New Deal work-relief program under the auspices of the Civil Works Administration (CWA). He traveled on government business to Washington, DC, to attend conferences and confer with Harry Hopkins, administrator of the CWA.

After his second term as presiding judge expired in 1934, Truman decided to run for Congress, but was initially hesitant due to financial constraints and his wife's unwillingness to leave Independence. However, when the Pendergasts and the state Democratic Party promised their full support, he agreed to give it a shot. Truman prevailed, with almost half of his vote total coming from Jackson County.

In 1934, Senator-elect Harry Truman arrived in Washington, marking the start of Roosevelt's presidency. They met for the first time in the Oval Office, where Truman expressed his frustration with the president's treatment of him. Throughout Truman's first term, the president showed little respect for Truman, even though he always supported FDR's legislative agenda.

Turner faced challenges in the primary election against Missouri governor Lloyd Stark, who had been endorsed by the crumbling Pendergast machine. Truman, however, defeated Stark in the primary by eight thousand votes out of 650,000 cast, winning the general election by forty thousand votes.

After being sworn in for the second time, Truman conducted a monthlong inspection tour of the nation's defense plants and proposed the establishment of a Senate committee to investigate the awarding of government defense contracts. This committee saved the government billions during the two-front war. Roosevelt found no good reason to object or intervene in the actions of the Truman Committee, as Truman was careful not to interfere with FDR's conduct of the war.

Truman's creation and leadership of one of the most successful government agencies of WWII were partly responsible for his choice as Roosevelt's running mate in 1944. When the president died at Warm Springs nine months later on April 12, 1945, the transfer of power