Harry S. Truman

=== U.S. Senator from Missouri ===
[[File:Senate Desk Truman.jpg|thumb|alt=Inside of wooden desk with several names carved into it|Drawer from the Senate desk used by Truman]]

After serving as a county judge, Truman wanted to run for governor or Congress,<ref>{{cite book |last=Golway |first=Terry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8JHW4FPX2DcC&pg=PA7 |title=Give 'em Hell: The Tumultuous Years of Harry Truman's Presidency, in His Own Words and Voice |date=2011 |publisher=Sourcebooks, Inc. |isbn=978-1-4022-1715-9 |location=Naperville, IL |page=7 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref name="Collector">{{cite news |date=January 4, 1934 |title=Truman as the Collector: County Place May Be Sought Instead of One in Congress |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97955101/truman-collector/ |work=[[The Kansas City Star]] |location=Kansas City, MO |page=1 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> but Pendergast rejected these ideas. Truman then thought he might serve out his career in some well-paying county sinecure;<ref name="Collector"/> circumstances changed when Pendergast reluctantly backed him as the machine's choice in the 1934 Democratic [[primary election]] for the [[1934 United States Senate election in Missouri|U.S. Senate from Missouri]], after Pendergast's first four choices had declined to run.{{sfn |United States Senate|2012}} In the primary, Truman defeated Congressmen [[John J. Cochran]] and [[Jacob L. Milligan]] with the solid support of [[Jackson County, Missouri|Jackson County]], which was crucial to his candidacy. Also critical were the contacts he had made statewide in his capacity as a county official, member of the [[Freemasonry|Freemasons]],{{efn|Truman hald several leadership positions at the local and state level and in 1940 was elected to a one year term as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Missouri.<ref name="Mason">{{cite web |url=https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/education/student-resources/places/grandview/grandview-masonic-lodge-618 |title=Grandview Masonic Lodge 618 |website=Harry S. Truman Library and Museum |publisher=National Archives and Records Administration |location=Independence, MO |access-date=June 28, 2022}}</ref> In October 1945 he received the 33rd degree of the [[Scottish Rite]].<ref name="Mason"/>}} military reservist,{{efn|Truman was a founder of the [[Reserve Officers Association]] and organized Missouri's first chapter, Chapter 1.<ref>{{cite magazine |editor-last=Wright |editor-first=Tom |date=July–August 1984 |title=ROA Conclave |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pKjPT0fkIRwC&pg=RA4-PA29 |magazine=The Air Reservist |location=Bolling Air Force Base, Washington, DC |publisher=Headquarters, United States Air Force |page=29 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>}} and member of the American Legion.{{efn|Truman organized the first [[American Legion]] post in Missouri, aided in organizing several others, and attended numerous annual conventions as a delegate.<ref>{{cite book |last=Olson |first=Clarence H. |date=1963 |title=Summary of the Proceedings of the Forty-fourth Annual Convention of the American Legion |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pu0KAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA98 |location=Washington, DC |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |page=98 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>}}{{sfn|Kirkendall|1989|p=27}} In the general election, Truman defeated incumbent Republican [[Roscoe C. Patterson]] by nearly 20&nbsp;percentage points in a continuing wave of pro-[[New Deal]] Democrats elected during the [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]].{{sfn|United States Senate|2012}}{{sfn|Dallek|2008|pp=7–9}}{{sfn|Winn}}

Truman assumed office with a reputation as "the Senator from Pendergast". He referred patronage decisions to Pendergast but maintained that he voted with his own conscience. He later defended the patronage decisions by saying that "by offering a little to the machine, [he] saved a lot".{{sfn|Winn}}{{sfn|''Time''|January 8, 1973}} In his first term, Truman spoke out against corporate greed and the dangers of [[Wall Street]] speculators and other moneyed special interests attaining too much influence in national affairs.{{sfn|McCullough|1992|p=232}} Though he served on the high-profile [[United States Senate Committee on Appropriations|Appropriations]] and [[United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation#Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, 1958-1977|Interstate Commerce]] Committees, he was largely ignored by President Roosevelt and had trouble getting calls returned from the White House.{{sfn|Winn}}{{sfn | McCullough |1992|p=230}}

During the [[1940 United States Senate election in Missouri|U.S. Senate election in 1940]], U.S. Attorney [[Maurice Milligan]] (former opponent Jacob Milligan's brother) and former governor [[Lloyd Stark]] both challenged Truman in the Democratic primary. Truman was politically weakened by Pendergast's imprisonment for income tax evasion the previous year; the senator had remained loyal, having claimed that Republican judges (not the Roosevelt administration) were responsible for the boss's downfall.{{sfn|Dallek|2008|pp=11–12}} [[St. Louis, Missouri|St. Louis]] party leader [[Robert E. Hannegan]]'s support of Truman proved crucial; he later brokered the deal that put Truman on the national ticket. In the end, Stark and Milligan split the anti-Pendergast vote in the Senate Democratic primary and Truman won by a total of 8,000&nbsp;votes. In the November election, Truman defeated Republican [[Manvel H. Davis]] by 51–49&nbsp;percent.{{sfn|Hamby|1995|pp=236–247}} As senator, Truman opposed both Nazi Germany and Communist Russia. Two days after [[Operation Barbarossa|Hitler invaded the Soviet Union]] in June 1941, Truman said:

{{Blockquote|If we see that Germany is winning we ought to help Russia, and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible although I don't want to see Hitler victorious under any circumstances.<ref>{{cite book |last=Alexrod |first=Alan |author-link=Alan Axelrod |year=2009 |title=The Real History of the Cold War: A New Look at the Past |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZnYHG1eK-2AC&pg=PA44 | publisher=Sterling |page=44|isbn=9781402763021 }}</ref>}}

This quote without its last part later became a staple in [[Propaganda in the Soviet Union|Soviet]] and later [[Propaganda in Russia|Russian propaganda]] as "evidence" of an American conspiracy to destroy the country.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://histrf.ru/read/articles/kratkii-kurs-istorii-tak-uchilis-druzhit|title=Краткий курс истории. Так учились "дружить"|publisher=история.рф|date=July 23, 2017|language=ru}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://xn--h1aagokeh.xn--p1ai/journal/post/6470|title=Трумэн и его доктрина|publisher=Историк|date=March 2021|language=ru}}</ref>

====Truman Committee====
{{Further|Truman Committee}}
In late 1940, Truman traveled to various military bases. The waste and profiteering he saw led him to use his chairmanship of the [[United States Senate Committee on Armed Services#Committee on Military Affairs, 1816–1947|Committee on Military Affairs]] Subcommittee on War Mobilization to start investigations into abuses while the nation prepared for war. A new special committee was set up under Truman to conduct a formal investigation; the White House supported this plan rather than weather a more hostile probe by the House of Representatives. The main mission of the committee was to expose and fight waste and corruption in the gigantic government wartime contracts.

Truman's initiative convinced Senate leaders of the necessity for the committee, which reflected his demands for honest and efficient administration and his distrust of big business and Wall Street. Truman managed the committee "with extraordinary skill" and usually achieved consensus, generating heavy media publicity that gave him a national reputation.<ref>{{cite book|author=Michael James Lacey|title=The Truman Presidency|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hfkuktI-JewC&pg=PA35|year=1991|pages=35–36|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521407731}}</ref>{{sfn|Dallek|2008|pp=12–14}} Activities of the Truman Committee ranged from criticizing the "[[dollar-a-year men]]" hired by the government, many of whom proved ineffective, to investigating a shoddily built New Jersey housing project for war workers.<ref>{{Citation | last = Herman | first = Arthur | title = Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II | pages = [https://archive.org/details/freedomsforgehow00herm/page/103 103, 118, 194, 198–199, 235–236, 275, 281, 303, 312] | publisher = Random House | place = New York | year = 2012 | isbn = 978-1-4000-6964-4 | url = https://archive.org/details/freedomsforgehow00herm/page/103 }}.</ref>{{sfn |''Life''|November 30, 1942}} In March 1944, Truman attempted to probe the expensive [[Manhattan Project]] but was persuaded by Secretary of War [[Henry L. Stimson]] to discontinue with the investigation.{{r|n=zuberi2001|r={{cite journal |last1=Zuberi |first1=Matin |title=Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki |journal=Strategic Analysis |date=August 2001 |volume=25 |issue=5 |pages=623–662 |doi=10.1080/09700160108458986|s2cid=154800868 }}|p=634}}

The committee reportedly saved as much as $15&nbsp;billion (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US-GDP|15|1940|r=-1}}&nbsp;billion in {{Inflation-year|US}}),{{sfn|McCullough|1992|pp=337–338|ps=: "Later estimates were that the Truman Committee saved the country as much as $15&nbsp;billion."}}{{sfn | McDonald |1984|ps=: "This committee saved billions in taxpayers' money by helping eliminate waste and fraud."}}{{sfn|Daniels|1998|p=228|ps=: [[Jonathan W. Daniels]] quotes journalist [[Marquis Childs]] who wrote in November 1942 that the Truman Committee had "saved billions—yes, billions—of dollars."}}{{sfn|Hamilton|2009|p=301|ps=: "Over seven years (1941–1948) the committee heard from 1,798 witnesses during 432 public hearings. It published nearly two thousand pages of documents and saved perhaps $15&nbsp;billion and thousands of lives by exposing faulty airplane and munitions production."}} and its activities put Truman on the cover of ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine.{{sfn | ''Time'' |2012}} According to the Senate's historical minutes, in leading the committee, "Truman erased his earlier public image as an errand-runner for Kansas City politicos", and "no senator ever gained greater political benefits from chairing a special investigating committee than did Missouri's Harry S. Truman."{{sfn |Senate Truman Committee|2012}}