Merle Miller

===Controversy===
In 1995 ''Plain Speaking'' became the focus of a controversy. [[Robert H. Ferrell]], a historian who had also published a biography of Truman, asserted that Miller had fabricated many of the quotes in his book.<ref>Ferrell 1995. "Miller made notable additions, beyond simple rewritings"</ref><ref>[https://www.questia.com/magazine/1G1-16892412/plain-faking Plain Faking? by Ferrell, Robert H.; Heller, Francis H.] Note that the direct link to this article is missing the byline for Ferrell.</ref>

In ''Plain Speaking,'' Miller quoted Truman as referring to General [[Douglas MacArthur]] as a "dumb-son-of-a-bitch" and quoted Truman as asserting that [[Dwight Eisenhower]], his successor in the [[Oval Office]], tried to divorce his wife [[Mamie Eisenhower|Mamie]] in order to marry [[Kay Summersby]], his English chauffeur and secretary during World War II. In Miller's recounting, Truman claimed that General [[George C. Marshall]] wrote Eisenhower a letter threatening to ruin his career if he divorced his wife. According to Ferrell, Truman never actually said any of this,<ref>Ferrell 1995. "In the Miller tapes in the Truman Library there is no Truman conversation, nothing, about Kay Summersby."</ref> and he accused Miller of simply making up Truman's quotes to make his book more interesting and lively. A similar issue occurred with comments that Miller claimed Truman said about his former attorney general and later Supreme Court appointee, [[Tom C. Clark|Justice Tom C. Clark]].<ref>Alexander Wohl, "Writing Biography in the Age of Wikipedia: Removing a Shadow from the Life of Justice Tom Clark," ''Scotusblog'', September 23, 2013, http://www.scotusblog.com/2013/09/writing-biography-in-the-age-of-wikipedia-removing-a-shadow-from-the-life-of-justice-tom-clark/</ref> Ferrell claimed that Miller's papers on file in the Truman presidential library include no references to a number of Truman's quotes in ''Plain Speaking'', and in his opinion the quotes are most likely forgeries created by Miller, and are not real Truman quotes or statements. Ferrell also noted that Miller waited until nearly two years after Truman's death to publish ''Plain Speaking''. In 1963 Truman wrote a letter to Miller which read: "I thank you for sending me the article which you [Miller] proposed for the ''Saturday Evening Post''. I am not in favor of such articles, especially this one which has so many misstatements of fact in it. I am sorry that that is the case and if you publish it I shall make that statement public." According to Ferrell, Truman did not mail the letter to Miller, but instead chose to hire a law firm and threatened to sue, which forced Miller to withdraw the proposed article for the ''Saturday Evening Post'', and, in Ferrell's view, led him to wait until after Truman's death to publish ''Plain Speaking'' to avoid the possibility of any legal action.<ref>Ferrell 1995</ref>

Truman biographer [[David McCullough]] also criticized the historical accuracy of ''Plain Speaking,'' noting that in Truman's famous meeting with General MacArthur on Wake Island in 1950, "MacArthur [in the book] would be pictured deliberately trying to upstage Truman by circling the airstrip, waiting for Truman to land first, thus putting the President in the position of having to wait for the general. But it did not happen that way. MacArthur was not only on the ground, he had arrived the night before."<ref>(McCullough, p. 801)</ref> McCullough also wrote that "[in] many of his observations to Miller, [Truman] was more harsh than he meant or that he indicated at the time."<ref>(McCullough, p. 901)</ref>

With regard to any criticism of the book, Miller had this to say in the preface to ''Plain Speaking'': "Truman told it the way he remembered it. So as I think Mr. Truman would have said, the hell with the purists. There are already hundreds of books and there will be hundreds more to clear up those small details that Mr. Truman and his friends may have misremembered...."<ref>Preface to ''Plain Speaking'' by Merle Miller. P. 18.</ref>