Harry S. Truman

== Tributes and legacy ==

=== Legacy ===

[[File:Truman pass-the-buck.jpg|thumb|alt=Man in suit sitting behind desk with sign that says "The buck stops here"|Former President Harry Truman with "[[The Buck Stops Here]]" sign on a recreation of his Oval Office desk]]

When he left office in 1953, Truman was one of the most unpopular chief executives in history. His job approval rating of 22% in the [[Gallup Poll]] of February 1952 was lower than [[Richard Nixon]]'s 24% in August 1974, the month that Nixon resigned. American public feeling towards Truman grew steadily warmer with the passing years; as early as 1962, a poll of 75 historians conducted by [[Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr.]] ranked Truman among the "near great" presidents. The period following his death consolidated a partial rehabilitation of his legacy among both historians and members of the public.{{sfn|''Wisconsin Magazine of History''|Autumn 1975}} Truman died when the nation was consumed with crises in [[Vietnam War|Vietnam]] and [[Watergate scandal|Watergate]], and his death brought a new wave of attention to his political career.{{sfn|''Time''|December 3, 1973}} In the early and mid-1970s, Truman captured the popular imagination much as he had in 1948, this time emerging as a kind of political folk hero, a president who was thought to exemplify an integrity and accountability many observers felt was lacking in [[Presidency of Richard Nixon|the Nixon White House]]. This public reassessment of Truman was aided by the popularity of a book of reminiscences which Truman had told to journalist [[Merle Miller]] beginning in 1961, with the agreement that they would not be published until after Truman's death.{{sfn|Dallek|2008|pp=149, 152}}

Truman had his latter-day critics as well. After a review of information available to Truman about the presence of espionage activities in the U.S. government, Democratic Senator [[Daniel Patrick Moynihan]] concluded that Truman was "almost willfully obtuse" concerning the danger of American communism.{{sfn|Moynihan|1997}} In 2010, historian Alonzo Hamby concluded that "Harry Truman remains a controversial president."{{sfn|Hamby|2002}} However, Truman has fared well in [[Historical rankings of presidents of the United States|polls ranking the presidents]], consistently being listed in the top ten;{{sfn|C-SPAN|2009}} this includes a 2022 poll by the [[Siena College Research Institute]], which placed him in seventh.{{Sfn|Siena|2022}}

[[The fall of the Soviet Union]] in 1991 caused Truman advocates to claim vindication for Truman's decisions in the postwar period. According to Truman biographer Robert Dallek, "His contribution to victory in the [[Cold War|cold war]] without a devastating nuclear conflict elevated him to the stature of a great or near-great president."{{sfn|Dallek|2008|p=152}} The 1992 publication of [[David McCollough]]'s favorable biography of Truman further cemented the view of Truman as a highly regarded chief executive.{{sfn|Dallek|2008|p=152}} According to historian Daniel R. McCoy in his book on the Truman presidency:

{{blockquote |
Harry Truman himself gave a strong and far-from-incorrect impression of being a tough, concerned and direct leader.  He was occasionally vulgar, often partisan, and usually nationalistic&nbsp;... On his own terms, Truman can be seen as having prevented the coming of a [[World War III|third world war]] and having preserved from Communist oppression much of what he called the free world.  Yet clearly he largely failed to achieve his [[Woodrow Wilson|Wilsonian]] aim of securing perpetual peace, making the world safe for democracy, and advancing opportunities for individual development internationally.{{sfn|McCoy|1984|pp=318–319}}
}}

=== Sites and honors ===
[[File:Harry S TRuman 1973 Issue-8c.jpg|thumb|165px|<div style="text-align: center;">[[US Presidents on US postage stamps#Harry S. Truman|Stamp issued in 1973, following Truman's death]]—Truman has been honored on five U.S. postage stamps, issued from 1973 to 1999.{{sfn|Kloetzel|Charles|2012|pp=50, 61, 71, 91, 99}}<!-- {{sfn|Smithsonian Institution|1973}}{{sfn|Smithsonian Institution|1984}}{{sfn|Smithsonian Institution|1986}}{{sfn|Smithsonian Institution|1995}}{{sfn|Smithsonian Institution|1999}} --></div>]]

In 1956, Truman traveled to Europe with his wife. In Britain, he received an honorary degree in Civic Law from [[Oxford University]] and met with [[Winston Churchill]].{{sfn|Ohio State|2012}} In 1959, he was given a 50-year award by the [[Freemasonry|Masons]], recognizing his longstanding involvement: he was initiated on February 9, 1909, into the Belton [[Freemasonry]] Lodge in Missouri. In 1911, he helped establish the Grandview Lodge, and he served as its first Worshipful Master. In September 1940, during his Senate re-election campaign, Truman was elected [[Grand Master (Masonic)|Grand Master]] of the Missouri [[Grand Lodge]] of Freemasonry; Truman said later that the Masonic election assured his victory in the general election. In 1945, he was made a 33° Sovereign Grand Inspector General and an Honorary Member of the supreme council at the Supreme Council A.A.S.R. Southern Jurisdiction Headquarters in Washington D.C. {{sfn|Grand Lodge-Pennsylvania|2011}}{{sfn|''Time''|March 24, 1952}} Truman was also a member of [[Sons of the American Revolution]] (SAR){{sfn|Truman Library, SAR|2012}} and a card-carrying member of the [[Sons of Confederate Veterans]].{{sfn|Missouri Partisan Ranger|1995}} Two of his relatives were [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] soldiers.{{sfn|Missouri Partisan Ranger|1995}}{{sfn|Eakin|Hale|1995|p=71}}

In 1975, the [[Truman Scholarship]] was created as a federal program to honor U.S. college students who exemplified dedication to public service and leadership in public policy.{{sfn|Truman Scholarship|2012}}

In 1983 the Harry S. Truman State Office Building in [[Jefferson City]] was completed.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://oa.mo.gov/content/harry-s-truman-state-office-building | title=Harry S. Truman State Office Building | date=July 10, 2014 }}</ref>

In 2004, the President Harry S. Truman Fellowship in National Security Science and Engineering was created as a distinguished postdoctoral three-year appointment at [[Sandia National Laboratories]].{{sfn|Truman Fellowship|2012}} In 2001, the [[University of Missouri]] established the Harry S. Truman School of Public Affairs to advance the study and practice of governance.{{sfn|Truman School of Public Affairs|2010}} The University of Missouri's [[Missouri Tigers]] athletic programs have an official mascot named [[Truman the Tiger]]. On July 1, 1996, Northeast Missouri State University became [[Truman State University]]—to mark its transformation from a [[Teachers College|teachers' college]] to a highly selective [[liberal arts university]] and to honor the only Missourian to become president. A member institution of the [[City Colleges of Chicago]], [[Harry S. Truman College]] in [[Chicago, Illinois]], is named in his honor for his dedication to public colleges and universities. In 2000, the headquarters for the [[United States Department of State|State Department]], built in the 1930s but never officially named, was dedicated as the [[Harry S. Truman Building]].{{sfn|CNN|2000}}

Despite Truman's attempt to curtail the naval carrier arm, which led to the 1949 [[Revolt of the Admirals]],{{sfn|''Time''|October 17, 1949}} an aircraft carrier is named after him. The {{USS|Harry S. Truman|CVN-75}} was christened on September 7, 1996. {{sfn|NavSource Online|2012}} The [[129th Field Artillery Regiment (United States)|129th Field Artillery Regiment]] is designated "Truman's Own" in recognition of Truman's service as commander of its D Battery during [[World War I]].{{sfn|Army National Guard|2012}}

In 1991, Truman was inducted into the [[Hall of Famous Missourians]], and a bronze bust depicting him is on permanent display in the rotunda of the [[Missouri State Capitol]]. In 2006, Thomas Daniel, grandson of the Trumans, accepted a star on the Missouri Walk of Fame to honor his late grandfather. In 2007, John Truman, a nephew, accepted a star for Bess Truman. The Walk of Fame is in [[Marshfield, Missouri]], a city Truman visited in 1948.{{sfn|Hall of Famous Missourians|2012}}

In 2004, international relations scholar [[Rachel Kleinfeld]] and former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Middle East Policy [[Matthew Spence (lawyer)|Matthew Spence]] founded the [[Truman National Security Project]]. In 2013, they launched the Truman Center for National Policy. Both organizations were named after Truman.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Truman National Security Project {{!}} History |url=https://www.trumanproject.org/about/history |access-date=2024-02-19 |website=www.trumanproject.org}}</ref>

A [[statue of Harry S. Truman]] was installed in the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, D.C., on September 29, 2022, as part of the [[National Statuary Hall Collection]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Figueroa |first=Ariana |date=September 29, 2022 |title=Statue of Missouri's Harry S. Truman dedicated at the U.S. Capitol |url=https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/09/29/statue-of-missouris-harry-s-truman-dedicated-at-the-u-s-capitol/ |access-date=October 5, 2022 |website=[[Nebraska Examiner]] |language=en-US |archive-date=September 30, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220930201257/https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/09/29/statue-of-missouris-harry-s-truman-dedicated-at-the-u-s-capitol/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

On the 70th anniversary of the Korean War armistice in 2023, South Korea erected a statue of Truman in Dabu-dong, [[Gyeongsangbuk-do]] to commemorate his sending US troops to defend the country.<ref>{{Cite web|url= https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/27/world/asia/korean-war-truman-statue-armistice.html|title= South Korea Unveils Truman Statue on Armistice Anniversary|work=The New York Times|date=July 27, 2023|author=Choe Sang-Hun}}</ref>

Other sites associated with Truman include:

* [[Harry S. Truman National Historic Site]] includes the Wallace House at 219 N. Delaware in Independence and the family farmhouse at [[Grandview, Missouri]] (Truman sold most of the farm for Kansas City suburban development including the Truman Corners Shopping Center).
* Harry S. Truman Birthplace State Historic Site is the house where Truman was born and spent 11 months in Lamar, Missouri.{{sfn|Truman Birthplace|2012}}
* [[Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum]]&nbsp;– The [[Presidential library system|Presidential library]] in Independence
* [[Harry S. Truman Little White House]]&nbsp;– Truman's winter getaway at [[Key West, Florida]]