Will Joe Biden be remembered as "another Harry Truman?"
It isn't too soon to consider Joe Biden's place in history.
In today's Guest Post Jack Mullen shares a reflection on Joe Biden, Abraham Lincoln, and that less-remembered president, Harry Truman. We assume that Lincoln had always been revered, a towering figure in American consciousness. Mullen writes that this is incorrect. It took a generation for Americans to appreciate Lincoln as a great president, not just one so controversial that half the country broke away at the prospect of him taking office. Greatness never came to Truman. Truman settled into our consciousness as a modest, low-profile president. He is remembered as a continuation of the path set by FDR. He is remembered as a successor, not an initiator.
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| Underestimated |
Truman didn't cash in on having been president. He refused lucrative board positions, saying his former office belonged to the people, not to him personally. It seems quaint now--and honorable. His seven years in office don't make a big statement. President Eisenhower came later and left a freeway system as a permanent monument. JFK's Cuban Missile Crisis came later, too. Truman was in-between.
Jack Mullen grew up in Medford. He thinned pears alongside me in the Naumes orchards in the mid-1960s before going off to the University of Oregon and the Peace Corps. He now follows politics from his home in Washington, D.C. Mullen notes that Biden's record of legislative accomplishments, achieved without the robust majorities that are normally necessary, deserve much more recognition.
Guest Post by Jack Mullen
These days, no one is being pushed deeper into the dustbin of history than Joseph R. Biden.
Biden’s legislative accomplishments during the first two years of presidency compare favorably with Franklin Roosevelt’s first term. Granted, as with Roosevelt, Biden followed a weak predecessor. Presidents Trump and Hoover both eschewed the legislative recipe to address the country’s current ills. Even with the complications and impediments of Joe Manchin and Kristen Sinema, Biden sailed through the legislative gauntlet much like a Franklin Roosevelt and a Lyndon Johnson.
Roosevelt was a young, brash fresh face that easily connected with the electorate. Other young Presidents, Kennedy and Obama also found a strong connection with the electorate. Neither Kennedy’s nor Obama’s legislative records compare to Biden’s. Why is Biden not given his due? Is it his age? Or is it, as with Lincoln and Truman, that sometimes history takes a long time to shine notice and appreciate presidential accomplishments?
The revered Abe Lincoln of Carl Sandberg and Jon Meacham did not exist in the latter part of the 19th Century. Lincoln was still hated in the South, but his two trusted secretaries, John Nicolay and John Hay, endeavored to give Americans a true appreciation of Lincoln. Nicolay and Hay spent two full years in the 1880s writing a ten-volume book on Lincoln from personal memory and painstaking research. Once Robert Lincoln's 1897 50-year moratorium on the release his father's papers expired in 1947, the Abraham Lincoln Association in Springfield, Illinois sprang into action. The eight-volume "Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln," along with the work of Nicolay and Hay, provided fodder for thousands of books written about the nation's 16th President. With Presidents' Day just around the corner, another Lincoln book, Abraham Lincoln His Speeches and Writings, is available for sale as a one-volume paperback.Harry Truman is under-appreciated. The Truman charm, if any, is being the first president connecting with people as a likable rascal. “The Buck Stops Here” presidency benefited from an unusually strong cast of advisors. George Marshall, Dean Acheson, and a young Clark Clifford laid the groundwork for America’s post-war leadership that, for all its blemishes and setbacks, is in place 75 years later.
As Truman’s popularity waned, he did not seek reelection in 1952. After he left office McCarthyism grew and stained the country here at home. Overseas, American hubris led to the overthrow of elected governments--yes, democratically elected governments--in Iran in 1953 and Guatemala in 1954. These took place during Eisenhower's presidency and the height of the McCarthy era. The blowback from those two operations sting to this day. One’s mind can only speculate the effect a Truman reelection in 1952 might have had on the nation, much as one can speculate how different Lincoln's approach on Reconstruction would have been from Andrew Johnson’s.
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| Politifact |
Does Joe Biden embody the old adage that with age comes wisdom? Is wisdom even sought in today’s political environment? This era values stage presence, charisma, and entertainment value--not Biden's strong points.
In two short years Joe Biden tapped into the wisdom of three Presidents: Lincoln on saving democracy; FDR on rebuilding America; and Truman in laying the groundwork for America’s role in the modern world. Of course, one can criticize Lincoln, FDR, and Truman. Joe Biden is an easy target with his age, his son Hunter, and now the classified documents fiasco. Maybe Joe Biden will be tossed unceremoniously into the dustbin of history. He is boring compared to Trump. He might later be understood as a brief intermediate figure between two blockbuster-high-drama presidents. Or, maybe, more is in store for the Joe Biden story. As of the moment, he is still in the game, and I, for one, appreciate him.
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20 comments:
We can also add in the Afghanistan withdrawal fiasco.
But who knows? Jack could be right. It might take a second term… 🤷♂️
Apparently, in our insane, sensationalistic, tabloid world of cable, social media, reality TV and blogs, doing a good job isn't good enough. A leader needs to be "riveting and exciting" to satisfy the needs of people who are bored and unhappy with their own lives. The president is supposed to be an action hero entertainer, according to loud and thrill-seeking Americans. It is pathetic.
"Slow and steady wins the race." God bless Joe Biden, his family and his administration.
I appreciate Biden too. What a blessed relief it was to have someone sane and experienced leading the country! However, he does lack Lincoln’s oratorical skills. In fact, he has a stutter, which his critics are fond of mocking as dementia. And yes, his age is a problem. The demands of the job and our rapidly changing world would benefit from a more youthful, inspiring leader. By the way, it wasn't Biden's withdrawal from Afghanistan that was such travesty, but the 20 years we spent there before the withdrawal.
Ukraine isn’t the only country at war. The anti-woke far-white that’s taken over the GOP has been waging a war on truth. We need a Zelenskiy who can re-awaken Americans to the importance of abiding by elections and making the American dream an equal opportunity enterprise.
As for Truman, he approved the use of atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing over 200,000 civilians. Such indiscriminate slaughter is not particularly admirable.
Besides Biden's touchy-feely hair sniffing and document retention fiascos, Biden cannot and should not be faulted for the chaos of battlefield withdrawal. Our allies, the Afghan Army and security forces collapsed in minutes of being challenged. Who knew that they would not fight for their country and people but allow the return of drug lords and parochial tribal leaders. In the best of conditions, troop withdrawal from the battlefield is fraught with danger. We overlook Nixon's chaotic fall of Saigon and the need for everything that floats the extract a portion of the British forces from Dunkirk in WW2. Whether Biden, is thinking like the song asks, "Should I Stay or Should I Go?", with the crazy circus in Congress, I find myself hoping this morning that he stays a little longer if he can.
I also have grown to love Biden. He was not my favorite as a nominee, but has grown into the job. I just hope that he is appreciated before the next election.
Also, President Carter us underapprecated, is only now being seen for his good points, including his great character. He was a good environmental president, and there were no real wars under his watch.
The Afghan Withdrawal Fiasco, as engineered by Pompeo, at Drumpfs direction. Kind of reminds me of the Fiasco of our panicked flights off the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, under the "Leadership" of a Republican President, the same one who engineered a continuation of the Vietnameses War, to further his Electoral chances. It's interesting how the videos and pictures of people hanging off the skids of choppers in Saigon don't get shown much any more.
It's also interesting to note how so called conservatives fail to acknowledge the thousands of Afghani people who were rescued during that traumatic period.
Thank you, Michael, for pointing out the futility of our 20 years of attempted occupation of Afghanistan, a Country which has been breaking Imperial ambitions since the time of Alexander ; A real signifier of the refusal of "leaders" refusal to learn from History.
Our intervention in Afghanistan, fully justified by the presence of Al Qaeda, was poorly managed, with overbroad and vaguely specified goals. But changing the culture of a country via military force only works when you are willing to use unlimited force and smash the country flat, like what we did with Germany and Japan in World War II. The situation in Afghanistan did not call for that, and in any case, we lacked the will.
Our withdraw from Afghanistan was an epic clusterf**k. Who can forget people falling out of the wheel wells of airplanes in a desperate attempt to escape the consequences of our abandonment of our former allies. Calling that abandonment “dishonorable“ is an understatement that only begins to capture its amoral incompetence.
Both of these are true; no choice is required.
The alternative to nuking Japan was an invasion that would’ve caused something like a million American soldiers’ lives, to say nothing of the Japanese who would have also died. Truman‘s decision to use the nukes saved lives on both sides.
Given the atrocities Japan committed in China and other places it occupied, ask yourself what they would have done if they had been able to build nukes.
Truman made the right decision when that particular buck stopped at his desk.
The US government ordered 500,000 Purple Hearts for use before the planned invasion of Japan in November 1945. They probably would have needed more. Because of the Atomic Bomb they were not needed. All Purple Hearts given out since that time are part of that order. The decision by Truman saved that many American lives or more. If you were President, what would you have done?
If I were president, I would have given the Japanese leadership an offshore demonstration, dropping the bomb over an unpopulated area where they could see what it could do if they didn't surrender. If they still refused, it would be more on them. But mass slaughter of civilians is what we call terrorism.
Truman's decision to bomb civilians?
Just like Doolittle's raid.
When American civilians are attacked we call it terrorism.
A demonstration was considered by the US. But it was rejected because then the Japanese would be on the lookout for the planes and shoot them down. The plan was to drop 7of them by the end of 1945, There was actually another bomb ready to go on a ship in California. But then the war ended.
If we hadn’t dropped the bomb and attacked with ground forces, not only would thousands of Americans have died but many more Japanese would have died than were killed by the 2 bombs. It actually saved a lot of lives on both sides.
The thought of a demonstration was discussed by the US military, but was rejected because the Japanese would have been forewarned and on the lookout for our planes and perhaps shot them down before they could make their drops.
The plan was to drop 7 bombs by the end of 1945. In fact, there was also another bomb ready to go sitting on a ship in California that was set to sail to Tinian. A lot more Japanese would have been killed if we had made a land invasion, plus the Allied troops attacking. It turned out that dropping the bomb was a humane thing to do because, otherwise, the Japanese Government would not have surrendered when they did. Even after the bombs were dropped and the Japanese knew of its destructive power, a meeting of the top military men met with the Emperor to decide what to do. There were 6 officials there. The vote was a tie. Then the Emperor stepped in and cast the deciding vote, thus ending the war.
The Japanese were thought to be a suicide nation, as death by suicide was honorable. The West was perplexed by that view. Anyway, that was the mindset by then. We had no choice but to use the bomb.
There was plenty of bombing of Japan before the atom bombs were dropped, so the Japanese were already on the lookout for our planes. Forewarning them of the horrific nature of the bombs would have made the bombers no more likely to be shot down. In fact, the firebombing of Tokyo had as horrific a death toll. Again, the indiscriminate slaughter of civilians is terrorism. At least, that's what we call it when our enemies do it.
The tactical pattern with a nuke was different: one lone B-29, possibly with a big bomb hanging out of its belly if it was the plutonium “fat man“ nuke variety.
It would have been a lot easier to focus Japanese air defenses on that one bomber than the massive formation required to do something like firebombing an entire city.
That’s the downside of giving the Japanese a “warning shot“ of a nuke. They could have recognized a nuclear attack on its way, and possibly successfully shot down that one lone bomber.
The difference is that in our firebombing we’d send 1000 planes over. The Atomic bomb attack had only 6. That was much easier to pick out. When the Enola Gay went over people thought it was only a weather plane.
You couldn’t send an Atomic bomb over with 1000 planes because the bomb would have knocked down many of those planes, too. The Enola Gay had to be trained to get away fast.
Never has man's inhumanity to man been on more prominent display than during WWII, so the nuking of two Japanese cities fits right in.
Truman is an apt comparison to Biden. Both epitomize the common man. Both lack the Ivy League pedigrees that many commentators consider an unspoken prerequisite to the presidency. It is difficult to understand the vitriol that both arouse in their partisan opponents. Truman and Biden were blindly loyal to their families and staffs. They lack the flash of their contemporaries.
Finally, I must say I identify with both men’s attributes on a personal level. Of course, presidents are judged by their accomplishments, not their personal attributes. As the writer shows, Biden and Truman have many solid accomplishments and met the challenges of their times.
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