Disappointment in President’s unprofessionalism

[cb7893]

Dont know how involved he was with the war effort prior to being president

Not much. He was VP for less than 3 months.

 

[kinnem]

^ He did serve as an Artillery officer, prior to and through WWI... so he wasn't a total novice. He also oversaw Defense Department spending looking for corruption and waste.

 

[Day-Tripper]

It was more like he inherited a very strong hand in bridge, but with an unrealistic contract. And he didn't even know how to play bridge. No one had any confidence that he was up to the job.

When FDR died there was a still yet to be defined post-war architecture and a yawning gap developing between the US and its major allies (the UK, the USSR, France and China) over what the world would look like as the pieces were put back together.

This is an incomplete list of challenges and accomplishments during his tenure:

-The defeat of Japan
-The occupation of Japan and Germany
-Redrawing the map of Europe
-Post War Soviet aggression in Europe and Asia
-The Berlin Blockade and Airlift
-The establishment of NATO
-The Marshall Plan
-Recognition of Israel's independence
-The Independence and partitioning of India
-The Chinese Revolution
-The Korean War
-Transitioning from a War economy to a peace economy--100% employment didn't last for very long--and the transition was anything but peaceful. Unemployment and the number of strikes soared.
-Integration of the Armed Forces. This and some of the first Civil Rights legislation from a man who was known to use the "N" word and was put on the ticket with FDR specifically to satisfy the Southern wing of the Democratic Party.

FDR didn't leave a road map. The architecture of the Post-War World, with an ever changing landscape came together during Truman's presidency, which he began by saying, "Boys, if you ever pray, pray for me now. I don't know if you fellas ever had a load of hay fall on you, but when they told me what happened yesterday, I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me." Not exactly, "I alone can fix it."

FDR was in very bad health most of his presidency. The last year, he was near death all the time.

Yet the Bretton Woods Agreement of July 1944, the Yalta Conference of February 1945 & the San Francisco opening of the United Nations in April 1945 (at the time of FDR's death) represented a post-war road map.

Most of Truman's policies during his filling out of FDR's last term (1945-1948) would have likely been carried out by FDR had he lived.

The only big question would have been Truman's all-out support for defeating the communist insurgency in Greece during the civil war there. US military aid & advisers (including many Greek-American officers & NCOs of the US Army) turned the tide in that ugly conflict. FDR might not have been in favor of that policy.