On the Road- Kansas City-Truman Museum and Library

September 15,2009

St. Joseph MO

Last night we stopped in St. Joseph for the night. There was a coupon for a Best Western and it was really prety basic and the neighborhood didn't look so hot either. We decided to treat ourselves to a nuce dinner but the nicest we could find was a "Ground Round." We got up early to finish our trip to Kansas City and as we drove out, I noticed that they have places of interest even there. They have a museum of psychiatric treatment history and they have the home of Jesse James with the bullet hole in the wall from when his gang shot him dead.

In Kansas City, we used another coupon but this place is very nice. It is a chain called Druray Hotels and it is clean and comfortable. Besides the free breaksfast they provide 3 free alcoholic drinks at a happy hour. I went to check it out and they really do.
Kansas City

Who would have known Independence is for all purposes Kansas City?

We noticed that the Truman Museum and Library, etc were actually very close to our motel and we went over there as soon as we got checked in.

We thought that the museum was great. There is an introductory film that gives one the sense os what brought him to Presidential office. Harry was a farm boy who excelled in school tho not in sports. He courted and married an affluent girl from a fancy family. Not having a job, he went to war during WWI as a captain(altho I don't know how he qualified). He learned from that experience that he could lead. After the war he tried different things, not successfully. He opened a business with a Jewish fellow and their business collapsed during the depression. Jobless again, he went to work for the Democratic machine in KC and was somewhat of a puppet to the party head Pentergast. Pentergast made him a judge (and Harry had no post high school education). Then Pentergast helped him to get a senate seat. Truman was not well thought of at the senate as many felt he was a Pentergast puppet. He did suggest a committee to investigate waste and fraud in government contacts and became chairman of a committee to oversee waste. He got noticed.

When FDR ran for his fourth term, it was apparent to those in the know that FDR would not live long into his nfourth therm and they needed to have a Vice Presedential candidate who could take over the presidency. The earlier VP Henry Wallace was controversal, one reason being Communist ties. Truman had Southern roots, he had labor and minority support and the farm vote and they decided on Truman.

FDR died soon into his fourth term and Truman was left to deal with the problems. One of his major decisions during the war was to drop the atom bomb on Japan

When the war ended, new problems arose. There were no goods available for purchase. Manufacturing had not converted to peacetime. There were shortages noticeabley meat and inflation became rampant. The museum displayed models in dresses with price taqgs for cost of the same dress from maybe 1936 until 1948. Then around 1947 prosperity came to the U.S. Tract houses were built in suburbs and people got tv and refrigerators with freezers.

Things were bad in Europe. The Allies were hungry and had nothing left. The Russians were tryingto spread communism all over Europe and they gained shome footholds. The museum has a very effective alcove showing the allies after the war. The alcove is dark and a wind constantly blows through the burned out houses and the bowls and pots for food are all empty.

Secretary of State Marshall proposed a plan of massive aid to allied countries and this passed and wasvery successful. Truman proposed at Doctrine to contain Communism and try to stop it from encroaching on Europe. When the Russians put a blockade up in Germany to keep supplies from getting to the U.S. sector, the U.S. air lifted food and other necessaries and this was successful.

Truman and therefore U.S. was the first to recognize Israel after Great Britain gave up Palestine,(because of war and expenses there, and they gave Palestine to the U.N. The U.N. made it a Jewish state. Chaim Weizmann, who had been put in touch with Truman by Truman's old friend from the haberdashery, told Truman that the decision to recognze Israel was for Israel a decision before Statehood and Extermination.

Then came the serious fears of communism in the U.S. and Senator Joseph McCarthy and his hearings of accusing many loyeal Amercans of being Communists. Truman went along with forcing employees to take loyalty oaths but he did question McCarthy's tactics and evidence.

The museum had a couple of auditoriums in which visitors could vote with approval or disapproval of government actions.

When you enter the Museum there is a note about the information given about Truman. It notes that "history does not speak with one voice."