Despite expressing many negative stereotypes about Zionists and Jews in general, and facing pressure from George Marshall and other advisors, Truman recognized the new state of Israel.
Michael Kazin's new history of the Democratic Party hints at a possible path for Biden to manage Democratic dissention, Republican intransigence, and challenges domestic and international.
"My research yielded amazing letters between "New Yorker" editor and the White House following publication of one of the most heralded and important articles of the century."
The anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the circumstances of Roosevelt's failing health should be reminders of the significance of Joe Biden's choice, even beyond the campaign.
The terms on which the United States pressed Japan for surrender were shaped by American domestic politics; New Deal Democrats and their liberal allies succeeded in convincing Harry Truman that it was necessary to dramatically rebuild Japan's society along more social-democratic lines.
Japan's surrender was hastened by imminent invasion by the Soviet Red Army, a crippling US naval blockade and conventional bombing, and a diplomatic promise to protect the Japanese Emperor from execution, argues Paul Ham. Granting undue credit to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki excuses atrocity.
Many people, including historians, believe that the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused Japan's unconditional surrender, saved a million American lives, and was the least morally repellent way to end World War II. Paul Ham contends that none of this is true.
The anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki should inspire consideration of the global fallout from Harry Truman's presidential decisions.
Recent stories suggest that those currently in power feel it is their right, and maybe their duty, to run the country in their own interest, ignoring-- or suppressing-- dissent.
Though Trump used Truman's words to make a nationalism-friendly case that the organization benefits when individual member states look out for themselves, he hasn't always been supportive of the United Nations.
