A worthy cast
Truman takes place in Capitol rotunda
WE CAN only assume he was fully vetted. Seven and a half feet of bronze Harry S. Truman has been unveiled inside the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. And it’s been a long time coming.
Whether micro-offenses are eventually uncovered to sufficiently cancel Harry Truman, we’ll just have to wait and see. But in this era of political toxicity, it was refreshing to hear politicians from both sides of the aisle heap praise on this particular man from Missouri.
The Truman statue will be the 10th presidential tribute standing in the rotunda. Mr. Truman’s likeness is flanked by those of Presidents George Washington and Ulysses Grant, forming quite the exclusive statuary ZIP code.
News of statues these days generally depicts their toppling. But this bronze work of art will represent one of Missouri’s two statues at the U.S. Capitol. Each state gets two of them to honor famous natives, and Truman’s will replace one of longtime Missouri U.S. Sen. Thomas Hart Benton, which had stood since 1899.
Arkansas is sending two new statues to Washington, too—worthy subjects, both: Daisy Lee Gatson Bates and Johnny Cash. The Arkansas statues will sit inside the National Statuary Hall.
President Truman, however, will reside in the ritziest neighborhood for U.S. statues, the rotunda. A worthy address for a man who had the presidency thrust upon him at the most critical time the world had yet known. A veteran, farmer, small businessman and county judge who represented Missouri in the U.S. Senate for 10 years, Mr. Truman had served as vice president for just 82 days when FDR died; World War II was all but over in Europe, but still raged in the Pacific.
His first few years in office were as eventful as any in history. President Truman’s decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan in August of 1945, just months after being sworn in as president, ended the war. In its aftermath, Mr. Truman was instrumental in the creation of the United Nations and North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He desegregated U.S. armed forces and the federal workforce; he recognized the state of Israel; and he helped lead the world’s response to the growing threat of the Soviet Union.
At the unveiling ceremony, Clifford Truman Daniels, Give-Em-Hell-Harry’s grandson, said of all his grandfather’s accomplishments, the most significant was “reminding us that a farmer, a citizen soldier, a small businessman can rise to the highest office in this land and do a better job of it than almost anyone else.”
Harry Truman will be remembered for his decision to drop the bombs. Which was a horrible decision to make, with unspeakable results, and the only worse decision we can think of is not making it. The A-bombs saved hundreds of thousands of American lives. And not just American lives.
In 1948, addressing fellow Democrats in Milwaukee, the man himself explained the rationale behind that decision:
“As president of the United States, I had the fateful responsibility of deciding whether or not to use this weapon for the first time. It was the hardest decision I ever had to make. But the president cannot duck hard problems—he cannot pass the buck. I made the decision after discussions with the ablest men in our government, and after long and prayerful consideration. I decided that the bomb should be used to end the war quickly and save countless lives— Japanese as well as American.”
The buck indeed stopped with President Truman. A refreshing concept, when one thinks about it. And now, a bronze cast of the 33rd president of the United States appropriately stands in the Capitol rotunda, next to other great leaders of our nation.