Truman Postwar Era

Best President of the Postwar Era: Truman or Eisenhower

Harry S. Truman upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt became the President of the United States on April 12, 1945. Throughout his term in office nearly eight years he faced multiple challenges in both domestic and foreign affairs. “Truman 's policies abroad, and especially toward the Soviet Union in the emerging Cold War, would become staples of American foreign policy for generations. At home, Truman protected and reinforced the New Deal reforms of his predecessor, guided the American economy from a war-time to a peace-time footing, and advanced the cause of African-American civil rights. Historians now rank Truman among the nation 's best Presidents” (millercenter.org/president/truman)

Domestically President Truman tried to expand a determined program designed to ease the transition to a peacetime

Whereas on the foreign front President Truman guided the country through the end of World War II, the starting of the Cold War, and the beginning of the atomic age. When President Truman came into office the war with Europe was almost to its end but the war with Japan seemed to be further away from ending. “With figures for a full-scale invasion of the Japanese home islands mounting and Japanese leaders offering few concrete hints of agreeing to the President 's terms for unconditional surrender, Truman endorsed the use of the bomb against Japan” (millercenter.org/president/truman/foreign-affairs). Truman also had his problems with the Soviet Union as both nations were looking to the international post-war order in line with their own interests. To protect the country and the world from the Soviet Union, United States executed a containment policy that was first administered to Western Europe that in due course included Asia as well. As the end of his presidency, the United States observed its national security in global terms and pledged to use its resources to combat the spread of Communist power (Berkin