My names alex, im the executie director of the Truman Library institute, the nonprofit partner of the harry s. Truman Library Museum in independence. Welcome to a Wonderful Program tonight, thanks for coming. And i want to thank Vivian Jennings and rainy day books for copresenting tonights lecture with a. J. Baime. And we are in for a great story. If you havent read the book, i highly encourage it. Itll be available for sale. And just a couple of words, i cant resist the opportunity to plug the Truman Library. Its not too far away, about 25 minutes directly that way. If you havent been there recently, i encourage you to visit it. Weve got a fantastic special exhibit there right now on trumans renovation of the white house. Great story, many of you probably dont know that. A couple of other plugs, weve got several Upcoming Events including on december 6th a program called nato truman to trump, presented with our partner, the American Public square. On december 14th, the faith of a first lady Eleanor Roosevelts spirituality, by a local author who some of you may know. And then on december 19th, ultimate insiders white house photographers and how they shape history, by kenneth walsh. Thats the last in our yearlong series of programs on white house photographers, and its associated with our fantastic exhibit out there which closes at the end of the year, if i didnt mention that. To stay current on our activities, i encourage you to visit trumanlibraryinstitute. Org, follow us on facebook hi, jeff follow us on twitter, and you can sign up for eblasts and alerts. And i also want to say a few words about the book. First, ill introduce a. J. Baime and give you kind of his bio and then a couple of comments about the book. A. J. Baime is a New York Times best selling author and awardwinning journalist, a public speaker and occasional onscreen personality. In addition to the accidental president , the subject of tonights lecture, his books include and an epic quest to harm and go like hell ford, ferrari and their battle for speed and glory at he mono. Both won the ken purdy award as best piece of writing of the year. A. J. Is a longtime, regular contributor to the wall street journal, and his articles have also appeared in the New York Times, Popular Science and mens journal. A. J. Has been a featured speaker at numerous festivals and events and has appeared on Numerous National tv stations including cnbc, msnbc and in various documentary films and tv shows. Now my couple of comments. This book, with the result of a significant amount of research at the Truman Library. We have an around kentucky, 15 million archive, 15 manager documents and photographs, and hes very complimentary of the Truman Library. Please look at the acknowledgments and read the comments. We love all the credit and all the praise that we can get. Were grateful to a. J. For doing that. [laughter] and then i really liked the dedication that he put in this book. For those of us in the truman business and for those of us who have photographs and portraits of harry truman in our offices, it kind of resonates. And he dedicated this book to his father as follows to judge david s. Baime, my father, who has kept a portrait of harry s. Truman on his office wall for more 40 years, which i city is a wonderful testament which i think is a wonderful testament to our president who we love so much. So that is it for me. Please join me in welcoming a. J. Baime to the podium to talk about our favorite president , harry truman. [applause] thank you, everybody. Can you hear me okay . I want to start by saying this is a really special night for me. I this is my fourth book, and i travel around the country quite a bit standing on stages like this, and ive never theres no place in america, no place that has so much affection for a Hometown Hero. So just to play even the smallest part of that celebration is a blessing. Another reason why this is a really special night is because there are a lot of people here [laughter] which is wonderful. I can remember a couple times speaking to more people than this, but only maybe one or two. And its so much more fun to get up on the stage and talk to a crowd of people than i remember earlier in my career packed houses of empty seats everywhere you would look. [laughter] its been a long road to get here. Alex touched on something just now, another reason why this is a special night is because this book is dedicated to my father. Hes supposed to be sitting right here, or right there, wherever. He couldnt make it tonight. And i had this whole, you know, something i wanted to say, and i was kind of let down. But it turns out that we have some tv cameras here, so i can say it anyway, and he can hear it. So my father was a great man, and he mentioned the name truman in our household a lot when i was a kid. And when youre a kid, you dont understand these things when your dad said this was a man of integrity, this was a man who made hard decisions. And all you can think about is, you know, dukes of hazard on tv, you dont care, right . [laughter] and as i got older, it resonated with me. And if he was here, what i wanted to say my father taught me a lot about goals and achieving goals. And what i would say, we have this saying in my family when something happens thats good and its aint life grand, i used to say, dad, aint life grand . And if he was here, thats what i would say. So lets move on. Thank you to rainy day books more hosting this event. Thank you, kurt, expect Truman Library. I loved, loved spending time at the Truman Library. I spent quite a bit of time there. The archivists are amazing, and im so excited about kurt graham sitting here, the director of the library, the renovation that theyre working on is really exciting, and i cant wait to see it when its done. Alex, who introduced me, Mary Mcmurray and lacey [inaudible] at the Truman Library institute were so wonderful many helping to set this up. And jenny kincaid, she runs her own pr firm in town, and shes awesome. I want to begin my talk tonight with a parable. Some of you might have heard it. It starts out, it sounds like a joke, but its not. Starts like this two drunk guys are at a bar, and theyre arguing about the existence of god. And theres a religious man, and he believes, hes a believer, and theres an atheist. And the atheist says this extraordinary thing happened to me last night. I got lost in the woods, i got lost in the woods, and there was a snowstorm, a blizzard, and it was very cold, and i couldnt find my way out, and i started to realize that i thought maybe i was going to die. So i thought, well, what the heck, you know . Ill try this god thing out. And he gets on his knees and he prays. And the religious man at the bar he says, well, look at you, youre here. This is proof, right . You survived. This is proof in the existence of god, and the atheist says, well, actually, some guy just walked by and showed me the way home. So it was pure luck, right . [laughter] and the point i want to make is its amazing how two people can look at the exact same scenario and come to such very different conclusions with such immaculate conviction, right . We see this all the time. This is really the reason why we have politics, why we have political debate, why we have political parties, why we have political philosophies and political systems and also why people like me write books, because history is a loving, breathing is a living, breathing thing. Were constantly interpreting it. So who knows what this is a picture of . This is the first atomic explosion. Its july 16th, its just before dawn in the new mexico. In new mexico. Now, the point i want to make here is weve had 72 years to discuss the atomic bomb in world war ii, hiroshima and nagasaki. 72 years to examine the documents. We all have can look at the same documents, we can read the same books, and its extraordinary after all of these years we dont have any sense of consensus. There are so many people out here who think this atomic bomb was the wrong thing to do, and there are so many people who think it was the right thing to do, and we believe this with such conviction. At the Truman Library, theres a whole section probably a lot of people here have seen it theres a notebook, and people are invited to write down what they think, whether they think this was a good idea or bad idea and why. And when you flip through the pages, its amazing. Kurt, you probably do this every day. Just go down people who feel so strongly. And you can tell there are a lot of kids handwriting, why did harry truman do this, and other people say, well, this saved lives. Whats amazing is that we still cant agree, right . I know a lot of people here in this room, im sure, have opinions and feel strongly about them. Were going to come back to this right here. Okay. Im calling my talk tonight this is how you earn respect in washington. [laughter] so what were going to do is take it what i do in this book is look at the first four months of the Truman Administration. Its a very inspiring story. One of the things we did when i was a kid at my house was watch rocky a lot. It was this story about a guy who comes out of nowhere and does such amazing things. And he thought this was a story that would resonate with a kid like me, especially a kid who wanted to be an athlete. And thats really the inspiring story of truman thats in this book. So were going to look at the image america formed of truman during the first four months in office. So lets start here. Now, what is this book about . Its called the accidental president harry s. Truman and the four months that changed the world. Here in missouri we know this is the story about a man who, who was a regular person or was perceived to be a regular person, like you and me, who becomes in 1945 the most powerful man in the history of the world by accident. And those are his words, by accident. Truman has no college degree, hes never had the money to own his own home, hes never met josef stalin, hes never met Winston Churchill, he has no experience in highlevel international diplomacy. And hes walking in the footsteps of fdr, right . We hear, we know the story so well. Im hoping if and when you read the book, you will learn a lot of things that you didnt know. But just for the sake of getting us started, we know. Truman had a lot to deal with. He has no understanding of the inner workings of the white house, very little understanding of the globalling emergency not much more than the average person who reads the New York Times or the Washington Post or the kansas city star. Meanwhile, at the time he becomes president he has this is debatable but arguably no information about the atomic bomb. So the thesis of this book is that the first four months of the truman presidency should be considered the most challenging of any four month period in any american presidency. On my web site, trumanbook. Com, i made a little documentary, and im going play a little slice of it just to catalog what happens in this four months. I hope the sound is okay. Lets see. The first moments of trumans presidency saw the collapse of nazi germany, the founding of united nations, fire bombing of japanese cities, the liberation of nazi death camps, the suicide of adolf hitler, the assassination of benito mussolini, the capture of arch nazi war criminals, victory at okinawa and the potts dam conference during which the new president sat at the negotiating table with Winston Churchill and josef stalin in sovietoccupied germany. Humanity saw the first atomic explosion, the Nuclear Destruction of hiroshima and nagasaki, the dawn of the cold war and the beginning of the nuclear arms race. Heres harry truman arriving for work on april 13, 1945. So we know hes an unknown quantity. The nation is in shock. Fdr had just passed away, and people are very concerned because they dont really know who this guy is, right . Theyre very used to having fdr as their president , hes been president longer than any other man, and roosevelt arguably is the first to be considered a Great American one of the Great American president s during his administration. So others have been considered one of greats of after their deaths. Truman i mean, roosevelt during his administration, arguably, was considered one of the greatest. Robert nixon, White House Correspondent at the time, said to him at this moment here was a man who came into the white house almost as if he had been picked at random off the street. [laughter] senator arthur vandenberg, republican of michigan, said on this morning in his private diary, the gravest question mark in every human heart is truman. Can he swing the job . Now, its extraordinary to think that truman at 33 years old was an obscure farmer here in the state and even more extraordinary to think that at 38 he was financially in desperate straits. How many people in this room have seen this picture . [laughter] two weeks ago i spoke at the fdr president ial library, and i asked the same question. It was a little more than half these people, and i got one person but i knew a lot of people had seen this picture. Isnt it extraordinary that this man right there, hes 38 years old, and his business is going down the tube, he has no political experience whatsoever some years later would become the most powerful man in the history of the world. Let me show you another picture. This is truman walking through the white house door on his first day of work. So how does he get here . How does this happen . Naturally, in the book i spent a lot of time talking about how he gets here. Im going to give you two numbers that give you some perspective. One is truman shocks the nation, right . At the Democratic National convention in chicago in 1944. At that time 2 of americans, 2 im sorry, i should say democratic voters thought that truman should be the Vice President ial candidate on the ticket, 2 . And yet as we know because of strange things that happened and nobody has ever been able to to agree on exactly what happened truman ends up on the ticket, all right . Heres another number. Heres the two of these men. This is an extraordinary picture, and one of the reasons this is extraordinary is because there are very few pictures, right, that show these two men together. They really didnt know each other very well. Theyre sitting on the grounds of the white house under a magnolia tree planted by andrew jackson. Youve heard of andrew jack around here. And theyre jackson around here. Theyre having sardines on toast, and theyre talking about the election, and roosevelt reaches for a pot of tea to pour it into Harry Trumans glass, and his hand is like this. He cant get the tea in the glass. And truman, the Vice President excuse me, Vice President ial candidate, realized, he realizes, i think at that time, where this is going. At the time of the 1944 election, 55 of americans could name fdrs running mate. Isnt that extraordinary . 55 , which means 45 really had no idea, literally no idea who this guy was. They win the election. 82 days later truman is walking through the white house door, right . So keep think about this. The nations in shock. Hes in the white house. He has to walk into roosevelts office, and everyone the staffers, they dont know who this guy is. A lot of the staffers kept libraries, theyre so fascinating. A lot of them are published. And truman puts a sign on his desk, so im going to begin to make a point here. Truman puts a sign on his desk, it says always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest. [laughter] who knows who said that . Here in missouri, we should know. Mark twain. He puts a quotation in a leather portfolio on his desk, and it reads i do the very best i know how, the very best i can, and i mean to keep doing so to the end. Thats abraham lincoln. Thats truncated slightly. And he rolls up his sleeves and he goes to work. Now, those same staffers and cabinet members who kept those detailed diaries who were all writing on april 13th who is this guy, right . You see the narrative unfold in their diaries. So im going to read some impressions of what people were thinking about truman four and five weeks into his administration. This is joseph grew who was second in command in the state department. He wrote nothing but the most favorable reaction. I think he is going to measure up splendidly to the tremendous job which faces him. This is the notoriously cranky white house chief of staff, admiral william leahy. He proved to be easy to work with and one of the nicest people i have ever known. Heres another one. This is my favorite. This is assistant press secretary evan ayers. He is capable and an extremely fine gentleman for whom everyone has the highest regard. Isnt that extraordinary . Think about it, how do we get to the gravest question mark in every american heart to an extremely fine gentleman for whom everyone has the highest regard in two months . That happened. So what is the answer . Lets come back to the sign on the desk, always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest. Ruman liked to say that he aimed to, quote, live up to my mothers teachings, right . That informed all of his behavior. So the point i want to make here is this is a man who had sort of his own human constitution. It was the fabric of the man, right . And these werent this wasnt him saying this, this was other peoples impression of him, which is remarkable. Now, washington officials quickly realized that this was a man who could be trusted and had integrity. He could be trusted to wield this extraordinary power that he had accidentally inherited. Thats how you earn respect in washington. Chapter two in my little chat tonight, this is an extraordinary photograph. I grew up as a journalist i mean, in my career, and i had a special affection for this paragraph because ive been in so many press conferences where so ma