Appeared in the New York Times, Popular Science and mens journal. He has been a featured speaker and has appeared on Numerous National tv stations including cnbc, msnbc and in various documentary, films and tv shows. Is a significant amount of research. We have an archive, 15 million , oldents, crackerjack research team, he is compliment three of the Truman Library. Credit and the praise we can get very we are grateful for aj for doing that. I like the dedication he put into this book and for those of us who have photographs and portraits of harry truman in our offices kind of resonates. He dedicated this book to his father as follows. To my father who has kept a portrait of harry truman on his wall for more than 40 years, which i think is a wonderful testament to our president we love so much. That is it for me. Please join me in welcoming aj baime to the podium to talk about our favorite president. [applause] thank you, everybody. Can you hear me . 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 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 just like 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 cant 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, you know, 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, and the 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 at the Truman Library institute were so wonderful many helping to set this up. And jenny kincaid, jenny is here, 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 living, breathing thing. Were constantly interpreting it. So who knows what this is a picture of . This is the first atomic explosion. Its july 16, its just before dawn 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 that after all of these years, we dont have any sense of consensus. There is so many people out here out there 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 a 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 will 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. Ok. 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. This is my favorite part about writing this book. One of the things we did when i was a kid at my house was watch rocky a lot. My dad showed us rocky all the time, because 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. He has never met joseph 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. I am hoping that if and when you read the book, you will learn a lot of things that you didnt know. Just for the sake of this conversation getting us started, we know. Truman, he had a lot to deal with. He has no understanding of the inner workings of the white house. He has 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 ok. Lets see. The first moments of trumans presidency saw the collapse of nazi germany, the founding of the united nations, fire bombing that killede cities many thousands of citizens, the liberation of nazi death camps, the suicide of adolf hitler, the assassination of benito mussolini, the capture of arch nazi war criminals are you there was the fall of berlin, 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, in an attempt to map out a new world. 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. Aj 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 president to be considered a Great American one of the Great American president s during his administration. So others have been considered one of greats 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 of truman at this moment, here was a man who came into the white house almost as though 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 about little more than half these people, and i got one person but i knew a lot of you had seen this picture. Isnt it extraordinary that this man right there, hes 38 years old, and his business is going down the tubes, 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 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, realize that this is 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. And all of the staffers kept diaries. A lot of them are in your 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. Aj 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 13 who the 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 many people stood up and said absolutely nothing. [laughter] what i want to make im going to talk now about truman and his relationship with the press because i think it was really important. This picture is an extraordinary moment in our nations history. I want to talk about trumans first press conference, but i have to do it this is not a picture of that. So im going to talk about trumans first press conference. Im going to come back to whats actually happening in this picture. So on april 17, 1945, its trumans fifth day, fifth full day in office. He holds his first press conference. And think for a second, theres no tv, theres no social media, so people are very, very curious about who this guy is whos their leader, right . So a Record Number of people show up, 348 reporters. Who has been to the oval office in the Truman Library . Imagine 348 people jamming in there. That was the scene. And im going to read a little bit, actually. We have the transcript, obviously, of that press conference. So everybody piles in, and truman says, are they all in . The white house usher shuts the door, and truman says, good morning, good morning. Good morning, sir, mr. President , someone yells. Will you take it kind of slow for us today, please, sir . Surely, surely, truman says, anything i can do to accommodate you. And everybody is looking at him and they are like, youre not roosevelt. Youre standing up for starters, right . [laughter] there was a reporter in the room who later wrote in his diary we all knew that roosevelt had gone to grotten and then harvard, that roosevelt came from a quite old, welltodo family, that hed moved in what is known as the best circles all of his life. Truman was a small town midwestern missourian of farm origin. The contrast was in appearance, voice mannerisms and even their attire. President roosevelt, while a casual dresser, was very well tailoredded. Truman dressed like he had just walked off of main street in independence, missouri. [laughter] now, truman knocked em dead that day. He knocked em dead. At the end of this press conference, this crowd of people erupted into spontaneous applause. Isnt that wonderful . Why . One, he was funnier. He was funnier than people thought. He was an amusing guy. Two, he spoke with this he spoke in this way that they werent used to. They had a question, he answered it. Roosevelt, they were used to. They would ask a question, he would take, he would like take his cigarette holder like he was conducting an orchestra and never going to answer people. Entrance people. No matter what you asked, he was just going to say what he was going to say. Truman answered questions, right . Now, he had a