Bess trumans letters to harry truman. As of last month, clifton is the board secretary for the Harry S Truman scholarship foundation. This is a role that has been vacant since the 1990s since his mother retired from our board. Clifton thank you for joining , our board and thank you for being here today. [applause] mr. Truman thank you, ladies and gentlemen. I am honored to be here. I am honored to serve on the board. I have to tell you a little bit stunned. Was 19 years old i was with my mother in independence when the first truman scholarships were awarded in 1977. I was in college and i was involved being in that group. As my mother told me i should be. [laughter] clifton,he put it was all these young people are doing a lot better in college then you are. [laughter] it isare interesting some of the things of the panel has been talking about. This is a great way to spend the afternoon. A couple of things weve been talking about is my grandfathers leadership style, things i learned and i found out when i was very young. Early in my life grandpa came to stay near us in washington new york city and visited us. He went for a quick walk, gravitys paper, walked over to our apartment. Through it on the floor and waited for somebody to wake up. My brother and i were the first ones down. We thought we would tiptoe past him to get to the television set. Then he caught us and said, where you going . I said to watch bugs bunny. He said you dont want to do that. I thought, yes i do. [laughter] he said i have a better idea. He walked between us and he reached for the top shelf and took on the book. He said come here and sit down. You cannot argue with harry truman. He started to read. My mother came down a few minutes later and stopped cold. Shia never seen anything like this in her life. We were not moving. From a bookeading that do not have a picture in it what are you reading to those kids . He showed her the book. History of the peloponnesian war. [laughter] 6 00 in the morning to a fouryearold in a twoyearold. [laughter] education, which you all know. He was a terrible babysitter. I had a hobbyhorse. You could kill yourself on one of those things. My mother was always telling me you were going to kill yourself on that thing. Grandpa was there back behind newspaper. I tipped it over in atlanta the crash. My grandmother came running out of the kitchen. She almost had me when a voice across the room said dont touch him. She stopped and looked up to see who it ruined this for me. Grandpa was glaring at me. I had burst into tears. He said, quit crying. Get on and start riding again. I did. I shut up and got the horse up. Did not tell me my grandfather had been president of the United States. I found out in school. [laughter] [applause] and with the first great one morning and the teacher said wasnt your grandfather the president of United States . I said i dont know. I will go home and ask. And i did. My mother told me the story for years, well into my 40s. I dropped my book bag at the door and i walked up to my mother. I said, long, did you know . [laughter] said yes. He just a member something. Any little boys grandfather can be president. Dont let it go to your head. It did not. Education, a stiff spine, humility. The three things, the hallmarks my grandfather taught me before i was seven years old. The key things in perspective. He work your hardest to get educated and something goes wrong and you dont go crying to your grandmother. It is my pleasure now to introduce our next panel because i think we have these are two folks who really care about this country, about American History and not only by the past but where this country is headed. Michael best love is a nationally known president of the story and. He is the author of nine books, one ofng the conquerors, several New York Times bestsellers that he has written. He is a nice for it on president ial leadership. Michael and i have met. He went to school my younger brother. Aside, one you as an good way to get people to read your books if the sign them. Thank you very much. Albright needs no introduction. And what an honor it is for me to serve on the Truman Foundation with her. She embodies the best this country has to offer. She is an immigrant and has done so much for her adopted country, just as immigrants have all over the United States. She served as the 64th secretary of state. In 2012 she was awarded the president ial medal of freedom. I know my grandfather would be so pleased that she leads the foundation that bears his name. Ladies and zimmerman, let me turn it over to secretary albright. Conversation about president ial leadership. Thank you very much. [applause] can everyone here all right . If you cant hear, you can apply. I think we are in good shape. This is a rumor president kennedy had a press conference . Guess. Ry albright i i will interrupt right away because of hearing about your books and being a diplomatic historian, you graduated from college michael i was worried she would mention this. Secretary albright you said you will be a diplomatic historian and i thought ok. The it certainly turned out to be true. You really have done amazing work in terms of writing about our history. Im very glad you decided to do that. Michael im awfully glad you decided to go into diplomacy and government and compile a record that is important to the history of this country. And maybe i can begin with one word. I love the fact we are here, low what you are doing especially because one of the things i love about president truman is if you go back to the founders, one of the most basic beliefs was that they were trying to construct a country in which you could become president or secretary of state no matter what your background was. They would love the fact that harry truman, who came from Humble Beginnings was able to become not only president , but one of the great president s in American History. Know, as hugely strong feeling that education that came from a lot of things, but not least from his own life. This was this brilliant young man, loved reading history. He is to say, and i think cliff will confirm this, i read every book in the independence, missouri public library. I think you really did. He couldnt play contact sports. His parents said we are poor. We cannot pay to replace your glasses if they are broken. One block on the record. Blot on the record. His favorite history book was a book with the incorrect title of great men and famous women, 1890s. And the subtitle i think was from nebuchadnezzar to sarah bernhardt. They company wide swath of human experience. Life this isin his someone who shouldve gone the college, graduate school. Deeply wanted to. Couldnt do it because of his familys economic circumstances. If there was one thing he felt strongly about was when he became president he wanted to help others. One of the ways he did that was to strengthen Community College systems. All i am telling you is there would be no one who would have loved to be here more today than harry truman. Let me begin said, with a question for secretary albright. We were talking earlier. You all know her background. Coming from europe. What difference did it make in your own life that harry truman was president and someone else . Secretary albright when i was asked to become president of the German Foundation i thought perfect, i can to get anything better than putting together truman and education and have that opportunity. We came to the United States in 1948. He was the first president and i really came from a family that loved Foreign Policy and institutions and very grateful to the United States in every single way. We spent the war in england. My father was a czechoslovakian democrat. He was ambassador to yugoslavia. After that, his last assignment was to go to the United Nations representing czechoslovakia. On a commission to do with india and pakistan over kashmir. So i grew up always thinking about Foreign Policy. I think my lodestar has always been when america is involved, good things happen. And when america is not there, bad things happen. As a czechoslovak, munich was important and 70 ways and the United States was not at munich. When the americans came into the war, i was a little girl in london and you could see what a difference it made. And unfortunately given agreements made during the war the iron curtain came down in , the country that i was born in came down behind the iron curtain. And so for me when the u. S. Did something it really made a difference. And harry truman did something. That was the part that was so important in terms of stating what americas position was going to be. And whether it had to do with the program or the truman doctrine or nato, everything that would indicate that america would be playing a leading role and being out there and doing something. So in that regard. The other part that i thought about was institutionally everything that i kind of we were talking about Public Service. I do teach. In talking about the National Security act, it was basically designed because of the way roosevelt made decisions. It was a punishment by the bureaucracy. Michael tell a little bit about how roosevelt made decisions. Secretary albright he made decisions by pitting people against each other and not getting a sense of where decisions are coming from. The bureaucracy was fed up with it. Forestalls revenge, set a National Security harry truman was the first one that had to operate under the National Security act. He was the one that dealt with the fact of how decisions could be made and how the information came to him. He was made clear that the secretary of state would be the leading member of the cabinet, which i appreciate. Michael and there would be a Defense Department. Secretary albright and there would be a Defense Department and the cia. Michael maybe not just intelligence and army intelligence. Secretary albright it would unify things. That is the system that has evolved and is in operation now. The other part that i have to say is that he and the natural dean addison said of the system we have all been operating on under a long time. Whether there were discussions earlier about the Marshall Plan, what americans responsibility, nato im wearing my article five pin, and really how that works. Then also strengthening the United Nations. A lot of the activities, the response to the korean war, uniting for peace, i wont go through all of that. But most of the things i learned in college and then operated under, whether in or outside the government, were set up at that particular time. So theres nobody that i can honestly say has had a bigger influence in one form or another that harry truman on my life. Michael i think secretary albright on the this answer. Who was the secretary of state who got the idea to name the building after harry truman . Secretary albright let me just say i really thought that we needed to do that for all the obvious reasons. The delegation from missouri was a great help on it in every way. We had the most amazing ceremony here in order to commemorate it. And im very proud. And if i may say so, when the next people came in, they wanted to erase everything. But we had granite. We had a name and granite. Michael dont you like that dean atchesonnd have their names on here in a very big way . Secretary albright yes. Michael there was a dinner that you are nice enough to ask you to come and talk at, at the Benjamin Franklin room, the evening of the naming. The idea was to have a dinner with a menu that was served in the white house in 1947, perfectly historically correct. The only downside was, a, if you did not like jello molds with strange things floating in them, you are probably out of luck. And the other thing was anyone who had a sodium problem was probably carried out of there. Secretary albright yes, it was a typical, jello, triscuits. People wondered why we were doing that. It wasnt as elegance. It was real. Had the truman piano. A lot of things that signify the whole era. I am so proud that i was able to be in office at the time that we were able to do that. There was nothing more symbolic in terms of americas role in the world than having Harry Trumans name on this building. Michael totally appropriate. You were talking about the difference it made that harry truman was president rather than someone else in the late 1940s. Im not too wild to counter factual history, but i have often thought about what life might have been like for the United States and the world had truman had not decided to replace wallace as his Vice President. Ive got some views on that. Do you want to start . Secretary albright from everything that ive read about wallace comeau, we had completely different views about what americas role was, who the American People were, and a lack, this is not nice, but a lack of michael we got to be honest. Secretary albright i talk a lot about the role of individuals in history. And to have had Henry Wallace in office would have changed the whole direction of american policy after certainly 45 on and whatever influence he might have had before that in a variety of ways. It certainly goes to the point of what americas role should be, what our responsibilities are, and how we see ourselves in relationship to the rest of the world. Just totally different. But i think the big surprise for people, not the people here, but how harry truman turned out to be who he was. What is it that made him and do the things that he did. One of the big issues was the recognition of israel that we hear about often. Generally, his approach of what needed to be done in the balkans and in a number of different ways. And his response to what the korean war was about. Any number of different aspects that made a difference that Harry Wallace wasnt there. Michael absolutely wallace would not have seen the soviet threat the way that president truman that. Truman did. I dont even want to begin to think what life might have been like. It is fascinating because in april of 1945, when harry truman became president , a lot of americans were horrified because Franklin Roosevelt, one of the many of them knew little or nothing about this recent senator from missouri. It speaks well to Franklin Roosevelt in the fall of 1944 or summer of 1944, he realized that wallace was not up to being second in the one of succession during this next term and harry truman was. The downside, famously, was that roosevelt, although it was late in the war and roosevelt, as we now know had plenty of vascular cardiovascular disease and was not likely to without that term from 1945 to 1949. He only had two meetings with Vice President truman. The result was when roosevelt died on the 12th of harry truman april was left to try to figure out what roosevelt had in mind just before the end of the war in europe, a few months before the end of the work in japan and just before he would have to take up the job of trying to create a postwar world. You have this surreal theme of truman in the white house wearing a green eyeshade and he called in for all of the documents of the last few that roosevelt had been dealing with, that he could read and somehow figure out what was on roosevelts mind. Truman was reading the minutes of the yalta conference with churchill and stalin and some of the cable traffic between roosevelt and churchill and stalin during the previous two weeks, trying to figure out what was on roosevelts mind. Because roosevelt had not told him. The most famous part of this, the fact that roosevelt had not told him about the presence of the atomic bomb and what a difference that would make not only in winding down world war ii and winning but also the , postwar world. Secretary albright people have been talking about how people viewed the vice presidency. Clearly, i think what happened in the Roosevelt Truman transition is something that taught other president s later how not to do it. And i can just tell you from my own experience in the carter administration, Vice President mondale really became a complete partner in terms of and it was true with clintongore. Now were talking about joe biden. There was a recognition that you could not leave the Vice President and the dark on a number of issues. And we are lucky that truman had the natural instinct and the streetsmarts people were talking about, and an understanding of the american system in terms of knowing how to work with you cant say that he had a Great Congress to work with. But i do think that there were lessons that came out of not having had meetings with the Vice President. Michael thats exactly right. He sort of practiced what he preached by choosing his Vice President , Senate Majority leader alan barclay of kentucky. Tell me whether this sounds right to you. I look at the truman case has one case where history works the way it is supposed to because, when harry truman went back to missouri, maybe cliff for correct me on this, but his rating was about 23 . I remember when i was a young historian, by which time truman was much better thought of, i was curious one i look at the internal numbers and people were impatient with the korean war and corruption in the entourage and a lot of people said we dont like truman because he doesnt remind us of frank and roosevelt who was our idea of , a president. Im afraid of an apocryphal story but too good not to tell. This story was told that in 1952, truman was asked by a reporter what he thought of richard nixon,