WEBVTT NOTE Harry Truman and the Imperial Presidency 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:12.000 I've been urged, and I must say with the offeror rather pretty penny, to title my talk The Little Louse. 2 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:20.000 However, I do not consider that an objective historical approach to the subject. 3 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:29.000 My title will be Harry S. Truman and the subtitle will be The Little Louse. 4 00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:51.000 You know, when the leaders of the Mises Institute planned this conference, I can't imagine that they were so prescient and so far-seeing as to realize that by the time the conference took place, everybody in the country would be talking about nothing else than the American presidency. 5 00:00:51.000 --> 00:01:02.000 about the qualifications of the high office, whether the present occupant of that office has ruined it beyond repair, 6 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:17.000 and how previous incumbents have filled that office so wonderfully and so on, and that's all that the country is talking about. 7 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:40.680 In fact, a few days ago I saw an article by someone on abolishing the presidency, written by some right-wing radical who is, I'm sure, now on the run, right in the hills of North Carolina. 8 00:01:40.680 --> 00:01:51.440 Now, I know that there are some people here, especially among our younger members, who believe that Bill Clinton must be the worst president we have ever had. 9 00:01:51.440 --> 00:02:01.600 And that is understandable in their youthful enthusiasm and exuberance to feel that way about Bill Clinton, and one admires them for it. 10 00:02:01.600 --> 00:02:09.560 However, maturity brings a certain perspective, and history should bring a certain perspective. 11 00:02:09.560 --> 00:02:16.520 so that what we have to consider are the other possible claimants 12 00:02:16.520 --> 00:02:23.160 to the distinction of being the worst American president. 13 00:02:23.160 --> 00:02:29.640 And tonight, I'll be speaking about Harry Truman, 14 00:02:29.640 --> 00:02:41.280 and I will present his qualifications for that possible distinction. 15 00:02:41.280 --> 00:02:48.120 Now I'm not saying that Harry Truman is absolutely the worst president, however there is an embarrassment 16 00:02:48.120 --> 00:02:51.440 of riches as far as qualifications go. 17 00:02:51.440 --> 00:03:00.560 I remember that Bill Kaufman some time back said that about James Buchanan, who was generally 18 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:07.120 despised president and condemned, that at least there's this to be said about Buchanan. 19 00:03:07.120 --> 00:03:15.600 He caused the deaths of 620,000 fewer Americans than his successor. 20 00:03:15.600 --> 00:03:20.840 So that as far as Truman goes, one could say that there's this to be said for him. 21 00:03:20.840 --> 00:03:25.000 He was not his predecessor. 22 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:32.280 That was the best point that could be made on behalf of Harry Truman, I believe. 23 00:03:32.280 --> 00:03:43.400 But when Truman left office in January of 1953, he was really universally despised. 24 00:03:43.400 --> 00:03:48.880 His approval ratings were the lowest of any president, lower than when Nixon resigned, 25 00:03:48.880 --> 00:03:50.800 As a matter of fact. 26 00:03:50.800 --> 00:03:54.820 And now, of course, Truman is beloved. 27 00:03:54.820 --> 00:04:00.240 As Murray used to say, you know, just trust any president who's beloved. 28 00:04:00.240 --> 00:04:04.580 The Republicans, just as much as the Democrats, love Truman. 29 00:04:04.580 --> 00:04:12.200 And as a friend of mine used to say in situations like this, we do be spared nothing. 30 00:04:12.200 --> 00:04:13.200 Harry Truman. 31 00:04:13.200 --> 00:04:21.480 I'm of an age where I remember the way people felt about Harry Truman. 32 00:04:21.480 --> 00:04:27.760 Once in a while now you see these polls by historians about who were our truly greatest 33 00:04:27.760 --> 00:04:32.480 presidents and who were near great presidents and it goes on down to the lowest and poor 34 00:04:32.480 --> 00:04:36.760 Nixon is always the worst, although he really wasn't that bad from the leftist point of 35 00:04:36.760 --> 00:04:37.760 view. 36 00:04:37.760 --> 00:04:42.200 He solidified the welfare state and many other things. 37 00:04:42.200 --> 00:04:49.220 It was a liberal Republican basically, but they talk about the greatest presidents, and 38 00:04:49.220 --> 00:04:53.760 what has to be said about this was all said by Bob Higgs in a very good article in the 39 00:04:53.760 --> 00:04:58.640 free market, oh I think a couple of years ago, on these polls, because the polls had 40 00:04:58.640 --> 00:05:00.880 just come out. 41 00:05:00.880 --> 00:05:05.020 There's nothing objective about these polls. 42 00:05:05.020 --> 00:05:09.340 Historians like everyone else have their own personal point of view. 43 00:05:09.340 --> 00:05:14.620 They have their own values and it's what's surprising about the fact that the Roosevelt 44 00:05:14.620 --> 00:05:20.060 was a great president or Wilson was a great president or the Truman was a neo-grade president. 45 00:05:20.060 --> 00:05:21.060 These are their values. 46 00:05:21.060 --> 00:05:23.620 These are their political values. 47 00:05:23.620 --> 00:05:28.380 This is what you can expect as Bob Hicks said from left liberal historians who worship as 48 00:05:28.380 --> 00:05:35.060 he says state power and they commend the presidents who have expanded state power. 49 00:05:35.060 --> 00:05:42.220 These historians belong to what H.L. Mencken used to call the herd of historians, you know, 50 00:05:42.220 --> 00:05:48.740 like a parliament of owls and a pride of lions, a herd of historians. 51 00:05:48.740 --> 00:05:52.900 He was talking about the historians who so enthusiastically supported the American war 52 00:05:52.900 --> 00:05:58.700 effort in World War I, but it goes for every generation. 53 00:05:58.700 --> 00:06:07.780 Mr. Godfrey earlier today was talking about the Clinton-Rossiter and people who extol 54 00:06:07.780 --> 00:06:13.140 American statism at every point in the power of the presidency. 55 00:06:13.140 --> 00:06:17.300 So that we have to come to our own conclusion about who were good presidents, who were great 56 00:06:17.300 --> 00:06:25.260 presidents, if any, who were really bad presidents on the basis of our views and values, of course 57 00:06:25.260 --> 00:06:29.020 Informed by Knowledge about what these men did. 58 00:06:29.020 --> 00:06:33.220 So let's deal with Harry Truman. 59 00:06:33.220 --> 00:06:40.420 And the fact of the matter is that Truman has left a legacy that continues to damage 60 00:06:40.420 --> 00:06:43.300 our country to this very day. 61 00:06:43.300 --> 00:06:46.860 The first thing to deal with would be the Cold War. 62 00:06:46.860 --> 00:06:53.460 Now Truman famously was in charge of America when we entered the Cold War. 63 00:06:53.460 --> 00:07:23.460 It lasted for 40 years. It changed our country beyond imagination. And everything that we see in the country, the denigration of states' rights, the power of the presidency, the immense federal Leviathan, the world empire, the national security apparatus, the great power of the security police, these all have to do with the 64 00:07:23.460 --> 00:07:53.460 This is a 40 year ongoing war. Now, a lot of research has been done on the origins of the Cold War in recent years, especially with the release of Soviet archives, and it's interesting to note, before the Second World War ended, already the American military leaders were making up plans, detailed plans, by the creation of a global American network of bases. They were going to make sure that America was the world hegemonic power. 65 00:07:53.460 --> 00:07:59.460 The Atlantic and the Pacific were going to be American ponds, all of the Western Hemisphere of course. 66 00:07:59.460 --> 00:08:10.460 And bases and transit rights were arranged for from North Africa across the Middle East, across India to Saigon to Manila. 67 00:08:10.460 --> 00:08:16.460 They had no intention of going back to the position of America between the wars 68 00:08:16.460 --> 00:08:32.460 Truman in 1947 announced the Truman Doctrine. 69 00:08:32.460 --> 00:08:36.460 The Truman Doctrine had to do with Greece and Turkey. 70 00:08:36.460 --> 00:08:46.460 There were allegedly tremendous threats to the ruling governments in Greece and Turkey that the Communists were going to take over, 71 00:08:46.460 --> 00:08:51.460 that it would bring Communist power to the East and Mediterranean, or all kinds of other things. 72 00:08:51.460 --> 00:08:58.460 In a speech to Congress, President Truman said that our policy, this is the Truman Doctrine, 73 00:08:58.460 --> 00:09:09.460 And from now on, we'll be to go anywhere in the world, any place on the globe, where freedom-loving people are threatened by internal subversion or foreign aggression. 74 00:09:09.460 --> 00:09:20.460 So this was the exact opposite of Washington's farewell address and the exact opposite of the traditional American foreign policy of defending America. 75 00:09:20.460 --> 00:09:26.460 Of defending America first and this being the concern of foreign policy, defending freedom at home. 76 00:09:26.460 --> 00:09:30.460 Now, we were going to defend freedom anywhere in the world. 77 00:09:30.460 --> 00:09:35.460 Now, the ironic thing is that, as far as Greece is concerned, for instance, 78 00:09:35.460 --> 00:09:42.460 Stalin did not support the Greek communist uprising, the Greek communist movement, 79 00:09:42.460 --> 00:09:44.460 and they announced a provisional government. 80 00:09:44.460 --> 00:09:50.460 They were not allowed into the communist common form, which was the association of communist parties, 81 00:09:50.460 --> 00:09:54.460 and this provisional government was not recognized by any communist state. 82 00:09:54.460 --> 00:10:06.460 In other words, Stalin was in fact living up to the agreement he made with Churchill that he should have the rest of the Balkans and Western influence would be predominant in Greece. 83 00:10:06.460 --> 00:10:22.460 When Truman presented to select leaders of the Senate, presented his plan, the former isolationist, now interventionist senator, Republican senator from Michigan, Arthur Vandenberg said, 84 00:10:22.460 --> 00:10:31.460 Friedenberg said, you know, if you want to sell this program of globalism, you're going to have to scare the hell out of the American people. 85 00:10:31.460 --> 00:10:37.460 Those are his famous words. And that's what Truman did, Truman and his associates did. 86 00:10:37.460 --> 00:10:58.460 They painted this vision of a power, an immense military and political power, that was willing to engage in a wide-scale war that was on the point of dominating the whole world. 87 00:10:58.460 --> 00:11:07.460 The crucial year was 1948, and you have to realize the Constellation of Forces at the time. 88 00:11:07.460 --> 00:11:11.460 This was the Republican 80th Congress. 89 00:11:11.460 --> 00:11:21.460 Still, there existed the shreds of the old right in America, led by Bob Taft and a few other people. 90 00:11:21.460 --> 00:11:27.780 The idea that, well, maybe the situation has to be different, maybe we shouldn't join 91 00:11:27.780 --> 00:11:35.980 the U.N. and try to cede who are keeping the peace, however, this open-ended commitment 92 00:11:35.980 --> 00:11:42.940 all over the world, basically to the status quo all over the world, America can't involve 93 00:11:42.940 --> 00:11:47.080 itself in that, that would be the end of the kind of government we are. 94 00:11:47.080 --> 00:11:53.920 So there was still an element of that in the Congress and in the press and among the people. 95 00:11:53.920 --> 00:12:01.820 So that had to be changed and 1948 was the turning point. 96 00:12:01.820 --> 00:12:06.840 The communists consolidated their control in Czechoslovakia and that was made to seem 97 00:12:06.840 --> 00:12:12.280 as if some tremendously freedom-loving liberal society had succumbed to terrible communist 98 00:12:12.280 --> 00:12:14.280 infiltration. 99 00:12:14.280 --> 00:12:19.040 In fact, as George Marshall himself said at the time, the Czechs had basically been under 100 00:12:19.040 --> 00:12:23.880 communist control since the middle of the war, when the Czech leaders made their peace 101 00:12:23.880 --> 00:12:29.240 with Stalin and were willing to bring Stalin into central Europe to defend against the 102 00:12:29.240 --> 00:12:31.120 Germans even after the war. 103 00:12:31.120 --> 00:12:35.680 So the communists were simply consolidating their position there. 104 00:12:35.680 --> 00:12:42.160 And then, Lucius Clay, who was the head of our army in Greece, issued a statement saying 105 00:12:42.160 --> 00:12:49.960 that he felt that war might break out with tremendous suddenness. 106 00:12:49.960 --> 00:12:55.280 Now this statement was kept secret, but it was passed around among influential congressmen 107 00:12:55.280 --> 00:12:59.400 and senators and began to shift opinion. 108 00:12:59.400 --> 00:13:07.840 Afterwards, a big biography of Clay was written and his biographer asked him, why did you 109 00:13:07.840 --> 00:13:08.840 say something like that? 110 00:13:08.840 --> 00:13:10.920 Anyway, that was the only statement you made at the time. 111 00:13:10.920 --> 00:13:16.920 A very extraordinary statement. To be the only state, you didn't back it up, you didn't second it, you didn't give more details. 112 00:13:16.920 --> 00:13:24.920 And he said, they asked me in Washington, I have the quote here, they asked me in Washington to send them a quote like that 113 00:13:24.920 --> 00:13:31.920 because they were having trouble pushing in the appropriations for the Marshall Plan, pushing through the peacetime draft, 114 00:13:31.920 --> 00:13:41.920 pushing through universal military training, all the programs that Truman wanted, and they wanted some statement about the imminence of war. 115 00:13:41.920 --> 00:13:49.920 So this is one indication, and there's much more evidence, that this Soviet threat was enormously overrated. 116 00:13:49.920 --> 00:13:55.920 For instance, they had intelligence reports from senior military people saying, 117 00:13:55.920 --> 00:14:07.920 Look, the Soviet Union you think is on the point of invading Western Europe, how is it that they're tearing up hundreds of miles of railroad track in East Germany for shipment to Russia for reparations? 118 00:14:07.920 --> 00:14:17.920 If they were on the point of attacking or if they had in mind to attack Western Europe, of course they would need those railroad tracks, but they're tearing them up to send them back. 119 00:14:17.920 --> 00:14:29.920 And I have a quote here also from a senior American who was connected with NATO in the early 1950s and he said there is no doubt that they constantly exaggerated the Soviet threat in order to get appropriations. 120 00:14:29.920 --> 00:14:48.920 In light of the recent information that has come out about the Soviet Union, you know that Senator Moynihan has released information that the CIA had about how unbelievably backward the Soviet Union was. 121 00:14:48.920 --> 00:14:55.920 I was talking to my friend, Professor Yuri Maltsev, about this, who of course is quite familiar with the whole situation there. 122 00:14:55.920 --> 00:15:07.920 For 40 years, we were fighting a paper tiger. We were building up this idea of the Soviet Union as a tremendous possible threat to Western Europe and so on. 123 00:15:07.920 --> 00:15:12.920 Well, they had nuclear weapons. Okay, if it came to that, we could blast each other off the map. 124 00:15:12.920 --> 00:15:21.920 But if they tried any other kind of war with their low level of communication and transportation, with everything going wrong constantly, 125 00:15:21.920 --> 00:15:51.920 and this is what Moynihan showed was what the CIA was saying through the 1970s and 1980s and you can imagine then what it was in the late 1940s and 1950s so this Cold War which has cost trillions and trillions of dollars which has changed our country forever and not in a good direction I don't think was something initiated by Truman and got out of control after a while 126 00:16:21.920 --> 00:16:27.920 and the Nazi Fifth Column and Apologies for Hitler and so on. 127 00:16:27.920 --> 00:16:33.920 They're talking about, for heaven's sake, patriotic Americans, maybe more patriotic than some of the people on the other side, 128 00:16:33.920 --> 00:16:36.920 who had the interest of America at heart. 129 00:16:36.920 --> 00:16:42.920 In the same way, at the time we're talking about, there were people with the interest of our country, our old republic at heart, 130 00:16:42.920 --> 00:16:47.920 who said, no, look, let's have wits about us, let's be calm about this. 131 00:16:47.920 --> 00:16:54.920 This is not a titanic final struggle between one world force and another. 132 00:16:54.920 --> 00:17:00.920 As Senator Taft said in 1948, if you have proof that this is an impending attack from the Soviet Union, give it to us. 133 00:17:00.920 --> 00:17:11.920 Otherwise, all I see is that the Soviet Union has consolidated its control over the area that Roosevelt gave to them at Yalta. 134 00:17:11.920 --> 00:17:20.720 So, we have that to talk about in regard to President Truman. 135 00:17:20.720 --> 00:17:25.560 Now, there's the episode of what happens at the time of the Korean War. 136 00:17:25.560 --> 00:17:31.640 Now, you know that Secretary of State Atchison had, in a speech a few weeks before, 137 00:17:31.640 --> 00:17:38.440 explicitly put Korea outside of the American defense perimeter, 138 00:17:38.440 --> 00:17:42.440 Well, the communists saw that they had their chance and they invaded. 139 00:17:42.440 --> 00:17:50.840 And then what happened was that President Truman, calling it a police action, some of 140 00:17:50.840 --> 00:17:56.480 the more mature people in the audience probably remember that, idiotically calling this war 141 00:17:56.480 --> 00:18:00.840 a police action, engaged America in the war. 142 00:18:00.840 --> 00:18:07.040 Of course, even Wilson and Roosevelt went to Congress to ask for declarations of war. 143 00:18:07.040 --> 00:18:12.840 The President asserted the position, which nobody had asserted before 1950, no individual 144 00:18:12.840 --> 00:18:17.400 of the U.S. government, no organ of the U.S. government, that the President has the right 145 00:18:17.400 --> 00:18:24.680 to engage America in war on his own. 146 00:18:24.680 --> 00:18:29.640 This is now the universally accepted point of view. 147 00:18:29.640 --> 00:18:36.040 It's accepted by so-called conservative leaders as well. 148 00:18:36.040 --> 00:18:48.040 I don't have to tell you that. You know it. There's a Senator from Arizona, Senator John McCain, who's always referred to as a respected Senator from Arizona. 149 00:18:48.040 --> 00:19:00.040 You have to be very wary when the media call a Republican respected. Okay? You should have figured yourself the fix is in here. 150 00:19:00.040 --> 00:19:15.040 And McCain is one of the leaders of this point of view. I saw him once on this Sunday morning politics program, and he was maintaining the president as commander-in-chief as a right to send American troops into war. 151 00:19:15.040 --> 00:19:29.040 Now, you know, by the way, that whole concept of commander-in-chief, it's totally clear that what was meant by commander-in-chief, Congress, of course, has the power to declare war, according to Article 4, Section 8. 152 00:19:29.040 --> 00:19:43.040 Commander-in-Chief meant that once war is declared, now you don't want to have dozens and dozens of congressmen trying to run the war, the president is the one who runs the war, who manages the war, who deploys the troops, once war is declared. 153 00:19:43.040 --> 00:19:53.040 But now McCain maintained that his position as Commander-in-Chief means that he has the right to send troops anywhere in the world at any time. 154 00:19:53.040 --> 00:20:04.040 And George Will asked him, are you saying that in 1917 Wilson, simply on his own, could have sent an American expeditionary force to fight in France? 155 00:20:04.040 --> 00:20:10.040 And McCain said yes. And you could see how the startled look on George Will's face. 156 00:20:10.040 --> 00:20:20.040 Here's a senator sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States, who is saying things which are obviously false. 157 00:20:20.040 --> 00:20:26.040 That the President has a constitutional authority to send troops anywhere in the world and to any war whenever he wants. 158 00:20:26.040 --> 00:20:33.040 And wouldn't it have been odd if the founding fathers who try to limit power gave the President this power, right? 159 00:20:33.040 --> 00:20:38.040 To send troops anywhere in the world anytime he wanted. 160 00:20:38.040 --> 00:20:47.040 But now that has become the standard policy in America. 161 00:20:47.040 --> 00:20:58.040 Truman is also responsible, as Peter Bauer just pointed out in an article in The Spectator, for the introduction of the idea of foreign aid. 162 00:20:58.040 --> 00:21:04.040 This was point four of his State of the Union address in 1949. 163 00:21:04.040 --> 00:21:14.040 And he said, what we have to do is send a few hundred million dollars to the poorer countries to get them up to snuff in technology and to spur economic development. 164 00:21:14.040 --> 00:21:22.040 And then there's going to be perpetual economic well-being in all of these terribly poor countries. 165 00:21:22.040 --> 00:21:26.040 Well, how many hundreds of billions of dollars later? 166 00:21:26.040 --> 00:21:37.040 And beyond simply the waste of American dollars, which is bad enough, all of this foreign aid is government-to-government grants, you understand. 167 00:21:37.040 --> 00:21:43.080 So naturally what foreign aid has done over these decades is prop up governments everywhere 168 00:21:43.080 --> 00:21:45.500 in the world. 169 00:21:45.500 --> 00:21:48.920 People have the idea when they hear about foreign aid somehow it means that you're helping 170 00:21:48.920 --> 00:21:52.160 people to these poor starving people in Africa. 171 00:21:52.160 --> 00:21:58.120 What it is is grants from the American government to other governments for them to use for their 172 00:21:58.120 --> 00:22:02.200 programs. 173 00:22:02.200 --> 00:22:12.000 What foreign aid has done is to bankroll the world, the plundering world political class 174 00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:14.240 in dozens and dozens of countries. 175 00:22:14.240 --> 00:22:20.840 All of these corrupt regimes, all of these crooks, all of these kleptocrats have been 176 00:22:20.840 --> 00:22:24.320 financed by foreign aid. 177 00:22:24.320 --> 00:22:45.320 This is something that Harry Truman has left us. 178 00:22:45.320 --> 00:22:52.320 Harry Truman was the one who initiated the special relationship of the United States with Israel. 179 00:22:52.320 --> 00:22:58.320 Franklin Roosevelt was friendly and sensitive to Jewish issues, but was not a Zionist. 180 00:22:58.320 --> 00:23:06.320 Harry Truman was and supported the creation of the State of Israel. 181 00:23:06.320 --> 00:23:11.320 This was against the advice of all of his secretaries of state. 182 00:23:11.320 --> 00:23:16.320 Against the advice, for instance, of George Marshall, who said, why are we doing this? 183 00:23:16.320 --> 00:23:22.320 George Washington and no special favoring of one foreign nation over another. 184 00:23:22.320 --> 00:23:24.320 You get into trouble like that. 185 00:23:24.320 --> 00:23:26.320 It simply did not make any sense. 186 00:23:26.320 --> 00:23:30.320 We were making enemies of the whole Arab and Muslim world. 187 00:23:30.320 --> 00:23:37.320 And that was what many conservatives, almost all conservatives at the time thought. 188 00:23:37.320 --> 00:23:41.320 It's what many American conservative Jews at the time thought also, 189 00:23:41.320 --> 00:23:44.320 that is conservative in the sense of politically conservative. 190 00:23:44.320 --> 00:23:56.320 And Henry Regnery, the great old right publisher in Chicago, published the work of Alfred Lilienthal, which was then condensed in Reader's Digest. 191 00:23:56.320 --> 00:24:04.320 If you can imagine some anti-Zionist work now being published in Reader's Digest or by a conservative publisher. 192 00:24:04.320 --> 00:24:08.320 The sort of thing that is impossible now. 193 00:24:08.320 --> 00:24:18.320 Well, the whole story about the American recognition of the state of Israel can be read, for instance, in a number of books. 194 00:24:18.320 --> 00:24:27.320 Lilienthal has a good book, but a totally objective work is by Evan M. Wilson called Decision on Palestine, put out by the Hoover Institution Press. 195 00:24:27.320 --> 00:24:35.320 So, as late as 1979, even the Hoover Press was able to put out works that were critical of Israel. 196 00:24:35.320 --> 00:24:45.320 Now, we have all the evidence we need about how Truman came to this decision. 197 00:24:45.320 --> 00:24:50.320 His own diaries, what other people said, and so on. 198 00:24:50.320 --> 00:24:54.320 He was very much influenced by Clark Clifford. 199 00:24:54.320 --> 00:25:03.760 The Washington Insider, who just a few days ago went to his Just Reward and is no doubt 200 00:25:03.760 --> 00:25:10.160 concocting shady deals where he is now, how much you give me to get you out of the third 201 00:25:10.160 --> 00:25:16.760 circle into the fifth circle, and so on. 202 00:25:16.760 --> 00:25:21.480 Clark Clifford, in so many words, and I can give you all the references that you need 203 00:25:21.480 --> 00:25:28.480 I told Truman that this would be tremendously valuable politically. 204 00:25:28.480 --> 00:25:34.480 It was 1948. The election was coming up. It was going to be very tough. It looked as if Truman was going to lose. 205 00:25:34.480 --> 00:25:38.480 So he needed important support from Zionists. 206 00:25:38.480 --> 00:25:43.480 By the way, the British Prime Minister at the time, Clement Atlee, said just that. 207 00:25:43.480 --> 00:25:53.480 The American decision was decided by political considerations having to do with Zionist support. 208 00:25:53.480 --> 00:25:59.480 It was partially because of political considerations and partially because of sentiment. 209 00:25:59.480 --> 00:26:05.480 Truman was sentimentally very favorable to the Zionist cause. 210 00:26:05.480 --> 00:26:17.480 We are told by one of his biographers, once the chief rabbi of Palestine came to Truman and said, 211 00:26:17.480 --> 00:26:27.280 God put you in your mother's womb so that you could be the instrument to bring about the rebirth of Israel after 2000 years. 212 00:26:27.280 --> 00:26:32.080 That's kind of ethnocentric, I think. 213 00:26:32.080 --> 00:26:37.880 Whereupon, according to his biographer, 214 00:26:37.880 --> 00:26:44.520 quote, great tears started rolling down Harry Truman's cheeks. 215 00:26:44.520 --> 00:26:48.560 The man was such a softy. 216 00:26:48.560 --> 00:26:53.520 Now, of course, as I say, there's an embarrassment to riches. 217 00:26:53.520 --> 00:26:58.360 A lot of things are going for here. 218 00:26:58.360 --> 00:27:12.360 In 1946 there was a big railroad strike in America, and Truman went to Congress and asked for the authority to draft strikers into the Army. 219 00:27:12.360 --> 00:27:20.360 And he got a huge overwhelming vote in the House. In the Senate, however, Bob Taft said, now wait a minute, hold on a second, what are you talking about? 220 00:27:20.360 --> 00:27:26.960 about Drafting Strikers into the Army and Taft got support from some left-wingers like 221 00:27:26.960 --> 00:27:33.800 Claude Pepper, for instance, of Florida, and the Senate overwhelmingly defeated Truman's 222 00:27:33.800 --> 00:27:38.080 proposal. 223 00:27:38.080 --> 00:27:43.080 But this is just one example of Truman's tremendous high-handedness. 224 00:27:43.080 --> 00:27:48.420 Another example you can read about has to do with price controls and Murray Rothbard's 225 00:27:48.420 --> 00:27:50.420 Making Economic Sense 226 00:27:50.420 --> 00:27:54.420 That's a collection of Murray's economic journalism. 227 00:27:54.420 --> 00:28:00.420 And I don't know if you've seen it or not, but I tell you honestly, you can hear Murray talking. 228 00:28:00.420 --> 00:28:08.420 Because these are solid articles, but they're not in any kind of scholarly form. 229 00:28:08.420 --> 00:28:11.420 They are journalism and it's Murray talking directly. 230 00:28:11.420 --> 00:28:26.420 So Murray says the first political tract he ever wrote was a study of price controls in the meat industry because they got rid of other price controls but there were still price controls on meat and there were terrible shortages of meat. 231 00:28:26.420 --> 00:28:35.420 Truman said that what he was considering doing was nationalizing the meat packing plants of Chicago. 232 00:28:35.420 --> 00:28:43.100 Then, however, he realized that it was the farmers who were hoarding the meat, so he 233 00:28:43.100 --> 00:28:49.780 was considering sending out the army and the National Guard to seize livestock on American 234 00:28:49.780 --> 00:28:50.780 farms. 235 00:28:50.780 --> 00:28:53.820 I mean, talk about the Bolsheviks in the Ukraine. 236 00:28:53.820 --> 00:28:58.980 However, he thought that that was politically impractical. 237 00:28:58.980 --> 00:29:04.620 Right to start a civil war over his crummy price controls. 238 00:29:04.620 --> 00:29:15.620 So he got rid of the price controls and then by some miracle, meat came to be in plentiful supply. 239 00:29:15.620 --> 00:29:18.620 It's amazing how those things happen. 240 00:29:18.620 --> 00:29:27.620 Now, the worst thing that happened in the domestic front in his time was in 1952. 241 00:29:27.620 --> 00:29:30.620 Again, it was a strike and this is an example of what Mises said, 242 00:29:30.620 --> 00:29:38.620 How one government intervention leads to a worse one in order to try to undo the damage of the first intervention. 243 00:29:38.620 --> 00:29:44.620 The original government intervention was the Wagner Act and the other laws legalizing coercive trade unionism 244 00:29:44.620 --> 00:29:53.620 and making the labor unions into the great power in the country that could hold up the country to ransom with the strike threat. 245 00:29:53.620 --> 00:30:02.620 Well, the steel workers are struck and now Truman, what Truman did was seize the steel mills. 246 00:30:02.620 --> 00:30:10.620 He issued a proclamation and the next day the American flag was flying from steel mills all around the country. 247 00:30:10.620 --> 00:30:15.620 I have to get the exact quote here because this is very important. 248 00:30:15.620 --> 00:30:20.620 He did this of course as President of the United States, Commander in Chief and all of that. 249 00:30:20.620 --> 00:30:48.620 In a press conference on April 18, Truman was asked if it is proper under your inherent powers to seize the steel mills, can you, in your opinion, seize the newspapers and the radio stations? 250 00:30:48.620 --> 00:30:58.620 In the New York Times reported, Mr. Truman replied that under similar circumstances, the President had to do whatever he believed was best for the country. 251 00:30:58.620 --> 00:31:02.620 Listen to this guy. 252 00:31:02.620 --> 00:31:04.620 This is still from the Times. 253 00:31:04.620 --> 00:31:09.900 The President refused to elaborate, but White House sources said the President's point was 254 00:31:09.900 --> 00:31:15.860 they had power in an emergency to take over, quote, any portion of the business community 255 00:31:15.860 --> 00:31:21.180 acting to jeopardize all the people, unquote. 256 00:31:21.180 --> 00:31:24.940 Now the case went very quickly to the Supreme Court. 257 00:31:24.940 --> 00:31:28.460 By six to three, they voted against Truman. 258 00:31:28.460 --> 00:31:36.540 But if two justices had voted on the other side, you understand, the English went through 259 00:31:36.540 --> 00:31:44.780 some very nasty constitutional struggles in the 17th century because, as they said, under 260 00:31:44.780 --> 00:31:50.080 these kings, Charles I and James II and the Stuart kings in general, there is nothing 261 00:31:50.080 --> 00:31:55.220 a man can call his own because of the power that they claim to have. 262 00:31:55.220 --> 00:32:04.420 There is no law that keeps them in check, and that's exactly what Truman was claiming. 263 00:32:04.420 --> 00:32:10.460 There are many other things that definitely, in my opinion, do rise to the level of high 264 00:32:10.460 --> 00:32:14.660 crimes and misdemeanors. 265 00:32:14.660 --> 00:32:22.140 There was a remarkably corrupt administration where he brought the ways of the Kansas City 266 00:32:22.140 --> 00:32:34.140 Pendergast Machine to Washington, Nuremberg Trials, the phony show trials that Senator Taft objected to and was vilified at the time. 267 00:32:34.140 --> 00:32:48.140 But that's the reason why Taft and that Carillion are on the Capitol grounds, because even John Kennedy said he was a man of courage for standing up to all of this abuse at the time of the Nuremberg Trials. 268 00:32:48.140 --> 00:32:56.140 There was something called Operation Keelhaul, sometimes called the last secret of the war. 269 00:32:56.140 --> 00:33:03.140 Truman was in charge of the country and we sent back forcibly hundreds of thousands of Soviet, 270 00:33:03.140 --> 00:33:09.140 and sometimes there were never even Soviet subjects, POWs who had been caught by the Germans. 271 00:33:09.140 --> 00:33:13.140 Many of them decided to fight on the German side against Stalin. 272 00:33:13.140 --> 00:33:25.140 and the ones who were in American captivity were forcibly sent back, many thousands of them, to the NKVD, the secret police and the gulag. 273 00:33:25.140 --> 00:33:33.140 There were terrible scenes, shameful scenes on American soil that you can read about in Julius Epstein's book, Operation Keelhaul. 274 00:33:33.140 --> 00:33:37.140 American soldiers had orders to shoot, to kill. 275 00:33:37.140 --> 00:33:45.140 The poor Russians committed suicide, sometimes not to be sent back, and that was all under Truman. 276 00:33:45.140 --> 00:33:56.140 And then finally we reach the first great act of his administration, and that is the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 277 00:33:56.140 --> 00:34:07.140 I cannot understand or hardly even believe that it is people who call themselves conservatives who defend that today in America. 278 00:34:07.140 --> 00:34:18.140 At the time, and for years afterwards, it was the best conservatives, the deepest conservatives, was John Utley's mother, Frieda Utley. 279 00:34:18.140 --> 00:34:26.140 I was a great conservative journalist who deplored such acts of barbarism. 280 00:34:26.140 --> 00:34:31.140 You know, military leaders in the U.S. deplored these acts. 281 00:34:31.140 --> 00:34:43.140 I have a quotation from Admiral Leahy, who was the head of the Navy, who said that we're using the methods of the Dark Ages, this kind of barbarism, attacking women and children. 282 00:34:43.140 --> 00:34:49.700 Eisenhower was against it, Hap Arnold of the Air Force said Japan was already defeated. 283 00:34:49.700 --> 00:34:52.140 Much could be said about these bombings. 284 00:34:52.140 --> 00:34:54.380 A few things are certain. 285 00:34:54.380 --> 00:35:03.860 One is that about 200,000 people were exterminated in the two bombings, or maybe more. 286 00:35:03.860 --> 00:35:11.300 Another is that there were some possible alternatives. 287 00:35:11.300 --> 00:35:18.300 But the most important thing is that what was the background of the whole business and 288 00:35:18.300 --> 00:35:23.500 the reason the Japanese were refusing to surrender even though they were very interested in surrendering, 289 00:35:23.500 --> 00:35:28.320 sending out feelers to surrender, but still reluctant to surrender because we were insisting 290 00:35:28.320 --> 00:35:31.820 on unconditional surrender. 291 00:35:31.820 --> 00:35:38.940 Now the Nuremberg trials were beginning to get into operation. 292 00:35:38.940 --> 00:35:44.700 The Japanese thought that unconditional surrender certainly meant that they would get rid of 293 00:35:44.700 --> 00:35:50.540 the emperor, probably put him on trial, maybe hang him in front of his palace. 294 00:35:50.540 --> 00:35:55.260 Since they believed that he was divine, the direct descendant of the goddess of the sun, 295 00:35:55.260 --> 00:35:57.500 this is not something that they were willing to accept. 296 00:35:57.500 --> 00:36:03.820 Now, in fact, that was not our policy to even do away with the Hirohito. 297 00:36:03.820 --> 00:36:07.060 But this was not communicated to the Japanese. 298 00:36:07.060 --> 00:36:11.620 Everybody in the U.S. government told Truman to tell the Japanese what they were going 299 00:36:11.620 --> 00:36:12.940 to be doing with the Hirohito. 300 00:36:12.940 --> 00:36:13.940 They can keep Hirohito. 301 00:36:13.940 --> 00:36:17.420 In the end, of course, they kept Hirohito as the input. 302 00:36:17.420 --> 00:36:22.220 But Secretary of State Burns, for whatever reason, decided that we were not going to 303 00:36:22.220 --> 00:36:25.460 tell the Japanese that, and they were not told that. 304 00:36:25.460 --> 00:36:31.940 Now, even if the Japanese had refused to surrender, as far as I'm concerned, I agree with the 305 00:36:31.940 --> 00:36:38.100 Catholic philosopher, G.E.M. Anscombe, when Truman was given an honorary degree at Oxford, 306 00:36:38.100 --> 00:36:40.540 two years later she protested. 307 00:36:40.540 --> 00:36:49.460 She said, if the Nazis wipe out the villages in Poland or Czechoslovakia, how's that different 308 00:36:49.460 --> 00:36:56.480 from the Allies bombing innocent civilians and killing them from the air? 309 00:36:56.480 --> 00:37:08.400 So that it's mass murder, and I just don't find that acceptable or in any sense necessary. 310 00:37:08.400 --> 00:37:15.340 But if you wanted to insist on Japanese surrender, then the thing would have been to do away 311 00:37:15.340 --> 00:37:22.200 with this unrealistic, unconditional surrender and tell them the condition, which is that 312 00:37:22.200 --> 00:37:24.520 the emperor would stay. 313 00:37:24.520 --> 00:37:38.520 It's interesting to note that the Republican leaders got together, Taft, Hoover and others, and in May of 1945, they said they had to end the war very quickly. The Communists were making big gains in Asia. 314 00:37:38.520 --> 00:37:46.520 Maybe we should let the Japanese keep Korea for most parts of their empire. And this brings to mind a very interesting point. 315 00:37:46.520 --> 00:37:51.520 How do wars end in general? By negotiations and your give and take and their compromises. 316 00:37:51.520 --> 00:37:57.520 Supposing the Japanese had been allowed to keep part of their empire. 317 00:37:57.520 --> 00:38:00.520 Not only the emperor, but even part of their empire. 318 00:38:00.520 --> 00:38:04.520 You know, the other side likes to engage in this conjectural history. 319 00:38:04.520 --> 00:38:09.520 If we had not gotten into the Second World War, then Hitler would have conquered the world and killed everybody. 320 00:38:09.520 --> 00:38:18.280 Well, I suggest that if we had not smashed Japan in the way we did, if we had allowed 321 00:38:18.280 --> 00:38:23.240 Japan to remain a power in the Far East, it's possible that the Chinese Communists would 322 00:38:23.240 --> 00:38:25.600 not have come to power in China. 323 00:38:25.600 --> 00:38:30.720 And that would have been 30 or 40 million less people killed, as the numbers are starting 324 00:38:30.720 --> 00:38:35.000 to tell us, from Mao's China. 325 00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:36.880 So this is maybe something to consider. 326 00:38:36.880 --> 00:38:46.880 These people in government, they get paid for this for heaven's sake, they seem only able to think of one thing at a time, smash Japan, then we'll see what happens. 327 00:38:46.880 --> 00:38:59.880 Or smash Germany, then we'll see what happens. They're supposed to be able to, like Metternich or Bismarck or Disraeli, deal with a bit of complexity and nuance. 328 00:38:59.880 --> 00:39:12.880 Okay, well, this is pretty much the record. 329 00:39:12.880 --> 00:39:20.880 As far as these bombings go, what comes to mind is this saving private Ryan, you know, showing the horrors of war. 330 00:39:20.880 --> 00:39:26.880 I would say that if Spielberg was serious about it, really serious about it, 331 00:39:26.880 --> 00:39:32.720 And then let him show something of the hundreds of thousands of German and Japanese children 332 00:39:32.720 --> 00:39:36.800 who were killed by the bombings, hundreds of thousands. 333 00:39:36.800 --> 00:39:42.440 Let them show them burning in the buildings, the old people dying terrible deaths in one 334 00:39:42.440 --> 00:39:48.120 city after another, and not this meretricious thing of a couple of Americans getting their 335 00:39:48.120 --> 00:39:49.600 heads blown off. 336 00:39:49.600 --> 00:39:54.320 The government is always worried about children and saving our children and so on. 337 00:39:54.320 --> 00:40:04.320 What this brings to mind is something which I'm sure you've heard before. 338 00:40:04.320 --> 00:40:12.320 You've heard many times, no doubt, how people like us who believe in the free market, 339 00:40:12.320 --> 00:40:20.320 well the free market, what is the free market? The free market is really a terrible inhuman kind of arrangement 340 00:40:20.320 --> 00:40:47.640 How does the U.S. government treat people like garbage? 341 00:40:47.640 --> 00:40:53.960 We libertarians of course understand that we are not humane, we are not compassionate. 342 00:40:53.960 --> 00:40:58.880 It's the leftists and the liberals that are the ones who are humane and compassionate. 343 00:40:58.880 --> 00:41:03.320 But you'd better not get in their way. 344 00:41:03.320 --> 00:41:19.560 Now, finally, I suggest that this treatment of Truman puts a near-great president like 345 00:41:19.560 --> 00:41:25.360 Truman in a certain perspective, and also Bill Clinton in a certain perspective. 346 00:41:25.360 --> 00:41:32.040 I'm reminded of C.S. Lewis's great little books, The Screwtape Letters, I don't know 347 00:41:32.040 --> 00:41:48.040 Scrutape proposes a toast. Scrutape is a devil who is sending out messages to other devils on earth to attempt to tempt people and get souls damned. 348 00:41:48.040 --> 00:41:58.040 Scrutape is one of the major devils. There's a great dinner that's being arranged in the lower reaches of hell. 349 00:41:58.040 --> 00:42:06.040 And he proposes a toast, and he complains that they're not getting the type of damn souls that they used to. 350 00:42:06.040 --> 00:42:15.040 They used to get models and exemplars of ruthlessness and cruelty and power lust. 351 00:42:15.040 --> 00:42:27.040 And now, well, what he seems to be saying is now all they're getting are people with adolescents who can't keep their high school lusts under control. 352 00:42:27.040 --> 00:42:53.040 So, in view of the better, more grandiose examples of wrongdoing that we're aware of tonight and through other presentations, I suggest that we keep our abhorrence, our loathing for the presidents who really deserve it. 353 00:42:53.040 --> 00:43:00.040 On the other hand, Bill Clinton is the only president we have now. Thank you very much.