How e ectively did President Harry Truman tackle the problems he faced at home and
abroad? Q1 Higher Level 2018.
Harry S Truman came to the o ce of the US president suddenly after the death of Franklin D
Roosevelt. This was in the midst of World War II and a damaged economy at home due to it being
tasked in supporting the war e ort. His rst initial problem was ending WWII. Germany and Italy
and surrendered to America in Europe but all that remained was the Japanese in Asia. The US
military were engaging in an Island hopping campaign and no matter what the US did the
Japanese did not surrender. So President Truman using his decisive nature decided to do what
some would call the impossible and unthinkable. He ordered the dropping of the atomic bomb on
two cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. This was in an attempt to end the war and prevent
more loss of life which was hurting the economy as well with the sheer amount of money being
spent on this war. Truman’s straight talking personality and ability to be decisive was e ective
here as he made a decision that was in the best interest of America even though the dropping of
“little boy” and “fat man” caused death, destruction and long term radiation damage to the people
of Japan.” Historian James Holland concludes that Truman believed that dropping the atomic
bomb was the lesser of two evils as the other alternative was to have a land invasion that could
warrant more casualties and result in a defeat. But it took 2 bombs to make the Japanese
surrender. This highlighted his decisive nature as he was prepared to do whatever it took to win. In
his own words “the buck stops with me” a sign on his desk. This was e ective because it ended
WWII and America returned as the victors but now another problem lay for Truman and America.
This is how e ective it was.
Truman was now faced with the challenge of the other WWII victor, the Soviet Union. They wanted
to take over the world through Communism and under Stalin they were turning countries
communist such as Hungry, East Germany and Bulgaria into imposing Puppet governments in
these now satellite states. It seemed Communism was spreading through Europe and the fear
was it could undermine America who saw itself as the leader of the free world under Truman.
Truman decided that he needed to act but instead of starting another war by trying to turn these
countries communist, he decided to try to stop communism spreading from where it already was.
This policy was known as containment. Truman took the words of the US diplomat George
Kennan, in one of his telegrams Kennan states “the only way to deal with Communism is to
contain it”. Truman decided that he should implement policies to re ect this. For example he
decided that he should support countries politically and economically to ght communism. This
became known as the Truman doctrine. “ I believe that it is the policy of the US to support free
people under armed subjugation by armed minorities and other peoples” in his words. He gave
400 million to support Greece and Turkey ght Communism. This was complemented by the
Marshall plan which was a plan in which the US would give money to Europe to build up their
economy after WWII which would prevent them turning Communist. These two policies became
known as “two halves of the same walnut”. They were e ective because they mitigated the US
ghting another war in Europe that they could probably not a ord which made Truman’s policy
work as other leaders may have wanted to take a more aggressive stance and go in guns blazing.
But these policies were about to be put to the test. In 1948 Stalin blockaded the capitalist West
Berlin which was engulfed by Communist East Germany. Germany was divided in 2 after the war.
The four Allied occupied territories in the West became the Federal Republic of Germany and
Soviet controlled territories in the East were the German Democratic Republic. Berlin was also
divided. He thought this would make West Berlin turn communist and thus the whole west of
Germany. But in response Truman decided that he did not want communism spreading so
decided to intervene. Supply lines were cut which meant that food and medicine could not reach
west Berlin. So Truman ordered an airlift by the airforce planes from West Germany to West Berlin
in an operation known as Vittalas. In the words of Truman “we are going to stay, period” when
some suggested abandoning west Berlin. Stalin realised that Truman had outsmarted him and in
1949 lifted the blockade. This was e ective because Truman did what he said he was going to do.
The containment of communism and stop it from spreading. This makes him tackle this problem
e ectively.
Truman's next and nal test of his presidency came in Asia. Korea was a former Japanese colony
that had been taken over by the USSR after WWII and a loyal communist government was taken
over in the North and a US backed democratic government was in place in the south on the 38th
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abroad? Q1 Higher Level 2018.
Harry S Truman came to the o ce of the US president suddenly after the death of Franklin D
Roosevelt. This was in the midst of World War II and a damaged economy at home due to it being
tasked in supporting the war e ort. His rst initial problem was ending WWII. Germany and Italy
and surrendered to America in Europe but all that remained was the Japanese in Asia. The US
military were engaging in an Island hopping campaign and no matter what the US did the
Japanese did not surrender. So President Truman using his decisive nature decided to do what
some would call the impossible and unthinkable. He ordered the dropping of the atomic bomb on
two cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. This was in an attempt to end the war and prevent
more loss of life which was hurting the economy as well with the sheer amount of money being
spent on this war. Truman’s straight talking personality and ability to be decisive was e ective
here as he made a decision that was in the best interest of America even though the dropping of
“little boy” and “fat man” caused death, destruction and long term radiation damage to the people
of Japan.” Historian James Holland concludes that Truman believed that dropping the atomic
bomb was the lesser of two evils as the other alternative was to have a land invasion that could
warrant more casualties and result in a defeat. But it took 2 bombs to make the Japanese
surrender. This highlighted his decisive nature as he was prepared to do whatever it took to win. In
his own words “the buck stops with me” a sign on his desk. This was e ective because it ended
WWII and America returned as the victors but now another problem lay for Truman and America.
This is how e ective it was.
Truman was now faced with the challenge of the other WWII victor, the Soviet Union. They wanted
to take over the world through Communism and under Stalin they were turning countries
communist such as Hungry, East Germany and Bulgaria into imposing Puppet governments in
these now satellite states. It seemed Communism was spreading through Europe and the fear
was it could undermine America who saw itself as the leader of the free world under Truman.
Truman decided that he needed to act but instead of starting another war by trying to turn these
countries communist, he decided to try to stop communism spreading from where it already was.
This policy was known as containment. Truman took the words of the US diplomat George
Kennan, in one of his telegrams Kennan states “the only way to deal with Communism is to
contain it”. Truman decided that he should implement policies to re ect this. For example he
decided that he should support countries politically and economically to ght communism. This
became known as the Truman doctrine. “ I believe that it is the policy of the US to support free
people under armed subjugation by armed minorities and other peoples” in his words. He gave
400 million to support Greece and Turkey ght Communism. This was complemented by the
Marshall plan which was a plan in which the US would give money to Europe to build up their
economy after WWII which would prevent them turning Communist. These two policies became
known as “two halves of the same walnut”. They were e ective because they mitigated the US
ghting another war in Europe that they could probably not a ord which made Truman’s policy
work as other leaders may have wanted to take a more aggressive stance and go in guns blazing.
But these policies were about to be put to the test. In 1948 Stalin blockaded the capitalist West
Berlin which was engulfed by Communist East Germany. Germany was divided in 2 after the war.
The four Allied occupied territories in the West became the Federal Republic of Germany and
Soviet controlled territories in the East were the German Democratic Republic. Berlin was also
divided. He thought this would make West Berlin turn communist and thus the whole west of
Germany. But in response Truman decided that he did not want communism spreading so
decided to intervene. Supply lines were cut which meant that food and medicine could not reach
west Berlin. So Truman ordered an airlift by the airforce planes from West Germany to West Berlin
in an operation known as Vittalas. In the words of Truman “we are going to stay, period” when
some suggested abandoning west Berlin. Stalin realised that Truman had outsmarted him and in
1949 lifted the blockade. This was e ective because Truman did what he said he was going to do.
The containment of communism and stop it from spreading. This makes him tackle this problem
e ectively.
Truman's next and nal test of his presidency came in Asia. Korea was a former Japanese colony
that had been taken over by the USSR after WWII and a loyal communist government was taken
over in the North and a US backed democratic government was in place in the south on the 38th
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