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Articles
Churchill and the Presidents: Harry S. Truman (2): Postwar Shadows
- By FRED GLUECKSTEIN
- | September 4, 2023
- Category: Explore Great Contemporaries
“Babies successfully born”
On the second day at Potsdam, Churchill and Harry Truman lunched with the American Secretary of War. Henry Stimson placed a piece of paper in front of the Prime Minister. It read: “Babies satisfactorily born.” Perplexed, Churchill looked at Stimson for an explanation. “It means,” Stimson said, “the experiment in the American desert has come off. The atomic bomb is a reality.”1
Truman informed Soviet Premier Stalin of the significant event later, though Stalin had been following developments through Soviet intelligence. To his sister Mary in 1948, Harry Truman said he’d ordered the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on his way home from Potsdam.
The Potsdam plenary sessions began after lunch on 17 July 1945. Churchill pushed for “the early holding of free elections in Poland which would truly reflect the wishes of the Polish people,” as agreed at the Yalta Conference.2
Churchill rejected Stalin’s appeal for a Soviet naval base on the Sea of Marmara or the Dardanelles. He was non-commmital about the Greek port of Alexandroupolis (Dedeagatch) just outside the Dardanelles. He did say, “I will always support Russia in her claim to the freedom of the seas all year round.”3
Potsdam: the guard changes
On 25 July the conference adjourned while British delegates returned to London for the election results. The next day, news arrived that Attlee’s Labour Party had won decisively. Churchill, himself reelected, found himself leader of a much reduced Tory Opposition. Prime Minister Attlee returned to Potsdam at the head of the British delegation.
The election was too bad for Churchill, Harry Truman wrote his mother and sister, but “it may turn out to be all right for the world.”4 Without Churchill, the President thought he might make better progress with Stalin. He was soon disabused of this notion.
Four days of discussions followed: Germany would be divided into four occupation zones (the three main allies and France). Germany’s eastern border would shift west to the Oder–Neisse line. The largely communist Government of National Unity was recognized as the legitimate Polish government. The exiled government in London, led by Stanislaw Mikołajczyk, was abandoned. Stalin reaffirmed his Yalta promises to launch an invasion of Japanese-held Manchuria. Also addressed were Germany’s demilitarization, reparations, prosecution of war criminals and the mass expulsion of ethnic Germans from various parts of Europe.
Fulton “Nothing here but what you see”
In October, Westminster College in Harry Truman’s home state of Missouri asked the President to extend the British leader a speaking invitation. Truman wrote Churchill personally, promising to introduce him. The famous “Iron Curtain speech” has been covered extensively herein. (See further reading below.) But several aspects are important to understanding the Truman-Churchill relationship.
Churchill was delighted at the opportunity to voice his growing concerns about Soviet intentions. He was even happier to emphasize the presence of the President as he spoke:
Amid his heavy burdens, duties and responsibilities—unsought but not recoiled from—the President has travelled a thousand miles to dignify and magnify our meeting here today and to give me an opportunity of addressing this kindred nation as well as my own countrymen across the ocean, and perhaps some other countries too.
The President has told you that it is his wish, as I am sure it is yours, that I should have full liberty to give my true and faithful counsel in these anxious and baffling times. I shall certainly avail myself of this freedom, and feel the more right to do so because any private ambitions I may have cherished in my younger days have been satisfied beyond my wildest dreams. Let me, however, make it clear that I have no official mission or status of any kind, and that I speak only for myself. There is nothing here but what you see.5
Treading carefully
The situation was delicate. By now Churchill knew Harry Truman as a hard-headed realist; yet he was anxious not to dash Truman’s hope for an understanding with the Russians. So, while declaring the West’s “supreme task and duty” to “guard the homes of the common people from the horrors and miseries of another war,” he was careful not to close any doors.
To Truman’s satisfaction—and the President had already read and approved his speech—Churchill voiced admiration for Russian valor in the late war: “We welcome Russia to her rightful place among the leading nations of the world. We welcome her flag upon the seas. Above all, we welcome constant, frequent and growing contacts between the Russian people and our own people on both sides of the Atlantic.”
It was still his duty, he continued, to offer “certain facts about the present position in Europe.” Everyone remembered the words that came next: “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.”6
Those words made world headlines, not least in Russia, where Pravda declared Churchill a war-monger. Playing the middleman, Truman offered Stalin equal opportunity: a speech of his own, at the University of Missouri, twenty miles from Fulton. U.S. Ambassador Walter B. Smith issued the invitation orally in June 1946. Stalin disliked traveling by air, so Truman offered the battleship Missouri to bring him to the United States. Stalin declined the invitation.7
The Truman Doctrine
Churchill wasn’t the only alarmist. Just before his speech, Harry Truman had received he famous Long Telegram from the diplomat George Kennan in Moscow. Soviet power, Kennan wrote, was “impervious to the logic of reason” but “highly sensitive to the logic of force.” At Fulton, Churchill declared: “From what I have seen of our Russian friends and Allies during the war, I am convinced that there is nothing they admire so much as strength, and there is nothing for which they have less respect than for weakness, especially military weakness.”8
Harry Truman took in all this with growing apprehension. A year later he acted.
The Truman Doctrine arose from a speech the President delivered before a joint session of Congress on 12 March 1947. He was reacting to an announcement of the British Labour government’s abandonment of military and economic aid to Greece. The Greek democracy Churchill had ensured in December 1944 was again under threat from the Communist Party. Truman asked Congress for $400 million to support the Greek government, and also to assist Turkey, which had also been relying on British aid.
America, Truman stated, could no longer stand by and allow the forcible expansion of Soviet totalitarianism into free and independent nations. “The best interest of the United States” was now involved. It was a sharp break with America’s traditional avoidance of extensive commitments beyond the Western Hemisphere in peacetime.9
Just before the Truman Doctrine went into force on 22 May 1947, Churchill wrote Truman: “I cannot resist after the year that has passed and all that has happened, writing to tell you how much I admire what you have done for the peace and freedom of the world, since we were together.”10
Marshall Plan and Berlin Airlift
On 3 April 1948, Truman signed into law the Marshall Plan, officially the European Recovery Program. The legislation transferred $13.3 billion ($173 billion in today’s money) to economic recovery programs to Western Europe. It was also offered to the Soviet bloc, but the Russians denounced it as “dollar imperialism.”
The Marshall Plan was a triumph for Harry Truman, but the president, a genuinely modest man, thought it should bear the name of Secretary of State George Marshall. “General,” Truman said to his Secretary of State, “I want the Plan to go down in history with your name on it. And don’t give me any argument. I’ve made up my mind, and remember, I’m your commander-in-chief.”11
On 24 June 1948, the Russians cut off land access to Berlin, hoping to force the U.S., France and Britain from their occupation zones in the city. Truman felt war was very near. On 26 July, he ordered all available planes in the European theater to begin a massive airlift of supplies. Again confirming Churchill’s praise and respect, Truman made the decision: “We stay in Berlin, period.”12
Election prospects
On 14 July, Harry Truman and Alben Barkley were nominated for President and Vice President at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Truman’s public approval rating stood at 36%; he was nearly universally regarded as a sure loser. Churchill wrote wishing him success, admiring his leadership, fearing war with Russia, and wishing he could have done more himself. Truman’s reply was heartfelt:
My dear Winston, I was deeply touched by your good letter of June 7. I am going through a terrible political “trial by fire.” Too bad it must happen at this time.
Your great country and mine are founded on the fact that the people have the right to express themselves on their leaders, no matter what the crisis. Your note accompanying The Gathering Storm is highly appreciated, and I have made it part of the book.
We are in the midst of grave and trying times. You can look with satisfaction upon your great contribution to the overthrow of Nazism & Fascism in the world. “Communism” so called, is our next great problem. I hope we can solve it without the “blood and tears” the other two cost. May God bless and protect you.13
Cheers from abroad
The 1948 presidential election is remembered for Harry Truman’s whistle-stop train campaign and stunning come-from-behind victory. Winston Churchill, still out of office, was among the first overseas leaders to congratulate him:
My dear Harry, I sent you a cable of my hearty congratulations on your gallant fight and tremendous victory. I felt keenly the way you were treated by some of your party and particular [Henry] Wallace who seemed to us over here to be a greater danger than he proved. But all this has now become only the background of your personal triumph.
Of course it is my business as a foreigner or half a foreigner to keep out of American politics, but I am sure I can now say what a relief it has been to me and most of us here to feel that the long-continued comradeship between us and also with the Democratic Party in peace and war will not be interrupted. This is most necessary and gives the best chance of preserving peace.
I wish you the utmost success in your Administration during this most critical and baffling period in world affairs. If I should be able to come over, I shall not hesitate to pay my respects to you.14
Truman replied that it had been “a terrific fight,” and that he carried it “‘to the people almost lone handed….’ Really it was not—it was merely a continuation of the policies which had been in effect for the last sixteen years and the policies that the people wanted.”15
Korea
At dawn on 25 June 1950, 90,000 communist troops of the North Korean People’s Army invaded South Korea across the 38th parallel. The invasion was unexpected and the South Koreans rapidly retreated. The U.N. Security Council met in an emergency session. Absent a veto from the Russians, who were boycotting the Council over its refusal to admit Communist China, it approved a U.S. resolution calling for a cessation of hostility and a North Korean withdrawal to the 38th parallel. The battle continued, so Truman ordered U.S. air and naval forces to the theater. With Churchill’s support, Prime Minister Attlee provided supporting British forces.
After returning to office, Churchill continued UK support in Korea. but disagreed with Truman about recognizing the People’s Republic of China. In a humorous swipe at his Labour nemesis Aneurin Bevan he said: “…if you recognize anyone it does not necessarily mean that you like him. We all, for instance, recognize the Rt. Hon. Gentleman, the Member for Ebbw Vale.”16
Truman believed that the Soviet Union, which supplied tanks and weapons, was behind the North Korean invasion. He did not ask for a declaration of war, but Congress voted to extend the draft and authorized Truman to call up reservists. The Korean War dragged on, ending in an armistice in July 1953. Churchill’s support for U.S. policy remained consistent throughout.
Margaret’s painting
Harry Truman’s daughter Margaret travelled in Europe during the spring and summer of 1951. In England, she visited Chartwell. At the end of lunch, Churchill informed Margaret that he wished to present one of his paintings to her parents, and hoped she would take it back. Margaret said she would be glad to, if Churchill would put her name on it so that eventually it would be hers.
Churchill was surprised and thought she ought to ask her father. “Just put my name on it,” she said. “I can handle him.” Churchill did put her name on the painting, a lovely view of his favorite North African landscape around Marrakesh.17
Later, Churchill’s daughter Sarah told Margaret that she was the first person who accomplished the feat of obtaining one of his paintings. He rarely gave them away, she said: not even family members had been able to manage it.
Harry Truman: farewell
Although constitutionally entitled, Truman decided not to run again in 1952. On election day, November 4th, Republican Dwight Eisenhower won in a landslide over Democrat Adlai Stevenson II. Anxious to meet the president-elect, but also to honor Truman, Churchill visited America in early January 1953.
In Washington, Truman gave him a small but select dinner to which he invited Defense Secretary Robert Lovett, Averell Harriman, Omar Bradley, and Secretary of State Dean Acheson. Lively banter ensued. In jovial mood, Churchill asked the President if he had his answer ready when, at the Golden Gate, St. Peter should ask them about the atomic bomb. Lovett wondered if Churchill’s interrogation would be in the same place as Truman’s: “He might be in another court far away.” Churchill said his respect for the Creator made him sure he would not be condemned without a hearing, but wherever it occurred, “it will be in accordance with English common law.”18
That exchange has sometimes been interpreted as making light over a somber event and many deaths, which misrepresents the great weight both men had felt at the time over the bombing decision. In more serious vein that evening, Churchill admitted he had been pessimistic when Truman succeeded Roosevelt. “I misjudged you badly,” he said. “Since that time, you, more than any other man, have saved Western Civilization.”19
Return visit
In the summer of 1956, Bess and Harry Truman traveled to Britain. On 24 June, they paid a call on the Churchills at Chartwell. The Trumans arrived in a chauffeur-driven Armstrong-Siddeley. Welcoming them Sir Winston and Lady Churchill, their daughters Sarah and Mary, Mary’s husband Christopher Soames, and Lord Beaverbrook. “This is just like old times,”20 said the former president. During photos, Truman remembered:
Many of the neighbor people were at the gate. They gave a wave and a cheer as Mrs. Truman and I entered. Sir Winston and I had a most pleasant conversation about Potsdam, on agreements and Russian perfidy. I walked around the place with him, feeding the goldfish in two ponds and sitting in the garden watching his three grandchildren play. It was a scene long to be remembered and an experience never to be forgotten…. He remarked that it would be a great thing for the world if I should become President of the United States again. I told him there is no chance of that.21
Chartwell evidently worked its magic on the plain-spoken man from Missouri:
The house faces a hill covered with rhododendrons, which were in full bloom. Behind the house is a beautiful garden and below that a valley containing a lake in the distance, a lovely view which Sir Winston called the Weald of Kent. He showed me a large number of his paintings in the house and told me he had some 400 more in his studio in the valley below the house. We didn’t have time to visit the studio. It was a very pleasant visit and a happy one for me.”22
They said goodbye, unaware that they would never see one another again.
Endnotes
1 Winston S. Churchill (hereinafter WSC), Triumph and Tragedy (London: Cassell, 1954), 551-52.
2 Martin Gilbert, Churchill: A Life (London: Pimlico, 1991), 851.
3 Ibid., 853.
4 David McCullough, Truman (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992), 446.
5 WSC, The Sinews of Peace (London: Cassell, 1948), 93-94.
6 Ibid., 95, 100.
7 “Truman Invited Stalin to Make ‘Fulton’ Speech,” The New York Times, 6 February 1948, 14. This report was based on an interview with Presidential Press Secretary Charlie Ross, who had accompanied Churchill and Truman to Fulton.
8 WSC, Sinews of Peace, 103.
9 See Office of the Historian, Department of State, Milestones: 1945-1952, The Truman Doctrine, 1947.
10 WSC to Harry Truman, 12 May 1947, in Martin Gilbert and Larry P. Arnn, eds., The Churchill Documents, vol. 22, Leader of the Opposition, August 1945 – October 1951 (Hillsdale, Mich.: Hillsdale College Press, 2019), 703.
11 Merle Miller, Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman (New York: Berkley, 1973), 19.
12 McCullough, Truman, 530.
13 Truman to WSC, 10 July 1948, in Gilbert and Arnn, eds., The Churchill Documents, vol. 22, 1102.
14 WSC to Truman, 8 November 1948, ibid., 1229.
15 Truman to WSC 12 November 1948, in McCullough, 715.
16 WSC, House of Commons, 1 June 1952, in Richard M. Langworth, ed., Churchill by Himself (New York: Rosetta, 2016), 326.
17 Margaret Truman, Harry S. Truman (New York: Morrow, 1973), 311.
18 WSC, Washington, January 1953, in Langworth, Churchill by Himself, 462.
19 Margaret Truman recollection, in Gilbert and Arnn, eds., The Churchill Documents, vol. 23, Never Flinch, Never Weary, November 1951 – February 1965 (Hillsdale College Press, 2019), 806-07. In 1988 Alistair Cooke commented: “The men who had to make that decision were just as humane and tortured at the time as you and I were later. [They had] the choice of alternatives that I for one would not have wanted to make for all the offers of redemption from all the religions of the world.”
20 McCullough. Truman, 958.
21 Gilbert and Arnn, Never Flinch, Never Weary. 2116.
22 McCullough, Truman, 958.
The author
Fred Glueckstein travels widely in search of Churchill and is a regular contributor to The Churchill Project.
Further reading: The Fulton Speech
Jacob R. Weaver, “The Rhetoric of Cold War: Churchill’s 1946 Fulton Speech,” 2018.
Warren F. Kimball, “The Atomic Bomb and the Special Relationship, Part 1 and Part 2, 2022.
Richard M. Langworth, “Churchill’s Steady Adherence to his ‘Iron Curtain’ Speech,” 2022.
Lecture
Sir Martin Gilbert, “Churchill at Fulton: The Enduring Importance of the ‘Iron Curtain’ Speech,” 2015.