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On April 12th 1945, months after a grueling trip to Yalta, FDR dies. Truman, his greatest fears realized, becomes president. His presidency is one of the deadliest examples in history of the dangers of incompetent and unstable men in positions of power.
Per his diaries, Truman often had nightmares about becoming President. He nearly fainted the moment Eleanor Roosevelt informed him he was now President.
In 82 days as VP, Truman met with Roosevelt twice. He wasn’t privy to anything regarding foreign policy. He had virtually no accomplishments as a senator before becoming VP. He was not aware of the existence of the Manhattan project or the atomic bomb until he became president.
Truman was born in 1884 Missouri to a poor Missouri farming family. As a child he was diagnosed with hyperopia, and couldn’t fight or play sports. In his diaries he refers to himself as a “sissy”, and he was bullied by his peers, who called him “Truwoman.”
He struggled with his masculinity constantly. His mother often said he was “meant to be a girl,” and he was hyperfocused on his feminine attributes, often expressing his insecurities in letters to his wife. This psychology played into his desperate need to appear strong.
After service in WWI, he was picked up by the Kansas City Pendergast machine. He was elected to senate, but shunned by his peers as a hack. Another machine secured his re-election. He led an investigation of the defense industry, his only real achievement before becoming VP.
Throughout his tenure as President, Truman expressed explicit doubt over the safety, morality, and international implications of using the bomb at least three times. However, hardline anti-communists who were shooed away by Roosevelt manipulated Truman to their advantage.
His most trusted advisor James Byrnes warned Truman that the atomic bomb was great enough to destroy the whole world.” From the beginning, Truman understands that nukes are not just an upgraded weapon, but a potentially omnicidal one.
On April 25th 1945 Secretary of war Stimson and brigadier general of Manhattan project Groves brief Truman on a bomb capable of wiping out entire cities, which would be ready in 4 months. Truman agrees with them that bomb may be too dangerous to use.
Finally, after the Trinity test, he writes in his journal: “We’ve discovered the most terrible bomb in history [...] this may be the fire destruction prophecy of the Euphrates valley era, after Noah and his fabulous ark.”
