Barbara Shelly: Bush should heed Truman’s life, legacy

Harry S. Truman, an exceptionally hard worker all his life, is busy even in eternal rest.

His latest assignment: role model to President Bush.

Understandably sobered by low ratings and a relentless drumbeat of bad news, Bush and his supporters are drawing inspiration from the remarkable and ongoing redemption of the man from Independence, Mo.

Truman’s presidency, notable for its highs and lows, ended in a deep valley, which is where Bush finds himself today. But 54 years after leaving office, Truman is acclaimed by scholars and the public as one of the nation’s wisest and most courageous leaders.

We should all wish the current president a similar climb. It would bode well for world order, and the safety and well-being of our children.

But historians are conspicuously resistant to con jobs. If Bush achieves redemption, it will be on the basis of realism, not spin.

It was a bad sign when Bush declared last week, at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Kansas City, Mo., that America’s withdrawal from combat in Vietnam led to the murderous Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia.

Almost no one was fooled. Military experts and historians noted quickly that the destabilization of Cambodia was caused by the Vietnamese conflict itself, not its conclusion. And though the world remembers Americans being airlifted off of a Saigon rooftop, the United States didn’t cut and run from Vietnam, as the president suggested. The pullout took place over a period of years.

Bush’s distortion of history spells trouble for his place in it. A leader who won’t look at the past with realism seems unlikely to be remembered for acting wisely in the present.

If the 43rd president wants to follow in the footsteps of the 33rd, Bush should model Truman’s disdain for spin and look to his ability to listen to the right people and see the world with clear vision.

When Truman left office in 1953, U.S. troops were dying in Korea and labor troubles had enraged the public. Polls showed less than a third of Americans approved of Truman’s job performance.

The president who had overseen the end of World War II, the dawn of the Atomic Age, the recognition of the state of Israel and the start of the Cold War spent the 1950s in political exile.

By the time of Truman’s death, late in 1972, his image was improving. Obituaries praised him for his ability to show courage when required and restraint when necessary.

Margaret Truman published a book about her father, titled simply “Harry S. Truman,” in 1973. Samuel Gallu’s play, “Give ‘em Hell, Harry,” was made into a film in 1975.

A public hung over from Vietnam and the Watergate scandals found an antidote in the plain-spoken Truman.

“The country had been through two presidents who seemed to discard the truth at least part of the time,” said Ray Geselbracht, a longtime archivist at the Harry S. Truman Library. “And here was this crusty, ingenuous, sincere, folksy character.”

The president’s personal papers, which started becoming available in the 1980s, reinforced the notion of Truman as a genuine article.

“He sort of symbolizes the country’s sense of what it is and what it can be,” Geselbracht said.

But a turnaround as dramatic as Truman’s isn’t accomplished on style alone. His accomplishments are legion, and include the Marshall Plan to save war-damaged Europe, desegregation of the U.S. military, and founding of the United Nations, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund.

History has validated his decision to send troops to Korea as part of a United Nations action, as well as his refusal to follow the counsel of Gen. Douglas MacArthur and drop nuclear bombs on China.

“I came into this job 19 years ago not knowing anything about President Truman. I was prepared to be skeptical,” said Geselbracht, who is special assistant to the Truman Library director.

“I haven’t found much to be skeptical about. I find it remarkable that he achieved all the things that he did.”

We should hope that, 50 years hence, a historian speaks so kindly of President Bush. But a legacy is built on deeds, and time is growing short.