WOODROW WILSON CENTER SERIES The Truman presidency The Truman presidency Edited by MICHAEL J. LACEY WOODROW WILSON INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR SCHOLARS AND CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge New York Port Chester Melbourne Sydney Published by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1RP 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011, USA 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia © Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars 1989 First published 1989 Reprinted 1990 First paperback edition 1991 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The Truman presidency / edited by Michael J. Lacey. p. cm. - (Woodrow Wilson Center series) Papers presented at a symposium at the Wilson Center, Sept. 1984 organized by the Center's Program on American Society and Politics and the staff of the National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institution. Includes index. ISBN 0-521-37559-2 (Cambridge University Press) 1. United States - Politics and government - 1945-1953 - Congresses. 2. United States - Foreign relations - 1945-1953 - Congresses. 3. Truman, Harry S., 1884-1972 - Congresses. I. Lacey, Michael James. II. Program on American Society and Politics (Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars) III. National Museum of American History (U.S.) IV. Series. E813.T74 1989 973.918-dc20 89-1045 CIP British Library Cataloging in Publication Data The Truman presidency. - (Woodrow Wilson Center series) 1. United States. Political events 1945-1953 I. Lacey, Michael J. II. Series 973.918 ISBN 0-521-37559-2 hardback ISBN 0-521-40773-7 paperback Transferred to digital printing 2003 WOODROW WILSON INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR SCHOLARS BOARD OF TRUSTEES William J. Baroody, Jr., Chairman; Dwayne O. Andreas, Vice Chairman; Robert McC. Adams; James A. Baker III; Theodore C. Barreaux; James H. Billington; Lynne V. Cheney; Gertrude Himmelfarb; Max M. Kampelman; J. Willard Marriott, Jr.; John S. Reed; Robert Tuttle; Don W. Wilson The Center is the "living memorial" of the United States of America to the nation's twenty- eighth president, Woodrow Wilson. The U.S. Congress established the Woodrow Wilson Center in 1968 as an international institute for advanced study, "symbolizing and strengthening the fruitful relationship be- tween the world of learning and the world of public affairs." The Center opened in 1970 under its own presidentially appointed board of directors. Each year the Woodrow Wilson Center holds open international competitions to select approximately fifty residential fellows to conduct advanced research, write books, and con- tribute to seminars, conferences, and discussions with other scholars, public officials, jour- nalists, and business and labor leaders. Research at the Woodrow Wilson Center ranges across the entire spectrum of the hu- manities and social sciences. Staff and fellows employ comparative, multidisciplinary ap- proaches. The process of discovery that operates at the Woodrow Wilson Center frequently illuminates new understanding of the world in which we live, an expanded awareness of history, choices, and future consequences. Results of the Center's research activity are disseminated internationally through the book-publishing programs of the Wilson Center Press, of Cambridge University Press's Woodrow Wilson Center Series, and of other co-publishers as appropriate; and through The Wilson Quarterly, a scholarly journal published four times a year. Additional dissem- ination in the United States includes The Woodrow Wilson Center Calendar, published monthly; The Woodrow Wilson Center Report, published periodically throughout the year; and Radio DIALOGUE, a weekly FM series of half-hour programs. In all its activities the Woodrow Wilson Center is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, supported financially by annual appropriations from the U.S. Congress, and by the contri- butions of foundations, corporations, and individuals. The Center seeks diversity of schol- arly enterprise and points of view. Conclusions or opinions expressed in Center publica- tions and programs are those of the authors and speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Center staff, fellows, trustees, advisory groups, or any individuals or organi- zations that provide financial support to the Center. Dedicated to the memory of Charles S. Murphy (1909-1983) Contents Acknowledgments page ix Introduction and summary: The Truman era in retrospect Michael J. Lacey 1 1 The mind and character of Harry S. Truman Alonzo L. Hamby 19 Part I. Domestic politics and issues 2 Forging America's postwar order: domestic politics and political economy in the age of Truman Robert Griffith 57 3 Attitudes toward industry in the Truman administration: the macroeconomic origins of microeconomic policy Craufurd D. Goodwin 89 4 Labor in the Truman era: origins of the "private welfare state" Nelson Lichtenstein 128 5 Postwar American society: dissent and social reform William H. Chafe 156 6 "Some sort of peace": President Truman, the American people, and the atomic bomb Paul Boyer 174 vn viii Contents Part II. Foreign policy and national defense 7 The national security state reconsidered: Truman and economic containment, 1945-1950 Robert A. Pollard 205 8 The insecurities of victory: the United States and the perception of the Soviet threat after World War II John Lewis Gaddis 235 9 Alliance and autonomy: European identity and U.S. foreign policy objectives in the Truman years Charles S. Maier 273 10 U.S. policy in the Near East: the triumphs and tribulations of the Truman administration Bruce R. Kuniholm 299 11 Toward a post-colonial order: Truman administration policies toward South and Southeast Asia Robert]. McMahon 339 12 Occupied Japan and the cold war in Asia John W. Dower 366 13 The Truman administration and the Korean War Barton J. Bernstein 410 About the authors 445 Index 447 Acknowledgments This volume is the result of a scholarly symposium organized by the Woodrow Wilson Center's Program on American Society and Politics and the staff of the National Museum of American History of the Smith- sonian Institution. Thanks are due first to the authors whose work ap- pears in the pages that follow, not merely for their scholarly acumen, but for their patience and good humor in suffering publication delays. The editor wishes to thank formally the members of the planning committee for the symposium, who helped to sort out themes, topics, and possibili- ties for participation and did so much to bring the conference to fruition: Michael Beschloss, Robert Donovan, John Gaddis, Robert Griffith, and particularly Robert Pollard. The symposium project was undertaken at the urging of the Truman Centennial Committee, established in 1983 to coordinate the activities held in observance of the one-hundredth anniversary of Harry Truman's birth. We are especially grateful to the committee's chairman, Clark M. Clifford, and his colleagues, particularly the late Charles S. Murphy (to whose memory the volume is dedicated), George M. Elsey, Francis Hel- ler, Philleo Nash, Elmer B. Staats, David Stowe, Benedict Zobrist, and the late Leon Keyserling, for their advice, encouragement, and support. The critics and commentators at the conference sessions also made im- portant contributions to the arguments developed; this group included Richard J. Barnet, Robert Collins, Bruce Cummings, Steven Fraser, Louis Galambos, James Gilbert, Gary Hess, Michael Hogan, Vojtech Mastny, Aaron D. Miller, Howard Schonberger, Harvard Sitkoff, Ronald Steel, and Nancy Tucker. And a final word of thanks is in order for Sam Hughes, former under secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, for his guidance in getting everything arranged and under way. IX