At 5 p.m. on April 12, 1945, Truman, who had just been vice president for less than three months, was called to the first lady's office, and Mrs. Roosevelt whispered to him, "The president is dead!"
Truman looked at Mrs. Roosevelt with a sad look in his eyes and said:
"What can I do for you?"
"What can we do for you?"
Madame did not answer the question, and as he came and went, Truman, who was over sixty years old, already knew his life, and was about to undergo earth-shaking changes, and these changes, he had thought about, had not thought about.
Since childhood, he was not welcomed by his classmates, did not go to college, failed in business three times, and had no reputation before the age of 50, such a resume is too thin for a person who is about to become president. So when the news came out that Truman was going to succeed Roosevelt and become the president of the United States, everyone had a heavy sense of loss.
Many even taunted mercilessly: "If Truman can become president, so can my neighbors"!
However, facts are facts, more magical than reality, but more reasonable than imagined.
In the last issue, we said that after Truman's last failed business, he followed the advice of his comrade-in-arms Jim Pendergerst and decided to go to the political arena, Jim strongly recommended Truman, not entirely because he was cornered, but when he was in the army, he had seen Truman's performance in the war, and the politically minded Jim knew that although his comrade-in-arms was not good at words, he was definitely a good seedling in politics.
On the other hand, Jim's uncle, Tom Pendergerst, was influential in politics as the leader of the Democratic Party in Kansas City and Missouri, and by manipulating the election of local Democratic Parties, he cultivated many governors, legislators and local officials. Because of his one-handed behavior, Kansas City is also known as "Tom Town".
With the support of the Pendergerst Group, Truman soon got a chance to run for the East Side of Jackson County, of course, this position was an administrative position, although there was the support of the big guys, but because he was a novice, Truman still had to go all out to be successful.
However, it was not really good, the first level of the campaign made Truman difficult, the expression ability is not strong, every speech is an accident, dull and boring way, let everyone present suffer greatly, in order to change this situation, Truman's former comrades-in-arms tried their best to canvass for him, cheered loudly in the audience to drive the atmosphere, and even once built a special plane to carry Truman to the speech site.
Originally, their idea was that Truman would come down from the plane and give a speech, which would help ignite the enthusiasm of the people present. However, the reality is that after the plane landed that day, due to severe airsickness, Truman could only climb out of the plane with difficulty, did not have time to say a word, and ran outside the fence to vomit in front of everyone.
Such a humiliating experience is not useless, at least it let Truman know that this method is not suitable for him at all, so he is stubborn and stubborn, and he begins to find another way.
Since it is useless to talk about seriousness, let's talk about something grounded!
Coming from a peasant background and working in a variety of professions, he was good at interacting with people, chatting, laughing, and connecting with the county people in a way that developed friendships, and miraculously, this approach really worked in the end.
He ran for the first time, defeated his opponents by 279 votes, and was finally elected as the Judge of the East District of Jackson County, which was the beginning of Truman's political career.
Because of the failure of the re-election campaign, Truman only became a judge for two years, and then had to retire to make another living, he found a job as a salesman in Kansas City, selling membership cards for a car club, and worked for two years, perhaps with a character that could be bent and stretched, or perhaps a talent for a desperate life, in short, two years later, Tom found Truman again and let him run for county chief justice.
With the experience of the previous time, This time Truman was not only a great success, but also won a re-election after four years. Due to his outstanding talents, Truman made many contributions to the construction of the local municipal government during his tenure, and was praised by the citizens while also gaining the support of the masses.
Truman, who has always had a good wind review, the next goal is to run for governor of Missouri, pragmatic and hardworking and has a mass base, he feels that he must win this time, but who knows that just when Truman was ambitiously preparing to run, Tom rejected him because "there are other candidates within the group to run for this position."
What is "intra-group"?
Co-author I have been obedient to you for so many years, in the end, I am still just a marginal person who is not inside, which is like working hard in a company for more than ten years, and it is difficult to have a promotion opportunity to fight for, but the boss tells you that your relatives want this position, you as an outsider, not only can not compete, but also have to roll up and leave, who can bear this!
Can't do it!
Eh, Truman can stand it!
It is not that he is a soft persimmon, can be pinched and kneaded by others, there is a saying that people under the eaves, have to bow their heads. Compared with the two, he is always the one who is abandoned, this kind of taste, Truman has experienced many times in the years of groping and fighting, so this time for him, in fact, is not a special blow.
But just when he was ready to find another way out like last time, Tom's side was in trouble, and several of his original favorite candidates refused to run for various reasons, which caught Tom off guard, and seeing that the election period was approaching, Tom had to pull his eyes back to Truman, who had been rejected by himself before.
When Tom found him, Truman was surprised, but eventually agreed.
If you don't say that people can become presidents, "can bend and stretch", "the person who knows the times is Junjie", it is never a derogatory term!
In this way, Truman, who was supposed to run for governor, mistakenly participated in the election of the U.S. senator, and with the previous advantages and The full support of Tom, In 1934, Truman was successfully elected to the U.S. Senate of Missouri.
This year, Roosevelt was just one year old in office as President of the United States, and the entire United States gradually contained the Great Depression under the influence of the "Roosevelt New Deal", and everyone's eyes were focused on the wheelchair president, who was radiant and exuded unparalleled charm.
Compared with Roosevelt, Truman, as a small congressman, is not worth mentioning at all, and in fact, it is precisely this that is not worth mentioning, which has become the biggest turning point in Truman's life.
Friends who have watched "The Biography of Zhen Huan" should know that one of the main characters in the play, An Lingrong, was able to enter the palace when she was drafted, in addition to being not afraid of danger and playing stable, the flower on her head that attracted butterflies for her was also a very important stepping stone.
And Truman's successful election to the Council is equivalent to the flower on AnlingRong's head, some mistakes, but it did help him knock on the door to the political path, and ann Lingrong's situation of being excluded everywhere when he first entered the palace, Truman's beginning in the Senate was not satisfactory.
Before doing administrative positions, but now to work in the legislature, interlaced like a mountain, which puts Truman under pressure, coupled with his low education, and a delicate relationship with Tom Pendergerst, many parliamentarians look down on Truman, so in the interpersonal relationship, it is also difficult.
What to do, of course, is the scalp!
In order to gain favor, An Lingrong practiced singing and ice playing hard, and in real life, Truman also took the road of "three points of heaven is destined, seven points of hard work", entered the office at five or six o'clock in the morning, and worked until late at night, reading a lot of relevant books at the same time, not letting go of any opportunity to participate in the hearing.
More importantly, in order to completely block the mouth of the public, although Truman still maintained contact with Tom, he did not help Tom to favoritism like others, and in this way, with a unique tenacity, Truman went farther and farther on this road, and his colleagues slowly accepted him.
I thought that the days would go on like this, but who knows, a thunder on the flat ground once again blew up Truman's hard-won peace.
In 1940, When Tom Pendergerst was imprisoned, at the end of Truman's first term as senator, Truman had to prepare for the next campaign and beware of his opponents taking the opportunity to throw dirty water on himself, because the hope of re-election was very slim, and Truman received only a handful of donations.
In order to save money, in the campaign journey, he often can only sleep in the car, this year, Truman is 56 years old, only two years older than him Roosevelt has been re-elected president twice, and he is still on the way to run for congress, lying in the car in the middle of the night, he is also confused and confused, confused is that he seems to have gained something for so many years, and seems to have not gotten anything; confused is whether he can go on this road, how far he can go, these confusion and confusion are intertwined, Two words eventually appeared: unknown.
Fortunately, this unknown did not last long, because he was always cautious and cautious, and although his opponent did his best, he did not grasp any control, but truman's own political capital accumulated before played a decisive role in this campaign, and finally let him succeed in election by a slight margin.
It may be that it was too long before, after this election, Truman was like a dark horse, lucky to burst, when he took office, just in time for the outbreak of World War II, the Senate, according to Truman's proposal, set up a "Special Investigation Committee on National Defense Plans" to investigate waste and favoritism in military production.
As the first to propose it, Truman was rightfully appointed chairman of this committee, and Truman was the best at investigating anything.
Once someone did a special statistic, the Truman Commission saved the country $15 billion in three years. You know, in 1944, the GDP of the entire United States was only $219.8 billion, and the committee achieved such outstanding results, as the chairman of Truman naturally contributed.
As a result, Truman, who had always been a marginal figure, not only rose to prominence in the Senate, but also became the cover of Time magazine published in 1943, and even in a poll of Washington reporters in Outlook magazine, Truman was listed as one of the 10 washington people who made important contributions to the war effort.
Ye Lanyi, who is also a concubine in "The Biography of Zhen Huan", once said to the heroine Zhen Huan: "Your blessing is behind", in fact, this sentence is also very appropriate for Truman at that time.
In 1944, when the 62-year-old Roosevelt was preparing to run for re-election, there was a huge disagreement within the Democratic Party over the choice of vice president, and the war of words between liberals and conservatives made it impossible to determine the candidate for the vice president position.
Because he was not a party, this kind of unprepared good thing suddenly fell on the head of Truman, the melon-eating masses, and the two parties were confused. None of them objected, and Truman himself was confused, and he did not object.
The main thing is that Roosevelt himself is angry, in this election, he defeated the Republican presidential candidate Dewey, the fourth time elected president, one person won the Tao, the chicken dog ascended to heaven. Truman was thus elected vice president, but even as vice president, Truman was not taken seriously, because his own vice president was the product of compromise between the various factions.
I thought that being a vice president was already the peak of my life, who knew that before Truman could sit in the vice president's office chair, on April 12, 1945, Roosevelt died of illness.
Truman, who had been vice president for only 82 days, took over as president, this time more abruptly than the previous one. The so-called virtue is not worthy of the position, there will be disasters, and Truman, who is in danger and is destined, will certainly have a difficult road ahead, and in the face of many difficulties, how did he solve it, and how did he get to a good end, we will continue in the next issue.