Harry S. Truman, the 33rd President of the United States of America, was in office from April 12th, 1945, until December of 1953. During his 8 years of presidency, a good many historically important things came to pass.
First things first: Election. For Truman's first term, he was not elected. Rather, he stepped up to bat quite suddenly when Roosevelt died. He had only been in office little more than 80 days when the responsibility of a nation was given to him.
For his second term, there was a real election. The candidates were Truman for the Democrats, Thomas E. Dewey for the Republicans, and Strom Thurmond for the Progressive Party. During this election, conventions and such were shown on television for the very first time (Truman's inauguration in 1949 was the first to be aired on TV as well). During the running, it looked as though Dewey would win, and by quite a lot. There was also dissent among the Democrats as to who should run for president among their party (Some were swayed towards Dwight Eisenhower). However, when the voting was over and the results were in, Truman had won by approx 2.2 million votes. The picture below shows Truman holding up a newspaper falsely declaring Dewey's victory over Truman. Some people had been really confident that Dewey would win, so Truman's win was famous for being a come-from-behind sort of thing.
Why did Truman win the 1948 elections?
His campaign was more aggressive while Dewey's was more distant; Thurmond didn't pull as many votes away from Truman as was expected; Truman's attacks on the Republicans and Dewey's failure to respond to them; vast public consent to Truman's policies.
Major Accomplishments:
Truman was the president who ordered the atomic bombing on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan. Does that count as an accomplishment? Because it was certainly influential. In any case, he did so feeling he had no choice because Japan had rejected the peace offer. A few days later, Japan surrendered and the US war on the Asian front was over. There has been some controversy as to whether or not it was the right thing to do. Some say the use of the atomic bombs were totally unnecessary; others say it was completely necessary.
Truman signed the charter for the United Nations in June of 1945, with the hope that it could establish peace. From there, the United Nations started their stand against Communism, which was spreading over parts of Eastern Europe. Truman signed a bunch of stuff, and thus created the Department of Defense, the US Air Force, and the CIA. Twas also the beginning of the Cold War (1947).
The Fair Deal - In order to gain voters (because Republicans were finely regaining some popularity by the late 40s), Truman instituted national health care, opted to repeal the Republican's anti-union act, and strongly supported civil rights movements.
Truman recognized Israel as a country in 1945. He disregarded the warnings that moving the Israelites in the Palestine area would aggravate the Middle East (which it did).
The Berlin Airlift (1948) - the Soviet Union had blocked access to parts of Western Berlin, so instead of moving supplies into those areas by armored vehicles (which could possibly risk war), Truman decided we would supply the resident Berlin people there by air. It proved successful, and gained Truman popularity (also helped him win 1948 election).
Truman helped set up NATO in a way that it would combat communism's spread in Europe.
When North Korea attack South Korea, the USA promptly got involved, albeit limitedly. The United Nations also helped out.
At the end of his second term, the 22nd amendment was passed: no president could be elected for a 3rd term, and no president could run for a 2nd term after having served at least 2 years of a previous president's term (which would have applied to Truman).
Scandals/Conflicts:
There were a few instances in which the federal government was accused of hiding communists spies among them; naturally Truman denied such things. However, testimonies came to light and Truman was put in a tight spot as the issue rose to a national level. Truman tried to sort things out, but it was difficult, and history was repeating itself (remember the Red Scare). This episode shook Truman's reputation. For the most part, this is what type of scandal haunted Truman's second term.
There was also some problems with reports of bribing and corruption within high-ranking officials. Apparently there was an incident where a man gave a present to Mrs. Truman, then got to fly to Europe days after WW2 ended and bought perfumes; on his flight back, he took a seat that should have gone to a wounded veteran, and the veteran had to take the next flight. The man who helped him go to Europe was a friend of Truman's, but he was later linked to lots of reputation-tarnishing incidents.
There was once an assassination attempt made on Truman: 2 nationalist Puerto Ricans tried to kill him at the Blair House. A White House politician shot one of the men (the one that had shot him first) and killed him before also dying. The other culprit was apprehended and sentenced to death, but the sentence was later modified to a life in prison. Because of this event, Truman let the Puerto Ricans decide on their own the relationship they had with the United States. This even also drew attention to presidential security, which was then heightened.
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