[VIDEO] This video just dropped on Monday and I forgot about the 33rd President Harry S. Truman. In this most recent video President Truman's life was chronicled from childhood, adulthood, his military service, and then his political career.
Truman is well known for being the first person and only person so far to order the use of nuclear weapons (the A-Bombs used on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima & Nagasaki). He was the first President of the Cold War a mostly geopolitical conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States.
One thing that's striking about President Truman is that his highest education was only a high school diploma, yet in spite of his very humble beginnings became leader of the free world. He was Vice President to another well known President in Franklin D. Roosevelt who had already served over 12 years in office before his death and somehow still rose the occasion.
He led a very ordinary life and his connections to a Midwestern political machine - the Pendergast machine out of Kansas City, Missouri enabled Truman to embark on a course that led him unexpectedly to the Presidency. I'd say the true American success story he didn't tick off some boxes that would lead to such a high position primarily he was wealthy or he attended an Ivy League school. He was never on course to make it to high places at a later point in his life. However, it happened and he was in the right place at the right time.
Is he just the most average person to become President? Or was he just able to tap into the experiences of the average voter? From the farmer to the small business owner to the military veteran. Just everyday folks doing everyday things. I often look at his background and where he came from, but then politics is about connecting with the voter also. Truman knew how to do that and some may say we're still living in his world today!
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