The Buck Stops Here

Looking for a good read this summer? Peggy Noonan, in The WSJ, refers to David McCullough’s 1992 biography on Harry S. Truman as “magisterial.”

“I’m just plain Mr. Truman now, a private citizen,” said the man from Independence, Missouri, Harry Truman—the ex-president, who for eight years was, in Ms. Noonan’s view, “the most powerful man on earth, the wager and completer of wars and saver of Europe.”

In Truman, Mr. McCullough writes, “He had traveled home from Washington unprotected by Secret Service agents and there were to be none watching over him. He had come home without salary or pension. He had no income or support of any kind from the federal government other than his Army pension of $112.56 a month.”

Read here from Peggy Noonan her perspective on the dignity, integrity, and humbleness of Harry versus our politicians today: “We live in a time when politicians relentlessly enrich themselves. We are awed and horrified by the wealth they accumulate, by their use of connections, of money lines built on past and future power. It’s an operation to them. They are worth hundreds of millions. They have houses so fancy the houses have names. They make speeches to banks and universities for a quarter-million dollars and call their fees contributions to their foundations. They are their foundations.”

If you ever find yourself in Key West, make a point to visit the Harry S. Truman Little White House to get the flavor of the down-home nature of the 33^rd President of the United States of America.