Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President, a Missouri haberdasher who inherited the presidency upon FDR's death and made decisions that shaped the postwar world—the atomic bomb, NATO, the Berlin Airlift, the Marshall Plan, and the Korean War. 'The Buck Stops Here' defined his plain-spoken accountability.
Truman faced extraordinary decisions. He authorized atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II—still the most consequential presidential decision in history. He articulated the Truman Doctrine of containing communism, created NATO, and marshalled European recovery through the Marshall Plan. When North Korea invaded the South, Truman intervened without congressional declaration of war.
Domestically, Truman's Fair Deal proposed expanding the New Deal but faced congressional opposition. His executive order desegregating the military (1948) was a landmark in civil rights. Unpopular when he left office, Truman's reputation has risen as historians appreciate his courage and judgment in building the postwar order. He represents an older Democratic Party—working-class, patriotic, anticommunist, and socially moderate.