Harry Truman as Baptist president

Baptist History and Heritage, Summer-Fall, 1999 by Glen Harold Stassen

The Korean War

Shortly before North Korea invaded South Korea, Secretary of State Dean Acheson had declared in an address that Korea was not in the area where we would fight to defend against communist expansion. Acheson was Eurocentric; Korea was n6t high on his priority list. This situation has a parallel with Ambassador April Glaspie's reply to Saddam Hussein's question, "What can it mean when the United States says it will now protect its friends?" Glaspie answered, "We have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts like your border disagreement with Kuwait." Furthermore, twice before Iraq invaded Kuwait, the senior Defense Department's intelligence officer for the Middle East warned the White House Iraq was massing tanks in preparation for an attack on Kuwait, but the White House said nothing. I believe that Jesus' command to talk with your brother when there is something between you does not mean only soothing talk; if a pending action is likely to lead to war between us, straight talk is needed. (27)

Apparently, Truman authorized General MacArthur to cross the thirty-eighth parallel and invade North Korea in spite of clear warnings in straight talk that doing so would mean war with China. (28) Historian John Lewis Gaddis suggests this indicates "the inability of Truman and his advisors to see events from the opponent's point of view." (29) But Truman wisely chose not to engage in counter-escalation and all-out war with China; he ordered the troops to defend themselves but not to advance again into North Korea; they fought to a stalemate and truce; thus he kept the first hot war of the nuclear age limited. We can have gratitude for his humility and common sense.

The United Nations

Truman did believe in peacemaking. I hope something he had heard in church helped strengthen that belief. He said "I am as sure as I can be" that the isolationism that caused the U.S. Congress to fail to join the League of Nations caused World War I, and "`I am equally sure that another and worse war will follow this one, unless the United Nations and their allies ... decide to work together for peace as they are working together for victory." As a member of Congress, Truman worked diligently to commit the United States to become a member of the United Nations; and as president, "he never wavered in his support" for the United Nations. (30)

The Marshall Plan

Surely Truman's Baptist heritage taught him something about coming to the aid of those in need. Surely living in the time of the Great Depression taught him the importance of that biblical command even more. During the cold, hard, winter of 1946-47, the winter wheat in Europe had died in the ground. "Coal production was so low in Britain that electricity was available in London only a few hours a day," and the lack of coal was cutting down Europe's industry. In Germany, "industrial production was 27 percent of prewar levels." (31) Confidence in the currencies of European countries was low, and they did not have dollars to prime the pumps of their economies.