American History: Roosevelt's Death Makes Truman President

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President Harry Truman at the White House, September 1st, 1945, preparing to broadcast a message on the official surrender of Japan

STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember.

This week in our series: a sudden change in Washington.

(MUSIC)

The House of Representatives ended the day’s business early on the rainy afternoon of April twelfth, nineteen forty-five. The House Democratic leader, Speaker Sam Rayburn, invited a friend to come by his office for a drink. "Be there around five," Rayburn said. "Harry Truman is coming over."

Harry Truman was the vice president at the time. The events are described in a book about his presidency, "Conflict and Crisis" by Robert Donovan.

World War Two was not over yet. But it was a quiet afternoon in Washington. President Franklin Roosevelt was in the southern state of Georgia. He was resting after his recent trip to Yalta to meet with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin. The president's wife, Eleanor, was at the White House, working on a speech supporting the new United Nations.

Harry Truman was at the Senate. But he was not interested in the debate that was taking place. He spent most of his time writing to his family back in Missouri. When the debate finished, he went to the office of House leader Rayburn to join him for a drink.

It was an afternoon Truman would never forget.

Rayburn and his friend were talking in the office before Truman arrived. The telephone rang. It was a call from the White House asking whether Vice President Truman had arrived yet. No, Rayburn replied. The caller asked to have him telephone the White House as soon as he arrived.

Truman entered a minute later. He immediately called the White House. As he talked, his face became white. He put down the phone and raced out the door to his car.

Truman arrived at the White House within minutes. An assistant took him up to the president's private living area. Eleanor Roosevelt was waiting for him there. "Harry," she said, "the president is dead." Truman was shocked. He asked Mrs. Roosevelt if there was anything he could do to help her. But her reply made clear to him that his own life had suddenly changed. "Is there anything we can do for you?" Mrs. Roosevelt asked the new president. "You are the one in trouble now."

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Within hours, the world learned the news that Franklin Roosevelt -- the longest serving president in American history -- was dead. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage, bleeding in the brain.

Americans were shocked and scared. It was nineteen forty-five and the United States was still at war. Roosevelt had led the nation since early nineteen thirty-three. He was the only president many young Americans had ever known.

Who would lead them now? All eyes turned to Harry Truman.

HARRY TRUMAN: “Our departed leader never looked backward. He looked forward and moved forward. That is what he would want us to do. That is what America will do.”

Harry Truman in his first speech to Congress as president.

HARRY TRUMAN: “With great humility, I call upon all Americans to help me keep our nation united in defense of those ideals which have been so eloquently proclaimed by Franklin Roosevelt. [Applause]

"I want in turn to assure my fellow Americans and all of those who love peace and liberty throughout the world that I will support and defend those ideals with all my strength and all my heart.”

(MUSIC)

Truman had been a surprise choice for vice president at the Democratic Party nominating convention in nineteen forty-four. Delegates considered several other candidates before they chose him as Roosevelt's running mate. That was at a time when presidential candidates did not make their own choices for vice president.

Harry Truman lacked the fame, the rich family and the strong speech-making skills of Franklin Roosevelt. He was a much simpler man. He grew up in the Midwestern state of Missouri. Truman only studied through high school but took some nighttime law school classes. He worked for many years as a farmer and a small businessman, but without much success.

Truman had long been interested in politics. When he was almost forty, he finally won several low-level positions in his home state. By nineteen thirty-four, he was popular enough in Missouri to be nominated and elected to the United States Senate. And he won re-election six years later.

Most Americans, however, knew little about Harry Truman when he became president. They knew he had close ties to the Democratic Party political machine in his home state. But they had also heard that he was a very honest man. They could see that Truman had strongly supported President Roosevelt's New Deal programs. But they could not be sure what kind of president Truman would become.

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History gave Truman little time to learn about his new job. The most important power he now possessed was the power of atomic weapons. And soon after he became president, he faced the decision of whether or not to use that power for the first time in history.

AP

The Hiroshima explosion, recorded at 8:15am, August 6, 1945, is seen on the remains of a wristwatch found in the ruins

Truman firmly believed that using the atomic bomb was the only way to force Japan to surrender. So in August of nineteen forty-five, he gave the orders to drop the atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

HARRY TRUMAN: “Having found the atomic bomb we have used it. We shall continue to use it until we completely destroy Japan’s power to make war. Only a Japanese surrender will stop us. It is an awful responsibility which has come to us. We thank God that it has come to us, instead of to our enemies. And we pray that he may guide us to use it in his ways, and for his purposes.”

Days earlier, Truman had met in Potsdam, Germany, near Berlin, with the British and Soviet leaders, Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin, to plan the peace. The war in Europe had ended several months before.

NEWS ANNOUNCER: "Good evening, from the White House in Washington. Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States."

HARRY TRUMAN: “My fellow Americans, I have just returned from Berlin, the city from which the Germans intended to rule the world. It is a ghost city. The buildings are in ruins, its economy and its people are in ruins.

"Our party also visited what is left of Frankfurt and Darmstadt. We flew over the remains of Kassel, Magdeburg and other devastated cities. German women and children and old men were wandering over the highways, returning to bombed-out homes or leaving bombed out cities, searching for food and shelter.

"War has indeed come home to Germany and to the German people. It has come home in all the frightfulness with which the German leaders started and waged it.”

The three leaders agreed that their nations and France would jointly occupy Germany. They also agreed to end the Nazi party in Germany, to hold trials for Nazi war criminals and to break up some German businesses.

AP

President Harry Truman, center, talks with Soviet leader Josef Stalin, left, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, at the Potsdam Conference near Berlin, on July 17,1945

Foreign ministers of the Allied nations later negotiated peace treaties with Germany and other countries including Italy, Hungary and Romania.

Eastern European nations agreed to protect the political and economic freedom of their citizens. However, western political experts were increasingly worried that the Soviet Union would block any effort for real democracy in eastern Europe.

Truman did not trust the Soviets. And as he made plans for Asia, he promised himself that he would not allow Moscow any part in controlling Japan.

The leader of the American occupation in Japan was Army General Douglas MacArthur. MacArthur acted quickly to hold a series of trials for Japanese war crimes. He also launched a series of reforms to move Japan toward becoming more like a Western democracy.

Women were given the right to vote. Land was divided among farmers. The idea of a national religion was ended. And the educational system was reorganized.

Japan began to recover, becoming stronger than ever as an economic power.

Truman and other world leaders were dealing with the problems of making peace. But at the same time they also were trying to establish a new system for keeping the peace.

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The United States, the Soviet Union, Britain and the other Allies had formed the United Nations during wartime. But soon after Truman took office, they met in San Francisco to discuss ways to make the United Nations a permanent organization for peace.

In July of nineteen forty-four, many of the world's top economic experts met to organize a new system for the world economy. They gathered at a hotel in Bretton Woods in the American state of New Hampshire. They created the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to help nations rebuild their economies.

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At the center of all the action was Harry Truman. It was not long before he showed Americans and the world that he had the ability to be a good president. He was honest, strong and willing to make decisions.

"I was sworn-in one night and the next morning I had to get right to the job at hand," Truman remembered years later. In an oral history recorded with the writer Merle Miller, Truman said: "I was afraid. But, of course, I didn't let anybody know that. And I knew that I would not be called on to do anything that I was not able to do. That's something I learned from reading history.

Truman spoke of how people in the past had much bigger problems. Somehow, he said, the best of them just went ahead and did what they had to do. And they usually did all right.

(MUSIC: “I’m Just Wild about Harry”)

In the coming weeks, we'll discuss how America's thirty-third president moved toward rebuilding a Europe devastated by war.

This program was adapted from a script written by David Jarmul. You can find our series online with transcripts, MP3s, podcasts and pictures at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English. I’m Steve Ember, inviting you to join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English.

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This was program #199. For earlier programs, type "Making of a Nation" in quotation marks in the search box at the top of the page.

Ronald Reagan, 1911-2004: One of America's Most Popular President

Source: www.voanews.com

Welcome to PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today Gwen Outen and Steve Ember tell about America's fortieth president, Ronald Reagan. Experts say Ronald Reagan re-defined the American presidency during his two terms in the nineteen eighties.  He became president when he was sixty-nine years old.  It was a far different place from that of his birth on February sixth, nineteen eleven.

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Ronald Wilson Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois.  His mother Nelle, father Jack, and brother Neil lived above a bank in the town.  Ronald Reagan's family began calling the baby "Dutch." The nickname remained for the rest of his life.

Jack Reagan worked at a general store.  The family was poor.  Yet, in a book about his life, Ronald Reagan wrote that he never felt poor. He was good at sports, especially football. During the summers, he was a lifeguard at a local swimming pool. He reportedly rescued many people from drowning.

Ronald Reagan said there was a feeling of security throughout his childhood.  But it was not perfect. His father was dependent on alcohol.

Ronald Reagan studied at Eureka College in Illinois. After seeing a play at college, he said: "More than anything in the world, I wanted to speak the actor's words."

But Ronald Reagan did not have enough money to go to New York or Hollywood to become an actor.  So, after college he found a job as a sports broadcaster for a radio station in Iowa. Later he moved to a bigger radio station in Chicago, Illinois.  He announced the action of baseball games. This work took him on a trip to California. He took a screen test to become an actor. Warner Brothers Studios offered him a job.

Ronald Reagan moved to Hollywood and became a movie star.  He appeared in many movies. "Knute Rockne – All American," is probably his most famous.  It is where he got the nickname "The Gipper."

Mr. Reagan played George Gipp, one of the greatest college football players ever. In the movie, he speaks of the school's football team as he is dying.

RONALD REAGAN:

"...Ask them to go in there with all they got, win just one for the Gipper."

Those words, "win one for the Gipper," later became a political battle cry for Ronald Reagan. In nineteen forty, he married actress Jane Wyman. They had two children, Maureen and Michael.  But the marriage ended in nineteen forty-nine.

Ronald Reagan became president of the main labor group for movie actors in nineteen forty-eight.  He served six terms.  He met actress Nancy Davis through the union. They married in nineteen fifty-two.  They later had two children, Patti and Ron.

At this time, Ronald Reagan was a member of the Democratic Party who described himself as a liberal. But, he became increasingly conservative as his worries about communism grew.  He opposed anyone in the movie industry who supported communism.

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In the early nineteen fifties, Ronald Reagan began to appear on television.  He presented dramatic shows produced by the General Electric Company.  He became a spokesman for the company. Mr. Reagan learned a lot about public speaking. He began to campaign for Republican Party political candidates a few years later. Reagan developed the ability to reach people through his speeches. He later became known as "The Great Communicator."

Nancy Reagan supported her husband's political interests.  Political experts say she was always his most important adviser.

In nineteen sixty-six, Ronald Reagan announced his own candidacy for governor of California.  Democrats in the state did not think he was a serious candidate.  However, Mr. Reagan was elected governor by almost one million votes.

Ronald Reagan received mixed public opinion as governor of the nation's most populated state.  He was praised for lowering California's debt, yet criticized for raising taxes.  Voters re-elected him as governor in nineteen seventy.

Ronald Reagan was unsuccessful in his first two attempts to win the Republican nomination for president.  Then, in nineteen eighty, he became the Republican Party's presidential candidate.  His opponent was President Jimmy Carter.

The two men debated on national television.  Ronald Reagan spoke directly and simply to the American people and asked them some questions:

RONALD REAGAN:

"Are you better off than you were four years ago?  Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the stores than it was four years ago?  Is there more or less unemployment in the country than there was four years ago?"

Ronald Reagan won the United States presidential election by a huge majority. He and his vice-president, George Herbert Walker Bush, were sworn into office in January, nineteen eighty-one.  Many people called the change in political power "The Reagan Revolution."

President Reagan immediately began to work to honor a major campaign promise.  He called on Congress to lower taxes.  But only two months later, tragedy struck.  A mentally sick man shot the president and three other people outside a hotel in Washington. President Reagan and his press secretary, James Brady, were severely wounded.

Mr. Reagan had a bullet in his left lung, close to his heart.  But he showed his sense of humor at the hospital.  As the president was taken into the operating room he said he hoped all the doctors were Republicans.

Ronald Reagan recovered from the shooting and returned to work within two weeks.

The President now began work on his main goal to reduce the size of the federal government.  He had campaigned on the idea that the government was too costly and interfered too much in the lives of Americans.

Mr. Reagan and Congress reduced taxes and cut spending for social programs.  The administration argued that these actions would create economic growth.

Extremely high inflation rates did begin to fall.  But the United States' debt rose sharply. This was partly from big increases in military spending.

The Reagan economic policy became known as "Reaganomics."  It had, and still has, supporters and opponents.  Some people argued that the cuts in social programs greatly hurt poor people.  Others said the policy improved the economy.

President Reagan sought re-election in nineteen eighty-four. His Democratic opponent was former Vice-President Walter Mondale.  Again Mr. Reagan won the election by a large amount.

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President Reagan dealt with many serious foreign issues while in office.  He sent American Marines to Lebanon to stop the fighting among several opposing groups.  But more than two hundred Marines were killed in an extremist bomb attack.The so-called "Reagan Doctrine" was the Administration's most famous foreign policy.  That policy was to support anti-communist forces anywhere in the world.  Under the policy, American forces invaded the Caribbean island nation of Grenada.  The policy also led to secret United States support for rebels in Nicaragua.

President Reagan met with Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev several times in an effort to reduce nuclear weapons. He gave a famous speech at the Berlin Wall that divided Soviet-controlled East Germany from West Germany on June twelfth, nineteen eighty-seven.

RONALD REAGAN:

"General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate!  Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate!  Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

Some historians say Ronald Reagan helped cause the fall of the Soviet Union.  They say his military spending forced the Soviets to spend more, too.  They say this led to the communist nation's economic failure.

President Reagan enjoyed very high public approval ratings throughout his presidency. Many Americans considered him a friendly leader, a "man of the people," filled with hope for America.

Ronald and Nancy Reagan returned to California after his second term ended in nineteen eighty-nine.  In nineteen ninety-four, Mr. Reagan wrote an open letter to the American people.  He informed them that he had the brain disease Alzheimer's.  The former president expressed his love for the country and thanked Americans for letting him serve.  And, he wrote: "I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead."

Ronald Reagan died at his home in California on June fifth, two thousand four.  He was ninety-three.

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This program was written by Caty Weaver.  Mario Ritter was the producer.  I'm Gwen Outen. And I'm Steve Ember. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.

Mount Rushmore (Should Obbama be Added?)

Source: www.speakup.combr, pages 32 e 33 Standard American Accent, level advanced, Edition 260

Four American presidents together stare out across mountain tops and forests towards the distant horizont. Mount Rushmore, in the Black Hills of South Dakota, is the site of one of America's most famous and most popular national monuments. almost three million visitors a year come to look up at the eighteen-metre-high heads carved into ancient granite.

SACRED LAND

The Black Hills have long been considered sacred by Native Americans, and the Lakota tribe already had their own name for Mount Rushmore. Six Grandfathers. In 1924 the sculptor Gutzon Borglum was invited to the Black Hills by Doane Robson, the South Dakota State Historian Robson's original idea was to carve a number of western heroes into the granites spires of the Needles rocks: famous figures like Buffalo Bill, Lewis and Clark, Chief Red Cloud. Borglum had other ideas. He wanted US presidents to be the figures for a national monument and he preffered Mount Rushmore  with its south-east face looking into the sun. "America will march along that skyline", he declared.

Ed Menard, interpretive ranger at Mount Rushmore National Memorial, takes up the story:

Ed Menard (American Accent standard)

Well (the) decision was Borglum himself. It wasn't the president, it wasn't the congress- Borglum was going to pick who he wanted to be up on the mountain. And he says, I want to start off with the birth of the nation, that is George Washington, hero of the Revolutinary war. Then he says we want to have an expansions period of our nation, that's Thomas Jefferson buy the Lousiana Territory, buying that from France. Then we have to have the dark times of our country, we got to get through that,  and that's Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth president, who after the Civil war led the country all back together again, he preserved the Union. And then , he taking us into the new century, the modern development of our country Theodore Roosevelt, and that equals apporximately 150 years represented on the mountain.

CHANGING PLACES

Borglum began work on Mount Rushmore on 4th October 1927. Together with his team of 35-40 workers he used dynamite to blast the rocks and power tools to finish the surface. It was difficult and dangerous work. His tasks wasn't made any easier by the mountains: Thomas Jefferson was originally carved on the other side of George Washington, but Borglum hit bad rock and after eighteen months, had to blast Jefferson off the mountain and start him all over again in his present position. Even then, a crack in Jefferson's nose forced the sculptor to move president's face so that today his gaze looks higher than the eyes of the others. It's hard not to be drawn to the eyes of the carvings and, when visitors get close enough to the stony faces, they are surprised to find that the pupils of the eyes are actually shafts of stone.

NATIONAL SPIRIT 

With delays caused by bad weather, it took 14 hard years to complete the monument, funding was also a problem for the project, which had the misfortune to coincide with the Great Depression of the 1930s and outbreak of the Second World War. Yet once the sculpture was completed. It appealed as Borglum had rightly predicted to America's sense of national pride. Soon Mount Rushmore was labelled the "Shrine to Democracy".

NATIONAL SPIRIT

Gutzon Borglum never lived to see his dream completed. He died in March 1941 on his way to Washington to plead for more money. After his death it was  left to his son who had been named Lincoln, after one of the four Mount Rushmore presidents to complete the task:

Ed Menard:

Well, Borglum, he really wanted to finish the left side of Lincoln's face 'cause you look at the mountain, it's not finished, there's no ear, you see a start of a hand, lapel and collar, but back in April of 1941, Congress had notified Borglum a week before his death, appoximately that there's no more money for Mount Rushmore, due to World War II starting in Europe. We weren't sending troops yet, but we were sending a lot of money, a lot of supplies and they said "The funding for Mount Rushmore is, you know, nothing!"

So, Borglum died on March 6th, 1941. But his son Lincoln, who really doesn't get much....enough credit, he really held this wrote project together, Lincoln Borglum  did. He was well-trained in all aspects of the mountain. He more or less took over his father's work. He only had, you know several dollars left in the bank enogh to do Washington collar, toch up Washington's collar, a little worn on Jefferson's hair, and October 31st 1941, Lincoln declared Mount Rushmore completed.