King's College London
Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
Summary Guide
Note: The item numbers represent a subset from ISAD(G)
rules (General International Standard Archival Description) promulgated
by the International Council on Archives to standardise archival
description world-wide. Only item numbers relevant to our specific
archive are included here.
- 3.1 IDENTITY STATEMENT
- 3.1.1 Reference code: GB99 KCLMA MFF 5
- 3.1.2 Title: Harry S Truman Presidential Oral History Files
- 3.1.3 Dates of creation of material: 1961-[1989]
- 3.1.4 Level of description: collection level
- 3.1.5 Extent: 628 fiche
- 3.2 CONTEXT
- 3.2.1 Name of creator: The Harry S Truman Library
- 3.2.2 Administrative history: Harry S Truman was born in Lamar, Barton County,
Missouri, 8 May 1884. From 1906 to 1917 he operated the family farm near Grandview, Missouri.
During World War One he served as 1st Lt, Battery F, and Capt, Battery D, 129 Field Artillery, 35 Div, US
Army, and served in the Battles of St Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne, Aug-
Nov 1918. He was discharged with the rank of Maj. In 1922, Truman sought the Democratic
nomination as county judge, thus beginning a ten-year judicial career. In 1934, Truman became a
candidate for the US Senate, won the election, and took office in Jan 1935. Re-elected in 1940,
Truman headed the Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, a senate
committee which investigated fraud in recent US military procurement policies. In 1944, leaders of the
Democratic Party replaced Vice President Henry A Wallace with Truman as the party's vice
presidential nominee on the 1944 election ticket alongside President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Upon
Roosevelt's death on 12 Apr 1945, Truman became President of the United States. Unfamiliar with
recent foreign policy developments, Truman initially retained all of his predecessor's cabinet
appointees, including US Secretary of State Edward R Stettinius, Jr. Shortly thereafter, Truman's
foreign policy developed as he announced preparations to continue for the detonation of an atomic test
device in New Mexico on 16 Jul 1945, and attended the conference at Potsdam, Germany, with Rt Hon
Winston (Leonard Spencer) Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain, and Joseph Vissarionovich
Stalin, Prime Minister of the Soviet Union, which would shape post-war Europe. In Aug
1945 he ordered the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, and accepted the surrender of
all Japanese forces in the Far East. In the post-war years and throughout the Korean War, Truman
espoused a foreign policy designed to allay the Cold War. In 1947, he announced what became known
as the 'Truman Doctrine', which stated that the United States would support any nation threatened by
Soviet-sponsored communism, and signed the presidential order creating the US foreign intelligence
organisation, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Also announced in 1947 was the European
Recovery Plan, or 'Marshall Plan', named after Gen George Catlett Marshall, US Secretary of State,
which would see appropriations of US funds to support the European economies until 1952. Under
Truman, the US and its allies organised in Apr 1949 the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
In 1950, Truman committed US armed forces to the Korean War. After an initial period of public
support, however, criticism quickly grew over US involvement in the region. The intervention of the
People's Republic of China and the recall of Gen Douglas MacArthur, brought to the Truman
administration additional pressures to alter its foreign policy direction. In 1952, Truman refused to
seek re-election for President of the United States and left Washington for Independence, Missouri,
where he lived for the remainder of his life. He died on 26 Dec 1972. Starting in 1961, the Harry S
Truman Library's Oral History programme began to conduct interviews with some of the men and
women who had made contact with Harry S Truman during his professional career. Interview subjects
ranged in their professional experience, and included US armed forces personnel, international leaders,
and political advisers and associates. All of the interviews were transcribed and made available in
transcript form, ranging in length from fewer than 10 to over 1,000 pages.
- 3.2.5 Provenance/source of acquisition: Congressional Information Services,
California, MD, USA
- 3.3 CONTENT AND STRUCTURE
- 3.3.1 Scope and content: Harry S Truman Presidential Oral History Files is a
themed microfiche collection composed of transcribed interviews relating to the professional career of
Harry S Truman. From 1961 to 1989, the Harry S Truman Library conducted over 400 interviews for
the oral history project, each relating to aspects of Truman's professional life, including his career as
an artillery officer during World War One; district judge, 1922-1934; US Senator, 1934-1944; and
President of the United States, 1945-1953. Included among the interviewees are Dean Acheson, US Secretary
of State, 1949-1953; Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor, Federal Republic of Germany, 1949-1963;
Richard Bolling, First Secretary, Office of US Political Adviser to the Supreme Commander for the
Allied Powers, Tokyo, Japan, 1950; John H Chiles, Secretary, General Staff of the Far East Command,
and Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, 1948-1950; Clark McAdams Clifford, Special
Counsel to the President, 1946-1950; 1st Lt Lorain H Cunningham, 129 Field Artillery, US Army,
1917-1918; Edgar C Faris, Jr, Secretary to Truman as Senator of Missouri, 1935-1938; Abraham
Feinberg, friend of Truman, active in the creation of the State of Israel, 1945-1948; Raymond W
Goldsmith, economist, US Department of State, 1947-1949; Gordon Gray, Secretary of the Army,
1949-1950 and Special Assistant to the President, 1950; (William) Averell Harriman, US Ambassador
to the Soviet Union, 1943-1946 and to Great Britain, 1946, Special Assistant to the President, 1950-
1951, and Chairman, NATO Commission on Defence Plans, 1951; Edwin A Locke, Jr, Personal
Representative of the President to China, 1945, Special Assistant to the President, 1946-1947, and
Ambassador in Charge of US Mission to the Near East, 1951-1952; Robert Abercrombie Lovett, US
Secretary of Defense, 1951-1953; Sir Roger Mellor Makins, British Deputy Under Secretary of State,
1948-1952, and British Ambassador to the United States, 1953-1956; and Earl Warren, Chief Justice of
the United States, 1953-1969
- 3.3.4 Arrangement: Interviews are arranged in alphabetical order.
- 3.4 CONDITIONS OF ACCESS AND USE
- 3.4.2 Access:
Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form.
- 3.4.3 Copyright: Copies may be printed off the microfilm for research purposes and are
charged at the cost to the Centre. Enquiries concerning the copyright of the original material should be
addressed to the Harry S Truman Library, 500 W US Hwy 24, Independence, MO, USA, 64050, or
library@truman.nara.gov
- 3.4.4 Language: English
- 3.4.6 Finding aids: Summary guide entry on-line and catalogue available in hard copy in
the Centre's reading room.
- 3.5 ALLIED MATERIALS
- 3.5.1 Location of originals: Harry S Truman Library, National Archives and Records
Administration, Independence, MO, USA
- 3.6 NOTE AREA
- 3.6.1 Date of compilation: Oct 1999
Last modified: