Harry and Arthur: Truman, Vandenberg, and the Partnership That Created the Free World

by Lawrence J. Haas

Overview

With Franklin Roosevelt’s death in April of 1945, Vice President Harry Truman and Senator Arthur Vandenberg, the Republican leader on foreign policy, inherited a world in turmoil. With Europe flattened and the Soviets emerging as America’s new adversary, Truman and Vandenberg built a tight, bipartisan partnership at a bitterly partisan time to craft a dramatic new foreign policy through which the United States stepped boldly onto the world stage to protect its friends, confront its enemies, and promote freedom. These two men transformed America from a reluctant global giant to a self-confident leader; from a nation that traditionally turned inward after war to one that remained engaged to shape the postwar landscape; and from a nation with no real military establishment to one that now spends more on defense than the next dozen nations combined.

Lawrence J. Haas, an award-winning journalist, reveals how, through the close collaboration of Truman and Vandenberg, the United States created the United Nations to replace the League of Nations, pursued the Truman Doctrine to defend freedom from communist threat, launched the Marshall Plan to rescue Western Europe’s economy from the devastation of war, and established NATO to defend Western Europe.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781640124820
Publisher:	Potomac Books
Publication date:	12/01/2021
Pages:	340
Sales rank:	1,105,978
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Lawrence J. Haas, an award-winning journalist and former senior White House official, is senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, a columnist on foreign affairs, and a TV and radio commentator. He is the author of five other books, including Harry and Arthur: Truman, Vandenberg, and the Partnership That Created the Free World (Potomac Books, 2016), which the Wall Street Journal named one of the top ten nonfiction books of 2016.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments    
Prologue: April 1945    
Introduction: Harry and Arthur    
Part 1: “A Victory against War Itself”     
1: “President Wilson Tried to Work Out a Way”     
2: “We May Perfect This Charter of Peace and Justice”     
3: “As Dumb as They Come”     
4: “Sensible Machinery for the Settlement of Disputes”     
5: “America Wins!”     
6: “A Solid Structure upon Which We Can Build”     
Part 2: “To Support Free Peoples”
7: “What Is Russia Up To Now?”     
8: “The Russians Are Trying to Chisel Away a Little Here, a Little There”     
9: “Halfbright”     
10: “Vandenberg Expressed His Complete Agreement with Me”     
11: “The President’s Message Faces Facts”     
12: “The Administration Made a Colossal Blunder in Ignoring the UN”     
Part 3: “The World Situation Is Very Serious”
13: “Desperate Men Are Liable to Destroy the Structure of Their Society”     
14: “I Have No Illusions about This So-Called ‘Marshall Plan’”     
15: “The Perils of Hunger and Cold in Europe”     
16: “The Commies Will Be Completely Back in the Saddle”     
17: “A Problem Which They Themselves Must Meet”     
18: “A Welcome Beacon in the World’s Dark Night”     
Part 4: “An Attack against Them All”
19: “Their Hope Must Lie in This New World of Ours”     
20: “A Sound Answer to Several Critical Necessities”     
21: “Nothing Will Be Done without Consultation with You”     
22: “Politics Shall Stop at the Water’s Edge”     
23: “The Most Sensible, Powerful, Practicable, and Economical Step”     
24: “The Senate Has Lost a Pillar of Strength”     
Epilogue: A Look Ahead    
Notes    
Bibliography    
Index    
 

Editorial Reviews

"Mr. Haas, a former communications director for Vice President Al Gore, writes with an admirable lightness of touch and a command of detail that is enhanced by his insider knowledge of how Congress and the White House operate. This is a first-class story, well told, of professional politicians working in tandem during a world crisis in the best interests of the republic."—Richard Aldous, Wall Street Journal

From the Publisher

"Well researched and engaging. The author's writing style makes it read more like a fast paced novel than a piece of history."—Casey Wheeler, History Book Reviews

History Book Reviews - Casey Wheeler

"A valuable contribution to Truman historiography."—Richard S. Kirkendall, Missouri Historical Review

Missouri Historical Review - Richard S. Kirkendall

“This is more than just a vivid and historically rich account of the beginnings of post–World War II bipartisanship in U.S. foreign policy. Haas’s tale of the Truman-Vandenberg relationship also reminds us that people matter in policymaking and that trust, character, compromise, and compassion are the only way to keep America united as we face a dangerous world.”—Mike McCurry, White House press secretary for President Clinton

Mike McCurry

"Mr. Haas, a former communications director for Vice President Al Gore, writes with an admirable lightness of touch and a command of detail that is enhanced by his insider knowledge of how Congress and the White House operate. This is a first-class story, well told, of professional politicians working in tandem during a world crisis in the best interests of the republic."—Richard Aldous, Wall Street Journal

Wall Street Journal - Richard Aldous

"A well-written, timely and thoroughly researched book."—Taylor Dibbert, Huffington Post

Huffington Post - Taylor Dibbert

"Members of Congress—donkeys and elephants alike—take note: Bipartisan cooperation is possible. That is the central message of this well-conceived and well-written book."—Aaron Leibel, Washington Jewish Week

Washington Jewish Week - Aaron Leibel

“As Haas deftly recounts, America led a ruined world toward collective security and liberal democracy through the rare bipartisanship of Truman and Vandenberg. Now, as the internationalist consensus frays, we glance longingly to when politics stopped ‘at the water’s edge.’”—Will Marshall, president of the Progressive Policy Institute

Will Marshall

“Nowhere has this remarkable story of American leadership been so well researched and recorded as in Haas’s masterpiece, Harry and Arthur. Its special value lies in its timeliness. Not since 1945 have we faced such complex and dangerous threats. Haas frames the question perfectly: can we do it again?”—Robert McFarlane, national security advisor to President Reagan 
 

Robert McFarlane

"An important, well-written, well-researched, authoritative, and fascinating look at a crucial four years in American and world history."—Shoshana Bryen, InFOCUS Quarterly

InFOCUS Quarterly - Shoshana Bryen

“In his very engaging Harry and Arthur, Larry Haas provides a timely reminder that America can address big challenges when Democratic and Republican leaders put national interest before partisanship and personality.”—Herman Pirchner Jr., president of the American Foreign Policy Council

Herman Pirchner Jr.

"Harry & Arthur serves as a timely reminder of the power of bi-partisanship."—David Luhrssen, Shepherd Express

Shepherd Express - David Luhrssen

"Original and meticulously researched . . . . Informative and highly readable."—Ruth King, Family Security Matters

Family Security Matters - Ruth King

"Enlightening."—Kevin Canfield, Kansas City Star

Kansas City Star - Kevin Canfield

★ 2016-01-13
A sharply drawn contrast study of the twin engines behind America's post-World War II vision in foreign policy.In this precise presentation, American Foreign Policy Council senior fellow Haas (Sound the Trumpet: The United States and Human Rights Promotion, 2012, etc.) delineates how the enactment of the four extraordinarily important and lasting postwar feats of foreign policy came about through strenuous bipartisan effort during a most politically partisan time. The creation of the United Nations, the articulation of the Truman Doctrine, the implementation of the Marshall Plan, and the forging of the North Atlantic Treaty were all envisioned and put in place during the (mostly early) years of President Harry Truman's administration, with the indispensable help of the key Republican senator on the Foreign Relations Committee, Arthur Vandenberg. Haas nicely compares the two men's parallel Midwest upbringings—both born in 1884—and how, though they came to embrace politics in different ways, they converged in similar visions of America's need for postwar engagement—i.e., to lead the embattled free world in defiance of the Soviet Union's aggression. While Vandenberg had been a fervent isolationist, the bombing of Pearl Harbor changed his mind, while Truman, reluctantly inheriting the presidential mantle with the death of Franklin Roosevelt in April 1945, resolved to carry forth his predecessor's vision of the U.N. while also learning intimately of the devastation of Europe and thrusts of Soviet expansion. Not only were the people of Europe starving and incapacitated on all social and economic levels, but also the bankrupt British could no longer support Greece and Turkey, both of which were beset by Soviet-led insurgencies. Into this perilous international vacuum Truman stepped boldly, with his engagement vision to help rebuild Europe's economy and keep the Soviet predators at bay. Throughout, he was aided by the tireless selling of his policies in a hostile Congress by Vandenberg and his cohorts. A well-forged thesis builds a strong argument for the ongoing significance of this foreign policy.

Kirkus Reviews