Truman, Harry S.
美国第33任总统（1945～1953）。曾作过不同的工作，在第一次世界大战中有出色表现。他後来成为了堪萨斯城的男子服饰商人的合夥人。当他的生意失败後，他在彭德格斯特（T. Pendergast）帮助下参加了民主党。他被选为县法官（1922～1924），後任县法院首席法官（1926～1934）。他因诚实和良好的管理手段而受到了民主、共和两党的支持。他在美国参议院（1935～1945）期间，领导一个委员会对辩护中的欺骗行为进行了揭露。他在1944年被选举替代当时在职的华莱士而成为了副总统的提名人，与罗斯福一起当选。在担任副总统82天後，他在罗斯福去世後成为了总统（1945年4月）。他很快同意了为完成联合国宪章而召开的旧金山会议作最後安排；第二次世界大战欧洲战场结束後，协助安排德国在5月8日无条件投降事宜；7月参加波茨坦会议。他下令在广岛和长崎投下原子弹後，於9月2日正式结束太平洋战争。他的判断得自一个报告，该报告指出如果是用常规军入侵日本将会造成500,000美国部队人员的伤亡。他宣布了杜鲁门主义来对希腊和土耳其进行援助（1947），并建立起了中央情报局，批准恢复西欧经济的马歇尔计画。他在1948年在很多人期望他下台的情况下打败杜威。他发展了遏制性的外交政策来限制苏联的势力，并实现他的第四点计画，并提出对柏林进行空运（参阅Berlin blockade and airlift），1949年签订了北约公约。在韩战期间，任命麦克阿瑟领导联合国的军队。对该战争目标的追求占据了他整个的政府管理，直到他退休为止。虽然他在其总统任期内受到抨击，但他的名誉在後来数年仍持续上升。
1884～1972年
Truman, Harry S.
33rd president of the U.S. (1945-53). Born in Lamar, Mo., he worked at various jobs before serving with distinction in World War I. He became a partner in a Kansas City haberdashery; when the business failed, he entered Democratic Party politics with the help of Thomas Pendergast. He was elected county judge (1922-24), and later became presiding judge of the county court (1926-34). His reputation for honesty and good management gained him bipartisan support. In the U.S. Senate (1935-45), he led a committee that exposed fraud in defense production. In 1944 he was chosen to replace the incumbent Henry Wallace as vice-presidential nominee and was elected with Pres. Franklin Roosevelt. After only 82 days as vice president, he became president on Roosevelt's death (April 1945). He quickly made final arrangements for the San Francisco charter-writing meeting of the UN, helped arrange Germany's unconditional surrender on May 8, which ended World War II in Europe, and in July attended the Potsdam Conference. The Pacific war ended officially on September 2, after he ordered atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; his justification was a report that 500,000 U.S. troops would be lost in a conventional invasion of Japan. He announced the Truman Doctrine to aid greece and Turkey (1947), established the Central Intelligence Agency, and pressed for passage of the Marshall Plan to aid European countries. In 1948 he defeated Thomas Dewey despite widespread expectation of his own defeat. He initiated a foreign policy of containment to restrict the Soviet Union's sphere of influence, pursued his Point Four Program, and initiated the Berlin airlift (see Berlin blockade and airlift) and the NATO pact of 1949. In the Korean War he sent troops under Gen. Douglas MacArthur to head the UN forces. Problems of pursuing the war occupied his administration until he retired. Though he was often criticized during his presidency, Truman's reputation grew steadily in later years.