The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World

THE ACCIDENTAL PRESIDENT                 A. J. BAIME

Heroes are often defined as ordinary characters who get thrust into extraordinary circumstances, and through courage and a dash of luck, cement their place in history. Chosen as FDR’s fourth-term vice president for his well-praised work ethic, good judgment, and lack of enemies, Harry S. Truman was the prototypical ordinary man, still considered an obscure Missouri politician. That is, until he was shockingly thrust in over his head after FDR's sudden death. At the climactic moments of the Second World War, Truman had to play judge and jury during the founding of the United Nations, the Potsdam Conference, the Manhattan Project, the Nazi surrender, the liberation of concentration camps, and the decision to drop the bomb and end World War II.

Tightly focused, meticulously researched, and using documents not available to previous biographers, The Accidental President escorts readers into the situation room with Truman during this tumultuous, history-making 120 days, when the stakes were high and the challenges even higher. 

PAT'S REVIEW

A fantastic book about the early days of Truman becoming President after only three months of being Vice President. He did not know of anything that had been going on with FDR and his administration or with any plans for either of the plans for the war or after. He needed to be brought up to speed on the war with Germany, and in the Pacific. With the Manhattan project, and the plans for after the war. He was not made aware of the agreements that were made with Stalin until the War with Germany was winding down. He felt that if he went against those agreements that it would cause more conflict, he did not have the time to think about long-term because we were still fighting in the Pacific and with the number of men lost on Okinawa the estimate of men needed for invasion of Japan had risen, so had the projection of loss of life. Now he had to make a decision on other to use the atomic bomb or not. This was a decision that he took lightly, but one he made for what he felt would save American lives in the long run. What I can personally say about that decision is that my father with the 82nd Airborne was getting ready to board a plane to go to the Pacific and they were told to stand down. He and his fellow troopers were happy for they had been fighting for over a year, some longer. It would be later that he discovered about the bomb. This book is great in the fact that you get the early history of Truman’s life, but you see the inner workings of what happened after FDR passed and how he not only responded to his death but how he became a President you had to make some of the biggest decisions one man needed to make. An excellent book and I have read other Truman bios. I received this book from Netgalley.com I gave it 5 stars. Follow us atwww.1rad-readerreviews.com