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Truman Archive, Including 4 Presidential Letters Signed, Great Content
Truman Archive, Including 4 Presidential Letters Signed, Great Content
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Description:

Truman Harry



Interesting Archive of President Truman’s Relationship with His Budget Director and Under Secretary of State James Webb

 

HARRY S. TRUMAN. Archive of 14 items of Truman’s relationship with Budget Director and Under Secretary of State James E. Webb, including 4 Typed Letters Initialed by Truman, 1 Typed Letter Signed by Bess Truman, a telegram, a newspaper clipping, a magazine article, other letters, and a typed statement by Truman to Secretaries of Departments and Chiefs of Staff, 1947-1979. 47 pp. Very good.

 

In the summer of 1946, President Harry S. Truman appointed North Carolinian James E. Webb as Director of the Bureau of the Budget on the recommendation of Treasury Secretary John Snyder. The appointment surprised Webb, who had not been told of the final decision to appoint him. It was Webb’s job to prepare the President’s proposed budget each year for presentation to Congress to meet Truman’s goal of balancing the budget after the large expenditures of World War II.

 

In January 1949, President Truman appointed Webb as an Undersecretary of State. He served under Secretary of State Dean Acheson, who tasked him with reorganizing the Department. In 1950, Webb met with Truman to discuss the administration’s response to Congressional hearings designed to remove communists, anarchists, and others deemed “un-American.” After the North Korean Army invaded South America in June 1950, Webb played a role in convincing Truman to replace Louis A. Johnson with George Marshall as Secretary of Defense.

 

According to this archive, Webb considered Truman, “the Best Boss I ever had, And a Great American who has contributed more to the development of ‘The Institution of the Presidency’ and ‘The Government of the Constitution’ than this generation will know.”

 

Highlights and Excerpts

Truman Initialed Memo to Webb, October 4, 1947

“I had a conversation yesterday about the AAA appropriation with the Secretary of Agriculture. I believe it would be a good plan for you to talk with him because I think he has a political approach to this matter which will be in the interest of the Federal Government. It will be exceedingly important next year.”

 

Statement of James E. Webb to the Senate Finance Committee, March 1, 1948 (with handwritten marginal comments), 8 pp.

“It will be my purpose to discuss the Budget estimates for 1949 and to indicate some of the trends which may be reasonably expected for 1950.”

“The general policy, expressed in the President’s instructions to the Departments and Agencies for the preparation of 1949 appropriation requests, was to hold programs for that year at or below the 1948 level. Exceptions were made only where activities could no longer be deferred. New expenditures were limited to those essential for the discharge of international responsibilities or to meet urgent needs at home.”

 

Truman Initialed Memo to Webb, March 6, 1948

“I am enclosing copy of a report of the Committee for Economic Development on Taxes and the Budget. I’ll appreciate it if you will have this report analyzed for me.”

 

Truman Initialed Memo to Webb, March 12, 1948

“Attached is a document left with me by Senator Murray of Montana. His argument is the Republican Congressman from Eastern Montana is expecting to present the Yellowtail Dam to the House Appropriations Committee. I doubt very much whether he will get anywhere with it. I’ll appreciate your looking into the matter and finding out what can be done about it, if anything - always bearing in mind that we do not want to take the bars down for a dozen other projects of a similar nature.”

 

Webb Handwritten Note to Truman, May 8, 1948

“To the Best Boss I ever had, And a Great American who has contributed more to the development of ‘The Institution of the Presidency’ and ‘The Government of the Constitution’ than this generation will know, with affection and appreciation. / Jim Webb”

 

“Statement by the President to the Secretary of Defense, the Secretaries of the Three Departments, and the Three Chiefs of Staff,” May 13, 1948, 10 pp.

“In making my statement to Congress, I did not contemplate more than the development of a military posture which would give evidence of continuing firmness in world affairs.”

“Unless world conditions deteriorate much further and the present period of tension became a period of crisis, I would not propose to submit a budget for the military establishment, military training program, and stockpiling in excess of about $15 billion for 1950 with the expectation that in the following year the allocation for these purposes would not exceed $15 billion.”

“Therefore, as Commander in Chief, I am issuing in writing instructions as outlined in the memoranda which I will give you. I expect these orders to be carried out wholeheartedly, in good spirit, and without mental reservation.”

 

Truman Typed Memo to Secretary of Defense James Forrestal, Initialed in Type, July 13, 1948

“Your letter of the tenth with the attached memorandum which you had sent to the Security Council was most interesting, especially the memorandum. It seems to me that the proper thing for you to do is get the Army, Navy and Air people together and establish a program within the budget limits which have been allowed. It seems to me that is your responsibility.”

 

Truman Initialed Memo to Webb, September 7, 1949

“Enclosed is copy of a letter and enclosures from Bennett Clark in regard to a Mr. Max Perrott who is interested in the World Health Organization. He is a son-in-law of a good old Doctor at Chillicothe, Missouri but apparently he is not an American citizen. If you decide that there is a way to put in a word for him I’ll appreciate it.”

 

Basil O’Connor, Abraham Feinberg, and Clark Clifford Telegram to James Webb, December 25, 1952

“NEWLY REORGANIZED BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE HARRY S TRUMAN LIBRARY, INC. UNDER HONORARY CHAIRMANSHIP CHIEF JUSTICE VINSON, IS PLANNING DINNER AT 7:30 PM JANUARY 8, 1953, STATLER HOTEL WASHINGTON, WITH PRESIDENT TRUMAN AS GUEST OF HONOR, FOR PURPOSE DISCUSSING PLANS TO BUILD A LIBRARY AND RESEARCH CENTER AT GRANDVIEW, MISSOURI, TO HOUSE PRESIDENT’S HISTORIC PAPERS AND UPON COMPLETION TO BE GIVEN TO THE UNITED STATES.”

The Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum was dedicated in Independence, Missouri, on July 6, 1957.

 

Anne O’Hare McCormick, “Truman’s Claim to Fame Rests on Foreign Policy,” January 19, 1953, New York Times clipping

“Already, indeed, his domestic policies, hotly controversial as they are, are being forgotten, or at least slurred over, in the resume of his foreign policies. The shift of emphasis is inevitable, for the two decades of Democratic rule have witnessed a revolution in American foreign policy—not because the Democrats were in power but because their term coincided with a convulsion that catapulted the United States to a position of world leadership it could not evade.... Mr. Truman will be remembered in the annals for the reason that he rose out of petty politics to great occasions and took great steps without hesitation or dismay. He carried the revolution of policy much further than Mr. Roosevelt did.”

 

Rose A. Conway, Secretary to Truman, Typed Letter Signed, to Webb, February 23, 1961

“Mr. Truman is out of the city and was not here to receive your letter of the 8th. It will, of course, he brought to his attention on his return early in March.”

 

Rose A. Conway, Autograph Letter Signed to Webb, undated, ca. 1961

“I was delighted at the news of your appointment  My heartiest congratulations and best wishes for your continual success. / Sincerely / Rose”

President John F. Kennedy appointed Webb as director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on February 14, 1961.

 

Margaret Truman, “How Dad Fought Against His Own Nomination,” LIFE Magazine, November 24, 1972, 15 pp. (58-72)

“If there is a more lonesome feeling in the world than being President, it must be facing the near inevitability of getting the job in the worst possible way—coming in through the back door, as Dad put it. Would he end as most of the other men who had reached the White House that way had ended—beaten men, physically, spiritually and politically? While other Democrats—including his daughter—celebrated on that election night in 1944, Vice-President-elect Harry S. Truman lay awake in Kansas City, worrying.”

 

Bess Truman, Typed Letter Signed, to Webb, April 25, 1979

“I was delighted to hear from you and to know that you and Mrs. Webb are coming to Kansas City. If you will call me after you get in on May 1st, we can more easily agree on a time for the next day. I am completely free in the afternoon.”

 

 

Harry S. Truman (1884-1972), Thirty-third President of the United States. A Missouri native, Truman first won elective office in 1922, winning a judge’s seat on the Jackson County Court.  After serving several terms, Truman was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1934, and in 1940 gained national attention for his chairmanship of the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, which was eventually nicknamed “The Truman Committee.” Truman continued his political rise in 1944, when he was elected Vice-President as Franklin D. Roosevelt’s running mate. After only 82 days as Vice President, Truman was thrust into the Presidency when Roosevelt died unexpectedly. His inheritance was a world at war. Germany had surrendered, but Japan refused to give up the war. Truman, in a desperate move to avoid having to invade the Japanese mainland, ordered the deployment of two atomic bombs. They were dropped on August 6 and August 9, 1945. Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945. As President, Truman waged an undeclared war on the Soviet Union, drafting the “Truman Doctrine,” which proclaimed the United States’ willingness to provide aid to countries resisting communism. The Marshall Plan sought to strengthen the European economy in the hopes that this program, too, would prevent the spread of Soviet influence. Elected President for a full term in 1948, he also brought United States troops into the Korean War (1950-1953). In addition to his cold war activities, Truman’s administration expanded the New Deal and promoted Civil Rights initiatives.

 

James E. Webb (1906-1992) was born in North Carolina and graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1928. After serving in the Marines from 1930-1932, Webb graduated from George Washington University Law School in 1936 and gained admission to the bar of the District of Columbia. After World War II, Webb was appointed as Director of the Bureau of the Budget, a position he held from 1946 to 1949. He served as Under Secretary of State from 1949 to 1952, during the administration of Harry S. Truman. Webb resigned in 1952 and took a position in private industry. In February 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed Webb as Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a position Webb held until 1968.

 

 



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