Harry Truman is not the subject of any episode in the excerpts; he is invoked across three episodes as a reference point in arguments about republican virtue, the financing of Medicare, and the origins of American military entanglement in Korea. The excerpts do not present a sustained treatment of his presidency, and no guest or host offers a biographical account of him.
Republican virtue and the presidency
In a discussion of whether America has become an elective monarchy, Frank H. Buckley raised Truman as an example of a president who possessed a sense of republican modesty. Buckley said that when he thought back over recent American history, the person he thought of was Harry Truman. Bob Zadek responded that he was going to say the same thing, and called Truman the last small-r republican president Has America Become an “Elective Monarchy”? (2014).
Buckley contrasted Truman with the man he ran against, Tom Dewey, whom he described as imperious and full of himself, and said that Truman was admirable, as was Eisenhower. Buckley’s point was that the ceremonial, Roman-emperor side of the presidency had increased of late, and he wondered whether this was a permanent change in the American voter. He attributed part of the change to an electorate devoid of knowledge of the Founders’ principles, referring specifically to millennials, while conceding that immigrants were nothing to write home about either Has America Become an “Elective Monarchy”? (2014).
The excerpt does not state which election Buckley was referring to, nor does it elaborate on what specific actions or qualities made Truman a small-r republican in Buckley’s view. The exchange is brief and occurs within a broader conversation about the veneration of the office.
Medicare and the question of entitlement
In an episode on the worst economic mistakes of the twentieth century, Burton Abrams cited Truman and his wife Bess as Medicare cardholders number one and two. Abrams said they paid nothing into Medicare and were major beneficiaries of the system, receiving much more in benefits than they paid in. He offered this as a trivia question and used it to illustrate that early beneficiaries of the program received far more than they contributed Worst Ten Economic Mistakes of the 20th Century (2014).
Abrams made this point in the context of a disagreement with Bob Zadek over whether retirees are entitled to Medicare benefits because they paid into the system. Zadek argued that what retirees paid in is minuscule compared with what they take out, and that Medicare is a pay-as-you-go system rather than a break-even one. Abrams agreed in part, saying that was true mostly for earlier retirees, and cited the Trumans as the extreme case. He also mentioned Ida Fuller in the same breath, and said his own parents probably received far more than they paid in, as most of the parents of his generation did Worst Ten Economic Mistakes of the 20th Century (2014).
The excerpt does not state when Medicare was established, what legislation created it, or what Truman’s role was in its creation. It states only that he and Bess were the first two cardholders and paid nothing into the system.
Korea and the origins of military entanglement
In an episode on Pax Americana, John Glaser cited Truman in an account of how the United States became entangled in Korea. Glaser said that after the Japanese surrendered in August 1945, the United States established what was supposed to be a temporary military presence in Korea. A couple of years later, General John Hodge recommended full withdrawal, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Secretary of War, and the National Security Council under Truman all recommended full withdrawal, saying Korea was of little strategic importance to the United States and that a lingering military presence could entangle the country in a war following some provocation Rethinking Pax Americana with John Glaser (2017).
Glaser said that provocation came in 1950 when the North invaded the South, and the United States got entangled in that war, fought for a number of years, and lost many soldiers. He described the war as extremely costly and brutal, and said the United States is still involved in the dispute. Bob Zadek characterized the decision to maintain a presence as purely political and contrary to the wisdom of the government’s defense specialists, saying that non-defense experts overruled the defense experts Rethinking Pax Americana with John Glaser (2017).
The excerpt does not state who made the final decision to stay, what the specific political considerations were, or what Truman himself said or did beyond the fact that the National Security Council under him recommended withdrawal. Glaser’s account places the recommendation for withdrawal in Truman’s administration but does not say Truman rejected it.
Across episodes
Truman appears in three episodes across six years, but the excerpts show no development in how he is treated: in 2014 he is cited as a model of republican modesty and as Medicare cardholder number one, in 2017 as the president whose advisers recommended leaving Korea, and in 2020 he is mentioned only in passing when John Rothmann notes that J. William Fulbright proposed reverting to a parliamentary system when Truman became president and there were questions about whether he had a popular mandate Withholding Judgment on Impeachment with John Rothmann (2020). The 2020 mention is the only one that touches on the question of presidential legitimacy, and it does not connect to the earlier discussions of virtue or entitlement.
What the sources do not cover
The excerpts do not cover Truman’s decision to use atomic weapons, the Marshall Plan, the Truman Doctrine, the Berlin Airlift, his 1948 election victory, or his relationship with Congress. They do not state when he was president, what party he belonged to, or what offices he held before the presidency. They do not describe his role in the creation of Medicare or Social Security, beyond the fact that he and Bess were the first Medicare cardholders. The excerpts also do not state what Fulbright’s proposal amounted to beyond a parliamentary system, nor what became of it.