"Mr. Bush, you're no Harry Truman"
Bush compared himself to Harry Truman over the weekend. Bush may want to be seen as Trumanesque but he is the antithesis of everything Harry Truman stood for.
In a graduation speech at West Point on Saturday (May 27), George W. Bush had the effrontery to compare himself with President Harry S Truman. This latest flight of fancy only demonstrates once again Bush’s unerring tendency to see the world as he wishes it were and not as it really is.
It’s true that Truman was deeply unpopular in the second half of his Presidency, thanks mainly to the Korean War and Truman’s decision to fire MacArthur. But the similarities between the Bush and Truman wars end there. The differences are far more striking:
- The Korean War was a UN response to North Korea’s invasion of South Korea, not a unilateral invasion by the United States and a small band of allies;
- Truman did not manufacture the evidence for the Korean War and lie about it to take the country into war;
- The Korean War lasted 1,128 days. If Bush were operating on the same timeline starting May 1, 2003, the Iraq War would be over this coming Friday, June 2<sup>nd</sup>. Instead, there is no end in sight.
Since Bush seems so eager to be compared with Truman, let’s continue.
Internationally, Truman’s first major decision was to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. He had been President for 114 days. Bush, “the Decider,” couldn’t even decide where to go or what to do in the hours after the 9/11 attacks. He had been President for 234 days. Despite the tough talk, Bush has been the apotheosis of indecision for over five years. For Truman, “the buck stops here.” For Bush, the buck stops nowhere.
Truman was responsible for the Truman Doctrine that kept Greece and Turkey out of Communist hands. He was instrumental in establishing the United Nations. The Marshall Plan was the driving force in rebuilding Europe after World War II. The Berlin Airlift was Truman’s response to Soviet attempts to overrun Berlin and occupy all of West Germany. And NATO helped contain Soviet expansion throughout the Cold War.
In Japan, Truman understood the importance to reconstruction of leaving Emperor Hirohito on the Chrysanthemum Throne (although Japanese military leaders were tried and executed). These and other initiatives burnished America’s humanitarian image around the world and led to 50 years of world leadership.
Bush, by contrast, has tarnished that image and surrendered that leadership role. His ill-defined War on Terror and ill-conceived War on Iraq have left Afghanistan and Iraq in ruins. The cost is measured in sacrificed American lives, billions of squandered dollars, and incalculable death and suffering in the Middle East. The result: one dictator deposed.
Domestically, Truman brought forth the “Fair Deal,” a visionary and far-reaching plan to provide national health insurance to all Americans, increase the minimum wage, ensure equal employment opportunity, clear slums and rebuild inner cities, and much more. The proposal was shot down by a conservative Republican Congress.
He vetoed the McCarran-Walter Act, which restricted immigration in the name of national security, calling it “un-American” and discriminatory. He also vetoed the Taft-Hartley Act, calling it a “slave labor bill.” Congress overrode both vetoes.
Truman eventually did gain an increase in the minimum wage. And, by Executive Order, he desegregated the US military.
Bush, by contrast, has yet to veto even one Congressional act or grounds of principle, practicality, or for any other reason. He has seen the number of Americans without health insurance rise to 50 million. Wages have stagnated. The infrastructure crumbles. And the Gulf Coast testifies to Bush’s continuing incompetence and indifference to cities, minorities, and the poor.
Bush’s most notable domestic accomplishments are the NSA’s ill-advised warrantless wiretaps, the deeply flawed “No Child Left Behind,” and the appointment of a Supreme Court justice who believes it’s somehow reasonable to strip-search a 10-year-old girl.
Economically, Truman managed to maintain a balanced budget for most of his Presidency. Bush, by contrast, inherited a $300+ billion budget surplus in 2001 and recklessly turned it into a nearly $400 billion deficit in five years.
Even on a personal level, Truman and Bush do not compare well. True, both men served in the National Guard. Truman enlisted as a private, fought in France in WWI as a captain, and retired in the 1930s as a full colonel. Bush, by contrast, joined the Texas Air National Guard, avoided Vietnam service, was grounded, and disappeared.
Truman and Bush were both unsuccessful entrepreneurs. The difference was that after Truman was forced out of business by high wheat prices, he worked for years to personally repay his debts in full. Bush, by contrast, ran a succession of companies into the ground, stuck his investors and creditors with the losses, and pocketed a fortune.
Bush may want to be seen as Trumanesque but he is the antithesis of everything Harry Truman stood for. I can only imagine Lloyd Bentsen’s likely reply:
“Mr. Bush, you’re no Harry Truman.”
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