Commemorating Harry Truman and the end of World War II

Changing his glasses, putting on a hat and modifying his voice, Clifton Truman Daniel transformed himself into his famous grandfather, President Harry Truman, and told a Sept. 2 National Press Club audience, “I never saw myself as president.

“I was just in the right place at the wrong damn time," he said. "Lots of folks could do a better job, but it became mine to do, and as long as you put me here, you will get the best I’ve got. I’ve always considered myself an ordinary man. I don’t have any special personal endowments. I don’t waste my time worrying about what I don’t have. I just try to do the best with what I do have.”

What had been billed as a commemoration of the end of World War II to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the Japanese signing the articles of surrender aboard the USS Missouri turned into a commemoration of Truman and his role in creating the post-War world.

The entire program can be seen below or on the Club’s YouTube channel.

Kurt Graham, director of the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri, said historians have re-evaluated the 33rd president, who departed the White House in 1953 in the middle of the Korean conflict with low approval ratings

“Truman left office with the lowest poll numbers ever recorded,” Graham said. “He just kind of said, ‘Ah shucks. I did my best and go back to Missouri. I did what I thought I could do.’ He would be surprised today to be listed consistently as one of the five or six most important and effective presidents we have had behind Washington, Lincoln and the two Roosevelts. He died not knowing of the popularity that has come to him since.”

Yet Truman and his administration were the architects of the post-Cold War world that has survived to this day, he said.  And if that is going to be changed, it should be done extremely carefully. His decisive leadership style and downhome farmer upbringing now are admired.

For Daniel growing up, it was no great shakes being HTruman’s grandson. In fact, he didn’t even know how famous his grandpa was until he went to school.

“On the first day of first grade, the teacher asked, ‘Wasn’t your grandfather president of the United States?’" he said. "  I said, 'I don’t know. News to me. I’ll go home and check.’”

When he got home, he confronted his mother.

“Mom, did you know Grandpa Truman had been president of the United States?' he recalled. "My mother put down her book and said, ‘Yes. But just remember something, any little boy can have a grandfather who could be president. Don’t let it go to your head.’”

He said it still was not important to him until 1973, the year after Truman died. That’s when he heard the band Chicago play a song, “America Needs You, Harry Truman.”

“A rock band was singing about my grandpa," he said. "That, for me, was the turning point. That’s when his star began to rise. But grandpa predicted it. He said no president gets a fair shake until at least 20 years after he left office.”

As vice president, Truman had been photographed at the Press Club while playing the piano for soldiers, sailors and marines gathered for one of its famous canteens during World War II sponsored by the Club’s American Legion Post 20.

He did not know that Lauren Bacall’s press agent would urge her to sit atop the upright piano and drape her legs over, creating the most famous photo taken at the Club.

Daniel said Truman was not pleased because he knew what would happen when he got home.

“My grandmother was stonily quiet for a while, and then she said, ‘I don’t think you should play piano in public again.’”

In commemoration of the end of World War II and the hundreds of thousands of Americans who died fighting it, the program ended with a bugler playing taps at the World War II Memorial on the National Mall.