Churchill or Truman?

“At the end of World War II, huge swaths of Europe and Asia had been reduced to ruins.  Borders were redrawn and homecomings, expulsions, and burials were under way….   In less than a decade, the war between the Axis and the Allied powers had resulted in 80 million deaths…     Allied occupations and United Nations decisions led to many long-lasting problems for the future…   The growing tensions between Western powers and the Soviet Eastern Bloc developed into the Cold War, and the development and proliferation of nuclear weapons raised the very real specter of an unimaginable World War III…” stated The Atlantic in their article World War II: After the War.

In February 1945, three months before the defeat of Germany, the three major Allied powers met at the Yalta conference to discuss how Europe would be divided after the war.  The participants included US President Franklin D Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin.   Three months later, Germany surrendered.  Japan surrendered late August 1945, after the August 6-7 atomic attack.  The three Allied powers met again to start the monumental task of rebuilding; however, the participants had changed!

Churchill: The “British Bulldog”

Winston Churchill was largely responsible for the Allied victory, uttering some memorable lines:

“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat”

“We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land, and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.”

The British voted him out of office two months after Germany’s surrender!  His successor – Clement Attlee.  Churchill would be resigned to “watching” the aftermath of World War II from the sidelines.

Truman: The Accidental President

Harry S. Truman, - a small-town former farmer, haberdasher, county judge, and quiet Missouri Senator - was chosen to be Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1944 running mate in his successful 4th term election.  Truman became President in April 1945 – four months into his vice president term – and led the US through the end of World War II and through the beginning of the Cold War.  A.J. Baime, in his book The Accidental President, captures Truman this way –

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.

Your Question:  Which person would you want to be in the aftermath of World War II.  Churchill watching from the sideline OR Truman thrust into the position of judge and jury?