Today is the 130th Anniversary of President Harry Truman’s birth, a man of true courage and decisiveness!
Suddenly thrust into the Presidency on April 12, 1945, he made tough decisions to use the atomic bomb on Japan to end World War II; waged the Cold War with the Soviet Union; recognized the new nation of Israel; integrated the armed forces by executive order, leading the fight for civil rights; and took us into the Korean War, preventing the loss of South Korea to Communism, with South Korea today one of the leading economies in the world, and a democratic nation!
On his 61st birthday, one month after taking over the Presidency, we saw the end of the war in Europe, and the celebration of V-E Day, and although there was still a few more months of war, the “Greatest Generation” had succeeded in fighting Fascism and Nazism, and saved democracy in the world!
So this is a day to salute not only President Truman, but the millions of soldiers who fought in World War II, many of them sacrificing their lives, and the number of living veterans dwindling rapidly every day, 69 years after the war ended!