Book Review: The Truman Legacy
Waxler has written a well-documented, well-researched book filled with historical facts that present a somewhat convincing hypothesizes on the policies of Harry Truman during his presidency including how American post World War II foreign policies led to the emergence of communist and radical Islamic nations.
To be sure, Truman's foreign policy decisions have been scrutinized more extensively than most other presidents. The firing of General Macarthur, the Korean War, and Truman's handling of the Soviet Union filled Truman's years in office with controversy, beginning with him allowing the Soviet Union to invade Berlin without the use of other Allied forces. However, this was done by the urging of Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, World War II allied commander and military strategists.
Waxler writes Truman fired MacArthur for offering a plan for an American victory by refusing MacArthur's request to bomb communist China with nuclear weapons. Waxler points out this resulted in more years of bloodshed with over 54,000 Americans killed and thousands more wounded. What, however, would have been the consequences if nuclear weapons had been used? As it was, nearly 2.5 million civilians on both sides had been killed, wounded or missing.
Truman and his advisors and cabinet members, as well as elected leaders, were adamant against the use of nuclear weapons. They too saw the value of a "Limited War" - limited in time, in location, in objectives, and in means. The concept of limited war was also used in the Vietnam War by the United States under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson as part of a strategy to contain the spread of Communism without provoking a wider confrontation with the Soviet Union. When this book was written in 2002, President George W. Bush was waging a limited war in Iraq and later in Afghanistan.
Waxler writes "Limited War has been a failure because we refuse to go on the offensive and use all of our resources to defeat the enemy." In this reviewer's option, it would be foolish to use nuclear weapons in a total war. The results would a nuclear holocaust with no winners.
In defense of Truman's presidency, it was a turning point in foreign affairs, as the United States engaged in an internationalist foreign policy and renounced isolationism; something the American public favored in WW I and WW II until the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Truman helped establish the United Nations in 1945 (although its effectiveness might be in question), issued the Truman Doctrine in 1947 to contain Communism, and got the $13 billion Marshall Plan enacted to rebuild Western Europe. Truman oversaw the Berlin Airlift of 1948 and the creation of NATO in 1949. However, he was unable to stop Communists from taking over China.
The author wrote his book in 2002 with a postscript added in 2006. Because it is slightly dated, some of what he wrote has been eclipsed. For instance, Iran stopped working on its nuclear capabilities due to negotiating with European nations - including Russia. Osama bin-Laden was killed by SEAL Team 6. The top leadership of ISIS has been killed either by special operations forces or strategic bombing and 40% of the territory they captured in Syria has been reclaimed, thanks in large part to Russians bombing their strongholds.
The world that took shape under Truman, starkly divided into hostile, nuclear-armed camps, would largely hold its shape for more than four decades dictating the policy of limited war.
Recommend this book to those who want to find out how Truman's legacy did in fact lead to the emergence of communist and radical Islamic nations.
About the Author
Born in Springfield, Mass., M. Lawrence Waxler served four years in the U.S. Air Force during the tumultuous years of the Cold War. He was stationed at Brize-Norton, a British Royal Air Force base shared with the U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command (SAC) near Oxford, England. In July 1958, his SAC bomb wing squadron was ordered to Torrejon, Spain, just north of Madrid. This was in response to Soviet Premier Khrushchev’s warning of military intervention during the Lebanon crisis if America sent military forces to assist in the threat of a civil war between Maronite Christians and Muslims. Ignoring the Khrushchev’s threat, American land and naval force arrived on July 16, 1958. The Soviets backed down from this show of force.
Four years later Waxler became a civilian technical advisor for SAC Bomb Wing at Homestead AFB, Florida during the period between the Bay of Pigs political fiasco (1961) and the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962). He then worked as a logistical Administrator in Miami-Dade County, Florida.