THE ACCIDENTAL PRESIDENCY

THE ACCIDENTAL PRESIDENCY

Alonso L . Hamby

"He looked to me like a very little man as he sat. . . in the huge leather chair." Thus, Jonathan Daniels remembered Harry S. Truman waiting to be sworn in as the 33rd president of the United States on the evening of April 12, 1945. Daniels' general impression was shared by other Americans then and long afterward.
Hairy Truman was not, in fact, an unusually small man. When he took the oath of office, he stood about 5' 9" and weighed 170 pounds. Yet, somehow, to contemporary critics,...

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