Harry & Arthur: Truman, Vandenberg, and the Partnership that Created the Free World.

• Author: Handley, John M.
• Position: Book review

Harry & Arthur: Truman, Vandenberg, and the Partnership that Created the Free World.

By Lawrence J. Haas

Potomac Books, University of Nebraska Press, April 2016

ISBN: 9 781612 348124

304 pages including notes and bibliography

Historians largely credit President Truman with implementing four important, world changing, critical policies that ensured the role of US influence, for good or ill, in a post-World War II planet. The Truman administration accomplished most of these objectives in the early years of Truman's first term. These four objectives included the establishment of the United Nations to replace the defunct League of Nations; Congressional funding of the Truman Doctrine to provide assistance to states threatened by Communism, specifically Greece and Turkey; Congressional funding of the Marshall Plan to assist Western Europe's recovery from the economic devastation of World War II; and the establishment of NATO to defend Western Europe from potential Soviet aggression. Larry Haas makes it abundantly clear that none of these four major accomplishments could have come to fruition had not Senator Vandenberg not only provided specific support to President Truman but also rounded up enough Republican senatorial votes to ensure passage of and funding for these programs within a Republican-dominated Senate.

The author describes in interesting detail the discussions between Truman and Vandenberg on how to gain both Congressional and domestic support for these four political objectives, pointing out the relatively rapid creation of a program based on their agreement on the issue at hand. Of course, such agreement only occurred when Truman treated Vandenberg as an equal policy maker on foreign affairs, seeking his advice and support. Hass also explores the many times when discussion on any one of these...