“But all of us wanted”: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 316.

  “We are here today”: PP, HST, July 20, 1945, 195.

  “of lasting inspiration”: Clay, Decision in Germany, 44–45.

  “General, there is nothing”: Bradley and Blair, 444–45.

  “Uncle Joe looked”: HST Diary, July 20, 1945, Off the Record, 55.

  “immensely powerful document”: Stimson Diary, July 21, 1945.

  “successful beyond the most optimistic”: Groves Memorandum, Foreign Policy of the United States, Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), 1945, Vol. II, 1362.

  HST and Byrnes both looked pleased: Stimson Diary, July 21, 1945.

  “It was apparent”: Murphy, Diplomat Among Warriors, 273.

  “We will not recognize”: Foreign Relations of the United States, Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), 1945, Vol. II, 216.

  the Russians had no intention: Leahy, 406.

  “Started with caviar”: HST to MET and MJT, July 23, 1945, HSTL.

  “He talked to me confidently”: HST to EWT, July 22, 1945, Dear Bess, 521.

  “Watch the President”: Moran, Diaries, 303.

  “There was no pretense”: Rigdon, with Derieux, White House Sailor, 183–84.

  “swagly.” “He never came on”: Floyd Boring, author’s interview.

  “I thought it was nice”: Emilio Collado, Oral History, HSTL.

  “I’m going to mass”: HST to EWT, July 22, 1945, HSTL.

  “Although it was a target”: Stimson and Bundy, On Active Service in Peace and War, 625.

  “prosecute the war against Japan”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 391.

  “alone with his work”: Stimson Diary, July 24, 1945.

  July 23, 1945, cable: Foreign Relations of the United States, Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), 1945, Vol. II, 1374.

  “said that was just what he wanted”: Stimson Diary, July 24, 1945.

  HST wrote of a consensus: Memoirs, Vol. I, 415.

  “I asked General Marshall”: HST to Professor F. Cate, undated letter, HSTL.

  battle casualties during HST’s three months in office: Army Battle Casualties and Nonbattle Deaths in World War II, Department of the Army.

  “We had only too abundant”: Charlton Ogburn, Jr., author’s interview.

  “The basic policy of the present”: Combined Intelligence Committee Report, July 8, 1945, HSTL.

  conscription of Japanese people: The New York Times, August 5, 1985.

  “the spirit of mercy”: Bohlen, 231.

  “At no time, from 1941 to 1945”: Stimson and Bundy, 613.

  “I know FDR”: Daniels, The Man of Independence, 281.

  “I’ll say that we’ll end”: HST to EWT, July 18, 1945, Dear Bess, 519.

  “It is just the same as artillery”: The New York Times, May 3, 1959.

  “We knew the Japanese were determined”: Lilienthal, Journals, Vol. II, 198.

  A petition drawn up: Wyden, Day One, 180.

  “Are not the men”: Compton, 242.

  “It is hard to imagine”: Evan J. Young of Clinton Laboratories to M.D. Whittaker, undated, HSTL.

  “What a question”: Compton, 247.

  “The historic fact”: Churchill, 553.

  “Truman made no decision”: George Elsey, author’s interview.

  “The final decision”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 419.

  HST later told Arthur Compton: Compton, 245.

  “I casually mentioned to Stalin”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 416.

  Stalin’s response offhand: Bohlen, 237.

  “If he had had the slightest idea”: Churchill, 580.

  “not grasped the importance”: Byrnes, 263.

  “No one who played”: Ibid., 265.

  “We have discovered”: HST Diary, July 25, 1945, Off the Record, 55.

  “The idea of using the bomb”: Harriman and Abel, 490.

  “We are asking for the reorganization”: Foreign Relations of the United States, Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), 1945, Vol. II, 360.

  “If a government”: Ibid.

  an iron fence had descended: Ibid., 362.

  “I do not want to fight”: Foreign Relations of the United States, Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), 1945, Vol. II, 313.

  “The question is not ripe”: Ibid., 373.

  Churchill full of foreboding: Moran, 306.

  “What a pity”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 389.

  old order passing: HST Diary, July 30, 1945, Off the Record, 58.

  It was too bad about Churchill: HST to MET and MJT, July 28, 1945, HSTL.

  “enslaved as a race”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 392–93.

  “kill it with silence”: Sherwin, A World Destroyed, 236.

  “Mr. Attlee is not so keen”: HST to MET and MJT, July 29, 1945, HSTL.

  “We shall see”: HST to EWT, July 29, 1945, Dear Bess, 522.

  HST in an optimistic mood: Forrestal Diaries, 79.

  “The time schedule on Groves’ ”: Foreign Relations of the United States, Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), 1945, Vol. II, 1374.

  “Suggestion approved”: Declassified “Urgent—Top Secret Message,” Stimson to HST, July 30, 1945: HST’s handwritten message on back, HSTL.

  “Everything seemed momentous”: Elsey, author’s interview.

  “We have accomplished a very great deal”: HST to EWT, July 25, 1945, Dear Bess, 521.

  “Pray for me”: HST to EWT, July 29, 1945, ibid., 522.

  “We are at an impasse”: HST Diary, July 30, 1945, Off the Record, 58.

  “It is a question of give and take”: PP, HST, August 9, 1945, 209.

  foolishness in the extreme: Kennan, Memoirs, 259, 290.

  “Marshal Stalin I have accepted”: Murphy, 278.

  Stalin broke in: Ibid., 279.

  HST called Russians pigheaded: HST to MET and MJT, July 31, 1945, HSTL.

  “police government”: HST Diary, July 26, 1945, Off the Record, 57.

  “They went away”: Donovan, 73.

  “I like Stalin”: HST to EWT, July 29, 1945, Dear Bess, 522.

  “The President seemed to have been”: Ayers Diary, August 7, 1945, HSTL.

  Stalin was a fine man: Wallace, The Price of Vision, 490.

  “Stalin is as near”: Daniels, The Man of Independence, 23.

  “an innocent idealist”: HST to Dean Acheson, March 15, 1957, unsent, Off the Record, 348–49.

  “for operational purposes”: Foreign Relations of the United States, Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), 1945, Vol. II, 1321.

  Discussion of Poland’s frontier: Ibid., 597–601.

  Stalin on HST: Khrushchev, Khrushchev Remembers, 221.

  “That will save two days”: HST to MET and MJT, July 31, 1945, HSTL.

  HST found the King “very pleasant”: HST Diary, August 5, 1945, Off the Record, 59.

  “Here was the greatest news story”: Smith, Thank You, Mr. President, 256.

  “completely rested”: Official log of the Augusta, HSTL.

  “Results clear-cut”: Memoirs, Vol. 1, 421.

  “This is the greatest thing”: Smith, 257.

  “Big bomb dropped”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 421.

  “Please keep your seats”: The New York Times, August 7, 1945.

  “He was not actually laughing”: Smith, 258.

  “We were all excited”: Elsey, author’s interview.

  “Sixteen hours ago”: PP, HST, August 6, 1945, 196–200.

  “But even if my legs”: Kansas City Star, July 28, 1965.

  “Some of our scientists”: Leahy Diary, August 8, 1945, LC.

  “ultimatum to end all ultimatums”: The New York Times, August 8, 1945.

  Stimson and Marshall worried: Mosley, Marshall. Hero for Our Times, 338.

  “Additional bombs”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 420.

  “For the second time”: L.A. Times, August 9, 1945.

  Russell telegram to HST: Richard B. Russell to HST, undated, HSTL.

  HST note to Russell: HST to Richard B. Russell, August 9, 1945, HSTL.

  “I realize the tragic significance”: PP, HST, August 9, 1945, 212.

  “Would it not be wondrous?”: Washington Times, August 6, 1985.

  “Could we continue”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 428.

  Stimson said the emperor: Ibid.

  “we’d tell ’em how to keep him”: HST Diary, August 10, 1945, Off the Record, 61.

  “subject to the Supreme Commander”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 429.

  “all those kids”: Wallace, 474.

  “Nearly every crisis seems to be”: HST to MET and MJT, August 12, 1945, HSTL.

  “it began like the days”: Ayers Diary, August 14, 1945, HSTL.

  “might get a story”: Sue Gentry, author’s interview.

  “I have received this afternoon”: PP, HST, August 14, 1945, 216.

  “I felt deeply moved”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 437.

  “This is a great day”: The New York Times, August 15, 1945.

  “The only thing new”: Miller, Plain Speaking, 69.

  “Everyone had been going”: HST to MET and MJT, August 17, 1945, Off the Record, 62.

  Part Four

  11. The Buck Stops Here

  “Everybody wants something”: HST to MET and MJT, September 22, 1945, HSTL.

  more prima donnas per square foot: HST to MET and MJT, October 23, 1945, HSTL.

  “You can’t do anything worthwhile”: PP, HST, October 7, 1945, 380.

  “cut out the foolishness”: Ibid., October 10, 1945, 394.

  “We must go on”: Ibid., September 6, 1945, 291.

  Wallace’s estimate of drop in GNP: Wallace, The Price of Vision, 495.

  “The Congress are balking”: HST to MET and MJT, October 23, 1945, HSTL.

  “Anything else, Mr. President?”: PP, HST, September 18, 1945, 326.

  “If anyone in the government”: HST to EWT, June 22, 1945, Dear Bess, 523.

  “The pressure here”: HST to MET and MJT, October 13, 1945, HSTL.

  “We can’t stand another global war”: PP, HST, October 7, 1945, 381.

  “did everything…mouth of a cannon”: Quoted in Phillips, The Truman Presidency, 129.

  “in the doldrums”: Ayers Diary, October 19, 1945, HSTL.

  call for universal military training: PP, HST, October 23, 1945, 404, 413.

  HST shows new presidential flag: Ibid., October 25, 1945, 415–417.

  “It was disintegration”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 509.

  “Tiny lines had grown”: Gunther, Procession, 260.

  Encounter with Oppenheimer: Lilienthal, Journals, Vol. II, 118.

  “See what a son-of-a-bitch”: Quoted in Wallace, 519.

  Marshall ends call abruptly: Miller, Plain Speaking, 252.

  “paid much less attention”: Samuel Rosenman, Oral History, HSTL.

  “Mr. President, you should know”: Wallace, 530.

  “wild accidents”: Quoted in Lerner, Actions and Passions, 219.

  “one of the most hazardous”: Time, December 8, 1947.

  “Well I’m here in the White House”: HST to EWT, December 28, 1945, Dear Bess, 523–24.

  “able and conniving”: HST Diary, July 7, 1945, in Ferrell, ed, Off the Record, 49.

  “I told him I did not like”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 550.

  “a horse’s ass”: Clifford quoted in Jonathan Daniels interview notes, HSTL.

  Acheson impressions of HST: Acheson, Present at the Creation, 136.

  HST longhand letter for Byrnes: HST to James F. Byrnes, January 5, 1946, unsent, Off the Record, 79–80

  “1946 is our year of decision”: PP, HST, January 3, 1946, 1.

  “This is a disaster”: Quoted in Goulden, The Best Years 1945–1950, 113.

  “I personally think there is”: PP, HST, January 24, 1946, 92.

  The “blunt truth”: Time, January 14, 1946.

  Chicago Tribune cartoon: Reprinted in Time, February 4, 1946.

  “at best, undistinguished”: MacKaye, “Things Are Different in the White House,” Saturday Evening Post, April 20, 1946.

  People were “befuddled”: HST to MET and MJT, January 23, 1946, HSTL.

  “An oil man”: Ayers Diary, January 18, 1946, HSTL.

  Ickes resignation: The New York Times, February 14, 1946.

  a chronic “resigner”: Quoted in Miller, 226.

  “There would have been no rest”: HST to MET and MJT, February 7, 1946, HSTL.

  American Mercury article: Crawford, “Everyman in the White House,” February 1946.

  “appears to consider it necessary”: Leahy Diary, February 21, 1946, LC.

  Stalin statement on war: Donovan, 187.

  Justice Douglas reaction: Ibid.

  “I will call you Harry”: Ross Diary, March 7, 1946, HSTL.

  “Harry, what does a sequence count?”: Quoted in Daniels, The Man of Independence, 279.

  “He took a boy’s delight”: Ross Diary, March 7, 1946, HSTL.

  Churchill wish to be born American: Gilbert, Winston Churchill. Never Despair, 146.

  “You stop drinking”: Ibid., 147.

  “do nothing but good”: Ibid.

  HST and Churchill on eagle’s head: Ross Diary, March 9, 1946, HSTL.

  “Iron curtain” speech: Quoted in Gilbert, 198.

  HST denies knowing what Churchill would say: Wallace, 558.

  HST pleads “no comment”: PP, HST, March 8, 1946, 145.

  “the Long Telegram”: Donovan, 187–88.

  “here and now”: Matt Connelly Papers, HSTL.

  “He was in his study”: Ross Diary, March 23, 1946, HSTL.

  Mary Jane’s reaction to HST press conference: Mary Jane Truman, Oral History, HSTL.

  492Life article: Busch, “A Year of Truman,” April 8, 1946.

  “Here is to be seen”: The New York Times Magazine, April 7, 1946.

  494Time article: May 6, 1946.

  “I can hold a Cabinet meeting”: PP, HST, May 2, 1946, 227.

  “Big money has too much”: HST to MET and MJT, January 23, 1946, HSTL.

  “I’m going to give you the gun”: Quoted in Daniels, 325.

  “We have a society”: The New York Times, May 22, 1946.

  “That’s the way he is”: Ibid., May 26, 1946.

  a “complicated”: J. C. Truman, author’s interview.

  “This was the fifth day”: Ayers Diary, May 23, 1946, HSTL.

  HST meeting with veterans: Washington Star, May 24, 1946.

  “There were poignant scenes”: Newsweek, June 3, 1946.

  Telegrams flooding the White House: White House Correspondence File, HSTL.

  “At home those of us”: HST speech draft, undelivered, Clifford Papers, HSTL.

  “In the manner of Lincoln”: Phillips, 115.

  “I’d never been in the White House”: Clark Clifford, author’s interview.

  “Alone of all the Truman entourage”: Quoted in Allen and Shannon, The Truman Merry-Go-Round, 61.

  “The President is intelligent”: Clifford, with Holbrooke, Counsel to the President, 274.

  “I come before the American people”: PP, HST, May 24, 1946, 274.

  “He said they had verbally agreed”: Clifford interview, Daniels notes, HSTL.

  “For the past two days”: PP, HST, May 25, 1946, 277.

  “Spotlights ablaze”: New Republic, June 3, 1946.

  “he could be tough”: The New York Times, May 26, 1946.

  “Draft men who strike”: New Republic, June 3, 1946.

  “I was the servant”: Film Collection, HSTL.

  “Nothing about the Wallace affair”: George Elsey, author’s interview.

  “If Mr. Slaughter is right”: PP, HST, July 18, 1946, 350.

  HST’s health: Ross Diary, July 20, 1946, HSTL.

  “Had the most awful day”: HST to MET and MJT, July 31, 1946, HSTL.

  “She’s on the way out”: HST to EWT, August 9, 1946, Dear Bess, 530.

  “Be good and be tough”: MT [Margaret Truman] to HST, June 14, 1946, Truman, Letters from Father, 142.

  “I still have a number of bills”: HST to EWT, August 10, 1946, Dear Bess, 530.

  “It’s just wonderful”: MacDonald, “President Truman’s Yacht,” Naval History, Winter 1990.

  “See, he had no airs”: Clifford, author’s interview.

  “He always plays a close hand”: Ted Marks, Oral History, HSTL.

  “The Williamsburg”: MacDonald, “President Truman’s Yacht.”

  “This is a paradise”: HST to MT, August 23, 1946, Truman, Letters from Father, 69.

  “did all sorts of antics”: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 366.

  “The furniture was taking headers”: HST to EWT, September 2, 1946, Dear Bess, 534.

  “Night before last”: HST to EWT, September 9, 1946, ibid., 535.

  disliked living there: HST to EWT, September 3, 1946, ibid., 534.

  “You better lock your door”: Truman, Letters from Father, 144.

  “I’m in the middle”: HST to EWT, September 10, 1946, Dear Bess, 536.

  HST press conference: PP, HST, September 12, 1946, 426–29.

  “If the President”: Ross Diary, September 21, 1946, HSTL.

  Wallace account: Wallace, 612–13.

  tried to skim through it: HST Diary, September 17, 1946, Off the Record, 94.

  Reston column: The New York Times, September 13, 1946.

  “The criticism continued to mount”: Ross Diary, September 21, 1946, HSTL.

  “I’m still having Henry Wallace trouble”: HST to MET and MJT, September 18, 1946, HSTL.

  “Henry told me”: HST to EWT, September 20, 1946, Dear Bess, 539.

  “Everything’s lovely”: Quoted in Acheson, 192.

  “Henry is the most peculiar fellow”: HST to MET and MJT, September 20, 1946, HSTL.

  “He wants to disband”: Quoted in Donovan, 227.

  Byrnes telegram: Byrnes, Speaking Frankly, 241–42.

  “so nice about it”: HST to EWT, September 21, 1946, Dear Bess, 539.

  “I would rather be anything”: HST to MET and MJT, September 20, 1946, HSTL.

  “No man in his right mind”: HST to MT, September 9, 1946, Truman, Letters from Father, 71.

  “a liar, double-crosser”: HST to MT, September 17, 1946, ibid., 75.

  “Sept. 26, 1918”: HST Diary, September 26, 1946, Off the Record, 98.

  Ickes called him “stupid”: Time, September 30, 1946.

  32 percent poll results: Gallup, The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion 1935–1971, 604.

  “Nothing on meat”: PP, HST, October 10, 1946, 447.

  Truman continues electronic surveillance: Gentry, J. Edgar Hoover, 344.

  “The shrill pitch of abuse”: Time, October 28, 1946.