This caption, and others on this "site" are cast in interrogative form, since I wish to avoid charges of propaganda, etc. I'll simply present certain information and ask you to judge.

Certainly, the first "undeclared war" of the 20th Century occurred under my fellow Missourian's administration, apparently scoffing at the Constitutional power of Congress to declare war.

I've long followed Truman's career, since my father, Herman Hays, told me repeatedly about helping Truman be elected to this first (County) office. Dad was influential in the local Odd Fellows Lodge and took Truman there to get support.

Dad was quite happy when Truman was elected Senator. But I'd read stories in the Kansas City Star about his being the candidate of "Boss" Tom Pendergast, one of the most powerful political bosses in American history. So I lacked some of my father's enthusiasm.

But Truman performed an important service during World War II by investigating contractors who sold shoddy good to the Military Service. (You learn about this sort of thing in Arthur Miller's play, All Our Sons, filmed in 1950 with Edward G. Robinson and Burt Lancaster.)

In 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt selected Truman to run with him as Vice Presidential Candidate. Roosevelt was elected for his fourth term, but died in the spring of 1945, and Truman became President.

I have always questioned three actions of Truman:

• Ordering Nuclear Bombs to be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, after the young scientists (who helped develop the bombs) had been promised that the bombs would only be dropped on Germany because of the oppression of Jews and Gypsies and various nonsemitic scientists and artists and intellectuals.
• Creating the CIA.
• Ordering thousands of young men and women into a "Police Action" in Korea without declaring war.

The latter created a precedent which has been followed over and over since that time.

Not only do I question the wisdom of it, but I also believe that Veterans have suffered because of it.

UNDECLARED WARS:

1. Korea
2. Vietnam
3. Dominican Republic
4. Grenada
5. Panama
6. El Salvador
7. The Gulf
8. Kosovo.

We clumsily avoided this is Haiti.

Another possible coverup concerns President Truman's firing of General Douglas MacArthur in Korea.