Harry S. Truman Quotes
No one who has not had the responsibility can really understand what it is like to be President, not even his closest aides or members of his immediate family. There is no end to the chain of responsibility that binds him, and he is never allowed to forget that he is President.
Truman, Harry S. Memoirs by Harry S. Truman: Volume One, Year of Decisions. Doubleday & Company, 1955, p. ix.
He had asked Acheson to be Secretary of State and Acheson told the President that he did not feel qualified to do the job. Acheson then accepted.
Few high ranking officers, or officials of civilian organizations, take the responsibility for subordinates not understanding instructions.
Explaining why the President didn't have more press conferences:
Leadership is a skill that has eluded many of the most brilliant people in the world. Science is one of the most difficult environments in which to exercise leadership. By nature authority comes from logic and observation and not structure or position. Yet large scientific projects need some kind of organization and management.
Harry S. Truman was an American politician who served as the 33rd President of the United States (1945–53). He served as a United States Senator from Missouri (1935–45) and briefly as Vice President (1945) before he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945 upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was president during the final months of World War II, and approved the plan to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Truman was elected in his own right in 1948. He presided over an uncertain domestic scene as America sought its path after the war and tensions with the Soviet Union increased, marking the start of the Cold War.
