Customer Reviews

Truman Tapes

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These comments are for the audio book version of "The Truman Tapes - In His Own Voice" by Caedmon Audio. This book contains 2 audiocassette tapes and total run time of 3 hours.

The subject of this audio book are several interviews with President Truman recorded in 1962-64 and 1977. There is a noticeable choppiness of the audio tract since the editor grouped comments on the same topic that were recorded at different time. Once I understood that the recordings were made several years apart I was not distracted from the content or presentation.

To say the President Truman was outspoken would be an understatement. I have listened to these interviews several times and as my knowledge of U.S. History and the Presidency has, hopefully, increased they become all the more relevant. Truman does not double-talk or avoid answering a "hard' question. His responses are clear and unambiguous - how refreshing! Two issues I found of particularly interest was the discussion concerning the dropping the atomic bomb on Japan and the firing of General MacArthur.

Truman had a sharp sense of humor. He recounts the origin of the expression "Give Them Hell, Harry". Truman states that he never gave anyone hell, "I just told the truth and they thought it was hell". He tells of the intense criticism he received for some of his controversial decision: "I was called every name in the book, but I did not care as long as they could not prove it".

This audio book is highly recommended. Hearing Truman discuss his Presidency is enlightening, educational and entertaining.

This tape contains a series of excerpts from interviews with Truman made after his presidency. Subjects like atomic bombing of Japan, and the Marshall Plan (putting money into industrial development in formerly Axis Europe after WWII) are, obviously, brought up. He also gets asked about family and early politics. One of the interesting points he is asked about is racism, which was done via government intervention while Trumans was making a career, but was no longer so at the time of the interviews. Truman answers by talking about being poor and his father's being working class.

What struck me most about the interviews was that Truman frequently says kind of colorful things. For example he is happy about atom bombing Japan and so ending the war. He still does the politician thing of not saying so much substantive (except for when he's telling anecdotes about his childhood and other non-political things). Partially he uses antiquated expressions. It still isn't clear to me how much of him not being PC is just an older way of being PC which sounds strange now.

This was a fairly interesting listen for a