Re: Learning more

[Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>]

At 01:00 PM 5/4/2001 -0400, Gernilee Carter Gramling wrote:
>   All that you say may be accurate, however according to the facts and 
>events reported in Clay Blair's book, Turman had a pesonal hatred and 
>distain for the military and its leaders. He felt personally very strongly 
>about  hobbling them and haranguing them -  basically with money, but also 
>lack of respect and due interaction.
>
>     He may have been a practical, simple minded, common sense country boy 
>and it sure did show when it came to the military.  Put simply:  he was 
>jealous of West Point and Annapolis and other high achievers, and suspecious 
>of higher education.

The name is commonly spelt "Truman", not "Turman":  in German, it orginally
mean a 'trusted person'.  In the WWII POW camps, the Germans mandated that
the lower-ranking EM's elect a 'vertruemann' to represent their interests,
by way of example.

Truman was a full-bull in the Army Reserve and resented the military's
refusal to call him to activate him in 1940.  Their reasons were simple:
he was a serving Senator from a border state, and was open to an increase
in military appropriations, while there was no guarantee his successor
would not be a Bible-Belt Isolationist Throw-Back.  The military went for
their immediate needs, but the result was an increasing paranoia on
Truman's part against career military officers and, eventually, career
bureaucrats.

Truman had many virtues as President, and was the last President of this
nation to presume that he was welcome in any venue, at any time:  he
routinely walked openly in public and ordered the Secret Service to leave
him alone.  Heavens, we would be well-served if George W would have the
same common sense and would re-open Pennsylvania Avenue as it was meant to
be open!

Marc

msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!