“President Truman was a success abroad, but a failure at home.” Assess the validity of this view.

INTRO: Truman was President from 1945 to 1952, overseeing the emerging Cold War, in which he solidified American control of Western Europe and began the fight of containing communism - to good success. However at home a number of economic issues were poorly handled and the civil rights efforts were meagre - though not to be dismissed.FOREIGN POLICY: Truman’s great foreign policy achievement was a robust American response to Soviet expansionism. The Truman Doctrine declared that the United States would aid anyone in the fight against communism, seen most successfully in Italy and the Greek Civil War. This was reinforced by Marshall Aid which aided the economic situation at home as well as preventing the spread of Soviet influence. He defeated the Berlin Blockade in 1948 and utilised the UN well to act in Korea in 1950. However, this is his major foreign policy flaw, with the Korean War ultimately destroying his popularity and preventing his re-election in 1952.DOMESTIC POLICY: Truman at home did mishandle strikes and was defeated by Congress and the Supreme Court when trying to have his own economic agenda. Furthermore, his Executive Order 9835 inadvertently led to the rise of McCarthyism, which fuelled the Second Red Scare - definitely a failure at home. His work on civil rights also did little more than to bring it onto the agenda, with his address to the NAACP and the To Secure These Rights report. His executive orders to tackle racial discrimination were diluted and housing reform also backfired. However, the US economy was extremely strong in this period, with over 50% of the world’s manufactured goods produced in the USA. Furthermore, in bringing civil rights to the fore Truman helped set an agenda of fighting racial discrimination and begun a transformative change.CONCLUSION: In conclusion, the statement’s validity is reasonably strong. Korea is the major downside to his foreign policy, but otherwise his work abroad was highly successful and set the tone for future American policy for years to come. His domestic policy was stunted and never reached its full potential.