[p class="rdheadline"]Mr. President, you're no Harry Truman[/p] [p class="rdbyline"]By [a href="mailto:
[email protected]"]MARIANNE MEANS[/a]
SYNDICATED COLUMNIST[/p] [div id="piStorytext"]WASHINGTON -- President Bush has taken to talking a lot about former President Truman these days, implying that like Truman -- vilified in the 1950s for the Korean War but vindicated by history -- he, too, will grow in stature as the Iraq mess fades.[/p] This is a political insult to Truman of epic proportions. President Bush has a lot of gall.[/p] It registers, in fact, at about the level of Sen. Dan Quayle's comparing himself to Sen. (and later President) John F. Kennedy. That exaggeration prompted Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, Quayle's Democratic vice presidential rival in 1988, to deliver one of the most famous comebacks in politics: "I knew Jack Kennedy, Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine" Bentsen said. "Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."[/p] The world knew Bentsen was correct; Quayle became vice president, but was finished as a potential presidential candidate.[/p] Bush has persisted in this act of imaginary presidential twinning for some months now, as his approval ratings faltered and the ill-fated Iraq war slid south. He discussed his admiration of Truman's military strength at his commencement address at West Point this year, praising Truman's standing up to the Soviet Union during the post-World War II period of the Cold War.[/p] He referred to Truman repeatedly in this year's campaign season, seeking to contrast Truman's toughness with "cut- and-run" Democrats who disagreed with him on Iraq.[/p] And last week he presented the Medal of Freedom to historian David McCullough, author of a popular, flattering biography of Truman. The portrait McCullough painted in his 1992 book, written 20 years after Truman's death, was that of an elder statesman who had been steadfast in the noble defense of America against the Soviets.[/p] Truman met the leadership test of his generation, as Bush likes to think he is meeting the great test of ours in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. He is comforting himself with the notion that just as Truman was vindicated by history, so too shall Bush one day be recognized as America's stalwart against the terrorist threat, with Iraq as Exhibit A.[/p] Bush's approval rating is currently in the mid 30s; after the inflammatory firing of the popular Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Truman's standing fell into the 20s.[/p] Truman, according to McCullough, considered the firing of MacArthur as among the most important decisions he made as president. He paid a painful although temporary political price for it, although some said it showed great courage. Truman himself dismissed the courage idea.[/p] "Didn't have anything to do with it," he said, " Gen. MacArthur was insubordinate and I fired him. That's all there was to it."[/p] Nobody, interestingly, has suggested that Bush's firing of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was courageous. Instead, the wonder is why it took the president so long.[/p] It was the Korean War that drove Truman's reputation into the basement, as the Iraqi war is doing to Bush's.[/p] But Truman also had some significant achievements, and Bush has none. He dropped the atom bomb twice to shorten World War II in the Pacific. He put his administration behind the United Nations, the Marshall Plan, and the Berlin airlift; he recognized the new nation of Israel.[/p] Although it took President Eisenhower to forge an armistice to end the Korean War, it turned out to be a triumph for Truman too.[/p] Military aggression had been stopped, although at a bloody cost. The United Nations had prevailed against invaders.[/p] And by firing MacArthur he had upheld the principle of civilian control over the military. Yes, he had his cronies and his scandals, but they seem petty compared to the overarching corruption of the Bush years.[/p] Truman was appalled by Kennedy's misadventure at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba, which in retrospect seems as ill-informed as Bush's invasion of Iraq. It is hard to imagine that Truman would have endorsed Bush's addled plan.[/p] That goes for his chief advisers as well; Rumsfeld was sent off into retirement with praise for being a great defense secretary -- never mind that little matter of botching a war.[/p][/div][a href="vny!://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/296809_means22.html?source=mypi"] vny!://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/296809_means22.html?source=mypi[/a]
