Astonished to know that Harry Truman USA president when USA and allies won World War II, returned to his home in Missouri as private citizen on a train, and received no President pension!

Last updated on 11th July 2018

From https://www.cbsnews.com/news/did-you-know-leaving-the-white-house/

"When his eight years as President of the United States ended on January 20, 1953, private citizen Harry Truman took the train home to Independence, Missouri, mingling with other passengers along the way. He had no secret service protection. His only income was an Army pension."

From https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/02/opinion/02iht-edjacoby.4775315.html

'When Harry Truman left the White House in 1953, historian David McCullough records, "he had no income or support of any kind from the federal government other than his Army pension of $112.56 a month. He was provided with no government funds for secretarial help or office space, not a penny of expense money."

One of the reasons Truman and his wife moved back into their far-from-elegant old house in Independence, Missouri, "was that financially they had little other choice."'
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Ravi: This is truly unbelievable for me. Hmm. How things have changed in 60 to 70 years in the USA. Today's former USA presidents get significant money as President-pension and also make a ton of money on the lecture circuit.

Am seeing this video biography of Truman: American Experience Truman 1, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKPpRw_NDcE, over 2 hours. I am at around 45 minutes into the video. It is a great video however the sound is off in some parts which is pretty disappointing.

Here is Truman's wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_S._Truman. As the USA president for around 7 and a half years after the USA and allies won World War II, Truman seems to have played a vital role in creating the post World War II world order including the Marshall plan which paved the way for economic recovery and growth of Western Europe as well as NATO, the vital Western allies security alliance. In other words, USA president Truman played a very consequential role in setting up the world order that was prevalent when I became an adult in 1980 and which has been in force all through my adult life but which is now under considerable strain as newly emerged economic and military powers from Asia seek to have a bigger role in world affairs and USA seeks to get into a more isolationist role which (isolationism) seems to have been a key USA foreign policy approach prior to Harry Truman changing it after WWII.
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Part 2 of the video documentary (which has the same missing audio at times problem):
American Experience Truman 2, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9ZJOs_i1UU, around 1 hr 50 mins after which there seems to be repeat clips of this two part documentary.

I found watching this two part video documentary to be very educative about Harry Truman, about the vital role he played in creating the post World War II world order which is what I grew up in, learned my profession of software development, practised the profession to earn a decent living and then saved some money for a simple single spiritual aspirant retired from commercial work life, and which world order while under some threat, still continues to this day. I have benefited enormously from the (relative) peace and prosperity enjoyed by many countries in this world order as have so many others around the world. I thank USA president Harry Truman and his supporters and the American people in general for the great role they played in creating this post World War II world order which promoted freedom from foreign rulers, democracy and fair industrial competition and trade.

Harry Truman was not a high-powered intellectual nor a rich man. He was a good man with common sense from rural mid-West of the USA, who also was a fighter and had fought in World War I. He was quite unprepared and did not really want to become the most powerful man in the world, the president of the USA in April 1945, as USA President Roosevelt died. He is said to have remarked that there were a million people who were more qualified to do the job of president of USA (then). But it fell upon him to do the job and the documentary portrays that he did it to the very best of his ability, and did the job with dignity, honour and decency.

I am now caught up in some stuff, including some personal stuff. I intend to view these videos and wiki page of Truman again with the intention of capturing highlights of them in a public post. I also plan to buy & read a well regarded biography of Harry Truman and also Harry Truman authored memoirs. I encourage people who support democracy, freedom and fair play in industry and trade to view the above video documentary of Harry Truman, if they have not done so earlier. It will be well worth their time.

May God bless former USA president Harry Truman and his family and friends.