Presidential Libraries and Museums

Presidential Libraries

Started our quest to visit most of the twelve presidential libraries in the next year.

Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kansas visited on July 16, 2009 and Truman Library in Independence, MO was visited on the next day.

Eisenhower Library
What would Abilene be like without Ike? Greyhound Hall of Fame might not be the draw that the Eisenhower Library and Museum are today.

First of Many visits to the Libraries, however, the libraries are usually just for research and not open to the public, however they usually have museums and other structures related to the president they are honoring. For instance, Ike’s library is on the grounds of his childhood home and Museum. Truman’s library is on the same grounds as the museum but his house is a mile away.

Tom and Ike have a few things in common:

Ike was at Ft Lewis
Ike married while a second lieutenant
Ike liked fly fishing
Both chose really smart women to marry
Amazing isn’t it?

Ike was wooed by both Democrats and Republicans, appears to be only wrong choice he ever made.

Eisenhower in German means Man of Iron or works with Iron.

My big chair would not fit in the Eisenhower’s living room in their home in Abilene.

Ike signed the legislation that made the Federal Government the caretakers at the presidential libraries. The facilities are paid for by private donations but the government runs the libraries.

Tom’s first recollection of the presidency was a bet he made with Inez Carpenter when he was six years old (one dollar) that Adali Stevenson would beat Ike in the 1952 election. Tom lost the bet but Inez wouldn’t take his money. Tom never bet against Ike again.

As the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces for D Day Ike did the impossible. Was there ever a command position with so much resting on it or with so many challenges? Can you imagine what went through his mind prior to the invasion? I think this moment in history ranks at the top of the important points in the last 100 years. Thank God we had the right guy in the right job at the right time.


Harry Truman Library

Truman was the opposite of Eisenhower. Ike was not a politician. Truman was the consummate politician. It was through a local businessman that Truman owed his political roots all the way to the senate. He was selected as VP for FDR without much experience, but amazingly he found himself in the presidency and became an amazingly effective leader especially at the beginning as World War II was coming to an end. I found it amazing that these two men that grew up less then 200 miles apart were such enemies. After Eisenhower took over the presidency from Truman he never invited Truman to the White House in the eight years IKE served.

Truman was the original champion of national health insurance. He failed to get the legislation approved during his tenure, but when LBJ got Medicare through congress he went to Independence to sign the bill in the presence of Harry Truman.

I would think that Truman’s “D-Day” was the decision he had to make shortly into his presidency of whether to drop the A Bomb on Japan. It was interesting to read the comments people were leaving at the exhibit on whether Truman should have dropped the bomb. I would have thought this many years after the fact that people would be a bit more introspective about this moment in history, but most of the comments didn’t really reflect much thought about the impact of the bombs on our world 60 years later.