Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Truman Library (with a little football thrown in)

There is a lot of rain coming from the Gulf caused by a Cat 1 hurricane called Barry so while we are heading home we do not want to head too quickly. In Independence, MO is Harry Truman's Presidential Library and we love to visit those so there we go. Independence is just outside Kansas City --very cute little historic town that reminds me of Franklin, TN. It is hotter than hades so we need to stay plugged in for air conditioning--what happened to our dry, cool weather of upstate Washington? So 2 nights in at Campus RV in Independence and then on to celebrate our birthday in St. Louis.
A lot happened during the Truman Presidency which began when
FDR died less than 6 mo. into his 4th term (April 1946). We took the tour
and had a great docent named Jack who had lead the tours for 25 years and we were his last.



This is the only known authorization given by Truman to allow for the dropping of the nuclear bombs
 on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end the war in the Pacific (he was in Europe and wanted to be home before it happened).
Bomb 1 was dropped on August 6th, 2 days later the Russians decided to show up, August 9th when the Japanese still
refused to surrender, we dropped bomb no. 2. For all that, the Russians still got half of Korea!


A lot came out of his time in office-- ending WWII, NATO, Marshall Plan,
Berlin Airlift, Korean War.

Iconic--he liked to take solitary walks but he and Bess seemed to be a loving couple

The library opened in 1957 and he worked in this office there until his death in 1972

My FB says it is only 45 days until Football Season (YAY)
Arrowhead Stadium is just 15 minutes down the road from Truman's library in Kansas City.
They only do tours on the weekends so day late and a dollar short but we drove/walked around a little.
 


Lamar Hunt was instrumental in starting the AFL in 1960's




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