Alternative Insight

Michael Beschloss popularizes history for domestic consumption.

Michael Beschloss covers aspects of nine presidents in his new book, "Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America, 1789-1989." His highlighting of President Truman's recognition of Israel contradicts the book's title. On the PBS program Online News Hour, May 17, 2007, he stated:

I wanted to go through American history, from George Washington to Ronald Reagan, and look for places where we were crucially dependent on having a president who was willing to say, "I should do something important, and that something important may mean that I risk my political career, but I feel so strongly that it's in the national interest that I'll do it anyway."

Harry Truman, for instance, in 1948, faced the decision to recognize a Jewish state. And on one side his secretary of state, George Marshall, was saying, "If you do this, I might resign and blast you." Truman's own wife, Bess -- I hadn't known this before -- did not even let Jewish people into her house in Independence, Missouri.

And on the other side, it turned out, Truman had this old business partner named Eddie Jacobson, who was Jewish, who came just at the crucial moment and said to Truman, "Harry, I've never asked you for a favor in my life, but my people are suffering. You've got to recognize a Jewish state." That had a lot of influence on Truman in doing that.


In Truman's case, oddly enough, I found that, when he was a kid, he had read a book with the politically incorrect title of "Great Men and Famous Women," from Nebuchadnezzar to Sarah Bernhardt. It had a big influence on him.

He read the tale of Cyrus the Great, the Persian king that brought the Jews to Zion. And in the end, he thought, you know, "If I recognize a Jewish state, I'm going to be just like King Cyrus. I'll go down in history."

How does Beschloss know what Truman thought and if a trivial book "had a big influence on him?" It's difficult to believe that President Truman would recite the egomaniacal and ridiculous statement, " just like King Cyrus. I'll go down in history." Is Beschloss a true historian?

Truman's recognition of Israel wasn't unique. It was actually Stalin's Soviet Union, which added the votes of its satellites, Byelorussian SSR, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Ukrainian SSR, to the vote of the Soviet Socialist Republic that enabled passage of UN Resolution 181, which affirmed the partition of Palestine.

Truman actually expressed discomfort with the Zionist position. Several statements:

6:00 P. M. Monday July 21, 1947:
"Had ten minutes conversation with Henry Morgenthau about Jewish ship in Palestine [sic]. Told him I would talk to Gen[eral] Marshall about it. He'd no business, whatever to call me. The Jews have no sense of proportion nor do they have any judgment on world affairs. Henry brought a thousand Jews to New York on a supposedly temporary basis and they stayed. When the country went backward-and Republican in the election of 1946, this incident loomed large on the D[isplaced] P[ersons] program.

The Jews, I find are very, very selfish. They care not how many Estonians, Latvians, Finns, Poles, Yugoslavs or Greeks get murdered or mistreated as D[isplaced] P[ersons] as long as the Jews get special treatment. Yet when they have power, physical, financial or political neither Hitler nor Stalin has anything on them for cruelty or mistreatment to the under dog."

Truman wrote to Senator Claude Pepper regarding mail he received during the deliberations of UNSCOP (United Nations Special Committee on Palestine):

"I received about 35,000 pieces of mail and propaganda from the Jews in this country while this matter was pending. I put it all in a pile and struck a match to it -- I never looked at a single one of the letters because I felt the United Nations Committee was acting in a judicial capacity and should not be interfered with."

Beschloss should have known that Truman wanted to delay partition and proposed a temporary solution.On March 25, 1948, President Truman said:

"The United States has proposed to the Security Council a temporary United Nations trusteeship for Palestine to provide a government to keep the peace…Trusteeship is not proposed as a substitute for the partition plan but as an effort to fill the vacuum soon to be created."

Beschloss should also know that Truman never recognized Israel as a Jewish state. In the recognition letter presented to him, he inserted the word provisional before the words 'State of Israel' and crossed out the word 'Jewish" before the word 'state.'

So, did President Truman recognize Israel because of courage or because of cowardice; for fear of losing Jewish support? Was the recognition in national interest or in the interest of a small minority of the nation?

Michael Beschloss' popularized view of history is not as awkward as the New York Times review of his book. In a May 20, 2007 review, Mary Beth Norton, writes:

"Some are less familiar with Harry Truman’s support for the creation of Israel in 1948 despite the explicitly anti-Semitic sentiments of some of his advisers."

Isn't it despicable to use the term anti-Semite for American greats, such as General George C. Marshall, who always placed the interests of his nation before his personal interests? The New York Times should be castigated for printing a book review that contains this unnecessary and scurrilous remark.

alternative insight
june 1, 2007

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