The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World

The Accidental President focuses on the first few months of Truman’s time in office, culminating in the decision to drop the atomic bomb over Japan in August 1945. Truman would remain in office until 1953, and in that time he oversaw a major transformation of American politics in the realm of national security. The United States had typically demobilized in the aftermath of previous wars, confident that its vast distance from other great powers obviated the need for a permanent military establishment. The attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 shattered that illusion, and when the end of World War II left the Soviet Union in control of half of Europe, the US made the unprecedented decision to maintain forces in Europe as a deterrent against any attempts by the Red Army to move further westward. In the ensuing years, the government instituted a number of institutional changes, particularly with the National Security Act of 1947. This piece of legislation changed the Department of War into the Department of Defense, the latter term implying a more permanent task of protecting the country even when there is not a war taking place. This act also instituted the National Security Council, a group of civilian and military advisers reporting directly to the president.