dorky
One of the entries which generated the most controversy was written by Truman in 1947, after the war. A 1947 diary book, bearing the title "1947 Diary and Manual of the Real Estate Board of New York, Inc." was sent to Truman by Matthew G. Ely, the board's president, in late 1946. Rose Conway, Truman's personal secretary, acknowledged the gift on December 27 and put the diary book in Truman's desk in the oval office. A transcription of the diary can be found at this link. The diary contains about 5,500 words on topics ranging from the death of his mother to comic banter with a British aristocrat. But the most surprising and controversial comments were Truman's remarks about Jews, written on July 21, 1947, after the president had a conversation with Henry Morganthau his Treasury Secretary, who was Jewish. Morganthau called to talk about a Jewish ship in Palestine, the Exodus, the legendary ship carrying 4,500 Jewish refugees who were refused entry into Palestine by the British, then rulers of that land. The entry reads as follows:
6:00 P. M. Monday July 21, 1947
Had ten minutes conversation with Henry Morgenthau about Jewish ship in Palistine [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 judgement 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. Put an underdog on top and it makes no difference whether his name is Russian, Jewish, Negro, Management, Labor, Mormon, Baptist he goes haywire. I've found very, very few who remember their past condition when prosperity comes.
Look at the Congress[ional] attitude on D[isplaced] P[ersons]-and they all come from D[isplaced] P[erson]s.
When the remarks were discovered by subsequent historians they evoked surprise, especially from those in the Jewish community who remember Truman's support in recognizing the state of Israel in 1948, against the advice of his State Department. Sara J. Bloomfield, director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, told the media "My reaction is, wow! It did surprise me because of what I know about Truman's record. Truman's sympathy for the plight of Jews was very apparent." Bloomfield described Truman's journal entry as "typical of a sort of cultural anti-Semitism that was common at that time in all parts of American society. This was an acceptable way to talk."
One of the more memorable entries in Truman's diary concerns a meeting that Truman had with future President (then General) Dwight Eisenhower. Truman was concerned that General Douglas MacArthur was seeking the Republican nomination for President. To prevent this from happening, Truman offered to step aside to let Eisenhower seek the 1948 Democratic presidential nomination. In an entry dated July 25, 1947, years before Truman's famous firing of MacArthur during the Korean War, Truman wrote this about his discussion that afternoon with Eisenhower, who was then Army chief of staff:
"We discussed MacArthur and his superiority complex," Truman wrote. "Ike & I think MacArthur expects to make a Roman Triumphal return to the U.S. a short time before the Republican Convention meets in Philadelphia. I told Ike that if he did that that he (Ike) should announce for the nomination for President on the Democratic ticket and that I'd be glad to be in second place, or Vice President. I like the Senate anyway. Ike & I could be elected and my family & myself would be happy outside this great white jail known as the White House."
Truman failed to mention how Eisenhower, who was elected president as a Republican in 1952, reacted to his suggestion. He did note that Eisenhower agreed to keep their discussion private. Truman wrote: "Ike won't quot [sic] me & I won't quote him." Eisenhower must have told the story to someone because it leaked out and was recounted in author Stephen E. Ambrose's 1983 biography of Eisenhower. According to Ambrose, Eisenhower wanted nothing to do with the Democratic Party and his answer was a flat "No."
In the diary Truman spoke highly of General George C. Marshall, whom he later appointed Secretary of State. He wrote: "Marshall is, I think the greatest man of the World War II. He managed to get along with Roosevelt, the Congress, Churchill, the Navy and the Joint Chiefs of Staff and he made a grand record in China." He also had high praise for his aid Clark Clifford, who Truman described, in an entry on January 6, 1947 as follows:"He's a nice boy and will go places."
On July 28, 1947, the day of his mother's funeral, Truman wrote "Terrible day. Along the road cars, trucks and pedestrians stood with hats off. It made me want to weep, but I couldn't in public. I've read through thousands of messages from all over the world in the White House study and I can shed tears as I please - no one's looking."
On July 4, after attending Independence Day festivities in Monticello, Virginia, Truman wrote this humorous passage:
"Mrs Astor -- Lady Astor came to the car just before we started from Monticello to say to me that she liked my policies as President but that she thought I had become rather too much 'Yankee.' I couldnt help telling her that my purported 'Yankee' tendencies were not half so bad as her ultra conservative British leanings. She almost had a stroke."
The Truman diaries were published in a book containing his private papers, his diaries, letters, and other memoranda for the period from his becoming President in 1945 until shortly before his death in 1972. The book is entitled Off the Record: The Private Papers of Harry S. Truman. It was published in 1980 by Harper & Row.