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Truman's highest approval rating came in a poll released on August 22, 1945. Truman had been president for only four months up to that time, and his high approval numbers came after Truman famously made his most controversial decision as President: dropping two atomic bombs on Japanese cities near the end of the second world war. Truman became president on April 12, 1945, following the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945, Truman's 61st birthday, just a few weeks after he assumed the presidency. But the war with Japan continued and was predicted to last at least another year.
On July 25, 1945, Truman wrote in his diary: "We have discovered the most terrible bomb in the history of the world. It may be the fire destruction prophesied in the Euphrates Valley Era, after Noah and his fabulous Ark." He was attending the Potsdam Conference where he met with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Leader Joseph Stalin when he learned that the Trinity test of the first atomic bomb on July 16 had been successful. He told Stalin that the U.S. was about to use a new kind of weapon against the Japanese. Though this was the first time the Soviets had been officially given information about the atomic bomb, Stalin was already aware of the bomb project, having learned about it from his spies long before Truman did.
In August, the Japanese government refused surrender demands on terms proposed at the Potsdam Declaration. With the invasion of mainland Japan imminent, Truman was asked to approve the deployment of the two available bombs. He was decisive in approving the request. Truman always said that he had no regrets about his decision. His justification was that attacking Japan with atomic bombs saved many lives on both sides. Military estimates for the invasion of mainland Japan were that it could take a year and result in 250,000 to 500,000 U.S. casualties. Hiroshima was bombed on August 6, and Nagasaki three days later, leaving 105,000 dead. The Soviet Union declared war on Japan on August 9 and invaded Manchuria. Japan agreed to surrender the following day.
While the decision has been questioned in hindsight, at the time the vast majority of the American people supported their president on this issue. His supporters argued that the tenacious Japanese defense of the outlying islands foretold a long conventional war with great loss of life. The bombings saved hundreds of thousands of lives that would have been lost invading mainland Japan. His critics disagree with this assessment and have argued that conventional tactics such as firebombing and a naval blockade would have induced Japan's surrender without the need for such weapons. Truman strongly defended himself in his memoirs in 1955–56, stating that many lives could have been lost had the U.S. invaded mainland Japan without the atomic bombs. In 1963, he told a journalist: "it was done to save 125,000 youngsters on the U.S. side and 125,000 on the Japanese side from getting killed and that is what it did. It probably also saved a half million youngsters on both sides from being maimed for life. The decision remains controversial to this day.
Difficulties in the post-war economy led to strikes and this led to a fall in Truman's popularity. He lost support from the left for a number of factions within his party, including in the south, where his integration of the armed forces by executive order and his call for civil rights legislation. In the spring of 1948, Truman's public approval rating stood at 36%, and almost everyone wrote off Truman;s chances of winning the presidential election. The "New Deal" supporters within the party—including FDR's son James—tried to swing the Democratic nomination to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, but Eisenhower refused to accept the offer. Despite a split in the Democratic Party that saw third party campaigns run by Henry Wallace and Strom Thurmond, Truman surprised everyone except himself by winning election to the presidency in his own right.
But his second term presented a number of challenges. On June 25, 1950, the North Korean army under Kim Il-sung invaded South Korea, starting the Korean War. In the early weeks of the war, the North Koreans clearly had the stronger force. Truman called for a naval blockade of Korea, but discovered that, due to budget cutbacks, the U.S. Navy could not enforce such a measure. Truman then urged the United Nations to intervene. The UN did so, authorizing troops under the UN flag led by U.S. General Douglas MacArthur. Truman decided that he did not need formal authorization from Congress, believing that most legislators supported his position. But as the conflict turned into a stalemate, his critics in Congress labeled the conflict "Mr. Truman's War". Subsequently on July 3, 1950, Truman had Senate Majority Leader Scott W. Lucas submit a draft resolution titled "Joint Resolution Expressing Approval of the Action Taken in Korea". Lucas said that Congress supported the use of force, that the formal resolution would pass but was unnecessary, and that the consensus in Congress was to acquiesce. Truman responded thatit was "up to Congress whether such a resolution should be introduced."
By August 1950, U.S. troops sent to South Korea under the UN flag were able to stabilize the situation. UN forces led by General MacArthur won a stunning surprise victory with an amphibious landing at the Battle of Inchon. UN forces marched north, toward the Yalu River boundary with China. However, China surprised the UN forces with a large-scale invasion in November. By early 1951 the war became a fierce stalemate at about the 38th parallel where it had begun. Truman rejected MacArthur's request to attack Chinese supply bases north of the Yalu, so MacArthur did an end-around his president by promoting his plan to Republican House leader Joseph Martin, who leaked it to the press. Truman was gravely concerned that further escalation of the war might lead to open conflict with the Soviet Union, which was already supplying weapons and providing warplanes to the communist side. On April 11, 1951, Truman fired MacArthur from his command.
The polls said that the majority of the public disapproved of Truman's decision to relieve MacArthur. Truman's approval rating fell to 23 percent in mid-1951, and ultimately to 22% on November 16, 1951. This was lower than Richard Nixon's low of 25 percent during the Watergate Scandal in 1974. It remains the lowest Gallup Poll approval rating recorded by any serving president. Truman faced calls for his impeachment from Republican Senator Robert A. Taft. MacArthur meanwhile returned to the U.S. to a hero's welcome, and addressed a joint session of Congress. In off-color language that Truman was sometimes famous for, he called MacArthur's speech "a bunch of damn bullshit."
The war remained a frustrating stalemate for two years, with over 30,000 Americans killed, until an armistice ended the fighting in 1953.On Valentine's Day in 1952, few Americans were in love with their President. Truman's approval mark stood at 22% according to Gallup polls. In a speech he gave at the Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Washington DC on March 29, 1952 Truman announced that he would not run for President in the upcoming election. He recognized that he was so unpopular that he could not win and he knew that there would not be another miracle like there had been in 1952.
U.S. public feeling towards Truman grew warmer as time passed. In 1962, a poll of 75 historians conducted by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr. ranked Truman among the "near great" presidents. Truman died on December 26, 1972, at a time when the nation was consumed with crises in Vietnam and the early stages of Watergate. In the wake of this, he was remembered as a president who was believed to exemplify an integrity and accountability many observers felt was lacking in the Nixon White House.