Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, October 11, 1993                   TAG: 9312300019
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HOLLINS TALK

In fact, McCullough suggested in a talk last week at Hollins College, historians at the time recognized the landmark nature of the achievements - U.S. participation in the new United Nations, the Marshall Plan to reconstruct Europe from the ashes of World War II, resistance to the expansion of world communism, racial integration of the armed forces - for which Truman is remembered today.

Perhaps so. But as McCullough also noted, Truman by the end of his term in office - he chose not to seek re-election in 1952 - was one of the most unpopular presidents in American history. With the wider public if less so among professional historians, respect for Truman and the achievements of his administration is a latter-day phenomenon.

McCullough himself, a thorough researcher and graceful writer, no doubt has contributed to the revival of Truman's reputation . But a new interest in and respect for Truman was evident even before McCullough's critically and commercially successful book. Why?

At Hollins, McCullough generally avoided explicit comparisons between Truman and specific current politicians. An exception was Ross Perot, whose rise McCullough attributed to Perot's evocation of the Trumanesque qualities of plain speaking and forthrightness - but without the additional Trumanesque quality of knowing what you're talking about.

For contrary to another myth, McCullough said, Truman was not an ignorant rube thrust into the White House by accident. He was well- and widely read, an accomplished pianist, a regular concert-goer. In 1944, Democratic Party bosses knew Franklin D. Roosevelt was dying. (He died in April 1945, five months after re-election to a fourth term.) That's why they made then-Sen. Truman their vice-presidential nominee.

But without naming names, McCullough implied that Truman's current popularity rests at least in part on the contrast with today's politics.

Today, possession of power seems the all-consuming concern. For Truman, the concern was the responsibility brought by power.

Today, the common yardstick of a president's success is how much of his program he gets through Congress. For Truman, it was the quality of his program that counted: If he thought the issue worthwhile, he was perfectly willing to fight losing battles.

Today, being re-elected seems more important than being right. For Truman, the reverse was true. He was self-confident enough not only to surround himself with men he knew to be more talented than he, but also to believe some principles were worth jeopardizing his political future for.

Today, politicians of both parties - and, as with Perot, of neither party - try to evoke Truman. Would that more tried to emulate him.