US President ranking...

[hellheaven1987]

An interesting article...

And the most surprising is...

After Lincoln, the academics rated George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt and Harry Truman as the best leaders overall.

I guess MacArthur would jump out from his grave.

[Barry Goldwater]

I could understand Lincoln (and most of that list), he held the country together...but mothering Truman?

That gave me a severe case of epic lolz What kind of historian says that?

I guess MacArthur would jump out from his grave.

And take a spill on Truman's grave, then beat up the 65 historians who said this

EDIT: Just noticed this:

After Lincoln, the academics rated George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt and Harry Truman as the best leaders overall. The same five received top spots in the 2000 survey, although Washington and Franklin D. Roosevelt swapped spots this year.

[hellheaven1987]

Truman is a fine president, I admit that, but top 5??

That makes me starting to think that 50 years later George W Bush would be the top 5 too...

[Sphere]

Truman gets respect for doing some very unpopular things that in the long run bore fruit for the nation.

1.) He did not allow the Korean war to escalate, firing MacArthur (an extremely unpopular move) when the general invaded NK with his forces agaisnt trumans orders, (and didn't use nuclear weapons against the chinese as MacArthur wanted to).

2.) He did not give into the red scare that was McCarthyism, and refused to create loyalty oaths for government officials.

3.) His state department pushed a reluctant congress to enact the Marshall plan, which stabilized the European economy and allowed it to florish in the following decades.

4.) He laid the foundation for the policy of Containment that was vindicated when the USSR fell in 1990.

5.) He completely demolished the crumbling White House interior and rebuilt it from scratch, despite popular opinion disliking the expense.

6.) He forced school integration in the South with the Little Rock nine.

In all Truman gets credit for his foresight. Where he falls short in my opinion is his failure to nip the nuclear arms race in the bud. His plan was to keep the US the sole nuclear power by locking down our research and having no leaks. When that failed, he initiated the thermo-nuclear bomb program. Things got out of hand quickly, and the USA & USSR massively overproduced nuclear arms.

Is Truman top 5 material? Top ten for sure (same as top ~25%), and he has gotten a lot of attention in recent years by scholars. But with Lincoln, Washington, FDR, and Teddy almost locked 1-4 that 5th spot has quite a bit of competition. If you regard foreign policy highly, you could argue he deserves it.

[bushbush]

3.) His state department pushed a reluctant congress to enact the Marshall plan, which stabilized the European economy and allowed it to florish in the following decades.

probably more myth than facts

[hellheaven1987]

1.) He did not allow the Korean war to escalate, firing MacArthur (an extremely unpopular move) when the general invaded NK with his forces agaisnt under trumans orders, (and didn't use nuclear weapons against the chinese as MacArthur wanted to).

Sorry but Truman actually agreed MacArthur to invade North Korea, although MacArthur showed false evidence to Truman that Chinese would not come before Truman agreed MacArthur's advance to North.

2.) He did not give into the red scare that was McCarthyism, and refused to create loyalty oaths for government officials.

That was actually biggest failure of Truman - not Red Scare, but the China problem which was the main reason of Red Scare and a problem that Republican repeatly used to win votes in 50s (as Democrates could not find a good answer for China problem).

4.) He laid the foundation for the policy of Containment that was vindicated when the USSR fell in 1990.

His foundation of Containment was rather half-half; the good part was it at least contained Communism (although how much Soviet wanted to spread Communism was rather in doubt; note that East Europe was sold by FDR even before war ended), the bad part was it actually encouraged Soviet to spread Communism, and failed to even explore the bad relation between each Communist countries by labelling all Communist were "equal".

[OccamR]

He did drop the bombs, which isn't an easy thing to do.

Also, everyone thought Truman would lose reelection, yet he still campaigned vigorously and won. I'd give him top 5 President on that alone. But probably not best leader.

[Ima Farmathar]

how about clinton,

not joking, the guy may have had his flaws, but when he left the USA was in its stronger position EVER economically speaking,

they say he had generated enough profits to sustain their country for 12 YEARS,

yes he cheated on his wife, but that is his personal problem ,that shuldnt mater.

[hellheaven1987]

It is not the problem of whether dropping the bomb or not; in fact, most historians do not even connect Truman's presidency with WWII.

The greatest contribution of Truman was setting up a principles of US Cold War policy (even it was a principle based on unreal belief), which roughly began around 1947s; yet, what made him such a low-popularity was how he handled Korean War, which was quite a disaster.

When someone mentions Truman this comes to my mind -> Truman -> MacArthur -> Korean War -> disaster -> poor skills to handle problems.

[Farnan]

Clinton is 15...
Polk should definitely have Truman's spot.

[Farnan]

http://www.c-span.org/PresidentialSu...l-Ranking.aspx

The full list so people can see it.

Polk should be higher, Jackson should be lower.

[Barry Goldwater]

Why is JFK ranked so highly? I admit his defusal of the Cuban missile crisis was a notable achievement (although Nixon probably could've done it too ), but he did epic-fail in the Bay of Pigs Invasion and I can't find a lot of other noteworthy things about him...

And personally, I would've switched Eisenhower and Truman...

[Justinian]

And I don't know what the love for JFK is, he really didn't do very much. He wouldn't be half as popular if he hadn't been assassinated.

[Farnan]

And I don't know what the love for JFK is, he really didn't do very much. He wouldn't be half as popular if he hadn't been assassinated.

He created the Camelot Image.

He was like a rockstar, became a celebrity besides President. Obama is the same, whether his policies will prove better is yet to be seen.

Oh yea, and firing MacArthur is a plus, should have been done in 1942.

[Farnan]

Why is William Henry Harrison rated so low? He only had 100 days to do anything...

[Random Emperor]

Why is William Henry Harrison rated so low? He only had 100 days to do anything...

Seconded

[Aldgarkalaughskel]

This is a joke. A serious historian would never make such list. A historian's job is to review what a person did, why he did it, in what circumstances he did it etc. Comparing persons who lived in different ages with different political situations, different societies, different beliefs, is a big failure and shows amateurism, actually fanboyism.

[Barry Goldwater]

Why is William Henry Harrison rated so low? He only had 100 days to do anything...

I was thinking this too...surely Tyler deserves to be in Harrison's spot?

[Farnan]

This is a joke. A serious historian would never make such list. A historian's job is to review what a person did, why he did it, in what circumstances he did it etc. Comparing persons who lived in different ages with different political situations, different societies, different beliefs, is a big failure.

It was created by serious historians, and they get a right to rank the presidents...

http://www.c-span.org/PresidentialSu...ticipants.aspx

[Aldgarkalaughskel]

Apparently they are not so serious if they haven't heard what Ranke said about the historian's duty

not the duty to judge the past, nor to instruct one's contemporaries with an eye to the future, but rather merely to show how it actually was