HARRY S. TRUMAN . 1945-1953

Harry S. Truman had received no briefing on the development of the atomic bomb or difficulties with Soviet Russia when suddenly, on April 12, 1945, he became president. He told reporters, "I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me."

Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri, on May 8, 1884. He grew up in Independence and worked as a farmer. Returning from France after World War I, he became active in the Democratic Party, becoming a senator in 1934. In World War II he headed the Senate war investigating committee before being elected vice president to Franklin Roosevelt.

As president, Truman made some of the most crucial decisions in history. Soon after the war against Japan had reached its final stage, an urgent plea to them to surrender was rejected. Truman, after consultations with his advisers, ordered atomic bombs dropped on cities devoted to war work. Two were Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japanese surrender quickly followed. In June 1945, Truman witnessed the signing of the charter of the United Nations, hopefully established to preserve peace.

Thus far, he had followed his predecessor's policies, but he soon developed his own. He presented to Congress a program proposing the expansion of Social Security, a full-employment program, a permanent Fair Employment Practices Act, and public housing and slum clearance. The program, Truman wrote, "symbolizes for me my assumption of the office of President in my own right." It became known as the Fair Deal.

In foreign affairs he was already providing effective leadership. When the Soviet Union pressured Turkey and threatened to take over Greece, he asked Congress to aid the two countries, enunciating the program that bears his name - the Truman Doctrine. When the Russians blockaded the western sectors of Berlin, Truman created a massive airlift to supply Berliners until the Russians backed down. He also negotiated a military alliance to protect Western nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, established in 1949.

In June 1950, when Communist North Korea attacked South Korea, Truman conferred promptly with his military advisers. A long, discouraging struggle ensued as U.N. forces held a line above the old boundary of South Korea. Truman kept the war a limited one, rather than risk a major conflict with China and perhaps Russia.

Deciding not to run again, he retired to Independence. He died December 26, 1972, at age 88, after a stubborn fight for life.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER . 1953-1961

Bringing to the presidency his prestige as commanding general of the forces in Europe during World War II, Dwight D. Eisenhower obtained a truce in Korea and worked incessantly during his two terms to ease the tensions of the Cold War. He pursued the policies of "Modern Republicanism," pointing out as he left office, "America is today the strongest, most influential, and most productive nation in the world."

Born in Denison, Texas, on October 14, 1890, and brought up in Kansas, Eisenhower was the third of seven sons. Skilled at high school sports, he received an appointment to West Point. He excelled in staff assignments in his early army career. After Pearl Harbor, he was called to Washington for a war plans assignment. On D-Day, 1944, he was supreme commander of the troops invading France.

After the war, he assumed supreme command over the NATO forces assembled in 1951. Republican emissaries to his headquarters near Paris persuaded him to run for president in 1952. "I like Ike" was an irresistible slogan; Eisenhower won a sweeping victory.

Negotiating from military strength, he tried to reduce the strains of the Cold War. In 1953, the signing of a truce brought an armed peace along the border of South Korea. The death of Stalin the same year caused shifts in relations with Russia. Both Russia and the United States had developed hydrogen bombs. With the threat of such destructive force hanging over the world, Eisenhower, with the leaders of the British, French, and Russian governments, met at Geneva in July 1955. The president proposed that the United States and Russia exchange blueprints of each other's military establishments. The Russians greeted the proposal with silence, but were so cordial that tensions relaxed.

After suffering a sudden, severe heart attack in September 1955, Eisenhower recovered, and in his second term continued most of the New Deal and Fair Deal programs. As desegregation of schools began, he used troops to assure compliance with the orders of a federal court; he also ordered the complete desegregation of the armed forces. "There must be no second class citizens in this country," he wrote.

Eisenhower concentrated on maintaining world peace. Before he left office in January 1961, for his farm in Gettysburg, he urged the necessity of maintaining an adequate military strength, but cautioned that vast, long-continued military expenditures could breed potential dangers to our way of life. He concluded with a prayer for peace "in the goodness of time." Both themes remained timely and urgent when he died, after a long illness, on March 28, 1969.