Harry Truman: POTUS
POTUS summary site with basic information (elections, cabinet, Supreme Court appointment) and links to other materials
Harry S Truman National Historic Site
Hiroshima: The Harry Truman Diary and Papers
Truman Diary, July 25, 1945
President Truman told his diary on July 25, 1945, that he had ordered the bomb used.
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.
Executive orders signed by President Harry S Truman
List of all executive orders signed by President Truman while in office with links to the text of each
Biography of Harry S Truman
Brief biography from the White House
The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb Documents
Catalog of documents organized on timeline. Instead of just sending students out on their own to do their own research preparing for the "Atomic Bomb Debate" send them to this tightly focused archive of primary source documents and have them invest their energy on analysis instead.
Henry Stimson to Harry S. Truman, with handwritten Truman reply on reverse, July 30, 1945
This is the smoking gun!
Inaugural Address of Harry S. Truman
Choices: Truman, Hirohito, and the Atomic Bomb
Lesson from the Constitutional Rights Foundation. Concise article, including choices available to Truman
Truman Diary Entry from June 17, 1945
Would it help your student realize that historical figures were people if they could read their diary in their own handwriting. Andrew Jackson's handwriting was terrible and his spelling was worse. But Truman, they can read - and if you are teaching Potsdam, why not? This describes when he first met Stalin, whom he describes "as smart as hell"