President Franklin Delano Roosevelt passed away on April 12, 1945, less than three months into his fourth term in office. Vice President Harry Truman, the former haberdasher from Missouri, suddenly found himself running a nation at war in Europe.

With Russia’s aid, World War II was winding down. It was at the Yalta Conference where FDR first heard rumors of atomic testing in New Mexico. However, his top priority was to secure Soviet participation in the endgame against Japan. Author Joe Scarborough writes, “In an act of wanton recklessness, Roosevelt had kept the development of the atomic bomb a secret from his Vice President and likely successor.” Only after his first cabinet meeting as president, when the Secretary of State pulled him aside, was Truman informed of, as he later put it, “the development of a new explosive element with almost unbelievable destructive power.”

"Scarborough takes a deep dive into the Truman Doctrine, which addressed the growing conflict between the U.S. and Russia after WWII. Our former ally had become our chief adversary."

The Soviets had launched attacks on Manchuria, while the U.S. ran massive air raids on Tokyo in early March, killing more than 100,000 people with conventional weapons. The Japanese did not bend and continued further invasions into April. The end results of its power were an unknown, but enough to confirm for Truman that we were “now in possession of a weapon that would not only revolutionize war but could alter the course of history and civilization.” The decision to unleash the atomic bomb rested in his hands, less than four months after being sworn in.

The U.S. did not enter the European war until after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, joining forces with England and France against the Italian Fascists and German Nazis. The Japanese persisted until the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought the war in the Pacific to a horrific end in mid-August 1945. However, FDR would not live to see the signing of European peace treaties.

Scarborough takes a deep dive into the Truman Doctrine, which addressed the growing conflict between the U.S. and Russia after WWII. Our former ally had become our chief adversary. Greece and Turkey were Russia’s primary targets, the goal being to spread communism and gain control of natural resources. Thus began the Cold War. Truman launched unprecedented efforts to keep Western Europe free from communism. The Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan and the formation of NATO were just three of the major initiatives that helped lead to a revolution in U.S. foreign policy.

Joe Scarborough is the host of MSNBC's “Morning Joe” and had been a Republican congressman from Florida, espousing balanced budgets and reduced spending. Then he met Mika Brzezinski, the daughter of Zbigniew Brzezinski, the Polish-American political scientist and advisor to President Lyndon Johnson. I believe that the network teamed them up so they would spar with one another --- the fiery women’s rights advocate and columnist versus the conservative talk show host. It backfired when they fell in love and married. Things got very interesting after the 2016 presidential election, and Scarborough came around to Mika's way of thinking. This is strictly my opinion.

I was a little girl in pigtails when I saw President Truman at a political event. My father managed large farm holdings all over Iowa, and Truman appeared at one of them. My mother insisted that he take me along to see a living president. Dad acquiesced. He was seated next to “that pip-squeak” (he never swore but had a colorful vocabulary) on the stage and as a rock-ribbed Republican was not pleased. He had tagged FDR as a communist, and Truman’s polices proved he was of the same ilk. To make matters worse, Dad and Truman could have been twins as his Elks Club pals kidded him about that. He would have loved the old Joe Scarborough, but I have my doubts about the new one.