Best US presidents: FDR, Truman

My two most admired U.S. presidents during my octogenarian lifetime were Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman. Roosevelt brought me out of the Great Depression and Truman brought me home from World War II. They shine like lighthouse beacons in a murky fog.

I went into World War II, while Roosevelt was still in office and exited it after Truman took over upon Roosevelt’s death. As a writer of many World War II columns, I am most proud of those supporting Truman’s decision to drop the atom bomb on Japan, the act that ended the Great War on Sept. 2, 1945.

The Harry S. Truman Library in Independence, Mo., is a repository for seven of my newspaper articles on that subject that I have written over the past 20 years. Four were in The Vindicator, two in the Senior News and one in the LST Scuttlebutt. Last but not least, my book “Rag Man, Rag Man” was accepted in the Truman Library in December 2009 because two pages are devoted to Truman and the atom bomb.

Many relatives, friends and shipmates are mentioned in my book, and I chide them that their names will live in perpetuity in that library. Many high school and college students use that library and they can get a “I-was-there” first-hand account.

My book focuses heavily on the Great Depression and World War II. Quoting a favorite paragraph in “Rag Man, Rag Man:” “Anyone can be an armchair president, general or admiral, but not everyone can be a Truman, Patton or Halsey. They were true blood-and-guts heroes who should never be forgotten.”

“Rag Man, Rag Man” is on sale in the gift shop of the Butler Institute of American Art.

Michael J. Lacivita is a Youngstown retiree and an inductee in the Ohio Senior Citizens Hall of Fame and the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame.