HISTORY IS CONSTANTLY changing - and it is based heavily on new evidence discovered and new interpretations made. I have an example in mind. For years I've been using a favorite book of mine when I teach any class about Harry Truman's presidency.
It is "Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman" by Merle Miller, published in 1974.A best seller, it has been regarded as a classic for a long time and is still in print. Miller based the book on a long taping session he and two Truman friends, William Hillman and David Noyes, had with Truman in 1961, when he was a vigorous 77 years old.
According to Miller's account, Truman was an unusually salty character, a politician who not only spoke his mind but "swore in the right places."
The book is peppered with Truman's profane conclusions on many issues and people. He was especially hard on Richard Nixon, Herbert Hoover and Dwight Eisenhower.
In college classes, I usually pull salient quotes from the book to illustrate the difficult relationship Truman had with Gen. Douglas Mac-Arthur when the latter was the military commander in the Far East during the Korean War.
MacArthur had his own ideas about how the war should be conducted and sent them to American journalists and political leaders.
Finally, Truman had all he could take and fired him. The Miller quote I like the best purports to be Truman's salty description of his meeting with MacArthur on Wake Island to discuss their disagreements. It's direct and funny, even though it contains swear words.
"He was wearing those damn sunglasses of his and a shirt that was unbuttoned and a cap that had a lot of hardware. I never did understand . . . an old man like that and a five-star general to boot, why he went around dressed up like a 19-year-old second lieutenant."
According to Robert Farrell, a Truman biographer who wrote an article in the most recent issue of American Heritage, Miller's book on Truman is a fraud.
Farrell claims the tapes Miller used were recently made available by the Truman Library in Independence, Mo., and they reveal that most of the salient, profane portions Miller included in his book were never uttered by Truman. Apparently, they can be attributed to Miller's own addiction to profanity and his reckless disregard for the truth.
In other words, Miller put words in Truman's mouth.
Everyone knew Truman's capability of using "cusswords," but most of his speaking and writing was not profane, and those who knew him well never recall hearing him use the the Lord's name in vain.
In Farrell's opinion, "the book's worst misrepresentations pertained to President Eisenhower, about whom the tapes say almost nothing. The book is full of hostile Truman commentaries on Eisenhower."
The Truman Library has proof that in 1963, Miller sent Truman a draft of an article he had written about him for publication in the Saturday Evening Post. Truman wrote back, advising Miller not to publish it, because it contained "so many misstatements of fact."
Actually, Truman never sent the letter but instead engaged a law firm and threatened to sue, forcing Miller to withdraw the article.
Maybe Miller's book, published after Truman's death, should have been called "Plain Wrong."