Harry S. Truman

Despite the administration’s efforts to prevent a strike that would close the country’s steel mills, a strike date was set for early April 9, 1952. Just hours before the scheduled strike, before a nationwide radio audience, Truman directed Secretary of Commerce Charles Sawyer to seize the mills to ensure their production to support the war efforts. However, on June 2, 1952, the Supreme Court of the United States in a 6 to 3 decision on Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer declared the seizure unconstitutional. The Court held that Truman could have used the Taft-Hartley Act to delay the strike, but Truman disliked the law too much to use it.

In March 1952, Truman declared he would not seek reelection. He supported the candidacy of Adlai E. Stevenson, governor of Illinois, who was defeated by General Eisenhower.

Truman retired to his home in Independence, Missouri, at the age of 67. He remained active in politics but found that he was no longer a dominant force in his party’s affairs. Although his personal choices were not nominated at the Democratic national conventions in 1956 and 1960, he loyally supported the nominees and campaigned throughout the country for Democrats seeking state and federal offices.

One of Truman’s proudest moments came in July 1957, when he dedicated the Harry S. Truman Library in Independence, where he maintained his office. His two-volume Memoirs, Year of Decisions (1955) and Years of Trial and Hope, 1946-1952 (1956), recorded the events of his presidency. He explained the major events of his administration before a national television audience in the series Decision—The Conflicts of Harry S. Truman in 1964. In 1960 his account of his retirement years was published in Mr. Citizen. He also toured the nation’s colleges and universities giving lectures on American government. Some of his addresses were published in Freedom and Equality (1960), Truman Speaks (1960), and Free World and Free Trade (1963).

Truman maintained his habit of taking brisk morning walks, and spoke with reporters who could keep pace with him. In 1965 he was the recipient of the Freedom Award. Truman died on December 26, 1972, and is buried on the grounds of the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri.