Truman’s Moral Fiber was Behind Military Appreciation Day

Armed Forces Appreciation Day was established to be commemorated on the third Saturday each May. However, America has seemingly evolved politically since the first Armed Forces Appreciation Day was celebrated on May 20, 1950. But, of all the American holidays to honor the nation’s military, the ones most widely recognized are Memorial Day and Veterans Day; however, Armed Forces Appreciation Day has grown into a month-long appreciation now known as Military Appreciation Month.

Armed Forces Appreciation Day was established during the presidency of Harry Truman, but few Americans know the dark side of this effort to honor men and women in the military. The history of Truman’s efforts behind the holiday is quite dramatic. And, it may not be a coincidence that this holiday falls in May, as Truman’s birthday is in May. Nevertheless, before his birthday in 1946, actually on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday in February, Isaac Woodard Jr., a black veteran of the United States’ Army, was forcibly removed from a bus and beaten so badly that he lost his vision for the rest of his life. He was never the same. Neither was President Truman after he learned of the incident. After Truman’s reaction, America was never the same.

Similar stories of beatings of returning black veterans with tragic outcomes sometimes trickled out of the South

Former Sergeant Woodard had served in the Pacific Theater during World War II and had been honorably discharged. After returning to the states, he was traveling home to his family, but en route, young Woodard was forcibly removed from a Greyhound bus by police in South Carolina and beaten severely by the authorities. Woodard’s story was shocking and tragic, and the grisly tale touched off a great deal of public indignation across the country. Today, it would have touched off major race riots.

Media in northern cities repeatedly recounted Woodard’s story, but it did not show up as newsworthy in the deep South; it was virtually ignored by the Democrat-biased media. Yet, a supposedly ‘evolved’ America still harbors a truth-challenged media that continues to ignore many serious issues, as silence often persists amidst real atrocities today. Additionally, biased MSM today tends to force people to see only one side of an issue. It is understood that similar “convenient affiliations” currently exist between Big Media and the dominant political Party as it had existed in the Deep South in Woodard’s day. It’s useful strategy for dominion.

Yet, similar stories of beatings of returning black veterans with tragic outcomes sometimes trickled out of the South. When President Truman became aware of these accounts of such vicious atrocities, he was appalled. Historians have revealed that when an old friend wrote to Harry Truman at the time, appealing to him to go “easy” on civil rights, as a fellow Southerner, the president’s return comments included:

When a mayor and a City Marshall can take a Negro Sergeant off a bus in South Carolina, beat him up and put out one of his eyes, and nothing is done about it by the State Authorities, something is really Radically wrong with the system…

Truman had to go against his Party and then shake America up

Isaac Woodward’s tragedy in particular captured the president’s attention, so Truman issued Executive Order 9808 on December 5, 1946, This executive action established the President’s Committee on Civil Rights (PCCR). This Committee was an effort aimed at proactively addressing the exploding problems of violent racism in post-war America.

Yet, Truman’s decision to desegregate the armed forces was definitely a serious political risk, especially among his Democrat colleagues. However, he not only had to ‘buck’ his own Party due to fierce resistance, but even his own mother and wife opposed the extremely controversial integration of the military. Many Democrat advisors promised to offer support in the election, if only he would back off of his desegregation efforts. Truman remained adamant and stood his ground:

My forebears were Confederates… Every factor and influence in my background — and in my wife’s for that matter – would foster the personal belief that you are right.

But my very stomach turned over when I learned that Negro soldiers, just back from overseas, were being dumped out of army trucks in Mississippi and beaten.

Whatever my inclinations as a native of Missouri might have been, as President, I know this is bad. I shall fight to end evils like this.

Herein lies the irony. Truman was a Southern Democrat, and at the time Southern Democrats were the Party of Jim Crow and the Ku Klux Klan of the Deep South. He had to go against his Party and then shake America up. 

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Yet, by October 1947, the Committee published “To Secure These Rights: The Report of the President’s Committee on Civil Rights.” The report proposed, among numerous remedies, the establishment of a permanent Civil Rights Commission, a Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, a Joint Congressional Committee on Civil Rights, and an effort to develop federal protection from lynching, as well as the abolition of poll taxes.

Even more sweeping changes came when Truman challenged Congress to help reorganize the branches of the military to be more efficient and effective. Serious deliberations within both houses resulted in the wide ranging initiatives of the National Security Act of 1947 that ultimately brought four major branches of the U.S. military under the National Military Establishment (this eventually became the Department of Defense via a 1949 amendment to the National Security Act). Additionally, the Act also reorganized the Army Air Corps into the new branch of the U.S. Air Force and created the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Underlying these widespread changes to the armed forces were President Truman’s concerns over the lack of appreciation and respect for returning veterans, as well as appreciation of the value of the U.S. military as a whole. Truman addressed this by consolidating various holidays supporting each separate military branch into a single unified holiday to honor all four branches together. On August 31, 1949, Truman’s Secretary of State announced the establishment of a joint Armed Forces Appreciation Day to replace the former tradition of having separate days to honor men and women in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and the new Air Force.

Witness how current democrats handle honoring our nation’s veterans

The new DoD explained Armed Forces Day was intended to help American citizens better understand the function and role of the military, but the essential intent was to enable public recognition and appreciation of the military and to provide a means to thank men and women in uniform for their service to their country.

In glaring contrast, it is possible to witness how current democrats handle honoring our nation’s veterans. A recent controversy testifies about the removal of homeless veterans from temporary accommodations in upstate New York to make room for the influx of illegal aliens flooding into the nation. This has recently been noted by the New York Post: Homeless vets are being booted from NY hotels to make room for migrants: advocates and the Washington Times: Homeless veterans booted from N.Y. hotels to make room for migrants, nonprofit says

Definitely, the nation has evolved politically. Truman was a Democrat and ironically, once upon a time, Democrats used to support the military. Efforts to establish this holiday reveals ‘evolution’ in Truman’s Party. Today, it is hard to fathom Democrats truly offering respect or willing to honor the military. Simply compare Truman’s efforts with Joe Biden’s forced vaccines of women and men in the military and the shakeup it caused. Or, compare the moral courage of Truman to “buck” his Party to honor military personnel to Biden’s forced brainwashing of transgenderism and CRT upon military men and women.

Despite America’s evolution, it is still fitting and proper for Americans to thank men and women in uniform for their service to our country and to Freedom. God bless ‘em!

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