Truman, a True Man
Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2009 10:55 pm
One important part of former President Harry S Truman's legacy that Rumsfeld seems unlikely to highlight is his crusade against war profiteering.
As a U.S. senator in 1941, Truman drove thousands of miles around the country going from one defense plant to another documenting waste and fraud.
He then headed the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, the Truman committee. The process saved American taxpayers $15 billion (in 1940s dollars). And by uncovering faulty military equipment, he prevented the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of U.S. soldiers!
Truman's investigatory team played a critical role in overseeing the military's overseers. In 1943, for example, it began looking into the aerospace firm Curtiss-Wright after getting tips that the company was delivering defective motors to what was then called the Army Air Corps. The military officials responsible for inspecting the plant insisted that all was rosy, but the committee pressed on, conducting a three-city investigation and taking more than 1,000 pages of sworn testimony. The dirt it uncovered proved that the company had sold leaky motors to the government and covered it up with forged inspection reports.
The military had protected the company by removing inspectors who attempted to block the flawed parts from being installed in airplanes. As a result of the investigation, heads rolled at Curtiss-Wright, and one general wound up in prison. Bottom line here...the President used to be someone who looked after the general good of the country, took the mission personally.
"Now you see the violence inherit in the system! Looks like Truman saw the dangers as well.
Perhaps, in the shadow of FDR?
The more I look into this, the more twisted it becomes.
WAR PROFITEERING IS REAL !
As a U.S. senator in 1941, Truman drove thousands of miles around the country going from one defense plant to another documenting waste and fraud.
He then headed the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, the Truman committee. The process saved American taxpayers $15 billion (in 1940s dollars). And by uncovering faulty military equipment, he prevented the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of U.S. soldiers!
Truman's investigatory team played a critical role in overseeing the military's overseers. In 1943, for example, it began looking into the aerospace firm Curtiss-Wright after getting tips that the company was delivering defective motors to what was then called the Army Air Corps. The military officials responsible for inspecting the plant insisted that all was rosy, but the committee pressed on, conducting a three-city investigation and taking more than 1,000 pages of sworn testimony. The dirt it uncovered proved that the company had sold leaky motors to the government and covered it up with forged inspection reports.
The military had protected the company by removing inspectors who attempted to block the flawed parts from being installed in airplanes. As a result of the investigation, heads rolled at Curtiss-Wright, and one general wound up in prison. Bottom line here...the President used to be someone who looked after the general good of the country, took the mission personally.
"Now you see the violence inherit in the system! Looks like Truman saw the dangers as well.
Perhaps, in the shadow of FDR?
The more I look into this, the more twisted it becomes.
WAR PROFITEERING IS REAL !