Stuart Symington

Stuart Symington’s role in the account is defined chiefly by the confidence Harry S. Truman placed in him: first as an administrator brought in to address difficulties at the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, and later as Truman’s preferred candidate for the presidency. His appearances trace a shift from appointment to political advocacy, while also showing the limits of Truman’s influence over a changing Democratic field.

Appointment to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation

In May, Truman put Symington in charge of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, at a moment when the organization’s condition had become a source of concern. Symington moved quickly to straighten things out. The account offers no detailed inventory of the problems or of the measures he used, but the brisk description establishes the practical purpose of the appointment: Truman chose him to take charge, and he acted promptly.

The appointment followed a conversation in which Senator Paul Douglas had challenged Truman’s loyalty to friends who, Douglas believed, had not returned it. Truman acknowledged the criticism softly. The next reported action was to place Symington at the head of the agency. The sequence makes the appointment a concrete example of Truman turning from a painful judgment about personal loyalty to a decision about administration, without claiming that the exchange itself explains his choice of Symington.

Among Truman’s preferred successors

As a new generation of politicians sought power, Truman considered who might carry the Democratic banner. He favored Symington and Lyndon B. Johnson, although the account judges that neither had much chance at the time. Truman would not support Adlai E. Stevenson for another try, and he regarded John F. Kennedy as too young and inexperienced. His reservations also reflected doubts that a Catholic could win nationally, Kennedy’s perceived approval of Joseph McCarthy, and Truman’s enduring dislike of Kennedy’s father.

Symington’s position in this field was therefore significant but uncertain. Truman’s preference identified him as one of the former president’s favored choices; it did not make him the likely nominee. Dean Acheson’s assessment in April sharpened the distinction between preference and viability. Writing about the possibility that Kennedy might falter in the West Virginia primary, Acheson thought Stevenson might then receive the nomination. Symington, whom Acheson supported, seemed the only other possible alternative, but Acheson doubted that he could gain traction. The exchange records a candidate’s standing as it appeared to two experienced political figures: Symington had support, but his path to the nomination remained doubtful.

Truman’s public endorsement

In May, after Kennedy’s upset victory over Hubert Humphrey in West Virginia put him ahead, Truman publicly supported Symington, Missouri’s candidate. He called him the best qualified for the presidency. The endorsement turned Truman’s private preference into an explicit political choice at a moment when Kennedy’s momentum made that choice consequential. Yet Truman did not frame his answer as an attack on Kennedy. Asked what objections he had, he said he had none and described Kennedy as a fine young man whom he knew and liked; he pointed instead to Kennedy’s Massachusetts residence.

The distinction matters to the account of Symington’s candidacy. Truman backed him firmly, but his public explanation did not rest on presenting Kennedy as personally unworthy. It left visible the tension between Truman’s judgment of Symington’s qualifications and the emerging strength of another contender. Acheson’s earlier doubts about Symington’s ability to catch hold also sit alongside the endorsement: support from Truman did not erase uncertainty about whether that support could translate into nomination prospects.

Continuing involvement in the campaign

Truman’s support was not only a public statement. A late-night telephone call to Senator Symington’s office captures the former president’s diminished status after leaving office: when an aide asked who was calling, Truman identified himself as Harry S. Truman and added that he used to be President of the United States. The detail places Symington within Truman’s continuing political network, while showing how sharply the title of former president could contrast with the ordinary business of reaching a senator after hours.

The campaign brought Symington into another direct encounter with Kennedy and Truman. Accompanied by Symington, Kennedy came to the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, where Truman met Kennedy at the door and invited him in for a conversation. Symington’s presence places him at the meeting between Truman and the candidate he had previously declined to favor. The account does not specify what Symington said or what role he played in the discussion, so his significance here lies in accompanying Kennedy and sharing the scene in which Truman received him.

After the Democratic convention in Los Angeles, Truman set aside his disappointment and anger and agreed to help Kennedy when Kennedy called. He joined the campaign, and Symington was again beside him at the library meeting. This later cooperation does not undo Truman’s preference for Symington or his May endorsement; it shows the difference between choosing a favored candidate and responding to the eventual nominee. Symington’s arc in the account ends without a narrated campaign victory of his own: he remains the administrator Truman selected and the candidate Truman backed, while Truman ultimately works alongside him in support of Kennedy.