My Service with Ten Presidents, from FDR to Bush - A Lecture by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg

Harry S Truman

Harry Truman accepting the vice-presidential nomination, 1944 Truman and his family at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, 1944

My wife Helen and I saw Harry Truman for the first time when he was making his acceptance address upon his nomination as Vice-President of the United States, when the Democratic National Convention was held in Chicago. This was on July 21, 1944. My wife Helen and I were listening to the radio, and we heard the Democratic Convention being broadcast from the Convention Center, got on the streetcar, went down to the Convention Center and walked in and listened to Harry Truman make his acceptance speech. Here we are, standing right over here, as we listened to him. At that time, of course, we also saw his wife Bess Truman and daughter Margaret Truman. I met him on a number of occasions after that.

FDR, Harry Truman, and Henry Wallace, 1944 Union Station Washington, D.C.

Here he's with President Roosevelt as incoming Vice-President and outgoing Vice-President Henry Wallace in November of 1944 after the election.

Excerpts from The Franck Report

I was a member of the Franck committee that made a report, of which I've reproduced a section here, pointing out that we were in a race with the Germans in the development of the atomic bomb. In that report, signed by these members here in June 1945, we made the recommendation to President Truman that the weapon should be demonstrated before it was used in order to give the Japanese a chance to surrender. So far as we know, this recommendation actually never reached President Truman.

Truman's letter to Seaborg

Harry Truman appointed me to the first General Advisory Committee (GAC) to the Atomic Energy Commission, and here is the letter that he wrote to me after I'd returned to Berkeley in 1946 at the end of the war.

Truman and Vice President Alben Barkley

Here is Harry Truman with Alben Barkley, his Vice-Presidential running mate, soon after the election in 1948 when they were elected. I had met Alben Barkley on a number of occasions. I met Harry Truman a number of times after his service as President, and also during his service as President when I was on the General Advisory Committee, but one didn't always have a picture taken on every occasion.

Harry Truman, Seaborg, and LBJ in Kansas City, 1965

Here's an occasion when a picture was taken. This was in June, 1965, when my wife Helen and I flew on Air Force One to San Francisco with President Lyndon Johnson, and he asked the pilot to stop at Kansas City so he could say hello to his old friend Harry Truman. Here's Harry Truman up here, and here am I on that occasion.