Michael Beschloss: ‘Even a Great President Like Truman Needed These Strong Voices’

EXCERPT:

BESCHLOSS: “Well, as you're looking at a moment, maybe the late 1940s when the Soviet army was marching through Europe and Harry Truman, as you have well-written Joe, responded by building NATO and by expanding American defense and also by instituting the Marshall Plan. And that shows that you need a president who's got wonderful advice. Who did Truman have? He had Dean Acheson at his side, he had George Marshall as Secretary of Defense. Even a great president like Truman needed these strong voices from the beginning of the time that they came into office. And that's the lesson here. The other thing I'm really inspired by is Republican senators seem, at least at this moment, a little bit more eager to push back on Donald Trump where they think that he may have acted too quickly. That's something perhaps we didn't expect.”