According to his biographer, He looked as if for the first time he had discovered there was evil in the world.

Truman biographer David McCullough warns that about 50 years must pass before historians can really appraise a presidency. But one decade after Truman left office, the Marshall Plan and the NATO alliance were already seen as solid accomplishments.

Indeed, his unfailing but occasionally unwarranted optimism, a biographer noted, was one of his most outstanding characteristics. In a 1958 textbook on medical ethics and law, another eminent doctor stated that it is often clinically wise and in the patient s interest to withhold certain matters.