work was mine to do
have tried to give it every
thing that was in me
He acknowledged that when he became president he had grave doubts about his capacity to do the job:
“When Franklin Roosevelt died, I felt there must be a million men better qualified than I, to take up the Presidential task.
But the work was mine to do, and I had to do it.
And I have tried to give it everything that was in me.”
He reflected on the decisions, large and small, every president has to make: “He can’t pass the buck to anybody.”
On Harry Truman in the book How Did We Get Here? From Theodore Roosevelt to Donald Trump by Robert Dallek, HarperCollins Publishers, 2020.
Seems like Mr. Truman also said something along the lines of that it is amazing how much you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit.
I guess that’s why each generation longs for the good old days.
No Haiku For You 