Ken Hechler, former congressman and President Truman's former assistant.

Ken Hechler remembers his former boss, President Truman

By: Jheel Mehta

Posted: 2/11/08

A former assistant to President Truman will know a thing or two about politics and civil rights.

Ken Hechler, former Congressman and special assistant to Truman, spoke last Tuesday, Feb. 5 at UMKC School of Education.

Hechler spoke about Truman, civil rights and the current presidential elections. His career in public services started in 1940 as the Section Chief of the United States Bureau of the Census. From there, Hechler has been in many leading positions within and outside the White House.

Hechler is the author of "Working with Truman: A Personal Memoir of the White House Years." This book, he said, gives insight into his experiences in the White House and working with Truman.

"People [should] remember President Truman as the author of the Marshall Plan, the person who started the Berlin Airlift, which was very successful, and the person who established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization," he said. "But a lot of people today remember him only for the fact that he was the person who ordered the dropping of the two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

The decision was popular at the time, Hechler said, because it ended the war.

"One of the arguments that President Truman used to drop the bomb was that the Japanese were determined to fight till the last man and people believed that the war could be ended," he said.

President?Truman's greatest achievement, according to Hechler, was in the area of civil rights. He described court cases that took place during the Winston and Warren courts, such as Brown v. Board of Education, which overturned Plessy v. Ferguson. Hechler said Truman made important decisions which helped overturn Plessy v. Ferguson.

After his speech, Hechler opened the floor to questions from the audience. One person asked who Hechler supported in the current race for the White House.

"As you would have guessed by now, Senator Obama," Hechler said.

He also encouraged those present to go vote. He concluded his presentation with a joke poking fun at politics.

"There was a doctor, engineer and a politician who were arguing which one of the professions was the oldest of all," he said. "The doctor said when God created Eve it took a surgical operation to take one of Adams ribs out, therefore we are the oldest. The engineer said when God created earth it took an engineer to bring order out of chaos and the politician said who do you think created chaos?"

jmehta@unews.com