The GOP accused the Democrats of being soft on national security in a rancorous political year—1948. Harry & Arthur is proof that if history doesn’t repeat its lines precisely, the present often rhymes with the past. The account of Democratic President Harry S. Truman and Republican Sen. Arthur Vandenberg also shows that common sense can prevail across political barriers when leaders from both sides find and build on common ground.
Lawrence J. Haas of the American Foreign Policy Council argues that cooperation between the president and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee built the orderly post-World War II system of American prosperity, Western European recovery, the establishment of the United Nations and the containment of Soviet ambitions. Although the era has been well covered by historians, Harry & Arthur serves as a timely reminder of the power of bi-partisanship.
