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STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. This week in our series: a sudden change in Washington.

 
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The House of Representatives ended the day's business early on the rainy afternoon of April twelfth, nineteen forty-five. The House Democratic leader, Speaker Sam Rayburn, invited a friend to come by his office for a drink. "Be there around five," Rayburn said. "Harry Truman is coming over."

Harry Truman was the vice president at the time. The events are described in a book about his presidency, "Conflict and Crisis" by Robert Donovan.

World War Two was not over yet. But it was a quiet afternoon in Washington. President Franklin Roosevelt was in the southern state of Georgia. He was resting after his recent trip to Yalta to meet with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin. The president's wife, Eleanor, was at the White House, working on a speech supporting the new United Nations.

 
Harry Truman was at the Senate. But he was not interested in the debate that was taking place. He spent most of his time writing to his family back in Missouri. When the debate finished, he went to the office of House leader Rayburn to join him for a drink.

It was an afternoon Truman would never forget.

 
Rayburn and his friend were talking in the office before Truman arrived. The telephone rang. It was a call from the White House asking whether Vice President Truman had arrived yet. No, Rayburn replied. The caller asked to have him telephone the White House as soon as he arrived.

Truman entered a minute later. He immediately called the White House. As he talked, his face became white. He put down the phone and raced out the door to his car.

 
Truman arrived at the White House within minutes. An assistant took him up to the president's private living area. Eleanor Roosevelt was waiting for him there. "Harry," she said, "the president is dead." Truman was shocked. He asked Mrs. Roosevelt if there was anything he could do to help her. But her reply made clear to him that his own life had suddenly changed. "Is there anything we can do for you?" Mrs. Roosevelt asked the new president. "You are the one in trouble now."

 
Within hours, the world learned the news that Franklin Roosevelt -- the longest serving president in American history -- was dead. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage, bleeding in the brain.
 

 
Americans were shocked and scared. It was nineteen forty-five and the United States was still at war. Roosevelt had led the nation since early nineteen thirty-three. He was the only president many young Americans had ever known.

Who would lead them now? All eyes turned to Harry Truman.

 
HARRY TRUMAN: "Our departed leader never looked backward. He looked forward and moved forward. That is what he would want us to do. That is what America will do."

 
Harry Truman in his first speech to Congress as president.

 
HARRY TRUMAN: "With great humility, I call upon all Americans to help me keep our nation united in defense of those ideals which have been so eloquently proclaimed by Franklin Roosevelt. [Applause]

 
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