The Watchdog: How the Truman Committee Battled Corruption and Helped Win World War Two
Harry S. Truman Presidential Library
Independence, MO
Wednesday, October 25, 2023 - 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. CDT
Months before Pearl Harbor, FDR knew that the U.S. was on the verge of entering another world war for which it was dangerously ill-prepared. The urgent times demanded a transformation of the economy, with the government bankrolling the unfathomably expensive task of enlisting millions of citizens while also producing the equipment necessary to successfully fight—all of which opened up opportunities for graft, fraud and corruption.
In The Watchdog, Steve Drummond—an award-winning senior editor and executive producer at NPR—draws the reader into the fast-paced story of how Harry Truman, still a newcomer to Washington politics, cobbled together a bipartisan team of men and women that took on powerful corporate entities and the Pentagon, placing Truman in the national spotlight and paving his path to the White House.
The Watchdog provides readers with a window to a time that was far from perfect but where it was possible to root out corruption and hold those responsible to account. It shows us what can be possible if politicians are governed by the principles of their office rather than self-interest.
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