The Ex-President

After retiring to Independence, Missouri, Truman occupied himself with writing his memoirs, meeting with visitors, and raising money for the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library. The library opened in Independence in 1957, and Truman maintained an office inside it for several years. Even after retiring, Truman stayed involved in American politics. He publicly criticized the Eisenhower administration's policies on numerous occasions, and even campaigned against him in 1956. He had better relations with Kennedy, and got along especially well with Johnson. He did not, however, enjoy cordial relations with President Nixon.

Ex-President Truman with visitors at his desk in his

 presidential library in Independence, Missouri.

Unlike many other former presidents, Truman had relatively little personal wealth. In the years following his presidency, he was living primarily off of an army pension. His financial situation is believed to be one of the main reasons that congress passed the Former Presidents Act in 1958, which allotted former presidents a pension of $25,000 per year. The only other living ex-president at the time was Herbert Hoover, who did not suffer the same financial difficulties. However, Hoover accepted the pension in order to avoid embarrassing Truman. 

Truman after retirement.

Truman also became the first member of Medicare in 1965. Truman fought long and hard for Federal Health plans during his presidency, but to no avail. When Johnson later got the bill through congress, he chose to go to Independence and sign the Medicare Act in the Truman library. Truman was then enrolled and for the rest of his life was the holder of Medicare card number 1, which was used to help pay for his lengthy hospital visits at the end of his life. 

President Johnson signs the Medicare Act into law 

with ex-President Truman seated beside him.

       Truman was admitted on Dec. 5th, 1972 to the Kansas City Research Hospital and Medical Center due to lung congestion and an irregular heart beat. After being in the hospital for two weeks, he began showing improvements, but he quickly began to deteriorate again. On Christmas morning his condition was critical, and the doctors believed he had only a few hours left to live. He managed to make it through Christmas day, but on the morning of Dec. 26th, Harry Truman took his last breath. He had been in the hospital for 22 days. At 88 years old, he died of old age, doctors saying that there was "a complexity of organic failures causing a collapse of the cardiovascular system."  

Announcement of the ex-President's death.

A state funeral was held in his hometown of Independence, Missouri. The president at the time of Truman's death was President Richard Nixon. Nixon declared the day of the burial to be a day of national mourning, and also declared that the American flag should be flown at half-mast for the following thirty days. President Nixon went to Kansas City to honor Truman by lying a wreath on his coffin, but did not attend the funeral as the family had requested it be a small, private affair.

President Nixon arriving to pay his respects to the 

former president.

         At the beginning of his presidency, foreign affairs was one of the things Truman had least experience. However, because of the global circumstances at the time, he had to learn quickly and make important foreign policy decisions. He is mostly strongly remembered for these foreign policy decisions, such as the dropping of the atomic bombs and his tough stance against communism. Though he was widely unpopular at the end of his presidency, he has since earned the admiration of many historians, and is now frequently considered one of the ten best Presidents in US history.

"The only things worth learning are the things 

you learn after you know it all."

                                 

                                         -Harry S Truman (1884-1972)

Sources 
 
Ayers, Drummond, Jr. "Truman, 33rd President, Is Dead." Editorial. The New York Times 27 Dec. 1972: 1. President Truman's Obituary. Web. 12 July 2015.

"After Retirement from Public Life." Truman Biography. Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, n.d. Web. 12 July 2015.

History.com Staff. "Harry Truman." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 12 July 2015.

Miller Center of Public Affairs. "Harry S. Truman: Life After the Presidency." American President. University of Virginia, n.d. Web. 12 July 2015.