The past offered little guidance for President Donald Trump on whether to make a major policy announcement on the Fourth of July, although he has invited the B-2 Spirit pilots who flew the mission against Iran last week to the White House for the occasion, which could offer a backdrop for a Mideast policy declaration.
Last year, President Joe Biden hosted an Independence Day celebration at the White House, including a barbecue for several thousand active-duty military members and their families. Later that day, Biden and his family, joined by then-Vice President Kamala Harris, watched the annual fireworks display on the National Mall from the Truman balcony of the White House. There were no policy announcements.
Some presidents have not stayed in Washington for the Fourth of July. Former President Bill Clinton spent the Fourth of July in 1993 in Philadelphia, where he delivered remarks at an Independence Day ceremony.
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And Trump might not want to recall his own gaffe-filled performance at the Lincoln Memorial on July 4, 2019, which he later blamed on a teleprompter going on the fritz in the rain.
During the Revolutionary War, “our Army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do, and at Fort McHenry, under the rocket’s red glare, it had nothing but victory. And when dawn came, their star-spangled banner waved defiant,” Trump said, although air travel had yet to be invented and the Fort McHenry battle took place during the War of 1812.
But in the annals of presidential happenings on the Fourth of July, perhaps none was more consequential than what President Harry Truman faced on July 4, 1945.
Truman had yet to make up his mind on whether to order the ground invasion of Japan’s home islands — that would almost certainly entail a horrific body count — or wait to see if the top-secret new bomb his advisers had been telling him about would actually work to unleash the fearsome destructive power of the atom.
Truman used the day to go on a Potomac River cruise aboard the same-named presidential yacht USS Potomac with friends, cabinet members and advisers. He wrote a note to himself afterward about his chats during the cruise: “Discussed Russian & Jap War, Govt. for Germany, Food, fuel & transportation for Europe, Sterling Block (the British pound), etc. Don’t feel happy over situation,” according to the National World War II Museum.
The note continued: “I have to decide Japanese strategy — shall we invade Japan proper or shall we bomb and blockade? That is my hardest decision to date. But I’ll make it when I have all the facts.”
Earlier, Truman had released a “Creed of Liberty” message: “Again this year we celebrate July Fourth as the anniversary of the day 169 years ago on which we declared our independence as a sovereign people.”
“Here at home, on this July 4, 1945, let us honor our nation’s creed of liberty, and the men and women of our armed forces who are carrying this creed with them throughout the world,” the message said.
But in Congress, and among the families of the troops serving abroad, Truman was taking heat for not speeding up the demobilization of the Army and the Army Air Forces and sending some of the troops home. The War Department had ordered demobilization in Operation Magic Carpet under an “Adjusted Service Rating Score” two days after victory in Europe was declared with Germany’s unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945.
To the troops, the Adjusted Service Rating Score was just the “points system,” and it was much despised in the ranks. The idea was that “those who had fought longest and hardest should be returned home for discharge first,” but it didn’t often work out that way. Who was eligible for demobilization took on added importance as some of the troops in Europe were scheduled for redeployment to the Pacific for the possible invasion of Japan.
Initially, enlisted troops needed a score of 85 points to be considered for demobilization. Troops got one point for each month of service and an additional one point for each month served overseas. Combat awards ranging from the Medal of Honor to the Purple Heart got five points, and a campaign participation award also was given five points. Troops with a dependent child under the age of 18 got 12 points for each child up to a limit of three.
Twelve days after Truman said privately that he was undecided on what to do about the war in the Pacific, the decision was essentially made for him when the Manhattan Project team set off the 21-kiloton Trinity explosion — the first atomic weapon — in the New Mexico desert.
B-29 bombers dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and Nagasaki on Aug. 9. Japan surrendered unconditionally aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2, 1945.
In a radio address following the signing of the terms of surrender aboard the Missouri, Truman said that “the mighty threat to civilization which began” with the attack on Pearl Harbor “is now laid at rest. It was a long road to Tokyo and a bloody one. We shall not forget Pearl Harbor. The Japanese militarists will not forget the USS Missouri.”
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