Pictures and Historical Information from Harry S. Truman | U.S. President & History | Britannica
I was born in 1956 in the shadow of WWII as part of the baby boomer generation. My parents were part of the Greatest Generation which had sacrificed much for our nation to remain free. But where my memories begin is after the War. President Truman (1945-1953) had ordered background checks of all government employees in the fear that communism would invade our daily lives. McCarthyism was pervasive and paranoia spread with the fear of a nuclear holocaust. Meanwhile, the Cuban Revolution of 1959 placed Fidel Castro at the head of the Communist Party and he formed economic links to the Soviet Union. The next president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, (1953-1960) was concerned about Castro’s leadership of the Cuban government and funded an invasion of the Bay of Pigs.
