Professor Robert H. Ferrell, who discovered Harry S. Truman’s previously unpublished Potsdam diary (June/July 1980), has uncovered further evidence of the President’s spiky character:

“Rummaging through some notes here in the office, I found some of Truman’s marginalia on letters sent to him after he left the Presidency. The comments were made to his secretary, Rose Conway, and a selection vividly recalls the man:

‘File it. Looks like crackpots.

‘File it. No ans. I told him the facts and he has garbled them!

‘Thank him & tell him the Louisville Courier-Journal has always been after circulation and not facts & morals.

‘File it. No interest. The figure is 100% wrong but as Coolidge said, don’t argue with skunks. HST

‘Thank him and tell him Winchell never tells the truth.

‘This person stood at the front gate at the house and pressed the bell button until Mrs. T. asked what he wanted. He said he must see me. She told him to visit the library and he’d find me. He did with a guard in tow. Just an expert in nothing who wanted something he thought he couldn’t get but did.

‘This is a humdinger! File it. It answers itself.

‘Since it wasn’t true, it made no difference in the history of the period.

‘Thank him. The facts are history & Monday morning quarterbacks can’t change them.

‘Tell him to come over in 3 weeks. I won’t be here [the] last week!!

‘No chance. He should have voted right when he had a chance. Just file it! ”