I'm one of those people who enjoy reading biographies, have read a number of biographies about presidents, and two biographies about Truman. He wasn't perfect and didn't pretend to be. But I think it was clear that he was man of good integrity as defined by taking responsibility for one's choices. The buck really did stop with him. He stood by his decisions to drop the bombs on Japan, and I don't think ever seriously doubted they were, for him, and for his times, the right decisions.   One may disagree about the correctness of his choices, but one can never say he tied himself up in knots trying to justify his choices, or to deflect responsibility onto others. When he made choices that he later considered bad choices, he readily owned up to them.

Today, he would be unelectable for his plain-spokeness. He enjoyed power, but was not about power for the sake of power.

Having said that, the world appeared to be a simpler place back then, most people had simpler views of themselves and their countries, and it was easier to see things as black or white, though the perspective on what was black and what was white varied by nationality.

The world was probably just as complex, but until the 1960's, that complexity was not as transparent as it is in the age of globalization. Truman was very effective within the context of his time. I don't know that he would be effective today. "Effective" in our own current time, is difficult to conceptualize, much less define.

Janie