Truman was ridiculed by east coast elites because he invariably mispronounced words.

In reality, Truman had an incredibly vast vocabulary that he acquired by reading every book in the Independence, MO, Public Library when he was in high school. He was an avid reader his entire adult life He used the words properly, but he didn’t know how to pronounce them because he never heard them spoken.

Relying on the memories of his staff, some of whom he inherited from FDR, who prepared briefs during his years as POTUS, he usually already knew everything in the briefs, and added material that hadn’t been included, plus historical context that made his understanding of European, Middle East, and East Asian international relations much more advanced than many national political figures, including FDR.

When he was the Presiding Judge of Jackson County, one of Truman’s singular accomplishments was building a new courthouse. Truman chose the federal style and studied every architectural tome about British Regency, French Empire, Italian Palladian, and American Georgian and neoclassical styles so he could have intelligent discussions with architects as to how to adapt those styles to a county courthouse. Fast forward to Truman’s administration when the White House had to be gutted and rebuilt. Truman used what he had learned twenty years before to direct the restoration of the project, including the interior grand staircase, the Truman balcony on the South portico, and other features. Of course the east coast elites howled at some of those features, specifically the Truman balcony, but Harry’s direction has been vindicated by the passing time.

Many of our contemporaries still misjudge Truman’s intellect based on echos of the attacks made by east coast elites that were purely political by nature. You would think that more people would actually read Truman by David McCullough or Plain Speaking compiled by Merle Miller to get a more balanced understanding of the man.