Online Collections

Student Research Files

The Student Research File topics are listed below. Each topic includes between 500 and 1000 pages of documents from the Truman Library's holdings selected by the archives staff as being the most important documents on its subject. They are arranged in an approximate chronological order.

• Harry Truman's World War I
• From Soldier to Senator: Harry S. Truman, 1918-1941
• Renovation of the White House, 1945-52.
• Planning for the Postwar World: President Truman at the Potsdam Conference, July 17-August 2, 1945.
• United States Policy in Occupied Germany After World War II: Denazification, Decartelization, Demilitarization and Democratization.
• The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb on Japan
• The War Relocation Authority and the Incarceration of Japanese-Americans During World War II.
• President Truman and the Plight of Displaced Persons in Europe Following World War II.
• Demobilization and Reconversion: Rebuilding a Peace-time Economy Following World War II.
• The War Crimes Trials at Nuremberg and Tokyo, 1945-48.
• The United Nations, 1945-53: The Development of a World Organization.
• Creating a Pluralistic Democracy in Japan: The Occupation Government, 1945-52.
• The Development of an Atomic Weapons Program Following World War II.
• The Chinese Civil War: General George C. Marshall's Mission to China, 1945-47.
• The Quest for the Peaceful Atom: The Baruch Plan and the Atomic Energy Act of 1946.
• The Attempt to Achieve Stable Economic Growth During the Truman Administration.
• The Debate Over Labor Policy: President Truman's Battle with Congress Over Passage of the Taft-Hartley Act, January-June 1947.
• The Truman Administration's Agricultural Policy, 1945-48.
• President Truman's Fight to Unify the Armed Services, 1945-49.
• The Truman Administration's Civil Rights Program: The Report of the Committee on Civil Rights, and President Truman's Message to Congress of February 2, 1948.
• The Truman Administration's Civil Rights Program: The Desegregation of the Armed Forces.
• The Truman Administration's Civil Rights Program: The Attempt to Put the Principles of Racial Justice into Law, 1948-1952.
• The Ideological Foundation of the Cold War-the Long Telegram, the Foreign Affairs "X" Article, the Clifford Report, and NSC 68.
• The Truman Doctrine and the Beginning of the Cold War, 1947-49.
• Establishing the Marshall Plan, 1947-48.
• The Central Intelligence Agency: Its Founding and the Dispute Over Its Mission, 1945-54.
• The Truman Administration's Loyalty Program
• The United States Recognition of Israel.
• Running From Behind: Truman's Strategy for the 1948 Presidential Campaign.
• The Fair Deal-President Truman's Vision of the American Future.
• The Point Four Program: Reaching Out to Help the Less Developed Countries.
• Containment in Latin America: The Truman Administration's Policies Toward Argentina, Brazil, Cuba and Mexico.
• The Emergence of an Asian Pacific Rim in American Foreign Policy: Korea, Japan and Formosa.
• The Emergence of an Asian Pacific Rim in American Foreign Policy: Indochina, Thailand, Burma, Malaya, Indonesia and the Philippines.
• Cold War Confrontation: Truman, Stalin and the Berlin Airlift, June 1948-May 1949.
• The Brannan Plan: The Truman Administration's Attempt to Achieve Full Production Agriculture, 1949-50.
• The Origins and Establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, 1948-52.
• The Truman Administration's Policy Toward Native Americans.
• The Development of an Energy Policy During the Truman Administration.
• The Problem of Migratory Farm Labor in the United States, 1948-52.
• President Truman's Fight for National Health Insurance, 1949-53.
• Creating a New Balance of Power: The Integration of Western Europe.
• President Truman's Response to Women's Issues.
• Preparing to Survive Atomic Attack: The Truman Administration's Civil Defense Program.
• President Truman's Confrontation with McCarthyism.
• The Korean War
• Oil Crisis in Iran, 1950-52.
• The Truman Scandals: The President Confronts a Political Crisis, 1951-52.
• Waging Psychological Warfare Against the Communists, 1951-53.
• The Constitutional Crisis Over President Truman's Seizure of the Steel Industry in 1952.
• Immigration Policy: President Truman's Veto of the McCarran-Walter Act.
• The Old President as Political Campaigner, 1952-1972.