This interview was on December 14, 1939 in the Senate Office building
on Capitol Hill just a few months after Germany invaded Poland in September
of the same year. Soon after war was declared on Nazi Germany by England
and France signaling the start of WWII.
A. As you listen
to Senator Truman's interview with Jimmy Mack, answer these questions.
1. In Senator Truman's
opinion, what were the weak points of the United States military?
2. What were the
two main geographical areas that Senator Truman and his colleagues visited?
3. In inspecting
the military outposts throughout the United States, what did Senator
Truman think was the biggest problem?
4. How much money
did Senator Elmer Thomas estimate would be total sum needed for national
defense?
5. Do you think
that the United States should be able to sell airplanes to Finland even
if they are at war with Russia?
6.) How long was
the trip that was taken by Senator Truman and other congressional members?
Points to Ponder
B. After carefully
thinking about what you heard in the interview, answer these questions
using your prior knowledge of history.
- Why do you think
the United States should have been worried about their national defense?
- Why would Senator
Truman want to inspect the Panama Canal?
- How would you
define "Deficit Financing", and why was Senator Truman against
it?
- Why do you think
Senator Truman said that airplane factories close to the border were
vulnerable to attack?
C. The following places are a few stops that Senator Truman made on
his 13,000-mile voyage. See if you can find them on a map. You may want
to use some reference materials for help.
Panama ___ Salt Lake City, Utah ___ Guatemala City ___
Mexico City ___
Washington state ___ Los Angeles ___
Fort Sill, Oklahoma
___ Veracruz, Mexico ___ Cost Rica ___
San Antonio, Texas
___ Nicaragua ___ San Salvador ___
San Francisco, California
___ Shreveport, Louisiana ___
C. Map Activities
1. Senator Truman did not have to inspect military outposts at all these
locations. He traveled to some just to meet officials from other governments.
See if you can identify those places.
2. If you were Senator
Truman, trace the route you would have taken to visit these 14 places.
(Note that these were not all the places that Truman stopped, these
are just a few).
