He served just 82 days as vice president

Truman took the oath of office as vice president on January 20, 1945, after Roosevelt and Truman's ticket received 53% of the vote to their Republican rivals' 46%. The time he spent in the U.S. Senate helped Truman develop his reputation for fairness. He tightened regulations on American shippers and looked for waste in the defense budget. The campaign committee for Franklin Delano Roosevelt, which was preparing for Roosevelt's fourth term as president, noticed his work. Selecting a vice president was arguably more important than ever because of concerns that the ill Roosevelt wouldn't survive the term. Truman agreed and began his term of office on January 20, 1945, just 82 days before Roosevelt passed away.

On April 12, 1945, late in the day, Harry S. Truman was called to the White House and informed that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had passed away. After serving as vice president for just 82 days, he was now in charge of 8.3 million soldiers and sailors engaged in combat in Europe and the Pacific.

This "small man from Missouri," as some of his critics referred to him, found himself suddenly one of, if not the most, powerful men in the world, and the solutions he found to the issues Roosevelt left him with would affect the globe for a long time to come. Truman had worked as a bank teller, miner, wildcatter in oil wells, and a farmer for 11 years. In World War I, he had been an artillery captain. He attempted to open a haberdashery store after the war, but it failed. He then entered politics. He served in local government for eight years before being elected to the Senate of the United States. Truman gained from all of these encounters a natural common touch and an understanding of everyday American concerns that individuals of FDR's social status did not possess.