MY GALLERY OF HISTORY

Harry H. Vaughn met Harry S. Truman in WWI when they were both young lieutenants in the field artillery. Lieutenant Vaughn managed to extricate Truman from a dressing-down given by their brigade commander and they became friends for life. After Truman was elected to the Senate, Vaughn served on the staff of the Senate Armed Services headed by Truman. Vaughn then became a military aide to Truman after he was selected by FDR to serve as Vice-President. In Truman's eight years as VP and then President, he and Vaughn, by then a Brigadier-General, were the charter members of a group that met frequently to play poker, swap stories, and drink bourbon with branch water. Truman and his aide often had lunch together and followed the meal with a swim in the White House pool. General Vaughn's reputation ranged from that of White House jester to national menace. When Truman was urged by columnist Drew Pearson to fire Vaughn after it was disclosed that the general had accepted a medal from the neo-fascist Argentine Government, the President retorted, "No S.O.B. is going to tell me who to have on my staff or in my Cabinet." In this inscribed photograph, signed by both men, President Truman is shown attaching a second star to the uniform of newly-promoted Major-General Vaughn.