THOUSANDS OF TROOPS have died fighting a war he chose to fight–a war that increasingly appears to be a microcosm of something much larger than what the American people had bargained for. He seems to be stretching presidential power beyond what his predecessors ever imagined. His approval ratings hover around the freezing point. It’s no coincidence that his party is beginning to stray from him, and the press is writing him off as a failure.

What sounds like a thumbnail sketch of George W. Bush in 2006, is actually a description of Harry S. Truman’s nightmarish 1950. In fact, these underestimated and oversimplified presidents have more in common than commonly thought.