NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- The cover of the current issue of Newsweek magazine features the jaunty photo of a president from the U.S. past, with the headline: "Wanted: A New Truman."

To which we say, Amen!

Several times in these columns we have praised Harry S. Truman, the nation's 30th president (from 1945 to 1953). Now that he is being held up as the prototypical example of the president we presumably want, it's a good time to examine just who and what he was.

Harry Truman was cantankerous and controversial, but also honest, loyal, determined, far-sighted, fearless, and -- above all -- courageous. He made more decisions that changed the course of history than any other president. Had he not occupied the office, America's story would have been quite different, and not nearly as ennobling or successful.

He was an accidental president, a hardscrabble Missouri farmer too broke to attend college. But he won a reputation for leadership as an Army captain in World War I and caught the eye of Tom Pendergast, boss of the Kansas City political machine, who set him up to run in the elections for county judge and then U.S. Senator.

When Democratic bosses were shopping around for a vice presidential candidate on the ticket with Franklin Roosevelt in 1944, they found that Truman had many vote-getting characteristics -- he was a farmer, a veteran, a machine loyalist, slightly southern. So they picked him instead of the incumbent Henry Wallace, who was just too left-wing.

Soon after the election, Roosevelt died. Truman was stunned. So was the nation.

Where Roosevelt had been eloquent, inspirational, dramatic, Truman looked and sounded like a hick.

But gradually he found the courage of his convictions, and his forceful actions began to surmount his tinny talk.

The Cold War with the Soviets erupted even before World War II ended in 1945, and rather than try to pussyfoot or compromise, Truman fought them at every point. His political philosophy might be summed up in a single sentence: Don't let the bullies poke you in the eye.

First, in what became known as the Truman Doctrine, the U.S. sent financial and economic aid that stopped the Communists from taking control of Greece and Turkey.

Second, the U.S. adopted the multi-billion-dollar Marshall Plan that again propped free governments, this time those of Western Europe.

Third, when the Soviets in 1948 blockaded West Berlin, Truman quickly ordered military planes to fly food, fuel and medicine to keep the beleaguered city alive. The eleven-month Berlin Blockade energized the West and turned into a singular Allied victory.

So did Harry Truman's campaign for the U.S. -- which had rejected membership in the League of Nations after World War I -- to join the United Nations and become one of its leaders after World War II.

Also in 1948, Truman decided that the U.S. should support the establishment of the State of Israel, despite agonizing opposition from Secretary of State George Marshall and other policy heavyweights, who feared for the future of U.S. oil supplies.

And when the Communist North Koreans stormed into South Korea in 1950, it was Harry Truman who persuaded the United Nations forces to stand up and fight them back.

Along the way, Truman took many other steps that changed the nation. For example, he revamped America's armed forces by creating the Department of Defense, the CIA, the U.S. Air Force and the National Security Council.

He never doubted that what he was doing was right. And as soon as Harry Truman decided that something was right, he had no trouble supporting it -- and sticking to his guns.

The public and the pols didn't always agree with him, particularly on domestic policy. Assailed by anti-civil rights forces on the right and ultra-liberals on the left, he barely eked out victory in the 1948 elections. When he left office early in 1953, less than 30% of the U.S. population supported his policies.

The embattled George Bush may try to take some solace in that, but a comparison doesn't work. Truman knew how to pick his targets and not squander his assets. That is one big reason that Harry Truman is an American hero today.