■ ■ ■One of Billy’s early failures, an embarrassing gaffe following a
meeting with President Truman, showed him to be one who rec-
ognized and corrected his mistakes with speed and grace. This
humiliating moment, interestingly, is the incident Billy uses to
begin his autobiography, Just As I Am.This failure prepared him for
a lifetime of significant encounters with world leaders.
It happened in 1950, when Billy was thirty-one years old and
still emerging as a national figure.
After two successful campaigns in Los Angeles and Boston, Billy
thought it was time to make contact with the highest levels of polit-
ical power. He hoped to gain the president’s support for his evan-
gelistic efforts, especially one he dreamed of bringing to West Berlin.
He wrote the White House to request a visit with President Tru-
man. When his initial request was rebuffed, he persisted, writing the
president’s secretary to ask that Mr. Truman be assured that “over
1,100 students at these Northwestern Schools [where Billy was then
serving as president] are praying daily that God will give him wis-
dom and guidance” and that “we believe our President to be a man
of God. We believe him to be God’s choice for this great office.”
A bit later, after Communist forces invaded South Korea, Billy
sent a telegram to the president: “Millions of Christians praying
God give you wisdom in this crisis. Strongly urge showdown with
communism now. More Christians in southern Korea per capita
than in any part of the world. We cannot let them down. Evange-
list Billy Graham.”
Then, working through Massachusetts Congressman John
McCormack, Billy renewed his efforts to visit Truman, and he
finally got an invitation for a twenty-minute appointment for July
14, 1950.
Billy pressed for more, asking that he be able to bring three
colleagues along—Grady Wilson, Cliff Barrows, and Jerry Bea-
van. Somewhat surprisingly, permission was granted.
“We four young men were so excited,” Grady remembered, that
“we were jumping up and down.” Their thoughts turned to what
The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham