We should note that his taking office coincided very quickly with the successful end of the war in Europe. He took officer on April 12th, by the 30th Hitler was dead and Berlin taken by the Soviet. Mussolini was lynched by his own people, and in the first week of May the various remaining senior Nazi leadership capitulates. With V-E day being proclaimed as May 8th.

A cardboard cutout could have gotten a standing ovation for bringing the war against the Nazi's to such a thoroughly victorious conclusion. While much blood was still being shed in the Pacific, notably May and June saw the savagery reach its peak on Okinawa, for the time that was overshadowed a bit. Here was the first and to many most major hurdle to the ending of years of war.