Adams, Robert E. Papers

Military Aide to Former President Truman and Mrs. Truman.

The papers of Robert E. Adams contain correspondence, printed materials, schedules, handwritten notes, and other documents pertaining to his service as military aide to former President Truman and Mrs. Truman.

Size: Less than one linear foot (about 1,000 pages).
Access: Open.
Copyright: The donors gave their copyright interest in this collection to the United States of America. Documents created by U.S. government officials in the course of their duties are in the public domain. Copyright interest in other documents presumably belongs to the creators of those documents, or their heirs.
Processed by: Randy Sowell (2025).

Robert E. Adams was born in Lincoln, Nebraska on June 18, 1919. After graduating from the University of Nebraska, he served in the U.S. Army in Europe during World War II. Adams remained in the Army as a reserve officer after the war, and eventually rose to the rank of major general. He was a close friend of former President Truman, who asked him to serve as his military aide. After Truman’s death, Adams provided similar assistance to Mrs. Truman until her death in 1982. In civilian life, Adams was the director of Kansas City’s Research Hospital and Medical Center for many years. Robert E. Adams died on August 28, 2004.

The papers of Robert E. Adams contain correspondence, printed materials, schedules, handwritten notes, and other documents pertaining to his service as military aide to former President Truman and Mrs. Truman. Adams served as a liaison between the White House and the former President, and assisted Mr. and Mrs. Truman with various responsibilities during their retirement years. His papers include letters from Harry and Bess Truman and other materials relating to them. The collection also includes correspondence and printed items concerning the Herbert Hoover Library, the Lyndon B. Johnson Library, and the funeral of Dwight D. Eisenhower; materials documenting Mr. Truman’s relationships with other former Presidents; letters to Adams from General Omar Bradley and other prominent persons; a manual for “OPLAN Missouri” (consisting of detailed plans for Mr. Truman’s funeral); thank-you letters from schoolchildren Adams visited or brought to the Truman Library; correspondence with White House officials; and a list of photographs that have been transferred from the papers to the Library’s audiovisual collection.

More information about Robert E. Adams can be found in the General Correspondence File of the Truman Post-Presidential Papers.