Dewey Defeats Truman: The 1948 Election and the Battle for America's Soul
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“a declaration of war on”: “House Votes $400,000,000 Aid to Greece and Turkey,” Los Angeles Times, May 10, 1947.
“The entire fabric of European”: George Marshall, Marshall Plan Speech, June 5, 1947, George C. Marshall Foundation, https://www.marshallfoundation.org/marshall/the-marshall-plan/marshall-plan-speech/.
“Nations, if not continents, had to”: Harry S. Truman, Memoirs, vol. 2, p. 110.
“We now apparently confront the”: Arthur Vandenberg to Robert Taft, excerpted in Arthur H. Vandenberg Jr., ed., The Private Papers of Senator Vandenberg (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1952), p. 374.
“no confidence whatever”: Robert Taft to Grier Bartol, November 19, 1947, The Papers of Robert Taft, edited by Clarence E. Wunderlin Jr., vol. 3, 1945–1948 (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2003), p. 333.
DON’T ARM TYRANNY: Event description from news reports, notably “Wallace Sees U.N. as Sole Peace Hope,” New York Times, April 1, 1947.
“Unconditional aid”: Ibid.
“The world is devastated and hungry”: “Wallace Suggests Britain Take Lead,” New York Times, April 12, 1947.
“covers Wallace like a cloak”: “Wallace Prosecution Asked as Congress Furor Mounts,” New York Times, April 15, 1947.
“treasonable utterances”: “Wallace Defies Critics in Senate,” New York Times, April 14, 1947.
“only one circumstance”: Ibid.
“in good standing of the Democratic”: Dialogue from transcript of the President’s News Conference, April 10, 1947, Public Papers, Truman archives.
“I shall be campaigning in 1948”: “U.S. Leading World to War, Wallace Says,” Washington Post, April 12, 1947.
“filling Chicago Stadium for the first”: “Report on Henry Wallace,” May 22, 1947, Wallace FBI file.
“a road to ruthless imperialism”: “Storm Grows over Wallace Aid Attacks,” Washington Post, April 13, 1947.
“hatred of Russia . . . an imperialist”: “Churchill Runs U.S. Policy, Says Wallace,” Washington Post, October 11, 1948.
“crypto-Communist”: “Churchill Attacks Wallace for Crypto-Communist Plot,” Christian Science Monitor, April 18, 1947.
“If it is traitorous to believe”: John C. Culver and John Hyde, American Dreamer: The Life and Times of Henry A. Wallace (New York: W. W. Norton, 2000), p. 434.
7. “The Defeat Seemed like the End of the World”
“There are 100,000 people here”: Address by Walter White, Lincoln Memorial, June 29, 1947, President’s Committee on Civil Rights file, Clark Clifford papers, Truman archives, https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/research-files/address-given-walter-white-lincoln-memorial.
“Every man . . . should have the right”: Address Before the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, June 29, 1947, Public Papers, Truman archives, https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/130/address-national-association-advancement-colored-people.
“I said what I did”: Walter Francis White, A Man Called White: The Autobiography of Walter White (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1995), p. 348.
“devastating broadside at the”: “The Watchtower,” Los Angeles Sentinel, March 18, 1948.
“stand guard”: “Southerners Plan Senate Filibuster on Rights Program,” New York Times, March 7, 1948.
“the rule of our Government”: “Convention to Succeed—Thompson,” Atlanta Constitution, April 24, 1947.
“The world seems to be”: Harry Truman to Bess Truman, September 22, 1947, Papers of Harry S. Truman Pertaining to Family, Business, and Personal Affairs, Box 16, Truman archives.
MR. PRESIDENT: VETO THE: “Mayor, at AFL Rally, Warns Bill Will Stamp Out Freedom,” New York Times, June 5, 1947.
startling, dangerous, far-reaching: Veto of the Taft-Hartley Labor Bill, June 20, 1947, Public Papers, Truman archives, https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/120/veto-taft-hartley-labor-bill.
“The defeat . . . seemed like”: Jack Redding, Inside the Democratic Party (New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1958), p. 79.
“maximum protection . . . be afforded”: Executive Order 9835, March 21, 1947, Executive Orders, Truman archives, https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/executive-orders/9835/executive-order-9835.
“awakened the people of North”: Book review, “Decline and Fall of a Russian Idol . . . by Igor Guozenko,” New York Times, July 18, 1954.
“It was a political problem”: David McCullough interview with Clark Clifford, quoted in McCullough, Truman, p. 553.
“a campaign of terror unequaled”: “Wallace Hits Denial of Civil Rights,” Gazette and Daily (York, PA), September 20, 1947.
“Not even liberty seemed simple”: Jonathan Daniels, The Man of Independence (New York: Kennikat, 1971), p. 346.
“I think I am one of”: Eddie Jacobson to Harry Truman, October 3, 1947, President’s Secretary’s Files, Truman archives, https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/research-files/correspondence-between-harry-s-truman-and-eddie-jacobson?documentid=NA&pagenumber=2.
“Clark, I am impressed with”: Clifford, Counsel to the President, pp. 5–6.
“There is no question in my”: Diary entry of James Forrestal, November 12, 1947, in Forrestal, The Forrestal Diaries, p. 344.
8. “Dewey’s Hat Is Tossed into Ring”
“We are here to pledge our”: “Dewey’s Hat Is Tossed into Ring,” New York Times, June 13, 1947.
“That was a charming”: Ibid.
“I was like a trainer with”: “Edwin Jaeckle, 97, Lawyer and Backer of Thomas Dewey,” New York Times, May 16, 1992.
“Reorganization of the national party”: Brownell, Advising Ike, p. 67.
“For many voters”: Ibid., p. 70.
“Anti-Marshall Plan Committee”: Robert Taft to Frank Gannett, December 26, 1947, in The Papers of Robert Taft, vol. 3, p. 352.
“The solution of many”: Robert Taft, Address to the John Marshall Club, St. Louis, MO, December 30, 1947, ibid., p. 362.
“very clumsy Republicans”: Thomas E. Dewey speech, The Public Papers of Thomas E. Dewey (New York: Williams, 1944), p. 774.
“The general issue [is] between people”: “Taft Enters Race to Head GOP Slate,” Los Angeles Times, October 25, 1947.
“There will be violent”: Ibid.
“I think we are going to have”: William Randolph Hearst to Richard Berlin, March 1948, quoted in David Pietrusza, 1948: Harry Truman’s Improbable Victory and the Year That Transformed America’s Role in the World (New York: Union Square, 2011), p. 135.
“The USSR does not propose”: “Full Text of Ex-Gov. Stassen’s 80-Minute Talk with Premier Stalin in Moscow,” Boston Daily Globe, May 4, 1947.
“The document was sensational”: Jack Redding, Inside the Democratic Party (New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1958), p. 55.
“Among the rank and file”: Pietrusza, 1948: Harry Truman’s Improbable Victory, p. 91.
“From my point of view”: Thomas Dewey to John Taber, June 7, 1948, Thomas E. Dewey Papers, Series 5, Box 186.
“The Kremlin will make no serious”: Memorandum to Thomas Dewey dated November 15, 1947, ibid., Series 2, Box 28.
9. “Wall Street and the Military Have Taken Over”
“Thousands of people all”: Culver and Hyde, American Dreamer, pp. 456–57.
“The lukewarm liberals sitting”: “Text of Wallace Third Party Speech,” Washington Post, December 30, 1947.
“Henry A. Wallace’s hat-in-the-ring”: Edward Folliard, “Wallace Move Overjoys GOP, White House Indifferent,” Washington Post, December 30, 1947.
“New reinforcements”: Americans for Democratic Action report, “Henry A. Wallace: The First Three Months,” p. 3, Research Files, 1948 Election Campaign File, Truman archives, https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/research-files/henry-wallace-first-three-months?documentid=NA&pagenumber=3.
“What do the Communists”: “Matter of Fact: Squeeze Play,” Washington Post, January 2, 1948.
“If the Communists want to”: “Wal
lace Sees End of Chiang Regime,” New York Times, May 22, 1948.
“seeing more and more of”: Thomas W. Devine, Henry Wallace’s 1948 Presidential Campaign and the Future of Postwar Liberalism (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2013), p. 44.
“stage managers”: “Calling Washington: Wallace’s Stage Managers,” Washington Post, July 24, 1948.
“self-admitted espionage agent”: FBI memorandum January 29, 1959, FBI file of John Abt.
“reportedly in contact with”: Ibid.
“brushed aside my concerns”: John J. Abt, with Michael Myerson, Advocate and Activist: Memoirs of an American Communist Lawyer (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1993), p. 144.
also named Pressman: FBI memorandums, December 28, 1954, and January 29, 1959, FBI file of John Abt.
“all progressive men and women”: Culver and Hyde, American Dreamer, p. 434.
“The facts . . . are”: Abt, Advocate and Activist, p. 149.
“As you are undoubtedly”: SAC, Washington Field to Director, FBI, June 3, 1947, FBI file of Henry Wallace.
“All I said . . . was that there”: Reminiscences of Henry Agard Wallace: oral history, 1953 (transcript), Columbia University Libraries, Center for Oral History, p. 5080.
“I certainly told him before”: Reminiscences of Calvin Benham Baldwin: oral history, 1951 (transcript), ibid., pp. 17–18.
“I have been thinking of”: Culver and Hyde, American Dreamer, p. 134.
“flaming one” . . . “sour one”: Ibid., p. 135.
“unsigned, undated notes”: Reminiscences of Henry Agard Wallace, Columbia University Center for Oral History, p. 5107.
“The gist of the whole thing”: Ibid., p. 5110.
“There must be no publicity”: Culver and Hyde, American Dreamer, p. 143.
“It is highly essential that”: Diary entry of Henry A. Wallace, June 15, 1942, The Price of Vision: The Diary of Henry Wallace, 1942–1946 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1973), p. 91.
“Some have spoken of the”: “Century of the Common Man,” Henry A. Wallace speech, May 8, 1942, YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAKrIdSPkHI.
“the boomerang throwing mystic”: George E. Allen, Presidents Who Have Known Me (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1960), p. 122.
“a job for you in world”: Robert H. Ferrell, Harry S. Truman: A Life (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1994), p. 166.
“You know . . . this whole”: Diary entry of Henry A. Wallace, August 3, 1944, in Wallace, The Price of Vision, p. 373.
“He is a small opportunistic man”: Ibid., p. 374.
“I had no illusions about”: Reminiscences of Henry Agard Wallace, Columbia University Center for Oral History, p. 5115.
“We all had grandiose ideas”: Abt, Advocate and Activist, p. 148.
“I am going to cast my lot”: Dialogue from “Singing Cowboy Taylor Lines Up with Wallace,” Los Angeles Times, February 24, 1948.
10. “There’ll Be No Compromise”
“Never in our history have”: Longhand note, April 1948, President’s Secretary’s Files, Box 283, Truman archives.
“one of this century’s most famous”: “Clark Clifford Ends Mystery over Memo,” Washington Post, May 22, 1991.
“The basic premise of this”: All quotations from this document come from Memorandum for the President, November 19, 1947, “The Politics of 1948,” Research Files, 1948 Election Campaign File, Truman archives, https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/research-files/memo-clark-clifford-harry-s-truman.
“It was clearly apparent to all”: George M. Elsey Oral History Interview (transcript), 1964–70, Oral History Interviews, Truman archives, p. 107.
“controversial as hell”: George McKee Elsey, An Unplanned Life: A Memoir by George McKee Elsey (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2005), p. 158.
“This is the most important period”: Diary entry of David Lilienthal, January 2, 1948, The Journals of David E. Lilienthal, vol. 2, The Atomic Energy Years 1945–1950 (New York: Harper & Row, 1964), p. 279.
“the essential human rights”: Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union, January 7, 1948, Public Papers, Truman archives, https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/2/annual-message-congress-state-union-1.
“almost a half an hour of complete”: “By the Way with Bill Henry,” Los Angeles Times, January 11, 1948.
“success in ’48!”: Elsey, An Unplanned Life, p. 159.
“a rich present for every”: Robert Taft, Address on the ABC Radio Network, January 8, 1948, in The Papers of Robert A. Taft, vol. 3, pp. 373–74.
“Murphy and . . . Ross were nervous”: Elsey, An Unplanned Life, p. 160.
“The founders of the United States”: Harry S. Truman, Special Message to the Congress on Civil Rights, February 2, 1948, Public Papers, Truman archives, https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers?month=2&endyear=4&searchterm=&yearstart=All&yearend=All.
“We have been betrayed”: “Dixie Leaders Warn Truman on Race Stand,” Washington Post, February 8, 1948.
“white supremacy”: Ibid.
“in the strongest possible language”: “Southern Governors Name PAC to Demand Supremacy Concessions,” Hartford Courant, February 9, 1948.
“We may as well have a”: Jack Bass and Marilyn W. Thompson, Strom: The Complicated Personal and Political Life of Strom Thurmond (New York: Public Affairs, 2005), p. 109.
“intrudes into the sacred”: Ibid., p. 107.
“un-American”: “S.C. House Condemns Rights Proposals,” Washington Post, February 13, 1948.
“The South can be considered safely”: Memorandum for the President, November 19, 1947, “The Politics of 1948,” Truman archives.
“she might be seated next”: “Southern Democrats Cancel Dinner Plans,” Washington Post, February 19, 1948.
“battalions of the press”: Redding, Inside the Democratic Party, p. 135.
“Will you now”: Ibid., p. 136.
“There’ll be no compromise”: Ibid., p. 173.
“has sent a shock throughout”: Harry S. Truman, Special Message to Congress on the Threat to the Freedom of Europe, March 17, 1948, Public Papers, Truman archives, https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers?month=3&endyear=4&searchterm=&yearstart=All&yearend=All.
“For many months”: General Lucius Clay to Lieutenant General Stephen J. Chamberlin, March 5, 1948, The Papers of General Lucius D. Clay, Germany 1945–1949, edited by Jean Edward Smith (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1974), p. 568.
“warmonger”: “Vishinsky Screams ‘War Mong’ at Dulles in Turbulent UN Session,” Atlanta Constitution, September 19, 1947.
“It is the most serious situation”: Harry Truman to Eleanor Roosevelt, March 16, 1948, Off the Record: The Private Papers of Harry S. Truman, edited by Robert H. Ferrell (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1980), p. 126.
“Since the close of hostilities”: Harry S. Truman, Special Message to Congress on the Threat to the Freedom of Europe, March 17, 1948, Public Papers, Truman archives.
“It is undoubtedly the first”: General Lucius Clay to General Omar Bradley, March 31, 1948, quoted in Ann Tusa and John Tusa, The Berlin Airlift (New York: Atheneum, 1988), p. xiii.
“The possibility must be”: Central Intelligence Agency, “Possibility of Direct Soviet Military Action During 1948,” April 2, 1948, President’s Secretary’s Files, Box 177, Truman archives.
“People were blaming the”: Oral History Interview with Eben A. Ayers (transcript), 1967, Oral History Interviews, Truman archives, p. 267.
“Unless immediate action is”: Memorandum by the President’s Special Counsel (Clark Clifford), “Proposed Program on the Palestine Problem,” March 6, 1948, Clark Clifford papers, Box 13, Truman archives.
“Unless the Palestine matter”: Memorandum for the President, November 19, 1947, Clark Clifford to Harry S. Truman, Research Files, 1948 Election Campaign File, Truman archives, https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/research-fi
les/memo-clark-clifford-harry-s-truman.
“The State Dept pulled the rug”: Diary entries of Harry Truman, March 18–19, 1948, Post Presidential File, Box 643, Truman archives.
“Can you come right down?”: Daniels, The Man of Independence, p. 318.
“as disturbed as I have ever”: McCullough, Truman, p. 611.
“At this time, the President’s”: “Prestige of President Is Vital Problem Now,” New York Times, April 4, 1948.
“All of this is causing”: Memorandum by the President’s Special Counsel (Clifford) to President Truman, March 8, 1948, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1948, The Near East, South Asia, and Africa, vol. 5, part 2.
“Of all the meetings I ever”: Clark Clifford, Counsel to the President, p. 3.
“the greatest living American”: Ibid.
“I noticed thunderclouds”: Ibid.
“Mr. President . . . I thought this”: Ibid., p. 12.
“It is obviously designed”: Ibid.
“Everyone in the room was stunned”: Ibid., p. 13.
“That . . . is all we need”: McCullough, Truman, p. 618.
“Mr. President, will the United”: Transcript of the President’s News Conference, May 13, 1948, Public Papers, Truman archives, https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/100/statement-president-announcing-recognition-state-israel.
“This Government has been”: Statement by the President Announcing Recognition of the State of Israel, May 14, 1948, Public Papers, Truman archives.
“The charge that domestic politics”: Clifford, Counsel to the President, p. 24.
“I want to say to you that”: Remarks at the Young Democrats Dinner, May 14, 1948, President’s Secretary’s Files, Box 74, Truman archives, https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/101/remarks-young-democrats-dinner.
11. “I Will Not Accept the Political Support of Henry Wallace and His Communists”
“The people have only to”: “Dewey Announces He Is Ready to Run if Party Picks Him,” New York Times, January 17, 1948.
“choice of cocktails, highballs”: Menu, Thomas E. Dewey Papers, Series 2, Box 38.