letter to Truman/consequences, 39–40
on “loyalty boards,” 75
New Deal and, 40, 68, 85–86, 89, 92
positions (Truman administration), 5, 34
Roerich and, 89–91
“speech”/reactions and, 36–39
suspicions on, 68–69, 70
Truman firing, 40
Truman relationship (summary), 36, 92
Wallace, Henry campaign for presidency
American divisions and, 117
on Berlin crisis, 164
black vote and, 117, 195, 206–8
communism/support and, 69–70, 86–88, 94, 96, 117, 118–19, 120–21, 162, 164–65, 199, 205, 206–7, 222, 240–42, 285
election day/night and, 318–19, 325–26, 334–35
expectations/results, 212, 274, 345
final speech, 311
“Gideon’s Army” and, 85, 163, 164, 165, 207, 221, 285, 334, 351
HUAC and, 199, 205
Isacson election and, 120
launching/speech, 85–86
lawsuit/Supreme Court and, 242
Marshall Plan and, 67, 117, 206, 207, 264, 284
Moscow misinformation, 325
New York City rally (1948), 221–22
open letter to Stalin/response, 121–22
peace and, 85, 86–87, 91, 93, 117, 118–19, 121, 122, 164, 240
platform comparisons with Truman/ Dewey, 334
political fallout from launch, 86
Progressive Party/convention, 86, 161–16585
Roerich (guru) letters and, 116, 162–63, 164, 242–43
running mate, 93–94
southern tour/showing discrimination, 205–8, 266
supporters and, 91, 93, 117, 119–20, 163–64, 165, 221–22, 284–85
tone changing/eccentricities, 241
on tour/fighting Truman’s foreign policy, 67–70, 71
on Truman, 283–84, 311, 335
Truman win/concession speech and, 334–35
views/platform, 92–93, 94, 164–65, 221–22, 351
vitriol/violence towards, 119, 205–8, 240–41
Wallace, Henry Cantwell, 89
Wallaces’ Farmer, 89
Wall Street Journal, 269, 294
Walsh, Jerome, 336
Waring, J. Waties, 193
Warren, Earl
background/California and, 249–50, 338
Dewey/as VP candidate, 110, 138, 139, 184, 231, 249, 340
Warren, Tom, 140
Washington Evening Star, 127
Washington Post, 1, 10, 30–40, 86, 95, 127, 148, 195, 202, 224, 229–30, 235, 261, 277, 337, 341
Washington Star, 294
Watson, Claude A., 319
Watt, Sam, 194
Weizmann, Chaim, 106, 343, 353
Welles, Orson, 24
West, J. B., 343
Wheeler, Al, 266
White, Harry Dexter, 198
White House deterioration/repairing, 42–43, 209, 258, 265, 343
White House press corps, 41
White, Walter Francis
background/description, 18
Truman’s speech to NAACP and, 71–72
undercover investigations/stories to Truman, 18–20
Whitney, Alexander, 17
Williams, Gladstone, 135
Williams, Julius, 276
Willkie, Wendell, 56, 58, 119
Wilson, Charles G., Reverend, 284
Wilson, Woodrow, 106, 322
Winchell, Walter, 315, 321
Winslow, Lorenzo, 265
Women’s Wear Daily, 337
Woodard, Isaac, 19–20
World War I, 29, 52, 317
World War II
Nazi triumphs and, 31
rationing, 169
Truman Committee/military spending investigation, 31–32
See also specific events/individuals
World War III fears, 143, 155, 156, 169, 173, 184, 223, 224, 256, 287
Wright, Fielding, 161
Wright, Frank Lloyd, 93, 120
Wyatt, Lee B., 205
Y
Yalta Conference, 13
Yastrzemski, Carl, 351
Yeager, Chuck, 170
About the Author
© DEREK JOSEPH GIOVANNI
A. J. Baime is the New York Times best-selling author of The Accidental President, The Arsenal of Democracy, and Go Like Hell. A longtime regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, he has also written for the New York Times, Popular Science, and Men’s Journal. He lives in California.
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Footnotes
* This occurred before the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, which placed the Speaker of the House next in line for the presidency after the president and vice president. At the time, the secretary of state would have been next in line.
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* Madison Square Garden later moved to its current location between Seventh and Eighth Avenues and Thirty-First and Thirty-Third Streets.
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* The investigator is likely referring to the Logan Act of 1799.
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* This estimate was overly optimistic. The Soviets would detonate their first atomic bomb roughly fourteen months from the time this memo was written, on August 29, 1949. The United States’ long-range detection system provided verification of the explosion, and the story broke around the world the following month.
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* Idlewild is now John F. Kennedy International Airport, the largest airport servicing New York City.
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* This is why Truman’s hundreds of whistle-stop speeches are available today in the Truman archives.
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* This building is now the Truman Memorial Building.
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* The NBC microphone that H. V. Kaltenborn was speaking into that night is now in the museum collection at the Harry S. Truman Library & Museum in Independence, Missouri.
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* The numbers vary by small amounts depending on the source. The ones listed are from the American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
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Contents
Title Page
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Introduction
The Disintegration of the Democratic Party
“Whither Harry S. Truman?”
“The Buck Stops Here!”
“Can He Swing the Job?”
“I Was Amazed at How Calm He Seemed in the Face of Political Disaster”
The Surging GOP
“You Are Getting as Much Publicity as Hitler”
“It Is a Total ‘War of Nerves’”
“The Defeat Seemed like the End of the World”
“Dewey’s Hat Is Tossed into Ring”
“Wall Street and the Military Have Taken Over”
“There’ll Be No Compromise”
“I Will Not Accept the Political Support of Henry Wallace and His Communists”
“For Better or Worse, the 1948 Fight Has Started”
The Conventions
“We Have a Dreamboat of a Ticket”
“With God’s Help, You Will Win”
“What Is at Stake Here Is the Very Survival of Western Civilization”
Photos
The Campaigns
“A Profound Sense of What’s Right and What’s Wrong”
“What Exciting Times You Are Having!”
“As for Me, I Intend to Fight!”
“They Are Simply a ‘Red Herring’”
“There Is Great Danger Ahead”
“The All-Time Georgia Champion of ‘White Supremacy’”
“We’re Going to Give ’Em Hell”
“The Presidency of the United States Is Not for Sale!”
“You Will Be Choosing a Way of Life for Years to Come”
“The Democratic Party Was Down to Its Last Cent”
Election Climax
“This Was the Worst Mistake of the Truman Campaign”
“Could We Be Wrong?”
“The Campaign Special Train Stopped with a Jerk”
“We Are Engaged in a Great Crusade”
“I Stand by My Prediction. Dewey Is In.”
“Tens of Thousands, and Hundreds of Thousands! How Can He Lose?”
“Under No Circumstance Will I Congratulate That Son of a Bitch”
“Dewey Defeats Truman”
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
About the Author
Connect with HMH
Footnotes
Landmarks
Cover
