Born in 1888 in Iowa, Henry Wallace would first achieve
success as an editor before ultimately becoming one
of the largest personalities of American political
life in the mid-to-late 1940s. Wallace was educated
at Iowa State College and took over his father's position
as editor of Wallaces' Farmer when his father
became secretary of agriculture in 1921. After becoming
disillusioned with Republican farm prices, and helping
swing Iowa to the Democrats in the election of 1932,
Wallace was appointed secretary of agriculture in
his own right by FDR
in 1933. Wallace gained national attention as head
of the Agriculture Department, spearheading the administration
of the Agricultural Adjustment Agency so successfully
that FDR wanted Wallace for his running mate in 1940.
As the most liberal member of the president's cabinet,
seeking Wallace's nomination had the potential of
dividing the party at the Democratic National Convention.
However, when Democratic delegates seemed on the verge
of disorder FDR dispatched ER (a staunch Wallace supporter)
to calm them and lobby on Wallace's behalf. The
speech that she delivered the next day was
so well received that Wallace received the nomination
on the first ballot, deepening a politically complex
relationship with the first lady that would continue
to evolve and change over time.
Wallace distinguished himself as a loyal, hard-working
wartime vice-president over the next four years, but
still failed to recapture the nomination in 1944 when
he was dumped by an increasingly conservative Democratic
party. His 1943 speech in which he repudiated Henry
Luce's vision of an "American Century" in favor of
a "Century of the Common Man" had endeared him to
left-liberals, but alienated him from rank-and-file
Democrats at the convention. FDR wanted him to remain
in the cabinet, however, and Wallace accepted FDR's
appointment as secretary of commerce in 1945. He remained
at the Commerce Department until September 1946 when
he was forced to resign for having publicly criticized
President Truman's
foreign policy in a speech at Madison Square Garden.
The left-leaning secretary had been troubled by Truman's
rightward drift in foreign affairs throughout much
of that year, regarding the president's militarism
as a precursor to another world war. After leaving
the Commerce Department, Wallace returned to editing,
but this time at the New Republic, a liberal
publication that he used as a platform for the Democratic
party's left wing. At the end of 1946, Wallace went
even further in his pursuit to advance progressive
politics when he helped found the Progressive Citizens
of America.
Wallace's outspoken support of progressive causes
made him perhaps the victim of more redbaiting than
any other 1940s politician. Maligned as a Communist
sympathizer at a time when the American public was
intolerant to socialism, Wallace's criticisms of administration
foreign policy were increasingly out of step with
mainstream public opinion. Recognizing that his chances
at capturing the Democratic presidential nomination
in 1948 were marginal at best, Wallace instead ran
as the candidate of the Progressive party against
President Truman, Thomas
Dewey, and Strom Thurmond, but failed to capture
any electoral votes. Wallace's break from the party
also signaled the final break with Eleanor Roosevelt,
his old political champion, who had originally wanted
him to succeed FDR but increasingly felt uncomfortable
with his "political naivete" and his desire to deepen
relations with the Soviet Union. Wallace would ultimately
reach a rapprochement with the Truman administration's
foreign policy when he endorsed its firm stance in
Korea, but shortly thereafter Wallace retired from
political life and the Progressive party when it rebuked
him for having voiced assent to the war. Wallace would
continue to write about politics and agriculture throughout
his retirement and until his death in 1965.
Sources:
Beasley Maurine H., Holly C. Shulman, and Henry R.
Beasley, eds. The Eleanor Roosevelt Encyclopedia.
Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001, 553-554.
Black, Allida. Casting Her Own Shadow: Eleanor
Roosevelt and the Shaping of Postwar Liberalism.
New York: Columbia University Press, 1996, 44-45,
79, 132.
Buhle, Mari Jo, Paul Buhle, and Dan Georgakas, eds.
Encyclopedia of the American Left. New York:
Garland Publishing, Inc., 1997, 596-599.
Kirkendall, Richard S., ed. The Harry S. Truman
Encyclopedia. Boston: G.K. Hall & Co., 1989,
383-385.
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