Henry Wallace Lives Again
The 1948 presidential election pitted incumbent Harry Truman against Thomas Dewey. Nobody expected Truman to win. The MSM was pulling for Dewey, the Republican. Times certainly have changed. But that's not what I want to talk about.There was a third party candidate, Henry Wallace. His organization was, "Henry Wallace's Progressive Citizens of America." How progressive was Wallace? According to David McCullough, in his biography of Truman, on pages 645-646,
Wallace refused to repudiate his Communist support. He would not repudiate any suport that came to him, he said, "on the basis of interest in peace."and
The Progressive platform that emerged from the convention was virtually no different from the Communist Party platform in its denunciation of the Marshall Plan, the Truman Doctrine, the new draft law, and called for the destruction of American nuclear weapons, which were still the only nuclear weapons known to exist.Later, on page 667, McCullough writes,
. . . his (Wallace's) main theme remaining constant throughout: the Progressive Party was "the peace party" that would end the Cold War through direct negotiations with the Soviet Union.
And in two days, Obama will be sworn in as president.
Labels: books, David McCullough, Harry Truman, Henry Wallace, Obama
posted by Harry @ 1:47 PM
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CHALLAH AKBAR
