Before JFK, There Was Henry Wallace

[Gil Jesus]

Henry Wallace was Franklin Roosevelt's Vice President. Wallace was immensely popular with the people, but less so with the Democrat Party bosses who worked the 1944 Convention in order to remove him from the ticket and replace him with Sen. Harry Truman. Many of Wallace's attitudes on foreign policy were shared by JFK, especially with regard to the Russians.

https://gil-jesus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Before-JFK-There-Was-Henry-Wallace.mp4

[James DiEugenio]

Nice one Gil.

They really screwed Wallace. In some ways he was even more radical than JFK.

But there have been  about 3 good books written on the subject.

[Joseph McBride]

Oliver Stone does an excellent job with the 1944 Democratic

convention and the dumping of Wallace in his documentary

series on American history. This event that hasn't been

explored much helped change the course of postwar

American history as it led into what Gore Vidal dubbed

the "national security state" under Truman. There's

a good book on Roosevelt's health that discusses in detail how

he was dying by 1944 and that insiders knew he probably wouldn't

serve another full term.

[Joe Bauer]

1 hour ago, Joseph McBride said:

Oliver Stone does an excellent job with the 1944 Democratic

convention and the dumping of Wallace in his documentary

series on American history. This event that hasn't been

explored much helped change the course of postwar

American history as it led into what Gore Vidal dubbed

the "national security state" under Truman. There's

a good book on Roosevelt's health that discusses in detail how

he was dying by 1944 and that insiders knew he probably wouldn't

serve another full term.

So true.

[Ron Bulman]

I've read something about Wallace elsewhere, I think.  Maybe it was seen in The Untold History of the United States by Oliver Stone.  Here it mentions him wanting to disband the army.  A bold and curious proposition after WWII.  I was under the impression he was railroaded because of his economic/anticolonial stances.  The latter would have meant taking on United Fruit, the Rockefeller's, Wall Street.  

The video provided by Gil while acknowledging his pacifism seemed a little skewed against him, I thought. 

Edited January 11, 2023 by Ron Bulman

[Michael Griffith]

I think that comparing JFK to Wallace does a disservice to JFK if we're talking about the pre-1949 Henry Wallace. Until 1949, Wallace was practically pro-Soviet. Wallace had almost nothing bad to say about the Soviets and consistently whitewashed or ignored Soviet brutality and oppression.

After the Berlin Wall fell, evidence emerged from the Soviet archives that Wallace reported regularly to Moscow in 1945 and 1946. When Wallace ran as a third-party presidential candidate in 1948, he opposed the Marshall Plan, advocated unilateral disarmament, and refused to repudiate the endorsement of the American Communist Party. Even Norman Thomas, the perennial presidential candidate of the Socialist Party of America, regarded Wallace as a communist dupe.

However, Wallace did, eventually, come to his senses about the Soviets and Communism, and, to his credit, frankly admitted his error in the early 1950s. So complete was Wallace's transformation that he supported Eisenhower's reelection in 1956.

Here's an article that Wallace wrote in 1952 in which he admitted he had been naive and gullible about the Soviets and Communism in general:

Henry A. Wallace (1952) on the Ruthless Nature and Utter Evil of Soviet Communism: Cold-War Era God-That-Failed Weblogging (typepad.com)

JFK was never naive about the Soviets or about the ugly, brutal nature of Communism, much less an apologist for them. It depends on which Henry Wallace we're talking about: (A) the one was a communist dupe and Soviet apologist until 1949 or (B) the one who realized and admitted his error, who recognized and acknowledged Soviet brutality, and who even supported Ike in 1956.

Edited January 11, 2023 by Michael Griffith
Corrected date from 1948 to 1949

[Ron Bulman]

Thanks Michael.  Insightful for me at least.

[Michael Griffith]

14 hours ago, Ron Bulman said:

Thanks Michael.  Insightful for me at least.

You're welcome. 

Henry Wallace remains a polarizing subject. His conservative critics and his liberal admirers alike rarely mention his conversion to Republican-style anti-communism in the early 1950s. In most cases, both his critics and his admirers focus on his pre-1949 statements and actions. 

[W. Niederhut]

1 hour ago, Michael Griffith said:

You're welcome. 

Henry Wallace remains a polarizing subject. His conservative critics and his liberal admirers alike rarely mention his conversion to Republican-style anti-communism in the early 1950s. In most cases, both his critics and his admirers focus on his pre-1949 statements and actions. 

But let's also put this in the context of the dramatic 180 degree shift in U.S. attitudes (and propaganda) about the Soviet Union during and after WWII.

Oliver Stone's Untold History series explored this in detail, as did Hollywood film critic J. Hoberman's book, An Army of Phantoms.

The Soviet Union played a central role in defeating the German Wehrmacht in WWII, and "Uncle Joe" Stalin was widely viewed as a valuable American ally prior to Germany's surrender in 1945.

Then the Cold War paranoia and hostility began, literally, with a bang in Hiroshima.

Of course, most Americans -- like Wallace-- knew nothing about Soviet atrocities and the Gulag Archipelago at the time.  Soviet atrocities after 1917 were always shrouded in secrecy, prior to Stalin's death and Solzhenitsyn's eventual emergence on the world stage.

As for Henry Wallace, he was a great man who had an accurate perspective on prospects for helping the Third World-- beyond the narrow vision of the Dulles brothers and Wall Street Cold Warriors--which anticipated John F. Kennedy's foreign policy vision.

The world would be in a much better place, IMO, if Truman had not replaced Wallace on FDR's 1944 Presidential ticket.

Wallace was also an early advocate of Civil Rights in the U.S.

 

Edited January 11, 2023 by W. Niederhut

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, W. Niederhut said:

But let's also put this in the context of the dramatic 180 degree shift in U.S. attitudes (and propaganda) about the Soviet Union during and after WWII.

Oliver Stone's Untold History series explored this in detail, as did Hollywood film critic J. Hoberman's book, An Army of Phantoms.

The Soviet Union played a central role in defeating the German Wehrmacht in WWII, and "Uncle Joe" Stalin was widely viewed as a valuable American ally prior to Germany's surrender in 1945.

Then the Cold War paranoia and hostility began, literally, with a bang in Hiroshima.

Of course, most Americans -- like Wallace-- knew nothing about Soviet atrocities and the Gulag Archipelago at the time.  Soviet atrocities after 1917 were always shrouded in secrecy, prior to Stalin's death and Solzhenitsyn's eventual emergence on the world stage.

As for Henry Wallace, he was a great man who had an accurate perspective on prospects for helping the Third World-- beyond the narrow vision of the Dulles brothers and Wall Street Cold Warriors--which anticipated John F. Kennedy's foreign policy vision.

The world would be in a much better place, IMO, if Truman had not replaced Wallace on FDR's 1944 Presidential ticket.

Wallace was also an early advocate of Civil Rights in the U.S.

 

Great post. 👏🏼 

It was a dramatic pivot in policy and attitudes. I thought Stone’s series was excellent and even bought my Dad the book version. 

[James DiEugenio]

There are about three good books on Wallace today: American Dreamer by Culver and Hyde, The fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party by Nichols, and Henry Wallace, Harry Truman and the Cold War by Walton.

Wallace was against the Cold War.  As was FDR.  Historian Frank Costigliola wrote a book about what happened to FDR's policies after he died. He had access to Anthony Eden's 1948 secret interview on the subject. Which, for political purposes, Eden did not want published during his lifetime.  Eden railed against what Churchill and Truman had done to FDR's vision, both with Russia and in the Third World. Eden said that Roosevelt had an uncanny ability to handle Stalin, and also mentioned the great respect the Kremlin had for FDR. Eden concluded the interview with this, "had Roosevelt lived and retained his health, he would never have permitted the present situation to develop." 

He then added that "Roosevelt's death therefore was a calamity of immeasurable proportions."

After FDR passed on, the hawks in Washington took over from FDR and Hull.  James Byrnes should never have gotten into office.  He completely bamboozled Truman.  And Truman was kept in the dark about the agreement Churchill had made with Stalin over East Europe. They did not tell him about this until after the meeting with Molotov. Between that and Truman inviting Churchill to make the over the top Iron Curtain speech, the hawks had won out.

And even today, when Russia is not a communist country, yet NATO still wants to ram itself up against her borders, this Cold War mentality lives on. Decades after even George Kennan said it was uncalled for.  BTW, Kennan worked for JFK.  After Kennedy was killed, he wrote in his diary that he really feared for the future.

Talk about an understatement. Kennan was one of the scholars that Fulbright invited to appear before his committee reviewing the causes of the Vietnam War.  On the day Kennan was to appear, LBJ called Frank Stanton at CBS and asked him to cancel the broadcast.

Edited January 12, 2023 by James DiEugenio

[Gil Jesus]

10 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

And even today, when Russia is not a communist country, yet NATO still wants to ram itself up against her borders, this Cold War mentality lives on. Decades after even George Kennan said it was uncalled for.  BTW, Kennan worked for JFK.  After Kennedy was killed, he wrote in his diary that he really feared for the future.

 

It was and still is, all driven by fear. Fear of Communist takeover of the US.

Russian fear over another attack from the West. It's all based on fear. If our poltiticans and diplomats could understand that, the Unkrainian War could have been avoided. But war means profit for corporations and jobs for Americans. When I was a young boy, I asked my mom why was there such a thing as war.

She told me, "War is good for America".

[Lori Spencer]

19 hours ago, W. Niederhut said:

The world would be in a much better place, IMO, if Truman had not replaced Wallace on FDR's 1944 Presidential ticket.

I often ponder an alternative history where Wallace stayed on as Veep in ‘44 and ascended to the presidency. 

No Cold War 

No CIA 

Friendly relations with USSR and China 🤝

No wars in Korea or Vietnam 

More domestic spending to help the poor & working class. 

Sounds like a pretty damn good President to me…. ☮️ 

[Lori Spencer]

13 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

Truman was kept in the dark about the agreement Churchill had made with Stalin over East Europe. They did not tell him about this until after the meeting with Molotov.

Churchill was already plotting WW III in April 1945, before WW II was over in Europe. 

OPERATION UNTHINKABLE was the blueprint for the Cold War, and what we now see playing out in Ukraine … 

This insane plan never would have been given 5 minutes of consideration on FDR and Wallace’s watch! Never! 

 

 

[David Josephs]

Thanks Lori...  I had not seen this before...  Real History is indeed stranger than Fiction... 

25 minutes ago, Lori Spencer said:

OPERATION UNTHINKABLE was the blueprint for the Cold War, and what we now see playing out in Ukraine … 

This insane plan never would have been given 5 minutes of consideration on FDR and Wallace’s watch! Never! 

 

https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/coldwar/documents/episode-1/kennan.htm

George Kennan's Long Telegram in 1946 is also credited with creating the dominant view of how the US should see the Russian state.
Reading all his work is, IMO, essential to understanding the foreign policy of the US after 1945...

And the book "The Wise Men" is something not to miss if foreign policy formation and execution is of interest.  Although written with a somewhat elitist slant, I found it a wonderful insight into the decades post WWII.

https://www.amazon.com/Wise-Men-Friends-World-They/dp/1476728828

The Wise Men shares the stories of Averell Harriman, the freewheeling diplomat and Roosevelt’s special envoy to Churchill and Stalin; Dean Acheson, the secretary of state who was more responsible for the Truman Doctrine than Truman and for the Marshall Plan than General Marshall; George Kennan, self-cast outsider and intellectual darling of the Washington elite; Robert Lovett, assistant secretary of war, undersecretary of state, and secretary of defense throughout the formative years of the Cold War; John McCloy, one of the nation’s most influential private citizens; and Charles Bohlen, adroit diplomat and ambassador to the Soviet Union.