Editing Henry A. Wallace (section)

==Vice presidency (1941–1945)==
===Election of 1940===
[[File:ElectoralCollege1940.svg|right|thumb|upright=1.4|1940 electoral vote results]]

As Roosevelt refused to commit to either retiring or seeking reelection{{efn|The [[Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution|Twenty-second Amendment]], ratified in 1951, would later prevent presidents from running for a third term.}} during his second term, supporters of Wallace and other leading Democrats such as Vice President [[John Nance Garner]] and Postmaster General [[James Farley]] laid the groundwork for their presidential campaigns in the 1940 election.<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 179–180</ref> After the outbreak of [[World War II]] in Europe in September 1939, Wallace publicly endorsed Roosevelt for an unprecedented third term.<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 200–201</ref> Though Roosevelt never announced his candidacy, the [[1940 Democratic National Convention]] nominated him for president.<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 213–217</ref> Shortly after being nominated, Roosevelt told Democratic party leaders that he would not run without Wallace as his running mate. Roosevelt chose Wallace because of his loyalty to the Roosevelt administration, his handling of aid to the [[United Kingdom]], and because he hoped that Wallace would appeal to agricultural voters.<ref name=moe>{{cite book|last1=Moe|first1=Richard|title=Roosevelt's Second Act: The Election of 1940 and the Politics of War|date=12 August 2013|publisher=Oxford University Press|pages=199–205|isbn=9780199981939|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yeAVAAAAQBAJ&q=roosevelt+wallace+1940|access-date=7 October 2015}}</ref> A recent convert to the Democratic Party, Wallace was not popular among the big-city bosses and southern segregationists,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nichols |title=The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party: The Enduring Legacy of Henry Wallace's Antifascist, Antiracist Politics |publisher=Verso |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-78873-740-1 |pages=27}}</ref> and had never been tested in an election.<ref>H.W. Brands, ''Traitor to his class: the privileged life and radical presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt'' (2008) pp 556-557.</ref> Delegates to the 1940 Democratic convention "turned ugly on Wallace",<ref>{{Cite book |last=Leebaert |title=Unlikely Heroes: Franklin Roosevelt, His Four Lieutenants, and the World They Made |publisher=St. Martin's Press |year=2023 |isbn=9781250274694 |pages=289}}</ref> recalled Labor Secretary [[Frances Perkins]], one of Wallace's strongest supporters, who had previously urged Wallace to run for president if Roosevelt did not.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Leebaert |title=Unlikely Heroes |pages=233}}</ref> Roosevelt's response was to send his wife [[Eleanor Roosevelt|Eleanor]] to [[Chicago]] to convince the delegates to accept Wallace as his running mate. The result was her most famous speech, captured in the title of [[Doris Kearns Goodwin]]'s seminal book on the Roosevelt presidency, ''[[No Ordinary Time]]''. With world war looming, she warned that "this is no ordinary time", and of Wallace's nomination, she warned that "you cannot treat this as you would an ordinary nomination in an ordinary time". The speech had "a magical calming effect" and has been credited for Wallace's winning the nomination<ref>{{Cite book |last=Culver & Hyde |title=American Dreamer |pages=222}}</ref> by a wide margin.<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 218–223</ref>

Though many Democrats were disappointed by Wallace's nomination, it was generally well received by newspapers. [[Arthur Krock]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' wrote that Wallace was "able, thoughtful, honorable–the best of the New Deal type."<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 223–225</ref> Wallace left office as Secretary of Agriculture in September 1940, and was succeeded by Undersecretary of Agriculture [[Claude R. Wickard]].<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 225–226</ref> The Roosevelt campaign settled on a strategy of keeping Roosevelt largely out of the fray of the election, leaving most of the campaigning to Wallace and other surrogates. Wallace was dispatched to the Midwest, giving speeches in states like Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri. He made foreign affairs the main focus of his campaigning, telling one audience that "the replacement of Roosevelt ... would cause [Adolf] [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] to rejoice."<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 231–236</ref> Both campaigns predicted a close election, but Roosevelt won 449 of the 531 [[United States Electoral College|electoral votes]] and the popular vote by nearly ten points.<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 244–245</ref>

After the election but before being sworn in as vice president, Wallace took a long trip to [[Mexico]] as FDR's goodwill ambassador, conveying messages of [[Pan-Americanism]] and Roosevelt's [[Good Neighbor policy]]. He spent much time visiting farmers in their fields, and came away appalled at Mexican farms' meager crop yields; to produce one bushel of corn, a Mexican farmer worked 500 hours, compared to the 10 hours it took an Iowa farmer using hybrid seeds from the company Wallace had founded in 1926, [[Pioneer Hi Bred International|Pioneer Hi-Bred International]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Culver & Hyde |title=American Dreamer |pages=247–50}}</ref> Upon his return, Wallace convinced the [[Rockefeller Foundation]] to establish an agricultural station in Mexico, the first of many such centers the Rockefeller Foundation and the [[Ford Foundation]] established.<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 246–251</ref>{{efn|[[Norman Borlaug]] would later credit Wallace as a key initiator of the [[Green Revolution]].<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 250–251</ref>}} Wallace recommended hiring a young Iowa agronomist, [[Norman Borlaug]], to run the agricultural station, which ultimately led to vast increases in crop yields of corn and wheat in Mexico and around the world, in what was later called the [[Green Revolution]], which is credited with saving two billion people from starvation and earned Borlaug the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize and Presidential Medal of Freedom.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Andrews |first=Andy |title=The Butterfly Effect: How Your Life Matters |publisher=Simple Truths |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-40418-780-1 |pages=78}}</ref>

===Tenure===
{{see also|Third and fourth terms of the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt}}
[[File:33 Henry Wallace 3x4.jpg|thumb|upright=1|Vice President Wallace]]
Wallace was sworn in as vice president on January 20, 1941. He quickly grew frustrated with his ceremonial role as the presiding officer of the [[United States Senate]], the one duty the [[United States Constitution|Constitution]] assigns the vice president.<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 251–254</ref> He had gone from running an agency with a budget of $1 billion and 146,000 employees to a budget of $11,000 and a staff of four.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Culver & Hyde |title=American Dreamer |pages=255}}</ref> In July 1941, Roosevelt named Wallace chairman of the [[Board of Economic Warfare]] (BEW){{efn|The BEW was originally known as the Economic Defense Board<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), p. 269</ref>}} and of the [[Supply Priorities and Allocations Board]] (SPAB).<ref>Arthur (2012), pp. 152-153, 155, 162-164, 196</ref> These appointments gave him a voice in organizing national mobilization for war. One journalist noted that Roosevelt made Wallace the first "Vice President to work really as the number two man in government–a conception of the vice presidency popularly held but never realized."<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 256–258</ref> Reflecting Wallace's role in organizing mobilization efforts, many journalists began calling him the "Assistant President."<ref name="ross1">{{cite magazine |last1=Ross |first1=Alex |title=Uncommon Man |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/10/14/uncommon-man |magazine=The New Yorker |date=October 14, 2013}}</ref><ref name="senatevpbio"/> Wallace was also named to the Top Policy Group, which, just days after the Pearl Harbor attack, presented Roosevelt with a plan for the development of [[nuclear weapons]], which Roosevelt approved and promised to fund. This became the [[Manhattan Project]], which developed the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with Wallace serving continually as an informal link between Roosevelt and the project's leaders.<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 266–268</ref>

{{Quote box
|title = The Century of the Common Man (excerpt)
|quote    =  "Some have spoken of the "American Century." I say that the century on which we are entering—the century which will come into being after this war—can be and must be the century of the common man.

Perhaps it will be America's opportunity to—to support the Freedom[s] and Duties by which the common man must live. Everywhere, the common man must learn to build his own industries with his own hands in practical fashion. Everywhere, the common man must learn to increase his productivity so that he and his children can eventually pay to the world community all that they have received. No nation will have the God-given right to exploit other nations. Older nations will have the privilege to help younger nations get started on the path to industrialization, but there must be neither military nor economic imperialism."<ref>{{cite web |title=Henry A. Wallace: The Century of the Common Man |url=https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/henrywallacefreeworldassoc.htm |website=American Rhetoric Online Speech Bank |access-date=11 January 2019}}</ref>
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Economic conditions became chaotic, and Roosevelt decided new leadership was needed.<ref>Jean Edward Smith, ''FDR'' (2007) p. 570).</ref> In early 1942 he established the [[War Production Board]] with businessman [[Donald Nelson]] in charge and Wallace as a member. Wallace continued to serve as head of the BEW, now charged with importing the raw materials such as rubber necessary for war production.<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 269–271</ref><ref>Donald G. Stevens, "Organizing for Economic Defense: Henry Wallace and the Board of Economic Warfare's Foreign Policy Initiatives, 1942." Presidential Studies Quarterly 26.4 (1996): 1126-1139.</ref> He used his BEW position to demand that American purchases in Latin America raise the standard of living of the workers there. In the process he clashed privately with Secretary of State [[Cordell Hull]], who opposed American interference in another state's internal affairs. The national media dramatically covered Wallace's public battle with [[Jesse H. Jones]], the Secretary of Commerce who was also in charge of the [[Reconstruction Finance Corporation]] (RFC), which paid the bills for the purchases BEW made.<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 271–273</ref> Roosevelt's standard strategy for executive management was to give two different people the same role, expecting controversy would result. He wanted the agencies' heads to bring the controversy to him so he could make the decision.<ref>James MacGregor Burns, ''Roosevelt: The soldier of freedom (1940–1945)'' (1970) p 348.</ref> On August 21, 1942, Roosevelt explicitly wrote to all his department heads that disagreements "should not be publicly aired, but are to be submitted to me by the appropriate heads of the conflicting agencies." Anyone going public had to resign.<ref>Letter in Jesse H. Jones, ''Fifty Billion Dollars: My 13 years with the RFC (1932-1945)'' (1951) pp 505-506.</ref> Wallace denounced Jones for blocking funding for purchases of raw materials in Latin America needed for the war effort. Jones called on Congress and the public for help, calling Wallace a liar. According to [[James MacGregor Burns]], Jones, a leader of Southern conservative Democrats, was "taciturn, shrewd, practical, cautious". Wallace, deeply distrusted by Democratic party leaders, was the "hero of the Lib Labs, dreamy, utopian, even mystical, yet with his own bent for management and power." On July 15, 1943, Roosevelt stripped both men of their roles in the matter. BEW was reorganized as the [[Office of Economic Warfare]], and put under [[Leo Crowley]]. The loss of the BEW was a major blow to Wallace's prestige. He now had no agency and a weak political base on the left wing of the Democratic Party. But he still had visibility, ambition and an articulate voice, and remained a loyal Roosevelt supporter. He was not renominated for vice president but in 1945 Roosevelt fired Jones and made Wallace Secretary of Commerce.<ref>Burns, ''Roosevelt: The soldier of freedom'' pp. 341-342.</ref><ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 308–315.</ref>

On May 8, 1942, Wallace delivered what became his best-remembered speech, known for containing the phrase "the Century of the Common Man". He cast World War II as a war between a "free world" and a "slave world," and held that "peace must mean a better standard of living for the common man, not merely in the United States and England, but also in India, Russia, China, and Latin America–not merely in the United Nations, but also in Germany and Italy and Japan". Some conservatives disliked the speech, but it was translated into 20 languages and millions of copies were distributed around the world.<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 275–279</ref>

In early 1943, Wallace was dispatched on a goodwill tour of Latin America; he made 24 stops across [[Central America]] and South America. Partly due to his ability to deliver speeches in Spanish, Wallace received a warm reception; one State Department official said, "never in Chilean history has any foreigner ever been received with such extravagance and evidently sincere enthusiasm". During his trip, several Latin American countries declared war against Germany.<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 296–300</ref> Back home, Wallace continued to deliver speeches, saying after the [[1943 Detroit race riot]], "we cannot fight to crush Nazi brutality abroad and condone race riots at home".<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 310–311</ref> Though Congress largely blocked Roosevelt's domestic agenda, Wallace continued to call for progressive programs; one newspaper wrote that "the New Deal today is Henry Wallace ... the New Deal banner in his hands is not yet furled".<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 322–324</ref> Wallace was elected to the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 1943.<ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Henry+A.+Wallace&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=April 13, 2023 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>

{{Quote box
|quote    = "The American people have always had guts and always will have." — Henry A. Wallace<ref>{{cite web |title=Henry A. Wallace: The Century of the Common Man |url=https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/henrywallacefreeworldassoc.htm |website=American Rhetoric Online Speech Bank |access-date= October 11, 2022 }}</ref>

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In mid-1944, Wallace toured the [[Soviet Union]], [[China]],<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 330–331</ref> and [[Mongolian People's Republic|Mongolia]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Addleton |first=Jonathan S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SiWxpaCrrjIC |title=Mongolia and the United States: A Diplomatic History |date=2013-05-01 |publisher=Hong Kong University Press |isbn=978-988-8139-94-1 |language=en |chapter=Chapter 1: Early Encounters}}</ref> The USSR presented its American guests with a [[Potemkin village|fully sanitized version]] of [[gulag]] [[labor camps]] in [[Magadan]] and [[Kolyma]], claiming that all the workers were volunteers.<ref>{{cite book | author=Tim Tzouliadis | title=The Forsaken | publisher=The Penguin Press (2008) | isbn=978-1-59420-168-4 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/forsakenamerican00tzou/page/217 217–226] | url=https://archive.org/details/forsakenamerican00tzou/page/217 | year=2008 }}</ref> Wallace was impressed by the camp at Magadan, describing it as a "combination [[Tennessee Valley Authority]] and [[Hudson's Bay Company]]".<ref name="auto2">Culver & Hyde (2000), p. 339</ref>{{efn|Wallace later regretted his praise of the camp at Magadan, writing in 1952 that he "had not the slightest idea when I visited Magadan that this ... was also the center for administering the labor of both criminals and those suspected of political disloyalty".<ref name="auto2"/>}} He received a warm reception in the Soviet Union, but was largely unsuccessful in his efforts to negotiate with Chinese leader [[Chiang Kai-shek]].<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 333–335</ref> Wallace met with Mongolian leader [[Khorloogiin Choibalsan]] in [[Ulaanbaatar]]. His request to visit [[Gandantegchinlen Monastery]] is sometimes credited as having helped save the monastery from destruction.<ref name=":0" />

===Election of 1944===
{{see also|1944 Democratic Party vice presidential candidate selection}}

After the abolition of the BEW, speculation began as to whether Roosevelt would drop Wallace from the ticket in the [[1944 United States presidential election|1944 election]].<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 317–318</ref> [[Gallup (company)|Gallup]] polling published in March 1944 showed that Wallace was clearly the most popular choice for vice president among Democrats, and many journalists predicted that he would win renomination.<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 324–325</ref> As Roosevelt was in declining health, party leaders expected that the party's vice-presidential nominee would eventually succeed Roosevelt,<ref name="greenfield1"/> and Wallace's many enemies within the Democratic Party organized to ensure his removal.<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 340–342</ref> Much of the opposition to Wallace stemmed from his open denunciation of [[Racial segregation in the United States|racial segregation]] in the South,<ref name="greenfield1">{{cite news |last1=Greenfield |first1=Jeff |title=The Year the Veepstakes Really Mattered |url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/07/veepstakes-history-vice-president-fdr-roosevelt-harry-truman-henry-wallace-james-byrnes-1944-democratic-convention-214012 |access-date=January 12, 2019 |publisher=Politico |date=July 10, 2016}}</ref> but others were concerned by Wallace's unorthodox religious views and pro-Soviet statements.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Helling |first1=Dave |title=1944 Democratic Convention: Choosing not just a VP candidate but a president-in-waiting |url=https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/election/article88007192.html |access-date=January 12, 2019 |newspaper=The Kansas City Star |date=July 18, 2016}}</ref> Shortly before the [[1944 Democratic National Convention]], party leaders such as [[Robert E. Hannegan]] and [[Edwin W. Pauley]] convinced Roosevelt to sign a document expressing support for either Associate Justice [[William O. Douglas]] or Senator Harry S. Truman for the vice-presidential nomination. Nonetheless, Wallace got Roosevelt to send a public letter to the convention chairman in which he wrote, "I personally would vote for [Wallace's] renomination if I were a delegate to the convention".<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 345–352</ref>

With Roosevelt not committed to keeping or dropping Wallace, the vice-presidential balloting turned into a battle between those who favored Wallace and those who favored Truman.<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 352–353</ref> Wallace did not have an effective organization to support his candidacy, though allies like [[Calvin Benham Baldwin]], [[Claude Pepper]], and [[Joseph F. Guffey]] pressed for him. Truman, meanwhile, was reluctant to put forward his own candidacy, but Hannegan{{efn|Hannegan later stated that he would like his tombstone to read, "here lies the man who stopped Henry Wallace from becoming President of the United States".<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), p. 365</ref>}} and Roosevelt persuaded him to run.<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 357–359</ref> At the convention, Wallace galvanized supporters with a well-received speech in which he lauded Roosevelt and argued that "the future belongs to those who go down the line unswervingly for the liberal principles of both political democracy and economic democracy regardless of race, color, or religion".<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 359–361</ref> After Roosevelt delivered his acceptance speech, the crowd began chanting for the nomination of Wallace, but [[Samuel D. Jackson]] adjourned the convention for the day before Wallace supporters could call for the beginning of vice presidential balloting.<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 362–364</ref> Party leaders worked furiously to line up support for Truman overnight, but Wallace received 429 1/2 votes (589 were needed for nomination) on the first ballot for vice president and Truman 319 1/2, with the rest going to various [[favorite son]] candidates. On the second ballot, many delegates who had voted for favorite sons shifted into Truman's camp, giving him the nomination.<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 364–366</ref>

On January 20, 1945, Wallace swore in Truman as his vice-presidential successor.<ref>[[Oath of office of the vice president of the United States#Background|Oath of office of the vice president of the United States]]</ref>