Editing Henry A. Wallace (section)

===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" />