FDR, Dewey, and the Election of 1944

23: Dewey on the Offensive

261 Governor Dewey got back from Charleston in time to be an honored guest at New York City’s Pulaski Day Parade, on October 8. The parade had been designated by the committee running it as a protest against unfair treatment of Poland by her allies in the war against Hitler. And Tom Dewey was happy to accommodate himself to that protest. He saluted the great Polish pianist and patriot, Jan Ignace Paderew­ ski, for the claims he had made back in 1918 for the Russo­Polish border eastof theCurzonLine,thelinethatwasnowbeingpushedbytheSoviet Union as the proper boundary. “Today those claims are stronger than ever,” Dewey said. “Polish valor and tenacity have contributed much toward victory.” Every sensitive person in the United States, he asserted, wants to see “as one of the results of victory the re­establishment of Po­ land as an independent and sovereign nation reborn upon a basis which will be permanent. “We would like to know more about the plans for that consumma­ tion,” Dewey went on, voicing suspicion of summit discussions held to that time. “We would like to know more about the results of the private deliberations of those who now discuss Poland’s future in dim secrecy. American citizens of Polish descent would do well to do everything in their power to bring discussions of Poland’s fate from the dark to the light.” Senator Robert F. Wagner shared the reviewing stand with Dewey, buthereservedhisremarkstothePulaskiDaydinnerthateveningatthe 2 3 Dewey on the Offensive 262 FDR, Dewey, and the Election of 1944 Waldorf­Astoria. Responding to Dewey’s expressed suspicions of Roo­ sevelt’s attitude toward the settlement of Poland’s boundaries, Wagner said reassuringly that it was “the aim and intent of the Administration of Franklin Roosevelt” to bring about “the complete restoration and protection of its boundaries reflecting the history and aspirations of the Polish people.”1 OnOctober11,adelegationof Polish­Americanleadersmetwiththe Presidentforforty­fiveminutesattheWhiteHouse,askingforassurance thathewouldinsistthatneitheranaliennorapuppetgovernmentwould be imposed upon Poland nor any part of its population be transferred against its will. Roosevelt agreed that Poland “must be reconstituted as a great nation” but admitted that no one there had accurate information about everything going on in Poland.2 Several weeks later, Charles Rozmarek, president of the Polish Na­ tional Alliance, based on affirmations like those of Senator Wagner and his own conversations with the President at the White House meeting and later in Chicago, pledged his support to FDR’s campaign, saying the President had assured him “that he will see to it that Poland is treated justly at the peace conference.” No doubt Rozmarek was sorely disap­ pointed when the Yalta conference saw the Polish border adjusted in accordance with Soviet demands and the puppet Lublin government installed. Given the reality of Soviet troops on the ground, there was little that Roosevelt could have done to prevent these results other than public protest, but even that was not done. The Polish settlement was an unhappy legacy from Teheran and Yalta.3 Dewey left New York after the Pulaski Day doings, to return to Al­ bany, issue a press statement on the work of Dumbarton Oaks on Mon­ day the 9th (calling it “a fine beginning”), and return to the big city the next day for Willkie’s funeral. On October 12, Dewey met with Dr. Abba HillelSilver,chairmanof theexecutivecommitteeof theNationalZion­ ist Emergency Council, and then issued a statement affirming his sup­ port for the re­constitution of Palestine “as a free and democratic Jewish commonwealth in accordance with the Balfour Declaration of 1917” and favoring“theopeningof Palestineto...unlimitedimmigrationandland ownership” by Jews. “As President,” Dewey said, he “would use my best Dewey on the Offensive 263 offices to have our government working together with Great Britain to achieve this great objective.”4 Severaldayslater,PresidentRooseveltsentamessagetotheconven­ tion of the Zionist Organization of America in Atlantic City, pledging his aid in finding “appropriate ways and means of effectuating estab­ lishment of Palestine as a free and democratic Jewish commonwealth.” Leaders of the convention, upon receipt of Roosevelt’s message and a similar one from Dewey, said the issue of Palestine’s treatment was defi­ nitely removed from the sphere of partisan politics.5 Meanwhile, another sensation had burst upon the campaign, this one involving Senator Joseph H. Ball of Minnesota. Joe Ball was a young newspaperman who had become a close friend and associate of Harold Stassen in Minnesota. When isolationist Senator Ernest Lundeen was killedinanairplanecrashin1940,Stassenappointedthe35­year...