Choosing Truman: The Democratic Convention of 1944

Preface

PREFACE In the way that history sometimes moves with inevitability, a dire progression of political events became dimly visible in the summer of 1944, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to run again for reelection, this time for a fourth term. He wanted to run; he enjoyed the presidency and did not want to leave it. Leaders of his party could not keep him from running; he was far too powerful a party figure for that. The party needed him because the Republicans that year nominated a formidable opponent, Governor Thomas E. Dewey ofNew York. But FDR was deathly ill, and once he made up his mind to run he set in motion a series ofevents as certain as the length of a day: he would be nominated at the Chicago convention of the Democratic party, and he would win in November, but he could not possibly survive a fourth term. All this persuaded party leaders to prepare for the succession. They undertook to get Vice-President Henry A. Wallace out ofoffice, for they believed he would make a poor successor to Roosevelt, and replace him with a man they could trust. Finding an acceptable candidate proved far more difficult than they had anticipated. Part ofthe trouble was the ambition ofWallace to continue as vice-president; he knew the nomination meant the presidency. The president's principal White House assistant, James F. Byrnes, whom both the leaders and the president disliked, sought the vice-presidency for the same reason. Byrnes had been a senator from South Carolina and associate justice ofthe Supreme Court and ordinarily would not have glanced at it. The other part ofthe trouble in finding a replacement for the president was Roosevelt himself. He was no easy person to deal with. He refused to consider the possibility that he might die. Too, the ravages of his cardiovascular disease made him almost too tired to make up his mind about what he considered a minor concern, choosing a running mate. All these confusions delayed his decision until the very last moment. Toward the end, when indecision had become dangerous because ofthe strivLX x Preface ings of Wallace and Byrnes, the party leaders were beside themselves with anxiety. How the nomination went to Senator Harry S. Truman of Missouri , a marvelously qualified man, who was not actively seeking it, is one ofthe great political stories ofour century, and is the subject of the pages that follow. ...