Does anyone know what caused FDR to drop Wallace in favor of Truman? I was too young to know anything about it, and those events were too fresh for my schools to teach anything about it.
“Wallace’s left-wing views made him increasingly unpopular in the Democratic Party and Roosevelt came under pressure to drop him as his vice-president in 1944. Roosevelt was unwilling to protect Wallace and Harry S. Truman got the nomination. However, Roosevelt continued to value Wallace’s abilities and when he was re-elected he appointed him as his Secretary of Commerce.
Wallace, who was Secretary of Commerce after the war, favoured co-operation with the Soviet Union. In private he disagreed with Harry S. Truman about what he considered to be an aggressive foreign policy. Wallace went public about his fears at a meeting in New York in September, 1946. After complaints from James F. Byrnes, Secretary of State, and James Forrestal, Secretary of Defence, Truman sacked Wallace as Secretary of Commerce.
Wallace was editor of the New Republic (1946-48) and helped to launch the new Progressive Party. In 1948 Wallace became the new party’s candidate in the presidential election. His programme included new civil rights legislation that would give equal opportunities for black Americans in voting, employment and education, repeal of the Taft-Hartley Bill and increased spending on welfare, education, and public works. Wallace’s foreign policy program was based on opposition to the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan”.
Found at:http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USARwallace.htm
The very first sentence really ought to stand out, not to mention the rest of the story.
“Does anyone know what caused FDR to drop Wallace in favor of Truman?”
Personally I think Roosevelt realized by then that he had already given the store to Stalin, and he was afraid Wallace would give away the whole shopping center.