Replies

Wallace didn't just have Soviet agents on his staff. You ought to read Treason by Ann Coulter. She takes these bastards apart, fact by fact.

I quote from page 42: 'Roosevelt's vice president Henry Wallace, 1940-1944... believed "America's main enemy was Churchill and the British Empire." He insisted that peace would be assured "if the United States guaranteed Stalin control of Eastern Europe." When Stalin seized Czechoslovakia, Wallace sided with Stalin. When Stalin blockaded Berlin, Wallace opposed the U.S. airlift. After visiting a Soviet slave camp, Wallace enthusiastically described it as a "combination TVA and Hudson Bay Company."

Whether he had a card in his pocket or not, he was effectively a communist.

"It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Roosevelt saw the Soviet Union, its record of terror and slaughter, its omnipotent dictatorship and despotism notwithstanding, as containing a greater promise of democracy and freedom than Great Britain. Somehow in Roosevelt's vision all the ugly was squeezed out and what was left was a system in Russia not extremely different from his own American New Deal." - Robert Nisbet, Roosevelt and Stalin: The Failed Courtship (1988)

Well he was apparently wrong about a whole bunch of things. But again he did apologize later on. He admitted it whereas many did not. And he did support Nixon for President in 1960. Apparently because he thought Nixon would be better for farmers. He had a significant background in agriculture and actually invented something in that sphere I believe.

Regarding Henry Wallace; "Whether he had a card in his pocket or not, he was effectively a communist."

As much as I despise Franklin Roosevelt and his policies, I have to give him credit for dumping Wallace in '44. FDR knew he was in poor health, and must have been mightily uncomfortable envisioning Wallace as the next president.

Roosevelt had the smarts to replace Wallace on the '44 ticket with Harry S Truman, a man who he (FDR) was only vaguely aware of, but a man who had proven his ability insofar as administrating policy and understanding the workings of government.

The selection of Truman is IMHO FDR's legacy. Truman was an honest no-nonsense democrat Senator who had been an artillery officer during WWI, and as such he harbored no illusions with regard to the USSR and its inclinations. He also understood the Japanese, their military discline, and their unwillingness to capitulate under any terms. That understanding was the source of his decision to use nuclear arms on Japan, a couragous act which goes unrecognized to this day by many misguided idiots.

The years immediately following WWII were critical in checking the aspirations of Stalin mentioned in this article. It was damned fortunate for the US that Harry Truman, and not Henry Wallace, sat in the Oval Office during the opening days of the Cold War.

I rank Truman as the second greatest president of the 20th century. First place goes to Theodore Roosevelt and third place goes to Ronald Reagan.