#Henry Wallace

[victusinveritas]

"The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism. They use every opportunity to impugn democracy. They use isolationism as a slogan to conceal their own selfish imperialism." The American fascist said Wallace, "is one whose lust for money or power is combined with such an intensity of intolerance toward those of other races, parties, classes, religions, cultures, regions or nations as to make him ruthless in his use of deceit or violence to attain his ends." But, the former vice president added, they are especially inclined toward propaganda. "With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power."

- Henry Wallace (FDR's VP for his first two terms) in 1944

[trtrff]

"It must have been an embarrassing moment for the groom" by Silvey Jackson Ray

[fdrlibrary]

FDR's Pigs

FDR enjoyed collecting pig figurines and kept this one on his Oval Office desk. It was a Christmas gift from Eleanor Roosevelt in 1937. The First Lady had admired the pig during a guided tour of a Rural Arts Exhibit staged in Washington D.C. It was made at the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina. The exhibit’s organizer, Allen E. Eaton, gave the pig to her. When FDR opened his gift he reportedly said, “Don’t let Henry see this,” referring to Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace. Wallace led a controversial campaign to encourage farmers to destroy pigs to maintain pork prices.

See more of the objects on FDR's Oval Office desk on our Digital Artifact Collection: https://fdr.artifacts.archives.gov/advancedsearch/Objects/collections%3AOn%20Permanent%20Exhibit%3BlabelText%3Aoval

Join us throughout 2023 as we present #FDRtheCollector, featuring artifacts personally collected, purchased, or retained by Franklin Roosevelt, all from our Digital Artifact Collection.

[dadsinsuits]

Henry Wallace

[onenakedfarmer]

HENRY WALLACE The Danger of American Fascism

Still another danger is represented by those who, paying lip service to democracy and the common welfare, in their insatiable greed for money and the power which money gives, do not hesitate surreptitiously to evade the laws designed to safeguard the public from monopolistic extortion.

Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.

They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution.

They are patriotic in time of war because it is to their interest to be so, but in time of peace they follow power and the dollar wherever they may lead.

[deadpresidents]

Was Henry A. Wallace a spy or just a Soviet tool?

I think Wallace was just deeply idealistic and probably a true Socialist at a time when Americans could not differentiate between Socialism and "evil" Soviet Communism (well...Americans still can't do that), and that his idealism allowed the Soviets to use him to their advantage. But I definitely don't believe he was a spy or even a conscious Soviet asset.

Calder Walton wrote a book last year called Spies: The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) that was published my Simon & Schuster and I actually posted this excerpt a few months ago about Wallace and the Soviets during the Cold War that might answer your question a bit better:

Russian archival records obtained for this book show that [Joseph] Stalin colluded with his favorited U.S. candidate in 1948, Henry Wallace, [Franklin D.] Roosevelt’s Soviet-friendly wartime Vice President. The nature of Wallace’s relationship with the Kremlin has long been a subject of speculation. Soviet intelligence is known to have unimaginatively code-named the Vice President CAPTAIN’S DEPUTY during the war. But no evidence has ever emerged that Wallace was recruited as a Soviet agent. He was, however, we can now discern, a Soviet tool. He sincerely believed that “peaceful coexistence” between the Soviet Union and the United States not only could be achieved, but was essential for world peace. All the while, he looked away from (and naively followed Soviet propaganda denying) the existence of Stalin’s mass forced labor and terror programs. According to [President Harry S.] Truman’s counsel Clark Clifford: “It was never clear to me how aware he [Wallace] was of the uses to which the Communist Party was putting him, but whether he knew it or not, he was following the communist line, serving communist ends, and betraying those Americans who supported him as a serious alternative to the two main candidates [in 1948].” Wallace’s naivete about Soviet communism turned him into an asset for Stalin, if not a recruited Soviet agent. Wallace decided to run in the 1948 U.S. election as the Progressive Party nominee. In April and May that year, he secretly liaised with Stalin about public policies that would be advantageous for the Soviet Union, coordinating his public statements with the dictator. Wallace secretly met with the youthful Soviet ambassador to the UN in New York, Andrei Gromyko, who dispatched the candidate’s messages to the Soviet foreign minister, [Vyacheslav] Molotov, and to Stalin himself. In his memoirs, Gromyko admitted to meeting Wallace, but downplayed the meeting’s significance, suggesting that after talking with him he considered that Wallace had lost contact with the pulse of American life. Archival documents in Moscow reveal that in fact Stalin took Wallace’s position and candidacy seriously, approving his public positions, and answering questions that the former Vice President put to him, which Stalin annotated in his distinctive pencil. Their alignment produced a published open letter from Wallace to Stalin, vetted by the Soviet leader in advance, to which Stalin then publicly replied, all as agreed between the two men. Wallace’s Presidential election bid in November 1948 dismally failed; he ended up getting barely 2 percent of the vote, while Truman, to his and the nation’s surprise, won a second term. He defeated New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey in one of the greatest upsets in U.S. Presidential history. Ironically, the staff of Wallace’s failed 1948 campaign included none other than the Soviet atom spy Ted Hall. Following his unsuccessful White House run, Wallace had a crisis of faith in his pro-Stalinism. This may have been caused by his realization that Stalin had used and discarded him after the election. Stalin had gotten what he wanted from Wallace. In 1952, Wallace published an article, “Where I Was Wrong,” describing “Russian Communism” as “utterly evil.” The Kremlin and its intelligence services nevertheless learned an important strategic lesson for later in the Cold War: that it could use the freedoms inherent within American electoral campaigns to influence candidates favorable to the Soviet Union.

[vice-prez-douglas]

Some of our many wonderful vice presidents and also sonic the hedgehog

[brightlydim]

"I remember those days. Where we were dumb and happy and we didn't know what would happen in that damn forest..."

[imkeepinit]

Trump is the first US president who has been seriously associated with fascist ideology. His coalition of white supremacists, xenophobes, plutocratic oligarchs and disaffected members of the working class have aligned with the mainstream Republican Party. The coalition’s political philosophy, rooted in reactionary populism and “American First” sloganeering, has quickly led to the United States’ systematic withdrawal from global leadership. Coupled with a disdain for multilateral collaboration, a rejection of globalization, and a focus on militarism and economic nationalism, Trumpism has taken the country down the perilous path of national chauvinism reminiscent of previous fascist states like Spain under Franco, Portugal under Salazar, or Peronist Argentina.

[pastdaily]

Hungary: No Miracle. No Wonder. Just Drama - May 31, 1947

Subscribe and help keep us going: Become a Patron! https://pastdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/news-for-may-31-1947-revised.mp3 A day fairly overflowing with drama, but for different reasons and in different parts of Planet Earth for this last day of May in 1947. Starting with news that the democratically elected Premier of Hungary, Ferenc Nagy (Pronounced: Fairenz Nahhjjh) had been…

[o-the-mts]

[The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power.

They claim to be superpatriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjugation.]

Henry A. Wallace, source: The Danger of American Fascism

[collasgarba]

Dopo la sconfitta elettorale, gli organi di stampa comunisti continuarono a ricercare un diverso volto dell’America da presentare ai lettori

Nel 1949, sul Calendario del Popolo, apparvero le immagini di una gara tenuta negli Stati Uniti, in cui alcune modelle in bikini dovevano mangiare senza usare le mani la maggiore quantità possibile di spaghetti: tra le fotografie, quelle commentate dalle didascalie più sprezzanti mostravano «la forza di aspirazione e il gioco mascellare della delicatissima vincitrice», o riprendevano le discinte…

[adrianomaini]

Dopo la sconfitta elettorale, gli organi di stampa comunisti continuarono a ricercare un diverso volto dell’America da presentare ai lettori

Nel 1949, sul Calendario del Popolo, apparvero le immagini di una gara tenuta negli Stati Uniti, in cui alcune modelle in bikini dovevano mangiare senza usare le mani la maggiore quantità possibile di spaghetti: tra le fotografie, quelle commentate dalle didascalie più sprezzanti mostravano «la forza di aspirazione e il gioco mascellare della delicatissima vincitrice», o riprendevano le discinte…

[bagnabraghe]

Dopo la sconfitta elettorale, gli organi di stampa comunisti continuarono a ricercare un diverso volto dell’America da presentare ai lettori

Nel 1949, sul Calendario del Popolo, apparvero le immagini di una gara tenuta negli Stati Uniti, in cui alcune modelle in bikini dovevano mangiare senza usare le mani la maggiore quantità possibile di spaghetti: tra le fotografie, quelle commentate dalle didascalie più sprezzanti mostravano «la forza di aspirazione e il gioco mascellare della delicatissima vincitrice», o riprendevano le discinte…

[bargainsleuthbooks]

Unlikely Heroes: FDR, His Four Lieutenants, and the World They Made by #Derek Leebaert #NetGalley #ArcReview #Roosevelt

A new book takes a more critical look at #FDR's presidency and claims that there were four key players that were responsible for the majority of #Roosevelt's great ideas. #UnlikelyHeroes by #DerekLeebaert #NewBooks #february2023release #bookreviiew

Drawing on new materials, Unlikely Heroes constructs an entirely fresh understanding of FDR and his presidency by spotlighting the powerful, equally wounded figures whom he raised up to confront the Depression, then to beat the Axis. Only four people served at the top echelon of President Franklin Roosevelt’s Administration from the frightening early months of spring 1933 until he died in April…

[onenakedfarmer]

HENRY WALLACE

A fascist is one whose lust for money or power is combined with such an intensity of intolerance toward those of other races, parties, classes, religions, cultures, regions, or nations as to make him ruthless in his use of deceit or violence to attain his ends.