The US Presidential Election of 1948

            The election of 1948 is often considered a landmark election in the history of the United States. Under Franklin Roosevelt, the Democrats had won landslide elections in 1932, 1936, 1940, and 1944. But tragedy struck the United States when Roosevelt died in April of 1945. The war in Europe was weeks away from concluding, and Adolf Hitler himself would commit suicide before the month was out, but the war with Japan raged on. Roosevelt’s death caused his Vice President, a former Senator from Missouri named Harry Truman, to step into the Oval Office and become the 33^rd President.

            Truman represents a few unique points in American history. He is the only man to have been the third Vice President to a single President. He is the only President who fought in the First World War. He was the last President to have not gone to college. Cool and moderate, Truman had been chosen as a compromise when Roosevelt ran for re-election in 1944. Those closest to Roosevelt knew of his ill health, and two camps emerged in the Democratic party over whether or not to keep on the pro labor and pro civil rights Vice President Henry Wallace, or to replace him with Senator James Byrnes, a more conservative southerner. Truman was chosen to placate both the Wallace supporters and Byrnes supporters, and was placed on the ballot with much enthusiasm. Together, Truman and Roosevelt would go on to win thirty six states in the 1944 election, handily defeating Governor Thomas Dewey of New York.

            Once elected, however, Truman was never very close to Roosevelt, and seemed to lack any individual popularity. In fact Roosevelt never told Truman about the atomic bombs that Truman would late authorize to be used against Japan. Truman may have been president during the wars end, but he was never able to claim any credit for it. He was able to help institute the Marshall Plan, but another man's name was attached to the project so again, Truman wasn’t able to claim credit. When he introduced a health care bill to Congress after the war's end, it was shot down as well. Truman was seen as an accidental President, only there because of Roosevelt’s death. Things only got worse in 1946 when the Republicans gained majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives. This Congress refused to work with Truman, and went so far as to start repealing legislation from Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. Truman used his Presidential Veto to prevent any wholesale repealing, but it seemed like he was done.

            So in 1948 the Republicans believed that they would easily win the presidential election. Thomas Dewey, who had run against Roosevelt in 1944, was again their nominee. The Democrats failed to rally around Truman and split into three parties. Strom Thurmond, a southern segregationist, feared that the Democrats might force integration, so he formed a political party called the Dixiecrats. Former Vice President Henry Wallace, fearing that the democrats wouldn’t do enough for civil rights, formed a political party called the Progressive Party. The conventional wisdom was that these parties would siphon off votes from the Democrats, and the polling seemed to confirm this.

            Election day in 1948 fell on November 2. Truman had run a low money campaign, whereas Dewey’s campaign had raised substantial sums. Truman’s inner circle had already begun accepting other jobs, resigned to the fact that their man would lose. Truman slept through the night, whereas Dewey stayed up to watch the returns. The Chicago Daily Tribune was so sure that Dewey would win that they went ahead and printed their newspapers with the headline "Dewey Defeats Truman". As the results came in, Truman took the lead in votes, a lead that he would never lose. Surprise! Harry Truman won by a comfortable three point margin – his detractors had underestimated him, and he would remain President for another four years.