Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Contenders Thomas E. Dewey 202407

With miss dewy by his side. He makes another strong bid for the northwest ballots. It appears he has at least one supporter. Those are some of the regions finest sentiment specimen. Well know soon. November is just a rant the corner. President truman continues his swing around the circuit. Meeting former president in texas. The chief executive gets a president which he says he passed around the white house lawn for the next four years. He goes to the home of his friend, where he has breakfast and its a warm welcome. Later in nearby san antonio heat vista alamo, historic sure im of texas independence. In austin, a big crowd reads the president as he continues his campaign for lone star states 23 electoral votes. Civil, writes the president stuck at republican say they dont want unity. On his tour the president spoke with the former speaker of the house. At port, worth hundreds of thousands turned out as he fights to win the southern vote. Do we defeats. Truman the famous photo of the Chicago Tribune headline from the 1948 president ial campaign. Of course we know of harry as truman pictured here won the election and his rival thomas do we had to accept defeat. This week on the contenders were live from the Roosevelt Hotel in new york city, which in 1948 most of the republican headquarters and republican governors do these sweet hes this wheat, whenever he was in new york in his 12 years as governor. He and his family and closest aides gathered in these rooms an election. Right joining us is Richard Norton smith, author of many books. So its 1948 in the Roosevelt Hotel. What happens here . The day began with virtual unanimity in the Nations Press corps that this election was over. It was thomas eat due east to lose. There were pollsters who would in fact stop pulling after labor day. There were so convinced that there was no contest, really. Governor dewy and mrs. Do we went to vote at midday not too far from here. They were cheered all the way on. He got out of his car. Decided to walk back to the hotel reports that there was a good sign. The new. Doing the warmer, more personable dewey the people have seen on the campaign trail in 48. They had an Election Night tradition of having dinner with their near dear friends, a publisher. And the family went to their home for a early dinner. And when they were there some disturbing returns came in from connecticut in particular. And dewey gangbuster had relied upon accountants as much as anyone else they always had great Great Respect for the numbers. And the numbers were already a little bit out of sync with what the pollsters had predicted. And that was the beginning of a night long ordeal in the sweet. The secret service had sent their top agents. Here they thought that dewey would become president like everyone else seemingly. It went on and on and about 3 00 in the morning, the agents began to slip away. Which was their nonverbal way of communicating truly historic upset was taking place. And at one point before don, the governor of new york poked his head through that door, and said to a friend, what do you know . That little son of a bleep one. His formal concession came later in the day. Before we get to the point where he looks at sweet, and sees that secret services. Gone is a confidence at the Roosevelt Hotel. Describe that. The confidence was based upon, very understandably, based upon the fact that there was a consensus among people on the, right people on the, left not only that dewey was going to win. This is what is fascinating. Of course when you see the iconic image, the fact that dewey is rumored primarily as the man who snatched defeat from the judge victory. But if you go back and read the contemporary, press everybody from true person to wall witman, they not only expected him to win, they had praise for the campaign he had run. They thought it would statesman, like they thought it was state high minded, and there was a lot of criticism for the campaign harry truman had run against him. Its a fascinating example of how a snapshot of history often contained in journalism can be superseded very quickly. We want to show our viewers, from that, night early on when the returns are starting to come in, thomas dewey, s Campaign Manager in the confidence that they had in the Campaign Early on. Take a look. Victory is in the air. The first return for dewey in the lead but republicans arent worried. And then republican Campaign Manager brings good news. We now know that governor dewey will carry new york state by at least 15,000 50,000 votes and hell be the next president of the United States. [applause] so Richard Norton, smith why are republicans so confident that they could get the white house in 1940 . Eight by the way, carrying new york state was no small feat. It was the first time in 20 years that a republican mad niche to do it. New york was the home of roosevelt liberalism, so for him to announce that and predict based upon that the victory was in the air was perfectly understandable. 1948. What we didnt know going into 1948, what 1948 confirmed was that america had in fact become a needle. Country the death of Franklin Roosevelt had ended one presidency. But their approach to government, the expectation that government would be more involved for example in ensuring prosperity. That government would be used to fight economic downturns as the new deal had in the thirties and forties. Whether or not you believe the grave doubts about the success of those efforts. But nevertheless, the assumption was when fdr died the new deal died with. Him and the set of expectations, the relationship between the average american and his government, which had been transferred by the new deal. Turns out that wasnt the case. On election day, 1940, eight americans enjoyed record prosperity, record employment. The reason why republicans in spite of that thought they could win in 1948 is very simple. Harry truman. We forget today but truman and his first term was a very unpopular president. The cracked air is truman. There was talk about the little man from missouri. Someone dwarfed by the ghost of Franklin Roosevelt. Truman had a very difficult assignment. Every president after a war has the process of readjusting economically, culturally the economic sector. Its difficult. Inflation strikes all that can do on trumans watch. And in 1946 in 1947 he wasnt handling it well. It was so bad that republicans took congress in 1946, which of course only fed their expectation that the presidency would fall in the lap of dewey. So how are republicans viewing the Truman Administration at this point heading into 48 . Its a great question. The problem is theres no such thing as the republicans, and that was part of deweys problem. The Republican Party then much more than i was evenly split establishment, the old Teddy Roosevelt wing of the. Party Charles Evans hughes who was profiled earlier in the series was very much in that tradition. Top dewy represented that in the thirties and forties. And into the fifties. Then eisenhower handed dewey the baton. Opposed to that where the conservative midwesterners, many of them isolationists rolling around bomb, cast the son of former president taft, who with dr had precipitated the split. That never healed. So in 1946 what to congress, it was the conservatives who became the face of the party. Then on the other hand, you had people like dewey, many of the governors for example who are much less hostile to the media. Much more willing to work with this process. Thomas dewey with our contender. Tonight he ran, he lost, he changed political history. Anyway here is thomas eat dewey launching his campaign in 1948 and his criticism of the trump administration. The campaign will unite all americans. On january 2020, will enter in a new era. Next january 2020 there will begin in washington the biggest unraveling, untangling operation in our nations history. [applause] Richard Norton smith. What do you make of what he says there . And snarling. That goes into dewey hiss heart of weakness, dewey had been governor of new york for several years and he untangled and ensnarled and an rivaled a lot of bureaucratic cobwebs. He had taken what many people would see as a hybrid of conservative of and liberal ideas to make government more responsive, in some ways to make it smaller. Texas were reduced to make it more friendly to the private sector. So what he had done in new york. He proposed to do on the national level. One critical element that sets dewey apart, that of course a civil. Writes dewey is on the forefront on that issue. New york state is the first state in america to pass anti discrimination legislation. And you know, dewey took that very seriously. It didnt necessarily meet among universal agreement among republicans in new york but its something that myth a great deal. Were talking about deweys campaign for president right to be joined by deweys son. Were gonna be taking your comments and phone calls this evening. So you can start dialing in for Richard Norton smith and tommy dewey jr. Lets go to the campaign and the issues that are there. Is truman popular . Tremendous not very people and beginning of the campaign. Its a curious reversal of what we have seen since then. The present was more less popular than his policies. In other, words people were perfectly content with record high employment. But they didnt necessarily attributed to harry truman. Of course global issues were a huge factor here. One of the things that dewey has been criticized in retrospect, but at the time was widely praised was running a campaign of national unity. In which he tried first of all, the whole idea of bipartisan Foreign Policy is part of dewey s Foreign Policy. And in the 1944 campaign and the carried. It he for example supported truman on the airlift to berlin. He supported truman and recognizing the state of israel. At the same time, he wanted to increase the Defense Budget by five billion dollars. Theres no doubt that he wouldve been, he supported the marshall plan, but he wouldve asked more questions before just turning american tax dollars over to uniquely so it was a campaign in many ways, that is what we claim we want in a candidate. It wasnt huddling below about. There wasnt a lot of personalities. There wasnt a lot of name calling. The president says alexa vote and locks specifics. And its not showing up in the polls. In it dewey versus truman. He was totally taking surprise by what happened in the sweet that tonight. The fact is, he knew. He was the First Political National Candidate to have a polling unit as part of his campaign. He listen to the pollsters. He had a real appreciation of their art. He was well aware of the fact that his lead was slipping. There are people that kept him in the last ten days of the campaign, and he acknowledged that lead was slipping. To one of them he said but remember dont ever talk when your head. What happens next . Then are the democrats behind truman . Are they solid in their unity behind one of the contributing factors to deweys loss, the republicans had passed a act that organized labor, quite rightly saw as a lot of the rights and privileges developed under the new deal. And it put dewey in a really awkward position. By in large, he agreed with much of the. Bill at the same time he was the governor of new york. This is a labor, state this is a state. So in some ways he was walking a fine line there. But what the taft act did was energize organized labor is nothing about it. 1948 was probably the single election in which organize labor played the biggest role threat, america and in receptor east after race, the democratic ticket run ahead of trim it, in part because of trumans relative unpopularity, but also because organized labor to a man turned out in record numbers and what a democratic. Who are the main players in the democratic at the time . On the left you have Vice President Henry Wallace who believes that truman has started the cold war. That truman is insufficiently a tune to the possibilities of peace with the soviet union. And on the far right you have thurman who walked out of the Democratic Congressional because he Young African american had passed a strong civil rights plank. So the conventional wisdom was that this would hurt. Truman he would lose votes from the left, hed lose votes from the. Right in fact what it did was make trim in the man in the middle. And neither thurman or wallace turned out and and having any impact that it was believed it would. Have the economy at the time, what was it . Like the economy is trumans great strength. As i said, record employment and more than that what truman did very he did against dewey what he did against the Republican Congress and the ghost of robert uber. The fact of the matter was that a democratic president riding the crest in 1940, eight point a finger at the Republican Congress, and in effect suggest to people, and truman wasnt bashful about doing. Get that if you return republicans to complete control in the white house in congress, you can expect to see a return to the economic policies that produced the great depression. And you know it wasnt that long since the great depression,. Peoples memories were very sharp. And that came into play without a doubt. What about the role of communism in this campaign . Its fascinating, dewey had taken some heat in 1944 for introducing this charge that fdr head in advert lee allowed communist employs to take root to some degree in his administration. In 1948, gal lets show that. The first nationally broadcast president ial debate revolves around one issue. Show the communist party in america be applaud . And thomas dewey, the old prosecutor takes the civil libertarian view that no shouldnt be out a lot, for reasons he expands. Disappointed to actually took the lead in that primary race, harold, this is before the oregon primary to the surgeon that it should be outlawed, it was a turning point because of course those of the same year that hes introduced the American People, and dewey has to figure out how to handle the issue. We are going to get to that debate a little later here coming up. First i want to show a reviewers what tom dewey had to say to communist in 1948. Lets take a look. Communists here in our midst. Some people get panicky about, it i dont belong to either of those. Groups we must neither ignore the communists, nor outlaw them. If we ignore them, we give them the vote of immunity that they want. If we out a lot of them, we give them the han and that they want even more. We will in the government that we get next january, we will keep informed and will keep the American People informed of where they, are who they are, and what theyre up to. Richard norton smith. That is classic dewey. Some would say setting up the strongmen of the left and, right and curving at the middle of the road for. Himself but thats very much what his approach. Was it raises the fascinating prospect, i think distinct possibility what if had he been elected in 1948, that among other things we would never have heard of joe mccarthy. Mccarthy who was in many ways a product of republican frustration, over losing a election that they thought was a sure thing. Tom dewey was a political boss, among other things. You control the Republican Party in the state. He wouldve controlled the Republican Party nationally. And i can tell you would have never allowed joe mccarthy to rear his head. We touch on domestic issues, internationally whats going on in 48 . Of course were well into the cold war. Dewey is again supportive of the marshall plan. He supports need. Oh truman for example we organize the war, department the defense department. Created the intelligence agency. In some ways put the American Economy on a cold war footing. Dewey supportive of all. But if anything he believes we need to spend more money on our defenses. He also, its interesting. He thinks weve neglected conservative forces, for example charles to go with out of power. He was seen as a board against communism in france. Do we think that am american diplomacy could put people at that great use. How does he differ from other prominent republicans at the time, and who are . They bob taft, republican from ohio is fair to say was the champion of the isolationist wing of the Republican Party. That is to say, the weighing profoundly suspicious of international organizations, like the un. Suspicious of later on the korean war. Suspicious of protecting American Military power around the world as opposed to building up american defenses here at home. Former president Herbert Hoover would have certainly been in that camp as well. Dewey on the other hand was someone who had morphed. As a young man he had been a quasiisolationist, and one of the great things is to watch him become eight committed isolationist and a champion of Foreign Policy. Given that, whats the impact of that policy on all of his president ial bids . He runs in 44 and 48. I think its safe to say it was statesman like and i not sure that it won lot of votes. It certainly didnt when have the presidency. In 1944, there was a significant conflict between dewey and fdr. Even though, dewey agreed to the idea that politics steps of the moderns edge. The disagreed over the United Nations, and specifically what the United Nations heavy army that it could employ without first securing the permissio