Governor dewey, making a plea for world peace and striking at communist elements in government, the gop leader draws big audiences. Next step is portland, oregon. With mrs. Dewy by his side. He makes another stirring bid for the northwest ballots. Well, it appears he has at least one ardent supporter. Those are some of the regions finest salmon specimens. Well know soon. November is just around the corner. President truman continues his swing around the circuit, meeting former Vice President garner in texas. The chief executive gets a present which he said will be on the white house lawn for the next four years. He rides to the home of his old friend, cactus jack, for a real texas breakfast and gets a warm welcome enroute. Later, he visits the alamo. A shrine of texas independence. In austin, a big crowd meets the president as he continues his campaign for the lone star states 23 electoral votes. Addressing civil rights, saying the republicans dont want public unity. On his tour, the president spoke and visited with sam raburn, former speaker of the house. At ft. Worth, hundreds of thousands turn out as he fights to bring the southern vote back into line. Dewey defeats truman. The famous photo of that Chicago Tribune headline from the 1948 president ial campaign. Of course, we know in fact, harry s. Truman, pictured here, won that election, and his rival new york governor thomas e. Dewey, had to accept defeat. This week on the contenders, we are live from the Roosevelt Hotel in new york city, which in november of 1948, hosted the Republican Partys headquarters and new york governor Thomas Deweys president ial campaign. He used this suite, number 1527, when ever he was in new york during his 12 years as governor. He and his family and closest aides gathered in these rooms on Election Night. Joining us is Richard Norton smith, biographer of dewey. And author of many books. So Richard Norton smith, its november 2nd, 1948, at the Roosevelt Hotel. What happens here . Well, the day began with virtual unanimity in the Nations Press corps. That this election was over. That it was deweys to lose. There were pollsters who stopped polling after labor day. They were so convinced there was no contest, really. Governor and mrs. Dewey went to vote at midday, not too far from here, were cheered all the way along. He got out of his car, decided to walk back to the hotel. Reporters thought that was a good sign. The new dewey, they said, the warmer more personal dewey that people had seen on the trail in 1948. They had an Election Night tradition of having dinner with their dear friends, the the strausses. Roger strauss, who was a publisher. And the family went to the strauss for an early dinner. And while they were there, some disturbing returns came in from connecticut in particular. And dewey of course as gang buster had relied upon accountants to convict the likes of adams and schultz. 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. That was the beginning of a night listening ordeal in this suite. The secret service had sent their top agents here. They thought dewey was going to be president like everyone else, seemingly. Et went on and on and about 3 00 in the morning, the agents began to slip away. Which was their non verbal way of communicating a truly historic upset was taking place. And at one point before dawn, the governor of new york poked his head through that door and said to a friend, what do you know . The little son of a bitch won. His formal concession came later in the day. Before we get to that point though, where he looks out suite 1527 and sees that secret service is gone, theres a confidence at the Roosevelt Hotel. Describe that. Well, the confidence was based upon, very understandably, the fact there was a consensus among people on the right people on the left. Not only that dewey was going to win. This is whats fascinating. When you see that iconic image. The fact is, dewey is remembered as the man who snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. But if you go back and read the contemporary press, everyone from drew pearson to Walter Lipman to the alsop brothers, they not only expected dewey to win, they had praise for the campaign he had run. They thought it was statesman like, high minded. In fact, a lot of criticism for the campaign president 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, deweys Campaign Manager. And the confidence that he and the campaign had early on. Take a look. Deweys headquarters, in new york, champagne flows freely. Victory is in the air. The first returns put truman in the lead, but the republicans arent worried. And then Republican Campaign manager, herbert brownel, brings good news. We now know that governor dewey will carry new york state by at least 50,000 votes and that he will be the next president of the United States. So, why were republicans so confident they could get the white house . 1948 . By the way, carrying new york state was no small feat. The first time in 20 years that a republican had managed to do it. New york was the cradle of new deal, the home of roosevelt new dealism. So for brown to announce that, that victory was in the air, was perfectly understandable. 1948, what we didnt know going into 1948, what it confirmed, was that america had become a new deal country. The death of roosevelt had ended one presidency. The 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 30s and the 40s. Whether or not you believe and dewey had very grave doubts about the success of those efforts, but nevertheless, the assumption was that when fdr died, the new deal died with him. And the e it turns out that ws not the case. On election day, 1948, americans enjoyed record prosperity, record employment. The reason the republicans in spite of that thought they could win in 1948 is simple. Harry truman. We forget today, but truman in his first term, was a very unpopular president. The crack, to err is human. 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 agriculture sector. Its very difficult. Inflation strikes. All of that came due on trumans watch. And the consensus in 46 and 47, he wasnt handling it very well. It was so bad the republicans took congress in 1946, which only fed their expectation that the presidency would fall three years later. So, how are republicans viewing the truman administration, at this point, heading into 48 . Thats the great question. The problem is, theres no such thing as the republicans. And that was part of deweys problem. Republican party was almost evenly split between whats called the eastern establishment. The old Teddy Roosevelt wing of the party. Charles evans hughes, who was profiled earlier in this series, was very much in that tradition. Tom dewey represented that in the 30s, 40s and into the 50s, then eisenhower. Opposed to that were the conservative midwesterners. Many isolationists, who rallied around bob taft. The son of former president , ironically, president taft, who with tr, had precipitated the split in 1912. That split never really healed. So in 1946, when the republicans took congress, it was the conservatives who became the face of the party. And on the other hand, you had people like dewey, you had the other governors who were much more willing to work with the new deal premesis. Thomas e. Dewey is our contender tonight. He ran, he lost, but he changed political history any way. Here he is launching his campaign in 1948 and the criticism that he has of the truman administration. We enter into a campaign to unite all americans. On january 20th, we will enter a new era. There will begin, in washington, the biggest unraveling, unsnarling, untangling operation in our nations history. What do you make of what he says there . Unsnarling . That goes to the heard of tooueys strength and the der sepg perceptions of trumans weakness. Dewey had been governor of new york for several years and he had untangled, unsnarled a lot of bureaucratic cobwebs. He had taken what many would see as a hybrid of conservative and liberal ideas to make government more responsive. In some ways, to make it smaller. Taxes were reduced to make it friendlier 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 and that of course is civil rights. Hes in the forefront of that issue. New york state is the first state in america to pass antidiscrimination legislation. And he took that very seriously. It did not necessarily meet with universal agreement. Even among republicans in new york. But it was something he cared about a great deal. Were talking about thomas dewey. Well be joined by his son and well be taking your phone calls this evening, so you can start dialing in for richard northson smith and tom dewey, jr. Were working our way back from Election Night. So lets go to the Fall Campaign and the issues that are there. Is truman popular . He is not terribly popular at the beginning of the campaign. Its a curious reversal. The president was less popular than his policies. In other words, people were perfectly content with record high employment, but didnt necessarily attribute it to truman. Also, of course, global issues were a huge factor here. One of the things for which dewey has been criticized for in retrospect but at the time was wildly praised, was running this campaign of national unity, in which he tried. First of all, the whole idea of bipartisan Foreign Policy is part of tom deweys political legacy. Something that began with he and John Foster Dulles in the 1944 campaign and they carried it. He, for example, supported truman on the air lift to berlin. He supported him on recognizing the state of israel. At the same time, he wants to increase the Defense Budget by 5 billion. Theres no doubt that he he supported the marshal plan, but would have asked more questions before just turning american tax dollars over to left wing governments in europe. So it was a campaign in many ways that is what we claim we want in a candidate. There wasnt a lot of personalities. There was. A lot of name calling, and the critics said even then, its dull. That it lacks specifics. Is that showing up in the polls . The popular notion has been that he drowned in a sea of complacency. That he was totally taken by surprise by what happened in the suite that night. The fact is he knew he was the First National political candidate to have a full time polling unit as part of his campaign. He listened to the pollsters. He had a real appreciation of their art and he was well aware of the fact that his league was slipping. There were people who came to him in the last ten days of the campaign and he acknowledged that the lead was slipping. To one, he said, but remember, never talk when youre ahead. So what happens next, then . Are the democrats behind truman . Are they solid in their i think who is solid behind truman. One of the contributing factors in deweys loss, the Republican Congress passed the taft harley act, which organized labor, i think rightly saw as an attack upon many of the rights and privileges that developed under the new deal. It put him in a really awkward position. By and large, he agreed with much of the bill. At the same time, hes governor of new york. This is a labor state. A liberal state. So in some way, he was walking a fine line there. But what the taft act did was energize organized labor as nothing ever did. 1948 was probably the single election in which organized labor played the biggest role throughout america and in race after race after race, the democratic ticket ran ahead of harry truman. In part, because of trumans relative unpopularity, but also because organized labor, to a man, turned out in record numbers and voted democratic. Who are the other players in the Democratic Party . You have four candidates in the 1948 election. You have on the left, former Vice President henry wallace. Who believes that truman has started the cold war. That he is insufficiently attuned to the possibilities of peace with the soviet union and on the far right, you have strom thurmond, who walked out of the Democratic Convention because a young man from minneapolis named Hubert Humphrey had introduced and subsequently passed a strong pro civil rights play. So the conventional wisdom was that this would hurt truman. That he would lose votes on the right and left. In fact, what it did was make truman the man in the middle. And neither thurman or wallace had any of the impact that it was believed they would have. The economy at the time. Whats it like . Its trumans you know, great strength. He ran less against dewey than he did against the Republican Congress and the ghost of hoover. The fact of the matter was that a democratic president riding the crest of prosperity in the fall of 1948, could point a finger at the Republican Congress and if you return republicans to complete control to the white house and congress, you could expect to see a return to the economic policies that caused the great depression. 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 cam snan its fascinating. He had taken heat in 1944 for introducing charge that fdr allowed congress influence to take root to some degree in his administration. In 1948, i think weve got a clip. Okay. Lets show that. The First Nationally broadcast president ial debate resolves around one issue. Shall the communist party in america be outlawed, and thomas dewey takes the civil liberty view that, no, it should not be outlawed for reasons he expounds. His opponent, who had taken lead in that primary race, harold stasen, before the oregon primary, took the position it should be outlawed. It was a turning point, because thats also the same year that al is introduced to the American People. Dewey has to figure out how to handle the issue. Were going to get to that debate later here coming up, but first, i want to show our viewers what dewey had to say on communists in 1948. And well get your reaction to this. The communists here in our midst. Some people jeer at the problem, calling it a red herring. 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 cloak of immunity they want. If we outlaw them, we give them the martyrdom they want even r more. We will, in the government we get next january, we will keep informed and we will keep the American People informed where they are, who they are, and what theyre up to. Richard . Thats classic dewey. Some would say setting up the straw man for the left and right and kafbing icarving up the mi himself. Thats very much what his approach was. It raises the fascinating prospect under the what if, had dewey been elected in 1948, that we would have never heard joe mccarthy. Senator mccarthy, who was in many ways, a product of republican frustration over losing an election they thought was a sure thing. Tom was a political boss among other things. He controlled the Republican Party in the state. He would have controlled the Republican Party nationally and i can tell you, he never would have allowed joe mccarthy to rear his head. Internationally, whats going on in 48 . Were well into the cold war. Dewey is in support of the m marshall plan. Truman had reorganized the war department, the defense department, created the Central Intelligence agency. To some degree had put americas economy on a cold war footing. Dewey is supportive of all that. If anything, he believes that we need to spend more money on our defenses. He also thinks that we have neglected conservative forces, for example, Charles De Gaulle in france, who is out of power at this point but who is seen as a bulwark against communism in france. Dewey think that is a creative american diplomacy could put people like that to good use. How does he differ from the other prominent republicans in the party at the time and who are they . Bob taft. Mr. Republican from ohio. Its fair to say was the campaign of the isolationist wing of the Republican Party. That is to say the wing profoundly suspicious of international organizations, like the u. N. Suspicious of later on, the korean war. Suspicious of projecting American Military power around the world. As opposed to building up american defenses here at home. Former president Herbert Hoover would simply have been in that camp, as well. Dewey has morphed. As a young man, he had been a quasi isolationist. And one of the interesting things is to watch him become, in fact, a committed internationalist. And a champion of bipartisan Foreign Policy. Given that, what is the impact of that attitude on all of his president ial bids . He runs in 40, 44, 48. I