Henry
Wallace then, Bernie Sanders now: history repeated with small
differences
Historian
Peter Kuznick speaks to Paul Jay and The
Real News about perhaps the most progressive
Democrat ever, Henry Wallace, who served as Roosevelt's vice
president from '41 to '45.
Despite
that Wallace was very popular, the Democratic establishment cut his
way to power through a very short coup when he was just about to
become president. As Kuznick says characteristically, "That's
how close we came to a dramatically different history. Five feet.
Five feet and a few seconds."
Kuznick
gives the details about these dramatic moments:
In
'44 the support was for Wallace but Edwin Pauley, the party
treasurer, ran what Pauley called Pauley's Coup, he proudly referred
to it as, in conjunction with Bob Hannegan, the Democratic party
chair. They run an operation. Roosevelt by '44 is very, very weak.
It's clear to everybody that he's not going to last another term. He
was the only one who was in denial really about that.
They
went around saying, for the nomination for vice president they were
saying, "We're not just nominating a vice president. We're
nominating the next President of the United States." They
made all the deals. They tried to keep the progressives, the Wallace
supporters from ever getting access to Roosevelt. They cooked the
convention basically. They stacked the convention with anti-Wallace
delegates.
The
problem was that Wallace was so popular. The night the convention
starts, July 20th, Wallace makes the seconding speech for Roosevelt.
Even though the party bosses had the convention already stacked
and fixed in 1944, like they did in 2016. After Wallace's speech
there's a spontaneous demonstration on the floor. It lasts for about
an hour. Among the leaders are people like Hubert Humphrey and Adlai
Stevenson.
In
the midst of that, Senator Claude Pepper from Florida, nicknamed Red
Pepper because of his progressive views, realized that if he could
get to the microphone and get Wallace's name and nomination that
night, Wallace will sweep the convention, get the nomination for vice
president, defy the bosses, and be back on the ticket.
Pepper
fights his way to the microphone. The party bosses see what's going
on. You've got Mayor Kelly of Chicago, it was in Chicago, screaming,
"It's my convention. This is a fire hazard. Adjourn
immediately." Sam Jackson is chairing it. He said he had
orders to not let Wallace get the nomination and he says, "I've
got a motion to adjourn. All in favor, aye." Maybe 5% say
aye. "All opposed, nay." The rest of the convention
booms out nay. Jackson says, "Motion carried. Meeting
adjourned."
Pepper
was literally five feet from the microphone when that happened.
Oliver Stone and I argue in the Untold History is that had Pepper
gotten five more feet to the microphone and got Wallace's name in
nomination, Wallace would be back on the ticket of vice president. He
would become president on April 12th, 1945 when Roosevelt died,
instead of Truman.
History
would have been different. There definitely would have been no atomic
bombings in World War Two. Wallace becomes the leading opponent of
the atomic bomb. There almost certainly would have been no Cold War
or if there was some contention it would never have taken the
virulent form that it took between the United States and the Soviets
starting in 1945, '46, '47. That's how close we came to a
dramatically different history. Five feet. Five feet and a few
seconds.
The
story resembles today's coup by the Democratic establishment against
Bernie Sanders. Yet, as revealed by the WikiLeaks and, eventually,
Donna Brazile, the coup against Bernie was not just a fight of a few
seconds. It was pre-designed and secretly organized by the
Clinton/Obama wing, or the Corporate Democratic wing that has,
eventually, took over the control of the party.
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