1948:

The Forty-First Election


When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ran for president in 1944, Harry S Truman was selected to replace Henry A. Wallace as his vice presidential candidate. Many conservative leaders did not like Wallace's liberal views. They believed that Truman would be more appealing to mainstream voters. Roosevelt won the 1944 election, and on January 20, 1945, Truman became the vice president of the United Sates.

On April 12, 1945, President Roosevelt died of a stroke. Truman was then sworn in as president. He had been vice president for only eighty-two days.

World War II had started during Roosevelt's presidency and it was expected to end during his presidency. Obviously it didn't. WWII was coming to an end when Truman became president; he just had to finish it. Victory in Europe seemed certain, and President Truman wanted unconditional surrender by the Germans. On May 8, 1945, he proclaimed Victory-In-Europe Day.

Truman authorized the use of atomic bombs. Military advisers said that using the bombs would spare the lives of half a million American soldiers. On August 6, an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, and on the ninth, a second one was dropped on Nagasaki. On August 14, Japan asked for peace, and officially surrendered on September second.

Truman ran for president in the election of 1948. His only real competitor for the Democratic candidate was General Eisenhower. But Eisenhower removed himself from the race.

Henry A. Wallace was the candidate from the Progressive Party. The Progressive Party was new; it did not support the "cold war." It thought more diplomatic means should be used to deal with Russia.

The three main Republicans to become presidential candidates were Thomas E. Dewey, Robert A. Taft, and Harold E. Stassen. After seeing Dewey's popularity the others dropped out and Dewey got the nomination.

President Truman spoke in a...