8. One of Franklin Roosevelt’s leading cabinet members, serving for one term as his Vice President, Henry Wallace sought to challenge Truman’s ascendancy in the Democratic Party in the 1948 election
Serving as Secretary of Agriculture, Vice President, and Secretary of Commerce between 1933 and 1946, Henry Agard Wallace was one of the most prominent individuals of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency. Strongly supporting the New Deal, Wallace was rewarded in 1940 when, despite the objections of the conservative wing of the Democratic Party, he was elevated to a place on the victorious Roosevelt ticket. Removed in favor of Harry Truman for the 1944 election, Wallace initially continued to serve following the death of Roosevelt in April 1945. However, in September 1946 Truman fired the longstanding rival for delivering a speech urging conciliatory policies towards the Soviet Union.
Refusing to submit, Wallace and his supporters launched a breakaway party – the Progressive Party – to challenge the Democrats in the 1948 election. Nominating Wallace as their candidate, his campaign was plagued by allegations of communist sympathies and extreme left beliefs. Receiving just 2.4 percent of the popular vote, failing to either defeat or ensure the loss of his replacement, Wallace broke with the Progressives in favor of the Korean War in 1950. Publishing Where I Was Wrong in 1952, Wallace acknowledged his earlier foolhardiness and declared the Soviet Union to be “utterly evil”.