926 ★ CHAPTER 23 The United States and the Cold War
The Dixiecrat and Wallace Revolts
“I say the time has come,” Humphrey told the Democratic national convention,
“to walk out of the shadow of states’ rights and into the sunlight of human
rights.” Whereupon numerous southern delegates— dubbed Dixiecrats by
the press— walked out of the gathering. They soon formed the States’ Rights
Democratic Party and nominated for president Governor Strom Thurmond of
South Carolina. Although his platform called for the “complete segregation
of the races” and his campaign drew most of its support from those alarmed
by Truman’s civil rights initiatives, Thurmond denied charges of racism. The
real issue of the election, Thurmond insisted, was freedom— the States’ Rights
Democratic Party, he declared, stood for “individual liberty and freedom, the
right of people to govern themselves.” Truman’s plans for extending federal
power into the South to enforce civil rights, Thurmond charged, would “con-
vert America into a Hitler state.”
Also in 1948, a group of left- wing critics of Truman’s foreign policy formed
the Progressive Party and nominated former vice president Henry A. Wallace
for president. Wallace advocated an expansion of social welfare programs at
home and denounced racial segregation even more vigorously than Truman.
When he campaigned in the South, angry white crowds attacked him. But his
real difference with the president concerned the Cold War. Wallace called for
international control of nuclear weapons and a renewed effort to develop a
relationship with the Soviet Union based on economic cooperation rather than
military confrontation. He announced his willingness to accept support from
all Americans who agreed with him, including socialists and communists. The
influence of the now much- reduced Communist Party in Wallace’s campaign
led to an exodus of New Deal liberals and severe attacks on his candidacy. A
vote for Wallace, Truman declared, was in effect a vote for Stalin.
The 1948 Campaign
Wallace threatened to draw votes from Truman on the left, and Thurmond
to undermine the president’s support in the South, where whites had voted
solidly for the Democrats throughout the twentieth century. But Truman’s
main opponent, fortunately for the president, was the colorless Republican
Thomas A. Dewey. Certain of victory and an ineffective speaker and cam-
paigner, Dewey seemed unwilling to commit himself on controversial issues.
His speeches, wrote one hostile newspaper, amounted to nothing more than
clichés: “Agriculture is important. Our rivers are full of fish. You cannot have
freedom without liberty. Our future lies ahead.” Truman, by contrast, ran an
aggressive campaign. He crisscrossed the country by train, delivering fiery