Our Almost President 

Book review by Janie Cheaney

     It was 1944 and WW II was still raging. Frankin D. Roosevelt was running for his fourth term, knowing he likely wouldn't survive four more years. His vice president, Henry Wallace, could be the next leader of our nation.

     "Delegates to the convention chanted 'We Want Wallace' - to replace FDR. There was an abrupt close to the proceedings. After a night of politicking, Harry Truman won on the second ballot, to be vice president." 

     "Left-wing historians and activists were deeply disappointed." (Communism was growing in Democratic circles since the 1930s, when Marxists fled Hitler's Germany and settled in the U.S. Their offspring are active in Democratic think tanks today. - Jimmy)

     "Henry Wallace had no interest in politics at first. But enthusiastic support for the New Deal led to an appointment as secretary of agriculture. Though raised a Presbyterian, he came to mock 'the wishy goody-goodliness and infantile irrelevancy' of Christian orthodoxy."   

     Instead, "he settled on Soviet-style communism as a path to peace and unity. Though never a communist himself, he made friends with party members." 

Conclusion tomorrow