Frequently Asked Questions

Why is Wallace a hero of the progressive movement?

Henry A. Wallace was a leading champion of New Deal programs while serving in the Roosevelt Administration, launching many initiatives that remain important to everyday life today. His vision of a society that challenged racism, sexism, poverty, and inequality, among other issues, was remarkable at the highest levels of government.

Why is Wallace controversial today?

A new book, "The World That Wasn't," by conservative commentator Benn Steil, accuses Wallace of being too liberal and naive about relations with the Soviet Union — a carbon copy of the attacks made against Wallace when he ran for President in 1948 as the nominee of the Progressive Party. The overwhelming reaction by Wallace scholars is that the attack lacks context — that all of American government at the time, from FDR down to Truman and the entire intelligence community, craved the Soviet Union's cooperation to win World War II, hoped for the best, and was guilty of "inattention to Communist subversion" (in Steil's words). It ignores Wallace's overwhelmingly positive record as what historian Arthur Schlesinger called "the best Secretary of Agriculture the country has ever had," and dismisses his four years as FDR’s unprecedentedly active wartime Vice President, the leading heir to the New Deal and the second most popular public figure in America.

Conservative columnist George Will took Steil's book a step further, harshly attacking Wallace to argue that President Biden should, like FDR, replace his running mate — without explaining any connection between Vice Presidents Wallace and Harris, or any particular problem with Harris. The article is rebutted here.

Historian Derek Leebaert, author of "Unlikely Heroes: FDR, his four lieutenants, and the world they made," has written an extensive review in American Heritage magazine documenting the errors, omissions, and biases of the Steil book. The review also documents the extensive positive accomplishments of Wallace, both before and during his public life.

What is Wallace's real legacy?

From the book "The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20th Century:"

Wallace opposed the Cold War, the arms race with the Soviet Union, and racial segregation. He was a strong advocate of labor unions, national health insurance, and public works jobs. He would have been, without question, the most radical president in American history.

Wallace had a great passion for "scientific agriculture" and a talent for agricultural research. The Hi-Bred Corn Company he started in 1926 revolutionized American agriculture.

As Secretary of Agriculture, Wallace persuaded the President to support a number of innovative and controversial programs, including crop subsidies, to keep farmers afloat. Wallace was the key advocate for the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, the Rural Electrification Administration, the Soil Conservation Service, the Farm Credit Administration, and school lunch programs. The department sponsored research to combat plant and animal diseases, to locate drought-resistant crops, and to develop hybrid seeds to increase farm productivity.

As a result, the US Department of Agriculture changed from a marginal department into one of the largest agencies, in size and influence, in Washington. Wallace's agency was also widely considered the best-run department in the federal government.

Because the fate of American farming was closely linked to global issues, Wallace was well versed in foreign affairs. In the late 1930's he became alarmed by the rise of fascist dictatorships in Germany, Italy, and Japan. Many midwesterners, including progressives, were still isolationists, but Wallace had become a vigorous internationalist and a strong advocate for "collective security" among the United States and its allies.

During FDR's first two terms, Wallace developed a broad following among farmers, union activists, and progressives. FDR was impressed by Wallace's popularity, his intelligence, and his integrity and believed that they shared a common view of government's role in society, and insisted upon Wallace as his vice presidential running mate in 1940.

As Vice President, Wallace had FDR's ear on a wide variety of issues, and he used that influence to push for policies to help industrial workers and the urban poor as well as farmers. Wallace became the New Deal's evangelist. New York Times columnist James Reston wrote that FDR involved Wallace in so many military and international matters that Wallace had become "the administration's head man on Capitol Hill, its defense chief, economic boss and No.1 post war planner."

In his "Century of the Common Man" speech as Vice President, Wallace defined America's wartime mission as laying the groundwork for a peaceful world of global cooperation, "a fight between a slave world and a free world." He envisioned an end to colonialism, a world in which "no nation will have the God-given right to exploit other nations." Wallace was aiming for a kind of global New Deal. The speech stirred controversy and framed the debate between progressives and conservatives.

In his 1948 presidential run, Wallace believed in what would decades later be called "detente" — finding ways to cooperate with the Soviet Union rather than getting trapped in a spiraling arms race. Most of the ideas for which he was condemned as a radical are now viewed as common sense.

Albert Einstein, in a letter to Wallace following his firing by Truman for urging detente with the Soviet Union rather than an arms race:

"I cannot refrain from expressing to you my high and unconditional admiration for your deep understanding concerning the factual and psychological situation and a far-reaching perception of present American foreign policy. Your courageous intervention deserves the gratitude of all of us who observe the present attitude of our government with grave concern."

Historian Peter Kuznick, co-author of "The Untold History of the United States":

"His hybrid corn feeds half the world. He was the leading antifascist in the New Deal administrations. He says we have to end colonialism, we have to end imperialism, we have to end economic exploitation and monopolies and cartels. We need global full employment. We need to raise the standard of living. The science and technology’s got to be spread around the entire globe. This is an extraordinary vision this man had.

The party bosses hated him, as did the Wall Street people. Wallace said that America’s fascists are those who think Wall Street comes first and the country comes second. The anti-labor people hated him. The people against civil rights hated him. And the people who were against women’s rights hated him. He was the exemplar of everything good that the Democratic Party has ever stood for."

Wall Street Journal, on Wallace's failure to get more than three percent of the vote in the 1948 presidential election:

"What [critics] fail to note is that Mr. Wallace succeeded in having his ideas adopted, except in the field of foreign affairs. From the time that Mr. Wallace announced that he would run for President, Mr. Truman began to suck the wind from Mr. Wallace's sails by coming out for more and more of the Wallace domestic program."

The Untold History of the United States, 2012, by historian Peter Kuznick and filmmaker Oliver Stone:

"[At the time of the 1944 Democratic party convention,] Henry Wallace was probably the second most popular man in America, the people's choice to be [Roosevelt's] running mate.

"The events of the 1944 Democratic convention would change the course of history.

"Truman fired Wallace, and with his departure, the best chance to avert a nuclear arms race was gone."

[Kuznick] "History would have been different. There would definitely have been no atomic bombings in World War Two, and there almost certainly would have been no Cold War."

[Oliver Stone] "There would have been the continuation of the Roosevelt/Stalin working out of things. Vietnam wouldn't have happened."

Most influential Iowan of the 20th Century, according to a 1999 poll by the Des Moines Register.