Henry A. Wallace

vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945

Henry A. Wallace was an influential American politician who served as Vice President, Secretary of Agriculture, and Secretary of Commerce. He was a progressive thinker who supported the New Deal and advocated for policies like racial equality and a national health insurance program. Despite his later controversies, Wallace’s legacy as an innovator and champion of the common people endures.

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About the Henry A. Wallace

Henry Agard Wallacewas an American politician, journalist, farmer, and businessman who served as the 33rd vice president of the United States, from 1941 to 1945, under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He served as the 11th U.S. secretary of agriculture and the 10th U.S. secretary of commerce. He was the nominee of the new Progressive Party in the 1948 presidential election.

The oldest son of Henry C. Wallace, who served as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture from 1921 to 1924, Henry A. Wallace was born in rural Iowa in 1888. After graduating from Iowa State University in 1910, he worked as a writer and editor for his family’s farm journal, Wallaces’ Farmer. He also founded the Hi-Bred Corn Company, a hybrid corn company that became extremely successful. Wallace displayed intellectual curiosity about a wide array of subjects, including statistics and economics, and explored various religious and spiritual movements, including Theosophy. After his father’s death in 1924, Wallace drifted away from the Republican Party; he supported Democratic nominee Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential election.

Wallace served as Secretary of Agriculture under Roosevelt from 1933 to 1940. He strongly supported the New Deal and presided over a major shift in federal agricultural policy, implementing measures designed to curtail agricultural surpluses and to ameliorate rural poverty. Roosevelt overcame strong opposition from conservative leaders in the Democratic Party and had Wallace nominated for vice president at the 1940 Democratic National Convention. The Roosevelt-Wallace ticket won the 1940 presidential election. At the 1944 Democratic National Convention, conservative party leaders defeated Wallace’s bid for renomination, placing Missouri Senator Harry S. Truman on the Democratic ticket instead. In early 1945, Roosevelt appointed Wallace as Secretary of Commerce.

Roosevelt died in April 1945 and Truman succeeded him as president. Wallace continued to serve as Secretary of Commerce until September 1946, when he was fired by Truman for delivering a speech urging conciliatory policies toward the Soviet Union. Wallace and his supporters then established the nationwide Progressive Party and launched a third-party campaign for president. The Progressive platform called for conciliatory policies toward the USSR, desegregation of public schools, racial and gender equality, a national health-insurance program, and other left-wing policies. Accusations of communist influence followed, and Wallace’s association with controversial Theosophist figure Nicholas Roerich undermined his campaign; he received just 2.4% of the popular vote. Wallace broke with the Progressive Party in 1950 over the Korean War, and in a 1952 article he called the Soviet Union “utterly evil”. Turning his attention back to agricultural innovation, he became a highly successful businessman. He specialized in developing and marketing hybrid seed corn and improved chickens before his death in 1965 of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Frequently Asked Questions

Henry A. Wallace served as the 33rd Vice President of the United States from 1941 to 1945, as well as the 11th U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and the 10th U.S. Secretary of Commerce.

Henry A. Wallace was born in rural Iowa in 1888. He graduated from Iowa State University in 1910 and went on to work as a writer and editor for his family’s farm journal, Wallaces’ Farmer. He also founded the successful Hi-Bred Corn Company.

As Secretary of Agriculture under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Henry A. Wallace implemented measures to curtail agricultural surpluses and ameliorate rural poverty, overseeing a major shift in federal agricultural policy.

As the Progressive Party’s presidential nominee in 1948, Henry A. Wallace advocated for conciliatory policies toward the Soviet Union, desegregation of public schools, racial and gender equality, and a national health-insurance program.

After being fired as Secretary of Commerce by President Truman in 1946, Henry A. Wallace launched a third-party presidential campaign on the Progressive Party ticket, but his campaign was plagued by accusations of communist influence and he received just 2.4% of the popular vote.

In his later years, Henry A. Wallace turned his attention back to agricultural innovation, becoming a highly successful businessman specializing in developing and marketing hybrid seed corn and improved chickens. He died in 1965 of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Henry A. Wallace was an influential and progressive-minded politician who played a key role in shaping federal agricultural policy and the New Deal under President Roosevelt, and later advocated for left-wing policies as the Progressive Party’s presidential nominee.

31 Quotes by Henry A. Wallace

  1. 1.

    They are patriotic in time of war because it is to their interest to be so, but in time of peace they follow power and the dollar wherever they may lead.

    Henry A. Wallace

    vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945

  2. 2.

    Our chemical and other manufacturing concerns are all too often ready to let the Germans have Latin American markets, provided the American companies can work out an arrangement which will enable them to charge high prices to the consumer inside the United States.

    Henry A. Wallace

    vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945

  3. 3.

    Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.

    Henry A. Wallace

    vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945

  4. 4.

    The worldwide, agelong struggle between fascism and democracy will not stop when the fighting ends in Germany and Japan.

    Henry A. Wallace

    vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945

  5. 5.

    The fascists in most Latin American countries tell the people that the reason their wages will not buy as much in the way of goods is because of Yankee imperialism. The fascists in Latin America learn to speak and act like natives.

    Henry A. Wallace

    vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945

  6. 6.

    There are probably several hundred thousand if we narrow the definition to include only those who in their search for money and power are ruthless and deceitful.

    Henry A. Wallace

    vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945

  7. 7.

    The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism.

    Henry A. Wallace

    vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945

  8. 8.

    The myth of fascist efficiency has deluded many people.

    Henry A. Wallace

    vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945

  9. 9.

    It may be shocking to some people in this country to realize that, without meaning to do so, they hold views in common with Hitler when they preach discrimination against other religious, racial or economic groups.

    Henry A. Wallace

    vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945

  10. 10.

    If this liberal potential is properly channeled, we may expect the area of freedom of the United States to increase. The problem is to spend up our rate of social invention in the service of the welfare of all the people.

    Henry A. Wallace

    vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945

  11. 11.

    The European brand of fascism will probably present its most serious postwar threat to us via Latin America.

    Henry A. Wallace

    vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945

  12. 12.

    Until democracy in effective enthusiastic action fills the vacuum created by the power of modern inventions, we may expect the fascists to increase in power after the war both in the United States and in the world.

    Henry A. Wallace

    vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945

  13. 13.

    A fascist is one whose lust for money or power is combined with such an intensity of intolerance toward those of other races, parties, classes, religions, cultures, regions or nations as to make him ruthless in his use of deceit or violence to attain his ends.

    Henry A. Wallace

    vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945

  14. 14.

    The symptoms of fascist thinking are colored by environment and adapted to immediate circumstances. But always and everywhere they can be identified by their appeal to prejudice and by the desire to play upon the fears and vanities of different groups in order to gain power.

    Henry A. Wallace

    vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945

  15. 15.

    The obvious types of American fascists are dealt with on the air and in the press. These demagogues and stooges are fronts for others. Dangerous as these people may be, they are not so significant as thousands of other people who have never been mentioned.

    Henry A. Wallace

    vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945

  16. 16.

    If we put our trust in the common sense of common men and ‘with malice toward none and charity for all’ go forward on the great adventure of making political, economic and social democracy a practical reality, we shall not fail.

    Henry A. Wallace

    vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945

  17. 17.

    Fascism is a worldwide disease. Its greatest threat to the United States will come after the war, either via Latin America or within the United States itself.

    Henry A. Wallace

    vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945

  18. 18.

    The moral and spiritual aspects of both personal and international relationships have a practical bearing which so-called practical men deny.

    Henry A. Wallace

    vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945

  19. 19.

    A liberal knows that the only certainty in this life is change but believes that the change can be directed toward a constructive end.

    Henry A. Wallace

    vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945

  20. 20.

    Most American fascists are enthusiastically supporting the war effort. They are doing this even in those cases where they hope to have profitable connections with German chemical firms after the war ends.

    Henry A. Wallace

    vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945

  21. 21.

    We must not tolerate oppressive government or industrial oligarchy in the form of monopolies and cartels.

    Henry A. Wallace

    vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945

  22. 22.

    The dangerous American fascist is the man who wants to do in the United States in an American way what Hitler did in Germany in a Prussian way.

    Henry A. Wallace

    vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945

  23. 23.

    If we define an American fascist as one who in case of conflict puts money and power ahead of human beings, then there are undoubtedly several million fascists in the United States.

    Henry A. Wallace

    vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945

  24. 24.

    The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information.

    Henry A. Wallace

    vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945

  25. 25.

    Monopolists who fear competition and who distrust democracy because it stands for equal opportunity would like to secure their position against small and energetic enterprise.

    Henry A. Wallace

    vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945

  26. 26.

    It has been claimed at times that our modern age of technology facilitates dictatorship.

    Henry A. Wallace

    vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945

  27. 27.

    This dullness of vision regarding the importance of the general welfare to the individual is the measure of the failure of our schools and churches to teach the spiritual significance of genuine democracy.

    Henry A. Wallace

    vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945

  28. 28.

    With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power.

    Henry A. Wallace

    vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945

  29. 29.

    In an effort to eliminate the possibility of any rival growing up, some monopolists would sacrifice democracy itself.

    Henry A. Wallace

    vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945

  30. 30.

    It is no coincidence that the growth of modern tyrants has in every case been heralded by the growth of prejudice.

    Henry A. Wallace

    vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945

  31. 31.

    What we must understand is that the industries, processes, and inventions created by modern science can be used either to subjugate or liberate. The choice is up to us.

    Henry A. Wallace

    vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945