Five Days in Philadelphia: 1940, Wendell Willkie, FDR and the Political Convention That Won World War II

This provides an excellent picture of presidential politics just before our entry into World War II. Somehow, Wendell Willkie rose in the Republican party to challenge a crafty and popular president and although he lost the election he helped to turn the country in the right direction. Roosevelt was concerned with providing aid to Britain, and instituting a draft while we were not at war. Despite the knee-jerk reaction of the Republican leadership, which was dogmatic, myopic, and just plain stupid, Willkie supported the President's foreign policy goals, and his support allowed these measures to be instituted through a reluctant Republican congress. One of the more surprising occurrences then, when looked at from today's political world, was how much conscience mattered. Many of the Democratic politicians were opposed to some part of Roosevelt's program. Some agreed with him on the draft, but did not think he should have a third term, some were in favor of the draft, but not in help to England. Roosevelt embraced all of these people as advisors, and even named a number of Republicans to his cabinet. It is unimaginable that the current President would tolerate different opinions in his political circle. At that time, conscience moved Roosevelt's advisors to say what they believed was in the best interest of the country, not just mouth an official line of thought and conduct. The know-nothings of the Republican leadership, namely Taft and Dewey, would have prevented the draft, and would have forbidden any aid to Britain, and apparently were prepared to negotiate with Germany to keep us out of war. It was miraculous that Willkie, who pretty much agreed with Roosevelt's foreign policy, and who was a businessman, never elected to public office, was able to keep the Republicans from sabotaging Roosevelt's policies. If he had not, one could only imagine the results . . a German takeover of Britain, and an eventual war of survival with the USA, which could very well have led to the end of our society as we know it. The modern Republicans have not changed very much. While there may be an occasional voice for sanity, in foreign and domestic policy, by and large, they follow along the party line seemingly unable to provide independent thought in the interest of the country. Their bringing us to war in Iraq before destroying the Islamists who have attacked us is one instance, and uncontrolled deficits are another, and doing nothing to control dependence on foreign oil is yet another. Where is Willkie when we need him?

The author relies a lot on secondary sources, but he interweaves the account with his memory of the Convention when he was a boy of 13, and this adds a neat twist to the story. One learns things which were never mentioned in those 1940 days, such as that Senator Vandenberg, who was a laid-back candidate for the Republican nomination in 1940, had as his mistress Mitzi Sims, the wife of the British military attache. And that Willkie's mistress had to be out of his life during the campaign and instead for Willkie's wife to ride the campaign train with him--causing said wife to remark: "Politics makes strange bedfellows." The author's thesis, set out as the subtitle of the book, seems to be true. It is amazing that the Convention nominated Willkie, even though he was a Democrat till 1939 and had attended the Democratic Conventions in 1924 and 1932. But it is fascinating to read this popular account of the good old days when a national political convention had meaning and excitement.

Charles Peters's "Five Days in Philadelphia" is an incisive work that combines the best of narrative history alongside a defining moment explaining America at a critical crossroad. This defining moment occurred in Philadelphia at the 1940 Republican National Convention. Its repercussions reverberated throughout Europe as well as the rest of the world. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who had anticipated continuing the American tradition of presidents not seeking third terms, decided to shatter that precedent and, in effect, unwritten law by running in 1940. The reason was increasingly darkening European clouds as the forces of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich focused on completing domination that Roosevelt and his advisers were concerned would soon threaten America as well. As Hitler talked about a Third Reich that would endure for one thousand years Roosevelt planned a reelection campaign buttressed around America allying itself with Winston Churchill and a besieged England along with further perpetuating the New Deal. Two prominent Republican Senators, Robert Taft of Ohio and Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan, along with youthful district attorney Thomas E. Dewey from New York, vied for their party's nomination at the Philadelphia convention. They adhered to traditional Republican isolationist views that alarmed Roosevelt and his brain trust. Into the mix, in a manner reminiscent of a Frank Capra movie, came the man they then called the "barefoot lawyer" from Indiana, Wendell Willkie, who became the wild card of the proceedings. Willkie was a prominent corporate attorney then living in Ohio who had been an early New Deal supporter of Roosevelt's before breaking with him on anti-trust policies. Delegates looking for a fresh face and a contrast from the presented archetypal image of a Republican old guard bent on opposition and mired deeply in the past liked what they saw in the folksy Indianan with Horatio Alger roots. In the classic historical American example of a genuine draft, the outsider and, until recently, Roosevelt Democrat took the convention by storm as delegates and gallery onlookers sustained a steady chant of "We want Willkie!" When the political novice won the nomination the question emerged as to where Willkie stood on foreign affairs. To the relief of Roosevelt and the Democratic Party Willkie embraced an active policy of assisting England and the European allies, rejecting an isolationist contrasting approach. With the campaign assuming a bipartisanship in the field of foreign policy the conflict was focused on economic policy as both nominees assumed a staunch anti-Hitler stance. The repercussions of Willkie's strong pro-Europe stance affected the conflict abroad. America became more unified than ever concerning the European theater of war. The stiffened resistance and effective unity enabled America to move forward in resisting Hitler without the numerous difficulties that would have otherwise abounded in a nation wherein

The 1940 Presidential election was one of the more interesting and more important elections in US history. It was a time when the bulk of the American public was strongly isolationism, while a world view of Germany and Japan called for cooperation with the rest of the world to stop them. It was a time of a calm before the storm as Pearl Harbor was only about a year away. With that incident, the mood of the country changed immediately to make America ready to go to war. It was a time when FDR was running for a third time. Something that had never happened before and which later was made impossible by the twenty-second amendment. (The 1940 Republican platform called for a two term limit.) It was a time when foreign intelligence services were active in trying to influence the American political system. The Germans were running isolationist advertisments in newspapers, ostensively being placed there by isolationist politicians. The British intelligence service was active including supplying a mistress to the leading Republican candidate. (The subject of foreign intelligence activities in the election of 1940 would make a good book in its own right, it's just touched on here.) As a forerunner of things to come, the Republican platform called for an end to discrimination against the Negros in the military, the civil service, and all areas of Government. This subject was to wait a long time before the Democrats made it their own issue. Philip Roth's novel 'The Plot Against America' imagined what would have happened if an isolationist Republican president had been elected over FDR. Now this book does an excellent job examining another aspect of the election. There is a lot yet to be learned about this pivotal election.

Political mavens will recall Zell Miller's praise for Wendell Willkie at last summer's Republican Convention. Charles Peters provides the back story on Willkie's principled support for FDR's wartime initiatives during the 1940 election season. Peters recounts how Willkie - the only internationalist in a field of avowed isolationists -- wrested the Republican nod from the grip of Dewey, Taft and Vandenberg, each of whom was implacably opposed to providing material assistance to the Allies as the Nazi juggernaut marched across Europe. France's astonishing capitulation the day before the Convention opened was the biggest factor, Peters avers, in galvanizing popular and delegate support behind Willkie - though it took six ballots to put him over the top. He also details the role of the Luce media empire and a sympathetic press generally, Wall Street and Eastern Establishment interests, and a grassroots campaign orchestrated by Elihu Root's (former Sec of State) grandson played in advancing Willkie's Darkhorse candidacy. We also see the always-politically-dexterous FDR orchestrating a putative "draft" at the Democratic convention in Chicago, thereby sparing himself the indignity of having to actively seek an unprecedented third term. The nip-and-tuck struggle to add Henry Wallace to the ticket as VP is also recalled in fascinating detail. (Wallace's principal opponent was the father of actress Tallulah Bankhead, then the Speaker of the House, who would be dead less than 60 days after the convention.) Confronting FDR as he secured re-nomination were two politically treacherous issues borne out of the hostilities in Europe: whether to provide England with 50 WWI vintage destroyers for its desperately depleted fleet, and whether to institute a military draft, the first for the U.S. in peacetime. Wilkie's support for universal conscription was unflagging throughout the campaign, pretty remarkable considering the fervent, visceral opposition this issue engendered among Republican regulars, not to mention legions of concerned American mothers. (Remember at this time, Pearl Harbor was still over a year away and isolationist sentiment was in the majority.) On FDR's exchange of the aged destroyers for U.S. basing rights in the Caribbean - a sound bargain for Uncle Sam - Willkie did not gainsay the decision. But he did loudly excoriate FDR's decision to end-run Congress (bipartisan opposition assured the plan' defeat) and implement it by executive order. After the hard-fought election, Willkie was an ardent supporter of FDR's Lend-Lease initiative, his Congressional testimony credited with providing the margin of difference. "Five Days in Philadelphia" is an interesting look at how the loyal opposition should behave in wartime - an engaging, illuminating and all-around terrific read.