Election 1944: Truman assails GOP ‘isolationists’ (10-23-44)

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The Pittsburgh Press (October 23, 1944)

americavotes1944

Truman assails GOP ‘isolationists’

Names of nine Senators listed

Minneapolis, Minnesota (UP) –
Senator Harry S. Truman, Democratic vice-presidential candidate, calling on Governor Thomas E. Dewey to repudiate isolationist nominees, accused the Republicans today of adopting a “rule-or-ruin” policy on peace plans in an attempt to “blackjack” the voters into electing a President satisfactory to the isolationists.

Senator Truman told his audience at a luncheon attended by Minnesota Democratic chairmen and party leaders that “Mr. John Foster Dulles, the America Firster whom Mr. Dewey selected to represent him in foreign affairs, had the audacity to tell you that if you reelected the President, the Republican members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee probably would not support a world peace program drawn up by him.”

He said:

But Mr. Dewey stopped there and went no further. Despite his admission that agreement was essential, he did nothing to discourage his isolationist supporters or to prevent the election to Congress of candidates who Mr. Dewey knows would thwart any attempt which he might make to support the President’s program, to which Mr. Dewey recently became converted.

Senator Truman said the Democratic Party acted in the primaries to “cleanse itself” of isolationists but that the Republicans had renominated them. he listed as isolationists these nine Republican Senators seeking reelection this year: Gerald P. Nye (R-ND), Robert A. Taft (R-OH), Charles Tobey (R-NH), Hiram Johnson (R-CA), James Davis (R-PA), John Danaher (R-CT), Clyde Reed (R-KS), Alexander Wiley (R-WI) and Eugene Millikin (R-CO).

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The Pittsburgh Press (October 24, 1944)

americavotes1944

‘Denounce isolationists,’ Truman challenges Dewey

GOP nominee dared to call for a Senate backing strong foreign policy

Minneapolis, Minnesota (UP) –
Senator Harry S. Truman, Democratic nominee for Vice President, challenged Governor Thomas E. Dewey last night to call for the defeat of eight Republican “isolationist” Senators and for the election of a Senate to support a “strong foreign policy.”

He made the challenge in a statement issued a few hours after making a similar demand in a luncheon address in which he charged Republican Senators had adopted a “rule-or-ruin” policy in an “attempt to blackjack the American people” into electing a President satisfactory to isolationists.

Mr. Truman’s statement said that foreign affairs were “universally recognized to be the most important issue in this election.”

Mr. Truman noted that Governor Dewey would be here today and said he should answer the question then, but “at all events, in view of the nearness of the election, I call upon Mr. Dewey to give his answer to the American people promptly.”

Senator Truman named the eight Republican Senators as Gerald P. Nye (R-ND), Robert A. Taft (R-OH), Clyde M. Reed (R-KS), Charles W. Tobey (R-NH), James J. Davis (R-PA), Alexander Wiley (R-WI), Eugene D. Millikin (R-CO) and John A. Danaher (R-CT).

The candidate said Governor Dewey was trying to follow the tactics of the late President Harding by “carrying water on both shoulders.” The Democratic Party acted to “cleanse itself” of isolationists in the primaries, Mr. Truman said, “but the Republicans renominated theirs.”