The Pittsburgh Press (October 24, 1944)
‘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.”