of the one who is the god of and sky and sea. we pray this in your sovereign name. amen. ladies and gentlemen concludes the ceremony. thank for joining us today. the first news i received was bad going over to excelsior springs. gone upstairs to to rest that the secret service men would come in and tell me when everything came over the radio it out here. and it said that dewey had carried new york and that the

election generally all over the country was bad. and so i went to bed and let's sleep. and as i said a while ago, as soon as i woke up, i found out that i had won the election. and so i called in the secret service man. and i said to jim riley, who's in charge of it? and chris said, let's go back over to independence. looks like we're this is at 4:00, moore said. it looks like in trouble for another four years. and we we'd won the election. and that was president harry truman in 1948, recalling one of the greatest political upsets in american history, his own election to a full four year term over. new york republican governor thomas dewey. thanks for joining us for our american history tv series, historic presidential elections. during this election season, we're looking at past presidential races. and this week, it's the election

of 1948. our guest is andrew busch universe city of tennessee, civics professor, associate director of the institute, american civics at the university of tennessee and the author of this book, truman's triumphs the 1948 election and the making of postwar america. here are the election results from 1948. president truman. got 49.5% of the vote, 24 million votes with hundred and three electoral votes. he won 28 states. thomas dewey. 45.1% of the vote. 22 million votes. 189 electoral votes. he won 16 states. there were other candidates in the race. we'll talk about them in a minute. but first of all, professor bush, was it a political shock that harry truman got elected? it was a political shock to pretty much.

but harry truman. what's interesting is that in january of 1948, he actually a slight lead over dewey, according to the gallup poll. but by the summer that had really evaporated. dewey was ahead at least 11 points, according to polls. he retained that sort of lead. pollsters stopped polling and in early october over, newsweek magazine asked 50 top political experts who they thought was going to win presidential election. all 50 of them, said dewey. and right before the election, betting houses were giving 15 to 1 odds on dewey. truman, on the other hand, told some of his friends that he thought he could get as many as 340 electoral votes the weekend before the election. so he didn't quite make that, but he did win. he was not surprised, but pretty much everybody else was. it was it really that close

either? was it? it wasn't that close. no, it was in the electoral college. you know, he he substantially surpassed what he needed. he needed. 266 electoral votes in 1948. and he wound up with 303. and on the other hand, there were a lot of really important states that ohio, illinois that were very, very close wins for him. so in in some ways it was closer than it have appeared, just on paper. professor bush, what were some of the issues that were discussed in the campaign and? how did thomas dewey and harry truman deliver that? well, so one of the important issues was foreign policy. harry truman of course, had put place the policy of containment.

well, as the marshall plan. and, you know, this included aid to greece and turkey, things of sort. thomas dewey actually was in favor of those things. the real fight over containment among republicans came in the republican primaries, not in the general election, but henry, who was one of the third party candidate, was really focused on foreign policy. he was running basically because he disagreed with containment and was highly critical of it. so he was trying to hurt truman and it did not succeed. but foreign policy was something that they talked about a fair amount. it certainly was on a of people's minds. there were issues, you know, in the economy, as always. but we were out of the depression. a lot of people were wondering long that would last whether we might wind up back in the

depression. but we were actually grappling with inflation for the first time in 25 years, as well as all the issues around demobilization of, you know, 50 million servicemen at the end of the war. how do you get those folks jobs? how do you get them housing and things like that? so those were some of the issues civil rights, a big issue for truman. it was something that he emphasized earlier in the year, some presidential actions and he he talked about that. so those were all issues that that arose. truman, was you know, he wasn't really behind because of the issues that much, although he stirred up his base by with some policy decisions and some policy stands were actually not broadly popular but really motivated.

his base like civil rights and. supportive of unions. so union activity was was an issue. do we really try to take what they call the high level approach? he assumed that he was going to win. the people around him assumed he was to win. and so he didn't criticize truman as heavily as as he might have. he tried to retain national unity by not attacking truman all that much. wound up not being a very good strategy. truman, on the other hand, was very much on the attack and not just aacd dewey by the congress. the republican 80th congress that had been elected the 1946 midterms. so he made a big deal out of. some of the differences in opinion between the republicans

in congress and dewey tried to kind of drive a wedge between them so was what was going on in that election. it was, you know, from dewey standpoint, not not primarily an issues election. well, let's give you a snapshot shot of what america was like in 1948. the president, of course, was harry truman. he finishing franklin roosevelt's fourth term. the population about 147 million. that's compared to about 330 million today. so less than half. there were 48 states. the cold war was ongoing. the marshall plan was in motion. there was a postwar recession as professor bush. the country was getting out of that and desegregation of the u.s. military had just occurred in july in a macro sense. professor bush, what was what was it like to live in america

at that time? well, it was a it was a new world. it was, you know, seemed to be full of a lot of possibilities. but it was also scary. right. in you know, in international events, we had entered the nuclear age. the soviets had not quite the bomb themselves, but the nuclear age was upon us. the united states was in a very historically unfamiliar position of being a major power in the world that that was now fully engaged in the world, in peacetime. we were providing foreign aid, you know, for the first time really to foreign countries. we were starting to build relationships that would turn into. naito was not quite a reality, but you could see it on the horizon.

the soviets won march in eastern europe. mao zedong was on the march in china and so there there was a lot of concern about where the world was headed at home. as i mentioned, we you know, were out of the depression. we were trying to figure out where to go next to the economy, whether the government should take a much greater role on a permanent basis or not. civil rights was percolating as a bigger issue than it had been for r ny years. and political coalition of the past were tottering a bit. the black vote had already shifted, or the democrats under franklin roosevelt by was still

kind of up for grabs certain respects. they were seen as a bloc that uld go in either direction. the south was starting to splinter and, you know, republicans were making inroads. even herbert hoover in 1928 had won a few states in the upper stop the peripheral south, not the deep south, but there were questions about where the south was going to go. so lots of uncertainty, you know, world war two was a gigantic event. and when we came out of that, it was, you know, a year just following the gigantic event of the great depression. and when we came out of all of that, people were really trying to get their bearings. and, of course, harry truman had been president since april of 1945. he was born in 1884 in lamar,

missouri. he did not attend college. he worked a farmer, worked on his family farm in missouri. in world war one, he served as a field artillery officer and saw combat. he was a he owned a clothing store in kansas city. and he was a judge in jackson county, missouri. he was a u.s. senator from 1935 to 1945, of course, became vice president in january of 1945 under fdr, and he became president in april of 1945, less than months after being vice president was the country to harry truman as their president. by 1948, they were starting to get their bite. i would say substantially now. you you know, he had been a pretty well known senator prior to becoming vice president.

he had run some important hearings committee hearings on. some problems in the war industries, some corruption in the in the streets. so he made a name himself that way, but he really wasn't that well known. and his vice president, as you pointed out, he was only vice president for a few months and did not know about the manhattan project. yeah. so he he was not what people were used to. they were, of course, very by that point to, franklin roosevelt, who had been president for 12 years. he was, you know, very debonair, very articulate, smooth smooth, you know, from you know, from wealth in the east.

a very different, very different kind of than harry truman. and so a lot of people all saw him as not filling roosevelt's. republicans made big gains and 1946 in the midterm elections and senator fulbright from arkansas, who was a democrat, also suggested that harry truman should appoint arthur vanden bergh as secretary of state and then resign the presidency. so as to make vandenberg, who was a republic, head the president that was coming from some people in his own party, even right up to the convention in 1948, there were democrats were hoping that there could be a draft of dwight eisenhower to supplant harry truman.

so even his own party was not fully on board with him. there splits that, you know, we saw with the two third party candidates who were both democrat who split off to run separately. so i would say people were starting to get used to him, but but he was not, you know, as of, let's say, even made 1948. he wasn't really fully accepted. i think as as president by many. well, his opponent, thomas, was governor of new york. from 1943 to 1954. he had lost the. 1944 presidential action to fdr. born in 1902 in michigan. then went to the university of michigan and columbia law school d.a. in new york for years. what was thomas best known for? well, he had been district attorney in new york, where he had really gone after the mob

and had actually 72 convictions out of 73 trials. so he was quite successful at pursuing the mob. he translated that into being governor of of new york. he was really pretty clearly part of the kind of eastern war liberal wing of the republican party. so he supported some civil rights measures in new york. he supported more spending on education in new york. he was an internationalist when it came foreign policy and his main advisor on foreign policy was john foster dulles, who would later become president eisenhower's secretary of state. so when he ran against fdr in 1944, he did better than any other candidate as everyone knows, fdr won four terms. well, the toughest one of all of

them was 1944, where dewey held him to 53% of the vote. so a lot of at that time gave an indication, including a lot of servicemen overseas, that they would be very happy to support dewey in 1948. they just couldn't do it when we were in the middle of a world war. so he you know, even though he lost it was a good launching pad for him. and he was from a state that, you know, in 1948 was something of a swing state, kind of hard to believe. but new york, a state in those days that could go either way. and that was a plus for dewey. well. it's also known about kind of a lighter note. he was known for his mustache, which his advisers told him to cut off, but he refused to do it

because he he kind of liked and his his wife, frances, really liked it. and so he he kept the mustache. sometimes he was compared to the the the little man on the top of the wedding cake, the little statues that they were put wedding cakes so that the guy with the mustache, he and no presidential nominee of a major party sense then has had facial hair. andrew busch what were the primaries like on, the republican side? well, on the republican side you have dewey of course. you had robert taft who was the senator? a senator from ohio, more conservative, sometimes called mr. republican. he was actually the eldest son of president william howard taft. and so he he was a major figure

in the party. he was also running. and then you have harold stassen, who was young. he was a relatively new governor of minnesota. he was probably the most liberal them. and very much an internationalist except that he he wanted to outlaw the communist party in the united states. that becomes important a little bit later. but those were the three major candidates there was some talk of douglas macarthur. and in fact, he he ran in one of the primaries in wisconsin, which he claimed to as his home state, because he had spent some time there as a young man, as a child. but he was in japan doing occupation duty, the occupation. never traveled back to the united states, really, to campaign vigorously and did not

do well in that one primary. earl warren was then the governor, a california, and he he had aspirations be president as well. but he also did not want to run a campaign back in those days. you could conceivably do. he ran as a favorite son candidate in california and, won. so he came to the convention, a bunch of delegates from california. but that was about it. and arthur vandenberg, the republican senator from from michigan, who was fairly conservative on economic issues by and and have been a strong isolationist. a strong isolationist before pearl harbor. really made a turn around and became a much more of an internationalist and was harry truman's point pushing the marshall plan through the

senate. so he ran in a few primaries, but also did not run really vigorously. his name was kind of put forward. he hoped that there would be a deadlock at the convention and he might be a compromise candidate from the convention. so there weren't very many primaries that were really contested in new hampshire. stassen and dewey ran against each other. dewey came out top in wisconsin, stassen won the big news there was that macarthur did not do and kind of fell out of the picture picture and decided to challenge taft in ohio and lost which did not help his cause, but also, taft did not win as decisively as thought he should. so it kind of hurt them both. and then there was a big, big

primary in oregon that really came down to and stassen. qassam into it as the front runner in the race. at that point, it was the last really major contested primary and there was a radio debate, a nationally broadcast radio debate between dewey and staff then and the sole subject was whether the communist party should be banned. stassen continued to say yes, dewey said no. he was the anti-communist as they came, but he he thought it would be doing violence to the constitution to to to ban communist party. he seemed to come out ahead in the in the debate. he won oregon. and so he went into the convention with with some momentum. well, here is a portion of thomas dewey acceptance speech at the gop convention in philadelphia in 1948. there's been contention spirited disagreement, and i believe

considerable arguments. but don't let anybody be misled that. you have given here in this hall a moving and dramatic proof of how americans who honestly differ close ranks and move forward for the nation's well-being shoulder, shoulder. let me assure that beginning next january 20, there will be teamwork in the government. the united states of america, when these rights are secure in this world, ours, the permanent ideals of the republican party shall have been realized.

the ideals of the american people are the ideals of the republican party. we have and in these days which preceded us in philadelphia, lighted a beacon in this cradle of our own independence as a great america. we've lighted a beacon to give eternal hope that men may live in liberty, where the human dignity and before god and loving him stand erect and free. and that was thomas dewey accepting his party's nomination in 1948. our guest is andrew bush. the university of tennessee, a civics professor there, and the author of this book, truman's triumphs the 1948 election and the making of postwar war

america. professor bush, what were some of the key points of the gop platform. in 48? well, the the the foreign policy platform was was more internationalist. it was in line with with dewey's thinking, to a degree, athens thinking, vandenberg's thinking the domestic part was influenced by taft more than the foreign policy. but it it also made some commitments that dewey liked, but that the congress might the more conservative republicans in congress, did not necessarily like on this place persons on different federal programs and and things of that sort. so it was you could say maybe somewhat more than dewey's

preferences, but less conservative than the congress is. the republican perspective and. so it was not it was not a repudiation of the of the new deal by, an attempt to refine it. you could say, and this caused them some issues later when harry truman, in a sense, called their bluff and challenged congress to pass some of the measures in the republican platform. so that was by, you know, the when it came out of the convention was agreed to by all. dewey stassen and taft all signed off on it. they were they were okay with it. so there was a kind of unity platform among the presidential

contenders, as did harold stassen and robert taft campaigned for thomas dewey in the general or i believe stassen did a bit. taft wasn't really asked to. in fact. dewey made an important campaign swing through ohio in the late in late 1948 and october of 1948. and did not ask have to be with him, which was a bit of a snub for the, you know, senator from from ohio. so he did not play a major role. but that was it's not totally clear how much of that was his decision, but clearly at least some of it was dewey's preference. professor bush, is it fair to say that thomas dewey had an easier path to the nomination than harry truman did on the democratic side.

you know, i don't i don't think i would say that actually because truman didn't really have significant opponent in the primary. he had these portions of his party that were flaking off and running as third parties. but the nomination itself wound up being not not as difficult as it might have been. you know, if some of those folks who had hung around the. the the problem that he had or the potential problem that he had wasn't really the other democrats. it was from or like from other democratic candidates running against him in the primaries. it was the the past deck that was hanging over the picture that disaffected democrats wind up succeeding in drafting. dwight eisenhower now eisenhower then were republicans were

trying to draft him, too. they wanted him to run in the new primary and he closed the door on that. democrats did not give up. there were, you know, some of the three of franklin roosevelt's sons were involved in trying to draft eisenhower, the american for democratic action was, you know, at times trying to to work on an eisenhower. he kept trying to slam the door and they wouldn't listen to him. and finally, the week before the convention, he said, absolutely under no circumstances they were trying accept a nomination for president. and that was when truman was was out of danger. but it wasn't really from anything that happened in the primaries. so the 1948 democratic convention, some fireworks there? yes, absolutely. fireworks the the big fireworks had to do with the platform and

big the big platform issue that ignited the fireworks was civil rights. now, in 1944, there had been a platform plank that had everyone had been able to agree to the south had sort of agreed to it. and the for the most part had agreed to it. and the liberals in the party had agreed to it, and it committed the party to advancing saying human rights for all of our citizens. but it was a little vague and it didn't really satisfy anyone. 1948, the lines had been drawn on that issue much more clearly. and so there were three different attempts by southern delegates to to offer an alternative platform plank to the one that the platform committee had approved, which was similar in 1944. and those platform planks that the southerners proposed would

not have really discussed, human rights they would not have discussed civil rights for most part, they would have just emphasized states rights in one way or another. all three of those are lost. and then the liberals had their turn and hubert, who was a major player in the americans for democratic action and also was mayor of minneapolis at that time, offered a an alternative plan that would actually specifically and explicitly harry truman's civil rights proposal that he had made. and the actions that he had taken for desegregation of the military and so humphrey came up, gave a very impassioned speech, said that it was time for the democratic party to move out from the shadow of states into the therit sunlight of human rights. and this alternative cil

rights plank prevailed by a wide margin. now, at that time, some of the southern delegates wanted to walk out, but the chairman of the convention would not recognize that because he kind of knew what was up, but so they weren't able to do it then. but there was a recess and after the recess there was the roll call of state to to to nominate a presidential candidate and alabama was the first state. and they used that opportunity to initiate the walkout. so about half of the alabama delegation walked out of the convention and protest of the civil rights plank. the entire mississippi delegation joined them. it was quite a scene. they apparently on different

occasions during the run up to this, had offered the the director of the orchestra back in those days conventions had orchestras that would play music for the convention had was offered substantial sums of twice to play dixie. when the when the walkout and he refused to do it because he had been given very strict instructions by the campaign manager of the convention and managers not to do that. so they walked out to no dixie, but they were the only ones who walked out. so it a big moment. it was very dramatic moment. the rest of the southern delegates stayed where they were in. most of them wound up voting for richard russell from from georgia, senator from georgia. he was opposed to the civil rights planks, the civil rights plank that was adopted as well. but he was more inclined to stay in the democratic and work from

within. so his name was put in the nomination and he was really the only significant opponent to the truman at the convention. and he lost badly by about 5 to 1, roughly. so that was that was the big story of the convention. so strom thurmond, south carolina. at that time, he was a democrat and he was governor of south carolina. correct. or was he senator by then? that is correct. now, he was he was governor of south carolina at that point. and later, of course, a long time republican senator. but what was his role in the convention? he did not really have a significant role in the convention yet. but what happened was the the democratic governors had met right after harry truman had proposed civil rights plan in

early 1948. and they had drafted a report on the kind of the condition of the south, what south should do in, this new situation. and thurmond was selected to to draft it. so he did that and it came to the forefront of attention then and after the convention then the democratic convention the folks who thought that there should be a third party effort held a convention in birmingham just a week or two later. birmingham alabama. so thurmond was there. there were other governors, a few other governors there. it did not get the support that a lot of the folks there hoped that it would from democrats in elected positions in the south. but thurmond was one of the ones who was there, the organizers had really hoped that governor

laney, arkansas, would take their nominee he was he had been around longer. he was better known. thurmond but he came to birmingham and then kind of chickened out. he never never left his hotel suite from the time he got. and thurmond was there. and they you know, he flew in and they met him at the airport. and basically told him he had about an hour or two to decide whether he to be the presidential nominee. and so he agreed to do it. now, thurmond was an interesting character because he he was, of course, as a south carolina democratic politician, pro segregation. he couldn't really be otherwise. but by the standards of the time was something of a racial moderate. he actually had supported

abolition of the poll tax and supported prosecution of some men who had been involved in a lynching in south carolina. that was the first time that a governor of south carolina had insisted that people involved in a lynching be prosecuted. and that was the last lynching that ever took place in south carolina. so from our standpoint today, you know obviously his stance on on segregation very troubling is simply a man that it turned out an effort on the part of the public not to dominate this country by force and to put into effect these unqualified and these damnable proposals all he recommended under the of so-called civil rights. and i tell you, the american people on one side or the other had, a, had better wake up and oppose that your program and

effect. no the next thing will be cocaine and stay in the united states from the standpoint of that moment he was far from the most rabid person that they might have come up with. so so he was he became the nominee they claimed they were not bringing a third party. they didn't call a third party what they wanted to and what they did succeed in doing in a few states was to be considered the true democratic party. and so what they called themselves was states rights, democrats. and they tried to get on the ballot. the democratic nominee recognized they succeeded a few places, but because the south was so heavily democratic. and that was that was such a deeply held tradition. they were really on thin ice. you know, people perceived them to be disloyal to the democrats. and, in fact, they were disloyal

to the national democrats for the national democrats, it made their nomination, and it was not strom thurmond. so they were they were walking a tightrope, though. well, after long delay, harry spoke and accepted his party's nomination in. philadelphia this is july 15th, 1948. here's a portion there have differences of opinion and. that's the democratic way. those differences have been settled by majority vote as they should be. now it's time for us to get together and beat the common enemy. and that's up to you you. we'll be together for victory and a great cause. victory has become a habit of our party. it's been elected times in succession, and i'm convinced that to be elected fifth time next november.

the reason is that the people know democratic party is the people's party and the republican party is the party of special interest. and it always been and always will be be. the record of the democratic party is written and the accomplishments of the last 60 years. i need to repeat them. they have been very able place before this convention by the keynote speaker. the candidate for vice president, and by the permanent chairman. compton. lence and security have been brought to the american people by the democratic party. farm income as increased from less than two and a half billion dollars in 1933 to more.

than $18 billion in 1947, never in the world where the farmers of any republic or any kingdom, any other country as prosperous the farmers of the united states and afraid to do their duty. the democratic party, they're the most ungrateful people in the world. wages, salaries in this country have increased from $29 billion in 1933 to more than $128 billion in 1947. that's labor and labor never had but one friend and politics. and that the democratic party and franklin d roosevelt franklin d roosevelt.

and i say to labor i just i have said to the farmers they are the most ungrateful people in the world. if they pass the democratic party by this year. i'd like to say a word or two now, not what i think the republican philosophy and i'll speak actions and from history and from experience. the situation. the 1932 was due to the policies of the republic party control of the government of the united states. the republican party as, i said a while ago, favors the privileged few and not the common everyday man. ever since its inception that party has been under the control of special privilege, and they concretely proved it in the 80th

congress. they proved it by. the things they did to the people in that forum, they proved it by the things they failed to do. and you're watching american history tv's special series historic presidential elections. we're looking at the election of 1948. our guest is andrew busch civics, professor at the university of tennessee and, the author of this book, truman's triumphs the 1948 election and the making of postwar america. professor bush, why was the early morning before harry truman got up on the podium to speak to delegates? i well, the short answer to that is that this was in the era before television dominated conventions. it was, i believe, televised.

there was a little bit of television cable that had been laid between new city and washington, d.c., which is why both major parties held their convention in philadelphia, because they could then take advantage of that. but but no one had redesigned the conventions to be television events. they were conventions of the old style. people would get up, you know, make motions, give long speeches and take recesses at you know, inconvenient times and they had television happened to be there to record it. but nobody had designed the convention to be built around television. so harry truman basically spoke at 2:00 in the morning eastern time. and it was you know, it just wasn't planned for anybody to have to stay up and watch it than the other than the delegates. well, how would you describe the

enthusiasm level among democrats for harry truman at this point? well, the reports by journalists, the convention were that there were that it was a somewhat gloomy convention that many of the people there expected to lose. they weren't really all that enthused about about truman. the you know, the there were all sorts of ill omens. there was a large papier maché donkey that had been designed to spew smoke out of its nostrils and it wound up spewing the out of its rear end. morale, which was noted by journalists and. i was just there was not there was not a feeling great

enthusiasm apparently, according to the people were know responsible for reporting on the convention. truman speech was something of a stem winder and. he you know he got people i think somewhat enthused but up to that point my the the reports of the day say that it was somewhat lackluster. well here are some newsreel footage of harry and thomas dewey campaign earning in the general election in 1948, in a parade of fellow veterans of the first world war, the president of the united states marches with comrades. the old artillery battery in which he served. back home. he talks with some.

at the white house and a special welcome is given to war veteran. george marshall as the fighting secretary of state and becomes the president's chief adviser on foreign relations. signing the bill, which provides aid to 16 european countries. american goods going abroad under the european program. governor dewey first received the republican nomination. 1944 defeated that year. he was again in 1948.

he and president truman campaigned against each other across the country. i pledge to you that you're next administration will make the peace of the world, its first and foremost. based. my friend is the goal of my public life. i'd rather have a lasting faith in the world than to be president of. the united states. and we're back with our guest andrew busch of the university of tennessee, talking about the election of 1948.

how would you describe harry truman and thomas dewey as campaigners? well truman was was fiery. he was fiery. he was he was fired up and. it's not clear how well he would have done in the television age, which is known for being somewhat unforgiving of people who who are too hot, you know. but this was not age. and truman was campaigning mostly by traveling around by train or going to small towns speaking, you know, in the towns as he went through, sometimes people call this the whistle stop campaign and sometimes he would speak in larger venues, to be sure. but he was always on the and sometimes i think even verged

into what one might consider demagoguery was a major speech that he gave in chicago about a week before the election in which he basically accused dewey of being a fascist and the people around him as being fascists. and so, you know. petrova dewey didn't really respond in. dewey did not really fight back. and was because he thought that the race was more or less in the bag. there were a few moments when he started wonder, but his advisers would always assure him, no, don't worry. things are in hand. and so his strategy was to be above fray appear presidential before he even became president.

and assure the country that he could the job and he would be maybe a more unifying figure than truman. he would seen as aloof, you know, certainly he was not all that all that vigorous at times. in late october, it's clear ohio, a big, big state, a state that both sides desperately wanted to win, and that was in reach for both sides. dewey went across the state by train, sped across the state, stopped in cleveland to give a speech and then moved on. truman stopped and gave speeches in one day at varying towns throughout ohio so that that gives you a notion.

of the difference in their styles kind of how they how they approached campaigning. they both had a campaign train just a kind of a funny but i think illustrative sort of note on their trains in in truman's train, they were drinking whiskey and poker. and then in dewey's, they were drinking martinis and playing bridge. so when it comes to money, we tried to find the figures for how much money was raised and spent in 1948 and we came up with these. figures around 2.7 million for the truman campaign, around 2.1 million for the dewey campaign. how was money raised and? what was its impact in 1948? well money was raised. this is this is before the

campaign finance reforms of the early seventies. so there were no limits on the amount that could be given or in. and the reporting requirements were much, much less rigorous. so we don't entirely know where all of this came from. but mostly it was it was given by fairly large donors. on the democratic side, there were also, you know, the party would get money. the unions sometimes as well. but major donors, you know, large, large contributions. the democrats had raised in 1948, about a quarter more than they raised in 1944. and the republicans raised about a quarter last year, 1948, than they had raised in 1944. so you can see the republicans

being very complacent about this election. they didn't raise less because they were incapable of it. they just didn't themselves. theyi't think it was necessary. of things cost a lot less. there wasn't really television advertising, which is extremely expensive. they might advertise on the radio or but a lot of the campaign spending had to do with shuffling the candidates around literature. there, even though the democrats outraised the republicans, there was a moment when harry truman's campaign train got almost got in oklahoma because they didn't they they were running out of money. so keeping the trains running and the, you know, the sorts of personal campaigning events going that was that was a lot of what that money spent for.

and, you know, the local organization. so was maybe a lot more hands on, a lot less. well, really, not at all. based on television advertising. well, here's newsreel footage from election night, 1948. it was november 2nd. do the polls, the voters stream registering the public will in free election. republican candidate votes.

oh does the democratic candidate candidate. the election night as the returns pour into radio headquarters and are broadcast the nation will the president by international radio. the result is a surprise upset. president truman is elected elected the defeated candidate accepted the basic spirit of a democratic nation. i've sent the following wire. the president truman my heartiest congratulations to you on your election. and every good wish for a successful administration. i urge all americans unite behind you in support every effort to keep our nation strong and free and to establish peace in the world. triumphal reception in washington, where huge crowds gather, greet the return of president truman and president elect buckley.

this is a proper tribute to the fighting campaign and won by harry truman the people's choice as their for the next four years. and. of course, here is that icon of an inaccurate chicago tribune headline, dewey defeats truman. harry truman seemed to revel in that headline, didn't he andrew busch? oh, absolutely absolutely. he reveled in it. and as i as i mentioned, he was he was probably the only person who was not surprised by it. there's an interesting story behind that, that headline, too, which is that there was a a printers strike type typesetter strike that was going on at the chicago tribune. so they had replacement type setters who didn't entirely know

what they were doing. and the the tribune that they needed to get their headline set early because they couldn't count on the the type setters to to do it speedily. so they they made a guess about the headline be. and that's that's i wound up that way. but that was everyone's assumption. and here again are, the 1948 election results with the parties volved. harry truman, 49.5% othe vote, which is 24 million votes, 303 electoral votes. he won 28 states. thom dey 45.1%. 22 million votes. 189 electol votes. 16 states. strom. 2.4% of the vote. about 1.2 million votes. 39 electoral votes. he carried four states. south carolina, louisiana and alabama. and henry wallace, the fourth

candidate of note, 2.4% of the vote just under 1.2 million votes, zero electoral votes, and zero states voter turnout about 51%. it's pretty low. yeah. yeah, it was it was pretty. there's actually a school of thought in the world of political science, negative campaigning works to a degree, but that it also an effect of depressing voter turnout to some degree. and the campaign that truman waged was highly negative. it was a very negative campaign. and so that might had some impact. andrew busch when you look at the electoral map from 1948, any surprise there? we. i think one of the surprises was that thereera number states

that dewey had one in 1944 that he wound up not winning in 1948. iowa, for examplecorado, wyoming those those states were states that he had won. ohio, he had won in 1944. and did not win in 1948. he blamed the farm vote. and there's good reason to think that that contributed that. and truman was just a more down to kind of guy. he had you know, he grew up on a farm. i mean, he he understood that life in a way that franklin roosevelt certainly did not, at least not from personal experience. and. ironically, dewey, he wasn't being a prosecutor or