Why was Harry Truman chosen to be Vice President in 1944?
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There is an extensive Wikipedia article on the details of the selection process. Truman had become a national figure through his chairmanship of the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program which had saved $10-15 billion of the cost of WWII, by preventing inefficiency, waste and profiteering, at a cost of $360,000. It was clear that Truman could get things done, and with Roosevelt ailing, that was a valuable quality in a Vice-President.
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From what I've read, it was no secret among the Democrats meeting at the 1944 convention that Franklin Roosevelt was terminally ill. He had melanoma and high blood pressure (triple digit both upper and lower figures). Some of the information about Franklin Roosevelt's health during the war years seems to be missing if I'm not mistaken, but the delegates were well aware that whoever was nominated as vice-president would become president of the United States, were Roosevelt to win, which was almost a given in 1944.
Upvote:13
Truman balanced Roosevelt's ticket in several important ways. First, he was a Senator (Roosevelt had been Governor of New York). He came from a poor background; Roosevelt was a rich man trying to convince poor people that he was acting in their interests, against fellow members of his "class." Truman was someone who had "worked with his hands," at a time when most voters did so, and had not been to college. Even so, Truman was "right" of (less radical than) FDR in his own party, not to mention Henry Wallace.
The geographical factor was not unimportant. Missouri, besides being a decent-sized state, was close to the geographical and cultural center of the country. It was a good answer to Will it play in Peoria? Basically, it was on the edge of both the Midwest and the South; having been the "border state" nearest to Kansas before the Civil War. Roosevelt was rightfully confident about his ability to hold the key northeastern states of New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, but needed help in the Midwest; Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Missouri were close states (Dewey barely won the first one).
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