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Dewey Defeats Truman
Intro
Part I
In the year 1948, President Harry Truman was running for reelection. A decorated veteran of World War I, Truman had previously served as a Senator from Missouri from 1934 to 1945. He then served as the third Vice President to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. After Roosevelt's unexpected death in 1945, Truman was sworn in as President of the United States. Despite lacking a college degree and facing major doubts from his fellow cabinet members, Truman immediately proved to be a very productive president.
He successfully led the US through the final year of World War II. It was he who made the decision to use the atomic bombs to end the war with Japan. Truman also made a significant contribution to the Civil Rights Movement. On July 26, 1948, Truman signed Executive Order 9981. This order stated that, "There shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed forces without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin". Although the executive order faced major resistance from racist generals in the military, all segregation in the US Armed Forces officially ceased by the year 1954.
Truman's Republican opponent for the Presidential race of 1948, was the incumbent Governor of New York, Thomas Edmund Dewey. In spite of all his accomplishments, President Truman was projected to lose reelection. Problems with the US economy had severely affected his popularity. And his support for Civil Rights made him highly unpopular within his own party (particularly with southern Democrats). Even though his own party doubted his success, Truman remained confident that he would win reelection.
Part II
Governor Dewey was already a very distinguished politician by the year 1948. He was born on March 24, 1902, in Owosso, Michigan. Growing up, he was known for his ability to win arguments. One of his biographers wrote, "the bent of his mind, from his earliest days, was towards debate". He graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree from Columbia Law School in 1925. Dewey then moved to New York City and started a private practice as a prosecutor.
Almost immediately he began to aggressively prosecute bootleggers and racketeers in the city. His successful prosecutions caused him to be appointed as a special prosecutor for the County of New York. One of Dewey's most successful takedowns was his prosecution of the mobster Charles "Lucky" Luciano (who was convicted on forced prostitution charges).
From 1935 to 1937, Dewey won 72 convictions out of 73 prosecutions. In 1942, Dewey was elected Governor of New York (a position he would successfully hold until 1954). For the Republican Party, Governor Dewey seemed to be the perfect choice to defeat President Truman in the Election of 1948.
Part III
The Chicago Daily Tribune was one of the most widely read newspapers in the 20th century. At the time, the newspaper was heavily conservative and believed that Governor Dewey would win the election on a landslide. It had even referred to President Truman as a "nincompoop". A few months prior the election, the printers who operated the newspaper's Linotype machines had been on strike in protest of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1948 (Taft-Hartley Act). Almost simultaneously, the Tribune had switched its main copying method to where the paper was first composed on typewriters, photographed, and then engraved onto printing plates. This meant that the paper was required to the press and publish their articles several hours earlier than usual.
When the election came around the Tribune was relying on its Washington correspondent (Arthur Sears Henning) to predict who the winner of the 1948 Election would be. The early returns seemed to show Dewey leading Truman in many of the Western states. On November 3, Henning wrote to the Tribune that Governor Dewey was going to win by a landslide. Less than an hour later, the newspaper published the banner headline, "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN". But that afternoon, everything began to change.
As more votes were counted, it became clear that Governor Dewey was not the winner. Truman had won the electoral vote with a 303-189-39 over Dewey and the Dixiecrat candidate, Strom Thurmond. Instead of a Republican landslide victory, the Democratic Party not only retained control of the White House, but they also took control of the Senate and the House of Representatives. By then, the Chicago Daily Tribune had already printed more than 150,000 copies of their headline, "Dewey Defeats Truman".
On November 5, while passing through St. Louis, President Truman stepped to the rear of his train car and was handed a copy of the Tribune's headline. He then gleefully showed it to the crowd and shouted the words, "That ain't the way I heard it". The image was then snapped by photojournalist, W. Eugene Smith.
Epilogue
Although he had lost the election, Governor Thomas Dewey returned to New York with his head held high. He continued to serve as Governor of New York (winning reelection in 1950) until the year 1954. In 1968, the former governor was offered a spot on the US Supreme Court by President Richard Nixon. However, Dewey declined the offer due to failing health. He died only three years later in 1971. Today, he is remembered as a pioneer in American law and a celebrated figure in the fight against organized crime.
President Truman would serve another very productive term as President until the year 1952. During this term he would help conduct the famous Berlin Airlift. In 1950, he personally oversaw the formation of the United Nations' "Task Force Smith" for the American led Intervention in the Korean War. However, by 1951, the War in Korea had become highly unpopular in the US and many began demanding a ceasefire. The two year long peace talks while thousands of soldiers were being killed in battle caused the public's view of President Truman to significantly drop. The latter's volatile relationship with General Douglas MacArthur (a Republican) did not help matters.
Due to these circumstances, President Truman opted not to run for a second term in 1952. Instead, Governor Adlai Stevenson II (of Illinois) won the nomination for the Democratic Party. However, Governor Stevenson lost on a landslide to the Republican nominee, General Dwight David Eisenhower. President Truman and his wife (Elizabeth) returned to their home in Independence, Missouri. They lived there for the rest of their lives. Today, Truman is remembered as one of America's most influential and effective presidents. And the photograph of Truman holding the newspaper of his fictional loss to Governor Dewey is still fondly remembered as one of the greatest political upsets and bad reporting in American history. It remains a memorable moment in the life and legacy of President Harry Truman.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2020/10/31/dewey-defeats-truman-the-most-famous-wrong-call-in-electoral-history/
https://www.life.com/history/dewey-defeats-truman-the-story-behind-a-classic-political-photo/
https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/executive-order-9981
https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/education/presidential-inquiries/election-1948
https://www.cairn.info/revue-francaise-d-etudes-americaines-2001-1-page-38.htm
https://themobmuseum.org/notable_names/thomas-dewey/
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