Five Days in Philadelphia The Amazing We Want Willkie Convention of 1940 and How It Freed FDR to Save the Western World
The story of how this happened — and of how essential his nomination would prove in allowing FDR to save Britain and prepare this country for entry into World War II — is all told in Charles Peters’ Five Days in Philadelphia. As Peters shows, these five action-packed days and their improbable outcome were as important as the Battle of Britain in defeating the Nazis.
User Ratings and Reviews
3 Stars Stretched History with a Republican Womanizing Twist
Charles Peters tells a great tale, and it is a treat to read prose by one so gifted in the English language and so precise in his meaning. Well researched with a remarkable sense of grammatical timing, the book is an interesting piece of history that will become a mainstay for college students of American Political History. As politics, however, it leaves untold the story of exactly why the Dewey and Taft campaigns so misjudged the Willkie forces at the convention. As I read the jacket synopsis and internal photo captions, I began to expect to read that Franklin Roosevelt had undermined the Republican National Convention to install Wendell Willkie as a friendly nominee! Willkie’s politics are no more a focus of this book than his womanizing, which, because of its long term nature, would be more of a story today than perhaps even Bill Clinton’s. And while I like Willkie a lot after reading about him, I think the case for making a hero of his pro-defense stance is overdone.
While Willkie took a position that was unpopular with the isolationist Main Street Right Wing of the Republican Party, it is not a logical conclusion that he did so with patriotism in mind or that he fell on his sword for America. Now IF it could be shown that pre-CIA or pre-NSA operatives undermined the pro-Hitler isolationst elements of the Republican Party, THAT would be a story indeed. Or if it could be shown that Willkie, a Democrat until 1939, was a National Security operative to ensure that freedom was defended in the Hitlerian world. Perhaps Charles Peters is suggesting these possibilities for further study in the decades ahead. You do wonder why Willkie won the nomination in the face of two other strong candidates who more closely reflected the isolationist, peace-loving members of their own party.
It’s a good story that is more history with personal rememberances than politics itself. Wendell Willkie would not be welcome in the Republican Party of today.
4 Stars An interesting story
This little book is a bit like historian John Lukacs book “Five Days in London, May 1940″ and the two make useful contributions to our understanding of the period. Wendell Willkie is a footnote of history and should be better known. He was a lawyer and businessman who had been battling the New Deal for years as Roosevelt tried to nationalize the electric power industry. This book is marred a bit by the author’s rabid Democratic politics (He was editor of Washington Monthly, a left wing magazine, for many years), and more of Willkie’s story can be found in Amity Schlaes’ book about the Depression, “The Forgotten Man.” Willkie may have been a registered Democrat until 1940 but he was an opponent of Roosevelt in domestic matters.
The story of his candidacy and the Republican Convention of 1940 is well done and is the centerpiece of the book. Another reviewer has commented on Peters’ uncritical adulation of Roosevelt but it detracts only slightly from the enjoyment of the story. Isolationism was a principled position at the time, even if it was wrong in the greater scheme of things. The author shows his bias in some comments about John Foster Dulles, alleging his support for an isolationist candidate was because his law firm had German clients. Everyone in business had German associations and, prior to World War I, there had been certainty that the web of financial and business connections among nations would guarantee no more wars. In recent times, similar sentiments encouraged trade with Cuba and the Soviet Union. Dulles was a loyal American, just as Henry Wallace was in spite of his communist associates.
To his credit, the author points out that Soviet agent Harry Dexter White tried to block Lend Lease because his Soviet masters were, at that time, allies of Hitler. The invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 would bring cries for “A Second Front Now” from the communists but, in 1940, they were opposed to aid to Britain and the Roosevelt administration was full of them.
The book combines personal reminiscence of the times with the history. Yes it is drawn largely from secondary sources but it is enjoyable and I recommend it. Those who want more about Willkie could find it in Amity Schlaes book. I would like to find more about him. It is interesting to speculate about what might have happened had Willkie lived (He died in 1944) and had been the Republican candidate in 1944 or 1948.
5 Stars Where is Willkie today, when we need him?
This provides an excellent picture of presidential politics just before our entry into World War II. Somehow, Wendell Willkie rose in the Republican party to challenge a crafty and popular president and although he lost the election he helped to turn the country in the right direction.
Roosevelt was concerned with providing aid to Britain, and instituting a draft while we were not at war. Despite the knee-jerk reaction of the Republican leadership, which was dogmatic, myopic, and just plain stupid, Willkie supported the President’s foreign policy goals, and his support allowed these measures to be instituted through a reluctant Republican congress.
One of the more surprising occurrences then, when looked at from today’s political world, was how much conscience mattered. Many of the Democratic politicians were opposed to some part of Roosevelt’s program. Some agreed with him on the draft, but did not think he should have a third term, some were in favor of the draft, but not in help to England. Roosevelt embraced all of these people as advisors, and even named a number of Republicans to his cabinet. It is unimaginable that the current President would tolerate different opinions in his political circle. At that time, conscience moved Roosevelt’s advisors to say what they believed was in the best interest of the country, not just mouth an official line of thought and conduct.
The know-nothings of the Republican leadership, namely Taft and Dewey, would have prevented the draft, and would have forbidden any aid to Britain, and apparently were prepared to negotiate with Germany to keep us out of war. It was miraculous that Willkie, who pretty much agreed with Roosevelt’s foreign policy, and who was a businessman, never elected to public office, was able to keep the Republicans from sabotaging Roosevelt’s policies. If he had not, one could only imagine the results . . a German takeover of Britain, and an eventual war of survival with the USA, which could very well have led to the end of our society as we know it.
The modern Republicans have not changed very much. While there may be an occasional voice for sanity, in foreign and domestic policy, by and large, they follow along the party line seemingly unable to provide independent thought in the interest of the country. Their bringing us to war in Iraq before destroying the Islamists who have attacked us is one instance, and uncontrolled deficits are another, and doing nothing to control dependence on foreign oil is yet another. Where is Willkie when we need him?
4 Stars Interesting look at a man who defied his own party
This book provides an interesting account of the republican convention of 1940 and the effects it had on the country. The main contest in 1940 for the republicans was between Dewey, Robert Taft and Wendell Willkie who was a democrat turned republican in the final hours to seize the nomination. Dewey to an extent an Taft to an extreme represented the isolationist part of the republican party. This book takes the reader through the convention and the twists and turns that led to the nomination of Wilkie over Taft. This book provides a scattered analysis at times of the events that followed the Philadelphia convention. This is a great update to those people who have not heard of Wilkie and these events. The book provides a very good political analysis of the time and for those interested in convention history it does tell and interesting story. I wish there had been more related to how the votes switched but at times the book jumped around and skipped over details. Overall a solid book and a great addition to the historical political landscape of America.
4 Stars Don’t laugh. I found this book to be a real page turner.
The time frame for these historic event could not have been more compelling, the Repubican National convention of 1940. The lights had just gone out across Europe. France had surrendered. All that was left of the old world’s free people was Great Britain. We didn’t really give a damn. The Repubicans didn’t, that much is certain. Many Democrats didn’t either, except for the one that really counted… FDR. But he’s a minor player in this story. The US was still nearly a year & a half from making this war truly a world war.
FDR, Churchill, Eisenhower etc. are credited with winning the war. Little notice is paid to a man who helped make their jobs easier pre-war, Wendell Willkie. He helped keep England alive. He stood out & stood up in the party of isolationism. He out foxed & out manuvered stronger canidates like Gov. Dewey, Senators Vandenberg & Taft. He’s the only internationalist & non office holder of the potential nominees. Yet he was able to pack the convention & secure the nomination on the sixth ballot. He was closer to FDR on most of the issues of the the day, Lend Lease, extension of the the draft & war preparedness. This put the GOP at quite a diadvantage during the fall campaign. The whole story is humanized by the author, a young boy from New Jersey with an activist father who was a Democrat. Day by day activities in Philadelphia during the convention & mood of the the country are covered & makes for engrossing reading.
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