May 1944: The Presidential Election of 1944 – Part II
German and Soviet armies traded offensives as the summer approached in the fourth year of the conflict between the two massive empires. In the Ukraine, a two-pronged German armored attack on Kharkov was thrown back , leaving Kiev still exposed. In the north, the Red Army continued its offensive in the Baltic States, crossing the Daugava River south of Riga and pushing into Lithuania. Soviet forces captured Kaunas and threatened to cut off additional German forces still holding out in the north. British forces again landed in France, at the Pas de Calais, where several divisions breached the coastal defenses.
Japanese forces in India, meanwhile, began a drive on the Indian capital at Delhi, bypassing Calcutta and the strong defensive positions there. By the beginning of June, the fighting reached Lucknow, and Indian nationalists backing the Japanese sensed a great victory should the ancient city be secured. The Commonwealth continued to pour troops into the Ganges valley to hold up the enemy, yet the British and their allies continued to suffer from a lack of air power. In Delhi, meanwhile, the Governor-General of India, Archibald Wavell, whose army had fought with distinction in Romania before being forced to surrender, begin a series of meetings with prominent leaders in the Indian National Congress (INC), including Maulana Azad and Rajendra Prasad. The British government’s offer to grant autonomy to India after the war in exchange for continued loyalty in the conflict with Japan was viewed with mixed reactions, some suspicious, some optimistic, and others hoping for more. While negotiations proceeded, the INC leaders did exact one notable concession from Wavell – the release of imprisoned Indian leaders, including Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohandas Gandhi. With Japan and the Indian National Army continuing to advance, however, the pressure on the British would only increase.
Japanese troops in action near Lucknow, May 1944
In Australia, Japanese forces were also advancing, driving the Australians out of Wagga Wagga and Darwin, and slowly overrunning the rest of the continent despite the vast distances involved. Only the fortified ports at Broome, Perth and Hobart still held out. Australia, of course, was very much on the mind of American commanders. In mid-May, having secured Hawaii with the recapture of Midway, Admiral Cook, Navy Chief of Staff, continued to press Washington to release more of the Home Fleet for operations in the Pacific. Despite the great resistance of the Lindbergh administration, which was wary of any sign of weakening the home defenses, they at last consented to releasing two of the four carriers stationed on the West Coast, provided that they first be used to secure the lower Aleutian Islands, which had been captured almost two years before.
With the
”home guard” guards deploying along the coast, Admiral Cook was also able to draw the rest of the Marines and more of the Army out of California to support continued operations, and twelve new divisions were transported from San Francisco to Hawaii during the month of May. The next phase of operations would include the initial diversionary attack on the Aleutians – Kiska, Adak, and Attu, and then the Pacific Fleet would resume its drive on Australia. Southwest of Baker lay the next series of islands, the Ellice Islands and the Samoans, which Cook planned on striking in June or July. Despite the continued Japanese attacks on Johnston Island, the U.S. was slowly improving its offensive position in the Pacific.
[Most of the US bomber fleet is upgrading at this time]
In South America, meanwhile, the government of Brazil,
”decrying the instabilities and dangers posed by our neighbors”, declared war on Colombia and Venezuela on May 8th, as an intervention to prevent leftist takeovers in either country. Although the United States did not make an official proclamation of support or send any form of tangible aid, that the country did not object was a sign of its passive acceptance of the Brazilian move. In essence, Brazil had become an anti-Communist proxy of the Lindbergh government.
All of these issues were part of the electoral furor that was engulfing the United States as November approached. Yet there also other more domestic problems that concerned the major parties contending for high office. The war in the Pacific had seen a small economic turnaround in the American industrial sector as the intensity and scale of the conflict exceeded most expectations, yet the United States was still in an economic slump that had been steady since 1938. An economy that had been recovering from the Great Depression in the years from 1933 to 1936 went into stagnation with the Landon reforms and the repeal of the New Deal. The war against Mexico, rather than stimulate the economy as many had expected, only served to hamper it, as the length of the war decreased confidence. Expected boons from the acquisition of vital resources in northern Mexico were cancelled out by the devastation causes by the hard fighting in provinces like Monterrey, where oil facilities were heavily damaged and would required expensive repairs.
Economic decline, unemployment, and government anti-labor rules made domestic issues very important in the presidential election of 1944
The sudden shift from a recovering peacetime economy to a war-time industry had caused moderate unemployment almost around the same time as the Republican administration had acted against most social and labor protections, including the Wagner Act, Social Security, unemployment insurance, etc. Despite the initial tight budgets of the Landon administration, the Mexican War had caused major expenditures and deficit spending became a necessity to fully prosecute the war. Indeed, every budget from 1938 to 1944 saw increasing deficits as the United States slowly shook off its military lethargy. The labor sector became agitated. Major strikes in the coal and automobile industry had been suppressed violently by employers and the unions were a pressure cooker held under by fear of a wartime government that did not shrink from harsh measures – FBI Director Harry Bennett continued to be burned in effigy by labor leaders and was seen as a symbol of this trend.
Also a symbol was President Lindbergh himself, whose anti-communism had become more pronounced in the past two years, leading to tighter restrictions on labor unions, more surveillance on them, and increased agitation of an
”atmosphere of mistrust”, as one Lindbergh opponent put it. Continued moves against worker rights, the Workplace Efficiency Act and the reinstatement of Special House Committee for Un-American Activities (HUAC), only added to the volatility of the economic issue.
The domestic issues clearly divided the National Party against the Democrats, anti-communism against labor. To most Democrats, it was folly to move against supposed leftists at a time when the United States was in a major war against a fascist government. Each candidate, Wallace, Warren, and Wickard, invoked this vein often, calling Lindbergh an opportunist who has seeking a scapegoat for his own administration’s failures and an excuse to expand the controls of the federal government. Wickard, the most radical of the three, called for a
”national labor coalition” to serve as a pressure point against the government to stand firm against federal encroachment and to restore all the losses in privileges that had been incurred in the past eight years. As influential as Lindbergh’s ally Hearst was in the press, the unions had major influence in many key states that would be strategic in November. The mobilization of the unions would make the Democrats a major contender in the election.
Union agitation challenged the influence of the President Lindbergh’s economic advisor, William Randolph Hearst
The Republicans leaned more towards the Lindbergh position, primarily by virtue of their past associations with the president, their firm opposition to the Democratic support of labor, and because most of the things objected to by the Democratic candidates were programs put into place by the Landon Administration. The Just and Proper Deal, which was in essence a negation of FDR’s new Deal, was the hallmark of the Republican Party in the late 1930s and early 1940s. To protect this, which they considered an achievement which undid the
”social mistakes of 1933”, the Republicans would continue to position themselves against the Democrats. Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., the Massachusetts Senator was less vocal on the labor issue, confining his domestic rhetoric to increased tax reform, which was considered necessary as ‘real revenue’ had dropped steadily since 1937. Dewey, however, took a stronger position, less anti-communist in nature, but very much supportive of what he called
”free business” and
”a check on union intransigence”. Dewey, like many others, was keeping a close eye on Europe, where German and Soviet continued their titanic clash. Communism in Venezuela and Colombia was far less of a threat, despite its proximity, than any threat which might emerge out of industrialized Europe.
Yet as May turned into June, few if any of the military questions in the world were being settled, and this only made domestic aspects of the 1944 election that much more important as November came near.
