geeky
In Five Days in Philadelphia: The Amazing "We Want Willkie!" Convention of 1940 and How It Freed FDR to Save the Western World, Charles Peters, the former editor-in-chief of The Washington Monthly Magazine, gives away the premise of his book in its wordy title. Peters makes the case that if anyone other than the internationalist and liberal Willkie had won the GOP presidential nomination in 1940, it would have been much more difficult, if not impossible, for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to come to the aid of Great Britain, and the Second World War may have had a very different, and a very unhappy ending.
Peters tells the politically improbable story of how Wendell Willkie, a lawyer and corporate CEO, a former Democrat who had recently changed sides, and a self-professed liberal who had never held elected office nor high military rank, defied the odds and rode a populist wave to win the Republican Party's presidential nomination, defeating several experienced, prominent, long-term Republicans. Far behind in the polls when the convention began, and in spite of not competing in any of the "beauty contest" primaries, Willkie won the party's nomination on the sixth ballot by bucking the trend of isolationism at a time when the fall of France and the Nazi takeover of Europe were causing many Americans to reconsider their positions on this controversial issue. With a combination of good management, charm and charisma, and a little bit of luck (such as the death of an opponent's supporter heading the committee for convention arrangements, succeeded in that post by a Willkie supporter), Willkie's takeover of the party from the GOP establishment changed not only the electoral calculus of 1940, but, Peters argues, also the course of history.
Peters follows up with the story of FDR's maneuvering to run for a controversial third term as president, while giving the appearance of being drafted, how he fought off a challenge from Postmaster-General James Farley, and how he almost stalled his electoral momentum with his selection of controversial and flaky Henry Wallace as his running mate. He describes the election campaign and how both candidates first embraced, then downplayed their internationalism. He concludes with a fascinating account of Roosevelt's battle to provide aid to the British though his legally questionable "lend-lease" program and makes the case that Willkie's support was crucial to Roosevelt's success.
An added dimension to the enjoyment of this book is Peters' personal recollection of many of these events as a young boy and the reminiscences of how his affluent family experienced them, going so far as to take the author to the Democratic convention in Chicago, where he played "fly on the wall" amidst the convention delegates.
Peters ably describes how Wendell Willkie, a citizen of corporate America, was packaged as a simple country boy in the mold of a Will Rogers. Alice Roosevelt Longworth wryly described him as having come "from the grass roots of ten thousand country clubs." A number of similarities between Willkie and a more recent Republican presidential candidate who transitioned from a corporate mogul into a great populist will be inescapable.
These were different times, when the candidates' extramarital dalliances were known by all, but never paraded in the press, and when radio, newspapers and whistle stop campaign speeches were the way to reach the voters, after Labor Day of course. Peters offers a time machine that places the reader at the scene of this fascinating and historically pivotal election. He lets the reader shake hands with and get to know Wendell Willkie, warts and all, and drops us into Franklin Delano Roosevelt's charming company. Charles Peters is a very gifted author and historian and he proves it with this enjoyable work.