Dark Horse A Biography of Wendell Wilkie Book

Wendell Willkie Remembered

Many years ago, I became fascinated with Wendell Willkie (1892 -- 1944) by reading "They Also Ran", Irving Stone's famous book about defeated presidential candidates. Willkie's story inspired me greatly, and I read a substantial amount about him when I was too young to understand. Then, after many years and much change in me in between, I read David Levering Lewis' perceptive account of Willkie in an essay included in a study of various American leaders edited by Walter Isaacson, "Profiles in Leadership" Profiles in Leadership: Historians on the Elusive Quality of Greatness. Lewis' essay made me want to revisit Willkie again. I found Steve Neal's biography, "Dark Horse", published in 1984 and now unhappily out of print. Neal (1949 -- 2004) was a person of my own generation. He was a political writer and columnist for the Chicago Tribune before his unfortunate death. I was happy to learn something of Neal as well as of Willkie in this moving biography.

Willkie was indeed the quintessential "Dark Horse" presidential candidate. Although he had never held political office and had been a registered Democrat until mid-1939, Willkie captured the 1940 Republican nomination. He mounted an aggressive campaign (in which he toured the United States in a rail car and yelled himself hoarse) against Roosevelt, who was running for an unprecedented third term, and did relatively well in terms of popular vote even though he lost decisively in the electoral college. Willkie ran as a liberal Republican against the Republican Old Guard which in 1940 was strongly isolationist. Although a political amateur, Willkie had powerful backers. His nomination owed a great deal to his support in the news media. In addition, at the time of the Republican convention, France had fallen and many voters were looking for an internationalist approach.

Neal's book discusses Willkie's astonishing rise to the Republican nomination. Born in Elwood, Indiana, Willkie had become a successful Wall Street lawyer and the president of Commonwealth and Southern Utility Company. In this capacity, Willkie opposed the New Deal and the Tennessee Valley Authority and came to public attention. Willkie opposed the New Deal vigorously while securing the presidential nomination on the basis of his internationalism. During the pressures of the 1940 campaign, he backed away temporarily and reluctantly from this latter commitment.

Neal offers a strong portrayal of Willkie as a presidential candidate. But perhaps Willkie made an even stronger impact on the United States during the final four years of his life following his 1940 defeat. Willkie became famous for his development of the concept of the "Loyal Opposition", a trait he exemplified for the remainder of his life. He helped unite the country by his support of England, the lend-lease program, and the Selective Service Act. In 1942, President Roosevelt, who admired Willkie, named his former opponent a personal envoy and sent him on a world-wide tour which included England, Russia, and China. Following his mission, Willkie wrote his famous best-selling book, "One World", One World which summarized his faith in internationalism and his hope for lasting peace. Willkie returned to the practice of law where he won a famous civil rights case involving a member of the communist party, "Schneiderman v. United States", and defended the movie industry before Congress against charges that the industry was pro-communist. Willkie also spoke and wrote eloquently and repeatedly in support of full civil rights for African Americans. His liberal positions antagonized the traditional Republican political base and its political leadership. After a crushing defeat in the presidential primary in Wisconsin, Willkie withdrew from the 1944 campaign, and he died shortly thereafter.

Although he has become an obscure figure, Willkie deserves to be remembered for his courage, vision, and ideals. He may well have made an excellent president. But his service in the cause of civil rights and his attempt to bring a sense of unity to American foreign policy were lasting contributions. For a time, he modified the basic ideological conservatism of the Republican party. Late in his life, he and Roosevelt may have attempted a realignment of the American party system on liberal-conservative lines. Overall, Willkie represents a rare example of a person in public life who, with some wavering in the 1940 campaign, stayed true to his convictions and tended to act in a spirit of unity and patriotism rather than narrow partisanship.

I was pleased to have the opportunity to revisit the life of a person who inspired me when I was young but who I hadn't thought much about for a long time. The qualities that I saw dimly in Willkie when I first read about him became clearer with the passage of age. I learned from Willkie again through Steve Neal's fine book. I think that there is still much that Americans may learn from Wendell Willkie.

Robin Friedman