The World That Wasn't: Henry Wallace and the Fate of the American Century

by Benn Steil

From the acclaimed economist-historian and author of The Marshall Plan comes a dramatic and powerful new perspective on the political career of Henry Wallace—a perspective that will forever change how we view the making of US and Soviet foreign policy at the dawn of the Cold War.

Henry Wallace is the most important, and certainly the most fascinating, almost-president in American history. As FDR’s third-term vice president, and a hero to many progressives, he lost his place on the 1944 Democratic ticket in a wild open convention, as a result of which Harry Truman became president on FDR’s death. Books, films, and even plays have since portrayed the circumstances surrounding Wallace’s defeat as corrupt, and the results catastrophic. Filmmaker Oliver Stone, among others, has claimed that Wallace’s loss ushered in four decades of devastating and unnecessary Cold War.

Now, based on striking new finds from Russian, FBI, and other archives, Benn Steil’s The World That Wasn’t paints a decidedly less heroic portrait of the man, of the events surrounding his fall, and of the world that might have been under his presidency. Though a brilliant geneticist, Henry Wallace was a self-obsessed political figure, blind to the manipulations of aides—many of whom were Soviet agents and assets.

From 1933 to 1949, Wallace undertook a series of remarkable interventions abroad, each aimed at remaking the world order according to his evolving spiritual blueprint. As agriculture secretary, he fell under the spell of Russian mystics, and used the cover of a plant-gathering mission to aid their doomed effort to forge a new theocratic state in Central Asia. As vice president, he toured a Potemkin Siberian continent, guided by undercover Soviet security and intelligence officials who hid labor camps and concealed prisoners. He then wrote a book, together with an American NKGB journalist source, hailing the region’s renaissance under Bolshevik leadership. In China, the Soviets uncovered his private efforts to coax concessions to Moscow from Chiang Kai-shek, fueling their ambitions to dominate Manchuria. Running for president in 1948, he colluded with Stalin to undermine his government’s foreign policy, allowing the dictator to edit his most important election speech. It was not until 1950 that he began to acknowledge his misapprehensions regarding the Kremlin’s aims and conduct.

Meticulously researched and deftly written, The World That Wasn’t is a spellbinding work of political biography and narrative history that will upend how we see the making of the early Cold War.

Genres: History, Biography, Politics, Nonfiction, American History, American, International Relations

704 pages, Hardcover

First published January 9, 2024

About the author

Benn Steil is an American economist and writer.[1] He was educated at Nuffield College, Oxford and at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Steil is the senior fellow and director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the founder and editor of the journal International Finance. He has been awarded the Hayek Prize and the Spear's Book Award.

Reviews

[Massimo Pigliucci · Rating 5 out of 5]

Benn Steil's third book is just as fascinating and meticulously researched as the previous two in this informal trilogy on the lead-up to and the beginnings of the Cold War (the other two volumes are: The Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White, and the Making of a New World Order and The Marshall Plan: Dawn of the Cold War). The author is an economist by training, and is developing quite a reputation as a political historian. Hist style is crisp, his writings insightful, his choice of subject matter always intriguing. I have to confess that when I heard of this new book, centered on the relatively little known figure of Henry Wallace, I asked myself why someone would want to write almost 700 pages on that bizarre character. Then I read the book and understood. This isn't a simplistic stint into "alternative history," it is a fascinating and incredibly well documented window into one of the strangest figures of mid-20th century American politics, one that almost caused a significant amount of damage to the United States and the western world as a whole. Wallace was a brilliant geneticist, but also someone who could easily be bamboozled by foreign (Soviet) agents, and who easily fell for mystical mumbo jumbo. The guy also had significant access to the halls of power, and came very close to single handedly altering the trajectory of post-WWII history. Some obviously biased commentators have labeled The World That Wasn't "a right-wing hit job" and Wallace himself "one of the greatest progressives of the 20th Century." Both comments are laughable for anyone who has actually read the book and paid a modicum of attention. Enjoy Steil's volume and see for yourself.

[George Siehl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author Benn Steil's, The World That Wasn't, is a solid work of American political biography and political history. The subject is Henry Wallace, agricultural scientist, mystic, Secretary of Agriculture, (as was his father years earlier), Secretary of Commerce, Vice-President of the United States under FDR, and independent party presidential candidate. He was a very complex and conflicted individual: this book fully captures the intricacy of his life and career. His strong religious beliefs, distorted by his mysticism, led to his immersion in a cult led by a Russian "Guru," Nicholas Roerich, and managed by other shadowy Russian figures along with emigres in the United States. Their operation hinted as much of scam and economic self-interest as holiness. His driving motivation was Peace, which he felt was attainable most readily through a One World system of international governance. The cult embraced these beliefs. Wallace introduced some of the American based members of the cult leadership to FDR, a relationship allowing one member to benefit financially from a FDR favor.

As Agriculture Secretary, Wallace contrived to use federal money to pay Roerich to accompany a Dept. of Ag. research team looking for drought resistant plants in the desert regions of East Asia that might be introduced into the American Dust Bowl of the time. The Guru was also working to assemble a new country drawn from unhappy regions of the East Asian deserts of Mongolia, Outer Mongolia, and Manchuria. This would involve disrupting the then management regimes of Russia, China and Japan. When problems arose over the expedition, Wallace shifted the blame to his employees who were staffing the expedition. Steil details a pattern of such behavior throughout Wallace's career.

Although Wallace first criticized Communism because of its anti-Godliness, his views changed because of the Kremlin's continual emphasis on peace. He employed a number of Communists as staff, advisors, speechwriters, and researchers at both Agriculture and Commerce. He also expressed, over the decades of the 1930s and 1940s, a great desire to meet personally with Stalin.

While serving as vice-president he requested such an opportunity from President Roosevelt. Instead, FDR approved a four-week trip to Siberia and China. During his stay in Russia he was propagandized, spied upon, lied to, and treated with great kindness and apparent respect by his Soviet handlers. In his diary (which was lifted and copied by his hosts) he expressed admiration for all he was being shown. He later learned he was seeing a Potemkin Village as he was being escorted through what was the Siberian prison camps of the Soviet government. The author documents how this credulous behavior continued until 1949.

On the China part of the visit, Wallace was proposing to Chiang Kai-shek concessions he might make with Stalin to resolve territorial issues with Russia. Also suggested were changed relationships with Mao's communist army that was seeking to take over all of China. All these were detrimental to the interests of democratic China.

That Wallace was on this 1944 trip to East Asia was part of a huge political pivot that was underway. There was growing concern among key Democrat political figures that Wallace was too closely identified with Communists and their world views. This was seen as a possible threat to FDR's re-election. More importantly, the president's health was visibly deteriorating so that the choice for vice-president could also be the choice for man who would become president with FDR's death. The Asian trip would keep Wallace out of town until almost the eve of the Democrat's 1944 presidential convention in Chicago.

Wallace's fixation on international affairs as cabinet secretary and vice president had brought him into conflicts with a number of other important administration officials. He consistently fought to gain control over various programs even though other agencies such as State or Commerce had primary responsibility in such areas. These enemies, combined with those close to FDR who feared Wallace's Russian leanings, urged Roosevelt to replace Wallace as VP on the 1944 ticket. Although Wallace pressed the president for assurance that, again, he would be the running mate, FDR was coy, and misleading about the certainty of that. He told Wallace, for instance, that were he, FDR, a delegate he would certainly vote for Wallace. Other suggested nominees included Supreme Court Justice William Douglas, and FDR confidant James Byrnes, among others including a Southern Senator whose presence would placate tenuous Democrats in the South. Steil describes the process in great detail. In the end, however, Missouri Senator Harry S Truman was selected as the VP nominee. Wallace would later be named Secretary of Commerce in the fourth Roosevelt administration.

Just months into that term Roosevelt died and Truman became President. Wallace would be no team player under Truman, a man he referred to as 'a son of a bitch." He maintained his grasping for primacy in various federal international programs. He criticized some of the outstanding international programs instituted after the war: the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan and the founding of NATO. He undercut US foreign policy relations and continued to rail against the influence of militarist and capitalist enterprise on our efforts to aid European postwar recovery. He
continued to blame the Cold War on America and found excuses for Soviet behavior aimed at expanding its spheres of influence, as in the Russification of Eastern European governments. Stiel writes of NY Times columnist Arthur Krock, "Wallace was, Krock observed, 'very severe toward inconsistencies in others when they threaten any of the numerous causes he expounds,' yet he gave himself carte blanche to support whomever or whatever he chose." Eventually it was all too much, and on September 20, 1946, Truman demanded Wallace's resignation.

Liberal, progressive, socialist, communist: across that leftist spectrum Wallace could find agreement. He was now left to work that spectrum to position himself for a run for the presidency in 1948. In the interim he would continue to be a critical thorn in the side of the Truman administration.

Michael Straight, publisher of the magazine, "The New Republic" hired Wallace as editor to provide Wallace a platform and to improve the circulation of the flagging publication. Although Straight was a Communist and one time Soviet agent, Steil writes, he became more "mainstream ...in the 1940s and worked assiduously to persuade Wallace not to run as the presidential candidate of the Communist-infiltrated Progressive Party in 1948." An arduous process, aptly described, resulted in the formation of the American Labor Party and the 1948 presidential candidacy of Henry Wallace--with the result we know.

Wallace, that complex individual, left a complex record. In politics he left two parties and founded another. His view on issues was strongly stated, but subject to completely contradictory statements at another time or place. He was a productive scientist: his "Pioneer Hi-Bred Corn Company, which had branched out into all manner of genetically groomed plants and animals, was flourishing." and, "his chicken breeding was particularly successful, resulting in strains which eat less food and lay more eggs. Not surprisingly, they today dominate the U. S. market." Although Wallace long hailed the "common man," Steil notes that, "Wallace loved humankind, but was mostly vexed or bored by humans--excepting those rare ones who showed insight into matters scientific or spiritual."

Thus, Steil's subject leaves one much to consider. The author's sources are widespread, including material from Russian and FBI intelligence files. The book contains voluminous footnotes, an extended bibliography, photographs, cast of characters list with brief bio notes, and a very detailed index. So, why not five stars? It is really close, perhaps only a quibble away. My quibble is that the early chapters contain a bit too much information and need only a bit of editing out.

[Dave Summers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Contrary to the previous Wallace bio I read, the titular VP, almost President, comes off as a well intentioned but too trusting, mystical nerd. I’m fascinated by his huge shadow cast upon the “what if” scenarios many have embraced. Highly recommended.

[Cori · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for an academic journal book review so it’s not something I would normally pick up. I’m glad I did, however, because I learned a lot from reading it. The author has a breezy writing style that makes the book fast-paced and interesting. He has done a lot of research and there are fascinating accounts of u.s. politics told from the perspective of KGB agents and reports in the Kremlin. The open Soviet archives has given historians a huge treasure trove of resources that are so fascinating to read. Steil does have a tendency to digress from his main hero of Wallace and spends several pages on tangential topics and actors. While these digressions offer flavor to the story, especially his long descriptions of Chiang Kai Shek and character sketches of FDR, these ultimately detract from the story of Wallace and his argument that Wallace was not a lost Messiah of peace. I would give this book 3.5 stars because of the long side stories and because he doesn’t seem to like Wallace very much. He is very critical of the man, and focuses on his negative traits without balancing his positive traits. I feel if one is to write a biography, then there should be some attempt at making a balanced portrayal of that individual. (Unless of course you are writing about Josef Stalin, who is pure evil, there is no need to try and say he was also good. But that is my opinion). I feel like this book is less about Wallace as a person but more as a segway into the inner circle of politics during the 1930s and 1940s. Steil seems much more comfortable talking of the political dramas of FDRs cabinet meetings and the dramatic flare of Chang Kai shek than discussing who Wallace was as a person. It makes for interesting reading but a disappointing look at Wallace. Stiels closing argument: Wallace was a good farmer and scientist but a poor politician. This could have been argued in a lot fewer pages than this 500 page tome.

[Ibrahim · Rating 2 out of 5]

An unflattering portrayal of Henry Wallace - while Wallace was certainly not a political machine apparatchik, and was certainly naive to the cannier operations of those around him, the book calls into question his liberal idealism of global cooperation amongst the two superpowers as completely foolish in the emerging post war world. Largely stemming from the straight cold war propaganda digested and regurgitated regarding USSR’s foreign intentions post WW2; the author portrays every US foreign policy move as a deliberated move by individuals out of genuine concern for democracy, and the USSRs foreign policy move as a conspiracy to greater power. This framing ultimately undermines the authors own examination of Wallace, as he misses what is clearly visible today, and was to Wallace and the left at the time: the US held all the cards after WW2 and for any global cooperation, it had to act magnanimously, instead of the empire building actions it chose to undertake.

Wallace does come off as power hungry, vain, naive, idealistic, and a believer in the ability of individuals hash things out in the backrooms until that goes against him. But the same could have been said about FDR or any of the other New Deal politicians of the era. His actual fault lies in not being a better politician: he realized too late that FDR was going sacrifice him to the party when it was quite clearly obvious. Had he been a better politician we might not be living under the black sun of american uniparty hegemony today.

[Chad Manske · Rating 4 out of 5]

Benn Steil's "The World That Wasn't: Henry Wallace and the Fate of the American Century" offers a captivating and meticulously researched exploration of one of America's most enigmatic political figures. Henry Wallace, the brilliant geneticist turned politician, emerges as a complex and deeply flawed character whose near-miss with the presidency could have dramatically altered the course of 20th-century history. Steil was my primary mentor when I was a military fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations years ago and is a very astute researcher. Steil's narrative skillfully weaves together Wallace's personal journey with the tumultuous political landscape of mid-century America. From his tenure as FDR's Agriculture Secretary to his controversial vice presidency and subsequent fall from grace, Wallace's story is one of idealism, naivety, and ultimately, misjudgment. The book's greatest strength lies in its revelations about Wallace's susceptibility to manipulation by Soviet agents and his misguided faith in Stalin's regime. Steil draws on newly uncovered archives to paint a picture of a man whose spiritual quests and political ideals left him vulnerable to exploitation. Steil recounts Wallace's bizarre forays into international affairs with a mix of fascination and dismay. From his dalliance with Russian mystics in Central Asia to his guided tour of a Potemkin Siberia, Wallace's actions often bordered on the surreal. Perhaps most damning is the revelation that he allowed Stalin to edit one of his crucial election speeches during his 1948 presidential run. While some progressives have long romanticized Wallace as a lost opportunity for a more peaceful post-war world, Steil's work effectively dismantles this notion. The author presents a compelling case that a Wallace presidency could have had disastrous consequences for American foreign policy and the broader struggle against Soviet expansionism. In an era where political naivety and foreign influence in elections remain pressing concerns, "The World That Wasn't" serves as a stark reminder of the dangers of ideological blindness. Steil's work is not merely a historical account but a relevant warning for contemporary readers. While some may argue that Steil's portrayal fails to fully capture Wallace's contributions to agriculture or his appeal to progressives, the book's focus on Wallace's foreign policy missteps is both justified and illuminating. Ultimately, "The World That Wasn't" is a gripping tale of what might have been, offering valuable insights into the fragile nature of democracy and the complex interplay between personal conviction and political reality. Steil's work is sure to spark debate and reflection on this pivotal period in American history.

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a strange and mostly rewarding biography. Its great strength is in its deft and careful use of Soviet archival material to contrast with contemporaneous accounts and the work of earlier historians who lacked this information. It is also easy to read, the prose flows well, and the scholarship is strong. The author understands the era in which Wallace was vitally important, and conveys that understanding well.

I only found two minor historical errors--On page 3, it misdates Churchill's Iron Curtain speech as 1944 (a bad mistake since there is simply no way WC gives that speech before the end of the war) and then it says that the Hiroshima bomb was made of plutonium. No, that was Nagasaki. There may have been others, but I generally found the author quite reliable. Magnificent endnotes document the sources of his claims.

What's odd about this biography is the relentless focus on two matters--Wallace's odd involvement with a cult that shaped his early political career, and then, a far weightier matter--his passionate embrace of the role of useful idiot for Stalin and the Soviets. The author correctly judges that Wallace was a disaster in his foreign policy views, in his naïveté, and in his efforts to practice diplomacy. And the author justly focuses attention on how close this man came to the presidency. He destroys liberal pipe dreams that perhaps if Wallace had stayed on the ticket, there would have been no cold war. Both of these stories deserve attention. But the second one drags on and on in mammoth detail into the post-Democratic Party years.

We learn almost nothing of Wallace's inner life. While we are told of his Asperger-like character, we learn almost nothing about the family man. Suddenly a daughter in law is mentioned towards the end of his life...but we've not known him as a father. The early years of Wallace are similarly shorted. And then, a crisis like The Berlin Airlift is summarized in 4-5 pages, with great detail on matters such as how currency played a role in it. If Wallace had been a player in the crisis, ok, but he wasn't. It is erudite, informed...and irrelevant.

The book then, could have been both longer and shorter, and been the better for both. The odd thing about Wallace is that he very well might have been the least temperamentally suited man to be involved in politics in the 20th century of American national life. He should have been, as the author notes, a scientist, a botanist, some sort of agronomist....and he would have been much happier and the world a better place.

Still, the book has many strengths--lovely prose portraits of FDR, Truman, Chang Kai Shek....it's a deep rewarding book, despite its flaws.

[Tyler Wolanin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book pretty well and thought that overall it was a pretty fair assessment of Henry Wallace. It's true that there were the occasional cheap shots, convenient comparisons, and leading questions; and I thought that more effort could have gone into what you could either call "things Wallace was right about," if you're being charatable to the man, or "explanations of Wallace's appeal," if you are not. I also would have liked to see more attention to Wallace's time as Secretary of Agriculture other than a big-picture economic debunking and a zoom-in on the whole Roerich scandal; and I think that some of the underlying explanations for Wallace's thinking were a bit of a reach without specific documentary evidence (everything is "Jamesian" after that comes up in Wallace's earlier career; there's no evidence presented that he continued to put credence in this philosophical system into his years in office).
All that being said, the book presents convincing (and copious) evidence in support of its thesis, that Wallace was misguided and a dissembler on foreign policy and would have given the US a bad Cold War launch had he been retained as Roosevelt's vice president into the fourth term (the book does a decent job reasoning as to why Wallace ever became VP in the first place, truly a baffling decision no matter what opinion you have of the man). I am willing to entertain pro-Wallace rebuttals if I spot any, but I think this book provides a reasonable baseline assessment on a truly very interesting national-level figure who does not get enough attention.

[CHAD FOSTER · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is worth reading just for its well-researched refutation of the often repeated speculation that had Henry Wallace remained FDR’s vice president instead of Harry Truman, there would have been no Cold War. Anyone who has studied Stalin’s insatiable thirst for power - and the machinations of subsequent Soviet leaders - knows that no amount of accommodation short of a complete capitulation in Europe and elsewhere - would have prevented decades of tension between the United States and the USSR.

Henry Wallace is one of those “what if” historical figures whose promise is the product of wishful thinking and fantasy rather than serious analysis. I was not aware of Wallace’s status in this regard until I read this book. However, I’ve subsequently discovered Oliver Stone’s touting of Henry Wallace as the great missed opportunity that could have prevented the Cold War. Like his absurd theatrical portrayal of the JFK assassination, Stone attempts to peddle an unprovable (and unsubstantiated) myth as a serious historical position.

But none of this detracts from the mostly sympathetic impression of Wallace that I gained from reading “The World that Wasn’t.” While he was certainly odd, with his obsession with mysticism and political flip-flopping, Henry Wallace was generally a well-intentioned -if also highly naive- man. His challenge to racial segregation and support to women’s equality were admirable and forward-looking for the time. However, his conciliatory attitude toward Stalin’s USSR was foolish, leading him to repudiate those positions later in life.

[Dan S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Henry Wallace and his mystical idealism that led him to ally with the Communists and the Kremlin for world peace. His type of idealist liberalism that led him to believe you could scientifically set prices, harvest agriculture and manufacture peace is the same idealism that led to millions dead from collectivist farming. This was a fascinating look at an important figure in American History that was a heart beat away from the presidency in the twilight of FDRs life.

The argument made by Oliver Stone amongst others is that had Wallace been FDRs pick for VP in 1944, the Cold War would have never happened. Benn Steil, with his meticulous research and fast paced narrative disproves this thesis. Stalin was who he was and the powers that be in the US were not about to squander their victory in the Second World War to give Europe and Asia over to the Soviets. While it took some time for Henry Wallace to see who Stalin really was, he eventually figured it out. Henry Wallace believed the world was as it ought to be rather than it was and this world view is not a recipe for a successful leader of men, especially not the leader of the free world.

[June Hopkins · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I ordered the book, I expected to learn more about Henry Wallace’s career as a scientist, a farmer, and a member of President Franklin Roosevelt’s cabinet. Instead, Ben Steil’s book, The World That Wasn’t: Henry Wallace and the Fate of the American Century, presents a seriously skewed picture of Wallace’s public career. He almost gleefully emphasizes Wallace’s religiosity and mysticism, rather than his enormous contributions to American agriculture, rather than his vital work during the Great Depression when he worked with my grandfather, Harry Hopkins, to ensure that the government worked to improve the condition of all Americans, rather than his contributions as secretary of agriculture to the science of farming. Steil’s innuendo’s that Wallace colluded with the Soviet’s falls flat in the face of the actual facts. Henry Wallace responded to events in the post-Yalta years as a progressive and as a patriot and his memory deserves better than this off-center work,

June Hopkins, professor emerita, Georgia Southern University

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Waffled between 3 and 4 stars. When I started, I thought this book would be discussing Wallace rightly trying to calm down American aggressiveness. This book quickly reminded me that they were negotiating with Stalin, a ruthless and brutal leader. That tonal shift, and the rightful showing of Wallace as over trusting and easily duped, made me question why I picked up a 700 page book about him (and wonder if I was a victim of false advertising). However end of day he completed the hero's journey by recognizing the error in his ways, and I intend to read Steil's Breton Woods and Marshall Plan books.

[Tom Griffiths · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written and honest. I found myself questioning the importance of Wallace. As the action of the book led to his attempt at vice President it seemed like a ln outcome that was pretty unlikely. The action afterwards filled me with more pity than concern. The title seemed hyperbolic rather than prescient. It also seemed that the author disliked his subject and it effected his work. Finally I think the book was longer than it needed to be. Once the 1944 has passed the remainder of his life could be resolved in two succinct chapters.

[Betsy Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

FDR’s vice-president from 1940 to 1944 was Henry Wallace, a liberal and an idealist. But in 1944, it was clear to Democratic bosses that FDR couldn't survive a fourth term and the choice of vice-president was critical. So Wallace was out and Harry Truman was in as veep (and within months after FDR’s inauguration he was in as president). Some people think it’s a shame that Wallace didn’t become president. But after reading this book, you’ll probably conclude that the country dodged a bullet because Wallace was unbelievably naive regarding Russia.

[Bill Baar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strongly recommend Steil's biography especially to those interested in Russian meddling in America's affairs. Moscow was about as meddlesome as one could get with Wallace and the Progressive party. Steil tells a well documented story. Also the mix of mysticism and progressivism that drove Wallace is still evident with today's Progressives in my experience. Read this bio and you'll be reminded of people you talk with today.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

One could take in the volume and come away with, I think, a wide variety of possible outcomes. I believe that most observers of our political history would see that Wallace was a man of outsized expectations on the part of both his champions and detractors. Most others, less informed, will believe him to have been a "rah-rah American" 0f almost no consequence. My own belief is that he was a harbinger of Trumpian MAGA sympathizers whether they realize it or not.

[John Klinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating view of the new deal era and the intricacies of Soviet influence. I still don’t feel I truly know Henry Wallace, is the only complaint… I guess I’ve gotten that feeling from a handful of biographies and there’s probably a lesson about what makes someone great. Solid central character to see what strange things were happening at the time. Also feels especially relevant as several countries (Qatar, china) seem to be ramping up their foreign influence machines.

[Keith Francis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A remarkable book which goes into great detail about this farmer/stateman. The discussions of his connections to mysticism, his defense of the USSR and how his presidential bid in 1948 was strongly influenced by covert Soviet agents make for great reading. This book is definitely worth your time to read, especially in light of today's political climate.

[Brian Doheny · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent peak into Russo-American politics when it was at its peak - creative, interesting, and unpredictable - as the reader follows the story of Iowan farmer, Russophile, Soviet asset, and third generation Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace. Amazing parallels to the political discourse of today, too.

[Joanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Idealistic and peace-loving, but clearly Stalin’s dupe, Henry Wallace could have been much more important if American history had taken a slightly different turn. Well researched but not always well written.

[Grace Hoffmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

More than almost anyone needs to know about Henry Wallace, whom I had never heard of. It's always interesting to read about how Russia has tried to influence our foreign and domestic politics, a game they have clearly been playing since WWII.

[Joshua Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful, although I think this is an overly generous account of Wallace. He had some significant strengths but also had a flawed worldview and unsound judgment. Petty egoism drove a lot of his politics. He played both smart guy and insanely dumb guy at the same time.

[Michael Balent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Henry Wallace was a communist stooge. I get it.

[Raymond Ozuna · Rating 5 out of 5]

La patrie ou la mort, nous vaincrons!

[Sangam Agarwal · Rating 1 out of 5]

biography of us policy makers during new deal era
he was communist and doing central planning of agriculture

[Alex]

a cautionary tale about empowering autistic Iowa boys

[Petra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thorough systematic telling of the political life of Henry Wallace.

[JerryDeanHalleck · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most people don't remember Henry Wallace, with good reason. Vice President for 4 years, failed 1948 POTUS 3rd party candidate, and secretary of agriculture for 8 years, he didn't have much impact on the USA.

The most interesting thing is how close this completely unqualified communist sympathizer, and all around oddball came WITHIN A FEW CONVENTION VOTES to be POTUS at the very time the President was making incredibly important decisions regarding Stalin, Germany, the Surrender of Japan, Eastern Europe, China and the Atomic Bomb.

While not a Communist, Wallace loved Communists. He surrounded himself with communist advisors (many NKVD agents), wrote love letters to "Good Ol' Uncle Joe", toed the party line, and wanted to appease Stalin and give him the A-bomb as a gesture of american friendship.

The author lays it all out in an objective fashion. He quotes from Soviet archives and lists all the data Wallace's aides and subordinates provided to the Soviet intelligence agencies. But he goes suprisingly easy on Wallace himself. And I suppose that's the main weakness of the book. He never really gets to the mysteray behind Wallace's rise to VP slot and one heart away from being "Leader of the Free world". Or why Wallace surrounded himself with communists.

Nothing in the book explains why FDR was so determined in 1940 to have wallace on the ticket. He wasn't a Vote getter, he wasn't particularly able (Morgenthau and Ickes thought he was medicore at best), he had no support in the Democrat party (its not clear if he even voted prior to 1932), and he hadn't been particularly popular with farmers. And while he was hard-core Leftist, FDR had those people locked up in 1940.

In a normal election, FDR would've chosen someone like Truman in 1940. A midwestern centrist who would "balance the ticket" and motivate the border state/midwest to vote for him. But instead, FDR chose Wallace. Hopefully, some other historian will provde more answers.

Fortunaely, it was easy for City bosses to get him kicked off the ticket in 1944, because no one except the Liberal/Left liked him. And the real reason FDR went along was he realized Wallace would probably cost him votes and probably the election in 1944.

And its hard to agree with the Author's constant labeling of Wallace pro-soviet attitude as "naive" or "ignorant". People were telling Wallace his aides were communists. People were telling Wallace about Stalin's crimes. But Wallace didn't care. In fact, he viciously attacked anyone who disagreed with him. At some point, you have to accept the idea that Wallace was either (a) a communist or (b) so pro-communist as to be a fellow traveler.

[Scott Wallace · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is right-wing Red-baiting cover-to-cover. Author Benn Steil recycles all the old Commie-hysteria attacks used to destroy Wallace when he ran against Truman in 1948 on a third-party progressive ticket. It's simply a rehash of a 1948 book called "Henry A. Wallace: The Man and the Myth" -- dismissed in history as a "savage and personal" "hatchet job" by a "vehement anti-Communist" (in the words of historian Richard Walton in his book "Henry Wallace, Harry Truman and the Cold War").

The only thing this book adds to that disgraced hatchet job is thousands of pages of KGB files helpfully provided by a prolific Soviet propagandist in Moscow. Steil's conclusion is that Wallace was surrounded by commie infiltrators throughout his public life, as Secretary of Agriculture, Vice President, Secretary of Commerce, editor of the New Republic, and candidate for President (though the author never goes so far as to accuse Wallace of actually being a commie -- just a commie "stooge").

The author rips apart all recent scholarship to the contrary, especially the TV series by Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick called "The Untold History of the United States," which concluded that a Wallace presidency (either by FDR dying a little earlier, or by the 1944 Democratic convention choosing Wallace instead of Truman as VP) would have avoided the Cold War and all associated disasters, like McCarthyism, the arms race, Korea and Vietnam. It's a thesis reinforced just recently by John Nichols in his excellent book “The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party: The Enduring Legacy of Henry Wallace's Anti-Fascist, Anti-Racist Politics,” which zooms in on the moment when the Democratic party took a hard turn to the Right and the Cold War for generations -- that moment being the evening of July 20, 1944, when the Democratic convention chose Truman over Wallace as FDR's fourth-term VP.

Steil's book doesn't mention that the CIA documented Soviet spies EVERYWHERE, from the Manhattan Project to the White House, to the State Department, to the Pentagon, and that even Truman was guilty of "inattention to Communist subversion." And don't forget, FDR and Stalin were best buddies until FDR's death. The only reason to single out Wallace is a bias against his enduringly progressive New Deal values, and a wish to relitigate the New Deal and the Cold War.

This book is stale, slanted, and a dense slog of a read. It's not a history; it's a prosecution. Save your money. Stop The Steil!