Dark Horse: Biography of Wendell Wilkie (Biography of Wendell Willkie)

Wendell Willkie never held a public office yet he nearly became president of the United States. A registered Democrat until the fall of 1939 he captured the Republican partys nomination less than a year later. It was by all accounts a meteoric rise—to win the nomination Willkie defeated such party stalwarts as Thomas Dewey Robert Taft and Arthur Vandenberg. These Republican front-runners had been insisting that the war in Europe wasnt a national concern since two oceans protected the U.S. from the aggressors while for months Willkie had warned of the danger of a Europe controlled by fascists. Shortly before the GOP convened in Philadelphia Hitlers armies swallowed Denmark Norway the Low Countries and France. In a time for heroes Willkie was a man of the hour. Almost overnight Willkie moved the Republican party out of its hidebound isolationism and sent a message to the world that Americans stood together against Axis aggression. Roosevelt although recognizing Willkie as a formidable political opponent called his nomination a godsend because it finally brought national unity. Roosevelts election to a third term—and Willkies defeat—turned out to be the closest presidential race in a generation and Willkie received more votes than any previous Republican candidate setting a record that stood until Eisenhowers 52 landslide. And despite his defeat Willkie grew in stature becoming Roosevelts special envoy during World War II first to London during the Blitz and later to the Middle East to Russia and to China. On the home front Willkie became the spokesman of the One World philosophy that influenced U.S. foreign policy for a generation and the conscience of American politics speaking out against isolationism imperialism and the persecution of minorities.