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He was Vice-President four years. But Roosevelt rejected him as a running mate in 1944 in response to furious pressure from Southern Democrats and perhaps some doubts of his own. After all, he had himself given Wallace a furious kicking downstairs in the BEW fight with Jesse Jones. But as a reward for Wallace's campaigning in 1944 he offered him any job he wanted but Secretary of State.
Wallace chose Commerce (in the hope that he could press his plan for full employment).
He neither drank nor smoked. He studied avidly, learned Spanish and Russian. He exercised prodigiously, walking, playing tennis, throwing the boomerang. All of these things are vaguely remembered.
There are other facets of his character not so well known.
His writings are a labyrinth of yearnings and doubts. He once wrote, in Statesmanship and Religion: "The first thing which stands out in the lives of the reformers of the 16th Century is their tremendous earnestness. The only people of this century who seem to have a comparable earnestness are such men as Lenin, Mussolini and Hitler." And in the same book: "Neither socialism nor communism meets the realities of human nature. Both of them have an emotional dryness, a dogmatic thinness which repels me."
He is a man who has read much but is not well read, thought much but is not a thinker, known too many people to have made many real friends. He is a scientist who is governed by his emotions, a believer who has rejected faith. He has sincerity without principle.
He turned his back on principle when he took advantage of bumbling Harry Truman's endorsement of his speech. Even the sympathetic leftist Nation pointed out: "He should have known that Mr. Truman's endorsement turned it [the speech] into a bombshell." He not only should have known, he did.
No Other Decent Course. Was he now turning his back on an even greater principle? Wallace knows as well as anyone the nature of his proposal. He knows the background of postwar U.S.-Russian relations. The U.S. had already tried the friendly hand. But Russia interpreted friendliness as weakness. Russia had used the veto to block virtually every majority ruling which incurred her dislike. Russia had seized 270,000 square miles of territory since 1939. Stalin had reaffirmed Marxism in a speech last February which left no doubts about Russia's intent and convinced many that she is now on a relentless war economy.
In 1940 the man who now offers Americans a choice wrote in a book called The American Choice: "Against Hitler's total warfare we must quickly oppose a total defense. ... If we really believe all we have said and done about the rights of man, and freedom and personal honor in this New World, I can see no other safe or decent course." The fact that Wallace could now see another course was something Wallace has not fully explained.