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In the midst of that, Senator Claude Pepper from Florida, nicknamed Red Pepper because of his progressive views, realized that if he could get to the microphone and get Wallace's name and nomination that night, Wallace will sweep the convention, get the nomination for vice president, defy the bosses, and be back on the ticket.
Pepper fights his way to the microphone. The party bosses see what's going on. You've got Mayor Kelly of Chicago, it was in Chicago, screaming, "It's my convention. This is a fire hazard. Adjourn immediately." Sam Jackson is chairing it. He said he had orders to not let Wallace get the nomination and he says, "I've got a motion to adjourn. All in favor, aye." Maybe 5% say aye. "All opposed, nay." The rest of the convention booms out nay. Jackson says, "Motion carried. Meeting adjourned."
Pepper was literally five feet from the microphone when that happened. Oliver Stone and I argue in the Untold History is that had Pepper gotten five more feet to the microphone and got Wallace's name in nomination, Wallace would be back on the ticket of vice president. He would become president on April 12th, 1945 when Roosevelt died, instead of Truman.
History would have been different. There definitely would have been no atomic bombings in World War Two. Wallace becomes the leading opponent of the atomic bomb. There almost certainly would have been no Cold War or if there was some contention it would never have taken the virulent form that it took between the United States and the Soviets starting in 1945, '46, '47. That's how close we came to a dramatically different history. Five feet. Five feet and a few seconds.
PAUL JAY: Okay. In the next segment of our interview we're going to pick up the story with the Truman presidency and as Peter said, the purging of the New Dealers and such from the Democratic party. Please join us with Peter Kuznick on The Real News Network for part two.
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