Wallace, Henry A.

Wallace, Henry A. (Agard) (1888–1965) vice-president; born in Adair County, Iowa. He switched from the Republican to the Democratic Party in the late 1920s. Appointed secretary of agriculture in 1933, he carried out policies mandated by the Agriculture Adjustment Act of 1933. In 1940 he was nominated for vice-president after Franklin Roosevelt made it clear that he wanted Wallace. An active vice-president, he advocated cooperation with the Soviet Union and economic assistance to underdeveloped countries. He was dropped from the ticket in 1944 but still campaigned for Roosevelt. He was named secretary of commerce in 1945, but was later fired by President Truman for his outspokenness regarding American relations with the Soviet Union. In 1948 he ran unsuccessfully for president as the Progressive Party candidate. In 1952 he published Why I Was Wrong, which explained his new distrust of the Soviet Union.