wendell willkie

Wendell Lewis Willkie (1892 - 1944) was a corporate lawyer in the United States and was the dark horse Republican Party nominee for the 1940 presidential election, where he crusaded against the policies of the New Deal, which he thought were inefficient and anti-business, but waffled on the issue of intervention or isolation in the world war that Nazi Germany was winning. His opponent Franklin D. Roosevelt won a third term, with 55% of the popular vote and 85% of the electoral vote. Roosevelt found Willkie to be a compatible liberal and brought him aboard as a special ambassador-at-large. Willkie cris-crossed the globe, bringing home a vision of "One World" freed from imperialism and colonialism. His liberalism lost him supporters in the GOP and he dropped out of the 1944 race, then died of a heart attack.…more