Remembering Wendell Willkie
By Jason Sibert
If one is depressed about the present, it sometimes helps to look at the past.
Our world is growing apart with ultranationalist movements springing up in most parts of the world. The United Nations has never been less involved in world affairs than now, and the world’s prime powers seem willing to go head-to-head with one another. We see two big blocks, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which China, Russia and its allies are a part of, and the Quadrilateral Security Dialog, which the United States and its allies are a part of, competing for power. India belongs to both blocks. The prospects for cooperation amongst great powers seems dim.
In World War II, the world was consumed in a destructive war, but a failed presidential candidate took a trip around the world and delivered a powerful message. Wendell Willkie ran for president on the Republican ticket against Franklin Roosevelt in 1940 and lost. The two remained on good terms after the election. Although they differed on some domestic issues, the two shared an internationalist attitude when it comes to world affairs. In the summer of 1942, Roosevelt sent Willkie on his trip around the world to represent the U.S.
The former presidential candidate described the world as “small and completely interdependent.” Willkie mingled with people around all over the world, and he found that people wanted the same thing – peace, freedom, self-determination, and an escape from poverty. His trip took him to Soviet Russia, Palestine, Iran, and China. Willkie was an anti-racist, as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People named its headquarters the Wendell Willkie Memorial Building. The British were worried about the former Republican presidential nominee for his anti-imperialist stance. Many in the United Kingdom wanted to keep the British Empire together at that time.
Willkie wrote a book on his travels titled “One World.” It was released in the spring of 1943. The book gave Americans the feel of what it would be like to have interdependent and equal relations beyond their borders. A Gallup poll at the time found three out of four Americans had read the book. Bookstores couldn’t hardly keep enough copies. In discussing the book, “Popular Mechanics” magazine declared that “never before had persons been so interested in the whole world.”
Willkie defined his internationalism as an alternative to “narrow nationalism” and “international imperialism.” He argued both were the cause of World War II. He thought the U.S. should play a central but not dominant role in a future international order. Willkie wanted a world where there was “equality of opportunity for every race and nation.” When the United Nations was established, President Harry Truman spoke of Willkie’s ideas.
When the country become involved in the Cold War, the presidential candidate’s ideas were at least partially lost. With the world facing problems like nuclear proliferation, the greenhouse effect, right-wing nationalism, and pandemics, it’s high time we rediscover Willkie’s ideas!
Jason Sibert is the executive director of the Peace Economy Project in St Louis.
