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‘Dewey Defeats Truman’: The True Story Behind One Of American History’s Most Iconic Images
Public DomainPresident Harry S. Truman holding a copy of the Chicago Daily Tribune with its infamous headline, “Dewey Defeats Truman.”
On Nov. 3, 1948, an early edition of the Chicago Daily Tribune trumpeted the winner of the election of 1948, which had pitted incumbent President Harry S. Truman against Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York. The victor, the paper declared, was Dewey, and the front page exclaimed: “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN.”
Except that Dewey had not won the election.
The “Dewey Defeats Truman” front page is one of the most notorious newspaper gaffes in history, one made more famous by photos of a beaming Truman holding a copy of the offending paper. So, how did it even happen?
This is the story of the infamous “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline.
Inside The Incredibly Close Election Of 1948
Public DomainPortraits of Harry S. Truman and Thomas E. Dewey, who ran against each other in the presidential election of 1948.
The election of 1948 pitted Democrat Harry S. Truman, the incumbent president, against Republican Thomas E. Dewey, the governor of New York. Dewey, a former prosecutor who had made his name going after gangsters like Lucky Luciano, had narrowly lost the previous election in 1944 to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Meanwhile, many Americans had soured on Truman.
As Roosevelt’s vice president, Truman — previously a U.S. senator from Missouri — ascended to the White House following Roosevelt’s sudden death on April 12, 1945. When he heard that Roosevelt had died and that he would become president, Truman later admitted that he felt like “the Moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me.”
Still, he geared up to win the presidency on his own merits in 1948.
It wouldn’t be easy. According to the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, many Americans saw Truman as “unrefined” and “blunt.” A poll taken in December 1946 suggested that just 35 percent of Americans approved of Truman’s performance. The president’s chances were dimmed even further when Henry Wallace, Truman’s former secretary of commerce (and Roosevelt’s vice president before Truman), announced his own bid for the presidency in 1948 as a candidate for the Progressive Party, which would further split Democratic votes.
The “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline seemed to be inevitable — but nobody expected that it would be a gaffe.
Bill Sitler U.S. Army Signal Corps/Harry S. Truman Library and MuseumPresident Harry S. Truman and Governor Thomas E. Dewey at the dedication of Idlewild Airport in New York City (today JFK Airport). It was the first time the two men had met since being nominated by their respective parties.
Indeed, the Democratic Party was badly fractured. Many Southern Democrats did not like Truman’s support for civil rights. They ultimately broke away, became the “Dixiecrats,” and nominated their own candidate, Strom Thurmond. And left-wing Democrats did not like Truman’s hard stance on the Soviet Union, which they saw as unnecessarily provocative.
During the election itself, the two candidates employed different styles. Truman was fiery and folksy. Dewey, who believed he’d lost in 1944 because he’d been too combative, was far more reserved. This fit the image that many Americans had of Dewey as even-keeled and cold: Alice Roosevelt once referred to him as the “little man on the wedding cake.”
But by October, it seemed that Dewey’s strategy was working. That month, the final Gallup poll before Election Day declared that Dewey would win 49.5 percent of the vote; Truman, it predicted, would win 44.5 percent.
Instead, the election resulted in one of the greatest political upsets in U.S. history.
The ‘Dewey Defeats Truman’ Headline In The Chicago Daily Tribune
Harry S. Truman Library and MuseumHarry S. Truman after casting his vote in the 1948 election in his hometown of Independence, Missouri.
On election night, Nov. 2, 1948, Harry S. Truman faced off against Thomas E. Dewey and Strom Thurmond. The president had a quiet day, voting in his hometown of Independence, Missouri, seeing old friends, and ending the night at a local hotel to watch the election returns. According to the Miller Center, Truman was ahead by about a million votes when he went to bed at midnight. However, Dewey was still the favorite to win.
Then, at 4 a.m., a Secret Service agent woke Truman up and told him to turn on the radio. The news was good for the president: He had a wide lead over Dewey (two million votes) that all but ensured his victory. Indeed, the election was soon called, and Dewey conceded the race that morning. Truman had triumphed in the Electoral College (303 to 189) and secured the popular vote by three million.
Truman had seemingly won the election by holding together enough of the New Deal coalition to ensure his victory. Black voters, urban voters, liberals, farmers, and even some Southerners gave him their vote.
But in Chicago, newspaper editors at the Chicago Daily Tribune had been forced into making a preemptive call. A printers’ strike meant that they needed to publish the paper earlier than usual, and, as Dewey was the favorite to win, they printed the headline: “Dewey Defeats Truman.”
Harry S. Truman Library and MuseumPresident Harry S. Truman with the famous “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline.
Truman came across a copy of the “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline two days after the election as he made his way back to Washington, D.C. from Missouri by train. Someone handed the president a copy of the paper (or, as related in one version of the story, a Truman staffer found it beneath a train seat). Truman broke into a grin and held up the paper for photographers and the crowds who had gathered to greet him during his journey back to Washington.
Today, it’s one of the most famous photos in political history.
The Aftermath Of The ‘Dewey Defeats Truman’ Photograph
Harry S. Truman made history in another way just a few months later. His inauguration was the first to be televised nationally, and some 10 million Americans tuned in (while another 100 million listened on the radio).
Harry S. Truman Library and MuseumThe second inauguration of President Harry S. Truman in 1949, the first to ever be nationally televised.
However, Truman would face significant challenges during his second term. His hopes of introducing a “Fair Deal” program to Americans — including national health insurance, public housing, civil rights legislation, and more — were dashed, and the president found himself instead overseeing the start of the Korean War. The Truman Administration was also attacked as being “soft on communism,” especially by the virulent Joseph McCarthy.
In 1952, Truman could have run again, having finished Roosevelt’s term and just one of his own, but he chose to leave the White House. Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower won the election that year.
Dewey, meanwhile, remained governor of New York state until 1954 and then returned to his law career. He died in 1971 at the age of 68. Truman died in 1972 at 88.
Though the two men had drastically different political fortunes and led very different lives, they’ll forever be linked by the “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline in the Chicago Daily Tribune. The ensuing photograph — Truman beaming, the erroneous headline — is one of the most famous in American political history. What’s more, it’s also a cautionary tale against declaring a truth preemptively, eternalized in black and white.
After reading about the “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline from the election of 1948, look through these surprising photographs of U.S. presidents when they were young. Or, learn the stories of some of the worst presidents in American history.
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