In late 1940, Hollywood was flush with rumours that the newly divorced actress, Dorothy Lamour was soon to wed the director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover. These rumours proved to be all too true. The couple were married in the Spring of 1941. The following years proceded much as one might imagine. Though Hoover was now married, he remained the dedicated director of the FBI, and any assumption that he would now retire into wedded bliss proved wrong. Meanwhile, Hoover's stock in Washington grew following the marriage. As early as 1944, whispers of a Hoover for President campaign began circulating.
But Hoover had very little interest, Hoover was never a man to run a foolhardy campaign, even if Roosevelt was a dangerous damn communist. Still, oddly enough Hoover did recieve a few delegates at the convention. This serves as a slight foreshadowing of the events of the 1948 Republican convention. At the time, it looked as though Dewey would be the nominee, and all of the anti-Dewey candidates met in Robert Taft's hotel room. They needed a candidate, and none of them were, at least at first, willing to drop their campaign in favour of another man in the room. It was very late that night when Taft decided that simply allowing Dewey to have the nomination was unacceptable, and that he was willing to be the master of the senate under another conservative president. But who? Certainly not Stassen, and Vandenburg was a nonentity. Then, he came to a logical conclusion-J. Edgar Hoover.
Hoover's popularity as Director of the FBI, might make him capable of preventing Dewey's nomination. Taft announced to his fellow anti-Dewey confederates that he would step out of the race if J. Edgar Hoover were to run. Quickly, he convinced Vandenburg to agree. A quick phone call was made, a tired Hoover agreed to run. The next day a second vote was held. This time, J Edgar Hoover stood as a candidate, and he had the votes of Taft and Vandenburg behind him. In addition to this, various favorite sons had dropped out of the race, and in light of this Hoover was able to prevent as easy nomination for anyone. As things stood currently, Dewey was still leading in the votes, followed by Hoover, who was in turn followed by Stassen. The more conservative of the delegates began to rally around Hoover, while Stassen continued to divide the more moderate faction which otherwise would have steadfastly supported Tom Dewey. As a result, the first few votes were rather indecisive. Neither the conservative nor the moderates seemed likely to prevail easily. Dewey still managed to hold on to a slender lead, and as the hours turned into days, it seemed increasingly unlikely that Director Hoover would overthrow Dewey. And so, a last minute compromise was born. Hoover agreed to run as Dewey's vice President, if Dewey would agree to appoint Clyde Tolson as Hoover's replacement, and if Dewey would agree to support Hoover for the Presidency in 1956 should the ticket defeat Truman. Of course, these were merely the initial agreements, and there were naturally a series of tense negoitations before the ticket was announced.
In the election that followed, while Dewey himself remained aloof, Hoover focused on the communist issue, portraying the President as weak, and unable to fight the red menace with any vigor. Hoover took full advantage of all available media, as he had for years as the director of the FBI. Where Dewey ignored Truman's attacks, Hoover went after them like the pitbull that he was. Consequently, any possible advantage Truman might otherwise have gained was quickly destroyed by John Hoover. Indeed, Truman was said to have called the 1948 election "the Hoover campaign." In the end, the election was far closer than expected, and in some ways that was something of a victory for President Truman.
America looked forward to the Presidency of Thomas Dewey. Few expected that the "man on the wedding cake." Would not live to see the end of his term.
The Hoover era Dewey's death would spawn remains a black mark on American history, which is not likely to ebb any time soon. He has been called a war criminal and a fascist, but in the final analysis the Presidency of John Edgar Hoover was an American tragedy.