President Wallace
On a chilly, sunny day in late January, a large crowd gathered on the east face of the United States Capitol Building to observe the inauguration of George Wallace, the first President from the Deep South since Zachary Taylor in 1848. Flanked by Vice President McNamara, President Kennedy, Vice President Symington, and former President Rockefeller. First Lady Lurleen Wallace – a survivor of uterine cancer (she underwent a preventative hysterectomy in 1961) whom the public would come to adore in spite of her husband’s controversial reputation – held open the Wallace family bible while Chief Justice Nicholas Katzenbach recited the oath of office:
“I, George Corley Wallace, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States. And will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, so help me God.
Standing straight in pride, Wallace mounted the podium to deliver his inaugural address.
“President Kennedy, President Rockefeller, President Eisenhower, Vice President McNamara, Vice President Symington, members of Congress, and my fellow Americans. As the son of a farmer in rural Alabama, it says a lot that I am able to address you as the President of this great country.”
“We stand at a precipitous time in our nation’s history. Thugs and malcontents threaten our liberty and safety in their quest to remake America with a philosophy more connected to the Kremlin than to Independence Hall. Tens of millions of Americans away from the centers of power, the seats of culture, in middle America believe them to be as dangerous to us as those Communists killing our boys in the jungles of Southeast Asia – and my fellow Americans, they are right.”
“With the Soviet war machine climbing higher and higher in their quest for the ultimate triumph of power – the ability to wipe out more of our beloved earth than any other nation – America cannot shirk our responsibilities. As an ancient warrior couldn’t allow his sword to rust, we cannot allow our atomic arsenal to fall behind our foes across the Iron Curtain.”
“As the heirs to Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, nothing pains me more to see hardworking families to languish in poverty. These are the welders of our buildings, the stokers of our power plants, the miners of our resources, the builders of our cities. The backbone of America. To all members of Congress and the Executive Branch, fighting for these people will be the prime focus of my Administration, and one that I will wear with pride!”
The polyglot nature of Wallace’s cabinet was obvious from the outset, members selected from all across the spectrum of the Democratic Party (aside from the far progressive left, embodied by the counterculture and the McGovernites that backed the Progressive Party in 1968). In victory, the divisive Wallace that had triumphed in the Democratic Party civil war sought benevolence rather than further divide the party – fears of losing the moderate left to a Rockefeller or Liberty Conservative GOP a very real possibility.“We stand at a precipitous time in our nation’s history. Thugs and malcontents threaten our liberty and safety in their quest to remake America with a philosophy more connected to the Kremlin than to Independence Hall. Tens of millions of Americans away from the centers of power, the seats of culture, in middle America believe them to be as dangerous to us as those Communists killing our boys in the jungles of Southeast Asia – and my fellow Americans, they are right.”
“With the Soviet war machine climbing higher and higher in their quest for the ultimate triumph of power – the ability to wipe out more of our beloved earth than any other nation – America cannot shirk our responsibilities. As an ancient warrior couldn’t allow his sword to rust, we cannot allow our atomic arsenal to fall behind our foes across the Iron Curtain.”
“As the heirs to Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, nothing pains me more to see hardworking families to languish in poverty. These are the welders of our buildings, the stokers of our power plants, the miners of our resources, the builders of our cities. The backbone of America. To all members of Congress and the Executive Branch, fighting for these people will be the prime focus of my Administration, and one that I will wear with pride!”
As outlined in his first State of the Union address, George Wallace illustrated the four pillars that his presidency would seek to address: social order, economic nationalism, governmental assistance for the working poor, and a rejuvenation of the United States’ nuclear arsenal to deter the new militarism from Semichastny’s Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact.
Having been an ardent proponent of state’s rights during the civil rights debates of the late fifties and early sixties, in a special address to the nation following a broadening of abortion rights in California (Governor Ronald Reagan signing a bill that legalized abortions for rape, incest, fetal abnormality, and for the first eight weeks of pregnancy – a move he would later regret) Wallace completely renounced his earlier policy. Claiming that there was a “Concentrated effort to undermine the moral foundations that made our nation strong, the buck for halting and rolling back these efforts stops right here, on my shoulders.” It was soon followed by the Stennis Amendment, a move to prohibit any federal funds from going to pay for abortions or fund abortion practitioners, which passed Congress by overwhelming margins.
“While I am as against the brutal practice of abortion as the esteemed gentleman from Mississippi, it seems to me that President Wallace only follows the doctrine of state’s rights as to the effective enslavement of the black man in America. He is no more righteous as a slaveowner who attends church services in the morning only to whip his slave to death in the afternoon for his own amusement.”
Senator Eugene McCarthy (D-MN) during the debate for the Stennis Amendment. Majority Whip Strom Thurmond (D-SC) would introduce a motion to censure him, which would be defeated 39-59.
The first true test of Wallace’s commitment to fighting the counterculture and the liberalization of America’s social policy came when FDR-appointee Justice Hugo Black announced his resignation from the Supreme Court due to health problems. The great dislike held by the new Administration with the landmark liberal decisions of the Warren Court was well known – the popularity of ‘Impeach Earl Warren’ signs never wavering in Appalachia and the Deep South even after his retirement.Senator Eugene McCarthy (D-MN) during the debate for the Stennis Amendment. Majority Whip Strom Thurmond (D-SC) would introduce a motion to censure him, which would be defeated 39-59.
Vowing to “Apply a strict litmus test to find Judges that will preserve the Constitution and basic morality after the chaos of the last two decades,” President Wallace announced his appointment of Chief Judge of the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida G. Harrold Carswell to Black’s seat. A fury of criticism descended from the left and liberty conservatives over his originalist record and what was considered a history of discriminatory statements respectively. However, political pressure on Majority Leader Humphrey and division among the GOP (most agreeing with Carswell’s judicial record), a filibuster by Pete McCloskey and James Buckley was defeated and Carswell confirmed by a vote of 59-40 – Nebraska Senator Roman Hruska having been hospitalized in a vehicle accident in Omaha.
For the longest time, mainstream Keynesian economics had stipulated that there was a negative correlation between inflation and unemployment. When one went up the other went down and vice versa, the doctrinaire economic rule for most of the middle of the 20th Century. However, starting in the late sixties and continuing into the next decade the United States (and all of the Western world for the most part) experienced a befuddlement that was coined “Stagflation” by former Prime Minister Iain Macleod in 1968 in his last major speech before leaving Parliament – a combination of stagnation and inflation. Causes were attributed to many events such as an increase in foreign monetary supplies due to a boom in the Japanese and German economies and steadily rising oil prices brought on by the UAR and Saudi Arabia over anger at the Treaty of Amman (and later Western support over the Begin Government).
With the unemployment rate rising steadily from the low of 4.1 during April 1965 to 6.1 and an inflation rate of 5.24%, calls on President Wallace to act were loud and fierce.
“The proper Government is a government that works for you! The Silent Majority. Previous regimes run by coastal elites didn’t, which is why patriotic administrations in the states had to take up the slack, but mine does and will continue doing so as long as I have breath in my body!”
-Excerpt of President Wallace’s speech at the Reverend Jerry Falwell’s Thomas Road Baptist Church, Lynchburg, VA-
“That little f##k stole my line!”
-FBI audio recording of Governor Spiro T. Agnew, Maryland Governor’s residence-
Wallace’s approach was three fold. Echoing the past traditions of populists such as William Jennings Bryan, he unilaterally abolished the gold standard as a measure of propping up the US Dollar, establishing a fiat currency instead. Second, a series of wage and price controls was established via a congressionally-authorized FDR-style government board to ensure the rate of inflation was slowed. Third, to rejuvenate American manufacturing – on a steady decline thanks to cheaper goods from the booming German and Japanese sectors – the ardently protectionist and economically nationalist Wallace pushed for a new bill that would serve as a “Shield and a Kitchen” for embattled US industry. The Industrial Protection and Investment Act (IPIA) passed the House by a margin of 234-197 and the Senate 52-45 to be signed on Labor Day 1969.-Excerpt of President Wallace’s speech at the Reverend Jerry Falwell’s Thomas Road Baptist Church, Lynchburg, VA-
“That little f##k stole my line!”
-FBI audio recording of Governor Spiro T. Agnew, Maryland Governor’s residence-
Combining a series of government subsidies to struggling industries (including generous concessions to labor unions) that was implemented by Secretary of Public Works George P. Mahoney with a repeal of the largely pro-trade policies of the last four decades with a general tariff levy on foreign manufactured goods such as vehicles, electronics, and steel to name three, despite dire warnings of economic pitfalls from economists like Friedman and officials such as Senator George H. W. Bush and NYC Mayoral Candidate William F. Buckley the effects seemed positive. Inflation and unemployment stabilized by the fourth quarter of 1970, and it seemed as if the United States had ridden out the storm better than the monetarist governments in Australia and Britain.
All efforts for such a treaty came to a screeching halt upon George Wallace taking the Oath of Office. Unlike the Kennedy Administration, Wallace had no sympathy toward the dovish wing of the Democratic Party. After beating it fair and square (both at the Chicago convention and in the general election, where they had run in the Progressive Party), the hawkish Wallace insured that the State and Defense Departments were controlled by leading hawks: SecState Richard Helms, National Security Advisor Felix Hébert, and Secretary of Defense Curtis LeMay – the latter of which would be considered the brainchild of the Wallace national security strategy.
On the campaign trail Wallace had lambasted the military strategies of the Nixon, Rockefeller, and Kennedy Presidencies, accusing them of “pouring money down a rathole” in deployments to quiet sectors in Germany, Japan, and other foreign bases. This was done, according to Wallace, “While leaving America’s fighting men to rot in the jungle conflicts the world over.” Journeying to London on his first foreign state visit of his Presidency, Wallace, Helms, and LeMay were set to fulfill the promises of the campaign into decisive action.
British Prime Minister Julian Amery and French President of the Council François Mitterrand both had much to dislike in President Wallace (the former calling him a “Pompous bag of hot air” in a conversation with Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Margaret Thatcher, a close friend of his). However, on defense policy their objectives – keeping the military power of the Commonwealth and the Community intact – meshed nicely with the Alabaman’s.
In order to free up American manpower and wealth for other actions, Wallace and Helms proposed in London the 35-35-30 Plan. In effect, the numbers were the percentages of total NATO defense spending provided by the United States, the British Commonwealth/French Community, and other allied nations respectively. In Wallace’s words, “I would rather teach our civilized allies to defend themselves and provide the needed resources for them to do so than expend American children to do so.” Amery and Mitterrand both signed on to the plan, resulting in a massive shuffle of military forces and spending over the early 1970s. Minor NATO nations would see their militaries expand massively as LeMay reduced US land strength in Europe and East Asia by nearly fifty percent, bloating their budgets and leading to austerity programs (governments having already leveraged US military aid to lower defense spending and increasing social spending). The consequences of this would soon be felt.
While favoring the military independence of many of America’s first world allies, Wallace’s rationale to the third world was far different. By shuttling troops out of Europe and East Asia, Wallace, Helms, Hébert, and LeMay envisioned the US Military acting as a crutch for friendly regimes fighting internal or external conflicts against Communist “National Liberation” movements. Vietnam was the clear example, referred to by all Wallace’s speeches on the matter. “Our South Asian ally must be guaranteed their existence by American arms until they can stand on their own. This is America’s duty against the forces of Communism.” LeMay’s reorganization of the peacetime military was conducted to reflect this.
To provide a deterrence against the Soviet Union, engaged in a massive expansion of strategic arsenals under General Secretary Semichastny, what became known as the LeMay Doctrine would be established. Effectively, the conventional military would be out of the deterrence business, its role taken over by a large buildup of nuclear arms to keep up with the Soviets.
“What country is this if we can’t even keep up our atomic arsenal with the icebox of the world?”
-SecDef Curtis LeMay, press conference October, 1969-
Angering many liberals – Senator Pete McCloskey (R-CA), Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME), and Frank Church (D-ID) serving as a bipartisan triumvirate to support a so-called Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) – the United States and the Soviet Union would plunge themselves into a new arms race, the American Boone missile competing directly with the Soviet SS-18 ‘Satan.’-SecDef Curtis LeMay, press conference October, 1969-
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