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The 1948 United States presidential election was thought to be amongst the most dramatic that had been seen since the previous landscape altering election of 1944. The moderately popular & successful President Thomas E. Dewey was seeking re-election in the face of a continually aggressive social democratic Progressive Party, whilst the old rivals in the form of the Democrats had successfully drafted and nominated one of the major military heroes of WWII – General George C. Marshall.

Some newspapers and Washington insiders were already expecting the General to have already won the election; he was popular with the public, unmarred by any connections with the so-called ‘Dixiecrat’ faction that had since taken over much of the leadership of the Democratic Party following the Progressive split in ’44, and many expected he could achieve a greater success of bringing peace back to America after Dewey’s fumbling with the invasion and occupation of Japan.

In the end though, it all proved for nothing. Despite the protests of some liberal members within Dewey’s own faction of the Republican Party, Vice President John W. Bricker was re-nominated to join the President on the Republican ticket for the election – a sizable numbered wished for Earl Warren, Governor of California and close friend of the President, to instead take the vice presidential slot, though this was dismissed by Dewey in an effort to preserve party unity.

In a close-run race, Dewey would successfully be re-elected with an increased public mandate and overtaking his own victory against Senator Harry S. Truman four years prior. With this renewed confidence, Dewey would need to take his party forward into the post-war era and restore America’s confidence & pride. The future has yet to be written, he stated in his 1945 State of the Union Address. It is up to us to make it happen as we see fit.

Of course, there were few who could foresee exactly what that future would be.
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