OPERATION STOP HENRY
While Henry Wallace traversed Siberia and China, orating on the century of the common man, Democratic politicians in Washington, D.C., were discussing the vice president in a very different context. They were a loose-knit group, united by a single conviction: Franklin D. Roosevelt was a dying man, and virtually anything short of assassination must be considered to prevent Wallace from becoming the next president.
Leading this informal coalition was Robert Hannegan, the new chairman of the Democratic Party. Even more important in some opinions was California oilman Edwin W. Pauley, the treasurer of the party and the man who had given Roosevelt blunt advice about getting back to practical politics after the 1942 midterm debacle. Not far behind him were Boss Ed Flynn of the Bronx and Mayor Ed Kelly of Chicago, a duo with the power to win—or lose—two crucial states, New York and Illinois. Backing them was another party leader, Postmaster General Frank