Henry A. Wallace

Henry A. Wallace
Official portrait, c. 1940
33rd Vice President of the United States
In office January 20, 1941 – January 20, 1945
President	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded by	John Nance Garner
Succeeded by	Harry S. Truman
10th United States Secretary of Commerce
In office March 2, 1945 – September 20, 1946
President	Franklin D. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman
Preceded by	Jesse H. Jones
Succeeded by	W. Averell Harriman
Chair of the Supply Priorities and Allocations Board
In office August 28, 1941 – January 16, 1942
President	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Office abolished
Chair of the Board of Economic Warfare
In office July 2, 1940 – July 15, 1943
President	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Office abolished
11th United States Secretary of Agriculture
In office March 4, 1933 – September 4, 1940
President	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded by	Arthur M. Hyde
Succeeded by	Claude R. Wickard
Personal details
Born	Henry Agard Wallace (1888-10-07)October 7, 1888 Orient, Iowa, U.S.
Died	November 18, 1965(1965-11-18) (aged 77) Danbury, Connecticut, U.S.
Resting place	Glendale Cemetery, Des Moines, Iowa, U.S.
Political party	Republican (1909–1936) Democratic (1936–1947, 1964–1965) Progressive (1948–1950)
Other political affiliations	Progressive "Bull Moose" (1912)
Spouse	Ilo Browne ​ (m. 1914)​
Children	3
Parent	Henry Cantwell Wallace (father)
Education	Iowa State University (BS)
Signature
Henry A. Wallace's voice Portion of Wallace's "What Are We Fighting For" speech on the difference between the Axis and the Allies of World War II Recorded May 8, 1942

Henry Agard Wallace (October 7, 1888 – November 18, 1965) was an American politician, journalist, farmer, and businessman who served as the 33rd vice president of the United States, from 1941 to 1945, under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He served as the 11th U.S. secretary of agriculture and the 10th U.S. secretary of commerce. He was the nominee of the new Progressive Party in the 1948 presidential election.

The oldest son of Henry C. Wallace, who served as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture from 1921 to 1924, Henry A. Wallace was born in rural Iowa in 1888. After graduating from Iowa State University in 1910, he worked as a writer and editor for his family's farm journal, Wallaces' Farmer. He also founded the Hi-Bred Corn Company, a hybrid corn company that became extremely successful. Wallace displayed intellectual curiosity about a wide array of subjects, including statistics and economics, and explored various religious and spiritual movements, including Theosophy. After his father's death in 1924, Wallace drifted away from the Republican Party; he supported Democratic nominee Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential election.

Wallace served as Secretary of Agriculture under Roosevelt from 1933 to 1940. He strongly supported the New Deal and presided over a major shift in federal agricultural policy, implementing measures designed to curtail agricultural surpluses and to ameliorate rural poverty. Roosevelt overcame strong opposition from conservative leaders in the Democratic Party and had Wallace nominated for vice president at the 1940 Democratic National Convention. The Roosevelt-Wallace ticket won the 1940 presidential election. At the 1944 Democratic National Convention, conservative party leaders defeated Wallace's bid for renomination, placing Missouri Senator Harry S. Truman on the Democratic ticket instead. In early 1945, Roosevelt appointed Wallace as Secretary of Commerce.

Roosevelt died in April 1945 and Truman succeeded him as president. Wallace continued to serve as Secretary of Commerce until September 1946, when he was fired by Truman for delivering a speech urging conciliatory policies toward the Soviet Union.^[1] Wallace and his supporters then established the nationwide Progressive Party and launched a third-party campaign for president. The Progressive platform called for conciliatory policies toward the USSR, desegregation of public schools, racial and gender equality, a national health-insurance program, and other left-wing policies. Accusations of communist influence followed, and Wallace's association with controversial Theosophist figure Nicholas Roerich undermined his campaign; he received just 2.4% of the popular vote. Wallace broke with the Progressive Party in 1950 over the Korean War, and in a 1952 article he called the Soviet Union "utterly evil". Turning his attention back to agricultural innovation, he became a highly successful businessman. He specialized in developing and marketing hybrid seed corn and improved chickens before his death in 1965 of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).