Clark Clifford: The Politics of 1948 and the Jews

In preparation for the 1948 election, President Harry Truman’s political adviser, Clark Clifford, wrote a memo outlining the political conduct he recommended for the administration the year before the election. He says New York Governor Thomas Dewey will be the Republican candidate and Henry Wallace a third party nominee. Clifford discusses the various constituencies the president needs to be reelected. This was his assessment of The Jew:

The Jewish vote, insofar as it can be thought of as a bloc, is important only in New York. But (except for Wilson in 1916) no candidate since 1876 has lost New York and won the Presidency, and its 47 votes are naturally the first prize in any election. Centered in New York City, that vote is normally Democratic and, if large enough, is sufficient to counteract the upstate vote and deliver the state to President Truman. Today the Jewish bloc is interested primarily in Palestine and will continue to be an uncertain quantity right up to the time of election. Even though there is general approval among the Jewish people regarding the United Nations report on Palestine, the group is still torn with conflicting views and dissension. It will be extremely difficult to decide some of the vexing questions which will arise in the months to come on the basis of political expediency. In the long run, there is likely to be greater gain if the Palestine problem is approached on the basis of reaching decisions founded upon intrinsic merit.

Clifford later played a key role in convincing Truman not to abandon the UN partition plan, as other advisers suggested, or to agree to a plan for ending the 1948 War that ceded the Negev to the proposed Arab state.

Source: “Memo, Clark Clifford to Harry S. Truman,“ November 19, 1947. Political File, Clifford Papers.