The third round of open policy debates for presidential candidates in the 1944 general election was originally scheduled for late August, but due to the sudden change in the war in South America, Truman proposed an extension, which Dewey readily accepted, and the postponement was extended by a month. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

By late September, the debate was finally about to take place, but for Truman it had lost its original significance: he had hoped that his troops would be able to fight a good comeback in the South American theater, so that not only the war situation would be improved, but also his political future would be improved. But the result of the delay is worse than expected, don't read the newspapers, the radio all day long, the outnumbered, heroic resistance.

He knew the truth very well: the United States had suffered unprecedented defeats on land, sea, and air in all three theaters, and with the exception of rockets or silent submarines owned by Germany, all other battles were also a mess. As for being outnumbered, it doesn't seem to be true when you dig deeper -- except that the naval strength may indeed be a little worse than that of Germany, the army strength and army aviation strength are superior to the German army, and the United States has been operating in Brazil for many years, even if it can't defeat the German army, it shouldn't be such a one-sided situation!

Dewey also knew these insiders, but Truman knew that it was impossible for Dewey to expose this shady scene, because Dewey's election was basically a certainty, and in such a situation, Dewey could not chase after him and fight hard, and if he broke this rule, the opposition Democratic Party would not give him good fruit to eat in the future.

Truman is Truman, Democrats are Democrats, these are two different things!

Although the focus of the third general election was domestic social, economic, and livelihood issues, the two candidates obviously had no intention of dwelling on these details, and everyone talked about it in a few rounds, directly shifting the focus to the war situation that voters are more concerned about.

"Mr. Truman, what do you think of our situation after this battle in Brazil?"

"Needless to say, it's terrible. The Germans invaded a large part of Brazil, not only divided the Brazilian territory to form a colony, but also supported a Brazilian puppet regime......"

"Who do you think is responsible?"

"No doubt it's me!" Truman said in a deep voice, "I am the president of the United States, the supreme commander of the armed forces of the United States, and I am fully responsible for the deterioration of the war situation. The officers and men of our army, represented by Admiral Patton and Major General Roosevelt, have done their best. They don't have responsibility, I take all the responsibility! ”

Dewey paused for a moment, as if he did not expect Truman to admit so briskly, hesitated for a moment, and instead of chasing after him, he asked a relatively gentle question: "How do you plan to improve and improve your leadership policy in the coming term so that you can ......?"

"I have deeply reflected on the Brazilian Campaign, and indeed on a series of other battles that preceded it......," Truman said slowly, "and although we have paid a great price and fought valiantly, the overall situation of the Allied forces is deteriorating, and after Britain and the Soviet Union were forced to withdraw from the war, the United States was almost alone in supporting this war against aggression and defending democracy and freedom." There was a lot of pressure, a lot of challenges, a lot of difficulties, but I never lost faith and I believed that justice was on our side. ”

The audience calmly listened to Truman's continuation.

"It is impossible for a person to do something wrong without paying a price, it is impossible not to take responsibility, and in view of the unfavorable performance and overall strategy of the American military during this period, I am determined to take full responsibility, and for this reason, I officially announce today......" Truman glanced at the audience and slowly but firmly spat out a single word, "Withdraw!" ”

The host and the audience were suddenly messy, as were the voters listening to the radio on the radio: One candidate withdraws?

Carter, the host, asked in a voice of disbelief, "Mr. Truman, if I heard me correctly, you just said that you were going to withdraw from the election?" ”

"Yes, withdrawing from the election, my partner and I will jointly withdraw from this presidential election and will not seek re-election." Truman reiterated, "It was a very difficult decision, and before I made this decision, I asked myself countless times, communicated with my running mates, communicated with my campaign team members many times, and formally communicated with the Democratic Party, and although everyone regretted it, they all respected my decision in the end."

By now, I'm going to say, sorry! I failed my running mate, Mr. William Buckley, a vice presidential candidate; I failed the delegates to the Democratic National Convention who nominated me as their presidential candidate at the Party Convention; I failed my team members who have always supported me; I have failed to live up to the voters and supporters who have been expecting me to play better and lead the country to victory......"

At this point, Truman's voice choked, and he walked to the center, bowed deeply to the crowd, and then returned to the speaker's seat, wiping his glasses stained with tears, and continued: "As we all know, I was not elected president by referendum in the last presidential election, but I was appointed vice president by Mr. Roosevelt after the Wallace incident, and I succeeded him as president because of the rapid deterioration in His Excellency's health and his unfortunate death—a rather rare political event in American history.

Personally, I have never participated in a general election before, this is my first time in a general election, because of the difficult situation facing the country, I have to focus on political priorities, and the voters who are more concerned about me can see that since May, I have been out of the campaign very rarely, most of the time Mr. Barkley and Mr. John F. Kennedy, the deputy director of the campaign office, are promoting my political ideas for me, and it is very important for me to do everything well in the presidencyAnd even more often than the election campaign - next year the American people will always have a new president, maybe me, maybe Mr. Dewey and somebody else, and I, and only me, will be responsible for the present of the United States! ”

These words earned him sympathetic applause.

The audience suddenly remembered that President Truman took office under a state of emergency, and when he became president, the situation was already very unsatisfactory, but he did not shirk his responsibilities, let alone argue for himself, but readily admitted all the consequences and publicly announced his withdrawal from the election -- this is a responsible political leader who does not aim to compete for power and profit!

Of course, Dewey knew that Truman wanted to make a little political capital for himself in the future, but Truman's readily admitting defeat and withdrawing was equivalent to that he had almost won the election ahead of schedule. ”

However, Truman quickly changed his tone and moved on to something else: "In view of the recent situation and Mr. Dewey's consistent position, I also highly agree with some of his views, such as the idea of an armistice with the European Union and an all-out effort against Japan, but I would like to take this opportunity today to emphasize three points:

First, our armistice negotiations with the EU bloc are not our surrender to Europe, but a political strategy based on a humanitarian and pacifist position, otherwise we will be sorry for the vast number of allies who are fighting bloodily.

Second, the armistice negotiations with the EU bloc should begin as soon as possible, but the political principles that the United States has always adhered to - such as 'democracy and freedom', 'no use of force or threat of force', 'no unilateral change of the political situation', 'no pursuit of regional hegemony and political ambitions', 'respect for all countries in the Americas' - and other principles - should be maintained, the voice of the 'Monroe Doctrine' should be reaffirmed, and we must not abandon or betray the countries of the Americas with which we have maintained close ties for more than 100 years;

Third, the armistice talks need to meet the demands of no reparations, no land cession, respect for each other's sovereignty, and the release of prisoners of war as soon as possible......"

Everyone nodded, and Truman's words were generally good, and even if Dewey came forward, it could not be said that I would deviate from such a request.

But Truman's next sentence caught people off guard: "Considering the huge advantage that Mr. Dewey has after I withdraw from the election, although he is not the next president of the United States before the voters and the civic group vote, I think he is very close to this goal, in order to give Mr. Dewey more and earlier opportunities to familiarize himself with the political situation and participate in the decision-making of national affairs, I will nominate Mr. Dewey as a special ambassador before he is sworn in as president, and has full authority to negotiate armistice with EU countries, so that all work can be put on the right track as soon as possible." Voters and listeners, if you are willing to support Mr. Dewey and let him play part of his presidential duties ahead of schedule, please welcome him with warm applause! ”

Truman was the first to applaud, and then thunderous applause rang out, and all eyes of the audience turned to Dewey.

The latter was now as uncomfortable as a fly, and of course he knew that Truman had bad intentions in arranging this errand for him, but he could not refuse, for whatever reason—did you not propose peace with Germany? How can you be held accountable for peace with Germany and you are unwilling?

"I think the ensuing debate has lost its meaning, so let me give the microphone to Mr. Dewey, and we will listen to him explain the ideas and political decisions of the future...... I will learn more from him, gain more experience, and make a comeback in the next presidential election! ”

After that, he handed over the two microphones to Dewey, shook hands and hugged Dewey warmly, and said to the audience: "I hope that President Dewey will lead the United States of America and all the people to create a different new situation!" Then he went down in silence.

Dewey smiled bitterly, but he had to cheer up and first express his gratitude to Truman for his "appointment," to Truman for his work, and to the audience......

The debate ended at 10:30 a.m. in Dewey's stand-up stand-up stand-up.

Everyone rushed home with a heavy heart -- the "Voice of Europe" had been foretold several days in advance, and the Führer would deliver a political speech to the United States at 12 o'clock this evening, "The Death of Patton and the Future of America," and all patriots who were concerned about politics and worried about the future of the United States felt the need to listen to it.