Trivia

Son of Henry C. Wallace, who served as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture from 1921-1924.

(1941-1945) Vice President of the United States

A Republican until 1928, Wallace helped swing Iowa to the Democratic party in the 1932 election.

He edited (1946-1948) "The New Republic.".

He was (1910-1924) associate editor of "Wallaces' Farmer," an influential agricultural periodical run by his family, and when his father, Henry Cantwell Wallace, died in 1924, he became editor.

He had developed several strains of hybrid corn that were to be used extensively by farmers in the American "Corn Belt", and his writings on farm economics and plant genetics quickly won him recognition as an agrarian authority.

In 1933 he was appointed Secretary of Agriculture by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and soon led in the reorganization of the Dept. of Agriculture and in the supervision of the Agricultural Adjustment Agency.

In 1945, shortly before President Franklin D. Roosevelt's death, he became Secretary of Commerce. He held that position until September, 1946, when he was forced to resign because of his open opposition to President Harry S. Truman's foreign policy.

In 1948 he helped launch a new Progressive party, which charged the administration of President Harry S. Truman with primary responsibility for the Cold War. Wallace left the party in 1950 after it had repudiated his endorsement of the U.S.-UN intervention in South Korea.

One of only two U.S. Politicians who first held a cabinet position, then later became Vice-President, then later held another cabinet position. The other is John C. Calhoun.

Is thus-far the last individual to hold a cabinet position after they were Vice-President.