liberal heroes

Amity Shlaes reflects on the meaning of 'liberal', starting in June 1940:

Former president Herbert Hoover, hoping for another shot at the presidency, was running around the Republican convention hall in Philadelphia arguing that the US needed someone in the White House with connections in Nazi Germany - Herbert Hoover. Thomas Dewey, another Republican candidate, was busy declaring: “We must keep out of war in Europe.”

[... Wendell] Willkie was a businessman. But now he dared to compete with more traditional politicians for the Republican presidential nomination. As the author Charles Peters points out in this illuminating new book, Five Days in Philadelphia, Willkie saw what the other Republicans did not: that the US must participate in Europe’s war. [...]

Such hawkishness in a Republican candidate gave Roosevelt the crucial cover he needed to make the decisions that led to the defeat of Hitler. [...]  Willkie and FDR did not always agree;  [...] But the effect of their alliance was to buy Britain time to stave off Hitler. Willkie lost, but with more votes than any Republican since 1928. After the election, FDR made him his emissary and sent him around the world to meet Churchill and Stalin. ('Civil wars', FT Magazine, 24 Sept, link might still be free)

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More on the Andijan trial: FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT: World Service edition         (2nd item, about 5 minutes in).