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WWII political letter to Henry L. Clarke

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Henry Clarke, a musicologist who retired to Deerfield, Massachusetts, left a considerable correspondence with his parents from the middle of the 1930s through World War II. This letter was written by his wife Julia and sent to Henry while he was in the army. Julia observes that Thomas E. Dewey, the Republican candidate, opposing Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1944 presidential election, had been equating the Roosevelt Administration's New Deal legislation with communism. Julia suggests that Dewey is attempting to gain votes by this tactic. She writes to her husband that "this Boston speech of Dewey is absolute Hitler stuff! Making one lie before your ears, then another bigger?till the anti red blanket blots out all else. It is frightening!" Julia Clarke's later reference to the speech as a "subtle 'Reichstag'" is probably referring to Hitler's manipulation of the German parliament in his ascent to power. Reichstag was the name of the German parliament until 1945.

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