Balducchi, David E. Papers

Historian and Official with the U.S. Department of Labor

The papers of David E. Balducchi include letters and articles he received from William L. Batt, Jr. concerning Batt's involvement with the Lend-Lease program, his military service during World War II, and his work as director of the Democratic National Committee's Research Division during the 1948 campaign. The collection also includes additional correspondence and printed materials relating to Balducchi's historical research.

Size: 2.5 linear inches (about 300 pages).
Access: Open.
Copyright: The donor gave his copyright interest in this collection, and in any other collection of papers in the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration, to the United States of America. Documents created by U.S. government employees in the course of their official duties are in the public domain. The copyright interest in other documents in this collection presumably belongs to the creators of those documents, or their heirs.
Processed by: Randy Sowell (2018, 2023).

David E. Balducchi, an employee of the U.S. Department of Labor who served as Chief of Planning and Review for the U.S. Employment Service, was a close friend of William L. Batt, Jr. (1916-2004), another long-time Labor Department official whose career in politics and government dated back to Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Balducchi collaborated with Batt in writing an article about the origins of the "Turnip Day" session of Congress during the 1948 Presidential campaign. He also recorded an interview with Batt, and collected letters and articles by Batt in which he discussed his career as a government official, U.S. Army officer, and Democratic Party strategist during the 1940s.

The papers of David E. Balducchi include letters and articles he received from William L. Batt, Jr. concerning Batt's involvement with the Lend-Lease program, his military service during World War II, and his work as Director of the Democratic National Committee's Research Division during the 1948 campaign. The collection also includes additional correspondence and printed materials relating to Balducchi's historical research. The papers are organized in a single series (the Subject File).

The collection includes a number of letters from Mr. Batt to Mr. Balducchi, along with articles by Batt that he enclosed with his letters. The letters and articles contain information about Batt's service as an aide to Averell Harriman in London during the early days of the Lend-Lease program; his military service and use of various Lend-Lease contacts to obtain sugar and flour for Arab and French civilians during World War II; his unsuccessful campaign for Congress in 1946; and his association with the Americans for Democratic Action and President Truman's 1948 campaign. A sound recording of a 1990 interview that Balducchi conducted with Batt has been transferred to the Sound Recordings Collection.

Also included in the papers is correspondence with James Sundquist, Frank Kelly, and Ken Hechler concerning their recollections of the Truman Presidency and the 1948 campaign; an article by Batt and Balducchi regarding the 1948 “Turnip Day” session of Congress (which was published in the Presidential Studies Quarterly); an earlier draft of the same article; an issue of Iowa Heritage Illustrated featuring an article by Balducchi on Truman’s 1948 campaign in Iowa; copies of documents relating to Truman’s service as Missouri Director of the National Reemployment Service in 1933-1934; and letters, printed materials, and other documents relating to the experiences of Balducchi’s parents during World War II and the service of another relative, Margaret Willhoit, as a nurse with the Economic Cooperation Administration in Greece and the Point Four program in Lebanon.

The Truman Library also has an oral history interview with William L. Batt, Jr. and the papers of his father, William L. Batt, an official with the War Production Board and the Economic Cooperation Administration. Other related materials at the Truman Library include the papers of James Sundquist, Ken Hechler, and Clark Clifford; the records of the Democratic National Committee; and an oral history interview with Frank Kelly.