AHC: Truman/Johnson run and win in 52/68

Despite the 22nd amendment Harry S Truman and Lyndon B Johnson were permitted to run a potential third term. This is due to Truman being excluded on account of the grandfather clause and Johnson inheriting his first term, which was under 24 months long. Both declined to run in part because of an unpopular war. With a POD of January 20 1949 and January 20 1965 respectively, what would have to be done for them to want and succeed at winning the 1952 and 1968 election respectively, and what might their third term be like?
 
Truman would've been destroyed by Eisenhower in 1952. As for LBJ, maybe he could've scored a 1948-style upset but that's doubtful given his unpopularity.
 
Despite the 22nd amendment Harry S Truman and Lyndon B Johnson were permitted to run a potential third term. This is due to Truman being excluded on account of the grandfather clause and Johnson inheriting his first term, which was under 24 months long. Both declined to run in part because of an unpopular war. With a POD of January 20 1949 and January 20 1965 respectively, what would have to be done for them to want and succeed at winning the 1952 and 1968 election respectively, and what might their third term be like?
Easy, China doesn’t enter the Korean War, the US & South Korea win and after an earlier Sino-Soviet split due to China’s failure to enter Korea hurts international communism and the Red Scare is slightly worse. Truman is able to focus on domestic issues and the economy begins to improve. Truman wins re-election against Taft but I’m sure Republicans come back in 1956.
 
Stalin dies in late 1951, and his successors agree to end the Korean War by the beginning of 1952. With a less tense international situation, Eisenhower decides not to run. Truman defeats Taft (narrowly).

(Of course if the Korean War could be avoided altogether, Truman might win more easily, but I am trying to have as late a POD as possible.)
 
Johnson stays in and beats McCarthy for the nomination. Nixon's treason gets out in October and Johnson pulls off a narrow victory. He dies midway through the term and Humphrey is defeated by Rockefeller or Romney in 1972.
 

BP Booker

Banned
Easy, China doesn’t enter the Korean War, the US & South Korea win and after an earlier Sino-Soviet split due to China’s failure to enter Korea hurts international communism and the Red Scare is slightly worse. Truman is able to focus on domestic issues and the economy begins to improve. Truman wins re-election against Taft but I’m sure Republicans come back in 1956.
Couldn't the Democrats capitalize on the 1950s economic boom and win anothe term with, say Estes Kefauver?
 
Couldn't the Democrats capitalize on the 1950s economic boom and win anothe term with, say Estes Kefauver?

There was a recession from 1953-1954. While the economy would pick up by 1956, the GOP would surely make strong gains in 1954, putting them in a good position to win in 1956. The fact is the Democrats weren't going to be in power forever and it was only a matter of time before the GOP came roaring back. If not for Tom Dewey's poor campaign, that year would've been 1948.
 
There was a recession from 1953-1954. While the economy would pick up by 1956, the GOP would surely make strong gains in 1954, putting them in a good position to win in 1956. The fact is the Democrats weren't going to be in power forever and it was only a matter of time before the GOP came roaring back. If not for Tom Dewey's poor campaign, that year would've been 1948.

For my own skepticism of the notion that the GOP lost in 1948 because of Dewey's "poor campaign" see https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/could-taft-beat-truman-in-1948.441149/#post-16840071
 
For my own skepticism of the notion that the GOP lost in 1948 because of Dewey's "poor campaign" see https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/could-taft-beat-truman-in-1948.441149/#post-16840071

None of this disproves the fact that Dewey had a massive lead over Truman that evaporated after the fall campaign. Dewey's empty and vapid campaign which ignored Truman's attacks allowed the President to define the issues of the election and demonstrate himself to be a more aggressive and decisive leader than Dewey. If Dewey had waged the same kind of campaign as he did in 1944, his lead still would've shrunk due to the GOP's issues with farmers and the "do-nothing" Congress, but not enough to cost him the election. (For the record, my source here is Richard Norton Smith's Dewey biography. OTOH, Truman biographer David McCullough has noted that much of Truman's aggressively partisan rhetoric could have been effectively countered by Dewey. Specifically Truman's rhetoric portraying Republicans as Wall Street hucksters, a hypocritical talking point that Dewey could easily have exposed by noting that many in Truman's own cabinet had Wall Street backgrounds. But because he didn't, this - among other things - helped cost him the election).
 
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