Alternative Vice Presidents for Eisenhower?

I notice in a lot of alternate timelines, Nixon is still often the VP to Eisenhower, and if the author wants to change something up will have Nixon become president in 1960. However what other names could of become Eisenhower VPs? Fellow Veterans of the WWII, or simply other politicians?
 
Henry cabot lodge jr., Prescott Bush , Harold Stassen, Earl Warren, Riley Bender and some others are possible names that would come up.

Eisenhower also intially suggested businessmen he knew such as Charles Wilson and C.R. Smith before his advisors suggested he go with politicians.
 
One interesting idea was an Eisenhower-Taft ticket. Senator Alexander Smith of New Jersey had been pressing Taft to take the job if Ike offered it, and according to Smith's diary, Taft had been "willing to consider the matter if it would help to heal the wounds and enable the party to move forward." When the Eisenhower camp--Herbert Brownell, Sherman Adams, Henry Cabot Lodge, Senator Frank Carlson of Kansas, and others--met to consider a running mate, Smith joined the group and immediately suggested Taft. Adams later wrote that Brownell and Lodge "made no move to oppose it", and Arthur Summerfield, incoming GOP national chairman, "thought it was a fine idea." https://archive.org/stream/firsthandreport017252mbp#page/n57/mode/2up

Ike, however, had other ideas: he had already told associates that he favored a younger man like Knowland, Governor Alfred E. Driscoll of New Jersey, or especially Nixon. In any event, at the meeting, Sinclair Weeks (later to be Ike's Secretary of Commerce) argued that Taft would be more useful in the Senate. And Russell Sprague, a veteran Dewey aide, argued that with Taft on the ticket, Ike would lose New York (which in retrospect is clearly not true, given that Ike was to carry New York by almost 850,000 votes--but of course nobody could know that in advance). With this remark the group turned to other names, and quickly settled on Nixon. (My source for this is James A. Patterson, *Mr. Republican: A Biography of Robert A. Taft*, pp. 564-5.)

Of course if he had chosen Taft, and the latter had died of cancer on schedule, the country would be without a vice-president for most of Ike's first term, and after the 1954 election, the nation would be one heartbeat away from having a Democrat (Sam Rayburn) as president.

Anyway, in OTL in 1956, some Republicans (e.g., Harold Stassen) thought that in view of Eisenhower's health, the vice-presidency would be a major issue of the campaign, and suggested that the controversial Nixon would hurt the party. Stassen wanted Ike to dump Nixon in favor of Governor Christian Herter of Massachusetts.[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Herter Eisenhower himself offered Nixon a cabinet position (supposedly so that he could "gain executive experience" as a preparation for a 1960 presidential run) but Nixon turned him down, realizing that this would be seen as a demotion and harm his future prospects. If Nixon had agreed, Ike was considering a conservative Democrat or ex-Democrat as running mate--most likely former Secretary of the Navy and future Secretary of the Treasury Robert B. Anderson, whom Ike greatly admired. Another possibility was the conservative Democratic senator from Ohio, Frank Lausche https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Lausche who might attract Catholic voters.

[1] Herter was born in France of American expatriate parents but I doubt that this would be a major problem. The opinion of most lawyers was that Americans born of American parents living abroad were "natural born citizens" of the US within the meaning of the Constitution. Perhaps a more serious obstacle was Herter's health: "he suffered from severe arthritis for the last twenty years of his life [Herter died in 1966] and frequently had to use crutches." Michael S. Mayer, *The Eisenhower Years*, p. 299 With Ike's health an issue, a younger and more vigorous running mate might be preferable.
 
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Bill Knowland is the obvious one. Balanced, from conservative wing but compatible on foreign policy, strong domestic chops. My understanding was he would have replaced Nixon assuming the Checkers speech wasn't such a slam dunk.
 
Bill Knowland is the obvious one. Balanced, from conservative wing but compatible on foreign policy, strong domestic chops. My understanding was he would have replaced Nixon assuming the Checkers speech wasn't such a slam dunk.
That would be a massive letdown for Tricky Dick Nixon. He and Knowland were rivals and often competed over influence in Californian politics.
 
. . . Ike, however, had other ideas: he had already told associates that he favored a younger man like Knowland, Governor Alfred E. Driscoll of New Jersey, or especially Nixon. . . .
I think Ike was mistaken and it's a shame one of his friends couldn't talk him out of it.

Dick Nixon was born on January 9, 1913, which means he was 39 on election day and 40 when he was inaugurated as Vice-President on Jan. 20, 1953.

And he was basically shunted aside by the Eisenhower administration. He WAS NOT treated as a senior member of the presidential team and someone capable of making all kinds of contributions and someone a moment away from being the main person himself.
 
Ike, however, had other ideas: he had already told associates that he favored a younger man like Knowland, Governor Alfred E. Driscoll of New Jersey, or especially Nixon. In any event, at the meeting, Sinclair Weeks (later to be Ike's Secretary of Commerce) argued that Taft would be more useful in the Senate. And Russell Sprague, a veteran Dewey aide, argued that with Taft on the ticket, Ike would lose New York (which in retrospect is clearly not true, given that Ike was to carry New York by almost 850,000 votes--but of course nobody could know that in advance). With this remark the group turned to other names, and quickly settled on Nixon. (My source for this is James A. Patterson, *Mr. Republican: A Biography of Robert A. Taft*, pp. 564-5.)

Really? My understanding is that Eisenhower wanted a non-politician as VP and had to be convinced by everyone else to take someone like Nixon. Granted I could be wrong in everyway, and will defer to you on that point.

Now I have to find the quote exactly, but its either from Jean Edward Smith's bio of Eisenhower, or Michael Korda's.
 
Really? My understanding is that Eisenhower wanted a non-politician as VP and had to be convinced by everyone else to take someone like Nixon. Granted I could be wrong in everyway, and will defer to you on that point.

Now I have to find the quote exactly, but its either from Jean Edward Smith's bio of Eisenhower, or Michael Korda's.

Sherman Adams, *Firsthand Report*, p. 34: "But Eisenhower did have a great deal to say about the selection of Richard M. Nixon as his vice-presidential running mate in 1952. "I had a list of names," he said to me when we talked about Nixon some time later, "and Nixon headed it." Eisenhower added that he did not realize until afterward that Nixon was only thirty-nine years old at the time. Realizing that in the campaign he was going to face the McCarthy issue of Communists in the federal government, Eisenhower wanted above all a vice-presidential nominee with a demonstrable record of anti-Communism. Nixon, the investigator of Alger Hiss, was eminently qualified in that respect. He was also strongly recommended by Herbert Brownell, on whom Eisenhower had depended heavily for advice and guidance. Eisenhower and Brownell had dinner alone one evening in Chicago during the convention and talked about Nixon..." https://archive.org/stream/firsthandreport017252mbp#page/n57/mode/2up
 
Sherman Adams, *Firsthand Report*, p. 34: "But Eisenhower did have a great deal to say about the selection of Richard M. Nixon as his vice-presidential running mate in 1952. "I had a list of names," he said to me when we talked about Nixon some time later, "and Nixon headed it." Eisenhower added that he did not realize until afterward that Nixon was only thirty-nine years old at the time. Realizing that in the campaign he was going to face the McCarthy issue of Communists in the federal government, Eisenhower wanted above all a vice-presidential nominee with a demonstrable record of anti-Communism. Nixon, the investigator of Alger Hiss, was eminently qualified in that respect. He was also strongly recommended by Herbert Brownell, on whom Eisenhower had depended heavily for advice and guidance. Eisenhower and Brownell had dinner alone one evening in Chicago during the convention and talked about Nixon..." https://archive.org/stream/firsthandreport017252mbp#page/n57/mode/2up

Interesting.
 
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