Given Taft's death in 1953, I often see this scenario proposed as a way to install some other Republican as President of the United States. Richard Nixon, Joe McCarthy, Douglas MacArthur...

Willliam Knowland would have been in many respects an ideal running mate for Taft: geographical balance (from an important state distant from Taft's Ohio); relatively young; a veteran; ideologically compatible with Taft but also acceptable to internationalist Republicans as well. (Though Knowland was sometimes labeled an "Asia-firster" for his strong support of Chiang Kai-shek, he rightly noted that this was unfair; he had supported the Marshall Plan--about which Taft was lukewarm--and the North Atlantic Treaty, which Taft opposed.) In fact, a biography of Knowland is entitled One Step From the White House: The Rise and Fall of Senator William F. Knowland. http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=2567 The point being of course that if Knowland had deserted Warren for Taft, and Taft had won the nomination and general election with Knowland as his running mate, and Taft had died on schedule from cancer, Knowland would become president in 1953.
 
Willliam Knowland would have been in many respects an ideal running mate for Taft: geographical balance (from an important state distant from Taft's Ohio); relatively young; a veteran; ideologically compatible with Taft but also acceptable to internationalist Republicans as well. (Though Knowland was sometimes labeled an "Asia-firster" for his strong support of Chiang Kai-shek, he rightly noted that this was unfair; he had supported the Marshall Plan--about which Taft was lukewarm--and the North Atlantic Treaty, which Taft opposed.) In fact, a biography of Knowland is entitled One Step From the White House: The Rise and Fall of Senator William F. Knowland. http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=2567 The point being of course that if Knowland had deserted Warren for Taft, and Taft had won the nomination and general election with Knowland as his running mate, and Taft had died on schedule from cancer, Knowland would become president in 1953.

One wonders how open Knowland would have been to, say, using tactical nuclear weapons in Indochina in an effort to preserve French rule...
 
Korea probably still ends because that was driven mostly by Stalin's death in March.

That and the Chinese figuring out that Stalin was egging them on to stay in the course in Korea because he was thrilled to see Chinese and Americans killing each other.

...

A poor harvest in Asia caused the Chinese to rethink other priorities as well. Then there was the deployment of tactical atomic weapons to the far east. Something the US intelligence made sure the Chinese learned about. A secret warning as it were.
 
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