In 1940, FDR was under pressure to run for a third term as President. But in keeping with Washington's precedent, he declined to do so. What if Franklin Roosevelt had run for a third term?
 
Well, many today call Hull Presidency a "FDR Presidency in all but name" as Cordell Hull and FDR switched positions with Hull President and Roosevelt new Secretary of State. Roosevelt remained pretty popular and was selected by Hull as the first General Secretary of United Nations in 1946, winning a Nobel Peace Prize.
Probably with a third term he would be perceived as too partial for the role and would be replaced by someone other (Hull himself maybe?). Be President is also a very stressful role and Roosevelt had many health problem, he could die earlier, maybe in 1947, shortly after UN's birth.
However it seems as this can not prevent Dewey's victory in 1948 election, that could be bigger due a Roosevelt fatigue after almost twenty years of rule.
 
Do you think FDR would have destroyed Rostock, Pforzheim, Augsburg, Kempten, Oldenburg Stettin and Kiel with atomic bombs like Cordell Hull decided to?
 
Do you think FDR would have destroyed Rostock, Pforzheim, Augsburg, Kempten, Oldenburg Stettin and Kiel with atomic bombs like Cordell Hull decided to?

Most historians in retrospect say that destroying so many civilian cities was overkill on Hull's part; I believe his failure to properly explain his wartime actions helped the Republicans sweep to power in 1946. FDR was more calculating and level-headed, so I doubt he'd do the same as Hull. As Secretary of State he recommended using the A-Bomb against troops instead of innocent civilians, which he feared would undermine America's diplomatic standing.
 
Most historians in retrospect say that destroying so many civilian cities was overkill on Hull's part; I believe his failure to properly explain his wartime actions helped the Republicans sweep to power in 1946. FDR was more calculating and level-headed, so I doubt he'd do the same as Hull. As Secretary of State he recommended using the A-Bomb against troops instead of innocent civilians, which he feared would undermine America's diplomatic standing.

Hitler could have stopped that by surrendering at any point. Jodl finally had to kill him and Goebbels in the Furherbunker so Germany would have a leader willing to face the inevitable.

Which is why history remembers Jodl more fondly than he deserves.
 
Hull was a bit harsher on Communism, or at least that is said to be the case around here. Might a FDR presidency prevent the spread of Rand-type Objectivism and/or Neo-Robespierreism in Central Africa and poor areas of South America and Asia? Do you think the brutal Bolivian Civil War would have been avoided? What about the even more brutal "Rainforest War" in Africa and the extinction of the whole Pan genus... after all, that is said to have been caused by the crimes against humanity and nature committed by all sides in the Rainforest War.

But beyond the Great Pond, it seems that everybody just loves the "Free Katanga Area", "Free Great Lakes Area" and "Free Lingala Area" - or are you only out to hate the People's Democratic Union of Kongo-Kasai?

On another note: What would have become of this Ernesto Guevara?
 
I have an book titled - Alternate Stories of American History and one of them has a chapter where FDR runs for a third term picking unknown and unheralded Missouri Senator Harry Truman to be his VP. FDR dies in office and Truman becomes POTUS and struggles mightily in the job although he gets re-elected in 1944 but is then curb stomped by Dewey in 1948. The story is okay but it does a poor job of explaining why FDR would pick a nobody like Truman to be his VP, giving the standard party unity bit but surely there had to somebody else FDR could have picked.
 
I have an book titled - Alternate Stories of American History and one of them has a chapter where FDR runs for a third term picking unknown and unheralded Missouri Senator Harry Truman to be his VP. FDR dies in office and Truman becomes POTUS and struggles mightily in the job although he gets re-elected in 1944 but is then curb stomped by Dewey in 1948. The story is okay but it does a poor job of explaining why FDR would pick a nobody like Truman to be his VP, giving the standard party unity bit but surely there had to somebody else FDR could have picked.

Truman? The Anti-MacArthur who, as far as I know, led America into Operation Olympic and Operation Downfall?
 
Truman? The Anti-MacArthur who, as far as I know, led America into Operation Olympic and Operation Downfall?

MacArthur gets a lot of blame for that he no doubt deserves some but he is not the one who decided to drop all of our atomic bombs on Germany and he in fact argued for keeping at least two to be used against Japan. Yes he pushed hard for the invasions of the Japanese home islands and insisted a combination of bombing and blockade could not work, and he underestimated just how bloody those operations would be but the ultimately the go/no go decision was not his and no matter who led those operations, they were going to be UGLY.
 
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