Eisenhower a Democrat

I read somewhere that Eisenhower nearly chose to run for president as a memebr of the Democratic Party. How would history be changed if he did?
 
I doubt there would be much difference in his presidency, but if he ran as a Democrat he wouldn't pick Nixon as his running mate, so it's anyone's guess who would have run to succeed him.
 
Eisenhower hated Nixon. But the party leadership thrust him upon Ike. In 1956 Eisenhower even tried to get Nixon off the ticket.

1952 was a time of party politics though and I suspect that the Democrats would have tried to throw together a ticket of Eisenhower-Stevenson.

For argument sake let us assume that McCarthy launches the same attacks on Stevenson that he did in 1952. Not feeling the strength to attack Ike, he goes for his VP. The Dems drop Stevenson from the ticket and give Eisenhower his choice of any of the other Democratic candidates. William Averell Harriman had been the link between Truman and Eisenhower so I'll say Ike chooses him as the VP.

Of course Eisenhower wins, and he helps the Dems to do better in Congress. It means that McCarthyism is dealt with sooner. In OTL Eisenhower was reluctant to attack McCarthy because he had helped him get elected. Now Ike has an axe to grind. McCarthy is taken down.

One also assumes that the relationship between Eisenhower and Harriman would be better than that between Eisenhower and Nixon. With Eisenhower's support Harriman would be heir apparent in 1960. (We will place LBJ as his VP as LBJ was more of a party insider than JFK.) This would likely lead to a Harriman victory and a smooth transition of the Bay of Pigs invasion plan. This leads to Bay of Pigs being a success and Castro being toppled. There is no Cuban Missile Crisis in this ATL.

We assume that Harriman makes the same trip to Dallas in 1963 and is killed by Lee Harvey Oswald. LBJ becomes President. This start to synch back up to OTL.

In 1968 LBJ decides not to run for reelection. The front runner for the Democratic nomination is an enthusiastic Senator from Mass, John Kennedy. JFK is killed in this timeline, as his brother was killed in OTL. Humphrey gets the nomination and is trounced by Nelson Rockefeller (the first Republican since Hoover to be President).

Rockefeller takes the GOP in a completely different direction from OTL. He begins the American withdrawal from Vietnam sooner. By 1972 the Republicans and Democrats seem more like the other from OTL.
 
wakie said:
For argument sake let us assume that McCarthy launches the same attacks on Stevenson that he did in 1952. Not feeling the strength to attack Ike, he goes for his VP.

Or perhaps Ike keeps Stevenson and attacks McCarthy, and helps ruin his credibility earlier than OTL.
 
Top