Isolationist canidates in the US?

Keenir

Banned
Who were some of the more Isolation-inclined canidates for the US Presidency after the end of World War Two?


I need these to make a little story for a relative of mine who thinks that the US had no business interfering in the affairs of the other side of the world (when the cost is the lives of American soldiers). So my plan is to not use butterflies to change the politicians' personalities, but to show what the outcome of 50+ years of isolationism would do to the USA.
 
Ah... Don't you mean Vanderberg?

Vandenberg :)D) renounced his isolationism at the end of WWII--that's one reason he was made a delegate to the first UN convention at San Francisco.

So he'd either have to not become an internationalist or 're-rat' in order to be a viable isolationist presidential candidate.
 
Vandenberg :)D) renounced his isolationism at the end of WWII--that's one reason he was made a delegate to the first UN convention at San Francisco.

So he'd either have to not become an internationalist or 're-rat' in order to be a viable isolationist presidential candidate.

Gahhh. Read the 'r' as an 'n', only noticed the vowel errors. Sigh! So embarrassing to make an error in point out another one.:)
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
Robert Taft is obviously the big one. If Vandenberg becomes president before WWII or its ending (provided no American commitment) he could very well continue his isolationist trends.

John W. Bricker, former governor of Ohio and Republican VP nominee in 1944 was another big isolationist and, unlike both Taft and Vandenberg, he lived past the 1950s (he died in 1986).

Lindbergh's a good choice if you have him run for office, though that could get tricky what with his openly pro-German sympathies. Burton K. Wheeler, too.

Frankly, after the early 1950s, it's hard to find people who still espoused isolationist views, what with the threat of "International Communism." But a good place to look for politicians with "Fortress America" leanings would probably be in the Midwest and Great Plains; those two regions (especially the Midwest) were always the cradles of American isolationism.
 
Gahhh. Read the 'r' as an 'n', only noticed the vowel errors. Sigh! So embarrassing to make an error in point out another one.:)

Hehe, I'm sorry, I was typing it out on my iPhone at the time so I couldn't really see that I'd mistyped it.

True though, I suppose that any members of the Paleoconservative wing of the Republican Party could be used, really, it was a combination of Eisenhower's victory over Taft in 1952 and the rabid anti-Communism of era giving way to interventionism that sidelined the group so really, a successful Taft Presidency or similar could greatly alter the foreign policy of the era.
 
Robert Taft is obviously the big one. If Vandenberg becomes president before WWII or its ending (provided no American commitment) he could very well continue his isolationist trends.

John W. Bricker, former governor of Ohio and Republican VP nominee in 1944 was another big isolationist and, unlike both Taft and Vandenberg, he lived past the 1950s (he died in 1986).

Lindbergh's a good choice if you have him run for office, though that could get tricky what with his openly pro-German sympathies. Burton K. Wheeler, too.

Frankly, after the early 1950s, it's hard to find people who still espoused isolationist views, what with the threat of "International Communism." But a good place to look for politicians with "Fortress America" leanings would probably be in the Midwest and Great Plains; those two regions (especially the Midwest) were always the cradles of American isolationism.

Taft was the last of the old-fashioned (pre-Pearl Harbor) isolationists, and the only one with any sort of a decent run at the top spot. Bricker was never better than VP material (one contemporary described him as "a Harding with no embarassing friends"). What's largely forgotten is that Dewey, like Vandenberg, underwent a conversion during the war away from isolationism (note that Dewey and Vandenberg were both second-tier presidential candidates in 1940, but Vandenberg never got any serious consideration thereafter, unlike Dewey).

Interesting that Lindbergh and Wheeler (a rare isolationist Democrat) are mentioned in the same paragraph: for an allohistorical novel where the two are on the same ticket (apparently Wheeler crossed over), see Philip Roth's "The Plot against America".
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
Really? I always thought Dewey was more of an interventionist like Willkie. But you say he was a convert like Vandenberg? Huh. Guess you learn something new every day.

And what I meant by suggesting Bricker was that he could be a big player if the isolationist, conservative wing of the Republican Party takes power.

Hrmm. Who else is there? Sen. Gerald Nye of South Dakota shows potential; he was a progressive Republican and an isolationist (or at least against US involvement in WWII). McCarthy's clique was pretty isolationist, so you may find some good material there, like Jenner and Welker or (sometimes) McCarthy himself.

Gerald Ford, Sargent Shriver, and Potter Stewart were all members of the America First Committee, so there you've got a younger generation of potential candidates if isolationism survives (and that's a mighty big if given the geopolitics of a post-WWII world in which the USA did not participate).
 
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Wolfpaw

Banned
Gore Vidal was also a member of the America First committee and he also ran for Congress in 1960.

As delectable as the prospect of a Gore Vidal presidency would be, I fear that it would be borderline ASB; he's far too anti-establishment/critical of the major parties to become a nominee.
 
Really? I always thought Dewey was more of an interventionist like Willkie. But you say he was a convert like Vandenberg? Huh. Guess you learn something new every day.


Yep: please see Five Days in Philadelphia (don't recall the author), an account of the '40 GOP convention.

And what I meant by suggesting Bricker was that he could be a big player if the isolationist, conservative wing of the Republican Party takes power.
Hrmm. Who else is there? Sen. Gerald Nye of South Dakota shows potential; he was a progressive Republican and an isolationist (or at least against US involvement in WWII). McCarthy's clique was pretty isolationist, so you may find some good material there, like Jenner and Welker or (sometimes) McCarthy himself.


Nye has a couple of things going against him. One, he was from North Dakota (minor point overall, I know), which at the time had all of 3 electoral votes. Two, he was in up to his neck with America First prior to Pearl Harbor, and was thoroughly discredited (indeed, on 7 Dec 1941 when informed of the news reports, he said "sounds fishy to me").

Jenner was a complete joke: he was no better than a hack from Indiana (Ike loathed him); indeed, he was sufficiently a lightweight that he could have been considered a crude proto-Quayle.

Gerald Ford, Sargent Shriver, and Potter Stewart were all members of the America First Committee, so there you've got a younger generation of potential candidates if isolationism survives (and that's a mighty big if given the geopolitics of a post-WWII world in which the USA did not participate).

Ford, Shriver, et. al. I'd write off to being inexperienced kids who learned a few things as they matured.
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
[/SIZE][/FONT]Nye has a couple of things going against him. One, he was from North Dakota (minor point overall, I know), which at the time had all of 3 electoral votes. Two, he was in up to his neck with America First prior to Pearl Harbor, and was thoroughly discredited (indeed, on 7 Dec 1941 when informed of the news reports, he said "sounds fishy to me").

Jenner was a complete joke: he was no better than a hack from Indiana (Ike loathed him); indeed, he was sufficiently a lightweight that he could have been considered a crude proto-Quayle.



Ford, Shriver, et. al. I'd write off to being inexperienced kids who learned a few things as they matured.



You're quite right; I was thinking of Earl Mundt, not Nye. But please bear in mind that the vast majority of the people I've suggested could be plausible isolatinist candidates if the United States managed to avoid entering WWII. Post-War, Taft was only the real shot the isolationists had (and not a very good one at that.)

If U.S. entry into WWII is avoided Nye isn't discredited, Bricker and Taft and their lot grow stronger as the war is in Europe and Africa becomes more brutal, and Jenner has the possibility of becoming far more than the "lightweight" hack he was in OTL.

And while I agree that Ford and Shriver and Stewart all grew up (unfortunately, Vidal didn't join them in this regard :(), their beliefs may not have changed so much if isolationism won out and continued to be an attractive and acceptable policy.
 
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