JS Good Alternate Post Presidencies

I mean: pick either an OTL President who didn't have one (died in office, assassinated, etc) or a (preferably familiar) alternate president (Henry Clay, RFK, etc); then, briefly describe their post-presidency.

Actually, if I can quote Mikestone8 from a different thread, this would be a good example.

Abraham Lincoln
In March 1869 Lincoln was able to hand over to General Grant as President of a fully restored Union, and go home to a well deserved retirement. As it proved, though, his public career was not quite over. In 1872, after three quiet years practising law in Illinois, Lincoln accepted a request from President Grant to use his influence to help solve the "Mormon problem", and in May of that year he set out to Salt Lake City for a face to face meeting with Brigham Young.

What passed between the two men will probably never be known, as neither kept any written record of what was said, and were unwilling to discuss it after. Carl Sandberg credited Lincoln with having won over the Mormon leader to the "Compromise of 1872", by which the Saints prohibited plural marriage for the future, in return for early statehood and the promise that existing polygamous families would be left unmolested. By contrast, the Mormon historian Brigham H Roberts maintained that the initiative for this came from _Young_, and that Lincoln's part consisted mainly of dissuading Grant from reneging on the deal, as he was under pressure to do from corrupt Territorial officials, who feared for their perquisites in a self-governing Utah. Be that as it may, the agreement went ahead, and the Enabling bill was passed in May 1873, just weeks before Abraham Lincoln's death on (appropriately) the fourth of July.
 
JFK, FDR, Nixon, Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Harrison, Taylor, & Harding would all be interesting; considering they all either resigned, or died while in office.
 
Good examples (though I imagine Nixon's would be similar to OTL in many ways)

Also Presidents who never were: Henry Clay, Charles Evans Hughs, RFK (though RB's version of it would be hard to beat)...
 
Franklin Roosevelt

Following his decision to use atomic bombs on Japan and the subsequent capitulation of the Japanese Empire, Franklin Roosevelt resigned the Presidency effective V-J Day in August of 1945. His health fading, he turned the position over to his Vice President, Harry Truman, who came to the office with nearly everything he needed and a path laid before him on how to move forward with demobilization.

Roosevelt himself would retire to Hyde Park with Eleanor Roosevelt for the time being after the war's final conclusion because of his ill-health. However, later in 1945, Roosevelt was served a commission from the United Nations itself, asking him to serve as the organization's first Secretary-General. Having the support of both Churchill and Truman, he reluctantly accepted, though he made it known that because of his ill health he might not serve for very long in the position.

However, as Roosevelt got used to the new work and the office itself, he became attached to it. As the Cold War heated up, Roosevelt made it known that he would seek a compromise between the United States and Soviet Union and do all in the United Nations' power to prevent war between the two powers. Focusing his efforts chiefly on planning decolonization with the French and British, Roosevelt would gain the enmity of some in the United States for his perceived 'unfairness' to American interests as Secretary-General of the United Nations. However, as the Cold War dragged on, Roosevelt's position shifted and he became increasingly partial to the United States and less willing to consider the arguments and positions of the Soviet Union.

This came to a head when Roosevelt made comments in support of American intervention on the Korean peninsula in 1950. The Soviet delegation left the UN in a row of anger, and Roosevelt did his best to try to get them to come back to the bargaining table. As the war took a turn for the ugly and President Truman told the Secretary-General that he was prepared to use nuclear weapons to end the conflict, Roosevelt formally broke with his former Vice President and tried his best again to get the powers to the table for negotiations.

Truman's subsequent authorization of the use of nuclear weapons in Korea left Roosevelt's attempts at trying to fix the solution diplomatically in disarray, and the press tarred him for "supporting the reds at the negotiating table". While UN forces in Korea prevailed and North Korea fell in the aftermath, Roosevelt resigned the position that he had helped create in disgust. The Soviet Union likewise announced that they would seek to abolish the position of Secretary-General at the next UN conference, to replace it with a three-member council. The United States and non-aligned bloc, both relatively upset with Roosevelt's actions as Secretary-General, assented to the move, and in 1952, the Secretary-Generalship was replaced by a Triumvirate-General.

Having resigned the Presidency and the Secretary-Generalship in varying stages of bad health, Roosevelt decided it would be best to live out the rest of his life in relatively obscurity. In 1952, he would support his wife, Secretary of State Eleanor Roosevelt, for the Presidency against the incumbent, though President Truman would win renomination and re-election easily over Bob Taft.

Prior to his death, Roosevelt released a number of books on naval warfare and sailing. These became relatively well sellers for a short time, and Roosevelt would go on to donate the monies gained to the United Nations foundation.

Roosevelt would die on March 5, 1953. He was 71 years old.
 
John Kennedy

After a relatively restless second term came to a close in 1969, John Fitzgerald Kennedy left the White House with an ambitious agenda of his own to combat poverty and squalor in the third world.

Kennedy's work in establishing the Peace Corps. while President and establishing a number of youth programs while President in the second phase of his 'New Frontier' programs continued in his capacity as a private citizen. Teaming up with former political rival Nelson Rockefeller, Kennedy's 'Youth for Peace' initiative laid the foundations for a global network of nonprofit programs that helped millions of young men and women from across the first world contribute their skills and talents to making the third world a better place.

This didn't mean he completely retired from politics though, however. As former President, Kennedy got out on the stump quite often for his family and other close political allies following the end of his Presidency. In 1970, he stumped for endangered Democratic candidates in the face of a Republican backlash against President Johnson's 'Great Society' programs. He would be a key adviser to the 1972 Presidential campaign of his successor, which, unfortunately for the Democrats, would find itself routed at the ballot box by California Governor Ronald Reagan's energetic campaign for a return to conservative values and ideas.

Nevertheless, Kennedy remained vocal during the Reagan years, campaigning for Democrats in 1974 and supporting Hubert Humphrey's ultimately doomed Presidential candidacy in 1976. In 1980 he drummed up support for his brother's candidacy for the Presidency, and was able to win over Democratic delegates to ensure the nomination of Senator Robert Kennedy for the Democrats in 1980, to face off against Vice President Bush. Kennedy would go on to defeat Bush relatively easily, and would keep his elder brother close at hand over the course of his administration.

JFK served as a special diplomatic envoy to the Soviet Union for a time during the RFK years, as well as a special adviser to the President on space matters. Perhaps JFK's crowning achievement in this regard was convincing President Kennedy to move forward with the first manned Mars landing in 1985, a resounding propaganda victory for the free world.

With his brother's term having come to an end as President in 1989, Kennedy the elder returned to private life once again, this time to begin his much vaunted autobiography, My Life, a three-part series covering the former President's life in and out of political office. With the fall of the Soviet Union that same year, Kennedy made a special trip to Moscow and to Berlin and was greeted with great aplomb.

Kennedy's health began to fail however in the early nineties, and he would suffer a debilitating stroke in 1992 that left him unable to campaign for that year's Democratic standard bearer, Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas. Clinton and the Democrats went down to defeat in that year, but in Kennedy's mind, the real victory that year lay in the fact that America had finally elected an African-American POTUS, a man by the name of Colin Powell.

Although Kennedy was satisfied with the results of the election, he would not live to see his ultimate hope become a reality: that of his son, John Kennedy Jr. becoming POTUS. He died of a brain hemorrhage on November 22, 1993. He was 76 years old. His son would be elected POTUS in 2008, fifteen years after his father's death.
 
With his brother's term having come to an end as President in 1989, Kennedy the elder returned to private life once again, this time to begin his much vaunted autobiography, My Life, a three-part series covering the former President's life in and out of political office. With the fall of the Soviet Union that same year, Kennedy made a special trip to Moscow and to Berlin and was greeted with great aplomb.

Kennedy's health began to fail however in the early nineties, and he would suffer a debilitating stroke in 1992 that left him unable to campaign for that year's Democratic standard bearer, Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas. Clinton and the Democrats went down to defeat in that year, but in Kennedy's mind, the real victory that year lay in the fact that America had finally elected an African-American POTUS, a man by the name of Colin Powell.

So who was POTUS in '88-'92?
 
So who was POTUS in '88-'92?

35. John Kennedy (D-MA): January 20, 1961 - January 20, 1969 (1)
36. Lyndon Johnson (D-TX): January 20, 1969 - January 20, 1973
37. Ronald Reagan (R-CA): January 20, 1973 - January 20, 1981
38. Robert Kennedy (D-NY): January 20, 1981 - January 20, 1989 (2)
39. Lloyd Bentsen (D-TX): January 20, 1989 - January 20, 1993
40. Colin Powell (R-NY): January 20, 1993 - January 20, 2001 (3)
41. Paul Wellstone (D-MN): January 20, 2001 - January 20, 2005 (4)
42. John McCain (R-AZ): January 20, 2005 - January 20, 2009
43. John Kennedy Jr. (D-NY): January 20, 2009 - Present

(1) First Roman Catholic POTUS.
(2) First brother of a former President to become POTUS.
(3) First African-American POTUS.
(4) First Jewish President.
 
Richard Nixon

As his Presidency wound down to a close in 1975, President Richard Nixon began making moves that would define his legacy as one of the nation's greatest Presidents. Having already opened up China in the same manner that Commodore Perry had opened Japan to the west in 1853, Nixon began laying the groundwork for a comprehensive and mutual relationship between the United States and China with the passage of a number of bills relating to trade normalization with the Communist state, as well as the creation of the nation's universal health insurance system.

In his last year as President, Nixon also began to push a number of pending bills that would begin the process of deregulation, something that would enthuse the Republican base right before the upcoming Presidential election. Nixon's handpicked successor, Secretary of the Treasury John Connally, would not make it through the Republican primaries however, in the year that followed. Facing down challenges from Vice President Ford and Governor Reagan (the latter of which would go on to win the nomination and the Presidency that fall), Nixon's man would ultimately falter on the national stage. However, Nixon made it known that he would support his party's nominee and got out the vote for Reagan, despite obvious ideological differences.

Leaving the White House in 1977, Nixon began writing a series of books on foreign policy and international relations. He and his advisers were snubbed by the Reagan administration early on in favor of more hawkish advisers, but gradually, as the Soviet Union began to pursue a policy of détente, Nixon's advisers were brought back in by Reagan for their diplomatic prowess on the international stage. Nixon himself would make a number of trips for the Reagan administration on behalf of the United States, as well as serve as the head of the annual American and Chinese trade relationship meetings in the years after.

Nixon got out on the stump for Republican candidates in every midterm election before his death in 1994 and as well as for Republican Presidential candidates. He stumped for Reagan's re-election in 1980 and also got on the trail to promote Vice President Schweiker in 1984, a candidate much closer to him ideologically. Although Schweiker would win the 1984 Presidential Election, his Presidency would become plagued with an unenthusiastic Republican base and a stagnating economy, both of which put him out of office and ended twenty-year Republican rule with the election of General Colin Powell, a hero of the Iran Hostage Crisis, as POTUS.

Nixon's final years would be marred with scandal however with the leaking of classified documents from his Presidency relating to the so called 'Watergate' scandal. This put Nixon back into the public eye and in many ways tarred his legacy in the eyes of some, and a full investigation of the matter was held by the Powell administration and the Democratic Congress in the early nineties. Powell, who worked in the Nixon White House as a young man, ultimately published a lengthy report on the matter which found no clear conclusion on the matter itself.

Nixon would die on April 22, 1994. He was 81 years old.

Post-Presidencies, Richard Nixon

37. Richard Nixon (R-NY): January 20, 1969 - January 20, 1977
38. Ronald Reagan (R-CA): January 20, 1977 - January 20, 1985
39. Richard Schweiker (R-PA): January 20, 1985 - January 20, 1989
40. Colin Powell (D-NY): January 20, 1989 - January 20, 1997
41. Jack Kemp (R-NY): January 20, 1997 - January 20, 2005
42. Howard Dean (D-VT): January 20, 2005 - Present
 
35. John Kennedy (D-MA): January 20, 1961 - January 20, 1969 (1)
36. Lyndon Johnson (D-TX): January 20, 1969 - January 20, 1973
37. Ronald Reagan (R-CA): January 20, 1973 - January 20, 1981
38. Robert Kennedy (D-NY): January 20, 1981 - January 20, 1989 (2)
39. Lloyd Bentsen (D-TX): January 20, 1989 - January 20, 1993
40. Colin Powell (R-NY): January 20, 1993 - January 20, 2001 (3)
41. Paul Wellstone (D-MN): January 20, 2001 - January 20, 2005 (4)
42. John McCain (R-AZ): January 20, 2005 - January 20, 2009
43. John Kennedy Jr. (D-NY): January 20, 2009 - Present

(1) First Roman Catholic POTUS.
(2) First brother of a former President to become POTUS.
(3) First African-American POTUS.
(4) First Jewish President.

Why didn't Bentsen run in '92?

Anyway, I don't see Reagan winning in '72.
 
Warren Harding

To date, Warren Harding is regarded as a good US President having managed to end World War One, overcome the depression of 1920 to 1921 and established a conference system as a resolution for diplomacy. He was the first to introduce civil rights legislation in favour of African-Americans and hallmarks of his Presidency were his progressive child welfare programs and protection of US farming interests. He easily won re-election in 1924 against former Treasury Secretary William Gibbs McAdoo and his vice president choice in Governor Al Smith, in part due to his social reforms and the disorganization after a bitter Democratic convention.

After a long second term where he began a reform of schooling and introduced measures to protect the most vulnerable children in society from child abuse and labour. He was hailed for his efforts to make university costs cheaper and also for his economic policies which resulted in the "Roaring Twenties". On foreign policy, he was well regarded with beginning processes to outlaw war in the world along with the UK, France, Germany and Japan, alas a never realised dream. Leaving office in 1929, Harding retired from public life save for making occasional speeches on education, having jibes at his successor Calvin Coolidge who later would be assassinated on October 29th 1929 by a disgruntled banker in reaction to the Wall Street Crash, he played a somewhat puppeteer role over President Charles Curtis who was defeated for re-election in 1932 despite his strong efforts to recover the economy.

During the Presidency of Al Smith, Harding fully retired from public life and lived out his days in Ohio at his home just outside Cleveland, Ohio. He would be marred however when many scandals leaked out in the mid 30's about deals and corruption links during his Presidency, while he was never implicated this badly damaged his Presidency from being a "Great" to a "Mediocre" on the academic's rating of President's.

Warren G. Harding died on January 7th 1942 just after the entry of the US into World War Two with Britain under President Al Smith who finished his term in 1941. Manhattan District Attorney Thomas Dewey served out the 1941 - 1945 term as President but lost re-election after the A-Bomb order to former Speaker John Nance Garner.

Presidents of the United States
29. Warren G. Harding (R-OH): March 4, 1921 - March 4, 1929
30. Calvin Coolidge (R-MA): March 4, 1929 - October 29, 1929
31. Charles Curtis (R-KS): October 29, 1929 - March 4, 1933
32. Al Smith (D-NY): March 4, 1933 - March 4, 1941
33. Thomas E. Dewey (R-NY): March 4, 1941 - March 4, 1945 (1)
34. John Nance Garner (D-TX): March 4, 1945 - March 4, 1953

(1) Vetoed an amendment to change the inauguration day from March 4th to January 20th
 
I have a vague idea for a TL where Congress agreed with the voter plurality and gives Andrew Jackson the WH in 1825, but he loses in 1828 to Henry Clay, that involves the former getting involved in the Texian Revolution.
 
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