Homer Thornberry perhaps.
Clark Clifford at Defense a few years early. Stevenson at State.
Ugh... he'd make Harriet Miers look "Exceptionally well-qualified" in comparison.
Clifford and Johnson were friends. So were Johnson and Symington. Either of them could get SecDef.I doubt that Clifford would take the job at defense unless the foreign policy situation was as bad as it was at the end of Johnson's tenure. He really didn't want the job, but things were bad enough that he accepted Johnson's umpteenth invitation.
Clark Clifford was SecDef under OTL LBJ presidency
even though he would be a greate advisor for LBJ similar the role Kissinger had under Nixon
without Robert McNamara as SecDef,
The USAF and NAVY aircraft would look very different as in OTL
NO F-111
USAF F-15 and NAVY F-14 so 5 year early in service, but with early 60s technology level.
USAF F-12 (interceptor version of the SR-71 Blackbird.) was planed to buy 93 F-12B
maybe also
B-58B C and D versions of Strategic Bomber
SLAM Pluto: nuclear powered ramjet engines cruise missiles.
No Joke the program was on point for first test flight, as McNamara canceled it
although how the Vietnam War will go off, play in this TL a big role
by the way, would Robert McNamara be better as sec of Commerce in 1960 LBJ Cabinet?
Interesting. I still doubt Clifford would take the job in 1961, due to having more power as the most prominent lawyer in D.C. at the time. But the McNamara stuff is really neat. If you make Jack Kennedy Johnson's running-mate, than Symington would probably go to Defense. McNamara would make a good Commerce Secretary, but probably wouldn't take or get offered the job (he was a Republican and was shocked when Kennedy offered him a job in his Administration).