No Ike in 1952

Just what it says. Eisenhower stays 100% out of politics in 1952. He never runs for President. What takes place?
 
The election becomes Taft vs. Stevenson-and I think Taft would be favored to win the election. Since Taft is going to die of cancer in his first year as President the end result is President Knowland.
 
Taft would run and win by a fair margin. He'd die early in his term, and his VP, who'd probably be a moderate Republican like Ike, would become POTUS.
 
220px-Harold_Stassen_1980.jpg
 
He's basically Nixon but hates Communist China.
he also seemed to be cool with mobsters and had gambling issues. but yeah he was a big fan of the nationalists Chinese. Don't know much more about the man personally except a few minor bios and Wikipedia.

the large question would be how would the death of Taft effect knowlands, would being his running mate and VP spur him to be more isolationist as Taft? also the public might start electing younger leaders as FDR had died in office, followed by Truman who gets reelected, than Taft who would die in office.

I would think that Knowlands would probably get us involved in French indo-china as he doesn't seem the isolationist type, he may as he did with Johnson and be open to pushing the civil rights agenda
 
I am thinking that Warren may get the GOP nomination. The democrats had not lost a National election since 1928. Eisenhower was a GREAT man who was highly respected, so he was able to stop that winning streak. But with out him its a lot tougher for a Republican to win in a very liberal America. So I am wondering if there is more of a fight for the democratic nomination. Would Truman try one more time? (he is exempt from the no more than two terms law). The south might stay 100% democratic with out Eisenhower to win away some votes Than the election is a lot closer in the electoral college . I don't think Truman runs. But I can see Stevenson getting more votes, or even winning. So I am thinking a GOP ticket of Warren and Stasen vs Stevenson and Russell. Russell can hold the entire south unlike Sparkman. Plus again no Ike the hero running. It would be very 1960 like election The upper mid west would be the key to victory. Big ten country!
 
Just what it says. Eisenhower stays 100% out of politics in 1952. He never runs for President. What takes place?
The issue with 1952 is, if Taft were to be nominated by the Republicans against Stevenson, Eisenhower in all likelihood would endorse Stevenson considering Taft's stance on foreign policy. I'm not sure however if that would violate what you are asking though by him staying 100% out of politics.
 
Wasn't MacArthur thinking of running before he got discoursged by Eisenhower's candidacy or something?

Yeah, I'll take my ban now.
 

bguy

Donor
he also seemed to be cool with mobsters and had gambling issues. but yeah he was a big fan of the nationalists Chinese. Don't know much more about the man personally except a few minor bios and Wikipedia.

the large question would be how would the death of Taft effect knowlands, would being his running mate and VP spur him to be more isolationist as Taft? also the public might start electing younger leaders as FDR had died in office, followed by Truman who gets reelected, than Taft who would die in office.

I would think that Knowlands would probably get us involved in French indo-china as he doesn't seem the isolationist type, he may as he did with Johnson and be open to pushing the civil rights agenda

On Vietnam Knowland's OTL position was that he would support U.S. intervention but only if other countries were willing to go in with the U.S. (And even then he seemed to just want the U.S. to provide air and naval support while America's Asian allies would provide any ground forces that were needed.) I kind of doubt that President Knowland will be able to persuade South Korea, Nationalist China, Thailand, or the Philippines to commit ground troops to Vietnam when the U.S. itself isn't willing to, so most likely no intervention happens.

And I agree that President Knowland will most likely support civil rights legislation. (OTL he supported the 1957 civil rights bill, and there is no reason for him not to support similar legislation in a timeline where he is the president.)

Duke 4 said:
I am thinking that Warren may get the GOP nomination.

Warren couldn't even deliver his own state for the Dewey/Warren ticket in 1948, so he would not be a very attractive prospect to the GOP for 1952.
 
On Vietnam Knowland's OTL position was that he would support U.S. intervention but only if other countries were willing to go in with the U.S. (And even then he seemed to just want the U.S. to provide air and naval support while America's Asian allies would provide any ground forces that were needed.) I kind of doubt that President Knowland will be able to persuade South Korea, Nationalist China, Thailand, or the Philippines to commit ground troops to Vietnam when the U.S. itself isn't willing to, so most likely no intervention happens.

And I agree that President Knowland will most likely support civil rights legislation. (OTL he supported the 1957 civil rights bill, and there is no reason for him not to support similar legislation in a timeline where he is the president.)



Warren couldn't even deliver his own state for the Dewey/Warren ticket in 1948, so he would not be a very attractive prospect to the GOP for 1952.

That's good point. In "52 reality" Stevenson lost Illinois his home state and got the nomination again in 56. Our current President lost his home state. Could Taft win Ohio for the GOP in 52? Bricker could not in 44. LBJ barely held Texas for JFK in 60. I think one reason why the GOP went looking for Ike was that they did not believe Taft could win , and UNSILI is right Ike would had supported Stevenson over Taft when it came to foreign policy
 

bguy

Donor
That's good point. In "52 reality" Stevenson lost Illinois his home state and got the nomination again in 56. Our current President lost his home state. Could Taft win Ohio for the GOP in 52? Bricker could not in 44. LBJ barely held Texas for JFK in 60. I think one reason why the GOP went looking for Ike was that they did not believe Taft could win , and UNSILI is right Ike would had supported Stevenson over Taft when it came to foreign policy

I think Stevenson got the nomination again in 1956 because the Democrats didn't really think they could win that year, so they might as well let Stevenson have it. (And by the same token no one really blamed Stevenson for losing in 1952 either since there was no way any Democrat candidate was going to beat Ike that year). By contrast Warren was part of a presidential ticket that lost a very winnable election, so he is clearly electoral deadweight. (And Bricker actually did deliver his home state in 1944 which makes Warren look even worse by comparison).

As for Ike supporting Stevenson over Taft maybe but if Ike doesn't run then that suggests that Taft made the guarantees about supporting NATO that Ike wanted, and if Taft agrees to support NATO then Ike has no reason to oppose Taft.
 
Taft will probably win in November, but by a much lesser margin than Ike's in OTL. Which means that a number of Republicans who won Senate seats by narrow margins in OTL might lose--including Barry Goldwater and Prescott Bush. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_elections,_1952

BTW, given that cancer is partly caused by random mutations http://www.npr.org/sections/health-...ncer-is-partly-caused-by-bad-luck-study-finds can we really be sure that Taft is going to die of it on schedule, or could it still be butterflied away as of 1952? (Do we know what the time gap between the mutation and the first symptoms normally is?)
 
Anybody think Stassen can beat Taft ?
depends on how divided the republicans are if IKE said nope, no way and stayed clear of things. Taft has the name, but Stassen was pretty well known as well.
Maybe Macarthur makes a splash to cause some waves to divide the rest of the group enough, it is not out of the realm of possibility, but it would be a tough slog against Taft who had a more inside track
 
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