I've been doing a lot of reading about the 50s lately, and discovered an interesting gentleman by the name of
Brien E. McMahon, the Democratic Senator from Connecticut. He got his start as a prosecutor, going after a coal company for violations of the Wagner Labor Relations Act, but made his name as the main sponsor of the bill that created the Atomic Energy Commission. And, like many Senators, he wanted to be president - he actually ran in 1952 under the slogan "The Man is McMahon," apparently angling for the Democratic vice-presidential seat. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with cancer around the same time and died that year.
I'm thinking of doing a TL where he doesn't get cancer and runs and ultimately wins in 1960. He'd only be 57, so he'd still be young enough. And I wanted to see if anyone had any information or thoughts about him.
He was apparently one of the best-informed people in the US Senate on atomic energy issues, and shortly before his death sponsored a bill to increase the AEC's budget from $1 to $6 billion. He had some interesting views on atomic weapons - he wanted to negotiate arms control with Russia, but also wanted to make the US military a predominantly atomic-armed force. He thought the financial cost of a conventional army was too high for a democracy to sustain, and that it was playing to the Russians' strengths. A speech I've found of his makes him sound as though he wants to go even further than Eisenhower's massive retaliation, by basically putting an atomic bomb on any vehicle that could carry it. That may be just political rhetoric, but a US that keeps pushing massive retaliation rather than flexible response seems like an interesting idea.