President Pershing?

How possible is the election of John J. Pershing to the office of President? What if at the convention in 1920, the Republicans had nominated Pershing? Would he have been able to beat Cox? And if he did, because I mean it is Cox, what would a Pershing Presidency be like? An earlier national highway, less dismantling of the military in the 1920's and how would his opinion of blacks change American racial policy? Probably wouldn't be that different but having a racially tolerant president would be far different administration then his predecessor's.
 
The roaring twenties see a lot more social progress. If this butterflies away the Smoot-Hawley tariff and some of the glaring oversights of the stock market, maybe we have a delayed depression or at least a weaker one.

This has actually been a topic I've been interested in but I'd have to learn more about Pershing.
 
The roaring twenties see a lot more social progress. If this butterflies away the Smoot-Hawley tariff and some of the glaring oversights of the stock market, maybe we have a delayed depression or at least a weaker one.

This has actually been a topic I've been interested in but I'd have to learn more about Pershing.

He is a fascinating character. He was also the highest ranked general in American history after Washington, even though he only wore 4 stars, he is considered the superior of any of the Five star generals.
 
He is a fascinating character. He was also the highest ranked general in American history after Washington, even though he only wore 4 stars, he is considered the superior of any of the Five star generals.

Int he Army, they told us he was the US Armies only 6-star general.
 
Int he Army, they told us he was the US Armies only 6-star general.

He actually was the General of the Armies and was allowed to create his own insignia, which he chose as four stars. So while there have been 4 and 5 star generals since, he is still the highest ranked General of all time.
 
How possible is the election of John J. Pershing to the office of President? What if at the convention in 1920, the Republicans had nominated Pershing? Would he have been able to beat Cox? And if he did, because I mean it is Cox, what would a Pershing Presidency be like? An earlier national highway, less dismantling of the military in the 1920's and how would his opinion of blacks change American racial policy? Probably wouldn't be that different but having a racially tolerant president would be far different administration then his predecessor's.

He'd win easily enough. Any Republican would in 1920. But probably not by as big a majority as Harding, since for obvious reasons the German Americans wouldn't be so keen on him. Nor, possibly would others who had opposed the war. Though Pershing bore no personal responsibility for the DoW, he would almost inevitably suffer to some degree by association.
 
He'd win easily enough. Any Republican would in 1920. But probably not by as big a majority as Harding, since for obvious reasons the German Americans wouldn't be so keen on him. Nor, possibly would others who had opposed the war. Though Pershing bore no personal responsibility for the DoW, he would almost inevitably suffer to some degree by association.

Yes, but wouldn't he also be considered as a war hero.
 
Works for some generals but not others. Was Pershing as popular with the average Doughboy as Ike was with the average GI?

I think I remember reading that Pershing was disliked by his Cadets at West Point, where he gained the nickname Black Jack, but he was a war hero.
 
I think I remember reading that Pershing was disliked by his Cadets at West Point, where he gained the nickname Black Jack, but he was a war hero.


But it's also noticeable that WW1 didn't throw up any military candidates for the White House - unlike the ACW or even the SAW. It seems to have been a war that Americans preferred to forget. The only POTUS who owed his place in any way to WW1 was Hoover - whose record was totally non-military in nature. This makes me wonder whether Pershing's "war hero" status would have benefited him as it had Grant and would Ike. Both parties in 1920 opted for candidates without significant war records, and I suspect this is not an accident.
 
But it's also noticeable that WW1 didn't throw up any military candidates for the White House - unlike the ACW or even the SAW. It seems to have been a war that Americans preferred to forget. The only POTUS who owed his place in any way to WW1 was Hoover - whose record was totally non-military in nature. This makes me wonder whether Pershing's "war hero" status would have benefited him as it had Grant and would Ike. Both parties in 1920 opted for candidates without significant war records, and I suspect this is not an accident.

It did have one, Leonard Wood, who was favored going into the convention, but he lost out to Harding. And there was a movement to draft Pershing. And although he swore not to campaign for the position, he would serve if called upon by the American people.
 
It did have one, Leonard Wood, who was favored going into the convention, but he lost out to Harding. And there was a movement to draft Pershing. And although he swore not to campaign for the position, he would serve if called upon by the American people.


Significantly, though, Wood wasn't nominated either. Even on his best ballot (the seventh) he still had less than a third of the delegates. Also, he had played little part in WW1, and even had he somehow been nominated, it would have been as an old pal of TR, not as a "war hero". That card just didn't seem to play very well after WW1.
 
Here's some interesting information on the subject.

http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/timeline/pershing-for-pres-1920.htm

IOTL Pershing apparently didn't really try hard enough to win the primary.


And he was probably in the wrong state. Nebraska was in the isolationist heartland where feelings about the war were at best mixed, and a prominent anti-war Senator like George Norris had been re-elected without any trouble. Association with the war probably did as much harm as good.

I don't doubt that Pershing would have won in November. It was the sort of year when the Republicans could have lost only by nominating Benedict Arnold - and might still have had a chance even with him against anyone associated with the Wilson Administration [1]. But I suspect it would have been around 57-43 or thereabouts, rather than the massacre that Harding achieved.

Strange as it may seem in hindsight, Harding was the ideal candidate at the time, able to win the votes of supporters and opponents of the war alike, and of course of anybody who just didn't like Wilson. It was his bad luck to live a couple of years too long. Had he served three months rather than three years, there would be Warren G Harding memorial schools and bridges all over America.


[1] Journalist Charles Willis Thompson expressed the view that the GOP could have won without nominating any candidate at all. The people were so anti-Wilson that they would have voted for Republican Electors and let them choose any POTUS and VP that they liked.
 
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