alternatehistory.com

Suppose the DPRK never decided to invade South Korea or the Korean War ended on a much more decisively victorious note with full reunification under Seoul without Chinese intervention. Either way, Harry Truman decides to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor and run for a third term in 1952, noting that the great socioeconomic reforms promised in his "Fair Deal agenda" has yet to be fulfilled. Dwight Eisenhower declines to challenge a sitting former President and in a sudden revival of the conservative wing, Robert Taft wins the GOP nomination. After a grueling campaign in which Taft alienates many traditional GOP voters with coded appeals in favour of "States' Rights" without winning too many compensating ballots in the South, Truman is elected to a third term. How does this Truman administration go?

Some possibilities:
-Especially without the problems of OTL Korean War, President Truman is far more openly critical of Joe McCarthy possibly hastening his downfall.
-Truman was much more sceptical of foreign intervention in places like Iran and Guatemala, thus he may take a more consistently anticolonialist stance boosting America's image in the Third World compared to OTL.
-Truman probably continues to push for Taft-Hartley repeal, national health insurance, and similar social reforms but I'm not sure if they would pass without large Democratic congressional majorities.
-Richard Nixon is somewhat less publicly prominent compared to OTL without being Vice President though he of course remains a talented and ambitious politician
-OTOH, I wonder if a longer Truman administration with abovementioned effects on the Red Scare might keep Ronald Reagan a labour liberal (albeit a very anticommunist one). Perhaps Reagan decides to challenge Richard Nixon for his US Senate seat from California in 1956...
Top