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James F. Byrnes

(Democrat-South Carolina)

1945-1949

The ascendance of Byrnes to the Presidency was an accident in every possible way. With an illustrious career in both branches of Congress and the Supreme Court, there was little expectation of him going any further. In 1942, as the Second World War went into full swing, Byrnes was thrown into various wartime agency directorship positions under President Roosevelt, who Byrnes had admiration for.


But in 1944, Byrnes attended the Democratic National Convention, expecting only routine boredom. Little did he know, his name had been presented on a list of possible candidates to replace vice-President Henry Wallace, whose left-wing politics were frightening, especially with an aging President. Had not, in an unlikely turn of events, Harry Truman, the expected nomination of the day, died on the way to convention, Byrnes would have faded into the dusty storage banks of history. But, with Truman gone, within four ballots, James F. Byrnes was the Democratic nominee for vice-President of the United States. Byrnes' presence lost Roosevelt a little support amongst Roman Catholics, as Byrnes was born of that church, but converted to Episcopalianism, but Roosevelt still won a landslide 428 electoral votes against Thomas Dewey's 103. Within three months of being sworn in as vice-President, President Roosevelt suddenly died, leaving Byrnes as President, to which he was quickly sworn in on April 12.


Byrnes was left to finish up the Second World War, he had little impact in Europe, where the Soviets were already racing to Berlin. Byrnes was unhappy, and pressured Eisenhower to move on Berlin, not wanting to, as he perceived it, be beaten by Communists. However, Byrnes decided against it after further consideration. On May 11, Peace was signed between what was left of the German OKW and Western and Soviet representatives. Japan surrendered on September 5 of that year, after the nuclear destructions of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.


So began the Postwar era. With Byrnes at the head of the United States, being an anti-Communist, hardly were the shells of the last war cooled before Byrnes began looking to the Soviets as the enemy. With the support of a rather conservative Congress, Byrnes had quite a bit of control, and passed legislation opposing the Soviet Union, highlighted by the Byrnes Doctrine, a US policy to contain the expansion of the Soviet Union and Communism. With American and British support, Communist forces lost a Civil War to the Monarchists in Greece. Though Byrnes always wished to create some sort of an alliance of Capitalist states, chiefly the United States, United Kingdom, and France, the Labour Party government in the United Kingdom viewed Byrnes' extreme anti-Communism as somewhat frightening. However, Byrnes biggest achievement was the implementation of the Marshall Plan, which had support from both parties in Congress. The Marshall Plan was always hailed by Byrnes as the thing that kept Western Europe in the Free World.


Though Byrnes saw some of his goals as being achieved, the United States as a whole did not. Facing the challenge of the Progressive Party, which fractured from the Democrats, running a separate ticket, and Republican Party, Byrnes was not reelected.
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