WI No Dewey Stassen Debates

During the 1948 Presidential Election there were two major front runners for the Republican nomination. Harold Stassen and Thomas Dewey. Dewey only managed to take a lead over Stassen after the Dewey-Stassen Debate about the legality of the American Communist Party in which Dewey definitively won. This was the first audio recorded presidential debate in US history. What if this debate never happened or if Stassen Won? Do we see Stassen v Truman 1948? A President Stassen? Or still a Truman Victory? Or do we see Dewey still winning the nomination?
 
I think Stassen would've won the nomination and beaten Truman. Dewey lost to Truman because he waged a bland, empty and ineffectual campaign in order to avoid offending voters. This fatally backfired as it allowed Truman to define the issues of the campaign and regain the faith of everyday voters uninspired by Dewey. Had Dewey waged the same aggressive campaign he put up in the 1948 primaries he at least would've won California, Ohio, and Illinois - giving him the Presidency by one electoral vote. Ditto for Harold Stassen. However with an energized Republican base and a genuine connection with American voters that gives him an actual lead over Truman, Stassen could've done much better than 267 electoral votes. His final electoral college total would probably be around the 303 electoral votes Truman got in OTL. Stassen would be the youngest President in US history at this point. Whether or not he is re-elected depends on how he handles Korea...
 
I think Stassen would've won the nomination and beaten Truman. Dewey lost to Truman because he waged a bland, empty and ineffectual campaign in order to avoid offending voters. This fatally backfired as it allowed Truman to define the issues of the campaign and regain the faith of everyday voters uninspired by Dewey. Had Dewey waged the same aggressive campaign he put up in the 1948 primaries he at least would've won California, Ohio, and Illinois - giving him the Presidency by one electoral vote. Ditto for Harold Stassen. However with an energized Republican base and a genuine connection with American voters that gives him an actual lead over Truman, Stassen could've done much better than 267 electoral votes. His final electoral college total would probably be around the 303 electoral votes Truman got in OTL. Stassen would be the youngest President in US history at this point. Whether or not he is re-elected depends on how he handles Korea...
Who do you think would be his vp
 
This in turn suggests a Stassen Cabinet including John Foster Dulles as Secretary of State (conventional wisdom has it that he would have been Dewey's choice, and we know he was Ike's choice four years later), and quite likely Dewey himself as Attorney General. I have doubts, though, that Stassen would have been able to convince Ike to resign his commission to become Secretary of Defense--unless there was a sub rosa promise made that he'd get to rein in MacArthur once and for all.

In any event, a Stassen nomination in '48 and his subsequent election quite likely obviates an Eisenhower presidency. I'm not familiar enough with Harold Stassen apart from some reading to gauge how he would have fared against McCarthy--or even if McCarthy would have gained any traction at all with Stassen in the White House as opposed to Truman. With a no-nonsense anti-communist like Dulles running the State Department, I'm wondering if McCarthy wouldn't have had much of a basis for his re-election bid in 1950, and might have lost in the mid-terms.

Possibly Korea would have been prosecuted somewhat more vigorously / capably (?) if, say, Ike were in charge as opposed to MacArthur, leading to terms more favorable to what we know of today as South Korea. In turn that might mean that the Pyongyang regime would be on shakier ground from the outset--and perhaps might have fallen during the late 1980s/early 1990s.

I'd bet Stassen's successor would have been Adlai Stevenson: the time was more or less right, and it's difficult to imagine that Stassen's VP (can't argue with Warren, by the way) would be elected. John Gunther said that Warren would make "…a tolerable President of the United States…", which isn't exactly a ringing endorsement when it was written in 1947. Possibly the '56 GOP nominee might have been William Knowland, with NJ governor Alfred Driscoll as a running mate: that might have yielded a rather high-level campaign, with the Dems running Stevenson and either Kefauver or Kennedy.

Long story short: the '50s and beyond might well be decidedly different than we knew them to be.
 
Possibly Korea would have been prosecuted somewhat more vigorously / capably (?) if, say, Ike were in charge as opposed to MacArthur, leading to terms more favorable to what we know of today as South Korea. In turn that might mean that the Pyongyang regime would be on shakier ground from the outset--and perhaps might have fallen during the late 1980s/early 1990s.

Despite the conventional wisdom on this forum, there's no guarantee that the Korean War happens and in fact it's unlikely to happen with Dulles at State. Stalin had to become gradually convinced to allow the invasion, and his decision making process corresponded to America's withdrawal of troops from South Korea and cutting off aid. Dulles would press Stassen to maintain the troops there and pressure Congress to not only keep up aid but increase it. Dulles was a man who believed in fighting Communism in every inch of the globe and taking the world to the brink of WWIII if necessary. He is the kind of man who would make this point clear not just in public speeches but in private talks with the Soviets and Chinese. This is in contrast to Acheson and MacArthur who publicly excluded South Korea from the American "Strategic Defense Perimeter." Under Stassen, America's hawkish defense posture would more likely than not butterfly away the war.
 
If Stassen wisn re-election - likely as the economy would have been going well - and then Stevenson in '56, which does seem pretty likely, Stevenson is going to be blamed for an economic downturn. If he fails to win re-election, the GOP candidate will be interesting. Nixon will not have been VP, but will have been slowly gaining a reputation in Congress. However, he might be saatisfied with being VP in 1960, as he'd only be 47. Rockefeller might win the nomination.

I wonder who Stassen appoints as Chief Justice in 1953. Would Dewey be a possibility there? Or was he more interested in the Executive branch?I know Warren, too, had been a governor but know little else about him, whereas Dewey had his work in law (and likely as Attorney General) to satisfy plenty of conservatives, yet he'd be liberal enough to support Civil Rights - who knows, it might be Dewey writing the Brown v. Board decision.
 
If Stassen wisn re-election - likely as the economy would have been going well - and then Stevenson in '56, which does seem pretty likely, Stevenson is going to be blamed for an economic downturn.

IMO it's more likely that Stassen's VP would win in 1956. Unlike in 1960, the economy was soaring and the ongoing foreign policy crises boosted support for the incumbent administration. And I don't think Stevenson would be running - he was chosen at the 1952 convention because Truman and other bosses hated the anti-corruption crusader Kefauver. With Truman out of the way, Stevenson isn't forced to run and the Democrats have a different standard bearer whether it be Kefauver or Averell Harriman.
 
Despite the conventional wisdom on this forum, there's no guarantee that the Korean War happens and in fact it's unlikely to happen with Dulles at State. Stalin had to become gradually convinced to allow the invasion, and his decision making process corresponded to America's withdrawal of troops from South Korea and cutting off aid. Dulles would press Stassen to maintain the troops there and pressure Congress to not only keep up aid but increase it. Dulles was a man who believed in fighting Communism in every inch of the globe and taking the world to the brink of WWIII if necessary. He is the kind of man who would make this point clear not just in public speeches but in private talks with the Soviets and Chinese. This is in contrast to Acheson and MacArthur who publicly excluded South Korea from the American "Strategic Defense Perimeter." Under Stassen, America's hawkish defense posture would more likely than not butterfly away the war.

Good points all around: I hadn't considered that Dulles' stance and actions would have likely deterred the Soviets and the Chinese.
 
IMO it's more likely that Stassen's VP would win in 1956. Unlike in 1960, the economy was soaring and the ongoing foreign policy crises boosted support for the incumbent administration. And I don't think Stevenson would be running - he was chosen at the 1952 convention because Truman and other bosses hated the anti-corruption crusader Kefauver. With Truman out of the way, Stevenson isn't forced to run and the Democrats have a different standard bearer whether it be Kefauver or Averell Harriman.

I'm not so sure about that. Nixon getting the nomination in 1960 as a very high profile and popular VP broke 124 years of precedents. And don't forget he established himself quite well in the Kitchen Debates with Khrushchev. I can't quite see Warren as being sufficiently charismatic or popular to carry that off.
 
I'm not so sure about that. Nixon getting the nomination in 1960 as a very high profile and popular VP broke 124 years of precedents. And don't forget he established himself quite well in the Kitchen Debates with Khrushchev. I can't quite see Warren as being sufficiently charismatic or popular to carry that off.

You think Nixon was charismatic?
 

bguy

Donor
I wonder who Stassen appoints as Chief Justice in 1953. Would Dewey be a possibility there? Or was he more interested in the Executive branch?I know Warren, too, had been a governor but know little else about him, whereas Dewey had his work in law (and likely as Attorney General) to satisfy plenty of conservatives, yet he'd be liberal enough to support Civil Rights - who knows, it might be Dewey writing the Brown v. Board decision.

IOTL Dewey didn't seem to have any interest in serving on the Supreme Court as he supposedly twice passed on the chance to be appointed Chief Justice.

First by Eisenhower in 1953

https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0319.html

and then by Nixon in 1969

https://books.google.com/books?id=z...DoAQg5MAM#v=onepage&q="Thomas Dewey" &f=false
 
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