WI Wendell Wilkes wins

This was the topic of this Print on Demand book I wrote, (also at lulu.com, etc., in paperback too).

Basically there is still co-operation between the parties, just as when FDR kept Republicans in his cabinet at a couple places, and it is a just a different dynamic as far as the war's battles. Wilkie was a globalist (a famous book "One World" shows this) and would have supported the UN I think, and FDR might have more of a role than one thingks.

Another thought - does Hitler challenge the inexperienced WIllkie and alet his subs go harder after US shipping? Could the US go to war with Germany first in late 1941? I don't know, but it was a lot of fun to write thigns leading up to that possibility. :)

Seriously, he dies in office, perhaps before Vice President McN ary (who also died in 1944) due to the stress of the office. The Secretary of State would then become President. So, there would be a smooth transition of power, presuming that his health declined fast enough that thigns could be put in place to let the SoS slowly assume more responsibility.
 
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Another thought - does Hitler challenge the inexperienced WIllkie and alet his subs go harder after US shipping? Could the US go to war with Germany first in late 1941? I don't know, but it was a lot of fun to write thigns leading up to that possibility. :) ...

Might even bring the US into the war earlier if Hitler pushes too hard against less firm Wilkie policy, tho I am personally skeptical Wilkie will be any less firm than Roosevelt. I'm more interested in if Wilkie would have the same relationship to the senior admirals & generals as Roosevelt?
 
Other interesting thing. In otl both Wallace and his vp candidate died before November 44

Under the then law Sec of State becomes President. . Who would that be?
 
This was the topic of this Print on Demand book I wrote, (also at lulu.com, etc., in paperback too).

Basically there is still co-operation between the parties, just as when FDR kept Republicans in his cabinet at a couple places, and it is a just a different dynamic as far as the war's battles. Wilkie was a globalist (a famous book "One World" shows this) and would have supported the UN I think, and FDR might have more of a role than one thingks.

Another thought - does Hitler challenge the inexperienced WIllkie and alet his subs go harder after US shipping? Could the US go to war with Germany first in late 1941? I don't know, but it was a lot of fun to write thigns leading up to that possibility. :)

Seriously, he dies in office, perhaps before Vice President McN ary (who also died in 1944) due to the stress of the office. The Secretary of State would then become President. So, there would be a smooth transition of power, presuming that his health declined fast enough that thigns could be put in place to let the SoS slowly assume more responsibility.

I believe that Wilkie advocated stronger military action than FDR. Could be wrong.
 
Wasn't Wilkie given the Nod as candidate by his party due to the other main Republican candidates all sitting on a isolationist based policy regarding Europe while he was more interventionist (for want of a better term)

My understanding is that the US still backs the UK to the Hilt post fall of France with Wilkie at the helm

Although Wilkie is a far less experienced politician than FDR
 
Wasn't Wilkie given the Nod as candidate by his party due to the other main Republican candidates all sitting on a isolationist based policy regarding Europe while he was more interventionist (for want of a better term)

My understanding is that the US still backs the UK to the Hilt post fall of France with Wilkie at the helm

Although Wilkie is a far less experienced politician than FDR
This is true, and Willkie was supportive of the war effort following his defeat historically. However, he did seem to fluctuate in many of his positions on the campaign trail in 1940.
 
Hmm. Wilkie will inherit the military line up Roosevelt installed in 1939, including several traditional Republicans in cabinet posts. I doubt he make immediate changes with the Chiefs of Staff. How long is he likely to retain the others?
 
It may help to give Willkie a different running mate, given that both McNary and Willkie were dead before the 1944 election in OTL.
 
in 1940? How does this affect US History?


EDIT: Autocorrect made it Wilkes instead of Wilkie

But it really should be Willkie.

As to the proposition:

The Democrats would keep the Senate, but the Republicans could win narrow control of the House.

This is important because the "Republican" caucus would include "Progressives" from Wisconsin, and several other members from the Upper Midwest who were associated with that wing of the party.

E.g. Jeannette Rankin of Montana, elected in 1940 as a Republican, having also been elected in 1916 as a Republican - the first woman in the House. She was a firebrand reformer - a suffragette and pacifist, who voted against the declaration of war with Germany in 1917, and against the declaration of war with Japan in 1941 (the only Representative to do so).

It should be noted that aviator Charles Lindbergh (who was a noted isolationist) was the son of a 5-term Republican Representative from Minnesota who had opposed US involvement in WW I. (He retired from the House in 1916 and did not vote on it, but published anti-war pamphlets.)

Other prominent anti-war Republicans included Governor La Follette of Wisconsin, and Senator Nye of North Dakota, who had chaired the Nye Committee which sought to expose the alleged financial/industrial conspiracy behind WW I.

It seems quite likely to me that President Willkie would need the votes of Progressive/quasi-Progressive Representatives to pass anything through the House, and could not afford to alienate them. Thus, even if he wanted to follow an internationalist and interventionist foreign policy, he would be far more constrained than FDR was OTL. Lend-Lease and the Atlantic Charter would be impossible. So would the draft extension (which passed OTL by just one vote).

The US might still aid the Allies and even go to war, but it would be much trickier.
 
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