DBWI: Eisenhower Doesn't Run in 1948

Amadeus

Despite great reluctance, General Dwight Eisenhower accepted a draft for the Republican nomination in 1948. He defeated his GOP rivals at the party convention and went on to win the Presidency in a landslide. But what if Eisenhower had declined to run?
 

Montgomerie Ward

Amadeus said:
Despite great reluctance, General Dwight Eisenhower accepted a draft for the Republican nomination in 1948. He defeated his GOP rivals at the party convention and went on to win the Presidency in a landslide. But what if Eisenhower had declined to run?
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Dwight D. Eisenhower's Presidency between January 20, 1949 until January 20, 1957 in many ways defined the 1950s as a decade.

Dewey probably defeats Truman because of Democratic fatigue. Or else if Truman eekes out a victory in 1948, Bob Taft wins the Republican nomination and runs against Truman in 1952. Dwight Eisenhower's last minute intervention in China ended in an armistice between North China and South China in 1961 (after his presidency). Truman's apathy would leave the GMD exiled in Taiwan. I wonder what would happen to Vice President Charles A. Halleck's political career. IOTL, Eisenhower ran out of his home state of Texas, and with Halleck on the ticket, it eroded Democratic support in the South and the Midwest, while strengthening Democratic support in the Northeast and West Coast. I remember Senator Richard Nixon of California being defeated in an upset in the US Senate Election in California of 1956.
 
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Amadeus

297* said:
Dwight D. Eisenhower's Presidency between January 20, 1949 until January 20, 1957 in many ways defined the 1950s as a decade.

Dewey probably defeats Truman because of Democratic fatigue. Or else if Truman eekes out a victory in 1948, Bob Taft wins the Republican nomination and runs against Truman in 1952. Dwight Eisenhower's last minute intervention in China ended in an armistice between North China and South China in 1961 (after his presidency). Truman's apathy would leave the GMD exiled in Taiwan. I wonder what would happen to Vice President Charles A. Halleck's political career. IOTL, Eisenhower ran out of his home state of Texas, and with Halleck on the ticket, it eroded Democratic support in the South and the Midwest, while strengthening Democratic support in the Northeast and West Coast. I remember Senator Richard Nixon of California being defeated in an upset in the US Senate Election in California of 1956.
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Yes, SAG President Ronald Reagan defeated him by a margin of .04%. Reagan ran for President several times as a favorite son of California, but he never made it. As for Halleck, I imagine he could become Speaker of the House at some point instead of winning the Presidency in 1956.
 

Amadeus

I imagine that the Republicans would have won in 1948 no matter who they nominated: Truman was widely unpopular and the Democratic vote was split 3 ways. There's just no way the Democrats can overcome that unless, well, they had nominated Eisenhower instead. But either way it ends with Truman leaving the White House on January 20, 1949.

But as mentioned above, no Eisenhower means some important differences. No Atoms for Peace program for one, and it's possible that the U.S. would have gone to war in Korea.
 
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