Perfection
The Great Head.
What if FDR lived in relative health until his 90s?
How many times would he have been reelected.
Would America have become a dictatorship?
Would commie-nism rule the land?
Answer!
Love.
Perfs
What if FDR didn't die in 1945?
- Thread starter Perfection
- Start date
What if FDR lived in relative health until his 90s?
How many times would he have been reelected.
Would America have become a dictatorship?
Would commie-nism rule the land?
Answer!
Love.
Perfs
With or without polio? If he never had polio he probably would have been a completely different person so it's hard to say. If he had polio but somehow managed to live to 90, I imagine he'd be in a pretty sorry state by then, considering his brain was probably going by Yalta.
Perfection
The Great Head.
We presume that sometime during 1942-45 his disease progression stops.
Louis XXIV
Le Roi Soleil
Considering Churchill didn't get to keep governing, I'd still assume that it would be Roosevelt's last term.
I think I'd agree. In the U.S. with the fear of becoming similar to a monarchy, I don't think he would win in 1948. However, Truman might not have been elected in 1948, so the world would be different. Hard to say by how much.
Quackers
The Frog
my best guess involves giant death robots.
am i close?
am i close?
innonimatu
the resident Cassandra
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- Dec 4, 2006
- Messages
- 15,338
That fear didn't stop him being reelected before. It was a fear among politicians, not the voters at large. My guess (though knowing little of American politics) is that he would win, again, and possibly again! If even that political nullity which was Truman managed to win just on the basis of having been Roosevelt's successor...
Churchill was a different case. He lost because of his political position - the british, having sacrificed so much for the sake of the state during the war, wanted the state to serve them for a change, and labour were the ones proposing that.
In the US FDR was already the "left" candidate - and I don't see his party would withdrawing support from him, even if there were people there uncomfortable with his continued stay in power. Not in 1948 at least.
If FDR didn't die in 1945, then burying him in 1945 would have been a tragic mistake.
Seriously though, I remember reading a Time Magazine article from just before his 4th inauguration speculating on the fact that he would probably resign once the war was over. Truman's autobiography makes it pretty clear that he was brought on in 1944 with the very clear expecting that he would probably have to take over being president at some point.
Seriously though, I remember reading a Time Magazine article from just before his 4th inauguration speculating on the fact that he would probably resign once the war was over. Truman's autobiography makes it pretty clear that he was brought on in 1944 with the very clear expecting that he would probably have to take over being president at some point.
LightSpectra
me autem minui
A million plus Germans would have died from the Morgenthau Plan.
I wish Franklin Roosevelt no ill, but it would have been much better had he never lived.
I still find it hard to believe that they would have ended up carrying through with the Morgenthau Plan to its fullest extent. despite Roosevelt's extremely harsh rhetoric concerning the German people, it was just so unpopular. Hull, Marshall, Stimson and most of the British government was adamantly against it. Not that I'm trying to let Roosevelt off the hook for this one, but it just seems so blatantly stupid to approve of something that could have led to the resignation of half of his administration. I always feel like I'm missing something here or that Roosevelt's brain must have been literally melting.
I am sure he could have gotten away with it in regards to the Japanese. Polls from the end of the war show the American people were not nearly as angry at the average German as they were with the average Japanese citizen. I remember reading that something like 30% of the U.S. population thought we should have used more nukes on Japan even after they had offered surrender. It does kind of make me wonder what would have happened there.
LightSpectra
me autem minui
I'm not convinced he had a brain to begin with. Let's remember that this was the person who said, "Stalin is not that kind of man... He doesn't want anything but security for his country, and I think that if I give him everything I possibly can, and ask nothing from him in return, noblesse oblige, he won't try to annex anything and will work with me for a world of democracy and peace."
LightSpectra
me autem minui
Maybe if he had interviewed some of the Poles, Czechs, Cossacks or Hungarians before betraying them to Stalin, Roosevelt would've found out Stalin's true colors.
Wait, not even that much is necessary. Stalin is the one who referred to Beria as "our Himmler" at Yalta to Roosevelt. The fact is that Roosevelt was either an imbecile or feigned ignorance in order to prevent the repercussions.
Wait, not even that much is necessary. Stalin is the one who referred to Beria as "our Himmler" at Yalta to Roosevelt. The fact is that Roosevelt was either an imbecile or feigned ignorance in order to prevent the repercussions.
ParkCungHee
Deity
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- Aug 13, 2006
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Yes he did. He had hindsight to 1939.
That said, the Morganthau plan wasn't abandoned until well after Germany had already been occupied. Theres every reason to believe FDR approved it for the same reason others approved it: No one really thought about what de-industrializing Germany would mean, and once it became apparent what it did, they dropped it.
No one in the West really approved of it but a handful of people though. The British were basically blackmailed into support by threatening to cut off some aid, while Henry Stimson and Cordell Hull were outspoken about the destructiveness of the plan in 1944, a year before the full occupation. I remember reading Stimson and Cull were basically pissed about Morganthau's interference in foreign policy.
What did Stalin do in 39? If your referring to signing a non-aggression pack, isn't that about securing his nation. Oh on second thought, Are you referring to the partitioning of Poland.
I wouldn't be quite that harsh. After all, without FDR we may have ended up with President Huey Long or someone similar. Bu the certainly needed to die; preferably around December 6 1941 or so. Though that would leave Hull as President. Damn. Huey Long doesn't seem so bad now.
FDR would likely have been re-elected. He would also have basically handed Germany to the USSR, being as he was Stalin's American mistress (or doing a damn fine impression of one, the way he constantly bent over for the man). Not to mention the destruction of the Morgenthau Plan, which he would have continued to support due to his insane belief in Stalin's peace-loving ways.
No to the dictatorship and commie-nism. Eventually someone else would take FDR's place and start taking notice of Stalin's actions, possibly Eisenhower. FDR didn't have enough power to go all Mussolini on American asses.
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