What if Robert Taft became President of the United States?

Back To The Past: The Alternate History Podcast

Robert Alphonso Taft Sr. (September 8, 1889 – July 31, 1953) was an American politician, lawyer, and scion of the Republican Party's Taft family. Taft represented Ohio in the United States Senate, briefly served as Senate Majority Leader, and was a leader of the conservative coalition of Republicans and conservative Democrats who prevented expansion of the New Deal. Often referred to as "Mr. Republican", he cosponsored the Taft–Hartley Act of 1947, which banned closed shops, created the concept of right-to-work states, and regulated other labor practices.

He also emerged as a prominent non-interventionist and opposed U.S. involvement into World War II prior to the 1941 Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor. Taft's non-interventionist stances damaged his 1940 candidacy, and the 1940 Republican National Convention nominated Wendell Willkie. Taft sought the presidency again in 1948, but he lost to Dewey at the 1948 Republican National Convention. He opposed the creation of NATO and criticized President Harry Truman's handling of the Korean War.

He would later die in 1953 as a result of cancer.

However, let's say that in this scenario, the Republican Party nominates Taft for the 1952 election and Taft is able to win. In addition, he does not develop cancer. With Taft's radically different perspective and policies, how would the United States develop during the 1950s, the onset of the Cold War? Would Taft lead the United States into a new era of isolationism, or would Congress force Taft to intervene? Would the US look at war and military action the same way?

Robert Taft, and his impacts on the political landscape were drastic. If he were president, even more so. The world would be different, and potentially even for the better.

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