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by jhbadger 738 days ago
> Millitary general getting popular after winning a war is nothing if not realistic

Exactly. It even works in democracies; Dwight Eisenhower became US president from 1953 to 1961 largely because of his success as Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in WWII. And Grant and Washington too, of course.
1 comments
adolph 738 days ago
I took a peek since 53 was 8 years after WWII. What a weird time it must have been. Truman telling Eisenhower that Truman would run as VP is Eisenhower ran as president.

  12 April     1945 Truman assumes presidency after Roosevelt's death
  2  September 1945 WWII ends
  2  November  1948 Truman elected president
  2  November  1952 Eisenhower elected president
[In 1947] As a result of Truman's low standing in the polls, several Democratic party bosses began working to "dump" Truman and nominate a more popular candidate. . . . On July 10, Eisenhower officially refused to be a candidate.

For both Republicans and Democrats, there were movements of support for General Dwight D. Eisenhower . . . . Unlike the latter movement within the Democratic Party, however, the Republican draft movement came largely from the grassroots of the party. By January 23, 1948, the grassroots movement had successfully entered Eisenhower's name into every state . . . . Stating that soldiers should keep out of politics, Eisenhower declined to run . . . . [0]

In July 1947, President Harry S. Truman considered him an ideal candidate for the Democratic Party, and wanted to "groom the general to follow him". That month, Truman even secretly offered to be the vice-presidential candidate if the general would run for president as a Democrat.

Hoping that Eisenhower would run for the Democratic Party, Truman wrote to him in December 1951, saying: "I wish you would let me know what you intend to do." Eisenhower responded: "I do not feel that I have any duty to seek a political nomination."

Although Eisenhower believed he would win the presidency more easily and with a larger congressional majority as a Democrat, he felt the Truman administration had become corrupt and that the next president would have to reform the government without having to defend past policies. The internationalist wing of the Republican Party saw Eisenhower as an alternative to the more isolationist candidate—Senator Robert A. Taft, the son of former president and chief justice William Howard Taft. Before the primaries, Taft was widely referred to as "Mr. Republican" [1]

0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_United_States_presidentia...

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft_Eisenhower_movement

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