What if FDR Didn't Run for a Third Term

Ever since America's founding, there's been a tradition that no President should serve longer than two terms, dating all the way back to George Washington. For the next over one hundred years, there weren't any real challenges to this, until 1940, when this tradition would be broken for the first and only time by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Despite wanting to step down, the outbreak of World War II led FDR to run for, and win a third term, becoming the longest serving President in US history. But, what if, in an alternate timeline, Franklin Roosevelt respected the two-term tradition, and didn't run for a third term? Enjoy!

MUSIC:

Video Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
1:13 Background
4:53 Scenario

[joshuas]

What if Prince John Joseph of Austria, the illegitimate son of Felipe IV of Spain and half brother of Charles II, was legitimised and lived longer? How would it affect Spain having no war of succession as well as having a good king?

[brendenchustz]

FDR did not just run for a third term he also ran for a fourth term in 1944 and won but he died at the beginning of his fourth term in 1945 being succeeded by his vice-president Harry S. Truman

[KevinBurke-zi]

If there was no Pearl Harbor? How would MacArthur even come into the equation? By 1940 he was a retired general living in the Philippines. It is doubtful Dewey would have recalled him to active duty, in July of 41! I suspect MacArthur would have just faded off into the sunset and never become a contender for the presidency in 44!

[redjirachi]

A reversal of this scenario: What If Ulysses S Grant succeeded in his 1880 comeback and became both the 18th and 20th president?

[InfernosReaper]

If Japan doesn't oust the US from the Philippines, this could potentially work out like that. If it does, though, that's a war. The thing is Japan would inevitably try to mess with the US either that way or some other way and that would get the US into the war eventually.

[edwinrodriguez]

Cordel Hull would have been the Democratic nominee. A Southern New Deal supporter and sitting Secretary of State, he would be the most likely to put together the Roosevelt coalition during the 1940 Convention. Hopkins makes sense until the War started becoming the main issue. Fun video

[PatSmashYT]

I imagine Dewey would upgrade Las Vegas with weapons designed to intercept nuclear weaponry. He would then make a stasis chamber in a hotel to preserve his own life after a nuclear war. Following Dewey winning a second term, he would oversee the construction of the nuclear bomb with Hitler later developing the bomb not long after. Dewey during his second term would calculate that total nuclear war would break out in 1946, with a special platinum chip being needed to activate Las Vegas' defense system in order to save the city. In 1946, Dewey would enter the stasis chamber he built and integrates himself with the hotel he is in. The delivery of the platinum chip ends up being 20 hours late as the Germans and Americans enter nuclear war. The missile defense system in Las Vegas would still be able to save the city, still successfully disabling 68 of the 77 German nukes aimed at the city. Afterwards the world would be plunged into a new post-nuclear era

[satanicturtle]

What if Brittan, France, and Italy held the Stressa Front and prevented the Anschluss

[thatguywhosenameyoukeepmis]

I think that it wouldn't be Hopkins to be his successor, he'd likely choose Henry Wallace(Progressive Secretary of Agriculture) or John Nance Garner(Conservative Vice-President). It would be interesting to see such a primary battle and whether it escalates into a party split or some tense compromise.

[malekalbrecht]

No that with the USSR is cap. It has been researched while the US was essentiall. It is called that the Soviets would have done it with out.

[maximusjackassicus]

Also, without FDR a hundred thousand or so Americans wouldn't have been locked up in internment camps, wouldn't have had their property seized, and wouldn't have lost their constitutional rights. So there's that.

[danielsantiagourtado]

Josh: Scenario; Wilhelm II dies in the same year as his father and his son Wilhem III takes the reigns under a regency and later on his own.

[sethbartley]

I would imagine without the immense spending and loss of material to the war the depression would likely end much sooner.
This is a facinating look at a possible timeline that is much more nuanced than germany conquers the world and time ends.
(I wonder if nukes still come into play and we have a cold war with the national socialists. This timeline is so much more complex with a multipolar powerset. I would love to see more.)

[jacobdalland]

Well, that scenario ended up being scarier than I thought LOL

[franciswhite]

What if Pepto Bismal were available in Vincennes, France in the summer of 1422?

Imagine the world today if the fruits of Agincourt were harvested.

[AhmadsStuff]

Safe to say that if Roosevelt wasn’t elected in 1940 the world would be much worse for newer countries and basically everyone

[nairb]

Wallace was too chummy with the Soviets, that's why the Democrats ousted him and put Truman in as FDR's running mate in 1944.

[bintangwicaksana]

What if Henry Wallace suceeded FDR instead of Harry S. Truman by keeping him as the VP candidate in 1944 election

[lc]

FDR didn't want to run but was asked to by the party since they didn't think they would win otherwise given that the economic situation in late 1939 wasn't good. With a contested election in 1940 it is highly unlikely that the US would have started mobilizaiton in Sep 1940 (instituting the draft, mobilizing the reserve, and kick in ship builing into high gear).

[RickLUFC]

Churchill hated Communism but still allied with the soviet Union he once said he would of made a deal with the devil him self to guarantee victory it was a nessasery evil and so would Deewey so I have to disagree.