1948 : MacArthur (R) v Truman (D) v Thurmond (SD) v H. Wallace (P)

[Huey Long is a Republican]

What it says in the title. Of these four men, who might have been able to win the presidential election? Also, who would've been MacArthur's running mate?

[Alben Barkley]

MacArthur was still in charge of the occupation of Japan at the time. Truman might have fired him earlier than he did in reality for attempting to challenge his Commander-in-Chief politically and interfering with his duties. Unless he resigned to run.

As it was, MacArthur couldn't even beat Harold Stassen in the Wisconsin primary, which pretty much knocked him out of the race. I'm not sure he's as much of a shoe-in as people might think. He would have had more appeal to conservatives and hardcore Cold War hawks, but it was still the New Deal era. And Give 'Em Hell Harry was still a formidable campaigner who did a fantastic job ripping the GOP and their unpopular policies apart in 1948, totally erasing their gains from 1946.

MacArthur was popular among much of the population, yes, and would have been more charismatic than Dewey. But he was not without his risks. He was much more of a flamboyant type than Eisenhower; he fired up some people but didn't command the same universal respect.

I can see it going either way, but I still think Truman takes it more often than not, with more or less the same map.

[MATTROSE94]

As far as I can tell, Douglas MacArthur was a strong opponent of civil rights and spoke out against the integration of the US military, so it is possible that Strom Thurmond would have sat out the 1948 race and endorsed Douglas MacArthur in this scenario. As such, the Republican Party would have begun to implement its "Southern Strategy" 15 years earlier as a result of a Douglas MacArthur candidacy in 1948. Anyway, here is how I think the electoral map would have turned out:

President Harry Truman (D-MO)/Senator Alben Barkley (D-KY): 299 EVs (51%)
General Douglas MacArthur (R-AR)/Senator Robert Taft (R-OH): 232 EVs (46%)
Former Vice President Henry Wallace (Progressive-IA)/Senator Glen Taylor (Progressive-ID): 0 EVs (2%)
Others: 0 EVs (1%)

The closest states are Vermont, Maine, Georgia, Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Iowa

[Huey Long is a Republican]

As far from what I can tell, MacArthur really didn't care about the skin of his soldiers, only that they could get the job done. "On June 25, 1950, when Gen. Douglas MacArthur “ordered his ill-equipped, understrength occupation forces­ to deploy and try to stop the North Korean onslaught, it did not go well.” MacArthur requested reinforcements, and Becton’s platoon responded. “MacArthur needed troops,” according to the Outpost. “He didn’t ask their skin color.” - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2018/07/24/feature/they-thought-black-soldiers-couldnt-fight/

Also, AFAIK, it's been well documented that above all, he loves democracy and really despised anything that went against stuff like that, including Jim Crow laws, though I haven't found anything good. I'll probably ask my history friends at some point on if they know Douglas' thoughts on the CRM was at the time, but I think he was for it.

[MATTROSE94]

As far from what I can tell, MacArthur really didn't care about the skin of his soldiers, only that they could get the job done. "On June 25, 1950, when Gen. Douglas MacArthur “ordered his ill-equipped, understrength occupation forces­ to deploy and try to stop the North Korean onslaught, it did not go well.” MacArthur requested reinforcements, and Becton’s platoon responded. “MacArthur needed troops,” according to the Outpost. “He didn’t ask their skin color.” - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2018/07/24/feature/they-thought-black-soldiers-couldnt-fight/

Also, AFAIK, it's been well documented that above all, he loves democracy and really despised anything that went against stuff like that, including Jim Crow laws, though I haven't found anything good. I'll probably ask my history friends at some point on if they know Douglas' thoughts on the CRM was at the time, but I think he was for it.

I found a few articles online that discussed Douglas MacArthur’s views on civil rights and the integration of the military and they seems to indicate that he was not a supporter of civil rights at least during his time in the military and viewed African Americans as inferior to whites. Douglas MacArthur also reportedly looked up to Confederate generals such as Robert E. Lee and was inspired to join the military to follow in their footsteps. These factors, in my opinion, would have convinced Strom Thurmond to sit out the 1948 election and endorse and campaign for Douglas MacArthur in the South. This would have also alienated Northern Republican voters, which would have made Vermont and Maine competitive in 1948.

Even though Douglas MacArthur would have done well in the South in 1948, I feel that there would have been a fair amount of ticket splitting in the region due to the fact that the Republican Party did not start developing strong “get out the vote“ efforts for Congressional races in the South until the 1980s and did not fully control all Southern Congressional delegations until the 2010 midterm elections.   

Attached are the links to the articles discussing Douglas MacArthur’s racial views:
http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/marshall/korea.html
https://socialistworker.org/2012/02/15/mutiny-against-racism

[Fuzzy Says: "Abolish NPR!"]

As far from what I can tell, MacArthur really didn't care about the skin of his soldiers, only that they could get the job done. "On June 25, 1950, when Gen. Douglas MacArthur “ordered his ill-equipped, understrength occupation forces­ to deploy and try to stop the North Korean onslaught, it did not go well.” MacArthur requested reinforcements, and Becton’s platoon responded. “MacArthur needed troops,” according to the Outpost. “He didn’t ask their skin color.” - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2018/07/24/feature/they-thought-black-soldiers-couldnt-fight/

Also, AFAIK, it's been well documented that above all, he loves democracy and really despised anything that went against stuff like that, including Jim Crow laws, though I haven't found anything good. I'll probably ask my history friends at some point on if they know Douglas' thoughts on the CRM was at the time, but I think he was for it.

I found a few articles online that discussed Douglas MacArthur’s views on civil rights and the integration of the military and they seems to indicate that he was not a supporter of civil rights at least during his time in the military and viewed African Americans as inferior to whites. Douglas MacArthur also reportedly looked up to Confederate generals such as Robert E. Lee and was inspired to join the military to follow in their footsteps. These factors, in my opinion, would have convinced Strom Thurmond to sit out the 1948 election and endorse and campaign for Douglas MacArthur in the South. This would have also alienated Northern Republican voters, which would have made Vermont and Maine competitive in 1948.

Even though Douglas MacArthur would have done well in the South in 1948, I feel that there would have been a fair amount of ticket splitting in the region due to the fact that the Republican Party did not start developing strong “get out the vote“ efforts for Congressional races in the South until the 1980s and did not fully control all Southern Congressional delegations until the 2010 midterm elections.   

Attached are the links to the articles discussing Douglas MacArthur’s racial views:
http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/marshall/korea.html
https://socialistworker.org/2012/02/15/mutiny-against-racism

MacArthur's defining characteristic was not opposition to Civil Rights.  Whatever his actual racial views, he was still a Republican, and blacks were still a Republican constituency in 1948.

The Dixiecrats of 1948 were not a "third party"; they were a movement within the Democratic Party to control the electors in their states.  The states Thurmond carried were states where Thurmond was the Democratic nominee.  The southern states Thurmond did not carry were states where Truman was the Democratic nominee.  MacArthur would not be the guy to lead the South into the GOP Promised Land.

MacArthur was a national hero who would have been more palatable to conservatives than Dewey, but less palatable to moderate and progressive Republicans.  He MAY have beaten Truman, however.  The GOP would have been more united under MacArthur; Truman would not have been able to dare the GOP to pass their platform in Congress if MacArthur was the nominee because it would have been a more popular platform amongst Republicans in Congress. 

[Devout Centrist]

Whatever his actual racial views, he was still a Republican, and blacks were still a Republican constituency in 1948.

Uh, what?