What if Truman died in office?

[RGM2609]

What if Truman was assasinated in let's say fall of 1946, right before the midterms, by some small communist group? What effect would it have on the Cold War and on internal politics maybe up to present?

[morgankingsley]

But why would he

[brucejoel99]

If President Truman was assassinated in 1946, then under the terms of the Presidential Succession Act as it then stood (having been last amended in 1886), Secretary of State James F. Byrnes would ascend to the presidency.

Presuming he ends up running for a term of his own, public sympathy, from having lost a president in such a horrific way, might be able to help him come 1948, though that depends as to whether or not such a rally 'round the flag effect could be extended nearly two years.

Byrnes was a New Dealer like FDR & Truman, so domestically, there wouldn't be much difference.

As for the Korean War, though, that'd probably be significantly altered, i.e. a boatload of butterflies there.