Harold Stassen

Harold Stassen

Historical Figure
Nationality:	United States
Year of Birth:	1907
Year of Death:	2001
Cause of Death:	Natural causes
Religion:	Baptist
Occupation:	Educator, Lawyer, Politician
Parents:	William Stassen, Elsie Mueller
Spouse:	Esther G. Glewwe
Children:	Glenn, Kathleen
Political Party:	Republican Party
Political Office(s):	Governor of Minnesota
Fictional Appearances:

The Man With the Iron Heart _{POD: May 29, 1942;} _{Relevant POD: May, 1945}
Type of Appearance:	Contemporary reference

Worldwar _{POD: May 30, 1942}
Appearance(s):	Aftershocks
Type of Appearance:	Direct
Political Office(s):	Governor of Minnesota, Vice President of the United States, President of the United States

*Joe Steele* _{POD: 1878; Relevant POD: July, 1932}
Novel or Story?:	Novel only
Type of Appearance:	Direct

Southern Victory _{POD: September 10, 1862}
Appearance(s):	In at the Death
Type of Appearance:	Contemporary reference (unnamed)
Political Party:	Republican Party
Political Office(s):	Governor of Minnesota

Harold Edward Stassen (April 13, 1907 – March 4, 2001) was the 25th Governor of Minnesota from 1939 to 1943 and a later perennial candidate for other offices, most notably and frequently President of the United States in the Republican primaries. He attempted to run for president in the 1940, 1944, 1948, 1952, 1964, 1968, 1980, 1984, 1988, and 1992 elections.

Harold Stassen in The Man With the Iron Heart

Harold Stassen, along with Thomas Dewey and Robert Taft, was an early contender for the Republican Party's presidential nomination in 1948.^[1]

Harold Stassen in Worldwar

Harold Stassen was Earl Warren's Vice President, and succeeded Warren when he committed suicide in the wake of the explosive-metal bomb destruction of Indianapolis by the Race in 1965.^[2]

Stassen was not privy to Warren's decision to attack the Race's Colonization Fleet in 1962.^[3] In the aftermath Warren's death, Stassen set about removing those members of the administration who had known about Warren's actions. Stassen was already certain that he wouldn't be elected in 1968, a fact that he privately shared with his Soviet counterpart, Vyacheslav Molotov.^[4]

Stassen soon learned of the new American use of rocket propelled asteroids as weapons. During a meeting with Sam Yeager, the man who blew the proverbial whistle on Warren, Yeager attempted to broach the subject with Stassen. Stassen pointedly shared nothing with Yeager.^[5]

Literary Comment

Harry Turtledove's use of the then-living Stassen in an unaltered form as a character in a work of fiction is unusual. Typically, Turtledove makes broad references, leaves living people unnamed or partly named (e.g., G. Gordon Liddy aka "Gordon" in this series), or somehow changes the name (e.g., Kurt Waldheim/Kurt Haldweim in In the Presence of Mine Enemies, or John Glenn/Glen Johnson in this series). Stassen died only a month after Aftershocks was first published.

Harold Stassen in Joe Steele

Governor Harold Stassen received the Republican nomination for the 1948 presidential election just days before the outbreak of the Japanese War. As Stassen was a complete unknown outside of Minnesota, incumbent President Joe Steele had anticipated an easy victory.^[6] However, the new war meant that Steele actually had to campaign.

Stassen did somewhat better than expected, picking up states that the Steele machine hadn't expected him to. He was also able to pick up some of the states that contained resettled wreckers.

However, Steele handily carried the rest of the vote, and won his fifth term.^[7]

Harold Stassen in Southern Victory

Minnesota's enthusiastic young governor was the Republican nominee for the United States presidency in 1944. While he didn't win, he did comparatively well, taking his home state and the usual Republican strongholds in the midwest. More impressively, he took incumbent President Charles W. La Follette's home state of Wisconsin, a traditionally Socialist state.^[8]