Bicentennial Man: Ford '76 and Beyond
- Thread starter KingSweden24
- Start date
Dawn in Seoul?
Dawn in Seoul?
"...I, Park Chung-hee, hereby resigned the office of the Presidency of South Korea, effective immediately..."
- Park Chung-hee's resignation letter
Within hours of broadcasting via television and radio from Okinawa his resignation from the Presidency of South Korea, Park was on a plane to Taiwan; he would live the rest of his life in exile on a small, modest property southwest of Taipei on the coast, before dying of colon cancer in 1988. His family would not return to Korea until after his death, and their attempts to influence Korean politics both from exile and upon their non-triumphant re-arrival are controversial to this day. In 1992, it was revealed through leaked cables that the Ford administration had pressured Park to resign, fearing that his returning to South Korea during the mass protests of 1979-80 and in the aftermath of Cha's coup attempt would plunge the country into civil war. For once, the stubborn, aggressive Park listened to reason, relenting once he realized that without American guns there was no hope of him reasserting himself into the Blue House.
For new President Choi Kyu-hah, it was a relief; constitutionally there was no question he was now in charge. But the feelings in Seoul were still tense. Park had a number of loyalists who were still outraged at his toppling, especially after he had survived an assassination attempt. Chun, head of the intelligence apparatus and with a deep clique of military men at his back, had been humiliated by his "idling plane" incident and had his own ambitions for power. So Choi relied heavily on Jeong Seung-hwa, who became the true power in the new regime. Jeong was amenable to an "orderly transition" to some semblance of democracy, unlike budding autocrats such as Chun, but wanted to slow-walk it. As such, the 1980 Korean presidential election for the last four years of Park's term won in 1978 were still held by the National Council, and protesters and students were skeptical that the 1984 polls would be any more open. Choi's Presidency was off to an inauspicious start.
1980 Iowa Caucuses
1980 Iowa Caucuses
"...the candidates have made their cases, entered the race, sized each other up... consider this something of the starting line..."
- Ted Koppel, ABC
A caucus is, by its very nature, an unpredictable and volatile thing. Caucus-goers gather in small rooms or high school gymnasiums and spend hours trying to persuade one another to join a certain candidate, and that eventually produces results from which delegates are allocated. Iowa, more than any other state, takes great pride in its caucuses and its ability to sort real contenders from also-rans; 1980, for both parties, proved how fickle a thing caucuses can really be.
Republican front-runners like Ronald Reagan or John Connally had largely eschewed Iowa, for one particular reason - Vice President Bob Dole, a native of nearby and demographically-similar Kansas, had gone all-in on the state, viewing it as the centerpiece of his plan to retake momentum and initiative and re-orient the campaign around one as him as Ford's inevitable successor. Phil Crane, from neighboring Illinois, had also made the caucuses his focus, both due to proximity for his volunteers (including coveted Eagle Forum activists) but also due to its numerous college campuses, seeking to forge himself as the candidate of choice for Young Americans for Freedom, a President of the future rather than a figure of the past, which was how he portrayed his five chief opponents. John Anderson, the most moderate candidate, made a play as a Midwestern candidate, as did Donald Rumsfeld. Three Illinoisans on the offing presented Iowans with three candidates who were always nearby and could campaign there whenever they so chose.
Democrats had a similarly muddled picture. Jimmy Carter four years earlier and George McGovern four before that had shown the importance of caucuses in the navigation of the new primary system designed after the unhappy and contentious 1968; Mo Udall practically camped out in Iowa, hoping to ride the same wave of young, progressive and anti-establishment votes that had earned the two previous Democratic nominees the ring and that had also powered Eugene McCarthy's insurgent campaign. Reuben Askew, though focusing on mopping up the South, made a late play for the Iowa caucuses, but found his staffing on the ground insufficient compared to bigger, better-heeled campaigns that had a hard time converting their resources into the kind of on-the-ground enthusiasm that powered caucuses - campaigns such as those of Lloyd Bentsen, Scoop Jackson or Jerry Brown.
The caucus results rolled in and everybody found something to hate. On the Democratic side, three candidates practically tied, all leaving Iowa with an identical 22% of the vote - Udall, who came in first, Hugh Carey, in second, and Askew, in third. The rest of the pack failed to even break 10%, with a clog of candidates winning between 7-9%, and Scoop Jackson surprisingly finishing last, behind even gadflies like Cliff Finch. It was a humiliation for the eminence grise of Senate defense policy and Jackson dropped out of the race the next day - and endorsed Carey, whose close finish ahead of the surging Askew and a hair behind the populist Udall introduced his name to millions of potential voters for the first time. Udall failed to get the dominating result he needed to vault him into frontrunner status and Askew's momentum was badly blunted.
For the Republicans, meanwhile, the results were somewhat useless - Dole came in first with 28%, Crane in second with 24%, and Connally in third with 17% despite spending little time in the state. Reagan, who had similarly barely campaigned there and chosen to coast on his "above the fray" frontrunner image, panicked with his fourth-place finish and the victory laps of both Crane and Connally declaring themselves as the "future of the conservative movement" - in the four years between his insurgent challenge to Ford and now, he had gone from conservative icon to has-been in a blink, or at least he would if he did not quickly do something to resuscitate the campaign. The headlines out of Iowa were a disaster for Reagan, and unfriendly personalities both in the media and other wings of the GOP gleefully piled on, smelling blood, and hoping that they had sunk "that doddering old B-list actor" for good. But it was hard for Dole to take much of a breather after somehow placing first; he was, for better or worse, now officially the candidate of continuing to carry the flag for the unpopular Ford administration, and even if Reagan was badly wounded, Crane and Connally lurked, sensing his clear weakness. Even worse, Howard Baker and John Anderson both declined to drop out after Iowa, thus denying Dole the "establishment" lane and its considerable financial resources entirely to himself.
For Democrats, Maine's caucuses lurked ahead, while Republicans would compete in Puerto Rico and Alaska before the critical bipartisan New Hampshire contest on February 26th...
Sergeant Foley
Banned
@KingSweden24 I see Papa Park died in Taiwan in exile. Big question is whether his family arranged to have him buried in a grand State Funeral back in ROK?
I would strongly assume he was buried next to his beloved wife, the late ROK First Lady Yuk Young-soo at the Seoul National Cemetery in Seoul in this timeline like he was in real life 😕
What would happen to Roh Tae-woo & Chun Doo-hwan? Would they still plot a coup d'etat against Choi?
I would strongly assume he was buried next to his beloved wife, the late ROK First Lady Yuk Young-soo at the Seoul National Cemetery in Seoul in this timeline like he was in real life 😕
What would happen to Roh Tae-woo & Chun Doo-hwan? Would they still plot a coup d'etat against Choi?
There’ll be some Chun/Roh content here in a while, later in 1980
These primaries are exciting! I'm guessing Reagan will probably get the GOP nomination over VP Bob Dole as for the Democrats hard to tell at the moment
Sergeant Foley
Banned
Dole is too tainted with the Ford administration's foreign policy disasters.
Reagan will have that "I warned y'all NOT to stick with Ford in '76".
That’s definitely much of Reagan’s theme but “I told you so, electorate!” is also not the most inspiring campaign theme, either. Pretty much the whole Republican field is struggling to find a good raison d’etre for their campaign
Sergeant Foley
Banned
Guessing Reagan will not pick Bush, Sr., as VP in 1980 if he's the Republican nominee for President 🤔
Bush Sr. will peak as SoS career wise. Which is not a bad peak!
Sergeant Foley
Banned
Bush Sr's career:
US House of Representatives from TX's 7th Congressional District (1967-71)
US Ambassador to the United Nations (1971-73)
Chairman of the Republican National Committee (1973-74)
US Chief Liasion to PRC (1974-75)
Director of Central Intelligence (1976-77)
US Secretary of State since January 20, 1977
Not a shabby run at all. He'll leave office in Jan of 1981 not even sixty years old and can cash in with various think tanks and foundations for the rest of his career and life very comfortably/smoothly as a grandee of foreign policy, even if Panama will be an albatross around his neck for a long time
Nazi Space Spy
Banned
Will we see anything about North Korea? It was around this time that Kim Jong Il began asserting himself. Would be interesting to see how the power struggle plays out in ATL.
Sergeant Foley
Banned
I wonder if United States Senator Lloyd Bentsen (D-TX) will breathe a sigh of relief & win reelection by a bigger landslide victory cracking 60% in 1982?
In real life: he won with 58% that year.
