The American Journey: The Tale of a Two Term Carter Presidency

bookmark95

Banned
Nothing is really set in stone. History can truly surprise us, both in the roads that are and aren't taken. Who could have imagined Nixon being the one to open the door to China? Or a corrupt party stooge named Chester Arthur passing Civil Service Reform? Or a debacle in Eastern Europe the scale of which is equal to that of those that appeared at the end of the Cold War?

Getting to the point of this, I say it isn't inconceivable that Jimmy Carter could have received a second term in office for several reasons. One certain events could have turned out differently, and two, Jimmy Carter was not a man caught in a conservative tide.

The first point, there are in my opinion two serious turning points in the Carter presidency that were ultimately deciding factors. One was the speech he would give in July 15, 1979. Before he wrote that speech, he withdrew from the public eye for ten days after his previous speech on energy was one he knew would not inspire a nation in recession. What could have Jimmy Carter said, instead of a diatribe against American over-consumption, which only depressed a nation? Ten days could have made a lot of difference. The second one was the Iran hostage crisis. The failed Eagle Wind operation was a devastating blow to the Carter presidency. If it succeeded, Carter would be in a much better position that he was when facing against Reagan.

The second misconception of Carter is that of a weak-willed man who could not handle the conservatism that would define America after the seventies. The reality was Carter in way played a role in that conservatism. One of the first conflicts was stopping pork barrel spending on several water projects, alienating liberal Democrats. He also played a role in the deregulation that would define the Reagan years, deregulated the oil, trucking, and telecommunications industries. The deregulation of the first resulted in oil prices falling a year later. And the high interest rates of Paul Volcker, which finally stopped the rampant inflation of the 70s, was Carter's appointee. So Carter was not a man beset by personal weekness, but a moralistic figure beset by many issues, ones that could have easily been solved, but were not, thus forever tainting his legacy. The American Journey is an imaginary textbook, and the pages will start with the Ford presidency as we now it, to an America with a second term, Jimmy Carter, to the year 2000, with all the changes in between.
 
Last edited:

GeographyDude

Gone Fishin'
The answer most recently given here at Alt Hist is:

Carter's speech was well-received,

but when he fired two-thirds of his cabinet or whatever it was a couple of days later, that did not sit well with people.

But . . . in reading over the speech, he uses the word "waste" a number of times, as if he is in part scolding the American public. So, even if the speech was alright, it could have been better. And the follow-through definitely could have been better.

PS I agree that President Carter was a de-regulator. You might want to also add aviation to the list, including his appointees to CAB and the airline regulation act (title?) of 1978.
 

NoOneFamous

bookmark95 said:
Nothing is really set in stone. History can truly surprise us, both in the roads that are and aren't taken. Who could have imagined Nixon being the one to open the door to China? Or a corrupt party stooge named Chester Arthur passing Civil Service Reform? Or a debacle in Eastern Europe the scale of which is equal to that of those that appeared at the end of the Cold War?

Getting to the point of this, I say it isn't inconceivable that Jimmy Carter could have received a second term in office for several reasons. One certain events could have turned out differently, and two, Jimmy Carter was not a man caught in a conservative tide.

The first point, there are in my opinion two serious turning points in the Carter presidency that were ultimately deciding factors. One was the speech he would give in July 15, 1979. Before he wrote that speech, he withdrew from the public eye for ten days after his previous speech on energy was one he knew would not inspire a nation in recession. What could have Jimmy Carter said, instead of a diatribe against American over-consumption, which only depressed a nation? Ten days could have made a lot of difference. The second one was the Iran hostage crisis. The failed Eagle Wind operation was a devastating blow to the Carter presidency. If it succeeded, Carter would be in a much better position that he was when facing against Reagan.

The second misconception of Carter is that of a weak-willed man who could not handle the conservatism that would define America after the seventies. The reality was Carter in way played a role in that conservatism. One of the first conflicts was stopping pork barrel spending on several water projects, alienating liberal Democrats. He also played a role in the deregulation that would define the Reagan years, deregulated the oil, trucking, and telecommunications industries. The deregulation of the first resulted in oil prices falling a year later. And the high interests of Paul Volcker, which finally stopped the rampant inflation of the 70s, was Carter's appointee. So Carter was not a man beset by personal weekness, but a moralistic figure beset by many issues, ones that could have easily been solved, but were not, thus forever tainting his legacy. The American Journey will an imaginary textbook, one that portrays an America that starts with Ford, and ends in 2000, with the change being a two term Carter Presidency.

I hope you follow my thread, whoever is reading.
Click to expand...

Please continue
 

bookmark95

Banned
(c) 2001 Bookmark Publications, 612 5th Avenue, New York, NY, 10022

American Journey-page-001.jpg
 

bookmark95

Banned
I figure that not only did the hostage crisis draw national attention to his failings, it distracted Carter from issues such as the election or the recession going on then.
 

bookmark95

Banned
I just learned that the American journey is actually a textbook made by Glencoe. I do not claim to represent Glencoe, for the name I choose was merely a coincidence, not an attempt to steal from the popularity of a reputable publication.
 
Last edited:

bookmark95

Banned
The American Journey Chapter 24: The Ford Presidency

Chapter 24
The Presidency of Gerald Ford​

​
“My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.” These were the words that Gerald Ford spoke as he was inaugurated as President after Nixon resigned in disgrace. Apparently Ford believed he had removed the shadow of Watergate from a nation whose faith in government had been eroded when a month later, he pardoned, or forgave the disgraced former President for his abuses of power in office. Nor did he seem to grasp the other shadows of the previous administration that would soon challenge and eventually end his presidency.
The Unelected President
​
Early Life Gerald R. Ford Jr. was born Leslie Lynch King Jr. in 1913 in Omaha Nebraska. His mother, divorced Leslie King Sr. moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, and married Gerald Rudolf Ford, who gave his new stepson his name. His football skills carried him through the University of Michigan, but rather to go professional, Ford pursued a law degree at Yale University. After serving in the US Army with honors during World War II, Ford returned to his law practice.

Political Career In 1948, he successfully ran for the congressional seat in Michigan’s 5th district. By 1973 he rose to become the House minority leader, the leader of minority party in the House, which was the Republicans. With the resignation of Spiro Agnew due to charges of tax evasion (p. 349), Gerald Ford was appointed as Richard Nixon’s new Vice President, and sworn in on December 6, 1973. To date, he is the only man not elected as either President or Vice President

Domestic Agenda​

Economic Problems Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon weakened his approval ratings, and his track record Congress proved even more discrediting. Ford faced the worst economic conditions seen since the Great Depression, and the shockwaves of the oil embargo and the excessive military spending of previous administrations produced inflation that by January of 1975 approached 11.8 percent. Ford, a moderate conservative, believed that reducing federal spending would solve the nation’s economic challenges. This attitude was especially shown in his response to the fiscal problems facing New York City. Decades of decline and suburbnization had left much of the city a burnt out, crime-ridden slum. Years of deficit spending left the city on the brink of default, and soon, Mayor Abraham Beame begged the government for a bailout. Seeing New York as a symbol of the liberalism he viewed as wasteful, Ford refused, prompting the famous headline, “Ford to City: Drop Dead”. (Ford later reneged on this promise, and gave the city federal loans.) Ford believed Americans as a whole should reduce their spending, and created the Whip Inflation Now (WIN) campaign which asked America’s reduce their spending voluntarily.

WIN became nothing more than an unsuccessful volunteer effort and a symbol of Ford’s failed attempts of fiscal austerity. Congressional Democrats who held a majority in Congress believed that social spending and public works would be the solution to America’s economic challenges. Ford clashed repeatedly with his Democratic controlled Congress, and opposed most public spending. By the end of this term, Gerald Ford had vetoed fifty bills in Congress, and was able to pass some tax cuts, this only grew the federal deficit.
Energy While Jimmy Carter is better known for energy policy, it was under the Ford administration that the efforts to ensure America’s energy independence had begun. In 1974, America was importing over one-third of its oil. The oil embargo still a fresh memory, Ford proposed policies that would expand domestic production oil, coal, and nuclear power, deregulate energy and would increase conservation. He signed into law the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, which created the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which stored oil in the event of another shortage, and Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards or CAFE, regulations that require automakers to build more fuel efficient cars, with the standards then ordering cars to double average fuel economy from 13.6 MPG, or miles per gallon, to 27.5 mpg by 1985. While Carter would be the president who would achieve energy independence, many successful energy conservation policies owe their existence to President Ford.
Foreign Policy​

The Fall of Saigon By 1974, fighting renewed between North and South Vietnam. In January of 1975, the North began a major offensive that soon put the army of South Vietnam into retreat. By the spring the situation had become so desperate, that Gerald Ford begged Congress for $722 million in military and social aid to South Vietnam, Congress refused and by April 29, the North Vietnamese army had surrounded Saigon, and the last remaining American presence in Vietnam, the US embassy and its guard began to get out. Following them were thousands who sought to escape the encroaching Communist forces. On April 30, the city - and South Vietnam itself - surrendered to the Communist forces. America’s adventure in Vietnam, was officially over.
Mayaguez Incident The end of the Vietnam War did not, however, mean the end of conflict in Indochina. As Saigon fell to Communism, so did Cambodia and Laos. The chaos of Vietnam plunged the former into civil war, and from the turmoil emerged the Khmer Rouge, a violent militia group that managed to take control of the country. On May 12, 1975, Khmer Rouge sailors seized control of the Mayaguez, a merchant ship, and captured it crew of 39. Gerald Ford ordered an immediate rescue, but poor intelligence and mechanical failures nearly led to disaster. The 39 crewman were eventually released by Cambodian forces voluntarily, but 18 servicemen were killed, in what became America’s last battle in Vietnam. Though Ford was praised for the rescue, other criticized the poor communications that caused the death of several servicemen.
The End of Détente Gerald Ford sought to continue Nixon’s policy of détente, or improved relations with the Soviet Union, with Henry Kissinger still secretary of state. The Helsinki Accords, which were signed in August 1975, promoted cooperation between Eastern and Western blocs of Europe, led to recognition of Eastern Europe’s post- World War II boundaries, and increased calls for human rights. This would ultimately be the high point of détente. Underneath the atmosphere of compromise, a new divide between America and Russia was forming.

Conservative members of Congress opposed what many felt was only a weakening of America’s military following the failure of Vietnam, and Secretary of Defense James Schleisinger and Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfield stonewalled many of Kissinger’s attempts at reform. Liberals opposed the terrible human rights record of the Soviet Union, especially the treatment of Soviet Jews.

In Africa, the last European colonies were being dismantled, and this in turn, revived proxy wars between US and Soviet interests who sought to gain influence in these nations. The biggest clash took place in Angola, where in 1975, Portugal gave up colonial rule after the overthrow of Estado Novo, its pro-colonial fascist regime. The US and South African backed UNITA battled the Soviet and Cuba back MPLA for control of the country. By the end of the war in 1993, over 200,000 people had been killed.
By 1976, the period of détente ended as new period of Soviet and US distrust emerged and would last until 1984. Gerald Ford faced a troubled foreign policy and economic problems that would ultimately undo his presidency.

Society and Culture
Saturday Night: The Link Between Watergate and Media​

When the sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live (SNL) first premiered in October of 1975, its cast of comedians and writers performed acts that to this day remain comedy classics such as John Belushi’s manic samurai, and Dan Aykroyd pitching the Bass-o-Matic ’76, which promised a faster preparation of aquatic life for consumption. But one of the most long-lasting is Chevy Chase portraying a clumsy and dimwitted Gerald Ford (right). His refusal to bailout the Big Apple probably influenced the creators of SNL, who were based in New York, as did his infamous tumble down the stairs of Air Force One (left) and pardon of Nixon. But this comedy routine is an example of Watergate’s greatest legacy: not any legislation that would curb presidential power, but the new adversarial relationship between media and the presidency.

Political scandal had always been a part of the modern mass media. Since the Gilded Age, reporters have always searched for wrongdoing among candidates. FDR would be hounded by the conservative press for trying to pack the Supreme Court with his own supporters. But the American public would remember him as a man who alleviated a nation from depression and later led it into war, through a public appearance or one of his fireside chats. But hardly anyone remembers FDR for his paralysis. The picture of the right is one of only two photos of him actually in a wheelchair. In that era, the press respected the boundaries between a politician’s public life and private life. Roosevelt could always hide his paralysis with various appearances that would have him standing, while wearing hidden leg braces, and a family member or surface giving him an object to keep him up (left). Fewer people also knew of his friendship with a former mistress named Lucy Rutherford. Watergate, however, brought an end to those boundaries, and a generation of reporters that would look for scandal they could find it, even within the oval office itself. While one could argue that the challenges of FDR’s time superseded knowledge of his polio, the economic boom and political revolutions of the 80s didn’t take media attention from Demogate, which would deal Democrats a serious defeat in 1988 and have repercussions beyond. Could Kennedy have been elected president in a post-Watergate environment, where his affairs dominated the news in the 1960 election, something Nixon could have easily taken advantage off, his “New Frontier” surviving under such pressure. And that’s hardly the depth of the scandal in the Kennedy family.

Gerald Ford, with his fall down the stairs, was hardly any clumsier than most of us after a long plane ride. It was an era of news coverage that he inherited, one he was ill-prepared for, that would give the former football star the appearance of a bumbling klutz. Journalists and academia debate whether this era is one of great journalistic power, or if it brought the Fourth Estate down to the lowest common denominator with excessive sensationalism dominating its time rather than public policy. But it was Watergate, a crucial period in journalism, that created its era, and with comedy, its first victim- or possibly beneficiary, since Ford may not have been remembered otherwise. Media is in a crapshoot era, where appearance can make or break a public figure as easily, and public figures must hold high standards lest the 24-hour-news camera is rolling if they take a dive.
1. How did Watergate change the relationship between the press and politicians?
2. Why was Gerald Ford’s public image so derided?
3. Write a brief paragraph detaling any president who came before TV (pre-1947) and why you think or don’t think that president would have succeded politically in the Post-Watergate environment.

Events That Defined an Era
Operation Frequent Wind, The Fall of Saigon: April 19-30, 1975​
On January 27, 1973, the Paris Peace Accords would mean the end of America’s continued involvement in Vietnam. Even though American soldiers would soon be going home, it was clear that the battle for Vietnam itself was not over. The country still remain divided between North and South, and the Accords ensured that 150,000 North Vietnamese troops would remain in South Vietnam. President Nguyen Van Thieu protested (left), but President Nixon assured the South Vietnamese president that the US would continue to supply South Vietnam if the accords were ever violated.
By 1974, the Watergate scandal had swallowed up the Nixon’s time, and the Case-Church Amendment and the War Powers Resolution both limited any aid the federal government could give to the failing South Vietnamese army. The NVA and the Vietcong were all too aware of this weakness, and again invaded. President Ford argued for continued aid, but was refused by Congress. With the US indifferent to the plight of its ally, the NVA plotted one final offensive to take control of the country. On March 11, 1975, NVA troops marched into the Central Highlands. North Vietnamese soldiers expected a year long battle, but the underequipped forces of South Vietnam chose mainly to retreat southward, along with hundreds of thousands of civilians. Within a month, North Vietnamese forces surrounded Saigon, and President Van Thieu, demoralized by the lack of US aid, resigned and fled to Taiwan. Knowing the collapse of South Vietnam was imminent, on April 29, Gerald Ford ordered the evacuation of Americans remaining in Saigon, with the song “White Christmas” being played on radio as the signal to evacuate the city orderly. But events soon spiraled out of control
Damage done to airport infrastructure by the NVA limited evacuation of the remaining American presence with helicopters. The US embassy (right) was stormed by thousands of Vietnamese begging for a ticket out of the country, fearing Communist reprisal. In the early hours of April 30, Ambassador Graham Martin, who weeks before had previously stated “I am not going to running away… I have not packed my bags,” boarded one of the last helicopters to leave the embassy, abandoning 350 Vietnamese who were elligible for evacuation. Off the coast, defecting South Vietnamese pilots landed their helicopters on the US ships, bringing with them more refugees. Their helicopters were dumped overboard to make room for passengers (left). Over 7000 people were evacuated that day, 2000 of them coming from the embassy alone.
At 11:30 am, North Vietnamese tanks crashed through the gates of the Presidential Palace (below left). Later that afternoon, General Doung Van Minh, acting as President of South Vietnam, declared the nation dissolved and unconditionally surrendered. Charles McMahon and Darwin Judge died during the evacuation, the last two men to be killed in Vietnam, and the operation had been ruled a success. To people in the US, it was the last of many a bitter pill to swallow. To Vietnamese, it was end of a war that had been going on since 1945, a war to free themselves from Western dominance, and in honor of the man who created that goal, Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City. Though it was the not the last war the Vietnamese would fight, it would be the last time they were at war with each other.

1. Why were Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford unable to give furthur aid to South Vietnam.
2. What limited the evacuation of Americans and Vietnamese
3. Discuss what the Fall of Saigon meant to either Americans or Vietnamese.


Vocabulary to Remember​

House minority leader- The leader of the minority party in the House of Representatives, as well as the representatives of its interests.
Pardon- Forgiveness for any crimes that are committed, a freedom from being prosecuted for them. The president can issue a pardon for any crime committed in office.
WIN- Whip Inflation Now, a voluntary effort started under Gerald Ford to get Americans to spend less and stop inflation.
CAFE- Corporate Average Fuel Economy, the governments limit on
MPG- Miles per gallon, or the amount a miles a car travels before needing another gallon of gas
The Helsinki Accords- A treaty signed in 1975 that promoted cooperation between Eastern and Western Europe, led to a recognition of Eastern Europe’s post-World War II boundaries, and increased calls for human rights.


Questions to Consider​
1. What led to Gerald Ford’s continued unpopularity after he took office?
2. Why did Ford have trouble getting any of his economic reforms through Congress?
3. What were the crucial energy policies created under Gerald Ford?
4. Why did détente come to an end?

 
Last edited:

bookmark95

Banned
Chapter 24: reviewing

The reason I'm starting with Ford is for several reasons: to hint at the future events in TL, and to test out my textbook format. I had trouble because when I tried posting the word document itself after converting to JPEG, I found the file was too big to post. I'd like to post the original, but I want to see what people think of this format, so if you guys have any solutions for size of the file, I would very much appreciate that.
 

historybuff

Great update. Looks like things are the same as they were OTL. One goof, James what's his name was Secretary of Defense, not State, that was Kissinger.
 

bookmark95

Banned
Inflation was a serious problem back then, and public spending would make it worse, so it came to be a choice between a bad economy, or terrible inflation. The choice was made to deal with inflation, but in TL, the effects will have different effects.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Top