Icarus Falls (An Alternate 1960s)

1.

It was another one of those days but Richard Nixon scarcely seemed to notice. He was tired and already he could tell that it was going to rain through the grey early morning haze. It was October 28, 1967 and Richard Nixon felt like he was coming down with a flu.

“This is ridiculous.” He muttered, behind him his wife stirred, still shrouded in blankets.

“Hmm?” She asked, muffled by the pillow over her head. Nixon shook his head and looked out the window again, there was a cardinal pecking for something in the front yard but aside from that the ground was bare.

“I think I’m coming down with something. For Christ’s sake, I haven’t even been sick in seven years...” He blinked heavily, the last time he had been sick was right before the debates in 1960, and that had cost him the election.

Everything that came after that seemed to be a blur of failure. First had come the sinking feeling as he had watched Kennedy slip past him, first in electoral votes, then in popular. A part of him had been expecting it since the debates but it still felt like a punch in the gut anyways.

He had existed in a haze for several days afterwards, meeting with donors and supporters, expressing his deepest apologies and ensuring them that he would be back in the game as soon as he was able, but behind the smile and the firm handshake he gave the public he just felt numb. He had been slapped out of the sky like Icarus and now he was on his way to earth, flaming feathers and all.

He had tried to slog his way out from the wilderness, challenging Pat Brown to be the governor of California in 1962, but as he watched the results pour in he felt a very similar sinking feeling, and the image of Icarus plunging to earth came to his mind again, the flames larger, the ground closer.

He had made a concession speech, he had railed against the media for shamelessly supporting his opponent over him, in a country that was supposed to have freedom of press too, but instead all he got was mockery and in his mind, Icarus ended his descent with a final sickening smack.

He had continued to exist after that, but it was clear that few believed him capable of the political steps he had taken with ease in better days. Instead of running for president he had helped send another man off, Barry Goldwater, that funny Arizonan senator with his natural charisma and fierce dislike for social conservatism.

But that venture had ended poorly as well, with Goldwater shattered in the election by Kennedy’s tough talking, shamelessly brash vice president Lyndon Johnson. But despite the disaster of 1964, he had walked through the entire thing without a scratch and even as many of his colleagues foundered in the aftermath, Nixon found himself still standing, and even in a position to repair his battered credentials.

1966 was better still, and as the midterm results came in and the Republican party made gains against the Democrats for the first time in years, Nixon felt a little ball of success begin to burn through the clot of stress that had seemed to gather at the bottom of his gut. Icarus had found new wings.

But now he was sick, and whenever that was the case bad things never seemed too far behind.

“I think I’m going to go for a walk.” He said, rising from bed and stretching. But even as he got his blood flowing, the odd stuffy feeling in his head just wouldn’t abate. Yup, he was definitely sick.

“Without breakfast?” Pat was sitting up now, her hair tousled. Nixon nodded, he didn’t feel hungry.

“Maybe later, I’ll be back soon.” Pat offered no objections and Nixon quickly dressed and stepped outside into the crisp October air. It felt good to be outside and as he walked across his lawn an often thought of dilemma entered his mind. When was he going to tell Pat, and practically everyone else, that he was planning on running for president again? She wouldn’t like it, he knew that much, and seeing her unhappy did little but make him unhappy as well, but deep within himself he knew that this time around he had what it would take to wrest the presidency from any opponent that he would have to face.

Nixon was so deep in thought that as he rounded the corner of a street and stepped into the road he did not pause to check the street ahead of him. In later years historians would wonder that perhaps if he had not been ill he would have heard the car approaching, but whatever the case, Richard Nixon stepped out into the road and was struck a glancing blow by the bumper of a 1949 Plymouth, shattering his hip and throwing him fifteen feet down the road.

The driver screeched to a halt and for a moment merely stared in open mouthed horror before rushing from his car to aid the downed man lying crumpled in the gutter. But even as he approached he could see that it was too late. Richard Nixon, just a moment ago planning for greater things, had departed from this world.

Thoughts?
 
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No Nixon in 1968 is a great premise... but with a POD in late '67, isn't this really setting up an alternate 1970s??

In terms of the '68 election, the two OTL candidates who would be racing for institutional support would be Reagan (from the right) and George Romney (from the left). Both have massive vulnerabilities in 1968; Reagan, because Goldwater just lost 44 states four years ago, and Romney, both because of his gaffe potential and because Republican primary voters probably aren't ready to wrap their arms around a clearly anti-war candidate.

There's probably room for a centrist institutional candidate; William Scranton has already made his OTL promise (in 1966) never to run again, but those sorts of things can be overcome. I suppose Gerry Ford might run. But it's harder than you might think to find a middle-of-the-road-corporate-Republican with sufficient Presidential chops and qualifications in '68. (That's part of why Nixon won IOTL.)

It's hard to see Nelson Rockefeller winning a Republican primary for obvious reasons.

So with all of that, I'd say Reagan is probably the substantial favorite vs. the field. That, in turn, might be enough to get Humphrey elected in '68.
 
In which the nation reacts to Nixon's death and President Johnson makes his appearance. :)

2.

“Mr. President. Something’s happened, you’ll want to see this.” Lyndon Johnson glanced up from over the newspaper he was reading and at the aide who was standing in the doorway of the Oval Office. He looked nervous. Johnson hated people who looked nervous, it wasn’t like he was going to take a bite out of them or something.

“Yeah? You can't just say what happened?” He asked, the aide quivered for a moment but then briskly walked to his desk and presented a note. Johnson read the note, blinked heavily and then read it again.

“Huh.” He said. “Nixon is dead.” It surprised him but not much besides that, he would probably show up at the man’s funeral and say a few words, he was a former vice president after all, even if he had not particularly liked him while he still inhabited the planet.

“Ms. Whittington!” He called, “we have a bit of work to do.” A moment later Gerri Whittington had entered the Oval Office as well and taken her place at her typewriter.
“Yes Mr. President?”

“Richard Nixon died earlier this morning and we need to prepare a letter of condolences to his family. Have it say...Dear Ms. Nixon and kin, doubtless you are still reeling from the loss of Mr. Nixon but it is important to understand that you are not alone in this grief, all across America men and women who remember and cherish Mr. Nixon’s service to this country are mourning his loss just as you are, and remembering the great things that he has made possible. I cannot heal your heartbreak but I shall make myself available to you as a remedy to hopefully still the pain that you are feeling right now.
Sincerely yours, Lyndon Baines Johnson.

The aide nodded in silent approval at the wording and Gerri silently tore the paper free of the typewriter before presenting it to Johnson for signing. As he put pen to paper he wondered what he would say at the funeral.

As the next few days passed the news of Nixon’s death reverberated throughout America, reminding the nation of the once simple days of the Eisenhower administration and all that had happened since then.

The funeral was scheduled for November 12, the day after the 49th anniversary of the end of World War One, but the presentation put on for former vice president Nixon’s funeral exceeded the somber proceedings of the previous day. Four black Cadillacs drove in a convoy, the last one bearing Nixon’s coffin, which was bedecked in flowers, the only color amidst the black of the cars and the charcoal grey of the sky.

The whole affair was brief, with Pat Nixon and Barry Goldwater making the primary speeches. President Johnson said a few words and even went as far as to say that Nixon would have made a fine presidential candidate some day, but by and far, the event was subdued and ended quickly and smoothly, with Richard Nixon’s coffin transported to his home in La Casa Pacifica, California for interment.

While Nixon’s funeral was widely watched, after it was over the world wasted no time in continuing on its way, but even Nixon’s closest friends and admirers didn’t seem to mind, Richard would likely have liked it that way.
 
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Word to the wise:
What you have there is a wall of text.

Sure your paragraphs looked nice in the word processor, but somehow the paragraph marking got lost on transfer to the board. This is a common problem, and sometimes you have to go in and edit your textbafter posting to make it more readable.
 
In which Johnson puts some new paint on the old foreign policy.

3.

PRESIDENTIAL APPROVAL JUMPS TO 47%
Johnson looked at the headline with a smug sort of satisfaction, it had been a while since it had been that high. Though he had enjoyed approval ratings in the mid seventies after his defeat of Goldwater in 1964 they had slowly declined as he had pushed through desegregation legislation and the last of his Great Society reforms.

It was November 15, and his assurances to the American people that the war was slowly but surely being won in Vietnam finally seemed to be paying off.

“Mr. President, we have a request from the CIA, they have a brief ready for you.” Johnson nodded at the aide in the doorway and moments later he was sitting down in a special briefing room down the hallway with several officers. As he scanned each man’s face Johnson suddenly could tell that the news wasn’t going to be good, they all looked tired and were exchanging little glances as if wondering who was going to have the job of offloading the brunt of the bad news.

“I’m here, what’s going on?” Asked Johnson gruffly, settling his elbows on the table and eyeing the CIA officers in turn.

“Its about the numbers of enemy operatives active in South Vietnam. It seems to be growing instead of shrinking like MACV is reporting.” Johnson felt a hard little pit of anger form in his stomach, he had no great love of MACV, they had a tendency to underreport enemy numbers and apparently didn’t consider the various VietCong militias running around areas like the Mekong Delta to even be real enemy combatants even as they were digging punji pits and laying ambushes for American and South Vietnamese patrols.

“More VietCong, or are the NVA moving units into the area?” The CIA officer nearest to Johnson opened a briefcase and withdrew a small stack of laminated aerial photographs, they were grainy but through the bad light quality Johnson could see a number of large dark dots on the ground.

“Those, Mr. President, are suspected tunnel openings and other earthworks being constructed not too far away from the city of Hue. It seems that either the communists are fortifying their position, or gathering their forces for something big and we don’t know what.” The second CIA officer nodded at his colleague’s words.

“It is the opinion of the Agency that communist forces in the area have grown by at least 20% in the past few months and are probably somewhere in the 250,000 range.”

“Shit.” Johnson swore and then eyed the men across the table from him.

“So you mean to tell me that while I was traipsing across America telling the good people of this nation that communist forces in South Vietnam were shrinking they were actually undergoing exponential growth? Do you have any idea how the public would react to the notion that suddenly the communists decided to stop losing and started pouring troops into the region, I would be out on the street by January of the year after next and you would probably be dealing with Rockefeller or god forbid, Reagan.” Johnson glared at the men sharing the table with him, they seemed nonplussed by his outburst.

“We don’t think that they’re going to mount an offensive, they have to know that our forces are far too strong for even twice that many communists to overcome. Instead they will likely remain hidden and instead try to capture the countryside, much like they’ve been doing near the DMZ for quite some time.”

“This can’t go public. Be sure to tell the press that enemy troop numbers have plateaued but they are not rising, and send more operatives into the countryside to keep the villages out of enemy hands, if they want to try to take the country from us they are fucking welcome to try.”

As he walked out of the meeting Johnson was already planning his next move, he needed to call Westmoreland and perhaps even rally some of the South Korean and Australian commanders and get them out in the countryside as well. However as much as Westmoreland would love engaging the enemy on their own turf Johnson somehow knew that the troops would be a little less enthused. Maybe he could throw in a request for a USO show or two to be held, that young man Jimi Hendrix was starting to become a big thing, maybe he could be persuaded to go over there for a show or two.

But that was minor stuff compared to the whole issue of the rising communist troop numbers. Throughout 1967 Johnson had gone on a speaking tour of America and more or less convinced the nation that the war was under control, now that seemed to not be the case and Johnson shuddered thinking of what kind of effect that would have on what little support the war had left.

The conversation with Westmoreland was brief, it was after all one in the morning in Vietnam, but productive all the same. Westmoreland had been briefed as well and agreed with Johnson’s request to focus more effort on the countryside. Almost as an afterthought the general had mentioned moving additional air assets within range of the country. As he hung up the phone Johnson thought of the countless bombs and missiles being loaded onto those additional planes and hoped that the CIA officers were right and that an offensive wouldn't come.

Egg on his face wouldn’t even begin to describe what the aftermath of that would look like.
 
How far are you planning on taking this?

The conspiracy theories on Nixon's death are more likely.

I'd like to see how this affects pop culture...
 
This part takes a look at the 1968 presidential candidates and their various motivations and plans for victory.

4.

It was cloudy outside and Governor George Wallace’s mood perfectly matched the weather. At first when he had heard of Richard Nixon’s passing he had seen a chance, an opportunity perhaps, to worm his way further into the Republican fold in time for the primaries that would be beginning in just a couple of months.

But instead of being welcomed by the more segregationist senators and representatives that he had fought alongside with for the past few years in a vain effort to stop the seemingly ceaseless march of desegregation, they had politely but solidly rejected him. No, they said, if you run for president here you will not win, this is the party of Rockefeller and Romney and Scranton, and like it or not there isn’t much room for us anymore George.

Traitors they might have been, but even in the depths of his rage Wallace knew that they were right. He would never win the presidency in a nation as misguided as the one he found himself in now. But he could disrupt things, he realized. He could disrupt proceedings so harshly and totally that the entire elections could be held in doubt. That would show those false faced politicians that had turned him down back in the capitol.

But what exactly could he do to get all of those votes? The Republicans had turned him down and the last time the Democrats had been palatable was before FDR had taken the reigns. In those days people had known the natural order of things, but now they questioned them and look what had happened! Hippies yuppies and Negroes rioted in the streets and America was embroiled in a war halfway around the world to defend a scrap of jungle from some half baked communist regime that even the rest of the half baked communist regimes didn’t want to support.

In such a world as this, people needed true choice, not just between Johnson and Rockefeller, or maybe even Romney if his tongue didn’t decide to knot itself while he was saying something important. People needed someone who would actually care for America and defend it properly.

“That’s it.” Wallace said out loud. The clouds in his mood were clearing, he knew what he had to do. While the Democrats and Republicans squabbled over their precious Negroes and Vietnamese wars halfway across the globe, he, George Wallace, would form his own political party.
The American Freedom Party sounded like a good name.

________

Halfway across the country, Governor Nelson Rockefeller was dictating a piece of legislation to his secretary, but his thoughts were elsewhere and he was wondering if it was really feasible for him to attempt running when primary season did arrive. In previous years it would have been a certainty, but as President Johnson had continued to push both his Great Society and desegregation legislation the public had begun to lose its warmth towards his liberal politics and especially his treatment of the Vietnam War.

But despite his doubts Rockefeller knew that he would still most likely run. If he didn’t then George Romney or maybe even Ronald Reagan would take his place, and while George Romney wasn’t that bad, having an actor in the White House just didn’t sit well with him for some reason. Otherwise it would just be more of President Johnson, and while the man was doubtlessly an excellent legislator, his handling of the Vietnam War left much to be desired.

“Sir?” Rockefeller snapped out of his thoughts and realized that he had stopped speaking. His secretary was looking at him, slightly worried.

“Oh, sorry. I was on the air protection clause, right?” His secretary nodded and Rockefeller continued. Yes, come primary season he would be running for president.

_______

Governor George Romney was shaving and thinking about the upcoming primaries. Iowa was in less than two months and despite himself he was feeling nervous. He was facing a diverse field of candidates made up of all levels of experience. To his left there was Rockefeller, who spoke well but was far too liberal to really be a Republican. To his right there was that actor Reagan, maybe Jim Rhodes, and maybe even William Scranton if he wasn’t serious about that pledge he had made back in 1966 to never seek political office again.

Then of course there was George Wallace, but he wasn’t a serious threat beyond the Mason Dixon line. Romney slapped some aftershave onto his cheeks and wondered who was going to be in the Democratic fold besides Johnson and Kennedy. If a dark horse candidate emerged then that could be interesting.

________

Governor Ronald Reagan was feeling good. He had had a good talk with Nancy earlier that day and she had agreed to put up with his continued political endeavors so long as he still found time for family outside of it all. He was sure that he could do that, after all, sweeping the field of his opponents wouldn’t be that difficult, right?
Sure Rockefeller and Romney and the rest may have had access to fundraising abilities that could dwarf his own, but he had been on the silver screen and just about everybody who had ever watched a movie knew who he was. That sort of publicity only came to a very few people and Reagan knew that he was going to have to use it wisely once the primaries came up.

_________

“No.”

“William, you’d be great. You’d be better than great, you’d win!” William Scranton shut his eyes and leaned back in his chair.

“You are not the first and certainly will not be the last, but while your proposals may change my answer never will. No. That is it, I am not running for president.”

“The party needs someone like you. Now that Nixon’s gone we’ve got everyone rushing for the nomination and I think you’d be a stabilizing factor. We don’t want a repeat of 1964 here.” Scranton shook his head again.

“Gerald. Your words are kind and I’m sure you mean it but I just can’t do it. I swore in front of the American people that I wouldn’t run for political office and I mean it. If you want a stabilizing factor then run yourself.” Gerald Ford was surprised at Scranton’s words.

“Nobody knows me. I’d end up being the Goldwater of the primaries.” Scranton chuckled.

“I’m serious. The party has been swinging back and forth between left and right like a pendulum on a fraying string. It needs to be brought back to the center and you are the man best equipped to do it. Should you decide to take my advice then I’d be willing to endorse you. That fixes the issue of nobody knowing you.” Ford was surprised at how quickly Scranton had reversed the conversation...and how tempting his proposal was. He would have to think about this.

_______

Robert Kennedy was on a walk, and talking energetically at the same time. The man next to him almost had to run to keep up but Robert paid no mind.

“Wouldn’t that be a scream if Reagan decided to jump in? I remember watching him in Bedtime for Bonzo back in the fifties. That guy could be our president! I’m not sure who I’d prefer, him or the chimp!” The man next to him laughed and Kennedy displayed a winning smile before coming to a halt next to a bench.

“But we’re not here to talk about Reagan or Rockefeller or any of the others are we? You want to know if I’m going to go up against Johnson come January.” The man nodded and sat down, mopping a bit of sweat off of his forehead.

“I’d recommend you do what Scranton did in the ‘64 primaries. He fought Goldwater almost to a standstill just to prove a point. He didn’t really expect to win, just wanted to make sure Goldwater didn’t. You should try to ally with McCarthy and do something like that to Johnson. That would electrify the nation and give you more than enough publicity and popularity to win!” Kennedy gave the man an incredulous look.

“And if me and Johnson go down in a pile then who wins, McCarthy? McGovern if he decides to join in the fun? I don’t think so. I can beat Johnson without being a kamikaze.”

“Lofty words. Nobody has ever beaten a wartime president before, especially in the primaries.” Kennedy snorted in disdain.

“Johnson is setting up an excellent case for that to be proven wrong. His Great Society stuff is nice, I won’t lie, but his Vietnam policy is driving me up the wall.”

“I’m just saying, Johnson has a habit of being able to walk away from stuff that would cripple any other man. He’s practically bomb proof when it comes to criticism so don’t think a poor showing or two in the primaries or a few choice jabs will stop him.” Kennedy nodded and looked thoughtful.

“As long as I can get McCarthy out of the way quickly then Johnson will be no big deal, thanks for the advice though Mr. Springer, I’ll be calling you up soon once the primaries are closer.”


_______

Eugene McCarthy was pleased with the new volunteers he had been attracting lately. They were mostly young people, college age if even that. A few could be described as scruffy but the majority had shaven themselves clean and were looking at him expectantly.

“I know why all of you are here. You are all here to support my presidential campaign that’ll kick off in a few months, and you are all very appreciated.” The crowd hummed with assent and McCarthy smiled.

“We are running to show Washington that they cannot keep an unjust war like the one in Vietnam going perpetually without the assent of the citizens being forced to fight and die in it.” McCarthy made sure to use ‘we’ instead of ‘I.’ Crowds loved being drawn into the speaker’s crusade, whether it be against poverty and communism as in Johnson’s case, or the war in his.

“We are running to make sure that no man woman or child is left behind in this nation, deprived rights due to the color of their skin, or otherwise abused because someone in power decided that their suffering would help his cause.”

A few in the crowd whistled and McCarthy felt the hair on the back of his neck rise. He had completely harnessed these young people. Now it was just a simple matter of getting more. He was headed for the White House after all, he would need all of the fans that he could get.
 
In which Johnson talks foreign policy and enjoys Christmas.

5.

The rest of the month seemed to progress more slowly for the President with each passing day. From an outsider’s perspective everything seemed to be going right for the Johnson administration. A press conference was held with top military leaders in Vietnam and a bombastic speech was made by Vice President Humphrey announcing that the US was winning the war. Johnson’s approval rating even broke fifty percent for the first time in several months, but underneath the happy verneer the president of the United States was worried.

More effort had been taken in securing the countryside close to cities in an attempt to counteract the suspicious growth of communist troops near Hue and several other cities. Johnson had made it a habit of asking his intelligence officers whether an offensive was imminent whenever a briefing was done, but without fail they all assured him that the communists wouldn’t dare launch such a suicidal assault on areas with such a large concentration of American and South Vietnamese troops. It seemed to be the only thing that all of the various intelligence groups overseas agreed on but Johnson wasn’t sure that they were correct.

December that year was bitter and increasingly Johnson found himself confined to the White House, stewing in his growing nervousness over the Vietnam situation. Finally one day, as an officer assured him that an offensive was unlikely, Johnson shook his head and sighed.

“Even if it is we have to react to this buildup before it does become threatening. There are nearly 300,000 communist agitators in South Vietnam according to your brief and we have to deal with them, sending troops to the countryside isn’t going to cut it anymore.” The officer nodded but looked uneasy and cleared his throat, obviously not wanting to challenge the president.

“Countermeasures large enough to reverse the flow of communist reinforcements would take some time to organize, what type of measures would you recommend?”

“Westmoreland’s tactics do apply in this scenario, airpower and occupation of enemy territory chief amongst them, we need to kill off enough of them so that I don’t have to lie to the American people when I talk about troop numbers in Vietnam.”

“The logistics of a bombing campaign that large will take a few months to organize. In my best estimates we could have something like that ready by early to mid February, with the appropriate manpower to compliment it.” Johnson nodded, mollified by the officer’s words, Westmoreland would be happy as a pig in shit when he heard about this.

But even as the war had been tamed for the moment, concerns began to erupt within Congress. Election season was coming up, and with Nixon dead and buried, the Republican party suddenly lacked a moderate influence. There was Nelson Rockefeller of course, but as Johnson’s Great Society plans continued to be signed into law, his more liberal politics were slowly becoming a liability. Beyond Rockefeller, across the country in fact, there was the new governor of California, but few people thought much of him, after all, four years ago he had only been an actor. Down south George Wallace was kicking around, doing his best to fight off desegregation any way he could, but he lacked clout beyond the Mason Dixon line and many Republicans left him alone. With Nixon gone and Eisenhower solidly in retirement the Republicans suddenly lacked an elder statesman, and with election season upon them, a candidacy was wide open, and there were no shortage of people beginning to move towards it.

Christmas of that year was the first day off that Johnson had taken in nearly a month, the war had drained his energy and he had spent a substantial portion of the remainder of the month prodding a number of house representatives to vote for the Great Society legislation that was still trickling through. So far that had been going smoothly, but every time he spent time with the Republicans he had noticed an increasing thorniness amongst them, they didn’t like him pushing them around, and with his majorities in both houses of legislature they could do little about it. If they turned that same thorniness onto him in the elections then it could make for some ugly campaigning.

“Lyndon, you have a call.” Johnson snapped out of his thoughts and back to the present. It was Christmas of 1967, snow was drifting softly downwards from a downy white sky outside and he should not be getting any calls today.

“I’ll be right there.” He said and took the phone from his wife, he would make this brief, politics was the last thing he wanted to do today.

“Lyndon. We have to talk, things have come up.” It was Humphrey, why did Humphrey of all people have to interrupt him spending time with his family?

“It can wait until tomorrow, I’m spending time with my family right now and you ought to be doing the same.” Johnson heard Humphrey make an indignant noise on the other end of the line and felt frustration begin to creep up within him, couldn’t the man have waited just a little bit, was that beyond him?

“Its important. I have it from good sources that George Wallace is going to run for president on a third party ticket, he’s created his own party.” Johnson blinked.

“What? Why isn’t he running Republican?”

“That’s besides the point, he’s stripping votes from the Republicans, we could have an opportunity here.” Johnson tried to think of what Wallace would be running on besides an opposition to desegregation. The man was fond of Medicare and Social Security, and he wanted to end the war in Vietnam if it didn’t prove to be winnable almost immediately.

“He’ll also take votes from us, there are plenty of people out there who aren’t very happy with desegregation in the south and having to pay for welfare for the Negro poor. That man is going to be just as great a harm to us as he is to the right.”

“As long as nothing goes very wrong with the war then we’ll be fine.” Johnson nodded and bid Humphrey farewell, hoping that he was right.
 
In which more talk of the war is had and people begin to gear up for the primaries.

6.

Headlines from November 25, 1967 - January 1, 1968

HOUSE MINORITY LEADER FORD ANNOUNCES CANDIDACY

PRESIDENTIAL APPROVAL RATING DIPS IN WAKE OF INCREASED PROTESTS

MCCARTHY: JOHNSON IS A WARMONGER

JOHNSON: WAR IN VIETNAM IS BEING WON

KENNEDY VISITS NH AHEAD OF PRIMARIES

REAGAN: LARGE GOVERNMENT IS ‘UNAMERICAN’


New Years celebrations for the new year of 1968 were increasingly marked by protests it seemed, Johnson thought as he looked out of the window at a small crowd gathered in front of the White House. They seemed to be protesting everything from the Vietnam War to overreactions by police during protests.

HEY HEY LBJ
HOW MANY KIDS DID YOU KILL TODAY?


Asked one of the signs, borne by a young woman in a pink pastel shaded jacket. Johnson moved away from the window, he had heard and seen that damned slogan too much in the past few months, if he wasn’t careful his more radical political rivals might even start using it.
But as he moved away he knew that he shouldn’t be angry, despite what those yuppies out there might think he was more certain than he had been in months that he finally had the war under control. Now all he needed was to wait until February then Westmoreland could give the signal and they could blast the communists out of the country with a level of firepower not seen since the carpet bombing campaigns at the end of World War Two.

Domestically things were a bit trickier. Despite his best efforts he had lost control of his own party, and though luckily he had managed to coordinate the different factions into voting for his bills, when it came to the war it was a mixed bag.

There was a faction led by Robert Kennedy, another one centered around a few northern senators, Eugene McCarthy of Wisconsin the most prominent of them, and a third group that seemed to mostly contain the yuppies, hippies and radical black liberationists that nobody with any interest in preserving their political reputation would dare embrace.

Out of these three factions it seemed that Kennedy’s faction had been kicking around the most lately, young Robert was doubtlessly getting ready to fight him for the nomination and Johnson dreaded that day. While he didn’t like Kennedy much, he was forced to respect his charisma and fortitude, and those same qualities would make him a difficult opponent on the campaign trail.

It was then that Westmoreland called. The North Vietnamese government had proposed a week long ceasefire during the Tet holiday to allow the soldiers of both sides to relax and enjoy some semblance of peace for at least a little bit.

“A full week, do they really think that that’s realistic?” Westmoreland and several other generals were sitting at the other end of the line, and Johnson could hear them each give their own calls of dissent before Westmoreland weighed in.

“No. We want to have a ceasefire but a week is too long, it would allow them to move up a considerable amount of heavy equipment that otherwise they could not move through the jungle without being spotted by our aircraft.”

“Good. Try to whittle it down to three days or so, that’ll give the men enough time to relax for a bit before getting back into the grind.” Westmoreland assented and Johnson hoped the communists would accept those terms, it had been a while since the last ceasefire and a new one, especially over a major holiday, would do a lot for troop morale.

A he set down the phone he looked out the back window and noticed that there were protesters out towards the back of the White House as well, these ones however had laid down their signs and were engaged in a snowball fight, a few of them shouting happy quotations at one another that the president couldn’t hear. He wondered if they knew he was watching for a moment before moving on, he had work to do and it was going to be a long day.
 
In which Johnson grows pensive and future events are alluded to.

7.

THREE DAY CEASEFIRE ANNOUNCED IN VIETNAM

Humphrey read the headline with a slight nod of satisfaction and set the newspaper aside. Generally the country had reacted well to the idea of a ceasefire over the Tet holiday, with only a few of the more hardline war hawks objecting. Finally things seemed to have stabilized overseas, and now he would finally be able to stop talking about the war.

Humphrey hated talking about Vietnam, despised every sentence uttered about that damnable country. There were far more pressing concerns within the borders of his own country and yet at times Johnson, and everyone else for that matter, seemed entirely focused on Vietnam.

Walking down the hall, Humphrey entered the Oval Office and was about to speak when Johnson held up a finger, he was on the phone, and he didn’t look happy.

“No you listen to me, keep the men on full alert I could care less about what it does to morale, we have no reason to assume that the communists will actually keep their word on the ceasefire.” His voice was taut with anger and Humphrey could tell he had been arguing with whoever was on the other side of the line for quite a while now.

“You may be a general but I am president of the United States, and more importantly, the commander in chief. If I say jump you ask ‘how high?’ If I tell you to go to Hanoi personally and get me Ho Chi Minh's head on a spit, you ask ‘with or without barbeque sauce?’ In short your job here is to shut up and listen to me, is that clear?” Humphrey leaned against the doorframe of the Oval Office and looked on as his boss harangued the unfortunate general on the other end of the line. When he had first been chosen to be vice president and had only heard of Johnson’s legendarily mercurial temper second hand these had surprised and even shocked him, but two and a half years with the man had allowed him to get used to a lot. Finally Johnson set the phone back down and leaned back in his chair. He looked tired and more concerningly, worried.

“Who was that?” Humphrey asked, Johnson let a huff of air hiss from between his teeth, ending the phone call had obviously done little to calm his mood.

“Westmoreland. He wants to let the troops relax during the ceasefire and I want to as well, but the man doesn’t understand!” His voice had risen and Humphrey wondered if Johnson was going to start yelling, but instead he sighed heavily and leaned forwards, folding his arms across the desk.

“He doesn’t understand that this ceasefire would be a perfect time for the communists to attack. They’ve been gathering troops for the past several months for Christ’s sake, why does he not understand that?” Humphrey shrugged and walked closer to Johnson, as much as they disagreed he still didn’t ever like seeing the man upset.

“Westmoreland is set in his ways, he wants to think that the enemy will follow the rules of war.” Another disdainful snort from Johnson.

“Since when have the communists ever obeyed the rules of war? The man ought to know better. Point is, we are going through this truce as if the war is still on, and I am going to look like the biggest ass alive if Westmoreland is right and nothing happens.”

“You’ll be fine Lyndon, we’ve taken some knocks before and always pulled out of them, this will be no different.” Johnson nodded slightly and cleared his throat.

“I hope you’re right.” He said after a few seconds pause. “I really hope you’re right.” Humphrey nodded and sat down on the Oval Office couch with a sigh, the administration was balancing a house of cards right now, and Humphrey hoped that Johnson would be able to pull everything he was doing off.

The primaries were also coming up and though Johnson had been out and about in New Hampshire it seemed like McCarthy and Kennedy were gaining alarmingly large portions of the vote, and if Johnson were not careful then the primary could very well sink his already fragile political campaign.

“We’ll see what happens, if New Hampshire goes off without a hitch then I’ll be more reassured.”

“Don’t worry Lyndon.” Said Humphrey, and then started looking at the papers he had been meaning to read through. It was going to be a long couple of days.
 
In which the primaries start with a bang :D

8.

“McCarthy unfortunately is not the man you’d want leading the country. Much like our friend George Romney in Michigan, McCarthy is gaffe prone and sometimes horribly insensitive. I would not vote for him and you should not either.” Many were stunned by the volatility of Kennedy’s words about McCarthy, but more than a few agreed, more due to McCarthy’s seemingly magical hold over the hippy population, which scared the more conservative Democrats to death, than any real examples of the shortcomings that Kennedy had railed against. The jab against Romney had also drawn attention and already Kennedy was gaining a reputation as a candidate who’d be picking a lot of fights over the next few months.

McCarthy didn’t immediately respond, but when he did he criticized Kennedy for not trying to be diplomatic and knock Johnson out of the contest early instead of focusing on him.

“What we are seeing here is a truly irresponsible candidate, who would rather score a cheap, Pyrrhic victory over me and then be crushed by our warmonger in chief than band together and fight the good fight against Johnson’s lead in votes in New Hampshire and many of the other primary states. We are fighting to win here people, and Kennedy, whether through stubbornness or treachery, is doing his best to not let that happen.”

Within days shirts began to appear, reading: KENNEDY: THE BEST WAY TO FOUR MORE YEARS OF JOHNSON, and the nation gathered to watch the drama unfolding between the two Democratic candidates as they pummeled one another.

In the White House Johnson smirked and made a scathing joke about genital deficiencies in both of the candidates before departing to New Hampshire for his first campaigning trip of the new year. Things would have to be done to capitalize on the chaos occurring amongst the Democrats before they eventually decided to attack him, this sort of opportunity likely wouldn’t come again.

Things in the Republican fold were slightly calmer, but not by much. George Romney, smarting from the hit that Kennedy had scored on him, made a speech to try to display his eloquence but instead was mocked by his opponents, who brought up the infamous ‘brainwashing’ comments he had made in mid 1967.

Only Ford and Rockefeller remained largely aloof from the conflict. Rockefeller because he still had work to do as governor of New York, and Ford because he was desperate to avoid such a reputation as Kennedy was rapidly gathering.

As January continued on a new wave of protests enveloped the nation and though they largely avoided violence, they still inspired some ire from the candidates, with Ohio governor Jim Rhodes infamously saying that the protesters were worse than Nazi brownshirts. This, though it helped his profile amongst many hard line conservatives, effectively sunk his campaign and he was never really a high profile character in the campaign after that point.

Ronald Reagan also entered the fray by declaring large government unconstitutional and unamerican. This earned him the support of many Goldwater supporters and even the man himself, who despite admitting trepidations over Reagan’s lack of experience, endorsed him for president of the United States.

Amidst the early January protests, a group of young men briefly occupied the roof of the University of California and hung a giant banner over the front door reading:

GOP -
Nelson Rockefeller
George Romney
Jim Rhodes
Ronald Reagan
Gerald Ford
John Volpe
Harold Stassen
Democrats -
Lyndon Johnson
Eugene McCarthy
Robert Kennedy
Stephen Young
George Smathers

And to think ‘nobody’ is the only good choice!


The perpetrators, though they were never caught, were generally agreed to be a well known group of pranksters and hippies by other students on the campus. The sentiment caught on with the protest movement though and soon ‘Nobody for President!’ signs jostled for space with ‘End the War!’ and ‘Kill a politician for peace!’

“I’m sure you are all tired of the chaos.” President Johnson addressed a crowd outside of Concord, on a bitterly cold afternoon in mid January. “I’m sure you are all tired of the incessant name calling, blaming and other immature shenanigans going on with my opponents.” There was a mutter of assent from the crowd. This election was shaping up to be a very ugly one and there hadn’t even been a primary yet.

“I’m tired of it too to tell the truth, and I want it to end just as much as you do. And luckily for all of us there is such a way to make it end quickly. A vote for Johnson, is a vote for peace and quiet.”

“What about peace in Vietnam?” Shouted a shrill voice from the middle of the crowd. Johnson looked down and saw a young lady standing there, arms crossed and looking angry.

“How about you come up onto this stage and tell me what you want me to hear instead of shouting from down there.” Johnson said. The secret service agent nearest to him shook his head but Johnson waved him away and the woman clambered onto the stage.

“You say that you’ll bring peace and quiet but what about Vietnam? Where is their peace and quiet?” Johnson nodded, he knew that the war was going to come up eventually.

“The war in Vietnam, as much as you and me both may hate it, is a war that must be fought to avoid the area falling to the forces of communism. Because if Vietnam falls, then communism will then spread to other areas of the globe until us and our allies are a lone beacon of light in a very dark and frightening world. Our goal in Vietnam is to avoid that, to defeat communism so that the people of Vietnam may one day experience the same rights and liberties as are enjoyed by you and me here in the United States. Peace in Vietnam will come, but we have a hard fight ahead of us to get there.” The woman didn’t look convinced, but many in the crowd did. They didn’t know about how tenuous the situation was over there, and hopefully they never would. If everything went right they never would.

“You see, I never wanted to be a wartime president. What I want more than anything in the world is to be the president who educated the nation’s children, not the one who sent them overseas to fight in a war that many now question the legitimacy of. I want to be a man of peace and progress, and if we continue the fight so that we may see peace then I may become just that, and you can help me in that goal by lending me your vote and making sure that forces abroad and at home do not conspire to see me out and condemn the United States to further chaos.” Johnson continued with his speech, enchanting the audience with a vision of America where everyone was equal not only under God but under the law as well, where a man had set foot on the Moon and American infrastructure and education was the envy of the world.

“We can have all of this and more, but first it is your responsibility to put me in a position where I can continue us on the path to making such things possible. We shall succeed, and we shall overcome.”

The crowd cheered and the young lady shook hands with Johnson before getting down off the stage. As applause continued to fill the air Johnson felt optimistic about his chances for the first time, and it felt good.
 
In which the candidates make final preparations before the New Hampshire primary, and Johnson's focus on foreign policy pays off.

9.

JOHNSON’S CONDUCT AN INSPIRATION

It was an opinion article that really set McCarthy off. He tore the paper in half and tossed it aside. One of his campaign advisors looked at him, worried, but McCarthy shook him off.

He had had Johnson in the bag and it was only because of Kennedy that he had escaped to strengthen his position in the nation through crap like this. The article had cited Johnson’s clear and concise way of explaining his plan and his lack of participation in the fight that had erupted between the Kennedy and McCarthy campaigns over the past two weeks as sure signs of strong leadership and charisma that would make him a difficult man to beat.

“That girl who climbed up on stage didn’t even press her questions, she let him charm her with that Great Society bullshit, all the while he’s feeding more men into the meat grinder.” McCarthy fumed, his poll numbers had been sliding over the past few days and it didn’t even comfort him to know that Kennedy was having the same problem. People were jumping ship and running hell for leather to other candidates, whether they were Johnson, Volpe or even, god forbid, Romney.

_______

“A Mormon is stealing my voters. I can’t believe it.” Kennedy hissed in an office much like McCarthy’s, several hundred miles away. Near him, Springer was busily making phone calls and tallying campaign donations, though the latter were beginning to slow down in the aftermath of the blowup between him and McCarthy.

“The polls have a margin of error of about four percent, they’ll be right back up tomorrow.” Springer assured him, but that did nothing to mollify Kennedy as he looked at the polls of all the various candidates. Johnson would doubtlessly win New Hampshire, the only question was by how much? Kennedy didn’t even want to know, it was probably going to be something that would absolutely murder his poll numbers. He had pledged to his supporters an ability to stand up to Johnson and McCarthy alike, but now that was looking to not be the case.

_______

In New York, Rockefeller was making a phone call. He had just returned from New Hampshire and was not planning on returning until late February for an extended campaigning trip. To his pleasant surprise it was Gerald Ford, the mild new Minority Leader. He had met him once or twice at the capitol, but this was his first time having an actual conversation with him.

“Hello Governor.” Said Ford, coiling the phone line between his fingers, he was nervous about the upcoming conversation and wasn’t sure how the governor would react.

“Nice to hear from you Gerald, tell me, how’s the campaign going?” Ford was surprised by Rockefeller’s friendliness and obliged.

“Its going well, I’m dabbling with grassroots fundraising instead of dinners and such. Its made me plenty of friends but not all that much money.” Ford heard Rockefeller chuckle over the phone and smiled, he had heard all about Rockefeller’s legendary personality and it was just as warm as people had said.

“Is that what you’re calling about?”

“No, I’m getting by. I was just wondering if perhaps we could have a non aggression pact of sorts between us, like don’t say anything nasty about each other.” Rockefeller was surprised by the proposal. Then he looked at it from Ford’s perspective. Ford was very much an outlier candidate and nobody really expected him to make much of a splash, whereas Rockefeller was very powerful and had many backers. It was a smart move and Rockefeller considered it.

“I like it Gerald. See you around.” Ford breathed a sigh of relief and bid Rockefeller farewell. Now he could kick things up another notch without worrying about the Rockefeller campaign swooping down on him. Scranton would be proud of this move, he thought, and smiled.

_______

“Our special guest today is California governor and presidential candidate Ronald Reagan! Give him a round of applause ladies and gentlemen.” the audience didn’t need the invitation and began outright cheering as Reagan took his place as the table next to the host of the radio show he was appearing on.

It wasn’t a terribly large show, but it broadcast all over New Hampshire, and most importantly, Concord, where Reagan was hoping to make a killing when the primary happened.

“Governor Reagan, most people know you as a movie star rather than a politician, how much of that Hollywood attitude are you going to bring in to the White House?” Reagan smiled, he had been expecting questions like this.

“Well, I’m not going to move the capitol to Hollywood if that’s what you’re asking.” He said to general laughter from the audience.

“Good to hear, I don’t think I could take the heat. Anyways, we are now going to move on to audience questions. Our first question comes from Richard Norris from Concord.” A middle aged man with a florid face stood up in the middle of the audience and loudly asked.

“Governor, what are you going to do about the Negro problem?” Reagan was silent for a moment before answering.

“I believe that it is a state issue and should be left to the states to deal with as they’d like.” The applause wasn’t much more than polite, but Reagan didn’t mind, not all of the questions would be this controversial.

“Governor, some people have cited your lack of political experience as a disqualifying factor in your presidential run. What do you have to say to them?”

Reagan flashed a smile again, now he was in his element.

“George Washington wasn’t a politician much before he became president either.” He said mildly, “and he did good enough that we put him on our money.” A few audience members cheered and Reagan knew at that moment that he would do alright in this campaign. It was kind of like acting in a way, just you had to make sure you never played the bad guy.

_______

George Romney was looking at his poll numbers and grinning. They had finally stopped their downwards slide after his speech stunt had gone wrong and now he found that as long as he avoided mentioning his opponents then he was doing alright. Despite that he had still acquired a reputation as a bumbling speaker albeit with good intentions. That could be overcome though, especially through the new media campaign he had been engineering for the past two weeks, and now that he was back in the swing of things, the future looked very bright indeed.

_______

In Mobile, George Wallace was eating dinner with his future executive director Tom Turnipseed. He hadn’t made his campaign plans public to more than a very select few, but he was getting there. Seeing the chaos erupting in the Democratic primary and to a lesser extent in the Republican one as well he suspected that perhaps he would be able to cast himself as a candidate of peace and quiet, much like Johnson was doing, as well as law and order. Thinking of that made him smile and he stirred his collard greens with his fork as he thought, wondering if maybe he’d even be able to extend his influence beyond the Deep South. If he could pose a threat as far north as Kentucky then he would consider the campaign as success. It was January 20, 1968, and outside of the knowledge of all of the candidates, events were unfolding in Vietnam.

At Johnson’s insistence, Westmoreland had not removed the troops from full alert and had even put pressure on the South Vietnamese to do the same. So when the communists began to move forwards, hoping to replicate the German blitzkrieg of western Europe twenty eight years before, they were spotted almost immediately.

“Mr. President, wake up sir, the VietCong just launched an attack against our forward pickets at Khe Sahn.” Johnson sat bolt upright in bed and fumbled for his glasses before heading out into the hall and then the Oval Office.

“Update me on the situation and get every piece of airpower we have in the air.” Johnson said and officers scrambled to relay his order.

“Sir, General Westmoreland is on the line.” Johnson took the phone and immediately Westmoreland was speaking, fast and hard.

“We have our planes in the air, and are deploying reserves to the areas that have been hit the hardest. Fortunately most of the enemy’s assets were spotted early, the only place that they’re making progress is the Mekong Delta and we have forces on the way to intercept.” Johnson nodded and sat down at his desk.

“How long have the attacks been going on?”

“An hour, maybe longer, at first we thought they were isolated incidents but then they started landing on top of each other and before we knew it just about every damn city in the northern half of South Vietnam was under attack.”

“Update me on the situation as we push them back. Also, its about time we implemented that counter offensive I ordered prepared back in November, we need to roll these bastards back.” Westmoreland assented and Johnson set the phone on his desk, wondering how many people he had just killed with that order.

As the morning sun spread its golden rays across Washington D.C. the first news of the communist offensive in Vietnam began to become known.

SAIGON FALLS TO NVA!

A tabloid newspaper blared, and as news footage screened of US troops roaring into battle atop tanks and armored half tracks it became abundantly clear that this was a very big thing.

“I wish the best of luck to our brave men and women in uniform currently fighting to preserve South Vietnam from tyranny, and wish to announce the implementation of a counter offensive, Operation Liberty, to destroy communist forces in Vietnam and make absolutely certain that they do not ever have the strength to commit an offensive such as this one, ever again.”

The response to Johnson’s speech was mixed, with many people cheering the harsh response to the broken ceasefire and more worrying about what such an escalation of the war would lead to.

The candidates all reacted to it differently. Nelson Rockefeller gave a speech similar to Johnson’s wishing the troops embarking on Operation Liberty the best of luck and his blessing. George Romney vowed to travel to Vietnam (better hope he doesn’t get brainwashed again, snickered George Carlin from somewhere in California) and visit the troops there to raise morale, while Gerald Ford praised Johnson’s order to keep the troops on high alert but expressed some misgivings about Operation Liberty and asked for more details.

Ronald Reagan outdid them all by vowing to travel to Vietnam after the primaries were over and dedicated some of his personal fortune to the building of cinemas in Vietnam so as to keep morale up.

Kennedy and McCarthy both gave a similar response condemning the war but praising the bravery and heroism of the troops involved, which drew some fire from veterans groups who thought the candidates were being disrespectful.

As more became clear about the offensive and Johnson’s preparations for it, public support, which had been chilly, began to warm up again.

“This is a president who not only saw the communist attack coming, but organized a quick and effective counter strike against it so when it did come our troops could beat it back with minimal losses. That is a president that I can get behind!” Roared a pro Johnson speaker in Concord as the citizens of the state prepared to vote on March 12.

As February 12, 1968 dawned in Washington, the day ended in Vietnam and as American planes bombed retreating columns of NVA and VietCong troops, destroying countless trucks, tanks and other vehicles and charring the unfortunates inside of them, it became very clear that the offensive had been a terrifying and deadly failure.

Hanoi was also targeted by the forces of Operation Liberty and as missiles rained down on the city’s military assets, the government retreated into their bunkers, wondering how it could have gone so wrong.

North Vietnamese forces had managed to capture Hue city after a fierce, protracted battle with the garrison, but had only just managed to push them out when they were assaulted by fresh reinforcements from further south. The communists were similarly broken at Khe Sahn, with an estimated nine thousand dead and roughly twice that number wounded.

One of the only successful attacks of the offensive came in Saigon, when a suicide squad briefly occupied the US embassy and massacred sixty three employees working inside. The building was practically levelled by the South Vietnamese response and the suicide squad was killed to the last man.

South Korean and Australian forces also played a vital role in Operation Liberty, assaulting by helicopter and destroying a number of fortifications in the jungle that had evaded bombing campaigns for years. Gunships patrolled the skies above the jungle and obliterated retreating communist forces with chain guns and for nearly a month the jungle seemed to ooze blood.

In later years the heavily sanitized portrayal of events shown by the Johnson administration, emphasizing on the operation’s overwhelming success and low anti communist casualties, would be the dominant way things were seen by the public, which contributed heavily to Johnson’s skyrocketing public approval, which topped out at sixty four percent just before the New Hampshire primaries and remained in the high to mid fifties for the remainder of the primaries. Alternate portrayals of events were developed though, most notably with acclaimed director Stanley Kubrick’s 1987 film, Full Metal Jacket, which examined the darker side of the operation, focusing almost exclusively on the fighting at Khe Sanh, the bloodiest portion of the offensive for American troops.

George Lucas’s 1978 film Apocalypse Now focuses on the offensive as well but mostly in the opening scene, which portrays a fleet of helicopter gunships supporting the amphibious invasion of an NVA occupied village by South Vietnamese troops.

On March 5, 1968, with the offensive soundly defeated, and American air resources running low, General Westmoreland, with the joint agreement of Generals Park Chung Hee, Reginald Pollard, and Cao Van Vien, declared Operation Liberty ended and a decisive anti communist victory.

American losses were heavy however, with 2,193 killed and a further 9,715 wounded, captured or missing. South Vietnamese losses were similar, with 3,756 killed and 12,043 wounded, captured or missing.

North Vietnamese losses were horrific and out of the nearly ninety thousand communist soldiers who had participated in the offensive, barely a third of them returned home.

At this point, the surviving American diplomats, some of whom had been out of the country at the time, began asking the North Vietnamese for peace negotiations. Though the North did not respond, a drop in attacks was noticed, which seemed to signal a willingness to negotiate peace.
At home, the Johnson administration began to go on the offensive with Vietnam for the first time in months. After all it wasn’t everyday that you were handed a major victory to play with.

Things were looking good, and President Johnson liked it that way.
 
In which the New Hampshire primary results come in and the candidates plan for the future.

10.

New Hampshire Primary Results, Democratic Party
Lyndon Baines Johnson - 61.4%
Eugene McCarthy - 31%
Robert Francis Kennedy - 2.8%
Unpledged - 4.8%
New Hampshire Primary Results, Republican Party
Nelson Rockefeller - 44.2%
George Romney - 17.1%
Ronald Reagan - 10.4%
Gerald Ford - 7.7%
John Volpe - 2.1%
Harold Stassen - 1.9%
Other (5.2% of which were George Wallace write ins) - 7.8%
Unpledged - 8.8%

On television, Senator Everett Dirksen began to speak, the topic being the New Hampshire primary, and President Johnson’s surprisingly strong victory over Eugene McCarthy.

“Hello, welcome to the Ev and Jerry show. As you know, my co host Gerald Ford is off campaigning to be our next president, but he shall join us anyways, through the phone.” Gerald Ford introduced himself and the show began properly.

“While quite a bit of talk is being had about Rockefeller’s overwhelming victory in the Republican primaries, the real news is in both President Johnson’s surprisingly large margin of victory, and your share of the votes, which was…?”

“Almost eight percent, much larger than what the press was predicting. I think one of them said I’d be lucky to break one percent at one point.” Dirksen laughed and gave the camera a knowing look.

“Well, looks like its not just the weatherman that’s always wrong. But anyways, both our president and our co host managed to exceed expectations in New Hampshire, with many saying that such candidates as Eugene McCarthy and Harold Stassen are set to either scale back their campaigns or drop out of the race entirely.” Gerald Ford cleared his throat and then spoke.

“Honestly, what surprised me the most about this primary was the comeback that Governor Romney made. In about three weeks he went from being a walking joke to suddenly being relevant again. He even captured seventeen percent of the vote, which is an astonishing gain.” Dirksen nodded sagely.

“He did blitz New Hampshire with ads, both on the radio and the television, and not a single negative one either, that’s what surprised me. I guess he looked at the Democratic primaries and decided that attacking people doesn’t get you much besides that whole mess.”

“But I do think that Romney is going to be a force to reckon with.” Dirksen smiled.

“As long as he keeps his mouth shut.”

_______

“Congratulations on your victory Governor.” Rockefeller grinned and shook a young man’s hand as confetti swirled down around him. It wasn’t a very large celebration but somebody had still brought confetti, they always did.

“Governor, what would you say attributed to your victory the most?” A reporter had appeared to his right and Rockefeller thought for a moment.

“Experience and presence. A president should have experience if he’s going to run and be serious about it.” The reporter nodded and wrote, his pen a blur.

“If you were to endorse any other candidate in the race, who would it be?” Now that was a tricky question and it could be taken any number of wrong ways if he said the wrong thing.

“I would endorse anybody who managed to knock me out of the race.” The reporter moved away after that and left Rockefeller to enjoy his win. But even after the reporter was long gone the question was still kicking around in his mind, who would he have to endorse if everything went to hell?

________

Ronald Reagan was having a celebration of his own at an outdoor park somewhere on the outskirts of Concord. He was simply happy to have broken ten percent of the vote, which was more than he had thought he would get, especially when going up against heavyweights like Rockefeller. Romney had done surprisingly well too, as had Ford. Reagan had seen the guy on television occasionally, co hosting a television program with Senator Dirksen of Illinois and he seemed like a decent guy, perhaps once this was all over he could call him up and they could have a beer.

“You’ll have Rockefeller shaking in his boots by the time we get to California.” Said a campaign advisor from a few yards away. Reagan gave him a thumbs up and sat down on a bench, wondering who we was going to choose as his running mate when he knocked out Romney and Rockefeller.

_______

George Romney was flying home to Michigan to see his family before he had to leave again to go campaign in Wisconsin. He had held a small celebration of all his staff and congratulated them all on helping him get to second place. Though he had left a few people behind in New Hampshire he had continued the salaries of the people who had made his television and radio commercials, they had helped him almost too much to emphasize and as he wrote down the outlines of a speech to give while in Wisconsin he knew that he would definitely need them if he wanted to survive this campaign.

_______

George Wallace had announced the American Freedom Party and his third party candidacy in it on February 8th, but not many had paid attention, they were more focused on the Tet Offensive in Vietnam and the massive US retaliation strike that followed it. Johnson had been a clever bastard he had to admit, baiting the communists to strike like that. But he had taken his eyes off of Wallace while he did that and that was a mistake that would hurt him dearly.

In the month that had followed, Wallace had held rallies and fundraisers all throughout his target zone, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia and Florida, spreading his message and encouraging people to stand against the two main parties and instead help the American Freedom Party enter its first election with a bang.

Tom Turnipseed, his executive director, had been more than pleased with the progress that they were making, and predicted that the entire south would turn over to him by election time. Wallace wasn’t that optimistic but he knew that his movement would carry multiple states and that was enough for him.

_______

“There’s no shame in quitting Eugene, everyone has bad years. 1972 will be better.” McCarthy liked the soothing tone of the young man’s voice but certainly not the message.

“I appreciate it son, but I’m not quitting. New Hampshire was a fluke, in Wisconsin I’m going to show Johnson and Kennedy what’s up. 1968 is my year for Christ’s sake, and nobody is going to take it from me!”

_______

“Three percent isn’t all that bad. You did better than Harold Stassen.”

Kennedy nodded in muted agreement. He hadn’t been expecting to win New Hampshire, merely use it as an opportunity to knock McCarthy and Johnson down to size. He had certainly done that with McCarthy but Johnson had been an entirely different animal and had used the lucky timing of Operation Liberty to blast McCarthy into the ground with a 2:1 lead in votes.

“Perhaps I should have listened to you back in December Jerry.” Said Kennedy, looking at Johnson’s poll numbers in Wisconsin, which were disconcertingly high.

“The past is the past,” said Springer lightly, “now we focus on the future and how to put that fearsome reputation of your to use.” Kennedy liked the sound of that, and smiled for the first time since the primary results had come in.
 
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