Kentucky Fried Politics: A Colonel Sanders Timeline
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Agreed
Thanks!
It'll be part of the next update, E.T.A. April 4 (I got papers to write this week, it seems to be the pattern for this semester)
That's hilarious, especially because it's one of those timeless jokes that is somehow always relevant!
If ya have any ideas/suggestions for the TL, feel free to say 'em!
Well it's going to be a while until there's a vacancy on the Supreme Court (pending butterflies, that is...) Hmmm......
Probably pro-Republican like OTL. Before the Storm is available on Google Books. I read parts of it for the RNC convention write-up (and cited it, too). It's a pretty good read, from my perspective at least.
"officially" during the summer of 1963, but it actually ended in early 1965 with the final communist guerillas scattering, fleeing, and/or surrendering upon the death of Cienfuegos. Dr. Moro Cárdenas is the interim President un
Thanks!
[Insert SpongeBob screenshot of him saying "Write that down, write that down!" here]! These fellas will be considered!
I concur!
For what purpose?
Tom Clark, a Democrat, retired when his son Ramsey Clark, also a Democrat, became Attorney General in 1967 under LBJ IOTL.
The current composition of the court is the following:
Chief: Earl Warren (since 1953) - may retire if convinced Sanders is not too conservative
Seat 1: Hugo Black (since 1937) - no vacancy until 1971 IOTL
Seat 2: Abe Fortas (since 1962) - may retire if embroiled in scandal
Seat 3: Sarah Hughes (since 1962)
Seat 4: William Douglas (since 1939)
Seat 5: John Harlan (since 1955) - no vacancy until 1971 IOTL
Seat 6: Potter Stewart (since 1955)
Seat 7: Tom C. Clark (since 1949)
Seat 8: William Brennan (since 1956)
Oh, okay. I'll squeeze in a cameo at the very least. Thanks!
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Isn't Tom Clark set to retire?
What's the composition of the court
he championed the Freedom of Information Act something the Colonel might agree with/be interested in
Chapter 22: January 1965 – July 1965
Chapter 22: January 1965 – July 1965
“You are who you choose to be”
– Hogarth Hughes
COLONEL SANDERS’ ADMINISTRATION AT THE BEGINNING OF 1965
Cabinet:
Secretary of State: US Senator Carl Curtis of Nebraska
Undersecretary of State: former National Security Advisor Gordon Gray of Maryland
Secretary of the Treasury: former US Congressman Eugene Siler of Kentucky
Undersecretary of the Treasury: Former state Treasurer and state Secretary of State Thelma Stovall of Kentucky
Secretary of Defense: US Army General Charles H. Bonesteel III of Virginia
Undersecretary of Defense: former Cumberland County Sheriff and former US War Claims Commission Chair Pearl Carter Pace of Kentucky
Attorney General: former Deputy Attorney General Lawrence Edward Walsh of New York
Postmaster General: former State Supreme Court Justice Leif Erickson of Minnesota
Secretary of the Interior: outgoing Governor George Dewey Clyde of Utah
Secretary of Agriculture: US Senator Bourke Hickenlooper of Iowa
Administrator of the Farmers Home Administration: former Governor Archie Gubbrud of South Dakota
Secretary of Commerce: economist and University of Chicago professor Milton Friedman of Illinois [1]
Secretary of Labor: former Deputy Secretary of Labor and former USIA Director Arthur Larson of South Dakota
Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare: Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York
Undersecretary of Health: retiring Chief of Cardiovascular Surgery at the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children William Thornton Mustard of Michigan
Chairman of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Wellness: former Governor and AFL Commissioner Joe Foss of South Dakota
Secretary of Transportation (created February 1965): businessman and railroad executive John C. Coolidge III of Massachusetts
Cabinet-Level Positions:
Director of the Central Intelligence Agency: incumbent Director Allen W. Dulles of New York
Director of the Federal Bureau of Information: incumbent Director J. Edgar Hoover of Washington, D.C.
US Trade Representative: US Congresswoman Florence Dwyer of New Jersey
The President’s Executive Office:
White House Chief of Staff: former Secretary of Defense Neil H. McElroy of Ohio
White House Deputy Chief of Staff: campaign deputy registrar Mary Dent Crisp of Pennsylvania
White House Counsel: political strategist and campaign co-manager F. Clifton “Cliff” White of New York
Counselor to the President: congressional staff member and advisor Bryce Harlow of Oklahoma
Chief Domestic Policy Advisor: civil rights activist and employment reform advocate Whitney Young of Kentucky
Chief Economic Policy Advisor: economist and financial advisor Sylvia Porter of New York
Chief Foreign Policy Advisor: publisher on the political economics of national security and atomic energy economist professor J. R. Schlesinger of New York
Chief National Security Advisor: former W.A.C. Lieutenant Colonel Ruth Briggs of Rhode Island
Director of the Office of Management and Budget: Continental Illinois Bank Vice President Robert Mayo of Illinois
Other Counselors and Advisors: civil rights attorney Wayne M. Collins of California, African-American speechwriter Andrew Hatcher of New Jersey, intern and assistant speechwriter Jennifer Salt of California, others
White House Communications Director: campaign information director Lee Edwards of Illinois
White House Appointments Secretary: outgoing Deputy Assistant to the President Liddy Hanford of Washington, D.C.
White House Press Secretary: campaign press secretary Ronald Ziegler of California
Administrator of the Small Business Administration: State Senator and small business owner Marshall Parker of South Carolina
President Sanders’ personal secretary: incumbent personal secretary Wanda Boner of Kentucky [2]
Other Notable Members:
Surgeon General: incumbent Luther Leonidas Terry of Alabama
Solicitor General (representative of the Federal Government before the Supreme Court): columnist and former US Senator Joseph H. Ball of Minnesota
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: technician and former Assistant Secretary of the Navy William B. Franke of New York
Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: US Air Force Lieutenant General Benjamin O. Davis Jr. of Washington, D.C.
Secretary of the Army: West Virginia University President Elvis Jacob Stahr Jr. of West Virginia
Secretary of the Navy: Admiral Arleigh Albert Burke of Maryland
Federal Reserve Chairman: incumbent William McChesney Martin of Missouri
NASA Director: incumbent James Edwin Webb of North Carolina
Notable US Ambassadors (in alphabetical order):
To Argentina: engineer and industrialist Edgar Kaiser Sr. of California
To Belgium: journalist for the National Review John Rensselaer Chamberlain of Connecticut
To Cambodia: US Air Force Major General William R. “Killer” Kane of California
To Canada: former Governor and former US Senator Lawrence Wetherby of Kentucky
To Cuba: former Ambassador to Spain John Davis Lodge of Connecticut
To France: former White House Assistant Staff Secretary John Sheldon Doud Eisenhower of Maryland
To India: incumbent diplomat Dalip Singh Saund of California
To Italy: oil tycoon, art collector, and social programs promoter Algur H. Meadows of Georgia
To Japan: incumbent diplomat G. Mennen “Soapy” Williams of Michigan
To Laos: businesswoman, aviation pioneer, WAAC co-founder, and WASP co-founder Lieutenant Colonel Jacqueline Cochran of California
To Mexico: lawyer and Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy Edward Hidalgo of New York
To Saudi Arabia: oil industrialist and 1964 gubernatorial nominee Jack Crichton of Texas
To South Africa: mining engineer Allan H. Hoover of Iowa
To South Vietnam: diplomat and former US Senator Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. of Massachusetts
To Taiwan: businessman, banker, former State Representative and State Senator Philip Willkie of Indiana
To the U.K.: former Undersecretary of State Herbert Clark Hoover Jr. of Iowa
To the U.N.: former Ambassador to Japan, former Ambassador to Indonesia, and former Ambassador to Czechoslovakia John Moore Allison of Nebraska
To the U.S.S.R.: former Secretary of State Christian A. Herter Sr. of Massachusetts
To West Germany: businessman Malcolm Forbes of New Jersey
– ColonelSandersPresidentialLibrary.org.usa/cabinet_members/1965
[pic: imgur.com/esRtcUd.png ]
The Cuban War, as it is known in the United States, also known as the Cuban Civil War in Cuba and as the Cuban-American War in Europe and elsewhere, was a military conflict on the island nation of Cuba. While it officially lasted from 1961 to 1963, it had its roots in the 1950s and saw American forces remain in Cuba until 1965. The conflict began as a Civil War between the Communist Cubans (led by the Cuban “Gang of Four” and supported by the Soviet Union and other communist allies) and the nationalist Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front (led by the Cuban Revolutionary Council leader Dr. Jose Miro Cardona and supported by the United States, France, the U.K., and other anti-communist allies).
After several events in early 1961 increased hostilities between the U.S. and Communist Cuba, the U.S. invaded Cuba with the intent of replacing the Communist government with a democratic one. Despite military successes, heavy casualties caused the war to become unpopular within the United States by early 1963.
The composition of the conflict changed when the U.S. military informally declared the War a success in June 1963, shortly before U.S. Defense Secretary Homer Litzenburg’s passing. Military activities in the months that followed, however, suggested the war was still ongoing, just being approach with a different strategy, as the U.S. began treating the Communist Cubans as guerillas and insurgents. As 1963 turned into 1964, the increase in domestic terrorist “Cam” bombs made the US military presence unpopular among nationalist Cubans. The 1961-1964 rise in Cuban refugees contributed to further rise in disapproval of the war back in the United States, which culminated in the rejection of US President Lyndon Johnson in the US Presidential election of November 1964.
The war came to a sudden conclusion when the final remnants of the Communist Cuban Front were defeated in January 1965, right before Johnson left office. With the last communist stronghold collapsed, remaining Communists diehards fled the country.
The Cuban people slowly likened to capitalist leadership due to humanitarian efforts by the Peace Corps, the WHO, and the UN (concerning food, medicine, and first aid for those burned in scorched earth policies and bombings) from 1964 to 1966. A January 1965 Bill passed in the U.S. Congress to fund programs to send farming experts from the US to Cuba to teach locals the latest techniques, and develop mechanical equipment and industrial skills, proved immensely popular on the island.
The war had major ramifications on the societies of Cuba and the United States, as anti-war activism sparked the “shoutnik” movement and contributed to American music, art, film and pop culture. The war is considered a Cold War-era proxy war from some perspectives.
– clickopedia.co.usa
“Well I think the fact that he abandoned his customers for the White House shows where his priorities lie. I’d never give up the good customers of McDonald’s for some other job, that’s for sure!”
– Ray Kroc to a reporter, 1/20/1965
On January 22, John Y. Brown Jr., then 31, joins the KFC as a junior board member. After getting a law degree in 1960, Brown had entered his father’s law practice while also serving in the US Army Reserve from 1959 to late 1964, getting out of Cuba with a doctor referral. After leaving his father’s law firm in 1963 to pursue a career in business, he campaigned for Father in Kentucky despite being a registered Democrat. His hiring process had been overseen by Millie, and while she saw him as an energetic go-getter reminiscent of our father, I was unsure of his character. Brown was interested in operating company’s chain of barbeque restaurants and production facilities. When I first met with him, he was convivial and accommodating – in other words, he acted like a real brown-noser. So I, together with Dave [Thomas] and other, kept a collective eye on him.
– Harland David “Harley” Sanders Jr., In the Thick of It: The Story of The Colonel and His Son, Sunrise Publishing, 1991
“I’ve only had two rules: Do all you can & do it the best you can. It’s the only way you ever get that feeling of accomplishing something.” [3] The Colonel started his first meeting in the White House with this proclamation. With the official cabinet not fully assembled, as it would be for another month, the meeting consisted of his inner circle for a discussion on the planned agendas of each cabinet. Laying out a 12-point plan for domestic issues, it became very evident that the rumors of his management style were true – It was a signature part of his character that he thrust himself into wherever the action was hottest.” [4] …In his autobiography, Sanders explained that “Like a woodpecker in a lumberyard, I was busy and I liked it! The first thing I did was read everything. Even if I didn’t fully understand all the fancy phrases, reading it as best as you can is still better than not reading it at all!” …When it came time to discuss foreign policy, the new President remarked “Lady and Gentlemen, I have here a memorandum that Hubert Humphrey presented to me just as he was leaving the office of Vice President. In it, he says, and I quote, ‘these may be the most fateful decisions of your Administration…whatever you decide, we will be taking historic gambles and we won’t know for sure whether they were right until months or perhaps years afterwards. Your Administration has a heavy investment in policies which can be jeopardized by an escalation in Vietnam: the President’s image, the development of the Sino-Soviet rift, progress on détente and arms control…reordering relations with our European allies, progress at the United Nations, stabilizing defense expenditures,’ [5], the list goes on and on. Folks, I agree with Mr. Humphrey, that essentially, we can’t let this Indo-Chinese hootenanny snowball into another Cuban hoedown!” Sanders soon enough would meet with the Joint Chiefs and CIA to discuss how to “maintain order” – to limit the spread of Communism without resorting to bloodshed – in southeast Asia.
– Rick Perlstein’s Colonel’s Country: The Trials and Crises of Chicken King Presidency, Simon & Schuster, 2014
…Keeping true to his background in business, President Sanders today signed an executive order eliminating tariffs from several industries in order to promote trade. Upon signing the order, Sanders proclaimed “businesses can’t be productive if they’re bound by things that are counterproductive.”
– NBC News, 1/29/1965 broadcast
In late January 1965, Patricia, uh, Mo’s wife, was severely injured in a bus accident. She already suffered from arthritis, so with this new tragedy, Mo decided he had to spend more time with her. He decided to stay in Congress but also step down from some committees in the face of the family emergency. Our friends on the hill were accommodating, though Speaker McCormack believed it was unwise to maintain any committee work at all. The incident may have been a blessing in disguise for them, though, as it made their marriage and love for each other even stronger than it was before the accident, it seems.
– Stewart Lee Udall (D-AZ), 1999 NBC interview
COLONEL SANDERS TO FRANCE: “VIVE LES VIEUX!”
Paris, FRANCE – During his first trip overseas as President of the United States, Colonel Sanders met with France’s Interim President Alain Poher, and later spoke at a rally in Paris supporting former President Charles De Gaulle ahead of the upcoming French Presidential election. …The Colonel confessed to the crowd “I’ve tried to learn French, but the lessons never took,” before giving his prepared speech, with which he made many positive comments to De Gaulle. Noting that the two men are the same age, Sanders said “De Gaulle has done an amazing job as President, and I hope I myself will do so well a job as President,” and added “we [old people] have been around long enough to know how to govern!”
– The Calgary Herald, 2/4/1965
...Back in Washington, D.C., President Sanders has announced his support of Reverend Martin Luther King and others in the promotion of founding “Citizen Oversight Commissions” in several states and cities with high crime rates…
– Walter Cronkite, CBS News, 2/9/1965 broadcast
Sanders loved the back-and-forth with people, citizens, press, even some politicians... In February, Sanders worked with lawmakers on the hill to double the tax credit for small businesses, and promoted the use of cost-benefit analyses when reviewing all bills. Sanders also increased funding for the Small Business Administration by 40%. Ironic as it sounded, it was true that Sanders had a distrust for corporations [6]; from his experience working for the Shell Oil company during the 1920s, he knew that if government agency rejected supporting small, growing enterprises, they would always be vulnerable to larger competitors. Other major parts of the Colonel’s 1965 tax plans were the 1965 Tax Reduction Act, cutting tax rates unilaterally at 10%, and finally, introducing a minimum standard reduction – an idea tossed around during the busy LBJ administration.
– Paul Ozersky’s Colonel Sanders and the American Dream, University of Texas Press, 2012
On February 12, 1965, Sanders invited Sen. John Sherman Cooper (R-KY) to the White House for a talk in the Oval Office; Sherman supported opening negotiations with the North Vietnamese. Upon further talks with several other, more hawkish politicians, Sanders quietly made an agreement with the leaders of Cambodia, Thailand, the U.K.’s Douglas-Home (due to their ports of Hong Kong and Singapore in the region) and Burma to provide intel on regional Communist activities in exchange for protection from communist insurgents within their own respective borders. This came with a boost in the military and CIA’s budget, much to their delight, but that boost came with a micromanaging President whom demanded to be kept in the loop on all military and CIA activities…
– Rick Perlstein’s Colonel’s Country: The Trials and Crises of the Chicken King Presidency, Simon & Schuster, 2014
…On Sunday, the voters of France went to the polls in the first of two rounds of voting to determine who will be their President for the next seven years. Francois Mitterrand of the Convention of Republican Institutions, or CIR, edged out second-place finisher Charles de Gaulle (of the UNR); the other candidates of the ballots were Jean Lecanuet (of Popular Republican Movement (or MRP)), Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour of the Miscellaneous Far Right (or DVED)), Pierre Marcilhacy of the European Liberal Party (or PLE) and Marcel Barbu of the Miscellaneous Left (or DVG). De Gaulle and Mitterrand will proceed to the final round on the 28th of the month…
– BBC News, 2/14/1965 broadcast
SANDERS ORDERS STEEL PRICES PROBE
…In the process of organizing a budget, President Sanders today ordered a probe into the determining factors of steel prices nationwide... US Steel production has been in decline since 1959, and dipped even further following the Salad Oil Recession…
– The Chicago Tribune, 2/15/1965
I was among the slim number of Democrats to support the Essential Education Bill, one of the first works of legislature that the Colonel had a say over in regards to what was actually in it. The law would decentralize school funding and connect it further to the federal government without giving the federal and statewide governments too much control over certain aspects. I remember explaining it to a reporter as “a checks-and-balance system similar to our very government – everyone must work together and no one has absolute power.” The Colonel was enthusiastic to see the legislative system work at the Federal level. And his energy was really quite infectious! The bill was introduced in February and was passed on bipartisan lines just months later…
– Coya Knutson’s Coya’s Story: A Life in Legislation, Simon & Schuster Incorporated, 1991
COLONEL VISITS TROOPS IN INODCHINA
Luange Prabang, LAOS – In his second Presidential trip abroad, the Colonel flew to Laos to meet with our boys fighting for freedom along that nation’s border, and to meet with Laos’s monarchial ruler, Sisavang Vatthana, to review the new administration’s war strategy against the subcontinent’s dual scourges – the Pathet Lao and the Viet-Kong, two branches of Communism that will undoubtedly be defeated like the Communist Cuban Front was two months ago…
– Stars and Stripes, 2/25/1965
FRANCE ELECTS A SOCIALIST PRESIDENT!
Paris, FRANCE – In a stunning turn of events, Charles De Gaulle has lost an election bid for another Presidential term despite months of attempted damage control. Many pundits believes this to be the cause of De Gaulle’s prior support of the War in Cuba despite vocal opposition to this position by many in the country whom preferred focus to be on domestic issues... The 48-year-old independent Francois Mitterrand will be sworn in as France’s new President on March 7… Already, the results are frightening conservatives in the U.K. and the states, as Mitterrand had support from several socialist political parties. "Will he uphold the country's democratic processes or will he become the latest puppet of the Soviet regime? The latter is what we are concerned about," says the Home Secretary...
– The Financial Times, UK newspaper, 28/2/1965
…In response to the 1963-64 anti-war movements abroad, and the 1965 election of Francois Mitterrand in France, Biko, then just 18 and beginning to study medicine, began becoming more involved in the political anti-Apartheid activism environment found in South Africa…
– clickopedia.co.usa/Steve_Biko
Sanders made 58 appoints to the US Court of Appeals in the first two years of his presidency alone. The very first two nominations – both announced on March 1 – demonstrated the Colonel’s understanding of compromise; two seats were vacant in the D.C. Circuit, and Sanders paired a liberal judge with a conservative judge to pacify politicians of respective allegiance. The conservative nominee was George Edwards MacKinnon (1906-1995) former US Congressman and former US Attorney for the District of Minnesota. A conservative so far right he makes Goldwater look like George McGovern, [7] MacKinnon “always aimed to get his way, and, yet, who always enjoyed his colleagues and fostered collegiality on the court….loved by Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, and sought the approval of neither to find his own sense of worth,” according to his obituary [8]. MacKinnon was paired with Sylvia A. Bacon (b. 1931), the very first woman ever nominated to the D.C. Circuit. After serving as a judicial law clerk and several position within the U.S. Justice Department since 1956, concerns over her judicial inexperience were cut short by her impressive performance during confirmation hearings over the next two months, leading to her narrow confirmation on April 26 (for comparison, MacKinnon was confirmed only 23 days after being nominated).
[snip]
…Purple Heart-winning WWII veteran Col. Howard Ravenscroft Johnson (1903-1990) [9] was nominated for the Eighth Circuit on May 18, 1965…
[snip]
On July 27, 1965, Sanders nominated civil rights attorney Benjamin Franklin Shobe (b. 1920) of Kentucky for a vacated seat on the Sixth Circuit. The Colonel’s African-American judicial appointee, the choice of Shobe was applauded by African-American Judge William Henry Hastie Jr. (b. 1904) of the Third Circuit… Sanders’ second judicial appointment of an African-American judge came on January 19, 1966, when Thomas Russell Jones Jr. (b. 1913) of New York was nominated for a seat on the Second Circuit. The choice was lauded by civil rights supporter and Chief Judge of the Fifth Court of Appeals Circuit John Robert Brown (b. 1909), whom, was seen even in 1965, was viewed a frontrunner for a US Supreme Court seat should one become vacant during Sanders’ term (along with fellow Fifth Circuit judge John Minor Wisdom).
[snip]
As the prosecuting attorney of Yakima County from 1952 to 1961, and a state Supreme Court judge since 1961, Sanders’ November 6, 1967 nomination of Alan Angus McDonald (b. 1927) for a seat on the Ninth Circuit was met with some partisan opposition, but nevertheless was successful
– Linda Greenhouse and Morton J. Horwitz’s The Warren Court and the Pursuit of Justice (Third Edition), Sunrise Publishing, 2010
YOUTH PROTEST OUTSIDE WHITE HOUSE REACHES 250
…“We want the Colonel to pull troops out of Indochina. He’s been in office for over a month – get to it already, Colonel!” expressed one of the activists…
– The New York Post, 3/2/1965
“Hello?”
“Oh, Director Hoover! How Do?!”
“Um, just fine, how do you do?”
“Dandy. Ah, please, take a seat, sir.”
“Thank you.”
“You know, I’ve just got to hand it to you, Hoover – for the most part you’ve sure done a real bang-up job keeping America safe from Communists and the like.”
“Uh, thank you. Uh I was told you wanted to see me about something important.”
“Yes, I wanted to get your opinion on this Mitterin’ fella they got over in France now and if we’re going to see such riots erupt over here.”
“Oh him! The new man in Paris is bad news, sir, Communist sympathizer through and through. Already we’re receiving reports of representatives of Romania – a part of Russia’s Warsaw Pact, sir – reaching out to Mitterrand’s government. How do you plan to handle him, Mr. President? Because I think we should continue keeping an eye on him. We can’t have him getting too sympathetic to the Soviets, now can we?”
“Hmm…”
“Sir?”
“It’s a difficult moral question, for sure. I mean, this Mitterin’ fella was the people’s choice over there. But at the same time he could pose a threat to us. But that’s just it – there’s nothing clearly threatenin’ us.”
“Clearly, sir – now that’s important. Nothing clearly. For all we know, hidden Soviet operatives were behind the riots that led to his rise, the same kind of operatives I suspect can be found in the NAACP.”
“…Come again, Hoover?”
“You know, Mr. President, those Commie-Negroes – King, Abernathy, the Evers Brothers – I’m certain they’re all working to bring this country to its knees.”
“King, a Commie? Heh heh! Sir, Martin Luther King is a dear friend of mine. He’s not communist – the man just wants fairness and equal treatment for all. How is that Communist?”
“Sir…um, we’ve been monitoring their activities for quite a while now and, well, what I mean to say, Colonel, is that the man’s okay with communism seeping into the minds of our youth. His talk is dangerous.”
“With all due respect, Director, I think you’re confusing Martin with Malcolm. That Mr. X fella is the one rootin’ for hatred. King’s rootin’ for peace.”
“Uurghhh…I think we’re getting off-topic here. Um, I believe you mentioned something about riots?”
“Oh, yes, I’m thinking about how young people have been stirring things up these past four years. I’m worried they’re now turnin’ to attackin’ me. Two days ago there was a demonstration right outside, over there-a-ways. It’s like…They’re impatient, to put it straight. I’m addressing their concerns – shoot, I’m meetin’ with some Senators later today in fact – but politickin’ at the national federal level is a lot more difficult than you’d think. It’s a lot slower. So much slower…”
“Uh, yeah, well then just say the word and we’ll crack down on them real good!”
“What? No, no, I don’t want that!”
“Uhhh…Colonel, you’re the President, right? Alright, that means, you’re the leader. That means you have to show the people that the federal government cannot be pushed around.”
“But bustin’ the skulls of people exercising their right to assembly is what dictatorships do, Hoover. You only do that sort of thing if they’re known criminals or pinko spies. I’m surprised you didn’t learn that after that whole San Francisco incident.”
“Beg pardon?”
“You know, that whole thing that happened back in 1960, when some students protested a H.U.A.C. meetin’. You messed that up bad.”
“What.”
“You had youngin’s fallin’ and gettin’ dragged down steep marble stairs, Hoover. That stuff must have hurt.”
“Colonel, if I remember correctly – and I believe I am because I came across it after your election – you sent me a letter congratulating me on a job well done for that. Those students were Communist sympathizers and disturbing the peace – we made a whole documentary on it!”
“Well, Yes, but I’ve thought more about it since then, and I – ”
“Those punk were the same kind of shoutnik pinkos that are now a threat to you and to the country. If you want the protests and the criticisms to cease, you have to show the traitors who’s in charge!”
“I’ve been told this line is called a cliché, but… fear just leads to rebellion, not respect.”
“Oh, that’s a platitude spun by the east coast university snobs too detached from reality to understand that America has an infection, and its name is Communism.”
“Hoover, I appreciate your passionate patriotism, but if we throw out the Bill of Rights it’s, well it’s like throwing the baby out with the tub water! The freedoms found in this country is what makes it worth protecting in the first place. Without them, we’re no better than the Soviets! So…Director Hoover, from now on, I want you to lighten up on the crackdowns. Understand?”
“Sure – I mean…of course, Mr. President.”
“Wonderful! This was a good talk. Very production. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get ready to meet with uh, Senators Dirksen and Mansfield.”
“Good day.”
– Transcript of a discussion between President Sanders and Director Hoover in the Oval Office, nature of recording device classified until 2029; disclosed by the FBI in 2012 alongside numerous other files from the 1960s, 3/4/1965
…Despite the Colonel President’s admiration for him, Hoover greatly disliked Sanders, firstly due to his criminal record [10] (Hoover once told Tolson he considered “The Criminal Colonel [was] unworthy of the Presidency”) and secondly due to his perceived naïveté in regards to the Colonel’s optimistic worldview. Hoover gave the Colonel lip service, and would reportedly even lie right to the President’s face…
– Ronald Kessler’s Clyde Tolson and the Cult of J. Edgar Hoover, Resistance E-Publishing, 2016
“In, oh, about around early March of ’65, I’d say, The Colonel, after seeing all the pictures of American flags being burned, um, on TV back in ’63, uh, he decided to do something about it. Now he could have outlawed the practice and gotten himself accused of suppressing freedom, but instead he push for textile regulations on flammable materials in order to ensure that all American flags sold in the, uh, the United States were, in his words ‘incredibly resistant to fire,’ in order to hamper any more burn-flagging. I thought that was a very clever and ingenious move!”
– Barry Goldwater, informal 1990 interview
[pic: imgur.com/YBNIux5.png ]
Left to Right: Harley Sanders of Kentucky (guest attending function), Carl Curtis of Nebraska (Secretary of State), William W. Scranton of Pennsylvania (Vice President), Colonel Sanders of Kentucky (President), Nelson A. Rockefeller of New York (Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare), Whitney Young of Kentucky (Chief Domestic Policy Advisor), Sylvia Porter of Illinois (Chief Economic Policy Advisor), George Dewey Clyde of Utah (Secretary of the Interior), and Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. of Massachusetts (US Ambassador to Vietnam).
– Captioned photograph of the Colonel with members of his administration at a political function in Washington, D.C., Life Magazine e-archives, 3/5/1965
SANDERS’ FIRST MEETING WITH FULL CABINET GOES SMOOTHLY: Social Programs, Economics Discussed
… “The three most important things for my department to handle over the next four years will be inflation, inflation, and inflation,” said Treasury Secretary Siler. Siler then unveiled a proposed budget for his department, explaining its goal is to save the Federal government money during the upcoming fiscal year of 1965 without cutting social security or raising taxes on the poor and middles classes. “For sections getting their budgets slashed, the focus is on wasteful spending,” the President added. “if a section is pouring money into something with little results, it needs to figure out an entirely new approach!” President Sanders also called for a continuation and expansion of the road work programs established during the Eisenhower administration. “Throughout my careers and my campaigns, I’ve driven up and down more roads and rails than the average four-wheeled explorer, and I can say that we need to continue on the movement to improve and monitor the maintenance of America’s modern transportation networks.”
– The Washington Post, 3/7/1965
This year’s St. Patrick’s Day profiles of famous Irish-Americans takes us to the White House, home to several Irish-American Presidents since 1829.
Today's Irish-American being celebrated is Harland David "Colonel" Sanders. Sanders was America’s 15th President of Irish ancestry. Andrew Jackson (Scotch-Irish and English) was our first Irish President, and Harry Truman was the last before Sanders. The other Presidents with Irish ancestry were the following (in order of their administrations): James Knox Polk (Scotch-Irish), James Buchanan (Scotch-Irish), Andrew Johnson (Irish and English), Ulysses S. Grant (Scotch-Irish, English and Scottish), Chester A. Arthur (Scotch-Irish and English), S. Grover Cleveland (Irish and Anglo-Irish), Benjamin Harrison (Scotch-Irish and English), William McKinley (Irish and English), Theodore Roosevelt (Irish, Scotch-Irish, Dutch, Scotch, English and French), William Howard Taft (Irish and English), Woodrow Wilson (Scotch-Irish), and Warren G. Harding (Scotch-Irish and English).
The Colonel’s mother, Margaret Dunleavy (1865-1935) of Indiana, was the daughter of Thomas Dunleavy (1834-1910) of Pennsylvania, who was the son of Joseph Dunleavy (1798-1864) of Pennsylvania, who was the son of Anthony Dunleavy (1763-1804), who was born in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland to Northern Irish parents and immigrated to Pennsylvania as an adult. Additionally, the Colonel’s maternal grandmother Catherine Clegg Dunleavy (1836-1891) of Indiana was the daughter of pioneer lawyer Matthew Simpson Clegg (1810-1892), who was the son of Richard Clegg (1776-1853), who was born in Ireland and later immigrated to Indiana. Another ancestor’s maiden name was McBride, an Irish surname, suggesting that at least three Irish families are in the Colonel’s ancestry.
...Bonus Fun Fact: the Colonel’s earliest known ancestor to bear the Sanders surname was Stephen Sanders Sr., a farmer born in New Jersey in 1750 and “was among the first to enter land in Morris Township, Pennsylvania” [11].
– stpatricksday.blog.usa/history/profiles/2010
In 1965, Romania’s head of state since 1961, President of the State Council Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (George Georgeeoo-Dedge) was increasingly troubled by the events of the west – the 1963 “overthrowing” of Khrushchev, “the Colonel replacing the Johnson” in 1964, and most noticeably, the failure to spread Communism to the Americas through Cuba. These rebellious events had made Gheorghiu-Dej only more jumpy with trepidation in the face of his inevitable demise from lung cancer, as the ruler was uncertain as to whom would succeed him. Gheorghiu-Dej was distrusting of Khrushchev and Shelepin, and in recent years had sought to increase trade relations with Western countries. This position made the recent rise of Mitterand in France become a sliver of hope for Gheorghiu-Dej, as Mitterand, while not a communist, was still better than the capitalist de Gaulle. However, Gheorghiu-Dej knew that his former protégé Nicolae Ceausescu was making moves to succeed him, even though Gehorghiu-Dej did not want him to have it – Ceausescu was too pro-Soviet, opposed reaching out to France, and likely would welcome American aggression regardless of its cost. Gheorghiu-Dej sought to protect his legacy, and that meant eliminating Ceausescu from initiating a post-mortem struggle for power. On March 9, Ceausescu was killed in a mugging on his way to work. Ten days later, Gheorghe-Dej died in his sleep from the cancer. Upon his death, Gheorghiu-Dej’s preferred successor Gheorghe Apostol took over despite opposition from Prime Minister Ion Gheorghe Maurer. According to their former secretaries, Nicolae Ceausescu’s widow, Elena Ceausescu, repeatedly met with Maurer during the next several months and years of Apostol’s State Council Presidency, planning on exacting vengeance when the timing was optimal…
– Vladimir Tismaneanu’s Stalinism For All Seasons: A Political History of Romanian Communism, University of California Press, Third Edition, 2023
“Allen, we’ve got a problem.”
“Yes, sir?”
“I’ve been talking more and more with our allies in Indochina. I keep talking to Diem about all these reports I keep getting about corruption and police brutality in Saigon and elsewhere in his country. And he keeping telling me bulls#!t right into my ear. I can’t stand a bulls#!ter, Allen.”
“Then good luck on the Hill, sir. What do you think we should do about it?”
“I think you and your boys had the right idea. Diem is one hell of a corrupt and incompetent son of a b!#ch. I want you to begin the search for a more competent leader in their military for us to work with.”
“But wouldn’t whoever we find still be under the command of Diem?”
“Yes, but I think it’s important to find people we can work with, and Diem’s too unreliable.”
“Maybe we can…talk with Diem and convince him to step aside for the sake of his countrymen.”
“If not, then we’ll just try to work around him.”
“Yes…but let’s…talk with Diem. See if we can’t get him to, uh, retire.”
“Sure, sure, sure. Just let me know what sensible men are over there.”
“Do we have an E.T.A.?”
“A.S.A.P. Top priority.”
“Well, Mr. President.”
– Leaked transcript of Pentagon conversation between President Sanders and CIA Director Dulles, 3/16/1965; released to the public in 2005
HOST: “Did you see this? Apparently, some dinner in D.C. was catered by KFC the other day, and the President Colonel didn’t personally attend, it was still an official White House function.”
CO-HOST: “Yeah, it was a charity event for – ”
HOST: “How can the President get away with this kind of promotion? It’s a violation of one of the rules that when you’re president you can’t advertise – ”
CO-HOST: “Whoa, whoa, buddy, the Colonel broke all ties to KFC so he’s not personally gaining from anything connected to it. Only if he was receiving royalty checks for openly telling people to each his chicken would he in trouble – and, no, actually, I think KFC would be in bigger trouble, because hey, why would they do that?”
HOST: “Regardless, the President is treading on thin ice if more incidents like this happens.”
CO-HOST: “Oh come on, the man spent decades making chicken his career, and now he’s expected to never even mention it? That’s ridiculous!”
HOST: “Harry Truman once sold shirts for a living. Did you hear of him selling turtlenecks at the White House?”
CO-HOST: “Again, if he’s not financially benefiting in any way from it, it’s not a problem!”
–Transcript of exchange between the Host and Co-Host of WHCV-AM, news/talk radio, 3/17/1965 broadcast
Our glorious comrade, Cosmonaut Alexey Leonov, has been bestowed upon the Soviet Union a great honor. Leonov has today become the first person to walk in space…
– Pavda, the USSR’s state newspaper, 3/18/1965
Alright, I’ll increase funding, but you guys have to speed it up down there! America’s reputation abroad is already hanging by a thread as it is due to Cuba; we cannot lose the race to the moon!
– President Colonel Sanders in a telephone conversation to NASA’s James Webb, 3/19/1965
DOUGLAS-HOME WINS SNAP ELECTION, BUT SET FOR NARROW MAJORITY
London – Prime Minister Douglas-Home won his second general election tonight, again defeating Labour party leader Harold Wilson, only this time by a much wider margin. …Most pundits surmise that the deflation of the Wilson campaign was caused by fears over French President Mitterrand’s “radical policies…being a harbinger of what may lie ahead in the event of a Labour victory,” according to Conservative parliament member Quinton Hogg… Of the 630 seats in the House of Commons, only 316 are needed for majority; however, the more seats, the stronger and more stable is the government. Conservatives acquired 328 seats, whereas Wilson’s Labour party acquired merely 291 seats. Jo Grimond led the Liberal party, which obtained a total of 11 seats.
– The Daily Express, 28/3/1965
SANDERS GETS PRO-NATURE BILL THROUGH CONGRESS
Washington, DC – In the first major piece of legislation passed under President Sanders, the Clean Water and Air Act was approved by the Senate on Tuesday and will likely be signed by the President within the week. “It’s very obvious that what we eat, drink and breathe affects the quality of our lives, so it only makes sense that the air and water of our country is protected from dangerous chemicals and the like,” President Sanders remarked earlier today. Sanders reportedly became concerned over the nation’s waterways after learning of the 1962 best-seller “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson, a science book covering the effects of pesticides and other chemical elements on nature, which spurred talk on regulations of the pesticide industry. “It may seem hypocritical of me to limit what a business can and can’t do,” Sanders remarked yesterday, “But some regulations – like the ones that protect people from harm – are just plain common sense, if not good for business. The only businesses who complain about those kind of regulations are the kinds that are, well, that have criminal intentions!”
– The Sacramento Union, 3/31/1965
Describing Claudia Sanders in just one sentence or even one paragraph would be insufficient and an injustice, for Claudia was a complex hostess – cold but welcoming, outspoken but reserved, adventurous but easily sated. The first 1st First Lady to have previously been a divorcée since Florence Harding, whom ran this house from 1921 to 1923. In many ways, Claudia reminded me of Ike’s Mamie – in spite of her independence and having an air of the modern feminist wave, Claudia was very much old-fashioned, firmly rooted in her traditions and ways of thinking. However, Claudia greatly differed in other ways; she did not smile nearly as often as her jovial spouse or the always-grinning Mamie, but she was quick to turn on the charm whenever she needed to. …Claudia ran a tight ship. If didn’t like an employee, would have him or her reassigned. …While they shared the same first name (Ladybird’s real first name was Claudia), Claudia Sanders did not attempt to be better than her predecessor, and was less involved with her husband’s work outside of anything involving food, business, transportation and the arts. Claudia pushed for laws pertaining to such issues, and hosted functions celebrating them as well. …During “slow days” upstairs, Claudia would enjoy tickling the ivories.
[pic: imgur.com/PliQsz1.png ]
Pictured: Claudia plays a soothing piece while Harland listens.
…Claudia enjoyed travel as much as her husband did. Over the course of their time in the White House, Claudia amassed a large collection of memorabilia from across the country and the globe. This actually helped to distract visitors, as a means of redirecting unwanted attention from herself to the paraphernalia filling otherwise-empty spaces in the mansion… Guests “prattling on to me for too long” was another peeve of First Lady Claudia, she later confessed to me. During one event hosted at the White House in early April 1965, Claudia managed to get the wives of some diplomats to be so attentive to a new object de art she successfully snuck away without the group even noticing.
– White House Chief Usher James Bernard West’s Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies, Open Road Media, 1973
“He looks like the best man for the job,” Bonesteel handed Sanders the folder. “Nguyen (pronounced “win”) Khanh, age 37. Major General and ARVN Chief of Staff, which is, basically, Commander of the Republic of the South Vietnam Air Force. He’s a fast learner, Colonel – he took to the skies in a plane after just 11 hours of instruction – and he has many allies such as Marine Corps head Le Nguyen Khanh. Intel confirms he’s been an effective force against the VC over the past two years.”
“He’s also a pragmatist,” Ambassador Lodge added, “After the failed coups against Diem in ’63 and ’64, he was recorded complaining about Diem’s lack of activity. Said, and I quote ‘There’s too much relaxation around here, too much wining and dining, and little prosecution of the war effort.’ [12] He reportedly wants the nation’s intelligence infrastructure to be built up but Diem isn’t listening.”
The Colonel pondered, “So all the other folks here,” perusing the pile of printed profiles present to the President, “we’re certain they’re all, ehm, less qualified or, oh what’s the word I’m looking for here, viable for the job?”
Bonesteel reviewed the rejected candidates once more. “General Van Minh is popular but inadequate. He tried to overthrow Diem back in 1963 and failed spectacularly. General Do Mau, former head of military security for Diem, has a deep understanding of most of the senior officers and their weaknesses and strengths but lacks the coordination skills needed for top-of-command. That’s why he’s in the ‘potential allies’ pile, as are Mau’s allies, General Tran Thien Khiem, and General Duong Van Duc, who recently returned from exile in Paris. Colonel Nguyen Chanh Thi, who led the 1960 coup against Diem, is too unpopular in the military. General Mai Huu Xuan is competent, but not known well enough for the military to fall behind. The country’s chief of national police Nguyen Ngoc Loan is 34 and inexperienced but is still a being supporter of Khanh and could be very useful to us.”
“Oh and the Harvard fella, he was interesting!”
“Uh, yes, the final candidate was Nguyen Xuan Oanh, banker trained at Harvard, economist charged with managing country’s economy and finances. Great for the country, but has very little military experience.”
“Shame. He could make for a could member of Khanh’s cabinet, and maybe even President after the war!”
“Then there was Phan Huy Quat, the former Prime Minister who’s been sort of out of the nation’s political loop for a while now, and Air Marshal Nguyen Cao Ky. Well, that’s all of them. Do you agree with our analysis?”
“Yessir, Khanh’s the right man for the job. He’ll take the offer, but if things don’t work out, I think we should fall back on the banker, Ky and Quat. Now, we just have to figure out how to get Diem to step down. We gotta cook him into submission…”
– Rick Perlstein’s Colonel’s Country: The Trials and Crises of the Chicken King Presidency, Simon & Schuster, 2014
Mother and Father married on Sunday, April 4, 1965 in an informal outdoor ceremony. At the time, I was three years and eight months old, and while I do not remember the ceremony, photographs taken of it show me sitting in the front row, a big smile spread across my face… Father formally adopted me a few days later, legally changing my name from “Barack Hussein Obama II” to “Barack Hussein McCain.” He wanted me to keep my heritage, but gave me the nickname “Rocky” nonetheless…
I had always known John McCain to be my father, and so never called him anything else. The fact that my parents looked nothing like me – I as dark as cocoa, they as white as milk – barely registered in my mind [12].
I recall many stories and incidents dealing explicitly with the subject of my family’s racial composition. But no matter how many opposed us, there were always more who supported us...
– Barack McCain’s Lessons From my Fathers, Sunrise Publishers, 1993
OTTAWA LOWERS PENSION AGE!
…At the start of the next month, the eligibility age for pensions will be lowered from 70 to 65…
– The Toronto Star, Canadian newspaper, 4/4/1965
OSCAR WINS RAISE EYEBROWS
…In a surprise move, the award for Best Film went to the controversial vanguard ant-war MGM film “The Americanization of Emily” starring Julie Andrews of Mary Poppins fame. Premiering in the United States on October 27, the eyebrow-raising film is based on the novel of the same name penned by William Bradford Huie in 1959…
– The Hollywood Reporter, 4/5/1965
SANDERS SHAKES UP CHICKEN INDUSTRY
Washington, DC – With the stroke of a pen, President Sanders today eliminated the “Chicken Tax,” a tariff imposed on European chicken imports. Additionally, under direction from President Sanders, the US’s FDA is seeking to raise health standards for domestic chicken production and chicken product imports. The move is another attempt by the administration to improve the economy. “Removing monetary restrictions on trade,” Commerce Secretary Friedman deduces, “will promote consumer purchasing and expand money stock,” or the total value of monetary assets available in the economy, “in the immediate future.”
– The Wall Street Journal, 4/7/1965
CLAIM: Sanders ran for President to reverse LBJ’s “Chicken Tax” because it was hurting the KFC Corporation.
VERDICT: False.
EXPLANATION: Sanders did not run for President to reverse the chicken tax; Sanders reversed the Chicken Tax to promote trade with and amend relations with European nations, as he knew he would need their support in the fight against Communism (link). The Chicken Tax was for chicken from Europe, and KFC acquired its chicken from local (within each country or state) chicken farms, not from overseas; the company was not financially hurt by the tax (link). KFC’s sales were not even affected by the chicken tax, as seen in the lack of any decrease in sales of chicken in KFC locations in Europe after the tax was announced (link).
– factorfiction.co.can, 2013 entry
HOSTAGE CRISIS IN MONTREAL!: City, Province On Edge!
– Alaska Highway News, BC Canada newspaper, 4/10/1965
After winning re-election in 1963, Prime Minister Diefenbaker only increased the national government’s monitoring of FLQ activities, and more terrorism activity led to more FLQ members being arrested. In the early hours of March 10, “extremist” members of the FLQ took Conservative foreign delegates from the UK hostage at their hotel in Montreal... After negotiations failed, Diefenbaker enacted the War Measures Act, which declared martial law in the province of Quebec. …Special Forces stormed the hotel… By the end of the shootout, half of the FLQ members and 3 of the 18 hostages were dead. …Considered to be the bloodiest incident in mid-20th-century Canadian history, the Quebec Hotel Hostage Crisis caused Quebec politicians to quickly backpedal their position on how to address the “Quebec Quandary,” as Liberal leader Paul Hellyer famously labelled it. While the incident initially boosted Diefenbaker’s approval ratings, questions concerning police and military conduct during the storming of the hotel, and the lost lives of three Britons, slowly ate away at the Prime Minister’s standing in the polls…
– clickopedia.co.usa
[ pic: imgur.com/eWxGrM8.png ]
– President Colonel Sanders visiting a trailer park hit during the Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak (4/11/1965), 4/12/1965
TORNADO DEATH TOLL REACHES 135: Sanders Orders Relief, Rescue Efforts, Calls For Stronger State-by-State “Disaster Prep”
– The Indianapolis Star, reporting on the Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak (4/11/1965), 4/13/1965
Sanders sat at his spot at the end of the table, listening impatiently as his advisors held a shouting match.
Joint Chiefs Chairman Franke bawled “We need to cut the serpent’s head off! The Pathet Lao are dependent the on supplies and ammo they get from the Viet Cong, and the Viet Cong are being supplied by the North Vietnamese – ”
Vice Chairman Davis interjected with the rebuttal, “If we invade the North, the Chinese will intervene and that’ll lead to the Russians intervening in Berlin and before long, World War Three will break out!”
“The Chinese know that, and that’s why they won’t intervene! Their hatred of democracy is no match for their instinct for self-preservation!”
General Mark Clark interjected with his own observations contrasting with Franks’ theory, “I don’t think it’s necessary to have an invasion of North Vietnam, as it’s exactly what the enemy wants. We put down a 1,000 in a field, he puts down 1,000, he’s willing to lose half those men, we aren’t. I wouldn’t trade one dead American for 50 dead Chinamen.” [13]
As they prattled on, Sanders’ impatient eyes danced around the room until they ultimately rested on a large map of southern China hugging the wall. As he stood up and walked over to it, the upstart Foreign Policy Advisor James R. Schlesinger followed. “Jim,” the President pointed with his cane to the wide swath of farmland above North Vietnam, “what’s around these parts of China here?”
“Um, nothing much, sir. Mostly just farms.”
“So there aren’t any major cities or industry hubs in southern China at all?”
“Uh, no, sir, not really. It’s pretty undeveloped.”
“ – a sneak attack would never work!” Davis continued.
Lodge added “Well Khanh’s fully on board for this so – ”
“Enough!” The President bellowed, turning around and striking the table top with his cane to get their attention. He paused for a quick moment, “Two things. First, I think we should analyze the layout of southern China and gather intelligence on Chinese leadership. If we declare war on Vietnam, we could feasibly reach Hanoi before the fellas in Peking can send down troops from Nanning and Kunming, uh, here and here.” The Colonel pointed to the map.
“Second. To unite Vietnam, we need to destroy not the Communists’ ways of life so much as their ways around – we have to go after their bridges, trails, any modes of transportation, any fuel and energy, any forms and methods of communication. That way, we’ll be killing their plans instead of killing Vietnam folk, many of them with family on the other side of the conflict. You can’t unite a country if half of the families are gone. It’ll just leave resentment for years and years. I know. I once lived in Alabama.”
Davis was the first to comment with the bold remark, “So are we really developing this into an official war?”
The Colonel wasn’t sure how to answer. “I don’t want to put the cart before the horse, but if we can feasibly invade the North and defeat it very quickly, before the Chinese can even respond, we’ll do that because that would benefit everyone in the long run. Unite Vietnam, keep further deaths from happening, put the Chinese in their place. We’d use American and South Vietnam troops so our boys don’t bear all the brunt of it. I mean this is basically their civil conflict; we’re just helping out. So Franke, before we try your idea, we need to prep for it – get together as much info as you can on the north, and southern China hear, and then get back to me ASAP.”
“Very good, sir,” Franke answered.
“And Clark, run the numbers on the manpower an invasion would need. I’m not willing to send a bunch of men to fight when half of them will do the job just fine.”
– Rick Perlstein’s Colonel’s Country: The Trials and Crises of the Chicken King Presidency, Simon & Schuster, 2014
SANDERS DONATES FIRST QUARTER SALARY TO SMALL BUSINESS ADMIN, W.H. SAYS
At a press briefing earlier today, Press Secretary Ziegler announced that President Sanders has donated his first quarterly salary to the Federal Government’s Small Business Administration, with Ziegler explaining “the money will be put to good use funding key programs there.” …In his last year in office, President Johnson raised the U.S. President’s salary from $150,000 a year to $165,000 a year, adjusting it for inflation... President Sanders announced that he will donate the full amount of each fiscal quarter of his Presidency to various charities and enterprises such as the March of Dimes, Junior Achievement, the Boy Scouts, [14] and several other groups....
– The Washington Post, 4/22/1965
On April 24, the Dominican Republic’s President Juan Bosch defeated paramilitary coup attempt. With a majority of the military and political leaders such as Pena Taveras and Francisco Caamano – along with an overwhelming majority of the people and the Catholic Church – being on Juan’s side as well, the revolt led by a cabal of major generals was put down. In light of its light casualty count (the military’s loss of just 12 officers and 15 volunteers, as opposed to the paramilitary’s loss of roughly 200 regulars), Bosch’s popularity skyrocketed. Still, the experience troubled Bosch; soon after, he signed an official pledge to leave office if he was “legitimately defeated” in the pre-planned 1967 Presidential election.
– Mildred Sanders Ruggles’ My Father, The Colonel: A Life of Love, Politics, and KFC, StarGroup International, 2000
27 April 1965: On this day in history, Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies announces that an Australian combat force will be sent to South Vietnam; the action is in response to the South Vietnam government requesting military aid from the United States as well as several other nations, including Canada and the UK.
– onthisday.co.uk
“I don’t think the Australian government has any business getting itself involved in the conflict developing in Indochina, at least not any more than the United States should be involved.”
– US Senator Wayne Morse (D-OR), 4/28/1965
29 April 1965: On this day in history, the 6.7 Mw Puget Sound earthquake rocks the western, coastal side of the U.S. state of Washington, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe); the earthquake causes seven deaths and between $12.5 million and $28 million in financial losses around the Puget Sound region. Washington state’s Governor and US President Colonel Sanders are eventually praised for immediately responding to the damage, with the Governor overseeing rescue and recovery operations with the help of federal assistance.
– onthisday.co.uk
SANDERS COMPLETES 100 DAYS IN OFFICE
…The Administration touts several accomplishments: economic overhauls, Foreign Policy official state visits, approval of transportation expansion programs, eliminating tariffs such as the Chicken Tax, passing the Essential Education Bill, and more. …President Sanders began to shore up support for further laws later in his term, enforced social programs, and bolstered the stock market by regulating large and small businesses. …Critics, though, point to the lack of any major landmark legislation of his own and his perceived inactivity over American troops overseas as the biggest failure of his first 100 days in office. Some analysts, on the other hand, argue that this is in step with libertarian governance, as The Colonel has made legislative action to “return certain powers back” to the state level… The President’s ratings currently stand at 59% approved, 34% disapproved, and 7% uncertain. For the sake of referencing, President Lyndon Johnson’s polling at this point in his presidency was 71% approved, though Johnson felt the rally-around-the-flag effect of the Cuban War at the time...
– The Washington Post, 4/30/1965
YOUNG IMMIGRANT JOCKEY RIDES TO VICTORY: Sirhan Sirhan Wins 91st Running of The Kentucky Derby.
…Standing 5-ft-5 and weighing 120 lbs at the age of 20, Sirhan Sirhan (b. 3/19/1944) moved to Corona, CA, to train to be a jockey while working as a stable boy [15] …While not the youngest-ever Kentucky Derby winner, Sirhan’s win at the age of just 21 makes him younger than most.
– The Lexington Herald-Leader, Kentucky newspaper, 5/1/1965
[pic: imgur.com/cq06LyX.png ]
– President Sanders and Sirhan Sirhan, after missing the derby and but managing to squeeze a trip to Sirhan’s home into his schedule, 5/2/1965
Upon seeing the iconic chicken bucket in The Sirhan Photo, Senator Richard Russell openly called for investigation into any remaining business ties the Colonel may have still had with KFC. The Sanders White House countered with the claim that Russell was violating Freedom of Speech, “there’s nothing illegal about eating something with your own face on it,” agued Press Secretary Ron Ziegler. …The Senate subcommittee hearing led to a US Constitutional law Supreme Court case ruling on campaign finance in 1967 that favored the Colonel. The limits of disclosure provisions led to a 1971 case citing precedence ahead of a ruling on the F.E.C.’s power to limit election spending. Justice White wrote that unlimited election spending is “a mortal danger against which effective preventive and curative steps must be taken” [16] …The ruling, effective January 1972, determined that corporations may not spend from their general treasuries for political purposes any more than the funds spent by individuals towards the same political purpose, but also ruled that aggregate limits on political actions by individual people is unconstitutional. The ruling was controversial and immediately challenged…
– Rick Perlstein’s Colonel’s Country: The Trials and Crises of Chicken King Presidency, Simon & Schuster, 2014
SANDERS SIGNS IMMIGRATION AND NATIONALITY ACT
…The new law, first introduced in the House last year by Congressman Emmanuel Celler (D-NY), dismantles the selection of immigrants based on countries of origin. …President Sanders commented on the selection process last year with “we cannot pick and choose where America receives its best and brightest. They do not come from one or two specific geographical or political regions; they come from everywhere. The selection of immigrants based on their place of origin is a violation of basic rights as it is biased and prejudiced. …I want to be very clear – there will be no infringement of anybody’s rights during and under a Colonel Sanders administration.” After opposition from Southern Democrats, the bill was narrowly approved for a vote on the House floor on February 3, advancing it to the Senate where the process was repeated in April… The new immigration system introduces visa categories based on skills and familial relations already in the U.S., and sets visa restrictions at 200,000 per year…
– The Washington Post, 5/7/1965
…And from Cape Canaveral, the National Air and Space Agency has just announced that American astronaut Edward Higgins White has become the first American astronaut to perform what they are calling a “spacewalk”…
– Walter Cronkite, CBS News, 5/9/1965 broadcast
RICHARD NIXON: “Ladies and gentlemen, I know I’m supposed to make big, funny speech before introducing the President, but with Hollywood’s best hanging around here, stealing all my jokes (light laughter), I’ve run out of gags. Well, good ones, anyway. So I’m just going to keep this short. (pauses, clears throat). The other day, Jerry Lewis and Colonel Sanders and I all walked into a bar, and the bartender said, ‘what is this, some kind of joke?’ (pauses for laughter) And now, the President.”
COLONEL SANDERS: “Thanks, Nixon. It’s great to be here. You know, folks, I really am planning on running this government like it’s a business. Congress gets time-and-a-half overtime pay, but other benefits will have to be talked out in a C.B.A., when they finally get around to forming a union. Don’t worry, Barry, it’ll be the opt-in kind. (pauses for laughter) As you all know, I’m making several steps to reign in the fed’s excess spending. But y’all may not know all the details. For example, I find wearin’ only one suit really shortens the White House laundry bill. (pauses for laughter) To lower our cooking budget, I’m personally doing all the catering for all D.C. functions, and I’ve replaced the White House electric generators with a bunch of rabbits in these big ol’ hamster wheels. (pauses for laughter) That’s why extra carrots with tonight’s salads are not available, so for that I must apologize. (pauses for laughter) That’s also why I’m not allowing any hound dogs or foxes on the White House grounds – I can’t have the lights goin’ out just because Rover wants to cause a ruckus. (pauses for laughter) Yeah, hehe, uh, you know I was talking to Senator Fulbright of Arkansas the other day. They got a lot of produce in that state. Yeah, Arkansas’ got fruit from lots of trees – the peach tree, the cherry tree, the poultry – lots of fruit trees down there. (light laughter) So many trees, each Arkansas beaver has its own little mansion. The folks in D.C. are workin’ on a trade deal with them right now in fact. (light laughter) Yes, sir, Washington D.C. is a marvelous city – you got marvel columns, and marvel statues, just marvel everywhere. (pause for laughter) And it’s full of great people, and many of them are in this very room (cheering) if only I could make them out – they’re hiding among all these politicians (laughter). Now – ”
JERY LEWIS (in audience, part of the act): “Hey, what’s the deal, Colonel?!”
SANDERS: “What’s the matter, Jerry?”
LEWIS: “What do you mean, what’s the matter? You just insulted half the people here!”
SANDERS: “Oh, yeah, politicians are people”
LEWIS: “There you go again with the insults! That’s not how you do comedy! Here (proceeds in elaborate stumble routine, walking on top of and tumbling over dinner tables on way to front stage, pretends to punch unconscious a Secret Serviceman in on the gag, then makes way onto stage) (laughter, applause) Man, whew, I thought you secret service guys were like those British body guards with the fuzzy black raccoons on their heads, the ones outside with the gate and the standing and Queen Elizabeth the very nice royal lady! (laughter) Here, Colonel, let me show you a how to get the laughs! (pause for applause)”
SANDERS: “Alright. Ah, now tell me, Jerry, tell me, do you always stand when you do stand-up, Jerry?”
LEWIS: “Well I can’t stand to stand down!”
SANDERS: “Well then I’ll just leave ya to it!” (leaves stage to applause)
LEWIS: “Hit it!” (New music begins to play from band behind side curtain) (grabs guitar from behind curtain, beats it like it’s a drum, begins to sing informal song). “Apples and peaches and pears are fruit of the loom. With too many fruits, they’ll be not enough room on the loom.” (Hidden band plays trumpet in sync with Lewis opening and closing mouth to make it seem he’s making trumpets sounds with mouth). “Ohhh, Give me a home where the buffalo roam and I’ll show you a dirty house.” [17] [snip] (end of song) Thank you! (hands back guitar) (applause). [snip] “I see Senator Nixon is here with us today but only made one joke. How come, Nixon?!”
NIXON: (in audience, part of act) “I’m not that funny.”
LEWIS: “Oh, well, you know what the problem is, don’t you? You’re too tall! Yeah, see, tall people aren’t funny. You have to be short like me and the Colonel to make it in show biz. Rock Hudson, John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart – they’re all under 5-foot-7! (laughter) Watch this: I’ll be as tall as you” (stands on step ladder) (in very deep voice) “Hey nice lady – Ah, I just scared myself (feigns almost falling off stepladder) See that, scary, not funny! Not watch this: I’ll be as short as Peter Lorre (sits down on stage to appear very short) (in high-pitch voice) Hey nice lady! (laughter) See, that’s funny! (applause) but don’t worry, Nixon, you can still get laughs. After all, you’re a politician – just end any sentence with the four magic words ‘and that’s the truth’ and people will laugh!” [snip] “My son Gary, last name Lewis (laughter), he just turned 19 and his next birthday’s in two months (laughter). I wanted him to go to college but he wanted to continue playing the drums with his band, I think it’s a music band. So I tried to compromise, right, I told him to go to music college, but he says he wants to try The Colonel Sanders kind of education – the kind that’s useful!” (laughter) “But no, really, the Colonel is one of the most wonderful men I’ve ever known, and a really smart and smart-alecky salesmen. Why, just the other day he sold me an Edsel. Not really, though. He gave it away free with my KFC dinner! (pause for laughter) But in all seriousness, folks, I have to commend the President for all the work he’s done in the fight against muscular dystrophy and for that and then some he forever has my respect and loyalty. Thank you, Colonel Sanders, thank you! (applause)” (leaves comically, pretending to not know how to leave stage, walks into curtain, moves hands around looking for an exit through the curtain, then starting patting down the wall, before Secret Servicemen escort him away) “So long gentlemen and each and every very nice lady!...” (laughter, applause)
SANDERS: (returns to podium) “What a character, eh, folks? If my current one steps down, I’m thinking of picking Lewis to be our Ambassador to France. How’s that sound? (laughter, cheers)”
– Transcript (annotated) from the 1965 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Saturday, 5/15/1965
The Beatles first came to the U.S. in May 1965, and quickly their music became the latest craze for American teenagers and a new outlet for teen angst. While they were a bit late to the party, seeing as other British musicians were already well into establishing themselves in the U.S., the Fab Four believed it was “better late than never,” as the stoic Lennon would state...
– Tumbleweed Magazine article, 1971 commemorative issue
In May [1965], [John Y.] Brown, um, I don’t want to say weaseled, but um, he found his way into purchasing Church’s Chicken from the son of its late founder. Millie approved of the takeover while Harley was, um, less involved in the project. …While Brown lacked skills needed to motivate people that served under him, he was shrewd with finances, and those results really showed early on…
– Pete Harman, 60 Minutes interview, early 1992
WAR ENDS IN INDONESIA: Remaining Sukarno Backers Captured As Suharto Takes Over
…General Suharto has defeated military opponents and has ended a civil conflict that has ravaged the archipelagic nation since August of last year. …Suharto reportedly received a congratulatory phone call from American President Sanders and Prime Minister Douglas-Home… The celebratory atmosphere in the capital of Jakarta was plagued, though, by concern over the lingering attacks on left-wing Indonesians, with one anonymous Jakarta schoolteacher telling us “I fear Suharto will only continue his purges, and expand them from just Sukarno supporters to anyone who is not fiercely loyal to him”…
– The Times, UK newspaper, 5/30/1965
New Jersey Gubernatorial Primary Election Results, 6/1/1965:
Democratic Primary:
Richard J. Hughes – 234,854 (89.85%)
William H. Clark – 26,531 (10.15%)
Total votes cast: 261,385 (100.00%)
Republican Primary:
Wayne Dumont Jr. – 166,611 (50.11%)
Charles W. Sandman Jr. – 156,470 (47.06%)
Harold P. Poeschel – 9,409 (2.83%)
Total votes cast: 332,491 (100.00%)
– ourcampaigns.co.usa
SANJAY GANDHI, 18, DIES IN CAR CRASH
…the son of Minister of Information and Broadcasting Indira Gandhi has died in a car crash... …Claims that the car was stolen are currently unsubstantiated. The police have declined to comment as to whether or not an investigation will commence to look into the claims…
– Rajasthan Patrika, Indian newspaper, 6/2/1965
…On June 6, 1965, California’s Stanford School of Business presented Sanders with an honorary degree, one of a total of 26 honorary degrees Sanders would receive in his lifetime, first he got in May 1959 for his academic contributions to Kentucky while Governor…
– Why Grad Schools Are Suffering In Our Changing Economy, KNN e-article, 6/2/2012
GREEK PRIME MINISTER ASSASSINATED!
Athens, GREECE – Georgios Papandreou, the Prime Minister of Greece since 1963, was today shot by a right-wing extremist while leaving the nation’s capital building for lunch. According to officials, Papandreou was shot “at least three times” in the back before his attacker could be subdued by officers. Officials state that the Prime Minister died while on route to hospital. The assassin is being held by police for interrogation. The killer’s name is currently unreleased, but his current motive is believed to be his apparent “outrage” at Papandreou’s allegedly pro-communist administration. Papandreou was 77.
– The La Croix, French newspaper, 6/10/1965
TROOPS PUMMEL OUTRAGED GREEKS
Athens, GREECE – Violence occurring in the streets of the capital over Papandreou’s assassination for the second day in a row, with students protesting and calling for retribution, justice, and reform… Greece’s King Constantine II has cautiously sent in the military to quell the riots. Some fear the riots could grow into a revolution if left unchecked…
– The Daily Telegraph, UK newspaper, 6/12/1965
NEW PRIME MINISTER CHOSEN!
Athens – After a heated debate in our nation’s capital, Grigoris Lambrakis has been chosen to become the new Prime Minister of Greece. Lambrakis, 53, was elected to Parliament in 1961 as an EDA-leaning Independent before defecting to Papandreou's EK over infighting in the EDA during the 1965 election. Lambrakis quickly rose in popularity within the party after surviving a politically-motivated attack on his life… Analysts hope the young and charismatic Lambrakis, a former doctor, athlete, and anti-war activist, can calm the rising political climate and remedy the issues facing this great but troubled country.
– The Ethnos (The Nation), left-wing Greek newspaper (affiliated with PASOK), 6/22/1965
Another example of Colonel Sanders being a “loony old fool” happened on June 23, 1965, when he appeared at a ceremony in Chicago to receive an award for improving environmental protection laws in the U.S., and walked off the stage without the award. He quickly circled back to receive it, but the moment was nevertheless caught on camera [18]. …A part of his popularity was his charm. “He came off as this lovable old guy, like this friendly grandfather-like fella,” describes one senior citizen in Madison, Wisconsin who voted for the Colonel in 1964...
– Why The Colonel’s Legacy Endures, 2015 e-article
…In Washington, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil rights Oversight is reviewing the progress of ensuring integration implementation in all 50 years, per a President request. Also on the Hill, Senator Eunice Kennedy-Smith has signed on to co-sponsored a major Fair Employment Bill meant to bolster similar legislation passed under President Johnson…
– Walter Cronkite on CBS, 7/1/1965
The new Constitution of Cuba, backed by Sanders administration, was finally ratified on July 5, 1965, after months of negotiations between several political factions on the island. The constitution appealed to the poorer rural classes in Cuba, but interim President Miro Cardona still demanded it reach unanimous approval from all factions for the sake of national unity. The most vocal holdout among political leaders was then 41-year-old Stability party leader Manuel Ray Rivero [19], an engineer by trade whom had served as Fidel Castro’s Minister of Public Works in 1959 before founding the Revolutionary Movement of the People, an organization which backed Castro’s nationalization of all public utilities. Contradictorily, though, Rivero opposed Communist ideology, and eventually broke with Castro to join the Cuban Revolutionary Council (CRC) in 1961 and help American forces mobilize discontented Cubans in 1963 and 1964. Upon Rivero ultimately voicing approval of the Constitution alongside the leader of the Conservative party, Manuel Artime, the last faction left was Felipe Rivero Diaz, the leader of the Nationalist party. Critical of both Americans and Communists during the war despite participating in crucial early military actions in it, Diaz finally “gave [it] is blessing” on July 3rd, after determining that “it contains no hidden ties to America or Russia – The Cuban people will be in charge of their own destiny!”
– clickopedia.co.usa
SECOND LADY MARY SCRANTON CALLS FOR HOUSING REFORM
Washington, D.C. – ...Taking an unusually active role is not a surprise to those who know her; Second Lady Scranton is much more active than the reportedly “old-school” Claudia Sanders. At a formal event, Mary Scranton announced her advocacy for a federal program to develop and improve low-income urban communities. "These are American families working hard and doing their best. It would be unpatriotic and immoral for their government to turn its back on them." …A passionate fighter for fair housing and community safety while First Lady of our states, Mary Scranton started out as a research analyst for the US Army and also as a Red Cross aide during World War II. She continued her advocacy for humanitarian issues during her time as the First Lady of Pennsylvania. Upon her husband being selected to serve as Colonel Sanders' running mate, Mary appeared often on the ’64 campaign trail, even speaking at that year’s RNC to praise both members of the GOP ticket for the dedication to improving the lives of American families...
– The Philadelphia Enquirer, 7/9/1965
DIEM REPLACED IN BLOODLES COUP, EXILED FROM COUNTRY; New Leader, Win Khan, Takes Helm
– The New York Post’s 7/11/1965 headline with Nguyen Khanh’s name misspelled
Had Diem been overthrown sooner, maybe things would have turned out different. Instead, the people were so desperate for a change of leadership that they quickly embraced Khanh. The thing about it, though, was that Khanh was a highly complex character of the era. As a socially conservative man, Khanh retained Diem’s ban on the dance “The Twist.” However, Khanh sometimes conflicted with the US by not at all acting like the grateful Miro Cardona – Khanh wanted to run his country his way! Paradoxically, Khanh often listened to the advice of Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., whom advised Khanh pursue a policy of uniting social groups. As such, upon his ascension to the Presidency, Khanh went on a “Colonel-style” tour of the country, making himself better known to as many members of the populace as possible – the urban and rural, the coastal and interior, the rich and poor. In the national domestic issue of Catholics versus Buddhists, Diem had favored Catholics. Khanh quickly found friends in both communities to unite to two against the Communists. As a fairly politically astute man, Khanh announced village that had been elections abolished under Diem would be held “within a year.” Privately, Khanh was wary of democracy possibility, and said in an early 1966 conversation with Lodge “we [the Vietnamese] cannot achieve full democracy for some time, perhaps for another generation or two.” [20] Such a mindset explains his refusal to hold a presidential election “until we are absolutely certain that attacks from the North have ceased.” Fortunately for Khanh, with each military success, the people of South Vietnam tolerated their limitations on individual rights for the sake of community security (it was a time of war, after all).
– Rick Perlstein’s Colonel’s Country: The Trials and Crises of the Chicken King Presidency, Simon & Schuster, 2014
NOTE(S)/SOUCRE(S)
[1] I think Colonel Sanders would agree with his free market theories as well as his advocacy for volunteer military and the abolition of medical licenses (due to the Colonel’s own history in that area), but disagree with him on other topics.
[2] Real person, according to the letter found here http://tea-and-skeletons.tumblr.com/post/29422516178/colonel-sanders-admired-j-edgar-hoover-and
[3] This quote is from OTL.
[4] Pulled from the OTL version of the Josh Ozersky book Colonel Sanders and the American Dream, Page 9: https://books.google.com/books/about/Colonel_Sanders_and_the_American_Dream.html?id=dkVNCgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false
[5] Italicized lines pulled from OTL memo from Hubert Humphrey to Lyndon Johnson written in the same time period (1965): https://www.nytimes.com/1976/05/09/archives/humphrey-in-memo-to-johnson-in-1965-warned-of-vietnam.html
[6] According to this article: www.buzzfeed.com/venessawong/the-real-colonel-sanders
[7] Description taken from MacKinnon’s wiki page.
[8] Ibid.
[9] IOTL, Colonel Howard Ravenscroft Johnson died in World War Two in 1944. But in Chapter 1, I established that after the POD of Harland Sanders Jr. not dying in 1932, he went on to serve in WWII. I like to think that the addition of one more soldier could lead to Johnson surviving the war in a for-want-of-a-nail type of minor butterfly effect, and later going on to establish a career in law.
[10] According to the site http://tea-and-skeletons.tumblr.com/post/29422516178/colonel-sanders-admired-j-edgar-hoover-and, Hoover declined to attend the Colonel’s 80th birthday party “[a]fter searching the Colonel’s criminal record,” suggesting Hoover did not want to be connected in any way to people with such pasts, even if it was someone like the Colonel! Additionally, the Colonel writing in the letter “I do believe that us [old] folk can show those young people what celebrating’s all about” demonstrates the complexity of him, as he was in youth-oriented films such as Blast-Off Girls (1967) and (despite the Colonel being a very religious sort) Hell’s Bloody Devils (1970) in OTL!
[11] All genealogy details are from their respective pages on findagrave.com
[12] A paraphrase of a famous line from Obama’s OTL autobiography.
[13] Quote directly pulled from the 53:50 mark of the Documentary “In the Year of the Pig” (available on YouTube, albeit in parts now…)
[14] Charities, along with "hospitals, medical research, education," mentioned on page 796 of the John Kessler book “The Kentucky Encyclopedia”: https://books.google.com/books?id=CcceBgAAQBAJ&lpg=PA796&pg=PA796#v=onepage&q&f=false
[15] IOTL, Sirhan “at 20 years old, Sirhan moved to Corona [southern California, near L.A.] to train to be a jockey while working at a stable, but lost his job and abandoned the pursuit after suffering a head injury in a racing accident” at some point in the 1960s (https://books.google.com/books?id=nLrLavNCQpUC). Due to butterflies, no such accident occurs, and instead, to turn a phrase Sirhan shoots to the head of the pack in the jockey world.
[16] This is a quote from OTL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckley_v._Valeo#cite_note-1
[17] Italicized snippet taken from this Jerry Lewis youtube video: /watch?v=GOUer2rdWHc
[18] Happened in OTL, as seen from 7:42 to 7:58 in this clearly OTL youtube video: /watch?v=Gk2HaAIqS3g
[19] Who? This guy!: http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/rivero.htm
[20] This quote, along with other information about Khanh described here, were found on his Wikipedia article.
4/4/2019 Edit: Fixed "Nyugen/Nguyen" typo. Good eye, @The_Southeast !
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Sanders is off to a great start as President, and it's not a shock to see him being hit by accusations of ties to KFC.
I liked the cabinet picks. Few familiar names, which means out of the box thinking by the colonel
I liked the cabinet picks. Few familiar names, which means out of the box thinking by the colonel
Great update. Interesting developments in France and Romania. Great cabinet for Sanders. Not all are notable, but, that's not a bad thing, more room for outside the box thinking. Ugh, Hoover, hope he gets what's coming to him, if not by Sanders, then another President can take him down several pegs.
I think Hoover was at the mandatory retirement age in this year. If I recall Johnson kept him on whereas Sanders likely won't.
I guess we won't have Rick Monday saving the flag from being burned like in a famous game in 1976. Maybe we can say that happened in this timeline sometime earlier, with another baseball player when a couple young fans tried to burn a flag on the field.
I would have to look at what happened in our timeline in Vietnam, but this has a chance to work really well or really poorly and probably not much in between.
And now that I'm back from lunch one other thing I recall thinking as I read, most people will probably presume McCain and his wife are both the adoptive parents of Barack.
I guess we won't have Rick Monday saving the flag from being burned like in a famous game in 1976. Maybe we can say that happened in this timeline sometime earlier, with another baseball player when a couple young fans tried to burn a flag on the field.
I would have to look at what happened in our timeline in Vietnam, but this has a chance to work really well or really poorly and probably not much in between.
And now that I'm back from lunch one other thing I recall thinking as I read, most people will probably presume McCain and his wife are both the adoptive parents of Barack.
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We really need to be rid of these Etonians, the country will be utterly ruined with cronyism and even more Profumo scandals.
Curious if Sanders would have a taping system to record phone calls, like LBJ did or not.