Blue Skies in Camelot: An Alternate 60's and Beyond
- Thread starter President_Lincoln
- Start date
Great update as usual. The first two acts of this TL have been phenomenal so far and I look forward to more. Also, I feel like 1977 is a great opportunity to use Southern Nights as a chapter title.
Congratulations on the end of Act II Mr President. It was a thoroughly enjoyable ride and certainly lived up to the name Seesaw Seventies. I'm very excited to begin reading the next Act Progress and Prosperity. Good name and title by the way. Sad about Keith Richards dying.
So many butterflies in that chapter @President_Lincoln!
Jerry Lee getting some help, dead Keith Richards, Oscar winning Nimoy (take that Shatner!), Springsteen and Elvis!, punk at Apple...
I bet 1976 will be looked back on at a great year on the nostalgia stations in 20 years time.
Jerry Lee getting some help, dead Keith Richards, Oscar winning Nimoy (take that Shatner!), Springsteen and Elvis!, punk at Apple...
I bet 1976 will be looked back on at a great year on the nostalgia stations in 20 years time.
Glad to see Elvis finally appearing in A Star Is Born in 1976. Indeed, he was Streisand's original choice instead of Kris Kristofferson. The official story is that Babs could not meet Colonel Parker's excessive salary demands for Elvis but I think the real reason for not doing the film is that Colonel Tom did not want his "boy" exposed to the business side of showbiz and his worst nightmare was probably Babs talking with Elvis between scenes and convincing him to dump the Colonel.....
Thank you all for the kind words and positive feedback! 
I just wanted to give a quick shout out once again to @Nerdman3000, who contributed the dynamite section on Philip K. Dick and Without the Winter's Rye for this update. Thank you, Nerdman, for your, as always, stellar contribution to TTL!
I just wanted to give a quick shout out once again to @Nerdman3000, who contributed the dynamite section on Philip K. Dick and Without the Winter's Rye for this update. Thank you, Nerdman, for your, as always, stellar contribution to TTL!How is Henry with Jane? OTL he pretty much disowned her over the entire North Vietnamese AA Photo. Given she hasnt done something that idiotic I think maybe the relationship be better although her protesting may still be a big barrier...
Sad to see the two Keiths die. However, on the other hand we also got a Springsteen/Elvis team-up, a new Philip Dick novel, and an Oscar for Nimoy (well deserved, if I might say so). So, a bittersweet chapter.
Congrats for another awesome chapter, @President_Lincoln. Looking forward for Act III!
Congrats for another awesome chapter, @President_Lincoln. Looking forward for Act III!
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What happened with Fritz the Cat ITTL? Is it the same? or does it get butterflied or changed?
???
Yes?
I saw the video in my subscription feed, tooI’m a subscriber.
Here's something I think might happen sometime soon...
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The hearing was a formality at this point, but Max Cleland was almost done with his glass of water anyway. It seemed like every single Senator wanted to put his foot forwards and wax eloquent for a few minutes about how much he loved the military, when they were all already voting to confirm Cleland as the first-ever Secretary of Veterans' Affairs anyway. Guess some of the bums have re-election campaigns to worry about.
The guy who spoke next, an unassuming little man with a still-boyish face and a trace of gray in his hair, though--he wasn't one Cleland would expect to have trouble getting re-elected. Ever. After all, when you had all the medals for valor the US Army could award, and a few more besides, it didn't matter what the Sam Hill your policies were because just showing up in uniform to get another medal from the Governor of Texas (who had a re-election of his own to worry about) was enough to make every red-blooded American this side of the Canadian border vote for you on general principle.
Then again, Cleland wasn't Senator Murphy, so what the Hell did he know?
"Captain Cleland, thank you for your service," Senator Audie Murphy (D-TX) began. "I know most of this chamber's already voting for you so I'll try not to waste your time, but I've got one very important question for you. Recently, the American Psychiatric Association published a new edition of their diagnostic guide, defining the conditions previously referred to as 'shell shock' or 'battle stress' as a mental disorder called Trauma-Associated Psychiatric Syndrome, or TAPS. The United States Air Force estimates that this condition affects millions of veterans of World War 2, the Korean War, and the Cambodia Intervention. I myself suffer from this condition, which led me to a painkiller addiction that I only kicked in the '60s by locking myself in a hotel room and going cold turkey, the most Hellish experience of my post-war career. TAPS causes a great deal of mental trauma to our fighting men even decades after they leave the battlefield, and we still know very little about how it can be treated and how it affects the mind. What measures will your Department use to combat this scourge and help our veterans maintain stable, healthy civilian lives?"
He put down his papers, and the intensity of his gaze almost made Cleland look away. Shit. He wasn't ready for a hardball question this late in the hearing, God damn it!
Hokey campaign slogan ("I'll fight for you like I fought the Nazis!") or not, the junior Senator wasn't playing games, and Cleland scrambled to respond. "Uh, Senator, first of all, thank you for your service," Murphy nodded with a touch of impatience at Cleland's delay, "and, uh, I assure you, Senator, as a veteran myself this newly-defined problem is one I intend to attack aggressively as Secretary. I plan to direct a starter fund of ten billion dollars for the coming year alone," a significant chunk of Cleland's budget, at that, "specifically to research into shell-shock, or Taps or whatever they're calling it now. And as we get a better idea of how to treat it, such treatment will of course be covered by the hospital care services that President Udall wants us to set up. I believe very firmly, Senator, that if a man risks his life for his country, his country owes him a Hell of a lot back for it, and I will move Heaven and earth to ensure that our veterans have the very best medical and mental health care on the planet."
Murphy nodded with satisfaction and leaned back in his chair, but Cleland knew he had one more thing to say. "And, uh, Senator, I just wanted to say--thank you, for sharing your experience. There's a lot of good men who've gone through similar things, and hearing you talk about it...it means a lot."
"Do well by us, Captain," the Senator replied. "That's all I ask."
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Thought this might be neat.
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The hearing was a formality at this point, but Max Cleland was almost done with his glass of water anyway. It seemed like every single Senator wanted to put his foot forwards and wax eloquent for a few minutes about how much he loved the military, when they were all already voting to confirm Cleland as the first-ever Secretary of Veterans' Affairs anyway. Guess some of the bums have re-election campaigns to worry about.
The guy who spoke next, an unassuming little man with a still-boyish face and a trace of gray in his hair, though--he wasn't one Cleland would expect to have trouble getting re-elected. Ever. After all, when you had all the medals for valor the US Army could award, and a few more besides, it didn't matter what the Sam Hill your policies were because just showing up in uniform to get another medal from the Governor of Texas (who had a re-election of his own to worry about) was enough to make every red-blooded American this side of the Canadian border vote for you on general principle.
Then again, Cleland wasn't Senator Murphy, so what the Hell did he know?
"Captain Cleland, thank you for your service," Senator Audie Murphy (D-TX) began. "I know most of this chamber's already voting for you so I'll try not to waste your time, but I've got one very important question for you. Recently, the American Psychiatric Association published a new edition of their diagnostic guide, defining the conditions previously referred to as 'shell shock' or 'battle stress' as a mental disorder called Trauma-Associated Psychiatric Syndrome, or TAPS. The United States Air Force estimates that this condition affects millions of veterans of World War 2, the Korean War, and the Cambodia Intervention. I myself suffer from this condition, which led me to a painkiller addiction that I only kicked in the '60s by locking myself in a hotel room and going cold turkey, the most Hellish experience of my post-war career. TAPS causes a great deal of mental trauma to our fighting men even decades after they leave the battlefield, and we still know very little about how it can be treated and how it affects the mind. What measures will your Department use to combat this scourge and help our veterans maintain stable, healthy civilian lives?"
He put down his papers, and the intensity of his gaze almost made Cleland look away. Shit. He wasn't ready for a hardball question this late in the hearing, God damn it!
Hokey campaign slogan ("I'll fight for you like I fought the Nazis!") or not, the junior Senator wasn't playing games, and Cleland scrambled to respond. "Uh, Senator, first of all, thank you for your service," Murphy nodded with a touch of impatience at Cleland's delay, "and, uh, I assure you, Senator, as a veteran myself this newly-defined problem is one I intend to attack aggressively as Secretary. I plan to direct a starter fund of ten billion dollars for the coming year alone," a significant chunk of Cleland's budget, at that, "specifically to research into shell-shock, or Taps or whatever they're calling it now. And as we get a better idea of how to treat it, such treatment will of course be covered by the hospital care services that President Udall wants us to set up. I believe very firmly, Senator, that if a man risks his life for his country, his country owes him a Hell of a lot back for it, and I will move Heaven and earth to ensure that our veterans have the very best medical and mental health care on the planet."
Murphy nodded with satisfaction and leaned back in his chair, but Cleland knew he had one more thing to say. "And, uh, Senator, I just wanted to say--thank you, for sharing your experience. There's a lot of good men who've gone through similar things, and hearing you talk about it...it means a lot."
"Do well by us, Captain," the Senator replied. "That's all I ask."
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Thought this might be neat.
This is definitely the right thread - established a while ago that Audie Murphy is a Senator...