alternatehistory.com
Introduction
Welcome to Give Peace Another Chance, the revised and updated version of the Turtledove-nominated Give Peace A Chance: The Presidency of Eugene McCarthy. Give Peace A Chance, my first timeline, started on May 23rd 2018. After about a year and a half of weekly posting (more or less), the timeline was put on a seven month hiatus, while I researched and improved upon the original concept, which can be found here. That hiatus is now over, and this is the result, which I can say with absolute certainty is the better version. Those who have read Give Peace A Chance will recognize familiar faces and events, but changes to improve the quality and plausibility will provide new twists even for our veteran readers.
This timeline explores a world where Eugene McCarthy, the quixotic Senator for Minnesota and Vietnam War critic, successfully wins the presidency in 1968, avoiding his fate as an obscure maverick and perennial candidate. I first took inspiration for this idea after concluding that I wanted to write a timeline on a figure who had little-to-no alternate-historical coverage. As McCarthy has been overshadowed by such figures as the Kennedys, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon in the canon of the 1960s, I hope that I have done him justice as the leading man. That being said, Gene McCarthy was as deeply flawed as he was deeply principled, and I have attempted to write him as accurately to his nature as historical research and my own speculation will allow. A further detail I must point out is that I am first and foremost a student of Cold War political history. While McCarthy’s legacy is inseparable from the Vietnam War, the politics aspects of the conflict will be prioritized over the actual fighting.
The main purpose of writing an ongoing timeline, to me at least, is to keep up the motivation to write. So that is what I intend to do! Ideally, main chapters will be posted once every two weeks, with asides, vignettes, and other little tidbits being posted every other week from the main chapters. The vignette chapters are especially open to those who want to contribute ideas, or appear as guest writers, so please let me know if you are interested or have any suggestions! Research continues at the same time that I am writing this timeline. As a reflection of that, the bibliography attached to the introduction will see more additions as the timeline goes on. Every once in a while, with the original version, I would take research breaks after 'election night' chapters to get a head start on writing the next presidential term, and to do research for it. While I hope to be far enough ahead to avoid doing this for Give Peace Another Chance, it is something that is still on the table. If that does turn out to be the case, I still aim to have the vignette chapters continuing weekly.
Comments, suggestions, recommendations, corrections, and criticisms are, of course, welcome (but hopefully we won’t get too many of the latter). A special thanks to all my long-time readers, all those who have given suggestions in the past, and all those who have encouraged me to keep up the good work, and a hearty welcome to new readers as well!
So, without further ado, let us begin anew...
Welcome to Give Peace Another Chance, the revised and updated version of the Turtledove-nominated Give Peace A Chance: The Presidency of Eugene McCarthy. Give Peace A Chance, my first timeline, started on May 23rd 2018. After about a year and a half of weekly posting (more or less), the timeline was put on a seven month hiatus, while I researched and improved upon the original concept, which can be found here. That hiatus is now over, and this is the result, which I can say with absolute certainty is the better version. Those who have read Give Peace A Chance will recognize familiar faces and events, but changes to improve the quality and plausibility will provide new twists even for our veteran readers.
This timeline explores a world where Eugene McCarthy, the quixotic Senator for Minnesota and Vietnam War critic, successfully wins the presidency in 1968, avoiding his fate as an obscure maverick and perennial candidate. I first took inspiration for this idea after concluding that I wanted to write a timeline on a figure who had little-to-no alternate-historical coverage. As McCarthy has been overshadowed by such figures as the Kennedys, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon in the canon of the 1960s, I hope that I have done him justice as the leading man. That being said, Gene McCarthy was as deeply flawed as he was deeply principled, and I have attempted to write him as accurately to his nature as historical research and my own speculation will allow. A further detail I must point out is that I am first and foremost a student of Cold War political history. While McCarthy’s legacy is inseparable from the Vietnam War, the politics aspects of the conflict will be prioritized over the actual fighting.
The main purpose of writing an ongoing timeline, to me at least, is to keep up the motivation to write. So that is what I intend to do! Ideally, main chapters will be posted once every two weeks, with asides, vignettes, and other little tidbits being posted every other week from the main chapters. The vignette chapters are especially open to those who want to contribute ideas, or appear as guest writers, so please let me know if you are interested or have any suggestions! Research continues at the same time that I am writing this timeline. As a reflection of that, the bibliography attached to the introduction will see more additions as the timeline goes on. Every once in a while, with the original version, I would take research breaks after 'election night' chapters to get a head start on writing the next presidential term, and to do research for it. While I hope to be far enough ahead to avoid doing this for Give Peace Another Chance, it is something that is still on the table. If that does turn out to be the case, I still aim to have the vignette chapters continuing weekly.
Comments, suggestions, recommendations, corrections, and criticisms are, of course, welcome (but hopefully we won’t get too many of the latter). A special thanks to all my long-time readers, all those who have given suggestions in the past, and all those who have encouraged me to keep up the good work, and a hearty welcome to new readers as well!
So, without further ado, let us begin anew...
Boomhower, Ray E. Robert F. Kennedy and the 1968 Indiana Primary (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008).
Canellos, Peter S. Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2009).
Carter, Dan T. The Politics of Rage: George Wallace, the Origins of the New Conservatism, and the Transformation of American Politics (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2000).
Chafe, William H. Never Stop Running: Allard Lowenstein and the Struggle to Save American Liberalism (New York: BasicBooks, 1993).
Connally, John, and Herskowitz, Mickey. In History’s Shadow: An American Odyssey (New York: Hyperion, 1993).
Crossley, Archibald M., and Crossley, Helen M. "Polling in 1968," Public Opinion Quarterly Vol. 33 No. 1 (Spring 1969), 1-16.
Eisele, Albert. Almost to the Presidency: A Biography of Two American Politicians (Blue Earth: The Piper Company, 1972).
Farrell, John A. Richard Nixon: The Life (New York: Doubleday, 2017).
Francis, Michael J. The Allende Victory: An Analysis of the 1970 Chilean Presidential Election (Tuscon: University of Arizona Press, 1973).
Green, Matthew N. "McCormack Versus Udall: Explaining Intraparty Challenges to the Speaker of the House," American Politics Research Vol. 34 No. 1 (January 2006), 3-21.
Goscha, Christopher. The Penguin History of Modern Vietnam (London: Penguin Random House, 2017).
Guan, Ang Cheng. The Vietnam War From the Other Side: The Vietnamese Communists' Perspective (New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2002).
Guan, Ang Cheng. Ending the Vietnam War: The Vietnamese Communists' Perspective (New York, RoutledgeCurzon, 2004).
Guthman, Edwin O., and Allen, C. Richard. RFK: His Words For Our Times (New York: HarperCollins, 2018).
Henkin, Bruce Jay. Analysis of Editorial Treatment by the California Press of Senators Eugene J. McCarthy and Robert F. Kennedy during the California Presidential Primary Election of 1968 (Ann Arbor: UMI Dissertation Publishing, 1969).
Hersh, Seymour M. Reporter: A Memoir (New York: Vintage Books, 2018).
Herzog III, Arthur. McCarthy for President (New York: Viking Press, 1969).
Hoeh, David C. 1968 – McCarthy – New Hampshire (Rochester: Lone Oak Press, 1994).
Johnson, Dale L. The Chilean Road to Socialism (Garden City: Anchor Books, 1973).
Kaufman, Scott. Ambition, Pragmatism, and Party: A Political Biography of Gerald R. Ford (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 2017).
Kirkpatrick, Rob. 1969: The Year Everything Changed (New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2019).
Kurlansky, Mark. 1968: The Year That Rocked the World (New York: Random House, 2005).
Larner, Jeremy. Nobody Knows: Reflections on the McCarthy Campaign of 1968 (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1969).
Linehan, Mary. “Women in the 1968 Eugene McCarthy Campaign and the Development of Feminist Politics,” Journal of Women's History Vol. 29 No. 1 (Spring, 2017), 111-137.
Longley, Kyle. LBJ’s 1968: Power, Politics, and the Presidency in America’s Year of Upheaval (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018).
McCarthy, Abigail. Private Faces/Public Places (Garden City: Doubleday & Company, 1972).
McCarthy, Eugene. The Limits of Power (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1967).
McCarthy, Eugene. “Robert Lowell and the Politics of 1968,” Harvard Review No. 12 (Spring, 1997), 116-121.
McCarthy, Eugene. The Year of the People (Garden City: Doubleday & Company, 1969).
Murphy, John M. “Presidential Debates and Campaign Rhetoric: Text Within Context,” The Southern Communications Journal Vol. 57 No. 3 (Spring 1992), 219-228.
Nelson, Justin A. “Drafting Lyndon Johnson: The President’s Secret Role in the 1968 Democratic Convention,” Presidential Studies Quarterly Vol. 30 No. 4 (December, 2000), 688-713.
O’Donnell, Lawrence. Playing With Fire: The 1968 Election and the Transformation of American Politics (New York: Penguin Press, 2017).
Offner, Arnold A. Hubert Humphrey: The Conscience of the Country (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018).
Paletz, David L. “Delegates' Views of the TV Coverage of the 1968 Democratic Convention,” Journal of Broadcasting Vol. 16 No. 4 (Fall, 1972), 441-452.
Patton, Bonnie. The 1968 Political Campaign of Senator Eugene J. Mccarthy: The Study of Rhetorical Choice (Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, 1969).
Reston Jr., James. The Lone Star: The Life of John Connally (New York: Harper and Row, 1989).
Ripon Society. The Lessons of Victory (New York: Dial Press, 1969).
Rising, George. Clean For Gene: Eugene McCarthy’s 1968 Presidential Campaign (Westport: Praeger Publishers, 1997).
Sandbrook, Dominic. Eugene McCarthy and the Rise and Fall of Postwar American Liberalism (New York: Anchor Books, 2004).
Sandbrook, Dominic. White Heat: A History of Britain in the Swinging Sixties (Boston: Abacus, 2007).
Stavis, Ben. We Were the Campaign: From New Hampshire to Chicago for McCarthy (Boston: Beacon Press, 1969).
Thayer, George. The War Business: The International Trade in Armaments (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1969).
Tye, Larry. Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon (New York: Random House, 2018).
Wainstock, Dennis. Election Year 1968: The Turning Point (New York: Enigma Books, 2012).
Wells, Tom. The War Within: America’s Battle Over Vietnam (New York: Open Road Distribution, 2013).
White, Theodore. The Making of the President 1968 (New York: Atheneum House, 1969).
Canellos, Peter S. Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2009).
Carter, Dan T. The Politics of Rage: George Wallace, the Origins of the New Conservatism, and the Transformation of American Politics (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2000).
Chafe, William H. Never Stop Running: Allard Lowenstein and the Struggle to Save American Liberalism (New York: BasicBooks, 1993).
Connally, John, and Herskowitz, Mickey. In History’s Shadow: An American Odyssey (New York: Hyperion, 1993).
Crossley, Archibald M., and Crossley, Helen M. "Polling in 1968," Public Opinion Quarterly Vol. 33 No. 1 (Spring 1969), 1-16.
Eisele, Albert. Almost to the Presidency: A Biography of Two American Politicians (Blue Earth: The Piper Company, 1972).
Farrell, John A. Richard Nixon: The Life (New York: Doubleday, 2017).
Francis, Michael J. The Allende Victory: An Analysis of the 1970 Chilean Presidential Election (Tuscon: University of Arizona Press, 1973).
Green, Matthew N. "McCormack Versus Udall: Explaining Intraparty Challenges to the Speaker of the House," American Politics Research Vol. 34 No. 1 (January 2006), 3-21.
Goscha, Christopher. The Penguin History of Modern Vietnam (London: Penguin Random House, 2017).
Guan, Ang Cheng. The Vietnam War From the Other Side: The Vietnamese Communists' Perspective (New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2002).
Guan, Ang Cheng. Ending the Vietnam War: The Vietnamese Communists' Perspective (New York, RoutledgeCurzon, 2004).
Guthman, Edwin O., and Allen, C. Richard. RFK: His Words For Our Times (New York: HarperCollins, 2018).
Henkin, Bruce Jay. Analysis of Editorial Treatment by the California Press of Senators Eugene J. McCarthy and Robert F. Kennedy during the California Presidential Primary Election of 1968 (Ann Arbor: UMI Dissertation Publishing, 1969).
Hersh, Seymour M. Reporter: A Memoir (New York: Vintage Books, 2018).
Herzog III, Arthur. McCarthy for President (New York: Viking Press, 1969).
Hoeh, David C. 1968 – McCarthy – New Hampshire (Rochester: Lone Oak Press, 1994).
Johnson, Dale L. The Chilean Road to Socialism (Garden City: Anchor Books, 1973).
Kaufman, Scott. Ambition, Pragmatism, and Party: A Political Biography of Gerald R. Ford (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 2017).
Kirkpatrick, Rob. 1969: The Year Everything Changed (New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2019).
Kurlansky, Mark. 1968: The Year That Rocked the World (New York: Random House, 2005).
Larner, Jeremy. Nobody Knows: Reflections on the McCarthy Campaign of 1968 (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1969).
Linehan, Mary. “Women in the 1968 Eugene McCarthy Campaign and the Development of Feminist Politics,” Journal of Women's History Vol. 29 No. 1 (Spring, 2017), 111-137.
Longley, Kyle. LBJ’s 1968: Power, Politics, and the Presidency in America’s Year of Upheaval (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018).
McCarthy, Abigail. Private Faces/Public Places (Garden City: Doubleday & Company, 1972).
McCarthy, Eugene. The Limits of Power (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1967).
McCarthy, Eugene. “Robert Lowell and the Politics of 1968,” Harvard Review No. 12 (Spring, 1997), 116-121.
McCarthy, Eugene. The Year of the People (Garden City: Doubleday & Company, 1969).
Murphy, John M. “Presidential Debates and Campaign Rhetoric: Text Within Context,” The Southern Communications Journal Vol. 57 No. 3 (Spring 1992), 219-228.
Nelson, Justin A. “Drafting Lyndon Johnson: The President’s Secret Role in the 1968 Democratic Convention,” Presidential Studies Quarterly Vol. 30 No. 4 (December, 2000), 688-713.
O’Donnell, Lawrence. Playing With Fire: The 1968 Election and the Transformation of American Politics (New York: Penguin Press, 2017).
Offner, Arnold A. Hubert Humphrey: The Conscience of the Country (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018).
Paletz, David L. “Delegates' Views of the TV Coverage of the 1968 Democratic Convention,” Journal of Broadcasting Vol. 16 No. 4 (Fall, 1972), 441-452.
Patton, Bonnie. The 1968 Political Campaign of Senator Eugene J. Mccarthy: The Study of Rhetorical Choice (Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, 1969).
Reston Jr., James. The Lone Star: The Life of John Connally (New York: Harper and Row, 1989).
Ripon Society. The Lessons of Victory (New York: Dial Press, 1969).
Rising, George. Clean For Gene: Eugene McCarthy’s 1968 Presidential Campaign (Westport: Praeger Publishers, 1997).
Sandbrook, Dominic. Eugene McCarthy and the Rise and Fall of Postwar American Liberalism (New York: Anchor Books, 2004).
Sandbrook, Dominic. White Heat: A History of Britain in the Swinging Sixties (Boston: Abacus, 2007).
Stavis, Ben. We Were the Campaign: From New Hampshire to Chicago for McCarthy (Boston: Beacon Press, 1969).
Thayer, George. The War Business: The International Trade in Armaments (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1969).
Tye, Larry. Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon (New York: Random House, 2018).
Wainstock, Dennis. Election Year 1968: The Turning Point (New York: Enigma Books, 2012).
Wells, Tom. The War Within: America’s Battle Over Vietnam (New York: Open Road Distribution, 2013).
White, Theodore. The Making of the President 1968 (New York: Atheneum House, 1969).
- The Lethargic Lett
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