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The McCarthy Cabinet and Executive Office
The McCarthy Cabinet and Executive Office
The Cabinet
President Eugene McCarthy (MN, Liberal Democrat, Dove)
Against all odds, Eugene McCarthy had been elected President of the United States, and became the unparalleled idol of the anti-war movement in the process. With his 'New Politics' brand, McCarthy captured the key constituency of the suburban middle class, who bolstered his lower-than-average results with traditional Democratic demographics. Ideologically speaking, McCarthy was hard to pin down: his voting record in Congress indicated he was a typical liberal New Deal Democrat, his mannerisms and devotion to the Constitution indicated he was some kind of conservative, but his fervent belief in Catholic Social Gospel and his open calls for wealth redistribution put him on the fringe left of the Democratic Party. While the extent of his domestic ambitions remained in question, what was clear was that McCarthy intended to embark on a thorough restructuring of American foreign policy, starting by negotiating an end to the Vietnam War as soon as possible.
Vice President John Connally (TX, Conservative Democrat, Hawk)
Ironically, John Connally advocated for McCarthy to be selected for the vice presidency in 1964, and now, through slick political maneuvering, Lyndon Johnson's former protégé has attained the vice presidency himself. Reaching a last minute agreement with his campaign at the Democratic National Convention, Connally swung the South to McCarthy, providing his only feasible path to the nomination. In exchange, Connally was given the vice presidency, and a say over cabinet and judicial appointments. While beloved in his native Texas, many are ambivalent of Connally, as he served for years as a backroom lobbyist for the oil industry, and always seemed to pop up on the periphery of numerous scandals. Politically, Connally is a fiscal conservative and a moderate on social issues, having willingly desegregated Texas while governor, if only to avoid federal involvement. Previously one of the most hawkish Democrats in the nation, Connally now reluctantly follows the dovish party line. His presidential ambitions have become increasingly transparent over the years.
Secretary of State J. William Fulbright (AR, Conservative Democrat, Dove)
Up until his appointment as Secretary of State, J. William Fulbright had served as the Senator for Arkansas, and the Chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. One of the most outspoken critics of the Vietnam War, Fulbright was McCarthy's foreign policy mentor, and McCarthy's experiences on the Foreign Relations Committee shaped his opinion against the war. Fulbright is a strong believer in international cooperation and détente with the Soviet Union, but has proven a controversial choice for his longstanding support for segregation. When questioned about it, McCarthy would deflect by referring to his own robust civil rights record. Fulbright has been succeeded as Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee by Senator John Sparkman of Alabama, who is similarly skeptical of foreign adventurism. His Senate seat has been filled by Len E. Blaylock, an ally of Arkansas' moderate Republican governor, Winthrop Rockefeller.
Secretary of Treasury John Kenneth Galbraith (MA, Liberal Democrat, Dove)
A famous Post-Keynesian economist, John Kenneth Galbraith has served in every Democratic administration since Franklin Roosevelt. A founding member of Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), Galbraith had initially been reluctant when Allard Lowenstein approached the organization in attempt to align them to the Dump Johnson effort. However, soon after, Galbraith advised McCarthy to run for president, and became an economic advisor for his campaign. Galbraith had been willing to run against Johnson himself, until he learned that his Canadian birth disqualified him. Serving as a member of the Massachusetts delegation at the Democratic National Convention, Galbraith also seconded McCarthy's nomination at the convention. As Secretary of Treasury, Galbraith's main concerns were restructuring America's finances following the Vietnam War, addressing rising inflation, and dealing with McCarthy's penchant to pore over insignificant details of the tax code in order to slightly adjust them.
Secretary of Defense James M. Gavin (NY, Liberal Independent, Dov)
"Jumpin' Jim" Gavin was once again called into service for his country. A lieutenant general during the Second World War, Gavin was famous for making combat jumps alongside the paratroopers under his command, and worked to desegregate the army. A prominent critic of the Vietnam War, his 'Gavin Plan' is the cornerstone of McCarthy's Vietnam policy; search and destroy missions were to be abandoned, and American troops were to instead consolidate in fortified urban centres while a ceasefire was negotiated. Gavin believes that the existence of Mutually Assured Destruction has made nearly all conventional weapons obsolete, and that a better measure of success during the Cold War would be through analyzing social factors, such as the standard of living. He proposed a powerful anti-ballistic missile program as a military alternative. Gavin had been approached to run against Johnson himself, but declined to do so, instead endorsing Nelson Rockefeller during the Republican primaries, and McCarthy in the general election. Gavin intended to retire once the Vietnam War was resolved.
Attorney General David Ginsburg (NY, Liberal Democrat, Dove)
A founding member of Americans for Democratic Action, David Ginsburg is perhaps the most well-established figure of liberal politics in America who has never held elected office. Along with being an ADA founder, Ginsburg also had an early start in political lobbying in his efforts to get President Truman to recognize the nascent state of Israel. Ginsburg had also served as the executive director of the Kerner Commission, which determined that the main causes of black rioting were institutional racism and a lack of economic opportunity. The findings of the Kerner Commission were a cornerstone of McCarthy's domestic policy, and even though Ginsburg supported Humphrey at the Democratic National Convention, his anti-war credentials were enough to take him on as attorney general. From there, Ginsburg had to find away to implement the legal aspects of the very report he had overseen.
Postmaster General William E. Carlson (MN, Liberal Democrat, Dove)
If Eugene McCarthy's entire career had been one step behind Hubert Humphrey's, then William Carlson's entire career had been one step behind Eugene McCarthy's. Carlson had a respectable but unexceptional sting in Minnesota's House of Representatives, and ran and lost against then-Senator Edward Thye in 1952. Carlson had known McCarthy while they were both teaching in post-secondary education, and the two had each rooted for the others' political career. Expecting to be the go-to Senate candidate in 1958, Carlson was blindsided when McCarthy entered the race and went on to narrowly beat Thye in the general election. Since then, Carlson had served in a variety of minor state positions in Minnesota. Carlson had been McCarthy's choice to fill his Senate seat, but Minnesota's governor chose his fellow Republican, Clark MacGregor. As a sort of consolation prize, Carlson was selected for the position of Postmaster General.
Secretary of the Interior Ernest Gruening (AK, Liberal Democrat, Dove)
Along with Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon, Ernest Gruening was the only other member of Congress to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, earning himself a place as a hero of the anti-war movement. However, his maverick behaviour was unpopular back home in Alaska, and he was defeated in a primary challenge for his re-election by Mike Gravel, a further left Democrat who presented himself as further right while contrasting his youth against the elderly Gruening. With McCarthy's encouragement, Gruening ran as a write-in candidate, with Gruening's strong showing splitting the Democratic vote and throwing the election to the Republican, Elmer Rasmuson. Despite this, Gruening had been scooped up by the McCarthy Administration and placed in charge of the Department of the Interior. Gruening is considered one of America's foremost specialists on Mexican history.
Secretary of Agriculture William R. Poage (TX, Conservative Democrat, Hawk)
Having previously served as the Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, William R. Poage is one of Connally's cabinet picks. Poage's nomination served as a simultaneous assertion of Texan power in the administration, and a snub toward the Chairman of Senate Agriculture Committee, Herman Talmadge of Georgia, who had a mutual antipathy with McCarthy. Poage was a typical Southern Democrat in terms of policy, but when it came agriculture, he was a stalwart supporter of subsidies and price controls to help protect American farmers and agribusiness. In his role as Secretary of Agriculture, Poage was expected to work closely with McCarthy's soft power plans to use mass food exports as foreign aide to help stabilize Third World countries, in exchange for loyalty, or at least goodwill, in the Cold War.
Secretary of Commerce Frank Ikard (TX, Conservative Democrat, Hawk)
One of McCarthy's closest friends from Texas along with Homer Thornberry, Frank Ikard was a former member of the House of Representatives. After leaving politics, Ikard entered the fossil fuel industry in 1960 as an executive of the American Petroleum Institute. Disappointed that McCarthy would run against the President, Ikard sided with Johnson during the early Democratic primaries, but ultimately came to support McCarthy after the events of the Democratic National Convention. His past association with McCarthy along with the deal with Connally earned him a cabinet position as Secretary of Commerce. Ikard has warned that if changes are not made to the oil and gas industry that it could start to effect the Earth's climate by the year 2000, and has called for investigating alternative methods of fueling America.
Secretary of Labor Hubert Humphrey (MN, Liberal Democrat, Hawk)
In something of a demotion, former Vice President Hubert Humphrey has temporarily accepted the position of Secretary of Labor. Humphrey had been willing to put the past behind him, and campaigned hard for McCarthy after losing the nomination. Humphrey's enthusiastic support went a long way in rallying the AFL-CIO and other skeptical labour unions to McCarthy and minimizing defections to George Wallace. Despite McCarthy delighting in finally having seniority over his longtime colleague, the latest arrangement of their love-hate relationship will not last long, as Humphrey intends to return to the Senate in the 1970 midterm elections.
Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Daniel Patrick Moynihan (NY, Moderate Democrat, Realist)
One of three members of ADA in the cabinet, Daniel Patrick Moynihan was one of those who voted in favour of the organization endorsing McCarthy for the Democratic nomination, as served as a domestic advisor afterwards. While an opponent of the Vietnam War, Moynihan was equally critical of the New Left, which he saw as a gang of riotous hoodlums, particularly the anti-war and Black Power movements. Moynihan looked to reform the welfare state through a guaranteed annual income (also known as a universal basic income), and planned to implement McCarthy's version of it in the form of the Adequate Income Act.
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Joseph S. Clark Jr. (PN, Liberal Democrat, Dove)
Like Gruening, Joseph S. Clark Jr. lost his seat in the Senate during the 1968 elections, with his Republican challenger, Richard Schweiker, effectively using Clark's support for gun control and his opposition to the Vietnam War against him. Besides his time as the Senator for Pennsylvania, Clark is most well known for being the Mayor of Philadelphia, where he was famous for his anti-corruption initiatives, and low income housing projects. Clark served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee along with McCarthy and Fulbright, where he was an active critic of the Vietnam War even before McCarthy. Clark's chief responsibility as Secretary of Housing will be to implement McCarthy's ambitious plans to build low income housing in suburban areas as a way of quickly ending the de facto segregation of the ghettos.
Secretary of Transportation J. Howard Marshall (TX, Conservative Independent, Hawk)
A Texas oilman and longtime associate of McCarthy's, J. Howard Marshall is the embodiment of the new President's close ties to the oil industry. The two men first became acquainted when they were introduced to each other by Ikard and Thornberry upon McCarthy's entry into the House of Representatives. With McCarthy's help, Marshall was able to expedite the construction of the Pine Bend Refinery, and its pipelines that ran through McCarthy's district. Now, Marshall's expertise in fuel transportation and logistics are being put to use as Secretary of Transportation. McCarthy himself argues that his seemingly close relationship with the oil industry is not as significant as it seems; he claims that his votes in the Senate to continue tax exemptions for the oil industry were cast because he knew that the repeal would fail anyway.
Ambassador to the United Nations Chester Bowles (CN, Liberal Democrat, Dove)
A foreign policy advisor to Jack Kennedy and Adlai Stevenson before him, Chester Bowles was a founding member of ADA. During his time in the Kennedy Administration, he was eventually sidelined to more and more fringe positions for being too left wing, but now he had been selected as the new United States Ambassador to the United Nations. An opponent of the Vietnam War, Bowles had been one of those ADA members who was an early supporter of McCarthy's candidacy, and is a proponent of cooperation with the Third World and neutral countries. Following the decline in American prestige with the Vietnam War, Bowles hoped to rebuild bridges with the international community.
The Executive Office
First Lady Abigail McCarthy (MN, Liberal Democrat, Dove)
Although initially reluctant to have her husband run for President, Abigail McCarthy turned out to be an excellent organizer of Catholic and women's groups. Rallying volunteers, particularly in New Hampshire and Wisconsin, Abigail was a proactive member of the early campaign. However, her husband's staff considered her an overly-controlling political amateur, and when she took a break from the campaign for health reasons during the Indiana primary, there was very little room for her when she came back. Despite living in the same White House, Gene and Abigail are essentially estranged from each other, and pursue their own separate political and family activities.
Chief of Staff Tom Finney (CA, Liberal Democrat, Realist)
A former CIA agent, a Californian political lobbyist, and the campaign coordinator from the Oregon primary onward, no one is quite sure how Tom Finney and Gene McCarthy first met. Finney's intervention to add some professionalism to McCarthy's flagging campaign most likely saved it from collapse. Under Finney's watch, the campaign saw a nearly unbroken chain of victories in Oregon, California, New Jersey, and Illinois (only losing South Dakota), and had come on permanently as Chief of Staff. Finney had temporarily left the campaign during the summer of 1968 to mourn the death of his father, but came back in time to help run the general election effort. While highly respected by McCarthy's cabinet, Finney is loathed by most of McCarthy's staff, who consider him an interloper who led the campaign astray from its original grassroots idealism. Despite this, he is the only person holding McCarthy's ad hoc political operation together. Finney had an ongoing rivalry with the President's personal aide, Jerry Eller.
National Security Advisor George Kennan (WI, Independent Conservative, Realist)
The mastermind of the policy of Containment, George Kennan had been directly or indirectly responsible for most of America's geopolitical strategy since the beginning of the Cold War. In 1966, Kennan came before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to denounce the Vietnam War as having misconstrued his ideas, and announced he believed that Containment was no longer necessary to deal with the Soviet Union. Kennan now believed that limited cooperation was possible with communism, especially if McCarthy took advantage of the widening gap between the Soviets and the Chinese. Domestically, Kennan is a reactionary vehemently opposed to the New Left and the counterculture movement. He had floated the idea of having secret police round up protesters to have them tried in special political courts, and also voiced approval of South African aparthied.
Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors John T. Connor (MA, Liberal Democrat, Dove)
Lyndon Johnson's former Secretary of Commerce, John T. Connor resigned in protest of the expansion of the Vietnam War. As the Chair of the Committee of Business Executives Against the Vietnam War, he had supported McCarthy in the primaries. Following McCarthy's election, Connor returned to the executive office as one of the chief economic advisors to the President.
Chair of the National Aeronautics and Space Council John Connally (TX, Conservative Democrat, Hawk)
Following the precedent set by Jack Kennedy, the Chair of NASC continued to be the serving Vice President. McCarthy had little to no interest in space exploration, and was content to leave the Apollo program to its own devices for the time being. Once Apollo 11 completed its final preparations for the moon landing, McCarthy intended to dramatically cut the space budget.
Chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board Sam Ervin (NC, Conservative Democrat, Realist)
Formerly the Senator for North Carolina, Sam Ervin had joined the executive office as the chief intelligence advisor to the President. Ervin is a Southern legal expert, and frequently used constitutional arguments to justify racial segregation. However, Ervin was also an ardent civil libertarian on privacy issues, and was suspiciou of the powers of America's secret agencies, much like McCarthy himself. On the Vietnam War, Ervin supported gradual withdrawal. Early in McCarthy's presidency, the position of Chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board was left intentionally vacant so that Ervin could vote on some early legislation to tighten controls on the CIA.
Director of the Bureau of the Budget Howard Stein (NY, Liberal Independent, Dove)
Howard Stein was one of the biggest donors to McCarthy's campaign. He served on the campaign's finance committee, and ruled his own fiefdom within the New York campaign, separate from other McCarthy efforts in the state, and where he produced his own commercials for the campaign. Stein was representative of the liberal, philanthropic, nouveau riche support that McCarthy enjoyed. Stein was also the President of the Dreyfus Corporation, which specialized in investments, and masterminded the no load money market fund, which invested in low-risk government debt assets, such as Treasury bills, to strengthen the value of a stock portfolio.
United States Trade Representative Thomas Finletter (NY, Liberal Democrat, Dove)
A former member of the Truman Administration and an old Stevenson supporter, Thomas Finletter had been one of the first people to directly approach McCarthy to ask him to challenge Johnson in the 1968 primaries. During the campaign, Finletter served as the representative of the clique of Stevensonian Wall Street bankers who financed large parts of the campaign. Finletter was previously involved in implementing the Marshall Plan through his work in the Economic Cooperation Administration, and is familiar with the world of European financing. It was on that basis that he was chosen as the United States Trade Representative.
United States Poet Laureate Robert Lowell (MA, Liberal Independent, Dove)
Previously appointed by Congress and attached to the Library of Congress, McCarthy had uplifted the position of United States Poet Laureate to the executive office, and appointed his close friend Robert Lowell to the position. Lowell was arguably the President’s closest confidante, and provided his own opinions on political matters when the two were not writing poetry together.
The Military and Intelligence Agencies
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff David M. Shoup
A general of the Marine Corps during the Second World War, David M. Shoup was one of the most prominent critics of the Vietnam War during the Johnson Administration.
Shoup drew controversy for not only criticizing the war, but the entirety of American society for being too militaristic and too indentured to the military-industrial complex. Shoup emphasized combat readiness and budget efficiency, and had come out of retirement to trim the fat of the military budget and redistribute the nation's military resources out of Vietnam.
Supreme Allied Commander Europe Lauris Norstad
A former Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Lauris Norstad is the first man to reprise the role. Norstad was possibly the most dovish of America's generals to come out against the Vietnam War, believing in a thorough and rapid disengagement. As Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Norstad continued to believe in the policies of his first tenure, namely the superiority of air power, and the necessity of America's European allies to have their own robust defensive capabilities.
Commander of the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Frederick Weyand
Creighton Abrams, the former leader of military operations in Vietnam, had been quickly and quietly replaced with General Frederick Weyand once McCarthy took office. Weyand had privately voiced skepticism on the chances of winning the Vietnam War, and was chosen on the basis that he would be the most willing to implement the Gavin Plan and facilitate a military withdrawal.
Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Hale Boggs
True to his word, President McCarthy had finally removed J. Edgar Hoover from his decades-long role as the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This had been a controversial decision, as Hoover enjoyed broad public approval, and held significant political clout. However, in the privacy of government facilities, he had created an extralegal leviathan that used blackmail, wiretapping, forgery, and even assassination in an effort to protect American from groups he considered to be dangerous subversives. Only very narrowly winning re-election, House Majority Whip Hale Boggs, a critic of the FBI's tendency to operate independently, jumped at the opportunity to head the agency. But, within days of entering the position Boggs suffered from massive internal resistance against what the agency saw as a political appointee, and some of McCarthy's more paranoid advisors thought Hoover would unleash some sort of retribution on the administration.
Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Thomas McCoy
McCarthy had long been a thorn in the side of the former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Richard Helms. Helms had opposed McCarthy's efforts to create an official CIA oversight committee in the Senate, a motion that failed due to many of McCarthy's colleagues believing that intelligence oversight was a prerogative of the executive office. Now in control of that very same executive office, McCarthy had replaced Helms with Thomas McCoy, one of his campaign advisors, and a former CIA agent who had had a leading role in operations in Southern Europe. Unlike Helms, McCoy was willing to publicly support an oversight committee in Congress, but would balk at the more extreme reforms of the CIA McCarthy had in mind.
Director of the National Security Agency Matthew Ridgway
Along with Gavin and Shoup, former general Matthew Ridgway was one of the three most prominent critics of the Vietnam War. Ridgway previously served as the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, and a leading general in America's effort in the Korean War, before being selected by McCarthy as Director of the National Security Agency. Ridgway had been one of the foreign policy "wise men" who advised President Johnson to withdraw from Vietnam, and played a role in turning Johnson's Secretary of Defense, Clark Clifford, against the war. Ridgway's first order of business will be shutter American military intelligence operations in what once was French Indochina, and to determine for McCarthy exactly how much the NSA knew about the Vietnam War that was not being shared with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The Cabinet
President Eugene McCarthy (MN, Liberal Democrat, Dove)
Against all odds, Eugene McCarthy had been elected President of the United States, and became the unparalleled idol of the anti-war movement in the process. With his 'New Politics' brand, McCarthy captured the key constituency of the suburban middle class, who bolstered his lower-than-average results with traditional Democratic demographics. Ideologically speaking, McCarthy was hard to pin down: his voting record in Congress indicated he was a typical liberal New Deal Democrat, his mannerisms and devotion to the Constitution indicated he was some kind of conservative, but his fervent belief in Catholic Social Gospel and his open calls for wealth redistribution put him on the fringe left of the Democratic Party. While the extent of his domestic ambitions remained in question, what was clear was that McCarthy intended to embark on a thorough restructuring of American foreign policy, starting by negotiating an end to the Vietnam War as soon as possible.
Vice President John Connally (TX, Conservative Democrat, Hawk)
Ironically, John Connally advocated for McCarthy to be selected for the vice presidency in 1964, and now, through slick political maneuvering, Lyndon Johnson's former protégé has attained the vice presidency himself. Reaching a last minute agreement with his campaign at the Democratic National Convention, Connally swung the South to McCarthy, providing his only feasible path to the nomination. In exchange, Connally was given the vice presidency, and a say over cabinet and judicial appointments. While beloved in his native Texas, many are ambivalent of Connally, as he served for years as a backroom lobbyist for the oil industry, and always seemed to pop up on the periphery of numerous scandals. Politically, Connally is a fiscal conservative and a moderate on social issues, having willingly desegregated Texas while governor, if only to avoid federal involvement. Previously one of the most hawkish Democrats in the nation, Connally now reluctantly follows the dovish party line. His presidential ambitions have become increasingly transparent over the years.
Secretary of State J. William Fulbright (AR, Conservative Democrat, Dove)
Up until his appointment as Secretary of State, J. William Fulbright had served as the Senator for Arkansas, and the Chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. One of the most outspoken critics of the Vietnam War, Fulbright was McCarthy's foreign policy mentor, and McCarthy's experiences on the Foreign Relations Committee shaped his opinion against the war. Fulbright is a strong believer in international cooperation and détente with the Soviet Union, but has proven a controversial choice for his longstanding support for segregation. When questioned about it, McCarthy would deflect by referring to his own robust civil rights record. Fulbright has been succeeded as Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee by Senator John Sparkman of Alabama, who is similarly skeptical of foreign adventurism. His Senate seat has been filled by Len E. Blaylock, an ally of Arkansas' moderate Republican governor, Winthrop Rockefeller.
Secretary of Treasury John Kenneth Galbraith (MA, Liberal Democrat, Dove)
A famous Post-Keynesian economist, John Kenneth Galbraith has served in every Democratic administration since Franklin Roosevelt. A founding member of Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), Galbraith had initially been reluctant when Allard Lowenstein approached the organization in attempt to align them to the Dump Johnson effort. However, soon after, Galbraith advised McCarthy to run for president, and became an economic advisor for his campaign. Galbraith had been willing to run against Johnson himself, until he learned that his Canadian birth disqualified him. Serving as a member of the Massachusetts delegation at the Democratic National Convention, Galbraith also seconded McCarthy's nomination at the convention. As Secretary of Treasury, Galbraith's main concerns were restructuring America's finances following the Vietnam War, addressing rising inflation, and dealing with McCarthy's penchant to pore over insignificant details of the tax code in order to slightly adjust them.
Secretary of Defense James M. Gavin (NY, Liberal Independent, Dov)
"Jumpin' Jim" Gavin was once again called into service for his country. A lieutenant general during the Second World War, Gavin was famous for making combat jumps alongside the paratroopers under his command, and worked to desegregate the army. A prominent critic of the Vietnam War, his 'Gavin Plan' is the cornerstone of McCarthy's Vietnam policy; search and destroy missions were to be abandoned, and American troops were to instead consolidate in fortified urban centres while a ceasefire was negotiated. Gavin believes that the existence of Mutually Assured Destruction has made nearly all conventional weapons obsolete, and that a better measure of success during the Cold War would be through analyzing social factors, such as the standard of living. He proposed a powerful anti-ballistic missile program as a military alternative. Gavin had been approached to run against Johnson himself, but declined to do so, instead endorsing Nelson Rockefeller during the Republican primaries, and McCarthy in the general election. Gavin intended to retire once the Vietnam War was resolved.
Attorney General David Ginsburg (NY, Liberal Democrat, Dove)
A founding member of Americans for Democratic Action, David Ginsburg is perhaps the most well-established figure of liberal politics in America who has never held elected office. Along with being an ADA founder, Ginsburg also had an early start in political lobbying in his efforts to get President Truman to recognize the nascent state of Israel. Ginsburg had also served as the executive director of the Kerner Commission, which determined that the main causes of black rioting were institutional racism and a lack of economic opportunity. The findings of the Kerner Commission were a cornerstone of McCarthy's domestic policy, and even though Ginsburg supported Humphrey at the Democratic National Convention, his anti-war credentials were enough to take him on as attorney general. From there, Ginsburg had to find away to implement the legal aspects of the very report he had overseen.
Postmaster General William E. Carlson (MN, Liberal Democrat, Dove)
If Eugene McCarthy's entire career had been one step behind Hubert Humphrey's, then William Carlson's entire career had been one step behind Eugene McCarthy's. Carlson had a respectable but unexceptional sting in Minnesota's House of Representatives, and ran and lost against then-Senator Edward Thye in 1952. Carlson had known McCarthy while they were both teaching in post-secondary education, and the two had each rooted for the others' political career. Expecting to be the go-to Senate candidate in 1958, Carlson was blindsided when McCarthy entered the race and went on to narrowly beat Thye in the general election. Since then, Carlson had served in a variety of minor state positions in Minnesota. Carlson had been McCarthy's choice to fill his Senate seat, but Minnesota's governor chose his fellow Republican, Clark MacGregor. As a sort of consolation prize, Carlson was selected for the position of Postmaster General.
Secretary of the Interior Ernest Gruening (AK, Liberal Democrat, Dove)
Along with Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon, Ernest Gruening was the only other member of Congress to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, earning himself a place as a hero of the anti-war movement. However, his maverick behaviour was unpopular back home in Alaska, and he was defeated in a primary challenge for his re-election by Mike Gravel, a further left Democrat who presented himself as further right while contrasting his youth against the elderly Gruening. With McCarthy's encouragement, Gruening ran as a write-in candidate, with Gruening's strong showing splitting the Democratic vote and throwing the election to the Republican, Elmer Rasmuson. Despite this, Gruening had been scooped up by the McCarthy Administration and placed in charge of the Department of the Interior. Gruening is considered one of America's foremost specialists on Mexican history.
Secretary of Agriculture William R. Poage (TX, Conservative Democrat, Hawk)
Having previously served as the Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, William R. Poage is one of Connally's cabinet picks. Poage's nomination served as a simultaneous assertion of Texan power in the administration, and a snub toward the Chairman of Senate Agriculture Committee, Herman Talmadge of Georgia, who had a mutual antipathy with McCarthy. Poage was a typical Southern Democrat in terms of policy, but when it came agriculture, he was a stalwart supporter of subsidies and price controls to help protect American farmers and agribusiness. In his role as Secretary of Agriculture, Poage was expected to work closely with McCarthy's soft power plans to use mass food exports as foreign aide to help stabilize Third World countries, in exchange for loyalty, or at least goodwill, in the Cold War.
Secretary of Commerce Frank Ikard (TX, Conservative Democrat, Hawk)
One of McCarthy's closest friends from Texas along with Homer Thornberry, Frank Ikard was a former member of the House of Representatives. After leaving politics, Ikard entered the fossil fuel industry in 1960 as an executive of the American Petroleum Institute. Disappointed that McCarthy would run against the President, Ikard sided with Johnson during the early Democratic primaries, but ultimately came to support McCarthy after the events of the Democratic National Convention. His past association with McCarthy along with the deal with Connally earned him a cabinet position as Secretary of Commerce. Ikard has warned that if changes are not made to the oil and gas industry that it could start to effect the Earth's climate by the year 2000, and has called for investigating alternative methods of fueling America.
Secretary of Labor Hubert Humphrey (MN, Liberal Democrat, Hawk)
In something of a demotion, former Vice President Hubert Humphrey has temporarily accepted the position of Secretary of Labor. Humphrey had been willing to put the past behind him, and campaigned hard for McCarthy after losing the nomination. Humphrey's enthusiastic support went a long way in rallying the AFL-CIO and other skeptical labour unions to McCarthy and minimizing defections to George Wallace. Despite McCarthy delighting in finally having seniority over his longtime colleague, the latest arrangement of their love-hate relationship will not last long, as Humphrey intends to return to the Senate in the 1970 midterm elections.
Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Daniel Patrick Moynihan (NY, Moderate Democrat, Realist)
One of three members of ADA in the cabinet, Daniel Patrick Moynihan was one of those who voted in favour of the organization endorsing McCarthy for the Democratic nomination, as served as a domestic advisor afterwards. While an opponent of the Vietnam War, Moynihan was equally critical of the New Left, which he saw as a gang of riotous hoodlums, particularly the anti-war and Black Power movements. Moynihan looked to reform the welfare state through a guaranteed annual income (also known as a universal basic income), and planned to implement McCarthy's version of it in the form of the Adequate Income Act.
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Joseph S. Clark Jr. (PN, Liberal Democrat, Dove)
Like Gruening, Joseph S. Clark Jr. lost his seat in the Senate during the 1968 elections, with his Republican challenger, Richard Schweiker, effectively using Clark's support for gun control and his opposition to the Vietnam War against him. Besides his time as the Senator for Pennsylvania, Clark is most well known for being the Mayor of Philadelphia, where he was famous for his anti-corruption initiatives, and low income housing projects. Clark served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee along with McCarthy and Fulbright, where he was an active critic of the Vietnam War even before McCarthy. Clark's chief responsibility as Secretary of Housing will be to implement McCarthy's ambitious plans to build low income housing in suburban areas as a way of quickly ending the de facto segregation of the ghettos.
Secretary of Transportation J. Howard Marshall (TX, Conservative Independent, Hawk)
A Texas oilman and longtime associate of McCarthy's, J. Howard Marshall is the embodiment of the new President's close ties to the oil industry. The two men first became acquainted when they were introduced to each other by Ikard and Thornberry upon McCarthy's entry into the House of Representatives. With McCarthy's help, Marshall was able to expedite the construction of the Pine Bend Refinery, and its pipelines that ran through McCarthy's district. Now, Marshall's expertise in fuel transportation and logistics are being put to use as Secretary of Transportation. McCarthy himself argues that his seemingly close relationship with the oil industry is not as significant as it seems; he claims that his votes in the Senate to continue tax exemptions for the oil industry were cast because he knew that the repeal would fail anyway.
Ambassador to the United Nations Chester Bowles (CN, Liberal Democrat, Dove)
A foreign policy advisor to Jack Kennedy and Adlai Stevenson before him, Chester Bowles was a founding member of ADA. During his time in the Kennedy Administration, he was eventually sidelined to more and more fringe positions for being too left wing, but now he had been selected as the new United States Ambassador to the United Nations. An opponent of the Vietnam War, Bowles had been one of those ADA members who was an early supporter of McCarthy's candidacy, and is a proponent of cooperation with the Third World and neutral countries. Following the decline in American prestige with the Vietnam War, Bowles hoped to rebuild bridges with the international community.
The Executive Office
First Lady Abigail McCarthy (MN, Liberal Democrat, Dove)
Although initially reluctant to have her husband run for President, Abigail McCarthy turned out to be an excellent organizer of Catholic and women's groups. Rallying volunteers, particularly in New Hampshire and Wisconsin, Abigail was a proactive member of the early campaign. However, her husband's staff considered her an overly-controlling political amateur, and when she took a break from the campaign for health reasons during the Indiana primary, there was very little room for her when she came back. Despite living in the same White House, Gene and Abigail are essentially estranged from each other, and pursue their own separate political and family activities.
Chief of Staff Tom Finney (CA, Liberal Democrat, Realist)
A former CIA agent, a Californian political lobbyist, and the campaign coordinator from the Oregon primary onward, no one is quite sure how Tom Finney and Gene McCarthy first met. Finney's intervention to add some professionalism to McCarthy's flagging campaign most likely saved it from collapse. Under Finney's watch, the campaign saw a nearly unbroken chain of victories in Oregon, California, New Jersey, and Illinois (only losing South Dakota), and had come on permanently as Chief of Staff. Finney had temporarily left the campaign during the summer of 1968 to mourn the death of his father, but came back in time to help run the general election effort. While highly respected by McCarthy's cabinet, Finney is loathed by most of McCarthy's staff, who consider him an interloper who led the campaign astray from its original grassroots idealism. Despite this, he is the only person holding McCarthy's ad hoc political operation together. Finney had an ongoing rivalry with the President's personal aide, Jerry Eller.
National Security Advisor George Kennan (WI, Independent Conservative, Realist)
The mastermind of the policy of Containment, George Kennan had been directly or indirectly responsible for most of America's geopolitical strategy since the beginning of the Cold War. In 1966, Kennan came before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to denounce the Vietnam War as having misconstrued his ideas, and announced he believed that Containment was no longer necessary to deal with the Soviet Union. Kennan now believed that limited cooperation was possible with communism, especially if McCarthy took advantage of the widening gap between the Soviets and the Chinese. Domestically, Kennan is a reactionary vehemently opposed to the New Left and the counterculture movement. He had floated the idea of having secret police round up protesters to have them tried in special political courts, and also voiced approval of South African aparthied.
Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors John T. Connor (MA, Liberal Democrat, Dove)
Lyndon Johnson's former Secretary of Commerce, John T. Connor resigned in protest of the expansion of the Vietnam War. As the Chair of the Committee of Business Executives Against the Vietnam War, he had supported McCarthy in the primaries. Following McCarthy's election, Connor returned to the executive office as one of the chief economic advisors to the President.
Chair of the National Aeronautics and Space Council John Connally (TX, Conservative Democrat, Hawk)
Following the precedent set by Jack Kennedy, the Chair of NASC continued to be the serving Vice President. McCarthy had little to no interest in space exploration, and was content to leave the Apollo program to its own devices for the time being. Once Apollo 11 completed its final preparations for the moon landing, McCarthy intended to dramatically cut the space budget.
Chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board Sam Ervin (NC, Conservative Democrat, Realist)
Formerly the Senator for North Carolina, Sam Ervin had joined the executive office as the chief intelligence advisor to the President. Ervin is a Southern legal expert, and frequently used constitutional arguments to justify racial segregation. However, Ervin was also an ardent civil libertarian on privacy issues, and was suspiciou of the powers of America's secret agencies, much like McCarthy himself. On the Vietnam War, Ervin supported gradual withdrawal. Early in McCarthy's presidency, the position of Chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board was left intentionally vacant so that Ervin could vote on some early legislation to tighten controls on the CIA.
Director of the Bureau of the Budget Howard Stein (NY, Liberal Independent, Dove)
Howard Stein was one of the biggest donors to McCarthy's campaign. He served on the campaign's finance committee, and ruled his own fiefdom within the New York campaign, separate from other McCarthy efforts in the state, and where he produced his own commercials for the campaign. Stein was representative of the liberal, philanthropic, nouveau riche support that McCarthy enjoyed. Stein was also the President of the Dreyfus Corporation, which specialized in investments, and masterminded the no load money market fund, which invested in low-risk government debt assets, such as Treasury bills, to strengthen the value of a stock portfolio.
United States Trade Representative Thomas Finletter (NY, Liberal Democrat, Dove)
A former member of the Truman Administration and an old Stevenson supporter, Thomas Finletter had been one of the first people to directly approach McCarthy to ask him to challenge Johnson in the 1968 primaries. During the campaign, Finletter served as the representative of the clique of Stevensonian Wall Street bankers who financed large parts of the campaign. Finletter was previously involved in implementing the Marshall Plan through his work in the Economic Cooperation Administration, and is familiar with the world of European financing. It was on that basis that he was chosen as the United States Trade Representative.
United States Poet Laureate Robert Lowell (MA, Liberal Independent, Dove)
Previously appointed by Congress and attached to the Library of Congress, McCarthy had uplifted the position of United States Poet Laureate to the executive office, and appointed his close friend Robert Lowell to the position. Lowell was arguably the President’s closest confidante, and provided his own opinions on political matters when the two were not writing poetry together.
The Military and Intelligence Agencies
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff David M. Shoup
A general of the Marine Corps during the Second World War, David M. Shoup was one of the most prominent critics of the Vietnam War during the Johnson Administration.
Shoup drew controversy for not only criticizing the war, but the entirety of American society for being too militaristic and too indentured to the military-industrial complex. Shoup emphasized combat readiness and budget efficiency, and had come out of retirement to trim the fat of the military budget and redistribute the nation's military resources out of Vietnam.
Supreme Allied Commander Europe Lauris Norstad
A former Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Lauris Norstad is the first man to reprise the role. Norstad was possibly the most dovish of America's generals to come out against the Vietnam War, believing in a thorough and rapid disengagement. As Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Norstad continued to believe in the policies of his first tenure, namely the superiority of air power, and the necessity of America's European allies to have their own robust defensive capabilities.
Commander of the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Frederick Weyand
Creighton Abrams, the former leader of military operations in Vietnam, had been quickly and quietly replaced with General Frederick Weyand once McCarthy took office. Weyand had privately voiced skepticism on the chances of winning the Vietnam War, and was chosen on the basis that he would be the most willing to implement the Gavin Plan and facilitate a military withdrawal.
Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Hale Boggs
True to his word, President McCarthy had finally removed J. Edgar Hoover from his decades-long role as the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This had been a controversial decision, as Hoover enjoyed broad public approval, and held significant political clout. However, in the privacy of government facilities, he had created an extralegal leviathan that used blackmail, wiretapping, forgery, and even assassination in an effort to protect American from groups he considered to be dangerous subversives. Only very narrowly winning re-election, House Majority Whip Hale Boggs, a critic of the FBI's tendency to operate independently, jumped at the opportunity to head the agency. But, within days of entering the position Boggs suffered from massive internal resistance against what the agency saw as a political appointee, and some of McCarthy's more paranoid advisors thought Hoover would unleash some sort of retribution on the administration.
Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Thomas McCoy
McCarthy had long been a thorn in the side of the former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Richard Helms. Helms had opposed McCarthy's efforts to create an official CIA oversight committee in the Senate, a motion that failed due to many of McCarthy's colleagues believing that intelligence oversight was a prerogative of the executive office. Now in control of that very same executive office, McCarthy had replaced Helms with Thomas McCoy, one of his campaign advisors, and a former CIA agent who had had a leading role in operations in Southern Europe. Unlike Helms, McCoy was willing to publicly support an oversight committee in Congress, but would balk at the more extreme reforms of the CIA McCarthy had in mind.
Director of the National Security Agency Matthew Ridgway
Along with Gavin and Shoup, former general Matthew Ridgway was one of the three most prominent critics of the Vietnam War. Ridgway previously served as the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, and a leading general in America's effort in the Korean War, before being selected by McCarthy as Director of the National Security Agency. Ridgway had been one of the foreign policy "wise men" who advised President Johnson to withdraw from Vietnam, and played a role in turning Johnson's Secretary of Defense, Clark Clifford, against the war. Ridgway's first order of business will be shutter American military intelligence operations in what once was French Indochina, and to determine for McCarthy exactly how much the NSA knew about the Vietnam War that was not being shared with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
- The Lethargic Lett
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