AHC:Boring 1968

With a POD NLT January 1, 1964, how much can 1968 be made "boring". I'd prefer that this *not* be done by making 1967 and/1969 even more ugly than 1968, but smoothing things out across a wider period may be workable...

I understand that the USA was particularly non-boring that year, but the non-boringness of the year seems somewhat world wide.
 
What if the British polish peace proposal ended the vietnam war in 67? Lyndon Johnson will probably run for relection. Dr. King may live. Trudeau Senior may not come to power. What if THE USSR doesn't invade Prague?
 
Nukes fly in late 1966, the conventional leftovers wear themselves out by early 1967, bulk of the die-off is over by Christmas. Not a lot of people to do a lot of anything in 1968.
 

Redcoat

Banned
Nukes fly in late 1966, the conventional leftovers wear themselves out by early 1967, bulk of the die-off is over by Christmas. Not a lot of people to do a lot of anything in 1968.
Heh totally not the intent of the OP
 
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North and South Vietnam agree to a coalition gov’t which kind of sort of works out, but boy, there a lot of boring details in longish newspaper articles which few people actually read to completion.

For example, Vietnamese communists and traditionalists agree to targets on land reform, which the traditionalists are actually going to implement to satisfy themselves that it’s done in nonabusive fashion. And . . . it kind of works out. But seemingly a ton of boring, tedious details.

And we still need to talk about France in 1968 !
 
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Wallet

Banned
The Gulk of Tonkin incident never occurs. American involment remains limited and most Americans continue “never heard of Vietnam”. Eugene McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy don’t run for president.

LBJ spends more time working on civil rights. He’s elected in a fairly quite re election
 
There is a no confidence vote in vorster. The election forces the Nationalists to take the edge off apartheid, by going into coalition with the United Party against the liberal progressives. Botha style reforms 15 years earlier. End the pass laws, give loyal bantu representation in a federal council by themselves, and in parliament by whites.
Whites remain in charge, but the edge is taken off, in a Rhodesian style evolution.
 
In ‘68, France faced “ . . . a growing student revolt, the emergence of working-class strikes, and organized opposition from the powerful unions, . . . . . rising Communist Party agitation within Parliament . . . ”

https://www.dhr.history.vt.edu/modules/eu/mod05_1968/evidence_detail_08.html

On May 24, Charles de Gaulle called for a national referendum.

On May 27, 1968, after the unions turned down a potential deal, he cancelled that referendum and dissolved Parliament. He “asked citizens to oppose the threat of totalitarian dictatorship posed by the students and the French Communist Party. The address was followed by a large anti-Communist rally in central Paris.”

“Although the strikes continued well into June, they transformed from revolutionary insurrection into negotiated settlements over wages and benefits. The reinvigorated forces of law and order soon crushed all that remained of the student revolt.”

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Philosopher Jeremy Bentham once said, wars and storms are best to read of, but peace and calms are best to actually live through! (my paraphrase)

Yes, a boring 1968 probably would have been better.
 
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kernals12

Banned
That book is saying militarily they got rolling, but didn’t do much on the political front, and so the attempt failed.

Regarding ‘58 coup attempt in France.
They got the government to resign, they got De Gaulle installed as president, and they got a new constitution, that seems like a bizarre claim.
 
Encyclopedia Britannica (old 1981 edition):

https://books.google.com/books?id=x...ps in Algiers went into the streets "&f=false

“On May 13 [1958], when a new Cabinet was scheduled to present its program to the National Assembly, activist groups in Algiers went into the streets in an effort to influence parliament’s vote. By nightfall they were in control of the city and set up an emergency government with local army support. de Gaulle on May 15 announced that he was prepared to take power if called to do so by his fellow citizens. Two weeks of negotiations followed, interspersed with threats of violent action by the Algiers rebels. Most of the Fourth Republic’s political leaders concluded that de Gaulle’s return was the only alternative to an army coup that might lead to civil war. On June 1 [1958], therefore, the National Assembly voted de Gaulle full powers for six months, thus putting a de facto end to the Fourth Republic.”

So, I’m thinking this isn’t the episode in which soldiers parachuted into Paris.

Two separate episodes (at least!)
 
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https://books.google.com/books?id=Q...fold: the abortive general's putsch "&f=false

' . . . The ultras' response was twofold: the abortive general's putsch of 22-25 April 1961 led by four erstwhile commanders in Algiers — Maurice Challe, André Zeller, Edmound Jouhaud, and Raoul Salan; and, once that coup attempt collapsed, the intensification of the OAS campaign of murder and intimidation against supporters of a pull out. . . '
France seems to have had a tumultuous history during much of the post-war period.
 
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