Bicentennial Man: Ford '76 and Beyond

Don’t know enough about it; I’d say probably relatively similar?
Ah alright well i do share something that could be his downfall not too long ago so maybe you could take some inspirstion from it

Also speaking of the 80s will the decline of pan am and TWA still occur?
 
Ah alright well i do share something that could be his downfall not too long ago so maybe you could take some inspirstion from it

Also speaking of the 80s will the decline of pan am and TWA still occur?
Airline history is my jam so we’ll have some content on that here shortly sctually!
 
Guess Who's Shooting at Dinner
Guess Who's Shooting at Dinner [1]​

"...under the relevant articles of the Constitution of the Fourth Republic of Korea, the city of Busan and the city of Masan are hereby officially under martial law. A strict curfew will be enforced, and any resistance to said curfew will not be tolerated..."

- KBS Announcement of martial law in response to Bu-Ma Protest Movement


South Korean President Park Chung-hee was, for the first time since he narrowly won the 1963 Presidential elections, truly politically endangered. A siege mentality had descended over the Blue House; not only were protests spreading in Busan and Masan over the expulsion of opposition leader Kim Young-sam from the National Assembly, but now sympathy protests seemed to be emerging across the country, even in Seoul. Thousands had been arrested, and dozens wounded in the ensuing crackdown. The mood within Park's inner circle was funereal, divided between the more moderate and accommodationist KCIA Director Kim Jae-gyu and the fierce hardline chief security advisor/head bodyguard for President Park, Cha Ji-chul.

Park was not well served by either of his close subordinates; the dispute between Kim and Cha had become so toxic they refused to work together, and Cha's Rasputin-like influence over the President to Kim seemed to be doing nothing but destabilizing the situation. Cha controlled almost an entire division of the army in Seoul personally; Kim the entire security apparatus. As the paranoia set in, something had to give - the United States' warning about Kim Young-sam was sternly worded and tensions in the alliance could not become more fraught with the events in the southwest of the country.

Kim finally decided that the ROK needed a savior - him, in other words. At a dinner on October 26, 1979, he brought with him a gun. Korean historians have debated to this day what Kim's intentions were with his weapon. Had he premeditated the attack with other co-conspirators, as Park would later allege? Or was it a snap decision in the heat of the moment? Whatever the case, Kim drew the gun and opened fire while at the dinner table in the Blue House's safe house, striking President Park in the upper right chest and Cha in the arm, before he was wrestled to the ground by Chief Secretary Kim Gye-won. Outside, Park's bodyguards heard the shots and got into a shooting match with two KCIA men Kim had stationed outside; all four died of gunshot wounds sustained. Cha, outraged, rounded the table, snatched the loose gun from the floor and shot Kim Jae-gyu twice in the head at point blank range, killing him instantly.

Park was rushed to a hospital and the regime plunged into chaos. Army Chief of Staff Jeung Seung-hwa, dining in an adjacent room, ordered his guards to seize KCIA Deputy Director Kim Jeong-seop after hearing angry shouts that "the KCIA is murdering the President!" The swift move may have been decisive in securing his survival in the ensuing purge; despite suspicions from other corners of the Army that he may have been involved, Jeung's show of loyalty and quick radioing to his army units to impose martial law on Seoul and mobilize in case of "instability" (read: a North Korean attack once their spies inevitably learned of Park's wounding) kept him out of Park and Cha's immediate suspicions, which would prove a grave mistake.

Cha mobilized his own units while stubbornly accepting medical attention at the Blue House; for several hours on the evening of October 26, it was unclear who, exactly, was in charge of the Republic. Security Command chief Chun Doo-hwan, recently installed and ever-ambitious, ordered an immediate review and telephoned Cha throughout the night to draw up a list of potential co-conspirators, all of them incidentally their enemies within the national security establishment. Cha reassured Chun that he would immediately suggest their mutual friend Roh Tae-woo for the next director of the KCIA and expand their mutual influence to that body as well; Jeong, aware that both Chun and Roh were members of the secretive and exclusive (and quite political) Hanahoe faction of the ROK Army, needed a plan of his own as it became clear that Park's wounds were severe and though he seemed likely to survive, the power vacuum that could ensue and the groundswell of support that it would provide the democracy movement potentially would create chaos.

The 27th brought the first leak that Park was in distress; incidentally, the United States found out about it from a well-placed mole in Pyongyang before they heard about it from Jeong, who had established backchannels with Secretary of State Bush earlier in the year as they discussed ways to work around Park to try to suspend South Korea's nuclear weapons program. Fearing that North Korea might try to take advantage of the assassination attempt and Park's lengthy surgery to save his life, US forces in South Korea, Okinawa and the Japanese Home Islands were mobilized, and naval assets in the area placed on high alert. Late October of 1979 was, in East Asia, one of the tensest times in recent memory, and nobody quite knew what would come next once Park emerged from the barricaded wing at the army hospital where Kim Gye-won ordered him taken...

[1] Not to toot my own horn too much, but this may be the best chapter title I've ever come up with
 
Tremendous title sir.

Wonder if the inevitable repressions and protests as a result of this will make South Korea more or less democratic long term.
 
Tremendous title sir.

Wonder if the inevitable repressions and protests as a result of this will make South Korea more or less democratic long term.
Well thank you!

I did quite a bit of research into this earlier today perusing old Park Chung-hee related threads from over the last decade; unfortunately, as I’m sure you can imagine, there’s not a ton of non-Japan/non-China material on here when it comes to East Asia, and most of the Korea threads are related to the war. There was one TL with a similar premise - Park surviving - that fizzled after one update.

From what I’ve gleaned; the Yushin regime was on borrowed time (like, months or even weeks) by the time of the 10.26 Incident, and it was genuinely up in the air what would follow. Chun Doo-hwan simply took advantage of the vacuum and played the game in those critical first weeks better than anyone else. Man literally came out of nowhere to usurp much more senior military and civilian leaders alike
 
1979 United States gubernatorial elections
1979 United States gubernatorial elections

Kentucky: Incumbent Julian Carroll (D) term-limited. Harvey Sloane (D) 54.1%, Louie Nunn (R) 44.1% [1] - D Hold
Louisiana: Incumbent Edwin Edwards (D) term-limited. Jimmy Fitzmorris (D) 57.8%, Louis Lambert (D) 42.2% [2] - D Hold
Mississippi: Incumbet Cliff Finch (D) term-limited. William Winter (D) 64.5%, Gil Carmichael (R) 32.1% - D Hold

[1] The attacks on John Y. Brown's wealth, extravagance and inexperience by Terry McBrayer in the primary work... and Sloane, running a positive campaign on his accomplishments as Mayor of Louisville, wins the primary as a result! However, his profile as an urban Democrat in a liberal, large-black population city dings him a bit against Nunn in a racially polarized campaign
[2] Shoddy poll numbers for Republicans nationwide narrowly keep Dave Treen out of the runoffs in Louisiana's unique jungle primary, and as a result the more conservative Fitzmorris beats Lambert going away despite his personal scandals and controversies (this is Louisiana in the 1970s after all)
 
Ryan's Revenge Tour
Ryan's Revenge Tour

"...I said a year ago I would do everything in my power to see to it that the Jonestown families saw justice, and that everyone - and I mean everyone - who let this cult, this cancer, and the madman at the top of it prosper, thrive and build influence in this state would have to pay a penalty for the rest of their careers. I swore, from my hospital bed after being told I'd never walk again, that I would make it my mission in life..."

- Congressman Leo Ryan after San Francisco Municipal Elections


The 1970s had, if it was possible, been even more volatile in San Francisco than even the 1960s had. In later years, historians would claim that "in Frisco, the 60s never really ended." The Alioto and Moscone mayoralties had started in the shadow of the Zodiac Killings, Symbionese Liberation Army and Zebra murders and beyond that been tumultuous in their own right, including the former having his house bombed by the SFPD during a labor strife [1], and the emergence of an activist gay community in the city had polarized public opinions and even led to police riots on Castro Street, and made Supervisor Harvey Milk a celebrity in his state and lightning rod for conservatives.

And that was all before the Jonestown murders and political fallout of the People's Temple.

1979's city elections, then, promised to be a punctuation mark on a decade of chaos and change. Moscone, against the advice of many of his political allies such as Carol Ruth Silver or Milk, decided to seek a second term. He viewed his role as a polarizing figure as a sign that he was doing something right, particularly the contempt he drew from "the reactionaries." His longtime foe on the Board of Supes, Dianne Feinstein, was retiring back to private life; conservative Supervisor Quentin Kopp seemed like his likeliest opponent and he was confident in his ability to make the race a referendum on "bringing Jerry Ford to the Bay."

Moscone's analysis was simplistic, and he forgot one of the most important rules of politics - you're only as powerful as your allies allow you to be, and you're always expendable to your allies. Milk in particular was profoundly skeptical Moscone could earn reelection after the People's Temple killings and the cult's heavy association with the Mayor, and worried that Kopp and the "Feinstein faction" would take power easily against the embattled Mayor. With a liberal majority on the Board likely with Feinstein retiring and Kopp giving up his seat to run for Mayor, Milk thought the best solution was to tack to the middle, surprising many of his allies and fellow activists. His evolution as a pragmatic operator had only just begun.

To that effect, Milk wound up giving his quiet thumbs-up to a dark horse candidate who felt out San Francisco movers and shakers throughout 1979 - Art Agnos, a former aide to Speaker Leo McCarthy and now an Assemblyman himself, who had in fact defeated Harvey Milk for said seat in the Assembly three years earlier in Milk's first and most spirited run for office. Milk had largely buried the hatchet by then, satisfied that Agnos was sufficiently progressive for his needs and more importantly could be a viable alternative to Moscone. Like in 1976, Agnos enjoyed the crucial support of Speaker McCarthy behind him as well as the crucial support of another Leo - Congressman Leo Ryan, who had helped form the Jonestown Families Association (JFA) which aggressively lobbied for investigations into the political connections of the People's Temple and, in particular, aimed to crusade against the San Francisco establishment that had allowed Jim Jones such influence. Moscone, more than anyone, symbolized the post-Jones outrage, and he was Ryan's biggest target. Milk, even if he still had harbored ill feelings towards Agnos, was canny enough to realize that institutional opposition to Moscone was about to be overwhelming among moderates and progressives alike, and picked the smart horse. The rest of the progressive Supes followed suit, and Moscone placed a distant third in the initial election before Agnos triumphed, narrowly, over Kopp in the fall election.

The episode did set up for a new paradigm as the Eighties dawned, though; Feinstein and Kopp's retirements gave progressives a now 7-4 majority on the board and Gordon Lau was propelled to the Chairmanship of the Board. Moscone may have lost, but his impact was not going away - and Milk had fertile ground to prepare himself for bigger and better things...


[1] This may actually be underselling how insane and lawless the SFPD and FDSF strike in 1975 was, and how spineless Mayor Alioto was in caving to them and not having the National Guard send them home off the picket line

(I don't actually have any personal connection to SF - I've only been there once - it's just a really fascinating city, politically, in the 1970s, and as this is a US-focused TL I think it's worth exploring, mostly for my own interest, even though 1970s SF municipal politics is as small ball as it gets in a TL that's also covered Soviet and Chinese Communist Party backstabbing behind the scenes)
 

mspence

Banned
I've been wondering what music is like in this TL...I assume disco died out earlier & maybe punk and new wave were more popular, influenced by the debacle in Panama and the economy, and electronic Kraftwerk style music as well?
The late seventies was the era of "fluff" tv shows like Fantasy island and The Love Boat, does that still happen (I'd hate it if The Incredible Hulk wasn't made, that was one of my favorite shows as a kid).
As far as the candidates go, I really don't see Scoop Jackson going anywhere; if anything he's probably been pretty much discredited by Panama, Africa, etc.
For the Republicans, what about John Connally or Howard Baker?
 
I've been wondering what music is like in this TL...I assume disco died out earlier & maybe punk and new wave were more popular, influenced by the debacle in Panama and the economy, and electronic Kraftwerk style music as well?
The late seventies was the era of "fluff" tv shows like Fantasy island and The Love Boat, does that still happen (I'd hate it if The Incredible Hulk wasn't made, that was one of my favorite shows as a kid).
As far as the candidates go, I really don't see Scoop Jackson going anywhere; if anything he's probably been pretty much discredited by Panama, Africa, etc.
For the Republicans, what about John Connally or Howard Baker?
That’s a great question. I don’t think Incredible Hulk is butterflied; it debuted in Nov of 1977 after all. Fluffy shows might be escapist for a tired, cranky populace anyways, but I don’t know enough about the music trends of the times to really comment.

Connally has a very good chance of making it far in the primaries; he is absolutely Reagan’s biggest threat on the right. Baker is more or less seeking the lane sought out by Bush OTL and has it much more to himself. To be honest, I’ve never been quite sure how Baker, as Senate Minority Leader and having won statewide elections in the Solid South as a Republican, didn’t box out an apparatchik like Bush in OTL 1980
 
Man reading the title got me psyched. California sounds like it's going to be quite chaotic cometh the new decade.
 
@KingSweden24 Read your chapter of Papa Park getting shot. I was impressed, but I have some questions:
1.) The other KCIA agents with machine guns who opened fire on half of the Presidential Security Service agents (who were eating in the kitchen of the KCIA safehouse). Did Kim Jae-gyu's accomplices get arrested?

2.) The two females who were in the safehouse when Papa Park got shot. What happened to them?

3.) Assuming Park Geun-hye and her sister (their brother was in the ROK Military Academy at the time) are still at the Blue House awaiting word on their father's condition?
 
@KingSweden24 Read your chapter of Papa Park getting shot. I was impressed, but I have some questions:
1.) The other KCIA agents with machine guns who opened fire on half of the Presidential Security Service agents (who were eating in the kitchen of the KCIA safehouse). Did Kim Jae-gyu's accomplices get arrested?

2.) The two females who were in the safehouse when Papa Park got shot. What happened to them?

3.) Assuming Park Geun-hye and her sister (their brother was in the ROK Military Academy at the time) are still at the Blue House awaiting word on their father's condition?
Mea culpa here that my research on the 10.26 Incident used a wonderfully in-depth source known as Wikipedia.com, lol. The exact geography of the Blue House and who was where was not immediately apparent. I believe in the chapter the bodyguards all wound up shooting each other in some fashion and Kim Jeong-seop was arrested. Jae-gyu of course is dead, shot on the spot by an outraged Cha. Nobody else in the safe room was shot, so the females are fine like OTL

The Park daughters are, presumably, still at the house, yes.
 
Mea culpa here that my research on the 10.26 Incident used a wonderfully in-depth source known as Wikipedia.com, lol. The exact geography of the Blue House and who was where was not immediately apparent. I believe in the chapter the bodyguards all wound up shooting each other in some fashion and Kim Jeong-seop was arrested. Jae-gyu of course is dead, shot on the spot by an outraged Cha. Nobody else in the safe room was shot, so the females are fine like OTL

The Park daughters are, presumably, still at the house, yes.
Big question is whether Papa Park retires & grooms Chun Doo-hwan as his successor? 🤔

Something tells me Chun & Roh Tae-woo aren't going to just "wait their turn".

President Ford better man up!
 
Big question is whether Papa Park retires & grooms Chun Doo-hwan as his successor? 🤔

Something tells me Chun & Roh Tae-woo aren't going to just "wait their turn".

President Ford better man up!
Not to tip my hand too much but my sense on Chun is that he only got where he was thanks to a very specific set of circumstances in the immediate power vacuum after Park’s death. Cha surviving and Jeong having control of the military in full creates two rivals simply within the armed forces bloc who aren’t too fond of Hanahoe’s cliquishness
 
Not to tip my hand too much but my sense on Chun is that he only got where he was thanks to a very specific set of circumstances in the immediate power vacuum after Park’s death. Cha surviving and Jeong having control of the military in full creates two rivals simply within the armed forces bloc who aren’t too fond of Hanahoe’s cliquishness
Wasn't Papa Park the one, who allowed Hanahoe to grow?

Looking forward to seeing full chapter on India. I've got some pictures of Sanjay & Maneka Gandhi for your India chapter (I'll post one to you sometime next week)
 
Wasn't Papa Park the one, who allowed Hanahoe to grow?

Looking forward to seeing full chapter on India. I've got some pictures of Sanjay & Maneka Gandhi for your India chapter (I'll post one to you sometime next week)
I mean, he was, but that was just one of many factions. My understanding is that in the Park era the power centers were Cha personally and the KCIA under Kim generally. When both those things got decapitated Chun took advantage of being in charge of the investigation and Hanahoe was ascendant

Thank you!
 
Intrigued to see your chapter on Pinochet of Chile & post-Franco Spain.
Yeah I’ll need to do a few updates here soon on Western Europe outside of the UK, speaking of.

As for Pinochet a lot of immediate content there’s just been covered pretty recently; winning the Beagle War has basically broken most of the opposition to him and he’ll be around a long time as caudillo (unfortunately)
 
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