@Pokemon Master, here's a rough one I made using 270 to Win's map. I have no experience with Wikiboxes or some of the other tools authors on here use, but I think it gets the job done.
Blue Skies in Camelot: An Alternate 60's and Beyond
- Thread starter President_Lincoln
- Start date
@Pokemon Master, here's a rough one I made using 270 to Win's map. I have no experience with Wikiboxes or some of the other tools authors on here use, but I think it gets the job done.
Fantastic update, @President_Lincoln!
Moving on to the next update, what do you plan to change from OTL? Without Johnson, his political skills won't be available for Kennedy to use, and surely the respect given to a survivor of assassination should be fading.
Moving on to the next update, what do you plan to change from OTL? Without Johnson, his political skills won't be available for Kennedy to use, and surely the respect given to a survivor of assassination should be fading.
Huh, I just realized when rereading this that Marilyn winning Best Actress for Harlow means that Julie Andrews doesn't win Best Actress for Mary Poppins as a result. She undoubtedly still is nominated, but simply doesn't win. Well, maybe she'll get lucky and win it the following year instead for her role Sound of Music (which she honestly should have in OTL).
By the way, I hope Star Trek manages to get a complete five season run, and that we get the never made episodes like Joanna, Tomorrow Was Yesterday, The Godhead, and Portrait in Black and White. Actually, I would also love to see an (pre?) adaption of Parallel Lives, which if you don't know what that is, basically it's a original mini-arc from the IDW Star Trek ongoing comic from a few years back, and it basically features the crew of the Enterprise encountering a rift in space that leads them to meeting a parallel universe's Enterprise, but said Enterprise is a Genderbent universe. Maybe have the episode inspired by Marilyn Monroe's feminist ideals?
I’ll be honest, I can’t see RFK even running in 1968 in the first place. He ran after going through a huge personal change following JFK’s death in OTL, one he’s unlikely to go through here. JFK's death made Bobby the new leader of the family and a lot of their hopes and dreams went into him. If he ever does run, it’ll be more from pressure from the Kennedy family to do so, and even then I don’t think it’s be until sometime in the 1970’s, a 1976 run for example I could maybe see, or even a 1980 run, but not really any time before, and not without pressure from other members of the Kennedy family. The only person who I think could make RFK run in '68 or '72 is JFK himself, and I don't think he'd force his brother to do that if he really didn't want to.
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Thank you very much! I don't want to give too much away (spoilers and all) but I can say that President Kennedy is pursuing a lot of the same programs which Johnson pursued in his "Great Society" IOTL. You're right that Kennedy won't have Johnson's political skills to rely on, meaning he'll need to seek new alliances and mend fences with other members of the Democratic Party if he wants to get anything done. He's already alienated social conservatives in the South, so his only chance rests with Hubert Humphrey and the liberals. I agree that the survivor affect is starting to wane somewhat. Despite Kennedy's continued high approval ratings, his electoral victory over Rockefeller was pretty slim for a popular incumbent.
I have to agree with Nerdman on this one. RFK will continue on as part of his brother's cabinet and will feature prominently throughout TTL, I can say that with some confidence.
But he probably won't run for President in '68. He could, and very likely would, run for another position though. Possibly the U.S. Senate or Governor of New York. Both of those ideas interest me greatly! If there is demand for it, I can start including the Academy Award winners in the annual pop culture updates. As for Star Trek, I'd be happy to see it get more of a chance to flourish ITTL. Stay tuned on that front.
Great update once again!
I like that Marilyn got the lead for Harlow and won an Oscar for it. Hopefully the first of many ITTL. It was also interesting to see you put Judy Garland in Mary Poppins as the mother. I do have to wonder though what this does for her future because in OTL, she started her downward spiral around this period when her short-lived variety show was axed after one season, eventually ending in her death in 1969.
Enjoyed how you worked Star Trek into this update. And like a couple of others who've commented, I hope it goes for longer than the 3 seasons than it did in OTL. But what will this do to the fandom that sprouted after it's untimely axing as well as subsequent movies and new series. Of course you may not stretch out this TL that far, but maybe someone else can speculate on it.
Also liked the sports "page" and seeing that Joltin' Joe is headed to the LA Dodgers as a hitting coach. A head coach maybe down the road?
I like that Marilyn got the lead for Harlow and won an Oscar for it. Hopefully the first of many ITTL. It was also interesting to see you put Judy Garland in Mary Poppins as the mother. I do have to wonder though what this does for her future because in OTL, she started her downward spiral around this period when her short-lived variety show was axed after one season, eventually ending in her death in 1969.
Enjoyed how you worked Star Trek into this update. And like a couple of others who've commented, I hope it goes for longer than the 3 seasons than it did in OTL. But what will this do to the fandom that sprouted after it's untimely axing as well as subsequent movies and new series. Of course you may not stretch out this TL that far, but maybe someone else can speculate on it.
Also liked the sports "page" and seeing that Joltin' Joe is headed to the LA Dodgers as a hitting coach. A head coach maybe down the road?
Thank you!
Always happy to work Trek and more news about Marilyn into the updates. Joltin' Joe's future with LA will probably ultimately depend on his performance and whether or not he can help them continue their Koufax-era dynasty. I will say though, with his skills and an already impressive team behind him, head coach DiMaggio could be a strong possibility.As for Judy Garland, you're 100% right that this was IOTL the beginning of the end for her. I thought letting her career have a little bit of a comeback might be nice. I'm going to try and strike a balance so that not every celebrity gets a happy ending ITTL, but I don't see why she can't.
Chapter 14
Chapter 14: Count Me In - January through June, 1965
An inch of snow softly blanketed the ground and clouds hid the sun on the morning of January 20th, 1965. It was time for John F. Kennedy to once again swear the oath of office and be inaugurated for his second term as President of the United States of America and Leader of the Free World. A noontime temperature of 38 degrees was hardly balmy, but warmer than many inaugurations of years past. As the President approached the bandstand in front of the Capitol to go and swear the oath, the First Lady smiled. Holding hands for all to see, as was now their usual custom, Kennedy turned to his wife. “What is it, Jackie?”
“It’s not snowing like it was last year, Jack. It’s warmer too. I think it’s a good sign.” She put her other hand over her husband’s and squeezed it tightly. “There’s blue skies ahead for us, my love.”
The President returned her smile and nodded solemnly. “Here’s hoping you’re right, dear.” The crowd of several hundred thousand roared as Chief Justice Earl Warren administered the oath to the reelected Kennedy. Though a few years older than he had been in 1960, when he became the youngest man ever to be elected President, JFK was wiser and still a decade younger than the average chief executive. In his heart, Kennedy was ready to do what he must to make his second term count. No longer would he be concerned merely with politics and popularity, he was going to fight for what he felt was right for the country. For starters, this meant prosecuting a war not against Communists in Vietnam, but against poverty.
“We speak about the millions starving in Red China,” Kennedy said in his speech that January morning. “We point out that this is a great sin of the Communist way of life. Yet, when greeted with the reality of thousands of Americans who don’t have enough to eat, we turn our backs and say there’s nothing we can do for them. I reject this position. I refuse to believe that there is any problem, any issue, any societal ill that this great American system of ours cannot solve. We will fight this great plague of poverty. We will fight it in the streets. We will fight it in the school house. And we will fight it at the voting booth. I vow to you, my fellow Americans, that I will not rest until every American has the opportunity to share in that most elegant of ideals: the American dream.”
The second inaugural was well received and the President prepared to once again enter office with an approval rating hovering between 61 and 65%, depending on the poll one studied. It seemed that many in the country were happy to follow their charming, energetic leader wherever he would take them. Right off the bat however, new challenges presented themselves which the White House would need to address. For starters, the President would need to shuffle around his cabinet to replace US Ambassador to the United Nations, Adlai Stevenson II, whom Kennedy had appointed back in 1961.
Stevenson had passed away suddenly from a massive heart attack not a week out from Kennedy’s second inaugural. He was 64 years old. In replacing Stevenson, the President wanted to appoint a new UN Ambassador who would carry forth the administration’s foreign policy of detente and containment. One who would show the world that while the United States would not stand by and allow Communism to spread, it would not go picking fights with the Soviets, Chinese, and other nations of the world. After considering several options, the President decided to send current Secretary of State Dean Rusk. Rusk had been one of the first members of Kennedy’s cabinet to express doubts about American involvement in a conflict in Vietnam, and the President took this skepticism as proof that Rusk was just the man for the job. This of course left a new hole within the cabinet, and the President was back at square one, leading to the need to shuffle even more of the executive branch. Kennedy, never afraid of a challenge or the prospect of something fresh, quickly set about reorganizing his advisors into positions as he saw fit. With a nearly two thirds majority in the Senate, he correctly held little doubt that his choices would be approved.
The Kennedy Administration (As of 1965)
President - John F. Kennedy
Vice President - J. Terry Sanford
Secretary of State - Robert S. McNamara
Secretary of Treasury - C. Douglas Dillon
Secretary of Defense - Robert F. Kennedy
Attorney General - Nicholas Katzenbach
Postmaster General - John A. Gronouski
Secretary of the Interior - Stewart Udall
Secretary of Agriculture - Orville Freeman
Secretary of Commerce - Luther H. Hodges
Secretary of Labor - W. Willard Wirtz
Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare - Anthony Celebrezze
Vice President - J. Terry Sanford
Secretary of State - Robert S. McNamara
Secretary of Treasury - C. Douglas Dillon
Secretary of Defense - Robert F. Kennedy
Attorney General - Nicholas Katzenbach
Postmaster General - John A. Gronouski
Secretary of the Interior - Stewart Udall
Secretary of Agriculture - Orville Freeman
Secretary of Commerce - Luther H. Hodges
Secretary of Labor - W. Willard Wirtz
Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare - Anthony Celebrezze
Tidying up the West Wing wasn’t the only task awaiting President Kennedy as he settled in for the next four years, however. Across the nation, passion, anger, and violence for and against the Civil Rights movement were beginning to boil over. On one end of the spectrum, students and activists in places such as Berkeley, California, were fighting discriminatory practices and demanding that their voices be heard. On the other, racially charged fury had led to murder in Mississippi.
The protests in Berkeley had started peacefully enough. In the summer of 1964, a Demonstration was held outside of the Sheraton Palace, a hotel near the Berkeley campus. The protest called for an end to the hotel’s discriminatory hiring practices, and sought for the hotel to hire black individuals for executive positions within their organization. Though the demonstration was organized by the Ad Hoc Committee to End Discrimination, many of the 4,000 protesters who attended were students at UC Berkeley. The University believed that media coverage of the event, and of student involvement in it, reflected poorly on their institution, and so on September 16th, 1964, Dean of Students Katherine Towle released a letter stating that political organization was no longer permitted on campus grounds. The students, needless to say, were outraged.
On Thursday, October 1st, Jack Weinberg, the chairman of campus CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) was sitting at a table in front of Sproul Hall and was arrested for violating the new ordinance banning political activism. Before the squad car being used to arrest Weinberg could leave campus however, students around the car sat down and prevented it from leaving the spot where it was parked. Students began to give speeches from atop the squad car, decrying campus policies, and demanding the “return of free speech to Berkeley”. The next evening, around twenty four hours after Weinberg’s initial arrest, representatives of political groups on campus signed an agreement with the administration regarding student free speech, allowing for protest and political organization at the school. Dubbed “the October 2nd agreement”, the deal was seen by many liberal Americans as a triumph of non-violent protest. Conservatives in the state and beyond saw the issue differently. Actor and possible Republican candidate for Governor of California in the upcoming ‘66 election, Ronald Reagan spoke for the beliefs of many when he called the protesters “unwashed bums”.
The struggle between the students and the college was far from over, unfortunately. In December, talk spread around campus that the administration was proposing that Jack Weinberg be expelled for his actions during the October 2nd protest. It also got around that the campus was unwilling to drop charges against other activists involved in political activity, something the students found unacceptable. In response, 1,500 students occupied Sproul Hall on December 2nd, 1964 and brought all academic work in the building to a grinding halt. Though the protesters were once again not violent, and did not cause any damage to school property, the University called the police and had them forcibly removed. 773 students would eventually be arrested for their participation in this utterly innocuous act of civil disobedience in the name of free speech.
The protests in Berkeley were not unique to that college, either. All across the country, students were taking up arms against what was, in their eyes, a backward, out of touch establishment. Students worried that despite their status as legal adults, their voices were not being heard in politics. The voting age was 21, and many politicians derided young people and protesters for their unpopular, “rabble rousing” behavior. The President, however, vowed to be different. Rather than mocking the protesters, he expressed solidarity with them. In his second inaugural, Kennedy referenced the protests in Berkeley as one of his “battlefields of freedom at home” which formed the central theme of the speech. He declared that the youth of the country would be the ones to inherit it, and play the biggest hand in building its future. Though he caught flack from the right wing of his party for his comments, Kennedy did not change his tone, and the youth who grew out their hair and listened to the Beatles also had another poster on their wall, that of President Kennedy.
Despite the great strides being made by young activists for Civil Rights, there was also uproar being caused at the other end of the spectrum. In June of 1964, three young men associated with CORE named Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and James Chaney, were participating in the “Freedom Summer” campaign by helping African American residents of Mississippi register to vote. Fighting over 70 years of institutionalized discrimination and voter suppression, the teens traveled from Meridian, Mississippi, to the nearby town of Longdale. There, they spoke with the congregation of a church that had been burned and continued their work of registering black Americans to vote. The three workers were arrested following a traffic stop for speeding outside of Philadelphia, Mississippi, and were held in a local jail for a number of hours. Once they were finally allowed to leave town via their car, Goodman, Schwerner, and Cheney were pursued by Law Enforcement and others before being pulled over and abducted. Driven to a nearby stream by their abductors, the teens were then removed from the vehicle which had detained them, and were shot at close range, killing them instantly. Their bodies were then taken away and buried by a nearby dam.
Initially labeled as a “missing persons” case, the wreckage of the teens’ car was discovered, burned and dismantled, three days after their disappearance. Extensive searches of the area by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, state and local authorities, and over four hundred United States Navy sailors turned up no sign of the boys. It was only two months later, following a tip off from an anonymous source, that the teens’ bodies were discovered and dug up. Throughout the subsequent federal investigation (state authorities refused to look into the matter), the FBI discovered links between the murders and the local chapter of the White Knights of the Klu Klux Klan, as well as the Neshoba County Sheriff’s Office, and the Philadelphia, Mississippi Police Department. It later emerged that members of each of these organizations were not only tied to the murders, but were directly responsible for perpetrating them and their subsequent coverup. The nation was incensed.
Though those responsible for this atrocious act of violence would not be prosecuted until the federal government brought 18 counts of Civil Rights abuses against them in 1967, President Kennedy was not content to take the matter lying down in the meantime. Appearing on national television on March 6th, 1965, the President gave another speech on Civil Rights, and called the murders “one of the greatest tragedies in the modern history of our nation.” In this speech, Kennedy demanded that Congress act not just on the legislation being proposed for the War on Poverty, but also to create a Voting Rights Act, which would enforce the fifteenth amendment to the United States Constitution, guaranteeing that all American citizens were secure in their right to vote.
The President worked with newly minted Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, as well as Senators Mike Mansfield (D - MT), and Everett Dirksen (R - IL) to create a strongly worded bill. Kennedy insisted on bipartisan involvement in the bill’s creation, as Johnson’s warning about the South, and Wallace’s candidacy the previous year lingered heavily on the President’s mind. Even with a two thirds Democratic majority in the Senate, he could not count on Southern Democrats to see this bill through. Thus, he would rely on the support of Republicans, whom he hoped Dirksen could help court. In addition, Vice President Sanford was asked to caucus around his fellow southerners, and see if none of them could be brought to “see the light” and support the measure.
With some arm twisting on the part of Sanford and the President himself, Senator George Smathers of Florida came around to agreeing to vote for the bill, though only if this information be kept secret until the day of the vote. “I won’t be having my name touted around as some champion of this stuff.” Smathers told the President in a whisper over the phone. “This is a favor to you, Jack. Nothing more.” Senator Barry Goldwater (R - AZ) and Senator George Bush (R - TX) joined Dirksen in leading the Republican charge in favor of the bill. Though Goldwater had vocally opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which he felt had been unconstitutional, the Arizonan had no such issue with the Voting bill, and so happily helped Kennedy see it through. The bill passed the Senate on May 26th, the House on July 9th, and was signed into law by the President on August 6th. Speaking at the bill signing alongside Vice President Sanford and the parents of the boys killed in Mississippi, Kennedy relayed his hope that this legislation would mean that the young men had not died in vain. “The righteous outrage sparked by their murder at the hands of bigots has delivered to this country not just a wake up call, but legislation to prevent discrimination of the kind those heroic boys sought to defeat. I can only hope that this act provides some sense of meaning to their deaths, as justice is sometimes a slow, painful pursuit.”
In general, the first half of 1965 proved an excellent start to President Kennedy’s working relationship with Congress in his second term. In addition to the Voting Rights Act, the President and Vice President Sanford worked tirelessly with Senate Majority Leader Hubert Humphrey (D - MN) and Speaker of the House John McCormack (D - MA) to craft and pass legislation supporting Kennedy’s war on poverty. The first of these initiatives resulted in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which provided massive amounts of funding to Primary and Secondary schools throughout the country. Additionally, the education bill set aside funding for new school construction, formed a national corps of teachers, defined each student’s right to an equal opportunity for an exceptional education, and created rigorous performance standards for students and teachers alike. Announced by the President in February at a press gathering at his alma mater, Harvard University on February 3rd, and then signed into law on April 11th, the bill was only the first of many to come.
Other parts of the War on Poverty and the New Frontier were already being introduced in Congress and were undergoing debate in committees. The President let McCormack and Humphrey handle the details there. Unlike the pushes for Civil Rights, the economic initiatives were largely popular throughout the Democratic party, and thus were more of a partisan battle than a great moral crusade. Kennedy wanted to stay above the fray for a bit, and allow Humphrey, the more talented parliamentarian, to work his magic. A great respect was growing between the two men, though neither was humble enough to admit it. Pride was a dangerous thing, and the two titans of the Democratic Party were both full of it. Nonetheless, Vice President Sanford noticed this affection and wrote in his diary, “I predict that every night they each go to bed thankful for the work of the other. May we live to see a day where they can express that openly.”
Other major events of the period included: the assassination of Malcolm X, a major leader of the black power movement on February 21st, by members of the Nation of Islam. The marches from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery in response to the police murder of activist Jimmie Lee Jackson and several other Civil Rights issues in the state, garnered national attention via their widely televised nature, and helped secure the passage of the Voting Rights Act. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who led the march, also wrote to Malcolm X’s widow, expressing his sympathies for her loss, and saying that “While we did not always see eye to eye on methods to solve the race problem, I always had a deep affection for Malcolm and felt that he had a great ability to put his finger on the existence and root of the problem.”
Bombing of North Vietnamese targets by the Air Force continued under the watchful eye of Secretary of Defense Robert Kennedy. At the same time, transport ships containing American soldiers stationed in South Vietnam began to return to American shores, their passengers awaiting redeployment elsewhere in the world. The process was slow going, in keeping with the administration’s promise to Chairman Khanh. The Americans would not leave completely until 1967, so they could ensure the south’s ability to hold against northern aggression. On April 28th, President Kennedy authorized sending U.S. Marines to the Dominican Republic to protect American citizens there in the wake of a military coup and the ensuing Dominican Civil War. Though the President was no “master of war” as Bob Dylan would sing about, he was not about to give off the image that he, or his country, was weak. His approval numbers continued to slowly rise to around 65 - 67% by Independence Day.
Finally, on June 7th, following months of intense debate and support spearheaded by First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and Hollywood Actresses such as Marilyn Monroe, The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Connecticut law banning the use of contraceptives was unconstitutional. Access to “the pill” and other means of birth control was radically changing the lives of women, and men, across the nation, and was one of the driving forces behind the Second American Sexual Revolution, which began during this time. Not a bad start to the year for President Kennedy and his liberal causes. Perhaps the First Lady’s hopes for blue skies would prove founded.
Next Time on Blue Skies in Camelot: July - December 1965, As the War on Poverty Continues, another in Southeast Asia begins.
PS: Happy New Year!
Thank you all so much for the feedback, support, and for reading the TL. Here's hoping we can keep it up as we move into 2018. Cheers!
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On the title note, you've done it again, as Count Me In was released by Gary Lewis (Jerry's son) and the Playboys in March of 1965 (during the period this chapter is set in)...
BTW, it would be more accurate to characterize the three civil rights victims as young adults, not teenagers (Andrew Goodman was 20, Michael Schwerner was 24, and James Cheney was 21; the former two were from New York City)...
Good update, though; like the relationship between JFK and Jackie...
Wonder what you'll do about Vietnam...
On a side note, Connally's murder propels Preston Smith into office 5 years earlier than OTL, which probably, in turn, butterflies the Sharpstown Scandal (which brought down numerous Texas Democratic politicians) and causes another host of butterflies in Texas and national Democratic politics...
BTW, it would be more accurate to characterize the three civil rights victims as young adults, not teenagers (Andrew Goodman was 20, Michael Schwerner was 24, and James Cheney was 21; the former two were from New York City)...
Good update, though; like the relationship between JFK and Jackie...
Wonder what you'll do about Vietnam...
On a side note, Connally's murder propels Preston Smith into office 5 years earlier than OTL, which probably, in turn, butterflies the Sharpstown Scandal (which brought down numerous Texas Democratic politicians) and causes another host of butterflies in Texas and national Democratic politics...
Thank you for the information on Smith and the Sharpstown Scandal, and the correction about the victims' ages. I will update that description accordingly. Glad the title's keeping with the pattern! It's definitely something I'm aiming for now.
Thanks!
Another excellent update! And three cheers for JFK! Really interesting to see Bobby move from Attorney General to Secretary of Defense by the way. I'm also curious if Kennedy will authorize investigations or something to that extent into the KKK in the hopes of taking them down. Oh, and how has Vaughn Meader's career gone these last two in light of JFK's survival?
Much appreciated!
Following the Murders in Mississippi, as well as the assassination of Malcolm X and the Watts Riots, Kennedy is beginning to be disturbed with how much violence is escalating in the country. Expect investigations into Klan activities and further efforts made to make sure that peaceful protesters are heard and their grievances addressed. JFK is no hippy, but he also doesn't want people to have to be killed in order for anything to get done.As for Meader, still flying high
I imagine he might eventually have to diversify his impersonationrepertoire. Perhaps he'll learn to do one of JFK's successor, whoever that might be.
Great update to start the New Year! Glad to see Kennedy passing his bills. Will there be any mention of the Space Race at this timeline? Kennedy was a big supporter of sending a man to the moon by the end of the 60's, and with him still alive to achieve it, will there be any changes to how this will be accomplished?
Thank you kindly!
I would love to cover that in a future update. As it currently stands, Kennedy and Khrushchev are hoping to work together on a joint mission to the moon between the two superpowers, to represent the new peace and detente found between them. Though that's the goal, the hardliners in the Supreme Soviet won't be happy about how buddy-buddy the leaders are becoming.Much obliged! I think JFK will need someone as strong as Bobby at Defense to balance out the calls for war he's going to be receiving soon.
Indeed.
Also, on Civil Rights and Voting Rights, I'm glad you dispelled ideas that the Civil Rights Act wouldn't have been passed in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965. Methinks that, indeed, that both could have passed as IOTL during those time periods because Congress and congressional leaders such as Mike Mansfield, Hubert Humphrey, Everett Dirksen and others did their job as well.
Thank you
I definitely see where a lot of historians and Alt History writers come from when they say that LBJ was indispensable in seeing them through. His contributions cannot be overstated. I disagree, as you do I think, however that it would have been impossible for them to pass without him. With the same amount of public support, Mansfield, Humphrey, Dirksen and others backing them, and with a popular, charismatic President behind them, it's my opinion that both Acts could still have passed Congress. I'm sure others would disagree, and I welcome them to do so. This TL is just my take on one possible scenario had JFK lived.