Blue Skies in Camelot: An Alternate 60's and Beyond
- Thread starter President_Lincoln
- Start date
BP Booker
Banned
I mean, George Romney does have the right politics, but he does look like "a lame old fuddy duddy"
Its the top of the ticket that matters at the end. Liberal darling Adlai Stevenson ran along with hardcore segregationist John Sparkman, and Humphrey does stink of hippie.
President_Lincoln youre making me root for the republican candidate and its making my little old hyper partisan gut uncomfortable
Excellent points, Booker! I'm glad the TL is challenging the way you look at politics
Stay tuned! The results will come out soon.
But the only place that Stevenson won was the deep South. So ...
BP Booker
Banned
I tought that was just because of Harry Trumans catastrophically bad reputation at the end of 1952, and Democratic inertia in the South
But it reflects the place most anti civil rights. Plus, Sparkman was the VP candidate, suggesting VP importance. Also, 1948 was a dealignment election, thus while the inertia was there it was not nearly as strong.
Last point in my response (thought of this later). Stevenson did not carry his home state of Illinois but did carry his VP’s home state of Alabama.
Yes, however the premise of the tickets top being ten times more important I think is a recent phenomenon, since 1988. I would argue that while more important, the VP is super important generally. LBJ and the South in 1960 for example.
Chapter 42
Chapter 42: Reach Out of the Darkness - China, Cambodia, and the Cold War in the East
Morning arrived early for Secretary of State Robert McNamara on May 21st, 1968. Though the curtains to his hotel room window were still pulled tightly shut, McNamara could tell from the thin starlight streaming around the edges across his bed that dawn had not yet come. He sat up, put on his glasses from the nightstand. Beside him, his beloved wife Margaret still lay soundly sleeping, the gentle rise and fall of her breath a small, but appreciated respite from the monumental stress piling on his shoulders. Not wanting to disturb her, McNamara gently shifted his weight from the mattress to his feet, which he slid into his slippers, and pulled the covers up to Margaret’s shoulders. Just barely placing his face on hers, he kissed his wife’s cheek, then headed to the bathroom for a shower. The dimly lit clock beside his door mocked him. 4:17 AM. In less than an hour, he could expect a call from Washington to report to the White House. The next day of negotiations was set to be grueling and President Kennedy wanted minute briefings and details whenever possible. McNamara deeply respected his boss’s work ethic and attention to detail, but sometimes the demands wore on him. The Secretary turned on the shower and let himself enjoy its warmth.
The talks with Mao had been stop and go since they began a month before. At first the Chairman wasted hours of table time posturing and making outrageous claims and demands. These were obviously to placate the conservative factions within the Communist Party, but drew McNamara and his team’s ire nonetheless. Several weeks of such behavior nearly lead to a breakdown in negotiations altogether. On more than one occasion, McNamara called the President and asked his permission to terminate the mission. Each time however, Kennedy refused. Eventually, the Politburo were sated, and Mao was allowed to speak more candidly with the Americans about what he wanted. Deng Xiaoping and his reformers were purged from the People’s Republic, having escaped first to the Soviet Union, and then to France, where President de Gaulle offered them safe haven, but their influence remained strong in some sections of the country. Chairman Mao admitted that the ongoing Cultural Revolution had been launched with the intent of weeding out his enemies and securing his grip on power, be it from Deng’s reformers or elsewhere. Khrushchev’s own reforms and de stalinization policies in the USSR seemed to represent the end of Stalin’s cult of personality and Mao worried that if something similar happened in China, he would be without the cult built around him. Shortly thereafter, he feared, he would soon pay for his past mistakes and be driven from power. The Chairman’s instincts were no longer ideological, they were purely driven by an animal instinct toward survival. What Mao wanted from the United States was leverage, security, and a position at the table, internationally. If America agreed to recognize the People’s Republic as the legitimate government of China over Taiwan, Mao could point to this as a sign of success and depend on greater loyalty from his people.
Once McNamara clearly established what it was his adversary wanted, he went to work outlining a preliminary agreement between the two nations. Essentially, the Americans wanted the Chinese to stop backing Pol Pot’s rebel movement in Cambodia. If this could be achieved, then the Prince’s hold on power there would be secure, communism contained, and war averted. In exchange for a pledge to this end from Mao, President Kennedy was willing to reverse his country’s position on its “One China Policy”, normalize relations with the PRC, and initiate a motion in the United Nations for the People’s Republic to take Taiwan’s place as a permanent member of the Security Council. Such a decision was sure to have massive geopolitical ramifications, and even Secretary McNamara questioned whether or not his team could trust Mao and his sycophants, but the agreement was drawn up nonetheless. Things seemed to be looking up, and the talks nearing a successful conclusion when terrible news poured in from Moscow in the middle of the night. Alexei Kosygin, First Secretary of the Soviet Union, liberal reformer, and friend of President Kennedy, had been removed from power by the Politburo and replaced by Yuri Andropov. Though Andropov asserted his hopes for “continued cooperation with the west”, the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia on the 17th, which had come on his orders, seemed to contradict his kind words. It became clear over the next several days that fear, not friendship, had become the dominant mood in the Kremlin.
Initially, it seemed that Kosygin’s replacement would be a boon, not a bane for the negotiations. Never overly trustful of the Soviets anyway, Mao was not interested in being under Moscow’s influence, which Andropov seemed eager to expand. The Chairman wanted China to be a geopolitical leader in its own right, the true beacon of Communism for the rest of world to follow. By aligning himself with the Americans and continuing to deepen the Sino-Soviet split, Mao believed that he could minimize Russian influence, particularly in the Far East, and build a platform from which the PRC could expand its own. The rest of his government on the other hand, strongly disagreed. To Marshal Lin Biao, the Vice Chairman of the Communist Party and Mao’s handpicked successor, as well as Madame Mao, Jiang Qing, and the rest of the so called “Gang of Four”, such a move was downright heretical. For the past several years, millions of Chinese citizens had bled and fought the Cultural Revolution to purge all imperialist and capitalist influence from their society. The Red Guards had closed universities, murdered intellectuals, nearly wrecked the economy of the entire nation, and committed other atrocities all in the name of Communist purity and Chairman Mao. Yet now their beloved leader turned his back on these ideals, and invited the American imperialists into the capital to discuss cutting a deal with them? They were shocked, appalled, and dismayed. When Chairman Mao announced his intentions to move forward with the Sino-American deal regardless of the events playing out in Moscow and Prague, the Gang of Four finally believed a line had been crossed. Unwilling to sit idly by and allow their misguided, senile leader to draw them into hypocrisy and ruin, Jiang Qing and Lin Biao held a private meeting on May the 20th, and decided to take matters into their own hands…
Still in his bathrobe after finishing his shower, Secretary McNamara was startled when at 4:38 AM on May 21st, the door to his hotel room was pounded fiercely and thereafter opened by a U.S. Marine, a member of the State Department’s security detail. “Good Morning, sir.” The young lieutenant said. “Please, if you and Mrs. McNamara would gather your possessions and follow me.”
The Secretary’s eyebrows instantly shot up. He had feared some sort of violence since he and Margaret arrived in Beijing. “Certainly lieutenant, what’s going on?”
The soldier, clearly an Alabama boy from his mannerisms and slow, southern drawl, looked forlorn, angry, and disappointed as he pointed his rifle out the door and let his eyes settle on the ragged carpet of the hotel floor. “There’s been a disturbance of some kind at the Forbidden Palace, sir. Reports are still hazy, but we’ve confirmed that the Chairman’s body has been found, dead in his bedroom.”
Jesus Christ. McNamara held his head in his hands and sighed deeply. Just as we’re starting to get somewhere, he has to up and die on us! He composed himself and shuffled into the bathroom to change into a shirt and pants. Through the door, he called to Margaret to wake up and do as the lieutenant asked. Though it was possible that Mao, being in terrible health as he was, had passed from natural causes, the Americans could not be too careful. They were in Beijing at the Chairman’s pleasure, and now that he was dead, who knew what could become of them? Overly zealous Red Guards could mistake U.S. involvement in his death, or find some other excuse to come after them. If not the Red Guards, then perhaps whomever took over as Mao’s successor. Until reports could be made and investigated on whatever was happening at the palace, as far as McNamara was concerned, he and his team must assume that elements of the Chinese government that stood against the deal were behind the Chairman’s death. Such elements, had they been successful in killing Mao, stood likely to take the reigns of power, and would not want the American diplomatic contingent in their capital. Until everything could be sorted out, McNamara, his wife, and their team would gladly accept the protection of the Marines.
…
News filtered slowly out of the Palace. It seemed that the propaganda department was put to work, crafting a tragic story for how the great hero of the Chinese Civil War met his end. Two major heart attacks, exacerbated by the Chairman’s well known smoking habits and newly revealed Parkinson’s Disease were listed as the official causes for the death of Mao Zedong at the age of 74. Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing quickly appeared on state television, her eyes full of tears as she woefully informed the nation of her husband’s passing. “His beloved People may take solace in knowing that he knew no pain at the end,” she claimed, lying through her teeth. “Death came upon him like a bandit in the night. His final breaths, the doctors tell me, were sweet and peaceful. And with his passing, he moves from this cruel world, into the eternal pantheon of heavenly greatness.” The truth was far less kind or noble. Chairman Mao roused himself from bed early that morning for a smoke and a conversation with his advisors, prepared to sign the Cambodian deal with the Americans at their meeting around 8. At approximately 4:25 AM, soldiers loyal to Lin Biao and the Gang of Four infiltrated the Chairman’s private quarters, swiftly dispatched Mao’s private security detail, and executed him in the darkness of predawn. In the process of removing Mao from power, a Soviet diplomatic envoy named Kozar Igorevich, who was staying with the Chairman at the Palace was killed as well by mistake. Their bodies, so mangled by the assassin’s bullets, would take weeks of embalming and cleaning before they could be revealed for a public funeral. Even after the process of cleaning was complete, Biao’s government thought it best to keep Igorevich’s death a secret for as long as possible, to buy time to develop a response to the Soviet Union. By then, Jiang Qing had dismissed the American diplomats and coalesced support in the Politburo behind Lin Biao. It seemed that in line with Mao’s wishes, the Marshal would take command and serve as the new Chairman of the People’s Republic of China. An understanding underlined this agreement however, that no friendly contact would be initiated by Lin Biao with the United States or Soviet Union without Jiang’s express approval. For the time being, the People’s Republic would focus itself inward and remain in a state of not-so-splendid isolation. What was more, Biao’s first order of business was to not only tear up the agreement Mao had outlined with McNamara and the Americans, but to increase shipments of aid and supplies to the Communists in Cambodia. Somewhere in the jungles of South America, Che Guevara wore a terrible grin. Viva La Revolucion! He thought.
As Secretary McNamara and the Americans boarded their jet for home, unharmed but dismissed and defeated by yet another state sanctioned communist coup, President Kennedy fumed and screamed bloody murder in the Oval Office. “Those bastards!” His face red and his hands shaking, JFK turned to his brother, Bobby, the Secretary of Defense. “Don’t they see what they’re doing? Whenever we start to use our words to get somewhere, to bring about real change and maybe a chance at peaceful coexistence, they have to go and fucking shoot someone! I offered the Chinese everything they wanted, all they had to do was stop telling the guerillas to wage unlawful war and this is how they respond. I offer the Soviets friendship and security from ever worrying about blowing each other up half a million times and they throw their liberal leader out of power as soon as the people of Czechoslovakia start asking for their rights. This hatred, this violence, all in the name of some godless ideology? What the hell is wrong with them?”
Bobby sighed and put his arms around his furious brother. “Mr. President, you know as well as I do what’s wrong with them. The new people in the Kremlin and the Forbidden Palace, they don’t think like you or I do, in terms of human decency, or natural rights. They think only of power. How to get it, how to maintain it. They know that Communism is a failed ideology. They need only look at the murders perpetrated by Stalin or Mao’s great leap forward to see that. But rather than admit defeat, they see a clever vehicle for growing their own influence, and so insist on ‘global revolution’, with themselves at the head. If you want to stop this and end the tensions, as I know you do, Jack, you need to take that anger you feel and channel it. America and her ideals are the greatest force for good we have in the world, and you’re in charge of that force. Beat them with strength, and beat them with friendship. Don’t pound your hands on your desk and accept defeat, stiffen your resolve, keep us strong, and prove them wrong.”
The President of the United States stood up straight, pulled himself from his brother’s hug and looked him over, top to bottom. “You know kid, you’re right. I can be a Cold Warrior too, and they’re dead wrong if they think they stand a chance of beating us.” Striding with renewed strength to the window overlooking the White House Rose Garden, the President smiled and felt the weariness of eight years in office leave his body for a moment. “The world might not be ready yet to bridge the divides between us and tear down the Iron Curtain, but that time will come. Thanks to our work, America will be strong enough to see it through.” Then, quoting his speech during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the President concluded, “Our goal is not the victory of might, but the vindication of right- -not peace at the expense of freedom, but both peace and freedom. We’ll do it, Bobby. We will win.”
Bobby nodded, blown away by his brother’s words, and patted Jack’s shoulder. “Good talk, Jack. Save some of it for your farewell address, will you? I’d love to stay but I have to get back to the Pentagon. The brass will want to brief me again on our options in Cambodia now that the China deal is off the table.”
JFK’s smile faded as he thought about what was to come in Southeast Asia. He knew the debate with Bobby and the generals on Cambodia would begin again in earnest. They had tried his way, and now the brass would want to push their own. For now though he was content in knowing that he’d begun, with his moves toward growing American power, influence, freedom, and prestige, the process of America’s victory in the Cold War. As the Secretary of Defense prepared to leave the Oval Office, President Kennedy turned and gave him one final prediction. “I’ll tell you another thing, Bobby. You’re going to be President one day.”
The words hung heavy on Bobby’s mind and heart. Not knowing what to say he simply grinned sheepishly and made his way from the office. “Well Jack, I hope I deserve all the faith you have in me. Thank you, Mr. President.”
…
As the summer of 1968 progressed, the offensives of the Khmer Rouge grew in frequency, scope, and carnage caused. With aid from the People’s Republic of China and Cuba flowing freely once again, Pol Pot and his revolutionaries had all the equipment, training, and resources they needed to wreak havoc on the north of Cambodia. As July gave way to August, the lines of battle became more organized, with villages falling left and right to the aggression of the Communists’ advance. No longer was this a war of words and propaganda. The time of bloodshed and chaos had arrived. With diplomatic options seemingly exhausted, the generals and Secretary Kennedy had more leverage to use against the President in their requests for an escalation of force. The military, including Army Chief of Staff Creighton Abrams were calling for boots on the ground, U.S. marines to support the Cambodian army in pushing back the insurgents. The President made sure this request was dead on arrival. His brother’s own suggestion for a compromise however, of sending in the Air Force to bomb strategic targets and support the Prince’s soldiers indirectly was more difficult to dismiss.
President Kennedy worried that such a move on his part would escalate the situation further, but Secretary Kennedy sadly informed his brother that “the situation has already escalated, Jack. We’re past talking about war between the revolutionaries and the government. War has already been declared. The question now is whether the United States, the greatest force for good in the world, is going to stand by and let innocent villages be burned by totalitarians like Pol Pot.” That, finally was enough to stoke the fire of righteous fury within the chest of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Later that evening, on September 1st, the President of the United States appeared on prime time television to address the nation about what steps were being taken by his administration to stop the spread of communism in Cambodia.
“Good evening, my fellow Americans. As of 8 PM local time this evening, I have sought and obtained congressional authorization for the use of strategic air attacks by the United States Air Force against communist revolutionaries in northern Cambodia. Though the United States is and always will be a nation of peace, we cannot stand aside and allow the freedom loving peoples of the world to be attacked by those who would prefer to see that freedom taken away. It is my utmost hope and most fervent prayer, that these strikes will eliminate the rebels’ capacity to make war, and that Prince Sihanouk, with our aid and leadership, will eliminate any unfair conditions within his country that may have contributed to the rise of this insurgency…”
…
“Dear Hillary,
I’m sure you listened to the President’s speech earlier on TV. Much as I might disagree with him on a lot of things, he’s doing right by putting his foot down on the commies. The brass here tell me that my buddies and I will be among the first round of pilots sent to carry out this important mission. We ship out in less than a week.
As soon as I touch base, I’ll be sure to send another letter so you can get my new address. I wouldn’t trade your letters for anything in the world. I know it might sound silly, but they make me smile like nothing else can, and I can’t seem to get you off of my mind.
Until you hear from me again, good luck on the campaign trail! I hope I can make my Dad proud over here, and maybe you as well.
Best wishes always,
Lt. George Walker Bush
Next Time on Blue Skies in Camelot: Election Day - 1968
Last edited:
I have a really bad feeling that W will end up like Joe Kennedy Jr . Anyway, good to see multi-update weeks about and I can't wait to see who wins on election night.
. Anyway, good to see multi-update weeks about and I can't wait to see who wins on election night.I have a really bad feeling that W will end up like Joe Kennedy Jr
Glad to have multiple update weeks back as well!
This Friday's will cover the election and after that we'll sadly be coming up to the end of the Kennedy years. Excellent, though it's Biao, rather than Bao. Yuri's gonna be pissed when he hears what happened, Gromyko too.
Thank you for the correction, and the compliments. You're dead on about the Soviet response to the death of their envoy. Have a foreign affairs update that should cover that coming up shortly after the election!
God bobby, you should of said that in public it would of been GREAT to increase morale of the public
So, JFK has passed on the problems of the 60s onto the 70s, Guess we need to get our popcorn.
In many ways, President Kennedy has made the 60's a great time of peace, prosperity, and strength for the United States.
He has seen and solved several of the issues facing the Land of the Free, but even the greatest of Presidents can't fix all of a country's problems in just 8 years. It will be up to his successor to carry the mantle. Let's hope they live up to the task at hand...
Fantastic update! I guess China’s going to become much more isolationist than it was IOTL. In that case, we might see a weaker, more backwards China that might see a later modernization than IOTL or none at all. This will help shape the balance of power in East Asia; it might even cause a more relevant Japan. It’ll also be interesting to see how Andropov reacts to the dead Soviet ambassador. I suspect anger, fury, and a split.
As for the dialogue between the Kennedys, it’s a fantastic piece of writing. You can feel the care and love both siblings have for each other, and both hold power in their own right, with the Secretary advocating for a force of strength to use that anger and the President being as idealistic as always. As for that prediction, I don’t know about you, but I’m rotting for Kennedy 2.0 for 70s!
Finally, as the US starts to bomb Cambodia, I wonder how George is going to experience this. Will he die in Cambodia? Will he be caught? It’ll be interesting to see.
As for the next update, I’m betting it on HHH. George Romney’s weakness in foreign policy will be much more of a liability due to recent events.
As for the dialogue between the Kennedys, it’s a fantastic piece of writing. You can feel the care and love both siblings have for each other, and both hold power in their own right, with the Secretary advocating for a force of strength to use that anger and the President being as idealistic as always. As for that prediction, I don’t know about you, but I’m rotting for Kennedy 2.0 for 70s!
Finally, as the US starts to bomb Cambodia, I wonder how George is going to experience this. Will he die in Cambodia? Will he be caught? It’ll be interesting to see.
As for the next update, I’m betting it on HHH. George Romney’s weakness in foreign policy will be much more of a liability due to recent events.
I still stand by my prediction of -
Hubert Humphrey (D) 1969-1973
Ronald Reagan (R) 1973-1981
Robert F. Kennedy (D) 1981-
But RFK could be elected in 76
Hubert Humphrey (D) 1969-1973
Ronald Reagan (R) 1973-1981
Robert F. Kennedy (D) 1981-
But RFK could be elected in 76
Thank you so much, ImperialTheorist!
I'm so glad you enjoyed the chapter, and the relationship between JFK and RFK is one of my favorite parts of this entire TL to explore. I hope to do it more, even as Jack leaves office and prepares to return to private life. Your predictions about East Asia are interesting as always, and Japan will definitely be one of the nations I start to cover more frequently in foreign affairs updates. Stay tuned!
I'll leave the election predictions to all of you, as we're getting real close now.
I'm incredibly excited to hear what you all have to say as we keep chugging along.