Blue Skies in Camelot: An Alternate 60's and Beyond
- Thread starter President_Lincoln
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I've said it before and I'll say it again, I have the best readers and audience members an author could ask for. Thank you!
An interesting series of predictions here!
Even though we are still 8 years out from 1982 i want to see how OP deals with the Falklands war...if there even is to be a Falklands war. Looking forward to the next chapters
The Falklands were a huge, watershed moment in modern British history, you can bet I'll be covering the situation there... however it turns out!
Thank you everyone for your kind thoughts, comments, and thoughtful analysis of the last handful of updates!
All the best of luck with the assignments and the rest of RL
With any luck, they'll keep operating large carriers...If they had them and a few of these beauties still operating, the war would be even more of a stomp than it was OTL...
Those planes were insane with how low they could go...
You know, I just realized something kind of sad. It’s very likely that ITTL JFK will pass away sometime during Bush’s presidency (unless Bush loses in 1976 and JFK dies after), meaning more than likely Bush will have to experience the fact he will be the only living US President, former or current, until the point that he is succeeded by someone else, and that he has no former President to turn to for advice and such.
I’m not even entirely sure any other US President in OTL has ever experienced that.
EDIT: Thinking about it, Nixon would have faced the same thing after Johnson died OTL right.
I’m not even entirely sure any other US President in OTL has ever experienced that.
EDIT: Thinking about it, Nixon would have faced the same thing after Johnson died OTL right.
Md139115
Banned
Right living President, wrong dead one. Harry Truman was the last surviving ex-President to die during Nixon’s term, in 1972.
Oops.
No worries! But indeed Johnson went into a physical decline the moment he left office in 1969. He started smoking his first cigarette since his heart attack in the 1950s when he boarded the flight back to Texas after Nixon's inauguration.
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Good. Let's hope the oil crisis enough to prove Amtrak's worth to everyone in both the major parties.Yes!
I've just finished reading this from start to finish.
I will keep following this.
How's Europe doing in the 1970s, by the way?
Thank you, @Neoteros! I hope you're enjoying yourself thus far.
Europe is, like IOTL, in a state of flux by the mid-1970's. I'll be covering France in my next update (probably posted sometime tonight or later tomorrow), and after that we head to the UK. In general, change and social reform have begun to be implemented, though it has been a bit of a gradual process. The passing of De Gaulle in France, for instance, and the retirement of Adenauer in West Germany, have allowed for socially liberal ideas to take root and start to gain some real traction. In Spain, Franco is on schedule to die in 1975, as per OTL. (I will be sure to cover Franco's Spain ITTL soon - the short version is that President Kennedy maintained cool, distant relations from his regime, while Presidents Romney and Bush were less opposed to the idea of friendship with Franco's government.) Portugal still saw the relatively bloodless Carnation Revolution ITTL, though I, again, will have to cover that event specifically in more detail. I love that the scope of TTL has expanded over the course of writing it, and I can guarantee that Act II: The Seesaw Seventies will likely be significantly longer than Act I: The Kennedy Years had been, just by virtue of that larger scope.And we love you for keeping this timeline chugging along with top notch chapters!Thank you, @Neoteros! I hope you're enjoying yourself thus far.
Me too!
Thank you all so much!
You are all too kind. I'm hoping that the Canada/France update will be up soon.
Chapter 87
Chapter 87: Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me - 1974 Elections in Canada and France
Above: Liberal Prime Minister John Turner (left) struggled throughout his Premiership to persuade the people of Canada that he was much more than a “pretty, bilingual face”. This allowed Robert Stanfield (right) and his Progressive-Conservative Party to gain momentum as the left-wing NDP looked prepared to withdraw their backing of the coalition government in the spring of 1974.
John Turner had been Prime Minister of Canada since taking over from the martyred Pierre Trudeau in August of 1969. For more than four years, the beleaguered Liberal leader had fought as hard as he could to live up to the monumental shoes he had been handed. With the intensifying Quebec independence movement costing more lives and eating up more headlines by the day, a sluggish economy and spiraling inflation seemed to be the final straws. The Prime Minister’s goodwill amongst the Canadian people dried up, and the New Democratic Party, which had helped Turner’s Liberals form a coalition government back in ‘69, now sided with the Tories in calling for a vote of no confidence against Turner and triggering a general election. The NDP and its new leader, David Lewis, accused Turner’s budget for the fiscal year ‘74 of doing “next to nothing” to curb inflation, and thus the value of the Canadian dollar would become perhaps the single defining issue of the election campaign. Progressive Conservative leader Robert Stanfield had bided his time for the past four years, patiently appearing as “an honest partner in opposition” to the PM, though he was quick to criticize what he called the government’s “abject failure to promote peace and prosperity” once it became clear that the majority of the country felt the same way. Stanfield got out ahead of the inflation issue and proposed a “90-day wage and price freeze” to break the momentum of inflation. A so-called “red Tory” for his relatively Keynesian, even socialist, outlook on economic matters, Stanfield put a premium on pragmatism when it come to politics, not ideological purity, a spirit which seemed to endear him to Canadians in these trying times. “For the common good” - an old slogan from the ‘68 election, was dusted off and reused once more, and this time, had an even more pronounced resonance across the Great White North. While the Liberals floundered behind their unpopular leader and the NDP and Social Credit Party struggled to retain their relevance amidst a series of tight races, the Progressive Conservatives rode the wave of uncertainty all the way to their first majority since 1963.
Total Seats - 264 (133 Needed for Majority)
Progressive Conservatives - 136 seats (+22)
Liberals - 100 seats (-18)
NDP - 24 seats (no change)
Social Credit - 14 seats (-4)
Liberals - 100 seats (-18)
NDP - 24 seats (no change)
Social Credit - 14 seats (-4)
Stanfield’s resounding victory was perhaps all the more impressive as he managed to carefully and meticulously manage a difficult alliance between the Red and Blue Tories which comprised his party, as well as MPs and special interests on both sides of the biggest issue of the day alongside inflation: the Quebec “liberation” movement. Following the October Crisis of 1970, public support for the Front de liberation du Quebec (FLQ) steeply declined, even among those with Quebecois nationalist sympathies. Violence, especially for the purpose of political gain, was thoroughly uncanadian. Increased police deterrence and thorough federal investigations also played a role in bringing about the FLQ’s downturn, though by 1974, several issues of Quebec’s place in Canada remained to be solved. Shortly after his ascension to Prime Minister, Robert Stanfield proposed his first major piece of legislation directly to address these issues: an extension of the Official Bilingualism Act of 1969, which would provide government funding for “biculturalism” and strive to endorse a more open, diverse vision of what a united Canada could be. The bill, though inexpensive, found numerous opponents within the PC Party who opposed the measure on principle. Conservative Blue Tories from the western provinces believed that the Federal Government had already gone far enough in tolerating “Quebecois exceptionalism”. Stanfield insisted that such laws were the only way to prevent further violence and division amongst Anglo and Franco-Canadians. The bill was also an attempt to prevent the need for an “independence referendum” for the people of Quebec, something some in Montreal and Quebec City were beginning to demand. The extension, combined with Stanfield’s 90 day freeze on wages and prices formed the basis of the PM’s first 100 days in office.
Robert Stanfield (PC) - The 17th Prime Minister of Canada
In addition to the new biculturalism bill and anti-inflation policies, 1974 also brought about other significant changes to Canadian society. For the first time that year, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) allowed females to become members. Ralph Steinhauer made history when he became the first Aboriginal person to become a Canadian Lieutenant Governor when he became the Lt. Governor of Alberta. Earlier that year, Pauline McGibbon of Ontario also became the first woman to serve as Lt. Governor of a Province, marking yet another step forward toward a more progressive Canada. An internationally famous Soviet ballet dancer - Mikhail Baryshnikov defected to the west while staying in Toronto, much to the chagrin of Yuri Andropov, but the celebration of the United States and her allies. The wave of terrorism and political violence which plagued the rest of the world also tragically found its way to Canada. Nine Canadian citizens would be killed when the plane they were flying on was shot down by Syria, nearly causing an international incident. Another Canadian airliner was hijacked over Saskatchewan near the end of November. It would eventually be recovered outside of Saskatoon, but many of the passengers and crew would be killed in the crash. On the brighter side of affairs, acclaimed lawyer Robert Cliche would chair a Royal Commission investigating corruption in Quebec’s construction industry. In this ultimately successful endeavour, he would be aided by an up and coming young Progressive Conservative from Quebec City, Brian Mulroney. August of 1974 also saw the second annual Pride week sweep the nation’s major cities - Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, and others, with a passionate public celebration of gay rights. The attendees celebrated their sexuality openly, many of them for the first time, and also called on the government to welcome them into mainstream society and protect their civil rights.
Another major issue of Stanfield’s new premiership was the developing energy crisis in the aftermath of the 1973 OPEC oil embargo. The province of Alberta possessed substantial oil reserves, some of the largest in the world, in fact, whose extraction had long been controlled by American corporations. Elements of the government of Prime Minister John Turner and his allies in the New Democratic Party felt that these corporations geared most of their production toward the American market, and sent their profits south. As a result, the Liberals believed, little of the benefit of rising oil prices actually went to the people of Canada. This view however, was not widely shared in Alberta itself, where the locals were happy with the current situation. The NDP introduced a bill to create a publicly run oil company late in ‘73. In a very tight minority government at the time, Turner’s Liberals were dependent on the NDP to remain in power, and so adopted the bill as their own. The idea also fit neatly into Turner’s ideas of “economic nationalism”, but by the time the bill was introduced, Turner’s political capital was running low. Public support for his premiership had eroded, Liberals began to break ranks and side with the Progressive Conservatives in opposing the bill. Ultimately, it would die just shy of the needed majority to pass, triggering the NDP’s call for a vote of no confidence.
By July of 1974 and the beginning of PM Stanfield’s time in power, the oil embargo was over and the prices of petroleum began to stabilize anyway. Blue Tories came to respect their controversial leader for “keeping his head” and refusing to allow the nationalization of a major industry over a short term crisis. Stanfield himself insisted that the Progressive Conservatives’ victory in the election was “a victory for small business, and individual Canadians everywhere.” Stanfield, not wanting to seem “in the pocket” of American big oil, however, did begin to call for Canadian ownership of its energy reserves through independent companies, as well as the development of alternative energy sources - which was to be achieved through tax credits and other financial incentives. During the first year of Stanfield’s government alone, Canadian oil companies sprang up in the thousands thanks to generous federal grants and investment incentives. This is not to say that the PM sought to distance his nation from the United States, of course. Stanfield and American President George Bush shared a marvellous working relationship, and were often compared to one another. Both were easterners in their country who often related more to their western constituents, and both were largely political centrists forced to reign in the more rightward elements of their respective parties when it come time to craft and pursue legislation. Strong proponents of free trade, both Bush and Stanfield would leave behind legacies on that issue and bring it to the forefront of economic discussions, especially in the wake of the devastating recessions rocking North America at the time. While NDP Leader Ed Broadbent and U.S. Congressman Ron Dellums (D - CA) among others were calling for protectionist tariffs and other measures to protect North American labour, Stanfield, Bush, and their supporters favoured a longer term approach of modernization and technocracy to the development of their economies.
The following handful of years would test the new Prime Minister and his party, but for the time being, Stanfield was off to a strong start.
…
The failure of the 1969 French Constitutional Amendment brought about the end of Charles de Gaulle’s reign over the fifth French Republic, and also heralded the rise of his successor, Georges Pompidou, who won the ‘69 elections over his opponent, the centrist Alain Poher with nearly 60% of the vote. During the next five years under Pompidou’s careful management, France would take its first necessary steps toward Cold War reform and progress. An avowed Gaullist, but more pragmatic than his predecessor, Pompidou ended the decades long animosity between Paris and London when he befriended British Prime Minister Randolph Churchill and labored to help bring the UK and Ireland, at long last, into the European Economic Community. This effort was concluded in January of 1973, and served to strengthen relations between the two countries, and shift France once again back toward the western, allied axis. He pursued close relations as well with American Presidents Romney and Bush, and was greatly admiring of and admired by, Secretary of State Richard Nixon. These friendships brought economic aid to Paris, which modernized significantly during Pompidou’s Presidency, though most of the aid dried up after the dawn of the Great Recession late in 1973. President Pompidou also embarked on ambitious domestic programmes, including a sweeping industrialization plan to keep France’s economy competitive; initiating the Arianespace project, which brought French involvement into international space missions; creating the TGV infrastructure project - bringing affordable high speed rail access to the entire nation; and expanding France’s civilian nuclear energy program in response to the rising price of foreign oil. Though Pompidou was popular with the majority of the French population, his dismissal of Prime Minister Jacques Chaban-Delmas in favor of Pierre Messmer, a more thoroughly conservative politician left thousands of still disaffected and disappointed young people searching for alternative leadership. After his party’s lukewarm showing in the 1973 legislative elections against the left-wing opposition, which had organized itself around a Common Programme for “real, progressive change”, Pompidou started paying close attention to the organizational and local/regional needs of his own party, the Gaullist UDR. He did not believe, that they could continue to lose ground to the opposition and maintain their hold on the government and public support.
Pompidou, still in the midst of rebuilding his party and enjoying broad support, passed away from lymphoma on April 2nd, 1974, aged just 62 years. The political elite of France were blindsided by the sudden deterioration and passing of the President, and so an election was called in order for the French people to choose his successor. On the left, the Movement of Left Radicals (MRG), Socialist Party (PS), and the French Communist Party (PCF) called for the implementation of the Programme commun that they called for two years before - a reduction of working hours (down to 40 per week); higher minimum wages; social security expansion; and socialized housing; compensated nationalization of major industrial companies in several sectors; of dozens of banks and financial institutions; and increased market regulation; decentralization and “democratization” of government institutions, including restriction of police custody powers and guarantees of protection for civil liberties; and finally the abolition of both the Warsaw Pact and NATO, and a complete disarmament of nuclear weapons. To say the least, the left heard the people’s cries for real change, and promised them plenty of it. The PCF boasted the largest membership of the three major parties in the coalition, but their leadership worried that any coalition led by a member of the Communist Party would fail to be elected, as the right frequently used the people’s fear of Communist takeover as a scare tactic to win elections. To avoid this fear, the coalition rallied behind Francois Mitterand, leader of the Socialist Party, and for the first time since the beginning of the Fifth Republic stood a real chance of winning the whole thing.
Furthering the left’s chances for victory was the confusion and chaos which emerged within the incumbent “Presidential coalition” as no clear candidate emerged. Sitting Prime Minister Pierre Messmer announced early in the race that he would only run for President if he was the coalition’s only candidate. As others started to throw in their hats, he followed through on this promise and declined to make himself a candidate. Three candidates did eventually emerge: former PM Jacques Chaban-Delmas; Chairman of the National Assembly, Edgar Faure; and Economy Minister and leader of the Independent Republicans, Valery Giscard d’Estaing. Faure quickly withdrew due to lack of support, leaving Chaban-Delmas and Giscard d’Estaing to vy for the nod. Giscard d’Estaing had several perceived advantages over Chaban-Delmas: he was younger; more eloquent; and managed to paint himself as “the change in the continuity” and “a modern turn” in French politics. He knew that the French people wanted change, but bet, correctly, that millions of them were unnerved by the left’s Programme commun, which d’Estaing accused of being an “extreme collectivist project”. He also benefited from cracks in the ruling UDR party, and Chaban-Delmas’ support continued to decline. Indeed, so lukewarm was the UDR’s desire for a Chaban-Delmas Presidency, that young Finance Minister Jacques Chirac led dozens of his fellow Pompidou loyalists to support d’Estaing, whom he believed would be a stronger candidate to oppose Mitterrand in the general election. As a result of Chirac and others’ fearsome campaigning for d’Estaing, their chosen candidate and Mitterrand won the highest number of votes in the first round, and would face each other in the second round run off. Real change, regardless of the winner, was coming at last to France.
On May 19th, 1974, the second round of the French Presidential elections were held. It would go on to be the closest Presidential election in the history of the Fifth Republic, and recounts and disputes would linger for several days before a definite winner could be determined for certain. Perhaps inspired by the so-called Carnation Revolution, the peaceful downfall of the Estado Novo regime in Portugal on April 25th brought about after years of civil disobedience and quiet resistance there, the French people turned out en masse to demand not just reform, but radical change. By a narrow 50.4% - 49.6% margin, the Parti Socialiste and Francois Mitterand were elected to the Presidency of France. After decades in the political wilderness, the left were handed the keys of power in Paris. Overnight, the western world was filled with an unshakeable combination of curiosity and worry. The Gaullists had for decades kept France on an independent, if reliably anti-communist path. Now, the communists were part of the ruling coalition. There were sounds of alarm from The Economist and The National Review. Bill Buckley accused the French left of wanting to “bring about a second reign of terror - this time with all of our heads rolling”. Alternatively, the non aligned movement, personified by its newly elected Secretary General Houari Boumediene of Algeria, applauded the French people for choosing the middle road in Cold War geopolitics, and “rejecting their previous path of imperialism and brutalistic capitalism.” In the end, it remained to be seen whether President Mitterand would be able to deliver on his radical promises to the French people.
Next Time on Blue Skies in Camelot: The Iron Lady and Nanny Wilson
This would indeed be quite sad, @Nerdman3000.
It might get lonely at the top for poor Bush, especially considering how much he relied on President Kennedy to help implement his China policy ITTL.Windows95
Banned
If possible, not to make Mitterand lose to the right wing to kill Sankara.
This guy.... Man... Despite trailing and jailing people without defence or lawyer, he vaccinated millions of people in Burkina Faso and made itself self-sufficient in food, the first and only West African country at the time, I think. It was unique.
This guy.... Man... Despite trailing and jailing people without defence or lawyer, he vaccinated millions of people in Burkina Faso and made itself self-sufficient in food, the first and only West African country at the time, I think. It was unique.