Blue Skies in Camelot: An Alternate 60's and Beyond

[President_Lincoln]

Chapter 36: I Wish It Would Rain - President Kennedy’s Agenda in His Final Year in Office​

Above: President John F. Kennedy prepares to address the American people from the White House lawn. In this live televised speech, JFK planned to announce the policy initiatives which would make up the bulk of his final year in the White House.


President Kennedy didn’t take long upon returning from his vacation in Virginia to dive back into his work. The morning of January 20th, 1968 was an important one for Kennedy. It represented to him, the looming truth that he had been loathe to admit ever since being reelected: that one day his time in the Oval Office would come to an end. As Jackie had told him every time he faced doubt or uncertainty, he had done a great deal of good for his country since taking the Presidential oath seven years prior. The American people loved him. The economy boomed and the military, while its brass was angry over his diplomatic strategy in Southeast Asia, was stronger and better prepared than ever before to face any threats to freedom across the globe. The New Frontier and the War on Poverty had transformed Kennedy from just another Chief Executive to almost mythical status among his supporters. He was his generation’s FDR, they said; a great crusader for the common man, and a believer in the spirit that made America, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, “the last, best, hope of the world.” Through the President’s tireless fight for Civil Rights, African Americans and other minorities saw their movement’s aims coming to fruition. Scientific research, Arts, and the Humanities had all been generously funded under the Kennedy Administration; these in the name of educating the nation to prove itself the worthy victor in the “Great Twilight Struggle” of the Cold War. And perhaps most amazingly of all, a joint team of American and Soviet scientists were overcoming mutual fear, prejudice, and paranoia to work on a mission that would land a man on the surface of the Moon. In President Kennedy’s own words: “When we allow ourselves to follow freedom’s tireless call, the possibilities before us are endless.” Yes, John F. Kennedy had already built an impressive legacy for himself that would surely earn him a place in the pantheon of American Presidential greatness. And yet, there was still more, endlessly more he wanted to accomplish.


There existed, deep in the heart of the complicated man at the helm of the ship of state, a tremendous wellspring of empathy, compassion, and heroism. One future biographer, Arthur Schlesinger Jr. described the phenomenon as “a truly unique example of noblesse oblige, the endless compulsion of a second son to prove that he was as worthy of his father’s approval and admiration as his elder brother, who by all accounts was the focus of the family’s hopes until his untimely end.” JFK believed, with every fiber of his being, that he held a great responsibility to the people of the nation, and that his duty did not end until the day he left office. To that end, the President followed up the signing of The Civil Rights Act of 1968, which sought to end housing discrimination against African Americans, with a broad, bold agenda for the last 365 days of his Presidency.


1967 had seen major legislation providing for everything from the creation of Federal public broadcasting (National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service being two prominent examples); an end to discrimination based on age in education and the workplace; supplements to Defense Appropriation; and the creation of the National Park Service. The last of these became an agency of the Department of the Interior and represented, to the President, only the beginning of one of the two major pushes he’d be making on the Hill throughout the year to come.

Years earlier, the environmentalist movement in the United States had been kickstarted by Rachel Carson, and the publication of her damning book, Silent Spring. Condemning the chemical manufacturing industry and the use of synthetic pesticides, the book had raised the issue of how the land of the free was handling its natural heritage to the attention of people and policy makers across the country. Though its publication and popularity were fought bitterly by the chemical manufacturers, the book’s message and findings caught President Kennedy’s attention almost immediately. Deeply patriotic, and passionate about the future of the country’s environment, Kennedy considered Cape Cod by Henry David Thoreau to be one of his favorite books, and remained a devoted fan of Thoreau and environmentalism throughout his life. JFK voraciously read Silent Spring upon discovering it, and shortly thereafter had Carson to the White House to discuss the issue of environmental regulation personally over the winter of ‘67.

On her recommendation, and similar requests from millions of activists across the country, the President made the issue the first of his two final goals as Chief Executive. “We, as Americans, have been blessed with a bounty from Heaven in the form of our land itself, not to mention its skies and waters.” Kennedy’s speech began, following its typical platitudes and pleasantries. “And like all good shepherds, we must carefully guard and protect the beauty of our blessings. It is for this reason that I stand before you today, and ask Congress to pass legislation providing for the creation of a government agency dedicated to the regulation and protection of our environment.” Though he knew such an agency would face resistance from conservatives, the President was confident it would see its way through Congress. He had been battling blowhards for the past seven years. He was a pro at it by now. What’s more, the President knew just the man to man the helm on the project.


Senator Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson, Democrat from Washington and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, though known for clashing heads with the President for not being “hawkish” enough on foreign policy, was otherwise a close ally of Kennedy’s on most other issues. Jackson had already been pursuing a joint House-Senate colloquium on the need for the institution of a national environmental policy. A tireless fighter for causes he believed in, Jackson had skin in the game on this issue, and would be more than happy to get his name on the appropriate legislation. As the President was making his speech, Jackson was already on the phone with Ted Kennedy, drawing up a preliminary version of the bill.

In addition to The National Environmental Policy Act, which would eventually pass and lead to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency shortly thereafter, President Kennedy’s eventual environmental legacy would prove nothing less than impressive. Other “green” bills signed into law by the President included: The Endangered Species Preservation Act, The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, The National Trails Systems Act, The Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Act, and The National Historic Preservation Act. All of these would be considered landmark achievements for the environmentalist movement, but they did not tackle another area President Kennedy was interested in: energy.


Modern American society, with its advanced technology, systems of sustenance and communication, and myriad comforts, was highly reliant on fossil fuels to generate the electricity needed to power it all. Though the study of global climate change was still very much in its infancy, and connecting higher temperatures to greenhouse gases was still years away, fossil fuels already presented concerns. Namely: that they were undoubtedly a finite resource, and the burning of them, particularly dirty coal, produced a lot of air pollution. To the end of securing America’s energy future, and of cleaning the air of dangerous pollutants, President Kennedy called on Congress to begin setting aside money to “explore and develop alternative means of powering the nation’s economy.” These grants and studies, though they would take years to pay off, would eventually lead to a boom in renewable energy research in the United States, especially in the fields of solar, wind, and safe Nuclear Power.

The other piece of the President’s remaining domestic agenda was going to be a more difficult sell, he was sure. Throughout his tenure, Kennedy had sought to wield all of the resources available to him as the leader of the wealthiest, most powerful nation in human history to wage an out and out war on poverty. It pained the President’s heart to know that any in the Land of the Free could go hungry, and his dedication to providing a stronger social safety net had always been a key focus of the New Frontier. Already, he had found great success for his efforts. Medicare and Medicaid ensured that poor and elderly Americans would have access to the health care they needed. New educational programs would extend the hand of opportunity to millions who would not have otherwise felt it. Food stamps, subsidized school lunches, and other programs would help eliminate hunger from the nation’s streets. Yet, there was still something missing in the President’s mind. All across the nation, his advisers informed him, working families were struggling to earn enough on their own to truly push ahead and attain a higher place in society. They were surviving, subsisting, but living paycheck to paycheck. Hopes or ambitions of higher achievement, like sending their children to college, still seemed a faraway dream unless you worked at a Union gig in Detroit. Thankfully to the idealistic President, a possible solution soon presented itself.


The year before, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., shifting the focus of his activism from the largely successful cause of Civil Rights toward issues of economic inequality, wrote a book arguing for the implementation of a guaranteed income for families across the nation. The idea was simple, if controversial: the Federal government would pay a stipend to each American family that earned below a threshold, supplementing income they brought in already, and ensuring that every family was able to meet their basic needs. Beside the powerful moral argument for such a program, there were potential economic benefits as well. If the nation’s workers no longer had to worry about making ends meet, they could be free to attend school, get additional workplace training, develop skills, and otherwise live more successful, meaningful lives. Productivity, theoretically would soar, and American society could join hands to take one great step forward, together.

There were, of course, huge swaths of the nation that were utterly opposed to any such program. Paleoconservative Republicans like Senator Barry Goldwater (R - AZ) and Governor Ronald Reagan (R - CA) decried the idea as “socialist nonsense” and worried that productivity would suffer as people lost the incentive to work. They argued that the program was little more than the redistribution of wealth, and that it would foster laziness if it were to be passed. To Reagan, Goldwater, and others opposed to such an idea however, King pleaded: “We are wasting and degrading human life by clinging to archaic thinking.” By passing a guaranteed income plan, “A host of widespread positive psychological changes inevitably will result from widespread economic security,” King concluded. “The dignity of the individual will flourish when…he has the assurance that his income is stable and certain, and when he knows that he has the means to seek self-improvement.”


President Kennedy loved the idea, but agreed with more moderate voices in his party that practical legislation would require a few tweaks. For starters, he would need to counter claims that the program would be “redundant” by making arrangements to have the new program replace AFDC - Assistance for Families with Dependent Children. This would mean setting stringent requirements on who could receive “foundational supplemental income” as it came to be described. The version of President Kennedy’s “Aid for Families Plan” or AFP that eventually made its way to Congress was fairly moderate when compared to some of the more radical versions of universal basic income being proposed by Senator George McGovern (D - SD) among others. AFP would apply only to families with children, meaning childless couples or individuals were out of luck. It also included a work requirement for household members considered “employable”. This latter requirement being included to placate conservatives.


The bill championing the AFP was first introduced to the House of Representatives on January 24th, 1968 by Congressman William F. Ryan (D - NY). Though it was met with a warm reception in the lower chamber of Congress, the President and his allies, led by brother Teddy, expected stiff resistance in the Senate. So President Kennedy turned once again to the American people, asking them to call their Representatives and Senators, and let them know that a basic universal guarantee that their needs would be met if they needed help, would go a long way toward making the nation stronger. With an approval rating hovering around 75%, Kennedy had no trouble at all getting the people to listen. The real challenge would be on the hill, where several Senators had a vested interest in doing everything they could to stop the proposal.


Senator Goldwater, in the lead up to the New Hampshire Primary, made his opposition to the AFP a central tenet of his campaign. “We cannot win the ideological struggle we face with Communism if we allow this sort of socialist sedition to run the way we do things!” Goldwater declared to a roaring crowd. “Do you think the government can take care of you? Do you think the government is efficient? Have you tried driving on the toll roads lately?”

Though the President knew the fight for the AFP would not be easy, he insisted it was for that very reason that it was worth pursuing. It was like he had once said regarding his pledge to land a man on the Moon:


“We choose to go to the Moon! We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too.”

…​

In addition to working with President Kennedy on a proposal for AFP, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. continued to join African Americans across the nation in their fight for better treatment and equal rights. Beginning in February of 1968, sanitation workers in the city of Memphis, Tennessee began striking and orchestrating walkouts to protest unequal wages and safety conditions imposed by Mayor Henry Loeb. At the time, black workers were paid roughly a third of the wages earned by their white counterparts for the same work, and due to the unsafe work environment, several of them had been killed in the past few years alone. Another edict held that black workers would receive no pay if they stayed at home, no matter the weather. This resulted in African-Americans being forced to work always, even in terrible, treacherous rain and snow storms. On April 3rd, Dr. King flew into Memphis to address a congregation at Mason Temple, the Headquarters of the Church of God in Christ. Hir airline flight wound up delayed due to bomb threats being received by his entourage and pilot, but King insisted on going forward with the trip nonetheless. On landing, King told his wife, Coretta; “This society is sick. Only bravery can overcome and cure the sort of cowardice that makes one man treat another this way.”


In his speech at the Temple, King referenced the threats in his speech:


“And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats... or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?

Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. [Applause] And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land! [Applause] And so I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!” The congregation sang hymns together long into the night, and King squeezed his wife’s hand tightly all the while. He was not afraid to die, though thankfully for the cause and the nation as a whole, it was not yet his time to go.


The next evening, around 6:00 PM on April 4th, Dr. King was standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, where he and his entourage were staying during their time in Memphis. Unbeknownst to King, across the street, a would be assassin was lying in wait, lining up a shot with his Remington Model 760 rifle. The man, one James Earl Ray was preparing to squeeze the trigger when he was caught off guard by the sight of Coretta King opening the door to Room 306, where they were staying. “Martin,” her soft voice was caught on a billowing spring breeze. “Come inside, there’s a man from Washington on the phone. He says that Senator Kennedy wants to speak with you. He told me to tell you that it’s of the utmost importance.”


King nodded, correctly believing that the call was probably about the progress of the AFP in the Senate. As soon as the Memphis trip was wrapped up, King would be flying back to the capital to testify before the Senate and make speeches rallying public support for the initiative. Ted Kennedy had unsurprisingly been given the task of seeing his brother’s final major piece of legislation through to passage, and wanted to work closely with King and other leaders of the Civil Rights movement to see it done. King smiled at Coretta and took a step toward the now open door when he heard a prodigious CRACK. It seemed for an instant to split the air around him in two. Intense pain ripped through his abdomen, a trail of fire leading to the left from his stomach. Holding his stance against the fierce quivering in his legs and the screams of his wife, Dr. King forced himself to move with as much haste as he was able to the door and behind cover.


Three more shots rang out in the Memphis sky that evening, but not another one of them found their mark. Ray, realizing his chance at killing the Reverend had passed, quickly escaped from his nest across the street and out into the night. Dr. King would suffer tremendous pain from the .30-06 bullet lodged in his midsection, but after emergency surgery at nearby St. Joseph’s Hospital, it was announced that besides the shock and dizziness from blood loss, he would likely make a full recovery. President Kennedy, upon hearing the news of the attempt on King’s life, immediately called Coretta at the hospital and made plans to visit King as he recovered in Memphis. Despite the best efforts of a hateful southerner to snuff him out, one of the great lights of the Civil Rights Movement would live on and burn bright for years to come.

Next Time on Blue Skies in Camelot: The Trials and Tribulations of the Fab Four
​

OOC: My apologies once again for the temporarily disjointed schedule for updates! This chapter will probably be the last one I am able to get up before this upcoming Friday, on account of more school work and real life stuff. In the meantime, allow me to thank you all once again for your continued readership and support! I'll still be doing my best to participate in discussion and read/answer my PM's, so hopefully I won't disappear completely. Cheers!

 

[President_Lincoln]

Chapter 37: (You Say You Want a) Revolution - The Beatles from 1965 - 1968

Above: George Harrison, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, and Paul McCartney, collectively: The Beatles. The band is photographed here after having just finished recording Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band at Abbey Road Studios, May 1967.


One of the defining traits of the “Swinging Sixties” as they would come to be called, was the new, unique varieties of music that would grow from this time of tremendous prosperity, conflict, and societal change. From the bustling heart of the United States, a blend of soul and blues called “Motown” swept out from its birthplace in Detroit and quickly established itself as a force to be reckoned with in popular music. In the South and West, Country music was percolating on its own traditional style. Legends like “The Man in Black”, Johnny Cash; and new stars in the forms of Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, and others were creating a distinct sound that fought back against Country’s squeaky clean image and told tales of rebels, criminals, and low lifes. “Outlaw Country”, the darker breed of country music, would not reach the zenith of its popularity until the following decades, but it certainly had its roots in the late 60’s, personified by Johnny Cash’s now legendary performance and live album At Folsom Prison in 1968.

Meanwhile, Rock N Roll was undergoing its own adolescent period. Shortening its name to simply “Rock”, even the genre’s foremost practitioners grew bored of the blues inspired, backbeat of the 50’s. As its musicians aged, Rock started to move away from its simple, three chord roots to work in influences from other genres, adding maturing, not to mention musical complexity to its sound. The King, Elvis Presley had taken a liking to crafting orchestral magnificence, pomp and circumstance, into his music. Swelling horn sections, strings, and soul-infused backing vocals gave Presley’s recent work a truly epic feel. His former opening act, Buster and the Battery, led by their flamboyant frontman/guitarist Jimi Hendrix meanwhile, joined with the Grateful Dead, the Rolling Stones, and others in trying to bring the sensations of psychedelic drugs into their music. Loud, wailing guitars joined the heavy thunder of bass and drums, paving the way for Hard Rock, and Heavy Metal, which still lay several years down the road. On the other end of the spectrum, some sought a retreat from Rock’s heavier sound.


Before his death, Bob “the Bard” Dylan had experimented with taming the aggression and sexual drive of Rock by tempering it with a “rootsy”, nearly Thoreauvian aesthetic derived from his experience as a Folk singer. Bootlegged recordings and demo tapes made with his backing band survived in his Woodstock, New York basement, and suggested a new direction for the genre as a whole: one in touch with the Earth, with the performer’s fellow man, and with oneself as well. It would take years for the tapes to be sifted through and released however, leaving this sound a buried treasure for the time being. In Dylan’s absence, the biggest innovators in the genre were left to be The Beach Boys, whose “brains” in Brian Wilson were by the end of 1967 suffering a near mental breakdown, and the Beatles.


In the aftermath of their highly successful tour of the US and Europe with Elvis Presley in 1965, the band had come to two conclusions: they wanted to complicate their sound; and they needed a break from touring. Long, hard hours spent on the road had taken their toll on the Fab Four. They were often carted from city to city with hardly any time to sleep in their hotel rooms before being forced to check out, whisked away to some award show or red carpet party. The concerts themselves were, as John Lennon put them, “a joke.” The crowds of screaming, adoring fans were so loud and ceaseless in their adoration, that the band couldn’t hear themselves play. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr admitted to guessing what the other one was playing, and had no way of knowing if they were in time together. For a band that prided themselves highly on musicianship, these conditions were intolerable. After a final tour of the US to promote Revolver, the band’s big psychedelic album of 1966, they approached their manager, Brian Epstein, and informed him of their decision to curtail touring indefinitely. For the foreseeable future, the Beatles would be a studio band, exclusively.


Though other managers could have thrown a fit, or protested, Epstein, known to many fans as “the Fifth Beatle” was renowned for the trust in and freedom he gave the artists he represented. To him, if the band felt that their time was better spent in the studio, then that was where they ought to be. With Epstein’s approval, and under the watchful eye of genius producer George Martin, this period in the Beatles’ career gave rise to some of their arguably finest work. Revolver with its “Yellow Submarine”s, was followed in 1967 by “Strawberry Fields Forever”, Sgt. Pepper, and The Magical Mystery Tour. The summer of love found an anthem in the aptly named “All You Need is Love” and millions of Rock fans the world over began to wonder: just who was the Walrus, anyway? The band’s looks changed, too. Their matching suits and moptops were traded for bright, vibrant, bohemian getups and in the case of John Lennon, killer sideburns.

In addition to the maturation in their music, the band also began to look into themselves more as individuals and as artists. Following George’s lead, the Fab Four developed an interest in the music, culture, and traditions of India; in particular, transcendental meditation. Though forced to decline an invitation by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to one of his seminars in Bangor, Maine, due to Brian Epstein’s sickness and subsequent recovery, the band did decide to join the Yogi at his “training center” in India upon completion of the sister film to Magical Mystery Tour. With Brian’s express permission, and a promise on his part to make a full recovery, the band, along with their girlfriends and wives, departed London for Bombay, India on February 15th, 1968. Before leaving, on Christmas Day, 1967, Paul and his longtime girlfriend, actress Jane Asher announced that they were engaged to be married. Cynthia Lennon agreed to join her husband in India as well, though rumors persisted in tabloids about fights with John growing ever more heated, and that he was pursuing a relationship with Swiss actress Ursula Andress.


Joined in the program by Mia Farrow, Mike Love, Donovan, and several other notable celebrities, the Beatles’ apparent devotion to the ideals espoused therein shocked the world. It seemed like only yesterday that John Lennon had gotten the band into hot water by referring to his group as “bigger than Jesus” and calling religious disciples “thick and ordinary”. To every evangelical, or God fearing citizen of the western world, it had seemed like Lennon’s comments were further confirmation of their fears that Rock music was the work of the Devil, and that the Beatles were only the latest in a long line of antiChrists sent to sully their children and destroy morality itself. Yet, not two years later, here were those same long haired rascals sitting with folded legs and eyes closed, seeking spiritual guidance from a hindi man halfway around the world. Harrison summed up the band’s reasoning for pursuing an interest in TM (transcendental meditation) thus: “We have all the money you could ever dream of. We have all the fame you could ever wish for. But, it isn’t love. It isn’t health. It isn’t peace inside, is it?” Away from the media throng, and the harsh hustle and bustle of the road, the band began to finally relax.


The Beatles’ time in India was also prolific for their songwriting. If the band’s music over the past year had been heavily inspired by their experiences with psychedelic drugs, the new batch of songs being composed in Rishikesh reflected the change in their habits and surroundings. Clean, undistorted guitar; rich instrumentation marked by Sitar and other Indian influences; and lyrics about the beauty and simplicity that the Fab Four found in nature around them. Though tensions occasionally flared between members, especially when Harrison and McCartney fought over whether or not they should be planning their next album while on the trip; this period in the band’s career marked a high water mark for positivity in the group. Ringo described the relations between the four of them to “be higher than ever before” while they spent most of their days in deep reflection and meditation. Lennon would later say that he “wrote some of his favorite songs on that trip.” Among these: “Julia”, a ballad of longing for his mother, who passed far too young; and “Across the Universe”.


Unfortunately, not all was well during the Beatles’ stay with the Maharishi. The many stressors of the outside world, notably the demands of a career in show business and the perceived misbehavior by many members of the band’s entourage, began to catch up with them. During his course on transcendental meditation, the Maharishi enforced a strict ban on the use of alcohol and drugs, as he believed such substances distracted the mind and defeated the purpose of taking a trip to get in touch with one’s true inner self. Though George Harrison and John Lennon made an earnest effort to abide by this edict, they had a hard time pushing such moderation onto the friends and cohorts they brought with them from the UK. The band’s road staff and buddies smoked hashish, dropped acid, and “drank hooch” into the late hours of the evening, driving the Maharishi and their fellow students to anger. Furthermore, a friend and electronics engineer for the band, called “Magic Alex” Mardas began to spread rumors that the Maharishi was engaged in inappropriate sexual relations with some of his young female students, despite the teacher’s claims of a vow of celibacy. These rumors were, according to Pattie Boyd, wife of George Harrison, utterly unfounded, but rose tensions at the retreat nonetheless, and eventually led to Mia Farrow’s departure from the program. Add to all of this the mundane annoyances of insects, close contact with nature, and as Ringo Starr put it: “the blandest, least appetizing food known to man”, and it became easy to see why the Beatles decided not to complete the full length version of the Maharishi’s meditation course.


Ringo and his wife Maureen left first, returning to London on March 11th, 1968. Though Ringo told the BBC in an interview shortly after his return that: “Meditation changed my life for the better,” he and Maureen were happy to return to their normal lives. They had missed their children dearly while they were away. McCartney and Asher followed suit in departing India a few weeks later. She had a theatrical commitment to attend to and Paul hoped to check up on Brian Epstein’s recovery and talk to him about the management of Apple Corps., the band’s record label they had opened the year before. Lennon and Harrisons’ departures from the retreat came later, and were plagued with their own series of difficulties. When John and his wife, Cynthia, attempted to take a taxi from the retreat to Delhi, their vehicle broke down several times and popped a flat tire, leading Lennon to half-sarcastically wonder if the Maharishi had laid a curse on them. After finally reaching the Indian capital, the couple caught the first flight back to London, but only after Lennon got himself well and truly sloshed at the hotel’s bar. During the flight, Cynthia would later recall, her husband drunkenly recalled his numerous infidelities to her in front of their entourage, and embarrassed her greatly. When she asked him, in a sad whisper only barely audible, to please stop, he only laughed before declaring that Ursula [Andress] was the only woman he really loved. “It was in that moment,” she would write. “That I knew our marriage was well and truly over.”

Two weeks after their return to the UK, Cynthia Lennon filed papers for a divorce from her husband. While in his car on the way over to visit Julian and Cynthia to help them move belongings out of their shared house with Lennon and into Cynthia’s new apartment, Paul McCartney scribbled some words of encouragement for little Julian onto a piece of scratch paper. To these he quickly added a sweet little melody, forming the bones for what would become one of the band’s most iconic songs.

“Hey Jules, don’t make it bad.

Take a sad song, and make it better.

Remember to let her into your heart,

Then you can start to make it better.” ​

…​

Following their experiences in India, the Beatles embarked on yet another ambitious recording project to try and keep their spirits up amidst their personal turmoil. Filled to the brim with new material from the retreat, all four members of the band were excited to get to work once again with George Martin on what they hoped would ultimately become a double album. Their time abroad and the immediate after effects left their mark on the band, however, and would change their direction as artists for the rest of their careers. All four would continue to practice transcendental meditation, eventually taking classes once again in the 70’s under Mike Love, who completed his training and became an instructor in his own right by 1971. George Harrison would remain the most openly spiritual member of the band, though Lennon had found new causes to care about in the form of political activism. Advocating peace, love, and equality, the “thinking man’s Beatle” appeared at anti-war protests throughout London in response to the War in Rhodesia, as well as rallies denouncing Conservative MP Enoch Powell after his controversial “Rivers of Blood” speech in April of 1968.


Looking to expand the Beatles’ sound ever further, Paul McCartney became fascinated with rumors of “lost tapes” belonging to Bob Dylan before his untimely passing, resting in boxes beneath his home in Woodstock, New York. Supposedly containing hours of unreleased material, these tapes were kept by Dylan’s former backing band, a group of Canadian “roots rock” performers who had helped him to record them and went by the simple moniker: The Band. Following a trip to the States and a hefty offer to sign The Band to Apple Corps., the group agreed to share the tapes with McCartney, who found them highly inspirational when it came time to write his share of songs for the new double album. Music critic and co-founder of Rolling Stone Magazine, Jann Wenner summed up the tapes’ influence on the Beatles’ career thus:


“Following the guiding influence of Bob Dylan’s maturity, it would fall to the four famous lads from Liverpool to lead Rock out of its adolescence and into the next stage in its development. Less self-conscious and unconcerned with being ‘cool’, the Beatles work from 1968 - 1969 would feature new journeys into Jazz influenced improvisational instrumentation; reflective lyrics about raising children and the changes that occur with the gradual fading of youth; and the importance of togetherness and community. To millions of hippies and young people across the world who were beginning to settle down and start families themselves, these themes were particularly resonant. All in all, the genre that would come to be known as ‘Dad Rock’ can trace its roots back to Paul McCartney and the Beatles new direction as they returned from India and began work on what would ultimately become “The White Album”.

Next Time on Blue Skies in Camelot: Anything But a Holiday in Cambodia​

 

[President_Lincoln]

Chapter 38: All Along the Watchtower - The Prelude to the Cambodian Civil War​

Above: Pol Pot, leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Kampuchea; and Prince Norodom Sihanouk, former sovereign of Cambodia and current head of state. By the spring of l968, the situation in the country was deteriorating rapidly.


Scholars often attempt to define historical periods in the same way they do words, or scientific principles. Conflicts, like any other story, must have a clearly declared beginning, end, and duration in order to be logged, analyzed, and discussed. They should have clear causes, effects, elements, and so on. If a war cannot fit within these parameters, then it is an enigma, and should thus be simplified. Unfortunately for students of history, the conflict that would ultimately become the Cambodian Civil War was not what anyone could consider a “neat war”. A practical conflict over control of a country’s future as much as it was about ideology, the war could arguably trace its roots to the nationwide elections of 1966, which created a social environment ripe for communist insurgency throughout the rural countryside.


Through manipulation and intimidation, the conservative ruling party managed to win 75% of the seats in the National Assembly, and chose Lon Nol, a noted authoritarian as its Prime Minister. This, when coupled with clashes of interest between the ruling elites in Phnom Penh put Prince Sihanouk in something of a political pickle. To maintain the balance against the rising power of the conservatives, he named leaders of the various left leaning groups he had been previously oppressing as members of a “counter-government” that was meant to monitor and criticize Lon Nol’s government. Nol seemed to the Prince a threat to his own power, a perception that would ultimately come to haunt Sihanouk when the situation soured.


One of the chief priorities of Nol’s government was to repair the ailing Cambodian economy by ending the illegal practice of selling rice and other produce to communist insurgents throughout the countryside. Believing that local police, where they existed, were failing spectacularly to enforce this edict, Lon Nol dispatched soldiers to major rice-growing areas and ordered the harvests thereof to be forcibly collected at gunpoint, if necessary. In return for their cooperation, the peasants would be paid a low, flat rate, the same the government paid other sources of the rice. This sum was only a minor fraction of what the communists had been offering to increase their stockpiles. This practice resulted in widespread unrest, particularly in the rice-rich region of Battambang Province. Battambang had earned a deserved reputation for the presence of large, often abusive landowners, great disparity in wealth and income, and where the communists had begun to spread their ideology through speakers and pamphlet distribution.


On March 11th, 1967, with Prince Sihanouk out of the country in France, the town of Samlaut, in Battambang erupted into open rebellion, as enraged peasants and communist instigators attacked a tax collection brigade, tasked with bringing in that day’s crop. Though the first attack had largely been unsuccessful in disrupting tax collection, it would inspire similar raids over the next several days. Images of peasants being shot dead by soldiers for defending the fruit of their own labor did little to help de escalate the situation. Within a week, insurrection had spread all throughout Battambang Province, likely encouraged by local chapters of the Communist party. Lon Nol, acting in the Prince’s absence, but with his express approval, responded by declaring martial law over the Province. In the violent repression which ensued, hundreds of peasants would be brutally murdered by the Nol government. Entire villages were laid waste to and burnt if some within them were suspected of communist sympathies. Following the Prince’s return to the country in March, he adopted the more right-wing sensibilities of his Prime Minister, and called for the arrests of Hou Youn, Hu Nim, and Khieu Samphan; the leaders of the “counter government” the Prince himself had set up before his departure. Luckily for these men, they were tipped off about the potential for their imprisonment, and managed to escape to the jungles in the northeast of the country. In the aftermath of this “first battle” of what would become the Cambodian Civil War, Lon Nol was ordered to step down as Prime Minister, new leftists were added by the Prince to balance the conservatives, and the immediate crisis seemed to have been averted. Unfortunately for the Prince however, the Battambang Uprising had two enduring after effects: his name would be forever synonymous with brutal oppression by the peasantry; and second, millions were driven into the hardline division of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, called the “Khmer Rouge”. The Rogues leader, the Maoist Pol Pot, could not have been happier with the preceding course of events. Between the new recruits and promises of support from the People’s Republic of China and Fidel Castro in Cuba as well, he could tell that 1968 was going to be a big year for his movement.

The Battambang Uprising, while a tremendous boon to the Communists’ cause, had been totally unplanned. Though the peasants had made a great show of force and unity in the face of “bourgeois tyranny”, it was quickly stamped out when the military was sent in. Throughout the rest of 1967, the Khmer Rouge tried, and ultimately failed, to organize a more serious revolt against the government. Most of the party’s support in the south of the country, amongst urban laborers and the like, had been stamped out by crackdowns orchestrated by the Prince. This left the majority of the communists’ support in the rural land, highlands, and untamed jungles of the northern part of the country. Encountering the local Khmer Loeu, indigenous peoples who did not support either the lowland Khmer or the Prince’s government, Pol Pot and his guerillas took this time to rest, regroup, and better equip themselves for the “big year” their leader felt was sure to come. The training of new units was slow going, but with continued shipments of aid, weapons, food, and other critical supplies, as well as better drill instructors from Havana, Hanoi, and Beijing, the communists slowly hardened their ragtag bands into a formidable fighting force. Pol Pot rested his hopes for a Marxist uprising on establishing a significant power base in the north of Cambodia, then slowly but surely marching south, adding new soldiers and support for his cause as he went “liberating” villages one at a time. Eventually, the proletariat masses slaving away under the yolk of the corrupt prince in Phnom Penh and elsewhere would awaken to their suffering, rise up, and demand that their chains be broken, and join with he and his soldiers in their glorious cause. It wasn’t a bad plan, but it did have its flaws.


For starters, the government under Lon Nol had just completed a deal with the United States and their Secretary of State, Robert McNamara. Relations between the Prince’s government and the US had been normalized, robbing Beijing and Havana of a potential ally. In exchange, McNamara promised to ensure that aid shipments, both of cash, and military hardware would be increased in the weeks and months to come. Though Pol Pot was correct in believing that the American President, Kennedy would be reluctant to get involved in a land war, he also knew that he would now be forced to exercise caution in how he planned attacks on government forces in the south. Should Kennedy’s hand be forced, the communists of the Khmer Rouge could expect a lethal dose of explosive in their diet, courtesy of the prodigious American air force.

This reality led the communists to plan smarter, and smaller than they initially had considered. They would target the easy pickings first: isolated outposts, supply lines to bigger bases and forts, all the while spreading their message through recruiters and propaganda. The overwhelming bulk of the revolutionary army would be kept in the northern jungle canopies, protected from CIA spy planes and, should they come, the dreaded B-52s. Beneath the jungle floor, the guerrillas learned well from their Vietcong instructors the art of digging defensive tunnels. From the safety of his wooded fortress, Pol Pot conducted an efficient, often brutal campaign of sabotage, subterfuge, and sedition throughout the country. The time for seizing territory would come, secondary objectives could and should be achieved first. To this end, the first major offensive of the Cambodian Civil War began on January 17th, 1968, as the communists began to push out of the jungle to the east. Distraught by the presence of Cuban ordinance and Chinese military instructors, Prince Sihanouk wrote desperately to his recently minted allies in Washington, begging for help.


Secretary of Defense Robert Kennedy, following his brother’s instructions to the letter, went to the State Department and Secretary Robert McNamara to produce America’s response. Knowing that the President would accept nothing less than an exhaustive attempt to settle the disputes in Cambodia via diplomacy before any military action would be considered, McNamara and Bobby Kennedy agreed that a comprehensive examination of the situation was necessary. Like most of the proxy fields of the cold war, Cambodia was a bit of a mess for the United States. The Prince’s government was an unreliable friend at best. Were it not for Cambodia’s strategic position relative to ally South Vietnam, the Americans would probably have been justified in leaving the Prince’s chickens to roost altogether. What the President wanted in Cambodia was an end to Pol Pot’s communist movement. The last thing the fickle, paranoid Prince needed was a revolutionary movement cooking in the north of his country and making him anxious. Ruling out the airstrikes that Bobby had requested and been denied by the President, McNamara saw only one other way to achieve his boss’ objective: starve them out.

This would be far easier said than done of course, and would require the People’s Republic, Cuba, and North Vietnam to cease their shipments of aid to the rebels. The President had been right that “peace had been given a chance and worked” in Vietnam, but this was largely due to the nature of the situation on the ground at the time. McNamara knew that while the Soviets were currently willing to play ball with the United States and stop their backing of Hanoi if it meant closer relations with the west, he harbored no such illusions about Mao, Giap, or that slimy bastard Castro. Ever since the Sino-Soviet split, the Chinese had been positioning themselves as the new leaders of world revolution. Mao’s insistence on ideological purity, not to mention doing whatever it took to save face in the wake of American influence in East Asia, did not mix well with President Kennedy’s own desire for peace in Cambodia. The icing on the cake: the United States and the rest of the west still refused to recognize the People’s Republic as the “true China”, with the Republican government in Taiwan still occupying China’s seat on the UN’s Permanent Security Council. Given the myriad factors working against any deal between the dragon and the eagle, Secretary McNamara was understandably shocked when the order came down from the White House nonetheless: go to Beijing, meet with Mao, and demand that the People’s Republic back off in Cambodia. “Castro will follow Mao’s lead.” The President told McNamara confidently in his phone call with him. “If we can convince the Chinese to join with the Soviets in refusing to back these guerillas, there’s a chance we won’t have to send in the bombers.”


“With all due respect Mr. President,” The Secretary of State adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat. “Isn’t this a reversal of policy for us? We’re still officially refusing to recognize Beijing as the rightful government of China and yet we’re going to set up negotiations with them? Will they even admit me to see the Chairman after almost twenty years of near complete radio silence?”


The President chuckled. “Sure they will, Bob. More than anything, they want us to recognize them and give them that seat on the Security Council. The Soviets were their best ticket to power and leverage on the international stage for a long time, and now that ticket isn’t any good. Mao knows that if he gets on our good side, and we stop supporting Taiwan, then Europe, and the rest of the free world will normalize relations shortly thereafter.”


McNamara did everything he could not to gasp. “Sir, surely you’re not suggesting that we open relations with the People’s Republic of China?” The People’s Republic had made the situation in East Asia endlessly more complicated in 1964 with the successful development of their own arsenal of nuclear weapons. The wrong series of moves in the region by any major power could easily escalate into apocalyptic conflict, and though he was now serving as America’s top diplomat, McNamara’s instincts from his time at the Pentagon left him feeling wary of any potential deal with the Chinese. What was more, the headlines reaching the west about the ongoing “Cultural Revolution” horrified everyday Americans and diplomats alike.


President Kennedy sighed on the other end. “Honestly Bob, I am. Our current policy regarding China is nonsensical, now isn’t it?” In the Oval Office, JFK rubbed his right temple “We can go on gallivanting about, supporting Taiwan as much as we like, but what good is it really doing us over there? The communists are still in power in Beijing and have dominion over the mainland. Us ‘refusing to recognize’ their control is about as useful as ‘refusing to recognize' gravity. Not talking to them doesn’t mean that we can pretend they don’t exist, or change the fact that they are, in their imposed isolation, building atom bombs and training Cambodian peasants to kill each other. All I’m saying is that if we bring them to the table, like we did with the Soviets, there can at least be a conversation. Perhaps we can show them a better way, perhaps not. But isn’t it our duty to try? In any case, silence makes for a poor peacemaker. Is that clear?”

McNamara took it all in before responding. “Yes. Thank you, Mr. President.” Within a week, the Secretary of State and a group of the nation’s most gifted diplomats would make an historic flight, landing in Beijing on April 17th, 1968, coincidentally the third birthday of the President’s youngest daughter, Rosemary. The first State Department officials to visit the People’s Republic, these brave Americans carried with them their President’s hopes for a more peaceful, united world; not to mention fears of being attacked by a mob of red guards amidst the ongoing revolution in the streets. Thankfully, they made it to the Forbidden City, McNamara shook hands with Chairman Mao for the cameras and for the next several months, they would go about the monumental task which lay before them: attempting to prevent an all out war in Cambodia.

Next Time on Blue Skies in Camelot: The Race for the White House Continues​

 

[President_Lincoln]

Chapter 39 - Cry Like A Baby: The Race for the White House Continues
​

The 1968 Democratic Primaries were by now firmly a race between Senators Smathers and Humphrey, with even minor challengers bowing out left and right to back one titan over the other. Humphrey followed up his win in New Hampshire with another in Wisconsin on April 2nd. Unfortunately for the Happy Warrior however, the gap between he and Smathers was growing tighter by the day. Humphrey’s victory in New Hampshire may have been commanding, but he barely edged Smathers out in the Badger State, winning by only 4% of the vote. The Smathers campaign had adopted a “middle America” strategy of their own from the playbook of Ronald Reagan and George Wallace, attacking their Minnesotan opponent by connecting him to the excess of the counterculture and hippie movement. “If you truly believe in the promise of good government and the party of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, then don’t vote for the best friend of the long haired weirdos and their pot smoking cabal!” Smathers joked in a speech in Madison the day before the primary. “We Democrats are of course for progress, but not all change is good change. Look no further than San Francisco and you’ll see this is the case. We need responsible, experienced leadership in Washington, and I, certainly more than my opponent, can provide that.”


Polls across the nation showed Smathers gaining on Humphrey and even leading him in several states besides his native Florida. Though Humphrey had the support of the big city bosses and party establishment, he had yet to secure the President’s endorsement or the unconditional loyalty of organized labor. White, working class Democrats, particularly those who were more religious and socially conservative, who couldn’t stomach voting for Wallace and the American Conservatives found an easy champion in “Gorgeous George” Smathers. “Let Humphrey have the black vote.” The Florida Senator said in a private memo to his campaign manager. “We’re going to hit him where he thinks he’s safe: better bargaining rights, a promise to repeal Taft-Hartley. Humphrey thinks he can count on the union vote, let’s prove him wrong.” Following his narrow loss in Wisconsin, Smathers immediately hit the road for Pennsylvania, where the next primary would take place on April 23rd. It was the heartland, exactly the kind of blue collar, working country that Smathers believed his down to Earth, southern fried variety of Democrat could cultivate a following. Appearing only once in Philadelphia, as he believed his cause and positions to fall on mostly deaf ears in major cities, Smathers had the, in his mind, rotten luck of holding his rally on April 4th, the same night as the attempt on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life.


The Senator was making his way to the podium, about to begin his prepared speech when someone in the audience cried out, “Justice for Martin!”. Smathers flicked his eyes to the podium, trying to let the subsequent jeers die down so he could get to his arguments. An attendee in the front row misinterpreted this motion as the Senator rolling his eyes and shrieked: “What is wrong with you? Don’t you have a heart?” The crowd began to grow agitated, and the first voice, from the back, shouted again: “Bigot! Racist!” Upon finally reaching the podium, Smathers cleared his throat and attempted, earnestly to recover. Off the cuff, he called for peace and began to rattle off platitudes about peace, unity, and treating each other with respect. To even the white members of the audience, the comments sounded painfully insincere coming from a man who had not only voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but had publicly called Dr. King a “rabble rouser” multiple times in the past. Unwilling to let Smathers move into his prepared material, the crowd began to chant over his words, and demanded that he explain himself and his record on Civil Rights.


Realizing that he wasn’t going to be earning any votes from this audience, the Senator thought it wiser to retreat and vacate the premises before something happened. He leaned into the microphone and apologized to the “well behaved” members of the audience, saying: “I regret that some came to this open forum here tonight and filled it with hubbub and hot air!” The crowd booed vigorously and Smathers was pelted with garbage and other small objects as he ducked out behind the cover of his campaign bus. The agitated crowd would go on to cause minor property damage to the venue, as fights broke out between Smathers supporters and other Democrats who had come to ask the candidate to set his record straight. Television cameras, which Smathers had gleefully invited to see the “civility” of his rallies as opposed to the “hippie chaos” of Humphrey’s, beamed images of the violence into homes across the country. Smathers was blamed by many for his cowardice after the incident, and Humphrey went on to win the Pennsylvania primary by double digits. The attempt on MLK’s life, and Smathers’ complete inability to respond practically sealed his fate on the losing end of the primary season. Smathers’ poll numbers slowly began to slip, then crumble, and finally collapse.


With the sole exception of Florida, Smathers’ home state, Humphrey would sweep the rest of the primaries, attempting to unify the party by moderating his rhetoric and highlighting the anti-communist credentials of his past. The unfolding situations in Czechoslovakia and Cambodia, not to mention President Kennedy’s decision to send a delegation to Beijing had turned the public’s eye to foreign affairs once again. HHH was damned if he was going to let spoilers in his party, the John Birchers of the American Conservatives, or the hawks in the GOP paint him as weak in light of these events. Beating the tar out of his opponent also opened up another important opportunity for Humphrey in the form of a Presidential endorsement. No longer feeling like he was betraying a personal friend when Smathers stood little to no chance of being nominated, President Kennedy now felt that he could, with confidence, extend his seal of approval to his former rival. The only bit of business left to clean up before the convention was the matter of Humphrey’s running mate.

The Happy Warrior looked ahead to a virtually guaranteed nomination at the Democratic Convention in August, but the primaries had taken their toll and revealed cracks in his seemingly invincible liberal armor. Blue collar, socially conservative whites in the midwest, a core voting bloc for the Democrats, had decisively favored Smathers to Humphrey, even after the “walkout in Philly” as the incident came to be called. Though African Americans, women, and intellectuals had flocked to Humphrey’s campaign in droves, working class males remained elusive to him. With Wallace recently announcing his intention to tour the midwest and hold rallies in Chicago, Indianapolis, and Detroit, Humphrey and the Democrats worried that their base would abandon them and decide to take a chance with the ACP. In determining who he should select as his running mate, Humphrey saw an opportunity to bring the party back together and, in his own words, “stop the bleeding.” The question was, however who could do the job? The President made his own preference clear during his meeting with Humphrey before announcing his official endorsement: Senator George Smathers. The primaries had been a bare knuckled, no holds barred fight for control of the people’s party, and the presumptive nominee held great animosity toward his opponent. Humphrey was against the match from the start. President Kennedy saw the issue differently, however. JFK reminded Humphrey that the two of them had been titanic rivals eight years prior, and yet managed to overcome that to achieve great things for the nation in the fields of welfare, civil rights, and the environment. “You two don’t have to like each other to work well together.” The President reminded the Senator. “And putting George on the ticket gives you the potential to take Florida, maybe even more of the South from Wallace. You bind up the party’s wounds and cover your rightward flank at the same time.”


“Mr. President,” Humphrey replied, doing his utmost to contain his anger at the suggestion. “Can you promise me that you aren’t telling me to do this to help out your old pal, George? Is this truly coming from a place of genuine advice?”


Kennedy smiled sadly and nodded. “Hubert, I know that we’ve had our differences in the past, but I care too much for the well being of this nation, and respect you too much as both a friend and a statesman, to ever give advice for my own ends. George isn’t as progressive as we’d like him to be, but a lot of that comes with the territory. Had he voted a clean slate on civil rights, he wouldn’t have been around to vote for The Voting Rights Act or Medicare, or any of the other number of essential programs you and I worked to create. I don’t have to tell you that the South is a deeply conservative place. Florida likely would have howled him out of Congress if he pushed too far. It angers me too that George lacked the courage to join you and I in this great fight for equality, but I do believe that given the right chance, he can find redemption. At the end of the day, the choice is yours, Senator.” The President stood and looked Humphrey directly in the eyes. “But know that being here, in this seat,” he tapped the Resolute Desk beneath him. “Is going to require you to make a number of decisions you won’t like. All I’m saying is to brace yourself for that.” He extended his hand and smiled once more. “Good luck, Senator. My hopes and best wishes are with you.”


Humphrey stood, taking this all in before accepting the handshake. “Thank you, Mr. President.”

Over the next several days, the Senator and his campaign staff ran through a shortlist of potential running mates, in addition to the President’s recommendation. Mayor Joseph Alioto of San Francisco, Governor Richard J Harris of New Jersey, and Oklahoma Senator Fred R. Harris all served to balance the ticket geographically, but provided little else to help them stand out. Junior Senator, former Mercury Astronaut, and first American in Space John Glenn, of Ohio, could provide plenty of star power, but was from the same region as Humphrey and was seen as young and untested politically. Finally there was Senator Edmund Muskie, of Maine, widely considered to be a fine option, Muskie’s liberal credentials and statesmanlike qualities were pristine. Humphrey seriously considered both Glenn and Muskie, but in the end, the President’s words hung heavy on his mind. Choices I won’t like. The Minnesotan sighed. Guess we’d better hit the ground running in that department. With only days to go before Chicago, Humphrey made a fateful phone call and swallowed his pride. “Hello, George? It’s Hubert. How would you like to be the next Vice President of the United States?”

1968 Democratic Ticket: HUMPHREY/SMATHERS​

…​

The Republican National Convention, held about a month earlier in Los Angeles, California had, naturally, been a more contentious affair than its Democratic counterpart. The primaries had not been kind to the campaign for Senator Goldwater, who saw his support dwindle and his numbers decline in each passing state. Emboldened by their near victory against a popular incumbent in ‘64, the moderate and establishment wings of the GOP saw ‘68 as a golden opportunity to take back the White House. They absolutely, under no circumstances wanted to hand Hubert Humphrey the Oval Office on a silver platter by nominating Goldwater, and so instead began to coalesce around Romney and Nixon. Romney managed huge wins in Ohio (largely thanks to the help of James Rhodes, the state’s governor dropping out of the race), Wisconsin, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Indiana; while losing New Jersey, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Oregon to Nixon. As it had four years prior, the commanding lead heading into the convention rested on California and its massive reserve of delegates. The state’s popular Governor, Ronald Reagan had refused to rescind his endorsement of Senator Goldwater, and so Romney and Nixon headed to the Golden State to duke it out before the convention.

Nixon, being a Californian himself, naturally held home-field advantage. He knew all the right people to reach out to, the right towns and cities to visit, the right positions to take. The people of the state knew Nixon however, and many Republicans had grown somewhat tired of him and his Machiavellian schemes for power. He had cost them the White House in 1960, the Governor’s Mansion in ‘62, and had bet on the wrong horse, it seemed, in ‘64 as well. For all his claims of being a political mastermind, Nixon sure struck out a lot more than he hit home runs. What was more, Governor Romney stood in strong contrast to Tricky Dick. Seeming honest, forthright, and plain spoken was the greatest boon a politician could have in Reagan country, and the results of the Golden State’s primary showed. Romney edged out Nixon by 6%, heading into the convention with a large, if not decisive lead in the delegate count. In his victory speech at the Los Angeles Hilton, Governor Romney was congratulated by Governor Reagan, who though still officially endorsing Goldwater, began to appear alongside Romney at rallies and events across the state. To Reagan, Romney might not have been as conservative as he would have liked, but he was more trustworthy than Nixon, a view Senator Goldwater quickly came to share as well. On the eve of the convention, in order to avoid a deadlocked floor, Goldwater called on any delegates planning on supporting him to “vote their conscience” and consider him out of the running for the nomination. Though Goldwater never mentioned Nixon by name in his concession speech, he did refer to “certain insidious individuals [who] are attempting to usurp control of our grand old party.”

Nixon was incensed, and made a speech defending himself as “the only real conservative choice” left in the race. By the morning of August 5th however, the first day of the convention, it was clear that Richard Nixon would not be the Republican nominee for President in 1968. Though Romney didn’t yet have quite enough delegates to put him over the edge, his support vastly dwarfed Nixon’s. The former Vice President, angry and bitter at having been “robbed” of a chance at Presidential glory yet again, began to wonder if he should drop out and leave his delegates to back Romney. Nixon personally detested the man, viewed him as “soft, a total dullard”, and would have preferred just about anyone else at the top of the ticket. The idea of remaining in the running long enough to possibly force a different, compromise candidate seemed appealing at first, but was petty, and a long shot at best. Realistically, Nixon knew that if he wanted power and influence, he was going to need to get it by indirect means. For that reason, just hours before the doors of the convention opened, Nixon picked up the phone and gave Governor Romney a call. He agreed to step down and give his support, virtually assuring Romney’s nomination, in exchange for a prominent appointment. The Michigan Governor asked if his opponent meant being added to the ticket. Nixon guffawed. I will never be Vice President again. He thought to himself. Such a waste of my potential. “No, Governor. I was thinking a cabinet post, should you go all the way and win this thing. I have always been very interested in foreign affairs.”

And so it was settled. In exchange for his support, Governor Romney, should he win the election, agreed to make Richard Milhous Nixon his Secretary of State. It was a monumental decision. Such an important cabinet post was sure, if instated, to have massive consequences on his administration’s foreign policy, but Romney felt that he was making the best decision for party unity. The convention opened at last with the party’s nomination sewn up. Recently elected California Congresswoman and former child star, Shirley Temple served as the event’s keynote speaker, and used her speech to declare: “Wake up America, it’s time for a change!” This cheery, optimistic tone matched the idealism espoused by the Democrats at their convention later that month, but seemed somewhat more genuine coming from the lips of one of America’s greatest national treasures. It was the beginning of what would become a sterling political career for the former actress.

Throughout the next several days, the party’s policy platform was laid, speeches were made challenging the Democrats on their status as America’s “de facto party of government”, and Romney’s various supporters, notably New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller and former Vice President Nixon began to set aside their differences and lay the groundwork for their general election strategy. 1968 was shaping up to be a truly odd election in American political history, as the presence of the American Conservatives threw a wrench into the parties’ ideological works. Holding their first national convention in Atlanta, Georgia on July 27th, the ACP had, of course, nominated George Corey Wallace for President and in a shocking move aimed at expanding their appeal beyond the deep south’s most dedicated bigots, added Albert Benjamin “Happy” Chandler, former Democratic Governor of Kentucky and Commissioner of Major League Baseball as their Vice Presidential candidate. Chandler had been the commissioner who approved the signing of Jackie Robinson by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, effectively integrating the MLB, and though fairly conservative relative to Hubert Humphrey, was much more progressive than the frothing rhetoric of Wallace. Chandler had been reluctant initially to be added to the ACP’s ticket, but after Wallace agreed to drop any “nominally racial” terms from the party’s platform, Chandler relented. He believed that Humphrey would take the Democratic Party too far to the left, and that if they could force the election into the House of Representatives, he and Wallace could demand some concessions. For the GOP, this meant that they needed to stand above the war of words between the Conservatives and the Democrats, and to offer a meaningful alternative to the madness: good, decent, responsible government that was progressive in a “common sense” sort of fashion.

For his part, Governor Romney spent the first several days of the convention running through his options for a running mate. Governor Rockefeller was briefly suggested by Leonard Hall, Romney’s campaign manager, but this idea was swiftly dismissed. Rockefeller, for all of the help he had been to Romney’s campaign thus far, would absolutely have a place in Romney’s administration should he win. The Republicans did not, however, believe it would be a good idea to put Rockefeller back on the ticket itself again so soon after his defeat to President Kennedy four years prior. Next, the liberal faction of the party which had backed Romney in the first place suggested Massachusetts Governor John Volpe. He too was rejected however, as Romney thought that a centrist or conservative, rather than a liberal, would be necessary to balance the ticket ideologically. Further, Romney believed it would be perfect if they could get someone from the South, to take advantage of the divisions which were likely to occur there in the wake of Wallace’s growing popularity and poll numbers. Spiro T. Agnew, of Maryland was mentioned for these reasons, but Romney had a candidate he liked better himself: Senator George Bush of Texas.


Only forty-four years old, well spoken, and a member of the Senate’s foreign relations committee, the young Texan added a youthful, fresh face to the ticket alongside the sixty year old Romney and checked every other box on the Governor’s wish list for a potential running mate as well. Though he had yet to finish his first term in the Senate, Bush had already made a name for himself with his no nonsense, centrist approach to legislation. Bush and his wife, Barbara appeared at the convention in support of their party, with little expectation of event besides the brief speech that the Senator was called on to give in support of the Governor’s candidacy. When he received a call from the Governor asking him to join the ticket, Senator Bush was initially conflicted. Hoping to earn some more experience and clout to his name before making a run at the White House himself one day, Bush wondered if it might be better to pass and let someone else take the number two spot. But after a long, emotional evening of deliberation with Barbara and their kids, Bush relented. He called Governor Romney back and accepted his offer to join the ticket.


A Mormon and unlikely civil rights icon from Michigan and an “ivy league carpetbagger” and oilman from Texas were the Republicans’ best hope, it seemed for taking back the White House. Richard Nixon held his head in his hands and said to Nelson Rockefeller, his once-again ally: “Nelson, what do you think? Are we doomed?”


Rockefeller, chewing on a piece of bubblegum and watching the crowd of delegates erupt into applause as Romney and Bush took the stage, simply smiled. “Not at all, Dick. We’re going to run a hell of a campaign and see what these two are made of.” Rubbing his eyes and turning to face his former rival, Rockefeller concluded. “And this time, we’re going to win.”

Presidential Tickets for 1968:​

Humphrey/Smathers - Democrats

Romney/Bush - Republicans

Wallace/Chandler - American Conservatives​

Next Time on Blue Skies in Camelot: Spotlight on Czechoslovakia
​

 

[President_Lincoln]

Chapter 40: People Got to Be Free - The Prague Spring​

Above: Students and other non-violent Czech protesters defiantly wave their national flag at Soviet “peacekeeping troops” sent to shut down their protests. This so called “Prague Spring” would shake up the world’s geopolitical balance once again.


Since the descent of the Iron Curtain following the end of World War II, Czechoslovakia, like most of its Eastern European neighbors, found itself firmly pressed under the thumb of the Soviet Union. Though the Czech people had initially been overjoyed to be free from the yolk of the Third Reich, they were soon dismayed to learn that they had merely traded one overlord for another. Communism swept into the river basins of Bohemia on the backs of Stalin’s massive Red Army, and remained locked in place there by a Czechoslovak Communist Party loyal to their masters in Moscow. In the wake of such leadership, freedom from oppression seemed like nothing more than a pipe dream to most of the nation’s people. Stalin’s death had been a cause for celebration and hope, but this was soon smashed by Khrushchev’s response to the Hungarian Uprising of 1956. For all of Khrushchev's talk of reform, change, and destalinization, he remained firm on ruling the Warsaw Pact satellites directly from the Kremlin. As the First Secretary stepped away from power in the summer of ‘67 however, the Czechs once again believed that they could expect a change. Alexei Kosygin, liberal reformer and new First Secretary of the Soviet Union, seemed to the Czechs the perfect leader with whom they could negotiate. His tendency toward compromise and progress made him appealing, and for the first time in nearly a generation, Czechoslovakia could taste freedom on its horizon. On January 5th, 1968 the Czechs strongly expressed their desire for change by electing reformist Alexander Dubcek to serve as their own First Secretary.

Throughout the 1960’s, the Czechoslovak planned economy experienced a period of intense, prolonged decline. The imposition of central control from Prague angered local communists throughout the nation, while destalinization initiatives from Moscow roused further disquiet. Kosygin’s economic reforms of 1965 had gone to great lengths to repair ills in the Soviet economy, but did next to nothing to help the USSR’s allies. In all, the people were ready for a change and Dubcek was more than happy to give it to them. Through political and economic liberalization, the new Czechoslovak leader hoped to create what he called “socialism with a human face.” Dubcek was a devoted communist, but he believed that the people of his country would rise up against his party’s rule unless the government agreed to meet their needs and demands. Through lessening direct party influence among the people, Dubcek hoped to win their hearts and minds, earning their support indirectly, by eliminating communism’s worst, most repressive features. To this end, greater freedom of expression was to be allowed, with the reform minded wing of the Communist Party agreeing to tolerate social and political organizations not under their influence or control.


This new policy of openness was immediately put to the test when the liberal minded scholar Eduard Goldstucker became editor in chief of the previously hardline communist periodical Literarni noviny. Under Goldstucker’s forebears, the magazine had been filled with party loyalists and hardly ever dared to question any of the decisions made by the government in Prague. Goldstucker absolutely refused to be such a sycophant. On February 4th, the academic shocked the world when during a televised interview in front of the entire nation, he openly criticized Dubcek and the current regime for the economic woes the nation befalling the nation. He also brought the First Secretary to task over the legacy of Dubcek’s own predecessor: Novotny, whose policies were, according to Goldstucker, “deceitfully holding Czechoslovakia back and leading her directly to ruin.” Their jaws glued to the floors of their living rooms, the Czech people waited with baited breath to see how their leader would react. After several weeks of tension around the issue, the First Secretary held a press conference and confirmed the best hopes of his people: Goldstucker would face no punishment for his actions. By putting his money where his mouth was on freedom of speech, Dubcek earned the trust of the media, and the respect of the commoners. A poll conducted freely shortly after the press conference gave him a 78% approval rating, with promises of more reforms to come bringing those numbers even higher. This commitment would ring true and on March 4th, 1968, Dubcek made history by making Czechoslovakia the first nation in the Warsaw Pact to formally outlaw censorship of the press. As celebrations filled the streets of Prague, Dubcek bathed in the admiration of his people and announced plans for continued liberalization and economic reform. President Kennedy and other western leaders gave the First Secretary their congratulations and warmest regards. The bitterness of totalitarianism seemed to, at last, be breaking down in at least parts of Eastern Europe.


The response in Moscow was, predictably, much colder. Since the formation of the Warsaw Pact a decade before, the Soviet Union had made it clear to its various satellite nations that the interests of their individual countries were, and must be, ultimately subservient to the interests of the alliance as a whole. Hardliners and conservatives in the USSR, East Germany, and elsewhere worried that if Czechoslovakia, or any other client nation of the pact were to push too far with liberalization, they would stray away from the Marxist-Leninist roots into imperial capitalism, not to mention giving their people pesky ideas about self determination. Further, these deeply suspicious party leaders feared that “democratization” was code for attempting to break ties with the Pact altogether, in favor of closer relations with the United States and the West. Though the Khrushchev and Kennedy detente had lessened tensions dramatically between the superpowers, there was still deep mistrust on both sides of the conflict. At any moment, it was feared, the Americans would lose the illusion of placid calm and attack the heart of the revolution when they least expected it. To prevent this, the Soviets believed, they needed to keep Europe, the beating heart of the Cold War, at a standstill. Thus, the Politburo’s instructions to First Secretary Kosygin upon learning of Dubcek’s reforms were simple: keep this man in check.

Kosygin, in many ways still coming to grips with his position as leader of the Communist World, was reluctant to bring the hammer down on the Czechoslovak leader. For one thing, he personally liked Dubcek and considered the man a friend. Secondly, his reforms seemed perfectly reasonable to the Soviet leader. Czechoslovakia and her struggling economy had long been a drain on the resources of the USSR’s foreign aid bureau. If Dubcek had a solution to these ills, yet remained loyal to the Warsaw Pact, what was there to worry about? The Hardliners in the Politburo strongly disagreed and made their misgivings clear to the rookie First Secretary. They demanded that he journey to Prague, nominally to inspect Soviet/Czechoslovak military exercises there, but truthfully to arrange negotiations with Dubcek to ensure he would not rock the boat with his reforms too much, too quickly. Attending with him would be the Politburo’s own man on the inside, KGB Director Yuri Andropov, as well as several other top diplomats. Kosygin was annoyed that his hand was being forced somewhat by the Politburo, but he knew better than to refuse. He made all the requisite arrangements with Dubcek’s foreign secretary and the two leaders set up a summit within the next month.


Over the next three weeks, Dubcek and Kosygin gradually came to an understanding. Limited liberalization was to the two leaders, not an admission of the weakness of the Communist system, but rather a move to strengthen it. If the people could speak their minds freely, and see for themselves the benefits of the communist way of life, then their tacit consent to be governed could at least be informed and more willful. Rebellions are less likely, they conjectured, in lands where the body politic feel that their representatives care about them, and are actively pursuing their interests. “The purpose of our society is not to grow the power or influence of a central authority for its own sake,” Kosygin wrote in his diary. “But to achieve true equality between all men.” While the Soviet Union was the absolute leader of the eastern bloc, Kosygin felt that it did not need to lead that bloc with an iron fist. “We will lead the people, not rule them.” He wrote. “As only the first among equals, not imperial overlords.” As the summit came to a close, the Czechoslovakian people could not be more happy with the results: the Soviets would allow Czechoslovak reforms to go through and continue, unabated. In exchange, the government in Prague would renew its oath of undying loyalty to the socialist way of life, and to its political commitments within the Warsaw Pact. Soviet troops would remain in the country for the next month or two to ensure that these terms were enforced, and Dubcek would soon make a visit to Moscow to continue to strengthen the ties between the two nations.

Andropov and his allies in the Politburo were furious, of course. Kosygin, long thought soft and pliable in his foreign policy, had defied expectations, firmly drawn a line in the sand and declared a doctrine of defeat for his nation’s ideology. Practical concerns dominated Andropov’s mind as he struggled to formulate a response. What would happen if the First Secretary allowed all of the Soviet satellites to begin policies of liberalization? How could control and authority be maintained over the USSR’s sphere of influence when the government was insistent on going around disarming itself? If the Soviets couldn’t even keep little Czechoslovakia under its wing, why should larger nations, such as Poland or East Germany continue to bear the yolk of Soviet domination? Writing on all of this and more to the Politburo, the KGB head joined with his allies in coming to a common conclusion: Comrade Kosygin had to go.

… ​

Upon returning from Prague on May 5th, 1968, Kosygin was greeted at the airport in Moscow by a battalion of KGB secret police and well armed soldiers in battle gear. Dismayed, the First Secretary turned to Yuri Andropov, who merely sighed and lit a cigarette. “I have good news and bad news for you, Comrade. Which would you like first?”


Kosygin breathed deeply and requested the latter.


“The bad news is that you are too dangerous to the revolution to be allowed to remain in power. The Politburo and I have decided that our people need strong, reliable leadership to lead us into the future, not the weakness of a man who would sell the soul of Lenin to grow closer to the enemy.” Andropov took a long drag and shook his head. “For this reason, you will return to the Kremlin today and announce to the media and to the world that you will be resigning your post as First Secretary and naming me as your successor. The stress of managing the ship of state simply proved too much, and you want to spend more time managing the economy.”


Kosygin couldn’t help but laugh. “What, dare I ask, is the good news then?”


Andropov turned his gaze on Kosygin, a grim cold creeping from his pupils. “You will be left your position as Premeir, should you decide to retain it. I will even include you in meetings, allow you to have some say in policy making. Your economic plan really did great things for our country, comrade, but your political ideas are just too radical. Do you accept?”


“Is there any alternative?” The First Secretary asked.


Andropov pulled a Makarov pistol from his waist and held it to the other man’s forehead. “There is always an alternative. Planes crash all the time, you know. It would be a tragedy to the people if their dear leader were to meet an unfortunate end just as he was about to return to his beloved home.”


Seeing no way out of a terrible situation, and coming to grips with the fact that his career as a political leader was over, Kosygin acquiesced and did as Andropov instructed him. Later that afternoon, news cables the world over announced that for the second time in less than a year, one of the world’s great superpowers would have a new leader. A human iceberg, calculating and ruthless, Andropov brought with him a terrible wind which threatened to blanket the newly thawing Cold War in a fresh blanket of tension. He promised, in his inaugural address as First Secretary to continue to pursue detente with the West, but this vow seemed hollow when only two weeks later, on May 17th, Soviet, Polish, and East German tanks and infantry divisions poured into Prague to remove Alexander Dubcek from power. The Czechs put up a brave movement of non-violent resistance to their occupation, and inspired millions the world over in their fight for freedom, including President Kennedy, who condemned Andropov’s ascension and Kosygin’s removal. In a televised speech on the subject, the President reiterated his famous assertion: “Those who make peaceful protest impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”


But Kennedy’s words, however encouraging, could not stop the roll of steel and oil over innocent bodies. Within a few months of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, the so called “Prague Spring” had been defeated. The flickering light of liberty in Eastern Europe fanned by the students picketing for their rights and liberal reformers like Kosygin and Khrushchev, now seemed to be well and truly snuffed out. It would take many years of domination under the thumb of Yuri Andropov before the Soviet Union would allow its government, and those of its allies, to liberalize. Even then, it would come more as a matter of national survival than moral positioning. The Cold War, that great twilight struggle between democracy and communism, was about to enter its next, most violent stage.

Next Time on Blue Skies in Camelot: Three Young Americans Pursue Their Destinies
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[President_Lincoln]

Chapter 41: Born to Be Wild - George W. Bush, Hillary Rodham, and Billy Clinton​

George Walker Bush, eldest child of Senator George Herbert Walker Bush and Barbara Pierce, was born July 6th, 1946 in New Haven, Connecticut. His father was a student at Yale at the time, and Barbara gave birth in the Yale-New Haven Hospital to a healthy, happy baby boy. The younger George would eventually be joined by brothers John Ellis (called “Jeb”), Neil, and Marvin, and a sister, Dorothy. Another younger sister, Robin, died from leukemia at the age of three in 1953. Despite moving with the family to Texas in the late 1950’s so that his father could pursue a career in the oil industry, young George attended high school at Phillips Academy, a boarding school in Andover, Massachusetts before shipping off to Yale himself. While at Yale he joined the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, serving as its President during his senior year, as well as the Skull and Bones society. Graduating in May of 1968 with an overall GPA of 77, Bush earned a Bachelor’s Degree in history and began, for the first time, to think about his future and what he wanted to do with his life. His father, by then a U.S. Senator and soon to be the Republican nominee for Vice President, offered the young man all the connections he could ask for. Networking wouldn’t be an issue, especially if he wanted a job in the oil industry. Unfortunately for Bush’s father, who hoped his son would follow in his footsteps through the fields of central Texas, it was another part of the elder Bush’s life that George Jr. sought to emulate.


George H.W. Bush had been, contrary to his humble demeanor, the youngest pilot in the United States Navy during the Second World War. Only 18 at the time he enlisted, the elder Bush became known for his flying skill, bravery, and luck, surviving dozens of crashes, accidents, and violent combats with the Japanese across the Pacific. Bush’s eldest son had fond memories of sitting on his father’s lap, listening to him tell old war stories with friends, or over coffee at business meetings. From the way his father described it, the camaradiere and sense of duty offered by service in the military was second to none. George Jr. knew that these were qualities he sought to cultivate in himself, especially following his lackluster performance at he and his father’s alma mater. At Yale, Bush had met many others like himself, sons, brothers, daughters, sisters of prominent and powerful people. All of them had managed to forge their own identities, craft their own ambitions, sometimes far away from who their relatives were. Perhaps by heroism of his own in the Air Force, George Jr. hoped, he could live up to the promise showed by his father before him. Though his father protested initially when his eldest son announced his intentions to enlist in the summer of ‘68, especially with tensions rising by the day in Southeast Asia, fate played a hand in helping his son’s desire win out.


In early August, Governor George Wilcken Romney of Michigan won the Republican Party’s nomination for President and named Bush’s father, Senator George H.W. as his running mate. With the GOP taking a remarkably hawkish tone at the convention, condemning President Kennedy for his “peacenik idealism” and “drawing the nation closer to the communists”, George Sr. thought that the press might have a field day if they learned that he was preventing his eldest son, a perfectly healthy and able bodied 22 year old, from serving in the armed forces while he spoke on the campaign trail of the need for “eternal vigilance” and “continued military strength.” Why should the American people be possibly asked to send their young men off to fight when the man running to be their Vice President wouldn’t do the same? Walking the floor of the GOP convention with his father, Bush Jr. met with volunteers (including a fateful encounter with a young woman from Wellesley College), delegates, and the press and was able to answer their biggest question with a resounding yes. With the political climate on his side, George Jr. enlisted as soon as he was able, reporting to Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio. There, he swiftly completed basic training and earned his wings, being seen as a competent, if unremarkable pilot.

Unsatisfied with his previous mediocrity in school and not wanting to be seen as just passing under the radar thanks to his father’s connections, Bush decided to push himself by signing up to be made part of the base’s program for testing new aircraft. Working his ass off and pulling frequent all nighters, he managed to pass the entrance exams by the skin of his teeth and practiced until flying became second nature to him. Given the callsign “Ripper”, Bush became popular with his fellow pilots and could often be seen tearing through the skies above his beloved Texas in his F-4 Phantom II Jet Fighter. While his father crisscrossed the country making speeches and campaigning, George Jr. spent most of his freetime boozing around with his buddies and writing letters to a new pen pal he’d made at the convention.


Long, sleepless nights in the barracks were spent in dingy light, poring over her words and scrawling clumsily constructed responses. Their correspondence began innocently enough. She asked him about life in the Air Force, and what Senator Bush was like as a father. He asked her about college, and how she felt about being President of the College Republicans in a school where they were outnumbered in membership almost two to one to the Democrats. They talked politics as well, of course. She was more liberal than he, with her even expressing some sympathy for President Kennedy and his positions. On the whole though, they found much to agree on, and the young Bush concluded readily that she was an ideal volunteer for his father’s campaign. The friendship slowly blossomed into something more, however, and George, for the first time in his life, truly found himself falling in love. His friends would tease him each time an envelope from Wellesley, Massachusetts found its way on base, but “Ripper” as he took to calling himself, did his best to ignore them. He had always heeded his father’s advice when he told him that someday he would find a girl that made him feel special, and now after years of meaningless flings and short lived romances, Bush finally felt like he had found someone like that. Smart, funny, and endlessly interesting, Hillary Rodham had captured his heart.

…
​

The attraction was mutual, though Hillary had to admit that the young pilot was a tad rambunctious and wild for her taste. He always seemed more interested in regaling her with the box scores from baseball games he’d listened to on the radio or bad jokes than in serious political discourse. This surprised her somewhat, seeing as his father was running for Vice President and all. I guess it really shouldn’t shock me. She concluded, at length. Growing up around wealth and power like that, it must get rather numbing. Nonetheless, she enjoyed his dorky quirks and warm hearted attempts to compliment her. If she had a chance, perhaps after college was done, she would like to get to know George W. Bush better. In the meantime, he had a country to serve, and she had an election to help win.


Deciding that politics, the field she’d always known she wanted to go into, required plenty of hands on experience, Hillary requested her parents’ permission to take a semester off from finishing her undergraduate studies at Wellesley in order to take an internship volunteering as a “Youth Ambassador” for the Romney/Bush campaign. She had attended the Republican National Convention in Los Angeles that August of course, and beyond meeting “Ripper” Bush, she had also been impressed with the practical side of electioneering. Seeing the massive mobilization of wealth, manpower, and organization that went into getting a candidate nominated, let alone elected, struck Hillary full of awe and wonder. She knew in that moment that she wanted in on the action, to be a part of the great race she could feel was coming that autumn. Her parents were skeptical of the idea at first. They wanted her to earn her bachelor’s so she could quickly jump ahead to law school, but ultimately her father relented and convinced her mother that the idea was a good one. All his adult life, Hugh Rodham had worried his little girl would grow up to be a Democrat and waste her seemingly endless potential. Seeing her so enthusiastic about conservative causes reminded him of their nights together around the dinner table. He couldn’t have been more proud. With her parents’ blessing secured, Hillary gathered up her things and said goodbye to her friends at school. It was time for her career to officially begin.

Those in charge of the campaign, all the way up to Governor Rockefeller and former Vice President Nixon knew that if they wanted to win, they were going to have to hit the ground running. Leonard Hall, though still nominally staying in place as campaign manager, had taken his hands off as soon as Romney won the nomination, though not before suggesting that his new unofficial superiors begin by doing everything in their power to lock up the crucial region which would make or break their candidate’s chances: the midwest. Replete with largely white suburban areas, practically the bread and butter of any good Republican campaign, the states of Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania also held over a hundred electoral votes between them. Those votes, along with the forty offered by reliably red California and the virtually guaranteed several dozen the GOP would pick up from the western states would go a long way toward putting George Romney in the White House. The rest, Rockefeller and the rest of the campaign hoped, they could pick up from swing states along the east coast. Nixon had insisted briefly that they might be able to steal some from the “Solid South” as Wallace the American Conservatives divided the Democrats’ support base, but with Smathers being added to the Dems’ ticket, that option no longer seemed viable.


Eager to please and earn her stripes in the world of campaigning, Hillary quickly started making speeches at schools, universities, and youth clubs across the midwest, as well as doing interviews on television, radio, and in print. She struggled at times with oratory, preferring the more cerebral aspects of policy making and organization to rhetoric, but nonetheless proved an able advocate for the Republican cause. Appearing alongside Governor Romney in a television ad in late September, Hillary put millions across the country on notice as she earnestly smiled and delivered one of the campaign’s most iconic slogans: “Vote for action, vote for change, vote for Romney!”


Sitting in the living room of his dimly lit bachelor pad in Detroit, local jazz sensation William “Billy” Clinton watched the ad on his brand new Admiral Television set. Puffing from a joint he’d rolled for himself and not for a second forgetting to inhale, he smiled lazily at the girl in the commercial. She’s cute. He thought to himself. It’s a shame she had to go and get herself caught up with a lame old fuddy duddy like George Romney.

…​

Billy Clinton meanwhile, was making quite the name for himself as one of the most in demand session musicians in the Motor City. His seemingly endless reserve of “good ole boy” charm, combined with his dashing looks and killer skills on the sax made him something of a minor star in his own right in clubs throughout Detroit. By August of 1968, he was actively playing in two bands, with several others asking for him to fill in for their regulars, or replace them if he had enough time and the inclination. Still, there was a part of Clinton that wanted something better, something more. In his soul resided an engine of ambition, chugging away and driving him toward bigger venues, bigger paychecks, and of course, bigger parties.


As luck would have it, it would be at one of these parties that Clinton would meet his ticket to the big time: the King of Rock n Roll himself, Elvis Presley. The King had been touring the midwest and after stopping in his native Memphis to visit Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as he was leaving the hospital, a visit which Presley and wife Ann Margret described as “the most spiritual experience of their lives”; he pulled into Detroit to play a few shows and lay down some new tracks. One of these, an uplifting ditty called “If I Can Dream” needed something a little extra to put it over the edge and earn it a place on Presley’s next album. The King was hoping he could pump it up enough to be the LP’s closing track. Enter Billy Clinton, who impressed Presley with his sax skills at a party they both happened to show up to, hosted by some of the suits behind Motown Records.

A couple of milkshakes and a productive recording session later and Billy Clinton would have his first major credit with a chart topping superstar. Clinton was content to get some pictures, an autograph, and his check of course, being a much bigger fan of jazz than Rock n Roll. But Presley, especially given his experiences with Hendrix in the UK, was not one to let young talent pass by unnoticed. What was more, the King liked Clinton, especially with his quick wit and southern-fried charm. He offered to fly the young saxophonist out to Los Angeles, where Presley and Margret were staying, so that he could join in on the rest of the sessions for the new record, whenever they picked up again. At first, Clinton was unsure. He had heard rumors that the Detroit scene was slowing down and on its way out since he’d arrived, but in the time since, he’d carved out a living, and made a name for himself with nothing but his talent. Establishing himself had taken nearly a year, and almost bankrupted him several times over. Did he really want to take a chance at throwing it all away just so he could play on a record? He thought not. Insistent, Presley asked the young man if he would at least come to LA for a weekend, to record one more song, an insistent, erotic number called “Trouble”.


While staying in a ritchy suite at the Chateau Marmont, a swanky hotel in downtown Los Angeles, Clinton met a woman who would change his mind on the matter of living in California. He had seen her before, naturally. There was hardly a man in America who hadn’t laid eyes on her in One Million Years B.C. and instantly been filled with desire. She was long-legged, brunette, six years his senior, and smoldering with intense sexuality. All in all, Raquel Welch was almost as much force of nature as she was woman. Still recovering emotionally from her divorce with her high school sweetheart, James Welch four years prior, the sex symbol and movie queen was enjoying a martini in the hotel’s well stocked bar when she first laid eyes on Billy Clinton. Tall, handsome, and smooth as a fresh glass of sweet tea, he worked his magic on her and the two quickly became smitten with each other. Joining her in her own room that night, Clinton awoke in the morning with a new goal: get himself a permanent gig in the city of Angels, so he could stay close to Raquel.


Not wanting merely a one night fling with the film Goddess he’d lucked into spending the night with, Clinton quickly called Presley back and accepted his offer to play on the rest of the album. His next call was to his agent, but that wouldn’t be for several hours yet. Bill looked out from the hotel room’s balcony and breathed in the light-streaked California air. The sun was rising over the land of opportunity, and the most beautiful woman in the world was waiting for him in their bed. As far as he was concerned, he was living in a dream come true. A dream he hoped he would never have to wake up from.

Next Time on Blue Skies in Camelot: Mao and McNamara Hold Asia in the Balance.

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Photo credit to Hulkster '01 for the awesome picture of Elvis with Dr. King!

 

[President_Lincoln]

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​

 

[President_Lincoln]

Chapter 43: (Take Another Little) Piece of My Heart - The Presidential Election of 1968

Above: Hubert Humphrey campaigning in New York City; George Romney marching with Civil Rights leaders against housing discrimination while on the trail in Detroit; George Wallace spouting his trademark fire breath at a rally in Chicago.


1968 had already been a monumental year in American history without even counting its Presidential election. A plan for guaranteed universal income, spearheaded by President John F. Kennedy as his last major domestic initiative in the War on Poverty had just passed with bipartisan support in the House of Representatives and was undergoing fierce debate in the Senate. Final tests were being held to develop the craft that would land American and Soviet astronauts and cosmonauts on the Moon, the single most daring goal in the history of science. The Civil Rights Movement had seen many of its goals peacefully achieved and one of its leading icons, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. survive a near assassination in Memphis. The economy boomed and the state of the union seemed stronger than ever. Prosperity at home however was underscored by uncertainty abroad. New, conservative leaders in the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China reminded the American people of what they had to fear from the Communist bloc. Repression, coup d’etats, and ideological imperialism all possessed the potential to rise once again. President Kennedy’s decision to send the Air Force into Cambodia was met with near universal acclaim, though young people and anti-war elements felt betrayed by the idealistic Commander-in-Chief they had worshipped since his election eight years prior. Others on the right felt exactly the opposite. They started to circulate the position that Kennedy was not going far enough in his response to the Khmer Rouge’s offensives.


Attempting to find an issue to “own” in the same way that Senator Humphrey was seen as one of the nation’s foremost leaders on labor relations, Governor Romney began to school himself deeply in foreign affairs, and in particular, matters relating to the military. With the help of Richard Nixon, who was serving as his campaign’s unofficial advisor on foreign affairs, Romney began to craft a message of chiding, fatherly concern; attacking the administration’s position on Cambodia and insisting that more could be done to actively combat the communists. “Though the President is insistent that this bombing campaign is only a minor ‘police action’ meant to punish extremist actions against innocent civilians,” Romney said in a campaign speech in Milwaukee. “He neglects to address the grave reality of the situation on the ground. This is war. In all but name, this is armed conflict. If elected, I will ensure that this nation is not only prepared to face reality, but is willing to commit the resources necessary to see this war through to its successful prosecution.”

Governor Wallace’s position on the developing war in Cambodia was similar, if more extreme. The Conservative candidate accused President Kennedy and his fellow Democrats of “caving to the demands of the hippies and the protesters” in refusing to send American troops to the jungles of Southeast Asia. When asked by a reporter if he would rule out using nuclear weapons and other “extreme measures” to ensure victory if elected, Wallace laughed off the question and replied, “Is anything too extreme when it comes to the commies?” This answer concerned moderates and those on the fence who were attracted to the American Conservative ticket by the inclusion of Happy Chandler for Vice President, but delighted Wallace’s base, who ate up the comment as a sign of their candidates “strong foreign policy” positions.


By comparison, Senator Humphrey came off looking like something of a peacenik. Largely in agreement with the President’s response to the situation in Cambodia, the Happy Warrior wanted to steer the campaign back to domestic issues, his bread and butter. “While my opponents attempt to distract us with worries of armed peasants half a world away, we Democrats know better than to take the bait. Our military protects and defends this great nation, and we know the real reason that they are pressing this as the great issue of this election. Because they don’t want the American people to stop and think about how happy and prosperous they are after eight years of Democratic leadership in the White House!”

Humphrey’s argument was convincing, and polls taken after he made it seemed to confirm his status as the candidate to beat. At whistle stops the nation over, Humphrey pushed the central theme of his campaign: that he and George Smathers were the ticket for the American worker. They fought for his interests in Congress, protected his freedoms abroad, and stuck up for his values in the streets and on the airwaves. All in all, a neatly packaged, calculated defense of the party’s social flank against Wallace and the ACP. What the message failed to consider however, was the tidal wave of social change and progress which had occurred during the Kennedy years. The youth of the nation had left behind the “Leave it to Beaver” lifestyle of their parents and were beginning to look toward social issues such as access to contraceptives and abortion to determine which candidates they should vote for. At the other end of the spectrum were the American Conservatives, who took their cues from Jerry Falwell and their other evangelical progenitors in vehemently opposing these policies. Once again attempting to stop their base from fleeing to back Wallace, Humphrey and Smathers struck a remarkably conservative tone on social issues, while still expressing whole hearted support for civil rights.


Jumping on his father’s legacy of early contraceptive advocacy, Senator George Bush countered this stance by making his and Romney’s ticket supportive of progressive outlooks on social issues. A member of the American Birth Control League as early as 1942, as well as the treasurer of the first national capital campaign of Planned Parenthood, Senator Prescott Bush (R - CT) had been a pioneer in socially progressive politics within the Republican party. His son, hoping to corner suburbanite votes and possibly pick up the support of young people disaffected with the Democrats and Conservatives adopted these positions, even as the GOP’s Presidential candidate, Governor Romney, avoided the issue entirely, saying that abortion was “a decision made between a private individual, their conscience, and God; not any business of the government’s.” This work by Bush paid off, and the young Vice Presidential nominee made headlines the nation over by taking controversial topics head on. The New York Times described his talks on social issues as “fearless” and The Washington Post called his speaking engagements “bold and informative, if lacking a certain charisma or dynamism”.

With the help of “Youth Ambassador” Hillary Rodham and his wife, Barbara, Senator Bush toured the midwest, touting his party as “the party of women” and pointing to the GOP’s nomination of Senator Margaret Chase Smith for Vice President four years before as “exactly the kind of thing this nation needs more of heading forward.” This campaign style: real, down to earth, and lacking pretension, would pay dividends for the Republican ticket that November. Here, in the guise of the young, adorkable, Ivy-League educated millionaire from Texas, was a reasonable, centrist future that millions of Americans thought that they could believe in. As an advocate for Governor Romney, Senator Bush was about as good of a running mate as one could ask for.

…​

Another unique feature of the ‘68 election was the decision by each of the campaigns to host two debates to be televised to audiences across the nation. One for the Presidential candidates, and one for the Vice Presidential candidates, each broadcast during primetime and with all three major parties sending their nominees. The format would be similar to those held between then Senator Kennedy and Vice President Nixon in 1960, and would be moderated by CBS’ Walter Cronkite. Questions would range across all major issues of the campaign and the candidates would be given chances to rebut each other’s answers and make opening and closing statements. The Vice Presidential debate, seen as the “kids’ table” of electoral politics was held first, on October 3rd, and was primarily a serious, issues-dominated affair. Senator Smathers and former Governor Chandler spent most of the debate’s 90 minute runtime arguing about the direction of the Democratic Party, and whether or not it had, as Chandler claimed, “turned its back on ordinary, hard working Americans”. Though this back and forth remained largely civil, it did cast doubts over both candidates’ bill of goods and enabled the youthful, energetic Bush to shine. The Texas Senator’s calm, cool demeanor and ability to stick to the issues and offer a meaningful alternative made him the clear winner of the debate.


The Presidential debate, held three weeks later was much more contentious in comparison. Senator Humphrey, “the Happy Warrior”, always known for his upbeat, optimistic manner was turned red in the face by the blatant attacks of the fire breathing former Governor Wallace. Every time Humphrey would try and make a point about he and Senator Smathers’ platform, Wallace would do everything he could to provoke him into saying or doing something uncouth. Though the Minnesotan was able to maintain his composure throughout the first 30 minutes of the debate, it was during the foreign policy segment that his cool collapsed at last. Governor Romney was answering one of Cronkite’s questions, about whether or not he believed that the Kennedy Administration and the Democrats in Congress were currently doing enough to combat communist influence abroad. In his answer, Romney accused Humphrey of being “soft” on foreign communism, and questioned whether President Kennedy’s foreign policy was as capable of keeping the country safe as the commander in chief had led the American people to believe.


Frustrated that the issue was being brought up once again, Senator Humphrey exploded in a furious rebuttal which began: “First of all, Mr. Cronkite, please allow me to dismiss the majority of my opponent’s answer as complete and utter nonsense. This country is safer than it has ever been before, thanks to the work of President Kennedy and our other fellow Democrats the nation over. Anyone who believes otherwise is likely a victim of the same brainwashing by the Military-Industrial Complex that President Eisenhower warned us about eight years ago. We do not need to launch a full scale ground war in order to be secure.”

Humphrey had thought his answer forceful and assertive, but in the end it proved to backfire mightily, coming off as rather condescending and dismissive of one of the largest concerns of millions of Americans. Just because Humphrey wanted the campaign to be about domestic issues didn’t mean that he alone could make it so. Instead of adjusting his message to meet the national zeitgeist, Humphrey stuck to what he thought would be a “safe” campaign strategy and in so doing, he likely made the same mistake that New York Governor Thomas Dewey did in 1948 against Harry Truman: he underestimated his opponent, or in Humphrey’s case, his opponents.


Tuesday, November 5th, Election Day arrived before the candidates knew it. All three crisscrossed the nation in the final days of the race, speaking, rallying support, and cajoling reluctant independents or opponents into backing their ticket. Wallace drew thousands to his rallies throughout the north and midwest, attracting media coverage but as exit polls would later reveal, not too many votes. Most, if not all of his significant support came from the deep heart of Dixie, where he hoped he could earn enough electoral votes to through the election into the House of Representatives and gain leverage to use against the Democrats. Senator Humphrey focused on backpedaling his “brainwashing” gaffe, trying to insist that he of course believed in strength abroad and Americans’ right to disagree on the issues with their candidates, but that the fundamentals of his campaign’s platform were sound and the best way forward for the largest number of the country’s people. Governor Romney saw his numbers slowly tick up, then surge in the last week or so of the race, as moderates and socially progressive voters flocked to his banner and his promise not to interfere with a woman’s right to choose (despite his personal opposition to abortion). Key swing states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan held the race in the balance. With them, Romney held a clear path to the White House. Without them, he didn’t stand a chance. The papers printed on Tuesday morning declared the election “a dead heat” and many wondered if Wallace would indeed become the spoiler he so longed to be. In the end of course, these speculations would prove unfounded, and the nation would fall asleep by about two in the morning, knowing whom they had elected to be the 36th President of the United States. The election would stir controversy however, as the winner of the popular vote and that of the electoral vote would not be the same person.

Popular Vote Totals:​

Humphrey/Smathers - 31,152,528 (42.7%)

Romney/Bush - 30,860,701 (42.3%)

Wallace/Chandler - 10,943,511 (15.0%)
​

The Democrats attracted 291,827 more votes than the Republican ticket, but these unfortunately came in states where they didn’t do much to help nationally. Much of this margin, for example, came from Minnesota and New York, where Humphrey had already handily won, and not in little Connecticut, the home of Senator Bush’s father, former Senator Prescott Bush. Connecticut, and her eight electoral votes it turns out, were the key to Romney capturing the Oval Office. The GOP ticket picked up the Nutmeg State by less than a thousand votes, but it was enough to capture the electoral count and prevent the race from entering the House of Representatives, where it almost certainly would have swung to the Democrats thanks to their majority there. Exit polls showed that throughout the Midwest, Wallace’s largest contribution to the election had been siphoning white, working class votes away from Humphrey, giving Romney a plurality in those states and enabling him to take their electoral votes. In the early hours of the morning, Senator Smathers urged his ticket mate to challenge the results in Connecticut, which some newspapers were saying were still too close to call. Humphrey did demand a recount, but this was quickly accomplished and the vote totals double checked. George Wilcken Romney, despite winning fewer votes nationally than his opponent, was President-Elect of the United States. Two days after the votes were tallied, Senator Humphrey officially conceded the race, congratulating his opponent and wishing Governor Romney the best of luck once in office. President Kennedy, shocked by the results, did the same shortly thereafter, and invited the President-Elect to join him at the White House to begin discussing the transition between their administrations.

Thanks to the hard work and tireless, shrewd campaign management of Richard Nixon, Nelson Rockefeller, and others, and after eight long years in the wilderness, and a quarter century of Democratic dominance, the Republican Party was headed to the White House once again. But would President-Elect Romney be able to overcome his lukewarm mandate to govern and bring the country together? Only time would tell…

Next Time on Blue Skies in Camelot: A Brief Down Ballot Report

Wikibox by Hulkster'01​

 

[President_Lincoln]

Chapter 44 - Chain of Fools: The 1968 Down Ballot Races

Governor Romney’s incredibly narrow election to the White House was nonetheless a surprising victory for the Republican Party. Given President Kennedy’s immense popularity and the general wave of prosperity being felt across the nation, it seemed less of a GOP win and more a case of the Democrats and Hubert Humphrey snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. This reflected strongly down the ballot, where the Republicans only managed to pick up 3 house seats for Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford (R - MI). This meant that, at least for the time being, the Democrats under Speaker John McCormack (D - MA) would maintain their majority in the House with a vote count of 223 - 190. The remaining 22 representatives were American Conservatives from the states of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, South Carolina, and Virginia, a small but noticeable third party primarily consisting of defectors from the Democrats’ southern ranks. These rebellious, right-wing populists aroused much controversy when they selected newly elected ACP Congressman George Lincoln Rockwell, of Virginia, the founder and original commander of the American Nazi Party, to be their leader. Known for his incendiary racial rhetoric and for leading marches through the streets of American cities wearing a swastika armband, Rockwell had attracted huge media coverage with his election to Congress and subsequent appointment as the Conservatives’ leader in the House. When asked what his goals for the 91st Congress would be, Rockwell earnestly replied: “Social purity, christian values, and a return to normalcy for this country.” George Wallace, despite his distaste for Nazi iconography, couldn’t have been more thrilled. Jerry Falwell, however was disturbed. Increasingly afraid of the party he had helped to create turning into Wallace’s vehicle for revenge against the Democrats, or a cesspool of radical white supremacy, Falwell knew a confrontation with the former Alabama Governor would have to come soon.

House membership: 223 - 190 - 22​

In the Senate, the GOP, lead by Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen (R - IL) fared about the same, managing to gain seats in Arizona, Oregon and Ohio, but yielding California in the process for a net gain of only two votes, one of which they then surrendered as Vice President-Elect Bush was to be replaced by another Democrat. The Democrats, lead by Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (D - MT) held on to most of their seats, but lost several of their incumbents from the Deep South as defections to the ACP. The Conservatives managed to corral their five Senators into a small, but fearless voting bloc, which they hoped would find allies in the other two parties who were not yet willing to switch party affiliation, but would still oppose progressive policies. Of them, Strom Thurmond, of South Carolina was selected to serve as the first leader of their party in the Upper Chamber of Congress. Refusing to coordinate his efforts with Congressman Rockwell (C - VA), whom he called "a disgusting, vile showman masquerading as a policy maker", Thurmond announced that he was committed “to seeing the rise of a true third party in the United States, if that is what is required in order to stop the rampant growth and abuses of power of the Federal Government.” Wallace was livid, but Falwell was relieved. It seemed that Thurmond at least, would be an ally for his vision of the Conservative Party moving forward, not Wallace’s.

Senate membership: 56 - 39 - 5​

Despite gains by the Republicans and Conservatives, the Democrats remained firmly in control of Congress, which seemed consolation enough to Mike Mansfield and Hubert Humphrey, who returned to the Senate as Majority Whip shortly after his defeat for the White House. Another glimmer of hope appeared in the form of Vice President Terry Sanford, who was elected to the Senate seat from North Carolina against Conservative Party defector Sam Ervin, proving that the Democrats still had a viable future in the South, even with candidates who were liberal and openly supportive of Civil Rights.

Senator J. Terry Sanford (D - NC)​

As for Governor’s mansions, the breakdown actually favored the GOP, with 31 states having Republican governors to 16 with Democrats and 3 with Conservatives. Many credited the Republican ground game in these states with managing these huge wins, but there was one interesting and rather disturbing story to come out of a Governor in the ‘68 election, and it was from one who wasn’t even up for reelection. Governor Ronald Reagan (R - CA) had spent the campaign season touring up and down the Golden State, giving speeches and holding rallies in support of the Romney/Bush ticket. The GOP had no doubt that they would win California. Her hefty bounty of 40 electoral votes were part of the red bedrock they needed if they wanted to have a chance at winning the White House. But the tours were held nonetheless so that Reagan could grow his personal support and for largely fundraising purposes. Reagan’s charm and charisma made him the ideal candidate to drum up financial support for both statewide and national candidates, and the Golden State was full of rich people ripe for grooming. The tour was also a great opportunity for Reagan to build his own appeal within the GOP. The Gipper already harbored Presidential ambitions for 1976, and he would need the support of his state party to be absolute if he was ever going to make it to the White House.

It was at one of these fundraising events, or rather just after it on the evening of November 2nd, 1968, that Governor Reagan nearly came face to face with destiny. As the Governor and his entourage were leaving the home of western superstar and film icon John Wayne, a picket line of hippies and anti-war protesters had gathered to call out slogans and generally cause a ruckus around Reagan’s limousine. Being his usual humorous self, Reagan couldn’t help but wave to the protesters and say, “Isn’t it a little late to be out on a school night, kids?” causing boos and jeers from the crowd in reply. The Governor smiled and prepared to enter his vehicle when all of the sudden a lone figure, a young woman with flowers in her hair and a pistol in her hand emerged from the throng.

She stepped toward Governor Reagan and his bodyguards, brought the pistol to be level with her chest and fired three times, yelling “Helter Skelter! The End is Nigh!” Her shots rang out wildly and missed Reagan entirely, though they did manage to strike Eric Pastore and Clarence Kogan, the two men assigned to protect the Governor that night on his way back to Sacramento. Both men would wind up surviving the encounter, following a speedy escape to the hospital, but in the ensuing confusion, the female assailant would escape in the dispersing crowd of protesters. Her call, “Helter Skelter!” rang in Governor Reagan’s head as he ordered his driver to get the hell out of there and make sure his men were going to be alright. Deeply disturbed, yet relieved to be alive, Reagan had no way of knowing that the attempt that had just been made on his life would only be the first crime in a long wave of terror perpetrated over the next several years by that woman and her fellows, living on a strange commune in the southern part of his state. Their leader, Charles Willis Manson believed himself the second coming of Jesus Christ, and that this time, the late 1960’s were to be the beginning of the prophecy laid out by John the Prophet in Revelation. A great war was coming, Manson believed, and he and his disciples had just fired the first shot. They may have failed to take the life of Governor Reagan, whom Manson referred to as “The Blue Meanie” and “the Antichrist” (owing to the Governor’s full name, Ronald Wilson Reagan each having six letters; 666), but they had succeeded in their larger mission: spreading fear and putting the world on notice. A change was coming, and soon…

Races and Appointments of Interest from the ‘68 Down Ballots:​

Texas Governor Preston Smith (D) appointed former Senate Majority Leader and Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson (D) to finish the last two years of Senator George H.W. Bush’s term, as he had been elected to the Vice Presidency. A ruthless political operator and known fighter for causes he believed in, Johnson’s return to the Senate was somewhat Phoenix-like given the scandals that nearly brought him down four years prior and led him to resign the Vice Presidency. Many pundits believed Johnson’s appointment to be merely a matter of “caretaking” the seat for the last two years of the term, and guessed that LBJ would not run for reelection in 1970, nor would he seek any sort of leadership position in Congress. Others who knew Johnson were less convinced, however. Of the news that the 60 year old Johnson was returning to Washington, Secretary of Defense Bobby Kennedy was said to have privately remarked, “They say it’s hard to keep a Devil beat. The Devil didn’t just come to Washington once, now he’s come back, and before long he’ll be running his hands all through this country’s business!” Bobby had always harbored suspicions that Johnson had had something to do with the attempt on his brother's life back in 1963. That suspicion, coupled with Kennedy's already intense dislike of the Texan and his style of politics, led Bobby to develop an acute distrust of Johnson, which would last for years to come.

Republican former Governor Paul Fannin was elected to the Senate seat of retiring Democrat, Carl Hayden, who declined to run for reelection after completing an astonishing seven terms. Fannin joined fellow Republican Barry Goldwater in representing Arizona in the Upper House.

Liberal Republican Jacob K. Javits retained his Senate seat for New York despite a spirited campaign by Democrat Paul O’Dwyer and his previous opponent from the Republican primary, James L. Buckley, running as an Independent in the general election.

81 year old incumbent Senator Ernest Gruening (D - AK), a proud anti-war Democrat and Kennedy man with the popular support of young people and college students across his state, managed to barely fend off a primary challenge from Speaker of the Alaska House Mike Gravel. Gruening then went on to win another term against Republican Elmer E. Rasmuson, a former Mayor of Anchorage. A former Governor of Alaska territory and one of the “founding fathers” of Alaskan statehood, Gruening provided a wise perspective for his state, and was “happy to continue to serve.”

​

Not so much a part of the ‘68 down ballots as a last minute appointment by the President, Hollywood legend and Oscar Award winning actor Gregory Peck was named American Ambassador to the Republic of Ireland. Eager to strengthen relations between their home and their ancestral homeland, Kennedy and Peck were said to see eye to eye on many issues relating to Eire, and a close friendship quickly blossomed between the two.

Support in the 1968 Election by Demographic​

Republicans: Suburbanites; white middle class and upper middle class families; about 60% of women (attracted by Hillary Rodham’s campaigning and Senator Bush’s social stances); unusually large support from African Americans (about 30%, due to Governor Romney’s civil rights status and reputation as well as Senator Smathers’ presence on the Democratic ticket); protestants in the north and Midwest.


Democrats: Catholics; intellectuals/academics; Latinos and Hispanics (Hubert Humphrey received the endorsement of the iconic labor rights activist Cesar Chavez); the majority of the African American vote; ~ 40% of women; white working class men in the north, but not as much the south; labor unions and the rural and urban poor.


Conservatives: White working class men in the south; siphoned off many blue collar votes from the Democrats across the Midwest (especially in Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois, and Michigan); segregationists; evangelical southern protestants.

Next Time on Blue Skies in Camelot: President Kennedy Says Farewell to the Nation​

OOC: A quick notice about updates for the next week or so. I will be taking a trip this Memorial Day weekend, leaving Thursday afternoon and will likely not be back until next Tuesday. As a result, I'm going to try and get the next Chapter of Blue Skies posted this Wednesday, but there will likely not be another update after that until sometime in the middle of next week. I apologize for the wait, and really appreciate you guys always being so patient with me. You're the best readers a guy could ask for, and I hope you continue to enjoy the TL!

 

[President_Lincoln]

Chapter 45: My Way - President John F. Kennedy Says Farewell​

​

Above: Widely considered by the American people and historians alike to be one of the greatest Presidents in U.S. History, John Fitzgerald Kennedy would leave office with sky high approval ratings, having made a tremendous impact on the nation he loved, and leaving behind an enduring legacy of leadership, compassion, and courage.

President John F. Kennedy spent the week after election day in as familiar a position as there was for him, at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, surrounded by advisers. Unlike many of the meetings held throughout his administration however, this one was considerably laid back in atmosphere. The Commander in Chief sat in his reclining black leather seat, his sleeves rolled up almost casually and a necktie hanging loosely about his shoulders. Despite the patches of gray hair growing around his temples, he looked more like a college student planning a weekend getaway than a soon to be former Leader of the Free World. Around him formed a committee of those closest to him. His beloved First Lady, Jackie stood at his left, holding their youngest, a beautiful baby boy named Robert James Kennedy. To her left stood the lad’s namesake, his uncle Bobby, who matched his older brother’s look save for a pair of glasses that reminded Jack of those worn by their father. Beside Bobby was Teddy, of course and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. appointed “court historian” and family friend. Before them, dominating much of the desk was a map of the greater Boston Metropolitan Area, with several locations marked by push pins and black swishes of ink. The President reached to his side and took Jackie’s hand. Warm, soft, reliable, she was always by his side, even then. Though he was loathe to leave office with so much good left to do, he realized his time was coming, and he would soon be with her as much as he wanted. Consolation, at least in part, Jack felt. He turned his head to his wife and winked, causing her to smile, then back to Bobby, who was staring at him expectantly, waiting for an answer to a question the President had not heard. “I’m sorry, Bobby. I’m getting old, could you repeat that?”

Bobby smirked. “If you and the Mrs. here weren’t so busy making goo goo eyes at each other, you might have heard me the first time, eh?” Hearty laughter was had all around before Bobby adjusted his glasses and continued. “As I was saying, Jack; the Columbia Point location is still available. We’ve been in contact with the owner of the land for about a week now, and she’s willing to sell it but only if we don’t haggle her too hard on the price. She says this land has been in her family for generations and she’ll be darned if some Kennedy rips her off to get it.”

Jack grinned and shrugged. “Well then, I guess we’d better not rip her off.” The preparations being made for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum made Jack a little uncomfortable. It reminded him of stories he would read in the paper of weirdos who took part in planning their own funeral. “This building will be your will and testament to posterity” Bobby told him when the plans started being put together earlier that year. Will and testament? You planning on getting rid of me, Bobby? The President had jokingly wondered to himself. If Oswald couldn’t do it in ‘63, what makes you think I’m going anywhere now? Jack was able to think with such levity on the subject of death due to its familiarity to him. He had lived for most of his life in its constant shadow, be it his own near misses over the years or the multiple real ones experienced by his siblings and loved ones. Even then, as plans were being drawn up in the Oval Office for the Library, Jack knew that at the family compound in Hyannis Port, his mother, Rose was also having arrangements made for his father’s funeral, which would likely take place any time now. Jack was going to miss the old man dearly. For all his faults, Joe Kennedy Sr. had given his children the launching pad they needed to rocket themselves into success and the lives of plenty and power they now enjoyed. Jack wouldn’t have been much of anything without his father.

The whole occasion of the election got Jack thinking about what would come next. His legacy, and what folks would remember him as seemed virtually assured. Eight out of ten polled Americans said they believed he was doing a great job. He was the Second FDR, the man who’d successfully waged a war on poverty, made healthcare more accessible and affordable with Medicare and Medicaid; who’d prevented war in Vietnam; who dared man to go to the Moon (a task closer every day to its completion); who secured Civil Rights for all Americans in a tireless crusade for freedom and equality; who inspired a generation, filled them with hope and the capacity to dream; and who’d created the Peace Corps and numerous other outreach programs to promote peace and liberty around the globe. Despite his mixed record on foreign policy, with the USSR and China falling to increasingly hostile regimes on his watch, relations with the Communist world were still much better than they had been when he took office. He’d prevented thermonuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and established a position of idealism and strength from which the United States could better project its position the world over. Not bad for a “spoiled rich kid” from Massachusetts as many of his early detractors had dismissed him as. No, John F. Kennedy would be remembered for more than simply his greatness, his triumphs. He would be remembered, as Jackie had predicted, as a good and decent man, as well. A bona fide American hero.

But as the library reminded him, there were personal concerns to attend to. For starters, his immediate family had ballooned in the White House, leaving he and Jackie the proud parents of four great children: Caroline (11), John Jr. (8), Rosemary (2), and Robert (1). Caroline and John Jr. were in school now and were hoping to remain in Washington for the remainder of the term, so as not to have to say goodbye to their friends. This was a request the President and First Lady were happy to oblige, though they still intended on returning to Hyannis Port the following summer, as Jack felt it was his obligation, his duty, to sit at the family seat and manage their affairs once his father passed away. JFK had always been fiercely and proudly independent of his father’s political inclinations, wishes, and edicts, forging his own path with tremendous help from his family, but never controlled by them. Now, he would be taking the reins himself. Jackie for her part made plans to become an interior designer after leaving the White House. The First Lady believed that it would set a good example for the young women of the United States to see a woman working for herself, even after her husband had retired or lived at home. For himself, Jack planned on spending his retirement pursuing the hobbies he’d grown accustomed to throughout his life: sailing, playing with his kids, and writing. He wanted to follow in the footsteps of Winston Churchill and write a comprehensive history of his people, in Jack’s case, the United States. He’d also take control of the family’s business interests, and planned on learning to carefully manage them, something he’d never before been asked to do. Despite donating his Congressional and Presidential salaries away to charity throughout his political career, Jack still stood to inherit his father’s massive fortune, and wanted to carefully manage it so that it would be there for use by his children, grandchildren and all future generations of the Kennedy clan.

Further from Jack’s immediate family, Bobby and Ethel planned on moving to New York after the inauguration with their 11 children, including the youngest, Rory, who had just been welcomed into the world that year. Looking for the first time at an adult life free from the shadow of being Jack’s right hand man, Bobby at first didn’t know what to do with himself. He had served well during his time in Washington, from a federal lawyer to Attorney General and the top job at the Pentagon, he had been an inexhaustible ally and confidant for his brother, and one of the ablest servants the nation ever had. Jack’s prediction lay heavy on Bobby’s mind as the term of office was drawing to a close. You’re going to be President, someday. There was something almost magical in those words. They made Bobby’s heart race. But the younger Kennedy felt he needed some time away from the national spotlight, at least for a while. Teddy was up for reelection to his Massachusetts Senate Seat in 1970, and too many Kennedys in the spotlight down in Washington seemed like trouble waiting to happen. So for now, Bobby decided to pursue a private law practice in the Big Apple, where his family could enjoy the culture and bustle of city life while he kept a close eye on the national pulse. There was a tremendous wellspring of empathy and compassion within Bobby Kennedy, in many ways he was the most pure of the Kennedy boys. If Jack was the reflective, thoughtful, intellectual type of liberal, Bobby was the tough-as-nails fighting kind. Jack, it was often said, was the first Irish brahmin in the United States, if so, Bobby was the last Irish puritan. His deeply held religious convictions and big heart made him eager to want to rise to the national stage in his own right and strive to make a difference, but for now, he would lie in wait and enjoy some time with his family.

​

The Assistance for Families Plan (or AFP for short), a program for guaranteed universal income for working people with children and President Kennedy’s final major piece of legislation entered the Senate for debate in June of 1968, just before both parties’ national conventions were held and the general election got underway. Enjoying broad popular support across the political spectrum, and having been catapulted through the House of Representatives by a large majority, the AFP was expected to pass the Senate and cross the President’s desk in no time at all. These expectations were quickly shattered however, as Conservative Senator Strom Thurmond (C - SC)

And his Republican colleague Barry Goldwater (R - AZ) joined forces with several other right wingers in the Upper Chamber of Congress in an effort to see the bill stall and eventually die. To this end, Thurmond and Goldwater both stood against the positions of their respective parties’ Presidential nominees, as Governor Wallace and Governor Romney (as well as Senator Humphrey) had all come out in support of the AFP, though Romney did caution that such an increase in federal spending would have to paid for with cuts elsewhere. “You can’t grow the budget forever and not expect someone to have to eventually foot the bill.” Romney said.

Featuring escapades that rivaled his legendary performance against the Civil Rights Act of 1957, Thurmond gave speeches, read from his local phonebook, and told ghost stories in a thirteen hour, forty seven minute filibuster against the bill. Senator Goldwater, though lacking Thurmond’s knack for theatrics, more than made up for this deficiency with stamina of his own. During his own seven hour filibuster of the bill, Goldwater gave a speech in which he outlined his opposition to the legislation. Called the “no such thing as a free lunch” speech after one of the key lines in the oratory’s thesis, Goldwater’s speech and stand against this new government program would become a rallying cry for growing numbers of paleoconservatives the nation over. “Join me,” he challenged the American people. “And tell your government that it should not waste your hard earned tax dollars away frivolously. It’s time to raise our hands and say ‘enough is enough!’” Despite the tireless campaigning of Goldwater, Thurmond, and their allies, the bill received a much needed shot in the arm from the Congressional Budget Office, who informed the media shortly before the final vote that given the massive budget surplus resulting from years of unabated prosperity, the AFP would be fully paid for without new taxes, and would still leave several million dollars in excess surplus left to be given away as tax cuts.

Rebranding the legislation as an effort to “get the welfare bums back to work” given its strict work requirements and “reform the nation’s welfare system”, Senators Ted Kennedy (D - MA) and Everett Dirksen (R - IL) managed to get it passed at last, 57 - 33 with only days to spare before the Presidential Election. Signed into law on November 6th, 1968, The Family Assistance and Guaranteed Income Act would ensure, thanks to President Kennedy and his allies, that each and every American family would have a helping hand to lift them out of poverty if and when they needed it, and extend to every American the opportunity to better themselves and share in the American Dream. Receiving a call of congratulations from one of the bill’s biggest supporters in Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the President could not help but feel accomplished. The AFP would make a tremendous capstone to an already magnificent legacy.

…​

On January 19th, 1969, the day before his successor would be inaugurated on the steps of the Capitol, President John F. Kennedy delivered to the American people from the Oval Office, his farewell address. Seated at the Resolute Desk in a freshly pressed gray suit and black tie, the President smiled warmly and began to speak.

“Good evening my fellow Americans. In just a few short days, I will lay down my responsibilities in this office, to take up once again, the only title in our Democracy superior to that of the President, the title of citizen.

Of Vice President Sanford, Secretary Robert Kennedy, the rest of my Cabinet, and the hundreds of others who have served with me during the last 8 years, I wish to say now publicly what I have already said in private: I thank them for the dedication and courage they've brought to the service of our country. But I owe my deepest thanks to you, to the American people, because you gave me this extraordinary opportunity to serve.

After eight years in this office, I have come to know, more than ever the sweeping majesty of this country. I look forward to a great future for America - a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose...”

Calling on the same moving, majestic language he’d utilized in his two inaugurals and throughout his administration, the President asked his listeners to “come together as Americans and show the world the true potential of a free people, pursuing life, liberty, and happiness together.” The people of the United States listened with eager ears and hearts replete with love and admiration for their courageous leader, though they also felt a tremendous sadness at seeing him pass from the White House and into the annals of history. The last eight years had been a better time, they decided, a time when peace, love, and compassion triumphed over the paranoia, fear, and anger of the Red Scare and the Cold War all around them. Though they had seen their struggles throughout the 1960’s, the Kennedy years would subsequently be remembered as an American golden age in popular culture and academia alike. For in all their progress, prosperity and principles, they were shortly thereafter followed by the turbulence and strife, the bitterness and the turmoil of the Romney years and the beginning of the 1970’s.

“If the 1970’s were to be a reality check on an idealistic world, the Kennedy years had been an all too brief window into the United States and the Presidency at their best. The Kennedy administration had been an example to the nation of its ideals in action; a heroic display of what it could be. Truly, they were years of Blue Skies in Camelot.” - Arthur Schlesinger Jr., JFK: His Life and Times

"A man does what he must - in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures - and that is the basis of all human morality." - President John F. Kennedy, 1957, Profiles in Courage

End of Act I: The Kennedy Years​

Next Time on Blue Skies in Camelot: Pop Culture in 1968​

 

[President_Lincoln]

Pop Culture in 1968 - An Odyssey in Music, Time, and Space…​

Billboard’s Year-End Hot 100 Singles of 1968 (Top Ten)

1. “Hey Jude” - The Beatles
   
   
2. “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” - Otis Redding
   
   
3. “People Got to Be Free” - The Rascals
   
   
4. “Sunshine of Your Love” - Cream
   
   
5. “All Along the Watchtower” - The Band
   
   
6. “Mrs. Roosevelt” - Simon and Garfunkel*
   
   
7. “Mony Mony” - Tommy James and the Shondells
   
   
8. “Hello, I Love You” - The Doors
   
   
9. “Born to Be Wild” - Steppenwolf
   
   
10. “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” - The Rolling Stones
    

* - “Mrs. Roosevelt” was the original working title for “Mrs. Robinson” IOTL. Paul Simon was forced to change it to “Mrs. Robinson” in order to meet a quota of songs for The Graduate. ITTL, with Marilyn Monroe signing onto that film and it taking slightly longer in production, Simon has time to write another song, leaving “Mrs. Roosevelt” to be released as a single a year later.

News in Music, Through the Year​

January 4th - Frontman Jimi Hendrix and bassist Noel Redding of Buster and the Battery are arrested in Stockholm, Sweden while on a pan-European tour for trashing a hotel room in a drunken fist fight.


January 6th - The Gibson Guitar Company patent their famous “Flying V” design, changing the face of Rock music forever.

January 13th - Johnny Cash performs his famous concert at Folsom Prison, in California.


February 1st - Universal Pictures offer Jim Morrison and the Doors $500,000 to star in a motion picture ala A Hard Day’s Night. The band accepts, but begin work on an elaborate film project of their own design.


February 4th - Released from jail in Stockholm, Hendrix and Redding return stateside, where Hendrix is given an honorary high school diploma from Garfield High School in his hometown of Seattle, Washington. Hendrix and his band are also given the key to the city.


February 12th - The Bee Gees make their American television debut on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.


February 18th - Guitarist David Gilmour joins Pink Floyd, replacing founder Syd Barrett, who has checked himself into a psychiatric hospital.


March 1st - Johnny Cash and June Carter are, as prophesied by Bob Dylan, finally married in Nashville, Tennessee. Close friend of the couple Elvis Presley serves as best man.

April 29th - The Broadway musical Hair opens for the first time to rave reviews and huge success at the Biltmore Theater. It tells the story of a group of New York City hippies and their new friend, Claude, as they attempt to persuade Claude that President Kennedy is right in pursuing peace in Vietnam.


May 4th - Mary Hopkin, an English folk singer makes her UK television debut, performing her hit song “Those Were the Days”. She is immediately signed to Apple Corps by Paul McCartney and Brian Epstein, who are becoming quite the business partners in their own right.


June 20th - After weeks of interventions and tense group meetings, the Temptations announce that David Ruffin will remain with the group, despite their differences. The band decides they will, however, take a six month hiatus to regroup and rebuild morale.


July 7th - The Yardbirds perform together for the last time under their current lineup before all of their members, save Jimmy Page leave to pursue other interests or opportunities. Not wanting to lose their decent name recognition, Page vows to bring the band with a new lineup into a new era. His first recruit? Bassist and producer John Paul Jones. They are joined in short order by Robert Plant on vocals and John Bonham on drums. Together, they begin to explore a heavier, blues inspired sound, which sounds, in Page’s words, “a bit like a giant lead balloon”. The “New Yardbirds” play their first gig together shortly thereafter, before changing their name at last to “Led Zeppelin”.

August 4th - Prog Rock legends Yes perform for the first time together, at a summer camp.


September 14th - Roy Orbison’s sons, Roy Jr., Anthony, and Wesley barely manage to escape a house fire which consumes the singer’s house in Hendersonville, Tennessee. The boys are saved by their grandparents and Roy dedicates his next album to them.


September 19th - The Who begin work on Tommy, a Rock Opera about the eponymous “pinball wizard”.


October 8th - The soundtrack for the popular film Romeo and Juliet is released to commercial success.


November 8th - John Lennon and Cynthia Powell finalize their long and difficult divorce. British tabloids later report that Lennon had already moved in with longtime mistress Ursula Andress before the papers were signed. Rumors also persist that Cynthia and Paul McCartney are carrying on an affair of their own, though both deny them vigorously, with McCartney explaining his visits to Powell’s house as “looking after Julian, which his father refuses to do.”


November 23rd - Cream play their farewell concert at the Royal Albert Hall.


December 2nd - Appearing in Elvis: One Night Only, the King of Rock N Roll plays a free concert for his fans on television, broadcast around the world via satellite from Las Vegas. The highest rated program of the year, the TV special proved that even without major singles or album releases that year, the King still sat proudly upon his throne. He was joined onstage by up and coming jazz sensation Billy Clinton on Saxophone for “If I Can Dream”, the evening’s rousing finale number.

1968 in Film - The Year’s Biggest​

2001: A Space Odyssey - Epic Science Fiction. Directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, and Douglas Rain as the voice of HAL 9000. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films of all time, 2001 is a masterpiece of science fiction and cinema in general and proved its greatness at the box office, where it scored nearly double the take of the year’s second place finisher. President Kennedy was such a fan of the film that he asked for, and received a private screening of the film at the White House by Kubrick.

Where Eagles Dare - Action/War. Directed by Brian G. Hutton and starring Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood. Shot on location in Austria and Bavaria, this stunning World War II epic involved some of the top production and staging talent of the day and is now considered by many critics to be a classic. Its tale of a British grenadier (Burton) and U.S. Army ranger (Eastwood) working together to take down the Nazis strengthened Anglo-American sentiments as the Cold War was looking like it might heat up once more.


Night of the Living Dead - Zombie/Horror. Directed by George A. Romero and starring Patti Chandler and Duane Jones, Night of the Living Dead is unarguably the film that popularized the zombie sub-genre of horror fiction. Made on a shoestring budget and accidentally entered into the public domain due to a copyright error, this film would be the cornerstone for a whole subculture for decades to come. In its own small way, the film also contributed to growing equality in the film industry by deciding to cast a black male lead who interacts frequently with a white female lead. No characters in the film comment on this, implying that such behavior is normal and should be accepted.


Planet of the Apes - Science Fiction. Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and starring Charlton Heston. Known primarily for its sharp writing, brilliant performances and directing, and gorgeous sets and effects, Planet of the Apes was another milestone for sci fi in the late 60’s.

Everyone’s Favorite Television Programs in 1968​

Star Trek - Starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and DeForest Kelley

Batman - Starring Adam West, Burt Ward, and Cesar Romano (its last season)

The Carol Burnett Show - Starring Carol Burnett

Get Smart - Starring Don Adams, Barbara Feldon, and Edward Platt

Tales from the Great Beyond - Starring Boris Karloff (as narrator)

1968 in Sport​

January 14th - The Green Bay Packers win “Super Bowl II” over the Oakland Raiders, 33 - 24. After winning his second straight championship, head coach Vince Lombardi announces his retirement from football.

The World Series: The Detroit Tigers beat out the St. Louis Cardinals 4 games to 3 in another excellent world series. Tigers pitcher Mickey Lolich is named series MVP.

NBA Finals: The Boston Celtics win 4 games to 2 over the Los Angeles Lakers.​

Stanley Cup: The Montreal Canadiens dominate the St. Louis Blues 4 games to 0.​

Time Magazine’s Person of the Year: The Astronauts and Cosmonauts of Apollo - Svarog 8, who became the first humans to leave low-Earth orbit and successfully orbit the Moon.

Other Headlines from the Year:​

Throughout - The Intel Corporation is founded by Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce in California.


February - The Winter Olympics are held in Grenoble, France. Norway leads the final medal count, followed by the Soviet Union and France.

Throughout - The so called “Zodiac Killer” begins his spree of murders around the Bay Area of California.


March - The first McDonald’s “Big Mac” is sold in the United States for the cost of 49 cents.


May 25th - The Gateway Arch is dedicated in St. Louis, Missouri.

Next Time on Blue Skies in Camelot: The Beginning of a New Era​

 

[President_Lincoln]

Blue Skies in Camelot: An Alternate 60's and Beyond
Act II: The Seesaw Seventies​

“Extremism in defense of liberty is not a vice, but I denounce political extremism, of the left or the right, based on duplicity, falsehood, fear, violence and threats when they endanger liberty.” - President George Romney


“Idealism is fine, but as it approaches reality, the costs become prohibitive.” - William F. Buckley, Jr.


“In the day we sweat it out on the streets of a runaway American dream…” - Bruce Springsteen, “Born to Run”


“Use the Force, Luke.” - Toshiro Mifune as Obi Wan Kenobi, in Star Wars


“Some men see things as they are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were, and ask why not.” - Robert F. Kennedy


“Fear is stupid. So are regrets.” - Marilyn Monroe

 

[President_Lincoln]

Chapter 46: Come Together - George Romney Takes the Oath of Office​

Above: Governor George Wilcken Romney is sworn in as the 36th President of the United States by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Earl Warren. Romney’s wife, Lenore looks on with a smile as her husband recites the oath, while President John F. Kennedy, Secretary Robert Kennedy and Senator Hubert Humphrey watch from the sides. Humphrey, still bitter from his narrow defeat called the occasion “possibly the single saddest day of my life”. (Photo credit to Nerdman 3000)


“I, George Wilcken Romney do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. So help me God.”


“Mr. Chief Justice, Speaker McCormack, Senator Mansfield, Vice President Bush, Vice President Sanford, President Truman, President Eisenhower, President Kennedy, my fellow Americans, and my fellow citizens of the world;


I ask you to join with me today in sharing the majesty of this moment. The peaceful transfer of power is tradition in our country, but as we have so tragically seen of late, this is not the case in all parts of the world. In continuing this brave tradition, we affirm, in unity, the values that make us truly free...


Each moment in history is a fleeting time, a speck of sand in an eternal hourglass, unique and precious. Some however, stand above the rest as moments of opportunity and promise. This can be such a moment...


We stand, for the first time, at the precipice of achieving many of mankind’s deepest aspirations. The dizzying pace of change allows us to contemplate, within our lifetimes, advances that once would have taken centuries....


In throwing wide the horizons of space, we have discovered new horizons here on Earth...


For the first time, because the people of the world want peace, and the leaders of the world are afraid of war, the times may at last be on the side of peace. But true peace can only be procured and protected through a proper and necessary display of strength on the part of freedom loving people everywhere…


Our destiny offers not the cup of despair, but the chalice of opportunity. So let us seize it not in fear, but in gladness-and "riders on the earth together," let us go forward, firm in our faith, steadfast in our purpose, cautious of the dangers, but sustained by our confidence in the will of God and the promise of man. Thank you, and may God Bless the United States of America.”

- Excerpts from President Romney’s inaugural address

Elected largely through the machinations of George Corey Wallace’s one man crusade to bring down the Democratic Party, George Romney, 61 years old at the time of his inauguration, decided that his first order of business was to set about unifying the divided country he’d been elected to govern. In many ways, the new President was everything the previous Chief Executive wasn’t. JFK had been born into a political dynasty and enjoyed an early life of wealth and privilege; Romney was a largely self made man whose family hardly scraped by during the lean years of the Great Depression. JFK was magnanimous, a party animal, and possessive of a towering intellect, the quiet Romney’s senior yearbook photo was captioned: "Serious, high minded, of noble nature – a real fellow.” Despite their differences, both men did possess a great deal of patriotism, and during their meetings to discuss the transition, a mutual respect formed between the New Englander and the former head of American Motors. The rest of Romney’s life story was interesting as well. He, like most young men of his faith, served as a missionary for two years in his early 20’s. Working in Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland, Romney would credit the skills he developed on mission, particularly his public speaking, salesmanship, and ability to organize and direct volunteers, as being critical to his future success in business and politics. Upon returning from mission in late 1928, he married his high school sweetheart, aspiring actress Lenore LaFount, who was one year his junior. Known for her sweet, generous nature, Lenore and George were both renowned in the Mormon church and beyond for their outstanding acts of charity. From the late 50’s on, the Romneys donated 20% of their annual income to charity and the church (including the 10% tithe required by Mormon doctrine). Calling his religion his “most important possession”, Romney presided over the Detroit Stake of the church by the time he came to head American Motors, which covered not just all of Metro Detroit, but Ann Arbor, and the Toledo area of Ohio but also the western edge of Ontario along the Michigan border. Because the stake covered part of Canada, he often interacted with Canadian Mission President Thomas S. Monson. Romney's rise to a leadership role in the church reflected the church's journey from a fringe pioneer religion to one that was closely associated with mainstream American business and values. Due in part to his prominence, the larger Romney family tree would become viewed as "LDS royalty".

Romney was a number of firsts for an occupant of the Oval Office: the first Mormon of course, a church whose tenets he followed devoutly and resolutely; and the first to be born outside of the United States. Born to Mormon missionaries in Colonia Dublánin Galeana in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico, Romney initially faced questions about his constitutional ability to be President. Though the Humphrey campaign had avoided the topic entirely, saying that they did not want to include personal attacks in their rhetoric, and the courts would sort out the matter if need be, the Wallace/Chandler ticket had had a field day. They called Romney “Mex”, an old nickname he’d suffered throughout High School, and made several other disparaging remarks about his eligibility to be in the race. Romney, for his part answered these attacks with his trademark patience, compassion, and kindness. He reminded the American people that his parents were both American citizens, natives of the territory of Utah. Thus by the laws of the land, he was a natural born American citizen himself, even if he had been born outside of the country. “The place of my birth should not be of any concern to the people of this great nation.” The President-Elect said in a speech shortly before taking office. “America is and always has been, my home.” Though some Conservative Party members still threatened to level lawsuits against the President-Elect, most legal scholars agreed that any case they made was likely to be thrown out of court. Romney successfully leveraged his faith and “outsider” status to incur sympathy from the people, especially African Americans, Mexican Americans, and other minorities, who turned out to vote for him in greater numbers than the Republicans had seen in decades. This wasn’t perfect of course, and his Church’s policy regarding African Americans being barred from the cloth would later come under scrutiny, but for the time being, Romney enjoyed a reputation for racial egalitarianism.


He invited his opponent, Senator Humphrey to attend his swearing in ceremony, not to gloat or strut his victory in the Senator’s face, but as a show of unity and respect for the nation’s hallowed democratic traditions. Humphrey agreed to attend, and the two attracted much attention by shaking hands shortly after Romney finished reciting the oath. Unfortunately for the President-Elect however, this move backfired somewhat, as many in the press used their coverage of the event to remind their readers that it was Humphrey, not Romney who had won the popular vote, undermining, even if only to a small degree, the new President’s mandate to govern. This was worrisome not just to Romney, but to his advisers as well, as even within months of his election, a mountain of work and issues to resolve had piled up in the Oval Office.


President Kennedy left behind a strong state of the union for his successor: a booming economy, powerful military, and sizable budget surplus meant that Romney would be able to forgo making too many difficult decisions, at least for the time being. What Kennedy could not fix for the new President however was the burgeoning sense of political gridlock engulfing Washington.


It began in June of the previous year, when Chief Justice Earl Warren of the Supreme Court informed President Kennedy of his desire to retire before the election, in case Governor Romney, or heaven forbid, Governor Wallace won and would be entitled to appoint a conservative justice as his successor. Sympathizing with Warren’s position, and wanting to add yet further to his legacy, the President agreed and named Paul A. Freund, a Harvard Law professor and constitutional scholar as his choice for Warren’s successor as Chief Justice. With a 63 - 37 majority in the Senate, the confirmation process should have been a breeze, but given the President’s already difficult fight for the AFP in the Upper Chamber, combined with Senate Republicans’ filibusters and Conservatives’ refusal to back anything at all that Kennedy put forward, the nomination stalled. Following AFP’s passage, the President, through some tough negotiations and long nights spent on the phone with party leaders, was able to successfully push Freund’s nomination through the Senate, though at a great cost of goodwill among Republicans. Years of tough as nails campaigning and arm twisting on behalf of Civil Rights and other issues had turned JFK into a battle hardened political veteran, though one who never once lost sight of his ideals, and Chief Justice-to be Freund was a final example of that talent. Chief Justice Warren agreed to stay on long enough to inaugurate President-Elect Romney, and would retire shortly afterward, leaving a court, in the words of Vice President-Elect Bush, “dominated” by liberals.

The Supreme Court following Romney’s Inauguration​

Chief Justice Paul Freund - Kennedy appointee, since 1968. (Liberal)

Associate Justice Hugo Black - Roosevelt appointee, since 1937. (Liberal)

Associate Justice Byron White - Kennedy appointee, since 1962. (Moderate)

Associate Justice Arthur Goldberg - Kennedy appointee, since 1962. (Liberal)

Associate Justice William O. Douglas - Roosevelt appointee, since 1939. (Liberal)

Associate Justice John Marshall Harlan II - Eisenhower appointee, since 1955. (Conservative)

Associate Justice Potter Stewart - Eisenhower appointee, since 1958. (Moderate)

Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall - Kennedy appointee, since 1967. (Liberal)

Associate Justice William Brennan - Eisenhower appointee, since 1956. (Liberal)


Disappointed by their inability to stop Freund’s confirmation, which they feared would stack the court in a progressive direction for possibly decades to come, conservative Republicans were perturbed further by Romney and Bush’s moderately progressive social positions on the campaign trail. Apathetic or moderately pro-abortion stances and an “embracing” of affordable contraceptives by the Vice President-Elect seemed not to jive with the beliefs of many in the Grand Old Party. As William F. Buckley of The National Review and Firing Line summarized in his 1983 book Revolution on the Right, “Conservatives within the Republican Party were sick and tired of the same disappointments that had given us a defeated Richard Nixon in 1960, and Nelson Rockefeller in 1964. Even with a victory for our party in ‘68, we were fed up with the lack of a voice for us under Romney and Bush, whom we feared were too centrist, too liberal, too willing to keel over to Democratic demands. To make matters worse, Senator Barry Goldwater (R - AZ), long our champion in Congress and across the nation, was growing older, and had failed to attract the massive support our movement required to succeed. What we needed was a leader, someone to keep conservatives like me in the Republican Party and grow our brand by attracting new subscribers. It turned out that we would find two. Actors hailing both from the sunny, Golden State of California: Ronald Reagan and Shirley Temple.”

Buckley’s comments and Reagan and Temple’s surging popularity in the party were reflective of a change within the Republican ranks. Though there were plenty in the GOP who preferred moderation, and the path of Romney, Rockefeller, and Bush, a growing number, seemingly by the day, preferred paleoconservatism. Loosely defined, paleoconservatism was the intellectual brainchild of Buckley, Goldwater and other like minded thinkers, who believed in strong support for civil rights, but were moderate to conservative on their other positions regarding the social order. Staunchly anti communist without veering into the excess of the John Birch Society, paleoconservatives believed in the need for rolling back or at the very least, severely limiting the growth of the size and scope of the Federal Government, and in the value of individual rights and support for business. In many ways fundamentally libertarian, the philosophy’s foreign policy ranged from interventionists like Buckley, who felt that the United States should play an active role in stopping the spread of communism abroad, to those like future congressman Ron Paul (R - TX), who were more isolationist in their outlook. Tracing their heritage back to Edmund Burke and Thomas Jefferson, Buckley and his paleoconservatives craved a revolution to “take back” their Republican Party. With Reagan running the roost on the West Coast, Temple attracting media attention in the House, Ohioan Robert Taft Jr.’s recent election to the Senate, and elder brother James Buckley’s Quixotic Senate race in New York setting him up for a real shot in 1970, it seemed that this revolution was close at hand.


Hoping to nip these divides in the bud before they grew out of hand, House Minority Leader Gerald Ford (R - MI) and Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen (R - IL) met with President Romney and Vice President Bush on January 21st, the day after the inauguration, to work out an agenda for the President’s first 100 days in office. Romney, a Republican former Governor of a Blue-leaning swing state and ardent moderate, was accustomed to negotiation and bipartisanship and was eager to work with Democrats and his fellow Republicans alike on a sweeping legislative slate to continue the war on poverty and the fight for equality for all. To Romney, the Buckley brand of Republicanism was “extremism in disguise” and did not address the reality of the needs of many Americans. Dirksen and Ford both agreed with this parliamentarian style of governance, though they and Vice President Bush encouraged Romney to pursue fiscal restraint and tax cuts to use up the surplus, rather than increased spending. Their support already shaky, they could not risk alienating the Buckley wing of the party. Not wanting to rock the boat too much in an already tense and combative political atmosphere, the new Administration spent its first several weeks in office completing the transition and getting their cabinet appointees approved by the Senate.


The Romney Cabinet:

Secretary of State: Richard M. Nixon

Secretary of Treasury: Nelson Rockefeller

Secretary of Defense: Omar Bradley

Attorney General: John N. Mitchell

Postmaster General: Winton M. Blount

Secretary of the Interior: Wally Joseph Hickel

Secretary of Agriculture: Earl Butz

Secretary of Commerce: Maurice Stans

Secretary of Labor: George P. Shultz

Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare: Robert Finch

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: Hiram Fong

Secretary of Transportation: John A. Volpe


Chief of Staff: Leonard W. Hall

National Security Adviser: Henry Kissinger

UN Ambassador: John A. Scali


The picks were unique for several reasons, starting with Fong at HUD. The first Asian-American to serve in the cabinet, Fong brought years of legislative experience and a new perspective to the relatively young department he would be heading. Several of the picks, notably Transportation Secretary Volpe, as well as Rockefeller at Treasury and Nixon at State were a sort of “team of rivals” with the new President showing his desire to place talent and merit above political cronyism among his advisers. Romney made it clear from the beginning of his administration that his staff had been hired to “lead, as effectively as possible, the nation; not to boost my ego or make me feel good.” He didn’t under any circumstances want to surround himself with sycophants or yes men, even when it came to contentious issues like foreign affairs. Running his cabinet like the business executive he’d been years before, Romney encouraged his underlings to pursue their own policy initiatives, then bring them to him for review and approval. “Your business is the running of the country.” He told his staff at their first meeting. “Mine is to give you all direction, cross the t’s, dot the i’s.” This independent style suited his picks for the oldest departments well, as Rockefeller contented himself with becoming familiar with the nation’s monetary policy and Secretaries Nixon and Bradley began to work on a comprehensive strategy in Cambodia.

As Romney prepared to take office, the airstrikes on guerrilla supply lines initiated by the Kennedy administration months before were beginning to pay off, as Communist offensives were becoming shorter and increasingly anemic and Pol Pot’s soldiers retreated from their conquered villages to the safety of their jungle abodes. Combined with the help of the staunchly pro-U.S. government in Thailand, Kennedy’s attacks, run by pilots such as George W. Bush, were effectively choking the life out of the insurgency until late November, when North Vietnamese comandos began sneaking supplies into the Cambodian jungles through branches of the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos. Well dug in and protected from direct strikes by the dense jungle canopy and a network of underground tunnels, the insurgents were fed, but effectively trapped with no way out. Secretary of Defense Kennedy and his elder brother left office by recommending to their successors that the United States cease military operations in the country and allow the Prince’s government to take over responsibility for keeping the Communists stuck in the jungle. “As the President and I have always insisted,” Secretary Kennedy said in a memo to the new Administration. “This is their war. We can help them, we can aid them, but we cannot fight it for them. There is no ‘winning’ to be had in Cambodia.” Secretary Nixon and National Security Adviser Kissinger had different plans, however.


Wanting to save face after spending all of election season decrying the Democrats as “weak on foreign policy”, it would seem, in Nixon’s machiavellian mind, utterly unacceptable and hypocritical to about face and end or limit American involvement in Cambodia. Instead, a ramping up of combat operations was what was required. It would help the new President’s opinion polls to give the American people an enemy, something they could rally against, and who better, in the still frosty grip of the Cold War, then the godless foreign reds? In a series of closed door meetings at the Pentagon, Nixon and Kissinger convinced newly minted Defense Secretary Bradley of the need for U.S. ground forces against the Khmer Rouge. Their argument was that the Cambodian Prince and his army had already proven themselves incompetent in matters of containment and thus must be bypassed if the “communist problem” in Indochina was ever going to be resolved. Bradley, the first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs in American History and a five star general, a specialist in tactical and strategic matters through and through, wanted to defend the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh in the South, and felt somewhat uncomfortable trying to pass judgement on the geopolitical situation in Southeast Asia. He decided to take Nixon and Kissinger at their word. Papers were filed, the President briefed, and congressional authorization promptly secured. On February 12th, 1969, President Romney informed the American people that in accordance with “the recommendations of our nation’s top military strategists”, 100,000 American marines, naval personnel, and soldiers were to be shipped, over the next three months, to Cambodia to help defeat the communists there. Romney, admittedly no expert on foreign affairs, decided to trust Nixon’s appraisal, and hand the reins of decision making on this matter to his Secretary of State. Little could the President have known that in following the advice of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, he was opening up a pandora’s box that would bleed the jungles of Southeast Asia for years to come.

Next Time on Blue Skies in Camelot: The Turbulence Grows Around the World​

 

[President_Lincoln]

Chapter 47: Bad Moon Rising - A Former President Passes Away, Troubles Begin in Ireland, and a Crisis Brews in France​

This photograph, taken January 2nd, 1969, shows People’s Democracy, a socialist reformist group, marching from Belfast to Derry City, Northern Ireland, demanding civil rights and legal protections for the Catholic Minority in Ulster. Marches like this one, and the violent struggle that would soon engulf them, foreshadowed the beginning of “the Troubles”.


A recipient of the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom on account of his lifelong humanitarian efforts, Hollywood legend Gregory Peck had been utterly honored when John F. Kennedy, the same President that bestowed that medal upon him also offered him an appointment he had always dreamed of: that of U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Ireland. Through his paternal grandmother, Peck was related to Thomas Ashe, who participated in the Easter Uprising of 1916 against British rule, and died only a few short months after Peck’s birth in the United States. Raised Catholic, and possessive of both a deep love for the country of his ancestors and of the pursuit of human rights, decency, and equality, Peck saw his appointment to the Ambassadorship as more than simply an excuse to spend his days overseas. The first Irish-American and Catholic President had appointed him to the post, and by jove, Peck was going to make a difference in the biggest issue of the day in Eire: the ongoing battles for Catholic civil rights in the North.


Beginning earlier in the decade, a nonviolent campaign modeled on the efforts of Dr. Martin Luther King and others in the United States took root in Northern Ireland and began to challenge the long standing status quo there. Comprising of groups such as the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA), the Campaign for Social Justice (CSJ), the Derry Citizens’ Action Committee (DCAC), and People’s Democracy, the campaign’s stated goals were thus:

• An end to job discrimination – it showed evidence that Catholics/nationalists were less likely to be given certain jobs, especially government jobs than their Protestant/unionist counterparts.
  
  
• An end to discrimination in housing allocation – it showed evidence that unionist-controlled local councils allocated housing to Protestants ahead of Catholics/nationalists
  
  
• One Man, One Vote – in Northern Ireland, only householders could vote in local elections, while in the rest of the United Kingdom all adults could vote.
  
  
• An end to gerrymandering of electoral boundaries – this meant that nationalists had less voting power than unionists, even where nationalists were a majority.
  
  
• Reform of the police force (Royal Ulster Constabulary) – it was over 90% Protestant and criticised for sectarianism and police brutality.
  
  
• Repeal of the Special Powers Act – this allowed police to search without a warrant, arrest and imprison people without charge or trial, ban any assemblies or parades, and ban any publications; the Act was used almost exclusively against nationalists.

The primary issue that the protesters swiftly ran into was the deeply held mistrust for them by the powers that be in Ulster. Some suspected and accused NICRA of being a nationalist-republican front group whose ultimate goal was a united Ireland. Although republicans and some members of the IRA (then largely pursuing a non-violent agenda under Cathal Goulding) helped to create and propel the movement, they by no means controlled it, and in fact had very little sway on the movement’s direction or goals. Nonetheless the authorities were suspicious, and almost immediately began heavy surveillance of the groups.


Throughout March and April 1966, Irish nationalists/republicans held parades throughout Ireland to mark the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising. On 8 March, a group of Irish republicans set off an explosion at Nelson's Pillar in Dublin. At the time, the IRA was weak, decentralized, and not engaged in armed action, but suspicious unionists warned it was about to be revived to launch another campaign against Northern Ireland. In April 1966, loyalists led by Ian Paisley, a Protestant fundamentalist preacher, founded the Ulster Constitution Defence Committee (UCDC). It set up a paramilitary-style wing called the Ulster Protestant Volunteers (UPV) to oust Terence O'Neill, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. Although O'Neill was a unionist, they viewed him as being too 'soft' on the civil rights movement and opposed his policies.


At the same time, a loyalist group calling itself the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) emerged in the Shankill area of Belfast. The organization was led by Gusty Spence, a former British soldier. Many of its members were also members of the UCDC and UPV. In April and May it petrol bombed a number of Catholic homes, schools and businesses, in what one witness described as “virtual hell on Earth”. One of these firebombs killed an elderly Protestant widow, Matilda Gould. The situation continued to escalate as on the 21st of May, the UVF issued a statement declaring "war" against the IRA and anyone helping it. May 27th came and the UVF fatally shot a Catholic civilian, John Scullion, as he walked home. A month later it shot three Catholic civilians as they left a pub, killing a young Catholic from the Republic, Peter Ward. Shortly after, the UVF was proscribed (made illegal) by the Northern Ireland government, but the damage and terror they caused would long remain, a portent of the tragedy still to come. The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) was formed in January 1967, largely in response to these atrocities. The protests grew more intense and frequent and in the aforementioned march by People’s Democracy on January 1st, 1969, the marchers were set upon with violence by more than 200 loyalists, some of whom were off duty police officers. The protesters were bludgeoned with iron bars, bricks, bottles, and other crude weapons, and though no one was killed, hundreds were injured, some severely. That night, in response to the march, RUC officers raided Catholic homes, spreading fear and distrust through the streets of Derry, and this was only the tip of the iceberg. Clashes between protesters and police became an all too common sight throughout the North. In the Republic, the outraged IRA started to develop militaristic sentiments of their own.


Though the republican government in Dublin was unequivocal in its condemnation of the violence being perpetrated against the Catholic minority in the North, there was little it felt that it could legally do to stop it. Taoiseach Jack Lynch strongly desired action in defense of his persecuted countrymen, and believed that only a “truly united Ireland” would act as a permanent solution to the violence. His cabinet warned him however that any statements made on his part to that effect would be viewed as a threat of military intervention, and could only serve to escalate the situation further. It fell to American Ambassador Peck to recommend a temporary course of action: the deployment of Irish Army Field Hospitals to the border in County Donegal, near Derry. There, Peck and Lynch hoped, refugees could escape the violence and find help and necessary medical attention. Over the course of the next decade and a half, thousands of Catholics would escape to safety in the South through these Hospitals. The move was well received internationally, leading Lynch and Peck to call for a force of UN Peacekeeping troops to occupy Northern Ireland until the tensions could be worked out. Before such a resolution could be proposed in the General Assembly however, British soldiers were dispatched to Belfast and Derry in August of 1969 to restore order. Though British Labour PM Harold Wilson promised that the British troops would “swiftly end the plague of violence befalling the North”, it could be argued that their arrival heralded the onset of the most turbulent and tragic period in modern Irish history.

…​

Never truly retiring from politics, former President Dwight D. Eisenhower attended the inauguration of newly elected President Romney in high spirits. Despite a begrudging respect for JFK and his accomplishments, Eisenhower couldn’t help but smile when he learned the GOP would be back in power once again. “It is a joyous day for the people of this country,” Eisenhower told a reporter who asked him how he felt after Romney’s inaugural address. “We should be grateful to have such a passionate, faithful American in the Oval Office as our new Commander in Chief.” Privately, Eisenhower had been pulling for Romney since before the convention, coordinating quietly released statements to the press and appearances alongside the then-Governor with Romney’s unofficial campaign manager, Nelson Rockefeller. Distressed by the rising popularity of the Goldwater-Buckley wing of his party, Ike felt that after Rockefeller’s defeat in 1964, 1968 would be the moderate establishment’s last chance to preserve its control of the Republicans moving forward. At his heart politically, Ike had always been a conservative, but moreover a pragmatist. He couldn’t stand the ideological posturing so popular with the grassroots conservatives on his right flank, and saw in Romney a chance for the GOP to become the party of paternalistic, centrist government. This was based, at least in part, on the Tories across the Pond in the UK, whom Eisenhower had respected since the leadership of his old friend, Winston Churchill. Ike believed in keeping the government from getting too big, of course, but he did not agree that it was an absolute evil that needed to be cut down to size in the way that William F. Buckley and his compatriots advocated. He saw, particularly through his own enforcement of Brown v. Board of Education back in 1954, that government could also be a force for good in society. The General left the inauguration in a “cheerful mood”, but according to his beloved wife, Mamie: “dreadfully tired as well”.


On the morning of March 28th, 1969, the day after commenting in his journal about his concern surrounding the worsening situation in Southeast Asia, Eisenhower died in Washington, D.C. of congestive heart failure at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He was 78 years old. The following day, his body was moved to the Washington National Cathedral's Bethlehem Chapel, where he lay in repose for 28 hours. On March 30th, his body was brought by caisson to the United States Capitol, where he lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda. On March 31st, Eisenhower's body was returned to the National Cathedral, where he was given an Episcopal Church funeral service. The funeral was attended by President Romney, Vice President Bush, and the two living former Presidents, Harry S. Truman and John F. Kennedy, along with much of Washington’s elite.


Seen during his administration and its immediate aftermath as a largely “inactive, uninspiring, golf playing President”, Eisenhower saw his historical reputation receive something of a restoration in the decades following his tenure. Though he had not pursued Civil Rights as much as activists would have liked, or to the degree that his successor did, Eisenhower did facilitate (if reluctantly) the movement’s development, and also saved the Republican Party from sliding into the pitfalls of isolationism and McCarthyism throughout the 1950’s. Ike maintained prosperity and launched NASA, built the interstate highway system, and got America out of the Korean War without starting another one, largely leaving a legacy of stability in the face of Cold War tension. Though seen today as perhaps slightly impotent compared to the sweeping, vigorous progress wrought by John F. Kennedy in the years after his retirement, Dwight D. Eisenhower nonetheless enjoys a legacy as one of the nation’s finest leaders, especially during the 20th Century. He was a wise, stable hand and a fine elder statesman.


Newly minted Secretary of State Richard Nixon eulogized the former President, the man who had been his boss for eight long years thus: “Some men are considered great because they lead great armies or they lead powerful nations. For eight years now, Dwight Eisenhower has neither commanded an army nor led a nation; and yet he remained through his final days the world's most admired and respected man, truly the first citizen of the world.”

…​

Along with the many Americans who came to Eisenhower’s funeral service to pay their respects was his fellow Allied Commander and long time President of France, Charles de Gaulle, who was beginning to face a curtain call of his own. Though seen in his own country and abroad as a titanic figure, a colossus whose very name was forever linked to the fate of France, de Gaulle’s “untouchable” status was beginning to be called into question across the globe. The Frenchman’s prickly personality together with controversial decision after controversial decision eroded his support one step at a time. First it was his withdrawal of France from NATO’s military command structure in 1963, then his refusal to grant Ireland and the United Kingdom admission to the European Economic Community (EEC), his development of a French nuclear program, and his support for the so-called “Quebec Liberation Movement” in Canada. Even personable peacemakers like Lester B. Pearson and charmers like John F. Kennedy struggled to maintain warm relations with de Gaulle, who remained aloof and insistent on his “politics of grandeur” and a place for France at the table of the world’s great powers.


At home, de Gaulle faced more criticism and a truly divided nation. His party won 352 of 487 seats in the elections of June 1968, a major success, but the President himself remained personally unpopular. A survey conducted by several Parisian newspapers after the election showed the majority of the country saw him as too old, too self-centered, too authoritarian, too conservative, and too anti-American. In a world where women were becoming increasingly empowered and demanding representation in society and government, 100% of de Gaulle’s ministers were male, not to mention Roman Catholic. The winds of change sweeping the globe were carrying with them many of the figures who had brought the world through its Second Great War, and de Gaulle, it seemed would be no different. Mass strikes, protests, and demonstrations by students against his regime broke out across the nation from just before the elections in May through to their aftermath and beyond. These strikes severely challenged de Gaulle’s legitimacy, and He and other government leaders feared that the country was on the brink of revolution or civil war. On June 21st, 1968, de Gaulle stunned the nation by disappearing without notifying Prime Minister Pompidou or anyone else in the government. He had gone to Baden - Baden, in Germany, to meet with General Massu, then head of the French military there, to discuss possible military intervention against the protesters. The army promised the President their support should violence erupt, but the move was received very poorly by the press and the public at large. Though de Gaulle attempted, with his new mandate, to negotiate with the strikers and student protesters, even ceding to some of their demands, the prevailing pulse of the nation remained firm: it was time for the President to, at long last, retire. De Gaulle promised to resign the Presidency should a referendum he desired be rejected by the French people. Realizing this was an opportunity to be rid of the 78 year old general once and for all, the people pounced and demolished the item at the polls. The French were now holding their President’s feet to the fire and demanded that he stay true to his word and leave office.


He did so on April 28th, 1969, with his Prime Minister and hand picked successor, Georges Pompidou succeeding him after another round of elections. The fall of de Gaulle was described by some Frenchmen as “a breath of fresh air” for the country, and a chance to finally “move forward, with the rest of the world, into a brave new future, together.” De Gaulle had been a great hero in leading France through her darkest hour, but that time had passed and the torch needed to be passed to a new generation, with a new set of values on how to move the country into tomorrow. Though disgraced somewhat in retirement, de Gaulle correctly predicted that history would vindicate him. Many French political parties, even today, consider themselves “Gaullist” and claim to carry on his legacy of a strong, internationalist France, though subsequent French administrations would take steps to undo several of the faux paux committed by their predecessor during his tenure. De Gaulle would live for another year before passing away, at the age of 79, on November 9th, 1970.

Next Time on Blue Skies in Camelot: More Foreign Affairs from 1968 - 1969
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[President_Lincoln]

Chapter 48: I Can’t Get Next to You: A Snapshot of Other Parts of the World, ‘68 - ‘69

While 1968 had brought a great many shifts in the dynamic of the Cold War: the Prague Spring and its subsequent squashing by the Soviets; Alexei Kosygin’s ouster by Yuri Andropov and the politburo; Mao Tse-Tsung’s assassination by his own wife and handpicked successors; the election of a somewhat more hawkish President in the United States in George Romney; one man remained steadfast in his place in the great Twilight Struggle of the 20th Century: Josip Broz Tito, Marshall and President for Life of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. A man whose very name dripped with controversy across the globe, Tito had built a complicated reputation for himself since his days as leader of the partisans against Nazi occupation during World War II. Having received limited Red Army support in kicking the Germans out when the time for liberating Eastern Europe came, the Yugoslav public always had an independent streak about it, and the famous Tito-Stalin split of 1948 cemented that nation’s status as the only nation in the Communist bloc to be free from Soviet Hegemony. Having variously flirted with receiving U.S. aid in the immediate post-war years and reopening ties with the USSR after Khrushchev’s rise to power, only one thing was known for certain about Belgrade’s Benevolent Dictator: his commitment to independence. In addition to his national responsibilities, Tito also served as the first Secretary-General of the Non-Aligned Movement, doing so from 1961 to 1964 before being succeeded by Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt. The movement aimed to prevent the Americans and Soviets from completely dominating the developing world, and enjoyed widespread support across the globe, from India to Latin America. Proud of his symbolic resonance as the man who stood up to Stalin and lived to tell the tale, Tito could also boast of building a semi-market based socialist economy which outpaced most of its Eastern European neighbors, and offered its people a higher standard of living than most. On the other hand, Tito cracked down viciously on dissent, particularly on ethnic Albanians who publicly expressed their heritage, or Communists, Democrats, and liberals who spoke out against his rule. His was an iron fist veiled only slightly by a glove of light red silk. Nonetheless, he remained beloved throughout his country and respected internationally as well. Through his sheer force of will and cult of personality, Tito held together a federation of nearly a dozen ethnicities, each beginning to grumble for national recognition and independence from the pan-slavic state, itself seen as a relic of a bygone era.


Tito was insistent however that all southern slavs should remain united under one banner, for the sake of preserving their agency in a world dominated by “imperialist superpowers” from both the east and west. Throughout the 1960’s, Tito and his secret police, quietly modeled after the Soviet KGB, cracked down hard on nationalist movements and threw millions of political dissidents into state prisons. Realizing that age was starting to catch up with him, and that he would not live forever, the Dictator sought to eliminate threats to his legacy, “root and stem”. If he had anything to say about it, Yugoslavia would remain united in its vision for a better life for its people through socialism, forever. He also saw that the most critical step in ensuring the survival of his rapidly progressing nation after his passing was to find a worthy successor, someone he could groom for whatever time he had left, to step in, seize the reins, and hold the diverse nation of theirs together, as he had done. Though he worked through lists of potential picks from among his allies for years, weeding out those he saw as weak, sycophantic, or “uncommitted”, Tito finally settled on his choice in the early months of 1969: former President of the People’s Assembly of Macedonia and talented, world hopping diplomat Lazar Koliševski.

Among the most trusted in Tito’s inner circle, Kolisevski survived where other loyalists perished due to his tireless work ethic, his dedication to Yugoslav unity and pan-slavic nationalism, and in Tito’s mind his plain, good natured common sense. In the five years Kolisevski had been given to reform Macedonia’s economy in the mid 1950’s, he managed to turn it from the poorest region of Yugoslavia into its fastest developing economy. Its capital, Skopje, went from a rural backwater to an industrial center and the third largest urban center in the nation. These traits, combined with his ability to relate to the other non-aligned leaders on a personal level and represent Yugoslav interests abroad made him an incredibly attractive choice for Tito to groom. Though Tito would remain firmly in power in Belgrade until his death in 1980, beginning in ‘69, he started devolving responsibilities and government functions to Kolisevski, who was all too willing to learn at the knee of the master. A cunning politician to Tito’s military-trained strongman, Kolisevski also began outreach programs in the late 60’s and early 70’s, encouraging a pan-slavic identity in the country, in an attempt to quell nationalist outcries without the constant need for violence. “There’s no need to remove their head if you can reach their heart.” He explained to his teacher.

…​

The Kingdom of Greece held a special place in the imagination of the western world. It was home to the great philosophers of the ancient past, the birthplace of democracy, and a former front in the early stages of the Cold War. As part of Truman Doctrine of the 1940’s, the United States joined with Britain’s Prime Minister Churchill in supporting authoritarian, right wing regimes in Greece, Turkey, and Iran to prevent Soviet influence there. To Stalin, this seemed more an attempt to envelope the USSR for an attack on all fronts, to Truman, it was “containment”. The hellenic peninsula nation had, since 1952, become a fully fledged NATO ally and bulwark against Communism in Eastern Europe, but the banning of the communist party and alliance with the west did not end political instability in the country. In a sense, they only served to inflame the situation there, and create an atmosphere of doubt and paranoia.


In 1961, various factions of the liberal political center joined together in a new political party, christened the Center Union (EK), which was aimed at providing a credible alternative to the right wing National Radical Union (ERE) of Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis (below left). Soon after, Karamanlis, not wanting to see his power diminish on account of new opposition, called a general election which led to a clear victory for his party. However, Georgios Papandreou (below right) and other Center Union politicians, as well as the leftist EDA started claiming that Karamanlis' election victory was largely due to "violence and vote-rigging". Papandreou, a gifted orator, launched a "relentless struggle" aimed at forcing the "illegal government" of Karamanlis from power. In May 1963 Karamanlis resigned, officially over a dispute with King Paul on the latter's planned visit to the UK, although there is speculation that the "Relentless Struggle" and other crises (most notably the assassination of leftist independent MP Gregorios Lambrakis, with alleged involvement of the police and the secret service) had greatly weakened Karamanlis' position.

After many years of conservative rule, the election of Papandreou as Prime Minister was a sign of change. In a bid to gain more control over the country's government than his limited constitutional powers allowed, the young and inexperienced King Constantine II clashed with liberal reformers, dismissing Papandreou in 1965 and causing a constitutional crisis known as the "Apostasia of 1965".

After making several attempts to form governments, relying on dissident Centre Union and conservative MPs, Constantine II appointed an interim government under Ioannis Paraskevopoulos, and new elections were called for May 28th, 1967. There were indications that Papandreou's Centre Union would emerge as the largest party, but would not be able to form a single-party government and would be then forced into an alliance with the United Democratic Left, which was suspected by conservatives of being a proxy for the banned communist party, the KKE. This suspicion began to widely circulate the upper echelons of the Greek military and some within high command favored removing such a contingency with a coup d'etat. Word of these plans was quickly picked up by CIA agents stationed in Greece however and a briefing on the situation was prepared for President Kennedy.

Dedicated to the preservation of the principle of Democracy as a means of winning the Cold War “fair and square”, JFK was opposed “to the removal of any democratically elected government in Greece, so long as that government honestly represents the will and prerogative of the Greek people.” As the crisis and stalemate in Greece worsened and the May ‘67 elections loomed, the President set up a secret summit between Secretary of State Robert McNamara and King Constantine in Geneva, Switzerland. The purpose of the summit was to lay out, in no uncertain terms, that the United States under a Kennedy administration, would refuse to acknowledge any Greek government “born in bloodshed and derived from the denial of the people's’ right of self-determination”. McNamara advised King Constantine to “avail himself” of his father’s numerous advisers, and embrace his role as a constitutional Monarch and figurehead, or else he would himself likely face removal by the same power hungry military junta from whom he hoped to derive authority. Astounded that the Americans would dare to interfere in the political situation in his country in this way, King Constantine demanded to know where President Kennedy thought he had the right. JFK wrly replied, via phone call: “We’re Americans, we always fight for freedom. I advise you to do the same, your majesty.”

Realizing the need to save face before his nation’s most powerful ally, Constantine began clamping down on calls for a coup from within the military. As it turned out, mid-level officers formed the majority of putschists, not the high command, and with the King’s (albeit unwilling) support, the situation on the ground began to pacify. The elections, now protected from interference by the intervention of President Kennedy, proceeded. As predicted, Georgios Papandreou and his Centre Union managed a sizeable victory but not enough for an absolute majority and were forced to form a coalition with the United Democratic Left. As Papandreou celebrated his victory, he laid out plans to modernize Greece and progress it from the authoritarian influence of the last several decades to a place of true equity and liberty. Though he would leave most of these dreams to his son, Andreas to complete, Papandreou nonetheless began the process of restoring the “birthplace of democracy” to a place where it could be practiced freely. King Constantine II never again attempted to increase his own power beyond its legal limits, nor did the Greek military deviate from its mission of protecting their nation’s sovereignty and constitution.

…​

Since the late 1950’s, the Federal Republic of Germany, better known simply as “West Germany” was undergoing what could only be described as a “Wirtschaftswunder”, an utter economic miracle. From the ashes of the pulverized Third Reich, “the Bonn Republic” took what it received in financial aid through the U.S. Marshall Plan and within a decade remade itself into one of the world’s premiere economies. Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, founder of the centre-right Christian-Democratic Union, led the resurgent nation from 1949 to 1963, and was committed to a broad vision of market based liberal democracy, and anti-communism, forging strong ties with NATO, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States against rival East Germany and the Eastern bloc. Called “the Elder” as he was already 73 years old when he first took office, Adenauer nonetheless managed to hold onto power in Deutschland for 14 years and rebuilt his beloved nation in his image. A shrewd political mind and an iron will carried Adenauer far, but even the devoutly Catholic father of Bonn could not stay in power forever. A tense, distrusting relationship with American President Kennedy and several disparaging remarks about popular Social Democratic Party Mayor of West Berlin, Willy Brandt, led to the people turning on Adenauer and demanding he step down in favor of a younger successor. Reluctant to give up on power, Adenauer suffered a tremendous scandal when police arrested five journalists of the popular news magazine, Der Spiegel in 1962 for publishing documents which showed that West Germany’s military or Bundeswehr, was weaker than the government in Bonn let on. Though the Chancellor had not ordered the arrests, he initially tried to defend the one who did, his defense minister, Franz Josef Strauss, calling the published memo “on the abyss of treason.” When protests mounted and coalition partner the FDP condemned Strauss, Adenauer asked for his resignation from the cabinet, but the damage to the CDU had been done. In a portent of what was to befall Charles de Gaulle in france six years later in France, the German people demanded that Adenauer finally retire, which he did in October of 1963.

Adenauer was replaced, much to his displeasure, by his finance minister, Ludwig Erhard. Unlike Adenauer, who had privately supported France’s opposition to Britain’s entrance to the EEC, Erhard was a firm supporter of the community, pan-European integration, and a great friend to the UK, not to mention an admirer of President Kennedy and the new generation of western leaders, whom his predecessor had found “soft”. The brains behind many of the economic policies that had led to the boom in West Germany since the war, Erhard seemed to many in his nation the natural heir to the throne and an able leader. His domestic agenda included a series of programmes aimed at extending the length of compulsory education in West Germany, as well as significantly increasing public funding for education. The next several years however, would challenge this notion and leave doubt in the minds of the German people, as Erhard stumbled through several blunders in foreign relations. First, his support of Great Britain alienated Charles de Gaulle, whom Adenauer had worked with to carefully negotiate a Franco-German axis to give Europe negotiating power on the world stage and some breathing room from American socio-economic domination. Next, Erhard rather thoughtlessly attempted to offer the Soviet Union a 25 million Deutschmark loan in 1964 in exchange for liberalization in East Germany, with his eventual goal being reunification. Though Khrushchev was initially receptive to the offer of financial aid from Germany, Alexei Kosygin’s 1965 economic reforms soon freed the Soviets of the need for help, and the offer became dead on arrival. The final nail in Erhard’s coffin was when in 1966 the economy, the one positive, undeniable good he had done for the country, began to finally slow, its “miracle” returning to normal levels of GDP growth. Though the Germans were still happy and employed, after a full decade of boom, even growth seemed a slow down and the people began to turn on their Chancellor. Deeply unpopular personally despite his party winning the 1965 Federal elections, Erhard decided to step down and allow yet another CDU politician to man the helm.

Kurt Georg Kiesinger, former Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg, was elected to serve as Erhard’s replacement, heading a new alliance between the CDU and Willy Brandt’s SPD (Social Democratic Party of Deutschland) as Chancellor. Given the tenuous nature of Kiesinger’s rise to power, he agreed to let popular opposition leader Brandt serve as Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister for his government, a move initially well received by the people. Furthering education reform, with the building of new universities and a marked increase in grants issued by the government in Bonn, Kiesinger nonetheless soon incurred the wrath of student protesters across the country. Fed up with what they perceived as authoritarian leadership by the CDU, the student movement demanded social progress and change, to match the images they saw beamed into their living rooms from Kennedy’s United States. In Germany, for instance, a married woman could not take out a bank loan without her husband’s permission. This, along with issues of the government’s position against homosexuality, which had once been largely accepted during the Weimar Republic, led to widespread demonstrations and calls for Kisesinger to step down. An astute politician, Brandt sensed blood in the water and campaigned hard for the upcoming 1969 Federal elections, which he and his SPD easily won, largely thanks to record high turnout among young voters. Forming a new coalition with the classically liberal FDP, Brandt immediately set to work pushing through social programs and a new outlook toward the East, called “Ostpolitik”. With his eventual goal being German reunification, Brandt correctly believed that he would need to reach out and earn the trust of the Soviet Union and their eastern allies before progress could be made. He earned former President Kennedy’s admiration but suspicion from incoming President Romney, who feared that West German friendship with the East could jeopardize America’s diplomatic position.

Next Time on Blue Skies in Camelot: The United States at War!​

 

[President_Lincoln]

Chapter 49: My Whole World Ended - The War in Cambodia Truly Begins

Above: Lt. John Kerry, U.S. Navy; Major Colin Powell, U.S. Army; and Pvt. Al Gore, Jr., U.S. Army; each of these brave Americans lived very different lives but had one thing in common: they served their country in Cambodia.


Following President Romney’s announcement that 100,000 Americans would be sent to Cambodia to join the Air Force in quelling the Khmer Rouge once and for all, the situation there escalated rapidly. Pol Pot, the bulk of his army already pushed back to its jungle bases by the Kennedy airstrikes from the B-52s, did not, as Kissinger and Nixon hoped, grow afraid, nor did his soldiers’ morale waver. As JFK and RFK had understood, the conflict in Southeast Asia was about more than capitalism against communism, in fact, to many of the people actually fighting for the fate of Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos, communism hardly entered into the equation at all. These were freedom fighters, in their own eyes. Men and women who were tired of colonialism, fed up with the betrayals of the West, were eminently willing to accept the support of Castro’s Cuba and Baio’s China, both seeming beacons of unity against the neo-imperialism being practiced by Washington and Moscow both. Thus, when word reached Pol Pot that President Romney was sending troops to secure Phnom Penh and its surrounding villages, then move north against his position, he smiled. “Let them come.” He laughed to his messenger. “They will break upon our united front like waves upon the shore.” The would-be dictator was not without reason for his confidence. The moment the U.S. Air Force had begun to rain bombs on the Communist Party of Kampuchea, their allies in Hanoi, Havana, and Beijing redoubled their efforts to aid and resupply the growing Khmer Rouge.


To Võ Nguyên Giáp, the new leader of North Vietnam in the wake of Ho Chi Minh’s passing, the United States was and always would be his nation’s true enemy. During the Kennedy years, the Americans had skillfully withdrawn their forces and replaced them with a highly competent, well paid and well trained South Vietnamese army. Worse, American economic aid and restructuring of the Saigon government with oversight by Secretary of State McNamara led to the dissipation of much of the civil unrest in the country that Ho Chi Minh had been using to spread propaganda and recruit soldiers for his cause. With help from the Peace Corps and the foreign aid budget, Saigon and their U.S. allies built new schools, hospitals, roads, railways, and municipal centers to provide food and clean drinking water to remote villages across South Vietnam, even far from the capital. President Kennedy understood that if he could win the hearts and minds of the people of South Vietnam, they would be much more capable of defending themselves from Northern infiltration and conquest. If they saw the possibilities that freedom and democracy could bring, they would be less likely to turn to communism as an alternative. These beliefs became known as "the Kennedy Doctrine" of foreign policy, and JFK’s efforts paid massive dividends.


When free, open elections were held in South Vietnam in 1968, overseen by extensive United Nation monitoring, General Nguyen Khanh, an ally of the Kennedy administration and provisional Premier who had overseen the writing of Saigon’s new constitution, was elected officially to his position, with widespread public support. Khanh thanked the Vietnamese people for their faith in him, vowed to end discrimination and violence against the Buddhist majority in the country, and promised that despite their continued alliance with the United States, that South Vietnam would be “free at last to pursue its own destiny, free of masters, free of foreign control.” Finally, Khanh echoed Ho Chi Minh, his old enemy, and concluded his inaugural address by pleading with the people of North Vietnam to abandon their “authoritarian overlords” and seek a better life in the south. Unfortunately, this mass migration to the south never materialized. Like their leader, Giap, the people of the North were hesitant to trust the United States. The foreign aid seemed more a bribe than a genuine attempt to make amends, and after all, the Americans under Eisenhower had aided the imperialist French until the very last possible moment before their defeat. To the people of Hanoi, the U.S. was no friend, merely a proxy imperialist, who must be kept out. For the time being at least, North and South Vietnam would remain separate nations, with an increasingly militarized DMZ reminiscent of Korea between them.

Despite this divide in Vietnam, Giap never gave up on his predecessor’s dreams of a united country. Because the shared border to the south was too heavily defended however, and the newly contented people of the South were becoming resistant to his propaganda, Giap decided that he needed to strike at the Capitalists more indirectly. Thus, he began to reposition divisions of his own militia, the Vietcong, into northern Cambodia through the jungles of Laos. Happy to receive these reinforcements, Pol Pot then asked Giap’s commanders to assist his own troops in constructing a system of tunnels which would allow them to infiltrate further south, capture and hold villages without being as open to direct U.S. air attacks. Meanwhile, their allies in Biao’s government in Beijing increased shipments of material and supplies to the Khmer Rouge’s headquarters near the border with Laos. Large artillery and anti-air guns, tasked with neutralizing or at least harrying American air power, were positioned throughout the countryside, hidden in dense thickets and underbrush. Over the long term, Giap and Pol Pot hoped to entangle the United States in a protracted war of attrition across Cambodia. The Americans would eventually lose their stomach for continued conflict, retreat, and leave Kampuchea completely Communist. Then South Vietnam would be surrounded on all sides by revolutionaries and could be more easily reconquered. This was a simple, but dangerously effective plan, as unlike the people of South Vietnam, the Cambodian peasants grew ever more frustrated with the increasingly erratic behavior of their Prince.


Though the Kennedy administration left office by leaving behind a track record of success and peace through diplomacy in Vietnam, Greece, and elsewhere, the slow, often tedious process of nation building did not make for compelling campaign material, nor did it match the new administration’s conservative sensibilities. Before leaving office at the Pentagon, Robert Kennedy left behind a memo to the incoming President that recommended a similar course of action be taken in Cambodia: find a political leader in the country who could create stability, invest heavily in the infrastructure and well being of the nation, and make an effort to prove that the United States supported self-determination for the country in the future. Kennedy and his brother had hoped that President Romney would groom Prince Sihanouk to be his administration’s Khanh, and then increase foreign aid to the country. This was, to the Kennedys’ dismay replaced by a foreign policy of, in Richard Nixon’s words, “peace through strength”. President Romney, in his first 100 days in office, heeded the advice of House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford (R - MI) and placated paleoconservatives in his party by slashing “frivolous spending”, including the hefty Kennedy foreign aid budget, with the bipartisan help of Senate Minority Leader Dirksen (R - IL) and Senator Henry M. Jackson (D - WA) who both favored this “big stick” Republican policy on national defense. In Phnom Penh, the Prince responded by denouncing the reversal in American position and demanding that the U.S. Air Force cease its bombing campaign in the north of his country, and the troops on their way to the capital “get back on their ships and go home”. On March 17th, Prince Sihanouk announced his intentions to reach out to Pol Pot and the Communists and arrange for peace talks with the goal of reaching a settlement, part of which would undoubtedly include new elections with the Communists being allowed to run. To the developing Romney doctrine, with its harder, more militant stance on anti-communism, this was unacceptable and it quickly became apparent to National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger that something had to be done.

Kissinger immediately reached out to Cambodian Prime Minister Lon Nol, a right winger with authoritarian and anti-communist tendencies, and asked him to enter talks with his nation’s military to “see if they were in agreement with his majesty about the potential benefits of negotiation with the rebels in the north.” Lon, a former Defense Minister with many friends in the Cambodian high command, wasted no time in setting forth a plan to prevent any peace talks from taking place. He first introduced a motion in Parliament which would strip the Prince of any ability or power to represent the nation in matters of war and state. This was quickly deemed unconstitutional and struck down, however. Next, Lon Nol tried to convince the Prince personally to change his mind, saying “there is no honor in seeking peace with traitors”. Sihanouk ignored this, and questioned Lon’s loyalty to his government. The following day, April 11th, the Prince asked for another, more loyal MP to introduce a vote of no confidence against the Prime Minister, so that he could be removed and replaced with someone who would encourage the peace negotiations, which Pol Pot seemed increasingly likely to agree to, as it would buy he and his movement additional time to grow their strength. When word reached Lon that a vote against him was imminent, he, with Kissinger’s implicit (if not overt) approval, organized his friends in the high command and orchestrated a military coup against Sihanouk’s government on April 12th, 1969.

Declaring the “Khmer Republic” with himself as its first President and de-facto dictator, Lon Nol quickly worked to cement his authority in and around the capital. The Prince, the only other major political figure in the nation, was the primary target of Lon’s wrath, but was lucky enough to be on a foreign goodwill tour of Europe when the coup occurred. In a sternly worded telegram to French President Charles de Gaulle, Lon requested that Sihanouk be extradited to his native country immediately, to face charges of “treason against the people of Cambodia”. De Gaulle in one of his last and possibly bravest actions as President, refused, granting Sihanouk asylum in Paris, and joining with several leaders throughout the world, most prominently President Nasser of Egypt, in condemning the coup. However, even without managing to capture the Prince, it seemed that Nol’s coup had otherwise been a resounding success. Parliament was disbanded and Lon declared martial law over the country as American troops landed on the coast and made their way from the harbor of Botum Sakor to Phnom Penh. Even this transfer of soldiers toward the interior of the country was not without its difficulties, as a young soon to be hero named Lt. John Kerry discovered.


In a later memoir published about his experiences serving on coastal patrol boats first in Vietnam, where he won his first Purple Heart medal, and then in Cambodia where he won his second, Kerry wrote of the first deployment of American soldiers:


“I remember the water being warm, warmer than this Massachusetts boy thought it had any right to be in April. Late, under the stars, when we didn’t have anything better to do and our commanders told us we could have the night, we’d kick off our shoes, dip our feet in the water and listen to the sounds all around us. The buzzing of insects, the distant thrum of people in the paper-town cities. I distinctly recall the air, too. The atmosphere in the tropics is so different from what we have here. It’s thick, almost like molasses, dripping all over you and getting into places you didn’t know existed. We talked, of course, but nothing magical or remarkable. Some of us had girls waiting back home, though fewer had the pictures to prove it. Others were waiting on careers, said they wished that Jack Kennedy could have stayed in office just a little bit longer, then they could have gone home. Others still argued those boys down, said that Jack Kennedy was a damn shame, that all he wanted to do was talk to the reds, when we should be shooting them. I always agreed with the Kennedy-supporters, but tended to keep that to myself. I was just trying to make it back when this was all said and done.


That first day of “go time”, my fellow sailors and I were working the boats, carrying boys from all over to the harbor, then back to our ships to pick up more. We’d been told that the enemy hadn’t ever been further south than Krong Stueng Saen, and we had no reason to worry about anything other than sailing straight and keeping the boys from the other branches in line. We Navy guys always joked that Army guys fidgeted and got seasick too easy; the Marines were jarheads and couldn’t be expected to find their way without our help. The faces on all of them, so fresh, so innocent, so young. They stood beneath the stars and stripes in their olive drab, M-16’s slung over their shoulders and a romantic ideal of soldiering locked in their heads, just behind the eyes. All it took to shatter that confidence, all this camaraderie and capering was a few bursts of small arms fire from a thicket not far from the coast…”


As it turned out, Cambodian intelligence on the ground had not been thoroughly vetted by the CIA, and over the last several months of posturing for peace talks, Pol Pot and his commanders managed to place disguised, covert detachments of their militias along the southern coast, far from the watchful eye of the capital, but close enough to harry and harass landing American soldiers. Kerry and several hundred other young men were wounded that first day, though serious casualties were kept to a minimum as the Kampuchean Communists were swiftly forced to retreat once the Americans found their footing and began to return fire. These hit and run, guerilla-style tactics would become trademarks of the Khmer Rouge, as would their horrifying treatment of the prisoners they captured on later excursions out of the jungle. To wide eyed Americans on the ground and at home expecting an easy victory over the locals, they were setting themselves up to be sorely disappointed.

Next Time on Blue Skies in Camelot: Canada, Conservatives, and the Commonwealth​

 

[President_Lincoln]

Chapter 50: Baby, I Love You - Trudeaumania and Wilson’s Folly​

Above: Pierre Trudeau (Liberal, from Mount Royal, Quebec) and Robert Stanfield (Progressive Conservative, from Halifax, Nova Scotia), each their respective parties’ leaders in the 1968 Canadian Federal Elections.


The retirement of legendary Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson in early 1968 marked the end of one era in Canadian politics and the beginning of another. At least, that’s how things appeared in the wake of Liberal Party leadership elections to choose his successor. As the titanic Pearson prepared to step down, several of his closest advisers and cabinet members threw their hats into the ring to try and earn the right to carry the Liberal banner forward. Despite the best efforts of Paul Joseph, James Martin, Paul Hellyer, and Robert Winters however, one name; that of a handsome, eloquent, and fashionable bachelor stood out above the rest: Pierre Elliott Trudeau. 48 years old at the time, Trudeau’s victory left political pundits speechless and his fellow party members shocked. For the past several years, Trudeau served first as Pearson’s Parliamentary Secretary, then his Minister of Justice. Though Trudeau’s ascent to the upper echelons of the Liberal Party surprised many, the signs which portented his rise were easy to see to anyone paying close attention.


Many young people in Canada, especially young women, were increasingly influenced by 1960’s counterculture and identified with Trudeau, a relatively young, energetic nonconformist. Dazzled by his charm and good looks, a large fan base developed for the politician across the country. Some newspapers were so bold as to declare “With Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Canada may have found its own John Fitzgerald Kennedy.” The MP, representing Mount Royal, Quebec, would often be stopped on the street for his autograph or a picture with an enamored supporter. Though he projected a public face of bemused humility about his “rock star” image, Trudeau in fact carefully cultivated these qualities and used his astute political acumen to turn them into the cornerstone of a powerful public relations package. Trudeau had once sympathized with Marxists and had spent time as a member of the democratic socialist Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, though he had since walked back his views to fit more comfortably in the centre-left spectrum of Canadian politics which his current party represented. His liberal views on social issues, such as legalizing homosexuality and creating more flexible divorce laws while part of the Pearson Government attracted young people to Trudeau even more. Further, he was admired for his laid-back attitude and often high profile romantic relationships with celebrities, such as American singer and actress Barbara Streisand, whom he began seeing shortly after a concert of hers in Toronto and the leadership election in April of 1968. Mobbed at each of his public appearances by screaming girls and towing the beautiful Streisand on his arm, Trudeau was a political phenomenon. Given that his force of personality was like nothing Canada had ever seen before, the Liberals decided to let it comprise the majority of their campaign. Liberal campaign ads featured pictures of Trudeau inviting Canadians to "Come work with me", and encouraged them to "Vote for New Leadership for All of Canada". The substance of the campaign was based upon the creation of a "just society", with a proposed expansion of social programs.

Despite “Trudeaumania” sweeping the nation, the Liberals were experiencing unusually stiff resistance in the lead up to election day from their primary opposition, the Progressive Conservative Party. A crisis of confidence after three failed elections within the Tories led to the removal of former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker as party leader in 1967. The MP from Saskatchewan found himself replaced by a former Premier of Nova Scotia, Robert Lorne Stanfield. A self-proclaimed “Red Tory”, Stanfield’s political philosophy was centre-right, but advocated for communitarian, paternalistic economic policies to help the disadvantaged and the downtrodden. Spending his college years as a devoted student of John Maynard Keynes and calling himself an unabashed socialist (though he would later distance himself from that moniker), Stanfield’s answer to Trudeau’s slogan of “come work with me” was “for the Common Good”, a powerful, simple message that sold well to a Canadian public increasingly concerned with myriad issues as the 1960’s were drawing to a close. Only slightly older than Trudeau, and boasting a daunting resume of experience with human rights, Medicare, education, the arts, and even as an advocate for official bilingualism (a position which made him a controversial figure within his own party), Stanfield proved a formidable campaigner in his own right. Refusing to yield the issues to Trudeau and turn the campaign into a contest of personalities (in which Stanfield worried he would be smothered by the sheer magnitude of Trudeau’s charisma), Stanfield instead focused his attacks on Liberal complacency after years in power, and their leader’s perceived lack of experience. “While my opponent was bumming around, living it up and dating Hollywood actresses,” the Nova Scotian said in one speech. “I was in Halifax and then Ottawa working hard for my constituents and across the aisle to make Canada a stronger, more united nation. If you want real progress for our country, then Progressive Conservative is the right choice on election day.”

The Tories faced challenges of their own however, as they struggled to develop a united stance on the issue of rising Quebecois Nationalism. Trudeau, a federalist through and through was also bilingual and represented the Province in question in Parliament, Stanfield on the other hand spoke only English and represented Nova Scotia, slightly more removed from the issue. Trying to differentiate the Progressive Conservatives’ position from their Liberal opponents’, some members of Stanfield’s party began to embrace the idea of deux nations, meaning that their policies would be based on the notion that Canada was one country housing two distinct nations - French Canadians and Anglo-Canadians. Horrified at the implications this position might have in the long term, Stanfield and his fellow Tory leaders were quick to denounce the idea and backtrack, with Stanfield appearing in campaign ads vowing that the PC Party stood for “One country, One Canada.” Trudeau mocked the Conservatives viciously for what he called “their double-talk tango”, and had great success showcasing his own vision of Canada: whole, united, and prosperous. The Liberals however, came under attack shortly thereafter from their left flank, as the New Democratic Party (NDP) began to create ads calling for an even more rapid expansion of social policies. Seeing that both Trudeau and Stanfield represented more left-wing ideologies than either of their parties typically catered to, the NDP decided that the time was right to vigorously pursue their agenda, often at the expense of Trudeau’s liberals. A debate between Trudeau, Stanfield, and New Democratic Party leader Tommy Douglas was broadcast on the CBC on June 9th, 1968, and though it was a spirited, back and forth affair, a slight majority of Canadians handed Stanfield the victory, saying they favored his substance over Trudeau’s style and Douglas’ bombast. Election Day proper came at the end of the month, June 25th with results that once again surprised the nation:

264 seats in Parliament, 133 seats needed for a majority

Liberals - 118 seats (down from 128)

Progressive Conservatives - 104 seats (up from 94)

NDP - 24 seats (up from 22)

Ralliement creditiste - 18 (Up from 6)
​

Though he had failed to wrest control of Ottawa away from the Liberals, Stanfield had outperformed even his party’s wildest expectations. Tough campaigning, a keen ability to stay on task and on message, and a brilliantly organized ground game propelled the Tories to gains across the western strongholds and Atlantic Provinces, near Stanfield’s home. The NDP also benefited from their decision to get tough with Trudeau, possessing just enough seats to offer the disappointed Liberal leader a chance at a coalition government, should he agree to pursue a more progressive agenda. Eager to prove himself as more than “just a pretty face” as his rivals dismissed him as, Trudeau begrudgingly accepted Douglas’ offer and shortly thereafter formed a minority government, becoming Canada’s 15th Prime Minister. With rising Anglo-French tensions at home and various foreign policy crises developing abroad in the first months of Trudeau’s premiership, he soon began to feel the pressures of leading the Great White North falling on his shoulders. A little more than a year into his tenure, he and longtime girlfriend Barbara Streisand decided to take a much deserved vacation to her home in Los Angeles, where he hoped the weight of the world could leave his shoulders, even if only for a while.

…​

The summer of 1969 was, to say the very least, not the most fulfilling or joyful time in Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s career. With little more than a year left before a general election, a virtual referendum on Labour’s time in office and his accomplishments, events both at home and abroad seemed to conspire against him. Inflation, caused by his government’s continued defense and social spending despite promises to cut expenditures, was beginning to anger middle and working classes Britons. Meanwhile, in Rhodesia, in Randolph Churchill’s words, “ that little country across the world that means so much for the future of our world”, a second wave of conflict had erupted. Despite newly minted Prime Minister Winston Field’s promises of “peace and majority rule” as a Commonwealth dominion, he quickly was forced to go back on his word. Almost as soon as Field was instated as the Commonwealth of Rhodesia’s first Prime Minister, local white businessmen and elites began to advise the new leader against immediate majority rule. Decades of mistreatment and denial of rights to the black majority population planted deeply felt resentment and mistrust against their white countrymen, and in the Bush surrounding Salisbury, a new guerrilla movement rose to oppose Field’s government as “more imperialism masquerading as freedom”: the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA). Led by the charismatic and ruthless Marxist-Leninist Robert Mugabe, ZANLA began attacking supply lines of the newly formed Royal Rhodesian Armed Forces, which included substantial numbers of British nationals serving as advisers to the new recruits. One particular incident of this new “Bush War”, on June 24th, 1969, saw ZANLA use heavy artillery guns given to them by their patrons in Beijing and Havana to kill nearly 150 Commonwealth soldiers, including 32 who were citizens of the United Kingdom. Horrified that their Prime Minister had failed to bring about a lasting, meaningful peace in sub-saharan Africa and that their young men were now dying to protect “Wilson’s Folly” as the press took to calling it, the British public released an emotional outcry against the Labour government. Wilson’s approval numbers plummeted to barely 27% and he struggled to rally his party or even put his head out in public. Though she maintained Royal political neutrality as ever, even Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II commented at her son, Prince Charles’ investiture on July 1st that the ceremony was taking place “in dark times indeed for Britannia and her Commonwealth allies”.


Sensing blood in the water, the Tories pounced on Labour’s misfortunes and prepared themselves for massive gains in the next year’s elections. This meant that the party’s 1969 leadership convention was, in their minds, practically an election of the nation’s next Prime Minister, and the event was treated with gravity befitting this fact. Then party leader Edward “Ted” Heath, who had served in that capacity since he replaced Sir Alexander Douglas-Home in 1965, believed himself to be the inevitable choice for the job and wanted to spend the convention debating the particulars of cabinet appointments and policy decisions for the beginning of his tenure the following year. Due to the renewed conflict in Rhodesia and other issues however, the political sands starting shifting beneath his feet, and Heath quickly found himself in a bit of a pickle. For starters, his Shadow Defense Secretary, Enoch Powell made international headlines the year prior with his now infamous “Rivers of Blood” speech, in which Powell pointedly criticized mass immigration to the UK, particularly from the other Commonwealth nations, and opposed the passage of the then-proposed anti-discrimination Race Relations Bill being mooted at the time. The speech was widely condemned both in the domestic press and internationally, with American President Kennedy speaking for much of the world when he called it “blatantly, virulently, and appallingly racist.” Heath was tempted to sack Powell from his position in response, but was surprised when subsequent polls found that between 67 and 82% of Britons asked agreed with Powell’s positions. The British people, it seemed, were tired to death of foreign affairs and trying to fix the world’s problems. “Leave that to the Americans,” they seemed to be saying. “Britain is for Britons and has problems of its own that need to be fixed!” Powell rallied this public support and wrote a private letter to Heath threatening “If you try and take me out of the cabinet, I’ll make a go for party leader, and good luck holding back the will of the people then!” Thoroughly whipped, Heath acquiesced and went into the leadership convention with Powell and his supporters firmly behind him.

Heath’s remaining opposition came from the MP from Finchley, Margaret Thatcher. Unlike Heath and many Tories, who believed in or at least caved to the “post-war consensus” of government spending, the welfare state, and Keynesian economics, Thatcher espoused a philosophy more in line with American Buckley-ite paleoconservatism. She advocated slashing government spending and taxes, privatising state owned industries, deregulation (particularly of the financial sector), and reducing the power and influence of trade unions. Though personally unopposed to Enoch Powell, later saying that he “made a valid argument, if in sometimes regrettable terms”, Thatcher did not support Heath’s economic agenda and warned her fellow Britons that “a Heath government is hardly better than a continuation of the current Labour government. I have said that should Mr. Wilson remain in power, Britain will continue the march toward communism, I do not believe that a march toward socialism with Mr. Heath is a much more preferable alternative.” Ever a pragmatist at heart, Thatcher recognized that her relative obscurity would preclude her from a real shot at winning the leadership election, unless she attached herself to another, more well known figure and managed to win their support. There was, in Thatcher’s mind, one man who alone could win her the recognition she craved and in her own mind deserved: the son of the great British Bulldog himself: Randolph Churchill.


Churchill had himself changed over the last several years as well. Taking pride in his burgeoning political career and close relationship with his son and fellow MP Winston II, the 58 year old Churchill cleaned up his act, restored his health through exercise and kicked his problem with alcohol. Newly sober and full of the same fiery passion as his late father, Randolph first and foremost was eager to right the wrongs he saw rampant with the way the UK’s government was being run. Positioning himself as the “outsider reformist” of the Conservative Party, Churchill began the campaign leading up to the convention by releasing a series of scathing opinion pieces in major British papers, decrying first Prime Minister Wilson’s “abysmal handling” of the Rhodesia crisis and second, Ted Heath’s failure to condemn Enoch Powell’s “backward and barbaric” views on race. It was here that Churchill’s talents as a writer and journalist paid off for him. Unwilling to compromise with his party’s leadership in his quest for glory, Churchill also enjoyed the benefits of widespread public support, instant name recognition, and the infinite power of being able to say “I told you so”. Though Ted Heath was quick to condemn Wilson’s and Labour’s foreign policy now that it had come back to haunt them, Churchill had been a critic of the “Field Strategy” and its naivete from the beginning. To Churchill, who saw the entire conflict in Rhodesia as “the tragedy of decolonization gone wrong distilled down to its essence”, there were only two acceptable solutions to the problems being experienced there: either gradually withdraw, and limit British support to supplies and financial aid, while focusing efforts on repairing relations with the locals and improving their quality of life with gradual integration; or to double down and “truly deal with it” which meant going into a state of total war, and leveraging diplomatic influence to cut off the militias’ supplies from the Communist world. Given the practical reality of the British treasury and the United States having its own growing problems in Southeast Asia, Churchill saw the former as the more practical and therefore, correct option for the time. “We will not leave Rhodesia to chaos, bloodshed, and terror.” He said in a speech on the floor of the House of Commons, shortly before the convention. “Nor will we throw British lives away to protect a government which still denies to its people their basic, natural rights. If Prime Minister Field wants British soldiers to protect his precipitously placed palace, then British values he must espouse and project.” As the convention loomed, Churchill saw in Ted Heath weakness and a chance to push himself onto the national stage, his only problems were Heath himself and Margaret Thatcher.


Thatcher wanted the job for herself, that much was clear. Both he and she would need the other’s endorsement and support if either wanted to stand a chance of dethroning a sitting party leader, however. They could not afford to fight each other whilst simultaneously trying to take on Heath and the establishment. Thus, Churchill decided to tackle the competition head on and arranged a meeting with Thatcher only days before the leadership vote. Like his father before him, Randolph was known for his sharp wit and biting tongue, and spared nothing to the woman who would one day become the Iron Lady. He pointed out to Thatcher that not only was she 14 years younger than him and would likely have an opportunity to become party leader in the future by virtue of her youth alone, but that she was a woman, and that meant that others would expect twice as much of her to be taken seriously in what was obviously as male dominated a profession as politics. He frowned at the obvious inequality, but said “This is not the world as we would like it, but as it is.” So his counter offer to her request, that he stand aside and support her in exchange for a cabinet post, was exactly the opposite. In exchange for her vote, and her endorsement, Churchill would give Thatcher a spot in his cabinet and in the future, make it clear that he wished her to be his sole successor as party leader. Though they disagreed on just about every domestic policy imaginable, the two saw mostly eye to eye on foreign affairs and more importantly, shared an intense desire to stop Heath and Powell from coming into power, and so it was that when the Tories held a leadership election on July 17th, 1969, in one of the narrowest votes in party history, Randolph Churchill was named party leader over the incumbent Ted Heath.


Cheers of “Churchill! Churchill!” engulfed the hall as the final votes were tallied and Margaret Thatcher threw her arms around her new mentor in jubilation. Randolph felt tears well in his eyes as his fellow Tories called on him to say a few words. He could feel his father looking down on him, and hoped, deep in his heart, that he was proud. History would not relegate him to a mere footnote in its collective telling, Randolph dared to think. Even if he never lived up to the greatness of his progenitor, he would at least have a chance to leave his beloved Britain better off than he found it. As he pulled himself from Thatcher’s embrace and made his way to the podium to speak, he made a few mental decisions for after the general elections and the Tories’ all but inevitable victory. Ted Heath would be brought into the cabinet as Chancellor of the Exquecher, a position he’d shadowed for while in the opposition in the past. This would help bridge the gap in the party that Randolph and Margaret had blown open to steal the Premiership out from under him. Heath, desperate to affect public policy and save face would be in no position to refuse. As for Thatcher, his new pupil, Churchill decided that she belonged as Secretary of State for Commonwealth and Foreign Affairs, where he could groom her in his vision for a stronger British policy of promoting freedom around the world. Enoch Powell meanwhile, would not hold a position in the Conservative Party. His type of reactionary nonsense had no place in modern Britain, and needed to be purged. But before any of that, came Churchill’s speech. Unsure to the end whether he would win the leadership election or not, he prepared only a few brief remarks, beginning with some words from his endlessly quotable father:


“Thank you, thank you! This election, and the leadership of our beloved party comes at a critical time for our country and our Commonwealth. As I’m sure you’re all aware, we Britons are currently going through our own circle of Hell. But as my father was wont to say, ‘If you’re going through Hell, keep going!’ That is exactly what we will do...”

Next Time on Blue Skies in Camelot: The U.S. Senate and the Kennedys​

 

[President_Lincoln]

Chapter 51: Spinning Wheel - The Senate, Chappaquiddick, and the Luck of the Kennedys​

The youngest son of Joseph and Rose Kennedy, and younger brother to President John F. Kennedy and Secretary of Defense and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, Senator Edward Moore “Ted” Kennedy was born February 22nd, 1932 at St. Margaret’s Hospital in the Dorchester section of Boston, Massachusetts. The youngest of nine children, “Teddy” as he liked to be called, was forever the baby of the family. His parents granted his older brother, Jack’s request to be made godfather of his new sibling, though they denied his further request that the child be named “George Washington Kennedy” as he was born on the Founding Father’s 200th birthday. Instead they opted to name baby Ted after his father’s assistant, Edward Moore. As a child, Ted was frequently uprooted as his family moved among their various estates in New York; Hyannis Port, Massachusetts; Palm Beach, Florida; and the Court of St. James in England. He attended ten different schools by the age of 11, with his education suffering somewhat as a result. At the age of seven, Teddy received his first communion from Pope Pius XII in the Vatican, and served as an altar boy at St. Joseph’s Church. A mediocre student throughout Middle and High School, Teddy enjoyed his parents doting and affection as the youngest, but also garnered unfavorable comparisons from them to his elder brothers. Though never particularly dedicated to academic achievement, Ted did excel at Varsity football, tennis, and debate, drama, and glee clubs. When he eventually entered politics himself, Ted was noted for lacking Jack’s sophistication and Bobby’s intensity, but was declared the most “affable” of the Kennedy boys. Whereas Jack would inspire you, and Bobby would fight tooth and nail to see a thing through, Ted had a personality well suited for the compromising and deal making so important to his chosen career in the Senate. Like the rest of the Kennedy clan, Ted felt the losses of sister Rosemary’s failed lobotomy, Joe Jr. in World War II, and Kathleen in a plane crash deeply, wondering in his diary, “What did we Kennedys ever do to deserve such rotten luck?”


As it turned out, this “rotten luck” would ultimately turn itself around and give rise to one of the great enduring myths of 20th century American Politics - “the Luck of the Kennedys”, tied of course to their near scrapes with oblivion and obvious Irish heritage. The year after Ted won the special election to take his brother’s vacant U.S. Senate seat, this“luck” first manifested itself, to dramatic effect, on November 22nd, 1963, when President John F. Kennedy narrowly survived an attempt on his life by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas. Considered the “would be crime of the century”, JFK’s close shave with death was just the wake up call he needed to turn his personal life around. He never again cheated on his wife, Jackie, and the two became much closer, truly falling in love after almost a decade of marriage. Seven months later, on June 19th, 1964, Ted was a passenger in a private Aero Commander 680 airplane that was flying in bad weather from Washington, D.C. to Massachusetts. Without warning, the plane crashed into an apple orchard in the western Massachusetts town of Southampton on the final approach to the Barnes Municipal Airport in Westfield. The pilot and Edward Moss, one of Senator Kennedy’s aides, were killed on impact, though the Senator himself was pulled from the wreckage by friend and fellow Senator Birch Bayh (D - IN). Despite suffering a severe back injury, a punctured lung, broken ribs, and internal bleeding, Ted survived the encounter and managed to win election to a Senate term of his own, thanks largely to a proxy campaign led by his wife Joan in November of that year. During his long recovery from his injuries, which would cause him chronic back pain for the rest of his life, Senator Kennedy met with myriad academics to study the issues of the day more closely. His hospital stay led to a lifelong interest in the provision of health care services and thanks to his studies, made him a much stronger politician on the whole. He labeled the crash “a blessing in disguise” and chalked another point up to the Kennedys having a guardian angel watching over them. Or in Jack’s more succinct language, “damn good luck”.

Throughout his brother’s second term, after returning to the Senate with a walking cane and his trademark Kennedy smile, Ted earned a well deserved reputation as “the guy” to talk to on Capitol Hill when you wanted something done. Fiercely liberal and a shrewd negotiator, Ted Kennedy became the President’s parliamentary ace in the hole. Civil Rights, Voting Rights, Medicare, Medicaid, even Guaranteed Universal Income; Teddy was on the front lines for each of them and had been instrumental in seeing their passage. Following the surprise of the 1968 election, which Kennedy, like most Americans, assumed fellow Democrat Hubert Humphrey would win, the Massachusetts Senator was disappointed, but already looking not toward the failures of the past, but toward the possibilities of the future. George Romney, while more conservative of course than Kennedy would have liked, was clearly someone whom he and fellow Congressional Democrats could play ball with; not an extremist of the Goldwater or Wallace varieties. Nonetheless, Ted became one of the first influential Democrats to criticize Humphrey for his failure to carry the Democratic torch to another Presidential term, and called on him to step down as Senate Majority Whip. The move was seen as “bold” by the political press and Kennedy’s fellows on the Hill, but Ted, forever in the shadow of the brilliant President Jack and tireless crusader Bobby, decided that the time had come at last to pursue his own ambitions.


A leadership election was, as always to be held in the first few weeks of January 1969, shortly after the 91st Congress convened in Washington. Majority Leader Mike Mansfield of Montana faced no opposition and was easily chosen to retain his position, but the real race on everyone’s mind was that of his number two, the Majority Whip. The embittered Hubert Humphrey, nursing resentment of President Kennedy and his family for, in his eyes, not doing anything to help him win the Electoral vote in November, decided that he would do whatever he could to stop Ted Kennedy from becoming the new Whip. Humphrey himself, as predicted, backed out of the contest, knowing his political stock had dropped too much for him to remain. In standing aside however, Humphrey needed a new candidate he could throw his support behind. Alone and with few options, Humphrey turned to an old colleague, recently returned to the Upper House of Congress from the plains of Texas, Lyndon Baines Johnson.

Never a fan of the Kennedy clan for his own reasons, namely: JFK’s “cold” isolation of Johnson during his first term and his failure to defend LBJ when congressional investigations forced him to be the first man to resign the Vice Presidency since John C. Calhoun had in 1832, Johnson had been the “big guy” in Congress for years, a behemoth of American politics, and he’d been felled in an “ethics” witch hunt without so much as a peep from the man who was supposed to be his friend, or at the very least, his boss. What was more, Johnson distrusted the other Kennedy brothers even more. “Bobby is a rat faced little bastard.” Johnson said in a private conversation with Senator Humphrey shortly after being sent back to the Senate by Governor Smith. “He’s conceited, squeaky voiced, and thinks he’s hot shit. Don’t even get me started about Ted, that little horn dog. I tell you, if the Ethics Committee thinks they had something on me, they should try sniffing around Hyannis Port or Palm Beach. That’s where they’d find the real headline grabbers…” To Johnson, it wasn’t Humphrey’s campaigning that had cost the Democrats four more years in power, it was the party’s failure to properly combat George Corey Wallace and his siphoning of blue collar workers. He gave President Kennedy one thing, the recommendation to add Smathers to the ticket had been a wise one. Lord knows that Romney and Bush, that little wimp; were so squeaky clean that they could have made nearly any Democrat out to be a friend to pot smoking, free loving hippies. But while JFK worried that Humphrey and Smathers had not done enough to secure their liberal base, leading to low turnout and Romney-Bush pluralities; Johnson feared that Humphrey should have doubled down on the selection of Smathers. “We’re the party for labor, farmers, and n***ers.” He told one of his aides in a late night strategy meeting, in a room that reeked of tobacco and barbeque sauce. “Don’t let anyone forget it. We’re not courting the votes of long haired, dirty-smelling protesters anymore.” Though Johnson knew he would have to bide his time before his second coming could fully manifest itself, perhaps in a run for control of the party; he knew that in politics, the only way to make a name for yourself was to throw your weight around. If you weren’t on offense, you were on defense. Thus, when Hubert Humphrey came to him, begging for an out to keep Ted Kennedy from becoming Majority Whip, Johnson let a big grin cross his face. “Hubert,” he told his beleaguered colleague. “I think I know just the guy.”

A Louisiana Senator since 1948, Russell B. Long, son of the fiery “Kingfish” Huey P. Long, was chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee and a favorite of southern Democrats who had not fled the party for the ACP. Because of President Kennedy’s signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Long had declined to attend the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, though he did campaign for the President’s re-election and called George Wallace “a damned fool and traitor” for his independent run that year. Moderating his views on race during Kennedy’s second term, Long voted for the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and The Civil Rights Act of 1968 and positioned himself as the party’s foremost specialist on tax law, a position which would come very much in handy with an incoming Republican administration determined to shrink the Federal budget. Long had announced his candidacy for the position of Majority Whip as soon as it became apparent that Humphrey would not seek reelection to the post. Though at first his inferior celebrity and legislative record made it appear that Ted Kennedy would wipe the floor with Long and easily claim victory, the balance shifted when Johnson courted Humphrey’s support for his fellow Senator and formed a “Stop Kennedy” bloc within the conservative and moderate wings of the party. Ted campaigned diligently, calling on friends and pushing hard for their support, but the legislative battles of his brother’s last few months in office, especially confirming Freund and passing AFP had taken their toll. Congressional Democrats were sick and tired of Kennedy glory hounding. They felt used by a dynasty that in their minds was starting to get a little big for its britches. In response, they narrowly elected Russell B. Long Senate Majority Whip by a vote of 30 - 26. Disappointed by his first real electoral defeat, Teddy received consolation from his brother, Bobby, who told him, “Don’t worry Teddy, Long may have won the day, but he and Johnson haven’t won the war. The truth of the matter is, they stand for a kind of Democrat that just doesn’t exist anymore, a dying breed. They stand for ‘winning’ at any price and using people for votes. We stand for ideals and doing what’s right, no matter the cost. They’re the past. We’re the future.”

…​

As 1969 rolled on into the spring and then summer, the Kennedy boys each went about their own pursuits. The death of their father on May 3rd from another massive stroke was an opportunity to come together as a family and plot the clan’s course for the next several years. Jack, immediately taking charge as the new family patriarch came to the conclusion that Teddy’s defeat in the race for Majority Whip was merely a bump in the road, and that their focus needed to be on his reelection campaign in 1970. “I’ve always been a firm believer in self-determination.” The former President said to his brothers over a glass of Jameson Irish Whiskey at the Hyannis Port Compound, just days after their father’s funeral. “So you both can do whatever you please, and I’ll always support you. I’m not Daddy.” He sipped from his glass, then swirled its contents and smiled. “But I won’t lie to you, either. There’s real good left to be done down in Washington and I happen to think that you two are the men best suited to do it. Teddy, you’re running for re-election then?” The youngest brother nodded. “Good. Bobby, what are your plans?” Both Jack and Teddy turned to their brother and awaited his answer.

Robert Francis Kennedy, by now 43 years old, the age that Jack had been when he ran for President, had built quite the reputation for himself, as Ted had. As Jack was the Kennedy brahmin, and Ted the Kennedy most like their maternal grandfather, the affable Boston politician “Honey Fitz”, Bobby was the Kennedy brawler. Intense, focused, personal, and passionate, he knew from a young age that like his brother and father before him, he was going to dedicate his life to politics and government. The only question was: how? For eight years, four at the Justice Department as Attorney General, and then four more at the Pentagon, Bobby had been Jack’s right hand man, his closest confidant and adviser in the White House. These experiences, combined with his lengthy career as a Congressional counsel in the 1950’s, gave Bobby a unique field of experience of both immense width and depth. He was an expert on labor corruption, organized crime, civil rights and liberties, the war on poverty, geopolitics and the military, and most of all, had a deep concern and love for his fellow human beings. He was, perhaps, the most qualified man in America to lead, and yet, he had not yet held an elected position. Despite running all of Jack’s major campaigns in Congress and then for the White House, Bobby had never himself been a candidate for anything. This was the critical step if he ever wanted to live up to Jack’s hopes for him and become President of the United States. As Jack was leaving office, Bobby had every intention of moving to New York with Ethel and the kids to pursue a private law practice. The move went well enough, and the youngins were just starting to adapt to life in the big city when a one two punch of Senatorial news shocked Bobby and turned his attention back to public life once more.


Lyndon Johnson, the tyrannical titan of Texas who would grow to be Bobby’s nemesis and chief political rival, had returned, as though from the dead, to the United States Senate. What was more, he was already pushing buttons and making deals to grow his own power and influence once more. Russell Long as Majority Whip was, in Bobby’s mind, little more than a puppet to help Johnson wrest control of the party back from the liberal Kennedy wing, a well oiled machine he and Jack spent years developing for the greater good of the nation. LBJ represented the absolute worst that politics could offer in Bobby’s mind, with his bullying, domineering style and self centered worldview, and his return, along with his smackdown of Teddy in the Whip race helped Bobby decide against a quiet life of private practice. He could not stand aside while southern power brokers dominated the party which represented the best hope for progressive change the nation had, especially at a vulnerable moment like just after losing a Presidential election and a war kicking up in Southeast Asia. Bobby looked ahead to 1970 and knew his electoral career had to begin then. Telling this to Ted and Jack, Bobby was greeted with approving nods and a warm smile from the former President. “Good, kid. It’s about time.”


The next question became: what should Bobby run for? There were two major positions in Bobby’s home state of New York that would be up for grabs in a year and a half: the Governor’s Mansion, and a U.S. Senate seat. Jack and Ted pointed out that the Gubernatorial contest, should Bobby enter it, would likely be a cakewalk. Nelson Rockefeller, Jack’s popular old opponent and the leader of the Moderate GOP had resigned from Albany and was now President Romney’s Secretary of Treasury. His successor, former Lt. Governor Malcolm Wilson was, unlike his predecessor, a largely uninspiring figure. The Republicans were nonetheless likely to nominate Wilson to a term of his own, hoping to count on incumbent’s advantage, and with the help of the state’s powerful Democratic machine and Kennedy family resources, Bobby could practically walk to the Governor’s mansion. Ted reminded Bobby that New York Governors were often seen as frontrunners for national politics, both Roosevelts had once been Chief Executives of the Empire State. Bobby definitely saw the argument to be made there, but Jack saw in his eyes a hunger for something different, something harder.


“You want to run for the Senate, don’t you?” Jack grinned. His brothers paused. As usual, Jack cut right through the confusion to the heart of the matter in an instant. Bobby knew that he had hit the nail right on the head. Though a Governorship would give him executive experience and was this situation’s low hanging fruit, running for Governor had its drawbacks as well. For starters, Bobby would be forced to focus almost entirely on state issues. It was essentially, in his mind, an exercise in local government, away from the hub of national decision making down in Washington. After nearly two decades in the beltway, Bobby decided that he always wanted to be a part of the Federal government. Wherever the sausage was being made, there you would find Robert Francis Kennedy. Secondly, Bobby’s whole reason for jumping right back into politics, the Lyndon Johnsons and Russell Longs of the world, were down by the Potomac River, not the Hudson. Bobby knew that he was a fighter, through and through, and his fighting wouldn’t do much good if it was confined to the state house. “Yes, Jack.” The second eldest Kennedy said at last. “I’m going to run for the Senate.”


“Atta boy.” Jack smacked his shoulder and pulled him into a hug. “It won’t be easy,” he said, his voice suddenly serious. “But I believe in you. I really think you can pull this off.” With his brothers, Ethel, and the whole Kennedy clan behind him, Bobby made headlines the nation over when on the Fourth of July, 1969, he declared his candidacy to be the next U.S. Senator from New York. The former President’s prediction would prove true, this race was going to be a tooth and nail struggle, first against his fellow Democrats in the primary and then whoever the Republicans dug up to replace the retiring incumbent Kenneth Keating in the General. But Bobby never wavered, and with his family by his side, his campaign got off to a strong start.

…​

The Kennedy Family’s incessant luck was put to the test once again shortly thereafter on the night of July 18th, 1969. Teddy, beginning to think about strategy for his own reelection, hosted a private party on Chappaquiddick Island, which is accessible via ferry from the town of Edgartown, on the nearby larger island of Martha’s Vineyard. The gathering, at the cottage of Sidney Lawrence, was a reunion for a group of six single women that included 28 year old Mary Jo Kopechne, who had volunteered for Jack’s reelection campaign in 1964 and Ted’s Senatorial race that year as well. All but one of the men in attendance were married, while all of the women were young and single, raising eyebrows in future reports of the incident which was to come. As the party drew to a close, Mary Jo complained about not having a vehicle to catch the late night ferry back to the mainland. The Senator offered to drive her in his own car, a 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88. She agreed and the two left the party together, bound for the Dike Bridge, which did not have a guard rail at the time.


Though he was proven to not be under the influence of alcohol at the time, Senator Kennedy lost control of the vehicle and crashed in the Poucha Pond inlet, which was a tidal channel on the island. Frantic, Kennedy managed to escape the overturned vehicle and dove into the water several times in an attempt to find Kopechne. Just as he was giving up hope of rescuing her, on his third dive he caught a sight of her and with all of his might, managed to wrestle her from the vehicle, dragging her to the shore and performing CPR. After several seconds which passed like an eternity, Mary Jo spat up water and began to breathe once again. Despite his fears to the contrary, Ted had managed to save her life and prevent a tragedy. Helping support each other, the two managed to limp their way to a nearby house and ask the owner if they could call an ambulance, which the owner promptly did. The Senator and his companion reached the ER within the hour and both were eventually cleared by the Doctors there. This near scrape with both his own and Mary Jo’s death did cost Ted Kennedy some political capital. An embarrassing report by several newspapers claimed that the Senator’s intentions with Mary Jo that evening had been less than pure, a claim that both survivors refuted several times. The local police investigation found that “negligent driving” had been performed by the Senator as well, though they could not bring any charges against him. On the other hand, the “Chappaquiddick Incident” as it came to be called also brought Ted a wave of public support from his constituents in Massachusetts. Their Senator hadn’t run from the scene, he’d dove in and rescued the young woman he was driving with! If nothing else, his bravery was commendable in their eyes, he actually saw his poll numbers rise somewhat in the wake of the story’s release. To the eyes of the body politic, especially their enemies, it seemed that the now irrefutable “Luck of the Kennedys” had struck again.

Next Time on Blue Skies in Camelot: “That’s One Small Step for Man…”​

 

[President_Lincoln]

Chapter 52: This Magic Moment - The Soviet-American Mission to the Moon​

Despite a transition between Administrations and rising tensions between the nations of the world which seemed to go back on the promises of the Kennedy-Khrushchev detente, the dedicated, hard working engineers, scientists, and military coordinators involved in the Apollo-Svarog Program continued to work diligently on their mission. The shifting sands of 1968, both George Romney’s election to the Presidency and Yuri Andropov’s rise to power in Moscow, had the potential to derail all of the progress made by the teams as forces on both sides of the Iron Curtain began to question any choices made toward friendship and cooperation. In the States, whispers began to rise from the program’s old detractors in the Senate, Scoop Jackson and Barry Goldwater among others, that the whole thing was a sham and needed to be shut down. These critics hoped that the new President would be less stubborn on the issue than President Kennedy had been. Likewise, some in the Politburo questioned whether any outreach toward the Americans could be trusted, especially as Romney ramped up efforts in the War in Cambodia. But Romney and Andropov both insisted on the necessity of the Mission to the Moon. “We are dedicated of course to the preservation of our values,” Romney said in a speech to NASA administrators shortly after taking office. “But not to the point of extremism. It is still the belief of this administration that we can simultaneously disagree with someone and be their friend.” Andropov expressed his sentiments as being something of the same, and so the mission went on ahead.


In the aftermath of the Apollo-Svarog 1 catastrophe, new oversight, orchestrated by former Astronaut and now Junior Senator John Glenn (D - OH) had been put in place by the Kennedy Administration to ensure that remaining tests would go off without a hitch. These included practical measures, such as additional safety and equipment checks, but also more xenophobic ones, like leaving the Soviet scientists out of discussion and planning whenever possible. This hurt President Kennedy deeply, as the whole point of the Mission had been to bring the superpowers closer together, but it was a necessary concession, in the eyes of Senator Glenn and others, worried about Soviets stealing America's secrets to missile technology. Despite this setback, the Soviet team under Yuri Gagarin’s leadership redoubled their efforts in concert with the Americans, under the direction of former Mercury Astronaut Alan Shepard. Over time, the icy relations and distrust between members of the two staffs began to melt and dissolve into warmth, then camaraderie, then friendship, and finally a cautious trust. Neil Armstrong, returning from his unpaid leave after getting into a fight with Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov in the wake of the Apollo-Svarog 1 fire, made up for the incident by sincerely apologizing and taking his Soviet colleague out into the wilderness of the Shenandoah Valley for a fly fishing trip. Leonov told Armstrong that while he was angry that the American hurt him, he understood how emotions could be riding high after losing two of his comrades. The deaths of the Americans and Soviets shocked the world and nearly cost the program its very existence. Armstrong surprised Leonov by putting his hand on Leonov’s shoulder, looking him dead in the eye and saying, “Alexei, I lost four comrades that day.” The two men embraced and agreed to put the mission: reaching out to the stars themselves, ahead of any nationalistic fervor or personal gripes. It was a private moment of closeness amidst a public program barreling toward its triumphant conclusion.


As the summer of 1969 loomed, NASA and their Soviet advisers felt that they had completed enough tests on the equipment necessary for a legitimate shot at landing on the Moon. The Lunar lander, nicknamed Eagle at the behest of President Romney, who wanted the Soviets to remember exactly whose missile was getting their people up there, had proven its effectiveness in all dry runs. Extra layers of heat protection were added, and the command module was banged out to allow space for four passengers once again: two Astronauts and two Cosmonauts. Knowing that the 11th flight would possibly be the most historic one of all, Shepard and Gagarin scanned their ranks carefully before determining whom they wanted to represent their nations on the first trip to the Moon. Shepard chose Armstrong to captain the Mission, and for him to be joined by Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin. Gagarin had half a mind to go back into space himself, but realized that he would be needed to coordinate with mission control back on the ground in Houston. Instead, he selected (as predicted) Alexei Leonov to lead the Soviet part of the team, and, in a somewhat bold move, selected Valentina Tereshkova to be his second.

Tereshkova had already broken many barriers and was an international feminist icon before being selected to be part of the A-S 11 flight. The first woman in space, she was best known for her kindness and good sense, as well as her hard work and bravery in the heat of a crisis. Eminently qualified for the mission, Tereshkova also earned a bit of subtle prestige for the Soviet Union by showing that they were the first superpower to be egalitarian enough (at least on paper) to allow a woman to take on such an important mission. Joining her fellow explorers for a joint briefing by Shepard and Gagarin, Tereshkova was pleased to learn that after much debate between the two nations, about which members of the crew should stay on board the command module and which should be free to walk the Moon, she was going to be one of the lucky two would get to do an actual moon walk, along with Armstrong. The Americans and Soviets, desperate to save face despite nominally working together, decided that they could not both be the first country to put a man on the moon. They had achieved the act together, a great step forward for international friendship and so forth, as President Kennedy and First Secretary Khrushchev had wanted. But Kennedy and Khrushchev were no longer in power, and the world they hoped to create was being undermined, in small bits, by the new group of leaders who had risen up to replace them. Old competition replaced the need for cooperation, and this reflected on the Moon Mission, with both sides’ politicians getting their hands all over it to decide the “details”. Since America had no female astronauts at the time, and the Soviets had one, it was agreed that America would have the first man on the moon, while the USSR would have the first woman; a fair trade if ever there was one. The next question on the minds of the media was: “Who would step off the ship first?” Eternal bragging rights seemed to be on the line, and neither side’s backers at home seemed keen on letting the other have even the most petty allowance. The solution to this conundrum was decided by the explorers themselves, Buzz Aldrin suggested that it be decided by coin toss once Armstrong and Tereshkova reached the Lunar surface. Both sides agreed to leave history to the fates.

The historic flight of A-S 11 began at 13:32:00 UTC on July 16th, 1969 from the recently renamed John F. Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida; with the eponymous former President on hand along with Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin and sitting President George Romney. Honored to see his pledge of a seeming impossibility coming to fruition in less than a decade, Kennedy was said to have had admiration in his eyes and gripped his wife, Jackie’s hand tightly as the Saturn V rocket carrying the astronauts launched and disappeared into the atmosphere. Jackie later recorded in her diary that she could hear her husband whisper the words: “Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worships thee.” a passage from the Book of Nehemiah.


Approximately four days later, on the 20th of July, Eagle followed its predetermined flight plan and touched down from the command module in the aptly named Sea of Tranquility on the Moon. Mission Control celebrated what it called “a testament to the boundless potential of human curiosity and engineering.” President Romney and First Secretary Andropov both called from the White House and the Kremlin, respectively, to wish the pair good luck and remind them of the historic nature of their activity. What the world leaders did not reveal were the speeches stowed away in their desks in case something should go wrong and the mission were to fail. The big moment came, after four hours of rest and settling in, for the two explorers to flip the coin and determine who would get to step down the ladder first. Armstrong let Tereshkova pick a side, she called tails. The coin flung into the air, light as a feather and yet heavy with the anticipation of 750 million people watching live coverage of the mission on television. Armstrong caught the coin and gave it a final flip before uncovering his hand. Heads.


Back home the Americans cheered while the Soviets grumbled, but Tereshkova humbly wished Armstrong her congratulations and initiated the procedure to open the hatch of the lander. The man who had once been a little boy from Ohio, obsessed with learning to fly was now becoming the first human being to step on a heavenly body besides Mother Earth. With a hiss of hydraulics and a deep breath, Armstrong cleared the entrance of the lander and made his way down the ladder before placing his right boot on the Moon’s dusty surface and uttering the famous line: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” His Soviet counterpart followed suit shortly thereafter, becoming the first woman on the Moon and uttering words of her own: “May the drive toward a brighter tomorrow be enshrined in our hearts forever.”


Armstrong and Tereshkova spent a total of two hours, twenty one minutes on the Lunar surface, gathering sediment samples, and leaving behind American and Soviet flags, planted right next to each other in friendship. A final image, of the astronaut and cosmonaut embracing in their space suits was broadcast around the world, a great plea for togetherness in the wake of this monumental achievement for humankind. Though the 1970’s would present more than their share of discord, strife, and conflict, this picture; of President John F. Kennedy’s and First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev’s dream coming to fruition served to add immensely to their legacies and sent the 1960’s off on a joyous, triumphant note.

Photo Credit to Nerdman 3000​

Next Time on Blue Skies in Camelot: “When I Get to the Bottom, I Go Back to the Top of the Slide…”​

 

[President_Lincoln]

Chapter 53: Helter Skelter - The Manson Family’s Reign of Terror​

Since meeting Charlie Manson in the whirlwind that was the Summer of Love two years before, Mary Brunner’s life had changed dramatically. Once a bookish, shy, midwestern girl, practically indistinguishable from her peers; she was utterly transformed. Her hair was long, tangled, and full of flowers and when she (rarely) wore shoes, they were almost always sandals. Beads dangled from her denim vest and the stale stench of Marijuana clung to her faded, ripped jeans. The girl who had once been the apple of her parents’ eye was now “Mother Mary” to an entire “family” of young people, like herself, who were caught in the intoxicating spell that was Charles Willis Manson. Not to mention of course, the illegitimate child she had had with Manson shortly after they first met, a healthy if neglected boy she named Valentine. As she awoke on the morning of July 25th, 1969, she rolled over on her dingy mattress to find the space next to her, as usual, empty. She sighed. There was some part of her, some small, hopeless part she incessantly tried to make shut up, that never stopped hoping that she would wake up and find Charlie, her Charlie there next to her, with Valentine in his arms and a smile on his face, just like a real daddy. Stupid Mary. She chided herself as she rose and stretched in the early morning sun. That’s not Charlie’s way.


The truth was that Manson hadn’t visited Mary’s bed in months. Shortly after Mary quit her job at the University library back in ‘67 and took Manson up on his offer to travel up and down the Golden State in search of a never ending party, their relationship suddenly and rather rudely was expanded into a threesome. As Mary felt the first kicks of what would grow to be Valentine (nicknamed “Pooh Bear”) growing inside of her, she and Manson became acquainted with 18 year old Lynette Fromme in Venice, California. Recently homeless and desperate for answers and warmth in what seemed to her a confusing and cold world, Fromme hoped to find both in the embrace of Manson, whose charm played her like a fiddle. Against Mary’s weak protests, Manson brought Fromme, his next sexual plaything, home with him and the three began to live together. They were soon joined by Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and over a dozen other young women, all drawn to Manson’s overpowering presence and charisma. After traveling up and down the west coast dozens of times in a dilapidated Volkswagen touring bus, the ever growing number of young women, and a handful of men, established a central base of operations at Spahn’s Movie Ranch in August 1968, after a run in with Dennis Wilson’s manager got the family violently kicked out of the Beach Boy’s luxurious estate.


The ranch, owned by a near blind man of almost 80 named George Spahn, was once a regularly rented television and movie set, primarily used for Western productions. By the late 60’s, however, the buildings had deteriorated significantly and the ranch’s primary source of income came from selling horseback rides to tourists and children. In exchange for agreeing to fix up the place and maintain whatever buildings remained, Spahn allowed the Manson Family to take up residence there. When it became clear that money would be an issue for such a large group’s boarding, Manson worked up an alternative means of payment. The man who was rapidly becoming a dictatorial cult leader ordered the female members of the group to occasionally have sex with Spahn and act as seeing eye guides for him, doting on him with affection and pleasure. Spahn eagerly accepted the deal, and did not charge the family a dime for the whole time they lived on his land. The old lecher enjoyed Fromme’s company especially, nicknaming her “Squeaky” from the sound she would make when he pinched her thigh. Mary was disturbed somewhat by these activities, but was relieved when Charlie did not make her participate in them. He ruled it out during their first week or so there. “No, no, no Marioche,” he said, wagging his finger in a tease. “You’re better suited for the more important work.” By this of course, Manson meant procuring the funds that would keep the group supplied with food, clothes, and most importantly to Manson’s control, psychedelic drugs. To this end, Mary and her cohorts stole credit cards, vehicles, and myriad other odds and ends from the surrounding Los Angeles area, resulting in several short lived jail stints and Mary nearly losing her baby to child protective services.

Unbeknownst to Mary, the period in between her release from jail in October of 1968 and the next year’s summer would prove pivotal to the future of the Family. Across the Pond, in England, the Beatles released The White Album, a double LP of jumbled, often mysterious sounding mixes of Dad Rock and psychedelia, which would be, for Manson, “a moment of Great Awakening”. In the lyrics of the Fab Four’s songs, Manson, along with his newfound accomplice “Tex” Watson, found a roadmap that seemed to unravel the twisted prophecies contained in Manson’s mind. One song in particular, “Helter Skelter”, spoke to Manson, who after first listening to the track while dropping acid, believed it perfectly described the coming revelation set to befall the world:


When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide

Where I stop and I turn and I go for a ride

Till I get to the bottom and I see you again

Do, don't you want me to love you

I'm coming down fast but I'm miles above you

Tell me, tell me, tell me, come on tell me the answer

Well, you may be a lover but you ain't no dancer

Helter skelter, helter skelter

Helter skelter


The album, and the apocalyptic visions he was sure it contained, led Manson to order the attempt on Governor Ronald Reagan’s life the year before, but after it had failed, he decided that his identification of “the Blue Meanie”, the anti-Christ sent to prevent him from leading his chosen people to their promised land, must have been incorrect. He told his followers that they could hardly blame him for the mistake. He may be God incarnate, but he was still just a man, in half his nature at least. Thus, it seemed only natural to Mary and the rest of the family when Charlie announced that they were to head out into Death Valley for two weeks’ meditation and retreat, away from the Ranch and the… duties living there entailed. Manson wanted time to listen to the album, his Gospel, over and over, in peace, undisturbed, so that his next interpretation would not be incorrect once again. Though most in the family didn’t bat an eye at the excursion into the desert, Mary was worried about Valentine’s health, and Charlie’s increasing hostility toward him. One night, while Charlie was listening to “Helter Skelter” for the fourth time in a row, trying to derive its meaning, Valentine had soiled himself and begun to cry. Mary tried her best to shush him, but to no avail. Charlie promptly stormed out of his private quarters, scanned the room for the source of the noise and his cold, careless eyes settled on Mary. “Make that brat shut it, Marioche. I’m doing the Lord’s work in here.”


Unsettled, Mary apologized and replied, barely a whisper; “Charlie, he’s your son. Babies cry, it’s all perfectly norm-” her voice was cut off by the crack of Manson’s hand across her face. Blood trickled from her ear down his knuckles and she began to cry. Manson immediately shook his head and pulled her close to his chest, cooing and smiling and laughing to himself.


“Mother Mary,” he said, his voice simultaneously sweet as honey and hard as iron. “I don’t like to hit you, but I can’t think when Pooh Bear gets real loud. Now can you please take him somewhere and help him see the light?” Both terrified and never more in love in all her days, Mary did exactly as she was bid. Charlie flashed his sadistic smile and kissed her hand before she left. “Thank you, darlin’. Now was that so hard?” Watching her leave, Manson took a newspaper from Tex Watson and returned to the task at hand; deciding how to bring “Helter Skelter” about upon the world.

…​

The answer to Manson’s question became obvious the moment he had peace and quiet to think. Though the music industry had spurned him in his numerous attempts to become a recording artist like the Beatles, whom he somehow both loved and loathed; he and his Family could create a kind of “album” all their own. Namely, they could paint a picture in blood and terror that the world would never forget, and if done right, would trigger the race war necessary to bring about Helter Skelter and bring Manson, Christ himself, to his true Second Coming. In his demented imagination, Manson could see it all: headlines, evening news reports; a nation terrified; a world trembling, desperate for its savior. For years now he had built his following, brick by brick, malleable mind by malleable mind. Some had fallen under his spell easier than others. The drugs helped. So did the sex. Many of the girls came from repressed households, the kinds of places where Mommy and Daddy never fucked, much less talked about it, and their children would be expected to keep themselves “pure” until marriage, an arcane an institution as any, in Manson’s mind. What good was saving yourself for the sake of your kids? His parents had never spared such concern over him. And the men, like Tex? Even easier. The moment a lonely young man sees a small army of ready, willing, and able young women, several beautiful, the rest satisfactory, fawning like does in heat over him… he’s putty in your hands. The dopes, they probably thought that this was the end he sought. The “eternal party” he promised was but a means to an end, and none of them were wise enough to see it. It almost made him laugh. But then again, he couldn’t spare time for amusement. All of his mind was fixed on one task: destruction.

The “Manson Family Murders” as they would come to be known, began on July 1st, 1969, when Manson confronted, defrauded, then murdered an African American drug dealer named Bernard Crowe in his Hollywood apartment. Erroneously believing that Crowe was a Black Panther, Manson and two of his girls killed Crowe with the intention of attracting a retaliation from the Panthers, which failed to ever materialize. Despite the lack of danger of counter attack from the Black Power group, Manson whipped his followers into a frenzy, telling them that the “time of tribulations” was nigh, and ordering Tex and the other men to patrol the Ranch at night with guns and keep watch. Tex wrote in his diary, “What more proof do we need that Helter Skelter is here? Blackie is coming for the Chosen Ones!” The conviction with which Watson and the other followers believed Manson is at once sickening and tragic, though it is difficult to feel sympathy for them when one considers the bloodbath that was only just beginning that night.


The next victim in the killing spree, Gary Allen Hinman, was a music teacher and PhD student at UCLA. He had been described as a "kind, gentle soul" who would often open his house up to those needing a place to stay. At some point in the late 1960s, he befriended members of the Manson Family, with some staying at his home on occasion. Manson was under the impression that Hinman had considerable stocks and bonds and owned his property. Believing that he was wealthy, Manson sent Family member Bobby Beausoleil along with “Mother Mary” Brunner and Susan Atkins to Hinman's home on July 25, 1969, to convince Gary to join the Family, which included turning over the assets Manson thought Hinman had inherited. The three held the uncooperative Hinman hostage for two days, during which Manson showed up with a sword to slash his ear. After that, Beausoleil stabbed Hinman to death, ostensibly on Manson's instruction. Before leaving the Topanga Canyon residence, Beausoleil, or one of the women, used Hinman's blood to write "Political piggy" on the wall and to draw a panther paw, a Black Panther symbol.

In later magazine interviews, Beausoleil would say he went to Hinman's to recover money paid to Hinman for drugs that had supposedly been bad; he added that Brunner and Atkins, unaware of his intent, went along idly, merely to visit Hinman. On the other hand, Atkins, in her autobiography, wrote that Manson directly told Beausoleil, Brunner, and her to go to Hinman's and get the supposed inheritance of $21,000. She said Manson had told her privately, two days earlier, that, if she wanted to "do something important", she could kill Hinman and get his money. Beausoleil was arrested on August 6, 1969, after he had been caught driving Hinman's car. Police found the murder weapon in the tire well. Two days later, Manson told Family members at Spahn Ranch, "Now is the time for Helter Skelter to truly begin."

Unfortunately for Manson and his apocalyptic vision for the future, the murders of Hinman and Crowe, while grisly, were not seen as out of the ordinary to the people of Los Angeles. Two young, single men living on their own murdered? What a terrible world, but what was to be done of it? It seemed that if Manson and his followers were really going to raise public outcry and awareness about the coming cataclysm, then he needed to up the ante and make their next target a little more high profile. Luckily for the cult, Los Angeles with its massive movie studios and music industry contacts was the hub for entertainment and celebrity in the United States and perhaps the world. Famous people trampled down Sunset Boulevard every day and went home at night to fabulous mansions in Beverly Hills or quiet, secluded bungalows in Malibu. To Manson, this latter sort of dwelling made for an ideal target: isolated, far from the bustle of the city, and often with little to no major security features to speak of. These thoughts, combined with an endless desire within himself to up the ante and bring about the reckoning he so craved, drove Manson to the conclusion that his Family’s next victim simply had to be a celebrity. The only question that remained was who exactly should they target?


The madman had not lost too much of his sanity to forget his own twisted mechanisms of logic. He understood that some targets had merit where others did not. Some would attract more attention, some less, and some would be sure to capture front page news and shock the world to its core. For a few days, Manson settled his mad gaze on Hollywood rising star and international sex symbol Sharon Tate and her husband, director Roman Polanski. Blonde, beautiful, and pregnant with the couple’s first child, Tate was the archetypal “girl next door”, the very image of the blissful ignorance of American girlhood. She checked all of the cult’s boxes and would have likely been the target, had Tex Watson not made good on his promise to bring Manson a newspaper from the city everyday when he returned from work. The cult leader liked to keep an eye on the goings on of the world, monitoring events for the outsiders’ reactions to his handiwork. Instead of a front page report on the killings however, he saw another story entirely.

In large, bold print across the headline, Manson read:

Canadian PM Trudeau to Visit L.A. with Girlfriend Streisand​

The ex-convict set down the paper, the seed of an idea taking root in his thoughts. He called Tex back into his room, barked at him to sit down for a second. “Listen here child,” he told Watson, his voice nearly breaking with anticipation. “We need to get to work.”

…​

The night of August 8th, 1969 was a refreshingly cool, placid one on Malibu Beach for Barbra Streisand and her handsome beau, Trudeau. A gentle breeze from the ocean blew salt and spray onto the edge of Streisand’s dock, close enough to be harmonious, but not so near as to sully their feet, which lay exposed and tangled as they made love against the sunset. Upon attaining their pleasure, and realizing that guests were due over to join them at 11 o’clock, the couple rose from their passionate embrace, reluctantly dressed, and began to slowly walk back to the house proper. Words and laughter passed easily between them, like champagne flowing into a favorite glass. They made each other beam and Streisand told herself that if he asked the question then there was no way that she could say no. She was still married to Elliot Gould, but their divorce papers would take care of that little hiccup in no time. There was no way she would choose her contentious marriage over her newfound bliss with Pierre. Besides, didn’t they say that love was better the second time around? She pulled Trudeau’s hand to her chest and squeezed. He smiled easily at her and kissed it.


For Trudeau’s part, the relationship was just as warm. He received no end of questions from the press and within his own party about his dating an already married woman. Several of his cabinet members had asked him to break things off, but he doubted their intentions’ purity. These men had only recently been competing with Trudeau for the Premiership. Could they secretly be jealous of him, leading the nation by day and sleeping with a Hollywood star by night? In Trudeau’s heart of hearts, he believed this to be the case. He would have to wait until the divorce went through before could ask, that much was obvious. Even a “swinging sixties” guy like himself could not get around the legal system, or the massive backlash he would receive in the press for even considering it. But as soon as Gould got his money and left Barbra alone, Trudeau had made up his mind: he was going to ask to be her husband. That particular evening was to be one of their last together before Trudeau packed his bags and made the long flight back to Ottawa. There were debates being held in Parliament about how much Canada should support Harold Wilson’s “peacekeeping” mission in Rhodesia, or America’s new foray into Cambodia, both of which Trudeau opposed for his own reasons. Not wanting to spend his last hours with Barbra stressing about political matters at home, she and Trudeau decided to throw a small house party that evening, inviting Jay Sebring, a hair stylist; acclaimed Egyptian Actor Omar Sharif, who had been Streisand’s co-star in the hit film Funny Girl, and up and coming record producer Richard Perry, with whom she hoped to record an independent album for the pop market.

Known, as ever, for his laid back attitude, Trudeau had declined to take any form of security detail with him to Los Angeles, believing that he should never “lead his life in fear”, as a result, when Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Sandra Good, and Patricia Krenwinkel arrived outside of Streisand’s Malibu home in Watson’s pickup truck, they did not encounter any resistance to what they had come to do. The Manson Family arrived at the beach house around midnight going into August 9th. Watson climbed a nearby telephone pole and cut the phone line, preventing telephone access in or out of the home. He then ordered his female accomplices to find an open window into the home, and cut the screen, which they promptly did. Watson lead his three co-conspirators into the beach house’s drawing room and first found Richard Perry, who had passed out after some drinking on a sofa. Perry was shocked awake when Watson laughed and kicked him in the forehead. Upon asking Watson who he was and what he was doing in the house, Watson smiled and said “I’m the Devil and I’ve come to do the Devil’s work.” Before Perry could scream, the women pounced on him, covering his mouth and stabbing him to death. Perry would be only the first of many tragic casualties that night.


Watson and the women quickly set about their terrible work, rounding up the other occupants and putting them together in the house’s living room. Sebring and Sharif, furious when they saw Perry’s body, attempted to overpower Watson, but were each in turn cut down by attacks from Atkins, Good, and Krenwinkel, enduring dozens of painful knife thrusts before finally succumbing to their wounds. Trudeau attempted to negotiate with Watson, asking that Barbra be allowed to leave and that he be taken hostage so that the attackers could get whatever they wanted. “I am the Prime Minister of this nation’s closest ally. What you are engaged in easily qualifies as political terrorism, do you understand that? When word gets out of what you have done here, you will have countless people lining up to lock you away for life. If I’m alive, I can help you. I’m no good to you dead.” Watson did not seem interested however, in any bargain. After forcing Trudeau and Streisand to strip naked and be tied together, he gave a nod and the three women stabbed their two final victims to death as their screams poured out around them. The cult finished their awful deed and left the building, smearing the words “Prime Minister Piggy” in Streisand’s blood on the wall of the living room.


The next day, the police were called by a concerned neighbor and the world was shocked, horrified, and repulsed by what was found at the scene. Manson and his Family, as they intended, struck the nation and now, the world, to their very core. The United States lamented the loss of Streisand and Sharif, two of Hollywood’s most talented and inspiring stars, and back across the continent in Ottawa, an entire nation mourned the loss of Pierre Trudeau, the first Canadian Prime Minister in history to be assassinated. Trudeau’s mangled body was cleaned and then returned to the capital via the Royal Canadian Air Force and given a state funeral shortly thereafter as his caught-off-guard and somewhat unprepared successor, the 39 year old “Golden Boy” John Turner became the 16th and youngest Prime Minister in Canada’s history. Turner called on his nation to “nurse its tremendous, gaping wound” and unite in memory of their popular fallen leader. Only time would tell if Turner had what it took to lead the Great White North through this trying time.

Though Manson and his followers would ultimately pay for what they did, their senseless deeds, combined with the rising uncertainty in the international zeitgeist, seemed to be the unspeakable funeral toll of a happier time. The 1960’s in all their optimism and ideals for a better future, represented by Kennedy, Khrushchev, the Moon Landing, and Trudeaumania were rapidly fading away, being replaced by the dark realities of a world threatened by instability, famine, violence, and war. Social historians often point to the Manson Murders not just as an awful example of cult mentality brought to its logical conclusion, but as the bookend at the beginning of the 1970’s.

Next Time on Blue Skies in Camelot: Three Days of Peace, Love, and Music​