General William Westmoreland as President of the United States

William Westmoreland, who commanded the US forces in Vietnam for much of that war, had political ambitions (he was a Republican), but IOTL nothing much came of them. I happen to think, though, that constructing a scenario where he becomes POTUS is not completely implausible.

POD #1: Westmoreland wins the Republican nomination in the 1974 South Carolina gubernatorial election. IOTL he ran and lost, but he did win over 40% of the vote in that contest, suggesting that it wouldn't take too much doing to give him a victory. Perhaps OTL winner James B. Edwards simply chooses not to run for whatever reason, or his campaign gets derailed by a gaffe. Point is Westmoreland wins the primary, and wins the general election just as Edwards did IOTL.

POD #2: Reagan decisively beats Ford in the 1976 Republican presidential primaries, and in turn loses to Carter (or some other Democrat - really doesn't matter for the purposes of this scenario) in the general election by at least a comfortable margin for the Democrat. After their decisive defeats in the primaries and general election, respectively, both Ford and Reagan opt not to run in 1980.

The 1980 Republican presidential primaries, then, start out fairly wide open. Westmoreland gains traction for criticizing the incumbent Democrat for the Iran hostage crisis or some equivalent military or foreign policy fiasco, arguing that America needs to project an image of strength and rebuild the military. He wins decisively in the early South Carolina primary (his home state) and never looks back. With the economy faltering, Westmoreland wins the general election as well (probably by a smaller margin than Nixon, but a win is a win).

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How could we expect Westmoreland to govern as president? He was an aggressive anti-communist, and would likely want to bulk up the United States military, but otherwise I can't find much on his domestic politics. Thoughts?
 
The Republican Party in the late 70s was largely taken over by the institutions of the conservative movement. I'm not sure that Westmoreland was a Conservative, and therefore, he might have had issues ascending in a party that had been taken over by them. The era of going for generals who would not bring much of a domestic platform of their own to the forefront was over, I think.
 

Wallet

Banned
Only if the US ''wins'' the Vietnam War (South Vietnam remains independent, US troops pull out), I could see him becoming a lesser Eisenhower like figure. But then we are looking at a totally different 1970s, will we still get Watergate, Iran, and the rise of Reagan? If its a quick victory in the 1960s, most Americans won't even know where Vietnam is much less there was an intervention.
 
After reading his auto biography I had no use for the man, at least the Westmoreland of the 1970s. He was poorly focused, digressed into trivia for difficult to see reasons, was having real difficulty getting his points across. The writing did not seem like a man who could be elevated to command armies. Maybe that hints at why the US had difficulties fighting that war, or maybe he was just slipping mentally with age.
 

Md139115

Banned
After reading his auto biography I had no use for the man, at least the Westmoreland of the 1970s. He was poorly focused, digressed into trivia for difficult to see reasons, was having real difficulty getting his points across. The writing did not seem like a man who could be elevated to command armies. Maybe that hints at why the US had difficulties fighting that war, or maybe he was just slipping mentally with age.

I think Tet completely screwed him over mentally. It was really not the great and glorious success that North Vietnamese insist it was, but just the fact that there was combat going on right there in the safe zone...
 
It was a hell of a surprise, and a political defeat for Westy & his trusted inner circle. He was a great admirer of MacArthur & here he found himself nonplussed by a strategic attack that had been written off as not going to happen. Just like Macs experience in December 1950.
 
The problem is that unlike Grant or Eisenhower, Westmoreland commanded US troops in a war that the US lost (you can say it wasn't his fault, that it was the lack of political will that lost the war, etc.--but a loss, regardless of its cause, is still a loss). It was a war, therefore, that voters in the decade after 1974 wanted to forget as much as possible.
 

Wallet

Banned
Better POD is if Nixon makes him VEEP in '73 instead of Ford.
When Agnew resigned, most people knew Nixon was next, and the next VP was the likely next president. Ford was acceptable to both Democrats and Republicans.

So, would Westmoreland be acceptable? Ford was a nice guy liked by everyone. He was respected among the leadership and was seen as a future speaker of the house. He appealed to both moderates and conservatives. Westmoreland has no political experience, unknown to congressional leadership and it was clear in 1973 the Vietnam war wasn't going to end the way we wanted.

The choices OTL was Ford, Reagan, Romney, Bush and Rockerfeller. Nixon hated Romney and Rockefeller. He thought Reagan was annoying and power hungry.

The final two choices were Ford and Bush, with congress perferring Ford
 

Ak-84

Banned
(3 future Presidents were on the shortlist!).

While Vietnam was not going well, Westmoreland had been out of the command for 5 years at that point. Maybe if they cannot come to a conclusion, say Ford puts himself out of the running (which he nearly did OTL), maybe Westmoreland, might become acceptable?
 
Just my opinion but I think Westmoreland would be far less inclined to use US military power than some other presidents. And if put in the position to use it have clear goals with an eye on the end game. Not that things would go that way possibly. Domestically, he'd be out of his element.
 
Just my opinion but I think Westmoreland would be far less inclined to use US military power than some other presidents. And if put in the position to use it have clear goals with an eye on the end game. Not that things would go that way possibly. Domestically, he'd be out of his element.
Why would he be? He was quite the hawk.
 
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