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?
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?