George H.W. Bush killed in 1944

In OTL, George Bush's plane was shot down during a mission over the Japanese island of Chichijima on September 2, 1944, and he was rescued by a US submarine. He was one of nine US airmen shot down on that raid, and was the only one of them to avoid capture. His eight comrades were all killed in Japanese captivity on the orders of the island's commander, General Yoshio Tachibana (who was later executed as a war criminal). Four of the bodies were butchered by medical orderlies, and their livers and thigh meat were cooked and served as meals to the senior commanders of the Japanese garrison.

Suppose Bush had either been killed when shot down in his airplane, or had survived and met a fate similar to the other airmen? What would have been the future of American politics, and what would have been the reaction in the US when it's established that the son of a prominent family got served up as the main course for Japanese officers?
 
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Probably not. If things go to 80's election almost same way as OTL USSR is doomed. Or did Bush sr. something important when he was boss of CIA?
He preserved CIA during the time that it was rocked by Church Committee. Could CIA be effective in 1980s and 90s without him? i dont think so.
 
Could we see Texas's 7th congressional district, go to Democratic nominee Frank Briscoe, as only 2 of the 23 districts went conservative, or would another republican be able to hold it.

In 1971 Richard Nixon's Ambassador to the United Nations, could ever be:
- John A. Scali (who was picked to replace Bush)
- Daniel Patrick Moynihan (former White House Urban Affairs Advisor and Counselor to Nixon)
- Henry Kissinger
- George Romney (Former Governor of Michigan and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development)
- Robert Finch (Former United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare and counselor to Nixon)
- John N. Irwin II (United States Under Secretary of State)
- Elliot L. Richardson (Former United States Under Secretary of State and Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare)

Chair of the Republican National Committee in 1973 could be any republican
 
A different President might not have supported MFN status for China after Tienanmen Square, which might mean China is free today.

Plus as already mentioned, you butterfly W's disastrous presidency away.
 

SsgtC

Banned
A different President might not have supported MFN status for China after Tienanmen Square, which might mean China is free today.

Plus as already mentioned, you butterfly W's disastrous presidency away.

China, you can forget about. MFN or no MFN, the regime there isn't falling. Not anytime soon. And honestly, at that point, it was realpolitik. Denying MFN to China was just not going to happen no matter who was in office.
 
My only wonder is whether one of Prescott Bush's other sons would have entered politics. Maybe it would have been Prescott Jr., or Jonathan or William "Bucky" Barnes. With George's barbaric death during World War Two, I suggest that Prescott may have pushed another son into the political universe. One big difference would probably have been that the other Bushes might have been less friendly to conservative wing as the Republican Party shifted rightward in the 70s and 80s and beyond.
prescott-family.jpg
 
In OTL, George Bush's plane was shot down during a mission over the Japanese island of Chichijima on September 2, 1944, and he was rescued by a US submarine. He was one of nine US airmen shot down on that raid, and was the only one of them to avoid capture. His eight comrades were all killed in Japanese captivity ...

I sense a replay of the Kennedy family timeline. OTL patriarch Joseph Kennedy groomed his oldest son Joe Jr. to be a politician, a senator, may be even a president. Then came the war, Joe Jr. joined the Air Force and was killed flying an experimental bomber in 1944. So father Joseph now shifted all his plans toward his second son John F.

I don't know how many sons Prescott Bush had, but I am sure George was not the only one, so we probably still get a president Bush at one time or another. Just that his sense of duty is not shaped by being the only survivor of a torpedo raid gone wrong, but by the horific fate that befell his older brother. With the right butterflies, we might see a good deal less Toyotas on Americas roads today.
 
Important question is were Prescott's other sons intrested enough from politics or even presidency and how skillful campaigner they would had been. And what were their political views?
 
My only wonder is whether one of Prescott Bush's other sons would have entered politics. Maybe it would have been Prescott Jr., or Jonathan or William "Bucky" Barnes. With George's barbaric death during World War Two, I suggest that Prescott may have pushed another son into the political universe. One big difference would probably have been that the other Bushes might have been less friendly to conservative wing as the Republican Party shifted rightward in the 70s and 80s and beyond.
Prescott Jr. ran for the senate seat in Connecticut against incumbent Lowell Weicker (a very liberal Republican) as a conservative but lost.
 
Prescott Jr. ran for the senate seat in Connecticut against incumbent Lowell Weicker (a very liberal Republican) as a conservative but lost.
Interesting fact that in the OTL Prescott Jr. made a run for the U.S. Senate from the political right of the Republican Party. I wanted to share two interesting suggestions that I came across recently. A biographer of Democrat turned Republican John Connally suggested that George H.W. Bush was given the UN Ambassadorship as a political consolation prize after Bush got beat in the 1970 Senate race in Texas by Democrat and Connally ally Lloyd Bentsen. Connally was appointed as Secretary of the Treasury in 1971 and in 1972 Connally headed up Democrats for Nixon. The second interesting thesis was that the scandals of the Nixon-Agnew era may have helped create an opening for Ronald Reagan. The Watergate and Agnew bribery scandals brought down President Nixon and Vice President Agnew. Imagine if Nixon had served two terms and Agnew could have been the Republican nominee in 1976. After the 1972 McGovern debacle, I am not sure Democrats could have stopped the Agnew juggernaut of the Silent Majority. If Agnew made it to two terms, 1984 would been too late for a Reagan presidential bid. He would have been simply too old to be credible.

Now an interesting question is whether Reagan could have beaten Agnew in the 1976 Republican presidential primaries?
 
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