Give Peace A Chance: The Presidency of Eugene McCarthy

[The Lethargic Lett]

“When my brother was nominated in 1960, he said it was ‘with a full and grateful heart and with only one obligation: to devote every effort of body, mind and spirit to lead our party to victory and our nation to greatness.' I believe that Mo Udall has that same devotion to serve the people of the United States of America.”

• Excerpt from the nominating speech of Speaker of the House Mo Udall for Democratic nominee, delivered by former Senator Bobby Kennedy, at the Democratic National Convention of 1976

The last time the Democratic convention was held in New York City, it had taken 103 ballot votes before coming to a candidate. The Democrats of 1976 were hoping for a significantly shorter convention.

Although Mo Udall had a clear lead individually going into the Democratic National Convention, his nomination was by no means a certainty. All told, there were nine candidates from the primaries who could command delegates. Henry Jackson, as the leading Old Left Democrat, was looking to unify that wing of the party against Udall to gain the nomination, while the various other candidates hoped for a standoff between Udall and Jackson that would necessitate a compromise candidate to fill the gap between them, as was the hope of George Wallace, Robert Byrd, John Connally, and, to a lesser extent, Fred Harris.

​

Despite the political maneuvering, there was a professional courtesy that had been lacking in 1968 and 1972, with both factions trying to portray a party that, if not unified, could organize a political convention without riots in the street. With that in mind, retiring House Majority Leader Carl Albert had been chosen as the Keynote Speaker. Albert was the first of many compromises that would be made at the convention, having worked well under Udall during his term as Speaker of the House, while still being more politically aligned with the Lyndon Johnson and Scoop Jackson factions in the House.

Like Johnson before him, McCarthy had been working behind the scenes push through his preferred candidate, Udall. Ironically, the broadened primary system that he had benefited from and subsequently expanded since 1968 severely limited his ability to pressure delegates, as they were all bound to how their states had voted. The best he could do was make sure that Harold Hughes and Fred Harris withdrew for Udall, and see if he could push Dale Bumpers more firmly into the Udall column.

Favourite Son Governor Dale Bumpers of Arkansas was the only prominent Southerner to support the candidacy of Mo Udall over any of the other candidates at the Democratic Convention.
​

As for the Old Left, there was both hope and suspicion.Their combined total of delegates could just barely gain the nomination, but if Hughes, Harris, and Bumpers all withdrew for Udall, then he would also be within spitting distance of the nomination. That being said, he wouldn’t be able to clinch it with those numbers alone. For Udall to win, he’d need at least one of the Southern Democrats. Although between two segregationists and the self-avowed enemy of all things related to Gene McCarthy it was unlikely such a dramatic shift would occur, but stranger political alliances had been made before in the Democratic Party.

As the convention began, Udall began the strategy the Old Left suspected he would by aiming for the weakest link of the Southerners, favourite son Jimmy Carter. Although Georgia alone wouldn’t secure the nomination for Udall, it would give the others pause for thought that it would be better to hitch their horse to Udall instead of being two of three that would be left out in the cold. As a ‘New South’ governor, Carter was among other reformers such as Terry Sanford of North Carolina and Reuben Askew of Florida from the South who tried to avoid segregationist rhetoric, and instead focus on moderate fiscal and social positions. The problem was, for Udall at least, that Carter was firmly committed to his own policy positions, stubbornly so. Carter had risked political censure from Washington by supporting the 1972 Draft Connally Movement, and had continued to support keeping Connally on the ticket after the movement failed. Carter served to be a non-starter for Udall, as the policy concessions Carter demanded would’ve cost him the support of his New Left base, as well as the President himself, who, as history had shown, was notoriously volatile during conventions.

As for Jackson, he was trying the same strategy from the other end. Negotiating with the Connally camp, Jackson emphasized strong foreign policy as the unifying factor of all of the candidates of the Old Left. Jackson also appealed to Connally’s Texan pride by harkening back to the ‘glory days’ of Lyndon Johnson. Despite the fact that Johnson never fully forgave Connally for back-stabbing him and Humphrey for Eugene McCarthy of all people, they had begun to mend their rocky relationship by the time of the former President’s death in 1973. Jackson’s intention to roll back the policies of the Crusade Against Poverty and return to the fundamentals of the War on Poverty appealed to Connally both fiscally and personally, as one more way to stick it to McCarthy.

As the ballot vote itself arrived, the candidates were given their nominating speeches. While Jackson had experience on his side with his name being put forward by President Pro Tempore Warren Magnuson, Udall had the illustrious support of Bobby Kennedy as his nominator. For their own parts, Connally was nominated by former Representative J.J. Pickle, Byrd by House Ways and Means Chairman Wilbur Mills, and Wallace by former Kentucky Governor (and long-time AIP Vice Presidential possibility) Happy Chandler.

As the first votes were tallied, the Democrats would have to go to a second ballot for the first time since 1952. As expected, Udall had come impressively close, but simply didn’t have the numbers to push through.

Moving to a second ballot, Jackson was able to make a major coup by officially gaining the support of Connally, who placed last of the candidates still running. Once that happened, the consolidation of the Old Left vote became a certainty.

Although Jackson didn’t agree to change any of his major policy positions, he did agree to continue to run a strong foreign policy, law and order campaign, as well as to continue to de-emphasize his past support for desegregation busing, and come out mildly against it. With that in mind, Byrd made preparations to withdraw on the second ballot. Having been boxed into a corner politically, Wallace also grudgingly agreed; although his ideal scenario would’ve been if Jackson had won without his support, so that the possibility to bolt once more for a third party candidacy remained more readily available, but the combined totals of Jackson, Connally, and Byrd weren’t enough to confirm a victory. With significant hesitation, Wallace also withdrew in favour of Jackson.

With the entirety of the Old Left and almost all the Southerners behind him, Henry Martin ‘Scoop’ Jackson was able to secure the nomination on the second ballot. A part of the agreement with the Southerners, and Connally in particular, Jimmy Carter was selected as Jackson's running mate for the election.

Presidential nominee Henry Jackson and Vice Presidential nominee Jimmy Carter face the audience, celebrating their convention victory.
​

With Mo Udall gracefully conceding, and having won a contentious but generally calm convention, Henry Jackson would have to wait the next few weeks to see who he would be facing in the general election.


“Nineteen seventy-six will not be a year of politics as usual. It can be a year of inspiration and hope, and it will be a year of concern, of quiet and sober reassessment of our nation’s character and purpose. It has already been a year when voters have confounded the experts. And I guarantee you that it will be a year when Henry Jackson is elected President of the United States of America!”

• Excerpt from the acceptance speech of Vice Presidential nominee and former Governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter, at the Democratic National Convention of 1976

 

[The Lethargic Lett]

“History and experience tells us that moral progress comes not in comfortable and complacent times, but out of trial and confusion.”

• Republican House Minority Leader Gerald Ford

Following on the heels of the Democratic Convention, the Republicans opened up shop in Kansas City, Missouri. Kansas City hadn’t held a convention for decades, last serving the GOP in 1928 with the nomination of Herbert Hoover.

The Republican candidates were all hoping for a more successful Presidency than that of Herbert Hoover.

Although he entered into the convention with the lead in the primaries, Ronald Reagan was in an equally tenuous position as he had been in 1972, when the rest of the party had coalesced around Charles Percy and George Romney, with the latter becoming the nominee. In 1976, the situation was similar: even though Reagan had swept the South and the West in the primaries, he had been locked out of the Midwest and North with the exception of Indiana. Without a commanding majority of the primary delegates on his side, it would fall to the other states, and with many states still not holding primaries in the Republican Party, the choice of nominee would ultimately fall down to the unpledged delegates.

The main field of competition would be in the Upper South, and the Midwestern states that hadn’t held primaries, where Reagan and Rhodes surrogates battled it out, while both campaigns worked to prevent the shattering of state delegations that had been won in the primaries. For example, although Rhodes had won Kentucky in the primaries, the delegation leader, Senator Louie Nunn, was a staunch Reagan supporter, and many of the delegates intended to follow his lead and vote for Reagan despite Rhodes having won the state. Reagan was faced with the same problem; although he had won the Florida primary, both former Governor Claude R. Kirk and former Representative William C. Cramer of Florida brought their severe intra-party rivalry to a temporary truce to support Rhodes over Reagan.

Ronald Reagan arrived at the Republican National Convention with a lead in delegates after having gotten first place in the primaries.
​

Charles Percy, for his part, had a decision to make. Although he had made gains in New England and the Midwest during the primaries (his biggest catches had been Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and his home state of Illinois), he had also undermined his own credibility by making the strategic decision to withdraw halfway through the primaries to prevent a Reagan win by vote splitting. Of the non-primary states, Percy had the backing of New York, Connecticut, and Maine, but not much else. The remaining Rockefeller Republicans were behind him (namely Malcolm Wilson, John Volpe, Clifford Case, Jacob Javits, John Lindsay, and, of course, George Romney), but their power projection had mostly shrunk to New York. It seemed unlikely that he could position himself as a compromise candidate considering the rightward shift of the Republican Party over the last four years had moved him from a moderate to more of a liberal, but he also had some reservation over withdrawing in Rhodes’ favour. Rhodes was significantly more conservative than George Romney, and yet he was definitely less conservative than Reagan.

Meanwhile, Rhodes and Reagan continued to battle it out behind the scenes while the festivities of the convention officially began. Without much trouble, Reagan had gotten the Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana delegations on his side, but he suffered from shattered delegations in Tennessee and North Carolina, losing about a third in both states. Tennessee was a fierce battleground between Senator Bill Brock for Reagan and Senate Minority Leader Howard Baker for Rhodes, while North Carolina saw bitter infighting between Senator Jesse Helms for Reagan and Governor James Holshouser for Rhodes. Reagan also gained the Virginia, Missouri, and South Carolina slates, without much of a loss of delegates, and made up most of the difference from anti-Percy defections from the conservative wing of the party in the Northern states and New England. Rhodes, on the other hand, made up his defections with gains from the western states. Although the delegations had overwhelmingly gone for Reagan, they were all relatively low-value states, and with about a quarter of them going across the aisle to back Rhodes, they were further diluted. Rhodes’ biggest gains in the west was his ability to gain Alaska, Hawaii, and Kansas with their slates largely intact. Reagan’s biggest gain in the Midwest was when his Michigan ally, Guy Vander Jagt, corralled a third of the Michigan delegation into his column, despite efforts from outgoing House Minority Leader Gerald Ford to keep the state firmly in the Rhodes column.

Senate Minority Leader Howard Baker, on the Convention floor. Baker was one of the more moderate Southerners who backed James A. Rhodes over Ronald Reagan.
​

With the amount of political back-and-forth between himself and Rhodes, and Percy keeping a strong grip on his own delegation, Reagan decided to take a leap of faith: instead of risking a loss on a second ballot, he planned to cut Rhodes off at the pass by siphoning off moderate by announcing his Vice Presidential pick before the ballot was held, something that had never been done at a party convention before. Reagan and his aides moved as fast as possible, quickly narrowing it down to two possibilities, either Gerald Ford, or Richard Schweiker. Ford was the first to meet with Reagan, where they discussed policy for two hours. Ultimately, Ford declined the position. Although they shared similar opposition to gun control, government overspending, and busing to desegregate schools, Ford was a proponent of foreign policy detente, the Equal Rights Amendment, and was firmly pro-choice on abortion. Reagan’s meeting with Schweiker went much better; they had more agreement on social issues, and also temperamentally got along well. After some consideration, Schweiker agreed to the arrangement.

Although Gerald Ford had been his first choice, Richard Schweiker was chosen as Reagan's 'running mate' to try and attract moderate support.​

As Reagan began to implement his Vice Presidential gambit, Rhodes and his aides attempted to develop a counter-plan, depending on how it was received. If Rhodes saw Reagan make gains in the Midwest, he would try and recuperate in the South by declaring a Reagan supporter as his prospective choice for Vice President. Rhodes’ shortlist included John Tower, Bill Brock, and Louie Nunn.

It turns out that Bill Brock would come into play, but for different reasons than one would think.

When Reagan declared Richard Schweiker as his running mate, it received a muted reaction from the moderates and liberals that Reagan had hoped to court, and an emotional range between disappointment and blind fury from the conservative wing. In reaction to Scheiwker’s ‘nomination,’ the ultra-conservative Jesse Helms abandon the Reagan ticket as too liberal, and instead organized a ‘Draft Brock’ Movement. Bill Brock had run in the primaries, but dropped out early for Reagan to prevent the vote-splitting that had given Rhodes an early lead, but, because of Helms, made a last-minute rebound. Brock, who was similarly disappointed by Reagan’s running mate gambit, didn’t go out of his way to accept that draft movement, but didn’t decline it either.

Reagan attempted to regain his footing by holding a vote on Rule 16C, to compel Rhodes and Percy to also declare their running mates, but with the Brock Conservatives intransigent, the vote failed.

Although the Brock draft had limited appeal and outreach, it still fractured the Reagan vote in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Mississippi. In Tennessee, Reagan lost nearly half of his support to Brock, and about a third in North Carolina (under pressure from Helms), but Mississippi was the most damaging of all. The Mississippi delegation had been split between Reagan supporters, Brock-turned-Reagan supporters, and a minority of Rhodes supporters, but with the Brock campaign returning to activity, Clarke Reed, the State Chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party, threw in with Brock and his supporters within the delegation. Due to Mississippi’s voting rules, Reed’s command of the delegation threw the entire state to Brock, depriving Reagan of a clear margin.

When the first ballot began, Percy decided it was better to have a Pyrrhic victory than allow the conservative to reunify on a second ballot, and gave the signal to the Illinois delegation to vote for Rhodes, indicating his support without officially withdrawing.

In a stunning reversal, James A. Rhodes won the Republican nomination on the first ballot, winning by less than a hair, with Brock in a distant third.

A C-Span image of Governor James A. Rhodes, during the 1976 Republican Convention
​

With the leisure of a Vice Presidential pick at his disposal, Rhodes chose Governor of Virginia Mills Godwin, a Democrat-turned-Republican with near identical economic views to Rhodes, and with former ties to the Byrd Organization.

Giving an eloquent concession speech, Reagan conceded victory and endorsed Rhodes for the candidacy. Rhodes accepted the nomination with a much more rustic speech of his own.

The results of the first and only ballot of the 1976 Republican National Convention. There was significant crossover in each state delegation, but this map shows for whom the majority of each state voted.​

With the candidate chosen and the Republicans turning to a moderate-conservative populist as their nominee, it was finally time to take the fight to the Democrats.


“I didn’t come to this convention to be a ‘yes man’ for any candidate. I came to support good values without compromise, not to win any popularity contests.”

• Senator Jesse Helms, on the Republican National Convention of 1976

 

[The Lethargic Lett]

“Jobs and Progress!”

• “Rhodes for President” 1976 Campaign Slogan
  

Having faced hard-fought challenges from within their own parties, both James A. Rhodes and Henry ‘Scoop’ Jackson emerged controversial, but victorious. Rhodes, carried an early lead in the polls, but was viewed dimly by both the Reagan conservative wing of the party, by the party’s Washington leadership, and by the Rockefeller Republicans. Rhodes made up the difference through his enduring support in the Midwest and Upper South, as well as a huge polling lead with independents. Just as he had done as Governor of Ohio, Rhodes avoided a platform like the plague, and instead focused on advocacy for more general talking points to rally the base, and appeal to the George Wallace Democrats in the Midwest and South. Rhodes’ main talking points were job-creation and public works programs, reinvigorating national defense, freezing or lowering tax rates, and ending inflation. When asked how he would slow the inflation rate, Rhodes typically called for cuts to the Crusade Against Poverty and War on Poverty, but refused to say which programs in particular would be cut. Rhodes, uncomfortable with being supported by segregationists but unwilling to lose their support, largely ignored social issues. When forced to talk on the subject on the campaign trail, he quickly declared his support for equal rights, while also emphasizing his belief in “state’s rights” and “law and order.”

Although he started far behind in the polls, Jackson wasn’t about to give up. Having angled for the Presidency for years, he was finally within spitting distance. Ironically, Jackson used the same broad campaign plan that McCarthy had eight years earlier: by emphasizing his distance from the sitting President, Jackson advertised his candidacy as “not the same old Democratic Party.” Not to be outdone on foreign policy, Jackson criticized McCarthy nearly as much as Rhodes on having given too much ground to the Soviets. Although Jackson didn’t go so far as reminding everyone of his hawkish views on the Vietnam War (which he had discreetly toned down ever since the war was discredited during McCarthy’s first term), he pushed for greater involvement in the Middle East and Europe, and accused McCarthy of making prioritizing nepotism and political appointments to military and national security offices. Otherwise, Jackson ran as a middle-of-the-road New Deal Democrat, often comparing himself to Harry Truman (and Rhodes to Thomas E. Dewey). On economic issues, Jackson also promised to fight inflation by rolling back parts of the Crusade Against Poverty, but voiced his intention to maintain the War on Poverty, and continue to fight for a strong union presence in the economy. On social issues, Jackson was in a weak position: his reliance on the likes of Byrd, Wallace, and Connally to gain the nomination kept him from moving to the left on social issues, but he had no intention of opposing any civil rights legislation. Although he didn’t dare mention the President’s infidelity out of professional courtesy and personal modesty, Jackson also ran a ‘family values’ campaign, attempting to appeal to social conservative and the Christian left by making frequent appearances with his wife, Helen Hardin, and his two children, Anna Maria and Peter. Rhodes, for his part, had an intensely private family life, with his wife Helen only making a campaign appearance once in a blue moon. When he did have to emphasize family values, Rhodes often appeared with one of his three young adult daughters, Suzanne, Sharon, and Saundra.

Democratic Presidential nominee Henry 'Scoop' Jackson (centre) with Vice Presidential nominee Jimmy Carter (right), campaigning in Pennsylvania.​

Problems continued to emerge for Jackson as the campaign progressed. Although he had the support of Mo Udall, McCarthy forbid the endorsement of Jackson by any of his cabinet, let alone campaign for him. After weeks of needling, Vice President Muskie was able to convince McCarthy to allow him to endorse Jackson ‘in his stead,’ and only National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski willingly broke with the President to endorse Jackson. In retaliation, McCarthy leaked to the press that he personally intended to vote for the People’s Party ticket of Margaret Wright and Benjamin Spock over that of Jackson and Jimmy Carter. Although when publicly asked McCarthy denied it, the President’s remaining die-hard supporters (at that point largely limited to a couple hundred thousand college students, left-leaning farmers and champagne socialists) got the message. The problem was also compounded by concerns by liberals and progressives that Jackson was a Trojan Horse for Wallace to exercise influence on the White House, as Jackson owed him the nomination. Jackson was also hurt by his lack of campaigning chops. Although Jackson was excellent in one-on-one discussions and in small crowds, he came off as stiff and bland when having to address large audiences. Meanwhile, Rhodes lived and breathed campaigning, barnstorming state after state, and only taking a break when the sexagenarian was forced to by his Chief of Staff, Tom Moyer.

James A. Rhodes with his wife, Helen Rhodes, when first elected Governor of Ohio.​

Jackson’s one-on-one skills would have come to the fore in a Presidential debate, but Rhodes refused to take the bait. Presidential debates had been held off and on in the last four elections, in 1960 and 1972, but not in 1964 or 1968, with 1976 joining the latter column. Rhodes was a poor debater and knew it, and didn’t want to risk his platform (or lack thereof) coming off as two-dimensional compared to Jackson’s detailed proposals on missile yield size and margins of inflation and the like. Likewise, Rhodes’ Vice Presidential nominee, Governor Mills Godwin of Virginia, took a back seat compared to the Jackson-Carter campaign. Godwin, a former Democrat and associate of the Byrd Organization, was a clear olive branch to the Dixiecrats and Virginia voters who had voted for the Wallace-Byrd Jr. ticket in 1972. Godwin had since distanced himself from open segregationism, and had moved into an economic populism incredibly similar to that of Rhodes. Entirely competent but not especially notable, Godwin was no threat to Rhodes for ‘stealing the show’ from him. Carter took a more proactive role on the Democratic ticket as a New South (former) Governor, and had a greater appeal outside of the South. Although generally well-liked, Carter was considered a light-weight, and neither he nor Godwin had much of an effect on the campaign as a whole.

Republican Vice Presidential nominee Governor Mills Godwin of Virginia (right) with Virginia media mogul Frank Batten.
​

As the election got ever-closer, Rhodes never relinquished his lead in the polls, but Jackson maintained he was a paper tiger, like Dewey had been in 1948. Jackson, in eternal optimism, insisted that the American people wouldn’t vote for someone who would “improvise” his way through the Presidency, and once they were alone in the voting booth, would realize that Henry Scoop Jackson was his own man, who reflected the majority view of the American people. Likewise, Jackson dismissed McCarthy’s implicit endorsement of the People’s Party as being just as insignificant as Henry Wallace’s third party campaign was on Truman’s campaign.

As November came, Rhodes prepared for a comfortable victory, and Jackson prepared for the new greatest upset in American history.


“He’ll Make America Proud!”

• “Jackson for President” 1976 Campaign Slogan
  

 

[The Lethargic Lett]

“Live from CBS Headquarters in New York, we bring you the 1976 election coverage, with Walter Cronkite”

“Good evening. Today is Tuesday November 2nd, 1976, and the night has finally arrived for this year’s Presidential election. Democratic nominee Senator Henry ‘Scoop’ Jackson of Washington is facing off against Republican nominee Governor James A. Rhodes of Ohio. For the first time since 1964, George Wallace has not run a third party campaign, and the mantle of the American Independent Party has gone to former Governor Lester Maddox of Georgia. The People’s Party ticket of Margeret Wright has also seen a boost in the polls after a supposed endorsement by President McCarthy that has been neither confirmed nor denied.

After fifteen years of a Democrat in the White House, with John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and outgoing President Eugene McCarthy, polls have indicated a Republican landslide, but Jackson claims that the makings of an upset victory is at hand, similar to that of Harry Truman in the Election of 1948. Rhodes, for his part, has focused on a jobs-oriented campaign with emphasis on domestic issues, such as inflation and inner city violence.

In total, about a million votes have been reported, Jim Rhodes leads Henry Jackson with about fifty-eight percent of the popular vote. We can also project that Rhodes will take Kentucky with its nine electoral votes. Results also coming from Indiana, as Rhodes has won there too. Both of those states neighbour Rhodes’ home state of Ohio, and he campaigned extensively throughout the Midwest, and the entire country, during the campaign.

It seems that there are higher turnouts this election for the Presidential race, and there are also many interesting Senate races to watch. The first prominent race to be concluded is in Indiana, where Democratic Senator Vance Hartke has lost to Republican Richard Lugar. Hartke worked closely with President McCarthy, and, it appears, it suffering for it. Hartke’s fellow Democratic Senator for Indiana, Birch Bayh, himself lost re-election in the 1974 midterm elections. Another interesting race will be in Ohio between the Democratic incumbent Howard Metzenbaum and Republican challenger Robert Taft Jr. The seat had been previously been held by then-Senator Jim Rhodes, but he resigned in 1974 to run once more for Governor. The Democratic Governor at the time, John J. Gilligan, appointed Metzenbaum to fill the vacancy. We also have our eyes on the race in Pennsylvania, between the Republican, John Heinz, and Democrat Bill Green, in one of the most expensive campaigns in the country. There is also the race in California, between Senator George Brown Jr, the protege of President McCarthy who is looking for re-election, and elder statesman Richard Nixon, who is looking to make yet another comeback into politics. I guess it’s true what they say that you can’t keep a good politician down.

In the first southern state coming in, Rhodes will take the state of Georgia, despite the efforts of Jackson’s running mate, Jimmy Carter. It seems that Lester Maddox is having only a negligible effect on the results coming out of the South; Georgia has been Wallace country for the last eight years. This is an interesting look at politics of the South, with Georgia having not voted for Democrat since 1960, in what was once the Solid South for the Democrats.

Results are also unclear if there will be many drastic changes in the makeup of the House, or if the Republican trend will continue from 1974. Mo Udall, who gave a tough primary challenge to Senator Jackson, remains Speaker of the House. However, House Majority Leader Carl Albert will be retiring, to be replaced by Dan Rostenkowski, a tough political operator from Chicago who has the support of the Kennedy clan. The Kennedys have been a noticeable absence in Presidential politics. Ted Kennedy has remained in the Senate, without any outward signs of interest in higher office, while Bobby Kennedy hasn’t run for public office since the attempt on his life in 1968, which left him partially paralyzed.

House Minority Leader Gerald Ford will also be retiring. A well-known reconciliator in the House, Ford was reportedly just as surprised as anyone when Ronald Reagan informed him that he would be his first choice of running mate if nominated. Although Reagan was, in fact, not nominated, Ford is an almost universally admired figure in the Republican Party.

It’s been observed that the last few elections have been either squeakers or landslides: Kennedy’s squeaker in 1960, followed by a Johnson landslide in ‘64, then McCarthy’s two squeakers in ‘68 and ‘72. It remains to be seen how this election will shape up. On that note, Rhodes has also won in the Deep South in the state of Alabama.

We’ll be back with more coverage after this.

We’re back. We can now project that Governor Rhodes has won South Carolina by a comfortable margin. At this point, Senator Jackson has yet to win a state, and, judging by Rhodes’ progress in the South, The American Independent Party may not win any states this election.

It remains too close to call in many states, but Jackson can now be declared the winner in West Virginia. In the state of Virginia next door, Harry Byrd Jr, the American Independent Party Vice Presidential nominee in 1972, has won re-election to the Senate as an independent. Coming right on the heels of those results is the tally from Florida. In Florida, Rhodes has won that state, as well as in Tennessee.

We also have the first state where it seems the People’s Party may make a difference. New Jersey has polled very closely between Jackson and Rhodes, who both had broad appeal in general issue polling in the state. However, with early key precincts in we can confirm Governor Rhodes has won the state. Our exit polls show that the overwhelming second choice of People’s Party voters was the Democrats. Although the Rhodes total was more than the Democrats and the People’s Party combined, it certainly didn’t help Jackson’s chances. Some have called the People’s Party ticket of Margaret Wright and Benjamin Spock a ‘spoiler’ ticket for Jackson and the Democrats, but it remains to be seen if it will throw the most liberal states to Rhodes in a case of vote splitting, or if Rhodes will have such a mandate that it won’t matter. The last time New Jersey voted for a Republican was 1956.

Not unexpected, but we can call Kansas for Rhodes and the Republicans. We can also call Massachusetts for Jackson. Despite that fact that the People’s Party garnered nearly five percent of the vote, Jackson was able to win by the skin of his teeth against Rhodes. Likewise, Jackson has won in the District of Columbia.

As far as turnout goes, it seems that there has been a mild increase from the last Presidential election nationwide. In the popular vote, Rhodes retains his lead. On the state level, Rhodes unsurprisingly is leading in his home state of Ohio, while Jackson is leading in Illinois. Having lost New Jersey and with Ohio presumedly going to Rhodes, Jackson has a narrow margin of error going forward.

That being said, Rhodes has won in the state of North Carolina. This isn’t looking good for Jackson in the South, who had moderated his stance on civil rights somewhat, and has received the endorsement of many prominent Southerners, such as Senate Majority Whip Robert Byrd and former Vice President John Connally. Despite the fact that his support was essential for a Jackson nomination at the Democratic Convention this year, George Wallace has not endorsed a candidate. Not even Lester Maddox, that of the American Independent Party. In Michigan, results are coming in, and Jackson is in the lead, while in Pennsylvania, Rhodes holds a lead.

We’ll be taking a quick break, and then we'll be back with more election night coverage.

 

[The Lethargic Lett]

“They’re not having Christmas in Youngstown this year because the radical environmentalists and McCarthy’s ECA has shut down the steel mill and the factory jobs!”

• Governor James A. Rhodes on the campaign trail in the Steel Belt.

"We’re back with more election coverage.

Rhodes continues to hold in the popular vote over Jackson, and has a narrow lead in Virginia, the home state of his running mate, Governor Mills Godwin. Virginia has been described as one of the two main battleground states of the South, along with Texas.

In Gubernatorial races, Pete du Pont has been elected as Governor of Delaware, having previously served as a Congressman. Speaking of Delaware, it was considered a toss-up state, but its three electoral votes have gone for Rhodes. We also have the results from the maverick state of Louisiana. A long-time Democratic state in past elections, Louisiana has voted Republican and third party for a while now, and will vote Republican once more. Louisiana is going to Rhodes in this election. We can also unsurprisingly call North Dakota for Rhodes.

In the Tennessee Senate race, it’s too close to call, with incumbent Republican Senator Bill Brock facing a fierce challenge from the Democratic challenger. Supporters of Ronald Reagan claim that Brock’s eleventh hour re-entry into the Republican nominating process cost Reagan the nomination, and threw it to Rhodes. In Ohio, it’s a close race between the incumbent Democrat Howard Metzenbaum, who was appointed to fill Rhodes’ Senate seat when Rhodes resigned to run Governor, and the Republican challenger, Robert Taft Jr, and narrowly lost the Republican primary for the Senate seat that Rhodes relinquished. In the Senate race for Wisconsin, the incumbent Democrat, Bronson La Follette, is facing off against local Republican Stanley York. La Follette, of the famous La Follette political family of Wisconsin, was appointed to fill the seat of Senator William Proxmire, who joined the McCarthy cabinet in McCarthy’s second term as Secretary of Commerce.

We now have many states coming in from both the West, and New England, and it’s a Rhodes sweep. In New England, Rhodes has taken Vermont and New Hampshire as well as Connecticut. This is certainly worrying for the Jackson camp, as Connecticut has voted Democrat in every election since 1956, and it, along with New Jersey, are indicators of a Rhodes victory. In more expected results, Rhodes has won in Nebraska and South Dakota. Many other Western states remain too close to call. However, we can’t count Jackson out yet. Jackson has avenues of victory. If Jackson can win every Midwestern state, excepting Ohio, as well as one of the Southern battleground states and the west coast, Jackson can still win, if narrowly. If Jackson wins both battleground states in the South, Virginia and Texas, then he can survive some loses in the Midwest.

We’ll be back soon with more election coverage.

We’re back. In the South, Rhodes has taken Arkansas and Alabama. In the Midwest, Rhodes has taken Missouri. We have a serious turn of events with incoming results. Jackson has won the states of Minnesota and Maryland, as well as the high value state of New York. Jackson’s powerbase in the east has been New York, but even then it was a close race. The People’s Party was not on the ballot in the state of New York, but projections indicate that if they had been, the state would have gone to Rhodes. By winning New York, Jackson is down but not out, and could feasibly make a comeback in the Midwest. The burden lies with Jackson to carry the swing states.

We can now project Utah for Governor Rhodes, as the first results come in from further west. In the Senate results, we can confirm that Senator Brock of Tennessee, a Republican candidate for President earlier in this election cycle, will not be re-elected, having lost to Sasser, the Democratic challenger.

About a third of the total vote has by now been counted. Jackson has closed in somewhat, as votes are counted in the urban centres and big cities, but Rhodes retains the majority of the vote. Looking at the camps of the two candidates: Rhodes is ensconced in the Governor’s Mansion in Columbus, Ohio. Contrary to usual election night form, Rhodes has already made several public appearances to the assembled crowd, before returning to the back rooms to watch the results come in, giving his own running commentary of sorts. In Everett, Washington, the Jackson camp is planted in the Historic Everett Theatre. Things are tense, but optimistic in Everett; although Rhodes has been leading in the polls all night, and, indeed, all season, Jackson and his running mate, Jimmy Carter, have run an eternally optimistic campaign in terms of their election chances. Jackson is only the third candidate of a major party for President from the West Coast, and is the first from Washington state.

Going to more election results, in the state of Illinois, Rhodes is in the lead, but less than a quarter of the total precincts are reporting in, and these results come from the more conservative southern counties. Chicago has yet to report in. We can also confirm that the state of Montana is going for Governor Rhodes. Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield represents Montana, and is retiring this year. In the Senate election tonight, the Democrat, John Melcher, has defeated Republican challenger Stanley Burger. The electoral vote as is has Governor Rhodes with one-hundred and eighty-one, while Senator Jackson has ninety-two. For Jackson to win, he’ll have to nearly sweep the Midwest, and win a few more states beyond that on the West Coast and elsewhere. A difficult task but not insurmountable. If Rhodes wins any three of the big Midwestern states, then that would put him over the two-hundred and seventy electoral votes required to win. If Rhodes wins California and any other two of the biggest states, he’ll be over the two-hundred and seventy electoral votes. That being said, California hasn’t voted Republican since 1960, and even then, it was the home state of the Republican candidate, Richard Nixon.

Speaking of Richard Nixon, the ever-present statesman of Republican politics is once more looking to enter elected office, but this time, as a Senator. Challenging the Democratic incumbent, and President McCarthy’s protege, George Brown Jr, the California Senate election has been described by many as a referendum on the McCarthy Presidency. We’ll see if you can teach an old dog new tricks, as the saying goes.

There is also discussion on what will happen in the state of Texas. Texas has gone both ways in past elections, and is something of a swing state. In the last Presidential election, Texas notably voted for George Wallace and the American Independent Party. Exit polls indicated from that election that the reason most Wallace voters voted for him as “both mainstream candidates were too liberal” followed closely by “to call out the Washington establishment.” In this election, both candidates are noticeably more conservative than the 1972 candidates of their parties. As results come in, we’ll have to see if Jackson can reclaim at least part of the South for the Democrats, or if that part of the country will move further into the Republican column.

More results coming, unsurprisingly for a mountain state, Wyoming is going for Rhodes. Governor Rhodes continues to inch towards victory. On top of that, we can call Arizona and Mississippi going for Rhodes. The most important news of the segment thus far is that we can confirm that the state of Virginia will be going for Rhodes. Virginia has been one of the battleground states of the South this election along with Texas, and this continues to limit Jackson’s options if he wants to win the election. A small consolation for Jackson is that we can call Rhode Island for Jackson. One of the most Democratic states in the country, this is no surprise. However, in the home state of Vice President Edmund Muskie, Maine, Governor Rhodes has won the over Senator Jackson. For a long time in American history, New England was to the Republicans what the Solid South was to the Democrats, in this result, along with the results in 1968 and 1972, seem to indicate New England slowly drifting back to more consistently vote Republican for President.

I've been asked to take a quick break."

 

[The Lethargic Lett]

“Others may seek to make America great again. I seek to make America good again. For in the last analysis, our claim to greatness will be found in our goodness.”

• Senator Henry ‘Scoop’ Jackson on the campaign trail
  

"We’re back with more election night coverage.

We now have forty-four percent of the total vote of the precincts in. When the earliest results were coming in at the start of the night, Rhodes had nearly sixty-four percent of the vote. It has since dropped several percentages with the larger, more urban, Democratic states reporting in. Rhodes still has the lead with fifty-eight percent of the vote. This is a high margin, but it’s a shrinking margin, and below sixty-percent, which is typically the threshold of historic landslides in both the Electoral College and popular vote, such as Johnson in 1964, or Roosevelt in 1936.

In the state of Iowa, Rhodes is in the lead, but it’s too close to call. It’s the same situation in the state of Texas, which remains close with Rhodes in the need. In the more northern Midwestern states, such as Wisconsin and Michigan, Jackson is in the lead, while Rhodes holds a lead in Illinois, but again, Chicago has yet to report in. Although the polls have yet to close, in the state of California there has been a record turnout.

Senate results are coming in from the west. In Nevada, Howard Cannon, a moderate Democrat has won reelection handily. It should also be comforting to Senator Jackson that he still has the support of the state of Washington, having won re-election to the Senate. If Jackson wins, his Senate seat will become vacant, but if Rhodes wins tonight, then Jackson will be returning to the Senate.

More results coming in: Rhodes has won in the state of Colorado, but, perhaps more importantly, Rhodes has won the state of Michigan, pulling up from behind. Michigan voted for the Republicans in the last election, but that was when Governor George Romney of Michigan was the candidate. If we exclude 1972, this is another one of those states, such as Rhode Island and New Jersey, that hasn’t voted for a Republican since Eisenhower’s 1956 landslide. Speaking of Governor Romney, we’ll be having another Governor Romney after this election, but this time from Utah. Vernon B. Romney, the Republican, has defeated the Democrat, Scott Matheson in the race. In the state of Washington, the Democrats have gone beyond re-electing Henry Jackson to the Senate, by electing a female Governor, Dixy Lee Ray, who narrowly defeated the Republican candidate, John Spellman. As an interesting aside, Washington had a satirical third party bid by the OWL Party this year, whose campaign slogan was “we don’t give a hoot!” The OWL candidate, Red Kelly, was a hockey player who played for the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Detroit Red Wings. Kelly previously served in the Canadian House of Commons, similar to our House of Representatives, and would have served in politics in two countries if he had somehow been elected. In the state of Vermont, retiring Democratic Governor Thomas Salmon will be succeeded by the Republican Richard Snelling, defeating the Democrat, Stella Hackel, one of the few women to run for elected office this year. Coming in a distant but respectable third was Bernie Sanders, of the Liberty Union Party. Sanders was one of those candidates, like the People’s Party ticket, that was supposedly endorsed by President McCarthy, and this was the best that the Liberty Union Party has ever performed.

Some results coming in from the west. In the states of Oklahoma and Idaho, Rhodes has won by a comfortable margin. No surprises there. At this point, it’s mostly the big states left in the running. Although losing states like New Jersey and Michigan seem to be indicative of a Rhodes victory, it is still theoretically possible for Jackson to win if he takes the rest of the Midwestern states, as well as Texas and the West Coast. At this time, Rhodes is very close to winning the electoral college, with two-hundred and fifty three electoral votes to Jackson’s ninety-two. All it would take would be Governor Rhodes’ home state of Ohio to call for him and he would win the election. Iowa remains competitive with nearly three quarters of the precincts in, but Rhodes is in the lead there. As results are coming in from California, Jackson has a mild lead in the Presidential race, but Mr. Richard Nixon is leading Senator George Brown Jr. in the Senate race there.

One moment please.

We have the results of the third most populous state state in the nation, and we can confirm that Jim Rhodes has taken the state of Pennsylvania. This puts Rhodes over the top; he has handily won the election, and is now President-Elect. James Allen Rhodes, age sixty-seven of Ohio, will be the next President of the United States of America, and Mills Edwin Godwin Jr, age sixty-two of Virginia, will be the next Vice President. President-Elect Rhodes is the second oldest President-Elect in American history, behind only President William Henry Harrison in the year 1840.

We’ll cover the results as they continue to come in, but the Republican ticket has won the Presidential election. It remains to be seen how the elections will play out in the Senate, and in the House of Representatives, to determine how much help in Congress President-Elect Rhodes will have in his coming term…”

 

[The Lethargic Lett]

"Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game, and dumb enough to think it's important."

• Senator Eugene McCarthy on politics, 1967

“Good morning. This is Walter Cronkite. The day is Wednesday, November 3rd, and it is 8:00 AM. In last night’s presidential election, Governor James A. Rhodes of Ohio, the Republican candidate for President, won a landslide victory over the Democratic nominee, Senator Henry ‘Scoop’ Jackson of Washington.

The state that made Governor Rhodes into President-Elect Rhodes was Pennsylvania. As the night went on, Jackson’s hopes of a narrow defeat were quashed, as Rhodes swept the rest of the Midwest states: Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Further west, Rhodes won in Texas and New Mexico, while on the West Coast, Rhodes took Nevada, California, Oregon, and Alaska. Jackson, in turn, won Washington and Hawaii. The American Independent Party folded completely without George Wallace at the helm, with Rhodes taking every state in the South. Some pollsters predicted that the People’s Party ticket would throw the election to Rhodes, but they had very limited ballot access. The only state where the People’s Party was an apparent ‘spoiler’ was in Oregon, which exit polls indicated would have otherwise gone for Jackson if it hadn’t been for President McCarthy’s alleged endorsement of the People’s Party and other similar third parties. However, opinions polls indicate New York could well have been thrown to Rhodes if the People’s Party had access there.

It has also been a great victory for Republicans down ticket. The Republicans now have narrow majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate, and also very nearly have a majority of America's governorships.

James A. Rhodes will be the first Republican President since Dwight Eisenhower, who left office in 1961. This is also the first time that the Republicans controlled the Executive Branch as well as both wings of Congress since the 1952 elections for President and in Congress. Rhodes will also be the second oldest President in American history after William Henry Harrison, and the oldest in modern history. President-Elect Rhodes is already said to be assembling his cabinet, while Senator Jackson gave a concession speech last night. Despite losing the Presidential election, Jackson will be returning to the Senate, and his Neoconservative faction is sure to hold sway amongst the Democrats in Congress.

We have the full results here...”

Spoiler: 1976 Presidential Election Results

Voter Turnout: 56.3% (Up 3.9%)

Republican - James Rhodes/Mills Godwin - EV 437 - 55.3%
Democratic - Henry Jackson/Jimmy Carter - EV 101 - 44.0%
American Independent - Lestor Maddox/William Dyke - EV 0 - 0.4%
Libertarian - Roger MacBride/David Bergland - EV 0 - 0.2%
People's Party - Margeret Wright/Benjamin Spock - EV 0 - 0.1%

Spoiler: 1976 Presidential Election OTL Results

Voter Turnout: 53.5% (Down 1.7%)

Democratic - Jimmy Carter/Walter Mondale - EV 297 - 50.1%
Republican - Gerald Ford/Bob Dole - EV 240 - 48.0%
Independent - Eugene McCarthy/various - EV 0 - 0.9%

Spoiler: 1976 Gubernatorial Elections Results

Democrats - 25 Governorships - Lost One
Republicans - 24 Governorships - Gained One
Independents - 1 Governorship - No Gains/Loses

Spoiler: 1974 Gubernatorial OTL Elections Results

Democrats - 37 Governorships - Gained One
Republicans - 12 Governorships - Lost One
Independents - 1 Governorship - No Gains/Loses

Spoiler: 1976 Senate Election Results

President Pro Tempore: Milton Young
Senate Republicans - Hugh Scott - 56 Seats - Gained Eight
Senate Democrats - Mike Mansfield - 43 Seats - Lost Eight
Senate Independents - 1 Seat - No Gains/Loses

Spoiler: 1976 Senate Election OTL Results

President Pro Tempore: James Eastland
Senate Democrats - Mike Mansfield - 61 - No Gains/Loses
Senate Republicans - Hugh Scott - 38 - Gained One
Senate Independents/Conservatives - 1 - Lost One

Spoiler: 1976 House Election Results

Speaker of the House: Gerald Ford
House Republicans - Gerald Ford - 221 Seats - Gained 28
House Democrats - Mo Udall - 215 Seats - Lost 28

Spoiler: 1974 House OTL Election Results

Speaker of the House: Carl Albert
House Democrats - Carl Albert - 292 Seats - Gained One
House Republicans - John Rhodes - 143 Seats - Lost One

 

[The Lethargic Lett]

“Archie Griffin could do more help in the inner cities than a whole raft of welfare workers. The people in the inner city want more than a handout. There is no dignity in a handout. They want jobs.”

• Excerpt from the inaugural address of President James A. Rhodes, 1977

As tradition went, the Presidential Inauguration of James A. Rhodes was held on January 20th.

If McCarthy’s inauguration had been counterculture, then Rhodes’ was a return to normalcy. While McCarthy never would have been part of a club that would accept him as a member, Rhodes worked himself hoarse to make sure as many people as possible loved him. If it were possible, the presidential briefing of 1977 was even icier than that of 1969; not only had McCarthy’s candidate lose the Democratic primary, but he was being succeeded by what he saw as a country bumpkin who couldn’t tell you the difference between a marginal tax rate and a margin of error. Although standard of living was up in America, inflation was approaching out-of-control proportions, and permanent economic fixes had been kicked down the road for over a decade to avoid hard decisions such as raising taxes, completely removing the gold standard, and fully addressing McCarthy’s occasional use of price freezes and controls to keep the economy going. In spite of the difficult times ahead, Rhodes was willing to tackle it with gumption and stick-to-itiveness.

In what could best be described as a ‘New Deal Republican’ attitude, Rhodes was more in line with the traditional mild interventionist policies of European conservatism than he was with the upcoming laissez-faire principles of American conservatives.

President McCarthy, upon leaving office in 1977.​

Behind the scenes, Rhodes’ “Ohio Posse” was already laying the groundwork for the Administration. One of the benefits of going into the Presidency as a Governor is the fact that most of the staff infrastructure is already there. Rhodes’ greatest early weakness as he prepared himself during McCarthy’s lame duck period was his and his staff’s lack of knowledge on Washington’s inner workings. Half a term as a Senator hadn’t been nearly enough to absorb all the minutiae, and the majority of Rhodes’ close political friends, such as Nelson Rockefeller and Claude R. Kirk Jr, were also Governors with limited comparative experience in Washington. To make up the difference, Rhodes asked for a “crash course” from the outgoing Republican congressional leaders, Gerald Ford and Hugh Scott, on how to best work with Congress, especially now that there was a Republican majority. Meeting several times before the inauguration, Rhodes was able to (more or less) get a grasp of things. He was also to take on the new Senator for California into his Administration, a man with a long history in Washington.

The Vice Presidential briefing between Edmund Muskie and Mills Godwin was more less terse. Although Godwin had switched parties to the Republicans from the Democrats, that wasn’t any particular bad blood between the two. There was, however, the question of ‘New Federalism.’ With Muskie taking a significantly more prominent role as Vice President than the previous men to hold the office, there were questions on whether Rhodes would revert to tradition or keep more of a partnership open. Some pointed towards Rhodes’ gregariousness and the fact that Godwin never ‘stole the show’ from Rhodes while campaigning that he would be given an active role, while others remembered Rhodes’ fairly top-heavy attitudes to governing in Ohio that indicated a reversion. While Governor, Rhodes knew how to delegates to Congress, but never shared an ounce of executive power with his Lieutenant Governors.

In his last public address as Governor of Ohio, Jim Rhodes bid farewell to his direct governing of the Buckeye State, having been elected four times to that office, and promised to serve all fifty states with the same vigor as he had Ohio.
​

As for the cabinet, Rhodes considered himself a ‘Man for All Seasons’ type, and intended to have a balance between the three wings of the Republican Party. By appointing prominent members of the three wings (and with a healthy sprinkling of nepotistic appointments as well) he could get a leg up on factionalism while also neutralizing potential intraparty troublemakers from criticizing the Administration from the outside.

Along with Jim Rhodes was his wife, Helen, as well as their three adult daughters, Suzanne, Sharon, and Saundra. The Rhodes family lived an intensely separate private life from Rhodes’ political career. Helen was entirely apolitical with the exception of voting for her husband, and never appeared with him on the campaign trail before 1976. There was a long-standing personal agreement of sorts that Helen had ultimate power for home and family decisions while Jim was running the state, and now, the country. Neither of them saw fit to change that arrangement going to the White House.

The Inauguration of James Rhodes, January 20th, 1977
​

With festivities in full gear, and delivering a blissfully short inaugural address compared to McCarthy’s near-record breakers, James Allen Rhodes was sworn in as the 38th President of the United States.

At long last, a Republican was back in the White House.

The age of McCarthy was over.

The era of Rhodes had begun.


“If you would have me, it would be my honor to serve your new administration as Secretary of State, and to offer honest, first-hand advice on how to run things in Washington.

I look forward to working with you,

Signed,


Richard Nixon”


-Excerpt from a memo to President-Elect Rhodes, December 9th 1976

 

[The Lethargic Lett]

A Look Back on the McCarthy Administration


Domestic Policy:

The Economy:

The Crusade Against Poverty and the Greater Society: McCarthy’s umbrella term for his legislative agenda was his continuation of the War on Poverty, the Crusade Against Poverty. It composed of the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act, the Farmer Advancement Act, the McGovern-Sullivan Food Stamp Expansion Act, the Medicare and Medicaid Expansion Act, and the Social Security Amendments of 1974.

Further Crusade Against Poverty legislation that failed to pass through Congress during the McCarthy Administration included the Universal Housing Act, which would have provided federally-funded housing to all homeless in America, the Distributive Justice Act, which would have established universal basic income, and the Full Education Act, which endeavored to provide universal post-secondary education.

Inflation remained a problem of the McCarthy Administration that was never solved. Price freezing served as a temporary solution at various points, but ultimately only led to greater economic instability. Raising taxes in his second term slowed down inflation, but tanked his already declining popularity.


Social Issues:

The Equal Rights Amendment was confirmed by the states during the McCarthy Administration. With the passing of the Equal Rights Amendment with loud and prominent support from McCarthy, some religious conservative evangelicals organized against it under the leadership of preacher Jerry Falwell and activist Phyllis Schlafly. This movement, the Moral Majority, quickly fizzled out without the endorsement of ‘America’s Preacher,’ Billy Graham, and with public opinion overwhelmingly in favour of the amendment.

Abortion was decriminalized in the legal case of Roe v. Wade. Generally supported by Democrats and with Republicans largely indifferent, abortion had yet to arrive in the public consciousness, and wasn’t a prominent political issue during the McCarthy Administration.

In 1972, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) coalesced for McCarthy’s re-election, but rapidly fractured and effectively disbanded around 1973 to 1974, following the collapse of the Moral Majority. An SDS offshoot, Evangelicals for McCarthy, formed together with the Sojourners, Anabaptist theologians, and the Calvinist Association for Public Justice to form the People’s Christian Coalition, an evangelical left activist group.

Early on in the McCarthy Administration, conscription was brought to an end. Draft dodgers were pardoned late in McCarthy’s second term.

McCarthy was vehemently opposed to campaign finance reform, and any attempt to keep money out of politics, mostly since his political career had been kept afloat by wealthy liberals who made large campaign donations.

His attempts to reign in domestic spying and the United States’ national security and espionage agencies went horribly wrong, when his personal infidelities were revealed to the public, and the agencies left the public eye. Although organizations like the FBI would never return to the power they had under J. Edgar Hoover, there has been no significant legislation to affect their powers.


Foreign Policy:

Asia
The most obvious aspect of McCarthy’s foreign policy was the conclusion of the Vietnam War. By revealing revealing previously hidden scandal and American conduct, McCarthy was able to turn public opinion against the war, I negotiate a settlement that heavily favoured the North Vietnamese. The South and North were reunited in a thinly veiled annexation. Fighting continued in the rest of South-East Asia: although the communists won the Laotian Civil War, the Thai and American-backed Khmer Republic holds the upper hand in Cambodia.

Following the assassination of Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai took control of China as Paramount Leader. After securing his position and removing the Gang of Four from power, Enlai began a process of political and economic reform, along with his right hand man, Deng Xiaoping. McCarthy was dismissive of the People’s Republic of China, and the Taiwan-based Republic of China remains the recognized Chinese government in the United Nations.

Following the Bangladesh War of Liberation, Pakistan was left in a severely weakened position. Bangladesh gained independence, and Kashmir was fully ceded to India. Pakistan is in a state of barely controlled political turmoil: Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s central government is ineffectual, Maoist rebels are inciting violence, the new republican government in Afghanistan is eyeing Pakistan’s Pashtun lands, repatriated general A.A.K. Niazi is pushing an ultra-conservative agenda, and Iran is poised to seize Baluchistan in the event of total collapse.

In reaction to the American diplomatic abandonment of Pakistan, much of the Middle East shifted towards the Soviet camp, particularly in Egypt, in which President Anwar el-Sadat was removed in a coup, to be replaced by the socialist Ali Sabri. Egypt continues constant low-intensity skirmishes with Israel, but has yet to resort to open war.

Europe:
European public reception to the McCarthy Presidency was very positive. In Italy, there has been greater cooperation between the Communist Party and the liberal and conservatives parties in Italy. In France, the socialist Francois Mitterand was elected, with the tipping point being a failure on the part of conservative candidates to drum up a red scare in the south-west. Likewise, the Social Democrats remain in power in West Germany, despite scandal. The exception to the continental trend towards Eurosocialism has been in the United Kingdom. Edward Heath and the Conservatives have formed their first government in years, and are attempting to find a peaceful solution to The Troubles in Ireland by establishing Ulster as a jointly governed zone.

Behind the Iron Curtain, the Soviet economy is at an all time high. Confident in their international position with McCarthy in power in the United States, Soviet military spending has dipped, but for the first time, the Soviet nuclear arsenal has surpassed the American one in both size and destructive capabilities. With this confidence has come an allowance for reform: the Soviet puppet states have moderated somewhat (with the exception of Romania) and there has been greater economic co-operation between East and West in Europe.

South America:
The political situation has polarized in South America. With the United States ending the sale of the vast majority of military equipment, many of the tinpot dictators of Central and South America have been forced to implement at least some democratic reforms. Although military juntas most notably remain in Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, Argentina has transitioned to a democracy, and Chile became the first country in memory to democratically elect a Marxist as President.

However, a lack of American support has also left a power vacuum on the political right. A botched coup in Bolivia has led to civil war, and the leftist regime of Peru has launched a revanchist war against Chile, with the Chilean President Allende dying under suspicious circumstances; The Chilean general, Augusto Pinochet, has seized emergency powers, but is fighting a losing war against Peru.

Africa:
Africa has benefited from direct foreign aid from the United States since McCarthy was elected. The Sahel region has enjoyed political stability with extensive food aid from America to make up for a drought, but Ethiopia remains on the precipice of a socialist takeover. White minority regimes remain in power in South Africa and Rhodesia, but few sanctions against them have passed the American Congress (or anywhere else). McCarthy has advocated for a partitioning of South Africa into a white and a black nation if apartheid cannot be peacefully abolished, but it hasn’t come to that yet. In the Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola, the United States has been offering direct foreign aid to the rebel groups, and is putting political pressure to give up on their colonial empire.


Behind the Scenes:

You know, the hardest thing to write about McCarthy has been McCarthy. That is to say, Gene McCarthy himself. Every historical account I’ve read of him pointed out his various flaws: the chip on his shoulder, his penchant to hold a grudge, his sense of superiority, his poor campaigning, his hurtful, critical nature, and so on. Hell, the name of his biopic was I’m Sorry I Was Right, and he referred to his only biography as “trash” and was considering suing the author for libel when he died. He was a man who claimed he had no interest in running for President and only did so in 1968 out of a sense of duty, but he indeed ran in 1968, 1972, 1976 (as an independent), endorsed Reagan in 1980, ran again in 1988 (as the Consumer Party candidate), and in 1992 (once more as a Democrat). He got his most votes in 1976, when he very nearly threw New York state (and the election) to Gerald Ford, but lost his court case to appear on the ballot in that state, and his projected votes went to Jimmy Carter. It also goes without saying that he was somewhat lacking in personal morals, as he cheated on his wife. They became estranged after the Election of 1968. Later in life, McCarthy would become, in a word, a kook. He advocated abolishing the Vice Presidency and the Electoral College, supported Ross Perot-esque radical centrism and libertarianism, and spent most of his time writing poetry and complaining about things. He finally came back to the fold of the mainstream Democratic Party in 2004, when he endorsed John Kerry, calling him "an okay guy, with some of the charm of John Kennedy."

That being said, the vast majority of personal accounts of McCarthy have been completely glowing. He was seen by his supporters as a brilliant wit, fighting for moral causes and greater human decency across the entire planet, ending unjust war, giving hope to a generation that felt ignored by the ‘professional politicians’ of the likes of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, and supporting equal rights for all and his “distributive justice” to raise up the poor. By modern American standards, he could make Bernie Sanders look centrist. He truly wanted to make the world a better place, even if he didn’t live up to his full potential, and a small but dedicated group of supporters carry his torch even today, with his niece currently making a feature length documentary film about him titled Alone in the Land of the Aardvarks. I’ve tried to strike a balance between ‘McCarthy the Utopian’ and ‘McCarthy the Misanthrope,’ and I still remain concerned if I’ve favoured one of those aspects too much. I don't want to vilify the guy, but he definitely had his problems.

Writing the McCarthy Administration as a whole wasn’t too difficult. I did my research, and followed the historical web to offer what I think is a pretty in depth and quality timeline. The only big change in the overall plot that I considered was having McCarthy lose to Charles H. Percy in 1972, but this was a last minute consideration, and I didn’t have nearly enough research on Percy to do the story justice if I took that path. Maybe one day I’ll do a TLIAD or TLIAW of what would’ve happened in Give Peace A Chance if Percy had indeed won.

Was Eugene McCarthy a ‘nice’ man? I’d say no. Was he a ‘good’ man? I guess that’s up to individual interpretation. If you’d ask me, I’d give you a solid “maybe.”

I’ll leave it up to you to decide, dear reader.

Ask me about Jim Rhodes later.

 

[The Lethargic Lett]

The Rhodes Cabinet and Staff​

President James A. Rhodes (OH, Moderate Republican, Realpolitik)
In a crushing landslide, Jim Rhodes has been elected as the first Republican President since Dwight Eisenhower, and the second oldest in American history. Like Eisenhower, Rhodes leans towards an economic status quo, but intends to strip down most of the Crusade Against Poverty and War on Poverty to end growing inflation, and replace them with make work programs. Rhodes is a fan of large-scale, eccentric, projects, but has absolutely no interest in foreign policy.

Vice President Mills Godwin (VA, Moderate Republican, Realpolitik)
Unknown outside of Virginia, Godwin had the good fortune of being an inoffensive acquaintance of Rhodes who agrees with him on practically every policy issue, once it came time to select a Vice Presidential nominee. Godwin has only been a Republican since 1973, and is unpopular with most of the party, and is often called ‘a turncoat who got by on coattails.’

Secretary of State Richard Nixon (CA, Moderate Republican, Realpolitik)
Twice the Senator for California, twice the Republican nominee for President, and one-time Vice President of the United States, Richard Nixon seems politically unkillable. Nixon has been given near-unilateral control of American foreign policy and the State Department, and intends to restore American geopolitical ‘prestige’ abroad, through any and all means at his disposal.

With Rhodes’ approval, of course...

Secretary of Treasury Nelson Rockefeller (NY, Rockefeller Republican, Hawk)
Nelson Rockefeller defies strict classification. Described at various points as a progressive, liberal, or moderate, the consistent factor of Rockefeller’s career is that he’s to the left of most of the Republican Party. Having stepped down as Governor of New York and having largely given up on his Presidential aspirations, Rockefeller has instead taken a cabinet position from his friend, Rhodes, before retiring from politics.

Secretary of Defence Barry Goldwater (AZ, Conservative Republican, Hawk)
The (in)famous Republican nominee in 1964, Barry Goldwater lost in a crushing landslide to Lyndon Johnson, but remained the godfather of American conservatism, as well as its flagbearer until Ronald Reagan came on to the scene. More ideological and anti-Communist than the new Secretary of State, it seems likely that Goldwater and Nixon, who already dislike each other, will be jockeying to decide foreign and national security policy within the Rhodes Administration.

Attorney General Bill Saxbe (OH, Moderate Republican, Dove-Leaning)
Rhodes’ fellow Senator for Ohio during his brief stint in Congress, Saxbe is a fellow ‘New Deal Republican.’ Saxbe’s particular interest is trust-busting and the breaking up of monopolies, which is complementary to Rhodes’ jobs-oriented and small business-style economic beliefs.

Secretary of the Interior Clifford Hansen (NE, Conservative Republican, Dove-Leaning)
The well-liked and conservative Senator of Wyoming, Hansen is a compromise pick between Rhodes and the more environmentally-minded members of the party, who would have preferred someone like Stanley K. Hathaway. An environmentalist of the ‘Theodore Roosevelt national park’ variety rather than a ‘modern legislative pollution-control’ environmentalist, Hansen also supports Rhodes’ intention to advance the oil and coal industry while still protecting landowners’ rights.

Secretary of Agriculture William R. Poage (TX, Conservative Democrat, Hawk)
The former Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, Poage was recently removed in a revolt by his fellow Democrats for being too conservative. He’s now been picked up by the Rhodes Administration, both as a bipartisan appointment, and as a means to disincentivize the removal of conservative committee chairmen by appointing one to a more powerful position.

Secretary of Commerce Claude R. Kirk Jr. (FL, Conservative Republican, Hawk)
The bombastic and confrontational former Governor of Florida, Kirk is a close personal friend of Rhodes, having originally met at a Governor’s Convention. Known for his economic projects similar to Rhodes, his social conservatism, and his harassing of his political opponents, Kirk has a long-running feud with William C. Cramer, as the unofficial co-leaders of the Florida delegation to the Republican National Committee.

Secretary of Labor Jacob Javits (NY, Rockefeller Republican, Dove)
The longtime liberal Senator for New York, Jacob Javits’ career has gone back long enough to oppose the Taft-Hartley Act, and has long served on the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee. Although his Presidential aspirations have been fruitless, the absence of the Republican’s most outspoken liberal from the Senate has been noticed.

Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Robert H. Michel (IL, Conservative Republican, Hawk)
The ranking Republican member of the House Appropriations Committee, and on the Health, Education, and Welfare Sub-Committee, Robert H. Michel is a conservative Republican from Illinois. With the outgoing Gerald Ford being replaced by John Rhodes as Speaker of the House for the foreseeable future, Michel has left behind the possibility of House leadership to accept a cabinet position.

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Charles H. Percy (IL, Rockefeller Republican, Dove-Leaning)
The Republican kingmaker of 1972 and 1976 has finally gotten a cabinet position, but it’s not an exact fit. Although Percy’s domestic policy expertise lies with housing, he primarily served as a foreign policy oriented Senator. He has only accepted something less than Secretary of State with the informal agreement that he will be part of foreign policy decision-making along with Goldwater and Nixon, and will serve as a foreign policy advisor as well as Secretary of Housing.

Secretary of Transportation Ray Lee Hunt (TX, Conservative Republican, Hawk)
The heir to Hunt Oil, Ray Lee Hunt is an oil tycoon, and the son of one of the most famous oil tycoons outside of the Rockefellers, H.L. Hunt, who held title on one of the world’s largest oil deposits, until his death in 1974. Rhodes has appointed Hunt with the intention of increasing efficiency between the energy sector (read: oil, coal, and gas) and the transportation of energy.

------------------------------------------------------------------​

Supreme Allied Commander Europe Bernard W. Rogers (KS, Moderate Independent, Hawk)
A ‘return to form’ for the American military past the McCarthy years, General Rogers is a proponent of war readiness in Europe and keeping morale high. Rogers wants to whip the army back into shape after years of budget neglect and low spirits.

Chief of Staff of the United States Army Alexander Haig (PA, Conservative Republican, Hawk)
President-Elect Rhodes has taken a shine to General Haig. Haig’s quixotic use of malapropisms and malaphors suit Rhodes’ political double-talk, and gave him a competitive edge when choosing a new Army Chief of Staff. Haig, while a competent enough commander, is somewhat gaffe-prone to say the least.

Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations Hale Boggs (LA, Moderate Democrat, Hawk-Leaning)
Hale Boggs remains as the McCarthy appointment as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations. Chances are that with the political hopes of reigning in American espionage and national security agencies smashed that Boggs’ days are numbered as head of the FBI.

Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Richard Helms (PA, Conservative Independent, Hawk)
Another ‘return to normalcy’ appointment, Helms served as the Director of the CIA in the Johnson years, before being replaced by McCarthy with General James M. Gavin. Returning to a secretive, intelligence and counterintelligence based model for the CIA, Helms intends to get things “back on track” after Gavin.

------------------------------------------------------------------​

First Lady Helen Rhodes
The entirely apolitical First Lady of the United States had long served as the completely apolitical First Lady of Ohio. Jim and Helen Rhodes have their own personal agreement that Helen has total say in family matters, and doesn’t intend to do many - if any - events.

White House Chief of Staff Tom Moyer (OH, Moderate Republican, Realpolitik)
Replacing Rhodes’ longtime, outgoing Chief of Staff John McElroy in 1975, Tom Moyer had begun to have gotten a handle on running an Ohio office, but the White House remains beyond his full comprehension. Having run a fairly organized campaign, Moyer hopes to adapt quickly to Washington.

White House Senior Advisor Earl Barnes (OH, Moderate Republican, Realpolitik)
The closest thing Rhodes has to a lieutenant or right-hand man, Earl Barnes, like many of Rhodes’ staffers, has worked with him for years. Nothing has significantly changed between Barnes and Rhodes, despite their different setting, and he continues to advise. Barnes also works with Roy Martin, the head of Rhodes’ patronage machine.

White House Deputy Advisor Robert Hughes (OH, Moderate Republican, Realpolitik)
The former Chairman of the Republican Party of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Robert Hughes has been the long-time confidante of Rhodes throughout his long career. Although he has something of a rustic touch, Hughes intends to give the same advice to Rhodes as he always has.

White House Deputy Advisor Richard Krabach (OH, Moderate Republican, Realpolitik)
Rhodes’ longtime financial advisor, Krabach has worked with Rhodes to put together his state budgets and work with the state’s Congress. Going into the White House, Krabach serves as a general assistant and message courier for Rhodes, Rockefeller, and Kirk Jr. His counterpart, Ohio Finance Director Howard Collier, has been appointed Deputy Treasury Secretary under Rockefeller, while Ohio Commerce Director Gordon Peltier has been appointed Deputy Secretary of Commerce under Kirk Jr.

White House Deputy Advisor Fred Neuenschwander (OH, Moderate Republican, Realpolitik)
The Ohio Development Director and Rhodes’ frequent business partner, Fred Neuenschwander was usually the one who helped Rhodes identify possible civil works and construction projects in the state of Ohio. He continues to serve in a similar capacity, but has taken a lesser position overall compared to the wishes of the cabinet and Congress. Neuenschwander is also assisted by Elmer Keller, a man that could be best described as Rhodes’ ‘fixer’ and slush-funder.

White House Press Secretary James Duerk (OH, Moderate Republican, Realpolitik)
Rhodes’ campaign Press Secretary, not only for the Presidency but for Governor of Ohio, James Duerk continues to serve Rhodes as the White House Press Secretary.

White House Chief Speechwriter Rollin Jauchius (OH, Moderate Republican, Realpolitik)
Having previously served as Rhodes’ Press Secretary as well as his speechwriter, Rollin Jauchius was originally a journalist and writer for the Columbus Evening Dispatch before being picked up by Rhodes.

Director of the National Economic Council William Scranton (PA, Rockefeller Republican, Hawk)
The previous Governor of Pennsylvania, after leaving politics, Scranton worked for a series of big businesses, including A&P, IBM, The New York Times, as well as Pan American Airways and the Heinz Company, having also served as President of Northeastern National Bank and Trust Company. A former associate of Rhodes', he has been selected as the new Director of the National Economic Council. Other figures appointed to the National Economic Council by Rhodes include the businessmen Don Hilliker and Ralph Stolle, as well as the owner and founder of Wendy's, Dave Thomas, who is a personal friend of Rhodes.

National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger (NY, Rockefeller Republican, Realpolitik)
The counterpart of McCarthy's long-serving National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, Henry Kissinger has been appointed at the insistence of both Nelson Rockefeller (whom Kissinger had acted as a foreign policy advisor for in several campaigns) as well as Richard Nixon. The new National Security Advisor and Secretary of State have developed a very close partnership, and have formed their on foreign policy bloc in competition with Percy and Goldwater.

Chairman of the Young Republican National Federation Bill Willis (OH, Moderate Republican, Realpolitik)
Rhodes' Youth Relations organizer in Ohio, Bill Willis has taken the role of Chairman of the Young Republicans. Although not as quite the potent (and volatile) political force as the Young Democrats, they're still the future of the party: and the future is Rhodes.

Director of the Environmental Conservation Agency James G. Watt (WY, Conservative Republican, Hawk)
A notoriously anti-environmentalist lobbyist, Watt has been appointed to fast-track Rhodes' plans for land development and the sale of federal land, as well as slashing environmental regulations, and working with the oil industry. Watt's appointment is already being protested by environmentalist groups.

United States Ambassador to the United Nations Samuel W. Lewis (TX, Moderate Independent, Dove)
A behind-the-scenes, foreign policy official and bureaucrat, Samuel Lewis has a particular specialty in the Middle East, and had previously worked on McCarthy's Central and South American policy initiatives and the International Organization Affairs branch of the State Department. Considering the flare-ups of conflict in South America and the Middle East, he was considered a good choice for the role.

 

[The Lethargic Lett]

“Chuck, Dick, and Barry will sort it out.”

• President Jim Rhodes, on foreign policy
  

As President Rhodes prepared to present his domestic policy, Secretary of State Richard Nixon took in the new foreign agenda. As he began to formulate his plans, he had to do so with the cooperation of Secretary of Defence Barry Goldwater, National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Charles Percy, who had made a deal with the President to be involved in foreign policy. The general consensus was that America was in a much weaker position, and that America would have to go through a military escalation before being on the equal footing to negotiate a more thorough détente. The failure of the McCarthy Administration, they thought, was that it had settled for coexistence without establishing respect from the Soviet Union, and no where was this more true than in the SALT negotiations.

McCarthy had resumed negotiations of nuclear de-escalation once he had been sworn in. Denuclearization had been inconclusive in the Kennedy Administration, and the Johnson Administration was just starting negotiations when they were cancelled indefinitely with the Soviet’s 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia. Going into the negotiations, the Americans and Soviets had asymmetrical development. The Soviets prioritized heavy ballistic missiles such as the ICBM while massively ramping up submarine based launchers. The general Soviet doctrine was based on the brute force idea of “throw-weight” and blanket obliteration in the event of firing off the nuclear arsenal. This was in contrast to the American plan, which was more based around the doctrine of mobility, sophisticated targeting, and heavily protected, or “hardened,” launch sites. To that end, the United States had been developing Multiple Independently-targeted Re-entry Vehicles, or MIRVs. MIRVs allowed a single missile to carry multiple warheads that would then break off to separate targets, as a sort of orbital nuclear shotgun. This was in conjunction with American long-range bombers, and a planned network of twelve anti-ballistic missile (ABM) complexes within the United States.

Secretary of Defence Goldwater, seen here with two-term Congressman Newt Gingrich.
​

Leading into the negotiations, the Americans and Soviets disagreed on what “strategic” meant in the “Strategic Arms Limitation Talks.” The Soviets thought that the talks should have referred to weapons that were based in one that could reach the other. This would have included American weapons based in Europe, but not Soviet weapons pointed at America’s European allies. As negotiations reached a deadlock, the Soviets suggested that SALT be based on the restriction of ABM sites, while a seperate, follow-up treaty could focus on offensive capabilities. Not wanting to stop the negotiations in their tracks, McCarthy told the State Department to settle for the compromise and handle offensive capabilities later [1]. The deal was formalized in mid-1970 to a generally positive reception, as the complexity of the issue left the general public befuddled [2]. Regardless, it was denounced as a sign of weakness by Republican hawks and Democratic Neoconservatives, such as Henry Jackson. Following the SALT Treaty, SALT II negotiations commenced immediately for offensive limitations. But, while early talks were promising, the Soviets began to lose interest with the American withdrawal from Vietnam, and McCarthy not beating back the Soviet’s ally, India, when it came to Pakistan. Talks had remained stagnant throughout the rest of McCarthy’s term, as the Soviets easily surpassed America’s throw-weight, and began to approach America’s number of warheads.

With the first Rhodes budget seeing a massive increase in military spending, the Rhodes foreign policy team took a more offensive footing on the nuclear arsenal. The Sentinel ABM program was reactivated, having been nearly immediately deactivated by McCarthy upon taking office [3]. The Sentinel program was designed to offer a thin layer of ABM protection to the entire United States. The revised Sentinel II would go beyond that, and set up ‘hard points’ based around ICBM silos, in a borderline violation of SALT. On top of that, the foreign policy team approved and fast-tracked the production of the McCarthy-cancelled B-1 Bomber, which had never entered production, as a stop gap for the development of stealth bombers [4]. In reaction to the increases in Soviet tank production, the foreign policy team also advocated ramping up production of neutron bombs to be used against Warsaw Pact armoured formations in the event of a hot war in Europe.

An early prototype of the B-1 Bomber. The B-1 never entered production under the McCarthy Administration, but was approved in the early Rhodes Administration through the efforts of Secretaries Nixon, Goldwater, and Percy, as well as National Security Advisor Kissinger.
​

Looking beyond the general agreement of the foreign policy team for nuclear matters, Nixon also had his sights set on the more conventional. In South America, the Peruvian military was getting ever-closer to the Chilean capital, Santiago, having secured the city of Copiapó. President Pinochet and his junta were already preparing an emergency re-location to Puerto Montt, and it seemed an inevitability that Peru would succeed in annexing the territory it had lost in the War of the Pacific. The foreign policy team were already preparing to choose who they would back as Pinochet’s successor if he lost control of the situation. Goldwater preferred Admiral José Toribio Merino, while Nixon, Kissinger, and Percy preferred air force commander General Gustavo Leigh. Along with that disagreement was the case of what to do with the other country that had fought the War of the Pacific. Bolivia remained in a state of civil war between the forces of the leftist, democratically elected President Juan José Torres, and President Hugo Banzer, who had taken control of the government in a botched military coup in 1971. The situation had been complicated by political fracturing in both camps, as the war dragged on without resolution. While Banzer had a clear advantage in strategic control and logistical control of the country, as well as military capabilities, he had been unable to adequately deal with Torres’ leftist guerillas in the Bolivian jungles. Banzer had become paranoid of conspiracy against him by the likes of his Secretary of the Interior, Andrés Selich, while the former Vice President of Bolivia, Juan Lechín Oquendo, had split from Torres to form his own Trotskyist guerilla movement in the mining communities of the Bolivian Andes. The foreign policy team came to their second disagreement not on who they would support in Bolivia, it was unanimous for Banzer, or at least his ideology, but which part of the US government would supply him with arms. McCarthy had almost entirely ended weapons sales, and those that continued were funneled exclusively through the Defence Department. Nixon wanted oversight from the State Department, while Goldwater wanted to keep it entirely within the sphere of Defence. With Rhodes declining to intervene for either side, it remained a political stand-off between the two, but with Goldwater having the de facto stronger position.

The military dictator and President (according to some) of Bolivia, Hugo Banzer.
​

Regardless of how they got out, got out they did. American arms sales kicked back into pre-McCarthy levels, particularly to Banzerist Bolivia, Brazil, Thailand, and the Khmer Republic. In South-East Asia, Lon Nol’s pro-Thai, pro-American Khmer dictatorship was largely secured after the death of Pol Pot and the exile of Nuon Chea, but medium-intensity conflict continued with Laos and Vietnam, having consolidated their political positions.

As for the Middle East, well, not even Richard Nixon had found an immediately applicable solution for peace in the Middle East, but the gears were already turning on what to do with Israel and Egypt’s Second War of Attrition.

As America took a very different path to international diplomacy, the President remained focused inward. His team would handle all that other stuff, Rhodes had things to do. Americans didn’t care about Bolivia, they cared about jobs.

And jobs were what they were going to get.


“Archie Griffin could do more to help in the inner cities than a whole raft of welfare workers. The people in the inner city want more than a handout. There is no dignity in a handout. They want jobs.”

• President Jim Rhodes, on welfare and employment

[1] IOTL, Nixon stood by the stance, and the Soviets eventually relented. SALT was a comprehensive ABM treaty, and a partial offensive limitations treaty. ITTL, it is simply an ABM treaty.

[2] IOTL, the more expansive SALT wasn’t settled until 1971.

[3] IOTL, Nixon closed down Sentinel after public backlash claiming that ABM protection of American cities would only encourage the Soviets to assign more warheads per city. It was replaced by the Safeguard program, which only defended ICBM silos.

[4] IOTL, the B-1 was in production throughout the Nixon Administration, before being cancelled by Carter, and revived by Reagan.

 

[The Lethargic Lett]

“It’s the economy, stupid.”

• President Jim Rhodes, when asked what the most important issue to Americans was.

With the foreign policy team getting things under control on the international stage, Rhodes took to the field for his domestic agenda. The first order of business would be his budget.

The first Rhodes budget saw a dramatic shift in priorities. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, as it was called, saw military spending way up compared to the McCarthy years to boost conventional arms, weapons sales, and the foreign policy team’s calls for investments in neutron bombs, anti-ballistic missile platforms, and the B-1 bomber. Social welfare spending was slashed, particularly Crusade Against Poverty legislation, and the Environmental Conservation Agency, already working on the smallest budget McCarthy could get away with giving them, was further cut. Part of the money, but not all of it, went to funding Rhodes’ job creation program, Jobs for Americans (JFA). The rest of the social spending money went to paying off part of the debt, despite the fact that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was itself a deficit budget plan. As the title suggested, there were tax cuts across the board, but were particularly focused on small business owners and the middle class. Despite opposition from the Congressional Democrats and the most hawkish of budget hawks, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act easily passed through the Republican majority in both the House and Senate.

With his budget, Rhodes worked to ingratiate himself to Congress in an unprecedented wave of pork barrel legislation. Although technically speaking, pork barrel is defined as legislation not requested by the President and favouring a particular riding, you wouldn’t know it from what Rhodes was covering. Dams were paid for across the Midwest, South, and Western Interior, funding was boosted for facilities that may have otherwise been on the budgetary chopping block, and road maintenance was given extra mileage. When expenditures began to balloon beyond the budget estimates, Rhodes called for the use of self-issued state bonds to cover the rest of the costs, a tried and true method in Ohio [1]. The most notable of these projects was one of Rhodes’ big dreams for Ohio. When he was Governor, Rhodes had proposed a bridge crossing Lake Erie, connecting Cleveland to somewhere in southern Ontario, in Canada. His plan had been dismissed as impractical and overly-costly when Governor, but as President, Rhodes had money put aside to look into the idea. The most direct route would be connecting Cleveland to Rondeau Provincial Park, but that would raise all sorts of complications on jurisdictions between Canada’s Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, and Ontario’s Premier, Bill Davis.

The proposed location, in red, of Rhodes' Lake Erie Bridge, connecting Cleveland, Ohio, to Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada.
​

Beyond the general pork barrel, Rhodes also put significant spending into building community colleges and the infrastructure to make them easily accessible. Rhodes was a high school graduate, but only attended Ohio State University for a semester before dropping out, a fact that he made sure as few people knew as possible. Because had always been self-conscious of his less-than-stellar education, and always put public and private education near the top of his list when it came to dole out funding.

Outside of the budget, Rhodes also made major changes to energy and infrastructure throughout his first year. Although, as of yet, there hadn’t been an economic war between the United States and the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), Secretary of State Nixon advised that in the likelihood that the Second War of Attrition escalated between Israel and Egypt, that the US would have to side with Israel, and OAPEC would attempt an oil embargo, as they had during the Six-Day War of 1967, but with a much more damaging effect on the American economy. This aligned with Rhodes' plans for ramping up the domestic energy sector. Oil, coal, and natural gas subsidies were boosted, and massive hydraulic fracturing (or high-volume hydraulic fracturing) was encouraged to more economically extract natural gas from sandstone, while the government also began to invest in means of more efficiently extracting shale fossil fuel and natural gas deposits through hydraulic fracturing. Oil drilling was also opened up in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, despite significant pushback from environmentalists, Democrats, and Secretary of the Interior Clifford Hansen [2]. Rhodes also put price deregulation into place to lower consumption costs for Americans, but several other plans were sidelined, including proposals for a government-mandated synthetic fuel corporation, and a consolidated joint government-private coal company similar to Amtrak. The only consolation for environmentalists was Rhodes’ personal fascination in the idea of hybrid, gas-electrical cars. Rhodes had recently heard from Len Immke, the Owner and President of Len Immke Buick Columbus, that a local man had made a functional prototype of a hybrid vehicle. Interested by the idea, Rhodes had Immke work with a federal commission to investigate the possibility of mass production [3].

Secretary of the Interior Clifford Hansen was the most vocal opponent to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska within the Rhodes Administration.
​

Speaking of Amtrak, Rhodes also met with the transportation sector and their unions. Rhodes had no strong feelings either way when it came to unions, acknowledging their role in worker safety, as long as they didn’t get too much in the way of productivity. Meeting with the General President of the Teamster’s Union, Frank Fitzsimmons (who had replaced the recently disappeared Jimmy Hoffa), Rhodes maintained he had no intention of deregulating the transportation industry. Likewise, Rhodes met with the big airline corporations, such as Eastern, Midway, Braniff, Pan Am, Continental, Northwest, and TWA to work out an agreement. Rhodes agreed to maintain the regulations that kept out new competitors, in exchange for them lowering ticket prices to an agreed upon competitive cartel rate, and accepting reform and reorganization of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB). The CAB was notoriously sluggish and stuffed with red tape, and Rhodes intended to streamline the process of opening up new airspace to accommodate the increasing popularity of civilian air travel through. The giants of the airline industry agreed, and an de facto cartel was formed between them and the CAB [4]. Rhodes’ cooperation with the airlines was due in large part of his economic philosophy that could best be described as ‘liberal corporatism.’ Under Rhodes, the CAB continued to regulate and set fares for the airlines in a controlled competition that kept the ‘Big Seven’ airborne, and the unions together, but America’s airlines remained uncompetitive internationally, and ticket costs remained high.

An American airline first class lounge with open bar. Due to Rhodes coming to an agreement with the 'Airline Cartel,' air travel remained similarly extravagant and expensive, with large cushioned seats, plentiful legroom, and catering, despite attempts to lower costs for consumers.
​

But, transportation serves no purposes if there’s nowhere to go. Rhodes also worked to improve state and federal roadways to America’s cities, but caught a snag on the matter of New York City. In 1976, in one of his last acts as President, McCarthy had approved a sizable financial bailout of New York City, which had been facing bankruptcy. With the new money to work with, Mayor Abraham Beame was able to use austerity measures to keep the city solvent for the foreseeable future, but was in the midst of a political crisis from a series of riots that broke out in New York following a blackout. Once the riots were over, Beame tried to handle the city’s financial damages some more, and was able to do so with the bailout. Although he hadn’t been challenged within the Democratic Party, Beame was facing a narrow re-election compared to the Republican-Liberal Party alliance under the candidacy of Roy M. Goodman [5]. The question Rhodes was faced with was whether to continue with the precedent. Cities on hard financial times were now calling for similar bailouts, which Rhodes was inclined to grant for the sake of his own popularity, but he didn’t want every town in America calling for cash.

New York Mayor Abraham Beame was facing a tough, but not impossible, re-election against the Rockefeller Republican, State Senator Roy M. Goodman in 1977.
​

It was indeed the very issue that he was mulling over in late 1977 in the Oval Office when Nixon burst in with news from the Soviet Union…



“We can’t all just cut each others’ hair.”

• President Jim Rhodes on service economies

[1] Once elected IOTL, Jimmy Carter was notorious in Congress for cracking down on what he saw as wasteful pork barrel spending in legislation, even in Democratic ridings. Rhodes has basically done the opposite of that by relying on state bonds to pay for pork barrel.

[2] IOTL, Jimmy Carter, with the help of Mo Udall, passed legislation that protected the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge until OTL’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed by the Trump Administration, which put large parts of the refuge up for sale.

[3] In a possibly apocryphal story, Rhodes claimed that he, along with Len Immke and Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas, had been in touch with a man who built a working hybrid car in the 1970s, but that, ultimately, no investment was made into it. For the purposes of the TL, I am assuming the story is true.

[4] IOTL, Carter deregulated the airlines, making tickets much more affordable and air travel much more common, with new airlines popping up to compete with the old giants (who almost all eventually went bankrupt). The end of broad airline regulation also ended the lavish and 'living room' airplane design in place of the more compact seating we know today.

[5] IOTL, Gerald Ford didn’t give New York a straight bailout, with a famous headline claiming “Ford to [New York] City: Drop Dead.” To cover costs, Abraham Beame put incredibly harsh austerity in place, and got third place in the Democratic primaries, behind Ed Koch and Mario Cuomo, with Koch ultimately beating Cuomo in the general. ITTL, without the highly unpopular austerity measures, Beame was able to ward off any serious primary challengers.

 

[The Lethargic Lett]

“The most important thing in my life, its leitmotif, has been the constant and close contacts with working people, with workers and peasants.”

• General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Leonid Brezhnev

Leonid Brezhnev was a man in poor health. In 1975, he had suffered his first heart attack, and his health had only declined from there. A plethora of sicknesses haunted the Soviet leader, including leukemia, atherosclerosis, emphysema, several strokes, and jaw cancer, problems that had been caused in large part by a long history of smoking and a more recent history of addiction to sleeping pills and over-indulgent consumption of alcohol. As Brezhnev’s health declined and he became increasingly unable to perform the duties of the Soviet Head of Government, other Soviet politicians began to expand their influence and de facto powers. Mikhail Suslov, Brezhnev’s unofficial second-in-command and the ‘Chief Ideologue’ of the Communist Party called supported a conservative (from a Soviet point of view) line of orthodox Marxism-Leninism. Yuri Andropov, the Head of the KGB, had formed a troika along with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Andrei Gromyko, and Minister of Defence Dmitry Ustinov. The Andropov-Gromyko-Ustinov troika was similarly conservative to Suslov, but with some mild reformist elements, and not necessarily being opposed to continued detente with the West. There was also political pressure from Andrei Kirilenko, an economic and industrial overseer and Brezhnev lieutenant, who had seen a fall from grace in the 1976-1977 period due to fears of having too much top-down influence in the Russian Soviet Federative Republic’s bureaucracy within the USSR, and was seen as a jurisdictional threat to the Party Organisational Work Department of the Central Committee, which oversaw civilian and military-industrial economic development. Last but not least was Fyodor Kulakov. Kulakov, the Head of Agriculture, was something of a political wildcard, being generally associated with the factions of Suslov, Andropov, Kirilenko, and Politburo member Konstantin Chernenko.

Despite the political jockeying, Brezhnev remained lucid enough to make policy decisions. Namely, Brezhnev was planning the implementation of a new Soviet Constitution, and was particularly suspicious of the possibility that America would violate the SALT Treaty, and considered the possibility of withdrawing from SALT. Throughout 1977, Brezhnev became visibly frustrated in Council of Ministers meetings on the matter of American military build-up, and it was in this time, perhaps unsurprisingly, that Brezhnev suffered a second, fatal heart attack [1]. After Brezhnev’s death was announced, a new pecking order quickly began to form in Soviet leadership. Despite the fact that Brezhnev was obviously in very poor health, his death had come sooner than many had expected. The Andropov-Gromyko-Ustinov Troika offered initial stability and quickly formed up as the next stage of the Soviet Union’s collective leadership, it wasn’t a permanent situation. Suslov demanded greater influence in leadership, and Kirilenko, Kulakov, and Chernenko all intended to use it as an opportunity to restore their previous authority, or rise further, respectively. In the ensuing political instability and power struggle, the implementation of the planned 1977 constitution was put on hold [2].

KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov was de facto leader of the Soviet Union immediately after Brezhnev's death in 1977, in a Troika with Andrei Gromyko and Dmitry Ustinov. He faced political pressure from other leading Soviet figures, such as Mikhail Suslov.
​

Beyond the Soviet Union were also the setbacks for socialism in the Middle East. In the 1977 Pakistani General Election held in March of that year, the socialist Prime Minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, won in a landslide, but was still facing dire political straits. Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was accused by the opposition, the Pakistan National Alliance (PNA), of rigging the election, with calls from some elements of the PNA to remove the Bhutto government in a military takeover. The recently repatriated former General A.A.K. Niazi, the leader of the Pakistani Eastern Command during the disastrous Bangladesh Liberation War, took that message to heart. In conjunction with mass riots of PNA supporters, Niazi marched on the capital in Islamabad with his remaining loyalists amongst disillusioned veterans. Although Niazi was able to give some cohesion to the rioters in the capital, his putsch was easily defeated by pro-government forces under the command of General Muhammad Zia-ul Haq. Niazi was quickly arrested, and martial law was declared by Bhutto shortly after [3]. The Niazi Putsch further instigated riots across the country. Beyond the pro-PNA riots amongst the general population, there was notable unrest in Balochistan, where the government was still fighting Baloch nationalists, in the North-West Frontier Province, where militants of the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Mazdoor Kisan Party had been organizing a local insurgency since the loss of Kashmir to India, and in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, which there was protests from Pashtun nationalists.

Not having the means to repress all the different political forces in the country, Bhutto entered negotiations with the PNA. Bhutto, having been warned by Military Intelligence Major General Khalid Mahmud Arif that a military coup was imminent, was able to reach a successful conclusion to the negotiations in June. The PNA was given fifty percent representation in the government, all of their party workers and leaders put under arrest during the martial law were released, and new elections were scheduled for early August. Despite these compromises, the more radically conservative and Islamic factions of the PNA, namely the Jamaat-e-Islami, led by Abdul Maududi, and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan, led by Ahmad Noorani, broke from the PNA and refused to join with the Bhutto government. With negotiations concluded, Bhutto began to tighten his grip on the military. Working with Arif, Bhutto determined military figures loyal to him, while preparing a purge of disloyal generals. This culminated in the attempted arrest of General Muhammad Zia-ul Haq. Zia-ul Haq, the Pakistani Chief of Army Staff and the General who had repelled the Niazi Putsch, was singled out by Arif as the chief organizer of a planned coup called Operation Fair Play. In the ensuing arrest attempt, Zia-ul Haq was killed. In reaction, Zia-ul Haq’s supporters accused the Bhutto government of fabricating a coup as a means to assassinate the General, and Zia-ul Haq was informally succeeded by General Faiz Ali Chishti as the leader of Operation Fair Play. With Chishti in the leadership role, the Fair Play Generals mustered what forced they could against Bhutto, with the support of the religious fundamentalist factions of the PNA, the Jamaat-e-Islami, and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan. The more moderate factions of the PNA, namely the Pakistan Muslim League led by Zahoor Elahi, and Thrik-e-Istiqal, led by Asghar Khan, remained loyal to the Bhutto government and the new PPP-PNA Coalition [4].

General Muhammad Zia-ul Haq was the chief organizer of a planned coup against Pakistani Prime Minister Bhutto, but did not live to see it executed, after he was killed in a shoot-out with military police loyal to Bhutto's government.
​

Pakistan broke down into a multi-faceted civil war between the Bhutto Government and its military loyalists, the military junta of Chishti and its PNA political backers, and the various nationalist and ideological rebel groups spread out across the country. This development was not ignored by Pakistan’s neighbours, either. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran had been preparing for the eventuality of Pakistani collapse since 1971. With the approval of both the United States and Bhutto himself (who had no other options) the Iranian military moved into and occupied Pakistani Baluchistan, for fear that if independence were declared, it would incite Baloch nationalist violence in Iranian Balochistan. The occupation also served the double-purpose of locking the Fair Play Junta out of Baluchistan, as the Shah was an ally of the Bhutto Government. Likewise, the Indian government, having gained control of Kashmir but fearing further Balkanization of Pakistan, politically supported Bhutto’s coalition. In Afghanistan, President Mohammed Daoud Khan had been fighting an off-and-on proxy war with Bhutto and Pakistan since 1975, by arming Baloch and Pashtun nationalists. With Pakistan falling into civil war, Khan considered the possibility of attempting to annex the Pashtun borderlands of the North-West Frontier Province. Khan also began to suspect the possibility of a coup in his own country from socialists elements in the military, from officers in either the Khalq or Parcham faction of the socialist People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). When Khan had first come to power in his own coup in 1973, the PDPA had offered essential support, but since then, Khan had grown increasingly suspicious and distant from both them and the Soviet Union. With the aid of his Minister of the Interior, Abdul Qadir Nuristani, Khan beefed up surveillance of the military.

The Shah of Iran authorized the military occupation of Baluchistan to maintain order, but in his own nation, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was seeing growing resistance to his rule and his 'authoritarian progressive' White Revolution reforms. ​

As the 1970s were drawing to a close, both the capitalist and communist blocs were seeing major internal realignments, but it would take some time for both of them to settle to determine how they would interact.


“Pakistan was once called the most allied ally of the United States. We are now the most non-allied.”

• Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on Pakistan

[1] IOTL, Brezhnev’s health continued to decline until 1982, when a severe stroke followed by a heart attack resulted in his death. ITTL, he has died in mid-late 1977.

[2] IOTL, the 1977 Soviet Constitution, also known as the Brezhnev Constitution, was unanimously implemented by the Politburo in October of 1977.

[3] IOTL, A.A.K. Niazi did not launch a putsch, but was a very staunch supporter of the PNA. ITTL, Niazi has tried and failed to take advantage of the greater political chaos, but has only served to put Bhutto on alert.

[4] IOTL, Bhutto left the negotiations with the PNA before they were finalized to go on tour to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In this period of time, Muhammad Zia-ul Haq fully organized and implemented Operation Fair Play, with Zia-ul Haq becoming the dictator of Pakistan for the next twelve years.

 

[The Lethargic Lett]

The Nixon and Ford Cabinets and Staff - Where Are They Now?​

Richard Nixon - Secretary of State/President
After narrowly losing in the Election of 1968, Nixon temporarily retired from politics. After serving a brief stint in an advisory role to the New York law firm Mudge, Rose, Guthrie, Alexander, & Ferdon, Nixon planned yet another political comeback. Successfully winning the 1976 California Republican Senate primary against S.I. Hayakwa, and toppling Gene McCarthy’s protege, Senator George Brown Jr, Nixon was elected once more to the Senate. Nixon left that office nearly immediately to become the Secretary of State of the Rhodes Administration.

Gerald Ford - Speaker of the House/President
Ford served as the leader of the House Republicans, and as the House Minority Leader for the entirety of McCarthy’s term in office. A well-liked figure with a penchant for bipartisanism, Ford opposed the majority of McCarthy’s legislation on fiscally conservative grounds. Ford, whose long-time dream was to become Speaker of the House, planned his retirement for the 1976 elections, and did not stand for re-election in that year. Ironically, the Republicans won a majority in the House for the first time in decades in the 1976 elections. As a sign of respect for the longtime member of Congress, Ford was elected Speaker of the House when the 95th Congress convened, served one day, then resigned. He was succeeded by John Jacob Rhodes as Speaker of the House in the following vote.

Spiro Agnew - Governor of Maryland/Vice President
Continuing to serve as the Governor of Maryland, Agnew was a favourite son candidate for President in 1972. Although Ronald Reagan won the Maryland primary, Agnew reluctantly supported the candidacy of George Romney. Shortly after the Election of 1972, he was forced to step down as Governor of Maryland due to various criminal charges.

Nelson Rockefeller - Secretary of Treasury/Vice President
The former Governor of New York, Rockefeller has moved to the Treasury Department following the election of Rhodes to the Presidency. Rockefeller intends to retire after Rhodes’ term, but until then will serve as a leading liberal voice in the cabinet.

William P. Rogers - Private Attorney to Richard Nixon/Secretary of State
Having served as the Attorney General of the United States during the second term of the Eisenhower Administration, William Rogers was a personal confidant of then-Vice President Richard Nixon. Since the end of the Eisenhower Administration, he has returned to his law practice, Rogers & Wells, and serves as the personal attorney of the now-Secretary of State.

Henry Kissinger - National Security Advisor/Secretary of State
Kissinger remained on the political margins of Washington D.C. during the McCarthy years, as his counterpart in the Democratic Party, Zbigniew Brzeziński, served as the National Security Advisor. Now, it’s his turn at the political forefront of foreign policy, working closely with Secretary of State Nixon.

David M. Kennedy - Chairman of the Commission of Budgetary Concepts/Secretary of Treasury
Appointed by Lyndon Johnson as the Chairman of the Commission of Budgetary Concepts, Kennedy was removed during the McCarthy years for his frequent criticisms of the President for rapidly growing inflation. Since then, he has served as a Utah-based financial advisor.

John Connally - Vice President/Secretary of Treasury
Having guaranteed the nomination of Eugene McCarthy in 1968, the former Governor of Texas, John Connally, saw a dramatic fall from grace at the 1972 Democratic National Convention. Running for President himself in 1976, Connally saw limited success, but proved instrumental in Henry ‘Scoop’ Jackson’s acquisition of the nomination.

George P. Shultz - University of Chicago Graduate School of Business Dean/Secretary of Treasury
Serving as the Dean of the Chicago School of Business, Shultz has become a prominent laissez-faire economist, along with Milton Friedman and George Stigler.

William E. Simon - Director of the Federal Energy Administration/Secretary of Treasury
A prominent businessman and laissez-faire capitalist, William E. Simon has been appointed to form the Federal Energy Administration, to oversee Rhodes’ new energy initiatives.

Melvin Laird - Wisconsin Congressman/Secretary of Defence
A Representative for Wisconsin in the House of Representatives, Melvin Laird is a conservative hawk, who supported Goldwater in 1964, and Reagan in 1972 and 1976. Laird ran for Senator in the 1976 Senate Elections, but lost to the Democrat, Bronson La Follette.

Elliot Richardson - Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts/Nixon Cabinet Member
The long-serving Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, Richardson is the presumptive Republican nominee for Governor of Massachusetts in the upcoming 1978 gubernatorial elections, and will likely face off against Massachusetts Congressman John Kerry.

James R. Schlesinger - Assistant Secretary of Defence/Secretary of Defence
Schlesinger, a RAND Corporation defence lobbyist, is currently serving as the Assistant Secretary of Defence under Goldwater. A proponent of air power and updating the American nuclear arsenal, Schlesinger has been a big supporter of the American military build-up currently being overseen.

Donald Rumsfeld - AMC Board of Directors Member/Secretary of Defence
Rumsfeld served in Congress for several terms, and served as George Romney’s Campaign Manager in the 1972 Presidential Election. Although acknowledged by Romney as a very effective organizer, the gaffe-prone Romney was a source of frustration for Rumsfeld. Discouraged by the lack of progress on the federal level for Republicans, Rumsfeld joined the Board of Directors of the American Motor Corporation with the support of Romney, AMC’s former chief executive. Joined by Dick Cheney and Frank Carlucci as his business associates, Rumsfeld has advocated for market specialization, niche manufacturing, and fuel efficiency for AMC.

John Mitchell - New York Attorney/Attorney General
Mitchell worked with Nixon in the New York law firm Mudge, Rose, Guthrie, Alexander, & Ferdon. When Nixon briefly served as a senior partner, it was Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Guthrie, Alexander, Ferdon & Mitchell. Mitchell worked as a financial advisor to Governor Malcolm Wilson and to New York City Mayor Abraham Beame during New York bankruptcy scare.

Richard Kleindienst - Arizona Attorney/Attorney General
A private practitioner, Kleindienst served in the Arizona State House of Representatives, and served as the Republican Party Chairman for Arizona at various times. Kleindienst was the Republican nominee for Governor of Arizona in 1964, but lost to the Democrat, Sam Goddard.

Bill Saxbe - Attorney General/Attorney General
Rhodes’ first choice for Attorney General was his fellow Ohioan, Bill Saxbe. Saxbe entered the cabinet from his position as Senator for Ohio, and has since then pursued trust-busting in his position.

Edward Levi - President of the University of Chicago
A prominent and well respected attorney, Levi was the long serving President of the University of Chicago, and was an education advisor to Lyndon Johnson during his term as administration.

Winton Blount - Construction CEO/Postmaster General
The Chief Executive Officer of the construction company, Blount International, Blount has overseen several large construction projects. Running for Senator as a Republican in his native Alabama in 1972, he lost in a landslide to the incumbent John Sparkman. Blount will likely be involved in Rhodes’ infrastructure spending, particularly regionally in the South.

Wally Hickel - Governor of Alaska/Secretary of the Interior
A successful, two-term Governor of Alaska, Hickle stepped down in 1974. Since then he has been a real estate developer in Alaska, particularly in Anchorage. A political moderate and committed environmentalist, Hickel has been actively opposing Rhodes’ opening up of Alaska for heavy oil drilling.

Rogers Morton - Senator for Maryland/Secretary of the Interior
A relatively moderate Republican and Nixon supporter, Rogers Morton has served as the Senator for Maryland since his election in the 1970 Midterms. Morton was a frequent opponent of Crusade Against Poverty legislation, and, while he voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, he usually opposed further civil rights legislation. Morton also served as the Chair of the RNC, but retired in 1977.

Stanley K. Hathaway - Governor of Wyoming/Secretary of the Interior
The recently retired Governor of Wyoming, Hathaway has returned to practicing private law. Hathaway was under consideration for Secretary of the Interior by the Rhodes Administration, but was passed over for Wyoming Senator Clifford Hansen.

Thomas Kleppe - Wyoming Congressman/Secretary of the Interior
Kleppe was a Representative for North Dakota in the House of Representatives. He ran for Senate on two different occasion against the popular Democratic incumbent, Quentin N. Burdick, and lost both times.

Clifford M. Hardin - Chancellor of the University of Nebraska/Secretary of Agriculture
A professor in agricultural economics, Clifford Hardin has taught at the Universities of Lansing, and Chicago, and has served as the Chancellor of the University of Nebraska.

Earl Butz - Corn Tycoon/Secretary of Agriculture
Formerly the Assistant Secretary of Agriculture in the Eisenhower Administration, Earl Butz returned to his alma mater, Purdue University, as its Dean of Agriculture. Butz decided to go into business in the corn industry, where he took advantage of McCarthy’s Farmer Advancement Act to sell heavily subsidized corn seed to startup farms in bulk. As many of these farms folded before two planting seasons, Butz would then buy back most of the seed at a profit, and receive further subsidization by repeating the process with the old seed. Investing in several profitable factory farms, Butz has become known “King Corn,” and is one of the richest men in Indiana. His efforts to reintroduce corn to the Soviet Union after Khrushchev’s failed Virgin Lands Campaign have thus far been unsuccessful.

John Albert Knebel - Washington D.C. Attorney/Secretary of Agriculture
Knebel is a Washington D.C. based attorney, working for the law firm Howrey, Simon, Baker and Murchison.

Maurice Stans - Deputy Postmaster General/Secretary of Finance
Maurice Stans served as the Deputy Postmaster General in the Eisenhower Administration, before taking the position of Director of the Bureau of the Budget. Since then, he has served in several law firms as a senior accountant.

Peter Peterson - Assistant Secretary of Housing/Secretary of Commerce
Serving as the Chairman and CEO of the Bell and Howell Corporation, and later as the Chairman of the philanthropic Peterson Commission. Charles H. Percy served as the CEO of Bell and Howell before Peterson, and Peterson served as a Percy delegate in the 1972 and 1976 Republican National Conventions, although his political leanings were more in line with Reagan. As a Percy appointment, he is now serves as Assistant Secretary of Housing in the Rhodes Administration.

Frederick Dent - Businessman/Secretary of Commerce
A minor South Carolinan businessman, Dent is the President of Mayfair Mills.

James Day Hodgson - Lockheed Martin Board Member/Secretary of Labor
A longtime businessman involved with Lockheed Martin, Hodgson serves on the Board of Directors, and has also worked as a lobbyist and government defence contractor associate.

Peter Brennan - President of the Building and Construction Trades Council of New York/Secretary of Labor
A controversial labour leader in New York, Peter Brennan has actively opposed attempts at affirmative action programs introduced by McCarthy and then-Mayor of New York John Lindsay. Generally affiliated with Nelson Rockefeller on the state level but with Democrats on the national level, Brennan gave a very lukewarm endorsement of McCarthy in the 1972 Presidential election, but enthusiastically campaigned for Henry Jackson in 1976. Overwhelming union support was one of the only reasons Jackson won New York in the 1976 election.

John Thomas Dunlop - Assistant Secretary of Labor/Secretary of Labor
A longtime labour economist and government advisor, Dunlop has served in an advisory role to every Presidential administration since Franklin Roosevelt. Dunlop served as a labour advisor to McCarthy, and has now been appointed as Assistant Secretary of Labor under Jacob Javits.

William Usery Jr. - Chair of the John F. Kennedy Space Center Labor-Management Council/Secretary of Labor
A labour leader in the space and defence industries, Usery has served since 1968 as the Chair of a labour relations council for the John F. Kennedy Space Center.

Robert Finch - Governor of California/Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare
Finch was Nixon’s 1960 Campaign Manager, and has a long history in California politics, serving as Ronald Reagan Lieutenant Governor. Elected Governor of California in his own right, Finch won a four-way primary race between the conservative Caspar Weinberger and Edwin Reinecke, and the more liberal Houston Flournoy, and went on to defeat Jerry Brown. An economic moderate and social liberal, Finch supported Nixon’s 1976 Senate run.

Caspar Weinberger - Lieutenant Governor of California/Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare
Weinberger has been a figure in California state politics since the 1950s. A supporter of Ronald Reagan, Weinberger tried and failed to be the State Attorney General, but was appointed to Chairman of the state’s Republican Party. Weinberger lost to Robert Finch in the 1974 Republican primaries to be the nominee for Governor of California, but was able to gain the position of Lieutenant Governor.

F. David Matthews - President of the University of Alabama/Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare
Matthews is the long-serving President of the University of Alabama. When first appointed, he was the youngest President in the university’s history.

George Romney - Governor of Michigan, Presidential Nominee/Governor of Michigan, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
Having tried and failed to gain the Republican nomination in 1968, Romney succeeded four years later, only to lose to Gene McCarthy, and nearly getting third place in electoral college votes. Since then, Romney has largely faded from politics, and now serves as a leading member of the Mormon Church, and as the Chair of the non-profit organization, the National Center for Voluntary Action.

James Thomas Lynn - Ohio Attorney/Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
Lynn is an attorney for the Cleveland based law firm Jones, Day, Reavis, Pogue & Lynn, working as a senior partner.

Carla Anderson Hills - President of the National Association of Women Lawyers/Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
A California attorney, Hills is a partner at Munger, Tolles, Hills, and Rickerhauser, based in Los Angeles. She has also been an adjunct professor at UCLA, and is the former President of the National Association of Women Lawyers.

John Volpe - Governor of Massachusetts/Secretary of Transportation
The long-serving liberal Republican Governor of Massachusetts, Volpe tried and failed to become the Republican Vice Presidential nominee in 1968, and supported the candidacy of George Romney and Charles Percy in 1972 and 1976 respectively. Volpe will soon be retiring, and has endorsed Lieutenant Governor Elliot Richardson for Governor.

Claude Brinegar - Secretary of Transportation/Secretary of Transportation
Bringar was McCarthy’s Secretary of Transportation in his first term. Brinegar was notably one of the most conservative members of McCarthy’s cabinet, and was appointed due to McCarthy’s close ties to the oil industry, to which Brinegar belonged. In his shift to the left following his re-election, McCarthy replaced Brinegar with Charles Luna as Secretary of Transportation.

William Coleman - Civil Rights and Corporate Lawyer/Secretary of Transportation
A lawyer who frequently brought forward civil rights cases, Coleman was a senior partner is a senior partner at the firm Dilworth, Paxson, Kalish, Levy & Coleman. Coleman was also involved in the Warren Commission, interviewing Fidel Castro, who claimed in the interview that he had no involvement in the assassination of John Kennedy.

William Ruckelshaus - Senator for Indiana/Administrator of the EPA
Ruckelshaus, the House Leader of the Indiana House of Representatives, narrowly lost to Birch Bayh in the 1968 Indiana Senate Election, but that wasn't the end of his career. In a rematch election in the 1974 Midterms, Ruckelshaus won in an overwhelmingly Republican year. An active environmentalist and moderate Republican, Ruckelshaus was a Percy supporter in 1976.

Russell Train - Assistant Director of the ECA/Administrator of the EPA
The former Vice President of the World Wildlife Fund, Russell Train was appointed as the Assistant Director of the Environmental Conservation Agency, under its first Director, Gaylord Nelson. Train has since then continued to campaign for environmental causes.

------------------------------------------------------------------​

H.R. Haldeman - State Department Chief of Staff/Chief of Staff
A Nixon loyalist, Haldeman has worked on every Nixon campaign since 1956. Haldeman was a campaigner and campaign manager for Nixon in his role as Vice President in 1956, in his Presidential campaigns in 1960 and 1968, in his 1962 Gubernatorial campaign, and in his 1976 Senate campaign. He now serves as Nixon’s Chief of Staff in the State Department.

John Ehrlichman - Advisor to the Secretary of State/Domestic Advisor to the President
A Nixon loyalist similar to Haldeman, Ehrlichman has followed Nixon to the State Department. In the 1976 Senate Election, Ehrlichman was tasked with organizing ‘dirty tricks’ to take down Nixon’s Democratic opponent, George Brown Jr.

Alexander Haig - Chief of Staff of the US Army/Chief of Staff
An American general and security advisor, President Rhodes took a liking to him due to their similar eccentricities and personalities, and appointed him above senior military commanders as Chief of Staff of the US Army, in what many saw as a political appointment.

George H.W. Bush - Representative for Texas/Director of Central Intelligence
Elected to the House of Representatives shortly before McCarthy was elected to the Presidency, Bush has become the unofficial leader of Texas’ House Republicans, and has also been rising through the ranks of Republican House leadership in general.

Roger Ailes - Media Consultant/Media Consultant
Ailes first met Nixon in a television interview, and has since then been a media consultant for Republican presidential candidates. Originally working with Nixon, Ailes has since been taken on by the Rhodes Administration.

Alan Greenspan - Corporate Director/Domestic Policy Advisor
Alan Greenspan is a prominent businessman who has served as a director for various different corporations, including J.P. Morgan, Mobil, and the American Broadcasting Company.

Pat Buchanan - Advisor for the Secretary of State/White House Advisor and Speechwriter
Originally an editor for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Buchanan was a supporter of Barry Goldwater in 1964, and Richard Nixon in 1968. After the failed Nixon campaign, Buchanan moved to the National Review as an editor. Buchanan supported Ronald Reagan in 1972 and 1976, and returned to the Nixon campaign in 1976. Although Buchanan’s isolationist foreign policy views are at odds with Nixon and the general purpose of the State Department, Nixon still uses him as his ‘Cabinet Fixer’ to maintain the Secretary of State’s foreign policy primacy over Barry Goldwater in Defence, and Charles Percy in Housing (due to Percy’s compromise with Rhodes to be involved with foreign policy).

 

[The Lethargic Lett]

"I like Bush, but a man who gets out of the shower to piss is a bit too fancy for me."

• President Jim Rhodes on Congressman George H.W. Bush

While the McCarthy Midterms were defined by controversy, it looked like Rhodes’ midterm was going to be defined by a distinct lack of it. Rhodes was delightfully inoffensive (except to environmentalists), and the government was seen as blissfully boring after years of activist and tumultuous Chiefs of State. That being said, Rhodes’ political largesse and pork barrel spending had ingratiate him to Congress, but the effects had yet to reach the public; Rhodes’ ballooning military budget made up most of the difference for cuts to the Crusade Against Poverty, leaving inflation at a growth rate that was only slightly lower than McCarthy’s last fiscal year. The end result was that while Rhodes had the support of the self-described middle class, what Rhodes called the Phantom Public, expenses grew tighter for America’s poor, while benefits decreased.

While Republicans had to weather the storm of an expected backlash against mediocre polling for Rhodes, they did finally have the advantage of incumbency and Congressional control, and made full use of it in the election cycle. The Midterms became the first case of Rhodes ‘lying in the weeds’ as President. As Governor of Ohio, Rhodes alternated between a state of perpetual campaigning, and practically disappearing from any public engagement. In what Rhodes described as ‘lying in the weeds,’ Rhodes intentionally made himself scarce whenever there was a controversial issue, so as to draw attention (and blame) to the Ohio General Assembly rather than to the state’s executive. Considering Rhodes was notorious for having an aversion to any sort of conflict or direct confrontation, this happened more frequently than one would think for a multi-term Governor, but his election rate indicated that it worked. Instead of hitting the campaign trail to vouch for Republicans cross country, Rhodes went with his second instinct, and remained ensconced in Washington, trying to think up a piece of legislation that could bring some major positive coverage for the Republican Party. He did so with the help of the more moderate Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker, and the more conservative Speaker of the House John Rhodes.

Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker (right) listening to a committee testimony.
​

As for the Democrats, they were surprisingly more unified than one would think. Despite Henry Jackson’s landslide defeat in 1976, it was attributed less to Jackson, and more to McCarthy. The 1974 and 1976 elections had wiped out many of McCarthy’s top allies in Congress, and Jackson’s Neoconservative faction had effectively taken control of the Democratic Party going into the 1978 Midterms. The last prominent McCarthy Democrat left standing was Mo Udall, who remained, for the time being, the leader of the House Democrats. The Democratic House Whip was Dan Rostenkowski, a Lyndon Johnson supporter who had drifted into the anti-Vietnam camp during the McCarthy years, but who had since drifted into the Neoconservative camp by the 1974 Midterms. As a further concession to the Neoconservative camp, Udall had named Jackson protege Tom Foley as Assistant Minority Leader in an attempt to prevent the same type of leadership vote in the House that he had used in 1969 to replace John William McCormack as Speaker of the House. In the Senate, besides Frank Church and George McGovern being voted out of office, Hubert Humphrey had died. The unwilling champion of the Vietnam War in 1968, Humphrey had been elected to McCarthy’s vacant Senate seat, and had ironically served as an effective and loyal anti-war Democrat until his death. As it turned out, a different 1968 Presidential candidate would be entering the Senate instead. George Wallace was running to replace long-standing Alabama Senator John Sparkman. Having easily won the Democratic primary, Wallace was guaranteed to win, as Alabama remained a one party state dominated by the Democrats [1]. Other Southern Democrats also held leadership positions in the Senate, with Robert Byrd as the Democrat’s Minority Leader. Known as the “King of Pork,” Rhodes had the full collaboration of Byrd during his early spending spree.

Former Speaker of the House Mo Udall had a tenuous position as the Democrat's House Minority Leader, with Neoconservative controlling much of the party.
​

As the Midterms approached, Rhodes was able to pass tax credits and exemptions for small businesses and start-ups that indeed bolstered Republicans in the polls, and promised to further cut working class taxes. Coming out of the weed patch, Rhodes began a barn-storming campaign cross country to try and help down-ticket Republicans. As it stood, people were unsure if Rhodes had gargantuan coattails, or if 1976 had been fluke. 1978 would be the deciding factor.

Spoiler: 178 Gubernatorial Elections

Democrats - 26 Governorships - Gained One
Republicans - 24 Governorships - No Gains/Loses

Spoiler: 1978 Senate Elections

President Pro Tempore: Milton Young
Senate Republicans - Howard Baker - 52 Seats - Lost Four
Senate Democrats - Robert Byrd - 47 Seats - Gained Four
Senate Independents - 1 Seat - No Gains/Loses

Spoiler: 1978 House Elections

Speaker of the House: Mo Udall
House Democrats - Mo Udall - 226 Seats - Gained Eleven
House Republicans - John Rhodes - 210 Seats - Lost Eleven

The biggest lost for the Republicans was the loss of the House, which slipped through their fingers after all-too-briefly holding it. Likewise, the Republicans held the Senate only by a razor’s edge, but conservatives in Congress still held a governing majority. The biggest victory was for the Democrat’s Neoconservative faction, which saw three Senators move firmly into their camp: Illinois’ Alex Seith, Iowa’s Dick Clark, and Nebraska J. James Exon.

Moving into the second half of his term, Rhodes would have to work with Democrats if he was going to get anything done.


“The only three jobs where you start on top are digging a hole, governor, and president.”

• President Jim Rhodes on career paths

[1] IOTL, despite widespread speculation that Wallace would run in 1978, he ultimately didn’t, due to lack of interest and health reasons from being paralyzed from the Bremer assassination attempt. ITTL, Bremer tried and failed to go after George Romney. Wallace is in full health, and decided to go for it.

 

[The Lethargic Lett]

“The Democrats are pushin’ back, Jobs for America isn’t movin' forward as fast as it should, and lying in the weeds ain’t workin’ as well as it used to. We’re going to need a new approach to get Americans jobs.”

• President Jim Rhodes to White House Senior Advisor Earl Barnes, on the economic theories of Hyman Minsky, 1973.

Coming out of the Midterms, Rhodes was weakened, but still resilient. Although the Republicans had held on to the Senate, the House had gone back to the Democrats, with Mo Udall reclaiming the title of Speaker of the House from John Rhodes. The Democrats had been able to effectively campaign on Rhodes’ cuts to social security eligibility, and the Crusade Against Poverty, but the implementation of Rhodes’ across-the-board tax cuts in mid-1978 were able to prevent a blowout defeat. It was a something of a political draw, but it spooked Rhodes.

Looking to alleviate public pressure, Rhodes shifted to the left after the Midterms. Working with Housing Secretary Charles Percy, Rhodes re-introduced the Affordable Housing Act (AHA). Proposed in a more basic form in 1967, and reintroduced to Congress by then-Senator Percy in 1975, it had failed to pass both times due to opposition from the Democrats. While McCarthy’s proposal had been universal state housing, Percy had proposed subsidizing the construction of low-income housing to stimulate production and make homes more affordable. Percy hoped that with support from the executive office, he could finally get it through Congress, even if he wouldn’t be voting on it. Rhodes also indicated to the liberal Democrats in the House that if universal post-secondary education or an increased minimum wage passed, that he wouldn’t oppose it.

Rhodes began to consider the possibility of taking a radical course of action, going beyond his Jobs for America public works program. Inviting the relatively obscure economist Hyman Minsky to the White House as an economic advisor, Rhodes began considering Minsky’s proposal of going beyond the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act. Instead of making full employment an ideal to be pursued, as Humphrey-Hawkins did, Rhodes wanted to investigate the possibility of enforced, federally-mandated full employment. As a trade-off to gain the support of conservatives in Congress, America’s welfare state would be cut to a bare-bones, Bismarckian relief system. In what came to be called the ‘Grand Bargain,’ the proposal caught the attention of moderates, reformers, and certain conservatives, but it was viciously opposed by the liberal wing of Congress, and had uncertain prospects in the House.

The relatively obscure economist Hyman Minsky of Washington University, St. Louis, became Jim Rhodes' chief economic advisor following the 1978 Midterms. Rhodes was fascinated by his proposal of guaranteed federal employment, and his theories on the capitalist boom-bust cycle.​

As for Rhodes’ Jobs for America program, as it was, it had increased nationwide employment, but wages of the jobs Rhodes provided weren’t keeping up with inflation. Although inflation had slowed, dipping to seven percent after being up-and-down around ten percent during the McCarthy years, it continued to be an accelerating problem. The ‘standard’ projects had caused noticeable improvements in America: more universities and community colleges were being built than ever, paved road repair and expansion had been made a higher priority, more dams and military bases had been built, and the fossil fuel industries had seen a boom in production, lowering fuel prices and decreasing utility bills. However, Rhodes’ more eccentric projects, such as the Lake Erie bridge, and a newer suggestion to install hospital-grade air filters in every home in America, had failed to get off the drawing board [1].

In reaction to Rhodes’ Grand Bargain, liberal Democrats in the House instead tried to once more push through a guaranteed minimum income for all Americans below a particular income. Guaranteed minimum income had been put to the side during McCarthy’s first term in an effort to strike a more moderate economic position to appease his Southern supporters, but in his second term swerve to as far left as the Overton Window allowed in mainstream American politics (and a bit further to the left of that), McCarthy had tried and failed to get it passed through Congress [2]. With the issue back on the table, McCarthy himself came out of retirement to support the measure, in his first open political campaigning as an ex-President.

After leaving office, McCarthy had separated from his wife, Abigail, although they never officially divorced. Moving to New York, McCarthy spent most of his time writing poetry, memoirs, schmoozing with old campaign financiers and supporters in Manhattan, and doing nationwide lecture tours on university campuses (where McCarthy still remained popular, as 'A Generation’s Favourite Poli-Sci Professor’). McCarthy frequently gave comments and criticism on the Rhodes Administration, but had largely been ostracized from the Democratic Party, and was given only the minimum journalistic coverage still respectful of a former President. Although he remained acquainted with the likes of Frank Church, Ed Muskie, and George McGovern, most kept him at arm’s length, with all but the most die-hard of his loyalists considering his de facto break with Scoop Jackson and the party to be beyond the pale. Moving further to the left after the rejection of most of his legislative proposals in his second term, McCarthy had gone from being on the furthest left of social democracy to being an out-and-out Christian socialist. Keeping in touch with left wing third parties and independents, McCarthy fantasized of being the intellectual godfather of a new, left wing third party movement that would break the Democrat-Republican duopoly. Contacting the 1976 People’s Party ticket of Maureen Smith and Benjamin Spock, McCarthy proposed a broader grassroots movement. In his efforts, McCarthy approached consumer advocate and minor presidential candidate Ralph Nader, former UAW President Walter Reuther, United Farm Workers founder Cesar Chavez, People’s Christian Coalition Chairman Jim Wallis, Vermont Liberty Union Party members Peter Diamondstone and Bernie Sanders, and civil rights activists such as Jesse Jackson and Walter Fauntroy. Despite his lofty ideas, the only ones who showed any interest besides Smith and Spock was Nader and Wallis, and even then they considered the new movement as a protest party more than a fully competitive third party of equal strength to the Republicans and Democrats. While Sanders and Diamondstone appreciated the sentiment, they didn’t want to complicate their position in Vermont by associating with a broader movement, while everyone else queried by McCarthy preferred operating within the Democratic Party [3].

Former President Eugene McCarthy re-entered mainstream politics for the first time in 1979 to campaign for guaranteed minimum income. After leaving office, McCarthy moved further to the left, becoming a self-declared Christian Socialist, and associating with the People's Christian Coalition.
​

In international trade, Rhodes went out of his way to court international businesses to open locations in the United States. Rhodes was particularly interested in the Japanese automotive industry, courting companies like Honda and Nissan to open branch plants in America [4]. Some journalists and state politicians complained that Rhodes disproportionately favoured Ohio when it came to branch plants, but with Rhodes’ nationwide pork barrel spending, these complaints were largely ignored. At the same time, there were murmurs in diplomatic circles that the United States was finally going to give up on Taiwan and recognize the People’s Republic of China as the official Chinese government in the United Nations. From a foreign policy perspective, it would offer a new balance of power between the United States and the Soviets that Nixon and the State Department could work to their advantage, especially with the ongoing leadership struggle in the Soviet Union following Brezhnev’s death. Rhodes was much more interested in the implications of Zhou Enlai’s market reforms. The aging Paramount Leader was reportedly in poor health due to a recurrence of bladder cancer that had been successfully treated and put into remission. China’s leader since 1971, when Mao was assassinated, Zhou had since then begun liberalizing China’s economy, while still keeping a firm hold on government control. Considering China to be the world’s biggest untapped market for American trade, Rhodes was apparently more than willing to let Nixon begin making moves on Beijing.

While Rhodes was bringing business to America, he also had to deal with the values of international currencies once more falling out of equilibrium. McCarthy’s revaluation of currencies to ‘fix’ the Bretton Woods system had outlived its usefulness, and currencies, particularly the West German Deutsche Mark and the Japanese Yen, had once again fallen under their value, which was a bonus for exporters from those countries, but to the detriment of American producers. While Rhodes’ financial advisors suggested it was time to finally cut Bretton Woods loose and switch to a floating currency, Rhodes was hesitant to follow-through, for fear that it would cause a run-on-gold market crash and recession.

"The Colossus Named Rhodes - Another Pork Barrel Project." This caricature of Jim Rhodes, a mix of the Colossus of Rhodes and the Statue of Liberty, appeared in the New York Times in early 1979. The caricature of Rhodes stuck, and he was typically portrayed thereafter as a parody of famous American landmarks [5].
​

However, Rhodes’ fears of international market instability hit America regardless of Bretton Woods. Pakistan remained in a state of civil war, while Pakistani Baluchistan remained occupied by the Imperial Iranian army. Unfortunately, the chaos had spread to Iran itself: Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had become increasingly unpopular, especially among Islamic clerics, democratic reformers, and socialist groups, while he enforced his own brand of secular authoritarian progressivism through his ‘White Revolution.’ With the Iranian secret service’s, SAVAK’s, abilities being grossly overestimated, and with many of the Shah’s loyalists in the army occupying Baluchistan, public unrest had become unstoppable. Pahlavi had been forced to appoint the Iranian democratic politician Shapour Bakhtiar as Prime Minister in an attempt to at least remain in power as a constitutional monarch. It was a vain effort, as a high-profile assassination done with the permission of Bakhtiar had caused the government to collapse, the Shah to flee the country, and a new government to be put in place. The first oil crisis of the 1970s begun in 1979 with a drastic drop in Iranian oil production, and the imminent nationalization of Iran’s oil industry by the new government: a coalition of Marxists, Islamic Socialists, and the People’s Mujahedin.

A Red Revolution had come to Iran.


“We thought we didn’t know enough about what Khomeini stood for, and what his chances were in Iran to justify the risk, but Nixon and the Americans were already planning it, so we cooperated.”

• Former Mossad Agent Mossi Yapher, on the assassination of Ruhollah Khomeini

[1] Rhodes actually proposed this in the 1980s, along with a suggestion of building domed cities with the airfilters. While IOTL his patented air filter did sell well to hospitals and as a specialty item, he couldn't get any investors to get a domed city built; Donald Trump didn't return his call.

[2] A guaranteed minimum income for low-income families was proposed during the Nixon Administration as the Family Assistance Plan, but it was rejected by liberal Democrats (including Senator McCarthy) for not having wide enough coverage.

[3] After failing to secure the Democratic nomination in 1968 and 1972, McCarthy had an oddball swerve to radical centrism as a strict constitutionalist, running as an independent in the Election of 1976. Given McCarthy’s penchant for contrarianism, I figure he still would’ve moved to a fringe, but ITTL it’s a different fringe.

[4] IOTL, Rhodes and his team of corporate raiders (nicknamed Rhodes’ Raiders by the Ohio press) was instrumental in convincing Honda to put their American headquarters in Ohio, as well as their first American branch plant, Marysville Auto Plant, in 1982. Marysville outperformed even the most optimistic hiring estimates, and a second plant, East Liberty Auto Plant, was built in Ohio in 1989.

[5] This picture is actually by caricature artist Vectorlandia, and commissioned for this Timeline. Special thanks to @Laxault2020 for inspiring the idea.

 

[The Lethargic Lett]

“The government of Iran is an Islamic Socialist Republic, which the nation of Iran based on its long-held belief in the rule of the truth and the justice of the Qu’ran, and the principle of Zakāt and the Five Pillars of Islam to uphold the dignity of your fellow man in God’s light, without tyranny.”

• Beginning of Article 1 of the Constitution of the Islamic Socialist Republic of Iran

The Iranian Revolution was a long time coming, but the kind of revolution it would be was a matter of debate. The Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, had long taken personal advantage of billions in oil revenue, while economic conditions worsened and government suppression became less effective. His attempts at modernizing the country, the White Revolution, had turned the clergy against him, while his continued use of repression prevented any support from the left or democracy advocates. The decision to occupy Pakistani Baluchistan with the start of the Pakistani Civil War only made matters worse for the Shah. Contrary to advice from Secretary of State Nixon to crackdown with the military and SAVAK, the Iranian secret service, the Shah instead tried to liberalize, calling elections, and ending press censorship [1]. The sudden deaths of prominent, relatively young opponents of the government by ‘natural causes,’ such as Ali Shariati and Mostafa Khomeini, were attributed to SAVAK, with the latest of these kinds of deaths, that of the popular Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who died at his French residence while making preparations to return to Iran. Khomeini had been blocked from entering the country, and his death, attributed to SAVAK by the revolutionaries, was the final straw that ended the monarchy [2].

The Shah quickly fled the country after that, with what little support he had left drying up. The Shah first took a stop-over to Egypt, where he received a cold reception from President Ali Sabri. Sabri, a committed socialist in the middle of completing negotiations with Israel to regain the Sinai Peninsula, had little time for a toppled monarch, and the Shah quickly made his way to Morocco. From there, the Shah made his way to the United States, with the only cost of entry being an earful from Richard Nixon for not declaring martial law when he had the chance [3].

Secretary of State Richard Nixon with Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, shortly after the former Shah's arrival in the United States in early 1979.
​

As for the revolution itself, with the Ayatollah Khomeini dead, there was no clear revolutionary leader. Calls for a unity government by Shapour Bakhtiar, the last Prime Minister to govern under the Shah, were promptly ignored by the revolutionary forces. Shortly after Khomeini's death, the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, led by Massoud Rajavi, seized the Iranian parliament building, the Bahrestan, and declared the creation of the Revolutionary Provisional Coalition Government of Iran. A broad, Revolutionary Coalition was formed, made predominantly out of Islamic Socialists, Marxists, and reformist clergy, including the Tudeh Party, Movement of Militant Muslims, Organization of Iranian People’s Fedai Guerillas, the Combatant Clergy Association, Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom, and the Freedom Movement of Iran. Following a referendum that overwhelmingly voted to end the monarchy, the Revolutionary Coalition declared that the new government would be an Islamic Socialist democracy, and a constitution was quickly drafted.

Written primarily by the theologians Hussein-Ali Montazeri, Mahmoud Taleghani, and Morteza Motahari (a progressive, socialist, and conservative respectively) with oversight by the various leftist parties in the Revolutionary Coalition, Twelver Shia Islam was made the official state religion. A bicameral parliament was formed, with a Prime Minister and President serving as co-Heads of Government for the lower house. Significant power was put into the judiciary in the form of the Assembly of Experts for the Upholding of the Constitution, the upper house, and a direct successor body to the Assembly of Experts for the Review of the Constitution. Composed of seventy-three elected jurists, the Assembly was the top legal authority, given the power to appoint all judges (who would in turn be given full veto power to strike down any law that could be interpreted as against Twelver Islam), as well as given the power to appoint the Chief Jurist, the Head of Government [4]. The Chief Jurist would act as an advisor to the Heads of Government, and generally acting as the spokesperson of the Assembly and the clergy, but with very little actual power. The Chief Jurist would be nominated by the Assembly on the qualifications of “being well versed in Islamic regulations, in fiqh, in the plight of the people, bringing God’s light to the masses, awareness of the political and social issues of the day, and special prominence in the hearts of the people of Iran.”

Elections in Iran were called for 1979. In the initial pre-election government, Hussein-Ali Montazeri served as Chief Jurist, Mahmoud Taleghani was Speaker of the Assembly, Habibollah Peyman of the Islamic Socialist Movement of Militant Muslims as Prime Minister, and Massoud Rajavi, who first announced the Revolutionary Coalition, as President.

Chief Jurist Hussein-Ali Montazeri, the Islamic Socialist Republic of Iran's first Head of State, gives an address in front of a banner of the 'Martyr of the Revolution,' the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
​

While incredibly popular in Iran itself, the Iranian Revolution was a major re-aligning event in the Middle East and for the Cold War. While the Revolutionary government recalled the army from occupying Pakistani Baluchistan, the Shah loyalists who had been stationed there defected, relocating to Islamabad to support the Bhutto Government as the Imperial Iranian Volunteers. In Afghanistan, President Mohammed Daoud Khan, deciding not to make the Shah’s mistake doubled down on political repression. Having prepared for a domestic revolution ever since the breakdown of Pakistan, Khan had his military purged of Communists sympathizers, arresting and executing Major Abdul Qadir, and Colonel Mohammad Aslam Watanjar, who had been plotting a coup with the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan. With their military leadership wiped out, and the political leadership arrested or in exile, Khan held on to power, if tenuously [5], as he moved out of the Non-Aligned Movement, and more firmly into the American camp.

Despite the assassination of Khomeini, Nixon’s worst case scenario for Iran had more or less arrived anyway. Moving double-time to destabilize the new Iranian government as soon as possible, Nixon pulled the American embassy from Tehran, and concluded his business in the rest of the Middle East. In early-to-mid 1979, just as the Revolutionary Coalition was firmly establishing itself, Nixon was concluding negotiations between Israel and Egypt to return the Sinai Peninsula to the latter. In an agreement signed by Egyptian President Ali Sabri and Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, the Second War of Attrition ended after close to ten years of low-intensity fighting [6]. With Afghanistan drawing closer, Nixon promised military aide in occupying the Afghani-Pakistani borderland so that Khan could fulfill his Pashtun nationalist visions, on the condition of Afghan support in a war against Iran. Nixon also tried to wrangle the support of the aging President of Iraq, Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr. Al-Bakr, however, was in the midst of negotiations to unify with Syria. He was also involved in joint planning with Syria, Jordan, and Libya for another war with Israel to reclaim their lost territories from the Six Days’ War, with or without Egypt’s help. Uninterested in Nixon’s proposal, al-Bakr blew him off, but Iraq’s power behind the throne, Saddam Hussein, was much more interested.

Succeeding Golda Meir as Prime Minister in 1975, Shimon Peres successfully negotiated the status of Sinai and an end to the Second War of Attrition in 1979.
​

As for the Soviets, they were more ambivalent about Iran than Nixon assumed.

Following Brezhnev’s death in 1977, a leadership struggle had rocked the Soviet Union. While initially the Troika of Yuri Andropov, Dmitry Ustinov, and Andrei Gromyko had secured power, with Andropov at the head, they had faced significant pushback from Mikhail Suslov and Andrei Kirilenko. As a compromise, the Troika took a step back from power, with Fyodor Kulakov, who was acceptable to all sides, becoming the leader of the Soviet Union. Kulakov established himself by appointing his supporters from Stavropol and in the agricultural sector, such as his protege, Mikhail Gorbachev, into important positions like Head of Agriculture, but it wouldn’t last. Kulakov died in 1978, leading to another leadership struggle. While a competing Troika of Suslov, Konstantin Chernenko, and the younger Grigory Romanov continued to oppose direct control by the Andropov Troika after Kulakov’s death, Kirilenko was chosen as a second compromise candidate. With his power and influence on the decline in Brezhnev’s last years, Kirilenko had been able to re-position himself as an ally of Kulakov in his year in power, bringing his sizable clout in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic to bear to keep the Andropov and Suslov Troikas in check. Not content to be the garden fence between to competing power blocs, Kulakov began his own Troika, allying with with Alexei Kosygin and Gorbachev as a reformist faction.

Andrei Kirilenko (right) with Alexei Kosygin (left). Following Andropov's fall from power and Kulakov's death in office, Kirilenko became leader of the Soviet Union, forming his own Troika with Kosygin, and Kulakov's protege Mikhail Gorbachev to ward off political challengers.
​

In a competing power structure that balanced itself out as a ‘Troika of Troikas,’ the Suslov camp was opposed to the Islamic Socialists in Iran as revisionists, but they were generally supported by Kirilenko, while the Andropov Troika was undecided.

Regardless, they would have to make their decision sooner rather than later, with Nixon’s machinations falling into place.


“In the history of Afghanistan, there has never been a more insidious attempt to destroy the nation with the aid of foreign interlopers. It is for this reason that the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan has been banned, and expelled from the government."

• Radio address by Afghan President Daoud Khan, following the trial of Communist sympathizer Major Abdul Qadir, 1978.

[1] IOTL, the Carter Administration gave the Shah a “friendly reminder” to liberalize, which he did indeed do. His attempts to double-down on liberalization once the Revolution was in full swing was too little too late, doubly so ITTL, with him only taking last minute reforms.

[2] IOTL, the Shah’s appointed caretaker Prime Minister, Shapour Bakhtiar, requested that Mossad assassinate the Ayatollah Khomeini, but Mossad declined. Khomeini went on to become the Supreme Leader of Iran, ruling it as a semi-democratic (but mostly not) theocracy until his death in 1989. ITTL, Mossad approved, with pressure from Nixon and the CIA.

[3] IOTL, the Carter Administration initially refused entry to the Shah into the United States, with him living in Mexico and the Bahamas for about half a year. Carter eventually relented so that the Shah could get cancer treatment in the US.

[4] Notably, the Guardian Council, which IOTL operates in Iran as more or less a theocratic oligarchy, is not part of the Constitution of the Islamic Socialist Republic of Iran.

[5] IOTL, Daoud Khan was executed in the 1978 Saur Revolution, which put the Soviet-backed People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan in power. ITTL, Khan began planning to pre-empt them after the beginnings of the Pakistani Civil War in 1977 and early 1978.

[6] ITTL, there was no Yom Kippur War. Without the political backlash from it, Golda Meir remained as Prime Minister of Israel until 1975, before retiring in favour of Defence Minister Shimon Peres. Despite a series of financial scandals, Peres was narrowly elected in his own right in the 1977 Israeli Legislative Election.

 

[The Lethargic Lett]

“To dig up the grass, one must also dig up the roots. Beware the agents of Ho Chi Minh! Beware the Vietnamese!”

• Propaganda of the Lon Nol regime in the Khmer Republic, during the Vietnamese Genocide and Khmer-Vietnam War, 1979

As the Middle East was rocked by the Iranian Revolution, the rest of the world had just begun to settle into their own new status quo after the chaos of the 1970s. Political players from around the world suddenly had to cope with an oil crisis that few had prepared for, and that replaced growing inflation with the new economic bane of “stagflation.”

The South American War had gone from open conflict to simmering resentment. The President of Peru, Juan Velasco Alvarado, lived to see the vindication of his nation over Chile, nearly one hundred years after the War of the Pacific. Launching a first assault in 1975, Peru’s military quickly overran the unprepared Chilean, quickly taking the old Peruvian territory of Tarapaca, and pushing into Antofagasta. Fighting continued into 1976. With the Peruvians on Santiago’s doorstep, Chilean President Augusto Pinochet had been forced to sue for peace, with negotiation being concluded in 1977. Tarapaca was officially ceded back to Peru, while Antofagasta was put under temporary Peruvian occupation, and Atacama was demilitarized. In the aftermath, Alvarado’s regime was riding high, but he wouldn’t live much longer to enjoy it. With the successful conclusion of the war, anti-expansionist generals such as Francisco Morales Bermudez were forced to the side, and, when Alvarado died in late 1977, he was succeeded as President of Peru by General Luis Edgardo Mercado Jarrin [1].

On the Chilean end of the conflict, the Pinochet Regime collapsed shortly after the war’s conclusion. Following the negotiations, questions were asked on whether the previous President of Chile, Salvador Allende, had truly died from a Peruvian assassin’s bullet, or if he had been killed by Pinochet’s emergency junta. The United States, with its return to an interventionist foreign policy as the Rhodes years began, pressured Pinochet to step down in favour of General Gustavo Leigh. Leigh, perhaps the most anti-communist of Pinochet’s junta, officially set a date for new elections to be held in Chile. However, the question of occupied Antofagasta was a question for the future of Chile. Just as Peru had reclaimed Tarapaca, Bolivia believed it had a claim to Antofagasta, and both governments of Bolivia pushed for it to be transferred over to them.

Following the conclusion of Peruvian-Chilean War, Peru annexed Tarapaca, while Antofagasta was put under Peruvian occupation.​

With fresh military aid from the United States, the Bolivian General Hugo Banzer had been able to secure his position in the cities, and the United States also recognized his as the legitimate government in Bolivia. However, the elected President, Juan Jose Torres, remained in hiding in the eastern Bolivian jungles, ever since Banzer’s botched coup in 1971 had led to civil war. Torres’ guerillas remained too well hidden in the Amazon to be completely rooted out, while Trotskyist politician and labour union activist Juan Lechin Oquendo’s attempts to organize the Bolivian Workers’ Center and miners’ unions into a rebel group had largely been quashed.

The other military dictatorships of South America had seen varying levels of success. The Brazilian military dictatorship continued, with Ernesto Geisel stepping down in 1979 in favour of Joao Figueiredo. Throughout the Geisel Presidency, a loosening of authoritarianism had slowly come to Brazil, a process that American historians tend to attribute to McCarthy’s push for democratization of the United States’ South American allies, but was, for the most part, an internal feature of Brazilian politics. Dictatorships also remained in place in Paraguay and Uruguay respectively, both of which had supported Banzer in Bolivia and Pinochet in Chile. While a military dictatorship had also emerged in Ecuador, democracy continued in Venezuela and Colombia, albeit in a fragile state. In Argentina, the restoration of democracy saw the return of the populist former President Juan Peron. His death in office in turn led to a restoration of a military dictatorship, known as the National Reorganization Process, and backed by the Rhodes Administration in the United States.

The Rhodes Administration, further west, had the matter of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. Consisting of various Micronesian islands in the Pacific Ocean, it had been established as a United Nations trust under the supervision of the United States. Following his election, McCarthy had taken a more active interest in Micronesia than previous governments, and had funded an overhaul of region’s infrastructure [2]. Although Micronesia had benefited from the investment, it generally remained in limbo: The United States (and the Micronesians) was comfortable with the status quo for the time, the Soviet Union wanted an independence referendum be held, while the United Nations wanted a broader referendum on independence, continuing as a trust territory, or officially becoming a US territory.

Even further west than Micronesia, China was facing another change in leadership. Zhou Enlai stepped down as leader of China, to be replaced as Paramount Leader by his chosen successor, Deng Xiaoping. Since coming to power, Zhou had departed from Mao-era policies. Although not officially rejecting Maoism or Communism, Zhouism pursued more cordial international relations, and a relative moderation of economic policy. Despite the fact that there was a delayed reaction to his foreign policy, it had paid off, with the US shifting from exclusively recognizing the Nationalist government in Taiwan’s Republic of China, to making a shift to acknowledging the PRC. In 1979, Secretary of State Richard Nixon visited China, meeting with Zhou, as well as Deng Xiaoping. This was much to the chagrin of the Republic of China “China Lobby” in the United States, as well as the US’ other allies in Asia, namely Japan and South Korea.

"Nixon Goes to China." Secretary of State Nixon meeting with the PRC's Paramount Leader, Zhou Enlai, in 1979.​

President Park Chung-hee, the President of South Korea, was barely holding on to power. Elected under questionable means in 1963, Park had since served as a dictator by amending the country’s constitution. Although South Korea had since vast economic growth, Park’s popularity had declined with turbulent economic conditions in the 1970s, and calls for democratization in the country. Protests had been exacerbated by the beginning of the 1979 Oil Crisis. Meanwhile in North Korea, Kim Il-sung had begun to implement trade isolation and economic ‘self-reliance’ in the form of the Juche ideology. Kim’s course of action had been encouraged by a re-distancing of the Soviet Union after the death of Brezhnev, and China’s trade distancing from North Korea in particular with the advent of Zhouism. While Park and Kim had both plotted assassination attempts against the other, there had been negotiations for Korean reunification throughout the 1970s. Although that had been supported by the United States during the McCarthy Presidency, American support had retracted with the election of Rhodes.

President Park Chung-hee of South Korea's weak hold on power was shaken even more by the Oil Shock of 1979.
​

While the Japanese were concerned about the diplomatic shift with China, the Rhodes Presidency in the United States had been particularly good for Japan. With Rhodes’ efforts to open Japanese automotive branch plants in the United States, Japan had continued to prosper with their post-Second World War economic ‘miracle.’ Although the Oil Shock was rocking the world economy, Japan hoped to address it at the upcoming G7 Summit in Tokyo.

To the south, there was the matter of Vietnam. What was being called the Third Indochina War was in full swing, between Vietnam, fighting against the anti-communist regime of Lon Nol in the Khmer Republic, and his Thai backers. Nol had initiated an ethnic cleansing of Vietnamese in Cambodia in a Vietnamese Genocide, killing nearly one hundred thousand, and expelling close to four-hundred thousand back to Vietnam. Nol had further aspirations of re-establishing South Vietnam as a confederated client state of his republic. This had not gone quite as planned for Nol: despite full backing from the United States, the Vietnamese had been advancing into Cambodia, propping up the remnants of Cambodia’s socialists, primarily the formerly anti-Vietnamese Khmer Rouge, as an opposition government to Nol [3].

Despite the circumstances of the Vietnamese Genocide, the Khmer Republic continued to receive funding from the United States, in a show of Communist containment. And, although the glory days of Americans protesting their nation’s involvement in South-East Asia had long since past, it was an issue one Morris Udall intended to put front in centre.


“Four years ago, I was described by some as ‘too funny to be President.’ But, what’s happened in this country for the last four years is no laughing matter. That’s why I am announcing my candidacy for President of the United States of America.”

• Excerpt from Speaker of the House Mo Udall’s announcement of his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for President in 1980.

[1] IOTL, Alvarado never went through with his invasion of Chile, and was forced out of office by Francisco Morales Bermudez in 1975. Keeping a low profile, Alvarado died in 1977.

[2] McCarthy was fascinated with Micronesia, and dedicated a sub-chapter to it in his pre-election book in 1967, discussing the various ways the US could deal with the Trust.

[3] IOTL, Vietnam and Khmer Rouge Cambodia went to war over geopolitical and ideological differences, culminating in the toppling of the Khmer Rouge regime, and the installation of a pro-Vietnamese government. Ironically, Pol Pot took inspiration from Lon Nol when it came to ethnic cleansing. Although both horrific, Pol Pot’s OTL roughly 1.5 million killed in the Cambodian Genocide is significantly higher than TTL’s 100,000 in Lon Nol’s Vietnamese-Cambodian Genocide.

 

[The Lethargic Lett]

“You’ve got to do it Paul. They don’t trust me, and they’re not going to give me a chance. But, they don’t see you as a threat. No offense.”

• Former Governor Ronald Reagan to Senator Paul Laxalt, on the Election of 1980.

The First Oil Shock of 1979, brought about by the Iranian Revolution, weakened the global economy. In the United States, it weakened President Rhodes’ prospects as an election year was approaching fast, with 1976’s Democratic runner-up, Mo Udall already preparing his campaign infrastructure in the summer of 1979. But, what really put Rhodes in jeopardy was the Second Oil Shock of 1979.

Israel had been in a tenuous peace with its neighbours since the end of the Six Days’ War in 1968. With Egypt’s solidification into the Soviet bloc, and the Soviet line of no direct war with Israel, there had been no clear Arab coalition leader to take on Israel. While President Ali Sabri of Egypt fought the Second War of Attrition for years, it was never the overt conflict that Arab nationalists, revanchists, and hawks were looking for to reclaim territory in Sinai, Gaza, the Golan Heights, and the West Bank. The eventual negotiated return of the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt, overseen by the American Secretary of State, Richard Nixon, ended even the the Second War of Attrition, and moved Egypt away from conflict with Israel. Israel’s other neighbours, namely Syria, Iraq, and Jordan, eventually decided to take the war to Israel without Egypt’s help. Unfortunately for this alliance, Iraq would bow out as well. With Iraqi President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr’s marginalization by his Vice President, Saddam Hussein, al-Bakr formally stepped down from power, ending unification negotiations with Syria and putting Hussein in power as President. Hussein was much more interested in the immense military aid (and the oil-rich territory of Khuzestan) promised to Iraq by Nixon if there were to be a war with the new Islamic Socialist Republic of Iran, rather than a prestige war with Israel. This left Syria and Jordan alone to fight on the front lines with Israel, despite promises of expeditionary forces from other Arab nations, such as Libya and Saudi Arabia. Syria and Jordan begrudgingly discarded the idea of a surprise attack on October 1st, 1979, the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, as not being enough to close the military strength gap between themselves and Israel, and instead turned to economic means.

After rising to power, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein quickly positioned himself as an ally of the United States.​

With Iran’s oil production severely curtailed, and its oil industry in the process of nationalization, Syria and Jordan hoped to broaden the oil crisis in an embargo of Israel’s allies. The Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), with the notable exception of Iraq, agreed to an embargo, in an attempt to, at the very least, force a return of the Golan Heights and West Bank.

The ensuing embargo, finalized in place in late 1979, snowballed with the First Oil Shock. Despite production and export continuing as normal from the rest of the oil-producing world, as well as Iraq, the severe, sudden limitation in supply catapulted the price of oil upward in the Western World. Besides putting significant economic pressure on the West, the Second Oil Shock also convinced the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) that military Arabic adventures would no longer be forthcoming against Israel. Shortly after the announcement of the embargo, Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the PLO, declared an Intifada (literally meaning ‘tremor,’ but more along the lines of ‘struggle’ in its intent) against Israel, intensifying attacks from the PLO’s main bases in Lebanon, to Israel’s north.

Feeling abandon by the other Arab states with the cancellation of Syrian-Jordanian war plans, Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, declared the Intifada in 1979, in a 'homegrown' Palestinian struggle against Israel.
​

For its part, the Rhodes Administration was both bloodied and vindicated: the skyrocketing oil prices was severely damaging domestic consumption and the American consumer economy as a whole, but the effects were not nearly as bad as they could have been if not for Rhodes’ heavy investments into domestic energy production throughout his term. Despite this, action was necessary.

With the Oil Shocks throwing the currency values of the Bretton Woods system further out of equilibrium, Rhodes finally conceded to pressure from the Federal Reserve and his economic advisors, and prepared to finally and permanently take the United States off the gold standard. Although President McCarthy had been able to salvage Bretton Woods, sustaining it nearly until 1980, the unpredictability it had thrown into international trade was no longer considered acceptable or safe. Making the announcement, Rhodes declared the end of convertibility to gold, with certain exceptions to try and smoothly phase it out. Like McCarthy before him, Rhodes also declared that price and wage freezes would be temporarily put in place to prevent an explosion in already-high inflation.

Besides his announcement of the Rhodes Freeze, also labelled as the Rhodes Restructuring, the President also announced his solution to the Oil Crisis: he would call a special session of Congress, to pass huge new subsidies to the energy sectors - namely oil, gas, and coal - to increase American energy independence and alleviate the crisis. The subsidies would be paid for entirely through federal bonds, that the government would pay back to itself with interest at a later date. In the special session, Mo Udall led the opposition to the initial proposition on environmentalist grounds that subsidizing exclusively the fossil fuel would be irresponsible. In principle, Udall agreed with the proposition, but demanded diversifying spending into renewable resources, as well as addressing nuclear power in some way. Rhodes, for his part was willing to play ball. Fossil fuel subsidies were diminished, with some of the federal bond spending being reallocated to renewal resource investment, primarily more hydroelectric dams to be built as pork barrel projects. Rhodes also approved a investigative committee to identify a location to use as a repository for nuclear fuel and radioactive waste. With Rhodes getting his Emergency Energy Act (EEA), and Udall getting a compromise and bolstering his credentials for the election year, the bill passed by an overwhelming margin, with only the staunchest environmentalists and fiscal hawks being in opposition.

President Rhodes touring with the Ohio National Guard, with advisors nipping at his heels. Rhodes described the Oil Crisis of 1979 as a 'national emergency,' and earned widespread approval by quickly passing the Emergency Energy Act after a compromise with Speaker of the House Mo Udall.
​

Following the passing of the EEA, Mo Udall officially announced his candidacy for President; the first major candidate to do so. It was expected that other Democratic announcements would soon follow from the likes of George Wallace, John Connally, or other power-players of the 1976 Democratic Convention. What did come as a surprise was the announcement of Lloyd Bentsen. One of the Senators for Texas, Bentsen preempted a Connally campaign announcement, in an aggressive move to position himself as the ‘Texan’ candidate over the former Vice President. Interestingly, Bentsen was running as a ‘Guaranteed Employment Democrat,’ taking a page from Rhodes’ book, and calling for a top-down restructuring of social security and welfare, with particular emphasis put on retirement pensions. Sargent Shriver, an in-law of the Kennedy family and the “architect” of Johnson’s War on Poverty, also declared his candidacy, with the intention of portraying himself as a mainstream Democrat acceptable to all parties, bridging the Old and New Left, and harkening back to the public perception of Democratic unity during the Reign of Camelot. Despite continued speculation of both a Bobby or Ted Kennedy candidacy, both Kennedy brothers endorsed Shriver, with Bobby even granting an increasingly rare interview to discuss his support of Shriver’s candidacy.

Sargent Shriver, the "Architect of the War on Poverty," with his son, Mark, shortly after declaring his candidacy for President.
​

What was more surprising was an announcement on the Republican end of the field, but not for the Presidential nomination. Senator Paul Laxalt of Nevada, a staunch conservative who had been Ronald Reagan’s campaign manager for every election going back to 1968, declared his candidacy for the Republican Vice Presidential nomination. New Hampshire was the only state in the Union that had a Vice Presidential primary, and as it was, it was completely non-binding to the Vice Presidential selection that would be held at the Republican Convention. Regardless, Laxalt intended to challenge Vice President Mills Godwin for the nomination. Godwin had been a non-entity throughout the Rhodes Administration, attending events, stumping for the President and during the midterms, and once in a blue moon breaking ties in the Senate. Overall, he polled low with the base, and was unpopular with the higher ups, still considered a Democrat who had jumped ship, despite his complete loyalty to the Rhodes Administration. Laxalt hoped that by winning the Vice Presidential primary in New Hampshire, then campaigning amongst delegates for the position as the primaries went on, he could either pressure Rhodes into dropping Godwin from the ticket, or garner enough delegate support to gain the nomination and replace Godwin. Rhodes himself decided to ignore the announcement for the time being, and allow it to play out on its own.

But, that was not the biggest surprise that would come before the 1980 Presidential primaries. That would be the death of Robert Kennedy.


“I think Sarge really is the man who will be the next President of the United States. He has the the convictions and beliefs to stand for all Americans, and has seen enough of the world to really understand the problems we face abroad.”

• Robert Kennedy’s last interview, on the candidacy of Sargent Shriver, 1980.

 

[The Lethargic Lett]

“Look, Dick, Kennedy died because of pharmaceuticals. We can’t just crack down on the street peddlers, we’ll have to buck up on the FDA too.”

• President Jim Rhodes to Secretary of State Richard Nixon, on the declaration of the War on Drugs, 1980

The death of Bobby Kennedy came as a shock to America and the world. While John Kennedy had died, quite literally, with a bang, Bobby Kennedy has died from steadily declining health that had been kept out of the public eye. What was common knowledge was that Bobby Kennedy had been largely paralyzed from the waist-down after the 1968 attempt on his life, and since then had increasingly withdrawn from the public eye. Despite playing a role in the 1972 and 1976 election years, Kennedy was never front and center, and never returned to public office. What hadn’t been known to the public before his death, was that Bobby Kennedy remained in severe pain for the rest of his life. Kennedy had been prescribed Methadone as a painkiller, while other medications and operations addressed occasional bouts of ascites of the blood. After increasing prescriptions over the years, the Methadone side effects of hypoventilation and heart arrhythmia had caught up to Kennedy, resulting in a fatal heart attack at fifty-five years of age.

The political reaction was equal parts honourable and opportunistic. Officeholders of all stripes, except for the most ardent of remaining segregationists, paid public respects to Kennedy. Legislation important to Bobby Kennedy and generally associated with the Kennedy family, such as the Peace Corps, gained renewed interest and support in Congress. The Republican Administration used Kennedy’s death as a rallying cry as well, but focusing more on the cause of death than the policies of the man. In a White House press statement, President Rhodes declared a renewed effort to tackle drug use, and the dangers of drugs. Beyond declaring a War on Drugs on ‘street drugs,’ such as marijuana, heroin, or LSD, Rhodes also declared that he would look for the support of Congress in empowering the Food and Drug Administration to pass stricter health and safety regulations on the types of pharmaceuticals that killed Kennedy [1]. Working off of past legislation surrounding the FDA, Rhodes denounced the limp-wristed drug control measures of the McCarthy Administration, while guaranteeing that progress would be made. In fact, Rhodes was working off of the public perception of McCarthy as a ‘hippie sympathizer’ who never addressed drugs, more than the realities of McCarthy Era drug policy: The Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, the Veteran Recovery Act of 1973, and the failed Marijuana Control Act of 1975 were all legitimate attempts to categorize and decrease drug consumption in America. While McCarthy’s later attempts with the Marijuana Control Act to legalize marijuana under a federal monopoly failed, it was, at least, addressing the problem, while still being in the mindset of not been too harsh on marijuana smokers as part of the anti-war left [2]. Rhodes got the Drug Enforcement Act on the table in 1980, with the primaries already in progress, where Sargent Shriver had been the greatest political beneficiary of Kennedy’s death.

Ted Kennedy at the public funeral of Bobby Kennedy, delivers his famous "The Dream Will Never Die" speech.
​

The Democrats had a large field in 1980; one that was even slightly larger than the crowded 1976 field. Besides the frontrunner, Speaker of the House Mo Udall, and early challengers former Director of the Peace Corps and the Office of Economic Opportunity Sargent Shriver, and Senators Lloyd Bentsen and George Wallace, more had entered the fray. John Connally announced his expected run, despite his fellow Texan, Bentsen, getting the drop on him; Jimmy Carter, the former Governor of Georgia and 1976 Democratic Vice Presidential nominee, led the pack of New South candidates, with former Governor of Florida Reubin Askew, and South Carolina Senator Fritz Hollings trailing behind him in the polls. Besides them, Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Senator Dale Bumpers of Arkansas, and the African American Representative of Washington D.C.’s at-large district Walter Fauntroy ran as Favorite Son candidates. Udall ran on the same New Left liberal platform that nearly won him 1976, while Shriver ran as a ‘reconciliation’ Kennedy Old Left candidate. Bentsen was running to fill the guaranteed employment niche in the Democratic Party; Jimmy Carter had a particular religious bent to his campaigning, which drew the attention of the People’s Christian Coalition, while all the other candidates were various flavours of moderate.

Udall easily won the Iowa caucuses, with Shriver in second, Carter in a surprise third, and Bentsen in fourth. Udall was similarly successful in the Maine primary, narrowly beating Shriver with the endorsement of former Vice President Edmund Muskie, who had been talked out of pursuing his own presidential campaigns by McCarthy and others in 1976 and 1980 for fear of splitting the New Left vote. Udall would also win in New Hampshire, before the death of Bobby Kennedy in late February shifted the polls to Shriver, who was able to capitalize on being part of the Kennedy family. Polling before-hand indicated that Shriver would have won the Massachusetts primary anyway with the active support of Ted Kennedy, but a sympathy vote also put Vermont in Shriver’s column.

As for the Republican nomination, Rhodes’ cabinet coalition of the party factions had held, despite the previous year’s death of Secretary of Treasury Nelson Rockefeller, and he cruised unchallenged through the primaries. The media coverage on the Republican side was instead focused on Paul Laxalt’s quixotic Vice Presidential campaign, as he won the New Hampshire Vice Presidential primary by a comfortable margin over sitting Vice President Mills Godwin, who had been playing a Rose Garden strategy. Using the momentum of his New Hampshire victory, Laxalt trailed Rhodes’ campaign, state by state, trying to gain the support of local delegates. Throughout early-to-mid March, Rhodes swept the primaries in South Carolina, Florida, and Alabama unopposed, with Laxalt also securing the endorsement of the caucus delegates in those states. Running as a conservative alternative without threatening the position of the President himself, Laxalt continued to gain support compared to the unpopular Godwin, but the ultimate success of his challenge remained questionable.

Paul at the Podium: Paul Laxalt went from state to state in the first concerted Vice Presidential campaign in modern American history.
​

Moving into the Southern states, the success of the Democratic candidates dramatically changed. Wallace, Askew, and Carter won their home states in the South of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, respectively. In Alabama and Florida, Carter placed second, with Bentsen in third. Connally continuously failed to gain a foothold, dragging behind the other candidates. Moving back north, the ball was back in Udall’s court, winning the Puerto Rico primary, along with a critical win in the Illinois primary. Placing a distant second in Illinois, Shriver had lost his earlier momentum, and had moved to a position of only doing as well as he was because of vote-splitting amongst moderate Democrats.

As March came to an end with two more Udall victories in Connecticut and New York, it became increasingly clear to the moderates as well, that without a late-game unifying figure late Henry Jackson, they may not have the momentum to stop a Mo Udall candidacy for the second time in a row.


“This Nader? Nader, we want you to be the new FDA Commissioner. We need someone with grit who can crack down on that sort of thing. By the way, it is Rhodes.”

• President Jim Rhodes to consumer activist Ralph Nader, 1980

[1] Rhodes' proposed War on Drugs is on similar legislative grounds to Nixon's OTL declaration, but with some more noble intentions than Nixon's attempts to de-legitimize the anti-war movement and African Americans. Rhodes' proposal is also more focused on the legal drug industry as a whole.

[2] In his OTL 1976 Independent, pseudo-libertarian campaign for President, part of McCarthy’s platform was the legalization of marijuana.