To truly understand why the Republicans won in 1980 we must understand the backlash against Jackson. Jackson with the Panama War had burnt the goodwill of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party quite quickly. They had been willing to deal with his opposition to busing and hawkish rhetoric due to him expanding healthcare and implementing a public option, but they couldn’t tolerate another Vietnam. Senators such as Mike Gravel and George McGovern protested the Panama War and called its end while conservatives attacked the Jackson administration's handling of the war. Once again Paul Laxalt became one of the most vocal critics of the Jackson administration and called for an investigation of the handling of the Panama War. As more coffins draped in American flags arrived in DC and the economy faltered the popularity of an investigation grew.
The Jackson administration faced challenges in breaking inflation as the Panama Canal still being damaged and under attack by the FRS spiked the prices of products all over America. But the most unexpected dip in popularity came when he met with Pope Clement XV in Rome. The meeting was infamous due to the public disagreement over the issue of Latin America. Clement XV asked Jackson to stop funding the JNP, Somozas, and OPN due to their war crimes and crimes against humanity. Jackson refused believing the far-right regimes were the lesser of two evils flat out refused. Clement XV fiercely argued with him, and Jackson stormed out of the meeting.
A week later Clement XV had a stroke in his sleep on March 15th and was found dead in the morning. The stress of the papacy killed him as he had put everything, he had into being Pope and fighting for the third world. The 1979 papal conclave was one watched by all living in Latin America. They had an ally in Clement XV and were hoping to have another one. On March 14th, a company of the Nicaraguan army destroyed a church in FSLN territory and murdered the priest who presided over it. On the 15th three churches were fired bombed by unknown assailants (presumed to be supporters of the Somoza regime). With anti-Catholic violence spreading the papacy was rocked. Originally the conclave was expected to pick Franz Konig due to his moderate stances, but they realized they needed someone more forceful. One who had experienced this kind of repression firsthand. On the second ballot of the conclave cardinal Aloisio Lorscheider was chosen as the next pope. Lorscheider’s feelings on the far-right could best be described as unsympathetic at best and pure hatred at worst. He had seen the tyranny of right-wing dictatorship in his home country of Brazil and wasn’t going to let the JNP, Justine, OPN, or Somoza's get a free pass. He took the name Pope Nicholas VI after Pope Nicholas I who was notable for his crusade against poverty and charity to the poor.
Pope Nicholas VI.
When Kirkpatrick turned on the TV to see Nicholas VI elected as Pope she allegedly remarked “you’ve got to be fucking joking.” Jackson’s nightmare with the Catholic Church was about to get much worse.
Right in time with Nicholas VI ascending to pope the FDN resumed their offensive with the help of 200 Cuban volunteers and 2,000 FSLN soldiers who joined the offensive. This time the experienced FSLN and Cuban soldiers, who had been smuggled in as either tourists or aid workers broke the JNP-OPN defenses. Combined with the election of Nicholas VI boosting morale they were able to first get into artillery distance of San Salvador. After two days of bombarding the city, they pressed onwards despite mounting losses and US and Honduras bombing FDN positions. Still, they pressed on as FDN sympathizers in San Salvador joined the fight by sabotaging the JNP and OPN forces with barricades, bombings, and declaring a general strike. This cost the JNP valuable resources to crush the saboteurs allowing the FDN to enter the city. At this point it looked like the JNP was going to collapse Juan Alberto Castro made a fateful decision that would change the history of the Latin American Emergency. On May 1st, the May Day offensive was launched by the Honduras Army. Honduras fighter jets entered into FDN airspace and per usual bombed the positions of the FDN but also factories in FDN territory. Twenty minutes later Honduras soldiers crossed the El Salvador-Honduras border. The Honduras soldiers were met with a scene straight out of hell. In the sweltering jungles FDN soldiers fought tooth and nail against the Honduras soldiers, inflicting heavy casualties. The decision to invade El Salvador did do what it was intended though. Save the JNP. The FDN was forced to pull out of the house to house fighting that consumed parts of San Salvador to mount a defense against Honduras. But this did not have the intended consequence of crushing the FDN. In fact, it only made them more popular as Salvadorians were horrified at the invasion. Most began to see the JPN as puppets of the hated Honduras government and radicalized the populace into either supporting the OPN or FDN. The OPN with the surge of popularity came out against the invasion and denounced it as a “Jewish plot” to destroy the nation. With the surge in popularity the OPN ramped up its massacres and murders of Christians.
Catholic church in El Salvador being burned down by the OPN.
The war in El Salvador did have an unintended consequence of the collapse of the Somoza regime. With Honduras distracted the FSLN used the open skies to their advantage. Without a fear of being killed in an airstrike the FSLN moved into the outskirts of Managua. To make matters worse for the Somoza regime was that FSLN sympathizers rioted in Managua, crippling their remaining soldier's ability to resist the FSLN. To the shock of Central America, the FSLN entered the city on May 20th and the Somoza regime ended. The remaining Somozas fled to the US and would never face any punishment for their corruption, murder, war crimes, or torture. With this Daniel Ortega became the president of Nicaragua and was intending to rebuild the war-torn country. But things changed when a clash between the militias on the Pacific coast and FSLN soldiers clashed on May 23rd. The clash killed thirty people and the FSLN gave chase, unknowingly invading Honduras. Honduras soldiers protecting the militia members opened fired on the FSLN, killing five. The next day a Honduras reconnaissance plane was shot down in Nicaragua. Honduras had been well known for its support for the Somoza and right-wing regimes in Central America. To make matters even worse for the invasion of El Salvador was considered an attack on a sister revolution and with high tech weaponry coming in from the US the FSLN suspected Nicaragua would be next on the chopping block. Furthermore, in Nicaragua and other left wing countries Honduras had become a pariah state for its known allegiance to the US and Somozas. It was this animosity and fear that Ortega decided to remove the Castro regime once and for all. On May 29th Nicaraguan soldiers assaulted the nation of Honduras. The border was lightly defended by Honduras most soldiers went to El Salvador for the invasion.
Daniel Ortega, the new dictator of Nicaragua.
Pope Nicholas VI condemned both the invasion of El Salvador and the invasion of Honduras as illegal and murderous. He saw both the FSLN and Honduras as immoral for their invasions and called for peace, even offering to mediate peace talks but neither side listened. Despite him pleading with Ortega he refused to back down.
The Nicaraguan soldiers rushed towards Tegucigalpa in an attempt to quickly end the war. The Honduras military immediately pulled soldiers out of El Salvador to defend themselves from the invasion. The first major battle of the war was the battle of Danil, which connected three major roads, including one connected to Tegucigalpa. The battle of Danil could’ve easily gone in Honduras’s favor if they had not invaded El Salvador, but there wouldn’t have been an invasion if Honduras hadn’t invaded El Salvador in the first place. The battle of Danil was brutal as the battle-hardened Nicaraguan soldiers grinded down the Honduras soldiers, who hadn’t seen combat or were just pulled from El Salvador and sleep deprived. Combined with a distracted air force Danil fell after a week of brutal fighting. The city was reduced to rubble in most parts, but Ortega’s plan had succeeded. The day after Danil fell members of the OPN raided soldiers stationed in the state of Valle, killing twenty. With the fall of Danil, Nicaraguan soldiers launched an attack on the state capital of El Paraiso, Yuscaran from two directions, capturing it in three days.
FSLN soldiers in Yuscaran.
With the fall of Yuscaran Jackson took drastic action to buy time for Honduras. On March 10th, 1979, the US launched several airstrikes on Nicaraguan soldiers. On March 11th, the United States announced a blockade of the Nicaraguan coastline controlled by the FSLN government. Later that day an airstrike on supply lines hit a convoy carrying two tons of ammunition. The ensuing explosion killed over one hundred people. The American intervention in the Latin American Crisis served only to anger the people of Nicaragua. On March 15th after a vigil a group of students made a radical decision. In the early hours of March 17th, 1979, over a hundred students protested at the US embassy in Managua. US marines at the embassy watched the protest closely and originally were minimally concerned. But as the protest swelled to 10,000 after another round of bombings was reported by the government. As casualties mounted from the day. In the city of Danil an airstrike killed thirty civilians and ten soldiers. As a student with a megaphone gave the list of the martyrs the crowd’s anger grew. Soon several members of the crowd in a fit of rage started throwing bricks at American banks and soon enough rioting broke out. The Managua police couldn’t do much as the riots grew and were outnumbered. The army wasn’t too much concerned with it as American businesses were being targeted but then the anger turned onto the embassy. Rocks were thrown at the embassy and windows were smashed. American marines in the embassy, fearing the crowd would attack the embassy requested an evacuation for the staff and themselves. When the helicopters were sent into the Nicaraguan airspace rumors of an invasion spread amongst the crowd. Ortega called Washington to see what was going on as a precaution and the ambassador to Nicaragua Elliot Abrams picked up. Abrams promised that the helicopters were only there for “caution” and was deliberately vague to prevent Ortega from knowing the location of where they were heading as he didn’t trust Ortega. Ortega desperately tried to get more information out of Abrams but couldn’t. The Nicaraguan Army was put on high alert. This decision caused the crowd to panic, and students attempted to storm the embassy. The marines fearful for their lives, deployed tear gas and hit the students with their rifle butts.
At that point as the helicopters arrived students stormed the embassy. All hell broke loose as tear gas was deployed inside the embassy and shots were fired somewhere. No one knows who shot first, but someone shot someone a block away from the embassy. A man laid dead on the sidewalk. Ortega ordered the army to break up the riot near the embassy, wanting to avoid an invasion but it was too late. Molotov cocktails and rocks were thrown at the embassy as soldiers tried to evacuate the embassy. Ortega immediately called Abrams and made clear he had nothing to do with it. Abrams and the state department weren’t convinced. Even when Nicaraguan soldiers attacked the rioters with tear gas and batons the rioters trudged on. US marines desperately tried to quicken the pace of the evacuation as the two hundred people who worked at the embassy were evacuated into chinook helicopters. After around an hour the staff was fully evacuated and just in time. The rioters set fire to the back of the embassy and with the fire department overwhelmed by the riots there was no possibility the embassy wouldn’t be burned to the ground. From there the marines were quickly evacuated as the fire consumed the first floor. No one had died luckily due to the quick response by the US marines but the images of the American embassy being besieged and burned down by militant socialists dismantled the competence of the Jackson administration. How the American people were supposed to trust Jackson after this failure was beyond most Americans. An official investigation was started into American actions in Central America soon after, spearheaded by Mike Gravel of Alaska and Paul Laxalt of Nevada.
The investigation exposed the US’s support for death squads responsible for the murder of numerous priests and just about every war crime under the sun. Not exactly shocking for anyone who paid attention to the fact aid was being sent to any thug who supported capitalism over communism in the third world, but it did shock Catholics and progressives. Gravel called for Jackson’s impeachment while Catholic priests gave sermons against the Jackson administrations support for the JNP and OPN. Pope Nicholas VI officially called for all aid to be cut off from the US to the JNP and OPN. Most Americans sadly could care less about the fact death squads were being sent weapons and money but rather the fact Nicaragua was winning against Honduras. Why should they care if some communists were being killed in El Salvador? The more the merrier in fact as they did blow up the Panama Canal. It only seemed like the anti-war folks and the Catholics condemned the death squads. Only a couple other groups such as pro-life groups and politicians opposed the JNP and OPN for their anti-Catholicism and murder of political dissidents. The exposure of the widespread mass killings by the death squads in El Salvador had far reaching effects across the world. First was the radicalization of Catholics. Seeing their fellow Catholic brethren get butchered by the government they put so much trust in. Millions of Catholics in America alone who were originally hesitant in their support for Nicholas VI soon became the most fervent and zealous supporters of the pope. Hundreds of thousands of Catholics also became committed to the cause of anti-imperialism and support for the poor. For the former they viewed Jackson’s foreign policy as a direct attack on Christianity with America’s support for death squads that murdered and tortured pius men like Romero and quite brazenly violated “thou shalt not kill.” In addition to that bishop Fulton J. Sheen, a man who opposed birth control and abortion denounced the wars in Latin America. Sheen was one of the most influential bishops in American history and his opposition to the war in Latin America convinced many Catholics to oppose war fervently. Amongst those was future representative and friend of Gore Vidal Bill Kauffman who was at the same rally as Sheen when he condemned the Latin American Crisis. Sheen would shortly die afterwards but he managed to change the course of American Catholicism forever.
The latter they became more active in due to it being emphasized by Pope Nicholas VI and so priests followed it. In addition to the Pope’s emphasis on poverty the news reports of a deteriorating economic situation in America and de-industrialization pushed Catholics to take action in places such as the rust belt with food drives and donating to food drives for laid off workers. As the poor flocked to Catholicism, more action against poverty would follow. Catholics have become some of the most politically active groups in America with them being at the forefront during the Hightower administration's decision to review Taft-Harley and the debate to continue to implement universal healthcare in the 1990s. Furthermore, the pro-life movement has been given a major boon due to the aggressive activism by Catholics such as Dennis Kucinich and James D. Griffin restricting abortion during their times as governor. Both of them would be self-described members of the “blue collar coalition” which opposed abortion but supported social democratic economic policies. Kucinich especially has been popular with his support for avowed socialists such as Governor Mike Connolly of Massachusetts and activist Cornel West has put his radical turn front and center.
Arguably the biggest influence in Kucinich’s view of the world was the Jackson administration’s foreign policy and Nicholas VI’s papal doctrine which expressed solidarity with the poor and strict anti-authoritarianism. Originally a supporter of Jackson he became very critical of him right after becoming mayor of Cleveland. Yeah, he passed a public option but for many poor Americans he felt like it wasn’t enough. Kucinich saw the poverty in Cleveland and begged the Jackson administration to do anything over it. Instead, they dropped more bombs and armed more death squads that produced unwilling martyrs. Every month he saw headlines about a death squad decapitating another priest or thousands dying in the Latin America Crisis. But when he looked for allies to help the poor or help the victims of war, he always found an ally in local Catholic church.
As the situation in Honduras turned into a stalemate as Jackson bombed Nicaragua shortly after the burning down of the embassy, he declared Nicaragua a terror state that attempted to kill diplomats and justified the bombings by saying he was defending the Americas from communism. Unfortunately for him Americans weren’t buying it. Catholics and progressives led by young radicals such as Bill Kauffman and Harvey Milk respectively punished Jackson for his decision with hundreds of thousands marching against war. Kauffman called for an immediate end to military aide for the JNP, Honduras, Panama, and the OPN while calling for a complete withdraw from Panama, and for the impeachment of Jackson for crimes against humanity.
Jackson was certainly not having a good time as president. He had lost his own party and with a worsening economic situation he was nearly doomed for re-election. But if things couldn’t get worse, he was terribly wrong. Remember Persia?
Iranians protesting the Shah during the Iranian Revolution
Well, the Shah had done a terrible job since the near overthrow of his regime in 1977 the resistance to the Shahdom went underground but not away. The Islamists had decreased in popularity but still had a lot of political sway in Persia. Furthermore, the People Mujahedin was the most popular organization opposed to the Shah as hatred of American imperialism reached a breaking point all over the world due to the Jackson administration's foreign policy. The People Mujahedin openly supported socialism and anti-imperialism and was thus very popular in Persia after the death of Ruhollah Khomeini. With their own charismatic leader in Massoud Rajavi the People Mujahedin became the de facto opposition to the Shahdom and began to arm themselves. On March 30th, 1979, that night came when the Shah left the country for Switzerland to receive surgery for his ever-worsening cancer. With the Shah out of the country the Islamists and socialists began mass protests against his rule. In Tehran soldiers fired at a crowd of protestors, killing ten people and injuring fifty. The day was known as Black Thursday and overnight the Shah’s regime collapsed. Both Massoud Rajavi and Ali Khamenei called for an end to the Shahdom. On Friday a general strike was declared as the government teetered on the edge of total destruction. In retaliation the interim government, led by the military ordered striking dock workers to be broken up by the Persian Navy. This would’ve surely resulted in a massacre if the dockers didn’t back down which they refused to. However, Captain Bahram Afzali, a member of the communist Tudeh Party led a mutiny on a cruiser and hundreds of sailors joined in. By the end of the day 40% of the navy was in a full-on rebellion and 20% deserted. Inspired by this, soldiers sympathetic to Islamist or socialist ideals joined the protestors and by Sunday Qom had fallen to the Islamists without a single shot being fired. On Monday soldiers retreated from Tehran as militias and deserting soldiers outgunned and outnumbered the remaining soldiers so severely, they would’ve been massacred if they dared to fire a single shot. With the people and the military in full on revolt the junta fled on a flight to France.
With this Persia was no more and in Tehran Islamists and socialists celebrated the end of the Shahdom. Shortly thereafter a congress was set up in Tehran led by Massoud Rajavi, who had coordinated the general strike. The interim government started the National Revolutionary Congress (NRC) and immediately problems came up. First of all, the Islamists and the socialists had radically different ideas for the nation. The Islamists wanted a nation guided by ultra-reactionary social values that stripped women of their rights and seeked a liberal economic agenda. The socialists called for keeping the reforms that were implemented by the Shah that benefited women while nationalizing oil and other industries to complete their promise of socialism. Furthermore, they called for an alliance with the USSR to protect against US imperialism. The Islamists balked at this idea as the USSR’s oppression of the religious terrified them and denounced the idea as an insult to God. By the end of the NRC on August 9th the only thing they could agree on was scheduling presidential and congressional elections for February 20th, 1980. These elections would decide the fate of the Iranian Republic as Islamists promised a reactionary social agenda, liberal economic agenda, a powerful presidency, and Islamic education. while the People Mujahedin-Tuden Alliance, officially the Popular Iranian Front (PIF) called for nationalizing industry, an alliance with the USSR, proportional representation, a parliament, a prime minister, and abolition of the presidency. The PIF ran Massoud Rajavi, and the Islamist National Green Party ran Ali Khamenei.
Massoud Rajavi in a colorized campaign ad (1980)
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (2005)
The unstable situation in Iran caused the worldwide recession to deepen with oil prices increasing by three dollars. Even worse the thought of a communist Iran caused investors to pull out of Iran causing further doubt in the market. Jackson was terrified of yet another country falling to communism which looked likely as Rajavi was polling 7% ahead of Khamenei with 44% of the vote and the PIF was winning the congressional elections with a majority of seats. Jackson did everything in his power to make sure the National Green Party won by sending them millions of dollars in money and in case they lost guns. Two weeks before the election a group of socialists and Islamists clashed in the city of Arak. A man pulled out a gun after the brawl started and killed seven. After the Arak Incident the PIF and Islamists respectively started to arm themselves to the teeth with neither trusting the other to peacefully accept the results only fueling more hatred and more militias. Come February the world watched in bated breath as Iran was on the brink of civil war.