Ike dies early

Straha

Banned
Eisenhower dies, 1956. Consequences? Do we get this world?

1. Nixon was MUCH less the economic conservative than Ike - massiveFederal response to the poor economy of Ike's 2nd term, especially the farm bills - we are not permanently burdened with a liberal Democratic class of 1958 - the we are all Keynesians now speech gets made in 1957
2. the 1965 voting rights act comes in 1960. Nixon at this stage regarded chasing Dixiecrat votes as 'fools gold' - his sea change on this in OTL comes 64 - 68
3. He uses the Berlin Crisis series of 58-61 to bring in detente and ostpolitik a decade early - he was a realist as regards the USSR however much he would feed rhetorical red meat to the anticommunist hardliners on the stump
4. The original Cuba plan goes in. Two air strikes to finish off Castro's AF, a beach head, a broadcast by the new provisional Cuban government asking US support, followed by Marine and Airborne landings to finish Fidel off. Red remnants swapped for zeks (200 K Cubans go into eastern exile, swapped for Poles, Ukrainians, etc.). 25K US dead in a six weeks campaign - 150K dead on the island. We pacify Russia with a deal allowing them to build the wall and pulling the IRBM's out of Italy, Turkey and England.
5. No UN intervention in Congo. We allow Mobutu to do our dirty work early. Katanga allowed independence. Left ministate around Stanleyville kept alive by Egypt and Russia against US indifference.
6. No Kennedy tax cut - this one took a liberal Democrat to pull off.
7. No Laos treaty of 1961. Intervention in RVN limited to spec forces, a few air units, and limited advisors. When it goes sour in 62-63, Nixon cuts his losses - several million refugees taken off to Taiwan and Korea (most will ultimately migrate to US) including major military equipment. Our line of defense shifts to Thailand buffered by puppet Lao warlords. US occupies Spratleys and Parcels with puppet RVN government.
8. No attempt at multilateral nuclear force with Europe
9. START limits negotiated in early 60's but include full right of both sides to defensive and space weapons.
10. French pull out of formal NATO sooner, probably within a year of our withdrawal from Indochina.
11. US relationship with Latin America frostier but less US inhibition of military coups.
12. After Nixon is assassinated in Dallas by Castroite Oswald, Lodge serves out balance of term but loses nomination to Barry Goldwater who is swept in the 1964 elections by JFK.
 
If Eisenhower dies off a bit sooner, say before he has the CIA to overthrow the government in Iran and leave the Shah in power, the Islamic revolution of 1979 doesn't happen, and we have nothing remotely resembling the terrorism movement which torments the muslim world today. In fact, Iran may well be a prosperous democratic republic today.

Of course Nixon may well have done the same thing Ike did.
 
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