Long Live the King: An MLK Survives Collab TL

May 8th, 1968 - Governor Rockefeller accepts after Nixon offers the position of Secretary of State.

May 10, 1968 - Nelson Rockefeller ends his candidacy for President and publicly endorses former vice-president Nixon for the nomination. This leaves Nixon as the prospective nominee for the Republican ticket.

May 27th, 1968
- Nixon offers the Vice Presidency to the Governor of Massachusetts, John Volpe.
 
May 3rd, 1968, Paris - French police attempt to break up a meeting of student activists and radicals at the Sorbonne. A large riot errupts. Accounts vary as to the exact details, but at some point, police open fire using live ammunition and 12 students are killed. (1)

May 4-5,th, 1968, Paris - Major riots and street fighting break out in the Latin Quarter. Students attack police with cobblestones and petrol bombs. Police fire on students in several occassions. Over the weekend, 21 more students are killed and over 500 are injured. 8 police officers are killed and 43 injured. Many newspapers and national trade unions condemn the violence, many blaiming the police for overreacting amd using heavy handed tactics.

May 6th, 1968, Paris - Trade unions call a general strike and well over a million people march through the streets, demonstrating against police.

1 - OTL, as far as I remember, no students were killed in the Mai 68 events.
 
April 16th, 1968 - King sends a letter back to Nixon urging him to disavow the support of Strom Thurmond and the segregationists, and pledge to uphold civil rights
April 17th 1968- Nixon meets with campaign staff to discuss the possibilities of abandoning the southern strategy. Memories of MLK's roll in kennedy's victory 8 years prior spurs him to make the move
April 22nd, 1968 - Seeing the divide in the Republican Party, George Wallace offers conservative congressman, John M. Ashbrook, to be his running mate.
 
April 22nd, 1968 - Seeing the divide in the Republican Party, George Wallace offers conservative congressman, John M. Ashbrook, to be his running mate.

May 12th 1968 - (Although he had initially refused the offer) Seeing no other possible options in securing the priorities of the conservative wing of the Republican Party, and after an unsuccessful meeting with presumptive nominee Richard Nixon, Ashbrook reluctantly accepts the offer to be Wallace's running mate.

June 1st 1968 - Nixon reveals his "Swift Peace" strategy on how to tackle the war in Vietnam. He calls for a quick end to the war should he be elected. "Swift Peace", as Nixon puts it, would end the war within the year. The strategy calls for an immediate end to the draft, and gradual withdrawal of US forces currently deployed (albeit without a public timetable). On the flip side, Nixon suggests that a series of massive and overwhelming bombing campaigns may be necessary to force a ceasefire. Nixon declares his intention to seek peace without such campaigns, hoping that the threat alone could bring the North Vietnamese to the table. Nixon ends the speech declaring that: "it is time we (the United States) provide the means, not the men, for other free countries to project their destinies."

June 3rd 1968 - After a discussion with his wife Pat, Nixon sits for an interview with still-rising journalist Barbara Walters. While she asks plenty on his positions, she primarily focuses on the assassination attempt on the candidate's life. Nixon claims to have forgiven his shooter, calling him "a sick individual, who obviously needs help that we can give."

June 3rd 1968 - Valerie Solanas assassinates radical pop-artist Andy Warhol and art critic Mario Amaya at Warhol's famous studio, "The Factory". After a short standoff, Solanas commits suicide by cop.
 
This will sort of being by backtracking a slight bit. It also kind of skips June 5th to July 9th a bit. I'm guessing others will have to work on that.

April 10th, 1968: Hoping to help secure MLK's support, while not completely abandoning Vietnam, Johnson and Humphrey agree to slightly cool down major American offensives for the next few months at least until the DNC, and instead seek a strategy of defense and securing all currently occupied territory.

April 15th, 1968:
Viet-Cong forces begin planning a new offensive, hoping to take advantage of some weakness in the new strategy employed by American forces. This offensive would later be called by some as the Second Tet Offensive.

July 9th, 1968: Humphrey, hopeful to gain MLK's support, begins to speak on how he plans to handle the end of the Vietnam War, declaring, "The death of our boys is nearing it's end. Victory is at hand."

July 12th, 1968:
The surprising new second Tet Offensive launches to great success, using both sabotage and forces dung deep within American lines to force a surprise attack with devastating effect. Though not as great a success for the Viet Cong as the first Tet Offensive, it none the less proved a huge embarrassment for Johnson and Humphrey, especially the later, who received much of the blame as he had begun making it a major point in his campaign in the recent weeks that he was taking on many of the Vice President's duties, as well as his earlier declaration a few days before, which was now being compared to Chamberlain's infamous line, "Peace in our time".

July 13th, 1968: Humphrey begins to dramatically slide down in the polls, while some of his opponents such as RFK and Nixon see massive boosts in their own polling.

July 17th, 1968: A flustered Johnson and Humphrey agree to abandon the strategy of defense, and begin doubling down on offensive attacks on the Viet Cong. This results in even more American lives lost and further angers many of the anti-war movement on the homefront.
 
June 11, 1968 - Robert F. Kennedy wins the democratic nomination after a hard fought battle against incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Eugene McCarthy. The former calls up Kennedy and congratulates him. Richard Nixon wins the Republican nomination

June 13, 1968 - Robert F. Kennedy congratulates Nixon on his win and looks forward to the election.

June 16, 1968 - Lyndon Johnson is nearly assassinated by a Vietnam protester.
The DNC wasn’t until August I believe. No way RFK could have won the nomination yet.
 
July 15, 1968- Robert John Sidney McCain III, the son of Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Command, Admiral John S. McCain, Jr., due to brutal beatings and torture from his captors, his health was weakened, he contracted pneumonia and died in Hỏa Lò Prison, know by American Soldiers by its nickname "Hanoi Hilton"

His name and death was recorded mentally by a fellow inmate, Douglas B. Hegdahl III and would not be made public knowledge until after McCain's remains would not be repatriated to America until a month after ceasefire, being positively identified by his father and buried along side his grandfather in Arlington National Cemetery.
 
June 20, 1968 - Vice President Humphrey is injured in a car accident on his way to a rally in Virginia. He spends much of the remaing weeks in the hospital until his leg heals

June 25, 1968 - Robert F. Kennedy is interviewed by Walter Cronkite on NBC

July 4, 1968 - Lyndon Johnson addresses the American people and wishes them a happy 4th of July
 
May 8th, 1968 - Governor Rockefeller accepts after Nixon offers the position of Secretary of State.

May 10, 1968 - Nelson Rockefeller ends his candidacy for President and publicly endorses former vice-president Nixon for the nomination. This leaves Nixon as the prospective nominee for the Republican ticket.

May 27th, 1968
- Nixon offers the Vice Presidency to the Governor of Massachusetts, John Volpe.


Wow, you really are offering us a "New Nixon!"
 
May 7-20th, 1968, Paris - Riots, strikes, and protests continue growing. Paris decends into paralysis. The unrests spreads across the country. By May 20, 75 percent of factory workers are on strike.
 
14th April 1968 - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence and Conservative MP for Wolverhampton South West, Enoch Powell, is taken into hospital after falling down the stairs. His friend Clement (Clem) Jones, a journalist and editor at the Wolverhampton Express & Star, has to cancel a planned visit of Powell to the general meeting of the West Midlands Area Conservative Political Centre on the 20th April.
His condition is classed as stable, however he will be in hospital for a couple of weeks.
 
May 7-20th, 1968, Paris - Riots, strikes, and protests continue growing. Paris decends into paralysis. The unrests spreads across the country. By May 20, 75 percent of factory workers are on strike.
May 25th 1968,France The Charles De Gaulle is about to enter the French Leglesalture to adress the strikes and riots. However in great tragedy which has been scrutinized by decades of conspiracy theorists, he ws shot by a sniper who was never found. After abit of confusion, the President of the Senate was tracked down and told of the situation,ashend face he agrees to take the oath of office.
 
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ooc: why in God's Green Earth would De Gaulle, who led the French Resistance under occupation I might add, flee during an unrest? that makes no sense, let alone them going to Germany... Let's not make this go the way of the Biden Years please.... If anything De Gaulle would dig a trench in his office... he wouldn't run away due to a riot...
 
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