New Deal Coalition Retained: A Sixth Party System Wikibox Timeline
I found it interesting as well
Savimbi has other problems to worry about with Communist Zambia funneling Soviet and East German aid to the MPLA and FNLA - he can't bite the hand that feeds him in Washington, London, Paris, Jerusalem, and Pretoria. However, that could change in the future. Portugal better find a powerful ally, and the Salazar-Costa Gomes government is already making overtures to Pretoria and Port Harcourt for a formal alliance.
Breaking News Bulletin.
Good Evening America, this is CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. Reporting from the Capitol, President George Wallace has selected General Alexander Haig as a replacement for incoming Army Chief of Staff William Westmoreland as Commander-Multinational Assistance Command Vietnam. In a statement released by the White House, the President stated: "General Haig is a fine man and a brilliant commander. My utmost confidence is with him to conclude the war against the Communist barbarians."
While I may disagree with the President's choice of language, my prayers are with General Haig. We at CBS wish him well in his goal to end this horrible war.
-November 29th, 1969-
Good Evening America, this is CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. Reporting from the Capitol, President George Wallace has selected General Alexander Haig as a replacement for incoming Army Chief of Staff William Westmoreland as Commander-Multinational Assistance Command Vietnam. In a statement released by the White House, the President stated: "General Haig is a fine man and a brilliant commander. My utmost confidence is with him to conclude the war against the Communist barbarians."
While I may disagree with the President's choice of language, my prayers are with General Haig. We at CBS wish him well in his goal to end this horrible war.
-November 29th, 1969-
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Ahhh, love the update as always. (But I can't believe there is no Star Wars in this time line, but it's really cool that the "Death Star" is in Star Trek) 
Tet Offensive
“Flying low, ready to drop napalm on the NVA positions, I could just make out the winking lights of small arms fire being traded by the commies and our boys. The whole city was burning, on both sides of the river. At the time I didn’t think about it, but now… the communists had no compunction with destroying their country’s heritage – or their people – for victory.”
-John McCain, NBC interview with Tom Brokaw, recounting his experience in the Battle of Hue-
“Flying low, ready to drop napalm on the NVA positions, I could just make out the winking lights of small arms fire being traded by the commies and our boys. The whole city was burning, on both sides of the river. At the time I didn’t think about it, but now… the communists had no compunction with destroying their country’s heritage – or their people – for victory.”
-John McCain, NBC interview with Tom Brokaw, recounting his experience in the Battle of Hue-
The influx of new manpower into Vietnam after the election of the Snedden Government, Amery Government, and George Wallace only hastened the military situation as it was beginning to develop. Le Duan and General Giap’s strategy to deal with the situation General Lansdale had left them with – the use of the regular NVA divisions advancing into South Vietnam via the Ho Chi Minh Trail through Laos and Cambodia – initially experienced a wide range of gains against the Saigon government and their American allies. Large concentrations of troops in the Central Highlands coupled with the attrition strategy of MACV commander Gen. William Westmoreland allowed the NVA to reestablish destroyed Viet Cong connections with the South Vietnamese populace.
By 1969 however, the situation on the ground was deteriorating for Duan and Giap. A combination of factors began to take their toll on the communist war effort. Firstly the new influx of troops by a series of hawkish western governments prevented the North from effectively implementing their political strategy of sowing war-weariness among the western populace. Secondly, the skillful administration of the fledgling nation by President Tho (removing the repressive measures of the Diem regime and building goodwill with the rural regions) joined with the counterinsurgency policies implemented by General Thieu and Lansdale to deny the communists a true connection with the rural citizens that had given Mao his victory.
Most effectively hampering Hanoi was the Sino-Soviet Split. Beijing was under no circumstances going to allow a Soviet allied state on their southern border, even if it fell to the west. The increasingly paranoid Mao and the Gang of Four effectively cut off all Soviet aid by prohibiting overflights by the Red Air Force – along with cutting off their own aid to their neighbor. Duan and his regime had found themselves the casualty of the massive dick-measuring contest developing between the communist powers, and it was paying for it on the battlefield as the Westmoreland attrition strategy began to pay dividends.
While planning for an offensive to turn the tide of the war had been in the cards for months previously, the Cambodian Coup only hastened the timeline. Giap had counted on the ineffectual Shianouk government allowing them safe haven in eastern Cambodia, but with the American-allied Lon Nol commanding from Phnom Peth that haven was in serious jeopardy. A visibly angry Duan, growing increasingly emaciated from chronic stress (according to some sources addicted to amphetamines and cocaine lozenges), intervened and scheduled the offensive to be launched in late January 1970. Specifically, during the Vietnamese Tet New Year.
The assaults into Cambodia by Pol Pot and the NVA represented a dramatic escalation of the conflict into the Khmer nation, intent on achieving a discernable military objective in toppling Lon Nol’s regime. Over thirty-thousand soldiers and guerillas (including three battalions of NVA armor) advanced into the heart of Phnom Peth in a furious battle with the Cambodian military for nearly a month before withdrawing, leaving the majority of the city pulverized into rubble. Pol Pot had exacted terrible vengeance on the citizens. Official Khmer government sources put the death toll at eight thousand “imperialist, traitorous elements” as the Khmer Rouge called them. Widely documented, it only served to strengthen Nol’s popularity.
Much of the early press coverage focusing on Saigon, the archetype battle of the Tet Offensive would instead be centered in the city of Hue. Nestled on the Perfume River, it had once been the old imperial capitol of the nation prior to French colonization. In addition to the symbolic nature, the city also was a significant administrative hub for the Saigon government, all prompting Hanoi to deem it worthy of a full scale assault – joined by Saigon itself, Phnom Peth, and the massive American military base at Da Nang.
Ten NVA battalions – a further eight waiting in reserve – swarmed in, taking the underequipped ARVN garrison by complete surprise. Objectives on the northern bank in the Imperial City were taken the after three days (including the Citadel and the Mang Ca Garrison fortress) while USMC reinforcements made the assault on the more modern districts south of the river into a far more difficult fight. However, with MACV facing more pressing concerns elsewhere, the Marines and ARVN commanded by General Foster LaHue were forced to retake the southern districts by themselves under heavy fire and intense casualties.
It wouldn’t be so. Having sustained terrible casualties, the Marines were ordered to maintain their positions while a force of five US Army battalions under the command of one Lt. Colonel Colin Powell was brought in from Da Nang through nearby Phu Bai airbase. On February 11th, the assault on the Imperial City began with concentrated airstrikes from USAF and Navy strike aircraft and offshore bombardment via the battleship USS New Jersey and cruisers USS California and USS Long Beach. Powell’s forces – is leadership gaining him the Distinguished Service Cross during the heavy fighting – coordinated their assault with ARVN forces pinned down in Mang Ca to force the NVA back, joined by a renewed Marine assault across the Perfume on the 17th.
On the 21st, the flag of South Vietnam was rising atop the Citadel once more. Hue would captivate the nation, and the discovery of massacres of civilians by the NVA similarly to the brutality of the Khmer Rouge would outrage the world over and stir sympathy for Saigon. But the actions weeks before in the capitol itself would prove the beginning of the end of the Vietnam War.
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Being both the economic and governmental center of the Republic of Vietnam, there was no operational plan where Saigon wouldn’t be hit in a major offensive by the NVA. However, gathering that the city would be the most heavily defended of any city or region in the south, Giap refused Duan’s requests to throw precious armored forces into the assault. Instead, the planned attack utilized light infantry units and irregular formations to conduct a series of mass raids into the city, the goal to destroy and wreak havoc rather than hold territory as was being done elsewhere in the country. Initiating on the 31st of January, the resulting attacks succeeded in their goals. Supply depots, airfields, and civil buildings were all rendered inoperable under a wave of gunfire and explosives. However, all attention was directed on one specific attack in particular.
Travelling inconspicuously from a safe house in two Mitsubishi trucks and a Volkswagen van, at five AM on the 31st around forty NVA sappers assaulted the United State Embassy in Saigon after a series of car bombings blasted three holes in the compound’s walls. Facing determined fire from the marine guards (one of whom would posthumously receive the Medal of Honor for single handedly engaging over fifteen attackers so that the ambassador and two dozen other staff members could flee), the force was eventually overpowered as the sappers swarmed the building.
Initially planning to capture the Ambassador – or if that failed to torch the place and retreat – a startling discovery was made that the various communist intelligence services hadn’t picked up on. On a secret diplomatic mission to meet with President Tho and General Thieu (to be joined by Australian Prime Minister Snedden in two days) was Vice President Robert McNamara. In the confusion – though many speculate it was intentional – an NVA soldier riddled the Vice President with half a dozen rounds, leaving him to bleed to death over the course of ten agonizing minutes.
Most of the sappers being Viet Cong remnants, their hatred for the Americans and the Saigon Government soon reached a frenzied bloodlust. Captured by a brave, amateur Saigonese cameraman, the NVA dragged McNamara’s body behind their vehicles as they escaped the compound – attempting to take advantage of the chaos around them.
Fighting in the capitol would continue for a little over a week as ARVN and American troops mopped up the isolated pockets of communist resistance inside and around Saigon utilizing armor and the newly introduced AH-1 Adder helicopter gunship (also called the HueyAdder). However, the dominating still of the Tet Offensive would remain that of McNamara’s mutilated, broken body. By this action alone – regardless of any other criteria of success the NVA could point to – the Tet Offensive would fail decisively at its true goal.
All across America, a sense of infuriating gloom descended upon its citizens at the killing of the Vice President. According to Chief of Staff John McKeithen, President Wallace was said to have gone mute, staring at the Resolute Desk with a murderous scowl. Even anti-war senator Paul Hatfield (R-OR) was heard saying that he wished he could put a bullet in Le Duan’s head himself. Far from convincing the American people that the war was unwinnable, the Tet Offensive by that one act left them with a thirst for vengeance not seen since Pearl Harbor.
Having been a surprise pick for Vice President at the 1968 Democratic Convention (not being a politician and a Republican when Kennedy tapped him as SecState in 1965), it was no secret to those in the White House inner circle that Wallace truly disliked McNamara. Chosen to both placate the Kennedy faction and as a counterweight to Wallace’s bombast, he and the President had never truly gotten along.
Gracious to his Vice President in death, Wallace nevertheless wasted no time in choosing a replacement under the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the Constitution – the first time such a mechanism was used. Wishing for a VP to give both balance but to be from the populist faction, the President introduced Washington Senator and Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Henry M. Jackson to the Rose Garden in the nomination press conference. Impressing all with his poise and adroit knowledge of the issues, the House and the Senate would confirm him after only one week of hearings by margins of 401-12 and 95-2 respectively on March 17th, 1970.
Four days later, the nation would see off one of its most distinguished public servants – flags at half-mast across the Free World.
“My heart aches, aches. Robert was a good friend. He didn’t deserve this… infamy.”
-Former President John F. Kennedy-
“Our collective hearts go out to our American brethren. Australia stands shoulder to shoulder with them in our shared fight”
-Prime Minister Billy Snedden-
“He was a good man, despite our differences. Vice President McNamara is with the Angels now, looking down on us in peace.”
-CA Gov. Ronald Reagan-
“The tragic death… no, this despicable murder of Robert McNamara will not go unpunished. The murderers in Hanoi think they are safe, but they will feel America’s response quite soon.”
-Vice President Henry Jackson-
“Why couldn’t Henry be President? At least we could trust him not to overreact.”
-Senator Eugene McCarthy (D-MN) to Senator James Buckley (C-NY)
A Gallup Poll would be conducted in mid-February:
Support further action in Vietnam: 57%
Oppose further action in Vietnam: 29%
Stay the same: 12%
Don’t know: 2%
In what would be Scoop Jackson’s first cabinet meeting, President Wallace – though besieged with a shaky economy, civil unrest, and a domestic agenda in danger of being derailed by a resurgent GOP – resolved to end the Vietnam War by any means necessary.
(note: the wikibox for McNamara is supposed to say 55th SecState and 1969, not 1968; my bad)
McNamara should have been deselected from the ticket in 1972, but death is something else.
I'm no fan of his hawkishness or his opposition to busing.
I'm no fan of his hawkishness or his opposition to busing.
The only way for the US to win, I think, is to send so many troops that the people killed will be too much.