The supreme irony of this is becoming apparent, considering that Pat Nixon endorsed and campaigned with McCloskey in his 1968 race for the senate.
New Deal Coalition Retained: A Sixth Party System Wikibox Timeline
Struck down at the height of his Presidency, a victim of the Curse of TippecanoeAnd the fact that Tricky Dick is, you know, dead.
Oh man, I was kind of wishing for single-payer healthcare...
But TTL's Wallace still a badass. And he can really change his segregationist views much faster ITTL.
And at least it's set in stone as far back ad the Moynihan update that Wallace is going to win 1972
Not necessarily. He could be kept on like Obama kept on GatesOh man, I was kind of wishing for single-payer healthcare...
But TTL's Wallace still a badass. And he can really change his segregationist views much faster ITTL.
And at least it's set in stone as far back ad the Moynihan update that Wallace is going to win 1972
Endgame
With casualties mounting and a nation quickly exhausting itself, the powers to be in Washington were keen to end the War in Vietnam as quickly and decisively as possible. By Wallace and LeMay’s order the Navy and Air Force stepped up the strategic bombing campaign, turning the military and governmental portions of the city into rubble.
As a result, senior governmental officials (led by Chairman Le Duan) of the Communist Party fled the city, holing up in a bunker complex about five miles south of Hanoi’s outskirts. Following a tip from one of their moles in the party apparatus, the CIA found out in March of 1971 where the bunker was located.
At this point Le Duan, Chairman of the Central Committee, was a wreck. What hair he had left was completely grey, body practically emaciated, and addicted to heroin and cocaine lozenges. Mind largely shot, he would take to railing for hours against the Americans, Chinese, and South Vietnamese in tirades that former colleagues would describe as almost Hitlerian – complete delusions. Nevertheless, Duan and his Politburo controlled the nation and thusly refused to give in.
All changed in March 1971. Guided in by a SEAL team led by Lt. Robert Kerrey, two F-111 Armadillo strike aircraft dropped two Paveway 2,000 pound bombs right on top of Duan’s bunker. The resulting blast immolated the structure and killed all present.
White House audio transcript, March 3rd, 1971
Meeting between President Wallace, SecDef LeMay, Chief of Staff McKeithen, and SecState Helms
Wallace: Is this it? Did we get ‘im?
LeMay: We’ve picked up the SEAL observing the bunker along with conducting SR-71 recon flights over the area. The complex is completely gutted.
Wallace: But is he dead? Is the fucker dead?
Helms: North Vietnamese state media is silent, but the Chicom Ambassador in Paris informed us of what Hanoi told them. Duan is dead.
[Momentary silence]
Wallace: [whooping] Burn in hell you commie bastard!
McKeithen: Well Richard, that’d the famous Rebel Yell.
Helms: Quite. Now Mr. President, we still need to move cautiously here. Duan may be dead but this doesn’t mean the North will fold.
Wallace: Can’t let me have my moment of triumph can you. [sighs] Very well, who’s likely to take over?
Helms: At this point I can’t be sure. Duan dying will throw the entire party apparatus into chaos.
Wallace: Can we take advantage of this?
LeMay: I wouldn’t advise it Mr. President. We still have mopping up to do in the South and Cambodia.
McKeithen: I’m not sure the public will stand for more casualties than we’ve been getting. Whatever major attack we make next has to end the war.
Helms: I’ve gotten some feelers from Laos that could be promising.
Wallace: Fine, give Haig notice that his plans have my approval. We’ll fuck these commie bastards to the wall yet – and in time for the election!
(end transcript)
Meeting between President Wallace, SecDef LeMay, Chief of Staff McKeithen, and SecState Helms
Wallace: Is this it? Did we get ‘im?
LeMay: We’ve picked up the SEAL observing the bunker along with conducting SR-71 recon flights over the area. The complex is completely gutted.
Wallace: But is he dead? Is the fucker dead?
Helms: North Vietnamese state media is silent, but the Chicom Ambassador in Paris informed us of what Hanoi told them. Duan is dead.
[Momentary silence]
Wallace: [whooping] Burn in hell you commie bastard!
McKeithen: Well Richard, that’d the famous Rebel Yell.
Helms: Quite. Now Mr. President, we still need to move cautiously here. Duan may be dead but this doesn’t mean the North will fold.
Wallace: Can’t let me have my moment of triumph can you. [sighs] Very well, who’s likely to take over?
Helms: At this point I can’t be sure. Duan dying will throw the entire party apparatus into chaos.
Wallace: Can we take advantage of this?
LeMay: I wouldn’t advise it Mr. President. We still have mopping up to do in the South and Cambodia.
McKeithen: I’m not sure the public will stand for more casualties than we’ve been getting. Whatever major attack we make next has to end the war.
Helms: I’ve gotten some feelers from Laos that could be promising.
Wallace: Fine, give Haig notice that his plans have my approval. We’ll fuck these commie bastards to the wall yet – and in time for the election!
(end transcript)
The death of Le Duan began a furious scramble among the senior leadership of the Vietnamese Communists. Several, ones that knew that the South would not treat them with kindness, fled to the Soviet Embassy and sought political asylum. Many others simply fled the country, procuring fake passports from the underworld and escaping through Laos. The remainder rallied around General Vo Nguyen Giap. If the country was doomed, they would go down fighting like good communists.
Strung out and in disarray after Dropkick, the US and its allies were in no shape to continue the offensive in 1971. Efforts were directed to mop up whatever was left of communist presence in South Vietnam, additionally securing the approval of the Laotian government – persuaded to acquiesce by Mao Yuanxin in order to stab the Soviet-supported DRV in the back – to mop up NVA presence in southern Laos. Most of 1971 was spent in preparation however. Supplies and manpower were stockpiled, readying for what General Haig called the “Endgame.”
In April 1972 the Endgame began as US and ARVN artillery opened up all along the DMZ, armored forces taking advantage of the barrage to smash across the border and advance on the fortress city of Dong Hoi. Giap commanding the battle personally, he had made sure the city and the areas north of the DMZ were fortified to levels not seen since Kursk in WW2. If they could bleed the Americans dry and stall until November, then George Wallace could lose the election and a pro-peace Republican could (conceivably) end the war with at least some independence for Hanoi.
Haig was determined not to let that happen. Commanded by the hero of the Ia Drang Valley Lt. General Hal Moore, the US/ARVN advance was directed in two directions. The ARVN/Army prong would feint directly at Dong Hoi, while the Marines and mechanized components of 1st Cav would flank from the west and surround the city. A week would pass before Moore launched the flank attack, but probing attacks discovered the near approach was too fortified to be able to truly surround the city before Giap could withdraw. He opted for a schwehrpunkt twenty miles west of the city. Surprised, Giap threw all his reserves into stopping the advance, but it soon approached the final defensive line only seven miles from the beach.
Northern reinforcements were raced to the southern theater, but this was exactly what Haig wanted. Over the objections of Jackson, LeMay, and Helms but with the enthusiastic backing of President Wallace – arguably the only one whose opinion mattered – the General had made the entire assault across the DMZ into his Calais. His goal was to distract the communists, taking their eyes away from his actual objective. The one the United States had been preparing for during most of 1971. Operation Normandy, the largest planned amphibious assault since Inchon, collecting nearly half of the entire US Navy’s strength to pull off.
Waiting for Dong Hoi to fall before attempting, the victory there led Haig to give the green light. Under the cover of a coordinated air offensive and furious naval gunfire from all four Iowa-class battleships and seven of the navy’s eleven nuclear-powered cruisers, landing craft carrying eleven thousand Marines and GIs landed in and around the Vietnamese port of Haiphong southeast of Hanoi. Units of the 82nd and 101st Airborne parachuted inland in what was called Operation Pegasus, proceeding to seize bridges, road junctions, and set up strongpoints to interdict enemy reinforcements marching for the coast.
In a daring gamble that was greenlit personally by President Wallace – and subject to clandestine preparation via CIA and anti-communist resistance for nearly a month – Army Special Forces and Navy SEALs assaulted via helicopter the Lo Hoa Prison “Hanoi Hilton” to free the thousands of American and Allied POWs held there. In what was nearly thirty-six hours of pitched combat that required two battalions of Air Cavalry and bombing runs by the vaunted B-70 Valkyrie strategic bomber, in the end almost all of the prisoners were safely evacuated from their hellish dungeons. Another day of leapfrogging from hidden jungle bases to the USS Enterprise and Forrestal in the Gulf of Tonkin would see them finally free to cheering crowds all over America. The raid would still be discussed in military academies the world over as a textbook example.
The fighting was clearly the most vicious of the war, US forces advancing into urban and well-built areas far from their bases of support. Naval crews worked around the clock hurling shells landward, aircrews out of Thailand, Clark Airbase in the Philippines, and from the six fleet carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin launching attack run after attack run. Analysis post-war would discover that the US used more munitions in Normandy and Pegasus than the Soviets in taking Berlin in 1945.
Called McNamara’s revenge, the US spared no bit of munitions in their pounding of the city. Wallace wanted to “Send a message not to mess with American might,” and Haig did not disappoint. In a “Belated fourth of July present to the American people,” on the eighth a special contingent of South Vietnamese tanks smashed through the gates of the Palace in Hanoi just as Giap acquiesced to MACV demands for unconditional surrender. To jubilant crowds across the US and South Vietnam, President Wallace declared the Vietnam War won.
Vietnam, wracked by war and bloodshed for over a quarter of a century, was finally united under a democratic banner.
Good update, and you did a great job of justifying a South Vietnam victory.
Wait, so South Vietnam became a democracy ITTL?
Wait, so South Vietnam became a democracy ITTL?
It'd have been great if you were able to work John Ripley into the battle, considering he saved the day when the offensive was going the other way in April 1972 (I how like the choice of the date, btw, mirrors the OTL Dong Ha battle.) Nevertheless, great update.
We shall see in the next update about South Vietnam and democracy
Wow, that guy is a hero! ITTL, he captured a bridge outside of Haiphong in similar heroic circumstances. Switcharoo
Lt. Commander Robert Kerrey, the man who killed Le Duan. History will see more of him.
Lt. Commander Robert Kerrey, the man who killed Le Duan. History will see more of him.
You don't mean that Bob Kerrey, do you?
