Nixon in FBI

Nixon attended an FBI recruitment talk at law school, and, following his graduation, applied to join them. He was well qualified, received excellent references, and passed the interviews, assessments, background checks and medical with flying colours. An appointment was made for him to come to Washington DC to be sworn in as a probationer. However, Nixon had made it known that he wanted to take his bar exam, and the FBI agreed that he should do so prior to joining, so the appointment was cancelled to enable this. Apparently, communications ceased at this point, with both Nixon and the Bureau believing that the other would contact them as and when they were ready to proceed. As it was, Nixon completed his bar exam successfully, and, hearing no word from the FBI, eventually accepted a standing job offer from a prestigious local law firm.

http://nsarchive.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/nixon_richard_fbi_application_part01.pdf

What if Nixon had continued keeping his contact with the FBI and gained a position working there?
 
He was a smart hard working and ambitious guy. I could see rising to the top. He would be comfortable working with Hoover. Now I am wondering about who is elected president in 1968 and who is Ike's running mate.
 

The Vulture

Banned
I like this. For all his faults, Nixon was a smart guy and a hard worker, and I think his natural shrewdness and paranoia would make him excel at the kind of office politics of Hoover's Bureau. He'd go far.

In a weird metahistorical twist, he'd probably end up butting heads with Mark Felt at some point unless butterflies prevent him from joining the Bureau. Both men were the same age and would both likely be rising stars.
 
After being passed over for the top job after Hoover's death, Nixon becomes a source for a reporter investigating a scandal that embrassses President Rockefeller.
 

Pangur

Donor
I like this. For all his faults, Nixon was a smart guy and a hard worker, and I think his natural shrewdness and paranoia would make him excel at the kind of office politics of Hoover's Bureau. He'd go far. .

That is all true however he was also very vindictive I suspect that he would indeed have gone far and then be a sacrifical lamb in the early 1970`s when social attitutes changed and congress started to look into the actons of the FBI and the CIA
 
I think that ultimately Nixon is going to be passed over for the top job as Hoover's successor. Any President will try to put his own man in there.

Now, the lack of Nixon's Southern Strategy that destroyed the New Deal Coalition is going to bring mothra-sized butterflies.
 
Now, the lack of Nixon's Southern Strategy that destroyed the New Deal Coalition is going to bring mothra-sized butterflies.

The existence of a specific "Southern Strategy" as a new thing by Nixon is a pretty overated. The Republicans had taken southern states in presidential races in the 1920s and 1950s, as well as garnering congressional seats. As northerners moved to the South, as the region urbanized, voting habits began to change - there had always been regions in several southern states where the Republicans had strong support, and these places gave them a base of support from which to contest greater state-wide elections.
 
I think Nixon would have excelled in the FBI, and would have risen through the ranks remarkably easily. Further, I suspect that by the late '60s / early '70s, he would have had enough of a network (to be polite) in place that he would have had considerable support had he moved to succeed Hoover. Further, by then, Hoover would have been clearly at or beyond typical retirement age-and quite likely had there been any goods to get on him, Nixon would have had them. Hoover might have resisted initially, but would have been told quietly that he ought to cooperate or the information that the head of the LA office (i.e., Nixon) had would be made public.

That probably would have been enough. Now, president Nelson Rockefeller (in his second term) would have what amounts to his own man there, since Nixon's politics would not be grossly dissimilar.
 

MacCaulay

Banned
I like this. For all his faults, Nixon was a smart guy and a hard worker, and I think his natural shrewdness and paranoia would make him excel at the kind of office politics of Hoover's Bureau. He'd go far.

In a weird metahistorical twist, he'd probably end up butting heads with Mark Felt at some point unless butterflies prevent him from joining the Bureau. Both men were the same age and would both likely be rising stars.

After being passed over for the top job after Hoover's death, Nixon becomes a source for a reporter investigating a scandal that embrassses President Rockefeller.


I WANT THAT STORY NOW.


I don't want a TL of it. I don't want a "June 4th, 1954: Richard Nixon joins the FBI. June 12th, 1962: Richard Nixon gets in a fight with Mark Felt."

I want something like The Company or J. Edgar.

FUCK THIS IS A GOOD IDEA!
 

Hyperion

Banned
Are we talking Nixon being some civilian bureaucrat, or an actual Federal LEO with arrest powers? If Nixon works up as some beancounter of accountant, that's not going to help him out much.

If he works his way up from a rookie special agent, arresting people, possibly getting in the odd shooting incident at some point, it might give him quite a different perspective.

How would it effect him at some point in his career if he's working a case and had to shoot someone?

Or how would it effect him if he becomes a supervisory agent at some point and an agent under him is killed.

Even if he rises through the ranks, that doesn't mean he's going to work in DC. From being an SSA or eventually becoming a Special Agent in Charge, he could be assigned to half a dozen or more field offices throughout the country, or even be posted abroad at some point.
 
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