Nixon narrowly avoids removal.

In advance I realize that the idea presented here might be slightly ASB, or even generally foolish, but I'm considering the following sequence of events.

Watergate happens, Nixon doesn't resign and is instead impeached. Nixon goes to trial in the Senate, and only very barely avoids conviction/removal.

I'm wondering what, if any POD could make such a sequence of events possible.

And beyond the plausibility issue, I'm wondering what the rest of Nixon's Presidency looks like. I predict that Nixon will be the absolute lamest of lame ducks, but other than that I'm not entirely sure.

Again I apologize if the idea is laughably unlikely.
 
Nixon erases the smoking gun tape as John Connally had advised him to do. The end result is a bit like Iran-Contra- worthy of condemnation but without anything concrete legally. Nixon will try to pass his CHIP UHC plan- perhaps Ted Kennedy resurrects it after torpedoing it in February. Republicans' only hope is to nominate Reagan in '76- Nixon was quite partial to the idea IOTL.
 
Ya know, history as recorded is usually the most likely outcome. Fun thing about this site is we get to imagine the most unlikely of outcomes. Heck, look at my Germans bomb Pearl Harbor challenge. How unlikely was that! :)
 
Nixon erases the smoking gun tape as John Connally had advised him to do. The end result is a bit like Iran-Contra- worthy of condemnation but without anything concrete legally. Nixon will try to pass his CHIP UHC plan- perhaps Ted Kennedy resurrects it after torpedoing it in February. Republicans' only hope is to nominate Reagan in '76- Nixon was quite partial to the idea IOTL.

I'm not sure Nixon would be able to do this, given his probable antagonistic relationship with congress. Even in this scenario, I don't think we avoid the Democratic landslide of 1974. And those democrat's won't be inclined to support Nixon on anything whatsoever if I'm reading them correctly.

Another interesting factor is Vietnam. Again, I'm not sure there's a whole lot Nixon can do. He probably doesn't have the political capital to intervene there. But it'd be interesting to see how he reacts to the situation in 1975.

More generally how does Nixon's reputation differ here from OTL?
 
Nixon, if he twists enough arms, can order another Linebacker campaign with the support of SoDems, hawks like Scoop Jackson and most of the GOP. That's more than enough to prevent a veto override.
 
I think Republicans would do even worse than in OTL if somehow he had got 34+ Senate votes to avoid conviction,.

Maybe he impeahed again in 1975 with a different Senate
 
Nixon erases the smoking gun tape as John Connally had advised him to do. The end result is a bit like Iran-Contra- worthy of condemnation but without anything concrete legally.

That is true. If Nixon had erased the tapes before they could be called as evidence, he would have finished his term. Gerald Ford would almost surely be VP, setting up a very different showdown with Reagan in 1976.
 
That is true. If Nixon had erased the tapes before they could be called as evidence, he would have finished his term. Gerald Ford would almost surely be VP, setting up a very different showdown with Reagan in 1976.
The REALLY Odd Bit, is History May Proceed as per OTL, with Ford's Lack of Presidency being Only a Slight Blip ...

A Sitting VP Almost Always has a Distinct Advantage Over a Governor in The Primary Process, Even in as Weird a Situation as this will Present; Expect Ford to Win The Republican Nomination, Albeit with a Smaller Margin than IOTL!

The TRUE Showdown, Will Come as it Usually does, in November ...

Unless Nixon MUCH Better Handles The Collapse of American Support for The War, And The Resultant Fall of Saigon; Governor Carter has a Good Chance of Winning as he did IOTL, Possibly with a Higher Victory Total in this Case!
 
Nixon erases the smoking gun tape as John Connally had advised him to do. The end result is a bit like Iran-Contra- worthy of condemnation but without anything concrete legally. Nixon will try to pass his CHIP UHC plan- perhaps Ted Kennedy resurrects it after torpedoing it in February. Republicans' only hope is to nominate Reagan in '76- Nixon was quite partial to the idea IOTL.

Basically, Nixon ends up less like how we view Nixon OTL, and more like a mix of early Reagan and late Clinton - someone who was good generally, but managed to FUBAR Watergate.
 
Thinking about it Nixon not going could hurt him and the GOP far worse than his actual resignation.You see when it comes down to it Nixon's choice to resign while not exactly a "mea Culpa" did at least draw a line under most of the affair (Fords pardon obviously not helping matters but that's a seperate issue) and dumped the blame squarely where it belonged.

In doing so Nixon can be seen as being punished (even if he never faces trial) the matter is over and done with and the country can move on. If he doesn't do this, then we have two and a half years more of a man most people already believe is a crook in the white house.

And losing the tapes would only make things worse, remember in OTL there is a seriously fishy 18 and a half minute gap on the tapes (as well as a couple of conversations that rather convinently "weren't recorded") so with all the tapes missing it will just add to the questions of just what the hell was on those tapes.

If Nixon somehow survives this then the GOP is wiped out at the '74 elections and probably even worse than happened in reality, you then get two years of President and Congress at daggers drawn even assuming there isn't a second attempt at Impeachment, and instead of having six years and a useless democratic president to distance itself from Nixon, the GOP has barely three and a half, and people will solely remember watergate, not all the stuff Nixon did earlier in his Presidency, or for that matter all the work the GOP did after '74 to distance itself from the scandal.

What I'm trying to say is that if the resignation and Pardon don't draw a line under the scandal then you get two more years of digging, and even if the press and congress don't find the smoking gun the infighting makes an even bigger mess than the real thing ever did, and for the next decade or more the democrats can point at the Republican's and say "You think we're bad these guys gave us Nixon," and the Republican's are likely to have been seen as proping up scum for two years (especialy if their votes blocked impeachment) and can't just put all the blame on Nixon and a few other bad eggs.

At best it hurts their election chances for a long time to come, at worst it could tear the party apart and even Reagen has an uphill battle in 1980 (after Carter he'll probably win but it will be a hell of a lot closer).

(Sorry for the long winded reply everyone)
 
Last edited:
Thinking about it Nixon not going could hurt him and the GOP far worse than his actual resignation.You see when it comes down to it Nixon's choice to resign while not exactly a "mea Culpa" did at least draw a line under most of the affair (Fords pardon obviously not helping matters but that's a seperate issue) and dumped the blame squarely where it belonged.

In doing so Nixon can be seen as being punished (even if he never faces trial) the matter is over and done with and the country can move on. If he doesn't do this, then we have two and a half years more of a man most people already believe is a crook in the white house.

And losing the tapes would only make things worse, remember in OTL there is a seriously fishy 18 and a half minute gap on the tapes (as well as a couple of conversations that rather convinently "weren't recorded") so with all the tapes missing it will just add to the questions of just what the hell was on those tapes.

If Nixon somehow survives this then the GOP is wiped out at the '74 elections and probably even worse than happened in reality, you then get two years of President and Congress at daggers drawn even assuming there isn't a second attempt at Impeachment, and instead of having six years and a useless democratic president to distance itself from Nixon, the GOP has barely three and a half, and people will solely remember watergate, not all the stuff Nixon did earlier in his Presidency, or for that matter all the work the GOP did after '74 to distance itself from the scandal.

What I'm trying to say is that if the resignation and Pardon don't draw a line under the scandal then you get two more years of digging, and even if the press and congress don't find the smoking gun the infighting makes an even bigger mess than the real thing ever did, and for the next decade or more the democrats can point at the Republican's and say "You think we're bad these guys gave us Nixon," and the Republican's are likely to have been seen as proping up scum for two years (especialy if their votes blocked impeachment) and can't just put all the blame on Nixon and a few other bad eggs.

At best it hurts their election chances for a long time to come, at worst it could tear the party apart and even Reagen has an uphill battle in 1980 (after Carter he'll probably win but it will be a hell of a lot closer).

(Sorry for the long winded reply everyone)


According to this, the Democrats likely will pick up in the Senate Kansas, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Utah, making a +3 change for the Democrats to a +10 (giving them 68 Senate seats). The House needs no mention since the Democrats would likely end up with 300+ seats.
 
Top