I recall once watching an interview of Barry Goldwater and one of the questions was,, what would you have done in the White House, if you had been picked to replace Spiro Agnew, instead of Gerald Ford. Goldwater, who seemed surprised that anyone thought he was ever under consideration for the job said one thing. He said that in 1975, he would have sent the Air Force to in his words: make a swamp out of North Vietnam to prevent them from conquering the South. I also recall reading about that the Nixon pardon, that Goldwater reacted with anger to his courtesy call from Ford.
So that means an attempt to get us reinvolved in the Vietnam War. but with bombers not troops, as well as probably no Nixon pardon. What else is different? Perhaps a free market approach to the energy crisis. I know that the idea of Democratic Congress confirming Goldwater does seem on the ASB side, but if the drafters of the 35th amendment had followed Richard Nixon´s suggestion, a reconvened Electoral College would have picked the new Vice President. Goldwater would have had no problem of getting a majority considering that 521 of the 538 electors chosen in 1972 were Republican. I know that in those circumstances, Nixon would have picked John Conally, but I can eliminate Conally by moving back his bribery indictment. The Grand jury handed down the indictment on August 8, 1974 ( Ironically the day of Nixon´s resignation.) I could have it happen a year earlier.
All that get me back to one question. Would Nixon have picked Goldwater, possible but not likely. I think the goal for AH is plausibility not probability.