President Johnson Is Dead: Turbulent Times in the New Frontier
- Thread starter PyroTheFox
- Start date
- Status
Two of the Republican Presidential Candidates in 1964: Barry Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller
Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona had been one of the fiercest critics of the Johnson Administration, nearly as harsh as Wallace. The Arizonan frequently joined with the Southern, states' rights segment of the Democratic Party when it came to a vote, and he had taken a major role in stalling the Civil Rights Act. Goldwater spoke out, throughout his political career, against the measures taken in the New Deal, referring to such expansions of the federal government's role as unconstitutional. As for the Great Society, the senator spared no fewer words of critique. When Goldwater did announce his presidential ambitions, he did so among a hefty crowd of thousands from his front patio. An AP poll released in January revealed that over half of Republicans believed that the Arizonan was the "strongest" candidate for the party, greatly assisting in his early campaign.
Opponents of the senator disliked his reactionary economic message and, most especially, his isolationist foreign policy stance, often citing his statement regarding a potential withdrawal from the United Nations. The candidate's retort to such criticism was that he offered a "choice, not an echo," positioning him firmly on the right against not only President Kennedy, but the whole of the Republican Party. From within the party, Goldwater struck most moderates and liberals - debatably the majority of the GOP - as too extreme to stand a shot at succeeding. Any candidate would have a rough up-hill fight against Kennedy with the assassination in recent memory. Nonetheless, Goldwater launched assault after assault from the get-go with the intention of wearing down the administration and damaging the credibility of Kennedy's run before it had even been declared.
The second major candidate in the Republican field was the incumbent Governor of New York, Nelson Rockefeller. Locked in a heated rivalry with the rightist Goldwater, Rockefeller had been the clear moderate-liberal in the primary bout. Serving as governor since 1959, Rockefeller re-energized the infrastructure and educational system in New York, controversially (within the party) expanding the state government's role and increasing taxes in the process. The bulk of Republican women, according to primary polling, held distrust for the candidate due to his 1962 divorce and subsequent 1963 marriage to a woman with whom he had been having an affair. Rockefeller's once-ally Senator Prescott Bush (R-CT) denounced this action and refused to consider endorsing the New Yorker in the '64 race.
Several other candidates announced their intentions to run in this time, including Chair of the Senate Republican Conference, Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME), and former Minnesota Governor Harold Stassen. The field remained wide open with several weeks before the New Hampshire primary, however many of the 'heavyweight' candidates hesitated to enter what they believed was an impossible election. Robert Finch remarked that, "[Goldwater] only needed the nomination to consider himself a success that year. The obscurantist bastard could care less if he drove the party line into the dirt with him as so long as he could revel in the defeat of the rest of us. [...] Rocky appeared the perfect fit, but his Happy (Rockefeller's wife) left 60% of New Hampshire Republicans undecided. Bush wouldn't answer my calls, and the party wouldn't waste its time choosing a woman, let alone Margaret. I told that to him, all of it. We knew Kennedy was no Johnson, and his allies were all blasted family members. The chance was there, that was all."
In an open letter to the citizens of New Hampshire, Governor Richard Nixon sent the following. "I have had a chance to reflect on the lessons of public office, to measure the nation's tasks and its problems from a fresh perspective. I have done so as your vice president, and continue to do so as governor. I have sought to apply those lessons to the needs of the President, and to the entire sweep of this final third of the 20th century. And I believe I have found some answers." He went on, stating, "We have entered a new age. And I ask you to join me in helping make this an age of greatness for our people and our nation."
Nixon Is In! - Now Formally Entered in March 12 Primary
The Los Angeles Times, January 27th, 1964
Senators Bush, Lodge Endorse Nixon. Congressman Taft, Jr. Endorses Goldwater
The Washington Post, February 4th, 1964
The Los Angeles Times, January 27th, 1964
Senators Bush, Lodge Endorse Nixon. Congressman Taft, Jr. Endorses Goldwater
The Washington Post, February 4th, 1964
No video, but research:
John Birch Society
Phil Ochs
On that note, New Left versus the Establishment:
John Birch Society
Phil Ochs
On that note, New Left versus the Establishment:
I'm kind of curious why you would bring up Ochs; as of right now, he was only known among Greenwich Village types, and hadn't became the political ideologue he was famous for.
Because he is one of the unknown "glue" elements of the 1960s, a contemporary of Bob Dylan and a version of him who was more political but less well known, as well as a reflection of the 1960s in terms of his music and life, which rode the waves of the era, and crashed as the 1960s itself crashed in the 1970s. Phil Ochs took the events of the 1960s personally, and his existence is the 1960s. And researching Phil Ochs is something that branches off into so many different, very important things. In many way, he is a Forrest Gump element.
I'm not sure how that would exactly transfer over into the TL. I mean, this butterflies practically everything that defined Ochs politics; LBJ isn't a romantic figure you can build a song around (i.e. 'The Crucifixion'), and has the base appeal to at least avoid the 1968 DNC, which broke his belief in the American political system.
He serves as a mildly decent representation of the national mindset during the 60's/early 70's, but that wouldn't work well in the format of this TL.
The soul of the 1960s, whatever it is, is the soul of Phil Ochs, and whoever he may be. If you understand Phil Ochs, you understand the 1960s. And in Phil Ohs, you can personify the 1960s, whatever it may be.
I think your missing my point in the last paragraph; it would be hard to address the personal matters of Phil Ochs, when this TL so far as been strictly about the nitty gritty of the President. Ochs doesn't fit into that, so it's kind of pointless to research.
Better understanding the soul of your subject, in this case the 1960s, is not pointless. It is the point behind all the data and statistics. It doesn't matter if Phil Ochs is covered. It matters if the soul and purpose and moods of the time are better understood.
If the soul is the point, then why the hell do you need Ochs?
Because he is a reflection of the era and a scattershot of information on the era, not so simply in terms of headlines, but in the mood of what the times were. Understanding human emotion, spirit, mood, or whatever you would classify the nebulous thing that defines human existence in full is important, and researching Phil Ochs is good at doing that. That is why I linked to that documentary. It helps to breath something into the writing and understanding of the times. Phil Ochs is a crash course on the soul of the 1960s.
Oddily enough, I was reading the update with McGuire sounding in my head...
Snapshot from Vietnam Film, "West Out of the East", 1967
White House leadership sought to win the coming election through its demonstration of President Johnson's successes: indeed domestically, but, particularly, abroad. Foreign policy, slowly yet surely, had moved its way into the limelight as a hot-button issue for the electoral season. How would the United States press forth in Laos, if at all? Kennedy, aided by Symington and Nitze, felt no cause to back off of U.S. involvement so long as troop numbers stabilized. Republican opponents to the president, including those like Goldwater who haphazardly called the war "reckless", struggled to find a meaningful counter-argument to the administration's apparent success in holding back Communist aggression in Southeast Asia. "Should the dam have held," Connally hypothesized, "Kennedy may have gone ahead with Shriver's suggestion to chart a withdrawal plan."
The historically-defined "powder keg" in Vietnam erupted in the January of 1964. President Diem, from the moment that the secretive attempt to overthrow his leadership collapsed, doubled-down on his oppressive tactics on the peasants and religious majority. He divulged on New Year's Day, 1964, that any man or woman accused of possessing Communist ties, a past of demonstrating against the government, and/or a connection to the Duong Minh Conspiracy would be detained and indefinitely be held in "Loyalty Centers" at five major sites. Tens of thousands, if not far more, fit this description. An authorized contingent of secret police set out on 4:00 a.m. local time on January 4th. By 7:00 a.m., the streets of Saigon became filled to the brim with a militant population demanding an end to the state terror. The police scattered.
Protesters flew banners imploring for the need for toleration and the restructuring of government as the previously outlawed Buddhist flags fluttered in the thousands. The American Embassy shuttered its doors and windows as a furious population identified the U.S. as a principal ally of the ruthless president. Protests endured well into January, culminating in a series of skirmishes betwixt the peasants and Diem's police. Much of the movement radicalized in this period, and unprecedented interest in previously disdained philosophies ranging from Tridemism to Localism took root.
The South Vietnamese President, with his legitimacy in peril, ordered his "re-conditioned" army end the rabble. The commanding generals, combed so thoroughly as only Diem supporters remained, demanded their soldiers intervene on January 31st. One or two contingents did, for the time being, follow through the order as such, but the mass of the military refused to fire upon their own families and neighbors. The revolt reached a boiling point when Madame Nhu, by then a symbol of the injustice and tyranny of the ruling elite, was captured by the rebelling army. Ngo Dinh Nhu, her spouse and younger brother to Diem, was discovered (likely through interrogation of his former secret police) and executed shortly thereafter.
The Paper Revolution saw the rise of a young class of leaders who on February 1st founded the "Alliance for Democracy", or Liên minh Dân chủ. Its star players involved local activists Le Quang Dai and Tran Duc Luong, each of whom strongly advocated for a provisional government to take control of the country. The Alliance, as well as numerous other assorted coalition groups, desired not only the abdication of Diem, but an end to American meddling in Vietnamese affairs.
With the army on the side of the opposition, Diem was forced to evacuate, lest risk his own death sentence. The president-in-exile took residence in Melbourne, Australia following a stealthily engineered escape in early February. An improvised bicameral legislature, the Diet of Saigon, now controlled the mechanisms of the country. An amalgamation of varied political and socio-economic interests within the Diet, albeit heavily influenced by leading anti-Diem faces within the military, ruled South Vietnam beginning in February of 1964. In this time, the ARVN forged ahead sans coherent orders from the point of command, resulting in a severe mismanagement of supplies and a lack of finer tactic and strategy. As a consequence of this development, holding attacks from the National Liberation Front pierced beyond portions of the DMZ, shattering the U.S. plan of containment.
American Line Ruptured Due to Vietnam Revolution
Kennedy Fortifies Troops in Laos, Recognizes New Government in South Vietnam
The Washington Post, February 19th, 1964
Gov. Wallace Declares Primary Challenge to Kennedy
"This is More than Miscalculation, This is Incompetence."
Chicago Tribune, February 21st, 1964
Kennedy Fortifies Troops in Laos, Recognizes New Government in South Vietnam
The Washington Post, February 19th, 1964
Gov. Wallace Declares Primary Challenge to Kennedy
"This is More than Miscalculation, This is Incompetence."
Chicago Tribune, February 21st, 1964
Last edited:
- Status