President Rockefeller scenario

[David T]

(1) 1975: Ford assassinated by a woman (take your choice between Sara Jane Moore and Squeaky Fromme) in California in September.

(2) Late 1975: Ronald Reagan decides not to run. He says Rocky should be given a chance, and he doesn't think the American people will be in the mood for four presidents in two and a half years. Rumors are that Nancy, afraid he would be assaassinated, talked him out of running.

(3) 1976: Rocky defeats splintered conservative primary opposition and wins in November, losing heavily to Carter in the South but winning the state of New York. (No newspaper ever carried a headline ROCKY TO CITY: DROP DEAD.)

(4) 1979: President Rockefeller found dead of a heart attack in the White House, with his aide Megan Marshack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megan_Marshack "by his side."

 

[lord caedus]

Rocky probably would have died before 1979 if he had succeeded Ford and somehow was elected to his own term in 1976.

He was in poor health IOTL in the last year or so of his life and with the stresses of the presidency (especially in the mid-to-late 1970s), it seems likely that it would hasten his fatal heart attack.

 

[Derek Jackson]

who would be his VP?

 

[Gonzo]

Rocky probably would have died before 1979 if he had succeeded Ford and somehow was elected to his own term in 1976.

He was in poor health IOTL in the last year or so of his life and with the stresses of the presidency (especially in the mid-to-late 1970s), it seems likely that it would hasten his fatal heart attack.

I tend to disagree; surely he just lost the will to live after effectively going into political exile after he ceased being VPOTUS?

 

[lord caedus]

I tend to disagree; surely he just lost the will to live after effectively going into political exile after he ceased being VPOTUS?

No? Rockefeller continued to be busy after he left the vice presidency- he tried to create an alternate World Bank with the Saudi royal family (Saudi Arabian-American Corporation), worked to restructure things in the Rockefeller family/repair his relationships with his older children and continued to avidly collect art and plan for new art exhibits.

After his vice presidency, it became clear that his health was failing- he had to be put on blood thinners and a new diet (the doctor who treated him said that if it had been anyone other than Rockefeller, he would have ordered bed rest and the reason he didn't was because he knew Rockefeller would have refused), exhibited signs of angina pain that he stoically tried to conceal, had a stooped back, and shaking hands. He also stopped caring about appearances- Marshack was definitely not his first mistress or fling, but she was the only one where he flaunted his adultery instead of downplaying it.

Source: I just finished reading On His Own Terms: A Life of Nelson Rockefeller by Richard Norton Smith that devotes a whole chapter to Rockefeller's death.

 

[Darth_Kiryan]

I remember reading a Rockefeller timeline on here that had him winning in 1968 with James Rhodes.as.his vice-president, and Nixon became secretary of state.

Unfortunately it never got past a couple of updates.

 

[Israel]

@bookmark95 is making a timeline about that

 

[Pericles]

I remember reading a Rockefeller timeline on here that had him winning in 1968 with James Rhodes.as.his vice-president, and Nixon became secretary of state.

Unfortunately it never got past a couple of updates.

Oh yes that was me, sorry I never went further with it.

 

[Darth_Kiryan]

Oh yes that was me, sorry I never went further with it.

DAMN YOUI!!!!!!!!!



Well, it was a damn good TL.

 

[Alexander the Average]

No? Rockefeller continued to be busy after he left the vice presidency- he tried to create an alternate World Bank with the Saudi royal family (Saudi Arabian-American Corporation)

That sounds like interesting timeline material in itself. Do you have any more information on this? When I tried Googleing all I could find was New World Order conspiracies.

 

[lord caedus]

That sounds like interesting timeline material in itself. Do you have any more information on this? When I tried Googleing all I could find was New World Order conspiracies.

Most of the info in the book is available on Google Books if you search "SARABAM". Basically, the Saudi royal family wasn't all that interested in it.

There's an Eisenhower quote about him in the book that's a bit harsh, but gets the point across about how Rockefeller loved to have new and innovative ideas: "He has one hundred ideas. One of them may be brilliant...it's worthwhile to keep him around because that one idea is worth the ninety-nine that aren't." SARABAM is definitely in the latter category.

 

[Carl Schwamberger]

No? Rockefeller continued to be busy after he left the vice presidency- he tried to create an alternate World Bank with the Saudi royal family (Saudi Arabian-American Corporation), ...

I vaguely remember that. It was similar to the Hunt brothers trying to corner the silver market. They intended to stash a vast hoard of silver & issue certificates backed by their silver through a Saudi/US bank entity. It was supposed to amount to a private bank currency similar to a 19th Century banking practice. Like so many others the Hunt brothers failed, spectacularly & one of the top five richest families in the US was left destitute with only a few millions residue... : (

 

[Johnrankins]

I vaguely remember that. It was similar to the Hunt brothers trying to corner the silver market. They intended to stash a vast hoard of silver & issue certificates backed by their silver through a Saudi/US bank entity. It was supposed to amount to a private bank currency similar to a 19th Century banking practice. Like so many others the Hunt brothers failed, spectacularly & one of the top five richest families in the US was left destitute with only a few millions residue... : (

I have never understood why some rich people try to corner markets when they tend to wind up being epic failures. Using silver as the example here, people started selling their silver jewelry, silver mining went up as marginal silver mines suddenly became valuable, every process that uses silver somehow is going to be more looked at to see if they can substitute silver with something etc.

 

[Carl Schwamberger]

Cause sometimes it works, or at least in some examples people think it worked. Sometimes markets get cornered by accident - not because anyone had a usefull plan. That sort of thing leads everyone to think it can be done easily through a slick plan.

 

[Johnrankins]

Yeah, but the odds are heavily against it.