Reshuffling the Hand You Were Dealt - Republican Party Edition

adlai-stevenson.jpg


Stevenson Administration 1961-1962

After reelection, President Stevenson’s focus would be drawn by Cuba, which had recently fallen to Communism and given hefty aid by the Soviet Union. Many in his Administration were pushing him to launch a coup against the new Cuban Leader, Fidel Castro, in early 1961, but he insisted that the United States could not successfully fight in Vietnam and in risk getting bogged down in Cuba, too.

Once it became clear to Nikita Khrushchev that President Stevenson wouldn’t do anything in Cuba after the Soviets began arming the new Cuban regime, he made his move in Berlin, beginning the construction of the Berlin Wall to separate East Berlin from West Berlin. President Stevenson regarded this, however, as a step too far. Demanding construction of the Wall stop, he was disappointed to learn Khrushchev thoroughly regarded him as weak and able to be pushed around. Stevenson limped back into the realm of domestic policy in order to lick his wounds.

Turning his attention to NSERI, President Stevenson set about the ambitious goal of seeing a man set foot on the Moon and return to Earth by the end of the decade. This would be established in a series of phases, with the Gemini Program which would see two Astronauts cohabitate the same vessel and demonstrate the feasibility of docking systems in space, followed by the Artemis Program, planned to have astronauts orbit the Moon and eventually set foot on the celestial body.

While the President had hoped to resume the push for desegregation in his second term, riots had broken out in the South in late 1961. With Civil Rights activists storming the region in an attempt to overwhelm those trying to enforce segregation by way of sit-ins and city marches. This was met head on by police departments who cracked down on these “subversive” groups, which was particularly harsh after their previous funding from and working with the FBI.

During the March on Atlanta on May 10th of 1962, however, things would go from bad to worse. Led by Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King, the march would be stopped by the police. When a scuffle erupted, the police drew their weapons and fired, accidently shooting King through the heart (reports would come out claiming this was intentional and that King was not directly involved in the scuffle, but an investigation would uphold that it was an unintentional shot at King). The President would call for a national day of mourning on May 11th, but the following night he would suffer from a heart attack and die in the early hours of May 12th. Vice President Johnson would be sworn in hours later, taking charge of a nation in utter shock.
 
131119_COUNT_LBJ.jpg.CROP.promo-mediumlarge.jpg


Johnson Administration (1962-1965)

Upon being inaugurated, President Johnson was put in charge of a mourning nation. Not letting a crisis go to waste, he immediately got to work on the Voting Rights Act, which would ultimately pass in December of that year, capitalizing on late President Stevenson’s vision he had for the country, with few wanting to argue with him over it, and eliminating poll taxes by Constitutional Amendment the following year.

The President would also enforce the new Civil Rights laws with the use of the National Guard, in a move that President Stevenson had sided against, desegregating a number of southern universities that had resisted the new laws. In 1963, he would notably come in direct opposition to Alabama Governor George Wallace over the issue, who would notably vow to challenge Johnson in the 1964 Election.

Afterwards, he set about expanding what would come to be known as the New Society Programs of the 1960s, seeking to expand on FDR’s New Deal programs. Among the New Society Programs would be the beginning of the War on Poverty and the establishment of Medicare and Medicaid, aimed to reduce poverty and lack of health services for Americans and minorities in particular.

However, with his foreign policy, the American public began to slowly turn against President Johnson. In Vietnam, the South was making slow but steady progress. President Johnson took this as an opportunity to send in more American troops to provide a quick and decisive victory in the country in late 1963. It would be anything but.

Vietnam would, in the Election of 1964, a “bottomless hole demanding troops ceaselessly” and it would all be based on Johnson’s public insistence that just a few more troops would lock up a victory for the South Vietnamese. However, as his Presidency continued, the number of KIA troops returning home would only increase by the day. This problem would be particularly exacerbated when the Khmer Rouge, whom the Americans were not officially fighting, would report to the world that three American pilots had been shot down and two captured in Cambodia, triggering anti-war riots starting in February of 1964.
 
genusmap.php


President Lyndon B. Johnson/Governor John F. Kennedy (Democratic) - 289 Electoral Votes (49.8%)
Governor Richard Nixon/Governor Nelson Rockefeller (Republican) – 249 Electoral Votes (49.6%)

It was called one of the closest elections in history – and one of the dirtiest, with historical evidence suggesting the likelihood of voter fraud in Illinois, among other states.

Though President Johnson faced off against George Wallace for the Democratic Nomination for President, an overwhelming victory would keep the Dixiecrats down for the count in 1964. Needing a Vice Presidential candidate, he wanted to turn to Senator Hubert Humphrey, who had been instrumental in passing Civil Rights legislation. However, his team would advise him instead to pick a Governor, considering it was in the domestic policy arena that President Johnson was more popular, and John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts would be selected as a young, energetic campaigner who could help out in urban areas.

On the Republican side of the election, it would be a competition between newly elected Governor Richard Nixon facing off against Governor Nelson Rockefeller in a West Coast vs. East Coast race. Though Senator Goldwater would once again make a bid for the nomination, he would largely be sidelined by the campaign juggernauts in Nixon and Rockefeller.

At the Convention, when Nixon finally beat out Rockefeller for the nomination, he quickly turned around to offer him the Vice Presidential spot as reconciliation to unite the Party. The Republicans saw an in to win the election on Vietnam, and they wanted to be sure they rallied as much of the Party as possible on Election Day.

In the General Election, Nixon would hammer the President on Vietnam and call for “peace with dignity” in the region, explaining we could not run away from the conflict but that the President was “severely mishandling” the situation.

The Democrats, on the other hand would criticize Nixon for his true lack of domestic experience, having only been elected Governor in 1962, and Rockefeller for his recent divorce. On election day, the results would prove close, but in the end, the country would opt to stick by President Johnson.
 
So, when are Nixon's other two runs going to be? '72 and '76?

I will say that Nixon will be running again sometime in the future, but I feel obligated to say I didn't stick with the "You Run X Times IOTL so You Run X Times ITTL" idea all the way through. Some candidates who ran once IOTL will run twice ITTL and vice versa.
 

TinyTartar

Banned
He was known for being one of the major Red Scarers though.

So was Bobby Kennedy, one of the more prominent liberals of the era. It was kind of an exceptional event on the political spectrum.

I really like this TL so far, very interesting. I do question however the ability of the Democrats to sweep the South in '64. A trumping of the Dixiecrats in the primary might simply mean that they once again run a separate ticket, as Johnson had pushed Civil Rights through. While Nixon did not run a Southern Strategy, as you likely would have indicated otherwise, I can't see the Democrats lining up for LBJ in the South after he pushes Civil Rights and trounces Wallace in the primaries. Wallace would run a 3rd party and take votes.
 
Top