Something Serious Has Happened on Air Force One (a Tl/story by Geon)
- Thread starter Geon
- Start date
This is from a BBC article (Google Translate):
Castro's wrath
However, the withdrawal of the Soviet missiles caused monumental anger to Fidel Castro, who had been excluded from the negotiations between both powers to resolve the conflict.
"Many eyes of men, Cuban and Soviet, who were willing to die with supreme dignity, shed tears upon learning of the surprising, unexpected and practically unconditional decision to withdraw weapons," he wrote to Nikita Khrushchev in a final letter.
[https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-63054805]
if Cuba Secret secret service return the favour in USA and get catch by FBI,
Believe me, first USAF bomb Cuba into Stone age, follow invasion by US Marines and US ARMY...
THAT would influence American politics for generations, with the Miami Cubans and their lobby out of the picture there.
Why do you think they killed Castro in the first place ITTL? They are delusional enough to think that just by killing him they can just swoop in and turn Cuba back into what it was prior to the rule of the Castro brothers, a right-wing military dictatorship paying lip service to democracy.
The problem is that just killing Fidel isn't enough, you would have had to combine it with a sudden military invasion of Cuba to make it work, and it would have to be quick enough to avoid the Soviet Union getting involved. In essence it's what the Bay of Pigs invasion was planned to be but completely flopped, and now is even more remote since even if Raul is pushed out of power, in this era there is no incentive for Communist Cuba to flip back to the American sphere of influence.
Given the (by now) well known hatred of Batista, the only people who would discuss his return would be those who want to deliberately make it out that there are two and only two choices: Castro or Batista.
No surprise, those people would be the Cuban Communist Party and their supporters.
Talk about a bombshell. (Or, pillshell? Bombpill? Hm.) Makes me wonder how much Cuba's future is gonna be changed. If they drift far enough from the soviets, and some expansionist President sets his eyes on Havana, well... Excited to see what's next.
Hoping everything's well, Geon - I'm interested to see the responses within Cuba and the U.S. public, and what effects this'll have... Regardless, patience reigns true, writing takes time, and know that the fans of this strange, near-dystopic timeline are here for support. 
Geon
Donor
Thank you @Raikkappa23. Everything is well here. I have just been busy and also trying to figure out how politically things should go here. I am not as skilled as many on this forum in the art of building political timelines with election boxes, tallies, etc. So, I would like to open this up for some discussion.
To recapitulate the political situation. John McCormack is now president. He has already declared that he will fill out JFK's term of office but will not run himself.
At present there are two serious Democratic contenders for the nomination: John Connelly and Hubert Humphrey. Bobby Kennedy has made it crystal clear he will not be running this time.
Given the situation whoever becomes the Democratic nominee would normally expect to have a strong sympathy vote on the part of the public in the wake of the deaths of Kennedy and Johnson. However, McCormack's actions have caused many of the minority voters (i.e. black voters) to distance themselves from the Democrats. Martin Luther King, Jr. still feels the Democrats are the best choice for now but that could change depending on who gets the nomination. King could literally (pardon the pun) become a "king maker" at the Democratic convention.
As I indicated earlier the South is becoming polarized. The riots in the Deep South are causing some southerners to think a radical conservative law-and-order candidate may be best. With Wallace withdrawing from the race they will be looking for someone to champion "the southern cause". On the other hand others are liable to jump on Connelly's bandwagon.
The "sympathy vote" is starting to vanish as Americans deal with the race riots. A possible showdown in Vietnam between the U.S. and the Soviets and other international crises I have hinted at in this thread. The Democrats are no longer the shoe-in they were in OTL in 1964.
The Republicans will still nominate Goldwater. I don't see his nomination being butterflied away. So the questions are as follows.
To recapitulate the political situation. John McCormack is now president. He has already declared that he will fill out JFK's term of office but will not run himself.
At present there are two serious Democratic contenders for the nomination: John Connelly and Hubert Humphrey. Bobby Kennedy has made it crystal clear he will not be running this time.
Given the situation whoever becomes the Democratic nominee would normally expect to have a strong sympathy vote on the part of the public in the wake of the deaths of Kennedy and Johnson. However, McCormack's actions have caused many of the minority voters (i.e. black voters) to distance themselves from the Democrats. Martin Luther King, Jr. still feels the Democrats are the best choice for now but that could change depending on who gets the nomination. King could literally (pardon the pun
) become a "king maker" at the Democratic convention.As I indicated earlier the South is becoming polarized. The riots in the Deep South are causing some southerners to think a radical conservative law-and-order candidate may be best. With Wallace withdrawing from the race they will be looking for someone to champion "the southern cause". On the other hand others are liable to jump on Connelly's bandwagon.
The "sympathy vote" is starting to vanish as Americans deal with the race riots. A possible showdown in Vietnam between the U.S. and the Soviets and other international crises I have hinted at in this thread. The Democrats are no longer the shoe-in they were in OTL in 1964.
The Republicans will still nominate Goldwater. I don't see his nomination being butterflied away. So the questions are as follows.
- Who else might decide to jump in the Democratic race?
- Among the Democratic nominees who might replace Wallace as the South's conservative nominee?
- Given the situation how do you feel America will vote in a Goldwater v. [insert Democratic candidate here] election?
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I have the feeling someone is going to assassinate him if he tries.
Just read all the chapters of this series, I really like it. All this craziness because of zealous local/federal officials over a dead body 🤣🤣. I hope the South somehow comes to it's senses with Wallace dropping out of the Presidential Race. I honestly hoped we'd see a Wallace Presidency with him both reforming his ways and dealing with a still potent Deep South not at all happy with Civil Rights. Cuba is interesting with an earlier death of Fidel, the best I hope for is infighting between the local Communists and the US simply watching. I hope Vietnam doesn't turn into the complex mess of OTL. Keep up the good work, followed this story now.
I think that it depends on the candidate of the Democrats. Given that Goldwater is still known as the pro-civil rights guy in this timeline (from what I remember he was a very idealistic libertarian, who voted against the civil rights because it prevented the right of business owners, which made him a hard-right darling, with people being shocked when in the nineties he pretty much become a liberal Republican… but as I said, he is a libertarian who unlike many of the group, seems genuine about it), he might gain more liberal Republican voters, but at the same time, he can get Deep South as well, if the Democratic candidate is regarded as a “Pinkokissing Blackloving Yankee!” by the Dixiecrats, which might create a very weird coalition who is ultimately unhappy no matter what Goldwater does or says.
I don’t think it would be far-fetched if Eugene McCarthy ran.
Edwin Walker would be an interesting candidate.
Would Strom Thurmond come back? Lester Maddox comes on the scene early? Of course, on the other side, Georgia does have a few good ol' not-so-confederates up and coming... William B. Hartsfield might be too old to run (born 1890, Mayor of Atlanta, 1937-1941, 1942-1962), but Ivan Allen Jr, his successor (born 1911, Mayor 1962-1970) could make a good lower-tier candidate... Going from Mayor to President is a pretty long stretch, though. Maddox is probably the controversial new-guy pick that people either love or hate, and Thurmond the old guy who wants to try it again. Iunno.