Just finished it -- I'd give it 4 out of 5. The writing was good, the psychological insights into the players was fascinating, and the scenarios were a plausible in a no-blatant-ASBs way.
The one point off is because Greenfield, while not writing a wank, clearly stacks the deck for his favored outcome.
[SPOILERS, if those bother you]
- The first scenario has an under utilized POD, JFK's assassination in 1960. LBJ takes office under a cloud, but recovers as he aggressively pushes a sweeping domestic agenda, including the Civil Rights Act in 1961. Unfortunately, he listens to his generals' advice during the Cuban Missile Crisis and bombs the missile sites, which leads the Soviet commander to use a tac-nuke on Guantanamo. Johnson then suffers a heart attack under the strain. Pretty unkind to LBJ, but an interesting and plausible take, I thought, though the way in which Acting President Humphrey resolved the crisis with a FAILSAFE scenario seemed really off to me. (Would the Soviets really trade Sevastopol for Gitmo? Surely they'd just throw Castro under the bus first.)
- The second scenario is RFK-lives. I give the author a lot of credit for not acting, as a lot of lazy AH writers do, like Kennedy already had the nomination in his grasp when he was struck down -- his difficult campaign to pull pledged delegates away from Humphrey is shown in glorious detail. Still, after a while, it seems like the Kennedy campaign gets an awful lot of lucky breaks and strokes of genius, while poor old Humphrey and Nixon just plod along. Bobby wins, of course, and proceeds to govern as a Third Way/DLC style Democrat.
- The third scenario is Ford-defeats-Carter, and was the least interesting to me because it seemed like a rehash of the second. After a brief look at Ford's second term in the Middle East (better in Iran, worse in Egypt and Saudi), and the economy (still sucks), Greenfield focuses on the election of 1980, where the traditional liberal frontrunner, Ted Kennedy, faces a spirited insurgent campaign from a disciple of RFK, Gary Hart, who runs against both parties as a Third Way/DLC....it's at this point where I started to wonder if Greenfield was, in fact, RogueBeaver.* Somewhat irksome that, while Hart's various flaws, which caused his narrow defeat to Mondale OTL, are addressed, there's always some brilliant advisor who fixes everything just in time. Hart wins. Although the end suggests that one flaw may derail him yet...
Overall, a very good read if you don't mind AH directed to a specific outcome from the beginning -- otherwise it's merely good.
*Ok, not really, but only because Greenfield actually has Ronald Reagan lose an election.
