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This Time There’s A Difference You Won’t Have Nixon to Kick Around Anymore
“Peruvian communist extremists riot against Vice President Nixon’s arrival in Lima, Peru. After a brief confrontation Vice President Nixon lies dead in the Hotel Bolivar, assassinated. ”-Douglas Edwards
From: “Nixon: Who Was Tricky Dick?” Richard Nixon’s foreign policy tour in South America had forever since been regarded as perhaps the greatest blunder of the Eisenhower administration. Initially just a trip to the inauguration of President Frondizi, under the pressure of Eisenhower and the State department it ballooned into a massive trip where the Vice President was to go to almost every country in South America. Despite CIA warnings about the possible communist threat, there were few preparations for security. Indeed, in the initial part of the trip in Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia, all went well for Vice President Nixon, with the only opposition being from a few hecklers. However, Communists, spurred on by their failure, resorted to more extreme tactics in Peru. Nixon’s visit to Peru started out all right with a lunch with President Prado. Unfortunately, the catalyst for disaster was Nixon’s visit to San Marcos University. Despite warnings from the communists about Nixon being prevented from going there, the impetuous vice president attempted to visit, only to be warded off by a crowd who bombarded him and his entourage with rocks, chanting Muera Nixon! Muera Nixon!. Nixon instead went to Catholic University, where he got a friendly reception. However, the rioters from San Marcos had followed him, and on the way back to the hotel, they intercepted Nixon’s party. Nixon and his aides had made it almost to the doors of his hotel when tragedy struck. As a person watching from the hotel later recounted “ Nixon was walking quickly, smiling and waving, when a man stepped in front of him[1]. I heard a gunshot and, although I couldn’t see it very well, Nixon seemed to slump. One of his aides who had been walking behind him, who I later found out was Jack Sherwood, went to grab the protester, only for there to be another gunshot and the aide to turn sideways and stumble. The other two people managed to get Sherwood and Nixon into the hotel. I went downstairs to see what had occurred. Sherwood had been shot in the arm, but as for Nixon, there was no hope. Pat Nixon, who was also in the hotel, had rushed downstairs and was next to him. He’d been shot in the chest, and I found myself with the ill fortune to be part of the death watch for Vice President Nixon.” Nixon’s assassination resulted in widespread sadness even though the Vice President had not been all that popular in life. In death, Nixon gained a reputation as an anticommunist hero who had defeated Alger Hiss and defended America around the world, ultimately being overcome in his foreign struggle for freedom. Americans all the way up to President Eisenhower expressed deep regret at his passing. Nixon’s later reputation as a far conservative, largely due to the founding of the Richard Nixon Society by Robert Welch in 1958, largely eliminated this earlier nostalgia, despite in itself being false. Nixon’s reputation would thus be a complicated one, obscured by politics for a long time.
From: “The Election of 1960” One of the few bright spots in foreign policy in 1958 for the U.S. was the conclusive defeat of the 26th of July Movement in Cuba[2]. The rebellion in Cuba had lasted for two years and continued largely due to the perseverance of it’s leader, Fidel Castro. Castro and his small band of men successfully held off the Cuban government for two years against overwhelming odds. Their luck was about to change with the Cuban government’s new Operation Verano. After initial rebel victories at Estrada Palma Sugar Mill and La Plata, the government finally found the victory it was looking for at the Battle of Buey Arreba[3]. Castro, who had ambushed the government so many times before, now found himself caught in a trap by General Castillo. After the death of their leader, the small army was easily routed and captured, leaving only the forces led by Ernesto Guevara, who now found himself facing inevitable defeat. Meanwhile, in the U.S. both parties geared up for the 1958 elections, which were to be fought, due to Nixon’s death, largely on the issue of foreign affairs, which put Republicans at an advantage. The Democrats briefly got an advantage when Eisenhower’s Chief of Staff was implicated in a scandal, but after his resignation the issue died down[4]. Democrats ultimately resorted to focusing on the economy and won what was a narrow victory in both the senate and house races, gaining 5 seats in the house and 8 in the senate, resulting in narrow majorities in both houses.[5] However the two most consequential races of the year were both those for governor. In New York, Nelson A. Rockefeller defeated Averell Harriman by a large margin, despite the small nationwide Democratic trend. The impressive victory made Rockefeller one of the rising stars of the Republican party. Of course, with hindsight it is obvious that the other important race of the year was in Alabama, where George C. Wallace, with the backing of the NAACP, narrowly defeated John M. Patterson who had had the support of the Klan. The event was very formative of the governor. As he said later to his aide; “Seymore, you know why I won that governor’s race? I didn’t do race baiting like Patterson. And I’ll tell you here and now, I will never race bait again[6].” Wallace had launched a notable political career. Nixon’s assassination had cracked open the race for president in 1960, and after the elections on 1958, the various candidates started strategizing. On the Republican side, without the Nixon to bridge the gap, the party seemed to be facing a very dangerous schism. One the one side there were the liberal republicans, led by Rockefeller, Bagwell and McGonigle, all governors who had won for the first time in 1958 and of whom Rockefeller was the leading contender. On the other side, there was Barry M. Goldwater and John W. Bricker, both senators, and both leaders in what they hoped to be a growing conservative wing of the Republican Party and also seen as possible candidates. Eisenhower with Nixon’s death started promoting the candidacy of Treasury Secretary Anderson, an effort which never really got off the ground. For the Democrats, although Adlai Stevenson had lost much of his prior support due to his character attacks on the now martyred Nixon, the twice loser was still a contender, as was Lyndon Johnson, the Senate Majority Leader. In addition there was the Senator from Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy, who was thought to have a large chance of winning despite being a Catholic, and Senator Hubert H. Humphrey from Minnesota. There was also Stuart Symington of Missouri and Wayne Morse of Oregon. 1959 would be an interesting year for all of them.
Table of U.S. Senate and Governor Races in 1958
Alabama George C. Wallace
Alaska William A. Egan
Bob Bartlett Mike Stepovich
Arizona Paul J. Fannin Barry Goldwater
Arkansas Orval Faubus
California Pat Brown Clair Engle
Colorado Stephen L. R. Nichols
Connecticut Abraham A. Ribicoff Thomas J. Dodd
Delaware John J. Williams
Florida Spessard Holland
Georgia Ernest Vandiver
Hawaii
Idaho Robert E. Smylie
Illinois
Indiana Vance Hartke
Iowa
Kansas George Docking
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine Frederick G. Payne Horace A. Hildreth
Maryland J. Millard Tawes James G. Beall
Massachusetts Foster Furcolo John F. Kennedy
Michigan Paul D. Bagwell Charles E. Potter
Minnesota Orville Freeman Edward J. Thye
Missisippi John C. Stennis
Missouri Stuart Symington
Montana Mike Mansfield
Nebraska Victor E. Anderson Roman L. Hruska
Nevada Frank G. Sawyer Howard W. Cannon
New Hampshire Wesley Powell
New Jersey Robert W. Kean
New Mexico Edwin L. Mechem Dennis Chavez
New York Nelson A. Rockefeller Kenneth B. Keating
North Carolina Benjamin E. Jordan
North Dakota John E. Davis William Langer
Ohio Michael V. DiSalle John W. Bricker
Oklahoma James H. Edmondson
Oregon Mark Hatfield
Pennsylvania Art McGonigle Hugh Scott
Rhode Island Christopher Del Sesto John O. Pastore
South Carolina Ernest Hollings
South Dakota Phil Saunders
Tennessee Earl B. Ellington Albert Gore Sr.
Texas Marion P. Daniel Sr. Ralph Yarbourough
Utah Arthur V. Walkins
Vermont Robert T. Stafford Winston L. Prouty
Virginia Harry F. Byrd
Washington Henry M. Jackson
West Virginia Robert C. Byrd Jennings Randolph
Wisconsin Vernon W. Thompson William Proxmire
Wyoming Milward L. Simpson Frank A. Barrett
Bolded means different result from OTL.Whenever multiple per state, governor is top line, senator below
…
[1]Our POD. In OTL Nixon remembered an encounter right in front of the hotel. The demonstrator who blocked his way merely spat at him. In TTL, it is one of the more violent demonstrators who blocks him.
[2]While there was U.S. sympathy for Castro in OTL before he took power, in TTL the assassination of Nixon has rather changed the U.S.’s view, leading them to support the Cuban government more and to see Batista’s excessive actions against rebels as better than Prado’s ineffectiveness.
[3]Essentially, Operation Verano unfolds somewhat differently, but the Battle of Buey Arreba is an ATL version of the Battle of Las Mercedes, but with Castro being shot early in the battle and it ending much worse for the rebels.
[4]In OTL this was a larger scandal, in TTL the Nixon assassination is in the news for a while, obscuring it, again helping the Republicans.
[5] Nixon’s death actually helps the Republicans a lot. In OTL, the Democrats gained 16 seats in the Senate in what was the largest Senate gain ever, whereas in TTL Nixon being a martyr and the somewhat absence of the Sherman Adams scandal leads it to be merely a small defeat. In some of the more interesting results, in Maine Edmund Muskie narrowly loses to Fred Payne while in Minnesota Eugene McCarthy loses to Edward J. Thye and in the house Joe Foss beats George McGovern. In addition, Joseph W. Martin Jr. continues to be minority leader.
[6]While Wallace is not totally sincere, expect some big changes in his political positions.