TLIAW: No Horizon Too Far

I

On February 20th, 1962, Friendship 7, lifted off from Cape Canaveral sending John Glenn into orbit. In nearly five hours, he had launched into space, orbited it three times, and finally returned to Earth splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean. His launch found itself watched by millions, and with his successful return (now placing the United States on an 'equal' field with the Soviet Union) would find the nation celebrating his flight on a level not seen since Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic flight in 1927. For the next ten days, John Glenn would find himself meeting with Vice President Johnson and President Kennedy in Cape Canaveral Air Force Base and then in Washington DC, with a parade in DC (before addressing a joint session of Congress) and then a ticker-tape parade in New York City, before finally returning home to a parade in his hometown of New Concord, Ohio.

John Glenn would return back to work at NASA, helping to work on the design of the Apollo Command Module and on a variety of ground stations for Project Mercury. Throughout that time, he would lobby for a return to space as a crew member on either Project Gemini or Project Apollo, but NASA would refuse such requests for a return to flight for John Glenn (unbeknownst to him, President Kennedy had refused any return to flight for John Glenn considering the national image he had as the first American to enter orbit). However as a result of his flight, John Glenn would establish a friendship with President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, as he contemplated how to proceed with NASA refusing any further flights for him. Considering the kind of popularity that John Glenn had, they would begin pushing for John Glenn to run for public office, most specifically the Ohio Senate seat. They would eventually convince Glenn to run (despite the eventual assassination of President Kennedy in November of 1963), and in early 1964 would resign from the Astronaut Corps before formally announcing his run for the Ohio Senate seat.

For John Glenn, his first challenge was that of facing incumbent Senator Stephen M. Young, who had been elected in 1958. Stephen M. Young had emerged as a surprise facing off against the incumbent Republican Senator, John W. Bricker in 1958. Considering Stephen M. Young's age at the time (69), many had questioned his changes of victory including Democratic Senator Frank J. Lausche, but former Representative Young would capitalize on the proposed right-to-work amendment that Bricker had endorsed. The widespread public opposition to the amendment would see the Democrats sweep elections in Ohio, with only the Secretary of State (in terms of a position in the executive) remaining Republican-controlled. Senator Young's responses to letters sent by his constituents had been of a highly volatile nature, usually being abusive or offensive, which did not add points for the Senator in the primary election. Despite Senator Young's fighting for the Senate seat, John Glenn would trounce Senator Young in the Democratic primary winning 55%-43%.

John Glenn's victory as the Democratic nominee would set him against Robert A. Taft Jr., as the Republican nominee for the Senate. The election would be to an extent somewhat head to head, with Glenn slightly edging over in comparison to Taft Jr. For John Glenn, it would introduce him much more to the world of politics as he would begin to take more of a lead over Representative Taft Jr. as Election Day came around and everyone began to wait for the results. By the time the results had come in, John Glenn had won the Ohio Senate seat by 51.7% to 48.4%, making him the new Senator-elect of Ohio for the 89th United States Congress.
 
So what's this then?

A timeline in a week obviously.

No, I meant more who you chose it on, and why you picked John Glenn.

Arguably, it's more of a memorial timeline if anything after Glenn's death on the 8th. John Glenn was a rather fitting figure, who found himself caught into a stumble and arguably derailed a possible political career...

I see, I see. Yet why not something else, like John Glenn being the first keynote speaker in 1976 rather than Barbara Jordan, so that Glenn could become Vice President under Carter rather than Mondale?

Well, that seems so boring. Arguably him winning in 1964 would offer a much larger potential in terms of what could be done and his career as a Senator.

Noted. So when's Glenn going to become President?

That I can't say. You'll have to read it and find out.

And the title?

John Glenn had remarked on his first orbit crossing over the Indian Ocean, “This is Friendship Seven. Had a beautiful sunset and can see the light way out almost up to the northern horizon.” Considering that John Glenn was also an astronaut, the term of horizon can fit in with that of crossing for an orbit.

Now let's see where you go with this, and don't disappoint us.

Oh I won't. Not going to try and disappoint with this timeline at all.
 

Archibald

Banned
I see, I see. Yet why not something else, like John Glenn being the first keynote speaker in 1976 rather than Barbara Jordan, so that Glenn could become Vice President under Carter rather than Mondale?

Well, that seems so boring. Arguably him winning in 1964 would offer a much larger potential in terms of what could be done and his career as a Senator.

I did exactly that in my TL explorers. Boring maybe, but at least Apollo 11 tenth anniversary ceremonies would look better with VP Glenn that freakkin' Fritz Mondale.
 
2

Winding up in the Senate, John Glenn would be found as a figure 'set apart' from those of the other Democrats partially due to his beliefs and of that of his 'celebrity' status. Arriving in the Senate however, Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (D-MT) would become a close friend and mentor to the freshman Senator. Throughout the 89th Congress, John Glenn would find himself learning the ways of the Senate via the initial committees he had wound up being placed into. For the 90th Congress, Glenn would wind up being positioned into the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where his attitude towards the way he approached bills emerging into play. He would often take his time going through his 'deliberative' (often also referred to as 'exhaustive' by others) slow review of the facts, but by the time his position was known, he became near impossible to move from it.

The friendship between Senators John Glenn and Robert F. Kennedy that had been established following John Glenn's first orbital flight would arguably grow to an extent with often visits to Hickory Hill (the home of Robert F. Kennedy and his family). Following the announcement that Robert F. Kennedy would be seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, John Glenn would join him for the primary, helping him campaign and also in winning the state of Ohio for the campaign. For both Oregon and California, Senator Glenn would assist Senator Kennedy heavily throughout the campaigning. For John Glenn, he would be with Robert F. Kennedy at Ambassador Hotel on June 4th for the victory in California and would hear about the shooting of him just minutes after it would happened. He would be asked by Ethel Kennedy (the wife of RFK) to escort five of the children back to their home in Hickory Hills. “When Bob died, I had to sit on the edge of the bed as each child was waking up and tell them their dad was not coming home,” Senator Glenn would say later in a private interview. “It was one of the hardest things I ever did.” [1]

John Glenn would speak at the DNC (although not in a keynote position) and find himself being mentioned as a possible Vice Presidential candidate throughout the 1968 Convention, but Muskie would be ultimately selected as Vice President. Glenn would campaign for the Democrats as Senator, but even then they would still lose to the Nixon/Agnew ticket and return back to the Democratic-controlled Senate. Again, Senator Glenn would remain in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and begin to emerge into one of his most prominent positions, the support of nuclear non-proliferation. The threat of such a proliferation of nuclear arms would represent a significant threat to American security, his opinion having grown even further with the passage of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. For Senator Glenn, the questions of the Vietnam War would only grow in terms of how the United States should commit itself and one in which he was left to lay out the facts on.

Entering into the 1970 general election, he would face off against his previous challenger, Robert A. Taft Jr. for the Class 1 Senate seat in Ohio. Compared to the 1964 election, it would be met much more bitter with accusations against Senator Glenn for his 'support' of the Vietnam War followed by accusations alleging that prior to him having become a Senator that he had 'never' held a real job. In the final (of the two) debates between the two for the Senate seat, Senator Glenn would unleash his response against Representative Taft Jr's comments on him having 'never' held a real job prior to being on the Senate. The speech which would quickly become known as the 'Gold Star Mother's' speech would rapidly gain notice and be spotlighted on national news, with John Glenn winning the election by a startling 56-42 against Representative Taft as he sailed for reelection for his second term in the Senate.

[1] That is basically all OTL right there.
 
3

For Senator Glenn, the 92nd Congress would see him join the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee (and more in particular the Energy Research and Water Resources Subcommittee) and also gain the chairmanship of the East Asian and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee (of the Foreign Relations Committee). Senator Glenn would find himself taking a series of initial trips to Taiwan, South Korea and Japan ahead of the 1972 Democratic presidential primaries as the chair of the East Asian and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee. For Glenn, the decision over who to support (if anyone) for the presidential primaries raised several questions to mind as he watched over the primaries. Glenn would ultimately throw his support behind Humphrey after trying to determine between him and 'Scoop' Jackson, aiding him in Ohio and also to an extent after the fact. The assassination of George Wallace on May 15th, would throw the primary into chaos as Wallace's delegates scattered with no candidate yet receiving their support as the culmination of the 1972 primaries started to close. The chaos of the primaries would only be heightened even further with Humphrey's victory in California, thus ensuring that unless all of Wallace's delegates had went to McGovern, that the 1972 DNC was bound towards at least two ballots for the Presidential nominee.

To many extents, the 1972 Democratic National Convention was a disaster, as the scattering of Wallace's delegates combined with Humphrey's victory in California sent forth the chaos. While on paper, the 'Anybody But McGovern' coalition had a superiority in delegates compared to McGovern, they were much more divided as the McGovern delegates took an earnest in gaining control of the committees for the DNC. For Senator John Glenn, the choice of McGovern could arguably be disastrous to an extent, and following the first ballot would urge that the choice of the Democrats 'must be made to prevent Nixon winning for a second term', with his speech being met from applause by many of the 'ABMs'. The second round of ballots would see McGovern be only two delegates short of garnering the nomination, and while Humphrey would rapidly gain delegates (at a total of 874), Senator John Glenn would suddenly find himself with a number of delegates having moved towards him (for a total of 73) despite his non-committal at being the President. The third round of the ballot would see John Glenn reach a total of 157 delegates, having emerged from an initial movement of 'Draft Glenn!' among the delegate floor. George McGovern would pick Senator Walter Mondale as his running-mate, against the Republican ticket of Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew. The 1972 election would be a disaster, having only won Minnesota, Massachusetts, and Washington D.C. while the rest of the country had gone for Nixon entirely.

For Senator Glenn, he would remain in his positions as he was in the Senate working to maintain the positions as he was. The second term of Nixon's presidency would rapidly show itself with Vice President Agnew's resignation on October 10th, 1973, and Nixon would then nominate Gerald R. Ford to replace Vice President Agnew on October 12th, with him passing both the Senate and the House. The unfolding of the Watergate scandal would thrust Vice President Ford into the Presidency, and for Democrats in Congress it was a jubilation and a significant tar against the Republicans. Ford would in turn nominate Senator George H.W. Bush as his Vice President, being confirmed by both the Senate and House. On September 8th, 1974, Ford would pardon Richard Nixon for any crimes committed, nearly two months prior to the midterm elections and would announce a conditional amnesty program for those who had fled to Canada to avoid the draft and for military deserters. In the House, the Democrats would gain 49 seats totaling a majority of 291 seats (of 435) while in the Senate, the Democrats would gain enough seats to total 63 seats in all (the closest election being Senator-elect Harry Reid's victory over Paul Lexalt by 51 votes).

For John Glenn, with the Watergate scandal having unfolded and in turn the damage inflicted on Ford for pardoning Nixon would force him to actively consider to run for the Presidency or not in 1976 in the Democratic primary. Such a decision however would be of significant thought, and one that he would be forced to rapidly consider in the days following the mid-term election.
 
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