Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy
Banned
During Richard Nixon's 1958 visit to Venezuela his motorcade was attacked by rioters and the Venezuelan foreign minister was injured. WI Nixon had been killed?
Tricky Dick gets it in South America
- Thread starter Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy
- Start date
Venezuela gets the living shit kicked out of it and Nixon may get some type of martyr status.
Marylander puts a rather unvarnished view, but that's fundamentally the case, IMO. Ike would order troops to Caracas and other major Venezuelan cities; the navy would have several capital ships off the coast. The Venezuelan government would have no choice but to knuckle under. Within perhaps two years, Venezuela would be in effect an additional state. American culture would take root by virtue of the presence of recently built US armed services installations. The Venezuelan oil industry would be taken over completely by US oil companies, while we're at it. By today, English might have overtaken Spanish as the first language, and there might even be a push for Venezuela to enter the union as a state.
As for Nixon...some martyrdom, yes, but even then he was disliked enough to temper that. The short-term effect as I see it would be to guarantee a GOP victory in 1960 (say, Lodge and Rockefeller), and to postpone if not butterfly away altogether a Kennedy presidency--and by extension, a presence in Vietnam.
As for Nixon...some martyrdom, yes, but even then he was disliked enough to temper that. The short-term effect as I see it would be to guarantee a GOP victory in 1960 (say, Lodge and Rockefeller), and to postpone if not butterfly away altogether a Kennedy presidency--and by extension, a presence in Vietnam.
That's the period joke about JFK demanding "equal time" from the Venezuelans. Lodge would never lead the ticket, and Ike didn't like Rocky. I could see Rocky-Anderson (SecTreas) in '60. Regardless, the Dems will likely lose in '60, and the GOP lessens the OTL '58 massacre. Perhaps JFK realizes that and decides to run in 1964 instead.
AmIndHistoryAuthor
Banned
Almost ASB. IOTL Nixon got spit on and he was the one who actually attacked a protester, and got away with it, gleefully recording how he got to kick one of them in the shin.
Perhaps if there were some assassin who took advantage of the confusion to launch an actual attack. But a rioter? Not unless an unlucky blood clot kills Nixon hours later. There might be some immature types who'd try to punish a whole nation for a single protester's unintentional act, but this isn't the killing of Archduke Ferdinand. No one's going to bomb Venezuela for this unless they already wanted to well before that.
Perhaps if there were some assassin who took advantage of the confusion to launch an actual attack. But a rioter? Not unless an unlucky blood clot kills Nixon hours later. There might be some immature types who'd try to punish a whole nation for a single protester's unintentional act, but this isn't the killing of Archduke Ferdinand. No one's going to bomb Venezuela for this unless they already wanted to well before that.
Might this speed up something like the 25th Amendment on Presidential incapacity and VP vacancies, especially as Ike was not so well and the Speaker was a Democrat?
I could see Anderson (Ike's golden boy in the Cabinet) being named VP, and he doesn't even have to resign from Treasury. But I doubt the ability of a Southerner to win on his own in 1960.
If Venezualan rioters had killed Nixon, wouldn't they have got a community service medal from the Americans instead? 
Let's face it, Nixon was an A-hole; I can't see the US invading a country on the basis of one slimeass politician being flicked off by a lucky shot.
Let's face it, Nixon was an A-hole; I can't see the US invading a country on the basis of one slimeass politician being flicked off by a lucky shot.DT: Nixon's not the type for that. Neither is JFK, who prefers "slam-bam-thank you ma'am" than a Sanford/Clintonesque long-term relationship.
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Forgive me, but "Tricky Dick gets it in South America" sounds like a bad piece of innuendo. Especially with nimbletoes calling him an "A-hole"...
Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy
Banned
He got spit on at the airport, this was later. Since the Venezuelan foreign minister was injured in that incident, for someone in the motorcade to die is not ASB.