BigDave1967
Banned
What would have happened had that swamp rabbit assassinated Jimmy Carter in 1979?
WI: Assassinations of US Presidents...
- Thread starter Asami
- Start date
The President had just got assassinated, though. A Republican president, no less.
A better question, and one which I have yet to see dealt with in a TL, is what if Nixon commits suicide during Watergate. There were real worries amongst the Secret Service he would do so, and during one trip to Camp David HR slipped his detail and dlsapeared for a length of time.
It's a digression from the OP for sure, but I always felt that would make for an interesting discussion.
Anyway, let's suppose a WI:
Siran Siran loses his nerve and doesn't gun down RFK. Kennedy manages to get the nomination (a muddled convention, dontcha know) and narrowly defeats Nixon (who bitterly reflects that he lost the same election twice!). Siran Siran then gets up the nwrve and the Palestinian supporter find down President Kennedy in 71.
Biden wouldn't want to rock the boat, and he'd want someone who could help him out from day one, who was already actively involved in federal politics. So he'd pick someone from the Senate like John Kerry or Dick Durbin, who he knew from his Senate days.
No idea. IIRC, interestingly, Nixon was almost lynched as Veep when visiting Venezuela. Imagine if instead it was Ike in Caracas, and the mob succeeded...
As overwhelmingly popular as Ike was, Nixon would have been able to make a case for war against Venezuela rather easily. Given that it would have been tantamount to regicide, Nixon would have gotten backing from the UK at a minimum--and quite likely other powers. I suspect the Soviets would have kept quiet, given that they wouldn't want to encourage that sort of thing possibly hitting near home.
It would have been a short, rather one-sided war, with Venezuela today being essentially a US client state. It would also have served notice to other nations not to try the same thing. (Not sure what ripple effects it might have had on Cuba, but one can't rule out such events.)
OTOH, it was more a riot that got out of control rather than anything Caracas was actually gunning for.
What would have happened had that swamp rabbit assassinated Jimmy Carter in 1979?
Mondale loses in a landslide to Reagan in 1980. Some things just don't change.
Of course it wouldn't be as bad as OTL 1984 but instead like OTL 1980, however instead of Georgia and West Virginia, Mondale would've won Massachusetts, Iowa and maybe Wisconsin.