WI Iran-Contra went differently. Have it become a big enough scandal that Reagan ends up impeached. What would happen after that?
If Bush Sr. doesn't go down along with Reagan, it would be interesting to see what he would do as President a few years before he took power OTL (IE, mid 80's and not late).
i don't think Bush would get elected if Reagan was impeached. (Btw that would have shown how far his Alzheimer's would have progressed)
A succesfull impeachment, which isn't that big of a reach, would keep the republicans out of the White House for a couple of cycles. US support for rightist dictators would dry up soon and the SU would have a media field-day.
Other than US politics I don't think it would change much. Maybe, more conspiracy theories, and the guy that sprung it wouldn't have committed suicide, he might even be the next Woodward.
All in all, I don't see any major changes.
Regards,
Rhysz
So, Clinton, Ross "Big Ears", or who in 1988?
At any rate, I do not think the Democrats had the votes necessary to impeach, let alone convict RR for Iran-Contra offenses. Attempting it would have backfired on the Democrats as much as, if not more then the impeachment of Clinton did on the GOP.
Except that Carter's moronic plan never had the slightest chance of working and the early collapse with eight Americans dead may have prevented a greater tragedy. All you need to know about Carter's administration is that they adopted a plan requiring the US to set up a base on a major Iranian highway for more than 24 hours when Iran was already at war with Iraq and on high alert, trusting that no one in Iran would notice the communications, the radar signals...the ever growing number of vehicles never reaching their destination as the US troops kept stopping them.
Iraq attacked Iran during Carter's term, not Reagan's.
The GOP did lose the Senate in 1986 and never had a majority to lose in the House under Reagan.
Of course, Reagan has the ultimate defense: He had no idea what was going on and he has several years of testimony from virtually every top Democrat in support of this claim!![]()
The election in which Ronald Reagan won the Presidency the first time marked the beginning of a strong right swing in American politics, it was the first time in something like thirty years that the republicans held a majority in the senate. And it is hard to dispute the fact that the majority of the American public has been considered openly conservative since the early 80's.
well my point was not about the details of the rescue attempt, but that the rescue attempt itself would be the POD which means that the whole thing could have been different. Besides , Congressional or Senatorial numbers aside, the election in which Ronald Reagan won the Presidency the first time marked the beginning of a strong right swing in American politics, it was the first time in something like thirty years that the republicans held a majority in the senate. And it is hard to dispute the fact that the majority of the American public has been considered openly conservative since the early 80's. Also the failure of the rescue attempt was due mostly to mechanical problems with the helicopters used which caused the whole thing to be aborted before they even got to their landing zones in the first place.
Off topic a bit, yes, but its not single issue or few issue Liberalism. It is across the board. So the country is, on the whole, by far a centre-Left nation.
On Reagan, his approval ratings dropped around 30 during Iran-Contra, and really, his approval ratings were relatively lukewarm on average throughout his administration. So, he was impeachable (and arguably he would have deserved impeachment at least for Iran-Contra).