WI: Lyndon Johnson Commits Suicide While Vice President

What if Lyndon Johnson ended up committing suicide because of the depression brought on by being Kennedy's Vice President? What sort of reaction would this garner for a sitting executive to commit such an act in office?
 
No 25th Amendment yet, so John McCormack remains the successor to Kennedy. This assumes that the ill-fated trip isn't butterflied by the shock, which it could easily be. I don't know what effect it would have on Kennedy or the country as a whole (soo many butterflies), but it would probably lead to more research on depression.
 

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
Vietnam is going to change, will all US forces get pulled out?

Even with Kennedy still at the helm, it's already been discussed and shows ad nauseum why Kennedy would still increase Armed Forces numbers in the region as South Vietnam struggled. He was a Cold Warrior, not anti-War.
 
Even with Kennedy still at the helm, it's already been discussed and shows ad nauseum why Kennedy would still increase Armed Forces numbers in the region as South Vietnam struggled. He was a Cold Warrior, not anti-War.

But he was against fighting in a third-world country. He would have probably continued Eisenhower's policy.
 
Okay Vietnam wise that might be tricky, do we still see a Gulf of Tonkin fabrication happen? Even then how the war plays out depends on how a president McCormack is willing to conduct the Vietnam, if he's more interested in results, but not willing to be too attached to who he sends then there could be a possibility of "victory"
 
Okay Vietnam wise that might be tricky, do we still see a Gulf of Tonkin fabrication happen? Even then how the war plays out depends on how a president McCormack is willing to conduct the Vietnam, if he's more interested in results, but not willing to be too attached to who he sends then there could be a possibility of "victory"

Victory was impossible. The American people would protest if the conflict got out of hand.
 

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
But he was against fighting in a third-world country. He would have probably continued Eisenhower's policy.

Vietnam was not a Third World Country, it was an American ally in the midst of a Civil War that Kennedy was dedicated to help the South win and prevent them falling to Communism. He might not go for Americanization (although given the situation by November '63 it's not unlikely he would consider it), but he isn't going to pull out, and given that without the Tonkin fabrication you still had the Viet Cong throwing mortars at air bases, it's more likely than Vietnam is going to escalate at some point.
 
Victory was impossible. The American people would protest if the conflict got out of hand.

Nope, it's possible without invading North Vietnam, all they need was a government to keep things in and not alienate the people. The thing as long as U.S presence could be maintained effectively the North Vietnamese could do jack shit, with out serious losses. In fact, those losses basically forced the more militant South First faction out of power that's even before the Tet Offensive. Hell the Tet Offensive itself was basically a one sided bloodbath that wiped out the National Liberation Front, that the North Vietnamese could only fight with their own troops afterward.

As far popular support things looked up once Diem was out of power and Westmoreland's emphasis on kill count was abandoned once he left. Although the new strategy had the unfortunate timing of being the Tet Offensive and reduced funding for the war. Victory isn't gonna be easy, but it sure as hell is more possible than most people realize.

Also remember that North Vietnam is one of the battlegrounds of the Sino-Soviet which leaves North Vietnam in a very unenviable position, if they got close to one side they would risk losing the support of the other. Mao and company really screwed around with Soviet arms shipments either delaying them or lying to the North Vietnamese about how effective they were.
 
I disagree in terms of realism. Johnson had a habit of bopping in and out of manic depression, but there was that bopping out part of it. One day he'd complain he wasn't going to run in 1964 (an election everyone around him knew he was going to win), and then go out and be perfectly fine as if he never said that. Similar things happen involving everything. If there was a time for LBJ to go full depression, it was and would be Vietnam. But the vice presidency was that manic depression. At the end of the day, LBJ would stay on the ticket until 1969.

That said, it's really interesting in terms of a POD to the point I will defend it as a POD.
 
Top