WI: Watergate never happens

Well you could well see Nixon's proposed healthcare reform the Comprehensive Health Insurance Plan (CHIP) passed. IIRC Teddy Kennedy went against it because he thought it didn't go far enough, the Democrats were under pressure from the unions to block it, and he figured that with the President under pressure from Watergate he'd be able to get a better deal after the elections. As we all know things didn't quite work out how he thought they would.
 

trajen777

Banned
Thoughts

1. National Health Care
2. Vietnam stays as separate countries (China and USA wanted it this way -- Great work on this is On China by Kissinger) and USA does not withdraw its $$ & Weapons support
3. Nixon considered a great / good president
4. Power of Pres. stays strong
 
3. Nixon considered a great / good president
4. Power of Pres. stays strong
Thes two rely on there not being other Watergate-type actions that leak. Nixon had his own personal demons, gaining re-election by such a massive margin would help settle things down but it wouldn't be an absolute guarantee.
 
National Health Care is very iffy. Same thing with saving South Vietnam. Both rely on some kind of approval by Congress, and it is by no means certain that could happen. At the same time, it is possible that a President Nixon that stays on and does not have the distraction or liability of Watergate is a sufficient deterrent that North Vietnam doesn't even try to violate the peace accords (or is quickly dissuaded to not do so after some testing) that they choose the option of temporary peace to rebuild the North and try again in ten years or so (which won't happen as by 1985 IOTL the Communist Vietnamese economy was collapsing and required extensive reforms to survive).

TTL Nixon is likely evaluated as a good president - great foreign policy and mixed domestic record. He'll be thanked by many (and hated by a few) for holding the line when it seemed the country was going to implode from left wing radicalism. There is a reason he won 1972 in a landslide. But with no major scandals and OTL's accomplishments, he'd be evaluated positively. Perhaps not in the Top 10, but likely the Top 20 not far from the top 10. And he'd certainly be the foreign policy sage for both parties, Nixon was practically treated as an elder statesman IOTL despite Watergate for the last ten years of his life.

Reagan has a good shot at being the GOP nominee in 1976 without an obvious GOP incumbent. And it is hard to see Carter getting the Dem nomination without Watergate. Scoop Jackson would consolidate the centrist/conservative voters of the Dems while liberals split followed Mo Udall and others. It'll probably be Jackson versus Udall for the nomination with Jackson the likelier nominee, but not definitely so. In either case, the country is taking a rightward turn.
 
What if Watergate never happens?
nixon+watchmen.jpg
 
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