What if Reagan Had Been Assassinated in 1980?

[© tweed]

Former presidents usually don't mean mcuh after their presidency.

Granted.  I'm just saying that the mood of the party would be different.  That's all.

I disagree, but there's no use keeping bickering about it.

[12th Doctor]

I'll agree with that.

[Reaganfan]

If Reagan had been killed god forbid, Bush would have became President in 1981. Likely run for his own first term in 1984, then for re-election in 1988. I think his VP would have been James Baker or Alexander Haig. Then they probably would have ran in 1992, then if they won in 1996...... IT IS A WHOLE DIFFERENT WORLD. I miss Reagan. But we have BUSH!!!!

[dazzleman]

If Bush had become president in 1981 and run for re-election in 1984, he would have been unable to run again in 1988, since the 22nd Amendment would prohibit it since he would have served more than half of Reagan's first term.

Bush was a very different type of Republican than Reagan -- a traditional "country club" Republican, with New England roots, as opposed to a conservative, anti-government Republican like Reagan.  Bush was basically a Democrat-lite.  Based upon his behavior during his own presidency, he would most likely have caved on economic policy, and adopted most of what the Democrats wanted, which was higher taxes, which would have gone into greater spending with no reduction to the deficit.

He probably would also have cut defense spending, adhered to SALT II, etc., which would have been a fundamental difference from Reagan's strategy of bankrupting the Soviets and challenging their legitimacy.  I think that in the context of the early 1980s, Bush would have adopted a more Nixon-Kissinger type policy of getting along as well as possible with the Soviets vs. the Reagan approach.  It should be remembered that many Republicans were dubious, along with Democrats, of Reagan's policy toward the Soviets.

So if Reagan had been assassinated, and succeeded by Bush, things would have been very different than they turned out to be.

[dunn]

I USSR rules Afganistan there was no Al-Qaeda there U assure you

[JohnFKennedy]

I USSR rules Afganistan there was no Al-Qaeda there U assure you

true, when the USSR left Afghanistan the Mujaheddin, an Islamic fundamentalist group took power and eventually there were disagreements, some split off forming the Taliban who then took control of Afghanistan.

If USSR won in Afghanistan, Taliban doesn't exist and the Mujaheddin probably would have been destroyed. Al Qaeda would not be there then.

[dunn]

I USSR rules Afganistan there was no Al-Qaeda there U assure you

true, when the USSR left Afghanistan the Mujaheddin, an Islamic fundamentalist group took power and eventually there were disagreements, some split off forming the Taliban who then took control of Afghanistan.

If USSR won in Afghanistan, Taliban doesn't exist and the Mujaheddin probably would have been destroyed. Al Qaeda would not be there then.

thank you

[Bleeding heart conservative, HTMLdon]

Yes - but had the USSR not had the morale defecit caused by their losses in Afghanistan - the USSR might still be around today too.

[JohnFKennedy]

true, when the USSR left Afghanistan the Mujaheddin, an Islamic fundamentalist group took power and eventually there were disagreements, some split off forming the Taliban who then took control of Afghanistan.

If USSR won in Afghanistan, Taliban doesn't exist and the Mujaheddin probably would have been destroyed. Al Qaeda would not be there then.

First the Muj didn't take over Afghanistan, for there was never a single Mujaheddin.  The Taliban took over, and they were not part of the Muj, they were Pakistani backed radicals.

Second, 9/11 and Al Qaeda would still be around.  They could have used Sudan or Somalia as a base.

The Mujaheddin were the rebel group who forced USSR out of Afghanistan, I assure you.

[JohnFKennedy]

quote from msn encarta:

The Taliban emerged as a faction of mujahideen soldiers who identified themselves as religious students

[JohnFKennedy]

Taliban were BACKED by Pakistan, Pakistan trained them.

Taliban legend has it that in the spring of 1994, upon hearing of the abduction and rape of two girls at a mujahideen checkpoint in the village Sang Hesar near Kandahar, local mullah Mohammed Omar a veteran of the Harakat-i Inqilab-i Islami faction of mujahideen, gathered thirty other taliban into a fighting force, rescued the girls and hung the commander of the mujahideen. After this incident, Taliban legend goes, the services of these pious religious fighters were in much demand from villagers plagued by unruly mujahideen, and thus the Taliban were born

After this they fled to Pakistan where they were trained.....

[JohnFKennedy]

That ISN'T from encarta btw.

[JohnFKennedy]

Taliban were BACKED by Pakistan, Pakistan trained them.
local mullah Mohammed Omar a veteran of the Harakat-i Inqilab-i Islami faction of mujahideen,

THAT bit does, I didn't say Taliban were around when the USSR were there, I was saying, if the USSR didn't pull out, the Taliban wouldn't have been created as they were Mujaheddins who were unhappy with the current way Afghanistan was being run.

[JohnFKennedy]

sorry, missed out the next bit that says he gathered thirty other taliban into a fighting force.

[JohnFKennedy]

Mullah Omar was the spiritual leader of the Taliban and he was part of the mujaheddin before that.

[JohnFKennedy]

by the way, I did NOT say Al Qaeda wouldn't exist, I said they would NOT be in Afghanistan.

[JohnFKennedy]

What you are saying is the equivalent of saying that the federalists were a faction of the American rebels because people who later became the Federalist party fought in the war.

I don't know if your post at the top of page 7 is a cut-paste or what, but if it is, you should take note of the fact that at one point "taliban" is not capitalized.  This is because "taliban" is a word that translates to "students" in English.  Gathering thiry students of Islam who had studied at radical madrasas is different than gathering together thirty members of an organized political entity.

I know what taliban means, I am saying Mullah Omar, spiritual leader of the Taliban was a member of the Mujaheddin before that, he broke away and founded the Taliban and the mujaheddin were in power in Afghanistan for a while before the Taliban took over, they just did not establish a united government.

[JohnFKennedy]

Thats what I was saying.  What were we arguing about, then?

over the Taliban coming from people breaking away from the Mujaheddin lol.

[Free Tibet]

If that had happened, i wonder if there would have been a tearful eye in the crowds, like when Kennedy was killed.  I would like to think so, but the way Reagan is treated now, there would be so many people out there partying.  

Even though personally i'm a Reagan fan and would have missed his master plan that brought the US out of the depths of Recession after Carter was in office.

[A18]

The economy doesn't recover. Bush loses the election in 1984 by a large margin. America starts looking a lot like Europe.

No one ever gets rid of the Fairness Doctrine, so there's no Rush Limbaugh. The Congress remains Democrat to this day.

Would someone come along and save America? I guess we'll never know.