By a Fluke of the Gods: Cox Defeats Harding

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 4-29-1967
Event Description: Nguyen Duc Tranh, a Vietnamese diplomat whose overtly anti-Russian opinions have made him a lightning rod in the ongoing crisis between Russia and China, visits General Yei Fei, the chief commander of Chinese forces in Vietnam. He gives the general documentation proving that both the Americans and the Russians have been funneling weapons and money to President Diem’s army. President Deng Xiaoping is told about this finding by General Fei. President Xiaoping had expected Nixon and the Americans of aiding Diem, but not the Russians.

Event Date: 4-30-1967
Event Description: President Andropov addresses the Duma about the findings in Vietnam yesterday. “We have indeed aided President Diem in Vietnam,” President Andropov declares, “The reason is that we feel a Chinese puppet state in Southeast Asia will prove more harm than good in society. We are better off in the West with capitalism in Indochina than Chinese socialism. The Chinese experiment in socialism has failed.”
Ronald Reagan ends his nightly news broadcast on NBC that night with a somber note. “As the great nations of the East ready their tanks for war, whether literally or metaphorically,” Reagan tells his viewers, “We in the USA must hold firm to the ideals we were built on: Peace, but not unconditional peace. We will stay a peaceful giant for only as long as the world needs a peaceful giant. Good night and God bless America”

Event Date: 5-01-1967
Event Description: At a Socialist Party May Day rally in Peking, President Deng Xiaoping exhorts the assembled crowd to "smash in the corrupt infiltration from the Imperialist capitalist in the United States and the historical revisionist turncoats in Russia." This bombastic speech heralds the beginning of the “Cultural Revolution” in which hundreds of thousands of Chinese will be killed for alleged pro-Western and pro-Russian sympathies. President Xiaoping, who once was as mentally keen as a serpent, is now leaning on the point of paranoia.

Event Date: 5-18-1967
Event Description: Tennessee becomes the first southern state to do away with its “Monkey Law.” This law bans the teaching of Darwin’s theory of evolution. The theory is still outlawed in every Deep South state and several western states, including Arizona, Utah, and South Dakota.

Event Date: 5-21-1967
Event Description: Former Chinese President Chaing Kai-Sheik is assassinated while giving a speech in Shanghai. The gunman commits suicide before he is arrested. The man is identified as a member of the Revolutionary Guard, a branch of the radical youth movement in China known as the Cultural Revolution.

Event Date: 5-30-1967
Event Description: Apollo I orbits the Moon, with a crew of James McDivitt, David Scott and Russell Schweickart. The lunar module is tested. It now looks like "Man on the Moon" will happen by 1968. President Nixon had hoped it would happen by July 1967, but NASA officials tell him that is impossible. In Germany, their best rocket scientists have passed away, leaving Chancellor Willy Brandt struggling to get back in the Space Race.

Event Date: 6-03-1967
Event Description: President Nixon meets with President Andropov at Camp Hoover, making Andropov the first Russian leader to go to the remote mountain getaway in Maryland. The two discuss China and the unpredictable behavior of President Xiaoping. “No matter what happens,” Nixon assures Andropov, “You will have our support.” The two leaders sign a pact assuring that the two nations will never go to war against each other and condemning Chinese belligerence in Vietnam and Southeast Asia. “The strange relationship of the American and Russian nations is one brought about not by a want of understanding,” Ronald Reagan says on his radio show the next day, “But of fear of another nation, that being China. It is a fearful thing when alliances are forged simply to insult another country.”

Event Date: 6-10-1967
Event Description: President Deng Xiaoping receives Cambodia’s Socialist Prime Minister Pol Pot as a guest in Peking. Pol Pot, an enthusiastic supporter of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, signs a resolution reaffirming the Canton Pact. “China and Cambodia stand side-by-side against all enemies,” Pol Pot declares at a dinner in his honor, “We tell the enemies of socialism, come and be destroyed.”

Event Date: 6-13-1967
Event Description: Due to the retirement of Justice Tom Clark, President Nixon nominates U.S. Solicitor General Thurgood Marshall for the Supreme Court. If confirmed by Congress, Marshall will become the first African-American to sit on the Supreme Court. On August 31st, 1967, this will be achieved.

Event Date: 7-05-1967
Event Description: China detonates its first ICBM. This missile, much like the American version, is estimated to have an effective range of over 4,000 miles, the new missile is thought by Western intelligence authorities to be capable of carrying chemical as well as nuclear warheads. President Andropov, who has yet to detonate any such devise, request fro President Nixon to send him prototypes and plans for a Russian ICBM. Fearing a nuclear exchange between Russia and China, Nixon refuses to oblige. “I can’t trust any Russian with these types of missiles,” President Nixon tells White House aide Patrick Buchanan. “Why not, Mr. President?” Buchanan inquires. “Pat,” President Nixon says somberly, “Would you give a drunken man a shot gun?” Buchanan gets the point.

Event Date: 7-29-1967
Event Description: The crisis in Asia reaches the boiling point. Soviet and Chinese troops exchange gunfire at Damansky Island along the banks of the Ussuri River. There are no casualties on either side, but this exchange shows America that the two opposing sides in the East will, if necessary, come into armed conflict.

Event Date: 8-01-1967
Event Description: Unlike the Eastern world where Russia and China are at each other’s throats, the Middle East is peaceful, as is the United States. No race riots or religious warfare for either area of the world. President Nixon has a 57% approval rating according to the latest Gallup Poll, and Israeli Prime Minster Golda Meir is leading nation where Jews can finally find peace. “This could well be the calm before the storm,” Ronald Reagan warns as he signs off from NBC Nightly News, “As the Ussuri River skirmish showed the world, two powerful nations distrust and dislike each other to such an extent they would hold the world in the balance of a nuclear war. May we in America remember that we are a shining city on a hill, spreading the message of peace, goodwill and democracy throughout the globe as trying days approach. Good night and God bless America.”

Event Date: 8-10-1967
Event Description: Chinese diplomats in Warsaw, Poland, are sent packing from the country after handing out anti-Western, anti-American and anti-Russian pamphlets in the streets. The people of Poland, through no friends of Russia, do not want such rabblerousing from diplomats in their capitol. When questioned by the Associated Press on why he allowed these diplomats to be sent away, Polish President August Zaleski responds, “When you have a bear at the door, you don’t open up the door.” He doesn’t want to infuriate the powerful Russian military by hosting anti-Russian diplomats.

Event Date: 8-11-1967
Event Description: Polish diplomats are expelled from Peking, China. “What type of ‘dear guest’ treats their own guests so shabbily,” Chinese Foreign Minister Lin Bao declares trying to justify this action, “We are not sorry for what we’ve done.” In response to this, President Andropov orders all Russian diplomats out of China in 72-hours. President Xiaoping reciprocates by ordering all Chinese diplomats out of Moscow in the same amount of time. “The two fools have severed themselves of all diplomacy!” National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger laments to President Nixon. 

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 8-15-1967
Event Description: The Russian film masterpiece War and Peace is released in American films. It will win Best Foreign Language Film at the 41st Academy Awards.

Event Date: 9-11-1967
Event Description: President Diem commits suicide as his own general’s rise against him in Saigon. His corrupt government and bloody civil war proved too much for his senior military advisors to continue supporting him. Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, the head of Diem’s secret police, is installed as provisional president. He begins to work closely with Socialist leader Trần Đức Lương to end the Vietnamese civil war. In the end, Lương, with the backing of the peasants and China, takes power and exiles Thiệu, his family and officials in the former Diem government to the island of Fiji, where the government there (also socialist) is allowing them to stay . This was more mercy than Thiệu and his companions expected from the socialists. By October 1967, the Vietnamese Civil War ends in a victory for the socialists.

Event Date: 10-01-1967
Event Description: Emboldened by their victory in Vietnam, the Chinese begin to focus on taking Damansky Island and the rest of the Ussuri River’s surrounding territory. “We will spread true socialism,” President Xiaoping writes in his diary that night, “Through the barrel of a gun.”

Event Date: 10-03-1967
Event Description: The Americans win another victory in the Space Race. An X-15 research aircraft, piloted by William J. Knight (the son of former California Governor and Senator Goodwin Knight), establishes the official world fixed-wing speed record at Mach 6.7.

Event Date: 10-22-1967
Event Description: In the “bunker” of the White House, President Nixon meets with Secretary of State William Rogers, Secretary of Defense John Eisenhower, Secretary of the Treasury David Kennedy, National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger and his close aide Pat Buchanan. “We’re meeting here to discuss what to do after a nuclear war,” President Nixon begins, cutting to the chase. The men discuss how to rebuild cities, continue positive population growth, cleanse the soil of harmful nuclear waste, and even how to reestablish the dollar’s worth. “Sirs,” Secretary Eisenhower finally says, “If we have a nuclear war, we are not going to be focusing on how to reestablish the dollar, were going to be grubbing worms.” A plan is made that in the case of a nuclear exchange between Russia and China, Nixon and these close aides and their families will take refuge in the White House bunker. As Nixon leaves the meeting (which lasted eight hours to just come to that simple solution) he tells his secretary Rosemary Woods, “I wish Margaret could have been there, that meeting was just one big sausage fest.”

Event Date: 11-03-1967
Event Description: A Russian spy in the Chinese Army discovers that the Chinese expect to attack Russian encampments at Damansky Island on the Ussuri River on Christmas Day, December 25th, 1967. He vows to get in touch with President Andropov by the next night.

Event Date: 11-04-1967
Event Description:  President Yuri Andropov is awakened at 1:28 a.m. to receive a disturbing phone call from a Russian spy. New information has surfaced indicating that President Xiaoping’s China is preparing to attack Russia in an attempt to seize control of the Ussuri River territory, whose ownership has been fiercely contested by both countries since the time of Kublai Khan. “If they mean to have a war,” President Andropov tells the spy, “It might as well begin there.”

Event Date: 11-05-1967
Event Description: President Andropov orders Russian Defense Minister Andrei Gretchko to ready all military units in the Far East to be placed on a heightened alert. “The time of battle is near!” is all Minister Gretchko states in his message to Russian commanders along the Chinese-Russian border. President Nixon responds to this act by mobilizing all American forces in the Philippines.

Event Date: 11-06-1967
Event Description: Trying to stop a disastrous war between China and Russia, National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger begins two days of intense telephone diplomacy with Presidents Andropov and Xiaoping. Kissinger’s diplomacy is not accepted by either nation. “I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees,” is the response Kissinger gets from President Andropov.

Event Date: 11-08-1967
Event Description: Convinced that war with China is imminent, the Russian Commander of the Far East is given permission by President Andropov to fire the missiles he has in his possession at will if the Chinese attack and he can not communicate with Moscow.

Event Date: 11-10-1967
Event Description: Chinese forces in Manchuria are massed at the Russian border. That night in a televised address, President Nixon calls on both China and Russia, “To desist from the reckless actions of the past days. The fate of the world is now in the balance.” Secretly, President Nixon tells President Andropov that this speech was just for show and that he will aide the Russians with weapons, and if needed American troops, to pacify the Chinese threat.

Event Date: 11-11-1967
Event Description: Hoping a last second peace can be achieved, Henry Kissinger and President Nixon ask Secretary of Defense Eisenhower to conduct a report to see what the prospects are for war between China and Russia. Secretary Eisenhower gets to work immediately.  

Event Date: 11-20-1967
Event Description: Secretary of Defense John Eisenhower submits a report to the White House concerning the prospects for war between the Russia and China. His conclusions are alarming, but President Nixon does say they were expected: barring a miraculous 11th-hour diplomatic breakthrough by Kissinger or someone else, battle will erupt along the Manchurian border with days. “I can hope its days,” Secretary Eisenhower tells President Nixon, “So we can have time to ready the country for what could be an atomic exchange at the Ussuri River.”

Event Date: 11-25-1967
Event Description: All hope for peace is lost. Ten infantry and armor divisions of the Chinese Army, backed by five Chinese bomber squadrons, flotilla or fly to the Russian controlled Damansky Island; Russian soldiers immediately counterattack with nine divisions of armored infantry and five fighter squadrons. The Battle of at Damansky Island rages for 18-hours, with neither side coming out as victor. The bloody stalemate takes the lives of 36,000 Russians and 115,000 Chinese. At the White House, President Nixon meets with Henry Kissinger and angrily screams at him, “Why couldn’t you stop this?”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 11-26-1967
Event Description: With the urging of President Andropov, the Russian Duma declares war on the Republic of China. “We refuse to allow an aggressor to be rewarded by our compliance,” President Andropov declares as he asks the Duma for a declaration of war, “The Russian people will stand, as too will their allies, against unprovoked attacks and greedy territorial grabs.” President Xiaoping also asks the Chinese Legislature for a declaration of war on Russia. “The great people’s war is about to begin!” booms President Xiaoping, “Who will be brave and stand with the Cultural Revolution?” The legislators obviously wish to appear as brave, since they unanimously declare war on the Russian Republic. The Russo-Chinese War has begun.

Event Date: 11-30-1967
Event Description: Former President Joseph Kennedy addresses the Council on Foreign Affairs (CFA). He addresses the beginning of the war between China and Russia. “Ever since the Formosa Crisis and Russia’s pro-American response, the two nations have had a bitter relationship,” President Kennedy tells the group, “On the other hand, such crisis as the Blackbird Spy Plane Crisis and the U.S.S. Pueblo Affair have brought Russia and the United States closer. If it comes to the USA, the most powerful nation of Earth, entering the war between China and Russia, we must stand with Russia.” President Nixon, who listened to the speech over radio, calls up Kennedy and tells him, “That was one heck of a speech.” “Thank you Mr. President,” President Kennedy tells Nixon, “Now you better act on it.”

Event Date: 12-05-1967
Event Description: The Chinese military takes the battle inside Russia. Aiming on conquering Russian oil fields in Siberia, Chinese jets bomb the Siberian industrial city of Magadan, an important oil refinery city. 106,897 Russian soldiers and civilians are killed in the bombing raid.

Event Date: 12-06-1967
Event Description: In retaliation for the “Magadan Massacre” (as Ronald Reagan called it on the NBC Nightly News) Russian troops invade Manchuria, killing thousands of Chinese citizens as they battle to capture the strategic city of Harbin, where the Chinese military headquarters for Manchuria is established.

Event Date: 12-12-1967
Event Description: The Russian Army takes Harbin, Manchuria, after a bloody 22-hour battle, which was more of a disorderly fistfight between untrained troops than an organized battle. The Battle of Harbin is yet another bloody fight, killing a total of 80,000 Chinese troops and 115,000 Russians.

Event Date: 12-15-1967
Event Description: With Harbin under Russian control, the Russian Army floods into Manchuria. Greeting the new Russian troops is a wall of six armored Chinese tank divisions. Though not a typical battle, off and on fighting all day leaves countless thousands dead on both sides.

Event Date: 12-19-1967
Event Description: Mongolian Chairman Jamsrangiyn Sambuu (a socialist and pro-Chinese politician) joins the Canton Pact and declares war on Russia. His small army will be of little use to the Chinese, but President Xiaoping needs some good news following the mounting casualties in a war not yet a month old.

Event Date: 12-20-1967
Event Description: In New York City, noted socialists and peace activists Ralph Abernathy, Benjamin Spock and Allen Ginsberg lead a march against the Russo-Chinese War. “This war is harming world socialism in ways that Joe McCarthy would have salivated for,” Spock tells a crowd of 40,000 pro-peace marchers in Central Park, “This war is leading the ideals of democratic socialism into a fiery future, which leads only to a grave.” Ronald Reagan calls this rally, “A collection of dope heads, long hairs, beatniks and assorted left-wingers. A rally for peace is needed, but not by such unsavory and anti-American elements.”

Event Date: 12-24-1967
Event Description: In a Christmas Eve raid, the Chinese army achieves it’s most significant victory since the Russo-Chinese War began. In a pitched battle, the Chinese capture the strategically vital Russian city of Irkutsk, a leading city that creates the scrap metal needed for war machines. The Russian Army now regroups outside the city, planning a counterstrike on the day after Christmas.

Event Date: 12-26-1967
Event Description: Using American made jet bombers; the Russians retake the city of Irkutsk. The industrial Siberian city will change hands more than this time during the course of the war. President Andropov declares today, “A day of national prayer,” to thank God for the victory.

Event Date: 12-27-1967
Event Description: Trying to take the war to China’s allies, the Russians launch an enormous offensive against Mongolian. The minuscule Mongolian Army is easily defeated by the Russian military juggernaut. By the end of the day, the capitol at Ulan Bator will be within sight of the advancing Russian Army.

Event Date: 12-28-1967
Event Description: Chinese troops enter Mongolia to defend Ulan Bator. They are able to march to the capitol before the Russian Army begins it final attack on the city. By the dawn of December 29th, the city is controlled by the Russian Army. Chairman Sambuu heads into the mountains with his supporters to wage a guerilla war against the Russian occupiers.

Event Date: 12-29-1967
Event Description: Vietnamese Troops meet up with Chinese forces on the northern Vietnamese border. Though most of the Vietnamese soldiers will stay in Indochina, those who are experts with Chinese made weapons are sent to fight in the Siberian and Manchurian fronts. These cold areas are odd for Vietnamese soldiers who have never known a day under 60 degrees. Those brought to fight in these cold places will die mostly of pneumonia, not of Russian bullets.

Event Date: 12-31-1967
Event Description: As the year ends, the first major naval battle of the Russo-Chinese War is fought in the Sea of Japan. Two Chinese destroyers sink a Russian battleship. That night, Ronald Reagan closes his final broadcast of 1967 by telling America, “Whether or not the year 1968 brings peace or final destruction, we will trust the wisdom of our leaders and of almighty God. We as Americans have this right, let us never forget it. Good night and God bless America.” 

[Lief 🗽]

Edge of my seat excitement. This is so good.

[Robespierre's Jaw]

This War sounds very familar PBrunsel. Did you use the Ussuri War timeline as a guide?

[PBrunsel]

Rocky,

I guess I could be guilty of that, but primarily to get the names of cities right. I wrote my own outline of the war. The Ussuri River crisis is probably the closest Russia and China have gotten to war, and it was the only crisis I could think of to spark a war between the two nations.

The 1968 primaries are coming up with the South once again felxing its dominance over the Democratic Party.

 

[HappyWarrior]

I can't wait til the 1968 elections.

[MasterJedi]

I recently read this timeline and it is very good. I'm looking forward for another update, hopefully soon.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-01-1968
Event Description: Pope Paul VI leads the Vatican in a New Year’s Day prayer for peace. “Almighty God,” his holiness prays, “Please give wisdom to the rulers of this world and let them seek the peace that was meant to be.” At the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, former President Kennedy and his family watch the prayer service over television. “Please God,” Kennedy prays to himself, “Please don’t make me give up my sons.”

Event Date: 1-03-1968
Event Description:  The Russian Army resumes its Manchuria offensive with a wave of missile and aircraft strikes against the Chinese forward positions. In the Yellow Sea, submarines, something the Chinese do not have, piloted by Russian sailors sink four Chinese battleships.

Event Date: 1-10-1968
Event Description: The nations of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary and Greece join Russia in the war against China. Chancellor Willy Brandt refuses to join on the side of Russia, despite many in eastern Germany supporting the Russian cause.

Event Date: 1-12-1968
Event Description: Eldridge Cleaver, the Chairman of the American Communist Party, writes in the party’s tri-monthly newsletter The People’s Tribune, “No matter which nation wins this war, all of socialism will lose." He calls for a cease fire in the war between Russia and China and for both nations to embrace and help spread the ideal of international socialism. President Nixon has FBI Director Kennedy bug Cleaver’s home.

Event Date: 1-14-1968
Event Description: Chinese forces regroup at Irkutsk and make a last ditch attempt to retake the city. While it appears as if the Chinese will break through, the Russians, using American made anti-tank missiles, rebuff the counterstrike. President Andropov tells the AP that, “The Chinese can throw a billion yellow men at us, and they will still not defeat the Russian army.”

Event Date: 1-15-1968
Event Description: The last pockets of Chinese resistance near Irkutsk surrender to the Russian army. The invasion of Siberia has been halted, but the Chinese vow to return.

Event Date: 1-16-1968
Event Description: Russian and Polish troops begin an attack on the Manchurian city of Sui Fen Ho, a key railroad hub for China. In response to this, the Chinese launch a massive bombing raid on a large Russian force camped out on the Manchurian-Russian border.

Event Date: 1-20-1968
Event Description: Twelve Chinese armored divisions launch a massive strike at the Russian occupied city of Harbin. The attack lasts for 16-hours, but the Russians manage to hold off the Chinese. The casualties, as is becoming gruesomely the norm, are sickeningly high. The Russians lose 43,000 troops while the Chinese lose more than 170,000, most of them in the first 3-hours of fighting. President Xiaoping declares an executive order forcing conscription on all men from the ages of 16-45.

Event Date: 1-22-1968
Event Description: The American patrol boat U.S.S. Fitzwallace is sunk by Chinese missiles in the Sea of Japan. The Fitzwallace sinking turns public opinion in the United States against China. “Our nation cries out for revenge!” booms Senator Strom Thurmond, a Democratic candidate for president, on the Senate floor, “We want the blood of the Chinaman to run through the streets of Peking! If I was president I would make of the Chinese Army the greatest slaughter in the history of mankind!” “It’s a good thing your not president then,” Senate Majority Leader Dirksen quips.

Event Date: 1-23-1968
Event Description: President Nixon orders all American military units in Japan and the Philippines to be mobilized for battle. Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Earle K. Wheeler holds a press conference to refute Chinese claims that the Fitzwallace sinking was accidental. To prove this as a fact, he presents photographic and documentary evidence proving China intentionally destroyed the vessel to retaliate for American aide to Russia in the Russo-Chinese War. However, General Wheeler leaves some doubt by telling the press, “Some of this evidence has come from sources inside Russia, so a bias factor exists.” Despite this huge attack on the credibility of the documents, the Gallup Poll now reveals that 71% of Americans want war with China.

Event Date: 1-24-1968
Event Description: In a televised press conference, President Nixon refuses to go to war with China, even though many in Congress feel that the Chinese have deliberately attacked 

Event Date: 1-30-1968
Event Description: The Battle of Sui Fen Ho is fought. Ten Russian armored infantry corps and three bomber squadrons attack the heavily fortified city. The battle is fought both out and inside city limits, with the battle going as far as to spread into a Sunday mass in the center of town. The Russian and Polish forces are overwhelmed by the fierce Chinese resistance. The railroad town is still in Chinese hands by the end of the battle, but the town lies in ruin. The bloodiest battle of the war yet, the Russian and Polish combined force loses over 130,000 men, while the Chinese losses number in the 200,000 range. The two populous nations are exhausting their human resources in brutal slugfests that no side really wins. Both President Andropov and Xiaoping begin to reconsider their battle strategies.

Event Date: 2-01-1968
Event Description: British Prime Minster Harold Wilson condemns Chinese attacks on American and British vessels in the Sea of Japan, the South China Sea and the Yellow Sea. “As was in World War I,” Prime Minister Wilson tells Parliament, “The United Kingdom will not allow belligerence at sea to be allowed as acceptable behavior.” He calls on Parliament to condemn China’s behavior and to mobilize the British navy. President Xiaoping calls these actions, “An act of war.”

Event Date: 2-04-1968
Event Description: The 1968 Winter Olympic Games in Grenoble, France, are given a tragic episode. Three British athletes are taken hostage by six masked men, and all three are killed. It is revealed later that day that the masked men were members of China’s Revolutionary Guard, the extremist left-wing arm of the Cultural Revolution. “This cold-blooded murder of unarmed ambassadors of athletics will not be tolerated,” Prime Minster Wilson tells Parliament, “Therefore I ask for a formal declaration of war against the Republic of China for its crimes against the British people and the innocent in general.” Parliament will declare war, setting off the Toronto Pact like falling dominoes. Before the day is out, Australia, Germany, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, France and, most importantly, the United States will declare war on China. “An attack on America’s ally as well as our own ships must be met as it was in 1917,” President Nixon declares as he asks Congress for war against China. “We now must fight in the bloodiest war in recent memory,” NBC’s Ronald Reagan concludes his broadcast; “We pray to God that our leaders will know how to win the war quickly and stop aggression in its tracks. To all those who will lay down their lives in this war, I say God bless you and God bless America.”

Event Date: 2-06-1968
Event Description: Across America young men sign up to fight in the war against China. The Naval Reserves are called up, and with them John Kerry, a recent Yale Law School Graduate, and John McCain, an officer in the peacetime navy. Representative George Bush (Republican of Connecticut) himself has a son go off to war. Recent Yale business school graduate George Walker Bush joins the air force. Representative Bush, who served in the peacetime army, shakes hands with his son as he heads off to basic training, telling his wife Barbara, “The air force, the least likely branch of the army to get killed in. See, he’s smarter than anybody thinks.” President Nixon and Secretary of Defense Eisenhower desire an army of 2 million soldiers, and all will have to be volunteers since the draft was ended in 1965.

Event Date: 2-10-1968
Event Description: The Chinese Legislature declares war on the Toronto Pact nations. “In a few months!” President Xiaoping declares at a Peking rally, “The Chinese Army will march victory parades through Moscow, Tokyo and Los Angeles!” In response to this speech, newly arrived American jet bombers bomb Qigihar, a Chinese held border town in Manchuria.

Event Date: 2-12-1968
Event Description: Almost as if commemorating Lincoln’s birthday, three American battleships sink two Chinese destroyers in the South China Sea, the first real direct combat between the opposing combatants. “The next time the Chinese think of taking on American ships,” Ronald Reagan boasts, “They should begin writing their wills since in a few seconds their going to need them.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 3-01-1968
Event Description: Using Japanese bases, American jets in Okinawa bomb two dozen military and industrial targets in and around Shanghai. Despite murderous anti-aircraft fire and stiff opposition from the Chinese, the Americans succeed in hitting all but one of their assigned targets, inflicting damage on the one that was not destroyed. Leading the bombing raid is Lieutenant Commander John McCain, who arrives back to base safely along with all but one of the American jets.

Event Date: 3-02-1968
Event Description: Senate Minority Leader Lyndon Johnson (Democrat of Texas) announces that he will not seek the Democratic nomination for president in 1968. “At this time of war, of war so destructive that I recoil at the thought of the lives already given,” Senator Johnson states, “I can not give up an hour or a day to oppose our Commander-in-Chief in a partisan election. As a leader in Congress I can not sacrifice any time for a political campaign while our boys march in a foreign land defending our freedoms.” President Nixon calls Senator Johnson, “A man of honor, class and integrity,” for his decision. Secretly, Nixon is glad one of the strongest Democrats is out of the race for the White House.

Event Date: 3-03-1968
Event Description: Representative John Schmitz (Democrat of California), a 1968 presidential candidate, calls American involvement in the Russo-Chinese War, “Imperialist and dangerous to the future of the country.” “We’ve signed a suicide pact with Russia, a socialist power,” Representative Schmitz tells the Sons of Liberty, a very conservative patriotic group in Nashua, New Hampshire, “Because of President Nixon we are going to have to walk lockstep with the socialist bear in Russia.” Schmitz calls for an end of the war. “I don’t want to sound like some pinko peacenik,” Schmitz concludes, “But I would rather see China and Russia blow each other to bits than see a single American life perish in a war that did not need to be fought.”   

Event Date: 3-05-1968
Event Description: Secretary of Defense Eisenhower, National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of Defense William Westmoreland and President Nixon meet in the Oval Office to discuss a victory strategy for the war in China. “We won against Japan in the 1930s by strangling their economy and resources,” Kissinger explains to Nixon, “If we can destroy China’s resources for war than we can win within two years.” “How might we go about doing that?” President Nixon asks. “We call it Operation Rolling Thunder, Mr. President,” Secretary Eisenhower explains, “Our air force will target only cities that are major producers of war materials. On the land, we’ll try to occupy these cities and make the Chinese people sick of war.” President Nixon Okays the plan, putting Operation Rolling Thunder into action. He makes one modification to the plan, air force Colonel Joseph Patrick Kennedy III, the son of former President Kennedy, is barred from being the commanding officer of the operation. Nixon is thinking about the future of politics, after all.

Event Date: 3-12-1968
Event Description: Despite the ongoing war, the results of the New Hampshire Primary attract attention nationwide. Former Texas Governor John Connally wins the New Hampshire Primary, defeating South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond, California Congressman John Schmitz (who was endorsed by the conservative Nashua Union leader), Senator George Smathers of Florida and Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina. President Nixon faced no opposition in the GOP primary. Connally, the man whom Senator Johnson has endorsed, is expected to be the nominee. Unlike Goldwater in 1964, he has the backing of the Democratic establishment and the Southern “Old Guard.”       

Event Date: 3-19-1968
Event Descriptions: American and Soviet jet planes bomb Chinese military aircraft production plants near Shenyang. The city itself is spared, but combined Soviet and Polish forces are closing in on the industrial city.

Event Date: 3-25-1968
Event Description: Major Colin Powell’s Third Armored division captures the city of Sui Fen Ho. Aided by Soviet, Polish, Australian and British armored divisions, the Chinese are unable to sustain the 20-hour onslaught by the enemy. With the fall of Sui Fen Ho, the most important railroad hub in Manchuria, the tide of war begins slowly turning in favor of the Americans.

Event Date: 3-30-1968
Event Description: Trying to bring the war to British subjects, Chinese tanks roll into Hong Kong. The British troops stationed there entrench themselves inside the colonies most urban areas, but the Chinese have the town’s outer limits and most of the wealthier, European areas. Prime Minister Wilson declares that China’s attack on Hong Kong will be met with, “Awesome force.”

Event Date: 4-01-1968
Event Description: In one of the most daring amphibious assaults in history, 215,000 Russian, American, Canadian, British and Australian troops take the Victoria Canal and begin liberating Hong Kong from the Chinese Army. Lieutenant John Kerry is among the navy men who helped transport the soldiers across the canal.

Event Date: 4-02-1968
Event Description: Governor Connally wins the Wisconsin Primary. He easily takes 55% of the vote against his leading competitors, Senators Thurmond and Ervin. Representative Schmitz drops out to run independently, claiming that Nixon and Connally are, “Two heads of the same Red Coin.”

Event Date: 4-04-1968
Event Description: Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior, begins entering public life once again after being hit with a massive sandal in 1967. Attending a peace rally in San Francisco, he calls the Russo-Chinese War, “The most unnecessary in history.” President Nixon and FBI Director Robert Kennedy have Dr. King on their list of enemies, so he is already being phone tapped.   

Event Date: 4-06-1968
Event Description: Hong Kong is liberated from the final Chinese troops. The casualties for both sides are heavy. The Chinese lose 100,000 troops, while the combined forces against it lose more than 235,000 (with American casualties at 38,000). Among the wounded is Private Robert Kerrey. He was injured by a bullet shot to his left leg. The wound is minimal, but he is pulled from active duty for several months.

Event Date: 4-10-1968
Event Description: Trying to cripple American air power in the Pacific, the Chinese launch missile attacks against Kyoto, Osaka, Tokyo and Yokohama. These cities are homes to American air force bases. These attacks kill over 160,000 civilians and damage the American air force bases in these cities. However, the damage is not so extensive that they must be abandoned. “We will rebuild,” Lieutenant Colonel Vernon A. Walters tells Secretary Eisenhower later that day, “The Chincs can’t stop us by bombs.”

Event Date: 4-12-1968
Event Description: The Chinese Army starts a massive offensive against the Siberian city of Vladivostok. 25 armored divisions, 15 bomber squadrons and over 300,000 Chinese infantrymen invade Siberia gunning for the industrial center in Siberia. Russian General Ivan D. Yershov opposes the massive Chinese Army with his own massive Russian force. His force is made up of 21 armored divisions, 10 bomber squadrons and 312,000 infantrymen. “The battle for Vladivostok,” Ronald Reagan says on NBC Nightly News, “Will rank amongst the first class battles of history. It will rank with Thermopylae, Waterloo and Gettysburg. It will decide whether the forces of good or evil prevail in our ongoing struggle against the evils of expansionism.”

Event Date: 4-20-1968
Event Description: US Navy lieutenant and swift boat commander John Kerry is injured, along with the other men aboard his swift boat, in the Sea of Japan. Chinese jets bomb Kerry’s patrol swift boat. Kerry saves a wounded member of his swift boat by swimming for 4-hours to the U.S.S. Marshall off the shore of the Sea of Japan. If not for Kerry’s heroism, the German born Dieter Dengler would have surely died in the sea. Chancellor Brandt will award Kerry the highest honor of the German navy.

Event Date: 4-22-1968
Event Description: Governor Connaly’s victory in the Pennsylvania Primary is hardly covered today, for the Battle of Vladivostok has begun. The Chinese attack in the early dawn, throwing division and division at the fortified city. The Russians retaliate by firing off the largest artillery assault in world history. A Russian soldier will remember years later that the sound of the artillery assault “Was so loud I thought the world was collapsing into itself.” By the end of the day the Chinese have enough forces left to make another assault. “Don’t get comfortable men,” is the message General Yershov leaves his men that night.

Event Date: 4-23-1968
Event Description: A few minutes after 3 o’clock in the morning, the Chinese Army begins its second assault at Vladivostok. The Russian line is broken in three places, allowing the Chinese to pour into the city. General Yershov calls for reinforcements. By late afternoon, Polish and German troops have arrived from the city of Khaborosk. German jets help weaken the Chinese air advantage. However, the Chinese win the day and the battle. This is the biggest victory for the Chinese to date in the Russo-Chinese War. It comes at a tall price, however. China loses 156,000 men and three squadrons of bombers. They are only strong enough to defend the city. Any further invasion of Russian territory is halted.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 4-29-1968
Event Description: Ten Chinese nationals are detained in Los Angeles by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Amongst them is one Chinese agent who had been sent by the Chinese government to plant a bomb beneath a major highway in Los Angles. “The enemy is desperate and turning to lowbrow terrorist assaults,” Ronald Reagan warns the nation on NBC Nightly News, “We must be on our guard against such attacks at all times.” President Nixon, using war powers, gives local police forces the rights to search “enemy nationals” without warrants. “We need this to secure our nation’s borders, and shores,” President Nixon explains in a televised address from the Oval Office. Due to it being war time, most Americans accept Nixon’s small breach on civil liberties.

Event Date 4-30-1968
Event Description: Senator Smathers wins the Massachusetts Primary, upsetting overwhelming front-runner Governor Connally. Former President Joseph Kennedy, a friend of Senator Smathers, lines up the Boston Democratic machine for Smathers. Senator Strom Thurmond, who has ran a hawkish campaign supporting the usage of atomic weapons in China, drops out and endorses Governor Connally.   

Event Date: 5-01-1968
Event Description: To slight China, Russia is admitted into the Toronto Pact on May Day, a socialist holiday. To commemorate the day, Toronto Pact nations attack Vladivostok. The battle is massive, even more so than the previous one. Toronto Pact forces strike the occupied city in the morning, and after a brutal 20-hour battle, the city is once again in Russian hands. However, the victory has a price tag of 80,000 lives. Among them is Corporal Richard Gephardt, killed in action. He will be buried in Missouri, the state he served for the National Guard.

Event Date: 5-02-1968
Event Description: The island of Taiwan declares its independence from the Republic of China. The island had always had better relations with the West than with Mainland China and decides that the war of the West vs. China is the best time to finally separate from the motherland. Chiang Ching-kuo, the son of assassinated President Chiang Kai-Sheik, is installed as the first President of Taiwan. President Nixon begins to send troops to Taiwan to invade Mainland China through the Strait of Taiwan.   

Event Date: 5-03-1968
Event Description: The Korean Republic declares its neutrality in the Russo-Chinese War. The tiny nation (which has swerved between capitalism and socialism since its independence in 1938) refuses to get involved in the bloody conflict.

Event Date: 5-05-1968
Event Description: Chinese warplanes bomb Laog, the Philippines, killing 3,000 and injuring more than 12,000. The Chinese obviously are trying to handicap the American air force by attacking cities that harbor American war planes. Pilipino President Ferdinand Marcos calls up the army to aide, “Our ally in the United States against the terror of a godless enemy.” In a showing of unity during wartime, President Marcos joins hands with Pilipino Assembly Leader Benigno Aquino, his greatest political rival.

Event Date: 5-07-1968
Event Description: Senator Sam Ervin wins the Indiana Primary today, running with the backing of powerful Democratic Senator Richard Roudebush (Democrat of Indiana). Governor Connally wins Ohio, he himself backed by Goldwaterite Representative John Ashebrooke (Democrat of Ohio). Both Ashebrooke and Roudebush are hoping for a spot on the ticket.

Event Date: 5-08-1968
Event Description: French students take to the streets in Paris opposing France’s alliance with Russia. “France should not be giving its young men, its future, to a war for Russian aggression,” student leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit cries in the streets. Marching from the University of Paris to the banks of the Rive Gauche, the students cry out slogans, such as “The Majority is for Peace” and “Do You Hear the People Sing?”  Frightened by such actions during war time, President Charles DeGaulle calls out the French National Guard, declaring that the student activists are, “creating ant-French disorder the streets”. The National, Guard will fire on the marchers, killing 12 students. In the United States, President Nixon applauds President DeGaulle’s handling of the student uprising. “We are at war,” President Nixon declares in a press conference, “You are either for us or against us.”

Event Date: 5-10-1968
Event Description: Chaplain Reginald Jackson is sent to Siberia to minister to the troops fighting in the ongoing and bloody war there. Also sent to fight in the war is Dr. Ronald E. Paul, a Texas physician who is “drafted” into the job of military medic due to lack of field medics.

Event Date: 5-12-1968
Event Description: The Chinese Army unleashes chemical weapons on Toronto Pact forces fortified at Chita, Siberia. The Siberian town is hit with deadly cyanide. The United States retaliates by launching a massive air strike on the Peking, the entrenched capitol of China. President Xiaoping, who has established his new office in a bunker beneath the Presidential Estate, is not harmed.

Event Date: 5-14-1968
Event Description: Senator Sam Ervin wins the West Virginia Primary, but loses the Nebraska Primary to Governor Connally. The Democratic race still leaning towards Connally, but with Florida, Oregon and, most importantly, California approaching, the race is not over.

Event Date: 5-21-1968
Event Description: Chinese warplanes bomb Irkutsk, killing 6,000 troops and over 12,000 civilians. The Chinese are preparing for another attack on the city. American General Creighton Abrams begins preparing for a Chinese attack on the city by moving the civilian population to surrounding shelters.

Event Date: 5-25-1968
Event Description: Chinese jets bomb several settlements in the Aleutian Islands. President Nixon and Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau of Canada begin running air raid drills throughout their nations. “War could realistically come to the United States,” Ronald Reagan tells his listeners, “We must be on our guard for an attack.”

Event Date: 5-28-1968
Event Description: The Florida and Oregon Primaries are held. Governor Connally wins Oregon with Senator Smathers taking his home state of Florida. Smathers only wins by 5% over Governor Connally, and calls the election quits. In the race for the senate seat he vacated to run for president, former Yankees pitcher Fidel Castro wins the Republican Primary for the Senate, upsetting the favorite to win, Congressman Edward Gurney. Castro faces former Governor LeRoy Collins, the Democratic nominee, in the November election.

Event Date: 6-02-1968
Event Description: The Chinese begin a massive offensive against Irkutsk. A massive force of 400,000 infantrymen rushes the city’s barricades, hoping to weaken the defensive position of the Toronto Pact forces. After nonstop fighting for six hours, both sides suffer heavy casualties. The Chinese lose 210,000 men, more than half of their original force. The Toronto Pact forces suffer more than 165,000 deaths. The Chinese are forced to regroup, but not retreat. They will begin a siege of Irkutsk.

Event Date: 6-03-1968
Event Description: Lieutenant Colonel Colin Powell leads an attack in the Chinese city of Daqing. Powell catches the Chinese forces by surprise, and takes the city by the end of the day. One of the heroes of the battle is Lieutenant George Walker Bush, who led a bombing raid of the city during the most heated moments of battle.

Event Date: 6-04-1968
Event Description: Governor Connally sweeps the primaries today. He takes California by a comfortable margin. He will undoubtedly be the 1968 Democratic presidential candidate. The Gallup Poll shows that President Nixon leads Governor Connally by a margin of 57%-37%. Representative John Schmitz has 3% of the vote.

Event Date: 6-05-1968
Event Description: The Chinese Army invades Tibet. Presidents Kai-Sheik, Enlai and Xiaoping had long wanted to take the independent kingdom, but international warnings had stopped them. The Chinese Army will meet no resistance from the peaceful Tibetans, and take the land by the end of the week.

Event Date: 6-12-1968
Event Description: Russian troops take the city of Fushun after suffering nearly 90% casualties, the highest percentage of the war.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 6-20-1968
Event Description: In the first major Canadian combat operation of the Russo-Chinese War, Canadian infantry and artillery units attack a Chinese defensive position south of Danyang in support of American, Belgian, and Russian troops pushing towards Nanjing. 

Event Date: 7-04-1968
Event Description: The first meeting of the Constitution Party is held at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. This new far-right wing party attacks both parties for, “Fighting on the side of a socialist power.” Representative John Schmitz is nominated for president with former Georgia Governor S. Marvin Griffin as his running-mate. “Nixon and Connally are the same socialist stooge,” Schmitz tells the small group of right-wing activists, “Electing either would be electing more wars for socialist and communists.”

Event Date: 7-08-1968
Event Description: Bowing to public pressure, Prime Minster Indira Gandhi asks the Indian Parliament for a declaration of war on China. The Indian Parliament votes to go to war and instates a draft.

Event Date: 7-10-1968
Event Description: Indian troops enter Tibet. The Tibetan people begin an underground resistance movement headed by the exiled Dalai Lama. The Chinese Army moves against India, bombing border towns in the nation. President Nixon begins shipping arms to India to aide them in the invasion. “If we can put China in a pincer from Tibet and Siberia,” Secretary Eisenhower tells him, “This war could be won by fall 1969.”

Event Date: 7-14-1968
Event Description: Second Lieutenant Oliver North leads a small group of U.S. marines in an invasion of China from the Straits of Taiwan. The 2,000 man invasion force will be followed by a far larger force in a few days. North is able to land in Mainland China and set up entrenchments until the Toronto Pact’s forces can arrive.

Charles DeGaulle uses his annual Bastille Day address to the French people to call for Deng Xiaoping to step aside and allow a new Chinese government to negotiate peace terms with the United States and the Soviet Union.

Event Date: 7-15-1968
Event Description: General Paul Harkins, an American, leads a force of 65 armored visions, 66 jet squadrons, and over 2 million men in the most massive invasion in history. Attacking the city of Fuzhou, the battle is the bloodiest in the war. Over the course of 22-hours, the city is bombed and shelled into submission. The massive invasion forces the Chinese out of the town. By the end of the day, the flag of the United States flies over Fuzhou, offending the Russians greatly. The Toronto Pact’s invasion force lost 319,000 men, most of them being Russians. The Chinese are overwhelmed, however. Their casualties measure over 500,000 brave Chinese troops. Harkin’s force is named the Chinese Expeditionary Force by Ronald Reagan, and the name sticks.

Event Date: 7-20-1968
Event Description: The Chinese concentrate their forces and take the city of Irkutsk in the wee hours of the morning. General Abrams leads a steady retreat from the besieged city. He and his remaining troops take refuge in the nearby village of Braka. President Xiaoping declares that, “Siberia shall be China’s in mere weeks.”

Event Date: 7-29-1968
Event Description: John Kerry is awarded the Purple Heart by Vice-President Margaret Chase-Smith. Kerry’s rescue of a fellow crewman after his swift boat was destroyed in the Sea of Japan wounded his back severely. Kerry will be out of the war for several months recuperating.

Event Date: 8-05-1968
Event Description: The Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, nominates former Governor John Connally of Texas for President. Realizing that he will need a running-mate with military experience to counter war time President Nixon, Connally selects Governor Daniel Moore of North Carolina, a veteran of the American-Japanese War. The Democratic Convention is not a very bright one. The country is solidly behind President Nixon, their wartime leader. The high point of the convention is when country music star Johnny Cash sings, “That Ragged Old Flag.”

Event Date: 8-09-1968
Event Description: General Harkins’ Chinese Expeditionary Force(CEF) engages the Chinese Army northeast of Changsha. The Chinese Troops are mainly conscripted and not experienced military men. This light force is routed in a quick battle. The Chinese command at Changsha readies the reserves to, “Protect the city from the onslaught of the invader.”

Event Date: 8-12-1968
Event Description: The Battle of Changsha rages. General Harkins’ forces are successful in breaking the Chinese line and overrunning their defenses. The battle is a brutal one for the CEF. 70,000 men fall and over 100,000 are injured. However, the city is taken. The war in Southeastern China has turned in the favor of the Toronto Pact.

Event Date: 8-15-1968
Event Description: The Republican Convention in Miami Beach, Florida, enthusiastically renominates President Nixon and Vice-President Chase-Smith. “The battle against Chinese expansionism must continue,” President Nixon tells the cheering Republicans, “This battle is one for not just freedom today, but for all the centuries.” Outside of the convention, student protesters sing the hit Beatles tune “Give Peace a Chance.” President Nixon calls these protesters, “Bums.”

Event Date: 8-21-1968
Event Description: Three Chinese battleships battle three American and one Russian battleship in the South China Sea. The Chinese ships come out victoriously and head towards the Philippines. When Dwight Eisenhower is told that Chinese battleships could approach the islands any day, he laughs and says, “Let them come. They will have to learn to swim before though.”

Event Date: 8-23-1968
Event Description:  With the goal of destroying the joint US and Filipino naval base at Subic Bay, three Chinese battleships engage four U.S. battleships and one Filipino destroyer. The Chinese ships are sunk in a pitched battle. American sailor Dan Quayle is applauded for his skill at the cannons during the war. Serving aboard the U.S.S. Perseverance, Quayle is awarded the Naval Cross by Captain Walter Bibwaller. “I just want to thank this ship,” Quayle says as he accepts the award, “For not making me stay in the galley peeling potatoes.”

Event Date: 8-30-1968
Event Description: Lieutenant Colonel Norman Schwarzkopf and 50,000 Toronto Pact forces land in Kwantung, a major railroad hub in China. “We pray blessings on our boys in Kwantung,” Ronald Reagan says on NBC Nightly News that night, “Let them break the Chinese transportation system and halt its murderous war machine in its tracks.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 9-11-1968
Event Description: While speaking at a patriotic rally in Kiev, Russian Defense Minister Andrei Grecho is assassinated by a Chinese secret police agent. The agent kills himself before he can be taken into custody. President Andropov begins to hire massive amounts of secret service protections. Minister of Agriculture Mikhail Gorbachev tells Andropov that this protection is alienating the people. “It takes more than the people’s support to stop a bullet,” Andropov responds.

Event Date: 9-15-1968
Event Description: As the CEF begins to march on Peking, President Nixon and Secretary Eisenhower begin discussing how to capture the city. “We should hold back on capturing it, Mr. President,” Eisenhower advises, “It will be a hotbed of rebels if we capture it too soon.” “Then it will just be a scab full of puss,” President Nixon adds. “Very graphic idea, Mr. President,” says Eisenhower says, looking sick. Secretary Eisenhower will advise routine bombings of Peking for the time being.

Event Date: 9-29-1968
Event Description: After weeks of fighting in Tibet, the Chinese Army withdraws due to the extreme resistance from the Indian Army and Tibetan freedom fighters. These Chinese troops are sent to Southeast China to resist the CEF.

Event Date: 10-01-1968
Event Description: President Nixon orders Colonel Colin Powell to attack Shenyang, the capitol of the Liaoning Province in Northeaster China. Colonel Powell obeys and begins marching to the city.

Event Date: 10-05-1968
Event Description: General Abram’s forces in Siberia retake the city of Irkutsk. The Third Battle of Irkutsk is the worst to date, with the Toronto Pact’s forces losing over 200,000 troops, 35,000 of them being Americans, including Private Phil Gramm, a political science major who went off to war viewing it as his civic duty. His father was, after all, a Japanese-American War veteran.

Event Date: 10-06-1968
Event Description: The Battle of the Sea of Japan begins. 41 Chinese jet squadrons and 15 fleets of battleships and destroyers do battle against 50 Toronto Pact jet squadrons and 22 fleets of warships, and to the benefit of the Toronto Pact, 20 submarines. The Chinese are handicapped by their lack of submarines, but the battle rages for six days. After days of nearly constant battle, the Chinese Fleet is nearly decimated. As the fleet limps back to the coast, it drops mines in the Sea of Japan. By mining the sea, they hope they can turn a defeat into somewhat of a victory.

Event Date: 10-22-1968
Event Date: Lieutenant George W. Bush receives the Silver Star for his actions during the heated Battle of the Sea of Japan. Congressman George H.W. Bush, who is running for Senate this year, attends the ceremony aboard the U.S.S. George Washington, a modern air carrier. “Your pop is proud of you,” Congressman Bush tells his son. “That’s all I need to know dad,” the younger Bush replies. As Congressman Bush boards the plane to return to D.C., he tells his son, “Do your mother a favor, don’t get killed.” 

Event Date: 10-25-1968
Event Description: Governor Connally challenges President Nixon to a televised debate. It is the only thing he can think of to get his name out and try to salvage the Democratic campaign. President Nixon, who is always unsure of his T.V. image, refuses as he did in 1964. “We will not let the Commander-in-Chief be sandbagged on national television,” is all Pat Buchanan tells the press, “Especially at a time of war.”

Event Date: 10-31-1968
Event Description: The US Air Force initiates the "Halloween Raids", a series of bombings of Peking air fields. The raids are greatly successful, with Captain John McCain leading most of the raids. At home, McCain is becoming a hero throughout the old guard of the air force. James Doolittle calls McCain, “The greatest pilot I’ve ever seen, and this includes Joe Kennedy.”

Event Date: 11-04-1968
Event Description: On the eve of the presidential election, Colonel Powell’s forces capture Shenyang in a quick battle. Ronald Reagan calls Powell, “A great solider and a great American.” The Chinese dream of victory is dimming with every passing day. President Xiaoping needs a massive attack somewhere to revive the failing Chinese cause.   

Event Date: 11-05-1968
Event Description: President Nixon wins a massive landslide reelection victory over his Democratic opponent, Governor John Connally.

Richard Nixon/Margaret Chase-Smith (R): 446 EV; 58.4% of the PV
John Connally/Daniel Moore (D): 92 EV; 37.8% of the PV
John Schmitz/Marvin Griffin (C): 0 EV; 3.6 of the PV
Others (Prohibition, Socialist Labor, etc.): 0 EV; 0.2% of the PV

In the Congressional races, the Republicans expand their margins in both houses. In the Senate, Fidel Castro and George Bush pick up seats in Florida and Connecticut for the GOP. President Nixon has a clear mandate to win the war against China.   

[MasterJedi]

Very good update. Go Toronto pact and Nixon!

[War on Want]

Awesome timline. I am not happy though that many of the president's in this TL hate Socialism so much, when most of it is Democratic. It is a good thing life didn't go like this.

[PBrunsel]

To those who enjoy this timeline,

I'm sorry I havn't updated this in 10-days or so. I have been quite busy with work, school and my studies to become a chaplain. Also, Valentine's Day is upon us...

I plan to have 1969-1970 up by Friday and 1970-1973 up by the end of the weekend.

My apologies to those who want an update.

PBrunsel

[MasterJedi]

Well we (or at least I) know how long these things take to write so take your time.

[PBrunsel]

The Second Term of President Richard M. Nixon

Event Date: 1-01-1969
Event Description: Opening a new front in Northwestern China, the Russian Army overruns Kashgar; the city is not prepared for the attack, and is taken by the end of the day with few casualties on the Russian side.

Event Date: 1-03-1969
Event Description: With the support of President Nixon, the Socialist Party of the United States is declared a “terrorist sect” by FBI Director Robert Kennedy. “We are at war against a nation which espouses the same anti-American views as the SPUSA,” Kennedy declares in an address from FBI Headquarters. SPUSA chairman J. Quinn Brisben and National Secretary David McReynolds are arrested for “sedition”. Former Attorney General Earl Warren declares that he will sue the government for, “This unjust infraction of our sacred first amendment right to freedom of speech and peaceable assembly.” In response to this, Kennedy has Warren’s office phones tapped.

Event Date: 1-10-1969
Event Description: Two Chinese tactical nuclear missiles strike several Russian troop concentrations along the Mongolian border. This is the first time that actual nuclear weapons are used during any war. Over 250,000 Russian troops die upon the missiles landing, with more than 100,000 succumbing in the following weeks to radiation poisoning. EPA Director Harry Truman attacks China for using such weapons. “The health and environmental effects of nuclear bomb can not be understated,” he tells the press, “President Xiaoping has shown that he does not care about the health of the world and of China’s neighbors.”

Event Date: 1-12-1969
Event Description: Two squadrons of Chinese jets bomb Tokyo, Japan. The massive bombing raid lasts for 15-hours, the longest single day of bombing of the war. Prime Minister Eisaku Satō, along with most of the Japanese cabinet, is killed in the raid, thrusting Japanese Foreign Minister Takeo Fukuda into the position. Minister Fukuda was visiting his daughter in Okinawa when the bombing raid was begun.

Event Date: 1-15-1968
Event Description: Captain George Walker Bush is shot down off China's central coast by Chinese anti-aircraft guns. His navigator being killed upon impact, Bush bobs up and down in the sea until being picked up by the swift boat, captained by John Kerry. The two turn out to get along very well, and will remain friends for years after the war.

Event Date: 1-20-1969
Event Description: President Richard Milhous Nixon is sworn in for his second term as President of the United States. “The greatest title history can bestow is that of peacemaker,” Nixon states, “That is why we must end this chasm of war between the east and west and bring about a Lincolnonian, ‘new birth of freedom’ throughout the globe.” Nixon will rely on his new Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, to help him in this endeavor. Republican leaders, all isolationists, fear this talk; however, none attack a President during war time.

Event Date: 1-22-1969
Event Description: Japanese fighters bomb the Chinese city of Chongqing. This is the first military strike the Japanese have participated in since 1937.

Event Date: 1-30-1969
Event Description: Toronto Pact armor and infantry units do battle with Chinese tanks outside of Shansi. This battle is brutal, decimating the Chinese force there. President Xiaoping is beginning to panic in Peking, planning for, “The endgame.”

Event Date: 2-01-1969
Event Description: At a patriotic dinner held in Philadelphia to raise money for the war, all living former Presidents are invited to attend and speak. Presidents McFarland, Dewey and Kennedy attend and all speak. President Dewey’s speech is a long one, taking more than 45-minutes. After he concludes his speech there is some scattered applause. “That was brutal,” Speaker Gerald Ford tells Dewey as he sits down. “You know I don’t know how to shut up,” Dewey tells Ford. “Well,” Ronald Reagan, the host of the event, says after Dewey is done speaking, “I haven’t seen that much hot air explode sine the Hindenburg.” Even President Dewey bursts into laughter.

Event Date: 2-02-1969
Event Description: Chinese businessmen, enraged by the costs of the war on their incomes, march on Peking demanding an end of the Russo-Chinese War. President Xiaoping orders his police force to mobilize, but Chinese Foreign Minister Chen Yi (an ardent socialist) urges President Xiaoping to reconsider. The advice of Minister Yi convinced President Xiaoping to allow the demonstration to happen.

Event Date: 2-05-1969
Event Description: Captain George W. Bush leads a squadron of jets in a bombing raid of Peking, which at first is not seen as much. However, his raid kills Chinese Foreign Minister Chen Yi. The wisdom of the Foreign Minister will be sorely missed in the Chinese capitol.

Event Date: 2-06-1969
Event Description: Dr. Ron Paul is sent to Northern Mongolia to care for radiation stricken Russian soldiers. Dr. Paul, who was running an independent practice before being drafted into the army for medical purposes, wants to refuse, but realizes that the only way he can get home is to serve.   

Event Date: 2-10-1969
Event Description: Lieutenant Colonel Norman Schwarzkopf and his 50,000 Toronto Pact forces capture Kwantung, the largest city in Southeastern China. The battle rages for more than 19-hours, but the Toronto Pact wins the day. The Chinese retreat from the railroad hub city with over 200,000 dead and more than 120,000 wounded.

Event Date: 2-20-1969
Event Description: President Fulgencio Batista of Cuba declares war on China and the rest of the Canton Pact, sending Cuba into the Russo-Chinese War. The Cuban navy, which is a large one if a bit out of date, is sent to battle in the South China Sea. Senator Fidel Castro (Republican of Florida) applauds President Batista’s, “Bravery and sense of duty to protecting freedom.”

Event Date: 2-22-1969
Event Description: Richard Cheney, a 1966 master's graduate in political science from the University of Wyoming, is recruited by the Houston-based energy conglomerate Halliburton to serve on a seven-man exploratory committee looking into the question of economic opportunities for Western corporations to drill oil and gas companies in postwar mainland China. “Once socialism is swept out of China forever,” Cheney writes his fiancée Lynne Vincent, “It will be a goldmine for oil companies.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 3-01-1969
Event Description: In a major bombing raid lead by Captain Joseph Kennedy III, American jets pound more than three dozen military and industrial targets inside Manchuria. President Andropov, upon hearing who leads the raids, calls former President Kennedy, telling him, “I guess the apple never falls far from the tree.” The two American-Japanese War veterans both agree.

Event Date: 3-03-1969
Event Description: The Battle of the Sea of Japan rages, with a massive fleet for both sides punching it out for control of the seas. The Toronto Pact sends 21 fleets of battleships and destroyers to oppose China’s fleet of 12 battleships. Despite being outnumbered, the skilled Chinese Navy keeps the battle raging for 12-hours. Captain Walter Bibwaller’s USS Endurance, a destroyer, is sunk, but Captain Bibwaller saves most of his crew and himself. By the end of the battle, the Chinese fleet is crippled beyond repair. The Toronto Pact rules the seas.

Event Date: 3-05-1969
Event Description: Eight-year-old Diana Spencer, daughter of the Viscount of Althorp, sings "God Save The Queen" at a state funeral for British sailors killed at the Battle of the Sea of Japan.

Event Date: 3-10-1969
Event Description: General Paul Harkins’ CEF Army has fought itself to the outskirts of Peking. President Xiaoping orders all citizens to arm themselves. “The wolf is at our doorstep!” President Xiaoping declares in a speech from the Presidential Mansion, “It is the duty and the honor of every Chinese citizen to defend the capitol.” General Harkins prepares his men for the battle. “Taking Peking will be a bloody affair,” General Harkins warns President Nixon, “The casualties may be as high as 600,000.” President Nixon, not wanting those casualties, orders a siege of the capitol. The Siege of Peking has begun.

Event Date: 3-19-1969
Event Description: Japanese and American infantry forces capture the port of
Chan-chiang, leading to another setback for the Chinese Army, with no further victories in sight. President Xiaoping begins to meet with his military advisors to plan one final assault.

Event Date: 4-01-1969
Event Description: The final resistant fighters in Mongolia surrender to Toronto Pact forces. Their resistance to the Toronto Pact had grown largely futile as the peasants began to live with their occupiers. Pro-American and capitalist Puntsagiin Jasrai, the former Mayor of Ulan Bator, is made the new Prime Minister of Mongolia, ending years of near communist rule in the landlocked nation.

Event Date: 4-09-1969
Event Description: President Nixon is told by NASA Director Thomas Paine that the Apollo Five can reach the Moon in a July 1969 landing. “Excellent,” President Nixon says grinning, “I’ll conquer China, the Moon and the Kennedys.”

Event Date: 4-11-1969
Event Description: The socialist government of Cambodia is overthrown. The Canton Pact is greatly weakened by the loss of yet another member. Cambodian ruler Prince Norodim Sihanouk, the ruler before the Chinese backed Pol Pot took office reassumes his role as ruler.

Event Date: 4-20-1969Event Description: Ronald Reagan travels to Shanghai, China, to meet with soldiers stationed in that war torn city. While on the tour, he walks across a part of the Great Wall of China, and stands mystified at its height and pure grandeur. “The people of China must be proud to have such a wall,” Reagan tells the troops, “It is truly as its name says, a ‘Great Wall.’ However, another great wall waits are troops. This is a wall of Chinese soldiers, who oppose freedom and everything we and our allies stand for. I tell you today, men, tear down that wall!”

Event Date: 5-01-1969
Event Description: The Battle of the Bulge is fought on the outskirts of Peking. The battle is called such because of General Harkins comment on Chinese troop placement around the city. “It bulges right where it’s needed least,” General Harkins is commented on saying. The Chinese Army has put all of its eggs in this basket, to the tune of 350,000 infantrymen, 25 armored divisions and 22 jet squadrons. The Toronto Pact is prepared with 210,000 infantrymen, 45 armored divisions and 36 jet squadrons. The battle begins with the Chinese breaking through Toronto Pact forces. Panic threatens to lead to disaster for the Toronto Pact, but Lieutenant Colonel Colin Powell’s forces arrive at the end of the day. With Powell’s troops being able to hold the line, the battle draws to a bloody stalemate for the day. The Chinese have experienced nearly 75% casualties, but vow to fight tomorrow. “We’ve had the devil’s own day,” General Harkins tells Powell. “We’ll beat them tomorrow,” Powell responds.

Event Date: 5-02-1969
Event Description: Lieutenant Colonel Powell’s words prove true as the Chinese second charge against Toronto Pact forces fails. The early morning Chinese assault is met by superior air force counterstrikes by the American air force. Colonel Joseph Kennedy III and John S. McCain distinguish themselves in the air and will be awarded the Silver Star and the Congressional Medal of Honor. By the end of the day, the Chinese Army is decimated. Peking is evacuated as President Xiaoping rants in his bunker, “The mother of all battles will be raged.”

Event Date: 5-03-1969
Event Description: With the capitol basically in the hands of Nixon and Andropov, President Deng Xiaoping snaps. He orders “The Final Order” in Peking. All remaining Chinese military units in or around Peking are alerted to, “Kill all people on the streets without proper documentation.” They are also expected to destroy all factories, military installations, schools, hospitals and any other building of importance. President Xiaoping commits suicide by arsenic in his bunker beneath the Chinese Legislature Building. As the capitol burns, the Chinese Expeditionary Force marches into the city playing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Chaplain Reggie Jackson leads a massive prayer service that night, declaring, “God has won the war for the right!”   

Event Date: 5-06-1969
Event Description: After days of fighting building to building, General Harkins’ CEF reaches the Chinese Legislature Building. After raising the Stars and Stripes and the Toronto Pact flag above the building, Lieutenant Colonel Wesley Clark finds the body of President Xiaoping in the underground bunker, as well as the bodies of all the Chinese state and war departments. “Where’s the government?” General Harkins asks Clark. “Dead on the floor,” Clark responds.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 5-07-1969
Event Description: “Ladies and gentlemen,” President Nixon tells the nation that night, “The Toronto Pact, led by American forces, has captured the Chinese capitol of Peking. My fellow Americans, the mission has been accomplished.” Watching the President’s speech, Colin Powell tells General Harkins, “That’s easy for Nixon to say; he won’t be in China to see their reaction to the outcome of the war.” The Chinese government is completely in disarray, as is the nation’s economy. “We have a lot of work to do,” General Harkins writes in his diary, “Let’s hope we have the will to stick to it.”

Event Date: 5-10-1969
Event Description: In one of the last major battles of the war, Lieutenant Colonel Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr. and his troops capture Nancheng, a final stronghold for the Chinese Army. Schwarzkopf will be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service. President Nixon even comments to Pat Buchanan, “Schwarzkopf could be President of the United States one day if he isn’t lucky.”

Event Date: 5-15-1969
Event Description: The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rules against former Attorney General Earl Warren and former Secretary of the Socialist Party USA David McReynolds. They rule that it is legal to declare a party illegal in a time of war if such a party shares an ideology, “Espoused by the enemy combatants in that war.” “I expect the Republican Party to be outlawed if we go to war against France,” Warren tells the press, “Since the two share so much in common. You know respect for civil rights…except when their at war.” Warren vows to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Event Date: 5-20-1969
Event Description: Former FBI Agent George Lincoln Rockwell wins the Democratic Primary for Governor of Virginia. The far-right winged Rockwell (who served as a FBI “mole” in the 1940s) had once considered flirting with Nazism, but feared it would ruin his career in the FBI. After retiring from the FBI in 1965, Rockwell has operated a successful automobile retail store in Richmond, Virginia. He will face Congressman Linwood Holton, one of the few southern Republican congressmen.

Event Date: 6-09-1969
Event Description: At a convention of remaining Chinese legislators, a new leader of China is selected. Minority Leader of the Assembly Deng Yingchao, a more liberal member of the National Party, is named the first female leader of China since Empress Wu in the 600s. Vice-President Margaret Chase-Smith applauds the selection of Yingchao as, “A great leap forward for the Chinese people.” President Yingchao will face an election in November 1969, so she has little time to rebuild her war torn nation.

Event Date: 6-15-1969
Event Description: With China’s government reestablished, a formal peace treaty is written by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Chinese Foreign Minister Rao Shushi, who was appointed to the job just the day before. The treaty gives all land taken from Russia during the war back to the Russians and outlaws the Revolutionary Guard in China. Delegates of the Toronto Pact and China sign the treaty, ending the Russo-Chinese War. The costs have been astronomically high. Russia lost 65 million soldiers, many in the first year of the war. China suffered over 117 million deaths, and even more soldiers permanently maimed and injured. The United States suffered 3 million deaths, with over 5 million injured. “The costs of this war are now being seen in full bloom,” Ronald Reagan concludes his news broadcast that night, “We should fervently pray that a frost of peace and reason will destroy any further of these flowers of war, and stop their deadly bloom.”

Event Date: 6-28-1969
Event Description: The Stonewall Bar Riots of New York City rage. Three homosexual veterans are bullied by three police officers at a bar for homosexuals in Manhattan. Rather than let this go on, other patrons force the cops out of the bar. They come back with five other cops, and the situation boils over into a riot. Governor Nelson Rockefeller calls out the New York state guard. In Washington, D.C., Congressman Andrew Young, the president of the Southern Baptist Civil Rights Council, begins to write a bill protecting the civil rights of people of different sexual orientations. 

Event Date: 7-02-1969
Event Description: Congressman Andrew Young (Republican of Georgia) introduces the Civil Rights Reform Act of 1969. This act protects the rights of homosexuals to, “Live safely without the fear of bias or prejudice from employers, law enforcement officers or government employees.” The act divides the Republican Party. While some of the most liberal Republican Senators (like George McGovern of South Dakota and Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota) support the bill. “Equal rights will not be complete until this act is passed,” Senator McGovern declares as he co-signs himself onto the bill. However, Speaker of the House Ford and Senate Majority Leader Everett Dirksen are opposed to the act. “We can not let the choice of who you want to kiss to decide civil rights,” Senator Dirksen tells the press. If the bill will be added to the docket after the Congress’ summer break is unlikely.

Event Date: 7-04-1969
Event Description: General Paul Harkins takes control of the reconstruction of China. He faces a daunting task. “Operation Rolling Thunder” destroyed 80% of China’s power plants, highways, water distilleries and modern industry. “Our total war has left this nation stripped of all modern necessities,” General Harkins tells the press, “It will be a long and costly reconstruction of China.” President Yuri Andropov calls General Harkins a “peacetime defeatist” for this statement. President Nixon realizes that China will be a very big mess to clean up.

Event Date: 7-20-1969
Event Description: After two weeks overseeing a slow moving Chinese population trying to rebuild their nation’s bridges and roads, General Harkins decided to visit the White House and demand funds for the Chinese reconstruction.   

Event Date: 7-24-1969
Event Description: Apollo 5 lands on the Moon, cementing American dominance in the Space Race. Charles Bassett, Eliot See and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin are the first men to land on the Moon. Colonel Bassett is the first man to walk on the Moon, declaring, “This is one small step for this man, but a giant leap for all of mankind.” Bassett is not known for being tight on words. President Nixon calls the astronauts on the Moon and asks them, “How are you doing?” Later on, Corporal Aldrin will comment, “Nixon was quite the character. Were the first people to walk on the Moon, and he just asks us how we’re doing.” 

Event Date: 7-30-1969
Event Description: “You shouldn’t expect the guy who made the mess to clean it up,” President Nixon tells General Harkins when he asks for funding to rebuild Chinese infrastructure. “We can’t just leave the country stripped of all resources!” General Harkins tells Nixon. “Well I can’t afford to help them,” President Nixon tells the general “The war was too expensive as it is. I need a balanced budget, and finding a reconstruction won’t get me that.” “It seemed like you could spare sending three guys to the Moon!” Harkins yells. Harkins continuous arguing angers Nixon, who gets Pat Buchanan and G. Gordon Liddy to escort him from the Oval Office.

Event Date: 8-12-1969
Event Description: 19-year old Rudolph Braun, now a Franciscan monk, arrives in Shanghai, China, to work in the relief effort in that war torn city. He is introduced to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who has come for the same reason. The two will work side by side for more than a year caring for the ill and despairing in Shanghai. 

Event Date: 8-22-1969
Event Description: The United States Supreme Court agrees to hear the case of McReynolds v. United States. David McReynold’s attorney, Earl Warren, assures the nation that, “The right to hold a political opinion will be upheld.”

Event Date: 8-23-1969
Event Description: Speaking to 2,300 state and municipal police officers at a luncheon in Chicago, Illinois, FBI Director Robert Kennedy urges these officers to maintain constant vigilance against, “Enemy foreigners and radical left-wingers”. Kennedy declares that the Supreme Court needs to uphold the decision to outlaw the Socialist Party. “We can’t have these anti-American elements hiding behind the First Amendment!” Kennedy booms.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 9-01-1969
Event Description: Speaker of the House Gerald Ford refuses to allow the Young Civil Rights Reform Act to be considered in the docket.

Event Date: 9-05-1969
Event Description: The city of Tang-ch'uan explodes as remnant of the Chinese Revolutionary Army ignites a bomb in the marketplace. Toronto Pact troops quell the fires and the resistance, Tang-ch'uan will be a thorn in the side of the Toronto Pact during the reconstruction.

Event Date: 9-06-1969
Event Description:  George Walker Bush is honorably discharged from the US Air Force with the rank of major. Senator George Bush, Barbara Bush and his brothers Jeb and Neil greet Major Bush as he steps off the plane in Corpus Christi.

Event Date: 9-07-1969
Event Description: Senate Majority Leader Everett Dirksen dies from a stroke while sleeping in his Washington, D.C., home. He will be buried in Pekin, Illinois, with Vice-President Margaret Chase-Smith, one of his closest friends, delivering the eulogy. “His wit and wisdom will be missed in the Senate,” Vice-President Chase-Smith says, “His honesty, integrity and common sense is what that body needed. In fact, its something the whole cockeyed world needs.” She lays both a rose and a marigold on Senator Dirksen’s coffin.

Event Date: 9-09-1969
Event Description: Senator Hubert Humphrey (Republican of Minnesota) is selected to be the new Senate Majority Leader. Many GOP hardliners are upset about a “turncoat” like Humphrey being made their leader in the Senate. President Nixon quiets their mumbles by vouching for Humphrey’s support of his presidency. “Hubert’s been a loyal ally of progressive reform since he was born,” Nixon says, “That makes him qualified to be the Republican Senate leader in my book.”       

Event Date: 9-11-1969
Event Description: John Ashcroft, a professor in business law at Southwest Missouri State University, publishes an article in the Wall Street Journal outlining his proposals to protect China and the United States from terrorist attacks by the Revolutionary Army. He concludes that the government needs the right to, “Check on its enemies through any means possible, including phone tapping.” Richard Nixon and Robert Kennedy like this editorial very much.

Event Date: 9-20-1969
Event Description: Senator Jack Miller (Republican of Iowa) becomes the chairman of the Russo-Chinese War POW/MIA Committee. He has been given the responsibility of finding all American POW/MIAs, a daunting task. Senator Miller selects EPA Director Harry Truman to aid him in this committee as the non-congressional member. Truman once again selects a job he would rather not have.

Event Date: 10-01-1969
Event Description: In Peking, the subways are reopened. Private donations from companies and philanthropists have helped rebuild the capitol city; however, much of China is still in crisis. President Yingchao sends a desperate letter to President Nixon, practically begging for money. Nixon relents upon hearing of successful rebuilding efforts in Peking. He adds a $15 billion program to rebuild Chinese infrastructure and industry for the 1970-1971 budgets.

Event Date: 10-16-1969
Event Description: To the joy of Ronald Reagan, his "miracle" New York Mets win the World Series, beating the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles 4 games to 1. “If victory in China and a man on the Moon could not convince you there is a God,” Reagan tells his audience on The Voice of the Nation, “Than this will have to do the job!”

Event Date: 10-21-1969
Event Description: Chancellor Willy Brandt’s Labor Party is crashed in there German Reichstag elections. With the German economy entering a post-war recession and their national morale at an all time low since losing the race to the Moon, Conservative Party leader Alfons Heck, a former Hitler Youth leader, becomes the new German Chancellor. “I promise to you tonight,” Heck tells the country the night he is elected, “That there will be a new Germany, one greater than any nation in Europe or in the world.” Brandt is not maintained as Labor Party leader. He is repacked by his deputy, Hans Scholl.

Event Date: 11-01-1969
Event Description: The Brookings Institute releases a study that rebuilding China could take as long as 50 years and over $500 billion. “It is best that we do minimum repair,” writer Morton Kondracke advises, “Than leave the country for the Chinese to figure out.” Kondracke argues that China’s wealth of natural resources and massive population will lead to its eventual recovery. “A nation that well off can take anything,” Kondracke reasons. In the White House, President Nixon signs the budget (including the $15 billion relief amendment) and calls Kondracke, “a nattering nabob of negativism.”

Event Date: 11-05-1969
Event Description: George Lincoln Rockwell is elected Governor of Virginia, defeating Congressman Linwood Holton by a 61-39% margin.

Event Date: 11-12-1969
Event Description: A terrorist bombing hits a Shanghai hospital, killing 325 people. Father Rudolph Braun and Reverend Martin King work on the frontlines of the attack, giving water and relief to rescue workers and victims. Ronald Reagan reports on their heroism during the attack. “King and Braun were dragging people out of the flaming hospital, all the while praying for them and giving them water,” Reagan tells the nation that night on the NBC Nightly News, “Such heroism is what will make China a safe place to live once again.”

Event Date: 11-25-1969
Event Description: Chancellor Heck begins a massive shift of funds in the German budget from building and maintaining roads to the space program. He plans on having a German on the Moon by 1972 and on Mars by 1999.

Event Date: 12-24-1969
Event Description: Libyan ruler Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi is assassinated by a CIA operative. The socialist had just risen to power a few months back. The old royalty is reestablished as leaders of the nation.

[Lief 🗽]

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Haha, that's awesome.

Great update, as always.

[HappyWarrior]

lol, John Kerry and George Dubya as best friends.  Great update.  I hope this TL sees a large number of Russo-Chinese War veterns as presidents (Kerry, McCain, maybe even Dubya)

[MasterJedi]

Great update, can't wait for more!

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-01-1970
Event Description: Chaplain Reginald Jackson arrives home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Having seen the horrors of war, he now, more than ever, believes that he must continue in his study of the Bible to bring peace to a world stuck in the blackness of war. He will begin his divinity studies in the spring at a Philadelphia catholic university.

Event Date: 1-03-1970
Event Description: With the world returning to peacetime productivity, OPEC decides to hike the price of a barrel of oil from $35 to $70, an unprecedented hike. Presidents Nixon, Andropov and Yingchao condemn the hike, but nothing else. Secretary of State Kissinger tells Nixon that a full scale land war in the Middle East would be suicide. “We can’t win there, Mr. President,” Kissinger explains, “Its best that we just take care of these leaders the way we did in Libya.” Nixon gets the picture and calls the CIA.

Event Date: 1-10-1970
Event Description: President Yuri Andropov, the Social Democratic nominee, is defeated for reelection to a third term by National Party nominee Vladimir Kryuchkov, the hero Mayor of Volgograd. Despite Russian victory over China, the Russian people felt that Russia had been given a raw deal at the peace deliberations in 1969 and that the post-war economy has been lackluster at best.

Event Date: 1-22-1970
Event Description: President Nixon makes a shocking address from the Oval Office. “My fellow Americans,” President Nixon begins, “Our nation is addicted to oil. The recent conflict in Asia has shown my advisors and I that we are too reliant on petroleum. While war was waging, the people of this great nation were still driving our cars, mowing our lawns and using oil as we did when we were at peace. This is not entirely the fault of the regular American, my friends. In fact, most of the blame can be put on a government which prefers that our nation be addicted to a limited resource than tackle the crisis head on.” President Nixon declares that he hopes that Congress will invest funds into the research of alternative fuel. “I know that that energy independence can be achieved,” President Nixon concludes, “After all, we are Americans. Good night and God bless you.”

Event Date: 1-23-1970
Event Description: Reaction to President Nixon’s energy independence act is mixed. Most Republican leaders in Congress applaud the speech. “President Nixon has shown revolutionary vision,” Speaker of the House Gerald Ford. He begins finding congressmen to author an energy bill for this year’s Congressional session. Democrats are mixed in reaction. While some Democrats, mostly eastern ones like Representative Jim Howard of New Jersey, who called Nixon to congratulate him after the speech, support the president’s goals, the Democrats of the South and West are united against any such “energy independence.” Senate Minority Leader Lyndon Johnson, himself a Texas oilman, calls President Nixon’s speech, “Unrealistic hogwash.” In what Nixon sees as a great push for his movement, Ronald Reagan bucks the party line to support the program. “This country has been built on independence,” Reagan tells his listeners that afternoon, “This spirit of liberty applies to more than the freedom from taxes and government, but also to freedom from control of other nations. As long as the USA is held on leash of oil by the nations of the Middle East, we will not be free.”

Event Date: 2-09-1970
Event Description: In a Rose Garden ceremony, President Nixon awards the crew of Apollo V, Charles Bassett, Eliot See and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. “You showed the world that for America, even the stars are not the limit,” President Nixon says as he pins the medals on the four brave astronauts.

Event Date: 2-12-1970
Event Description: Representative Morris K. Udall (Republican of Arizona) introduces the Energy Research Act of 1970. This act would make research for energy independence a top national priority and set benchmarks for complete energy independence (which the bill sets this final goal for the year 2001). Speaker of the House Ford had selected Udall because the of Udall’s wit, intelligence, mastery of the issue and his status as a “rising star” in the West. Ford’s second choice, Representative Paul “Pete” McCloskey (Republican of California) will also sign on as a co-sponsor, but Udall will be given the credit for introducing the act.

Event Date: 2-15-1970
Event Description: Senator George McGovern (Republican of South Dakota) sponsors Representative Udall’s Energy Research Act in the Senate. While Senate Minority Leader Lyndon Johnson declares that he will never allow the act to pass, the Republican controlled Senate is expected to easily pass the act.

Event Date: 3-06-1970
Event Description: Stock markets around the world fall, as they shift to peacetime economies and the hike in oil prices. The London, Tokyo and Hong Kong exchanges are particularly hard-hit. President Nixon announces that the American economy is stronger than ever. “I want to be crystal clear about this,” President Nixon bellows in a televised press conference, “This economy is strong and getting stronger.”

Event Date: 3-07-1970
Event Description: President Nixon’s words seem to be almost cruel as the nation’s stock traders face Black Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which had been up to 994, falls to 825, a drop of 169 points, about 18 percent of its value. The Crash of 1970 becomes the worst since 1929. President Richard Nixon gives an Oval Office address assuring the American people that the economy is sound and that energy independence, “Important, now more than ever.”