The New Frontier (A Different Path, Chapter 1)

[Cold War Liberal]

Author's Note
On Kennedy's Second Term

The format for my write-up of Kennedy's second term will be a little different. I'm not going to go strictly chronologically, instead zeroing in on an issue (e.g. civil rights) and writing up everything that happened under Kennedy on that issue over a period of time (e.g. from the second inauguration to the midterms). They will be of varying complexity; I might brush over a some of the specifics of the military happenings in Vietnam in one post, and give an exact Senate roll call vote for the Civil Rights Act in another. I know what my strengths and weaknesses are as a writer and as an amateur (alternate) historian.

These updates will be a little longer, and so they'll take more time to write and update. I want at least two up per week, but we'll see (midterms are coming up very soon).

POVs are not going away.

I have these topics chosen so far:
-Foreign policy and events (Vietnam/space race/Soviet relations/some other things you'll find out in time)
-Civil rights (obviously)
-The New Frontier
-Civil unrest (possibly going to roll this under "civil rights")
-'66 midterm campaigns (ones of importance)
-'66 results
-I will mention the '65 and '67 gubernatorial races somewhere
-The US needs a new UN ambassador so I'll cover that in a POV
-Some other things you don't need to know right now

My question to you all is: what else am I forgetting, or what else would you like to see covered?

(Side note: holy s--- this has been read almost 5,000 times, thanks y'all)

[MillennialModerate]

Does a counter culture develop (aka hippies) the way it did as college aged kids rebelled against the war in Vietnam?

[America Needs R'hllor]

This is great. I'd very likely be a Rocky supporter in this TL, but would be fine with Kennedy as well. Can't wait to see what happens in the 2nd term and in 1968 (and in 1988 since you teased it ).

[Cold War Liberal]

November 7, 1964
Morris

Vice President Mo Udall. Vice President Mo Udall. Vice President Mo Ud-

Vice President-elect Mo Udall still couldn’t quite believe that he was going to be, well, Vice President in a couple of months. Four years ago he was a nobody, the brother of some Congressman from Arizona. And now he was going to be one heartbeat away from the Presidency of the United States. Huh.

President Kennedy was giving him a tour of the White House. “And this is the Oval. Wonderful room, right? I have a feeling you’re going to spend some time here with me; I plan on working with you more than I ever did with Lyndon…”

Mo, still somewhat awestruck, nodded and smiled. He was looking forward to the upcoming term. Kennedy wanted it to be a productive one, and now that JFK didn’t have to worry about reelection, he wanted to tackle some more progressive, more controversial legislation, if Congress will let him. Mo had mentioned that that could backfire if Udall wanted to run in 1968, but Kennedy had brushed him off. “You’ve gotta stand for something, Mo. What’s the point of getting reelected if you don’t actually do anything?” Kennedy seemed to be talking as much to himself as to his incoming Vice President.

“Here’s the deal, Mo. I have a list of things I want to get done this term. If we finish the list, I’ll make a new one. But we have to do everything, or almost everything, if I’m going to consider this term a success.”

Jack handed Mo the list, which Udall read over. The word “poverty” was circled in red pen multiple times. Under that, it had phrases like “healthcare: elderly + children + poor,” “social security benefit increase,” “housing,” and a few other phrases. Also on the list was, in huge letters, “CIVIL RIGHTS ACT.” And then Mo got to the part about the Supreme Court. “Wait, what? I seriously don’t think they’ll like this, even if Justice Warren agrees to this,” he warned the President.

With a twinkle in his eye, Jack replied, “we’ll find a way.”

[MillennialModerate]

This is great. I'd very likely be a Rocky supporter in this TL, but would be fine with Kennedy as well. Can't wait to see what happens in the 2nd term and in 1968 (and in 1988 since you teased it ).

I like Rocky a lot but JFK is an all-time great. Rocky could run again in ‘68. JFK’s don’t come around much. It’s actually sad we had so many great Presidents between ‘32-‘74 but now they are few and far between.

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

I can't wait for JFK to stack the Court.

[Cold War Liberal]

January 19, 1965
Jack

It was a day before the end of Jack’s first term. And a day before the start of his second. There was so much he wanted to do. Get the Civil Rights Act passed. Enact robust programs for fighting poverty. Get a man to the moon before 1970. Figure out… something to do about American involvement in Vietnam.

Tomorrow was also his first meeting with his new Cabinet. It wasn’t very much different from his old one, in actuality. He’d kept Rusk at State, Dillon at Treasury, and McNamara at Defense. And of course Bobby was staying at the Justice Department. Gronouski was still going to be Postmaster General (why does that need to be a Cabinet post again?). Stewart Udall was going to remain Interior Secretary, even as Mo became Vice President. Freeman was still Agriculture Secretary. Hodges left Commerce, so the first new nomination Kennedy made was economics professor and Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy to that post. He was confirmed by his colleagues nearly unanimously, and Minnesota Attorney General Walter Mondale was appointed to serve out the rest of McCarthy's term. Wirtz had wanted to leave Labor, and so Kennedy nominated a Labor official by the name of Daniel Patrick Moynihan to that post. Moynihan was also confirmed without major issue. And finally, John Gardner was nominated and confirmed to lead the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

With the Cabinet out of the way, Jack had something else on his mind. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren was aging and had mentioned a possible retirement to Kennedy in passing last year. Warren has said he would retire before 1970, but Kennedy had a different idea. JFK had only won 42% of the vote, and there was palpable anger rising from certain parts of the country that could be harnessed into a backlash against the Democrats. Jack sensed this. And it terrified him. If the 1966 midterms went badly, and especially if the elections in 1968 went poorly for the Democrats… Warren was a Republican, but he was also a liberal, and his was a dying breed, put on life support by Nelson Rockefeller and possibly recently killed by John F. Kennedy, Barry Goldwater, and Orval Faubus.

Kennedy’s thoughts were interrupted by the man he was thinking about, Earl Warren, entering the Oval Office. “You wanted to speak to me?” he asked. “Yes. Let me tell you something I’ve been thinking about lately…” Kennedy filled Warren in on his idea, including the man he wanted to replace Warren with. The Chief Justice was apprehensive. “Retiring early wouldn’t be my ideal, but I’ll do it. I’m almost 74, and I have a long and successful career behind me. However, I have serious doubts about who you want to replace me with… I like the guy, but I’m not sure the Senate will.”

“I know he’d be controversial, even within my own party, but he was a damn good lawyer, he's a damn good judge, and he’d be a damn good Chief Justice. I think we could build a coalition of liberals of both parties and get him confirmed.”

“You’d automatically lose most Senators from the South, a probably a few from the Plains too…”

“I know it’ll be tough, Earl, but I think we can do this.”

“Okay, Jack, I trust you. I’ll announce next week that I’ll retire at the end of this term.”

“Thank you, Earl.”

January 20, 1965

“...and we have made great progress in my first term, but there is still much left to be done. It is time to see the New Frontier come to full fruition. It is time to vigorously pursue civil rights legislation. It is time to end poverty. It is time to contain Communism, and continue to protect our interests abroad through diplomacy rather than force, if possible.

“We have just come out of a bitter, messy election, but it is time to come together as a people, the American people, and concentrate our energy not on fighting each other, but on fighting the problems we face and the forces that divide us. Division only lets our enemies grow stronger…”

[MAINEiac4434]

As a Kennedy hack, this is so great.

[TheBeardedOne]

Wonder who Jack will choose as his SC nominee 🤔

[Cold War Liberal]

As a Kennedy hack, this is so great.

Thank you. You gonna get the next chapter of Camelot Anew up soon??

Wonder who Jack will choose as his SC nominee 🤔

Someone very near and dear to my heart, for a multitude of reasons. You'll see in the next post.

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

As a Kennedy hack, this is so great.

[MAINEiac4434]

As a Kennedy hack, this is so great.

Thank you. You gonna get the next chapter of Camelot Anew up soon??

I’m off school this week, so it should be up soon.

[MillennialModerate]

As a Kennedy hack, this is so great.

[Cold War Liberal]

February 1, 1965
The Judge

The judge sat in the waiting area at the White House. The President had summoned him to the Oval Office, but apparently had a meeting that ran a little over. So the judge patiently waited, reading the New York Times. The headline on the front page: “Warren Announces Retirement.” That can’t be why I’m here… can it? There’s no way Kennedy’d try to get him on the Court. His own party would turn on him, or at least the southerners would.

“President Kennedy is ready for you, Your Honor.”

The judge thanked the secretary, then walked into the Oval Office. “Hello, Your Honor,” President Kennedy said. “Hello, Mr. President,” the judge replied. They exchanged pleasantries and made small talk for a few minutes before Kennedy cut to the chase. “Let me be frank. You were a great lawyer. That’s why I put you on the Second Circuit. You’ve done a great job there too. I’m sure you’ve seen that Warren’s retiring… I was wondering if you’d like to be his replacement.”

Hot damn. Holy f---, that son of a b---- is actually going to nominate me!

“Sir, with all due respect, you know that your own party hates my guts, or, rather, Southerners hate me, right? They’d shoot me down and then block everything else you want to do, from Social Security to civil rights and possibly even the space program. I don’t know much about Congress, but I know they love not to do things. Don’t give them an excuse to do nothing this term.”

“Well, I’m not going to nominate you now, I’ll wait until a few weeks before Warren’s retirement in the summer. Social Security increases are being voted on as we speak. Medicare and Medicaid are being debated. I’m meeting with Congressman Smith tomorrow to discuss getting the Civil Rights Act out of committee, and with Governor Rockefeller next week to discuss things we can work together to get done. The midterms could be bad -”

“...and this might make them worse…”

“- but I seriously doubt they’ll be so bad that I won’t be able to get anything done after them. This is a chance I want to take. Will you accept my nomination?”

The judge thought to himself for a few seconds, then simply said, “yes, Mr. President, I will.” They shook hands, and the judge got up to leave.

“Thurgood,” the President said.

“Yes?” the judge replied.

“You’ll make a fantastic Chief Justice,” the President assured him.

“Thank you, sir,” said Thurgood Marshall.

[MAINEiac4434]

That was so damn cool

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

That was so damn cool

[Cold War Liberal]

The Continuation of the New Frontier
January 1965 - January 1967

President Kennedy did not, as his second term began, feel that the ideals of his New Frontier had been reached. Additionally, he felt more ambitious and driven than ever, because he did not have to worry about reelection - and because his time in office was already halfway up. And so, he began proposing legislation as soon as the 89th Congress convened. Within the first two weeks of Kennedy’s second inauguration, Congress passed an increase to Social Security benefits with little controversy; the only question was by how much benefits would be raised. The final number decided on was roughly 5% across the board.

Shortly after that, Rep. Byrnes of Wisconsin, the American Medical Association, and the Kennedy Administration all drafted up different versions of a bill establishing a national health service for the elderly and the poor. The House came up with a compromise bill combining the Administration’s plan with Byrnes’. It passed the House by a wide margin. In the Senate, Republicans tried to make the program either be voluntary, or cost the government less. Both efforts failed, however, and the bill passed the Senate narrowly. The two bills were reconciled, passed again, and sent to President Kennedy to be signed. The programs were known as Medicaid (for the poor) and Medicare (for the elderly).

The Kennedy Administration proposed raising the minimum wage to $1.50/hour. The bill passed mostly along ideological lines; liberals in both parties supported it, while some conservatives opposed anything from the wage hike to the concept of a minimum wage.

Kennedy wanted to both expand federal housing assistance and prevent people from discriminating against minority home buyers and renters. He did not have the clout to get the latter, but was able to get a bill narrowly passed to do the former, with support from Nelson Rockefeller. Rockefeller lobbied Republicans while Kennedy convinced Democrats to support the bill. Vice President Udall attempted to get Southern Democrats on board, but they held fast in opposition. Nevertheless, the Housing Funding Act of 1965 passed both houses of Congress and was signed into law on August 14, 1965. The Housing Funding Act also founded a Department of Housing, and Kennedy appointed Robert Weaver to be its first Secretary.

Kennedy also wanted to revamp the nation’s education system by implementing national standards and allowing federal grants to be given to states to use to fund education. This violated a long-standing tradition of federal non-involvement in local education, and it was unacceptable to Rep. Howard W. Smith, who was chairman of the House Rules Committee. Kennedy decided to cut a deal with Smith: he would scrap the Elementary and Secondary Education Act if Smith let the Civil Rights Act out of committee. Smith agreed (more on that later) and the ESEA died in committee.

The biggest and most important part of the New Frontier was the Economic Opportunity Act of 1965. The Act created all kinds of job training and work education programs, funded youth activities, provided basic education to those who are illiterate or barely literate, gave loans to rural families and migrant farmers, established programs like Head Start, and created Volunteers in Service to America, the domestic version of President Kennedy’s Peace Corps. This was by far the largest, most comprehensive, and most controversial bill Kennedy tried to get passed, other than those pertaining to civil rights. It passed 45-45 in the Senate (1 voted present, 9 were not voting, and Vice President Udall cast the tie-breaking vote) and 210-201 in the House (the rest were absent for various reasons). The EOA was signed into law on September 22, 1965, and it came to be seen as one of the Kennedy Administration’s biggest achievements. It lifted hundreds of thousands of people out of poverty and gave job training to millions of impoverished Americans.

[America Needs R'hllor]

That was so damn cool

[Cold War Liberal]

Civil Rights
January 1965 - January 1967

Action on civil rights was the thing Kennedy most wanted in his second term. In his first term, he was mild on the issue; he wanted to avoid angering Southern Democrats as much as possible. However, towards the end of his first term he started caring more about the issue, and as Jack watched people like Medgar Evers die because of the color of their skin, and as he watched Congress hold up the Civil Rights Act while Harlem burned in 1964, he became angry at government inaction on the issue. After the election, Governor Rockefeller met with Kennedy and discussed how he could help get the Civil Rights Act passed.

The first Kennedy-Rockefeller meeting on Civil Rights

They described the meeting as “productive,” and had a second meeting on February 19, 1965, that expanded to include prominent black leaders like Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rev. C.T. Vivian, James Baldwin, Fannie Lou Hamer, Malcolm X, Langston Hughes, Gordon Parks, and Thurgood Marshall, along with Attorney General Robert Kennedy and a bipartisan group of liberal congressmen and Senators. That meeting also went well, and Kennedy came out of it with a renewed sense that the Civil Rights Act must be passed.

Kennedy also met again and again with Rep. Howard Smith of Virginia, a segregationist Democrat in charge of the House Rules Committee. These meetings did not go nearly as well, because Smith continued to keep the bill in committee. Nothing - not the promise of personal favors from President Kennedy, not the assassination of Malcolm X, not even the Watts riots - convinced Smith to release the bill. At the same time, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act was proposed, and was almost equally unacceptable to Smith, who held it hostage in committee along with the Civil Rights Act. Kennedy saw a possible compromise. As much as he wanted the ESEA passed, he offered to back down and let it die in exchange for Smith letting the Civil Rights Act out of committee. Smith agreed. The only reason he agreed is because he then turned around and attached a gender equality measure to the CRA before letting it out of committee, knowing that this would be unacceptable to the House and cause the CRA to fail, thus killing two birds with one stone. However, this backfired, as the House passed the bill anyway, 273-146. It had both bipartisan support and opposition.

When it moved on to the Senate, Southerners such as Senator William Fulbright (D-AR) held days-long filibusters against the bill. Unsure of whether or not they had enough votes to break the filibuster, Kennedy cautioned against trying to do so at first. He personally lobbied a number of Democrats, while Mo Udall tried (to no avail) to sway Southern Democrats and Nelson Rockefeller helped Republican CRA floor manager Thomas Kuchel (R-CA) persuade Republicans to support the bill. Finally, after 26 days of filibusters, the Civil Rights Act was brought up for a vote on September 18, 1965.

September 18, 1965
Vote on the Civil Rights Act of 1965

Yeas (71)
Aiken (R-VT)
Allott (R-CO)
Anderson (D-NM)
Baker (R-TN)
Bartlett (D-AK)
Bayh (D-IN)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bible (D-NV)
Boggs (R-DE)
Brewster (D-MD)
Burdick (D-ND)
Carlson (R-KS)
Case (R-NJ)
Clark (D-PA)
Cooper (R-KY)
Church (D-ID)
Curtis (R-NE)
Dirksen (R-IL)
Dodd (D-CT)
Dominick (R-CO)
Douglas (D-IL)
Fong (R-HI)
Gruening (D-AK)
Harriman (D-NY)
Harrison (D-NJ)
Hart (D-MI)
Hartke (D-IN)
Hayden (D-AZ)
Hruska (R-NE)
Humphrey (DFL-MN)
Inouye (D-HI)
Jackson (D-WA)
Javits (R-NY)
L. Jordan (R-ID)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kuchel (R-CA)
Lausche (D-OH)
E. Long (D-MO)
Magnuson (D-WA)
Mansfield (D-MT)
McGee (D-WY)
McGovern (D-SD)
McIntyre (D-NH)
McNamara (D-MI)
Metcalf (D-MT)
Mondale (DFL-MN)
Monroney (D-OK)
Montoya (D-NM)
Moss (D-UT)
Morse (D-OR)
Morton (R-KY)
Mundt (R-SD)
Murphy (R-CA)
Muskie (D-ME)
Nelson (D-WI)
Neuberger (D-OR)
Pastore (D-RI)
Pearson (R-KS)
Pell (D-RI)
Prouty (R-VT)
Proxmire (D-WI)
Randolph (D-WV)
Ribicoff (D-CT)
Saltonstall (D-MA)
Scott (R-PA)
Smith (R-ME)
Symington (D-MO)
Tydings (D-MD)
Yarborough (D-TX)
Young (R-ND)
Williams (R-DE)

Nays (29)
H. Byrd (D-VA)
R. Byrd (D-WV)
Cotton (R-NH)
Eastland (D-MS)
Ellender (D-LA)
Ervin (D-NC)
Fulbright (D-AR)
Goldwater (R-AZ)
Gore (D-TN)
Hickenlooper (R-IA)
Hill (D-AL)
Holland (D-FL)
B. Jordan (D-NC)
Laxalt (R-NV)
R. Long (D-LA)
McClellan (D-AR)
Miller (R-IA)
Robertson (D-VA)
D. Russell (D-SC)
R. Russell (D-GA)
Simpson (R-WY)
Smathers (D-FL)
Sparkman (D-AL)
Stennis (D-MS)
Taft (R-OH)
Talmadge (D-GA)
Tower (R-TX)
Thurmond (R-SC)
Wilkinson (R-OK)

The Civil Rights Act of 1965, despite opposition in the House and an attempt by Rep. Smith to sabotage the bill, passed in the Senate 71-29 and was signed into law by President Kennedy on September 21, 1965. Kennedy was surrounded by civil rights leaders, cabinet members, and liberal congressmen and Senators as he signed the bill with 50 pens, which he handed out as souvenirs.

When debating the CRA, a title prohibiting voting requirements besides citizenship was amended out, making that provision, Title I, weaker than Kennedy wanted. Thus, a Voting Rights Act was introduced into the House in mid-1965, but it was held up in the Rules Committee again. Rep. Smith would not fall for any political sleight-of-hand tricks again, and the bill ultimately did not get passed during Kennedy’s time in office.

However, the Civil Rights Act wasn’t Kennedy’s only success; he lobbied for, and with the help of his brother, Senator Ted Kennedy, got the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 passed, which eliminated quotas in the U.S. immigration system, fundamentally altering how the system had worked since 1921. The bill was signed in July of 1965 and went into effect in 1968.

In mid-July, President Kennedy announced his pick to be Chief Justice Earl Warren’s replacement: US Second Circuit Judge Thurgood Marshall. There was an uproar on the right, as Marshall would not only be the first black Chief Justice, but also the first African-American to serve on the court in any capacity. However, the same Senators who voted for the Civil Rights Act voted to confirm Marshall, with the exceptions of Senators McGee (R-WY), Morton (R-KY), Baker (R-TN), and Cooper (R-KY).

The Marshall Court (1965-)

Chief Justice
Thurgood Marshall (b. 1908, liberal, appointed by Kennedy in 1965)

Associate Justices
Hugo Black (b. 1886, liberal, appointed by F. D. Roosevelt in 1937)
Byron White (b. 1917, moderate, appointed by Kennedy in 1962)
Arthur Goldberg (b. 1908, liberal, appointed by Kennedy in 1962)
William O. Douglas (b. 1898, moderate, appointed by F. D. Roosevelt in 1939)
John M. Harlan II (b. 1899, conservative, appointed by Eisenhower in 1955)
Potter Stewart (b. 1915, moderate, appointed by Eisenhower in 1958)
Tom C. Clark (b. 1899, moderate, appointed by Truman in 1949)
William J. Brennan, Jr. (b. 1906, liberal, appointed by Eisenhower in 1956)

[Cold War Liberal]

July 19, 1965
Edward

Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke wasn’t sure if his political career had just been threatened, or if it was just given a gift from the President of the United States.

Edward was gunning for a Senate seat, you see, and Leverett Saltonstall, incumbent Republican Senator, looked like he was going to retire in 1966, partially to let Edward take a shot at the seat. That might have just gone out the window.

Adlai Stevenson II, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, died five days ago. President Kennedy took a few days to announce his successor, partially to vet candidates, partially out of respect for the Stevenson family. He’d chosen a man who, while being from the opposite party from the President, was widely respected among members of both parties for his foreign policy chops. Kennedy had chosen Senator Saltonstall to be the next UN Ambassador. And, immediately thereafter, Governor Bellotti appointed former Democratic Governor Endicott Peabody (who Bellotti successfully primaried in 1964) to Saltonstall’s Senate seat. Figures.

On one hand, Peabody would have the advantage of incumbency. And he was a Democrat in a heavily Democratic state, the President’s home state no less. On the other, to say that Peabody wasn’t a terribly popular Governor would be an understatement. After all, he wasn’t even renominated by his own party last year, and Bellotti almost lost to Volpe, so Edward couldn’t imagine that Peabody would have won in Bellotti’s stead. Additionally, 1966 looked like it would be a Republican wave year. That wave was built off conservative anger at Kennedy and the Republican establishment which, in their eyes, stole the nomination from Goldwater and gave it to Nelson Rockefeller, who promptly managed to not even win 40% of the vote. Edward was no conservative, and as such, he couldn’t count on a wave benefiting him.

Nevertheless, he would run. And he would win, he was sure of it. He’d be the first African-American democratically elected to the Senate.

Edward was still trying to figure out what that meant in this time of change and division...

[MillennialModerate]

So a Republican accepted a nomination, giving up his Senate seat that would be filled by Governor from the opposing party?! Interesting. I thought Bobby would leave the administration and run for that seat in ‘66.

[Cold War Liberal]

Foreign Policy and Affairs
January 1965 - January 1967

President Kennedy had always had an affinity for foreign affairs. He cared not only about improving America itself through domestic policy, but also about improving its standing in the world through diplomacy. He also hated Communism, but preferred containment over eradication. The biggest question for Kennedy as he was entering his second term was the role America played in the Vietnamese Civil War.

Kennedy discussing Vietnam with Secretary McNamara and Gen. Taylor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs

Kennedy had no desire - or real reason - to increase the number of American “military advisers” in the country. Indeed, in October of 1964, he signed an executive order stopping any new advisers from being deployed to Vietnam. He also sent General William Westmoreland to both oversee the advisers that were already there, and give his opinion on what should be done after studying the situation for a few months.

Defense Secretary McNamara wanted to escalate because he believed that an overwhelming show of force would lead to a quick end to the war and the reunification of the nation under the rule of South Vietnam. President Kennedy, on the other hand, was apprehensive about getting American troops tied up in a ground war in unfamiliar territory. Kennedy had heard about the guerilla tactics used by the Viet Cong, and he was wary. Additionally, Kennedy had always been in favor of resolving conflict with diplomacy before military power was used, though he also acknowledged that neither Ho Chi Minh nor President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu were particularly willing to sit down and discuss their differences. Nevertheless, he tried to open diplomatic channels with the North while he waited for Westmoreland’s report.

When Westmoreland returned, his report was immensely helpful to the President. Gen. Westmoreland stated that it was his opinion that a full-scale ground war against North Vietnam would not go well, as the troops would be “insufficiently adapted to jungle warfare,” while the Viet Cong would have the home front advantage. A war would be long, slow, painful, and expensive, and ran the risk of escalating and involving China and the USSR. However, Westmoreland did not recommend pulling all the advisers out of Vietnam; a diminished American presence would, Westmoreland hypothesized, lead to the collapse of South Vietnam and its fall to Communism, which would be a disaster for America’s public image. So, Westmoreland’s recommendation was to undo the adviser freeze and let American military men continue to train the South Vietnamese army to fight the Viet Cong.

Kennedy agreed with Westmoreland’s assessment, ended the adviser freeze, and kept trying, to no avail, for a diplomatic sit-down with North and South Vietnam. And so, the limbo of America’s involvement in Vietnam continued, for now.

President Kennedy announcing that the US would not escalate the war in Vietnam

As for the USSR, Leonid Brezhnev actively worked to be less aggressive towards the United States than his predecessor. He acted in a collective leadership structure with Alexei Kosygin, the Soviet Premier, and brought on a new era of relative political stability - and corruption - to the Soviet Union. Where Khrushchev was at times brash, Brezhnev was careful and cautious, preferring to keep the peace at home rather than create trouble overseas. Brezhnev and President Kennedy met for the first time in February of 1965, and both leaders emerged from that and subsequent meetings hoping for better relations. Kennedy said that he found Brezhnev “reasonable,” but also reaffirmed that he was “committed to containing the spread of Communism” while not necessarily curtailing it.

One effort to relieve tensions between the two nations actually began in 1964 under Khrushchev. In September of 1963, President Kennedy had proposed before the United Nations that instead of continuing the “Moon Race,” where each country competes to reach the moon first, the US and USSR should work together on a joint moon landing project. Khrushchev had originally declined the offer, but after some reconsideration - and persuasion from Kennedy - Khrushchev accepted the US’s offer. The best scientists from both the Soviet Union and the United States put aside their differences for a time and worked together towards what would become one of mankind’s greatest achievements, at least in the 20th century: putting a man on the moon. They worked throughout 1964, 1965, and 1966, and finally scheduled a launch for later in 1967.

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

Wow. I wonder how different the cultural impact of the Moon landing would've been if it were a joint USA/USSR venture as opposed to what happened IRL.

[Cold War Liberal]

Wow. I wonder how different the cultural impact of the Moon landing would've been if it were a joint USA/USSR venture as opposed to what happened IRL.

That's something Kennedy actually proposed, but Khrushchev didn't trust Johnson so he declined after the assassination. It's cool to imagine what would have happened had it gone forward.

[Cold War Liberal]

The Road to the Midterms
November 1965 - November 1966

The 1966 midterms were elections that liberals dreaded and conservatives eagerly awaited. It was normal for a President’s party to lose seats in Congress in off-years, especially if it was their sixth year in office. However, liberal Democrats fretted over the fact that, in 1964, conservatism had reared its head in Goldwater, Wallace, and Orval Faubus’s unexpected overperformace campaign in the general election. Many feared that angry conservatives were galvanized by civil rights legislation and the unabashed liberal in the Oval Office. The 1965 gubernatorial elections certainly didn’t ease anyone’s fears.

New Jersey’s result was not terrible for Democrats. New Jersey was a swing state that Nelson Rockefeller carried in ‘64, and yet incumbent Governor Richard Hughes won reelection with nearly 54% of the vote. No, the election which inspired horror in liberals was the Virginia gubernatorial election. Lieutenant Governor Mills Godwin, Jr. won the Democratic nomination quite easily, and attorney Linwood Holton, Jr. was nominated by the Republicans. However, a third party, the Virginia Conservative party, was formed, and nominated George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party, as their candidate. Godwin and Holton wrote Rockwell off due to his ties to Naziism, but Rockwell ran a populist conservative campaign fueled by radio. He didn’t advocate for the more radical elements of his ideology. When election day rolled around, the result shocked many on both the left and right.

Virginia Gubernatorial Election, 1965
Mills E. Godwin, Jr.: 42.91%
A. Linwood Holton: 41.84%
George L. Rockwell: 15.19%
Others: 0.06%

While he lost, Rockwell and other conservatives took this result as a moral victory for conservatism as a whole.

One man who played a large part in the 1966 midterms was one who was not on the ballot. Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater had become a hero to the conservative movement, and anti-establishment anger among those who supported Goldwater grew by the day - as did the number of people who held Goldwater’s ideology. And so, he traveled around the country to drum up support for conservatives - “Goldwater Republicans,” pundits called them - just as he had in the 1950’s. This time, however, the crowds were bigger, rowdier, angrier; Goldwater was struck by his fans’ enthusiasm wherever he went. They were angry about Nixon as the nominee in 1960, and angry that he’d lost. They were very angry that Nixon and Rockefeller had "robbed" Goldwater of the nomination in 1964, and that Faubus hadn’t been able to throw the election to the House. And so, they needed an outlet for that political anger, and someone to lead the charge against the forces of progressivism. Goldwater gave them that for the 1966 midterms, but that was not all they wanted him for.

In California, “concerned citizen” and former B-list actor-turned-GE spokesman Ronald Reagan was an unabashed conservative Republican running for Governor. He won the nomination handily. In Georgia, Goldwater campaigned for Bo Callaway, a Goldwater Republican running against State Senator Jimmy Carter (who had edged out Lester Maddox to come in second in the primaries, then narrowly beat former Governor Arnall in the runoff) to attempt to become the first Republican governor of Georgia since reconstruction. And in Maryland, Goldwater did not endorse Spiro Agnew, as he was not far enough to the right; however, Goldwater refrained from endorsing Agnew’s opponent, George Mahoney, as he was a segregationist Democrat. Goldwater also pushed hard for Senate candidates Harrison Thyng in New Hampshire, John Tower of Texas, Howard Baker of Tennessee, Marshall Parker of South Carolina, Anderson Carter of New Mexico, and Tim Babcock of Montana.

One interesting oddity of this election year was that former Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson re-entered politics after being declared not guilty of tax evasion in 1964. He entered the Democratic primaries for Governor of Texas against the popular incumbent Governor John Connally. In an upset, Johnson prevailed in the primary 50.73-48.53% despite accusations from Connally of voter fraud. After losing the nomination, Connally announced that he would run as an independent candidate in the general election.

Overall, liberals expected losses in the House, Senate, and governors’ mansions all over the country. However, Democrats would likely maintain their House and Senate majorities, and possibly hold on to at least half of America’s governorships. Goldwater and his supporters knew the midterms would not achieve the end goal of the conservative movement.

No, it was only the beginning.