The New Frontier (A Different Path, Chapter 1)

[frostyfreeze]

Charlton  Heston  considered a senate run in 1970. HE would be  a interesting charecter to use.I like  to see  John Tower, Charles Percy. in this good work.

[MillennialModerate]

Connally Versus LBJ?! Wow. That’s quite the matchup

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

Linwood no! I remember Tim Kaine talking about him on the trail in 2016. RIP

[MAINEiac4434]

This will be back shortly. Earlier in the week I decided to binge The Good Place twice (loved it both times), read Meditations on First Philosophy, and also had a three-day-long existential crisis. As one does.

Those three may or may not be connected.

Ahh, the quarter-life crisis.

[Cold War Liberal]

November 8, 1966
Midterm Election Results
House of Representatives

Democrats: 241 ( 41)
Republicans: 194 ( 41)

House Speaker: John William McCormack
Majority Leader: Carl Albert
Majority Whip: Hale Boggs

Minority Leader: Gerald Ford
Minority Whip: Leslie Arends

Senate

Democrats: 58 ( 6)
Republicans: 42 ( 6)

President of the Senate: Morris Udall
President pro tempore: Carl Hayden

Majority Leader: Mike Mansfield
Majority Whip: Hubert Humphrey

Minority Leader: Everett Dirksen
Minority Whip: Thomas Kuchel

Individual Race Results
(asterisk = incumbent)

Alabama
John Sparkman*: 62.71%
John Grenier: 36.52%

Alaska
Bob Bartlett*: 75.50%
Lee McKinley: 24.50%

Arkansas
John McClellan*: unopposed

Colorado
Gordon Allott*: 60.21%
Roy Romer: 39.69%

Delaware
J. Caleb Boggs*: 59.60%
James Tunnell, Jr.: 40.14%

Georgia
Richard Russell*: unopposed

Idaho
Leonard B. Jordan*: 56.91%
Ralph Harding: 42.11%

Illinois
Charles H. Percy: 57.01%, [REPUBLICAN GAIN]
Paul Douglas*: 42.91%

Iowa
Jack Miller*: 61.32%
E. B. Smith: 37.39%

Kansas
James Pearson*: 53.41%
James Breeding: 42.77%

Kentucky
John Cooper*: 59.80%
John Brown, Sr.: 40.20%

Louisiana
Allen Ellender*: unopposed

Maine
Margaret C. Smith*: 57.65%
Elmer Violette: 42.27%

Massachusetts
Edward Brooke: 62.99%, [REPUBLICAN GAIN]
Endicott Peabody*: 35.56%

Michigan
Robert P. Griffin*: 55.91%
G. Mennen Williams: 43.80%

Minnesota
Hubert Humphrey*: 55.78%
P. Kenneth Peterson: 44.21%

Minnesota (special)
Walter Mondale*: 53.90%
Robert Forsythe: 45.21%

Mississippi
James Eastland*: 65.51%
Prentiss Walker: 25.81%
Clifton Whitley: 8.55%

Montana
Lee Metcalf*: 50.62%
Tim Babcock: 49.37%

Nebraska
Carl Curtis*: 62.21%
Frank Morrison: 37.78%

New Hampshire
Harrison Thyng: 50.01%, [REPUBLICAN GAIN]
Thomas McIntyre*: 49.97%

New Jersey
Clifford Case*: 58.97%
Warren W. Wilentz: 40.95%

New Mexico
Tom Bolack: 50.77%, [REPUBLICAN GAIN]
Clinton P. Anderson*: 49.23%

North Carolina
B. Everett Jordan*: 53.33%
John Shallcross: 46.67%

Oklahoma
Bud Wilkinson*: 51.44%
Fred Harris: 48.56%

Oregon
Mark Hatfield: 52.41%, [REPUBLICAN GAIN]
Robert Duncan: 47.56%

Rhode Island
Claiborne Pell*: 67.70%
Ruth Briggs: 32.30%

South Carolina
Strom Thurmond*: 62.20%
Bradley Morrah: 37.80%

South Carolina (special)
Marshall Parker: 50.47%, [REPUBLICAN GAIN]
Ernest Hollings: 48.99%

South Dakota
Karl Mundt*: 66.66%
Donn H. Wright: 33.34%

Tennessee
Howard Baker*: 56.12%
Frank G. Clement: 43.88%

Texas
John Tower*: 57.99%
Waggoner Carr: 40.86%

Virginia
William B. Spong, Jr.: 54.68%
James Ould, Jr.: 29.88%
George L. Rockwell: 15.44%

Virginia (special)
Harry F. Byrd, Jr.: 54.11%
Lawrence Traylor: 35.49%
F. Lee Hawthorne: 7.07%
John W. Carter: 3.33%

West Virginia
Jennings Randolph*: 60.28%
Francis Love: 39.52%

Wyoming
Clifford Hansen: 53.91%
Teno Roncalio: 46.09%

Governor's Mansions

Individual Race Results
(asterisk = incumbent)

Alabama
Lurleen Wallace: 63.38%
James Martin: 29.00%
Carl Robinson: 7.62%

Alaska
Wally Hickel: 50.00%, [REPUBLICAN GAIN]
William Egan*: 48.37%

Arizona
Jack Williams: 55.59%, [REPUBLICAN GAIN]
Samuel Goddard, Jr.*: 44.41%

Arkansas
Winthrop Rockefeller: 55.96%, [REPUBLICAN GAIN]
James Johnson: 44.04%

California
Ronald Reagan: 60.08%, [REPUBLICAN GAIN]
Pat Brown*: 39.72%

Colorado
John Love*: 50.05%
Robert Knous: 47.61%

Connecticut
John Dempsey*: 53.41%
Clayton Gengras: 46.24%

Florida
Claude Kirk, Jr.: 62.90%, [REPUBLICAN GAIN]
W. Haydon Burns*: 37.08%

Georgia
Jimmy Carter: 50.02%
Bo Callaway: 49.48%

Hawaii
Randolph Crossley: 50.27%, [REPUBLICAN GAIN]
John A. Burns*: 49.73%

Idaho
Don Samuelson: 42.27%
Cecil Andrus: 36.71%
Perry Swisher: 11.65%
Philip Jungert: 9.02%

Iowa
Harold Hughes*: 52.25%
William G. Murray: 46.83%

Kansas
Robert Docking: 50.19%, [DEMOCRATIC GAIN]
William Avery*: 48.58%

Maine
Kenneth Curtis: 51.02%, [DEMOCRATIC GAIN]
John Reed*: 48.98%

Maryland
George P. Mahoney: 45.78%
Spiro T. Agnew: 45.36%
Hyman Pressman: 8.84%

Massachusetts
John Volpe: 53.97%, [REPUBLICAN GAIN]
Francis Bellotti*: 45.54%

Michigan
George W. Romney*: 61.00%
Zolton A. Ferency: 38.45%

Minnesota
Harold LeVander: 53.99%, [REPUBLICAN GAIN]
Karl Rolvaag*: 45.25%

Nebraska
Norbert T. Tiemann: 61.62%, [REPUBLICAN GAIN]
Philip C. Sorensen: 38.44%

Nevada
Oran K. Gragson: 51.19%, [REPUBLICAN GAIN]
Grant Sawyer*: 48.81%

New Hampshire
John W. King*: 50.56%
Hugh Gregg: 48.87%

New Mexico
David Cargo: 51.73%, [REPUBLICAN GAIN]
Thomas Lusk: 48.26%

New York
Nelson Rockefeller*: 41.15%
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr.: 40.97%
Paul Adams: 16.98%

Ohio
Jim Rhodes*: 62.18%
Frazier Reams, Jr.: 37.82%

Oklahoma
Dewey Bartlett: 55.68%
Preston Moore: 43.75%

Oregon
Tom McCall: 55.26%
Robert W. Straub: 44.67%

Pennsylvania
Raymond Shafer: 52.10%
Milton Shapp: 46.13%

Rhode Island
John Chafee*: 63.30%
Horace Hobbs: 36.70%

South Carolina
Robert McNair: 55.16%
Joseph Rogers, Jr.: 44.58%

South Dakota
Nils Boe*: 57.71%
Robert Chamberlin: 42.29%

Tennessee
Buford Ellington: 81.22%
H.L. Crowder: 9.84%
Charlie Moffett: 7.65%

Texas
Lyndon B. Johnson: 37.99%
John Connally*: 37.66%
Thomas Kennerly: 22.81%

Vermont
Philip Hoff: 55.49%
Richard Snelling: 44.50%

Wisconsin
Warren P. Knowles: 56.71%, [REPUBLICAN GAIN]
John W. Reynolds, Jr*: 43.14%

Wyoming
Stanley K. Hathaway: 54.29%
Ernest Wilkerson: 45.27%

[TheBeardedOne]

I’m predicting an attempted comeback by LBJ. Only he’ll have won the Gubernatorial race of his home state and the charges you previously put in the timeline were dropped against him right? I forget already

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

Robert King High for Governor of Florida in 1970! Hopefully something butterflies in this world for him not to die of a heart attack

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I don't know if it's totally fair to right-wingers off the 1960's that the literal founder of the American Nazi Party would field like 15% of the vote in a Virginia gubernatorial race.

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

I don't know if it's totally fair to right-wingers off the 1960's that the literal founder of the American Nazi Party would field like 15% of the vote in a Virginia gubernatorial race.

Cath is right. What is this, 2017 or something?!

[MAINEiac4434]

Ahh, the quarter-life crisis.

Literally me for half of last week:





Not a great state to be in when you're trying to write up alternate histories!

Ugh, trust me man I know. My depression is not a secret.

[Cold War Liberal]

the charges you previously put in the timeline were dropped against him right? I forget already

Here you go:

October 21 - November 3, 1964
Final Days of the Campaign

On October 30th, the trial of former Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson ended. The jury did not find enough evidence to convict Johnson of tax evasion. Johnson proclaimed himself “vindicated,” though Gallup later found that 57% of the public felt that he was guilty.

Ugh, trust me man I know. My depression is not a secret.

I know you don't know me all that well (or at all IRL) but if you need to talk to someone at any point I (and, I'm sure, a large number of other people on this forum) have a PM inbox that you're welcome to use

[Cold War Liberal]

The Sunset Years of the New Frontier
January 1967 - January 1969

With the 1966 midterms being a blow to President Kennedy and liberal Democrats, the 90th Congress was expected to be significantly less productive than the 89th. However, while it was harder for Kennedy to get anything done, there were a few attempts to pass major legislation.

First was the Department of Transportation Act. Initially pushed aside by the President in favor of dealing with civil rights, the Act was reintroduced in 1967, passing by somewhat easily in both the House and Senate. The bill created a Department of Transportation, which oversaw the nation’s transportation system and rolled agencies such as the FAA, FHA, and NHTSA into a new Department. The first Secretary of Transportation was Alan Boyd.

Second, only half of the President’s housing agenda - making it more affordable - had been achieved by the Housing Funding Act of 1965. The Department of Housing was too weak to do anything about the other half - actually enforcing the provisions in the Civil Rights Act of 1866 that made housing discrimination illegal. Like many Reconstruction-era civil rights bills, the 1866 Civil Rights Act did outlaw a number of discriminatory actions against racial minorities, but it didn’t provide much of a mechanism for enforcement. The Civil Rights Act of 1968, or the Fair Housing Act, looked to change that by giving the Department of Housing the authority to actually enforce fair housing laws. It passed the House but narrowly failed in the Senate, however, which was a major setback for the President’s agenda.

Kennedy was, however, able to get several smaller, less controversial bills through Congress as part of the New Frontier. With the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was established. Many public television and radio broadcasting channels came out of this. The Fire Research and Safety Act of 1968 increased fire standards nationwide, allowed the government to collect more data on fires, and established a commission on fire prevention. And finally, there were a slew of bills passed regarding conservationism and the environment, from the National Trails System Act to the Aircraft Noise Abatement Act to the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

Other than these relatively small measures, the second half of Kennedy’s second term saw a disappointing and perhaps anticlimactic destination for the domestic New Frontier.

[MillennialModerate]

All in all, declaring the mission to put a man on the moon, saving the world during the CM crisis, winning re-election, passing a civil rights bill, passing the Economic opportunity act, putting Marshall on the bench, navigating through the political mind field of Vietnam....and just being JFK ... safe to say in this timeline he leaves the White House as an all-time great President.

How does Bobby’s justice department do with the Mob?

[Cold War Liberal]

Civil Rights
January 1967 - January 1969

While the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1965 was certainly a massive achievement in the eyes of the Kennedy Administration, it was not enough to totally satisfy the President. There was still more work to be done on the issue.

Liberals, with the backing of the President, attempted to pass a Voting Rights Act again, but seeing as how the Voting Rights Act of 1965 failed even in the face of large liberal majorities in both chambers of congress, the Voting Rights Act of 1967 also failed, by a wider margin this time. To the dismay of many, not the least of which being African-Americans living in Southern states hoping to vote in the 1968 elections, the bill and, indeed, the entire issue was shelved indefinitely by the Congressional progressives.

The Civil Rights Act of 1968 sought to give the Housing Department the ability to crack down on housing discrimination, as explained before. The President and Governor Rockefeller teamed up once again to lobby Congressmen to pass the bill, and it actually passed the House, narrowly, 226-209. It was sent to the Senate for a vote on January 16th, 1968.

January 16, 1968
Vote on the Civil Rights Act of 1968

Yeas (58)
Aiken (R-VT)
Allott (R-CO)
Bartlett (D-AK)
Bayh (D-IN)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bible (D-NV)
Boggs (R-DE)
Brewster (D-MD)
Brooke (R-MA)
Burdick (D-ND)
Carlson (R-KS)
Case (R-NJ)
Clark (D-PA)
Church (D-ID)
Curtis (R-NE)
Dirksen (R-IL)
Dodd (D-CT)
Dominick (R-CO)
Fong (R-HI)
Gruening (D-AK)
Harriman (D-NY)
H. Williams (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)
Lausche (D-OH)
E. Long (D-MO)
Magnuson (D-WA)
Mansfield (D-MT)
McGovern (D-SD)
McNamara (D-MI)
Mondale (DFL-MN)
Monroney (D-OK)
Montoya (D-NM)
Moss (D-UT)
Morse (D-OR)
Mundt (R-SD)
Murphy (R-CA)
Muskie (D-ME)
Nelson (D-WI)
Hatfield (R-OR)
Pearson (R-KS)
Pell (D-RI)
Prouty (R-VT)
Proxmire (D-WI)
Ribicoff (D-CT)
Scott (R-PA)
Smith (R-ME)
Symington (D-MO)
Tydings (D-MD)
Young (R-ND)

Nays (32)
Baker (R-TN)
H. Byrd (D-VA)
R. Byrd (D-WV)
Bolack (R-NM)
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)
Parker (R-SC)
Spong (D-VA)
Russell (D-GA)
Smathers (D-FL)
Sparkman (D-AL)
Stennis (D-MS)
Taft (R-OH)
Talmadge (D-GA)
Thyng (R-NH)
Tower (R-TX)
Thurmond (R-SC)
Wilkinson (R-OK)
J. Williams (R-DE)

Not Voting (10)
Cooper (R-KY)
Hansen (R-WY)
Kuchel (R-CA)
McGee (D-WY)
Metcalf (D-MT)
Morton (R-KY)
Pastore (D-RI)
Percy (R-IL)
Randolph (D-WV)
Yarborough (D-TX)

With a number of potentially sympathetic Senators refraining from voting (some for logistical reasons, some for political reasons), the Civil Rights Act of 1968 failed, narrowly, and the second half of Kennedy’s housing policy was essentially dead. Like the Voting Rights Act, this bill’s defeat was viewed by the President as a major failure of the Administration, a defeat he regretted until his death.

One bright spot of success on the President’s fourth-quarter civil rights record was the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1968. The language in the 1965 Civil Rights Act regarding age discrimination was a bit vague and unclear, so the ADEA clarified Title VII of the CRA. It outlawed discrimination based on age for people over 40, outlined what benefits employers must give their employees and prohibited them from withholding benefits due to advanced age, and regulated some pension plans.

The period from 1967 through 1969 was also punctuated by a series of “long, hot summers;” African-Americans were fed up with being treated like second-class citizens, and race riots sprung up in cities across the nation. Well over 200 such riots occurred in that two-year period. Additionally, nearly a thousand different peaceful protests of varying sizes also took place, some of which escalated into violence when the police got involved.

Then, on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., to many the face of the civil rights movement, was shot in Memphis, Tennessee by a white man. Almost immediately, that city, along with Atlanta, Baltimore, Newark, Indianapolis, Chicago, Detroit, New Orleans, Kansas City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, and many others went up in flames. For twelve days, cities across the nation were in a state of chaos. The Kennedy Administration was caught in something of a bind; Kennedy agreed with the movement’s goals of equality for Americans of all races, and Dr. King was something of a friend to Jack; however, the riots were obviously not something Kennedy endorsed, even if he understood why they happened. After all, Kennedy had once proclaimed that “those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” For those twelve days, and, to an extent, that whole two year period, his earlier statement looked prophetic.

However, thirteen days after the assassination attempt, Dr. King was released from St. Joseph’s Hospital. The would-be assassin did not hit anything vital, though King suffered an infection, which is why he was not released until April 17th. Upon his release, he stood outside the hospital and made a strong statement.

“...while the Kennedy Administration should be commended for trying, not enough has been done to ease the pain and suffering of those Americans who have been deemed second-class citizens. The Negro, the immigrant, the woman, the poor person; they all have to live as though they are not worth every bit as much as the white man, the ‘native-born’ American, the rich man. The pain that we feel, and suffering we endure now as we have for centuries, has been converted into anger, anger at the oppressors and the system that enables them. That anger has become palpable and has manifested itself in the form of the urban riots that we can all see today. As I am fond of saying, the riot is the language of the unheard.

However, when I look upon these displays of righteous anger, I am reminded that violence begets violence and hate begets hate. There are those right now who seek to turn our plight into something they can lash out against and turn into political points in their sick game of power. They point to our anger and use it as evidence that we are not worthy enough of the rights were are angry about not having had all these years! They tell us to shut up! To stop being angry, to go home and not complain any longer. No, we shall not be silent. The riots may end, but our cause lives on. We will have a Poor People’s Campaign, based on the principle that we will no longer tolerate our pain, our suffering, and our relegation to the lower classes of society any longer. We shall march on the capital of this nation and send those who seek to oppress us a message…”

The Poor People’s Campaign got a permit from the city of Washington to build a tent shantytown, later known as the “Poor People’s City,” (or, among the supporters of certain conservative Presidential candidates wishing to write off the movement as communistic, "The Proletariat's City") on the National Mall. On July 1, 1968, after the City had been built, 3,000 poor people from all around the country arrived in D.C. and started “occupying” the nation’s capital. It was a peaceful protest, and while security was obviously high, there was only one incident of police brutality, a notable shift from the riots of just months earlier. The poor people who came to live in the City on the Mall marched around D.C.; gave and listened to speeches from peers, activists, civil rights leaders, and politicians (President Kennedy spoke on July 17th); and generally lived on the National Mall for just over a month. They advocated for an “economic Bill of Rights,” which Kennedy, in his speech, half-endorsed; he saw that as the logical extension of the New Frontier beyond his time in office, but was not in favor of an actual Constitutional Amendment guaranteeing employment. Kennedy advocated for achieving the same goals through legislation, then lamented Congress for hindering his action on the issues that mattered to the poor.

After 36 days, the “occupation” ended. The Poor People’s Campaign had garnered the attention of the nation for over a month, and came to be seen as, generally, a success. However, the memories of the riots across the country had seared itself into the minds of the American people, which caused anger among some white people and galvanized conservatives in both parties, after already being victorious in the 1966 midterms, and ahead of the 1968 presidential election.

[Cold War Liberal]

How does Bobby’s justice department do with the Mob?

He remained aggressively anti-Mafia, but due to the large influx of civil rights cases and the DOJ being tasked with enforcing the CRA, Bobby wasn't hugely successful in actually, successfully fighting them.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Can’t wait to see how the ‘68 campaign shakes up!

[Cold War Liberal]

Can’t wait to see how the ‘68 campaign shakes up!

I'm writing it right now (as part of Chapter 2). The real life 1968 election is one that is extremely fascinating to me, partially because of the chaos; this timeline's '68 is at least as chaotic as the IRL election, if not more, just in a different way.

*Cackles to myself*

[MillennialModerate]

I’m just hoping 6 people in particular play a big role in your TL

Bobby Kennedy
Teddy Kennedy
JFK Jr (in the years of 95-2030)
George Smathers
Ronald Reagan
Lloyd Bentsen

[America Needs R'hllor]

Can’t wait to see how the ‘68 campaign shakes up!

[Cold War Liberal]

Foreign Affairs and the Space Race
January 1967 - January 1969

Faced with a Congress less willing to work with him on domestic issues, President Kennedy focused much of his attention on foreign policy in the second half of his second term. During that time, there were several monumental events, the overarching theme of which was the general, gradual easing of tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union.

One such major event of this time period was the Third Arab-Israeli War, between Israel and its neighbors Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. Tensions between Israel and her neighbors were already high before the war, but throughout 1967 they only worsened. Finally, after several months of skirmishes and antagonization, Egypt announced that the Straits of Tiran, key to Israeli shipping, would be closed. Israel immediately declared war. They had been strategizing for a potential war for months, expecting to catch Egypt off guard with a preemptive strike; however, Soviet intelligence had tipped off the Egyptian government about the Israeli war preparations, leading Egypt to prepare themselves for attack. On June the 5th, Israel attempted to attack various Egyptian Air Force bases, hoping to gain air supremacy; however, Egypt anticipated this, and aerial warfare ensued. The respective countries’ navies and ground forces later got involved. The bloody war dragged on for months. Finally, in January of 1968, President Kennedy and Secretary Brezhnev phoned each other and decided to attempt to find a diplomatic solution to the war. Kennedy met with Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, while Brezhnev met with Egyptian President Nasser. After some persuasion from the leaders of the superpowers, Israel agreed to cede any land they had taken from Egypt, while Egypt agreed to reopen the Straits of Tiran. Working together helped ease some of the tension between the US and USSR; additionally, bonds between Israel and the US, and Egypt and the USSR, strengthened as well.

In early March of 1968, President Kennedy invited Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin to Glassboro College in New Jersey to discuss the recent war in the Middle East, the joint US-Soviet space program, and possible future collaboration opportunities. Whether anything of any substance came out of the three-day Glassboro summit is debatable, but tensions between the two global superpowers were at an all-time low. However, not everyone in the US was thrilled with the level of relative coziness between the President and the Soviet government; conservatives were outraged, which played a role in the 1968 Presidential election.

The United States continued to send military advisers to Vietnam to train South Vietnamese troops. Both the North and South Vietnamese militaries were in something of a stalemate, and neither gained much ground in the second half of the 1960’s.

Two major events surrounding space exploration happened in the second part of Kennedy’s second term as well. The first was the Outer Space Treaty, which prevented signatories from using the moon or the space around Earth for anything other than “peaceful purposes,” explicitly banning nations from putting weapons of mass destruction in outer space. It also banned its signatories from claiming land on the moon or other celestial bodies. The United States signed the treaty on January 27, 1967, and it went into effect in October of that year.

The other major event in space exploration was the launch of the joint US-Soviet space program’s Prometheus 8 spacecraft, which sent four people to the moon (two Soviet cosmonauts and two American astronauts). Named for the Titan that, according to Greek mythology, gave humanity the fire of innovation, Prometheus 8 launched on June 3rd, 1967, and landed on June 7th. Several hours after landing, American astronaut John Glenn and Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova exited the lunar lander and became the first people to step foot on the moon. Locked arm in arm, side by side, they took that first step simultaneously, though video footage would suggest that Tereshkova’s foot hit the surface a split second before Glenn’s, technically making her the first human to step on a celestial body other than Earth. Glenn and Tereshkova gave a message (in English and Russian, respectively) to the watching world: “while this step is a small one for an individual man, it is a gigantic one for all humanity”

John Glenn on the moon, as photographed by Valentina Tereshkova

The moon landing was the crowning achievement of the joint space program, and perhaps the all-time high point of US-Soviet relations in general. The three men (and one woman) who went to the moon came back and received more than a hero’s welcome all across the world, meeting with world leaders and participating in parades. However, while conservatives were proud of the mission like most other humans, they generally didn’t think of it as being necessary, and had opposed its high cost. Furthermore, they were horrified at what they felt was the world, and, specifically, their President going “soft on the evils of creeping Communism,” as 1968 Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater put it in a speech on the topic. While the mission and the improved relationship with the Soviets kept the American people physically safe from the threat of nuclear war, it did not make Kennedy or liberals any safer politically.

[Cold War Liberal]

Anything I missed that you'd like to know about? The next post will be President Kennedy reflecting upon his administration and thinking about the 1968 election, as a kind of epilogue and preview of the next chapter.

I'll give y'all a day or two to ask questions, then I'll answer any and post that last post. Then I'll keep writing chapter 2, which I will post the first part of in a week or two (we'll see, I want to get ahead a little in writing so I won't get bogged down during my last few weeks of the college semester and the start of finals).

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

Wow, Kennedy and Khrushchev put a woman on the Moon!

[America Needs R'hllor]

Wow ok that's a problematic turn of events for Israel, although in thr late term it might be better if we didn't take Gaza/the West Bank. The only problem I have with it is that Jerusalem should absolutely be Israeli, so I stil cannot support any peace agreement that wouldn't include ceding at least the entire Western Jerusalem and Jewish parts of the east (like, y'know... My university campus, Mount Scopus). Until then, I'd be supportive of Israeli offensives to secure Jerusalem. Do you have any future plans about the fate of this city?

[Cold War Liberal]

Wow ok that's a problematic turn of events for Israel, although in thr late term it might be better if we didn't take Gaza/the West Bank. The only problem I have with it is that Jerusalem should absolutely be Israeli, so I stil cannot support any peace agreement that wouldn't include ceding at least the entire Western Jerusalem and Jewish parts of the east (like, y'know... My university campus, Mount Scopus). Until then, I'd be supportive of Israeli offensives to secure Jerusalem. Do you have any future plans about the fate of this city?

This will be covered in more detail in Chapter 2.

[Cold War Liberal]

January 20, 1968
Jack

In a year, I’ll be leaving office, Jack thought.

He ran through his achievements in his mind. Equal pay legislation. A nuclear war averted. Civil rights legislation signed into law. Social Security benefits increased. Government health insurance for the old and the poor. Poverty nearly halved since 1960. A diplomatic solution to the Arab-Israeli War. A man on the moon. Reduced tensions with the USSR. By any measure, his had been a wildly successful Presidency.

And yet…

He’d had failures too. The Bay of Pigs, obviously. Jack also still regretted that he wasn’t able to get an education bill passed. And that he’d only achieved half of his housing agenda. And that he couldn’t ensure voting rights for all Americans.

That’s why my successor must share my vision for America, he thought. They must finish what I started.

So far, the 1968 race was shaping up to be… a bit of a mess. Vice President Udall announced his campaign a few months ago. Jack liked Mo personally, but he’d been of no real help at all with regard to getting any bills through Congress. Nelson Rockefeller was a much bigger help when it came to getting the Civil Rights Act passed than Udall had been. Then there was George Wallace, who was also running (and doing fairly well). Anybody was better than Wallace. Conservatism was all the rage in both parties, it seemed, a backlash against the progressive reforms of the Kennedy Administration. Udall was committed to continuing the progress, while Wallace wanted to return to segregation and the 1940’s and 50’s, even if he supported some more liberal economic policies outside of civil rights. And then there was George McGovern, who was attacking Udall (and, by proxy, Jack) from the left. McGovern was a bit too radical for Jack’s liking. He wasn’t exactly Mao, but he was probably unpalatable to the majority of the American public. Jack resolved to let the primaries play themselves out and endorse whoever came out on top at the convention.

The Republicans were having something of the same ideological fight, though liberals in the party, despite (or perhaps due to) nominating Rockefeller in 1964, were diminished compared to conservatives. Rockefeller had endorsed George Romney, even though his own ex-running mate, Maggie Smith, was running too. Then there was Richard Nixon in the middle, promising to bring back the days of Ike. He had fallen out of favor with conservatives and liberals alike after his failed stunt at the 1964 Republican convention; conservatives say he stole the nomination from Goldwater, while liberals say he hurt Rockefeller enough to cost them the election. And then there was Barry. The Arizona Senator, fueled by rage against the party establishment, was the clear favorite for the nomination. Nixon could beat him, but it’d be hard. Jack was Barry’s friend, but a Goldwater Administration would be horrible for Jack’s legacy.

Jack sighed. None of this was ideal, but no matter who won out, he’d do his best to ensure a smooth transition, then do his best to preserve his legacy. Maybe he wouldn’t be fighting for it; in just eight years, the youthful vigor Senator Kennedy had shown on the campaign trail in 1960 was completely gone. The Jack’s back was in constant pain; his Addison’s disease notably worse. He rarely met with the public anymore, despite how much he loved doing so; instead, he mostly made addresses to the nation via television, where he could sit and where makeup could mask the true extent of his health failings. He was merely 50, but he could feel that he would be lucky to make it to 60, or even 55. The American people had no idea how bad it was, but they were vaguely aware that something was wrong with their President. Jack had, successfully, intended to keep that awareness vague.

Yes, his two terms had been good ones. History books would probably rank him in the top 20 Presidents, perhaps even among the top 10. Jack took solace in this fact.

The next President, regardless of who he - or she? - may be, must share my vision for America, he thought again. Only time would tell...

TO BE CONTINUED
IN…

A Different Path, Chapter 2:
Vice, Virtue, and Independence