By a Fluke of the Gods: Cox Defeats Harding

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 3-10-1970
Event Description: Senate Minority leader Johnson is able to successfully place an amendment to the Udall-McGovern Energy Research Act which opens acres of land in Texas, Alaska and California to new oil drilling. President Nixon, realizing that the immediate oil crisis situation calls for such amending, allows Johnson’s ploy.

Event Date: 3-21-1970
Event Description: As a part of his energy conservation program, President Nixon signs the Earth Day Act. Introduced by Representative Paul McCloskey, Earth Day (April 5th) will be a national holiday where people will reflect on their own environmental awareness. “I hope that this day schools, government agencies and individual families will try to do more to make our world last longer,” President Nixon declares as he signs the bill.

Event Date: 3-30-1970
Event Description: The Udall-McGovern Energy Research Act is passed by Congress by wide margins. The Johnson Amendment persuaded enough Western and Southern Democrats to vote for the bill. President Nixon signs the act in a special Rose Garden ceremony. “Today our nation has thrown its hat into the ring of energy innovation,” President Nixon says flanked Udall and McGovern, “This is a fight that we will win, not just for the USA, but for the entire world.”

Event Date: 4-01-1970
Event Description: Prince Zeid ibn Huseyin of Iraq is assassinated by a CIA operative while at his spring home in Tikrit. Colonel Saddam Hussein is installed as the new pro-American leader of Iraq. President Nixon and President Hussein will agree to a free trade agreement between the two nations. The primary reason for this deal will be for the USA to get cheaper gas from Iraq, a non-OPEC member.

Event Date: 4-20-1970
Event Description: Shanghai explodes in the largest terrorist attack in Chinese history. Members of the Revolutionary Guard hijack a commuter train and ram it into an oil refinery. The explosion kills 6,000 people, with the flying debris injuring over 10,000 people. Shanghai is officially out of control, and General Harkins calls on Secretary Eisenhower and President Nixon to work out a plan to secure the chaotic city. Eisenhower gets to work on a “surge” of troops in Shanghai and throughout the Yangtze River Delta, a hotbed of rebel activity.

Event Date: 5-09-1970
Event Description: The United States and Russia begin work on the International Space Center. At the formal ceremony in St. Petersburg, Presidents Nixon and Kryuchkov drink a ceremonial bottle of Champaign, something the Russian leader finds disgusting. “I guess you can only give these conservative Russians hard vodka,” Secretary of State Kissinger tells Nixon, “Anything else seems too progressive for them.” “I’ve never liked the taste of liberalism either, Henry,” chief aid Pat Buchanan responds.

Event Date: 5-15-1970
Event Description: Under the orders of Secretary of Defense Eisenhower and an executive order by President Nixon, over 200,000 American troops are moved from the Phillip ones, Japan, Tibet and central China to Shanghai and surrounding areas of Northeastern China. This move is attacked by many in Congress as unconstitutional. “The White House has no rights to move stationed troops without the authority of Congress!” booms enraged House Minority Leader Carl Albert. President Nixon doesn’t much care about the attacks from the Democrats, and even some Republicans. “I’ll act,” Nixon tells the press, quoting Theodore Roosevelt, “And let Congress debate.” Nixon and Eisenhower’s “Surge Strategy” will be scrutinized

Event Date: 6-11-1970
Event Description: Former Russian President Alexander Kerensky dies at the age of 94. The man whom led Russia not once but twice is laid to rest in the Kremlin.

Event Date: 6-24-1970
Event Description: Oilman and former congressman Lloyd Bentsen wins the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate over incumbent Senator Ralph Yarborough. Senate Minority Leader Lyndon Johnson had made an extensive tour of Texas for Senator Yarborough, but to no avail. The luster of “Landslide Lyndon” is wearing off on the Lone Star State. Senator Johnson, with the urging of his wife Lady Bird, begins to seriously consider not seeking fifth term in 1972. Bentsen’s hapless Republican opponent is attorney and former Nixon Administration aid Leon Jaworski.

Event Date: 7-03-1970
Event Description: McReynolds v. United States is accepted by the United States Supreme Court. Earl Warren accepts the role of David McReynold’s lawyer once again. “We will make the First Amendment worth something once again!” Warren assures the press as he and McReynolds walk from the Supreme Court building.

Event Date: 7-20-1970
Event Description: Chancellor Heck announces that the Luna II will be ready for a Moon launch by spring 1972. “Germany will once again be a player in the realm of space,” Chancellor Heck declares in a speech to the Reichstag.

Event Date: 7-23-1970
Event Description: Sultan Said bin Taimur is overthrown by his own son, Prince Qaboos bin Sa’id. Sultan Qaboos the Younger, as his people will refer to him is installed in a CIA backed coup. CIA Director James R. Schlesinger, the brother of famed historian Arthur Schlesinger, tells President Nixon that night over the telephone, “We have successfully managed to take out an OPEC power. I see further successes possible if we have the support of the White House.” President Nixon assures Schlesinger that he will support any attempts to give pro-American leaders to oil rich countries.

Event Date: 7-30-1970
Event Description: Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, new writers for the Washington Post, are assigned to cover the Nixon White House by the paper’s editors. Neither of them like President Nixon very much, but realize that they will have to do this job in order to rise up the ranks at the newspaper. Little do they know that their work will lead them to a major political secret, known only by Nixon and the CIA.

Event Date: 8-05-1970
Event Description: Venezuelan President Rafael Caldera, a Socialist, signs a trade agreement with President Nixon. He was afraid that he was the next target of the string of assassinations connected to oil rich countries. He is also a socialist, something that makes him even more of a target for assassination.

Event Date: 8-12-1970
Event Description: In a ceremony at the US Embassy in Moscow, General Creighton Abrams is awarded the Order of Lenin. General Abrams kept the city of Volgograd safe during the crucial months of the Russo-Chinese War.

Event Date: 8-19-1970
Event Description: Home on a ten-day leave from his flight instructor's duties at Nellis Air Force Base, George Walker Bush attends a fundraiser sponsored by the Dallas chapter of the American Legion's Russo-Chinese War veterans' assistance bureau. Captain Bush makes the acquaintance of local librarian Laura Lane Welch. The two will date and become very close during the next few months.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 8-26-1970
Event Description: CIA agent Porter Goss meets with Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, telling them that it is an interview because he is being considered for the position of Undersecretary of Defense. However, Goss spills the beans on the recent assassinations in the Middle East. “Nixon and Schlesinger are behind them,” Goss tells them, “They think that they can get away with killing world leaders, they don’t even cringe when they order another kill,” Goss tells the reporters. The three men agree to put together a tell all report on the Nixon-CIA political assassinations.

Event Date: 9-01-1970
Event Description: “The sh**t just hit the fan,” Pat Buchanan greets President Nixon with this morning. He throws a copy of The Washington Post on his desk. “’Nixon-CIA cover order assassinations,’” President Nixon reads, “What’s this tripe?” “That’s the truth, Mr., President!” Buchanan snaps, “And you know it.” Within hours the world community responds to the article with mixed reactions. Russian President Vladimir Kryuchkov applauds Nixon for defending the world from, “Oil monopolists and socialists.” However, most of the world community and the US public respond with disgust. Prime Minster Edward Heath of the United Kingdom condemns Nixon’s, “Stone aged barbarism.” On Capitol Hill, Republicans respond against their own president in harsh terms. “I have stood by President Nixon 100%,” Senator Eugene McCarthy (Republican of Minnesota) declares on the Senate floor, “This can not be the truth when it comes to murder for oil.” The Senate is expected to start an investigation into President Nixon’s CIA operations. “They’re a bunch of ungrateful jackasses,” Nixon grumbles to his wife Pat.

Event Date: 9-10-1970
Event Description: Senator Hugh Scott (Republican of Pennsylvania) assumes the Chairmanship of the Committee to Investigate the CIA. This committee doesn’t intend to release any findings before the 1970 Midterm Elections, but is there to simply make it appear as if something is being done about President Nixon’s recent scandal. “We will probe into this matter all the way,” Senator Scott tells the press, “Even if it goes as deep as the President himself.”

Event Date: 9-12-1970
Event Description: Trying to take news coverage off of the newly formed Committee to Investigate the CIA, President Nixon leads the United States as it and the Soviet Union sign the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT), a nuclear weapons reduction pact under which the two signatories agree to drastically scale back the total number of warheads in their respective arsenals over the next five years.

Event Date: 9-20-1970
Event Description: In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court rules in favor of David McReynolds in McReynolds v. United States. “No political party can be outlawed in the United States, even during a time of war,” Associate Justice William Brennan writes in the majority opinion, “The First Amendment applies at all times.” McReynolds is released from prison, as are his Socialist comrades across the nation. “Wherever tyranny reins,” Earl Warren tells the press after his victory, “There will be a faithful resistance.” Warren, who is suffering from prostrate cancer, hopes he can now retire to his home in Los Angeles. Whether history will allow him to do so is not certain. 

Event Date: 9-30-1970
Event Description: Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a former associate of Charles Manson, crashes a stolen Ford van loaded with explosives into the Cox Federal Building in Canton, Ohio. 125 people are killed and 791 are injured in the worst terrorist attack in United States history. In a recording found on her body, Fromme declares she did this act to protest, “The racist, imperialist pigs serving Nixon and his murdering cohorts.”

Event Date: 10-03-1970
Event Description: Nervousness over the revelation of the Nixon Assassinations leads Wall Street to plummet once again, this time the Dow Industrial Average tumbles 68-points. Though not as awful as the crash earlier this year, this recent economic downturn can not bode well for the GOP in November.

Event Date: 10-22-1970
Event Description: President Richard Nixon fires CIA Director Schlesinger and nominates General Alexander Haige for the position. This is a miscalculation for Nixon. Within hours it is revealed that Haige played a major role in the overthrow of the Dominican government in 1965. Nixon withdraws Haige’s nomination before 48-hours are out.

Event Date: 10-25-1970
Event Description: In response of the Haige nomination fiasco, President Nixon calls his top officials to the Oval Office for a strategy meeting.  “Someone’s leaking this information to those Jews at the Post!” President Nixon screams in the Oval Office, “I want them stopped! I want them stopped! I want-.” The president stops, clenches his heart and collapses to the floor. Pat Buchanan runs over to Nixon and yells, “Somebody call an ambulance!” President Nixon is brought to Walter Reed Army Medical Center for emergency care. The president had suffered a massive heart attack, but will recover. “Its hard to be President of the United States,” Ronald Reagan says that night on the NBC Nightly News, “The job requires a god, but all we can offer to it are mere mortals.”

Event Date: 10-20-1970
Event Description: President Nixon returns to the White House, limping and on a cane. Ronald Reagan will joke that as soon as Pat Buchanan saw President Nixon he said, “Welcome back Mr. President, race you to the top of the stairs.” In seriousness, Nixon is even angrier at the press and the agent who leaked CIA information to the press. Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman forms “The Plumbers” to stop “leaks to the press.” Such figures as G. Gordon Liddy and Howard Hunt are assigned to, “Screw our political enemies and discredit our media critics.”

Event Date: 11-07-1970
Event Description: The Democratic Party wins a large victory in the Midterm Elections. The American people vote against the souring economy and recent political scandals in the CIA. The Democrats pick-up nine seats in the Senate and retake the House of Representatives for the first time since 1963. In Texas, Lloyd Bentsen easily defeats Republican Leon Jaworski by a 64-36% margin despite President Nixon making several visits to the state to support the Republican prosecutor. In Connecticut, Senator Tom Dodd, the last of the liberal eastern Democrats, is reelected by 2,000 votes over Representative Lowell P. Weicker. Immediately Draft Dodd for President Organizations spring up across the Northeast and Midwest.

Event Date: 11-09-1970
Event Description: Vice-President Margaret Chase-Smith announces that she will not seek the Republican presidential nomination in 1972. “I am too old and too tired to think about being the leader of the free world,” Vice-President Chase-Smith tells the press, “That’s that.” Potential Republican presidential contenders in 1972 include Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York, Senator Charles Percy of Illinois, Senator George Bush of Connecticut, and former Governor Nile Kinnick of Iowa. The Democratic bench consists of Senator Thomas Dodd of Connecticut, Governor George Wallace of Alabama, Congressman John Ashebrooke of Ohio and FBI Director Robert F. Kennedy

Event Date: 11-20-1970
Event Descriptions: The first Draft Ford for President Organization opens in Battle Creek, Michigan. The outgoing Speaker of the House has no intentions of running for president. He is planning on retiring from public office in 1972 to make money as an attorney.

Event Date: 11-29-1970
Event Description: President Nixon nominates Leon Jaworski for CIA Director. This nomination pleases the Republican controlled Congress and he will be easily confirmed.

Event Date: 12-31-1970
Event Description: On New Years Eve while he is out at a New Years Eve party, the Plumbers break into the apartment of Carl Bernstein. Trying to discredit him, they find records of drunken driving accidents in a filing cabinet in his bedroom. “Is this the best he has?” Gordon Liddy asks. “It looks like it,” Howard Hunt responds. The group of four men vandalizes the home and escape into the night. Before they leave, however, Bernstein’s phones are tapped. “Everything I learned about espionage,” Liddy chuckles, “I learned from Bobby Kennedy.”       

[Captain Chaos]

This TL RFK is definitely not the compassionate Great Society Bobby Kennedy of OTL.

So the Democrats ITTL have their most loyal supporters from Irish-Roman Catholics and Southerners, and the GOP has the solid support of blacks, hispanics, Jews and Yankee (upper New England) Protestants. And the midwest appears to be the swing region.

Keep up the great work. I am looking forward to 1971-1972 and the next Presidential election.

[Хahar 🤔]

Presidents Nixon and Kryuchkov drink a ceremonial bottle of Champaign.

Champagne.

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.

Four?

[PBrunsel]

Thank you everyone for the comments. 1972 will have wide open races, which isn't really very odd in this timeline. In fact, I can only think of 1964 where and incumbent Vice-President (in this timeline) sought their party's nomination.

P.S. Oh come on Xahar. I feel like I'm in in stinking English class. This isn't going up for a grade. If it was I'd probably get an "F" for not following the formal way of writing a story.

[Хahar 🤔]

Thank you everyone for the comments. 1972 will have wide open races, which isn't really very odd in this timeline. In fact, I can only think of 1964 where and incumbent Vice-President (in this timeline) sought their party's nomination.

P.S. Oh come on Xahar. I feel like I'm in in stinking English class. This isn't going up for a grade. If it was I'd probably get an "F" for not following the formal way of writing a story.

Sorry, but it's hard to resist.

[PBrunsel]

That's cool Xahar. I find it hard to resist when someone screws up an historic date or soemthing like that. In fact, once a friend of mine told me, "Damn it Paul. I'm not in fricken hisotry class." Since then I've tried to keep it on a down low, but the temptation is always there.

[Robespierre's Jaw]

Great Update Paul . As always.

It's a shame Vice President Chase Smith declined to run for the Presidency in 1972 in this TL. She would have been a good President. Though saying this I hope that Rocky gets the nomination and wins the Presidency. Preferably against George Wallace.

Will Ronald Reagan run for public office soon?

[PBrunsel]

I'll try to have 1971 and 1972 up by the end of the week. I have two not-so-expected nominees for both parties.

Rocky,

Reagan will never run for elected office. In this timeline, he's quite happy with his daily political radio talk show (The Voice of America) and anchoring the NBC Nightly News. He will be pressured to run for the Democratic presidential nomination in several election years, but never run.

The people I really don't know what to do about are the Kennedys. Ted Kennedy is currently an attorney and law professor, Bobby is the hard-boiled CIA Director, John is married to Marilyn Monroe and teaching political science at Columbia University and Joe, Jr., is a retired President. The Kennedys are just sitting around right now, but I think I might just throw them back into the political arena before this timeline is done.   

[Captain Chaos]

BUMP

[PBrunsel]

I hope to have 1971 up by tonight. My schedule has been brutal this week so I am behind in updates to the old timeline.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-05-1971
Event Description: The new Congress convenes and elects the new party leaders. The Democrats, now in control of the House of Representatives, escalate Carl Albert (Democrat of Oklahoma) to Speaker of the House. After a brutal race for House Majority leader between John Ashbrook (Democrat of Ohio) and Hale Boggs (Democrat of Louisiana), Congressman Boggs emerges as the winner after securing support from many Western Democrats. Gerald Ford (Republican of Michigan) does not run for Minority Leader since he is planning on retiring in 1972. Fellow Michigan Republican Malcolm Little wins the spot after edging out John Anderson (Republican of Illinois). IN the Senate, incumbent Senate Majority Leader Hubert Humphrey is retained, despite being challenged by Jack Miller (Republican of Iowa), who claimed that he was better fit for the job since he had been, “A Republican since I was a boy.”       

Event Date: 1-12-1971
Event Description: The Committee to Investigate the CIA begins hearings on Capitol Hill. The committee will interview CIA higher-ups for the entire year. The committees first witness id former Director James Schlesinger, who takes responsibility for the assassinations, keeping the White House out of the mess. “I acted alone,” Schlesinger confesses, “My actions in the Middle East were brought about only by my love of this country and a want for a better future.” At the White House Pat Buchanan tells President Nixon, “Schlesinger is a good patsy. I think we may just get away with everything.” “No,” Nixon tells Buchanan, “We’re still in hot water. Pat, you better get the boys out on Goss.” Porter Goss, the CIA agent who confessed to Woodward and Bernstein about the CIA assassinations, is expected to be the “star witness” for the committee.

Event Date: 1-18-1971
Event Description: Socialist Party President Kazimierz Switala is defeated for reelection in the Polish presidential election by Solidarity Party candidate Lech Wałęsa. Lech Wałęsa’s party is not right-winged; in fact it represents the impoverished industrial workers of Poland. President-elect Wałęsa promises more workers’ rights, but also protection for small business from an overtaxing government.

Event Date: 1-30-1971
Event Description: Senator Miler announces that he and the Chinese government have made a deal to bring home all known American POW/MIAs by 1974. Harry Truman travels to Peking to oversee their return. Truman will find out that many agreements with China were secret, under the table deals. “If we didn’t have these secret deals then maybe these boys wouldn’t be coming home,” Truman confines to his diary that night, “But we’ve had to work with mobsters, terrorists and other lowlifes to get these boys back. I wonder if Jack did right. All I know is that I’m getting to old for this sh**t.”

Event Date: 2-01-1971
Event Description: The Toronto Pact begins withdrawal from China, despite the protests of President Nixon. The city of Shanghai has been claming down since the surge of US troops, but President Nixon refuses to go it alone in China’s reconstruction. Nixon is outvoted by the coalition members, forcing him it face reality. Once again he will not have a balanced budget due to Chinese reconstruction.

Event Date: 2-19-1971
Event Description: Congressman John Ashbrook introduces the Ashbrook Tax Act. This act expands the Kennedy Tax Cuts even further. “Our economy is in its worse shape since the 1930s,” Congressman Ashbrooke tells his colleagues on the House floor, “This tax relief is necessary to grow our economy.” House Minority Leader Malcolm Little cries foul. “This is just a publicity stunt for Mr. Ashbrooke!” booms Congressman Little on the House floor, “He wants the Oval Office, so he needs the rich people. He doesn’t care that these tax cuts will bankrupt our nation’s treasury and leave millions without basic human necessities! No! He only cares about making the money men happy.” The Republicans don’t know how to respond to this type of inflammatory language. Congressman Udall breaks the silence by giving the Minority Leader a standing ovation. “God people,” Udall says, “Someone had to say it. We were all thinking it.”

Event Date: 2-23-1971
Event Description: The House passes the Ashbrook Tax Act. The Buckeye Democrat declares that he has defeated, “The attempted class warfare of Mr. Little.” House Minority Leader Little declares that he has not yet begun to fight, but for now Ashbrook’s tax act looks likely to enter law.

Event Date: 3-09-1971
Event Description: The Plumbers break into CIA agent Port Goss’ Washington, D.C., office hoping to find something to discredit him. However, there is nothing. “No doctor visits, no mistresses, not even any traffic tickets!” G. Gordon Liddy complains, “This is like trying to smear June Cleaver.” With nothing to shut him up with in the scandal department, the Plumbers decide to take drastic action.

Event Date: 3-12-1971
Event Description: In one of the latest snow storms in Washington, D.C., history, CIA agent Porter Goss is driving to his home in the Alexandria suburbs when an out of control car slams into Goss’ vehicle at 90 MPH. Goss is rushed to George Washington Hospital in D.C., but the driver of the other vehicle, Eugenio Martínez, is killed upon impact. After several hours of intensive care, Goss dies the next morning from internal bleeding. This tragedy has left a widow, an orphan and the Committee to Investigate the CIA without its star witness. Woodward and Bernstein are sure that some dirty tricks from the president’s men lead to the death of Mr. Goss.

Event Date: 3-20-1971
Event Description: Howard Hughes’ personal assistant John H. Meier meets with Woodward and Bernstein at the Capitol Estate, the restaurant of the Willard’s Hotel. Meier volunteers to investigate the death of Porter Goss. “I hate Dick Nixon, boys,” Meier tells them bluntly, “I want him out of the White House and behind bars. I wouldn’t trust Nixon any further than I could throw him.” The two reporters agree to this deal, thus starting the investigation into the mysterious death of Mr. Goss.

Event Date: 4-01-1971
Event Description: Attorney General Alexander Butterfield testifies before the Committee to Investigate the CIA. “Mr. Attorney General,” Senator Sam Ervin (Democrat of North Carolina) asks, “Did you know if any presidential aids had anything to do with the CIA assassinations?” “Yes I do,” responds Butterfield, “Chief of Staff Haldeman and chief aid Pat Buchanan. They both had direct interaction with Director Schlesinger and realized what was going on.” The White House, for the first time, has been tied to the assassinations.   

Event Date: 4-13-1971
Event Description: The last remnants of the Revolutionary Guard are rounded up in Shanghai. The surge of troops and the general dislike of the chaos of revolution by the cities denizens have led to the once rebellious city becoming peaceful. Industry and commerce are slowly returning to the Yangtze River Delta, which was the primary reason for the surge. “We can now declare victory over the last remnants of resistance in China,” President Nixon tells the nation in a televised address, “The forces of the enemy have been defeated.” Nixon needs some good news since witnesses before the Committee to Investigate the CIA have begun to tie recent political assassinations and coups to the White House.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 4-20-1971
Event Description: Retired General Curtis LeMay announces his candidacy for the Constitution Party nomination for president in 1972. “The Nixon Administration has coddled socialist elements for too long,” “Old Ironpants” LeMay declares in his announcement, “Only the Constitution Party can save this nation and world from the left-winged radical movement.” Former Congressman John Schmitz has already announced his second bid for the presidency.

Event Date: 4-22-1971
Event Description: The last Japanese ground troops are brought home from China. The Japanese Diet had decided that their presence was no longer necessary as China had begun to normalize their economic and security situation.

Event Date: 4-30-1971
Event Description: NBC News White House correspondent and University of South Dakota graduate Tom Brokaw receives a Peabody award for his profiles of Presidents Nixon and Andropov during Christmas 1969. At just 31 years of age, Brokaw is the youngest journalist in television history to be accorded this honor. Ronald Reagan, who had won the award in 1965, tells his wife Nancy, “I better watch out for Brokaw. He might just end up replacing me!”

Event Date: 5-09-1971
Event Description: Vice-President Margaret Chase-Smith testifies before the Committee to Investigate the CIA, despite President Nixon telling her she should not under any circumstances. Vice-President Chase-Smith tells the committee that she knows that Attorney General Alexander Butterfield is telling the truth that Buchanan and Haldeman are behind the CIA assassinations. “It could go even deeper,” the Vice-President says, “But not as deep as President Nixon. I know Richard, and he’s a man of the law. He’s a former prosecutor and good man. No one cares more about the law than President Nixon.” With the backing of the popular and respected Vice-President, President Nixon appears to have gotten away with everything.

Event Date: 5-16-1971
Event Description: Bill Clinton, a Southern Republican, and Hillary Rodham, a conservative Illinois Democrat, meet at the library at Yale Law School in New Haven, Connecticut. Bill says he'd like to teach law school someday, but is not sure he can ever be elected in his native Arkansas because of his ties to the Party of Lincoln. Hillary says she'd like to become a hard boiled prosecutor and become Governor of Illinois. “Although,” she tells Bill, “I wouldn’t mind being like Bobby Kennedy, busting heads for Richard Nixon.”

Event Date: 7-25-1971
Event Description: A full year earlier than expected, Germany lands the Mond V, with three astronauts, on the Moon. Chancellor Heck tells his people that night, “The Space Race has begun again, but we will not lose again. Germany will take its’ prestige to the stars and beyond.” That night, Bishop Joseph Alois Ratzinger prays a blessing over the astronauts and the entire nation of Germany.

Event Date: 8-01-1971
Event Description: New York real estate developer Fred C. Trump begins buying cheap real estate in China. “It’s the new Wild West!” he tells his family, “Except it’s in the far east.” Trump intends to build a Trump Hotel empire in China. Back in the U.S. Trump's son Donald, a recent graduate of Fordham University, begins contacting potential investors in a bid to win their support for the hotel project.

Event Date: 8-10-1971
Event Description: In another plan to stabilize the economy, Congressman Ashbrook introduces the Make Our Currency Valued Act. Despite the fancy name, all this act does is reestablish the gold standard. President Nixon tells the Congressman personally that, “I will veto that thing so fast that the paper starts on fire.” Ashbrook isn’t fazed by the president’s remarks. He introduces the act today, declaring, “Our currency will only be worth something when it’s as good as gold!” House Minority Leader Malcolm Little, upon hearing of the bill calls Ashbrook, “A great thinker of the 17th Century.”

Event Date: 8-22-1971
Event Description: The House of Representatives passes the Make Our Currency Valued Act, known simply as the Ashbrook Gold Act to the media. The Democratic dominated House of Representatives easily passed the act, with Speaker of the House Albert explaining that, “Only strong currency can make our economy strong again.” House Minority Leader Malcolm Little laughs at this statement, declaring that, “The Democrats wouldn’t care what their money was baked up with, just so long as they could take it from the average American.” Some Republicans are growing embarrassed by the over the top antics of Congressman Little.

Event Date: 9-01-1971
Event Description: The Senate does not pass Congressman Ashbrook’s gold standard act. Senator Barry Goldwater, who has sponsored the act in the Senate, has previously said he would resign from office if the act didn’t pass the Senate. “I can not serve a government that would willfully allow its currency to become worthless!” Senator Goldwater had boomed during Senate debate. However, he does not resign, knowing that Republican Governor Jack Williams of Arizona will appoint Phoenix Mayor Raul H. Castro to the seat. “This body doesn’t need another Castro,” Goldwater tells the press. Democratic complaining after the bill is shot down is so great; the aforementioned Senator Fidel Castro declares all the complaints, “The baying of pigs.”

Event Date: 9-05-1971
Event Description: Inspired by the hope of the SALT treaty, Ronald Reagan declares on The Voice of the Nation, “The world should be free from the threat of nuclear weapons. Our children should not have to go to bed wondering if a stray bomb will find its’ way into the wrong hands and set of Armageddon. There should be NO weapons that can destroy all of civilization. As Americans, as lovers of life, we must have a worldwide freeze of all production of nuclear weapons.” Hans Albert Einstein, the son of the famed physicist Albert Einstein who came up with the theory which led to the creation of nuclear weapons, joins with Reagan to start the “Freeze Movement.” This movement will aim to stop the production of nuclear weapons around the globe.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 9-15-1971
Event Description: American ground troops begin coming home from China. Sergeant Bob Kerrey, as he steps from an airplane in San Diego, kisses the floor in joy. The shot of Kerrey kissing the United States is shown in TIME Magazine with the caption, “The taste of liberty is still sweet.”

Event Date: 9-22-1971
Event Description: Former civilian defense analyst Daniel Ellsberg testifies before the Committee to Investigate the CIA. Ellsberg’s work with the Pentagon made him a close aid of Robert Gates, a CIA and Pentagon official. “My work with Colonel Gates brought me into the very deepest of CIA secrets,” Ellsberg testifies, “One of these secrets is that CIA Director Robert Kennedy and President Nixon personally arranged the assassinations of several world leaders, amongst them the King of Iraq.” The Senate chamber explodes upon this allegation. “This is a grave accusation,” Senator Hugh Scott declares, “Do you have any evidence backing this up, Mr. Ellsberg.” “Of course I do!” Ellsberg declares. He reveals 18-minutes of a recording between Chief of Staff Haldeman and Pat Buchanan (Buchanan has had a habit of recording conversations in his office) in which the assassinations are discussed. Buchanan tells Haldeman he is under a lot of pressure, “From higher-ups” to get rid of several troublesome Middle Eastern leaders. “Who are these ‘higher ups’?” wonders Ellsberg, “They have to be the director and the president!” “Where did you get this recording from?” Senator Scott asks. “I may not be the CIA, but I have my resources,” Ellsberg responds. In Monroe, Maryland, private investigator John Meier (who unearthed the tape) waits for the backlash. “Looks like I’ve got Dick Nixon down,” he chuckles to himself. 

Event Date: 9-23-1971
Event Description: With the nations’ papers covering the 18-minute Buchanan-Haldeman recording and calling for the president to fess up, President Nixon responds to Ellsberg’s testimony in a televised address. “Let me make this crystal clear,” President Nixon declares, “Mr. Ellsberg is taking that recording out of context. I had nothing to do with any CIA assassinations. This is the truth, 1,000%.” After his speech, Nixon meets with Chief of Staff Haldeman and chief aide Pat Buchanan. “How could you two be such idiots?” shouts the president. “We didn’t think anyone would ever get their hands on any of our tapes,” Haldeman explains. “Looks like someone did,” Buchanan retorts, “Now we’ve got to find out who it was, and how they got them.” The Plumbers are given this assignment.

Event Date: 10-09-1971
Event Description: Governor Nelson Rockefeller announces his intentions to seek the Republican presidential nomination. “I will return honesty and integrity to the highest office in the land,” Governor Rockefeller declares from the Governor’s Mansion in Albany. President Nixon and Governor Rockefeller have really never gotten along, so a slight insinuation from Rocky that Nixon is involved in the recent CIA Assassination scandal is expected from most Beltway pundits. Governor Rockefeller is not the only Republican seeking the presidency in 1972. Ohio Governor John Rhodes, Michigan Governor George Romney and Representative Paul McCloskey of California have all previously announced their intentions to seek the presidency as well.

Event Date: 10-10-1971
Event Description: Senator George Bush (Republican of Connecticut) announces that he will not seek the presidency in 1972, but instead endorse Governor Rockefeller. “Nelson Rockefeller is what our party is all about,” Senator Bush tells a crowd in Hartford, Connecticut, “He stands for progressive reform, both in the economy and in civil rights. I trust Governor Rockefeller to protect the rights of all Americans and expand these rights even more.” Gallup Polling shows that Rockefeller is tied with Governor Romney for the status of front-runner.

Event Date: 10-22-1971
Event Description: The Committee to Investigate the CIA subpoenas Pat Buchanan and H.R. Haldeman. President Nixon tells them to plead the 5th Amendment, but Buchanan tells Nixon that he will go before the committee, which is set to call for him in January 1972. “I’ve got an ace up my sleeve that no one knows about,” Buchanan assures Nixon.

Event Date: 11-05-1971
Event Description: Congressman John Ashbrook of Ohio announces that he will seek the Democratic nomination for president of the United States. “President Nixon and his cronies have misled our nation for too long!” he booms from City Hall in Akron, Ohio, “As President, I will restore the economy and honor in the presidency to this nation.” Congressman Ashbrook is considered a front-runner for the nomination. His tax cuts and battle for the gold standard have made him a very well known conservative. However, he faces opposition for the nomination from Governor George Wallace of Alabama, Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina and, the most liberal of them all, Senator Thomas J, Dodd of Connecticut. “Poor Tom,” Ronald Reagan says on his radio program, “He’s such an odd man out in the party. I hope he realizes that he’s stepping out of the Eats and into the Democratic Party.”

Event Date: 12-20-1971
Event Description: In what has been described as one of the most heart warming and family friendly classics for the holiday season, Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reid star in “Bedtime for Bonzo.” In the film, Professor Peter Boyd (Stewart) tries to teach a troubled chimpanzee right from wrong with the help of a beautiful nanny, Patricia Court (Reid). The film is a hit, with Ronald Reagan applauding it as, “The best Stewart-Reid film since It’s a Wonderful Life. This funny, yet philosophical, film is destined to be a film classic. Bonzo may well be King Kong one day!”

Event Date: 12-22-1971
Event Description: Preliminary blueprints are drawn up for the proposed Trump Hotel Peking. Donald Trump travels to China to oversee the building’s progression.

Event Date: 12-31-1971
Event Description: On New Years Eve, President Kryuchkov of Russia calls presidential aid Pat Buchanan. “You do know what you’re going to say?” President Kryuchkov asks Buchanan. “Of course I do,” Buchanan assures him, “I’ve cleared it with Nixon and everything. If those folks on the Hill want to know who the ‘higher ups’ are, they’ll find out all right.”     

[HappyWarrior]

Will Joe Biden run for the senate in '72 as he did in RL?  And if so in what party?

[The Hack Hater]

Very good, very good.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-12-1972
Event Description: Chief Presidential Aid Patrick Joseph Buchanan testifies before the Committee to Investigate the CIA, much to the chagrin of President Richard Milhous Nixon. “Mr. Buchanan,” Senator Hugh Scott (Republican of Pennsylvania) asks Buchanan, “Who were the ‘higher ups’ that you referred to on the 18-minuites of White House tapes?” “Mr. Chairman,” Buchanan answers in a nonchalant way, “I was referring to a ‘higher up’ from a foreign land, not Nixon or Kennedy.” “What!” Senator Scott cries, “You took orders from a foreign leader!” “It’s not illegal, Mr. Chairman,” Buchanan reminds Scott, “After all, the honorable President Thomas Dewey did away with loyalty oaths a long time ago.” “Don’t you try to hind behind President Dewey,” interrupts Senator Kenneth Keating (a close friend of the late president). “Mr. Keating,” Buchanan smugly responds, “I am just using the law to defend myself. As a Senator I know you do it all the time.” “Why you little punk,” Senator Keating begins, “I oughta ring-“. “Enough!” Senator Scott intervenes, “Mr. Buchanan, who was this foreign ‘higher up’?” “It was none other than President Vladimir Kryuchkov of Russia!” Buchanan says triumphantly, “He, not President Nixon, ordered the assassinations in the Middle East. Check his records; you’ll see its all true.” “Impossible,” Senator John Stennis (Democrat of Mississippi) declares, “CIA agents were involved in these acts. Are you telling me that a foreign government can control the CIA?” “In a word,” Buchanan concludes, “Yes.” The chamber explodes in confusion, with the press running as fast as they can to phones to send their stories to print. “I guess that got ‘em running,” Buchanan laughs as Senator Scott tries to regain order in the chamber.

Event Date: 1-13-1972
Event Description: With the Buchanan testimony yesterday, President Nixon calls on CIA Director Robert Kennedy to, “Either come clean or resign. We can’t have any whitewash in Washington.” Kennedy responds by telling his wife Ethel, “I’ll take orders from Nixon when hell freezes over. That’ll probably be when he goes down there as well.” Kennedy calls for a press conference to make a statement. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he begins at noon from CIA Headquarters, “It is true that I allowed the CIA to be controlled by a foreign power for a limited time. I felt that I was helping America by allowing more pro-American leaders in strategic nations. Ladies and gentlemen of the press, it worked! Gas prices are on the decline and anti-American propaganda is on the steep decline in the Middle East. Mr. and Mrs. America, did I really do anything to awful?” The press is dumbfounded by this response, a straight up explanation. “No cover-up, no lies and no blackmail?” Ronald Reagan wonders on the Voice of the Nation, “Its guys like Robert Kennedy that make scandal mongering no fun.” With this explanation, the biggest scandal of the Nixon White House seems to have come to a conclusion. No one broke any laws, national or international, so there is no need to pursue the case any further. “Mr. President,” Buchanan tells Nixon that night as they enjoy a drink in the Oval Office, “You really dodged the bullet on that one.” “Pat,” Nixon responds, “I’ve been dodging bullets my whole life. This was just another one, perhaps of a higher caliber, but just another one.”

Event Date: 1-20-1972
Event Description: Representative Shirley Chisholm (Republican of New York) announces her candidacy for President of the United States. “This country has proven over the years that it will accept a black and a woman in elected office,” Chisholm declares from the Harlem neighborhood she was born in, “I feel it is time a woman leads this nation which has given women such opportunities for the future.” With the Iowa Caucus just four days away, Representative Chisholm realizes that she will have trouble in early primaries. Her plan is to sweep the south’s primaries and win at the convention.

Event Date: 1-24-1972
Event Description: Governor George Romney and Congressman John Ashbrook win their respective party contests in the Iowa Caucus. IN the GOP contest, Governor Romney appealed to farmers by promising to support the exploration of corn based alternative fuels. “I’ve run a car company before,” he was fond of telling farming communities, “I realize that made in America cars should run on made in America fuel.” Governor James Rhodes of Ohio takes second place, leading him to drop out of the race and endorse Governor Romney. Governor Nelson Rockefeller takes third, with Representative Paul McCloskey finishing a distant fourth. The Democrats see Congressman Ashbrook winning an upset election victory. He had opposed farm subsidies, but his support of low taxes for small farmers led many to caucus for him. Senator Dodd takes second, with his son Christopher actually living in Iowa for several months campaigning for him. Senator Ervin and Governor Wallace didn’t even contest the caucus.

Event Date: 1-30-1972
Event Description: Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland. The British Army kills 13 unarmed Roman Catholic/Nationalist civil rights marchers in Derry, Northern Ireland. Father Rudolph Hess declares that he will travel to Northern Ireland to care for those wounded in the terrorism by both the British Army and the Irish Republican Army (IRA). He hopes that by showing some kindness and caring in Northern Ireland, cooler heads can prevail and a peaceful coexistence (or perhaps separation) can be made between the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland.

Event Date: 2-05-1972
Event Description: President Richard Nixon announces that he will visit China in March 1972 to work out a trade alliance between the two nations. “We have defeated the anti-American elements in the nation’s oldest empire,” President Nixon declares in a televised address, “It is now time that we open commercial relations with China so that our two nations may continue to prosper.” With the U.S. economy still reeling from the Stock Market slumps last year, many Americans laugh at Nixon’s talk of economic prosperity.

Event Date: 2-20-1972
Event Description: CIA Director Robert F. Kennedy announces that he will resign from office in January 1973. “My family is growing too large for this job,” he confines in a letter of resignation sent to the Washington Star, “I need to return to Boston to sort out my life and begin to make money for my expanding household.” President Nixon will appoint veteran CIA official William Colby to the position of CIA Director, and he will be easily confirmed.

Event Date: 3-07-1972
Event Description: In the New Hampshire Primary, Governor Nelson Rockefeller wins the Republican contest in a tough fight with Governor Romney. Rockefeller, running with the endorsement of Vice-President Chase-Smith, is able to appeal to the mass bloc of Republican women. This wins the day over his tax slashing opponent Governor Romney. On the Democratic side, Senator Dodd uses a home turf advantage to win this New England State. However, he wins it by a little more than 5,000 votes over the far more conservative Congressman Ashbrook. Governor Wallace, campaigning in small towns throughout the Granite State, takes a surprising 18% of the vote. With Florida approaching, Governor Wallace expects an easy win in a Southern state he’s been to repeatedly.

Event Date: 3-14-1972
Event Description: Governor George Wallace, running a populist platform, wins the Florida Primary in a rout. Wallace takes 55% of the vote and all 45 delegates, putting him the lead in the Democratic Primary. Senator Sam Ervin, who receives less than 10% of the vote, drops out of the race and endorses Wallace. Governor Romney wins Florida, appealing to the growing service industry in the state by citing his business skills. “I’ll be the first MBA president,” he told a group of Florida workers at a rally in St. Petersburg, Florida, “Let me assure you, I’ll have the business knowledge to stop this sinking economy.” Governor Rockefeller finishes second place, appealing greatly to Cuban-Americans due to his endorsement by Senator Fidel Castro. Representative Chisholm comes in third due to huge support from the African-American community. Representative Paul McCloskey ends his campaign and endorses Governor Rockefeller, hoping for the Vice-Presidential nod from Rocky.

Event Date: 3-20-1972
Event Description: President Richard Nixon lands in Peking and is greeted by President Deng Yingchao. The two will meet for several days and work out a free trade agreement. As Nixon walks on the Great Wall of China he begins to huff and puff. “What’s the matter, Mr. President?” asks President Yingchao. “Well Madame President,” he responds, “This Great Wall certainly gives you a great walk. The problem is that I haven’t been on a walk since I was a kid in California.”

Event Date: 3-21-1972
Event Description: With the endorsement of Senator Charles Percy (Republican of Illinois), Governor Rockefeller wins the Illinois Primary on the GOP side. This is a blow to the Romney Campaign, as Illinois is seen as a state similar to Michigan. Congressman Ashbrook tops Governor Wallace in Illinois, though Wallace tried to appeal to Chicago suburban and their fear of African-American led crime. “A campaign like that,” Ashbrook had told Ronald Reagan, “Is sickening. No one should ever use racial tensions to win an election. That is hatemongering, plain and simple.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 3-30-1972
Event Description: With defeat in the Illinois Primary, Senator Dodd declares that Wisconsin is his “firewall” state for staying in the race. “I’ll talk money with the people,” Dodd says to the price, “I’ll tell the people of Wisconsin that my economic polices will save their jobs and save their money.” Dodd, who’s been running a campaign based on protectionism and financial security for the Middle Class, expects to do well in Wisconsin, a very Middle Class state. 

Event Date: 4-04-1972
Event Description: In a hard fought battle, Governor Romney defeats Governor Rockefeller in the Wisconsin Primary. Romney had been able to utilize his home turf advantage. Senator Thomas Dodd and Congressman John Ashbrook fought hard for victory in the Dairy State, with Congressman Ashbrook winning the state by fewer than 20,000 votes. With this defeat, Senator Dodd calls his election quits. His son Christopher J. Dodd, who many expect to run for Congress in two years, cries while his father gives his concession address. “I understand why he’s crying,” Ronald Reagan sympathizes on NBC Nightly News, “He’s traveled more miles and lived in more places than anyone I ever know for his dad’s campaign. I think he should be named ‘Son of the Year’.”

Event Date: 4-12-1972
Event Description: Representative Paul McCloskey introduces the Nuclear Freeze Act into the House of Representatives. This act will prohibit the United States from building any further Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM) and putting a moratorium on all other nuclear arms. Representative Thomas J. Turnipseed (Democrat of South Carolina), the Chairman of the House Armed Service Committee, laughs at this act as, “A crazy California dreamer bill.” McCloskey’s Freeze Act will be stalled in Congress with no hope of it seeing debate.

Event Date: 4-20-1972
Event Description: With Reichstag elections approaching in May, Chancellor Heck is forced to sign the SALT Treaty, something he had wanted to avoid. Popular support for the treaty amongst the German people threatened to harm the Conservative Party and give many seats to the Labor Party. Heck refuses to empower his bitter rival, Labor Party leader Hans Scholl and will signs the treaty to simply keep his party from winning any more seats in the Reichstag.

Event Date: 4-22-1972
Event Description: Massachusetts and Pennsylvania cast their ballots in their respective primaries. For the GOP, Governors Rockefeller and Romney continue their game of hit-and-run. Rocky takes Massachusetts while Romney wins Pennsylvania. Governor Romney’s win in the Keystone State is seen as a setback for Rockefeller since he had won Pennsylvania in his 1960 and 1964 runs for president. On the Democratic side, former President Joseph Kennedy had campaigned with Congressman Ashbrook, winning the Buckeye Congressman the Massachusetts Primary. In Pennsylvania, Congressman Ashbrook outpaces Governor Wallace, who had major support from the Unions in the state.

Event Date: 4-30-1972
Event Description: Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, feeling defeated after failing to take down President Nixon, resign from the Washington Post. The two feel that any type of integrity in public service or in journalism is over.

Event Date: 5-02-1972
Event Description: Congressman Ashbrook wins big victories in the Ohio, Indiana and Washington, D.C., Primaries. Governor Wallace had tried to appeal to suburbanites in Indianapolis and Cleveland suburbs with his call for law and order, but he fell short in both Ohio and Indiana. The Republican side gives Governor Romney a lead in delegates by winning Ohio and Indiana. Representative Chisholm wins the D.C. Primary by a wide margin with Governor Rockefeller in second.

Event Date: 5-04-1972
Event Description: Governors Wallace and Romney win the Tennessee Primary. Representative Chisholm finishes third behind Romney and Rockefeller, ending her campaign. Romney’s win is crucial as it shows a Mormon can win in the very conservative south. Governor Wallace and Congressman Ashbrook run a close race, with Wallace winning by a 52-48% margin. Wallace’s narrow win is seen as very underwhelming for a candidate running a completely pro-southern campaign. “Governor Wallace is trying to appear as Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson all rolled into one,” Ronald Reagan comments, “He should do a bit better in the heart of Dixie.”

Event Date: 5-05-1972
Event Description: An Alitalia DC-8 crashes west of Palermo, Sicily. Italian police investigate the crash site and the 113 dead passengers. One of them is Frances Liddy, the wife of G. Gordon Liddy, a close associate of President Richard Nixon. On her person is $200,000. The Italian police report the death, and the money. At the White House, President Nixon is told by Chief of Staff Haldeman about the crash and the money. “What was Liddy’s woman doing with all that cash?” Nixon asks Haldeman. Haldeman confines to President Nixon that this was payment to the Plumbers to keep them quiet on everything they have been ordered to do. Liddy’s wife was picking up the first $200,000 installment from a bank in Berlin, Germany. “We put the cash there so it couldn’t be tracked,” Haldeman says. “So,” Nixon says, “What should we do?” “Nothing,” Haldeman responds, “No one needs to know we had anything to do with the money.” With this, Haldeman leaves the Oval Office.       

Event Date: 5-06-1972
Event Description: The North Carolina Primary is held, with surprising results. Heavy black turnout gives Governor Rockefeller a victory in the state, surprising the Romney campaign. On the Democratic side, Governor Wallace finishes behind Congressman Ashbrook, and in a big way. Ashbrook’s conservative campaign catches on in the growing cities of Charlotte and Raleigh where young professionals are beginning to set up business. Ashbrook also appealed to the tobacco industry by promising to repeal the Dewey-Nixon Sin Taxes. These combined factors led to surprising results: Ashbrook wins 58% of the vote to Wallace’s 40%. This overwhelming defeat in a Southern state seems to all but end Governor Wallace’s campaign. However, stubborn Governor Wallace refuses to withdraw from the race.

Event Date: 5-07-1972
Event Description: Governors Romney and Rockefeller meet for a debate in Omaha, Nebraska. With the Nebraska and West Virginia Primaries just two days away, Governor Rockefeller knows he needs to appeal to rural voters, however, this seems to be impossible for Rockefeller. The entire debate he outlines plans of social spending increases and expanding the Civil Rights Act (which will need to be voted on again in 1973) to homosexuals and other sexual orientations. In response to most of these ideas, Governor Romney laughs and says, “There’s a traditional limousine liberal response.” Romney’s plan to slash taxes and spending to stabilize the shaky economy seems to make more sense to rural voters than Rockefeller’s stimulus plans. It looks likely that May 9th will be a Romney sweep.   

Event Date: 5-09-1972
Event Description: Despite a massive Rockefeller GOTV effort in the few urban areas in Nebraska and West Virginia, both vote for Governor Romney by large margins. In Nebraska, Romney takes 66% of the vote to Rockefeller’s 30%. West Virginia shows Romney with over 70% of the vote. Governor Rockefeller declares that night from his headquarters in New York City, “The states of Nebraska and West Virginia are not representative of this campaign or this nation. The battle will continue.” On the Democratic side, Congressman Ashbrook wins Nebraska by a large margin while Governor Wallace takes the West Virginia Primary by a comfortable margin. The race for the nomination in both parties is too close to call.

Event Date: 5-13-1972
Event Description: President Nixon signs the Mine Protection and Inspection Act. Introduced by Congressman Orrin Hatch (Democrat of Utah), this act makes it mandatory that all mines in the United States be inspected for safety every year. A recent silver mine collapse in Idaho led Congressman Hatch to introduce the bill. Congressman Ashbrook calls the act, “Unneeded government intrusion on business and the free market.” House Minority Leader Malcolm Little laughs at this statement, declaring. “Ashbrook probably thinks requiring steel workers to wear gloves is also too much of an intrusion of private industry.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 5-15-1972
Event Description: While campaigning at a Laurel, Maryland, shopping center, Governor George Romney is shot by Walter Martin, a crazed evangelical preacher who had convinced himself that Romney was trying to force all Americans to become Mormons. While being questioned by police, Martin tells them that he had a dream where, “Jesus Christ himself told me to stop Governor Romney from forcing the will of Joseph Smith on the world.” Meanwhile at Laurel Regional Hospital, Governor Romney fights for his life.

Event Date: 5-16-1972
Event Description: Primary day in Maryland and Michigan is overshadowed by tragic news. Governor George Wilcken Romney dies from his gunshot wound at 3:45 a.m. at Laurel Regional Hospital. Governor Romney was 65-years old. Posthumously he wins the primary in his home state of Michigan and comes within 5-points of beating Governor Rockefeller in Maryland. Governor Rockefeller calls Lenore Romney and offers his condolences. “America has lost a great leader, a great father and a great man,” Governor Rockefeller declares in an address from the Governor’s Mansion in Albany, “We have also lost a man who would have been a great president.” The somber day concludes with Congressman Ashbrook winning Michigan and Maryland, all but ensuring him as the Democratic presidential candidate.

Event Date: 5-20-1972
Event Description: At a massive funeral at the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Utah, the late Governor George W. Romney is laid to rest. President Nixon, Vice-President Chase-Smith, former Presidents Kennedy and McFarland, President of the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints Joseph Fielding Smith along with other dignitaries attend the funeral. His fifth child, Willard Mitt Romney, a 25-year old businessman, gives his father’s eulogy. “To those of us in his household who were raised by him to respect duty, honor and country,” Mitt Romney says, “He was father, friend and mentor. To those who he touched in the private and public sector, he was the same. He was the biggest man I know and the greatest person I have ever met.”

Event Date: 5-23-1972
Event Description: Governor Rockefeller wins the Oregon and Rhode Island Primaries as he is now the only candidate seeking the nomination. Only three days after the Romney funeral, there is already arguments over where Governor Romney’s 1,003 delegates are going to go to. Governor Rockefeller hopes they will all be allocated to him since he is the only candidate. However, many Romney delegates are hoping to be independent and find other candidates to support. One such candidate is former Utah Governor and current Salt Lake City Mayor J. Bracken Lee, a Romney campaign senior adviser, who many Romney delegates are turning to as an alternative to Governor Rockefeller. The GOP Convention in Miami, Florida, will determine where the delegates go to it seems.

Event Date: 6-17-1972
Event Description: Five men are caught breaking into the First National Bank and Trust in Washington, D.C. One of them is Howard Hunt, a former CIA agent and member of the Plumbers. Another is G. Gordon Liddy, whose wife has recently died in a plane crash and was carrying $200,000 on her person. D.C. police ask them some questions, and it comes to light that they work out of the White House. “Why would someone in the White House want you at the bank?” a police officer asks. “It was our own decision,” Liddy quickly says, “No one at the White House has anything to do with this.” In reality, Chief of Staff Haldeman had sent the Plumbers to the First National Bank and Trust to destroy all records of business transactions between the White House and members of the Plumbers. The break-in is reported in the news the next day, but it is dismissed as a “campaign caper” and something that the president would have nothing to do with. After all, the last Nixon “scandal” came up it never materialized into anything.

Event Date: 6-29-1972
Event Description: In the ruling of Furman v. Georgia, the Supreme Court of the United States rules that the death penalty is unconstitutional. President Nixon applauds the decision as, “One which respects the value of all human lives.” Governor Rockefeller echoes the president’s sentiment, going as far to call the death penalty, “Cruel punishment from the barbarous stone age.” Congressman John Ashbrook attacks the Supreme Court as, “Tools of criminal instincts. With such rulings, the people of our nation won’t feel safe to walk the streets.”

Event Date: 7-04-1972
Event Description: The Constitution Party nominates General Curtis LeMay for President of the United States at their convention in Lexington, Massachusetts. General LeMay is paired with Rear Admiral John G. Crommelin of Alabama. The ticket promises to restore, “Judeo-Christian values to the United States and once again respect the principles of the Constitution.”

Event Date: 7-14-1972
Event Description: The Democratic National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida, nominated Congressman John Ashbrook of Ohio for President. As his running-mate, Ashbrook selects Governor James Earl Carter of Georgia. “President Nixon and the Republican Party have led this country into economic and moral bankruptcy,” Congressman Ashbrook declares in his acceptance address, “As President of the United States I will restore our economy to prosperity and honesty to the highest office in the land.”

Event Date: 8-04-1972
Event Description: Walter Martin is sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing George W. Romney. Ronald Reagan, while reporting on the verdict on NBC Nightly News, tells his audience, “We should use the tragedy of the Romney assassination as a reminder of the great agony bigotry can cause people, even innocent people like the Romney Family. It is at times like these when we must remember that in America we are entitled to the rights of free speech, press, assembly and, sometimes most difficult for many to follow, religion. We should fervently pray that one day all of these freedoms will be followed and that men need not die because some in society refuse to accept these freedoms. Good night and God bless America.”

Event Date: 8-21-1972
Event Description: The Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida, opens with Governor Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller as the expected presidential nominee. Rockefeller is nominated on the first ballot, but Governor Lee takes the second most votes. Rockefeller, realizing that he needs to appease the Romney delegates, selects Senator Mark Hatfield of Oregon as his running-mate. Hatfield had been a strong Romney backer. With the economy still in recession and President Nixon losing the trust of the American people with recent scandals, Rockefeller-Hatfield has its work cut our for it in the general election.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Great work, keep it up

[MasterJedi]

You wanted to tease us by not putting the actual election up.

Anyways a really good update, keep up the good work!

[Robespierre's Jaw]

You know who I want to win in the 1972 Presidential Election don't you?

Though I doubt that the Rockefeller/Hatfield ticket will win in 1972. I think that Congressman Ashbrooke will win . One can only hope that the Republicans will regain the White House in 1976.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 9-05-1972
Event Description: In a campaign speech from Lynchburg, Virginia, Congressman John Ashbrook declares that the GOP “Is the party of moral bankruptcy.” After attacking President Nixon for the CIA cover-ups, Ashbrook levels a powerful attack on Governor Rockefeller. “Let’s talk about Nelson Rockefeller now,” he tells his crowd, “Yes, it’s hard to talk about him in a church going town, but we have to. Governor Rockefeller is as out of touch with America as any random college professor in Berkley, California. As Governor of New York he legalized birth control, liberalized homosexual rights and supported President Nixon’s subsidies of dirty art, many of which hangs in the galleries of the New York State Capitol building. My friends, do you want such an indecent person, a limousine liberal, ruling our nation?” The cries of “no” are deafening. Later that day Governor Rockefeller will respond to these attacks with a simple retort. “Mr. Ashbrook needs to remember that progress isn’t a bad thing,” Governor Rockefeller tells a crowd in Reno, Nevada.

Event Date: 10-04-1972
Event Description: In a daring political move, Governor Rockefeller declares at a rally in Detroit, Michigan, “I realize that the American auto industry is struggling. Competition from foreign companies is leading this great state into economic collapse, and some are calling Michigan and surrounding states the ‘Rust Belt’ because of the economic slowdown. These people are right; many of the jobs we have lost are not coming back.” Although Rockefeller goes on to explain that by supporting President Nixon’s alternative fuel plan new automotive jobs can be created, many in the press attack “Rockefeller’s pessimism.” “Governor Rockefeller has shown he has a ‘can’t do’ attitude,” Ronald Reagan declares on the Voice of the Nation, “I do not fear the future, and I believe the American people do not either. We are a ‘can do’ people, because in America anything is possible. I believe Congressman Ashbrook believes this as well, which is why he will win this election and restore America’s greatness.”   

Event Date: 10-05-1972
Event Description: The Dow Jones Industrial Average drops 60-points today. A resurgence of unemployment and inflation which the Department of Commerce reported on yesterday led to the fall. At a rally in Los Angeles, California, Congressman Ashbrook refers to the economic woes of the nation as, “the Nixon-Rockefeller Recession.” Ronald Reagan, who introduced Ashbrook at the rally, declares in his speech, “The Republicans refuse to call a spade a spade. They hide behind a dictionary when asked what are country is going through. If it’s a definition they want then I have one for them. a ‘recession’ is when your neighbor loses their job. A ‘depression’ is when you lose your job. ‘Recovery’ is when John Ashbrook gets his new job!” The clever line plays well with a nation racked by economic problems since 1970.

Event Date: 10-25-1972
Event Description: In the first televised presidential debates since 1960, Governor Nelson Rockefeller and Congressman John Ashbrook face off at University of Miami. Debate moderator Dan Rather of CBS allows the candidates to, “Go as wild a bobcats if you’d like,” and this proves to be a poor decision. The two men rake into each other and at times say some pretty cruel things. “You act like it’s the 1800s, John,” Rockefeller lectures Ashbrook, “I mean if you had your way there would be no civil rights laws, no minimum wage, hell, there wouldn’t even be free housing for the poor.” “If you had it your way Rocky,” Ashbrook retorts, “We’d be taxed so much that we’d have to live in free housing!” The debate gets so out of hand that Rather has to intervene to remind the two candidates to make closing statements. The debate helps neither candidate, which is of no help to Rockefeller. He’s been trailing for several weeks and needed a strong showing to give him any hope of taking the Oval Office.

Event Date: 11-07-1972
Event Description: Congressman John Ashbrook is elected President of the United States, the first Democrat to win the office in eight years. The faltering economy, as well as public mistrust of President Nixon, led to the upset election of a relatively little known Congressman to the highest office in the land.

John Ashbrook/James Carter (D): 387 EV; 57.3% of the PV
Nelson Rockefeller/Mark Hatfield (R): 151 EV; 40.7% of the PV
Curtis LeMay/John Crommelin (C): 0 EV; 1.7% of the PV
Others (Libertarian, Workers, etc.): 0 EV; 0.3% of the PV

The Democratic Party completes the landslide by winning control of the Senate and expanding its lead in the House of Representatives.

Event Date: 12-31-1972
Event Description: NBC Nightly News Anchor Ronald Reagan announces that he is resigning as anchor for the nightly national broadcast. “I have campaigned hard for President-elect John Ashbrook,” he signs off that night, “I can not, in good conscience, give a nightly news broadcast which is fair and free of bias while a man whom I agree with so much is President of the United States. To continue and give bias news is against everything which I have been taught and believe in. Therefore, I shall be stepping down as anchor of the NBC Nightly News. It’s been a heck of a ride; we’ve covered many great stories together and have lived through a lot of tragedies, but also comedies as well. All in all, not bad, not bad at all, my friends. On behalf of Nancy, my children, my staff and all of my fellow reporters here at NBC News, God bless you and God bless America.”       

[Хahar 🤔]

So long, Reagan. I liked you better in the '40s.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Great job, keep it up.