North By Northwoods: A TLIAW
- Thread starter King of the Uzbeks
- Start date
Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon (R-CA)
Richard Nixon has a problem.
He has won election as President. The first Vice President since Van Buren to do that without his President kicking the bucket. But it had not been a pretty victory. It had been so damn close. A different speech here, a surrogate missed there and it all could have gone the other way.
Even as it was, it was too damn close. He'd needed every chit and favor and string pulled across New Jersey and Illinois to secure the states for his column. Richard Daley was still calling for investigations about the entire downstate election. And even then everyone had been forced to wait for weeks as New Mexico and Hawaii, goddamned Hawaii, recounted and then re-recounted, its ballots, putting Nixon at exactly the amount needed to be elected President. Sure, Kennedy had graciously conceded. But everyone knows he had won more actual votes. Every meeting with Senate leadership is made that much more awkward by Lyndon Johnson's glares across the table.
Right off the bat he ran into trouble in Cuba. Nixon had inherited the Bay of Pigs plan from Eisenhower, and trusted his men to get it done. But the invasion of exiles proved a bitter farce, even with air strikes in support of the landing. Castro gets a popularity boost, and Nixon gets an egg in the face. And Nixon does not like eggs in his face.
On the economic front, there is better news. The late 50s recession that had almost sunk his election begins to abate. A Keynesian Tax cut appeals to some on the right and some on the left, and so managed to worm its way through Congress. His old-age health insurance social security plan is the subject of intense back and forth, but it's by no means doomed.
Space is also a work in progress. Glenn goes up and orbits the Earth, the crowning moment for the Mercury program. The Gemini Program is also chugging along, and the NASA eggheads are seriously talking about a Moonshot in the future. Of course Nixon isn't going to pin anything on that, at least not yet. Keeping his cards close to his chest.
Especially not after the Vienna Conference with Khrushchev. Berlin, the Congo, and a dozen other Cold War hot topics bubbling up from the morass. Certainly more substance than the Kitchen Debate, that is for sure. But the fences still go up around West Berlin, and then slowly but surely the Wall. Nixon hadn't been rolled over, but it sure doesn't feel like a victory.
There are things he can do in Indochina and the Congo to assure the base that Dick Nixon hadn't gone soft on Communism. Back a Junta in Leopoldville, raise the number of advisors in Saigon. But Cuba is still there, lurking right across the water.
And the Civil Rights issue also bites at Nixon's heels. He is a proud member of the party of Lincoln, he is always happy to remind people of that. But the GOP is also making deep cuts into the Solid South. The White Solid South. So some discretion is very much in order. But that does stop the debate, the marches, or the fighting.
Add all of that up, and the Nixon administration is looking at a bad day come the 1962 Midterms.
America could use something to heal its divisions. America could use a win in the Cold War, a real solid blow rather than a parry. And Richard Nixon could really use a boost to help ensure he stayed in office for as long as he can.
And so when the boys in the Pentagon come up with a little project called Operation: Northwood, President Nixon signs off.
In 1962, the first of several ships carrying refugees from Cuba to Florida is sunk. The Nixon administration wags a finger at Castro and announces new sanctions. Castro denies anything to do with the sinkings.
In April an attempt is made to shoot several prominent exiles in Miami when they meet one evening. None are killed, but police identify the attacker as Cuban himself. The CIA and FBI sweep in, citing National Security. Soon the ties to the Cuban government are clear.
June sees the start of tit for tat firefights on the perimeter of Guantánamo Bay Base. Casto swears that all of these were started by the Americans, and some of them only involved Americans. Khrushchev only sort of believes him. The American dogs are up to something, but perhaps it will be better to wait on the missiles.
July sees an escalation of tensions still further. More and more refugee boats are sinking. Miami becomes paranoid and reports of Cuban sabotage become more pronounced. Guantánamo is reinforced, but non-essential personnel are withdrawn as firefights grow in intensity. The Cubans at this point are starting some on their own, frustrated by the Americans.
And in August, the coup de grace. Black Thursday. Bombs go off across Miami, and multiple Cuban exiles are killed. Police overreact and shoot a black man in the chaos, adding in a Segregation induced riot to the mix. Meanwhile explosions rock Guantánamo Bay as sixteen American soldiers die.
The culprit, to the media and the public, is clear. Castro can whine all he wants about false flags and such, but a Communist Cuban who has been attacking the United States being the one to attack the United States is an easy sell. And then the military, CIA and FBI pile on and conform.
American forces get the ok to occupy a circle around Guantánamo Bay, to better protect the base. Casto screams and screams but there is little he can do. Khrushchev is not above pounding a shoe of course, but he's not a complete idiot.
The solemn, Presidential Nixon, asks Congress for authorization to expand military operations in Cuba, to remove this dangerous threat to American lives and property. He gains a roaring approval.
His approval shoots up like a rocket as the Navy encircles Cuba and begins ferrying troops to the island, both American and the newly styled "Free Cuban Army." Landings near Havana provide a second front, and a major boost to the Republicans right before the midterms. Not enough to take either house, but enough to be a success.
Nixon begins to look ahead to a second term. But perhaps he looks too soon.
The new congress sees some success. An old age health insurance bill passes. Some "common sense" regulations and deregulations that are a result of horse trading more than any common sense. A water project here for a red tape cut there. That sort of thing. Another incremental Civil Rights Bill, but nothing that appeases X or even King. Johnson is helpful, but not too helpful, both men trying to keep the issue from tearing their parties asunder.
Yes the war is proving a bit trickier than expected. Jungle wars are never easy matters, and the Cubans are not playing fair. But even if the progress is slow, it is steady. Nothing to worry about. Although those casualty counts are awfully high.
But while combat deaths and scenes of burnt out Cuban villages harm Nixon's image in some quarters, it is not what brings down his Presidency. No, the problem is not that the cat is out of the bag, it’s how the bag was opened.
Things leak. Things have leaked since the first Pharaoh’s fan bearer told his buddy some news. Things will always leak, so long as there are secrets.
And when that secret involves a false flag attack on American soil as well as multiple different intelligence agencies and even some on the outside? Of course there are gonna be breadcrumbs.
That the feds want to take point on the Black Thursday attacks is not surprising to anyone. And it’s not as if the Miami Police Department and the Florida Attorney General Office are peaceniks. But they still have their jobs to do, and they can’t help but notice irregularities in the FBI operations. Some are downright sloppy. And so some start to dig.
Secretary of State Rogers has been brought into the small, but bloating, group of people who know the truth about Northwoods. But most of the rest of the State Department has not. Plenty of Cold Warriors there. But not all in on this plot. And the men at the Bureau of Intelligence and Research are very confused about how they missed this Cuban attack. And so some start to dig.
Not every appendage of the military industrial complex is aware of Operation Northwoods. And, unfortunately for Nixon, this includes the troops who wind up grabbing old government archives in Havana. Lower ranking intelligence men note a distinct lack of plans for Black Thursday. The Pentagon clamps down hard and fast but word still leaks slowly and surely. And so some start to dig.
Congress approves the war and funds the war. But the Democrats don’t want to give Nixon all the glory. And certainly someone must be held accountable for the administration letting this attack on American soil happen. So some oversight committee work will be conducted. Like that Truman Committee during World War II. Nothing too hostile. But then things start getting stonewalled. And so some start to dig.
In order to fake Cuban Communists, it was necessary to use Cubans for certain attacks. As actual Communists were unlikely to favor the plan to invade Cuba, anticommunists were used. But the Anti Communist Cuban Exile community isn’t that large. Talk flows about offers made from men who certainly didn’t seem to be Castro’s men. Many of these men would normally be fine with using any means necessary to take out Castro. But…well…it was their homes bombed and attacked. Their friends shot. Their countrymen drowned at sea to back this war. Some keep their mouths shut and dream of their lands back. But some begin to talk. And so some start to dig.
All this digging starts gaining press attention and so they begin to dig and by late 1963, it becomes apparent that something is rotten in the Nixon Administration.
As the bodies keep coming in, the White House starts swinging and tries to paint the theory as a crackpot, Communist idea. This might have worked a few months ago. But now the investigations involve figures like Margret Chase Smith and Speaker McCormack. And the coverup attempts prove gasoline, not water, on the Northwoods Fire. Wiretaps and bribes and fake statements to discredit enemies. The list piles up.
The leadership of the National Security Apparatus is behind Nixon. They have all dipped their hands in the blood of Caesar. But Congress, the Press, and the Public begin to turn on Nixon. People begin to revisit old issues. What about those finance violations in 1952? That Checkers speech had been nice, but maybe it was time to take another look.
It’s not just Nixon that comes crashing down in 1964. It’s something deeper than that. Faith in the office of the Presidency. Faith in the American military. Faith in American intelligence. Faith in the entire Cold War thrust of Foreign Policy. Faith in the American way of life.
Not everyone believes it of course. There will be a sizable contingent for all time that thinks that the real false flag was the scandal and that Black Thursday was a Castroist plot. Although Castro has always said it was a false flag, even upon his election as President in 1976.
And even among those who accept the truth, no one wants to believe it. No one wants to believe that the President ordered Miami shot up. But when a man as right wing as John L. McClellan is leading the hearings, it is hard to deny. And Walter Cronkite, the most trusted man in America, is barely concealing his fury on air. Jacob Javits becomes the first Republican to Senator announce he cannot support the President anymore, and a flurry soon follows. Some say don’t run for re-election. Some say resign.
Others stay true, but they are dwindling. J. Edgar Hoover is starting to drip information out in hopes that whoever winds up in the White House next doesn’t burn down the FBI. Impeachment hearings begin, and Warren takes a dim view of this executive privilege business.
Having denied denied denied, Nixon about faces on the eve of the Republican Convention and admits mistakes were made. He does not concede the whole plot, or even that there was a plot. He does however declare that in the interest of preventing the country from being divided, he will not seek a second term.
Privately, Nixon hopes he can save the party, and maybe even his presidency by moving on.
He can do neither.
On October 4, investigators in Florida confirm that some of the explosives used in Black Thursday were from an American source. The smoking bullet. The Pentagon can stonewall munitions reports all they want, but when audio and written evidence is on the 10th unearthed that shows the White House leaning on the Pentagon to transfer the explosives and cover it up the jig is up. The smoking gun is there. Nixon resigns just days before Election Day.
His short lived successor will issue a still hotly debated pardon during the lame duck period, cleaning Nixon of everything except obstruction of justice, in hopes of avoiding a lengthy prison sentence. Nixon still gets hit with the book on that front, and will spend time in Federal Prison for that, although he is released early. Also looming, however, is the State of Florida and the extradition clause of the American Constitution. To say nothing of the absolutely furious Cubans, who can’t decide if they want him shot or hung from a lamppost.
Nixon does not ‘flee’ to Spain upon the end of his federal sentence. He simply enjoys the climate, which reminds him of California without all the protesters. Things remain awkward until 1971, when the Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, while aiming at a Francoist official, blows him up.
Nixon remains popular with a certain, very small subset of the population. Typically those on the far-right who can get past his moderate Civil Rights position. For most, however, Nixon is among the worst, if not the worst, President of the United States.
Well that is — something. @Enigma-Conundrum has some competition for King of the Dystopia
Oh man if you thought the American tenancy towards conspiracism was bad in OTL...
And ultimately Castro gets back into power anyways, presumably completely and utterly vindicated. Good job Dick.
On the bright side they caught it early and there is a window here. On the other hand the backlash may itself engender backlash…
I'm not sure if this is an actual quote or a paraphrasing of a real one, but it's a terrific one!
You have no idea how loud the "GODDAMN IT" in my head was when I read this.
Look, am I an asshole for laughing at this? Yes. Am I sorry I did so? No.
Dystopia timelines have to strike a particular kind of tone to get me on board and you have certainly succeeded in that! I'm curious to see if Cabot-Lodge is the VP in this timeline, and if not, who replaces him.
I don't wanna be that guy (but let's be honest by this point I'm practically turning into him), but shouldn't chit be chip?
Should the word prove be pour?
Should cleaning be clearing?
Oh interesting, a US President serving time in federal prison. Always lovely to see.
Agreed, the quote is pretty terrific.
Ikr, can't believe he still got pardoned and let out early. Would be interesting if for some reason he got extradited to Cuba and was executed there for his crimes.
Hahaha!😆😂 Nixon sure got what he deserved (not that I'm advocating blowing up former Presidents recently released from prison mind you).
Yeah, I do wonder if HCL is VP or not. Once saw a mini-timeline in which Gerald Ford convinces Nixon to pick Charles H. Percy of Illinois before Percy even got any political experience. That one was fun, oh and Ford was considered for the VP slot in 1960 IOTL so that could provide a fun analogy of OTL.
Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.
Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (R-MA)
It was once said that human life is nasty, brutish, and short.
Philosophers may debate to what extent that is true with regards to the human experience, but it certainly applies to the Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. Administration
Lodge is selected in 1960 as an even handed moderate to the ticket. He was a key mover and shaker for Eisenhower’s nomination while also burnishing foreign policy credentials. He even gets a chance to play a small role in taking down John Kennedy, the man who stole his Senate seat.
Nixon, as former Vice Presidents often do, swears up and down that Lodge will be a valued member of the White House. But, as former Vice Presidents often do, he fails to live up to those promises. Lodge is more active than some Vice Presidents have been, but he is not in the Inner Circle. Not enough to get The Truth.
It's only after he stumps for the war and makes a very impressive looking, and impressively staged, visit to a Cuban battlefield that he gets an inkling of The Truth.
He runs point as a defense for the administration for a bit, but then some of the elders of the party, his old ally Tom Dewey for example, come around and warn him this could get real bad really quickly. So Lodge lets others take the heat, although he never dares a full break with Nixon.
Nixon casually drops a bombshell onto the convention, he won't run again. Lodge is as surprised as anyone. He isn't even sure he wants to run in 1968 at this point, and suddenly everyone is drawing knives in San Francisco.
Barry Goldwater throws his hat into the ring, bringing passionate support from Conservatives. Former Senator John Bricker stumbles in from post-defeat obscurity as the isolationists suddenly realize there is an opening here. The liberals advance Nelson Rockefeller. Again. Despite the divorce.
Almost everyone agrees that nominating a Nixon man would be a bad idea. Except…except…none of the delegates have been selected with a competition in mind. They are all Nixonites, or at least they were before The Truth came out. And Lodge is on the ground in San Francisco, and he has experience running a convention fight. And everyone knows his name. And the exact balance of factors that made him a good Vice Presidential candidate made him a good compromise for the big job as well.
Also…well…Bricker is in this fight for real. But he's old and has lost and the industrial heartland will hate him and his brand of isolationism is a little too much even for this moment. But Goldwater and Rockefeller? They are ambitious enough to contest the convention, but they are also smart enough to not contest it too much. They know a poison chalice when they see one.
And so Lodge must drink that bitter drought. Walter Judd, a militant anticommunist (particularly with regards to China) is brought into the ticket, which may not be the best bet at this moment. But there are precious few willing to play second banana to a second banana on a sinking banana ship.
Lodge's campaign is in a tough spot. He can't tie himself to the President, but if he cuts loose he's flip flopping. He can't run on cleaning up his own house, but can't exactly claim it isn't dirty. A somber Presidential campaign doesn't work when the President is going down in flames, yet an aggressive attack campaign seems equally in poor taste at the moment. There's always the man of the earth, popular touch idea. But Lodge is literally Boston Brahmin.
The result is a muddled, stumbling campaign that manages to avoid any truly destructive gaffs but little more. Lodge considers himself lucky that he managed to beat Alf Landon.
Lodge's pardon of Nixon for most, but not all, of the crimes committed is the worst of all worlds. Too soft for most, but in leaving a gap he angers what few supporters Nixon has left, all while looking weak willed.
Lodge does little else of note, which is probably for the best. He retires from politics come inauguration day. His memoirs are interesting, self-serving but readable thanks to a ghostwriter. But mostly he fades out of memory, lurking just above the worst of the worst level on most lists.
It's rare that I say "Poor Cabot Lodge" but in this case I think it's relevant. Him shutting up and never coming back to the arena in any form makes too much sense given the way it played out.
Well, we're in uncharted territory now. Can't wait to see how it gets worse for the country--I mean who the lucky chap is who gets to go to the White House!
Well, we're in uncharted territory now. Can't wait to see how it gets worse for the country--I mean who the lucky chap is who gets to go to the White House!
Lyndon Johnson
Lyndon Johnson (D-TX)
During World War II, Harry Truman rose to prominence providing oversight for the War effort, attacking corruption and wasteful spending. In one of his bids to increase his stature, Lyndon Johnson tried the same in Korea. It was less successful.
But during the Cuban War he decides another go is in order. He’s not expecting much, to be honest. But he has his eyes on the prize in 1964, and he can’t just let Nixon reap a perfect little war. Oh his hands can’t be openly on it, besides what sort of majority leader has the time for that? But Congress should be doing something. Cynically there has to be some shit to stir up in the war effort.
But even in all his cynicism and ruthless Washington insiderdom, Johnson does not initially guess the terrible truth. And by the time he does, not even the master of the Senate can stop the avalanche.
But he can guide it. Every Senator wants a piece of the action, looking for some way that Northwoods fell under their committee's purview. And Johnson can play favorites. Southerners get their section, while Northern Liberals are allowed free reign in other areas.
But certain Senators are boxed out of the glory. Kennedy and Humphrey and other men who might be angling for the nomination are much less likely to see their desired thrusts of investigation embraced by the Senate.
Meanwhile Johnson seeks to correct his mistakes from 1960. Better organization in state primaries, closer ties with local powers. He boosts his Civil Rights credentials as much as he can without burning his bridges with the south. The time has not yet come for that.
When the question of impeachment is raised, many naturally rush to the Senate Majority Leader. He drawls that this is really a matter for the House to decide. The Senate merely provides justice.
The convention in New York is not quite a coronation, but nor does the Johnson steamroller feel much of a bump. Johnson’s Vice Presidential nomination raises some eyebrows, the man is a little odd. But then, it is an unusual moment, and perhaps that calls for an unusual man.
Johnson is a man for all seasons. When needed he gladhands across the South, just as he did for Kennedy. But he also plays the somber, almost already Presidential, man, ready to heal the nation. He keeps his ad men at arm’s length, everyone already knows the issue of this election, but neither does he allow himself to become a Dewey. Ask about the war and he spouts “peace with honor.”
The result is never in doubt, and indeed the fact that it was not a 50 state landslide is somewhat disappointing for Johnson. But the unapologetic liberalism of the ticket cost just enough voters to let Lodge keep some western states.
Accompanying Johnson is a wave of New Democrats in both the House and Senate, the largest majority since the golden days of FDR. And these are not all Dixiecrats either. There is an opportunity here and Johnson does not want to miss it.
But first there are houses to put in order, things to be set right. Or at least addressed. There is the Warren Commission, which aims to pull together the various threads being unraveled by various investigators to get a coherent picture of this entire Northwoods fiasco. Then there is a Douglas Commission, looking at the broader security state. Johnson selects Douglas more because of their friendship as young New Dealers than because of his Civil Libertarian nature, which many note.
Then, there is the matter of Cuba. The Free Cuban Government installed by Nixon is the poisoned fruit of a poisoned tree, but that tree is watered with American blood, and so cannot be easily chopped down. The UN brokers talks, hosted graciously by the Swiss in Bern. The results are a classic compromise that pleases no one. Indian peacekeepers are to help disarmament, while American forces begin a slow withdrawal. A new government is installed with Ramón Barquín, a military man who tried to coup Batista, being President to Prime Minister Carlos Franqui, a revolutionary who had drifted away from Castro. The Cuban Army is to be abolished, with the new Civic Guard balanced between Reds and Capitalists. Finally, despite a General amnesty, key leaders on both sides are to be exiled until 1972. It is an ugly peace, and Cuba will call the next decade ‘the quiet war’ in contrast to the loud American invasion.
The ‘abandonment’ of Cuba also provides the first opportunity for the red baiters to poke their heads back up and scream betrayal. It is a little too soon for their cries to be heeded, but still they shout.
As the nation grapples with Nixon’s trial, Johnson must grapple with the nested layers of government that led to this point. He takes some of Douglas’ ideas, but leaves plenty out as well. The current Joint Chiefs of Staff have the good sense to resign, while the institution is to be neutered, command now will flow from the Secretary of Defense to the leaders in the field. A provision is added forbidding the Joint Chiefs to advise the President on matters unrelated to already existing deployments of troops. Policy must be made before plans.
A new cabinet post is created, Secretary of Intelligence, to place everything under one roof. The CIA gets a hatchet taken to it. The director is subordinated to the Secretary and it now is not allowed to actually do anything but compile and analyze the data given to it, still powerful, but in a different way. Other Intelligence Department sections include an Intelligence Gathering Wing, a Support Wing for funding unsavory characters, and an Operations Wing that, while on a tight leash, will continue to, well, operate.
Johnson is still, deep down, a believer in the Cold War. And he very quietly declines to declassify anything about non-Northwoods prior operations. No need to inflame things further with Iran, for example. The American leadership is shaken, not spilled But it will take time for the players to learn the new balance of power.
J. Edgar Hoover, of course, has some very bad files on some very important people. But Johnson points out, rightly, that at this point not doing something would very much do more damage to him than any leaks. Hoover sees the point. So while counterintelligence does get spun off into the Department of Intelligence, Hoover keeps the rest. And what would you know? Turns out all these Civil Rights leaders weren’t closet Communists, they just have secret ties with organized crime, which Hoover has definitely never denied existed.
All of this action takes place in the public eye, and while Johnson does his level best to keep anything too bad from leaking, there is certainly a renewed cynicism about Washington. But Johnson has a plan for that.
The Roosevelts had their Square and New Deals, and Truman had his Fair one. Johnson will try his luck with a Just Deal.
Many project that, following his October 1965 speech in St. Paul, he will start small. An arts program or something nice like that. But that is not Lyndon Johnson.
The Civil Rights Act of 1965 is two things. Firstly it is a ban on discrimination from government and private businesses. Secondly it is a voting rights bill. Johnson is swinging hard at the Solid South. And the Solid South howls. They howl and they howl. They howl in the streets and the schoolhouse doors. They howl in the papers and on the television. And they howl in the Senate, as long as they can. But Johnson presses himself. Religious leaders descend onto the Capitol. Black leaders join the fray. White Northerners chew their nails on occasion, they do not like the look of these Black people demanding things. But neither do they like the images of the firehoses and the dogs and the beatings on the steps of the South Carolina State House.
The 1966 midterms cut into Johnson’s majority. Some in the Republican Party see white backlash against Civil Rights as the only way to sail back into power, and they do see gains along with “Independent Conservatives.” But not enough to knock the Johnson administration off balance.
Johnson also pulls out the stops to pass Healthcare reform. Medicaid to help the nation’s elderly, while those who cannot afford insurance are to be aided by Medicare. Conservatives and the AMA decry the spending and the government overreach, but many appreciate the helping hand.
Johnson has, after so many years, managed to convince Democrats that he is in fact a liberal enough man for them. Unions and Minorities and City dwellers and certain farmers stampede the convention in Chicago. Johnson is renominated to thundering applause. The South, however, demurs.
The Republican Convention, however, is a nightmare. Barry Goldwater has won a fair number of primaries with his no holds barred conservatism. But the party leadership is looking at him with panic, and they throw their weight behind the titular Rockefeller Republican, warts and all. What follows is a riot in Cleveland as the party finds itself deeply torn. Nelson Rockefeller takes a conservative running mate, but the stony silence of Goldwater speaks volumes.
Into the race steps George Wallace. Segregationist hero. He attacks Johnson for the Civil and Voting Rights Laws. He attacks Rockefeller for his Northeastern rich man ways. He attacks them both for their liberalism and blames men like them for the rising crime rate. He even attacks the reforms to the intelligence community, saying they have left America vulnerable to Communism. He’s not quite saying Northwoods was ok, but a hawk in a dovish environment is eye-catching to say the least.
Johnson plays the solemn, successful President, while letting his ad men take free reign. Rockefeller’s deal with Nixon in 1960 is bandied about. Rockefeller may be a liberal Republican but he’s also a Rockefeller and is it really that hard to imagine a Rockefeller wanting to steal from the poor to give from the rich? And Wallace? Wallace and this ‘Independent Conservative Party’ are a dangerous lot who will just drag America into some damned fool war in the jungle again.
Rockefeller tries to find a ground between Wallace and Johnson. Better administration, business involvement, lower crime and less drugs. But the convention is a bloody wound in his side that hobbles him for the rest of the campaign.
Wallace sweeps the Old Confederacy aside from Texas and a Florida still jumpy about cold warriors. Rockefeller regains the west and parts of New England for the GOP. But the rest, the rest goes to Johnson. Along with renewed majorities in Congress.
The Just Deal continues.
The War on Poverty emerges as the next great front. Anti-poverty initiatives large and small speed through Congress. The Office of Economic Opportunity emerges as a major player on the scene. Head Start, Job Corps, VISTA. Major expansions in education and welfare, including food stamps.
Immigration rules are loosened. Arts funding is increased. The National Cultural Center becomes a touchstone of American life. Same with the National Public Broadcasting Network. Fair Housing becomes a major fault line as well, although Johnson manages to get it through.
Environmental legislation is passed, Clean Air, Clean Water, Clean Land. Consumer safety, in particular car safety, became an issue addressed by the Federal Government as well. Efforts at gun control foundered however.
And, in 1970, Johnson gets to see a personal triumph. American and Soviets working together to land on the moon. A clever bit of post-Northwoods damage control, although he ensures an American steps out first.
And yet, cracks begin to show as well.
In 1969, race riots hit several major cities. Indianapolis, New York, Boston. Police brutality is the immediate cause, as well as a long term one. So are continuing poverty and a lack of economic opportunity. Yet many whites are shocked. They assumed that the Civil Rights Act would be the end of this. But the stain of racism is not so easily removed.
Inflation is also running hot at this point, and while the economy is still growing many are beginning to frown when they look at prices and then at their checkbook.
Abroad Johnson continues a cautious approach, the Northwoods backlash still strong. Support for other countries in the Cold War yes, direct military intervention, no. So when Mobutu falls to Communists, that is too bad. As South Vietnam finds itself surrounded by a new People’s Confederation of Indochina, Saigon gets guns and tanks and planes. They even get advisors. But these advisors are to be actual advisors not ‘advisors’ with a nod and a wink. Broadly popular still, but there is a sense America is on the backfoot. Events like the Prague Spring have reminded Americans that they really, really, don’t like Communism.
The 1970 midterms are not great for Johnson. But not disastrous either. They slow but do not stop progress on the Just Society. Yet there comes to be a sense that he is a lame duck.
Puerto Rico gets a Compact of Free Association deal, giving it official independence although it remains joined at the hip to the United States. But that is hardly noteworthy to many.
Then there is the matter of the President himself. Northwoods has engendered a greater scrutiny of the President. His seeming openness and popular programs, not to mention connections, spared Johnson some of it for some time, but some are looking closer. And not every American likes what they see. A crude man, rude to his staff and a bully to others. And then there is the scandals. The Bobby Baker business that he squashed after his failed Vice Presidential bid. His closest aid is Homosexual. Attorney General Fortas is caught up in an ethics issue Contractor kickbacks and radio and television millions. The crime of Northwoods is that the American people were lied to, some conservatives parrot, ignoring the dead bodies, and what else has Lyndon Johnson been lying about?
Regardless, it is difficult to get too worked up over the matter. The 22nd Amendment exists and Johnson will soon enough be leaving the White House. In fact he begins to cut loose a bit in his final days. Starting to smoke again. Enjoying some good meat at his home in Texas.
In fact he is leaving a little sooner than expected. He dies of a heart attack less than a month before Inauguration Day 1973. Leaving the lamest of the lame ducks to putter around.
How much more would you say that LBJ accomplished domestically ttl than OTL? It sounds like he was able to pass more poverty relief stuff, so maybe the late 60s riots weren't as bad as otl. I feel as though this version of LBJ would be pretty universally agreed to be in the top 5 or at least the top 10 when the historiographical dust settles.
LBJ huh? Well, he's gotten a good deal sorted out, I'll say that for him. Definitely feel like he's left some things unexplored that perhaps ought to have been, but there it is. And of course the damn fool can't hold back the excess until he gets out of there. The sucker who gets a lame duck tenure sounds interesting, not sure at all why he'd be considered odd and I look forward to us finding out.
I wonder if this is starting a trend of Presidents leaving office just before their terms are up? Or it could just be Nixon and LBJ. Honestly, I think Hubert Humphrey is gonna be President for 15 days.
Eugene McCarthy
Eugene McCarthy (D-MN)
As Vice President, McCarthy plays the attack dog, he has always had a quick wit. But at times he can be isolated, haughty, and irritable. He much prefers his poetry to people. Many times he can keep his comments behind closed doors.
Sometimes he can’t. The youth counterculture of the era manifests in the form of the Hurniks (Huron plus Beatnik, get it?). They distrust the central government and modern society in general. Some reject the old labor based left in favor of a newer brand. Castro is a folk hero to them.
At a 1970 speech in Chicago McCarthy is heckled by some more radical Hurniks, the movement is generally split on Johnson, and calls them ungrateful, drug addled, loons. This appeals to middle America but less so the activist base.
The Establishment and Johnson White House are more concerned with his apparent appreciation for Ronald Reagan and opposition to ideas for corporate campaign finance laws. That and his ability to piss anyone off. Any dreams of the White House are quietly smothered in 1972. Although some will ruefully note perhaps he would have been better than what the Democrats get.
Johnson’s sudden and shocking death allows McCarthy a place in history. His term in office even shorter than William Henry Harrison. He spends it doing a few final pardons and such that Johnson hasn’t gotten around to. The closest thing to a scandal is a strangely long bathroom break.
On Inauguration Day he passes the torch off to his fellow party member and proceeds to wander into the political wilderness including multiple failed Presidential campaigns under a variety of labels.
Ironically for a man widely hated by the New Left in his day, today he is known mockingly as the best American President in circles hostile to the United States.
