The Presidents: The Vietnam War Edition

[H.Appleby]

The funny thing is Dirksen is a key person in the shift away from real conservatism in the US which was isolationist, anti-imperialist, and supportive of labor unions. Dirksen represents the shift toward international anti-communism against the "Moscow Puppets" and "closet socialists" like Robert Taft who was opposed to Cold War escalation and supported low income housing (though had a poor record on labor unionism).

It's always hilarious to me how the "moderate" wing of the party accuses the Right of being socialists and unpatriotic before steering the country into unnecessary wars and acquiescing to the Left's plans to expand government, be it failing to roll back the Great Society while ramping up in 'Nam, the crushing of the Tafties or, most recently, that "Unpatriotic Conservatives" article in Bill Buckley's no-account rag.

 

[volksmarschall]

It's always hilarious to me how the "moderate" wing of the party accuses the Right of being socialists and unpatriotic before steering the country into unnecessary wars and acquiescing to the Left's plans to expand government, be it failing to roll back the Great Society while ramping up in 'Nam, the crushing of the Tafties or, most recently, that "Unpatriotic Conservatives" article in Bill Buckley's no-account rag.

"Moderate Republicans" views of "closet Lefties" in the Republican Party:
1) Don't support big business or "free market capitalism" -- closet socialist
2) Don't support internationalism -- dunce who doesn't understand American Exceptionalism is about what America does to help the world
3) Don't support wars -- must be a closet peacenik fellow traveler or Manchurian candidate
4) Don't support the East Coast or West Coast establishment -- probably a below 90 IQ, Flyover country "yeoman" who shouldn't be allowed to influence the genius of of the Wall Street-DC-Hollywood Triangle
5) Don't support international trade -- puppet of the labor unions or never passed Econ 101

Moderate Republican party motto: We know what's best for you and the country so shut up and follow us into the Promised Land. How very moderate!

The moderates should probably learn political philosophy before claiming the mantle of "conservatism..."

I think Niebuhr said it best, there are so many ironies about American history. xD

 

[H.Appleby]

Moderate Republican party motto: We know what's best for you and the country so shut up and follow us into the Promised Land. How very moderate!

Indeed, and what's best for America always seems to be what's best for the people who own the Moderate Republicans... Funny how that works.

I've gone from being utterly purple-faced, foaming at the mouth about Obama's statement that "I believe in American exceptionalism like Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism" to more or less agreeing with him in the course of eight years without ever moving to the Left... in the words of a great political philosopher, "What a long, strange trip it's been."

 

[H.Appleby]

With the (now-mothballed) Dyna-Soar, any chance that gets used in a space shuttle role, or possibly leads to an earlier shuttle being developed? (If only because they must have worked out some of the kinks of a shuttle launch building it). Let me state that I'm no fan of the Shuttle, I'd just love to see a wacky experimental plane assisting in the rescue of the Apollo 13 astronauts. (If we don't just use the MOOSE (sqwirrel sadly not included)).

Also, if you're interested in moving some of the Civil Rights stuff, why not try Shreveport? (Read the attached story, I think it'll give you some fun characters to play with later on).

 

[Nathan Madien]

jeeshadow: You're right, jeeshadow. How the Vietnam War goes on Forbes' watch will determine whether he wins re-election in 1968 or not.

I see Forbes, having a Republican majority in both houses of Congress, making a push for civil rights legislation in 1965. Historically Johnson pushed through the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965. In this alternate history, the Voting Rights Act got enacted in 1963 at the expense of the Civil Rights Act which didn't happen in 1964. Given that the Republican Party is the Party of Lincoln, there is a good chance we will see some version of a Civil Rights Act in 1965. Exactly how things will play out in a more conservative Congress is to be determined.

volksmarschall: And impeachment! Don't forget about impeachment! As Gerald Ford put it, "An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history."

NickFeyR: It's also strange to hear that a certain former President has in his old age apparently become touchy when around women.

El Pip: Well, it is the South.

I always use the historic vote tally as a baseline to come up with my total votes and percentages. There were 70,639,284 votes total in 1964, with 70,302,795 votes going to the main candidates. The remaining 336,489 votes went to various third party candidates. I did a lot of math and research of the 1952-1968 elections to get to the numbers I came up with.

Or maybe it is El Pip who is guilty of spreading fake news.

volksmarschall: My media empire consists of a computer that still runs on Windows Vista.

Given the slower-than-real time updating The Butterfly Effect is known for, you actually have plenty of time to catch up, volksmarschall.

El Pip: I know what you mean. My updating has slowed down to about one update every two months because of other things.

Kurt_Steiner: Historically the Democrats were lost in the wilderness for a long while. Between 1968 and 1992, the Democrats only won one election (1976) and that was just barely.

NickFeyR: Historically Medicare was established in 1965. Given the more conservative mood of Congress TTL, we won't see Medicare be established for now.

volksmarschall: Dirksen is a very interesting person. I mean, the guy has a Grammy Award!

Given my current pace of updating, it is going to be a long wait and see.

H.Appleby: He certainly has some...umm...interesting ideas.

When Wallace ran as a third party candidate historically in 1968, he typically pulled in about 10% of the vote (give or take a percentage point or two) in the Midwestern states. That became my model for 1964.

H.Appleby: I thought socialism was a left-wing thing, not a right-wing thing.

volksmarschall: So who is the RINO?

H.Appleby: Wait a minute. I consider myself to be a moderate Republican.

"What a long, strange trip it's been" indeed.

H.Appleby: I think it is entirely possible we could get the space shuttle developed earlier.

A wacky experimental plane assisting in the rescue of the Apollo 13 astronauts? I don't know how that would work.

That is quite the story.

This update is a mini-update to include Forbes and Dirksen in the lists of Presidents and Vice Presidents respectively. After the two lists will be a regular update.
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List of Presidents of the United States
1.) George Washington (1732-1799); Virginia (1789-1797)
2.) John Adams (1735-1826); Federalist-Massachusetts (1797-1801)
3.) Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826); Democratic Republican-Virginia (1801-1809)
4.) James Madison (1751-1836); Democratic Republican-Virginia (1809-1817)
5.) James Monroe (1758-1831); Democratic Republican-Virginia (1817-1825)
6.) John Quincy Adams (1767-1848); Democratic Republican-Massachusetts (1825-1829)
7.) Andrew Jackson (1767-1845); Democratic-Tennessee (1829-1837)
8.) Martin Van Buren (1782-1862); Democratic-New York (1837-1841)
9.) William Henry Harrison (1773-1841); Whig-Ohio (1841)
10.) John Tyler (1790-1862); Whig-Virginia (1841-1845)
11.) James K. Polk (1795-1849); Democratic-Tennessee (1845-1849)
12.) Zachary Taylor (1784-1850); Whig-Louisiana (1849-1850)
13.) Millard Fillmore (1800-1874); Whig-New York (1850-1853)
14.) Franklin Pierce (1804-1869); Democratic-New Hampshire (1853-1857)
15.) James Buchanan (1791-1868); Democratic-Pennsylvania (1857-1861)
16.) Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865); Republican-Illinois (1861-1865)
17.) Andrew Johnson (1808-1875); Democratic-Tennessee (1865-1869)
18.) Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885); Republican-Illinois (1869-1877)
19.) Rutherford B. Hayes (1822-1893); Republican-Ohio (1877-1881)
20.) James A. Garfield (1831-1881); Republican-Ohio (1881)
21.) Chester A. Arthur (1829-1886); Republican-New York (1881-1885)
22.) Grover Cleveland (1837-1908); Democratic-New York (1885-1889)
23.) Benjamin Harrison (1833-1901); Republican-Indiana (1889-1893)
24.) Grover Cleveland (1837-1908); Democratic-New York (1893-1897)
25.) William McKinley (1843-1901); Republican-Ohio (1897-1901)
26.) Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919); Republican-New York (1901-1909)
27.) William Howard Taft (1857-1930); Republican-Ohio (1909-1913)
28.) Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924); Democratic-New Jersey (1913-1921)
29.) Warren G. Harding (1865-1923); Republican-Ohio (1921-1923)
30.) Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933); Republican-Massachusetts (1923-1929)
31.) Herbert Hoover (1874-1964); Republican-California (1929-1933)
32.) Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1946); Democratic-New York (1933-1941)
33.) Wendell Willkie (1892-1944); Republican-New York (1941-1944)
34.) Arthur H. Vandenberg (1884-1951); Republican-Michigan (1944-1945)
35.) Thomas E. Dewey (1902-1971); Republican-New York (1945-1953)
36.) Adlai Stevenson II (1900-1954); Democratic-Illinois (1953-1954)
37.) John Sparkman (1899-1985); Democratic-Alabama (1954-1961)
38.) Henry M. Jackson (1912-1983); Democratic-Washington (1961-1965)
39.) Malcolm Forbes (1919-1990); Republican-New Jersey (1965- )
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List of Vice Presidents of the United States
1.) John Adams (1735-1826); Massachusetts (1789-1797)
2.) Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826); Democratic Republican-Virginia (1797-1801)
3.) Aaron Burr (1756-1836); Democratic Republican-New York (1801-1805)
4.) George Clinton (1739-1812); Democratic Republican-New York (1805-1812)
5.) Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814); Democratic Republican-Massachusetts (1813-1814)
6.) Daniel D. Tompkins (1774-1825); Democratic Republican-New York (1817-1825)
7.) John C. Calhoun (1782-1850); Democratic Republican-South Carolina (1825-1832)
8.) Martin Van Buren (1782-1862); Democratic-New York (1833-1837)
9.) Richard Mentor Johnson (1780-1850); Democratic-Kentucky (1837-1841)
10.) John Tyler (1790-1862); Whig-Virginia (1841)
11.) George M. Dallas (1792-1864); Democratic-Pennsylvania (1845-1849)
12.) Millard Fillmore (1800-1874); Whig-New York (1849-1850)
13.) William R. King (1786-1853); Democratic-Alabama (1853)
14.) John C. Breckinridge (1821-1875); Democratic-Kentucky (1857-1861)
15.) Hannibal Hamlin (1809-1891); Republican-Maine (1861-1865)
16.) Andrew Johnson (1808-1875); Democratic-Tennessee (1865)
17.) Schuyler Colfax (1823-1885); Republican-Indiana (1869-1873)
18.) Henry Wilson (1812-1875); Republican-Massachusetts (1873-1875)
19.) William A. Wheeler (1819-1887); Republican-New York (1877-1881)
20.) Chester A. Arthur (1829-1886); Republican-New York (1881)
21.) Thomas A. Hendricks (1819-1885); Democratic-Indiana (1885)
22.) Levi P. Morton (1824-1920); Republican-New York (1889-1893)
23.) Adlai Stevenson I (1835-1914); Democratic-Illinois (1893-1897)
24.) Garret Hobart (1844-1899); Republican-New Jersey (1897-1899)
25.) Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919); Republican-New York (1901)
26.) Charles W. Fairbanks (1852-1918); Republican-Indiana (1905-1909)
27.) James S. Sherman (1855-1912); Republican-New York (1909-1912)
28.) Thomas R. Marshall (1854-1925); Democratic-Indiana (1913-1921)
29.) Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933); Republican-Massachusetts (1921-1923)
30.) Charles G. Dawes (1865-1951); Republican-Illinois (1925-1929)
31.) Charles Curtis (1860-1936); Republican-Kansas (1929-1933)
32.) John Nance Garner (1868-1967); Democratic-Texas (1933-1941)
33.) Charles L. McNary (1874-1944); Republican-Oregon (1941-1944)
34.) John W. Bricker (1893-1986); Republican-Ohio (1945-1953)
35.) John Sparkman (1899-1985); Democratic-Alabama (1953-1954)
36.) Henry M. Jackson (1912-1983); Democratic-Washington (1957-1961)
37.) Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1969); Democratic-Texas (1961-1964)
38.) Everett Dirksen (1896-1969); Republican-Illinois (1965- )

 

[Nathan Madien]

(Ignore the date at the beginning of the video)

Stepping Out
When Malcolm Forbes became President in January 1965, he inherited a U.S. space program that was well underway. The program had begun a decade earlier when President John Sparkman made the establishment of an American presence in space a national priority. Sparkman had been greatly influenced by Wernher von Braun, Nazi Germany’s leading rocket engineer who had been taken custody by the Americans in 1944 and sent to the United States to work for the American rocketry program. Although the U.S. Army was primarily interested in using von Braun and his team to develop rockets for military purposes, von Braun had a much grander vision for the work he and his men were doing. His dream was to use rockets to explore space, landing astronauts on the surface of the Moon and even Mars. Von Braun enthusiastically shared his ambitious vision of the future with anyone who would listen to him. Walt Disney, himself a visionary in entertainment, became interested enough in what von Braun was saying to collaborate with him in the production of three well-received television films about space exploration. An even more important ear von Braun caught was that of President Sparkman, who held a meeting with the German rocket engineer at the White House. That meeting proved to be fateful as the President came out of it dazzled by von Braun’s grand vision of the future. He made the decision afterwards to put America into space, starting with the development of satellites.

(William H. Pickering, James A. van Allen, and Wernher von Braun hold up a model of Explorer 1 which they jointly designed and built)
In May 1957, the United States launched Explorer 1 – the world’s first artificial satellite – into Earth’s orbit. The international prestige garnered by being the first nation to establish a presence in space provided Sparkman momentum to push through Congress legislation establishing NASA. The first program for the new space agency was Project Mercury, whose goal was to put astronauts into Earth’s orbit. When informed by NASA officials that their first orbital flight wouldn’t be ready until 1961, Sparkman told them point-blank that he wanted to see a Mercury mission before he left office. Obliging, NASA launched Freedom 7 in August 1960 as a suborbital flight. Rocketing over 100 nautical miles into the sky before safely splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean 15 minutes later, Alan Shepard became internationally famous as being the first man in space. Ten months later, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth. By the time of the seventh and final Mercury mission in February 1963, the Americans had mastered the art of orbital flights. So had the Soviets. With a space program of their own, the Soviets had put the first animal (a dog) in orbit, the first man in orbit, and the first woman in orbit. 1964 saw the launch of Voskhod 1, the first manned space flight to carry a crew of three and the first to be done without the use of space suits. None of the three cosmonauts wore them because the space capsule was too cramped to allow it.

By then, Project Gemini was underway in the United States. The successor to Mercury, Gemini – Latin for “twins” – was designed to train crews of two astronauts in Earth’s orbit to perform such tasks as rendezvousing and docking with another spacecraft. This complex training would prepare the astronauts for the manned lunar landings of Project Apollo. After testing the 18.5 x 10 feet Gemini spacecraft in two separate flights, Gemini 3 was launched in July 1964 carrying Command Pilot Gus Grissom and Pilot John Young. Making three orbits around the Earth over the course of five hours, Grissom and Young tested the maneuverability of the Gemini spacecraft. They did so by firing off thrusters in a series of burns; lasting 75 seconds each, these burns shifted the course of their orbit somewhat and caused their spacecraft to drop slightly in altitude. While the maneuverability tests were a success, the burns threw off the Gemini spacecraft’s ability to compensate for course deviation (contrary to wind tunnel testing which predicted that they wouldn’t). As a result, Grissom and Young splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean 45 nautical miles short of where they were supposed to splash down. They ended up spending an uncomfortable half-hour sitting in their spacecraft waiting for the Essex-class aircraft carrier USS Intrepid to recover them.

On Thursday, October 1st, 1964, Command Pilot James McDivitt and Pilot Edward White took their seats inside the McDonnell Aircraft-manufactured spacecraft for the second manned Gemini flight. When the countdown clock reached 0, the Titan II two-stage liquid-fuel rocket blasted off from Launch Complex 19 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and hurtled Gemini IV into orbit. As soon as the rocket had cleared the launch tower, control of the flight was transferred from Cape Canaveral to the brand new Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas. Over the course of the four-day mission, McDivitt and White orbited the Earth 66 times. Up to this point, every astronaut had been strapped into their seats while in space. With Gemini IV, NASA wanted to attempt something they had never done before: having an astronaut maneuver outside the confines of the spacecraft. This maneuver was known as a spacewalk and White would be the first American to do it. Cosmonaut Alexey Leonov had already performed the very first spacewalk, spending 12 minutes tethered outside his Voskhod spacecraft.

Four hours after launch, while Gemini IV flew over Western Australia on the way to Hawaii, McDivitt and White depressurized the cabin as part of the preparation process for the spacewalk. Once they were over the Aloha State, White pulled the handle to open the hatch. When the hatch door was fully opened, White easily floated out into space due to the absence of gravity. Tethered to the spacecraft so he wouldn’t keep floating off, White went out 15 feet and began to make maneuvers around Gemini IV using a hand-held device which expelled pressurized oxygen that provided him with thrust. For him it was a feeling of incredible awe to be floating in space, with only the tether to restrain his otherwise free motions. White couldn’t get enough of the spacewalk, which was a problem for Houston. Mission Control had their eye on the clock, mindful that White only had a small window in which to perform his spacewalk. If he stayed out too long, Gemini IV would be plunged into darkness and the astronauts would be temporarily out of communication with Houston. However, White could only communicate with McDivitt while he was floating in space. It was McDivitt who relayed to White Mission Control’s insistent demand that “you...come back in now.”

Twenty minutes after opening the hatch door, White reluctantly re-entered the spacecraft and re-latched the hatch door. He was understandably disappointed that his experience of a lifetime was now over:
“This is the saddest moment of my life.”
Two months after the first American spacewalk, Gemini V was launched into orbit carrying Command Pilot Gordon Cooper and Pilot Pete Conrad. They spent eight days in space, setting the world record for the longest space flight. Gemini V demonstrated that astronauts could safely spend over a week in space, the exact amount of time the Apollo missions would need to make the round trip to the Moon. By the time the next Gemini mission took place in April 1965, America had a new President. Forbes wholeheartedly supported the space program, believing that the international prestige and the scientific/technological gains being generated by it justified the hefty price tag. Project Gemini alone would ultimately cost $1.3 billion, broken down to $797.4 million for spacecraft, $409.8 million for launch vehicles, and $76.2 million for support.
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I had been wanting to do a space update, but I wasn't sure where to fit it in given the AAR's focus on the 1964 Presidential election. I decided to do it after the election, before I dove into the beginning of Forbes' Presidency.

 

[El Pip]

Space! Could be a bit dicey all this, all these launches and programmes being pulled forward must be having an effect on the safety and reliability of the rockets and support equipment. They were doing bleeding edge work under massive pressure as it was, trying to do all that but faster just seems like a recipe for disaster.

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

I've the enduring feeling that too much money was used for too little practical results.

 

[jeeshadow]

I've the enduring feeling that too much money was used for too little practical results.

You can not put a price on national prestige! Furthermore, think of the potential for better ICBMs .

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

You can not put a price on national prestige! Furthermore, think of the potential for better ICBMs .

Too true!!! And better and bigger SSBNs to carry their naval counterparts!!!!

 

[H.Appleby]

The first Apollo landing was the pinnacle of man's technical achievement. We went to another celestial body with less computing power than you'd find in a respectable graphing calculator, using parts built by the lowest bidder. It gives you chills to think about it.

 

[volksmarschall]

Hopefully, in the future, our space stations and other galactic orbitals don't crash back to earth with a hostile life form on it...

The final frontier beckons now!

 

[H.Appleby]

Nathan, do you still have some of the images from earlier in the AAR? I realize it's a bit old, but it's hard to reread this AAR (that I love so much) with all of those blank images.

 

[Nathan Madien]

El Pip: Given that the US is about a year ahead of where she was historically in space exploration, I don't think it would have that dramatic an effect on the safety and reliability of the rockets and support equipment. A disaster could always happen of course...especially when you get complacent.

Kurt_Steiner: We have the US flag planted on the surface of the Moon. So there is that.

jeeshadow: And by going to the Moon now, we can one day build a laser gun on it to protect the Earth from invading aliens.

Kurt_Steiner: That's the spirit...I think.

H.Appleby: In the Cold War tech mod that I was using, there's actually a space exploration tech tree. It starts off with basic satellites and ends with a manned landing on the Moon.

volksmarschall: Or blow up just because some farm boy fired a proton torpedo into the exhaust port located at the end of a trench.

Live long and properous...so you may one day see the actual end of this AAR.

H.Appleby: I still have all the images going back to the beginning. It's just that I don't want to pay the $400 a year Photobucket is suddenly charging to host them. Nor do I feel like going back right now and fixing over 100 pages of broken images. I am sorry for the trouble.
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The Forbes Administration
For Barbara Bush, her first memory of life in Washington, D.C. was rushing over to Sears one evening to buy extra bedding for unexpected houseguests. After George H.W. Bush won his Texas Senate race in November 1964, he moved his large family from Houston to Washington. Ever considerate of others, the new Senator had invited the movers to stay over for the night, prompting his wife to go to Sears. The Bush household was a full one already with four young children living there: Jeb, Neil, Marvin, and Dorothy. George W., the eldest son, was away at Yale University in Connecticut. Once he had moved into his new house, Senator Bush turned his attention to committee assignments. Because his party had won control of the Senate, all the committees in the upper chamber would now be controlled by the Republicans. In a letter to the new Senate Majority Leader Frederick F. Houser of California, Bush requested a seat on the powerful Appropriations Committee (which has jurisdiction over all discretionary spending legislation in the Senate). “I know you are swamped with all kinds of grandiose requests,” the freshman Senator wrote with diffidence, “Perhaps this ranks as the grandiosest of them all. Whatever you decide will be fine with me, and I promise to work like hell to be a good member of whatever committee I get.”
Houser turned down Bush’s request for Appropriations, instead assigning him to the Foreign Relations Committee. After Bush became President in 1985, Houser was asked in an interview why he made the decision to send the Texan to Foreign Relations instead of Appropriations. He explained that he thought Bush “would get more out of dealing with foreign policy matters than he would have dealing with budgetary matters.”
Surprisingly, Bush in the mid-1960s was already eyeing the Presidency. More ambitious than his mild-mannered demeanor suggested, he was someone who always aimed for the top and worked hard to get there. “I don’t want to just be in the Senate,” Bush confided to a friend in January 1966, “I would like to be President.”

On January 15th, 1965, Washington’s newest and most important resident settled into Blair House. A four story Federal-style brick house constructed in 1824, Blair House sat right across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. Outgoing President Henry M. Jackson had made Blair House (officially known as the President’s Guest House) available to President-elect Malcolm Forbes and Forbes took up residence there along with his wife Roberta, his four sons Steve, Robert, Christopher, and Timothy, and his daughter Moira. The President-elect came to Washington armed with a plan for what would be done in the coming year. During the 78 days between Election Day and Inauguration Day, Forbes had worked closely with his party’s Congressional leaders to craft an agenda which they claimed would get the country moving again following years of stagnant Democratic rule. Forbes knew from recent history that the Republicans could only run Washington effectively if everyone was on the same page. If the White House and Congress had separate competing agendas and were unable – or unwilling – to find common ground (which is what happened during the Dewey years), it could lead to gridlock and political chaos. To prevent history from repeating itself, Forbes brought the Congressional leaders on board from the start to jointly develop the Republican agenda for 1965. Their main focus would be improving the economy. “We pledge to all the American people,” Forbes proclaimed in a press conference flanked by Houser and the new Speaker of the House Gerald Ford, “That our program will create good jobs, full prosperity, and a rapidly growing economy.”
To generate economic growth, the Republicans would cut taxes to give businesses more money in which to invest and to put more spending money in peoples’ wallets. They would also cut spending to reverse the growth of the national debt under the Democrats and put the country on a fiscally-responsible path to a balanced budget (Forbes set 1970 as the target year for balancing the Federal budget). On the jobs front, the Republicans would strive to cut the unemployment rate in half from 8% to 4% by 1968. One of their ways to do that would be to pass welfare reform to shift the focus from simply handing out welfare checks each month to generating new economic opportunities that would lift people up out of poverty. Lastly, the Republicans would pass a strong civil rights bill. Given the Grand Old Party’s long-standing reputation as being the Party of Lincoln, Forbes didn’t think there would be much difficulty in getting a Republican Congress to enact legislation banning segregation in businesses and public places. As he told Martin Luther King Jr. shortly after the election:
“We Republicans ended slavery 100 years ago. There is no reason why we cannot end segregation next year.”

(For his nonviolent leadership in the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr. was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway in December 1964)
At the same time he was putting the domestic agenda together with Congressional leaders, Forbes selected the people who would serve in his cabinet. The new President’s style was that of a chairman of the board, meeting regularly with his cabinet to discuss and set administration policies. At the top of the cabinet in terms of seniority was Secretary of State. To run the State Department, Forbes chose Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. Hailing from a prominent Massachusetts family, Lodge brought with him a variety of experience. He had been a United States Senator (1937-1944), Head of Intelligence in the Dewey Administration (1945-1953), and the 1956 Republican Presidential nominee. An internationalist, Lodge shared Forbes’ desire to rebuild Franco-American relations which had greatly deteriorated during the Jackson Administration. At his suggestion, Ralph Bunche, a “wonderful” African-American diplomat, was named the United States Ambassador to the United Nations and was granted cabinet-level status.

(Secretary of State Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.)
For Secretary of the Treasury, Forbes chose Robert Mayo. Born in Seattle, Washington, Mayo held a bachelor’s degree in business and a master’s degree in economics. A Republican, Mayo went to work for the Willkie Administration in 1941 as an economic analyst at the Treasury Department and eventually rose to the rank of assistant to the Secretary of Treasury for debt management. With his attention to detail and conservative fiscal views, Mayo was Forbes’ ideal choice to be his Secretary of the Treasury. For Secretary of Defense, the new President opted for experienced continuity over a fresh start. The United States military was engaged in the Vietnam War and faced the very real possibility of going to war with China over her muscle-flexing in Asia and the Western Pacific, which was threatening America’s allies in the region. Not wanting to rock the boat at this time by bringing in someone new, Forbes kept the current Secretary of Defense Paul Nitze manning the helm at the Pentagon.

(Secretary of the Treasury Robert Mayo)
The cabinet selection process went rather smoothly with one exception: Attorney General. Originally Forbes asked the current Attorney General Roger Ledyard to stay on. He had earned a national reputation as “The Enforcer” who vigorously enforced court rulings on civil rights and even personally confronted Southern Governors who dared to defy the law in the name of preserving the Jim Crow system of racial segregation. In 1962 the Enforcer escorted James Meredith to enroll at the University of Mississippi; a year later he went eyeball-to-eyeball with Alabama Governor George Wallace when he stood in the schoolhouse door to try to physically stop the integration of the University of Alabama (their confrontation was later recreated in the 1994 Tom Hanks film “Forrest Gump”, with Roger Ledyard Jr. playing his father). However, years of constant battling with the South had left Ledyard feeling exhausted. He declined to stay on, explaining in his typical blunt style that he didn’t feel up to “dealing with those dumb bastards for another four years.”
With Ledyard wanting to return home to Groton, Connecticut to get much-needed rest, Forbes had to come up with his second choice. That second choice was a young conservative lawyer named William Rehnquist. Practicing law in Phoenix, Arizona since 1953, Rehnquist was a legal advisor to Barry Goldwater. This association is what led Forbes to Rehnquist. By choosing Goldwater’s legal advisor to run the Justice Department, the President-elect hoped this would score him points with the leading conservative Senator whose support he needed. What prevented Forbes from going with his second choice was the pressure he was getting from an outsider to consider a third choice. California Governor William F. Knowland was lobbying him to give the Attorney General post to Senator Richard Nixon instead. Why Nixon? Two words: Ronald Reagan. Attending the Election Eve rally in San Francisco, Knowland became enthralled by Reagan’s “Another Course” speech endorsing Forbes for President. He gushed afterwards that the recent Republican convert had given “one hell of a speech.”
That speech made the gears inside Knowland’s mind turn. If Reagan could persuade people to vote for Forbes, imagine what that power of persuasion could achieve in the United States Senate! Since both California Senate seats were held by Republicans, the only way Reagan could get into the Senate at this time was for one of the Senators to resign their seat. Knowland could then exercise his power as Governor to appoint Reagan to fill the vacated seat. Since Houser was going to succeed Hubert Humphrey as Senate Majority Leader, that left Nixon as the sacrificial lamb. Thus Knowland lobbied Forbes hard to appoint Nixon on the grounds that his experience as a lawyer and his relentless drive made him qualified to run the Justice Department. Under pressure, and remembering how Knowland had stayed neutral during his winner-take-all California primary battle with Goldwater, Forbes gave in. The Attorney General post went to Nixon, clearing the way for Reagan to become Senator Reagan. As for Rehnquist, he was given the consolation post of Solicitor General. The third-highest ranking official at the Justice Department, the Solicitor General represents the Federal Government at the Supreme Court.

(Attorney General Richard Nixon)
For Postmaster General (a cabinet post that had more to do with dolling out party patronage than it did with running the post office), Forbes went with conservative Republican National Committee Chairman William E. Miller. Nebraska Governor Fred A. Seaton was tapped to serve as Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture post went to University of Nebraska Chancellor Clifford M. Hardin. Before he was elected Governor of Michigan in 1962, George W. Romney had been a savvy high-profile executive in the automobile industry. His business experience led Forbes to appoint him Secretary of Commerce. Economic university professor George P. Shultz, whose teachings had been greatly influenced by the leading free-market economist Milton Friedman, was recruited to serve as Secretary of Labor (today Shultz is the last living member of Forbes’ cabinet). Finally for Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, Forbes strategically chose the prominent African-American academic Kenneth Clark. The first black tenured full professor at the City College of New York, Clark’s psychological work showing the detrimental effects segregated classrooms had on black children was taken into account by the Supreme Court when they ruled in the landmark 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka that segregated schools were unconstitutional. A decade later, Clark agreed with Forbes that the present welfare system was failing to improve the lives of those living in poverty and that a new approach was needed. By putting Clark in charge of HEW, the President-elect had put into position a credible ally of welfare reform.

(Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Kenneth Clark)
Following Presidential custom dating back four decades, Forbes retained FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. In charge of the Bureau of Investigation since 1924, which became the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1935, Hoover had used – or abused – his power to build a large collection of files on everyone who was anyone. He knew all your secrets and he wasn’t afraid to blackmail you, especially if you were a politician. The fear that Hoover could ruin you politically by making your secrets public knowledge should you try to move against him provided the FBI Director with job security. No one at the time questioned Forbes keeping Hoover on; after all, Presidents from both political parties were expected to do so. However, after Forbes died in 1990, speculation emerged that he may have had an ulterior motive. In the wake of his state funeral, rumors surfaced that the former President had been a closet homosexual. This has led some people to speculate that the “real” reason why Forbes kept Hoover (himself rumored to have had a homosexual relationship with his Associate Director Clyde Tolson) was because the FBI Director had the sexuality dirt on him. True or not, Hoover wasn't going anywhere.

(FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover)
As with his decision to maintain experienced continuity at the Pentagon, Forbes kept CIA Director John McCone. Three of the four members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff also stayed at their posts to help the new President find his footing as Commander-in-Chief:

• Chairman of the Joint Chiefs David L. McDonald
• Chief of Staff of the Army William Westmoreland
• Chief of Staff of the Air Force Curtis Lemay

The sole exception was the highly controversial Chief of Naval Operations Hyman G. Rickover. Blunt and abrasive, Rickover had spent the bulk of his tenure as CNO confronting everybody and making enemies everywhere. Believing his way to be the only way, Rickover regularly insulted as dumb anybody who disagreed with him. Almost no one could stand him. The only person who seemed to like Rickover was Scoop, who shared his passion for nuclear submarines and who therefore overlooked his CNO’s combative style. Scoop was Rickover’s sole protector from those who badly wished he would just go away; but now that Jackson was leaving office, his CNO’s days of antagonizing everybody were numbered. No one shed a tear when Forbes replaced the much hated Rickover with the much friendlier Admiral John S. McCain Jr. The Admiral, whose family history was steeped in military service, had been an aggressive submarine commander in the Pacific during World War Two. Remaining active in the Navy after the war and possessing a helpful knack for developing political connections, McCain earned the nickname “Mr. Sea Power” for staunchly promoting a strong naval presence. With increasing fervor, he advocated for the United States to maintain continual naval superiority over the Soviet Union and the Republic of China since they posed “a direct threat to our free use of the oceans of the world.”
At a time when Chinese saber-rattling in the Western Pacific suggested that a Sino-Western naval war was not a question of if but when, Vice President-elect Everett Dirksen persuaded Forbes that McCain was the right man for the CNO job. Dirksen had been one of the politicians whom McCain had socially formed a political connection with and that connection was now paying off.

(Chief of Naval Operations John S. McCain Jr.)

 

[El Pip]

From a somewhat ignorant outsiders perspective they mostly seem good choices, I'm impressed that Forbes has identified the practical problems the Democrats had getting legislation through, things are rarely as simple as the President announcing he wants to do something and it then happened. Studying how the last lot got it wrong and trying to learn the lessons is a promising start.

Is Nixon really a good choice for Attorney General if you want to push through an end to segregation? You'd want someone who is either very committed to the cause of civil rights or the primacy of the law over politics, Nixon is neither of those. Will he really make the tough and unpopular decisions when the South kicks back or finds a legal sounding fudge to carry on segregation with a new name? I'd have concerns, ending segregation seems such an obviously good thing that it shouldn't be put in the hands of someone who won't push it through and make sure it takes effect on the ground.

Equally McCain as CNO sounds a bit dicey, unless Forbes is actively looking for a war (unlikely) surely he'd want someone a bit calmer in overall command. McCain sounds a bit like he needs someone to reign him in occasionally, a great commander of a fleet or fleets, but maybe not the best at trying to lead an entire global navy, including all the less glamorous, but still important non-combat bits.

 

[H.Appleby]

Nathan, first of all, sorry if I came off as dismissive or demanding, I meant to be neither and simply was making a good-natured inquiry. There's no rush on getting the photos to another site, and you definitely shouldn't pay those shysters at Photobucket $400 a year for what they used to give for free. Apologies if the lack of tone or inflection made what I intended to be a casual inquiry seem rude or bad-natured.

This cabinet looks pretty good, can you say C H I E F J U S T I C E N I X O N?

On a more serious note, Lodge is an interesting choice, not sure if his ambitions to rise higher are still in play, but he may very well be a bit too independent if Forbes doesn't maintain a firm grip. Nice to see Bunche, Miller, and Shultz are all getting nods, although I wonder if the '67 War (presuming it happens TTL) will be more controversial or if Bunche will make something of the attack on the Liberty. I'll agree with El Pip that Nixon's going to be less zealous on civil rights than Ledyard (after all, I think he's still a perennial dark horse possibility TTL, and he doesn't want to be pegged as too liberal), and Reagan in the Senate is going to be no friend to any really zealous civil rights legislation either. That said, it will be interesting to watch civil rights tear both parties apart TTL, I only wonder if Forbes has the political capital to go as far as LBJ did.

Also the two bits of foreshadowing are interesting, it will be cool to see Bush in '85 and I'm curious if the "rumors" about Forbes will go anywhere if his first term doesn't go well. I can imagine a chapter in TTL's None Dare Call It Treason about that, with a "Forbes Body Count" of those who might have been in the know who died in suspicious ways. I wonder what a certain General Walker would make of that information... somebody might have to catch a bullet in Dallas TTL, even though 22/11/63 has come and gone.

Oh, and I'm hopeful that McCain père's higher rank means the NVA keep his son. *mutters darkly about the health care repeal and the wall*

 

[volksmarschall]

This cabinet looks pretty good, can you say C H I E F J U S T I C E N I X O N?

Chief Justice Richard Nixon. The greatest Supreme Court Justice the United States we will ever know!

I guess Futurama will have Nixon be litigating from the bench for all eternity now.

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

Having Nixon as Attorney General makes me smile in a bit crocked way...

 

[Nathan Madien]

El Pip: Given that Congress has a long history of preventing Presidents from getting what they want done, Forbes is trying to improve his odds of getting his legislation passed by working with Congressional leaders instead of telling them what he wants done.

As President, Nixon enforced school integration so I would imagine that as Attorney General he would do the same. I doubt he would do so with the same zeal that Ledyard did. After all, how do you compete with a man known North and South as "The Enforcer"?

Given that war in the Western Pacific is only a matter of time, Forbes needs an CNO who will be aggressive and McCain is that guy.

H.Appleby: It's all right. I take no offense.

Photobucket has put me in a tough spot, suddenly demanding $400 a year (upfront!) to host photos. If they offered monthly payments instead (which they don't), it might be a different story. While I have found an alternative to Photobucket going forward, that has created casualties in the older updates. It sucks, but I have neither the time nor money to fix it right now.

M O S T L I K E L Y N O T.

Lodge's ambitions to rise higher died when he conceded the 1956 election to Sparkman. Like other losing Presidential candidates, Lodge only gets one shot at the White House.

Given that Presidents from both political parties appointed Lodge Ambassador several times, independence isn't a quality Lodge has. Lodge was very much a team player, willing to do whatever job you gave him regardless of partisanship.

Ledyard doesn't want to run for President. He wants to go home to Connecticut and retire. Reagan on the other hand will most likely use his Senate seat as a platform to seek the Presidency, probably 1972 (unless he decides to challenge Forbes in 1968 the way he challenged Ford in 1976).

As to whether Forbes will have the political capital to go as far as LBJ did on civil rights, I have to doubt it. The secret to Johnson's success was that he was able to bend people to his will. Forbes doesn't have that skill, and he isn't tempermentally inclinded to try to force people to do what he wants them to do.

Given Bush's growing recognition by history as the statesman who guided the Cold War to a peaceful conclusion, I think that recognition would be more so had he come into office four years earlier and gotten to work with Gorbachev from the get-go.

As for the "rumors" about Forbes, they never surfaced until after he died. JFK's notorious womanizing, which is well known today, was barely whispered in the 1960s. Back then, the private lives of Presidents was considered off-limits by the media. Now granted, being secretly gay (if he even was back then) is not quite the same thing as sleeping around with other women, but still...

I see someone isn't too fond of a certain maverick.

volksmarschall: I see Tricky Dick has fans.

I can just picture in my head what that would look like in "Futurama".

Kurt_Steiner: How so?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(In 1965, the Temptations scored a #1 hit with “My Girl”)

A New Beginning
During 1965:

• On the big screen, Julie Andrews taught the real-life von Trapp family about love and music in “The Sound of Music” while Omar Sharif saw his life get irreversibly altered by the Russian Revolution and subsequent Civil War in “Doctor Zhivago”.
• On Palm Sunday, an outbreak of 47 tornadoes across six Midwestern states killed 271 people and injured 1,500.
• In their World Heavyweight Championship boxing rematch, Muhammad Ali knocked out Sonny Liston two minutes into round one with what became known as the “Phantom Punch” (because not many people in the audience saw it).
• British racing driver Jim Clark had a good year, winning both the Indianapolis 500 and the Formula One World Championship.
• Performing at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island, Bob Dylan made the controversial decision to play the electric guitar instead of the acoustic guitar (which was the traditional instrument in folk music). This angered folk purists in the audience, who responded by booing Dylan.
• 55,600 people packed Shea Stadium to hear the Beatles perform, although no one in the record-packed stadium – even the band members – could actually hear any of the songs over the deafening roar of the audience.
• After ravaging the Bahamas and South Florida, Hurricane Betsy slammed into Louisiana as a powerful Category 4. 81 people were killed and Betsy became the first Atlantic hurricane to cause over $1 billion in damages.
• Pope Paul VI made the first-ever papal visit to the United States, where he addressed the United Nations General Assembly, met with President Malcolm Forbes, and celebrated Mass at Yankee Stadium.
• In St. Louis, Missouri, construction was completed on the 630 foot-tall stainless steel Gateway Arch.
• The Northeast was hit by a major blackout that left over 30 million people in the dark for 13 hours.
• “Highway 61 Revisited” by Bob Dylan, “Rubber Soul” by the Beatles, and “My Generation” by the Who were among the albums released that year.
• An annual holiday tradition began when “A Charlie Brown Christmas” aired for the first time on CBS.

For the country politically, 1965 marked the beginning of a new chapter. On January 3rd, the first session of the 89th United States Congress convened. Thanks to a gain of 18 seats in last year’s election, the Republican Party saw their control of the House of Representatives strengthen. They held 264 seats versus the Democrats’ 171 seats, giving them their largest majority in the lower chamber since the late 1940s. Since 218 seats were needed for a majority, the Republicans enjoyed a 46-seat margin. With the New Year came new leadership for the majority party. After 30 years in Congress, the last 6 of which he spent as Speaker of the House, Charles A. Halleck of Indiana had decided to retire while he was still on top. For the Republicans, there was no question about who would succeed Halleck. After being nominated by his party and elected easily, Gerald Ford of Michigan was sworn in as the new Speaker by the Dean of the United States House of Representatives (the longest continuously serving member of the House). Ford was popular with House Republicans across the political spectrum because of his fairness and friendly personality, so he was naturally a shoo-in for the top job. Philosophically, Speaker Ford described himself as being “a moderate in domestic affairs, an internationalist in foreign affairs, and a conservative in fiscal policy.”
John Jacob Rhodes of Arizona was elected to succeed Ford as House Majority Leader. A Goldwater Conservative, Rhodes’ election as the GOP’s floor leader signaled that the House would pursue a conservative legislative program. Leslie C. Arends of Illinois, continuing in his role as House Majority Whip, would manage that program and ensure that House Republicans were on board when key measures came up for a vote. On the other side of the aisle, John William McCormack of Massachusetts continued to represent the Democrats as House Minority Leader. McCormack had risen to that position in January 1962 following the death of Sam Rayburn. McCormack, who came across as being a kind old man, had earned the respect of his colleagues by consistently being considerate of them.

(From left to right: House Majority Whip Leslie C. Arends, GOP Representative James M. Collins of Texas, and Speaker of the House Gerald Ford)
The Senate also saw changes in leadership. Everett Dirksen of Illinois, the Republican leader, resigned his seat in preparation of being sworn in shortly as Vice President. Becoming Vice President meant Dirksen would be the President of the United States Senate with the power to cast a tie-breaking vote. Ralph Tyler Smith, a Republican member of the Illinois House of Representatives, was appointed by the new Governor Charles H. Percy to fill Dirksen’s seat (which would be up for general election in 1966). Dirksen’s moderate Deputy Frederick F. Houser of California became the new Senate Majority Leader, with fellow moderate Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania becoming Houser’s Deputy. Democrat Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, who had been the Senate Majority Leader since January 1961, was retained by his party to serve as the Senate Minority Leader. Despite the fact that he was a forceful advocate for civil rights, Humphrey’s integrity and willingness to stand up for himself had earned him the respect of Southern Democrats. That Humphrey could fight hard for what he believed in while at the same time come across as being cheerful and upbeat prompted people to nickname him the “Happy Warrior”.

(Senate Minority Leader Hubert Humphrey)
With a net gain of 5 Senate seats, the Republicans held 53 seats versus the Democrats’ 47 seats. Since 51 seats were needed for a majority, that gave the Republicans a 2-seat margin. The 1964 class of freshmen Senators taking their seats featured several notable figures. There was George H.W. Bush of Texas, the first Republican to represent the Lone Star State in the upper chamber since the 1870s. Another Republican first since the end of Reconstruction was Howard Baker of Tennessee. Republican Bud Wilkinson of Oklahoma had been elected largely on the strength of his popularity as the 3x national championship winning head football coach at the University of Oklahoma. Representing Ohio was Republican Robert Taft Jr., whose father had been a powerful Senator/1952 Republican Presidential nominee and whose grandfather had been the 27th President of the United States/the 10th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Walter Mondale of Minnesota had been one of only two Democrats to take Senate seats from the Republicans in 1964; as a Senator, Mondale became Humphrey’s protégé. With his star power and magnetic appeal, Republican Ronald Reagan of California easily captured the attention of the media. Reporters crowded around him as he took the standard oath of office with his second wife Nancy standing by his side:
“I, Ronald Reagan, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”
Unlike the other freshmen Senators, Reagan had been appointed to the Senate rather than elected. California Governor William F. Knowland had been enthralled by Reagan’s speech endorsing Forbes for President and had persuaded Forbes to choose Senator Richard Nixon to be his Attorney General so he could then fill Nixon’s seat with Reagan. There were mixed feelings among the senior Senators about the new junior Senator from California. Some welcomed Reagan to the upper chamber as an equal; others looked down at him with disbelief. The actor who in 1951 made a movie with a chimpanzee named Bonzo was now a United States Senator! These Senators felt inclined to be dismissive of Reagan, not regarding him as someone worth taking seriously. They would learn over time that Ronald Reagan was shrewder than he looked.

On the eve of Inauguration Day, 10,000 people packed the cavernous D.C. Armory to attend the Inaugural Gala being held in Forbes’ honor. Several entertainers performed, including the legendary jazz musician Louis Armstrong and comedian Al Nelson (who had gained national attention for doing a spot-on impression of Forbes). Headlining the gala was New Jersey’s most popular music act: the Four Seasons. Featuring the unique falsetto vocals of Frankie Valli, the Four Seasons released their first charting single “Sherry” in 1962. Their career then took off like a rocket, both “Sherry” and the follow-up single “Big Girls Don’t Cry” spending five weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. A string of million-selling hits over the next few years enabled the Four Seasons to become one of only two American bands – the other being the Beach Boys – who could withstand the wave of British bands that began dominating the American music scene in 1964. It was Forbes, a fellow New Jersey native, who asked the Four Seasons to perform at the Inaugural Gala. The band agreed but then was faced with a dilemma: what song should they sing? Keyboardist/songwriter Bob Gaudio came up with the solution. He took their 1963 #1 hit “Walk Like a Man” and rewrote the lyrics. Re-titled “Let’s Get behind Forbes”, the first verse congratulated Forbes on becoming President and the second verse wished him well. The twice-repeated refrain encouraged people to support him:
“Let’s get behind Forbes
Let’s get behind Forbes
Let’s get behind Forbes right now
He’ll show the world
Make our nation proud
So let’s get behind Forbes right now
Oooooooooh
(Forbes, Forbes, Forbes, Forbes)
Oooooooooh”
Because “Let’s Get behind Forbes” was a one-off performance just for the gala, the Four Seasons never recorded it. Fortunately for those who missed the original performance, the song would later be recreated for the “Jersey Boys” Broadway musical and 2014 Clint Eastwood film.

Shortly before 10:00 AM on Wednesday, January 20th, a black limousine pulled up to the North Portico of the White House. President Henry M. Jackson and his wife Helen waited patiently while the doors were opened. Forbes got out of the car and, with his wife Roberta in tow, went up to Scoop and Helen. Press photographers captured the historic moment when the Jacksons warmly welcomed the Forbes to their new home. Following hand shakes and greetings, the two couples went inside the White House for a small breakfast. Since 1941, each outgoing President has hosted a small breakfast for his successor before they left together for the white neoclassical Capitol Building. Franklin D. Roosevelt had originated the tradition, and he had done so for a pragmatic reason. Since he was paralyzed from the waist down (the result of contracting Guillain–Barré syndrome in 1921), FDR felt he needed a reason for his successor Wendell Willkie to come to the White House early so he would have extra time in which to be assisted into the car. With the public being unaware that Roosevelt couldn’t walk on his own, hosting breakfast for Willkie became a cover story. Once their breakfast was completed, the Jacksons and the Forbes returned to the North Portico where they climbed down the four steps to the waiting Presidential limousine. They entered the car, which had a clear top so people could see them without exposing the occupants to the elements...or a waiting would-be assassin. As the long Presidential motorcade made its way to the Capitol Building, 5,400 people from various Federal law enforcement agencies were on hand to provide security on the ground while two military helicopters hovered overhead. The large security presence was needed, because over 1 million people had poured into Washington to attend the inauguration.

(The Mormon Tabernacle Choir performing at the inauguration)
Meanwhile at the Capitol Building, various dignitaries took their seats on a ceremonial platform constructed over the steps of the eastern front. Among those in attendance were the two living former Presidents Thomas E. Dewey and John Sparkman. The weather was bright and clear, with the temperature hovering at 38 degrees Fahrenheit. It was unlike four years ago, when Scoop was inaugurated in the wake of a blizzard which had paralyzed Washington. Walking down the scarlet carpeted steps to their seats first were Helen and Roberta, followed by Dirksen and his wife Louella. When it came time for Jackson and Forbes to make their descent together, the black uniformed United States Marine Band struck up the four ruffles and flourishes leading into “Hail to the Chief”. Around Noon, Dirksen stood before Ford at the podium and raised his right hand. The House Speaker then proceeded to administer the standard oath of office making Dirksen the 38th Vice President of the United States. After that came the main event. While the United States Marine Band again played “Hail to the Chief”, Forbes and Chief Justice Curtis Shake took their positions at the podium with Roberta standing between them. After placing his left hand on the Lincoln Bible held by his wife, Forbes raised his right hand and was administered the constitutionally-mandated oath of office by the Chief Justice:
“I, Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. So help me God.”
Applause and a round of handshaking followed, signaling that the 45-year-old Forbes was now officially the 39th President of the United States. It was 12:07 PM when he stepped up to the podium to deliver his Inaugural Address. With a huge set of bundled-up eyes staring at him, along with the eyes of millions through television, Forbes began by declaring that “Today we share a moment of majesty. In the orderly transfer of power from one political party to another, we celebrate the unity that keeps us free. For 176 years, since George Washington first stood before his fellow countrymen to take the very oath which I have just taken, we have had these moments. Some have been fleeting in time; others have stood out as moments of beginning, in which the course of history is set. This is such a moment.”
“Eleven years from now, America will celebrate its 200th anniversary as a nation. What actions and choices we make today will determine what kind of a nation we will see at that moment in time.”
America had much to be proud of. “We have made enormous strides in science and industry and agriculture. We have built a wealth that is more than anyone has ever seen before.”
While American society was an abundant one, not everyone was able to reap the fruits of it. Nor was everyone able to say that they lived in a society that was just and free. “When we look around us, we see those who are denied their basic rights because of the color of their skin. We see those who are condemned to a life of poverty not because of who they are, but because of where they live. We have the strength not just to look at those of our fellow citizens who are without, but to fill them with the hope of a life secured with the blessings of liberty. We must use that strength.”
At the same time, strength of a different kind was needed to protect lives abroad. America was locked in a period of confrontation with those who sought to conquer territory and extend their domination. “Let all nations know, whether they are our friends or adversaries, that America stands ready to lend a helping hand to all those who desire to live in freedom from fear.”
America would remain engaged in the Vietnam War until the effort to destroy self-determination in South Vietnam had been defeated. Only then would she begin the process of withdrawing troops. As for the Chinese Dragon:
“We have no desire to wage war against the people of China; but should their government desire to wage war against their neighbors, we will not hesitate to come to the defense of those in need. That is our promise to the people of Asia, and we will keep our promise.”
While talking tough on China, Forbes took a softer approach to the Soviet Union. Interested in negotiating with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev a mutual reduction in “the burden of arms”, the new President declared that “our lines of communication will be open. We cannot expect diplomacy to achieve results overnight that will benefit all the people of the world, but let us begin.”

Following the Inaugural Address, which lasted for nearly 11 minutes, President Forbes, Vice President Dirksen, and their wives rode together to the White House. There they were joined by their families in an enclosed white stand constructed on the edge of the North Lawn. Stretching for 1.5 miles down Pennsylvania Avenue, the inaugural parade which went past the stand featured multiple marching bands from all over the country, servicemen carrying the flags of all 50 states, men dressed in Revolutionary War uniforms playing the drums and fifes, sharply dressed servicemen marching in step with their rifles, and various floats representing the states (the New Jersey float went first followed by the Illinois float). The inaugural parade, broadcast live on television, lasted all afternoon and into the early evening. Then it was off to the five fancy inaugural balls for appearances and dances, which went on into the wee hours of the morning. It wasn't until 2:00 AM that the new President finally returned to the White House to get much needed sleep after a long day.

While the inaugural parade was going on, Air Force One flew the Jacksons home to Everett, Washington. After a quarter century in office (Representative, Senator, Vice President, and President), Scoop was now a private citizen. He kept himself busy in retirement, writing and overseeing the construction of his Presidential Library in Everett. He joined the corporate board of Boeing, a company he had long championed. A devoted family man, Jackson spent his post-White House years raising his two children Anna Marie (born in February 1963) and Peter (born in April 1966). Looking back at his one-term Presidency, Scoop cited the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1963 as his proudest accomplishment. Unfortunately for him, history has not looked at his Presidency kindly. Henry M. Jackson is today generally regarded as being a mediocre President for a variety of reasons including:

• He didn’t achieve much domestically.
• He badly mishandled the steel strike of 1962.
• His Administration had been hit by major scandals including one involving the Department of Agriculture (which became the biggest scandal since Teapot Dome in the 1920s) and one that drove Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson to resign in early 1964.
• His hawkishness had alienated him from his own Democratic Party, which dumped him from the ticket in 1964 in favor of a more dovish candidate. It marked the first time in 80 years that a sitting President had been denied re-nomination after one term.

The alienation was such that he was treated as a pariah by Democrats for the next three decades. Jackson was never invited to address a Democratic National Convention between 1968 and 1980 (the last one before he died in 1983). It wasn't until 1992 that he was shown any love by his own party. In an effort to demonstrate that he was a New Democrat who had a fresh way of looking at things, Bill Clinton embraced Scoop in a way that no other Democratic Presidential nominee had done prior. Clinton fondly recalled getting the chance in 1963 to shake President Jackson’s hands during a Boys Nation visit to the White House and gave him credit for trying to improve the lives of the American people. He attacked his Republican opponent Bob Dole for voting against measures Scoop tried to pass like Medicare. Despite Clinton's embrace, Jackson’s stock hasn’t gone up much over the years. Presidential historian Timothy Naftali has summed the 38th President up this way:
“When it comes to civil rights, Scoop Jackson is one of our finest Presidents. The problem is that he wasn’t very good at anything else.”

(Former President Henry M. Jackson, circa 1982. Although generally maligned in historical assessments, Scoop has had moments of positive recognition. In 1987 for example, President George H.W. Bush posthumously awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom – the nation’s highest civilian award)

 

[El Pip]

Presidential historian Timothy Naftali has summed the 38th President up this way:
“When it comes to civil rights, Scoop Jackson is one of our finest Presidents. The problem is that he wasn’t very good at anything else.”

I can see the thinking and I don't really disagree with it, but if Scoop is the worst post-war President the US gets then they are doing OK.

I think his treatment by his party is maybe a bit too harsh and perhaps counter-productive, an ex-US President only disappears into the background if he wants to. While Scoop may not have the willpower (and shamelessness) to do a Nixon style rehabilitation, he also isn't coming back from as bad a place as Nixon was. If you make him a pariah he may want to start making a fuss just to defend himself and his record, so meet him halfway and let him be an elder statesmen of the party who just happens to never make big speeches or get involved in day to day politics much.