Five Decades of Fear & Loathing

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Tuesday, April 1st, 1980: Alfonso Guerra González of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party is proclaimed interim Prime Minister of Spain. King Felipe VI formally requests that Guerra form an interim coalition government with other anti-Falange parties. At the same time a constitutional convention is scheduled, which will produce a new Constitution to be ratified by the people in a national referendum.

Primaries are held in Kansas and Wisconsin.

1980 Kansas Democratic Primary: 193,918 Votes, 38 Delegates.
Pat Robertson: 53.11% - 102,989 votes, 38 delegates.
Reubin Askew: 17.75% - 34,420 votes.
Edward Kennedy: 17.70% - 34,323 votes.
Frank Church: 4.44% - 8,609 votes.
Jerry Brown: 3.52% - 6,825 votes.
Jesse Jackson: 2.48% - 4,809 votes.
Lyndon LaRouche: 1.00% - 1,939 votes.

1980 Wisconsin Democratic Primary: 629,619 Votes, 77 Delegates.
Edward Kennedy: 45.06% - 283,706 votes, 38 delegates.
Reubin Askew: 25.41% - 159,986 votes, 23 delegates.
Jesse Jackson: 16.55% - 104,201 votes, 16 delegates.
Jerry Brown: 6.72% - 42,310 votes.
Pat Robertson: 4.11% - 25,877 votes.
Frank Church: 1.35% - 8,499 votes.
Lyndon LaRouche: 0.80% - 5,036 votes.

Democratic Delegate Count:
Edward Kennedy: 460 delegates.
Pat Robertson: 261 delegates.
Reubin Askew: 220 delegates.
Jesse Jackson: 118 delegates.
Jerry Brown: 12 delegates.
Frank Church: 4 delegates.
Wednesday, April 2nd, 1980: Senator Jerry Brown (D-CA) announces he is suspending his candidacy for the Democratic nomination and declines to immediately endorse a rival candidate upon leaving the race.

In a speech which many Quebec sovereigntists regard as incendiary, Minister of State for Fitness and Amateur Sport and Minister of State for Multiculturalism Steve Paproski MP (PC – Edmonton North) calls the Quebec sovereignty referendum “treason by writ”.

At a press conference in New York City President Reagan signs a final agreement with Governor Hugh Carey which sets out a plan for a restoration of full local government to New York City. The city will continue to largely be run by an administrator appointed by Albany until December 1981, and the elected Mayor Mario Cuomo will continue to gradually take on more responsibilities until this point. The regularly scheduled November 1981 mayoral race is slated to take place as planned and is quickly framed by the various candidates challenging Cuomo as a referendum on the city’s fiscal future and autonomy.
Thursday, April 3rd, 1980: The Federal Home Loan Bank Board voted to authorize savings and loan associations to offer the first adjustable-rate mortgage in the United States, changing existing regulations to offer the renegotiable-rate mortgage (RRM) to mortgagors for home purchases, the first variable rate mortgage in the United States.

USAF B-52 bombers attack the rail lines supporting the PLA forward defenses near the Hong Kong border. At the same time US Navy Seal and British and Australian SBS Special Forces are used to infiltrate PLA forward areas and “spike the cannons” in terms of sabotaging Chinese artillery. In a televised address from the Oval Office, President Reagan defends the operation, claiming it was necessary to ward off a potential impending attack on Hong Kong by the People’s Liberation Army. China in return threatens retaliation, with state radio quoting Premier Wang Hongwen – the apparent paramount leader – that “the actions by the imperialist powers and their lackeys will not go unpunished.” Despite this threat, there is no immediate Chinese retaliation, as much of their artillery positions and infrastructure around the city had been badly damaged in the attack.
Friday, April 4th, 1980: Despite efforts by the leadership of the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation to end the British Steel steelworkers' strike, the membership rebels and calls for the strike to continue. The dissident Socialist Labour leader and former Deputy Prime Minister Barbara Castle prominently supports the rebellious steel workers in their efforts to prevent lay-offs and government mandated efficiencies at the nationalized British Steel.

Fidel Castro orders the removal of troops and police from around the Peruvian embassy in Havana, allowing it to become a haven for asylum seekers and anti-communist activists seeking to emigrate from Cuba. This is effectively the start of the Mariel boatlift, in which thousands of people (including prisoners and the mentally ill emptied from the country’s jails and asylums) are allowed to leave the country for the United States.

While attempting to apologize for Minister Paproski’s comments, Canadian Prime Minister Lougheed causes further tension by suggesting that Quebec “seeks a divorce from the federal relationship in order to create a society that is more exclusive and authoritarian in nature.”
Saturday, April 5th, 1980: Iraq’s mission to the United Nations in New York is struck by a suicide bomber from a group called the Mujahideen for the Liberation of the Holy Places claims responsibility. Intelligence indicates that the MLHP is an Arabian group receiving support from the PJO. The FBI and the FCTB begin an investigation into the attack in the aftermath of the blast, which killed seven Iraqis and injured 22 others.

The Louisiana primary is held.

1980 Louisiana Democratic Primary: 358,741 Votes, 51 Delegates.
Reubin Askew: 42.88% - 153,828 votes, 27 delegates.
Pat Robertson: 37.30% - 133,810 votes, 24 delegates.
Edward Kennedy: 13.90% - 49,864 votes.
Jesse Jackson: 4.42% - 15,856 votes.
Frank Church: 1.00% - 3,587 votes.
Lyndon LaRouche: 0.50% - 1,793 votes.

Democratic Delegate Count:
Edward Kennedy: 460 delegates.
Pat Robertson: 285 delegates.
Reubin Askew: 247 delegates.
Jesse Jackson: 118 delegates.
Jerry Brown: 12 delegates.
Frank Church: 4 delegates.
Sunday, April 6th, 1980: Five Palestinian Arab terrorists from the Iraqi-backed Arab Liberation Front penetrate kibbutz Misgav Am in the night and enter the kibbutz nursery. (It is believed they landed by boat from the Turkish area of Cyprus [as neither the PLO nor the PJO have bases in Lebanon]). They kill the kibbutz secretary and an infant boy. They then hold the rest of the children as hostages, demanding the release of about 50 terrorists held in Israeli prisons. The first raid of an IDF infantry unit is unsuccessful, but a second attempt, a few hours later, succeeds, and all the terrorists are killed. Two kibbutz members and one soldier are killed, four children and 11 soldiers are wounded.
Monday, April 7th, 1980: Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) campaigns in Michigan ahead of the state’s caucuses with 1976 Vice Presidential nominee Nicholas Katzenbach, who many speculate is a frontrunner for the position of Secretary of State in a potential Kennedy administration. Despite his bonafides as a leading liberal in the Democratic Party, Katzenbach is hoping to court former Wallace voters who might be skeptical of Kennedy’s chances against President Reagan.
Wednesday, April 9th, 1980: Soyuz 35 launched. It carries two Cosmonauts to the Salyut 6 space station.
Thursday, April 10th, 1980: In Granma, the official newspaper of the Cuban Communist party, Cuban leader Fidel Castro praises Quebec premier Rene Levesque as a “visionary of the people” and celebrates the Quebec referendum as a first step toward creating a “liberated, socialist democracy on the North American mainland.”

Tahir Yaha is appointed as the Iraqi military governor of Arabia. His authority is limited though. Command of the military forces is directed by the Revolutionary Command Council in Baghdad. President Saddam Hussein and his regime want to ensure that no one individual has a concentration of power in their hands to the extent that he himself did at the beginning of the Arabian campaign when he was Vice President and second to the deposed Al-Bakr.
Saturday, April 12th, 1980: Samuel Kanyon Doe takes over Liberia in a coup d'état, ending over 130 years of democratic presidential succession in that country. The United States is widely believed to have supported the coup since the incumbent President, William R. Tolbert, had opened diplomatic relations and trade with the Soviet Union and its allies. Once he took power Doe quickly restored Liberia’s pro-western foreign policy.

Quebec Premier Rene Levesque seems to confirm Castro’s essay when he says that a newly sovereign Quebec may be a “one party state for a time” until “a genuinely Quebec-oriented opposition is formed” – thereby suggesting that a sovereign Quebec would force the Quebec Liberal Party and other political parties with a Canadian national presence to shut down.

The New England Journal of Medicine publishes a report on a study conducted by the Center for Disease Control into the cases of 36 habitual users of injected narcotics in San Francisco. All 36 patients have a rare form of pneumonia seen only in patients with weakened immune systems, and indications are that there are more sufferers on the streets. The new immune suppression virus acquires its name from this study – the Narcotics Related Immune Suppression Virus (or more commonly NACRIS [‘pron; Nah-kris’). The study will later be criticized for its selective focus on the addicts themselves, and overlooking the wider implications of the disease’s transmission (i.e. through bodily fluids). For the moment research concentrates on a direct connection between NACRIS and the narcotics – leading some to speculate that the Chinese are poisoning their export heroin with biological agents. Opponents of the China and law enforcement sources will repeat this unproven connection for the next several years, further sabotaging research into the actual sources of NACRIS.

The Arizona and South Carolina caucuses are held.

1980 Arizona Democratic Caucus: 17,330 Votes, 28 Delegates.
Frank Church: 26.63% - 4,614 votes, 8 delegates.
Edward Kennedy: 24.61% - 4,264 votes, 8 delegates.
Reubin Askew: 19.18% - 3,323 votes, 6 delegates.
Jesse Jackson: 16.24% - 2,814 votes, 6 delegates.
Pat Robertson: 12.44% - 2,155 votes.
Lyndon LaRouche: 0.90% - 155 votes.

1980 South Carolina Democratic Caucus: 11,370 Votes, 38 Delegates.
Pat Robertson: 44.68% - 5,080 votes, 18 delegates.
Jesse Jackson: 29.90% - 3,396 votes, 12 delegates.
Reubin Askew: 16.68% - 1,896 votes, 8 delegates.
Edward Kennedy: 5.65% - 642 votes.
Frank Church: 2.27% - 258 votes.
Lyndon LaRouche: 0.82% - 93 votes.

Democratic Delegate Count:
Edward Kennedy: 468 delegates.
Pat Robertson: 303 delegates.
Reubin Askew: 261 delegates.
Jesse Jackson: 136 delegates.
Jerry Brown: 12 delegates.
Frank Church: 12 delegates.
Sunday, April 13th, 1980: The Ecology Party’s first convention is held in Cleveland, Ohio. The party’s founder, ecologist Barry Commoner, is nominated for President unanimously by the 260 attending delegates while famed attorney and consumer advocate Ralph Nader of Connecticut is nominated for the Vice Presidency unopposed. The Commoner/Nader ticket sets out to run on an environmentalist and progressive platform.

Democratic presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche is indicted by the U.S. Justice Department for money laundering and mail fraud. Larouche claims that he is being persecuted, and vows to continue his quixotic quest for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Monday, April 14th, 1980: Iron Maiden's debut self-titled album Iron Maiden is released.
Tuesday, April 15th, 1980: Terrence Boston, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, travelled to Dublin for talks with Charles Haughey, then Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister), and members of the new Irish government.
Wednesday, April 16th, 1980: In a televised broadcast to the nation, Chinese Premier Wang Hongwen announces the execution of Zhao Ziyang, a member of the Central Committee that Wang accused of being “an agent of foreign imperialists.” Zhao had been a reform minded figure within the party who had been first purged at the peak of the Cultural Revolution, before being rehabilitated by Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai in 1972. In 1973, he was briefly appointed Party Secretary in Inner Mongolia, but was purged again at the 1973 Party Congress that led to Mao Yuanxin’s rise to power. In 1979, Zhao was released from a labor camp following Mao Yuanxin’s demise and was subsequently appointed Party Secretary of Guangdong under the patronage of Wang Dongxing, the leader of the People’s Liberation Army.

However, as tensions between the west and China continued in the wake of Mao Yuanxin’s downfall, and with the leading reformists of the Communist Party (Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping in particular) now long dead, Zhao became increasingly influential within the “opposition” wing of the Communist Party. Sensing a threat from Zhao, Premier Wang Hongwen (head of government), Chairman of the Presidium Li Xiannian (head of state), and First Secretary Ye Jianying (head of the Communist Party) move against him and order his purging. He is arrested, tried, and executed within a matter of hours as Wang Dongxing was uninformed of the planned purge, and thus could not interfere to stop the matter.

Wang Dongxing is angered by this and uses his influence in the military and the party to promote Xi Zhongxun to Zhao’s former position as Party Secretary in Guangdong. While the Maoist hardliners in the Politburo are less than thrilled that Xi, a longtime critic of radical Maoist policies, is appointed as Zhao’s successor but are or more less assured that Xi is loyal to the party and the Chinese revolution. Hoping to coopt the new provincial Party Secretary rather than implement another purge in order to demonstrate the political stability of the post-Mao era Communist Party, Premier Wang Hongwen agrees to hire Xi’s son Xi Jinping to be his Deputy Private Secretary, an important office within the Premier’s staff.
Friday, April 18th, 1980: A day after the purging of Zhao Yiyang, Chinese Premier Wang Hongwen travels to Pyongyang, North Korea, where he is received by Kim Il Sung. The two spent several hours in deep discussions, with a joint statement being released later in the evening announcing that the two nations have agreed to fully reestablish diplomatic and trade relations. This is an alarming sign in Moscow, which had benefited from China’s seven-year isolationist phase as the sole supplier of weapons and funds to third world communist/liberation movements, which became increasingly dependent (and loyal) to the Soviet Union and the Moscow line as a result. China’s (limited) reengagement in world affairs is not welcome news in the Kremlin.
Sunday, April 20th, 1980: On NBC’s Meet the Press, Jesse Jackson warns that the Askew and Robertson campaigns could threaten Senator Kennedy’s lead in the primaries thus far and warns the party against nominating another Southern conservative for the third consecutive election in a row. Jackson does not rule out seeking the Presidency as a third party or independent candidate should Robertson in particular win the Democratic nomination.

A year after returning to civilian rule the Argentine government begins the prosecution of war criminals from “the dirty war.” President Carlos Humberto Perette announces that only the “truly guilty” and “those with innocent blood on their hands” will be prosecuted.
More in a bit. Also have a pop-culture-ish focused update coming up.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Actually, now that I say that: if you're still taking "where are they now?" requests, what's Ross Perot up to?

Thanks for the great post and great analysis - you are 100% on point. As for Perot, he's basically doing the same stuff as OTL in terms of business, but is an even bigger advocate of the POW-MIA cause, which is circulating as a conspiracy theory on par as the 1970s/1980s Q-Anon. He will be a factor at some point, but I don't want to spoil too much.

[Prez_zf]

Given that Chapman was taken care of, what's the future looking like for Lennon? Also, what are Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Al Haig, Thatcher, Pierre Trudeau, Al Gore, Dick Cheney, and Roger Ailes up to?

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Given that Chapman was taken care of, what's the future looking like for Lennon? Also, what are Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Al Haig, Thatcher, Pierre Trudeau, Al Gore, Dick Cheney, and Roger Ailes up to?

Lennon will live through the present day (2024 - I plan on ending this thread in 2021 and then doing a continuation thread from 2021-to now), but I'm not sure on what do with him. A Beatles reunion is coming sometime in the 1980s, though.

Hillary Clinton: Already done earlier.

Donald Trump: Also already did him, but I'll expand on him. After a failed attempt at financing a Broadway musical, Trump went into real estate, securing the loans necessary to restore and reopen the famous Commodore Hotel. He is now, as of 1980, in the process of opening a string of casinos in NJ where gambling has been legalized. He will become a larger figure as the 1980s progresses.

Al Haig: Currently the American Ambassador to NATO.

Margaret Thatcher: Out of office, working primarily as a commentator on English TV. In Drew's timeline, he had her leading the National Front, but I view that as a rather uncharitable assessment and instead in this timeline, she remains a Tory. She may run for Parliament in the next general election again, but her chances at being leader have largely passed.

Pierre Trudeau: Good question. I guess he's just working as a lawyer or something, whatever he did in real life during his post-PM years. He is a vocal campaigner for Quebec to remain in Canada, however.

Al Gore: Already done on page 10.

Dick Cheney: See above.

Roger Ailes: Working at the Hughes Network, where is a major executive who is helping keep the network popular with its conservative audience.

[username5243]

Interesting to see a young Xi Jinping's appearance.

I wonder what other young people who might be famous in OTL are up to, In particular thinking about the current whereabouts of a certain Comrade Vladimir V. Putin...

And yeah, nominating Robertson seems like the perfect excuse to get a analog of "We the People" from the original thread going...

[anbarret]

Interesting to see headline Maoist China trying to promote itself abroad again. Will it become the massive inspiration to Western radicals/Third World Liberationists that it was in the 1960s? I can see China supporting the Shining Path in Peru potentially leading to a Latin American Khmer Rouge!!!

(Google City-Journal "The Guzman Parallel")

[username5243]

Interesting to see headline Maoist China trying to promote itself abroad again. Will it become the massive inspiration to Western radicals/Third World Liberationists that it was in the 1960s? I can see China supporting the Shining Path in Peru potentially leading to a Latin American Khmer Rouge!!!

(Google City-Journal "The Guzman Parallel")

Oh, I've heard of those guys enough to know they're Bad News.

They seem like they'd fit right in with the rest of the Gumboverse though...

[wnwnwn]

Interesting to see headline Maoist China trying to promote itself abroad again. Will it become the massive inspiration to Western radicals/Third World Liberationists that it was in the 1960s? I can see China supporting the Shining Path in Peru potentially leading to a Latin American Khmer Rouge!!!

(Google City-Journal "The Guzman Parallel")

Noooo
Well, timelines don't need to always favour good sides, so a more funded Shining Path would be an interesting idea. The thing is how could it convince more people to join the group instead of opposing it.

[anbarret]

Interesting to see headline Maoist China trying to promote itself abroad again. Will it become the massive inspiration to Western radicals/Third World Liberationists that it was in the 1960s? I can see China supporting the Shining Path in Peru potentially leading to a Latin American Khmer Rouge!!!

(Google City-Journal "The Guzman Parallel")

Noooo
Well, timelines don't need to always favour good sides, so a more funded Shining Path would be an interesting idea. The thing is how could it convince more people to join the group instead of opposing it.

Pleased to see a Peruvian on this board...and for such a person to respond so soon to my comment.

[KaiserDave]

This is all excellent, but a slight quibble Sanchez. The Quebec Liberal Party has been entirely independent of the Liberal Party of Canada since 1955.

"until “a genuinely Quebec-oriented opposition is formed” – thereby suggesting that a sovereign Quebec would force the Quebec Liberal Party and other political parties with a Canadian national presence to shut down."

So in that sense the Quebec Liberal Party has no national presence at all, they are just federalist as opposed to sovereigntist. In fact, I don't think any party in Quebec had a national connection at all.

Also, my own disagreement, obviously Lévesque could be being misinterpreted here, but I don't think he would suggest banning parties at all. Contrary to some popular notions, Lévesque was not even that hardline of a nationalist, relatively speaking. In many ways he was a Social Democrat almost as much as he was a nationalist, and also he used to be a member of the Quebec Liberal Party. I think it's possible he might mean that he doesn't think non-PQ parties would prosper in an independent Quebec.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Monday, April 21st, 1980: The British Parliament passes a second incremental wealth tax as part of Chancellor Roy Jenkins’ effort to finance increased spending on social supports with a levy on the wealthy. The first incremental wealth tax had been passed in 1977 and the second adds a 0.5% increase, with a 3% tax on efforts to send capital out of the country without a proper “external investment” permit from the Board of Trade.
Tuesday, April 22nd, 1980: Primaries are held in Missouri and Pennsylvania.

1980 Missouri Democratic Caucus: 545 Precinct Delegates, 77 Delegates.
Reubin Askew: 40.40% - 220 votes, 34 delegates.
Pat Robertson: 30.30% - 165 votes, 26 delegates.
Edward Kennedy: 18.12% - 98 votes, 17 delegates.
Jesse Jackson: 7.18% - 39 votes.
Frank Church: 3.21% - 17 votes.
Lyndon LaRouche: 0.79% - 4 votes.

1980 Pennsylvania Democratic Primary: 1,600,820 Votes, 189 Delegates.
Edward Kennedy: 41.40% - 662,739 votes, 106 delegates.
Jesse Jackson: 29.71% - 475,603 votes, 83 delegates.
Reubin Askew: 13.49% - 215,950 votes.
Pat Robertson: 10.67% - 170,807 votes.
Frank Church: 3.50% - 56,028 votes.
Lyndon LaRouche: 1.22% - 19,530 votes.

Democratic Delegate Count:
Edward Kennedy: 591 delegates.
Pat Robertson: 329 delegates.
Reubin Askew: 295 delegates.
Jesse Jackson: 219 delegates.
Jerry Brown: 12 delegates.
Frank Church: 12 delegates.
Thursday, April 24th, 1980: Western bankers and officials of Poland's government conferred at a meeting at the Hotel Victoria in Warsaw to discuss additional loans. The bankers made it clear that before it could borrow more money, Poland would have to stop its subsidy to maintain artificially low prices on consumer goods. On July 1, the Polish government would announce a system of gradual but continuous price rises, particularly for meat, triggering the series of strikes that would lead to government recognition of the Solidarity movement.

U.S. B-52 Bombers drop bombs on suspected PJO training camps near Bamako, Mali in retaliation for the terrorist attack in New York. The nation’s Islamist President Sekou Bamako expels the American and French ambassadors in the wake of the airstrikes.
Friday, April 25th, 1980: Dan-Air Flight 1008 crashes in Tenerife, killing all 146 occupants and marking the worst air disaster involving a British-registered aircraft in terms of loss of life.
Saturday, April 26th, 1980:  The Michigan caucuses are held.

1980 Michigan Democratic Caucus: 16,210 Votes, 141 Delegates.
Edward Kennedy: 49.87% - 8,083 votes, 81 delegates.
Jesse Jackson: 34.82% - 5,644 votes, 60 delegates.
Reubin Askew: 10.49% - 1,700 votes.
Pat Robertson: 2.36% - 382 votes.
Frank Church: 1.50% - 243 votes.
Lyndon LaRouche: 0.95% - 153 votes.

Democratic Delegate Count:
Edward Kennedy: 672 delegates.
Pat Robertson: 329 delegates.
Reubin Askew: 295 delegates.
Jesse Jackson: 279 delegates.
Jerry Brown: 12 delegates.
Frank Church: 12 delegates.
Sunday, April 27th, 1980: In a joint statement, the Peace Party and the Socialist Party announce the two minor parties will run a joint ticket for President in 1980; a special convention is scheduled to take place in June in Washington, D.C.
Monday, April 28th, 1980: Joint military and police strike forces move against Chinese heroin distribution points in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines, along with major police raids in San Francisco, Seattle, Hawaii, and Vancouver. This coordinated international effort is designed to put a squeeze on the Chinese international heroin distribution ring and so put a major stoppage into the flow of cash into the Lesser Mao’s coffers.

Later research would show that the American Mafia and underemployed drug traffickers in Turkey and other parts of Asia assisted the U.S. CIA and DEA and Britain’s Security and Police Services in gathering criminal intelligence on these Chinese networks. This unsavory alliance would later cause a scandal over law enforcement and intelligence making alliances with criminals in order to ensnare other criminals.

Andreas Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece, loses his majority in the national legislature and is forced to form a coalition government with the Communists. The new government's composition is alarming to President Reagan's National Security Advisers, who warn that communists could seize power in Greece through an electoral victory in the future.
Tuesday, April 29th, 1980: The INLA fires a 3M11 Falanga (AT-2 Swatter) surface-to-surface missile from the back of a lorry at the Palace of Westminster. The building sustains some visually spectacular damage on its street side façade but remains structurally sound. What is less structurally sound in the Labour government’s image on security after shots of the damaged façade are shown on television.
Wednesday, April 30th, 1980: Queen Julianna of the Netherlands formally abdicates the throne; her daughter Beatrix succeeds her as the nation’s monarch.

On the same day, protesters, joined by striking workers, begin rioting in Madrid. Demanding the end of the monarchy due to the instability caused by the country’s scandal plagued former monarch Juan Carlos’s acting as his son Felipe VI’s regent, the rioters try to storm the Royal Palace of Madrid but are turned back by police. When both the army and the new Prime Minister refuse to aid the King in removing the protesters, the Spanish Royal Family realizes the jig is up; that night, the country’s 12-year-old King signs his own instrument of abdication and flees with his parents and siblings for exile in Britain.

Prime Minister Alfonso Guerra González declares the birth of the third Spanish Republic, while the moderate members of the Falange, angered by Juan Carlos’s betrayal, form the Republican Party, which will become the leading center-right force in Spanish politics in years to come.

Vladimir Alexandrovich Kryuchkov, a senior KGB officer, is arrested along with several others and a group of black marketers. While they are charged with economic crimes, it seems entirely likely that this was an effort to remove some of Yuri Andropov’s close allies from the KGB. Not surprisingly two of the officers involved in the arrest, KGB Colonel Oleg Kalugin and KGB Lieutenant Vladimir Putin, are clients of Deputy Premier Nikolai Ryzhkov by way of Ryzhkov’s assistant Alexander Yakovlev.

[KaiserDave]

Maybe I'm slightly confused, but the end of the Spanish monarchy seems to have happy quite fast. One second Juan Carlos was receiving massive applause for ending the Falangist state, and the next he is "scandal-plagued" and flees. Did we see what those scandals are? I do agree that he would go though. The monarchy would be finished.

[2016]

Hey Chairman Sanchez

Will we get this:

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Thursday, May 1st, 1980: The Iranian embassy in London is seized by six members of the Arabistan Revolutionary Movement, an Iraqi backed separatist group which seeks to unite Khuzestan province with Iraq. The gunmen who took control of the building and seized hostages are believed to be acting on behalf of the Iraqi regime.

The Federal Republic of Spain (the Third Spanish Republic) is declared. May 1st is declared a national holiday. Pending a formal constitutional assembly, a three man Presidium is established to be composed of leaders of the PSOE, the Church and an agreed upon Professor of Law.

The Labour government of Dennis Healey sells shares in British Aerospace to private holders but retains 51% control of the company.

Yuri Andropov appears atop Lenin’s Tomb for the May Day parade, his first public appearance since the Geneva Summit of February. He looks thin and pale, wears dark glasses and appears to be held-up by his military aide standing behind him on the platform. In the subsequent months Andropov appeared in public only three more times, at two Party functions in June and September and again at the celebration of the October Revolution in Red Square. Other than that the Soviet leader is absent from public view through all of 1980 (though he does meet with some foreign visitors in private – they all report he sits throughout these meetings and does not rise to greet his visitors). Despite this attempt to project stability by the Kremlin, it is clear to foreign analysts and western journalists that Andropov is himself in failing health. What is not known to the west was that Andropov had been hospitalized since February, when his condition weakened after the Geneva Summit. During his absence Nikolai Ryzhkov and Grigori Romanov appear to be running the day-to-day affairs of the Soviet government, although their orders bear what purports to be Andropov’s signature.

Jeanne Kirkpatrick.

Thursday, May 1st, 1980.

The White House.

5:00 PM, Washington, D.C.

[1]

The Secretary of Defense was busily engaged in working his way through a briefing package as he awaited in the cabinet room of the White House. The President was due to arrive any minute, and already other members of the administration were milling about the room. The news out of Spain was not good; the monarchy, the last vestige of the Franco era, had fallen after rioters tried to force their way into the palace. With Spain’s governing institutions in chaos, and with a socialist Prime Minister at the helm directing the storm, lingering bad memories of Portugal were quick to come to mind.

Secretary of State Kirkpatrick entered the room quietly, slipping past Secretaries Pierce, Watt, and Fletcher to join Rumsfeld at the cabinet table. Rumsfeld looked up to greet her with an icy glance, than resumed his reading. But Kirkpatrick had a lot on her mind.

“Don, this is pretty bad, and we all know it. Iberia going red doesn’t just mean that the Portuguese regime is secured, but also that the underbelly of Western Europe will be vulnerable.”

“If the reds get a firm hold on Spain like they did in Portugal, than they’ll move against Gibraltar, you mark my words.”

“Oh, I believe you” Kirkpatrick concurred, “but the problem is that the President is less than convinced.”

“Ronald Reagan, the Cold War crusader, has become the Cold War coward, I fear” whispered Rumsfeld, “he’s gone soft.”

Kirkpatrick disagreed, but she could understand where Rumsfeld was coming from. The once powerful Pentagon chief was increasingly marginalized within the Reagan White House, with his extremely hawkish approach to foreign policy being the source of controversy within the administration.

“He let the Iraqis take all of Arabia, and now he wants to hand them Syria and allow them to surround Israel” Rumsfeld continued, “he didn’t join the British when Portugal tried to kill the God damn Queen, and perhaps most critically, he sh**t the bed on China.”

“We nuked them, Don….”

“So did FDR” Rumsfeld noted, “who gave the Russians all of Eastern Europe on a silver platter.”

“We didn’t….”

“We didn’t finish the damn job!” interjected Rumsfeld sharply, his voice partially rising, “the younger Mao is gone and the current troika in Peking is going to be forced to eventually warm relations with the Kremlin, because they’re surrounded on all sides and know it.”

Jeanne Kirkpatrick was fiercely loyal to the President, even if she didn’t always agree with his approach every time. She was about to speak up in his defense when the President was ushered into the cabinet room by the Chief of Staff, with the meeting slated to start in seconds. “We’ll talk later, Don” she whispered, sensing that the Defense Secretary was increasing disgruntled.
Friday, May 2nd, 1980: Senators Lloyd Bentsen and Bob Krueger (D-TX) both endorse Reubin Askew for President ahead of the upcoming primary in the Lone Star state. Governor Farenthold had endorsed Reverend Jackson earlier in the campaign.
Saturday, May 3rd, 1980: SAS Special Forces storm the Iranian Embassy in London and kill the terrorists holding Iranian diplomats’ hostage. While the action is seen as one of strength from a security point of view, Prime Minister Healey and Home Secretary Cledwyn Hughes are condemned for “cowboy tactics” by much of the professional left and from among their own supporters.

Prime Minister Healey had in fact wanted the SAS to take the Embassy back on April 30, but it had taken three days (April 30, May 1 and May 2) for the SAS to prepare and rehearse the rescue. Meanwhile the government had stalled and engaged the terrorists in cosmetic negotiations. The SAS had wanted to delay another day or two, but the government pressured them to go on May 3.

The Texas primary is held.

1980 Texas Democratic Primary: 1,377,356 Votes, 152 Delegates.
Reubin Askew: 37.50% - 516,508 votes, 65 delegates.
Edward Kennedy: 32.28% - 444,610 votes, 55 delegates.
Pat Robertson: 17.40% - 239,659 votes, 32 delegates.
Jesse Jackson: 11.38% - 156,743 votes.
Frank Church: 1.44% - 19,833 votes.
Lyndon LaRouche: 0.59% -8,126 votes.

Democratic Delegate Count:
Edward Kennedy: 727 delegates.
Pat Robertson: 361 delegates.
Reubin Askew: 360 delegates.
Jesse Jackson: 279 delegates.
Jerry Brown: 12 delegates.
Frank Church: 12 delegates.
Sunday, May 4th, 1980: Senator Kennedy campaigns in Indiana with Senators Walter Mondale (D-MN) and Birch Bayh (D-IN), barnstorming through union halls across the state in a blitz effort to demonstrate his electoral strength in the Midwest as well as his ability to keep the “Kennedy coalition” that propelled his brother to the Presidency twenty years earlier intact.

Release of The First Emperor (1980), a biopic of Qin Shi Huang, the first historic Emperor of China. The film highlights his military successes but also his cultural isolationism and his attempt to destroy all previous written records and invent a new alphabet. Emperor Qin is portrayed as a clever man who descends into madness. The film is regarded as a roman a clef for the regime of the Lesser Mao.

29 people are killed in a stampede as faithful Catholics rush to catch a glimpse of Pope Pius XIII and his motorcade in the Zairian capital of Kinshasa.
Monday, May 5th, 1980: Yugoslavian President Joseph Bronz Tito dies at the age of 87 in Ljubljana; he is succeeded on an interim basis by Lazar Koliševski, the country’s Vice President, until a new permanent successor to Tito can be named. One of the principal figures of the non-aligned movement and a fixture on the world stage for decades, Tito is widely mourned in Yugoslavia. The leading contender to replace the late Tito is Prime Minister Dzemal Bijedi.
Tuesday, May 6th, 1980: Former El Salvador Army Major Roberto D'Aubuisson was arrested with a group of civilians and soldiers at a farm. The raiders found documents connecting him and the civilians as organizers and financiers of the death squad who killed Archbishop Romero (on March 24), and of plotting a coup d’état against the government. Their arrest provoked right-wing terrorist threats and institutional pressures forcing the government to release Maj. D’Aubuisson.

In May 1980, the Salvadoran revolutionary leadership met in Havana, forming the consolidated politico-military command, the DRU — Dirección Revolucionaria Unificada (Unified Revolutionary Directorate). In October, they founded the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (comprising the Frente Farabundo Martí de Liberación Nacional [FMLN] and the Frente Democrático Revolucionario [FDR]) honoring insurgent hero Farabundo Martí, whom the Salvadoran National Guard killed in 1932.

In preparing for a mass insurrection against the U.S.-sponsored government of El Salvador, the FMLN's feasible military victory was a two-pronged strategy of economic sabotage and a prolonged guerrilla war-of-attrition (per the principles of Ché Guevara and Mao Zedong) fought with rural guerrillas and urban civil political support; thus, in the 1980–1982 period political violence increased when mass political groups metamorphosed into guerrillas.

By far, the majority of the victims were peasants, trade unionists, teachers, students, journalists, human rights advocates, priests, and anyone working in the interest of the poor majority. The death toll reached almost 12,000 with the vast majority of the victims falling prey to fascist death squads. The right-wing government of President Ernesto Claramount, backed by Washington, made a show of combating the death squads, but this was largely believed to be a front to cover over the government’s inability to control the situation.

Carlos García Juliá, an exiled Spanish Fascist became prominent figure among the right-wing death squads during this period.

The government of Indian Prime Minister Ram Sundar Das announces a land reform program which will allow the private sale of land to foreign as well as domestic developers. This is seen as an effort by the government to attract both foreign industry and tourism development. Kanu Sanyal, leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) organizes a series of anti-government protests against this policy.

Primaries and caucuses are held in Colorado, Indiana, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Washington D.C.

1980 Colorado Democratic Caucus: 1,000 Precinct Delegates, 39 Delegates.
Frank Church: 36.22% - 362 votes, 16 delegates.
Edward Kennedy: 33.90% - 338 votes, 15 delegates.
Reubin Askew: 20.15% - 201 votes, 8 delegates.
Jesse Jackson: 6.51% - 65 votes.
Pat Robertson: 2.90% - 28 votes.
Lyndon LaRouche: 0.32% - 3 votes.

1980 Indiana Democratic Primary: 594,139 Votes, 81 Delegates.
Edward Kennedy: 44.35% -263,500 votes, 41 delegates.
Reubin Askew: 33.09% - 196,600 votes, 27 delegates.
Jesse Jackson: 15.68% - 93,160 votes, 13 delegates.
Pat Robertson: 5.21% - 30,954 votes.
Frank Church: 1.05% - 6,238 votes.
Lyndon LaRouche: 0.62% - 3,683 votes.

1980 North Carolina Democratic Primary: 737,262 Votes, 70 Delegates.
Reubin Askew: 42.35% - 312,230 votes, 33 delegates.
Edward Kennedy: 30.81% - 227,150 votes, 24 delegates.
Pat Robertson: 15.29% - 112,727 votes, 13 delegates.
Jesse Jackson: 8.40% - 61,930 votes.
Frank Church: 2.16% - 15,924 votes.
Lyndon LaRouche: 0.99% - 7,298 votes.

1980 Tennessee Democratic Primary: 294,680 Votes, 57 Delegates.
Reubin Askew: 35.15% - 103,580 votes, 23 delegates.
Pat Robertson: 30.19% - 88,963 votes, 20 delegates.
Jesse Jackson: 20.79% - 61,263 votes, 14 delegates.
Edward Kennedy: 11.28% - 33,239 votes.
Frank Church: 1.82% - 5,363 votes.
Lyndon LaRouche: 0.77% - 2,269 votes.

1980 Washington D.C. Democratic Primary: 64,150 Votes, 14 Delegates.
Jesse Jackson: 32.38% - 20,771 votes, 5 delegates.
Edward Kennedy: 30.40% - 19,501 votes, 4 delegates.
Reubin Askew: 20.73% - 13,298 votes, 3 delegates.
Frank Church: 15.57% - 9,988 votes, 2 delegates.
Pat Robertson: 1.09% - 699 votes.
Lyndon LaRouche: 0.83% - 532 votes.

Democratic Delegate Count:
Edward Kennedy: 811 delegates.
Reubin Askew: 454 delegates.
Pat Robertson: 394 delegates.
Jesse Jackson: 311 delegates.
Frank Church: 30 delegates.
Jerry Brown: 12 delegates.
Saturday, May 9th, 1980: In Florida, the Liberian freighter Summit Venture hits the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay. A 1,400-foot section of the bridge collapses and 35 people (most in a bus) are killed.
Saturday, May 10th, 1980: Eight Cuban MiGs attack the HMBS Flamingo, a Bahamian naval patrol boat that was attempting to intervene against two Cuban fishing vessels that illegally entered Bahamian waters. The attack left four sailors dead and dozens more injured. President Reagan warns Cuba against any further military activity off the Florida coast.
Monday, May 12th, 1980: Reagan famously says, “I am committed to not supporting Civil Rights for black Americans” at a press conference. The gaffe goes uncorrected at the moment and is only later retracted by Reagan assistant Michael Deaver after the original remark is read back to him by reporters. It later transpires that Reagan was reading from a script and that someone (person unknown) accidentally inserted the word not between “to” and “supporting”, thus causing Reagan to read a statement that was contrary to his intent. The fact that the President is reading script pages without vetting what he is saying causes a further scandal for the Reagan campaign.
More in a second.

[username5243]

I love how literally everyone is telling Don Rumsfeld to please just shut up, man. I have a feeling he'd probably be getting sacked in a second term if Reagan somehow pulls this out.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Tuesday, May 13th, 1980: The Westie Irish gang in New York and the West End Irish gang in Montreal begin encroaching on Chinese heroin territory in Montreal and along the East Coast of the United States. They are reportedly backed by the Italian Mafia’s Gambino family in New York and the “Outfit” in Chicago, both of which have, through their Sicilian partners, secured new sources of heroin from Afghanistan and Turkey. The Middle Eastern suppliers are using their new U.S. contacts to undermine the Chinese grip on the heroin trade. Similar operations have been started with various indigenous gangs in Western Europe as well. Reportedly the PIRA is charging “protection” on Irish and British smuggling gangs as a fundraising tool.

In the United States, the attempt to undercut the Chinese sources leads to renewed gang wars which result in over 1,000 deaths due to shootings and other assassination activities. European statistics are comparable, though these violent crimes are underreported there for political reasons.

The Maryland and Nebraska primaries are held.

1980 Maryland Democratic Primary: 477,090 Votes, 60 Delegates.
Edward Kennedy: 42.78% - 204,099 votes, 30 delegates.
Reubin Askew: 33.89% - 161,685 votes, 20 delegates.
Jesse Jackson: 16.89% - 80,580 votes, 10 delegates.
Pat Robertson: 4.56% - 21,755 votes.
Frank Church: 1.13% - 5,391 votes.
Lyndon LaRouche: 0.75% - 3,578 votes.

1980 Nebraska Democratic Primary: 153,853 Votes, 25 Delegates.
Frank Church: 37.12% - 57,110 votes, 11 delegates.
Pat Robertson: 30.39% - 46,755 votes, 8 delegates.
Reubin Askew: 23.45% - 36,078 votes, 6 delegates.
Edward Kennedy: 7.90% - 12,154 votes.
Jesse Jackson: 1.14% - 1,753 votes.
Lyndon LaRouche: 0.89% - 1,369 votes.

Democratic Delegate Count:
Edward Kennedy: 841 delegates.
Reubin Askew: 480 delegates.
Pat Robertson: 402 delegates.
Jesse Jackson: 321 delegates.
Frank Church: 41 delegates.  
Jerry Brown: 12 delegates.
Wednesday, May 14th, 1980: The British steel strike hits an impasse when Bill Sirs, General Secretary of the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation, walks out of talks with the government aimed at trimming production costs at British Steel. This progresses into a direct confrontation between the ISTC and the Labour government over efforts to “rationalize” British industry in the face of declining demand and rising unemployment.
Thursday, May 15th, 1980: KGB Colonel Oleg Kalugin, with the assistance of KGB Lieutenant Vladimir Putin organize the “Black Flag.” Black Flag is to be an internationalist Fascist front group which will recruit fascist and anti-Communists to carry out (deniable) operations on behalf of the Soviet Union by using false flag techniques to deceive the agents into believing they are working for a fascist group. One of their first recruits is a Turkish Grey Wolves fugitive named Mehmet Ali Ağca.
Friday, May 16th, 1980: Inflation in Britain hits 18%. Main causes the rising price of oil, labor unrest and market uncertainty over whether the Labour government can settle the steel strike.

Although sympathetic to the government, Trades Union Congress General Secretary Len Murray finds himself drawn into the increasingly bitter conflict between British Steel and the Labour government. ISTC is by this point trying to mobilize other unions to join its workers on the picket line in a general strike across Britain.
Saturday, May 17th, 1980: A Tampa, Florida court acquits four white police officers of killing Arthur McDuffie, a black insurance executive, provoking three days of race riots in Miami.

On the eve of presidential elections in Peru, Maoist guerrilla group Shining Path attacks a polling location in the town of Chuschi, Ayacucho. This is the start of the leftist insurgency in the Peruvian countryside, where the Maoist militants build a small but fierce following amongst the long oppressed indigenous peasants.

An Israeli intelligence report places Juhayman ibn Muhammad ibn Sayf al-Otaybi (one of the leaders of the revolution in Arabia) and Ayman al-Zawahiri (Egyptian Islamic militant and suspected terrorist) in Gao, Mali where they are receiving support and training from the PJO. The Israelis suspect the PJO is giving support to the anti-Iraqi resistance in Arabia via North Yemen.
Sunday, May 18th, 1980: Skirmishes resume between Lao government troops and Chinese backed Pathet Lao Red forces along the north of the country. At the same time the Chinese begin new offensive operations along the Chinese-Vietnam border. North Vietnam appeals to North Korea to mediate a potential ceasefire against the Chinese; the war has strained Hanoi’s ability to defend itself from South Vietnam, and though North Vietnam had inflicted heavy casualties on the Chinese, the numerical advantage of the Chinese means they can sustain the conflict going into the 1980s.

On the morning of May 18th, South Korean students gathered at the gate of Chonnam National University, in defiance of its closing. By 9:30 AM, around 200 students had arrived; they were opposed by 30 paratroopers. At around 10 am, soldiers and students clashed: soldiers charged the students; students threw stones. The protest moved then to the downtown, Geumnamno (the street leading to the Jeollanamdo Provincial Office), area. There the conflict broadened, to around 2000 participants by afternoon. Initially, police handled the Geumnamno protests; at 4:00 PM, though, paratroopers took over. The arrival of these 686 soldiers of the 33rd and 35th squadrons of the 7th Brigade, marked a new, violent, and now infamous phase of suppression.

Witnesses say soldiers clubbed both demonstrators and onlookers. Testimonies, photographs, and internal records attest to the use of bayonets. The first known fatality was a 29-year-old deaf man named Kim Gyeong-cheol, who was clubbed to death on May 18th while passing by the scene. As citizens were infuriated by the violence, the number of protesters rapidly increased and exceeded 10,000 by May 20.

As the conflict escalated, the army began to fire on citizens, killing an unknown number near Gwangju Station on May 20. That same day, angered protesters burned down the local MBC station, which had misreported the situation then unfolding in Gwangju (acknowledging only 1 civilian casualty, for example). Four policemen were killed at a police barricade near the Provincial Government Building after a car rammed into them.
Monday, May 19th, 1980: Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, killing 57 and causing $3 billion in damage.

Fernando Belaúnde Terry is elected President of Peru in a reasonably free election. Belaunde will replace a military junta.

Ian Curtis, singer/songwriter of acclaimed post punk band Joy Division, is found hanged.
Tuesday, May 20th, 1980: Mahrous bin Laden leads an army of Bedouin in attacking Iraqi supply installations along the Riyadh to Mecca road. Mahrous is becoming a legend in Arabia for leading the resistance to the Iraqis. His younger brother, an engineering student turned jihadist fighter named Osama, is rumored to be in Mali training PJO bombmakers.

Voters in Quebec vote 51% to 49% to accept a proposal to seek independence from Canada. The PQ provincial government immediately takes this as a mandate to being talks with the Canadian government. Premier Levesque vows to move forward with the legal mechanisms needed to separate from Canada. Prime Minister Peter Lougheed condemns the referendum’s result as being the “worst disaster ever to befall Canada.”

Protests continue in South Korea. On the night of May 20th, hundreds of taxis led a large parade of buses, large trucks and cars toward the Provincial Office to meet the ongoing protesters who have been demonstrating against the South Korean government. As the drivers drove in the demonstration, the troops used tear gas, pulled them out of the cars and beat them. These “drivers of democracy” showed up to support the citizens and the demonstration because of troop brutality witnessed earlier in the day, as well as out of anger after many taxi drivers were assaulted when trying to assist the injured and while taking people to the hospital. Some were even shot after the drivers attempted to use the vehicles to block soldiers or as weapons.

1980 Oregon Democratic Primary: 368,322 Votes, 39 Delegates.
Frank Church: 43.70% - 160,956 votes, 20 delegates.
Edward Kennedy: 19.63% - 72,301 votes, 10 delegates.
Jesse Jackson: 15.76% - 58,047 votes, 8 delegates.
Reubin Askew: 10.69% - 39,373 votes.
Pat Robertson: 8.77% - 32,301 votes.
Lyndon LaRouche: 1.45% - 5,340 votes.
Wednesday, May 21st, 1980: Prime Ministers Goncalves of Portugal and Guerra of Spain reach a ceasefire agreement negotiated by Pope Pius XIII; the Iberian War ends in a stalemate, with the only true winners being Basque separatists. In light of the failed military offensive against Spain (in as much as Portugal sacrificed a lot of blood and gained little) Álvaro Cunhal is forced to resign his position as Minister of the Interior and shortly afterwards to step down as Secretary General of the ruling Portuguese Communist Party. This in turn allows Prime Minister Vasco Goncalves to deflect some of the blame away from himself. Carlos Alfredo de Brito succeeds Cunhal as General Secretary of the Communist Party.

The ongoing violence in South Korea climaxed on May 21. At about 1 p.m., the army fired at a protesting crowd gathered in front of the Jeonnam Provincial Office, causing casualties. In response, some protesters raided armories and police stations in nearby towns and armed themselves with M1 rifles and carbines. Later that afternoon, bloody gunfights between civilian militias and the army broke out in the Provincial Office Square. By 5:30 p.m., militias had acquired two light machine guns and used them against the army, which began to retreat from the downtown area.

The South Korean government declared martial law in response to ongoing protests and clamped down hard on protestors. Some two hundred designated leaders of the militias were executed before the firing squad within days of the crackdown. The government invalidated all South Korean passports, forcing many citizens to re-apply for new documents, which were withheld from those deemed to be troublemakers. A further 2,000 South Koreans with dual citizenship (mainly U.S.) who had been involved in the protests were deported to the nation of their second nationality and banned on pain of death from returning. One deportee, a University of California and Berkley Law Professor, John Gwojun, would return, violating the law, in 1984 and his fate caused a major international incident.

There is no universally accepted death toll for the 1980 Gwangju Uprising. Official figures released by the Martial Law Command put the death toll at 144 civilians, 22 troops and 4 police killed, with 127 civilians, 109 troops and 144 police wounded. Individuals who attempted to dispute these figures were liable for arrest for "spreading false rumors," and in 1981 fourteen individuals were executed for this crime. Kim Dae-jung himself, who was associated with these as a figurehead prisoner of conscience, disappeared within the South Korean prison system without an adequate account ever having been given as to exactly what his fate was.

Throughout the 1980’s some 3,000 South Koreans were to disappear without trace in what became known as “South Korea’s Dirty War.” A further 8,000 would be imprisoned or exiled for dissident actions.
Thursday, May 22nd, 1980: Pac-Man is released.

The Lougheed government falls on a vote of confidence arising from the federalist loss in the Quebec referendum. A Canadian Federal election is called for June 23.

Seattle area narcotics figure Li Chen Ho is convicted of 2,633 counts of unlawful narcotics importation and distribution and receives a like number of life sentences in prison – to be served consecutively. (Parole eligibility begins after 10,000 years). This is considered a major victory in the drug war; Li had been controversially tried by a military commission under the terms of the Combatting Foreign Terrorism Act, the first such prosecution to be conducted against a narcotics peddler who the Pentagon had deemed an agent of the Chinese Communist Party, which the State Department has labeled a sponsored of terrorism.

Indian Finance Minister Haribhai M. Patel announces an “open bank” program which will allow foreign banks to work more closely with their Indian counterparts without tight capital restrictions being imposed from the central government. This leads to a home bankers protest against the encroachment of foreign competition.
Saturday, May 24th, 1980: The influential culinary union in Nevada, which represents a large percentage of Vegas’s immigrant hotel workers, endorses Jesse Jackson for President ahead of the upcoming caucuses.
Sunday, May 25th, 1980: Soviet Premier Pelse and Deputy Premier Ryzhkov make a state visit to Baghdad in order to “re-solemnize” the Treaty of Friendship and support between Iraq and the USSR.
Monday, May 26th, 1980: Vernon Jordan is shot and critically injured in an assassination attempt in Fort Wayne, Indiana by Joseph Paul Franklin. The apparent assassination attempt on Jordan is the first major news story for the newly launched Cable News Network (CNN), which will in the decade to come become a major player in the American media.

Riots erupt in Argentina as the government of President Carlos Humberto Perette imposes strict austerity measures to curb inflation.
Tuesday, May 27th, 1980: The second to last round of primaries and caucuses are conducted.

1980 Arkansas Democratic Primary: 448,290 Votes, 33 Delegates.
Reubin Askew: 38.66% - 173,308 votes, 15 delegates.
Jesse Jackson: 25.19% - 112,924 votes, 10 delegates.
Pat Robertson: 22.46% - 100,685 votes, 8 delegates.
Edward Kennedy: 9.40% - 42,139 votes.
Frank Church: 3.89% - 17,438 votes.
Lyndon LaRouche: 0.40% - 1,793 votes.

1980 Idaho Democratic Primary: 50,482 Votes, 17 Delegates.
Frank Church: 66.59% - 33,615 votes, 17 delegates.
Reubin Askew: 12.70% - 6,411 votes.
Pat Robertson: 11.11% - 5,608 votes.
Edward Kennedy: 7.01% - 3,538 votes.
Lyndon LaRouche: 2.30% - 1,161 votes.
Jesse Jackson: 0.29% - 146 votes.

1980 Kentucky Democratic Primary: 240,331 Votes, 50 Delegates.
Pat Robertson: 44.78% - 107,620 votes, 27 delegates.
Reubin Askew: 35.60% - 85,557 votes, 23 delegates.
Jesse Jackson: 8.92% - 21,437 votes,
Edward Kennedy: 8.50% - 20,428 votes.
Frank Church: 1.36% - 3,268 votes.
Lyndon LaRouche: 0.84% - 2,018 votes.

1980 Nevada Democratic Caucus: 66,948 Votes, 13 Delegates.
Frank Church: 45.10% - 30,193 votes, 7 delegates.
Edward Kennedy: 37.20% - 24,904 votes, 6 delegates.
Jesse Jackson: 9.06% - 6,065 votes.
Reubin Askew: 7.09% - 4,746 votes.
Pat Robertson: 1.00% - 669 votes.
Lyndon LaRouche: 0.55% - 368 votes.

Democratic Delegate Count:
Edward Kennedy: 857 delegates.
Reubin Askew: 518 delegates.
Pat Robertson: 437 delegates.
Jesse Jackson: 339 delegates.
Frank Church: 85 delegates.
Jerry Brown: 12 delegates.
Wednesday, May 28th, 1980: Nottingham Forest retain the European Cup with a 1-0 win over Hamburger SV, the West German league champions, in Madrid. The winning goal was scored by Scotland international John Robertson.
Friday, May 30th, 1980: British Leyland launches its Morris Ital range of family saloons and estates, which are a reworking of the nine-year-old Marina that was one of Britain's most popular cars during the 1970s. It will be produced for up to four years until an all-new front-wheel drive model is launched, and sales begin on 1 August - the same day that the new W-registered cars go on sale.
Saturday, May 31st, 1980: Pope Pius XIII is the first Pontiff to visit France since the coronation of Napoleon Bonaparte as Emperor in 1805; the Pope meets privately with President Mitterrand before officiating over services at Paris’s iconic Notre Dame cathedral, where the two discuss the ongoing efforts to restore peace and stability in Iberia and Northern Ireland.

[anbarret]

I love the conversation between Kirkpatrick and Rumsfeld. It really captures the sentiment which even the OTL hard right had toward the OTL Reagan administration. Though of course, in the more chaotic world of FLaG, these grievances toward TTL Reagan have festered sooner.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Sunday, June 1st, 1980: The Cable News Network (CNN) is officially launched nationwide, having already operated on a regional basis in the southern states for a few weeks. Founder Ted Turner is determined to compete with the Hughes Network. “They’ve got crap and we’ve got the real news,” Turner argues, with the new cable network’s first national broadcast featuring husband and wife reporters Dave Welker and Lois Hart.

Actress Jodi Foster campaigns for Jesse Jackson in California; this attracts the attention of an increasingly unstable and obsessed fan named John Hinckley Jr.

Ibn Farouz, a former Saudi official in exile who has been trying to organize a secular opposition to the exiled royal Saudi government is murdered in Rabat, Morocco. The Saudis and the PJO are both suspects.
Monday, June 2nd, 1980: “The Polish Summer” commences. A series of general strikes cripple Poland. They appear to be inspired by the Spanish Liberation (noting that Poland, like Spain, is a heavily Roman Catholic Country). The demands of the strikers are for higher pay, more religious freedom, and an end to Soviet domination of their country. The protests and strikes spark street festivals and other related events celebrating Polish national identity.

Lech Wałęsa, in exile in Siberia, hears only rumors of what is going on in Poland.
Tuesday, June 3rd, 1980: The final round of primaries is conducted in states across the country. The largest contest of the night is California, a critical state with a large delegate haul that could potentially put Senator Kennedy closer to the threshold needed to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination for 1980.

1980 California Democratic Primary: 3,363,858 Votes, 303 Delegates.
Edward Kennedy: 36.50% - 1,227,808 votes, 126 delegates.
Jesse Jackson: 28.41% - 955,672 votes, 101 delegates.
Reubin Askew: 20.45% - 687,908 votes, 76 delegates.
Frank Church: 10.79% - 362,960 votes.
Pat Robertson: 2.90% - 97,551 votes.
Lyndon LaRouche: 0.95% - 31,956 votes.

1980 Montana Democratic Primary: 130,603 Votes, 19 Delegates.
Frank Church: 43.21% - 56,433 votes, 10 delegates.
Pat Robertson: 37.93% - 49,537 votes, 8 delegates.
Reubin Askew: 11.00% - 14,366 votes, 3 delegates.
Edward Kennedy: 4.68% - 6,112 votes.
Jesse Jackson: 2.20% - 2,873 votes.
Lyndon LaRouche: 0.98% - 1,279 votes.

1980 New Jersey Democratic Primary: 560,908 Votes, 114 Delegates.
Jesse Jackson: 30.19% - 169,338 votes, 42 delegates.
Edward Kennedy: 30.15% - 169,113 votes, 42 delegates.
Reubin Askew: 21.17% - 118,744 votes, 30 delegates.
Frank Church: 10.50% - 58,595 votes.
Pat Robertson: 6.66% - 37,356 votes.
Lyndon LaRouche: 1.33% - 7,460 votes.

1980 New Mexico Democratic Primary: 159,365 Votes, 20 Delegates.
Frank Church: 42.41% - 67,586 votes, 10 delegates.
Edward Kennedy: 20.09% - 32,016 votes, 6 delegates.
Jesse Jackson: 16.20% - 25,817 votes, 4 delegates.
Reubin Askew:  12.13% - 19,330 votes.
Pat Robertson: 8.41% - 13,402 votes.
Lyndon LaRouche: 0.76% - 1,211 votes.

1980 Ohio Democratic Primary: 1,186,410 Votes, 164 Delegates.
Edward Kennedy: 50.16% - 595,103 votes, 164 delegates.
Reubin Askew: 25.03% - 296,958 votes.
Jesse Jackson: 12.30% - 145,928 votes.
Pat Robertson: 9.96% - 118,166 votes.
Frank Church: 1.45% - 17,202 votes.
Lyndon LaRouche: 1.10% - 13,050 votes.

1980 Rhode Island Democratic Primary: 38,325 Votes, 23 Delegates.
Edward Kennedy: 52.89% - 20,270 votes, 23 delegates.
Jesse Jackson: 19.80% - 7,588 votes.
Reubin Askew: 9.95% - 3,813 votes.
Frank Church: 8.63% - 3,307 votes.
Pat Robertson: 7.75% - 2,970 votes.
Lyndon LaRouche: 0.98% - 375 votes.

1980 South Dakota Democratic Primary: 68,763 Votes, 19 Delegates.
Frank Church: 62.90% - 43,251 votes, 19 delegates.
Reubin Askew: 16.81% - 11,559 votes.
Edward Kennedy: 10.67% - 7,337 votes.
Pat Robertson: 8.05% - 5,535 votes.
Jesse Jackson: 0.91% - 625 votes.
Lyndon LaRouche: 0.66% - 435 votes.

1980 West Virginia Democratic Primary: 317,934 Votes, 37 Delegates.
Pat Robertson: 33.33% - 105,967 votes, 13 delegates.
Reubin Askew: 32.76% - 104,155 votes, 13 delegates.
Edward Kennedy: 31.05% - 98,718 votes, 11 delegates.
Lyndon LaRouche: 1.32% - 4,196 votes.
Jesse Jackson: 0.99% - 3,147 votes.
Frank Church: 0.55% - 1,748 votes.

Democratic Delegate Count:
Edward Kennedy: 1,229 delegates.
Reubin Askew: 640 delegates.
Jesse Jackson: 486 delegates.
Pat Robertson: 458 delegates.
Frank Church: 85 delegates.
Jerry Brown: 12 delegates.
Wednesday, June 4th, 1980: With the Democratic primaries now part of the history books, Senator Ted Kennedy emerges as the leading frontrunner in the delegate count ahead of the Democratic National Convention, slated to take place in New York’s Madison Square Garden in July.

John Hinckley Jr. flies into New York City from Denver, Colorado with a small amount of cash given to him by his parents. He will spend the next month working odd-jobs around the city while continuing his unsuccessful attempts to contact actress Jodi Foster, whom he has developed an obsession over. His quiet mission to assassinate either Senator Kennedy or President Reagan remains his chief priority in his quixotic quest to win over the young actress.

Reubin Askew

Wednesday, June 4th, 1980.

Brownsville Assemblies of God.

10:00 AM, Pensacola, FL.

[1]

The Brownsville Assembly of God was an unsurprising choice of a church for the summit between Governor Askew and Reverend Robinson, and Askew went along with it, hat in hand, in order to gain the firebrand evangelical’s support. Askew himself was a Presbyterian, one who faithfully abstained from alcohol, smoking, and swearing, a viceless man who had endeared himself to Reverend Robertson for his sincerity throughout the course of the campaign. The two had formed an unofficial, unspoken pact throughout the primaries, focusing on the frontrunner rather than each other. This was noted by many commentators and keen observers throughout the process, as the two largely split the same base of voters and were competing for the same pool of delegates. Politically, they were rather different – Robertson represented the last fighting breaths of the dying conservative Democratic wing of the party, whereas Askew was the face of the so called “New South.” But this odd alliance endured, propelled by a deeply held personal opposition to abortion in America.

The former Governor of Florida was a longtime resident of Pensacola and was well aware of the Brownsville Assembly of God. It had a reputation as being a hotbed of holy rollers, the kind of church that the Pentecostals of Pensacola flocked too, working themselves into fervent ecstasy as they prayed for a battered nation. He was not surprised that Robertson would choose such a church – but Askew, being a straight-laced mainline protestant, still found the venue to be somewhat intimidating as he arrived quietly. He was greeted by the pastor, who ushered him inside where Robertson was waiting for him.

After a few pleasantries exchanged between Robertson and him were finished, the Governor and the Reverend got down to business.

“Frankly, Governor, I can’t...I won't lie to you - I don’t think this race is big enough for the two of us” warned Robertson, “but I also can’t lie when I tell you that I’m impressed by you and your character, your sincerity, your passion for giving the common folk a better deal. I see in you a man who can’t be corrupted.”

“You flatter me, Reverend” said Askew, wondering what Robertson was going to ask for in return of his endorsement.

“I think 1980 presents a great opportunity for us to roll back the tide on the abortion issue” continued Robertson, “and I think it’d be important for the party to make a point by nominating TWO pro-life stalwarts.” Askew saw where this was heading; the political realities of 1980 demanded geographic diversity on the ticket, and in any case, the party would never accept a conservative southerner on the ticket with a moderate southerner.

“Reverend Robertson, as much as I’ve come to respect you not as an evangelist but also as a seasoned campaigner, I just don’t think we could - ”

“We?” laughed Robertson, “I don’t mean myself. I got into this race to run for President, not Vice President.”

“Who do you have in mind?”

“Governor Casey of Pennsylvania is an honorable man, and a fiercely pro-life, old-fashioned Democrat. The kind of man this party needs. I would release all of my delegates immediately in your favor if you nominated him to the ticket.”

“You make a good case, Pat” answered Askew, “but a party’s ticket must represent the whole spectrum of views within the fold.”

“You plan to nominate an abortionist?” asked Robertson, somewhat surprised – perhaps even bewildered – by Askew’s comments. Perhaps he shouldn’t been surprised; Askew was known for his ability to make compromises. But on the issue of something as important as the sanctity of life, there was no room for compromises.

“I plan to, yes. I will be compelled by circumstances in any case.”

“But Governor, God’s word cannot be compromised…”

“I never said that my running mate’s position would be morally defensible. I detest abortion. But I also detest the idea of removing or whittling down the separations between church and state. It’s spiritually dangerous for the church to become too involved in government; government will only corrupt it.”

“If we can’t agree on this, than I don’t think I can release my delegates in good conscience” warned Robertson, “I’d encourage you to reconsider.”

“I’m not going to” said Askew, “I feel very strongly on this. But I’d rather talk about the possibilities that can come from what we have in common.”

“Then I don’t want to waste any of your time any further” Robertson replied, “thank you, Governor.” He extended his hand, and Askew reached to shake it. “You aren’t wasting my time” insisted Askew, “we have a lot in common - “

“Reubin, I can’t endorse a ticket that is only half committed to upholding natural law. And I can’t afford to risk my ministry by endorsing a man who is willing to make that compromise. I’m sorry. I know you understand.”

“I do, Pat…then may the best man win.”

“The worst man will win” Robertson replied, referring obviously to Senator Kennedy, “because you won’t have God on your side.”
Thursday, June 5th, 1980: Salem Bin Laden, brother of Mahrous and Osama, the Chairman of the Arabia Bin Laden Group (ABG), a giant construction firm, is murdered for collaborating with the Iraqis. A suicide bomber had walked up to Salem at a construction site and blew them both up with a grenade, along with injuring several bystanders.
Friday, June 6th, 1980: The FAN (Armed Forces of the North) lead by Hissène Habré, seizes the city of Faya in Chad, alarming his pro-Libyan opponent Goukouni Oueddei, Head of the Transitional Government of National Unity. This pushes Oueddei toward signing a treaty of assistance with Libya.
Saturday, June 7th, 1980: Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, asks his brother-in-law, former Ambassador Sargent Shriver, to lead a committee vetting potential Vice-Presidential candidates. Rumored contenders for the position include Senators James Carter (D-GA), Henry Jackson (D-WA), Jerry Litton (D-MO), Walter Mondale (D-MN), and Adlai Stevenson III (D-IL), Governor Lawton Chiles of Florida, and former Governors Pat Lucey of Wisconsin and Reubin Askew of Florida.
Monday, June 9th, 1980: Jesse Jackson denies rumors that he is considering dropping out of the race ahead of the Democratic National Convention after the Washington Post reports that Jackson was willing to throw his weight behind Senator Kennedy in exchange for the nomination of a black Vice Presidential candidate.
Tuesday, June 10th, 1980: In Los Angeles, comedian Richard Pryor is seriously burned while trying to freebase cocaine. He dies on June 11th without ever regaining consciousness.
Thursday, June 12th, 1980: The South African government announces that Nelson Mandela has died of natural causes while in custody. There is an immediate uproar within the anti-Apartheid community over this revelation as well as general disbelief that Mandela died of natural causes.

A bomb injures United Airlines president Percy Wood in Lake Forest, Illinois. This is later connected to the mysterious serial bomber known as “the Unabomber.”

Turkey holds elections for the National Congress, which is a 150 seat “consultative body” designed to “assist the President of the Republic with issues of governance.” The members are elected, though they are all independents (no political parties permitted) and all previously vetted by the military regime of President Nurettin Ersin, who continues to rule Turkey as an Executive President. The office of Prime Minister (which is really an assistant to the President) is filed by a compliant civilian, Halil Turgut Özal.
Friday, June 13th, 1980: Margaret Thatcher, a former Conservative MP, leads a citizen’s counter march to the British Steel strike. The result is an ugly confrontation between Thatcher’s group and members of the ISTC which rapidly devolves into violence. Thatcher is injured when a rock is thrown at her, defiantly addressing the media afterwards with a bloodied nose.

Congressman John Jenrette (D-SC) is indicted by a grand jury on charges of bribery after being identified in the FBI's Abscam operation. Jenrette had been videotaped on December 6, 1979, accepting a $50,000 bribe from an undercover agent in return for promising to introduce legislation to allow an Arab businessman to remain in the United States.
Sunday, June 15th, 1980: Goukouni Oueddei, Head of the Transitional Government of National Unity in Chad, signed a Treaty of Friendship with Libya. The treaty gave Libya a free hand in Chad, legitimizing its presence in that country: this was especially evident in the first article of the treaty, where it was written that the two countries were committed to mutual defense, and a threat against one constituted a threat against the other. Libyan troops, along with Soviet Bloc advisers begin to support TGNU troops.
Tuesday, June 17th, 1980: Secretary of State for Defense, David Owen reveals to the House of Commons that US nuclear cruise missiles would be located at RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire and the disused RAF Molesworth base in Cambridgeshire.
Wednesday, June 18th, 1980: A federal grand jury in New York indicts House Speaker John Murphy (D-NY) as part of the ongoing “Abscam” investigation. Following precedent set by Speaker McFall, who himself had resigned as part of another bribery scheme just a year earlier, Speaker Murphy immediately announces that he will stand down as Speaker of the House.

In the wake of Murphy’s downfall, House Majority Leader John Brademas (D-IN) announces his candidacy for Speaker of the House. But he is opposed within the Democratic Party caucus by three other challengers. The first to declare is Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman (D-NY), a liberal firebrand with ten years’ experience in the House of Representatives. She is followed by Congresswoman Lindy Boggs (D-LA) and Congressman Al Ullman (D-OR).
Thursday, June 19th, 1980: Gunmen attack the British embassy in Iraq; three unknown attackers are shot dead by Iraqi security forces.

A bomb destroys the constituency office of Ernest Armstrong MP (Lab.- North West Durham). Police are uncertain whether it is the work of the IRB or militant ISTC strikers, although the latter seem more likely. Over the next year there will be further incidents of this nature as the ISTC workers protest the downsizing and closure of steel works in the UK, effectively ruining the British steel industry in the process (whose production is reduced to a trickle in an already competitive market). The Steel workers are infected with a good deal of agitation from militants outside of their union, which only makes a settlement more difficult. In fact, over the course of the period from May 1980 to May 1981 Bill Sirs makes several efforts to end the pickets and work stoppages, only to open-up conflicts within his own union. The TUC is likewise split over militant support for the strike, and a more moderate approach which recognizes the futility of what is happening. There are intermittent attacks on government supporters and moderates throughout (in a similar manner as the attack on MP Armstrong’s office) which only serve to heighten the tension.

Meanwhile the Healey government’s industrial policy, crafted to “humanely rationalize British industry” is paralyzed by the British Steel situation. Although some progress is made in other areas, the government continues to look weak.

Later reports indicate that MI5 penetrated the militant arm of the ISTC, ostensibly to gather intelligence on their activities. Later writers and conspiracy theorists would posit that certain elements within the Security Service, opposed to the Labour government ideologically, provoked at least some of the militancy among the ISTC in order to embarrass the Healy government. Certainly MI5, like the ISTC, was acutely aware as the strike dragged on that the government would have to go to the polls sometime in 1981 or 1982, and as a result continued action added electoral pressure on the government side.
Friday, June 20th, 1980: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police disrupt a plot by radical Quebec separatists to bomb a pro-Progressive Conservative rally in Montreal. The suspect accused of leaving the bomb is Bernard Lortie, a 29-year-old former member of the FLQ who was arrested and jailed for seven years due to his involvement in the 1970 “October Crisis” before being paroled in 1977. Lortie’s whereabouts are not known and there is some speculation that he may have fled to Cuba.4

After three inconclusive ballots, House Democrats elect John Brademas as their leader, defeating Congresswomen Holtzman (D-NY) handily on the last round of voting. Despite this, several Holtzman supporters threaten to withhold their support from Brademas, with the vote for Speaker set to take place on Monday.
[1] Taken from WESH.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Sunday, June 22nd, 1980: The Peace Party and Socialist Party hold a joint convention in Washington D.C. LaDonna Harris, a Native American activist, is nominated for the Presidency while Socialist Party member and gay rights activist Melvin Boozer is nominated for the Vice Presidency. The “Peace & Socialism” ticket is running to the left of the Ecology Party ticket of Barry Commoner and Ralph Nader, frustrating the hard left’s efforts to craft a united front against Reagan and the Democrats.

The Socialist Workers Party is also running its own ticket for President in 1980, having gained thousands of new members in recent years and growing it’s organizational power in major cities. The SWP has nominated Andrew Pulley for President and Matilde Zimmerman for Vice President and is running on an explicitly Trotskyite platform.
Monday, June 23rd, 1980: The 1980 Canadian Federal election is held; the government of Peter Lougheed and the Progressive Conservatives gains seats at the expense of their partners, the Social Credit Party, but still fall short of a majority in the House. The Parti Quebecois meanwhile gains 26 seats, running on an explicitly separatist platform, denying the Liberals and the New Democrats an outright majority either. Neither the Liberals nor Progressive Conservatives agree to invite the Parti Quebecois into government, meaning that no party can form a majority and thus the Lougheed minority government will continue in office until another election can be conducted, likely to take place in 1981.

After a weekend of aggressive vote wrangling, House Democratic leader John Brademas is elected Speaker of the House over Trent Lott in a party-line vote.
Tuesday, June 24th, 1980: Syria holds a second round of elections for parliament. The Ba’ath re-appear in these elections under the name of the Syrian National Renewal Movement, which wins four seats in parliament. Jamil al-Assad, brother of the Ba’ath dictator Hafez al-Assad who was murdered in 1973, is the leader of this block of MPs.

Although the country is still under UN supervision of mainly 25,000 U.S. troops, 5,000 UK troops and another 10,000 from Morocco and various former French colonies in Africa (and some Foreign Legion units) President Maamun al-Kuzbari continues to proclaim Syrian independence and calling for foreign forces to leave. The country has no army, and only a paramilitary police force armed and trained by the U.S., U.K. and French. The Israelis continue to oppose any armed force for Syria and continue to attack arms depots and police outposts they deem threatening to their security.
Wednesday, June 25th, 1980: Nearly six months behind schedule, the first withdrawals of American troops from Syria begin to take place. By the end of 1980, only 5,000 American troops will remain garrisoned in Syria, a reduction of nearly 80% of America’s force within Syria. The decision is announced by President Reagan in a televised address from the Oval Office, with the President citing the relatively peaceful elections in Syria as being the final signal to the world that western military involvement in the country is no longer necessary.
Thursday, June 26th, 1980: Aerolinee Itavia Flight 870 crashes into the sea near Palermo after an explosion occurs in the air; 81 people die. After an investigation a bomb or a missile is suspected to be the cause of the accident. No culprits are identified, though the PJO, possibly operating with Libyan support, are believed to be responsible for the crash.
Friday, June 27th, 1980: Pope Pius XIII starts a three-day visit in Spain, where he is hosted by the country’s interim Presidium and Prime Minister Guerra. The Pope draws large crowds in cities across Spain, where he is hailed as a hero for his role in ending the Falangist regime.
Sunday, June 29th, 1980: Vigdis Finnbogadottir is elected president of Iceland, making her the first woman democratically elected as head of state.
Monday, June 30th, 1980: Queen releases their album The Game, which quickly becomes a chart-topping sensation. The single from the album, “Another One Bites the Dust,” debuts at the top of the billboard charts.
Tuesday, July 1st, 1980: A new constitution is presented for the Spanish people to vote on in a referendum. It incorporates many concepts from the Federal Republic of Germany’s Basic Law as well as a Bill of Rights based on the American and French Constitutions. The Parliament and the Government are to be elected by the people, while the President of the Republic is to be elected by an electoral college composed of members of parliament and representatives of various regional and communal governments. The Basques are formally invited to participate in the referendum.
Wednesday, July 2nd, 1980: The Basque government, re-stating its autonomy, chooses not to participate in the Spanish constitutional referendum.

The White House confirms President Reagan will attend a memorial service in Philadelphia for the victims of the bicentennial attacks. Not to be outdone, Senator Kennedy announces he will visit mourners at New York's Grand Central Station, another site of the 1976 attacks.
Thursday, July 3rd, 1980: The Healey government published a proposal for Home Rule in Northern Ireland based on a modified federal approach with a Northern Ireland Legislature based on popular sovereignty and an Upper House based on sectarian equality, similar in nature to the Canadian and Australian Senates. The so-called Healey plan was denounced by Unionists as “a sell-out” and by most Nationalists and Republicans as “a Trojan horse.”

John Hinckley Jr.

Friday, July 4th, 1980.

Grand Central Station.

12:22 PM, New York City, NY.

John Hinckley had been waiting for this moment, and the adrenaline that pumped through his entire body had him in an almost trance-like state. It felt sublimely exhilarating. The voices in his head were stilled, and the peace…if he ever felt peace…was serene. In a moment, he’d step out of the throes of insanity and into the history books. And then, maybe then, Jodi Foster would love him.

Senator Kennedy was emerging from the escalator that led down to the platform where the July 4th attacks had taken place four years earlier. The Senator had been meeting with the families of those who were killed in the attacks, reliving the horrors of the tragedy with survivors who recounted their harrowing escape from the terminal as those around them choked to death as the sarin gas slowly percolated throughout the platform. His mind was still fixated on the somber stories he had just heard, and his facial expression was grim as he came insight of Hinckley and a gaggle of reporters awaiting the Senator’s departure. “Senator Kennedy” shouted Andrea Mitchell, an NBC correspondent who had a camera crew filming the intrepid young reporters efforts to attract the Senator’s attention.

Hinckley had camouflaged himself well, wearing a cheap suit and tie for the event to blend in with the assembled mourners. He had come to New York a month earlier, working odd jobs across the city to support himself as he continued to stalk Jodi Foster, harassing her by mail and telephone and once even traveling to Yale’s campus in an effort to seek her out. Unable to find her, he knew there would be only one way to attract her attention – by shooting Ronald Reagan. But unfortunately for Hinckley, Reagan seemed out of reach. Reagan had not been in New York since April, and security around the President was much tighter due to the events of the last decade. So Senator Kennedy, of whom Foster was equally critical, would have to suffice.

“Senator Kennedy” Mitchell shouted again, and the Senator, merely twenty feet away, turned to approach her. Hinckley hovered over near the small NBC crew, joining a small crowd of curious onlookers and attendees, appearing anonymous as anyone in the process. It was now or never. The adrenaline was powerful that Hinckley could not feel his heart beating like it had never done before. He wondered if those around him could sense his anxiety. Then he reached into his pocket and withdrew the small .22 caliber snub-nosed revolver, raising it right past Mitchell and aiming it directly at the Senator’s chest. Before Senator Kennedy could notice, much less react, the shots rang out.

*Pop*
*Pop*
*Pop*

Secret Service agents rushed Hinckley instantly, disarming him immediately before he could fire off a fourth shot into the Senator, who crumpled to the ground as crimson blood oozed from his wounds and pooled on the floor. Immediately, he disappeared between a human wall of Secret Service agents who sheltered him from the view of the NBC camera crew, which had captured the whole event on film. Meanwhile Hinckley was just as quickly evacuated from the scene, thrust into an awaiting police car and taken to the nearest precinct as word of the shooting quickly spread from the train terminal to the network newsrooms.

ANNOUNCER: This is an NBC Special Report. We go live now to Tom Brokaw at Rockefeller Center.

TOM BROKAW: We are interrupting our regularly scheduled program to bring you disturbing reports from New York City, where we are learning that Senator Edward Kennedy, the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, has been shot several times in Grand Central Station. This is according to our correspondent Andrea Mitchell, who witnessed the shooting and has confirmed to NBC that the Senator had indeed been shot. We do not know the Senator’s condition at this time, nor do we know at which hospital he has been taken too, but are now getting multiple reports – including from our own correspondent that the Senator has been shot. We go now to Andrea Mitchell, who witnessed the shooting. Andrea, what happened?

ANDREA MITCHELL: It happened very, very fast Tom.  What we know is that Senator Kennedy has indeed been shot, we do not know the severity of his wounds, but having witnessed the scene, it’s very reminiscent of the shooting of George Wallace back in 1972. He sustained several gunshot wounds, and was bleeding profusely as he was picked up and carried out. I could not tell from my vantage point whether he was still conscious, or frankly, even alive when he was rushed out.

TOM BROKAW: Did anyone else appear to be injured?

ANDREA MITCHELL: No, not from what I can tell.

TOM BROKAW: Can you describe the gunman?

ANDREA MITCHELL: I didn’t get a good look at him, but he was a white male, young, dressed rather plainly and very unsuspecting looking.

TOM BROKAW: Did he say anything?

ANDREA MITCHELL: No, he made no statement of any kind, he just raised a small revolver and began firing. He was jumped, tackled really, within seconds. I didn’t see him again afterwards because police officers on the scene began pushing back the crowds of witnesses.

TOM BROKAW: Hold it, Andrea, I’ve just…I’ve just been informed that Senator Kennedy has been rushed to NYU Medical Center where he was pronounced dead on arrival. I repeat, Senator Edward Kennedy is dead, multiple sources are now telling NBC that Senator Kennedy has been killed after being shot several times this afternoon in Grand Central Station...
More tonight or tomorrow.

[Prez_zf]

Ohhh boy, stuff just hit the fan!

[username5243]

Oh my.

Can't say I expected that one, but then again I really should remember which timeline this is. It fits in very well with everything else.

I mean, what even is the plan for if someting like this happens? Well at least Kennedy didn't have a delegate majority, so he wasn't the presumptive nominee but...what comes next?

You have me on the edge of my seat, keep them coming!

[RFK Jr.’s Brain Worm]

I really should’ve expected that from the moment I saw “Grand Central Station” after Hinckley’s name.

[Yelnoc]

All three of the Kennedy boys being killed by assassins is messed up. That poor family.

Does Joseph P. Kennedy II get the family seat in Massachusetts as soon as he turns thirty?

[anbarret]

The Kennedy Curse certainly penetrates many realities. I wonder how many in this reality like to imagine a world where the Chappaquiddick incident of 1969 never happened allowing Ted Kennedy to run in 1972 instead of McKeithen and win a clear electoral victory over Nixon, preventing the constitutional crisis of 1972 and the Agnew presidency!

The question now is who will get most of Kennedy's electoral votes: Church or Askew!

[Another Middling Leftist]

Well it looks like the 1980 Democratic Convention is going to be an absolute cluster****. Three brokered conventions in a row is not good for the party and there will probably be reforms to the process if this keeps coming up.