By a Fluke of the Gods: Cox Defeats Harding

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 9-01-1981
Event Description: Albert Speer, who helped lead the Rebellion of 1951 against the Third Reich, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 76. As a former German Chancellor, Speer is entitled to a state funeral held in the Reichstag. However, Chancellor Hans Scholl is reluctant to give a former Nazi such an honor. Speer will be given his state funeral, but the liberal Scholl will not attend it. He, conveniently, has a summit to attend with President Gorbachev and Prime Minister Thatcher.

Event Date: 9-11-1981
Event Description: President Kennedy introduces the 1982-1983 budget, and it is a conservative one to say the least. There are massive cuts in military, education and welfare spending. The job training program is all but eliminated and government housing funding is gutted. In its place is the most massive tax cut in U.S. history, which will lower the taxes of 95% of Americans. Speaker of the House Tip O’Neil doesn’t like the budget very much, but realizes that it is his duty to push it through Congress. The House of Representatives is expected to easily pass the budget, and it will become the official budget by October 1981.

Event Description: 9-20-1981
Event Description: California Assemblyman William Clinton announces his candidacy for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senator. The ambitious 39-year old politician has served in the California State Assembly since 1974 and made an unsuccessful bid for Assembly Speaker in 1979. The retiring Senator S.I. Hayakawa will not endorse a candidate in the Republican Primary, but many feel he prefers Clinton over San Diego Mayor Pete Wilson, the other announced candidate.

Event Date: 10-06-1981
Event Description: Rudolph Braun travels to Egypt to meet with President Anwar El-Sadat. The two men will lead a forum on religious understanding between Christians and Muslims. As Braun and Sadat shake hands, a gun fires. After the commotion, Father Braun is on the ground, but not dead. He was shot twice, once through the right hand and once in the shoulder. Khalid Islambouli, a radical Islamic jihadist, is arrested for the attempted murder. 

Event Date: 10-10-1981
Event Description: Congressman George W. Bush (Republican of Connecticut) introduces a bill which will revamp America’s protection during natural disasters. The bill will require that FEMA commissions undertake a series of studies and surprise inspections of hurricane preparedness measures in southern US cities, especially in Louisiana and Florida. “It’s very important that we make sure that our FEMA employees can do a heck of a job when storms come,” Congressman Bush tells his colleagues.

Event Date: 10-15-1981
Event Description: President Chalabi announces that Iraq will strive for a million man army by 1983. With the Americans withdrawing from Iraq, very few foreign powers will be able to protect the new republic from invasion or terrorist attacks.

Event Date: 10-30-1981
Event Description: In a televised address, President Kennedy announces that he will support widening free trade agreements, especially amongst nations in Far East. “It is time that our nation stop playing the protectionist games of the 1920s,” President Kennedy concludes his speech by saying, “We are entering the era of the global economy and we must embrace it.” Labor leaders are appalled by the speech, but as Kennedy tells Chief of Staff Shriver, “I didn’t make this speech to make the AFL-CIO send me a candy gram.”

Event Date: 11-05-1981
Event Description: The elections for Governors of New Jersey and Virginia, as well as for Mayor of New York City all go Democratic today. Democratic Congressman Jim Florio defeats Republican State Assemblyman Thomas Kean in the New Jersey governor’s race. In the Virginia gubernatorial contest, Lieutenant Governor Chuck Robb easily defeats Republican Congressman Frank Wolf. In the biggest upset of the night, Democratic author and owner of the conservative National Review magazine, William F. Buckley, defeats incumbent Republican Mayor Edward Koch. The popularity of President Robert Kennedy seems to be working like a charm for Democrats seeking office. The party is looking forward to the 1982 midterms.

Event Date: 11-11-1981
Event Description: On Veterans Day, General Norman Schwarzkopf resigns as Commander of Coalition forces in Iraq. “The mission is over,” General Schwarzkopf tells his soldiers in his farewell address, “Soon we will all be home, and In guess your old commander needs to be apart of it.” As much of the nation could tell since Schwarzkopf’s Kuwait City press conference, he does not like the president and refuses to serve him as a general. To oversee the withdrawal of troops, President Kennedy appoints Lieutenant Colonel James Webb.

Event Date: 11-29-1981
Event Description: Three men break into Senate Majority Leader Joseph Biden’s and put taps on his phone and insert listening devices in the closet and under bookshelves. The Capitol has a sub par security system, so the men get in and out of the office uncaught. The next morning, Senator Biden goes to work, not knowing that he’s being spied on.

Event Date: 12-09-1981
Event Description: Philadelphia Police officer Daniel Faulkner pulls over William Cook, an African-American motorist, for speeding. Cook and his brother, Mumia Abu-Jamal, accept the ticket and drive home. Officer Faulkner shakes hands with Cook and tells him to have, “An otherwise pleasant night.”     

Event Date: 12-10-1981
Event Description: The film “Ragtime” is released for the Holiday season to good reviews. Based on the classic novel by Edgar Lawrence Doctorow, the film blends three fictional American families and various actual historical figures into a framework that revolves around events, characters and ideas important in the History of the United States. Stars of note in the film are Debbie Allen, a Native American actress, playing the lead as Sarah, an immigrant girl from Russia. Ronald Reagan portrays the role of business tycoon J. P. Morgan, a role which lands him a nomination for Best Actor.

Event Date: 12-29-1981
Event Description: The Philadelphia Police Force awards Mayor Reggie Jackson with a Lifelong Achievement Award. Mayor Jackson’s crack down on illegal hand guns, increased support of the neighborhood watch associations and modernization of the police force has led to a 90% decrease Philadelphia’s crime rate since he took office in 1975. “The future is looking bright for the Mayor of the City of Brotherly Love,” Ronald Reagan tells the nation that night on the Voice of the Nation, “Perhaps we will one day see Jackson, and the music accompanying him will be, ‘Hail to the Chief.’”

[PBrunsel]

Any potential candidates for the Presidency in 1984? BTW: What's Gary Hart and George McGovern doing in this TL?

Potential candiodates for 1984? I have a few people in mind, such as McGovern and Hart. Both are Senators, though McGovern lost reelection in 1980. I will have both of them run for president in 1984, but I havn't decided who will win the GOP nomination yet.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-03-1982
Event Description: More than 100,000 U.S. troops land in San Diego, California, and are welcomed by their joyful families. Less than 150,000 troops remain in Baghdad, and violence seems to be calming down. President Chalabi’s new; more lenient position on Baa’thists in government has quitted many of the Baa’thist militias. There are no signs of an impending civil war, but as former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger tells the National Review, “In foreign affairs, there is always calm before a storm.”

Event Date: 1-11-1982
Event Description: The Shah of Iran dies from a massive stroke at the age of 63. He is mourned by his nation as the leader who had helped them defeat Saddam Hussein and restore Iran to a position of power in the Middle East. The new Shah of Iran will be Prince Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late Shah. 

Event Date: 1-20-1982
Event Description: After a prolonged trial, former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad are sentenced by a jury of their peers to be hanged for crimes against humanity. When asked by the judge for a final comment, all President Hussein can spurt out is, “Damn you all.”

Event Date: 2-12-1982
Event Description: Congressman George Walker Bush declares his candidacy for Senate, opposing incumbent Senator William O'Neill (Democrat of Connecticut). With Senator Christopher Dodd filling the other seat, it appears that by 1983 both of Connecticut’s biggest political families could have a family member in office.

Event Date: 3-15-1982
Event Description: President Kennedy meets with Turkish President Kenan Evren, managing a promise from the leader of Turkey that they will stay out of the Kurdish Republic once the U.S. has withdrawn. While flying home from the summit, President Kennedy tells First Lady Eunice Kennedy, “I doubt General Evren is as peaceful as he seems. I’ve never met a general who turned down a good war.”

Event Date: 3-30-1982
Event Description: Surprising the political world, Senator Warren Hearns (Democrat of Missouri) will not face former Missouri Attorney General John Danforth in a rematch of the close 1976 Senate election. Danforth turns down another crack at the senate seat, but the person selected by the GOP to oppose Hearns has just as big a name: Margaret Truman. Truman, 58-year old writer and singer, has the most famous name in Missouri politics. Ronald Reagan, a conservative Democrat who was is a Truman family friend, jokes with his listeners, “If she’s as good a campaigner as a singer, than Senator Hearns has nothing to worry about.” 

Event Date: 4-01-1982
Event Description: The Falkland Islands War begins as Argentinean military dictator Leopoldo Galtieri declares that Argentina officially owns the Falkland Islands, sparking conflict with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President Robert Kennedy. President Kennedy declares that night in a televised address, “The thugs in Argentina will be dealt with as all thugs are: with swift justice.” After the speech, Secretary of State Moynihan warns Kennedy that a war in the Falkland Islands could be bloody and prolonged, much like the Iraq War. “Who said anything about a war, Daniel?” Kennedy slyly asks the secretary.   

Event Date: 4-22-1982
Event Description: As British troops land on the Falkland Islands, President Kennedy meets with CIA Director Robert Gates. The two men decide that General Galtieri needs to be taken out before the British are stuck in a land war in Argentina. Despite it being against national law, Kennedy and Gates shake hands on the assassination plot.

Event Date: 4-26-1982
Event Description: While addressing a crowd at a pro-war rally outside of the presidential palace in Argentina, General Leopoldo Galtieri is shot in the back of the head by an assassin. CIA agent David Castillo, the man selected for the job, escapes unnoticed by Argentinean authorities. The person who is arrested instead is Raúl Alfonsín, the leader of the Radical Party, a socialist organization. With Galtieri dead, Alfonsín on his way to the gas chamber and the new Argentine leader, Colonel Alfredo Oscar Saint Jean angling for peace with the United Kingdom, President Kennedy has been able to kill three birds with one simple stone.

Event Date: 5-01-1982
Event Description: First Blood premiers in theatres. Starring Sylvester Stallone, the star of “Rocky”, as Lieutenant John Rambo, the film tells the story of a Russo-Chinese War veteran who can’t deal with peace time. Despite being a Medal of Honor recipient, Rambo finds that peace time employment isn’t as easy as war time leadership. After years without work, Rambo turns to petty crimes and a hatred of authority figures. The film, starring Ronald Reagan as Sheriff Will Teasle, has mixed reviews, with many ion the press attacking it for, “Portraying a ‘cop killer’ in a positive light.” However, the movie speaks to many veterans, especially the final lines of the film, when Rambo is telling a nearby Chinese immigrant about how desperate the life of a veteran can be and how deep battle scars can go: "I can't get it out of my head. Seven years. Every day I have this. Sometimes I wake up and don't know where I am. I don't talk to anybody. Sometimes a day. Sometimes a week. I can't put it out of my mind."

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 5-03-1982
Event Description: The Argentinean government surrenders to the United Kingdom, ending the Falkland Island War. In more important affairs than a short, nearly bloodless war, President Kennedy is informed by presidential aide in the Russian Embassy that he overheard over the phone tap that President Gorbachev is planning to offer a multi-billion dollar relief plan for the Kurdish Republic in exchange for more oil, thus cutting into the oil America gets from the Kurds. President Massoud Barzani of the Kurdish Republic, feeling betrayed by the Kennedy Administration’s withdrawal from Iraq, is ready to accept the agreement. President Kennedy decides to preempt the deal with his own relief package.

Event Date: 5-05-1982
Event Description: The Congress pushes through the Nunn Plan, named after Senator Sam Nun (Democrat of Georgia), which will give the Kurdish Republic $300 million in military and economic aid. Presidents Kennedy and Barzani meet in the Rose Garden for the signing of the bill. Kennedy’s game of Russian roulette has paid off. President Barzani swears to not cut oil production for the U.S. because of the, “Great gift our American benefactor has given the Kurdish Republic.”

Event Date: 6-08-1982
Event Description: While President Kennedy addresses a joint session of Parliament in the United Kingdom, his own Camelot seems to be under assault. The Washington Post, one of Kennedy’s least favorite “liberal rags”, publishes a story about three men breaking into Senate Majority leader Joseph Biden’s office. The three men were seen on a security tape which was only recently overviewed by the undermanned Capitol security force. “Now we don’t know who these men are,” head of Capitol security Doug Tweed tells the paper, “But we are going to make sure we find out and that it does not happen again.”

Event Date: 6-09-1982
Event Description: Chief of Staff Shriver greets President Kennedy as he arrives at the White House. After some small talk about England and the president’s speech, Shriver breaks the bad news to Kennedy. “What do you mean they got caught?” President Kennedy demands of his Chief of Staff. “They got caught on film, Mr. President,” Shriver explains to RFK, “No one knows who they are.” “We have to make sure it stays that way,” Kennedy tells Shriver. President Kennedy orders Shriver to have the tapes destroyed, or at least the part of them which has the three men on it. “I’ll do what I can, Mr. President,” a reluctant Shriver tells President Kennedy.

Event Date: 6-11-1982
Event Description: Three men are apprehended by police breaking into, of all things, Washington, D.C. Police Headquarters. Before the police apprehended them, they destroyed some evidence, but all three refuse to tell the police what it was. One of the burglars, Ray LaRosa, is identified as a Kennedy family friend by the two other burglars. When Detective Matt Redding asks LaRosa why he was trying to get into the evidence room, LaRosa refuses to speak, citing his 5th Amendment rights. The three men are placed under custody and incarcerated. Chief of Staff Shriver is awakened by a phone call from LaRosa, telling him where he is and what has happened. “Are you insane Ray?” snaps Shriver, “Can they trace this call?” After Ray tells him that the cops can’t, Shriver tells LaRosa what to do, “Lay low, lie if you have to. He’s going to here about this.” “He?” a puzzled LaRosa asks, “Who’s ‘he’?” “You know,” Shriver darkly says, “HIM.” The two are subtly talking about President Kennedy.

Event Date: 6-12-1982
Event Description: “What happened!” shouts President Kennedy to his frightened Chief of Staff. Shriver explains that the three burglars were apprehended while trying to destroy evidence in the Biden Break-In Case. “Well,” the president asks, “Did they succeed?” “They destroyed a part of the tapes before they were captured,” Shriver begins, “We don’t know what part, however.” Excellent,” Kennedy says. He orders Shriver to keep quiet and not talk to any prosecutors. He also orders Shriver to shut up the burglars, “Any way possible.”

Event Date: 6-22-1982
Event Description: The White House is rocked by, of all things, a tabloid story. Carl Bernstein and the National Star release a scathing story about the recent D.C. Police Headquarters break-in. Bernstein claims that President Kennedy had ordered the break-in, which is why Ray LaRosa was apart of the break-in. “Kennedy knew how LaRosa worked,” Bernstein writes, “Which is why he had him lead the break-in.” Bernstein has no evidence but some circumstantial conversations, but Senate Majority Leader Biden declares that he will lead a committee to investigate the June 11th break-in. “We must be sure that the president is not engaging in criminal activity,” Senator Biden tells the press, “The reputation of the U.S. government demands such an investigation.” Ronald Reagan jokes that night on the Voice of the Nation, “No amount of investigations will ever make Americans like the government.”

Event Date: 7-01-1982
Event Description: Former Iraqi and Syrian Presidents Hussein and Assad are hung outside of the Iraqi city of Basra. Assad had no final words, but Hussein did tell his executioners, “I will see you again.” The two men die after three minutes of struggle.

Event Date: 7-20-1982
Event Description: Senator Arlen Specter (Republican of Pennsylvania), a former district attorney, is appointed chairman of the new Committee to Investigate the Administration. The Republican dominated Senate will easily allow this committee to exist, but the Democratic controlled House of Representatives refuses to allow such a committee to exist in its chamber. Speaker of the House O’Neil will help pass a resolution condemning the senate for, “Investigating tabloid rumors,” but the committee will not be shut down. Senator Specter declares that he will investigate, “Every witness and suspect, even if it goes all the way to President Kennedy.” As Johnny Carson declares on his late night comedy show, “It looks like the ‘Summer of Scandal” has begun.”

Event Description: 7-22-1982
Event Description: San Diego Mayor Pete Wilson defeats State Assemblyman William Clinton in the GOP Primary for U.S. Senate. Wilson wins 54% of the vote to Clinton’s 46%, a much closer race then was expected. The California Republican Party is very impressed with Clinton’s campaigning skills and mastery of the issues. Despite his electoral defeat for the Senate, Clinton is once again nominated by the GOP to run as their nominee in his Assembly District. Things are actually looking bright for the defeated Senate candidate. 

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 8-03-1982
Event Description: Senator Specter names attorney Ramsey Clark to lead the investigation of the Kennedy Administration as the Special Prosecutor. Clark, who served as CIA Director from 1971-1973, is seen by many in the Democratic Party as nothing more then a partisan Republican, but that is what Specter wanted. Clark begins his investigation immediately, calling Chief of Staff Shriver to testify in a week. President Kennedy orders Shriver to not speak to the special prosecutor. “Isn’t that illegal, Mr. President?” Shriver asks Kennedy. “That just depends on how much Clark wants you to testify,” the president explains.

Event Date: 8-05-1982
Event Description: By orders of the special prosecutor, the office of Senate Majority Leader Joseph Biden (Republican of Delaware) is searched by government security agents. They find several listening devises in the closet and phone taps on the telephones. Clark decides to question one of the June 11th burglars to, “Find about what President Kennedy expects his thugs to do.”   

Event Date: 8-09-1982
Event Description: Special Prosecutor Clark questions one of the June 11th burglars, a former CIA agent named Whit Chambers, Jr. Chambers explains to Clark that he, LaRossa and the third burglar were ordered to destroy the Biden Senate Office security tapes. “Did you destroy the tapes?” Clark asks Chambers. “Well, one of them at least,” Chambers tells Clark. When the tapes are played, one part is missing: the 8 ½ minutes when the intruders were placing phone taps and listening devices around the Biden’s office. “Did you destroy this tape on purpose?” Clark asks. “Yes, we did,” is Chambers very pithy answer. “Who ordered you to destroy this tape?” Clark further probes. “Sarge Shriver did it,” Chambers declares, “You can ask him yourself.” “Oh,” Clark tells the court, “I will.”

Event Date: 8-12-1982
Event Description: Chief of Staff Sargent Shriver is subpoenaed by Special Prosecutor Ramsey Clark to testify before the Senate Committee to Investigate the Administration. “Under no circumstances will you go to the Senate,” President Kennedy tells Shriver, “Its best we leave well enough alone.” Shriver agrees to ignore the subpoena, but for how long he can keep it up is the real question.

Event Date: 8-22-1982
Event Description: Chief of Staff Shriver is once again subpoenaed, and once again he ignores the subpoena. Clark tells President Kennedy is a meeting outside of the Capitol to, “Get that man to testify, or risk an article of impeachment.” “You leftists will never get enough votes to take me down,” President Kennedy tells Clark, “So take your empty threats somewhere else.” Later that day an employee at the Russian Embassy contacts Clark, and tells him about the phone taps he’s discovered at his office. Clark now has the trump card he needs to bring Shriver to the stand.

Event Date: 8-23-1982
Event Description: “The president has blatantly broken the law!” Clark tells the Senate, “And I have proof that will outline to every member of this body how Bobby Kennedy is ignoring the law and laughing at our system of justice.” Over the course of five hours, Clark questions various Russian Embassy employees, as well as staff members for General Norman Schwarzkopf, who Kennedy also spied on. By the end of the day every Senator is adequately convinced that the Kennedy Administration has broken federal law, and demand Chief of Staff Shriver takes the stand. “All though I view these proceedings as nothing more than a partisan with hunt,” Senate Minority Leader Strom Thurmond (Democrat of South Carolina) tells his colleagues, “It is still important that the Chief of Staff gets a chance to speak. If anything, he’ll be able to show how wrong other witnesses have been.”

Event Date: 9-10-1982
Event Description: Chief of Staff Robert Sargent Shriver takes the stand before the Senate Committee to Investigate the Administration. Special Prosecutor Ramsey Clark grills Shriver for more than three hours, but never gets him to admit that President Kennedy ordered any break-in or cover-up. “I take responsibility for everything that has been committed,” Shriver tells Clark, “The president is innocent.” Shriver is put in custody, but allowed to be held at his home. That night, President Kennedy calls up Shriver and tells him, “I never intended for any of this to happen.” “Yes you did, Bob,” Shriver tells the president, “Every time you demanded a break-in or wanted to spy on someone, that’s how you intended for this to happen.”

Event Date: 10-29-1982
Event Description: There has been little traction in the June 11th Scandal, as the break-in investigation is now known as. Clark has been able to tie any testimony to the president. However, everything will change today. Chief Presidential Council R. Sargent Shriver III, the chief of staff’s eldest son, declares that he will testify before the committee. “I know everything that’s gone down in this administration,” Shriver tells the press, “Even more than my dad.” Shriver promises Clark that he has evidence that will, “Take down Bobby Kennedy, and clear my dad’s name.”

Event Date: 10-31-1982
Event Description: The Halloween Massacre occurs. Chief Presidential Council Shriver testifies that President Kennedy, not his father, Chief of Staff Sargent Shriver, is responsible for all the illegal activities which the committee has been investigating. To prove his charges, Shriver produces a slew of memos, notes and sworn statements which had been sent to his father, but the elder Shriver refused to use against the president. “Mr. Shriver,” Clark asks Shriver in his concluding question, “Why are you doing all this?” “Mr. Prosecutor,” Shriver tells Clark, “"Do we operate under a system of equal justice under law? Or is there one system for the average citizen and another for the high and mighty? I refuse to believe that the latter statement is true, especially in America.”

Event Date: 11-02-1982
Event Description: With charges flying against President Kennedy and the “Summer of Scandal” still fresh in the minds of voters, the Republican Party wins a massive election victory in the Midterm Elections. The GOP wins 56-seats in the House of Representatives (giving them a near 2/3rd majority) and the party picks up 12-seats in the Senate. New Republican Senators will include Pete Wilson (California), George W. Bush (Connecticut), David Emery (Maine) Mark Dayton (Minnesota), Pete Dunn (Arizona) Chic Hecht (Nevada) and Margaret Truman (Missouri). The elections were a perfect storm against the Kennedy Administration. Senate Majority Leader Joseph Biden tells Senator Specter and incoming Speaker of the House John Rhodes that they should begin impeachment charges against President Kennedy as soon as the new Congress is sworn-in.

Event Date: 11-09-1982
Event Description: Former Senator George McGovern (Republican of South Dakota) announces his candidacy for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in 1984. “Its time that our nation leaves the old politics of the Eats behind,” McGovern declares in his announcement address, “And look to the West for honest and efficient leadership.” Some voters are losing faith in the old Eastern political families, but very few want McGovern to be the new face of the nation. Another Western Senator, Gary Hart (Republican of Colorado), is seen as a far better Western prospect for president.

Event Date: 11-21-1982
Event Description: President Kennedy declares in a nationally televised address that he will, “Never resign the presidency, no matter what trumped up charges are brought against me. I am telling you, the American people, today that I have broken no laws and have no reason to fear impeachment. The Republicans can talk about break-ins all they want, but I will go about with the business of the people.” Ronald Reagan, a Kennedy supporter, tells his listeners after the speech, “I fear that President Kennedy is stretching his Irish luck a little too thin.”

[PBrunsel]

I am hoping to get 1983 and 1984 up by Sunday. I'm hoping to have 1983 up tonight or tommorrow. I've had three papers due for my history and education courses, but there all under controll.

Also, I didn't want this thread to fall on page 2.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-04-1983
Event Description: The 98th Congress begins its first session, with the fog of scandal over it. Senate Majority Leader Joseph Biden (Republican of Delaware) and Speaker of the House John Rhodes (Republican of Arizona) meet to discuss when to begin impeachment against President Kennedy, something the Oval Office eyeing Biden wants to start as soon as possible. On the Democratic side, Tip O’Neil is not given the position of House Minority Leader as his ties to President Kennedy are too close for comfort. Congressman Jim Wright (Democrat of Texas) is made House Minority Leader.

Event Date: 1-20-1983
Event Description: Representative Peter Rodino (Republican of New Jersey), the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, introduces three articles of impeachment against President Robert Francis Kennedy. The charges are obstruction of justice, violation of federal code and high crimes. Rodino selects Representatives Patricia Schroeder (Republican of Colorado), Byron Dorgan (Republican of North Dakota) and Denny Smith (Republican of Oregon) to also be included in the introduction of the articles of impeachment. These four members of Congress will become the key “managers” during the Kennedy Impeachment. 

Event Date: 1-21-1983
Event Description: In a televised press conference, President Kennedy challenges Congress to, “Try to get me out of office. I can assure you that you’ll fail, just like everyone who’s tried to take me down.” After going over the allotted time for the press conference, and enraged Kennedy tells his audience, “I want everyone watching this to remember that there president is not a quitter, because people have got to know whether or not their president is a quitter.” After seeing this press conference, Democratic National Chairman Fred Harris (Democrat of Oklahoma) calls Senate Minority Leader Sam Nunn (Democrat of Georgia) and tells him that Kennedy has to go. “The president has lost control of his White House, and it appears he’s lost control of his own senses.”

Event Date: 1-22-1983
Event Description: Senate Minority Leader Nunn, Chairman Harris and House Minority Leader Wright meet with President Kennedy in the Oval Office, asking him to resign. “It’s for the good of the country and the party, Bobby,” Harris tells the president. “No it isn’t!” the enraged President Kennedy cries, “I was elected for four years, and come hell or high-water I will stay here for four years! It is my right as the President of the United States!” The three men can not get Kennedy to budge, so they leave the White House, still determined to find a way to get the president out of office.

Event Date: 2-10-1983
Event Description: Speaker of the House Rhodes announces that hearings before the House Judiciary Committee for the impeachment of President Robert Kennedy will begin on March 15th, 1983-the Ides of March.

Event Date: 2-12-1983
Event Description: Vice-President Jack Kemp, ignoring the Kennedy Impeachment crisis, meets with several congressmen to discuss the elimination of the gas tax, believing that it hurts the economy far more then it helps the environment. Kemp is seen as Congress as a fine alternative to President Kennedy, despite his very conservative economic positions.

Event Date: 3-15-1983
Event Description: The House Judiciary Committee begins hearings on the Kennedy Impeachment. Government employees testify about the spying and listening equipment spread around their departments. Whit Chambers, Jr., testifies that Kennedy ordered a break-in of the Washington, D.C., Police Headquarters. Others back up this claim through memos and personal notes. “It appears as if President Kennedy, like Julius Caesar, before him,” Ronald Reagan closes his radio program with that night, “Should have bewared the Ides of March.”

Event Date: 3-24-1983
Event Description: Former Russian Ambassador Thomas J. Watson, Jr., tells the House Judiciary Committee that he was aware that there were listening devices throughout the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C. “Despite the laws against wiretapping,” Ambassador Watson tells the committee, “The administration demanded that constant surveillance on Russian actions in the United States and the Middle East be possible…at all costs.” Chairman Rodino asks Watson if he is aware if the president ordered these illegal wiretappings. “Yes, sir,” Watson responds.

Event Date: 3-29-1983
Event Description: Detective Matt Redding, the D.C. detective who questioned the Police Headquarters burglars, testifies before the House Judiciary Committee. He explains that the burglars (led by Kennedy confidant Ray LaRosa) had broken into the police headquarters, “To destroy some incriminating evidence against them.” “What proof do you have of that?” Chairman Rodino asks. The detective produces the Biden Senate Office security tapes, and it is shown that in the missing 8 ½ minutes, the actual illegal activity of placing wiretaps has been destroyed. It now seems very probably that President Kennedy was attempting to destroy evidence.


Event Date: 3-30-1983
Event Description: The House Judiciary Committee passes all three Articles of Impeachment against President Kennedy. “The evidence is clear,” Representative Byron Dorgan tells the press, “President Kennedy has broken the law, he has obstructed justice and he should be relived of his duties as president.” In the White House, President Kennedy remains defiant. “Dorgan, with his stupid haircut, thinks he can throw me out the president’s chair?” President Kennedy scoffs to his wife, “Well he better get comfortable, since I’m not going anywhere.”

Event Date: 4-15-1983
Event Description: The House of Representatives passes all three Articles of Impeachment against President Kennedy. Many Democrats join the Republicans in supporting impeachment. “It has become apparent to me, as a student of American history,” Representative Newt Gingrich (Democrat of Georgia) tells his colleagues, “That President Kennedy is unfit for his office and unfit for this party. All law respecting people should support impeachment.” In the end all but 103 congressmen, all Democrats, will vote for impeachment.

Event Date: 4-16-1983
Event Description: Chairman Harris and former President Joseph Kennedy, Senior, meet with President Kennedy in the Oval Office, both imploring him to resign. “Bob,” Joe tells Bobby, “It’s hopeless for you. A majority of Senate Democrats will vote for impeachment. Its best for your family, my family and the country that you resign” “There’s no way of escaping impeachment Bobby,” Chairman Harris bluntly tells the president, “You have to resign.” After an hour of back and forth arguing, Kennedy finally bows to pressure. “All right Joe,” the president wearily says to his older brother, “I do not want to resign, but I don’t think I have a choice.”

Event Date: 4-17-1983
Event Description: President Robert Kennedy addresses the nation from the Oval Office. “Good evening my fellow Americans,” President Kennedy begins his speech, “Tonight will be my last night addressing you as President of the United States. I am tonight announcing my resignation as President of the United States. Tomorrow, Vice-President Kemp will be sworn in as president in this office. ” President Kennedy apologizes to the nation and to members of his administration for betraying the trust they had in him. “It is tragic,” Ronald Reagan tells his listeners that night, “That a man with such promise, intelligent and diligence as Robert Kennedy has destroyed himself with such petty and lowly tactics. Perhaps Aeschylus put it best, my friends, ‘A man’s weakness is his character.’”

Event Date: 4-18-1983
Event Description: President Robert Kennedy, First Lady Ethel Kennedy and all eight of their children (including war hero Robert F. Kennedy, Junior) walk out of the White House as the most powerful family in the world for the last time. As President Kennedy enters Marine 1 to take him and his family back to Hyannis Port, he turns around and salutes the new man in the White House, President Jack Kemp. “My fellow Americans” President Kemp declares in his address to the nation, “Our long national nightmare is over.”

[PBrunsel]

The Presidency of Jack F. Kemp

Event Date: 4-20-1983
Event Description: Just two days after being sworn-in as President of the United States, President Kemp declares that he will continue the Kennedy foreign and domestic policies. “The past administration had major ethical problems,” President Kemp tells reporters at his first White House press conference, “However, the small government and anti-intervention polices of President Kennedy are what have given this nation peace and prosperity for the last two years, and I intend to continue this trend.” “Like hell he will,” Senate Majority Leader Biden jokingly tells the press later that day, “I think President Kemp’s gonna find out that I’m even tougher than Willie Lanier.” Lanier was one of Kemp’s football rivals as a line-back for the Kansas City Chiefs. 

Event Date: 4-22-1983
Event Description: President Kemp nominates Representative John McCain (Democrat of Arizona) for Vice-President, filling the vacant office. “Representative McCain is a man of honor, integrity and bravery,” President Kemp says as his nominates McCain for the Vice-Presidency, “As a hero of the Russo-Chinese War, John showed how valiant an American flyboy can be. As a Congressman since 1975, John has shown leadership in the battle for limited government and veteran rights.” Senate Majority Leader Biden, himself a veteran, applauds the choice of Representative McCain as, “A step in the right direction for a country fatigued by dishonest leaders.” It will take just under a month for McCain to be confirmed as the next vice-president.

Event Date: 5-09-1983
Event Description: Senator Gary Hart (Republican of Colorado) declares his candidacy for president, attacking, “The legacy of corruption and aloofness of the Kennedy-Kemp Administration.” Senator Hart, a charismatic westerner, is seen by many Republicans as the best man to take on the handsome and charming President Kemp in 1984.

Event Date: 5-12-1983
Event Description: “The Hitler Diaries” are published by the German magazine “Stern”. The diaries are thought to be the actual manuscripts of the German dictator, but they are later discredited by investigators. At his home in Mexico City, Nobel peace prize winner Father Rudolph Braun, the son of Hitler, can only laugh at the interest people had in, “The made up ramblings of a mass murderer.”

Event Date: 6-09-1983
Event Description: Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher wins an overwhelming victory in the Parliament elections, vindicating her right-wing politics on the British Isles. President Kemp calls Lady Thatcher after her victory, telling her, “I can only hope conservatives have a repeat performance in American next year.”

Event Date: 6-13-1983
Event Description: Secretary of Agriculture John R. Block meets with President Kemp, and gives him a grim picture of the nation’s heartland. “Debt and drought are crushing the American farmer,” Secretary Block tells President Kemp, “We need to do something to relieve our nation’s farmers.” “Forget about any more subsidies, John,” President Kemp tells the secretary, “Also, I am not a huge fan of bail outs.” “Mr. President,” Block pleads, “If we don’t wake up and do something, then we might just lose our ‘amber waves of grain.’” President Kemp, a good old fashioned patriot, is swayed by these patriotic words and invites farm leaders and a handful of Congressmen and Senators to a White House meeting on the Farm Crisis.

Event Date: 6-20-1983
Event Description: The Farm Crisis Summit is held in the Rose Garden, with President Kemp and Secretary Block in attendance. Farmer’s Union President Leland H. Swenson, Senators Charles Grassley (Democrat of Iowa) and Jim Exon (Republican of Nebraska), along with Congressmen Jim Slattery (Republican of Kansas) and Dan Coates (Democrat of Indiana) are also in attendance. These men bargain and barter for more than twelve hours, but finally meet a way to help curve the crisis. President Kemp agrees to issue a limited amount of government aid to those farmers’s suffering from the greatest debt. In return for this concession, the Republicans promise to lower restrictions and regulations on farmer in the grain markets and the livestock business.

Event Date: 7-10-1983
Event Description: The Grassley-Slattery Farm Aid Act is introduced to the House of Representatives, with huge support from farmers and Midwestern legislators. “This is the first step in a new farm policy,” Congressman Slattery tells his colleagues, “Is it enough to end the crisis? Not at all, but at least its more than the previous policy of doing nothing.” The House of Representatives agrees, and passes the act comfortably. The Senate will follow likewise two weeks later. Farmers celebrate the aid and less government restriction, while the Congress congratulates itself on overcoming the recent partisan divide to help farmers in need. President Kemp’s approval ratings shoot up to 55% amongst a nation happy to see something different then hatred in Washington, D.C.

Event Date: 7-21-1983
Event Description: Governor Lamar Alexander (Republican of Tennessee) announces his candidacy for the Republican nomination for President of the United States. Governor Alexander is an anomaly to American politics. As a pro-civil rights liberal, he was elected governor in 1978 with huge support from African-Americans and blue collar laborers. As governor, he has improved the education and highway systems in the Volunteer State. New York Times editorialist William Safire, a conservative, opines that Alexander may be, “The most impressive man to run for president since Herbert Hoover.”

Event Date: 8-09-1983
Event Description: President Kemp tells NBC’s David Brinkley in a television interview that he will not pardon former President Kennedy for any crimes he committed during his administration. “The proof is that President Kennedy tried to obstruct a criminal investigation and broke numerous laws,” President Kemp tells Brinkley, “I promised to uphold our constitution when I became president. We have a government of laws and not of men, after all. In this respect, I can not pardon Robert Kennedy for the crimes he committed.” Watching the interview at his home in Hyannis Port, Bobby Kennedy screams, “That damn traitor!”

Event Date: 8-28-1983
Event Description: Senate Majority Leader Joseph Biden declares his candidacy for the Republican nomination for President in 1984. Despite his senate seat being up for reelection, Senator Biden believes 1984 will be a Republican year; after all, a corrupt Democrat has just had to resign from office. Senator Biden shoots to the top in the polls, as he is credited with brining down President Kennedy and opposing the Kennedy-Kemp fiscal and foreign policies.

Event Date: 9-01-1983
Event Description: A South Korean airliner is shot down over Russian airspace. Among the dead from the crash is arch-conservative Congressman Larry McDonald (Democrat of Georgia). President Gorbachev immediately sends apologies to South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan, the families of the 240 passengers and immediately has General Andre Strogov and Lieutenant Vladimir Putin fired for ordering the attack. “I only ordered the assault to protect the Russian people,” General Strogov tells President Gorbachev. However, this defense is not only completely scoffed at by President Gorbachev, but it will end up leading to criminal conviction for the general. Lieutenant Putin, just 31-years old, vows revenge on Gorbachev for, “Imprisoning a patriot.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 9-15-1983
Event Description: The Kemp Budget for 1984-1985 is introduced to the House of Representatives, and the Republicans are not too happy. The budget includes another major tax cut and slashes social and military spending to new levels. “This budget is fiscally irresponsible and a relic of the failed Ashbrook and Kennedy policies,” Speaker of the House John Rhodes declares on the floor of the House, “All Republicans should oppose this new budget.” However, a majority of Americans welcome the new budget according to the Gallup Poll. More than 85% of those polled are enthusiastic about the tax cut and even 58% want the spending cuts. President Kemp urges the House of Representatives to pass, “The people’s budget.”

Event Date: 9-22-1983
Event Description: House Minority Leader James Wright and House Majority Leader Robert H. Michel (Republican of Illinois) meet in a conference hall to discuss the Kemp Budget. The two decide that farm relief and increased funding for education must be included to appease the Republicans. To make sure that Democrats support the budget, the Grassley-Slattery Farm Aid Act will be put into the federal budget and the tax cut will be included, but it will be targeted to the Middle Class. Though Minority Leader Wright is not happy with the new tax cut, he accepts the budget’s changes. President Kemp and House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Leach (Republican of Iowa) also agree on the new budget, seeing that it is the only one that has a chance of passing through the Republican dominated Congress.

Event Date: 10-09-1983
Event Description: The House of Representatives passes the Kemp Budget for the 1984-1985 Fiscal Year. President Kemp signs the budget in a Rose Garden ceremony, but in flanked by Republican leaders John Rhodes and Robert Michel instead of Democratic bigwigs. “A new feeling of peace has fallen over the nation’s capitol,” Ronald Reagan tells his listeners that night, “It appears as if President Kemp is quarterbacking our nation into a new era of good feelings.”

Event Date: 11-03-1983
Event Description: A film version of Victor Hugo’s classic “Les Miserables” hits theatres, with Sean Connery playing the role of the fugitive protagonist Jean Valjean and Ronald Reagan portraying Inspector Javert, Valjean’s never ceasing antagonist. The film is a success, with fans of the book praising Connery and Reagan for their superb portrayals of the classic Hugo characters.

Event Date: 11-23-1983
Event Description: Governor Pierre “Pete” DuPont (Republican of Delaware) declares his candidacy for president. A son of old money, DuPont is seen as the heir of the Rockefeller Republican legacy.   

Event Date: 11-30-1983
Event Description: The Kani Massi, a largest oil pipeline stretching from the Kurdish Republic through Turkey, mysteriously bursts, seriously damaging the pipeline. Kurdish President Massoud Barzani and Iraqi President Ahmed Chalabi both declare that the pipeline will be repaired as soon as possible, but until then oil prices will experience a sharp increase. President Kemp responds by offering U.S. assistance in any way to the Kurdish Republic.

Event Date: 12-10-1983
Event Description: It has been eleven days since the Kani Massi Pipeline in the Kurdish Republic burst, and little work has begun on repairing it. What has been worked on is Kurdish anger towards Turkey, whom many in the Kurdish Parliament blame for the pipeline explosion. Members of the Kurdish National Party are calling for war with Turkey, but President Barzani refuses to believe that the Turkish Government would be behind such an act.

Event Date: 12-21-1983
Event Description: Already high tensions between the Kurdish Republic and Turkey hit the boiling point when Kurdish National Party leader Yonadem Kana travels to Kani Massi, on the Kurdish-Turkish border, and belligerently declares, “To all Turkish saboteurs, come now and try to harm this city!” Turkish President Kenan Evren demands an apology from, “The bold, boasting Kurdish trouble maker,” but none comes.

Event Date: 12-26-1983
Event Description: The day after Christmas is met with still no real progress on repairing the Kani Massi Pipeline. With gas prices hitting new highs in Turkey and Russia, both nations threaten to invade the Kurdish Republic to repair the pipeline themselves. Secretary of State Daniel Moynihan intervenes on the side of the Kurdish Republic, getting the two belligerent nations to give the Kurdish Republic another month. The quick diplomatic work of Moynihan seems to have staved off a war.     

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-01-1984
Event Description: Congressman Malcolm Little (Republican of Michigan), the 59-year old firebrand civil rights leader, announces his candidacy for the Republican nomination for President of the United States. “I see the Republican Party being taken over by those who just want to be Democrats!” booms Congressman Little in front of the Wayne County Courthouse, “Men like Biden and DuPonte are just rich white people claiming to ‘love the poor Negro’. Hart and Alexander are new faces, meaning guys who came late to fight for civil rights. Finally, we all know old George McGovern is one light bulb short of a lamp. I don’t expect any of these chumps to be able to take down the sneaky and dirty Democratic machine. I’m the only man with the guts and the fire to take down a football player. I’m coming for you Jack!” Realizing that his late entry handicaps him in early states like Iowa and New Hampshire, Little’s campaign manager, former Congressman Andrew Young, puts the campaigns focus on the South and cites with large urban centers, places where large amount of African-American voters live.

Event Date: 1-22-1984
Event Description: President Kemp, seeking to shore up support from born again Christians, appears on the Reverend Pat Robertson’s evening religious television program, The 700 Club. The two men talk about faith, family and the upcoming presidential election. “What do you feel will be the most important issue in the 1984 election?” Robertson asks the president as the interview concludes. “Well reverend,” President Kemp says, “I think that important issue would be competence. This election is about who can get things done in Washington to help protect families from the government and foreign enemies.”

Event Date: 1-29-1984
Event Description: Senator Edward Brooke (Republican of Massachusetts) announcing he will retire from the Senate after his third term is completed. Having been reelected easily in very pro-Republican 1978 midterm elections, Senator Brooke now feels it is time to step aside. “I see others in the Bay State who should have the chance to serve in the United States Senate,” Senator Brooke announces, “Public servants who are younger and can be far more energetic towards this office.” Immediately, two top tier candidates emerge for both parties. Congressman John Kerry, a long-time Republican stalwart and war hero, will take on Massachusetts Attorney General, and presidential sibling, Edward Kennedy. Attorney General Kennedy should be the favorite in Massachusetts, where both of his brothers served as governor, but the recent scandals around former President Robert Kennedy threaten Teddy’s chances at the senate.

Event Date: 1-31-1984
Event Description: The Kani Massi Pipeline is still not repaired enough to return to its peak oil transportation. Turkey and Russia jointly declare that they will send there own representatives to, as Turkish President Kenan Evren says, “Oversee a more competent repair.” Secretary of State Moynihan and President Kemp see this statement as a blatant attempt by the two nations to wipe the Kurdish Republic off the map. That night, President Kemp warns the two nations over international television, “If your armies do stand down and retreat from the northern borders of the Kurdish Republic, then expect the awesome power of the United States to intervene on behalf of our allies in the Kurdish Republic.” Though a non-interventionist, President Kemp realizes that if Turkey and Russia take control of the Kurdish Republic’s petroleum reserves, it could mean an oil crisis. Whether the two nations will respond to the threat can not be known.

Event Date: 2-01-1984
Event Description: “We just looked eye to eye, and the other fellow blinked,” Lieutenant Colonel James Webb tells President Kemp over the phone at 12:01 a.m., Kurdish Republic time. The oncoming Russian and Turkish “inspectors” are ordered by their military and national leaders to turn around, fearing a war with the United States. “It is best not to poke a sleeping dog with a stick,” President Gorbachev explains the next day Pravda News. Many in Russia, suffering from high gas prices, are not happy with this turn of events. With the Russian presidential election in April, Gorbachev can only hope the Kani Massi Pipeline is repaired by then. In the United States, President Kemp is cheered by the media and the voters for his tough talk and cool head during the crisis.

Event Date: 2-09-1984
Event Description: Former Russian President Yuri Andropov passes away at the age of 70. The former National Party leader is remembered as the Russian leader who took on the Chinese in the bloody Russo-Chinese War. At his funeral two days later, Russian National Party leader and candidate for president Dmitry Yazov eulogizes Andropov as, “The greatest patriot to the Russian military since the days of Kerensky. Andropov would never have stood down when facing a fight for the betterment of the Russian people.” This is an obvious slap to the face of President Mikhail Gorbachev, the embattled Social-Democratic president who has recently ordered the Russian military to retreat from an invasion of the Kurdish Republic.   

Event Date: 2-20-1984
Event Description: The Iowa Caucus is held, with expected results. Senate Majority Leader Joseph Biden wins big, being backed by local farmer and labor unions as well as the Iowa Democratic machine. Governor Alexander comes in second, being backed by Representative Jim Leach. Senators Hart and McGovern take third and fourth with Governor DuPonte finishing a distant fifth in the pack. He realizes that his patrician ways will not be very popular in the Midwest, but his campaign is focusing far more on the Northeast and the West.

Event Date: 2-26-1984
Event Description: Governor Lamar Alexander, campaigning with Senator Warren Rudman (Republican of New Hampshire), announces in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, that he will, “Fulfill the energy independence promise of President Nixon.” Alexander outlines a comprehensive program which includes sublimation for energy companies which begin building alternative power plants, a cash rebate for citizens that drive diesel and ethanol powered automobiles and, “A manifesto that all government building and cars be powered by new and cheaper types of fuel and energy by 2001.” This bold plan is applauded by many on both sides of the aisle. President Kemp himself tells the press, “I’m impressed by the governor’s idea, but it needs a lot of work to make in feasible.” “Come on Jack!” Ronald Reagan exclaims that night on his radio show, “This is a campaign promise, it doesn’t have to feasible. Heck, most government programs don’t have to be feasible!”

Event Date: 2-28-1984
Event Description: The New Hampshire Primary surprises the nation. Governor Lamar Alexander, a southerner, defeats Senators Biden and Hart in a state both were expected to finish first and second in. Many Republican primary voters expressed admiration for Alexander’s boldness. “He’s a dreamer,” one voter tells a CBS reporter, “His energy program shows that he has at least the guts to try to take on the problems facing our nation.” Alexander takes first place with 29% of the vote, with Biden taking 27% and Hart coming in third with 23%. Finishing with just 11% in a state he focused most of his funds on, Governor DuPonte drops out of the race and endorses Governor Alexander over his fellow Delawarean, Senator Biden.

Event Date: 2-29-1984
Event Description: Sensing a tide of conservatives due to the rising gas and food prices in Canada, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announces that he will retire at the end of his term. He will be succeeded by John Turner, who faces overwhelming economic problems and a strong challenge from the Progressive Conservatives under Brian Mulroney.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 3-06-1984
Event Description: Senator Biden makes up for his upset defeat in New Hampshire by winning the Vermont Primary. Despite support for Senator Hart from the young liberal “yuppies” and Governor Alexander from rural voters, Senator Biden’s strength amongst party regulars and blue collar workers was enough to win him the Green Mountain State.

Event Date: 3-10-1984
Event Description: While speaking before the Heritage Foundation, President Kemp declares a, “War on Drugs.” “Everyday more than 500,000-pounds of illegal drugs are run through our unprotected Southern border,” President Kemp tells his listeners, “It is time for a real drug policy. We must not allow drug runners to take advantage of our unprotected border any longer.” President Kemp unveils a new “National Strategy” towards border patrol and drug law enforcement. His plan includes tripling the number of Border Patrol Agents, building a, “physical and technological fence,” on the Southern border and beefing up customs officers. He does not mention outlawing marijuana or other low key drugs, however. “Sometimes I feel we in the government spend so much time going after the smallest offenders, we overlook the real criminals,” is all President Kemp says when asked about criminalizing cannabis and the drugs made from it.

Event Date: 3-11-1984
Event Description: Senate Majority Leader Biden, Governor Alexander, Senator Hart, Congressman Little and former Senator McGovern meet at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. The debate focuses mainly on President Kemps’ War on Drugs speech the day before. Congressman Little has the most inflammatory rhetoric of the night, calling Kemp’s support of more border enforcement, “Hispanic hate.” “I’ve noticed that President Kemp only spoke about defending the Southern border,” Congressman Little tells the audience, “That’s not a policy decision, this is pure hatred for people who are different from him!” “Are you accusing the President of the United States of being a racist?” states debate moderator Sam Donaldson in a slightly confused voice. “You bet I am, Sammy!” cries Little.

Event Date: 3-13-1984
Event Description: Several primaries and caucuses are held today, giving out a grab bag of results. Front-runner Senator Biden wins the Florida Primary, which Governor Alexander had campaigned hard in, as well as the Oklahoma Caucus. Senator Hart takes the Massachusetts and Rhode Island Primaries, eking out Biden in both states. These two wins keep his long shot candidacy alive. Governor Alexander wins the Nevada and Washington Caucuses by wide margins, showing his strength in the West. Congressman Little, however, steals the show tonight by winning the Alabama and Georgia Primaries by more than 10-points each. By getting out the vote of African-Americans and poor white and Latino laborers, the Little Campaign was able to win these states in major upsets.

Event Date: 3-14-1984
Event Description: Having been wiped out in yesterdays primaries, former Senator George McGovern announces his withdrawal from the presidential race. “I guess I was just never cut out for national politics,” Senator McGovern declares in his withdrawal statement, “I was just too honest and too blunt about what our nation needs to do to get on the right track again. I was unable to succeed through truth telling, but I know someone running who will be successful in telling the blunt and naked truth. His name is Malcolm Little, and he has my support.” Congressman Little, who’s support is mainly comprised of minorities, is delighted by the support of the respect progressive Senator McGovern. “I know our campaign of truth will succeed with a man like George McGovern aboard,” Congressman Little tells the crowd at a Chicago rally.

      
Event Date: 3-18-1984
Event Description: Senator Biden wins the Puerto Rico Primary by a wide margin over his nearest rival, Senator Hart. This primary was largely ignored by all the candidates.

Event Date: 3-20-1984
Event Description: In a four way contest, Governor Alexander wins the Illinois Primary with just 29% of the vote, nearly sweeping Southern Illinois. Senator Biden finishes second with 28% of the vote, in a serious setback for his campaign. Congressman Little takes 25% of the vote after running a fiery populist campaign throughout Northern Illinois and in the major urban centers. Senator Hart finishes fourth with an underwhelming 18% of the vote. There is no clear front-runner in the Republican primary.

Event Date: 3-24-1984
Event Description: The Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, announces that, for the first time in Iranian history, there will be fair and free elections for the Iranian Parliament. Though Iran has technically been a parliamentary monarchy since the late 1970s, the Shahs have easily manipulated the parliament elections to get conservative monarchists in office.  “It is time for Iran to enter the modern era and embrace democracy,” the Shah tells his people in a nationally televised address. The most reactionary of monarchists oppose this decision, but the masses of Iranian voters overwhelmingly support fair elections. The new elections are scheduled for August 1984.

Event Date: 3-27-1984
Event Description: Senator Biden narrowly defeats Senator Hart in the Connecticut Primary. Biden’s support from the poorer industrial areas of the state overpowered Hart’s support from the young liberal base in the state. Senator George W. Bush (Republican of Connecticut) had endorsed Governor Alexander, but even the backing of the popular senator was unable to give Alexander more than a third place showing.  

Event Date: 4-01-1984
Event Description: With 78% of the vote, Congressman Little wins the Washington, D.C., Primary. As an African-American candidate campaigning for the votes of African-Americans, it was expected that this 88% African-American city would vote for the Michigan congressman. Senator Hart finishes in second with 11% of the vote.


Event Description: 4-02-1984
Event Description: President Kemp announces that he is declaring an executive order outlawing the production of chemical weapons in the United States. “We should not allow companies in the United States to produce weapons that do nothing but maim, scar and destroy human beings,” President Kemp declares from the Oval Office, “As a nation which prides ourselves as champions of human rights, we must lead the world in ridding the Earth of destructive chemical weapons.” An overwhelming majority of Americans and members of Congress agree with the president’s sentiments. Senator Sparks Spark Matsunaga (Republican of Hawaii) and Congressman Robert Dornan (Democrat of California), who was injured by chemical weapons in China back in 1968, introduce a resolution calling for the banning of all chemical weapons from the United States military. It will pass easily and other nations will follow the United States’ lead.

Event Date: 4-03-1984
Event Description: The New York and Wisconsin Primaries are held today after a bitter battle for both states by the remaining Republican candidates. Senator Biden wins the Empire State with just 31% of the vote, defeating Governor Alexander and his 28% of the vote. In Wisconsin, Senator Hart wins a close race against Alexander. Young liberal students in Madison, Milwaukee, Watertown and Appleton come out for the Colorado Senator, giving him a close victory in the Dairy State.

Event Date: 4-08-1984
Event Description: National Party leader Dmitry Yazov defeats incumbent Social-Democratic President Mikhail Gorbachev in the Russian presidential election. Yazov’s hawkish position towards the Kurdish Republic and his vow to, “Secure Russia’s right to cheap crude oil,” frighten the western world.

Event Date: 4-10-1984
Event Description: Senator Biden wins the crucial Pennsylvania Primary, defeating Governor Alexander and Congressman Little, his two nearest opponents. The media bests remembers this primary due to the very public feud between Congressman Little and Philadelphia Mayor Reginald Jackson. Mayor Jackson had openly called Little, “A race-baiter and dealer of hate.” Although Michael Nutter, Mayor Jackson’s Urban Renewal Advisor, tells the press that this was just an off the cuff comment, the Little Campaign demanded a public apology from the mayor. Mayor Jackson never gave an apology, nor did he not mean what he said.  

Event Date: 4-22-1984
Event Description: The Dow Jones Industrial goes over the 20,000-point margin today, an all time high for the Dow. “It is obvious, my fellow Americans,” Ronald Reagan declares on “The Voice of the Nation” that night, “That President Kemp is exactly who this country needs. After all, our nation is in the midst of a great economic expansion and we are at peace.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 4-23-1984
Event Description: While being interviewed by a civil rights newsletter in Chicago, Jesse Jackson, the Spiritual Advisor for the Little for President Campaign, is caught using the anti-Semitic term Hymie. Jackson states that the only reason that Reprehensive Little lost the New York Primary is because of Jews in New York City, which he calls, "Hymietown." Congressman Little, campaigning in Memphis, Tennessee, tells the national press that he disagrees with the statements made by Reverend Jackson, but will not ask him to resign from his campaign. “Jesse marched with myself and Dr. King against poverty,” Congressman Little declares, “He knows about poverty, he knows about inequality and he knows about how to run campaigns. He’s staying on the campaign no matter what.”            

Event Date: 5-01-1984
Event Description: Governor Alexander wins 63% of the vote in the Tennessee Primary, his home state’s contest. Congressman Little, racking up close to 70% of the African-American vote in the state, comes in second with 34% of the vote. Congressman Albert Gore, Junior, wins the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate today, vowing to be a close ally of the Kemp Administration.

Event Date: 5-05-1984
Event Description: Two southern states hold their primaries today, Teas and Louisiana. Congressman Little wins the Louisiana Primary by a wide margin, taking 44% of the vote. Little easily won the heavily populated African-American cities like New Orleans and Baton Rouge, while Governor Alexander wins the small towns in the Cajun State, coming in second with 31% of the vote. In Texas, Senator Biden and Governor Alexander shoot it out for the Lone Star State. Governor Alexander wins Texas by a 38-34% margin over Senator Biden. Congressman Little wins 22% of the vote, but is disappointed by the low minority turnout in the primary. Senator Hart is annihilated in both states, but looks to the West to try to revive his faltering campaign effort.

Event Date: 5-06-1984
Event Description: Senator Hart holds a press conference in Cleveland, Ohio, declaring that he will drop out of the race for president. “I feel that it is in the best interests of my party and my nation to end my campaign for the presidency and endorse the only man who can reverse the disastrous course our nation is being taken by President Kemp,” Senator Hart tells the press, “That man is Senate Majority Leader Joseph Biden.” The Hart endorsement is expected to help Senator Biden amongst young liberal voters in the Republican Party.

Event Date: 5-08-1984
Event Description: The Maryland, North Carolina, Indiana and Ohio Primaries are held today. The states of Maryland, Indiana and Ohio come in for Senator Biden, backed by the support of organized labor. Congressman Little wins North Carolina, but he media spins this as, “A black state voting for a black man.” Governor Alexander finishes second in every primary except Maryland, which isn’t good enough since every state primary held today was winner-take-all.

Event Date: 5-10-1984
Event Description: The 56th Academy Awards, hosted by the famed Jack Lemmon, are held in Los Angeles. “Les Miserables” wins many awards, including Best Actor (Sean Connery), Best Motion Picture and Best Supporting Actor (Ronald Reagan). When accepting his award, Reagan jokes with the audience, saying, “The next times someone tells me to go jump off a bridge, I’ll tell them I won award for doing that.” Reagan is of course mocking the way his character, Inspector Javert, commits suicide at the end of the film by jumping off a bridge into the Seine River.

Event Date: 5-11-1984
Event Description: The Kurdish Defense Act is signed by President Kemp, despite his own Democratic Party opposing the bill. Introduced by Senator Pete Wilson (Republican of California), this act gives the Congress the permission to send guns and other such military aid to the Kurdish Republic. “I view this act as a way to keep the United States out of an unneeded and deadly war with Russia and Turkey,” President Kemp explains to the press (and his party) after singing the act, “This bill makes sure that the Kurdish Republic can defend itself against invasion. I can assure that I will never lead the United States into war, especially against two allies like Russia and Turkey.”

Event Date: 5-13-1984
Event Description: Secretary of State Daniel Patrick Moynihan begins a long serious of talks between Indian and Pakistani leaders over the region of Kashmir. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had ordered the Indian Military to try to take the region in Operation Meghdoot. The Kemp Administration, determined to use diplomacy over war, sends the brilliant Moynihan to try to find a way to stop the crisis in Kashmir. Held in Bangkok, Thailand, which is considered “neutral” territory, the summits will be stormy and a serious test of Moynihan’s diplomatic skills.


Event Date: 5-15-1984
Event Description: Three western primaries are held today, with Senator Biden and Governor Alexander fighting to a standstill. Governor Alexander wins the Nebraska and Idaho Primaries easily, but Senator Biden takes just as big of a win in Oregon, where former Hart supporters come out for Biden. Congressman Little is left in third in all three states. He’s focusing on winning the California Primary, against all odds.

Event Date: 5-21-1984
Event Description: The Bangkok Summit is made almost fatal as a radial anti-Indian terrorist attempts to run a car bomb into the vehicle transporting Manmohan Singh, the diplomat leading the Indians at the summit.

Event Date: 5-28-1984
Event Description: In an attempt to woo Hispanic voters in California, Congressman Malcolm Little announces at a rally in San Jose that as president he will pardon all Illegal Immigrants in the country and strive for open borders. “No human being is illegal!” the bombastic congressman booms at the rally, “All who live in this country need to be treated with basic human dignity!”

Event Date: 6-05-1984
Event Description:  The California, New Jersey, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota, West Virginia Primaries are held today. Senate Majority Leader Biden wins New Jersey and West Virginia easily, as these are old union worker’s states. He falters out west; however, as Governor Alexander wins California, Montana and New Mexico. Congressman Little had been counting on his amnesty program to help him in the heavily Hispanic states, but he fell short in both. Senator Biden’s defeat in California is seen as a major setback for his campaign, as he had pumped over $3 million into the Golden State alone. Governor Alexander, who was outspent in California 5-to-1, won it with 46% of the vote to Biden’s 40% and Little’s disappointing 14%. State Assemblyman William Clinton wins the Republican Primary for Congress in his Bakersfield congressional district.

Event Date:  6-09-1984
Event Description: Almost seven months after the burst, the Kani Massi Pipeline is finally repaired in the northern Kurdish Republic. Despite this turn of events, there is till incredible tension between the Kurdish Republic and the nation of Turkey and Russia.

Event Description: 6-12-1984
Event Description: The last primary of the Republican primary season, Governor Alexander comfortably defeats Senator Biden by a 58-41% margin, with Congressman Little scrapping together 1% of the vote in a state almost completely white. Though Senator Biden leads in delegates, Governor Alexander has enough to stop him from clinching the nomination at the convention. A deal will have to be made between the two men, and something will have to be done about a bitter Malcolm Little, who is threatening and independent campaign should he not be given the Republican nomination.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 7-04-1984
Event Description: A joint press conference is held by Governor Alexander and Senator Biden in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. “Today we have decided to declare the Republican Party’s independence from the bitter primary battle it has been locked in for so many months,” Senator Biden declares with Governor Alexander by his side, “Which is why Governor Alexander and I have decided to run as a ticket.” With the most delegates and primary votes, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Biden is declared the presidential candidate with Governor Lamar Alexander as his running-mate. “Now let’s take the fight to Jack Kemp!” the scrappy Biden says into the camera.

Event Date: 7-15-1984
Event Description: The Republican National Convention in San Diego, California, nominates Senate Majority Leader Joseph Biden for President and Governor Lamar Alexander for Vice-President. By nominating the Governor of the Volunteer State, this is the first time that a Southerner has been on the Republican ticket since Andrew Johnson in 1864. Congressman Malcolm Little leads his delegates out of the convention while singing, “We Shall Overcome.” The bombastic congressman declares that he will run an independent campaign for president focusing on, “The working poor.”  The keynote speaker of the convention is Philadelphia Mayor Reginald Jackson, who mocks Congressman Little as, “That ‘little’ guy in the corner.” Mayor Jackson declares that Biden and Alexander will, “Whip Kemp and Little so bad that there own mamas won’t be able to recognize them.”  San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein also keynotes the convention, asking the question, “Where was Jack?”, seemingly asking the audience what was President Kemp doing when the Kennedy Administration was spying on American citizens. Senator Biden’s acceptance address is just as fiery. “I’m sick of this unfair economic system that the corrupt Kennedy and Kemp Administrations are forcing down the throats of the American people!” Senator Biden bellows, “Kennedy and Kemps’ ‘trickle down economics’ is just another tax cut for the wealthiest one percent. It’s just a way of concentrating our great nation’s wealth with the big business fat cats and Democratic donors.” Biden best line of the speech is agreed to be, “Poor Jack, he can’t help it that he doesn’t understand the American people. He’s just played too much football without a helmet.”

Event Date: 7-24-1984
Event Description: The Olympics open in Los Angeles with Ronald Reagan leading the opening ceremonies along with President Kemp. The two men live for patriotic moments like this, and Reagan plays it to the fullest. The star spangled ceremonies end with Johnny Cash performing, “That Old Ragged Flag,” as he did at the Democratic National Convention in 1968. The events are so focused on President Kemp that Senate Majority Leader Biden accuses the Olympic Committee of  “Being in the tank for the Kemp Campaign.” The irony of this stamen is that one of the members of the Olympic Committee is Mitt Romney, the son of the late Republican Governor of Michigan and 1972 presidential candidate George Romney.

Event Date: 8-09-1984
Event Description: At a meeting of civil rights leaders in Washington, D.C., Congressman Malcolm Little is selected to run an independent campaign for president. After selecting former Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm as his running-mate, Little declares that his is the only campaign, “Which sees America for what it truly is: a great nation, but like all great nations, one that has people who are ignored.” Little’s speech concerning universal health care, amnesty for illegal immigrants and creating a living wage for all American workers is overlooked by a bombastic address from a 45-year old Chicago preacher: Jeremiah Wright. Wright, a keynote speaker at the makeshift convention, makes a speech calling for, “Greater understanding between the races in this country,” but also accuses the government of murdering millions of Iraqis, Chinese and Japanese in, “Wars of imperial attrition.”

Event Date: 8-11-1984
Event Description: While making his nightly broadcast for the “Voice of the Nation”, Ronald Reagan has a confused moment. While speaking in length about how outraged he is over the Jeremiah Wright comments, Reagan pauses for a minute. “My fellow Americans,” he stammers, “I…can’t remember where I am…bear with me.” His producer reminds him over his earphone and Reagan is back to his old self. “I guess those dopy comments made me forget I was in America,” Reagan later quips.

Event Date: 8-23-1984
Event Description: President Jack Kemp and Vice-President John McCain are nominated for a full term in office at the Democratic National Convention in Dallas, Texas. The convention includes speeches by Ronald Reagan, former First Lady Jean Ashbrook, Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Tim Robertson, the son of televangelist Pat Robertson and candidate for Congress in Virginia. President Kemp sounds the central theme of the Kemp-McCain Campaign in his acceptance address, “Our nation is growing with a strong economy and a renewed sense of American pride, all this and we are at peace.”

Event Date: 9-03-1984
Event Description: While addressing the American Legion in Cleveland Ohio, Vice-President John McCain is confronted with a question from Russian army veteran. “Mr. Vice-President,” the veteran asks, “With the new threat coming from President Dmitry Yazov towards the Kurdish Republic, how will the Kemp Administration deal with a Russian invasion of the Middle East?” Knowing that he must hike the Democratic line of nonintervention, Vice-President McCain tells the veteran that the Kurds have the weapons they need to defend themselves and, “President Kemp and Secretary Moynihan have full faith that the world community as a whole will stop Russia from adapting too aggressive a foreign policy.” Not very happy with the answer, the veteran interjects, “What if it’s only the U.S.A. that stands up against Russia?” “Then my friend,” McCain defiantly states, “We’ll chase the Russian Army to the gates of Hell if need be.” The response makes the room erupt, and also Senator Biden, whom calls this type of talk, “Unneeded inflammatory remarks towards a nation that has been a close ally.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 9-04-1984
Event Description: In the Canadian General Elections, the Liberal Party is dealt a crushing blow. Brian Mulroney and the Progressive Conservative Party take control of the government, winning a wide majority in both houses of the Canadian Assembly.

Event Date: 9-11-1984
Event Description: The Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office declares that they will prosecute Former President Robert Kennedy for the crimes he committed while he was President of the United States. “Despite the high office Mr. Kennedy held, it is my duty to the law to prosecute the former president,” District Attorney Ralph Martin tells the press. The Kennedy Family decries this decision as politically motivated, especially since Attorney General Edward Kennedy is locked in a tight battle for U.S. Senate with Congressman John Kerry.

Event Date: 9-29-1984
Event Description: The Bangkok Summit produces an agreement over the Kashmir Region of India. Indian and Pakistan agree to withdraw all forces from arranged “Areas of Control.” India takes “control” of the south and Pakistan takes control of the north in the Kashmir Territory. They agree to respect this line and sign a cease fire. Secretary of State Daniel Moynihan, upon hearing that neither side is pleased with the agreement, quips, “It’s an agreement, no one’s supposed to actually like it!”

Event Date: 10-07-1984
Event Description: Despite the protests from Congressman Little outside of the event, the first televised presidential debate of the 1984 Election between President Jack kemp and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Biden is held at the Center for the Performing Arts in Louisville, Kentucky. Moderated by CBS’s Dan Rather, a veteran of such events, the debate focuses mainly on the scandals of the Robert Kennedy Administration and the Kemp Budget. A heated moment in the debate arises when Senator Biden asks the audience, “When President Kennedy was spying on American citizens, Mr. Kemp was no where to be seen. He may have had nothing to do with the scandals, but he also turned a blind eye to them.” When Rather asks President Kemp if he would like to respond, the president tells the audience, “I have nothing to say to a man who would accuse me of being a dimwitted accessory in a scheme to spy on America.” On the issue of taxation, President Kemp hails the 1981 and 1983 tax cuts as, “The two gears that got our economy working again.” Senator Biden shakes his head and responds, “Yeah Jack, the economy is working just fine if you’re a billionaire. It kind of stinks for the Middle Class and working Americans, but the Democrats have never wanted their votes anyway.” “That right Mr. Biden,” President Kemp responds, “The Middle Class doesn’t want my tax cut, they want the Biden tax hike! I can see that now!” The colorful debate is viewed by over 60 million Americans, many of whom feel Senator Biden showed little respect for the incumbent president. “It amazed me,” Washington Post columnist Fred Barnes writes the next day, “That Senator Biden would call the sitting President of the United States by his first name. That shows that this man is too off the wall to be president.”     

Event Date: 10-10-1984
Event Description: With the last Gallup Poll showing President Kemp leading Senator Biden by a 53-46% margin, the Biden Campaign unleashes a brutal attack ad, accusing President Kemp of both ignoring the Kennedy Spying scandals and leading the nation to massive deficits through, “Reckless and unneeded tax cuts for the wealthy.” The ad ends with the announcer asking the audience, “Can we afford four more years of Kennedy-Kemp?” Vice-President McCain attacks the ad as, “Unfair and malicious. It appeals to the very worst in Americans, whereas we are appealing to their hopes.”

Event Date: 10-11-1984
Event Description: The Vice-Presidential debate from the Pennsylvania Hall Civic Center is not just a civil event, it is enlightening. Vice-President McCain and Governor Alexander have an earnest discussion of the issues and of their presidential counterparts. The debate is seen as such a good one that towards the end moderator Sander Vancour of ABC news sarcastically asks the audience, “Do you want these two gentlemen to be the presidential candidates?”   

Event Date: 10-19-1984
Event Description: “We can have universal health care and we can pay for it too!” Senator Biden tells a cheering crowd in Portland, Oregon. Taking one of Congressman Little’s big issues, Senator Biden outlines how reversing the Kemp tax cuts could produce the revenue to insure that the 30 million Americans without health insurance can attain it. Across the nation in Wheeling, West Virginia, President Kemp calls Biden’s health care plan, “Something out of Xiaoping’s handbook.” His reference to the former socialist leader of China outrages some of the Russo-Chinese War veterans in the crowd, but it delights the very conservative audience. “The 1984 election seems to have collapsed into a name calling contest,” veteran anchor Walter Cronkite comments that night while signing off from CBS Evening News.

Event Date: 10-21-1984
Event Description: The second televised presidential debate is held at the Music Hall, Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri. Moderated by Marvin Kalb of NBC News, it opens with Senator Margaret Truman (Republican of Missouri) singing “The Star Spangled Banner.” After the performance, a far more civil debate over foreign policy begins between President Kemp and Senator Biden. The two show mutual respect for one another, but the feisty Biden still manages a few jabs. When answering a question about dealing with a potential threat from Russia, Biden tells the moderator, “You know Marvin, I was sitting at the gates of Hell thinking about this and I came to the conclusion that Russia is not as great a threat as the Kemp Administration wants to make us believe, then again it may have just been the heat.” The debate is seen as a Biden victory, helping him narrow the gap with President Kemp. With only one week until the election, President Kemp is in a dead heat with Senator Biden according to a recent Gallup Poll- Kemp has 48% and Biden has 47%.

Event Date: 10-31-1984
Event Description: Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, at a meeting in Washington, D.C. with President Kemp and Secretary Moynihan over the recent Kashmir agreement, is informed by the Secret Service that two of her personal guards were planning to assassinate her, in part over the Kashmir agreement. Prime Minister Gandhi will survive the day and return to New Delhi. 

Event Date: 11-06-1984
Event Description: President Jack Kemp is reelected President of the United States in a close race over Senate Majority Leader Joseph Biden. The growing economy and recent success in foreign affairs were seen as the two issues which put the accidental president over the top.

Jack Kemp/John McCain (D): 271 EV; 49.1% of the PV
Joseph Biden/Lamar Alexander (R): 264 EV; 48.2% of the PV
Malcolm Little/Shirley Chisholm (I): 3 EV; 2.3% of the PV
Others (Progressive Reform, Libertarian, etc.): 0 EV; 0.4% of the PV

On the bright side for Senator Biden, he is reelected to the U.S. Senate in a walk. Other victors for the senate include Albert Gore, Junior (Democrat), Bill Bradley (Republican) and in a major upset, John Kerry (Republican) over Edward Kennedy (Democrat) in the Massachusetts Senate Election. In California, William Clinton is elected to congress. The Arkansas Gubernatorial race sees the first African-American governor since reconstruction get elected as Attorney General Jefferson Thomas defeats incumbent Governor Jim Guy Tucker by a narrow margin.   
   

[PBrunsel]

The Presidency of Jack F. Kemp (Elected)

Event Date: 1-20-1985
Event Description: President Jack Kemp is sworn in for his first full term as President of the United States. “Democracy without morality is impossible.” President Kemp declares in his Inaugural Address, one which promises continued prosperity and protection of civil rights. Senate Majority Leader Joseph Biden shakes hands with President Kemp as he leaves the Capitol steps and walks to the limousine. “Congratulations, Mr. President,” Senator Biden tells President Kemp, “But, I’ll take you on again in a coupe of years.” The two men laugh as President Kemp tells him, “I’ll take you up on that challenge.”

Event Date: 1-21-1985
Event Description: The San Francisco 49ers wins their 2nd NFL Championship in 4 years by defeating the Miami Dolphins 38-16 in Super Bowl XIX at Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto, California. Watching from the stands is President Kemp, a former football player. This is the first Super Bowl he has attended since becoming President of the United States in 1983.

Event Date: 2-09-1985
Event Description: President Kemp meets with Senate Minority Leader Sam Nunn (Democrat of Georgia) and House Minority Leader Jim Wright (Democrat of Texas) to discuss the future of Social Security. With analysts predicting that Social Security could be bankrupt by 2001, President Kemp introduces the idea offering Social Security recipients private savings options in exchange for a corresponding reduction in government benefits. “This way we save both money and the program,” President Kemp explains. “That’ll be a tough sell, Mr.  President,” Senator Nunn tells the president, “But Jim and I will do whatever we can to pass the plan.”

Event Date: 2-13-1985
Event Description: Representative Newt Gingrich (Democrat of Georgia) introduces the Social Security Reform Act of 1985 to the House Finance Committee. Representative Jim Leach (Republican of Iowa) tells the press, “The act will not be seriously considered.” With the Republicans dominating the House of Representatives, it is unlikely that Gingrich’s act will pass the chamber, even if it leaves the Finance Committee.

Event Date: 2-15-1985
Event Description: To the surprise of Chairman Leach and the national media, the House Finance Committee passes the Social Security Reform Act of 1985 into contention on the House docket. Every Democrat on the committee along with six Republicans vote to allow the act into debate. “We can’t just ignore the oncoming Social Security crisis,” Representative Silvio Conte (Republican of Massachusetts) explains to the committee, “That’s the reason that this bill needs to be debated. We need to hear new ideas on how to keep Social Security funded for the future.”

Event Date: 2-19-1985
Event Description: Debate begins in the House of Representatives over the Social Security Reform Act of 1985. “This act will not only save the Social Security system,” Representative Gingrich tells his colleagues, “It will also relieve the government of millions of dollars of spending for the program.” Leading the charge against the act is Representative Charlie Rangel (Republican of New York). “Mr. Gingrich seems to think every American has stock options,” Representative Rangel sarcastically quips, “Not every American can build up one of these independent saving accounts for Social Security. The reason we have Social Security is to help the people whom the Gingrich and Kemp plan would harm.”

Event Date: 3-04-1985
Event Description: The House of Representatives votes down the Social Security Reform Act of 1985. The vote is not close, with 255-148 being the final vote. Some Democrats refused to vote for the act, fearing the backlash from the elderly in their districts. This is a major setback for President Kemp’s conservative fiscal policy.

Event Date: 3-12-1985
Event Description: Undaunted by his defeat only two weeks ago, President Kemp signs the Immigration and Law Enforcement Act, a bipartisan act introduced by Representative Bill Richardson (Republican of New Mexico) and Senator Ted Stevens (Democrat of Alaska). The bill increases the quota for Central American immigration and offers near amnesty for the 16 million illegal immigrants in the United States, but also beefs up border security and begins building a border fence between Mexico and the U.S. “I’ve learned from my days in football that success is a game of inches,” President Kemp tells the press after he signs the bill, “This is just another inch in finally securing our nation’s borders.”

Event Date: 3-18-1985
Event Description: Columbia Pictures releases the action movie Commando in US theaters; the film, set during the Iraq War, stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as an ex-Marine and Russo-Chinese War veteran who reenlists to train a group of trainees in a secret mission to assassinate the Iraqi Defense Minister. Besides the star power of Schwarzenegger, Brian Denehey portrays General Norman Schwarzkopf and Fred Thompson, an attorney turned actor, portrays Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. The film is a box office success.

Event Date: 3-25-1985
Event Description: The U.S. Senate disbands its Russo-Chinese War POW/MIA Committee after more than a decade in operation. Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (Republican of Kansas), a veteran himself, saw that most of the committee's functions have long since been passed on to the Defense Department or various private organizations, such as Green Beret Bo Gritz’s “Gone, But Not Forgotten” Organization.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 4-09-1985
Event Description: Senator Fidel Castro (Republican of Florida) announces that he will retire in 1987, and not seek a fourth-term in office. “I feel I have done all I can do for the people of Florida, the United States and my native Cuba,” Senator Castro announces today. On the isle of Cuba, many of the people and leaders on the island throw celebrations in honor of their islands’ most favorite son.

Event Date: 4-13-1985
Event Description:  Russian Defense Minister Nikolai Damorov, a hero of the Russo-Chinese War, is admitted into a Moscow hospital after suffering cardiac arrest. He will die on May 4th, 1985, which causes great fear for both the United States and the Kurdish Republic as Damorov had opposed President Dmitry Yazov’s belligerent stances towards the Kurdish Republic.

Event Date: 5-08-1985
Event Description: President Jack Kemp and Secretary of State Daniel Moynihan travel to Moscow to attend the funeral of Nikolai Damorov and come face-to-face with President Yazov and his new Defense Minister, Vladimir Putin. After the service, the four men meet at the Kremlin, where Minister Putin tells the American leaders that he and the Russian president “Want nothing but peace with Kurds and the people of the Middle East.” As President Kemp and Secretary Moynihan fly home in Airforce One, Moynihan confines to the president, “I looked into Putin’s eyes and I didn’t see a soul. He’s a dangerous man.”

Event Date: 5-13-1985
Event Description: Philadelphia Mayor Reggie Jackson gets the MOVE activists to stand down from their standoff with police in West Philadelphia. The mayor promises the MOVE activists that they will escape prosecution if they put down weapons and surrender to the Philadelphia Police Department. There is no firebombing of the MOVE activists and Mayor Jackson is hailed for his cool headed dealing with the crisis.

Event Date: 5-29-1985
Event Description: Representative William Clinton (Republican of California) introduces legislation that would officially legalize the usage, cultivation and sale of marijuana. “I realize that this idea won’t make me too popular in the South,” Representative Clinton jokes, “However, this act is needed nation wide. We do not need our prisons filled with non-violent offenders who smoked a fairly harmless drug.” Representative Tim Robertson (Democrat of Virginia) attacks Clinton’s bill as, “Just another liberal Republican bill reflecting San Francisco values.” Just to clarify, Clinton reminds the chamber that he is from Bakersfield.

Event Date: 6-06-1985
Event Description: President Kemp signs the Clinton Act into law, officially legalizing the usage, cultivation and sale of marijuana. Though the president is attacked by his own party for signing the bill, Kemp reasons with the press by explaining, “It will be easier to fight the war on drugs when we fight the really dangerous drugs, not these basically harmless ones. I hate big government, and cracking down on every marijuana user in the country is the biggest government I can think of.” Many Democrats come to agree with this statement.

Event Date: 6-19-1985
Event Description: Vice-President John McCain announces from Cape Canaveral that he hopes by 2010, “Our great nation will have a lunar colony  in which scientists from all over the world can study the planets and the galaxies of this universe from a piece of the ‘last frontier.’”

Event Date: 7-09-1985
Event Description: The corrupt Liberal Democratic government of Japan is overthrown in a bloodless coup by corporate leaders. The Japanese Government was so mismanaging the national budget and state industry that even the poorest Japanese citizens embrace the new corporate state. President Kemp is wary of recognizing the Corporatist State of Japan so he holds back from official recognition of the new nation.

Event Date: 7-12-1985
Event Description: The newly established Corporate Council of Japan elects economist Fukui Toshihiko as its first Prime Minister. A former protégé of arch-conservative Japanese politician Masaru Hayami, Prime Minister Toshihiko promises the people of Japan an honest and efficient government which embraces classical liberalism and civil rights. Secretary of State Moynihan sends a congratulatory letter to the new prime minister, wishing him, “The best of luck inn trying to straighten out a very crooked situation.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 8-08-1985
Event Description: An anti-Turkish sect in the Kurdish Army attacks a small Turkish military convoy outside of the town of Cizre, Turkey. These small groups of Kurdish soldiers are members of the Kurdish National Party and blame the Turkish for the damage to the Kani Masi Pipeline. In the ensuing battle, no one is killed and only five Turkish soldiers and eight Kurdish troops are wounded. President Barzani quickly fires all soldiers and officers involved, but this does not quell their anger towards Turkey.     

Event Date: 8-10-1985
Event Description: Russian President Dmitry Yazov and Turkish President Kenan Evren declare from a military summit in Istanbul that there is a, “Considerable terrorist threat coming from the Kurdish Republic. This is a threat that the government of President Barzani can not control and so we take it upon ourselves to restore order in the Kurdish Republic.” President Kemp can not stop the advancing armies from invading the Kurdish Republic since under international code a nation can intervene in another to stop terrorism, no matter how minor that threat may be.

Event Date: 8-15-1985
Event Description: 125,000 Russian soldiers arrive in Cizre, the town where the “terrorist attack” against Turkish troops occurred just seven days ago. President Barzani and the Kurdish Legislature demand that the troops stay out of the Kurdish Republic, but President Yazov and Defense Minister Putin are not frightened by what they see as the minimal Kurdish threat.

Event Date: 8-22-1985
Event Description: The Russian forces (along with 166,000 Turkish soldiers) attack the “terrorist held” city of Zakho, Kurdish Republic. The city, which does not even have a Nationalist representing it in the legislature, fights back with local militia and American supplied weapons. The day ends with the Russians conquering the city, but sustaining over 15,000 casualties. “It appears as if the Russians were not counting on a thorn like resistance,” Ronald Reagan tells his listeners that night, “As we all know, nothing annoys  Russian bear like a thorn in it’s paw.”

Event Date: 8-23-1985
Event Description: On the 700 Club, the Reverend Pat Robertson predicts that Jesus Christ will, “Return any day now, for the signs of his return are in place.” The reverend outlines that the mysterious Book of Revelation states that Russia will invade the Middle East and from there Christ will return and the anti-Christ will rise. “I suspect that the anti-Christ is none other than Vladimir Putin, the new Defense Minister who ordered this assault into Kurdistan,” Robertson declares. When Putin is told that he has been called the ultimate evil by the Russian press, he quips, “How flattering.”     

Event Date: 8-25-1985
Event Description: The U.S. Senate passes a resolution condemning Russia and Turkey for invading the sovereign Kurdish Republic. “Such vicious and barbaric behavior should be condemned and stopped, at all peril!” a enraged Senator John Warner (Republican of Virginia) declares.

Event Date: 8-30-1985
Event Description: The advancing Russian and Turkish coalition reaches the outskirts of the oil rich city of Bamarni. The city digs in for a siege, but is not without its defenses. The city’s arsenal is filled with U.S. made stinger missiles and AK-47 submachine guns. Despite being outnumbered by a 6-to-1 margin, this siege will prove to be a tough one for the invaders to stick out.

Event Date: 10-03-1985
Event Description: Philadelphia Mayor Reginald Jackson declares his candidacy for Governor of Pennsylvania in 1986. The announcement is met with great excitement by the Republican Party who have long seen Mayor Jackson as a rising star. The popular mayor will face former State Auditor and perennial candidate for governor Robert “Bob” Casey, the expected Democratic nominee.

Event Date: 10-09-1985
Event Description: A Kurdish national militia group ambushes a Russian-Turkish convoy as it travels to reinforce the army outside of Bamarni. The militia attacks with American made grenade launchers and submachine guns, inflicting serious damage on the convoy and killing six Russian officers. Addressing his nation from the Kremlin, President Yazov promises, “The great of all battles to be brought to the terrorists who threaten our very existence.”

Event Date: 10-13-1985
Event Description: In a Rose Garden ceremony, President Kemp recognizes the Corporatist State of Japan and welcomes Ambassador Ryozo Kato as the new Japanese Ambassador to the United States. Kato, a 44-year old intellectual, is seen as strong classical liberal, but his respect for civil rights is not too high. He is known for opposing all resolutions in the former Japanese Diet that called for the government to apologize for the employment of geishas, or “comfort women”, which was simply a gloried prostitution job. President Kemp is attacked by the left, especially by Representative Barbra Boxer (Republican of California), for recognizing the new government and its chauvinistic ambassador, but President Kemp saw it differently. “Ever since the new Japanese government took power in July,” President Kemp tells the press, “Government corruption and waste in Japan is in major decline. The nation is being run like a business. Maybe the reason that Ms. Boxer is upset is because her own constituents might want the government here to be more like the one over there: efficient.”

Event Date: 10-15-1985
Event Description: President Barzani declares that the whole of the Kurdish Army will be used to, “Subdue and defeat the invaders from the North.” The president also declares that he will allow individual militias to operate, due to the fact that, “Ever from of help is needed for our nation to maintain its independence from the aggressors.”

Event Date: 10-28-1985
Event Description: The public water building in the Russian occupied city of Zakho is destroyed by rocket fire from Kurdish rebels. Both the Kurdish Army and the various militias are relying more on hit and run tactics then engaging the gigantic invading forces head-to-head.

Event Date: 11-30-1985
Event Description: After months of a media circus and free-for-all, Former President Robert Kennedy is found guilty of breaking federal code and illegally overseeing and ordering warrant less spying of government officials and offices. The jury sentences him to five years in a minimum security prison. “One day everyone will see I was right, you’ll all see,” former President Kennedy tells the court.

Event Date: 12-26-1985
Event Description: On the one year anniversary since the burst of the Kani Masi Pipeline, the Kurdish Army attacks the city, which has been under Turkish control since October. There surprise attack on the day after Christmas is a total victory with the Turkish losing 26,190 troops to the Kurds 5,000. It appears as if Turkey and Russia may have bitten off more then they could chew in the Kurdish Republic.     

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-12-1986
Event Description: The United States Senate passes a resolution supporting the Kurdish Republic and its resistance to the invasion from the Russian and Turkish Armies. “It is important that the Kurdish Republic know that we see it not as a ‘terrorist nation’ for defending itself against an aggressor,” Senator Phil Gramm (Democrat of Texas) tells the press, “But as an ally which is opposing an invasion from aggressors.”

Event Date: 1-26-1986
Event Description: The United Kingdom and France issue a joint condemnation of Russia and Turkey, an act which begins a string of international denunciations of the Kurdish invasion. However, very few nations are willing to send troops to fight against the Russians and Turkish fearing a European war.

Event Date: 2-03-1986
Event Description: Construction begins in California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas on the border fence, which is planned to be a massive, double walled structure. The lawmakers in charge of overseeing the construction are two California men: Senator Pete Wilson (Republican) and Representative Duncan Hunter (Democrat).

Event Date: 2-19-1986
Event Description: Kurdish militias begin planting roadside mines along roads in Northern Kurdistan. Although the method is effective in combating he Russian and Turkish soldiers, the bombs are responsible for numerous deaths and injuries for International Red Cross members and foreign peacekeepers.

Event Date: 2-22-1986
Event Description: Russian troops charge the city of Bamarni as the sun rises. The city defenses inflict major casualties on the advancing army due to superior American weaponry. After almost 20-hours of constant battle, the Russians are forced to retreat to the outskirts of the city.

Event Date: 3-02-1986
Event Description: Philadelphia Mayor Reginald Jackson defeats Lieutenant Governor William Scranton III in the Republican Primary for Governor of Pennsylvania. The progressive Mayor Jackson is one of the most popular public servants in the Keystone State. Another popular figure will oppose Jackson in the November election, former Democratic State Auditor Robert P. Casey, a fiery populist from Scranton.

Event Date: 3-09-1986
Event Description: The Corporatist Stare of Japan officially outlaws capital punishment for the first time in the history of the island nation. In response to this news, the U.S. Congress passes a resolution which calls for every nation on Earth to outlaw the death penalty.

Event Date: 3-11-1986
Event Description: Paramount Pictures releases “Red Dawn”, a film which is both patriotic and controversial. The film focuses on a Chinese victory in the Russo-Chinese War which leads to a Chinese invasion of the United States in the 1992. The main characters are high school students from a small California town who fight the Chinese in a guerilla war. They call themselves the Wolverines after their high school sports mascot, with their leaders being portrayed by Charlie Sheen and Patrick Swayze. Although he does not make a physical appearance in the film, Ronald Reagan portrays the voice of Phillip Alexander, the man who runs “Radio Free America” during the occupation and narrates the opening and closing sequences in the film. Some in China, Russia and on the left view this film as one which is supportive of the Kurdish rebels and portrays all who oppose American allies as rapists, murderers, invaders and thugs. Ronald Reagan himself tells the press, “The film is just a great movie which shows the world that Americans never back down, no matter how bleak a situation may seem.”

Event Date: 3-28-1986
Event Description: A car bomb is set off outside the police station in Kani Masi, now a town which has switched hands several times between the Kurds and Turkish several times. The bomb is set up by Kurdish rebels and it kills 89 Turkish infantrymen, but more importantly, it destroys their base of operations in the city.

Event Date: 4-09-1986
Event Description: Pope John Paul II visits the war torn city of Bamarni, under siege from Russian soldiers for more than six months, and calls for an end of hostilities in the region. “Muslims, Christians and Jews must come together for peace,” his Holiness declares from a field hospital, “The only way that we shall ever see the problems of the age answered is through peace.” At the Kremlin, President Yazov tells Defense Minister Putin, “’Peace’ isn’t going to bring down the cost of oil.”

Event Date: 4-15-1986
Event Description: Using one of America’s least favorite days as a backdrop, President Kemp announces from the Oval Office that he wants, “To gradually erase the presence of the Internal Revenue Service.” He outlines a plan which would, by 2005, hand over collection of taxes to state governments. “This simple act would unify the tax code, state and federal, and make paying our taxes easier and more efficient,” President Kemp tells the nation. Senate Majority Leader Joseph Biden scoffs at the plan, dismissing it as, “Midterm election political posturing.”

Event Date: 4-27-1986
Event Description: Former Congressman Malcolm Little is defeated in his bid to win the Republican nomination in his old congressional district, Michigan-15. Freshman Congresswoman Barbara-Rose Collins, elected in 1984, defeats Little by a 59-41% margin. The firebrand politician vows that he will return to politics.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 5-01-1986
Event Description: The Russians make their second strike at Bamarni, getting rebuffed in only four hours. Suffering over 6,000 deaths from the attack, the Russian command decide that taking the city is now a futile strike. The remaining forces regroup and begin a march for the city of Duhok, a major financial center for the Kurdish Republic.

Event Date: 5-02-1986
Event Description: Illinois holds its state primary today, with one major upset. Chicago area law professor Hillary Rodham defeats State Representative Judy Koehler in the Democratic Primary for U.S. Senate. Professor Rodham, only 39-years old, will face popular Republican Senator Alan Dixon in the fall.

Event Date: 5-09-1986
Event Description: President Chalabi sends 35,000 Iraqi soldiers to defend the Kurdish Republic, which causes great tension between Turkey and Iraq, who already have strained relations. Secretary of State Daniel Patrick Moynihan tells President Kemp that day in a meeting, “If we can’t stop this war in the Kurdistan it could spark the entire Middle East into the battleground for World War III.”

Event Date: 5-11-1986
Event Description: The New York Times releases an article written by political consultant Richard Morris about who is to follow President Kemp in office. Potential candidates include for the Republicans Senator Joseph Biden, Governor Lamar Alexander, New York Governor Mario Cuomo, Maine Senator William Cohen, Speaker of the House John Rhodes, Kansas Senator Robert Dole, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry and former Vice-President John Love. “I wouldn’t be surprised,” Morris writes, “If former President George Bush tries his hand at the Oval Office again. Maybe he can run on some type of ‘buyer’s remorse’ over Bobby Kennedy.” On the Democratic side, Morris names Vice-President John McCain as, “The obvious favorite.” However, he includes Secretary of State Daniel Moynihan, General Alexander Haige, the Reverend Pat Robertson, former Vice-President Jimmy Carter, former Alabama Governor George Wallace, Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen, Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards, House Minority Leader James Wright and Congresswoman Jean Ashbrook, the former First Lady and wife of the late President John Ashbrook, as other Democrats who may seek the White House.

Event Date: 5-19-1986
Event Description: Secretary of State Moynihan is rebuffed in his attempts to end the war in the Kurdish Republic. President Yazov and Defense Minister Putin refuse to even grant an audience to Secretary Moynihan. President Barzani, trying to appeal the ever growing and powerful nationalist militias, refuses to negotiate for peace. 

Event Date: 6-07-1986
Event Description: Turkish President Kenan Evren is assonated while reviewing troops in the war torn city of Cizre. The president is shot three times, once in the left arm but twice, fatally, in the neck. Though the ruling military junta in Turkey blames the assassination of Kurdish militias, many suspect that the Turkish soldiers themselves plotted to have the hawkish removed from power to end the Kurdish War. If this is true, the soldiers plan backfired as the even more belligerent Army Chief of Staff Nurettin Ersin takes power as the new president three days later and declares, “Our martyred president will be avenged.”

Event Date: 6-12-1986
Event Description: 120,000 new Turkish soldiers overrun Kurdish defenders at Kani Masi, taking the city and annexing it into Turkish territory. This action leads to international outrage and action. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher leads the nations of Europe in sending soldiers to defend the Kurdish Republic. “We can not stand by and allow this aggression against the sovereign nation Kurdish Republic,” Prime Minister Thatcher declares to the Parliament. France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain send soldiers to defend the Kurdish Republic. Russian President Yazov seems to support this intervention, much to the surprise of Secretary of State Moynihan.

Event Date: 6-19-1986
Event Date: Coalition Forces arrive from Iraq and land in Arbil, the capitol of the Kurdish Republic. Under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel Robert Fry, a British solider, the 350,000 soldiers begin a trek to Kani Masi, to retake the city and its oil deposits. In the United States, President Kemp declares that the U.S. will send weapons to the Kurds, but no soldiers. “I refuse to let more American boys die in the Middle East for oil,” President Kemp tells his wife Joan.

Event Date: 6-21-1986
Event Description: Turkish soldiers engage the Kurdish Army outside of Keadere, Kurdish Republic. The outnumbered Kurdish soldiers successfully rebuff the Turkish soldiers.

Event Date: 6-28-1986
Event Description: Russian troops overrun the city of Duhok, smashing through the Kurdish defenses of the city. Russian Commander, Lieutenant General Igor Khvorov, orders all who refuse to denounce their ties to the Kurdish government executed. While many of the city’s bankers follow suit, thousands refuse to do so. More than 21,000 Kurds are executed by firing squad.   

Event Date: 6-29-1986
Event Description: Senate Majority Leader Joseph Biden declares in a speech before the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C., that President Kemp, “Needs a backbone surgery,” due to his reluctance to join the international struggle in the Kurdish Republic. “The cruel, heartless and barbaric Russian actions at Duhok make it a moral imperative that the United States joins the fight!” an impassioned Biden cries, “And if President Kemp is too small a man to be Commander-in-Chief than I’ll be.” President Kemp hears the speech later that day, and tells Vice-President McCain, “That’s just a bunch of bullsh**t.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 7-01-1986
Event Description: Sweltering heat consumes the Battle of Kani Masi. 350,000 Coalition Forces attack the Turkish annexed city. The battle rages for 23-hours, covering the city from town square to the oil fields. French Dassault Mirage jet fighters give the Coalition an advantage in the air, helping to retake the city. At the end of the day both forces limp in and out of Kani Masi, with the Turkish losing 25,600 soldiers and Coalition Forces suffering the loss of 31,000. The city is taken back by the Kurds.

Event Date: 7-04-1986
Event Description: President Kemp attends the 100th Anniversary of the Statue of Liberty. “Tonight,” the president proudly declares, “We set our sites upon a refurbished and renovated symbol of American freedom and liberty. May it be said of us as Americans that we never lost sight of freedom and never took our view off of liberty.” President Kemp’s approval ratings hit an all time high after this star spangled event. The Gallup Poll has the president polling at 64% approval, with 60% of those polled declaring they would like President Kemp to seek another term in office. In response to this, President Kemp tells reporters, “Let’s just see how long that can last.”

Event Date: 7-10-1986
Event Description: Senator Jesse Helms (Democrat of North Carolina) introduces a new form of the Kurdish Defense Act. This calls for Americans to lend and use their powerful air force in the ongoing Kurdish War. “Our superiority in the skies must be used to further the fight for freedom in the Kurdish Republic.” The Senate will pass this act, as will the House of Representatives. Facing the Congress and the American people, President Kemp signs the bill five days later, effectively throwing the U.S. into the Kurdish War.

Event Date: 7-19-1986
Event Description: The U.S. air force in Arbil begins routine bombings of Russian and Turkish forces in Duhok and Zakho, occupied cities in the Kurdish Republic. The jets are supposedly Coalition Forces, but they are piloted and fueled by Americans.

Event Date: 7-22-1986
Event Description: Turkish soldiers are ambushed by British Special Forces outside of Rehila, Kurdish Republic. Though the battle is short, it has deadly consequences. The Turkish troops use chlorine and mustard gas as well as forms of chemical weapons. This reveals to the world community that, despite these types of weapons being frowned upon by the rules of war since after the Russo-Chinese War, the Turkish army still manufactures and trains soldiers to use such weapons.

Event Date: 8-09-1986
Event Description:  President Kemp signs the Hart-Nichols Act into law, making official the largest reorganization of the United States Department of Defense since the Dewey Administration. Introduced by Senator Gary Hart (Republican of Colorado) and Representative William Nichols (Democrat of Alabama), the act reorganizes the chain of command during a time of war. The President will still stand on top, but the Secretary of Defense will now have jurisdiction over generals in the field. The act is opposed by the most hardnosed generals, but as General Colin Powell told the Senate Armed Service Committee while the bill was being debated, “It sometimes is important for our commanders to have someone closer to the battle then the president overlooking what our commanders are ordering in the field.”

Event Date: 8-11-1986
Event Description: Coalition Forces engage Russian infantry outside of Faida, Kurdish Republic. This is the first time that Russia is targeted by the Coalition Forces, and the battle proves to be a decisive Coalition victory. Despite the numerical superiority of Russian forces, the army is obsolete when it comes to weaponry. “The Battle of Faida has shown the world that the Russian military is a 1960s creation in a modern world,” Ronald Reagan tells his listeners that night.

Event Date: 8-21-1986
Event Description: The Russian Duma passes a bill which declares that the Russian military will be modernized through a program which, in the United States, would amass to over $200 billion in military spending. The stinging defeat at Faida had shown the ruling Russian National Party that there army was not just obsolete, but dangerously weak when facing off against a new anti-Russian coalition.

Event Date: 8-28-1986
Event Description: Standing alongside Tennessee Governor and alternative energy advocate Lamar Alexander, San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein announces plans to have her city become the first in the world to be powered entirely by renewable sources, especially solar energy. “The last election showed that it’s up to cities and states to solve energy problems,” Mayor Feinstein tells the press. The San Francisco Bee declares the next day that, “The 1988 Republican Ticket was formed yesterday: Alexander and Feinstein.” Though both politicians laugh at the article, Congressman William Clinton calls both Alexander and Feinstein “Visionary leaders and the future of the Republican Party.” 

Event Date: 9-02-1986
Event Description: Senator Gary Hart (Republican of Colorado) announces his candidacy for the Republican nomination for President of the United States. Despite his underwhelming performance in 1984, Hart declares in his announcement address, “The time has come for the GOP to look beyond the Potomac and turn its eyes to new Western leaders.” This is seen as a subtle smack in the face to unsuccessful 1984 Republican nominee, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Biden.

Event Date: 9-10-1986
Event Description: Russian jet fighters engage with American jets in the largest dog fight since 1968 over the Quandil Mountains in Northern Kurdistan. The American jets easily defeat the Russian planes, but enough Russian jets escape the fight that there is still an enemy air presence in the Kurdish Republic. 

Event Date: 9-14-1986
Event Description: The Shah of Iran declares his nation’s neutrality in the Kurdish War. “It would not be wise for our nation to involve itself in the turmoil of nations currently involved in the Kurdish Region,” the Shah declares from his palace in Tehran. Many in the international community, loudest amongst them being Prime Minister Thatcher, believe that the Shah fears the radical Islamic elements within his nation and what they would do if he sent his army to fight Turkey, another Islamic power. “The Shah is a child who can be bullied by terrorists,” Prime Minister Thatcher tells President Kemp in a meeting in Bangor, Maine. “That may be true Madame Prime Minister,” President Kemp tells Thatcher, “But I’d rather he control Iran than those same terrorists.”

Event Date: 9-19-1986
Event Description: After 50-years on the job as the Voice of the Nation, Ronald Reagan announces that 1986 will be his last year on the radio. “I’ve been told by my doctors and my family that I can not continue my current lifestyle,” Reagan tells his audience as he signs off from that night’s show, “I have been diagnosed with prostate cancer, diabetes, hearing loss and memory fatigue. Though the darn truth is I’ve never felt better in my life, my doctors have shown me the facts and the evidence claim that I do not. Therefore I will be stepping down on New Years Eve this year and appointing a new Voice of the Nation.” This new man will be Rush Limbaugh, a 35-year old radio host from Missouri, a man whom Reagan has called, “the new voice for conservatism in our Country.”

Event Date: 9-26-1986
Event Description: Coalition Forces attack the city of Duhok, liberating the city from Russian control.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 10-02-1986
Event Description: Considering yet another stinging defeat a few days ago, Russian President Dmitry Yazov agrees to meet with American and Kurdish diplomats to end Russia’s involvement in the Kurdish War. Secretary of State Moynihan and Kurdish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan agree to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Event Date: 10-22-1986
Event Description: The Reykjavik Accords bear fruit after only ten days of deliberation. With the Russian public turning solidly against the Kurdish War, Russian Foreign Minister Ivanov is not just accommodating, Secretary of State Moynihan tells President Kemp, “The Russians are laying gifts at our feet.” Foreign Minister Ivanov made promises to recognizer Kurdish sovereignty and withdraw all forces from the Kurdish Republic by January. In return, the Kurds would sell more oil to the Russians and begin work on a free trade agreement between the two nations. The White House and the Kremlin support the Reykjavik Accords, and they are approved of overwhelmingly by the Kurdish and Russian legislatures.

Event Date: 10-27-1986
Event Description: The Stock Market booms today with gas prices falling due to peace between Russia and the Kurdish Republic. The Dow Jones Industrial shoots up 500-points, the largest single day stock growth in more than ten years. President Kemp is generally given the credit for the current economic growth.

Event Date: 11-04-1986
Event Description: In an odd turn of historical events, the incumbent president’s party gains seats in Congress. The Democratic Party wins 21-seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and takes control of the U.S. Senate by picking up nine seats. One of the closest races is Illinois, where little known Law Professor Hillary Rodham came within 22,000-votes of defeating incumbent Senator Alan Dixon. The popularity of President Kemp, the growing economy and the Reykjavik Accords are seen as the factors which led to such a strange twist in electoral history. Two African-American Republicans are immune to the Kemp effect, as Mayor Reggie Jackson is elected Pennsylvania governor over now four-time losing candidate Robert Casey. Casey declares that this will be his last run for governor, but very few can trust that statement. In Arkansas, Governor Jeffferson Thomas is reelected by a 55-45% margin over Democratic Congressman John Paul Hammerschmidt. This race is the first in Arkansas hisotry which elects the governor to a four year term and not a mere two year tenure. Governor Thomas is seen as a possible candidate for president in 1988. 

Event Date: 11-05-1986
Event Description: Stunned by the overwhelming Democratic victory in the Senate yesterday, outgoing Senate Majority Leader Joseph Biden (Republican of Delaware) announces that he will not be a candidate for the Republican nomination for President in 1988. “It appears as if I need to focus on my own affairs in the Senate before I look to the White House,” Senator Biden tells the press in his statement.

Event Date: 11-21-1986
Event Description: Turkish President Nurettin Ersin announces that the draft will be reintroduced in Turkey to find more soldiers to fight in the Kurdish Republic due to the Russian withdrawal. This statement is met with riots in the streets of Istanbul, Ankara, Ephesus, Konya and Van, actions against the military regime’s orders.

Event Date: 11-23-1986
Event Description: After two days of nonstop rioting in Turkey’s major cities, President Ersin reverses his decision to reinstate the national draft. However, this seems too little too late for the war weary people of Turkey. In the streets of Ankara, the national capitol, anti-Kurdish War protesters take to the streets and battle presidential palace guards to demonstrate in front of the home. President Ersin is rushed from the city for his protection.

Event Date: 11-24-1986
Event Description: With President Ersin removed from Ankara and fleeing for the coastal city of Samsun, pro-democracy forces take power in the national capitol. The leader of the illegal Turkish People’s Republic Party, a secular liberal entity, Deniz Baykal, a 47-year old attorney, declares himself the interim leader of the Republic of Turkey. To the horror of President Ersin and his generals, the military itself rises up against the old military regime. By the end of the day, Ankara is in the hands of the pro-democracy opposition.

Event Date: 11-28-1986
Event Description: All has been quiet in Turkey for four days, and President Ersin refuses to allow that to remain. The Turkish National Guard attacks the rebels in Ankara at dawn, putting down this attempt at democracy in a bloody massacre. President Kemp catches flack from Republicans in Congress for not sending air support to the pro-democracy rebels, but Senator Biden surprisingly defends his old rival. “The president was handed a balloon that was pretty full already,” Senator Biden tells his colleagues on the Senate floor, “Had he sent some planes to prod it, it would have exploded in his hands.”

Event Date: 12-31-1986
Event Description: Ronald Reagan’s final broadcast as the Voice of the Nation airs. The broadcast stars such well known actors and statesmen as Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Jimmy Stewart, former New York City William F. Buckley, Congresswoman Jean Ashbrook and even former Presidents Joseph P. Kennedy, Junior, and George H.W. Bush, whom has warmed to Reagan since his presidency ended in 1981. After three hours of reminiscing about the past and talking about the present, Reagan must sign off for the last time. “It’s been a heck of a ride, my friends,” Reagan tells his millions of listeners across the fruited plain, “I took this position when bombs were falling across Japan and now leave with America at peace and looking forward to prosperity. As a boy growing up in Tampico and Dixon, I never imagined I would come as far as I did, and be called the voice of the entire American nation. I never imagined I would host NBC News for 20-years, or meet presidents and prime ministers. I now enter the twilight of my career, my friends, but I always know that for America there is a bright dawn ahead. God truly bless you all, and God Bless America.”       

[PBrunsel]

By a fluke of the writer I forgot to include the important gubernatorial bouts in 1986. I have modified them in the 11-04-1986 entry.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-03-1987
Event Description: The 100th Congress convenes, celebrating a century of representative democracy in the history’s oldest republic. The Congress is split, with the House of Representatives in the Republican corner and the Senate siding with the Democrats. Speaker of the House John Rhodes did not seek reelection in 1986, leaving the race for Speaker of the House open to a free-for-all. Representatives Thomas Foley (Republican of Washington), Judd Gregg (Republican of New Hampshire), Bill Paxon (Republican of New York) and Jim Leach (Republican of Iowa) all seek the position, each representing a different part of the country and Republican values. In the end, Representative Gregg, coming from the Republican strong hold of New Hampshire and being the most popular of the candidates with outgoing Speaker Rhodes, wins the position. Representative Foley is made House Minority Leader to appease Western Republicans. House Minority Leader Jim Wright (Democrat of Texas) is defeated for his post by arch-conservative Representative Phillip Crane (Democrat of Illinois). In the Senate, Senator Robert Byrd (Democrat of West Virginia) becomes the new Senate Majority Leader, while Senator John Chaffee (Republican of Rhode Island) is elected the new Senate Minority leader, replacing Senator Joseph Biden, who refused to seek the position.       

Event Date: 1-04-1987
Event Description: Governor Bruce Babbitt (Republican of Arizona) announces his candidacy for the Republican nomination for President of the United States. A Western dark horse, Governor Babbitt jokes in his announcement address, “No one knows who I am right now, but boy will they soon.” Governor Babbitt introduces such ideas a national sales tax, a progressive flat tax and increasing gas taxes to pay for alternative energy power plants throughout the nation’s largest cities.

Event Date: 1-12-1987
Event Description: New York City District Attorney Rudolph Giuliani (Republican) wins his case against the Salerno Crime Family. New York Mafiosi Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno and Carmine Peruccia are sentenced to 100 years in prison for racketeering. District Attorney Giuliani has been successful in putting away many mob figures, making him a hero to New York residents who used to live if fear of such thugs. The Republican Party of New York City is eager to nominate the crime busting DA for mayor in 1989.

Event Date: 1-20-1987
Event Description: House Minority Leader Phillip Crane (Democrat of Illinois) and Representative Charles Rangel (Republican of New York) introduce the Welfare Reform Act of 1987, mandating time limits for welfare recipients, but also providing tax breaks to companies that hire welfare recipients. “We should help people go from welfare to work,” House Minority Leader Crane tells his colleagues on the House floor, “But the American taxpayer should not fund payments to people who don't work.” Although many Republicans who represent the poorest regions of the country oppose the bill, the act is very popular with members of both parties. It will pass easily and be signed into law by President Kemp.

Event Date: 1-28-1987
Event Description: Former Vice-President John Love (Republican of Colorado) tells the Denver Times that he is considering making a run for president in 1988. “I believe history has shown that the path that the Bush Administration took was not just the correct one for the nation,” Love tells the paper, “It is the reason for our current prosperity.” Rush Limbaugh, the new Voice of the Nation, laughs at this statement, calling it, “A ‘Love’-ly Republican revision of what actually is happening.”

Event Date: 2-09-1987
Event Description: Following the Ankara Crisis last November, Turkish President Nurettin Ersin announces that he is willing to end the Kurdish War if President Barzani of the Kurdish Republic is willing to talk. The Kurds have wanted peace for many months, so the talks are scheduled to begin as soon as diplomats can agree on a neutral zone to hold the peace conference. Although Secretary of State Moynihan applauds this important breakthrough in Turkish-Kurdish relations, strident nationals in both nations oppose any peace agreements.

Event Date: 2-11-1987
Event Date: In a move which enrages the right but delights most of the nation, President Kemp signs the Heinz-Regula Amtrak Act, which increases funding for the national Amtrak rail program. Introduced by two Republicans, Senator John Heinz (Pennsylvania) and Representative Ralph Regula (Ohio), the act pouts aside $56 million a year for the renovation of railroad cars, tracks and stations. “I firmly believe that public transportation needs to be encouraged if we are to ever successfully grow energy independent,” President Kemp tells the press as he signs the bill.

Event Date: 2-19-1987
Event Description: Kurdish and Turkish officials arrive in Kuwait City, Kuwait, to begin talks to end the Kurdish War. This news is not met with celebration in the Northern Kurdish Republic, where anti-Turkish militias run many cities as a police force. “We will never surrender to the Turkish aggressors,” a militia in Mosul warns President Barzani and the Kurdish government, “Our battle against Turkey will not end through signing a piece of paper.”

Event Date: 2-21-1987
Event Description: Eva Braun, age 75, dies of a stroke at her home in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Father Rudolph Braun, her 37-year old Nobel Peace Prize winning son, was at her side when she passed on. News of death of the wife of Adolph Hitler is met with little attention from the media, but the Argentinean government honors the late Ms. Braun for the work she did at local hospitals as a nurse for more than twenty years.

Event Date: 3-02-1987
Event Description: Former Governor Lamar Alexander (Republican of Tennessee), the 1984 Republican Vice-Presidential nominee, declares his candidacy for president, promising that as president, “The little guy will once again have a seat at the president’s table.” Wearing a red plaid shirt and blue jeans, the folksy Alexander declares that when he becomes president, “The White House chefs are going to have to remember how to make ham and beans. After all, currently their making filet mignon with champagne, something I’ll never eat.” Governor Alexander’s populist rhetoric puts him in a tie with Senator Hart for first place amongst Republican voters.

Event Date: 3-09-1987
Event Description: Secretary of the Navy James Webb announces from the naval city of Huntsville, Alabama, that the United States navy will begin the construction of six "Excelsior"-class battleships. These ships are fuel efficient and cheap to maintain, but use modern technology to prove more effective in war than more conventional naval crafts.

Event Date: 3-18-1987
Event Description: The Coalition Forces begin withdrawal from the Kurdish Republic, against the better judgment of many of the commanders in the region. “I fear that a complete withdrawal from the Kurdish Republic is a very dangerous and unneeded risk,” Coalition Commander John Fry confines to British Defense Minister John Nott, “Everything which I have observed in Northern Kurdistan shows that the anti-Turkish militias will undoubtedly revolt when peace is made between the warring nations.” In response to this warning, Prime Minister Thatcher orders for three active regiments to stay in camp around the city of Mosul, where the militias have their strongest support.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 4-01-1987
Event Description: The Kuwait Accords are signed by representatives from Turkey and the Kurdish Republic, officially ending the Kurdish War. The agreement is similar to the treaty with Russia: Turkey agrees to let the Kurdish Republic live in peace while the Kurds agree to sign a free trade agreement with the Turks. “The Middle East is at peace once again tonight,” President Kemp tells the nation, but this is not so. Kurdish National militias take to streets in protest against the “pro-Turkish” President Barzani.

Event Date: 4-22-1987
Event Description: The DOW Jones Industrial ends the day above 20,000-points, spurred by the peace in the Middle East resulting in expanding the markets in Russia and Turkey through trade agreements. 

Event Date: 5-03-1987
Event Description: Carl Bernstein, editor-in-chief of the National Star, reports that Senator Gary Hart, a front-runner for the Republican nomination, has been involved in an extramarital affair with model and actress Donna Rice for more than eight years. Bernstein’s article reveals a photo of Rice and Hart aboard a yacht entitled “Monkey Business.” A media circus begins around the senator and his attractive mistress.

Event Date: 5-04-1987
Event Description: “I will not drop out the race for president!” a defiant Senator Gary Hart tells the press, “My personal life has nothing to do with running for president and changing this nation.” Senator Hart’s polling has fallen by more than 15% nationally, but he and his supporters refuse to give up the fight for the White House. “Jack Kemp worked for a real immoral law breaker, and he’s in the White House,” Hart campaign manager James Carville tells the New York Times. These type of excuses fail to throw media attention off Hart’s “monkey business.”       

Event Date: 5-09-1987
Event Description: Jalal Talabani, head of the extremely nationalist Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Patriot’s Militia, declares that the war against Turkey will continue despite the Kuwait Accords. “We can not coexist with a state which opposes our nation’s very existence,” Talabani declares in a public message to President Barzani. In response to this statement, President Barzani sends marines to break up Talabani’s militia in the war torn city of Kani Masi. The Patriot Militia refuses to stand down.

Event Date: 5-10-1987
Event Description: The Patriot’s Militia engages Kurdish marines outside of Kani Masi. The conflict proves to be a surprising one for the Kurdish Government, as the people of Kani Masi support the militia over the army. The overwhelmed marines flee the city, leaving the Kurdish Government embarrassed and facing the probability of a civil war

Event Date: 5-12-1987
Event Description: President Barzani meets with President Jack Kemp at the White House. The meeting focuses around the possibility of a civil war raging in the Kurdish Republic between hard-line anti-Turkish militias and the government. “Mr. President,” President Kemp tells Barzani, “We in the United States will do what we can for you, but this is a regional dispute.” “You say that now, my friend,” President Barzani tells Kemp, “But when this civil war makes gas so expensive the great American people begin to go broke to fill up their cars, then you will see that stability in my nation is very important.” President Kemp gets the point, and the shrewd Barzani is given additional weapons under the Kurdish Defense Act.

Event Date: 6-01-1987
Event Description: The Broadway musical Les Miserables hits 42nd Street. Starring Colm Wilkinson, a talented Irish singer, as Jean Valjean, Terence Mann as Inspector Javert and Gary Beach as the con artist innkeeper Thernardier, the musical is a smash hit. Both Sean Connery and Ronald Reagan, who starred in the acclaimed film version of Hugo’s novel, attend opening night. New York City District Attorney Rudolph Giuliani sits next to Reagan at the production, leading many to view him as courting the Democratic vote for the 1989 New York City Mayoral election.

Event Date: 6-08-1987
Event Description: Nationalist militias in Duhok attack the Turkish owned Bank of Kurdistan with an illegally acquired government grenade launcher. Bank President Ali Yasser, a prominent supporter of President Barzani, is killed during the attack. Although President Barzani gives police the right to arrest on site and to deny bail to militia members, this begins a camping of terror against Turkish owned businesses in the Kurdish Republic.

Event Date: 6-11-1987
Event Description: Congressman Richard Cheney (Republican of Wyoming), the former Chief of Staff for President George Bush, tells ABC political reporter Brit Hume in an interview that President Bush was wrong to intervene in Iraq. “As you can see from the current situation in the Kurdish Republic,” Cheney tells Hume, “President Bush’s Middle East policy was not complete. It really just enraged the Turkish and spurred nationalist feelings amongst the Kurds.” “Mr., Cheney, do you take responsibility for any of these failures?” Hume asks. “I do, Brit,” Cheney tells the journalist, “I was the architect of them after all.”

Event Date: 6-20-1987
Event Description: A commercial HS 748 (Turkish Airlines 206) is hijacked by three Kurdish Nationals. Aboard the airplane are four Turkish business executives who operate a large petroleum company in the Kurdish Republic. The businessmen are severely beaten and then shot in front of the passengers by the Kurds. The plane crash lands outside of Adana, Turkey, killing 51 passengers and all three nationals in what is seen as the deadliest terrorist attack in history.

Event Date: 6-21-1987
Event Description: President Jack Kemp addresses the world from the Oval Office. “The United States will never condone terrorism,” President Kemp firmly declares, “Whether they are supported by our enemies or our allies, they will be bunted down and brought to justice.”

Event Date: 7-01-1987
Event Description: President Jack Kemp nominates former Solicitor General Robert Bork, a conservative judge and legal scholar, to the U.S. Supreme Court to replace Nixon appointee Justice Lewis Powell. Senator John Kerry (Republican of Massachusetts) declares that the Bork nomination will be disastrous for civil rights in the nation. “Robert Bork's America,” Senator Kerry tells his colleagues, “Is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids and children could not be taught about evolution.” Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd calls Senator Kerry’s statement, “Ridiculous and near treasonous against a trusted jurist.”

Event Date: 7-03-1987
Event Description: The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) comes out against the nomination of Robert Bork for the Supreme Court. “President Kemp has shown his true colors in the nomination of Judge Bork,” ACLU Media Chair Nadine Strossen tells the press, “Bork is on record for opposing the Equal Rights Amendment, Roe v. Wade, our national ban on the death penalty, equality in the work place and secularism in our schools. He is close to theocratic on almost all social decisions, and an advocate for big business on affairs ranging from oil drilling to workmen’s compensation.” This is the first time in U.S. history that the ACLU has opposed a Supreme Court nomination.

Event Date: 7-04-1987
Event Description: Teacher and Challenger astronaut Christa McAuliffe uses the nation’s 211th birthday to announce her candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives against Speaker of the House Judd Gregg. McAuliffe, a Democrat, is running for office on the issue of privatizing NASA and expanding charter schools, two issues very popular with conservatives in the Granite State.

Event Date: 7-17-1987
Event Description: In another clear message of the positive effects of President Kemp’s economic and foreign policies, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the 2,500 mark for the first time, at 2,510.04. “It is clear,” Secretary of the Treasury William Simon tells the press, “That the tax and spending slasher in the White House has made our economy reach new heights of prosperity.” The American people seem to agree, as the Gallup Poll shows President Kemp with a 64% approval rating.

Event Date: 7-19-1987
Event Description: The National Star and Carl Bernstein publish the videos which Senator Gary Hart had rented during the summer of 1986, which is recorded as one of the times when Hart spent a great deal of time with Donna Rice. The tabloid records that Hart rented many pornographic films and most likely watched them with Ms. Rice. Bernstein took great joy in not just recording the names of the pornographic films, but also including censored screen shots of the movies in the paper. “This is just disgusting,” George Carville tells the press, “Mr. Bernstein and his publication are beneath contempt. These type of disgusting stories are destroying the American political system.” Senator Hart still refuses to drop out of the presidential race, despite falling below Governor Babbitt in the latest Gallup Poll. 

Event Date: 7-28-1987
Event Description: President Barzani of the Kurdish Republic addresses the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C., telling an international audience that he condemns all terrorism and violence against Turkey. “Our brothers to the north are now our allies in trade and defense,” Barzani tells the assembly, “My government will do all in our power to eradicate the terrorist militias which are killing hundreds of innocent Turks every month.” Later that day, President Kemp uses the Kurdish Defense Act to loan the Barzani government 15 jet planes to help battle the militias.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 8-01-1987
Event Description: Former Vice-President John Love (Republican of Colorado) announces his candidacy for the Republican Presidential nomination for President of the United States. “Finally,” Rush Limbaugh comments on the Voice of the Nation, “A Colorado Republican who isn’t browsing the porno shelves.”   

Event Date: 8-04-1987
Event Description: The Patriot’s Militia is routed by Kurdish soldiers in the hamlet of Barzan, President Barzani’s home town. This defeat is especially sweet for Barzani, since the citizens of the town rose up against the militia. It appears as if the domestic troubles in Kurdistan are becoming a controllable crisis.

Event Date: 9-02-1987
Event Description: Russian Duma elections are a nightmare for President Yazov. His foolhardy police action in the Kurdish Republic costs the Russian Nationalist Party its majority in the legislative body. The Social Democratic Party takes control of the government, and former President Mikhail Gorbachev once again becomes head of his party.     

Event Date: 9-15-1987
Event Description: President Jack Kemp announces that he will seek another term as President of the United States. “Despite the accomplishments of the last two years,” President Kemp declares from his home in Buffalo, New York, “I believe that my administration’s goal of limited government and personal freedom has not been completed. As I learned when I was playing football, you don’t stop playing the game at halftime.” Response to this announcement is generally positive. “President Kemp is a great friend and a great American,” Vice-President John McCain tells the press, “I feel that he’s made the right decision and I would be honored to serve another term as his Vice-President.” Senate Minority Leader John Chafee (Republican of Rhode Island) is one dissenting voice, commenting to the Associated Press, “I guess the president feels that he deserves more time in office than Washington or Lincoln. Why not, after all he gets all the credit for everything great that happens.”

Event Date: 9-21-1987
Event Description: Speaker of the House Judd Gregg (Republican of New Hampshire) and Congressman Bob Dornan (Democrat of California) introduce an amendment to the 1966 Freedom of Information Act: The Video Privacy Protection Act. This act is obviously in response to the information found by the National Star pertaining to the video rentals of Senator Gary Hart.

Event Date: 10-17-1987
Event Description: Kurdish nationals take terrorism against Turkey to the high seas. A Turkish freighter on the Black Sea is rammed into by a speedboat filled with explosives, causing the deaths of 120 sailors. This is the first time in history that terrorism has occurred on international waters.   

Event Date: 10-19-1987
Event Description: The Stock Market experiences a rougher day than usual under the Kemp Administration, caused mainly by fear over the terrorist attacks of October 17th. Dow Jones Industrial tumbles 215-points, but will recover the next day. There will be no “Black Tuesday”, although the Republican presidential candidates were probably hoping for one.

Event Date: 10-23-1987
Event Description: By a 56-44 vote, Judge Robert Bork is confirmed by the U.S. Senate to sit on the Supreme Court. “Judge Bork represents the traditional values which have built our nation,” Senator John Stennis (Democrat of Mississippi) tells the press. Progressive activist are sickened by this turn of events, with ACLU attorney John Warren, the son of progressive icon Earl Warren, telling the Los Angeles Times, “The Supreme Court is now wholly owned by puritans.”

Event Date: 11-03-1987
Event Description: Democrats sweep the 1987 gubernatorial contests, running on the Kemp record. Former Democratic National Chairman and tobacco lobbyist Haley Barbour is elected Governor of Mississippi over businessman Jack Reed, the hapless Republican candidate who attempted to “out conservative” the very right winged Barbour. In Kentucky, Lieutenant Governor Steve Beshear, the Democratic nominee, defeats Republican businessman Wallace G. Wilkinson in a state contest where Lamar Alexander of neighboring Tennessee came in to campaign for Wallace.

Event Date: 11-08-1987
Event Description: President Kemp vetoes the Video Privacy Protection Act, declaring that it is unconstitutional and against the Freedom of Information Act. “People have the right to know all they can about their public servants” President Kemp tells the press as he vetoes the act, “This bill strips citizens of the right to complete information.” “That’s fine Mr. President,” comedian Johnny Carson jokes that night on his show, “All I know is that when I was in school the football players were always involved in watching the stuff that would get you put on restriction.”

Event Date: 11-20-1987
Event Description: The controversial film “Lions of Lambs” debuts in theatres for the holiday season. The movie tells the story of the dark side of the Nixon Administration, but also the sensationalism of the established press. Starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford as Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, the film goes into the work the two men did to try to discredit the Nixon Administration, often portraying the two men as opportunists looking for fame far more than honesty in government. President Richard Nixon, portrayed by John Lithgow, is also not shown in a positive light. Nixon is shown as a heartless man and power broker who will do anything to achieve his goals. The film also portrays First Lady Patricia Nixon, portrayed by Glen Close, as an alcoholic who had the constant want of divorcing her presidential spouse. The most controversial part of the film is when Nixon discuses murdering FBI agent Porter Goss with chief aid Patrick Buchanan, portrayed by Alan Alda. There is no proof backing up that the 1971 death of Goss had anything to do with Nixon, but director Oliver Stone explains to the press, “This is a film based on men whom wore many masks. Who can say that such men do not have secrets?”

Event Date: 11-21-1987
Event Description: Former President Richard Nixon appears on the Johnny Carson Show. “Have you seen this trash film ‘Lions of Lambs’?,” Nixon asks Carson. “No,” the host responds, “But I thought you’d bring it up.” The former president angrily outlines what he sees as lies in the film, and by the end of the spiel appears as if he is out of control. “Mr. President,” a surprised Carson nervously chuckles, “I’m taking a stab in the dark here, but you don’t really like this movie, do you?” Even the enraged Nixon bursts into laughter upon hearing that line.

Event Date: 12-09-1987
Event Description: A raid in the city of Zakho by the Kurdish Army captures three men responsible for the October 17th terrorist attack on a Turkish freighter in the Black Sea. Abdullah Ocalan, a prominent anti-Turkish political leader, is arrested for spearheading the plot. He will be tried before a jury of his peers in February 1988.