Fear and Loathing in Five Decades (1971-2021)

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

July 1973

The bombing halt benefited North Vietnam.
[1]

With the opening phase of Operation Bold Eagle nearing its launch, acting President Agnew shocked Washington and the world when he abruptly announced a sixty-day bombing halt over North Vietnam. Though Agnew officially explained the bombing halt as an opportunity to meditate on the possibility of resuming negotiations with the United States, in reality, the air force was simply logistically overloaded. The sixty-day bombing halt would give the United States time to handle operational strain and replenish supplies. During this bombing moratorium, North Vietnam would capitalize on the lack of aerial bombardment by redeploying troops to the jungles, where the tropical canopy protected them from further attack. With the assistance of East German and Yugoslav engineers, an extensive network of tunnels and bunkers are built across Hanoi in anticipation of further bombing runs.

July 4th is marked by protests across the country, with some of the largest demonstrations taking place in Los Angeles (still smoldering from recent rioting) and Washington, though these events are by and large are peaceful. Weeks later, however, more rioting breaks out, this time in Chicago. After a drug bust in Chicago's notorious Cabrini-Green housing project went horribly wrong, resulting in two unarmed black teens being shot, tens of thousands of black Chicagoans went to the streets to protest. Egged on by Black Panther militants, this march turned into a riot that lasted three days. In response to the unrest in Chicago, Agnew announced that he would seek to halt federal funding for various programs in the city.

The Senate Watergate Committee hearings meanwhile continue to play out in Washington, with a massive bombshell being dropped when Alexander Butterfield, a former Nixon aide, confirmed that the former President had employed the use of an elaborate secret taping system to record most of his conversations and phone calls. The existence of the Nixon tapes was a game changer, resulting in many congressional Democrats arguing that the former President (still recovering from an assassination attempt) should concede the continuing contingency elections in the House to his rival, Governor McKeithen. Facing growing pressure and increasingly wary of Agnew's ideological experiments, Nixon agreed to secretly meet with the former Louisiana Governor towards the end of the month.

Alexander Butterfield, a former aide to Nixon.
[2]

As this crisis played out, Agnew was able to see to it that his nominee for Attorney General was confirmed by the Senate 58-42 despite tense confirmation hearings. The reliably conservative J. Clifford Wallace was sworn in as Attorney General that night in a ceremony in the White House's East Room. The revelation of the Nixon tapes, as big of a controversy as it was, would not hold a candle to what was to come next. Facing indictment for tax fraud and bribery, Jerome Wolff, a key figure in the Baltimore corruption probe, admits to Special Prosecutor J. Lee Rankin that he personally funneled and delivered money to Spiro Agnew between 1966 and 1969, the last such payoff taken during the then Vice President's first month in office. Agnew angrily denied the allegations, and protested that Wolff's claims were the invention of politically minded journalists out to destroy his career. The Washington Post meanwhile released a bombshell expose which detailed Agnew's alleged corruption and the investigatory efforts by George Beall and J. Lee Rankin which brought the scandal to light.

On July 29th, the secretive Nixon and McKeithen summit quietly unfolded within the former President's Penthouse on Fifth Avenue. Facing legal woes related to Watergate and still recovering from an assassination attempt, Nixon agreed to concede the election to McKeithen. This was announced the following morning at a press conference in New York City, where the former President vowed to remove his name from consideration, citing national unity and personal health concerns. Hailed as a statesman by many Democrats and Republicans alike, Nixon officially transmitted his request in writing in a letter to Speaker Albert, who immediately began preparing for a final contingency vote to once and for all resolve the disputed 1972 presidential election. Agnew watched these developments helplessly from the White House as Governor McKeithen - the man who would soon be President-elect of the United States - flew back to Boston for one final lecture at Harvard.

He would not make it.

On the morning of July 31st, Delta Airlines Flight 173 crashed into a seawall while attempting to land at Boston-Logan international airport, killing all 91 people onboard. The concession of Richard Nixon and the death of Governor McKeithen immediately sparks another constitutional crisis as a confused and bewildered American public reacted in horror. The crash results in conspiracy theories proliferating like wildfire, contributing to a growing national zeitgeist of confusion and cynicism. Within hours of the accident, lawyers representing Richard Nixon, George Wallace, and Spiro Agnew hastily filed legal motions in accordance with the political desires of the candidates.

The wreckage of Flight 173, which killed McKeithen.
[3]

[1] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
[2] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
[3] Taken from CelebrateBoston.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

August 1973

On the morning of August 1st, Robert Bork was in federal court. Seeking an injunction on further contingency elections in the House, Bork argued that Nixon's concession and McKeithen's untimely demise resulted in (officially Vice President) Agnew ascending to the Presidency. With the Supreme Court in recess for the summer, the case is heard before the DC Circuit Court of Appeals; the court rules that contingency elections in the House of Representatives should end contingency elections until the case could be heard. Nixon's lawyers hurriedly filed an objection, claiming the former President had renounced his concession in the aftermath of McKeithen's death. George Wallace also filed an objection, stating "I'm still alive and I haven't conceded jack-sh*t."

That evening, within the walls of the White House, Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Bork were briefed by the Attorney General. Warning that Agnew would be indicted by a Baltimore grand jury within a matter of days, Attorney General J. Clifford Wallace concluded that the case was open and shut. Rumsfeld, Cheney, and most critically Bork agreed, but decided to keep the matter between them. Cheney was tasked by Rumsfeld to begin looking for a nominee to take on the Vice Presidency, realizing that Agnew's official ascendancy to the Presidency would be short-lived. By seeking to appoint a Vice President who could take over from Agnew when his luck would run out, the troika of conservative ideologues would remain in place and power within the executive mansion.  

Archibald Cox, the Special Prosecutor for Watergate, filed a subpoena on August 2nd, demanding that former President Richard Nixon hand over the White House tapes. Nixon's lawyers, already busy with the crisis over the disputed Presidency, filed another objection within the DC District Court. The court would rule in favor of Cox, ordering Nixon to hand over the tapes to a "special master" who would hold onto the tapes until the matter was fully heard out in court, though the court also rules that the tapes cannot be listened to, transcribed, or otherwise accessed until a later point in time.

The Million-Person March was held on August 4th in Washington, led by Reverend Jesse Jackson and actress Jane Fonda. With hundreds of thousands gathering on the National Mall to protest the Agnew administration and the war in Vietnam, the event began with Jackson delivering an impassioned speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and ended with the radical Reverend leading demonstrators to the White House. Attempting to personally deliver a petition signed by thousands of leading politicians, academics, and veterans to Agnew, the National Guard was called into Washington in order to disperse the crowds. A riot would ensue, with President Agnew quietly slipping away to Camp David at the behest of the Secret Service.

Anti-war protests in Washington in 1973.
[1]

Three days later on August 7th, Agnew was formally indicted by a grand jury in Baltimore for bribery, fraud, and tax evasion. Defending himself at a tense press briefing, Agnew denounced the charges as being politically motivated and insisted that he was now constitutionally President, pointedly correcting reporters who repeatedly referred to him as the "acting" President. The following morning, perhaps in an effort to distract the media, Agnew ordered bombing of North Vietnam to resume just 34 days into the 60 day bombing halt.

That same evening, the Democratic Party National Committee met and in accordance with their bylaws officially nominated Senator Birch Bayh (D-IN), their 1972 Vice Presidential nominee, as their standard-bearer ahead of the next contingency vote. Filing with the DC Circuit Court of Appeals in the hope that Bayh could replace the late McKeithen during the contingency election ballot, citing the death of McKeithen and Nixon's concession. Though the case proceeds on flimsy ground, the longshot plan highlighted the desperate nature of Washington to resolve the Presidency's disputed status one way or another.

Senator Birch Bayh unsuccessfully sought to have his name on the ballot.
[2]

Robert Bork returned to court in response to this lawsuit, mirroring the Democratic National Committee by seeking to have Agnew placed on the ballot as a result of Nixon's concession. The Republican National Committee, chaired by Senator Robert Dole (R-KS), denied this request earlier, and Agnew sought to legally compel the RNC in order to achieve this goal. But Dole, a Nixon lawyer, came prepared with his own lawyers to challenge Agnew's ambition.

The next morning, Operation Bold Eagle finally commenced. Under the command of recently promoted Lt. General "Gunfighter" Emerson, American forces launched a mop up operation in South Vietnam to root out Viet Cong and NVA forces before pushing northward across the ironically named demilitarized zone which separated the two Vietnamese states. Operation Bold Eagle was accompanied by aerial and naval bombardment of the North, which resulted in an unintentional exchange between Chinese and American destroyers in two separate incidents, though neither resulted in casualties on either side.

By August 10th, Agnew's situation was precarious enough to warrant him taking drastic action. Issuing pardons for John Childs, Lester Matz, Jerome Wolff, and most controversially, himself, Agnew's actions precluded him and his cohorts from criminal prosecution. The decision sparks outrage, but has serious consequences for diplomatic matters in Washington as well. With the United States increasingly becoming a pariah due to the President's foreign policy and scandals, the European Community saw opportunity to assert themselves as part of a tri-polar world. A secret summit in Germany saw Chancellor Willy Brandt, Prime Minister Edward Heath, and French President Georges Pompidou agree to greater cooperation as a bloc on the world stage. They exercised their newfound influence by deploying the "trio group" - a gaggle of British, French, and West German diplomats - to attempt to negotiate a peace agreement between the USSR and China before the conflict could expand into a nuclear war.

British Prime Minister Edward Heath - leader of the "Trio Group."
[3]

The Agnew scandal was compounded by Watergate, a story which seemed to worsen with each passing day. The FBI launched a surprise raid on former President Nixon's residence in San Clemente, California. Seizing boxes of tapes and thousands of documents from Nixon's "West Coast White House," the FBI delivered these files to the Special Master appointed by the court in the District of Columbia. That same day, former Nixon aide John Ehrlichman began cooperating with the investigation as his own legal woes mounted. The former President considered Ehrlichman's actions to be a betrayal which could never be forgiven, and the two men would never speak to one another again as a result.

As the Agnew and Nixon scandals continued to dominate American headlines, the conflict in Mongolia grew bloodier when the Soviet and Mongolian armies were able to retake the capital of Ulan Bator from the Chinese. The battle left the city in smoldering ruins and caused hundreds of thousands of people to flee the street to street fighting, taking refuge in the countryside where they nearly starved to death in hastily organized refugee camps under the protection of the Soviet army.  Despite 50,000 deaths related to the fighting, the Soviets were able to drive the Chinese back across the border in a humiliating blow to the regime of Mao Zedong.

The war in Vietnam also continued, with American forces hurling themselves across the demilitarized zone, taking the war into North Vietnamese territory for the first time since the outbreak of the conflict. An American force consisting of 22,000 soldiers acompanied by a further group of 14,000 South Vietnamese soldiers occupied the city of Dong Hoi after intense fighting that left over 400 Americans dead and a thousand more injured. Tchepone, a key junction along the Ho Chi Minh Trail within Laos, was similarly attacked. The incursion into Laos, technically a neutral country, is defended by Secretary of Defense Paul Nitze, who argued that the presence of North Vietnamese troops in the country made the region an "enemy occupied territory" that was being "liberated" by the United States. The attack completes the goal of disrupting enemy supply lines into South Vietnam, but also illegal under the Church-Cooper Amendment of 1970, which prohibited the expansion of the war into Cambodia and Laos. Yet the actions, regardless of their legality, were wildly successful - Lt. General Emerson and his chief Lieutenant Norman Schwarzkopf became stars back home in America, and several other junior officers, including Colin Powell and Oliver North, would be promoted for their leadership abilities.

The Soviet Union, though bogged down by the war in the far east, still had an active presence in the Middle East. A slow, steady trickle of anti-aircraft guns and SCUD missiles were secretly transported to Egypt, Iraq, and Syria in anticipation of an Arab surprise attack against Israel, set to take place on Ramadan in October. This planned attack was discovered by France, who attempted to warn Israel to little avail. American and British intelligence agencies were dismissive of the warning, as was Israel, who did not trust the French due to DeGaulle's actions during the 1967 war. At a dinner in New York City honoring former British Foreign Secretary Rab Butler, Secretary of State Bush quietly requested former National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger travel to Moscow in violation of the Logan Act, a request that Kissinger obliged by.

Back in Washington, the DC District Court ruled against the DNC's request to have Birch Bayh placed on the ballot during the contingency election, and also ruled that Nixon's concession could be retracted. Bork appealed on behalf of President Agnew, and the court continued to issue a stay on further contingency ballots in the House of Representatives until the matter could be resolved. As a result, only McKeithen (who was dead), Nixon, and Wallace would be allowed to contest the Presidency. A three judge panel consisting of Chief Justice Warren Burger, Justice William Brown III, and Byron White declined to hear the case, upholding the DC court's ruling as a result.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Peter Rodino.
[4]

At a tense meeting on Capital Hill, the Democratic leadership met to devise a plan going forward. At the behest of Congressman Peter Rodino (D-NJ), the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, a young lawyer named Gary Hart - who managed McGovern's presidential campaign - stepped forward with a solution that Rodino found agreeable. The plan was simple - vote to elect McKeithen in the upcoming House election, which would result in Agnew at last ascending to the Presidency in a official capacity. Noting that Agnew's pardon was legally considered an admission of guilt, the solution was simple: impeach him. The plot would result in Carl Albert, Speaker of the House, rising to the Presidency.

But there was one remaining problem: Albert didn't want the job.
[1] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Leena Krohn)
[2] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
[3] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
[4] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain).
I had forgotten much of these events until I reread the timeline. Holy crap. Drew is the greatest author in AH.com's history.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

September 1973

Vietnamese pilots walk past planes donated by the Soviet Union.
[1]

On September 1st, a strange event in Indochina generated headlines. A North Korean MiG fighter jet was shot down over South Vietnam, with the pilot being taken into custody. The pilot was a Soviet national, a sign that the USSR is more directly involved in the war than previously thought. Though Moscow denies this, claiming that the pilot was merely a volunteer, the Agnew administration uses the shoot down to continue to propagate their claims of foreign involvement in the conflict.

Labor Day saw more protests, with 150,000 anti-Agnew demonstrators marching on Washington demanding an end to the war and the resignation of the acting President. Within the walls of the White House, the Secretary of State was summoned for a rare meeting with the acting President, though Rumsfeld and Cheney hovered behind him throughout. In a stunning tirade, Agnew attacked the United Nations, raised the possibility of dropping a nuclear bomb on the Ho Chi Minh trail, and frequently criticized the Secretary for his lack of "stones" in dealing with communist regimes across the globe. The meeting shook Bush to the core, returning to his office at the State Department to tell Jim Baker, his principal aide, that he received "a lecture from the world's most dangerous idiot."

As these events played out, the economy continued to decline. To fund the war in Vietnam, Agnew had ordered his Treasury Secretary George Schultz to find funding through borrowing. Taking loans from banks and money markets at exuberant interest rates, the national debt expanded as the money supply tightened. Rising interest rates exasperated the situation, causing inflation which eroded the savings of millions of Americans. These events would put America on track for the Second Great Depression, and the growing economic concerns weakened the dollar in the face of competing foreign currencies. The price of gold spiked as many investors turned towards precious metals. The GDP remained anemic but somewhat stable, largely because of large investment in defense firms and aviation. Otherwise, most other sectors of the economy continued to slowly languish. Consumer spending collapsed as these events played out, and the slowdown of the economy was watched from Washington with great dread.

Treasury Secretary George P. Schultz
[2]

The final House contingency election was conducted on September 5th, when the House voted to elect the dead John McKeithen to the Presidency. This resolved the 1972 presidential election at last, giving the late Louisiana Governor the honor of being elected to the Presidency from beyond the grave. The final vote saw 28 state delegations selecting the deceased Democrat, with New England Republicans casting their ballots in his favor while Georgia and Mississippi's delegations switched to Governor Wallace. Speaker Albert personally delivered the certificate of election to Senator James Eastland (D-MS), the President Pro-Tempore of the Senate.

The two Congressional leaders then traveled to the White House, where a beaming Agnew accepted the certificates of election as the White House staff hastily worked to prepare for his inauguration. The portrait of George Washington which had long hung in the Oval Office was noticeably gone, replaced instead by a portrait of Theodore Roosevelt, a man Agnew admired and saw himself as a latter day analogue to. Handing the certificate over to Secretary of State Bush, who affixed the official seal to the document, it was now official - Spiro Agnew was the 38th President of the United States. Hours later, before the Justices of the Supreme Court, the Congressional leadership, and the cabinet, the President was sworn in to office in the White House's East Room. After a brief and uninspiring seven minute speech, Agnew returned to the Oval Office, confident that his troubles were now behind him.

The immediate task was to find a suitable Vice President. Though Rumsfeld and Cheney argued that an inoffensive (and pliable) figure, preferably a Governor (though not Reagan nor Rockefeller) be selected, Agnew had his heart set on appointing Congressman John Ashbrook (R-OH) to the position. That night, a private meeting between House Majority Leader John McFall (D-CA) and House Minority Leader Gerald Ford (R-MI) took place at the latter's private residence. The two men agreed that Agnew had to be stopped, and decided to embrace Gary Hart's scheme on impeaching Agnew. As Speaker Albert had made it clear that he had no desire to embrace the Presidency, the two men debated for hours as to who should be elected Speaker should events come to that point. It was not until 2:00 AM that morning that the two came to an agreement on a possible compromise candidate, and they remained unsure if he'd accept the offer.

The following morning saw Agnew officially nominate Ashbrook without notifying either Speaker Albert nor Minority Leader Gerald Ford. Yet the nomination was a dead horse - even Rumsfeld and Cheney knew that Ashbrook hadn't a snowballs chance in hell of being confirmed to the position, and the Senate's Democratic majority reacted in fury. While this played out in Washington, the Federal Reserve released a report showing inflation to be 9%, while interest rates climbed to 12.5%. This was the highest inflation and interest rates had been since 1947, and the stock market reacted as the Dow Jones plunged.

The next day, Congressman Peter Rodino (D-NJ) introduced articles of impeachment to the House of Representatives. Republican lawmakers who had backed Nixon and Agnew heckled Rodino during the speech, with one member crying on the floor of the House as he screamed "may God damn each and every one of you bastards." Agnew was unconcerned, ignorantly believing that his pardon precluded him from impeachment. At a heated press conference, an exchange between NBC's Tom Brokaw and the President resulted in White House press secretary Pat Buchanan banning Brokaw from the grounds of the executive mansion.

September 11th saw an American sponsored military coup remove Salvadore Allende from power in Chile; the violent coup installed General Augusto Pinochet as leader of a military junta, and Allende himself was killed after a tank fired a shell into the presidential palace in Santiago. The Soviet Union and Cuba condemned the coup, but they could do nothing to stop it. The death of Allende and the rise of Pinochet ensured that the regime in Santiago would hold onto power for years to come.

The 1973 Chile coup saw the Presidential Palace in Santiago bombed.
[3]

In Vietnam, an NVA attack on both Dong Hoi and Tchepone in Laos resulted in American forces repelling the communist onslaught, with both sides sustaining high casualties in the fierce fighting that commenced. Using their air power to their advantage, the American and South Vietnamese armies were responsible for much of the American casualties after repeated friendly fire incidents over the fluid battlefield. In one instance, over 219 American soldiers from the Indiana National Guard were killed after repeated attacks on their position by mistaken American pilots. This caused an outrage in the Hoosier state, and embarrassed the Agnew administration at the same time.

September 12th saw the House Judiciary Committee commence impeachment hearings, with former US Attorney George Beall testifying for three days as he outlined the initial investigation into Agnew. Former Special Prosecutor J. Lee Rankin also testified, confirming much of Beall's allegations. These widely watched hearings demonstrated to the White House that the pardons issued by Agnew hadn't buried the matter, no matter what the President said. Soon after, John Childs, Lester Matz, and Jerome Wolff - the three men pardoned by Agnew - resurfaced when they agreed to appear before the Committee. Wolff turns heads when he turns over detailed personal notes which outlined many of his crimes, and the biggest bombshell is his revelation that he delivered personally to Agnew a second envelope filled with cash as late as 1971. The use of forensic accountants is also successful, with the experts called by the Committee quickly tracking the bribe money back to Agnew's personal bank accounts. Some of the money given to Agnew was donated to the campaigns of both Governor Reagan and Rockefeller ahead of the 1968 Republican Convention.

Meanwhile, the Secretary of State quietly traveled to Boston to meet privately with former Ambassador James Gavin. The youngest general of World War II, Gavin had later served as Ambassador to France and was the CEO and President of the Arthur D. Little Group, a major international consulting business that had dramatically expanded under his leadership. A critic of the Johnson administration's Vietnam strategy, Gavin had also worked as an adviser to President Kennedy during the establishment of the Peace Corps. Gavin, an acceptable choice to the Democrats and Republicans alike, was initially hesitant to accept the officer and warned that the perception of a former General taking office via the impeachment process would be viewed as the American alternative to a military coup. Bush argued that Carl Albert was willing to resign as Speaker of the House, and that the House's election of Gavin as Speaker would give the General a mandate that would be seen as legitimate. Still skeptical, Gavin requested (and received) time to think over the request, and to talk the matter over with his wife and family.

Retired General James Gavin.
[4]

[1] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
[2] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
[3] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
[4] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Hmm...I would've suggested Albert stands down as Speaker, and a coalition of Moderate Democrats/Republicans elects Ford Speaker, allowing him to ascend to the Presidency, but as I'm not familiar with the original TL, I'll reserve judgment.

I feel Gavin is an infinitely more interesting character for this scenario than Gerald Ford.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

October 1973.

As impeachment efforts against Agnew intensify, Robert Bork is called to testify before the House Judiciary Committee. His arguments that the President's pardon of himself should not be counted as an admission of guilt hinged on the fact that Agnew was not an ordinary defendant. This claim that the President was immune to being prosecuted fell on deaf ears, with some Democratic members (most notably Elizabeth Holtzman of New York) of the committee openly laughing at Bork's arguments to his face. Heated exchanges with Congressman John Conyers (D-MI) and Paul Sarbanes (D-MD) dominated the nightly news broadcasts, which described Agnew's presidency as "an administration under siege."

The Trio Group's representatives meanwhile manage to negotiate a ceasefire between China and the Soviet Union, with both nations agreeing to withdrawal from Mongolia. The war effectively accomplishes nothing, with the peace agreement being widely viewed in the west as a humiliating defeat for China. As had happened with the "Hundred Flowers" campaign earlier under Mao's rule, there is speculation in the west by China-watchers that the war had been intentionally launched to undermine opponents of Mao within the ruling Communist Party, particularly against Premier Zhou Enlai and his followers like Deng Xiaoping.

On October 4th, the House Judiciary Committee voted on Articles of Impeachment, passing seven motions against the President.

• Accepting bribes while in public office.
• Corruption in awarding public contracts.
• Evading taxes by not reporting payments.
• Bringing the Presidency and Vice Presidency into repute.
• Using unlawfully gained money to support political candidates.
• Obstruction of Justice by pardoning criminal associates.
• Abuse of power by pardoning himself.

Senator Roman Hruska (R-NE).
[1]

That same day, the Senate Judiciary Committee was also in session, voting 13-3 against Congressman John Ashbrooks nomination to the Vice Presidency. In order to appease the President and maintain party unity within the Senate, Roman Hruska (R-NE) refers the nomination to the Senate for a full vote. While it is guaranteed that Ashbrook won't be confirmed, Hruska in reality is buying time until General Gavin can be officially elected Speaker of the House before the impeachment trial of President Agnew. Ashbrook's nomination was met with widespread dismay by almost every sector of American political life, spare the John Birch Society. The New York City Republican Party's headquarters in Manhattan was firebombed overnight by a group calling itself "Student Liberation Anti-War Vanguard," with anti-Agnew and anti-Ashbrook graffiti being found near the scene.

As this played out in Washington, events in the Middle East began to catch the eye of Secretary of State Bush. Tipped off by French intelligence officials, American satellites caught significant troop movements in Syria and Egypt, a sign that the rumored Arab attack on Israel was both a real and pressing danger to the Jewish state. Bush warns the Israeli Ambassador against taking preemptive action against the Arabs, but does commit himself to the Israeli cause should an Arab attack take place. At an emergency cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Golda Meir informs the cabinet of the impending Arab invasion, stating bluntly that "we should have listened to that fancy boy in Washington." Just hours later, the Egyptian army launched an attack against the Sinai, pushing the Israelis back as they crossed the Suez Canal in a daring amphibious assault. At the same time, Syrian forces pushed into the Golan Heights, though the Israeli Defense Force has an easier fight against the smaller and less well-trained Syrian military.

The President responded by ordering the Sixth Fleet into the Mediterranean Sea as a display of force, but was otherwise at a loss (and also uninterested) in how to respond, at one point suggesting during a meeting with top national security brass that he would not particularly care if the Arabs overran the Jewish state, much to the horror of Secretaries Bush and Nitze. This was compounded by Rumsfeld, who took to the Israelis defense by suggesting they be allowed to use their (alleged) nuclear capabilities against the Arabs. Agnew shot down Bush's suggestion that he be allowed to travel to Moscow in an attempt to dissuade the Soviets from further involvement, instead arguing that the Turkish government be pressured to close the Bosporus.

The Israeli government was initially taken by surprise by the relatively weak American response, and Prime Minister Golda Meir ordered Israeli jets to be prepared to drop an atomic bomb if necessary. But the Israel Defense Force was able to quickly stabilize the front lines in the Sinai, stopping the Egyptian advance and inflicting high casualties on their invading opponents. With much of their armored vehicles, tanks, and artillery wiped out by repeated Israeli airstrikes, the Egyptians appealed to Moscow for more aide. But with their supplies exhausted by the war with China and their support for North Vietnam, the Kremlin simply was unable to deliver. The Agnew administration took advantage of this by agreeing to resupply and equip Israel with military equipment, much to the chagrin of the Arab world.

Golda Meir - Israel's "Iron Lady."
[2]

On October 10th, the House of Representatives voted on the articles of impeachment passed by the Judiciary Committee. While the House defeated by a vote of 219-216 motions related to obstruction of justice and abuse of power caused by Agnew's pardons, the other counts were overwhelmingly passed and sent to the Senate for trial. This marked the second time that a President had been impeached by the House of Representatives, a dubious distinction that would surely hang over Agnew's legacy regardless of the Senate trial's outcome. In a televised Oval Office address, Agnew defended himself and insisted that he would not "run, nor retreat, nor resign, nor hide."

Less than twelve hours after Agnew's speech, the Senate voted 65-35 against Ashbrook's appointment to the Vice Presidency. This was an expected blow to the President, who vowed to name another nominee for the position in the coming days. Though Agnew insisted that his top aides work on finding a replacement for Ashbrook, Rumsfeld and Cheney had no luck in finding a willing candidate wanting to take on the position. The vacant position of Vice President would remain unfilled for the time being as a result of the Senate's rejection of Ashbrook.

Another vote was held that day in the House after Speaker Albert announced his resignation, with the House voting 391-44 to elect James Gavin as Speaker. The new Speaker was met with polling that showed nearly 70% of Americans approving of him, and in his first remarks as Speaker, Gavin insisted that he would work to unite the country moving forward. Carl Albert was elected Deputy Speaker, and would continue to run the day-to-day affairs of the House while Gavin awaited on stand-by. Another election is held, this time by the Republican National Committee, when Senator Bob Dole (R-KS) resigned as Chairman. In his place, Senator Paul Fannin (R-AZ) is elected Chair of the Committee which governed the GOP.

Senator Paul Fannin (R-AZ), the new RNC Chairman.
[3]

Kissinger was dispatched to Moscow for the secretive mission that Bush had requested of him the previous month, with the former National Security Adviser traveling to the Kremlin to meet with the Soviet leader personally. The Brezhnev - Kissinger meeting was kept under wraps by the Soviet Union due to the longstanding relationship between the two men, though it was hard to keep the mission a secret. Agnew, when informed of the discussions between the two men, was irrate and demanded that Attorney General J. Clifford Wallace prosecute him in violation of the Logan Act, though the top figures of the Justice Department were wary of getting involved any further.

The Senate’s impeachment trial of Spiro Agnew opened with Chief Justice Warren Burger presiding. The four managers appointed by the House – Congressmen John Conyers (D-MI), Don Edwards (D-CA), Peter Rodino (D-NJ), and Paul Sarbanes (D-MD) argued in favor of removing the President over the course of the first three days. They were assisted by Staff Lawyer Gary Hart, who employed two fellow McGovern ’72 alumni, Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham, as underlings. These proceedings would take up nine days.

The impeachment process was disrupted by the news that OPEC would place a complete and total oil embargo against the United States in response to American support for Israel. The stock market plummets as a result, and within days, gasoline and fuel shortages are felt by Americans nationwide. This leads to long lines, fuel rationing, and numerous instances of violence at gas stations across the country. Anti-Arab sentiment and support for Israel spikes as a result of the embargo.

In late October, the Arabs reversed their fortunes and once again managed to gain the upper hand as the oil embargo began to impact Israel's ability to combat the invading force. While American aid had yet to arrive, the Syrians were replenished by a 30,000 man Iraqi expeditionary force which was under the command of Vice President Saddam Hussein himself. The successful Egyptian counteroffensive in the Sinai revives the Arabs hopes of prolonging the war, with Israeli soldiers withdrawing eastward towards the official Israeli borders. Representatives of the Trio Group, having made progress in ending the Sino-Soviet War, now turn their attention towards mediating the war in the Middle East.

Once the Israelis were able to establish a firm defensive line to prevent the Egyptian army from invading Israel proper, the IDF turned their focus on Syria. Prime Minister Golda Meir ordered the IDF to push aggressively through the Golan Heights towards the nearby Syrian capital city of Damascus. With the arrival of American aid coming at long last, the Israelis used their technological advantage to the maximum extent, decimating Syrian and Iraqi armored units along the way. The road to Damascus was cleared, and the IDF advanced on the Syrian capital to the horror of the Arabs.

Eygptian troops cross the Suez.
[4]

[1] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
[2] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
[3] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
[4] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

The Impeachment Trial of Spiro Agnew.

Though President Agnew was not present (he had gone to spend some time at Camp David to weigh his political future), an assassination attempt was made when an angry Vietnam veteran opened fire at the White House, injuring two gardeners as he attempted to fire into the residence. The gunman was killed by Secret Service agents, and the 82nd Airborne Division deployed armed soldiers to be stationed outside the mansion as a result. The next day, when Agnew returned to the White House, he agreed to meet with Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ). In a heated exchange, Goldwater angrily demanded Agnew resign and warned that he and many other Senate conservatives would vote for impeachment. The next night, on November 6th, Agnew addressed the nation from the Oval Office on the impending impeachment vote.

President Agnew addresses the nation.
[1]

Good evening my fellow Americans. Tomorrow the Senate will vote on my fitness to continue as your President. I am sad to have to report that many who serve in that body, who I thought of as my friends, have been listening to the nattering nabobs of negativity, enough so that they have allowed themselves to lose sight of the facts. Well, let me take this opportunity to put the facts before you, the American people.

When I came to Washington, it was to help President Richard Nixon fulfill a scared trust that you had given to us with your votes: that was to lead this nation into the nineteen-seventies with honor and to a higher standard of leadership than we knew in the nineteen-sixties. Many of the loopy limousine liberals who led us to disaster in the nineteen-sixties could not accept our victory, so they conspired to bring President Nixon low. They did not succeed, although they plague Richard Nixon to this day with false charges and innuendos. Side-by-side with President Nixon I helped to prove that there was a better way for this nation.

By an accident of fate and circumstance, I know find myself in this office, as your President. At this hour our troops fight around the world against an intractable enemy - an enemy of liberty and of freedom - an enemy that cannot stand American values and thus will not stop until they have destroyed us. Tonight we and our valiant ally in Israel face grave peril - a peril which could consume the world in the fires of Armageddon - a peril brought on by the enemy's relentless conspiracy to destroy all free men and women everywhere in the world. We stand toe-to-toe with the Soviet Union tonight not because we wish to match our power to theirs, but because we know that to give-in to dictators anywhere is to surrender our freedoms everywhere. This is the bloody lesson of World War II, that appeasement is a suicidal folly. So we will not repeat this folly, we will stand tough in the face of the oppressor until freedom wins through.

The nattering nabobs - the Limp Liberals, they do not understand this - or they say they do not understand with a disingenuous nod of feigned innocence. They would rather see America weak, divided and compromised, all in the furtherance of a big state, socialist agenda which is antithetical to all America represents and all our fathers and brothers have fought and died for in two World Wars and in Asia. They hate me because I expose their hypocrisy and because I will not admit defeat in the face of their threats. They turn their knives on Agnew because Agnew - and Agnew alone - will stand-up to the tyrant. They come for me because I alone will never surrender, will never compromise, will never appease the Soviet tyrant and the liberal lobby at the expense of our liberty. That is why they wish to remove me.

I appeal to you, my fellow citizens, do not allow them. Flood your Senators with letters and telegrams, tell them how you really feel. Let them know you stand with me in defense of our freedoms. It is time for the silent majority to let loose a howl of indignation which will send the Limp Liberals forever cowering in their Harvard Libraries and Yale Clubs, never to come out and trouble America again. Rise-up my friends, and tell these enemies of American freedom how much you love liberty, and that you want me here defending you and your family against those who would take all you have and leave you only bitter tears and chains. Tell your Senator to vote no to my removal, and yes to American freedom.

Let me leave you with this final thought, my friends. The man they would replace me with is a Roman Catholic. So we must ask if there is not a deeper foreign conspiracy at work here, if not from Rome some anti-American power is seeking to use the institutions of our democracy to subvert us from within. Communism and popery share much in common in that regard, and both must be guarded against. Do not let this happen, my friends. Tell your Senator not to succumb to the wily plots of Cardinals or Commissars. Tell them to support my Presidency, because in doing that they vote to support your freedom. Good night my friends, and may God Bless the United States.

In a paranoid screed, Agnew condemned the impeachment process as a sham, describing General Gavin as leading "a military coup," and even attacked the Catholic Church, warning that Speaker Gavin's potential ascension to the Presidency would mean he'd be controlled by the church in Rome. Using the phrase "popery" at the end of his remarks, Agnew's remarks created a firestorm of controversy. Press Secretary Pat Buchanan resigned that night, condemning Agnew's remarks and denying involvement in the drafting of the speech (Buchanan himself was a devout Roman Catholic). The President spent much of the evening trying to phone individual Republican Senators, but most refused to take his calls. Though Agnew was becoming increasingly panicked, Rumsfeld reassured him that the 67 votes needed to remove him from office simply weren't there.

The next morning, the Senate gathered in the presence of the Chief Justice to conclude the impeachment trial of President Agnew. As Senators trickled into the chamber to cast their votes, Agnew watched from the Oval Office.

Spiro Agnew Impeachment Vote.

James Abourezk (D-SD) – Aye
George Aiken (R-VT) - Aye
James Allen (D-AL) – Aye
Howard Baker (R-TN) – Aye
Birch Bayh (D-IN) - Aye
John G. Beall (R-MD) – Aye
Henry Bellmon (R-OK) – Aye
Wallace Bennett (R-UT) - Nay
Lloyd Bentsen (D-TX) – Aye
Allen Bible (D-NV) – Aye
Joe Biden (D-DE) – Aye
William E. Brock III (R-TN) – Aye
Edward Brooke (R-MA) - Aye
James L. Buckley (C-NY)- Aye
Quentin Burdick (D-ND) – Aye
Harry F. Byrd (ID-VA) – Aye
Robert Byrd (D-WV) - Aye
Howard Cannon (D-NV) – Aye
Clifford Case (D-NJ) – Aye
Lawton Chiles (D-FL) - Aye
Frank Church (D-ID) - Aye
Marlowe Cook (R-KY) – Nay
Norris Cotton (R-NH) - Aye
Alan Cranston (D-CA) – Aye
Carl Curtis (R-NV) – Aye
Robert Dole (R-KS) – Aye
Peter Domenici (R-NM) - Aye
Peter Dominick (R-CO) - Aye
Thomas Eagleton (D-MO) - Aye
James Eastland (D-MS) – Aye
Ed Edmondson (D-OK) - Aye
Sam Ervin (D-NC) – Aye
Paul Fannin (R-AZ) – Nay
Orval Faubus (ID-AR) – Aye
Hiram Fong (R-HI) – Aye
Barry Goldwater (R-AZ) – Aye
Mike Gravel (D-AK) – Aye
Robert Griffin (R-MI) – Aye
Edward Gurney (R-FL) – Aye
Clifford Hansen (R-WY) – Nay
William Fulbright (D-AR) – Aye
Phillip Hart (D-MI) – Aye
Vince Hartkle (D-IN) – Aye
Floyd Haskell (D-CO) – Aye
Mark Hatfeld (R-OR) – Aye
Jesse Helms (R-NC) – Nay
Ernest Hollings (D-SC) – Aye
Roman Hruska (R-NE) – Aye
Harold Hughes (D-IA) – Aye
Hubert H. Humphrey (D-MN) – Aye
Daniel Inouye (D-HI) – Aye
Henry Jackson (D-WA) – Aye
Jacob Javits (R-NY) – Aye
J. Bennett Johnston (D-LA) – Aye
Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) – Aye
Russell B. Long (D-LA) – Aye
Warren Magnuson (D-WA) – Aye
Michael Mansfield (D-MT) – Aye
Charles Mathias (R-MD) - Aye
James A. McClure (R-ID) - Nay
Gale McGee (D-WY) – Aye
George McGovern (D-SD) - Aye
Thomas McIntyre (D-NH) – Aye
Lee Metcalf (D-MT) – Aye
Jack Miller (R-IA) – Aye
Walter Mondale (D-MN) – Aye
Joseph Montoya (D-NM) - Aye
Edward Moss (D-UT) – Aye
Edmund Muskie (D-ME) - Aye
Gaylord Nelson (D-WS) – Aye
Louie B. Nunn (R-KY) – Aye
Sam Nunn (D-GA) – Aye
Robert Packwood (R-OR) – Aye
John O. Pastore (D-RI) – Aye
James B. Pearson (R-KS) – Aye
Claiborne Pell (D-RI) – Aye
Charles H. Percy (R-IL) – Aye
William Proxmire (D-WS) – Aye
Jennings Randolph (D-VA) – Aye
Abraham Ribicoff (D-CT) – Aye
William Roth (R-DE) – Aye
William Saxbe (R-OH) – Aye
Hugh Scott (R-PA) – Aye
William Scott (R-VA) – Aye
Richard Schewiker (R-PA) - Aye
Margaret Chase-Smith (R-ME) – Aye
John Sparkman (D-AL) – Aye
Robert Stafford (R-VT) – Aye
John Stennis (D-MS) – Aye
Ted Stevens (R-AK) – Nay
Adlai Stevenson III (D-IL) – Aye
Stuart Symington (D-MO) – Aye
Robert Taft Jr. (R-OH) – Aye
Herman Talmadge (D-GA) – Present
Storm Thurmond (R-SC) – Nay
John Tower (R-TX) – Aye
John V. Tunney (D-CA) – Aye
Lowell Weicker (R-CT) – Aye
Harrison Williams (D-NJ) – Aye
Milton Young (R-ND) – Aye
Watching these events transpire in horror, Agnew was stunned when the Senate voted 91-8-1 in favor of his removal in office. Agnew initially refused to leave the Oval Office, demanding the media  broadcast a second speech (all three networks declined this request). While a panicked Agnew grappled what to do next in the White House, the Chief Justice issued the official certificate of impeachment and dispatched a US Marshall to personally deliver it to the now former President Agnew. A furious Agnew refused to accept the certificate (which was left on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office) and only agreed to leave the White House via an underground tunnell to the executive office building across the street when Secret Service agents threatened to arrest him and drag him out of the mansion before the cameras. A defeated Agnew (who even lost his title of "former President" in the eyes of the government) retreated back to Baltimore, where he'd spend the remainder of the year in self-imposed political exile.

All the while, Speaker Gavin was called to the floor of the Senate, where he was sworn in on the spot.

James Gavin - 39th President of the United States.
[2]

"My fellow Americans, I accept this office with an awesome sense of responsibility, and at a perilous time in our nation's history. The course of domestic and world events have propelled us to a place of trouble and challenge few of us could have expected to find ourselves in just a few months ago. I enter into the office of President with the full understanding that you did not elect me to this post, and that I serve as President at your sufferance. Today I ask only for your faith and good wishes as I take-on the immediate problems that our nation faces, with the resolve to persevere, and the knowledge that our great country stands for peace and freedom. My comments on this occasion will be brief, as the business of our nation commands my urgent attention. Let me only say that our Constitutional form of government has been affirmed; the rule of law has been upheld and power has been transferred peacefully as our Founders envisioned in such a circumstance. Therefore, my fellow citizens, I ask for your prayers and in the coming days I shall have more to say to you about the state of our nation."

[1] Taken from a YouTube Video.
[2] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Not that it would have changed the result or anything, but I think Talmadge would have voted Nay rather than Present in the impeachment trial.

His vote for Agnew effectively ended his career, so you’re right, he’d have nothing to lose.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

My laptop hit the fritz again, but I’ll still be able to get some updates up through my work computer. Expect something by Wednesday or Tuesday.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Laptop is fixed, so I'll be picking it up today in the afternoon. Until then, here's the remainder of November '73.

EDIT: Damn, absolutely hit post before I finished the update. It's 90% done, so bear with me while I get the pics up.

November, 1973.

The USS Cochrane.
[1]

The Agnew (and later Gavin) policy of not getting entangled in the Middle Eastern war beyond sending arms to Israel and mining the Syrian coast was put to the test in early November, when an American spy plane flying over Syrian territorial waters was downed by an anti-aircraft missile. The USS Cochrane was deployed on a search and rescue mission for the crew, when two Soviet built missile boats of the Syrian navy appeared on the horizon. With the Arabs firing upon the USS Cochrane, the American destroyer returned fire and sank one of the two Syrian vessels. The incident, which left a handful of American airmen dead, was largely overshadowed by the impeachment trial of Spiro Agnew, and occurred just days before Speaker Gavin would ascend to the Presidency.

These events would prove to be the final crises of the Assad regime in Syria; the following morning, the IDF made a final push into the city of Damascus, inflicting massive casualties on the Syrian and Iraqi forces left in the city as the President, Hafez Al Assad, fled to the interior of the country. The next morning, the star of David flew over the bullet riddled, bombed out ruins of Assad's palace in the now Israeli occupied Syrian capital. The fall of Damascus precipitated the fall of the Baathist regime in Syria; spontaneous revolts broke out across the country, with Kurdish and Islamists groups seizing swathes of territory as authority broke down. Days later, the army intervened against the last vestige of Baathism when they removed Assad in a violent military coup. Declaring himself the new leader of Syria, General Luai al-Atassi took the helm in a shattered nation, but the damage had been done.

In Washington, these events were closely followed by the Speaker’s team as the impeachment process played out. When Agnew was at last removed from the Presidency, Gavin immediately cabled General Secretary Breznhev, informing him of both the impeachment and his decision to reduce the strategic alert level down from DEFCON 2, as well as his intention to dispatch Secretary of State Bush to Jerusalem to persuade the Israelis to withdrawal from Syria. The new President also names Henry Kissinger as his personal emissary to the USSR, and once again dispatches him to Moscow for high level talks with Breznhev. Afterwards, Gavin announces his appointment of Caspar Weinberger as White House Chief of Staff; the two had a long-standing professional relationship in the world of corporate America, and Weinberger was immediately tasked with the process of restoring the executive branch's influence both at home and abroad.

As Agnew was escorted out of the White House, a scramble to catalog and return his personal items was underway as Gavin continued to lead the government from the capital. Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Haig were immediately fired from their positions by the new President as he hurriedly attempted to undo much of the damage done by Agnew. Hours after his swearing-in, when Gavin at last arrived at the White House, he ordered the removal of armed soldiers outside, grimly joking that the mansion looked like a scene from Santiago.

Working a solid twelve hours straight out of the Oval Office (where the personal photos of President Agnew and his family had only been recently cleared off the Resolute Desk), the new administration quickly cobbled together a new staff. Replacing Haig as National Security Adviser was Brent Scowcroft, while Roger Mudd, a journalist, took on the role of Press Secretary to replace Pat Buchanan. Former Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach agreed to serve as White House Counsel for the interim period, with Gavin mixing an equal number of prominent Democrats and Republicans into the loop. As America's second independent President since Washington, Gavin's most pressing political task was to find a suitable Vice President.

Caspar Weinberger, Gavin's new Chief of Staff.
[2]

The task of finding a new Vice President was led by Chief of Staff Weinberger, whom like his predecessor had quickly established himself as a strong figure in the White House. Consulting with a wide array of Senators, Congressmen and women, Governors, military and intelligence officials, and economists over several days, Weinberger boiled his list down to eight names - four Democrats and four Republicans - whom he felt had both an adequate chance of being confirmed by the Senate while maintaining the apolitical mold of Gavin's envisioned unity government. The names, typed out on White House stationary, were reviewed by Gavin.

Governor Ronald Reagan of California (Rep).

Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York (Rep).

Former Governor William Scranton of Pennsylvania (Rep).

Senator Edward Brooke of Massachusetts (Rep).

Former Governor Carl Sanders of Georgia (Dem).

Former Governor Terry Sanford of North Carolina (Dem).

Senator Henry Jackson of Washington (Dem).

Senator Birch Bayh of Indiana (Dem).

On the morning of November 8th, as Gavin awoke in the White House for the first full day as President of the United States, word reached him that the Supreme Court would release it's ruling in the case of United States vs. Richard Nixon. But even the process of reaching such a ruling would prove to be arduous; Chief Justice Burger, a Nixon appointee, was forced to recuse himself, resulting in William O. Douglas taking on the role of acting Chief Justice for the case. Similarly, Associate Justice William Brown III, a former Nixon staffer, also recused himself from the case. The intensely charged partisan atmosphere ensured that the remaining jurists on the case worked towards a unanimous majority opinion. In the 7-0 ruling, the court ruled that the former President's Oval Office tapes could be introduced by Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox as evidence against him before a grand jury, rejecting Nixon's lawyer's arguments that claimed the tapes were subject to executive privilege.

Kissinger and Brezhnev would meet in Moscow.
[3]

In Moscow, the confusion sowed by the Agnew impeachment trial had resulted in Kissinger having a hard time accessing the top Soviet leadership. Only a relatively middle tier figure in the Soviet Foreign Ministry agreed to meet with the emissary, who held on his person a sealed letter from Secretary of State Bush which outlined the foreign policy goals of the new administration. Demanding to deliver the letter to Brezhnev personally, the Kissinger team was stalled in Moscow. This was in part due to the lack of a cabinet shakeup following Gavin's rise to the Presidency - Bush, often an unwilling and hesitant mouthpiece of the Agnew foreign policy, remained in charge at the State Department. It also signaled to the Kremlin, which was known for its backroom machinations, that a behind the scenes power struggle was playing out in Washington. Of course, this was not true, but Brezhnev's mindset was set in stone. It took a number of meetings - first with Deputy Foreign Minister Leonid Hyickov, then Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin, then Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, before finally being summoned to a late night meeting with Brezhnev himself several days into Kissinger's mission.

Soviet Ambassador Dobrynin.
[4]

During this midnight summit with Brezhnev, who consumed a copious amount of scotch, Kissinger found the Soviet leader to be dense and difficult. After a three-course meal complete with plenty of bombastic ideological rhetoric, the two agreed to one basic premise moving forward: that a ceasefire would be separated from any lasting peace agreement. While Bush, Gavin, and Kissinger agreed that Israel would ultimately have to return to their prewar borders, they also demanded concessions from the Soviet bloc in order for any further diplomatic cooperation in the region to be fruitful. Talks the following day were more successful, but this shift in attitude among the Soviets was due to external rather than internal pressure.

With Syria teetering on anarchy, the Turkish government - a NATO aligned power - mobilized the Turkish military along the Syrian border in anticipation that Kurdish rebels would use the destabilized Arab state to launch cross-border attacks. Syria, being a Soviet aligned power with a sizable Eastern Bloc military contingent within their borders, would surely become a hotspot should Turkey intervene in the conflict. Alarmed by the possibility of a NATO-Warsaw Pact clash in Syria, the pressure on Kissinger was greater than at any moment during his tenure in the Nixon administration. Out of this power vacuum and anarchy in Syria, a dissident lawyer by the name of Ali Sadreddine Bayanouni emerged. As leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Bayanouni's rhetoric inspired thousands of young students and disaffected soldiers to join the Islamist cause, launching fierce attacks on the Israelis and Iraqi forces in the country alike. These militant Muslim militias quickly seized villages across the country as their ranks swelled in numbers, complicating the situation in the country.

Back in the Sinai, the Egyptian-Israeli ceasefire remained in place. The war had destroyed Sadat's relationship with the Soviets, and earned him many enemies in the Arab World as well. Kissinger saw an opportunity, immediately making plans to travel to Israel as soon as talks in Moscow ended, hoping to convince Prime Minister Meir to accept a ceasefire agreement that would require the IDF to pull out of Syria, spare the Golan Heights. Meir was hesitant, skeptical of Secretary Bush's plan which would allow Iraq to occupy large parts of Syria.

November ends with a stunning change in China; the Tenth Congress of the Communist Party of China, which had been delayed since the start of the Mongolian War, finally convened in Peking. The result was a resurgance of Red Guard activity not seen since the excesses of the Cultural Revolution, with supporters and allies of Premier Zhou Enlai such as Deng Xiaoping being purged in the lead up to the party congress. As China's nominal head of government, Zhou was blamed for much of the setbacks suffered during the war against the Soviet Union as well as for the failure of the reproachment with the United States (though this was due to Agnew's policies above all else), and the Maoist Red Guards seized on the oppurtunity to overpower the moderate wing of the party.

As a result, Zhou is purged from the Politburo and dismissed as Premier. In his place, Wang Dongxing is named Premier; Wang, a former body guard to Chairman Mao, is a member of the party's radical wing. Meanwhile, Mao himself is surprisingly "retired" by the party as Chairman, instead being named "Chairman Emeritus" of the party instead. In his place, the new leader of the party - titled "First Secretary" instead of Chairman - is his nephew Mao Yuanxin, a member of the Red Guard radical wing with a personal penchent for violence. Meanwhile, China's vacant head of state position - which has not been officially occupied since 1969, is filled by Mao's equally radical wife Jiang Qiang. The rise of the radical Maoist wing of the Chinese Party is an alarming sign to Washington's foreign policy wonks that the party is sliding away from the hard fought reproachment sought by Nixon and Kissinger during the early 1970s.
[1] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain).
[2] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain).
[3] Taken from DriveTribe.com (UPI).
[4] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain).

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Posted too early, so while I edit the last bit of the last post (including adding pics, etc), please know that I have also retconned the South Vietnam coup that killed Thieu. He is still President and that part of the timeline has been removed because it is a bit unrealistic and also unimportant to the broader plot.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

December 1973

As the winter snow blanketed Washington, Gavin was hard at work within the White House. The first major development of the month is the announcement that the President will name former Pennsylvania Governor Bill Scranton to the Vice Presidency. In choosing a moderate Republican from outside Washington to ascend to the nation's second top office, Gavin avoided the stigma of having to select a Senator or Congressperson who voted for Agnew's removal from office. This ensured the new administration would retain at least some legitimacy among conservative Republicans, and also made certain that the position would be filled swiftly before the new year.

Former Governor Bill Scranton of Pennsylvania.
[1]

In Vietnam, the North took advantage of the distractions in the Middle East and Washington to launch another offensive against Dong Hoi. The third attack on the city resulted in high casualties for all parties involved, with 2,000 American men being killed. Though high casualties are inflicted on the North Vietnamese attackers, the ferocity of their attack made an impression on American forces, with Collin Powell (one of the leading officers in charge of the American defense of the city) later commenting that the psychological damage done by the NVA during the attack was worse than the actual death toll inflicted by the American defenses.

Greece's right-wing military dictatorship begins a slight liberalization process after a student uprising starts at the Athens Polytechnic. Though the student demonstrations are brutally suppressed, the regime's leader, Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos is removed by the ruling military junta in a coup led by Phaidon Gizikis. The new regime continues to insist the military's influence in the country's government will remain in place, but promises greater rights and less heavy-handed tactics against opponents of the regime.

In the Middle East, Secretary Bush and the Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko finally negotiate a ceasefire between Israel and the Arabs after talks in Algiers, Algeria. The agreement allows Israel to occupy the Sinai for the time being, as Egyptian-Soviet relations had deteriorated to a point that Brezhnev no longer cared. The IDF was required to completely withdraw from Syria aside from the Golan Heights, forcing the regime of President al-Atassi to further spread out their already overstretched forces as Syria teeters on civil war. The forces of the Muslim Brotherhood under the command of self-styled "Caliph" Ali Sadreddine Bayanouni took advantage of the vacuum left behind by the fall of Assad, forcing Israel to embed their forces in the Golan Heights in anticipation for the possible spillover

Emboldened by the (interim) peace agreement in the Middle East, President Gavin orders a bombing halt on North Vietnam and orders the American forces acting as part of Operation Bold Eagle to quit advancing any further towards Hanoi. This is part of an effort to revive the Paris Peace Talks, which until the 1972 election were making progress until they were abruptly ended by the rise of Spiro Agnew. The Gavin administration's ambition went beyond ending the war in Vietnam; by at least restarting, if not successfully concluding the talks, it was believed in the White House and at the State Department that America's diplomatic credibility could be healed in the wake of the Agnew administration. The Congress was more impatient to end the war, passing the War Powers Act in quick succession in both chambers quickly before the holiday recess. Though Gavin attempted to veto the bill, which would strongly restrict the executive branch from waging undeclared wars or launching lengthy military operations, the Congress overrode him before adjourning. The day after Christmas, Kissinger met quietly with North Vietnamese representatives in Geneva, Switzerland, to hear out their demands and preconditions for resuming official peace talks.

The economy continued to slow down as the oil embargo took its toll. As a result, the nation's fuel supply dwindled, and the Gavin administration began negotiations with congressional leaders throughout December to prepare for the passage of a price control and rationing plan once Congress returned in January 1974 after the New Years celebrations. Despite the squeeze caused by the embargo, American workers - already facing a near economic depression and rising inflation - became increasingly resourceful in working around these conditions, forming carpools and organizing their own gasoline rationing programs on a community level in suburbs across America. It is expected that the price per barrel of oil will rise to $12.50 by the end of the year.

In Red China, "the Gang of Five," a clique of Maoist radicals who had seized control of the Communist Party, launch the "purification of the revolution" campaign in the wake of the 10th Party Congress. Led most prominently by China's new head of state, Jiang Qiang, the campaign targeted "rightists" and "defeatists" within the party's ranks. The campaign also orders the closure of all foreign embassies in Peking and the expulsion of foreigners from the People's Republic's borders, as well as the return of all Chinese nationals living abroad. This forces China's own Ambassador to the United Nations (which they officially withdraw from) Hua Guafeng to defect to the United States.

Madame Mao - China's new head of state & and defacto leader.
[2]

[1] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
[2] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

January 1974

With the onset of 1974, the reality of the midterm elections began to weigh on the President. In order to shore up support from Democrats, who were sure to expand their majorities in both chambers of the Congress, the President looked towards the late John McKeithen for inspiration. Announcing his intent to push for the implementation of an earned income tax credit (a policy proposed by the deceased Democratic presidential candidate), the President argues that such a program would pump badly needed money into a stagnant economy. The plan receives bipartisan support from members of both parties, putting the President on course for his first major domestic policy fight.

Former President Nixon's legal team (led by Edward Bennett Williams) find themselves unable to explain the eighteen and a half minute long gaps in the President's Oval Office tapes, resulting in Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox moving forward with a plan to charge Nixon with evidence tampering and obstruction of justice. The former President's legal woes continue to mount, while his successor Spiro Agnew - who has not been seen in public since his impeachment - resurfaces to address a rally of conservatives in Virginia, where he condemns Gavin as "an American Pinochet" and is greeted by thunderous applause from those present.

Nixon's lawyer Edward Bennett Williams.
[1]

Gavin is too busy to be bothered by Agnew's criticisms, traveling to Rabat, Morocco for direct talks with President Sadat of Egypt. The talks are successful in restoring diplomatic relations between the two nations, but anger the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists groups in countries across the region. Though the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, the oldest existing chapter of the organization, calls for calm and even condemns the Syrian branch for declaring the creation of a caliphate, their pleas fall on deaf ears. In Lebanon and Syria, the rise of the Islamist Caliphate's forces spread to Palestinian refugee camps, where a new generation of radicalized Palestinian youth find themselves in conflict with Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Liberation Organization. In Lebanon, attackers ambush and kill the Prime Minister in a brazen attack on his convoy on the streets of Beirut. The sudden rise of radical Islamist groups is the cause of alarm in western capitals and in Arab regimes alike.

Meanwhile, Congress swiftly passes the Overseas Representation Act of 1974 which had been introduced to the House in November, officially creating the role of "Ambassador at Large." The post allows for the President to appoint an Ambassador to serve as a universal, roving emissary to foreign capitals who would largely take on the diplomatic duties and advisory role of the National Security Adviser (who from then on would focus squarely on defense/military questions). Henry Kissinger is nominated to the position, and is later confirmed by the Senate in a 57-43 vote.

Secretary of Defense Nitze also resigns, reportedly at the President's request. Deemed too associated with Agnew to continue in the role, Nitze joins Al Haig, Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Bork in political exile. To replace the outgoing Secretary, President Gavin nominates Senator Stuart Symington (D-MO) to the position. Symington falls under attack from Republican Senators who believe he is too weak on national security matters, but the President stands behind his nominee and praises his independent streak as well as expertise on military issues.

Senator Stuart Symington (D-MO).
[2]

The third major confirmation battle underway involves former Governor Scranton, who clears the House Judiciary Committee after several hearings for his nomination to fill the Vice Presidency. The former Pennsylvania Governor is widely popular among Democrats and Republicans alike, though conservative and liberal members on the extreme ends of Congress are less thrilled with his nomination. After an extensive debate within the House of Representatives, a vote of 389-46 in his favor results in his nomination being sent to the United States Senate. This puts Scranton one step closer to taking on the role of Vice President.

The month ends with a number of announcements related to the upcoming elections; in Georgia, Governor Jimmy Carter primaries Senator Herman Talmadge (D-GA) from the left, while in California, Congressman Barry Goldwater Jr. (R-CA) announces he will run to succeed Ronald Reagan as Governor. Other rising stars include Gary Hart, the McGovern campaign manager and anti-Agnew lawyer, who announces a Senate run in Colorado.
[1] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
[2] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

February 1974

Alan Greenspan, an increasingly influential economic adviser to President Gavin.
[1]

With the cold Washington weather baring down on the White House, President Gavin found himself as busily engaged with domestic matters as much as he was with foreign crises. First, there was the resignation of Milton Friedman as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers; though Gavin was willing to retain the archconservative economist, their disagreements on how to tackle inflation, the rising debt, joblessness, foreclosures, and the oil glut ensured that little headway could be made. As a result, Friedman returned to academia, and it would be Alan Greenspan - an economist and acolyte of famed novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand - who would replace him. A fervent capitalist like Friedman, Gavin hoped that Greenspan's slightly more mainstream approach and lack of Agnew associations would help reset the nation's economic direction.

Meanwhile the Senate Judiciary Committee begins hearings for the nomination of Bill Scranton to the Vice Presidency; despite conservative opposition (particularly from Senator Bill Buckley of New York) and skepticism from some liberals who preferred a Democrat like Birch Bayh be nominated instead, the hearings are largely quiet as Scranton sails towards confirmation. Similarly, the Senate Armed Services Committee clears Stuart Symington's nomination to serve as Secretary of Defense, and he is confirmed 61-39 after a brief debate. The successful Symington nomination bodes well for the former Pennsylvania Governor, as both Symington and Scranton are known to be rather moderate figures within their respective parties.

In the United Kingdom, the government of Prime Minister Edward Heath is returned to a narrowed majority after the 1974 general election. The unexpected victory results in former Prime Minister and Labor Party leader Harold Wilson resigning as leader of the party, sparking a divisive fight between the left and centrist wings of the party. The Liberal Party, a thoroughly centrist party, makes gains, as does the far-right National Front, though the latter fails to make inroads in Parliament despite an increased vote-share.

In the House of Representatives, the McKeithen Act (named for the late Democratic nominee who proposed the bill) is introduced by Congresswoman Lindy Boggs (D-LA) and Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ). The bill would allow taxpayers to be refunded their payroll deductions for 1973, which they hope will stimulate the economy. Similarly, the Long-Dole Act (introduced by Senators Russell Long (D-LA) and Robert Dole (R-KS) is placed before the Senate, which if passed would enact McKeithen's proposed Earned Income Tax Credit. Talks begin between Gavin and the Democratic leadership in the House and Senate over a possible stimulus package as well.

But the biggest bombshell of the month is the indictment of former President Richard Nixon by a grand jury in Washington, D.C., on a number of charges, including obstruction of justice, conspiracy, abuse of power, and violations of the Federal Elections Act. Nixon's legal team, led by Edward Bennett Williams, are able to file a number of motions to tie down the prosecution's efforts. Nixon vows to fight the charges as he claims innocence, and even sits down with political advisers to weigh a potential presidential campaign in 1976 should the charges be dropped or should he be acquitted.

A beleaguered former President Nixon faces criminal charges.
[2]

In the Middle East, a new war erupts when border skirmishes between Iran and Iraq grow out of control. Despite the bulk of Iraq's army being tied down in Syria, Iraq's increasingly powerful Vice President Saddam Hussein takes command of the war effort and deploys troops to the border. In Washington, Gavin, Bush, and Kissinger watch these events with a degree of alarm, though Ambassador Kissinger insists that the Shah of Iran should be able to hold off an Iraqi attack with minimal American support due to Iraq's involvement in Syria.

The situation in Syria itself continues to worsen; Iraqi forces in the country use heavy handed tactics, including massacring whole villages, in order to control the growth of the Muslim Brotherhood. Meanwhile, Soviet troops begin to arrive to back up the regime of al-Atassi, which remains friendly with the USSR and the Eastern Bloc despite the setbacks suffered during the war itself. In Egypt, word of Sadat's meeting with Gavin galvanizes the Islamists in the country, and mass demonstrations against the government are subject to a brutal crackdown. Among those jailed is Islamist medical student Ayman al-Zawahiri, an increasingly vocal young activist opposed to Sadat's efforts.

Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.
[3]

Following Gavin's failed veto of the War Powers Act, the House of Representatives passes the Vietnam Oversight Act of 1974, which would further expand Congress's powers to regulate the conduct of the war. The act is passed by the House by a margin of 291-144, advancing to the Senate where it is likely to receive an equally strong amount of support. Though President Gavin again vows to veto the legislation, the strong support the bill receives in the House and Senate makes it unlikely that his efforts to stop it would be effective in any real way. While the General turned President warns that the act would restrict the President's ability to successfully manage the conflict, anti-war sentiment seems to reach an all-time high.
[1] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
[2] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
[3] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

March 1974

Bill Scranton takes the oath of office as Vice President.
[1]

Spring's arrival brings better news for the administration. The McKeithen Act, which would institute a payroll tax refund for the preceding year, managed to clear the House of Representatives by a wide margin of 285-150. Heading into the Senate, it is expected that the bill will be passed and signed into law by President Gavin. The Senate also votes to confirm Bill Scranton by a vote of 98-2, resulting in the former Governor becoming the Vice President, ending the vacancy in the line of succession. It is unknown whether Gavin and Scranton (whether individually or together as a ticket) will seek reelection in 1976, and the public climate of cynicism made it unwise for any potential candidate in either party to make any moves towards the Presidency until after the midterm election.

At the United Nations in New York, there is much activity. With the People's Republic of China having removed itself from the organization, America's UN Ambassador Phillip Habib argues that the Republic of China should be allowed to resume their seat on the UN Security Council. However, the Soviet Union threatens to veto this, and instead offers up India as a substitute. Long term negotiations begin over this, which Pakistan vocally opposed. Having lost their long time regional ally when China withdrew from the western world, the government of Pakistan turned to the United States to stop India's attempt to join the Security Council. As a result, a stalemate between the USSR and USA over the empty seat on the UN Security Council continued.

UN Ambassador Philip Habob would play an important role in assembling the Syria coalition.
[2]

The UN was more united over the question of Syria, declaring the Muslim Brotherhood's attempt to establish an Islamic caliphate as "an outlaw regime" and offering official support for the regime of al-Atassi. As the followers of Bayanouni implemented Sharia law across the swathes of the country which they occupied, Iraq found itself unable to put a lid on the revolt due to their border war with Iran and the conflict with Kurdish rebels in Syria. The prospect of Turkish intervention in the conflict initially led to growing concerns about a confrontation between the NATO state and the Soviet Union, who continued to maintain a growing military presence in the country. Turkey's close ties with the United States had made them many enemies in the region, and the Soviet Union was keen to draw them away from NATO by hook or by crook.

The Syrian crisis, though not as directly impactful on the minds of everyday Americans as Vietnam was, was becoming the greater concern in the White House. The same was true behind the walls of the Kremlin, where the Politburo debated the delicate situation in a series of tense meetings. What followed, after a series of secret preliminary talks between Gromyko and Kissinger, was an agreement for Gavin and Brezhnev to meet personally in the coming weeks in Geneva. In the interim, an agreement is reached in which both the United States and Soviet Union will support a resolution before the United Nations formalizing an intervention by the two superpowers in Syria, with support from Britain, France, and Turkey as well.

News of the agreement sends the Arab world into a fury, with the oil embargo being extended in length as well as expanded to cover Turkey. As the American and Soviet armies prepared for their respective intervention in the region, the economic situation in America remained grim. With inflation at 17% as a result of Agnew's fiscal policies, oil priced at nearly $20 dollars per dollar, and unemployment hovering somewhere between 18-20% depending on the source of the research. Already, the words "Second Great Depression" had entered the parlance of American vernacular, and there was little appetite for a second war in the Middle East. Though the Chief of Staff Caspar Weinberger was opposed to the intervention, Secretary of State Bush and National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft expressed their concern that Turkey could drift into the Soviet Union's orbit should the USSR accommodate rather than oppose such a mission. Bush and Scowcroft's fears intensified when Ambassador-at-Large Kissinger reported that Moscow was more interested in subduing the Muslim Brotherhood than their rhetoric let on.

The President receives a scare when a disgruntled Air Force helicopter pilot buzzes the White House in protest of the planned intervention in Syria, one of the latest but also most drastic protest actions taken in opposition. The British royal family also receives a similar scare when a mentally ill young man by the name of Ian Ball attempts to kidnap Princess Anne in a brazen attack on her car, shooting and injuring a police officer and driver before being taken down by bystanders. The incident shakes the Queen and her family, but the Princess's bravery during the kidnapping attempt is widely praised in the press.

Princess Anne survival of a kidnapping attempt led to increased British support for the monarchy.
[3]

[1] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
[2] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
[3] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

April 1974

British tanks in Syria, part of the allied coalition against the Muslim Brotherhood.
[1]

At the Pentagon, the top brass of the military were hurriedly preparing for the campaign against the Caliphate in Syria, with a three-pronged attack out of Israel, Lebanon, and Turkey being planned. In conjunction with the Soviets, who began airlifting troops into Aleppo and the main port city of Latakia, the American army would deploy thousands of soldiers to Israel and Lebanon. The opening phase of the campaign began on April 1st, with a series of American airstrikes against Islamists targets across the country, followed by the first penetration of the country by Turkish armored units. Iraqi forces stayed put, waging a counter-insurgency in their already occupied portion of Syria while simultaneously waging a war against Iran on the eastern border of the country.

As was the case with Operation Bold Eagle, the planning for the intervention in Syria was rushed yet also delicately planned in order to maximize the impact and shorten the length of the post-invasion occupation. Despite Chief of Staff Weinberger's opposition to "nation building," both Bush and Scowcroft continued to insist to President Gavin that the war was a conflict worth fighting. Having seen how Kissinger eclipsed William P. Rodgers, Nixon's Secretary of State, Secretary Bush was keen to keep the German born Ambassador-at-Large busy in Europe while National Security Adviser Scowcroft was courted as an ally, albeit a largely neutered one. Bush's strong leadership at the State Department was welcomed by other figures in America's foreign policy establishment and at the previously powerless State Department.

Though the War Powers Act was opposed by Gavin and subsequently vetoed, the President was worried that the Congress would enact (by a veto proof margin) legislation similar to the Vietnam Oversight Act. As a result, the President sought and would successfully receive the support of the House and Senate by requesting a resolution that gave him broad powers to oversee the war effort in the country. The Syria Resolution was ultimately passed by a margin of 219-216 in the House and 52-48 in the Senate, though the act included a sunset provision against the President's wishes. With the narrow endorsement of the Congress, the President set the American intervention in Syria into motion.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics confirms that unemployment in America is at 19% in early April, sparking further discontent among the public. With nearly a fifth of all Americans out of work, the Gavin administration comes under fierce attack from the left. Congressman Ron Dellums (D-CA) leads a large protest outside the White House in opposition to the potential conflict, while many conservative Republicans are more divided over the intervention into Syria, with Governor Reagan of California supporting the President while former Nixon and Agnew aide Patrick Buchanan becomes a vocal figure on the airwaves in opposition. Other economic developments are more promising, with inflation dropping to 9% whereas the rate of foreclosures began to stall.

In Vietnam, America continues to cling onto Dong Hoi while halting their advance northward. Attempts by the Viet Cong and the NVA to disrupt American supply lines into the occupied southern reaches of the North result in Operation Vicksburg, a small and swift operation to disrupt enemy activity along the Ho Chi Minh trail in Cambodia. Though the President had been limited by the Vietnam Oversight Act, the mission is none the less successful in achieving it's objective and is later credited for likely warding off a fourth North Vietnamese attempt to dislodge the American and South Vietnamese occupation of Dong Hoi and it's surrounding regions. Supporters of the war and the President point to the mission as being a sign of Gavin's leadership ability and Secretary Symington's expertise in managing the Pentagon.

The nation is captivated by the failed kidnapping of Patsy Hearst, a wealthy heiress who was nearly taken hostage by a left-wing guerilla group calling itself the Symbionese Liberation Army. Hearst avoided capture by barricading herself in a bathroom, and the sensational story highlights the growing radical current in American politics. With the war in Vietnam raging and another in Syria brewing, combined with the growing joblessness and economic angst, the FBI found itself constantly investigating radical organizations ranging from the Ku Klux Klan to American Indian Movement and the Black Liberation Army. Yet concerns over terrorism largely did not materialize, with militant groups often being busted before they could launch any direct action. This was mostly due to increased FBI surveillance and more proactive Secret Service intervention in the wake of the Nixon assassination attempt and the failed kidnapping of Pamela Agnew.

Though the detente between the USSR and the United States had reached a point in which the two opposing Cold War camps could coordinate a joint military operation together, it did not necessarily mean the Cold War itself was over. It was most apparent in Iberia, where a military coup on April 24th brought down the long-standing fascist regime in the country which dated back to the 1930s. The coup, called "the Carnation Revolution," results in a left-leaning cabal of officers seizing power, vowing political reform and decolonization. The events are alarming to President Gavin, who is warned by National Security Adviser Scowcroft and Ambassador Kissinger that the country could foster close ties to the Soviet Union.

General de Spinola - leader of the coup which ended fascism in Portugal.
[2]

[1] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
[2] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

May 1974

UN forces in Damascus, circa May 1974.
[1]

Damascus falls in the middle of May, with American troops supported by British and French forces as well as Israeli air power rolling into the city as Muslim Brotherhood rebels scatter in the face of overwhelming western military power. At the same time, Soviet troops begin branching out of Aleppo, establishing control of the countryside surrounding the city and forcing the Islamist forces in the region to retreat to the hills of the central Syrian hinterlands. Iraqi control over the eastern reaches of the country remains weak, and many Islamists rebels flee to these territories and wage an insurgency against their Arab occupiers.

The success of the mission, like the initial phases of Operation Bold Eagle, generates a swell of support for the war, but this is fleeting. Using a number of insurgent tactics, including suicide bombing attacks on western and Soviet convoys, the Muslim Brotherhood's forces are still able to kill hundreds of occupying forces in the first weeks of the campaign. Bayanouni himself dies in Damascus leading a suicidal charge against American forces as they closed in on the self-styled Caliph's position, resulting in the leadership of the jihadist faction splintering in Syria. In spite of this, the Islamists fight on viciously, mimicking the Viet Cong by using guerilla tactics.

Most of the casualties are Iraqi soldiers in the western reaches of the country, though over a hundred American men are killed in the first two weeks of the campaign. The Soviets lose a further three hundred men, and there is consternation in the Kremlin over the disparity between American and Soviet losses, with some in the Politburo quietly wondering if Gavin had lured Brezhnev into a quagmire. While Brezhnev was skeptical of the intervention and was more than happy to witness American troops bear the brunt of the Muslim Brotherhood's rage, Mikhail Suslov, Yuri Andropov, Andrei Gromyko, and Alexei Kosygin (all members of the Politburo) among others were adamant that the mission was necessary to sustain the Baathist government in Syria before the Islamist movement could potentially spread into oil rich Iraq or Saudi Arabia.

Mikhail Suslov increasingly rose in prominence as Brezhnev's power and health waned.
[2]

The wars in Syria and Vietnam had a widespread and profound impact on other guerilla groups. Inspired by the tactics they had witnessed, the Irish Republican Army became increasingly active in Northern Ireland. Using weapons supplied by Libya's dictator Muammar Qadaffi (who had supplied and bankrolled a variety of terrorist groups and liberation armies across the globe), the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) - the most feared and active Irish republican militant group - launched a daring attack against a British military base in Northern Ireland. The attack left only one British soldier dead, but was a sign that the organization had grown from a smattering of terrorist cells to a large scale paramilitary force.

The State Department announced towards the end of May that President Gavin had accepted an official invitation from the Soviet government to visit the country, which would make him the first American President to travel there since Franklin Roosevelt attended the Yalta Conference nearly thirty years earlier. There is a slew of other major foreign policy events; in France, President Georges Pompidou dies in office, being succeeded in office by Alain Pohrer as interim President. A special election would be won by socialist candidate Francois Mitterrand weeks later, who rode a wave of popular discontent with the center-right government's response to the recession. Willy Brandt resigns as West Germany's Chancellor after it is revealed that a key staffer of his had been an agent of the East German Stasi, resulting in Helmut Schmidt taking office instead. In a demonstration of their military might and global reach, India tests their first atomic bomb, resulting in Pakistan declaring their intention to form their own atomic program.
[1] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
[2] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (unknown author).

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

June 1974

President Gavin pictured before his visit to the USSR.
[1]

President Gavin's visit to the Soviet Union in June would be one of the defining events of his tenure in the Oval Office; Andropov, Kosygin, and Suslov await on the tarmac to greet President Gavin, though General Secretary Breznhev is noticeably absent. Afterwards, at a grand gala dinner in the Kremlin, it is Suslov who joins the American President in delivering the official toast. The following day, Brezhnev meets only briefly with Gavin at a private summit behind the walls of the Kremlin, where his obviously poor health was made apparent to Gavin, who subsequently ordered American diplomatic and intelligence officials to prepare for the Soviet paramount leader's eventual demise.

Talks between Gavin, Bush, Kissinger and their Soviet counterparts are successful at defining the occupation zones in Syria. While the eastern bloc and NATO nations involved in the mission would occupy the northern reaches of the country (aside from a Turkish controlled buffer-zone near the border), the United States and their various NATO allies would largely control the south, with Iraqi forces holding the western portion of the country. Though the Soviets secured the bulk of the region controlled, at least lightly, by the officially recognized government in Aleppo, they also faced higher casualties. This was mostly the result of Muslim Brotherhood forces and other aligned militias using the terrain and geographical features to their advantage, though the American and NATO forces in major cities such as Damascus faced opposition as well.

The high level negotiations in Moscow were less successful in establishing a firm end date to the conflict; while both Brezhnev and Gavin hoped that the objective of the intervention could be achieved within two years, the ailing Soviet leader was less optimistic and pressed his counterparts in the Politburo to ensure that the withdrawal date could be achieved. Suslov, who was widely regarded as the chief ideologue of the Communist Party, used the Soviet propaganda organs effectively throughout his career to constantly harass the United States as an imperialist power who sought to roll back the global crawl towards socialism. However, by supporting the USSR's alignment with the United States in Syria, he had burned bridges both at home and abroad. His efforts to define the Soviet presence in Syria as a defensive action against reactionary radical Islamism fell on deaf ears, and as Soviet soldiers continued to return to Syria in coffins, his public profile - already low (Suslov was a behind the scenes operator who did not seek the role of General Secretary) - was damaged as a result.

Despite the controversial nature of the Syrian Civil War, Soviet propoganda continued to celebrate Suslov.
[2]

Having returned from a mostly successful mission to Moscow, Gavin faced similar issues at home. Though he had made his opposition to Operation Bold Eagle, which expanded the Vietnam War, a key selling point, the Syria mission was trickier. The enemy, radical Islamist jihadists, were largely unknown to an American public which had long been focused on the threat of communism. Similarly, the cooperation with the Soviet Union created a great degree of whiplash among conservatives who were skeptical that such a coalition could produce results. While the war in Vietnam was mostly quiet as the North Vietnamese and their Viet Cong allies licked their wounds following their latest failed attack in Dong Hoi, the war in Syria was anything but.

Another conflict in the Middle East was the war between Iran and Iraq. With the American army tied down in Syria and Vietnam, the Gavin administration was both unable and unwilling to provide the same degree of support to the Shah of Iran that the Agnew administration had given Israel during the 1973 war. Iraq took advantage of this, pushing inward towards Khuzestan province in Iran near the border. The regime of the Baathist Party, which was increasingly influenced by Vice President Saddam Hussein, enlisted an unlikely ally in the form of Ayatollah Khoemeni. The exiled Shia cleric, who was living in Basra, began recording an increasing volume of sermons in which he denounced the Shah and called for Shia radicals to rise up and seize control of the country. Though his tapes were widely disseminated throughout the country, his message failed to catch on as the Iranian secret police cracked down hard on dissent.

Though Iraq was able to overrun Khuzestan province, the Iraqi army sustained high casualties. Despite their superior numbers and equipment, Iraqi forces were poorly trained and were easy targets for their Iranian enemies. The Iran-Iraq War was a source of concern within the Gavin White House and at the State Department, and the administration continued to pressure the Shah of Iran to end the hostilities as early as possible, much to the chagrin of the Shah.

Henry Kissinger and the Shah of Iran.
[3]

[1] Taken from USS Little Rock website. The picture, I assume, is public domain as it is Gavin's ambassador portrait.
[2] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Thomas Taylor Hammond)
[3] Taken from Pinterest.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Yes, gooooood, embrace the Suslov/Kosygin/Andropov troika as my TL did. Goooood.

I find Soviet internal politics in this era to be so interesting!

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

This will go on hiatus if I launch the new mock parliament project. But I will return to it, and will continue to provide uninterrupted updates if there isn’t any interest in the project.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

July 1974.

Robert Stanfield - the new Prime Minister of Canada.
[1]

In Canada, Pierre Trudeau's six years in office as Prime Minister come to an abrupt end when the Progressive Conservative Party led by Robert Stanfield win a minority in parliament, gaining the support of the Social Credit Party in order to form a new government. Despite his defeat, outgoing Prime Minister Trudeau remains leader of the Liberal Party, and hopes that the Progressive Conservative and Social Credit supply and confidence agreement will collapse in due time.

Canada, unlike their southern neighbor, was not as hard hit by the oil shortage caused by the OPEC embargo. This continuing crisis had by mid-1974 caused considerable damage to the west, but inside the OPEC nations, there was growing debate over how to handle the ongoing embargo. The moderate nations within OPEC (Iran, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela) argued that the embargo was hurting both domestic production and destabilization, while the more radical states (primarily Iraq and Libya) continue to demand the embargo be expanded and extended in order to ward off future western support for Israel.

The war in Syria sees better progress for the NATO forces in the south of the country, who at last manage to stabilize Damascus enough for the al-Atassi regime to establish itself back in the capital. Channeling Herbert Hoover, President Gavin selects Procter & Gamble CEO Howard Morgens to lead an effort to create a "Marshall Plan" style program to rebuild Syria in the hopes of bringing the country into the west's orbit similar to Egypt, but both Treasury Secretary George Schultz and the Soviet Union are weary of such a plan. Privately, Gavin jokes with his Chief of Staff about the irony of Schultz, an arch-free marketer, supporting Soviet policy, and begins weighing whether to replace him with a more moderate figure who is more willing to press for stimulus programs at home and abroad.

In the Mediterranean, yet another crisis was brewing. On the island of Cyprus, long-standing tensions between the Greek and Turkish communities in the country have been closer to boiling over than ever before. The long standing ruler of the country, Archbishop (and President) Makarios III was overthrown in a military coup sponsored by the Greek military regime, which desired to bring Cyprus into union with the government in Athens. In the wake of the coup that had propelled nationalist newspaperman Nikos Sampson into power, Turkey immediately began threatening to intervene in the conflict. This created another crisis for Gavin to deal with, the latest in a whack-a-mole game of regional wars that he was forced to find a way to pacify. As both Turkey and Greece were NATO powers, the result of such a conflict would surely create a rift in the alliance. Should one side be chosen over the other, it would be clear that the Soviets would be able to cultivate support from or within the other.

President Nikos Sampson of Cyprus.
[2]

Before the UN, Archbishop Makarios III warned that the coup was in reality a "Greek invasion" of Cyprus, as President Sampson would surely bring the question of "enosis" (union with Greece) before the people in a referendum within a matter of years. His speech to the United Nations was all the excuse Turkey needed; though the initial invasion plan called for 45,000 troops and a 150+ tanks, the Turkish force operating in northern Syria ensured that Turkey could only spare ~20,000 soldiers instead. As a result, a smaller invasion force landed on Cypriot shores on July 20th, where they were met with fierce resistance from Greek Cypriot forces.

Turkish forces storm the beaches of Cyprus.
[3]

Greek soldiers began arriving in Cyprus to boost the pro-enosis regime of Nikos Sampson, who earned international ire for his support of ethnic Greek death squads that began killing Turks in and around the northern suburbs of Nicosia. Though the intervention in Cyprus was opposed by leftists who were already locked in a campaign against the military regime, the looming campaign to thwart the Turks was popular with the broader middle class in Greece, which (at least briefly) solidified the weakening position of the government. Turkey responded by moving troops towards the Greek border, and the military junta used the threat of conflict and the groundswell of Hellenic nationalism to capitalize on the crisis.

In Turkey, the failure to occupy much of Cyprus and overthrow Nikos Sampson was met with internal discontent. Fearing mass protests and riots, the Prime Minister was dismissed and the military backed head of state, President Koruturk, declares martial law. With Turkey tied down in Syria, the failure to resolve the Cyprus crisis remains a key thorn in the side of the Turkish government going into August, with far-left and far-right groups such as the Communist Party of Turkey and the hard-right nationalist Grey Wolves both exploiting the government's response to grow their support.
[1] Taken from The Chronicle Harold.
[2] Taken from Facebook.
[3] Taken from GreekReporter.com.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

August 1974.

Nixon's taping device.
[1]

A world away from Cyprus in Washington is an increasingly worried former President Nixon, whose legal woes are mounting. His trial, which has been delayed with expert precision by his legal team, is thrown into chaos when leaked transcriptions of his Oval Office tapes are published by the Manchester Guardian. The fact that Nixon declined to sue the paper despite Britain's notoriously strict libel laws only further weakens the legally endangered former President's credibility with the American public. The leak of the transcripts does give his lawyers the chance to argue that it would be impossible for Nixon to receive a fair trial, and these arguments are used as part of his general strategy of delaying. Efforts to reach out to President Gavin in the hopes of a pardon were rebuffed by the new White House staff, and the President himself was opposed to pardoning Nixon on the grounds that it would weaken public faith in the practice in the aftermath of Agnew's self-pardons. As a result, the former President would await nervously for the start of his impending trial.

The war in Cyprus was having ripple effects across the world; Islamists used the failure of the Turkish government to protect Muslims on the island as a weapon against the secular government in Ankara, while also demanding that the oil embargo be extended against the west. The failed Turkish mission had dire consequences in Syria, where Turkish forces were pulled back towards the border, forcing Soviet troops to fill the void in portions of the collapsed country. Sustaining high casualties in the process, the Red Army would fail to secure this region immediately, and would even find themselves facing friendly fire from nearby Iraqi artillery positions in more than a few incidents over the coming days.

In Europe, ethnic Turks across the Balkans were incensed at western support for the Cypriot government. The Greek Ambassador to Italy is shot and killed by a Turkish student on the streets of Rome, while another Turkish student in Britain is arrested after attempting to climb the fence of Buckingham Palace armed with a knife. In some cities, including Athens and Vienna, there are small incidents of rioting and ethnic clashes, and organizations like the National Front in the United Kingdom use the incidents to whip up anti-immigrant sentiments.

The war in the Mediterranean threatens to expand into another Greek-Turkish conflict after Turkish militants on Cyprus bomb a Greek Orthodox Church, killing dozens of civilians in a devastating attack. As a result, Cypriot irregular units, militias, death squads, and even some Greek soldiers in civilian clothing, begin rounding up - and in some cases massacring - groups of Turkish youth in order to pacify violence on the island. Using the killings of Muslims in Cyprus as the latest example of "the western crusade," Jihadists across the region saw a second swell of support, a revival after the fall of the Syrian caliphate had previously halted their momentum.

In the west, the political effects of the Second Great Depression and the wars in the Middle East were increasingly felt. The British Labour Party, following their defeat in the 1974 general election, found themselves fighting a civil war of their own between their left and centrist wings. Ultimately, it is Dennis Healey who prevails. A pro-European social democrat from the party's right wing, his defeat of the more socialist leaning Jim Callaghan created a fissure in the party that would grow in the coming months which would dramatically alter the political landscape of the United Kingdom.

In Northern Ireland, Margaret Thatcher became known as "Bloody Maggie."
[2]

Sectarian violence in North Ireland continued to intensify on par with the intercommunal violence in Cyprus or Syria. Sensing an opportunity to "make or break" one of his most influential and rebellious ministers, Margaret Thatcher was appointed Secretary of State for Northern Ireland by Prime Minister Heath. Known for her hardline views, Thatcher immediately set herself at the head of an effort to effect the most draconian responses possible to the unrest. Healey attempted to match Heath by appointing Barbara Castle, one of the most left-leaning MPs in his party, as Shadow Secretary. Their heated, pointed rhetoric would serve to inflame political and paramilitary tensions in both Britain and Ireland alike.

This would climax with the Prevention of Terrorism Act of 1974, which would empower the government to declare martial law in Northern Ireland and implement a nationwide curfew, among other measures. Though the Labour Party's left wing was enraged by the legislation, the Conservative majority in the House of Commons was likely to pass bill, which would greatly expand the abilities of the Heath government to curtail terrorism and violent unrest in Northern Ireland.
[1] Taken from Wikipedia Commons.
[2] Taken from a YouTube video (Omer Gendler)

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

September 1974.

The bombing of TWA Flight 841 was never officially solved.
[1]

The month of September is defined by terrorism; the first major attack of the month is conducted in the skies over Greece, where TWA Flight 841 is bombed by Islamists, resulting in 83 deaths. The attack is condemned worldwide, but no immediate group comes forward to take responsibility for the deadly bombing. It is the suspicion of Greek intelligence agencies that the attack is the work of Turkish agents, though an unrelated later FBI investigation into a certain Palestinian militant would later provide evidence linking him to the bombing. The CIA also considered the possibility that the plane was downed by Soviet agents attempting to spread the Cypriot conflict into the Balkans with the intention of splitting NATO.

In The Hague, the French embassy is seized by members of the Japanese Red Army. The left-wing terror group targeted the French embassy to demand the release of their member Satsuka Furuya, who was jailed in France for passing counterfeit notes. Seizing the Ambassador and ten staffers, the Japanese hostage takers were able to hold off police for five days before negotiations reached a conclusion. In exchange for the release of the hostages, the attackers were flown to South Yemen, and later on to Libya, where they were sheltered by the regime of Colonel Qaddafi.

The French Embassy siege in The Hague was seized by Japanese militants.
[2]

But the worst attack was on Wall Street in New York City, where eleven gunmen calling themselves members of "the People's Armed Resistance" seized the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and took scores of hostages. The New York City Police Department responded with full force, surrounding the building and entering into a standoff with the heavily armed hostage takers. An attempt by police to storm the building led to an exchange of gunfire, with 33 hostages being killed in the process. The attackers, most of whom were previously known to be members of the Black Liberation Army, were all injured in the storming of the building, with seven of them dying of their wounds while or shortly after being taken into custody.

The attack on the Stock Exchange in New York was an alarming event that had consequences politically; though most Americans, including most Republicans, would admit that the Agnew administration had its various excesses, very few were interested in pushing the country in a left-wing direction in response. Though Agnewnomics had been decisively discarded after the Agnew administration ended, the cultural conservatism fostered by the former Nixon and Agnew administration remained a political force that dominated the zeitgeist. The midterm elections were unique in the sense that the incumbent President had no real interest in the partisan makeup of the Congress, which left Republicans and Democrats in a free for all. Gavin, who was still a nominally independent President (albeit with slight Republican leanings), remained politically neutral in order to maintain friendly relations with Congress.

Another issue presented by the recent terror attacks was the deepening political mistrust between the right and left in the national discourse, particularly in relation to national security and counter-terrorism matters. There was some evidence that the attack weakened incumbent Governor Nelson Rockefeller's reelection campaign against Hugh Carey, his Democratic challenger. But at the same time, on the west coast, it also bolstered the candidacy of Congressman Barry Goldwater Jr. against Jerry Brown as the nation reacted in varying degrees of horror to the attacks. But the Democratic Party's economically populist policy plans packed a strong punch in the poor economic climate, which kept the party ahead for much of the duration of the Agnew impeachment trial and the subsequent constitutional crisis and economic depression. In the south, Alabama Governor George Wallace is well on his way to a landslide reelection victory, with increasing chatter focusing around the Governor's ambitions for 1976.
[1] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Michael Gilliland)
[2] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Dutch National Archives)

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

October 1974.

Judge John Sirica, the man who'd try Richard Nixon.
[1]

Before Judge John Sirica in Washington, former President Richard Nixon pleads "absolutely not guilty, so help me God." The start of the long delayed trial sees Nixon released on his own recognizance, conditional on the surrendering of his passport, placing the 37th President on the path towards either prison or vindication. His efforts to delay his trial one last time by arguing the recent publication of the leaked White House transcripts would bias any potential jury pool failed, and the trial commenced not long after.

The Nixon trial loomed over the midterm elections, which were looking increasingly likely to be a Democratic wave not seen since the 1930s. While some races, like the California and New York gubernatorial elections, were close, most races showed Democratic incumbents and challengers leading their Republican rivals by double-digit margins. Polling was conducted among an invigorated Democratic base which was increasingly excited about 1976, particularly around the potential candidacy of Senator Ted Kennedy, who once again appears to be the front-runner. On the Republican side, the enthusiasm deficit is a grim sign. The party's major donors have limited or held back all together their financial support, leaving a number of Republican incumbents fighting for their political lives on a shoe-string budget. President Gavin's approval ratings are in the tank as he polls behind Governor Reagan and Senator Dole in a hypothetical Republican primary.

Gavin was too distracted to think much about reelection or the midterms in any event. Engaged in a constant whack-a-mole game with wars sprouting up across the globe, Gavin strategically disengaged himself from domestic politics, resulting in the collective congressional leadership taking on the roles of de-facto party leaders in his absence. This ensured that he maintained both bipartisan support and more importantly public legitimacy, but also isolated him from the voter bases of both parties which viewed him as being a political chameleon.

The preceding month's widespread terrorism is followed by the administration's announcement that the President would be seeking the support of both Republican and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate to modify the Posse Comitatus Act in order to better combat domestic radicalism. This was widely supported by the Republican minority, but the Democratic majority remained divided over the plan, with some including Senator George McGovern (D-SD) and Congressman Ron Dellums (D-CA) warning that the Gavin administration would use the legislation to continue the Agnew legacy of using heavy handed tactics against demonstrators, protesters, and agitators.

As the Democrats prepared to expand their majority in both houses, their leadership in the House and Senate found themselves in a confusing situation. For starters, the number of House seats they were expected to win would greatly increase their ranks, but they had little control over many who would be coming to Washington. Many of these candidates, such as anti-war activist John Kerry in Massachusetts 5th district based out of Lowell, had defeated establishment favorites in primary battles (in Kerry's case, he bested Lowell councilman Paul Tsongas) due to the groundswell of activist support. The new caucus, while expected to be large in number, was also anticipated to be the most unruly in memory.

The establishment had more luck in safe Republican seats, where candidates from the left or the party's progressive grassroots wing were less likely to stand. In Arkansas, Congressman John Paul Hammerschmidt, a Republican incumbent, was facing the fight of his life against lawyer Bill Clinton, who had played a role in the Agnew impeachment fight as well as during the McKeithen campaign. Others, like Gary Hart (who managed McGovern's Peace & Freedom Party bid in 1972), bridged the establishment-grassroots divide perfectly, and could act as unifying figures within the party. The same could be said about Jerry Brown, the Democratic nominee for Governor of California.

The elections began to distract, if only briefly, the American people from the continuing wars in Vietnam and Syria. While the war in Southeast Asia was relatively quiet after the disastrous NVA attack on Dong Hui, which effectively sidelined the North and their Viet Cong allies for a few months, the conflict in Syria continued to rage on. American casualties began to mount as insurgents abandoned costly "run and gun" attacks for more efficient and unpredictable tactics such as roadside bombings. Gavin also saw Cyprus as a growing concern, but knew it'd be impossible to win either military or congressional support for yet another peacekeeping operation there, and thus was forced to deal with the threat of a NATO fissure in the Mediterranean through the sidelines. While an arms embargo against Greece and Turkey was floated, there was little else he could do.

As the war played out, Greek troops continued to arrive on the island in growing numbers, where they assisted the Sampson regime in ethnic cleansing against Turks. Following a suicide bombing committed by a Palestinian jihadist volunteer killed 19 Greek troops in Nicosia, Nikos Sampson order Cyprut tanks to bombard a Turkish school on the northern side of the island, resulting in the deaths of 32 children. The incident outraged Turks in Cyprus and in Turkey proper, as well as emboldening both hard-right nationalists and Islamists in the country at the same time. As America prepared to go to the polls, it seemed as if the world were spinning so fast that its axis had broken out in flames.

An internment camp in Cyprus, where many Turkish civilians had been held since the invasion.
[2]

[1] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain).
[2] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain).

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

November, 1974.

1974 Senate Elections.

Freshman Senators: Dale Bumpers (D-AR), Gary Hart (D-CO), Bill Gunter (D-FL), Jimmy Carter (D-MA), John Culver (D-IA), William Roy (D-KS), Wendell Ford (D-KY), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Jerry Litton (D-MO),Harry Reid (D-NV), John Durkin (D-NH), Ramsey Clark (D-NY), Robert Morgan (D-NC), William Guy (D-ND), John Glenn (D-OH), Clem McSpadden (D-OK), Betty Roberts (D-OR), Jake Garn (R-UT), Pat Leahy (D-VT).
1972 Senate Elections.
Democratic: 64 (+13)
Republican: 34 (-13)
Independent: 2 (-)
Conservative: 1 (-)

Senate Composition.

Alabama: John Sparkman (D), James Allen (D)
Alaska: Ted Stevens (R), Mike Gravel (D)
Arizona: Paul Fannin (R), Barry Goldwater (R)
Arkansas: Orval Faubus (I), Dale Bumpers (D)
California: Alan Cranston (D), John Tunney (D)
Colorado: Floyd Haskell (D), Gary Hart (D)
Connecticut: Abe Ribecoff (D), Lowell Weicker (R)
Delaware: William Roth (R), Joseph Biden (D)
Florida: Lawton Chiles (D), Bill Gunter (D)
Georgia: Sam Nunn (D), James Carter (D)
Hawaii: Hiram Fong (R), Daniel Inouye (D)
Idaho: Frank Church (D), James McClure (R)
Illinois: Charles Percy (R), Adlai Stevenson III (D)
Indiana: Vance Hartke (D), Birch Bayh (D)
Iowa: Harold Hughes (D), John Culver (D)
Kansas: James Pearson (R), William Roy (D)
Kentucky: Louie Nunn (R), Wendell Ford (D)
Louisiana: Russell Long (D), Bennet Johnston (D)
Maine: Margaret Chase Smith (R), Ed Muskie (D)
Maryland: John Glenn Beall (R), Barbara Mikulski (D)
Massachusetts: Ted Kennedy (D), Ed Brooke (R)
Michigan: Phillip Hart (D), Robert Griffin (R)
Minnesota: Walter Mondale (D), Hubert Humphrey (D)
Mississippi: James Eastland (D), John Stennis (D)
Missouri: Thomas Eagleton (D), Jerry Litton (D)
Montana: Mike Mansfield (D), Lee Metcalf (D)
Nebraska: Roman Hruska (R), Carl Curtis (R)
Nevada: Howard Cannon (D), Harry Reid (D)
New Hampshire: Thomas McIntyre (D), John Durkin (D)
New Jersey: Clifford Case (R), Harrison Williams (D)
New Mexico: Joseph Montoya (D), Pete Domenici (R)
New York: James Buckley (C), Ramsey Clark (D)
North Carolina: Sam Ervin (D), Robert Morgan (D)
North Dakota: Quentin Burdick (D), William Guy (D)
Ohio: Robert Taft (R), John Glenn (D)
Oklahoma: Ed Edmondson (D), Clem McSpadden (D)
Oregon: Mark Hatfield (R), Betty Roberts (D)
Pennsylvania: Hugh Scott (R), Richard Schweiker (R)
Rhode Island: John Pastore (D), Claiborne Pell (D)
South Carolina: Strom Thurmond (R), Ernest Hollings (D)
South Dakota: George McGovern (D), James Abourezk (D)
Tennessee: Howard Baker (R), Bill Brock (R)
Texas: John Tower (R), Lloyd Bentsen (D)
Utah: Ted Moss (D), Jake Garn (R)
Vermont: Robert Stafford (R), Pat Leahy (D)
Virginia: Harry Byrd Jr. (I), William Scott (R)
West Virginia: Jennings Randolph (D), Robert Byrd (D)
Wisconsin: William Proxmire (D), Gaylord Nelson (D)
Wyoming: Gale McGee (D), Clifford Hansen (R)
1974 House of Representatives Elections.
Democratic: 260 seats (+30)
Republican: 175 seats (-30)

It was a red tsunami; in the Senate, the Republicans lost a devastating 13 seats, with once popular incumbents like Robert Dole, Milton Young, Bob Packwood, Jacob Javits, and Charles Mathias falling victim to the Democratic onslaught; distant challengers such as Betty Roberts and Barbara Mikulski won stunning upsets, while interim Senator John Danforth - who briefly replaced Stuart Symington in the Senate - sees his seat reclaimed by Congressman Jerry Litton. In a post-election press conference, President Gavin describes the defeat as "a shellacking" for the Republicans, and continues to insist that he will serve out his current term as an independent, dodging questions about his own ambitions in 1976.

Gubernatorial races see the Republicans fare no better, with iconic figures such as Governor Nelson Rockefeller and others going down in defeat. The only bright spot is California, where Congressman Barry Goldwater Jr. and Jerry Brown are locked in a tight battle which appears to be heading towards an exhaustive statewide recount of all ballots (as only two votes out of over six million cast seperate the two). Ella Grasso is the first woman elected Governor of an American state in her own right when she is elected Governor of Connecticut, while in the south, southern Democrats of the old variety (Wallace) and new (Askew) win solid victories.

The House of Representatives sees the Democratic Party make massive gains, with a number of new "Watergate babies" arriving in the House. Among them are Congressmen John Kerry, Bill Clinton, Chris Dodd, Max Baucus, and Tom Harkin, all of whom are anticipated to be more loyal - or at least realistic - than some of the radical members elected such as Congresswoman Tom Hayden (D-CA), who represents the party's hard left.

The end of the 1974 campaign marks the beginning of the 1976 campaign; while in Canada for a state visit just days after the election, President Gavin confirms that he did vote for Republican and Democratic candidates alike on his ballot before meeting Prime Minister Stanfield and newly elected leader of the Liberal Party John Turner to discuss counter-terrorism initiatives. This signals to Washington that Gavin is doubling down on his previous statements in support of remaining a political independent, and pushes back any decision on his political future to later on in the coming year. No other potential candidates announce their intention to run immediately, though it is clear who is interested and who isn't.

The clear frontrunners are Ronald Reagan and Edward Kennedy; Governor Reagan, on the verge of retiring from political life for a period, has no intention of quitting the game all together and has been an active participant in Republican politics. Quickly arranging a busy schedule of addresses and speeches to conservative organizations, Reagan positions himself as the heir to the Goldwater-Nixon-Agnew wing of the party. On the Democratic side, Kennedy continues to dither on his future, and many other leading progressives in the party - including Birch Bayh - do not plan to wait for him to decide this time around. Bayh in particular has become privately critical of Kennedy, and warns other progressives in the Democratic Party that the Senator is too complacent and arrogant.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I didn't read the original TL, but something along the lines of a Walter Mondale/Ronald Reagan election in 1976 (with Gavin still running as an Independent) would be the most interesting scenario to me.

This would be a decidedly interesting race, I'd give you that!