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Atlas Has Shrugged
ChairmanSanchez
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« on: August 18, 2023, 10:34:25 PM »
« edited: January 06, 2024, 06:43:20 PM by Herbert Garrison. »


Jerry Garcia
Friday, January 1st, 1971.
The Warehouse.
12:01 AM, New Orleans, LA.

[1]

The show had been, all in all, a pretty stand-out gig. The Grateful Dead had roared through a trance inducing version of "Morning Dew" that kicked in the LSD trips of scores of young concert-goers. Afterwards, they sailed effortlessly and seamlessly through a variety of acoustic, bluesy songs before once again roaring through "Mason's Children," "Me and my Uncle," and a particularly raucous “Hard to Handle" that left their indisposed audience in awe of the crashing choruses that sounded like chariots thundering out of Valhalla. A few old classics - "Long Black Limousine" and originals like "Black Peter" before closing out the show with the jug-band sounding "Cumberland Blues." Jerry smiled radiantly, his teeth shining among the sea of thick black facial hair. He was in his element - this was what brought the Dead alive. It had been a long day; they had been busted down on Bourbon Street and were now facing marijuana charges but were able to be bailed out of jail in time for their show at the Warehouse that night in downtown New Orleans.

After the show, the band retreated behind the stage as the audience milled about in an ever-present, lingering cloud of marijuana. Young women clad in tie-died dresses, their hair adorned with flowers, danced in circles while amateur musicians beat on drums. The acid trips began to plateau, and the crowds began to file out as New Year's Eve evolved into New Year’s morning. Behind stage, Jerry struck a match to light a cigarette as a local television camera grew circled in. A young female reporter, on assignment to cover the New Year's celebrations across the city, pushed a microphone into his face. "What do you think the 1970s will hold for America?" she asked. "It will be a decade of peace, magic, myth, bliss, celebration, and spirituality" replied Garcia.

Little did he know that night how wrong he'd be. But at the dawn of 1971, the Counter-Culture, though nearly fatally wounded by the incident at Altamont and the zeitgeist of stagnation that pervaded through the preceding year of 1970, still limped forwards into an uncertain future. The events of the last decade seemed far away. There was an extremely close presidential election that bared the odious scent of scandal. Then there was the death of John Kennedy, cut down by an assassin’s bullet in the prime of his life. There was the ever-present threat of nuclear war, most recently illustrated by the Cuban Missile Crisis. In the south, the black population had made itself heard while on the campuses a new generation of activists found their voices. In Vietnam, the best and brightest of a generation died face down in the muck in a quagmire that seemed without end. And at home, the cities were on fire as rioters raised hell on the streets in the face of rising unemployment, economic stagnation, and the listless lack of direction that seemed to bedevil the nation.

In fact, by 1971, it seemed the last bit dreams of the 1960s had died three years earlier with Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. The unexciting candidacy of Hubert Humphrey and the venomous rhetoric of George Wallace ensured that Richard Nixon would finally achieve his dream of winning the President in 1968, the sad final chapter of the tragedy that was Camelot. For the eternally optimistic like Jerry Garcia, there was an innate cause to hope. But to many of his contemporaries, such as the fractured Beatles or the hibernating Bob Dylan, the onset of the 1970s had little to offer besides more division, violence, and blight.

Saturday, January 2nd, 1971: 66 people are killed and a further 200 injured in a stampede at Ibrox Park in Glasgow, Scotland, after the conclusion of a match between the Rangers and Celtic football clubs. It is one of the worst human crushes in recent memory in the United Kingdom.

Sunday, January 3rd, 1971: The 92nd Congress convenes in Washington; Carl Albert is elected Speaker, while Mike Mansfield remains Senate Majority Leader. Democrats continue to hold majorities in both chambers.

Monday, January 4th, 1971: Gallup releases it’s first polling ahead of the 1972 presidential election.

Gallup: 1,000 Registered Voters (Nationwide).
(R) Richard Nixon: 40%
(D) Generic Democrat: 34%
Undecided: 22%
Independent/Other: 4%

Gallup: 1,000 Democratic Voters (Nationwide).
Edward Kennedy: 41%
Edmund Muskie: 15%
George Wallace: 14%
Hubert Humphrey: 12%
George McGovern: 10%
Henry Jackson: 5%
Eugene McCarthy: 2%
Birch Bayh: 2%
Harold Hughes: 1%
Vance Hartke: 1%

Tuesday, January 5th, 1971: The Khmer Rouge goes on the offensive in Cambodia, seizing control of large swathes of the northwestern corner of the country. In response, the Lon Nol regime begins persecuting ethnic Vietnamese, claiming that North Vietnam is aiding the rebellion. This drives an increasingly large number of Vietnamese immigrants, particularly those working on the rural Palm Oil plantations, into the arms of the Khmer Rouge. While the radical, shadowy Maoist guerilla army’s leadership is predominately ethnically Khmer and distrusting of the communist regime in Hanoi, they none the less agree to cultivate more universal support within Cambodia as part of their efforts to seize power. This decision is reached over the begrudging objections of their enigmatic leader, Pol Pot, known to the cadres only as “Brother #1.”

Wednesday, January 6th, 1971: The Washington Post outlines the prospective presidential field ahead of the 1972 election; highlighted as the frontrunners for the Democratic nomination are Senators Muskie, Humphrey, and Jackson, while McGovern and outsiders like Governors Wallace and rather curiously, Iowa Senator Harold Hughes, are touted as dark horse contenders for the nomination. But it is clear through polling that the Democratic nomination belongs to Senator Kennedy, should he so choose to run. Despite the tarnishing scandal of Chappaquiddick, many Democrats look to the Senate’s “liberal lion” as the leading contender for the nomination.

Thursday, January 7th, 1971: Ahead of the upcoming elections in Honduras, President Oswaldo Lopez – who for seven years has ruled the country like a banana republic as a military dictator – announces that only the Liberal and National parties will be allowed to run a slate of candidates, effectively neutering the opposition’s ability to form a government as he prepares to transition out of office.

Friday, January 8th, 1971: The SS Antilles, a French owned cruise ship, sinks off Mustique. There are no fatalities, though the ship is ultimately scuttled on some reefs and is severely damaged by fire after the successful evacuation of the crew and passengers. It is later dragged further out to sea and sunk after an investigation by British maritime officials.

Saturday, January 9th, 1971: American Airlines Flight 30 collides midair with a Cessna over Newark, New Jersey. The damaged airliner managed to make an emergency landing with no injuries, though the two men onboard the Cessna are killed in the crash.

Sunday, January 10th, 1971: 200 South Vietnamese paratroopers overrun a small Viet Cong encampment in Cambodia near the village of Mimot; 20 American POWs are rescued and borne away to safety by the South Vietnamese forces while American helicopter gunships circle above. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird hails the mission as a “pyrrhic success” and praises “the fierce determination of our allies” in the aftermath of the raid.

Monday, January 11th, 1971: Geoffrey Jackson, British Ambassador to Uruguay, is killed in a failed kidnapping by Marxist guerillas in the capital city of Montevideo. In response to the ambush and assassination of Jackson, Uruguayan President Jorge Areca declares a state of emergency and sends the army into the slums to root out suspected urban guerilla cells.

Tuesday, January 12th, 1971: All in the Family premiers in the 9:30 PM timeslot on CBS; the show will become the network’s biggest sitcom success of the decade, starring Carroll O’Connor, Jean Stapleton, Sally Struthers, and Rob Reiner. Despite initial poor reviews from most critics, the show quickly becomes a big hit with American audiences.

Wednesday, January 13th, 1971: Colonel Buzz Aldrin announces his retirement from the NASA program and will return to active duty in the Air Force after his legendary career as an astronaut. Despite the fame of being the first man to step upon the moon, Aldrin continues to insist that he will not seek other careers opportunities in Hollywood, corporate America, or politics despite a plethora of job offers.

Thursday, January 14th, 1971: The Haitian Chamber of Deputies votes unanimously (in the presence of armed, lingering militiamen known as Tonton Macoutes) to pass a constitutional amendment which allows President Francois Duvalier (“Papa Doc”) to appoint his 19-year-old son Jean-Claude as Vice President and heir.

Friday, January 15th, 1971: The Aswan High Dam in Egypt is opened after years of construction; the opening ceremony, attended by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Soviet head of state Nikolai Podgorny, showcases the dam as a billion dollar masterpiece of modern engineering.

Sunday, January 17th, 1971:The Baltimore Colts defeat the Dallas Cowboys 16-13 in Super Bowl V in Miami, which was won after the Colt’s scored a field goal with five seconds left in the game.

George McGovern
Sunday, January 18th, 1971.
KELO-TV Studios.
7:00 PM, Sioux Falls, SD.


Senator George McGovern knew how he was going to win the game, because he was the one who wrote the rules.

The Senator from South Dakota, one of the leading progressive voices in American politics, had after all been the chair of the famed “McGovern-Fraser” Committee which had reformed the presidential nomination process after the chaotic convention in Chicago in 1968. Gone were the days of party bosses and crooked political machines – McGovern had ushered in the era of the primary election as the ultimate means on electing convention delegates, promising that the “politics of sunshine” would illuminate the party and shine a light on the shady practices that had kept the powerful elites entrenched. But the Senator was not content to just democratize his own party and was entertaining far greater ambitions throughout the duration of Nixon’s first term.

As he stepped into the studio, his televised speech to be delivered within a matter of minutes, McGovern felt an overwhelming spirit of optimism. This was largely due to the fervent support of the youth, who rallied around McGovern as the most reliable messenger for their generation. Disillusioned by the horrors of the Vietnam and discontent with the lack of social and racial justice at home, the “long hairs” flocked to the Senator’s banner. In spite of his relatively low polling (he was only placing fifth according to Gallup), the Senator believed that his moment had arrived, and that even the full force of the Kennedy juggernaut could not stop him.

He stepped to the podium; there was polite, tepid, and quiet applause from the audience that had gathered to watch his historic announcement, though the real audience was at home, watching on television screens in their living rooms or at their local bar. Though the address he was due to deliver would only be broadcast throughout South Dakota on local television, the text of his speech was due to be printed as an op-ed in numerous major newspapers across the country. McGovern was initially hesitant to launch his campaign so early, but it was the convincing arguments of his campaign manager, a young lawyer by the name of Gary Hart, which compelled him to jump into the fray so early. As the studio fell silent, a single camera man motioned with his hands that the Senator was at last live. The Senator, with his wife and family joining Hart behind the cameras, watched on in pride as the South Dakota Senator began his prepared remarks.

Today I announce my candidacy for the presidency of the United States.  My wife, Eleanor and I have come home to South Dakota to make this announcement because here we shaped our basic political faith; here we were given the opportunity of public service.  We are grateful to you for that opportunity and for your faith.  We shall conduct this new effort to the honor of South Dakota, the nation, and ourselves.
 
You, my fellow South Dakotans, have not always agreed with my position on public issues.  That was especially true in the early 1960’s when I stood almost alone in opposition to the sending of American troops to Southeast Asia.  Despite these differences, you have rewarded my willingness to state my convictions freely and honestly.  I anticipate the same fair hearing from citizens across the land.  Thoughtful Americans understand that the highest patriotism is not a blind acceptance of official policy, but a love of one’s country deep enough to call her to a higher standard.
 
I seek the presidency because I believe deeply in the American promise and can no longer accept the diminishing of that promise.  Our country began with a declaration of man’s rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.“ These liberating ideals gave such meaning and purpose to the new American nation that our forebears proclaimed, “We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.“

There is no higher standard to which our nation can repair then to the ideals of our founding documents.  So as a candidate for the presidency, I shall see to call America home to these principles that gave us birth.  I have found no better blueprint for healing our troubled land than is contained in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.  But I find a nation drifting so far from those ideals as to almost lose its way.

I believe the people of this country are tired of the old rhetoric, the unmet promise, the image makers, and the practitioners of the expedient. The people are not centrist or liberal or conservative. Rather, they see a way out of the wilderness. But if we who seek their trust, trust them; if we try to invoke the “better angels of our nature,” the people will find their own way. We are the children of those who built a great and free nation. And we are no less than that. We must now decide whether our courage and imagination are equal to our talents. If they are, as I believe, then future generations will continue to love America, not simply because it is theirs, but for what it has become-for what, indeed, we at this moment have made it to be.”


Tuesday, January 20th, 1971: As President Nixon reaches the half-way mark through his term in office, the issue of his reelection is hotly debated in Washington. With McGovern’s campaign announcement formally setting the 1972 election in motion, there is increased speculation about other potential early entries into the race. Highlighting the new primary system implemented by the McGovern-Fraser Committee, the New York Times reports that Senators Birch Bayh (D-IN), Harold Hughes (D-IA) and William Proxmire (D-WI) are also in talks with aides about entering the race. The latter two Senators deny the reports entirely, while Senator Bayh states that he is “actively exploring” his options for 1972.

Wednesday, January 21st, 1971: Khmer Rouge militants launch a series of exploratory run-and-gun attacks on government forces within the capital city of Phnom Penh, a signal to the regime of Lon Nol that the communist guerilla movement’s reach within the country is growing. The following day, Khmer Rouge forces launch rocket and mortar attacks on the city’s airport.

Senator Richard Russell (D-GA) dies at the age of 73, forcing fellow Democrat Jimmy Carter, Governor of Georgia, to appoint a replacement. Leading the pack of potential replacements is former Governor Ernest Vandiver, who is the husband of Russell’s niece.

Thursday, January 22nd, 1971: President Nixon delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress, in which he reaffirms his commitment to affecting a “peace with honor” in Southeast Asia and voices interest in reorganizing large swathes of the federal bureaucracy into three streamlined Departments, the Department of Economic Development, the Department of Community Resources, and the Department of Human Services, as part of his “New Federalism” agenda.

Sunday, January 24th, 1971: 92 Guinean opponents of the leftist aligned regime of President Toure are sentenced to death for their role in supporting a failed Portuguese invasion and coup plot from the year earlier. A further 72 persons, including the Catholic Archbishop of Conkary, are sentenced to life in prison in the infamous Camp Boiro.

Monday, January 25th, 1971: Uganda’s military topples President Milton Obote in a coup while the left-leaning Ugandan President was abroad, resulting in army chief Idi Amin seizing power in his place. The coup is welcomed by Washington and London, who were distrustful of Obote due to his socialist leanings.

Tuesday, January 26th, 1971: President Nixon nominates former Congressman George H.W. Bush to serve as the next American Ambassador to the United Nations after Charles Yost resigns to take up an academic position at Columbia University.

Wednesday, January 27th, 1971: Charles Manson and three female followers (Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian, and Patricia Krenwinkel) are convicted for their roles in the Tate-LaBianca murders in a Los Angeles Court.

Thursday, January 28th, 1971: The Citizens Committee to Draft John McKeithen for President is launched in New Orleans, Louisiana, by several prominent Louisiana lawmakers seeking to lure the state’s populist Governor into the race. Despite their initial entreaties, Governor McKeithen tells reporters that he is not presently interested in pursuing the Presidency.

As part of his confirmation hearings for the position of Treasury Secretary, John Connally tells the Senate Finance Committee that he is both committed to the President’s agenda of “New Federalism” and to implementing sweeping, unprecedented tax cuts. Despite some opposition from liberal Democrats, the Texan and one time LBJ ally has broad bipartisan support for his nomination.

End of January + February follow in next updates.

[1] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain).
[2] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain).
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Atlas Has Shrugged
ChairmanSanchez
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« Reply #1 on: August 18, 2023, 11:36:06 PM »


Birch Bayh
Friday, January 29th, 1971.
Indiana State House.
12:00 PM, Indianapolis, IN.


[1]

The crowd had been warmed up by several local political figures, including Congressman Andrew Jacobs Jr., ahead of the Senator’s speech. As Jacobs left the podium after introducing the Senator, who watched on with his beaming wife Marvella, the Senator arose from his seat to give the speech he had been waiting for so long to deliver. The crowd was smaller than anticipated, and the Senator was saddened that his partner in the Senate, Vance Hartke, had declined to attend. It was widely rumored in Washington that his fellow Senator was also interested in the Democratic nomination, which did not anger Bayh so much as it did confuse him. After all, the other Indianan Senator was less known to the general public, was less liberal than the times demanded, and less inclined to take somewhat risky political stands. Regardless, Bayh choose not to resent Hartke’s decision, knowing that the crowd – as small as it turned out to be – would be bigger than his should he choose to dip his feet into the water.

A light rain fell from a cold winter sky, the snow on the capital grounds still fresh from the blizzard that had hit the week before. The Senator cleared his throat as cameras clicked and flashed around him, and across the Hoosier state, local television affiliates carried the Senators announcement. The crowd cheered for several seconds after the first sentence, then fell silent as the Senator continued with his speech.

“Today I am announcing my candidacy for the Democratic Party’s nomination for President in 1972.

In undertaking this effort, I look to the legacy of our late President John Kennedy, for inspiration. At a time of stagnation, we must let our cynicism give way to celebration. In a time of division, we mustn’t let our discord stand in the way to unity. In a time of hopelessness, we mustn’t let the light of hope be dimmed by the darkness of those who profit from our distrust, who thrive on our fears. We need a new politics for a new America, and I want to be a new kind of Democrat.

I think it’s time our party have a serious conversation about ending the war in Vietnam once and for all. I think it is time for our party to undertake a bold effort of electoral reform to make government truly accountable to the people it serves. I believe it’s time America returns from Nixon’s nightmare to Kennedy’s Camelot. And most importantly, I have an unyielding faith in the goodness of the American people. I believe that, when given good choices, Americans will always make the right decision. And right now to be truthful, America is simply short of good options. We can change that together!

Here in Indiana, in America’s industrial heartland and agricultural breadbasket, we see the ultimate cross-section of American life. Good, hard working people, struggling to get ahead and desiring nothing more than to leave a better country for their children are being left behind. Well, maybe that’s alright in Nixon’s America, but in the real America, we leave nobody behind!

And that is why I am running for President. We cannot leave more Americans behind in the pursuit of values contrary to those of our founding fathers. My candidacy will be a rejection of the politics of greed and sleaze. It will be a candidacy that seeks to inspire, that seeks to rekindle, and that seeks to renew. So I ask for your support and your vote, and I ask that you keep your prayers with me as we undergo this great effort. Thank You, God Bless You, and God Bless America!”


Saturday, January 30th, 1971: Governor James Carter of Georgia makes waves in Washington when he appoints 39-year-old State Senator Sam Nunn to the empty Senate seat of the late Richard Russell. The decision to appoint Nunn, a more moderate southern Democrat representing a newer generation of leaders in the deep south, over former Governor Ernest Vandiver comes as a shock to many political observers.

Sunday, January 31st, 1971: Apollo 14, the third manned American mission to the moon, is launched with great fanfare from Cape Canaveral. Manned by Edgar Mitchell, Stuart Roosa, and Alan Shepard, the mission is expected to land on the lunar surface where they will spend their time engaging in various scientific exercises and experiments before returning to Earth in the lunar capsule.

Monday, February 1st, 1971: Ugandan military leader Idi Amin outlaws the Uganda People’s Congress, the political party of exiled President Milton Obote, and subsequently fires every government official in the country and replaces them with loyal military officers. Amin also suspends parliament and assumes the office of President extralegally, with Britain and Washington recognizing his new regime immediately to Obote’s supporters displeasure.

Wednesday, February 3rd, 1971: A second round of Khmer Rouge incursions into the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh ends with the United States embassy coming under mortar fire. The second attack on the city startles both the regime of Lon Nol, the nation’s President who just the year earlier had driven Prince Sihanouk from power, as well as National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger.

Friday, February 5th, 1971: Apollo 14 successfully lands on the moon. Stepping onto the moon, Alan Sheppard declared “it’s been a long way, but we’re here” as the NASA control room erupted into spontaneous celebration. The astronauts plan to conduct a variety of scientific experiments during their short time on the lunar surface, before making their return to earth in the coming week.

Saturday, February 6th, 1971: British soldier Robert Curtis is killed in Belfast by nationalist militants, making him the first military casualty in Northern Ireland during the period that would come to be known as “The Troubles.”

Sunday, February 7th, 1971: A referendum in Switzerland results in male voters casting their ballots 65-35% in favor of amending the constitution to extend suffrage to women. Switzerland was the last country in Europe to deny women the right to vote as of 1971.

Monday, February 8th, 1971: Operation Lam Son 719 is launched by the ARVN’s First Division, clandestinely crossing the border with Laos to attack Viet Cong and North Vietnamese military installations that had been constructed in the neighboring neutral country along the Ho Chi Minh trail.

Tuesday, February 9th, 1971: A 6.5 magnitude earthquake originating from the Sierra Madre Fault rocks California, killing 64 and rattling much of southern California. Governor Reagan declares a state of emergency in response to the quake.

Wednesday, February 10th, 1971: President Nixon’s Oval Office taping system is installed by Secret Service agents; Nixon’s decision to begin taping his phone conversations through a voice activated system is kept a closely guarded secret even within the confines of the West Wing. The President was inspired to use a taping system by his predecessor Lyndon Johnson, and justified its purpose by telling Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman, his assistant Lawrence Higby, and aide Alexander Butterfield that it was for the historical record. Only the President, his three aides, and a handful of Secret Service agents who helped install the system are aware of its existence.

Thursday, February 11th, 1971: Thursday, February 11th, 1971: John Connally is sworn in as Secretary of the Treasury after being confirmed by a 71-24 vote in the Senate. The previous Treasury Secretary David Kennedy is in turn going to continue serving in the administration as Ambassador to NATO, where the previous Ambassador Robert Ellsworth was shuffled out in preparation for a possible return to Congress.

Friday, February 12th, 1971: The six member nations of the European Economic Community approve a plan to establish a common currency in the coming years.

Saturday, February 13th, 1971: The Communist Party of the Soviet Union releases details of the Five Year Plan that had begun on New Years Day; the plan calls for the Soviet government to raise the standard of living faced by the average Soviet citizen, and puts a particular focus on producing consumer goods and growing trade relations with non-communist nations.

Sunday, February 14th, 1971: A group of Belgian farmers, angered by the European Economic Community’s agricultural pricing policies, manage to sneak three cows into the EEC headquarters in Brussels and lead them into the middle of a meeting between the member state’s Agriculture ministers. The interruption is a noticeable indication of a severe security lapse at the building, and while the protesters are herded out with their cattle in tow without incident, the protest is a reminder that there is still strong continental opposition to further European integration.

Quote from: The Nixon Tapes (C) 2015.

HENRY KISSINGER: The situation in Cambodia is getting increasingly untenable, Mr. President. The attack on Phnom Penh shows Lon Nol’s military cannot hold the tide against the rebels. If Cambodia falls, the Viet Cong are going to have further options open to them if they want to push into the South. Their operational ability will greatly increase if they can commit hit and run attacks in South Vietnam with relative safety and impunity.

RICHARD NIXON: So we’re gonna have to go into Cambodia then, right Henry?

HENRY KISSINGER: It appears so, Mr. President. We risk the destruction of South Vietnam’s stability –

MELVIN LAIRD: Not to mention the morale of our forces in South Vietnam, but invading Cambodia again will not –

HENRY KISSINGER: Indeed, the morale of our forces is endangered as well. If the government of the Khmer Republic is this weak, and the recent incidents in Phnom Penh have proven that, then we are going to have to step in and solve this situation ourselves Mr. President.

MELVIN LAIRD: Mr. Kissinger, with all due respect, the operations we conducted last year in Cambodia were –

HENRY KISSINGER: Successful! They were successful, Secretary Laird!

MELVIN LAIRD: We were not able to root out their main base of operations, we’ve only recovered 20 of our men total, and we have failed to eradicate –

HENRY KISSINGER: With all due respect, Mr. Secretary, is that so much a failure of the strategy or is that just the failure of the Pentagon to implement that strategy?

RICHARD NIXON: Henry, we’re preparing to reequip the Cambodians, but what’s the, uh, the situation with the ability of their armed forces? I have not seen any guarantees that they will be able to protect or even use what we are giving them. I’d be more, uh, I’d have more peace of mind if, if uh, if our guys were in charge of the –

MELVIN LAIRD: Mr. President, we’re prohibited by law from using our own men in –

RICHARD NIXON: I know that already, Mel. I’m just stating that I think we’d be better off that way - we certainly don’t need more Senate meddling in our affairs, of course, but –

H.R. HALDEMAN: The House defeated the Cooper-Church amendment only after we pulled back last time. Sending them in again would result in a backlash that won’t help us next year, and Cooper and Church will be able to muster the votes this time.

RICHARD NIXON: So how do we go about this?

HENRY KISSINGER: We…well, we don’t go about this. You understand me?

RICHARD NIXON: I understand completely…

Tuesday, February 16th, 1971: The Washington Post reports that President Nixon will propose sweeping changes to the healthcare system to Congress in the coming days; the White House downplays these reports but does confirm that the President intends to submit several legislative proposals in the coming weeks as part of his campaign to streamline the federal bureaucracy. Despite his private disdain for the California Governor, Nixon finds an unexpected ally and spokesperson for his “New Federalism” agenda in the form of Ronald Reagan, who pitches Nixon’s plans to merge federal departments and agencies in an appearance on Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show on NBC.

Wednesday, February 17th, 1971: Despite strong polling and swirling rumors, Senator Kennedy (D-MA) states that he isn’t “actively considering a run at this time” during an interview with CBS’s Walter Cronkite, but he doesn’t explicitly rule out running for President either. “I think it’s way too early” said Kennedy, “my first priority is serving my constituents.”

Thursday, February 18th, 1971: President Nixon proposes Congress pass legislation that would require all employers to pay 65% of their employees’ health insurance premiums; despite opposition from many of the conservative Republicans in Congress, Nixon is hopeful that Democrats will be supportive of the plan which he claims will dramatically increase access to medical care for all Americans while also driving down spending on programs like Medicare.

Friday, February 19th, 1971: Riots break out across East Pakistan as protesters take to the streets to call for greater autonomy.

Sunday, February 21st, 1971: 123 people are killed in nineteen different storms that raged across the Deep South, with most of the fatalities being related to falling trees or tornadoes. The town of Inverness, Mississippi, is hardest hit by the storm, enduring the most casualties.

Monday, February 22nd, 1971: Pakistani President Yahya Khan is reported by journalists to have said “if we kill three million of them, the rest will eat out of our hands” regarding protests by the Bengali minority in East Pakistan demanding autonomy or independence.

Tuesday, February 23rd, 1971: Do Cao Tri, a South Vietnamese general tasked with leading covert operations in Laos against the Viet Cong and NVA, is killed alongside several ARVN personnel and a French journalist in a helicopter crash.

Friday, February 26th, 1971: The Senate votes 89-5 to confirm George H.W. Bush as the next Ambassador to the United Nations. He is subsequently sworn into this position in early March.

Saturday, February 27th, 1971: Gallup releases new polling on the 1972 presidential race.

Gallup: 1,000 Registered Voters (Nationwide).
(R) Richard Nixon: 42%
(D) Generic Democrat: 33%
Undecided: 21%
Independent/Other: 4%

Gallup: 1,000 Democratic Voters (Nationwide).
Edward Kennedy: 31%
Hubert Humphrey: 16%
Edmund Muskie: 15%
George Wallace: 15%
George McGovern: 12%
Henry Jackson: 3%
Birch Bayh: 3%
John McKeithen: 3%
Eugene McCarthy: 1%
Harold Hughes: 1%
Vance Hartke: 1%

Sunday, February 28th, 1971: Stuntman Evel Knievel jumps 19 cars on a motorcycle ahead of a stockcar race in Ontario, California, setting a new world record in the process.

[1] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
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Atlas Has Shrugged
ChairmanSanchez
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« Reply #2 on: August 19, 2023, 10:25:56 AM »
« Edited: August 27, 2023, 11:33:26 PM by ChairmanSanchez »

Monday, March 1st, 1971: A bomb rips through a men’s bathroom in the Capital Building at 1:52 AM, resulting in over $300,000 worth of damage but causing no fatalities or injuries. Leftist or anti-war militants are suspected to be behind the blast. The FBI begins an immediate investigation into the bombing.

Tuesday, March 2nd, 1971: Protesting Bengali students in the East Pakistani city of Dhaka tear down the flag of Pakistan and raise the flag of the proposed nation of Bangladesh; this event, though so seemingly minor, sparks the beginning of the Bangladesh War of Independence.

Wednesday, March 3rd, 1971: The People’s Republic of China launches their second satellite into space; the successful mission is hailed by the ruling Communist Party of China as the latest demonstration of the Maoist regime’s advances in science and technological development.

Thursday, March 4th, 1971: Pakistani President Yahya Khan dissolves the National Assembly hours ahead of the inauguration of a new government that was to be led by the Bengali dominated Awami League; Khan’s actions are partly motivated by politics, as the coalition agreement between the Awami League and the Pakistani People’s Party stipulated that the outgoing Prime Minister Bhutto replace Khan as head of state. Finding the agreement unacceptable, Khan’s decision to void the result of the elections held in December results in rioting across East Pakistan.

Friday, March 5th, 1971: Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, aged 51, marries Margaret Sinclair, aged 22, at a private ceremony in Vancouver.

Saturday, March 6th, 1971: In response to greater unrest in East Pakistan, President Yahya Khan places the province under martial law. Despite troops being deployed to the streets, angry protesters continue to demand that the President resign and allow the Awami League dominated government to take office.

Sunday, March 7th, 1971: Before a crowd of two million supporters crowded into a stadium in Dhaka, Awami League leader Sheikh Rujibur Rahman delivers a brief speech calling on the masses to take up arms in support of his party, and voicing support for the independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan at the end of his remarks.

Monday, March 8th, 1971: “The Fight of the Century” between Muhammed Ali and Joe Frazier takes place in Madison Square Garden. Frazier beats Ali after fifteen rounds. The internationally viewed fight was preceded by a circus life atmosphere in which tickets were highly priced and celebrities ranging from Woody Allen to Frank Sinatra were amongst those in the audience. “The fight was tremendous” said Donald Trump, a 25-year-old real estate developer who dabbles in Broadway promotion, “it was a yuge thing, you should’ve seen it in person.”

Tuesday, March 9th, 1971: An organization known as “the Citizen’s Committee to Investigate the FBI” stages a successful break-in at an FBI office in Reading, Pennsylvania in the early hours of the morning, in which several documents were taken. The militant burglars successfully timed the break-in with the Frazier-Ali fight, successfully deducing the night watchman would be distracted.

Wednesday, March 10th, 1971: John Gorton resigns as Prime Minister of Australia and leader of the Liberal Party after losing an internal no confidence vote in his leadership. He is succeeded as party leader and Prime Minister by William MacMahon.

The Senate votes 94-1 to ratify the 26th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which would lower the voting age to 18. The amendment is sent to the states for ratification.

Thursday, March 11th, 1971: At a meeting of the Committee to Re-elect the President (“CREEP”), President Nixon authorizes his campaign to appropriate $250,000 dollars in donated funds for the purposes of gathering intelligence about political opponents. This is the genesis of the White House “plumbers’ squad.”

Friday, March 12th, 1971: Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel is compelled by the Turkish armed forces to resign in face of a potential military coup. Described as “a coup by memorandum,” the incident is widely viewed in Ankara and Istanbul as a demonstration of the military’s authority over the country.

Ted Kennedy
Saturday, March 13th, 1971.
The Kennedy Compound.
11:45 AM, Palm Beach, FL.


[1]

There was a considerable amount of blood in the water in the first two years after the 1968 election; the conundrum for the surviving Kennedy brother was that he was unsure if it were Nixon’s or his own. In the wake of Chappaquiddick, the Massachusetts Senator went over a few hours from being one of the President’s biggest fears to one of his easiest targets. Though few were willing to permanently write-off the career of the innately ambitious scion of one of America’s most legendary political dynasties, there was little excitement for the scandalized Senator outside of the Democratic Party’s northeastern base, which yearned for a revival of “Camelot.” Yet Kennedy was none the less the Democratic frontrunner for months until he finally took himself out of the race, popular among the most devoted members of the party as a fierce stalwart of American liberalism.

For those few dreamers who still eyed 1972 with some sense of promise (most of whom happened to share the surname “Kennedy”), the first half of 1971 would be judgement day for their last surviving prince’s career. Tainted by Chappaquiddick, Kennedy’s position as Senate Minority Whip was facing a test in the form of Senator Robert Carlyle Byrd of West Virginia. The Dixiecrat who had once filibustered the Civil Rights Act was an odd fit for such a position considering the increasingly liberal direction of the party, though over the course of the proceeding years he had largely moderated his segregationist views and strengthened his relations with his progressive colleagues.

On a breezy spring morning, Kennedy arrived from Washington at his family’s estate in Palm Beach, where he was joined by his brother-in-law Sargent Shriver, aide Paul Kirk, family adviser Arthur Schlesinger Jr., and DNC Chairman Larry O’Brien over the coming days. There would be women, booze, and strategy sessions a-plenty. But mostly women and booze. On the morning of Saturday, March 13th, the four men sat down in the grassy yard overlooking the seawall and beach, the cool ocean breeze blowing through the palm trees as the men bantered lightly under a blistering summer sun. But the elephant in the room couldn’t be ignored.

“Look, I can get this passed” Teddy began, eying each of his four companions with a solemn, resolved expression of purpose that fooled the masses but not the men present, continuing: “Byrd can’t get the votes. They won’t let a, er, a segregationist take that position. That won’t happen. I can sense the mood there.”

“Don’t be too apathetic, Ted. Byrd’s been working real hard. I thought he just wanted Appropriations. But he’s just like you - he wants it all, Ted!” O’Brien’s warning was not simply the result of some juicy political intel; it was common sense, apparent to all but Kennedy.

“I know my turf, Larry, I know what Byrd’s hatching in January. Don’t worry about it. If we panic, if we legitimize Byrd’s challenge and make this an actual contest rather than a cloakroom gossip game, then we’ll be in trouble. We’re gonna make 1971 our year. The year of the Kennedys.”

“Ted,” Sargent beseeched, “you can’t be talking about the year after 1971, right?”

“Not today, not anymore. I meant it when I said no.”

“Good” affirmed Sargent, “you’re making a smart decision, in the long term at least.”

“The polls were saying otherwise” shot back Kennedy, who had only come to his decision to sit out ’72 reluctantly.

"Ted, you wouldn’t win. You can’t run now, anyway. We lost Jack and Bobby to our enemies. We can’t lose you to our supposed friends-“

“The polls are saying otherwise, though. Can you believe that after all that I’m at-“

“Ted” interjected Schlesinger, “God threw you a miracle. Don’t waste it now. Lay low. Work smart, not hard, and most of all, not recklessly.”

“I’m not reconsidering anything, jeez, hear me out;” Kennedy’s words revealed a sense of desperation, as if he were begging them to allow him to reverse his non-candidacy announcement. “It’s not like it was now or never I guess.”

“That’s what Jack and Bobby would’ve told you.“

“And the old man” added Shriver.

“I sit this out, I’m going to be sidelined until 1980” bemoaned Kennedy.

“This is what you do.” Paul Kirk’s confidence was made transparent in the strength of his voice, which strung together crafted the image of the gritty Washington fixer well beyond Kirk’s 32 years, though his youthful appearance betrayed this immediately.

“We work hard, but we lay low. Byrd won’t be a problem, and if he becomes one, we make way for him. No big deal. Reuther and you have been working for years to pass a healthcare reform package. This can be your moment, with or without the job as Whip…it’d be easier as Whip, obviously-"

“Well ‘er, uh, no sh**t wise guy!” interjected Kennedy, a comment Kirk had already trained himself to ignore.

“You get the votes together. You pass the bill. You put the ball in Nixon’s court, and you let the public decide. If he vetoes it against the will of the public, your stock goes up, you get in. He vetoes it, the public applauds, you stay put, lose nothing, and lay low. If he signs it, you become the biggest star in the Senate and Nixon puts himself on the way to reelection. And that gives you 1976.”

“Worst case scenario, Paul. The bill meets fierce opposition, the Dixiecrats buckle, Byrd becomes a problem. Humphrey will be hand wringing, and McGovern will say it won’t go far enough. We’ll have to water it down, but Nixon and Scott would deliver the votes. Then Nixon vetoes it anyway?”

“Why’d he do that?”

“He’s an odd fellow.”
A historian and public intellectual, Schlesinger’s poignant observation was taken far more seriously than his joke had intended to be. But it rang true to those present.

“So he vetoes it. We’re down for the count in 1972. But at the very least, it’ll give me a cause to fight for and a good enough reason to be out there without being out there. We’ll er uh, we’ll keep them all waiting. We’ll keep them wondering. If the mood is right, it’ll propel us. If the mood is wrong, we live anther day. I think we’re done here for now. We’ll fondle the details later, but right now let’s fondle er uh….something else.”

The men agreed to adjourn, keeping both the subject matter of the meeting and their….other minor indiscretions quiet; no, it was a simple fishing trip. No politics, no girls. Just clean, relaxing fun in Florida. The secrecy pact did not have to be verbalized to be understood and was formalized by the shaking of hands and the patting of backs.   

Unfortunately for them, the Cuban in the van outside had been an active listener and a silent participant in their meeting. He had worked hard to gain the grounds crew’s trust, and he worked harder the day he planted the bugs. But now he had completed his mission, he snuffed out his cigarette, and paused to review the tape.

Sunday, March 14th, 1971: On NBC’s Meet the Press, Louisiana Governor John McKeithen acknowledges the growing support for a draft McKeithen movement but continues to insist that he is not actively weighing a presidential bid himself. The Louisiana Governor also makes waves when he criticizes his potential rival George Wallace, describing him as “a regional phenomenon” who could “never unite this party.”

Monday, March 15th, 1971: The State Department revises a 21-year-old travel ban prohibiting Americans from visiting the People’s Republic of China; despite the reversal of the State Department’s policies, the regime of Mao Zedong in Peking remains incredibly selective when it comes to admitting Americans into the People’s Republic, accepting only three out of every one thousand visa applications from the United States.

John McKeithen
Wednesday, March 17th, 1971.
The Napoleon House Restaurant.
12:45 PM, New Orleans, LA.


[2]

The Napoleon House was a freshly minted officially recognized historic landmark in New Orleans, still operating as a well-beloved restaurant. Its upper floors, mostly vacant offices, provided the perfect hideaway for the impending political conclave. Some of the bigwigs of Louisiana’s steamy political machine had gathered, but the guest of honor was running late.

Former First Lady Blanche Long stared at the gumbo in her bowl, politely waiting for the arrival of the Governor before she took a single bite. Across the room, newspaper publisher Sam Hanna smoked a Marlboro, dropping his ashes carelessly across the wooden floor as he impatiently paced around the room. The young Gus Weill and State Senator Billy Boles engaged in idle conversation, holding off on the topic at hand until the meeting got underway. All the while, State Senator Sixty Rayburn read the Times-Picayune, glancing out the window to Royal Street below, where a brass band happily played a slow, rickety, and distinctly New Orleans version of “Shine On Harvest Moon” to a crowd of tourists and locals alike.

At last, a lone black Cadillac pulled up to the building, and Rayburn watched as the Governor was whisked inside by three state troopers, almost completely unnoticed by the gathered crowd outside. Neither was he noticed by the patrons inside, who continued with their meals and conversations on the first floor below. As soon as the Governor disappeared from sight from downstairs on the street, the sounds of footsteps coming up the stairs was heard by all present. Blanche gave a sigh of relief, ready to eat, but even more delighted that the meeting of such importance was finally about to occur.

“How are y'all?” asked Governor McKeithen as he entered the room while the State Troopers took up posts outside the room. He bent down to greet Blanche, the political matriarch of the Louisiana Democratic Party, with a familiar kiss and moved forward to heartily shake the hand of Gus Weill, his longtime assistant and trusted former campaign aide. Moving across the room to greet Boles, Rayburn, and Hanna, the Governor shook their hands with the same amount of vigor as he did for Weill, before finally taking his seat at the round table in the room, followed quickly by the others.

“So let’s get down to business here” said McKeithen, “what’s this business about me running for President about and how many times will I have to say no to you all?”

“Govanah” Hanna addressed McKeithen, “this ain’t flattery. We frankly don’t need to flatter you, we go back a good ways.”

“Well, you got my attention Sam with this free lunch. Whatever you’ve got to sell me, I’m all ears. At least until my plate’s empty…well, Sixty, what exactly is this about?” The Governor turned towards the State Senator with the realization that the rumored draft effort was considerably more serious than he had initially estimated.

Well connected to the Democratic National Committee and House Minority leader Hale Boggs, Blanche Long spoke up. “The party is fixing on voting for the McGovern proposals and it’s going to be changing everything. The way we pick nominees will never, ever, be the same. You don’t have to win-”

“Well, there we have it, I don’t have to win. I’ll be a favorite son again?” interrupted McKeithen.

“…you don’t have to win them all” Blanche continued. “But if you get a small chunk here, a small chunk here, a big chunk there, and so on, well…this is going to correlate to delegates."

“A lot of delegates” interjected Weil from the other side of the table.

“JJ, you might not outright win the nomination. But you can take enough delegates with you to the convention and stop McGovern. He engineered all of these changes to the party structure to enhance his own ambitions. For the sake of the party, we need you to run” Blanche implored him, seeming confident in her predictions of electoral chaos.

“And who will fund such an endeavor? Aint nobody outside of this state actually knows who I am!” McKeithen responded in exasperation and shock that such a proposal was actually truly being debated before him.

“We got friends in the oil fields…the guys running the wells and the guys running the boardrooms” responded Senator Boles.

“And” Weill added, “we got Russell and Boggs on our side. Big names.”

“Say I run” McKeithen quizzed Weill, “say I actually jump in. Say I pull third or fourth in a few states and place behind Wallace in the south. Say I come in third or fourth even in the delegate count. I can swing it for Muskie, or Humphrey, or Jackson. Alright. But why me? You can’t find another favorite son? One a little less busy than me?”

“JJ, I’m a newspaper man. I know public opinion, and I’d like to think that I know what they think and what they want. Well, folks around here want two things: a president they can trust and a nominee they know can win. And JJ, and no offense, Mrs. Long, I know you don’t mean it that way, but you’re selling JJ short here. He can win…we can win! We can do this. We can win the nomination, and then we can even win the White House. This isn’t just about stopping McGovern. We can stop Nixon too!” Sam Hanna’s words sunk into McKeithen, as they did to everyone else in the room.

“He’s right.” Blanche broke the silence. “You can win. And you will win. You ought to do this, Governor. We need you. The party needs you.” Finally, Rayburn spoke up: “Don’t worry about the money, we’ll get it for you. You won’t be short on funds. If you go ahead with this, we can make it happen.”

Another long pause filled the room. The silence wasn’t haunting, nor deafening. It was the silence of a man making a choice. Not a reasoned choice, but an impulse choice. Finally, McKeithen spoke.

“Well” he declared, “I guess I’m ‘runnin for President. Won’t ‘cha help me?”

Thursday, March 18th, 1971: Former New York Governor and 1944 and 1948 Republican presidential nominee Thomas Dewey dies at the age of 68; Dewey was discovered deceased in a Miami hotel room after playing a round of golf, the victim of an apparent heart attack.

Saturday, March 20th, 1971: An early, prototype unmanned drone is deployed over China’s top secret Lop Nur nuclear test site. The mission is successful in gathering the necessary intelligence, but the drone crashes. This is the fourth and final attempt at such a mission, and the unmanned drone program ends afterwards when it is determined that the Chinese military managed to recover the crashed drone after it plummeted from the sky over Yunnan province.

Tuesday, March 23rd, 1971: The Washington Post reports on the widespread FBI surveillance of American citizens dating back to 1957, using documents that had been seized by the Citizen’s Committee to Investigate the FBI earlier in the month as evidence of such programs.

Wednesday, March 24th, 1971: Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and several other East Pakistani political figures and independence activists are arrested by the Pakistani military in several pre-dawn raids inside their own homes. The arrests are the opening stage of Operation Searchlight, the Pakistani government’s plan to put down unrest in East Pakistan once and for all. The next day, the Pakistani army kills 45 student demonstrators demanding Rahman's release at a protest that devolved into a riot.

Friday, March 26th, 1971: The leaders of the Awami League declare East Pakistan’s independence as Bangladesh. India, Pakistan’s neighboring rival nation, immediately indicates to Washington that they are prepared to recognize Bangladesh’s independence even at the cost of war with Pakistan.

Saturday, March 27th, 1971: Over 10,000 people are reported dead in East Pakistan as the Pakistani military moves to crush the separatist rebellion in what rebels have declared to be Bangladesh. Most of the casualties have been killed by the military during the sporadic fighting that has taken place since the launch of Operation Searchlight. The Indian government formally protests the alleged human rights abuses before the United Nations.

[1] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
[2] Taken from 64 Parishes (Official Portrait - Public Domain)

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Atlas Has Shrugged
ChairmanSanchez
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« Reply #3 on: August 19, 2023, 02:11:12 PM »

Oh I'll be following this closely! Giving me flashbacks to our 1972 Fear and Loathing Election Game. Welcome back Sanchez.
That was the best game ever!
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Atlas Has Shrugged
ChairmanSanchez
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« Reply #4 on: August 19, 2023, 03:21:05 PM »

Monday, March 29th, 1971: First Lt. William Calley is found guilty by a military court martial for the murders of 22 villagers in My Lai, which was one of the most shocking and infamous incidents of the entire Vietnam war.

Tuesday, March 30th, 1971: Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm (D-NY) establishes the Congressional Black Caucus with Congressmen William Clay (D-MO), George Collins (D-IL), John Conyers (D-MI), Ron Dellums (D-CA), Charles Diggs (D-MI), Augustus Hawkins (D-CA), Ralph Metcalfe (D-IL), Parren Mitchell (D-MD), Robert Nix (D-PA), Charlie Rangel (D-NY), Louis Stokes (D-OH), and Walter Fauntroy (D-DC). Though he was not a founding member, Senator Edward Brooke (R-MA) is also invited to join the congressional grouping.

Wednesday, March 31st, 1971: Gallup releases new polling ahead of the 1972 presidential election. With Kennedy not yet publicly committed to running or not, his lead is beginning to slip.

Gallup: 1,000 Registered Voters (Nationwide).
(R) Richard Nixon: 44%
(D) Generic Democrat: 36%
Undecided: 18%
Independent/Other: 2%

Gallup: 1,000 Democratic Voters (Nationwide).
Edward Kennedy: 29%
Hubert Humphrey: 18%
Edmund Muskie: 13%
George Wallace: 13%
George McGovern: 13%
John McKeithen: 5%
Birch Bayh: 4%
Henry Jackson: 2%
Eugene McCarthy: 1%
Harold Hughes: 1%
Vance Hartke: 1%

Quote from: The Nixon Tapes (C) 2015
JOHN EHRLICHMAN: Mr. President, Mr. Hunt and Officer Ulasewicz are here.

RICHARD NIXON: Ah good, (inaudible grumbling), so what uh, what do we have on the agenda today?

HOWARD HUNT: Mr. President, we have some good news to bring you -

RICHARD NIXON: Is that so?

ANTHONY ULASEWICZ: It is so, Mr. President. Your Kennedy problem has gone away.

RICHARD NIXON: Somebody whacked Ted?

(laughter)

HOWARD HUNT: He won’t be a candidate sir.

RICHARD NIXON: Ted is staying out, huh? Son of a bitch isn’t stupid. Hell, I’d be afraid to face him more but then again I’m not running in ’76. So…you’re confident he’s out?

HOWARD HUNT: It’s all on the tape. He’s going to announce it any day now. Absolutely no way, no how. His people aren’t doing anything conducive towards a U-turn either. He’s not running for President in 1972.

RICHARD NIXON: What about Mankiewicz?

JOHN EHRLICHMAN: Actually, I’ve heard McGovern’s snatched him up. That true?

RICHARD NIXON: McGovern?! These guys think their sh**t doesn’t stink. They think everyone else either thinks like them or doesn’t think at all. Well, trust me, stupid people vote. And they’ll vote for McGovern, not me.

Friday, April 2nd, 1971: The Tripoli Agreement is signed in Libya, in which representatives from several major western oil companies agreed to pay higher prices for OPEC member nation’s oil and gas reserves.

Saturday, April 3rd, 1971: Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm (D-NY), a black woman and a fierce feminist and proud progressive, tells a reporter from the New York Times that she is hoping a member of the Congressional Black Caucus enters the Democratic primaries in the coming weeks, but doesn’t name any particular member who might be interested in a presidential bid. Chisholm further adds that while she would support Senator Kennedy if he were the nominee, she wouldn’t necessarily endorse him during the primaries and expressed interest in “an alternative progressive candidate” who could take on Nixon.

Sunday, April 4th, 1971: Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) announces he will not seek the Presidency “under any circumstance,” during an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, removing the presumed frontrunner permanently from the contest. Citing a desire to focus on his role as both a father and husband as well as a legislator, Kennedy’s decision to sit out the 1972 Democratic primaries blows the door for the nomination open.

Monday, April 5th, 1971: Tajuddin Ahmad, a key leader of the Bengali liberation movement and high rankling member of the Awami League, travels to neighboring India to personally request aid and support from Pakistan’s longtime nemesis; Prime Minister Indira Gandhi approves the aid, and India quickly aligns itself behind the concept of an independent Bangladesh.

Tuesday, April 6th, 1971: The United States National Table Tennis Team is invited to play against the Chinese team in Peking; the surprise invite for the American team to visit China comes after the US and Chinese team competed against one another in the world championships held in Tokyo. The regime of Chairman Mao in China has traditionally denied Americans entry into the country.

Wednesday, April 7th, 1971: The Yugoslavian ambassador to Sweden is assassinated in his office by two Croatian gunmen associated with a radical Croat separatist group. The gunmen are able to flee the embassy after exchanging fire and injuring a responding police officer on their way out.

Thursday, April 8th, 1971: Ahead of the upcoming party congress, the politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is expanded from 11 to 15 men, allowing four new members from the Central Committee to join the party’s highest ranked political organ. The decision to expand Politburo membership was in part due to Brezhnev’s increasingly unilateral streak within Soviet politics; by naming four new lackeys to the Politburo, Brezhnev has also reduced his already established colleagues influence within the top echelons of the party.

Friday, April 9th, 1971: President Nixon announces in a televised speech from the Oval Office that the Defense Department has begun preparations to withdraw over 100,000 American servicemen from Vietnam as part of his efforts to deescalate the ongoing conflict.

Saturday, April 10th, 1971: The American Table Tennis Team arrives in Red China after crossing into the country by way of Hong Kong. The American delegation is the first of its kind to visit the People’s Republic of China in years, and the rare cultural exchange between the two countries is widely watched by observers who sense a thaw in relations between China and the west.

Sunday, April 11th, 1971: East Pakistan’s rebel insurgents declare the independence of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman being installed as interim President. Pakistan does not recognize the declaration, and refuses to release Rahman, imprisoned since the Dhaka Racetrack speech, from detention.

Monday, April 12th, 1971: Senator William Proxmire (D-WI) is reported by the Washington Post to be in secret discussions with aides and senior strategists about making a potential early entry in the 1972 Democratic primaries. With McGovern on the rise due to Kennedy’s exit and his own early launch, there is increased pressure on other prospective candidates to enter the race and stop McGovern. Proxmire denies the reports, and states that he is focused primarily on his work in the Senate.

Tuesday, April 13th, 1971: Fox McKeithen, the 29-year-old son of John McKeithen, is arrested in Nashua, New Hampshire for drunk and disorderly conduct after he and a McGovern campaign staffer confronted each other in a bar. Though Governor McKeithen has not officially entered the race, he had dispatched his son Fox to the state in order to get a feel of the electorate before deciding whether or not to form an exploratory committee. The arrest aside, a bruised Fox McKeithen later returns to Baton Rouge to inform his father that Senator Muskie’s lock on the state might not be as strong as polling indicates.

Richard Nixon
Thursday, April 15th, 1971.
The Executive Office Building.
9:08 AM, Washington, D.C.


[1]

Nixon was in the den, his quiet alcove within the depths of the decrepit Executive Office Building across the street from the White House. He was busily engaged writing reminders for himself on a yellow notepad when Haldeman and Ehrlichman, his two most trusted aides, entered side by side. He had been expecting them at some point, but their joint presence initially alarmed him.

“I wasn’t expecting both of you at the same time” he said, motioning them forward, “come in.”

“Mr. President, we have the numbers you requested” said Haldeman, his voice flat and emotionless in tone.

“Are they bad? Why are you both here?”

“We just thought we’d touch base with you now to save some time later.”

“I’m going to be stuck in this damn building all day anyway” grumbled the President.

“Well, with Kennedy out” began Haldeman, “the numbers have shifted considerably.” The decision of the Massachusetts Senator and dynasty scion to not seek the Democratic nomination in 1972 had turned the race on its head, with the clear frontrunner stunning Washington. The only other figure who could remotely unite the party was Hubert Humphrey, the nominee of the Democratic Party in 1968 and a Senator and former Vice President. But the party’s nomination process had evolved in the era of the McGovern-Fraser reforms, and it was even harder now than it was four years before for Humphrey to win the nomination.

“What are Humphrey's numbers now?” asked the President, knowing that the labor machine that was so strong within the party would rally around the Minnesota Senator.

“He’s at 30%” answered Ehrlichman, who reviewed the memo he held in his hand.

“Followed by whom?” inquired the President again.

“McGovern at 17%, followed by Muskie at 16%.”

“Muskie ahead of Wallace?” asked Nixon in surprise.

“Followed by Wallace at 12%” answered Ehrlichman.

“Then who?”

“Then you got McKeithen, Jackson, Chisholm, Bayh, and McCarthy” continued Ehrlichman, “they’re all hovering under 10%.”

“McWho?” asked the President sardonically. He knew the answer to his question.

“He’s making a small splash in the south, but not enough” said Haldeman, “but he is actively contesting New Hampshire, even though he hasn’t made it official if he’s in or out.”

“Does he really think he has a chance that far north?” said the President in shock, “I mean, J.J. isn’t a dumb backwoods hick, but does he really think that they’ll know who the hell he even is up there?”

“I think the cold weather will solve that problem” said Ehrlichman, “it’ll send him packing back south.”

“Let the big boys contest this election” surmised the President, “New Hampshire is Muskie country. Ed’s the guy we got to be worried about. He’s the one we’re going to have to do something about. Got it?”

Friday, April 16th, 1971: Senator Harold Hughes (D-IA) tells the Des Moines Register that he is weighing a presidential bid in 1972, stating the need for a “spiritual and social revival” in America. Hughes confirms that he has formed an exploratory committee to fund his endeavors and travels over the next few months as he tests the waters.

Saturday, April 17th, 1971: Reverend Jimmy Swaggart of Baton Rouge’s Family Worship Center abandons his planned efforts to expand his ministry into a televised gospel powerhouse in favor of politics after he files to run for Congress in his native Louisiana as a Democratic candidate.

Sunday, April 18th, 1971: President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, Colonel Muammar Qaddafi of Libya, and President Hafez al-Assad of Syria meet in Tunis, Tunisia to form the Federation of Arab Republics, a confederation of Arab states meant to counterbalance Israel and the west’s influence in the region.

Monday, April 19th, 1971: A judge in California sentences cult leader Charles Manson and three female accomplices to death for their role in the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders.

Tuesday, April 20th, 1971: Prime Minister Lon Nol of the Khmer Republic announces his intention to resign following a stroke he had suffered in February. Lon Nol is unable to find a suitable successor, and reluctantly agrees to rescind his resignation two weeks later when efforts to form a new government fail after days of negotiations. Though Lon Nol remains in his office, his deputy Sisowath Matak wields most power behind the scenes while Lon Nol continued to recover from his stroke.

Wednesday, April 21st, 1971: Francois Duvalier, the Haitian dictator better known as “Papa Doc,” dies at the age of 64 following a heart attack. He is succeeded as President by his 19-year-old son Jean-Claude Duvalier ("Baby Doc"), who relies on the greatly feared “Tonton Macote” to maintain his rule. Real political power is said to be wielded by Luckner Cambrone, a key Tonto Macote leader and the on-again off again lover of the deceased Papa Doc’s widow.

Friday, April 23rd, 1971: The Pakistani military, with help from Islamist collaborators, massacre over 3,000 Bengali Hindu civilians in the Thakurgaon region of Bangladesh, sparking fierce anti-Pakistani and anti-Islamic backlash in neighboring India.

Saturday, April 24th, 1971: The New Democratic Party of Canada elects David Lewis, a Toronto area MP, as the party’s leader after Tommy Douglas stood down from the party’s leadership. Lewis, a relatively moderate member of the party, beat back a strong challenge from activist and leftist professor James Laxer and his allies (a faction called “the Waffle”) after several ballots.

Sunday, April 25th, 1971: An official report due to be released by a presidential commission chaired by Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. studying diplomatic relations with both the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China is leaked a day early to the New York Times. The report recommends the United States drop its objection to Red China joining the United Nations, but not at the expense of the Republic of China’s seat.

Monday, April 26th, 1971: Pakistani soldiers kill 375 Hindu civilians in northern Bangladesh, the second major massacre to take place in the chaos plagued breakaway country.

Tuesday, April 27th, 1971: South Korean voters reelect President Park Chung Hee over Kim Dae Jung with 53% of the vote.

Wednesday, April 28th, 1971: In response to massacres in Bangladesh, the Indian army is mobilized on the order of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to intervene on the rebel’s behalf. Knowing that the confrontation between the two nations would likely result in war along the country’s western border with Pakistan as well, the Indian military immediately begins preparations for a two-front war.

Friday, April 30th, 1971: Anti-war activist John Kerry files to run for Congress in Massachusetts against Harold Donohue in the Democratic primary. The Vietnam veteran turned anti-war crusader argued that the incumbent, Congressman Donohue, has been too supportive of the Nixon administration’s war policies.

Gallup releases new polling for the 1972 election.

Gallup: 1,000 Registered Voters (Nationwide).
(R) Richard Nixon: 42%
(D) Generic Democrat: 37%
Undecided: 19%
Independent/Other: 2%

Gallup: 1,000 Democratic Voters (Nationwide).
Hubert Humphrey: 26%
Edmund Muskie: 22%
George Wallace: 17%
George McGovern: 15%
John McKeithen: 6%
Birch Bayh: 5%
Shirley Chisholm: 3%
Henry Jackson: 3%
Eugene McCarthy: 1%
Harold Hughes: 1%
Vance Hartke: 1%

[1] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain).
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Atlas Has Shrugged
ChairmanSanchez
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« Reply #5 on: August 19, 2023, 10:44:48 PM »

Saturday, May 1st, 1971: 500,000 anti-war activists converge on Washington D.C., where the protests are mostly peaceful. Despite concerns that the protest could get out of hand due to the size and volume of the masses assembled, the protest march largely unfolds without incident. The May Day protests resulted in the arrest of over 12,000 people, mostly for drug and disorderly conduct offenses, which set a new record for the largest mass arrests until that point in time. About a thousand of those who had been arrested were taken into custody at the capital, where they staged a sit-in protest.

Quote from: The Nixon Tapes (C) 2015
RICHARD NIXON: God damn it Haldeman! Haven’t these punks every heard of Sunday? I can hear the damn music all the way over here. And what the hell are those blimp things their flying?

H.R. HALDEMAN: Their flying balloons to keep the helicopters at bay, Mr. President.

RICHARD NIXON: Balloons? Where the hell they get balloons from?

H.R. HALDEMAN: No idea, sir. But it’s clear that we’re gonna have to bring in the boots to finish this job.

RICHARD NIXON: Good. Make sure Walter Washington gets the police on the job. Arrest all of them.

H.R. HALDEMAN: We’re unsure the District has room in it’s jails for them. We’re gonna have to make….other accommodations.

RICHARD NIXON: Where do you have in mind?

H.R. HALDEMAN: We can have a stockade set up in RFK.

RICHARD NIXON: Good. I expect this problem to be cleared up by this time tomorrow. You think Washington will comply?

H.R. HALDEMAN: If he wants to be reappointed by you, he ought too.

RICHARD NIXON: Then things are set. Get this cancer out of my backyard….and Henry, try and keep the cameras off all this.

H.R. HALDEMAN: I’ll do my best, Mr. President.

RICHARD NIXON: One last thing.

H.R. HALDEMAN: Yes, Mr. President?

RICHARD NIXON: I want to be sure that nothing is done to the veterans. I want the word out-not on the street, but among the blues-that if any of them even claim to be a veteran, they’re to be released immediately, understood? I want the word out that they don’t get touched. Not at all. Don’t do a damn thing to them. Just let ‘em raise hell. The punk kids, those who aren’t claiming to be veterans, and you know, their…their uh, easy to pick out. Those are the types I don’t give a damn about. But the veterans among them are not to be touched.

H.R. HALDEMAN: I’ll put the word out.

Sunday, May 2nd, 1971: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat dismisses Vice President Aly Sabri after the latter criticized Sadat’s support for Qaddafi’s proposed Federation of Arab Republics. Sadat’s decision to purge Sabri from the top levels of power in Egypt is viewed by National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger as a worrying sign that Egypt is more committed to the Arab Federation than previously thought.

Monday, May 3rd, 1971: Walter Ulbricht is “retired” from office in East Germany, being stripped of his position of General Secretary of the ruling Socialist Unity Party. Though he remains the county’s ceremonial head of state, real power lies in the hands of his successor Erich Honecker, an orthodox Stalinist.

Tuesday, May 4th, 1971: Days after 1,200 protesters were kept confined inside RFK Stadium due to their involvement in large scale protests that disrupted much of Washington, a rally is held outside the Justice Department’s offices. In a freak coincidence, one of the speakers leading the event (which demanded the release of those jailed at RFK Stadium) was a wanted fraudster John Froines, who was dragged offstage by police officers within a matter of minutes after being recognized.

Thursday, May 6th, 1971: Louisiana Governor John McKeithen quietly forms an exploratory committee to allow him to put together a small but professional political operation; he quickly finds there is no shortage of donors in his home state, eager to put their Governor into the White House.

Friday, May 7th, 1971: Congressman Pete McCloskey (R-CA), a critic of the Vietnam War who has butted heads with the Nixon administration, tells the Los Angeles Times that he is weighing whether to enter his name into the New Hampshire ballot. Promising to run on an anti-war platform, McCloskey admits he has little chance of winning, and instead is hoping to demonstrate the anti-war wing of the GOP’s political power in the hopes of influencing the administration’s direction on foreign policy matter.

Sunday, May 9th, 1971: The Los Angeles Times reports on the recent business activities of eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, who had in recent years been buying up failing television stations across the country. Though the iconic businessman does not comment on the report, it is widely rumored in Hollywood that he is considering launching a major national television network that could compete with ABC, CBS, and NBC.

Monday, May 10th, 1971: At a cabinet meeting at the White House, Vice President Agnew angers President Nixon when he attempts to talk over National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger. Afterwards, Nixon dispatches his Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman to the Vice President’s office with a simple message: “next time, just sit down and shut the  up.” This incident is the beginning of a long, slow fissure that developed between the President and Vice President.

Wednesday, May 12th, 1971: President Nixon privately meets with Treasury Secretary John Connally in the Oval Office, where he quietly offers the Vice Presidential nomination to the former Texan Governor should Agnew agree to stand down from the ticket. 

Thursday, May 13th, 1971: The House of Representatives votes narrowly by a margin of 201-197 to revive federally funded research into supersonic airplanes. Spurred on by the French’s development of the Concorde, President Nixon has aggressively pushed American’s major airplane manufacturers such as Boeing to look into building an even faster plane.
[hr.]
Friday, May 14th, 1971: The Pakistani army massacres over 800 Hindu civilians in the village of Demra in Bangladesh, committing horrific acts of sexual abuse and torture on those unfortunate enough to be rounded up by them. With the help of Islamist rebels who view the socialist Awami League as a threat to the predominance of Islam in Bangladeshi society, hundreds of people are systematically slaughtered in a vicious fashion.

Quote from: The Nixon Tapes (C) 2015
ROSEMARY WOODS: Mr. President, I have your brother on the line.

RICHARD NIXON: Patch him through….

DONALD NIXON: Hello?

RICHARD NIXON: How are you, Donald?

DONALD NIXON: Fine, fine. I wanted to know –

RICHARD NIXON: Look, Donald, I have a question for you. I want you to hear me out on all of this.

DONALD NIXON: Ok, go right ahead.

RICHARD NIXON: Well as you may have read in the papers or whatnot, this deal with Ted isn’t working.

DONALD NIXON: You mean Agnew….or Kennedy?

RICHARD NIXON: Yes, Agnew.

DONALD NIXON: And why is that?

RICHARD NIXON: He’s the laziest micromanager I’ve ever encountered, always interfering in other people’s business around here while rarely accomplishing anything other a few alliterative soundbites that the networks never air anyway. I’m getting kind of sick of him, spending all that time on the golf course doing nothing. He’s useless!

DONALD NIXON: So you’re going to dump him from the ticket?

RICHARD NIXON: Well, that’s the thing. He isn’t going to go quietly. He won’t give up the job easily, unless a better offer comes along. If we dump him from the ticket in 1972, he’ll only rally the conservatives around him, or even worse, his buddy from Hollywood and then we’ll just have an unwanted interloper on our ticket.

DONALD NIXON: In other words, back to where you started?

RICHARD NIXON: Exactly.

DONALD NIXON: I think I can help you on this one.

RICHARD NIXON: How so?

DONALD NIXON: Howard Hughes been pitching this idea for a new network, an alternative to the big three. One that caters to the interests of the hard hats, you know? None of this stuffy Stamford highbrow crap. No more of these arrogant, elitist, prickly hacks masquerading as reporters. He has the money to snatch up God knows how many local television affiliates, but he hasn’t been able to attract the right people to get the project off the ground.

RICHARD NIXON: Interesting idea, but I don’t think Agnew would surrender the trappings of his office just to go into the corporate world. Besides, that guy is one lazy, stupid son of a bitch. No millionaire…well, maybe Hughes, because he’s bonkers…but no other millionaire would want to hire an executive like Ted in a hundred thousand years. No, Ted doesn’t want the money. He has plenty of it, it seems, right now. God only knows where he got it. Ted wants the attention. Maybe that’s how we’ll get rid of them.

DONALD NIXON: Maybe he ought to be on television?

RICHARD NIXON: That’s as good of an idea as I’ve heard. At least so far. The only speech that prick has ever pulled off was about the press. Put him on the tube, have him sing our praises each night, and give him a few million dollars a year. It keeps him from causing us any further harm, it gives them the celebrity needed to pull in an audience, and Ted can go on and rant and rave and bitch and moan until he fades back into irrelevance. And in the meantime, it’ll give the Silent Majority a voice on television for the first time. You think Hughes would be interested in this?

DONALD NIXON: I’ll certainly forward the idea to him.

RICHARD NIXON: Make this happen, Donald. It’s worth pursuing.

Sunday, May 16th, 1971: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat fires seven cabinet members as well as expelling several members of the ruling Arab Socialist Party, citing an unspecified plot against his life as the motivation. The purge predominately targeted allies of the late President Nasser and other pro-Soviet or leftist voices within the government and ruling party. The shakeup in Egypt angers his Libyan and Syrian partners in the Federation of Arab Republics.

Tuesday, May 18th, 1971: Efrain Elrom, the Israeli consul in Ankara, is kidnapped by the People’s Liberation Front, a militant communist group active in Turkey. The militants demand the release of 20 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli custody or Elrom will be executed; the Israelis refuse the groups demands, and Elrom’s body is found with a bullet wound to the head in the trunk of an abandoned car days later.

Wednesday, May 19th, 1971: Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau travels to Moscow as part of an official state visit to the Soviet Union, where he joins Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin in signing an amity agreement. Trudeau, while reaffirming his commitment to NATO, also expresses a greater interest in expanding ties with the varied member states of the Non-Aligned Movement.

Saturday, May 22nd, 1971: The LBJ Presidential Library is opened at the University of Texas in Austin; President Nixon joins former President Johnson at the opening ceremony, as do scores of other invited dignitaries from both Washington and Texas.

Tuesday, May 25th, 1971: The New Democratic Party, South Korea’s chief opposition movement, doubles their presence in the national legislature when they win 90 seats, up 45 from the last election. Despite their successes, the party still lacks the numbers needed to be a real threat to the ruling Democratic Republican Party of President Park Chung-hee.

Thursday, May 27th, 1971: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat travels to Moscow, where he joins Soviet head of state Nikolai Podgorny to sign a Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Cooperation between the two nations. Sadat’s actions anger his neighbor, Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi, who felt Sadat’s decision to seek out an alliance of the Soviet Union and Egypt weakened the internal harmony of the Federation of Arab Republics, which Libya and Syria also belong too.

Friday, May 28th, 1971: Actor and WWII war hero Audi Murphy is killed in a plane crash in North Carolina at the age of 45.

Saturday, May 29th, 1971: South Vietnamese forces retreat from Cambodia after they encountered fierce Viet Cong and North Vietnamese resistance near the village of Snuol. The NVA and Viet Cong inflict over a thousand casualties on the South Vietnamese forces, despite American air support in the form of airstrikes and helicopter gunships.

Sunday, May 30th, 1971: A Grateful Dead concert in San Francisco at Bill Graham’s Winterland Ballroom devolves into chaos after Apple Cider spiked with LSD proliferates through the crowd of concertgoers. Though there are no injuries, the show had to be stopped repeatedly due to the chaotic nature of the crowd.

Monday, May 31st, 1971: Memorial Day is observed in the United States for the first time; prospective presidential candidates use the holiday to speak out against the ongoing conflict in Southeast Asia as Gallup releases a new poll.

Gallup: 1,000 Registered Voters (Nationwide).
(R) Richard Nixon: 41%
(D) Generic Democrat: 39%
Undecided: 17%
Independent/Other: 2%

Gallup: 1,000 Democratic Voters (Nationwide).
Hubert Humphrey: 25%
Edmund Muskie: 23%
George Wallace: 16%
George McGovern: 15%
John McKeithen: 7%
Birch Bayh: 6%
Shirley Chisholm: 3%
Henry Jackson: 2%
Eugene McCarthy: 1%
Harold Hughes: 1%
Vance Hartke: 1%


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Atlas Has Shrugged
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« Reply #6 on: August 19, 2023, 11:26:35 PM »

Did Donald Trump really attend the Frazier-Ali fight at Madison Square Garden IRL? Attending a boxing match doesn't seem like something he'd do. (Actually fighting someone on the other hand...).
He goes to fights.
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« Reply #7 on: August 20, 2023, 07:10:29 PM »

Tuesday, June 1st, 1971: A group calling itself “Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace” march in Washington; though over 10,000 veterans march in support of President Nixon and the war in Vietnam. Though it is the largest pro-war demonstration in recent memory, the number of attendees for the previous anti-war march a month earlier dwarfed those at the pro-war march. Vice President Agnew addresses the crowd of pro-war veterans at the base of the Washington Monument.

Wednesday, June 2nd, 1971: The Razakars, a paramilitary death squad aligned with the Pakistani government and Islamist militias, are deputized as soldiers in the Pakistani authority, effectively giving them the go-ahead to continue their genocidal campaign of village massacres and ethnic cleansing without impediment from the regime of Yahya Khan in Islamabad.

Thursday, June 3rd, 1971: Jimmy Hoffa, who had been incarcerated since 1967 on a number of fraud related charges, announces in a letter to members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters that he will be retiring as President of the union. Despite being tried and convicted of numerous corruption related charges, he continued to manage the affairs of the union from behind bars. His decision to stand down as president of the union was part of an agreement between Hoffa and the Justice Department, which promised him that President Nixon would commute his sentence on the understanding that Hoffa no longer involve himself actively in the labor movement.

Ed Muskie
Friday, June 4th, 1971.
5:20 PM, Nashua, NH.

[1]

The New Hampshire primary was more than half a year into the future, but there was already increased chatter about the Granite State’s increased influence in the wake of McGovern-Fraser. Nobody knew this better than George McGovern, the only officially declared candidate in the Democratic primary race, but he wasn’t to be alone in the race for long. Senator Edmund Muskie had previously served as Governor of neighboring Maine and had later joined Vice President Humphrey on the Democratic ticket that emerged from the chaos of the Chicago convention in 1968. By all accounts he was the leading frontrunner in the wake of Kennedy’s exit from the race, especially with Humphrey’s ambitions for 1972 still being vague.

Officially, Muskie was merely passing through New Hampshire for a day, primarily to campaign for his fellow Senator Thomas McIntyre’s reelection. The Nixon administration had been hoping to recruit a strong challenger to the Democratic incumbent, who held office in a traditionally Republican friendly state. But his mission to New Hampshire was in reality based around his own ambitions, both in the Senate and beyond. Having been the Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee, Muskie’s endorsement carried a lot of weight within the party and particularly in his native New England; now was the time, he thought to himself as he entered a small Irish pub in Nashua virtually anonymously. If anyone recognized him, they didn’t seem to care. Walking to a small booth, Muskie sat down and waited for the man he was due to meet with to arrive. Earlier in the day, when he had been testing the waters with his fellow Senator, he had been impressed by his reception. But off the campaign trail, he was just another suit at the bar. He was testing the waters, and it appeared to be lukewarm at best.

Finally, he spotted a familiar face, who peered over the booths trying to pick out the Senator. It was none other than that of Berl Bernhard, a lawyer and former member of the United States Commission on Civil Rights during the Eisenhower and Kennedy years. Bernhard had worked in the interim years as a law professor before returning to serve as General Counsel of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. This position put him in close proximity to Muskie over the course of the year, and after Kennedy withdrew his name from consideration, it became clear to Bernhard – an unabashed Liberal Democrat – that Muskie was the man for the moment. Muskie came to New Hampshire seeking the support of voters. Bernhard came to New Hampshire looking for a job.

“Senator” said Bernhard as he sat down across the booth from Muskie, who greeted him in turn only with a nod.

“So…how are the waters?” asked Bernhard.

“Not too warm” said Muskie, “but not too cold either.”

“That’s a good start” said Bernhard, who punctuated his remarks with a sigh that vocalized his exaggerated relief.

“If this is the launchpad” replied Muskie, “than I’m not so sure we’ll get to the moon.”

“It’s early…I mean, who else is actually running besides McGovern? You think McGovern can win this thing? Of course not. Nobody does. I wouldn’t be so discouraged.”

Bernhard’s optimism rang sort of hollow to Muskie; a trained lawyer who knew how to pick his every word carefully, Bernhard had already built a psychological profile of him during his time in Washington. He knew, just by osmosis, what made the Senator tick. He also knew how to appeal to his better angels.

“It’s not the people who I think will sink my campaign” continued Muskie.

“Then who? McGovern? God knows Humphrey isn’t going to actively campaign here. McKeithen? Nobody has ever even heard of him. Jackson is never going to fly, Wallace will fracture the party, and the rest just aren’t up to the task. McCarthy? Bayh? Vance Hartke? I mean, these aren’t exactly heavy hitters.”

“It’s Nixon I’m worried about. Now that Kennedy is out of the way, I’m going to be his main target.”

“That is to your benefit” shot back Bernhard, “allow him to frame the narrative for us, then adopt and embrace it. Be the anti-Nixon. Flip the situation on it’s head and turn the White House upside down. They’ll never see it coming, these aren’t exactly the biggest brains in Swampy Bottom.”

“I think centering our entire campaign on just being the frontrunner isn’t going to win me the votes I’d need here” said Muskie, “the people here are talking about bread and butter, not some Washington chess match.”

“Of course” replied Bernhard, who continued in a lawyerly fashion. “If that were the case, Kennedy would have found himself in deep, deep trouble. It’d have created an opening, a vacuum if you will, in which you are the only one who could profit from it.”

“You have an answer for everything” answered Muskie, who was unsure if he meant it or if he were just being sarcastic. The statement rang true, whatever it actually meant. Bernhardt was a prestigious Washington lawyer and bureaucrat who had taught for a stint of Georgetown, so the Senator could only trust in his credentials.

The conversation continued for the better part of an hour before the two parted; Bernhard walked away thinking he had the job. Muskie was less confident. The Senator departed that night torn; Bernhard had the organizational skills and legal bonafides that would make him a great campaign manager. Yet he was also naively optimistic, so blinded by hatred of Nixon that it had become second nature, a personality trait that he, like so many American liberals, simply believed was universal. It was this out of touch mindset, this political aloofness that put off Muskie. Sure, he had the necessary experience navigating the murky waters of the federal bureaucracy, but did he have the political acumen?

Monday, June 7th, 1971: Bengali activists begin circulating millions of dollars in fake currency throughout West Pakistan in part of an effort to cause economic chaos. The proliferation of the counterfeit money becomes so severe that the Pakistani government threatens to execute anyone caught spreading the phony currency.

Thursday, June 10th, 1971: President Nixon issues an executive order lifting the trade embargo on the People’s Republic of China, ending all restrictions on Chinese imports, and allowing for the export of non-strategic items.

Saturday, June 12th, 1971: Tricia Nixon marries attorney Edward Cox at a White House wedding ceremony; as the President and his family as well as the upper echelons of Washington society celebrates the newlyweds.

Sunday, June 13th, 1971: A day after President Nixon celebrated the wedding of his daughter Tricia to lawyer Edward Cox, the New York Times publishes the “Pentagon Papers,” a classified history of American involvement in Vietnam. Though the documents only covered the history of the Vietnam War through the Kennedy and Johnson presidency, the leak still greatly rattles the administration. Seeking an injunction to prevent the full publication, the case quickly gets tangled in the court system.

Quote from: The Nixon Tapes (C) 2015
RICHARD NIXON: Hello?

ROSEMARY WOODS: Mr. President, Doctor Kissinger is on the line.

HENRY KISSINGER: Mr. President?

RICHARD NIXON: Henry, how are you? How are things in California?

HENRY KISSINGER: Well, I just got here, and I have to leave early tomorrow morning, so I’ll be back by the afternoon.

RICHARD NIXON: Oh, I see. I see.

HENRY KISSINGER: How was the wedding?

RICHARD NIXON: It could not have been more wonderful, Henry, it was a very lovely ceremony. A very special day for us.

HENRY KISSINGER: That is very nice to hear, Mr. President. I’m sorry I had to miss it. I’m assuming at some point today you’ve talked to Haig?

RICHARD NIXON: Yes, yes, I talked to Al.

HENRY KISSINGER: It seems as if things are quieter now –

RICHARD NIXON: Not here!

HENRY KISSINGER: I can imagine so.

RICHARD NIXON: Al was very disturbed by that New York Times thing.

HENRY KISSINGER: Well, Mr. President, I think that –

RICHARD NIXON: Unconscionable damn thing to do!

HENRY KISSINGER: It is unconscionable Mr. President.

RICHARD NIXON: Of course, it’s….it’s unconscionable on the part of those that leaked it. But that has to do with the previous administration, to my understanding. None of it relates to us. Am I correct in that?

HENRY KISSINGER: Yes, Mr. President, that is correct.

RICHARD NIXON: But my point was….what I want to know, I guess, is whether it was one of our guys involved in the leaking? Do we know?

HENRY KISSINGER: In public opinion, it actually, if anything, will help us a little bit, because this is a gold mine of showing how the previous administration got us in there.

RICHARD NIXON: I didn’t read the thing. Tell me…give me your view on that in a word.

HENRY KISSINGER: It just shows the mismanagement of how we got there, and it all pins it on Kennedy and Johnson.

RICHARD NIXON: Yeah.

HENRY KISSINGER: And McNamara. From that point of view, it helps us. From the point of view of the relations with Hanoi, it hurts a little, because it just shows a further weakening of resolve.

NIXON: Yeah.

HENRY KISSINGER: It’s good copy for them. They will sell a lot of papers today.

RICHARD NIXON: I suppose The Times ran it to affect the debate this week.

HENRY KISSINGER: Oh yes, no question about it.

RICHARD NIXON: Well…I don’t think it’ll have that kind of effect.

HENRY KISSINGER: No. No, because it’s….in a way, it shows…..it shows what they’ve tried to do. I think they outsmarted themselves, because they had put themselves….they had sort of tried to make it “Nixon’s War,” and what this massively proves is that, if it’s anybody’s war, it’s Kennedy’s and Johnson’s.

RICHARD NIXON: Yeah?

HENRY KISSINGER: So now these Democrats bleating about what went wrong –

RICHARD NIXON: I haven’t heard what any of them have had to say –

HENRY KISSINGER: The usual chorus of criticism from the usual suspects. Bayh, McGovern, Kennedy, they have all tried to bounce this back on you, but it was very weak –

RICHARD NIXON: Well, judging by what you’ve told me, they really must be just trying to reach.

HENRY KISSINGER: They’re grasping into the unknown, hoping to latch onto anything.

RICHARD NIXON: This is treasonable, Henry.

HENRY KISSINGER: Exactly.

RICHARD NIXON: Doesn’t it involve secure information? Stuff like that? What kind of people would do such things!

HENRY KISSINGER: It has the most…it has the highest classification.

RICHARD NIXON: Yeah, yeah.

HENRY KISSINGER: It’s treasonable, I hold no doubt. I am absolutely certain this violates all sorts of national security laws.

RICHARD NIXON: Well…what do we do about it? Do we ask a…?

HENRY KISSINGER: We talk to Mitchell?

RICHARD NIXON: No…you tell Mitchell, uh, you tell…

HENRY KISSINGER: This is not an occasional leak from the Defense Department….this is everything they had on - 

RICHARD NIXON: Yeah, let me ask this – call Mitchell. I think you should talk to Mitchell, and uh, tell him that we need to bring this fellow in on the grounds that this is a national security leak, and that we need to know who he is, what he has, and who he’s shared it with. Put him under oath.

HENRY KISSINGER: We should probably wait until –

RICHARD NIXON: Another way to do this is to have a congressional committee haul him in.

HENRY KISSINGER: - we should probably do it after Wednesday.

RICHARD NIXON: Think about it, have him go before a congressional committee under oath. If he lies, he committed perjury. If he sings like a bird, we might be able to root out some of their allies embedded in the bureaucracy here.

HENRY KISSINGER: I can talk to Mitchell when I get back into Washington.

RICHARD NIXON: Good, I’ll have Al brief him ahead of your arrival. Thank you, Henry.

HENRY KISSINGER: You’re welcome, Mr. President.

Monday, June 14th, 1971: Senator Mike Gravel (D-AK) enters portions of the “Pentagon Papers” into the Congressional Record, drawing the ire of his pro-war colleagues in the Senate. He read excerpts of the leaked documents for three hours, frequently being heckled by pro-war Senators from both parties who claim the Alaska Senator is abusing his position to make a political stand. Gravel’s national status is raised because of his actions on the Senate floor.

Tuesday, June 15th, 1971: A judge in New York issues an injunction against the New York Times, prohibiting them from publishing any further content from the Pentagon Papers for four days or until the matter can be resolved in court.

Wednesday, June 16th, 1971: President Nixon declares the “War on Drugs” in a televised speech from the Oval Office, in which he highlights growing concerns about the prevalence of drugs in the country as well as his administration’s own plans on how the federal government will address it. Nixon calls for the House and Senate to pass legislation that would create stiffer penalties for drug smugglers as part of his plans to crack down on crime.

Thursday, June 17th, 1971: Secretary of State William Rogers and the Japanese Foreign Minister sign a treaty in Okinawa that would return the island to Japanese control. America had retained control of the island since 1945, using it as a military outpost in Asia despite the post-war government of Japan’s attempts to recover the island. The treaty effectively ends the territorial dispute and sets an orderly transition in process while simultaneously strengthening bilateral relations between the two nations.

Friday, June 18th, 1971: The Washington Post begins independently publishing copies of the Pentagon Papers, despite the injunction issued against the New York Times for doing the same. The Post’s editor Ben Bradley receives a threatening phone call from William Rehnquist, the Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Legal Counsel, demanding that they refrain from publishing any further exerts. Bradley refuses and hangs up the phone in defiant anger.

Monday, June 21st, 1971: British MP Geoffrey Ripon arrives in Luxemburg for direct negotiations with representatives of the European Economic Community. The British Prime Minister Edward Heath had strongly supported British membership in the European common market, but there remains skepticism of the European project in both the Conservative and Labor parties.

Tuesday, June 22nd, 1971: The International Court of Justice rules that the South African occupation of Southwest Africa is illegal under international law and should cease immediately. The ruling is ignored by the Apartheid regime in South Africa, who continue to resist efforts by the Southwest African People’s Organization (SWAPO) militias to achieve independence.

Thursday, June 24th, 1971: After days of negotiations, the British are admitted to the European Economic Community. Though the EEC’s willingness to allow Britain entrance into is a victory for the government of Prime Minister Edward Heath, there are still strong elements of opposition to Britain joining the European Community on both the left and right that threatens Heath’s efforts to bring Britain into the EEC.

Friday, June 25th, 1971: President Nixon hosts his former interparty rival Nelson Rockefeller in the Oval Office, primarily to discuss policies related to criminal justice issues, in particular controlling the flow of narcotics into the country. Rockefeller, whose administration in New York has taken a firm line against the production, importation, and distribution of illegal narcotics ranging from marijuana to opiates, encourages the President to push for stricter criminal penalties for drug dealers during their two hour long discussion.

Monday, June 28th, 1971: Brooklyn mobster Joseph Colombo is assassinated at an Italian American Civil Rights League led unity rally at Columbus Circle in New York City. Colombo is shot twice in the head by Jerome Jackson, a hired gun who posed for a photo with Colombo before withdrawing a pistol and shooting him three times in the head before one of Colombo’s own men shot and killed him as well. The gangland slaying in broad daylight becomes a source of controversy in New York City, with Mayor John Lindsey calling for greater state and federal efforts to tackle organized crime in response to the killing.

Daniel Ellsberg surrenders himself to federal authorities in Boston at the urging of his friend Richard Holbrooke after the Justice Department charged him under the provisions of the Espionage Act.

Wednesday, June 30th, 1971: In The New York Times vs. The United States, the Supreme Court rules 6-3 that the Nixon administration’s attempts to stop the New York Times from publishing the Pentagon Papers was unconstitutional. The paper’s editors confirm it will resume printing excerpts the next day.

Gallup releases updated polling displaying the shape of the 1972 presidential landscape as the summer gets well underway.

Gallup: 1,000 Registered Voters (Nationwide).
(R) Richard Nixon: 41%
(D) Generic Democrat: 39%
Undecided: 17%
Independent/Other: 2%

Gallup: 1,000 Democratic Voters (Nationwide).
Hubert Humphrey: 24%
Edmund Muskie: 24%
George Wallace: 18%
George McGovern: 14%
John McKeithen: 8%
Birch Bayh: 5%
Shirley Chisholm: 3%
Henry Jackson: 1%
Eugene McCarthy: 1%
Harold Hughes: 1%
Vance Hartke: 1%

[1] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)

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« Reply #8 on: August 20, 2023, 10:10:33 PM »

Thursday, July 1st, 1971: Ohio’s legislature ratifies the 26th amendment to the constitution, giving it the necessary majority of states needed for ratification. The White House confirms the President will certify the amendment in the coming days. The 26th amendment, upon formal certification, will go into effect immediately. The amendment’s provisions set the voting age at 18, lowering it from 21.

Friday, July 2nd, 1971: Romanian leader Nicolae Ceausescu issues the “July Theses” in a speech before the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party. The speech calls for a cultural revolution in Romania, in which all art, architecture, and culture was to be reshaped to propagate the values of the ruling party. Perhaps the most independent minded of the Eastern Bloc leaders, Ceausescu’s desire to embrace what he calls “national communism” was inspired by his tour of China and North Korea, where he met personally with Mao Zedong and Kim Ill Sung respectively. Impressed by the pervasive personality cults established under these regimes, Ceausescu uses the July Theses to establish one of his own.

Saturday, July 3rd, 1971: Jim Morrison, lead singer of the rock group The Doors, is found dead in Paris at the age of 27. His death is later ruled to be the result of an accidental overdose on an “eight ball” that contained heroin and cocaine, amongst other substances.

Sunday, July 4th, 1971: The United States marks Independence Day across the nation, with President Nixon and the First Lady leading festivities in Washington with their daughters and sons-in-laws.

Monday, July 5th, 1971: President Nixon certifies the 26th amendment to the constitution at a ceremony at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, which results in the voting age being reduced to 18. The President is hopeful that his decision to support efforts to lower the voting age will be appreciated by young voters as his reelection campaign looms in the foreground.

Tuesday, July 6th, 1971: Legendary jazz musician Louis Armstrong dies at the age of 69 in New York, hours after completing a concert at the Waldorf-Astoria. An autopsy later reveals that Armstrong had died suddenly from a heart attack while alone in his hotel room.

Wednesday, July 7th, 1971: Hastings Kamazu Banda is declared President-for-Life of Malawi by the country’s parliament; unlike most leaders in Africa, Banda is one of the few outwardly pro-western leaders and has been controversial amongst his peers for his willingness to engage diplomatically with the apartheid regimes in Rhodesia and South Africa.

Thursday, July 8th, 1971: While on a fact-finding tour of the Middle East, National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger falls ill and reportedly has taken refuge at a remote mountain resort near the country’s capital. In reality, this is only a cover story for his actual mission. After arriving in Pakistan, Kissinger was in reality shuttled by private jet from Islamabad to Peking, where he is hosted for three days by Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai for top-secret high-level negotiations.

Friday, July 9th, 1971: Louisiana Governor John McKeithen travels to New Hampshire, where he finds a rather cold reception. After appearing at three sparsely attended events, the McKeithen campaign determines that the best way forward is to pull all resources from the state and focus on other early primary states such as Florida.

Saturday, July 10th, 1971: National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger quietly returns to Washington from Peking, with journalists and the public entirely in the dark about the real nature of his three-day disappearance from public view.

In Morocco, soldiers inspired by Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi launch an abortive coup against King Hassan II, storming the palace during his birthday party in a violent attack on the royal family. The army manages to put down the coup attempt, with a number of top-ranking generals and officers being detained on suspicion of involvement in the plot.

Henry Kissinger
Saturday, July 10th, 1971.
10:33 AM, Washington, D.C.


[1]

“The situation in…um…Red China” said Kissinger, who looked directly at Vice President Agnew when he used the latter two words, “is stabilizing. The influence of Lin Biao has seemed to pacify Madame Mao’s most destructive instincts.” Gathered around him in his West Wing office was a small cabal of White House Staffers, all of whom were keen on getting the details from the man himself about his secretive summit with the Chinese Premier. Present were Vice President Agnew, who despite being the #2 to the President was as out of the loop as everyone else, speechwriter Patrick Buchanan, Deputy National Security Adviser Al Haig, and presidential adviser John Ehrlichman. Chief of Staff Haldeman was out of the office, enjoying the morning with his family. So was the President, who was tucked away at Camp David with his wife, daughters, and sons-in-laws.

“The influence of Lin Biao over the army is critical” continued Kissinger, “it is a moderating force that has kept the frenzied masses at bay several times. But while Lin offers stability, he does not offer an opportunity.”

“Why is that?” asked Haig.

“He is an orthodox Maoist, one committed to the cause of the Chinese revolution and the proliferation of global communism. And he is ruthlessly competent in a way that even the Chairman envies.”

“Did you meet him or encounter him at all?” asked Buchanan.

“No, only Zhou. Neither Lin nor Mao were present, and I never entertained any expectation of meeting either…not on this trip, at least.”

“You’ve been invited back?” asked Ehrlichman, perplexed.

“Yes” answered Kissinger, “in October. But there’s more than that.”

“There is?” asked a confused Haig, who was only seeing his superior for the first time since Kissinger’s return to Washington only a few hours before.

“They invited me back in October to further discuss the possibility of establishing diplomatic relations.”

The room fell silent for a second as the staffers took in this historic news; only Buchanan, the West Wing’s most arch anti-communist, spoke up.

“How are you even talking to the Reds at all?” asked Pat, surprised by the revelations.

“The Ping Pong team” answered Kissinger, who continued “it was through them, God knows why, that the Chairman chose to open the lines of communication.”

“So you’ll be going to China in October?” asked Pat once again, still trying to make sense of the stunning revelation from Kissinger.

“Yes, I will be returning to Peking then” continued Kissinger, “but I won’t be the only one going to China.”

There was a stunned pause for a moment as the others took in the historic nature of what they knew Kissinger would be saying next.

“The President has been extended, and has accepted, an invitation from the Chairman himself to visit the People’s Republic of China.”

“This October?” inquired Haig. “No” Kissinger replied, “the details of such a momentous state visit will need to be worked out. It will likely not take place until 1972.”

“When will this be announced?” asked Ehrlichman. Haldeman signaled his interest in his counterpart’s question.

“Next week” Kissinger answered confidently, even though the President himself had not yet decided on how to convey such monumental news to the public.

Monday, July 12th, 1971: Two days after a violent coup attempt against King Hassan II failed, the government of Morocco severs diplomatic relations with the Libyan Arab Republic after accusing Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi of sponsoring the coup attempt.

Tuesday, July 13th, 1971: The Jordanian army is deployed to several Palestinian refugee camps in order to root out various Palestinian militias that have been growing on Jordanian soil in recent months. The decision of King Hussein to deploy the military against the Palestinian factions leads to Islamists in the country accusing the King of being too cozy towards western interests.

Thursday, July 15th, 1971: President Nixon stuns the world when he announces in a televised speech from the Oval Office that he has accepted an invitation from Zhou Enlai to visit the People’s Republic of China.

Friday, July 16th, 1971: Senator Hubert Humphrey (D-MN) tells the Minneapolis Tribune that he has “no active plan” to enter the Democratic presidential primaries, but also affirms that he would accept the presidential nomination of the party should he be drafted into the race at the convention. Humphrey also states that he is “pleased by his prospects” should he hypothetically enter the primary race, a statement which effectively gives his supporters the go-ahead to continue with their draft efforts.

Sunday, July 18th, 1971: The Trucial States, a collection of six Arab Sheikhdoms on the coast of the Persian Gulf, is formed after the British military withdraws from the oil rich region. The six respective Sheikhs, who were effectively the rulers of a string of small British protectorates, begin negotiating amongst themselves to form what will later become the United Arab Emirates.

Monday, July 19th, 1971: Major Hashem al-Atta leads an attempted coup in Sudan with other leftist aligned military officers against the regime of military dictator Jaafar Nimeiry; the coup crumbles after briefly seizing the presidential palace in Khartoum and al-Atta is quickly captured and executed by forces loyal to Nimeiry.

Wednesday, July 21st, 1971: New York’s Republican Mayor John Lindsey criticizes President Nixon in a lengthy op-ed published by the New York Times, in which he lambasts the administration for “betraying the confidence of millions of progressive Republicans” and called for the party to return to it’s “Roosevelt roots.”

Friday, July 23rd, 1971: Jorge Pacheco Areco is impeached by the Uruguayan legislature for suppressing the civil liberties of citizens following an upsurge in militant leftist activity in the country earlier in the year.

Saturday, July 24th, 1971: The New York Times runs a piece entitled “Can a Negro Woman be President?” authored by Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm. While the New York Congresswoman denies interest in running for President herself despite a growing draft movement, the Congresswoman none the less calls on the United States government to “resemble and not only just represent the collective masses.”

Sunday, July 25th, 1971: The Al-Badr brigade, a paramilitary death squad of East Pakistani Muslims who oppose the independence of Bangladesh, murder 150 men in a brutal massacre in the village of Shohaghpur, before sexually abusing their widows in a display of graphic brutality which shocks the western world. Bengali liberation fighters vow to avenge their fallen comrades, praising them as martyrs and calling for increased public resistance to the West Pakistani regime’s ongoing implementation of martial law.

John McKeithen
Wednesday, July 28th, 1971.
2:25 PM, Jacksonville, FL.


[1]

Running for President was hard work, but fortunately for J.J. McKeithen, his appeal of “won’t ‘ya help me?” seemed to be paying off. Checks big and small had been pouring into his hastily organized campaign’s headquarters in Baton Rouge, and the folksy Louisiana Governor had been the talk of the town up in Washington after announcing his presidential campaign during a live television interview. The second candidate after McGovern to enter the race, McKeithen shared the same playbook as the insurgent prairie progressive who had so dramatically altered the internal dynamics of Democratic presidential politics. He had chosen to avoid the first in the nation primary in New Hampshire, due to the unfamiliar territory and close proximity to neighboring Maine, where the newest frontrunner, Senator Muskie dominated. It would prove to be a smart decision; by avoiding the crowded field in the Granite State, McKeithen was free to campaign vigorously in Florida. Only Governor Wallace and Senator Jackson seemed to have any significant support in the state, and the liberal Governor Reuben Askew – perhaps wanting to weaken Wallace’s grip on the Florida Democratic electorate – even invited his Louisianan counterpart to meet with him at the Governor’s mansion in Tallahassee the day before.

But now the pulls of politics had dragged him to Jacksonville, where he was due to address a large gathering of local Democrats. The only prospective presidential contender to accept their invitation, McKeithen was greeted by an integrated (if still mostly white) crowd of voters who were as curious as anyone else to see the latest rising star within the Democratic field. Already polling just shy of ten percent, McKeithen was gaining momentum, and the size of the crowd ensured that the talk about the Louisiana Governor’s rise would be taken more seriously than just a couple of good polls. With the precision of a surgeon, he had refined his stump speech. After a brief introduction by Congressman Charles Bennett, who had already endorsed his candidacy (the first Congressman outside of the Louisiana delegation to do so) it was McKeithen’s turn to step up to the microphone.

“I’m John McKeithen, governor of Louisiana, and you don’t know me from Adam. So, you ask, why should I listen to this fella rant about running for President? Well, friends, I may not be from Jacksonville, but I’m a father who loves his family; I’ve worked hard for all I have, my parents were working folk, just like you. I’m a veteran, I love my country and I’m concerned about the future. That’s why I’m in this race. As governor of Louisiana I did three things; I brought jobs, I improved education and I invited blacks to join us in creating a better state for everyone. I want to bring honesty and hard working values back into the government of the United States. To borrow an old riverboat expression, I want to cut the cards before that Washington crowd deals the next hand. As a hard-working father I want to say my peace about how this country should be going, and what’s gone wrong under Mr. Nixon, and why the lefties aren’t doing much better. I want to leave our country a better place for all of our children. I’m running for President. Won’t you he’p me?”

In a few short sentences, McKeithen had summed up his candidacy in a way that Muskie, Humphrey, McGovern, or Jackson could never dream of. Even the outspoken Alabaman George Wallace, who had a way with words, couldn’t so succinctly sum up the qualifications of his candidacy in such a laymen manner. Of course, there was more to speech – a handful of paragraphs more – which he quickly ran through, but the point had already been made. McKeithen was a bread-and-butter outsider, neither a racial demagogue nor a darling of the New Left, one with cross regional appeal who could challenge Nixon’s stranglehold on the so called “silent majority” by sidelining the looming question of Vietnam to focus on a platform centered around kitchen table issues. As McKeithen finished his address to the gathered crowds, he stepped off stage to an awaiting journalist, who was quick to thrust a tape recorder into his face. He identified himself and his paper, the Jacksonville something, but the noise of the throngs of people gathering around him to shake his hand and perhaps get a picture drowned out most of what he said. The Governor’s son “Fox” McKeithen, a young man of 24 years, stepped in front of the Governor, shielding him briefly while he talked to the journalist.

“Why are you entering the Democratic presidential primaries?” asked the reporter.

“Well, the way I see it” began McKeithen, “if I don’t do it, someone else will. But that someone else might now win. Because that someone else might not be focused on what matters most to the American people.”

“But very few Americans, outside of Louisiana, are aware of your record as Governor and your various accomplishments in office. How do you plan on breaking out in a potentially crowded field?”

“I’m a Governor who improved racial relations in a Jim Crow state. I’m a Governor who built more schools than he did jails. I’m a Governor who made Louisiana a top destination for anyone seeking a good job. In a few years, I’ll be able to brag that I’m the Governor who built the Superdome. Notice a theme here? I’m not a Washington insider who is all talk and no action. I’ve served in an executive role, and I kept all the promises I made.”

“Since announcing your candidacy on national television last month, there has been a surge of interest in your campaign and your vision for the Democratic Party and for America at-large. But there recently have been allegations of your involvement in the cycle of corruption that seems to define Louisiana politics. Do you have any comment on allegations of pay to play cronyism involving associates and members of your administration?”

“I ain’t got nothing to hide” said McKeithen confidently, “now, if you excuse me, I ‘got some ‘meetin and some ‘greetin to do.”

Saturday, July 31st, 1971: Apollo 15 successfully lands on the moon, with astronaut David Scott being the first of this mission’s crew to step on to the lunar surface.

Gallup releases new polling ahead of the 1972 election.

Gallup: 1,000 Registered Voters (Nationwide).
(R) Richard Nixon: 43%
(D) Generic Democrat: 41%
Undecided: 13%
Independent/Other: 3%

Gallup: 1,000 Democratic Voters (Nationwide).
Edmund Muskie: 22%
Hubert Humphrey: 20%
George Wallace: 16%
George McGovern: 15%
John McKeithen: 7%
John Lindsey: 7%
Birch Bayh: 5%
Shirley Chisholm: 3%
Henry Jackson: 2%
Eugene McCarthy: 1%
Harold Hughes: 1%
Vance Hartke: 1%
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« Reply #9 on: August 21, 2023, 11:04:36 PM »

Sunday, August 1st, 1971: The Concert for Bangladesh, hosted by Beatles musician George Harrison as part of an effort to raise awareness and funding for humanitarian relief in the war torn region of East Pakistan, is held in New York City’s iconic Madison Square Garden. Attended by 40,000 concert-goers, Harrison is joined by Bob Dylan, Leon Russell, Ravi Shankar, Billy Preston, Eric Claption, and Ringo Starr.

Monday, August 2nd, 1971: Secretary of State William Rogers announces that the United States will drop its opposition to the United Nations admitting the People’s Republic of China as a member state but insists that the Republic of China cannot be allowed to be expelled from the body as a result of Red Chinese entry into the organization. The Nixon administration’s willingness to welcome China back into the international community is the latest sign that relations between the two countries are warming.

Tuesday, August 3rd, 1971: The House and Senate pass a joint resolution calling on President Nixon to devalue the dollar. The Congressional resolution cites a report which contends a devaluation would prevent a recession as America’s gold reserves dwindle.

Wednesday, August 4th, 1971: In the wake of an attempted Libyan sponsored coup, King Hassan II of Morocco fires his entire cabinet and effectively abolishes the position of Prime Minister.

Friday, August 6th, 1971: Senator Ed Muskie tells the Boston Herald that he will not base his decision on whether to run for President or not on Senator Humphrey’s role in the race. Though Muskie had been Humphrey’s running mate in 1968, polling shows him slightly ahead of the former VP.

Saturday, August 7th, 1971: Apollo 15 returns to Earth with a successful splashdown in the Pacific after completing their lunar mission.

Sunday, August 8th, 1971: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a Soviet dissident who has spoken out against the suppression of religion in the Soviet Union and his time in a gulag, is poisoned by the KGB inside a department store in the city of Novocherkassk. Solzhenitsyn survives the poisoning attempt but is severely ill for several days.

Monday, August 9th, 1971: John McKeithen resigns early as Governor of Louisiana in order to focus on his presidential bid. With his term set to expire in January, Lt. Governor Clarence “Taddy” Aycock assumes the office as Governor of Louisiana for the remainder of his term.

Tuesday, August 10th, 1971: In the face of increased militant violence in Northern Ireland, the region’s Prime Minister Brian Faulkner implements martial law. The British military begin rounding up hundreds of suspected militants and Irish Republican Army associates as part of a campaign to curb separatist violence in the volatile region.

Wednesday, August 11th, 1971: New York City Mayor John Lindsey announces he will be leaving the Republican Party and joining the Democratic Party instead. This immediately stokes speculation that the Mayor is weighing a presidential run in 1972. The Mayor denies any interest in seeking the Democratic nomination, but does predict that he could beat President Nixon in a general election should he later choose to run.

Quote from: The Nixon Tapes (C) 2015
ROSEMARY WOODS: Mr. President, I have Doctor Kissinger on the line.

RICHARD NIXON: Put him through.

ROSEMARY WOODS: One moment, Mr. President.

RICHARD NIXON: Thank you Rosemary…

HENRY KISSINGER: Mr. President?

RICHARD NIXON: Morning Henry, I understand you will be returning tonight?

HENRY KISSINGER: Yes, Mr. President, I believe I am due to fly out from Honolulu in a matter of hours. I plan on returning to the office tonight, if you need to see me.

RICHARD NIXON: I don’t think that will be necessary, Henry, but I wanted to tell you that I did get through the memo that Haig left for me –

HENRY KISSINGER: Excellent.

RICHARD NIXON: I saw that Gromyko was down there in India talking to that damned Foreign Minister of theirs –

HENRY KISSINGER: It is a deliberate provocation, Mr. President. The Soviets are luring the Indians with a treaty of friendship and mutual assistance, yanking them into their clutches because of the changes in regard to our policy with China. Tomorrow, I will give their Ambassador unshirted hell!

RICHARD NIXON: Absolutely! They need to know that if they go with the Russians, then they are going against us!

HENRY KISSINGER: I –

RICHARD NIXON: Now, Goddamnit, they’ve got to know this...Goddamnit, who’s giving them a billion dollars a year? sh**t, the Russians aren’t giving them a billion dollars a year, Henry

HENRY KISSINGER: I am going—we have to keep this in the NSC system because –

RICHARD NIXON: Right.

HENRY KISSINGER: - the combination of Bill and Sisco is going to be hip-shooting all over the place if they do it alone, and all on the Indian side because they’re very influenced, as you know, by The Washington Post and New York Times.

RICHARD NIXON: sh**t.

HENRY KISSINGER: Indeed.

RICHARD NIXON: Well we have to let that bitch in New Delhi know that this is unacceptable.

HENRY KISSINGER: The Russians major reason for this maneuvering is that they’re afraid of what you will do in Peking if they’re in a posture of hostility to you. So they would like to have the visit hanging over Peking. They would like that you have the visit in the pocket. For that old witch to betray us like this…I guess I should not be surprised, she’s a very shrewd woman.

RICHARD NIXON: We slobbered all over her, gave her country billions of dollars in foreign aid. She will not be able to go home and say that the United States didn't give her a warm reception and therefore in despair she's got to go to war. The Indians are a slippery, treacherous people.

HENRY KISSINGER: They’re the most aggressive bastards around.

RICHARD NIXON: Have you ever seen their women? I can’t think of a more sexless, unappealing bunch on the planet. People say that about the black Africans, but look at the Indians for s sake! At least the Africans have some animal like vitality there, the Indians? Eck! Ugh!

HENRY KISSINGER: Hahahaha.

RICHARD NIXON: Maybe we can get Peking to put a little pressure on India, maybe shoot a few bullets across the border and scare them off the Pakistani’s back.

Friday, August 13th, 1971: Syria and Jordan sever diplomatic ties after a border incident between their respective armed forces that was triggered by Jordanian expulsion of Palestinian refugees.

Saturday, August 14th, 1971: President Nixon decides to take America off the gold standard after a summit with his top economic advisers and officials at Camp David. The decision is scheduled to be announced the following night from the Oval Office.

Sunday, August 15th, 1971: In a nationally televised Oval Office address, President Nixon announces what becomes known as the “Nixon Shock.” During his remarks, Nixon announces that Treasury Secretary John Connally will close the “gold window,” thus ending rules which allows foreign governments to convert US dollars for gold. The President also announces the implementation of wage and price controls, which he insists are only temporary, in order to help stabilize the American economy. The decision to implement the price controls were in part due to the feared short term economic consequences of the American withdrawal from the Bretton-Woods system.

Monday, August 16th, 1971: President Hastings Banda of Malawi becomes the first foreign leader since King George VI to visit South Africa, at the invitation of the Apartheid regime. Malawi is the only country in Africa to have diplomatic relations.

Tuesday, August 17th, 1971: Senator Birch Bayh (D-IN) forms an exploratory committee to weigh whether or not he should seek the Democratic nomination for President in 1972. After Senators Hughes, McGovern, and Governor McKeithen, Bayh is the fourth Democratic candidate to publicly launch a campaign.

Thursday, August 19th, 1971: Colonel Hugo Banzer Suarez, with covert American support, launches a military mutiny in the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz. Capturing the town’s radio stations, Colonel Banzer calls on his supporters to march on the capital of LaPaz and overthrow incumbent leftist President Juan Jose Torres.

Friday, August 20th, 1971: In Damascus, Syria, President Hafez al-Assad is joined by Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat and Muammar Qaddafi of Libya for the signing ceremony that formally established the Federation of Arab Republics’ constitution. Under the agreement, the three heads of state would serve as the members of a presidential council that would govern the proposed pan-Arab federation.

Saturday, August 21st, 1971: George Jackson, a Black Panther and inmate who had been imprisoned at Soledad Prison in California since 1961 for armed robbery successfully escapes from Soledad prison after using a gun smuggled in by his lawyer Stephen Bingham to take a guard hostage and free several inmates. Capitalizing on the small riot caused by his actions, Jackson finds a blind spot on the fence-line and jumps over it unnoticed. When guards retake the cell block, they discover Jackson’s absence as a statewide manhunt begins. Jackson’s notoriety as both a writer and militant, make him one of the most wanted and well-known inmates to escape custody in the country.

Sunday, August 22nd, 1971: President Juan Jose Torres of Bolivia flees the country for exile in Argentina after soldiers loyal to Colonel Hugo Banzer shoot their way into the presidential palace in La Paz; the new ruler of the country, Hugo Banzer, is a right-winger with ties to business interests and the planter elite. Assuming the position of President, Banzer immediately begins purging the Bolivian army of all Torres supporters.

Monday, August 23rd, 1971: Representatives of the Britain, France, the USSR, and the United States as well as East and West Germany reach an agreement on the status of Berlin; the East German government agrees to allow unimpeded transport to and from Berlin, while the West silently agrees to the grim reality that the Berlin Wall was there to stay.

Tuesday, August 24th, 1971: The Canadian military dismantles an anti-aircraft missile system that Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau considered obsolete. President Nixon and Secretary of Defense Laird had both appealed unsuccessfully to the Canadian government to keep the program in place, considering it vital to the security of the North American continent’s arctic upper reaches.

Wednesday, August 25th, 1971: Tanzania lodges a diplomatic complaint against Idi Amin’s regime in Uganda, claiming that Ugandan soldiers launched a cross border raid and stole weapons and ammunition from a Tanzanian military outpost, resulting in four soldiers being killed by the attackers. Idi Amin fires back, claiming that the raid was a rescue mission, and that the four soldiers killed had in reality been Chinese nationals wearing Tanzanian uniforms. The bizarre claim is not widely believed in the west, but little action is taken against the Ugandan president besides a few statements of condemnation from Westminster and the State Department in Washington.

Thursday, August 26th, 1971: Georgios Papadopoulos, the military backed Prime Minister and de-facto dictator of Greece, announces that he will dismiss seven military officers from his cabinet and appoint civilian officials instead. While this news is welcomed by the Greek public, who have grown increasingly tired of military rule since 1967, it is in reality merely a cosmetic change designed to help Papadopoulos to consolidate his power. King Constantine II remains in exile in London, living under the protection of his relative the Duke of Edinburgh, husband of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

Friday, August 27th, 1971: Chadian President Tombalbaye severs diplomatic ties with the three member states of the Federation of Arab Republics after he accuses Libyan and Egyptian intelligence agents in aiding a coup plot in his country, citing the recent attack on the King of Morocco as an example of Libyan meddling in neighboring nations.

Saturday, August 28th, 1971: Outgoing Senator Fred Harris (D-OK) announces that he is weighing a presidential bid, and travels to New Hampshire with his wife, Native American activist LaDonna Harris, to test the waters. He stops short of forming an exploratory committee, instead paying for the trip out of his own pocket. 

George Wallace.
Sunday, August 29th, 1971.
WSFA Studios.
9:35 AM, Montgomery, AL.

[1]

George Wallace had largely laid low over the course of the year; he had his own personal political fiefdom in the form of the solid south, which provided him a core base of support from which to build a political campaign off of. The Governor did not need to demonstrate his ambitions with repeated trips to New Hampshire to beg for votes, nor did he often find himself in Washington. But today he found himself in territory that was quite familiar – the WSFA studio in Montgomery. The station was a local affiliate of NBC and would play host to the Governor as he appeared on that morning’s broadcast of Meet the Press. It was no secret that Wallace was still eying the Presidency; after having mounted an unsuccessful primary challenge to President Johnson in 1964, Wallace had bolted from the Democratic Party in 1968 to lead the American Independence Party, but his efforts to deadlock the electoral college stalled when Nixon narrowly beat Humphrey in the end. Now, with the 1972 election looming, Wallace was considering giving a presidential campaign another go-around, after having already been returned to his old job as Governor of Alabama less than a year earlier.

With the camera crew adjusting their equipment and with the makeup artists and other assistants fleeing the set, the camera trained itself on the Governor, who was to appear on the broadcast in a matter of moments.

LAWRENCE SPIVAK: Governor Wallace, thank you for joining us this morning. The question on everyone’s mind up here in Washington is whether or not you will be entering the Democratic presidential primaries. Have you made up your mind on whether or not you will run?

GEORGE WALLACE: Well, Lawrence, to tell you the truth, the answer is a firm no, no I have not made up mind to run for President. Have I been approached? Almost everywhere I go in Alabama or elsewhere, I hear encouragement from everyday American people who want me to run. But I have not made up my mind. No.

LAWRENCE SPIVAK: Do you have a deadline on when a decision needs to be made?

GEORGE WALLACE: I’d reckon sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

LAWRENCE SPIVAK: Are you concerned about Governor McKeithen’s candidacy?

GEORGE WALLACE: I ‘aint concerned about anyone’s candidacy because I’m not a candidate. I have no rivals. I have one job, and that is as Alabama’s Governor, and I intend to do that job for the time being. I don’t want to speak ill of Governor McKeithen, who despite our various disagreements on some issues has been a tremendous Governor for the fine folks in Louisiana.

LAWRENCE SPIVAK: Why do you think that Governor McKeithen has recently rocketed out of obscurity, so to speak, in the latest polls?

GEORGE WALLACE: Well, I think it’s because he is very much like me. He’s a Washington outsider. He’s constantly trying to fix the messes that the fat cats and nitwits in Washington are always creating for us Governors. And I think that people really like that.

LAWRENCE SPIVAK: Now to another pressing matter, what are your thoughts on the President’s decision recently to withdraw the United States from the Bretton Woods….

Monday, August 30th, 1971: Senator Harold Hughes (D-IA) firmly rules out a 1972 presidential bid despite a substantial amount of support for a draft effort in his native Iowa, where he remains extremely popular. Hughes had formed an exploratory committee in April and had made a number of trips to New Hampshire, where his candidacy failed to gain the same traction, it did in his home-state.

Tuesday, August 31st, 1971: Gallup releases new polling ahead of the 1972 election.

Gallup: 1,000 Registered Voters (Nationwide).
(R) Richard Nixon: 43%
(D) Generic Democrat: 42%
Undecided: 12%
Independent/Other: 3%

Gallup: 1,000 Democratic Voters (Nationwide).
Edmund Muskie: 21%
Hubert Humphrey: 21%
George Wallace: 15%
George McGovern: 15%
John McKeithen: 8%
John Lindsey: 6%
Birch Bayh: 5%
Shirley Chisholm: 3%
Henry Jackson: 2%
Eugene McCarthy: 1%
Fred Harris: 1%
Vance Hartke: 1%

[1] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
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« Reply #10 on: August 21, 2023, 11:35:51 PM »
« Edited: September 23, 2023, 12:03:26 PM by ChairmanSanchez »

Wednesday, September 1st, 1971: Voters in Egypt, Libya, and Syria vote overwhelmingly in favor of the adoption of the constitution Federation of Arab Republics, setting in motion the pan-Arabist dream to unite the Arab world. In spite of the constitution’s adoption, all three member states of the so called Federation continue to act independently, and there is virtually no central control of the federation.

Thursday, September 2nd, 1971: Former Senator Eugene McCarthy (D-MN) signals his interest in running for President again after addressing a small anti-war protest at the campus of Harvard University, where he denies interest in forming a third party and confirms his continued membership in the Democratic Party.

Friday, September 3rd, 1971: Qatar declares independence from the United Kingdom under the leadership of Emir Ahmad bin Ali Al Thani. The country was originally slated to join the Trucial States, but Qatar’s relatively larger size and population in comparison with the other Trucial Emirates resulted in mutual distrust arising between the Sheikhs; thus, Qatar declared itself independent and sought out international recognition in its own right.

The Plumbers.
Saturday, September 4th, 1971.
Los Angeles, CA.


The break-in was easy enough. All they had to do was hammer a wedge through the door, which they promptly taped shut from the inside to prevent the appearance of burglary from anyone who would happen to pass by. They had flown the day prior to L.A. from Washington, spending the afternoon at a seedy hotel that served as their base of operations. The men were there on a mission – to seal a leak, once and for all. They weren’t killers. They could be, but they weren’t. In reality, they weren’t unlike the reporters whom they’d desperately wanted to remain unaware of their activities. Desperately searching for a story, or in their case, dirt on Daniel Ellsberg, the man identified as the leaker behind the Pentagon Papers.

The “Plumbers Squad” was formed by Egil Krogh and David Young, two subordinates who answered to White House adviser John Ehrlichman. Control of this particular operation, at least on the ground, was delegated by Krogh to be Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy. Under their command were three former employees of the CIA, Bernard Baker, Felipe de Diego, and Eugenio Martinez, who scoured through the office of a certain Doctor Fielding. Tearing open file cabinets, they haphazardly sifted through dozens of files in search of anything that bared Ellsburg’s name under the illumination of their flashlights. Liddy stood by the door as lookout, clutching on to a revolver for dramatic effect more than for necessity. It wasn’t a dangerous mission, but it was their first, and there could be no room for error.

“Hey Howard” Martinez yelled, “I got something here.”

Hunt darted over, shining his light on the files. Indeed, it appeared that they had found what they were looking for. He skimmed page after page of handwritten notes, saying nothing, his face expressionless. After about three or four minutes, after having run through the whole file, he simply dropped it onto the ground.

“Fuck” bemoaned Hunt, “we came all this way…all this way for this? There are nervous housewives who are nuttier than this guy.”

“Maybe that’s a good thing” said Libby, “he has no excuse now. He wasn’t compelled to do this because his imaginary friends told him too. Now we can nail the bastard.”

“Fifty-fifty chance if it goes to jury” said Hunt, “I don’t like ‘em odds. We’re dealing with a traitor here.”

“We’ll get him one way or another” said Libby, “time to get the hell outta here.”

The men left, leaving the door ajar and the scores of files that they had rummaged through spread across the room. The next morning, Doctor Fielding would be filing a police report, though suspiciously nothing of value seemed to have been taken…

Monday, September 6th, 1971: Congressman Pete McCloskey (R-CA) announces he will seek the Republican nomination for President on an anti-war platform. He is the first official challenger to enter the race in opposition to President Nixon.

Tuesday, September 7th, 1971: The day after Pete McCloskey announced his intention to primary President Nixon, Congressman John Ashbrook (R-OH) quips “I don’t mind Nixon going to China…I just wish he wouldn’t come back.” The archconservative Congressman had become increasingly critical of the President in recent months, and there is a growing movement amongst the most conservative Republicans to lure him into the primaries as a potential primary challenger himself.

Wednesday, September 8th, 1971: Chatter about the 1972 race turns from the Democratic to Republican primaries for the very first time in the wake of McCloskey’s entrance to the race. A report in the Washington Post details the efforts of three separate movements to draft Proctor and Gamble CEO Howard Morgens, Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ), and Congressman John Ashbrook (R-OH) into the race as a conservative alternative to Nixon. Both Morgens and Goldwater express support for the President’s reelection when pressed further by the press.

Thursday, September 9th, 1971: Rioting in New York’s infamous Attica prison breaks out after the prisoners seized control of a cellblock and took 42 civilian and prison employees hostage. Led by 21-year-old LD Barkley, the riot quickly forces New York’s Governor Nelson Rockefeller to take action and deploy the National Guard.

Friday, September 10th, 1971: Senator Winston Prouty (R-VT) loses his battle with cancer, resulting in Governor Deane Davis naming Congressman Robert Stafford to the seat. Congressman Stafford ranked among the most outspokenly liberal Republicans in the House of Representatives, which did not please President Nixon, who privately grumbled to Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott (R-PA) that Stafford would not be able to be relied upon.

Saturday, September 11th, 1971: Former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev dies at a Moscow hospital at the age of 73. News of his death is largely buried by Brezhnev and his allies, with only a small blurb in Pravda appearing in the obituary section. The public are kept in the dark about the details of his private funeral to prevent it from becoming a potential demonstration against the party apparatchiks who had pushed him out of power.

Sunday, September 12th, 1971: Lin Biao, a Chinese general and the designated successor of Chairman Mao, attempts to overthrow the regime of the Chairman in an apparent military coup. The plan to assassinate Mao by blowing up a bridge as his train crossed failed when the train was rerouted at the last minute, leading many co-conspirators to bolt from the plot when they mistakenly believed they were discovered. This leads Lin to call off the planned coup, but it is too late, and Mao catches wind of the plot. Fearing for his life, Lin flees China for the Soviet Union by plane with his family, but they are allegedly shot down by Chinese jets over Mongolian airspace on the orders of Chairman Mao. The failed coup devastates Mao, who has lost both his heir and his erstwhile friend in the crash, and results in the Chairman becoming even more paranoid than he was before.

Monday, September 13th, 1971: The National Guard storm Attica, where the prisoners resist violently. 11 hostages and 33 inmates are killed in the ensuing crossfire, which was clouded in tear gas released during the storming of the prison. Governor Rockefeller faces widespread criticism for the violent nature of the crackdown on the riot, though the Governor defends the actions of law enforcement and blames the deaths on the actions of the inmates.

Wednesday, September 15th, 1971: 15 people are killed and 57 injured in a bombing that targets a French owned nightclub in Saigon. The blast is attributed to the Viet Cong by authorities in South Vietnam, though there are local rumors circulating that ARVN forces were to blame for the bombing after the owner refused to be extorted for protection money from them.

Thursday, September 16th, 1971: Following a stroke he suffered in August, Justice Hugo Black announces he will step down from the Supreme Court. The Justice’s decision to retire comes as his health rapidly began to decline and gives President Nixon a new opportunity to reshape the Supreme Court.

Friday, September 17th, 1971: With Hugo Black’s resignation from the Supreme Court taking effect, the President tasks Attorney General John Mitchell with drafting a list of suitable replacements for him.

Saturday, September 18th, 1971: President Nixon names Donald Rumsfeld as Chairman of the Cost of Living Council, a job that within the context of the White House staff is largely viewed as a demotion. Rumsfeld had previously served as the Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity and now worked as a counselor to the President with the broadly defined title of “anti-poverty czar.”

Sunday, September 19th, 1971: At a secretive summit in the Executive Office Building across the street from the White House, John Ehrlichman instructs the Plumbers Squad to cease intelligence collecting operations against Daniel Ellsberg. This comes after a risky break-in to Ellsberg’s psychologist’s office in California failed to drudge up any new or relevant information. Despite the lack of success, Ehrlichman is still pleased by Hunt and Libby’s effective break-in and considers employing their work in the future.

Monday, September 20th, 1971: President Nixon nominates Romana Acosta Banuelos, a Mexican American businesswoman from southern California, to serve as the next Treasurer of the United States. The CEO of a food supply company that services Hispanic owned restaurants across California, Banuelos had immigrated from Mexico in the 1940s as a single mother with two small children before launching her successful business enterprise.

Tuesday, September 21st, 1971: The Senate votes 55-30 to pass an extension of the draft at the request of the President. Though President Nixon insists that he remains committed to both ending the war and afterwards the draft, anti-war activists are enraged and argue that President Nixon is acting insufficiently on his promises of “peace with honor.”

Thursday, September 23rd, 1971: Just a week after Hugo Black retired from the Supreme Court, Justice John Marshall Harlan II shocks Washington when he announces that he too will retire from the federal bench for health reasons. President Nixon and Attorney General Mitchell are now in the position to search for two nominees to fill the empty seats on the court.

Fred Harris.
Friday, September 24th, 1971.
Washington D.C.


[1]

“My father is a small farmer in southwest Oklahoma. My wife, LaDonna, is a militant woman and an activist member of the Comanche Indian Tribe. Our daughter, Kathryn, is a college senior.
 
My father has less than a high school education. He works twice as hard as most Americans. He knows he pays more than his fair share of taxes, while a lot of rich people do not. He is a proud man. He has always been able to take care of his own, through hard work. Now, as is true of most small farmers and working men and women, he is worse off economically than he has been since the Depression. Everything he buys costs more, but his own real income is less.
 
My mother suffered a stroke three years ago and has been in a coma since then. My father cannot pay my mother's medical bills. And he's hurt and angry about that. He knows it doesn’t have to be that way.
 
My wife grew up in a home where Comanche was the first language. She resents the fact that maximum security prisons are mostly peopled by blacks, chicanos, American Indians, Puerto Ricans and poor people. She never believed that George Jackson was shot in the top of the head from a guard tower. Something told her that the Attica hostages didn't die at the hands of the prisoners. She was right.
 
My daughter wonders why a government that can trace Angela Davis to a motel room can’t stop the heroin traffic. She says aloud what a lot of older people haven’t yet put into words: human values are the most important, and America needs something to believe in.
 
I have listened to black people in San Francisco, old people in Miami, students in Des Moines, small farmers in Oklahoma, working men and women in Akron, activist women in New York and Vietnam veterans in Albuquerque.
 
Two strong impressions emerge: A considerable amount of people can't believe America has ever been to the moon. That's because they doubt the credibility of government. And because it seems so illogical to them that our nation could spend so much money on space when so many of our people here on earth can't buy medical care. Most people don’t believe that it makes much difference what politician is elected. They don't really believe things are going to change.
 
1972 is a crucial year. America won’t be the same in 1976. I intend to try to turn this country around before it's too late. I have called this press conference for that reason, today. I am a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.
 
People have a right to believe that if they get interested in a presidential campaign, than maybe things will change. I believe that a President can call this country back to the greatness that is in us all. I mean to try.
 
I mean to give people a voice through the campaign itself. I intend to hold hearings on the problems of the elderly. I mean to visit the hospital wards with Vietnam veterans. I mean to go into the prisons and to walk the streets where working men and women live. A campaign itself can give power to the powerless. I mean to do that.
 
We can have a better distribution of income. We can have a better distribution of power. We can have a return to idealism in foreign policy. Now is the time, and I’m happy to speak up and speak out. Any questions?”


Sunday, September 26th, 1971: President Nixon spends the weekend at Camp David with Attorney General John Mitchell, where they review options for the two vacant seats on the Supreme Court. Afterwards, Nixon departs on Air Force One for Anchorage, Alaska, where he is due to meet with the Emperor of Japan the following day for a historic meeting between the two former WWII enemies.

Monday, September 27th, 1971: President Nixon greets Emperor Hirohito of Japan in Anchorage, Alaska, for a quick hour-long meeting inside the city’s airport while the Emperor’s plane was there refueling. The meeting is not an official state visit but was rather a hastily arranged stopover as part of the Emperor’s planned European tour. The Emperor is the first Japanese head of state to leave the country in his tenure, though he had toured Europe as Crown Prince fifty years earlier in 1921.

Tuesday, September 28th, 1971: Heavy fighting in Bangladesh continues as the liberation struggle plays out in the most brutal fashion imaginable; the Bangladesh rebels call upon India to intervene against the Islamabad based regime, an alarming development in Washington who fear a potential conflict between the two nations could spill over and destabilize the entire continent.

Wednesday, September 29th, 1971: Secretary of State William Rogers and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko ink an agreement in Washington in which the United States and Soviet Union agree to jointly upgrade the Moscow-Washington hotline as well as expand direct communications between the Soviet Foreign Ministry and the State Department as part of an effort to avoid nuclear conflict in times of tension between the two opposing superpowers.

Thursday, September 30th, 1971: Gallup releases their latest monthly poll surveying the presidential field as the 1972 election draws closer.

Gallup: 1,000 Registered Voters (Nationwide).
(R) Richard Nixon: 44%
(D) Generic Democrat: 43%
Undecided: 10%
Independent/Other: 3%

Gallup: 1,000 Democratic Voters (Nationwide).
Edmund Muskie: 20%
Hubert Humphrey: 20%
George McGovern: 15%
George Wallace: 14%
John McKeithen: 10%
John Lindsey: 7%
Birch Bayh: 6%
Shirley Chisholm: 3%
Henry Jackson: 2%
Eugene McCarthy: 1%
Fred Harris: 1%
Vance Hartke: 1%

[1] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain).
[2] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain).
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« Reply #11 on: August 22, 2023, 04:01:00 PM »
« Edited: August 22, 2023, 04:04:36 PM by ChairmanSanchez »

Friday, October 1st, 1971: The People’s Republic of China marks National Day without any ceremony or celebration, including any appearances by the aging Chairman Mao. Though the government doesn’t give any official reasoning for the canceled celebrations, it is widely believed by observers and analysts that Peking continues to be in chaos following the rumored coup attempt the month before by Lin Biao.

Saturday, October 2nd, 1971: President Nixon privately approaches Congressman Richard Poff (R-VA) about the possibility of taking a seat on the Supreme Court. Though Poff is interested in serving on the federal bench, he declines the President’s offer, knowing that the press scrutiny he would face would reveal to his adopted teenaged son the truth about his real parentage.

Sunday, October 3rd, 1971: In an appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation, Senator Henry Jackson (D-WA) confirms he is considering entering the Democratic presidential primaries, promising to announce his decision about a potential candidacy by the end of the year.

Monday, October 4th, 1971: The Federation of Arab Republics announces that Egyptian President Anwar Sadat will assume the office of President of the Federation; despite the support of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi and Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, the election of Sadat as President of the Federation is largely a titular affair, with Sadat exercising influence only over his native Egypt in reality.

Tuesday, October 5th, 1971: Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm (D-NY), Congresswoman Patsy Mink (D-HI), and Congresswoman Bella Abzug (D-NY) form the Women’s Political Caucus, a political vehicle to support the burgeoning feminist movement in America.

Wednesday, October 6th, 1971: Senator Birch Bayh (D-IN) announces that his wife Marvella has been diagnosed with breast cancer, and that he is reconsidering entering the Democratic presidential primaries as a result of this development.

Thursday, October 7th, 1971: The government of Canada adopts a multicultural policy of bilingualism, making French an official language of Canada alongside English. The policy is highly controversial within Canada, though Quebec native Pierre Trudeau – the incumbent Prime Minister – insists the legislation that implemented these changes will help further integrate rather than divide Canada.

Friday, October 8th, 1971: Chairman Mao is photographed with his Premier Zhou Enlai as they greet visiting Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie in Peking; noticeably absent is Lin Biao, the Vice Chairman of the Communist Party and the intended successor to Chairman Mao. His absence seems to confirm the rumors circulating in the wake of the coup attempt, which China’s government had not explicitly denied.

Sunday, October 10th, 1971: A bomb outside the United States embassy in Cambodia explodes, injuring 13 people. No Americans are killed or injured in the attack, which is attributed to supporters of the Khmer Rouge.

Monday, October 11th, 1971: John Lennon’s “Imagine” is released as a single in the United States, where it quickly tops the charts to become the former Beatle’s first solo hit since the breakup of the legendary rock group.

Tuesday, October 12th, 1971: Citing his wife Marvella’s diagnosis with breast cancer, Senator Birch Bayh (D-IN) withdraws from the presidential race. Though the Indiana Senator declines to endorse anyone in particular, it is widely expected that most of his supporters would back another rustbelt liberal like Senator Humphrey or a more outwardly liberal candidate like George McGovern.

Wednesday, October 13th, 1971: The House of Representatives approves the Equal Rights Amendment to the constitution by a vote of 354-23, sending the proposed amendment to the Senate for further debate.

Thursday, October 14th, 1971: A Bangladeshi nationalist shoots and kills East Pakistan’s former Governor Abdul Monem Khan, who had supported the regime in Islamabad throughout the ongoing Bangladesh liberation struggle.

Friday, October 15th, 1971: With Senator Bayh out of the presidential race, Senator Vance Hartke – Bayh’s often overshadowed colleague – begins to plot out a possible presidential campaign. Despite low polling, Hartke believed that his lack of name recognition may work to his advantage in the same way Governor McKeithen managed to emerge from obscurity to become a serious contender.

Saturday, October 16th, 1971: Cambodian Prime Minister Lon Nol suspends parliament and declares martial law as part of his regimes ongoing efforts to stifle the Khmer Rouge communist insurgency that has been growing within the country.

Monday, October 18th, 1971: Vice President Spiro Agnew makes a controversial state visit to Greece, his family’s ancestral homeland, as part of the administration’s efforts to boost relations with the Balkan nation, which is a key NATO partner. Agnew’s visit angers human rights activists and Greek exiles who have spoken out against the authoritarian military regime which had displaced both the monarchy and Greek parliament in a 1967 coup.

Tuesday, October 19th, 1971: Congresswoman Patsy Mink (D-HI) announces her intention to contest the Hawaii primary as a “favorite daughter” candidate. Mink confirms that her candidacy is primarily aimed at ensuring the Democratic Party’s anti-war faction is represented at the Democratic convention. With low national name recognition, few resources, and little prospect of winning the nomination, Mink is hoping that her campaign may boost her national ambitions in the future.

Thursday, October 21st, 1971: President Nixon nominates William Rehnquist and Lewis Powell to the Supreme Court to replace the vacancies caused by resignations of Justices Hugo Black and John Marshall Harlan. The Senate Judiciary Committee prepares for hearings to be held in November as the confirmation process for Nixon’s two Supreme Court candidates begins.

Hubert Humphrey
Friday, October 22nd, 1971.
The Capitol Building.
1:25 PM, Washington, D.C.


[1]

Senator Humphrey was rearing to give it another go.

After giving up his seat in the Senate to assume the Vice Presidency in 1965, only three years later to be denied the presidency by Nixon, who used “dirty tricks” to sabotage peace talks between North and South Vietnam in order to thwart Johnson’s planned “October Surprise” bombing halt. Since then, Humphrey had rebounded to some degree – he was able to return to the Senate after his predecessor in the office, Senator Eugene McCarthy, retired from the body. But this was not enough for Hubert Humphrey, who was still bitter about his narrow defeat in 1968 and was eager to claim the Presidency. Having already made presidential bids in 1960 and 1968, Humphrey running in 1972 would come as a surprise to nobody.

But there was one small hurdle – Humphrey didn’t want to “run” at all.

The issue’s roots were engrained in the reality that Humphrey simply didn’t want to contest the primaries, and the realization had dawned upon Humphrey’s closest advisers by October that his mind wouldn’t be changed. He had clearly learned nothing from the chaos of the 1968 convention in Chicago, and still viewed the party’s upcoming Miami convention as more of a coronation than a political process. Having served in the Senate for nearly two decades, Humphrey was well aware of his colleagues’ various strengths and weaknesses. Jackson was too hawkish. McGovern was too radical. Wallace would surely be a non-starter outside of the south, or so thought the former Vice President, and McKeithen was too unknown. Muskie was too bland, Harris too fringe, McCarthy too dated. Not to mention the glaring obstacles that would face a woman like Patsy Mink, much less a black woman, such as Shirley Chisholm.

As the year drew to a close, Humphrey knew it was decision time. At his Washington residence, the Senator had convened his war council for the first time as he prepared to test the waters and possibly even go into battle. There was still enough time, they all argued, to construct a strong campaign apparatus by January, if he would just choose to contest the New Hampshire primary.

“It’d set the rematch narrative” said adviser John Martin Bartlow, a speechwriter who was one of the core members of Humphrey’s decreasing circle of loyalists. Many, like Ted Van Dyk, had been poached by other candidates while Humphrey dithered on the sidelines throughout most of the year. Bartlow continued, telling the Senator that “the people regret the result of 1968; poll after poll proves that. They just don’t want to overcorrect their mistake by electing a crazy like Wallace or a radical like McGovern either.”

“If I contest New Hampshire and I win” answered Humphrey, “I’ll have the whole pack shooting arrows at me, trying to nip at my heals. If contest New Hampshire and lose, I can throw out any credibility I have at the convention to be a uniter.”

“I don’t know about that” warned Larry O’Brien, a Humphrey ally and close confidante of the last nominee. “Think about it” he continued, leaning back into his seat as the gathered henchmen leaned in to hear his counsel, “are you absolutely sure it will even be a brokered convention? The rules changes are quite radical…you never know, Muskie could win New Hampshire and then the rest of the primaries and wrap this thing up. He’s a great guy to play second fiddle, but are you sure you’re ready to put him in the lead role?”

“Well…no. If I did, I’d have endorsed him publicly already.”

“He isn’t running yet” interjected Bartlow. “Yet” affirmed Humphrey, “but we all know he’s in. He’s asked me for my endorsement. So did Hughes and Birch when they were thinking about it.”

“There’s no guarantee that this will be a contested, open convention. More delegates are at stake. The voters have a voice. And the grassroots are going to flex their muscles. Sometimes manpower is stronger than machinery. I’d implore you to take a more organized approach if you want to unite this party in the way you say you do.” O’Brien’s words hid a cryptic message that Humphrey was quick to pick up on. What O’Brien was really saying was: get in now, while I can still help you.

Humphrey thought of himself as the leader of the Democratic Party and sat quietly in slightly resentful disbelief that he was being challenged by his erstwhile ally. Though he knew to some extent that O’Brien, the ultimate insider, was right, he also knew that an organized campaign would expose him to fire from his colleagues that he would not suffer if he stood out of the race.

“What if we let the grassroots nominate me then?” he said, after a long pause. O’Brien’s face betrayed his confusion, but Bartlow and a few others seemed to get the gist. “A draft movement” he continued, “get me on the ballot in the big states and let me focus on my day job. The results will follow…they always have.”

Thus, Hubert Humphrey (kinda sorta) became a candidate for President in 1972.

Saturday, October 23rd, 1971: Typhoon Hester hits Vietnam, causing 85 deaths in the south and an unknown amount of fatalities in the north; the severity of the storm is enough to bring fighting throughout the south to a brief standstill as Viet Cong, American, and South Vietnamese forces all bunker down throughout the storm.

Sunday, October 24th, 1971: Los Angeles’s Mayor Sam Yorty criticizes the policies of New York’s “Republican” Mayor John Lindsey while appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press to discuss issues related to urban life in America. The New York Mayor, who like Yorty has been eying a 1972 presidential run, was to blame for much of the city’s fiscal and law and order related problems according to Yorty, who has prided himself as being among the more pro-war, pro-law enforcement figures within the Democratic Party.

Monday, October 25th, 1971: The United Nations General Assembly votes to recognize the People’s Republic of China as the chief representative of the Chinese people before the United Nations, though a second vote to expel Taiwan (the “Republic of China”) from the body fails narrowly. The decision to recognize the communist government in Peking grants the regime of Chairman Mao a seat at the United Nations Security Council. In response to the decision, Taiwan’s government announces it will not pay any further membership fees to the United Nations in protest of their removal from the UN Security Council.

Tuesday, October 26th, 1971: Agriculture Secretary Clifford Hardin announces that he will resign from his post on November 17th.

Wednesday, October 27th, 1971: On the orders of President Mobuto, the Republic of the Congo is renamed “the Republic of Zaire.” This part of an Africanization program known as “authenticite” campaign being run by the regime of Zaire’s military backed president, who is incorporating African nationalism into his government’s political program to increase public support in the historically unstable former Belgian colony.

Thursday, October 28th, 1971: The British House of Commons passes legislation allowing for British entry into the European Economic Community; the effort by Prime Minister Edward Heath to push for further British integration into Europe has angered some on the right-wing of the governing of Conservative Party as well as many left-wingers within the Labor Party.


Quote from: The Nixon Tapes (C) 2015
ROSEMARY WOODS: Mr. President, I have Senator Dole on the line.

RICHARD NIXON: Put him through.

BOB DOLE: Hello?

RICHARD NIXON: Hello Bob, how are you?

BOB DOLE: I’m fine, Mr. President, I’m doing well.

RICHARD NIXON: That’s great, Bob, now lay it on me…what’s going on?

BOB DOLE: Well, sir, it’s the matter of the Department of Agriculture –

RICHARD NIXON: Ah, yes, Clifford is departing. Yes, very bad news. He did a fine job.

BOB DOLE: He did, certainly, he’s been a friend of farmers everywhere. You know, Mr. President, the farmers back home are mighty interested…you might even say invested in who succeeds him.

RICHARD NIXON: Do you have any recommendations, Bob?

BOB DOLE: I can name a hundred Kansan farmers off the top of my head

RICHARD NIXON: Well, I certainly wish my memory was that good.

BOB DOLE: There’s a rumor going around that your Chief of Staff is talking to Earl Butz.

RICHARD NIXON: He’s one of many under consideration for the position as you know, Bob, but we haven’t settled on a replacement yet. I’m taking it you have a hundred suggestions for the job, and I appreciate it, but I think you’ll be satisfied.

BOB DOLE: Mr. President, do you know what Earl Butz’s motto is?

RICHARD NIXON: No –

BOB DOLE: It is “get big or get out,” Mr. President. We have a lot of family farmers back home in Kansas, Mr. President, and I don’t they can get big and I know they can’t get out. It’ll be mighty hard to justify this one to the folks back home.

RICHARD NIXON: Well, Bob, as I said, Butz is one of many names on our list that are qualified to lead this nation. He has faith in the family farm. I think you’ll be surprised, Bob, just give him a fair hearing.

BOB DOLE: So you do plan to nominate Butz?

RICHARD NIXON: He’s entitled to a fair hearing if I do.

BOB DOLE: I understand, but I –

RICHARD NIXON: Bob, I appreciate your input on this matter very much. The family farmers back in Kansas are lucky to have you as their voice. Thanks, Bob, I’ll bear in mind what you have said. Ok?

(Phone disconnects).

Saturday, October 30th, 1971: Musician Duane Allman dies of injuries sustained in a motorcycle crash the previous day at the age of 24 in his hometown of Macon, Georgia.

Sunday, October 31st, 1971: New polling is released by Gallup.

Gallup: 1,000 Registered Voters (Nationwide).
(R) Richard Nixon: 45%
(D) Generic Democrat: 45%
Undecided: 7%
Independent/Other: 3%

Gallup: 1,000 Democratic Voters (Nationwide).
Edmund Muskie: 21%
Hubert Humphrey: 20%
George McGovern: 17%
George Wallace: 14%
John McKeithen: 12%
John Lindsey: 6%
Shirley Chisholm: 3%
Henry Jackson: 2%
Sam Yorty: 1%
Eugene McCarthy: 1%
Fred Harris: 1%
Vance Hartke: 1%
Patsy Mink: 1%

[1] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
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« Reply #12 on: August 25, 2023, 11:23:44 PM »

Monday, November 1st, 1971: Former Senator Absalom Willis Robertson (D-VA) dies at the age of 85; the former Senator and father of the increasingly notable evangelist Pat Robertson had been defeated in 1966 by LBJ’s backed primary challenger William Spong after Robertson had stood afoul of the President over civil rights issues. The former Senator’s 1966 defeat was an early crack in the Byrd organizations control of the state.

Tuesday, November 2nd, 1971: Gubernatorial elections are held in Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

1971 Kentucky Gubernatorial Election
(D) Wendell Ford: 50.17%
(R) Thomas Emberton: 44.53%
(I) Happy Chandler: 4.45%
(AIP) William Smith: 0.85%
(Democratic hold)

1971 Louisiana Democratic Gubernatorial Primary (First Round)
(D) Edwin Edwards: 22.33%
(D) Taddy Aycock: 21.44%
(D) J. Bennett Johnston: 21.29%
(D) Gillis Long: 16.99%
(D) Jimmie Davis: 12.35%
(D) Speedy Long: 5.27%
(D) Addison Thompson: 0.22%
(D) Jimmy Strain: 0.11%

1971 Louisiana Republican Gubernatorial Primary
(R) David Treen: 92.50%
(R) Robert Ross: 7.50%

1971 Mississippi Gubernatorial Election
(D) William Waller: 74.80%
(I) Charles Evers: 25.20%
(Democratic hold)

Wednesday, November 3rd, 1971: Former Louisiana Governor John McKeithen begins an extensive campaign effort in Florida, a state he views as a critical juncture in the upcoming primaries. McKeithen, who has spent much of the campaign setting himself apart from his more liberal northern rivals, now turns his fire on Governor Wallace, whom he warns is “like McGovern.” Stating that Wallace is, in his view, unelectable and would “hand Nixon another term on a silver platter,” McKeithen’s attacks earn him the ire of the Alabama Governor’s political allies in the state.

Thursday, November 4th, 1971: Despite the fierce opposition of environmental and indigenous activists, the Department of Defense confirms the United States will move forward with an atomic test on an isolated Alaska island after a federal judge rejects a lawsuit attempting to stop it. Anti-nuclear activists attempt to make a last-minute appeal to the Supreme Court, though time is running out.

Saturday, November 6th, 1971: Not to be outdone by Governor McKeithen, Senator Henry Jackson (D-WA) travels to South Florida, ostensibly to address a gathering of Jewish Democrats in Miami. The Palm Beach Post reports that Jackson told voters in Miami that he’ll “be back soon,” and indication that the longtime Democratic Senator may soon enter the presidential race as anticipated.

John Kerry
Sunday, November 7th, 2011.
NBC Studios.
9:35 AM, Washington, D.C.


[1]

LAWRENCE SPIVAK: This morning we are joined by John Kerry, of “Vietnam Veterans Against the War.” Mr. Kerry is currently mounting a bid for the United States Congress in Massachusetts, has testified before both the House and Senate, and has been an active participant and organizer in the anti-war movement since returning from the battleline. He is joined by Al Hubbard. Both had been wounded on the battlefield in Vietnam, and are the principal organizers on an upcoming anti-war protest in Washington on Veteran’s Day. I’d like to start the question with Mr. Hubbard. You served twelve years in the Air Force and were stationed in Vietnam. When did you sour on the war?

AL HUBBARD: Well I certainly was aware before I went to Vietnam that our country was wrong in what it was doing. I thought while I was in Vietnam that I would be able to come to grips with that, but I found that I couldn’t. I rationalized by talking with insurgents that our military forces weren’t needed all over the world and that I didn’t have the full picture of what was going on there.

LAWRENCE SPIVAK: Mr. Hubbard, why do you think your judgement about the war is better than three Presidents?

AL HUBBARD: First of all, it is not my judgement. Twelve thousand members of our organization have helped put together the collective pieces of this puzzle to reveal the real picture of what is going on over there.

LAWRENCE SPIVAK: Mr. Kerry, are you opposed just to the war in Vietnam, or are you opposed to all wars?

JOHN KERRY: I’d like to be opposed to all wars, but I don’t think we’re really in that position as a nation or the world, you know? I think the question is the opposition to this war, why we oppose this war at this time, and why will we be in Washington next week.

LAWRENCE SPIVAK: You believe the war in Vietnam is ultimately a civil war, a conflict started by aggression from the North. What do you base that belief on?

JOHN KERRY: I base that on my experiences I saw fighting day in and day out in South Vietnam, as well as the historical writings and journalistic, um, journalistic articles on the matter. You can see clearly throughout the course of the war that northern aggression against the south has largely escalated in tandem with the increased American role in the south. When we entered the war on this rather flimsy basis, you saw a dramatic increase in insurgent activity in the south. And remember, you can’t wage a guerilla war without willing guerillas – it’s impossible to wage guerilla warfare against the largest air power in the history of the world without the support of the people, which is what the Viet Cong and the north have in the south, whether we like it or not.

LAWRENCE SPIVAK: Gentlemen, we’ll be right back after these messages with our panel for another round of questions. Stay tuned…

Tuesday, November 9th, 1971: The Washington Post reports that Governor Wallace is “martialing his forces” in Montgomery ahead of another presidential run, this time as a Democrat. Several sources ranging from his Chief of Staff down to his personal pilot deny any knowledge as to whether Wallace will ultimately announce his candidacy.

Wednesday, November 10th, 1971: Cuban Premier Fidel Castro arrives in Santiago, Chile, where he is welcomed at the airport by President Allende and tens of thousands of their socialist supporters. Allende is the first Latin American leader to officially recognize and welcome Castro on a state visit, an alarming development in Washington, where President Nixon privately grumbles on tape to Kissinger that Allende’s presidency was turning the continent into a “red sandwich.”

Citing low polling and dwindling campaign funds, Senator Fred Harris (D-OK) abandons his presidential campaign and declines to endorse a candidate as he exits the race. Though the Senator did not throw his weight behind any particular candidate, Senator McGovern – the key leading liberal in the race – begins to actively court the Senator for his endorsement.

Thursday, November 11th, 1971: 50,000 people march in Washington against the Vietnam War; while the protests do not reach the same numbers that some previous demonstrations had attracted, the event none the less boosts John Kerry’s campaign for Congress in Massachusetts.

Friday, November 12th, 1971: As part of the government’s Vietnamization efforts, President Nixon announces the withdrawal of 45,000 additional American forces from South Vietnam. This comes one day after protesters once again swarmed Washington.

Saturday, November 13th, 1971: Mariner 9 becomes the first spacecraft launched by NASA to reach the orbit of Mars. Both the United States and the Soviet Union had tried unsuccessfully before to launch various probes into Mars orbit in previous attempts at competing Mars missions.

Monday, November 15th, 1971: British Foreign Minister Alec Douglas-Home arrives in Salisbury, Rhodesia, for high level talks with representatives of Ian Smith as part of an effort to bring the apartheid state back into the international community. Prime Minister Smith remains intransigent about minority rule, insisting that Rhodesia will continue the same segregationist racial policies that had made his country a pariah.

Tuesday, November 16th, 1971: Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty announces a longshot presidential candidate at a rally in downtown Los Angeles. Despite being the mayor of one America’s largest cities, Yorty’s staunch conservatism on law and order issues has alienated many Hollywood liberals from his candidacy, and his lack of name recognition outside of southern California hampers his presidential campaign from the outset.

Wednesday, November 17th, 1971: Agriculture Secretary Clifford Hardin resigns; the White House confirms that the President will nominate Earl Butz, an archconservative academic and Dean of Agriculture at Perdue University. Senator Milton Young (R-ND) is the first to speak out against Butz’s nomination, warning that the nomination was “an assault on the family farm,” while Senator Bob Dole (R-KS) expresses his concerns about Butz’s opposition to farm subsidies.

Henry Jackson
Friday, November 19th, 1971.
The Old Senate Office Building.
11:00 AM, Washington, D.C.


[2]

A large gathering of journalists had formed in the Old Senate Office Building’s press room, the same location where a certain Senator named John F. Kennedy had once launched his own presidential candidacy. Jackson knew he was no Jack Kennedy – he was older, he was not as charismatic nor charming, and he was certainly not as wealthy. But like Kennedy, Jackson was tough. A veteran of the Senate from the days of Roosevelt, Jackson had emerged in the 1970s as the leading Cold Warrior of the Democratic caucus, an unabashed anti-communist who feared and loathed the Soviet Union to the same degree as many of his Republican counterparts, if not more so.

Jackson had long harbored aspirations of taking the White House, and with 1972 dawning, his time had emerged. The Democratic Party’s leftward drift wasn’t entirely unwelcomed by Jackson, who was a tried-and-true New Dealer and a proud progressive of the old western variety, a dying breed in the contemporary culture of political radicalism. Jackson saw himself as a more palatable version of George Wallace, one who could build a brand of law-and-order politics without the baggage of Wallace’s racism. The Senator, being well aware of his strengths and weaknesses, had already built a respectable campaign apparatus and had familiarized himself with the primary schedule. New Hampshire and Massachusetts would launch him, he hoped, but it was Florida that was the real prize.

Joined by some of his colleagues, with his fellow Washingtonian, Senator Warren Magnusson, standing to his side, Jackson began his prepared remarks. His first sentence was punctuated by a pause, then the heavy applause from the supporters who flocked to his Capital Hill press conference.

“I am today announcing that I am a candidate for the office of President of the United States.

This is going to be a hard tough fight everywhere, and we’ve got some hard, tough issues that need to be addressed. And I think there has been too much silence in some areas, and I intend to speak forthrightly and directly to the people. I feel very confidently that the people of the country are ripe and ready for that sort of thing. So I’m going to take my coat off, roll up my sleeve, and tell it like it is.

Because that is what Democrats do. We give a damn!”

With our country at war, facing obstacles to domestic tranquility at home and hurdles in the path towards peace abroad, I understand the angst and anxiety that many Americans must now certainly feel. The people of this great nation are yearning for strong, steady, experienced leadership. And that is exactly what I have to offer to the American people….”


The Senator’s core staff looked on. Campaign manager Sterling Munro and Hyman Raskin, a key top adviser, watched from the front row with pride. Somewhere working the crowd was the campaign’s main media man, Brian Corcoran, hurriedly handing out press releases.

“….and I can promise the American people that I will avowedly stand firm against the encroachment of communism and totalitarianism of any form” continued Jackson, “because that is the American way, and more importantly, it is the only way!”

Saturday, November 20th, 1971: Governor McKeithen travels to Atlanta, Georgia to meet personally with Governor Jimmy Carter in pursuit of his endorsement. Carter had previously expressed interest in Senator Jackson’s prospective presidential campaign, and with Jackson now in the fray, McKeithen saw to it that the Georgia Governor’s endorsement was more important than ever.

Sunday, November 21st, 1971: Indian troops attack Garibpur, a strategic town on the border with India in East Pakistan, occupying the town in order to aid the ongoing Bangladesh independence struggle raging within East Pakistan. The Pakistani government describes the attack as an act of war, and mobilizes the Pakistani military.

Monday, November 22nd, 1971: On the eighth anniversary of the assassination of John Kennedy, former President Lyndon Johnson returns to the scene of the assassination for a retrospective interview with NBC’s Barbara Walters.

Tuesday, November 23rd, 1971: Pakistani President Yahya Khan warns that any further Indian interventions in East Pakistan on behalf of Bengali rebels would result in “unprecedented consequences.” In response to the recent mobilization of the Pakistani army, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi orders the Indian military on alert.

Wednesday, November 24th, 1971: A man calling himself “D.B. Cooper” hijacks a passenger plane and demands $200,000 in ransom. The unknown hijacker lands the plane after a suitcase containing the ransom is delivered to him and releases the passengers, before demanding the pilots fly him to another destination. While flying over Washington in a thunderstorm, the hijacker parachutes from the plane, his fate remaining unknown.

Thursday, November 25th, 1971: President Nixon orders airstrikes against the Khmer Rouge after their forces gain ground and threaten the outskirts of Phnom Penh; the bombings force the Maoist rebel army back into the surrounding jungles, where they regroup quickly under the protection of the dense tropical canopy.

Friday, November 26th, 1971: The East German Volkskammer reelects Walter Ulbricht as head of state and Willi Stoph as Premier; real political power continues to be wielded by Erich Honecker, the General Secretary of the ruling Socialist Unity Party.

Saturday, November 27th, 1971: The Soviet Mars-2 probe becomes the first manmade object to reach the surface of Mars, but the spacecraft is destroyed on impact when its parachute failed to properly deploy upon landing.

The People’s Party holds its national convention in Saint Louis, Missouri, where the nascent umbrella of leftist parties nominates pediatrician Ben Spock for President and activist Julius Hobson for Vice President.

Sunday, November 28th, 1971: Jordanian Prime Minister Wafsi Tab is shot and killed in Cairo by gunmen outside of the Sheraton Hotel, where an Arab League summit had been underway. The Palestinian militant group Black September takes responsibility for the assassination.

Monday, November 29th, 1971: Indian and Pakistani forces begin positioning themselves along their respective borders as emergency negotiations take place between the two nations in neutral Iran, where the Shah has offered to mediate talks in Tehran. The talks stall within hours when Pakistan demands India cease all support for the Bangladesh independence struggle.

Tuesday, November 30th, 1971: A day after peace talks fail in Tehran, President Yahya Khan orders airstrikes against the Indian military near the border of East Pakistan, which results in several Indian airfields being bombed by Pakistani planes.

New polling is released by Gallup.

Gallup: 1,000 Registered Voters (Nationwide).
(R) Richard Nixon: 45%
(D) Generic Democrat: 45%
Undecided: 7%
Independent/Other: 3%

Gallup: 1,000 Democratic Voters (Nationwide).
Edmund Muskie: 21%
Hubert Humphrey: 20%
George McGovern: 18%
George Wallace: 13%
John McKeithen: 12%
John Lindsey: 6%
Shirley Chisholm: 3%
Henry Jackson: 3%
Sam Yorty: 1%
Eugene McCarthy: 1%
Vance Hartke: 1%
Patsy Mink: 1%

[1] Still taken from a YouTube video (NBC News)
[2] Taken from History Link.com (Public Domain)
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« Reply #13 on: August 27, 2023, 01:41:58 PM »

Wednesday, December 1st, 1971: Protests in Santiago, Chile, against the socialist government of President Salvador Allende are repressed by the military on the president’s orders. General Augusto Pinochet is given the task of clamping down on the anti-government protesters, predominately women protesting rising food prices, and the General immediately sets out to accomplish the task with ruthless brutality. Over 150 protesters are injured in the melee as security forces dispersed the demonstrations on the order of the President.

Thursday, December 2nd, 1971: The United Arab Emirates is formed from the seven Trucial Emirates on the Persian Gulf, the latest Arab nation to gain independence from British colonial hegemony. The seven Emirates had been small protectorates of the British Empire throughout recent decades and are an awash with oil and wealth.

Friday, December 3rd, 1971: War breaks out between India and Pakistan after Indian forces pore over the border into rebelling East Pakistan, with India declaring it’s support for the Bangladesh independence struggle.

Saturday, December 4th, 1971: Fighting breaks out along the West Pakistani-Indian border as Indian troops gain ground in East Pakistan, quickly pushing back the Pakistani army as supporters of the insurgent Awami League and other separatist organizations begin taking control of larger swathes of territory. There are reports of massacres in East Pakistan perpetrated by both Pakistani and Indian forces, which both nations strenuously deny.

In response to the conflict between India and Pakistan, President Nixon announces a policy of neutrality. In reality, the administration is leaning towards Pakistan, which maintained closer ties to China and the United States than the Soviet friendly regime in New Delhi. At the United Nations in New York, Ambassador George H.W. Bush attempts to introduce a resolution calling for a ceasefire, but this is vetoed by the Soviets.

Sunday, December 5th, 1971: Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm tells the predominately black congregation of a historic Brooklyn Baptist church that she is weighing a presidential campaign in 1972, much to the delight of those in attendance. The audible reaction to her statement alone is enough to convince the Congresswoman to enter the fray, as she would later note in an autobiography.

Monday, December 6th, 1971: The Senate confirms Lewis Powell to the Supreme Court by a vote of 89-1; the lone dissenter is Senator Fred Harris (D-OK), who recently abandoned his presidential aspirations and is retiring from the Senate rather than seek reelection in November.

Tuesday, December 7th, 1971: Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi announces the nationalization of all British Petroleum owned oil wells in the country in response to Britain’s support for Iran in a territorial dispute with the newly formed United Arab Emirates.

Wednesday, December 8th, 1971: The 7th Fleet is dispatched to the Bay of Bengal by President Nixon.

Thursday, December 9th, 1971: The Senate confirms William Rehnquist to the Supreme Court by a vote of 68-26; more controversial than his colleague, the recently confirmed Justice Lewis Powell, Rehnquist is expected to be a reliably conservative voice on the federal bench.

Friday, December 10th, 1971: The Senate confirms Earl Butz as Secretary of Agriculture by a vote of 55-45; Nixon is able to leverage the loss of support from midwestern Republican Senators like Bob Dole by earning the votes of southern Democrats, who are more supportive due to Butz’s strident opposition to farm subsidies and New Deal era agricultural policies.

Saturday, December 11th, 1971: The Committee for a Libertarian Party meets in the living room of Luke Zell’s Colorado Springs home. This meeting is the genesis of the Libertarian Party, formed to be a home for libertarians, objectivists, constitutionalists, and others opposed to what it perceives as “big government policies.” The newly formed political force plans to incorporate a political party and even run a presidential candidate in the 1972 election.

Sunday, December 12th, 1971: Alabama Governor George Wallace appears on CBS’s Face the Nation for another widely watched interview, in which he dangles the prospects of a presidential campaign once again when he rules out making a second bid for the nomination of the American Independence Party in 1972. This signals to most observers that the Governor is committed to entering the 1972 Democratic primaries instead, though the Governor insists that no announcement is forthcoming until after New Year’s Day.

Monday, December 13th, 1971: The People’s Republic of China releases two American prisoners into British custody at Hong Kong; one is Richard Fecteau, a former CIA agent imprisoned by China since 1952. The other is Mary Ann Harbert, an American woman whose yacht had drifted into Chinese waters in 1968 when she was arrested. A third American suspected by the communist regime in Peking, John T. Downey (captured alongside Fecteau when their spy-plane was shot down) remains in Chinese custody, though his sentence is commuted from life imprisonment and is expected to be released in 1976. The Nixon administration continues to work behind the scenes for his release.

Tuesday, December 14th, 1971: Heavy fighting continues to rage across Bangladesh as the Pakistani army fails to hold off the Indian invasion, resulting in most of East Pakistan being “liberated” by either the Indians or the various pro-independence militias; on the western front, the Pakistani army manages to hold off several Indian incursions aimed at penetrating West Pakistan’s borders and splitting the country in half. Both sides sustain heavy casualties on one another in the fierce fighting, with neither army making any significant progress.

The Clean Water Act passes the Senate by a vote of 85-0. It is introduced to the House of Representatives by Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm (D-NY), who in an elegant speech to the House floor decries the pollution of the Hudson River and the Chesapeake Bay. The speech garners her a standing ovation from fellow Democrats in the House.

Thursday, December 16th, 1971: After representative of the G-10 meet at the Smithsonian in Washington, the President announces that the US dollar will be pegged at $38 an ounce rather than $35, representing a nearly 8% decrease in value. Secretary of the Treasury Connally praised the agreement as “a step towards stability” as he extolled the virtues of the agreement to reporters.

The Pakistani army detains 400 intellectuals, doctors, and journalists and subsequently executes them in a night of carnage across East Pakistan. All of the victims had been put on a hit list due to their vocal support for the independence of Bangladesh. The massacre was ordered as Indian troops continue to gain more ground in East Pakistan as the conflict between India and Pakistan continues. Human rights activists around the world decry the regime of Yahya Khan in response to the slaughter, though the Nixon administration continues to quietly voice support for the Pakistani government in diplomatic circles.

Eugene McCarthy
Friday, December 17th, 1971.
The Old North Church.
11:30 AM, Boston, MA.


[1]

The former Minnesota Senator was no stranger to working large crowds in cramped quarters, and even though his star had faded somewhat from the glory days of ’68, Eugene McCarthy was still a radical force for change within the Democratic Party. While it was clear that Senator McGovern had taken up all of the air in the room, running both as an unreconstructed 60’s radical and as an old-fashioned prairie progressive in the same breath with a synergy that was seemingly flawless, McCarthy still had hope for a breakthrough. He, after all, was exactly what McGovern pretended to be – a tried and true American outlier. But as he stepped up to the podium after a round of introductions from a slew of supporters, the Senator felt a sense of nervousness. What if it were all delusion? What if McGovern doesn’t crumble? What if he were too late?

“Good morning, my friends, my fellow Americans, and my fellow fighters for freedom, liberty, justice, and peace. I am here in Boston to announce this morning that I shall be entering my name in the Massachusetts primary and will contest several primary elections throughout the country in the year ahead. I am running for the Democratic Party’s nomination for President once more because it has become abundantly clear that the same forces that had entrenched the brutal policies of the Johnson administration have now aligned themselves in a dark axis with the current Republican administration. This arrangement has left the Democrats adrift in the murky waters of Washington, powerless to bring our boys home from the warzone in Southeast Asia, unwilling to make the dream of Doctor King a reality at home, and afraid to stand up to an administration which projects imperial power with unprecedented arrogance. It is time the Democrats stand up and put a candidate in the ring who can present a clear contrast to this President – I believe I am that candidate."

The Senator saw a path to victory not through New Hampshire, but rather, neighboring Massachusetts. It was why the Senator, who hailed from Minnesota, had chosen to come to Boston, the birthplace of the American Revolution, to launch his campaign. As crowd had assembled outside the famous Old North Church, which once hung the lanterns that prompted Paul Revere’s iconic midnight ride to warn the citizens of Lexington and Concord of the advancing Redcoats, it was appropriate that McCarthy appealed to the revolutionary sentiment of times both past and present.

“I believe that America today is a nation being lied to by a cabal of powerful corporate bigwigs that don’t have your best interest at heart. And worse yet, I believe that we are lying to ourselves. We lie to ourselves when we say that our best days our behind us, that our present difficulties cannot be overcome, and that the elusive promise of peace is but a myth. I am here today to dispel this sense of collective fiction. I will not run this campaign on a platform of fear; rather, I want to elicit a national dialogue and foster a new national understanding across the land.”

Some would perhaps find it ironic that a Senator deemed a “has been” was appealing to the ethos of America’s past, when his rhetoric had always been so radically and rosily progressive and forward looking. But the prospects were grim, the fundraising low, and the polling even lower. McCarthy wouldn’t just need a revolution – he very well may have needed a little magic.

Saturday, December 18th, 1971: India gains total control of East Pakistan, forcing the Pakistani army to surrender and effectively guaranteeing the independence of Bangladesh from Pakistani domination. The victory is celebrated across the war-ravaged region, and ceasefire negotiations between India and Pakistan commence in the city of Dhakka.

Congressman Edwin Edwards narrowly defeats Governor Taddy Aycock in the Democratic primary runoff.

Sunday, December 19th, 1971: A ceasefire between India and Pakistan is agreed to, with Pakistani President Yahya Khan offering East Pakistan autonomy if they choose to remain within Pakistan, an option that is unthinkable to those who fought for Bangladesh’s independence.

Monday, December 20th, 1971: Hours after agreeing to a ceasefire with India, which effectively sealed the fate of East Pakistan, President Yahya Khan is compelled to resign by the Pakistani military in the face of an imminent coup. Foreign Minister Zolifkar Ali Bhutto is named President of Pakistan by the parliament, and he immediately takes the helm of a nation literally split in half by their hostile Indian neighbors. Bhutto announces that martial law will continue in Pakistan until a final political solution to the war can be reached.

Tuesday, December 21st, 1971: The United Nations elects Kurt Waldheim of Austria as the Secretary General of the United Nations, defeating other candidates including the Aga Khan (supported by the United States) and a handful of other diplomats after four days of balloting in New York.

Wednesday, December 22nd, 1971: Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is released from a Pakistani prison and is transferred to house arrest at an undisclosed location. The rebel leaders of the Awami League demand that Rahman be released to help aid in the construction of an independent Bangladesh.

Thursday, December 23rd, 1971: President Nixon commutes the sentence of incarcerated Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa, on the grounds that Hoffa does not resume his activities within the labor movement until 1980. Hoffa is immediately released from a federal prison in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, after serving nearly five years of his sentence.

Sunday, December 26th, 1971: New York Mayor John Lindsey teases a “major announcement” while appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press. The Mayor is set to address a large rally in New York City on Tuesday afternoon, with the New York Times reporting that he is likely to announce a campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.

John Lindsey
Tuesday, December 28th, 1971.
New York City Hall.
3:00 PM, New York City, NY.


[2]

Every four years it's the same story. They come out of Washington, promising, talking, pledging, warning, offering. And we elect a President. And back they all go to Washington. And then what…?

And then something seems to happen. Somehow, from the marble halls of Washington, things begin to look different. Five million Americans are out of work; joblessness is the worst it's been in a decade. And inflation is running away with our wages. That is what the President called "a new prosperity."

The War in Vietnam goes into its 11th year -- the longest, most expensive war we've ever fought: 55,000 of our sons and brothers lie dead; 250,000 more are wounded, thousands crippled for life. That's called "a generation of peace."

Crime keeps going up -- despite all the tough talk and the bragging; and Washington, the nation's capital, is perhaps one of the most dangerous cities of all. That's called "making the streets safe."

A worker earning $150 a week looks at his paycheck -- and sees $40 chopped out in taxes; while millionaires and billion-dollar corporations pay peanuts, thanks to special tax gimmicks and politicians who swap campaign contributions for special favors. That's called "one man, one vote."

 It's time we put a stop to this kind of doubletalk and doublethink. It's time we stopped letting Washington send a President to America. It's time America sent a President to Washington, willing to face the facts of life about life in America  -- and willing to fight for what we need.

We can do it this year -- in 1972. That is why I am announcing my candidacy for the Presidency of the United States today.


Wednesday, December 29th, 1971: Congressman John Ashbrook (R-OH) announces he will run for President in 1972, entering the New Hampshire primary as a conservative alternative to the Nixon administration, which he stridently believes is too soft on communism. Ashbrook joins the President and California Congressman Pete McCloskey as the third Republican to declare their presidential aspirations for 1972, though both of Nixon’s challengers have long odds against them.

Thursday, December 30th, 1971: Former North Carolina Governor Terry Sanford tells the Charlotte Observer that he has been encouraged by other Democrats in the state to enter his name into the Democratic presidential primaries and predicts that corruption allegations against John McKeithen will ultimately doom the former Louisiana Governor’s candidacy.

Friday, December 31st, 1971: Gallup releases their final poll of 1971.

Gallup: 1,000 Registered Voters (Nationwide).
(R) Richard Nixon: 46%
(D) Generic Democrat: 44%
Undecided: 6%
Independent/Other: 4%

Gallup: 1,000 Democratic Voters (Nationwide).
Edmund Muskie: 20%
Hubert Humphrey: 19%
George McGovern: 19%
George Wallace: 12%
John McKeithen: 12%
John Lindsey: 7%
Shirley Chisholm: 3%
Henry Jackson: 3%
Sam Yorty: 1%
Eugene McCarthy: 1%
Vance Hartke: 1%
Terry Sanford: 1%
Patsy Mink: 1%

[1] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
[2] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
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« Reply #14 on: August 27, 2023, 08:31:40 PM »

Saturday, January 1st, 1972: Zairian President Mobuto Sese Sekou announces his “authenticity” campaign in which citizens are forced to adopt African names and wear approved clothing. The aim of the campaign is to eradicate any remnant of Zaire’s colonial past.

Sunday, January 2nd, 1972: Senator Ed Muskie (D-ME) appears on NBC’s Meet the Press as the House of Representatives prepares to resume debate on the landmark legislation that he pushed through the Senate, the Clean Water Act. During the appearance, Muskie states that he will be announcing his political future on Tuesday at a rally in his native Maine.

Monday, January 3rd, 1972: Senator Vance Hartke (D-IN) announces he will seek the Democratic nomination in an op-ed published by the Washington Post, in which he outlines the Nixon administration’s “systemic failures” and criticizes the “culture of mistrust” in the White House. Hartke follows the announcement by making a trip to New Hampshire to court votes, where he finds that his name recognition is almost entirely nonexistent. Even worse for his small campaign staff is the Senators failure to score the endorsement of Senator Bayh, who had run for President briefly himself the year before.

Edmund Muskie
Tuesday, January 4th, 1972.
10:30 AM, Rumford, ME.


[1]
It seemed as if every Democrat in Maine had descended upon the small town in Oxford County where Senator Ed Muskie was born. Hundreds of supporters had flocked to the rally that he was soon to address, expecting to hear his presidential campaign announcement after over a year of speculation. The Democratic Senator from Maine and 1968 Vice Presidential nominee had overtaken his running mate in the polls, leading Senator Humphrey by the thinnest of margins throughout the latter half of the year as the media crowned him the frontrunner. A strong start out of the gate, compounded by a strong win in neighboring New Hampshire, would hopefully be enough to scare Humphrey out of the race entirely. This would allow Muskie to consolidate the Democratic Party’s New Dealer base of labor liberals around his candidacy and cement his position as the one to beat. His path to victory was so clear that he couldn’t help but feel overconfident.

“I have come home to Maine to announce my decision to seek the office of President of the United States.
 
I believe America can once again be a nation of moral leadership and high purpose…a symbol of hope for all mankind. But tonight, our bombs are still falling on Indochina. Tonight, forty of us will be murdered and a thousand of us will be robbed on our own streets, or even in our own homes.
 
Tonight, five million of us will go to bed knowing that there is no job to wake up for in the morning. Tonight, we are a divided and doubtful people, lacking a sense of purpose, worried about the lives we lead and anxious about the lives we will leave our children.
 
This is not what America should be.

Most of us feel the country is headed in the wrong direction. Many feel powerless to stop it. To them I say: we can do something about these problems.
 
Our capacity to work together, once we talk to one another and understand each other, is as deep as it was when the first Americans founded the country and when we welcomed the immigrants. There is not a single problem we do not have the resources to solve if our fears and quiet our doubts and renew our search for the common good.
 
And in that effort, the President must lead. A President must find and touch the common chords of our experience, challenge us to respond to our instincts, and to realize America's potential as a country that for this planet can be full justice for every member of a society.
 
It would be foolish to blame all the nation's ills on the present administration. Some are part of the stresses of modern society. Others are rooted in the injustices of history. But government can lead. It can be truthful. And if our present leadership had been candid with the country, if they had been straightforward, we could have far more than we have.
 
We were promised an end to the war. We have been given a continuing war with more American deaths, more American prisoners taken, and a resumption of the massive bombing which was stopped in 1968. We were promised price stability and prosperity. We have been given 6% inflation, 6% unemployment, the first trade deficit since 1893, an astronomical balance of payments deficit, a world monetary crisis, and forced devaluation of the dollar. We were promised domestic peace. We have been given rising crime, a spreading drug culture, the administration’s intimidation of the press, surveillance of private citizens, restriction of constitutional liberties, and a growing distrust of each other and our government.
 
An administration that has so failed us in the past cannot take us to the future.
 
So this is what I offer you, and challenge you: I am seeking the Presidency, not merely to change presidents, but to change the country. I intend to lead. I intend to ask you to make America what it was to Abraham Lincoln- “the last best hope of mankind.” I intend to ask you to try - and to be willing to try again if we fail - in our fight to keep America as the world’s last great hope.”


Thursday, January 6th, 1972: In reference to Senator Muskie’s decision to run for President, Senator Humphrey tells reporters on Capitol Hill that he will “not base my decision on any particular challenger” and states that he will not be “scared out of the race.” Humphrey lastly confirms that he will make a major speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia on Monday afternoon.

Friday, January 7th, 1972: George Wallace ally Tom Turnipseed tells the New York Times that “the launch countdown is on” in what he thought was an off the record conversation with one of their reporters. He does not give a specific date as to when the Alabama Governor will enter the Democratic primaries.

Saturday, January 8th, 1972: Former Governor McKeithen finds himself in a televised exchange at a townhall event in Sanford, Florida, after an elderly man angrily confronts him for “clamping down on the Klan” and “getting into bed with the coloreds.” McKeithen forcefully replies that he “ain’t interested in the Klan’s endorsement” and that he won’t “pander to nobody, nowhere, no-how, no way, not now, not ever” to the amusement of the audience. Audio of the exchange is broadcast on radio nationwide, endearing the former Governor to liberals who were slightly less skeptical of the Governor.

Sunday, January 9th, 1972: Congressman Wilbur Mills (D-AR), Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, tells reporters that he is interested in pursuing a presidential campaign in 1972. “I’m the only one who can beat Nixon” he boasted, “because I know how Washington works and I know that the voters know that too.” Many dismiss Mills bluster, though some speculation lingers that he could enter the race as a favorite son candidate in his native Arkansas.

Hubert Humphrey
Monday, January 10th, 1972.
Independence Hall.
5:00 PM, Philadelphia, PA.


[2]

I have just signed a certificate declaring my candidacy for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. I chose this historic site of Philadelphia to sign my declaration because it was here that our republic was born -- this city of William Penn who spoke of peace and brotherhood and Thomas Jefferson and gave us the great documents of our democracy. It was here that “We the people…” was proclaimed as the foundation of our institutions.

The next President of the United States will join all Americans in commemorating the 200th anniversary our country. Will we then be a country at peace with others? Will we be a country at peace with ourselves? Will we have healed the wounds of war, violence, and bitterness? Will our system of government be sensitive and responsive to the pressures of change that flooded in upon us? Or will we be paralyzed or muscle-bound? Will we have stirred America to a higher standard of living and a better quality of life? Will Americans be at work – building, creating, developing? Or will we still be limping along, despondent, divided and discouraged?

These are the great issues of this election. The man who occupies the Presidency has the obligation and the opportunity to revive that feeling of common purpose which once inspired this nation -- that mutual respect among the generations, among the races in the groups in this country.

It is all very fine to speak of peace. But I early decided that talk would be wasted if we could not get concrete action, and I’m proud of my role as an architect of the first treaty to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.

In my years of governments experience I have learned on other essential fact: we might suffer an occasional defeat. We all do. But with determination and faith, a man or a nation can grow from defeat.

Persistence and tenacity are old American virtues. I was defeated for Mayor the first time I ran for office -- but I was elected the second time. I was defeated for the Vice Presidential nomination the first time -- but I was later nominated and elected. I was defeated for the Presidential nomination in 1960 -- but I was nominated 1968. I was defeated in the Presidential election of 1968. But I return to the battle determined to mind to do my best to achieve victory in 1972.

We Americans have gone too much of the same kinds of trial and error, of victory and defeat, together. We have had disappointments -- we have taken some severe blows in the last several years. But I know we, the American People, are determined to get back on our feet, to put our house in order, and to get our country moving again. Those who would lead the American people must demonstrate capacity for achievement. That should be the essential criterion, and it is that judgment that I would ask from the American people.

Let me now conclude by reading to you from an undelivered speech of a young President whose philosophy I share. He did not live to see his commitments fulfilled. The words of John F. Kennedy:

 “For this is the time for courage and a time for challenge. Neither conformity nor complacency will do. Neither the fanatics nor the fainthearted are needed. And our duty as a party is not to our party alone, but to the nation, and indeed, to all mankind…

“Let us not quarrel amongst ourselves when our nation’s future is at stake. Let us stand together with renewed confidence in our cause -- united in our heritage of the past and our hopes for the future – and determined that this land we love shall lead all mankind into new frontiers of peace and abundance.”

With your trust and confidence we shall fulfill this commitment and achieve these goals. Thank you.


Tuesday, January 11th, 1972: President Nixon announces he will seek a second term in 1972, formally filing for the New Hampshire primary ballot before confirming his candidacy in a nationally televised address to the nation.

George Wallace
Thursday, January 13th, 1972.
12:00 PM, Montgomery, AL.


[3]

“My friends, America todays need strong and honest leadership. We haven’t had that for a good long while now, and where we are today is the proof of that. Now I have no illusions about the ultimate outcome of the race-we’re gonna shake up the Democratic Party and we’re gonna shake some sense into Washington, and friends, ‘we ‘gonna do it good!

When we live in the most prosperous nation on earth, but our elderly are forced to choose between medicine or groceries even in the era of the “Great Society,” we know we need to do some ‘shakin. When we got these long haired, short tempered little punks rolling into our capital to raise chaos, and when our President is under siege in the White House, you know the time has come for new leadership. When the President of the United States lies on to ‘yalls faces on the television, and you know the truth and you know that he knows too, then the time has come for change.

I want to shake the change into Washington. The truth is, and you know it and Nixon knows it, is that America doesn’t need a Richard Nixon or a George McGovern. What they need is someone with some common sense, who hasn’t lost sight of his roots and who has spent his career ‘walkin, not ‘talkin. I’m that man.

I’m not ‘gonna tell you what you want to hear, nor am I going to tell you what ‘yall can think. I’m just ‘gonna tell the truth, and then I’m ‘gonna listen to you, fight for you, and at the end I’m gonna win this thing for you, because I’m a candidate for the Democratic Party’s nomination in 1972! So I ask that you join with me and get on board, so we can make things right in America once again!”


Friday, January 14th, 1972: Jesse Jackson and other civil rights activists and progressive organizers announce the establishment of PUSH (People United to Save Humanity), an organization that Jackson quickly comes to dominate; within a decades time, PUSH will become one of the largest and most active and well organized civil rights groups in the country.

Saturday, January 15th, 1972: Just one day after her father King Frederick IX of Denmark died, Queen Margarethe II of Denmark is proclaimed the small Nordic kingdom’s new monarch on the balcony of the royal palace in Copenhagen.

Sunday, January 16th, 1972: The Dallas Cowboys beat the Miami Dolphins 24-3 in Super Bowl VI.

Monday, January 17th, 1972: Mao Zedong secretly designates his Premier Zhou Enlai as his successor, though he makes this clear only to a handful of trusted top party cadres and his allies in the People’s Liberation Army. The Chinese dictator’s previous intended successor was Lin Biao, but his attempt the year earlier to overthrow the regime of the “Great Helmsman” and mysterious death in a subsequent plane crash had thrown Mao’s vision for China’s future into chaos. Despite anointing Zhou as his apparent successor, the Chairman continues to audition other rising stars in the party, hoping a more ideologically inclined successor can emerge.

Tuesday, January 18th, 1972: In an appearance on the CBS Evening News, Democratic presidential candidate and former Louisiana Governor John McKeithen insists that he “isn’t afraid of Governor Wallace” and predicts victory in the upcoming Florida primary, a state the McKeithen campaign has heavily contested.

Thursday, January 20th, 1972: At a summit in Geneva, the representatives of the various member nations of OPEC agree to an 8% raise in the price of oil, raising the price per barrel with

Saturday, January 22nd, 1972: Representatives of the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark, and Norway sign a Treaty of Ascension with the European Economic Community; voters in each country will decide whether their nation joins the EEC or not via referendums.

Monday, January 24th, 1972: The Iowa caucuses are conducted; neither Congressman McCloskey (R-CA) nor Congressman Ashbrook (R-OH) contested the Republican caucus, which President Nixon won effectively unopposed.

On the Democratic side, the exact popular vote is unknown, though it is clear that Senator Muskie was the favorite of Iowa Democrats. Muskie, who was the 1968 Vice Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, is crowned the frontrunner after winning the most delegates in Iowa.

1972 Iowa Democratic Caucus: 2,600 Precinct Delegates, 46 Delegates.
Edmund Muskie: 29.54%-768 votes, 18 delegates.
John McKeithen: 23.87%-621 votes, 14 delegates.
George McGovern: 23.65%-615 votes, 14 delegates.
Uncommitted: 14.52%-378 votes.
Hubert Humphrey: 6.79%-177 votes.
George Wallace: 0.59%-15 votes.
Henry Jackson: 0.42%-11 votes.
Vance Hartke: 0.35%-9 votes.
Eugene McCarthy: 0.27%-7 votes.

Shirley Chisholm
Tuesday, January 25th, 1972.
5:00 PM, New York City, NY.


[3]

“I stand before you today as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency of the United States of America.

I am not the candidate of black America, although I am black and proud. I am not the candidate of the women’s movement of this country, although I am a woman, and I am equally proud of that. I am not the candidate of any political bosses or fat cats or special interests. I stand here now without any big endorsements from many big name politicians or celebrities or any other kind of prop. I do not intend to offer to you the tired and glib clichés, which for too long have been an accepted part of our political life. I am the candidate of the people of America. And my presence before you now symbolizes a new era in American political history.

I have always earnestly believed in the great potential of America…our constitutional democracy will soon celebrate its 200th anniversary, effective testimony, to the longevity to our cherished constitution and its unique bill of rights, which continues to give to the world an inspirational message of freedom and liberty...."


Wednesday, January 26th, 1972: President Nixon announces that secret discussions between Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese officials have resulted in a tentative agreement to hold peace talks. Though the North Vietnamese turned down the specific proposal offered by President Nixon, they agreed to future rounds of talks set to take place in the coming months. The news, announced by President Nixon in yet another Oval Office address, was followed by an impromptu press conference conducted by Henry Kissinger in which beamingly predicted “a permanent peace by the end of the year.”

Thursday, January 27th, 1972: Attorney General John Mitchell, in his capacity as Director of the Committee to Re-Elect the President, meets with CREEPs chief counsel G. Gordon Liddy in his office at the Justice Department, where Liddy lays out “the gemstone plan.” The plan, which Liddy insisted required a budget of a million dollars, involved, amongst other things, the kidnapping of protest organizers, the hiring of prostitutes to disrupt and spy upon the Democratic nomination, and the use of private investigators and wiretapping to investigate potential rivals. Mitchell denies Liddy the money needed for such operations but does keep him on the staff despite the illegal nature of his proposed plan.

Sunday, January 30th, 1972: British soldiers stationed in Derry in Northern Ireland find themselves confronted by a crowd of republican protestors, resulting in the soldiers opening fire on the mob. 14 people are killed and 14 people injured in “Bloody Sunday.” The event is the start of a dramatic escalation of “The Troubles” that would plague Northern Ireland for years to come.

Monday, January 31st, 1972: Florida Governor Reuben Askew warns Florida Democrats that George Wallace is “a loosing gamble” for the Democratic Party, but does not endorse a specific candidate over the Alabama Governor, who has been actively campaigning in Florida ahead of it’s primary in March.

Gallup: 1,000 Registered Voters (Nationwide).
(R) Richard Nixon: 45%
(D) Generic Democrat: 45%
Undecided: 6%
Independent/Other: 4%

Gallup: 1,000 Democratic Voters (Nationwide).
Edmund Muskie: 20%
Hubert Humphrey: 20%
George McGovern: 20%
George Wallace: 12%
John McKeithen: 12%
John Lindsey: 6%
Shirley Chisholm: 3%
Henry Jackson: 2%
Sam Yorty: 1%
Eugene McCarthy: 1%
Vance Hartke: 1%
Terry Sanford: 1%
Patsy Mink: 1%

[1] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
[2] Taken from Florida Memory Project (Public Domain)
[3] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
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« Reply #15 on: August 28, 2023, 04:48:13 PM »

Tuesday, February 1st, 1972: Congressman Edwin Edwards defeats Republican David Treen to be elected Governor of Louisiana; Edwards succeeds incumbent Taddy Aycock, who in turn only recently succeeded McKeithen upon his resignation to run for President.

Wednesday, February 2nd, 1972: Enraged by the events of Bloody Sunday, a mob in Dublin, Ireland storms and torches the British Embassy. The embassy had been evacuated and emptied of important information in the days leading up to the riot.

Friday, February 4th, 1972: Kenneth Kuanda, the autocratic Zambian President, bans opposition parties and imprisons his own former Vice President as part of an effort to consolidate his power. Insisting that his rivals were in the pocket of British, Rhodesian, and South African intelligence agencies, Kuanda embarks on a leftward swing that incorporates socialism and African nationalism into his governing ideology.

Saturday, February 5th, 1972: Jean Bedel Bokassa, President of the Central African Republic, declares himself “President-for-Life.” Despite his increasingly erratic and authoritarian actions, he continues to maintain the support of the country’s former colonial master France.

Sunday, February 6th, 1972: President Nixon, through National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, unsuccessfully asks China to arrange a secret meeting with North Vietnamese peace negotiators. The desired meeting would have taken place during the President’s upcoming trip to China.

Tuesday, February 8th, 1972: Congressman John Ashbrook (R-OH), one of President Nixon’s two challengers for the Republican nomination, quips “I don’t mind Nixon going to China – I just don’t want him to come back” while campaigning in New Hampshire. Despite the support of the John Birch Society, Ashbrook’s longshot challenge to Nixon appears to be floundering as he fares poorly in successive polls in the Granite State.

Wednesday, February 9th, 1972: Prime Minister Edward Heath declares a state of emergency in the UK as a coal miners strike continues, with coal stockpiles dwindling as workers refuse to go back to the mines until their demands are met.

Thursday, February 10th, 1972: The United States and South Vietnam conduct a 24 hour long bombing run targeting over 400 locations in North Vietnam, making it one of the most destructive aerial operations of the Vietnam War. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird hails the bombing raids as a success, highlighting the amount of military, industrial, and infrastructure targets that had been disabled or destroyed by the attacks.

Friday, February 11th, 1972: French President Pompidou and West German Chancellor Willy Brandt announce plans for further European integration, including the establishment of a monetary and customs union.

Saturday, February 12th, 1972: The 1972 Arizona Democratic caucuses are conducted.

1972 Arizona Democratic Caucus: 499 State Caucus Delegates, 25 Delegates.
Edmund Muskie: 30.08%-150 votes, 9 delegates.
John Lindsay: 23.58%-118 votes, 7 delegates.
George McGovern: 18.39%-92 votes, 5 delegates.
John McKeithen: 16.22%-81 votes, 4 delegates.
Uncommitted: 10.00%-50 votes.
Henry Jackson: 0.85%-5 votes.
Shirley Chisholm: 0.48%-2 votes.
George Wallace: 0.25%-1 vote.
Eugene McCarthy: 0.15%-1 vote.


Democratic Delegate Count
Edmund Muskie: 27 delegates.
George McGovern: 19 delegates.
John McKeithen: 18 delegates.
John Lindsay: 7 delegates.

Sunday, February 13th, 1972: Congressman Wilbur Mills (D-AR) announces he will seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972 at a small rally in Little Rock. The longshot candidacy of the long serving Congressman is overshadowed regionally by Governors McKeithen and Wallace.

Monday, February 14th, 1972: Ecuadorian President José María Velasco Ibarra is deposed in a military coup less than 24 hours before he planned to address the nation about the plot to oust him. General Guillermo Rodríguez ascends to the Presidency in the aftermath of the coup.

Tuesday, February 15th, 1972: While the other major candidates focus on the upcoming New Hampshire primary a month away, Governors McKeithen and Wallace go to war with one another in Florida on the airwaves. McKeithen attacks Wallace as unelectable, and runs ads that negatively highlight Wallace’s record on race relations (including footage of the “stand in the schoolhouse door” incident) while Wallace paints McKeithen as a corrupt compromiser.

Wednesday, February 16th, 1972: Attorney General John Mitchell resigns to head the Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP). To replace him at the Justice Department’s top post is Richard Kleindienst, the Deputy Attorney General of the United States. To replace the Deputy Attorney, the President will nominate Joseph Tyree Sneed III, a law professor at Stamford. Likewise, Secretary of Commerce Maurice Stans also resigns to take up a position at CREEP.

Thursday, February 17th, 1972: The United Kingdom’s House of Commons votes 309-301 to approve the treaty allowing for British membership in the European Economic Community. Heath had threatened to resign and call a general election should the bill not have been put through the House of Commons, making it a de-facto referendum on the parliament’s confidence in his leadership.

Friday, February 18th, 1972: President Nixon nominates Bell and Howell CEO Pete Peterson as Secretary of Commerce; Peterson’s nomination came highly recommended by his predecessor at the company, Senator Charles Percy (R-IL). Peterson’s nomination is largely overshadowed by the President’s impending state visit to China.

Saturday, February 19th, 1972: A Radio Hanoi press conference involving five recently captured American POWs is conducted in North Vietnam, with the prisoners being forced to read propaganda screeds denouncing the United States.

Richard Nixon
Sunday, February 20th, 1971.
Air Force One


[1]

Air Force One glided over the Pacific, with Red China nearing within an hour’s time. As the presidential plane made it’s final descent towards Peking, the President was aloof as usual, riding out much of the flight alone in the private in-flight office. There was a knock at the door, and Nixon groveled for the unknown caller to enter. It was Kissinger.

“Mr. President, we are nearing Peking.”

“Are we Henry? Good. Good.”

“It has been a long flight, I hope you are not tired. Perhaps you should retire to rest for a bit?”

“Never felt more awake, Henry.” Nixon’s somewhat sleepy tone seemed to suggest that this was exaggeration.

“We are to be received at some point in the next twenty-four hours by the Chairman himself, this will no doubt be the highest of the high-level discussions that will take place.” Nixon, looked up at Kissinger with annoyance. The pomposity of the National Security Adviser often got on the President’s nerves, and his ability to state the obvious as if it were both profound and novel would never fail to make the President feel condescended.

“Have the media assembled on the tarmac?” asked Nixon, his curiosity roused by the potential diplomatic triumph in the making and the subsequent good press that would come from that.

“They are already broadcasting from Peking, Mr. President, in preparation for your arrival. All three networks will cover the ceremony.”

“Let’s see them spin this against me” grumbled the President sardonically.

“If you don’t meet their expectations, whatever they may happen to be, they will call this visit “the rape of Peking.” Insolent bastards.”

“Every last one of them” agreed the President, “all of them.”

“Well, as they now say…Mr. President, “only Nixon can go to China.” And they cannot take that away from you.”

Sunday, February 20th, 1972: Air Force One touches down in Peking, where President Nixon and the First Lady are greeted on the tarmac by Premier Zhou Enlai of the People’s Republic of China. The handshake and arrival ceremony is watched by an audience of millions in the United States, with Nixon’s tour scheduled to last a week.

Monday, February 21st, 1972: President Nixon meets with Chairman Mao quietly alongside National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger at his compound in Peking; the ailing Chinese dictator is photographed speaking with Nixon, though much of the content of their discussions is not immediately known.

Tuesday, February 22nd, 1972: Ahmad bin Ali Al Thani, Emir of Qatar, is deposed by his own family and replaced as head of state of the small Gulf state by his cousin, Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani. The exiled Emir flees to London, where he resides until his death in 1977.

Wednesday, February 23rd, 1972: President Nixon and the First Lady tour the Great Wall of China in a widely watched international broadcast as the presidential tour of China continues into it’s fourth day.

Thursday, February 24th, 1972: Protesting the ongoing bombing of Hanoi, the North Vietnamese delegation walks out of peace talks in Paris, much to the chagrin of National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger.

Friday, February 25th, 1972: British coal miners end a crippling strike after the National Coal Board votes to raise their wages by 20%.

Saturday, February 26th, 1972: Ed Muskie finds himself in hot water in New Hampshire when a letter written on official campaign stationary circulates, in which he is alleged to have derogatively referred to French-Canadians in New Hampshire as “Canucks.”

Sunday, February 27th, 1972: The New Hampshire Union Leader reports on Ed Muskie’s wife Jane’s alleged alcoholism, as well as Muskie’s rumored addiction to Ibogaine. The traditionally right-leaning paper’s reporting has been strongly criticized by New Hampshire Democrats in the wake of the story.

Monday, February 28th, 1972: President Nixon returns to Washington after an eight-day visit to the People’s Republic of China which had been wildly successful. The President predicts that his visit will serve as an “opening” for China, which has been largely isolated from the western world in the years following the communist takeover of Peking.

Tuesday, February 29th, 1972: Senator Edmund Muskie (D-ME) leads a protest outside the offices of the New Hampshire Union Leader, where he forcefully condemns the paper’s coverage of his candidacy and their involvement in what he alleges is a smear campaign directed at his wife. The impassioned speech by Muskie takes place in heavy snowfall, giving him the appearance of being tearful during his address to supporters. The unfortunate image of the Senator is capitalized on by the Nixon campaign and their allies, who proliferate the image of a tearful Senator in order to portray him as weak and overly emotional.

Gallup: 1,000 Registered Voters (Nationwide).
(R) Richard Nixon: 45%
(D) Generic Democrat: 45%
Undecided: 5%
Independent/Other: 5%

Gallup: 1,000 Democratic Voters (Nationwide).
George McGovern: 21%
Edmund Muskie: 18%
Hubert Humphrey: 17%
George Wallace: 14%
John McKeithen: 13%
John Lindsey: 5%
Shirley Chisholm: 4%
Henry Jackson: 3%
Sam Yorty: 1%
Eugene McCarthy: 1%
Vance Hartke: 1%
Terry Sanford: 1%
Patsy Mink: 1%

[1] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
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« Reply #16 on: August 28, 2023, 08:54:16 PM »

Thursday, March 2nd, 1972: The fallout from Muskie’s speech grows as the Committee to Reelect the President grows increasingly active in their campaign of sabotage and meddling within the Democratic primary. As the New Hampshire primary nears, fliers featuring a picture of a seemingly crying Muskie are circulated by mail to tens of thousands New Hampshire voters. The letterhead used in the letters read “paid for by the McGovern for President Committee,” which McGovern denies. While the South Dakota Senator labels the effort “a dirty trick” on the part of the President, it does ignite a small turf war between volunteers for the Muskie and McGovern campaigns as the primary looms.

Saturday, March 4th, 1972: The New Hampshire Union Leader issues an editorial endorsing President Nixon for reelection, while encouraging New Hampshire Democrats to vote for Sam Yorty, who is reportedly publisher William Loeb’s favored candidate.

Sunday, March 5th, 1972: British Prime Minister Edward Heath announces the British Armed Forces will immediately quit using “deep interrogation” methods such as sleep deprivation of terror suspects. The British government’s efforts to discard the use of what critics call torture is largely the result of the Prime Minister’s desire to pacify the situation in Northern Ireland.

Monday, March 6th, 1972: Immigration officials in the United States announce the revocation of John Lennon’s visa, a decision that is reportedly the result of his criticisms of the Nixon administration. White House Press Secretary Ron Zeigler denies the President had any involvement or interest in Lennon’s immigration status.

Tuesday, March 7th, 1972: The New Hampshire primaries are held; on the Republican side, President Nixon holds off Congressmen Ashbrook (R-OH) and McCloskey (R-CA) with over 90% of the vote in his favor. Both challengers drop out of the race in the aftermath of their poor performances in the Granite State. The Democratic primary is narrowly won by Senator Muskie over Senator McGovern.

1972 New Hampshire Democratic Primary: 86,174 Votes, 20 Delegates.
Edmund Muskie: 37.22%-32,073 votes, 11 delegates.
George McGovern: 34.33%-29,583 votes, 9 delegates.
Sam Yorty: 6.66%-5,739 votes.
Uncommitted: 5.47%-4,713 votes.
John Lindsay: 5.29%-4,558 votes.
Wilbur Mills: 4.55%-3,446 votes.
Henry Jackson: 1.36%-1,172 votes.
Edward Kennedy: 1.36%-1,172 votes.
John McKeithen: 1.25%-1,077 votes.
Hubert Humphrey: 0.90%-776 votes.
George Wallace: 0.67%-577 votes.
Shirley Chisholm: 0.51%-439 votes.
Eugene McCarthy: 0.43%-371 votes.


Democratic Delegate Count
Edmund Muskie: 38 delegates.
George McGovern: 28 delegates.
John McKeithen: 18 delegates.
John Lindsay: 7 delegates.

Wednesday, March 8th, 1972: Former North Carolina Governor Terry Sanford announces his candidacy for President in a statement to the Associated Press after supporters had managed to get his name onto the Florida primary ballot. Though Sanford has not officially campaigned until this point, a small but dedicated draft movement has existed throughout the previous year.

Thursday, March 9th, 1972: The East German Volkskammer votes to extend the right to have an abortion to all women; previously, abortion was legal in East Germany, though the decision as to whether a woman could have one was reserved by government or party committees.

Friday, March 10th, 1972: While campaigning on a whistle-stop train tour down Florida’s east coast, Ed Muskie is again harassed by an unknown saboteur. The saboteur, who claimed to be Rolling Stone journalist Hunter S. Thompson, boarded the Muskie train in West Palm Beach, Florida, and proceeded to drink heavily and harass female staffers before being removed from the train in Vero Beach. The unknown and unwelcomed guest on the campaign train also caused a brief panic when he told the staff that he had spiked their drinks with LSD.

Saturday, March 11th, 1972: The Florida primary continues to loom, with McKeithen campaigning aggressively in South Florida’s three major counties, where his main competition isn’t so much George Wallace as it was Henry Jackson. Wallace meanwhile hits the campaign trail in smaller rural counties in the northern part of the state, where he tries to rally small town voters behind his populist candidacy.

Monday, March 13th, 1972: Florida Governor Reuben Askew endorses John McKeithen for the Democratic presidential nomination a day before the Florida primary. Askew’s endorsement was also aggressively courted by Governor Wallace and Senator Jackson.

Tuesday, March 14th, 1972: The Florida primary is conducted.

1972 Florida Democratic Primary: 1,264,554 Votes, 81 Delegates.
John McKeithen: 27.89%-352,684 votes, 31 delegates.
George Wallace: 27.11%-342,820 votes, 29 delegates.
Henry Jackson: 17.44%-220,538 votes, 21 delegates.
Hubert Humphrey: 12.80%-161,862 votes.
Edmund Muskie: 6.50%-82,196 votes.
John Lindsay: 2.79%-35,281 votes.
George McGovern: 1.95%- 24,659 votes.
Shirley Chisholm: 1.85%-23,394 votes.
Terry Sanford: 0.58%-7,334 votes.
Sam Yorty: 0.49%-6,196 votes.
Wilbur Mills: 0.38%-4,805 votes.
Eugene McCarthy: 0.22%-2,782 votes.


Democratic Delegate Count.
John McKeithen: 49 delegates.
Edmund Muskie: 38 delegates.
George Wallace: 29 delegates.
George McGovern: 28 delegates.
Henry Jackson: 21 delegates.
John Lindsay: 7 delegates.

George Wallace
Tuesday, March 14th, 1972.
10:35 PM, Tallahassee, FL.


[1]

“WALLACE! WALLACE! WALLACE! WALLACE!”

The crowd’s thunderous cheers shook the floors and rocked the rafters of the crowded ballroom. A band played Dixie as the audience clapped along with enthusiasm; the Hotel Duval would host Governor Wallace’s election night rally, just a few blocks away from the Governor’s mansion to the annoyance of Reuben Askew. Though the results were not fully in, it became clear that Governors McKeithen and Wallace were going to virtually tie one another in a close race. With the electorate of Florida being so evenly split between the two southern Governors, neither candidate could claim a true mandate, and thus, victory alluded them both in the end. Now, they were in a game of chicken, knowing that whoever spoke first would be perceived as giving a concession speech. But with McKeithen holding a narrow lead of around 10,000 votes, it became increasingly clear to Wallace that the night would drag on with or without him. So at last, he finally took to the stage to deliver yet another fiery speech one which he knew millions would be watching on television.

“Friends, let’s me tell you something, we’re rolling out of Florida with the most delegates, and we’re going to be off soon for Wisconsin, but don’t ‘ya worry, because I’ll be back when me and my delegates coming storming into Miami!”

The crowd erupted in applause. They were a wild and rowdy bunch, stomping and cheering, ‘hooping and hollering. The Governor continued.

“Tonight, the good and fine folk of Florida have made it clear that they’re tired of business as usual in Washington. They want someone to go up to Washington and fight for them and shake things up. And I’m prepared to do just that!

We’ve been talking about a lot of things that it seems the other fellows have forgotten. We’re talking about the constitution and state’s rights and local government. We’ve never been against anyone on account of who they happen to be and never have. And the boys in the press and the elites in Washington, they know that. That’s why they have to lie about us.

But when they lie about me, they’re really slandering you. When they call me a bigot because I oppose school busing, they’re really telling you to stand back and shut up. When they call me an extremist, they’re voicing their contempt for you. And when they say that I’m divisive, what they’re really saying is that they’re afraid of you.

Well tonight folks, Florida has put the fear of God into those liars!

This policy to achieve integration by way of racial busing of schoolchildren is asinine. And let me tell you this much, when Nixon was in Red China visiting with the Chairman, I bet you he and Mao ‘Tse Dung agreed on busing more than anything else.”


The crowd erupted with laughter and continued to chant “WALLACE! WALLACE! WALLACE! WALLACE!” The energy in the room was palpable; he had them in the palm of his hands. Though he had likely finished second place to McKeithen, Wallace was as confident as ever that he could dispatch McKeithen once and for all in a more traditional southern electorate, eying North Carolina for that particular opportunity.

“Nixon is afraid of us, he's afraid of YOU” Wallace continued, booming into the microphone, and lifting his arm out to point towards the crowd of supporters. “Nothing scares Tricky Dick more than these three words: we the people.”

The audience roared again in applause.

“So we ‘gonna make our voices heard, everywhere we go, we ‘gonna make ourselves heard ‘yall!”

Wednesday, March 15th, 1972: The last Indian troops leave Bangladesh with the independence of the former Pakistani territory of East Pakistan being secured. Tensions between the militaries of India and Pakistan remain along their shared border, particularly in the still disputed Kashmir region.

Thursday, March 16th, 1972: President Nixon signs an executive order prohibiting school busing as a means of integration. This comes days after Governor Wallace predicted the President would make such a move.

Friday, March 17th, 1972: Lon Nol proclaims himself President of the Khmer Republic, a position that has been vacant for two years since the removal of Prince Sihanouk and the abolition of the previous monarchy.

Saturday, March 18th, 1972: With the Illinois primary nearing, Senator Muskie and Senator McCarthy go to war against one another. Being the only two candidates on the primary ballot in the state, McCarthy and Muskie both see a chance to distinguish themselves to the broader electorate by performing strong in the state.

Sunday, March 19th, 1972: Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of India and Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of Bangladesh ink a formal treaty of cooperation, establishing a military alliance between the two nations to the disgust of Pakistan.

Monday, March 20th, 1972: Greece’s military dictator Georgios Papadopoulos assumes the role of “regent” of Greece in the absence of exiled King Constantine II, in addition to his positions as Prime Minister, effectively giving him absolute power in the country.

Tuesday, March 21st, 1972: The Illinois primary is held.

1972 Illinois Democratic Primary: 1,225,290 Votes, 153 Delegates.
Edmund Muskie: 47.63%-583,605 votes, 76 delegates.
Uncommitted: 25.90%-317,350 votes, 43 delegates.
Eugene McCarthy: 22.37%-274,097 votes, 37 delegates.
Edward Kennedy: 4.10%-50,236 votes.


Democratic Delegate Count.
Edmund Muskie: 114 delegates.
John McKeithen: 49 delegates.
Uncommitted: 43 delegates.
Eugene McCarthy: 37 delegates.
George Wallace: 29 delegates.
George McGovern: 28 delegates.
Henry Jackson: 21 delegates.
John Lindsay: 7 delegates.

Wednesday, March 22nd, 1972: Pete Peterson is confirmed 92-8 by the Senate, and is sworn in as Secretary of Commerce within hours of the vote by Vice President Agnew.

Thursday, March 23rd, 1972: The Senate votes 84-8 to adopt the Equal Rights Amendment after the House voted overwhelmingly in its favor in October of 1971. The passage of the Equal Rights Amendment sends it to the states, where it requires 35 states to ratify it in order to become part of the constitution.

Friday, March 24th, 1972: Prime Minister Edward Heath announces that the United Kingdom’s central government based in London will assume administration of Northern Ireland, dissolving the Northern Irish parliament at Stormont and giving Secretary of State for Northern Ireland William Whitelaw total authority over the sectarian strife ridden region.

Monday, March 27th, 1972: Ugandan President Idi Amin expels all Israelis from the country after inking a military alliance with Libya’s dictator Muammar Qaddafi.

Tuesday, March 28th, 1972: With polls showing a four-way tie in Wisconsin ahead of their critical primary on April 4th, several candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination hit the ground in the state to curry favor from voters as the final week of the primary campaign in the Badger State commences.

After failing to make the ballot in most primary states, and with little support in the polls and even lower funding, Senator Vance Hartke announces he will end his campaign. Hartke throws his support behind Senator Humphrey after exiting the race.

Wednesday, March 29th, 1972: The House of Representatives passes the Clean Water Act by a margin of 365-75, sending the bill to conference with the Senate where it’ll find itself bogged down in a month’s long legislative process.

Thursday, March 30th, 1972: The NVA goes on the offensive, with thousands of troops and their Viet Cong allies pouring across the border into South Vietnam. With a force of 30,000 troops, the army assembled by the North Vietnamese is the largest conventional invasion force put together since the Chinese intervened in the Korean War in 1950. The invading army quickly overran South Vietnamese positions in the border province of Quang Tri due to their strong numbers and the element of surprise, aiming at taking the city of Hue near the border.

Friday, March 31st, 1972: Arthur Bremmer, a young mentally disturbed would-be assassin, attends a George Wallace rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He decides against shooting Wallace when the two come face to face due to his concern about hurting other rallygoers, but continues to stalk the Democratic presidential candidate as his obsession with assassinating either Nixon or Wallace grows.

Gallup: 1,000 Registered Voters (Nationwide).
(R) Richard Nixon: 45%
(D) Generic Democrat: 45%
Undecided: 5%
Independent/Other: 5%

Gallup: 1,000 Democratic Voters (Nationwide).
George McGovern: 21%
Edmund Muskie: 17%
Hubert Humphrey: 16%
George Wallace: 15%
John McKeithen: 15%
John Lindsey: 4%
Shirley Chisholm: 3%
Henry Jackson: 3%
Sam Yorty: 2%
Wilbur Mills: 1%
Eugene McCarthy: 1%
Terry Sanford: 1%
Patsy Mink: 1%

[1] Taken from YouTube Video.
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ChairmanSanchez
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« Reply #17 on: August 28, 2023, 09:57:05 PM »
« Edited: August 28, 2023, 10:00:43 PM by ChairmanSanchez »

Saturday, April 1st, 1972: As polls show McGovern holding the lead over the Democratic field for the second month in a row, the Muskie campaign – despite a string of victories in the early states and a strong lead in the delegate count – is in panic as the Wisconsin primary nears. With McCarthy having put a flailing Muskie on the defensive in Illinois, the Muskie campaign was unable to devote resources or their candidates time to the state. Polls show him in a distant fifth place in the state.

Sunday, April 2nd, 1972: Governor McKeithen appears on NBC’s Meet the Press, where he predicts victory in the upcoming Wisconsin primary. McKeithen’s victory in a northern state would be a major boost to his campaign and would give credence to his supporter’s arguments that he could unite the regional and ideological divides within the party.

Monday, April 3rd, 1972: Secretary of State William Rogers announces the United States will extend diplomatic recognition to the newly independent nation of Bangladesh.

Tuesday, April 4th, 1972: The Wisconsin primary is held.

1972 Wisconsin Democratic Primary: 1,129,095 Votes, 67 Delegates.
John McKeithen: 23.51%-265,450 votes, 17 delegates.
George McGovern: 22.35%-252,352 votes, 17 delegates.
Hubert Humphrey: 21.90%-247,271 votes, 17 delegates.
George Wallace: 20.41%-230,448 votes, 16 delegates.
Edmund Muskie: 7.95%-89,763 votes.
John Lindsay: 1.44%-16,258 votes.
Henry Jackson: 0.89%-10,048 votes.
Shirley Chisholm: 0.68%-7,677 votes.
Eugene McCarthy: 0.52%-5,871 votes.
Wilbur Mills: 0.35%-3,951 votes.

Democratic Delegate Count.
Edmund Muskie: 114 delegates.
John McKeithen: 66 delegates.
George McGovern: 45 delegates.
George Wallace: 45 delegates.
Uncommitted: 43 delegates.
Eugene McCarthy: 37 delegates.
Henry Jackson: 21 delegates.
Hubert Humphrey: 17 delegates.
John Lindsay: 7 delegates

Wednesday, April 5th, 1972: The attention of the presidential candidates and press turns to the impending primaries in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, just twenty days away. Senator Humphrey hits the campaign trail in Pennsylvania proactively, where he rallies the labor movement behind his banner as he looks to use the state as a “launchpad” to propel his candidacy.

Thursday, April 6th, 1972: Over 400 American planes launch a massive aerial attack on Hanoi in response to the North Vietnamese Army invading South Vietnam as part of the ongoing Hue offensive. Hundreds of civilians are reportedly killed in the largescale air raid, the biggest to take place since 1968.

Friday, April 7th, 1972: The Jackson campaign recalibrates after a middling performance in Florida, with the Washington Senator traveling to Pennsylvania, where he kicks off his primary effort in the state by campaigning in Pittsburgh’s largely Jewish suburb of Squirrel Hill.

Sunday, April 9th, 1972: The Baathist regime in Iraq signs a treaty of friendship and military cooperation with the Soviet Union, effectively bringing the Arab state into the communist world’s orbit. Alongside Egypt, Libya, and Syria, Iraq becomes the latest nation to trade their oil revenue for shipments of anti-aircraft weaponry and seemingly endless amounts of ammunition and Kalashnikovs.

Tuesday, April 11th, 1972: Senator McGovern begins an aggressive campaign in the state of Massachusetts, where he attempts unsuccessfully to wrangle the endorsement of Senator Kennedy. While his efforts to woo Kennedy fail, most of the state’s liberals who would have supported their own Senator otherwise rally behind McGovern as the next best choice.

Wednesday, April 12th, 1972: After their role in fostering the “ping pong diplomacy” that made Nixon’s wildly successful state visit to China possible, the Chinese National Table Tennis team arrives in the United States for a tour of the nation and a series of exhibition matches.

Thursday, April 13th, 1972: The Senate passes the War Powers Act by a vote of 68-16, restraining the President’s ability to send American soldiers into combat without Congressional authorization. Despite Nixon’s veto, the Senate convenes once again and overrides it by a margin of 68-16. The law now in force, the President must submit a formal request to Congress for all future combat missions lasting over 90 days.

Friday, April 14th, 1972: The Irish Republican Army explodes 14 bombs across Belfast on “Bloody Friday” as revenge for the 14 victims of the earlier “Bloody Sunday” massacre. The blasts kill 9 people, exploding within a half hour across the city of Belfast in one of the earliest coordinated terrorist attacks of “the Troubles.”

Saturday, April 15th, 1972: Mayor John Lindsey of New York City announces he will end his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination after a string of poor showings in the early states (spare Arizona) and dissipating funding. Lindsey does not endorse any candidate for the nomination, but vows to support the party’s eventual nominee against Nixon.

Sunday, April 16th, 1972: In an article that seems to boost McKeithen’s candidacy, the Washington Post outlines the Louisiana Governor’s attempts to woo Chicago Mayor Daley through Senator Russell Long (D-LA) ahead of the recent Illinois primary as part of a last-minute effort to get on the ballot in the state. The failure of the Governor’s campaign to appear on the primary ballot enables McKeithen to cast himself as an outsider who was hindered by the Chicago machine run by the influential Mayor Daley.

Edmund Muskie
Monday, April 17th, 1972.
5:15 PM, Worcester, MA.


[1]

Nothing was going Senator Muskie’s way, it seemed, even though he was still, apparently, the frontrunner. But a weak frontrunner he was, having stumbled out the gate, limping through victory after victory in the small states while missing the boat entirely in Florida and Wisconsin. The campaign started with “dirty tricks” including the “Canuck Letter” (which Muskie was assured was Nixon’s doing), followed by those ghastly smears from the Loebs in New Hampshire. Since then, Muskie had been dogged in the press as “the crying candidate” but still choose to press on, even as doubts about his candidacy grew larger by the day.

Now it was all on the line; Massachusetts represented a chance to reset his campaign and score a major victory in the delegate rich state that was practically in his backyard. He had spent the last week crisscrossing the state from Springfield to Boston, knocking on doors and addressing rallies with increasingly dwindling crowd sizes. But the poll after poll seemed to show a growing McGovern lead as the state’s liberals flocked to the Prairie progressive’s message of peace, bread, and civil liberties.

“I never thought I’d be knocked out of the race in my own backyard” grumbled Muskie as he read the latest memo prepared by his campaign manager, “what am I doing wrong here? Why don’t they like me? I ran for Vice President, I pushed through the Clean Water Act, I’m for everything he’s for, so why is George on top here?”

Berl Bernhard, the Senator’s campaign manager and one of his most trusted henchmen, had an answer. “It’s Nixon’s doing” he said with a sigh, “remember those files that were stolen last year?”

“Yes, the scheduling briefs, I remember” affirmed Muskie, “…you don’t think?”

“I do, Senator” answered Bernhard, “they leaked them to McGovern. That’s why he’s hitting all the same ground we are.”

“Wallace is right about one thing” said Muskie, “Nixon would take George to the woodshed. That’s why they’re doing this to us…is it too late to purge the campaign and bring in some untainted fresh new blood?”

The somber expression on Bernhard’s face gave him his answer.

Tuesday, April 18th, 1972: Senator McGovern predicts that Senator Muskie will drop out of the race if he loses Massachusetts, which would blow the Democratic primary race wide open. His prediction enthuses his supporters in the state, and grassroots McGovern supporters begin extensively canvasing across Boston.

Thursday, April 20th, 1972: National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger arrives in Moscow for a secret visit to the Kremlin, where he is received first by Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko and later by Leonid Brezhnev himself.

Quote from: The Nixon Tapes (C) 2015
RICHARD NIXON: They won’t budge?

HENRY KISSINGER: No, sir. Thieu is ready to walk.

RICHARD NIXON: We've got to quit thinking in terms of a three day strike in a few areas. We've got to be thinking in terms of an all-out bombing attack. A bombing attack which we will continue until they capitulate. Now by all-out bombing attack, I am thinking about things that go far beyond. I'm thinking of the dikes, I'm thinking of the railroad, I'm thinking, of course, the docks.

HENRY KISSINGER: I agree with you-

RICHARD NIXON: Massive force, Henry, we’ve got to display a massive show of force-

HENRY KISSINGER: Indeed-

RICHARD NIXON: So how many did we kill in Laos?

HENRY KISSINGER: I believe ten thousands, maybe fifteen.

RICHARD NIXON: See, the attack in the North that we have in mind, power plants, whatever's left-oil and gas reserves, the docks. And, I still think we ought to take the dikes out now. Will that drown people?

HENRY KISSINGER: About two hundred thousand.

RICHARD NIXON: I’d rather use the nuclear bomb. Can we do that Henry?

HENRY KISSINGER: No, no, no, no, no Mr. President, that would be very unwise-

RICHARD NIXON: Jesus Christ Henry, I just want you to think big. Think big about decisions like this. Drop the big one if you have too!

Saturday, April 22nd, 1972: Apollo 16 lands on the moon; it is the latest manned mission to the lunar surface.

Sunday, April 23rd, 1972: On NBC’s Meet the Press, Senator Muskie states firmly that he will continue forward with his campaign even if he is defeated in Massachusetts. The statement, designed to project confidence, seems to backfire as the latest poll shows Muskie fifteen points behind and only barely leading Governor McKeithen.

Monday, April 24th, 1972: A massive golden statue of Kim Ill Sung is revealed in Pyongyang, North Korea. It is the latest monument built to the totalitarian “Dear Leader” by the ruling Korean Workers Party, and an ostentatious example of the regime’s growing cult of personality.

Tuesday, April 25th, 1972: The Massachusetts and Pennsylvania primaries are held.

1972 Massachusetts Democratic Primary: 618,479 Votes, 102 Delegates.
George McGovern: 51.21%-316,723 votes, 53 delegates.
Edmund Muskie: 26.50%-163,896 votes, 28 delegates.
John McKeithen: 18.77%-116,088 votes, 21 delegates.
George Wallace: 8.20%-50,715 votes.
Hubert Humphrey: 7.30%-45,148 votes.
Shirley Chisholm: 3.66%-22,636 votes.
Henry Jackson: 2.20%-13,606 votes.
Eugene McCarthy: 0.93%-5,752 votes.

1972 Pennsylvania Democratic Primary: 1,374,263 Votes, 137 Delegates.
Hubert Humphrey: 32.16%-441,962 votes, 58 delegates.
John McKeithen: 22.90%-314,706 votes, 45 delegates.
George McGovern: 15.08%-207,238 votes, 34 delegates.
Edmund Muskie: 14.34%-197,069 votes.
George Wallace: 11.00%-151,168 votes.
Shirley Chisholm: 3.27%-44,938 votes.
Henry Jackson: 1.25%-17,178 votes.


Democratic Delegate Count.
Edmund Muskie: 142 delegates.
George McGovern: 132 delegates.
John McKeithen: 132 delegates.
Hubert Humphrey: 75 delegates.
George Wallace: 45 delegates.
Uncommitted: 43 delegates.
Eugene McCarthy: 37 delegates.
Henry Jackson: 21 delegates.
John Lindsay: 7 delegates.

Wednesday, April 26th, 1972: Senator Ed Muskie announces he will no longer be actively contesting the Democratic presidential nomination, effectively suspending his campaign after a humiliating showing in Massachusetts and a dismal performance in Pennsylvania.

Thursday, April 27th, 1972: With Muskie out of the race, the Democrats remaining in the running begin to reassess their strategies. McGovern goes to war with McKeithen, joking that the Louisiana Governor is “gumbo Wallace” and arguing that the Governor’s race and labor record disqualified him from being a serious candidate for the Democratic nomination. McKeithen fires back, calling McGovern “a flaming radical” who is “a political troublemaker pretending to be a problem solver.” McKeithen’s stronger than expected second place in Pennsylvania bodes well for him in the upcoming Ohio primary.

Friday, April 28th, 1972: Columnist Robert Novak quotes an unnamed Democratic Senator (later revealed to be Thomas Eagleton of Missouri) in his weekly newspaper column, who stated that George McGovern was the “candidate of acid, abortion, and amnesty.” The anonymous assessment becomes a powerful attack-line against the McGovern campaign and will be frequently quoted in the press and on the campaign trail in the coming days.

Saturday, April 29th, 1972: With the Ohio primary nearing, polling shows Governor McKeithen gaining ground against Vice President Humphrey in the state. Humphrey, coasting on his victory in Pennsylvania and strong support in the labor movement, is content to stay in Washington while his supporters did the grunt work. McKeithen on the other hand begins a four-day blitzkrieg across Ohio, campaigning for 12 hours a day and employing old fashioned retail politics. The McKeithen campaign also benefits from an ad blitz on television, with the Governor pouring more resources into Ohio after donors take interest in his candidacy thanks to the influence of Senator Long. Lastly, Wallace did not make the ballot in the Ohio, giving McKeithen an edge and less competition for rural white voters.

Sunday, April 30th, 1972: Ethnic violence between the ruling Tutsi and the rival Hutu tribe breaks out in Burundi after a failed revolt by Hutu elements of the Presidential guard. The regime of President Micombergo orders reprisal slaughters of Hutus in retaliation. In the next month, nearly a 100,000 Hutus will be killed in a wave of intercommunal violence and riots that spread across the country. This genocidal campaign will go virtually unnoticed by the western world.

Gallup: 1,000 Registered Voters (Nationwide).
(R) Richard Nixon: 46%
(D) Generic Democrat: 45%
Undecided: 6%
Independent/Other: 3%

Gallup: 1,000 Democratic Voters (Nationwide).
George McGovern: 27%
John McKeithen: 26%
Hubert Humphrey: 17%
George Wallace: 13%
Shirley Chisholm: 7%
Henry Jackson: 6%
Wilbur Mills: 1%
Eugene McCarthy: 1%
Terry Sanford: 1%
Patsy Mink: 1%

[1] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
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« Reply #18 on: August 29, 2023, 12:26:20 PM »

Will McCarthy run as a third-party candidate? McKeithen paid off the KKK as Governor, and during his gubernatorial election, he accused deLesseps of being supported by the NAACP.
There will be a few third party candidates, actually - stay tuned!
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« Reply #19 on: August 29, 2023, 05:43:29 PM »

Monday, May 1st, 1972: The iconic FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover dies at the age of 77, leaving his loyal aide and longtime assistant Clyde Tolson as acting head of the FBI. President Nixon is expected officially announce the appointment as L. Patrick Gray as Hoover’s permanent replacement later on in the week.

Tuesday, May 2nd, 1972: Primaries in Indiana, Ohio, and Washington DC are conducted.

1972 Indiana Democratic Primary: 751,466 Votes, 76 Delegates.
Hubert Humphrey: 44.97%-337,934 votes, 34 delegates.
John McKeithen: 29.36%-220,630 votes, 22 delegates.
George Wallace: 25.67%-192,901 votes, 20 delegates.

1972 Ohio Democratic Primary: 1,205,194 Votes, 140 Delegates.
John McKeithen: 46.35%-558,607 votes, 75 delegates.
Hubert Humphrey: 39.00%-470,025 votes, 65 delegates.
George McGovern: 14.65%-176,560 votes.

1972 Washington DC Democratic Primary: 114,763 Votes, 15 Delegates.
Shirley Chisholm: 88.00%-100,991 votes, 15 delegates.
Uncommitted: 22.00%-25,247 votes.

Democratic Delegate Count.
John McKeithen: 229 delegates.
Hubert Humphrey: 174 delegates.
Edmund Muskie: 142 delegates.
George McGovern: 132 delegates.
George Wallace: 65 delegates.
Uncommitted: 43 delegates.
Eugene McCarthy: 37 delegates.
Henry Jackson: 21 delegates.
Shirley Chisholm: 15 delegates.
John Lindsay: 7 delegates.

Wednesday, May 3rd, 1972: Peace negotiations between the United States and North Vietnam are suspended in Paris, with heavy American bombing of Hanoi and the port city of Haiphong resuming only hours after the talks failed. The American and South Vietnamese governments both claimed the withdrawal from the Paris talks were due to a “lack of progress,” a stalemate they attributed to North Vietnam’s decision to invade and occupy the border province of Quang Tri. As a result, Operation Linebacker, the continuous bombing of North Vietnam, commences. Nixon’s strategy of “bombing the Vietnamese to the peace table” (as McGovern puts it) is immediately controversial amongst his prospective Democratic opponents.

Thursday, May 4th, 1972: The Tennessee primary is held.

1972 Tennessee Democratic Primary: 471,669 Votes, 49 Delegates.
John McKeithen: 44.08% - 207,911 votes, 27 delegates.
George Wallace: 34.68% - 163,574 votes, 22 delegates.
Terry Sanford: 8.85% - 41,742 votes.
Hubert Humphrey: 5.51% -25,988 votes.
George McGovern: 3.36% - 15,848 votes.
Shirley Chisholm: 1.40% - 6,603 votes.
Henry Jackson: 1.12% - 5,282 votes.
Wilbur Mills: 0.75% - 3,537 votes.
Eugene McCarthy: 0.15% - 707 votes.

Democratic Delegate Count.
John McKeithen: 256 delegates.
Hubert Humphrey: 174 delegates.
Edmund Muskie: 142 delegates.
George McGovern: 132 delegates.
George Wallace: 87 delegates.
Uncommitted: 43 delegates.
Eugene McCarthy: 37 delegates.
Henry Jackson: 21 delegates.
Shirley Chisholm: 15 delegates.
John Lindsay: 7 delegates.

Friday, May 5th, 1972: With the North Carolina primary a day away, Governor Wallace appears to have a thinning lead over McKeithen. A McKeithen victory in North Carolina could significantly dent Wallace’s momentum and confine him to the status of a regional candidate. Both candidates take one another on in their stump speeches as they crisscross North Carolina.

Saturday, May 6th, 1972: The North Carolina primary is conducted.

1972 North Carolina Democratic Primary: 821,410 Votes, 64 Delegates.
George Wallace: 45.73% - 375,630 votes, 30 delegates.
John McKeithen: 33.89% - 278,375 votes, 23 delegates.
Terry Sanford: 16.28% - 133,725 votes, 11 delegates.
Shirley Chisholm: 4.10% - 33,677 votes.

Democratic Delegate Count.
John McKeithen: 279 delegates.
Hubert Humphrey: 174 delegates.
Edmund Muskie: 142 delegates.
George McGovern: 132 delegates.
George Wallace: 117 delegates.
Uncommitted: 43 delegates.
Eugene McCarthy: 37 delegates.
Henry Jackson: 21 delegates.
Shirley Chisholm: 15 delegates.
Terry Sanford: 11 delegates.
John Lindsay: 7 delegates.

Sunday, May 7th, 1972: The big question on the major three networks Sunday shows is “is George Wallace back?” With his victory in North Carolina over John McKeithen, albeit shy of his projected 50% victory (which would have given him all of the state’s delegates), George Wallace’s campaign gains a second wind. Knowing the major labor union leader’s distrust of McKeithen, Wallace begins an aggressive campaign in Maryland and Michigan ahead of their primaries in a week. A Wallace victory in either state could reaffirm the narrative the Wallace campaign has been pushing that their candidate was more than just a regional force.

Monday, May 8th, 1972: “Operation Pocket Money” is launched by the Navy and Air Force, in a combined attack on Vietnam’s maritime infrastructure and successfully mining the critical port of Haiphong. As a result, the port is closed, with all ships indefinitely held at port until the mines can be removed. President Nixon threatens another military campaign that would target “all mail and known communications infrastructure” in response to the North Vietnamese withdrawal from the Paris Peace Talks.

Tuesday, May 9th, 1972: Primaries are held in Nebraska and West Virginia.

1972 Nebraska Democratic Primary: 192,137 Votes, 22 Delegates.
John McKeithen: 54.90%-105,483 votes, 22 delegates.
George McGovern: 23.86%-45,843 votes.
Hubert Humphrey: 14.20%-27,283 votes.
George Wallace: 7.04%-13,526 votes.

1972 West Virginia Democratic Primary: 368,464 Votes, 35 Delegates.
Hubert Humphrey: 69.88%-257,482 votes, 35 delegates.
George Wallace: 16.44%-60,575 votes.   
John McKeithen: 13.68%-50,405 votes.

Democratic Delegate Count.
John McKeithen: 301 delegates.
Hubert Humphrey: 209 delegates.
Edmund Muskie: 142 delegates.
George McGovern: 132 delegates.
George Wallace: 117 delegates.
Uncommitted: 43 delegates.
Eugene McCarthy: 37 delegates.
Henry Jackson: 21 delegates.
Shirley Chisholm: 15 delegates.
Terry Sanford: 11 delegates.
John Lindsay: 7 delegates.

Wednesday, May 10th, 1972: General William Westmoreland, Chief of Staff of the American military, confirms that Operation Linebacker will continue until peace talks in Paris resume. In response to the announcement, Democratic candidates pounce on the administration. Governor McKeithen (D-LA) quips “President Nixon’s plan for peace is so secret that he doesn’t know it himself!” while an outraged George McGovern (D-SD) once again condemns the President’s policy as “bombing his way to peace.”

Thursday, May 11th, 1972: Interior Secretary Rogers Morton confirms construction of the controversial Trans-Alaska pipeline will commence as planned despite environmental concerns.

Saturday, May 13th, 1972: Governor Wallace spends the day campaigning in Michigan, where his larger than expected crowds alarm the Humphrey campaign. Polls show Senator Humphrey narrowly leading in the labor dominated state, though Wallace’s populist insurgency seems to be encroaching on the former Vice President’s once strong lead.

Sunday, May 14th, 1972: Senator McGovern campaigns in Detroit, where he is locked in a heated struggle with Senator Humphrey for the votes of blue-collar union workers. While most older union members prefer Humphrey or Wallace, McGovern seems to be gaining ground amongst younger voters.

George Wallace
Monday, May 15th, 1972.
Laurel Shopping Center.
1:07 PM, Laurel, MD.


[1]

The previous rally in Silver Springs was raucous, with agitators and hecklers from Washington showing up to cause trouble as had been predicted. The Secret Service was nervous about a similar incident reoccurring in Laurel, but were pleasantly surprised to see a more friendly, almost overwhelmingly supportive crowd had showed up instead. If anyone had intended to cause any trouble, they’d have to deal with the Wallace supporters first before the Secret Service or police could get their hands on them; judging by the looks of some of these people, the agent thought as he scanned the crowd, they could rough one up mighty bad.

Of course, Wallace knew this, and at times even encouraged it. But with such an overwhelmingly friendly crowd and supportive, almost festive atmosphere, the Agent seemed to remember it. As the Governor concluded his remarks and exited the platform as a band excitedly played an electric rendition of “Dixie,” the Governor went straight for the first extended hand to him. The agent grabbed Wallace by the shoulder.

“Governor, you know how we feel when you go out into the thick of ‘em like that.”

“I know, I know” said Wallace, almost in exasperation, “but it’s a risk I’m willing to run – I need to meet my people.” With that, he practically jumped forward, strutting confidently into the throngs of voters who eagerly awaited to greet the Governor. But in the anonymous faces of fervent Wallace supporters, danger lurked. A young man, in sunglasses and a red-white-and-blue button down shirt adorned by an assortment of Wallace buttons, stepped out of the crowd as the Governor went to shake the hand of some elderly grandmother. As Wallace looked down upon her, looking into her face as he clasped her hands in his to greet her, a small pistol stuck through the crowd unnoticed.

*Pop*
*Pop*
*Pop*
*Pop*


Nobody was sure how many shots went off; Wallace hit the floor immediately, his abdomen clearly bleeding as crimson blood oozed from the wounds in his lower torso. Cornelia Wallace, the Governor’s younger and zesty wife, jumped over top of him to shield him from the next round of shots that wouldn’t come.

“I’m gonna take you home George, I’m gonna take you home George, I’m gonna take you home now, ok?”

“Ok baby” said the Governor in a daze as a trickle of blood poured from the corner of his mouth.

“GET AN AMBULANCE! GET AN AMBULANCE!” shouted someone, the identify of which was lost in the chaos that was unfolding around them, but their voice still loud enough to echo out over the screams of the panicked crowd. Police and Secret Service agents, guns drawn, formed a phalanx around the Governor as he bled on the ground. The assassin – or would be, assassin, at least – had already been tackled to the ground and hauled away.

“Stay with me George!” Cornelia repeated frantically, “stay with me George!” The ringing in George’s ear grew louder. Then everything went dark.

Tuesday, May 16th, 1972: The Maryland and Michigan primaries are held; Wallace’s solid performance in both contests is the result of the so called “sympathy bump.” Governor Wallace, who remains in critical condition and is potentially paralyzed from the waist down, carries both states. This is likely the result of the shooting, ironically.

1972 Maryland Democratic Primary: 568,071 Votes, 53 Delegates.
George Wallace: 50.78%-288,466 votes, 53 delegates.
John McKeithen: 20.67%-117,420 votes.
Hubert Humphrey: 16.35%-92,879 votes.
George McGovern: 9.65%-54,818 votes.
Shirley Chisholm: 1.73%-9,827 votes.
Terry Sanford: 0.82%-4,658 votes.

1972 Michigan Democratic Primary: 1,588,073 Votes, 132 Delegates.
George Wallace: 50.89%-808,170 votes, 132 delegates.
Hubert Humphrey: 20.54%-326,190 votes.
John McKeithen: 13.20%-209,625 votes.
George McGovern: 9.08%-144,197 votes.
Shirley Chisholm: 3.88%-61,617 votes.
Henry Jackson: 2.41%-38,272 votes.

Democratic Delegate Count.
George Wallace: 302 delegates.
John McKeithen: 301 delegates.
Hubert Humphrey: 209 delegates.
Edmund Muskie: 142 delegates.
George McGovern: 132 delegates.
Uncommitted: 43 delegates.
Eugene McCarthy: 37 delegates.
Henry Jackson: 21 delegates.
Shirley Chisholm: 15 delegates.
Terry Sanford: 11 delegates.
John Lindsay: 7 delegates.

Wednesday, May 17th, 1972: Doctors say that Governor Wallace’s condition is improving, but that it is unknown if he’ll ever walk again. His would-be assassin Arthur Bremmer has been charged with the shooting that injured the Governor.

Quote from: The Nixon Tapes (C) 2015
RICHARD NIXON: There’s no other way we can link this looney toon to McGovern or something?

H.R. HALDEMAN: CRP was on it, but the FBI beat them to the scene. They couldn’t get into his unit to fix the plumbing. It is way too late now.

RICHARD NIXON: What a shame. Does anyone else see any other opportunities here?

H.R. HALDEMAN: Too much time has passed.

JOHN EHRLICHMAN: Henry’s right, better to let this be. Too much of a spotlight on the case.

RICHARD NIXON: You know, how long did it have to be said that somebody was going to shoot Wallace? They’ve been saying that in Selma for years. Have they established a motive yet?

CHUCK COLSON: Just a nutty guy. I don’t think there was a motive, other than a crazed desire to be on the frontpage of the New York Times.

RICHARD NIXON: Well, it worked, God-damnit. Did you see how much mention the trip to Moscow got on the frontpage? A little blurb, the day after we announce the ing trip. Just a little blurb. Because some guy who is nuttier than a fruitcake decided to shoot the most hateful man in America.

Friday, May 19th, 1972: Acting Alabama Governor Jere Beasley confirms that Governor Wallace is awake and alert after multiple surgeries following an assassination attempt, but that the Governor will be paralyzed as a result of his injuries as feared by his doctors. Wallace will remain in the hospital for a month, though his presidential candidacy continues on the grassroots level as supporters’ campaign on his behalf.

Sunday, May 21st, 1972: Governor John McKeithen and Senator Henry Jackson debate one another on Oregon radio ahead of the state’s primary; rather than combating one another, the two largely spend the debate concentrating their attacks on Senator McGovern, who did not participate.

Monday, May 22nd, 1972: President Nixon and an American delegation led by Secretary of State Rogers and National Security Adviser Kissinger arrive in Moscow, the first time an American President has visited the Soviet capital.

Tuesday, May 23rd, 1972: Primaries in Oregon and Rhode Island are held.

1972 Oregon Democratic Primary: 408,644 Votes, 34 Delegates.
George McGovern: 47.89%-195,699 votes, 20 delegates.
John McKeithen: 33.21%-135,710 votes, 14 delegates.
Henry Jackson: 10.62%-43,397 votes.
Hubert Humphrey: 5.28%- 21,576 votes.
George Wallace: 3.00%-12,259 votes.

1972 Rhode Island Democratic Primary: 37,899 Votes, 22 Delegates.
George McGovern: 54.60%-20,692 votes, 22 delegates.
John McKeithen: 20.67%-7,833 votes.
Hubert Humphrey: 14.78%-5,601 votes.
George Wallace: 9.95%-3,770 votes.


Democratic Delegate Count.
John McKeithen: 315 delegates.
George Wallace: 302 delegates.
Hubert Humphrey: 209 delegates.
George McGovern: 174 delegates.
Edmund Muskie: 142 delegates.
Uncommitted: 43 delegates.
Eugene McCarthy: 37 delegates.
Henry Jackson: 21 delegates.
Shirley Chisholm: 15 delegates.
Terry Sanford: 11 delegates.
John Lindsay: 7 delegates.

Wednesday, May 24th, 1972: President Nixon and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev seal an agreement that authorizes a joint Soviet-American space project. The first planned joint Space flight will take place in 1975 between American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts, with the possibility of a joint moon landing taking place.

Friday, May 26th, 1972: President Nixon, Secretary of State Rogers, General Secretary Brezhnev, and Premier Kosygin sign the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I) at an ornate Kremlin signing ceremony. The signing of the treaty caps off President Nixon’s Moscow junket, which wins him rare praise from the press.

Saturday, May 27th, 1972: Senator McGovern employs the help of A-list Hollywood celebrities to boost his campaign ahead of the California primary, with actors Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine going door to door on behalf of the Democratic Senator from South Dakota.

Sunday, May 28th, 1972: The Duke of Windsor dies at 77. The Duke, who reigned as Edward VIII in 1936, had abdicated the throne to marry divorcee Wallis Simpson, resulting in his brother Albert taking the throne as George VI and his niece later ascending as Elizabeth II.

Monday, May 29th, 1972: The McKeithen campaign escalates their efforts across California ahead of the critical delegate-rich primary, which is a winner-take-all contest. McKeithen predicts a victory in California would wrap up the nomination for him.

[1] Taken from Reddit.
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« Reply #20 on: August 29, 2023, 08:56:24 PM »
« Edited: August 29, 2023, 08:59:41 PM by ChairmanSanchez »

Thursday, June 1st, 1972: Iraq nationalizes all the oil fields within her borders, giving the Baathist regime a dramatically bigger budget to expand Iraq’s military and influence within the Middle East.

Friday, June 2nd, 1972: American Secretary of State William Rogers, British Foreign Secretary Alec Douglas Home, French Foreign Minister Maurice Schumann, and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko meet in West Berlin to discuss the status of the divided city. An agreement to replace the one discarded in 1959 by the USSR is reached, though the new treaty largely only upholds the status quo.

Saturday, June 3rd, 1972: Soviet author and dissident Joseph Brodsky is expelled from the USSR and sent into exile in Vienna. He will later emigrate to the United States.

Sunday, June 4th, 1972: Lon Nol is elected President of the Khmer Republic in a sham election. He immediately deploys the military against protestors who went to the streets demanding an open and honest counting of the votes.

Monday, June 5th, 1972: Polling shows McKeithen and McGovern tied in California ahead of the state’s critical primary. Security is tight around the candidates due to the events of the previous California primary in 1968, with the memory of Sirhan Sirhan shooting RFK still fresh in many people’s mind.

Tuesday, June 6th, 1972: The California, New Jersey, New Mexico, and South Dakota primaries are held.

1972 California Democratic Primary: 3,564,518 Votes, 271 Delegates.
George McGovern: 35.27%-1,257,205 votes, 271 delegates.
John McKeithen: 34.08%-1,214,787 votes.
Hubert Humphrey: 12.36%-440,574 votes.
Sam Yorty: 9.87%-351,817 votes.
Shirley Chisholm: 5.61%-199,969 votes.
George Wallace: 2.78%-99,093 votes.

1972 New Jersey Democratic Primary: 76,834 Votes (Non-binding).
Shirley Chisholm: 55.17%-42,389 votes.
John McKeithen: 44.83%-34,444 votes.

1972 New Mexico Democratic Primary: 153,293 Votes, 18 Delegates.
George McGovern: 26.63%-40,821 votes, 5 delegates.
John McKeithen: 26.54%-40,683 votes, 5 delegates.
Hubert Humphrey: 23.88%-36,606 votes, 4 delegates.
George Wallace: 22.95%-35,180 votes, 4 delegates.

1972 South Dakota Democratic Primary: 28,017 Votes, 17 Delegates.
George McGovern: 100.00%-28,017 votes, 17 delegates.


Democratic Delegate Count.
George McGovern: 467 delegates.
John McKeithen: 320 delegates.
George Wallace: 306 delegates.
Hubert Humphrey: 213 delegates.
Edmund Muskie: 142 delegates.
Uncommitted: 43 delegates.
Eugene McCarthy: 37 delegates.
Henry Jackson: 21 delegates.
Shirley Chisholm: 15 delegates.
Terry Sanford: 11 delegates.
John Lindsay: 7 delegates

Wednesday, June 7th, 1972: In the wake of the California primary, which concludes the active stage of the primary process, George McGovern has emerged the frontrunner in the delegate count. But these delegates represent only a fraction of those who will be participating in the convention, leaving the Democratic nomination wide open for now.

Thursday, June 8th, 1972: A South Vietnamese plane bombs a village within their borders by mistake, resulting in the infamous “napalm girl” photo. The image of children fleeing the blazing village behind them becomes one of the most iconic of all time.

Friday, June 9th, 1972: A damn near Rapid City, South Dakota breaks under the weight of rising flood waters after several days of heavy rain. The resulting flood sent a massive wall of water down Rapid Creek towards the city, which was subsequently flooded. 238 people were killed in the following hours as homes were washed away into the rising flood waters. A federal disaster zone is declared by President Nixon in the wake of the flood.

Saturday, June 10th, 1972: With the Governor and Lt. Governor out of the state on official business, State Senate President Barbara Jordan is sworn in briefly as acting Governor in their absence. Though her “term” as Governor lasts only six hours, Jordan technically becomes the first black woman to serve as a Governor in the United States. Jordan is running for Congress in a Houston based district.

Monday, June 12th, 1972: Governor McKeithen quietly holds a summit with key labor union leaders in Saint Louis, Missouri, including key figures such as Leonard Woodcock (United Auto Workers), Jimmy Hoffa (International Brotherhood of Teamsters), and George Meany (AFL-CIO). The meeting is aimed at smoothing tensions between the campaign and the labor movement, which has largely mistrusted the Governor.

Treasury Secretary John Connally resigns after a year in office to head the “Democrats for Nixon Committee.” The Treasury Secretary will be replaced in his post by George Schultz, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, who will in turn be replaced by Caspar Weinberger, the former Chair of the Federal Trade Commission.

Tuesday, June 13th, 1972: Captain Nikolay Petrov of the GRU quietly slips away from the Soviet Embassy in Jakarta in Indonesia and defects to the American embassy, stealing money and key documents in the process. Petrov later moves to the United States, but went against the CIA’s warning to return to the USSR in the early 1980s, where he subsequently disappeared into a gulag and was never heard from again.

Wednesday, June 14th, 1972: The EPA bans the use of pesticide DDT, citing concerns about its impact on animals, particularly birds.

Thursday, June 15th, 1972: Ulrike Meinhoff is arrested by West German authorities; the leftist guerilla leader was the most wanted woman in Europe at the time of her being taken into police custody.

Friday, June 16th, 1972: The Federal Communications Commission issues the “Open Skies” decision, which effectively allows private companies the right to send communications satellites into space under the regulatory jurisdiction of the FCC.

G. Gordon Liddy
Saturday, June 17th, 1972.
The Watergate.
2:30 AM, Washington, D.C.


[1]

Perched from a nearby hotel room, with binoculars in hand and a walky-talky nearby at all times, G. Gordon Libby watched as the Plumbers went in for their messiest job yet. The mission was simple; steal some files, bug some phones, and do anything they can to cover their tracks. Then it all went wrong.

Just one floor below Libby, a call went out from a guest in the hotel to the front desk. “There’s something going on in that office across the way” he said in a yawning Alabama accent, “the lights are out but there are guys with flashlights going through the place, and it’s keeping me awake.” Within minutes, security guard Frank Wills had been dispatched to investigate. He discovered the door had been taped as to obstruct the lock, making for easy access. Running back to inform his supervisors of a break-in, Wills returned to the door of the office to await the arrival of police reinforcements. On the glass window, the lettering read, perhaps rather ominously, “Democratic National Committee.” Wills immediately understood the significance of the events transpiring in front of him – and the likelihood of him getting a raise or a promotion for stopping it.

“sh**t” he whispered aloud. He continued to observe the movements of the lights inside for roughly five minutes or so before he heard the thuds of responding police officers running down the hall. “In there” he whispered, pointing towards the ever-moving orbs of light emanating from inside. The officers entered, noticing the taped door latch, while Wills went over to flick on the light switch.

“Police – stay right where you are and put your hands up.” The burglars, all clad in black, threw their hands up, as if the lights turning on stunned them into submission. Watching from upstairs, Libby watched the whole suite light up, to reveal the presence of two armed cops and a lone security guard confronting the crew. “” Libby grumbled, before realizing the weight of the situation dawned upon him. “F***CK!!” he roared again in angered disbelief.

Sunday, June 18th, 1972: While the nation is distracted by the murky circumstances surrounding the failed break-in at the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters in the Watergate complex, the Libertarian National Convention is held. The newly formed party nominates Professor John Hospers for President and activist Theodora Nathan for Vice President. Hospers, a former associate of author Ayn Rand, is only on the ballot in a handful of states.

Richard Kleindienst
Monday, June 19th, 1972.
Burning Tree Country Club.
2:45 PM, Washington, D.C.


[2]

Kleindienst and Liddy were alone in the locker room, which was filled with a cloaking steam that offered added anonymity. Searching across Washington for over an hour, the panicked plumber finally tracked down the new Attorney General at the Burning Tree Country Club, just outside of Washington. Liddy did not in the slightest way disrobe when entering the steamy shower room, caring little for the fate of his suit, because the business he had to attend to was simply far too urgent.

“I have to tell you-that was our operation. That was my operation. I was responsible. That was my mistake. But John Mitchell says you gotta get them out” Liddy breathlessly begged, his inflection becoming more pleading. The panic was palatable, despite a seemingly implacable façade of confidence.

“Are you out of your mind?” the Attorney General asked, baffled by the crime taking place before him - G. Gordon Liddy trying to obstruct justice so boldly, so carelessly, just like everything else that poser did.

“Mitchell sent me” Liddy noted, “we need this done to protect the President.”

“What in the hell do you think you’re talking about Gordon?!”

“God know what would happen to you- “….Liddy’s implication was met with the furrowing of the Attorney General’s brow, as his eyes seemingly clicked off. In a matter of a second, his understanding eyes turned to cold pools of black ice.

“F!ck what happens to me!” roared by the Attorney General, adding “try to get me to get them out again and I’ll get you locked up Liddy.”

“Fine. The President will be very disappointed” warned Liddy, who stormed out unsure of what to tell the President.

Tuesday, June 20th, 1972: The Washington Post reports that one of the Watergate burglars, a certain James McCord, had Howard Hunt’s phone number in a contact book found on his person when arrested during the Watergate break-in. Hunt, who works for Chuck Colson, the President’s Director of Public Liaison and one of his key advisers, is a former CIA employee like McCord, adding to the drama. There are growing conspiracy theories circulating in Washington connecting the President himself to the failed break-in and bugging attempt.

Meanwhile, Nixon and Haldeman meet in the White House to discuss the scandal. There is an 18-and-a-half-minute gap in the recording of the conversation, which took place in the Oval Office. This is not immediately known to the public.

Wednesday, June 21st, 1972: Despite the growing Watergate scandal, a new poll taken by Gallup is released. President Nixon leads Humphrey and McGovern, though he trails McKeithen and Wallace, who remains hospitalized following an assassination attempt. McKeithen claims that he is the only candidate who can hold the south against Nixon’s campaign.

Quote from: The Nixon Tapes (C) 2015
RICHARD NIXON: What about the break-in?

H.R. HALDEMAN: Now, on the investigation, you know, the Democratic break-in thing, we’re back to the…we’re in the…the uh, the problem area because the FBI is not under control, because Gray doesn’t exactly know how to control them

RICHARD NIXON: I knew I should have appointed Tolson! I knew-

H.R. HALDEMAN: He wanted to retire-

RICHARD NIXON: He wants to mourn that poof Hoover!

H.R. HALDEMAN: Their investigation is now leading into some productive areas because they’ve been able to trace the money, not through the money itself, but through the bank, you know, sources. Probably the banker himself. And, and it goes in some directions we don’t want it to go.

RICHARD NIXON: Like where?

H.R. HALDEMAN: There have been some things, like an informant came in off the street to the FBI in Miami, who was a photographer or has a friend who is a photographer who developed some films through this guy, Barker, and the films had pictures of Democratic National Committee letter head documents and things. So I guess, so things like that that are gonna…. come to light. They keep filtering in. Mitchell came up yesterday, and John Dean analyzed very carefully last night and concludes, concurs now with Mitchell’s recommendation that the only way to solve this, and we’re set up beautifully to do it, ah, in that. Keep in mind that the only network that paid any attention to it last night was NBC

RICHARD NIXON: I heard that-

H.R. HALDEMAN: That the way to handle this now is for us to have Walters call Pat Gray and just say, “Stay the hell out of this…this is ah, business here we don’t want you to go any further on it.” That’s not an unusual development.

RICHARD NIXON: Uh huh. What about Pat Gray? Will he do this?

H.R. HALDEMAN: Pat does want to help. He doesn’t know how to, and he doesn’t have, he doesn’t have any basis for doing it. Given this, he will then have the basis. He’ll call Mark Felt in, and the two of them…well…Mark Felt wants to cooperate because…

RICHARD NIXON: He’s ambitious.

H.R. HALDEMAN: Well, yeah.  We’ll call him in and say, “We’ve got the signal from across the river to, to put the hold on this.” And that will fit rather well because the FBI agents who are working the case, at this point, feel that’s what it is. This is CIA.

RICHARD NIXON: They’ve traced the money to ‘em though?

H.R. HALDEMAN: Yes, sir. But we’ll put a stop to that.

RICHARD NIXON: Good. Don’t want to get sh**t on the dog’s nose.

Friday, June 23rd, 1972: President Nixon signs the Omnibus Education Bill into law, which includes Title IX, prohibiting discrimination based on sex in college athletics. Largely pushed by Senator Birch Bayh (D-IN), the bill is widely hailed by the growing women’s movement in the country as a positive step forward towards gender equality.

Saturday, June 24th, 1972: Helen Reddy’s iconic feminist anthem “I am Woman” debuts, eventually hitting #1 on the Billboard charts.

Sunday, June 25th, 1972: On CBS’s Face the Nation, Senator George McGovern presses back at those who claim that he is too progressive politically to carry the presidency in a general election, and instead argues that it is Governor McKeithen, with a mixed record on unions and race, who is unelectable.

Wednesday, June 28th, 1972: With the Democratic National Convention looming, the leading candidates begin corralling uncommitted delegates by hook or by crook; as preparations for the convention begin in Miami, the behind-the-scenes knife-fight between the candidates intensifies.

Thursday, June 29th, 1972: Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi hosts Pakistani Prime Minister Zulifkar Bhutto for the first time since the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971 ended. Little substantive agreement between the two nations results from the high-level negotiations, but they do help in reestablishing basic (but tense) diplomatic relations between the two opposing nations.

Friday, June 30th, 1972: The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to strike down the death penalty as cruel and unusual punishment, thus suspending all death sentences and sparing thousands (including notorious killers such as Charles Manson) from certain execution in the coming years.

[1] Taken from Watergate.info.
[2] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain).
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« Reply #21 on: August 29, 2023, 08:57:03 PM »

Coming tonight/tomorrow - the Democratic National Convention!
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« Reply #22 on: August 30, 2023, 12:11:55 PM »

Saturday, July 1st, 1972: Former Attorney General John Mitchell resigns as head of the Committee to Reelect the President, citing his desire to mend his relationship with his increasingly outspoken and erratic wife Martha.

John Dean
Sunday, July 2nd, 1972.
Lafayette Park.
7:30 AM, Washington, D.C.


[1]

John Dean was nervous as he awaited the unknown blackmailer; the handoff was sure to end up in Hunt’s hands, but he wouldn’t dare show himself. “Not in public” thought Dean. Or would he? At last, a familiar face. Herb Kalmbach, the President’s personal lawyer, arrived. He would collect the money on behalf of the burglars and distribute it. The silent outdoor meeting was arranged to avoid prying eyes, but even in Lafayette Park, both men felt a great deal of unease.

“I’m gonna drop it off with Ulsacewicz” said Kalmbach, speaking of the former New York City cop who headed the Nixon’s campaign’s actual security measures. Ulsacewicz often dabbled in politics on the side, which made him an ideal partner for Kalmbach as he prepared to pay off the CIA men turned cat burglars. “I really hope this doesn’t blow up in our faces.”

“It won’t” said Dean, with a soothingly false sense of confidence. "It won’t” he assured Kalmbach again, before firmly noting the need for Kalmbach “to get it, get out” and “do it by the books,” statements that confused Kalmbach. There was no legal recourse for what they were doing, nor was there any official rules. The lawyer could not believe his client, with so much to lose, had so reckless a team around him.

“This money comes from Howard Hughes and his Hollywood friends” Dean told Kalmbach. “Don’t lose it, and make sure they all get their share. And make sure they know the deal. Understand?”

“Completely” concurred Kalmbach, “completely.”

Monday, July 3rd, 1972: The Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan reach an agreement to pull back troops from their respective borders and release all remaining prisoners of war, effectively ending the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War.

Tuesday, July 4th, 1972: North and South Korea announce a tentative agreement has been reached to resume reunification talks between the two nations.

George Schultz is confirmed Secretary of the Treasury by a vote of 77-23. Despite his private misgivings with President Nixon’s economic policies, the new Treasury Secretary quickly becomes a staunch ally of the President.

Wednesday, July 5th, 1972: The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan elects Kakuei Tanaka as leader, effectively ensuring he will be Japan’s next Prime Minister in the process. Similarly in France, President Pompidou fires Prime Minister Jacques Chaban-Delmas over a tax avoidance scandal, and replaces him with Pierre Messmer.

Thursday, July 6th, 1972: Former Jordanian King Talal dies at a sanitorium in Istanbul, where he has lived in exile for twenty years since his abdication. The one-time Jordanian King was diagnosed medically as schizophrenic, which resulted in him being forced from the throne.

Friday, July 7th, 1972: Ahead of the Democratic Convention, which opens on Monday in Miami, there is growing speculation about the party’s ticket. McKeithen and McGovern are closely tied in terms of numbers of delegates according to preliminary counts done by the media, and both are reportedly reaching out to prospective running mates in order to work towards unifying the party.

Saturday, July 8th, 1972: Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz confirms that the United States will sell grain to the Soviet Union on credit at standard interest rates for agricultural products. The agreement, which comes at a time when the USSR is experiencing a shortfall in domestic grain production, is criticized by a wide variety of conservative figures within the Republican Party.

Sunday, July 9th, 1972: Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press from Miami ahead of the Democratic National Convention, Senator Mike Gravel (D-AK) announces he will run for the Vice Presidential nomination. Gravel argues that the New Left wing of the party must be represented on the bottom of the ticket regardless, no matter if McKeithen, McGovern, or Humphrey emerges as victor. It is widely rumored that McKeithen was talking to Senators Birch Bayh (D-IN), Walter Mondale (D-MN), and Adlai Stevenson III (D-IL) throughout the day, trying to find a northern liberal to balance the ticket with him.

Monday, July 10th, 1972: The 1972 Democratic National Convention opens in Miami; the first day is dominated by heated hearings before the platform committee. There are also fights before the Credentials Committee, with the McGovern campaign arguing in favor of seating an alternative Illinois delegation rather than the Daley dominated delegation elected after the Illinois primary which was won by Muskie. Speakers on the first night include Senator Lawton Chiles (D-FL), Ambassador Sargent Shriver, and feminist activist Gloria Steinem, and Governor Reuben Askew, who delivers the keynote address.

Reubin Askew
Monday, July 10th, 1972.
Miami Convention Center.
9:00 PM, Miami, FL.


[1]

“REUBIN! REUBIN! REUBIN!” The chants from the Florida delegation predominately came from the McKeithen delegates, who saw Reuben Askew’s selection to serve as the keynote speaker of the 1972 Democratic National Convention as a positive omen. The Wallace delegates on the other hand sat with their arms crossed, their faces stoically expressing nothing as the Governor of Florida took to the stage to deliver the speech that would introduce him to millions of Americans. Having never forgiven Askew for his endorsement of McKeithen over Wallace, his fellow neighboring Governor, they sulked as the new face of the “New South” emerged onstage to deliver the keynote address.

“Friends, Democrats, Floridians, and fellow Americans. I stand here tonight with a message to the doubters and the naysayers and the cynics alike: the Democrats are united, and the Democrats will win!”

The crowd jumped to their feet in applause; Governor Wallace, now wheelchair bound and sitting off to the side of the stage away from the view of the cameras, watched in agony as Askew opened the convention on an optimistic note. There was nothing to be optimistic about. McKeithen or McGovern were bound to be nominated, and neither were strong enough in Wallace’s eye.

“From every corner of our country, Democrats have made their voices heard, and the spirit of change is in the air tonight” continued the Governor, who turned towards the stands to visually seek out Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, who sat front and center with a crowd of eager delegates arranged around and behind her. They thunderously cheered at the very reference of her upstart candidacy, and feminist icon Gloria Steinem raised the Congresswoman’s hand in the air, as if the mere recognition was victory in and of itself.

"But one thing hasn’t changed – the fact that Democrats give a damn!” There was more applause, this time coming from the McGovern wing, who had employed that cliché – “Democrats give a damn” – on the campaign trail to convey McGovern’s extensive social agenda for uplifting working families.

“We see many new faces tonight” said Askew, who turned towards Governor McKeithen, who sat amongst the solid Louisiana delegation that was 100% in line with his candidacy. The McKeithen delegates cheered, hailing their candidate and the odds that he had overcome along the way. The Democratic Convention in Miami was a long ways away from the genesis of his campaign, but he had made it home.

“We see many old familiar friends as well” Askew added, this time seeming to acknowledge the Humphrey and McCarthy delegations. Both delegations – so fiercely at odds with one another in 1968 – both stood in unison while eyeing the others with suspicion, as if they were wondering “who do they think he’s talking about?”
 
“Friends, we’re on the way to a great Democratic comeback in November, be not mistaken!” This time, the whole convention erupted in unison, jumping to their feet in a display of unity that had not been seen all day. For a few bright shining moments as Askew addressed the Democratic National Convention it seemed that the fights before the platform and credentials committees that defined the first chaotic day of the convention all melted away. They were, for twenty minutes as Askew spoke to them, not northerners nor southerners nor westerners, liberal nor conservative nor progressive. They were one. They were one thing. They were united, they were proud, and most importantly: they were Democrats.

Tuesday, July 11th, 1972: Day two of the Democratic National Convention sees a major victory for the liberal wing of the party when the credentials committee upholds the 100% pro-McGovern delegation from California. The McKeithen and Humphrey campaigns had teamed up to unsuccessfully argue that the winner-take-all primary was against the party rules and had tried in vain to get an alternative delegation seated that would have delegates awarded in proportion to the results of the primary. Tensions boil over on the floor during this time,    with numerous heated arguments and even a small brawl breaking out amongst delegates.

Following the failure of his candidacy to overturn the results of the California primary, Senator Humphrey announces he will release his delegates to support other candidates; the Minnesota Senator and former Vice President confirms he will allow for his name to be entered into consideration and states a willingness to serve as a compromise nominee should the convention deadlock any further, but views this scenario as being unlikely.

Wednesday, July 12th, 1972: Day three of the Democratic National Convention opens with balloting on the platform and presidential ticket. In another win for the McGovern campaign, the Democratic Convention passes a platform that is more progressive than ever before, voicing support for abortion rights, an end to the war in Vietnam, and sweeping social programs that will benefit working class voters. The first ballot for President is held later that afternoon, with no victor in the first round much to the horror of the McGovern delegates.

1972 Democratic National Convention (First Ballot): 3,014 Delegates.
George McGovern: 37.8% - 1,139 delegates.
John McKeithen: 35.6% - 1,074 delegates.
Henry Jackson: 10.3% - 311 delegates.
George Wallace: 8.6% - 260 delegates.
Shirley Chisholm: 2.6% - 78 delegates.
Hubert Humphrey: 1.6% - 49 delegates.
Wilbur Mills: 1.1% - 34 delegates.
Edmund Muskie: 0.8% - 24 delegates.
Ted Kennedy: 0.8% - 23 delegates.
Terry Sanford: 0.4% - 11 delegates.
John Lindsay: 0.2% - 7 delegates.
Eugene McCarthy: 0.0% - 1 delegate.
Patsy Mink: 0.0% - 1 delegate.
Walter Mondale: 0.0% - 1 delegate.
Ramsey Clark: 0.0% - 1 delegate.

The inconclusive first ballot sparks a panic amongst the more moderate to conservative delegates, who unite under the leadership of Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter to lead the “Stop McGovern” effort. Teaming up with Senator Henry Jackson, who dropped out after the first ballot, Carter attempts to rally the moderate wing of the party behind McKeithen. While Governor Wallace does not officially endorse McKeithen, the Governor admits defeat after the first ballot and releases his delegates. The Alabama delegation and most of the Mississippi and Georgia delegates remain resolutely behind Wallace and intend to vote for him on the second ballot in significantly reduced numbers. This bodes well for McKeithen, who garners the lion’s share of these now released delegates.

1972 Democratic National Convention (Second Ballot):
John McKeithen: 47.2% - 1,424 delegates.
George McGovern: 46.6% - 1,404 delegates.
Uncommitted: 1.5% - 47 delegates.
George Wallace: 1.4% - 43 delegates.
Wilbur Mills: 1.1% - 34 delegates.
Shirley Chisholm: 0.8% - 24 delegates.
Edmund Muskie: 0.8% - 24 delegates.
Hubert Humphrey: 0.5% - 14 delegates.

The second inconclusive ballot sparks panic amongst the delegates as night falls and the nomination remains unresolved. There is growing pressure on undecided forces within the party to declare themselves, and the leadership of the party is increasingly anxious. Robert Strauss, a Texan Democrat and Treasurer of the Democratic National Committee, joins forces with former New York Governor Averell Harriman to pitch McKeithen’s candidacy to skeptical labor leaders. Eventually, key labor leaders such as George Meany and Leonard Woodcock agree to endorse McKeithen after being presented with polling data that showed McKeithen slightly leading Nixon amongst union voters – a demographic that the President was crushing McGovern in. As a result, they agree to endorse McKeithen’s candidacy before the third ballot. House Leader Tip O’Neill and House Speaker Carl Albert both endorse McKeithen as well and attempt to rally the party’s liberals behind the Governor, whom they claim is more electable than McGovern.

1972 Democratic National Convention (Third Ballot):
John McKeithen: 51.6% - 1,554 delegates.
George McGovern: 47.2% - 1,421 delegates.
Uncommitted: 0.9% - 27 delegates.
Shirley Chisholm: 0.4% - 12 delegates.

With the third ballot ending in McKeithen clinching the nomination, the convention hall erupted into chaos. The delegates supporting Chisholm and McGovern noisily walk out of the convention at a time when a nominee who won on the first (or second) ballot would have been giving their acceptance speech before a television audience of millions. With the Vice-Presidential nomination unsettled, it is likely that McKeithen will not be able to give his acceptance speech to the convention until the early morning hours, long after most viewers would go to bed. After achieving the nomination, Governor McKeithen announces that he has selected Senator Birch Bayh of Indiana to serve as his running mate. While there is an effort by some holdout McGovern supporters to nominate the South Dakota Senator to unite the party, most find Bayh to be acceptably liberal enough to pass muster. Other embittered McGovern delegates are in a prankish mood as midnight nears, particularly the younger ones, who troll the party establishment by casting their votes for a variety of real (and fictional) candidates who may or may not be eligible for the Presidency. Amongst them are TV character Archie Bunker, Martha Mitchell (the erratic wife of the former Attorney General), and Mao Zedong.

1972 Democratic National Convention (Vice Presidential Ballot): 3,014 Delegates.
Birch Bayh: 51.2% - 1,622 delegates.
George McGovern: 26.0% - 785 delegates.
Hubert Humphrey: 12.9% - 389 delegates.
Uncommitted: 3.0% - 90 delegates.
Mike Gravel: 2.2% - 67 delegates.
Ted Kennedy: 0.4% - 13 delegates.
Walter Mondale: 0.3% - 10 delegates.
Henry Jackson: 0.3% - 10 delegates.
John Lindsey: 0.2% - 7 delegates.
George Wallace: 0.2% - 5 delegates.
Eugene McCarthy: 0.1% - 3 delegates.
Shirley Chisholm: 0.1% -2 delegates.
Terry Sanford: 0.1% - 1 delegate.
Harold Hughes: 0.1% - 1 delegate.
Reubin Askew: 0.1% - 1 delegate.
Edmund Muskie: 0.1% - 1 delegate.
Fred Harris: 0.1% - 1 delegate.
Adlai Stevenson III: 0.1% - 1 delegate.
Peter Rodino: 0.1% - 1 delegate.
Ramsey Clark: 0.1% - 1 delegate.
Archie Bunker: 0.1% - 1 delegate.
Martha Mitchell: 0.1% - 1 delegate.
Mao Zedong: 0.1% - 1 delegate.

John McKeithen
Thursday, July 13th, 1972.
Miami Convention Center.
3:35 AM, Miami, FL.


[3]

The mood in the convention hall was excited, even electric, as John McKeithen was introduced and brought onto the stage to the tune of “Way Down Yonder in New Orleans.” The entire southern delegation, whether they were Wallace or McKeithen delegates, chanted “J.J!” in celebration as the Democratic Party had once again put a son of the south on their national ticket. This time, at the top. The remaining McGovern supporters were not particularly thrilled, half-heartedly applauding if they bothered to show any reaction at all. But all those inclined to heckle the Governor or boo his remarks had already left the hall in disgust, and there was chatter about McGovern launching a third party candidacy that was rapidly spreading throughout the convention. The Governor took to the podium as the music ended, the cheering died down, and the convention quieted itself in respectful silence. The Governor began his remarks:

Friends, Democrats, delegates, honored guests, and fellow Americans;

It is a time for truth. It is a time that we look outwards at our leadership and inwards at our self. It is a time to evaluate, as my running-mate so eloquently declared last night, whether the promise of America has been kept.

I believe that the truth always stands; that is unchangeable and that is unbreakable. I believe that truth shines through the darkness to expose the worst and right the wrong. And the truth is, ‘mah friends, the truth is there is something terribly wrong with America today.


His words were punctuated by a ripple of applause.

The President cannot get away with subverting the rule of law behind a wall of buses inside the White House. The President cannot get away with associating himself with the most shadowy and lawless elements embedded within our intelligence community, within our corporations, and within our own government.

The war in Vietnam continues, and the President’s promise of peace with honor remains unfulfilled. Yet the death count grows higher with each bullet fired, with each bomb dropped, with each plane shot out of the sky, with each bridge scattered into the river below, with each rice paddy turned into a muddy, bloody crater, with each village burned, and with each building reduced to rubble. Yet the dream of a last peace remains elusive to us, due to the Nixon administrations callous and feckless policies in Indochina!

Our dollar is weak, but the big banks are only getting stronger while good hard-working families suffer. Our tax code is a blatant act of aggression against the honest American people, working against the middle class to continue allowing the wealthy and powerful special interests to accumulate wealth at their expense. This country and this party can’t stand aside and watch any longer as the little man is stepped on once again.


By this point it was becoming increasingly clear that McKeithen was reaching out to the party’s disaffected young voters, who were considerably more left-leaning than the party’s older base of working-class New Dealers. But McKeithen’s remarks could not yet penetrate the wall of cynicism that many had built around themselves, and the response to his remarks on fiscal policy were considerably more tepid than his attack on the Nixon administration. His speech continued for over fifteen more minutes, in which he assailed the administration not for their doings, but rather for the zeitgeist that defined their administration – a culture of darkness and deceit that ran in the very veins of the President. At least according to the Democrats…McKeithen’s remarks were folksy yet elegant, plain speaking, yet expressive. Though the audience at home was practically non-existent due to the late hour, the convention was as alert, awake, and alive as ever as the Governor brought it home.

We ‘gotta stand up for the working man! We ‘gotta stand up for a lasting peace! We ‘gotta stand up for a government that is as good as it’s people, and friends, we ‘gotta stand up for the truth!

I humbly accept this party’s nomination for President, and I ask you join with me in this journey and back me in this fight. The time has come for honest leadership with a track record of ‘truth ‘tellin. I think we can win this thing. Together, I know we will win this race. The only question is: won’t ‘cha ‘yall he’p me?”


[1] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
[2] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
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« Reply #23 on: August 30, 2023, 10:25:17 PM »
« Edited: September 03, 2023, 02:21:07 AM by ChairmanSanchez »

Friday, July 14th, 1972: The Democratic National Convention concludes in Miami, with the McKeithen/Bayh ticket roaring out of the starting gate as the Democratic Party hurriedly tries to unify itself behind the new ticket.

Saturday, July 15th, 1972: Senator George McGovern confirms to the Washington Post that he is weighing an independent presidential run in 1972; though he does not have a running mate in mind, there is growing speculation that the Senator has been talking to Congressman Pete McCloskey (R-CA), Nixon’s primary challenger, about running on a “Peace Party” ticket.

Sunday, July 16th, 1972: A Gallup poll shows the Nixon/Agnew ticket leading the McKeithen/Bayh ticket by fifteen points, with Nixon taking 50% of the vote to McKeithen’s 35%, with 14% of respondents undecided and the remaining 1% expressing support for a third-party candidate such as American Independence Party candidate John Schmitz or People’s Party candidate Benjamin Spock.

Monday, July 17th, 1972: Days after the Washington Post reports on McGovern’s third party ambitions, the New York Times prints their own story about Governor Wallace, who is rumored to be in talks with the American Independence Party about running for President once again. Though he is in a great deal of physical pain, Wallace expresses optimism to the AIP leadership that he could mount a successful presidential campaign on their ticket.

Tuesday, July 18th, 1972: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat expels 20,000 Soviet troops from his country in a decision that both shocks the world and lulls his enemies (in particular Israel) into a false sense of security.

Wednesday, July 19th, 1972: Unknown to the general public at this time, FBI Deputy Director Mark Felt opens a line of communication indirectly with the McKeithen campaign through Senator Russell Long as an intermediary; angered at being passed over to replace J. Edgar Hoover, Felt trusts McKeithen enough to be a suitable replacement to Nixon that he begins leaking information related to the growing Watergate scandal to the Democratic campaign. Felt will eventually come to prominence as the figure known as “Deep Throat.”

A second leaker begins funneling even more resourceful information to the Democratic campaign during this period; though the anonymity of this figure remains to the present and their identity cannot be ascertained, the leaker known as “Sore Throat” never was identified, though there were rumors circulating in Washington that Henry Kissinger was the true identity behind these leaks. “Sore Throat” was not known to the general public at the time, and did not interact with journalists, leading some to wonder if he ever existed to begin with or was just an avatar for a variety of leakers in the intelligence community.

Thursday, July 20th, 1972: In El Salvador, the army opens fire on demonstrating students, killing 41 people in a massacre that only further stokes leftist guerilla activity in the coming months and years.

Friday, July 21st, 1972: Nine are killed and a further 130 injured when bombs explode at bus stops and train stations across Belfast. Militant Irish republicans are suspected to be behind the blasts, which the IRA claimed was retaliation for the Bloody Sunday massacre.

Saturday, July 22nd, 1972: President Nixon confirms that Vice President Agnew will run for reelection with him in 1972, ending speculation that he might be dumped from the ticket in 1972. While Nixon’s selection of Agnew as running-mate displays outward unity, inwards, the President is still hellbent on shuffling Agnew out of the administration and onto the airwaves of the proposed Hughes Network, which the President’s brother Donald has become an integral intermediary of. It is no secret in the White House that Nixon eyes Treasury Secretary John Connally as his ideal successor.

Sunday, July 23rd, 1972: A controversial photo of actress Jane Fonda posing with North Vietnamese soldiers on an anti-aircraft gun surfaces, drawing a firestorm of controversy in the United States. Fonda, who was touring communist ruled North Vietnam, also made the claim that American bombing has specifically targeted dikes, causing devastating flooding in the countryside. The Department of Defense has denied the allegations as “propaganda.”

Monday, July 24th, 1972: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat declares a “corrective revolution” and begins a crackdown on Islamists organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood. This comes ahead of a scheduled state visit to neighboring Libya, where relations with the Qaddafi regime have been warming.

Tuesday, July 25th, 1972: The McKeithen campaign begins an aggressive campaign swing through the midwestern states, where the former Louisiana Governor and Senator Bayh attempt to court union voters and heal the Democratic nominees complicated relationship with the labor movement. McKeithen campaigns in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio while Bayh is dispatched to Michigan.

Wednesday, July 26th, 1972: The North American Rockwell corporation is awarded a highly sought after contract from NASA to build the next generation “Space Shuttle” that will replace the Apollo program.

Thursday, July 27th, 1972: Senator Allen Ellender (D-LA) dies at the age of 81 after a heart attack; the Senator had been serving as President Pro-Tempore of the Senate at the time of his demise. Governor Edwards of Louisiana vows to name a placeholder to fill the seat in the coming days.

Friday, July 28th, 1972: The People’s Republic of China finally officially acknowledges the rumored coup attempt involving Lin Biao the previous year after the late Defense Minister’s absence from public life has been noticed by western observers.

Saturday, July 29th, 1972: 13,000 British troops are deployed to Northern Ireland to curb the escalating sectarian violence in the region between republican and unionist paramilitary groups.

Sunday, July 30th, 1972: The People’s Party ticket withdraws, endorsing the McGovern/McCloskey ticket instead. The People’s Party folds into the Peace Party as a result.

Monday, July 31st, 1972: Delta Air Flight 841 from Detroit to Miami is hijacked by five members of the Black Liberation Army, who divert the plane to Boston before demanding a ransom of one million dollars in exchange for the safe release of 94 passengers. The passengers are released, but the crew is kept hostage and forced to fly the hijackers across the Atlantic to Algeria, where they seek political asylum from the leftist government in Algiers.
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« Reply #24 on: August 30, 2023, 10:54:18 PM »

Tuesday, August 1st, 1972: The Washington Post reports that Watergate suspect E. Howard Hunt is receiving money from the Committee to Re-Elect the President to cover his legal fees.

Tuesday, August 2nd, 1972: Anwar Sadat, Muammar Qaddafi, Hafez Al Assad, and Sudanese President Jaafar Nimeiry sign a treaty that allows for Sudanese entry into the Federation of Arab Republics; while the union of Egypt, Libya, Sudan, and Syria on paper unites them as one single entity, the so called Federation in reality is merely a military alliance. Though there are plans for a common legislature, currency, and military command in the works, none of the four dictators involved want to give up their hold on their own respective countries.

Wednesday, August 3rd, 1972: The American Independence Party convention is held in Louisville, Kentucky, where Congressman John Schmitz of California – a far right Republican and a member of the John Birch Society – is nominated for President. Farmer and conservative activist Thomas Anderson is nominated for the Vice Presidency. Governor Wallace had been rumored to be considering a second presidential bid in 1972 but declined to put his name into consideration due to his physical ailments following an assassination attempt in May. Despite not running on a national third-party ticket with Schmitz as VP as planned, Wallace still has intentions to meddle in the election…

Thursday, August 4th, 1972: Arthur Bremmer is convicted for the assassination attempt on George Wallace and sentenced to 63 years in prison for the crime. He will serve only 34 years of his sentence before being paroled in 2007.

Friday, August 5th, 1972: After weeks of private talks at McGovern’s Georgetown residence, Senator George McGovern (D-SD) and Congressman Pete McCloskey (R-CA) announce plans to run for President on a “Peace Party” ticket. In addition to forming the new Peace Party, the McGovern/McCloskey ticket was already nominated by the People’s Party convention in addition to the Peace & Freedom ballot line. Despite a number of ideological disagreements, the two agree to run on a bipartisan anti-war and anti-Nixon platform.

Saturday, August 6th, 1972: The Soviet Union passes a law requiring all approved emigres to pay a fine of up to 250,000 rubles to cover the cost of their education if they have one. The so called “diploma tax” is in truth a ploy to keep Jewish Soviets from emigrating to Israel and stem a so called “brain drain.”

Sunday, August 7th, 1972: The Citizen’s Committee to Elect George Wallace is formed in Alabama, aiming to get the Governor placed on the ballot in a number of southern states as an independent candidate for the Presidency. Though Wallace has firmly declined to contest the Presidency actively due to his recovery following an assassination attempt, the Draft Wallace movement in Alabama grows steadily as a slate of loyalists are chosen to serve as electors. They also intend to place Wallace on the ballot in Mississippi and Georgia, with the intention of throwing the election to Congress where the Alabama Governor can be kingmaker.

Deep Throat
Sunday, July 2nd, 1972.
Lafayette Park.
7:30 AM, Washington, D.C.


[1]

The dim, hazy lights of the parking garage and the drizzling, early morning rain made Felt a less than inconspicuous site. The few denizens coming and coming dismissed him as an anonymous, slightly well-dressed drunk. Nobody knew who he was or why he was there, and not a question was asked. He waited for over an hour, unaware of his own anonymity and nervous. At last, a car pulled into the empty spot before him. James Carville, a young volunteer who became a friend and close ally of Fox McKeithen, and the campaigns chief pollster Pat Cadell, sat inside.

“Jesus Christ, he sent kids?” asked Felt in exasperation.

“Shut up and get in the car” snarled back Cadell. Felt complied, and the men began a slow, directionless circular drive through the District.

“I’ll give you everything you need to know if you’ll give me your word.”

“We already gave you- “

“O’Brien gave me his word, not you! Who the hell are you by the way?”

“Pat Cadell”

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-two. McKeithen trusts me. I’m his number cruncher. You can work with me.” Carville rolled his eyes at his compatriot’s pompousness. A well-dressed young man with red hair stood on the corner, eyeing their car. Felt immediately noticed him, and he seemed to notice Felt in return as he immediately stuck out his thumb, turned it upwards, and then sideways twice.

The car stopped, and the man entered; “You can call me Fox” he said, shaking Felt’s hand as he sat next to him. The car continued, making it’s way down Pennsylvania Avenue and passing the White House.

“We need to know what you know, Mr. Felt. You can save the country.”

Fox’s words weighed on the Deputy Director’s conscious-so did Nixon’s crimes, and worse yet, his snub.

“I’m Deep Throat” admitted Felt affirmatively. “I knew that” Fox answered, as Carville and Cadell nodded. “We all did” he continued, “and you aren’t alone - if you think you’re the only one getting this stuff to us, you aren’t alone. You’ll never guess who Sore Throat is.”

“Sore throat?” asked Felt, perplexed and slightly humored by the concept. “He’s in deep. One of Nixon’s main men” noted Cadell.

“One of the country’s top men” affirmed Fox.

“Look, leave me out of this. I’m not a partisan. I’m just a patriot. Stop the ing car!” With that, Felt turned to leave. Fox called after him as he exited the vehicle, his draw echoing through the entire empty garage to which they had returned after their short little drive: “you’ll be found out. Play your cards carefully.” The very insinuation of a threat from Fox McKeithen enraged Felt, who turned around and snapped “don’t you dare threaten me, you little bumpkin swamp cretin! Remember who controls the file cabinet!”

Tuesday, August 9th, 1972: Idi Amin, Uganda’s eccentric dictator, expels all Asians and Indians from the central African nation. Over 800,000 thousand Asians holding British passports constituting the bulk of the country’s middle class are sent into exile after their property is confiscated by the government and distributed to loyalists to the Amin regime. Amin had ordered all Israelis out of the country earlier in the year.

Wednesday, August 10th, 1972: Preparations for the Republican National Convention commence in Miami Beach, where the same hall that housed the chaotic Democratic Convention will this time host a more organized and orderly event.

Thursday, August 11th, 1972: Nixon aide Donald Segretti is arrested after he propositioned a woman at a Las Angeles hotel. When police search his room, $10,000 dollars in counterfeit money and forged Democratic National Committee stationary is found among his possessions. Segretti claims he’s been the victim of a setup.

Friday, August 12th, 1972: Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark visits North Vietnam on a “fact finding” mission, in which he alleges the American air force had bombed dikes, schools, hospitals, and other civilian targets. Clark also purports to have met with American POWs in Hanoi during his visit to the communist foe of the United States in SE Asia.

Sunday, August 13th, 1972: A New Gallup poll is released; President Nixon’s lead over McKeithen has dipped slightly, but the entry of McGovern and possibly Wallace into the race have eroded the Democratic nominee’s position even more so. Nixon leads with 47% of the vote to McKeithen’s 33%, with 10% for McGovern and the remaining 10% undecided.

Monday, August 14th, 1972: 156 people die in a plane crash in East Germany, leading to concerns about the safety of the state-run national airline’s planes. The Honecker regime in East Berlin uses their grip on the state-run media to largely cover up the story, though most East Germans are aware of it through radio reports from the west.

Wednesday, August 16th, 1972: King Hassan II of Morocco survives another assassination attempt when rogue elements of the Moroccan Air Force attempt to shoot down his private plane. Afterwards, dignitaries at the Rabat Airport awaiting the King are killed when the same fighter jets strafe the audience, killing scores of elites. The assassination plot, part of a broader planned coup by Defense Minister Muhammed Oufkir, fails, and Oufkir and his family are taken into custody and later executed by security forces.

Thursday, August 17th, 1972: Governor McKeithen calls on President Nixon to debate him on live television; the Nixon campaign declines, citing logistical reasons, though in truth Nixon’s aversion to an on air debate was caused by his experience in the 1960 presidential debate.

Friday, August 18th, 1972: The President’s refusal to debate McKeithen becomes fodder for the Democrats as well as the Wallace and McGovern campaigns. “What is he afraid of?” quips McKeithen repeatedly at rally after rally as he continues to crisscross the country.

Sunday, August 20th, 1972: Wattstax takes place in Las Angeles; the fundraiser concert that benefits the Watts neighborhood on the seventh anniversary of the 1965 race riots features Isaac Hayes and the Staple Singers amongst other performers.

Monday, August 21st, 1972: The Republican National Convention opens in Miami, Florida. The first day’s speakers include First Lady Pat Nixon, California Governor Ronald Reagan, Senator Robert Dole (R-KS), Congressman Gerald Ford (R-MI), and keynote speaker Anne Armstrong. After the chaotic Democratic convention at the same venue weeks earlier, Republican organizers are keen on keeping the convention well scripted and on message. But Democratic saboteurs have other ideas…

Tuesday, August 22nd, 1972: The second day of the Republican Convention proceeds smoothly, with the President’s platform being passed by the delegates with overwhelming support. Speakers on the second night of the convention include Congressman Guy Vander Jagt (R-MI), Senator Howard Baker (R-TN), and Governor Daniel Evans (R-WA), while entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. appears with the President at a “youth rally” in Miami that same day. However, the convention is marred by fliers which begin appearing in the convention hall and hotels housing the delegates; the fliers, which portray images of Nixon with Mao, highlight his record as a “school desegregator,” are coupled with “Segretti dollars” which begin to circulate; these novelty “dollars” have Nixon and Agnew’s face on them, and read “good for nothing.”

Wednesday, August 23rd, 1972: President Nixon is renominated for President unanimously. Peace Party VP candidate Pete McCloskey was barred from the convention and did not have his name formally placed in consideration. Nixon’s other challenger, Congressman John Ashbrook, was allowed to address the convention in exchange for endorsing Nixon’s reelection. Vice President Agnew is later nominated by voice vote, with no audible dissent from the convention. More fliers begin circulating at the Convention, this time portraying a business card belonging to Arnold Hutschnecker, a doctor whom Nixon reportedly received psychiatric counseling from in the past.

Thursday, August 24th, 1972: President Nixon delivers his acceptance speech to the Republican National Convention on the same day that the “IRS Letters” go out. These letters, apparently printed on official IRS stationary, which inform the recipient that they were to be subject to a tax audit at “the direction of the President.” The letters bore the forged signature of IRS Commissioner Johnnie M. Walters. Of the 300 hundred or so letters to the IRS informing them of the audits, the bulk are sent to Republican Convention delegates. Others are sent to celebrities, media figures such as Ben Bradley, Katherine Graham, and Walter Cronkite, as well as Senator McGovern, Governor McKeithen, and Governor Wallace. An immediate federal investigation into the controversy begins, marring the Republican Convention and detracting from the coverage of the President’s acceptance speech on the whole.

Richard Nixon
Thursday, August 24th, 1972.
Miami Convention Center.
9:00 PM, Miami, FL.


[1]

Four years ago, standing in this very place, I proudly accepted your nomination for President of the United States. We won a great victory in 1968. Today, I again proudly accept your nomination for the Presidency, and I again look forward to another great victory in 1972!

I congratulate Chairman Ford. I congratulate Chairman Dole, Anne Armstrong and the hundreds of others who have laid the foundation for that victory by their work at this great convention. Our platform is a dynamic program for progress for America and for peace in the world. Speaking in a very personal sense, I express my deep gratitude to this convention for the tribute you have paid to the best campaigner in the Nixon family-my wife Pat. In honoring her, you have honored millions of women in America who have contributed in the past and will contribute in the future so very much to better government in this country.

Mr. Chairman, I congratulate the delegates to this convention for renominating as my running mate the man who has just so eloquently and graciously introduced me, Vice President Ted Agnew. I thought he was the best man for the job four years ago, and I think he is the best man for the job today. I know I am not going to change my mind tomorrow. Finally, as the Vice President has indicated, you have demonstrated to the nation that we can have an open convention without dividing Americans into quotas.

And I ask you, my fellow Americans, tonight to join us not in a coalition held together only by a desire to gain power. I ask you to join us as members of a new American majority bound together by our common ideals. I ask everyone listening to me tonight-Democrats, Republicans, independents, to join our new majority-not on the basis of the party label you wear in your lapel-but on the basis of what you believe in your hearts.

In asking for your support I shall not dwell on the record of our administration which has been praised perhaps too generously by others at this convention. We have made great progress in these past four years. It can truly be said that we have changed America and that America has changed the world. As a result of what we have done, America today is a better place and the world is a safer place to live in than was the case four years ago.

The choice in this election is not between radical change and no change. The choice in this election is between change that works and change that won't work. I begin with an article of faith.

It has become fashionable in recent years to point up what is wrong with what is called the American system. The critics contend it is so unfair, so corrupt, so unjust, that we should tear it down and substitute something else in its place.

I totally disagree. I believe in the American system. I have traveled to 80 countries in the past 25 years, and I have seen Communist systems, I have seen Socialist systems, I have seen systems that are half Socialist and half free. Every time I come home to America, I realize how fortunate we are to live in this great and good country.

During the tragic war between the states, Abraham Lincoln was asked whether God was on his side. He replied, "My concern is not whether God is on our side, but whether we are on God's side." May that always be our prayer for America.

We hold the future of peace in the world and our own future in our hands. Let us reject therefore the policies of those who whine and whimper about our frustrations and call on us to turn inward; let us not turn away from greatness.

The chance America now has to lead the way to a lasting peace in the world may never come again. With faith in God and faith in ourselves and faith in our country, let us have the vision and the courage to seize the moment and meet the challenge before it slips away. On your television screen last night, you saw the cemetery in Leningrad I visited on my trip to the Soviet Union-where 300,000 people died in the siege of that city during World War II.

At the cemetery I saw the picture of a 12-year-old girl. She was a beautiful child. Her name was Tanya. I read her diary. It tells the terrible story of war. In the simple words of a child she wrote of the deaths of the members of her family. Zhenya in December. Grannie in January. Then Leka. Then Uncle Vasya. Then Uncle Lyosha. Then Mama in May. And finally--these were the last words in her diary: "All are dead. Only Tanya is left."

Let us think of Tanya and of the other Tanyas and their brothers and sisters everywhere in Russia, in China, in America, as we proudly meet our responsibilities for leadership in the world in a way worthy of a great people. I ask you, my fellow Americans, to join our new majority not just in the cause of winning an election, but in achieving a hope that mankind has had since the beginning of civilization. Let us build a peace that our children and all the children of the world can enjoy for generations to come!


Friday, August 25th, 1972: Gallup polling shows President Nixon leading Governor McKeithen by 20%, receiving a post-convention bounce in spite of the IRS letters controversy that plagued the President in recent days.

Saturday, August 26th, 1972: The 1972 Summer Olympics Open in Munich, West Germany. Over 8,000 athletes from 122 nations are participating in the games.

Sunday, August 27th, 1972: President Nixon comes under fire from Governor McKeithen for hosting a party at his San Clemente, California residence featuring scores of Hollywood icons as guests, including John Wayne, Zsa Zsa Gabor, and Frank Sinatra.

Monday, August 28th, 1972: Prince William of Gloucester is severely injured in a plane crash in Hertfordshire, where he was participating in an airshow. The Prince, a younger cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, is shaken by the incident but ultimately survives despite severe injuries.

Tuesday, August 29th, 1972: Senator Sam Ervin (D-NC), Chairman of Senate Government Operations Committee, announces that his committee will begin an investigation into the “strange events” that are going on surrounding the Republican National Convention and the IRS letters. Republicans at first decry this move as a pre-election stunt, but subsequently agree to co-operate with Ervin.

Wednesday, August 30th, 1972: Several reporters from The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times receive background information that John Mitchell, while serving as Attorney General, controlled a secret Republican fund used to finance intelligence-gathering against the Democrats. Part of this money was used to pay the Watergate burglars. The background information is supplied by allies of the Democratic campaign; the original source of the documentation is thought to be “Source 2”. Some reporters involved with this begin to suspect that there is a parallel, secret investigation into the Watergate burglary being conducted from somewhere within the government.

Thursday, August 31st, 1972: Governor George Wallace files papers to have nine Electors pledged to him appear on the Alabama ballot along with the other slates. Wallace, still recovering from his gunshot wound, is in no condition to mount a national campaign. However, by this move he hopes to revive the old Dixiecrat maneuver (last used in 1960) of having non-candidate Electoral votes for his state. Wallace hopes to use these to place him in a kingmaker position should it be a close election. The slate of electors for Wallace have been chosen from activists and allies active in the Citizen’s Committee to Draft George Wallace and have been instructed to cast their Vice-Presidential votes for Georgia Lt. Governor Lester Maddox.

[1] Taken from The Atlantic.
[2] Still taken from YouTube video.
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