Years of Flames: A Timeline

[DSS]

This is my very first TL. I hope you enjoy it. This is the quasi-introduction to my TL. I'll update later.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A CNN Newscast Transcript November 3, 1992


TOM JOHNSON: Well, folks, a few minutes ago, Democratic challenger Bill Clinton called President Bush and conceded, when New York's 33 electoral votes were given to the incumbent president, making President Bush 68 electoral votes ahead of Bill Clinton. In the history books, it will be recorded that the Republican Bush/Cheney ticket defeated the Democratic Clinton/Gore ticket.


“I think, to this very day, that the reason that President Bush defeated Bill Clinton in the '92 election was because of his running mate: Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney. Cheney had done a great deal in the Gulf War, and people liked him, at first anyway. Not many people liked Dan Quayle anyway, after, when addressing the fact of George Bush's age and how he might become president in the vice presidential debate in 1988, he said his could-be presidency 'would be the best one ever.' People liked Reagan, and that's why Bush got elected in '88, and possibly '92, but no one voted for him because of Quayle – not many anyway. When Bush said in the Republican National Convention of '92 that he was choosing the Secretary of Defense as his running mate, people loved the GOP. That's why they elected him. I don't know – if I'd known what the butterflies of 1992 were, I would have voted for Bill Clinton and wished I could vote a million more times.”


-Living in a Dark, Dark World by Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN), published in 2009

[Cylon_Number_14]

That's quite the eye-catching POD. But how much difference would a two-term Bush presidency make? I look forward to finding out...

[DSS]

Hehehe, did you read the part about Vice President Cheney? The DICK CHENEY that was vice president under GWB? I would think that that would be the most eye-opening....

A hint: This was inspired by the "Tail Gunner in the Pilot's Seat".

[DSS]

New York Times January 20, 1993
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PRES. BUSH INAUGURATED
FOR SECOND TERM IN OFFICE
Sec. of Def. Dick Cheney Inaugurated as VP

[President Al Bundy]

Dick Cheney is likely to become president? Wow, this will be evil...and I like it. So onwards to an update!

[DSS]

"January 22, 1993

The vice president did something horrible today. He flipped off a reporter! He and President Bush were giving a press conference about how they are going to deal with the rest of what's going on in Kuwait, and one reporter asked him: 'Aren't you afraid of Saddam Hussein building up a nuclear arsenal, and might get revenge on the United States?' Vice President Cheney just gave him pep-talk - kind of like what all Veeps and Presidents do - but the reporter just kept pressing on. Finally, out of frustration, Cheney just called on a different reporter, but the same one asked him again. Cheney flipped him off! I just can't wait for Bush's term to end. I'm thinking about running again in '96, but I dunno. We'll see."

-The Diary of Bill Clinton, 1991 - 2008

[DSS]

Introducing.....

PART ONE: FORESHADOWING

[DSS]

"Following the inauguration of Dick Cheney as vice president, President Bush chose me as his new Secretary of Defense. I was comfortable with that; I had been the Sec. Def. under President Ford from 1975 until he left office, in 1977. That was OK; there wasn't too much violence after that, as the Vietnam War had just ended and the peace riots were ending with it. It was funny; both times that I had been appointed the Secretary of Defense, a war had just ended. First it was Vietnam, now it was the Gulf War.

The first months of being the Secretary of Defense under Bush were sort of boring, until March 12, 1993. On that day, two big things happened: In Bombay, suicide bombers attacked a few buildings and killed 257 people. Then, North Korea decided to continue a nuclear weapons program, and decided to further isolate themselves. President Bush was pretty certain that the Koreans were not up to anything good. I remember a cabinet meeting with the president and newly-inaugurated vice president, and we talked about what we should take from this. Now, I was supposed to be the one being Sec. Def., but Dick Cheney; oh, that Dick Cheney. He butted in every time I talked, saying, 'If I were president, I would be doing this, and that...' And we just didn't care! We all thought that President Bush was just going to finish his second term and we would just have to listen to Cheney whine the whole time. We thought. It turned out a lot worse than that, however, I assure you."

-Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, As Interviewed by Ken Burns in 2007

[Chris Oakley]

"Years of Flames" is right!

[DSS]

Well, I'm going to point out that I'm going to kind of skip 1993 and 1994, and just get to late 1995. That's when things get interesting.... In the meantime, a history of 1993 and 1994 about American politics. I'll have it tomorrow.

[President Al Bundy]

Bush sr. starts to act like his son. So maybe we will be saved from George W. But on the other...PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY!!!!!

[DSS]

"1993 and 1994 were the most interesting of years. We didn't have any wars. We didn't do much, besides ignoring and then bullying Iraq. 1993 was spent completely ignoring Iraq; they didn't do anything, to keep an eye on them, to make sure they were not building nukes. In February, 1994, Saddam Hussein came right out and said: "I am building nuclear weapons, my nuclear program is the best, and there is nothing that the UN, NATO, and least of all the United States can do about it." From then on, it was President Bush, with the full help of Vice President Cheney, telling them to stand down, and if not, "We will bomb your people with even more powerful nukes." This was idiotic; the entire world knew that the United States had signed the Geneva Convention of 1963, which banned nuclear weapons. Of course the US didn't have nukes! Unless President Reagan or, undoubtedly, Bush had begun to build them. 1995 - that could have been called the beginning of the New Cold War. A shame; the last one had ended only four years before. Alas, it wouldn't be a Cold War for long....."

-An Excerpt from An Article on the Last Thirty Years, by Donald Star, published in Libertarian Today (a Libertarian Party magazine)

[DSS]

The Star Tribune November 23, 1995
__________________________________________________ _______________________
PRES. BUSH ASSASSINATED IN KUWAIT CITY

KUWAIT CITY, KUWAIT - Yesterday, as the president of the United States and the vice president stood upon a stage in Kuwait, addressing soldiers stationed there, a man in full Muslim dress ran upon the stage with a pistol. He fired seven shots at the leaders of the United States. The first shot missed, and President Bush and Vice President Cheney began to run to jump off the edge of the stage. The vice president made it, but the third shot finally hit the president in the back of the head. Reportedly, the assassin shouted, in Arab, "Take this, Zionist! What is coming shall now come!" The fourth, fifth, and sixth shots missed, but the seventh shot hit Vice President Cheney's arm, although it is described to be a minor wound. At 10:33 P.M., eight hours after the shooting, Kuwaiti officials declared President George Herbert Walker Bush to be dead of a shot in the head. An autopsy will be performed on November 24, and we will find out how the president died. At 12:31A.M., just today, a shocked Vice President Dick Cheney was inaugurated as the 42nd President of the United States of America, following the assassination of the 41st.

[DSS]

I'm sorry, I accidentally said 'September' in the title page of my last post, I meant November.

[RogueBeaver]

"At 10:33 P.M., eight years after the shooting" Was he in a coma or just a typo?

[President Al Bundy]

Uwwww, that was a bit too harsh but whats more worse is that, you guessed it, Dick Cheney is now president! So what will come next? An early war against the Iraq? Sounds pretty plausible.

[Sean Mulligan]

Originally Posted by DudeAlmighty947

"1993 and 1994 were the most interesting of years. We didn't have any wars. We didn't do much, besides ignoring and then bullying Iraq. 1993 was spent completely ignoring Iraq; they didn't do anything, to keep an eye on them, to make sure they were not building nukes. In February, 1994, Saddam Hussein came right out and said: "I am building nuclear weapons, my nuclear program is the best, and there is nothing that the UN, NATO, and least of all the United States can do about it." From then on, it was President Bush, with the full help of Vice President Cheney, telling them to stand down, and if not, "We will bomb your people with even more powerful nukes." This was idiotic; the entire world knew that the United States had signed the Geneva Convention of 1963, which banned nuclear weapons. Of course the US didn't have nukes! Unless President Reagan or, undoubtedly, Bush had begun to build them. 1995 - that could have been called the beginning of the New Cold War. A shame; the last one had ended only four years before. Alas, it wouldn't be a Cold War for long....."

-An Excerpt from An Article on the Last Thirty Years, by Donald Star, published in Libertarian Today (a Libertarian Party magazine)

What is he talking about? What treaty banning nukes and the U.S. has thousands of nukes.

[DuQuense]

This was idiotic; the entire world knew that the United States had signed the Geneva Convention of 1963, which banned nuclear weapons. Of course the US didn't have nukes!

What is he talking about? What treaty banning nukes and the U.S. has thousands of nukes.

Alternate History, evidentially there is a 1963 POD lurking in this time line.

[DSS]

So sorry, I meant eight hours! Typo alert! Typo alert!

Yes, there is a 1963 POD.... You'll hear it soon.

[MarkWhittington]

President Dick Cheney. God, how I love it so. Let the fun begin.