A True October Surprise (A Wikibox TL)
- Thread starter lord caedus
- Start date
All right, so what the hell is this?
It's my first "proper" TL of sorts. I figure that after six years, I should really get around to making one.
Okay, but why a "wikibox TL"? Are you too much of a special snowflake to do a regular TL instead?
No, just too busy with both school, other projects and with a healthy amount of self-doubt about making a full-fledged TL.
And apparently multiple personality disorder.
Apparently.
Speaking of which, this isn't a TLIAD, TLIAW or whatever, so why are you doing the TLIAD opening thing?
Because I thought it would be easier to explain what this TL's gimmick is in the TLIAD tradition than doing a boring normal opening post.
So what's the gimmick? Is it infoboxes?
Got it in one.
Great. What about them?
Every TL post will have one.
Why didn't you just put this on the Alternate Wikipedia Infoboxes thread then?
Because I don't want to clog it up with an infobox series...again.
Why the change of heart Mr. Makes An Infobox Series With 27 Entries?
Mostly that this is (hopefully) going to be a bit more in-depth than my normal works there. Also, because all the cool kids are doing it.
The cool kids are also doing their homework instead of working on a weird schizophrenic dialogue on the Internet.
Sshhh. No more tears, only Humphrey.
You need help.
Yes, yes I do.
It's my first "proper" TL of sorts. I figure that after six years, I should really get around to making one.
Okay, but why a "wikibox TL"? Are you too much of a special snowflake to do a regular TL instead?
No, just too busy with both school, other projects and with a healthy amount of self-doubt about making a full-fledged TL.
And apparently multiple personality disorder.
Apparently.
Speaking of which, this isn't a TLIAD, TLIAW or whatever, so why are you doing the TLIAD opening thing?
Because I thought it would be easier to explain what this TL's gimmick is in the TLIAD tradition than doing a boring normal opening post.
So what's the gimmick? Is it infoboxes?
Got it in one.
Great. What about them?
Every TL post will have one.
Why didn't you just put this on the Alternate Wikipedia Infoboxes thread then?
Because I don't want to clog it up with an infobox series...again.
Why the change of heart Mr. Makes An Infobox Series With 27 Entries?
Mostly that this is (hopefully) going to be a bit more in-depth than my normal works there. Also, because all the cool kids are doing it.
The cool kids are also doing their homework instead of working on a weird schizophrenic dialogue on the Internet.
Sshhh. No more tears, only Humphrey.
You need help.
Yes, yes I do.
...Going into the final week of the 1968 presidential campaign, the Nixon campaign seemed assured of a victory. Polls showed the former Republican vice president ahead of Vice President Humphrey and with enough wiggle room to prevent George Wallace's third-party bid from throwing the election to the House. Humphrey had the misfortune to run as the nominee of a party whose primary season included the primary challenge to an unpopular sitting president, the assassination of one candidate and a chaotic convention where Chicago police beat protesters outside on national television. Cities were aflame, American involvement in Vietnam was growing more unpopular by the day and President Johnson had prevented Humphrey from voicing his own anti-war opinions (and contradict Johnson's own public statements) until far too late in the campaign.
Then, President Johnson made an announcement on Halloween.
The Texan said that "peace was imminent" in Vietnam and that both North and South Vietnam had agreed to come to the table to negotiate an end to the war. Johnson announced that he had, in light of this, agreed to halt the bombing campaign against North Vietnam while talks were going on. Without the baggage of the war around Humphrey's neck, the "Happy Warrior" shot up in the polls, surpassing Nixon for the first time since the campaign began.
Decades after the election, it emerged that Anna Chennault, a member of the American delegation to the peace talks and Republican Party official, had been told to expect to act as a conduit to the South Vietnamese in order to impress upon them that a Nixon victory could preserve South Vietnam's independence and to help delay or scuttle peace talks until after the election. Why Chennault was never given the go ahead is up for debate among historians. Some say that Nixon, for all of his willingness to use whatever means to get ahead, balked at violating the Logan Act that prohibited private citizens from negotiating for the United States. Others that President Johnson learned of Chennault's affiliation with the campaign and conveyed a message to his fellow ruthless politico threatening to expose what he reportedly described to aides as the Republican candidates' "attempt at treason".
The reason for Nixon not to use Chennault as intended by the campaign, as mentioned, may never be known. But the results speak for themselves.
Then, President Johnson made an announcement on Halloween.
The Texan said that "peace was imminent" in Vietnam and that both North and South Vietnam had agreed to come to the table to negotiate an end to the war. Johnson announced that he had, in light of this, agreed to halt the bombing campaign against North Vietnam while talks were going on. Without the baggage of the war around Humphrey's neck, the "Happy Warrior" shot up in the polls, surpassing Nixon for the first time since the campaign began.
Decades after the election, it emerged that Anna Chennault, a member of the American delegation to the peace talks and Republican Party official, had been told to expect to act as a conduit to the South Vietnamese in order to impress upon them that a Nixon victory could preserve South Vietnam's independence and to help delay or scuttle peace talks until after the election. Why Chennault was never given the go ahead is up for debate among historians. Some say that Nixon, for all of his willingness to use whatever means to get ahead, balked at violating the Logan Act that prohibited private citizens from negotiating for the United States. Others that President Johnson learned of Chennault's affiliation with the campaign and conveyed a message to his fellow ruthless politico threatening to expose what he reportedly described to aides as the Republican candidates' "attempt at treason".
The reason for Nixon not to use Chennault as intended by the campaign, as mentioned, may never be known. But the results speak for themselves.
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President Humphrey inherited quite a mess from his predecessor and left-wingers who plugged their nose to vote for him following the "October Surprise" were dismayed by his holdover of several Johnson appointees in the cabinet, notably moving Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford over to the State Department. In addition, in the interim between Election Day and Inauguration, South Vietnam's President Nguyen Van Thieu publicly backed out of talks with North Vietnamese leaders, a final humiliation to Lyndon Johnson. Thieu's brief departure from talks did not last long, as Humphrey, well aware of the anti-war mood his country was in, put pressure on the South Vietnamese leader, threatening to reduce American troop presence and assistance to barebones levels to force Thieu back into the talks. Negotiations lasted the better part of 1969, but finally a series of agreements were reached between North Vietnamese leader Le Duan and Secretary Clifford.
Peace came to Vietnam with the Paris Accords of 1970, and the United States withdrew almost all combat soldiers from South Vietnam by New Year's Day 1971, with guarantees that the communist north would respect the south's sovereignty. By 1972, the only American soldiers in Vietnam were US Navy vessels patrolling South Vietnamese waters at the request of the Saigon government and military advisers who seemingly futilely tried to train the poorly-managed and corruption-infested Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). Despite the precarious situation in South Vietnam, domestically Humphrey had won a huge victory as thoughts of a primary challenge from the left disappeared with the deescalation of American involvement.
The withdrawal and subsequent breathing room in the federal budget saw inflation decrease from 1970 onwards and the president quickly abandoned the "guns and butter" strategy of his predecessor to strengthen the Great Society programs Johnson had enacted. Humphrey then turned to racial injustices that he believed had caused the riots that had plagued cities since the mid-1960s. With strong opposition from both southern and labor-friendly Democrats, Humphrey scrapped a race-based affirmative action program and instead pushed through one based on income, which, despite being a target of extreme vitriol from the right-wing, succeeding in getting white working-class Democrats on board.
Since Harry Truman, liberals had dreamed of a universal health care program for the United States. With the Democrats barely losing any seats in the 1970 midterms, the Democrats began to push for such a system. In negotiations with congressional leaders, it became clear that a fully universal system was a bridge too far for enough of Congress to mean a sure death to such a proposal. During negotiations with congressional leaders, a compromise was reached: the new health care system would expand Social Security eligibility to all children and adults who made less than $20,000 annually, or nearly three times the median income. Humphrey signed the bill on September 23, 1971, effectively bringing health care to every American.
On other fronts, the president similarly followed the public mood. Humphrey signed legislation establishing the Environmental Protection Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) and the Clean Air Act, managing to please both his labor constituency and the growing number of Americans concerned about the environment.
The Supreme Court saw a great amount of change from 1969 to 1972. Chief Justice Earl Warren had announced his intention to retire in 1968 and Lyndon Johnson had briefly pushed for Associate Justice Abe Fortas to become the new chief, but the bid floundered after ethics problems (and Fortas being a pliable Johnson crony) caused the Senate to reject his bid. Humphrey, upon taking office, nominated moderate Associate Justice William Brennan to replace Warren, which the Senate unanimously approved. To replace Brennan, Humphrey picked ex-Congressman Homer Thornberry of Texas, whom Johnson had nominated to replace Fortas during his attempt to make the latter the chief justice. Soon after Thornberry was confirmed by the Senate, Fortas resigned after more ethics scandals were brought to light. Humphrey picked former Associate Justice Arthur Goldberg, who Johnson had persuaded to resign in order to get Fortas on the Court, to replace Fortas, and the Senate approved, making Goldberg the first justice to serve non-consecutive terms on the court since Charles Evans Hughes. Finally, in 1971, Hugo Black died, and Humphrey made history by appointing Shirley Hufstedler to replace him, giving the court its first female justice while replacing John Harlan III with another southerner, Georgian Griffin Bell.
Peace came to Vietnam with the Paris Accords of 1970, and the United States withdrew almost all combat soldiers from South Vietnam by New Year's Day 1971, with guarantees that the communist north would respect the south's sovereignty. By 1972, the only American soldiers in Vietnam were US Navy vessels patrolling South Vietnamese waters at the request of the Saigon government and military advisers who seemingly futilely tried to train the poorly-managed and corruption-infested Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). Despite the precarious situation in South Vietnam, domestically Humphrey had won a huge victory as thoughts of a primary challenge from the left disappeared with the deescalation of American involvement.
The withdrawal and subsequent breathing room in the federal budget saw inflation decrease from 1970 onwards and the president quickly abandoned the "guns and butter" strategy of his predecessor to strengthen the Great Society programs Johnson had enacted. Humphrey then turned to racial injustices that he believed had caused the riots that had plagued cities since the mid-1960s. With strong opposition from both southern and labor-friendly Democrats, Humphrey scrapped a race-based affirmative action program and instead pushed through one based on income, which, despite being a target of extreme vitriol from the right-wing, succeeding in getting white working-class Democrats on board.
Since Harry Truman, liberals had dreamed of a universal health care program for the United States. With the Democrats barely losing any seats in the 1970 midterms, the Democrats began to push for such a system. In negotiations with congressional leaders, it became clear that a fully universal system was a bridge too far for enough of Congress to mean a sure death to such a proposal. During negotiations with congressional leaders, a compromise was reached: the new health care system would expand Social Security eligibility to all children and adults who made less than $20,000 annually, or nearly three times the median income. Humphrey signed the bill on September 23, 1971, effectively bringing health care to every American.
On other fronts, the president similarly followed the public mood. Humphrey signed legislation establishing the Environmental Protection Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) and the Clean Air Act, managing to please both his labor constituency and the growing number of Americans concerned about the environment.
The Supreme Court saw a great amount of change from 1969 to 1972. Chief Justice Earl Warren had announced his intention to retire in 1968 and Lyndon Johnson had briefly pushed for Associate Justice Abe Fortas to become the new chief, but the bid floundered after ethics problems (and Fortas being a pliable Johnson crony) caused the Senate to reject his bid. Humphrey, upon taking office, nominated moderate Associate Justice William Brennan to replace Warren, which the Senate unanimously approved. To replace Brennan, Humphrey picked ex-Congressman Homer Thornberry of Texas, whom Johnson had nominated to replace Fortas during his attempt to make the latter the chief justice. Soon after Thornberry was confirmed by the Senate, Fortas resigned after more ethics scandals were brought to light. Humphrey picked former Associate Justice Arthur Goldberg, who Johnson had persuaded to resign in order to get Fortas on the Court, to replace Fortas, and the Senate approved, making Goldberg the first justice to serve non-consecutive terms on the court since Charles Evans Hughes. Finally, in 1971, Hugo Black died, and Humphrey made history by appointing Shirley Hufstedler to replace him, giving the court its first female justice while replacing John Harlan III with another southerner, Georgian Griffin Bell.
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Humphrey's tenure was not all positive. The president had a very public fight with liberal senators over busing and the ill will generated by this would poison relations between the White House and Congress when it came to dealing with African-American issues through the rest of Humphrey's tenure.
It was in this climate that the Republicans looked to their nominee. California Governor Ronald Reagan, a hard-line conservative, became the presumptive frontrunner, while his New York and Washington counterparts, Nelson Rockefeller and Daniel Evans, became his main opponents alongside Illinois Senator Charles Percy. While Rockefeller, Evans and Percy courted moderate Republicans and had a strong eye towards the general election, Reagan pushed a strong free-market vision to counter what he viewed as Humphrey's "socialist policies" and as steadfastly opposed to state of detente with the Soviet Union following the withdrawal from Vietnam. To the surprise of pundits, Reagan quickly racked up a substantial lead in the party primaries as a result of both a unified right-wing vote and his continuation of the "Southern Strategy" popularized by Richard Nixon. Reagan, unlike the other three candidates, could appeal to southern whites disaffected by the changes the Johnson and Humphrey administrations had brought, more specifically with regards to civil rights.
By the time Rockefeller emerged as the anti-Reagan candidate (following Percy's withdrawal and Evans' withdrawal after the mysterious disappearance of two of his campaign managers), Reagan had already secured an insurmountable lead in delegates and the 1972 convention was a coronation for the California governor. Reagan worked to appease the moderates within his party by naming Maryland Senator Rogers Morton as his running mate.
Reagan pushed to make the Democrats' long-term control over both the White House (since 1961) and Congress (since 1955) an issue, calling long-term control "dangerous to the democratic fiber of this nation" and blasted Humphrey's economic policies, which he called "socialism in THIS country". Humphrey attempted to project the image of him as a "peacemaker at home and abroad", an illusion to the end of involvement in Vietnam under his watch and the de-escalation of urban and draft riots by the time of the election.
In normal circumstances, Reagan's hard-right views and Humphrey's successful and for the most part, popular economic policies (especially the expansion of Medicare to the vast majority of Americans) would have seen a blowout similar to 1964. However, many voters did feel that Reagan's point about entrenched Democratic rule had merit and Reagan quickly snatched up southern whites with his campaign's dog-whistle ads in the south and Humphrey's abysmal popularity in that part of the country.
Reagan swept the south (aside from a faithless elector who gave his electoral vote to Libertarian candidate John Hospers), the first time the Democrats had been shut out of the south since Reconstruction. But Humphrey had quickly been able to position Reagan as "another Goldwater"- a right-winger too extreme to be handed the reins of power, pointing to Reagan's opposition to the extremely popular Medicare expansion, his aggressive statements about the Soviet Union that seemed more appropriate for the 1950s than the 1970s and painted his economic policies as a throwback to pre-Depression economics that would bring about another Depression.
It was in this climate that the Republicans looked to their nominee. California Governor Ronald Reagan, a hard-line conservative, became the presumptive frontrunner, while his New York and Washington counterparts, Nelson Rockefeller and Daniel Evans, became his main opponents alongside Illinois Senator Charles Percy. While Rockefeller, Evans and Percy courted moderate Republicans and had a strong eye towards the general election, Reagan pushed a strong free-market vision to counter what he viewed as Humphrey's "socialist policies" and as steadfastly opposed to state of detente with the Soviet Union following the withdrawal from Vietnam. To the surprise of pundits, Reagan quickly racked up a substantial lead in the party primaries as a result of both a unified right-wing vote and his continuation of the "Southern Strategy" popularized by Richard Nixon. Reagan, unlike the other three candidates, could appeal to southern whites disaffected by the changes the Johnson and Humphrey administrations had brought, more specifically with regards to civil rights.
By the time Rockefeller emerged as the anti-Reagan candidate (following Percy's withdrawal and Evans' withdrawal after the mysterious disappearance of two of his campaign managers), Reagan had already secured an insurmountable lead in delegates and the 1972 convention was a coronation for the California governor. Reagan worked to appease the moderates within his party by naming Maryland Senator Rogers Morton as his running mate.
Reagan pushed to make the Democrats' long-term control over both the White House (since 1961) and Congress (since 1955) an issue, calling long-term control "dangerous to the democratic fiber of this nation" and blasted Humphrey's economic policies, which he called "socialism in THIS country". Humphrey attempted to project the image of him as a "peacemaker at home and abroad", an illusion to the end of involvement in Vietnam under his watch and the de-escalation of urban and draft riots by the time of the election.
In normal circumstances, Reagan's hard-right views and Humphrey's successful and for the most part, popular economic policies (especially the expansion of Medicare to the vast majority of Americans) would have seen a blowout similar to 1964. However, many voters did feel that Reagan's point about entrenched Democratic rule had merit and Reagan quickly snatched up southern whites with his campaign's dog-whistle ads in the south and Humphrey's abysmal popularity in that part of the country.
Reagan swept the south (aside from a faithless elector who gave his electoral vote to Libertarian candidate John Hospers), the first time the Democrats had been shut out of the south since Reconstruction. But Humphrey had quickly been able to position Reagan as "another Goldwater"- a right-winger too extreme to be handed the reins of power, pointing to Reagan's opposition to the extremely popular Medicare expansion, his aggressive statements about the Soviet Union that seemed more appropriate for the 1950s than the 1970s and painted his economic policies as a throwback to pre-Depression economics that would bring about another Depression.
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Despite a victory over Reagan, Humphrey's coattails were not nearly as long as he had hoped and his party only gained a few seats in the Senate and House. The president hoped to spend the remainder of his second term on domestic issues and solidifying the party for the 1976 election. However, the world seemed to want to intervene.
In early 1973 the Arab nations of Egypt, Jordan and Syria launched a surprise invasion of Israel on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. The war lasted only a few weeks and ended with a complete Israeli victory, with the Humphrey Administration coming down strongly on Israel's side in the conflict. The outspoken support of the American government for Israel in the war angered Arab leaders and those oil-rich nations began to shift their trade focus to the Soviet sphere. As a result, petroleum prices in the United States began to steadily increase from 1974 on.
Humphrey had some success on the world stage, including the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) with the Soviet Union, but became hamstrung by an increasingly fractious Congress, especially following the 1974 midterms that saw Republican gains in both houses and an influx of young Democrats whose headstrong nature and disregard for tradition caused the wheels of legislative machinery grind to a halt. This effectively meant the House leadership had lost its majority on many issues and a bill that ordinarily the president could get passed without much trouble became a series of prolonged and increasingly stressful negotiations with freshmen representatives who only six years ago (before the October Surprise and Humphrey's reversal on Vietnam) were cursing the president as a war-maker. Despite this, Humphrey was able to push through his sixth Supreme Court justice, Archibald Cox, to replace William O. Douglas in early 1975 following the latter suffering a debilitating stroke.
The president's push to keep the New Deal coalition (minus the old southern faction, who had disliked Humphrey ever since he spoke out against segregation at the 1948 Democratic convention) together was not yet complete when he began to make fewer and fewer public appearances as 1974 turned into 1975. Privately, Humphrey had been battling bladder cancer ever since a benign tumor was found on his bladder in 1967 and the stresses of two presidential campaigns and the presidency itself was enough to cause a rapid disintegration of his health. In his final address to the nation at the end of October 1975, President Humphrey, looking gaunt and frail, admitted to having terminal cancer and announced his intent to resign from office at the end of November, giving Vice President Muskie and the nation time to prepare for a change of power.
He wouldn't get the chance.
In early 1973 the Arab nations of Egypt, Jordan and Syria launched a surprise invasion of Israel on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. The war lasted only a few weeks and ended with a complete Israeli victory, with the Humphrey Administration coming down strongly on Israel's side in the conflict. The outspoken support of the American government for Israel in the war angered Arab leaders and those oil-rich nations began to shift their trade focus to the Soviet sphere. As a result, petroleum prices in the United States began to steadily increase from 1974 on.
Humphrey had some success on the world stage, including the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) with the Soviet Union, but became hamstrung by an increasingly fractious Congress, especially following the 1974 midterms that saw Republican gains in both houses and an influx of young Democrats whose headstrong nature and disregard for tradition caused the wheels of legislative machinery grind to a halt. This effectively meant the House leadership had lost its majority on many issues and a bill that ordinarily the president could get passed without much trouble became a series of prolonged and increasingly stressful negotiations with freshmen representatives who only six years ago (before the October Surprise and Humphrey's reversal on Vietnam) were cursing the president as a war-maker. Despite this, Humphrey was able to push through his sixth Supreme Court justice, Archibald Cox, to replace William O. Douglas in early 1975 following the latter suffering a debilitating stroke.
The president's push to keep the New Deal coalition (minus the old southern faction, who had disliked Humphrey ever since he spoke out against segregation at the 1948 Democratic convention) together was not yet complete when he began to make fewer and fewer public appearances as 1974 turned into 1975. Privately, Humphrey had been battling bladder cancer ever since a benign tumor was found on his bladder in 1967 and the stresses of two presidential campaigns and the presidency itself was enough to cause a rapid disintegration of his health. In his final address to the nation at the end of October 1975, President Humphrey, looking gaunt and frail, admitted to having terminal cancer and announced his intent to resign from office at the end of November, giving Vice President Muskie and the nation time to prepare for a change of power.
He wouldn't get the chance.
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Before Humphrey's death, Vice President Muskie had been the presumed front-runner for the Democratic nomination in 1976, although several others had decided to run, including Alabama Governor George Wallace, who had hoped to run as the anti-Humphrey: a Democrat who could appeal to southerners who had begun to flee from the Democratic Party while still providing the economic populism that saw voters largely continue to support the economic policies of the past Democratic administrations. After Muskie became president, Wallace remained the only remotely viable alternative to remain in the race and despite it being a foregone conclusion that Muskie would be the nominee, his victory or near-victory in some southern primaries (despite his past support of segregation and third-party bid that nearly caused Humphrey to lose in 1968) caused concern in Democratic circles after Muskie clinched the nomination.
The Republicans, like in 1968, had largely rallied around one candidate in the year or so beforehand. Congressman George Bush of Texas struck the right balance of being a Sun Belt moderate with ties to the eastern, more socially-liberal faction of his party (as his father had been a Republican senator from Connecticut) and it took only a few primaries for him to all but be anointed as the Republican nominee. Bush chose Senator Bob Dole of Kansas as his running mate to balance the ticket, at the behest of the Reagan/Goldwater wing of the party.
Muskie and Vice President Robert Byrd (who had been the first vice president appointed under the terms of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment) attempted to run on the social and economic progress made under Humphrey, including Medicare expansion and the Twenty-Seventh Amendment that had enshrined equal protection of the rights of women in the Constitution. But the price of gasoline had doubled compared to what it had been when Humphrey was elected and the gridlock of intra-Democratic squabbles that had characterized Humphrey's relations with Congress after the 1974 midterms had increased voter fatigue with the Democrats, who had controlled both Congress and the presidency for 16 years. This wasn't helped by Wallace's abortive attempts at another third-party run that were only foiled due to Muskie being forced to promise to appoint a southern conservative to the Supreme Court in exchange for Wallace backing the Democratic ticket.
Bush ran on the idea of "Responsible Society", with an emphasis on reining in federal spending on the entitlement programs created by Johnson and Humphrey, easing environmental legislation to allow for more domestic oil drilling, and a temporary moratorium on new spending initiatives, all the while largely leaving the programs made during the Johnson and Humphrey years in place. Bush also criticized the Democrats' foreign policy, including the degradation of relations with the Arab world following the Yom Kippur War, and his accusations that the Democrats had been too weak to "stand up to both the Soviet Union and Red China" on the international stage following American withdrawal from Vietnam.
Voters agreed with the Republican's message of a needed change in the hands of a responsible leader and Bush won by an eight-point margin and won over 400 electoral votes. Bush became the first southern Republican to become president and the first sitting congressman elected since James Garfield nearly 100 years before.
The Republicans, like in 1968, had largely rallied around one candidate in the year or so beforehand. Congressman George Bush of Texas struck the right balance of being a Sun Belt moderate with ties to the eastern, more socially-liberal faction of his party (as his father had been a Republican senator from Connecticut) and it took only a few primaries for him to all but be anointed as the Republican nominee. Bush chose Senator Bob Dole of Kansas as his running mate to balance the ticket, at the behest of the Reagan/Goldwater wing of the party.
Muskie and Vice President Robert Byrd (who had been the first vice president appointed under the terms of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment) attempted to run on the social and economic progress made under Humphrey, including Medicare expansion and the Twenty-Seventh Amendment that had enshrined equal protection of the rights of women in the Constitution. But the price of gasoline had doubled compared to what it had been when Humphrey was elected and the gridlock of intra-Democratic squabbles that had characterized Humphrey's relations with Congress after the 1974 midterms had increased voter fatigue with the Democrats, who had controlled both Congress and the presidency for 16 years. This wasn't helped by Wallace's abortive attempts at another third-party run that were only foiled due to Muskie being forced to promise to appoint a southern conservative to the Supreme Court in exchange for Wallace backing the Democratic ticket.
Bush ran on the idea of "Responsible Society", with an emphasis on reining in federal spending on the entitlement programs created by Johnson and Humphrey, easing environmental legislation to allow for more domestic oil drilling, and a temporary moratorium on new spending initiatives, all the while largely leaving the programs made during the Johnson and Humphrey years in place. Bush also criticized the Democrats' foreign policy, including the degradation of relations with the Arab world following the Yom Kippur War, and his accusations that the Democrats had been too weak to "stand up to both the Soviet Union and Red China" on the international stage following American withdrawal from Vietnam.
Voters agreed with the Republican's message of a needed change in the hands of a responsible leader and Bush won by an eight-point margin and won over 400 electoral votes. Bush became the first southern Republican to become president and the first sitting congressman elected since James Garfield nearly 100 years before.
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Despite Bush's convincing victory, the new president faced an uphill struggle. The Democrats still controlled Congress despite Republican gains in the congressional races in 1976 and the new president quickly ran into a brick wall after the Congress rejected his spending reduction that had been a key part of his campaign. The summer of 1977 passed with Congress and the president fighting viciously over Congress' repeated rejections, for the most part, of Bush's economic agenda. By fall 1977 however, a compromise was reached. Bush, to the fury of several of conservatives in the party, largely acceded to letting Congress run domestic affairs while he exercised the president's traditional prerogative of almost unrestrained handling of foreign affairs.
Although aided by one of the most capable Secretaries of State of the Cold War era in Richard Nixon, Bush faced a challenging term on the international stage. His shift away from Humphrey's enthusiastic support of Israel had led Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to agree to United States-brokered negotiations with Israel. However, negotiations broke down in a spectacular fashion due to the personality differences between Sadat and his Israeli counterpart, Menachem Begin, embarrassing the president. Bush also was in charge when South Vietnam, despite massive American aid ever since the withdrawal of combat troops in 1970, finally fell to the North Vietnamese advance in late 1977. Finally, in 1979, the Shah of Iran, a strong American ally in the region, was toppled in a revolution. The ensuing vacuum of power in Iran destabilized the region and Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein took the opportunity to march into the oil-rich province of Khuzestan, adding Iraq to the growing Iranian civil war.
Bush, for the most part, handled the crises well. In Iran, the president adopted a "wait and see" approach, although following the Iraqi invasion in 1980, Bush and Nixon began to seek international support for a stabilization force to be sent to the region and attempted via back-channels to convince Hussein and the leaders of the various Iranian factions to come to the peace table. But the president's true triumph was the long-overdue recognition of the People's Republic of China, something that the United States had pointedly refused to do since the PRC's victory in the Chinese Civil War over 25 years ago. China itself was undergoing a transition after the death of Mao Zedong and Bush's outreach accelerated the ouster of Mao's successor, Hua Guofeng, in favor of reformist Deng Xiaoping.
Domestically, the economic picture brightened a bit. Bush's relaxation of environmental standards, while infuriating environmentalists, increased domestic oil production. This, alongside the Arab world's reluctant end to the post-Yom Kippur War reduction in oil trade to the United States in exchange for military support for their regimes following the Iranian Revolution, largely offset the rise in global oil prices following the invasion of Khuzestan in the United States.
The end of the 1970s saw the culmination of the poisonous mix of politics and religion that had been brewing since the 1960s. First, an increasing number of evangelical Christians had, urged on by fundamentalist pastors and activists hoping to reverse the legalization of abortion, women's liberation and other changes brought about in the 1960s had returned to the political sphere for the first time in two generations. These "values voters" pushed a hard-right agenda that was greatly at odds with both the political establishment and the cultural milieu of most Americans, especially those outside the south. Attempts by this group to push its way into the political mainstream were largely unsuccessful when campaigns began in 1980.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, the saga of the People's Temple movement, a new religious movement influential in the left-wing haven of San Francisco ended in tragedy. Leader Jim Jones could count on the support of most of the San Francisco establishment as well as a few Bay Area legislators before 1978. But that year, the truth of the People's Temple emerged after FBI investigators looked into the group: it was a malicious cult and Jones, far from the spiritual man he claimed to be, was a drug-addled deviant who proclaimed himself to be Jesus Christ incarnate. Following Jones and several other prominent People's Temple members' indictments, a shootout and subsequent siege occurred at the main temple in San Francisco. Six days later, the vast majority of the surviving occupants, over 450 in total, committed suicide after being told to by Jones (who also committed suicide).
Although aided by one of the most capable Secretaries of State of the Cold War era in Richard Nixon, Bush faced a challenging term on the international stage. His shift away from Humphrey's enthusiastic support of Israel had led Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to agree to United States-brokered negotiations with Israel. However, negotiations broke down in a spectacular fashion due to the personality differences between Sadat and his Israeli counterpart, Menachem Begin, embarrassing the president. Bush also was in charge when South Vietnam, despite massive American aid ever since the withdrawal of combat troops in 1970, finally fell to the North Vietnamese advance in late 1977. Finally, in 1979, the Shah of Iran, a strong American ally in the region, was toppled in a revolution. The ensuing vacuum of power in Iran destabilized the region and Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein took the opportunity to march into the oil-rich province of Khuzestan, adding Iraq to the growing Iranian civil war.
Bush, for the most part, handled the crises well. In Iran, the president adopted a "wait and see" approach, although following the Iraqi invasion in 1980, Bush and Nixon began to seek international support for a stabilization force to be sent to the region and attempted via back-channels to convince Hussein and the leaders of the various Iranian factions to come to the peace table. But the president's true triumph was the long-overdue recognition of the People's Republic of China, something that the United States had pointedly refused to do since the PRC's victory in the Chinese Civil War over 25 years ago. China itself was undergoing a transition after the death of Mao Zedong and Bush's outreach accelerated the ouster of Mao's successor, Hua Guofeng, in favor of reformist Deng Xiaoping.
Domestically, the economic picture brightened a bit. Bush's relaxation of environmental standards, while infuriating environmentalists, increased domestic oil production. This, alongside the Arab world's reluctant end to the post-Yom Kippur War reduction in oil trade to the United States in exchange for military support for their regimes following the Iranian Revolution, largely offset the rise in global oil prices following the invasion of Khuzestan in the United States.
The end of the 1970s saw the culmination of the poisonous mix of politics and religion that had been brewing since the 1960s. First, an increasing number of evangelical Christians had, urged on by fundamentalist pastors and activists hoping to reverse the legalization of abortion, women's liberation and other changes brought about in the 1960s had returned to the political sphere for the first time in two generations. These "values voters" pushed a hard-right agenda that was greatly at odds with both the political establishment and the cultural milieu of most Americans, especially those outside the south. Attempts by this group to push its way into the political mainstream were largely unsuccessful when campaigns began in 1980.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, the saga of the People's Temple movement, a new religious movement influential in the left-wing haven of San Francisco ended in tragedy. Leader Jim Jones could count on the support of most of the San Francisco establishment as well as a few Bay Area legislators before 1978. But that year, the truth of the People's Temple emerged after FBI investigators looked into the group: it was a malicious cult and Jones, far from the spiritual man he claimed to be, was a drug-addled deviant who proclaimed himself to be Jesus Christ incarnate. Following Jones and several other prominent People's Temple members' indictments, a shootout and subsequent siege occurred at the main temple in San Francisco. Six days later, the vast majority of the surviving occupants, over 450 in total, committed suicide after being told to by Jones (who also committed suicide).
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...In Great Britain, the beginning of the 1970s saw the Labour Party firmly in control over the reins of state. Following the exit of the United States from combat operations in Vietnam, Prime Minister Harold Wilson made a conspicuous show of being present for negotiations, earning himself the reputation as a peacemaker. This earned Labour another majority government in 1970, an election which saw the effective end of the Liberal Party, which was left with only three seats following the election.
Wilson's third parliamentary term was not to be a pleasant one. Northern Ireland had exploded into violence and the conflict between the largely Protestant Unionists and the largely Catholic Republicans began racking up higher and higher body totals despite the presence of British troops and the suspension of the Protestant-dominated Northern Irish government. Inflation also had continued to rise throughout the period, something that the government was unable to fight with spending cuts owing to an increasingly bold trade unionist movement periodically threatening industry-wide or even general strikes if domestic spending was reduced.
Not even British entry into the European Economic Community in 1972 could erase the economic malaise that had engulfed Britain and Wilson resigned following a series of by-election losses in 1973. His successor, James Callaghan, found himself with limited success in dealing with inflation. His limited success in Northern Ireland (where a power-sharing agreement was reached until it fell apart later in the decade) and the successful referendum on keeping Britain in the European Union (as the EEC had been renamed in 1973) did little to persuade British voters to keep Labour on and in 1975, the Conservatives under William Whitelaw won a slim majority government...
...The craze of "Trudeaumania" fizzled out in Canada quickly after the eponymous prime minister's rocky first term. Despite enshrining official bilingualism and taking a firm stand against separatist terrorism in Quebec, the lackluster economy and constitutional wrangling in an unsuccessful attempt to patriate the Canadian constitution in 1971 saw the Liberals reduced to a minority government in 1972. Trudeau's government was propped up by support from the New Democratic Party and a slight turnaround in fortunes (as a result of increased American reliance on cheaper Canadian oil following their falling from favor in the Arab world) was enough to give Trudeau a solid majority government in 1974, aided by a poor campaign from the Progressive Conservatives under Robert Stanfield. The New Democrats, as a result of voter switching to the Liberals, fell below official party status, winning only nine seats.
Wilson's third parliamentary term was not to be a pleasant one. Northern Ireland had exploded into violence and the conflict between the largely Protestant Unionists and the largely Catholic Republicans began racking up higher and higher body totals despite the presence of British troops and the suspension of the Protestant-dominated Northern Irish government. Inflation also had continued to rise throughout the period, something that the government was unable to fight with spending cuts owing to an increasingly bold trade unionist movement periodically threatening industry-wide or even general strikes if domestic spending was reduced.
Not even British entry into the European Economic Community in 1972 could erase the economic malaise that had engulfed Britain and Wilson resigned following a series of by-election losses in 1973. His successor, James Callaghan, found himself with limited success in dealing with inflation. His limited success in Northern Ireland (where a power-sharing agreement was reached until it fell apart later in the decade) and the successful referendum on keeping Britain in the European Union (as the EEC had been renamed in 1973) did little to persuade British voters to keep Labour on and in 1975, the Conservatives under William Whitelaw won a slim majority government...
...The craze of "Trudeaumania" fizzled out in Canada quickly after the eponymous prime minister's rocky first term. Despite enshrining official bilingualism and taking a firm stand against separatist terrorism in Quebec, the lackluster economy and constitutional wrangling in an unsuccessful attempt to patriate the Canadian constitution in 1971 saw the Liberals reduced to a minority government in 1972. Trudeau's government was propped up by support from the New Democratic Party and a slight turnaround in fortunes (as a result of increased American reliance on cheaper Canadian oil following their falling from favor in the Arab world) was enough to give Trudeau a solid majority government in 1974, aided by a poor campaign from the Progressive Conservatives under Robert Stanfield. The New Democrats, as a result of voter switching to the Liberals, fell below official party status, winning only nine seats.
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...Whitelaw's term in office was, like his predecessors', a difficult one. Intransigent trade unions had called for intermittent strikes following the government's first budget, which slashed domestic spending in an effort to curb inflation and the deficit. Despite the union leaders eventually conceding in 1977, the government had lost quite a bit of political capital and caused alarm among backbenchers elected in marginal constituencies or former Liberal strongholds.
Northern Ireland, having enjoyed a spell of calm in the middle of the decade, fell back into chaotic violence after the Provisional IRA bombed a police station and Orange Order lodge in (London)Derry following the suspicious death of an outspoken Republican in police custody, allegedly by an officer with ties to the Ulster Defence Force.
By the time Whitelaw called for new elections, the political scene had again changed. Labour had elected Michael Foot to replace Callaghan and a combination of the ascendance of the left-wing of the party and Foot's own inability to translate dissatisfaction with the direction Britain was going into gains at the polls led to a half-dozen moderate Labour MPs to join with several former Liberals to create the centrist Democratic Party in 1978. The Democrats, targeting former Liberal safeholds as well as marginal constituencies from both parties, did not do nearly as well as the newspapers had predicted, but combined with the nationalist parties' rebounds in Scotland and Wales as well as Northern Ireland's seats being held by NI-only parties, led to a near-tie between the Conservatives and Labour in the Commons.
Whitelaw, following his return to office, attempted to solidify his new government by forming a coalition with the Democrats and the Ulster Unionists. But Democratic leader David Steel's insistence on implementing electoral reform in a hypothetical government led to negotiations going nowhere and the Conservatives ruling as a minority for a few months before Whitelaw called for a new election in January 1980.
Northern Ireland, having enjoyed a spell of calm in the middle of the decade, fell back into chaotic violence after the Provisional IRA bombed a police station and Orange Order lodge in (London)Derry following the suspicious death of an outspoken Republican in police custody, allegedly by an officer with ties to the Ulster Defence Force.
By the time Whitelaw called for new elections, the political scene had again changed. Labour had elected Michael Foot to replace Callaghan and a combination of the ascendance of the left-wing of the party and Foot's own inability to translate dissatisfaction with the direction Britain was going into gains at the polls led to a half-dozen moderate Labour MPs to join with several former Liberals to create the centrist Democratic Party in 1978. The Democrats, targeting former Liberal safeholds as well as marginal constituencies from both parties, did not do nearly as well as the newspapers had predicted, but combined with the nationalist parties' rebounds in Scotland and Wales as well as Northern Ireland's seats being held by NI-only parties, led to a near-tie between the Conservatives and Labour in the Commons.
Whitelaw, following his return to office, attempted to solidify his new government by forming a coalition with the Democrats and the Ulster Unionists. But Democratic leader David Steel's insistence on implementing electoral reform in a hypothetical government led to negotiations going nowhere and the Conservatives ruling as a minority for a few months before Whitelaw called for a new election in January 1980.
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...By 1979, Pierre Trudeau and his government had become deeply unpopular. Ballooning budget deficits, steady rate of inflation and lackluster employment numbers became the albatross around the neck of the Liberals, who had been in charge for the last 16 years, 11 of them under Trudeau. The prime minister himself had lost a great deal of popularity and the poor economic conditions alongside the continuing drama with Quebec and its increasing independentist sentiment, characterized by the victory of the Parti Québécois in Quebec's 1977 provincial election.
The Progressive Conservatives had done an about-face after Stanfield had resigned in the wake of the 1974 defeat, selecting right-wing Albertan Jack Horner to be their new leader in a crowded leadership race. Horner was a perfect foil to Trudeau: an English-speaking, Albertan farmer compared to the French-speaking Quebecois professor. The election looked like it would be extremely polarizing and indeed it was: the PCs won the popular vote by only 35,000 votes out of 11.5 million cast.
Horner won a workable majority, and the New Democratic Party returned with a vengeance, more than doubling their caucus as a result of Liberal disaffection and swing voters. The Social Credit Party gained seats, but effectively ran as a single-vote party on the issue of independentism in Quebec. The party would dissolve between elections as a result of vicious infighting between those who approved of the independentist change and those who didn't, with a majority of their MPs choosing to sit as independents.
The Progressive Conservatives had done an about-face after Stanfield had resigned in the wake of the 1974 defeat, selecting right-wing Albertan Jack Horner to be their new leader in a crowded leadership race. Horner was a perfect foil to Trudeau: an English-speaking, Albertan farmer compared to the French-speaking Quebecois professor. The election looked like it would be extremely polarizing and indeed it was: the PCs won the popular vote by only 35,000 votes out of 11.5 million cast.
Horner won a workable majority, and the New Democratic Party returned with a vengeance, more than doubling their caucus as a result of Liberal disaffection and swing voters. The Social Credit Party gained seats, but effectively ran as a single-vote party on the issue of independentism in Quebec. The party would dissolve between elections as a result of vicious infighting between those who approved of the independentist change and those who didn't, with a majority of their MPs choosing to sit as independents.
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...After a fifteen-year papacy, Paul VI died after a heart attack, having been plagued by ill health for much of the last year of his life. The College of Cardinals, upon meeting in August, attempted to find another papal nominee who could walk the same line that the late holy father had: allowing the Church to modernize while at the same time staying faithful enough to the traditional roots of Catholic thought. A compromise candidate was sought to balance the needs of the liberal and conservative factions of the College of Cardinals, and in the end, the college chose Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops Sebastiano Baggio as the new pope.
Baggio would take the name Pius XIII, and become one of the most popular popes in recent memory. Pius XIII would largely eschew formulating new dogma and interpreting Vatican doctrine and instead shift the church's focus to increasing attention to the developing world, greater emphasis on good deeds and charity and in keeping the church relevant as the 21st century loomed ever closer.
Baggio would take the name Pius XIII, and become one of the most popular popes in recent memory. Pius XIII would largely eschew formulating new dogma and interpreting Vatican doctrine and instead shift the church's focus to increasing attention to the developing world, greater emphasis on good deeds and charity and in keeping the church relevant as the 21st century loomed ever closer.
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During Bush's term, it was widely assumed that President Muskie, with his remaining appeal across the disparate Democratic factions, would run again in 1980. However, the former president made it clear following the 1978 midterms that he would not run. Speculation briefly turned to former Vice President Byrd, but Byrd's previous membership in the Ku Klux Klan and his past votes against civil rights legislation ended any serious discussion of him running and Byrd ruled himself out only a month after Muskie did.
The Democratic nomination thus was open for the first time since 1960. Candidates across the political spectrum, from South Dakota Senator George McGovern (representing the progressive, dovish of the party) to New York Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm to Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale (President Humphrey's political protege and political heir apparent) to Alabama Governor George Wallace (in his final presidential bid) crowded in for the chance to correct what they regarded as an aberration from perpetual Democratic control of the White House.
Since the chaotic 1968 convention, the party had drastically refined how it chose its presidential nominee to allow the nominee to be chosen by primary voters instead of party elites like it had in the past. Primaries and caucuses with delegates awarded on a proportional basis had replaced the patchwork that allowed Humphrey to win the nomination in 1968 without running in a single primary. While the 1972 and 1976 primaries had technically been under this system, it was never really paid attention to since Humphrey and then Muskie had such an overwhelming lock on the nomination that such primaries were a formality.
But 1980 showed that, outside of McGovern (who had been on the committee that was in charge of reshaping the nominating process to be more small-d democratic), the presidential candidates had very little idea of how the system worked on their own end, with missteps by contenders like Mondale (who wrote off contending in primaries in the old Confederacy) and Florida Senator Reubin Askew (whose campaign quickly fell apart once it became apparent that Askew's name had not been entered into enough primaries following the South Carolina primary to mathematically be able to win the nomination) causing the primary campaign to become a slow-moving train-wreck for party leaders.
McGovern, as the only primary candidate with a detailed understanding of the new process, was able to take advantage of the fractured primary landscape and quickly poach formerly pledged delegates to withdrawn candidates to be the only nominee able to get the nomination. Reluctantly, the other candidates withdrew in the name of party unity and McGovern became the nominee. He chose Askew as his running mate, hoping to appeal to offset his image as a liberal dove with a southern moderate on the ticket.
McGovern, for all the "Humphrey Democrats" disliked him, came out swinging in the general election. He hammered Bush on the president's push to create an international stabilization force for Iran, playing on the public's post-Vietnam skittishness to becoming involved militarily abroad, with the DNC printing bumper stickers saying "'Khuzestan' is Arabic for 'Vietnam'". The president also was hit with questions surrounding his cabinet, after Secretary Nixon was implicated in a scandal surrounding the discrepancies between the high payment he received for speeches and the income he reported for such on his tax returns.
But Bush quickly struck back, saying McGovern would be the "peacenik-in-chief" if elected and played up his foreign policy successes, especially in China and the economic recovery that had begun under his watch. He was doubtlessly helped by organized labor choosing, for the first time since before the Great Depression, to largely sit out the presidential election campaign and not aid the Democratic nominee.
Bush won more electoral votes than his first election in 1976 despite his margin of victory narrowing, with the overwhelming Democratic turnout in the northeast (where McGovern's anti-war views were especially popular) being largely responsible for the anomalous result. McGovern's campaign also failed spectacularly in translating an increase in the Democratic vote from 1976 into electoral votes, notably taking California, Oregon and South Dakota (McGovern's home state) as givens and then watching in shock as Bush won all three after an especially strong push on the west coast by the Republican ticket in October and McGovern lost his senate race (that he was running for in addition to the presidency) to conservative Congressman James Abdnor.
The Democratic nomination thus was open for the first time since 1960. Candidates across the political spectrum, from South Dakota Senator George McGovern (representing the progressive, dovish of the party) to New York Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm to Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale (President Humphrey's political protege and political heir apparent) to Alabama Governor George Wallace (in his final presidential bid) crowded in for the chance to correct what they regarded as an aberration from perpetual Democratic control of the White House.
Since the chaotic 1968 convention, the party had drastically refined how it chose its presidential nominee to allow the nominee to be chosen by primary voters instead of party elites like it had in the past. Primaries and caucuses with delegates awarded on a proportional basis had replaced the patchwork that allowed Humphrey to win the nomination in 1968 without running in a single primary. While the 1972 and 1976 primaries had technically been under this system, it was never really paid attention to since Humphrey and then Muskie had such an overwhelming lock on the nomination that such primaries were a formality.
But 1980 showed that, outside of McGovern (who had been on the committee that was in charge of reshaping the nominating process to be more small-d democratic), the presidential candidates had very little idea of how the system worked on their own end, with missteps by contenders like Mondale (who wrote off contending in primaries in the old Confederacy) and Florida Senator Reubin Askew (whose campaign quickly fell apart once it became apparent that Askew's name had not been entered into enough primaries following the South Carolina primary to mathematically be able to win the nomination) causing the primary campaign to become a slow-moving train-wreck for party leaders.
McGovern, as the only primary candidate with a detailed understanding of the new process, was able to take advantage of the fractured primary landscape and quickly poach formerly pledged delegates to withdrawn candidates to be the only nominee able to get the nomination. Reluctantly, the other candidates withdrew in the name of party unity and McGovern became the nominee. He chose Askew as his running mate, hoping to appeal to offset his image as a liberal dove with a southern moderate on the ticket.
McGovern, for all the "Humphrey Democrats" disliked him, came out swinging in the general election. He hammered Bush on the president's push to create an international stabilization force for Iran, playing on the public's post-Vietnam skittishness to becoming involved militarily abroad, with the DNC printing bumper stickers saying "'Khuzestan' is Arabic for 'Vietnam'". The president also was hit with questions surrounding his cabinet, after Secretary Nixon was implicated in a scandal surrounding the discrepancies between the high payment he received for speeches and the income he reported for such on his tax returns.
But Bush quickly struck back, saying McGovern would be the "peacenik-in-chief" if elected and played up his foreign policy successes, especially in China and the economic recovery that had begun under his watch. He was doubtlessly helped by organized labor choosing, for the first time since before the Great Depression, to largely sit out the presidential election campaign and not aid the Democratic nominee.
Bush won more electoral votes than his first election in 1976 despite his margin of victory narrowing, with the overwhelming Democratic turnout in the northeast (where McGovern's anti-war views were especially popular) being largely responsible for the anomalous result. McGovern's campaign also failed spectacularly in translating an increase in the Democratic vote from 1976 into electoral votes, notably taking California, Oregon and South Dakota (McGovern's home state) as givens and then watching in shock as Bush won all three after an especially strong push on the west coast by the Republican ticket in October and McGovern lost his senate race (that he was running for in addition to the presidency) to conservative Congressman James Abdnor.
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Bush's second term began on a bright note for the president. Republicans had managed to take control over the Senate for the first time in decades, albeit by a narrow margin and Bush hoped to have more control over Congress with this and the increased Republican caucus in the House. Bush would manage to pass a tax reduction bill through the Congress in 1982 but would almost completely undo the bill's effects following the United States' involvement in UNSFFI a year later.
The "Curse of Tippecanoe", a superstition that all presidents elected in twenty year periods since 1840 (and William Henry Harrison's death after only thirty days in office) was foiled in the most chilling assassination attempt to date. During a visit to Denver in September 1981, President Bush was greeting the crowd when a man opened fire, killing one Secret Service agent, Bush's adviser James Baker and wounding three others, including the president (who was hit in the left arm by a bullet that shattered his arm bone). Secret Service agents returned fire, killing the man, who was identified as Theodore Robert Bundy, a former campaign staffer for Daniel Evans' 1972 presidential campaign who had disappeared alongside another staffer at the tail end of the 1972 primaries.
During the FBI and Secret Service search of Bundy's rented apartment, the clothing and other artifacts of dozens of women were found, alongside human remains later identified as those of several missing women who had disappeared in the past eight or so years on the west coast. Bundy's journals that were recovered indicated that he had somehow been convinced Bush had ended his political career by ensuring Evans' defeat to secure his own bid to the White House four years later (despite the fact that Bush was not a candidate in the 1972 election) and the would-be assassin chillingly wrote of plans to capture the president "if able" and "exact [his] revenge", most likely with some of the many instruments that federal agents found human blood on and that were later confirmed to be murder weapons Bundy had kept. The journals later wrote Bundy had become convinced that capturing Bush was impossible and that he would instead "make a name for [himself]" by killing Bush.
Like the first half of Bush's term, the most drastic events were in foreign policy. The situation in Iran had, in the views of both Washington and Moscow, been going on for too long and greatly destabilizing both the Middle East as well as the international oil market. In a rare Cold War display of agreement, Bush and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev (or, more accurately, the Politburo acting on behalf of the increasingly ill Brezhnev) agreed to let a French motion in the UN Security Council pass to set up an international stabilization force for Iran. The announcement of the United Nations Stabilization Force For Iran (UNSFFI) was greeted with surprise across the globe and became a major foreign policy landmark in American-Soviet relations (albeit one that was reached with the secret condition of increasing grain exports to the Soviet Union as well as the administration backing down on criticizing the Warsaw Pact's human rights record).
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein refused to relinquish control over the Khuzestan province (or at least parts that the Iraqi military effectively controlled) and once UNSFFI forces entered Iran, the international coalition spearheaded by United States troops, quickly forced Iraq back behind the border. The "mission to bring democracy and stability to Iran" went a long way to ending the "Vietnam syndrome" that the American public had voiced since the 1970s.
Once Bush's UNSFFI partner Brezhnev died in 1982, relations with the Soviets soured and Soviet contributions to UNSFFI ended almost entirely. A cooling of relations in the Andropov years (1982-1984) was balanced out by the realization among the State Department officials and the CIA from contacts/agents gained as a result of contact with Soviet soldiers in UNSFFI that the Soviet state was in worse shape than had previously been thought and that led the White House to erroneously believe that the USSR was in its dying throes and leaned off pressuring the communist state, fearing a power vacuum would ensue (a la Iran) if the Soviet state collapsed.
As such, democracy activists from the Warsaw Pact nations and domestic red-baiters were infuriated with the administration's seeming indifference to the plight of those living behind the Iron Curtain and the president suffered at the polls. Following the 1982 midterms, the Republicans lost control of the Senate and the Democrats again set the domestic agenda, overriding Bush's veto to oversee the expansion of Medicare eligibility to all Americans (which the president decried as fiscally imprudent) and watering down the president's proposed anti-drug laws.
Unlike his immediate predecessor, Bush was able to make one appointment to the Supreme Court, after Potter Stewart announced his retirement in 1981. He selected Illinois Court of Appeals Justice John Paul Stevens to the court, and although the president promised several socially conservative southern Republican senators that he would appoint an anti-abortion conservative with his second pick, he was never able to do so.
The "Curse of Tippecanoe", a superstition that all presidents elected in twenty year periods since 1840 (and William Henry Harrison's death after only thirty days in office) was foiled in the most chilling assassination attempt to date. During a visit to Denver in September 1981, President Bush was greeting the crowd when a man opened fire, killing one Secret Service agent, Bush's adviser James Baker and wounding three others, including the president (who was hit in the left arm by a bullet that shattered his arm bone). Secret Service agents returned fire, killing the man, who was identified as Theodore Robert Bundy, a former campaign staffer for Daniel Evans' 1972 presidential campaign who had disappeared alongside another staffer at the tail end of the 1972 primaries.
During the FBI and Secret Service search of Bundy's rented apartment, the clothing and other artifacts of dozens of women were found, alongside human remains later identified as those of several missing women who had disappeared in the past eight or so years on the west coast. Bundy's journals that were recovered indicated that he had somehow been convinced Bush had ended his political career by ensuring Evans' defeat to secure his own bid to the White House four years later (despite the fact that Bush was not a candidate in the 1972 election) and the would-be assassin chillingly wrote of plans to capture the president "if able" and "exact [his] revenge", most likely with some of the many instruments that federal agents found human blood on and that were later confirmed to be murder weapons Bundy had kept. The journals later wrote Bundy had become convinced that capturing Bush was impossible and that he would instead "make a name for [himself]" by killing Bush.
Like the first half of Bush's term, the most drastic events were in foreign policy. The situation in Iran had, in the views of both Washington and Moscow, been going on for too long and greatly destabilizing both the Middle East as well as the international oil market. In a rare Cold War display of agreement, Bush and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev (or, more accurately, the Politburo acting on behalf of the increasingly ill Brezhnev) agreed to let a French motion in the UN Security Council pass to set up an international stabilization force for Iran. The announcement of the United Nations Stabilization Force For Iran (UNSFFI) was greeted with surprise across the globe and became a major foreign policy landmark in American-Soviet relations (albeit one that was reached with the secret condition of increasing grain exports to the Soviet Union as well as the administration backing down on criticizing the Warsaw Pact's human rights record).
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein refused to relinquish control over the Khuzestan province (or at least parts that the Iraqi military effectively controlled) and once UNSFFI forces entered Iran, the international coalition spearheaded by United States troops, quickly forced Iraq back behind the border. The "mission to bring democracy and stability to Iran" went a long way to ending the "Vietnam syndrome" that the American public had voiced since the 1970s.
Once Bush's UNSFFI partner Brezhnev died in 1982, relations with the Soviets soured and Soviet contributions to UNSFFI ended almost entirely. A cooling of relations in the Andropov years (1982-1984) was balanced out by the realization among the State Department officials and the CIA from contacts/agents gained as a result of contact with Soviet soldiers in UNSFFI that the Soviet state was in worse shape than had previously been thought and that led the White House to erroneously believe that the USSR was in its dying throes and leaned off pressuring the communist state, fearing a power vacuum would ensue (a la Iran) if the Soviet state collapsed.
As such, democracy activists from the Warsaw Pact nations and domestic red-baiters were infuriated with the administration's seeming indifference to the plight of those living behind the Iron Curtain and the president suffered at the polls. Following the 1982 midterms, the Republicans lost control of the Senate and the Democrats again set the domestic agenda, overriding Bush's veto to oversee the expansion of Medicare eligibility to all Americans (which the president decried as fiscally imprudent) and watering down the president's proposed anti-drug laws.
Unlike his immediate predecessor, Bush was able to make one appointment to the Supreme Court, after Potter Stewart announced his retirement in 1981. He selected Illinois Court of Appeals Justice John Paul Stevens to the court, and although the president promised several socially conservative southern Republican senators that he would appoint an anti-abortion conservative with his second pick, he was never able to do so.
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The 1984 campaign was largely viewed as a referendum on the Bush administration. Vice President Dole, despite concerns about being too conservative for the general election, faced only minor challengers in the primaries, easily winning the Republican nomination. The vice president selected Pennsylvania Senator John Heinz, a moderate who was the heir to the Heinz family fortune, as his running mate.
On the Democratic side, the party had learned a harsh lesson from the 1980 campaign and worked to quickly consolidate support behind candidates it felt could unite the party instead of alienate key factions like McGovern's candidacy had. The candidates quickly narrowed to Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale, the political protege of the late President Humphrey and Ohio Senator John Glenn, the former Mercury Seven astronaut. Mondale and Glenn's dragged on until April, when Glenn was able to finally break ahead of Mondale in the delegate count. Mondale dropped out, believing that he would be given the vice-presidential nomination in the name of party unity, but Glenn, who disliked Mondale's calls to end the space program following the landing of Apollo 11 on the moon in 1969, gave the vice presidential nomination to Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen, a conservative southern Democrat instead. A furious Mondale refused to campaign for Glenn until persuaded by party leaders in October and by then it was too late to make much of a difference.
Foreign affairs dominated the election, and Dole was quick to tie himself into the Bush administration's successful involvement in Iran and the opening up of relations with China. Glenn attempted to draw parallels with Dole to both Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater, claiming Dole was too extreme to be given the reins of power and that he was "a throwback to the days of Herbert Hoover and Calvin Coolidge". Dole was able to throw back that Glenn would be "more of the same", claiming that Glenn would "follow the Democratic tradition of reckless adventurism abroad", implicitly blaming the Democrats for the post-World War II conflicts in Korea and Vietnam.
The death of Soviet leader Yuri Andropov and his replacement by hardliner Viktor Grishin in February brought the Cold War back into the forefront of voters' concerns. The Republican campaign seized on this, warning Americans "not to change horses in midstream". Grishin, for his part, used increasingly belligerent rhetoric to defend the USSR against what he perceived as "western capitalist attempts to weaken the Soviet Union and communist movement", effectively ending detente that had been on hiatus after Brezhnev's death two years earlier.
The division among Democrats following the primaries and Glenn's perceived snub of Mondale had offset doubts about Dole's conservative views. The finely-humming economy and return of fears about the Cold War in the wake of detente's end also were the reasons why a majority of Americans gave the Republicans their third consecutive victory, something that the party hadn't done since 1928.
On the Democratic side, the party had learned a harsh lesson from the 1980 campaign and worked to quickly consolidate support behind candidates it felt could unite the party instead of alienate key factions like McGovern's candidacy had. The candidates quickly narrowed to Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale, the political protege of the late President Humphrey and Ohio Senator John Glenn, the former Mercury Seven astronaut. Mondale and Glenn's dragged on until April, when Glenn was able to finally break ahead of Mondale in the delegate count. Mondale dropped out, believing that he would be given the vice-presidential nomination in the name of party unity, but Glenn, who disliked Mondale's calls to end the space program following the landing of Apollo 11 on the moon in 1969, gave the vice presidential nomination to Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen, a conservative southern Democrat instead. A furious Mondale refused to campaign for Glenn until persuaded by party leaders in October and by then it was too late to make much of a difference.
Foreign affairs dominated the election, and Dole was quick to tie himself into the Bush administration's successful involvement in Iran and the opening up of relations with China. Glenn attempted to draw parallels with Dole to both Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater, claiming Dole was too extreme to be given the reins of power and that he was "a throwback to the days of Herbert Hoover and Calvin Coolidge". Dole was able to throw back that Glenn would be "more of the same", claiming that Glenn would "follow the Democratic tradition of reckless adventurism abroad", implicitly blaming the Democrats for the post-World War II conflicts in Korea and Vietnam.
The death of Soviet leader Yuri Andropov and his replacement by hardliner Viktor Grishin in February brought the Cold War back into the forefront of voters' concerns. The Republican campaign seized on this, warning Americans "not to change horses in midstream". Grishin, for his part, used increasingly belligerent rhetoric to defend the USSR against what he perceived as "western capitalist attempts to weaken the Soviet Union and communist movement", effectively ending detente that had been on hiatus after Brezhnev's death two years earlier.
The division among Democrats following the primaries and Glenn's perceived snub of Mondale had offset doubts about Dole's conservative views. The finely-humming economy and return of fears about the Cold War in the wake of detente's end also were the reasons why a majority of Americans gave the Republicans their third consecutive victory, something that the party hadn't done since 1928.
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President Dole began his term with the Democratic-controlled Congress wary of his planned domestic agenda, which included plans to slash spending nearly across the board (exempting defense programs and Medicare, of course). Congress forged a compromise with the new president that watered down the cuts but that would be almost the entirety of the term's changes to the domestic political scene. Dole quickly antagonized his Republican allies on the Hill with his micromanaging nature and congressional Democrats seized on this dissatisfaction, rendering Dole unable to push through what he thought were needed reforms of the welfare system, tax system and reorganization of the Defense Department....
On the international scene, the effects of several theaters of the Cold War were coming to a head concurrently. South Africa, which had become a pariah state as its Western anti-communist allies turned against it over the apartheid system, had begun to take the first steps towards ending the system in the final Bush years. During the Dole years, the process began slowly, but an attempted putsch by hardline apartheid supporters under General Magnus Malan caused the brief South African Civil War that saw the rapid collapse of apartheid after the Umkhonto we Sizwe (military wing of the African National Congress) began a wary alliance with the moderate forces to defeat Malan. Dole and Secretary of State Kissinger (a Bush holdover) successfully persuaded Malan against attempting to seize moderate-held military bases where some of South Africa's secret nuclear weapons were held, averting a nuclear disaster on top of a civil war with large racial overtones. Malan's assassination would see the collapse of the hardline apartheid activists, and apartheid would quickly die as well, with the strongest proponents of apartheid either dead or discredited and the first elections under universal suffrage would take place under international supervision (on the fierce protestations of Acting President P.W. Botha) after the war's end in 1988.
Pakistan, the bitter enemy of India, who had become an informal ally of the United States, had turned to the Soviet Union following the loss of East Pakistan (Bangladesh) in the Second Indo-Pakistani War. Following India's development of a nuclear weapon, the USSR covertly began to give Pakistan nuclear secrets (much like they had with China decades earlier). Learning from China, the Soviets had not given Pakistan all the knowledge to create an atomic weapon, but enough to put them on the right track. Unknown to the Soviets, the Pakistani nuclear program was severely effected by the political chaos that the country had undergone following the loss of Bangladesh and the occasional spillage of violence from its neighbors Iran and Afghanistan, which were undergoing civil conflicts in the early 1980s. As such, its scientists and technicians were generally woefully underfunded, under-equipped and under-trained.
On a June day in 1987, this came to ahead in the Kahuta Works Laboratory, the main research site for the program.
While the cause of the explosion remains unknown because of the elimination of both the facility and the city of Kahuta, the nuclear detonation caused the death of nearly 50,000 Pakistanis and shifting winds caused thousands more to develop illnesses and injuries as fallout spread to the east. Almost immediately, the world's militaries, fearing a nuclear attack as a prelude to all-out war, went on red alert, with all-out nuclear war being averted only by cool heads in Washington, Moscow, New Delhi and Beijing.
Once the world realized what had really happened, Kahuta became a rallying cry for nuclear disarmament worldwide. President Dole, almost overnight, faced loud public fears about nuclear weapons and nuclear energy with some congressmen and congresswomen demanding a removal of nuclear weapons from American soil to prevent an American Kahuta. Dole and the military establishment, by 1988, managed to calm American fears about the storage of nuclear weapons domestically but Kahuta saw a strong trend against nuclear power that would last decades.
Pakistan itself saw support for the government, led by President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, collapse overnight. Under international scrutiny now and abandoned by his Soviet allies (who were wary of international opinion), Zia fled one step of mutinous troops, with a new government agreeing to let the United Nations investigators in to Kahuta and beginning a difficult period of detente with India after rewriting the Pakistani constitution to forbid nuclear weapons....
In Eastern Europe, Soviet control was weakening after the Politburo, focusing more and more on domestic matters as the dire Soviet economic situation became increasingly undeniable, refused the pleas of its puppet leaders to quell democratic protests in the Warsaw Bloc states. By 1988, East Germany had begun open negotiations with its western counterpart and Czechoslovakia had stated its intention to hold open elections for a portion of the nation's formerly rubber-stamp parliament. Poland remained under martial law, but the increasing boldness of dissidents to both publicly speak out against Polish leaders and nationwide strikes protesting the supposedly "worker's state" being opposed to unions who were not under effective government control resulted in waves of crackdowns that caused more and more resentment against the military government in Warsaw.
On the international scene, the effects of several theaters of the Cold War were coming to a head concurrently. South Africa, which had become a pariah state as its Western anti-communist allies turned against it over the apartheid system, had begun to take the first steps towards ending the system in the final Bush years. During the Dole years, the process began slowly, but an attempted putsch by hardline apartheid supporters under General Magnus Malan caused the brief South African Civil War that saw the rapid collapse of apartheid after the Umkhonto we Sizwe (military wing of the African National Congress) began a wary alliance with the moderate forces to defeat Malan. Dole and Secretary of State Kissinger (a Bush holdover) successfully persuaded Malan against attempting to seize moderate-held military bases where some of South Africa's secret nuclear weapons were held, averting a nuclear disaster on top of a civil war with large racial overtones. Malan's assassination would see the collapse of the hardline apartheid activists, and apartheid would quickly die as well, with the strongest proponents of apartheid either dead or discredited and the first elections under universal suffrage would take place under international supervision (on the fierce protestations of Acting President P.W. Botha) after the war's end in 1988.
Pakistan, the bitter enemy of India, who had become an informal ally of the United States, had turned to the Soviet Union following the loss of East Pakistan (Bangladesh) in the Second Indo-Pakistani War. Following India's development of a nuclear weapon, the USSR covertly began to give Pakistan nuclear secrets (much like they had with China decades earlier). Learning from China, the Soviets had not given Pakistan all the knowledge to create an atomic weapon, but enough to put them on the right track. Unknown to the Soviets, the Pakistani nuclear program was severely effected by the political chaos that the country had undergone following the loss of Bangladesh and the occasional spillage of violence from its neighbors Iran and Afghanistan, which were undergoing civil conflicts in the early 1980s. As such, its scientists and technicians were generally woefully underfunded, under-equipped and under-trained.
On a June day in 1987, this came to ahead in the Kahuta Works Laboratory, the main research site for the program.
While the cause of the explosion remains unknown because of the elimination of both the facility and the city of Kahuta, the nuclear detonation caused the death of nearly 50,000 Pakistanis and shifting winds caused thousands more to develop illnesses and injuries as fallout spread to the east. Almost immediately, the world's militaries, fearing a nuclear attack as a prelude to all-out war, went on red alert, with all-out nuclear war being averted only by cool heads in Washington, Moscow, New Delhi and Beijing.
Once the world realized what had really happened, Kahuta became a rallying cry for nuclear disarmament worldwide. President Dole, almost overnight, faced loud public fears about nuclear weapons and nuclear energy with some congressmen and congresswomen demanding a removal of nuclear weapons from American soil to prevent an American Kahuta. Dole and the military establishment, by 1988, managed to calm American fears about the storage of nuclear weapons domestically but Kahuta saw a strong trend against nuclear power that would last decades.
Pakistan itself saw support for the government, led by President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, collapse overnight. Under international scrutiny now and abandoned by his Soviet allies (who were wary of international opinion), Zia fled one step of mutinous troops, with a new government agreeing to let the United Nations investigators in to Kahuta and beginning a difficult period of detente with India after rewriting the Pakistani constitution to forbid nuclear weapons....
In Eastern Europe, Soviet control was weakening after the Politburo, focusing more and more on domestic matters as the dire Soviet economic situation became increasingly undeniable, refused the pleas of its puppet leaders to quell democratic protests in the Warsaw Bloc states. By 1988, East Germany had begun open negotiations with its western counterpart and Czechoslovakia had stated its intention to hold open elections for a portion of the nation's formerly rubber-stamp parliament. Poland remained under martial law, but the increasing boldness of dissidents to both publicly speak out against Polish leaders and nationwide strikes protesting the supposedly "worker's state" being opposed to unions who were not under effective government control resulted in waves of crackdowns that caused more and more resentment against the military government in Warsaw.
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Going into the 1988 election season, President Dole realized that he was in trouble. His approval ratings and job performance numbers were anemic and the president considered many possible solutions to reverse the trend, including replacing Vice President Heinz on the ticket, but settled instead on capitalizing on the ongoing peace negotiations the State Department was mediating between Israel and Egypt. Egyptian President Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Shamir were moved from Athens, where negotiations had been taken place previously, to Camp David, where Dole and Secretary Kissinger (who had secretly informed the president that he would retire regardless of if Dole won re-election) succeeded in getting the two leaders to finally agree to a peace treaty and normalization of relations. The Camp David Accords and subsequent treaty were a shot in the arm for the Dole re-election campaign and the subsequent withdrawal of Israel from the Sinai Peninsula during the next couple of years and its effects on international trade (with the chance of an international incident in the Suez Canal now greatly decreased) would largely become the most positive part of Dole's legacy.
On the Democratic side, the loss of three straight presidential elections had left the party increasingly desperate for a candidate who could appeal to the voting bloc that had shifted to the Republicans that party leaders felt would enable another victory: southern whites. As such, several southern politicians were courted as potential regional candidates who, in the mind of many party leaders who believed that many northern Democratic voters would not vote for a non-incumbent southern candidate following the Johnson presidency, run as the "southern candidate" and drop out to endorse the eventual nominee, who most believed would be Walter Mondale. What these leaders didn't expect was Kentucky Senator Walter D. Huddleston throwing his hat into the ring. Huddleston had previously been considered as a vice presidential candidate in 1984 and by 1988 had become the strongest southern candidate, but the national media did not initially take his campaign seriously, focusing instead on Mondale and other northern challengers such as Delaware Senator Joe Biden, Maine Governor George Mitchell and New York Governor Mario Cuomo.
Huddleston's strong performance in Iowa shocked the political world and the withdrawal of Mitchell after the Maine Governor's second-place showing in the neighboring New Hampshire primary quickly upset the predictions of the remaining northern candidates. The Super Tuesday 1988 was chaotic. Senator Biden was rushed to the hospital the Sunday night before after suffering an aneurysm, leaving Biden supporters to throw their votes between Cuomo, Mondale and Huddleston. Huddleston won enough support to cement his front-runner status and by the time Cuomo agreed to withdraw to allow Mondale to be the anti-Huddleston candidate, the Kentuckian had secured enough support from the party superdelegates to make the rest of the primaries a formality. Despite calls to pick one of his rivals for the ticket, Huddleston chose Michigan Governor Jim Blanchard, hoping to prevent a repeat of the Glenn campaign's loss of the state to Dole four years earlier.
The dark horse victory of a southern moderate threw the Dole campaign for a loop. Huddleston, being a southerner, made serious inroads into states the Democrats had not seriously been able to contest since 1964 and with the Huddleston campaign co-opting primary rivals in conscious avoidance of a 1984-style split (Mondale had quickly been promised the Secretary of State position after the final primary in June should the Minnesota senator agree to campaign for Huddleston). With the opposing party united, Dole made his success in Camp David a main campaign theme and made the promise to move any nuclear missiles away from populated areas as a result of the post-Kahuta nuclear panic. The latter promise, which initially boosted the president into the lead, led to a fierce reaction from retired national security officials who pointed out that this would make it near-impossible to move nuclear weapons or construct them anywhere but isolated missile silos in the Great Plains and Midwest.
Dole could not quite overcome his low popularity and job performance ratings and voter fatigue with the Republican Party, which had controlled the presidency for 12 years. Huddleston became the first Democrat since Humphrey in 1968 to win a southern state (and Humphrey had won Texas largely because of Lyndon Johnson's control over the state) and the first president to have defeated an incumbent president who was previously elected to the presidency since Franklin Roosevelt defeated Herbert Hoover sixty-six years earlier.
On the Democratic side, the loss of three straight presidential elections had left the party increasingly desperate for a candidate who could appeal to the voting bloc that had shifted to the Republicans that party leaders felt would enable another victory: southern whites. As such, several southern politicians were courted as potential regional candidates who, in the mind of many party leaders who believed that many northern Democratic voters would not vote for a non-incumbent southern candidate following the Johnson presidency, run as the "southern candidate" and drop out to endorse the eventual nominee, who most believed would be Walter Mondale. What these leaders didn't expect was Kentucky Senator Walter D. Huddleston throwing his hat into the ring. Huddleston had previously been considered as a vice presidential candidate in 1984 and by 1988 had become the strongest southern candidate, but the national media did not initially take his campaign seriously, focusing instead on Mondale and other northern challengers such as Delaware Senator Joe Biden, Maine Governor George Mitchell and New York Governor Mario Cuomo.
Huddleston's strong performance in Iowa shocked the political world and the withdrawal of Mitchell after the Maine Governor's second-place showing in the neighboring New Hampshire primary quickly upset the predictions of the remaining northern candidates. The Super Tuesday 1988 was chaotic. Senator Biden was rushed to the hospital the Sunday night before after suffering an aneurysm, leaving Biden supporters to throw their votes between Cuomo, Mondale and Huddleston. Huddleston won enough support to cement his front-runner status and by the time Cuomo agreed to withdraw to allow Mondale to be the anti-Huddleston candidate, the Kentuckian had secured enough support from the party superdelegates to make the rest of the primaries a formality. Despite calls to pick one of his rivals for the ticket, Huddleston chose Michigan Governor Jim Blanchard, hoping to prevent a repeat of the Glenn campaign's loss of the state to Dole four years earlier.
The dark horse victory of a southern moderate threw the Dole campaign for a loop. Huddleston, being a southerner, made serious inroads into states the Democrats had not seriously been able to contest since 1964 and with the Huddleston campaign co-opting primary rivals in conscious avoidance of a 1984-style split (Mondale had quickly been promised the Secretary of State position after the final primary in June should the Minnesota senator agree to campaign for Huddleston). With the opposing party united, Dole made his success in Camp David a main campaign theme and made the promise to move any nuclear missiles away from populated areas as a result of the post-Kahuta nuclear panic. The latter promise, which initially boosted the president into the lead, led to a fierce reaction from retired national security officials who pointed out that this would make it near-impossible to move nuclear weapons or construct them anywhere but isolated missile silos in the Great Plains and Midwest.
Dole could not quite overcome his low popularity and job performance ratings and voter fatigue with the Republican Party, which had controlled the presidency for 12 years. Huddleston became the first Democrat since Humphrey in 1968 to win a southern state (and Humphrey had won Texas largely because of Lyndon Johnson's control over the state) and the first president to have defeated an incumbent president who was previously elected to the presidency since Franklin Roosevelt defeated Herbert Hoover sixty-six years earlier.
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...The short gap in time between the 1979 and 1980 campaigns did not leave much time for Labour to consolidate their gains and set themselves up as a party ready to govern. Whitelaw and the Conservatives, almost immediately after negotiations with the Democrats and Ulster Unionsts fell through in 1979, began making the case that "a stable government is needed", setting themselves up as the party that was best to deliver a majority and stability to Britain. The Conservatives made the case that Labour was too extreme to win a majority, citing the overabundance of ex-Labourites running under the Democratic label compared to ex-Conservatives. Labour, who had been out of government for nearly five years by this point and who had not found a strong case to bring to the public, saw most of their 1979 gains erased.
With a second majority, Whitelaw set about truly governing Britain again. The slow campaign of easing the stranglehold of trade unions over domestic industry and reducing budget deficits were the government's top priorities and the latter was making remarkable progress until President Bush of the United States convinced Whitelaw to contribute British forces to UNSFFI in 1981. While British troops were few on the ground in Iran (especially compared to their American counterparts), the deployment had the double effect of reversing much of the progress made towards getting Britain's fiscal house in order and gave other nations the perceptions that, between Iran and Northern Ireland, Britain had its military's hands full.
This was what persuaded the Argentinian military junta that Britain would not react if it acted on the country's long claim to the Falkland Islands (what they called the Islas Malvinas) and an invasion took place in late 1982, largely as part of a nationalistic distraction by the junta from Argentina's poor economy. The islands quickly fell and the junta's hoped for reaction did not occur. Whitelaw immediately organized a task force to retake the islands, all the while seeking aid from Bush and the neighboring state of Chile, whose government was increasingly annoyed at its non-democratic neighbors (including Argentina) of sending operatives in to Chile to kill their escaped political dissidents who had taken refuge in South America's sole long-term democracy.
Bush did not promise American support but told the prime minister the United States would not oppose retaking the islands and offered the United States as a mediator if Argentina would come to the table. Chile provided substantial covert aid to the British until the task force neared the island. Then, it launched a surprise attack, claiming as justification the Argentine junta's occupation of dispute territory in Tierra de Fuego and "numerous provocative attacks on Chilean soil" by Argentine operatives. The junta, which had not expected to deal with two attacks at once, quickly pulled a large part of its garrison from the Falklands to defend the Chilean border. The British task force arrived mid-pullout and the ensuing battle ended with only one ship escaping back to Argentina, with the rest of the occupying force either becoming casualties or being taken prisoner.
The junta attempted to begin mediation with Britain but the Chilean attacks and quick loss of the Falklands, combined with the dismal economic picture in Argentina that existed both during and prior to the Falklands conflict led to the junta falling from power and a democratic regime taking over. The new regime quickly imprisoned the former junta leaders and negotiated a peace treaty via the United States with Chile and Britain, ending the war.
Despite victory in the war seeing the Conservative shoot up in the polls Whitelaw did not call an election in 1983, believing that a new election campaign would possibly derail ongoing negotiations with the new Argentine government over a permanent solution regarding Argentina's claim on the Falklands and planned legislation to reform several local authorities, who were controlled by Labour and who had largely resisted the Conservatives' reforms over local funding.
When Whitelaw did call for new elections in 1984, he was able to point to the Falklands and the improving economy to offset fatigue with the Conservatives. Labour was not so lucky and the control by its vocal left-wing and the poor choice by its leader Michael Foot to include all resolutions arrived at in its party conference in the election manifesto (which included withdrawal from the European Economic Community, abolition of the House of Lords, unilateral nuclear disarmament, re-nationalization of recently privatized industries and a massive government drive for full employment) and saw a large swing from more centrist Labour voters to the Democrats. The division on the left and center-left saw Whitelaw's Conservatives win a strong majority.
Following his fourth general election victory (and third majority government), Whitelaw privately made it clear he would not take his party into another election, feeling drained after leading the country for nine years in 1984. He decided to stay on until late 1985 when he announced his retirement upon the election of his successor. Whitelaw's term as lame-duck leader was marred by an attempt on his life by the Provisional IRA that only narrowly missed blowing him up at a Conservative retreat in Brighton in an attack that killed 12 people and wounded two dozen more.
The Conservatives elected Michael Heseltine to succeed Whitelaw and Heseltine became prime minister in early 1986. Whitelaw continued to follow Whitelaw's vision for the first year or so after becoming prime minister, but started to move away from Whitelaw's path in 1987. Notably eschewing continuing the trend of battling with the Labour local authorities, Heseltine instead focused his energy on attempting to get areas left behind by the end of coal mining in Wales, northern England and Scotland back on their feet with reinvestment campaigns and retraining programs that Whitelaw had only given relative pittances.
While reviving the Conservatives' moribund popularity in these areas, these programs caused dissension in the party, which allowed Labour and the Democrats to easily make the case that the Conservatives were divided and losing effective control of the government. This was partially true and Heseltine further enraged some of his supporters by making moves towards local devolution of some powers in an attempt to cut off the rise of nationalist parties in Wales and Scotland and his government's relaxation of some aspects of martial law in Northern Ireland as a gesture of good faith in negotiations with the Provisional IRA was attacked as coddling terrorists in some Conservative circles.
With the Conservatives in power continuously since 1975, Heseltine worked constantly to boost the party's numbers up and refused to call an election until parliament was about to end in 1989. Foot had left as Labour leader following the horrible 1984 performance and his replacement, Neil Kinnock, had made it his mission to remove the hard left from positions of power in the party. Kinnock's theme of "a time for change" was blunted by the fact that Heseltine himself had only been in power for less than three years when the election was due and due to the Democratic Party's new leader. David Penhaligon had taken over mid-parliament from David Steel and had quickly become a strong contender for most popular politician in parliament. Penhaligon's strategies and insights into politics revitalized a party that had been deflated from winning so few seats after coming only 6 percentage points behind Labour in 1984.
The Conservatives lost their majority, but owing to Ulster Unionist support, retained effective control over parliament. While Labour gained more seats, the Democrats were the clear winner of the election, drawing even closer to the other two parties and doubling its amount of MPs.
Heseltine governed with the supply and confidence agreement with the Ulster Unionists through 1989 but knew that he would have to face an early election if he had any hope to continue in 10 Downing Street. Following by-election losses and defections to the Democratic bench, the Conservatives lost their ability to command a majority via supply and confidence and, unwilling to risk continuing on a minority, Heseltine reluctantly called for elections to take place in early 1991...
With a second majority, Whitelaw set about truly governing Britain again. The slow campaign of easing the stranglehold of trade unions over domestic industry and reducing budget deficits were the government's top priorities and the latter was making remarkable progress until President Bush of the United States convinced Whitelaw to contribute British forces to UNSFFI in 1981. While British troops were few on the ground in Iran (especially compared to their American counterparts), the deployment had the double effect of reversing much of the progress made towards getting Britain's fiscal house in order and gave other nations the perceptions that, between Iran and Northern Ireland, Britain had its military's hands full.
This was what persuaded the Argentinian military junta that Britain would not react if it acted on the country's long claim to the Falkland Islands (what they called the Islas Malvinas) and an invasion took place in late 1982, largely as part of a nationalistic distraction by the junta from Argentina's poor economy. The islands quickly fell and the junta's hoped for reaction did not occur. Whitelaw immediately organized a task force to retake the islands, all the while seeking aid from Bush and the neighboring state of Chile, whose government was increasingly annoyed at its non-democratic neighbors (including Argentina) of sending operatives in to Chile to kill their escaped political dissidents who had taken refuge in South America's sole long-term democracy.
Bush did not promise American support but told the prime minister the United States would not oppose retaking the islands and offered the United States as a mediator if Argentina would come to the table. Chile provided substantial covert aid to the British until the task force neared the island. Then, it launched a surprise attack, claiming as justification the Argentine junta's occupation of dispute territory in Tierra de Fuego and "numerous provocative attacks on Chilean soil" by Argentine operatives. The junta, which had not expected to deal with two attacks at once, quickly pulled a large part of its garrison from the Falklands to defend the Chilean border. The British task force arrived mid-pullout and the ensuing battle ended with only one ship escaping back to Argentina, with the rest of the occupying force either becoming casualties or being taken prisoner.
The junta attempted to begin mediation with Britain but the Chilean attacks and quick loss of the Falklands, combined with the dismal economic picture in Argentina that existed both during and prior to the Falklands conflict led to the junta falling from power and a democratic regime taking over. The new regime quickly imprisoned the former junta leaders and negotiated a peace treaty via the United States with Chile and Britain, ending the war.
Despite victory in the war seeing the Conservative shoot up in the polls Whitelaw did not call an election in 1983, believing that a new election campaign would possibly derail ongoing negotiations with the new Argentine government over a permanent solution regarding Argentina's claim on the Falklands and planned legislation to reform several local authorities, who were controlled by Labour and who had largely resisted the Conservatives' reforms over local funding.
When Whitelaw did call for new elections in 1984, he was able to point to the Falklands and the improving economy to offset fatigue with the Conservatives. Labour was not so lucky and the control by its vocal left-wing and the poor choice by its leader Michael Foot to include all resolutions arrived at in its party conference in the election manifesto (which included withdrawal from the European Economic Community, abolition of the House of Lords, unilateral nuclear disarmament, re-nationalization of recently privatized industries and a massive government drive for full employment) and saw a large swing from more centrist Labour voters to the Democrats. The division on the left and center-left saw Whitelaw's Conservatives win a strong majority.
Following his fourth general election victory (and third majority government), Whitelaw privately made it clear he would not take his party into another election, feeling drained after leading the country for nine years in 1984. He decided to stay on until late 1985 when he announced his retirement upon the election of his successor. Whitelaw's term as lame-duck leader was marred by an attempt on his life by the Provisional IRA that only narrowly missed blowing him up at a Conservative retreat in Brighton in an attack that killed 12 people and wounded two dozen more.
The Conservatives elected Michael Heseltine to succeed Whitelaw and Heseltine became prime minister in early 1986. Whitelaw continued to follow Whitelaw's vision for the first year or so after becoming prime minister, but started to move away from Whitelaw's path in 1987. Notably eschewing continuing the trend of battling with the Labour local authorities, Heseltine instead focused his energy on attempting to get areas left behind by the end of coal mining in Wales, northern England and Scotland back on their feet with reinvestment campaigns and retraining programs that Whitelaw had only given relative pittances.
While reviving the Conservatives' moribund popularity in these areas, these programs caused dissension in the party, which allowed Labour and the Democrats to easily make the case that the Conservatives were divided and losing effective control of the government. This was partially true and Heseltine further enraged some of his supporters by making moves towards local devolution of some powers in an attempt to cut off the rise of nationalist parties in Wales and Scotland and his government's relaxation of some aspects of martial law in Northern Ireland as a gesture of good faith in negotiations with the Provisional IRA was attacked as coddling terrorists in some Conservative circles.
With the Conservatives in power continuously since 1975, Heseltine worked constantly to boost the party's numbers up and refused to call an election until parliament was about to end in 1989. Foot had left as Labour leader following the horrible 1984 performance and his replacement, Neil Kinnock, had made it his mission to remove the hard left from positions of power in the party. Kinnock's theme of "a time for change" was blunted by the fact that Heseltine himself had only been in power for less than three years when the election was due and due to the Democratic Party's new leader. David Penhaligon had taken over mid-parliament from David Steel and had quickly become a strong contender for most popular politician in parliament. Penhaligon's strategies and insights into politics revitalized a party that had been deflated from winning so few seats after coming only 6 percentage points behind Labour in 1984.
The Conservatives lost their majority, but owing to Ulster Unionist support, retained effective control over parliament. While Labour gained more seats, the Democrats were the clear winner of the election, drawing even closer to the other two parties and doubling its amount of MPs.
Heseltine governed with the supply and confidence agreement with the Ulster Unionists through 1989 but knew that he would have to face an early election if he had any hope to continue in 10 Downing Street. Following by-election losses and defections to the Democratic bench, the Conservatives lost their ability to command a majority via supply and confidence and, unwilling to risk continuing on a minority, Heseltine reluctantly called for elections to take place in early 1991...
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...The first Progressive Conservative government in 16 years, Prime Minister Horner set about implementing a more austere budget than what Canadians had come to expect out of Ottawa, angering some Red Tories within his own party with his meager funding for several programs. While inflation began getting under control, the economy otherwise took a hit when the knock-on effects of the United States' removal from "unfavorite nation" status in several oil-exporting Middle Eastern nations and lessening of dependence on Canadian oil.
Horner's government succeeded in ignoring constitutional debates until the province of Quebec announced it would hold a referendum on independence in 1981. The outspoken Horner quickly became the great bogeyman of the "yes" campaign and his unpopularity in the province caused Ottawa at various points to fear that Quebec would vote for independence. Owing to unsatisfactory answers on several questions related to succession by the Parti Québécois ministers who had initiated the referendum as well as Trudeau returning to lead the "no" campaign, the vote failed 47% for independence to 53% against.
Horner was left weakened as a result. The Liberals, now under Allan MacEachen, seized upon Horner as being too divisive to lead Canada and made the case to voters when Horner called for new elections in 1983.
The Liberals again won the popular vote (this time by a margin of three percent) but owing to vote inefficiency and the New Democrats also making healthy increases in the popular vote (but only gaining two seats), the Progressive Conservatives won a plurality and thus Horner was left in office. With only a six seat plurality, Horner was left in an incredibly weak position and unable to push for the promised reforms which the PCs had hoped would placate Quebec. Under threat of a MacEachen introducing a no-confidence motion that the NDP was sure to vote for, Horner called for new elections in the summer of 1984.
The Liberals won a majority of twenty-one seats, and gave MacEachen a chance to implement his reforms that would stave off another Quebec referendum. The Liberal leader turned to constitutional repatriation and with Parti Québécois' defeat in the 1985 provincial elections, the major roadblock to repatriation was removed as the new premier, Liberal Pierre Paradis, quickly fell in line behind MacEachen's plan for patriation. Paradis was, although, the key factor in pushing MacEachen to grudgingly accept changing the constitution to grant provincial premiers the ability to choose half of the provincial senators in exchange for the unanimous passage. Canada formally patriated its constitution from Great Britain in 1986, with Quebec independentist sentiment muted by the new provincial powers to appoint senators as well as the constitutional protection of bilingualism in Canada.
By the time Canadians were again asked to vote for their MPs, the main political issue became a proposed free trade agreement with the United States, proposed by the Dole Administration. The Progressive Conservatives, now led by John Crosbie, were vocal proponents while the New Democrats under Ed Broadbent were strong opponents. MacEachen, who had good relations with President Dole and did not wish to spite his American counterpart, dodged the issue of whether he supported free trade, and the Liberal Party as a whole followed his example, with some ministers coming out as supporting it while others opposed.
The Liberals' confused and non-committed answer to the free-trade question led to a loss of their majority and the Progressive Conservatives' win in the popular vote. MacEachen only continued to be a resident of 24 Sussex Drive thanks to Quebec, who only returned one non-Liberal MP out of 75 total (largely as a result of the constitutional patriation), with Quebec MPs making up over one-half of his entire parliamentary caucus.
Ironically, the entire free trade debate was rendered moot a month later when Dole lost his bid for re-election to Walter D. Huddleston. It quickly became apparent that Huddleston was opposed to free trade and thus the matter was dropped when the new president took office in January 1989...
Horner's government succeeded in ignoring constitutional debates until the province of Quebec announced it would hold a referendum on independence in 1981. The outspoken Horner quickly became the great bogeyman of the "yes" campaign and his unpopularity in the province caused Ottawa at various points to fear that Quebec would vote for independence. Owing to unsatisfactory answers on several questions related to succession by the Parti Québécois ministers who had initiated the referendum as well as Trudeau returning to lead the "no" campaign, the vote failed 47% for independence to 53% against.
Horner was left weakened as a result. The Liberals, now under Allan MacEachen, seized upon Horner as being too divisive to lead Canada and made the case to voters when Horner called for new elections in 1983.
The Liberals again won the popular vote (this time by a margin of three percent) but owing to vote inefficiency and the New Democrats also making healthy increases in the popular vote (but only gaining two seats), the Progressive Conservatives won a plurality and thus Horner was left in office. With only a six seat plurality, Horner was left in an incredibly weak position and unable to push for the promised reforms which the PCs had hoped would placate Quebec. Under threat of a MacEachen introducing a no-confidence motion that the NDP was sure to vote for, Horner called for new elections in the summer of 1984.
The Liberals won a majority of twenty-one seats, and gave MacEachen a chance to implement his reforms that would stave off another Quebec referendum. The Liberal leader turned to constitutional repatriation and with Parti Québécois' defeat in the 1985 provincial elections, the major roadblock to repatriation was removed as the new premier, Liberal Pierre Paradis, quickly fell in line behind MacEachen's plan for patriation. Paradis was, although, the key factor in pushing MacEachen to grudgingly accept changing the constitution to grant provincial premiers the ability to choose half of the provincial senators in exchange for the unanimous passage. Canada formally patriated its constitution from Great Britain in 1986, with Quebec independentist sentiment muted by the new provincial powers to appoint senators as well as the constitutional protection of bilingualism in Canada.
By the time Canadians were again asked to vote for their MPs, the main political issue became a proposed free trade agreement with the United States, proposed by the Dole Administration. The Progressive Conservatives, now led by John Crosbie, were vocal proponents while the New Democrats under Ed Broadbent were strong opponents. MacEachen, who had good relations with President Dole and did not wish to spite his American counterpart, dodged the issue of whether he supported free trade, and the Liberal Party as a whole followed his example, with some ministers coming out as supporting it while others opposed.
The Liberals' confused and non-committed answer to the free-trade question led to a loss of their majority and the Progressive Conservatives' win in the popular vote. MacEachen only continued to be a resident of 24 Sussex Drive thanks to Quebec, who only returned one non-Liberal MP out of 75 total (largely as a result of the constitutional patriation), with Quebec MPs making up over one-half of his entire parliamentary caucus.
Ironically, the entire free trade debate was rendered moot a month later when Dole lost his bid for re-election to Walter D. Huddleston. It quickly became apparent that Huddleston was opposed to free trade and thus the matter was dropped when the new president took office in January 1989...
Since there isn't a non-Canadian/UK foreign election for the 1980s, here are the infoboxes for the presidents between Humphrey and Huddleston:
