What If JFK Had Lived?

July 30, 1965: JFK signs the Social Security Amendments of 1965 into law, creating Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor.

August 6, 1965: JFK signs the Voting Rights Act into law.

August 11, 1965: The Watts riot breaks out in South Central Los Angeles.

August 16, 1965: No longer needing to worry about re-election, since the 22nd Amendment means he can't run again in 1968 anyway, JFK addresses Congress, and asks them to pass a bill allowing cities with large black populations to hire more black police officers.

September 4, 1965: JFK is injured when his boat is overturned off the coast of his Hyannis home. He is taken by helicopter to the hospital at Otis Air Force Base at Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts. His life is not in danger, but his back injury is worsened.

September 11, 1965: JFK signs 2 bills into law: The Minority Justice Initiative, allowing for the hiring of more black and Hispanic police officers; and the Economic Opportunity Act, creating the Office of Economic Opportunity.

Nepotism prevails: To run the former, he assigns his brother, and his former campaign chairman and Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy; the latter, his brother-in-law, Sargent Shriver. There are no cameras, TV or otherwise, at the signing ceremony. JFK still needs a wheelchair after his injury, and is in such pain that he can only sit up at his desk long enough to sign the bills in front of a few reporters.

November 9, 1965: A blackout strikes much of the Northeastern U.S., including New York City and JFK's native Boston.

November 22, 1965: Two years to the day after he was nearly assassinated, JFK signs the Infrastructure Act of 1965 into law, allowing for an overhaul of the nation's electrical grid, roads, bridges and water mains. This time, he was able to walk into the Oval Office for the ceremony -- slowly.

March 31, 1966: JFK reduces the U.S. military presence in Vietnam to 50,000 personnel. At this point, there have been about 2,500 American servicemen killed there. The total would not reach 3,000. Protests against the war have been minimal.

(In reality, according to a source I found, there were 200 U.S. military deaths in Vietnam through the end of 1963. Then JFK gave way to LBJ, and there were 216 in 1964, 1,928 in 1965, 6,350 in 1966, 11,363 in 1967, and 16,899 in 1968. Then LBJ gave way to Nixon, and there were 11,780 in 1969, 6,173 in 1970, 2,414 in 1971, and 759 in 1972. Nixon declared the war over in 1973, but there were still 68 U.S. death there that year, 1 more in 1974, and 62 in 1975. Officially, there were 7 afterward, possibly men who were wounded in combat, and never recovered, dying after the evacuation on April 30, 1975. Total: 58,213.)

September 8, 1966:"Space: The New Frontier." So begins the opening narration of a science-fiction series debuting on NBC on this night, Star Trek. The narration is by William Shatner, playing the captain of the starship Enterprise, James F. Kirk -- and the initials are not a coincidence.

November 8, 1966: The Republicans make big gains in the midterm elections, possibly due to a backlash against JFK's civil rights and poverty initiatives, and to his pullout in Vietnam. They gain 47 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, and 3 in the U.S. Senate. This is not enough to take control of either house of Congress, but it is a warning to Democrats planning to run for President or Congress in 1968.

January 15, 1967: JFK becomes the 1st sitting President to attend a professional football game. And not just any game: The AFL-NFL World Championship Game -- later to be retroactively be named Super Bowl I -- at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. He walks to midfield before the game, and referee Norm Schachter hands him the coin to toss. Forrest Gregg, captain of the NFL Champion Green Bay Packers, calls, "Heads," and wins the toss. The Packers go on to defeat the AFL Champion Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10.

March 26, 1967: Easter Sunday is ruined at Hyannis Port, when JFK foolishly decides to participate in the family touch football game, and his back is re-injured. He is taken to Otis Air Force Base (now part of Joint Base Cape Cod) in nearby Buzzards Bay. Beyond the injury, his adrenal system, weakened by Addison's disease, makes corrective surgery complicated. Remembering his 1954 surgery that not only failed, but nearly killed him, JFK opts for a nonsurgical rehabilitation.

April 23, 1967: JFK is told that his back has not improved much. He wonders if, 23 years after the death of Franklin Roosevelt, America is ready for another "wheelchair President."

May 29, 1967: JFK celebrates his 50th birthday at the White House, along with his wife Jacqueline; their children Caroline, John and Frank; his siblings, their spouses and children; and his mother Rose. He puts on a brave face, but it is clear to all that he is in terrible pain.

It is also Memorial Day, and, that morning, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson had to substitute for him in the traditional laying of the wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at nearby Arlington National Cemetery.

After the party, he lies in bed, and discusses the matter with Jackie, Bobby and Ted. If he were eligible to run for a 3rd term in 1968, it would be impossible. Can he continue in office, and serve out his 2nd term until January 20, 1969? No President has ever resigned, not even Woodrow Wilson, paralyzed in 1919 and 1920. And there is no mechanism for replacing a President who is alive, but incapacitated. Nor is there one for replacing a Vice President who becomes President, other than through the next election.

Jackie makes the defining argument: "Jack, there are other men who can do the job of President of the United States. You are the only man who can do the job of being Caroline, John and Frank's father." Ted agrees. Bobby, the best politician in the family at this point, is the last to accept it. But, knowing that LBJ, or any other Democrat who might be nominated, would have a tricky run of things in 1968, says that it would be easier for LBJ if he were the incumbent President. It is a hard thing for him to admit, as RFK and LBJ hate each other's guts.

June 1, 1967: On the day that The Beatles release their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, JFK speaks from the Oval Office, with all 3 major networks broadcasting in prime time:

"America needs a full-time President. Not that long ago, Franklin Roosevelt was able to serve as a full-time President, despite being unable to walk. I hope he was not in much pain. The amount of pain I have to endure on a daily basis has rendered this job more difficult than I could have imagined.

"For six and one-half years, I have, as the Oath of Office says, to the best of my ability, preserved, protected and defended the Constitution of the United States. But now, that ability has been greatly compromised. I find I can no longer give the office of the Presidency the attention it deserves.

"Therefore, I resign the Presidency, effective at noon tomorrow. Vice President Johnson will take the Oath of Office, at that time, in the East Room, here at the White House. He has my full confidence in being able to do the job."

June 2, 1967: Lyndon Baines Johnson, 59 years old, takes the Oath of Office as President. He gives a short speech, not really an "Inaugural Address," thanking JFK for his service to the nation, praying for his recovery, and asking the American people for their prayers, to give him the wisdom and the strength he needs to be their leader.

Afterward, Lyndon and Claudia "Lady Bird" Johnson walk JFK and Jackie to Marine One, which takes them to Andrews Air Force Base, to be flown back to Otis, and then to be driven to Hyannis Port. For the 1st time in public, JFK allows himself to be shown using a cane to walk.

June 4, 1967: LBJ calls Prime Minister Levi Eshkol of Israel, and tells him that if Israel is attacked by its Arab neighbors, which now seems likely, America will help, but will not help if Israel strikes first. Then, he uses the White House-to-Kremlin "hot line" for the 1st time in its history, telling Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin that if the Warsaw Pact interferes, it will be considered an act of war. The Soviets do not interfere. Israel strikes first the next day, and wins the war in 6 days.

June 12, 1967: Knowing that the situation in the Middle East made it too risky to do this last week, the Republican Party's leaders in Congress make a deal with conservative Southern Democrats. Essentially, it is a coup.

The Democrats had a 248-187 majority in the House of Representatives. But 50 of them are convinced to switch parties: 9 from Texas (a pretty hard rebuke of LBJ from his home State), 6 from Georgia, 5 from Alabama, 5 from Louisiana, 4 from North Carolina, 4 from South Carolina, 4 from Florida, 3 from Mississippi, 3 from Oklahoma, 2 from Virginia, 2 from Kentucky, 2 from Tennessee, 1 from Arkansas. Now, the Republicans have a 237-198 majority. (The Republicans knew they couldn't get enough Southern Democratic Senators to switch to get a numerical majority, but they also knew it wasn't necessary.)

The Republican Caucus then schedules an election for Speaker, and bypasses the outgoing Minority Leader, Gerald Ford of Michigan, because he hadn't supported the switch. And they needed someone who wasn't seen as a tool of the Southern segregationists. So the new Speaker of the House is the most conservative Northern member, John Ashbrook of Ohio. Ford becomes the new Majority Leader.

June 13, 1967: Having been betrayed by several House members of his own party, LBJ returns fire: To replace the retiring Justice Tom Clark, he appoints the Solicitor General, Thurgood Marshall, to the Supreme Court. He is the 1st black person appointed. There appear to be enough votes in the Senate, still controlled by Democrats. But the Republicans say they have enough votes to filibuster the nomination.

June 30, 1967: The Republican-controlled House has passed a lot of new legislation. With conservative Southern Democrats helping out, a "working majority" allows them to pass in the Senate. Much of this legislation repeals legislation from Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal of the 1930s, Harry Truman's Fair Deal of the late 1940s, and JFK's New Frontier. LBJ has vetoed all of it, knowing that there isn't a two-thirds majority in either house willing to override his vetoes.

The conservatives swear revenge. They had fired a shot across the bow, and LBJ had fired back. Now, waiting until after the 4th of July holiday, they are going to drop the bomb.

July 10, 1967: The House Commerce Committee begins hearings on the business dealings of Bobby Baker, who had been LBJ's chief of staff when he was Senate Majority Leader from 1953 to 1960. He had previously been investigated in 1963, but nothing came of it. Now, with LBJ as President, the Vice Presidency vacant, and a Republican next in line, a new investigation begins.

July 12, 1967: John William Smith, a black cabdriver in Newark, New Jersey, is pulled over. The partnered policemen who do so are one white man and one black man. The officers discuss the situation, and realize they can't charge Smith with anything other than speeding, so they write him a ticket, and move on.

(In real life, he was pulled out of his car by 2 white cops, beaten, and dragged to a precinct house. Black people living nearby saw this, and this was the beginning of the Newark Riots, which have scarred the city ever since. Newark was still a city in need of a lot of help, but, in this timeline, the riot never happened.)

July 17, 1967: The House Judiciary Committee receives a report from the Commerce Committee, alleging that LBJ knew about several questionable activities by Baker, and indeed helped to cover them up. Although he was not the President at the time, the Republicans on Judiciary begin hearings on whether to impeach the President.

July 23, 1967: The Detroit Riot breaks out, and it makes the Democrats, in power for 5 1/2 years, look bad. (I'm presuming that this one would not have been defused simply by having more black policemen in the city in question.)

July 24, 1967: On a strict party-line vote, the House Judiciary Committee draws up 7 Articles of Impeachment against LBJ: 4 of obstruction of justice, 2 of abuse of power, and 1 of fraud.

July 27, 1967: Speaker Ashbrook and the Senate Minority Leader, Everett Dirksen of Illinois, go to the White House, and offer LBJ a deal: They will halt impeachment proceedings, recommend no criminal charges to the U.S. Department of Justice, and confirm Marshall to the Supreme Court, if Johnson announces to the nation that he will not run for a full term in 1968.

LBJ consults with his family, and calls former Presidents Kennedy, Eisenhower and Truman, to get their opinions. All of them, including the Republican Eisenhower, are angry at what appears to be the Republicans metaphorically putting a gun to his head. But, since LBJ would not have to give up the office before the end of the term, and the historic Court appointment would be a huge part of his legacy, all 3 say he should do it.

July 28, 1967: LBJ tells the nation that he is acting in the best interests of the nation. "Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for a full term as your President." This leaves both parties' nominations for 1968 wide open.

July 31, 1967: All 7 Articles of Impeachment against LBJ are voted down by the House, although it is close. One comes within a 220-214 vote of passing.

August 30, 1967: Thurgood Marshall is confirmed by the Senate to be the 1st black Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. (This did happen on this date.)

September 4, 1967: In a Labor Day meeting at Hyannis Port, former President John F. Kennedy discusses the 1968 Presidential election with his advisors, including Robert F. Kennedy, his brother, his 1960 and '64 campaign chairman, and his 1st Attorney General. Their other surviving brother, Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy of Massachusetts, is also in the meeting.

They all agree that, since the Bobby Baker scandal is settled in the law, but not in the minds of the American people, LBJ dropping out was the right move. But they also all agree that, with the scandal so fresh, any Democrat would have an uphill battle in the general election. Therefore, Jack and Ted talk Bobby out of running for the office, but all agree to help whoever the Democratic nominee turns out to be.

December 3, 1967: Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota announces his candidacy for President. This is bad news for the Kennedys, as McCarthy doesn't like them, either, and would hardly conduct the office the way they would.

March 12, 1968: The New Hampshire Primary is held. With a previous Presidential run, in 1960, under his belt, one Senator from Minnesota, Hubert Humphrey, knows how to campaign. But it's the other, Gene McCarthy who emerges as a slight winner. Humphrey is seriously wounded as a candidate.

March 16, 1968: Former Governor George Wallace of Alabama, an open segregationist, announces his candidacy. He has smelled Humphrey's blood, and also believes McCarthy is a weak candidate. He thinks he can win over conservative Democrats, while the liberals split over the two Minnesotans, and then that he can beat the Republican nominee in the Fall.

March 31, 1968: RFK tells JFK he wants to run, because he might be the only Democrat who can beat Nixon in November -- and the only one who can beat Wallace in August, at the Convention. JFK says no, that the election is probably already lost, and that he should stay out, and bide his time, and prepare for 1972.

April 2, 1968: McCarthy beats Humphrey in the Wisconsin Primary. Wallace entered the race too late to get on the ballot, but gets 7 percent of the vote, as a write-in candidate. 

May 7, 1968: Governor Lurleen Wallace of Alabama, wife of George and his stand-in -- at the time, the Governor of Alabama was constitutionally prohibited from serving back-to-back terms -- dies of cancer at age 41. George only takes enough time off from his Presidential campaign to tend to the funeral arrangements, and goes right back to running. (In real life, Wallace ran on the ticket of the American Independence Party, and did not enter the Democratic Primaries. He did so in 1972 and 1976.)

May 28, 1968: McCarthy edges Humphrey and Wallace in a close three-way race in the Oregon Primary. Many observers concede that Wallace lost a lot of support by campaigning so soon after his wife's death.

June 4, 1968: In an absolute shocker, Wallace wins the California Primary. He gets 35 percent of the vote, to McCarthy's 33 and Humphrey's 32. Mayor Sam Yorty of Los Angeles, a Democrat but widely seen as racist, had endorsed Wallace, and that made the difference.

June 5, 1968: A few minutes after midnight, Wallace claims victory in a speech at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. A few minutes after that, he is shot by Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian angry over his white-supremacist rhetoric.

June 6, 1968: Wallace dies at the age of 48. The Democratic nomination is now seriously up for grabs.

June 8, 1968: RFK calls another family meeting at Hyannis Port. He says he's getting into the race, because, with Southerners and racist Northern whites, having lost Wallace, now sure to turn to Nixon, neither Humphrey nor McCarthy, nor any other Democrat, can win. JFK says that's the point: Bobby can't beat him, either.

(In real life, Bobby did run, and won the California Primary, and was then shot -- officially, by Sirhan, who was angry over Bobby's support of Israel; the Six-Day War was exactly a year earlier. June 8 was the day of his funeral. In this timeline, since Bobby never lost Jack, he didn't become the great friend of the underdog, or a great crusader for civil rights. "Ruthless Bobby" never became "Saint Bobby." He's, essentially, still the man he was on November 21, 1963, only more bitter, and hardly the kind of man who could outpoll the 1968 version of Richard Nixon.)

August 7, 1968: The Republican Convention in Miami Beach, Florida nominates former Vice President Richard Nixon on the 1st ballot. Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York simply couldn't make the case. People working for Governor Ronald Reagan of California, who had not actually announced his candidacy, make a halfhearted effort, saying they can win the Wallace voters over, but most delegates are presuming that Nixon will do this.

In his acceptance speech, Nixon cites the Democrats' failures on race riots, poverty, and the pullout of Vietnam. He does not say that he would return U.S. troops to Vietnam -- he is not interested in political suicide -- but says, "The Democrats have let our noble allies down. And if they can do it to Vietnam, they can do it to Great Britain. To France. To West Germany. To Poland, which should be free and our ally. And even to Israel."

He is running as the sane man on crime, and the sane man on foreign policy -- and pandering to the Jewish vote, as well as the votes of white liberals and moderates who are nonetheless terrified of urban crime. He takes House Majority Leader Ford as his running mate.

August 28, 1968: The Democratic Convention, at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, is in chaos. They can't find a nominee. Humphrey, with a lot of political IOUs in his pocket, leads on the 1st ballot, but not with a majority. McCarthy won't drop out. (In real life, there was chaos inside and outside the Amphitheatre. In this timeline, with the Vietnam question settled, it's only on the inside.)

Complicating things further are the men getting into the race. Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson of the State of Washington is running as a foreign-policy hawk, as a counterweight to Nixon's claims. Governor John Connally of Texas, a passenger in the car when JFK was nearly assassinated in Dallas, is running on the request of outgoing President Johnson, to try to take Southern votes away from Nixon.

John Conyers, a 39-year-old black Congressman from Detroit, is running as a civil rights candidate. Unlike the others, he doesn't think he can win the nomination, but he thinks he can gain concessions from a candidate, and throw his Delegates to that man. In other words: "He can't win the nomination, but he can win the nominee."

A 2nd ballot is held. There is no significant change. Watching the proceedings from the gallery, RFK, not a Delegate, calls JFK. Jack tells Bobby, "If you get into the race now, you will lose. If not now, then in November. And then, no Kennedy will ever be elected President again." Bobby asks him who he's protecting: "Me? Or John? Or Frankie?" Meaning, his sons.

Jack can barely contain his fury: He has never been this angry at any of his siblings. He says, "I will bet you anything that you cannot even win the nomination. If you get into the race now, you will be seen as a craven opportunist." Bobby asks him to name his choice, that his endorsement would swing the nomination, and maybe the general election. Jack refuses, because he believes the nomination is worthless this time.

August 29, 1968: A 3rd ballot is held. McCarthy takes the lead. Humphrey is finished. But he is not willing to concede -- at least, not to McCarthy. He meets with Jackson, Connally and Conyers. They agree that Jackson, conservative on foreign policy but liberal on most other issues, including civil rights and labor issues, is the best candidate for November, even though he entered no Primaries.

Humphrey, then Connally, and then Conyers, each takes the podium in turn, to announce his withdrawal, and his endorsement of Jackson. A 4th ballot is held. Jackson wins a majority. Feeling betrayed, the McCarthy people walk out. Senator George McGovern of South Dakota, an ally of Humphrey and the Kennedys, is nominated for Vice President.

September 2, 1968: At a Labor Day rally at the Minnesota State Fair, in the St. Paul suburb of Falcon Heights, McCarthy announces he is running for President on the ticket of the Progressive Party, the 4th Party to bear that name since 1912. His running mate is Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon, a Democrat who used to be a Republican.

October 20, 1968: John Bailey, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, calls the three living Democrats to have been President, and asks them to make a joint half-hour TV commercial for the Jackson campaign.

They all turn him down. Outgoing President Lyndon Johnson says he believes he wouldn't be of much help. Harry Truman, now 84 years old, declines, as he can no longer travel due to his health. John F. Kennedy, only 51 but not in the best of health, either, believes that television is no longer his ally, and that Bailey should save the DNC's money, and prepare to take Nixon on in 1972.

November 5, 1968: The election is a wipeout. Jackson wins only Hawaii, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, his home State of Washington, and the District of Columbia, for 34 Electoral Votes. Nixon wins the other 46 States, for 501 Electoral Votes. McCarthy wins no States, but his presence in the race, and Morse's on his ticket, is enough to throw Minnesota, Wisconsin and Oregon to Nixon.

The popular vote is 47 percent for Nixon, 38 percent for Jackson, 13 percent for McCarthy, and 2 percent for scattered other candidates. And the Republicans take the Senate, and increase their lead in the House of Representatives.

Humphrey goes to his grave in 1978, Jackson to his in 1983, Connally to his in 1993, and McCarthy to his in 2005, each believing that, had the Democratic Party rallied around him, he would have beaten Nixon. RFK also believes this of himself. JFK and LBJ, agreeing on little else at this point, are sure that the election was lost as soon as the general public began hearing the name of Bobby Baker, dooming LBJ's chance at a full term.

July 20, 1969:Apollo 11 lands on the Moon. Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin walk on it. Back in their lunar module Eagle, they take a congratulatory call from the White House. It is from President Richard Nixon.

JFK, who had made landing on the Moon by the end of the 1960s a national goal, sees it reached. But he tells his family, "I've been through a lot, but seeing Nixon make this call, that really hurts."

He has been staying at a house on Chappaquiddick Island, off Martha's Vineyard, owned by his brother, Senator Ted Kennedy. Mary Jo Kopechne, who had worked for all 3 surviving Kennedy brothers, had never visited: She was back in Washington, working in Ted's Senate office.

May 4, 1970: Former President John F. Kennedy, 25 days short of his 53rd birthday, dies of a heart attack at his home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. The strain of his full (though not full-length) life, and all the prescription drugs he needed to maintain it and control his pain, finally became too much for him. He is buried on the grounds of the Presidential Library now under construction at Columbia Point in Boston.

With the Vietnam War over, the campus of Kent State University, outside Cleveland, is quiet. No National Guardsmen are on the campus, and no gunshots are fired.

November 3, 1970: Robert F. Kennedy, nearly 45, former U.S. Attorney General, pulls off an upset win over Senator Kenneth Keating of New York. He will now serve in the U.S. Senate along with his brother Ted.

July 1, 1971: The 25th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is ratified, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18. (In real life, this was the 26th. But in this timeline, the 25th has never been passed, so this one becomes the 25th.)

November 7, 1971: With 1 year to go before the Presidential election, and with Jack no longer available to tell him it's a bad idea, Bobby announces his campaign for President.

February 24, 1972: The Manchester-based Union Leader, the largest newspaper in New Hampshire, the 1st State to hold a Primary, publishes a letter, alleging it to have been written by Bobby, and it is damning. It not only implicates him in the FBI's 1960s wiretapping of Martin Luther King, but suggests that it was his idea. It has him disagreeing with his brother Jack's decision to end the Vietnam War. Both of these concepts would anger liberals. And it suggests that both he and Jack had affairs with actress Marilyn Monroe. This would anger conservatives.

Bobby announces that he did not write the letter, and says no more -- because there is enough truth in it to ruin his candidacy.

March 7, 1972: Now looking like an enemy of liberals and, as Jack would have put it, a craven opportunist, having gotten into the race just 1 year after being elected to the Senate, Bobby gets clobbered in the New Hampshire Primary. Humphrey, Jackson, McGovern, and Senator Ed Muskie of Maine all finish ahead of him.

June 6, 1972: Humphrey, the most experienced candidate in the race, and the one with the most political IOUs, wins the California and New Jersey Primaries. 

June 17, 1972: Nothing happens at the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate complex in Washington. Why would it? Having won in a landslide last time, and seeing the Democrats in such disarray this time, Nixon doesn't need to have those offices broken into.

July 13, 1972: The Democratic Convention in Miami Beach is a mess. Among candidates still in the race, Humphrey has the most delegates. But many Southern delegates refuse to endorse the most pro-civil rights candidate in the race. So, in order to avoid a long, drawn-out process, Bobby, McGovern, Muskie and the rest drop out and endorse Humphrey. In the hopes of drawing some Southerners in November, the Convention nominates former Governor Terry Sanford of North Carolina for Vice President.

November 7, 1972: Nixon is re-elected, taking 57 percent of the vote, and beating Humphrey in the Electoral Vote, 350-168. Bobby talks it over with the Kennedy family, and he seems to be the only one in the room who presumes he can be the Democratic front-runner for 1976.

October 20, 1973: Since there was no break-in at the Watergate, there is no Special Counsel, and there is no "Saturday Night Massacre" on this day. Nixon and his Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, are free to work on settling the Yom Kippur War between Israel and Egypt, and do so within a few days.

August 9, 1974: Nixon has a problem. But it's not a scandal. It's the economy. For the first time, the nation has both high unemployment and high inflation at the same time. So he announces a program that his advisors have named "WIN," for "Whip Inflation Now."

Meanwhile, Governor Spiro Agnew of Maryland is convicted on multiple counts, including tax fraud and bribery.

September 8, 1974: The Washington Post publishes documents connecting Nixon to a scandal involving corrupt financier Robert Vesco, and to another involving the ITT Corporation. (In real life, this was the day that Ford pardoned Nixon.)

November 5, 1974: The Democrats retake control of Congress, riding the backlash against Nixon's scandals and his handling of the economy.

September 5, 1975: WIN hasn't worked. Unemployment is now higher than at any point since the end of the Great Depression, and inflation is still high. People are angry. Polls show that, if given a chance to go back and change their vote in 1972, 55 percent of voters say they would have voted for Humphrey instead.

On a visit to San Francisco, to make a speech about the economy at the Commonwealth Club, Nixon is shot by Sara Jane Moore. He is taken to a hospital, and is saved. But he is severely weakened by the experience, and is unable to return to duty. And there is no mechanism for replacing a President who is alive, but incapacitated.

(In real life, this was the day on which Ford faced an assassination attempt in Sacramento, and was unhurt. He faced another on September 22, in San Francisco, and survived that one, too.)

September 22, 1975: Back at the White House, Nixon, like Kennedy in 1967, bows to the inevitable, and resigns with more than a year to go in his Presidency. Ford is sworn in as President. With the Presidency, and then the Vice Presidency with his rise to the Presidency, having been rendered vacant yet again, he asks Congress to pass an Amendment to the Constitution, mandating what should happen should the Vice Presidency become vacant, and if the President be alive but physically unable to carry out his duties.

October 29, 1975: With New York City teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, Ford is approached about a federal bailout. Although the conservative in him doesn't believe in such things, the human being in him doesn't want the people of the City to suffer any more than they already are. He is warned that, if he signs a bailout, the conservative wing of the Republican Party won't support him for a full term next year. He signs it anyway.

The next day, the New York Daily News prints a bold headline: "FORD TO CITY: LIFELINE!"

November 20, 1975: On his 50th birthday, Senator Robert F. Kennedy announces that he will not be a candidate for President in 1976. Though he should be just entering his political prime, he says, "I believe that the Democratic Party can use some new blood." He will, however, run for a 2nd term in the U.S. Senate.

July 15, 1976: The Democratic Convention is held at the new Madison Square Garden in New York. Representative Morris K. "Mo" Udall of Arizona is nominated for President, and Senator Walter Mondale of Minnesota for Vice President.

Udall had held off Jimmy Carter, the former Governor of Georgia, who ran on an anti-corruption platform. But with Nixon having survived an assassination attempt, and resigned, and been replaced by the apparently clean Ford, Carter's arguments about honesty and character just didn't take hold.

August 19, 1976: The Republican Convention is held at the Kemper Arena (now the Hy-Vee Arena) in Kansas City. Ford is nominated for a full term as President. Despite a move by the conservative wing of the Party to get former Governor Ronald Reagan of California, or someone else more conservative than Ford, nominated for Vice President, Ford chooses former Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York, in the hopes that "Rocky" -- soon to also be the title of a major motion picture about a fictional boxer -- can break the Democrats' stranglehold on the Northeast.

November 2, 1976: With the economy having turned around, the perception (if not the reality) of corruption purged from the Republican Party, and New York State solidly in his corner thanks to his bailout and his nomination of Rockefeller, Ford wins a close election, defeating Udall, 357 Electoral Votes to 190, and taking 52 percent of the popular vote. Udall does well enough that some observers are already predicting a rematch with Ford in 1980. (In this timeline, Ford can run again.)

In spite of Ford's winning of New York, RFK is re-elected to the Senate.

February 10, 1977: The 26th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is ratified, providing for filling a vacancy in the office of Vice President, and for the event of a President who is alive but incapacitated. (In real life, this was 10 years to the day after the passage of this Amendment, which was the 25th.)

September 17, 1978: The Camp David Accords are signed on the White House lawn. President Anwar Sadat of Egypt had made the initial overture to Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel, and now, they and President Ford sign the Accords. Within a few weeks, they will jointly be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Ford needs this achievement, because the economy has begun to go south again.

November 7, 1978: The Democrats make big gains in both houses of Congress. RFK is named the new Senate Majority Leader.

January 26, 1979: Vice President Rockefeller dies at his office in Washington. An aide, Megan Marshack, is seen leaving the office by Secret Service agents. Their affair is quickly revealed.

March 26, 1979: The good news for President Ford is that his nominee for Vice President, the 1st ever under the new 26th Amendment, has now been confirmed by both houses of Congress: Senator Bob Dole of Kansas. The bad news is the meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The Republican Party had been stalwart in its support of nuclear power, and this hurts them, despite nobody dying as a result.

July 9, 1979: The Dow Jones Industrial Average drops a record 44 points. It does not escape public notice that the 50th Anniversary of the Crash of 1929 is just a few months away. The Federal Reserve Board announces that it will support the big banks to prevent failures. Ford discusses action with House Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill of Massachusetts and Senate Majority Leader RFK.

July 12, 1979: The bad economy has hit the entertainment industry hard. Disco music, which had dominated American radio airplay and record sales in 1976 and '77, had tailed off in '78. All through '79, discotheques around the country were closing. Disco was "dying," and nobody seemed to be making a big deal about its lack of quality. The words "Disco sucks" never catch on as a slogan.

That night, at Comiskey Park in Chicago, White Sox owner Bill Veeck hosts Music Night. Fans had auditioned to be in an orchestra that would perform between games of a doubleheader with the Detroit Tigers. Others had mailed in requests, choosing the songs that organist Nancy Faust would play that night. Both games were played without incident, and were won by the Tigers. (In other words, there was no "Disco Demolition Night," because it was not considered necessary. Veeck had hosted a "Music Night" before, though the details were different from what I've outlined here.)

October 22, 1979: Despite pleas from his Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, and from Chase Manhattan Bank chairman David Rockefeller, brother of the late Vice President, Ford decides not to allow Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the deposed Shah (Emperor) of Iran, into the United States for cancer treatment. Given the recent Islamic Revolution there, he decides that it would be an incendiary act, and it might put Americans in Iran at risk.

November 4, 1979: The American Embassy in the Iranian capital of Tehran is not attacked. But Ford also announces that he will not be running for a 2nd full term, though the 22nd Amendment allows him to do so. This opens the door for Vice President Dole to be the Republican nominee, and conservative activists, who might have preferred Reagan to Ford, announce they will back Dole if he runs.

November 7, 1979: RFK becomes the 1st Democrat to announce his candidacy for 1980, before an adoring throng at Faneuil Hall in Boston. (In real life, Ted did so on that day, at that location.)

January 12, 1980: In a debate in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the 2 leading Democratic candidates are each making their 2nd run at the White House: Bobby Kennedy and Mo Udall. Udall reminds the audience that he was one of the earliest Congressmen to oppose the Vietnam War, while Kennedy, as a member of his brother's Cabinet, supported it. Kennedy reminds the audience that there were a lot of people who once supported it but changed their minds, and that the war has been over since 1966.

But another candidate, one who has never run for public office but has a national profile through his civil rights work, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, reminds the crowd of Kennedy's attitude toward Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Kennedy answers with an apology: "My actions as Attorney General in regard to Dr. King were wrong. I am sorry. I am fully committed now to achieving the kind of progress on race relations that Rev. Jackson would like to see. The means can be debated. But the goal is the same."

January 21, 1980: RFK wins the Iowa Caucus. On the Republican side, Vice President Dole edges former Governor Ronald Reagan of California.

February 25, 1980: On the eve of the New Hampshire Primary, the Union Leader again goes all out. It prints a front-page editorial including every blot on RFK's record, including the rumor that he and his brother both had affairs with Marilyn Monroe, and may even have been involved in her death. It also alleges drug use by RFK's sons Joe, Bobby Jr., Michael and David.

Remembering that his inaction against the paper's charges in 1972 had cost him badly, this time, RFK wastes no time. Before the morning is over, he gets onto the back of a flatbed truck parked outside the Union Leader's office in Manchester, and returns fire on publisher William Loeb:

Loeb does not take the bait, and remains in his office.

February 26, 1980: RFK wins the New Hampshire Primary, taking 40 percent of the vote, to Udall's 22, 17 for Governor Jerry Brown of California, and 4 for Jackson, who was unable to get much traction in a State with very few black people.

On the Republican side, because of his stance on taxes, Reagan upsets Dole, 38 percent to 35, with former Senator George Bush of Texas, a native of Connecticut with a house in Maine, and thus having some appeal to New Englanders, taking 22.

In the Primaries to come, Dole stops taking chances. He hits Reagan on the issues of abortion and guns, contrasting his record as a U.S. Senator, before he was Vice President, with Reagan's as Governor. People begin to see that Reagan the actor was merely playing the part of the conservative icon that rock-ribbed Republicans said they wanted, and Dole, from a small town in Kansas, was the real thing.

June 3, 1980: Reagan wins the California Primary, but it's not enough: The Primaries that Dole wins on this night clinch the Republican nomination for President for him. As his Vice Presidential nominee, he selects Jack Kemp, a Representative from a District based on Buffalo, New York, the leading Congressional champion of tax cuts, and a former All-Pro quarterback.

August 14, 1980: At Madison Square Garden, RFK shocks the Democratic Convention by selecting a female nominee for Vice President: Representative Corinne "Lindy" Boggs of Louisiana, widow of former House Majority Leader Hale Boggs. It is the 1st all-Catholic ticket in Presidential history.