Sabot Cat
Banned
Point of Divergence (1973): Samuel Byck decides to assassinate Nixon in 1973 instead of 1974, and thus does not incorporate aviation into his assassination scheme for Richard Nixon because the 1974 White House helicopter incident hadn't occurred. This is plausible because Nixon had been in Byck's crosshairs since 1972 according to the Secret Service.
Section I: The Agnew Administration
On January 31st 1973, Byck gained low-key entry into the Presidential News Conference, and immediately after a reporter had asked "Mr. President, do you have anything specifically in mind to help heal the wounds in this country-" he fired at Nixon in the chest and neck with a .22 caliber revolver. The Secret Service agents close to him momentarily struggled to ascertain who was firing due to the chaotic atmosphere of the room before Byck lunged at the President and detonated a home made bomb that he had strapped to himself. The explosion rendered Byck deceased, and served as the killing blow for President Nixon.
Spiro Agnew was then sworn in as the 38th President of the United States an hour and 26 minutes later, pledging to continue Nixon's agenda while he was in office. The public mourned for Nixon as they had for JFK, as his reputation was still glowing from his landslide re-election just a few months ago, and Byck's audio tapes soon became the sole media fixation, as did the issue of presidential protection.
This attention was briefly diverted on February 5th 1973, when federal investigations into any possible accomplices in Nixon's death turned up Spiro Agnew's checkered history in relation to bribery, tax fraud, extortion and conspiracy during his tenure as Governor and Vice President. Many in the media and public alleged Agnew had orchestrated the entire thing, not helped by the rather abrasive way he treated journalists and political opponents. The public grew to despise Agnew because of his staunch support of the Vietnam War.
By March 1973, Agnew was finally charged by the federal government for the aforementioned financial crimes, and upon the advice of his legal team, he used the presidential pardon on himself. In a rather transparent attempt to deflect attention, he claimed that the 'communist forces' were in violation of the Paris Peace Accords, and ordered a new series of massive bombing campaigns. Although conviction seemed imminent, Agnew did not resign and denied any wrongdoing. He failed to nominate a Vice President, claiming that House Speaker Carl Albert (D-OK) would deny his nominations because he was leading a Democratic coup on the presidency through their majorities in both houses, and implicitly alleged that he had conspired to kill Nixon, all in order to sabotage the war effort in Vietnam. Unlike the office of vice president, the presidency was something Agnew wished to hold onto at all costs due to its broad powers.
Many in Washington were concerned that Agnew would attempt to do other extreme things before being removed from office, such as abusing the pardon further or ordering a nuclear assault on North Vietnam. Thus, Congress worked fast to remove him from office, and on May 7th 1973, he became the first President in history to be convicted in the impeachment process. His term ended with a livid address to his few supporters, where he continued to hold to his story that Congress had set him up and were cryptocommunist conspirators attempting to subvert American war objectives in Vietnam.
By the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, Carl Albert became the 39th President of the United States. He took the position unceremoniously, and announced that he would resign as soon as he had someone to succeed him, and nominated House Minority Leader Gerald Ford (R-MI) as his Vice President. Carl Albert did as little as possible as President during the time it took to confirm Ford, and was frequently compared to Cincinnatus for his power concession. On July 4th 1973, Gerald Ford became the 40th President of the United States, ending one of the most tumultuous seven months in U.S. political history.
Section II: The Ford Administration
Ford promised he was going to restore stability in the nation once again upon his ascendancy to the White House. It would soon be uncertain that he would be able to deliver on that promise, because on October 6th 1973, Israel was suddenly invaded by Syria and Egypt. Many critics blamed this invasion on perceived weakness from the recent political chaos, and in response to this, Ford very publicly authorized the transfer of military equipment to Israel. In turn, the OPEC nations instituted an oil embargo that wounded an economy already reeling from the '73 market crash. Ford was soon humbled, and largely turned the matter to Henry Kissinger, who negotiated an end to the conflict before a possible Soviet intervention.
In Vietnam, the oil crisis combined with decreasing military aid from the U.S. caused the Vietcong to renew their desperate offensive against the South Vietnamese. U.S. intervention was also nearly non-existent due to the War Power Acts. The War Power Acts were crafted during Spiro Agnew's presidency in order to check the president's ability to wage war without legislative approval. These were extremely popular with the public, and Agnew's attempts to veto them were overturned by bipartisanship inspired by the shared fear of power abuse. However, the WPA also severely impeded the flow of money, equipment and personnel in Vietnam, and by 1975, the country had become completely communist.
The Democratic primaries in July 1976 saw Jimmy Carter barely edging out Mo Udall, with Walter Mondale as his running mate. Carter ran on a platform centered on honesty, and pledged to "Restore America", earning broad support from his party. In contrast to this relatively serene process, the Republican primaries were utter chaos, with moderates being pitted against conservatives. Many Republicans were displeased with Ford's "weakness" as the oil embargo, the fall of Vietnam, the Helsinki Deceleration and the concession of the Panama Canal all seemed to suggest a decline for the United States' prestige. Leading these outspoken critics was Ronald Reagan, a formidable contender for the Republican primaries, channeling public discontent into a strong campaign that had been going since the fall of 1975. One noteworthy speech heightened national attention to his candidacy: "A democracy is a government where the people choose who represents them. I believe that it is the most important thing that this country stands for. But I do not believe that our liberal friends in Congress value the representation of the people's interests like I do. If they did, why would they appoint such an obvious puppet like Gerald Ford to be President? We've made so many concessions abroad, but are we willing to concede the very idea of democracy in America? Will we let a government of the people, for the people, and by the people perish from this Earth? Or will we fight for freedom?"
"Fight For Freedom'" soon became Reagan's slogan, and the Republicans he became the voice for were the 'Freedom Fighters'. The Freedom Fighters distinguished themselves from the likes of Spiro Agnew by emphasizing the reduction of the size of government. They led a very visible campaign for an amendment requiring legislative approval of Presidential pardons, but it narrowly failed to pass because of its questionable constitutionality. Due to the Freedom Fighters, Ford's early edge earned by the bicentennial shuttle launch was soon being dulled in August, but this was nothing compared to what would happen in coming months.
Due to Spiro Agnew's conspiratorial charges, along with the rumors surrounding the deaths of JFK and Martin Luther King, the United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) was founded in March 1976 to more thoroughly investigate matters. Gerald Ford wished to turn over Nixon's White House tape recordings as evidence after he learned of them, but he was advised by his Chief of Staff H.R. Halderman and his Counsel John Dean to not admit them for the HSCA due to containing 'highly sensitive information that could compromise national security'. The HSCA learned of the tapes existence while interviewing Alexander Butterfield on May 17th 1976. The HSCA requested that they be turned over in full, and Ford went against the advice of some of his staff in doing so because he didn't want to look like he was involved in a cover-up related to Nixon's death.
On June 5th, selected contents of the tapes were released to the public and Nixon's involvement in the cover up of the Watergate burglary became clear. A shocking number of high ranking officials in Ford's staff were soon faced with criminal charges, and his campaign team disintegrated before his eyes. With Ford's own re-election campaign revealed to be plagued with corruption, Ronald Reagan became the Republican nominee for President in August, with Richard Schweiker as his running mate.
Reagan and Carter were soon neck and neck in the polls, as well as equally matched on the debate room floor. Both represented change that the United States was desperately looking for, but in two radically different ways. Reagan earned broad appeal due to Schweiker's liberal Republican credentials, while Carter had the advantage of a struggling economy and a sudden switch in candidates. Unfortunately, the nightmarish uncertainty that had been lingering since the assassination of Richard Nixon reared its ugly head once again on election night.
Carter won Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, D.C., Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Reagan won Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming. The electoral college was thus tied with 269 to 269 votes while Reagan had won the popular vote by 0.6%.
There were no faithless electors, as all of them feared the potential crisis that could arise from shifting their votes, and thus it was up to the 95th Congress to decide who would be President and Vice President. The Democratic majorities in both houses voted as expected on January 6th, as the House of Representatives elected Carter and the Senate elected Mondale. On January 20th 1977, James Earl Carter became the 41st President of the United States, the fourth in a row to come into office without winning the Presidential election proper.
Section III: The Carter Administration
The 'Democratic Deluge' began almost as soon as Carter took office, headed by Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill (who was selected by the House upon the ascendency of Carl Albert to President, who soon retired from politics). During Carter's first few months in office, the National Health Insurance Act (sponsored by Tip O'Neill and Ted Kennedy) was passed in both houses of Congress on March 1977. Carter feared that such a bill would tamper with the national budget and vetoed it. However, his veto was overturned in Congress, and the NHIA soon became law.
Despite these early clashes, Carter worked with legislators to campaign for the Equal Rights Amendment. He believed that ERA could help resolve the differences between himself and those in Congress, and thus often emphasized its importance: “The Equal Rights Amendment is to the 19th Amendment what the 14th was to the 13th. And by that I mean women are allowed to vote, but it is still legal for the federal government to abridge their rights as citizens of the United States.” Florida, Illinois, and Louisiana soon approved what would become the 27th Amendment in May 1978. Other major legislation that passed during the Democratic Deluge included a jobs program, various environmental reform bills, an energy conservation program, and broad economic deregulation.
But for southern pastor Jerry Falwell, the passage of the 27th Amendment was the straw that broke the camel's back. He founded an organization known as the Moral Majority in April 1978, whose campaign to repeal the 27th Amendment garnered national interest, including the interest of Ronald Reagan. Reagan may have lost the 1976 election, but he still had an interest in becoming President. Reagan used his political connections to help the Moral Majority with a massive media blitz seeking to promote a platform of “pro-life, pro-defense and pro-America”. Their efforts culminated in Republicans picking up nearly twenty seats in Congress during the 1978 midterm elections.
Nonetheless, the Democrats still held a majority in both houses of Congress, and many of their party brass believed that a fringe movement like the Moral Majority couldn't seriously effect Carter's hold on the White House. This shared calm among liberal legislators would change in 1979. On October 31st, the USSR intervened directly in Afghanistan and in response to this, Carter pledged to lead a boycott against the 1980 Moscow Olympics while the Senate failed to ratify SALT II. Also during that year, the Islamic Revolution in Iran saw the ousting of the Shah, who attempted to go to the United States for medical treatment but was narrowly denied it, thus being hospitalized in Switzerland. On November 2nd, the Soviet embassy in Iran was seized by a group of students and everyone inside was held hostage. Their demands were for the USSR to immediately withdraw from Afghanistan, among other things. In response, the Soviet Union supplied their secular ally Iraq in huge quantities in preparation for an invasion.
Many in the growing conservative movement called for a U.S. show of force in Afghanistan but President Carter was reluctant to overtly escalate the conflict further. Nonetheless he terminated the Wheat Deal with the USSR, reinstated the draft, and oversaw a covert program to fund and arm the Afghan insurgents in the early days of 1980. On April 1st 1980, Deputy Prime Minster of Iraq Tariq Aziz was assassinated along with 14 students by Shia militants. In addition to the high-profile assassinations carried out in the previous months, this was used as a justification for the Iraqi invasion of Iran on May 16th 1980, with the full backing of the USSR. Carter feared that the Persian Gulf would soon be completely in the Soviet sphere of influence, and thus authorized another transfer of funds to Iran.
The presidency seemed to be anyone's game, as polls saw Carter win key swing states due to the spoiler effect, while Reagan was neck-and-neck with the incumbent President throughout the South. It was in these circumstances that Bush's campaign manager privately contacted Spiro Agnew. In exchange for an unknown amount of money, Agnew endorsed Ronald Reagan and made a speech praising his platform as “akin to what I would do”. Reagan's ratings dipped, but he still held strong due to the aggressive promotion being delivered by televangelists like Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Baker, Pat Robertson and Billy Graham. They painted George H.W. Bush as a “traitor to the Christian values this country was founded upon” for his support of the 27th Amendment and his opposition to an amendment that would ban abortion. In response to these criticisms Bush said “Why should I be considered a traitor for pledging to uphold the Constitution as it stands?”
When election night rolled around on November 4th 1980, Reagan managed to carry Alabama (9), California (45), Indiana (13), Mississippi (7), North Carolina (13), South Carolina (8), Virginia (12) and Washington (9) for a total of 116 votes. Bush took Alaska (3), Arizona (6), Colorado (7), Connecticut (8), Florida (17), Idaho (4), Illinois (26), Iowa (8), Kansas (7), Maine (4), Michigan (21), Montana (4), Nebraska (5), Nevada (3), New Hampshire (4), New Jersey (17), New Mexico (4), North Dakota (3), Oklahoma (8), Oregon (6), Texas (26), South Dakota (4), Utah (4), Vermont (3), and Wyoming (3) for a combined 205 pledged electoral college votes, and finally, Carter ended up with 217 votes from Arkansas (6), D.C. (3), Delaware (3), Georgia (12), Hawaii, (4) Kentucky (9), Louisiana (10), Maryland (10), Massachusetts (14), Minnesota (10), Missouri (12), New York (41), Ohio (25), Pennsylvania (27), Rhode Island (4), Tennessee (10), West Virginia (6) and Wisconsin (11). The popular vote was split fairly evenly between Carter (39.6%), Bush (40.1%) and Reagan (21.3%).
The race was once again without an absolute majority winner, and the Democratic Congress made Carter a sure bet for victory. This was put into doubt when Ronald Reagan issued a Shermanesque statement of concession on December 8th, before endorsing George H.W. Bush as 'the people's choice for President'. When the Electoral College cast their votes on December 9th, the electors from California, Indiana and Washington gave the votes they had pledged for Reagan to George Bush, bringing his total from 205 to 272.
Carter was outraged, as California and Washington both had laws prohibiting such practices. Thus he took his plight to the Supreme Court, who ruled on December 12th 1980 in the case Carter v. Bush that electors have a constitutional freedom to vote as they may chose in the electoral college, and that state governments do not have the power to enforce pledges, despite retaining the ability to require them (Ray v. Blair). Thus, on January 20th 1981, George H.W. Bush became the 42nd President of the United States.
Section IV: The Bush Administration
One of Bush's first actions as President was to end price controls on domestic oil, which he hoped would combat the on-going energy crisis. Faced with a recession in the summer, he also signed into law several large cuts in personal income tax, along with the continuation of the deregulation that Carter had oversaw. Bush also drastically increased military spending combined with fiery rhetoric aimed at the Soviet Union. He also continued the covert support of the Iran military that had started under Carter, despite publicly maintaining neutrality. On June 3rd 1982, a ceasefire was negotiated, as Iran had recovered most of its territory. In exchange for pulling their military out completely of Iran, Iraq received the hostages from the Soviet embassy who were then returned to their homes, after more than a year and a half of confinement.
Meanwhile, Bush's approval ratings were starting to plunge due to the on-going recession, and the 1982 mid-term Congressional elections saw Democrats regain many of the seats they lost in 1980. Another major domestic issue was the on-going ISIS (Immunosuppressive Infection Syndrome) pandemic, which many in the LGBT community accused the President of ignoring. In 1983, Bush commented that “ISIS is a disease spread by personal behavior, so the people already have a means to control the rate of infection”.
Adding to the nation's woes, on February 22nd 1984 the Space Shuttle Columbia exploded mid-flight. A defective O-ring subject to unusually cold temperatures was partially to blame, along with the hamstrung budget that NASA had been contending with. Bush was on a diplomatic mission to El Salvador at the time, and was thus unable to make a televised address until the following day. Because of this and a somewhat remarkable lack of charisma, by the time the Democratic National Convention in July came around, there was some chance of victory against Bush even though the economy was recovering. Gary Hart and his running mate Lloyd Bentsen were thus the people to challenge the incumbent President Bush and Vice President Bob Dole. Despite their optimism, on November 6th 1984, the Hart/Bentsen ticket only managed to carry D.C. (3), Hawaii, (4) Maryland (10), Massachusetts (13), Minnesota (10), Rhode Island (4), and Wisconsin (11) for a combined 55 Electoral College votes, handing Bush a landslide victory with 483 votes across 44 states.
Meanwhile, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan began to run into the problem of an empowered Iran, where over a Afghan million refugees sought shelter while they provided arms to the Hazara and other Shia troops, helping to unify them into one faction by 1985. Many in the region feared Iran's growing strength, and began to build up monetary and military support for Iraq to launch a second invasion. Among them were Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Jordan. The Soviet Union also provided equipment, hoping to disrupt the Iranian involvement in Afghanistan. Other foreign contributors were China, France and the United Kingdom. Thus on March 11th 1985, Iraq unleashed a surprise invasion of Iran, beginning the Second Iran-Iraq War.
President Bush feared that Iraq would facilitate the creation of a Soviet foothold in Iran, giving them control of the Persian Gulf and a near monopoly on oil supplies in Eurasia when considered with their alliances with the aforementioned oil producing nations. Thus even more military aid was poured into Iran as a part of the blueprint for rollback against communist influence drafted by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
In addition to operations in Cambodia, other covet support included the support of the Contras in Nicaragua, whose funding was prohibited by Congress in the the Moynihan Amendment. Bush nonetheless facilitated further CIA activities without the approval or knowledge of Congress (in direct violation of the Hughes-Ryan Act as the well Intelligence Supervision Act of 1981). Bush also supported UNITA in Angola in violation of the Clark Amendment, by using Israel as a proxy.
On April 7th 1987, the USS La Salle was damaged by Iraqi missiles, killing 46 people on board and injuring hundreds others. The Iraqi government claimed that this was a case of mistaken identity, but nonetheless it was used as a justification for Operation Serpent Strike, an amphibious assault on Iraqi assets by U.S. Naval forces beginning on April 11th of the same year.
These policies might have continued indefinitely if not for Celerino Castillo, who found out about the CIA's support of the Contras through his work for the DEA. He collected evidence of the illegal U.S. operations in Nicaragua before going to the press on May 30th 1987. President George Bush attempts to create a commission to investigate, but House Judiciary Committee Chairman Peter W. Rodino Jr. believed that as a former Director of Central Intelligence the President could not be given the benefit of the doubt in overseeing an internal review. On September 12th 1987, the Senate created a Select Committee. and called several high-ranking officials in the CIA to testify about their activities. After several legal hoops were jumped through and a series of fingers were pointed, the current Director of the CIA revealed the full extent of the rollback operations and several overlapping testimonies revealed that Bush had personally ordered the burning of several key documents in March 1988.
George H.W. Bush claimed that he had no involvement, and that the CIA was working almost independently. The public's lukewarm reception of him began to morph into hate, with such slogans as “Bush: Crook or Fool?” being spread across the media. Meanwhile, operations in Nicaragua, Angola and other locations came to screeching halts, while the covert funding of Afghan insurgents and the Iranian military continued because they both had Congressional knowledge and approval.
Bush feared that further investigation might endanger more operations and cause the removal of more agents, while an impeachment trial could drag down his supporters and his party. Thus, George H.W. Bush made this statement on June 16th 1988 “I believe that my colleagues always tried to do their best for this Nation. And in recognition of their patriotism, and the demands placed upon me to fulfill the will of the People, I shall resign as President tomorrow at noon. Although I did not do anything to betray your trust while serving you, I do not want you all to endure another long, drawn out trial for my own personal gain. I pray that the future of this country is as bright as the hope America gives the world”. Many political scientists would later see this resignation as too preemptive, but it was an effective attempt to save face for himself and his party.
Bob Dole thus became the 44th President of the United States on June 17th 1988. The Republican primaries were by the change, but he nonetheless won the nomination, as Jack Kemp became his running mate. Meanwhile, Michael Dukakis won the Democratic primaries, and chose Lloyd Bentsen to add to his ticket. Despite Contragate, Dole still consistently polled over Dukakis by a thin margin, which caused some political commentators to label Republicans the “Teflon Party”. In the debates, neither performed very well, and both were criticized for seeming passionless, “Bob Dull” in particular. On top of the disillusionment carried in by yet another Presidential scandal, voter turnout had dropped to 49.1% by the time of the elections (the lowest it had been since 1924, when voter turnout was at 48.9%).
In the end, Dukakis won Washington (10), Illinois (24), Pennsylvania (25), Maryland (10), Vermont (3), Wisconsin (11), Missouri (11), New York (36), Oregon (7), West Virginia (6), New Mexico (5), Connecticut (8), Minnesota (10), Massachusetts (13), Hawaii (4), D.C. (3), Iowa (8), New York (36), Rhode Island (4), West Virginia (6) and California (47) for a total of 287 Electoral College votes versus Dole, who received 251 votes across 30 states. Thus on January 20th 1989, Michael Dukakis became the 45th President of the United States.
Section V: The Dukakis Administration
The entire geopolitical situation that had been in place since the end of the second World War would soon be changing during the Dukakis administration. On January 28th 1989, the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan in accordance with Gorbachev's new foreign policy for the USSR (labeled the 'Sinatra Doctrine'). Gorbachev also ended Soviet support of Iraq which partially led to a United Nations mediated ceasefire on March 6th 1989, ending the Second Iran-Iraq War with borders status quo ante bellum. Most of Eastern Europe soon transitioned from Communism, the Berlin Wall fell, Germany was reunified and the Cold War was soon galloping towards an end (although not without a fight, as the Tiananmen Square protests showed).
In October 1990, President Dukakis and Gorbachev signed the Strategic Offensive Arms Reduction Treaty or the SOAR Treaty, while the United States helped to facilitate the ascendancy of the Soviet Union into the International Monetary Fund and other trade agreements. This rapprochement between the superpowers would come to a halt in August 17th 1991, when communist hardliners staged a coup d'etat of the USSR. The Russian White House was seized, while Boris Yeltsin was assassinated in Kazakhstan and Gorbachev was assassinated in Foros in the Crimea. Gennady Yanayev became acting President of the Soviet Union while the coup leaders formed the State Committee on the State of Emergency (the GKChP) who suspended the ratification of the New Union Treaty.
Masses of people congregated in front of the White House to protest the coup, while the Soviet Army began to disintegrate into two factions: one that supported the GKChP (the Communists), and the other that supported the martyred Yeltsin and Gorbachev (the Reformists).The GKChP expanded the scope of the Soviet Civil War on August 21st 1991 by issuing a three day ultimatum for the breakaway Soviet states to renounce independence, with an oblique threat of nuclear assault. This move backfired, as the remaining Soviet republics in Eastern Europe and the Caucus region signed the Minsk Declaration, which collectively invoked Article 72 of the 1977 Soviet Constitution to justify their independence. The threat of weapons of mass destruction also caused a desperate bombing of the Red Square by the Reformist forces, killing the Gang of Eight (along with many others as collateral) on August 22nd.
With the dissolution of the GKChP, the previous political order was partially restored by October 1991. The Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union convened to make amendments to the constitution. The Cabinet of Ministers was dissolved, and the offices of President and Premier for the Soviet Union were rendered defunct. Anatoly Lukyanov the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, becoming the new head of state for the USSR under the amended the constitution.
In the Middle East, the threat of an Iranian invasion loomed large on the mind of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The United States maintained a heavy harbor presence to bolster Iran and dissuade from an invasion, but Iraq interpreted this as preparations for a Third Iran-Iraq War with peace terms to be mediated by an internationally supported Iran. The Iraqi government thus continued to buildup its military, increasing Iraq's already tremendous debt to its neighbors in the Gulf. Prime among them was Kuwait, with which Iraq had slowly deteriorating relations with due to the former's overproduction of oil, which had consistently negative effects on the Iraqi economy. OPEC temporarily maintained peace by negotiating oil production controls to Iraq's favor, but an invasion was all but inevitable. On November 29th 1991, Iraq invaded Kuwait, earning international condemnation and sanctions mediated by the United Nations. This caused an oil prices spike, dealing a blow to the already weak economy and leading to the onset of a recession.
On January 30th 1992, Anatoly Lukyanov met with President Dukakis at Camp David, where the former confirmed that the Soviet Union would continue to seek peaceful coexistence with the United States as Gorbachev (who had since become a political martyr in the USSR) would have wanted. The terms of the SOAR Treaty and previous agreements, such as those eliminating missiles with intermediate range, were also confirmed to still be in effect by the new Soviet government. The Moscow-Washington Accords were thus drafted, an agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union to cease targeting each others' cities with pre-programmed nuclear weapons, while also banning MIRVs and ICBMs. Its bilateral ratification on March 16th 1992 is often seen by historians as the formal end of the Cold War.
On April 13th 1992, a United Nations Security Council issued a resolution for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait or be subject to a military intervention by June 9th. Dukakis acted in concert with the UN through an extensive arms sale to Saudi Arabia, which he hoped would deter an Iraqi invasion. Meanwhile, the U.S. was subject to a media blitz by Kuwait-backed lobbyists showcasing Iraqi human rights abuses, which helped sell the war on humanitarian grounds. As a last-ditch effort to convince Hussein to back down from Kuwait, Dukakis stationed U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia while building an international coalition to aid them. He also hoped to use the situation to build closer ties with the Soviet Union, who had condemned the invasion.
Lukyanov, faced with a large, struggling nation fresh from a civil war, did not want to compete with America for global dominance at the moment. In fact, many in the Soviet government had supported a policy of (provisionally) co-opting Western nations in order to peacefully accumulate political capital and recover international prestige lost in the violent break-up of 1991. Thus, the Soviet Union pledged support for the 'Grand Alliance', a term used by Dukakis for the Kuwait liberation coalition to invoke the Soviet-Western cooperation in World War II.
On June 8th, Congress approved a military intervention against Iraq, and two days later, an aerial bombing campaign opened the Gulf War. The liberation of Kuwait proved to be surprisingly quick with minimal causalities for the coalition forces, and by July 20th, Iraq was on the defensive. Military brass hoped to completely cripple the nation by supporting Shia and Kurdish rebels against Saddam's regime, so that the U.S. presence in Iran could be stepped down, allowing for more latitude in negotiations with its Sunni neighbors. This idea was personally shot down by Dukakis, who wished to avoid the war in the first place and feared plunging the United States into another Vietnam. Nonetheless, the Grand Alliance maintained forces in Saudi Arabia to enforce Iraqi no-fly zones and the terms of the cease fire.
In August, former Vice President Jack Kemp won the Republican primaries after strong competition from Pat Buchanan on economic policy. He chose Gordon Humpgrey as his running mate, and had a slight advantage due to the recession. However, Kemp could not surmount the incumbent President's foreign policy successes with the Soviet Union and Iraq which was bore out on election night, where Buchanan carried Mississippi (7), South Carolina (8), Alabama (9), Nebraska (5), Virginia (13), North Dakota (3), North Carolina (14), Utah (5), Oklahoma (8), Idaho (4), South Dakota (3), Wyoming (3), Alaska (3), Kansas (6), New Hampshire (4) and Arizona (8) for 103 Electoral College votes, allowing Dukakis a comfortable victory with 435 votes across 34 states (and D.C.).
In a speech made at the beginning of his second term, Dukakis pledged to “continue to pave the way for a safer America” through continued cooperation with the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, Dukakis had inadvertently made another deadly enemy for America during the Gulf War: global Jihadists. On top of supporting Israel, Iran, the Soviet Union and then maintaining a military presence near the holiest sites of Islam in Saudi Arabia, the United States had become the subject to animosity from many Sunni extremists. In 1993, key operatives from Jihadist groups arrived in America.
The Yugoslav Wars also raged on, as the federation began to fall apart. The Soviet Union had been estranged from Yugoslavia for decades, but they feared that the conflict promoted ethnic succession, indirectly threatening the structural integrity of the USSR. Many Russians supported an intervention in favor of the Serbs, but a direct Soviet intervention would not be supported by the Central Asian constituents of the USSR. Thus covert support of the Serbians by Russian soldiers began, which turned the Bosnian War in favor of the Republika Srpska, the Republic of Serbian Krajina, the Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia, and Yugoslavia proper. The Soviet Union and the United States (along with the United Kingdom and France) formally stepped in 1994 to mediate an agreement that ended with the mutual recognition of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (unifying Serbian held territory), Slovenia, Croatia, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Republic of Macedonia. This was popularly received in the USSR as a step forward for international reconciliation with old enemies, but Serbian war crimes remained a point of international contention.
Meanwhile, a plot to bomb the World Trade Center suffered a setback, as the main conspirators Ramzi Yousef and Mohammed Salameh died in a car crash due to the latter's driving inexperience. The plan would soon be scuttled entirely on April 12th 1994, when a small stolen plane clipped the White House, damaging the East Wing, killing three people and injuring sixteen more. It's wide coverage in the media convinced Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (or KSM) to crash hijacked planes into American buildings instead of bombing them. A team of operatives in the United States were assembled, consisting of El Sayyid Nosair, Mahmud Abouhalima, Eyad Ismoil, Wadih el-Hage, Ahmad Ajaj, and Abdul Hakim Murad, who had already received a commercial pilot's license in 1992. After more grandiose plots were shot down by Osama bin Laden, KSM settled on a plan to hijack two planes: one to hit the North Tower of the WTC (which would then topple over into the South Tower, destroying them both) and one to hit to the CIA headquarters in Langley. Another pilot fresh from the Bosnia jihad named Nadeem Hodžić came in November 1994 to complete the team. During the same month, the Republicans took up a majority of seats in Congress, due in part to Dukakis' consistent and controversial vetoing of conservative legislation no matter its popularity, such as an attempt at welfare reform. With a majority capable of overriding presidential vetoes, legislation like the Martial Sanctity Preservation Act (MSPA) were passed.
On March 13th 1995 at 1:32pm, the North Tower was hit by a hijacked commercial airplane, and four minutes later it was broadcast live to a stunned American public. Evacuating the World Trade Center proved to be chaotic, as 90% of the people in the North Tower had never evacuated before, along with 88% in the South Tower. Almost a quarter of the people in both buildings had not received training prior to the incident, and more had been given the impression that further instructions would be provided in the event of an emergency. 76 minutes after the collision, the North Tower collapsed at 2:48pm, which sped up evacuation efforts of the entire WTC. Because the North Tower was subject to a total progressive collapse, it did not topple over as had been hoped by the hijackers. Nonetheless, the damage incurred by the surrounding building due to its destruction would ensure that all of the buildings in the WTC plaza could not be used again. At 3:03pm, the second plane crashed into the CIA headquarters, immediately destroying it and killing almost everyone inside. Civilian airspace was shut down, and many buildings were evacuated including the Capitol building and the White House. Dukakis remained long enough to issue an address to the nation at 3:29pm, where he pledged to bring those responsible to justice. At the end of the day, a combined total of 4693 people died, while a lone tower was without peer in the Manhattan skyline, obscured only by a plume of smog from the smoldering crater next to it.
The perpetrators of the attacks were soon determined, and Osama bin Laden was pinned as the planner and financier. He was riding in Sudan at the time, which was designated a state sponsor of terrorism just a year before. Dukakis demanded for Sudan to extradite Osama bin Laden along with Abu Nidal and Carlos the Jackal, other wanted terrorists residing in Khartoum. Omar al-Bashir demanded more evidence for bin Laden's involvement in the 3-13 attacks, and refused to cooperate in the release of anyone other than those who engaged in them.
The largely Republican Congress passed the Authorization of Military Force Against Jihadists on March 15th, as Dukakis met with other heads of state that made up the coalition during the Gulf War, and confirmed their support in a military intervention against Sudan. The Soviet Union was motivated in particular, as they had also been targeted by jihadists due to their invasion of Afghanistan and their role in the Yugoslav Wars.
The Grand Alliance thus intervened in Sudan on April 9th 1995 with the bombing of Khartoum, which began the Sudanese War. Many of the people wanted by the coalition were captured or killed in the ensuing battles, while numerous terrorist training camps were destroyed. South Sudanese military organizations saw this as an opportunity to go on the offensive, hoping to end the Second Sudanese Civil War in their favor while the northern government's army was dealing with the Grand Alliance. A settlement was reached in July 1995, wherein Sudan would be partitioned into two nations: North Sudan and South Sudan, while Darfur would be an autonomous region of the latter with the constitutional right to secede following a national referendum in favor of doing so. International military forces from the United States, Soviet Union, United Kingdom and France remained to facilitate elections and enforce the terms of the peace agreement.
Within the United States, major changes were occurring as well, most crucially the Safeguarding America Act of 1995, which expanded the government's ability to gather information and detain suspects of terrorism. In October 1995, the Department of Domestic Security was created, which was charged with protecting the United States from terrorist attacks, while the travel industry was almost completely reformed in the wake of 3-13. The uninhabitable South Tower, partially covered in plastic wrap and floodlit at night, would have to be brought down as soon as possible so it would not collapse later, along with many of the other building still standing. Attempts to tear it down were met with public outcry, and some tried to personally obstruct the demolition team. These efforts were ultimately futile, and by 1996, the World Trade Center complex had no standing structures remaining within it.
The election cycle of 1996 would revolve primarily around security. To the surprise of many, Vice President Lloyd Bentsen declined to run in the Democratic primaries. Mario Cuomo easily won the nomination after announcing his candidacy, and selected Al Gore as his running mate. In the Republican primaries, Colin Powell dominated, and chose Phil Gramm as his running mate after winning the nomination. Both Powell and Cuomo focused on security in the wake of 3-13, and in the debates neither one lost much ground.
Cuomo's most famous remarks about his platform came in the final Presidential debate on October 16th, where he said: “Because Republicans were in charge of most levels of government when the March 13th attacks occurred, they were the ones to respond with a blizzard of activity in Congress, not all of it helpful. In addition to the creation of a yet another bureaucracy, Republicans have led the enactment of dubious new federal powers to detain and interrogate American citizens without indictment or counsel. Instead of taking steps to make this country more secure, Republicans have cynically exploited the fear caused by 3-13 to deal a serious toll to our core value: freedom.” Powell defused the argument by noting that the Safeguarding America Act had bipartisan support and was approved by a Democratic President, before shifting the topic to foreign affairs.
On the topic Cuomo said, “We have not been effectively questioning the rationale behind involving ourselves in wars abroad, and furthermore, it seems that we have forgotten how to use diplomacy to resolve disputes between ourselves and other nations. Is it really a coincidence that we were subject to the worst terrorist attack in the history of the United States just three years after the Gulf War? If people like General Powell continue to force us to reap the seeds of resentment sewn by these escapades, I will continue to oppose them.”
Powell responded, “There is nothing in American experience or in American political life or in our culture that suggests we want to use our military power. But what we have found over the decades is that unless you do have military power, you are sometimes faced with situations that you can't deal with. I mean, it was not diplomacy that freed Europe. It was military power. And I don't believe that we've been 'sowing seeds of resentment' abroad. In fact, we have sent men and women from the armed forces of the United States to other parts of the world throughout the past century to put down oppression. We did not come as conquerors, but liberators. We built them up. We gave them democratic systems which they have embraced totally to their soul. And did we ask for any land? No, the only land we ever asked for was enough land to bury our dead. So our record of living our values and letting our values be an inspiration to others is clear. And so I don't think I have anything to be ashamed of or apologize for with respect to what America has done for the world. When diplomacy or talking with evil will not work, unfortunately, military power is the only thing that works. As we speak, the Memorial Tower still stands. And if I attain the office of President, I will do everything in my power to keep it that way.”
On November 5th 1996, the close race came to an end. Cuomo carried California (54), Connecticut (8), Delaware (3), D.C. (3), Hawaii (4), Illinois (22), Maine (4), Maryland (10), Massachusetts (12), Michigan (18), Minnesota (10), New Hampshire (4), New Jersey (15), New York (33), Oregon (7), Pennsylvania (23), Rhode Island (4), Vermont (3), Washington (11) and Wisconsin (11). Powell took Alabama (9), Alaska (3), Arizona (8), Arkansas (6), Colorado (8), Florida (25), Georgia (13), Idaho (4), Indiana (12), Iowa (7), Kansas (6), Kentucky (8), Louisiana (9), Mississippi (7), Missouri (11), Montana (3), Nebraska (5), Nevada (4), New Mexico (5), North Carolina (14), North Dakota (3), Ohio (21), Oklahoma (8), South Carolina (8), South Dakota (3), Tennessee (11), Texas (32), Utah (5), Virginia (13), West Virginia (5), and Wyoming (3). Cuomo thus finished with a respectable 259 electoral college votes, while Powell won with 279 votes.
Thus on January 20th 1997, Colin Powell became the 46th President of the United States. In addition to being the highest ranking military official to hold the presidency since Eisenhower, Powell was also the first black President, which drew a lot of attention from the media both in the states and abroad. During his inaugural address, Powell said, “Leadership is the act of achieving more than the science of management says is possible. And in my administration, we will achieve excellence not as an exception, but as a prevailing attitude.”
Section VI: The Powell Administration
The primary difference between the Powell Administration and the Dukakis Administration was that the latter's foreign policy was driven by liberal internationalism, wherein intervention could be justified if it could contribute to progress of democracy around the world. In contrast, Powell Doctrine called for military involvement only when it was in the nation's best interest, and in line with policy the President ordered U.S. soldiers to withdraw from Saudi Arabia on June 27th 1997. Some conservatives blasted this move as caving to terrorist demands, and liberals feared that Saddam Hussein would lead a genocide against the Kurdish and Shi'ite peoples without a U.S. presence. Powell responded to these criticisms by noting that the rest of the Grand Alliance would continue to enforce the Iraqi no-fly zone in the south, while the United States would create a new one in the north, based from the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. Powell also pledged to intervene militarily if the regime oppressed its ethnic minorities, pursuant to United Nations Resolution 692. The Iraqi Liberty Protection Act of 1997, passed with large bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress, supported this promise by stating that “It should be the policy of the Untied States to support efforts to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power if the Government of Iraq is in unacceptable breach of its international obligations”.
Powell also helped to organize the United Nations Assistance Mission in North Sudan, United Nations Assistance Mission in South Sudan, and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Darfur. The UNAMINS, UNAMISS, and UNAMID were tasked with the facilitation of the peace process after the Sudanese War and the creation of crucial governmental institutions. The UN missions would also take pressure off of the United States to 'nation-build'.
Back in the homeland, President Powell unveiled the Civilian Airspace Defense Initiative (CADI) on March 13th 1998. CADI was a plan to implement National Advanced Surface to Air Missile System (NASAMS) installations on the roofs of the Empire State Building, the White House, the Pentagon, the Sears Tower, the U.S. Bank Tower, the Columbia Center and the Texas Commerce Tower to secure the airspaces of Washington D.C., Arlington County, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle and Houston respectively. Combined, the program would cost nearly half a billion dollars, not including the extra security to be included for each building. CADI was thus met with very vocal criticism from both sides of the political spectrum, as it either covered too much or too little, and some believed that it demonstrated a lack of faith in Department of Domestic Security to ensure that attacks like 3-13 won't happen again. People were also concerned about bringing such powerful weapons into their cities, and feared that the NASAMS would be hijacked by the very terrorists it sought to counter. In the end, a scaled back version of CADI would be implemented for the Pentagon and the White House.
On June 1998, the uneasy peace in Yugoslavia began to show its cracks when the Kosovo Liberation Army began attacking police stations, schools, post offices and Yugoslav political officials. The KLA also incited mobs to destroy homes, desecrate Orthodox churches and murder Kosovo Serbians. A severe military crackdown and incidents of retaliatory ethnic violence against Kosovo Albanians followed afterward, and the KLA were labeled terrorists by the mass media. In February 1999, a United Nations resolution authorizing willing and able nations (most prominently, the Soviet Union) to aid the Federation of Yugoslavia maintain its territorial integrity and domestic security. The United States also committed volunteers to dispel fears of a 'Soviet occupation in Yugoslavia'.
Back in the Middle East, Palestine and Israel had begun to clash again after more failed negotiations for a peace settlement. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad recognizing the consequences of 3-13, hoped to force the United States into alienating its Arab allies by encouraging a direct military intervention in favor of Israel. Thus on December 31st 1999, the United States Embassy in Tel-Aviv was bombed, killing 194 people and injuring many more.
President Powell reacted to the Millennial Embassy Bombing by announcing that a new United States Embassy will be built in West Jerusalem as the Jerusalem Embassy Act had called for, while stepping up arm sales to Israel in a show of solidarity. CIA agents in cooperation with Mossad were also tasked to determine who was responsible for the attacks and apprehend them. However, Powell forewent direct military involvement, stating, “I will not let terrorists dictate the policy of this nation, and in doing so the United States will continue to seek a peaceful resolution to the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians”.
Despite this, neoconservatives were soon clamoring for the United States to intervene in the Second Intifada, narrowly passing the Authorization for Use of Military Force in Israel Act of 2000. President Powell vetoed the bill, and made what he believed to be an off-record comment in calling the neocons who pushed for the passage of the bill 'fucking crazies'. This gaffe would hurt Powell going into the Republican primaries, as Speaker of the House Dick Cheney entered the field.
Dick Cheney served as the House Minority Whip from 1989 to 1995, before becoming Speaker of the House during the Republican Revolution and had remained in that position ever since. Cheney had been a vocal critic of Powell, and backed his bid with finances from Coors Brewery (headed by Joseph Coors, co-founder of the influential Heritage Foundation conservative think tank). Cheney made abortion a key issue, lambasting Powell for his pro-choice views, which soon garnered him the support of the Christian Coalition. He also frequently appeared with Lynne Cheney, and often mentioned that they had been married since 1964. This was in contrast to Powell, who divorced his wife Alma Powell in 1996, shortly before seeking the presidency. Cheney alleged that this was because Powell felt he was 'too good' for Alma if he were to become President, even though the real reason was mutual concern for each other. Nonetheless, Cheney lost the Republican Party nomination to Powell after a very close race, due in part to fear of the 'Reagan Curse'.
The Democratic primaries were slightly less lively, as Al Gore cautiously sat out the election against the well-liked incumbent President and Bill Bradley filled in the vacuum as a liberal alternative to Powell's centrist platform, and went on to win the nomination. Bradley then chose New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen as his running mate, the first woman to be a candidate for Vice President, drawing some attention to his campaign. Despite this, Powell was re-elected by a fair margin on November 6th 2000, with 292 votes from Alabama (9), Alaska (3), Arizona (8), Arkansas (6), Colorado (8), Florida (25), Georgia (13), Idaho (4), Indiana (12), Iowa (7), Kansas (6), Kentucky (8), Louisiana (9), Mississippi (7), Missouri (11) Montana (3), Nebraska (5), Nevada (4), New Mexico (5), North Carolina (14), North Dakota (3), Ohio (21), Oklahoma (8), South Carolina (8), South Dakota (3), Tennessee (11), Texas (32), Utah (5), Virginia (13), West Virginia (5), Wisconsin (11), and Wyoming (3), while the Bradley/Shaheen ticket earned 242 Electoral College votes.
Powell's second term would see some well-supported bills like a new round of tax cuts and education reform based on national standards of achievement, as well as more controversial proposals, with the Military Anti-Discrimination Act (MADA) in the July of 2001. MADA would prohibit the expulsion and harassment of LGBT service members, along with a blanket condemnation of preexisting discrimination based on race or gender. Dukakis had rejected such proposals during his term as President, believing that the generals policies already in force were sufficient, while Powell delayed the initiative until after he won his second term. For MADA, Powell was accused of being a Republican-in-Name-Only, and the measure only passed through Congress due to the Advocacy Clause, which stated that “the iconography of the U.S. Armed Forces and related organizations will not be used to co-opt or advance a homosexual agenda [...] while [the individual] is still in service”. The precise meaning of this was unclear, but most officials interpreted it as a requirement to be closeted while wearing military uniform and in service, or while acting as a representative of the United States military in other nations. Powell also came under fire for creating the Global Initiative for the Relief of ISIS (GIRI) in December 2001.
Attention from domestic issues would be temporarily diverted by events in the Soviet Union. During the Soviet Civil War, the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic attempted to declare independence, or at least half of it did, and under the leadership of Dzokhar Dudayev, the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria ratified the Minsk Declaration. However, the Supreme Soviet did not recognize their ability to invoke Article 72 because they were technically part of the Russian SFSR. However, they did provide leniency to Dudayev's administration because he ousted Doku Zavgayev, who had supported the GKChP during the civil war. Dudayev held the position of President until April 5th 2002, when he died under mysterious circumstances. He was succeeded by his Vice President, Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. Yandarbiyev indirectly organized an invasion of the neighboring dependent republic of Dagestan to 'liberate' them from the Soviet Union and lead the way for more breakaway regions of the Caucasus. The invading forces met strong local opposition before the Soviet military intervened and completely halted their advances with a barrage of artillery strikes.
This all culminated in the Moscow Bombings, between February 10th 2003 and February 13th 2003. On February 10th the V.I. Lenin Museum was destroyed by a car bomb while the Moscow Metro was bombed twice (on February 10th and February 12th), before a passenger plane from the Domodedovo International Airport exploded mid-flight (on February 13th). The amount of causalities was never disclosed, but Moscow's public transportation was almost completely shut down by the military.
The Soviet-Chechen War began shortly afterward with aerial bombardments of Chechen cities on February 16th 2003, incurring numerous civilian causalities. By late March, the financers and primary planners of the Moscow Bombings were determined to be Al-Qaeda operatives seeking refuge in Afghanistan under the Taliban government. Supreme Soviet Chairman Anatoly Lukyanov did not want to invoke the memory of the Soviet War in Afghanistan with a ground invasion, and thus launched several cruise missiles at Afghan terrorist training camps, while stepping up covert arms sales to the United Salvation Front, the faction leading the struggle against the Taliban in the Afghan Civil War. Chairman Lukyanov met with President Powell and proposed that the United States lead the Grand Alliance into Afghanistan to oust the Taliban and Al-Qaeda like they had in the Sudanese War. Powell rejected the plan because he believed that it would be ultimately counter to U.S. interests, but pledged that he would meet the Soviet efforts to aid the United Salvation Front.
On March 3rd 2004, groundbreaking began for the new World Trade Center complex, where President Powell gave one of his last major speeches. “A new generation is coming, both in America and in the world at large. They will face challenges, and although they may sometimes fail in meeting them, I look forward to seeing what they will be able to achieve”. The rest of the year would be a mixed bag of reception for Powell, as he vetoed the divisive Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act in May, but signed into law the more widely supported Energy Independence Act (which provided incentives for domestic oil drilling) in August.
As Powell had served two terms as President, the 2004 Republican primaries were without an incumbent. The early favorite was Vice President Phil Gramm, but to the surprise of some, Cheney entered the ring yet again. After his 2000 nomination bid he had decided to take a sabbatical from politics by going into the private sector, where he soon became CEO and President of the Halliburton company. Despite Gramm's initial popularity, Cheney soon won the nomination, and confirmed Virginia Governor George Allen as his running mate. The Democratic primaries were slightly less lively, as Al Gore won the nomination by a comfortable margin and selected John Kerry as his running mate without much serious competition. Gore hoped to focus on domestic policy, bringing environmental issues and education to the fore, which he believed to be the primary weaknesses of the Republican platform. “Progress to the Future” became their slogan, with the hope of appealing to centrists and moderates.
In the first debates, Gore dominated, but both soon found their way into the public imagination. Cheney's tendency to lean forward, steeple his hands and talk in a low, gravely voice drew comparisons to the Emperor from Star Wars, while Gore was portrayed as a condescending intellectual, sighing frequently and speaking in a slow, deliberate fashion. After a drop in the polls, Cheney became more desperate to defeat Gore in the debate by any means possible. His campaign manager thus bribed a member in Gore's team for inside information, and received a cache of debating notes. With help of these, Cheney put Gore on the defensive with carefully meted rhetoric and deadpan humor, matching Gore for debating victories.
When election night came on November 2nd, 2004, Gore carried California (55), Connecticut (7), Delaware (3), D.C. (3), Illinois (21), Iowa (7), Maine (4), Maryland (10), Massachusetts (12), Michigan (17), Minnesota (6), New Hampshire (4) New Jersey (15), New Mexico (5), New York (31), Oregon (7), Pennsylvania (21), Rhode Island (4), Vermont (3), Washington (11), and Wisconsin (10) while Cheney took Alabama (9), Alaska (3), Arizona (10), Arkansas (6), Colorado (9), Florida (27), Georgia (15), Idaho (4), Indiana (11), Kansas (6), Kentucky (8), Louisiana (9), Mississippi (6), Missouri (11), Montana (3), Nebraska (5), Nevada (5), North Carolina (15), North Dakota (3), Ohio (20), Oklahoma (7), South Carolina (8), South Dakota (3), Tennessee (11), Texas (34), Utah (5), Virginia (11), West Virginia (5) and Wyoming (3). The grand total for Gore was 256 Electoral College votes, compared to Cheney's winning total of 272 votes.
Section VII: The Cheney Administration
Thus on January 20th 2005, Richard Bruce “Dick” Cheney became the 47th President of the United States. Shortly after taking office, Cheney was immediately faced with an international crisis. On March 3rd 2005, a U.S. warplane was shot down by an Iraqi anti-aircraft gun while conducting a sortie for Operation Northern Watch. The public was further enraged when Saddam Hussein gave a $15,000 reward to the ones responsible. Cheney declared, “I don't believe I am alone in seeing this as a declaration of war”. In a later speech he warned that, “Our latest intelligence suggests that Saddam Hussein is seeking to acquire or has acquired weapons of mass destruction […] nuclear, biological or chemical in nature […]”.
On June 25th, anthrax-laced letters were mailed to the White House, Dukakis' current residency, and several U.S. Congress members with reputations as war hawks. They contained no message other than a printed painting of a U.S. flag with skulls replacing the stars, and blood trailing from the stripes. Cheney claimed in a national address to the American public that these were proof that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, and on July 22nd, the Authorization for Use of Military Force in Iraq Resolution of 2005 was passed, citing the Iraqi Liberty Protection Act of 1997 as a justification along with several United Nations resolutions prohibiting Iraq from possessing weapons of mass destruction. Without securing international cooperation from the nations of the Grand Alliance (save the United Kingdom) or approval from the United Nations, the United States invaded Iraq on July 26th 2005. Chairman Lukyanov pledged to keep the Soviet Union out of the conflict, as the Untied States did not support an invasion of Afghanistan.
The bloodshed abroad would soon be seen at home, and on September 4th 2005, when Hurricane Maria struck from the Gulf of Mexico. This category five hurricane most devastatingly made land fall in the Texas Coastal Bend, directly hitting Houston. Hundreds died, thousands were rendered homeless and billions of damage was caused. Nearly 23% of all U.S. refining capacity was crippled as numerous refineries were damaged or completely destroyed. Oil prices soared, also spawning an automotive industry crisis. Panic buying pushed the price of gas to as high as $4-$7/gallon.
President Cheney hoped to divert attention from the domestic situation by declaring that, “the United States has removed Saddam Hussein's regime from power. The liberation of Iraq has been achieved” on September 8th, after the fall of Baghdad. With the domestic crisis on his hands, President Cheney wanted to minimize the amount of work that the provisional government had to do. Although the Ba'ath Party was formally prohibited and many of its high-ranking administrators were barred from holding public office, most middle level bureaucrats working in schools, hospitals, and other essential, largely apolitical institutions were kept on board, while tribal leaders were encouraged to police their own streets where they were viewed as authorities. And while the Republican Guard was disbanded, the Iraqi Army was retained under the supervision of the occupying forces. On February 22nd 2006, Saddam Hussein was found by the U.S. military, and was handed over to the reformed Iraqi government for trial.
On August 18th 2006, the University of Akron was subject to one of the worst school shootings in recent memory with 22 dead, not including the perpetrator, who killed himself. Any efforts to pass gun control laws failed before it even reached the House floor, while President Powell maintained that “the events in Akron were tragic, and although the hearts of myself and my family are with the victims of this heinous crime, I maintain that infringing upon our constitutional right to bear arms is not a way to prevent things like this from happening. That's something only a loving family and a caring community can accomplish”. The family of the shooters and the people of Akron reacted negatively to this speech, believing that Cheney was blaming them for the shootings. Their dissatisfaction made rounds in the media, and in the 2006 midterm elections, the Democratic Party gained seats in Congress largely because of the public's dissatisfaction with President Cheney. His approval ratings would drop even further when the subprime mortgage crisis began in 2007, which would be a part of chain leading to a sharp market downturn.
In Iraq, a new constitution had been approved by voters, but a wave of insurgencies threatened to destroy the shaky government that was in place. Prime Minister Abdul Sattar Abu Risha and the Iraq Army were key parts in preventing the sectarian violence from flaring up into a civil war. Nonetheless, causalities remained high for U.S. soldiers due to sporadic bombings and shootings, and many people both in Iraq and the United States called for a withdrawal. In November 2007, a story broke to the press alleging that Cheney used debating notes from Gore to win the last debates. This was confirmed by the former senior manager of his election staff, but Cheney denied that he knew anything about the use of Gore's notes. Notegate quickly plunged Cheney's already low approval ratings to levels not seen since the Agnew administration.
On January 2nd, a day before the first Republican primary caucus, Cheney announced that he would not be seeking a second term. The last incumbent President that decided not to seek re-election was Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968. The 2008 election cycle would thus see fresh faces from both parties. For the Republicans the nomination went to William James “Bill” Miller, a fifty-four year old Lt. Commander in the United Naval Reserve that served in the Gulf War, before going onto to hold the office of Senator for his home state of Virginia in 1994. Bill Miller had a reputation as a maverick, often voting against popular bipartisan legislation if it offends his principles, including one of the few dissenting votes for the Safeguarding America Act of 1995. He opposes income tax, interventionism in foreign policy, affirmative action, environmentalist legislation, federal regulation of abortion, gun control and the current welfare model. His support of '2nd amendment rights' were prominently featured in his 2007 book Liberty's Teeth, from a quotation by George Washington stressing the importance of firearms. Indiana Governor Logan Wallace was selected as his running mate.
In the Democratic primaries, sixty-eight year old Gloria Santos narrowly succeeded in gaining the presidential bid. Gloria Santos is an alumna of Yale Law School that served as the Attorney General for Florida from 1983 to 1990, before she was appointed United States Attorney General during the Dukakis administration from 1991 to 1997. She then went onto become Governor of Florida in 2002, beginning her second term in 2007. She supports labor unions and immigration, while opposing the death penalty and the Advocacy Clause of MADA. She also pledged to ratify the United Nations Convention on Disabled People's Rights and the Toronto Treaty (an international agreement on the regulation of anthropogenic climate change). She drew some criticism from those in her party for her opposition to same sex marriage (in favor of civil unions for everyone on a federal level, leaving marriage laws to the states) abortion (although she supports embryonic stem cell research), and for her support of abstinence-only sex education. Her foreign policy also favored military intervention for humanitarian ends, if done with international support (in contrast to the on-going Iraq War). California Senator Ellis Price was the runner-up in the primaries, and was thus placed on her ticket.
The partial inversion of traditional party positions on social issues and foreign policy were not thought important in the primaries due to the focus on the recession, as both candidates had radically conservative and liberal economic views respectively. However, Santos would soon make strange bedfellows with the Christian Coalition, Focus on the Family, and other evangelical political groups. She also had popularity with Latino voters, despite being a Filipino-American, which was the reason some right-wing radio personalities and talk show hosts alleged that she was not a natural-born citizen. These rumors didn't gain much traction because of her parents' consistent residency in Jacksonville, Florida. Finally, some alleged that she was hoping to subvert the government of the United States on behalf of the Pope because she was Roman Catholic.
Many of the worst rumors weren't touched upon by Bill Miller himself, but his running mater Logan Wallace frequently pushed them into the headlines. This backfired somewhat, as Santos began to look like a more principled opponent in comparison. Attention was drawn to meatier issues aside from the recession when Saddam Hussein was execution on August 12th 2008, after a long and drawn out trial process. Santos supported the organization of a United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq to aid in the struggling reconstruction, while helping to restore international relations between the Iraqi government and the rest of the world. In contrast, Miller believed that the United States should just leave Iraq without 'holding its hand', and criticized the U.S.'s history of postwar reconstruction.
Miller's weren't widely supported, but his numbers stayed high in the polls. This was due in part to the new methods of grassroots funding through the internet that Miller pioneered. Miller also gained young supporters through his witty humor and familiarity with pop culture, often making appearances on comedic talk shows and comic books. In contrast, Santos came across as old-fashioned, especially in her criticisms of violence and sexuality in movies, television and video games as well as obscene language in music. At a rally in Ohio, Miller said the subsequently popular line “She puts the 'nanny' in 'nanny state'”.
On September 15th 2008, the FBI announced that they had found the sender of the anthrax letters: Dennis Cote, a well-respected virologist and biodefense researcher working for the United States. He soon became the subject of conspiracy theories, alleging that Cheney had used Cote to generate support for the Iraq War. Nonetheless, it caused Gloria Santos to gain some momentum in the mainstream media, and when it came time for the debates, Santos decisively defeated Miller in every single one, largely because of more than two and half decades of experience as a very high-profile lawyer.
On election night, Bill Miller won the states of Alaska (9), Alabama (3), Arizona (10), Arkansas (6), Georgia (15), Idaho (4), Indiana (11), Kansas (6), Kentucky (8), Louisiana (9), Mississippi (6), Nebraska (5), North Dakota (3), Oklahoma (7), South Carolina (8), South Dakota (3), Tennessee (11), Texas (34), Utah (5), Virginia (13), West Virginia (5) and Wyoming (3). Gloria Santos carried California (55), Colorado (9), Connecticut (7), Delaware (3), the District of Columbia (3), Florida (27), Hawaii (4), Illinois (21), Maine (4), Maryland (10), Massachusetts (12), Michigan (17), Minnesota (10), Missouri (11), Nevada (5), New Hampshire (4), New Jersey (15), New Mexico (5), New York (31), North Carolina (15), Ohio (20), Oregon (7), Pennsylvania (21), Rhode Island (4), Vermont (3), Washington (11) and Wisconsin (10). With a vote total of 354 to 184, Gloria Santos thus became the 48th President of the United States on January 20th, 2009.
Section VIII: The Santos Administration
President Gloria Santos was notable in several ways coming into office. In addition to being the first woman and the first Filipino-American to hold the office of President, she was also the oldest. having been born May 23rd 1939. With the help of a Democratic Congress, she was also able to accomplish most of her campaign promises in a short amount of time. Her first set of major legislation was the Phoenix Program, a series of bills signed into law from February to April to help combat the recession. Effects of the Phoenix Program include: ending the Powell-Cheney Tax Cuts for those making more than $300,000 a year, instituting a minimum effective tax rate of 30% on households earning at least a million dollars, ending the production of the penny, raising the federal minimum wage, and increasing federal spending in education, infrastructure, and alternative energy.
In Iraq, Santos ordered the immediate withdrawal of private military contractors by executive order in May 2009, while implanting a plan for the gradual reduction of U.S. troops over the next few years. Santos then went onto approve the Free Speech in the Military Amendment, which effectively repealed the Advocacy Clause of the Military Anti-Discrimination Act in July 9th 2009 and enacted the Victims of Hate Crime Inclusive Recognition Act, which extended federal hate crime laws to include LGBT people on November 20th 2009.
On March 2010, Santos visited the heads of state in Morocco, Tunisia and other near eastern allies of the U.S. to coordinate the creation of the Arab Cooperative Initiative for Reconstruction (ACIR). The ACIR is a bottom-up international initiative headquartered in Cairo to assist Iraq in maintaining domestic stability by investing in local businesses and pledging a total of up to 18,000 armed personnel to aid the Iraq Army when requested (from Egypt and member states from Maghreb). ACIR would also facilitate the re-establishment of Iraq's embassies and diplomatic relationships with the world at large.
These apparent foreign policy successes would soon be offset by a radical change in the Soviet Union. On May 9th 2010, Chairman Lukyanov was assassinated during the Moscow Victory Parade by an Al-Qaeda sniper quickly found and brought in by the Soviet Military. Deputy Chairman Nikolai Pavlov soon became the head of state of the USSR. Through torture of the apprehended assassin, it was determined that the plot was directly organized by the Taliban to disrupt Soviet support of the United Salvation Front by destabilizing internal politics.
Chairman Pavlov used this as a springboard for United Nations Security Council Resolution 1923 on May 24th 2010, approving an international coalition to intervene militarily in Afghanistan as they were 'state sponsors of terrorism'. United Nations Council Resolution 1924 mandated that the United Nations flag would be used in lieu of most national flags, and that the assembled military coalition would be called the United Nations Interim Force in Afghanistan (UNIFA). This was a plan by Chairman Pavlov to distance his country from the Soviet War in Afghanistan, and he thus pitched the conflict as an international intervention into the already on-going Afghan Civil War. He gained broad support from other nations because of three factors: (1) the fact that the Untied Salvation Front had already been supported by everyone from India to Iran (2) the global struggle with Al-Qaeda operatives trained and financed from Afghanistan and (3) the Taliban's extremely poor human rights record.
President Santos did not condemn UNIFA, nor did she lead the United States in contributing personnel to it, which reflected the public's ambivalence towards the conflict. Most of the legislation she helped get through for the rest of 2010 were free trade arguments, with the exception of the Comprehensive Penal Reform Act in October 7th. On March 21st of the following year, Santos signed into law the Federal Firearms Regulation Act of 2011, which instituted a ban on 'war guns', 'armor-resistant rounds', and requirement for background checks on all gun sales. The FFRA was sharply criticized in conservative media, especially by Bill Miller, who attained his own talk show distributed through radio, television, and the internet following his campaign for the presidency.
On October 21st 2011, the First Use Ban Agreement (or the Preemptive Nuclear Assault Prohibition Treaty) was launched by Chairman Pavlov, leading the Soviet Union as the first nation to sign it. As the name suggests, the FUBA is an international convention to codify the no first use policy (understood to mean that no weapons of mass destruction would be used unless a threat of similar caliber has been identified beyond a reasonable doubt e.g. by radar or other means of direct identification).
Almost all nations without nuclear weapons that had ratified the NPT also ratified this treaty, along with the People's Republic of China and India. Those who did not sign it include the Untied Kingdom, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Israel, Pakistan, and North Korea. President Santos introduced the FUBA to the Senate in November, but it failed to pass. On December 10th, Chairman Pavlov received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the FUBA.
2012 would be a year almost completely dominated by the presidential election, more so than usual because of the aggressive campaigning. Unsurprisingly, Gloria Santos easily won the nomination of the Democratic Party. The Republican Party had a wider array of candidates, not including Bill Miller. Miller had announced his candidacy as a third party candidate for the Freedom Party, whose platform was largely dictated by the personal nuances of his political opinions. Indiana Governor Logan Wallace stepped into fill the vacuum, and soon became the dark horse against the presumed nominee, Texas Representative Wayne Paxton, who became his running mate.
Wallace is strongly opposed to socialism,and nations that have socialist economic policies. He's wary of the Soviet intervention in the Afghan Civil War, and believes that the United Nations is a communist tool to achieve a stateless society (or in his own words, anarchy), and he believes that the FUBA was primarily created by the Soviet Union to make the United States look bad. If elected, Wallace hopes to withdraw from the United Nations, roll back social entitlement programs, teach 'chosen progression theory' in public schools and end affirmative action, if possible. Wallace was selected primarily because of the in-party belief that Bill Miller was too moderate on social issues, and thus lost conservative Evangelical Christian voters to Gloria Santos.
This would become critical when on July 24th 2012, the Supreme Court made one of their most controversial rulings in the case Aguirre v. Bates, which found that trans people's ability to change their gender markers on legals documents cannot be prohibited or hindered by the state, interpreting such barriers as a violation of the freedom of expression guaranteed by the 1st Amendment, and as well as an abridgment of rights on the basis of sex, a violation of the 27th Amendment. Wallace voiced much of the opposition to this ruling by stating that judge should not be driven by an agenda or “legislate from the bench”, and that decisions like Aguirre v. Bates or Roe v. Wade should be subject to a national referendum before going into effect. Santos opposed this, believing that this would cause a corrosive political influence on the Supreme Court, and this would be contrary to what the framers of the constitution intended in her opinion. Other topics discussed during election were the timetable for withdraw of soldiers in Iraq, student loans, economic inequity and whether or not Santos was too old to continue the presidency at 73 years of age.
Like Miller, Santos dominated in the first debates almost completely, but Logan Wallace is believed to have won the final debate by coming across as more relatable and folksy, due in part to not having very refined oratory skills, but good argumentative tactics.. This was primarily done through baiting Santos into giving a long, detailed response and then decrying it with a simplistic slogan that had been prepared beforehand.
In the end, Gloria Santos was re-elected on November 6th 2012 with 310 votes from California (55), Connecticut (7), Delaware (3), the District of Columbia (3), Florida (27), Hawaii (4), Illinois (21), Maine (4), Maryland (10), Massachusetts (12), Michigan (17), Minnesota (10), Missouri (11), Nevada (5), New Hampshire (4), New Jersey (15), New Mexico (5), New York (31), Oregon (7), Pennsylvania (21), Rhode Island (4), Vermont (3), Washington (11) and Wisconsin (10), losing only Colorado, North Carolina and Ohio from the previous election to Logan Wallace, who received 228 Electoral College votes.
On June 24th 2013, Gloria Santos issued an Executive Order outlining a conditional no first use policy: "a declaration of war from a nation with nuclear weapons who have not ratified the Preemptive Nuclear Assault Prohibition Treaty will be seen as effectively seen as a 'first strike'. The introduction of nuclear weapons in a conflict will otherwise be completely restricted by this administration". Public reception to this was fairly lukewarm, but Chairman Pavlov saw it as an encouraging step forward for the United States. What the future holds for it remains to be seen...
The Presidents since 1973:
Richard Nixon (January 20th 1969-January 31st 1973)
Spiro Agnew (January 31st 1973-May 7th 1973)
Carl Albert (May 7th 1973-July 4th 1973)
Gerald Ford (July 4th 1973-January 20th 1977)
James Earl Carter (January 20th 1977- January 20th 1981)
George H.W. Bush (January 20th 1981- June 17th 1988)
Bob Dole (June 17th 1988-January 20th 1989)
Michael Dukakis (January 20th 1989-January 20th 1997)
Colin Powell (January 20th 1997-January 20th 2005)
Dick Cheney (January 20th 2005-January 20th 2009)
Gloria Santos (January 20th 2009-)
Section I: The Agnew Administration
On January 31st 1973, Byck gained low-key entry into the Presidential News Conference, and immediately after a reporter had asked "Mr. President, do you have anything specifically in mind to help heal the wounds in this country-" he fired at Nixon in the chest and neck with a .22 caliber revolver. The Secret Service agents close to him momentarily struggled to ascertain who was firing due to the chaotic atmosphere of the room before Byck lunged at the President and detonated a home made bomb that he had strapped to himself. The explosion rendered Byck deceased, and served as the killing blow for President Nixon.
Spiro Agnew was then sworn in as the 38th President of the United States an hour and 26 minutes later, pledging to continue Nixon's agenda while he was in office. The public mourned for Nixon as they had for JFK, as his reputation was still glowing from his landslide re-election just a few months ago, and Byck's audio tapes soon became the sole media fixation, as did the issue of presidential protection.
This attention was briefly diverted on February 5th 1973, when federal investigations into any possible accomplices in Nixon's death turned up Spiro Agnew's checkered history in relation to bribery, tax fraud, extortion and conspiracy during his tenure as Governor and Vice President. Many in the media and public alleged Agnew had orchestrated the entire thing, not helped by the rather abrasive way he treated journalists and political opponents. The public grew to despise Agnew because of his staunch support of the Vietnam War.
By March 1973, Agnew was finally charged by the federal government for the aforementioned financial crimes, and upon the advice of his legal team, he used the presidential pardon on himself. In a rather transparent attempt to deflect attention, he claimed that the 'communist forces' were in violation of the Paris Peace Accords, and ordered a new series of massive bombing campaigns. Although conviction seemed imminent, Agnew did not resign and denied any wrongdoing. He failed to nominate a Vice President, claiming that House Speaker Carl Albert (D-OK) would deny his nominations because he was leading a Democratic coup on the presidency through their majorities in both houses, and implicitly alleged that he had conspired to kill Nixon, all in order to sabotage the war effort in Vietnam. Unlike the office of vice president, the presidency was something Agnew wished to hold onto at all costs due to its broad powers.
Many in Washington were concerned that Agnew would attempt to do other extreme things before being removed from office, such as abusing the pardon further or ordering a nuclear assault on North Vietnam. Thus, Congress worked fast to remove him from office, and on May 7th 1973, he became the first President in history to be convicted in the impeachment process. His term ended with a livid address to his few supporters, where he continued to hold to his story that Congress had set him up and were cryptocommunist conspirators attempting to subvert American war objectives in Vietnam.
By the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, Carl Albert became the 39th President of the United States. He took the position unceremoniously, and announced that he would resign as soon as he had someone to succeed him, and nominated House Minority Leader Gerald Ford (R-MI) as his Vice President. Carl Albert did as little as possible as President during the time it took to confirm Ford, and was frequently compared to Cincinnatus for his power concession. On July 4th 1973, Gerald Ford became the 40th President of the United States, ending one of the most tumultuous seven months in U.S. political history.
Section II: The Ford Administration
Ford promised he was going to restore stability in the nation once again upon his ascendancy to the White House. It would soon be uncertain that he would be able to deliver on that promise, because on October 6th 1973, Israel was suddenly invaded by Syria and Egypt. Many critics blamed this invasion on perceived weakness from the recent political chaos, and in response to this, Ford very publicly authorized the transfer of military equipment to Israel. In turn, the OPEC nations instituted an oil embargo that wounded an economy already reeling from the '73 market crash. Ford was soon humbled, and largely turned the matter to Henry Kissinger, who negotiated an end to the conflict before a possible Soviet intervention.
In Vietnam, the oil crisis combined with decreasing military aid from the U.S. caused the Vietcong to renew their desperate offensive against the South Vietnamese. U.S. intervention was also nearly non-existent due to the War Power Acts. The War Power Acts were crafted during Spiro Agnew's presidency in order to check the president's ability to wage war without legislative approval. These were extremely popular with the public, and Agnew's attempts to veto them were overturned by bipartisanship inspired by the shared fear of power abuse. However, the WPA also severely impeded the flow of money, equipment and personnel in Vietnam, and by 1975, the country had become completely communist.
The Democratic primaries in July 1976 saw Jimmy Carter barely edging out Mo Udall, with Walter Mondale as his running mate. Carter ran on a platform centered on honesty, and pledged to "Restore America", earning broad support from his party. In contrast to this relatively serene process, the Republican primaries were utter chaos, with moderates being pitted against conservatives. Many Republicans were displeased with Ford's "weakness" as the oil embargo, the fall of Vietnam, the Helsinki Deceleration and the concession of the Panama Canal all seemed to suggest a decline for the United States' prestige. Leading these outspoken critics was Ronald Reagan, a formidable contender for the Republican primaries, channeling public discontent into a strong campaign that had been going since the fall of 1975. One noteworthy speech heightened national attention to his candidacy: "A democracy is a government where the people choose who represents them. I believe that it is the most important thing that this country stands for. But I do not believe that our liberal friends in Congress value the representation of the people's interests like I do. If they did, why would they appoint such an obvious puppet like Gerald Ford to be President? We've made so many concessions abroad, but are we willing to concede the very idea of democracy in America? Will we let a government of the people, for the people, and by the people perish from this Earth? Or will we fight for freedom?"
"Fight For Freedom'" soon became Reagan's slogan, and the Republicans he became the voice for were the 'Freedom Fighters'. The Freedom Fighters distinguished themselves from the likes of Spiro Agnew by emphasizing the reduction of the size of government. They led a very visible campaign for an amendment requiring legislative approval of Presidential pardons, but it narrowly failed to pass because of its questionable constitutionality. Due to the Freedom Fighters, Ford's early edge earned by the bicentennial shuttle launch was soon being dulled in August, but this was nothing compared to what would happen in coming months.
Due to Spiro Agnew's conspiratorial charges, along with the rumors surrounding the deaths of JFK and Martin Luther King, the United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) was founded in March 1976 to more thoroughly investigate matters. Gerald Ford wished to turn over Nixon's White House tape recordings as evidence after he learned of them, but he was advised by his Chief of Staff H.R. Halderman and his Counsel John Dean to not admit them for the HSCA due to containing 'highly sensitive information that could compromise national security'. The HSCA learned of the tapes existence while interviewing Alexander Butterfield on May 17th 1976. The HSCA requested that they be turned over in full, and Ford went against the advice of some of his staff in doing so because he didn't want to look like he was involved in a cover-up related to Nixon's death.
On June 5th, selected contents of the tapes were released to the public and Nixon's involvement in the cover up of the Watergate burglary became clear. A shocking number of high ranking officials in Ford's staff were soon faced with criminal charges, and his campaign team disintegrated before his eyes. With Ford's own re-election campaign revealed to be plagued with corruption, Ronald Reagan became the Republican nominee for President in August, with Richard Schweiker as his running mate.
Reagan and Carter were soon neck and neck in the polls, as well as equally matched on the debate room floor. Both represented change that the United States was desperately looking for, but in two radically different ways. Reagan earned broad appeal due to Schweiker's liberal Republican credentials, while Carter had the advantage of a struggling economy and a sudden switch in candidates. Unfortunately, the nightmarish uncertainty that had been lingering since the assassination of Richard Nixon reared its ugly head once again on election night.
Carter won Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, D.C., Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Reagan won Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming. The electoral college was thus tied with 269 to 269 votes while Reagan had won the popular vote by 0.6%.
There were no faithless electors, as all of them feared the potential crisis that could arise from shifting their votes, and thus it was up to the 95th Congress to decide who would be President and Vice President. The Democratic majorities in both houses voted as expected on January 6th, as the House of Representatives elected Carter and the Senate elected Mondale. On January 20th 1977, James Earl Carter became the 41st President of the United States, the fourth in a row to come into office without winning the Presidential election proper.
Section III: The Carter Administration
The 'Democratic Deluge' began almost as soon as Carter took office, headed by Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill (who was selected by the House upon the ascendency of Carl Albert to President, who soon retired from politics). During Carter's first few months in office, the National Health Insurance Act (sponsored by Tip O'Neill and Ted Kennedy) was passed in both houses of Congress on March 1977. Carter feared that such a bill would tamper with the national budget and vetoed it. However, his veto was overturned in Congress, and the NHIA soon became law.
Despite these early clashes, Carter worked with legislators to campaign for the Equal Rights Amendment. He believed that ERA could help resolve the differences between himself and those in Congress, and thus often emphasized its importance: “The Equal Rights Amendment is to the 19th Amendment what the 14th was to the 13th. And by that I mean women are allowed to vote, but it is still legal for the federal government to abridge their rights as citizens of the United States.” Florida, Illinois, and Louisiana soon approved what would become the 27th Amendment in May 1978. Other major legislation that passed during the Democratic Deluge included a jobs program, various environmental reform bills, an energy conservation program, and broad economic deregulation.
But for southern pastor Jerry Falwell, the passage of the 27th Amendment was the straw that broke the camel's back. He founded an organization known as the Moral Majority in April 1978, whose campaign to repeal the 27th Amendment garnered national interest, including the interest of Ronald Reagan. Reagan may have lost the 1976 election, but he still had an interest in becoming President. Reagan used his political connections to help the Moral Majority with a massive media blitz seeking to promote a platform of “pro-life, pro-defense and pro-America”. Their efforts culminated in Republicans picking up nearly twenty seats in Congress during the 1978 midterm elections.
Nonetheless, the Democrats still held a majority in both houses of Congress, and many of their party brass believed that a fringe movement like the Moral Majority couldn't seriously effect Carter's hold on the White House. This shared calm among liberal legislators would change in 1979. On October 31st, the USSR intervened directly in Afghanistan and in response to this, Carter pledged to lead a boycott against the 1980 Moscow Olympics while the Senate failed to ratify SALT II. Also during that year, the Islamic Revolution in Iran saw the ousting of the Shah, who attempted to go to the United States for medical treatment but was narrowly denied it, thus being hospitalized in Switzerland. On November 2nd, the Soviet embassy in Iran was seized by a group of students and everyone inside was held hostage. Their demands were for the USSR to immediately withdraw from Afghanistan, among other things. In response, the Soviet Union supplied their secular ally Iraq in huge quantities in preparation for an invasion.
Many in the growing conservative movement called for a U.S. show of force in Afghanistan but President Carter was reluctant to overtly escalate the conflict further. Nonetheless he terminated the Wheat Deal with the USSR, reinstated the draft, and oversaw a covert program to fund and arm the Afghan insurgents in the early days of 1980. On April 1st 1980, Deputy Prime Minster of Iraq Tariq Aziz was assassinated along with 14 students by Shia militants. In addition to the high-profile assassinations carried out in the previous months, this was used as a justification for the Iraqi invasion of Iran on May 16th 1980, with the full backing of the USSR. Carter feared that the Persian Gulf would soon be completely in the Soviet sphere of influence, and thus authorized another transfer of funds to Iran.
The presidency seemed to be anyone's game, as polls saw Carter win key swing states due to the spoiler effect, while Reagan was neck-and-neck with the incumbent President throughout the South. It was in these circumstances that Bush's campaign manager privately contacted Spiro Agnew. In exchange for an unknown amount of money, Agnew endorsed Ronald Reagan and made a speech praising his platform as “akin to what I would do”. Reagan's ratings dipped, but he still held strong due to the aggressive promotion being delivered by televangelists like Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Baker, Pat Robertson and Billy Graham. They painted George H.W. Bush as a “traitor to the Christian values this country was founded upon” for his support of the 27th Amendment and his opposition to an amendment that would ban abortion. In response to these criticisms Bush said “Why should I be considered a traitor for pledging to uphold the Constitution as it stands?”
When election night rolled around on November 4th 1980, Reagan managed to carry Alabama (9), California (45), Indiana (13), Mississippi (7), North Carolina (13), South Carolina (8), Virginia (12) and Washington (9) for a total of 116 votes. Bush took Alaska (3), Arizona (6), Colorado (7), Connecticut (8), Florida (17), Idaho (4), Illinois (26), Iowa (8), Kansas (7), Maine (4), Michigan (21), Montana (4), Nebraska (5), Nevada (3), New Hampshire (4), New Jersey (17), New Mexico (4), North Dakota (3), Oklahoma (8), Oregon (6), Texas (26), South Dakota (4), Utah (4), Vermont (3), and Wyoming (3) for a combined 205 pledged electoral college votes, and finally, Carter ended up with 217 votes from Arkansas (6), D.C. (3), Delaware (3), Georgia (12), Hawaii, (4) Kentucky (9), Louisiana (10), Maryland (10), Massachusetts (14), Minnesota (10), Missouri (12), New York (41), Ohio (25), Pennsylvania (27), Rhode Island (4), Tennessee (10), West Virginia (6) and Wisconsin (11). The popular vote was split fairly evenly between Carter (39.6%), Bush (40.1%) and Reagan (21.3%).
The race was once again without an absolute majority winner, and the Democratic Congress made Carter a sure bet for victory. This was put into doubt when Ronald Reagan issued a Shermanesque statement of concession on December 8th, before endorsing George H.W. Bush as 'the people's choice for President'. When the Electoral College cast their votes on December 9th, the electors from California, Indiana and Washington gave the votes they had pledged for Reagan to George Bush, bringing his total from 205 to 272.
Carter was outraged, as California and Washington both had laws prohibiting such practices. Thus he took his plight to the Supreme Court, who ruled on December 12th 1980 in the case Carter v. Bush that electors have a constitutional freedom to vote as they may chose in the electoral college, and that state governments do not have the power to enforce pledges, despite retaining the ability to require them (Ray v. Blair). Thus, on January 20th 1981, George H.W. Bush became the 42nd President of the United States.
Section IV: The Bush Administration
One of Bush's first actions as President was to end price controls on domestic oil, which he hoped would combat the on-going energy crisis. Faced with a recession in the summer, he also signed into law several large cuts in personal income tax, along with the continuation of the deregulation that Carter had oversaw. Bush also drastically increased military spending combined with fiery rhetoric aimed at the Soviet Union. He also continued the covert support of the Iran military that had started under Carter, despite publicly maintaining neutrality. On June 3rd 1982, a ceasefire was negotiated, as Iran had recovered most of its territory. In exchange for pulling their military out completely of Iran, Iraq received the hostages from the Soviet embassy who were then returned to their homes, after more than a year and a half of confinement.
Meanwhile, Bush's approval ratings were starting to plunge due to the on-going recession, and the 1982 mid-term Congressional elections saw Democrats regain many of the seats they lost in 1980. Another major domestic issue was the on-going ISIS (Immunosuppressive Infection Syndrome) pandemic, which many in the LGBT community accused the President of ignoring. In 1983, Bush commented that “ISIS is a disease spread by personal behavior, so the people already have a means to control the rate of infection”.
Adding to the nation's woes, on February 22nd 1984 the Space Shuttle Columbia exploded mid-flight. A defective O-ring subject to unusually cold temperatures was partially to blame, along with the hamstrung budget that NASA had been contending with. Bush was on a diplomatic mission to El Salvador at the time, and was thus unable to make a televised address until the following day. Because of this and a somewhat remarkable lack of charisma, by the time the Democratic National Convention in July came around, there was some chance of victory against Bush even though the economy was recovering. Gary Hart and his running mate Lloyd Bentsen were thus the people to challenge the incumbent President Bush and Vice President Bob Dole. Despite their optimism, on November 6th 1984, the Hart/Bentsen ticket only managed to carry D.C. (3), Hawaii, (4) Maryland (10), Massachusetts (13), Minnesota (10), Rhode Island (4), and Wisconsin (11) for a combined 55 Electoral College votes, handing Bush a landslide victory with 483 votes across 44 states.
Meanwhile, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan began to run into the problem of an empowered Iran, where over a Afghan million refugees sought shelter while they provided arms to the Hazara and other Shia troops, helping to unify them into one faction by 1985. Many in the region feared Iran's growing strength, and began to build up monetary and military support for Iraq to launch a second invasion. Among them were Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Jordan. The Soviet Union also provided equipment, hoping to disrupt the Iranian involvement in Afghanistan. Other foreign contributors were China, France and the United Kingdom. Thus on March 11th 1985, Iraq unleashed a surprise invasion of Iran, beginning the Second Iran-Iraq War.
President Bush feared that Iraq would facilitate the creation of a Soviet foothold in Iran, giving them control of the Persian Gulf and a near monopoly on oil supplies in Eurasia when considered with their alliances with the aforementioned oil producing nations. Thus even more military aid was poured into Iran as a part of the blueprint for rollback against communist influence drafted by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
In addition to operations in Cambodia, other covet support included the support of the Contras in Nicaragua, whose funding was prohibited by Congress in the the Moynihan Amendment. Bush nonetheless facilitated further CIA activities without the approval or knowledge of Congress (in direct violation of the Hughes-Ryan Act as the well Intelligence Supervision Act of 1981). Bush also supported UNITA in Angola in violation of the Clark Amendment, by using Israel as a proxy.
On April 7th 1987, the USS La Salle was damaged by Iraqi missiles, killing 46 people on board and injuring hundreds others. The Iraqi government claimed that this was a case of mistaken identity, but nonetheless it was used as a justification for Operation Serpent Strike, an amphibious assault on Iraqi assets by U.S. Naval forces beginning on April 11th of the same year.
These policies might have continued indefinitely if not for Celerino Castillo, who found out about the CIA's support of the Contras through his work for the DEA. He collected evidence of the illegal U.S. operations in Nicaragua before going to the press on May 30th 1987. President George Bush attempts to create a commission to investigate, but House Judiciary Committee Chairman Peter W. Rodino Jr. believed that as a former Director of Central Intelligence the President could not be given the benefit of the doubt in overseeing an internal review. On September 12th 1987, the Senate created a Select Committee. and called several high-ranking officials in the CIA to testify about their activities. After several legal hoops were jumped through and a series of fingers were pointed, the current Director of the CIA revealed the full extent of the rollback operations and several overlapping testimonies revealed that Bush had personally ordered the burning of several key documents in March 1988.
George H.W. Bush claimed that he had no involvement, and that the CIA was working almost independently. The public's lukewarm reception of him began to morph into hate, with such slogans as “Bush: Crook or Fool?” being spread across the media. Meanwhile, operations in Nicaragua, Angola and other locations came to screeching halts, while the covert funding of Afghan insurgents and the Iranian military continued because they both had Congressional knowledge and approval.
Bush feared that further investigation might endanger more operations and cause the removal of more agents, while an impeachment trial could drag down his supporters and his party. Thus, George H.W. Bush made this statement on June 16th 1988 “I believe that my colleagues always tried to do their best for this Nation. And in recognition of their patriotism, and the demands placed upon me to fulfill the will of the People, I shall resign as President tomorrow at noon. Although I did not do anything to betray your trust while serving you, I do not want you all to endure another long, drawn out trial for my own personal gain. I pray that the future of this country is as bright as the hope America gives the world”. Many political scientists would later see this resignation as too preemptive, but it was an effective attempt to save face for himself and his party.
Bob Dole thus became the 44th President of the United States on June 17th 1988. The Republican primaries were by the change, but he nonetheless won the nomination, as Jack Kemp became his running mate. Meanwhile, Michael Dukakis won the Democratic primaries, and chose Lloyd Bentsen to add to his ticket. Despite Contragate, Dole still consistently polled over Dukakis by a thin margin, which caused some political commentators to label Republicans the “Teflon Party”. In the debates, neither performed very well, and both were criticized for seeming passionless, “Bob Dull” in particular. On top of the disillusionment carried in by yet another Presidential scandal, voter turnout had dropped to 49.1% by the time of the elections (the lowest it had been since 1924, when voter turnout was at 48.9%).
In the end, Dukakis won Washington (10), Illinois (24), Pennsylvania (25), Maryland (10), Vermont (3), Wisconsin (11), Missouri (11), New York (36), Oregon (7), West Virginia (6), New Mexico (5), Connecticut (8), Minnesota (10), Massachusetts (13), Hawaii (4), D.C. (3), Iowa (8), New York (36), Rhode Island (4), West Virginia (6) and California (47) for a total of 287 Electoral College votes versus Dole, who received 251 votes across 30 states. Thus on January 20th 1989, Michael Dukakis became the 45th President of the United States.
Section V: The Dukakis Administration
The entire geopolitical situation that had been in place since the end of the second World War would soon be changing during the Dukakis administration. On January 28th 1989, the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan in accordance with Gorbachev's new foreign policy for the USSR (labeled the 'Sinatra Doctrine'). Gorbachev also ended Soviet support of Iraq which partially led to a United Nations mediated ceasefire on March 6th 1989, ending the Second Iran-Iraq War with borders status quo ante bellum. Most of Eastern Europe soon transitioned from Communism, the Berlin Wall fell, Germany was reunified and the Cold War was soon galloping towards an end (although not without a fight, as the Tiananmen Square protests showed).
In October 1990, President Dukakis and Gorbachev signed the Strategic Offensive Arms Reduction Treaty or the SOAR Treaty, while the United States helped to facilitate the ascendancy of the Soviet Union into the International Monetary Fund and other trade agreements. This rapprochement between the superpowers would come to a halt in August 17th 1991, when communist hardliners staged a coup d'etat of the USSR. The Russian White House was seized, while Boris Yeltsin was assassinated in Kazakhstan and Gorbachev was assassinated in Foros in the Crimea. Gennady Yanayev became acting President of the Soviet Union while the coup leaders formed the State Committee on the State of Emergency (the GKChP) who suspended the ratification of the New Union Treaty.
Masses of people congregated in front of the White House to protest the coup, while the Soviet Army began to disintegrate into two factions: one that supported the GKChP (the Communists), and the other that supported the martyred Yeltsin and Gorbachev (the Reformists).The GKChP expanded the scope of the Soviet Civil War on August 21st 1991 by issuing a three day ultimatum for the breakaway Soviet states to renounce independence, with an oblique threat of nuclear assault. This move backfired, as the remaining Soviet republics in Eastern Europe and the Caucus region signed the Minsk Declaration, which collectively invoked Article 72 of the 1977 Soviet Constitution to justify their independence. The threat of weapons of mass destruction also caused a desperate bombing of the Red Square by the Reformist forces, killing the Gang of Eight (along with many others as collateral) on August 22nd.
With the dissolution of the GKChP, the previous political order was partially restored by October 1991. The Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union convened to make amendments to the constitution. The Cabinet of Ministers was dissolved, and the offices of President and Premier for the Soviet Union were rendered defunct. Anatoly Lukyanov the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, becoming the new head of state for the USSR under the amended the constitution.
In the Middle East, the threat of an Iranian invasion loomed large on the mind of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The United States maintained a heavy harbor presence to bolster Iran and dissuade from an invasion, but Iraq interpreted this as preparations for a Third Iran-Iraq War with peace terms to be mediated by an internationally supported Iran. The Iraqi government thus continued to buildup its military, increasing Iraq's already tremendous debt to its neighbors in the Gulf. Prime among them was Kuwait, with which Iraq had slowly deteriorating relations with due to the former's overproduction of oil, which had consistently negative effects on the Iraqi economy. OPEC temporarily maintained peace by negotiating oil production controls to Iraq's favor, but an invasion was all but inevitable. On November 29th 1991, Iraq invaded Kuwait, earning international condemnation and sanctions mediated by the United Nations. This caused an oil prices spike, dealing a blow to the already weak economy and leading to the onset of a recession.
On January 30th 1992, Anatoly Lukyanov met with President Dukakis at Camp David, where the former confirmed that the Soviet Union would continue to seek peaceful coexistence with the United States as Gorbachev (who had since become a political martyr in the USSR) would have wanted. The terms of the SOAR Treaty and previous agreements, such as those eliminating missiles with intermediate range, were also confirmed to still be in effect by the new Soviet government. The Moscow-Washington Accords were thus drafted, an agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union to cease targeting each others' cities with pre-programmed nuclear weapons, while also banning MIRVs and ICBMs. Its bilateral ratification on March 16th 1992 is often seen by historians as the formal end of the Cold War.
On April 13th 1992, a United Nations Security Council issued a resolution for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait or be subject to a military intervention by June 9th. Dukakis acted in concert with the UN through an extensive arms sale to Saudi Arabia, which he hoped would deter an Iraqi invasion. Meanwhile, the U.S. was subject to a media blitz by Kuwait-backed lobbyists showcasing Iraqi human rights abuses, which helped sell the war on humanitarian grounds. As a last-ditch effort to convince Hussein to back down from Kuwait, Dukakis stationed U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia while building an international coalition to aid them. He also hoped to use the situation to build closer ties with the Soviet Union, who had condemned the invasion.
Lukyanov, faced with a large, struggling nation fresh from a civil war, did not want to compete with America for global dominance at the moment. In fact, many in the Soviet government had supported a policy of (provisionally) co-opting Western nations in order to peacefully accumulate political capital and recover international prestige lost in the violent break-up of 1991. Thus, the Soviet Union pledged support for the 'Grand Alliance', a term used by Dukakis for the Kuwait liberation coalition to invoke the Soviet-Western cooperation in World War II.
On June 8th, Congress approved a military intervention against Iraq, and two days later, an aerial bombing campaign opened the Gulf War. The liberation of Kuwait proved to be surprisingly quick with minimal causalities for the coalition forces, and by July 20th, Iraq was on the defensive. Military brass hoped to completely cripple the nation by supporting Shia and Kurdish rebels against Saddam's regime, so that the U.S. presence in Iran could be stepped down, allowing for more latitude in negotiations with its Sunni neighbors. This idea was personally shot down by Dukakis, who wished to avoid the war in the first place and feared plunging the United States into another Vietnam. Nonetheless, the Grand Alliance maintained forces in Saudi Arabia to enforce Iraqi no-fly zones and the terms of the cease fire.
In August, former Vice President Jack Kemp won the Republican primaries after strong competition from Pat Buchanan on economic policy. He chose Gordon Humpgrey as his running mate, and had a slight advantage due to the recession. However, Kemp could not surmount the incumbent President's foreign policy successes with the Soviet Union and Iraq which was bore out on election night, where Buchanan carried Mississippi (7), South Carolina (8), Alabama (9), Nebraska (5), Virginia (13), North Dakota (3), North Carolina (14), Utah (5), Oklahoma (8), Idaho (4), South Dakota (3), Wyoming (3), Alaska (3), Kansas (6), New Hampshire (4) and Arizona (8) for 103 Electoral College votes, allowing Dukakis a comfortable victory with 435 votes across 34 states (and D.C.).
In a speech made at the beginning of his second term, Dukakis pledged to “continue to pave the way for a safer America” through continued cooperation with the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, Dukakis had inadvertently made another deadly enemy for America during the Gulf War: global Jihadists. On top of supporting Israel, Iran, the Soviet Union and then maintaining a military presence near the holiest sites of Islam in Saudi Arabia, the United States had become the subject to animosity from many Sunni extremists. In 1993, key operatives from Jihadist groups arrived in America.
The Yugoslav Wars also raged on, as the federation began to fall apart. The Soviet Union had been estranged from Yugoslavia for decades, but they feared that the conflict promoted ethnic succession, indirectly threatening the structural integrity of the USSR. Many Russians supported an intervention in favor of the Serbs, but a direct Soviet intervention would not be supported by the Central Asian constituents of the USSR. Thus covert support of the Serbians by Russian soldiers began, which turned the Bosnian War in favor of the Republika Srpska, the Republic of Serbian Krajina, the Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia, and Yugoslavia proper. The Soviet Union and the United States (along with the United Kingdom and France) formally stepped in 1994 to mediate an agreement that ended with the mutual recognition of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (unifying Serbian held territory), Slovenia, Croatia, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Republic of Macedonia. This was popularly received in the USSR as a step forward for international reconciliation with old enemies, but Serbian war crimes remained a point of international contention.
Meanwhile, a plot to bomb the World Trade Center suffered a setback, as the main conspirators Ramzi Yousef and Mohammed Salameh died in a car crash due to the latter's driving inexperience. The plan would soon be scuttled entirely on April 12th 1994, when a small stolen plane clipped the White House, damaging the East Wing, killing three people and injuring sixteen more. It's wide coverage in the media convinced Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (or KSM) to crash hijacked planes into American buildings instead of bombing them. A team of operatives in the United States were assembled, consisting of El Sayyid Nosair, Mahmud Abouhalima, Eyad Ismoil, Wadih el-Hage, Ahmad Ajaj, and Abdul Hakim Murad, who had already received a commercial pilot's license in 1992. After more grandiose plots were shot down by Osama bin Laden, KSM settled on a plan to hijack two planes: one to hit the North Tower of the WTC (which would then topple over into the South Tower, destroying them both) and one to hit to the CIA headquarters in Langley. Another pilot fresh from the Bosnia jihad named Nadeem Hodžić came in November 1994 to complete the team. During the same month, the Republicans took up a majority of seats in Congress, due in part to Dukakis' consistent and controversial vetoing of conservative legislation no matter its popularity, such as an attempt at welfare reform. With a majority capable of overriding presidential vetoes, legislation like the Martial Sanctity Preservation Act (MSPA) were passed.
On March 13th 1995 at 1:32pm, the North Tower was hit by a hijacked commercial airplane, and four minutes later it was broadcast live to a stunned American public. Evacuating the World Trade Center proved to be chaotic, as 90% of the people in the North Tower had never evacuated before, along with 88% in the South Tower. Almost a quarter of the people in both buildings had not received training prior to the incident, and more had been given the impression that further instructions would be provided in the event of an emergency. 76 minutes after the collision, the North Tower collapsed at 2:48pm, which sped up evacuation efforts of the entire WTC. Because the North Tower was subject to a total progressive collapse, it did not topple over as had been hoped by the hijackers. Nonetheless, the damage incurred by the surrounding building due to its destruction would ensure that all of the buildings in the WTC plaza could not be used again. At 3:03pm, the second plane crashed into the CIA headquarters, immediately destroying it and killing almost everyone inside. Civilian airspace was shut down, and many buildings were evacuated including the Capitol building and the White House. Dukakis remained long enough to issue an address to the nation at 3:29pm, where he pledged to bring those responsible to justice. At the end of the day, a combined total of 4693 people died, while a lone tower was without peer in the Manhattan skyline, obscured only by a plume of smog from the smoldering crater next to it.
The perpetrators of the attacks were soon determined, and Osama bin Laden was pinned as the planner and financier. He was riding in Sudan at the time, which was designated a state sponsor of terrorism just a year before. Dukakis demanded for Sudan to extradite Osama bin Laden along with Abu Nidal and Carlos the Jackal, other wanted terrorists residing in Khartoum. Omar al-Bashir demanded more evidence for bin Laden's involvement in the 3-13 attacks, and refused to cooperate in the release of anyone other than those who engaged in them.
The largely Republican Congress passed the Authorization of Military Force Against Jihadists on March 15th, as Dukakis met with other heads of state that made up the coalition during the Gulf War, and confirmed their support in a military intervention against Sudan. The Soviet Union was motivated in particular, as they had also been targeted by jihadists due to their invasion of Afghanistan and their role in the Yugoslav Wars.
The Grand Alliance thus intervened in Sudan on April 9th 1995 with the bombing of Khartoum, which began the Sudanese War. Many of the people wanted by the coalition were captured or killed in the ensuing battles, while numerous terrorist training camps were destroyed. South Sudanese military organizations saw this as an opportunity to go on the offensive, hoping to end the Second Sudanese Civil War in their favor while the northern government's army was dealing with the Grand Alliance. A settlement was reached in July 1995, wherein Sudan would be partitioned into two nations: North Sudan and South Sudan, while Darfur would be an autonomous region of the latter with the constitutional right to secede following a national referendum in favor of doing so. International military forces from the United States, Soviet Union, United Kingdom and France remained to facilitate elections and enforce the terms of the peace agreement.
Within the United States, major changes were occurring as well, most crucially the Safeguarding America Act of 1995, which expanded the government's ability to gather information and detain suspects of terrorism. In October 1995, the Department of Domestic Security was created, which was charged with protecting the United States from terrorist attacks, while the travel industry was almost completely reformed in the wake of 3-13. The uninhabitable South Tower, partially covered in plastic wrap and floodlit at night, would have to be brought down as soon as possible so it would not collapse later, along with many of the other building still standing. Attempts to tear it down were met with public outcry, and some tried to personally obstruct the demolition team. These efforts were ultimately futile, and by 1996, the World Trade Center complex had no standing structures remaining within it.
The election cycle of 1996 would revolve primarily around security. To the surprise of many, Vice President Lloyd Bentsen declined to run in the Democratic primaries. Mario Cuomo easily won the nomination after announcing his candidacy, and selected Al Gore as his running mate. In the Republican primaries, Colin Powell dominated, and chose Phil Gramm as his running mate after winning the nomination. Both Powell and Cuomo focused on security in the wake of 3-13, and in the debates neither one lost much ground.
Cuomo's most famous remarks about his platform came in the final Presidential debate on October 16th, where he said: “Because Republicans were in charge of most levels of government when the March 13th attacks occurred, they were the ones to respond with a blizzard of activity in Congress, not all of it helpful. In addition to the creation of a yet another bureaucracy, Republicans have led the enactment of dubious new federal powers to detain and interrogate American citizens without indictment or counsel. Instead of taking steps to make this country more secure, Republicans have cynically exploited the fear caused by 3-13 to deal a serious toll to our core value: freedom.” Powell defused the argument by noting that the Safeguarding America Act had bipartisan support and was approved by a Democratic President, before shifting the topic to foreign affairs.
On the topic Cuomo said, “We have not been effectively questioning the rationale behind involving ourselves in wars abroad, and furthermore, it seems that we have forgotten how to use diplomacy to resolve disputes between ourselves and other nations. Is it really a coincidence that we were subject to the worst terrorist attack in the history of the United States just three years after the Gulf War? If people like General Powell continue to force us to reap the seeds of resentment sewn by these escapades, I will continue to oppose them.”
Powell responded, “There is nothing in American experience or in American political life or in our culture that suggests we want to use our military power. But what we have found over the decades is that unless you do have military power, you are sometimes faced with situations that you can't deal with. I mean, it was not diplomacy that freed Europe. It was military power. And I don't believe that we've been 'sowing seeds of resentment' abroad. In fact, we have sent men and women from the armed forces of the United States to other parts of the world throughout the past century to put down oppression. We did not come as conquerors, but liberators. We built them up. We gave them democratic systems which they have embraced totally to their soul. And did we ask for any land? No, the only land we ever asked for was enough land to bury our dead. So our record of living our values and letting our values be an inspiration to others is clear. And so I don't think I have anything to be ashamed of or apologize for with respect to what America has done for the world. When diplomacy or talking with evil will not work, unfortunately, military power is the only thing that works. As we speak, the Memorial Tower still stands. And if I attain the office of President, I will do everything in my power to keep it that way.”
On November 5th 1996, the close race came to an end. Cuomo carried California (54), Connecticut (8), Delaware (3), D.C. (3), Hawaii (4), Illinois (22), Maine (4), Maryland (10), Massachusetts (12), Michigan (18), Minnesota (10), New Hampshire (4), New Jersey (15), New York (33), Oregon (7), Pennsylvania (23), Rhode Island (4), Vermont (3), Washington (11) and Wisconsin (11). Powell took Alabama (9), Alaska (3), Arizona (8), Arkansas (6), Colorado (8), Florida (25), Georgia (13), Idaho (4), Indiana (12), Iowa (7), Kansas (6), Kentucky (8), Louisiana (9), Mississippi (7), Missouri (11), Montana (3), Nebraska (5), Nevada (4), New Mexico (5), North Carolina (14), North Dakota (3), Ohio (21), Oklahoma (8), South Carolina (8), South Dakota (3), Tennessee (11), Texas (32), Utah (5), Virginia (13), West Virginia (5), and Wyoming (3). Cuomo thus finished with a respectable 259 electoral college votes, while Powell won with 279 votes.
Thus on January 20th 1997, Colin Powell became the 46th President of the United States. In addition to being the highest ranking military official to hold the presidency since Eisenhower, Powell was also the first black President, which drew a lot of attention from the media both in the states and abroad. During his inaugural address, Powell said, “Leadership is the act of achieving more than the science of management says is possible. And in my administration, we will achieve excellence not as an exception, but as a prevailing attitude.”
Section VI: The Powell Administration
The primary difference between the Powell Administration and the Dukakis Administration was that the latter's foreign policy was driven by liberal internationalism, wherein intervention could be justified if it could contribute to progress of democracy around the world. In contrast, Powell Doctrine called for military involvement only when it was in the nation's best interest, and in line with policy the President ordered U.S. soldiers to withdraw from Saudi Arabia on June 27th 1997. Some conservatives blasted this move as caving to terrorist demands, and liberals feared that Saddam Hussein would lead a genocide against the Kurdish and Shi'ite peoples without a U.S. presence. Powell responded to these criticisms by noting that the rest of the Grand Alliance would continue to enforce the Iraqi no-fly zone in the south, while the United States would create a new one in the north, based from the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. Powell also pledged to intervene militarily if the regime oppressed its ethnic minorities, pursuant to United Nations Resolution 692. The Iraqi Liberty Protection Act of 1997, passed with large bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress, supported this promise by stating that “It should be the policy of the Untied States to support efforts to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power if the Government of Iraq is in unacceptable breach of its international obligations”.
Powell also helped to organize the United Nations Assistance Mission in North Sudan, United Nations Assistance Mission in South Sudan, and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Darfur. The UNAMINS, UNAMISS, and UNAMID were tasked with the facilitation of the peace process after the Sudanese War and the creation of crucial governmental institutions. The UN missions would also take pressure off of the United States to 'nation-build'.
Back in the homeland, President Powell unveiled the Civilian Airspace Defense Initiative (CADI) on March 13th 1998. CADI was a plan to implement National Advanced Surface to Air Missile System (NASAMS) installations on the roofs of the Empire State Building, the White House, the Pentagon, the Sears Tower, the U.S. Bank Tower, the Columbia Center and the Texas Commerce Tower to secure the airspaces of Washington D.C., Arlington County, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle and Houston respectively. Combined, the program would cost nearly half a billion dollars, not including the extra security to be included for each building. CADI was thus met with very vocal criticism from both sides of the political spectrum, as it either covered too much or too little, and some believed that it demonstrated a lack of faith in Department of Domestic Security to ensure that attacks like 3-13 won't happen again. People were also concerned about bringing such powerful weapons into their cities, and feared that the NASAMS would be hijacked by the very terrorists it sought to counter. In the end, a scaled back version of CADI would be implemented for the Pentagon and the White House.
On June 1998, the uneasy peace in Yugoslavia began to show its cracks when the Kosovo Liberation Army began attacking police stations, schools, post offices and Yugoslav political officials. The KLA also incited mobs to destroy homes, desecrate Orthodox churches and murder Kosovo Serbians. A severe military crackdown and incidents of retaliatory ethnic violence against Kosovo Albanians followed afterward, and the KLA were labeled terrorists by the mass media. In February 1999, a United Nations resolution authorizing willing and able nations (most prominently, the Soviet Union) to aid the Federation of Yugoslavia maintain its territorial integrity and domestic security. The United States also committed volunteers to dispel fears of a 'Soviet occupation in Yugoslavia'.
Back in the Middle East, Palestine and Israel had begun to clash again after more failed negotiations for a peace settlement. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad recognizing the consequences of 3-13, hoped to force the United States into alienating its Arab allies by encouraging a direct military intervention in favor of Israel. Thus on December 31st 1999, the United States Embassy in Tel-Aviv was bombed, killing 194 people and injuring many more.
President Powell reacted to the Millennial Embassy Bombing by announcing that a new United States Embassy will be built in West Jerusalem as the Jerusalem Embassy Act had called for, while stepping up arm sales to Israel in a show of solidarity. CIA agents in cooperation with Mossad were also tasked to determine who was responsible for the attacks and apprehend them. However, Powell forewent direct military involvement, stating, “I will not let terrorists dictate the policy of this nation, and in doing so the United States will continue to seek a peaceful resolution to the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians”.
Despite this, neoconservatives were soon clamoring for the United States to intervene in the Second Intifada, narrowly passing the Authorization for Use of Military Force in Israel Act of 2000. President Powell vetoed the bill, and made what he believed to be an off-record comment in calling the neocons who pushed for the passage of the bill 'fucking crazies'. This gaffe would hurt Powell going into the Republican primaries, as Speaker of the House Dick Cheney entered the field.
Dick Cheney served as the House Minority Whip from 1989 to 1995, before becoming Speaker of the House during the Republican Revolution and had remained in that position ever since. Cheney had been a vocal critic of Powell, and backed his bid with finances from Coors Brewery (headed by Joseph Coors, co-founder of the influential Heritage Foundation conservative think tank). Cheney made abortion a key issue, lambasting Powell for his pro-choice views, which soon garnered him the support of the Christian Coalition. He also frequently appeared with Lynne Cheney, and often mentioned that they had been married since 1964. This was in contrast to Powell, who divorced his wife Alma Powell in 1996, shortly before seeking the presidency. Cheney alleged that this was because Powell felt he was 'too good' for Alma if he were to become President, even though the real reason was mutual concern for each other. Nonetheless, Cheney lost the Republican Party nomination to Powell after a very close race, due in part to fear of the 'Reagan Curse'.
The Democratic primaries were slightly less lively, as Al Gore cautiously sat out the election against the well-liked incumbent President and Bill Bradley filled in the vacuum as a liberal alternative to Powell's centrist platform, and went on to win the nomination. Bradley then chose New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen as his running mate, the first woman to be a candidate for Vice President, drawing some attention to his campaign. Despite this, Powell was re-elected by a fair margin on November 6th 2000, with 292 votes from Alabama (9), Alaska (3), Arizona (8), Arkansas (6), Colorado (8), Florida (25), Georgia (13), Idaho (4), Indiana (12), Iowa (7), Kansas (6), Kentucky (8), Louisiana (9), Mississippi (7), Missouri (11) Montana (3), Nebraska (5), Nevada (4), New Mexico (5), North Carolina (14), North Dakota (3), Ohio (21), Oklahoma (8), South Carolina (8), South Dakota (3), Tennessee (11), Texas (32), Utah (5), Virginia (13), West Virginia (5), Wisconsin (11), and Wyoming (3), while the Bradley/Shaheen ticket earned 242 Electoral College votes.
Powell's second term would see some well-supported bills like a new round of tax cuts and education reform based on national standards of achievement, as well as more controversial proposals, with the Military Anti-Discrimination Act (MADA) in the July of 2001. MADA would prohibit the expulsion and harassment of LGBT service members, along with a blanket condemnation of preexisting discrimination based on race or gender. Dukakis had rejected such proposals during his term as President, believing that the generals policies already in force were sufficient, while Powell delayed the initiative until after he won his second term. For MADA, Powell was accused of being a Republican-in-Name-Only, and the measure only passed through Congress due to the Advocacy Clause, which stated that “the iconography of the U.S. Armed Forces and related organizations will not be used to co-opt or advance a homosexual agenda [...] while [the individual] is still in service”. The precise meaning of this was unclear, but most officials interpreted it as a requirement to be closeted while wearing military uniform and in service, or while acting as a representative of the United States military in other nations. Powell also came under fire for creating the Global Initiative for the Relief of ISIS (GIRI) in December 2001.
Attention from domestic issues would be temporarily diverted by events in the Soviet Union. During the Soviet Civil War, the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic attempted to declare independence, or at least half of it did, and under the leadership of Dzokhar Dudayev, the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria ratified the Minsk Declaration. However, the Supreme Soviet did not recognize their ability to invoke Article 72 because they were technically part of the Russian SFSR. However, they did provide leniency to Dudayev's administration because he ousted Doku Zavgayev, who had supported the GKChP during the civil war. Dudayev held the position of President until April 5th 2002, when he died under mysterious circumstances. He was succeeded by his Vice President, Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. Yandarbiyev indirectly organized an invasion of the neighboring dependent republic of Dagestan to 'liberate' them from the Soviet Union and lead the way for more breakaway regions of the Caucasus. The invading forces met strong local opposition before the Soviet military intervened and completely halted their advances with a barrage of artillery strikes.
This all culminated in the Moscow Bombings, between February 10th 2003 and February 13th 2003. On February 10th the V.I. Lenin Museum was destroyed by a car bomb while the Moscow Metro was bombed twice (on February 10th and February 12th), before a passenger plane from the Domodedovo International Airport exploded mid-flight (on February 13th). The amount of causalities was never disclosed, but Moscow's public transportation was almost completely shut down by the military.
The Soviet-Chechen War began shortly afterward with aerial bombardments of Chechen cities on February 16th 2003, incurring numerous civilian causalities. By late March, the financers and primary planners of the Moscow Bombings were determined to be Al-Qaeda operatives seeking refuge in Afghanistan under the Taliban government. Supreme Soviet Chairman Anatoly Lukyanov did not want to invoke the memory of the Soviet War in Afghanistan with a ground invasion, and thus launched several cruise missiles at Afghan terrorist training camps, while stepping up covert arms sales to the United Salvation Front, the faction leading the struggle against the Taliban in the Afghan Civil War. Chairman Lukyanov met with President Powell and proposed that the United States lead the Grand Alliance into Afghanistan to oust the Taliban and Al-Qaeda like they had in the Sudanese War. Powell rejected the plan because he believed that it would be ultimately counter to U.S. interests, but pledged that he would meet the Soviet efforts to aid the United Salvation Front.
On March 3rd 2004, groundbreaking began for the new World Trade Center complex, where President Powell gave one of his last major speeches. “A new generation is coming, both in America and in the world at large. They will face challenges, and although they may sometimes fail in meeting them, I look forward to seeing what they will be able to achieve”. The rest of the year would be a mixed bag of reception for Powell, as he vetoed the divisive Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act in May, but signed into law the more widely supported Energy Independence Act (which provided incentives for domestic oil drilling) in August.
As Powell had served two terms as President, the 2004 Republican primaries were without an incumbent. The early favorite was Vice President Phil Gramm, but to the surprise of some, Cheney entered the ring yet again. After his 2000 nomination bid he had decided to take a sabbatical from politics by going into the private sector, where he soon became CEO and President of the Halliburton company. Despite Gramm's initial popularity, Cheney soon won the nomination, and confirmed Virginia Governor George Allen as his running mate. The Democratic primaries were slightly less lively, as Al Gore won the nomination by a comfortable margin and selected John Kerry as his running mate without much serious competition. Gore hoped to focus on domestic policy, bringing environmental issues and education to the fore, which he believed to be the primary weaknesses of the Republican platform. “Progress to the Future” became their slogan, with the hope of appealing to centrists and moderates.
In the first debates, Gore dominated, but both soon found their way into the public imagination. Cheney's tendency to lean forward, steeple his hands and talk in a low, gravely voice drew comparisons to the Emperor from Star Wars, while Gore was portrayed as a condescending intellectual, sighing frequently and speaking in a slow, deliberate fashion. After a drop in the polls, Cheney became more desperate to defeat Gore in the debate by any means possible. His campaign manager thus bribed a member in Gore's team for inside information, and received a cache of debating notes. With help of these, Cheney put Gore on the defensive with carefully meted rhetoric and deadpan humor, matching Gore for debating victories.
When election night came on November 2nd, 2004, Gore carried California (55), Connecticut (7), Delaware (3), D.C. (3), Illinois (21), Iowa (7), Maine (4), Maryland (10), Massachusetts (12), Michigan (17), Minnesota (6), New Hampshire (4) New Jersey (15), New Mexico (5), New York (31), Oregon (7), Pennsylvania (21), Rhode Island (4), Vermont (3), Washington (11), and Wisconsin (10) while Cheney took Alabama (9), Alaska (3), Arizona (10), Arkansas (6), Colorado (9), Florida (27), Georgia (15), Idaho (4), Indiana (11), Kansas (6), Kentucky (8), Louisiana (9), Mississippi (6), Missouri (11), Montana (3), Nebraska (5), Nevada (5), North Carolina (15), North Dakota (3), Ohio (20), Oklahoma (7), South Carolina (8), South Dakota (3), Tennessee (11), Texas (34), Utah (5), Virginia (11), West Virginia (5) and Wyoming (3). The grand total for Gore was 256 Electoral College votes, compared to Cheney's winning total of 272 votes.
Section VII: The Cheney Administration
Thus on January 20th 2005, Richard Bruce “Dick” Cheney became the 47th President of the United States. Shortly after taking office, Cheney was immediately faced with an international crisis. On March 3rd 2005, a U.S. warplane was shot down by an Iraqi anti-aircraft gun while conducting a sortie for Operation Northern Watch. The public was further enraged when Saddam Hussein gave a $15,000 reward to the ones responsible. Cheney declared, “I don't believe I am alone in seeing this as a declaration of war”. In a later speech he warned that, “Our latest intelligence suggests that Saddam Hussein is seeking to acquire or has acquired weapons of mass destruction […] nuclear, biological or chemical in nature […]”.
On June 25th, anthrax-laced letters were mailed to the White House, Dukakis' current residency, and several U.S. Congress members with reputations as war hawks. They contained no message other than a printed painting of a U.S. flag with skulls replacing the stars, and blood trailing from the stripes. Cheney claimed in a national address to the American public that these were proof that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, and on July 22nd, the Authorization for Use of Military Force in Iraq Resolution of 2005 was passed, citing the Iraqi Liberty Protection Act of 1997 as a justification along with several United Nations resolutions prohibiting Iraq from possessing weapons of mass destruction. Without securing international cooperation from the nations of the Grand Alliance (save the United Kingdom) or approval from the United Nations, the United States invaded Iraq on July 26th 2005. Chairman Lukyanov pledged to keep the Soviet Union out of the conflict, as the Untied States did not support an invasion of Afghanistan.
The bloodshed abroad would soon be seen at home, and on September 4th 2005, when Hurricane Maria struck from the Gulf of Mexico. This category five hurricane most devastatingly made land fall in the Texas Coastal Bend, directly hitting Houston. Hundreds died, thousands were rendered homeless and billions of damage was caused. Nearly 23% of all U.S. refining capacity was crippled as numerous refineries were damaged or completely destroyed. Oil prices soared, also spawning an automotive industry crisis. Panic buying pushed the price of gas to as high as $4-$7/gallon.
President Cheney hoped to divert attention from the domestic situation by declaring that, “the United States has removed Saddam Hussein's regime from power. The liberation of Iraq has been achieved” on September 8th, after the fall of Baghdad. With the domestic crisis on his hands, President Cheney wanted to minimize the amount of work that the provisional government had to do. Although the Ba'ath Party was formally prohibited and many of its high-ranking administrators were barred from holding public office, most middle level bureaucrats working in schools, hospitals, and other essential, largely apolitical institutions were kept on board, while tribal leaders were encouraged to police their own streets where they were viewed as authorities. And while the Republican Guard was disbanded, the Iraqi Army was retained under the supervision of the occupying forces. On February 22nd 2006, Saddam Hussein was found by the U.S. military, and was handed over to the reformed Iraqi government for trial.
On August 18th 2006, the University of Akron was subject to one of the worst school shootings in recent memory with 22 dead, not including the perpetrator, who killed himself. Any efforts to pass gun control laws failed before it even reached the House floor, while President Powell maintained that “the events in Akron were tragic, and although the hearts of myself and my family are with the victims of this heinous crime, I maintain that infringing upon our constitutional right to bear arms is not a way to prevent things like this from happening. That's something only a loving family and a caring community can accomplish”. The family of the shooters and the people of Akron reacted negatively to this speech, believing that Cheney was blaming them for the shootings. Their dissatisfaction made rounds in the media, and in the 2006 midterm elections, the Democratic Party gained seats in Congress largely because of the public's dissatisfaction with President Cheney. His approval ratings would drop even further when the subprime mortgage crisis began in 2007, which would be a part of chain leading to a sharp market downturn.
In Iraq, a new constitution had been approved by voters, but a wave of insurgencies threatened to destroy the shaky government that was in place. Prime Minister Abdul Sattar Abu Risha and the Iraq Army were key parts in preventing the sectarian violence from flaring up into a civil war. Nonetheless, causalities remained high for U.S. soldiers due to sporadic bombings and shootings, and many people both in Iraq and the United States called for a withdrawal. In November 2007, a story broke to the press alleging that Cheney used debating notes from Gore to win the last debates. This was confirmed by the former senior manager of his election staff, but Cheney denied that he knew anything about the use of Gore's notes. Notegate quickly plunged Cheney's already low approval ratings to levels not seen since the Agnew administration.
On January 2nd, a day before the first Republican primary caucus, Cheney announced that he would not be seeking a second term. The last incumbent President that decided not to seek re-election was Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968. The 2008 election cycle would thus see fresh faces from both parties. For the Republicans the nomination went to William James “Bill” Miller, a fifty-four year old Lt. Commander in the United Naval Reserve that served in the Gulf War, before going onto to hold the office of Senator for his home state of Virginia in 1994. Bill Miller had a reputation as a maverick, often voting against popular bipartisan legislation if it offends his principles, including one of the few dissenting votes for the Safeguarding America Act of 1995. He opposes income tax, interventionism in foreign policy, affirmative action, environmentalist legislation, federal regulation of abortion, gun control and the current welfare model. His support of '2nd amendment rights' were prominently featured in his 2007 book Liberty's Teeth, from a quotation by George Washington stressing the importance of firearms. Indiana Governor Logan Wallace was selected as his running mate.
In the Democratic primaries, sixty-eight year old Gloria Santos narrowly succeeded in gaining the presidential bid. Gloria Santos is an alumna of Yale Law School that served as the Attorney General for Florida from 1983 to 1990, before she was appointed United States Attorney General during the Dukakis administration from 1991 to 1997. She then went onto become Governor of Florida in 2002, beginning her second term in 2007. She supports labor unions and immigration, while opposing the death penalty and the Advocacy Clause of MADA. She also pledged to ratify the United Nations Convention on Disabled People's Rights and the Toronto Treaty (an international agreement on the regulation of anthropogenic climate change). She drew some criticism from those in her party for her opposition to same sex marriage (in favor of civil unions for everyone on a federal level, leaving marriage laws to the states) abortion (although she supports embryonic stem cell research), and for her support of abstinence-only sex education. Her foreign policy also favored military intervention for humanitarian ends, if done with international support (in contrast to the on-going Iraq War). California Senator Ellis Price was the runner-up in the primaries, and was thus placed on her ticket.
The partial inversion of traditional party positions on social issues and foreign policy were not thought important in the primaries due to the focus on the recession, as both candidates had radically conservative and liberal economic views respectively. However, Santos would soon make strange bedfellows with the Christian Coalition, Focus on the Family, and other evangelical political groups. She also had popularity with Latino voters, despite being a Filipino-American, which was the reason some right-wing radio personalities and talk show hosts alleged that she was not a natural-born citizen. These rumors didn't gain much traction because of her parents' consistent residency in Jacksonville, Florida. Finally, some alleged that she was hoping to subvert the government of the United States on behalf of the Pope because she was Roman Catholic.
Many of the worst rumors weren't touched upon by Bill Miller himself, but his running mater Logan Wallace frequently pushed them into the headlines. This backfired somewhat, as Santos began to look like a more principled opponent in comparison. Attention was drawn to meatier issues aside from the recession when Saddam Hussein was execution on August 12th 2008, after a long and drawn out trial process. Santos supported the organization of a United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq to aid in the struggling reconstruction, while helping to restore international relations between the Iraqi government and the rest of the world. In contrast, Miller believed that the United States should just leave Iraq without 'holding its hand', and criticized the U.S.'s history of postwar reconstruction.
Miller's weren't widely supported, but his numbers stayed high in the polls. This was due in part to the new methods of grassroots funding through the internet that Miller pioneered. Miller also gained young supporters through his witty humor and familiarity with pop culture, often making appearances on comedic talk shows and comic books. In contrast, Santos came across as old-fashioned, especially in her criticisms of violence and sexuality in movies, television and video games as well as obscene language in music. At a rally in Ohio, Miller said the subsequently popular line “She puts the 'nanny' in 'nanny state'”.
On September 15th 2008, the FBI announced that they had found the sender of the anthrax letters: Dennis Cote, a well-respected virologist and biodefense researcher working for the United States. He soon became the subject of conspiracy theories, alleging that Cheney had used Cote to generate support for the Iraq War. Nonetheless, it caused Gloria Santos to gain some momentum in the mainstream media, and when it came time for the debates, Santos decisively defeated Miller in every single one, largely because of more than two and half decades of experience as a very high-profile lawyer.
On election night, Bill Miller won the states of Alaska (9), Alabama (3), Arizona (10), Arkansas (6), Georgia (15), Idaho (4), Indiana (11), Kansas (6), Kentucky (8), Louisiana (9), Mississippi (6), Nebraska (5), North Dakota (3), Oklahoma (7), South Carolina (8), South Dakota (3), Tennessee (11), Texas (34), Utah (5), Virginia (13), West Virginia (5) and Wyoming (3). Gloria Santos carried California (55), Colorado (9), Connecticut (7), Delaware (3), the District of Columbia (3), Florida (27), Hawaii (4), Illinois (21), Maine (4), Maryland (10), Massachusetts (12), Michigan (17), Minnesota (10), Missouri (11), Nevada (5), New Hampshire (4), New Jersey (15), New Mexico (5), New York (31), North Carolina (15), Ohio (20), Oregon (7), Pennsylvania (21), Rhode Island (4), Vermont (3), Washington (11) and Wisconsin (10). With a vote total of 354 to 184, Gloria Santos thus became the 48th President of the United States on January 20th, 2009.
Section VIII: The Santos Administration
President Gloria Santos was notable in several ways coming into office. In addition to being the first woman and the first Filipino-American to hold the office of President, she was also the oldest. having been born May 23rd 1939. With the help of a Democratic Congress, she was also able to accomplish most of her campaign promises in a short amount of time. Her first set of major legislation was the Phoenix Program, a series of bills signed into law from February to April to help combat the recession. Effects of the Phoenix Program include: ending the Powell-Cheney Tax Cuts for those making more than $300,000 a year, instituting a minimum effective tax rate of 30% on households earning at least a million dollars, ending the production of the penny, raising the federal minimum wage, and increasing federal spending in education, infrastructure, and alternative energy.
In Iraq, Santos ordered the immediate withdrawal of private military contractors by executive order in May 2009, while implanting a plan for the gradual reduction of U.S. troops over the next few years. Santos then went onto approve the Free Speech in the Military Amendment, which effectively repealed the Advocacy Clause of the Military Anti-Discrimination Act in July 9th 2009 and enacted the Victims of Hate Crime Inclusive Recognition Act, which extended federal hate crime laws to include LGBT people on November 20th 2009.
On March 2010, Santos visited the heads of state in Morocco, Tunisia and other near eastern allies of the U.S. to coordinate the creation of the Arab Cooperative Initiative for Reconstruction (ACIR). The ACIR is a bottom-up international initiative headquartered in Cairo to assist Iraq in maintaining domestic stability by investing in local businesses and pledging a total of up to 18,000 armed personnel to aid the Iraq Army when requested (from Egypt and member states from Maghreb). ACIR would also facilitate the re-establishment of Iraq's embassies and diplomatic relationships with the world at large.
These apparent foreign policy successes would soon be offset by a radical change in the Soviet Union. On May 9th 2010, Chairman Lukyanov was assassinated during the Moscow Victory Parade by an Al-Qaeda sniper quickly found and brought in by the Soviet Military. Deputy Chairman Nikolai Pavlov soon became the head of state of the USSR. Through torture of the apprehended assassin, it was determined that the plot was directly organized by the Taliban to disrupt Soviet support of the United Salvation Front by destabilizing internal politics.
Chairman Pavlov used this as a springboard for United Nations Security Council Resolution 1923 on May 24th 2010, approving an international coalition to intervene militarily in Afghanistan as they were 'state sponsors of terrorism'. United Nations Council Resolution 1924 mandated that the United Nations flag would be used in lieu of most national flags, and that the assembled military coalition would be called the United Nations Interim Force in Afghanistan (UNIFA). This was a plan by Chairman Pavlov to distance his country from the Soviet War in Afghanistan, and he thus pitched the conflict as an international intervention into the already on-going Afghan Civil War. He gained broad support from other nations because of three factors: (1) the fact that the Untied Salvation Front had already been supported by everyone from India to Iran (2) the global struggle with Al-Qaeda operatives trained and financed from Afghanistan and (3) the Taliban's extremely poor human rights record.
President Santos did not condemn UNIFA, nor did she lead the United States in contributing personnel to it, which reflected the public's ambivalence towards the conflict. Most of the legislation she helped get through for the rest of 2010 were free trade arguments, with the exception of the Comprehensive Penal Reform Act in October 7th. On March 21st of the following year, Santos signed into law the Federal Firearms Regulation Act of 2011, which instituted a ban on 'war guns', 'armor-resistant rounds', and requirement for background checks on all gun sales. The FFRA was sharply criticized in conservative media, especially by Bill Miller, who attained his own talk show distributed through radio, television, and the internet following his campaign for the presidency.
On October 21st 2011, the First Use Ban Agreement (or the Preemptive Nuclear Assault Prohibition Treaty) was launched by Chairman Pavlov, leading the Soviet Union as the first nation to sign it. As the name suggests, the FUBA is an international convention to codify the no first use policy (understood to mean that no weapons of mass destruction would be used unless a threat of similar caliber has been identified beyond a reasonable doubt e.g. by radar or other means of direct identification).
Almost all nations without nuclear weapons that had ratified the NPT also ratified this treaty, along with the People's Republic of China and India. Those who did not sign it include the Untied Kingdom, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Israel, Pakistan, and North Korea. President Santos introduced the FUBA to the Senate in November, but it failed to pass. On December 10th, Chairman Pavlov received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the FUBA.
2012 would be a year almost completely dominated by the presidential election, more so than usual because of the aggressive campaigning. Unsurprisingly, Gloria Santos easily won the nomination of the Democratic Party. The Republican Party had a wider array of candidates, not including Bill Miller. Miller had announced his candidacy as a third party candidate for the Freedom Party, whose platform was largely dictated by the personal nuances of his political opinions. Indiana Governor Logan Wallace stepped into fill the vacuum, and soon became the dark horse against the presumed nominee, Texas Representative Wayne Paxton, who became his running mate.
Wallace is strongly opposed to socialism,and nations that have socialist economic policies. He's wary of the Soviet intervention in the Afghan Civil War, and believes that the United Nations is a communist tool to achieve a stateless society (or in his own words, anarchy), and he believes that the FUBA was primarily created by the Soviet Union to make the United States look bad. If elected, Wallace hopes to withdraw from the United Nations, roll back social entitlement programs, teach 'chosen progression theory' in public schools and end affirmative action, if possible. Wallace was selected primarily because of the in-party belief that Bill Miller was too moderate on social issues, and thus lost conservative Evangelical Christian voters to Gloria Santos.
This would become critical when on July 24th 2012, the Supreme Court made one of their most controversial rulings in the case Aguirre v. Bates, which found that trans people's ability to change their gender markers on legals documents cannot be prohibited or hindered by the state, interpreting such barriers as a violation of the freedom of expression guaranteed by the 1st Amendment, and as well as an abridgment of rights on the basis of sex, a violation of the 27th Amendment. Wallace voiced much of the opposition to this ruling by stating that judge should not be driven by an agenda or “legislate from the bench”, and that decisions like Aguirre v. Bates or Roe v. Wade should be subject to a national referendum before going into effect. Santos opposed this, believing that this would cause a corrosive political influence on the Supreme Court, and this would be contrary to what the framers of the constitution intended in her opinion. Other topics discussed during election were the timetable for withdraw of soldiers in Iraq, student loans, economic inequity and whether or not Santos was too old to continue the presidency at 73 years of age.
Like Miller, Santos dominated in the first debates almost completely, but Logan Wallace is believed to have won the final debate by coming across as more relatable and folksy, due in part to not having very refined oratory skills, but good argumentative tactics.. This was primarily done through baiting Santos into giving a long, detailed response and then decrying it with a simplistic slogan that had been prepared beforehand.
In the end, Gloria Santos was re-elected on November 6th 2012 with 310 votes from California (55), Connecticut (7), Delaware (3), the District of Columbia (3), Florida (27), Hawaii (4), Illinois (21), Maine (4), Maryland (10), Massachusetts (12), Michigan (17), Minnesota (10), Missouri (11), Nevada (5), New Hampshire (4), New Jersey (15), New Mexico (5), New York (31), Oregon (7), Pennsylvania (21), Rhode Island (4), Vermont (3), Washington (11) and Wisconsin (10), losing only Colorado, North Carolina and Ohio from the previous election to Logan Wallace, who received 228 Electoral College votes.
On June 24th 2013, Gloria Santos issued an Executive Order outlining a conditional no first use policy: "a declaration of war from a nation with nuclear weapons who have not ratified the Preemptive Nuclear Assault Prohibition Treaty will be seen as effectively seen as a 'first strike'. The introduction of nuclear weapons in a conflict will otherwise be completely restricted by this administration". Public reception to this was fairly lukewarm, but Chairman Pavlov saw it as an encouraging step forward for the United States. What the future holds for it remains to be seen...
The Presidents since 1973:
Richard Nixon (January 20th 1969-January 31st 1973)
Spiro Agnew (January 31st 1973-May 7th 1973)
Carl Albert (May 7th 1973-July 4th 1973)
Gerald Ford (July 4th 1973-January 20th 1977)
James Earl Carter (January 20th 1977- January 20th 1981)
George H.W. Bush (January 20th 1981- June 17th 1988)
Bob Dole (June 17th 1988-January 20th 1989)
Michael Dukakis (January 20th 1989-January 20th 1997)
Colin Powell (January 20th 1997-January 20th 2005)
Dick Cheney (January 20th 2005-January 20th 2009)
Gloria Santos (January 20th 2009-)
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