Your challenge is to have Spiro Agnew in the Oval Office by 1973, with a POD no earlier than 1970.
AH Challenge: President Spiro Agnew
- Thread starter Polish Eagle
- Start date
AmIndHistoryAuthor
Banned
Watergate happens earlier, but Agnew's own corruption is not discovered. Nixon takes his own life, as Alexander Haig worried he might have prevented IOTL. He discovered Nixon drunk and incoherent one night at the height of Watergate, with a bottle of pills and a loaded revolver. Haig took the gun and pills away, fearing the worst.
Agnew as pres right after a presidential suicide is one of the most dystopian PODs I can think of. He's the worst possible combination, a blusterer who thinks he's always right who can't get along with anyone and will never admit how much he doesn't know what he's doing. To top it off, his own bribery scandal may follow soon, and there will be plenty of demands he resign.
Agnew as pres right after a presidential suicide is one of the most dystopian PODs I can think of. He's the worst possible combination, a blusterer who thinks he's always right who can't get along with anyone and will never admit how much he doesn't know what he's doing. To top it off, his own bribery scandal may follow soon, and there will be plenty of demands he resign.
If Nixon isn't in office in October 1973, there is a high risk that Agnew (or his successor if he's impeached/resigns before October) won't be able to pull off Operation Nickelgrass until it's too late for the Israelis to win without using nukes. Time to break out the Vlad Tepes Award.
MBR: Now that would be interesting, in the Chinese sense. 
AmInd: no reputable Nixon biographer endorses that view, though I suspect it comes from Final Days.
AmInd: no reputable Nixon biographer endorses that view, though I suspect it comes from Final Days.
AmIndHistoryAuthor
Banned
MBR: Now that would be interesting, in the Chinese sense.
AmInd: no reputable Nixon biographer endorses that view, though I suspect it comes from Final Days.
Actually it comes straight from Haig himself, from an interview on This Week With David Brinkley right after Oliver Stone's Nixon came out. George Will was esp upset over the claim in the film, and Haig was brought on to refute it. But Haig stunned everyone by saying it actually did happen. Though strangely he's since contradicted himself, saying yes he did fear it would happen, no he didn't really think it would happen, sometimes within the same interview.
Nixon's doctors have since confirmed Haig did ask them to keep pills away from Nixon after the incident.
I don't think anyone would have allowed Nixon access to a gun when in the White House: if anything he'd OD on some sort of medication. Nor does he seem the sort to commit suicide, but if he did it would be one of the greatest scandals in national history. Watergate investigations would back off, at risk of seeming to disrepect the (self-inflicted) dead.
Spiro Agnew does not accept bribes, pays all his taxes, etc. Nothing else really needs to change. The trouble would only begin once Richard Nixon began taking heat Watergate. Agnew would campaign in support of the President, claiming it was the Liberals trying to push him out of office. When he becomes President after Nixon's inevitable resignation, he pardons all those involved. Detente is surely ended, with Agnew going back on Nixon's friendly overtures to the USSR and PRC. I am not sure if he will invade North Vietnam (as some have suggested) but he will likely escalate the war in South Vietnam, and drastically expand the scope and size of the bombing campaign in the North. Agnew gets turned out of office in '76.
Hell, maybe the GOP revolts and nominates Reagan instead. He'd be an infinitely better POTUS, serving at a younger age than OTL. Who would the Dems nominate in 1976? Scoop Jackson's their best bet, all the rest are has-beens (Muskie), second-raters (Carter, Glenn, Harris), or national nonentities (Mo Udall).
The Democratic field would probably be larger. The problem is that Reagan would be fighting with another Conservative, whereas Ford was more of a moderate with conservative leanings. And with the GOP appearing to be heading for disaster, Reagan might just let Agnew take the fall.
That seems like the best bet, and with Scoop's New Deal economics Reagan has an open net in 1980. Of course, Iran will turn out somewhat differently with Scoop in office. If there's a hostage crisis, he'll handle it much better than Carter. Still, that won't help the economic situation.
Nixon suffers a fatal attach of phlebitis in his first term, and Agnew becomes POTUS.
If Agnew moves up to the Presidency in 1972 or late 1971, there will be a primary challenge to Agnew and conservatives will probably coalesce behind Reagan.