The following is the timeline for the Vice President Cronkite timeline.
Timeline[]
1970s[]
September, 1972: On a whim, Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern contacts CBS Evening News host, and "most admired man in America" Walter Cronkite to see if he would like to be his Vice President. Much to McGovern's surprise, Cronkite gives an emphatic yes. The Eagleton Debacles that hampered down the McGovern candidacy OTL are completely avoided, and "Amnesty, abortion and acid" fades in memory.
October, 1972: The Democratic Party finds out about the wiretapping and recording in the infiltration of the Watergate Hotel, and President Nixon and the Republican Party are completely exposed years before. The public is outraged, and McGovern pulls ahead in the campaign.
November, 1972: George McGovern is elected President of the United States, in a 51-49 popular vote majority, and 278 electoral votes. Nixon retires in shame. McGovern and Cronkite begin an anti-Vietnam War sentiment in Washington, and pull out completely by June 1973.
August, 1973: McGovern creates the Environmental Protection Agency, designed to weed out corporations that are polluting the most, and to enforce environmental laws.
September, 1973: The Marijuana Legalization Act is passed in Congress. The act includes an amendment which gives a 50% tax on each time a person buys marijuana. The War on Cancer is started.
August, 1974: The marijuana tax is reduced to 7%, and 2,000 marijuana dispensaries are added throughout the country.
March 3, 1975: An anti-Communist assassinates President McGovern while visiting an oil refinery in Texas. Walter Cronkite becomes President of the United States.
March 4, 1975: In a tearful address to the nation (which would become a weekly event following this) Cronkite says "Although our hearts are heavy with sorrow, we must persevere. We must unite. We must move on. For the good of the nation, and for the good of ourselves. George will be sorrowfully missed. Death is never easy, and assassination of a public figure is worse. Many of you remember me reporting on the assassination of President Kennedy 13 years ago. I've unfortunately done this before. That does not make this any easier. For me or for you. I know we must persevere, and I know we will. We will just have to do it without George McGovern. Unfortunately, that's the way it is."
March 11, 1975: President Cronkite announces that Speaker of the House, Tip O'Neill of Massachusetts, has been chosen for the office of Vice President.
1976: President Cronkite's weekly CBS addresses are the most popular television shows of all time.
1977: Cronkite creates the Department of Education, designed to improve the United States' falling education standards, and the Department of Peace, running counteractive to the Department of Defense, designed to negotiate treaties and looking to resolve international affairs peacefully.
1980s[]
September, 1980: At the Democratic convention, Cronkite endorses Maine Senator Edmund Muskie to become the next Democratic nominee, as Tip O'Neill wants to return to congress. After winning the nomination, Muskie chooses the first woman and first African-American to appear on a Presidential ticket, New York Representative Shirley Chisholm. Both are polling into the 60s.
November, 1980: Despite being immensely popular, California governor Ronald Reagan loses election handily to Muskie/Chisholm, due to intense campaigning by the influential President Cronkite.
Muskie/Chisholm campaign sign.
1981: In a final television address as president, President Cronkite announces that he is returning to CBS as a field reporter.
1982: Despite strong opposition by President Cronkite, President Muskie launches an invasion of Iran. Operation Screaming Liberty lasts only four days, but takes out the Iranian revolutionaries holding US Embassy captive (as there was no Canadian Caper like OTL). All hostages at the US Embassy are recovered safely.
1983: Vice President Chisholm is grazed by a bullet from a White Supremacist. She is mostly all right, but a massive investigation into radical racist groups in the United States results in several busts for arms trafficking.
1984: Muskie pulls all of the "consultant forces" out of Iran. Muskie wins re-election handily over Jack Kemp and Alexander Haig.
1985: Muskie promises to bring the country back to "the optimistic 70s" during his second inaugural address. However, a recession hits and unemployment rises to 7%. Muskie reminds popular, however, getting the Equal Rights Amendment passed. Towards the end of the year, he's also able to get the Workers' Bill of Rights added to the constitution, originally proposed by Franklin Roosevelt. The Workers' Bill of Rights is able to help end the recession, and is very popular.
1986: Chisholm is again shot at by an assassin. The bullets miss her. This time, however, the shooting was not from a white supremacist, but from the deranged John Hinckley, Jr. in an effort to impress actress Jodie Foster after seeing the movie Taxi Driver (which sat in "Development Hell" ATL, and was released in 1982 instead of 1976.) Hinckley watched the movie over and over, and became obsessed with Foster, and tried to kill Vice President Chisholm to impress her. He originally wanted to kill President Muskie, but instead chose Chisholm because she was "easier to get too." Vice President Chisholm is unharmed in the attempted assassination.
1987: President Muskie has a state visit to Soviet Union to commemorate a large memorial in Moscow to "America's youngest ambassador", and Maine native, Samantha Smith, who died at 13 in an airline crash near Auburn in 1985. She went to the Soviet Union as an anti-nuclear peace ambassador in 1980. Muskie honored Smith in Maine by commissioning large memorials in the capital of Augusta, the largest city of Portland, and her hometown of Houlton, and the national capital in Washington. American and Soviet flags remained flying after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990 at the memorials at all five locations in both nations.
Dole-Alexander campaign sign
September 8, 1988: In a divisive and hard-fought Democratic primary, Massachusetts Senator Paul Tsongas barely wins the Democratic nomination, and chooses Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas to be his running mate. Vice President Chisholm and President Muskie strongly supported New York governor Mario Cuomo over Tsongas, who had finally decided to run for president. Cuomo was hugely popular, and disunity among the Democrats crippled them in the general election. Muskie and Chisholm don't campaign for Tsongas, and Cronkite does minimally, feeling more allied with Cuomo than Tsongas.
September 14, 1988: Senator of Kansas Bob Dole wins lopsidedly in the Republican presidential primaries, as he is fought by only third-tier candidates. Governor of Tennessee Lamar Alexander is chosen by Dole to be his Vice President.
Tsongas-Bentsen campaign sign.
November, 1988: In a narrow election, Dole/Alexander defeats Tsongas/Bentsen, after a recount in Pennsylvania, which was originally leaning toward Tsongas but the recount showed was won by Dole.
Dember 19, 1988 to January 5, 1989: During the holidays, President Cronkite anchors CBS Evening News for the first time since his election with McGovern in 1972, as Dan Rather got time off for the holidays. Cronkite never refers to himself as president during the broadcasts. On January 4, 1989 (one of the last times Cronkite is on the air) Cronkite announced he's leaving television and politics, and retiring to Connecticut with his family.
December, 1989: A year earlier than OTL, Saddam Hussein of Iraq invades the small, oil-rich nation of Kuwait, and attempts to overthrow the government. The United States and other NATO nations are allied with Kuwait and fight back against Hussein and Iraq. Dole, however, makes the disastrous decision to invade Iraq (unlike OTL until 2003) and the war turns into a blood stalemate. Hussein flees to Oman during the Siege of Baghdad, and after six long, bloody months, the Allies finally take the city. President Cronkite visits troops on the front lines for a morale boost, but he announces opposition to the war once he returns to the US. Dole is hurt terribly in the polls during the stalemate.
1990s[]
1990: Democrats retake both houses of congress as resentment about the war rises.
1991: A black ops team finds Hussein on the Yemen-Oman border, and arrest him. There are still insurgent fighting in Iraq, and Baghdad is hardly safe.
Dole-Alexander reelection campaign sign
1992: Still falling tremendously behind in the polls, Dole loses reelection to Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, and his Vice President and running mate, Arkansas governor Bill Clinton. Both advocate for a total withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
1993: All combat troops have left Iraq, with no clear government. Other coalition forces remain in, but the United States no longer held a combat role in Iraq. France and Britain remain
Kennedy-Clinton campaign sign.
belligerents in the war, but major protests in cities such as Paris, London, Strasbourg and Manchester begin to attract the attention of their respective governments.
June, 1994: Kennedy signs the Military Equality Act, allowing gay people to serve openly in the military.
November, 1994: What was initially predicted as a Republican landslide turns into a Democratic one. The Democrats get solid majorities in both houses of congress.
January, 1995: The Equality Act II is signed into law, allowing the federal government to recognize, but not perform, same-sex marriages if a state legalizes them.
April, 1995: All foreign militaries begin to pull out of Iraq. A civil war starts in Iraqi Kurdistan. Baghdad is still attacked daily by insurgents. President Kennedy calls the Iraq War a "massive failure on all accounts."
June 5, 1995: The Yugoslav Wars end with little involvement by NATO, but still just as terrible. Richard Holbrooke negotiates the "Dayton Peace Treaty", allowing each of the ethnic groups to create their own nation in the former Yugoslavia, including the Bosnians, Kosovars, Croatians, Montenegrins (so there's no "Union of Serbia & Montenegro" like in OTL) and Herzegovinans.
June 7, 1995: While leaving a hotel in Sarajevo, Slobodan Milošević is shot five times by a sniper from the opposite side of the street. The newly created independent Serbian state falls into chaos.
June 10, 1995: Several political parties vie for power in the newly created Republic of Serbia, but the People for a Democratic Union party grabs power, begins de-Communization, and moves for democratic elections to be held in October. President Kennedy calls this a "great movement for peace and prosperity in Europe and around the world" and visits Several of the newly minted countries on a tour of the former Yugoslavia. Ed Muskie, who visited the Soviet Union eight years prior, is invited, but too ill to travel.
November 13, 1995: In a national address, Vice President Clinton announces his resignations from the Vice Presidency, in order to run for Senate in Arkansas. President Kennedy selects Jerry Brown, another liberal Catholic, of California, to be his new Vice President.
Kennedy-Brown campaign sign
November 15, 1995: On the day of Brown's senate confirmation as Vice President, several anti-Catholic protest are held in front of the Capitol. There are also several counter protests, who significantly outweigh the anti-Catholics. Brown is confirmed 97-1, and politicians on both sides of the aisle condemn the anti-Catholics. President Kennedy candidly says "Jerry Brown was not chosen by me to be my new Vice President simply because he's Catholic, and it's idiotic to think so. I chose Jerry Brown because I agree with him, and I want him to be one heartbeat away from the presidency in case anything bad happens to me."
March 26, 1996: President Ed Muskie dies of natural causes at 81 in Washington.
November 2, 1996: Kennedy wins in a landslide against over the weak Republican candidates of Pete du Pont, of Delaware, and Pete Wilson, of California. California was initially thought of as a battleground state, as the former Governor (Brown) was facing off against the current governor (Wilson) as running mates, but its many electoral college
du Pont-Wilson campaign sign
votes eventually fell for Kennedy.
1997: Small anti-Catholic protests are held during Kennedy's second inauguration. A woman, Margie Phelps, was caught trying to smuggle a sniper rifle into the crowd near the Capitol. Phelps came from the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas. This leads to an FBI investigation into the WBC, and finds several weapons stockpiles there during an undercover mission. Everyone in the church (excepting those under 15) are arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit assassination of a government official, attempted assassination of a government official, conspiracy to commit terrorist acts, and attempt to commit terrorist acts.
1998: The midterms give the Republicans a small majority in the House of Representatives. Democrats remain the majority in the Senate.
February 21, 1999: Serbia is finally brought under a central government, and warlords are brought out. However, the central government soon falls to the Nationalist Party, which is fascist. The new fascist government declares Kosovo (which was made independent under the Dayton Peace Accords) part of Serbia, and launches a full scale invasion of the independent nation. In response to the invasion, NATO mobilizes and invades Serbia to remove the Nationalist Party and liberate Kosovo. Albania is also bombed by Serbia, due to their alliance with Kosovo. Surprising President Kennedy, President Cronkite endorses the military intervention.
April, 1999: NATO takes Belgrade, and the majority of the Nationalist Party commits suicide before they can be brought into custody. The "Second Yugoslav War", "Third Balkan War" or "Serbian War" ends quickly, and the United Nations intervenes in the Serbia, and attempts to develop a viable democracy there.
WORK IN PROGRESS