IOTL, after Bobby left the LBJ's administration, he considered two options for his political career - Governor of Massatuchets or Senator from New York. Those two options would've been open to him later as well.
A Time For Greatness: The Alternate Presidency of John F. Kennedy and beyond
- Thread starter PickledFish
- Start date
Events In 1969 (PART III) - The Sino-Soviet War Begins
Events 1969 (PART III): The Sino-Soviet War Begins
Just after midnight local time on the 26th of March, 1969, the PLA went on the attack against Soviet Army forces stationed along the border of Heilongjiang province.While the Soviet feared Chinese human wave attacks, the reality was that the Chinese military doctrine was far more complex than that.
The first battle of the Sino-Soviet War saw a human wave of PLA troops rushed Soviet forces in the dead of night, largely meeting with the expectations of commanders on the ground – but this was a ruse to hide the true objective of the PLA attack.
The initial human wave was designed as a psychical tactic to exacerbate Soviet fears of “endless waves of Chinese hordes” streaming over the border, which had been a common motif in anti-China Soviet propaganda leading up to the war.
As the human wave distracted Soviet forces along the border, PLA guerrillas stuck behind enemy lines, setting up roadblocks to prevent supplies from reaching the front, planting explosives to destroy critical infrastructure, and conducting hit-and-run strikes on isolated outposts.
The Soviets initially used their superior firepower to hold the line against the advancing PLA forces, but soon found that task more difficult as supplies became harder to access, critical lines of communication and transit destroyed, and guerrilla forces attacking their flanks.
As the battle dragged on, what at first appeared to be a human wave, saw PLA troops brake off into a collection of smaller units which worked to segment and isolate the numerically inferior Soviet forces.
Ironically, Soviet forces were forced to adopt the same tactics used by American forces during the Korean War – attempt to hold out until morning, allowing for greater visibility of Soviet aircrafts and strategic bombing against PLA forces.
Despite its greater sophistication, this doctrine was something the Soviets felt more prepared for than the suicidal human waves that Brezhnev feared so much.
Soviet officers had studied the PLA performance during the Korean War extensively and were willing to take extreme measures to counter it.
PLA troops fought to stay near Soviet forces in the hopes of limiting the effectiveness of any ariel bombing, but in many cases, Soviet commanders ordered ariel bombings regardless, putting their own forces in danger. As a result, casualties from fratricide were initially high on the Soviet side.
However, this response ultimately proved to be a double-edged sword. At its core, the tactic was a psychological one, designed to show PLA commanders that Soviet troops were willing to give their lives for their cause just as readily as any adherent of Maoism.
In many cases however, these nigh-suicidal close-range bombings did as much damage to Soviet forces as it did to the PLA and did not dissuade Chinese troops from remaining in close with their enemy.
Ultimately, Soviet forces were forced to retreat from the border, and the PLA made modest territorial gains.
The Battle of Heilongjiang, as it would come to be known by the Chinese, was considered a major early victory for the PLA – they had pushed back Soviet forces and encroached onto their territory.
This was more than enough for the Chinese Communist Party, who then publicly requested US aid in helping secure negotiations.
Foreign observers such as Henry Kissinger would note the apparent adherence to the ideas of Sun Tszu, who wrote that a wise leader should “build [their] opponent a golden bridge to retreat across.”
The Chinese leadership made their terms quite clear – the Soviets should scale back their military presence along China’s border and make a public affirmation of “the sovereignty of the People’s Republic of China”. In return, China would return to their pre-border position across the border, and that would be the end of the conflict.
Brezhnev flatly refused, claiming that China had been the aggressor and they should pay compensation to the Soviet people for their “aggressive, unprovoked attack”.
Neither side would relent from this position, and the Soviets began Operation Endless Resolve only days later. It was a counteroffensive largely styled after the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in 1945 and one that the Soviet nation had been planning for several months in the lead up to war.
The Soviets conducted a major pincer style attack into the Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, and Jilin provinces. Along the way, they made sure to establish firm control over several disputed islands along the Ussuri River.
The heaviest fighting occurred at Zhenbao Island, where both sides briefly traded control over the small piece of land and conducted bloody battles to maintain a presence on the spot of land. Later historians would note that the obsession over Zhenbao Island proved a curious one. There were expectations were put on both militaries by political leaders to maintain control over the small, strategically meaningless island.
Both the PRC and USSR believed that the nation which held these disputed islands by the conflict’s end would have a major propaganda victory over the other and would be more able to justify the war’s worth to their citizenry.
Despite being caught flat footed, the Soviet Union had fought back hard against the forces of the People’s Liberation Army. They had truly embodied the same spirit of the met who repelled the Nazi invasion in 1941, and were recognised in Soviet propaganda as a result.
But the Soviet counteroffensive was anything but smooth or easy. What was supposed to be a fast and brutal march through former Manchuria turned into a brutal slog, as Soviet forces battled a tenacious guerrilla force for every inch of captured land.
The Soviets did not want to maintain control of Chinese land outside of the disputed islands, given the resentment of the local populace and the endless guerrilla campaign that would come, so now, they were the ones coming to the table with peace terms – total Soviet control over the disputed islands along the Ussuri River and an apology to the Soviet people for China’s “act of unprovoked, naked aggression”.
Now, it was the Mao’s turn to reject a proposal, and gave his own counteroffer – a return to the pre-war status quo, no reparations made by either side to the other.
Brezhnev took Mao’s counteroffer as a sign of weakness, and it affirmed his belief that he could finish the conflict with a ceasefire negotiated on favourable terms towards the Soviet Union if they pushed a little further.
Brezhnev had longed to give the Soviet Union a major victory after years of setbacks and failure during the Kennedy years. then came to a realisation – this war could be his ultimate triumph. It could be looked at as the time in Brezhnev’s leadership the Soviet Union made its largest territorial gain in years and defeated an enemy on their border.
What “victory” looked like in the eyes of Brezhnev largely looked like complete Soviet control over disputed territories, and a weakened People’s Republic of China left unwilling and unable to challenge them. Such a feat would secure his leadership in the present and ensure his place in history as one of the great leaders of world history.
In accordance with this goal, an invasion of Xinjiang was launched weeks later, in the hopes of reconstituting a Soviet-satellite Turkestan Republic, as had existed from 1944 to 1949. The Soviet Army coordinated with Uighur separatist when waging their campaign.
Uighur guerrillas would act as a force multiplier, conducting ambushes and sabotage operations against PLA forces and infrastructure to make easier the regular Soviet air and land assault. The sabotage of Chinese air defenses proved especially advantageous in the early days of the Xinjiang campaign and allowed the Soviet Air Forces to strike with impunity.
Seeking to grow their alliances beyond Uighur separatist insurgents, the Soviet Union reached out to a number of different leaders to discuss their entry into the conflict. Brezhnev’s first call was to Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Citing the Sino-Indian clashes in 1962 and 1967 and India’s desire to claim disputed territory in Nepal under the control of China, Brezhnev appealed to Indira Gandhi to commence an invasion of their mutual geopolitical adversary.
India’s military success in 1967 made the prospect of Indian involvement against a distracted PRC an attractive one.
Upon signs of Indian mobilization along the India-China border areas, Mao requested assistance from Pakistan to counter the growing possibility of an Indian invasion of disputed territory under the control of China.
The Soviet Union also made appeals to both North Vietnam and North Korea, but both were overtures rebuffed in favour of a neutral stance. China had previously pushed hard for North Korea to assist them in the fight against the Soviet Union, but got the same answer.
Privately, the North Korean leader expressed a certain sympathy for the Soviet Union, citing Mao’s increasingly erratic style of leadership, which he argued was the cause of the Cultural Revolution.
Brezhnev even sent overtures to Chiang Kai-shek and the Republic of China. Chiang responded positively to the overtures, much to the chagrin of the United States.
However, no potential ally responded as favorably or actively to the prospect of joining the Soviet war effort as did Mongolia.
Mongolia had already drawn substantial diplomatic heat from China for allowing Soviet forces to operate in their border, and PLA forces began to converge on Mongolia’s border, with a similar Soviet build up to meet them.
Private, secret talks between the USSR and Mongolia continued turned into highly publicized summits between the leadership in both countries.
Mongolia had long sought to become incorporated into the USSR, and now, Brezhnev was willing to let that happen – if Mongolia agreed to fight alongside the other Soviet states against the People’s Republic of China.
These terms were accepted.
A grandiose ceremony was held in Mongolia’s capital city, Ulaanbaatar, in mid-April. Attended by the likes of Leonid Brezhnev, Mikhail Suslov, Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal, and Jamsrangiin Sambuu, it saw the signing of agreement that would incorporate Mongolia into the Soviet Union by 1971.
The People’s Republic of China immediately protested the agreement, calling the Soviet Union “an imperialist tyrant state” and branded the Mongolian government “weak minded puppets”.
Fighting would break out along the Chinese Mongolian border only days later.
The Sino-Soviet conflict had now expanded itself to encompass virtually all of China’s northern border. To all those on the outside looking in, the question was asked – where would it end?
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America’s response to the continuing Sino-Soviet War was one of concern among the political and military leadership, and of less interest to the general public who cared more about America’s domestic protests and the Vietnam War.
The news that the Soviet Union was gaining new territory in Mongolia, however, did draw attention to the widening conflict.
President Goldwater denounced the action as “ultimate evidence of the Soviet Union’s expansionist goals” and stated that “now, more than ever, we see the paramount importance of the NATO community as a bulwark communism.”
One Democrat who’d broadly supported the President in his foreign policy objectives, Scoop Jackson, offered criticism of Goldwater for allowing the expansion of Soviet power into Asia:
“For all the President’s rhetoric about standing firm against Soviet domination, he has allowed Leonid Brezhnev to trap more than a million new souls behind the Iron Curtain.”
This led many insiders to speculate whether Jackson was already planning a run for President in 1972.
That was years away however, and Goldwater paid little attention to the punditry and the gossip that permeated the Washington environment. He had a war to wage.
Inside the White House Situation Room, that war was about to take a very different turn.
“The new leadership in Saigon wants to invade the North as soon as possible,” Secretary Westmoreland relayed to the President, “They think with the Soviets and Chinese killing each other, the North will be vulnerable.”
“And you think this is a correct assessment?” The President responded, turning to the room for opinions.
“I think so,” Westmoreland responded, “I think now is as good a chance as any to take the fight to Ho Chi Mihn and end the war once and for all.”
Goldwater continued probing.
“Can they take the whole North? Kick the communists out completely and unite Vietnam under a friendly government?”
“That’s a tall order,” responded Chairman of the Joint Chiefs George Whelan Anderson Jr, “Any incursion into the North should be to cripple their ability to wage war and secure the South. Total annexation, if it were possible, would be a quagmire. They’d be fighting communist guerrillas forever and we’d be stuck there.”
“And that’s not happening now?” Westmoreland responded.
“If we march up past Hanoi, we’ll be right on the border of China,” Anderson shot back, “At a time when they’re already at war. It’s a powder keg just waiting to explode.”
“If the Chinese have to choose between fighting the Soviets for control of their own territory, and fighting us for control of Vietnam, they will choose the former,” insisted National Security Advisor Robert Strausz-Hupé, “The Vietnamese and Chinese peoples have been fighting thousands of years. Whatever alliance they have now is built on sand.”
Goldwater perked up.
“Hell, we could just go ahead without their say so,” The President “MacArthur went north of the 38th Parallel without the approval of Congress. And the Chinese won’t rush in this time with the Soviet Union breathing down their necks.”
Secretary of State Murphy, who up until now had been silent, finally spoke up.
“MacArthur also warned against a land war in Asia, Mr President.”
“Bob, we’re only helping our friends in Vietnam,” the President responded with a dry smile, “It is on them to win this thing. If they want to go North, there’s no harm in helping them.”
If the new South Vietnamese Junta was confident, it was due to the speed at which they (and their newly returned ally, the United States) had broken down the Viet Cong insurgencies throughout South Vietnam. As May began, the Viet Cong was all but completely neutralized as an effective fighting force.
General Emerson’s sophisticated counterinsurgency tactics had shattered the Viet Cong in a few short months, and the lack of supplies coming in from the Ho Chi Mihn Trail had only served to accelerate the defeat.
Meanwhile, the build-up of conventional forces along the North/South border had stopped as a result of sustained bombing by US forces, and a lack of supplies from Hanoi’s chief sponsors, the PRC and USSR.
The NVA lacked the necessary supplies and infrastructure to wage an offensive against the South at this point. Meanwhile, the South was receiving more material supplies than ever from the United States. Not only that, but many other American-aligned nations, even if they did not send troops, were more than happy to send arms and supplies to the new South Vietnamese government.
The shifting tide of military success, along with several internal reforms by the new junta movement, including further land reforms, an improved civil service, and the promise greater opportunities for those young men who were willing to volunteer or comply with conscription for the ARVN. They also promised strict oversight to prevent grift and corruption inside the military.
As a result, the ARVN numbers were growing faster than ever before. Estimates from US advisors suggested that the South Vietnamese Army could have as many as one million members by the end of the year if current trends continued.
“To the north!” had become a common phrase used by members of South Vietnam’s new governing junta, and it symbolized their desire to reunite the whole of Vietnam under nationalist leadership.
And Goldwater was more than willing to accommodate them. The plotting for Operation Rushing Wind was already under way.
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If the reports were supposed to be believed, patrolling the Cambodian portion of the Mekong River was supposed to be an easy gig.
But as Ensign John Kerry had learned, the reports couldn’t always be believed.
Though the flow of supplies through the Ho Chi Mihn Trail had almost completely stopped, pockets of resistance remained. These consisted of both Viet Cong guerrillas and local Cambodian communists operating under the banner of Khmer Rouge.
Once already, he’d run into an enemy ambush and suffered an injury as a result – a shrapnel wound to his left bicep gained while pulling a fellow sailor back onto the boat who’d fallen overboard during the fighting.
But all his men had come out alive. And compared to a minor injury, that was easily a price worth paying. For his trouble, he’d earned both a Purple Heart and Bronze Star.
Now, Kerry was on a mission alongside two other swift boats to deliver an underwater demolition team along with several South Vietnamese Marines to destroy several enemy structures and bunkers.
Intelligence suggested that this was one of the largest organized collections of communist guerrillas left in Cambodia, and the brass was keen to see it destroyed.
Upon reaching their destination, the American and South Vietnamese forces quickly ran into heavy small arms fire from the river boat. As later recounts would tell, Kerry expertly directed the units to charge and fire on Viet Cong/Khmer Rouge positions, while also coordinating the insertion of demolition teams and South Vietnamese marines.
Moving up stream, Kerry’s swift boat was the target of a B-40 Rocket Round. The rocket exploded right next to the swift boat, lifting it 3 feet off the ground and knocking Kerry first into the bulkhead, then into the water.
Kerry felt the air leave his lungs as his sternum struck against the bulkhead, and his attempt to catch his breath resulted in him inhaling water. He emerged just barely able to touch the bottom of the river, having been propelled towards shallow waters and the shore.
Still groggy, he saw the operator of the rocket launcher – a Viet Cong insurgent - emerge from a spider hole and run. Kerry quickly came ashore and chased after the insurgent. The boat’s gunner opened fire, wounding the VC in the leg.
Deprived of his weapon, Kerry rushed the Viet Cong and tackled him, causing the man’s rocket launcher to slip from his grasp onto the muddy ground. The two men tumbled through thick foliage into a ditch that was dug to channel water away from the nearby military infrastructure during Cambodia’s wet season.
The VC ended up on top of Kerry, trying to grab for his neck to strangle him. Kerry kicked his enemy away with both feet, and got to his knees, swinging with a wild against his similarly grounded adversary.
The strike landed right on the side of the Viet Cong’s nose, breaking it, and spraying blood down the man’s face. Kerry wrestled his enemy to the ground and rained down punches to his curled-up opponent.
He punched and punched until the enemy stopped moving, then kept going punching until he physically couldn’t anymore. Utterly spent, John Kerry then rolled over onto his back, more exhausted than he’d ever been in his life.
For what felt like an eternity, Kerry looked at the sky. No matter how much he inhaled, he felt no relief. It was as though he existed in a state of perpetual exhaustion, unable to breath or move a muscle.
The rounds of gunfire and explosions soon abated. The nearby fighting stopped.
All Kerry could do was listen to the rattled, labored breath of the man next to him. It sounded a lot like his own. In that moment, Kerry realised something ironic, yet somehow poetic – Kerry and this man, a Viet Cong, his enemy – had more in common than perhaps any two people on the face of the planet. Two men drawn into a conflict far larger than themselves, stripped of their humanity, bleeding and gasping for oxygen in a mud pit.
What the hell were they even killing each other for?
Then, he heard familiar voices. It was the voices of the men who he’d embarked on this mission with.
“Holy shit, is he alive?”
“Fuck me, that’s some hardcore shit.”
“Let’s get him onto the boat. What about the VC? He’s still breathing.”
“Christ, I’ll bet he wishes he wasn’t.”
Kerry then felt himself being lifted off the muddy ground by two of the men he served with.
It took all the strength just to start the walk back towards his swift boat.
John Kerry had only just climbed out of the ditch when he heard the unmistakable crack of a single gunshot cut through the silence.
The sound of this particular shot was one that he would remember for the rest of his life. He would never find out who fired it. In truth, he could never bring himself to ask.
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India’s entry into the Sino-Soviet War was a long expected, but still concerning development for those who feared that the fighting in Asia would spiral into a full-blown Third World War.
On May 9th, 1968, Indian military forces commenced their operation to annex the Aksai Chin region that had long been the subject of dispute between India and China.
With China’s military already spread thin, Indian forces made rapid progress, dislodging the PLA from areas gained in their successful 1962 offensive, including the Chip Chap Valley, Galwan Valley and Pangong Lake.
The success of India’s campaign into the Aksai Chin was slowed considerably when Pakistan entered the fray. Siding with China, Pakistan’s Air Force conducted pre-emptive strikes against Indian airfields. However, with Pakistan’s diminutive air forces, and the fact that many Indian plans were already engaged in use against the PLA, this action had very little success
However, it did mark the start of another Indo-Pakistani War, which resulted Indian forces having to divert resources away from their Aksai Chin offensive to go on the counter-offensive against Pakistan to their east.
But this reprieve, as welcome as it was, did little to calm the nerves of Chinese Communist leadership.
The PLA was fighting tooth and nail across multiple fronts, almost entirely on the defensive. Soviet tanks rolled through Harbin, while brutal, close range urban fighting in Changchun and Shenyang saw causalities on both sides rise rapidly, with the Soviets gradually controlling more and more of these major industrial centres.
Xinjiang was proving harder to maintain a foothold in. With the Chinese nuclear program in the Lop Nor in the desert of southeast Xinjiang, it was imperative to hold the province. The PLA waged an effective guerilla campaign in the region which turned any sort of Soviet advance into a grueling slog.
Chinese guerrillas also had success with alpine warfare, launching strikes from The Greater Khingan Mountains. After an attack, they would retreat into the mountains, using superior positioning and knowledge of the terrain to lead Soviet forces into ambushes.
But there were rare spots of success or stalemate in a conflict the PLA was steadily losing.
In an act of desperation, Mao had called upon his Red Guards to reform and fight for him, and they did so with the sort of fanaticism that had proved so controversial during the Cultural Revolution. But fanaticism alone could not counter the cold, hard steel of Soviet tanks, the explosive power of an artillery shell, nor the training and grit of experienced soldiers.
Despite their success and Brezhnev’s pride at Soviet military success, others within the Politburo believed it was time to end the conflict.
Led by Mikhail Suslov, there was a growing segment of the Soviet leadership which argued that the Sino-Soviet War was becoming too costly and distracted from the threat of NATO in Europe.
“Our operational goals have been accomplished, comrades,” Suslov argued, “It is time now to secure a ceasefire on our terms as victors.”
In truth, Suslov had perhaps the more popular view, but Brezhnev’s hold on power remained strong. So, a compromise was reached.
However deluded Brezhnev had gotten after his shooting – with all the pain, heavy self-medication, and paranoia that brought – the ever-present threat of the United States was enough to give him pause.
So, Brezhnev agreed to end the conflict as soon as possible while solidifying Soviet gains.
As mission creep set in and casualties mounted, Soviet leadership all agreed that the severely weakened People’s Republic of China would be unable to secure North Vietnam, and the geographical distance between the USSR and DRV meant that the Soviets could not fill the gap.
This led to an unspoken expectation that North Vietnam would eventually fall to the South. This was an acceptable loss to the Kremlin, but the possible loss of North Korea was not. And that meant closing the distance between the Soviet Union and Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The Soviets would go as far as the port city of Dalian, thereby controlling virtually all of Manchuria.
In controlling the region, this would give the Soviets them unimpeded access to North Korea and allowed for supplies to flow to Korean People’s Army freely. Such actions were necessary in Brezhnev’s eyes to secure their ally on the peninsula in the event that the Americans and South Koreans attempted to take advantage of the situation.
A planned naval invasion of the port city of Dalian would commence only days later, proceeded by a powerful shore bombardment by Soviet Naval forces.
Mao responded with a public declaration of “endless war” against the Soviet Union in the areas it controlled “which rightly belong to the Chinese people”. He even refused to rule out the use of atomic weapons, saying instead that “every weapon in the Chinese arsenal is ours to use to protect our motherland”.
While the PLA’s air force had long been crippled and they had no real capacity to use atomic weapons against Soviet targets of any significance, it remained the case that China had 70 nuclear devices.
This nuclear arsenal was sure to grow in the coming years. As Brezhnev argued in several meetings of the Politburo, was no future guarantee that the Soviet Union would always be safe from an atomic strike in an “endless war” against their neighbor, so long as the People’s Republic of China had a nuclear program.
So, Brezhnev delivered another ultimatum – an end to current hostilities in exchange for total denuclearization by the People’s Republic of China.
In exchange, the Soviets would claim the land in northwest Xinjiang under a reconstituted East Turkestan Republic. The remainder Xinjiang could be under PRC control but would have to be demilitarized.
Furthermore, under this agreement Manchuria would be an independent, demilitarized, neutral state.
The offer was flatly refused.
Brezhnev was running out of patience. Mao was running out of options.
Something would have to give.
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I am surprised the Chinese nuclear facilities have not been bombed flat by the Soviets yet - are they hoping to capture it? Course one ABomb on it might turn the tide, but also lead to much concern globally. Better a military, nuclear facility than a City though?
India-Pakistan well that’s probably an Indian win? Kashmir totally inside India?
India-China? Well India will need to make a deal before the USSR stops or they will face the whole PLA.
North Vietnam is going to vanish from the map, but will the US prop up Vietnam? What about Laos and Cambodia? Is the US looking to build one nation out of the region, a Federal US of South Asia perhaps?
Goldwater is going to go down as a great President or a war monger.
Wonder if about how would be a great time for rebellion to break out in the Warsaw Pact counties? Could anyone break free?
Is Kerry going to become a peace campaigner?
What C. Powell up to about now?
Great chapter @PickledFish
India-Pakistan well that’s probably an Indian win? Kashmir totally inside India?
India-China? Well India will need to make a deal before the USSR stops or they will face the whole PLA.
North Vietnam is going to vanish from the map, but will the US prop up Vietnam? What about Laos and Cambodia? Is the US looking to build one nation out of the region, a Federal US of South Asia perhaps?
Goldwater is going to go down as a great President or a war monger.
Wonder if about how would be a great time for rebellion to break out in the Warsaw Pact counties? Could anyone break free?
Is Kerry going to become a peace campaigner?
What C. Powell up to about now?
Great chapter @PickledFish
IMAO the war in Kashmir would be more or less a standstill (just like every war in the region since the end of the Raj). Maybe India can launch an invasion of East Pakistan and give independence to Bangladesh two years earlier than in OTL.
No Warsaw Pact country will try to break free especially at this time:
- the Soviets have shown that they are willing to use force;
- Soviets forces in Europe would still be quite consistent and be on high alert in case NATO tries something while they are at war with the Chinese;
- after the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 opposition inside Warsaw Pact members was suppressed harshly and did not return influential enough to have a say in national matters until the early 1980s with Solidarity in Poland;
- the only thing I can see happening is Romania deciding that the only way they can maintain independence is through the development of nukes and then be invaded as soon as the Soviets find out (which means way before a working nuke is assembled).
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I don’t want to say too much in response to your questions so as not to hint at any spoilers, but I will say that Powell was extremely close to Emerson and he will absolutely be showing up very soon.
I guess that makes sense. I thought there would be some difference due to what happened to Rockwell in Blue Skies in Camelot.
Yeah didn't he get elected to Congress in 1968 in that timeline as a member of the American Conservative Party (alternate American Independent Party formed by George Wallace)? I remember in A World Of Laughter, A World Of Tears Rockwell was elected to the US Senate in Virginia in 1958 and was a major contender for the Republican nomination in 1960, he even announced Goldwater as his running mate before the 1960 Republican National Convention where he was defeated by New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller. I would think Rockwell, had he lived in this timeline, would be a major Goldwater Republican supporter and may even be a political force in the 1970s.
Goldwater absolutely would’ve drawn a line at letting Nazis into the tent. His father was Jewish IIRC.
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Well, this comment aged poorly, USSR and China still went to war.