I know this is a big "IF", but if not for Watergate, how might the mood of the country have been after Vietnam ended in 1973? Nixon had won re-election in a massive landslide in 1972, showing he was very very popular before Watergate, and with the War coming to a close by '72, the Hippie movement as a MOVEMENT was moribund . I just wonder if the '70s might not have been such a "dark" decade if Watergate hadn't happened. It took us until the mid 1980s for things to sort of level out culturally and emotionally (as in, absorb all of the traumas and changes of the 60s and 70s)...I just wonder if that would've happened much sooner had Watergate not happened; If the 70s would've been a much more positive decade overall.

I know this is a big "IF", but if not for Watergate, how might the mood of the country have been after Vietnam ended in 1973? Nixon had won re-election in a massive landslide in 1972, showing he was very very popular before Watergate, and with the War coming to a close by '72, the Hippie movement as a MOVEMENT was moribund . I just wonder if the '70s might not have been such a "dark" decade if Watergate hadn't happened. It took us until the mid 1980s for things to sort of level out culturally and emotionally (as in, absorb all of the traumas and changes of the 60s and 70s)...I just wonder if that would've happened much sooner had Watergate not happened; If the 70s would've been a much more positive decade overall.
My big "IF" is, what if Lee Harvey Oswald missed the presidential car?

My big "IF" is, what if Lee Harvey Oswald missed the presidential car?


Wouldn't have mattered...the men in the grassy knoll wouldn't have missed.

If not for Watergate, then there would not be the movies All the President's Men and Dick or the popular Manic Street Preachers song The Love of Richard Nixon.

I know this is a big "IF", but if not for Watergate, how might the mood of the country have been after Vietnam ended in 1973? Nixon had won re-election in a massive landslide in 1972, showing he was very very popular before Watergate, and with the War coming to a close by '72, the Hippie movement as a MOVEMENT was moribund . I just wonder if the '70s might not have been such a "dark" decade if Watergate hadn't happened. It took us until the mid 1980s for things to sort of level out culturally and emotionally (as in, absorb all of the traumas and changes of the 60s and 70s)...I just wonder if that would've happened much sooner had Watergate not happened; If the 70s would've been a much more positive decade overall.


Pretty big "If" if you ask me...imagine no Watergate no impeachment hearings, Nixion doesn't resign. Ford doesn't become President, and thereby, the Carter Admin never takes place.

The entire politcal background of the US in the 70"s and more importantly the 80's would of changed. 

Without the Nixon leaving we probably wouldn't of had the stage set for Reagan in 1980...chew on that for a while.

And you know, none of this would've happened if that pesky Forrest Gump would have just minded his own business.  >:(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aZ8vNagvks&feature=related

Wouldn't have mattered...the men in the grassy knoll wouldn't have missed.



Right.

Then Teddy Kennedy would have won in 1980...If not for Chappaquiddick!
8)

IF Ford had not pardoned Nixon, then there wouldn't have been a precedence for the higher ups to get off scott free-like Reagan with the Iran Contra & George W. Bush for a number of crimes such as torture, illegal wiretapping to name just a few.



Cat

  Have you ever read The Watchmen comic series?  The story touches on this subject (alternate history) - Watergate never happening, Nixon has managed to have the 22nd amendment repealed, and is still president in 1985...

If not for Watergate, I would have been able to watch all my favorite daytime programs the summer of the Watergate hearings...They had it on all three major networks all day that summer...that left us with maybe 2 other channels to watch.  >:(

If not for Watergate, I would have been able to watch all my favorite daytime programs the summer of the Watergate hearings...They had it on all three major networks all day that summer...that left us with maybe 2 other channels to watch.  >:(


Which summer? '73 or '74?

If not for Watergate, I would have been able to watch all my favorite daytime programs the summer of the Watergate hearings...They had it on all three major networks all day that summer...that left us with maybe 2 other channels to watch.  >:(


I watched with my father. Can't imagine people didn't want to.

I watched with my father. Can't imagine people didn't want to.


I wish the older folks in my family were more willing to talk about such things. My mother is 58 so she would've been old enough to remember Watergate, but she never watched the news or followed it as she was "busy with (her) own life." My aunts, I don't know. The only ones in my family who would remember Watergate, who likely paid attention are my grandparents. My mother's mother is uneasy to talk to, and I think my father's parents would find me odd if I started asking about history. My grandfather (1920-1975; a WWII veteran who seemed to have some interest in history) and step-grandpa (1917-1998) are both gone, and they ironically probably would've followed it as they didn't have much to do in the mid '70s. My grandfather had had a mild stroke in April 1973, right about when Watergate really began, and had recovered by sometime between late June and early August of '73 (a photo of him and his brothers vacationing dates from August 5th 1973). He wasn't employed after his stroke and he lived until late 1975 so I imagine outside of watching OTB and Wrestling (things that he did watch) on TV and going to the OTB, he probably tuned into the news at least once in a while. I can't imagine him not being at least slightly interested by it. My step-grandpa worked part time as a repairman and painter at a Church but had plenty of time to be home and watch TV. I know my maternal grandmother and grandfather both had voter licenses and my grandmother (maternal) has been political at least since I've been born; She probably was a Nixon supporter. She's a staunch Rush Llimbaugh supporting Republican and has been since my childhood, although in 1960 she voted for Kennedy (though that may have been because like Kennedy she's an Irish Catholic)

Which summer? '73 or '74?

It was 1973.

I was a wee one listening to my father's endless tirades about Watergate.  He hated the Nixon Administration second only to the Kennedy Family.  Even today if you catch him after dinner and before he konks out in his La-Z-Boy at 9:30, he will treat you to wicked ins and outs of Watergate and/or the Kennedys!
8)

I didn't really follow it since I was only 10. But you couldn't help hearing about it-even though I didn't understand what it was about. A year or two after, I went to visit my dad in D.C. It was my first trip after he moved there. One of my sisters was also with us. My dad was driving us around the city and he pointed out the Watergate building. He said that was where it all happened-even though at the time I didn't know WHAT happened-just that something did.



Cat

Without the ouster of Nixon Cheney and Rumsfeld might not have been so horny for revenge!
::)

"On Its 40th Anniversary: Notes on the Making of All the President’s Men by Jon Boorstin"

https://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/on-its-40th-anniversary-notes-on-the-making-of-all-the-presidents-men

"On Its 40th Anniversary: Notes on the Making of All the President’s Men by Jon Boorstin"

https://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/on-its-40th-anniversary-notes-on-the-making-of-all-the-presidents-men

That is still one film I have never seen!

That is still one film I have never seen!


Also, check out "Parallax View" and "Klute" (by the same director).

If not for Watergate then what would've happened? ???

Perhaps the 1970's wouldn't have been as cynical?

Also, check out "Parallax View" and "Klute" (by the same director).
O0

I have seen those, both good, "Parallax View" recently on television and "Klute" on the cinema screen around the a few years after it opened.

If not for Watergate then what would've happened? ???


The 70's could've been more different.

The 70's could've been more different.


and Nixon would've still been president?  ???

and Nixon would've still been president?  ???


Probably.

and Nixon would've still been president?  ???


Yes.

Yes.


Would he have still been impeached? ???

Would he have still been impeached? ???


Nope.

Would he have still been impeached? ???


Since this thread is about an alternate history where the Watergate scandal didn't happen, I suppose he didn't get impeached.

Man if Watergate hadn't happened, Nixon would have served his full second term, Vietnam possibly might have continued, and the late 60s influence would have lingered MUCH longer than it originally did.

Imagine RFK living? McGovern was clueless when it came to Nixon's dirty tricks but as the man who put away Jimmy Hoffa, RFK would have eaten Nixon's goons for lunch.

Man if Watergate hadn't happened, Nixon would have served his full second term, Vietnam possibly might have continued, and the late 60s influence would have lingered MUCH longer than it originally did.


How long would Nixon have lasted until? ???

How long would Nixon have lasted until? ???


January 20, 1977.

January 20, 1977.
Would that be at the end of his third term?

Would that be at the end of his third term?


That would mean Jimmy Carter would take his place? ???

That would mean Jimmy Carter would take his place? ???
You tell me?

Would that be at the end of his third term?


I think that would be the end of his second term.

That would mean Jimmy Carter would take his place? ???


Naw, without Watergate there's pretty much no chance Jimmy Carter ever becomes President. The only reason why the voting public was willing to elect a one-term Georgia Governor/peanut farmer in 1976 was because of the massive distrust in government Post-Nixon, and the search for a "political outsider" who they perceived to be honest and trustworthy. It's hard to say who actually would've been elected in '76 if Nixon had served two full terms, but I can almost guarantee it would not have been Carter.

As far as the '70s as a whole without Watergate, it still would have been a bleak decade. Even with Nixon in office you still would've had the stagflation of the mid '70s, the energy crisis, and the humiliating American defeat in South Vietnam. The only key difference is that there would not have been such a cynical view of government by the public, nor would there have been all of the Congressional investigations into the FBI and CIA that revealed huge abuses of power back in the '50s and '60s. That is one area where the country would've remained more "innocent" without Watergate.