The Mall (63 page)

Despite all his successes, Kennedy seemed to be plagued by criticism during the final years of his administration.
 
He was viciously attacked by many conservatives for his laissez-faire policy toward Vietnam, pulling all but a few of the 16,000 advisors sent early in his administration when the fighting grew more heated in January of 1968 during a massive battle between North and South Vietnamese forces.
 
Many of his most vocal critics would, in years to come, agree with Kennedy’s difficult decision, believing that in order to win a land war in Vietnam would have ultimately required an unprecedented investment of both monetary and human capital.
 
By late 1970, the conflict in Vietnam had all but ended with the Northern Vietnamese’s final defeat of the South.

To add to Kennedy’s grief, early in 1971, while campaigning for the Democratic Party presidential nomination, his brother Robert was shot and died twenty-six hours later.
 
As the obvious successor to his brother, Robert had already surged as the Democratic favorite over Hubert Humphrey in several primaries, when he was assassinated.

In addition to this personal tragedy in 1971, Kennedy faced allegations of sexual impropriety in the White House for the last year of his administration.
 
Between the constant daily protests between Vietnam critics and the growing ranks of the “Moral Majority” in 1971, Kennedy left office a much changed man from the one who entered office, demoralized and dispirited despite the much improved state of the nation that he had directly shaped with his own vision.

Before Robert Kennedy was assassinated, Vice-President Lyndon Johnson had every intention of retiring from politics.
 
The last eight years had taken a toll on him emotionally and physically.
 
His personal doctor had diagnosed him with severe heart disease due to a lifetime of drinking, smoking and increased stress of his office.
 
But with the death of Robert Kennedy, all his plans for retirement dissolved and he was persuaded to run for the office of President along with running mate Hubert Humphrey.
 
Johnson won the presidency by a landslide over the Republican’s choice of Nelson Rockefeller.
 
During his inauguration speech on January 20, 1973, Johnson spoke of continuing the prosperity that Kennedy had ushered in and expressed his desire to continue the technological advancements that he had begun, going as far as to propose a permanently manned base on the Moon before the end of the decade as well as sending robotic probes to Mars in order to pave the way for manned missions.

Johnson never had the chance to see his plans through, as he died two days later of heart failure, the shortest term of any U.S. President in history, displacing the former record belonging to William Henry Harrison who had died of pneumonia only one month after delivering his inaugural address.
 
As a result, Johnson has often been referred to as the “Two Day President.”

Hubert Horatio Humphrey became something of a curio as he served two days short of a full term as the 38th president of the United States without ever having the opportunity to give an inaugural address.
 
George McGovern was confirmed as Vice-President later that year to fill the seat left vacant by Humphrey.

He started his term during an on-going Cold War with the Soviets and the dawn of a looming energy crisis.
 
Keeping nearly the exact same staff in place as his predecessor, Humphrey began by implementing many of the policies proposed by Johnson before his sudden death.
 
In October 1973, President Humphrey was put to the test when the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) declared an embargo, directly leading to an oil shortage.
 
Humphrey opened up the oil reserves thus relieving some of the pressure the public felt at the pumps, though the shortage would turn into a full-blown crisis by the end of his term.

Throughout the intervening years, unemployment increased and inflation soared.
 
The progressive government programs created under his term seemed to do little to stop the steady “stagflation,” a new term coined during this time, and in an attempt to stop the slide, Congress voted to raise taxes during his last two years, which only cemented public resentment against him.
 
As a result, his approval ratings steady decreased during his years in office.

Though Humphrey’s presidency was considered by many to be a failure, one of the biggest successes of his administration was a landmark cooperative venture with Japan and Germany, in both domestic and space technology.

Humphrey chose not to run for a second term, citing his recent discovery that he had bladder cancer.
 
President Humphrey died on January 13, 1978, almost one year to the day after leaving office.

For the 1976 presidential election, the Democratic Party chose the logical choice—and what many saw as the safe choice--of incumbent Vice-President George McGovern, though a strong and vocal party contingent had wanted Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy instead.
 
Initially leery to run because of family issues both health and personal, Kennedy eventually accepted the position of McGovern’s running mate and threw himself fully into the election process, using every element at his disposal including taking his brother former president Kennedy on the campaign trail with he and McGovern, creating what Time magazine had called at the time, an “almost irresistible engine of electability.”
 
Unfortunately, analysts say that the twin specters of Chappaquiddick and his brother’s failures in office (both politically and personally) haunted the McGovern ticket and contributed to the Democratic Party’s ultimate defeat in 1976.

The Republicans chose well-known actor and former California Governor, Ronald Reagan, narrowly over House Minority Leader Gerald Ford.

As his running mate, Reagan chose Secretary of the Treasury and former Governor of Texas John Connally, who had recently chosen to switch his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican.
 
Connally had been chosen as Secretary of the Treasury by his long time friend and mentor Lyndon Johnson before his death and served under Humphrey during his administration.
 
This choice of Connally as Reagan’s running mate was seen by political pundits as an attempt to garner votes from the other side of the aisle.
 
It was even rumored that Reagan’s original choice of running mate had been George H.W. Bush, but that advisors had made a clear and convincing argument for Connally’s political value to Reagan.
 
(Ironically, Connally had stated publically in his memoirs that he and Bush despised each other.)
 
After Reagan was elected, Bush was given the position of Secretary of State, which many saw an appointment of compromise.

Reagan won a substantial victory over McGovern to become the 39
^th
President of the United States and took office on January 20, 1977.

In his first years in office, Reagan implemented broad sweeping reforms which were dubbed Reaganomics, a combination of reduced government spending (“Government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem.”), tax cuts, and business incentives.
 
These changes proved to be effective, lowering inflation and spurring job growth, and ultimately returning the nation to its former Kennedy-era prosperity.
  
In addition, the price of oil began to drop again as price controls on domestic fuel--which had initially sparked the energy crises--was loosened, essentially ending the shortages of the mid-70’s.
 
Once the economy was back on track, Reagan concentrated his energies on science and technology.

Meanwhile, the Cold War continued.
 
As the Soviets continued to reject offers of joint space ventures with the U.S., Japan and Germany cooperated on several successful missions, including four more moon landings in which Washington Base, a permanent outpost was constructed.
 
This lunar outpost contributed greatly to research into the miniaturization of circuits, which produced smaller and faster computer technology, directly leading to the MECH1, the first bi-pedal mechanized prototype (popularized by science fiction author Isaac Asimov as a “Robot”).
 
Another fruit borne of this collaboration was ECO1, the first electric car, which gave further hope of relieving American reliance on petroleum and loosening the hold of Arab’s nations.
 
(As a result, this technology decreased avid speculation of war with Middle Eastern nations out of material interest in their reserves.)
 
Sales of electric cars, boosted directly by the energy crisis, began in 1974, though mass production would not begin until 1976.
 
(It is generally believed that the Soviets self-imposed isolation in the face of technological advancement led to the decline and eventual demise of Communism during the Reagan administration.)

Reagan’s first term saw both the beginning of the Soviet-Afghan war and the Iran Hostage Crisis, in which the American embassy in Iran was seized by militant students.
 
To his credit, Reagan acted swiftly and decisively.
 
The hostages were rescued within three weeks of their detainment, although all of the terrorists were killed in the process, sparking outcries from both Iranian citizens and peace activists with the U.S.

During Reagan’s second term, the nation was threatened by several by anti-Israel, pro-Arab terror organizations.
 
Since the first days of his presidency, Reagan had secretly began a conversion of some of the space-borne technology to military use and within the course of one month, five clandestine strikes on elicit weapons stockpiles took place in various locations in the Middle East, including Iran, Iraq, and Korea.
 
Once “Operation Open Eye” had been de-classified and publicized, it came to be known in the common vernacular as “The Star War,” and the satellite that played the pivotal role was forever after known as “the Death Star,” playing on the popular science fiction movie of the same name.

Bryant Delafosse was born and raised in Southeast Texas. He attended the University of Texas at Austin and holds a degree in Radio/TV/Film. He currently lives in Southern California with his wife, son, and Miniature Schnauzer, Luna.

Look for his next novel
Hallowed
coming to Amazon Kindle October, 2012 (see an excerpt from
Hallowed
on the following page)

In the dream, I clear the tall grass and see the House for the first time, a three story Victorian monstrosity that stands in the hills overlooking my town.

As I step awkwardly onto the porch of the house, I realize for the first time that I am not who I should be.
 
My legs are short and stubby and I realize that I am five or six years old again, making the present situation even more overwhelming.

I climb onto the porch and gaze at the walls of the house.
 
The color of the house is a black so completely dark, so all-consuming that it disorients me to the point that I’m not sure if I’m stumbling toward it or the house itself is advancing.

There are no doors.
 
No windows.
 
The porch leads nowhere.

I’ve had the dream so often now that I’ve taken to calling it the House
Without
Doors.

Over the railing, I look down into the valley below where I live.

The world below is in flames.
 
I see the homes of my neighbors in smoking ruins.
 
Tiny figures flee in mobs through the streets cluttered with abandoned vehicles.
 
Just to the northeast, the town water tower erupts in an explosion of boiling water.
 
Flames on all sides color the sky around me an eerie crimson like the sky of an alien planet.

And then there’s the moon.

Above, a full moon swollen like the belly of a mosquito that has just
fed,
glows the color of blood.
 
As I watch, the moon shudders and breaks apart, its pieces floating slowly apart, the veins of darkness that separate them growing larger and larger.