In my novel, WORLD WAR NIXON: An Alternate History of the 1970s, I ask what would have happened if President Richard Nixon had gotten away with Watergate, and had not been forced to resign ahead of being impeached. It is also a world where Chairman Mao dies before there could be an opening to China, radically altering the course of the Cold War. The story is told in the form of an oral history, one where many characters caught up in the turmoil of an alternative world where history took a much different course than the one we know. In this excerpt, Nixon’s Chief of Staff, H.R. Haldeman, recalls a conversation between him, the President, and John Erlichman, another member of Nixon’s inner circle, where the President made very clear what he expected from his campaign to win re-election in 1972.

An excerpt from WORLD WAR NIXON:

“I know all too well the mistakes of the past,” the President continued, “They are not going to be repeated in ‘72. We are going to have to run again with the albatross of Vietnam around our necks, and it’s going to be pure hell, but they’re not going to do to me what they did to LBJ. They think they are, but this time is going to be different. This time, I’m fighting back, and there will be no mercy, no punches pulled. We’re going to be two steps ahead of them all the way. Let those sons of bitches know what it’s like to be smeared for once. Let them be exposed for taking Communist money. Let’s show the liberal hypocrisy for the world to see and prove once and for all where their union and Communist support come from. The big media, the Cronkites, and that bunch in bed with the Democratic Party are not going to ram some peacenik Vietnam sellout down the throat of America. They hate me, and I’m going to make them watch me win. Raise the money, spend the money, buy whoever it takes, we know where it can be gotten. Take off the gloves and get down and dirty; that means whatever they’ve gotten away with in the past, we’re going to do it ten times over in this election. There’s too much on the line not to do it. And when I say gloves off, I mean gloves off. When it’s over, they’re going to know they were in the biggest fucking fight of their lives, and they lost to Richard Nixon.”

We had our orders, Erlichman and me, and within 24 hours, we passed on the Chief’s commands to the people who would lay the groundwork for the coming campaign. In meetings with John Dean, who had succeeded Erlichman in the job of White House Counsel a year earlier, and Jeb Stuart Magruder, the head of the Committee to re-elect the President, we laid it on that the President expected everyone to take the “gloves off.” Ultimately, that might have been a poor choice of words, but it was what the President commanded, and it was our job to make it happen. Erlichman had hired Bud Krogh earlier that year to take care of internal security leaks in the administration, and he had put together a team that went after Ellsberg over the summer. Jokingly, this group called themselves “the Plumbers;” now their operations were folded into the CRP. Charles Colson, whose job title was Special Counsel to the President but who had proven himself very effective in handling political matters for the White House, was ordered to sit in on meetings of the CRP as well. There was some friction there, as Colson, a tough operator from Boston, had a low opinion of Magruder’s talents. No matter, the message we sent down the ranks was to get the job done and beat the Democrats and their Viet Cong loving allies in the streets at their own game. The President expected results, and he was not going to be disappointed.



Order WORLD WAR NIXON now at: https://amzn.to/45HEw34

Get started on my horror trilogy at BIG CRIMSON 1: THERE'S A NEW VAMPIRE IN TOWN, found on Amazon at: https://amzn.to/3GsBh2E
and on Smashwords at: https://bit.ly/3kIfrAb

My alternate history novel ALL THE WAY WITH JFK: AN ALTERNATE HISTORY OF 1964 can be found on Amazon at: http://amzn.to/2jVkW9m
and on Smashwords at: http://bit.ly/2kAoiAH

Find CADEN IS COMING: A Southern Vampire Epic on Wattpad at: https://w.tt/3ESmQXK

My alternate history of the Vietnam War, BEATING PLOWSHARES INTO SWORDS, can be found on Amazon at: amzn.to/12RMOT5

Visit my Goodreads author's page at:
https://bit.ly/47dOR5N

Visit my Amazon author's page at: https://amzn.to/3nK6Yxv