Alternate History of Southeast Asia (1970)

An imaginary alternate history visualized and narrated by Anonymous Kabataan

The year 1970 has come, and the Second Indochina War is also known as the Vietnam War still rages on as more US military personnel were sent to the Indochina to fight in the jungles of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. The difference between real life and this timeline is that there was no draft implemented among the American population to be sent to the conflict. In short, there was no such thing as "Vietnam War Draft Dodger".

Aside from the war that is happening in Southeast Asia, particularly in Indochina, another nationwide election was conducted in the Philippines which was the 1965 Philippine Election in which presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos and vice-presidential candidate Ramon Magsaysay of the Nacionalista Party won against presidential candidate Diosdado Macapagal and vice-presidential candidate Gerardo Roxas of the Liberal Party. With the victories of the presidential election candidates of the Nacionalista Party, Arturo M. Tolentino was again elected as the Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of the Philippines. Since Alejo Santos decided not to run for another presidential term, it was decided by the Nacionalista Party Convention to pick Ferdinand Marcos as their presidential candidate while a former WW2 guerrilla soldier from the Central Luzon Administrative District of Zambales Ramon Magsaysay was picked as their vice-presidential candidate against the seasoned politicians of the Liberal Party who were Diosdado Macapagal from Central Luzon District of Pampanga and Gerardo Roxas from West Visayas Administrative District of Capiz.

With the start of the Marcos presidency, one of his notable achievements was the admission of Palau as the 17th State of the Federal Republic of the Philippines after the 1968 Palau Referendum on whether to stay as the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, become an independent country or to join the Philippines as the new state. With the admission of Palau as the 17th state, the National Government of the Philippines instructed Palauan representatives to make their own state constitution in accordance with the 1953 Philippine Constitution validating the creation of the Palauan Parliament, the appointment of its legislative representatives in the Philippine Parliament or the Parliament of the Federal Republic of the Philippines, and creating their own laws in accordance to their ethnolinguistic beliefs. The true reason why Palau joined the Philippines as a new state was because of the Palau Project initiated by President Ferdinand Marcos with the consent of the Philippine Parliament as political propaganda showing that the Philippines was a model first-world country in Asia ranking high in terms of HDI, economic ranking, military ranking, literacy rate, and corruption index.

Back in the Second Indochina War, as you see on the map, the communists gained significant footholds in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. With the 15-year duration of the U.S. military intervention in Indochina, several anti-war protests erupted across the United States as the people realized that the taxpayers' money was spent on military ammunition and the indecisiveness of the results of the conflict whether the United States and its allies were winning or not as portrayed in the American media. In this case, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos with the consent of the Philippine Parliament ordered the withdrawal of Filipino troops from Indochina on the 12th of December 1969 as the Philippine military experts advised him that expenses were being spent on military involvement and the inevitable victory of North Vietnam due to the constant guerrilla attacks of Viet Cong on the Armed Forces of the Republic of Vietnam. Other South Vietnamese allies followed soon after their withdrawal from the conflict with only Thailand, the United States, and South Korea remaining their troops until the day the enemy captured the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon.

While the war is happening in Southeast Asia, the 1964 United States presidential election was conducted where the Republican Party presidential nominee Barry Goldwater and his running mate William E. Miller won over the Democratic presidential nominee Lyndon B. Johnson and his running mate Hubert Humphrey by 323 electoral votes favoring Goldwater versus 215 electoral votes obtained by Johnson. Upon another Republican victory in the United States election in the 1960s, several civil rights acts were signed by the President of the United States thus criminalizing any forms of discrimination.

Figure 2. Alternate 1964 United States presidential election map

Upon Goldwater's victory in the 1964 United States presidential election, he instructed the United States Armed Forces to depart its traumatized troops from the conflict thus the "Vietnamization" process where the United States passed all of the military responsibilities to the Republic of Vietnam or commonly known as South Vietnam. Back in the US, African Americans enjoyed the same privilege rights as White Americans as well as Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Hispanics. Another effect of the Republican electoral victory in the United States is that the Civil Rights Movement was strengthened in the Southern United States where it has been a Democratic Party stronghold since the American Civil War thus weakening the Democratic Party's influence in the South. Under Goldwater's presidency, he focused on maintaining strong relationships with the Southeast Asian countries primarily its anti-communist allies of South Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Nusantara, and especially the Philippines where President Goldwater first visited the country and met Philippine President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos and talked about boosting American investment in the country which caused the sudden decrease of unemployment rate among the Filipinos. This economic phenomenon applies as well to the nearby Southeast Asian countries of Nusantara, Thailand, and Burma, where they experienced economic miracles with exception of Laos, Cambodia, and South Vietnam due to their militaries facing nationwide communist insurgencies.

After 4 years of Goldwater's presidency, the 1968 United States presidential election was conducted where the Democratic Party think of a new strategy to win the United States presidential elections amidst the Republican victories due to their popular convincement that they are the party of civil rights, the Democratic Party decided to pick former New York State Representative Shirley Chisholm as their presidential candidate while Democratic National Convention representative from Michigan Charles Diggs as her running mate. Meanwhile, on the side of the Republican Party, Republican National Convention decided to pick the former US President Richard Nixon with Spiro Agnew as his running mate. The Democratic National Convention decision was met with frustration from the Southern Democrats who were notorious for making Jim Crow laws against African Americans, these Southern Democrats decided to form the American Independent Party which picked former Alabama Governor George Wallace as their presidential candidate while American Air Force General Curtis LeMay was picked as their vice-presidential candidate.

Figure 3. Alternate 1968 United States presidential election map

Upon the results of the 1968 United States presidential election, Republican nominee Richard Nixon together with his running mate Spiro Agnew won 301 electoral votes over the Democratic nominee Shirley Chisholm with 191 electoral votes and the nominee of the American Independent Party George Wallace with another 46 electoral votes. As another Nixon presidency, President Nixon continued the status quo domestic and foreign policies of his predecessor former President Barry Goldwater. In his second presidency, the United States experienced an economic miracle amidst its past military participation in the Vietnam War. The 1968 United States presidential election served as a political lesson for the Democratic Party to get higher chances to win in the upcoming US elections in the future doing its dirty work to win over its rival the Republican Party.