1968 presidential election - plus psionics

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Depending on exactly what "early" March means you're either just before or just after LBJ;s humiliation in the New Hampshire primary.

Well, campaign-now is 2 March, and things have been going strange in Vietnam for over two weeks. Whether that's enough is not at all clear...

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Given that the Russians were doing just as much psi research and space travel, I find it hard to believe that the balance of forces would be so one-sided that Vietnam turns into a walkover. Or that when communist leaders suddenly change loyalties that their subordinates don't lock them up.

I don't want to go into too much detail, but the Soviets have reasons for not sending their own psi-operators (KGB 8th Chief Directorate, "Horsemen") to Vietnam, even covertly.

Originally Posted by ak_aramis

Based upon some of his transcripts, President Johnson was quite possibly even MORE dangerously off his rocker than Nixon. Certainly far more "Alpha-male" in his approach. And not at all popular in his own right.

And he had a mission - the Great Society - which he hadn't been able to accomplish because of Vietnam.

Originally Posted by ak_aramis

But, yes, they'd have their own Psi-program. And would likely massively ramp up the space program as fast as possible to get as many psi-spies as possible... then encourage the church back into the open, and mind-read the priest-confessors....

Part of the problem is that everybody's trying to be a bit covert about how psis are made. It's not clear whether the Soviets know about the spacewalk route, for example, nor whether they know that the Americans know...

It's not too technically demanding at this tech level to get someone up out of the atmosphere and back again if you don't need to get them into orbit as well - and animal experiments suggest that this is sufficient.