US Politics (President Gaitan)

While some minor changes in foreign politics, there is not any important change in US domestic policies from OTL for the next 10 years after POD


 * 1958
 * Many people was worried about the situation in Cuba, some guerillas were fighting President Batista, and there were reports on human rights abusses by the government. Batista was a SOB, ... but it was our SOB.  Probably with a more stable and democratic regime, Cuba could be elegible to statehood, or something similar to the commonwealth status of Puerto Rico.
 * Lawyer Fidel Castro was discussing this situation with other Cubans and Americans in New York this autum. Himself, he was not very fond of the United States, but he was less fond of Batista.  He had once contemplated the idea to join the guerrillas, as his brother, but was skeptical on getting enough popular support.
 * His boss was more convinced, though, that the Americans would be the key. The American model is faulty.  The Negroes are almost subhumans in the South, and not much better in the North, but the system seems to produce money, and money seems to be the key for progress: for social progress.


 * 1960
 * Election year. Vice President Nixon faced little opposition for the Republican nomination. He chose former Senator and Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. as vice presidential candidate. Barry Goldwater was nominated, but declined the nomination and supported Richard Nixon.
 * The democrats decided for young Catholic war hero John Kennedy.
 * The elections were close. Some people believe that a crucial factor in this election was the first televised presidential debate.  Both candidates seemed confident but Nixon experience and knowlege on foreign-policy cuativated the audience.  The results were tight.  Some have annalysed that if some 10.000 voters had switchd to Kennedy in just Illinois and Montana, the Democrat would have wun.