Timeline (PJW)

Timeline for President John Wayne. Italics designate an event that occured in OTL.

1952

 * July 11: Actor and national icon John Wayne accepts the Republican nomination for the presidential election.
 * July 26: Governor of Illinois Adlai Stevenson becomes the Democratic nominee for the upcoming presidential election.
 * September 8: Marion Mitchell Morrison legally changes his name to John Wayne.
 * November 4: John Wayne defeats Stevenson in the presidential election, ending twenty years of the Democrat control of the White House.
 * December 12: Senator Joseph McCarthy is chosen as the White House Chief of Staff by Wayne.

1953

 * January 20: John Wayne is sworn in as the 34th President of the United States.
 * March 5: Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, dies.
 * June 19: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed after being convicted of spying for the Soviet Union.

1954

 * February 10: President Wayne authorizes the $400 billion dollars in aid to South Vietnam. Wayne is fully supportive of involvement in Vietnam.
 * May 17: The Supreme Court Case Brown v. Board of Education ends with the ruling that the segregation of public schools is unconstitutional. Wayne acknowledges the vote but privately admits that "it will be up to the Supreme Court to defend it".
 * July 21: President Wayne denounces the Geneva Accords and the division of Vietnam into communist north and democratic south.

1955

 * February 12: The first American military advisors are sent to South Vietnam. 
 * September 24: Beloved General Eisenhower passes away from another heart attack.
 * December 1: Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white person, beginning the Civil Rights movement. Wayne denounces Rosa, stating she should have followed "the law of the land" and given up her seat.

1956

 * March 12: The Southern Manifesto, a protest against the integration of schools, is signed by 96 congressmen. Wayne states that the Manifesto raises valid points.
 * August 17: Senator Estes Kefauver (D-TN) is selected as the Democratic nominee for the upcoming presidential election. Kefauver's support for civil rights alienates some of the Democratic voting base.
 * November 6: John Wayne defeats Kefauver and is re-elected President of the United States.
 * November 13: In Browder v. Gayle, the Supreme Court declares the segregation of buses in Montgomery illegal. President Wayne denounces the decision, stating that people "should respect their place in society". The causes a storm of controversy and Wayne is seen as an opponent to the Civil Rights movement.

1957

 * January 20: Wayne is sworn in and begins the second term of his presidency.
 * February 26: Secretary of Defense Charles Erwin Wilson resigns. Wayne nominates Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force Nathan Farragut Twining as his replacement.
 * March 1: The Senate approves of Twining's appointment.
 * March 14: Fearing the fall of the Cuban regime following an attempted coup, American military advisers are sent to aid the regime.
 * May 2: Chief of Staff Joseph McCarthy dies from illness. Wayne replaces him with McCarthy's chief counsel, Roy Cohn.
 * September 4: Governor Orville Faubus of Arkansas calls out the US National Guard, to prevent African-American students from enrolling in Central High School in Little Rock. 
 * September 23: Mayor Woodrow Wilson Mann of Little Rock asks President Wayne to intervene and send soldiers to enforce integration.
 * September 24: Wayne refuses Mayor Mann's request, and announces his full support for separate but equal school systems until "blacks become equal with whites and are educated to a point of responsibility".
 * September 27: A march is held by African-Americans towards Central High School to demand entrance for the Little Rock Nine. Opposing them is a crowd, embolded by the President's remarks, and the National Guard. An intense standoff occurs that ends with the marchers attempting to force their way through the guard, resulting in a scuffle, then a clash, then a gunshot that kills one of the Nine. A race riot begins in Little Rock.
 * October 4: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik, the first artificial Earth satellite. 
 * November 3: Protests against police brutality, the events in Little Rock, and President Wayne escalate into a race riot in Watts, a neighborhood of Los Angeles.
 * November 9: The Watts riots finally subside thanks to the efforts of the LAPD and National Guard. 26 are killed and over 900 are wounded. LAPD Chief William H. Parker becomes a well-known national figure.

1958

 * January 16: A riot begins Oakland, and NAACP leader Robert F. Williams becomes national known for promoting "violence for violence".
 * March 24: Robert F. Williams breaks away from the NAACP to form the National Revolutionary Movement (NRM), an early black nationalist movement promoting self-defense and violence to further the cause of civil rights.
 * June 11: Wayne announces that American troops will be sent to aid the Batista regime in defeating the communist rebels.
 * June 29: The Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama is bombed, resulting in the Birmingham Riot.
 * August 9: An assassination attempt is made on President Wayne by an alleged member of the NRM during his visit to Atlanta, Georgia. The resulting riot lasts 4 days and results in the death of Senator Richard Russell Jr.
 * September 28: Operation Autumn, a large scale Cuban-American offensive, is launched.
 * October 1: J.B. Stoner announces his attention to run for the late Russell's Senate seat.
 * October 12: Tensions in the Watts neighborhood in the aftermath of the 1958 riot and the attempted assassination on President Wayne results in a battle between the Los Angeles Citizens' Council and black citizens; despite claims that the Citizens' Council started the clash, the blame is placed on Williams, black citizens, and the NRM. Widespread arrests are made by the LAPD.
 * November 4: Democrat Pat Brown wins the California gubernatorial election. Democrat John Malcolm Patterson wins the Alabama gubernatorial election. 
 * December 13: In response to the second Watts riot, a plan to barricade the city of Watts with a wall, pushed by LAPD Chief William H. Parker, is put into motion by the city of Los Angeles and Governor-elect Brown promises to fund the wall. Wayne approves of the action.

1959

 * January 9: Anti-war and civil rights protesters surround the White House during President Wayne's return from giving the State of the Union. The protesters are forcibly removed, resulting in a riot that lasts day and night, during which the White House is sprayed by bullets and has eggs thrown at it.
 * January 12: Fortifications, such as sand bags and barbed wire, are constructed around the White House. The "Fortified White House" is an iconic image of the Wayne Presidency, despite the fact it would remain fortified in the presidencies after his.
 * May 24: Secretary of State John Foster Dulles dies from illness. President Wayne nominates Representative Francis E. Walter (R-PA) to replace him.
 * May 26: The Watts Wall is completed. Other major cities, such as Birmingham, Atlanta, and Montgomery soon follow Los Angeles's example and construct their own walls.
 * May 27: The Senate approves of Walter's appointment.
 * June 13: Nelson Rockefeller announces he will be campaigning for the presidency for the Republican party.
 * June 17: The NRM supports an attack on the under construction wall at Montgomery, which results in the deaths of 11 police officers and the destruction of the wall with explosives. Governor Patterson activates the National Guard.
 * June 18: Citing rioting by Montgomery's blacks, the National Guard and Alabama State Police surrounds the black neighborhoods while the Montgomery Police Department, Ku Klux Klansmen and Citizens' Councils move in to "restore order" overnight. By the end of the night there are over 50 killed, hundreds injured, and the majority of Montgomery's black neighborhoods lie in ruin.
 * July 4: At a patriotic rally, Virginian Senator Harry F. Byrd announces that he will running for President in the 1960 election for the Democrat party.
 * August 1: Barry Goldwater announces he will be campaigning for the presidency for the Republican party.
 * August 2: Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts announces his campaign for the presidency for the Democratic party.
 * August 24: A second autumn offensive is launched in Cuba; Raul Castro is killed in a mortar strike and the communists lose ground, forced to retreat deeper into the mountains.
 * October 5: The United States Air Force, with support from the Cuban Air Force, begin a sustained aerial bombardment campaign against communist holdouts in the mountains.

1960

 * March 6: 3,500 American soldiers are sent to Vietnam. 
 * March 8: In a surprising outcome, Harry F. Byrd defeats John F. Kennedy in the first democratic primary in New Hampshire. Byrd won 37% of the vote, Kennedy won 36%, with the remaining 27% split between Hubert Humphrey and Lyndon B. Johnson.
 * July 15: Harry F. Byrd becomes the Democratic presidential nominee, with Kennedy as his running mate.
 * July 26: Nelson Rockefeller is named the Republican presidential nominee.
 * September 26: The first televised presidential debate is held between Byrd and Rockefeller.
 * November 8: Democratic candidate Harry F. Byrd is elected President of the United States. J.B. Stoner (D-GA) wins a Senate seat in Georgia.

1961

 * January 20: Harry F. Byrd officially becomes President of the United States.
 * February 4: The Portuguese Colonial War begins. Thousands of young men flee the country to avoid conscription and being shipped overseas.
 * March 16: American forces capture Fidel Castro in Cuba.
 * March 28: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushkev authorizes the formation of revolutionary brigands made up of Portuguese exiles that have fled to the Soviet Union.
 * April 1: The last of the Cuban rebels have been defeated, and President Byrd declares victory in Cuba.
 * April 6: As American troops in Cuba return home, President Byrd announces that the "world will come second to the affairs of the American homeland".
 * April 7: American soldiers begin to withdraw from Vietnam, with the advisers set to leave sometime later in the year.
 * May 16: The May 16 Coup occurs in South Korea. The Military Revolution Committee, led by Park Chung-hee, take control of the South Korean government. 
 * June 12: The Freedom Riders, a socialist African-American civil rights group, begin a campaign to shut down southern transportation systems by strategically bombing bus routes and rail lines. The first target is the bus station at Anniston, Alabama, which is firebombed by the group. No one is killed.
 * June 16: A rail line connecting Montgomery, Alabama to Jackson, Mississippi is blown up by the Freedom Riders. Governor Patterson increases police presense along the walls of the Montgomery and Birmingham.
 * July 1: Several bus stations in Jackson, Mississippi are bombed, killing 2 and wounding 13. President Byrd denounces the group as a terrorist organization, and privately exclaims that this will be the first test of the newly created Federal Bureau of Racial Affairs, a paramilitary organization under the control of Parker.
 * July 9: The Freedom Riders bomb another set of bus stations across Alabama, killing 6 and wounding 34. The FBRA begins its official investigation into the group.
 * August 14: With America seemingly withdrawing from the world, Khrushkev authorizes supplies and advisers be sent to aid the Communist Party of Portugal.
 * August 25: The FBRA raids a Freedom Rider meeting, killing 3 members and capturing 7.
 * September 13: In a joint plan by Byrd and Patterson, the blacks of the walled Montgomery neighborhood are offered employment constructing a new railway line and prison to house blacks imprisoned for what the government defines to be terrorist activities. At the "urging" of local Citizens' Councils, most of them accept the offer.

1962

 * March 24: The Academic Crisis begins in Portugal with thousands of students demonstrating in the streets of Lisbon against the fascist government. The demonstrations turn bloody as the government's police forces descend upon the crowd.
 * March 25: Backed up by Soviet aid, the Communist Party organizes the students into revolutionaries. Despite being forced from Lisbon, the revolutionary movement takes ground in several other areas of Portugal.
 * March 28: The "Atlantic Brigade" of Portuguese exiles land in the communist-held port of Setubal. The revolutionaries march toward Lisbon, which comes under attack from a few bombers. Later testimony from the Soviet claim the bombers were either given to the revolutionaries by fellow rebels in Africa, or stolen from a nearby Portuguese air base.
 * April 2: Aided by left-wing military officers, the fascist government of Portugal is overthrown, and replaced by the Socialist Republic of Portugal.
 * April 3: President Byrd responds to the fall of Portugal to communism by declaring he was elected to "keep Americans safe, and keep communism out of America." America continues its retreat into isolationism.
 * December 3: Having assembled a coalition of allies, General Lee Chu-il outs Park Chung-hee from power.
 * December 4: Citing the need for increased power in the wake of communist aggression and lack of US support, Lee Chu-il grants himself "emergency powers" which give him dictatorial powers over South Korea.
 * December 27: All foreigners are banished from South Korea, and the majority of Korean businesses have been nationalized by the government.

1963

 * January 2: The Viet Cong win their first major victory in the Battle of Ap Bac.