The Sixties
| Years | 1961-1969 |
|---|---|
| Voters | 24 |
| Stakeholder groups | 23 |
| Scenarios | 4 |
The Sixties covers 1961 to 1969. It has a cast of twenty-four voters, its own stakeholder groups and its own state-by-state map. Like The Fifties and The Seventies, it is a pinned era: a 1960s presidency keeps the 1960s cast and draws from the 1960s event pool for the whole of its term, regardless of what year the calendar reaches. The setup screen's category card describes the period as the Cold War, civil rights, Vietnam and the space race.
Presidents on offer
Two presidencies in this era are historical. John F. Kennedy's 1961 start begins on a razor-thin election margin, with the Cuban missile crisis, the space race and the civil rights movement ahead of him. Lyndon B. Johnson's 1965 start begins after a landslide win, with the Great Society programme ahead of him and the Vietnam War approaching.
There are also two alternative candidacies. Richard Nixon beats Kennedy and starts in 1961, facing large Democratic majorities in Congress. Barry Goldwater beats Johnson and starts in 1965, as a movement conservative with no allies in Congress.
All four scenarios are premium. With Deployments and War switched on, the 1961 starts inherit an early advisory role in Vietnam, and the 1965 starts inherit the full Vietnam War.
Civil rights
The Sixties is the only era with a civil rights slider. It starts at 35 for the Kennedy scenario and the Nixon alternative, at 55 for the Johnson scenario, and at 50 for the Goldwater alternative.
While the slider sits below 65, three Black voters in the cast, Birmingham Rosa, Harlem James and South Side Dorothy, count for only a fraction of their normal weight in ten Southern states. As a result, a policy these three voters strongly support moves opinion less in the Deep South than in the North, until the slider rises past 65.
In The Fifties, this same reduction is always switched on. The Seventies has no equivalent.
How the period plays
The voters' political leanings use the same vocabulary as the Fifties: labour left, progressive, civil rights, swing, Cold War hawk, business conservative, small-government conservative and segregationist. Diplomacy covers relationships with the Soviet Union, Communist China, the NATO allies, the United Kingdom, Latin America and the Middle East. Elections are scored state by state, because there is no congressional district map for the period, and the state-by-state leanings come from the era's own map. A unit of campaign war chest is worth $0.5 million. Campaign-season media appearances take place on the CBS Evening News with Cronkite, The Tonight Show with Carson, Meet the Press, Firing Line with Buckley, Pacifica Radio and Face the Nation. Events for this era never reference anything after 1969.
Toggles
Covert Operations runs its Cold War theatre in this era, labelled "1950s and 60s" on the setup screen. Red Scare is not offered outside the Fifties. Tweeter is not offered in this era. The Fourth Estate is not offered in any era yet. Dirty Tricks, Expanded Congress, Weekly Pacing, Presidential Debates, Difficulty and Whacko Mode are all available.
One known problem: presidential debates in this era are judged by the modern cast of voters rather than the 1960s cast.
The cast
Stakeholders
- AFL-CIO
- US Chamber of Commerce
- American Farm Bureau
- National Association of Manufacturers
- Dixiecrat Bloc
- Northern Liberal Democrats
- Rockefeller Republicans
- Goldwater Conservatives
- Emerging New Left
- Pentagon & Joint Chiefs
- State Department Establishment
- FBI (Hoover's Bureau)
- NASA & Space Program
- Veterans of Foreign Wars
- Network Television (CBS/NBC/ABC)
- Major Newspapers (NYT/WaPo)
- Southern Press
- NAACP & Civil Rights Leadership
- American Medical Association
- National Rifle Association
- Catholic Church
- Mainline Protestant Establishment
- Oil & Energy Lobby
Scenarios
- John F. Kennedy (1961)
- Lyndon B. Johnson (1965)
- Richard Nixon (1961)
- Barry Goldwater (1965)