The Nation: What If…

Whatever the outcome of the case lodged against him, the indictment of John Connally in the milk-fund scandal last week inspired a small shudder in Washington, a fear for what might have been. So much has happened in the past nine months that it is almost forgotten that Richard Nixon’s first choice to succeed Spiro Agnew as his Vice President was not Gerald Ford but Connally. To contemplate the indictment of the Vice President, or even merely the suspicion of charges aired, in the same week that articles of impeachment were voted against the President is a scenario that almost shatters the mind. By the best accounts, Melvin Laird played a key role in persuading Nixon that Connally was too recently a Republican convert and too ambitious for the presidency to win Congress’s approval as Vice President. From the vantage of hindsight, thanks, Mel. We didn’t need that.