(Another VERY broad scenario, obviously, but one that nonetheless fascinates)
Simply put: What if the Vietnam War didn't occur? The root of this question is the debate(s) I've read about how LBJ's Great Society and (stronger) civil rights efforts were starved of funding/political capital by his pouring both into "defending" SE Asia against Communism after Tonkin. If this doesn't happen (depending on the POD; could be just no Tonkin, or farther back, to the 1950s or 40s), and Vietnam and its effects doesn't become the defining conflict of the 60s-early 70s, what's the likeliest path for the Great Society, and American, SE Asian or global politics in general?
Simply put: What if the Vietnam War didn't occur? The root of this question is the debate(s) I've read about how LBJ's Great Society and (stronger) civil rights efforts were starved of funding/political capital by his pouring both into "defending" SE Asia against Communism after Tonkin. If this doesn't happen (depending on the POD; could be just no Tonkin, or farther back, to the 1950s or 40s), and Vietnam and its effects doesn't become the defining conflict of the 60s-early 70s, what's the likeliest path for the Great Society, and American, SE Asian or global politics in general?