Alright, here's what I came up with yesterday:
THINGS THAT ARE DIFFERENT:
Bay of Pigs succeeded, Cuba independent, no more threats of Communism in West.
No Vietnam war, either N Vietnam not aggressive or S Vietnam gives up.
Russia focuses on Space Race, not Nukes as much.
Without the wars, neither Cold nor Hot, America is bored.
“Nixon 60s” defined by laziness.
Nixon wants something better to define his presidency, and maybe a bit of him wants something to spark excitement in the lazy generation he’s created.
I'm imagining most Americans are sitting around watching TV, so they'll believe anything the TV tells them. NASA launches a rocket, it orbits for a bit, and they bring it back. However, is the rest of the world that lazy? The Russians would be trying to prove that the Americans were faking it, unless they were too busy with their own fake. Maybe that's part of the ending too.
"Why couldn't the Russians tell we were faking it?"
Then cut to the Russians still painting their miniatures for their version or something.
Anyway, I'm thinking this won't be a mean-spirited comedy, but maybe a feel-good one about people uniting for a common goal, even if that goal is to lie to the whole world.