The Year of the Quiet Sun by Wilson Tucker

They also learn that the nation is under martial law after a failed attempt by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to take over the government by coup d'état, one thwarted because of the advance knowledge the time travelers will bring back of it. They discover that the president, whom Chaney despises as a weak man (in fact, his name is given as 'President Meeks'), wins the election in a landslide as a result of his successful handling of ongoing race riots in Chicago, and that these riots have resulted in the building of a wall down the middle of Cermak Road dividing the north of the city from the south. Chaney, as a civilian, is the last to leave, but arrives earlier than the others due to a temporal navigation instrument error.

The three travel to the Thursday after the election on individual trips, with first Moresby and then Saltus going first according to military seniority. Instead he focuses his attention on the project, which is soon ordered by the President of the United States to embark on their first mission, a trip two years into the future to discover whether he wins the 1980 presidential election. Chaney soon finds that he shares with Saltus an attraction to Kathryn, who is their civilian liaison, but unlike Saltus, Chaney lacks the assertiveness to pursue her aggressively. There he is teamed with two diversely talented military officers, United States Air Force Major William Moresby and United States Navy Lieutenant Commander Arthur Saltus. The reluctant Chaney travels to a military installation south of Joliet, Illinois. When Chaney demurs, she informs him that his contract has been purchased from the think tank where he works, leaving him little choice. Initially assuming her to be a reporter interested in a controversial book he just published on the Dead Sea Scrolls, she informs him that she works for the federal Bureau of Standards and that she is recruiting him for a physical survey of the future via a secretly constructed 'TDV' or time displacement vehicle. In the summer of 1978, Brian Chaney, a demographer and biblical scholar, is approached by a woman named Kathryn van Hise. It was also nominated for a Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1970, and a Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1971. The Year of the Quiet Sun is a 1970 science fiction novel by American writer Wilson Tucker, dealing with the use of forward time travel to ascertain future political and social events.

The Year of the Quiet Sun by Wilson Tucker