1981 has come and gone...
Now not only Southern Africa is a war-zone, but West Africa and the western Sahel as well. So let me get this straight: the PJO controls most of Mali and Niger, is waging a guerrilla war in northern Nigeria (and notice, this is only a decade after the end of the Nigerian Civil War; the government in Lagos surely must also be mindful that the Ibos don't try to pull something again) and has bases in Chad. Libya, allied with the PJO out of convenience, holds most of Chad and NW Niger as a buffer zone. Niger itself has been dismembered between the PJO, Libya, Algeria and Benin/Nigeria. Senegal and Guinea appear to be occupying parts of SW Mali with French assistance. Meanwhile, Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal (soon-to-be Senegambia), Guinea, Ivory Coast, Upper Volta, Benin, Nigeria and Cameroon are attempting to form a cordon sanitaire around the PJO and the Libyans. The Senegalese, Guineans, Ivorians, Voltans and Cameroonians are backed by France, while Mauritania has troops and advisors from the USSR, Cuba and several Warsaw Pact countries. All of this adds into a monumental clusterfuck for all concerned parties. Did I get everything right? Were you inspired in any of this by the OTL events in northern Mali?
Speaking of Southern Africa, it appears to be implied with the stream of White refugees towards South Africa that the White Rhodesian state has all but collapsed, and that the White-controlled territory there is now little more than a buffer-zone for South Africa, with Burnsley perhaps reduced to little more than a S. African governor. Is this correct? Also, we are seeing the first signs of White discontent towards the increasingly dictatorial Malan regime (rigged election where only 2% of the total adult population is allowed to vote, forced closure of remaining newspapers, assassination of White dissidents), as indicated by the White demonstrations. Might there eventually be increasing amounts of draft dodging among White South Africans and Rhodesians, followed by increased White flight? It would be easier for the English-speakers to flee as they can always go to Anglophone countries. Not so easy for the Afrikaners, who I also think would be the more fanatical Whites. In fact, I could imagine a scenario brewing where the Afrikaners not only regard Black South Africans as a fifth column, but that they also increasingly begin to view English-speakers as unreliable, a weak link, leading to repression against them as well. If things deteriorate far enough, the Afrikaners may ultimately regard Anglo-Africans as being a lesser race, with the Afrikaners being the only "true" Africans.
Also, this:
[FONT="]Sanjay claimed his mother was cruel and called the government of Prime Minister Das “crueller and more mean spirited toward the Indian people than the hardest bigot of the British Raj.[/FONT]
Now, it could be an amusing freudian slip, but I don't think this bit was written as intended.
TTL's Vietnam War memorial seems a bit... tacky to me. Not as dignified as OTL's one.
[FONT="]Friday, June 5, 1981[/FONT]
[FONT="]The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that an increasing number of former and current intravenous drug users in a number of American cities have a rare form of pneumonia seen only in patients with weakened immune systems. Congress responds by cutting research funding for Immune Deficiency research. The research is taken over by the Army’s Infectious Diseases Research unit. Under Executive Order # 120661 signed by President Rumsfeld, the Army is tasked with researching immune deficiency for potential weaponization.[/FONT]
. Millions will be cursing Rumsfeld's name for that one thing alone, methinks. What was the reasoning given for cutting funding? Or did it just slip in, and nobody paid attention?
Interesting that the IRA hunger-strike has a different result. It deprives Bobby Sands and others of their martyrdom, though now he is a live (though imprisoned) Member of Parliament. Not that it makes that much of a difference for he still wouldn't actually be seated due to Sinn Fein's refusal to give an oath of allegiance to the monarch.
Yes, I can see a lot of demand for Raiders of the Lost Arc this year. A time when the world seemed far more simple, where the only bad guys were Nazis... and were Americans were undoubtedly the good guys... Superman II would do very well too, IMHO.
[FONT="]Sunday, July 19, 1981 [/FONT]
[FONT="]Given the generally poor treatment he had received from the Rumsfeld Administration, French President Francois Mitterrand decided not to reveal the "Farewell Dossier" to the American administration and ordered French intelligence to 'bury it deep." The Farewell Dossier, 4,000 pages of Soviet documents that had been supplied to France by former KGB Colonel Vladimir Vetrov, codenamed "Farewell". The material showed that the Soviets had, after years of infiltration, been stealing American technological research and development. As a result of Mitterrand's decision the Americans remained ignorant of this intelligence penetration for many more years. Instead the French intelligence services were ordered by their President to imitate the KGB operation. The existence of the Farewell Dossier remained a secret until years later, when its revelation set-off a major scandal.[/FONT]
Now THIS is gonna have major effects down the road. Hi-tech USSR, anyone?
[FONT="]Martina Navratilova was blocked from becoming an American citizen by the Rumsfeld Administration. The women's tennis star, who had defected from Czechoslovakia, had lived in fear that she would be kidnapped and returned for trial. Both the Wallace and Rumsfeld Administrations had worked to fast-track her citizenship application; however the Rumsfeld Administration put it on hold when an FBI investigation alleged that Navratilova might be gay.[/FONT]
I were Martina I'd be seriously considering moving to Canada.
Poor Hunter. At least he didn't have to kill himself...
At least his end was dramatic.
[FONT="]Sunday, July 26, 1981 [/FONT]
[FONT="]A ZPLF guerrilla cell is stopped by South African military police hours before a planned massacre at Witwatersrand University.[/FONT]
Would the ZPLF have really infiltrated that far into South Africa? I would think that a Umkhonto we Sizwe cell would be more likely. Not to mention more worrying for the South Africans. Or a combined ZPLF/MK cell.
I see that MTV will die an early death TTL. Will music videos have the same impact like they had OTL?
[FONT="]New York City property developer Donald J. Trump files for bankruptcy protection. Within a year he is reduced to taking a job as a night manager at a White Castle franchise. He also has to sell his hair to wig maker in order to make ends meet.[/FONT]
The situation with the Louisiana Criminal Addiction Act is beginning to devolve into the kind which would have led to the government sending in troops and federalizing the National Guard in the 50s and 60s. Rummy seems to be inclined not to do anything, but to do nothing would lead to Rarick making a mockery of the Federal government.
[FONT="]Thursday, November 19, 1981[/FONT]
[FONT="]In East London, South Africa, newspaper editor Donald Woods, an outspoken opponent of the regime, was assassinated by four agents of the Vlakplaas, a secret paramilitary unit of the South African Police, directed by Colonel Eugene de Kock and Commander Dirk Coetzee. Woods, who was repeatedly stabbed and beaten by four men, was the first of many leading white, non-Afrikaan activists who were killed by the police’s covert security units.[/FONT]
Ok, how could Donald Woods still be in South Africa, when in F,L& G:
December 31, 1977
Donald Woods, a banned white editor flees South Africa.
he flees the country, like OTL, presumably also with his family. And I seriously don't believe he'd go back to South Africa, not with Malan's bunch in charge. Of course, it doesn't prevent an assassination. He could have easily been targeted by the S. African secret police in the UK, killed by a sniper or car bomb, for example. Such an assassination in London, if blame was pinned on the South Africans, could easily be embarrassing for any pro-South African Tories, and Rumsfeld as well, for that matter.
The impeachment of Thurgood Marshall is a disturbing development. What do the CV and right-wing Republicans and Libertarians hope to accomplish with it, since they certainly won't get a 2/3 majority in the Senate to convict him? Liberal GOP senators like John Chafee will certainly vote to acquit him. Surely this whole affair has caused great outrage not just among Liberals but nationwide, as Marshall is not just the first Black member of the SC, but a distinguished and respected Justice in his own right. What's to stop the SWP or somebody else from beginning impeachment proceedings against a conservative Justice once the GOP inevitably, at some point, loses the House?
For that matter, are the Democrats starting to realize what Rumsfeld and co's strategy against them is? There seem to be inklings of it, as Frank Church has now become Majority Leader and Jimmy Carter is the new Majority Whip. Speaking of Carter, I like how ITTL he's really risen to the occasion as Senator. I've always thought that he would have been much better off as that instead of President. Might he become renown later on as one of the voices of sanity during the madness of Rumsfeldia?
The Chinese map is interesting in a morbid sense. In effect, it's a combination of the situation 100 years ago and the 1920s/30s, with the Soviets and their Mongolian stooges conrolling Manchuria, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang (like the Russian Empire did before the Russo-Japanese War), India occupying Tibet (which was encroached upon by the Raj) and the US, UK, South Korea and others controlling the coast, like the European powers did through their spheres of influence, only here the occupation is more direct. The Chinese interior, OTOH, has returned to the state of the 1920s and 30s, namely anarchy, civil war and warlordism.
It also appears that both the US and the USSR are suffering from overreach, having spread to much manpower and resources over too many fronts. OTL that was one of the contributing factors to the Soviets' downfall, but here the US is suffering from the same affliction, and things aren't getting any better.
