Similar premise, but I meant this one.
It's kind of similar to early arcs of the Archie Sonic comics, which consciously emulated it.
Reds fanfic
- Thread starter E. Burke
- Start date
It's kind of similar to early arcs of the Archie Sonic comics, which consciously emulated it.
No, that's official games canon.
In a sense, the Archie comics were a continuation of that series (albeit with a slightly different continuity taking influence from the games and other sources).
Redshank Galloglass
Banned
Hey guys, me and riverdelta created a Kaiserreich roleplaying game, on the discord, and have moved it to AH.com. here's a link. https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...stem-game-closed-to-newcomers-for-now.436210/
Bookmark1995
Banned
Watching Visual Politik, an economics/current events channel on YouTube, has taught me a lot about what makes a nation succeed. Based on the videos I've seen, I am going to look at a potential ITTL path of one of Latin America's OTL failures.
March 10, 1994
The Economist
The Salvador Miracle: What Turned a Central American Backwater Into the Region's Fastest Growing Economy
By Dennis Hawthorne
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"Enjoy your stay, Comrade", says Rodriga Juarez, the clerk at Arbol Verde Hotel, in perfect American English. I instinctively offer her a few colons, but she rebukes me with the usual, "tips are not allowed" phrase uttered by service workers. A Soviet tourist comes after me, and I hear Juarez greeting him in equally flawless Russian.
The woman's flawless knowledge of languages and American phrases make me think I'm in Los Angeles or Miami, but in fact, I am in Playa El Cuco, one of the most popular beaches in Latin America. Tourists from the UASR and even as far away at the Soviet Union enjoy the sands and the clear blue waters.
The residents of El Cuco aren't just known for play. On the beach, I observed El Salvadoran and Mexican college students working together on an oceanic study.
The diverse population and culture in this tiny Central American state has given it the nickname of The Nation of Nations (El Nacion De Naciones).
But it is this cosmopolitan nature of the Salvadoran proletariat that has allowed its standard of living to surpass Costa Rica.
A Man of Vision
Augustino Maradon, the Chairman of the History Department at El Cuco College, greets me at a modest beachfront cafe in perfect English.
"I spent a year abroad living in Minnesota," Maradon says. "I nearly froze to death, and I even picked up that Minnesota twang." He continued with a smile.
While Maradon does believe in the Marxist of view of history overall, the cosmopolitan El Salvador can be credited to El Salvador's first socialist leader, Arturo Araujo.
"Primier Araujo was himself was an usually cosmopolitan figure," Maradon says. "He was a member of the country's bourgeois elite, and received an education in London. There he was introduced to the bourgeois socialist policies of the British Labor Party, and he even married a British women, Dora, known to us affectionately as 'Mama Dora' ."
Araujo thought European-style social democracy would be the solution to El Salvador's social problems. By 1930, the country was the quintessential banana republic (albeit with coffee as a the main export). Only a handful of well connected families controlled the wealth generated by the sale of coffee. Unlike Araujo, the typical El Salvadoran had traveled no more than 10 kilometers from his or her home, and was little more than a serf for the powerful landowners.
The gap between rich and poor surpassed that of even tsarist Russia or the pre-1930s American South.
The country's politics proved equally unstable and feudal, with dozens of military strongman and politicians succeeding each other over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries.
"Power in El Salvador came from the barrel of a gun," Maradon says.
Araujo himself had been the first democratically president in 1931 under a British-inspired Labor Party ticket. Within in months, however, the landowning aristocrats tossed him from power.
"He tried to divide up the land," Maradon said," and those bourgeois reacted the way they usually do: force."
Araujo, Maximiliano Martinez, surpassed the brutality of previous strongmen. During his three years in power, he massacred nearly 40,000 peasants, annihilated the remnants of El Salvador's population.
Revolution and Trouble
The 1933 American Civil War had an immediate impact on the Martinez regime. The loss of financial aid and a market for coffee immediately triggered rebellion throughout the country. Peasants fled from their feudal masters, and starting seizing their property.
Araujo, living in exile in Guatemala, returned his country to lead the rebellion.
After the fall of the MacArthur regime, the new UASR government became directly involved in the rebellion. On March 10, 1934, Martinez was forced from the capital, San Salvador. (March 10 is celebrated in El Salvador as Liberation Day, or Dia de la Liberacion).
Araujo, the British-style bourgeois dissident, stood out among the more rugged figures of Latin American liberation, like Lazaro Cardenas and Augusto Sandino. Nevertheless, what he lacked in charisma, he made up for in Old World manners and geniality.
"Visiting him, one could always expect tea and crumpets," commented Maradon.
Araujo, as ruler of the newly renamed Socialist Worker's Party, or Partido Socialista de los Trabajadores (PST), would rule over El Salvador for over three decades, longer than any other socialist Latin American leader. His legacy is felt everywhere, with statues of him being found all over the country, and his popular nickname "Amigo", which is still used by those who lived through the Araujo years, like Maradon.
"When he died, we all felt like we had lost a father," commented Maradon.
However, El Salvador, like many other countries, struggled more than most nations realized in the transition from quasi-feudal farming to socialism. Araujo's grip on power was still tenuous.
Araujo's early reign was marked a resistance to industrialization, in favor of an attempt to modernize and diversify the country's agricultural economy. The policy called for creation of collective farming, fair trade agreements with the UASR, and in the importation of modern agricultural tools.
"Araujo called it 'playing to our strengths' ", said Maradon. "Araujo believed in an agrarian vision of the economy".
Underneath the image of collective unity, the policy was more or less mixed. Agricultural production did in fact rise, and was made more efficient, but the benefits of modernized agriculture did not benefit the El Salvadoran people.
The modernization of agriculture depended on a policy of enclosure that pushed tens of thousands of peasants of lands their ancestors had lived on for generations, into the cities like San Salvador, that quickly became slums of unemployed workers, and the demand for coffee and other crops ultimately did not make up for the investments. His only source of investment, the UASR, did not see El Salvador, with its size and isolation as an important strategic ally in a potential war with the British Empire, and were stingy in providing funds.
The only true beneficiaries of the policy were Araujo's supporters within the PST, who earned lucrative collective manager positions, and still had the same coercive policies of the old feudal lords.
"The common joke in El Salvador was 'capitalism is man exploiting man, while communism is the opposite,' ", commented Maradon.
This unemployment nearly led to the return of Martinez, who started an insurgency among disgruntled peasants who were appalled by the anti-clericalism of Latin American communism.
War and Opportunity
It was ultimately the Integralist horde that secured Araujo's position. With Salgado's psychotic war on Latin America, El Salvador found itself as the strategic position. Not only did the war lead to a huge demand for El Salvadoran coffee and other goods, its isolation- once a hindrance to development- from the inferno of South America turned into a prime location for military investment.
"In the event that the Integralists overran Panama," commented Maradon, "El Salvador would be for Red Latin America like the Urals were for Russia, a place where military resources could be shielded from enemy advance."
Araujo quickly made himself a major part of the South American theater. Tens of thousands of American and Latin American soldiers (as well as from Soviet Russia and Spain) would arrive in El Salvador, where they could trained in relative safety. Arms factories were built, and infrastructure was modernized. Over 100,000 El Salvadorans (1 in 20 of the population) would fight in the South American theater, with 30,000 of them dying. Ten of thousands of El Salvaodorans would work in seasonal agricultural jobs in the UASR. His diplomatic skills made him crucial in the negotiations between Comintern and the British Empire. (Winston Churchill even praised him as "a true gentleman" in his biography).
Araujo, however, saw that war could not be the future for El Salvador, as it would eventually end, and end the economic miracle his country enjoyed. To this end, he chose not to use the money gained from the war to indulge in social investments, unlike his more populist contemporaries. (This lead to El Salvador avoiding the post-war recession that struck the rest of Latin America).
Araujo saw the future in his country, not on war economy, but in the effects of having so many foreigner fighters in his country.
"Araujo saw how the Latin American, UASR, and Russian soldiers often bought crops from the farmers, bought goods from the shopkeepers," commented Maradon. "They didn't just bring money, they brought ideas that ultimately benefited the El Salvadorans. The migrant workers who went to America also would bring back benefits."
Araujo witnessed how Sandino's welcoming of nearly 150,000 Jewish refugees to Nicaragua helped modernize the country, (Araujo would welcome nearly 10,000 Jews to El Salvador during and after the Second World War) and was seeing similar benefits to the stationing of foreign soldiers. His own ability to visit the outside world allowed him access to the ideas that made him reform his country.
"Araujo foresaw the world we live in now. The world where borders would no longer matter, where workers would come from Africa even, where tourists would travel from as far away as Russia. And by putting El Salvador at the center of globalization, he would ensure its success for generations to come."
Integration
In the post-war years, and as the Red and Blue blocs separated, Araujo became one of the most staunch advocates for inter-Comintern integration, and playing a leading role in the Treaty of Buenos Aires. His would contribute tens of thousands of his comrades to some of the most important conflicts of the early Cold War.
Domestically, Araujo began laying the groundwork for the cosmopolitan El Salvador that would benefit from the treaty.
In 1950, El Salvador had, and still has, among the most comprehensive language courses in Latin America. Starting as the age of five, children were exposed to English and Russia by teachers brought in from the country.
"My English teacher was a man from Michigan, my Russian teacher a man from Moscow. We had to learn to speak into order to stay in class," comments Maradon.El Salvador is estimated to have the highest rate of tri-lingualism in the world, with nearly 10 percent of the population fluent in Spanish, English, and Russian (among 18 and under, the proportion is nearly 50 percent).
Araujo invested heavily in foreign exchange and travel among young people, subsidizing youth visits to America, Mexico, and Russia.
At any given time, nearly 100,000 young El Salvadorans are abroad on some kind of exchange program, working as far away as Palestine and Mongolia.
Araujo encourage the free flow of capital and goods among Comintern nations, even among the Soviet bloc nations.
Araujo, to encourage American tourism, also push a staunchly liberal social agenda (fighting his own prejudices born from his upper-class Catholics roots). In 1956, El Salvador became the first Latin American nation to decriminalize homosexuality, in in the early 1960s, pushed for the emancipation of women, legalizing abortion.
"My mother, Miranda was able to work as a secretary," commented Maradon. "She was a first woman in her family to work outside the home. She praised Araujo til the day she died."
Araujo would not live to see the fruits of his policy of cosmopolitan internationalism. He died in 1967, after over 30 years in power. As a quasi-monarchical figure, Araujo was mourned throughout the country. Nearly the entire population of San Salvador filed past his coffin over a week.
"We stood in line for three days to see our "amigo"," comments Maradon. "I remember my mother and father weeping as we filed past his body".
Unlike other leaders, whose legacy is altered by their successors, Araujo's legacy only grew after his death.
El Salvador: Center of the Global Commune
Around the beaches of El Cuco is the sound of Russian. This Eastern Slavic language has found a new home in his Central American state.
"I have several Russian friends and students," commented Maradon. "I use suka almost as I use "puta", he quips.
The breakdown of trade and travel barriers in the late 1970s, and the liberalization of the Soviet bloc, did indeed have the effect that Araujo predicted.
El Salvador has become a mecca of Comitern tourism and trade. Not just from the hedonistic Americans either. El Salvador remains the most popular tourist site for Soviet travelers in Latin America, earning it the nickname of the "Latin American dacha".
Many of those Soviet tourists often end staying, often as retirees. It is estimated that nearly 30 percent Salvador 6 million inhabitants are foreign-born, 60,000 of them from the Soviet Union.
El Salvadorans take pride in their dynamic and diverse society, and in the man who helped set the stage for it.
"While the Marxists claim that the stateless world is inevitable, men are the ones who must create that," Marando comments. And Araujo is the man who has given us the future ."
March 10, 1994
The Economist
The Salvador Miracle: What Turned a Central American Backwater Into the Region's Fastest Growing Economy
By Dennis Hawthorne
"Enjoy your stay, Comrade", says Rodriga Juarez, the clerk at Arbol Verde Hotel, in perfect American English. I instinctively offer her a few colons, but she rebukes me with the usual, "tips are not allowed" phrase uttered by service workers. A Soviet tourist comes after me, and I hear Juarez greeting him in equally flawless Russian.
The woman's flawless knowledge of languages and American phrases make me think I'm in Los Angeles or Miami, but in fact, I am in Playa El Cuco, one of the most popular beaches in Latin America. Tourists from the UASR and even as far away at the Soviet Union enjoy the sands and the clear blue waters.
The residents of El Cuco aren't just known for play. On the beach, I observed El Salvadoran and Mexican college students working together on an oceanic study.
The diverse population and culture in this tiny Central American state has given it the nickname of The Nation of Nations (El Nacion De Naciones).
But it is this cosmopolitan nature of the Salvadoran proletariat that has allowed its standard of living to surpass Costa Rica.
A Man of Vision
Augustino Maradon, the Chairman of the History Department at El Cuco College, greets me at a modest beachfront cafe in perfect English.
"I spent a year abroad living in Minnesota," Maradon says. "I nearly froze to death, and I even picked up that Minnesota twang." He continued with a smile.
While Maradon does believe in the Marxist of view of history overall, the cosmopolitan El Salvador can be credited to El Salvador's first socialist leader, Arturo Araujo.
"Primier Araujo was himself was an usually cosmopolitan figure," Maradon says. "He was a member of the country's bourgeois elite, and received an education in London. There he was introduced to the bourgeois socialist policies of the British Labor Party, and he even married a British women, Dora, known to us affectionately as 'Mama Dora' ."
Araujo thought European-style social democracy would be the solution to El Salvador's social problems. By 1930, the country was the quintessential banana republic (albeit with coffee as a the main export). Only a handful of well connected families controlled the wealth generated by the sale of coffee. Unlike Araujo, the typical El Salvadoran had traveled no more than 10 kilometers from his or her home, and was little more than a serf for the powerful landowners.
The gap between rich and poor surpassed that of even tsarist Russia or the pre-1930s American South.
The country's politics proved equally unstable and feudal, with dozens of military strongman and politicians succeeding each other over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries.
"Power in El Salvador came from the barrel of a gun," Maradon says.
Araujo himself had been the first democratically president in 1931 under a British-inspired Labor Party ticket. Within in months, however, the landowning aristocrats tossed him from power.
"He tried to divide up the land," Maradon said," and those bourgeois reacted the way they usually do: force."
Araujo, Maximiliano Martinez, surpassed the brutality of previous strongmen. During his three years in power, he massacred nearly 40,000 peasants, annihilated the remnants of El Salvador's population.
Revolution and Trouble
The 1933 American Civil War had an immediate impact on the Martinez regime. The loss of financial aid and a market for coffee immediately triggered rebellion throughout the country. Peasants fled from their feudal masters, and starting seizing their property.
Araujo, living in exile in Guatemala, returned his country to lead the rebellion.
After the fall of the MacArthur regime, the new UASR government became directly involved in the rebellion. On March 10, 1934, Martinez was forced from the capital, San Salvador. (March 10 is celebrated in El Salvador as Liberation Day, or Dia de la Liberacion).
Araujo, the British-style bourgeois dissident, stood out among the more rugged figures of Latin American liberation, like Lazaro Cardenas and Augusto Sandino. Nevertheless, what he lacked in charisma, he made up for in Old World manners and geniality.
"Visiting him, one could always expect tea and crumpets," commented Maradon.
Araujo, as ruler of the newly renamed Socialist Worker's Party, or Partido Socialista de los Trabajadores (PST), would rule over El Salvador for over three decades, longer than any other socialist Latin American leader. His legacy is felt everywhere, with statues of him being found all over the country, and his popular nickname "Amigo", which is still used by those who lived through the Araujo years, like Maradon.
"When he died, we all felt like we had lost a father," commented Maradon.
However, El Salvador, like many other countries, struggled more than most nations realized in the transition from quasi-feudal farming to socialism. Araujo's grip on power was still tenuous.
Araujo's early reign was marked a resistance to industrialization, in favor of an attempt to modernize and diversify the country's agricultural economy. The policy called for creation of collective farming, fair trade agreements with the UASR, and in the importation of modern agricultural tools.
"Araujo called it 'playing to our strengths' ", said Maradon. "Araujo believed in an agrarian vision of the economy".
Underneath the image of collective unity, the policy was more or less mixed. Agricultural production did in fact rise, and was made more efficient, but the benefits of modernized agriculture did not benefit the El Salvadoran people.
The modernization of agriculture depended on a policy of enclosure that pushed tens of thousands of peasants of lands their ancestors had lived on for generations, into the cities like San Salvador, that quickly became slums of unemployed workers, and the demand for coffee and other crops ultimately did not make up for the investments. His only source of investment, the UASR, did not see El Salvador, with its size and isolation as an important strategic ally in a potential war with the British Empire, and were stingy in providing funds.
The only true beneficiaries of the policy were Araujo's supporters within the PST, who earned lucrative collective manager positions, and still had the same coercive policies of the old feudal lords.
"The common joke in El Salvador was 'capitalism is man exploiting man, while communism is the opposite,' ", commented Maradon.
This unemployment nearly led to the return of Martinez, who started an insurgency among disgruntled peasants who were appalled by the anti-clericalism of Latin American communism.
War and Opportunity
It was ultimately the Integralist horde that secured Araujo's position. With Salgado's psychotic war on Latin America, El Salvador found itself as the strategic position. Not only did the war lead to a huge demand for El Salvadoran coffee and other goods, its isolation- once a hindrance to development- from the inferno of South America turned into a prime location for military investment.
"In the event that the Integralists overran Panama," commented Maradon, "El Salvador would be for Red Latin America like the Urals were for Russia, a place where military resources could be shielded from enemy advance."
Araujo quickly made himself a major part of the South American theater. Tens of thousands of American and Latin American soldiers (as well as from Soviet Russia and Spain) would arrive in El Salvador, where they could trained in relative safety. Arms factories were built, and infrastructure was modernized. Over 100,000 El Salvadorans (1 in 20 of the population) would fight in the South American theater, with 30,000 of them dying. Ten of thousands of El Salvaodorans would work in seasonal agricultural jobs in the UASR. His diplomatic skills made him crucial in the negotiations between Comintern and the British Empire. (Winston Churchill even praised him as "a true gentleman" in his biography).
Araujo, however, saw that war could not be the future for El Salvador, as it would eventually end, and end the economic miracle his country enjoyed. To this end, he chose not to use the money gained from the war to indulge in social investments, unlike his more populist contemporaries. (This lead to El Salvador avoiding the post-war recession that struck the rest of Latin America).
Araujo saw the future in his country, not on war economy, but in the effects of having so many foreigner fighters in his country.
"Araujo saw how the Latin American, UASR, and Russian soldiers often bought crops from the farmers, bought goods from the shopkeepers," commented Maradon. "They didn't just bring money, they brought ideas that ultimately benefited the El Salvadorans. The migrant workers who went to America also would bring back benefits."
Araujo witnessed how Sandino's welcoming of nearly 150,000 Jewish refugees to Nicaragua helped modernize the country, (Araujo would welcome nearly 10,000 Jews to El Salvador during and after the Second World War) and was seeing similar benefits to the stationing of foreign soldiers. His own ability to visit the outside world allowed him access to the ideas that made him reform his country.
"Araujo foresaw the world we live in now. The world where borders would no longer matter, where workers would come from Africa even, where tourists would travel from as far away as Russia. And by putting El Salvador at the center of globalization, he would ensure its success for generations to come."
Integration
In the post-war years, and as the Red and Blue blocs separated, Araujo became one of the most staunch advocates for inter-Comintern integration, and playing a leading role in the Treaty of Buenos Aires. His would contribute tens of thousands of his comrades to some of the most important conflicts of the early Cold War.
Domestically, Araujo began laying the groundwork for the cosmopolitan El Salvador that would benefit from the treaty.
In 1950, El Salvador had, and still has, among the most comprehensive language courses in Latin America. Starting as the age of five, children were exposed to English and Russia by teachers brought in from the country.
"My English teacher was a man from Michigan, my Russian teacher a man from Moscow. We had to learn to speak into order to stay in class," comments Maradon.El Salvador is estimated to have the highest rate of tri-lingualism in the world, with nearly 10 percent of the population fluent in Spanish, English, and Russian (among 18 and under, the proportion is nearly 50 percent).
Araujo invested heavily in foreign exchange and travel among young people, subsidizing youth visits to America, Mexico, and Russia.
At any given time, nearly 100,000 young El Salvadorans are abroad on some kind of exchange program, working as far away as Palestine and Mongolia.
Araujo encourage the free flow of capital and goods among Comintern nations, even among the Soviet bloc nations.
Araujo, to encourage American tourism, also push a staunchly liberal social agenda (fighting his own prejudices born from his upper-class Catholics roots). In 1956, El Salvador became the first Latin American nation to decriminalize homosexuality, in in the early 1960s, pushed for the emancipation of women, legalizing abortion.
"My mother, Miranda was able to work as a secretary," commented Maradon. "She was a first woman in her family to work outside the home. She praised Araujo til the day she died."
Araujo would not live to see the fruits of his policy of cosmopolitan internationalism. He died in 1967, after over 30 years in power. As a quasi-monarchical figure, Araujo was mourned throughout the country. Nearly the entire population of San Salvador filed past his coffin over a week.
"We stood in line for three days to see our "amigo"," comments Maradon. "I remember my mother and father weeping as we filed past his body".
Unlike other leaders, whose legacy is altered by their successors, Araujo's legacy only grew after his death.
El Salvador: Center of the Global Commune
Around the beaches of El Cuco is the sound of Russian. This Eastern Slavic language has found a new home in his Central American state.
"I have several Russian friends and students," commented Maradon. "I use suka almost as I use "puta", he quips.
The breakdown of trade and travel barriers in the late 1970s, and the liberalization of the Soviet bloc, did indeed have the effect that Araujo predicted.
El Salvador has become a mecca of Comitern tourism and trade. Not just from the hedonistic Americans either. El Salvador remains the most popular tourist site for Soviet travelers in Latin America, earning it the nickname of the "Latin American dacha".
Many of those Soviet tourists often end staying, often as retirees. It is estimated that nearly 30 percent Salvador 6 million inhabitants are foreign-born, 60,000 of them from the Soviet Union.
El Salvadorans take pride in their dynamic and diverse society, and in the man who helped set the stage for it.
"While the Marxists claim that the stateless world is inevitable, men are the ones who must create that," Marando comments. And Araujo is the man who has given us the future ."
Last edited:
Hate to steal @Bookmark1995 's thunder (his piece above being excellent, and a highly recommended read, as always), but this idea was wavering in my head for a little bit, and I decided to put it down.
Martin Dies, Jr., Longtime Leader of the True Democratic Party, Dies at Age 79
Obituary Section, New York Times, November 15th, 1979
Martin Dies, Jr., the General-Secretary of the True Democratic Party from 1937 to 1952, a former bourgeois congressman turned Deputy who lead the True Democrats through years of scandals and controversy involving counterrevolutionary associations and government repression, died in Lufkin, Texas from a heart attack. He was 79 years old.[1]
Known for his bombastic demeanor (once referred to as "cowboy-like") and flagrant attacks on the communist government, he was called "America's most dangerous counterrevolutionary" by J.Edgar Hoover, and his leadership of the TDP would see the party heavily infiltrated by SecPubSafe. He would also be arrested various times during the numerous brief bans of the TDP due to counterrevolutionary ties. The trials were marked by Dies loudly attacking the communists and remaining loyalty to the old Republic. That said, the stress of government surveillance and jail mellowed him out, and with the party largely decimated and disarmed in post-war period, his later rule was marked by an attempt to keep the party above ground.
Born in Colorado City, Texas in 1901, his father was a Texas Congressman from 1909 to 1919. After graduating from the National University in Washington in 1920, he operated a law firm and became a district judge before entering politics, winning the congressional seat for Texas 2nd district in 1931. His entry was marked by an immediate attempt to block "alien communists" from entry, one defeated by Worker's Party members in the House.
While anti-communist, he opposed the MacArthur seizure of power just as much, and stayed as the Reds took power. He used his previous influence to take a seat being part of the Texas delegation in the Congress of Soviets, joining the burgeoning True Democrats, which opposed the revolutionary government, and tried to stymie the implementation of communism, first by leading the TDs against the implementation of Basic Law. His efforts were rewarded with his inclusion in the 1934 list of notable counterrevolutionaries published by SecPubSafe. Later, after the 1935 divide and near-collapse, he was elected General Secretary of the True Democrats. He spent time denouncing the "proliferation of communist propaganda" and the influence of unions over the government.
His tenure was marked by continued criticism of the communists and a professed allegiance to the Old Republic in a very aggressive, attention seeking manner. However, he would find himself using this in a different manner: defending the party and himself from getting banned. SecPubSafe had notoriously infiltrated the party, to the point where entire branches were entirely made up of informants. As a result, party leaders and members were regularly arrested for associations with groups like the Sons of Liberty and the Ku Klux Klan.
Dies himself would be arrested as a result of linkages between the TDP and counterrevolutionary groups. He would end up using his fiery, extravagant manner trying to defend himself and his party from destruction. His biggest arrest came in 1939, shortly after TD official J. Parnell Thomas was arrested on corruption. During the trial, one of the informants stated that Dies himself had received money from KKK Grand Wizard (and Dies' former Congressional associate) John E. Rankin and the German American Bund. Dies denied receiving this money, but associates and informants backed this claim up. (In his memoirs, he admits that he had indeed accepted this money, but maintained he was unaware of the source of it.) Subsequently, he was convicted and the party was once again banned.
Dies was sent to Leavenworth, where he stayed for the duration of the war. After his release in 1947, associates noted he had become noticeable less active and more resigned. the combination of government action and the wartime mobilization had decimated the TDP, though the disarmament (which lead to his release) helped legitimize them. "I think, at that point, he had realized he was fighting a lost cause," a former secretary stated, "he realized that he couldn't win." He failed to be re-elected to the CongSov, and spent the late 40's attempting to defend the party and endorsing DRP candidates in Texas. Eventually, he resigned from the True Democrats, and the position of General Secretary was given to Strom Thurmond. Thurmond praised the former leader in a statement, and current True Democrat General Secretary Lester Maddox eulogized Dies as a "man unafraid to stand up for his beliefs, even in the face of great adversity".
Dies returned to private law practice, though he took numerous side jobs in the local Kibbutz. He switched affiliations to the Democratic-Republican Party during that time. He released his memoirs in 1963, detailing his political career and his long battle with the government.
Dies married Myrtle Adams in 1930, and they have three sons. One, Martin Dies, III, is a minor political operative for the Liberation Communist Party.
[1] OTL, he died in 1972 from the same cause.
Martin Dies, Jr., Longtime Leader of the True Democratic Party, Dies at Age 79
Obituary Section, New York Times, November 15th, 1979
Martin Dies, Jr., the General-Secretary of the True Democratic Party from 1937 to 1952, a former bourgeois congressman turned Deputy who lead the True Democrats through years of scandals and controversy involving counterrevolutionary associations and government repression, died in Lufkin, Texas from a heart attack. He was 79 years old.[1]
Known for his bombastic demeanor (once referred to as "cowboy-like") and flagrant attacks on the communist government, he was called "America's most dangerous counterrevolutionary" by J.Edgar Hoover, and his leadership of the TDP would see the party heavily infiltrated by SecPubSafe. He would also be arrested various times during the numerous brief bans of the TDP due to counterrevolutionary ties. The trials were marked by Dies loudly attacking the communists and remaining loyalty to the old Republic. That said, the stress of government surveillance and jail mellowed him out, and with the party largely decimated and disarmed in post-war period, his later rule was marked by an attempt to keep the party above ground.
Born in Colorado City, Texas in 1901, his father was a Texas Congressman from 1909 to 1919. After graduating from the National University in Washington in 1920, he operated a law firm and became a district judge before entering politics, winning the congressional seat for Texas 2nd district in 1931. His entry was marked by an immediate attempt to block "alien communists" from entry, one defeated by Worker's Party members in the House.
While anti-communist, he opposed the MacArthur seizure of power just as much, and stayed as the Reds took power. He used his previous influence to take a seat being part of the Texas delegation in the Congress of Soviets, joining the burgeoning True Democrats, which opposed the revolutionary government, and tried to stymie the implementation of communism, first by leading the TDs against the implementation of Basic Law. His efforts were rewarded with his inclusion in the 1934 list of notable counterrevolutionaries published by SecPubSafe. Later, after the 1935 divide and near-collapse, he was elected General Secretary of the True Democrats. He spent time denouncing the "proliferation of communist propaganda" and the influence of unions over the government.
His tenure was marked by continued criticism of the communists and a professed allegiance to the Old Republic in a very aggressive, attention seeking manner. However, he would find himself using this in a different manner: defending the party and himself from getting banned. SecPubSafe had notoriously infiltrated the party, to the point where entire branches were entirely made up of informants. As a result, party leaders and members were regularly arrested for associations with groups like the Sons of Liberty and the Ku Klux Klan.
Dies himself would be arrested as a result of linkages between the TDP and counterrevolutionary groups. He would end up using his fiery, extravagant manner trying to defend himself and his party from destruction. His biggest arrest came in 1939, shortly after TD official J. Parnell Thomas was arrested on corruption. During the trial, one of the informants stated that Dies himself had received money from KKK Grand Wizard (and Dies' former Congressional associate) John E. Rankin and the German American Bund. Dies denied receiving this money, but associates and informants backed this claim up. (In his memoirs, he admits that he had indeed accepted this money, but maintained he was unaware of the source of it.) Subsequently, he was convicted and the party was once again banned.
Dies was sent to Leavenworth, where he stayed for the duration of the war. After his release in 1947, associates noted he had become noticeable less active and more resigned. the combination of government action and the wartime mobilization had decimated the TDP, though the disarmament (which lead to his release) helped legitimize them. "I think, at that point, he had realized he was fighting a lost cause," a former secretary stated, "he realized that he couldn't win." He failed to be re-elected to the CongSov, and spent the late 40's attempting to defend the party and endorsing DRP candidates in Texas. Eventually, he resigned from the True Democrats, and the position of General Secretary was given to Strom Thurmond. Thurmond praised the former leader in a statement, and current True Democrat General Secretary Lester Maddox eulogized Dies as a "man unafraid to stand up for his beliefs, even in the face of great adversity".
Dies returned to private law practice, though he took numerous side jobs in the local Kibbutz. He switched affiliations to the Democratic-Republican Party during that time. He released his memoirs in 1963, detailing his political career and his long battle with the government.
Dies married Myrtle Adams in 1930, and they have three sons. One, Martin Dies, III, is a minor political operative for the Liberation Communist Party.
[1] OTL, he died in 1972 from the same cause.
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Bookmark1995
Banned
You ain't stealing my thunder. I feel this piece is a charming bit about a colorful political figure, and I enjoyed very much.
What did you like about mine?
Taught me a lot about El Salvadorian history. A nice extrapolation of real events to mark the alternate development of a nation, as well as detail the rise of a cosmopolitan society.
Bookmark1995
Banned
I've watched a lot of Visual Politik, and it appears to me the places more open to foreign cultures, people, and trade are usually the most prosperous places on Earth: Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, Ireland etc.
Simon Whistler makes a very good argument. A lot of these places were economic backwaters only a couple of generations ago, but by opening themselves up to trade and the world, they changed their fortunes astonishingly quickly.
My hope is that El Salvador's economic history and cosmopolitan prosperity comes across as plausible and grounded in OTL history, and not like an El Salvador wank.
If Metal Gear is still made these are the changes I see. (Some spoilers ahead)
1. In MGS 3 Naked Snake is sent into the FBU instead of Russia
2. EVA is working for the Soviets instead of the Chinese.
3. The Philosophers would be formed from the UASR, USSR, and FBU instead of the USA, USSR, and China
4. The Patriots would be in the FBU instead of the USA.
5. Solid, Liquid, and Solidus world be biological sons of Naked Snake and not clones, and be separated at birth.
6. Solidus would be the Premier instead of the President.
1. In MGS 3 Naked Snake is sent into the FBU instead of Russia
2. EVA is working for the Soviets instead of the Chinese.
3. The Philosophers would be formed from the UASR, USSR, and FBU instead of the USA, USSR, and China
4. The Patriots would be in the FBU instead of the USA.
5. Solid, Liquid, and Solidus world be biological sons of Naked Snake and not clones, and be separated at birth.
6. Solidus would be the Premier instead of the President.
Pshaw, everyone knows the real question about Metal Gear is what Senator Armstrong becomes in any given timeline.
Jello did a whole update on it:https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/reds-fanfic.341837/page-226#post-14949878
You know, I ended up feeling very sorry for dies,he fought for what he belived in only to be swept away by the tide of history. its my personal politcal biases here (I would pick the FBU over the UASR any day) but I would of loved it if he had succeded and brought back the old republic,at the very least it would of been a awesome and inspiring story.
TBH, this is basically a wish-fulfillment timeline for far leftists. I'm not sure if you'll find anything interesting here.
Well it aint all sunshine and rainbows, I mean the UASR cracks down on free speech pretty heavily and they even have a freaking secret police force. I will acknowledge though a good deal of this is wishfuffillment and I would never fit in the world here.
Wait, then, if you don't mind me asking, how come you're in this thread?
I find it incredibly interesting and I don't have to like the political theme of a to to like the scenario and story. For example i think Rumsfeledia utterly character assanaited the Actual Rumsfeld but I still find it incredibly entertaining to read.