Murcia is all of Russia going to end up under a national socialist regime. I like the idea of European Russia a ending up in the German , Scandinavia or Italian Bloc (Are you still planning the German Scandinavian split and the German Italian split). The far east and part of Siberia ends up in the American sphere (possibly as colonies) and Central Asia and the rest of Siberia ends up under the national socialists. Still the final decision is up to you Murcia. Will America can any more footholds in the middle east after the fall of the UOCS or will they all got to other bloc.Also what ever happens the Indonesia. Also, I doubt that Canda will be proud to be assoicted with the UK ATL. They would be putting the queen on their coins. I feel that canda would be more willing to associate with America culture then British. Do the lack of pride in British heritage combined with the fact that Canda border America would probbly led to a huge movement in canda in favor of joining the USA.
Let The Eagle Scream!
- Thread starter Murica1776
- Start date
Murcia is all of Russia going to end up under a national socialist regime. I like the idea of European Russia a ending up in the German , Scandinavia or Italian Bloc (Are you still planning the German Scandinavian split and the German Italian split). The far east and part of Siberia ends up in the American sphere (possibly as colonies) and Central Asia and the rest of Siberia ends up under the national socialists. Still the final decision is up to you Murcia. Will America can any more footholds in the middle east after the fall of the UOCS or will they all got to other bloc.Also what ever happens the Indonesia. Also, I doubt that Canda will be proud to be assoicted with the UK ATL. They would be putting the queen on their coins. I feel that canda would be more willing to associate with America culture then British. Do the lack of pride in British heritage combined with the fact that Canda border America would probbly led to a huge movement in canda in favor of joining the USA.
I'm debating if the partition still occurs. If it does, then they'll be invaded. If not, they're definitely going to get almost Untouchable treatment, which could fuel terrorism, which could lead to India attacking other Islamic countries.
I essentially view their economic policy as Blue Dog Democrat from OTL. Regulation, job training, unions, and some welfare are all ok, but a larger welfare state or any kind of Democratic Socialism (which will ironically be the Republican's foray) are out of the question.
Presidential Briefing: The National People's Republic of India
Thanks to Aero for giving me most of this, which I have tweaked a bit to fit my desires. Here's a preview of things to come while I work on the post-war era!
Presidential Briefing: The National People's Republic of India
The flag of the NPRI
Capital City: Gandhi City (Formerly New Delhi)
Largest City: Mumbai
Official Languages: Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali
Ethnic Groups: Extremely Numerous, mostly of Indo-Aryan descent
Religious Groups: 65% Hindu
28% Assorted Muslim Sects
2% Sikh
2% Buddhism
1% Jainism
2% Other (Including Assorted Christian Sects)
Demonym: Indian
Government: Socialist Federal Democratic Republic (de jure)
Two-Party Socialist Federal Republic (de facto)
Legislature: All-India National Assembly
Independence from Germany: June 25th, 1965
Formally Recognized by US: June 28th, 1965
Area: 1,609,728 sq mi. (4169176 sq km)
Population: 600.41 million (1975)
Nominal GDP: USD $120.25 Billion (1975)
Currency: Indian Rupee
Introduction: India has been quite a handful for our nation for several years now, as you well know. Old Man Gandhi, who was solidly pro-American, passed away at the ripe old age of 97 in 1967, and barely had time to imprint his views on the government. His family has dominated the state ever since, although their popularity is waning and there is still resistance to their policies. The most concerning to us is he rise of Devdas Gandhi, the Old Man's youngest son. He's something of an ideological fanatic that's in charge of the Socialist Territorial Research and Analysis Wing (STRAW), the nation's external intelligence agency. He's been tied to several attacks against US interests and has made STRAW a major supporter of terrorism across the globe. The rest of the family is less bellicose, but has still advocated "exporting the revolution," in a forceful manner. This has put them at odds with our interests, and at the present time it's less accurate to think of India as a friend and more as a chaos agent in the international order. However, domestic developments indicate that things could calm down soon.
Politics: The NPRI is a Socialist state organized upon Marxist and Syndicalist economic principles, as laid out by Mahatma "Old Man" Gandhi who believed the development of a mixed economy was the first step of the "people's revolution." While the principles of planned economics as theorized earlier by Trotsky have been largely ignored in favor of the idea of "socialist self-management" being implemented across the subcontinent, the ideals of bringing about a series of perfect socialist utopias worldwide by means of exporting the revolution to less than advantageous countries across the world bring them into conflicts of interest with their former benefactors and present frenemies, us. The National People's Republic has, against all odds, resisted the temptation of falling to dictators who would seek to twist the revolutionary message for their own ends, but the Presidency is a strong position, and President Indira Gandhi (Old Man's later in life daughter) has purged "counter-revolutionary elements" in recent years, although this has thankfully taken the route of targeted arrests as opposed to mass terror. This policy isn't without its opponents. In recent years the opposition party to the Nationalist Socialist Party, the Syndicalist Party, has made headway due to the Gandhi Administration's forceful tactics and bellicose foreign rhetoric. They still mostly believe in Nationalist Socialism, but are less authoritarian and aggressive. We should try and give the SP support whenever it's safe in order to at least temporarily muzzle the NSP.
Economic Status: India is currently going through a massive economic transition. Thanks in large part to our initial subsidization of the regime, the nation is essentially experiencing an Industrial Revolution. Farm work is being rapidly mechanized and factories are opening up in Gandhi City, Mumbai, and other major urban centers. This process slowed temporarily a few years ago after we tightened the purse strings as punishment for Gandhi City's involvement with anti-Liberian revolutionaries in Madagascar, but the NSP made up for this by seizing surplus from farmers co-operatives to sell for hard currency. That too was a temporary fix as it merely encouraged the co-ops to produce less, so this policy was recently ended. The regime is now using foreign corporations to finance this industrialization by allowing them to crack open some of India's very valuable mineral reserves in return for a large investment fee paid to the government for every mine opened, as well as heavy taxes on profits earned. This has helped bring in enough hard capital for the government to continue purchasing machinery, although an emphasis is now being placed on production of such machinery so the Indian people are no longer dependent on such imports to keep up the pace of industrialization.
Culture: India became the center of a brief but intense Cultural Revolution during the late 1960s, starting with attempts to slowly dissolve the ever-present Caste System at the urging of hardliners in the government and ending with... well, the ending of numerous practices considered "taboo" by the West. Moderate factions in government, however, kept this Revolution from going further and spiraling out of control, and it is a direct result of this intervention that the Taj Mahal and other major architectural relics of pre-colonial empires on the Indian subcontinent remain standing to this day. Despite this, Indian culture remains highly conservative and the caste system is still very much alive outside of the cities. The cities are very much like some more liberal American cities, albeit somewhat more militant and conformist.
Ethnic Policy: The National People's Republic of India, as one of its core principles, promotes the principles and government policy of "Fellowship and Harmony" across the country, declaring that all races are equal and that no one ethnic group shall explicitly dominate the government. This policy hasn't exactly been perfect in implementation. Thanks to the side-effects of the Cultural Revolution and left-over Hindu chauvinism, Islamic citizens have been suffering systemic and individual discrimination. However, the government is attempting to crackdown on these policies and slowly, progress is being made.
Ideological Specifics: The NPRI is the birthplace of an ideology known as "Nationalist Socialism". Originally coined by Mohandas Gandhi's son Harilal as a means of bringing about a patriotic rebellion of expelling the genocidal Orwellian Unitists from what was at the time the British Raj, the theories eventually continued to evolve, ultimately encircling the ideas of German philosophers Karl Marx and Frederich Engels, and unsuccessful Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky. When first put into practice after the end of the German domination of India, a semi-dictatorial government has arose and brought change to the country in the form of industrialization and the formation of syndicalist co-operatives and unions. The power of the President has been limited lately in favor of a "worker's democracy" which in practice means a two-party system between the more authoritarian and nationalist Nationalist Socialist Party and the more liberal Syndicalist Party. Both hold to the tenets of Nationalist Socialism, but with different interpretations. In a practice reminiscent of the Electoral College and the ancient Roman Republic, citizens are divided into groups based on the co-op they live and work in, and whoever the co-op votes for as a majority is who wins their collective vote.
Foreign Affairs: On paper, India should be a staunch ally of the United States of America and a loyal member of our bloc. We've poured more money into them than just about any other nation. Admittedly, we could have done more during the India Crisis, but fears of escalating an already delicate and chaotic situation between the various religious groups, the nationalists, the Germans, and the UOCS prevented us from doing more. However, Mr. President, I think we can all agree that this does not excuse or justify Indian belligerence towards us. While they're much kinder to us than they are to Hans or Ivan, some of the rhetoric coming out of Gandhi City is dangerous, and their support of radicalized socialist terrorist organizations in our allies and even at home is unacceptable. It's safe to say that the nation's bellicose attitude to the rest of the world has won them few friends and many enemies. However, the rise of the Syndicalist Party and the declining power of the Gandhi family presents a light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully that light won't turn out to be the lamp on the front of a speeding train....
A fashionable Mumbai couple in American style clothing. Our soft power with the Indian youth is one of our best assets in the region and should be utilized.
President Indira Gandhi. While not as anti-American as other members of the family, she is still an aggressive "exporter of the Revolution."
Devdas Gandhi, head of STRAW. He is Public Enemy No. 1 in the NPS, and an extremist revolutionary. Nothing should be off the table in regards to containing his influence in the regime, not even wetwork if he appears to be on the verge of taking power.
Presidential Briefing: The National People's Republic of India
The flag of the NPRI
Capital City: Gandhi City (Formerly New Delhi)
Largest City: Mumbai
Official Languages: Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali
Ethnic Groups: Extremely Numerous, mostly of Indo-Aryan descent
Religious Groups: 65% Hindu
28% Assorted Muslim Sects
2% Sikh
2% Buddhism
1% Jainism
2% Other (Including Assorted Christian Sects)
Demonym: Indian
Government: Socialist Federal Democratic Republic (de jure)
Two-Party Socialist Federal Republic (de facto)
Legislature: All-India National Assembly
Independence from Germany: June 25th, 1965
Formally Recognized by US: June 28th, 1965
Area: 1,609,728 sq mi. (4169176 sq km)
Population: 600.41 million (1975)
Nominal GDP: USD $120.25 Billion (1975)
Currency: Indian Rupee
Introduction: India has been quite a handful for our nation for several years now, as you well know. Old Man Gandhi, who was solidly pro-American, passed away at the ripe old age of 97 in 1967, and barely had time to imprint his views on the government. His family has dominated the state ever since, although their popularity is waning and there is still resistance to their policies. The most concerning to us is he rise of Devdas Gandhi, the Old Man's youngest son. He's something of an ideological fanatic that's in charge of the Socialist Territorial Research and Analysis Wing (STRAW), the nation's external intelligence agency. He's been tied to several attacks against US interests and has made STRAW a major supporter of terrorism across the globe. The rest of the family is less bellicose, but has still advocated "exporting the revolution," in a forceful manner. This has put them at odds with our interests, and at the present time it's less accurate to think of India as a friend and more as a chaos agent in the international order. However, domestic developments indicate that things could calm down soon.
Politics: The NPRI is a Socialist state organized upon Marxist and Syndicalist economic principles, as laid out by Mahatma "Old Man" Gandhi who believed the development of a mixed economy was the first step of the "people's revolution." While the principles of planned economics as theorized earlier by Trotsky have been largely ignored in favor of the idea of "socialist self-management" being implemented across the subcontinent, the ideals of bringing about a series of perfect socialist utopias worldwide by means of exporting the revolution to less than advantageous countries across the world bring them into conflicts of interest with their former benefactors and present frenemies, us. The National People's Republic has, against all odds, resisted the temptation of falling to dictators who would seek to twist the revolutionary message for their own ends, but the Presidency is a strong position, and President Indira Gandhi (Old Man's later in life daughter) has purged "counter-revolutionary elements" in recent years, although this has thankfully taken the route of targeted arrests as opposed to mass terror. This policy isn't without its opponents. In recent years the opposition party to the Nationalist Socialist Party, the Syndicalist Party, has made headway due to the Gandhi Administration's forceful tactics and bellicose foreign rhetoric. They still mostly believe in Nationalist Socialism, but are less authoritarian and aggressive. We should try and give the SP support whenever it's safe in order to at least temporarily muzzle the NSP.
Economic Status: India is currently going through a massive economic transition. Thanks in large part to our initial subsidization of the regime, the nation is essentially experiencing an Industrial Revolution. Farm work is being rapidly mechanized and factories are opening up in Gandhi City, Mumbai, and other major urban centers. This process slowed temporarily a few years ago after we tightened the purse strings as punishment for Gandhi City's involvement with anti-Liberian revolutionaries in Madagascar, but the NSP made up for this by seizing surplus from farmers co-operatives to sell for hard currency. That too was a temporary fix as it merely encouraged the co-ops to produce less, so this policy was recently ended. The regime is now using foreign corporations to finance this industrialization by allowing them to crack open some of India's very valuable mineral reserves in return for a large investment fee paid to the government for every mine opened, as well as heavy taxes on profits earned. This has helped bring in enough hard capital for the government to continue purchasing machinery, although an emphasis is now being placed on production of such machinery so the Indian people are no longer dependent on such imports to keep up the pace of industrialization.
Culture: India became the center of a brief but intense Cultural Revolution during the late 1960s, starting with attempts to slowly dissolve the ever-present Caste System at the urging of hardliners in the government and ending with... well, the ending of numerous practices considered "taboo" by the West. Moderate factions in government, however, kept this Revolution from going further and spiraling out of control, and it is a direct result of this intervention that the Taj Mahal and other major architectural relics of pre-colonial empires on the Indian subcontinent remain standing to this day. Despite this, Indian culture remains highly conservative and the caste system is still very much alive outside of the cities. The cities are very much like some more liberal American cities, albeit somewhat more militant and conformist.
Ethnic Policy: The National People's Republic of India, as one of its core principles, promotes the principles and government policy of "Fellowship and Harmony" across the country, declaring that all races are equal and that no one ethnic group shall explicitly dominate the government. This policy hasn't exactly been perfect in implementation. Thanks to the side-effects of the Cultural Revolution and left-over Hindu chauvinism, Islamic citizens have been suffering systemic and individual discrimination. However, the government is attempting to crackdown on these policies and slowly, progress is being made.
Ideological Specifics: The NPRI is the birthplace of an ideology known as "Nationalist Socialism". Originally coined by Mohandas Gandhi's son Harilal as a means of bringing about a patriotic rebellion of expelling the genocidal Orwellian Unitists from what was at the time the British Raj, the theories eventually continued to evolve, ultimately encircling the ideas of German philosophers Karl Marx and Frederich Engels, and unsuccessful Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky. When first put into practice after the end of the German domination of India, a semi-dictatorial government has arose and brought change to the country in the form of industrialization and the formation of syndicalist co-operatives and unions. The power of the President has been limited lately in favor of a "worker's democracy" which in practice means a two-party system between the more authoritarian and nationalist Nationalist Socialist Party and the more liberal Syndicalist Party. Both hold to the tenets of Nationalist Socialism, but with different interpretations. In a practice reminiscent of the Electoral College and the ancient Roman Republic, citizens are divided into groups based on the co-op they live and work in, and whoever the co-op votes for as a majority is who wins their collective vote.
Foreign Affairs: On paper, India should be a staunch ally of the United States of America and a loyal member of our bloc. We've poured more money into them than just about any other nation. Admittedly, we could have done more during the India Crisis, but fears of escalating an already delicate and chaotic situation between the various religious groups, the nationalists, the Germans, and the UOCS prevented us from doing more. However, Mr. President, I think we can all agree that this does not excuse or justify Indian belligerence towards us. While they're much kinder to us than they are to Hans or Ivan, some of the rhetoric coming out of Gandhi City is dangerous, and their support of radicalized socialist terrorist organizations in our allies and even at home is unacceptable. It's safe to say that the nation's bellicose attitude to the rest of the world has won them few friends and many enemies. However, the rise of the Syndicalist Party and the declining power of the Gandhi family presents a light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully that light won't turn out to be the lamp on the front of a speeding train....
A fashionable Mumbai couple in American style clothing. Our soft power with the Indian youth is one of our best assets in the region and should be utilized.
President Indira Gandhi. While not as anti-American as other members of the family, she is still an aggressive "exporter of the Revolution."
Devdas Gandhi, head of STRAW. He is Public Enemy No. 1 in the NPS, and an extremist revolutionary. Nothing should be off the table in regards to containing his influence in the regime, not even wetwork if he appears to be on the verge of taking power.
Last edited:
Is this memo form the late 80's or early 90's.Thanks to Aero for giving me most of this, which I have tweaked a bit to fit my desires. Here's a preview of things to come while I work on the post-war era!
Presidential Briefing: The National People's Republic of India
The flag of the NPRI
Capital City: Gandhi City (Formerly New Delhi)
Largest City: Mumbai
Official Languages: Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali
Ethnic Groups: Extremely Numerous, mostly of Indo-Aryan descent
Religious Groups: 65% Hindu
28% Assorted Muslim Sects
2% Sikh
2% Buddhism
1% Jainism
2% Other (Including Assorted Christian Sects)
Demonym: Indian
Government: Socialist Federal Democratic Republic (de jure)
Two-Party Socialist Federal Republic (de facto)
Legislature: All-India National Assembly
Independence from Germany: June 25th, 1965
Formally Recognized by US: June 28th, 1965
Area: 1,609,728 sq mi. (4169176 sq km)
Population: 580.41 million (1975)
Nominal GDP: USD $120.25 Billion (1975)
Currency: Indian Rupee
Introduction: India has been quite a handful for our nation for several years now, as you well know. Old Man Gandhi, who was solidly pro-American, passed away at the ripe old age of 97 in 1967, and barely had time to imprint his views on the government. His family has dominated the state ever since, although their popularity is waning and there is still resistance to their policies. The most concerning to us is he rise of Devdas Gandhi, the Old Man's youngest son. He's something of an ideological fanatic that's in charge of the Socialist Territorial Research and Analysis Wing (STRAW), the nation's external intelligence agency. He's been tied to several attacks against US interests and has made STRAW a major supporter of terrorism across the globe. The rest of the family is less bellicose, but has still advocated "exporting the revolution," in a forceful manner. This has put them at odds with our interests, and at the present time it's less accurate to think of India as a friend and more as a chaos agent in the international order. However, domestic developments indicate that things could calm down soon.
Politics: The NPRI is a Socialist state organized upon Marxist and Syndicalist economic principles, as laid out by Mahatma "Old Man" Gandhi who believed the development of a mixed economy was the first step of the "people's revolution." While the principles of planned economics as theorized earlier by Trotsky have been largely ignored in favor of the idea of "socialist self-management" being implemented across the subcontinent, the ideals of bringing about a series of perfect socialist utopias worldwide by means of exporting the revolution to less than advantageous countries across the world bring them into conflicts of interest with their former benefactors and present frenemies, us. The National People's Republic has, against all odds, resisted the temptation of falling to dictators who would seek to twist the revolutionary message for their own ends, but the Presidency is a strong position, and President Indira Gandhi (Old Man's later in life daughter) has purged "counter-revolutionary elements" in recent years, although this has thankfully taken the route of targeted arrests as opposed to mass terror. This policy isn't without its opponents. In recent years the opposition party to the Nationalist Socialist Party, the Syndicalist Party, has made headway due to the Gandhi Administration's forceful tactics and bellicose foreign rhetoric. They still mostly believe in Nationalist Socialism, but are less authoritarian and aggressive. We should try and give the SP support whenever it's safe in order to at least temporarily muzzle the NSP.
Economic Status: India is currently going through a massive economic transition. Thanks in large part to our initial subsidization of the regime, the nation is essentially experiencing an Industrial Revolution. Farm work is being rapidly mechanized and factories are opening up in Gandhi City, Mumbai, and other major urban centers. This process slowed temporarily a few years ago after we tightened the purse strings as punishment for Gandhi City's involvement with anti-Liberian revolutionaries in Madagascar, but the NSP made up for this by seizing surplus from farmers co-operatives to sell for hard currency. That too was a temporary fix as it merely encouraged the co-ops to produce less, so this policy was recently ended. The regime is now using foreign corporations to finance this industrialization by allowing them to crack open some of India's very valuable mineral reserves in return for a large investment fee paid to the government for every mine opened, as well as heavy taxes on profits earned. This has helped bring in enough hard capital for the government to continue purchasing machinery, although an emphasis is now being placed on production of such machinery so the Indian people are no longer dependent on such imports to keep up the pace of industrialization.
Culture: India became the center of a brief but intense Cultural Revolution during the late 1960s, starting with attempts to slowly dissolve the ever-present Caste System at the urging of hardliners in the government and ending with... well, the ending of numerous practices considered "taboo" by the West. Moderate factions in government, however, kept this Revolution from going further and spiraling out of control, and it is a direct result of this intervention that the Taj Mahal and other major architectural relics of pre-colonial empires on the Indian subcontinent remain standing to this day. Despite this, Indian culture remains highly conservative and the caste system is still very much alive outside of the cities. The cities are very much like some more liberal American cities, albeit somewhat more militant and conformist.
Ethnic Policy: The National People's Republic of India, as one of its core principles, promotes the principles and government policy of "Fellowship and Harmony" across the country, declaring that all races are equal and that no one ethnic group shall explicitly dominate the government. This policy hasn't exactly been perfect in implementation. Thanks to the side-effects of the Cultural Revolution and left-over Hindu chauvinism, Islamic citizens have been suffering systemic and individual discrimination. However, the government is attempting to crackdown on these policies and slowly, progress is being made.
Ideological Specifics: The NPRI is the birthplace of an ideology known as "Nationalist Socialism". Originally coined by Mohandas Gandhi's son Harilal as a means of bringing about a patriotic rebellion of expelling the genocidal Orwellian Unitists from what was at the time the British Raj, the theories eventually continued to evolve, ultimately encircling the ideas of German philosophers Karl Marx and Frederich Engels, and unsuccessful Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky. When first put into practice after the end of the German domination of India, a semi-dictatorial government has arose and brought change to the country in the form of industrialization and the formation of syndicalist co-operatives and unions. The power of the President has been limited lately in favor of a "worker's democracy" which in practice means a two-party system between the more authoritarian and nationalist Nationalist Socialist Party and the more liberal Syndicalist Party. Both hold to the tenets of Nationalist Socialism, but with different interpretations. In a practice reminiscent of the Electoral College and the ancient Roman Republic, citizens are divided into groups based on the co-op they live and work in, and whoever the co-op votes for as a majority is who wins their collective vote.
Foreign Affairs: On paper, India should be a staunch ally of the United States of America and a loyal member of our bloc. We've poured more money into them than just about any other nation. Admittedly, we could have done more during the India Crisis, but fears of escalating an already delicate and chaotic situation between the various religious groups, the nationalists, the Germans, and the UOCS prevented us from doing more. However, Mr. President, I think we can all agree that this does not excuse or justify Indian belligerence towards us. While they're much kinder to us than they are to Hans or Ivan, some of the rhetoric coming out of Gandhi City is dangerous, and their support of radicalized socialist terrorist organizations in our allies and even at home is unacceptable. It's safe to say that the nation's bellicose attitude to the rest of the world has won them few friends and many enemies. However, the rise of the Syndicalist Party and the declining power of the Gandhi family presents a light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully that light won't turn out to be the lamp on the front of a speeding train....
A fashionable Mumbai couple in American style clothing. Our soft power with the Indian youth is one of our best assets in the region and should be utilized.
President Indira Gandhi. While not as anti-American as other members of the family, she is still an aggressive "exporter of the Revolution."
Devdas Gandhi, head of STRAW. He is Public Enemy No. 1 in the NPS, and an extremist revolutionary. Nothing should be off the table in regards to containing his influence in the regime, not even wetwork if he appears to be on the verge of taking power.
From what I read, Gandhi was Indira's married name and her husband was not related to Mohandes but she was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, OTL first prime minister of India.
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AeroTheZealousOne
Monthly Donor
I love what you did with India, and I personally believe you've done much better than I started out originally! Kudos to you, and I look forward to seeing how it all continually unfolds!
Cars, Soda, and TV: America's Post War Boom
Cars, Soda, and TV: America's Post War Boom
In the aftermath of the Second World War, the United States of America experienced the greatest economic boom in human history. Years of pent-up consumer desire, wartime savings, industrial and infrastructure buildup combined with a massive baby boom to create an unprecedented era of prosperity. While the Homeland became the wealthiest corner of the world, the Territories transformed overnight and caught up with the Homeland as quickly as they could, often exceeding most other developed nations in terms of GDP per capita by 1965.
The territories that caught up the most were the Caribbean Territories and the Philippines. The Caribbean saw a gigantic influx of tourism dollars from an America ready to enjoy its leisure time. Havana, always a glamour spot, exploded into "Hollywood in Cuba" with luxury hotels and entertainments being built rapidly to accommodate the wealthy tourists. A good amount of this all trickled down the local population, although the Irish and Italian Mobs prevented them from getting their full share. Criminal involvement in the development of Havana made the city one of the most dangerous cities in the Union, even though it was also one of the most glamorous. Mobsters cavorted with actresses while tycoons and crooked politicians found ways to make a buck or make problems "disappear." By comparison, the Philippines took a much more wholesome route to prosperity. The Big Three motor companies, American Motors, Ford, and Studebaker were looking for ways to expand their markets and make cars even cheaper. They found the perfect opportunity in the Philippines. One of the most populated territories in the Union, the area's infrastructure was built up during the war to allow for easy troop movement as the US fought off the Japanese invaders. Furthermore, although the territory was still subject to US wage and worker law, the locals weren't unionized or as well off as their Homeland counterparts, making them a cheaper option. Ford made the first move and opened a massive plant in Davao City, employing 28,000 people in the largest single industrial complex in Asia. Although not paid as well as their Homeland counterparts, the Ford plant was one of the best paying jobs in the entire Territory and when combined with an ingenious 15% Employee Discount on their first Ford, and 10% off of 1 other car for the family. This saw many employees start to buy the cars they made for themselves and their families. Ford capitalized on this and rolled out the iconic Ford Davao line, one of the most recognizable cars of the 1950's. The other manufacturers noticed how successful this investment had been for Ford and started building plants in the Philippines. Davao City became "Detroit in the Orient" and ballooned in size from 200,000 to 1,200,000 in the course of a decade. 250,000 others lived in the suburbs around the city, and Davao City became one of the largest and most prosperous cities in the entire nation. Thanks to the excellent road network in the region and the large number of people employed by the automotive industry, Filipino-Americans soon had the highest rate of car ownership out of any ethnic group in the Union, with 15 million cars for 24 million Filipinos. Thanks to the number of cars combined with newly mechanically adept and financially secure blue collar kids, the Philippines also gave birth to the "Gear Monkey" subculture. Based around modifying standard cars to make "Hot Rods," street racing, and a grittier, urban mechanic aesthetic, the subculture caught on across the Union with Hispanic and Italian Americans. The Gear Monkey subculture soon bred division amongst the youth, as a few high profile incidents gave them a reputation for sexual promiscuity and violence. As a result, fights would sometimes break out between them and the predominantly Anglo-Saxon middle and upper class kids. In the South, Anglo-Saxon and African-American teens would join forces to beat down the "Hispanic and Sicilian Invaders" to prevent them from "soiling Southern womanhood." More than anywhere else, the anti-Gear Monkey movement among the teens in the South was a class and race conflict as young white and black men banded together to defend their traditional control over the community from a wave of emigration by Hispanics from the South and Yankees as increasing industrialization in Dixie brought in additional workers from outside the South. A wider, and less controversial, car culture also arose from this boom in the automotive industry, that was best defined in this interview excerpt by Chinese-American architect and industrial designer I. M. Pei:
"When I moved to Los Angeles in 1953, I was flat broke. I lived in an apartment in Chinatown with three other guys that was the size of a shoebox, and held together by spit and glue. I was living entirely on cheap diner food and freebies from the kind couple who owned a Chinese restaurant beneath our apartment. But the first big thing I invested in wasn't a new place or better food, it was a cherry red American Motors Excelsior convertible. It was a beautiful 2 door car. I polished and waxed the whole thing bumper to bumper every Friday. On the weekends, I'd go out with a friend or a girl and drive to San Diego, Sacramento, San Francisco, wherever. I remember on one special Memorial Day weekend I taped a couple flags to my car and took a girl I'd been infatuated with for weeks out to Palm Springs to see some fireworks and try and spot the rich and famous laying out in the sun. I kissed her under the fireworks, and a year later, I married her. To me, owning a car means freedom. Freedom to go where one wishes, freedom to decide one morning you want to pack up your life and move across the country, the freedom to see things you never could before. They didn't have that in China, we're still too tied down by tradition. But one day, historians will look back and say the American car owner was the freest person to ever live."
A still from the 2010 movie The Chosen, depicting the feud between the middle class "preps" and the Italian Gear Monkeys in a small southern town
A 1954 Ford Davao
Of course, the boom in the car industry in the Philippines and the rise of the Caribbean were only a couple of the things that made up the boom. A far bigger boom going on at the time was the baby boom. Between 1946 and 1964, the United States and her territories, with a pre boom population of 300 million, saw 150 million children born, or 1 every 4 seconds for 18 years. This gigantic boom in the population also saw a humongous boom in housing, which fueled the automotive boom and the rise of television, toys, lawnmowers, and many more industries. The huge number of growing families wanted bigger houses and a yard for the kiddos. To meet this demand, thousands of large planned communities popped up across the nation. The most prominent of these were the so called Castrovilles, built by WWII veteran Cuban-American Fidel Castro. After coming home from the war, Castro took advantage of the Veteran Education Act and went to Wharton Business School. While at Wharton in 1949, he came up with the idea of mass producing homes the way everything else was being mass produced. After graduating from Wharton, Castro married Brazilian-American Maria Salazar and got a loan for his first development outside of Trenton, New Jersey. It was smaller than all the others due to the limits of the loan, consisting of only about 500 homes. However, the efficiency with which they were built and the low cost of production meant that people were able to move into affordable homes quickly. Castro made a mint on the first Castroville and would wind up building 5 more, the largest and most famous a 20,000 home development outside of Pittsburgh.
This massive and rapid suburbanization also threatened America's cities, as the large movement of middle class families threatened to decimate their tax base. A number of far-sighted economists and city officials went to Washington to request some kind of aid. To do so they painted a picture of a potentially horrid future where city services broke down, unemployment soared, and crime was rampant. One statistic even suggested the horrifying idea that New York City, that beacon of American idealism, could become the murder capital of the country. The Rockefeller Administration was swayed by these compelling arguments, as was much of the voting public and Congress, although resistance from Southern Democrats was stiff. In 1955, the Urban Communities Preservation Act was signed into law. It created a fund to inject cash into "failing cities" to buy them breathing room in the future, and created job training programs for the urban poor to become solid blue collar workers, and even helped some make it into the white collar professional class. The plan wasn't foolproof, and going into the 70's even the richest cities started to see some detrimental effects. However, many credit the UCPA with preventing massive urban decay and social upheaval unseen since the 1920's.
Given the large number of people with disposable income, it's a given that the entertainment and leisure industries exploded. As mentioned previously, the Caribbean Territories saw an uptick in tourism which transformed the region. The 1950's also saw the rise of television, as the formerly expensive technology became cheaper and networks arose to broadcast news, and create television shows. The medium was heavily censored in order to promote family values and an "apple pie vision" of America. This wasn't done by government fiat as in the UOCS or Germany, but was actually an act of cooperation between the government and the corporate CEO's who ran the Big Three (NBC, ABC, CBS) as they had similar values.
This is perhaps emblematic of an overarching theme in the 1950's. Incredible prosperity was combined with a strict conformity. Women were to stay in the home and raise the kids. Men were supposed to provide for their families. Children should obey parents and authority figures, and are to be punished if they don't. The government is to be respected, listened to, and obeyed. Patriotism and unity in the face of German imperialism and Russian totalitarianism are to be demanded at all costs. People who didn't conform to this expectation were shamed and sometimes suffered even worse, as the House Un-American Activities Committee made abundantly clear during the so-called Business Plot Scare. This conformity created a backlash among the youth, and would fuel future culture wars...
Fidel Castro talks to journalists in one of his Castro Houses outside of Trenton, New Jersey
A Castroville outside of Manila
The stars of the popular 1950's sitcom Dad's Our Chief
A colorized picture of Disneyland in California.
In the aftermath of the Second World War, the United States of America experienced the greatest economic boom in human history. Years of pent-up consumer desire, wartime savings, industrial and infrastructure buildup combined with a massive baby boom to create an unprecedented era of prosperity. While the Homeland became the wealthiest corner of the world, the Territories transformed overnight and caught up with the Homeland as quickly as they could, often exceeding most other developed nations in terms of GDP per capita by 1965.
The territories that caught up the most were the Caribbean Territories and the Philippines. The Caribbean saw a gigantic influx of tourism dollars from an America ready to enjoy its leisure time. Havana, always a glamour spot, exploded into "Hollywood in Cuba" with luxury hotels and entertainments being built rapidly to accommodate the wealthy tourists. A good amount of this all trickled down the local population, although the Irish and Italian Mobs prevented them from getting their full share. Criminal involvement in the development of Havana made the city one of the most dangerous cities in the Union, even though it was also one of the most glamorous. Mobsters cavorted with actresses while tycoons and crooked politicians found ways to make a buck or make problems "disappear." By comparison, the Philippines took a much more wholesome route to prosperity. The Big Three motor companies, American Motors, Ford, and Studebaker were looking for ways to expand their markets and make cars even cheaper. They found the perfect opportunity in the Philippines. One of the most populated territories in the Union, the area's infrastructure was built up during the war to allow for easy troop movement as the US fought off the Japanese invaders. Furthermore, although the territory was still subject to US wage and worker law, the locals weren't unionized or as well off as their Homeland counterparts, making them a cheaper option. Ford made the first move and opened a massive plant in Davao City, employing 28,000 people in the largest single industrial complex in Asia. Although not paid as well as their Homeland counterparts, the Ford plant was one of the best paying jobs in the entire Territory and when combined with an ingenious 15% Employee Discount on their first Ford, and 10% off of 1 other car for the family. This saw many employees start to buy the cars they made for themselves and their families. Ford capitalized on this and rolled out the iconic Ford Davao line, one of the most recognizable cars of the 1950's. The other manufacturers noticed how successful this investment had been for Ford and started building plants in the Philippines. Davao City became "Detroit in the Orient" and ballooned in size from 200,000 to 1,200,000 in the course of a decade. 250,000 others lived in the suburbs around the city, and Davao City became one of the largest and most prosperous cities in the entire nation. Thanks to the excellent road network in the region and the large number of people employed by the automotive industry, Filipino-Americans soon had the highest rate of car ownership out of any ethnic group in the Union, with 15 million cars for 24 million Filipinos. Thanks to the number of cars combined with newly mechanically adept and financially secure blue collar kids, the Philippines also gave birth to the "Gear Monkey" subculture. Based around modifying standard cars to make "Hot Rods," street racing, and a grittier, urban mechanic aesthetic, the subculture caught on across the Union with Hispanic and Italian Americans. The Gear Monkey subculture soon bred division amongst the youth, as a few high profile incidents gave them a reputation for sexual promiscuity and violence. As a result, fights would sometimes break out between them and the predominantly Anglo-Saxon middle and upper class kids. In the South, Anglo-Saxon and African-American teens would join forces to beat down the "Hispanic and Sicilian Invaders" to prevent them from "soiling Southern womanhood." More than anywhere else, the anti-Gear Monkey movement among the teens in the South was a class and race conflict as young white and black men banded together to defend their traditional control over the community from a wave of emigration by Hispanics from the South and Yankees as increasing industrialization in Dixie brought in additional workers from outside the South. A wider, and less controversial, car culture also arose from this boom in the automotive industry, that was best defined in this interview excerpt by Chinese-American architect and industrial designer I. M. Pei:
"When I moved to Los Angeles in 1953, I was flat broke. I lived in an apartment in Chinatown with three other guys that was the size of a shoebox, and held together by spit and glue. I was living entirely on cheap diner food and freebies from the kind couple who owned a Chinese restaurant beneath our apartment. But the first big thing I invested in wasn't a new place or better food, it was a cherry red American Motors Excelsior convertible. It was a beautiful 2 door car. I polished and waxed the whole thing bumper to bumper every Friday. On the weekends, I'd go out with a friend or a girl and drive to San Diego, Sacramento, San Francisco, wherever. I remember on one special Memorial Day weekend I taped a couple flags to my car and took a girl I'd been infatuated with for weeks out to Palm Springs to see some fireworks and try and spot the rich and famous laying out in the sun. I kissed her under the fireworks, and a year later, I married her. To me, owning a car means freedom. Freedom to go where one wishes, freedom to decide one morning you want to pack up your life and move across the country, the freedom to see things you never could before. They didn't have that in China, we're still too tied down by tradition. But one day, historians will look back and say the American car owner was the freest person to ever live."
A still from the 2010 movie The Chosen, depicting the feud between the middle class "preps" and the Italian Gear Monkeys in a small southern town
A 1954 Ford Davao
Of course, the boom in the car industry in the Philippines and the rise of the Caribbean were only a couple of the things that made up the boom. A far bigger boom going on at the time was the baby boom. Between 1946 and 1964, the United States and her territories, with a pre boom population of 300 million, saw 150 million children born, or 1 every 4 seconds for 18 years. This gigantic boom in the population also saw a humongous boom in housing, which fueled the automotive boom and the rise of television, toys, lawnmowers, and many more industries. The huge number of growing families wanted bigger houses and a yard for the kiddos. To meet this demand, thousands of large planned communities popped up across the nation. The most prominent of these were the so called Castrovilles, built by WWII veteran Cuban-American Fidel Castro. After coming home from the war, Castro took advantage of the Veteran Education Act and went to Wharton Business School. While at Wharton in 1949, he came up with the idea of mass producing homes the way everything else was being mass produced. After graduating from Wharton, Castro married Brazilian-American Maria Salazar and got a loan for his first development outside of Trenton, New Jersey. It was smaller than all the others due to the limits of the loan, consisting of only about 500 homes. However, the efficiency with which they were built and the low cost of production meant that people were able to move into affordable homes quickly. Castro made a mint on the first Castroville and would wind up building 5 more, the largest and most famous a 20,000 home development outside of Pittsburgh.
This massive and rapid suburbanization also threatened America's cities, as the large movement of middle class families threatened to decimate their tax base. A number of far-sighted economists and city officials went to Washington to request some kind of aid. To do so they painted a picture of a potentially horrid future where city services broke down, unemployment soared, and crime was rampant. One statistic even suggested the horrifying idea that New York City, that beacon of American idealism, could become the murder capital of the country. The Rockefeller Administration was swayed by these compelling arguments, as was much of the voting public and Congress, although resistance from Southern Democrats was stiff. In 1955, the Urban Communities Preservation Act was signed into law. It created a fund to inject cash into "failing cities" to buy them breathing room in the future, and created job training programs for the urban poor to become solid blue collar workers, and even helped some make it into the white collar professional class. The plan wasn't foolproof, and going into the 70's even the richest cities started to see some detrimental effects. However, many credit the UCPA with preventing massive urban decay and social upheaval unseen since the 1920's.
Given the large number of people with disposable income, it's a given that the entertainment and leisure industries exploded. As mentioned previously, the Caribbean Territories saw an uptick in tourism which transformed the region. The 1950's also saw the rise of television, as the formerly expensive technology became cheaper and networks arose to broadcast news, and create television shows. The medium was heavily censored in order to promote family values and an "apple pie vision" of America. This wasn't done by government fiat as in the UOCS or Germany, but was actually an act of cooperation between the government and the corporate CEO's who ran the Big Three (NBC, ABC, CBS) as they had similar values.
This is perhaps emblematic of an overarching theme in the 1950's. Incredible prosperity was combined with a strict conformity. Women were to stay in the home and raise the kids. Men were supposed to provide for their families. Children should obey parents and authority figures, and are to be punished if they don't. The government is to be respected, listened to, and obeyed. Patriotism and unity in the face of German imperialism and Russian totalitarianism are to be demanded at all costs. People who didn't conform to this expectation were shamed and sometimes suffered even worse, as the House Un-American Activities Committee made abundantly clear during the so-called Business Plot Scare. This conformity created a backlash among the youth, and would fuel future culture wars...
Fidel Castro talks to journalists in one of his Castro Houses outside of Trenton, New Jersey
A Castroville outside of Manila
The stars of the popular 1950's sitcom Dad's Our Chief
A colorized picture of Disneyland in California.
I saw that, but decided it would be more interesting to have her be Mohandes's daughter ITTL. She's an interesting lady who we'll be seeing more of soon.
"Are You Currently, or Have You Ever Been Associated With German High Command?"
"Are You Currently, or Have You Ever Been Associated With German High Command?"
America in the Shadow War was a place constantly on alert. Vigilance against the Germans and Russians was practically held as a gospel. In 1953, German-American businessman Fred C. Koch was sentenced to death for illegally selling weapons technology to the Germans in return for millions of dollars in gold and oil rights in Egypt. At his execution on June 3rd, Mr. Koch said the famous words that would spark an unprecedented panic:
"I used to be an American Patriot. Before those Bolshevik Roosevelts and their ideological children destroyed true conservatism and property rights in this country. Now, we're going even further left. Trotsky might have failed, but his bastard children will destroy free enterprise in this country. German dominance is the only hope we have of saving Western Civilization and Liberal Capitalism. I feel this way, and so do many American businessman, they've told me so. God save us all."
These words were broadcast on the radio across the nation. Immediately, panic and paranoia set in. Thousands of angry citizens rallied in the streets demanding action, and the US Congress declared that the month of June was the single busiest mail month in the body's history. The very liberal Republican Representative from New York's 30th District, John Heinz, used his position on the HUAC as a bully pulpit to demand a formal inquiry. He became a media darling, and soon tens of thousands of Americans from across the nation were declaring themselves Heinzers and demanding an investigation into what the New York Times dubbed the "Business Plot." President Rockefeller refused to comment on the alleged plot, but privately tried to undermine Heinz as he feared the eruption of a witch hunt. History would prove these fears well-founded.
On September 15th, 1953, the House Un-American Activities Committee announced a formal Congressional inquiry into "the so-called Business Plot and other potential acts of treason, sedition, and/or criminal malice among our nation's business community." Subpoenas were issued for a who's who of America's business community, including Edsel Ford of the Ford Motor Company, the DuPonts of the DuPont chemical and plastics empire, and Nicholas Schenck of the Loew-Mayer Film Studio. The American public was treated to a televised spectacle unlike anything ever before witnessed as HUAC grilled some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the country. Heinz asked the harshest and most outrageous questions, and became infamous for compiling dossiers of quotes from each tycoon that could be interpreted as less than approving of the nation and its government, as well as attacking people on their personal backgrounds. While the other members were less aggressive, they employed similar tactics. Former isolationists were asked about their ties to the former Unitist Bloc. Orthodox Christians were made to declare that loyalty to Washington came before loyalty to the Patriarch. All those interviewed, regardless of background, were asked one question that became famous throughout pop culture:
"Are you currently, or have you ever been, associated with German High Command?"
While these interrogations and concurrent investigations by the FBI and OSS did occasionally reveal questionable or treasonous behavior on the part of the assorted captains of industry, they more often than not were just smoke and mirrors fueled by demagoguery and fear. HUAC ran rampant through the business community, and those actually found guilty of treason often found their families ruined as the government seized and sold off their assets. However, the hunt would soon be popped like a balloon after one memorable exchange between John Heinz and Ford founder and former CEO Henry Ford, who still had investments in the armaments industry. The aged tycoon sat across from the Committee on December 13th, radiating authority and dignity. Then, John Heinz spent 15 minutes attacking him and his past, dredging up old anti-Semitic remarks and quotes that implied an appreciation for authoritarianism. Finally, Heinz asked:
"Mr. Ford, wouldn't you agree that these remarks indicate a total lack of appreciation for Jews, the poor, and those with so-called weak wills? Wouldn't you agree that such sentiments are contrary to Americanism? Or, perhaps put more simply, Mr. Ford, why do you hate America? Why do you hate your home?"
What happened next is one of the most famous moments in American political history. The nearly 90 year old Ford stood up, slammed his fist on the table, and retorted:
"Mr. Heinz, how dare you! How dare you sir! Have I made remarks I regret? Absolutely. My experiences later in life have made me realize how wrong-headed my position on the Jewish people was. The limits of age have made me realize that no strong man will remain strong forever. However sir, even when I believed in those wrong-headed things, I never, NEVER had anything but the utmost love for this country. If this country was under the Kaiserism of the Krauts or the despotism of the Russians, I would have died a dirt poor farmer in Michigan, the way I was born. Thanks to the liberties afforded to all men in this great nation, I was able to build my company. I thank God for the United States of America every morning and every evening, and to imply otherwise is utterly dishonest and indecent. So Mr. Heinz, I have a question for you: Do you have no decency sir? At long last sir, do you have no decency at all? I believe, unfortunately, that the answer to that question is No."
As the Washington Post would report: "After Mr. Ford's thundering tirade, Congressman Heinz turned a rather dark shade of purple. The rest of the Committee, including Chairman Joseph McCarthy of Pennsylvania, turned a ghostly shade of white. After several moments of utterly oppressive silence, Chairman McCarthy leaned forward and said "Mr. Heinz, your line of questioning was utterly inappropriate. Mr. Ford, on behalf of this Committee I apologise. You're free to go." The gallery erupted in applause as the elderly tycoon strode away with a confidence and strength unnatural for his age. Ford quickly became an icon for the Democratic party, who declared HUAC's actions "more befitting a dictatorship than a democracy." On December 15th, HUAC announced that the investigation was finished. Heinz was censured by the House, and lost his seat to a primary challenger in 1954. Ford died January 3rd, 1954, just three weeks after his legendary response. As requested in his will, 10% of his fortune was donated to the Jewish American Veterans of Foreign Wars, a subsection of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The JAVFW built the Ford Museum of Jewish American History, and devoted a plaque dedicated to Ford and his 180 on the Jewish community. In his most public rebuke to Heinzism (as it was being called) to date, President Rockefeller attended Ford's funeral and gave a powerful eulogy for the fallen titan, declaring "Henry Ford's life is a testament to the awesome power of the American experiment to evolve and grow. Ford was certainly no saint, but he was capable of admitting when he was wrong. That's about as close as any of us can get to being saints."
Heinzism would reverberate throughout American history as a buzzword for demagoguery and out of control political witch hunting. Heinz was studied as a "textbook case of the dictatorial personality" for his demagoguery and apparent narcissism. In the short term, the fear the example of Heinz inspired encouraged corporations to aggressively tout their "100% Americanism," and contributed to the conformity of the 1950's as well as heightening anti-German sentiment.
Chairman McCarthy apologizes to Henry Ford
Fred Koch, oil tycoon and convicted traitor
The funeral procession of Henry Ford. The JAVFW sent an honor guard to pay respects on behalf of the organization.
America in the Shadow War was a place constantly on alert. Vigilance against the Germans and Russians was practically held as a gospel. In 1953, German-American businessman Fred C. Koch was sentenced to death for illegally selling weapons technology to the Germans in return for millions of dollars in gold and oil rights in Egypt. At his execution on June 3rd, Mr. Koch said the famous words that would spark an unprecedented panic:
"I used to be an American Patriot. Before those Bolshevik Roosevelts and their ideological children destroyed true conservatism and property rights in this country. Now, we're going even further left. Trotsky might have failed, but his bastard children will destroy free enterprise in this country. German dominance is the only hope we have of saving Western Civilization and Liberal Capitalism. I feel this way, and so do many American businessman, they've told me so. God save us all."
These words were broadcast on the radio across the nation. Immediately, panic and paranoia set in. Thousands of angry citizens rallied in the streets demanding action, and the US Congress declared that the month of June was the single busiest mail month in the body's history. The very liberal Republican Representative from New York's 30th District, John Heinz, used his position on the HUAC as a bully pulpit to demand a formal inquiry. He became a media darling, and soon tens of thousands of Americans from across the nation were declaring themselves Heinzers and demanding an investigation into what the New York Times dubbed the "Business Plot." President Rockefeller refused to comment on the alleged plot, but privately tried to undermine Heinz as he feared the eruption of a witch hunt. History would prove these fears well-founded.
On September 15th, 1953, the House Un-American Activities Committee announced a formal Congressional inquiry into "the so-called Business Plot and other potential acts of treason, sedition, and/or criminal malice among our nation's business community." Subpoenas were issued for a who's who of America's business community, including Edsel Ford of the Ford Motor Company, the DuPonts of the DuPont chemical and plastics empire, and Nicholas Schenck of the Loew-Mayer Film Studio. The American public was treated to a televised spectacle unlike anything ever before witnessed as HUAC grilled some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the country. Heinz asked the harshest and most outrageous questions, and became infamous for compiling dossiers of quotes from each tycoon that could be interpreted as less than approving of the nation and its government, as well as attacking people on their personal backgrounds. While the other members were less aggressive, they employed similar tactics. Former isolationists were asked about their ties to the former Unitist Bloc. Orthodox Christians were made to declare that loyalty to Washington came before loyalty to the Patriarch. All those interviewed, regardless of background, were asked one question that became famous throughout pop culture:
"Are you currently, or have you ever been, associated with German High Command?"
While these interrogations and concurrent investigations by the FBI and OSS did occasionally reveal questionable or treasonous behavior on the part of the assorted captains of industry, they more often than not were just smoke and mirrors fueled by demagoguery and fear. HUAC ran rampant through the business community, and those actually found guilty of treason often found their families ruined as the government seized and sold off their assets. However, the hunt would soon be popped like a balloon after one memorable exchange between John Heinz and Ford founder and former CEO Henry Ford, who still had investments in the armaments industry. The aged tycoon sat across from the Committee on December 13th, radiating authority and dignity. Then, John Heinz spent 15 minutes attacking him and his past, dredging up old anti-Semitic remarks and quotes that implied an appreciation for authoritarianism. Finally, Heinz asked:
"Mr. Ford, wouldn't you agree that these remarks indicate a total lack of appreciation for Jews, the poor, and those with so-called weak wills? Wouldn't you agree that such sentiments are contrary to Americanism? Or, perhaps put more simply, Mr. Ford, why do you hate America? Why do you hate your home?"
What happened next is one of the most famous moments in American political history. The nearly 90 year old Ford stood up, slammed his fist on the table, and retorted:
"Mr. Heinz, how dare you! How dare you sir! Have I made remarks I regret? Absolutely. My experiences later in life have made me realize how wrong-headed my position on the Jewish people was. The limits of age have made me realize that no strong man will remain strong forever. However sir, even when I believed in those wrong-headed things, I never, NEVER had anything but the utmost love for this country. If this country was under the Kaiserism of the Krauts or the despotism of the Russians, I would have died a dirt poor farmer in Michigan, the way I was born. Thanks to the liberties afforded to all men in this great nation, I was able to build my company. I thank God for the United States of America every morning and every evening, and to imply otherwise is utterly dishonest and indecent. So Mr. Heinz, I have a question for you: Do you have no decency sir? At long last sir, do you have no decency at all? I believe, unfortunately, that the answer to that question is No."
As the Washington Post would report: "After Mr. Ford's thundering tirade, Congressman Heinz turned a rather dark shade of purple. The rest of the Committee, including Chairman Joseph McCarthy of Pennsylvania, turned a ghostly shade of white. After several moments of utterly oppressive silence, Chairman McCarthy leaned forward and said "Mr. Heinz, your line of questioning was utterly inappropriate. Mr. Ford, on behalf of this Committee I apologise. You're free to go." The gallery erupted in applause as the elderly tycoon strode away with a confidence and strength unnatural for his age. Ford quickly became an icon for the Democratic party, who declared HUAC's actions "more befitting a dictatorship than a democracy." On December 15th, HUAC announced that the investigation was finished. Heinz was censured by the House, and lost his seat to a primary challenger in 1954. Ford died January 3rd, 1954, just three weeks after his legendary response. As requested in his will, 10% of his fortune was donated to the Jewish American Veterans of Foreign Wars, a subsection of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The JAVFW built the Ford Museum of Jewish American History, and devoted a plaque dedicated to Ford and his 180 on the Jewish community. In his most public rebuke to Heinzism (as it was being called) to date, President Rockefeller attended Ford's funeral and gave a powerful eulogy for the fallen titan, declaring "Henry Ford's life is a testament to the awesome power of the American experiment to evolve and grow. Ford was certainly no saint, but he was capable of admitting when he was wrong. That's about as close as any of us can get to being saints."
Heinzism would reverberate throughout American history as a buzzword for demagoguery and out of control political witch hunting. Heinz was studied as a "textbook case of the dictatorial personality" for his demagoguery and apparent narcissism. In the short term, the fear the example of Heinz inspired encouraged corporations to aggressively tout their "100% Americanism," and contributed to the conformity of the 1950's as well as heightening anti-German sentiment.
Chairman McCarthy apologizes to Henry Ford
Fred Koch, oil tycoon and convicted traitor
The funeral procession of Henry Ford. The JAVFW sent an honor guard to pay respects on behalf of the organization.
A shame this america could not avoid the sexism of OTL, but having it be so ahead on racial issues that Henry Ford gets a Jewish honor guard at his funeral is pretty damn impressive.
Thanks! Yeah, I thought that this would be a nice, touching way to show how much better things are in some ways, yet similar in others. I personally thought that something more realistic in creating a more racially tolerant America is that men of all races and a certain disposition would band together to do things like try and suppress feminism, etc.
I'm honestly thinking about writing a profile on him for world building purposes and to kinda show what I think TTL's America fundamentally is. A place that is far from utopic, but that offers more resistance to its worst impulses compared to OTL.
I knew I wanted to do something fun with an OTL Cold War figure, and thought what could be better than making one of OTL's most famous anti-American communists a Wharton educated capitalist who invents that most American of ideas, the modern suburb.
AeroTheZealousOne
Monthly Donor
I love it. Castro being responsible for the suburbs as I read and was reminded of by Unknown is also pure gold.
Fred Koch was completely self-righteous. He sold classified military technology to a foreign government for millions of dollars and he has the gall to say he is in the right. He was a traitor, a liar, and a greedy spy.
Wonder if his sons will go on to become Hyper Patriotic socialists in response to their dads betrayal
Oh absolutely. I wanted the reason for the panic to be somewhat more grounded than OTL, and figured a Bircher like Koch would probably be scratching his teeth at this kind of America.
I thought about it, but felt it was too "ehh see what I did there?" Likely they just live normal lives and if asked about their last name, insist that they come from an unrelated bunch of Kochs.
Also, here's a preview for the next chapter, which will start us moving out of the 50's and into the 60's.
Drop Out and Tune In: The Journeyers, the Hippies, and the Start of the Culture Wars
Journeyers at a "slam poetry reading" in Pittsburgh's Cultural District
Hippies at the Greenport Music Festival.
Democratic Presidential candidate Richard M. Nixon on the campaign trail in 1968. His rhetoric was frequently anti-Hippie and anti-Journeyer.
The thing is I also am fervently anti-communist. For me it was not so much his goals but his means I disliked.