We're back to the 1960s again, and with Russia's fate out of the way, there's still so much unfinished business to cover. Japanese politics, Iberian politics, the aforementioned Indochinese Crisis, the flare-ups between Poland and Ukraine, and U.S. politics. I hope this isn't too much of a mess, but regardless, a hodgepodge of everything is here in...
CHAPTER 14: Proxy Wars, Pressing Issues, and Politics as Usual
"...and this is why I implore you, fellow colleagues in the Senate, to pass this bill. It's not what any of us are hoping for. I know that there are many Democrats who believe that this goes too far. I know a number of Republicans who think this doesn't go far enough. And only God knows the possible objections of the moderates But if we don't do this, the rioting will get worse. It won't just be Atlanta, or Jacksonville, or Houston, or even the events that happened last week in Baltimore.
-U.S. Senator (and future U.S. Vice President) John Glenn, in a speech to the Senate delivered in early 1968 in favor of passing the Civil Liberties Act, which would abolish the poll tax and attempt to enforce equal funding for segregated facilities
"BRITS OUT OF PALESTINE!"
-A translated slogan on the side of an apartment complex's eastern wall in Tel Aviv, spotted in 1966
"Vietnam's not a pleasant place to be anymore. Those thugs in the government, I know they ordered that massacre. It wasn't just a lone Catholic gunman. There were cops who stood by and did nothing.
-A Buddhist Refugee's testimony that appeared in The Guardian on February 15, 1970
According to right-leaning French politicians, the native peoples of places in the great French Empire such as Algeria, Madagascar, and Indochina are becoming increasingly ungrateful for the role of France in working to "civilize" their land. Algeria would serve to be a low-level nuisance for France stretched out over the early 1960s before gaining significant steam in the 1970s; Madagascar would gain autonomy under legislation passed in 1965, and with much of the rest of the territories peaceful or otherwise pacified, France turned towards refocusing on a contested area: Indochina.
Southeast Asia hasn't changed much in the past few decades. The poor are still poor, the rich are still rich, and there's scuffling between Catholics and Buddhists as well as local Communists and colonial authorities
[1]. The Reds aren't as well-stocked or supported as they would like to be, with Russia turning inwards to fight itself, North China being landlocked and skirmishing with South China, Illyria trying to rebuild and figure out how to handle all those Serbian paramilitaries calling for a massive border adjustment, and Iberia's help ofttimes subjected to relentless searches and seizures by local naval patrols, chilling relations between France and Iberia. The Communists aren't the only force fighting for independence, and there are a number of different groups in the area, from various nationalists to reactionary religious fundamentalists with similarities to the. These two would form a coalition called the "Indochinese National Front" in English, and in a moment of realpolitik, would be backed by the Empire of Japan with guns and ships
[2], not to mention ammunition for the guns, and that the ships are actually submarines
[3]. The only flaw to this plan? Most willing rebels were based inland. A few stragetic locations on the coast with supply lines into the jungles of Laos and Cambodia through the rest of Vietnam helped in solving many of the early logistical problems. Even so, these rebels weren't popular with the locals, at least in the beginning.
Japan needed an inning to expand its hegemony in the region and to remind the Western World that the Empire is now a force to truly be reckoned with. Obtaining oil to fuel the Japanese war machine and the slowly-growing civilian industries was a priority, made more difficult with oil prices locked behind high British and American tariffs. Mexican people, suffering from a prolonged boycott of their oil nationalized under the administation of Lazaro Cardenas, were also looked down upon in xenophobic discourse because they're not Anglo-Saxons, and probably because they fought a silly little war over some land twelve decades prior. With the Japanese needing a cheap source to acquire oil, and Mexico needing a reliable market to sell it in after their earlier nationalizations, a deal was struck, and Mexico, while never officially part of the Co-Prosperity Sphere, became considerably more important to the interests of Tokyo. With this, Japan went about to helping fuel the Latin American's slow economic rise to prominence. While a friendship between Mexico and Japan would possibly draw the ire of the United States, a coup had simply never materialized for some reason or another, and Mexico was, for the time being, free to remain mostly independent from the whims of Washington. And with this, Japan's oil problems would be temporarily alleviated. Securing oil and political interests in the Middle East came second to distantly taking France down a peg or two. Mexico, though another story for another time, would come to remember the 1960s as a time of plenty and a time of prosperity.
[4]
The Crisis would last from 1964 to 1967, ultimately ending with the partition of the country into three different countries. The fighting was far from being as vicious as the infamous Civil War that was tearing the Soviet Union to shreds at the same time, but it was enough to kill over half a million locals and a little more than fifteen thousand volunteers from France, Japan, and Siam. The local communists were the first to be knocked from the fight, with the intellectuals and upper echelons of the Party fleeing to North China via smuggling through India and Tibet, with the rest being forced to surrender and be prisoners of war
[5]. France, after a series of mass-resignations over the handling of the conflict and anti-colonial protests from the left, had a new moderate government that ultimately decided to cut their losses and meet with the Japanese in a renegotiation and recognition of spheres of influence. The mess of the conflict made it difficult to understand who came out on top until after the negotiations, where the following settlements were reached:
- Indochina would be partitioned: Western Laos and Western Cambodia would become part of Siam, while the rest would simply be "Vietnam". This new Vietnamese-dominated 'secular'[6] state would fall into Japan's sphere of influence.
- A constitutional monarchy would be established in Vietnam, with Bao Long[7] crowned as Emperor of the state, and Ngo Dinh Diem as Prime Minister. Both would take "advice" from Tokyo, but the latter would hold the real power in the country until his eventual death in 1973.
- Japan promised to end all support to rebels in other French-controlled regions within the Pacific.
Following this arrangement, French troops were either called home or rotated around to other colonial possessions. This embarrassment ensured that conservative-leaning politicians would have a much tougher time getting elected to French Government throughout the 1970s, and directly inspired thousands of disadvantaged colonial peoples, though it would be years before they would take direct action en masse. Japan had secured a massive propaganda victory and added another nation to what is now known as the "Greater Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere". Most outside perspectives lack deep understanding of this proxy conflict, but the consensus is that it was, in polite terms, a contest of one's honor and will. France's concession would spark a domino effect that would be accelerated in the coming decade. Decolonization would be a slow process, yet at least the powers of Europe would knew better than to just give them their freedom without any direction or support. Japan's success in the region only fed their "victory disease", and they still wanted more. The Philippines, once the United States finally lets them go, will be a target to be roped in. Perhaps they could buy a few islands from those Americans. Even if they're not fond of the Japanese, money is still money, right? Indonesia would follow, as the Dutch have had it easy for far too long. Endless expansion for the interservice rivalry, now between the Army, the Navy, and the recently-established Imperial Japanese Air Force
[8] was what the increasingly corrupt elites were seeking, but their stagnation and subsequent downfall would be inevitable as a direct result.
---
A little earlier back stateside, the United States was still hot off the heels of a peaceful decade with a recovered economy. After the Taft reforms of the early 1950s, some regulations reluctantly implemented by Presidents Garner and Knox were no longer on the law books, and while some remained, minimum wages did not go up to account for inflation, and worker's protections were quietly gutted. Strikes were put down a little more freely. The Communist Party was still alive and kicking, but with the chaos in Russia, there wasn't much of any party line to follow, and so they went their own way and slowly became a bit more libertine over time, reflecting the influence of Iberian politics on left-wing parties in the U.S. This didn't win them much of any votes, nor did it unite the various splintered socialist parties attempting to participate in the democratic process, but it showed that even with the government attempting to make the markets freer and by proxy the rich people freer, the labor movement wasn't dead. President Dirksen focused a little more on expansion of civil liberties and slowly opening the United States to foreign affairs. President George Wallace wanted to change some of this, but segregation was being questioned, this "civil rights" thing was getting a few people uppity in the south, and this had to be addressed first before the country spiraled out of control. It took months to narrowly pass the "Economic Freedom Act of 1961", a bill (that became a law) which made small but sizeable cuts to public services and subsidized private entities such as private schools and private healthcare centers. Deregulation would become the general economic trend of the 1960s, which had the side effect of bringing the economy to new heights. And even with the inevitable racial strife and increasing income inequality, the decade would be known across the United States as the "Booming Sixties", a new version of the Roaring Twenties. A mentality shared in the world of massive Japanese conglomerates (
zaibatsus) that 'greed is good' began to permeate through the public eye, and even with a divided public on the subjects of segregation and racial discrimination, the people voted for fiscal conservatives and social moderates in the 1962 midterm elections and throughout the decade, making it slightly harder to push for segregation on a federal level, had the President decided to do so.
However, President Wallace would not live to see the beginning of the next session of Congress. After giving an hour-long speech on education and proceeding to exit the Indiana State House in Indianapolis, tragedy struck. At approximately 3:15 in the afternoon, a disgruntled young man with the belief that the President wasn't going far enough to enforce American Christian values and enshrining the superiority of the white Anglo-Saxon man made his way up to the top floor of the six-story apartment building, pulled out a rifle, and fired four loud shots into the frigid afternoon air. One hit a Secret Service agent in the arm. Another missed its target by an inch and took the life of a Congressman's intern. The last two fatally struck down down the 38th President of the United States, later to be pronounced dead at 3:32 PM Eastern Standard Time. The perpetrator, one Jim Warren Jones
[9], would be captured and imprisoned later that day off to the side of a state highway just outside a small town in eastern Indiana. His destination was unknown, and he would not share where he was going, but the incident ended in a shootout, with Jones failing to take the life of a police officer, and another police officer
not failing to take out a kneecap. The news went across the country very quickly. Some cried, some celebrated, and some were lynched just because the hero of states' rights was out of the picture and they felt the need to take some anger out on so-called inferior people.
Exactly twenty minutes later, Joseph Patrick Kennedy Jr. was informed of the news, lowered his head, and sighed. Then he took the oath of office, and began the task of guiding the country from the highest office in the land, one he did not expect to have to take at any point in time. He was, until this day, merely the Vice-President, even though his father knew he would ascend to the highest office in the land some day. Neither father or son thought it would be in this manner. The rest of his term was much more moderate in tone, being careful not to make any major moves on the issue of racial inequality. He doesn't want shot by another crazy Marxist now, does he? Instead, the rest of his term and beyond was about overseeing the economic prosperity that was developing in the United States and enjoying some good 'ol American music, like this new thing called rock and roll. He was popular enough, and made sure that America wasn't in the business of fighting in fights that weren't theirs, just like almost every President after Woodrow Wilson. It's not that he was indifferent to the plight of many Americans who just couldn't seem to have everything go right for them, he felt the need to use it for other purposes that might be more popular. An interstate highway system is clearly a waste of taxpayer money, but years down the line, a future President might just have good justification for getting something like that built, maybe even as a public works project. Maybe even another Kennedy. Until then, road trips would be all about taking in the scenery, traveling less than fifty-five miles per hour
[10], and providing good business to many roadside towns that suddenly found themselves making quite the pretty penny. The legislation in the fast lane, however, was a partial rollback of the Fair Deal, particularly focusing on and a full repeal of an obscure Act passed under the Knox Administration in 1942 that would have prevented banks from using the money their customers were saving outside of the bank. This was done in exchange for enough political capital to pass a bill protecting those with physical and mental disabilities from business discrimination. Not the greatest deal in the history of the country, and said law only managed to protect federal employees with further protections being left to the states, but it was a start
[11]. An unwanted side effect of this was the sowing of the seeds of financial turmoil down the line, but President Kennedy was only doing the best he could, and followed the establishment with fiscal policy while pushing for new legislation in favor of maintaining infrastructure and raising funding for a nuclear weapons program as a deterrent against both the Europeans and the Japanese (and maybe even the Russians if they could pull themselves together again), a program which would come to a bright and fiery fruition over Midway Island on New Year's Eve of 1968.
Joe Kennedy was soundly elected to a term of his own in 1964 with running mate Birch Bayh against the Republican ticket of Earl Warren and Nelson Rockefeller. These next four years would be quieter than expected, with some of the most extreme laws passed under Wallace silently repealed, though the privatizations remained in effect, and were even expanded under the first Kennedy Administration. An increase in Eastern European and Russian immigration has prompted the government to pass legislation restricting such a flow of un-American foreigners. Racial issues were still a hot-button issue across the country, but much of it was swept under the rug, even with the watered-down 1968 Civil Liberties Act that de-segregated federal facilities (but did absolutely nothing at the state level or in the private sector). Northern liberals simply kept quiet and enjoyed the economic success, conservatives were happy with the new "Gilded Age" that came about, isolationists were glad to see the United States keep to itself, xenophobes didn't want any more broke and smelly immigrants
[12] beyond those already part of the melting pot, and anyone trying to rock the proverbial boat was made an example of. Civil rights leaders were harassed, lynched, and/or even shot in broad daylight in the Deep South. Strikes were put down just like they've almost always been put down: with force. Richard Nixon's FBI made sure anyone left of being extremely liberal on the political spectrum was kept a safe distance away from Washington. And the status quo, at least politically, was here to stay, as far as everyone with any real say in the process was concerned. Only God and the next President knew what it would take to change this, but for now, why shake things up more than they already have been? It's a free country, after all.
---
The Land of the Rising Sun has reached the mid-afternoon of a rather bloody century. The Second Sun is still high in the sky after numerous exploits in China, the wrangling of the de-facto independent-ish Siberia into unfairly-balanced mineral exports as part of World War II's reparation deals, and a recent victory in violently persuading the French to vacate their former colonies in Southeast Asia, now falling under the benevolent protection and guidance of the Emperor in what is now known as the Greater Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere. A domestic market for civilian manufacturing has begun to spring up, and while most
gaijin (with the notable exceptions of Italy and Mexico, and to a lesser extent Bulgaria) have not been buying a lot of Japanese-made vehicles and appliances, electronics made predominantly by Sumitomo. Trucking, of all careers, became profitable across the Home Islands and across Manshukoku, with Daihatsu being one of the largest diesel-powered
freight automobile manufacturers in Japan, and Kurogane always seeming to come in second regardless of corporate policy
[13]. More common cars were manufactured by Isuzu, Toyota, and Nissan, and sold well, with considerably higher quality vehicles manufactured here than anywhere else in Asia. The Empire was, on the surface, stable
[14]. The quality of life has never been higher, Korea has been a part of Japan for many years, and is currently the most stable it has been since 1910, and the numerous treaty ports and surrounding cities on China's coast are becoming massive metropolitan areas thanks to various investments. (Said cities are also filled with expected vices, but that's often overlooked by local authorities who are on the payrolls of various gangsters, triads, and yakuza members alike.) Skyscrapers are not necessarily common across the Empire, but during the decade many high-rises will come to dominate the various skylines across Japan, with poorer districts cleared out for the direct purpose of bringing in profit and tourism, even if Japan herself is, ironically enough, going through a period of domestic isolation where there aren't all that many foreign visitors coming and going. The oil problem has recently been mitigated by relations with Mexico, but fueling the large and over-budgeted military on top of their shiny new space program was still very expensive and difficult, and thus imports from the Middle East, despite British dominance in local oil production, is becoming more and more relied on, in spite of diplomatic distance from Europe in recent years.
For the people of Japan, this was as good as life would ever get. For everyone else who wasn't lucky enough to be born Japanese, this would be a different story, revealed as storm clouds gather on the horizon...
---
The Iberian Confederation, always staying vigilant since its success in the Spanish Civil War as the Republic, and even more so now that Portugal has been integrated after the deposition of the Estado Novo, has been keeping a watchful eye on its border with France. The Confederation is not one to seek out military conflict, but their leftward political tilt has made them a little scared of foreign intervention in some form or another. It's a miracle that this nation has a strong socialist presence with an even stronger belief in democracy, something entirely unique in this world that can be claimed by the peninsular state. Sure, not everything's perfect, with the anarchists still complaining about the existence of the state, the Trotskyists split into three different parties over Iberia's unwillingness to spread any revolutionary fervor to the rest of the world, Leninists a tad dismayed that they don't have a vanguard party to take care of things, and the other Communists about not intervening in Russia's deadly affairs or even Iberia being a de jure socialist state. (Trade with the European Entente doesn't help this view either along them, naturally.) An overwhelming majority of rightist elements have been driven underground since the Spanish Civil War, with most of their influential figures dead, imprisoned, or exiled. The only ones really happy about the status quo are the social democrats and the syndicalist elements of government, the former having a lot of their agenda being put into place with the latter holding a slim majority in Iberian Parliament and implementing worker's self-management. Still, there's freedom of the press and of the spoken word, prosperity under a regulated socialist market economy, and genuine multi-party elections, even if most individuals are inclined to vote to the left of more mainstream views in countries like France and Britain. What more could one ask for? Iberia will take a more moderate path in the coming years, not completely booting out those left of the social democrats, but with more traditional liberals and conservatives temporarily gaining a foothold in politics before future problems push Spain back to the left of social democracy, much to the consternation of much of the rest of Europe, which will have its own hands tied by everything else going on. But that's then, and this is now. After all, aside from the horror stories coming out of the Soviet Union and Southeast Asia, life is good
[15].
--
There is a religious sectarian conflict in a part of the British Empire. This one is in the Middle East, with those seeking to establish a homeland and national entity for the Hebrew population of the region battling against Arabs of varying ideologies who aren't particularly fond of the idea. Stemming from a mass of refugees coming from Europe in the 1950s with a large number originating from regions which fell under Soviet control in the early 1950s, the recently enlarged Jewish population in the Palestinian Territories under the jurisdiction of the British Empire has had a bit of trouble getting their views across. The idea of a "Greater Israel" simply doesn't sit well with a significant majority of the local populations in the regions of Jordan and Palestine. Diplomacy was not going to be an option with such opposition, and with the legacy of Romania and the recent memory of Soviet occupation fresh in the minds of many, a homeland outside of continental Europe seemed to be a pretty darn good idea.The British were opposed for their reasons, and the Jewish paramilitaries had their own reasons to show disdain for the British Empire. What would soon become known as the Palestinian War would rock the region throughout the 1960s, intensify into the 1970s, and even extend into the early 1980s in some areas, before a settlement would be reached that pleased neither the Jewish population nor the paramilitaries, the Palestinians and other predominantly Muslim locals, and the United Kingdom itself. Until then, blood would be spilled, politicians and public figures of all three major monotheistic religions would be assassinated, British tanks and civilian automobiles would deliberately be blown up, thousands would die in the name of God, Allah, or a united Israel or Palestine, and life would suck for just about everyone living there. Not as badly as some under Romania in the 40s, Soviet occupation in the 50s, or even Soviet collapse in the 60s, but groups like Lehi and Irgun were not going to back down on the end goal of a homeland for the Hebrew people. The British Empire was not going to back down on maintaining any semblance of stability they could, and while Islamic fundamentalism was mostly confined to Saudi Arabia, there were plenty of folks who wouldn't mind kicking off another diaspora if they could. For the time being, terrorism would rock this part of the Middle East, a region that can never seem to find peace in most worlds
[16].
---
In the Balkans, a low-level conflict known as the "Teškoće" locally, or "The Difficulties" internationally, was ramping up. Serbian paramilitaries battled those supportive of Red Illyria, and sectarian warfare dotted the disputed region populated by Serbs. Between a Serb-dominated monarchy well-intertwined with the Orthodox Church and a multi-ethnic Pit of Godless Commies, the choice for everyone who didn't really support any form of leftism and praised King Peter II was clear. It was a terrible excuse for a war, seeing as both the Kingdom of Greater Serbia and the Socialist Republic of Illyria were still rebuilding from the foreign invasions of the 1940s and 1950s, but it wasn't technically a war, it was actually multiple groups of well-armed people crossing the borders illegally[?] and killing for King, for God or Allah[?], or for Socialism. Thousands of lives over the 1960s and 1970s would be taken by this senseless violence, which prompted both states to take matters into their own hands. The border became increasingly militarized and patrolled, to prevent border crossings from one or the other. Anti-government subversives on both sides would be jailed, and peace would be restored. This was the plan, anyway. And it worked, with moderate success. There were still those that would continue waging a guerilla war against the authorities and against those who dared to worship the Lord incorrectly, and some areas on both sides were much more troublesome than it should have been worth, prompting a final border resolution to be adopted in 1978, finally establishing a hard border with the Serbs who wanted to be part of Serbia in... well, Serbia, and those not wanting anything to do with monarchism west of the border. While it would remain well-militarized to the present day and beyond, a lasting peace would take hold, and the enmity between Illyria and Serbia would, over the years, thaw into friendly rivalry, especially in the realm of sports competitions. There were still differences that would be difficult to reconcile, but a turning point had been reached, one that would be well-photographed in 1982 with Illyrian President Milovan Djilas and King Peter II standing side-by-side at a border crossing just east of Tuzla
[17].
---
Just outside of the Balkans, things have not been particularly swell in Poland, particularly the regions in the southeast with a majority of the people there being ethnic Ukrainians. With an independent non-communist state make out of what used to be the Ukrainian SSR, those who have taken up arms against Poland now have themselves a willing sponsor, and this naturally does not go over well between the two nations, nor does it please the more powerful countries in Western and Central Europe, who often end up sending troops to keep the peace with their two fellow European Entente members. Contrary to public speculation, Poland and Ukraine would not go to war over the towns labeled as Lwow or Rowne on a typical Polish map. Completely outside of public expectations, however, the insurgents did engage in fighting within the Carpathian Mountains, especially towards the eastern edge of Czechoslovakia and even spilling in to Hungarian and ex-Romanian border regions, before being clamped down hard by Moldavian, Transylvanian, Hungarian, and Czechsolovak authorities, who didn't need any more violent problems after the mess that was World War II.
Even without a war, the situation between Poland and Ukraine would remain tense throughout the rest of the 1960s up until the eventual coup that would oust Stepan Bandera and the Polish counter-insurgency push that would wage local warfare against the OUN forces occupying in Ukraine. The fighting would be even more violent than the skirmishes and terrorist attacks in the Balkans, but not as terrible as the near-civil war situation in British Palestine coming up. The most high-profile were terrorist attacks against railway stations and markets in Wilno, Krakow, and Poznan. in 1967, 1968, and 1970 respectively. The civil liberties of Ukrainian Poles would be curtailed during the immediate era before the Great Depression and the years following the Crash of 1973. This situation would remain Europe's largest point of contention for the years to come, and the Polish government would be criticized for its handling of the "Polish Campaign Against Terrorism". The insurgency would be destroyed by 1979, and anti-Ukrainian laws would be abolished in full between then and 1983.
---
The decade known on Christian calendars as the 1960s was one of mixed fortunes for the world. European nations began rebuilding and experienced a fresh breath of life after two devastating wars ripped through the continent in less than fifty years. Japan's 1960s would be known as a time of ever-present corruption and widespread prosperity, a good time to be alive before it all came crashing down. Western Russia went through hell and back while Siberia stagnated and decayed. Central and South America are mostly quiet, with Uncle Sam hoping that this does not change. The United States is reliving the Roaring Twenties in some fashion or another, minus the Prohibition and fear of the Reds taking over. India is a rising star in this world and a symbol of unity between religions and ethnicities across an entire subcontinent, and becoming increasingly famous for their films. Africa's bubbling under the surface, with uprisings against colonial masters so close yet so far away. Space is a new frontier to be explored, but few nations have the resources to invest in such programs, a number that will slowly increase for the foreseeable future.
For most people, life is good. But all good things must come to an end someday. The first domino to fall on the path to global disaster is Saudi Arabia, and a popular revolution to oust the monarchy and attempt to end the strain of Wahhabi Islam for good...
[1] Marxism, while mostly discredited in the countries it wasn't partially or fully sanctioned in after the USSR got nuked half a dozen times, still has a following in the region as an anti-imperialist ideology. Not a large one, mind you. The leftists in Vietnam are MUCH weaker ITTL for various reasons, some of which have been brought up by the readers in dialogue between them and myself.
[2] Shameless Hamilton reference is shameless.
[3] This opens up the possibilities of "naval guerilla warfare", which the fighting Cambodians, Laotians, and Vietnamese alike will be more than happy to exploit once the advisors roll in. That, and Japan's view of submarines as an auxiliary force makes them a little more willing to provide such support.
[4] I borrowed this idea from another timeline on this very site. (https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...s-another-rises-new-story-only-thread.389404/)
[5] Ho Chi Minh was preemptively "taken out" before the conflict even began. Elaboration on him and other key figures in the 1970 WATN update.
[6] On paper, religion was out of government. In practice, Catholics like Ngo Dinh Diem would dominate the government and engage in policies of religious discrimination and separation. This state of affairs would continue until 1973, when for various regions Japan was no longer willing to (nor could it afford to) prop up this sectarian state. The ripple effects from this would not be pleasant, and would leave Southeast Asia a troubled region throughout the 1970s.
[7] This man, the eldest son of Bao Dai.
[8] With Imperial Japan lasting longer than 1945, it was only natural that they separate the air force from the Army at some point or another, just like the United States did IOTL. The infamous interservice rivalry is now a three-way struggle.
[9] You most certainly read this correctly. Jim Jones is a Presidential Assassin ITTL, and with that, the Curse of Tippecanoe strikes again. It's the last time in this century that a sitting U.S. President is purposefully killed for political purposes, but not the last one to die in office. That's all I'll say about this.
[10] Less than 88 kilometers per hour, for all the readers outside of the States who look at us and wonder why we adopted such an insane system of measurements. (Don't ask me, I had nothing to do with it!)
[11] It's more out of pragmatism than anything else. He's sacrificing fiscal protections for social ones, even if the acts aren't all-encompassing. The myth that the Civil War was fought over states' rights is still alive and well, and it's often used as a term to invoke freedom and defend political advantages.
[12] This view does not reflect my own views.
[13] This would inspire a mid-1980s computer game original to TTL roughly translated as Japan Lorry Simulator, mostly lost to history until rediscovered, inadvertently inspiring future computer games with a similar premise in Europe and North America thirty to forty years after its release. But this is more of a reminder for me to cover it in a Pop Culture update a long while down the line than anything else.
[14] There is so much under the surface that once 1973 comes around the long spiral into the eventual end of the Empire of Japan kicks off dramatically. There's two reasons I'm making so much about Japan vague and spoiler-covered, even though I've been loose-lipped about everything else.
[15] Reddish-pink Iberia is no left-wing utopia, don't get me wrong here. They have their own problems, and there is a secret police force to protect the country after the Civil War. The concept of "left unity" is a joke and coalitions are often renegotiated every few months since they have the uncanny tendency to fall apart as quickly as they are formed.
[16] I might have lied on saying that the Difficulties in the Balkans were the parallel to the Troubles. I should have said that they're a parallel.
[17] This OTL image of Korean leaders Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un is the closest OTL equivalent of the picture taken with Djilas and King Peter II in ATL. Except ITTL, both are smiling.
