Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III
- Thread starter Peabody-Martini
- Start date
Alternatively, two days later...
US Ambassador: "Darling, I've arranged a little trip for you back Stateside to visit your family. I think it would be good for you to get away from the heat here for a while. It can be brutal and I know how hard its been on you."
Ambassador's Wife: "Oh, darling! That's a wonderful surprise! Are you coming too?"
Ambassador: "Unfortunately no. Negotiations are a little tense here at the moment and I need to be here to make sure they don't go off the rails. I'll miss you deeply, but you enjoy your visit home, you hear?"
It is very telling how far we are from OTL when being the Ambassador to Vietnam ITTL is considered to be so unimportant that someone with more money then sense gets the job just because they donated a lot of money to the winning candidate and party, compared that to IOTL at this point in time when being Our Man in Saigon was one of the most important posts that the United States had.
IOTL in 1963 JFK appointed Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. the former Ambassador to the U.N. in the Eisenhower administration to the job and was Kennedy's opponent in the 1952 Massachusetts Senate race and was Nixon's VP running mate in 1960.
The reason Lodge was selected was because Kennedy said in private that he wanted to have Republican fingerprints on the situation in Vietnam and to spread the blame around.
Back to our ITTL Ambassador this being an election year he is most likely going home to raise money for the Rockefeller re-election campaign in order to get another post preferably in Europe.
IOTL in 1963 JFK appointed Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. the former Ambassador to the U.N. in the Eisenhower administration to the job and was Kennedy's opponent in the 1952 Massachusetts Senate race and was Nixon's VP running mate in 1960.
The reason Lodge was selected was because Kennedy said in private that he wanted to have Republican fingerprints on the situation in Vietnam and to spread the blame around.
Back to our ITTL Ambassador this being an election year he is most likely going home to raise money for the Rockefeller re-election campaign in order to get another post preferably in Europe.
Considering the role Vietnam plays in the ESA space program, the post of ambassador might not be considered unimportant ITTL. The job of Our Man In Hanoi could be quite sought after, especially with China being so close...
Important allies can forgive an idiot as the ambassador since they know how the political game is played. And the ambassador knows he should rely on his staff (hopefully). Sensitive positions go to professionals (again hopefully).
If the Ambassador has become important then something has gone horribly wrong.
While accurate, this doesn't mean that the Ambassador, OR HIS/HER/THEIR SPOUSE, doesn't have an impact. If their faux pas creates a 'scene', or worse 'an incident', then the back splash from the excrement hitting the rotary air impeller could be... significant...
Because important donors, being self-important, expect to go to London or Paris or Tokyo but definitely not Ulan Bator or Kathmandu. Can't take the chance that they become so depressed/insulted by an offered posting that they stop donating.
Vicky might not have made a scene, but this was at a formal reception; people (ie: staff) would have overheard, everyone always forgets about the staff. The story that the American Ambassador's wife openly insulted two of the German Emperor's daughters to a third daughter's face, at an official Imperial Vietnamese function to greet the Vietnamese Emperor's guests, the German Imperial Family, is too juicy a story to keep quiet. Especially when you realise that some of those staff are also members of Vietnamese intelligence & Foreign Ministry.
It might not be a major diplomatic incident, but the Ambassador will almost certainly be reminded that the Emperor and his government would appreciate it if his wife would refrain from insulting the guests of the Emperor. Tactfully, of course.
I can also see Vicky advising Rea to be careful if she ever travels to the United States because they think that REA is the lesbian and the entire world knows what the Americans do to people they consider 'divergent'. Imagine Rea's reaction to that.
My point was that this will not become a formal diplomatic incident but there will be a back channel "conversation" which will reach the U. S. Secretary of State who will then tell the Ambassador to keep his wife lips under control followed by the party chairman wanting the Ambassador to come home and raise money for the President's re-election campaign with a promise to be "considered" to a better posting it he raised enough money.
Agreed. It’ll get out, no way around it.
Presumably Rea would have Diplomatic Immunity, so no need to worry about what happened to Asia. Any Americans she might associate with though...
Looks like it. And it’s easy to see why - marriage works nicely as a shield to ward off bigots like that woman.
Unfortunately Asia had diplomatic immunity as an official diplomatic courier. It did not protect her. Rea's status as a member of the German Imperial Family is a far better shield. The irony is that in the unlikely event that anything that might happen to Rea during a visit to the US, due to Stupid (-ity), (bad) Luck and/or (simple) Happenstance, is that she ISN'T what they think she is. For that matter, none of the Imperial Family is.
God, I'd forgotten that...
It's been a while since I read that arc but I'm surprised there wasn't even more fallout from that then - Diplomatic Immunity and the sanctity of embassies are a big deal. Even if someone with DI is spying, they typically AFAIK get put on a one-way flight home with a warning not to come back, not arrested. And certainly not imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital.
True that...
Way back in Thread II, if you start from the beginning of the thread and keep going
Had a look - the whole thing got pretty wild. Though technically Asia didn't have Diplomatic Immunity, she had a diplomatic passport though and was officially and actively engaged as a diplomatic courier, so the US ended up with a fair amount of egg on their face for imprisoning and torturing someone who at most should have got sent home with a stern note.
EDIT: Actually that begs the question, how is Asia doing at the moment @Peabody-Martini ? Last that was heard of her, she was still Mistress of the Keys and was looking after her kid - anything else going on with her?
Part 111, Chapter 1832
Chapter One Thousand Eight Hundred Thirty-Two
5th February 1968
Huế, Vietnam
Like everywhere else, the city of Huế was a hive activity during daylight hours. That was particularly true because of the Holiday. Once the day’s festivities concluded it actually became quite peaceful.
It was a warm rainy night, Charlotte understood that was fairly typical here as this was the tail end of the rainy season. Looking out through the screen that covered the window of the room of the guesthouse that Antonia and Annett shared, Charlotte could see the other buildings of the Purple Forbidden City and the Perfume River beyond. She had been told that in a couple months it would be intolerably hot here, something that was perfectly plausible, even if she wasn’t in a hurry to return to the German winter.
The events of the prior days. were at the forefront of Charlotte’s mind, keeping her awake. For lack of anything better to do, she had gone to check on the girls and had found them asleep. While she might have been cross if they had been awake and playing some sort of silly game, that would have given her something else to focus on.
There were times when she had to consider just how frightening the world must be for her youngest stepdaughter. Victoria lived at all times with the thought of the consequences of what might happen if certain aspects of her life became common knowledge in the back of her mind. Charlotte had come to understand that it was a life that few would choose for themselves regardless of what many people believed. That was why it didn’t come as a surprise what that brash American woman had been overheard saying to Victoria and having her act as if nothing untoward had happened afterwards. It was all part and parcel with how she had to live her life, drawing too much upon herself was simply something that Victoria could not afford to do. Charlotte found it depressing that for all that had changed over her lifetime she still frequently encountered what could only be described as a Medieval mindset.
Looking at Antonia and Annett, Charlotte hoped that they would one day live in a world where they wouldn’t face impossible choices like the one that Antonia’s older sister had been stuck with. No matter what they would have each other though. When Charlotte had discussed taking Annett in, she had no idea that the girl would grow so close to Antonia. Charlotte had no idea if friendship between the two girls would endure in the years to come, there were times when they seemed intent to aggravate each other. There was also the struggle to find their place in the world. Charlotte had seen all her stepchildren going about that in different ways.
Jena
The stated worry was that Kiki would develop pneumonia again during her latest bout with influenza, which was why she had been kept in the hospital for an extra week. Then it had turned into the Doctors wanting to be sure that she would take care of herself once she was released as per her father’s instructions. That last part was particularly grating. Every aggravating turn seemed to be of her own making. However, it had turned out that Kiki was hardly the only one who had come down with the flu this time, she had been taken to an open ward which was the standard practice when dealing with an epidemic. She had thanked Peter for trying to help her and he had said that he felt sort of felt obligated to help, as her Doctoral Advisor having her die would look bad for him.
Peter had told her that an expert was saying that this was a strain of avian flu. Kiki understood how Biologists were able to reach those conclusions, but it hardly got her any closer to getting out of the hospital. That was why she was sitting on her bed, with the curtains closed around her, going through a large stack of letters that had arrived over the prior days. Invitations to various social events. There was one inviting her to a retreat of the Johanniter Order that mentioned how they would really like it if she showed up this time.
Finally, there was a notification from Koblenz stating that two pieces of her equipment needed to be turned in because they were being phased out. The first was the Panzerweste Ausf. E. It seemed that the aluminum rivets could pop out and injure the wearer under certain conditions, in the new Ausf. F Panzerweste that problem had been solved. Many found it strange that it had taken thirty years to essentially reinvent brigandine armor with more modern materials, but there they were.
The second piece of equipment hit Kiki harder than she thought it would. All variants of the Walther P38 were being phased out in favor of the new Walther P66. As a member of the FSR, Kiki would be required to qualify with the new pistol before she went back out into the field. Kiki had really only carried the old pistol she had originally been issued because she was obligated to protect herself and her patients, not because she had ever enjoyed having it. Later she had discovered that when she was angry and wanted to make a lot of noise it was perfect for doing exactly that. The notification said that she could keep her service weapon once the new one had been issued if she had the necessary permits. Was it something that she really wanted to keep?
5th February 1968
Huế, Vietnam
Like everywhere else, the city of Huế was a hive activity during daylight hours. That was particularly true because of the Holiday. Once the day’s festivities concluded it actually became quite peaceful.
It was a warm rainy night, Charlotte understood that was fairly typical here as this was the tail end of the rainy season. Looking out through the screen that covered the window of the room of the guesthouse that Antonia and Annett shared, Charlotte could see the other buildings of the Purple Forbidden City and the Perfume River beyond. She had been told that in a couple months it would be intolerably hot here, something that was perfectly plausible, even if she wasn’t in a hurry to return to the German winter.
The events of the prior days. were at the forefront of Charlotte’s mind, keeping her awake. For lack of anything better to do, she had gone to check on the girls and had found them asleep. While she might have been cross if they had been awake and playing some sort of silly game, that would have given her something else to focus on.
There were times when she had to consider just how frightening the world must be for her youngest stepdaughter. Victoria lived at all times with the thought of the consequences of what might happen if certain aspects of her life became common knowledge in the back of her mind. Charlotte had come to understand that it was a life that few would choose for themselves regardless of what many people believed. That was why it didn’t come as a surprise what that brash American woman had been overheard saying to Victoria and having her act as if nothing untoward had happened afterwards. It was all part and parcel with how she had to live her life, drawing too much upon herself was simply something that Victoria could not afford to do. Charlotte found it depressing that for all that had changed over her lifetime she still frequently encountered what could only be described as a Medieval mindset.
Looking at Antonia and Annett, Charlotte hoped that they would one day live in a world where they wouldn’t face impossible choices like the one that Antonia’s older sister had been stuck with. No matter what they would have each other though. When Charlotte had discussed taking Annett in, she had no idea that the girl would grow so close to Antonia. Charlotte had no idea if friendship between the two girls would endure in the years to come, there were times when they seemed intent to aggravate each other. There was also the struggle to find their place in the world. Charlotte had seen all her stepchildren going about that in different ways.
Jena
The stated worry was that Kiki would develop pneumonia again during her latest bout with influenza, which was why she had been kept in the hospital for an extra week. Then it had turned into the Doctors wanting to be sure that she would take care of herself once she was released as per her father’s instructions. That last part was particularly grating. Every aggravating turn seemed to be of her own making. However, it had turned out that Kiki was hardly the only one who had come down with the flu this time, she had been taken to an open ward which was the standard practice when dealing with an epidemic. She had thanked Peter for trying to help her and he had said that he felt sort of felt obligated to help, as her Doctoral Advisor having her die would look bad for him.
Peter had told her that an expert was saying that this was a strain of avian flu. Kiki understood how Biologists were able to reach those conclusions, but it hardly got her any closer to getting out of the hospital. That was why she was sitting on her bed, with the curtains closed around her, going through a large stack of letters that had arrived over the prior days. Invitations to various social events. There was one inviting her to a retreat of the Johanniter Order that mentioned how they would really like it if she showed up this time.
Finally, there was a notification from Koblenz stating that two pieces of her equipment needed to be turned in because they were being phased out. The first was the Panzerweste Ausf. E. It seemed that the aluminum rivets could pop out and injure the wearer under certain conditions, in the new Ausf. F Panzerweste that problem had been solved. Many found it strange that it had taken thirty years to essentially reinvent brigandine armor with more modern materials, but there they were.
The second piece of equipment hit Kiki harder than she thought it would. All variants of the Walther P38 were being phased out in favor of the new Walther P66. As a member of the FSR, Kiki would be required to qualify with the new pistol before she went back out into the field. Kiki had really only carried the old pistol she had originally been issued because she was obligated to protect herself and her patients, not because she had ever enjoyed having it. Later she had discovered that when she was angry and wanted to make a lot of noise it was perfect for doing exactly that. The notification said that she could keep her service weapon once the new one had been issued if she had the necessary permits. Was it something that she really wanted to keep?
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