alternatehistory.com

This was in part inspired by @Komodo 's excellent Shared Games concept "Risen From the Ruins" (which can be seen here: https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...on-game-proposal-planning-game-thread.400387/) , with a Wold Newton twist to it.

It Did Happen Here:


1937-1940: Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip/ Perley Beecroft (The American Corporate State and Patriotic Party or "Corporatist", formerly Democratic)

1936 def. Franklin D. Roosevelt/ John Nance Garner (Jeffersonian), Senator Walter Trowbridge/ Charles Foster Kane (Republican)

1940-: Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip /NONE (Corporatist)
1940-: Lee Sarason/ NONE (Corporatist)
1941-1953: Gen. Dewey Haik/ OFFICE ABOLISHED [1]
1953-1957: John Iselin[2]
1957-1963: Br. Gen. John D. Ripper [3]
1963-1978: Commander Nicholas J. Fury[4]
1978-1984: Napoleon Solo[5]
1984-1987: Admiral Burt Manusco [6]
1987-1991: Fmr. Br. Gen. Frank Hummel ("Transitional") [7]
1991-1996: Andrew Shepard/ Leo McGarry (Jeffersonian Democratic)[8]
1990 def. Jack Ryan/ Nathan Jessup (American Legion), Jay Bulworth/Max Frost (Socialist Worker's USA), Russell Kramer/ Biff Tannen (Liberal)
1996-2001: Jackson Evans/ Max Frost (Jeffersonian- Socialist Worker's Coalition)[9]
1995 def. Jack Ryan/ John Rambo (American Legion), Alexander Luthor/ Sheldon Runyon (Liberal)
2001-2006: Tony Stark/ Dave Kovic (Liberal) (Endorsed by the American Legion Party)[10]
2000 def. Lonnie Machin/ Josiah Barlett (Socialist Worker's-Jeffersonian coalition)
2006-2011: Josiah Barlett/Stuart Smiley(Progressive Alliance of America) [11]
2005 def. Glen Allen Walken/ F. Thomas Grant (National Party)
2011-2017: Mackenzie Allen/Jack Bauer (National Party)[12]
2010 def. Oliver Queen/ Jenny Trout (Progressive Alliance)

[1] Dewey Haik made two decisions important to his eventual victory. He decided against a planned invasion of Mexico thanks to the advice of fellow military men, and had dissenting general Emmanuel Coon and his supporters executed due to their attempted defection. Thus, the civil war was decisively won by General Haik after a few years. Haik codified the dictatorship, eliminating the Senate and the office of Vice-President (instead having the President point to a specific successor before his death), made the Corporatist Party the only legal party and merging the military and government apparatus with it to form a single party state, and delaying elections to battle "The Communist threat". Meanwhile, the Soviets, after a grueling battle on the Eastern Front, managed to turn the Nazi tide, and marched into Berlin. Soon, it would have dominance over most of Europe, with the exception of American ally Britain, under the control of Hugh Drummound and the British Union of Fascists. However, the USSR became democratic after Stalin's suspicious death in the 1938, with it establishing socialist democracies in its sphere of influence, including former fascist nations of Italy, Germany, Spain, and Portugal. Haik would respond by launching coups through out the Americas, in ordinance with the Monroe Doctrine. Soon, the USSR and the USA would have their own spheres of dominance (helped by the Washington-Tokyo accords of 1946, adding Japan and its sphere of influence into an American alliance), starting off the Cold War. Dewey Haik would also establish the heavily protectionist, autarky policies which put the United States interests as paramount, essentially cutting it and its sphere of influence off from the rest of the world. Before his death, he would prove his military might (and the eventual weaknesses of the American military) during the Brazilian Civil War, where the Americans helped the Brazilian army defeat Soviet backed communist rebels

[2] In an attempt to legitimize the dictatorship in civilian eyes, Haik named Corpo Congressman John Iselin as his successor. Upon Haik's death, Iselin began more aggressive policies against internal dissidents, and strengthened the corporatist structure. However, he also begins to reach a detente with the USSR, and begins negotiations for arms reductions. Many in the Party fear that he is a Soviet plant meant to gain the trust of the leadership, and weaken US defense to ensure a socialist takeover. Thus, several military leaders conspired to have Iselin removed from office. This plan was put into action in May of 1957, when, in a parallel of Haik's rise to power, men under the lead of Brigadier General John D. Ripper stormed the White House, and has Iselin's stepson Raymond Shaw kill Iselin, and his wife Eleanor.

[3] Ripper is seen as the most brutal of the dictators following Haik. He put the country into a state of emergency, where any and all dissent was repressed, and a police state was established (where, among other things, water was filtered of fluoride) with the Minute Men having carte blanche to ensure the peace by any means necessary . He also reversed the arms reduction, and had his personal scientist Dr. Merkwürdigeliebe construct a series of Cobalt bombs called the "Doomsday Device," which could be automatically activated if the Soviets tried to bomb the country. An incident brought this into full force, when an error in communication led to a Soviet plane moving out to bomb the US. Ripper was totally intent on having the Doomsday Device activated, despite the fact it would render life on Earth uninhabitable. Ultimately, after military advisors failed to convince Ripper to step down (and the Soviet Premier realizing the mistake, and having the planes recalled, nullifying the incident), Commander Nick Fury of the Office of Strategic Services took matters into his own hands, and had Ripper's personal plane secretly destroyed over the Atlantic, and proclaimed himself Ripper's successor.

[4] Fury had a struggle to maintain his position. He managed to defeat an attempted coup by Ripper-loyalist faction of the Army led by Air Force General James Mattoon Scott. After years of repression and build-up, former intelligence commander Fury toned down the dictatorship. He loosened the borders, allowing opponents of the regime like Kilgore Trout and Max Thingmaker to escape to safer climes. He restored certain minority and women rights, and allowed them for the first time, to participate in the government, and reigned in the Minute Men after the excesses of the Ripper regime. He also privatized several nationalized corporations and reduced the power of several syndicates, in order to jumpstart the moribund economy. He also continued Iselin's arms reduction policy, and reached a breakthrough with the Arms Reduction Agreement of 1964. Whatever achievements he may have had early on were undone through the Indochina War. Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh, backed by the USSR and the People's Republic of India, began to attack the Japanese backed Empire of Vietnam, dragging Japan and eventually the US into a prolonged conflict. Despite Fury's insistence of an easy victory, it turned into a prolonged conflict lasting 10 years, resulting in many deaths on both sides. With reports of deaths being covered up slowly trickling into the US, despite the efforts of the State backed Press, an opposition is resparked, led by longtime rebel newspaper, the The Vermont Vigilance. Ultimately, Japan and the US withdrew, causing the Empire to collapse, and a new Communist state in rise in former Indochina in 1971. This set off a series of rebellions and revolts in the Empire of Japan, with Thailand, Occupied China, the Philippines, Formosa, and Korea falling to internal dissent. Eventually, Japan itself fell to democratic forces in 1978, striking a fatal blow to America's global presence. Fury was forced to expend forces to put down similar revolts in Central America and Britain, causing worldwide condemnation and an economic downturn, which would grow worse after Fury's death in 1978.

[5] Fury successor was another OSS man, Napoleon Solo. The Solo regime was the beginning of the end for the Corporatist reign in the US, as Solo proved to be an ineffectual leader in all senses of the word, and could not handle the growing problems, especially with each passing day, the fall of the Military dictatorships the Corpos had built up over the years in Central and South America. Of all the rebellions occuring in the aftermath of the Indochina defeat, the most persistent was Cuba, whose military dictatorship was fighting a longtime insurgency by the Castro brothers. Solo pouring in more and more forces onto the island caused even more economic problems, and discontent grew, especially with body bags coming in at night. Worst, like Indochina, there was no end in sight, with the Castros eluding American capture. The biggest blow came in 1984, when Naval analyst Jack Ryan, disillusioned with the regime and the growing deaths across the world, defected to Canada with American military secrets. This created such a firestorm, that Solo was the victim of a coup due to his supposed lackluster response.

[6] Naval Admiral Burt Manusco's ascension to power was overshadowed by the outbreak of Civil War. Former Brigadier General Frank Hummel (who was also disillusioned following his experiences in Indochina and Cuba, and helped Ryan with gaining the military secrets) seized Alcatraz Federal Concentration Camp in San Francisco with a group of other soldiers and dissenters called "the Emmanuel Coon Army", and declared war on the Corporatist regime, proclaiming they will restore democracy. Their cause is helped by other defecting military figures, and civilian rebellions which grow too numerous to put down. Manusco realized his lost cause, and brought Hummel and his supporters to the negotiation table. In 1987, 50 years to the day Buzz Windrip was first elected, Admiral Manusco announced he will be stepping down, to Hummel.

[7] Frank Hummel's first act was to withdraw from Cuba and from all foreign locations. His second act was to formally outlaw the American Corporate State and Patriotic Party and the Minute Men, and relegalize all other political ideologies. The third act was to announce a constitutional convention to restore the long warped constitution, and bring back democracy. After a year long struggle, a constitution, mostly resembling the pre- "Forgotten Men" constitution, came into being. It retained the unitary house structure, but restored the office of Vice-President, and had the President serve only one five year term. After getting through the details, the first election was announced in 1990, where Hummel will step out from power to make way for the new President.

[8] The first free election in 54 years was won by Andrew Shepard, who had led the Jeffersonian Democratic Party through its final years underground, and Leo McGarry, underground union organizer and president of the outlawed Congress of Industrial Organizations. They defeated opponents including Jack Ryan (who formed a political organization representing the reformist democratic military faction who advocated building up new military forces (with a focus on democratic nation-building), whose campaign was undone upon revelations of running mate Nathan Jessup's various improprieties during his service), longtime socialist activists and political prisoners Jay Bulworth and Max Frost, and Corpo Congressman turned opponent of the regime Russell Kramer (whose running mate, businessman Biff Tannen, had his own rumors of financial misdoings.) The Shepard administration destroyed the remaining elements of corporatism, and fully restored the rights of every citizen. They also reestablished the social safety net and created new environmental protections, after years of pollution and industrialization running amok.

[9]Seeing common goals, the Jeffersonian and Socialists announced a joint ticket, with longtime Jeffersonian leader Jackson Evans and socialist activist Max Frost (an underground musician who had led a series of socialist led revolts in the late 60's, resulting in his torture by the Minute Men, and his incarceration in Alcatraz) as the ticket, which won out (partially because of Alexander Luthor controversial comments). They continued Shepard's policies, and also, with the help of the USSR, encouraged the fall of the final dictatorships. Cuba had democracy come in 1996, and Mexico (who had avoided invasion by Haik early on, only to fall later after Haik recovered military strength) was restored to democracy in 1998. Despite these successes, partisan fatigue began, and with an economic downturn, prospect weren't high for the newly formed Jeffersonian-Socialist coalition.

[10] Businessman Tony Stark and congressman Dave Kovic were the first Liberal Presidents. Jack Ryan, realizing, despite his own record as a whistleblower, that his party was slowly being contaminated by Corpo remnants, endorsed Stark as a bringer of true liberal change. Stark privatized the remaining nationalized corporations, destroying the last major part of the Corpo regime. However, a number of these companies soon went bankrupt, resulting in a worse economic crisis. Stark's poor handling of the crisis caused controversy with both the Progressive Alliance of America (the new name of the merged Jeffersonian Democratic and Socialist Workers Parties), and the Liberal Brass.

[11] Despite the merging of the Liberal and American Legion parties to compete with the PAA, Nobel Prize winner and longtime exiled economist Josiah Barlett won out, and won the hearts and minds of the public (even political enemies), by managing to create economic growth, fixing the worst economic crisis since the restoration of Democracy, and by his apt handling of the Las Vegas Nuclear Meltdown. He also reached an historic agreement to the English Civil War (where, after the fall of the US backed Fascist dictatorship, Scottish, Welsh, English, and Irish Nationalists battled over the remnants of the United Kingdom), and helped find a revived "League of Nations" with the USSR, India, and Japan.

[12] The first female President, Allen was also the first of the National Party, (defeating progressive businessman Olivier Queen and Socialist singer Jenny Trout (daughter of exiled writer Kilgore Trout), and espoused conservative policies, rolling back government social programs and encouraging free enterprise and free trade. Her administration also saw the legalization of gay marriage, and of marijuana. However, she also has to contend with a growing Islamicist threat in North Africa, which has been attacking American outposts in the region, and the League of Nations is attempting to find a way to combat it. Will the US take go into this direction or remain isolationist?
----------------------------------------