A World of Buzz & Change: The Radical Times Which Was the 20th Century

[Gajah_Nusantara]

Prologue:
.
A Decade of War and Peace
​

The 40s, the decade of World War II, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the rise of an unexpected contender. But before we learn about all of this we must first learn the beginnings of this all, the United States Presidential Election of 1940.

The parties emerged with two similar but different nominees. The Republican nominated businessman and former Democrat, Wendell Wilkie while the Democrats easily renominated President Franklin Delano Roosevelt but with a different VP with John Nance Garner being replaced with the Secretary of Agriculture and former Republican, Henry Agard Wallace. The two presidential hopefuls were similar as they were both interventionists in favor of supporting Britain, they supported the New Deal, both were New Yorkers and both were rumored adulterers. Even though the election was easily won by the ever popular Roosevelt.

But Wendell Wilkie, who was by then still 46 was seen as a potential future Republican leader and many, including his advisors knew this and forced the heavy drinker and smoker to drop most of his habits and to increase his publicity and this was achieved by himself and the help of his former opponent by him being sent to Britain as his personal representative and leading talks with Winston Churchill and he also went to the Soviet Union, China and North Africa during the wartime period.

​

Meanwhile in the White House, the President, entering his third term would lead a campaign for lend lease or aid to Britain which would be helped by his former opponent, Wendell Wilkie by him convincing his fellow Republicans to give consent and with the help of one Senator Arthur Vandenberg, a convert to internationalism swayed the Republicans to supporting the bill. The Americans would join the war in 1941 after the Japanese attacked them in Pearl Harbor, destroying many of the Navy's ships...

[Snip]

Physically, he was a man slowly dying thanks to his bad health and this brought many concerns for the administration and for the President himself and so asked his estranged wife, Eleanor to rejoin him back with him.

Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt was a married couple but by the time of his rise into the presidency they had lived apart thanks to the formers many affairs and mistresses. But Franklin Roosevelt of 1942 was a different man, a sicker but wiser and older man and he decided to extend an olive branch to his estranged wife and offered her back to his life and to accompany him in his probably last years and Eleanor responded by asking that her husband leave any of his mistresses and if they still meet it would only be as friends or acquaintances, Roosevelt agreed to the request.

Most people would think that he would betray her later on but later records indicated that Franklin Roosevelt didn't do any sort of romantic relationship and stayed loyal to Eleanor because as historians would theorize that he was now dying and thought that he couldn't do it anymore. The effect was that even though they were still distant, they're relationship would improve and it even had a health improvement to the President as Churchill would write when he visited the Roosevelts in Hyde Park,

" The couple, which I had rarely seen together informally or even affectionately, now it seemed that they have become more close even if they haven't forgotten their past transgressions."

- The Decade of Miracle & Change by
Jack Kennedy ​

​

Come 1944, the Democrats were rallying behind their leader for 12 years and it seemed that he would go to a convention which would nominate him easily but a problem emerged from one of the many factions of the party, the Southerners or more known as the Dixiecrats. They had been the most opposed to the New Deal and by 1944 there was a serious opposition in the South to oppose the President's leadership and they were led by one Harry Byrd, Senator from Virginia.

Byrd, being the leader of the Southern delegation was opposed to FDR'S policies on racial issues such as the Fair Employment and supporting African-American rights. He, in '44 was being convinced by his fellow Southerners to run for the Presidential nomination but he decided against it, knowing well of the President's popularity but an argument by one of the delegates convinced him to run for the VP nomination, knowing well that the next term would be the last for FDR. Most of the Deep South supported him with the exception of Tennessee, Texas and Florida who nominated one of their own as their choice. But Lady Fortuna had other plans as a week before the DNC, Senator Byrd was a victim in a car crash and was placed in coma for a month, this spelled madness for the Dixiecrats as they lost their standard bearer.

Senator Harry F. Byrd, known Segregationist​

Another opposition came not against FDR but against his VP, Henry Agard Wallace. He was the son of a prominent Republican and Secretary of Agriculture, Harry Wallace. He had been a successful farmer in Iowa and so was tapped by the newly elected President Roosevelt into the same position as his father had occupied. By each passing year, Wallace proved to be an invaluable ally to Roosevelt as he passed the Agricultural Adjustment Act which gave aid to farmers by reducing surpluses with increased prices and his Social Conservation and Soil Allotment Act which payed the farmers to reduce their land and products. By 1936 he had changed his affiliation to a Democrat and was a leading surrogate for Roosevelt's campaign. He was so trusted by Roosevelt that he was named VP in 1940 and had been a yes man for Roosevelt during his tenure.

In 1944, Wallace was very popular in the eyes of the common man in the Democratic Party but viewed by the elites as a radical and incapable to lead as many thought that '44 would be a defining election for the Democrats as the President was declining in health even though he somewhat improved thanks to the presence of Eleanor. So came the Anti-Wallace movement which was led by Robert Hannagan, the DNC Chairman would push through other candidates for VP alongside the Dixiecrats and the Conservatives with names like Senator James Byrnes, a close ally of Roosevelt who was favored by the Dixiecrats and some Conservatives; Governor Prentice Cooper of Tennessee, favored by moderate Dixiecrats; Senator Robert S. Kerr, who was favored by moderates and even Speaker Rayburn, who was especially favored by the Texas delegates and most Conservatives but Rayburn later stated that he wasn't interested while others like Senators Truman & Barkley refused after seeing the disintegration of the Anti-Wallace Movement and the Dixiecrats splitting.

The Dixiecrats split from the rest of the Anti-Wallace Movement after a meeting with Roosevelt who was unconvinced by their arguments and many would think that he was influenced by the First Lady and most of the Progressive camp in his cabinet which later documents suggested was true.

The Anti-Wallace movement split with Hannagan and a few of his allies supporting the liberal Associate Justice William O. Douglas; Frank Walker, the Postmaster General and leading member of the movement would push through Truman while the Dixiecrats split into two camps, the more conservative members supporting Governor Cooper while the more moderate would support Senator Byrnes.

The convention was quick to renominate Roosevelt as it's nominee but the Vice Presidency was another whole monster as the factions fought against each other with Wallace easily winning the first ballot but still not enough for a win with Byrnes coming second, Truman third, Douglas fourth and Cooper coming last. Wallace later would commit to a plan which worked for a certain Republican candidate four years ago which was a flooding of supporters into the convention. There were chants of Wallace supporters but the opposition failed to combat the storm of the Wallace supporters and by the third ballot, Truman and Douglas had backed down and supported Wallace, easily winning him renomination for the Vice Presidency and many would thought, the next president.

A Victorious Henry Wallace Arrives​

[Snip]

The Republican in 1944 was facing an internal problem as the party was split between the East Coast Moderates led by Thomas Dewey, West Coast Liberals with Earl Warren at its helm and the Midwest Conservatives with President's son Robert Taft leading the pack. But another Challenger came in the name of Wendell Wilkie. He changed the face of the Republican Party by changing their attitudes toward interventionist and containment against communism but he was perceived by many as an outsider and incapable and so many anti-Wilkie candidates emerged such as Tom Dewey, Harold Stassen and many more.

Taft had surprisingly not enter the primaries but instead endorsed his fellow Ohioan, Governor John W. Bricker but secretly them both and another leading conservative, Arthur Vandenberg wanted General Douglas MacArthur to be their nominee as he was conservative enough and was a popular war hero. Vandenberg had concluded that MacArthur couldn't win the nomination if he entered the primaries and only if a brokered convention happened and so the Conservatives quickly backed their monies into other candidates like Stassen, Bricker and even Wilkie as to make a brokered convention happened and it did happen.

Governor John W. Bricker of the Buckeye State​

The first primary was the New Hampshire Primary where Wilkie had an advantage after he made speeches and campaigned heavily there and indeed he won but it was a hollow one with Dewey coming in a close second and surprisingly Stassen came in third. Wilkie's low performance broke his campaign and his only other victory in the primaries was the Maryland one but even there he was almost beaten by the unpledged delegates and so the 1940 nominee was essentially a non entity during the latter part of the primary.

The next main primary was the Wisconsin primary, the home state of General MacArthur and next state from Stassen's home state of Minnesota. There was an attempt to draft MacArthur into the primary but he declined after pressure from Senator Vandenberg and Taft to stick to the plan. So the election came down between two men, Harold Stassen with the overt support of the Conservatives and Tom Dewey and his moderates. In the end a close race ensued and Stassen won with Dewey's votes unexpectedly dropped with many considered that Stassen was being supported by the Conservatives with Bricker himself bowing out of the primary. The California and Oregon primaries was won by the Liberals, most southern states won by favorite sons and the rest was won by Dewey except Illinois which was closely won by Bricker.

As the Conservatives expected and wanted, the convention was wide open as none of the candidates had a majority with most of the delegates being divided by Dewey, Bricker and Stassen with Warren and Wilkie a distant trail. Then the Conservatives, as expected announced with General MacArthur that he would run for President and immediately Bricker and most of the Southern delegation endorsed him.

A Clearly Happy Douglas MacArthur​

And so a concerned and shocked Tom Dewey would need a plan to fight against the resurging Conservatives and their standard bearer, General MacArthur. He, with his allies would ally themselves with Warren and his faction of liberals and even offering Warren the position of Vice President and the introduction of liberal reforms which Dewey agreed to. Many would later argue that if Dewey had clinched the nomination early on, Warren would've not accepted the position as he only accepted it to block the Conservatives from gaining the nomination.

Meanwhile another camp emerged with an unexpected alliance of Wilkie and Stassen with the aid of former Rep. Charles Christopherson who gave them the great plains delegation. They agreed on New Deal and Interventionism and knew they could succeed if only they worked together and so a deal was made if Wilkie was named as nominee, he would back Stassen as his running mate and Christopherson would be named as Secretary of State. The factions was set and the battle was started.

The first ballot was won by MacArthur with a large enough lead with Dewey coming second and Wilkie coming in third. The second ballot came and it was a relative shock with some of Wilkie's delegates being depleted as they either moved to Dewey or backed MacArthur. By the third ballot, Wilkie was out and MacArthur almost clinched the nomination with the support of most of Wilkie's Great Plains Delegates and by the fourth, seeing his support fade, Stassen would back MacArthur as he opposed the more liberal alliance of Dewey and so General Douglas MacArthur had won the Republican nomination.

MacArthur himself was still in the Pacific and didn't gave a speech but rather wrote a letter to the convention and it was read by his VP candidate, Senator Arthur Vandenberg.

"Fellow Americans! Fellow Republicans! Cheer not only for me but for all of us as you have chosen the right man for this party to lead itself into a new, bright future where we shall ride the wave of liberty and make this nation bright as the sun itself! We shall have victory not only in the election but by God I will win the war in the Pacific and defeat the Japanese Empire and bring upon it American Democracy!"

[Snip]

"Hurrah for America! Hurrah for General MacArthur!"

- Senator Arthur Vandenberg

- 1944 United States Presidential Election, Knowlepedia
​

President Roosevelt was undoubtedly angered by the prospect that his enemy was his own subordinate and requested that either MacArthur resigned from his commission or his face of the reconquest of the Philippines would be halted and the invasion of Formosa which was designed by Admiral Nimitz would go ahead and the thick headed MacArthur would choose neither and said that he was following a precedent of President Grant and Winfield Scott Hancock in which they didn't resigned their commission when they were nominated and Roosevelt pushed back by tightening control over MacArthur and effectively gave control over the theater to Admiral Nimitz. MacArthur would cry foul and would shout through the campaign season and to the general public that a conspiracy in which the Navy was undermining the land military and the proof was the rise of Nimitz.

The General himself didn't campaign and gave the job to his subordinates but he still have radio broadcasts as a way to campaign which by then was revolutionary. During the campaign, the Republicans argued that some of the New Deal was good use for the American public but not all of it was good like healthcare which was in the hands of the government and argued for smaller government and a less regulated economy as to increase free trade and free enterprise.

VP candidate Arthur Vandenberg, cheering General MacArthur as a wise and humble man​

The Republicans aggressively attacked Roosevelt with the vice presidential candidate, Senator Vandenberg, during a speech in Oklahoma City would mock Roosevelt for a rumor that he took a US Warship to bring back his dog, Fala from Alaska saying that, "Roosevelt cares more for that dog than the success of our military in the Pacific!" And mocking his declining health which was stated that, "We don't want a dying man to be President! We want a healthy and vigorous man! And that man is Douglas MacArthur!"

President Roosevelt and VP Wallace, the President commenting over his health and commenting that,
"If I'm dead, this man's your next President!"​

To counter these attacks, Roosevelt and VP Wallace would aggressively campaign and they would take many speeches reminding voters of the Hoover Presidency and the Ray of hope which was the New Deal. Them both also would make stump speeches about the successes of the war (both Roosevelt and Wallace dodged the Pacific theater as it was MacArthur territory and focused on European victories) and the necessary alliance with the Soviets as to calm down the more Conservative audience.

Wallace in particular had seemed to lower his opinion of the Soviet Union after he went there and was horrified after finding out that his visit was a sham after he found a hidden Gulag and was shocked to find many prisoners. Many historians would later point to the visit as to the lowered opinion of Wallace towards the Soviet Union after 1944 and this was echoed through his messages and even though many were still shedding positive light to them but it seems that it wasn't as positive as before because Wallace, during a speech in New York would dub the Soviets as "Devils disguised as Angels"

It seemed that the Roosevelt tactics were working as many people were still supportive of their president and many moderates to mild conservatives even gave more liking to the previously radical and eccentric VP, increasing their polling numbers even more but then the invasion of Palau Islands in August and the landings in Mindanao by October where MacArthur came back triumphantly to the land in which he promised to return and suddenly the polling numbers fell and MacArthur's rose and so Roosevelt needed another plan and then came the October surprise in the mold of a Republican congressman, Arthur Miller.

A Very Triumphant MacArthur in the Philippines
​

Arthur Miller had written to MacArthur during the primaries about his anti-New Deal thinking and surprisingly he replied and with positive light and was supportive of his thoughts. Miller wanted to release the letters during the convention but was pressured by MacArthur's leading man in his campaign, Arthur Vandenberg to burn the letters or throw them away, both weren't done by Miller. When Roosevelt caught wind of the letters, he sent his ally, Samuel Rosenman to Miller and threatened him to give the letters or the President would make sure his political career would end by the end of the year, a terrified Miller reluctantly agreed.

The MacArthur-Miller letter broke the campaign as it destroyed any chances for MacArthur to gain any votes from the more New Deale supportive side of the Republican Party and it showed that the candidate was allowing himself to support an unpopular thinking only because of his ego. By then, Roosevelt gained momentum and slide easily to reelection, especially with the victories not only in the Pacific but in Europe bringing another landslide for the President.

[Snip]

The defeated presidential nominee of 1940 had congratulated his frenemy on another victory but as Roosevelt was campaigning, he had developed a plan to unite the liberals and moderates of both parties and he had even contacted his fellow moderate and liberal Republicans, who were disheartened by the conservative shift in the Republicans and many stayed home but he offered them a new platform, a new party in which they would and will be triumphant, a Liberal Party in which they would shine in.

- The Birth of the Sixth Party System, by
Newt Gingrich​

 

[jack_donaghy_is_the_shado]

Very well written

But, MacArthur's argument isn't that compelling. Grant and Hancock weren't actively engaged in combat or critical planning when they were nominated for president. Dugout Doug is, and furthermore, has returned to a combat zone following his nomination. Should he be taken prisoner, killed, wounded, or go missing; it would be lose-lose for both parties.

Now, Ike did go to Korea in 1952, but this was after his election as president, also during a less severe conflict and with a vice president-elect stateside.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/eisenhower-goes-to-korea

Criticism aside, I enjoyed what you wrote and look forward to your future writing!

 

[BrilliantMistake]

Very well written

But, MacArthur's argument isn't that compelling. Grant and Hancock weren't actively engaged in combat or critical planning when they were nominated for president. Dugout Doug is, and furthermore, has returned to a combat zone following his nomination. Should he be taken prisoner, killed, wounded, or go missing; it would be lose-lose for both parties.

MacArthur would totally have done it tho

 

[Gajah_Nusantara]

But, MacArthur's argument isn't that compelling. Grant and Hancock weren't actively engaged in combat or critical planning when they were nominated for president. Dugout Doug is, and furthermore, has returned to a combat zone following his nomination. Should he be taken prisoner, killed, wounded, or go missing; it would be lose-lose for both parties.

MacArthur has a huge ego and would want to stay to gain more glory and he did it to prevent his so called conspiracy that the navy was being touted as the true military. It was already mentioned that MacArthur's influence was knocked down after he decided to run and most power was given to Admiral Nimitz with him barely holding on thanks to his popularity and Conservative support.

MacArthur would totally have done it tho

I totally agree!

 

[Gajah_Nusantara]

Chapter I
.
The Spectre of MacArthur
​

The Election of '44 was supposed to be a quiet affair with most pundits predicting another landslide for the president but then came three factors, the re-election of Vice President Wallace, the chaos which was the Republican nomination and the election of General Douglas MacArthur as the presidential nominee for the Grand Old Party.

MacArthur changed the Dynamics of the '44 election and was supposed to close the gap between him and the President but then came the rejection of MacArthur's candidacy by more liberal Republicans like Tom Dewey and Wendell Wilkie but the former reluctantly agreed to campaign while the other just went back home. This with the Miller Letter, where MacArthur, in his self ego and opportunistic side wrote to a congressman saying that he would support the repeal of the New Deal and this severely hammered his campaign and Republicans Downballot with Miller himself scathing off to survive.

Other Republicans would fair worse in November and for examples we are taking three races, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Robert Alphonso Taft, son of William Howard Taft, former President of the United States and Supreme Court Justice. Taft had been one of the leading supporters of MacArthur and was touted as his potential running mate until he was passed over for Senator Arthur Vandenberg, a closer ally politically for MacArthur.

Ohio Senator Robert Alphonso Taft
(In 1944, he faced problems both nationally and locally as he is being shunned by MacArthur and Ohio's tilt into supporting labor and internationalist values)​

Taft, being distanced by MacArthur's campaign was now facing another problem, re-election. Taft had hoped to be MacArthur's VP as this cycle, the Democrats smelled blood and had revitalized the opposition with them nominating former Lieutenant Governor William G. Pickrel and with him came the support of the labor unions and internationalists which helped Pickrel grew in support as Ohio was a fairly industrialized state.

He was also distrusted by his fellow right wing Republicans but unlike them he was a New Right member while other were the Old Right and that included his fellow senator from Ohio, John Bricker commented that, "the Socialists have gotten to Bob Taft" and for supporting federal housing projects for the poor.

The campaign was tough with Taft attacking Pickrel as inexperienced and a stooge of Roosevelt while Pickrel fought back against his conservatism, anti-New Deal positions and his isolationism. This worked for Taft as Pickrel was only a Lieutenant Governor and served only one term and he rebounded for a while until the Miller Letter. Thanks to the further unpopularity of MacArthur thanks to the letter and Pickrel also attacked Taft as being complicit in writing the letter with MacArthur which severely hurt him even if the rumors were false.

Another factor was a heard conversation between MacArthur and Senate Minority Leader, Wallace White, "Damn, I want Taft out of the senate! He's the only one wanting me, as President to bow out of the world! Ha! We're the only ones that should guard the world! He's but a spoiled son of a disgraced President and a horrible Chief Justice!" The Democrats would use these words as a smear campaign against Taft and it hurt him with the more MacArthur allied base in the Republican party.

In the end, MacArthur's failure in the campaign, a hurt Taft campaign and a strong resistance by Pickrel led to Senator Bob Taft losing the election.

Republican : Senator Robert Alphonso Taft
Democrat : former Lieutenant Governor William Pickrel​

55.8% - 44.2%

Senator-Elect William G. Pickrel of Ohio
(Undoubtedly his victory against Bob Taft was a turning point against the Taft Family Political Legacy and dashing any hopes for any comeback for now-former Senator Bob Taft)
​

Indiana, the Hoosier state is a state where both Republican and Democrats have vied for many years and now the pendulum could swing either side as a battle raged between Republican Homer Capehart against Democrat Henry Schricker.

Capehart, a successful businessman and longtime Republican was the face of a need of resurgence in the state while Schricker was the governor of Indiana who was best known with the case of Tucker v. State where it was stated that the Governor of Indiana was the chief legislator of the state and have the right to veto legislation. By some Democrats and the Republicans he was deemed as a dictator and was an alternative to Vice President Henry Wallace in the Democratic National Convention which Wallace won against the better judgement of Schricker and the Indiana Democrats.

On the campaign trail, Schricker was attacked and blasted by Capehart as a ineffective and often wise dictator of Indiana while Schricker attacked Capehart's lack of political experience and spread rumors of some of his bad financial woes.

Schricker was a great speaker and was very talented, add that with his small town boy and hosier personality, he brought an aura of connectivity and popularity into the electorate while Capehart was not by means a great speaker and his fumbling against accusations of financial malpractice (which was obviously brought by a Democrat newspaper) brought him down. To further add to the fire, a wave of popularity for the Democrats were brought in especially when MacArthur's bad campaigning and the emergence of the Miller Letter which hurt Capehart's support from the Republican Pro-New Dealers and his support of isolationism when both parties nominees were open internationalists hurt him in November.

Republican : Mr. Homer Capehart
Democrat : Governor Henry Schricker

62.9 % - 37.1 %​

Newly elected Senator Henry F. Shcricker
(Schricker would be both an avid ally and aggressive opponent of both Roosevelt and his two immediate successor as he supported the internationalist stances of the President but opposed the more liberal policies domestically)
​

This last example is one where it was not a win for the Democrats but was a victory for MacArthur and the future Liberals of America.

Wisconsin, home to the Progressive Party was facing a dilemma, her senator, Alexander Wiley was an adamant opponent of MacArthur as he preferred Dewey and the liberal base and so MacArthur sent one of his staunch supporters, former governor of Wisconsin, Philip La Follette to unseat his fellow Republican.

La Follette was one of the oddest supporters of MacArthur, being a liberal and once a supporter of President Roosevelt but ever since he joined the military and was under the tutorship of MacArthur he has since converted to support him but was still a Progressive Republican and had even influenced MacArthur later on with his promises to better the condition of the working man and promising to desegregate the military as he hoped that it would both galvanize the African-American community to support him and to raise morale and hasten victory.

Wiley was an opponent of MacArthur and had even tried to bar him from trying to compete in the primaries and had limited his campaigning in the state even if he was from that said state. MacArthur than asked that La Follette to primary Wiley as he was deemed vulnerable and weak and so La Follette joined the race with the support of his brother, Robert La Follette Jr. And the party apparatus of the Wisconsin Progressive Party with their previous nominee, Harry Southoff backing out and endorsing La Follette and in return the family supported his reelection which succeeded.

Surprisingly, La Follete wasn't the only primary opponent of Wiley as a third candidate emerged, Joseph McCarthy. His record to say was highly controversial with his vehement anti-communist credentials and conservative leanings he was a tough candidate to beat.

The three campaigned vigorously with Wiley attacking that La Follette was a stooge of MacArthur and his true yes man while McCarthy attacked La Follette as a closeted communist while La Follette retaliated with accusations of inaction and age to Wiley while McCarthy was attacked as incompetent and a drunkard. Those attacks would later be proof as McCarthy, a week before the primary was caught drunk inside his car while driving.

The primary was close but with the D.U.I of McCarthy being seen, his numbers plunged and Wiley's grew but narrowly La Follette won the primary with 52 percent of the vote while Wiley gained 40 percent and a weakend McCarthy only gained 8 percent even though early on he was a rising star. He would return two years later as a changed man.

La Follette emerged as the undefeated nominee of both the Republican and Progressive Party while his Democratic opponent, Howard J. McMurray was the candidate of internationalism, Roosevelt and change.

Philip La Follette's campaign was early on in a easy path against the almost unknown McMurray but then the wind came over La Follette's boss, Douglas MacArthur's support of Anti-New Deal leanings and his often times radical plans. La Follette tried to distance himself against the accusations of a secret hater of New Deal agenda and attacked him for his open support of the Republican Nominee which opened up the polls and further enclosed his large lead but then La Follette did the unthinkable by denouncing MacArthur and leaving the Republican Party to rejoin his old party, the Progressive Party of Wisconsin. MacArthur to say the least was furious and reportedly threw his table at the betrayal of a man he brought back from the political dead and so he contacted someone to run in the now vacant Republican nominee, Joe McCarthy.

Captain Joseph McCarthy, the New Republican Nominee
(McCarthy was the surprise new nominee as he was heavily damaged thanks to his D.U.I and his certain unpopularity after knocking off Senator Alexander Wiley but still he was the nominee that MacArthur liked the most beside the reason turned traitor Philip La Follette)​

McCarthy had sobered up since his D.U.I and was mostly out of rehab and when MacArthur contacted him, he immediately signed up for the job and quickly gathered a team to run in the now three way race.

McMurray meanwhile still attacked La Follette but this time, with La Follette leaving the Republicans and denouncing MacArthur his attacks fumbled and was crushed. McCarthy entered the race like the devil and immediately attacking both candidates as corrupt, Washington insiders and Soviet spies. Most of these attacks were bluff but it was effective, the rabble rouser McCarthy gained an advantage and took ahead in second place behind La Follette.

McMurray was contacted by Roosevelt himself saying that he rather have a Liberal but Republican in congress rather than a Radical and Conservative. McMurray was hesitant at first until Roosevelt guaranteed that he would receive a position in his administration which he accepted with reluctance.

McMurray then was set to attack McCarthy and with La Follette knowing of the arrangements, quickly stopped any attacks against McMurray and with him attacking McCarthy as a drunkard and mad with ambitions. McCarthy, sensing that blood was near attacked them both as stooges of Roosevelt and for their internationalist stances and even accused them of being Soviet Agents.

The three way election was set to be a close enough race and the winner was determined only by midnight and only then it was a squeezer.

Republican : Captain Joseph McCarthy
Democrat : Representative Howard McMurray
Wisconsin Progressive Party : former Governor Philip La Follette

40.3% - 39% - 20.7%

​

Recently elected Philip and his brother Bob Jr. Would be the first brother duo to serve at the same time in the Senate's history. Philip La Follette, as expected would draw himself nearer to his former Republican counterparts and would join the caucus as soon as he was sworn in but still Roosevelt and his fellow New Dealers, both Democratic and Republican would be glad by the arrival of a more better suited Senator in their eyes.

Meanwhile in the election for the House of Representatives, as expected it was another Wipeout for the Democrats but there seems to be a growth of Liberal and often times seen as Socialists growing in numbers in the election with a resurging Progressive Party of Wisconsin and the strengthening power of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party in Minnesota and even they are trying to gain power in Michigan.

House of Representatives Election of 1944

Before The Election :

Democrat : 222 Seats
Republican : 209 Seats
Progressive Party : 2 Seats
American Labor : 1 Seat
Farmer-Labor Party : 1 Seat

After The Election

Democrat : 249 Seats (+25 Seats)
Republican : 184 Seats (-25 Seats)
Progressive Party : 3 Seats (+1 Seat)
American Labor : 1 Seat
Farmer-Labor Party : 0 Seat (-1 Seat)
∆ (Farmer Labor joined the Democrats)​

Leadership of the 79th Congress​

Speaker of The House-Elect : Sam Rayburn
Majority Leader : John W. McCormack
Majority Whip : John J. Sparkman

Minority Leader : Joseph W. Martin Jr.
Minority Whip : Leslie C. Arends

Overall, the election was a Wipeout for the Democrats thanks to the Republicans having a lackluster campaign, a controversial nominee and a stay at home Liberal Republican base. But the most important thing that happened thanks to the election was the immediate shift of both the Senate and the House of Representatives as before it was both a mix of Isolationist and Internationalist but now with the immediate results could see was that the shift into the Internationalist camp as many isolationists were defeated or scared into submission thanks to both nominees being Internationalists.

​

Behind the scenes, negotiations began to start between Tom Dewey, President Roosevelt and both the newly elected Liberal senators and the old Senators to discuss the future of both parties.

 

[Gajah_Nusantara]

I'll add pictures on a later note and I'm sorry if it feels incomplete as I hurried myself to write this and I'll work mostly focusing on WWII for several updates and later on we'll focus ourselves back to the US, okay.

 

[Unknown]

Oh, this is getting interesting...

 

[Gajah_Nusantara]

Sorry for it being so short but later on there would be more longer ones and more dramatic ones

 

[Gajah_Nusantara]

Chapter II
.
The Wilkie Affair
​

Indiana, the home of businessman and former presidential candidate Wendell Wilkie. It was for sure now that the man had guests, prominent all on December 1st, almost a month after FDR wipeout of another Republican candidate. The meeting was top and hushed and even the most loudmouth politicians and aides didn't know and heard about the infamous meeting that would change the face of American politics.

For we will never know everything about the so-called "Rushville Conference" or now more known as the "Wilkie Affair" we know for certain that three prominent men were in that meeting, White House Counsel and close aide to President Roosevelt, Samuel Rosenman; New York Governor, fellow presidential candidate and liberal Republican Thomas Dewey and the most odd of the pair, Senator Lyndon Baines Johnson of Texas, a close confidante of Speaker Rayburn and a moderate leading star in the Democratic party.

- The Presidential Affair That Changed America by John Quayle Peterson
​

Setting: Interior, guest room of Wendell Wilkie's Home.

Senator Johnson, Mr. Wilkie, Governor Dewey and Mr. Rosenman sits on comfy red chairs.

Johnson and Wilkie looks confidante yet calm while compared to the anxious Dewey and quiet Rosenman.

Wilkie : Well gentleman! Looks like we are discussing the end of the Democrats and sharpening the knives of the radical Republicans, so to whom we shall start?

Dewey: (seriously glares at Wilkie) Dammit Wilkie! We're doing this for the survival of liberalism and progress, so stay serious!

Johnson: Wow... Slow down boys, this Texan wants peace and we all know that we want that, so slow down and talk peacefully, for Christ sake!

Rosenman: Gentleman, we are all here for the same reason, to create a party of New Deal, Liberalism and Progress and to ward off the coming invasions of both Radical Republicans and Dixiecrats, no offense Senator (looks to Senator Johnson)

Johnson: (smiles) None taken, ya Yankee Texan!

Wilkie: I agree with Rosenman. We all have seen that these men have berated us and fail us in the objective to destroy us and our legacy to the American people but for heck we can't create a party overnight and for sure we can't create it under press coverage! So, for one, I want you all to keep your mouth shut and tight and not let a single soul out of this room to talk about this, sure?

Rosenman: Of course, Mr. Wilkie. For you to be more trustful of the President, he have given us the greenlight to commence this plan of yours and yes I have talked with the President about the need to secrecy and he have agreed not to talk to the press.

Dewey: For this to work, we need both Dixiecrats and a few Moderate Republicans, Johnson could you convince your men to follow us?

Johnson: You know I'm here under orders from Speaker Rayburn but I know what the old man thinks and we would both agree to be neutral, you can get my men but you won't have me in the party, survival and that all, you surely all would understand?

Dewey: Neutral's better than nothing!

(Dewey, Johnson and Wilkie laughs)

- Script from the TV show
"The Falling Dominos"
By Beau Willimon
​

To be certain, the Wilkie Affair brought up to life "Operation Milwaukee Schrank" named after the town and assassin of Theodore Roosevelt, the Progressive president as a symbol of determination for Progressive and Liberal cause and that nothing can't stand in the way of progress.

The operation was supposed to be coordinated by the original planners of the operation, Wilkie, Dewey, Rosenman and Roosevelt but soon included Majority Whip John McCormack, Senators Hiram Johnson and both La Follettes. These people would be the backbone which would found the later party and would be the most instrumental in the planning and organizing for future and present members.

The Operation was also later famous for founding and funding newspapers and TV stations later on as they grew into one of the largest on the nation, such as GNN and The Global Tribune. Most of these rise of companies were in fact thanks to generous loans and help by liberal supporters, new Dealers and even just anti-party richmen. These men were people like Wendell Wilkie himself, Henry Morgenthau Jr. Bernard Baruch, Henry J. Kaiser and many others.

Another famous occurrence was that of the rise of the #&@ party and the rising populations of regions such as Oklahoma, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, New Mexico, The Dakotas and Idaho. These population rises happened thanks to the war of @#$& and the party which would rival the three others.

- Schrank by Lloyd Petyr
​

The Sixth Party System brought upon the mess which was the 1950s in my opinion and for which the decade should have been called "The Decade of Chaos" rather than "The Decade of Miracles & Reconciliation" which in my opinion was false and biased for the Liberals and Interventionists of America.

Why? You might ask, let's see why, shall we...

First, the birth of two new parties in the space of a year and the fracturing of one which broke both the minds of the American People and the International Scene. It also led to our enemies, both foreign and domestic to perceive that our political system, the Democratic system is broken and cannot function properly. This can be looked when the Soviets and their allies interfered in German and Polish affairs which in my opinion and my colleagues almost led to the Third World War.

Second reason was the heap of a political mess created by the four party system. The system of American Democracy, which was until the 1950s worked as a two party system suddenly blew up and created for the party loopholes and new acts unprecedented before the two party system like the election of the Speaker into a first past the post unlike before a majority party gains the speakership, now it was more factionalized affair with parties and factions working together to elect a speaker of their own mold, another was the non majority elected officials and the so-called pacts for democracy. Nowadays, most elected officials, such as governors, senators, representatives and even state leaderships aren't elected with the majority of the electorate but only with 40% to even 20-30% thanks to the new system. The Pacts for Democracy are another blight to our democracy with parties creating new laws by cooperating with each other to find a candidate to rally behind and elect together but often these men and women are only stooges to the parties thus rendering them ineffective. When I see these things, it reminds me of something that we, as Americans fought against, a system reminiscent of British Parliamentary Democracy, for which we do not follow!

Third reason is the abolishment of the power of the people. Let's make this short, the people elect officials and they want these officials to be of elected by the majority and it seems now the most votes won unlike what the people wanted and this is thanks to the new system! Another is that the political power of Washington is degrading the power of the people. Unlike what Abraham Lincoln said of democracy that is, a democracy for the people, by the people and from the people.

Thus, for these reasons, we, argue that there must be a Constitutional Convention as to fix and even create a new democracy molded into the new wave of American multiparty democracy!

- The So-called "New Democracy Papers" written by various men and women, both from Liberal and Conservative spectres arguing for a Constitutional Convention and a Third Constitution for America

​

 

[Gajah_Nusantara]

I'm back! Sorry for the hiatus!

I was busy at school and other real life problems plus I had a writer's block but now I found the way and I'm back and hopefully fulfilling this TL until the end

 

[Gajah_Nusantara]

Another is thing is that for viewers ever since the prologue is that I changed chapter II to focus on domestic affairs rather than Germany and that I changed the title from

The American Liberals

Into

A World of Buzz & Change: The Radical Times Which Was the 20th Century​

 

[Gajah_Nusantara]

Chapter III
.
War in the West, Defeat in the East and Coup in the Fatherland
​

1944, arguably the most important year in the history of modern Germany as it was the turning point in which we as a people would turn from Nazism and Hitlerism into a stable and better future. For when the Bolsheviks in the east were pounding us and the British and their American allies attacking Normandy, we were planning to stage one of the most daring attacks on the Reich and as history would say and write, that was the case.

People often thought that resistance was only limited to France, Poland, Yugoslavia, especially Poland but then when you read again the history of the fatherland, of our Germany, you might find that even though we had voted the fascists and Nazis into power, we had either regretted or had not even voted for the man and so we formed our own groups, but unlike those others we were often small and easily broken, like candle out of wax or a bread sliced. Our flock is easily beaten and caught, as it was our brothers and sisters in arms of the 'White Rose' which if many don't know was a student opposition group with the same goals as us, the liberation of the Fatherland from the influences of Nazism and Hitlerism but unlike us they wanted to rally the people by democratic means, which by our goals were impossible until we get rid of the regime itself but they were true and young and naive and we're all that before we became old and wise but it didn't give the Nazis a reason for them to catch, sentence and execute them. For we were their avengers and the avengers of all Germans that were or shall be persecuted.

The White Rose
(They were an opposition group led by students and a professor from the University of Munich who spread pamphlets and encouraged a democratic Germany as a form of opposition to Nazism and Hitler. They were either executed or imprisoned by 1943 and served as an inspiration for future resistance against the Nazis)​

We, unlike the student led group or the churches which opposed him we were stronger and had more support than them as we were military, aristocrats and politicians who opposed the tyranny of Hitler. We are arguably the most competent of the resistance, as we knew how to lead our fellow countrymen and has that said experience. We were of course "The Kreisau Circle" and the "Valkyries." Of course we were led by our fellow aristocrat, Helmuth James von Moltke, the great-grandnephew of the famed Helmuth von Moltke the elder, one of the founding fathers of Germany. He, to say was unlike his granduncle, an academic and a politician but still had the wits of a Moltke and he gathered us, our fellow anti-Hitlerites to meet with him regularly in Berlin but for some reason, people and historians would refer to us as the Kreisau Circle as we just met in that said manor in Silesia only twice, it still baffles the mind but to the main story.

Moltke was an intellectual and since the rise of the Nazis, he was an opponent of theirs but Hitler was smart enough to know that by hurting a member of the nobility, a famed noble line, he would be discredited and would lead a path to his own destruction and so consequently Moltke got away with plotting. He recruited various members of society, such as I and others ranging from the church, aristocrats, military and politicians as I already said and we also came from a wide arrange of ideologies, from Moltke's own Religious Socialism, the SPD's Social Democracy, the Zentrum members conservatism and liberalism, our own ideology of guided democracy and even nationalists from the right wing members of our group. Yet, a difference only in ideology would tear us apart but our sheer same hatred of Hitler and the Nazis dark schemes would unite us even if we would differ in terms of leadership and a future for Germany.

Helmuth James von Moltke
(the leader of the Kreisau Circle and instigator of the Day X plan. An ardent anti-Nazi he would lead several resistance organizations until founding and leading the Kreisau Circle and with the right kind of friends and connections, by 1944 he had lead a group of high ranking officials, both former and still on the job organization)​

Some men like Moltke would envision his own plan of Germany, called "Day X" which in all purposes was utopian and unlikely and he had even created his own constitution a year before Valkyrie in 1943 and stated that he wanted a nation based upon the so-called natural divisions of the nation: family, municipality and land which to my eyes were pish posh and was only the dreams of a aristocratic academia scholar. Others like Goerdeler's SPD wanted a return to the Weimar Republic where once they had ruled which to me sounded like dragging back our fatherland into the 1920s again and would eventually lead us back into the hands of men like Hitler, Goering, Himmler and so forth. We, the military and the realists on the other hand knew that Germany, the country that instigated and would lose two world wars needed a way that we won't repeat history again and so we created a system which you could see in now modern Germany.

Now, one of the members of the Kreisau Circle and a close confidante of mine, Friedrich Olbricht, Henning von Tresckow and Claus von Stauffenberg, all military came up a plan and showed it to the Circle a plan to overthrow Hitler and the Nazi regime, Operation Valkyrie. The easy rundown was that we would assassinate Adolf Hitler and the other high ranking members of the government and with the help of the Reserve Army, an army designed to prevent coups and restore order to do exactly that and then to make peace with the allies as soon as possible. Many would applaud the operation which was understandable as it was the only functioning and only realistic plan that we had but a vocal group opposed us like Moltke and the Church because they thought that Hitler should stand trial and not be executed immediately which I argue is impossible and said to the utopian academic that even if we, as Germans opposed Hitler and his regime there was a considerable amount of the populace that still vehemently supported Hitler but if we persuade them that Hitler was killed by other members of the government we could take the reins easily and with minimal opposition as the populace would support us being the 'legitimate government'. but he walked out of the room and the meeting adjurned but Moltke then promised us that he would give his answer in a week and a week was all the time we need to plan and perfect it with the other members of the Circle. Curiously, I would have thought that the SPD would join Moltke in his fruitless desires of a utopia and by dragging Hitler to the trial but I was wrong as they had not only unanimously approved of our plan, they would join us in coordinating our nationwide plan of revolt while I thought the Church would side with us but instead sided with that fool of a Moltke.

We presented the plan in late 1943 and we had an entire year to coordinate and to perfect our plan of overthrowing the Nazi Government and so we acted. We recruited various men and women to participate in the plot and had even gotten high ranking members of the government and military to join such as, Wilhelm Canaris, head of the Abwehr, the German military intelligence, Alexander von Falkenhausen, the military commander in the Netherlands and Belgium and former German liaison to China; Andreas Hermes, former Weimar minister of finance, Paul Lobe, SPD former President of the Reichstag, Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben, Governor-General Carl-Heinrich Stulpnagel of France and most importantly was Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, whom was a close confidante of Hitler and was starting to be angered and disappointed by the actions of the Reich. From this lists of high ranking men, we started to make a list of an emergency government that we hoped would both attract men and women, soldiers or populace of Germany to side with us and to entice the Allied powers as to agree to reconcile with us, which half and half did the work.

The original plan by Olbricht by accounts was flawed and short termed but then Henning von Tresckow came into the picture and with the help of our fellow plotters, he created a system of plans which included the movements of our troops, the coordination of our troops, the seizures of government held buildings and even concentration camps and most importantly he created the original manuscript which was used to deliver the message of the deaths of Hitler and anyone near him. Our next problem was that of how to kill the man? We found the answer through Claus von Stauffenberg, a young colonel whose hand was amputated and had an eye patch thanks to a bombing in North Africa. He proposed that we should kill him in his own base of operations, The Wolf's Lair in East Prussia. Hitler and his government had been regularly meeting there as a base of operations to plan any offensives and defense against the allied powers and he was planned to meet there on 20th July 1944, thanks to the information of Erich Fellgiebel. The last and most important problem for us was that of Friedrich Fromm, a slimy and a yes man to Hitler and his regime. He was to say, an ambitious and a manipulator, as he would change sides only when he it benefited him and in this case we needed him to side with us as he was by then the head of the Reserve Army and we need his approval to commence our own plans of Valkyrie. He was hesitant of course, seeing that every assassination attempt on Hitler was a failure and he thought ours was a failure too but he was an opportunist and so he saw that the war was coming to an end and he was on the losing side, so he contemplated and also thought that this could work, our plan could work because we were comprised of high ranking members of the government and military, in my head he thought of that as my later conversations and his acceptance also echoed that he only agreed to it because of its success rate was higher than the other plots but this still bothers me is that he had a condition, he would only do this if Hitler was truly dead and I would give him my full unwavering guarantee that he would die, he only replied in a muttered smile, which still I hate.

By the time of January 1944, Moltke had agreed to our plans but when we met he was sorrowed and sad but nonetheless he gave us the approval to use his connections and the Circle's connections to embalm ourselves in every part of the country and to coordinate and strategize our plans with Moltke's informants and sympathizers which in the later run indeed ease the path to victory. Yet, I wonder still what had gotten to Moltke that led him into agreeing with our plans to kill Hitler instead of dragging him to trial as he wanted so zealously, for it would and will be a mystery not only to me but to everyone but still I do not regret that Moltke had to be sad as to agree to our plans, his personal pain is no excuse for us to fail.

We also knew that we crucially needed allied support if we win the coming battle and to ensure that we, Germany comes out of this war in little change as possible and so with the informants from Moltke, the help of Canaris and a few strings we managed to contact both the American OSS in Switzerland and the British SOE. We weren't taken seriously by the British, of course we weren't considered by those pesky imperialist swines but we were given contact by the OSS leading agent, one Allen Dulles, whom many now could know from being his service to the later CIA and becoming the first Intelligence Secretary of the United States but that was in his future but during his OSS tenure he was sympathetic to us and he predicted that he could help us make contact with the Allied leaders to negotiate a peace settlement but only with the west because we didn't trust the Bolshevik menace but we weren't given an info by him regarding peace talks only that he was given green light to send arms and pamphlets but only after the coup was successful, we, including I was hesitant but we needed it and so agreed to the agent's demands.

When 20 July 1944 came, We, all members of the Kreisau Circle and Valkyrie would meet in the Bendlerblock, where we had set up a rugged but operational base where we could coordinate for the coming storm. What we didn't expect was that the whole world looking down upon us as the ultimate end battle against Nazism.

- The Memoirs of A Tired Soldier
by Ludwig Beck (1960)
​

Stauffenberg had done his job with the deaths in the Wolf's Lair but what he didn't know is that who was dead and who's alive by that point and so later on it was proven that the deaths were:

• Adolf Hitler, Führer of Germany
• Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Chief of the OKW
• General Alfred Jodl, Keitel’s Chief of Staff
• General Adolf Heusinger, Interim Chief of the General Staff
• General Rudolf Schmundt, Chief of the Army Staff Office
• General Walther Buhle, Chief of Army Staff at OKW
• General Walter Warlimont, Deputy Chief of Staff at OKW
• General Gunther Körten, Chief of Staff of the Luftwaffe
• Lt. General Hermann Fegelein, SS Liason Officer

The immediate aftermath of the demise of the high ranking members of the Wehrmacht and the sudden assassination of Adolf Hitler gave open a wound that would foster the downfall of the Third Reich as rivals, Herman Goering, whom had the support of the establishment and the loyalist military and Heinrich Himmler, whom had the support of the large following of his SS army and the unwavering support of the idealists and deadliest of the party while other would be contenders such as Martin Bormann, Joseph Goebbels and Karl Donitz were out of the picture with Bormann being captured in the Wolf's Lair during the Fellgiebel Uprising and taken to the Allies, Goebbels committed suicide when Valkyrie members took over Berlin and Donitz threw his lot with Goering.

In Berlin, General Friedrich Olbricht pushed the initiative to force Friedrich Fromm, whom was still in disbelieve that Hitler was dead but then came Stauffenberg who said Hitler was dead, still Fromm wasn't convinced but later when he received a call from Fellgiebel who was still at the Lair and had seen his corpse personally, Fromm relented and immediately initiated Operation Valkyrie.

Even though Valkyrie was initiated by Fromm, the first orders were given by Olbricht to the city commander, General Joachim von Kortzfleisch, whom responded to the news hysterically, "The Führer is alive!" But was quickly snapped out when Stauffenberg, who was at the room recounted his own experience there and a disbelieved Kortzfleisch quickly backed down and followed suit with Olbricht's command to take over the city apparatus and arrest high ranking members of the government, such as Goebbels and Roland Freisler, the infamous judge of the people's court, the courts that persecuted all Germans. Nonetheless, Kortzfleisch carried out his duty with the support of the Valkyries and the early stages did work with them easily taking the radio stations across Berlin, taking over Templehof and surprisingly captured the infamous Ministry of Propaganda without any resistance as the soldiers stationed there immediately surrendered thanks to the sheer amount of Valkyrie forces but this raid would impact Kortzfleisch as he was personally leading the men and when they captured Goebbels, his only words were, "for what I am a traitor?" And he immediately took his cyanide pill and swallowed it, ending the Minister's life.

Joseph Goebbels
(1897-1944)
​

The first heavy resistance came when Kortzfleisch tried to captured the SS headquarters in Prinz-Albrecht-Straße where the early forces of Valkyrie were beaten back until reinforcements came through, leading to the battle of Prinz-Albrecht-Straße which led to 120 deaths on the Valkyries and an approximate 300 SS K.I.A but it was worth it as it gave the Valkyries a plethora of intel and information.

Meanwhile in the Bendlerblock, the Valkyries had already sent their first broadcasts under the direction of General Fritz Lindemann who would deliver the news of the deaths of Hitler and high ranking members of the Wehrmacht and him blasting the conspiracy against the leadership coup in the party stating that,

"An unscrupulous clique of party leaders alien to the front has attempted, under the exploitation of this situation, to betray the hard-struggling front and to seize power for their own selfish purposes."
​

By this means, he had also purposely broadcasted the radio into all sides, both the allied powers and their own axis coalition as to signal Allen Dulles and any negotiating allied powers wants to. It also served as a signal for other members of Valkyrie to act and act it did as Paris and Vienna erupted in revolt with both succeeding and with their fall, so others reacted like in Norway, Holland, Prague, Hamburg and even Poland most of which would result in mixed results.

As soon as the SS headquarters were captured, Kortzfleisch came back to the Bendlerblock to demand an audience with Fromm and when he met him, suffice to say he was livid and so was Fromm inside but it was quickly puffed when Olbricht quickly arrested Kortzfleisch for treason and insubordination and had him replaced with General Karl Freiherr von Thüngen and had him coordinate with the recently arrived Erwin von Witzleben to fortify the city for an upcoming attack either by Himmler or Göring but fate had other plans as two events occured as they prepared their defences.

- The Plot to Save Germany
By Paula von Oldenburg
​

The Fellgiebel Uprising was a revolt that happened in the Wolf's Lair, formerly base of the recently deceased Reichsführer Adolf Hitler and occured on 20 July 1944. The cause of the uprising was the assassination of Il Duce Benito Mussolini and Field Marshal Radolfo Graziani by partisan communists who infiltrated the army group of the Valkyries that were supposed to capture and secure the Wolf's Lair.

(Mussolini moments before his death as he was escorted by a communist disguised as a soldier)​

The loyalists there, Admiral Karl Donitz and Martin Bormann were quickly captured and with the aid of the Valkyrie troops there, arrested and subdued the loyalists and Italian troops there. Göring was supposed to be there but the Hamburg uprising and the sudden power grab by Himmler distracted him and a deep hatred of Mussolini also proved a factor in him missing the event.

Fellgiebel, knowing that East Prussia wasn't a good place to store prisoners soon departed the base with his prisoners and a few men and went to Vienna instead of Berlin after hearing an assault by the loyalists under Heinz Guderian. Before he left, he deliberately sent a broadcast to all of Germany that Mussolini and a supposed high ranking Wehrmacht officer that survived the bomb had been killed by partisan Bolshevik communists and this deliberately with the communist and socialist uprising in Hamburg started the Communist Purges of 1944 and became a factor in the foundation of the Prussian People's Republic.

There he met with Wilhelm Canaris and Helmuth James von Moltke where he gave them his prisoners and prepared for the next phase of the war.

- Excerpt from the wonderpedia.com post of the Fellgiebel Uprising
​

Himmler was livid at the abrupt takeover of the Nazi loyalists by Göring, who banded with the rest of the Wehrmacht and any anti-SS member of the party and so it was decided that he would send one of his deadliest operative, Otto Skorzeny to assassinate and possibly eliminate any hurdle for Himmler, like Göring, Donitz, Guderian, Rommel and others.

On July 21st 1944, Skorzeny arrived in Nuremberg, Bavaria where Göring had set up his base of operations and reportedly after a meeting with his loyalist military, men such as Heinz Guderian, Gerd Runstedt, Wolfram Freiherr von Richtofen and the recently arrived Walter Model. As he and Model went into Göring's car as they had planned to talk about Model's new position, Skorzeny and a group of 4 other SS officers shot and blew up his car, instantly killing the men inside. The panicked generals quickly retaliated with their own soldiers but by the time they were readily prepared, Skorzeny was already gone as he had achieved success.

Hermann Göering
(1893-1944)​

A win for Himmler but a short one as the generals gathered to decide as to whom would succeed Göering with most pointing to Guderian who rejected but he asked for the position of Reichsmarshall which was given to him given his experience but still the question was posed, who would succeed Göring as many of the military men thought of themselves incapable to lead a political job and so the question was still raised but it answered itself when two men arrived, Franz von Papen and Albert Speer.

Von Papen was the ambassador to Turkey and the former Chancellor most responsible to Hitler's rise while Speer was the young but brilliant engineer whom was seen as a unifying figure. Papen was originally a Valkyrie man but when he heard of the Fellgiebel Uprising, the planned assault on Berlin, the arrest of Kortzfleisch and the mess of a government, quickly endeared himself to Göring's ranks and became a sort of liaison to the other members. Speer was a young but still great man who could be seen as figure to rally about and they quickly considered both choices as replacement as they had agreed that the position of Reichsführer was only a position that Hitler could fill and so the job was now split again between Reich President and the Reich Chancellor which was filled by Speer and Papen respectively.

While on Valkyrie's side, trouble was brewing as reports came through that Holland and Norway was having problems as Falkenhausen was beaten out of Amsterdam and Brussels into The Hague while in Norway, the loyalists were fighting both Norwegian collaborators and Valkyrie troops which was becoming too bloody to see the end results and in Prague, the Valkyrie's were beaten out and executed by the victorious Himmler and his SS.

The trouble jumped again when the supposed arrivals of Goerdeler was imminent but didn't happen as later reports found that he became a victim of the Communist Purges by the Göring government while Moltke had barely escaped Silesia and was on his way to Berlin, not a good start if I say so myself.

But on July 25th, Allen Dulles had came out in support and gave his support by sending guns and propaganda and just in time as both sides had been enroaching Berlin with Himmler in the east and the now Guderian led army in the west. This situation led to Fromm backing out of the plot and subsequently arrested alongside Kortzfleisch and Moltke and others who were supposed to meet with the rest of the Valkyries ran to Canaris' base in Vienna, where they had fully secured Austria.

On this date also that Falkenhausen repelled SS troops from Amsterdam and Brussels but in Belgium it led to the deaths of the entire royal family except Prince Alexandre and Prince Charles whom the latter was in Britain at the time.

The next day word came through that Norway was lost as Valkyrie troops surrendered to the Guderian led armies and reports said that Otto Skorzeny was leading the charge against the Valkyries in Berlin while Guderian was sure to lead the advance against them, further demoralizing them.

Meanwhile in France, all was secure except for a few men in Paris but that was quickly taken care off by Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel, the military Governor of France. The Valkyries of France, which was Stülpnagel, Field Marshal Günther von Kluge and General Erwin Rommel. They were, with Austria, the powerbase of Valkyrie support in the country and so with the end goal of achieving peace in any form necessary the Valkyrie used Rommel, a respected general both in the west and the east as their way to the negotiating table and it worked as it baited General de Gaulle and Prime Minister Churchill to see how the Valkyrie would fare against the two loyalists. But as soon as the Allied powers heard their winnings, news arrived that Berlin had fallen and that most if not all the Valkyries in Berlin were either killed or captured and so Rommel and Kluge contacted Vienna and they decided that they would quickly form a government with the respected Helmuth James von Moltke as the Reich Chancellor, Günther von Kluge as Commander-in-Chief of all Armies and Erwin Rommel as both liaison to the allied powers and minister of defence. But as they agreed upon a framework of government they argued for either or not a figurehead is needed as to please the west, probably an emperor but they agreed to led it slide until the war was over and they had triumphant against both the traitor of Germany and agreed upon peace with the west.

As soon as the battlefields of Germany formed another foe came into the picture, the Poles had rise and they wanted to make sure it would be successful.

​

 

[UnaiB]

Is this update partially based on the "Twilight of the Valkyries" TL of @LumineVonReuental ?

 

[Gajah_Nusantara]

Is this update partially based on the "Twilight of the Valkyries" TL of @LumineVonReuental ?

Of course, I was inspired from that same TL as I was thinking how to make Valkyrie succeed the most and found that @LumineVonReuental TL was the most inspiring to me