Chapter 2 – Last Man Standing
World Overview (1)
United States of America
In 1939, the world had seven great powers [1]. By 1960, India had been added to the list whilst all others besides Britain and America had either been demoted or outright destroyed as functioning states. Of the three remaining great powers of Great Britain, the United States and India, only the latter two could project power globally in their own right. Of those two, only America was part of the Western world. Over 20 years of war had left the United States of America as the last man standing among the western great powers. This was the undeniable truth by the time the Nuremberg garrison surrendered (well, almost all of it anyway).
The Americans had weathered the storm of war better than much of Europe. In just over 20 years, 800,000 Americans (military and civilian) had died of war-related causes [2]. Whilst the largest death toll in American military history, it was less than French casualties in the 4-year long First World War and less than total British and Commonwealth combined casualty figures.
Those 20 years had an immense impact impact upon American culture and the American psyche. The nation that in September 1939 had urged restraint had also been the one to devise the "Oxcart Directive". Those once considered innocent civilians had become little more than "collateral damage" in military eyes. On the other hand, the "Burn it All" attitude as expressed in the 1959 directive had been the product of many long and hard years of war and had resisted for several months at the behest of President Kennedy, himself guilt-ridden over the fate of Japan in 1945-46.
Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., 34th President of the United States [3]
Other aspects of American cultural shifts were far from as brutal as "Shermanite" [4] tactics employed in the end stages of the Pacific and European theatres. Desegregation of the Armed Forces had been undertaken in 1948 shortly after the end of the Pacific War and segregation finally outlawed nationwide with the largely bipartisan Civil Rights Act of 1952 [5]. Tensions over the bill's implementation with Southern governors were finally put to rest with the St. Patrick's Day Raids just under two years later.
One other cultural biproduct of the Warm War was a large standing army kept semi-mobilised within America. These soldiers found it hard to find work in the event that they would be called back to the front. This wasn't enough to prevent a reasonable-sized baby boom between 1947 and 1950, largely driven by Pacific veterans. By then, millions of women had entered the workforce with as much as 70% of the workforce in the aviation industry being female [6]. For those with soldier husbands, an arrangement was made in millions of American households where the husband would remain at home to look after the kids while the wife went to work in the factory or (less commonly) shipyard. "Home Front Service" or "The Kitchen Campaign" as it became affectionately and sometimes sarcastically known became a staple of early 50s American culture, forcing the American people into the world of the Stay-at-home Father.
Over 3 million American soldiers were based in Europe on V-E Day, as part of four huge army groups. There job was far from enviable, having to deal with insurgencies across Germany, France and Poland staged by "Werewolf" militants, Waffen-SS remnants and other Nazi and Fascist guerrillas such as the French Milice-I [7].
3rd Infantry Divisions in of Kraków, September 1959
The remnants of the former Polish capital were destroyed by Waffen-SS units of the Dirlewagner Brigade
The destroyed areas were the areas used to house Polish slave labourers, the Razing of Kraków was finally suppressed by the US Army by August 5th [8]
Domestically, this was election year. President Kennedy's second term was in the cards. The impending return to a peacetime economy awaited the American people dizzy on victory juice. The old New Deal Coalition was fragile, some said on the verge of splitting, despite its loyalty to the person of President Joseph P. Kennedy.
At home. Abroad. Things were going to get interesting.
Welcome to the new world America.
Footnotes
- [1] United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, United States, Soviet Russia & Italy. In no particular order.
- [2] As stated by CalBear.
- [3] CalBear said
HERE that Truman served three terms, meaning Kennedy would be elected in 1956. I hope I got this right.
- [4] I term I invented myself to cover the end stages of TTL's Pacific and European wars, name derived from General William T. Sherman and his tactics in Georgia. I believed it fits well with the American context.
- [5] CalBear mentioned that progress on civil rights is far faster than its OTL speed with the 1950s rather like OTL's 1970s. I did some mental maths and guessed this world's Civil Rights Act would be passed sometime late in the Warm War, near to the upcoming Presidential election.
- [6] Wikipedia says that 65% of aviation industry workers were women by 1943, I just levelled it up due to the longer war and greater army sent to Europe in the 50s.
- [7] I will cover this more in future updates.
- [8] A little story I made up myself to make you all cry a bit more.
Sources
The "90 Division gamble" gets its fair share of criticism from students of World War II, but it is hard to see how it could have been avoided.
www.historynet.com
en.wikipedia.org
well, alll good, but when will we see the final Liberation of Europe ?
www.alternatehistory.com
It can't have been that long ago. article 2 Clause V of the constitution - "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that...
www.alternatehistory.com
If Apache Dancer has nuclear pulse propulsion, a fusion drive, etc., wouldn't it be easier for the crew to, you know turn around rather than sail off into the void and die? An Apollo-type craft with limited propellant might suffer such a fate, but I would think something with that kind of...
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