AH Challenge: Weakest United States in 20th Century

Ok, I'll give it a try.

1900s. Monopolists are not broken up, allowing them to place much of a strangle hold on the US economy.

1916 - The hunt for Pancho Villa goes on, escalates and above all detoriates. The US announces an occupation of northern Mexico, decried in many Latin American countries. the Mexican government, such as it is, cannot do anything, but the army cannot keep arms and recruits from slipping north in joining the locals and quite a few volunteers from other Latin American countries in a vicous guerilla war.

1917 - The US, distraced by the costly quagmire in Mexico, does not join the European war. Instead, they start demanding some credit back, as they need money for arms, training troops and payment. This greatly angers the Entente.

1919 - Germany asks for an armstice in February as the Entente breaks the frontline and food riots quake Germany. The Versailles treaty of 1920 will be hard on them.

1920 - The US pulls out of Mexico after three years of vicous guerilla war. nothing much has been gained, except the enmity of most of Latin America. Lieutenant General Smedley D Butler publishes a book titled 'War is a Racket' about the Mexican War. Considered one of the best US Generals, who headed a district with relatively low rate of insurgency (due to his and especially his troops disciplined behaviour) and a war hero, the book divides the nation in two. Some decry Butler as an unpatriotic traitor who spits on the blood spilt by US soldiers, other raise him to the skies as a patriot, champion of free speech and a honest and honourable man. The book is translated to Spanish and quickly spreads in Latin America, where horror stories of torture, plunder, pillage, rapings, beatings and humiliation that until now was word of mouth turns into facts confirmed by the other side. Butler's popularity plumments in the US as the 'traitor!' faction gains the upper hand. Paradoxially, what transgressions he did in Mexico is quickly forgotten in latin America and he gains popularity as 'the one honourable yankee in a nation of bastards'. Latin American nationalism is on the rise, and immigration to the US slows down to a trickle.

1922 - The House Comittee on Unamerican activity begins looking into Butler's book. Riots ensue in the streets as opponents and proponents of his person, now turning into a champion for every cause that needs one (Early War Bonus proponents, Pacifists, the Latin American minotiry and even some socialist claiming him to be on the side of the common man rather than the capital who goads the common man in another nation against his brother etc). Butler himself does not want the attention nor the leadership many wants to offer him. He appears before the Comittee and defends himself eloquently, calmly and quite well. Freed of suspicion, he is nevertheless forcibly retired from the Marine Corps.

1920s - The US, still trying to get back its war credits from the Entente and on constant conflict over them experiences souring relations. Isolationists take more power. At the same time US companies are experiencing problems in Latin America. The old true and tested method of replacing one dictator with the next is not proving successful anymore. The US is so impopular in Latin America that finding a General that is not toppled by riots or even the army is proving difficult. The US intervenes militarily on several occasions, but have to withdraw after a few months, when the situation detoriates, after a few face-saving treaties that are immedately ignored. The US is seen as weak, unable to cope with Latin American machoism and expertise in guerilla warfare. Not the least, the socialists, liberals and conservatives in Latin American countries can agree on something for the first time in their history - they don't like the US. Latin American countries socialists face far less persecution and move further to the social democratic side rather than towards communism. Fewer revolts, American companies actually having to pay taxes and less of a drain on the best and the brightest in emigration to the US.

In the US, this situation, combined with the great depression, which hits the US especially hard, leads some to look for scapegoats. Latin Americans and blacks get hit the hardest, but all immigrants suffer. Combined with the worsening economics, immigration dries up almost completely.

1930s - In Canada, a very effective new deal is introducing, providing large amounts of labour. The Entente nations invest in Canada, realising that the US will not be a 'arsenal of democracy' because of the isolationists stance and souring relations between the two nations. They try to build up Canadian industry and are fairly successful. Canadian unemployment go way down, and many skilled unemployed workers in the US rust belt starts to move north of the border looking for work and better conditions. Canada gains a lot of immigration that would otherwise have gone to the US.

Herbert Hoover wins a third term after Roosevelt is seen paralyzed in his wheelchair and dirty mudslining is used against him. Hoover's policies are disastrous. Unemployment continues to be high, the amount of cultivated land drops sharply after the dust bowl, banks close and the depression deepends. At the same time isolationists force a heavy protectionist policy through congress. The US economy suffers even worse. Infrastructure starts to crumble in some cases as monopolist companies go out of business. Socialist and union supporters go on strikes, fighting with company henchmen and conservative protesters and police all over the country. Race riots and clashes between the Army and poor in Hoovervilles, as well as the Bonus Army become really ugly. A General named MacArthur uses tanks, gas (some say he wanted tear gas and the order was misunderstood), bayonets and live bullets to break up Hoovervilles, strikes and riots. Thousands are left dead all over the country in the volience.

A general strike called (by the unions and socialists much more powerful than OTL) paralyzes the country. Sabotage is extremely common and the trickle of workers north becomes a steady stream, with the odd sensible capitalist and his capital mixed in. After more than two years of violent riots, even low-level insurgency, sabotage, strikes and clashes in the streets, the army breaks the socialist movement. All socialist parties and unions are declared unamerican or even unconstitutional. Infrastructure, know-how and industrial resources are pretty much in shambles.

An active insurgency on Cuba starts, with unofficial and private support from much of Latin America. It is time to chase the corrupt Yankees out.

Will have to finish later.
 
The Cuban Missile Crisis leading to a crippled USA 20 years or more later is stupid on its face. Worst case we loose a dozen cities. So what... yes many people die, economy goes down the drain but the US's economic power would recover. Look at Europe and it took them how long to recover from WW2 and Europes cities were far worse damaged. Look up some of the RAND corps studies you need a much large hit than the Cuban missile crisis would produce to long term cripple the US or something combined with it.

Michael

Europe had the Marshall Plan, after a Cuban Missile War i doubt the rest of the world will like us much, if JFK and the National Command Authority are killed by a hit on DC, then the USSR and Warsaw pact can kiss their asses good-bye, i doubt people will like the USA after it kills 200,000,000 people in a day.
 
The Business Plot is seriously pursued with a great deal more care in who is recruited. It results in a serious coup attempt in 1934 which initially succeeds (FDR, the VP, Cabinet, and Congressional Leadership are arrested, and the plotters gain physical control of downtown DC as well several state capitals (Pennsylvania and several New England states which Hoover carried in 1932) and New York City). Most states refuse to acknowledge the coup, leading to a civil war.

Six months later, the coup is defeated, the top levels of political leadership has been killed, and several major cities have been home to house-to-house fighting. The plotters are executed, and hundreds of other business leaders are arrested and tried for collaboration. And the Depression is still in full swing.

At the time, only cabinet secretaries followed the Vice President in the line of succession. They were all killed by the plotters along with FDR and Garner, so there's no line of succession and no provision for replacing them, leaving the military leaders to rule extra-constitutionally until the next election.

Were any high-profile US generals in the 1930s communists? I'm looking for someone who could run what's left of the US economy into the ground.
 
Were any high-profile US generals in the 1930s communists? I'm looking for someone who could run what's left of the US economy into the ground.

i got just the man, MacArthur, not a commie, but a scary SOB and i doubt he'd know what to do with the economy, also he Chief of Staff at the time so he's in the spot light
 
Unless the Soviets have all their bombs laced with Cobalt (they didn't), radiation is less of a concern than most think. Remember that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were rebuilt after the war.

The A-bomb was a real sweetheart compared to it’s younger sister the H-Bomb.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki were rebuilt after the war, because Japan didnt have any spare land on its overcrowded main island.:rolleyes:
 
How about the Yellowstone supervolcano exploding in 1901?

or a good sized asteroid crashes into the USA around the same time?

This is a good PoD. The rest proposed in this thread really require PoD after PoD to make America the weakest- the Cuban Missile Crisis going hot wouldn't weaken America, but leave it as the sole superpower 30 years early (at the time, the Soviets only had 13 ICBMs capable of hitting America, and those were outdated, with poor targeting systems and unreliable systems, so any plausible scenario leaves at most only 1-2 million dead, a paltry sum compared to the nuclear armageddon that Eurasia will face).

But a supervolcanic eruption? The last one left this. That's all of flyover country and some important bits of L.A. gone. America is fucked.

Another good PoD would be Stanislav Petrov failing to avert nuclear war in 1983. Now that was a year when America could have been pulverised.
 

JohnJacques

Banned
Doesn't the supervolcano also give the rest of the world a "year without summer"? Probably worse than that even. "A Decade Without Summer"
 
the new deal falls through... does not get accepted.
pearl harbor is not bombed... america does not join WWii and restimulate it's economy.
The pound, intead of the USD is accepted as the base currency in UN's economic convention.

america becomes economically unstable, through these 3 changes. does not have the funding to develop as many weapons against the soviets. this makes the soviets a little more confident in attacking.

more wars during the 60's and 70's (than otl) cost many american lives, and reduces the work force.

however, even if america has some noukes, many other eastern countries will also have some. american land becomes a buffet for everyone who pleases.
 
a) Teddy Roosevelt never manages to limit the power of big business.

Okay, but how? This seems like a major POD requiring the alteration of American democracy....

b) Anglo-German alliance agreed early in the century. Clash with the Franco-Russian bloc say about 1908. [picking year pretty much at random]. With Austria, Ottomans and Italy quite possibly all on the A-G side there is heavy fighting but its pretty much a forgone conclusion. Some conflict starts with the US towards the end of this war [ some disagreement over European colonies in Americas, Ireland, US fear of the collapse of balance of power, whatever].

It's not clear to me that British manpower is really greater than America's, after a draining war, or that its military expertise is significantly less to make up for the long supply lines and that Great White fleet.


c) Post-WWI [probably with variants, conflict between US and Anglo-Japanese alliance, possibly with other allies. US could win this but so could the allies. Things could get very, very nasty and extreme losses for the US if one or two bad decisions are made.

How could the Anglo-Japanese Alliance possibly triumph?
 
i got just the man, MacArthur, not a commie, but a scary SOB and i doubt he'd know what to do with the economy, also he Chief of Staff at the time so he's in the spot light

Well, there was a nation that he basically controlled for several years, rebuilding, with America's best and brightest, from the ground up.

It's called Japan.
 
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