AHC opposite 1960s

The challenge is, with as few 20th century PODs as possible, is to run the IOTL 1960s but backwards. For example, the USA starts out righting a land war in Asia but withdraws, the US federal government imposes segregation on states that don't want it, there is a hippy culture that fades away during the decade, a US president kills a noted communist sympathizer, and soon.
 
"With this treaty," said American President Woodrow Wilson in the summer of 1917, "we end one great conflict and begin another. The war among the great powers of Europe, which future generations of white people will see as the last of a long series of civil wars, is over. The struggle for the survival of our race, one in which America will take the lead, has begun."

Commenting on this pronouncement, Count Terauchi Masatake, the prime minister of the Empire of Japan, expressed comparable sentiments. "For decades, we thought that, by adopting what was best in Western civilization, we could join, as equals, the society of advanced nations. We were wrong. Despite our many achievements, we find the doors of every White nation closed to our products, our influence, and our emigrants. Thus, in the years to come, we will pursue a very different approach to our engagement with the outer world, one in which the Japanese will create a new world order, one in which the hegemony of the White race is overthrown, and the colored peoples of this planet will thrive."

In the long cold war that followed, the chief weapon in the arsenal of the Japanese Empire was the Gung Ho ("work together") movement. The brainchild of Russian emigres, this movement hid its true nature behind a Chinese name and figurehead leaders drawn from various parts of Asia and Africa, as well as the non-white populations of the Americas. It did not take long, however, for observers to recognize that the "non-violent" occupation of ports and other outposts of civilization was soon followed by the landing of Japanese "peacekeepers."

In the summer of 1960, American Marines, under the command of Major General James Roosevelt, landed in Vladivostok to help the Russian authorities deal with an attempt by Gung Ho marchers to occupy that city. When snipers within the crowd fired upon the Marines, General Roosevelt authorized his men to employ their weapons "as you saw fit." The Japanese government had hoped that the resulting death of several dozen Chinese civilians would embarrass the American government. Instead, however, the gambit backfired, and Roosevelt became a national hero.

The popularity of James Roosevelt proved a great boon to the presidential bid of his cousin, Quentin Roosevelt. (As a serving officer, General Roosevelt took great pains to avoid any endorsement of his cousin's candidacy. However, there was nothing to prevent Quentin's supporters from distributing campaign buttons emblazoned with the slogan "as you see fit.")

On 22 November 1963, during a visit by General Roosevelt to the White House, Paul Robeson, a Gung Ho mole employed as a butler in the presidential household, took advantage of a visit by General Roosevelt to attempt to kill two birds with one stone. Before Robeson could fire, however, Quentin drew his own pistol and killed the would-be assassin. (The pistol had been a gift from Quentin's father, President Theodore Roosevelt.)

In the aftermath of the assassination, President Roosevelt, a long-time advocate of a strong Federal government, asked Congress to impose racial segregation on the country as a whole. Notwithstanding the cry of "states' rights" on the part of people in New England and the Upper Midwest, this initiative proved to be popular with voters throughout the country. Indeed, many analysts attributed Roosevelt's re-election in 1964 to this measure. (Other analysts argued that Roosevelt's popularity was a function of his withdrawal of American troops from Siberia, following a successful program of "Russification.")

The failed attempt to assassinate President Roosevelt had a profound effect on American culture. Before 1963, many young people had thought it "cool" to adopt aspects of African-American culture. After that great shock, however, jazz and "rock" gave way to folk music, which celebrated the European heritage of White Americans, while many a young man asked his barber to cut his hair so that he might look "just like Jimmy Roosevelt."
 
Top