America After FDR: Dewey Wins in 1944

Eurofed

Banned
And this is what scares me about Eurofed, you get the feeling that he has a lot of pretty extreme right wing views beneath the surface.

I'm a complex political animal. Meritocratic social democratic in economic and fiscal policy, assimilationist extreme progressive/libertarian in social issues, practical atheist secular humanist in religion, far right Americanophile anti-Communist imperialist eurofederalist in foreign policy.
 
I'm a complex political animal. Meritocratic social democratic in economic and fiscal policy, assimilationist extreme progressive/libertarian in social issues, practical atheist secular humanist in religion, far right Americanophile anti-Communist imperialist eurofederalist in foreign policy.

The horror! The horror!

I kid. Seriously, I see nothing in this self description or in anything you've argued in this thread that justifies smearing your or being afraid of you. That's risible.
 
I'm a complex political animal. Meritocratic social democratic in economic and fiscal policy, assimilationist extreme progressive/libertarian in social issues, practical atheist secular humanist in religion, far right Americanophile anti-Communist imperialist eurofederalist in foreign policy.

Wow.

Eurofed sounds a lot like me - except I'm an unabashed American. Try being a right-winger with athiestic tendencies in America...talk about lonely.

Oh, and if Eurofed admires the New Deal (as do I), the REAL right-wing nuts will call him communist no matter what his other inclinations.

Mike Turcotte.
 

Eurofed

Banned
Eurofed sounds a lot like me - except I'm an unabashed American. Try being a right-winger with athiestic tendencies in America...talk about lonely.

I can feel your pain. As I see it, nothing screwed the America I otherwise love from afar this last 30 years more than the takeover by the religious crazies of what was actually a quite sensible party.

Oh, and if Eurofed admires the New Deal (as do I), the REAL right-wing nuts will call him communist no matter what his other inclinations.

Or as in my country, because I despise an aging corrupt would-be autocrat with links to mafia and a textbook delusion of grandeur only matched by utter ineptitude as statesman whose sexual addiction is the more endearing trait.
 
The Potsdam Conference
June 1-7, 1945 (Part 1)
President Dewey, Prime Minister Churchill, and Marshall Stalin met in Potsdam, south of Berlin, for what would prove their final meeting. Stalin arrived in ill humor, as he was entering an area under control of American military authority ... when he had fully expected the area to be under Soviet Control as recently as the Yalta Conference.

Indeed, American and British forces were much further east than they had any right to be. Stalin had suspected that had Roosevelt remained in office, things would be very different, at least in the short term. But over time, of course, the West and East would inevitably clash in some way. History was on the side of Communism, after all. It had been successfully consolidated in the Soviet Union and would spread outward, by whatever means the dialectic demanded.

British forces had penetrated deeply into Lower Pomerania; American forces had occupied most of Berlin and the area immediately to the south. They also had entered Prague and occupied the larger part of Czechoslovakia. They even had penetrated into Vienna, although there, at least, the Soviets occupied half of the city.

But ... Poland, Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria were solidly controlled by Moscow. Plus the Soviets held Prussia and Silesia. Did the Anglo-Americans really care about them? Would they really give up some of their German conquests AND give the USSR more aid for what they called "free elections" in these countries?

Stalin, a naturally suspicious man, had his doubts. He felt that he was entering the world's biggest chess game.​
 
The Potsdam Conference
June 1-7, 1945 (Part 2)
It was not everything the Western Allies would have wanted. It was certainly not what the Soviet Union had been counting on. But in the end, Churchill, Dewey and Stalin managed to hammer out an agreement on post-war Europe. Only time would tell if the Potsdam arrangements would hold.

But here is what was decided: the three nations in Eastern Europe that had allied themselves with Hitler, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Rumania, were essentially consigned to the Gehenna of Soviet domination. It would be very hard for either Dewey or Churchill to explain to their respective electorates that they refused to reach agreement on the postwar order because of some Nazi satellites.

The final status of Yugoslavia and Greece was also settled, with Yugoslavia under control of Marshall Tito, who unlike most prospective Communist leaders had genuine popular support, and Greece under the British-backed monarchy.

Of course, an agreement was one thing; facts on the ground were quite something else at times.

Czechoslovakia also was relatively easy to settle because of the deep American penetration into that country. Most US and Soviet forces would withdraw from their respective conquests, with some allied forces remaining to supervise elections and a new government. As one of Hitler's first victims, there was considerable sentiment in England and the US in Czechoslovakia's favor.

Poland was a harder problem to solve. It was under Soviet occupation, certainly. But Poland had a powerful resonance for Britain and America. Poland had been brutalized by the Nazis and also the Soviets in 1939. Neither Dewey nor Churchill was willing to sweep this history under the rug.

So it came down to Poland. Stalin had to weigh his options. He could easily hang on to Poland. He knew the Allies would not start another war right after World War Two ... and against their heroic Soviet allies, as (most of) the western media had usefully proclaimed them for years.

But that would cut off all American aid and keep large US and British forces in most of Germany, including 80% of Berlin. Sure, Mother Russia could suck out whatever it could from Prussia and Silesia, but even that would not last forever.

So, Stalin made his decision. With the current correlation of forces, it would be most advantageous to accept the Western demands about Poland. So, most Soviet forces would indeed withdraw and allow a multi-national force to supervise elections and maintain order until a government of both the London and Lublin Poles could be installed, with elections to follow. Poland would end up like Finland ... not the best arrangement, but one respecting Russia's interests. And the Soviet Union would occupy her rightful portion of Germany and receive the aid that was only her due after bearing the brunt of the Great Patriotic War.

Stalin thought to himself, "there is still China and there are still many progressive parties and movements in Europe that can be activated for our cause."

And so, on June 7, 1945, Britain, the United States and Soviet Union signed the Potsdam Agreements, which among other things provided for:

1. A four-power occupation of Germany as a whole and Berlin in particular;

2. similar arrangements for Austria and Vienna;

3. joint US and Soviet withdrawal from Czechoslovakia to be replaced by a smaller four power force to supervise forming a new government and elections;

4. Soviet withdrawal from Poland to be replaced by similar status as Czechoslovakia;

5. Respect for status quo in Yugoslavia and Greece;

6. Reconstituted, democratic governments in France, the Low Countries, Denmark, Norway and Italy;

7. Continuing to set up a United Nations organization;

8. Soviet entry into the war against Japan at the earliest opportunity;

9. Full European participation in allied (mainly American) recovery funding;

10. War crimes trials to occur against surviving Nazi leadership.​
 
Exit the Giants: July, 1945 (Part 1)
The world saw its two greatest figures leave the stage in July of 1945.

After the Potsdam Conference, Winston Churchill and his Deputy Leader of the National Government, Clement Atlee, agreed to call a General Election to take place on July 6, 1945, for the purpose of re-establishing two-party politics in Britain. There had been no Parliamentary elections since 1935, and since 1940 an all-party Government had ruled the United Kingdom.

Churchill would normally have been confident of victory, but the still shocking defeat of Franklin D. Roosevelt in the U.S. troubled him. If Roosevelt, who had previously won three elections, could be voted out of office, it surely would not be impossible for Churchill to lose as well.

He therefore decided on an election strategy of "yes, but." The Labour Party campaigned all-out in favor of instituting the Beveridge Report, which called for a huge expansion of the British welfare state. Labour's platform included a call for nationalized health care and a nationalization of major industries.

The Conservatives publicly agreed with many of the goals of the Beveridge Report but wished to pursue them in very different fashion. Instead of a whole-scale nationalization of the health system, the Conservatives proposed financial assistance and subsidies to the less well off to allow them greater access to health care. Churchill also advocated a British version of Roosevelt's proposed "G.I. Bill" to open up educational opportunities for returning British servicemen. But Churchill and the Conservatives resolutely rejected nationalization of British industry, arguing that the rights of labour and consumers could be better protected with various legal reforms.

Again and again, the Conservatives said that "everyone wants a New Britain. But how do we achieve that? How do we go forward together?"

In the end, it was not enough. The Labour Party won a plurality of votes for the first time in history as well as a majority in seats:

Election Results (fully counted by July 26, 1945):

Labour: 47% of the popular vote 337 seats
Conservative: 41% of the popular vote 250 seats
Liberal: 7% of the popular vote 11 seats
National Liberal: 2% of the popular vote 11 seats


It was a clear Labour victory but not the landslide some had hoped for. As a result, while Clement Atlee would become Prime Minister, his government would proceed with some caution on its most blatantly socialistic ideas such as nationalization. However, they would press ahead with establishing the NHS.​
 
I can feel your pain. As I see it, nothing screwed the America I otherwise love from afar this last 30 years more than the takeover by the religious crazies of what was actually a quite sensible party.

Yeah... and the tea party ain't helpin'. A bunch of evangelical crazies...jeez, if their so concerned about taxes, let's tax their churches...that'll settle up the national debt.

Or as in my country, because I despise an aging corrupt would-be autocrat with links to mafia and a textbook delusion of grandeur only matched by utter ineptitude as statesman whose sexual addiction is the more endearing trait.

In America we like Berlusconi, simply because he's so unabashed. Of course, we don't actually have to live under him...
 
Exit the Giants: July, 1945 (Part 1)

In the end, it was not enough. The Labour Party won a plurality of votes for the first time in history as well as a majority in seats:

Election Results (fully counted by July 26, 1945):

Labour: 47% of the popular vote 337 seats
Conservative: 41% of the popular vote 250 seats
Liberal: 7% of the popular vote 11 seats
National Liberal: 2% of the popular vote 11 seats


It was a clear Labour victory but not the landslide some had hoped for. As a result, while Clement Atlee would become Prime Minister, his government would proceed with some caution on its most blatantly socialistic ideas such as nationalization. However, they would press ahead with establishing the NHS.​

Question: Who won in Preston?

That was Randolph Churchill's seat (actually, it was a two-seat district) and he finished third by about 3700 votes. The other Conservative candidate was Julian Amery, son of WSC's friend Leo Amery.
 
No true scotsman.
No true Scotsman is a fallacy of equivocation. In this case, it's the explicit changing of the terms of the original premise to exclude a counter example.

It is not an excuse to get out of arguing definition. By any account, Lenin was a pretty bad Marxist, ignoring most of what Marx actually wrote, especially the few times that Marx wrote on the forms of future socialist society, i.e., The Civil War in France and Critique of the Gotha Programme.

The men who followed Lenin in the "Marxist-Leninist" tradition were even worse, jettisoning the few good parts of Lenin's work ( State and Revolution), and pretty much horribly maiming Marx and Engel's works in their attempts to justify their actions. Draping red flags on state capitalist tyranny doesn't make it socialist or Marxist. It just makes it a lie, the same way that North Korea is "a People's Democratic Republic".
 
In OTL there were 640 MPs elected in the general election of 1945. Also the National Liberals were allied with the Conservatives. In this TL 337 (Labour) +250 (Conservative) +11 (Liberal) +11 (National Liberal) =609, were the remaining 31 independents?
 
Exit the Giants: July, 1945 (Part 2)
Although the result was not announced until July 26, Winston Churchill's defeat was guaranteed earlier in the month after the mainland polls had closed. Quite possibly, his political fate had been sealed as early as July 11, which would have been appropriate in a way, as that was the day Franklin Delano Roosevelt went to his eternal reward.

Roosevelt had been residing at Warm Springs more or less constantly since Dewey's Inauguration. He had been exhausted by the campaign and at some level was relieved to be free of the burdens of office. But he was, as had been shown in 1944, a very sick man. On the afternoon of July 11, 1945, Roosevelt died of a massive stroke.

The nation mourned the death of a man it had continued to admire and even love despite his narrow 1944 loss. Millions of people gathered by the railway tracks as the Ferdinand Magellen (released for this duty by President Dewey) slowly traveled back to Washington DC bearing his body. Massive crowds gathered in Washington DC to watch FDR's funeral procession. A moving service was held at the National Cathedral, attended of course by President Dewey, his Cabinet, and FDR's former cabinet.

Dewey, to be sure FDR's harsh critic in 1944, summoned up words of praise for his defeated foe in a dignified eulogy, comparing Roosevelt to Lincoln, and saying that he too, "now belongs to the ages."

After the funeral, Secretary of State Dulles said in some amazement to Dewey, "if he had been re-elected, Harry Truman would be President now. Can you imagine that?" Dewey responded thoughtfully, "Actually, I like Harry Truman. We're both from small town America. He's a straight shooter and he has helped on our policy towards the Russians. What really alarms me is the possibility that FDR would have run and won with Henry Wallace. That would be a hell of a mess."

Indeed, Dewey found himself liking the plain-spoken Missouri Senator, and began considering how Harry Truman might fit in his desire for a bipartisan foreign policy after the final victory over Japan.

And, in that fateful month of July, the question of the victory over Japan became the most agonizing of Dewey's Presidency. The President would be confronted with the most terrible decision a man would ever have to make.​
 
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