We all know the story from school, even without the endless films and documentaries about the issue (although I am enjoying the new Fox series 24 which takes the fateful day of the attempted coup hour-by-hour).
The attempt, in the early hours of 12th February 1934 to overthrow the US Government by a mixture of soldiers and armed Plottists came dangerously close to success. Indeed, it was sort of a mixture of luck and poor planning that they didn't. FDR having been called, with key staff, from the Whitehouse when it was stormed was pure chance (despite what conspiracy theorists say) - I mean, they did kill Vice President Garner and occupy the building.
But other parts of that day, such as the rotation of officers on duty at Fort McNair which meant that the armed support the Plottists hoped to draw from the Garrison never really materialised, really hampered the Plot's success. Plus, the fact that General Smedley Butler spent much of the day running around, sometimes between barricades, telling rebel soldiers they were being duped (hard to believe that many had been told by their officers they were acting to protect democracy) saw him narrowly avoid being killed several times and manage to rally defenders to eventually push the Plottists back.
I suppose my questions are two-fold:
What shape would a Plottist America take? Unlike the Nazis, say, there was never a clear leader of the Plot. Instead they had a vague coalition that never really had one clear ideological basis.
What would this butterfly away in the present day USA? I can think of a couple of obvious issues:
*No V-P then President Butler in 1944-1953 - obviously in this TL he isn't the national hero he is for us today.
*No severe increase in Whitehouse Security that was only just relaxed for public tours this year.
*No purge of the FBI and restructuring. Not sure if Hoover would have lasted as chair as I've always thought his removal was more about the public scandal surrounding his outing as a homosexual rather than the official narrative of "failure to forsee the Plot".
What do people think?
OOC: I know Business Plot is a bit over-done, but I thought this might be a fun DBWI. For the record I'm thinking the one-day Battle of Washington would be something confused like the failed part of the Nationalist Coup in Spain in 1936 in Barcelona. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_1936_military_uprising_in_Barcelona
The attempt, in the early hours of 12th February 1934 to overthrow the US Government by a mixture of soldiers and armed Plottists came dangerously close to success. Indeed, it was sort of a mixture of luck and poor planning that they didn't. FDR having been called, with key staff, from the Whitehouse when it was stormed was pure chance (despite what conspiracy theorists say) - I mean, they did kill Vice President Garner and occupy the building.
But other parts of that day, such as the rotation of officers on duty at Fort McNair which meant that the armed support the Plottists hoped to draw from the Garrison never really materialised, really hampered the Plot's success. Plus, the fact that General Smedley Butler spent much of the day running around, sometimes between barricades, telling rebel soldiers they were being duped (hard to believe that many had been told by their officers they were acting to protect democracy) saw him narrowly avoid being killed several times and manage to rally defenders to eventually push the Plottists back.
I suppose my questions are two-fold:
What shape would a Plottist America take? Unlike the Nazis, say, there was never a clear leader of the Plot. Instead they had a vague coalition that never really had one clear ideological basis.
What would this butterfly away in the present day USA? I can think of a couple of obvious issues:
*No V-P then President Butler in 1944-1953 - obviously in this TL he isn't the national hero he is for us today.
*No severe increase in Whitehouse Security that was only just relaxed for public tours this year.
*No purge of the FBI and restructuring. Not sure if Hoover would have lasted as chair as I've always thought his removal was more about the public scandal surrounding his outing as a homosexual rather than the official narrative of "failure to forsee the Plot".
What do people think?
OOC: I know Business Plot is a bit over-done, but I thought this might be a fun DBWI. For the record I'm thinking the one-day Battle of Washington would be something confused like the failed part of the Nationalist Coup in Spain in 1936 in Barcelona. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_1936_military_uprising_in_Barcelona