Dixieland: A Confederate TL

Tishrei

After ending the Central American War President Taylor would turn much of his focus towards home however events abroad would still come to affect the Confederacy. In late September 1972 Egyptian, Syrian, & Jordanian troops supported by the Soviet Union would invade Israel. Following the Egyptian capture of the Sinai on September 29 & Syria’s capture of the Golan Heights on October 1 the US & Confederacy, along with most CoN nations would lend their support to Israel sending them mass amounts of supplies & weaponry.

For weeks US, Confederate, & British ships & aircraft would rush into Israel delivering much needed supplies & equipment. The arrival of these supplies would be largely contributed to the Israeli victory at the Battle of Khan Yunis which would end Egypt’s offensive operations. The CoN assistance wouldn’t go unnoticed however, on September 30 the Soviet Union would threaten intervention in support of its Arab allies. Though there would be a fear of the Soviet threats coming true the US, Confederacy, & Britain would call Moscow’s bluff & continue shipping aid & though threats would continue no intervention would come.

Threats of attack would also come from Egypt though like with the Soviets they would be mostly false however for one occasion. On October 7 the Confederate LST the CSS Comal County would be struck by two missiles from two Egyptian MiG’s causing the ship to sink & the death of 46 sailors. The international incident would see the deployment of the CSS Stonewall to the Mediterranean & the retaliatory air strike against the Egyptian air base that the MiG’s had flown out of resulting in 24 Egyptian dead. For the rest of the war tensions would remain high as Confederate warships would loom just off the Egyptian coast, however fortunately no further incidents would occur.

The Tishrei War as it would be called would end on October 20,1972 with the Arab nations withdrawing to their prewar boundaries. Hostilities would remain high in the area for another decade however with the Israeli-Jordanian Peace Treaty in 1980 & the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty in 1982 ( & the return of the Sinai in 1985) peace would come for the majority of the nations in the area. The one exception however would be from the Soviet ally Syria.

Confederate Patton Tank being offloaded in Israel


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Black Gold’s Hold

Following the CoN support of Israel in the Tishrei War that would result in a major crisis in the American & western European countries. Beginning in February 1973 the Arab & Persian Gulf oil exporting countries of Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE, Egypt, Syria, & Tunisia would to first the US & Confederacy & by June all American & Western European CoN members that would last until December. The resulting crisis would be one of the worst seen since the end of the depression.

Because of the embargo gas prices would skyrocket in the affected countries. In March the Confederacy & US would be the first to emplace rations of fuel however by the Summer all embargoed nations would follow suit. Effects on the economy would soon be felt as due to the rationing power plants would receive less fuel, road & rail transport would be severely depleted which would result in strikes by trucking companies in North America. Many states would call for their citizens to cut back on electricity usage to lessen the strain on power plants. By the fall of 1973 the Arab Oil Embargo had brought the Confederacy & many CoN nations to a crawl.

Despite the crisis engulfing much of the country some states would take the opportunity to make a profit off the embargo. The major Confederate oil producing states of Texas, Sequoyah, Oklahoma, & Louisiana would begin taking steps to greatly increase their oil production on & off shore. During 1973 Confederate oil companies profits would more than double as the demand for oil by the rest of the country grew.

The search for new oil wouldn’t be the only thing occurring in the Confederacy. In July President Taylor would authorize the construction of 30 new coal burning power plants & 15 new nuclear power plants. An increase in funding would also be given to the renewable energy projects, mainly solar & wind power. Though work on solar power would take some time, the first successful operational solar power plant not being built in the Confederacy until 1991, the Arab Oil Embargo would see the rise of wind power in the Confederacy. By the 1980’s experimental wind “farms” would be constructed in West Texas & by the 90’s dozens of wind farms containing hundreds of turbines would stretch across the western Confederacy from Texas to Baja making the Confederacy the 2nd largest producer of wind power in the world by 2000. While the Arab Oil Embargo would come & end in less than a year in the long run the short term crisis it caused would pale in comparison to the Confederacy’s renewable energy program that by present time would eventually have the nation predominantly ran by renewable energy’s.
 
Come Together

Though the last attempt in integrating white & black Confederates in the 1950’s had cost President Sparkman his life & plunged the country into one of the worst waves of violence the Confederacy had ever seen, by the 1970’s the topic was beginning to resurface again. Football had first been created in the US in the 19th century & despite the high tension the US & Confederacy held toward one another for most of that time the popularity of the new sport had it soon expanding across the borders & over the whole continent. Though some rules were different between American & Confederate football by the turn of the century many border towns would play in cross border exhibition games.

In 1915 the US & Confederacy would integrate their college sporting events, agreeing on a set of rules & regulations that both country’s teams would play by & football, being the most popular sport in either country, would be at the top of the list to see. The following season teams from both sides of the border would play each other & in January 1917 the US’s University of Michigan Wolverines & the Confederate University of Alabama Crimson Tide would go head to head in the North American Championship game at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California where Alabama would win 24-21.

Throughout the years North American Football as it was being called would continue to grow. With the opening of the of the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans in 1928 the location of the championship game would begin to rotate between the US & Confederacy. In 1930 a new rule would be put in place that while the championship game rotated in between country’s, the teams that went to it would be chosen by rank & wouldn’t matter if it ended up being 2 US, 2 Confederate, or 1 of both playing for the championship. In 1949 following WW2 North American football would spread even further when Canadian football would be integrated in with the US & Confederacy. Following the construction of a big enough stadium in 1952 in London, Ontario the championship game would be rotated yearly between all three country’s.

While during the first decades of North American football the US & Confederacy would be on equal terms however, during the 1971 championship game at London Stadium that would change. The game would be between the integrated UCLA Bruins & the segregated Clemson Tigers in which the Bruins would win 49-18 with most of the credit going to UCLA’s black running back Lonny Mitchell. During the following off season Clemson’s head coach Arthur Brooks would appeal to the Confederate Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) stating he didn’t care if they were white, black, brown, purple, or yellow if they could play good football he wanted them on his team.

The battle to allow blacks into white colleges would go on for 6 years, 6 years that the Confederacy also didn’t have a winning season in college, & cost Arthur Brooks his career before finally in 1977 the CCAA would allow the recruitment of blacks to begin in 1978 & end segregation in Confederate college’s. By 1980 segregation would officially end in all of the Confederacy & that would also be the first year in a decade that a Confederate football team the University of Texas Longhorns, with 25 black players on its roster, would win the championship game defeating the Ohio State Buckeyes at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
 
Rocket Man

Though President Taylor would eventually be called one of the fathers of the Confederacy’s renewable energy program, the rest of his term as president would struggle with the recession that had grip the western world in the wake of the oil embargo. By the time he would leave office in 1976 the nation had just began to pull itself out of the recession. On March 4,1976 Taylor would be succeeded by Oklahoman Donald Mayweather as the 23rd president.

A former CAC Colonel that had served in the French Civil War & in Confederate air operations during the Cuban Civil War, Mayweather had also been the first Confederate in space on board a US ship in 1968. Being the first & at the time only Confederate to go to space Mayweather would be fascinated with the idea of having the Confederacy be the 3rd nation, after the USSR & the US both in 1961 though the USSR in April & US in October, to send a man into space.

Though the Confederate Space Exploration Committee (CSEC) had been formed in 1960 the agency had had only a fraction of the funding that either Soviet’s or the US’s agencies & the Confederate public & government seemed less interested in entering the space race. By 1968 the CSEC had only just sent the Confederacy’s first satellite the previous year. However with the US’s manned moon landing in 1969 & the Soviet’s in 1970 space would catch the attention of the nation. By the time Mayweather entered office in 1976 the CSEC’s funding had nearly tripled & it had sent more than 15 more satellites into orbit however, it would still not hold a candle to the US or USSR.

With Mayweather in office more funding would be given to the CSEC & a goal would be set to have a successful manned space flight by the end of his term. Work would begin almost immediately on a rocket & capsule for the mission (a rocket that could also give the Confederacy a large boost in its ICBM program). The Confederacy’s first attempt at a manned space flight would occur on July 4,1978 in Florida, it would however end in disaster as an unnoticed fuel leak would cause the rocket to explode upon ignition killing 29 year old Bajan Captain Ricardo Espinosa.

A second attempt would happen on May 10,1979 that would succeed in putting 24 year old Mississippi native Lieutenant Jake Robertson in space however, when reentering the atmosphere the space capsule would break up. For two more years retests would be made to the rocket & capsules to make them more safe & on November 12,1981 a third & for President Mayweather final attempt would be made with 40 year old Virginian Colonel James Curtis Jackson. Colonel Jackson would have space flight for 2 ½ hours before reentering the atmosphere & landing in the Caribbean & become the first successful manned Confederate space flight & making the Confederacy the third nation to successfully put a man in space.

Though as the years continued the Confederacy would continue to move forward in its space program none would be as hard & fast pasted as during Mayweather’s presidency. While thoughts of sending a manned space flight to the moon would continue to be in the minds of those of the CSEC it would never occur. By the 1990’s the CSEC had sent up hundreds of both private & government satellites into orbit & manned space missions had become regular. In 1991 launch its own space station that would be completed in 1997 & for a time be the largest artificial satellite orbiting Earth & in 1999 it would be one of the six nations to participate in building an international space station.
 
The Persian Cat

As President Mayweather’s final months in office would wind down after the Confederacy’s space launch his actions would turn to the CoN. On January 7,1982 in one of his last acts as president he would help oversee the entrance of Spain & Luxembourg into the CoN bringing the number of members to 21. In March 1982 Mayweather would step down as president being succeeded by native Texan & former Sonoran governor Ted Kinnibrough.

As Kinnibrough entered office the Confederacy would be, despite the massive amount of money put into the CSEC, be enjoying one of the highest levels of economies that it had seen in decades. Although the drop in oil prices was beginning to be felt in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, & Sequoyah as those states cash cow was drying up the nation as a whole was doing well. In the fall of 1982 however new events in the Middle East would bring rise to a new crisis.

Persia had been a key Western ally in the Middle East since the mid 1950’s. However in 1965 Persia’s Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had been emplacing policies to modernize the country which while by 1980 had grown his country into one of the biggest economic & military power in the Middle East had placed his government in serious conflict with Persia’s religious leaders. By the time of the death of Mohammad in 1981 Persia would be on the verge of revolution.

Though many would hope the beginning of Mohammad’s son Reza Pahlavi’s reign that the unrest would subside time would prove too late to stop the movement as large protests would begin to occur throughout the nation in February 1982. Reza however wouldn’t inherit his fathers indecisiveness in times of crisis & would call on the military & secret police to stomp out the protests across the country in early March. Although the protests would quickly be crushed unrest would still simmer throughout Persia & it would soon be clear that this crisis had only just begun.
 
Argo

By the Summer of 1982 many of the Iranian protests had become violent as protesters & police began to clash. By late July rioting & clashes had became a somewhat regular occurrence in Iran however fortunately though hundreds had been injured only 26 had been killed. That would all change however, when on August 17 an Iranian Army unit in Qom would open fire on rioters resulting in 41 deaths (as much as half figured to be trampled).

The Qom Massacre would quickly bring the protest & riots into open revolt as hundreds would take up arms against the Shah. Skirmishes would quickly begin occurring throughout Persia leaving dozens dead & hundreds wounded. Seeking to keep its ally in the Middle East & to hopefully keep unrest from spreading the US, Britain, & the Confederacy would send carrier groups to the Persian Gulf. They however would not be alone in turning their interest towards Persia as the Soviet Union would begin sending weapons across the border into Persia to assist the rebels.

Though not wanting to lose their ally in the region neither of the three country’s would be willing to openly send in ground troops to assist the Shah for one thing fearing that their presence would only give him more problems. More importantly however the bloody Vietnam War & Central American War’s would still be fresh on both US & Confederates minds & Britain had just recently been engaged alongside Italy in the November 1979-May 1980 conflict the Third Italo-Ethiopian War where the Soviet supported Ethiopia had unsuccessfully tried to retake Eritrea from Italy. Though the 2100 (315dead) British casualties were minute compared to US & Confederate casualties from their previous conflicts the British public would be wary of intervening too much in Persia as well.

However with the Persia opposition beginning to meet the Shah’s army on equal terms thanks to the Soviets the three nations would ultimately decide to act & on December 10,1982 US, Confederate, & British aircraft would begin making air strikes against the rebels while their warships & submarines would launch cruise missiles. To assist the Shah further the US & Britain would supply the airforce with 80 modern fighter aircraft while the Confederacy would send 30 ground attack aircraft. With its allies aircraft ruling the skies the Shah’s army would begin to gain the upper hand once more & put the rebels in retreat.

By March 1983 the conflict would seem all but over however, the Soviet would have one more trick up their sleeve & would begin to supply the rebels with man portable SAM’s. the introduction of SAM’s to the rebels arsenal would surprise the allies & by mid April Persia had lost 16 aircraft & 21 helicopters, the US had lost 9 aircraft & 2 helicopters, the Confederacy had lost 6 aircraft, & Britain had lost 1 aircraft. With air strikes no longer completely safe for their crews a more hands on approach would be needed to quell the rebellion.

In May 1983 US Delta Force, Confederate SOG, & British SAS units would be deployed to the Persian Gulf & begin sabotage/destroy operations on rebel arms depots & stronghold where air or missile strikes were unable to be used, & they would also conduct missions to capture &/or kill the oppositions leadership. From May to August 1983 the allies special forces units would conduct over 100 missions into Persia destroying hundreds of tons of rebel supplies & munitions. These missions would also be responsible for the capture of Mansoor Hekmat (SAS), capture of Karim Panjabi (Delta Force), killing of Mehdi Bazargan (Delta Force), & the killing of Mohammad Behest (SOG). While the loss of many of their leaders would greatly effect the moral & uniformity of the opposition the rebels would still fight on however on September 17,1983 there would be a final mission that would drive the last nail in the uprisings coffin.

Throughout the conflict Ruhollah Khomeini the oppositions leader had managed to evade the allies attempts to take him out. However through multiple Persian secret police, CSIS, MI6, & CIA sources it would be reported that Khomeini would be meeting with some of the remaining leaders in the small Caucasus border town of Marazad in September. Though hesitant about approving the mission due to the unreliability of their sources the mission would finally receive the go ahead on September 15. Originally a mission given to Delta Force, with bad weather over their base in Bahrain the mission would be given to the SOG which were off the Kuwaiti coast on the new carrier the CSS James Longstreet.

On September 16 12 Confederate commandos along with 3 members of the Persian special forces would lift off & fly to the LZ 10 miles from Marazad where they would travel by land to the village to avoid discovery. At 0800 on September 17 after visual confirmation of certain opposition leaders known to associate with Khomeini the assault would begin. As a sniper team set up outside the village the remaining troops would enter the village & begin engaging enemy forces as they made their push to reach Khomeini. Coming up against more opposition than previously figured the initial ground assault would begin to falter as 4 on the 13 commandos that went down would soon be wounded or killed. However at this time, while attempting to escape Khomeini would momentarily show himself out in the open & the 24 year old sniper, Tennessean Sergeant Jack Dawson would make history by making the longest confirmed kill up to that time when at 2,531yds he would strike Khomeini in the neck killing him instantly.

Though Khomeini had been killed a contingency plan emplace in an effort to not let him escape in the form of an air strike had also be ordered on the village to happen 10 minutes after the SOG began their assault. As the commandos hurried out of the village with their fallen comrades US bombers would level much of Marazad killing most of the remaining opposition leaders still in the village.

Though with Khomeini dead the rebels would still continue to fight their moral was quickly dying. Fighting would slowly fade throughout the year as the rebels surrendered or more often just quit & returned to their lives. On January 1,1984 Persia’s Shah would declare the conflict officially over ending the 1 ½ years long Persian Civil War
 
The Race

The Persian Civil War had caused around 10,000 Persian deaths as well as 34 British, 68 US, & 49 Confederate casualties. With the Shah’s power secure each nation would make deals to supply Persia with the weapons & equipment to give them a modern military. The covert operations by the allies special forces had been a resounding success with the Confederacy’s SOG Operation Nightingale (the killing of Khomeini). Operation Nightingale however would have negative consequences as well.

The raid & near destruction of the border village of Mazarad which laid just across the border from the USSR would cause an uproar among the Soviets over the massive CoN attack just across their border. Retaliation would come in the form of the deployment of one Typhoon & 2 Victor subs to Nicaragua, the movement of new troops into North Germany & Austria, & increased efforts in Africa mostly Angola where the nations was engulfed in a civil war between Soviet supported, & CoN supported sides. The USSR would also make progress in West Africa where in March 1984 they would strike a deal with Mali supplying them with military equipment & “advisors” effectively making Mali another puppet. The Soviet move into Mali would worry France who had already fought 1 war against Mali & was not keen on a second.

Early 1984 would also see the commissioning of the Soviets second of 4 Kirov class Battlecruiser as well as the commissioning of the first of 4 of the 50,000 ton Kuznetsov class aircraft carriers, & in May the beginning of construction on 2 of the massive 75,000 ton nuclear powered Ulyanovsk class super carriers. With the new Soviet naval expansion occurring in October 1984 President Kinnibrough would order the refit & modernization of many of the navy’s active & reserve vessels as well as ordering the construction of some new ones.

The Confederacy’s refit & modernization program would begin with the nations final 2 active battleships the CSS Camagüey & CSS Pipe Creek & as well as the only reserve fleet battleship the CSS Pittsburgh Landing would enter the Norfolk shipyard. As with the battleships the navy’s 4 remaining battlecruisers the CSS Gettysburg, Manassas, Chattanooga, & Durango (2 in service & 2 in reserve) would enter the Galveston & New Orleans shipyards for modernization & refit. Over the next 2 ½ years these 7 ships would be overhauled for distillate fuel, modernized to carry electronic warfare suites, close in weapons systems, & missiles. In armament the ships would receive armored box launchers & quad cell launchers for Harpoon, SAM, & cruise missiles. To accommodate this new equipment the ships would receive new electronic weapons systems used for both the new & old weapons. Upon their decommissioning into service from 1986-1988 these ships would become some of the most formidable warships on the water once more.

Kinnibrough would also up the order of the Sequoyah-class ballistic missile subs from 10 to 15 & extend the service time of to 15 Tennessee-class ballistic subs already in service. The amount of Pensacola-class nuclear powered attack subs would be uped from 40 (26 of which had been already built) to 50 & extend the service life of the 30 Savannah-class nuclear attack & 20 Memphis-class diesel attack subs already in service. In late 1984 Kinnibrough’s naval increase would see its largest order yet however with the order of the Confederacy’s first nuclear aircraft carrier the 80,000 ton CSS Jefferson Davis with the option to extend the number of new carriers to 3. The navy’s final order would come in 1985 as it would order its first purposely built amphibious assault ships of the 4 24,000 ton Woodrow Wilson-class amphibious assault ship. By 1986 what had initially seemed like a semi-peaceful decade had grown to see the largest naval arms race in over 50 years.
 
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