From the Jungle, comes a Revolution: a timeline.

06/07/2000
Dear diary,
We're in the middle of nowhere. Actually, more like in the middle of Nowhere, Michigan. And yet, I probably have never seen as much people as I saw today.
Wait, this isn't good. I'm getting ahead of myself. I haven't wrote in here for two weeks, so now I should explain what happened.
Two weeks ago, Gen. Sykes sent me and the rest of our corps in a border-patrol-thingy. Things in Canada were heating up again, and our intelligence confirmed that the Soviet military would occupy Ottawa at any moment. Gen. Sykes contacted the R.A.C and told them they could enter the US by boat and reach a checkpoint.
Thing is, he didn't know what the checkpoint was going to be, so he just sent us to whichever place in the region looked the most like a military base. The only place he found was an old hospital used by the Army of Freedom during the Civil War.
The hospital is every bit as dirty and leaky as everything that seems to come from the Civil War-era. The windows are broken, electricity barely works, the grass is already two or three feet high and the whole structure seems to be sweating goo.
We didn't have much to do for the first 13 days so we just tried to make the checkpoint look presentable to our fellow freedom fighters. I used my spare hours to do some patrolling- that is, to hike around the woods. The area is really quite beautiful- though I can't really say that about the guy I found wearing an Army of Freedom uniform. Rank: major. Status: been dead for some 20 years. I gave him a proper soldier's burial.
It was yesterday that our work really started. Gen. Sykes probably imagined that a few brave Canadian freedom fighters would come through the border, and that then he would train them, give them better weapons and send them back to continue the fight against the Reds. Well, I fear for him if he planned everything in advance like this, because he is probably gonna be a bit disappointed. Instead of the few hundred freedom fighters we ordered, we got a few thousand refugees. And then some more. And then a thousand more. They didn't stop coming for the last 48 hours and probably won't stop anytime soon.
Right now my mission is to do the head-counting. I really preferred to do something where I didn't need to look at them. Their faces are lonely, hopeless, filled with sorrow. And there are so many of these faces. The last time I saw faces like this was in... well, ironically, when me and Aunt Jasmine went to live in Ottawa. A truck driver let us go with him, and we passed by a lot of people going in the same direction as us, by foot, with miles of road and open field in front of them. They were all wearing basically rags, some of them tainted with blood, as are the Canadians now. I never thought I would be seeing this again.
I never would have seen all those hopeless faces if instead I had gone to the "worker's paradise" with Mom; nor would I be seeing them now. I should probably visit her. She hasn't talked to her son for 18 years now.
Besides, they say California is great this time of the year.
 
From the Jungle comes a
Revolution
a prose-history book alternate history by rule_them_all
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Table of Contents:
(coming soon)
 
Chapter I:
In which a birth takes place.


The Caatinga, northeastern Brazil, 1936.

Fernando was no religious man, and still he wasn't capable of denying that there was something Biblical about the birth of his child. The screams of his wife Azaléia were pretty ominous by themselves, but everything else seemed like it was planned too.
First, the fact that they were in a mangier, surrounded by animals, in a place so arid it could have been mistaken as the Galilean desert by a geographist.
Overall, it seemed as if God was playing one big practical joke on him.
He tried to push those thoughts aside and tried to concentrate on helping his wife with what he thought must be a pretty difficult task.
Well, Fernando thought, while pulling the newborn's head, if his birth is exactly like Jesus', at least I think he'll be someone important.



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The Monumental Axis, in Brasília

Brasília, Brazil, March 15th 1964

João Goulart laid back in his chair, gazing at the lawn that stood at the other side of his window. It was a rather sleepy day at the presidential office and the only thing the 24th President of Brazil could think about was the heat. March was already Spring in Brazil, and yet in Brasília this did not mean a break from summer. The hot sun preyed upon the city daily since it was founded, a mere 4 years ago.
Things had not been simple for João Goulart ever since he became president. He had previously been elected as vice-president in 1960. While he was travelling to China on a fruitless diplomatic meeting, Jânio Quadros renounced the presidency, expecting that he would be put back in power through popular upheaval. This failed, however, as society simply shrugged at this attempt of self-promotion. With Brasília void for a few days, the military considered a coup to seize control of the country. This, however, failed as the people rallied behind Goulart. It was decided then, that the country would become a parliamentary democracy, where the president would have little power, for it was perceived that Goulart was a communist- Which, in those days of Sputnik, H-bombs, Fidel Castro, "We'll bury you" and such, was somewhat perceived as a bad thing.
The parliamentary system was finally rejected in 1963, after which Goulart became president. And there he was, finally having power, but unable to do almost anything because of an economic crisis and backlash from conservative sectors of society.
He finally had managed to pull of a small victory three days earlier, in a display of strenght of 150 000 of his supporters in Rio de Janeiro's Central Station, where he proclaimed that land controlled by privately-owned companies next to roads was to be seized. Thinking of that, he briefly smiled.
The phone rang.
-Yes?- he asked, cleaning his throat.
-Mr. President, I believe someone wants to talk to you. It's a colonel, sir. His name is Jesus Pereira.
Goulart chuckled. -I wonder what was on his dad's head to give his son a name like that. Whatever. Send him in.
The door opened, and an elegantly-dressed man in his twenties saluted the president.
Goulart looked at him for a moment then said:
-Aren't you a big too young to be a colonel?
-They always tell me that, Sir.
Pereira looked tense and sweated heavily.
-What's wrong with you, kid? Also, what do you have to tell me?
-Mr. President... I believe a coup against you is being orchestrated.
The president smiled.
-Boy, you must have started reading the newspapers very recently.
-I'm serious, sir. They tried to get me into the conspiracy. I accepted, just to get the names of the people participating. Right now, I'm actually deserting.
Pereira took a small brown package out of his pocket and gave it to the President.
-Here are some of the informations I collected. There are some names you might know. A few of them acknowledged having contact with the Yankees.
The president looked at the package for a moment. Then his eyes went up again to Pereira's face.
-You are not deserting. Tell them you went to Brasília to do some reconnaissance- of vantage points in the city that should make its taking easier, for instance. Then try to record a few conversations and get me a list of everyone in this scheme. I will not tolerate a group of generals telling me how I should run this country.
Pereira breathed heavily.
-Yes, sir.
As Pereira left the room, the President looked again at the lawn. It was getting thick. A sniper could hide easily in there. Maybe a dozen snipers! It needed to be cut, soon. Or maybe I should move my office to a room with no windows.
 
Very interesting, a U.S civil war with a pod in the 1960s. I had to reread your first post a few time. Was the USA split in two. I guess the reference to the "soviets" refers to the communists who won the war, and the USA is the capitalist rump-state? I very intrigued, please continue.
Scipio
 
Very interesting, a U.S civil war with a pod in the 1960s. I had to reread your first post a few time. Was the USA split in two. I guess the reference to the "soviets" refers to the communists who won the war, and the USA is the capitalist rump-state? I very intrigued, please continue.
Scipio
Well, you sort of guessed it. Still, there's a little more to it than just what happens to North America. Think a little more... to the South;)
 
So, returning after some time out. RL can be a bitch.
Basically I spent the last few months studying, writing a political thriller set in an alternate universe during philosophy classes, finding my own true love in a motherfuckin' boat, then getting separated from her and having little hope to ever meet her again, and then studying some more, learning that John M. Keynes was gay except he totally wasn't, studying a little more, getting bored to death, studying and then coming back here.
But you don't really care about any of this, do you? Post coming soon. In this I will detail some background history leading up to the POD, the POD itself and what happens immediately after.
 
The right country at the right time:
Brazil(1955-1965)

There is no word more apt in the english language to describe the situation in Brazil in the early months of 1964 than "turmoil". President João Goulart, which had recently recovered his full powers as president, had to face a serious economic crisis and his people's great doubt: "Is he or isn't he a communist?" History ended up giving us the answer to this question, even though it was more complex than mere yes or no.
As is known to everyone today, blaming Goulart for this crisis would be the same as calling Louis XVI the only person that caused the French Revolution. The real reasons were deeper and weren't only limited to the structural flaws of capitalism, but also to human mistakes, not the least of which were made by one man: Juscelino Kubitschek.
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The official portrait of Juscelino Kubitschek.

Juscelino was President of Brazil between 1956 and 1961. Before that, he had been a doctor and the Governor of the State of Minas Gerais, but if not for that he would have prospered as a used car salesman. The reason for that was simple: JK, as he had been nicknamed, won the election of 1955 by selling his people a fabulous dream: luscious black paved roads cutting through mountains and forests, going in all directions, east to west, north to south, over which people would drive solid, modern cars. In the center of all this, in the very center of the country's empty prairies, he would lay his vision: A capital for the world to see and to fall behind in awe. A city to shoe the world that, in less than a generation, Brazil had become a world power.

The people bought this dream and Kubitschek, now the country's president, put his plan in march. Trains, the traditional mean of transportation in Brazil, were forgotten and obfuscated in order to favour the automobile, for which Kubitschek wished to build a national industry. The government also emptied its pockets to finance the making of Kubitschek's wild dream: Brasília, an ideal city, the symbol of a country which, in Kubitschek's mind, should run away from the coasts and settle the uncharted jungles and prairies.

However, all of this cost money. Lots of money. The government's surreal spending was financed with foreign loans and the printing of paper coin, which caused inflation to go up.
By the late 1950s, JK's economic policy was already perceived as a failure. In 1960, the year in which Brasília was completed, several Brazilian towns, in something which seemed to come out of the Middle Ages or a post-apocalyptic future, were the victims of hordes of hunger-ridden folks, who looted supermarkets and stores.
Most importantly, 1960 was an election year. The Brazilian Constitution forbid being elected twice in a row(reelection was only allowed if presidential terms were intercalated), and that took away JK's greatest advantage: his Teflon charisma. Indeed, even with the country going through a severe crisis, JK's personal approval ratings were still high, unlike those of his administration. JK however could not expect to win if he himself did not compete in the elections. And indeed, the electoral process happened mostly between two persons: General Henrique Teixeira Lott, a character which had become famous and well-liked for having mounted a coup d´état which toppled a president who wanted to perpetuate himself in power in 1955, thus guaranteeing the very existence of JK's term; and Jânio Quadros, a rather strange man, who looked more like the twin brother of Groucho Marx than like a president. Quadros dominated dominated the debates with his smiling face and his metaphor of "sweeping away the corruption"(his supporters always had tiny buttons shaped like brooms).
His victory, in November of that year, came as no great surprise.

(More later. The update is not over yet)


 
His term, however, was less than impressive. Swimming against the tides of his time and contradicting the policy of the presidents that came before him(all of which adopted a fierce pro-american and anti-communist stance), Quadros identified himself with the Non-Aligned Movement. In a country like Brazil, since 1900 under the de facto economic domination of America, this meant to drift away from the United States' influence.
Thus, Quadros, in symbolic and bold gestures, normalized diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and condecorated Che Guevara, the famous Cuban revolutionary which would, years later, end up fighting in Brazil.
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The infamous meeting between Quadros and Che Guevara.

His internal policy, however, could and still can be called downright silly. It involved such things as banning the use of bikinis in Brazil's many beaches, and of the relaxing drug called Lança-Perfume. The drop in Quadros' popularity was so intense in this period it could literally be measured in terms of days. Six months after his innauguration, the people was again flocking to the streets.
And then, suddenly, history took a turn which is hard to say as being for better or for worse; it's easier to say it took a turn in the direction of Bizarre.
Jânio Quadros renounced the Presidency. Even today, the reason why he did this is not entirely known, which prompted the Argentinian journalist Bruno Deluca to declare: "No one knows why Jânio Quadros renounced, not even him". All jokes aside, what Quadros was probably trying to do was to subject the Brazilian people to the "Lesser of two evils" logic. Jânio Quadros was the lesser of the two evils, and, by renouncing, he exposed Brazil to the worst of the two.
What he exposed them to was João Goulart.
Goulart, even though he was a well-known figure, was only rarely in the limelight of politics. He was the Minister of Work during the second administration of the caudillo Getúlio Vargas and became famous(or, rather, infamous) when he raised the minimum wage by 100%. Another peculiarity of the Brazilian electoral system was that there were separate elections to be vice-president and president, so much that two politicians from diferent parties could become respectively president and vice-president. "Jango", as he was called, notoriously won the vice-presidential elections of 1955 and 1960 with more votes than the respective winners of the presidential elections. Now, with Quadros gone, Jango would be catapulted to the Presidency.
There was only one problem: Goulart was in a diplomatic trip to the People's Republic of China. Until he could return there would be a power vacuum in Brazil. A vacuum the military was very much willing to fill, fearful that a pro-union President would try to impose his own vision of the matters in Brazil.
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The governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Leonel Brizola, began a "Legality Campaign" to support João Goulart. Here, a rally of the campaign.

As the tension grew, a scent of civil war began to be felt. The only two alternatives now seemed a bloodthirsty communist dictatorship or a brutal right-wing military dictatorship, the type of which Brazil hadn't needed to deal with for 20 years. Southern governor Leonel Brizola even put machine guns over the rooftops of a few buildings in Rio de Janeiro, if the military decided the time was ripe for a coup.
The worst, however, was avoided- the civil war was postponed for three more years, when the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies came to an agreement before the President arrived. Goulart would remain president- but of a parliamentary republic, where the President would not have much authority.
And thus began a curious phase in the politics of that country: Jango and the military would have to sit and wait, watching a bureaucratic and patchy government being run by Prime-Minister Tancredo Neves. But nothing would stop the powerful ambition Goulart and the military had. Both were destined to govern, and, maybe even more so, to clash.
In March 1963, Jango had had enough, and, feeling that the Brazilian people was on his side, called for a referendum on the continuing of the parliamentary system. The people, disstatisfied with the obstructive politics of the Parliament and the neverending economic crisis answered NO.
João Goulart, having garnered the support of 82% of Brazilians, now had all his authority back and prepared his master plan for the creation of a new Brazil. He started a program called "Basic Reforms"- the reforms which, according to him, would be needed to create a better, fairer Brazil. These reforms involved an extensive redistribution of land, a tax on the profits of multinational corporations operating in Brazil, the seizing by the government of lands next to roads, and a hoysing reform which involved the seizing of real estate owned by people who already had one house. All of them were planned and eventually executed between March 1963 and March 1964, though the war came to stop these reforms from being really implemented.
Every new socio-economical reform endorsed by the President seemed like a sign of the red apocalypse: João Goulart, it seemed, was a communist intent on destroying the foundations of Brazilian democracy, its economic status and way of life through a "legalistic" masquerade that was nothing short of mob rule.
Thus we reach the year of 1964, as Brazilian society is yet again on the brink of Civil War; torn between the utopian aspirations of a distinctly Latin-American socialism, and a fearful, paranoid white urban middle-and-upper class, which had only recently been opened to a world of consumerist wonders and had no interest in being banned from it.
The country's economy was still sluggish from the crisis that had begun 3 years earlier, and this, along with inflation and Goulart's much publicized leftism made the President's popularity wane.Thus, in March 13th 1964 he organized a political rally at the Central do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro's main train station. There, for a crowd of at least a hundred thousand, he announced the ambitious next steps to the land reform: the seizing of all land property larger than 500 Ha.
This was enough to set the country ablaze. The military now schemed actively to undermine the government, contacting the Central Intelligence Agency- which was more than willing to help. Two days later, Patrick Peyton, an Irish catholic priest in the CIA's payroll, organized the March of the Family with God for Freedom- a religious, anti-communist event which united half a million Brazilians. This showed that the military's answer to Goulart's policies would be brutal.
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The March of the Family with God for Freedom. Signs read: "No to Communism, Yes to Democracy"
Goulart, however, remained optimistic until the very last moment- that is, until a young officer from the Brazilian Army came to warn him about the incoming conspiracy against him. In the 16th March, one day after the March of the Family with God for Freedom, Goulart received a dossier from Colonel Jesus Pereira, one of the youngest high-ranking officers in the Army. The dossier, redacted by Pereira himself, gave extensive details about the coup which was supposed to happen in the night of March 31st. Goulart reportedly was so worried he did not leave his office for days, but kept having meetings with a few loyalist officers- those who had not been pinpointed by Pereira to be traitors.Thus, a counteroperation, or, it can even be said, a counter-counter-revolution started.
In the night of March 25th, Operation César was carried out. Peasant militias lead by the influential lawyer and Deputy Francisco Julião, as well as loyalist sectors of the Army, occupied Military bases throughout the country and closed down the Clube Militar of Rio de Janeiro, an important meeting point for the members of the conspiracy. Several high-ranking officers were inprisoned after mock trials. The Brazilian press, left relatively unscathed, called this "The Great Purge of the Tropics". Over 4000 soldiers and 220 officers were inprisoned, and for days the Ligas Camponesas and the newly created Milícias Operárias had complete authority and could ask for documents at any moment, in what was by far the greatest setback on individual freedom in that country since Getúlio Vargas' fascistic Estado Novo was established in 1937.
The President, however, forgot to attack one particular foe, his mightiest one. The CIA was caught by surprise and even ordered the rescue of a few of their men in the Brazilian Army, but it was not enough. On the 30th of March, Jango broke diplomatic relations with the United States and expelled residents of American origins. The very next day, The President of the United States, Lyndon B. Johson, announced in a national broadcast that such an abuse over freedom as was being seen in Brazil would not be tolerated by the United States. That same night, the President signed the letter that would change history, authorizing the beginning of Operation "Brother Sam". As the sun rose, in that first day of April 1964, the US Navy set sail for the South Atlantic.

Mark Bransey, "The Classified History of the Brazilian Revolution"- Imperial Publishing House, London, 1999.
 
Ah, so nice to see Jânio Quadros return to another TL. :D More post-1900 TL's should include him, IMO.

Otherwise - interesting TL. Consider it subscribed.
 
Ah, so nice to see Jânio Quadros return to another TL. :D More post-1900 TL's should include him, IMO.

Otherwise - interesting TL. Consider it subscribed.
true dat! I once thought about making a TL where he doesn't totally screw things and attacks the French, British and Dutch Guyanas at the same time(he actually considered doing that)
 
true dat! I once thought about making a TL where he doesn't totally screw things and attacks the French, British and Dutch Guyanas at the same time(he actually considered doing that)

See, that's the thing about Jânio Quadros. He sounds like someone who should be ASB, but isn't. As a result, you could have him support anything and it would make sense for Jânio to be considering it. Ergo, he's one of those comic figures that's underappreciated outside of the Lusosphere and thus needs to be in more TL's.
 
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