alternatehistory.com

It's all over except the shouting

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The Cold War, the conflict that dominated the latter half of the 20th century, has passed into the memory of our society like all wars before it. Decades have passed since the end of the Cold War and a new generation has grown to adulthood without ever knowing the omnipresent fear of total nuclear annihilation. We should never forget the Cold War and what it taught us, for the moment we forget we risk slipping into yet another silent conflict and put the entire globe at risk of nuclear destruction.

The origins of the lay in the aftermath of the Second World War and the division of Europe between Liberal West and Communist East, and for the most part the Cold War was characterized by proxy conflicts between the Liberalism and Communism. Yet the first proxy war of the Cold War was not a battle to support a Liberal-Democracy against Communist aggression or a nationalist dictatorship against Communism, it was a conflict between the USSR and the SFRY. Since February of 1948 tensions between the USSR and the SFRY had been growing, with the USSR expelling the SFRY from the Cominform in June of that year. A build up of Soviet troops along the same three borders that Nazi Germany had invaded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1941 did not go unobserved by the SFRY and in response the JNA was fully mobilized along with Yugoslavian partisans. The Soviet invasion of the SFRY in September of 1948 followed just days after the USSR annulled its treaties with the Yugoslavian government, with the Red Army crossing into the Bačka region of the Pannonian Plain from Hungary. Though Soviet troops would encounter token resistance from the JNA in this region and far more extensive partisan warfare, the JNA had been pulled back to the more mountainous regions of Yugoslavia and to the coast to protect Yugoslavia’s ability to receive aid by via the Adriatic Sea.


Prime Minister Josip Tito looked to the west for economic and military aid in halting the Soviet Union and the United States would answer. The Yugoslav-Soviet War would not be the quick roll up of Titoist forces in Yugoslavia and the establishment of a friendly regime, it would become a protracted struggle that would shape the Cold War.

The political effects of the Soviet invasion of Yugoslavia would be felt across the Western world as conservatives and anti-communist politicians leapt at the chance to paint their enemies as appeasers of aggressive Soviet expansionism. In the United States, Republican Presidential nominee, Thomas Dewey altered his campaign strategy because of the act of Soviet aggression. Because it seemed assured that he would unseat President Truman he had originally taken a less aggressive stance in his campaign, but after the Soviet invasion Dewey shifted his campaign strategy to a more aggressive stance playing up Truman’s lack of containing the advance of the Soviet Union.


Though Truman would send food, tanks, guns, and money to Yugoslavia he was unable to combat Dewey’s aggressive new campaign style. Truman’s campaign was also plagued by the split in the Democratic Party, for while the Soviet invasion had caused many in the Democratic Party to shift away from Henry Wallace and the Progressive Party it had done little to alleviate the strain brought on by Strom Thurmond and the Dixiecrats. Though a rift was also developing within the Republican Party, the Republicans ran a better campaign against the Democrats. With everything in Dewey’s favor the news media of the age called the election long before it was held, calling the Dewey-Warren Ticket “an assured victory”.

On the eve of the election in November, the Soviet Union had long since captured Belgrade but the Yugoslavian government had relocated Podgorica. The War was not going well for the Soviet Union; the mountainous Yugoslavian terrain well prepared Yugoslavian and constant pestering by Yugoslav partisans had made the Soviet’s pay for every inch of land they captured. American food and weapons were being felt and though Truman had tried to negotiate a peace there seemed no end in sight.

It was with this global backdrop that Thomas Dewey would unseat President Truman and take the presidency back from the Democratic Party, which had held it since 1933. In his acceptance speech Dewey made it clear that it would be the official policy of his administration to halt the spread of communism. By the time Dewy would take office January the Soviet’s had been bleeding in Yugoslavia for four months. Stalin’s short little war had turned into anything but, and had only proven that the Red Army and the Soviet Union had not yet recovered from the Second World War. The strain on the Soviet’s communist empire would begin to show in early February of 1949 continued fighting in Romania which hadn’t been fully pacified since its occupation, turned into widespread rebellions against the Soviet Union. With Yugoslavia holding, Romania rising, and the United States having just elected a new more aggressive leader and pledging greater aid to Yugoslavia, Stalin finally decided to come to the negotiation table in April of 1949. As part of the peace treaty with Yugoslavia the region of Voivojida would be annexed by the Soviet Union’s Hungarian puppet, but would withdraw all troops from the remainder of the SFRY. The Soviet troops that had been tied up in Yugoslavia would be dispatched to Romania to put down the uprising with extreme brutality. Dewey and his Secretary of State John Foster Dulles had to concede Romania to the Soviet’s, but Dulles and the CIA would play a large role in smuggling weapons through Yugoslavia into Romania which would prolong the struggle between the Romanians and the Soviets into a slow bleed, which had the unfortunate side effect of leading to the deaths of even more Romanians who futilely believed that if they kept fighting long enough and hard enough the United States would intervene in a militarily significant manner that would result in their freedom.



Election results: Dewey in Blue, Truman in Red, and Thurmond in Green

Romania and Yugoslavia would not be the only places that would see clashes between the two superpowers. In China the Civil War that had been raging for years had begun to turn in the favor of the Communist Forces and the PLA threatened to capture all of China. After taking the Presidency and appointing John Foster Dulles as his Secretary of State President Dewey saw how fundamentally ignored Asia had been by the Truman administration and the Communist tide that threatened to envelop all of China. Dewey announced that the United States would “vigorously support the efforts of the KMT to save China from Communism”. Most of the Northern China Plain had been lost to the Communist and the KMT had lost over a million veteran troops. To counter the Communist forces Dewey would send American occupation troops in Japan to aid to the KMT in at least preserving Southern China. Much to the protest of General Douglas McArthur, General Matthew Ridgway was appointed as lead ilitary advisor to the KMT and placed in charge of the American troops in China. This move was largely political as Dewey new of the bombastic general’s political ambitions and his support within the Republican Party. In April the PLA moved to try and capture the Nationalist capital of Nanking, but American defending forces American air support saved the city and pushed the communist forces back across the Yangtze River. The victory at Nanking did not assure that the tide of the war would be turned once again, but it was a start.


Unfortunately the War in China would go nowhere fast, with the KMT having already had the backbone of their military destroyed in late 1948 and early 1949 they became ever more reliant on direct American intervention. American planes were sold to China and American pilots in most cases ended up flying them, the anemic Chinese air force. General Ridgeway immediately began a clamp down on the sale of American weapons by corrupt KMT officers to the PLA, though this policy could not always be pursued to its fullest especially with the weapons and food that were air dropped to Ma Bufang in Northern China. Bombing raids against communist targets north of the Yangtze River became common as did the occasional deployment of American armor and infantry, but the launching of an aggressive counter offensive against the North never came to fruition, with the American and KMT forces holding the line at the Yangtze River turning it into the de facto border between Communist North China and Nationalist South. Skirmishes would persist for the next decade and guerrilla warfare would continue on both sides for even longer, but the United States had saved Southern China. Though Mao had hoped to reconquer Tibet he would not risk allocating the troop requirements to Tibet as long as the KMT still controlled China south of the Yangtze River. Though Neither the ROC nor the PRC would recognize the sovereignty of Tibet, American food and economic aid would be shipped to Tibet and the nation would be recognized by President Dewey. Dewey would push for the Asian Reconstruction Act which would act as an extension of the Marshall Plan to South China, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Malays, Indochina, and the Philippines. Along with the ASRA Dewey pushed for the creation of an Asian Counterpart to NATO, the South East Asian Treaty Organization. The threat of expanding communism had been enough to secure the needed coalition to push through these measures and in 1950 SEATO would be born, consisting of South China, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, France, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.


Back in Europe, Dewey was able to claim success in the Greek Civil War and the success of the Berlin airlift, though in all honesty it had been under the Truman administration that this had been started. East and West would continue to grow colder in relations with the revelation that the Soviet Union had tested its first Atomic weapon and the increasing tension over Austria. In Great Britain the Soviet Invasion of Yugoslavia had fundamentally killed the hopes for a “Left-Way” that would keep Great Britain neutral of the two superpowers. The Conservatives, led by Winston Churchill pounced upon the spreading fear of Soviet aggression amongst the general public and infighting amidst the Labour government. In 1949 a vote of no confidence would lead to a general election which would see the Labour Party dethroned and the Conservative Party gain a majority. American President Thomas Dewey would congratulate Winston on his victory and the two would work to maintain the Special relationship between Great Britain and the United States. Churchill’s government had inherited rebellions in Kenya and Malays and while some advocated leaving these lands as Britain had done in India, Churchill chose instead to use direct military intervention to handle the crisis. Churchill was able to use the ties between the MNLA and the Soviet Union to enlist American aid to Britain’s efforts to put down the uprising in Malays. American, British, Australian, New Zealander, Rhodesian, and Malaysian troops would participate in the suppression of the communist rebellion. France and the Sate of Vietnam would also receive American aid in the form of money, weapons, and military advisors. This would tie the Malayan campaign to the campaign in Vietnam and tactics first used by the British in the Brigg’s Plan as well as the “Hearts and Minds” campaign were adopted by the French in an effort to defeat the Communists. Dewey supported Secretary of Defense Forrestal calls for a limited reconstitution of the German Army under American supervision. While this position was unpopular with the French it gained some ground with Churchill in 1950 after the first proposal of European Coal and Steel Community.

Domestically Dewey was unable to pursue his social programs and his pursuit of desegregation and civil rights until the 1950 election which thanks to his successes resulted in the Republican Party increasing the number of seats they held. Though the Republican Party was faced with an increasing schism between the Dewey Moderates and the Taft Conservatives but was held together by their support of business against organized labor and their stance against the international spread of communism. This anti-communist stance would only be strengthened by the perjury trial of communist traitor Alger Hiss; the publicity around the trial started the meteoric rise of Richard Nixon who though more conservative than Dewey would receive support from the President in hopes of fostering a reconciliation between conservative Republicans and moderate Republicans.

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Cabinet of the Dewey Administration
Secretary of State: John Foster Dulles
Secretary of Agriculture: Usher Burdick
Attorney General: J. Edgar Hoover
Secretary of the Interior: Hugh A. Butler
Secretary of Defense: Lucius D. CLay
Secretary of Commerce: Sinclair Weeks
Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare: James L. McConaughy
Secretary of the Treasury: Robert B. Anderson
Secretary of Labor: Harold Stassen
Ambassador to the UN: Alf Landon
Chief of Staff: Herbert Brownell

Director of Central Intelligence: Allen Welsh Dulles
Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation:Clyde Tolson

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