Kingfish in America

stevep

SkyEmperor said:
1945-1955 The Divided World After the Secomd Great War, the world began to gravitate into several camps. The first camp was the facist nations of Europe. These nations, led by Hitler, in Germany, consisted of Germany, Spain, Italy, Norway, Sweden, France, and a somewhat emaciated Russia. The second camp consisted of the democratic and socialist nations of the globe. These included the United States, Britain, Canada, India, and much of Latin America. The third camp consisted of the non-aligned nations. Foremost among them was Japan, and the East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere over which it presided. The sphere was wracked by bloody civil war, especially on the Chinese mainland. By 1950, nuclear weapons had been stockpiled by Germany, England, the United States, and Japan.
The democratic-socialist nations and the facist nations of the world enjoyed an uneasy ceasefire. However, in the early fifties Germany began stepping up efforts to secure it's future. They moved decisively to oust the goverments of Turkey, Kurdistan, Iraq, and Kuwait and replace them with more agreeable despots who could preserve Europe's oil supply. German and Italian troops even invaded Libya. These actions incensed the remainder of the globe. In the Americas and Africa the United States and England pursued a similar, if more covert, program of encouraging pro-Washington governments.

1948-1951 Sunset for the Kingfish Huey Long barely manged to scrape into his thrid term in office. However, one reelected he took steps to, he thought, secure National Patriotic Party authority. He admitted five new states to the union. They included Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, the Phillipines, and Mindanao (the S. Phillipines). The economy continued to improve and many Americans began to see the US as a land of plenty once again. America began to strengthen it's place as an opponent of facism worldwide, and finished the construction of it's nuclear arsenal. In 1951, while walking to his limousine one morning Huey Long was shot dead by Ralph Shelley, a man ruined by Long's corrupt policies. After his death, he was said to be the most influential man in America that century.
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SkyEmperor

By an Axis invasion of Libya did you mean the suppression of an independence movement there? It was an Italian colony before the war and given they were on the winning side I doubt that would have changed much.

Where the Germans/Italians might be having problems is with the Arabs by this time. Given the nature of anti-Semitism and the desire for more resources there, especially as oil becomes more and more important, I can see they facing a grim future in a Nazi controlled world.

To refer back to a couple of earlier bits as I've been busy and unable to reply much recently. I can't see either side getting nukes by 45 without the US's industrial resources, not unless Britain got very lucky. Suspect we would get it before Germany, with the mess they made of their physics and the flow of émigré scientists and desperation of the democracies. However doubt if it would be before late 46, more probably 47 as a guesstimate.

If Germany did get the bomb 1st, although they might struggle to deliver it to somewhere as central as Birmingham, I can't see Britain maintaining any independence. Especially not after fighting so long and bitterly against Hitler. If somehow we did I think it would be unlikely Long would commit himself to an alliance with Britain.

I also doubt that Japan, with all its problems holding down such a massive empire, would get the bomb by 1950.

However interesting scenario and frighteningly possible under the circumstances.

Steve
 

Sgt. Pepper

stevep said:
SkyEmperor

By an Axis invasion of Libya did you mean the suppression of an independence movement there? It was an Italian colony before the war and given they were on the winning side I doubt that would have changed much.

Where the Germans/Italians might be having problems is with the Arabs by this time. Given the nature of anti-Semitism and the desire for more resources there, especially as oil becomes more and more important, I can see they facing a grim future in a Nazi controlled world.

To refer back to a couple of earlier bits as I've been busy and unable to reply much recently. I can't see either side getting nukes by 45 without the US's industrial resources, not unless Britain got very lucky. Suspect we would get it before Germany, with the mess they made of their physics and the flow of émigré scientists and desperation of the democracies. However doubt if it would be before late 46, more probably 47 as a guesstimate.

If Germany did get the bomb 1st, although they might struggle to deliver it to somewhere as central as Birmingham, I can't see Britain maintaining any independence. Especially not after fighting so long and bitterly against Hitler. If somehow we did I think it would be unlikely Long would commit himself to an alliance with Britain.

I also doubt that Japan, with all its problems holding down such a massive empire, would get the bomb by 1950.

However interesting scenario and frighteningly possible under the circumstances.

Steve
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i would like to point out that Japan was well on the way to getting the atomic bomb during WWII...i would not be surprised to see them get it a few years before 1950...
 

stevep

Sgt. Pepper said:
i would like to point out that Japan was well on the way to getting the atomic bomb during WWII...i would not be surprised to see them get it a few years before 1950...
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Sgt

Would like to know your source for that please? Just about everything I've read on the issue is that their research on atomic research was very low level. One projection was that given the resources they were committing it would take them a century.

Given victory in establishing their empire and the demonstration of the bomb in 45 it would get a big boost. However I doubt the Germans would share any information or there would be a flood of scientists to Japan. Also, even if Britain and Russia are defeated their going to be very heavily tied up fighting resistance across their empire. They are going to have very little spare for such a project.

Steve
 

David bar Elias

Perhaps the USA and Japan begin to warm up to each other over the long run (with both the Reich and the USA trying to garner support)......interesting scenario so far......keep it up.
 

SkyEmperor

1952-1958: America on the March In 1952, the electoral victories of the NPP ground to a halt. As the economy improved, the socialist policies of the NPP were seen as a shackle rather than a safety net. NPP isolationism was unpopular with Americans fearful of the new threat of Nazism abroad. Without the charismatic "Kingfish" the NPP crumpled and Thomas Dewey came into office by the skin of his teeth.
The Dewey presidency was a new era for America. Many of the make-work projects of the Long years were rolled back, and replaced with jobs generated by the private sector. Dewey pursued an aggressive policy abroad as well. He worked relentlessly to bring together nations into a general anti-facist front. Under his tutelage, the US military came onto a par with the nations of Europe.
Dewey swept into his reelction on the crest of a booming economy and supported by a public galvanized by fear of facism. One young maverick senator took aim at facists at home in America. His name was Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy routed out muck of the Ku Klux Klan leadership, and accused them of collusion with the Nazis. He also chased after the anti-semitic followers of the recently deceased Father Coughlin.
As the Dewey years drew to a close, America sat atop a wealth of progress and power.


Thoughts? How would a Dewey presidency pan out in your view? And who should the parties nominate in '58? Any other thoughts?
 

HueyLong

Banned
Why would a more racist and isolationist America allow non-white states into the Union?

Especially considering that the Phillipines were technically independent at that time.
 

Admiral Matt

Events inside the US look good, but I can't help but question the course in the rest of the world. It comes down to Japan, more or less: Even in this timeline, it strikes me as likely that they would aim to take the rich and populous colonies of Europe, rather than coastal Siberia.

Even if they did attack the Russians, it would probably be another overwhelming defeat for them, as it had been previously. The Russians could move the troops to Moscow they did in OTL and still have more than enough forces to defeat the Japanese in Manchuria and northern China. The Japanese could take the islands and probably Vladivostok, but that's it.

The most likely scenario I see from an uninvolved America still has a partial Allied victory. Japan goes south and fights through Australia and about half of India before the war ends in Europe. Meanwhile the Chinese have more or less been broken. The Japanese make a bid to end the war fast, collapse, and are forced to retreat to China for fear the Russians will get involved. The communists run off to Sinkiang and gradually turn China into a giant version of Vietnam for Japan.

On the Russian Front, the Nazis take what's left of Leningrad and do better in the Caucasus. Of course, all the factories in the Urals come online just as in OTL, so this isn't that huge a help for the Germans. A bigger issue will be the reduced supply of resources from America. The grind Eastward takes longer, which means less is left of the territory the Soviets retake, allowing them less recovery.

The situation is similar in the West. The Brits manage to swing North Africa, but it takes a long time. Then they go after Sicily, and later Italy, eventually triggering the Italian switch to the Allies (and immediate German occupation). Normandy is out of the question.

The Soviets sweep Greece, Denmark, and the rest of Germany. They annex Poland and Czechoslovakia as SSRs. The Brits attempt to discourage further growth from Norway, Sweden, the Low Countries, and Italy. France fumes for a few decades. Turkey struggles with communist guerillas for the forseeable future.

Aaand eventually the US comes out of its shell.

Err. Apologies for the hijacking, I got carried away. Your TL isn't impossible, carry on.
 

SkyEmperor

I see where you're coming from. The TL for WWII really relies on a weakened Russia, Im hoping butterflies make the Soviets weaker than they wer OTL, maybe an even worse set of purges than in OTL? Or a lack of military spending?

Oh well, the TL grinds forward.

Sowing the Seeds of Chaos In 1958, a slick young politician won the Republican nomination. Richard Nixon was one of the youngest president in American history, and he swept into office on a platform of going "whole-hog" and winning the war for freedom. He impassioned his followers with his new dream for America. The economy continued to grow by leaps and bounds. He was unable to rally the nation after his reforms went into affect, and disillusion set in. He retook the Whitehouse after a tight race in 1962, with the majority of his opposition coming from the NPP. It was during his second turn that things took a turn for the worst. His civil rights initiatives soured, and the ugly spectre of foreign war began to emerge. Us troops had been dispatched as 'advisors' to the Islamic-socailist nation of Bangladesh. To top off the crisises, at home Nixon is caught up in a wave of scandal. In 1964, the elction goes to a invectious southern politician, George Wallace, of the National Patriotic Party.

More coming...
 

SkyEmperor

Civil Rights 1958-1966 The Nixon years were an era of great progress in Civil Rights, and of great losses. Nixon began pushing hard for a program of racial equality, forcing desegregation on the South. he hoped to discredit the NPP by tying them to racism. However, the Civil Rights movement that Nixon supported was far different from what might be expected. Calls for peaceful protest, such as those voiced by Nation of Islam Imam Muhammad King Jr. were ignored. Instead, the Methodist preacher Malcolm X compelled hate and mistrust between the races. Nixon and his supporters were able to force a desgregation bill through congress, however, the states ignored the bill, and retained many segregated institutions. The South desgregated slowly, and often only after the deployment of federal troops. Racial violence, vigilante killings, and terrorism increased on both sides of the color line. All of the desegregation programs came to a halt in 1966, with the election of Wallace.

Comments anyone?
 
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