Outrun my Gun: The Presidency of Douglas MacArthur

[pnyckqx]

Please snip rather than quoting the entire thing as it takes up needless space.

General, i did snip --your images-- and please put the posting ediquate nazi swastica away for somebody it might impress, thank you.

He did try and run in OTL and Taft did talk about making him his VP during the 52 election. Seeing as I've already written a fair deal of this TL and all my research is based on a 1952 Pod not a 48 Pod that drastically changes Japan I will continue along this line.

MacArthur won six state primaries in 1948. This was as an undeclared candidate for the Republican nomination. Had MacArthur declared his candidacy, he'd have been a serious challenge to Dewey even if he'd never set foot in the US during the primary season.

Unfortunately, Truman had Mac by the short hairs. As a five star flag officer, Mac can't really retire, which is how he ends up with a field command in Korea at age 70. He has to follow Truman's orders the same as he had to obey LBJ's orders to go to Walter Reed in 1964 Of course the American public would see through such a partisan ploy, and it would have seriously backfired on Truman.

Plus as you said there is no way Truman would have allowed him to come home for the primaries. A Taft-MacArthur 1952 ticket is the most realistic way to get Mac to be president without creating countless butterflies. Mac is old but he wasn't elected to be president he was VP to make Taft more attractive to the electorate his becoming president wasn't exactly anticipated.

i do think that Mac had a shot at the nomination in 48. Dewey was the Republican party's version of Adlai Stevenson. --the leftovers from the last election. It was his personality that prevented him from taking it. He tried to play cute with the Republican Establishment. MacArthur was a lot of things, but the only people he was ever 'cute' to would have been his mother and his wife.

It is obvious that you have spent some time thinking about this matter. i'm curious as to how you're going to write in MacArthur's thin skinned nature and his tendency to stand off from people.

None the less, letting the age issue slide, i'm looking forward to subsequent updates.

 

[GeneralInTheShell]

General, i did snip --your images-- and please put the posting ediquate nazi swastica away for somebody it might impress, thank you.

Sorry if I came off as rude , it's I've been yelled at for doing that before; I really do apologize.

MacArthur won six state primaries in 1948. This was as an undeclared candidate for the Republican nomination. Had MacArthur declared his candidacy, he'd have been a serious challenge to Dewey even if he'd never set foot in the US during the primary season.

It is obvious that you have spent some time thinking about this matter. i'm curious as to how you're going to write in MacArthur's thin skinned nature and his tendency to stand off from people.

None the less, letting the age issue slide, i'm looking forward to subsequent updates.

I really do find it extraordinary how he managed to win six state primaries as an undeclared. If I could have found a way to get him to be president in 48 without an amazingly large amount of ripples in the administration of Japan and in WWII I would have tried to make it 48 rather than 52; that way he could be in charge of the Korean War from the start.

After reading several biographies as well as his own autobiography I think I have a decent understanding of how his interesting nature might affect his relationship with other world leaders and members of his cabinet (Omar Bradley in particular as you probably could tell that the closing statement at the campiegn rally was directed towards Bradley's statement about the Korean war being the wrong war, at the wrong time with the wrong enemy).

I'm glad that you are looking forward to further updates as you seem to have a great deal of knowlodge on MacArthur.

 

[GeneralInTheShell]

Is it treason to plot the death of someone who wasn't POTUS IOTL? :-}

I'll be watching this with interest and fear.

This TL will embrace the Chinese curse "may you live in interesting times". So your interests and fears may perked by this TL.


I must warn anyone who thinks that this will be just a dystopian orgy of war and violence as America decays into a fascist military dictatorship, that that will noot be the case it also won't be a Republican love letter to MacArthur. There will be war, maybe even a nuke or two, and things will certainly look bleaker than OTL, but this TL is supposed to be more than that.

Interesting that if OTL is followed we will see both US and USSR leaders die at same time.

As per OTL Stalin will die on schedule.

 

[troosvelt]

I'm assuming the six states in 48 is part of the AH as he never won any primaries in OTL.

 

[Archangel]

Subscribed!

 

[GeneralInTheShell]

--

February 15th, 1953

MacArthur sat at the cabinet meeting waiting for everything to get started. He sat next to Ike who was putting on his usual boyish face in the face of uncertainty. MacArthur casually remembered thinking Ike would make a good politician... how things had changed. Robert had bent a few rules when he appointed Ike to Secretary of Defense, but there hadn’t been a big stink about it since Truman had appointed that louse Marshall. Ike looked to MacArthur and in his soft spoken voice asked.

“What’s going on Mac?”

MacArthur didn’t say anything simply shaking his head side to side, even with his massive ego he felt that this was something that everyone needed to find out from Robert.

“Cut the crap Mac, this is an unscheduled meeting called a six in the afternoon, the middle of dinner, and you’re the only one who seems so damn wound up he can hardly sit. You’re VP, you know wha-” Before Eisenhower could finish his question Robert walked into the room and sat at the head of the table.

Most around the table sat motionlessly waiting to find out why the President had called the meeting. The Senate Minority Leader Lyndon Baines Johnson seemed especially unsettled, which probably could have been from the looks that MacArthur had been giving the man. MacArthur didn’t have anything especially against the man, he just was sizing him up wonder how he would get along with the Texan once Taft was gone. MacArthur turned his attention to the President just as he began to speak.

“Many of you are probably wondering why I have called you here on such short notice; it is a matter of grave importance. You see I have been diagnosed with cancer”- several men at the table let out a slight gasp-“It is inoperable and untreatable and has spread throughout my entire body including my brain. At best I have about a month to live. I’m a fighter so I think I can pull off one and a half, but the fact remains that soon I will be hospitalized and unable to fulfill the duties of the office that I was elected to. I have called this meeting to oversee the smooth and unfettered transition from my Presidency to that of my current Vice-President’s, Douglas MacArthur.”

MacArthur blatantly looked across the table to see Omar Bradley’s reaction. It was no great secret how the two men felt about each other and it was no secret at all that Bradley had hated it when MacArthur had become Vice-President. Now that he had learned that MacArthur was going to be President Bradley he almost looked like he had been punched in the gut. MacArthur wasn’t going to keep him around long he already knew that. Taft hadn’t planned on keeping him around forever either, but Bradley was near the top of Mac’s shit list and when he was President, Bradley would cease being Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He thought about Bradley's replacement; it was a tossup between good old Ned Almond who Truman had sit on or Arthur Radford…

--

February 19th, 1953

Beria did not show it, but he was extremely nervous about the news he was about to give Stalin. He was an unstable man, a man who might do anything in his present state especially with the news that Beria was about to give him. As he was ushered into comrade Stalin’s chambers he prepared himself to inform Stalin of the news that had been discovered.

Stalin seemed offputtingly warm as he spoke to Beria.

“Sit, tell me what you think is so important and what I will determine is important enough to wake me from a nap or isn’t.”

Suddenly an icy chill ran up Beria’s spine as he heard he had awoken Stalin. Others who had awoken Stalin when he had been slumbering had been sent to Siberia or been killed. With this in mind he hoped what he was about to tell Stalin would leave him alive at the end of the day.

“Comrade General-Secretary Vissarionovich, we have news from our agents in Washington. We have confirmed reports that the President of the United State, Robert Taft, is dying and istransitioning governmental power from himself to his Vice-President, the reactionary General MacArthur.”

Beria waited for Stalin’s response hoping it would leave him alive.
“So the military has launched a coup?” Stalin asked blankly but with just a tinge of inquisitiveness.

Beria fearfully answered his unstable leader.

“No, Comrade Vissarionovich, all information points to the American President dying of terminal cancer.”

“Don’t tell me NO! Beria! Don’t you see or are you blinded by your own hopes to overthrow me! The reactionary is it not all too convenient that the American President is dying so quickly after his election?! Is it BERIA?! The fascist in the American military can’t risk a civilian government any longer. We pushed them too hard in Korea they will not risk having their hands tied by a civilian government any longer! This MacArthur wanted to use atomic weapons against the Chinese when he was a general. Now that he holds the ultimate power in his nation he will use them, of this I am certain. I won’t risk the Soviet Union over Mao’s folly; I will simply sit back and pick up the pieces after his Chinese puzzle comes crumbles. Now go Beria, I have much to think about.”

Beria left feeling relieved and horrified at what had just happened. He did not know that later that night Stalin, fearful that Beria was willfully blind to the American coup out of his own plans to oust Stalin, would make his move against the Beria. Stalin would momentarily turn his attention away from a final purge of Old Bolsheviks Anastas Mikoyan and Vyacheslav Molotov instead focus upon the Beria’s powerbase in the foreign intelligence community as well as the those who supported the Beria-Malenkov axis. Many were arrested for imagined plots against Stalin as well as selling weapons to Israel and supporting the "Doctors Plot".

---

Chief of the General StaffVasily Sokolovsky​

Stalin did not wait long after Beria left to call for Chief of the General StaffVasily Sokolovsky. It was not very long before the decorated Soviet military commander was walking into the great Georgian’s office. The broad jawed general sat as Stalin directed him with his hand; Stalin began to speak.

“Comrade Sokolovsky, I need you to prepare plans for an invasion of the Chinese province of Sinkiang. I need to know how soon you can launch an invasion of the region, as soon as possible.”

The general was puzzled at Stalin’s request. The Chinese were Communists just as the USSR was and they were fighting the Capitalists. Why did Stalin want to invade China? He tasked himself. It was not of course what he said to Stalin.

“Red Army troops still maintain a light presence in the north eastern reaches of the province. We can bolster these numbers rapidly if need be, but it may require taking troops from occupation duty in Europe to occupy a region as large as Sinkiang.”—The general thought for a moment before warily asking his next question--“Comrade General-Secretary do you know the extent of the resistance we will face in an invasion of the region? It may be vital to the number of troops used in the invasion.”

Stalin seemed to think for a minute before answering.

“Mao may be burnt to a cinder from atomic fire; in fact the entire Chinese government may be struggling to survive. With that in mind resistance will likely be minimal, but be prepared to overwhelm any counter revolutionary forces that think that with the destruction of Mao’s government they can regain the autonomy they held before China’s unification.”

Hearing Stalin talk about Mao being burnt to a cinder with nuclear fire made the general wonder if Stalin was planning an all out war nuclear war with the Peoples Republic of China or whether Stalin was opportunistically looking at expansion in the event that the United States expanded their war to China. The general did not ask he simply did as he was told.

“I shall instruct my staff to begin drawing up plans for an invasion immediately. We will have it to you as soon as possible, Comrade General-Secretary.”

“Make it quick Comrade Sokolovsky; one can never count of the fascists to act when it is most convenient for us.”

With that statement the general left the room feeling more reassured…

--

 

[tchizek]

Interesting update. Lots of butterfly wings flapping...

 

[Urban fox]

One quibble, at this stage Beria had already been ousted from the NKVD which had been split into the MVD and MGB.

The point about Singking is interesting it’s long been a region of interest for Tsarist/Soviet leaders. Through I doubt Stalin would move until after Mao got nuked.

 

[mrmandias]

A preemptive Soviet move on China is a little too . . . bold, but if I read this right Stalin's idea is that MacArthur is going nuke China and he wants to plan to pick up a few of the pieces when China collapses.

Very cool TL so far.

 

[GeneralInTheShell]

Interesting update. Lots of butterfly wings flapping...

thank you.

One quibble, at this stage Beria had already been ousted from the NKVD which had been split into the MVD and MGB.

The point about Singking is interesting it’s long been a region of interest for Tsarist/Soviet leaders. Through I doubt Stalin would move until after Mao got nuked.

Damn, not sure why I wrote that. I knew that he had resigned as chief of the NKVD back in 46 and that by now his power base was deminished out side of foreign intelligence. I wrote this update over a month ago so i must has simply forgotten to edit it. It has been done, pluse I have expanded on some of the things that Beria and his men have been charged with. Some of the paronoid imaginings of Stalin, others like selling weapons to Israel are far more real.

Stalin, isn't going to wait for Mao to be nuked, he thinks that he knows that Mac is going to expand the war to China so he is just waiting for that to happen. Stalin may be increasingly unstable, but he isn't about to be the first to invade China; just as he wasn't the first to invade Poland.

 

[GeneralInTheShell]

A preemptive Soviet move on China is a little too . . . bold, but if I read this right Stalin's idea is that MacArthur is going nuke China and he wants to plan to pick up a few of the pieces when China collapses.

Very cool TL so far.

Stalin isn't preemptively moving against China, yes, you are correct in believing that he is going to wait for Mac to make the first move so that the USSR can pick up some of the pieces after China comes crumbeling down.

 

[bguy]

Interesting update. I have just one question, would LBJ actually be the Senate Minority Leader here? OTL Barry Goldwater just barely beat Ernest McFarland in 1952. With a much closer Presidential election, there's a good chance McFarland squeaks out the victory, in which case he would presumably stay on as the Democrat's Senate Leader. (It's also very likely the Democrats still have a majority in the Senate. OTL the Republicans won 4 senate races by 3 points or less. Flip even one of those races and the Democrats have the majority.)

 

[GeneralInTheShell]

Interesting update. I have just one question, would LBJ actually be the Senate Minority Leader here? OTL Barry Goldwater just barely beat Ernest McFarland in 1952. With a much closer Presidential election, there's a good chance McFarland squeaks out the victory, in which case he would presumably stay on as the Democrat's Senate Leader. (It's also very likely the Democrats still have a majority in the Senate. OTL the Republicans won 4 senate races by 3 points or less. Flip even one of those races and the Democrats have the majority.)

Even though the Presidential race was closer that OTL (reflecting the difference in the Republican nominee) I decided to maintain the integrity of the other elections of 1952. Elections in 54 will be different from OTL this is assured, but 52 remained the same as OTL.

 

[lothaw]

Seems to me Stalin is just getting ready to grab the pieces after MacArthur scrambles Mao's egg. Invading Manchura would be more bold than prudent being that's where US troops are likely to be attacked through.

Invading through Xianjiang and perhaps through Mongolia to sieze western China is very possible, and there's not much to be done about it. Or much there for the taking...

Interesting TL though. Poor Taft finally gets elected and then croaks. And now Douglas MacArthur in command of the US nuclear aresenal. Well... only good thing is Stalin won't have much counterstrike ability for awhile yet.

 

[Archangel]

Stalin's paranoia is going to be the cause of the USSR's demise.

Keep it up!

 

[GeneralInTheShell]

Stalin's paranoia is going to be the cause of the USSR's demise.

Keep it up!

Stalin won't be around for much longer.

 

[A.M. Turtle]

Stalin's paranoia is going to be the cause of the USSR's demise.

Keep it up!

Stalin near his end made several crazy and insane orders like the order for the assassination of John Wayne for helping stop any Soviet influence in Hollywood.

 

[Consumerist]

I don't see how you could construe Stalin's actions as paranoid. There were already a few tensions between Mao and Stalin during the signing of the treaty of friendship. China probably might have seemed to be a potential liability and with someone like MacArthur in office he probably should be prepared for things to go pear shaped.

 

[Cathcon1]

Great timeline.

 

[GeneralInTheShell]

Stalin near his end made several crazy and insane orders like the order for the assassination of John Wayne for helping stop any Soviet influence in Hollywood.

Wow, that is crazy.

I don't see how you could construe Stalin's actions as paranoid. There were already a few tensions between Mao and Stalin during the signing of the treaty of friendship. China probably might have seemed to be a potential liability and with someone like MacArthur in office he probably should be prepared for things to go pear shaped.

I think they are referring to his purging of the Beria axis as paranoid. Though that paranoia may not have been totally unfounded. His intensions for picking up the pieces after Mac does somthing a tad bit drastic are cold and calculated almost like his agreement with Hitler to partition Poland.

Great timeline.

Thank you very much.