President Willkie (Rough Draft)

Xen

Banned
Election and World War II:

August 1939: After long hours of discussion with his family, prayers, and meditation, President Roosevelt decides against running for a third term, and makes it known publicly that he intends to retire after his term expires.

September 1939: Nazi Germany invades Poland. The United Kingdom and the Republic of France declare war on Germany, war breaks out in Europe.

December 1939-June 1940: Both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party nominations are wide open. Joseph Kennedy, ambassador to the United Kingdom resigns to seek the Democratic nomination, former Ohio Governor George White assumes Kennedy’s place as the American ambassador to London.

By the spring Vice President John Nance Garner is the clear favorite to win the Democratic nomination. For the GOP the three frontrunners were Arthur Vandenberg, Robert Taft and Thomas Dewey.

June 1940: Dark Horse candidate Wendell Willkie wins the Republican nomination and selects Styles Bridges as his running mate *(Bridges is selected as a result of butterflies in this ATL).

July 1940: At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Vice President Garner secures his parties nomination with Indiana Governor Clifford Townsend selected as his running mate.

July-November 1940: In a twist of irony, Garner is highly critical of President Roosevelt, and the New Deal, while Wendell Willkie is more supportive of the current administration and the New Deal, only going so far as saying some of Roosevelt’s efforts were misguided, but were in the right spirit and in the right direction the country needed to go. Where as Garner criticized Roosevelt for his support for the United Kingdom after the fall of France and desire to take the United States to war with Germany, Willkie voiced his support for the British war effort and for the US to take every step necessary to assure the British aren’t defeated.

November 1940: Wendell Willkie wins the election defeating Vice President Garner in a close victory. Garner begrudgingly concedes defeat and congratulates Willkie on winning the election. President elect Willkie meets with FDR in the White House and is again congratulated on a hard earned victory, Roosevelt privately tells Willkie he is glad that he won the election instead of Garner.

January 20, 1941: Wendell Willkie is sworn in as the 33rd President of the United States and promises to keep the country moving in the right direction and safe from its enemies, regardless of where they might be in the world.

February-April 1941: Willkie begins to break down and privatize the TVA, fulfilling a campaign pledge.

March 1941: President Willkie signs the Lend Lease Act, an initiative started by his predecessor and with the full support of the current administration.

June 1941: Germany declares war on the Soviet Union

October 1941: President Willkie declines to approve a $1 billion Lend Lease aid package to the Soviet Union, instead authorizing $500 million for the USSR and another $500 million to be given to the Free French.

December 1941: The Japanese Naval and Air Forces launch a surprise attack on the US Naval Base at Pearl Harbor. The United States declares war on Japan the following morning. Several days’ later Germany and Italy declare war on the United States.

February 1942: President Willkie controversially signs Executive Order 9066 desegregating the US military. His greatest vocal opposition comes from Southern Senators and those within his own party who believe the nation should not conduct such a move while at war.

April 1942: The United States gets some satisfaction with the Doolittle Raids over Japan

May 1942: In spite of the loss of the USS Yorktown, and the badly damaged USS Lexington (which is sent to Pearl Harbor for repairs) the United States Navy boasts a victory over the Japanese at the Battle of Coral Sea.

June 1942: The USS Lexington is sunk, but the United States claims another victory over Japan in the Battle of Midway, a turning point for the allies in the Pacific War. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrives in Washington to meet with President Willkie.

August 1942: Brazil declares war on Germany and Italy

November 1942: The United States sees its first major action on the western front with the launch of Operation Gymnast, the US led invasion of Vichy North Africa. Vichy Admiral Francois Darlan is killed in the attack. With the support of President Willkie, Charles de Gaulle departs from London to Algeria to assume command of the Free French Forces under allied control.

April 1943: Admiral Yamamoto is killed when his plane is shot down by US P-38s

May 1943: With the Americans pushing in from the West and the British from the East, the German Afrika Korps surrenders.

July 1943: The Allies invade Sicily; Mussolini is killed in a coup d’etat

August 1943: Sicily is completely under allied control

September 1943: The allies invade mainland Italy. The Italian Kingdom surrenders to the west, but a pro-German puppet government is installed to the North. Rodolfo Graziani is the de facto leader of the Italian Social Republic with its capital in Salo. German and Italian forces begin fighting each other in Greece.

October 1943: American troops begin landing in Albania and Greece. Italy declares war on Germany.

November 1943: US General Dwight Eisenhower becomes Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe.

February 1944: US Forces defeat the Germans at the Battle of Sparta, securing the Peloponnese Peninsula.

March 1944: Royal Marines invade Crete

May 1944: Kiev is finally liberated by the Red Army (six months behind OTL). Rome is liberated at months end by the allies.

June 1944: The allies launch Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy. Although losses are high on the beaches, and the airborne paratroopers are scattered throughout the countryside, the invasions are successful. Nine days after the invasion, President Willkie is found dead at his desk in the White House, Vice President Bridges is sworn in that afternoon as President of the 34th President of the United States.

Later in June President Bridges is easily nominated as the GOP candidate for election, Senator Arthur Vandenberg is selected as his running mate. Athens is liberated, the Germans are in retreat to Macedonia, leaving Western Greece and Albania in the hands of the allies.

July 1944: At the National Democratic Convention in Chicago Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia is nominated as the Democratic candidate; James Farley is selected as his running mate.

Many in the Nazi Hierarchy are killed by a briefcase bomb on July 20, amongst the dead is Adolph Hitler and Heinrich Himmler, Hermann Göring lost a leg in the explosion but survived to take control of the Third Reich. The assassination leads to the subsequent arrest and deaths of over 5,000 anti-Nazi Germans.

August 1944: The German Army is withdrawn from Greece to bolster German defenses on the Soviet front. Paris is liberated by the Allies with the Free French forces leading the victory parade into the capital city. Soviet forces approach the Ukraine-Romanian border.

September 1944: American troops invade Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. Bulgaria breaks with Berlin and surrenders to the United States, immediately declaring war on Germany. American troops enter Sofia.
October 1944: Fuhrer Göring orders the abandoment of Italy to defend Greater Germania from the twin threats of the allies in the South and West and the Soviets from the East. Romania surrenders to the Soviet Union. American and Yugoslav partisan forces liberate Belgrade.

November 1944: President Bridges defeats Senator Byrd to win the Presidency in his own right. American troops invade Hungary from Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union invades Hungary from Romania both allied powers experience fierce German resistance and suffer from high casualties.

December 1944: The Battle of the Bulge begins, it is the last German offensive of the war. Hungary is now divided between the United States in the West and the Soviet Union in the East declares, with a cooperative provisional government declares war on Germany.

January 1945: The Soviet Union enters Warsaw. The Battle of the Bulge ends. President Bridges is sworn in as President and Arthur Vandenberg as Vice President.

February 1945: The Yalta Conference is held between Premeir Stalin, President Bridges and Prime Minister Churchill, the main topic of discussion is spheres of influence in post-war Europe. US Marines land on Iwo Jima. The US Army enters Austria, the Soviet Army enters Slovakia.

March 1945: The United States Army under the command of Mark Clark begins the Vienna Offensive. It will end two weeks later with an American victory, the US moves north toward Prague.

April 1945: Prague is liberated by the US Army, Denmark is liberated by the British and Commonwealth forces.

May 1945: The Red Army captures Berlin. Fuhrer Göring commits suicide leaving the command of the German Reich to Rommel. Rommel promplty surrenders unconditionally to the Allies, ending the war in Europe.

July 1945: The Labour Party wins the British elections by a landslide, Winston Churchill is replaced at the Postdam Conference by Clement Atlee.

August 1945: The United States drops nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrenders, World War II is finally over. Hostilities between the Kuomintang and Chinese Communists break open. The Iron Curtain decends across Europe with a Cold War between former allies engulfing the world.
 

Hnau

Banned
Good timeline, quite similiar to OTL, but that's what I expected with Willkie being so similiar to Roosevelt (indeed, the most divergent thing he would do is simply die earlier). Styles Bridges was mentioned in OTL as very anti-communist, so I expect he'll give Stalin much more of a run for his money than Roosevelt. At the very least in this timeline I would expect a free Czech Republic in NATO as well as a united West and East Germany. With less of a communist threat in Germany in the post-war, the Allies might be a little more willing to go Morgenthau... not the whole plan, mind you, but I doubt they would be as generous, if even to a slight degree.

I also wonder what will happen to the United States with the Republicans being given credit for victory in World War II. All sorts of knock-on effects for that.

Any other divergences I didn't catch at this point? What are the reasons for the Red Army being so late to invade Germany? It wasn't as clear on that point on the why.
 

Xen

Banned
Less money is given to the USSR in Lend Lease which slows them down, but doesnt stop them all together.
 
I did a similar timeline last summer on this board. I had Wilkie beat Garner. Garner I had pick 3 term New Jersey Governor and 1 term Senator Arthur Harry Moore.
Not much changes to terms of lead-lease, and I had Wilkie die as per our world on October 8th 1944, which would have a month from his attempt to be re-elected.
 
Xen: just curious on how you arrived at Styles Bridges as a running mate for Willkie. He wasn't mentioned at all (OK, perhaps once but only in passing) in Five Days in Philadelphia, the recently published account of how Willkie got the nomination at the 1940 GOP convention). How and why would he have beaten out McNary, the VP nominee in OTL, or the governor of Connecticut (don't recall the name but he was the initial favorite for the slot)?
 

Xen

Banned
Xen: just curious on how you arrived at Styles Bridges as a running mate for Willkie. He wasn't mentioned at all (OK, perhaps once but only in passing) in Five Days in Philadelphia, the recently published account of how Willkie got the nomination at the 1940 GOP convention). How and why would he have beaten out McNary, the VP nominee in OTL, or the governor of Connecticut (don't recall the name but he was the initial favorite for the slot)?

McNary was a candidate for the Presidential slot, I remember reading something about there being initial bad blood between McNary and Willkie, with FDR out of the picture, that bad blood boils over and is unreconciable by the GOP Convention. Bridges can easily step up and show support for Willkie, or some back room deal made between the two of them leading to Bridges being nominated VP, instead of McNary or anyone else.
 

Hnau

Banned
I'm glad you had Willkie die sooner rather than later, following the theory that presidents wear and tear faster when they are leaders. I believe also the trimming of four months is rather accurate.
 

Xen

Banned
Early Cold War

September 1945: Igor Gouzenko, a Clerk Working in the Soviet embassy in Ottawa defects and provides information of a Soviet Spy Ring working in Canada, and other western nations.

January 1946: Chinese Civil between Communist and Nationalist resumes. Republic of Austria reconstituted with its 1937 borders, and placed under the jurisdiction of the United States

February 1946: A referendum in Albania showed overwhelming support for abolishing the monarchy.

March 1946: Greek Civil War reignites between the Communists and Conservative Greek government. British Soldiers withdraw from their occupation zone in Iran; the Soviet Union refuses to do the same, until the following month. Former British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, warns of an iron curtain falling across Europe.

July 1946: The Philippines gain independence from the United States and begin fighting the Communist Huk Rebels.

August 1946: After months of debate, Albania models its constitution on the US Constitution.

September 1946: Bulgaria narrowly votes to maintain the monarchy under Tsar Simeon II, a constitution would later be approved by the Bulgarian Parliament modeling the government in Sofia after that of Britain.

December 1946: French landings in Indochina begins the First Indochina War.

January 1947: American and British zones of control in Germany are united to form the Bizone or Bizonia.

March 1947: US extends $400 million dollar aid to Greece and Turkey

April 1947: Jackie Robinson becomes the first African-American to play Major League Baseball in the modern era when he debutes with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

August 1947: India and Pakistan granted independence from the UK

May 1948: A Parliamentary vote in Korea sees the confirmation of Syngman Rhee as President of the Republic of Korea.

June 1948: The Bizone and French occupation zone launch a common currency. Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin orders a blockade of all land routes to West Berlin. In response the United States, France, and United Kingdom launch the Berlin Airlift. President Bridges is again nominated to stand for election as President of the US, Vice President Vandenberg will continue his role if Bridges is reelected.

July 1948: The Constitution of the Republic of Korea is effected. Joe Kennedy, Sr. is nominated as the Democratic challenger for President of the United States, in an effort to keep the Solid South as a Democratic Stronghold, Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright was selected as his running mate.

November 1948: President Bridges defeats Joe Kennedy to win another term in office.

April 1949: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is founded by Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, the United States and Yugoslavia to resist communist expansion.

May 1949: The Soviet blockade of Berlin ends with the re-opening of routes to Berlin. The French occupation zone of Germany is merged with the Bizone to form the Federal Republic of Germany.

August 1949: The USSR detonates its first atomic bomb, making the Soviet Union the world’s second nuclear power.

September 1949: The USSR vetoes UN membership for Ceylon, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Jordan and Portugal. Konrad Adenauer becomes the first Chancellor of Federal Republic of Germany.

October 1949: Mao Zedong declares the foundation of the People’s Republic of China. The Soviet Union declares their occupation zone of Germany to be the German Democratic Republic, with East Berlin as its capital. The Communist Insurgency in Greece comes to an end, with the Monarchy emerging victorious.

November 1949: Supported by the Peoples Republic of China, Communist Guerilla’s in Korea led by Kim Il Sung begin fighting government forces near the Yalu River.

January 1950: The United Kingdom recognizes the Peoples Republic of China, the Republic of China severs diplomatic relations with Britain.
 
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