Here is a Prologue of what is to come in America between 1956 and 1959 so we can catch on to the Ural War!
Douglas Edwards, in his years working for Columbia Broadcast, has never announced an event as important as this one. He had to behave professionally, his voice could not show the fear he had for what was a task he did not envy, keeping his hands steady on the desk. He was seated on the studio, rushed out of the peaceful environment that the break room was that afternoon. He had arrived earlier, before introducing the Evening News, he was only chattering with his co-workers over a cup of coffee when suddenly the telephone lines were overloaded all across the country. Everything felt surreal when the break was interrupted by a whirlwind, he had to pick himself up and go to present an emergency broadcast immediately, the President had just been shot in Chicago and some sources claimed it was fatal, others claimed he was already dead, some said it was on the head, others said he was shot on the leg or the chest. The only thing they all had in common is that Huey Long had been shot on his way out of the City Hall by an unknown assaliant that was being taken away as they spoke. Combing his hair was needed to look presentable and so he did on the way to the chair, at least this did not happen during morning News otherwise, he suspected, Cronkite would take the lead with this one. But now it was not the time to think of his co-workers, or even Sara, if she did not know already then she was going to be bursting her heart once she knew. Edwards was far from a Longist, he thought he spoke too much like a communist, but Sara was won over by that man as if he was her lover!
"Good Afternoon, now it is the Fiftieth hour and twenty minutes local time of the Nineteenth of May, 1956, we have received confirmed reports from Chicago that President Huey Long has been shot at and rushed to a hospital, The Secret Service has apprehended the attacker and taken him under custody, we still await for confirmation of the President's health status and pray for his best recovery."
This had to do, he could not say if he was alive or dead, they did not know. Usually Edwards was always on the forefront, heck he should have been in Chicago, with the elections approaching how come they did not have anyone following Huey around? Hopefully they would get more updated news from their correspondents and sources in Chicago, he knew that for the next hours he would be the one to announce to over 40 million Americans that their President could be dead or could have just been grazed. This was not the first time that he had been shot either but one can only wonder if twenty years aged him gracefully or his body could not resist anymore. The camera cut and he was surprised at how steady his hands could remain, especially when he had just given the greatest news report in his life, yes he did and that was dawning on him now, he would be getting an Emmy at last if tonight was big enough, and if there is any occasion where it could be big then this was it.
Miles away, in the White House, George Smith Patton had no idea if he was still Vice-President or if he was about to receive yet another promotion and become President. God knew this country needed a more decisive leader now, the Krauts burning churches! The Commies taking Daegu in Korea! Long was not a man who could deliver them the punching they needed, everything Patton said seemed to go through a filter in that man's earwax and he took half measures with what he was told. But damnit, he did not want the man to die, he was still the President and whoever was the bastard who shot a sitting President of the United States just made the security detail look like buffoons. Hess and his scum would be having a laugh in Germania if they even knew how to smile, whoever was responsible for this humiliation had to pay for it. Patton was receiving news as quickly as they came on Long's health, he knew how men being shot in the field were like, and thats with young men who were at their peak, Huey was not in the age of taking bullets and living to tell the story. Apparently he was rushed to the hospital still conscious and he was being put under surgery, from there onwards it was up to God. For now the General had to think of who WOULDN'T want to assassinate Long in an electoral year, that was easier to think than listing suspects. Krauts? They weren't that stupid, most of times, if they were killing the POTUS as part of a coordinated attack there would have been signs of increased U-Boat activity along the coast and the rockets would be firing now. The commies? They should have loved Huey for all he knew but even that Cajun wouldn't call himself a red and that was enough for these scum, he had seen first hand how Communists could kill one another at the millions for the slightest of differences as if their theory books were the Bible itself! Mayhaps someone from the inside, but who?
"Sir, the President's surgery has removed the bullet, it has bounced on his ribs, but his recovery will still take time as they found sharpnel on his back."
That tough bastard would live, Patton grinned to himself and dismissed the man, these wounds were survivable, but he would be out for a while from the field to recover. He took a puff from a Cigar and entered the Oval office, walking around it and yet not sitting on the chair. Patton could be an ambitious man, he could be brash, he could be rude, he could be stubborn, he could be proud, but he was no mutineer, he was not the President, only the Acting President, he would stay in his own office and run affairs from there, but it does not mean he couldn't take a strool that night on his superior's office. He could sit on the chair, nobody would see or bat an eye, but this chair was cursed, over these last years he had seen a complete loaf, a suicidal old man, a raving southern lunatic, and a man who was now in a hospital bed all sitting in there while the country had it's heights and lows. Sometimes he wondered if Mac would have been better in that seat than them, sure the man was a stubborn moron but he was a military man, he knew how to show strength and if it was up to him they would be raising the star spangled banner over that decrept monument in Germania and spitting on Hitler's corpse, they had the power at the time and did not use it, how many would end up dead because they did not kill the monster when he was weak? Maybe it was not too late now and he could do something about it, even if not a direct war, in his precious little days in charge, he could give a reminder to the world that America was still a damn power and not a pushover.
