That’s what i thought.
Hope you don’t kill him off unless you want Japan to descend into outright anarchy.
I mean will they be able to influence events in Britain that happen after the Ural War begins or will they be too distracted by said war?
The Iron Eagle - The History of the Cold War
- Thread starter Kaiser of Brazil
- Start date
No, mainly because the factors aren't there. The United Fruit Company would certainly be in Long's kill list (he was outspokenly opposed to American companies intervening in Latin America during the Chaco War), the Dulles Brothers never got the power they did under Eisenhower (and the fact the head of the CIA was a board member of the UFC was really a big deal for the coup). Plus Socialism is not THE enemy, Nazism is.
What is this piece of work up too? Hopefully he was one of the casualties of the invasion of Japan.
Honestly, I'd like to see what he'd be up to in a world where the Nazis win.
What is this piece of work up too? Hopefully he was one of the casualties of the invasion of Japan.
Probably leading the rump Axis-aligned United States throughout the 1950s/60s/70s/80s.
My apologies I thought you were referring to some other timeline in which the Nazis won WWII. Didn't realize that that was what happened ITTL. I end up following so many that it gets hard to keep track.
Rockwell was a naval training pilot, it's possible however that he would go to active duty. But American planes were relatively safe during most of Operation Sunset, especially after Operation Gomorrah pulverized entire cities and airfields.
What is this piece of work up too? Hopefully he was one of the casualties of the invasion of Japan.
I don't think he would be an outspoken supporter of Hitler, considering that would get him kicked out of the army pretty early on. More likely is that he is one of the more radical McCarthy supporters and would turn towards a more radical brand of the American Right due to Huey Long. Nazism? No, that would be political suicide!
Or he could become a Communist in a sort of role reversal from OTL.
I prefer not to do a full role reversal just for the sake of it, Rockwell isn't the type that would suddenly become a CPUSA member post-war. But I admit I don't know as much of his personal life either.
Speaking of it, how is Communism/Marxism viewed in the west after the defeat and collapse of the Soviet Union (and rise of Maoist China)?
That was heavily shaped by Patton's expedition. The Second Time of Troubles showed the worst crimes of Stalin to the world, not only did Socialism get destroyed, it ended up seen as a self-destructive ideology due to the Totalitarian and paranoid nature of Stalinism, especially since the Red Army survived and managed to blame the Soviet Politicians and Stalin for all the problems and defeats. Maoism is a different type of Socialism, but most Americans still see them as the same ideology. The American left was very quick to distance itself from Moscow after the Germans took it and Socialism imploded with millions of refugees telling stories about Stalin's rule in Siberia. Instead they mostly associate themselves with Huey Long or Trade Unions by now.
XXXII - SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY
THE IRON EAGLE
SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY
SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY
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 shrapnel 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.
George S. Patton would be the Acting President of the United States during the period between the 19th of May and the 5th of June when Long was finally transferred back to Washington. The President survived the attack, if only by an inch, but he would carry over a memory of it other than a scar, he would need the help of a cane to walk with his right leg, sometimes using the help of aids to stand in his worst days. Patton's short Presidency was also the most energetic the United States has been in years when facing it's enemies, projects which were being held back were accelerated including the Mark 27 Nuclear device, which would be tested on the 1st of June on the North of Greenland near the North Pole with devastating effects, the largest detonation up until that moment with a 30-Megaton Yield, the "Betsy Ross" bomb which was over the double the expected power, a Thermonuclear device which almost destroyed the delivery bomber. Furthermore, Patton oversaw the famous "Operation Ripper" after reviewing it and more than doubling the firepower (in both artillery and bombers) designed for the operation and seeing Congress approve another act to escalate the number of troops in the Korean conflict. The Communist advance towards Pusan was stopped and Patton became the first President in modern era to personally command the operation. In Late May he would spend a week in Korea and commanded the offensive which shattered the momentum of the Communist forces across the eastern coast of the Peninsula. Patton's classic bold style was a surprise to many who were used to the attritional proxy war approach that had existed up until that moment.
But while the Commander-in-Chief, as Patton preferred to be addressed, was reliving his old days in the battlefield, the electoral campaign at home was picking up speed. Long's survival was a surprise as much as his assassination, many had celebrated in silence, others dreaded in silence, all gave the best wishes and some was disappointed when the wishes became true. Just the danger of Long's death put the Kingfish Party in disarray, the enormous Frankensteinian beast that was made up of everything from Southerners to Northerners, from Pseudo-Socialists to Conservative Populists, was almost tearing itself to win Long's blessing for the Vice-Presidency, when the Presidency itself could be up to grabs there were factions who turned on one another. But thankfully that damage was stopped just as the bleeding in the President's body, at least for now, but it highlighted the problems in the fact a "Longist" Party could not truly define what "Longism" meant other than following the wise leadership of Kingfish Long. Lyndon Johnson, the Shark, was a man who was put under enormous duress in the first days, as the strongest personality of the Party in Congress, the man lived politics, breathed politics, raised from his childhood listening in wonder the stories of his father's political adventures around his region. No wonder that a man like that would have his own ambitions, although he was especially pragmatic ever since he had his failed race in the early 40s. He knew he could never face Long to take over the Party, but he had begun to plan for the succession, and the Shark had been paying attention in his growing southern rivals, two Governors and a Senator.
Alabama Huey, as he came to be known in some circles, was a rising governor in the state of Alabama, who in 2 years had received so much funding that many thought that he was the one supposed to be Long's successor. George Wallace was part of the same wave which elected several new figures into Southern Politics, the "Long" effect was a shakeup of the political establishment and the dominance of the Democratic Party. Wallace came in with a Longist speech and narrowly won the vote for Governor in 1954, joining the ranks of the Populists as a relatively low figure, his rhetoric was allowing him to rise new heights, especially with his policy of "Better Roads, Better Future", which was not different from the main discourse of the Party but was one to the people of Alabama who was seeing a rising wave of populism brought by their sympathy for Long. He had so far refused to engage in racial politics on a large scale, although he did have a certain segregationist bias, many considered it just a consequence of being a politician in Alabama. Others like Governor Sid McMath, known as "Farmer Mac" due to his support for rural communities as Secretary of the Interior in Long's first term, believed that Wallace was a supporter of segregation, a man who hid his true face in a moderate facade and would reveal himself the second coming of the Thurmond Presidency. Sid was the Governor of Arkansas and an old partner of Huey, being greatly inspired by his southern neighbor, he left the government in 1952 in order to run in his Home State, pushing for his policies on a state-level and also receiving a generous amount of funds for his projects. Sid was a liberal, although not to the extent of some northerners, he wanted to continue the focus on welfare policies while slowly pushing to end segregation within the next ten years. That made him unpopular amongst other southern Populists, although he held a very strong sway on the Plains, from Kansas to Montana.
There was also Jimmy "The Trucker" Hoffa, a rising star in Chicago who had managed to grow stronger in the Great Lakes region. Hoffa was a Labor leader who benefitted from the "Long Wave" to become President of the "International Brotherhood of Teamsters" (IBT) one of the largest Unions in North America, that and of course secretive contacts he held with the world of organized crime in Chicago. But Hoffa was a man much like Long, he was a firebrand, one of the President's staunchest supporters in the world of Unions who now had joined the Populists. He was not a politician, but many in the party were not either, and while he had small chance of actually getting a nomination, nobody could deny that his control of the truckers, especially after almost ten years of heavy investments from the government into highways, could be crucial in making him a Kingmaker during the electoral period. But despite all these unorthodox figures all coming together in the party, nobody would be able to carry the heart of the American people if Long died, the only one who could wield that name like it was his own in front of crowds was Huey Long's own son Russell Billiu Long.
Russell had been in Louisiana when his father was shot, it just so happened that he was in there as his Senate career demanded that he went to his Home State to listen to the people. But most times when someone approached Russell it was not to speak to him, but to speak to his uncle, Governor Earl Long, or more likely to his almighty father President Huey. It was an open secret that it was his name that made him Senator, just like it was his father's name back in 1948 that made Earl into a Governor. Huey himself disliked that blatant Nepotism, but how could he stop the people from voting for someone with that prized surname? Sure, Earl was a madman more ways than figurative, but he was loyal and cemented the Dynasty's hold on the State for the next millennia. Russell had joined Politics as a Senator in 1950 after Overton's death, he had lived so far a calm life in the Senate, although he was also a favorite of many to be attacked in order to hit his father. He came into contact with "Shark" Johnson, naturally, as a Senator for the Populists after he defected with his father from the Democratic Party, Lyndon saw a man who represented a New South, he was like a more humane vision of Huey Long, not as dominant, or paranoid, in politics but a man willing to compromise. When Russell heard the news, his first instinct was to fly to Chicago, abstaining from a Senate session in order to accompany the surgical proceedings in his father. He was the natural heir to that Dynasty, no doubt the people would see a grieving son, one more empathetic but also fair, as Presidential material. But Russell was nowhere as experienced in politics, he could not play the Senate like Johnson, the crowds like Wallace, the country like Sid, or the Unions like Hoffa. Sure, he would have many advantages due to his name, but would this be a step too far into nepotism for the American people?
But all these doubts and contesters were to stay on the background of the Kingfish's Kingdom, because the FBI was dealing with a much larger scheme as Attorney General James H. Morrison began to unravel the sheer scale of the attempt in Chicago. Morrison never thought his job as AG would be to this level, sure he graduated, passed bar and even served some time in Congress to familiarize himself into politics, but when Long invited him to the job in 1955 he never thought he would sign up for this. The Department of Justice was in charge of the FBI which naturally was the one responsible to investigate this gruesome assassination attempt. The shooter was detained on site, a man named John Parker Lee, a former manager of the Standard Oil Company in Indiana, a search in his history would find out far more than just the man's occupation. He was a veteran of the Pacific War, returning a very different man from how he used to be before the war, the next ten years would be a series of unfortunate events. Long's attacks on the Standard Oil would lead to him being laid off in an attempt to cut costs due to several Lawsuits and a Court decision condemning the company to pay fines in the early 50s. Furthermore, his son had decided to join the military and serve as one of the advisors in Korea, recently dying in an ambush earlier that year. But that all still would not allow a man like that to get so close to the President of the United States, Lee's interrogatory should clarify more. But that never came, while being transported into a police car to be taken from one building to another, he would be shot fatally by an unknown assailant who emerged from the mass of journalists trying to get a glimpse of the shooter. Morrison was dealing with a troublesome investigation, because there were so many people who would want Huey dead that trying to get a list would arrest half of the country, they had to follow the due process and for that the FBI had to run an investigation on his background and contacts.
What was found is that the list of suspects could be from respectable politicians to the lowest of criminals, the theory of a lone shooter was blown away together with Lee's brains in Chicago. Patton had to return from Korea eventually, his blood was really pumping out of the excitement in living his glory days and being the first President to actively lead troops since Washington, he came back to find out the investigation was dealing with trouble. The AG blamed the FBI, the FBI blamed the CIA, the CIA blamed the local police, and one of the cops blamed the sun for preventing him from seeing the killer. Either way, Huey Long was alive, and Morrison would go to Chicago on the 30th to check on the President after 11 days, he was recovering very well as the hospital had a whole wing sealed off with only vetted personnel allowed, there were more security guards in the Northwestern Memorial than the White House ever had, the Secret Service called for all to make sure the POTUS would not suffer another attempt. In his room, he had received some reports of more urgent matters even if the doctors recommended to keep him away from stressful matters. He had taken a vested interest, as anyone would, about who was trying to kill him, he also dismissed the idea of a lone shooter and claimed that this was some sort of revenge ploy by lobbyists, which was far from a discarded theory but Morrison did not wish to go to conclusions yet. Someone jokingly suggested it was a Kennedy, after all they were great marksmen in shooting heads of state. But in Long's paranoid mind, the idea that the Kennedy family, former democrats who turned to the Republican Party and gained prominence as his opposition in the Northeast, could be behind the shooting was not fully discarded. The AG suggested that Long could have something to lead the investigation in his files but he refused to grant the key.
The Kennedy luck was something that ran through that family, with the exception of the deceased Robert Kennedy. John, his older brother, was a national celebrity after the war for being the man who killed Hirohito, that was the equivalent of a Jew shooting Hitler for most Americans, that allowed him to be elected to Congress in 1948 with great ease, and in 1953 he became Governor of Massachusetts for the Republican Party, riding the wave of McCarthyism. He did not have the same Presidential ambitions of his father, not many had hope for a Catholic President as the Papacy was seen by many as a puppet of Mussolini, and there were other motives, perhaps the experience in killing a Head of State had shocked him away from that. Joseph P. Kennedy, the Patriarch of the Family, would be approached by FBI agents on the 2nd of June, they just wished to ask questions instead of taking him into interrogation. Kennedy would answer them, but he quickly figured out that these questions had the assassination as a background, his behavior changed to accusing the agents of attempting to smear his family's name with their mere presence. Of course they could not seek hostilities with the father of the Governor, they would thank him for his time and leave. The Kennedy's were targets at that moment, at least in the eyes of Huey Long.
After he left the hospital on the 5th with his candidacy to an unprecedented 3rd term, launching a barrage of accusations against the wealthy and powerful, the nation was in uproar, people cheered for Long, they wanted Long, they wanted to continue the Long reign which saw an era of growth not seen since the roaring 20s, but this time it was one that affected the poorest the most, raising living standards to new heights, lowing the costs through new programs and successfully associating Long with this golden age in contrast to the "Warring Wheeler" years and the chaotic "Thurmond Transition". There was no doubt in anyone's mind that Huey would win the election, the bullet wound in his chest ensured that. When he went to the White House he wanted to personally oversee the investigation, especially trying to connect the dots between the Kennedys and Lee, such as the fact both were heavily associated with the Standard Oil corporations, turns out Lee even had a job offer from Massachusetts. He had job offers from other states as well but this one is what truly caught the AG's attention, because that involved acting as an envoy to Lisbon, a job offer which was very much above Lee's paygrade and it involved what was essentially a code for "Black Market" in the CIA's list. If the Standard Oil Company was keeping contacts with Portugal, while technically not illegal, it meant they were involved with commerce inside the Linz Pakt. This meant the CIA would be taking over the investigation to search possible links Lee had with foreign Countries, and the Standard Oil in General, with the power given by the American Protection Act which forbade US companies of engaging in transactions and agreements with Embargoed nations such as the Reich.
The Germans had immediately rejected any association with Lee, Eichmann, one of the heads of the RSHA, made a low level encounter in Lisbon with Donovan, head of the CIA. The two would practically scan one another for any weakness of lie, Donovan came back fully believing Eichmann to be a psychopath and Eichmann returned believing Donovan to be an undisciplined cowboy. But the Reich was certainly not behind any assassination attempts on Huey Long, they had their own problems to deal with when suppressing the Catholic Church while also keeping Catholic States connected towards them. Which other foreign link could it be? The Chinese were discarded from the second one saw Patton and pictured him in the Presidential Chair, in the short time he was in Charge he had shattered a Communist offensive in Korea which has been planned for 8 months. There were other groups, like Separatists from Porto Rico or even Korean infiltrators, but again that was discarded because the very idea Patton would be a more compromising leader than Long was a repellant to any foreign sabotage against the latter.
But the investigation was struck by the Kennedy luck, it is unknown how exactly the whistleblower decided to turn himself in, interrogation would lead to nowhere was the man just did not say anything out of fear. There were theories, some linked to the Bufalinos who ran the most powerful crime family in the Great Lakes, the cousin of the head of the family was literally the attorney of Jimmy Hoffa who would benefit greatly following the attempt in Chicago. However, that is all conjecture based on hearsay, none of that would ever hold up in court, what did hold up in court was what the whistleblower told. With ample evidence he confessed to have been the man who sold an unmarked M1911 to John Parker Lee, the shooter of the President, just a month before the assassination. He had been contacted by a group of "powerful individuals" who wanted to ensure the gun was sold at a low cost to the shooter and told him beforehand that Lee would come. Further conclusions reached to companies that all had something in common: They were donors to the Republican Party. Right that same month, there was a cheerful tone in the nomination of the Republican Party. After months of negotiations and with the decline of the Democrats, some hoped that they would be able to win this year's election. However that all hid what was on the back of their heads, the survival of Huey Long which had made him a Martyr, especially after the speech on the 5th of June:
"My dear Americans, I am afraid due to medical impediments I cannot stay for long so I shall be brief. I must thank the medical team and those who cared for me in these hard weeks, above all I thank God for granting me the opportunity to do much more with my life. When I was shot twenty years ago, I remember praying to the creator that I live longer, so I could do more, so I could give more. That mercy was granted once and it was granted again this last month. I feared for my life, as any human does, even Christ himself sweat blood on the night before his judgment, I feared that this could be the end and America would be mourning. There were many who wanted me to quit, I ran two terms, they said, I gave America far more than was expected of me and I had earned a retirement back in my home in Louisiana. A third term? So many asked me why to continue this effort, why I continue to put myself as a target of slander and bullets. I wondered that myself, I was waiving off from deciding to run again until that day. In this time I realized what is at stake, Americans, it is no secret that I anger many, those in power who have been shaken and broken, great giants like the Rockefellers and Fords all around have done everything to bring me down long before I was even in Politics back in my home. The Democrats and Republicans for a century have controlled the politics of the country, playing us off one another while on the background they party together, while they are paid by the same corrupt bosses, while they play the same dirty tricks, there are very little differences between them. I was a threat to those who play off the people against one another, blacks and whites, silver and gold, dry and wet, liberal and conservative, they made labels for us to forget our common roots as Americans, picking up teams and distracting us with politics while they exploited us.
I was one of the many who was exploited, who was deluded, I used to call myself a Democrat, I used to give myself labels and think politics was about who sits in the White House and does magic to help the people. But when I got to Congress I realized that they were all alike, I saw a congress bribed, I saw a Callous White House who cared little for the people who put them in there. George Washington and the Founders have created a nation with all liberty and opportunity a man needed, but this dream was taken from us along the way by the wealthy, who created an establishment who used Tyranny that would make men like Samuel Adams, Thomas Paine, Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson faint in horror at what they created. America was being crushed, which is why I joined politics, which is why I wanted to break this engine who crushed the common man under the tyranny of the wealthy. I reject socialism, those ideals are inherently against the American Spirit, their system crushes the individual. I reject Nazism and their autocracy, of believing a race above others and a leader above them all. I rejected the establishment, the corruption and bargaining that for so long has crushed the common American. Which is why I became their target, because once I was in the White House I was able to do something about it. We have crushed the Monopolies like Roosevelt, we have crushed the Aristocrats like Lincoln and freed the American people, we crushed the Financial system and the debt slavery like Jackson. No more would you spend your life working for a meager of the gains of your boss, now you have the money to prosper by yourself, to be your own boss, to raise your children in this beautiful God-given land. No more do you have to fear that a burn would make you broke in medical bills you could not afford. No more you have to fear your children will go through your difficulties, now they have studies, now they have transportation, teachers, schools, meals, they have a brighter future that we could never have.
That is why I became a target, my dear Americans. I represented to them the rise of you, I was to them this brighter future where we no longer have to toil for them. I repeat, we are not socialists, if you create a company and grow thanks to the Lord's blessings, it is your right to enjoy the fruit of your sweat. But just because you are cooking the meat, doesn't mean you get to keep the barbecue, just because you own the company does not mean you must keep your workers down! The greatness of America is that we are such a wealthy and free land that any man can grow, but if we have the strong crushing the weak, if we have the few smashing the many, then we are no better than those men in jackboots who trample on freedom! Because how can you be free if you must work day and night and still struggle to feed yourself? How can you be free if you must beg for scraps because you were laid off after losing a finger on a machine? How can you be free when you are taxed to the last penny while the wealthy never get to pay their due? I fought for freedom far more than any of those who accuse me, because they speak of the freedom on papers, but I speak of the freedom of reality, I speak of the freedom which you truly need to enjoy the other freedoms! That is why they slander me day and night, that is why they use their corrupt system against me and others of my mind, that is why they attack my family and now they finally resorted to attacking with bullets!
But here I stand before you, the Common men and women of America, the people who build this country, the people who toil day and night and are finally receiving their due! I stand here to tell you that they want to turn back the clock, they want to turn back to the time where they could divide us, weaken us, enoying all their benefits and priviledges while our meager rights and liberties are crushed under Corrpution and Monopolies! But I am here to announce that I will not let them do that while I breathe! They break the law, so the law will come for them, they fight against Justice so Justice will fight back, they fight dirty but we will fight clean and show them that just like our forefathers we will not give up on our Freedom! I will run for a Third Term because the country needs me, I will sacrifice again my health, I will sacrifice my life if I must, but I will fight for you! They are weakening, they are desperate, resorting to breaking the minimum decency of respecting someone's life, this may not be the last time they try it, but I will not let fear stop me from this fight as God is my witness! Thank you for your prayers, thank you for your vigils, thank you for your support, and let us give these Tyrants the Justice they deserve!"
That was a declaration of war, the Party had just nominated Nelson Rockefeller, the peak of ironies of course, with William Knowland, a more hawkish and conservative man to balance Rockefeller, as Vice-Presidential nominee. The very idea of naming the Grandson of the founder of the Standard Oil Company showed that the war with Long took a more personal level to the Republicans as their personality had increasingly shifted towards a big-tent "Anti-Longist" coalition. The Democratic Party had suffered more than any other with Huey's defection, as Richard Russell doubled down on making the Party a defender of Southern Interests against Longist populism which threatened them so much at home, especially after the defeat in Alabama to the "Alabama Huey". There were no delusions that they could win the Presidency, rather they wished to play as Kingmakers by forcing the election into the House, where they still held sway through traditional seats that were more partisan than ideological. But a few days later, a leak to the press would shake the little optimism the Republicans had that year.
Nelson Rockefeller, the epitome of "East Coast" Republican Progressist, who had largely advocated for programs similar to Long's in an attempt to steal his voter base, would see his name indirectly linked to an assassination attempt at a sitting US President. He claimed that he was being a victim of a smear campaign by his adversary and was put on the defensive, refusing to step down to the level of attacks the White House was unleashing against him and the GOP. Meanwhile, The Democrats chose James Eastland from Missouri as their candidate, who ran his campaign on the south by setting fire to it, using the growing Civil Rights movement and speaking out of it as a threat to the Southern way of life. Both of the old "Establisment" Parties knew chances were already low of defeating Long at his peak popularity when the State machine was becoming more and more controlled by the Kingfish himself. Chances became practically null in the aftermath of the failed assassination as the hopes of a Patton Presidency rejuvenating the Establishment while the Populists destroyed one another over the succession sunk into the bayou.
The Populists held their grand rally in Louisiana, needlessly to say why, the event was an enormous and pompous display of power for the Populists, a show of unity as Huey Long appeared before the crowds on the 18th of June, showing himself stronger than ever through the help of makeup to hide his aging and the effects of the shooting. The Party was completely unanimous in it's nomination for him to a Third Term, differently from other parties which usually avoided unanimous nominations of even popular candidates. The Vice-President was a doubt that many had which was settled down when Long picked his VP: Senator Albert "Al" Gore of Tennessee, another one from the State since the failed run of Kefauver. A champion of Long's road system in the Senate and an early arrival in the Populist Party. Gore was opposed to the more segregationist Democrats, although he was not known as a fervorous supporter of Civil Rights either, a middle road that the President was comfortable with. The other Party figures each focused on their own campaigns, either for reelection or to join the Senate as was the case of Sid.
The election that year was hardly a contest, in fact it was a Long's greatest victory. His enemies were slandered, with his Republican adversary being the greatest gift he has ever received, the experienced and charismatic POTUS went to a debate on CBS against Rockefeller that took full advantage of his rival's surname, he was the epitome of the Establishment that he fought against in the eyes of the people. Sure, many still disliked Long, but they would not go as far as voting for a Rockefeller after the reveal that the man responsible for the assassination was a literal (former) employee of the Standard Oil Company. Eastland and the Democrats contested the South with Long, trying to play the game of Racial relations, but Long knew also how the southern man felt, the enemy was not the negro but the man using the negro as a distraction to skin their wealth from them. He even campaigned on the Black Community in Vicksburg, promising that they too would see the benefits they won being stripped away if an oligarch from New York or an Aristocrat from Missouri won the election while inflaming racial hatred and breaking the fragile "peace" that existed since 1948, it would be a return to the Thurmond Presidency of racial war and economic recession. He was fighting to change and keep the New America against the enemies that wanted to return to the old one. It was all made better for Long as the investigation advanced and led to a group of radical Republicans inspired by McCarthy who named themselves "Society for the Defense of Liberty". Several men, including two Congressmen, were implicated and arrested, only smearing the image of the Republicans as a "Party of Killers".
With a "Landslide" victory of over 350 electoral votes that swept from Washington to Florida, Huey Long was elected to an unprecedented Third Term with a majority of the electoral vote and a plurality of the popular vote. He had won, the shot in Chicago only ensured that nobody could question the results that year, not only that but the Populists swept in to control at least half of the House of Representatives and a plurality of the Senate. The results couldn't even be contested due to the wide margin, Long's policy and style of ruling were in some way approved and validated by the American people, his enemies tore each other off while he fought for years until the two parties began weakening. Many of the Republican lobby companies were in some way targeted by the Secretary of Commerce and the Attorney General, Rockefeller himself was under investigation over breaching the American Protection Act due to old ongoing contracts between the Standard Oil Company and the German Titan IG Farben, another act which was exposed in his campaign and helped to paint him as an Elitist traitor.
Long would have his farewell with Patton, the two went out on amicable terms for the latter's standards. George S. Patton's legacy in his short presidency is viewed positively, although many are more skeptical of how he would fare actually running a civilian government in the long-term. But as it stands it was essentially a show of Force, with Patton breaking the standard and being one of the few Heads of State to actually command troops directly in a conflict, he had escalated the low-level Korean War which has been stuck in a stalemate since 1953 with much of the East and North of the country under Communist Control while the Nationalists controlled Seoul and much of the west and southern coasts. And of course, in the most "Patton" move expected, he ordered the test of the world's most powerful nuclear device to that date, whose shockwave was felt around the world from Greenland and led to Hess demanding a nuclear device of 30 gigatons, a suggestion that was shelved for sake of human survival by Wegener after the meeting. The former General and Commander-in-Chief would retire back to California where he would write his memoirs, he also met with General MacArthur one day and the two bitter old men lamented over the fate of their country, reflecting that they should have pushed Wheeler, Hull and Thurmond to go all the way in. Patton claimed that his life's greatest regret was to not have continued the march from Siberia into Europe, reflecting just how much worse the situation was under the Reichsadler if millions of Russians, Poles, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Belarusians, Estonians, Livonians, and Caucasian groups were risking their lives and were willing to go to the frozen hell Russia was even during the Civil War.
Long would have the first Third Term inauguration Ceremony in American History, it was the largest event that the District of Columbia had seen up to that moment, alongside millions of Americans who listened to every word in Radio and actually saw on TV. It shows the improvement in the quality of life the fact that Tens of Millions were now able to watch their President speak from their homes. Long spoke about the endurance of America, claiming that the fight started in 1949 had evolved to become the greatest change the country had seen since the Civil War. A New Nation had emerged after the decade-long struggle against the elites for Social Welfare and American Values. He spoke of a new Americanism, of a traditional conservative family which was propelled upwards by the hand of the State. The State was not the enemy of freedom, rather it was the definitive expression of the people, free from the manipulations of greed and corruption. He spoke out how the Federal Reserve was broken into the new Bank of America, he spoke how large monopolies were shattered in favor of small and medium business of the common man. Using the great upsurge in religious values thanks to the Reich's attacks on Christian churches, Huey rallied both Conservatives and Progressives, calling for a united struggle of the American people, now embracing the New America, the new Freedom, against the forces of Tyranny, against the forces of hatred and paganism, if not satanism as many of the SSK's fringe occultism under Himmler had been made into a public image of what the Swastika spiritually represented. The enemies of America, both the wealthy who collaborated with these forces out of greed and manipulated the masses with divisive rhetoric, and the forces of Tyranny in Eurasia, would face a renewed and united people. All pretenses of Isolationism once held by the POTUS had been washed away, as if he had never supported the America First movement or as if he had never abandoned Britain and other American allies in the struggle against Nazism. It was as if he did not spend his political career launching his own divisive rhetoric of the masses against the wealthy.
Long's Third Term continued the trend of the second one, as his own party gained more and more influence, and with that more and more his own political machine strengthened, he began abandoning his previous compromises to intensify his pursuit of his vision of American Society. He would become more proactive in foreign policy, especially in Asia and Russia, the latter of which would become far more intense in 1958 once the Ural War started. But as of now he had to deal with the divide in America over the matter of Civil Rights, an issue intensified during the campaign by the Democratic Party throughout the South. Herman Talmadge, the Georgian governor who had just been elected in 1954 after losing his office in the 1950 election due to the Swainsboro debacle in 1948, would spark controversy as he began to challenge the Supreme Court, and by extension the President himself, over the Heatherson case.
The Issue of Racial Integration in Schools was a very sensitive subject to say the least, sure the majority of the country supported it but Long was a southerner and the Populists held a strong sway over most of the South, much of it because they were able to keep the racial rhetoric toned down in comparison to the wealth rhetoric. But the Democrats wanted to force the issue, Richard Russell and Harry F. Byrd, the two largest figures of the "Dixiecrats" that practically took over the old Democratic Party, knew that setting the south aflame with the issue of segregation was the only way to defeat Long and the Populists who gained so much popularity in the country. Ironically the voting system that overwhelmingly supported rural counties had turned against them as the Populists had become the "Farmer's Party" thanks to Huey Long and Sid McMath's agricultural benefits and modernization pushed since 1949. As such, Talmadge decided to act a little earlier than expected, although some considered it later than expected, as the University of Georgia was to receive it's first two African-American students. The National Guard was called up by the Governor and barred the students from entering due to the potential "risk of riots". Ironically this decision itself would cause a protest that began to get national traction. It was been less than a decade since the "Battle of Swainsboro" in that same State and under the same Governor, many had feared that this would lead to yet another racial war in Georgia. Others were more bold, inspired by the men such as Joshua Smith who had received the Capital Punishment as a veteran who defended his home from Klansmen, Civil Rights group began marching and that led to counter marches, all while the students continued to be barred by hundreds of soldiers in the city of Athens.
And then, on the 15th of September, just 4 days after the crisis began, the guards retreated and the students were allowed in much to the celebration of Civil Rights organizers. But the question is why, why did Governor Talmadge have such a sudden change of mind to the point of going back in humiliation, betraying his Senator and White Supremacist supporters? Some say it was a phone call, some say the call was made by Russell, or Lyndon Johnson, or Huey Long, others say it was by the FBI, others by the CIA, others by the Mafia, some say the Governor was bribed with increased funding and money into his own pocket, others say he was threatened to have funding to the state reduced or cut, others say he was threatened that Long would march the Army into Georgia and remove him from office, others say his own life was threatened. In the end it was a mixed bag, while the incident in Athens was a great victory that made a precedent to integrate other Southern Schools, it was also a demonstration of just how powerful the Federal Government became under Long, especially it's more sinister aspects. To which extent was the POTUS linked to organized crime? After all there were a few rumors that his Secretary of Labor, Jimmy "The Trucker" Hoffa, was in close contact with the Crime Families in the Midwest. Either way, the crisis was solved before there was bloodshed with the governor backing down, seemingly under the pressure of Civil Rights groups. Certainly the version for History books was cleaner than what truly happened on the night of the 14th of September 1957.
Huey was on the offensive in Congress with new measures, such as the implementation of a Federal Minimum wage of a dollar an hour, a measure some called Communist, others called just common sense that was long overdue. Some small business grumbled but the reform was seen positively as it increased the purchasing power of the Poor American. The Economy continued on a steady and optimistic growth so far, especially as the Indian Markets grew open to American Products thanks to trade agreements and a detente had been reached with the Brazilian government to distance from it's extreme policy of Autarky. Of course the European Market was still essentially closed except for CIA-backed black market schemes that ran into competition with RSHA-backed ones in Portugal. Next came the approval of his nomination for yet another Supreme Court Justice, giving him a safe supermajority which could start pushing for his own agenda in national court cases. A Law graduate, Huey knew the power that the Supreme Court could enforce through the right case and the right ruling, which is why he spent much of his government ensuring the Judiciary was friendly to his causes.
Congress, Courts, White House, State Governments, State Legislatures, nothing could stop the hold the Longists now held over the Nation, not only in the Populist Party but even Republicans and Democrats who were "convinced" by figures such as "Shark" Johnson in the Senate. His own mortality was the only thing which could possibly stop the Kingfish, who was now in his mid-sixties, which should be a relatively healthy age although it suffered from a decade of Presidential Stress and two assassination attempts. The question was if he would even stop with a Third Term, what about a Fourth one? A Fifth? When would the American people be tired of Long? Or would they ever get tired considering the type of leader he was? He was nicknamed the "American Caudillo" in an ironic way by some, but that would not be far from the style Peron was using in Argentina, a Populist man of the people who pushed for popular legislation and fought a war against the Establishment and powerful corporations, only to use the vacuum of power to place his own agenda, his own personality cult, it was a style which was imitated by others in some way across the Continent. In Cuba, Roberto Agramonte inaugurated the beginning of the rule of the "Orthodox" Party, which was greatly inspired by Long to push for Social reforms. Despite the irritation of old establishment sectors such as the ones represented by former President Fulgencio Baptista. Similarly Jacobo Arbénz in Guatemala would launch his own platform into power based around Land Reform, despite the attempted moved by the CIA to launch a coup in 1954, Long intervened to stop the agency as he had a personal interest in seeing the failure of the United Fruit Company, a known backer of the Republican Party and McCarthy in the previous election which was later targeted by the Attorney General's office over illegal business practices and heavily fined.
Long would be almost targeted by another assassination attempt when a group of armed men attempted to kill him during a visit in Miami, those men would fail to hit the target thanks to the last-minute strike by the Secret Service. They were Puerto Rican Nationalists, who wished for the independence of their Island from Washington. The President's paranoia continued to make him retaliate against enemies, using the FBI to arrest several Puerto Rican nationalists and intelectuals over suspected links to terrorist groups. But his fears were not completely unjustified as years of repression were radicalizing the American right-wing, which received a boost from the growing religious revival which was pushed a lot through Television, Televangelists such as William "Billy" Graham were winning over crowds and speaking of the need for a Christian Great Awakening in America. Long was certainly supportive of such elements, but many of them were also aligned with the American Right, which had grown restless after a decade of disaster under the Long Administration that many saw as a Fascist Takeover, with Long compared to Julius Caesar, Benito Mussolini, Robbespierre and Hitler, comparisons which did not make as much sense if one looked deep enough but that still had several similarities with the Kingfish's style of ruling. Figures such as Robert Welch Jr. began to emerge, a man who saw in horror the destruction of "Classical Liberal Values" in the Long Presidency and was deluded after the Republicans nominated Rockefeller as an attempt to compete with the Progressive vote. The so-called "Society of the Friends of Liberty" was founded in January 1958 with 20 members at first, but it soon began to explode as former McCarthyists and right-wing Republicans, alongside Democrats, began to join this group as they mirroed themselves in the "Sons of Liberty" during the American Revolution. They were not an armed group, but soon began to grow into a form to coalesce the opposition towards Long. From there they began advocating for a New Right, centered around "Americanism" and opposing "Collectivism", from where Communism, Nazism, Fascism and Longism all came from.
But so far these groups were small, not a concern to the FBI which had been weaponized into a machine of political suppression in some ways against the two main opposition Parties. The Republicans and Democrats alike began to think of a coalition, setting aside their differences in favor of a single united front against Long in the midterms and, if he ran again in 1960, in the Presidential Election. But this proposal was an absurd, especially with the volatile environment of civil rights that drove an edge between Democrats and Republicans. Many feared it could be a repeat of the Wheeler Presidency where the compromise led to the South gaining a disproportionate amount of influence over American politics that some claim led to the Long Presidency. The Republicans also had to deal with an identity crisis as they could not decide between returning to the right-wing push of MacArthur and McCarthy or continuing to invest in Rockefeller's Progressivism, especially as many in the Right had felt alienated and the party had it's greatest lost since Hoover lost to Wheeler in 1936. Meanwhile the Populists were united behind their leader, and little else.
In 1958, there were certain expectations in the Midterms that the Populists had lost momentum, Republicans and Democrats alike hoped that the pendulum could finally shift to their favor, in some places such as Indiana they would even form joint tickets for the local elections. However, as if God (or Satan depending on your political positions) wanted Huey to continue his work, Germania moved to ensure that the Progressives would have a rallying cry for this election. As the Conflict in Korea was ending, another began once millions of soldiers began to fight in the greatest war in Europe since the Treaty of Lisbon. The German attack on Russia served as another "rally around the flag", perhaps even more intense than Catholic persecution as the fears of a new war reached a level not seen since Hitler's rule. Conservatives, Liberals and Progressives alike, radicalized by a decade of "Grey Scare" against anything German, now called for a stop on the Teuton Threat, some even suggesting a war with a first strike to cripple the German Nuclear Arsenal, something the retired MacArthur agreed with. But Long was able to instead direct that to Industry, now reaching out to companies that had become more friendly, although not out of goodwill in their hearts, to Huey's cause, starting the War Machine to a level not reached since the 1940s. The largest merchant fleet of the world was now going to Vladivostock on record levels to deliver weapons, ammunition, planes, industrial machinery, food, medicine and thousands upon thousands of volunteers from recruits to veterans.
There was a certain fear that Russia would fall, especially after the Germans unleashed nuclear weapons in Perm, which provoked a wave of fear in the country that an Atomic War would soon begin. The Midterms had a turnout rate much higher than normal due to this, and while the Populists continued with their majority, there was an interesting upsurge within the three parties, especially the Republicans, of Warhawk politicians. One such example was the election of Knowland as Governor of California with Richard Nixon as Senator in that same state, which feared a return of the Pacific War days when the West Coast could be bombed by Submarines at any moment. The Republican Party would finally embrace it's right-wing that year as many of the remaining progressives either retired or decided to join the Populist ranks as right-wing warhawk figures had come to dominate the GOP. The Democrats had failed in using racial baiting due to Talmadge's humiliation in 1957 and the upsurge in a more foreign-oriented rhetoric that left much of the Dixiecrat leadership of the Party behind, although they won some seats in the south, it was not enough. Russell Long would become Governor of Louisiana as his uncle retired due to health concerns, Wallace would rise to the rank of Senator after a successful term in Alabama, Johnson was re-elected in the Senate, McMath became Senator of Arkansas and Hoffa continued in Long's cabinet.
After the Russians survived the winter, the Americans would only redouble their efforts to score a decisive win against Germania. Meanwhile, in the US the programs made by the President continued to deliver results with literacy rates at a record high in poor communities, an increase in life expectancy, and on the average income of each American Household. Larger business suffered while those at the bottom benefitted, with his programs being financed by increases in his "Share the Wealth" tax programs and through corporate taxes. However, while he enjoyed approval ratings of around 70%, his opposition was only pushed towards a greater radicalization, with many Populists fearing a strong backlash if the pendulum began to swing, but could he have stopped the Pendulum? Never before had the United States had a President like Long, one might argue that he had reshaped politics itself in America. The Long era, also called the Long reign, started with the Motto of "Every Man will be a King", perhaps Huey was more of a "King" than other Americans. As January of 1949 came, it was the first time in American History where one man has held the supreme power of the nation for a decade, with yet two more years to go if not more, certainly Huey, with his popularity and omnipresent political machinery which took control of the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary, could win another term if nothing drastic were to happen. And yet, even if one may disagree with his methods, no President has been able to have such an impactful legacy except perhaps Lincoln and Washington, but one could argue that Long exceeded them. He expanded the Federal Power and it's influence over the States and the People to levels even Lincoln did not, while he also broke Washington's own precedent on Term Limits and in the Separation of Powers. He went further than Roosevelt in crushing monopolies and great corporations, he went further than Wilson and Wheeler in providing leadership during a testing time in Geopolitics, and he went further than Jackson in crushing the Banks and the Establishment, in fact he essentially made Jackson's party into a regional force at best while Lincoln's party was reduced to a weakened opposition. It is not much of a stretch to say his critics may be right in claiming him as a Caesar, a populist beloved by the people who defeated a rival general and a famous conservative speaker, as the resemblance of MacArthur to Pompey and McCarthy to Cato was called upon, who redistributed wealth and improved the lives of the common man while amassing absolute power over himself, breaking the limits of the consensus, fighting a corrupt establishment and strongarming the legislature to pass his bills.
But unlike Caesar, Long lived, and he reflected about his near death experience in 1935, when a lawyer shot him in the Louisiana State House. In that moment he prayed for God to not take him, that he still had so much to do. He had thought that his career would have ended in the 1940s due to his previous bet in isolationism, but the post-war and the chaotic governments of Hull and Thurmond had given him a chance, and he had done much indeed. But that was not enough, he would see to it that his life was not spared a second time in vain. He saw the future of America in him, he was America, he was just as much from the people as any of the millions who marched and praised him, a young salesman who managed to get a Law Degree, fought against every odd, even death, and yet he won. There was a sense of destiny to any man who has lived and done as much as him, for over 30 years he has been in politics and he went from a complete nobody to be the most powerful and influential man of the Western World. What else did the future reserve for him? As he had said before he would say again, looking out from the Oval Office to America, his beloved America, in thought with a hand holding his cane and the other behind his back.
"I still have much to do."
Nice chapter, Long survived his assassination attempt and continued his work in making America a stronger and prosperous place. The opposition to Long is worrying, their hatred of him and his politics will most definitely lead radicalized people to commit dangerous acts. I do wonder who will succeed Huey, many are fighting for the position as heir-apparent. Would like to see more of South America (Brazil especially), Long definitely made an impact there. How is Africa doing? Keep up the good work.
Patton leading troops in Korea in person while being president is such a Patton thing to do, alongside detonating a 30 megaton bomb.
Oh God are we getting a Long 4th term? I wouldn’t be shocked if he ends up facing the same fate as FDR if he does that.
I’m assuming the next chapter is a Brazil one?
Oh God are we getting a Long 4th term? I wouldn’t be shocked if he ends up facing the same fate as FDR if he does that.
I’m assuming the next chapter is a Brazil one?
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Patton's Presidency in a nutshell:
Barges in.
Gives the finger to every single commie.
Blasts commies in Korea personally.
Drops the biggest bomb in history just to give the finger to the Krauts.
Leaves.
If that wasnt THE biggest "America F yeah!" COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF in history then I don't know who that would be.
Barges in.
Gives the finger to every single commie.
Blasts commies in Korea personally.
Drops the biggest bomb in history just to give the finger to the Krauts.
Leaves.
If that wasnt THE biggest "America F yeah!" COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF in history then I don't know who that would be.
So this is how liberty dies, to thunderous applause.
I don't care what veneer that's smeared over, the fundamental institutions of democracy in the country has been weakened, and people are too into their particular issues to give a damn.
But then, they voted for it, and so in a way they are responsible for what's to come, no matter how small a slice of said responsibility on an individual level.
I don't care what veneer that's smeared over, the fundamental institutions of democracy in the country has been weakened, and people are too into their particular issues to give a damn.
But then, they voted for it, and so in a way they are responsible for what's to come, no matter how small a slice of said responsibility on an individual level.
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