The Bigger they are...
4 March 1929
It was a crisp March Afternoon. President Smith's inauguration had been going smoothly. The Secret Service had been making sure nothing much was happening. His predecessor had managed to improve American Infrastructure and achieve good relations with Russia and Central America. It seemed like the Sun had risen on the United States.
But President Butler was worried. He was worried about relations with Japan since the annexation of Manchuria in 1928. Because of Japan's proximity to the philippines, Butler had given Smith instructions in a letter which was on the president's desk. This would remain classified to the present day.
Another worry was the economy. In spite of there being a safety net, wall Street was still pretty much a gambling den, and no-one knew what would happen if the economy were to falter. The crash came on 8 August 1929, otherwise known as Black Thursday. This sent ripples across America with people becomign bankrupt overnight. It did not help that Gustav Stresemann, the renowned German economist, was murdered by KPD terrorists the month before the crash.
In America, Smith set to work restoring the economy with various stimuli and works projects, including industrialising the South, which had led to some opposition.
In Germany, the Nazi Party, who had been setting up their infrastructure across years in planning, made massive gains in the elections, with 25% in the reichstag by 1931 in response to failures by the weimar government to handle the crisis, and t. By 1932, Hitler had become Chancellor of Germany. This was bad news for Russia, who were in a terrible economic State. The news of Russia's economy imploding and Adolf Hitler's election forced Alexei into drastic measures, including rearmament.