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Hello Im Misterxyzerpek a great fan of Alternate History. Since amazon just release the second Season of the Man in the High castle I decided to write the first part of a Timeline taking place in this universe. Comments are appreciated.

America in the 1930´s

The assassination of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt by Guiseppe “Joe” Zangara on February 15th 1933 in Miami was a tragedy that hit the country at the worst possible moment. Not only did the United States loose a newly elected President who set a new sad record for the shortest time period a president spent in office, but Anton Cermak, the energetic crime fighting mayor of Chicago as well. While Zangara died a gruesome death on the electric chair just five weeks later, he boasted a claim few people in history can decorate themselves with: “I kill kings and presidents and all you capitalist are next.”

Some historians have argued that Zangaras assassination of Roosevelt might have been as influential on the course of world history as the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip 19 years prior, however this is most certainly not true. Roosevelt would have faced the same problems as his Vice President John Nance Garner, who was inaugurated on March 20th 1933 and it is unclear if he would have fared better against the dire circumstances the Great Depression had created in the United States.

By the time Garner became President, some 13 million Americans were unemployed, a number 10 times greater than it had been in 1928 before the onset of the crisis. To counter this development Garner formulated “The good old Days Plan” which soon many American would just call “The Gold Plan”. The two main pillars of the plan were a balanced federal budget and no deficit spending. Garner believed that the more debt the US accumulated the worse the economy would get. If on the other hand the United States could stabilise its expenditure for just a few years, the crisis would pass and unemployment would decrease. To achieve his goal Garner increased the taxes on the rich and in what many historians consider to be the greatest mistake of his presidency, massively reduced military spending. As an isolationist Garner believed that the US should not meddle into foreign conflicts and that the protection of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans were perfectly sufficient; therefore he reasoned that the United States needed only a minimal Army, Navy and Air Force. US War Department Expenditures which in 1932 had stood at 250 million Dollars were reduced to 210 million in 1933, 150 million in 1934 and stabilized at 120 million in 1935.

Besides the reduction in military spending, Garner started a campaign to sell military equipment to other countries. During the years 1933-1936 the US sold over 400 aircraft and more than two dozen capital ships to foreign countries, earning an additional 140 million Dollars.

While Garners policies were less effective then the President had hoped, the number of unemployed begun to decrease at the end of 1933 and shortly before the Presidential election of 1936 had went below the 11 million mark. Within 3.5 years the Presidents policies had led some 2 million people out of the misery of unemployment. With such results behind him the President easily won against his Republican challenger Alf Landon, fulfilling Garners slogan: “My job isn´t done yet. Four more Garner is better than this farmer (Landon)”! The President couldn’t enjoy his victory for long though. Just 8 months after his re-election the Japanese Empire invaded China leading to an international crisis. For the first time during his presidency Garner feared for the security of the United States and realized that by neglecting the military he might have seriously imperilled the existence of the United States. (Ironically by reducing the military the President had imperilled his own existence as well. He narrowly survived a grievous injury he received during the fighting around Uvalde in 1946 and died one year later on November 7th 1947.)

The same Garner that had opposed the planned expansion of the Navy and had blocked the Vinson-Trammell Act in 1934 and the Naval Act of 1936, now passed the so called Naval Act of 1938 which envisioned to modernize and increase the size of the US Navy. However the Presidents first attempt to enlarge one branch of the military was put to a halt by the Recession of 1937 which started in the summer of 1937 and was not over until the end of 1938. During this time period industrial output declined by some 20% and the number of unemployed which had stood at 10.5 million in mid 1937 had once again reached almost 13 million in late 1938. Realising the vulnerability of the US, President Garner pushed the 1937 and 1938 Neutrality acts which practically forbade any American interaction with belligerent nations. He hoped that these actions would ensure that the United States would not be sucked into another conflict as it had been during World War I. This decision made during a period of Garners rule which historians now call the “Garner Panic” is considered to be the only sound policy made by the President during his second term (besides pushing the Naval Act of 1938). In early 1939 the US was in absolutely no position to enter any kind of armed conflict. Due to Garners budget cuts both the Army and Navy had less than 100 000 personnel at their disposal, the Air force consisted of 8000 men with less than 400 machines.

US industry which by 1937 had partially recovered from the Great Depression was thrown back to the level of 1932 due to the Depression of 1937/38. In the entire country there were less than two dozen factories that produced military equipment and just 8 naval construction docks that constructed military vessels. With unemployment back to its 1933 levels a nonexistent military industry and war threatening the US from both Europe and Asia it is no surprise that Garner lost the Presidential race against John William Bricker in 1940. The Republican Bricker, while an isolationist as well was still more competent than Garner and clearly saw the threat the United States faced from Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany. As such Bricker introduced compulsory conscription in June 1941 and pushed the Two-Ocean Navy Act which was enacted on July 19th 1941. At the same time Bricker adopted a succession of increasingly restrictive trade restrictions with Japan. When asked by a journalist if this wasn’t a violation of his Isolationist view the President replied: “It is not intervention into a foreign conflict if we decide with whom to trade”. While Bricker believed that these actions would deter Japan from further aggressions, they achieved the exact opposite. The embargo of scrap Iron and copper robbed Japan of 74% and 93% of its supplies of these materials yet it was Brickers decision to enact a fuel and gasoline embargo on August 1st that pushed the Japanese on a path to war. When they attacked Pearl Harbour on December 7th 1941 the United States were in no better position to wage war than in 1939. When comparing the size of the US Navy and the Japanese Navy this becomes more than clear:


Japanese and American ships in December 1941 total


Battleships 10/11

Aircraft carriers 10/5

Heavy cruisers 18/12

Light Cruisers 18/13

Destroyers 113/90

Submarines 63/70


Yet the Americans had to split their Navy between two Oceans, while the Japanese had the luxury to concentrate their fleet in one. When comparing the size of the US Pacific Fleet with the Imperial Japanese Navy the picture becomes even more bleak

Japanese and American ships in the Pacific December 1941


Battleships 10/6

Aircraft carriers 10/3

Heavy cruisers 18/6

Light Cruisers 18/7

Destroyers 113/50

Submarines 63/45


These however were the force levels before Pearl Harbour……
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