The North Star is Red: a Wallace Presidency, KMT Victory, Alternate Cold War TL
- Thread starter TastySpam
- Start date
That weapons procurement scheme is diabolical. I wonder what would happen if it were discovered.
Chapter 99 - The Fallout: Greece and Turkey (Part 10)
This update should have honestly come before the last two.
The Fallout: Turkey (Part 10)
Turkey left the Three Years as co-belligerents of the West, itself being briefly invaded, amazingly more or less fending off the Communist incursion except in the far eastern edge of the nation. All in all, the Communist regime in the East included Kars, Dogubeyazit, Van, and Nusaybin, but not much else. The ability of the Soviets to largely detach this region of Turkey was based on the fact that it had an overwhelmingly Kurdish population, which chafed under the rule of Ataturk's Republican People's Party ("CHP"), supported the Democratic Party, and then was crushed by the coup against the DP. It was also the least populated part of Turkish Kurdistan. As a result, Nationalist Turkey in 1957 would have a population of roughly 23.5 million, compared to about 1.5 million in the Communist-controlled regions. The utility of the Federal People's Republic of Turkey to the Soviet Union was almost entirely logistical - a railroad connected Kars to Nusaybin to the Arab People's Republic of Syria, which allowed them to ship war materials across the Mediterranean, to Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria.
The new President of the Turkish military junta, Cemal Gursel, was generally one of the most moderate members of the coup, seeing as that he had not actually been involved in planning the coup and was only roped in after the fact due to his widespread respect in the Turkish Army. Gursel's first move after the end of the Three Years War was to sign an agreement with the Soviet Union accepting the cease-fire in Turkey, which was widely seen in Turkish society as more or less accepting the new Communist regime in the East, seen as illegitimate by almost all sectors in Turkish society. Gursel also worked to pardon the former Presidents, which the rest of the Turkish deep state wanted executed. Finally, the last straw came when the British announced their plans to eventually annex Cyprus. This outraged Turkish nationalists, who saw a weak, vacillating leader bending to foreign pressure.
Gursel was willing to talk to the Soviet Union, up to and including a proposal to open borders between the two Turkeys in order to discuss an eventual reunification. Beria actually indicated that he would accept reunification of Turkey if the Soviet Union was still allowed to control their railway through Kurdistan, the Montreux Conventions was revised to allow Soviet ships out of the Black Sea, and allow the Communist Party to be at least legal. Gursel more or less found these terms acceptable. However, Kennedy and the rest of the American foreign service, immediately in the aftermath of the Three Years War, saw these terms as disastrous. Reaching out to many of their old contacts in Turkey, they found that this was actually a widely shared sentiment!
A second coup was launched in 1957 against the Turkish government. However, this time, it was a much bloodier affair as many elements of the army stood with the beloved Gursel, even after radical officers broke into his office and shot him dead. However, the Army was already purged in the aftermath of the first coup, as roughly a third of the generals and commissioned officers were removed from the rolls. In addition, the most radical students and workers who would have rallied against the second coup were still reeling from being crushed in the aftermath of the Soviet intervention in Turkey. The workers and students who rallied on the streets were immediately massacred and failed to ever reorganize. In the end, American weaponry and a promise that the new Turkey would be placed under an American nuclear umbrella was enough to carry the day.
The planner of the coup, Alparslan Terkes, was in fact himself a Turkish Cypriot, outraged at Gursel's "betrayal." In an inauguration speech closely shaped by American advisers, such as General Charles A. Willoughby (the highest profile MacArthur subordinate to refuse to take part in the Admiral's Coup, and thus Kennedy's immediate pick for National Security Adviser), Turkes announced the complete severance of relations with the Soviet Union and the Communist Turkish regime, including a closing of the borders. He also announced a total "abolishment of partisanship", with all the major parties, including the CHP, declared abolished and their property confiscated and distributed to new neighborhood governments, which would be formed by consolidating many of the smaller villages. This was popular among many as the CHP was seen as widely corrupt in their decades of rule and this provided a windfall for villagers, who often didn't realize their new neighborhood councils were monopolized by radical military officers and members of the new paramilitary group, formed with American backing, the Grey Wolves.
The Constitution of 1924 was reformed into the new Constitution of 1958, which vested executive power in a Leader (Basbug) who would be elected every 6 years with no term limits. The Grand National Assembly was officially declared non-partisan, with 1/4th of the seats reserved for army officers appointed by the Basbug and the other 3/4ths nominated by the local neighborhood councils. The Republic of Turkey was defined "eternally as a nationalistic, democratic, secular, scientific, social, Turanic, and organic state" that protected all kinds of liberties (religious, press, property, unionization, etc.) Unlike his teacher, Nihal Atsız, Terkes was smart enough to more or less accept Kemalism and present his idealogy as an extension of Kemalism and stayed far away from neopaganism. Europe was really unsure what to think of the new regime. The "New Turkey", despite the brutal persecution of religious minorities (mostly Christians) found its greatest supporters in Sweden-Finland, as Terkes adopted Pan-Turanist rhetoric to suggest that the Finns and Turks were "brother nations" in the struggle against Communism. Not only that, but several European intellectuals grew to praise the "New Turkey", such as Julius Evola of Italy. Thanks to close economic ties to both the United States and the EEC (through Sweden-Finland), the Turkish economy rapidly recovered from the deep depression of 1954-1957, lending credence to the regime among the common people. Unlike previous Turkish governments, Terkes actually managed to try to move Turkish politics away from being overly dependent on the military, though this was probably largely because he was just afraid of a military coup. Instead, he tried to spread out military power into several other organizations, such as his new paramilitary Grey Wolves, as well as the "Tactical Mobilisation Group", the US-backed Turkish branch of Operation Gladio, which worked together to assassinate left-wing intellectuals and other dissidents against the regime. The Army, devastated by two internal purges, was unable to resist.
The most unexpected international friend of Terkes was the anti-Communist government of Israel, which although deeply disturbed by what they believed was a virulently anti-Semitic, fascist government, figured the enemy of their enemy was their friend. In response to Israeli overtures, the ultranationalist Turkish government actually tampered down on antisemitic rhetoric, which was barely a chore for them because most Turkish Jews, fearing the new government, had already moved to Israel. Although secretly quite anti-British through covert funding of the Maoist IRA, Nationalist Turkey quickly became a mostly reliable partner to the United States. The only break was their insistence on funding and sponsoring Abd al-Wahab al-Shawaf's Arab Nationalists in the Iraqi Civil War, which the Americans, backing the Iraqi Islamists, largely accepted because the Iraqi Nationalists had a larger border with the Iraqi Communists than they had with the Iraqi Islamists. Although Terkes declared himself a devout Muslim, his reign was a very dark period for most Muslim clerics in Turkey. In a bid to establish a "Positive Islam" (a distinct reference to the Nazi Positive Christianity), the Turkish government brutally persecuted traditionalist and orthodox Muslims, pushing a new form of "authentically Turkish" Islam that sought to claw back more modern developments and return Turkish Islam back to the period when it was heavily influenced by Turkish Tengriism. Dervishes and Sufis were welcomed back into Turkey and celebrated as "national shamans." Many Islamists were deeply alienated by the regime, though some others chose cooperation.
The Fallout: Turkey (Part 10)
The new President of the Turkish military junta, Cemal Gursel, was generally one of the most moderate members of the coup, seeing as that he had not actually been involved in planning the coup and was only roped in after the fact due to his widespread respect in the Turkish Army. Gursel's first move after the end of the Three Years War was to sign an agreement with the Soviet Union accepting the cease-fire in Turkey, which was widely seen in Turkish society as more or less accepting the new Communist regime in the East, seen as illegitimate by almost all sectors in Turkish society. Gursel also worked to pardon the former Presidents, which the rest of the Turkish deep state wanted executed. Finally, the last straw came when the British announced their plans to eventually annex Cyprus. This outraged Turkish nationalists, who saw a weak, vacillating leader bending to foreign pressure.
Gursel was willing to talk to the Soviet Union, up to and including a proposal to open borders between the two Turkeys in order to discuss an eventual reunification. Beria actually indicated that he would accept reunification of Turkey if the Soviet Union was still allowed to control their railway through Kurdistan, the Montreux Conventions was revised to allow Soviet ships out of the Black Sea, and allow the Communist Party to be at least legal. Gursel more or less found these terms acceptable. However, Kennedy and the rest of the American foreign service, immediately in the aftermath of the Three Years War, saw these terms as disastrous. Reaching out to many of their old contacts in Turkey, they found that this was actually a widely shared sentiment!
A second coup was launched in 1957 against the Turkish government. However, this time, it was a much bloodier affair as many elements of the army stood with the beloved Gursel, even after radical officers broke into his office and shot him dead. However, the Army was already purged in the aftermath of the first coup, as roughly a third of the generals and commissioned officers were removed from the rolls. In addition, the most radical students and workers who would have rallied against the second coup were still reeling from being crushed in the aftermath of the Soviet intervention in Turkey. The workers and students who rallied on the streets were immediately massacred and failed to ever reorganize. In the end, American weaponry and a promise that the new Turkey would be placed under an American nuclear umbrella was enough to carry the day.
The planner of the coup, Alparslan Terkes, was in fact himself a Turkish Cypriot, outraged at Gursel's "betrayal." In an inauguration speech closely shaped by American advisers, such as General Charles A. Willoughby (the highest profile MacArthur subordinate to refuse to take part in the Admiral's Coup, and thus Kennedy's immediate pick for National Security Adviser), Turkes announced the complete severance of relations with the Soviet Union and the Communist Turkish regime, including a closing of the borders. He also announced a total "abolishment of partisanship", with all the major parties, including the CHP, declared abolished and their property confiscated and distributed to new neighborhood governments, which would be formed by consolidating many of the smaller villages. This was popular among many as the CHP was seen as widely corrupt in their decades of rule and this provided a windfall for villagers, who often didn't realize their new neighborhood councils were monopolized by radical military officers and members of the new paramilitary group, formed with American backing, the Grey Wolves.
The Constitution of 1924 was reformed into the new Constitution of 1958, which vested executive power in a Leader (Basbug) who would be elected every 6 years with no term limits. The Grand National Assembly was officially declared non-partisan, with 1/4th of the seats reserved for army officers appointed by the Basbug and the other 3/4ths nominated by the local neighborhood councils. The Republic of Turkey was defined "eternally as a nationalistic, democratic, secular, scientific, social, Turanic, and organic state" that protected all kinds of liberties (religious, press, property, unionization, etc.) Unlike his teacher, Nihal Atsız, Terkes was smart enough to more or less accept Kemalism and present his idealogy as an extension of Kemalism and stayed far away from neopaganism. Europe was really unsure what to think of the new regime. The "New Turkey", despite the brutal persecution of religious minorities (mostly Christians) found its greatest supporters in Sweden-Finland, as Terkes adopted Pan-Turanist rhetoric to suggest that the Finns and Turks were "brother nations" in the struggle against Communism. Not only that, but several European intellectuals grew to praise the "New Turkey", such as Julius Evola of Italy. Thanks to close economic ties to both the United States and the EEC (through Sweden-Finland), the Turkish economy rapidly recovered from the deep depression of 1954-1957, lending credence to the regime among the common people. Unlike previous Turkish governments, Terkes actually managed to try to move Turkish politics away from being overly dependent on the military, though this was probably largely because he was just afraid of a military coup. Instead, he tried to spread out military power into several other organizations, such as his new paramilitary Grey Wolves, as well as the "Tactical Mobilisation Group", the US-backed Turkish branch of Operation Gladio, which worked together to assassinate left-wing intellectuals and other dissidents against the regime. The Army, devastated by two internal purges, was unable to resist.
The most unexpected international friend of Terkes was the anti-Communist government of Israel, which although deeply disturbed by what they believed was a virulently anti-Semitic, fascist government, figured the enemy of their enemy was their friend. In response to Israeli overtures, the ultranationalist Turkish government actually tampered down on antisemitic rhetoric, which was barely a chore for them because most Turkish Jews, fearing the new government, had already moved to Israel. Although secretly quite anti-British through covert funding of the Maoist IRA, Nationalist Turkey quickly became a mostly reliable partner to the United States. The only break was their insistence on funding and sponsoring Abd al-Wahab al-Shawaf's Arab Nationalists in the Iraqi Civil War, which the Americans, backing the Iraqi Islamists, largely accepted because the Iraqi Nationalists had a larger border with the Iraqi Communists than they had with the Iraqi Islamists. Although Terkes declared himself a devout Muslim, his reign was a very dark period for most Muslim clerics in Turkey. In a bid to establish a "Positive Islam" (a distinct reference to the Nazi Positive Christianity), the Turkish government brutally persecuted traditionalist and orthodox Muslims, pushing a new form of "authentically Turkish" Islam that sought to claw back more modern developments and return Turkish Islam back to the period when it was heavily influenced by Turkish Tengriism. Dervishes and Sufis were welcomed back into Turkey and celebrated as "national shamans." Many Islamists were deeply alienated by the regime, though some others chose cooperation.
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Chapter 100 - The Great Escape
The Great Escape
The incident that mesmerized the entire United States was nothing at home, but actually something that developed abroad. The story begins in 1955 in Torrance, California, where an introverted 15 year-old boy, with an alcoholic father in the middle of a divorce, was so horrified on the news by stories of Soviet atrocities in Yugoslavia, that he left home, immediately went to the nearest recruiting station, lied about his age, and was immediately accepted into the Air Force, being eventually assigned as an Air Policemen. Sent to South Korea, the boy became deeply concerned and disgusted by orders given to the American policemen to help Rhee's forces beat and attack protesters. However, deeply religious, he remained staunchly opposed to Communism. During his off-time, he picked up Tang Soo Doo - the Korean karate-style martial art, which he trained extensively in, building up his physical prowess.
During the North Chinese invasion of South Korea, the American garrison, including almost the entire Air Force as led by Curtis LeMay, was captured or destroyed on the ground. Luckily for the young man, the Air Force personnel would be placed not in the customary POW camp, Fushun (where American POWs would mostly die from nuclear fallout), but rather on the outskirts of Tonghua, near the Korean border. The Air Force would remain there, as it was the official stance of the American government that the last of American POWs had been returned to the United States even though this was widely known not to be true. General Secretary Beria had given orders to the North Chinese government to continue holding American POWs as a hostage. They were actually mostly organized not to do hard industrial labor, but to do agricultural work in what was essentially a mix of a POW camp and a collective farm.
In captivity, General Curtis LeMay had spent the years organizing judo training among all of the POWs as more or less a recreational activity. General LeMay was delighted that there was a private who had spent all his years in Korea learning about Korean martial arts - and immediately made the young man his assistant in this process. Many North Chinese guards, remarkably bored in their new position, entertained themselves by teaching the soldiers Kung Fu. In late 1959, during the peak of what would be called the Great Leap Forward, the POWs feared brutal reprisals but it actually appeared that the guards became nicer, because the American POW camp was actually unusually agriculturally productive (much to the delight of the guards!)
However, one day, it was deemed by the Soviet Union that the guards were not politically reliable enough, so all of the North Chinese guards would be rotated out, replaced instead with NKVD men under the direct control of Laventry Beria. The new guards were far more brutal and ideological - the North Chinese guards were typically just apolitical peasants and the more political North Chinese administrators were under the false impression that Beria cared deeply about the lives of the POWs, so they were treated fairly lightly. The new guards would spark one of the most dramatic incidents of the Cold War.
When one American POW had the gall to cite the Geneva Conventions to an NKVD man, he was severely beaten and left to die in the frigid snow. This sparked an uprising when the young private, the 19-year old Carlos Ray Norris, defended LeMay by running up and roundhouse kicking three NKVD men in the face. American soldiers quickly attacked their captors, usually by beating them up, stealing weapons, and turning it against them. The NKVD quickly called for reinforcements, but the North Chinese, less than properly motivated, were fairly slow to assist. This allowed the American POWs to seize control of the entire camp, imprison most of the NKVD men (some were shot to death in the confrontation, but most were just beaten up), and organize something even more dramatic. Hauling all of the trucks and jeeps available (most of Soviet make), the Americans basically stole the uniforms of the NKVD, and decided to make a break for it.
Driving across North China, they largely just pretended to be Soviets on a "deep and important secret mission", relying on the inability of the North Chinese to tell the difference between Americans and Soviets. By the time the orders had gotten on that there were escaped POWs masquerading as Soviets, the Americans had already reached the port city of Dandong, traded all of their weapons/trucks to enterprising locals in exchange for fishing boats, and sailed onto the sea. By the time that the authorities had found out that they had escaped into the sea, the POWs had already sailed into ROC waters and been picked up by the ROC Coast Guard.
The incident sparked outrage in America, as the public blamed the American government for "abandoning" American POWs, putting a dent in JFK's popularity just in time for the 1960 elections, but also celebration, as the POWs, chiefly Admiral Curtis LeMay and his martial arts assistant, Carlos Ray "Chuck" Norris became national heroes. Their return to the United States also sparked a tremendous explosion in interest towards martial arts. A craze swept America as almost every American high school began offering martial arts courses, which quickly gained official support from Chiang Kai-Shek's China. LeMay returned to service, though Norris would leave the army, deciding instead to further spread martial arts in the United States.
In foreign affairs, the incident would further dim General Secretary Beria's opinion of North China, as the Soviet Union now faced almost universal condemnation from the West, something that only happened because of what he saw as unbelievable North Chinese incompetence. As a result, he began quietly began revising his strategy with regards to Republican China...
Bookmark1995
Banned
Whatever you may think of Curtis LeMay, you have to give him credit for maintaining his cool in a scary situation.
It is quite a hilarious irony that the most productive place in Red China was the place where imprisoned Americans were tilling the soil.
Truth is, it is one thing to bash commies from the safety of the US. It is another thing to stand up to the real deal. TTL, Chuck Norris has earned his place as the quintessential American badass.
This is basically the American version of the Long March.
I can imagine quite a few Maoists having a good deal of respect for Americans being able to escape the most scary police force in the world.
One the one hand, we might see some awesome martial arts movies.
On the other hand, Mt. Beria is about to erupt again. Evacuate...all of Europe immediately.
AeroTheZealousOne
Monthly Donor
Chuck Norris is probably going to have even more memes and facts about him ITTL. I'd come up with one but I'm not feeling overly creative today, unfortunately.
Bookmark1995
Banned
Let me think...
*
NAZIS FEAR COMMIES
COMMIES FEAR CHUCK
*
CAPTAIN AMERICA...
AIN'T GOT SHIT ON CHUCK
*
HIDE YOUR KIDS, HIDE YOUR WIFE
CAUSE CHUCK IS...GOING FOR A WALK!
*
HOW TO DEFEAT THE COMMIES?
TELL'EM CHUCK IS COMING TO YOUR COLLECTIVE FARM
*
COLLECTIVIZE THIS
*
FIRST CAME MARX
THEN CAME LENIN
THEN CAME...CHUCK!
Bookmark1995
Banned
Any time America sticks it in his craw will always make you smile, considering what a smug bastard he really is.
Chuck Norris: Greetings General Secretary Beria, Lady Liberty sends her regards! *proceeds to beat Lavrenti Beria to death*
He's actually a great subversion of the ultra-rational unemotional genius archetype, because the moment people start acting out of principle, like in Iraq, or just boredom, like the North Chinese guards teaching the prisoners kung fu to pass the time, his schemes collapse.
Bookmark1995
Banned
So, a version of the trope "Evil Cannot Comprehend Good?" He sees other human beings as objects, and thus he can't plan for when people don't behave like that?
