The North Star is Red: a Wallace Presidency, KMT Victory, Alternate Cold War TL
- Thread starter TastySpam
- Start date
Yes, ironically makes Italy more left-wing because all the antimonarchists vote left, while the monarchists vote based on their economic views (richer ones mostly right, poorer ones mostly left). For all intents and purposes, Italy is run by a coalition of left-wing Christian Democrats, Socialists, and Titoists.
Well it is nice to know Italy's political situation is weird as much as OTL. Some things never change i guess
AeroTheZealousOne
Monthly Donor
The 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is a maximum of two terms (or a maximum of ten years otherwise) unless it's longer ITTL, so JFK would be ineligible to run in '64 and in all subsequent elections.
For reference:
---The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution said:
Not as dark as how Stockholm, Mukden, and Sarajevo have ended up, though the last one was an omnicidal firebombing rather than a massive atomic blast.
Not as messy as the Republican Party of 1960, but a mess nonetheless considering how badly the Tito-Stalin Split went ITTL.
At this stage, I don't think JFK really cares about the Constitution. Especially considering he could make an amendment with his numbers in the House and Senate, how the public would take it, is another matter though.
It's actually a narrower political coalition than the first De Gasperi government, which included all of Christian Democracy, the Socialists, AND all of the Communists. This is kind of the same thing, except they've lost the right-wing of Christian Democracy, the liberal parties, and the Stalinist-Communists.
JFK probably won't be going for a third term. For one, his numbers in the House and Senate, while having decent majorities, aren't 2/3rds decent. I forgot what they were last time, but they're probably something near 60%, not near 70%. The opposition is horrifically ideologically mangled, but they'd all vote that down. He certainly acts often in an authoritarian fashion to get his agenda through, but he doesn't really harbor dictatorial intentions (hasn't done anything like court-packing or anything). Really no reason for him to stick around when he can pass the baton to a like-minded protege (he also has politically ambitious brothers).
A lot of creeping authoritarianism isn't even JFK himself; it's just the American administrative state, law enforcement, intelligence community, etc. etc. all acting autonomously out of fear of Communism/the USSR. He's really just not reining them in very much because he's busier with other things.
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I actually think this is much worse than the Tsar Bomba.
Stockholm is more symbolic. But at least it was quick for everyone there.
Having an entire city of people burned alive, suffocated and with no way out is far more cruel.
AeroTheZealousOne
Monthly Donor
What the Tsar Bomba did for Sverige, the apocalyptic firestorm did for Jugoslavija. The national spirits of the people of the two countries, as well as the countries themselves, are irreversibly changes forever by these events. Both were cruel and merciless in their own ways. What Olof Palme and many thousands of others had was the "luxury" of a quick and painless death, but the fact that hundreds of thousands of people, if not taken by the fallout poisoning, are all now future cancer patients is cruel in and of itself. Tito, many influential Yugoslav communists, the people of Sarajevo, and the countless refugees from across the region had no such accomodations. Immolation and asphyxiation aren't good ways to go. (Then again, neither is radiation sickness, but I'm not trying to equate or minimize the effects of one or the other.)
All I can really say is that both events have earned Beria a spot in Hell (if he hasn't already had one reserved for all the other nasty stuff he did), and that not all men are cremated equal.
Speaking of Yugoslavia, @TastySpam, another nitpick on my part: The nation was not known as the Socialist Federal Republic until the signing of the 1963 Constitution IOTL. Beforehand, the formal name of the country was the "Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia". More for the sake of historical accuracy than anything else.
Chapter 128 - Anschluss, Electric Boogaloo
Caught and fixed. Thanks.
Anschluss, Electric Boogaloo
The ultimate status of Austria was still to be decided when the Warsaw Pact invaded Yugoslavia. Languishing under occupation of the four powers, Austria was famously dragged into the war when Yugoslav troops invaded East Austria in an attempt to escalate what would become the Three Years War. By the end of the war, the notion that West and Soviet Union would reach a concordat over Austria dropped from low to non-existent. Most judged reunification to be impossible anyways after the Soviets triumphed over President Wallace during the Vienna Blockade, which forced the Western Allies to evacuate West Vienna. Yugoslav forces were eventually chased out of East Austria by East German and Czech troops and at the conclusion of the war in 1957, East Austria was more under Czecho-East German occupation than Soviet occupation.
The Soviets, taking an inspiration from history, had an idea. In 1950, the Soviet Union was humiliated by Winston Churchill when he masterminded the unification of the Federal Kingdom of Germany, which allowed the Western powers to claim to Germany that they were the true saviors of German nationalism and nationhood. This severely harmed the popularity of Berlin government. Beria had generally viewed the occupation zone in East Germany as a pawn, but now he was ready to use it an offensive ideological war against West Germany. Taking upon the ethos of German nationalism himself, Beria strong-armed the SED of East Germany to announce the ascension of East Austria (comprising of Vienna, Lower Austria, and Burgenland) into East Germany, a very strange set of affairs as the two did not actually border each other. The Western nations condemned this as "Anschluss 2.0" and a violation of the Potsdam Agreement, but the Soviets shot back saying that Churchill had shredded Potsdam in 1950. A rather odd appreciation of East Germany actually emerged among several far-right radicals in West Germany (those that thought the militarist government in Hanover was too liberal), especially as East German propaganda often condemned the July 20th plotters as traitors (for the sole reason that several military officers involved in the 1957 West German coup were involved in the July 20th plot) using some rather convoluted Marxist accelerationist reasoning that worked fine with Communist cadres, but not many Westerners. Ironically, the Stasi was able to establish close relationships with violent West German neo-nazis, though this was largely though the Stasi could inflict chaos and embarrassment in West Germany (they were still called fascists by Berlin).
France, the United Kingdom, and the United States quickly agreed on the creation of an independent Austria, an endeavor endorsed by West Germany. Although many officials in West Germany in theory might be friendly to the idea of Austrian ascension, it was viewed as very diplomatically aggressive and they were primarily focused on anti-communism. Moreover, most of these right-wing authoritarian Germans had actually been enticed by the promise of Pan-Europeanism, which before World War II was an idea that almost entirely existed on the political right (especially the Catholic Right). However, the first elections for the Republic of Austria in 1957 elected a parliament that even shocked West Germany in the sheer degree of its reactionary nature. Unlike West Germany, which was just a copycat of Britain, Austria adopted its own parliamentary model - proportional representation with a 15% threshold in hopes of chasing out the Communists. Most devastatingly, the 15% threshold was applied to all six states of Austria. In the aftermath of the bombing of Stockholm, anti-communist sentiment was so incredibly strong, the Communists (not illegalized) failed to make the threshold in any state. Most devastatingly, due to a splinter in the Social Democrats based on their stance towards the Americans (the mainstream Social Democrats were forced to take an oath of opposing the USSR and supporting West Germany, causing some to leave in outrage), the Social Democrats failed to make the threshold in 5/6 of the states (they made it in Carinthia).
The first Austrian parliament was dominated by right and more right. The largest party by far was the Austrian People's Party under Julius Raab. However, having also surged was the Federation of Independents under Gordon Gollob, a Luftwaffe Ace from World War II who gained further fame by volunteering during the Yugoslav War. Finally, with American support, Franz Olah had seized control of the Social Democratic Party. Olah and Gollob actually planned on governing together, forcing Raab's hands. The OVP, fearing that both Olah and Gollob had Pan-Germanist sympathies and that putting a former Luftwaffe captain in charge would jeopardize Austria's independent identity, took a very drastic step. Most of the Constitution still had to be drafted and as a result, Raab decided to recruit a former associate of his who 1) fiercely opposed Pan-Germanism, 2) could no longer be vetoed by the Soviets, and 3) was not involved in contentious and often corrupt postwar politics. A phone call was made to an American academic - and he flew over to Graz immediately. Kurt Schuschnigg was back. Elected as Chancellor of Austria by all three major parties, Schuschnigg was more conservative than the Americans had even expected (largely because they confused the two old Catholic German prewar politicians, the late Konrad Adenauer and Schuschnigg, despite their many differences).
Schuschnigg legitimated his new rule by calling upon an old friend who had cooperated with him against the Nazis - a man who would crystalize Austria's independent identity. Otto von Habsburg immediately arrived in Graz, where the Diet proclaimed him the newly recrowned Emperor of Austria. Schuschnigg was always sympathethic to the Habsburgs, but didn't dare crown them because that would presumably violate Versailles. Now, Versailles no longer mattered and the Western Allies would approve as long as he spun this as "outreach" to Hungary and fiercely repudiated all Austrian claims to any other territory (which both Schuschnigg and Otto did). France in particular supported this, because the new Otto II had a reptuation of being a fierce European federalist. In practice, not much actually changed because the Austrian Emperor was fairly powerless and spent most of his time publicly advocating for European integration - the Red-White-Red flag was retained to further emphasize Austria's rejection of revanchism.
There was however a vague hope that pro-Western Revolutionary Hungarian government might also crown Otto von Habsburg, especially because József Mindszenty, the leader of the Catholic Church in Hungary was actually a monarchist. The Hungarian People's Republic under Pal Demeter passed a symbolic resolution declaring "King Otto I of Hungary" as a "symbol of the state", without actually becoming a Kingdom or even shedding its official name. Ironically, whereas Horthos Miklos was the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary, which explicitly barred Otto's father Karl I from trying to retake his throne (a kingdom without a monarch). Now, Otto was a king without a kingdom. Regardless, it held symbolic value, especially as Austria immediately and openly applied for NATO membership, while Hungary signed a corollary with NATO, very similar to Yugoslavia.
@TastySpam Just nitpicking on Germany I'm just wondering what is the capital of West Germany, in chapter 77 "Murder on the Occidental (German) Express" it seems like Bonn is the capital of West Germany as it's the center of the military coup. But in the latest chapter it seems Hanover is the capital, because of Churchill's deal.
AeroTheZealousOne
Monthly Donor
No problem! Between you and me I always feel out of place pointing inaccuracies out and such, but in light of the recent mass of retcons I thought it couldn't hurt too much.
I love the hijinks that are continuing and if this timeline had a TV Tropes page, a very large section of it would be examples of the irony in this timeline, something I can't help but appreciate quite a bit.
Good catch - I just changed it! Thanks.
There's some kind of writer who hates corrections, but I'm pretty careless and now there was a retcon, so I'm pretty appreciate of them.
lol, I doing so well hiding my secret jealousy of every TL with a TvTropes page.
I feel bad about pointing out issues with this amazing timeline, but their are a few issues with the 1960 elections chapter. In the fourth paragraph it mentions Truman about desegregation when it should be Wallace, in the last paragraph I think it mentions Dewy for the 1948 Republican nominee. And I think somewhere it says that Thurmond won all the states back in 1948 for Smith in 1960, but the retcon showed Thurmond won more states in 1948.
But other than that, keep up with the work, it's become my all time favorite timeline.
But other than that, keep up with the work, it's become my all time favorite timeline.
I think this summarizes most of it. https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...nate-cold-war-tl.461766/page-62#post-19907256
Chapter 129 - Stalin's (Ex-)Nazi Children
Stalin's (Ex-)Nazi Children
Joseph Stalin, also seeking to extinguish Germany as a geopolitical threat to the Soviet Union by ending it as an independent nation, was not personally opposed to working with Nazis (obviously, as seen by the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact), let alone ex-Nazis. Stalin overruled many other Soviet diplomats and officials, including almost all of the East German Communists, in pushing for the creation of the National Democratic Party, a vehicle for ex-Nazis to be tightly controlled by Stalinist-aligned Secret Police. The NPD leadership was largely comprised of former members of the National Committee for a Free Germany, Wehrmacht and SS defectors during the Great Patriotic War, some of who truly converted to Communism...some who just saw where the wind was blowing. The most prominent member of this group was Friedrich Paulus, the German Field Marshall who surrendered the Sixth Army during the Battle of Stalingrad (he died of old age during the Three Years War).
Under Stalin's pressure, Prussosaxon (later East German) authorities set up the National Democratic Party, a vehicle for other Wehrmacht and SS veterans in hopes that they could be co-opted by the Communist State. They remained a loyal appendage of the Socialist Unity Party ("SED") for several years, adopting essentially doctrinaire Marxist-Leninist principles, agreeing with the government on everything. However, Heinrich Rau, placed into power by Beria after he pushed the SED to hound its hardliners from government (namely both Ulbricht and Honecker), significantly opened up East Germany, both politically and economically. Berlin Spring was in many ways the brainchild of Beria. However, when Rau died in 1961, there was a widespread fear now that like in Hungary, the Berlin Spring would spiral out of control. Beria's hounding of hardliners left him with almost no allies in East Germany. No ally except one.
The members of the National Democratic Party still revered Joseph Stalin, and there was a rather suspicious reverence that emerged from those who were once the least Communistic after Joseph Stalin's persecution of Soviet Jews. The NKVD still had tight control of the NPD and a result, the most slavishly loyal Soviet puppets in East Germany...were ex-Nazis/ex-Wehrmacht members. These Soviet allies also dominated the officer ranks of the National People's Army (NVA) simply because they were the East Germans with military experience - most of them served quite competently in the Three Years War, with East German troops quickly taking back East Austria from Yugoslav troops.
With the NKVD ferociously spreading rumors of a possible NVA coup (or in some cases, just outright threatening it) unless the SED further "liberalized" and selected a leader from outside of the SED (but within the National Front, the SED-puppet parties), a rudderless SED eventually relented. Eventually, Wilhelm Adam, a Stalingrad veteran, co-founder of the Committee for a Free Germany, and Minister of Saxony (whereupon he had implemented most of Rau's economic reforms), was selected to replace Rau. Ironically, the domestic repercussions were not significant. Although presenting himself as a "post-Communist, anti-Hitlerian nationalist", Adam was in fact a loyal Communist who followed NKVD orders and largely governed exactly the way Beria wanted him to - the exact same Rau had been governing. A veneer of liberalization, surrounding a harsh Stasi/NKVD fist.
However, the diplomatic repercussions were significant. First, Adam immediately was celebrated by Otto Remer, the West German neo-Nazi who famously helped foil the July 20th Plot against Hitler. Remer and his Socialist Reich Party was always covertly funded by the Stasi to embarrass West Germany - now he was seen by West Germany as an actual Soviet agent, causing the West German government (heavily influenced by a clique of radical right-wing but not neo-Nazi Wehrmacht officers who had often actually supported the July 20th Plot, chiefly among them Hans Speidel) to outlaw the Socialist Reich Party and attempt to arrest all of their members. Remer escaped arrest, with his members going underground to resist the West German government through urban guerrilla warfare, such as car bombings and kidnapping. East Germany obviously disavowed Remer, though the Stasi did give him all of the bombs and intel he needed. As a result, 1960's West Germany would be more or less gripped by fears of neo-Nazi bombings as West German security forces (ironically also staffed sometimes by ex-Nazis) battled neo-Nazi terrorists.
In addition, the rise of Adam was widely seen in the Middle East as Beria riding to the rescue of the Syrians, since many observers dubiously assumed everyone who annoyed Israel was an ally of Syria. Those observers included actual Nazis, such as Omar Amin, who was known as Johann von Leers when he served under Goebbels before he converted to Islam and moved to Syria to work for Tlass. Stasi agents operating in Syria further allowed the triumphant Tlass to outmaneuver and sideline al-Bizri, as Tlass himself was declared President soon after by a nearly unanimously vote in the Syrian "parliament." Otto von Skorzeny, now unemployed after the end of the Indonesia War (he had fought against the Communists), deployed his men to the Middle East to fight for the Syrians. Ironically, despite receiving plenty of Soviet and East German arms, Skorzeny, aware of the Sino-Syrian Split, celebrated Syria as the only "bulwark in the Middle East from Asiatic Communism." This created a bitter split with his friend Reinhard Gehlen, who was one of the leading coup planners in West Germany and one of the most influential men in West Germany. As a result, Syria quickly became a haven for unrepentant Nazis, such as Alois Brunner, Omar Amin, Walter Rauff, and Aribert Heim (Tarek Farid Hussein after his conversion to Islam), many of who gave the Syrians crucial advice on their next big play in the region. Needless to say, none of this helped Menachem Begin when details of his secret agreement with Syria was leaked.
Of course, the East German regime and the USSR condemned Syria for harboring Nazi war criminals and Holocaust perpetrators (even while secretly funding the Syrians), claiming to take North China's side in the Sino-Syrian Split. In many ways, the Soviets tried to have it both way - totally denying any cooperation with ex-Nazis and constantly lambasting the West German government for its Nazi sympathies, while implicitly also winking at neo-Nazis and giving them the arms and bombs needed to wreck havoc in the West. The development was rather demoralizing to young West German leftists, who saw 1) two competing German governments go at each other, 2) both militaristic, nationalist governments run by ex-Wehrmacht generals with uncomfortably close ties to the old Nazi regime, 3) both of whom constantly called each other Nazis by pointing out those uncomfortably close ties. Worst of all for West German leftists, they were often the victims of terror bombings by these openly neo-Nazi terrorists from the Socialist Reich Movement, terror-bombings that the ex-Wehrmacht generals of West Germany typically used as an excuse...to further clamp down on not only open neo-Nazis, but also young leftists. Left-wing German students were particularly outraged when the the Parliament, including even the Social Democratic Party, voted to shut down several left-wing student campuses in reaction to a neo-Nazi bombing that killed 13 college students from an on-campus socialist discussion group.
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It'll be interesting to see how this period in history is looked back on in this TL.
IOTL, 1945 seems like a really clear break between what came before and after.
But in this timeline, it probably feels like the latter 40s and 50s are just a really messy descending action for WWII.
While it's hardly on the scale of WWII, this post-war period has had some nasty wars. Veterans of all sides of the WWII have fought in the same countries they did during the early 40s. So no long European peace is at hand, that's for sure.
Plus, there's all the holdovers from the pre-war era who are very much still influential and powerful. The ex-nazis in Germany (not that OTL de-nazification was that thorough either, but this is something else) or Beria in the USSR. Churchill, IIRC, ends up being PM again too.
It's almost like Europe's just gearing up for a fourth (fifth??) round of wars.
There could probably be an idea of a "long 40s" that takes up a lot of this time, where the world is just kind of on fire and no one can seem to catch their breath long enough to rebuild anything.
IOTL, 1945 seems like a really clear break between what came before and after.
But in this timeline, it probably feels like the latter 40s and 50s are just a really messy descending action for WWII.
While it's hardly on the scale of WWII, this post-war period has had some nasty wars. Veterans of all sides of the WWII have fought in the same countries they did during the early 40s. So no long European peace is at hand, that's for sure.
Plus, there's all the holdovers from the pre-war era who are very much still influential and powerful. The ex-nazis in Germany (not that OTL de-nazification was that thorough either, but this is something else) or Beria in the USSR. Churchill, IIRC, ends up being PM again too.
It's almost like Europe's just gearing up for a fourth (fifth??) round of wars.
There could probably be an idea of a "long 40s" that takes up a lot of this time, where the world is just kind of on fire and no one can seem to catch their breath long enough to rebuild anything.