The North Star is Red: a Wallace Presidency, KMT Victory, Alternate Cold War TL

[TastySpam]

The Greek Civil War
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The Greek Civil War quickly turned into one of the strangest Cold War proxy wars, emblematic of the cynical power politics of the Cold War. After British troops withdrew from Greece in 1947...they were in turn not replaced by anyone. In contrast, Yugoslav troops and supplies flooded into Northern Greece, aiding the Democratic Army of Greece. However, the entire war got caught up not in the Soviet-American split of 1948, but rather the simultaneously Informbiro crisis and Tito-Stalin split. With Tito purging Stalinists and Stalin purging Titoists, the Greek Communists had a difficult decision to make - whether to side with Tito or Stalin. By 1948, the Greek Communists clearly had the upper hand, with Northern Greece completely lost to the Communists as the Royalists had already lost almost all meaningful control in the North and were fighting a desperately losing defense across Roumeli (Central Greece). Unwilling to jeopardize what had clearly been an incredibly successful partnership, the Greek Communist Party made their choice - they would stand with Tito and continue receiving his support. Without foreign support, the Royalists were resigned to trying to build a bulwark in Attica, even worse, the Peloponnese, or even in the worst-case scenario, Crete.

In 1948 however, their savior had emerged - military aid from the most unexpected of sources. Stalin, still fuming from the "betrayal" of the Communist Party of Greece (who the Soviet Union had never actually aided), decided to make his play. Soviet arms, shipping through the Turkish Straits (intentionally let through by the Turks, under the 1946 Wallace-Stalin Turkish Straits agreement that gave power to veto military transfers solely to Turkey and the USSR), went directly to the Greek Royalists. In a sharp irony, the fiercest anti-communists of Greece were bankrolled...by the Soviet Union. In particular, they deeply funded the controversial far-right paramilitary, Organization X under Georgios Grivas, notorious in Greece for their participation in right-wing death squads during the 1945 White Terror. Stalin himself commented that Grivas had killed more Titoists than any man alive not named Stalin and thus he had earned Soviet support. Upon hearing of Soviet aid to the Royalists, one of President Wallace's last acts in office was to greenlight immediate American aid towards Yugoslavia and the Greek Communists. The Greek Civil War rapidly expanded in violence and destruction, as hundreds of thousands would flee the country as refugees, primarily to Crete and most disturbingly to British authorities, Cyprus. Winston Churchill's first act as Prime Minister was out of genuine humanitarian concern for Greece, open up Cyprus to Greek refugees, an act which would have significant ramifications for Britain.

The Soviets generally expected the Royalists to lose, which was why Stalin was supporting them. The Soviets didn't actually want to sponsor an anticommunist government, but they correctly realized that by funding the Royalists, they could force the Yugoslavs and "Greek Titoists" to bleed. The Turks had cooperated simply because Turkey was horrified at the notion of having a second Communist neighbor, and they had generally believed the Royalists would also lose. Interestingly, the Soviets of course were never going to openly fund the Royalist Greeks; although the Americans and British knew that the Soviets were bankrolling the Royalists, most Greeks did not. Instead, arms shipments to the Royalists were generally disguised as from Turkey, which created an interesting amount of goodwill between the Greek Royalists and the Turks. Moreover, neither Turkey nor the Soviet Union had expected the Royalists to fight so ferociously. As the Greek Communists refused to compromise on key issues like the status of the Orthodox Church, Greek peasants flocked to fight for the plucky Royalists, ferociously resisting the Communists. In Moscow, Stalin continued to fume, eventually suggesting to his cabinet that something would have to be done about the "Titoist cancer."

 

[TastySpam]

Obviously, thanks to Emperor Xianfeng for his amazing work! While making that map, he reminded me that I really need to flesh out the rest of the world, especially Asia, before 1950.

The Indonesian Revolution​

Although the United States had been set to condemn the Dutch re-invasion of Java at the United Nations[1], President-elect Russel's foreign policy team informed France’s UN ambassador that a veto of United Nations Security Council Resolution 67, which would have condemned Operation Kraai against the Indonesian Republic, would be greatly appreciated. Russel's closest adviser on this issue, Secretary Forrestal, indicated that he saw Sukarno as dangerously anti-American (a previously Japanese collaborator). Forrestal still favored Indonesian independence, but desired to see it on Dutch terms that would preserve a democratic, federal structure.[2] Although Republicans in Congress called for aid to the Netherlands to be ended, Southern Democrats generally favored the Dutch cause. Russel's position further bolstered his position among the Dixiecrats he needed to pass his domestic agenda.

The French delivered a veto, convinced by the argument that global condemnation of the Netherlands would ultimately boomerang against the French in Indochina. To the great surprise of all, the Soviet Union also voted against the resolution. In a speech, the Soviet ambassador condemned Sukarno’s 1948 execution of much of the Communist Party of Indonesia leadership, claiming that Sukarno was not a legitimate representative of the Indonesian revolution and that his capture by Dutch forces was “just desserts.” This surprising swerve in policy was engineered by Minister of Foreign Affairs Mikhail Suslov, the surprising last-man standing after Beria purged Zhdanov in the Leningrad Affair shortly before being fired alongsides Molotov and Mikoyan due to the failure of their China policy.

Excited that the Indonesian revolutionaries had lost the backing of both the United States and the Soviet Union, Dutch forces flooded into Java establishing control of every major city, and launching a bloody multi-pronged approach attack on Sumatra. Perhaps most infamously, Governor Louis Beel ended any hope of a negotiated peace by having Sukarno executed on trumped-up charges of WWII-era collaboration.[3] This was a grievous overreach. Both the US and USSR condemned the Netherlands though refusing to bow to congressional outrage, Russell refused to cut off the Netherland from further Marshall Plan funding. The move also outraged Indonesian rebels. The Netherlands, reeling from diplomatic pushback, approached Indonesian acting president Prawiranegara for peace terms. When he accepted, General Sudirman declared Prawiranegara removed from office, turning down Dutch overtures. Soon after, Sudirman succumbed to tuberculosis and was replaced with his deputy, General Nasution.

Although Dutch forces seized all major cities in Java and most coastal cities in Sumatra (relying on indiscriminate coastal shelling to clear dug-in Indonesian forces), Nasution adopted a guerilla warfare strategy by retreating to the countryside and continuing armed resistance to Dutch rule. The war intensified, with any semblance of civil disorder breaking down in Java/Sumatra. Much to British chagrin, Indonesian refugees often fled across the straits into Malaya and British Borneo, worsening the delicate political situation. The devastation and death quickly widely outpaced World War II, for both the Dutch and native Indonesians. Starvation and plague ravaged Indonesia, while angry lynch mobs and guerillas enacted horrifying brutalities on any European (assuming that they were Dutch) that they could find.

The Dutch diplomatic position significantly improved after the victory of Winston Churchill in 1950 - one of his first acts was to throw the entire diplomatic force of the United Kingdom behind the Netherlands, seeing the crisis in Malaya and Sumatra as inherently connected. In addition, seeking to undercut Nasution, the Dutch parliament adopted the Charter of the Federal Kingdom of the Netherlands, where Suriname, the Antilles, New Guineau, Sulawesi, the Moluccas, and Borneo were all uplifted as Constituent Countries alongsides the Netherlands itself. However, New Guineau, Sulawesi, the Moluccas, and Borneo remained under martial law that prevented any serious self-rule. On paper, Sumatra, West Java, Middle Java, and East Java were also constituent countries, but they had no meaningful civilian government. This seemed to buy the Dutch Empire some time.

Further bolstering the Dutch, General Nasution was unable maintain unity in a rebellion that spanned from Sumatra to Java to Sulawesi. The anti-Dutch forces quickly splintered, with Kartosoewirjo declaring an Indonesian Islamic State that fought both Nasution and the Dutch in West Java, Aceh, and South Sulawesi. The Communist D. N. Aidit barely escaped from Nasution’s attempt to have him and his followers killed - he fled to Communist China, but quickly snuck back into Sumatra with huge amounts of material and personnel support from the People’s Liberation Army to work closely with the Malay Communists across the strait. The Indonesian Communists would fight the Dutch, Islamists, and Nationalists simultaneously.

In response, one of Nasution’s subordinates, Colonel Suharto, sent death squads to execute any Indonesians suspected of Communist sympathies, while simultaneously greenlighting a campaign of mass terror, especially mass rape, against villages suspected of Islamist sympathies. As a result, the Nationalists were able to avoid being eclipsed as the primary anti-Dutch force, but popular opinion quickly soured on their cause, even as the Dutch remained just as despised. The war quickly broke down in a stalemate, as the anti-Dutch armies were too busy murdering each other to toss the Dutch out from their urban strongholds, but the Dutch armies were simply piling losses on, without winning many hearts or minds. The Moluccas and New Guineau were largely peaceful, while the Dutch at least some supporters in Sulawesi/Borneo, but they were utterly despised in Sumatra and Java.
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[1] As OTL Operation Kraai
[2] Forrestal is basically right in a sense, since democratic federal Indonesia didn't last long after independence
[3] Sukarno was captured in OTL Operation Kraai

 

[TastySpam]

Minor update, for something I clearly overlooked.

Foreign Intervention in the Indonesian Revolution
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Each of the factions in the Indonesian Revolution had its supporters from abroad, who often changed their policies around.

The United Kingdom under Winston Churchill quickly came in on the side of the Netherlands, offering naval support and logistical aid as part of a unified Southeast Asian strategy. France was unable to offer significant support, but was the most reliable diplomatic supporter of the Netherlands. However, the staunchest support for the Dutch cause came from an unexpected corner of the world: South Africa.

In 1950, the Afrikaner-dominated National Party in South Africa was rapidly instituting their ambitious apartheid system of white supremacy. South African media breathlessly covered tales of horrific atrocities inflicted on Europeans in Indonesia. Due to linguistic similarly, it was easy to publish almost anything that was covered in Dutch newspapers at the time. Many extremists called for South African intervention in Indonesia, but the Netherlands was actually not particularly interested. However, the Dutch army was still taking too many losses in what quickly became one of the bloodiest post-WW2 conflicts. The Dutch leadership was loathe to actually call for conscription.

As a compromise, the South African government allowed officers and soldiers in the army to take a "leave of absence" from their commissions and rent "surplus military equipment", at which point the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army would immediately hire them as mercenaries at a bargain bin price. As a result of this, the South African government could claim to foreign observers that it had nothing to do with this. However, one major downsides is that due to the voluntary nature of this expeditionary force, it tended to be comprised of the most ideologically extreme elements of the South African Army, infamously acting with little Dutch oversight. South African forces in Indonesia proved to both be extremely brutal and effective, and radicalized by their war experience, would play a large role in South African politics. Indonesia also became a hotbed for "military advisors" who had "experience" in World War II that made it problematic for other countries to hire.

The Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) was most closely supported by the People's Republic of China, which was in turn supported by the Soviet Union and the rest of the Eastern bloc. Contrary to contemporary views, it was not the policy of Stalin to prop up the Indonesian Communists, but it was his policy to prop up the PRC, which had a tendency of passing on all of his surplus weapons to the PKI. Kang Sheng was sent abroad to tutor the PKI in the Maoist way of war, whose brutality they quickly emulated. In particularly, the PKI organized brutal lynchings of sultans, rajas, and other local landlords that quickly had the effect of pushing much of Indonesia's traditional ruling class into the hands of the Islamists.

The Nationalists had the keen support of both the Republic of China as well as various Japanese unemployed WW2-era veterans and far-right extremists, who enabled by the Hatoyama Government, often left the country to continue waging World War II against the Dutch. However, after Suharto's infamous "extermination order" of Chinese-Indonesians, the ROC largely dropped its support of the Nationalists. Instead, China pursued a policy of attempting to reconcile the Dutch and the Islamists in order to box out both the Nationalists and the Communists.

The United States, under the Russell Administration, gave diplomatic support to the Netherlands, but fastidiously stayed out of the conflict. President Russell viewed the possibility of a "quagmire in Asia" with great fear.

 

[TastySpam]

I'm trying to clear off a lot of pre-1950's stuff, but I'm wondering what else I still have to do at this point. Probably Britain and France?
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The First Indochina War
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...the most crucial early mistake made by the Viet Minh was their brutal purge of Viet Quoc members after the 1946 retreat of Chinese troops from North Vietnam. Although Ho Chi Minh established himself as the primary leader of the anti-French struggle, he also alienated critical potential allies. With the remnants of the Viet Quoc aligned with France, Bao Dai, Cao Daiist militias, and various other forces, underscoring the isolation of the Viet Minh. Despite that, the Viet Minh proved very able fighters and resisted French attempts to root them out of the hills of Northern Vietnam.

However, the French would soon also overplay their hands. Seeing that the Russell Administration had made a 180-degree turn on their stance towards Dutch Indonesia, the French shelved plans to sign an agreement with Bao Dai establishing a semi-independent State of Vietnam.[1] Both the United States and Republic of China indicated their disapproval, and although not openly condemning France, they declined to aid the French mission in Indochina. Ho Chi Minh openly spoke positively about the United States and China, hoping at the very least to ensure neutrality. Although Chinese border patrols stopped any Viet Minh from crossing into Chinese territory, they declined to undertake any anti-Viet Minh operations.

After seeing American opinion harden on Dutch Indonesia and worried that such treatment would arrive for France, the French aimed to renegotiate with Bao Dai. However, after clearly being spurned by the French, Bao Dai simply had no desire to return to Vietnam. Cochinchinese French colonists used Bao Dai’s waffling to argue that the plan to create a unified Vietnamese state would fail, and Paris ultimately gave up on the plan. In late 1949, the French ultimately announced the “official” independence of the Republic of Cochinchina. In response, Bao Dao disavowed the French project. Ironically, this situation only occurred because in 1945, the French were prepared to put Duy Tan in power as Emperor of Vietnam. However, he declined when the French declined that he tolerate a French "sphere of influence" in Cochinchina.

The detachment of Cochinchina on behalf of French colonists proved a huge morale boost to the Viet Minh, who now claimed themselves as the only advocates on behalf of a united, independent Vietnam. After the mysterious deaths of its first two Prime Ministers, a local “militia leader”, Le Van Vien, was appointed Prime Minister of Cochinchina.

At a loss, the French found it difficult to find anyone willing to take up Bao Dai’s job. Most well-known figures in Vietnam followed Bao Dai’s, boycotting the French government. Ultimately, the job fell to Nguyen Van Hinh, a military man and Free French veteran who had little of Bao Dai’s legitimacy, but much more competence. The Viet Minh largely concentrated its efforts on Hinh’s Provisional Central Government of Vietnam, feeling that Cochinchina would fall easily if Hinh was dealt with. As a result, Cochinchina became a surprisingly safe place, allowing Vien to consolidate his power.

With French assistance, Hinh established a tightly authoritarian military regime across the former protectorates of Annam and Tonkin. As a general rule, Hinh tended to use his French-backed forces as a battering ram against the Viet Minh in the North (Tonkin), while allowing less organized militias (such as Trinh Minh The’s Cao Dai militia) to secure the less war-torn Annam region. Although Hinh was unable to establish public support for his regime, slowly but surely (and with great costs both in life and material), the Viet Minh was forced farther and farther into the hills of Tonkin.

In neighboring Laos, Communist forces fared even worse, with the Issara Lao crushed, and its leadership forced to retreat into Burma. Although Vietnam remained a political morass, the French found willing partners in Laos and Cambodia, and as such, the future Kingdom of Laos and Kingdom of Cambodia moved towards independence, both in 1951.[3]

With cross-border quickly established with neighboring Guangdong Province (the wealthiest province in China), living standards in Vietnam became to climb up as French forces kept at least the major commercial cities free of violence. However, wages remained stagnant for most and the Viet Minh remained undefeated, creating a cauldron of discontent that would prove vulnerable when the events of 1955 would throw a bomb into Southeast Asian politics.
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[1] The OTL Elysee Accords on March 1949.
[2] The old Imperial capital
[3] Earlier than OTL, due to a weaker Viet Minh rebellion and no Korean war.

 

[TastySpam]

Really, I randomly was inspired to make this short update because I was playing Yakuza 0. I think the UK comes next, then maybe Malaya/the Philippines?

The Republic of Cochinchina
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Le Van Vien, often known as Bay Vien (Vien the Seventh) was not anyone’s expected first major leader of any country. Leader of the Binh Xuyen, one of the largest organized crime syndicates in Asia, Bay Vien began his political career when he sold his “policing” services to Imperial Japan during the Empire of Vietnam era. The SDECE, French intelligence, was aware of Vien and thought of him as a possible threat, but he surprisingly sided with many French colonists who desired the separation of Cochinchin, causing them to view him as an anti-Communist bulwark.

His aims became very obvious, after the mysterious death of Cochinchina’s first post-independence president. Maneuvering himself into power directly after, Bay Vien quickly treated the Republic of Cochinchina and Binh Xuyen as interchangeable tools of his grand ambitions. On paper, Cochinchina presented itself as a model colony of France - free of Viet Minh insurgents and peaceful. Taxes were low and foreign businesses allowed to freely transact and do business. Saigon quickly became a popular tourist destination for French, British, Chinese, American, and Japanese. However, underneath the surface, his regime was funded by opium trafficking, constant murder, sex slavery trafficking, and the diversion of foreign humanitarian aid (which was quite generous because of his anti-Communism) into his own coffers.

He quickly struck arrangements with other anti-Communist, far-right leaders in Asia. Most notably, Yoshio Kodama, the prominent Japanese neofascist and yakuza boss, as well as Triad leader Du Yuesheng and his Green Gang, were both major supporters of Bay Vien, helping ensuring a steady, albeit illicit supply of Japanese and Chinese aid to his regime. In particular, Bay Vien enjoyed the sympathy of the Japanese Minister of International Trade and Industry (MITI), Nobusuke Kishi, ensuring another income stream. Cochinchina also grew close to more mainstream leaders, like Syngman Rhee of South Korea and Elpidio Quirino of the Philippines. He shunned the rebels in Indonesia, which caused most of the European colonial powers to view him as a "compliant" local ruler.

Bay Vien’s Binh Xuyen mafia quickly grew to operate as a de facto secret police force in Cochinchina, “disappearing” all of his political enemies, including almost anyone suspected of Communist or Viet Minh leanings. Or anyone who objected to the notion of a mafia group running a country. His own writings noted that he considered his own personal criminal army to be the “SS of Vietnam.” As a result, the actual official Cochinchina Army remained rather small, and as a further result, the Viet Minh largely ignored his regime in Saigon, unaware that he was slowly assembling one of the most advanced and ruthless armies in Southeast Asia.

 

[TastySpam]

German Reunification, Electric Boogaloo
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At Potsdam, it was agreed that the nation of "Germany" was to be permanently dismembered, split up into smaller nations. This situation lasted more or less around 5 years. After some discussion, the situation immediately after Potsdam was to split Germany up into seven different nations under four overlords, the Prussian Democratic Republic and Saxon Democratic Republic under Soviet control, the Rhenish and Swabian Republics under France, the Republic of Hanover and the Republic of Westphalia under Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Bavaria under American tutelage. It only took two years before bowing to public opinion in its occupied territory, Great Britain combined its two Republics into the Republic of Hanover and Westphalia - France followed with the Rhenish-Swabian Republic, and the USSR followed with the Prusso-Saxon Republic. In 1947, the same year Britain withdrew from India and Greece due to essential bankruptcy, the British began to understand that the occupation of Germany was being too expensive and further buy-in from the locals was necessary, thus causing them to combine the respective nations.

In 1950, the new administration of Winston Churchill, who was mocked in 1946 by the Americans for his theory that the Soviet Union was an aggressive nation, felt that he was incredibly vindicated by the last five years, especially as Soviet influence rapidly spread in Europe, often through coups and purges. Churchill himself blamed the perceived weakness of the former American President, Henry Wallace. As a result, Churchill now believed that a new, strong Germany was necessary to act as a bulwark in the Western alliance - and although some discussion had taken place between the US, France, and the UK, Churchill was determined to decisively act. He was going to be the father of the new Germany, and he was going to do it his way.

Churchill more or less had three goals: to force the hands of the United States, force the hands of France, and quiet domestic opposition. First, the USA wasn't an actual problem - President Russell was close to Churchill and generally strongly believed in German revival as well - he funneled significant aid to Bavaria as one of his first acts as President. The real problem was the Kingdom of Bavaria, who had been given a taste of independence and was unlikely to give it up. Second, France was both a problem, including their man in Cologne, Konrad Adenauer (who had famously sided with France during the Occupation of the Ruhr). Third, public opinion in the UK was a problem, because the United Kingdom had spent two World Wars fighting off Germany, and it was difficult to sell rebuilding Germany. That being said, if there was any man in Britain who had anti-German street cred, it was Winston Churchill.

First, in what was a clear play to British chauvinism, British troops held a referendum in Hanover-Westphalia, adopting a completely new "Constitution" written by Churchill. It was essentially a carbon copy of the British unwritten Constitution, providing for a Parliament, a House of Lords, and most notably, for a constitutional monarch in the capital of Hanover. He almost called the new nation the United Kingdom of Germany, but he was advised that would create confusion, so he established instead the Federal Kingdom of Germany, adopting a Nordic Cross-style flag. To entice the Bavarians, the Parliament of the Federal Kingdom had a simple solution: they passed legislation appointing as their King the King of Bavaria, Rupprecht I, on the condition that he and his descendants forever repudiate the Jacobite claim on the British throne (he was technically the current Jacobite claimant). With American approval, Rupprecht I accepted and the Bavarian parliament finally found a German reunification proposal they approved of, ascending to the Federal Kingdom. The last holdout was Adenauer who was offered an easy proposal - he was to be the first Prime Minister of the new Federal Kingdom. Under pressure from their own man in Cologne, the Americans, and the British, the French threw in the towel on the condition that the Saarland remain under French tutelage...for now. However, the French were still unhappy with this, resulting in a half-decade of very poor Franco-German relations.

Churchill's ploy threw the Soviets in a panic - in their eyes, the West seemed clearly to be reviving Germany in a bid to destroy the USSR. However, the Soviets understood that German nationalism was a powerful propaganda tool. The Soviets had two options: desperately try to force their client state in Berlin to adopt an anti-Hanoverian regional identity (Prussian? Saxon?) or try to join in the German nationalism game. They chose to do both at once. A month later, the German Democratic Republic was born, using the tricolor flag instead.

 

[TastySpam]

The Death of an Emperor
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Henry Wallace's anti-Communist turn in 1948 in response to the Czechoslovak coup came as a huge boon for two nations in particular - the Republic of China and the Imperial State of Iran. American support was immediately stepped up for Iran, even though Wallace insisted that a peaceful solution still be found to the standoff in Kurdistan and Azerbaijan. By this time, the Shah was growing rather sick and tired of his Prime Minister, who was rapidly consolidating national power in his hands. Delightfully for the Shah, he figured he wasn't as beholden to the British anymore. Wallace fervently supported Mossadegh, but in 1948, Wallace narrowly lost his bid for re-election. The arrival of the new American President, Richard Russell, an ardent right-wing segregationist, made the Shah believe he had an opportunity to finally toss out his Prime Minister. The American CIA immediately began organizing a coup against the Prime Minister.

However, one incident would prevent the coup from going off. The coup was planed for February 15, 1949, barely a month after the rise of President Russell. However, on February 4, 1949, the Shah attended the annual celebration of the founding of Tehran University, when, a member of the Fada'iyan-e Islam radical group, Naser Fakhr Arai, shot 9 shots at the Shah from 3 feet away with an automatic pistol. Seven shots missed, but one bullet hit his cheek, while another smashed straight into his brain, killing the Shah instantly. The assassination was widely believed to be aided by the Tudeh Party in retaliation for being banned in 1947.[1]

According to the Iranian Constitution, the "Shah must profess the Islamic faith, his mother must be an Iranian citizen, a Muslim and not descended from the previous Qajar dynasty." That description only fit one person: Prince Ali Reza Pahlavi, who had accompanied his father into exile when Reza Shah took over in the 1941 coup. Ali Reza basically had no connections whatsoever in Iran and also had a seemingly scandalous personal life - he was briefly married (and then soon after divorced) from a Polish Frenchwoman by the name of Christiane Cholewska. In short, he was the new Shah, but he was politically weak as an ardent opponent of the previous Shah, which meant that supporters of the former Shah really had nobody to rally behind besides the military itself (namely Fazlollah Zahedi, who was at the time supportive of Mossadegh). He was unable to stop Mossadegh's consolidation of power.

Much to the alarm of the Americans, Mossadegh had radical aims for the nation. He sought to create a nation united under a strong, central authority figure (mainly himself), while chasing out both the Soviets and British commercial interests. Having taken so much in Western military funding, Mossadegh did not see much of a use for them anymore. Blaming the Fada'iyan-e Islam for the assassination of the Shah, Mossadegh had Zahedi place the military under the command of the Prime Minister, ordering the banning of Fada'iyan-e Islam. Mossadegh correctly saw the Iranian Islamic clergy (the ulema) as his prime enemy in this process, causing violence to break out across Iran. Most notably, in the 1950 election for the Majils, rural areas turned out to vote pro-Mossadegh candidates, voting in more Islamic-orientated candidates. Mossadegh responded to this by cancelling the election and only seating half of the seats - which included every seat Mossadegh's National Front won (thus, giving him a majority).

Instead, Mossadegh played his best political card. His rump Majils took the widely popular act of nationalizing the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company before holding elections again. The widely popular act gave Mossadegh a full term, until at least 1954, further cementing his grasp on the country. However, his increasingly authoritarian rule began to worry several of his associates, namely his former ally Zahedi. Unfortunately for Zahedi, he had already agreed placing the Armed Forces under the command of the Prime Minister.
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[1] OTL, 5 bullets were shot at the Shah. ITL, the Tudeh Party actually helps him by giving him a better gun lol

 

[TastySpam]

The Russell Doctrine in the Middle East (1950-1952)
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The first major test of Russell’s administration in the Middle East was the Arabian crisis. Ibn Saud had threatened nationalization of the Arabian-American Oil Company (Aramco), a subsidiary of Standard Oil of California (Chevron), but indicated that he would accept a 50/50 split in oil profits, whereupon the U.S. Treasury would compensate Chevron.[1] This was a similar deal as agreed to by Wallace in 1948 with Venezuela’s Gallegos administration. However, Gallegos had been overthrown in a coup, and Russell’s liberal Treasury Secretary, Frances Perkin proved deeply hostile to the plan, viewing it as corporate welfare. Inspired by the Iranian nationalization of oil, Ibn Saud went forward with the nationalization of Aramco. Russell responded in rage, but respected Perkin’s refusal to give away billions of tax dollars to Chevron, viewing her as an ally on other issues. Russell immediately ordered the CIA to remove Ibn Saud with a more pliable figure. However, the CIA was unable to find anyone in the royal family to go against their respected patriarch.

One Arab expert, the CIA’s Kim Roosevelt, had an alternative idea. The Eastern Region of Saudi Arabia, where the bulk of Aramco’s oil fields and operations were located, was a predominantly Shia region conquered by Ibn Saud in 1922. Although sectarian tension was relatively weak in most of the Middle East at the time, brutalities in that conquest ensured that some remained in Saudi Arabia. The CIA made contacts with the Shia clergy (ulema) in the other region with some sectarian tension, Iraq. Some of these clergy had been radicalized by the brutal royal Iraqi suppression of figures in 1935. In particular, they found one radical but very well-connected Shia imam-in-training, the 23-year old Mohammad al-Husayni al-Shirazi (his father was the much more moderate Karbala-based Grand Ayatollah Mahdi Shirazi).[2] Roosevelt was also aware that the Shia clergy in Iran loathed Mossadegh.

The operation was approved by both President Russell and Prime Minister Churchill, who figured that sparking a sectarian war would push the Gulf monarchies closer to Britain and further pressure Iran. An army of CIA-trained (and thus shockingly well-armed) Iraqi Shia tribesman and several foreign mercenaries supposedly hired by Chevron (but actually by the CIA) stormed across Kuwait and into Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province. With superiority of arms, Shirazi’s forces set up the Islamic Republic of Qatif and Hasa. Although they found a random member of the Banu Khalid to act as a figurehead President, power was very much concentrated in Shirazi and his American backers.

Although the State Department totally disclaimed any involvement and blamed “corporate interests from California”, the weaponry used by the Qatifi army was too advanced to trick Ibn Saud. Although he was able to retrench most of the Saudi Army in Al-Hasa itself, he was unable to supply offensive equipment due to constant attacks on overland supply caravans by mercenary-piloted Junkers Ju-88 bombers.[3] Although the Saudi monarchy openly accepted the American excuse, they began making contact with Soviet operatives. Moreover, much of the Middle East exploded in antisemitic rage, as mainstream Arab opinion concluded that “President Russell and his Jew Baruch invaded a country on behalf of Israel” (Israel of course had no involvement).

Ironically, the Saudi rejection of a 50/50 split in oil profits more or less led to a 50/50 split in Saudi Arabia’s oil fields, except with less revenue for both sides due to the militarization of Eastern Arabia. Elsewhere in the Middle East, even though CIA officials were forbidden to aid Nasser, the Free Officers Movement still overthrew King Farouk, (temporarily) bringing Gamal Abder Nasser to power.
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[1] IRL, Truman took this deal.
[2] OTL Mohammad Shirazi also became a Grand Ayatollah, but was sidelined in the Islamic Revolution by the relatively more moderate Ayatollah Khomeini.
[3] One of the most widely produced planes of the Luftwaffe, needless to say, Germany didn’t need them anymore.

 

[TastySpam]

The Islamic Republic of Qatif and Hasa​

The Americans wildly underestimated how extreme Shirazi and many of his supporters would end up becoming. Not only was the young Shirazi naturally radical, many of those who rose up to govern the new nation had once chafed under Wahhabi ulema and were eager to flip the tables. Their rule was just as narrowly sectarian, worsened by the migration of the most extreme fringes of the Iranian clergy. A council of radical clergy replaced any secular authority, with theocratic councils, courts, and laws instituted. In Iran, the reaction among the ulema clergy was split. Some were happy to see a government “run by our own”, but others were embarrassed and horrified, viewing the Qatifi project as a Western conspiracy to protect oil interests. The ulema would quickly cleave into pro-Qatifi/American and anti-Qatifi/American factions, which bolstered the power of Prime Minister Mossadegh, who condemned the Qatifi secession and strove for close relations with a growing axis of nationalist powers, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen, and Egypt.

Outside of perpetually neutral Oman, the British protectorates were vociferously opposed, but largely unable to express it within the confines of their British overlords. The Israelis were secretly jubilant at the Qatifi project, figuring that any Arab infighting would distract from Israel. However, they remained silent, knowing that any overt support would embarrass the Qatifis. Instead, the Mossad secretly steered as many anonymous arms shipments as possible in the direction of Qatifis, who declined to turn down free weapons from “mysterious friends.” Also supportive of the Qatifi project was the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Although King Abdullah's annexation of the West Bank was widely condemned by most neighbors and led to his near-assassination, the Britain, the United States, France, and various other Western powers all backed their claims, gaining some degree of influence.[1] The Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq strove to stay neutral, glad that many of Iraq’s most problematic Shia militants were being taken out of the country. However, the Qatifi government regularly called for violence against the Iraqi monarchy, so the Iraqis simply stayed neutral.

Saudi Arabia and the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen (with had aims on British Aden) both drew very close to Nasser’s Egypt as soon as he took power. Cut off from the Persian Gulf, the Saudis focused their efforts on developing ports in the Red Sea, much like Egypt. Both countries clearly shared a grudge against the Western powers and complementary economies - Saudi Arabia had oil resources, but little in population and agriculture, while Egypt was the giant of the Arab world, but largely agricultural. Indeed, the close economic and military cooperation between Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Egypt would only serve to raise the strategic importance of the Suez Canal to Egypt’s Nasser...
---
[1] OTL, only the UK recognized those claims. IITL, the UK is pretty good at convincing the US, so the US goes along with this and France follows. Also, this butterflies out his assassination.

 

[TastySpam]

I was going to do North Japan or the Philippines, but I guess someone asked about this.

The Russell-Taft Era
​

Never had a man been viewed as overwhelming as a favorite for the presidency had Senate Majority Leader Robert Taft. Ironically, although the men knew each other when they served in the Senate together and personally liked each other, they would lock horns in acrimonious political warfare.

In addition, much of the left also had reason to despise him. When newly appointed Secretary of Defense Forrestal refused to stop the desegregation of the army, Russell had him unceremoniously fired and replaced with General Royall, whom Wallace earlier had fired from his cabinet for refusing to desegregate the army. A recess appointment was necessary, because the Republican Senate refused to confirm him. Only a threat from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, led by General Dwight Eisenhower, to resign en masse stopped Russell from re-segregating the army. Russell, although a segregationist, was one of the more moderate Southern Democrats (he supported Wallace in 1948), and remained content with simply indefinitely delaying active desegregation. Throughout this period, Russell’s approval rating remained stubbornly in the mid-30’s.

Taft in particular became an eloquent critic of Russell’s foreign policy, decrying American “weakness” towards communism as well as collaboration with “European colonial adventurism.” American public opinion was largely split on foreign party, but seemed to modestly favor Taft.[1] However, Taft’s promise to withdraw from NATO entirely seemed to perturb much of the Republican establishment. In addition, he also angered many liberals, by shutting down Senator Kefauver’s investigation of big business concentration and corruption, the former out of ideology, the latter out of a belief that it was simply a waste of time.[2] Kefauver raged against Taft and in solidarity, Russell offered to make Kefauver his Vice-President. Seeing no hope for his agenda in the Senate, Kefauver accepted and consistently used his position to harangue the Senate. A double-Southerner presidential ticket indicated to most observers at the time that the Democrats were heading towards being murdered outside of the South.

The Republican Congress, especially in 1951, was one of the most productive in American history, driven heavily by Taft’s scheduling of votes on all kinds of legislation that the either the liberal or conservative wing of the Democratic Party had no choice to vote for. Four bills in particular stood out: the Civil Rights Act of 1951, which mandated immediate desegregation of the army and other provisions, the Housing Act of 1951[3], which mandated the widespread construction of public housing, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1951[4], which would have abolished racial restrictions on immigration, and the Tax Cuts Act of 1952, which would have slashed tax rates. The Taft Congress also voted to repeatedly repeal most of the Russell laws. President Russell vetoed all of these, easily blowing past Wallace's already record veto-count. Although Taft and Russell did work together on several bills of relatively low public controversy (such expanding the GI bill, creating the CIA and NSF, and dramatically increasing refugee admissions from Europe, and US humanitarian aid abroad), they tended not to brag their own group of supporters about those bills.

However, the presidential (re)election of both men would hit a snag. First, more internationalist and moderate Republicans sought to draft an opponent to the non-interventionist, anti-New Deal Taft. Their first choice was Dwight Eisenhower, but he declined to run against a man he was serving under. Instead, they settled on a quickly popular second choice: Douglas MacArthur. MacArthur castigated Taft as an isolationist who would roll back the New Deal, while Taft reveled in those attacks, castigating MacArthur as a “lunatic socialist tyrant-in-waiting.”

In contrast, few in the Democratic Party wanted to challenge Russell. First, Russell’s standing among many Democrats had improved due to his constant defense of the Russell laws (namely healthcare). Second, most of his serious contenders figured he was a doomed candidate. The Democrats had controlled the White House for 20 years. Republicans were ascendent in Congress and statehouses around the nation. And the President was unpopular. Most senior Democrats concluded there was no point to try to defeat Russell and if they injured him in a primary, they'd be blamed for President Robert Taft repealing Russellcare. Third, Russell’s most serious potential challenger, Estes Kefauver, was mollified by Russell’s total support on the issues of antitrust and corruption. The firebrand liberal Senator from Paul Douglas, finding it impossible to convince Kefauver to run against his President, ultimately challenged Russell himself on a platform of civil rights and foreign policy non-interventionism.
---
[1] KMT victory means a much weaker/delayed Red Scare. A lot of OTL American anti-colonialism was partly motivated by strategic anti-Communism. It's not just the Churchill-Russell relationship, although that's a part of it, but also just less interest in the entire State Department in anti-colonialism.
[2] Pretty much dooms the Kefauver Antitrust Act.
[3] Similar to the OTL Housing Act of 1949 supported by Taft.
[4] Similar to the OTL INA of 1952 supported by Taft.

 

[TastySpam]

Opinion Polling in the 1952 Presidential Election
​

After the historic polling miss of 1948, Gallup radically revamped its polling methodology to not only call households with landlines (which were generally more upscale and Republican). In the 1948 election, Gallup's final poll had Dewey leading by a massive 51-44 (+7), when he lost by 49-46 (-3).

As the campaign season kicked off, Gallup polled every combination of major party candidates against each other. They did not however, poll any third-party candidacies, even though many people in both parties threatened to run one if their preferred candidate lost their respective primary.

March 1952

Richard Russell (D-GA) vs. Douglas MacArthur (R-NY)
42/49

Richard Russell (D-GA) vs. Robert Taft (R-OH)
44/46

Richard Russell (D-GA) vs. Earl Warren (R-CA)
43/47

Paul Douglas (D-IL) vs. Douglas MacArthur (R-NY)
40/49

Paul Douglas (D-IL) vs. Robert Taft (R-OH)
41/47

Paul Douglas (D-IL) vs. Earl Warren (R-CA)
40/43​

 

[TastySpam]

Next up is either the Philippines or Malaya Emergency. Any preferences?

The People’s Republic of Japan
​

Of all the new Communist states to emerge in the 20th century, the People’s Republic of Japan may have been the strangest. Alone among the Communist states of the world, the People’s Republic of Japan operated almost entirely under an American-written constitution, as drafted in 1946. As a result of Article 9 of that Constitution, the People’s Republic of Japan had no standing army. Ironically, this made it one of the most loyal partners of the Soviet Union, as it was largely dependent on the Red Army to defend it from its hated neighbor to the South.

Similar to East Germany, Soviet authorities coerced the Japan Socialist Party to “freely” merge with the Japan Communist Party. However, in contrast to East Germany, the merger was actually largely voluntary, as most of the right-wing of the Socialist Party remained in South Japan. The new Japan Democratic Unity Party would rule North Japan as a one-party state, as demanded by Soviet authorities. However, the voluntary nature of the merger actually meant there was a great deal of internal division within the DUP. Oddly, the word Communism rarely appeared in DUP literature. Although the PRJ was clearly a Marxist-Leninist one-party state, its propaganda depicted itself as the bastion of “democracy” and “liberty” against the “imperialist-fascists” of the South. The clear desire of South Japan to rewrite the American-written constitution made it even more of a propaganda necessity to keep the pre-split Constitution intact. DUP and Soviet officials brainstormed in long sessions how to create a Marxist-Leninist state within the confines of that Constitution.

Inspired by his time spent fighting alongside Mao Zedong against Imperial Japan, General Secretary Nosaka Sanzo set up “Committees for the Defense of Democracy” across Japan. Functioning as a militia organization, labour union, and secret police, these committees became ubiquitous in Japan, with almost every neighbor having a Committee kōban. In a sense, the PRJ had free, nonpartisan elections. In practice, the PRJ Constitution provided for a “selection committee”, which immediately vetoed any candidate who was not a pre-approved candidate from the DUP. Election laws required that a candidate be nominated by their local “Democracy Committee.” In practice, this meant most elections were uncontested, though some actually were contested, when the local Committee could not decide between two people. This system meant that few government initiatives passed the parliament unanimously (like they always did in East Germany), but they still almost always passed with over 90% support.

In contrast to South Japan, which proscribed gun ownership, almost every family in North Japan was required to be trained in firearms as part of their participation in their local Democracy Committee. Of course, the government feared insurrection, so arms were only given to ideologically trustworthy, committed Communists within those committees. The PRJ had nothing in the way of an air force or navy, but thus had a de facto militia army.

Unlike Korea, a consensus was never properly formed in the DUP with regards to agricultural collectivization. Although most of the party favored this, they also felt that it might reflect poorly on the new regime in comparison to the Southern regime. However, heavy industry was nationalized. North Japan was extremely mountainous and home to the bulk of Japan’s mines. In addition, the population was extremely well-educated and North Japan, being the farthest from American airbases, was the least devastated region of Japan. North Japan quickly reindustrialized and ironically despite being a “pacifist state”, quickly became known for its massive arms factories (and gruesome pollution) cranking out rifles, mortars, tanks, and airplanes for the entire Eastern bloc, in particular North China, which would eventually become the most militarized nation on Earth. As the Cold War heated up, the North Japanese economy only further recovered as arms exports surged. Unlike East Germany and North China, North Japan would actually keep up with South Japan in economic progress, at least for a while. This meant that North Japan quickly became the wealthiest state in the Communist bloc, ahead of even East Germany, furthering Soviet interest in East Asia.

Although North Japan had no official military, it had one of the most sophisticated intelligence agencies in the Communist world. At home, the Democracy Committees were nearly as deep as the Stasi in their penetration of North Japanese society. In addition, the Ministry of International Peace and Aid (MIPA) became one of the most formidable intelligence agencies of the Cold War. Half an intelligence agency and half a humanitarian agency, MIPA dispatched North Japanese doctors and aid workers across the world. However, the entire operation was closely coordinated by North Japanese intelligence to best serve the geopolitical aims of the Communist bloc. At a one point, almost every major opposition party in South Japan would be on the Communist payroll. Although fiercely anti-Imperial, the DUP was ideologically forged in the era of the “Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere” and with colonial wars raging throughout Asia, MIPA sought to forment Communist revolutions across the entire world, but especially in Asia. Friendly regimes and movements would quickly come into possession of Japanese-made weapons, although they were all funnelled through North Chinese or Soviet middleman. After all, North Japan was a “pacifist state.” It says so in the Constitution. You really think someone would do that, just go on the Constitution and tell lies?

 

[TastySpam]

The First Malaya War (1948-1955)
​

...Malaya's Permanent Secretary of Defense, Ser Robert Grainger Ker Thompson was originally assigned to the Malaya front, but in light of experience working with the Chindits in the Burma Theater of WWII, was reassigned to the Burma front.[1] General Harold Briggs, who had served with the 5th Indian Infantry in Burma during WW2, was also sent to the Burma front.[2] This left a remarkable void in the Malaya response, that Clement Attlee was eager to fill. Attlee filled that spot with General Evelyn Barker, who had led the British response to the Jewish insurgency in Palestine. Barker was set to retire, but Attlee desperately did not want to look weak before the 1950 elections. In the end, Attlee still lost, but Churchill would largely continue his policies.

Unfortunately for the British, the Malaya Emergency was a complex diplomatic minefield. First, the Malay National Liberation Army was strongest among Chinese Malaysians. Incidents of British brutality to Chinese and Indian Malaysians often filtered to Nanking, causing an outraged response from elements in China and India. However, as the British desperately needed Indian and Chinese diplomatic and logistical support in Burma, they were forced to repeatedly dial back British troops, which tended to hurt morale among more hardline elements. In addition, these hardline elements were backed by Britain's Dutch allies, who keenly understood that any violence in Malaya would spill over into Sumatra.

Originally, the MNLA was only popular among poor, rural Chinese, but the flood of Sumatran refugees would radicalize many urbanites. British policy was to extend generous social support to the refugees, partly because their Dutch allies feared that impoverished refugees could be radicalized. However, this tended to outrage many Malays. Although most refugees were Malay, they were fairly representative of all of Sumatra and thus many were not. Worst of all, many were Christian (roughly 13% of Sumatra), which played over exceedingly badly. Some Malay nationalists were outraged that Christians were allowed at all in Malaysia - and all fumed over seemingly preferable British treatment. In contrast, refugees that somehow fled to Communist-held zones did surprisingly well, largely because the MNLA wanted anyone they could get and because they were often accompanied by North Japanese medics and doctors, including several Malaysia campaign veterans of the Second World War. The British were sometimes shocked by the sophistication of the weapons used by MNLA, which included both Type 89 land mortars (made in North Japan) and SVT-40 rifles (also made in North Japan). Although they lacked an air force or armor, they were able to inflict hideous losses on unprepared Anglo-Malay infantry that wandered into the wrong part of the jungle.

Malay nationalists were further outraged by the British decision to detach North Borneo, Sarawak, and Brunei. Fearing that the civil war in Indonesia would quickly spill over into North Borneo, Churchill took it on himself to reorganize North Borneo and safeguard it against Communism. Knowing that the local population widely preferred the rule of the White Rajah to British colonial rule. Churchill was also under the antiquated impression that any such ruler would naturally be amenable to British domination (after all, he was "white"!). After pleading with him to return, Charles Vyner Brooke returned as the restored King of Sarawak. Sarawak and Brunei were then placed in a loose federation with the Crown Colony of North Borneo (renamed the Crown Colony of Sabah) to create the Federation of North Borneo, which was treated as a semi-dominion, much like the concurrent British-created Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

Tunku Abdul Rahman was long under the impression that North Borneo would be reunited with Malaya. The move convinced him that the British, much like the Communists, could not be trusted to safeguard the interests of Malaysia's bumiputera - that the goal of the British was to divide and rule Malaysia forever. Churchill and Tunku grew to resent each other and as the relationship between the two further worsened, Churchill announced that Britain would be reestablishing racial harmony in Malaysia by reviving the proposed "Equality Constitution" of the Malayan Union. Tunku flatly refused and stated that he would be willing to use his troops to resist. As a result, Churchill green-lighted an operation to remove Tunku from the picture.

On a cold morning, several shockingly well-armed Indo-Malayan veterans of the British WW2 army stormed the capital of Kuala Lumpur. Although a bloody battle ensued, killing many Malay troops, Prime Minister Tunku was able to escape dressed as a British bellboy. The British quickly disavowed the coup attempt, but tried to intervene as mass lynchings and mob violence against Indian Malaysians (mostly urban, unlike the Chinese) convulsed the nation. Aware of India's role in Burma, British troops used deadly force to subdue Malay mobs, further alienating the Malay government. The Constitution was not amended. Their role in protecting Indian-Malaysians quickly further alienated the Malay population, who (correctly) concluded that the failed coup was a British plot.

By New Years on 1955, the MNLA was clearly in a secure position, but had little hopes of actually completely taking over the nation, largely because Tunku's Federation of Malaysia government was basically lending absolutely no meaningful support to the British. The British couldn't defeat the MNLA in an offensive, but the MNLA could not undertake an offensive, because then it'd have to fight both British and Malay troops. The MNLA reached out to the British and Tunku to sue for peace terms. Although the peace conference at Baling seemed to be going nowhere and all parties expected it to simply fail as a formality, the events of 1955 would quickly shock all three participants.
---
[1] OTL, he helped competently organize Britain's response to the Emergency. IITL, he's fighting in Burma, so the British are...less good at counter-insurgency.
[2] Same, which helps butterfly out the OTL Briggs Plan, which means a stronger MNLA insurgency inthe jungle.

 

[TastySpam]

The 1952 US Presidential Primaries
​

The 1952 Democratic Primary started with a bang. On a cold March evening, the newspapers all ran the same head-line - shockers in New Hampshire: Not only did Senator Paul Douglas shock the nation with an upset against President Russell, winning 55-45% and carrying all 8 pledged delegates, Douglas MacArthur carried New Hampshire by an even wider margin, 54-38-8 against Bob Taft and former nominee Earl Warren (running as a hopeful compromise candidate).

However, President Russell ultimately benefited from staunch support from organized labor, who saw him as their man. even if he did not win most of the primary states. However, MacArthur and Taft would continue trading states, with MacArthur carrying Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Oregon, Taft carrying Wisconsin, Illinois, his native Ohio, Nebraska, and Kansas, Warren carrying his native California, and Pennsylvania....not actually be clear (eventually, a recount found that MacArthur won by 53 votes).

Taft entered the convention the overwhelming favorite, but polling had started to turn against the Republican Party. While more or less refusing to engage with Senator Paul Douglas, Senator Russell instead focused his attacks on Taft, who he expected to be the nominee. Worst of all for Taft, allies of Russell (Russell himself claimed no knowledge and the historical record is mixed on whether he knew), launched one of the most infamous negative campaign ads in American history. Clark Clifford, the Democratic strategist who famously told Wallace that Civil Rights wouldn’t harm his re-elect campaigns, decided that it was better to “Wallacize” the Republicans.

A widely played radio ad in the Summer of 1952, targeted Taft on Taft-Hartley, opposition to Barkleycare, and his Housing Act, by singing a faux-cheery jingle to Americans: “Taft for President♪~ a ban on union labour! Taft for President♪~ no visits to the doctor! Taft for President♪~ a n***** for a neighbor!”

Much to the horror of the Republican Party, the jingle proved remarkably catchy to American voters. Indeed, on the eve of the Republican Convention, President Russell and Senator Douglas had surged to 9 and 2 points respectively ahead of Senator Taft. A Republican Party that once felt victory in 1952 was inevitable began to panic.

The 1952 presidential conventions were the first party conventions televised - and Americans were horrified at what they saw from both parties. The Republican Convention was first and Americans were treated to videos of Taft and MacArthur delegates screaming at each other, often with personal invectives about communism. The most militant of the MacArthur delegates weren’t actually establishment types, but rather the minority of trade unionists who worked with the Republican Party, who loathed Taft. The Republican convention went on for 7 rounds of voting, which failed to end when Douglas MacArthur refused a deal, proferred by some supporters who were more anti-Taft than pro-MacArthur, where the convention would compromise with a Warren/MacArthur ticket. The last ballot saw 575 votes for Taft, 520 for MacArthur, and 111 for Warren. When Warren dropped out in frustration, the ballot still ended in 593 for Taft, 580 for MacArthur, and 23 for Warren. Finally, the voting ended with one of the most influential speeches of American history.

Speaking to the convention and an entire nation glued to the T.V. screen, a young Wisconsin Senator known for his moderation on labour issues (thus the MacArthur campaign scheduling him to speak), Senator Joseph McCarthy, presented that he had a list of "205 members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring” that were infiltrating both political parties. Although not castigating MacArthur himself, McCarthy subtly hinted that there may be “dark red forces” animating the division at the convention. However, the bulk of his vitriol was directed at President Russell, who he lambasted repeatedly as a “Ku Klux Communist.” In response to his speech, the Wisconsin delegation crossed over from MacArthur to Taft - and much of the Warren holdouts followed. Outraged, MacArthur left the convention and refused to give a concession speech. The Convention then narrowly nominated Senator Taft for President (646-550), while nominating Joseph McCarthy as Vice-President by a much larger margin.

The Democratic Convention was far less contentious, though even nastier. At the end of the day however, Douglas’s liberal uprising was squashed from the start despite his primary performance. The chair of the convention, John Sparkman was thoroughly in Russell’s camp, regularly denying the right of Douglas supporters to speak and make amendments. Things finally boiled to a heat when Douglas supporters tried to forcibly seize a microphone from several Russell partisans, leading to a fist-fight on the convention floor that grew larger and larger. More notably, one rather elderly South Carolina delegate took out his cane and started beating a young Massachusetts delegate who missed a swing at him to a bloody pulp on national television. Republicans were of course, delighted in what they called the “Caning of Delegate Sumner.” Regardless, the convention renominated President Russell by a 841-489 margin. Many angry Douglas nominees stormed out, insisting that the “DNC stole the election.” After all, Douglas had won most of the voting states. Indeed, Senator Douglas himself was outraged and a week later would announce an independent bid for the presidency, much like Henry Wallace’s bid in 1948. However, this time running under what he called the “Freedom Democratic Party.”

After the turmoil of both conventions, the two Presidential campaigns were ready to duke it out. Taft had recovered remarkably in the polls. Before the conventions, Russell had led Taft 54-45. After the conventions, the Richard Russell/Estes Kefauver ticket and the Robert Taft/Joe McCarthy ticket were neck and neck at 47-47, with the Paul Douglas/Herbert Lehman ticket trailing at 6.

 

[TastySpam]

I'll make a wikibox for this when I get the chance.

The Himalayan War and Hindi-Chini Bhai-Bhai​

The Chinese invasion of Tibet coincided with another war - the war between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir region. The Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir was majority Muslim region, but ruled by a Hindu. Despite the British Raj being divided on religious lines (roughly speaking), the Hindu ruler of Jammu and Kashmir chose to integrate with India. Although India at first claimed that the religion of a ruler was irrelevant to whether it would go to India or Pakistan, as shown by their invasion of the Muslim-ruled Hyderabad Deccan, they reversed their position and claimed that the wishes of the ruler of Kashmir had to be respected.

Opinions in Pakistan were hardened by blatant Indian hypocrisy. However, Indian positions were also hardened after their invasion of Kashmir immediately resulted in mass ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Hindus. Although many innocent Muslims were murdered in Hyderabad, the situation in Kashmir seemed to go beyond that, with the Hindu population being actively chased out of the entire region. The two powers were both ready for war. Indian and Pakistani forces clashed inconclusively in Kashmir, with almost 10,000 soldiers killed between the two sides (mostly Pakistani, as the Pakistani offensive ground to a halt, leaving 2/3rds of Kashmir in Indian control).

In contrast, KMT troops largely crushed Tibetan troops whenever they engaged in open battle. Fearing that KMT troops, especially those of Muslim origin serving under the Ma warlords, would wreak terrible vengeance on Tibetan cities, members of the Tibetan military and nobility seized control in Lhasa, announced the supposed elevation of the 14th Dalai Lama to temporal power, and negotiated with the KMT on his behalf. Ironically, many of these nobles had been the ones to advocate resistance against the Chinese. The deal they hammered out was significantly worse for Tibetan autonomy than the one originally offered. Chamdo Province for example, was permanently severed from Tibet Province.

In addition, in a bid to limit both Tibetan autonomy and charm the British (whose objections to the invasion of Tibet were noted), the Chinese drafted an entirely new Constitution for the new State of Tibet, which was to be an “integral permanent subdivision of the Chinese Republic.“ The Tibetan interim Constitution was a strange mix of Chinese Republicanism, British parliamentarism, and the Tibetan dual system of government. The Ganden Phodrang was officially abolished and the Dalai Lama was reduced to a mere constitutional monarch. Furthermore, a bicameral Parliament was granted the power to govern internal Tibetan affairs. The Constitution was drafted in cooperation with many of these Tibetan nobles, so the upper house, also named the Kashag (after the ruling council of Tibet) was seated mostly of Buddhist clergy, with a small percentage reserved for pro-KMT Imams (in a nod to the Chinese casus belli). The lower house, the Provincial Assembly was in theory democratically elected, but the districts were drawn by Tibetan nobles with rotten boroughs to ensure that the Tibetan landed gentry would control almost all of the seats and the ability to elect their own desi (regent). All of these clergy and nobles would join the new “Kuomintang, Tibet Province Branch”, which of course, was completely new and had little to do with the rest of the KMT. The KMT got what it wanted. The nobles and clergy of Tibet got what they wanted. The Dalai Lama didn’t, but who cared at the time what a 13 year-old boy thought?

A month earlier, in August 1948, a UN Resolution condemned both sides of the ROC-Tibet conflict, the Tibetans for their religious persecution of Muslims and the Chinese for their invasion. The bill passed unanimously in the UN Security Council except with one dissenting vote - China, which vetoed the resolution. The Chinese, in a retaliatory mood, were convinced by Nehru to veto the next resolution on the docket - a call for India and Pakistan to agree to a cease-fire and later allow for a plebiscite in Kashmir to decide territorial control.[1] Kashmir was majority-Muslim (even more so after the Kashmiri Pandits fled), so India would almost certainly lose any such plebiscite. After Chinese victory in Tibet, Nehru kept in close contact with Chiang Kai-Shek, most notably signing the secret Menon-Sun protocols.[2] Chiang didn’t particularly care about adding more land to the ROC outside of core China, but he felt Aksai Chin, near the Soviet Union, was strategically important to foil any Soviet incursion into Sinkiang or Tibet. China agreed to drop its claim on Arunachal Pradesh, India dropped its claim on Aksai Chin and the Trans-Karakoram Tract, and the two parties agreed to work together to ensure Chinese sovereignty over Tibet and India sovereignty over all of Jammu and Kashmir outside of Aksai Chin. China had thus also secured total Indian and British support for its rule in Tibet.

In early January, egged on by strong covert Chinese support, Indian forces walked away from a cease-fire, choosing to fire General Roy Bucher, who had cautioned restraint. Pakistani losses aside, they had gained almost half of Kashmir’s territory in their offensive - Defense Minister Menon wanted it back. General Cariappa was going to be appointed, but he threatened to resign unless Nehru went back to the peace table, feeling that Menon was excessively interfering politically.[3] Under Chiang Kai-Shek’s advice, Nehru and Menon rejected that, so the position went instead to S.M. Shrinagesh. British officers and troops had served on both sides of the war, hoping to keep the war more limited. Menon rejected this approach. British air and artillery assets refused to aid, so Indian forces were forced to rely on a large infantry offensive. In a massive infantry offensive, Indian forces swarmed to attack Pakistani positions. Although Indian forcse quickly advanced against Pakistani irregulars, Pakistani regulars (with British aerial and artillery support) quickly turned the situation around, with Indians taking hideous losses and the bulk of the Indian Army was pushed back, cut off from supplies, and surrounded in Mirpur.

Nehru began to contemplate surrender as most of the world was shocked at Pakistan’s shock victory against India. Defense Minister V.K. Menon had other plans, however. Working around Nehru, Menon ordered the recruitment of as many former Indian National Army soldiers as possible in his drive to take all of Kashmir. Inspired by the refusal of Indian troops trapped in Mirpur to actually surrender, legions signed up. Chiang Kai-Shek also loaded off many unnecessary weapons at a discount price, as they were no longer needed from the Chinese Civil War. The INA veteranas were trained in cannier tactics, inspired by the Japanese, involving infiltration squads, widespread uses of knee mortars, and night-time attacks. The then-celebrating Anglo-Pakistani forces were taken by complete surprise as they concluded that the Indian Army was both shredded and had no way of supplying another large offensive. However, they were not aware of the INA veteran recruitment, nor was the world aware at the time that Chiang Kai-Shek had supplied the Indian Army through Aksai Chin in order to prove to Nehru the benefits of Chinese sovereignty there. Even though Indian forces took ever worse losses while charging Pakistani positions from all sides, Anglo-Pakistani forces were completely chased out of Kashmir proper. After linking up with the trapped army in Mirpur, Indian forces quickly fortified the western borders of Jammu and Kashmir in preparation for a Pakistani counter-attack. Pakistani forces retreated to both the north (Gilgit and Baltistan) and the West.

It was of course at that moment that Chiang Kai-Shek declared the war “over”, issuing an ultimatum to both sides to cease fighting (the Indians were of course aware that this "ultimatum" would arrive as soon as India achieved its goals). India immediately relented and agreed to the ceasefire it had previously. The Pakistanis were shocked at what they saw as blatant Chinese meddling in India's favor, but they were pressured by their British allies to agree, as the British sought to keep good relations with China and did not want to see the war further escalate. The Pakistanis agreed under duress, instead claiming that taking control of Baltistan and Gilgit, and inflicting hideous casualties on the Indian Army meant Pakistani "won." However, the Indians thought differently, celebrating the shock victory of the Fall Offensive. In retrospect, the Fall Offensive was merely the Indians barely managing to avoid total catastrophe, trading tens of thousands of lives for marginally more territory in the Kashmir. However, among internal elites of the Indian National Congress, the victory elevated the position of Defense Minister V.K. Menon, while diminishing that of Nehru, who had almost thrown in the towel.[4] Chiang Kai-shek was also strengthened, as he used Indo-Pakistani compliance to claim at home that China had once again become a Great Power.
---
[1] OTL, this resolution obviously passed.
[2] Between V.K. Menon and Sun Li-Jen.
[3] OTL, he was appointed and banned INA members from the new army.
[4] The territorial difference here from the OTL War is that the Line of Control for India includes most of what is OTL Azad Kashmir, which is small, but heavily populated.

 

[TastySpam]

Wikibox for the Indo-Pakistani War​

 

[TastySpam]

The Political Aftermath of the Himalayan War (China)
​

Chiang Kai-Shek in particular declared that China's meditation of the Indo-Pakistani War heralded the return of China as a great power. Of course, he knew that China was far behind the West and even Japan/Korea in living standards and other measures of advancement, but at least as a diplomatic power, it was a great power, alongside the UK, USA, USSR, and France. Having seen the horrifying power of the atomic bomb bring Imperial Japan to its knees, Chiang immediately secured funding for a civilian nuclear program, specifically hoping that it would eventually lead to nuclear weapons capability. The United Kingdom was rather skeptical of handing out nuclear capability to any other party, even one they had cordial relationships with (such as ROC).[1] Instead in 1949, both Israeli and Chinese scientists visited the Saclay Nuclear Research Centre south of Paris, which marked the beginning of a fruitful nuclear partnership between the three nations.[2]

With the 1948 Legislative Yuan elections slightly delayed until after the Tibetan War, forces loyal to Chiang scored an even better than expected landslide. However, what became quickly obvious was that many of the local representatives were largely loyal first not to political parties, but to their political patrons in their respective home areas. For example, if Chiang wanted the votes of the the representatives from Shaanxi Province, the best way to acquire them was to give a call to Yan Xishan. Representatives loyal to Chiang controlled just under half of the seats in the Legislative Yuan, so it was fairly simple for Chiang to accomplish his agenda. The former warlords quickly became known as the "Kuomintang Oligarchs", a title taken from the Meiji Oligarchs of Japan. In many ways, the politics of KMT China was a remarkably close approximation of Meiji Japan, as a rivalry, discussion, and conflict between various oligarchs responsible for their victory in a civil war. In both nations, these oligarchs held power through personal prestige and deep clientalistic connections in their home regions, being continually re-elected with only token opposition. After all, running against your local political machine and oligarch was professional and political suicide.

In the postwar era, besides Li Zongren (Vice President of China) and Sun Fo (Speaker of the Legislative Yuan), these "oligarchs" were largely permanently re-elected governors: Yan Xishan (Shaanxi), Cheng Qian (Hunan), Bai Chongxi (Guangxi), Ma Hongkui (Ningxia), Ma Bufang (Qinghai), Ma Buqing (Gansu), Long Yun (Yunnan), and Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme (Xikang). A different group of oligarchs made themselves permanent fixtures of the national bureaucracy, such as H.H. Kung in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and T.V. Soong in the Ministry of Finance. Alongside Speaker Sun Fo and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Wellington Koo, the Fo-Koo-Kung-Soong group quickly became known as the "bourgeoisie clique", known for their liberal political and economic views, and pro-Western foreign policy. With their combined role in the KMT civil service, they often restrained Chiang's more anti-colonial and socialistic impulses, though they did lose several notable fights (such as when Chiang went over their heads to institute land reform or strengthen relations with Nehru).

Although most former Communist-controlled provinces were still under martial law, such as Shandong, Henan, and Shaanxi, and most other areas were core-KMT (Chiang) strongholds, a few areas had genuine peaceful electoral contests for power, such as the major cities (such as Shanghai) as well as Guizhou, a diverse province in the Southwest.
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[1] The British are aware that Hong Kong might become a problem.
[2] OTL, this was just an Israeli-French thing.

 

[TastySpam]

The People's Republic of Pakistan
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In the aftermath of the Kashmir War, relations between India and the United Kingdom fell to a new nadir. Nehru. The defeat of Anglo-Pakistani forces and the fact that British diplomats basically had to fly to India, groveling for the release of British officers, was a humiliating spectacle that highlighted the failure of Clement Attlee's India policy. This was one of many reasons that led to Winston Churchill's 1950 victory. However, Nehru and Churchill further detested each other, as Nehru was familiar with Churchill's wartime persecution of the Indian National Congress. Nehru however, felt in a position to dictate terms, and he relished it. Churchill, to his credit, did not allow his personal feelings about Nehru get in the way of his dealings with India. Nehru openly threatened Churchill, claiming that he would provide logistical suport to the Communist rebels in Burma if Churchill didn't cut all military ties with Pakistan. When Nehru agreed to release all captured British officers, Churchill agreed, and the British military cut off Pakistan.

The abandonment of the British shocked the Pakistani army. They quickly found themselves with no friends. China had clearly thrown it lots in with Nehru and the British had abandoned Pakistan. Prime Minister Ali Khan quickly found himself under attack on all sides. When Nehru reneged on the cease-fire deal by refusing to hold a plebiscite in Kashmir - instead arresting and beating protesters who demanded one, Ali Khan's political support fell even lower in the military, who lambasted his "peace policy." Ali Khan turned instead to the United States, but when US-backed forces stormed the eastern coasts of Saudi Arabia, Muslim clergyman also denounced him. Similarly, leftists had detested him from the start. In desperation, Ali Khan turned to the Soviet Union for support, but this simply turned the Americans against him, seeking to remove him. In 1951, a US-backed assassin shot at Ali Khan, injuring him but not killing him.[1] While he recuperated, a group of military officers led by Akbar Khan declared him "unable to act" and "removed from office."[2] Khan then also removed Governor-General Nazimuddin, immediately taking office himself as President of Pakistan, appointing his close allies in charge of the President. Ali Khan was quickly put under house arrest.

Khan was most strongly backed by Marxists such as Faiz Ahmad Faiz and Sajjad Zaheer, whose intellectual influence ensured that all of Pakistan's newspapers celebrated the new Khan reigme. Commander-in-Chief Ayub Khan, who opposed the coup, fled the country, while Iskander Mirza vacillated and supported the coup once it was clear that it was a success. Although Khan was a West Pakistani with very little love towards the East Bengalis, Pakistan's Communists were largely concentrated in East Bengal. As a result, while Ali Khan became President, the Bengali Iskander Mirza became Army Chief of Staff. The Bengali Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, who was conservative but allied to the Communist Party in East Bengal, became Prime Minister in a contested vote, defeating the also Bengali Khawaja Nazimuddin. His mother-in-law, Jahanara Shahnawaz, was then elected Vice-Prime Minister. Khan was remarkably ambitious and egotistical, but cared more about being in charge than actually what specific domestic policies were implemented, leaving most of the intricacies to Suhrawardy. Khan was instead mono-manically focused on building up an army large enough to take back Kashmir from India. With a keen understanding that he depended on support from East Bengal, when language protests broke out that year across the province as to what the national language of Pakistan would be, Khan relented from the plan to make Urdu the sole national language, instead making Urdu and Bengali co-equal national languages. With these, Bengali politicians quickly became a bedrock of support for the regime. In contrast, the Jamaat-e-Islami movement quickly became Khan's greatest enemy, viewing his Communist-backed regime was an even greater threat than Ali Khan. They hated his "pandering" to the East Pakistanis, who the Islamists degraded as "less than pure" Muslims. Although Khan regularly preached about the Islamic nature of his regime, many Islamists remained unconvinced.

Although neither Khan nor Suhrawardy were Communists, they took advantage of support from the Communist Party, immediately opening up relations with the Soviet Union. The situation in Afghanistan turned to panic, as they viewed themselves now surrounded by "Communist powers." Prime Minister Shah Mahmud Khan was quickly sacked and replaced with the more pro-Soviet Mohammed Daoud Khan. Soviet development aid came rushing in (coming through Iran and Afghanistan), outraging the British. Churchill concluded that the Soviets had finally acquired their warm water port, and that it was necessary to take out the leaders of all three countries. Pakistani Army officer Yahya Khan launched a coup, funded by the British and Americans, but he failed and died. Indeed, Churchill's fears came true - the Soviet Union quickly used Pakistan as a way to secretly funnel military support to the Communist rebels in Burma (ie, for every 9 guns the Pakistani Army gave over to the Burmese Communists, the Soviets would gift 10 into Pakistan). Under Soviet tutelage, the Pakistanis were instructed to station more troops in East Bengal than West Pakistan, because this allowed the Soviets to covertly ship the maximum amount of arms to Burma. To assuage fears of India, the Soviets promised to aid the Pakistanis in any case of a military confrontation with India in West Pakistan, but this was not widely known, so many West Pakistanis felt neglected by the government, especially those in Baluchistan. In addition, the formidable Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence grew even more formidable, with direct coaching from the Soviet KGB, East German Stasi, and Japanese MIPA (North Japanese foreign aid dramatically ramped up as well.) This was greatly appreciated by Khan, but the KGB also slowly worked to cleanse the Pakistani ISI of anti-Communists, unbeknownst to Khan. Regardless, this arrangement was genuinely pleasing to Pakistan's military establishment, who saw their military power expand.

In 1952, Pakistan decided to sever its last official ties with the British, choosing to even leave the Commonwealth. The 1952 Constitution declared the founding of the "People's Republic of Pakistan", a "parliamentary democracy founded on the principles of Islamic socialism." Although at first diplomatically isolated, Pakistan would soon find ideological comrades in other Muslim states, such as Iran's Mossadegh, Afghanistan's Daoud Khan, and Syria's Afif al-Bizri.
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[1] Ali Khan died OTL.
[2] This failed OTL.

 

[TastySpam]

Posting from ultra-slow Chinese internet.

1952 Elections, USA
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Although Robert Taft remained the standard bearer of the Republican Party, his favorables among the voting public remained terrible as a result of the sustained radio attack campaign against him by the Democratic Party. As a result, Republican Party handlers opted instead to place Senator McCarthy in the limelight instead, although it quickly became an open secret that his handlers had to keep him under watch 24/7 in order to force him to quit his drinking habit.[1]

The Democratic strategy was largely to target many traditionally Republican suburbs in America, especially those in California and and the Midwest, claiming that Taft's public housing policies would flood the suburbs with African-Americans. In order to neutralize the threat of the "Freedom Democratic Party", Democrats claimed that any vote against President Russell was a vote for Taft's plan to eliminate Americare (the new name they eventually settled on was Russellcare -r "Rustlecare.") Democrats hoped that the hostility of organized labour towards Taft would keep their core constituencies in check.

The Republicans aimed on campaigning on a mixture of anti-Communism and civil rights, finding that McCarthy's attacks of "Ku Klux Communism" proved shockingly effective. However, their messaging on foreign policy proved fairly inconsistent. Taft flip-flopped on American membership in NATO, opposing it at first, supporting it later after outrage from large swaths of the GOP, and then opposing it again after anger from much of his own paleoconservative political base. However, the charge of "Ku Klux Communism" became difficult for Russell to shake. Feeling anti-Communism would keep America's suburbs in line, Taft and McCarthy spent much of their time campaigning in the American South, banking that a surge among African-Americans would flip many of the less solidly Democratic Southern states into the Republican column, such as Virginia, Florida, Tennessee, and others. Much of America's military establishment was split based on whether they opposed Russell's segregationism or Taft's non-interventionism more. Despite a wide gap in foreign policy between the two, the issue was rarely discussed outside of polemic terms, with Republicans putting forward mixed messages, unsure whether to attack Russell as a Soviet fellow traveler or a white supremacist European colonialist. They did both.

The Douglas campaign found itself squished on both sides by both parties, insofar as the Democratic establishment spent all of its time trying to utterly crush the insurgency. In the industrial north, enforcers affiliated with local labour unions regularly showed up to harass and attack organizers for the Douglas campaign. In the South, the treatment was even worse, with several Douglas campaign volunteers even going missing. Federal investigations would officially confirm only decades later what many suspects: that these operatives, mostly being transplants from the North, were kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by local KKK members for trying to organize black voters. Republicans did nothing to actually stop this violence, feeling that highlighting the violence of the Democrats would turn off voters, which was an accurate prediction. Many Democrats were personally appalled, but unwilling to criticize the conduct of their party during the partisan trench wars of the elections. Instead, they planned on castigating Russell after his expected defeat, campaigning to bring the Democratic Party into the "light of civil rights", as Senator Humphrey of Minnesota whispered to his co-conspirators.

As election night rolled in, Republican expectations of a surge among black voters turned into slow creeping disappointment. Robert Taft had clearly improved among black voters. However, the result was much less than expected. In the two-party vote (excluding third parties), Wallace had defeated Dewey among black voters 71-19 [2]. A later analysis would show that black voters ultimately did vote to re-elect President Russell, who had won black voters against Taft and Douglas respectively, 59% to 28% and 13%. In contrast, Russell had managed to mount a surprisingly strong offense in California and Michigan, both which went narrowly for Dewey in 1948.

After polls had closed, radio announcers had called most of the states. For Russell went the entire South, outside of a few states, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Minnesota, New Mexico, and Illinois. This brought him up to 207 electoral votes. Taft had 194 electoral votes, while Pennsylvania (32), California (32), Michigan (20), Wisconsin (12), Virginia (12), Florida (10), Delaware (4), and Maryland (9) appeared contested. 266 electoral votes would be sufficient to elect a president.

Taft looked like he might be actually completely shut out of the South, with his hopes in Virginia being dashed as the votes of the nascent military-industrial complex went almost entirely to Russell, cancelling out his Taft's improvement among blacks. Tennessee, the home state of Russell's running mate, Estes Kefauver, narrowly tilted towards the Democratic Party. However, Taft's black outreach was rewarded with victories in Maryland, Delaware, and Florida. This brought the total to Russell 219, Taft 216. The battleground states of Pennslyvania and California quickly tilted towards - with the Republican political machine in the Philadlephia suburbs carrying the day, while new upwardly mobile suburbanites in California recoiled at Taft's housing plan and tilted from Dewey to Russell. This put the toll to Russell 251, Taft 248.

A few days after the election, the results were clear. President Russell, once marked as a lame duck President, had won re-election. Reviled by both liberals and blacks, Russell had nevertheless secured most of their votes anyways as Michigan, where the Democratic coalition had been bolstered by revolting suburbanites near booming Detroit alongside its strength with organized labour. Although Wisconsin, home state of Senator McCarthy would tilt towards Taft a day later, the election was decided by Michigan's choice of Russell, bringing his total to 271 electoral votes.

The results were seen as almost catastrophic for the Republican Party. Despite controlling most of the nation's state houses and the Congress, the GOP had once again failed to wrest the White House from Democrats, who had won their 6th straight presidential victory. This was also seen as a defeat for Paul Douglas - his left-wing insurgent campaign had managed the best third-party performance since Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, but had failed to win a single state. If anything, some have suggested that he might have cost the election for Robert Taft, because post-election polls are generally mixed on whether he took more votes away from Taft or Russell.

Republicans actually padded their House majority despite doing slightly worse in 1952 than 1950 in terms of the popular vote, largely because the Republican victory in 1950 allowed them to gerrymander congressional lines in their favor. Their Senate majority suffered, but this was largely due to 1952 coming six-years after the massive Republican landslide in 1946. Republicans did well in the Senate races, but not as well as they did in 1946, leading to losses in the Senate. This all led to a Republican party that was in no mood to compromise with the winning President, who had been elected with the smallest share of the popular vote of any president since Woodrow Wilson, with the largest popular vote gap since Rutherford B. Hayes, thanks to Taft's ability to win more black voters in Solidly Southern states without flipping them. The years between 1953-1957 would quickly exceed the previous four in the viciousness of partisan warfare and division, especially with regards to the Supreme Court.
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[1] OTL, I believe his alcoholism hastened his 1954 death.
[2] OTL, I believe it was 72-18, but Dewey did a little better ITL than OTL.

 

[TastySpam]

I'm attaching these manually because imgur doesn't work where I am.