The Partitioning of Hawaii

[The Kiat]

15) Maui War

Open conflict between the United States and Soviet Union began on February 17, 1958, when the U.S. 7th Fleet launched its strike against the Red Navy steaming from Kauai. In one swift air and missile strike, the United States delivered to Russia its worse naval defeat in history, all but annihilating their naval forces. The Soviets were not without their own wins; bombers based in Kauai launched their own missiles at the U.S. Fleet, sinking the U.S.S. Gettysburg, as well as 3 destroyers.

Shortly after their sortie, British and French bombers flown out of their own respected islands pounded Kauai. Though they did not completely destroy Soviet air power in the islands, they did crater the runways bad enough to ground the Red Air Force. With British ground forces busily fighting in the Maui, it was up to the United States Marine Corps to neutralize the Red menace in Kauai. With both sides tied up fighting in Germany, only a single division of Marines was used for the invasion. The division was nearly lost before reaching the island.

Soviet defenses around the islands chewed away at the oncoming invasion, sinking three transports and killing thousands of Marines out at sea. Despite these losses, the Americans still managed to land on the island. The local Soviet commander, at the urging of his political officer, met the invasion at the beaches. U.S. and allied air power maintained air superiority over Kauai, and aided in pushing the Soviets back into the countryside. After a fierce four day battle, the American flag flew over Fort Elizabeth.

War outside of the Hawaiian Islands escalated to the point, that by March, both sides were well into strategic bombing campaigns of the other’s country with conventional weapons. Attempts at mediation by neutral powers, or compromises over Maui in the U.N. have been rejected by both sides. In 1958, the Superpowers were intent on slugging it out. Even embargoes against the warring states proved of little use, since these same states supplied those issuing the embargoes much of their manufactured goods.

 

[Falastur]

Still enjoying the story, though I must admit to being slightly incredulous that the British could be so slow to respond to an insurrection as to make absolutely no response whatsoever before the entire island was captured, when they had possibly their biggest naval base only miles away as well as an entire division of infantry PLUS the historically virulently anti-Soviet Americans too. I mean, if they had little commitment on the islands or nearby sure, but they have so many redundant troops on their Hawaiian bases that you would suspect that the British could send a regiment to Maui just to give them something to do, even if London privately thinks that the entire rebellion is a joke and stands no chance of success. I mean, there can't be that many jobs to take up the time of an entire division of infantry plus an entire fleet of naval vessels. And as mentioned there are also the US troops, who - if OTL history is any guide - won't be particularly interested in waiting for official UK approval before deploying troops in any anti-communist endeavours.

 

[The Kiat]

I guess I should research a little into the whole Granada ordeal. How long did it take for that Red regime to get ousted?

Also, given that so many nuclear powers are based in this island chain, I'd have to agree that the response should be quicker, and maybe a little more excessive.

 

[The Kiat]

16) Firestorm

The first atomic bomb used in the “Maui War” was dropped by the Soviet Union in Europe. Their limited assault destroyed logistical areas in Germany as well as NATO headquarters in Brussels. The War in the Pacific was brought to a speedy resolution by the American counterattack. Taking full advantage of being on the winning edge of the bomber and missile gap, the United States retaliated with overwhelming response, though not enough to destroy all the Soviet weapons. Seven American cities, as well as fourteen NATO cities were destroyed. The Soviet Union and its puppets lost one hundred seven cities, as well as nearly forty million dead. The United Nations condemned the US response as excessive.

Remaining Soviet forces in Kauai surrendered short after their own government collapsed. The destruction of the Soviet Union was met with a mixed reaction by the Kauaians. Many of the natives, whose great-grandparents were exiled, managed to return to their homeland. The land had changed greatly. No longer was Kauai a Polynesian island, but rather a Russian one. The immigrants were pleased to see the repression of the old system lifted, but the island’s economy depended greatly upon Party bosses vacationing in the tropical clime. Their money was soon replaced by American soldiers who garrisoned the island as a new provisional government was established.

With the Soviet Union in ruins, the Hammer of Maui lost most of his supply line. The British forced the Mauian King to grant amnesty to those revolutionaries who surrendered. This dwindled the Red forces in the island kingdom to the point that, by 1960, George Hammer and his diehard followers were trapped and killed by British and Royal Mauian forces. Though the Maui War caused a great deal of destruction around the world, the islands where it started survived with minimum damage. Not a single nuclear warhead was used in the island chain.

 

[The Kiat]

Pardon the ending... my computer's starting to fail on me, and I just want to get it wrapped up before something crashes real bad.


17) The Fate of the Islands

American occupation of Kauai turned the island from a communist vacation resort into a capitalist one. Though not as popular or beautiful as the other islands, Kauai offered a strange lure, one that allowed average Americans to live like Soviet Party Bosses. In 1976, The Republic of Kauai was established, in an economic union with the United States. Over a century of Russian rule left the island a shadow of its former self. In the 1980s, ecological restoration projects were attempted, in effort to return Kauai to its former beauty.

The island of Oahu remained a British colony, along with Gibraltar and the Falklands throughout the 20th Century. Its capital of Victoria, and especially Waikiki, attract millions of tourists each year. Tourist supplanted sugarcane as the island’s dominant industry. As British world power waned, the United State Navy’s presence in Pearl Harbor grew, until it was the premier American base in the eastern Pacific.

The Kingdom of Maui had its monarchy restored following the Maui War. In 1970, the islanders voted to keep their monarchy in a failed republican referendum. Maui has a multiparty parliamentary democracy, though the Communist Party is outlawed. Maui’s own economy continues to trail behind the British and French. Tourists flock to Maui, though the island has no international airport of its own.

The island of Hawaii has long since been an overseas department of the French Republic. By the 1950s, the Kingdom of Kohala was quietly brought into the French fold. Though deprived of their independence, the Kohalans were extended the rights of French citizens. The Kohalan King went into self-imposed exile on Molokai. The department’s capital of St. Charles is the third largest city in the island chain, behind Victoria and a second Hawaiian city, Hilo. Hilo’s population is largely composed of former French colonials from Indochina.