The Ride of the Foxleys

A-4? Guarded by British troops until the settlement.

GALCIT? A prominent member is fired over sexual irregularities, and dies in an explosion of a prototype fuel.

Which prominent member?

“What was that speech he made at the rally in Brooklyn yesterday? ‘The State Department is infested with Nazis! I have here in my hand a list of 205 names — a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of America First, the American Nazi Party, and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department!’ That man can’t be trusted!”

“Mr. Speaker, he did do a lot to discredit Lindbergh and his lot. That claim that the Nazis had engineered the kidnapping of his boy to get him to cooperate with them really cut the ground from under him.”

“That was still a damned low blow.”

So a left-wing McCarthy? Also evidently a dick--the kidnapping was in 1932! The Nazis weren't in power yet! (And other things)

Also, does this mean that the election has been decided after all?
 
Which prominent member?
Presumably John Whiteside Parsons, the only one to die in an explosion and the only one to have a wild sex life (among other things...).
Of course, they did have two alleged Communist agents (one who attended meetings, got stripped of his passport and helped found the Kinetic art movement, and one who didn't- but thanks to his persecution by the Americans he went to Mao and helped create the PRC Space Program.). The most ordinary guy in the group was named "Apollo" and wore an air-conditioned pith helmet!
And does this mean a delayed JATO and hence delayed SRBs?

SOMEONE needs to do a GALCIT-based AH.
 
Presumably John Whiteside Parsons, the only one to die in an explosion and the only one to have a wild sex life (among other things...).

Ah. You know someone's going to be fun when their entry on a Wikipedia disambiguation page is "American occultist and rocket engineer".

Of course, they did have two alleged Communist agents (one who attended meetings, got stripped of his passport and helped found the Kinetic art movement, and one who didn't- but thanks to his persecution by the Americans he went to Mao and helped create the PRC Space Program.).

Yeah, of course (well, it was composed of a bunch of Caltech academics--what would be surprising would be the lack of Communist "agents"), and who hasn't heard of Tsien?
 
I wonder what kind of damage it shall be when Dickenstein's Soviet ties are revealed. With the hard-right and the hard-left political factions of the U.S. thus discredited, what new extremist faction shall take over?

Strategos' Risk

If I'm reading the last post from Major Major correctly it will be the extremist that took over OTL.;):p Except this time he will be laying into people from both flanks.

Steve
 
Lingayen Gulf, Luzon, Philippines, Tuesday, 9 January 1945

“There Mac goes, posing for the cameras again.”

Then the cynical corporal had to duck when a Jap shot winged a little too close to his helmet.

The Supreme Commander and his court had waded ashore, about an hour after the landings, when the second wave had gone in standing. He looked around, satisfied. His disgrace was being expunged, the results of the battle would be reversed . . . the men he had had to abandon at the selfish and vicious behest of That Man In the White House would be rescued, spared their further suffering.

The hills of Luzon shimmered. Ahead was the road to Manila, to the desolation of Bataan and the charnel-house of Corregidor.


HMS Renown, Phuket Island, Burma, Wednesday, 10th January 1945

“There ‘is Lordship goes, posin’ for the cinema again.”

Then the cynical matelot ducked out of sight, seeing as an officious midshipman had come into view.

Lord Louis Mountbatten watched as the long lines of landing craft delivered the troops of Chambers’s 26th Indian Division to the beaches of the Japanese-occupied island. The bombardment squadron — Queen Elizabeth, Renown, Richelieu, and Italia — had pounded their defences, but fighting was expected to be heavy.

Up above, the Dakotas flew over the fleet, having delivered the Indian Parachute Brigade to the battlefield. More planes, from the escort carriers of Syfret’s squadrons, covered the landing. That little affair with the suicide bombers hadn’t seemed to have got as far south as here.

Beyond Rangoon to the north, Slim was attacking southwards. But Mountbatten no longer thought of that. His concentration now was on Singapore.


Aga Khan Palace, Yerwada, Bombay State, British India, Thursday, 11th January 1945

“There the old fakir goes, posing for the Press again.”

But that was not said, only thought, as none would speak ill of Bapu in public. Instead he was asked: “Where are you going to go now that the Labour government has ended your detention?”

“Now? To Palestine. There is need for nonviolent resistance there more than ever.” The little man drew his scanty garb around his shrunken body, firmed up his gaze, and headed for the bullock-cart he would take to the airport. One has to maintain a certain image.
 
Chamber of the House of Representatives, United States Capitol, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America, Monday, January 15, 1945

“. . . Who constitutes the highest circles of this conspiracy? About that we cannot be sure. Those who made common cause with the Nazi enemies of America remain yet in their boardrooms, their elite clubs, their vast estates, plotting against America . . .”

Sam Rayburn himself was presiding today and he was watching the speech with growing distaste. Back on Saturday he had been summoned to meet the autocrat they called “The Director”. The Director had handed him a stack of typed pages, with many names blacked out and a few phrases cut out.

The Director would have loved to have busted a conspiracy. Agents with tommy guns bursting into these boardrooms, elite clubs, and vast estates, the very places where he was looked down on as just another flatfoot with a bigger beat and delusions of adequacy, taking Big Names away for trial. It would have made taking down the gangsters look petty, made his own name even bigger. And he kept those records. There were wiretaps, there were informers, there were confessions. All of which said the same thing.

The “elite” were not secret (or even overt) Nazis. Those commercial links had been ordinary business links. The properties of the “great industrial conspirators” had been seized by the Nazis when war broke out, had not availed their owners one penny. Even those goods that had supposedly aided the killing program, if you could believe that the Nazis had been stupid enough to tie up men and equipment destroying good workers, had been diverted from reputable causes.

Sure, they got together and grumbled . . . Sam had grumbled, when he thought Franklin was going too far. But their supposed mastermind didn’t exist, and their supposed front man was cowering in his estate on Long Island, not even wanting to answer the door. He didn’t believe that report that Lindbergh was sitting in a darkened room watching Hell’s Angels nonstop . . .

Dies was supposed to block this jackass. He had barely squeaked through in the election; the CIO had made a big fuss about how they were going to take down the enemy of the working man, but they had spent all their money and effort on trying to get Wallace elected. Shows what a good idea that was.

“. . . The Congress of the United States is the people’s last hope, a free and open forum of the people’s representatives. We felt the pulse of the people’s response to the return of Wallace to the political arena. We know what it meant. The people, no longer trusting their executive, turn to us, asking that we reassert the constitutional prerogative of the Congress to declare the policy for the United States.”

He stood up. “The honorable member’s time has expired.”

And, thank God, the little Jew-boy shut his mouth!
 
Old Reichchancellery, Wilhelmsstrasse, Berlin, Germany, 18th January 1945

“Herr Goerdeler.”

The Herr Chef of the occupation was almost too congenial. When he did show up for meetings of the Cabinet, he sat in the back and listened. Some thought he didn’t understand. Unfortunately for them, he did speak German, and a half-dozen other languages. On weekends he would go to the park and paint, or be driven out into the country and see the sights. He was talking about going to Poland for a visit, to see General Carton de Wiart’s estate and “oh yes, those dreadful places where there were all the killings.”

So the Herr Generalfeldmarschall Alexander was quite the puzzle. Now he was meeting with the chancellor of Germany. “I am at your service, Herr Generalfeldmarschall Alexander. What is the purpose of this meeting?”

He made a casual gesture. “Not what you’d quite call a purpose. More in the matter of a enquiry, actually. It’s this issue of these plans for Alarmpolizeigruppen.”

“Herr Generalfeldmarschall und Hochkommissar, I assure you that the plotters will be handed over to the occupational authorities —”

“That will be extraordinarily convenient. After all these Red disturbances, and what with the drawdown and all that, we shall be needing something in the way of an armed force to keep order. You do have to keep the Nazi types out, and that’s the proper devil of a task, so once all the Nazi types are kicked out, we can have a bit of help in keeping the Reds sorted out.”


Chartwell, Kent, United Kingdom, 18th January 1945

“Randolph, you must keep yourself under control. I speak not as a loving father, but as the leader of the Conservative Party.”

The Honourable Randolph Frederick Edward Spencer Churchill, the Honourable Member for Preston by the courtesy of as many voters as would fit into a London Tube car — the election had been damnably close — took a drink before replying. “Those bloody schoolmarms and pansies of Labor will shove us all into the nursery and lock the door. It’s not enough that they crack down on rationing! Now they want to make attendance at the National Health mandatory! Everyone visit the surgery twice a year and have a full check up! It will take some kind of Gestapo to make people do that. I can just hear them shouting, ‘Sieg Health!’”

“Randolph, there are times when it is needful to be diplomatic.” Thus Brendan Bracken, who hadn’t kept his seat. “Your father wanted to say that of the general Labour programme, but it was just a bit too over the top.”

“And there are times when it is necessary to go over the top!”
 
United States Capitol, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America, Saturday, January 20, 1945

“Raise your right hand and repeat after me,” Chief Justice Stone said.

The Senate was still deadlocked. The Republicans just would not vote Democratic, the Democrats would not allow the losers in, and then there were states that weren’t divided. That racist s.o.b. Bilbo kept on voting “Present”, as he said, “Out of respect foah mah loy-al suppotahs.” So McNutt and Bricker stewed, neither in office.

There had been protest marches daily in New York and Los Angeles, on different sides of the issue. And even in Cleveland.

Yes, there had been an organized pressure movement, with telegrams sent from all over the Midwest and Northeast urging representatives to Do the Right Thing and vote for America first, not for an International Entity. The Post had run a big picture on the front page showing trucks with improvised Western Union placards delivering the wires to the Congressmen.

In the end, none of it had mattered. The crowd was uncommonly quiet, the protests were far off and kept down by troops. The worldwide radio audience was listening with as great an interest as those there showed. And so the Chief Justice began:

“‘I, Harry S. Truman . . .’”

“I, Harry S. Truman . . .”

“‘. . . do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States . . .’”

“. . . do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States . . .”

The system had worked. Truman had been chosen by twenty-five states to twenty-one. Some hanger-on of Joe Kennedy had brought out a pamphlet proposing that Truman should have a different kind of presidency, with Bricker as Vice-President and a cabinet that was half Republicans and half Democrats, putting forward a unity platform supported by both parties. What Truman said in response to that couldn’t be repeated before decent people. Not even Tom Dewey supported that and Bricker wouldn’t go for it.

Now, Harry had to try to save the world. Meanwhile, the Japanese were fighting, the Communists were trying to take over Europe, and there was still the matter of Germany to settle.
 
There's certainly no shortage of fringe proposals in this timeline, is there.

There were a lot of fringe proposals then, too. Consider for example Ely Culbertson's The World Federation Plan (1943) with its elaborate structure of arms control, regional and world armies, and the like, to ensure that the World Federation would be stronger than any member that tried to make war on it.

If you don't recognize the name, he was the leading bridge champion and publicist of the early thirties.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ely_Culbertson

While you're at it, look up A Different Kind of Presidency
 
Kibbutz Negba, Israel, Fifth Day, 18 Shevat, 5705/Suweidan, al-Falastin, 17 Safar 1364 [Thursday, February 1, 1945]

Bodies were strewn over the ground. A disproportionate number of them were Arab, but they had died doing what they knew was right. Far too many of them were women. Women could be taken home. Well, perhaps, they were Jewish women, who didn’t know their place, but a few beatings would settle that.

A bodyguard from the Ikhwan was assigned to show this kuffar around. He was an unbeliever of some importance, they said, and so was not to be molested no matter how many offenses he made to the Faith of Faiths.

He peered through his spectacles, shook his head, and tsked. Then he said something in his infidel language. “What did he say?” the guard said,

The translator looked pious, which was hard to credit from an infidel. But he translated. “Bapu declared that if only the Jews had willingly offered their throats to the swords of the Ikhwan, such would have been their moral force that they could have lived thereafter in peace with their brothers.”

All kufar are stupid.


Burgos, Castilla, Estado España, viernes, 2 de febrero 1945

The burly bald man folded his fingers and put his hands on the table. The uplands of Spain were cold, but he reckoned the grave was colder. Behind him, there was hysterical screaming. “Show him in,” he said.

The young, vigorous man who was shown in gave the Roman salute, and the salutation, “DUCE!”

“Don’t call me that.”

Prince J. Valerio Borghese, former commander of Italy’s heroes of the sea the Decima Flottiglia MAS, had had an exciting venture since the surrender. He had disbanded his unit after seeing how the SS had ravaged northern Italy, and made his own way into Switzerland, then had joined the countless streams of refugees making their way across Europe. Finally, he had reached the Spanish border, where his reception (once the Guardia Civil realized who they had and got him to a dentist) was worthy of a hero of fascism.

Now here he was. “It is too cold to be out. What are you doing here?”

His former leader pointed with one thumb over his shoulder. “Do you know what the Chinese character for ‘trouble’ is? Two women under one roof. Claretta came with me, you know, and Rachele got here last week. All I need now is for Margherita to show up.”
 
Hm, surviving Mussolini. That will be...interesting, considering the pro-Fascist strains that infected post-war Italy even IOTL.

I daren't comment on Israel and Gandhi. Although, given that the latter did stick to India IOTL...why did he not continue focusing on Indian independence ITTL?
 
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