TIMELINE CONTEST: Sign-up & Planning Thread
- Thread starter Glen
- Start date
Glen
Moderator
Yes. Need....more....timelines!!!!
People, post what you've got, don't care anymore what shape they're in, we want to see what you've done, at the very least.
I've got too many things going on right now, but I will post a rough draft of what I would have done if I could have....
Glen
Moderator
Mine and Justin's never got off the ground, but we have a pretty good discussion going while we were working on it if anyone wants to see it.
Yes, we would like to see it.
Here is the disuccsion between me and Pickard, He is J(blue) and I am E (red);
Timeline
November 2, 1948 - Thomas Dewey narrowly wins the US Presidential Election.
December 10, 1948 - The UN General Assembly adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
December 15, 1948 - The French bring the first nuclear reactor into service.
January 20, 1949 - Thomas Dewey is inaugurated as POTUS. He presented...
January 25, 1949 - Foundation of Comecon, an economic organisation intended to provide a communist counterweight to the Marshall Plan. Its founding members were Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union.
April 4, 1949 - Foundation of NATO, an international organisation for collective security. Its founding members were Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
July 21, 1949 - The North Atlantic Treaty is ratified by the US senate.
August 24, 1949 - The North Atlantic Treaty comes into effect.
August 29, 1949 - The Soviet Union detonates its first atomic bomb.
September 17, 1949 - NATO meets for the first time.
August 21, 1959 - Hawaii is admitted to the USA.
Notes
Dewey's cabinet will need to be organized. I'll get back to you on what my research finds. -E
Needing attention: Chinese Civil War, Truman Doctrine, NATO, Berlin Blockade, McCarthyism. -J
The Chinese Civil War is decided at this point in my opinion. The communists won there... With Truman out the Truman doctrine can probably be thrown out the window, and we need to look at how Dewey and his successors would handle things. The Marshall Plan is in effect. Many of the things Truman started might be passed on to Dewey. The Fair Deal however is killed in its tracks, and I'd except only the repel of the Taft-Hartley Act. -E
Basically, although the CCW is decided, we could either have Dewey step up military aid to the Nationalists, or neither give aid to Chiang nor get involved in the tail-end of the civil war. Either move would have ramifications. -J
Truman Doctrine is kept as Dewey does favour that type of foreign policy. Most policy changes will be at the domestic level rather than the foreign level. Interestingly Dewey seems to be a lot like Eisenhower, and it would be wise to look into Eisenhower's more partisan appointments. -E
President: Thomas Dewey
Vice-President: Earl Warren
State: Arthur H. Vandenberg
Treasury:
Defense: John Foster Dulles
Attorney General: (J. Edgar Hoover,
Postmaster General: (Jesse M. Donaldson,
Interior:
Agriculture:
Commerce:
Labor:
Henry Styles Bridges, Harold Stassen, Robert Taft, Dwight Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur
Dewey's Presidency Focus:
Dewey's three terms as governor of New York were notable for his honest, efficient administration, that cut taxes, increased state aid to education, and reduced the state's debt. It was Governor Dewey who recommended that New York create its own State University, and later, personally signed the legislation that created the State University of New York.
http://www.accuracyproject.org/cbe-Dewey,Thomas.html
http://www.accuracyproject.org/cbe-Dewey,Thomas.html
If this is so do we assume that Dewey pushes for an increase in federal education aid, as well as cutting taxes and reducing debt?
"Under Dewey's leadership, the Republicans had enacted a platform at the 1948 convention that called for expanding social security, more funding for public housing, civil rights legislation, and promotion of health and education by the federal government." (wikipedia)
Wow. I just found the radio broadcast of his 1948 acceptance speech for the Republican candidacy:
- "I come free to join with you in selecting to serve our nation the finest men and women in the country, free to unite our party and our country in meeting the grave challenge of our time. United, we can match this challenge with depth of understanding and largeness of spirit, with a unity which is above recrimination, which is above partisanship, and above self-interest. Let me assure you that beginning next January 20, there will be teamwork in the government of the United States of America."
- "The period that is drawing to a close is one of scientific achievement. The period that is opening before us must be a period of human and spiritual achievement. We propose in this convention, and as a party, and as a government, to continue to carry forward the great technological gains of our age. We shall harness the unimaginable possibilities of atomic energy to bring men and women a larger and a fuller life. But there is something more important than all this; as all the energy, intelligence, and determination which mortal heart and mind can bring to the task, we must solve the problem of establishing a just and a lasting peace in the world, and of securing to our own and other like-minded people the blessings of freedom and of individual opportunity."
- "As long as the world is half-slave and half-free, we must peacefully labour to help men everywhere achieve liberty. We have declared our goal to be a strong and free America in a free world of free men; free to speak their mind, to develop new ideas, to publish whatever they believe; free to move from place to place, to choose their occupation; to enjoy and to save, and to keep the fruits of their labour; free to worship God, each according to his concept of his grace and of his mercy."
What do you make of this? -J
Problem is politicians say stuff. Doing is something else altogether.- E
Well, yes, but even so, there seems to be a fairly strong undercurrent of one-nation conservatism, consensus government, negative freedom ("freedom from"), interest in science & technology. He sounds like the kind of person who wouldn't shy away from international intervention, if it seemed likely to help the people achieve greater freedom (specifically from Communism?). He was a pretty good orator as well.
Okay then lets push for some of these within our timeline. FDR was noted for increasing hydroelectric dams, so lets have Dewey push forward for nuclear power plants of course not knowing the problems that will occur within 30 years.(That be shutting down and cleaning up nuclear power plants cost more than the initial assets.) We'll work with a policy of containment and small war as well as building on extensive spy programs. -E
I think that the nuclear power agenda seems likely, and having an America full of aging power plants could make for an interesting political stage in the early 1980s. I don't know about foreign policy (see immediately below). He seems pro-EU, pro-UN, pro-Containment (in a Truman Doctrine vein), and it looks as though he'd be building the military in this time, perhaps partially to boost the American economy with supply-side policies. Check out the candidates for Secretary of State, whilst you're at it. -J
Ooh, I always liked Vandenburg. He got to be the American President in Wiemar World through my negotiations. It would be a nice trademark move to throw him the bone. And as I said for foreign policy he'd likely build with what Truman left in place.-E
Well, let's have Vandenburg as Secretary of State, and we can throw Dulles into Defense. Thoughts? -J
What about his brother Allen? In OTL he was the CIA Director.-E
Well, I suppose that depends on what you want to have happen to the CIA. On June 20 1949, we've got the Central Intelligence Agency Act.
Back to the nuclear program. We could have that be a timeline policy. We could preempt problems with solutions that we know will cause problems in the future but back then seemed to have little to no side-effects.-E
Sounds good. What form should this nuclear energy policy take? Mass power plant construction programme?
Yes. Also perhaps an Orion Program for a Space Agency. Perhaps an earlier pushing into the medical field for atomics. Lets have Dewey create or fund some type of Atomics Research and Development Bureau. Maybe an act increasing funding to universities to that research Atomics in energy, civilian and military uses.
Boost education and atomic energy now, and we'll have an uber-NASA evolving from Operation Paperclip in the early 1960s. Could we have the US win the space race?
Possible, lets also consider the changes these would have on the Soviet Union first. One of my goals is it staying around and going through a major civil war in the late 90s. We want there to be problems alround, as a hetrotopia is the ultimate picture. (Hetrotopia not being a dystopia or a utopia, just different) -E
A civil war between who and who? -J
A Civil War between the major Russian States, and the smaller states.-E
Well, I have to say that I love the idea of an American nuclear dream that soured.
It does sound fun to do mess up something that seemed so perfect.-E
Being such a internationalist I'd think that Dewey would support NATO much like he does the UN and EU.-E
Here's another Dewey speech (more about foreign policy)
- "However deeply we desire peace we cannot buy peace with appeasement. That course has always led throughout history and always will lead to greater and greater demands on the part of the aggressor. In the end it can lead only to slavery or to war."
- "All the history of aggression, both ancient and modern, teaches one simple consistent lesson: the best way for us to get along with the Soviet leaders is to deal with them as strong equals and, by doing so, to restore their respect for us. We shall deal with the Soviet as with all other nations in a spirit of friendship and patience and fairness, but we should make it perfectly plain that now or hereafter we do not intend to be bullied or bluffed."
- "1. We will give our unstinting support to the United Nations. Here is the second great effort in our time to form a council of nations to maintain peace and to establish among the nations of the world a rule of justice and of decency. Like every human institution, the United Nations is still imperfect: but, like all the institutions of free men and women, it can be perfected. Firmly, patiently, wholeheartedly, we will work to perfect it."
He's unabashedly Pro-UN.
- "2. We will extend the hand of friendship and help to freedom-loving people everywhere. Many of the free peoples have been desperately weakened by the long exhausting years of war and the strain of postwar reconstruction. In their ruins and poverty, some of them find the sheer problem of keeping alive so exhausting that they barely have any strength left to join in the struggle to preserve their own freedoms. But they're gaining, and they're gaining steadily. The peace of the world can be secure when the forces that make for peace are stronger than the forces that make for war, when the free nations are strong enough to stand upright and with self-reliance face the future. It is a part, a very essential part, of our foreign policy that we shall give to these friendly and like-minded nations all reasonable aid to restore their shattered economic systems."
International aid to fight the Communist threat.
- "3. This program of European aid must, however, have another and greater purpose. It must not be just relief. We shall use it as a means for pushing, and if I may say so, prodding and encouraging the nations of Western Europe toward the goal of European union. Three times within the past thirty years, the American people have been called upon to make a mighty effort to save Western Europe from totalitarian despotism. We have waged two wars and now, three years after the second war, we're having to pour out resources again to reinforce a Europe once more threatened by aggression."
- "Take, for one example, the Ruhr. This is the industrial heart of Europe. It was Hitler's arsenal. I proposed four years ago that we make it an international workshop for peace. Instead, it's been partially stripped and it is still partially paralyzed. So to take the place of what the Ruhr should be producing for all Europe, we are still shipping precious American steel and coal and industrial products that we need at home. The Ruhr should long since have been providing the very things we are shipping to Europe. I propose that we shall bring a demilitarized Ruhr to life, put it under international control, and see that it serves the peaceful needs of a great European federation."
- "European unity, that's no new idea, that's no wild-eyed dream, it has been the dream and realistic vision of far-sighted statesmen for thirty years. A federation of western Europe's 270,000,000 people into one strong, economic, and political unit would be the greatest triumph of statesmanship in history. It would be the firmest guarantee of the peace of the world. And to achieve it will be a major objective of our foreign policy."
This Pan-European Ruhr stuff is interesting, no? -J
- "Even as we carry forward our program and this is the fourth major objective, to restore and strengthen and unify the free nations of Europe, we shall bring an end to the tragic neglect of our ancient friend and ally, China. The menace to peace is world-wide and our efforts to create a peace must also be world-wide. As the last war taught so clearly, a two-ocean navy is essential, so also it is perfectly clear that we can and we will, recognize the obvious truth that we need a two-ocean foreign policy."
- "5. It is my solemn judgment that we, in this troubled world, have no choice but to remain strong and grow stronger. We must have air, land and sea forces that are capable of protecting us in this new atomic age. We pray God that we may never again be the object of unprovoked attack. But if it should come there will be no time this time to improvise our defenses. We shall keep ourselves ready at all times to protect our land and our liberties. We shall also be so strong that no nation will again risk attacking us."
- "6. Military strength alone is not enough. It was the tremendous power of American industry, American agriculture and American labor, working together in freedom, that overwhelmed the might of the world's foremost military nations. If we are to have an effective foreign policy and to play effectively the great role in world events that Providence has marked out for us, we must continue to be a vigorous and a flourishing nation. Our policies will encourage an abundant, increasingly productive nation. We shall see to it that depression and mass unemployment-which the Communists and their allies have been hopefully predicting-will never return to blight our land. A productive, united America, increasing in well-being, is a bulwark of our foreign policy, and is a bulwark for peace of the world."
Larger Navy as part of a defense-orientated Military. Fighting unemployment to ensure productivity.
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/subtitles.cfm?titleID=68 - Check out this piece on Post-War America. It was my textbook for American history over this period and might help us out. -E
Alcuin
Banned
If you can't keep going
Mine came close to global thermonuclear war while Americans were fighting the Chinese in Taiwan and while they were fighting the Russians in Haiti. I seriously considered an early ending.
Mine came close to global thermonuclear war while Americans were fighting the Chinese in Taiwan and while they were fighting the Russians in Haiti. I seriously considered an early ending.
Don't look at me. Justin Pickard did most of that. We were planning towards an ASBish nuclear paradise, and then were going to dash it all to hell in the eighties, just as they are ready to launch themselves into space with it.
The audio file was spine-tingling. Having read up on that period of history - something that doesn't normally interest me - it actually made me feel really close to the events in question.
But yes, initial surge of enthusiasm = fails to manifest. It's the whole free rider problem. When there are two of you, you always end up relying on the other to do the hard graft.
Alcuin
Banned
I think I'm outrageous.
In the absence of much competition, I would like to nominate my own as most outrageous because...
Israel, Lebanon and Morocco in EU.
Richard Nixon as a Supreme Court judge
Molotov's wife becoming leader of the Soviet Union... and then emigrating to Israel.
Julius Oppenheimer winning the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Lee Harvey Oswald assassinates a different Presidential Candidate.
No President Kennedy but two vice presidents.
Fidel Castro as President of the USA
Buddy Holly as President of the USA
The Big Bopper as President of the USA
Jello Biafra as Governor of California.
Andreas Papandreou as Governor of New York before he becomes President of Greece.
Malcolm X as vice President.
75,000 people on Mars by 2007.
In the absence of much competition, I would like to nominate my own as most outrageous because...
Israel, Lebanon and Morocco in EU.
Richard Nixon as a Supreme Court judge
Molotov's wife becoming leader of the Soviet Union... and then emigrating to Israel.
Julius Oppenheimer winning the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Lee Harvey Oswald assassinates a different Presidential Candidate.
No President Kennedy but two vice presidents.
Fidel Castro as President of the USA
Buddy Holly as President of the USA
The Big Bopper as President of the USA
Jello Biafra as Governor of California.
Andreas Papandreou as Governor of New York before he becomes President of Greece.
Malcolm X as vice President.
75,000 people on Mars by 2007.
Alcuin
Banned
Post Mortem
I'm not really best placed to draw out the negatives because to me, it was a positive experience and it led me to produce my first complete timeline, something I'd probably not otherwise do.
I must say, I was disappointed there were so few entries and I don't know what you could have done to improve that state of affairs.
In the circumstances, extending the deadline may well have been a mistake because people seem to have lost interest. That said, I don't know what else you could have done. It was well enough organised and deserved more attention.
I'm not really best placed to draw out the negatives because to me, it was a positive experience and it led me to produce my first complete timeline, something I'd probably not otherwise do.
I must say, I was disappointed there were so few entries and I don't know what you could have done to improve that state of affairs.
In the circumstances, extending the deadline may well have been a mistake because people seem to have lost interest. That said, I don't know what else you could have done. It was well enough organised and deserved more attention.
Jasen777
Donor
It was my first timeline as well.
They level of detail that was needed takes alot of work, alot of people probably just didn't have the time or energy to do it.
If there's a future contest maybe it can focus on a bigger picture instead, like have an outline or a sketch instead of a full blown timeline.
They level of detail that was needed takes alot of work, alot of people probably just didn't have the time or energy to do it.
If there's a future contest maybe it can focus on a bigger picture instead, like have an outline or a sketch instead of a full blown timeline.