TL-191 What if the Al Smith loses in 1940?

[CT23]

What if Democrat Robert Taft won the US Presidential election in 1940 instead of Socialist Al Smith getting re-elected?


Do you think Jake would have started the war earlier to get the states of Kentucky, Houston, and Seqoyah back (IIRC, Taft had promised to undo Smith's plebescite agreement)?


EDIT: Could a mod please remove the "the" in the thread title? I just saw that typo.

 

[m0585]

The U.S. Military gets put on a war footing earlier. Though how much good one year will do when it was neglected for the previous 20 is anyone's guess but it will help. Interestingly, you may see Irving Morrell promoted to general quicker. The main reason he was stalled at colonel for so long was because he made himself a nuisance about the cuts to military spending; hence becoming a thorn in the side to socialists who were in power for the majority of the interwar period.

The plebiscites do not happen as the Democrats were for keeping the Confederacy down. If Featherston chooses to attack in 1940 then he does so with a Confederate Military that is less prepared than it would be in 1941. So the war would probably end in 1943 at the latest.

 

[Michael B]

The plebiscites do not happen as the Democrats were for keeping the Confederacy down.

In some respects the plebiscites are irrelevant. To quote Jerry Voorhis, US ambassador to the CSA. "If the president gave you everything you say you want, you'd just say you wanted something else." Sooner or later, Featherston would have started a war.

If Featherston chooses to attack in 1940 then he does so with a Confederate Military that is less prepared than it would be in 1941. So the war would probably end in 1943 at the latest.

That would delay the US superbomb programme. Without the fear of the CSA developing one first there would be no reason to sink the resources into one. That is until the Germans drop theirs.

 

[m0585]

In some respects the plebiscites are irrelevant. To quote Jerry Voorhis, US ambassador to the CSA. "If the president gave you everything you say you want, you'd just say you wanted something else." Sooner or later, Featherston would have started a war.

That would delay the US superbomb programme. Without the fear of the CSA developing one first there would be no reason to sink the resources into one. That is until the Germans drop theirs.

And he would have been smashed. If the U.S. had told Featherston to screw and chew over the plebiscites then he would have been fucked. His army would now have to advance through Kentucky with the U.S. fighting them all the way.

Agreed. Germany would definitely have the bomb for a few years before the U.S. would get on board with a program of it's own.

 

[bguy]

That would delay the US superbomb programme. Without the fear of the CSA developing one first there would be no reason to sink the resources into one. That is until the Germans drop theirs.

IIRC, the US superbomb program was already well under way before the Confederates even started their program. (It was learning the US had such a program up and running that convinced Featherston to start funding his own superbomb program.) Thus a Taft election victory shouldn't delay the US program any.

 

[HongCanucker]

IIRC, the US superbomb program was already well under way before the Confederates even started their program. (It was learning the US had such a program up and running that convinced Featherston to start funding his own superbomb program.) Thus a Taft election victory shouldn't delay the US program any.

Yep, not to mention the fact that Taft is a hawk. Since he will invest large amounts of the budget into the military, and knowing that the nuclear program is bearing fruits, he will keep funding it, so the U.S. would get the bomb on schedule, probably even sooner if Smith gutted some of the funding to commit to his economic policies.