TLIAD: American Emperors

d32123

Banned
H21.jpg

On June 6th and June 9th, 1946, the United States of America changed the world forever. In two fiery moments, American war machines had unleashed an atomic inferno upon the cities of Hiroshima and Kokura. The culmination of American progress and ingenuity and the resulting hellfire begot a devastation until that time unheard of. Rumors of the atomic bomb had existed for some time, but even the Americans themselves were shocked by the sheer magnitude of the destruction the weapon had created. In a couple instants, nearly 200,000 human lives had been snuffed out, and while the firebombings and starvation had brought death to many more Japanese, the sheer psychological effect of the attacks were enough to bring the once mighty Empire to its knees. After nearly a decade, Japan's war of prestige and imperialist aggression had ended in complete devastation. Despite the astonishing sneak attack at Pearl Harbor and the setback at Midway, the American industry had managed to overcome the Japanese fighting spirit through a bloody campaign of "island hopping" while the Soviets drove them from the Asiatic mainland, liberating China and Korea.

The Emperor's solemn surrender was greeted with jubilation and joy on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. This war, the Second World War, one which the United States had been dragged into unwillingly, was finally at an end. The conflict, at the time the most deadly conflict in the history of the world, which had claimed nearly half a million American lives, was at its conclusion, and the American people could finally look forward to peace. President Harry Truman, viewed by many as the lesser successor of the late great President Roosevelt, was now more popular than ever. Americans, often bitter and divided, united in celebration as their heroes in uniform began to return home.

President Truman's party was able to take significant advantage of the festive atmosphere. The Republicans, despite not holding the Presidency in over thirteen years, had managed to make gains during the 1934, 1938, and 1942 midterm elections. The Grand Old Party had looked forward to making similar gains in 1946, especially with the ever-popular President Roosevelt no longer in office, but the conclusion of the war had breathed new life into the forces of the Democratic Party. Despite this, the Republicans ran a vigorous nationwide campaign, managing to reduce the Democratic majority in the House and pick up a seat in the Senate.

Not long after the midterm elections, conflict began to arise once again, this time on the home front. The transition from war economy to peace economy proved as difficult as imagined. Labor strikes, which had rippled across the country in the years prior to the war, returned to America. Millions of American workers went on strike for higher wages over the course of 1947 as inflation and shortages hurt the economy. This strife coupled with growing unemployment due to the demobilization of the military led to a drop in approval for the President. Seeing his chances of reelection slipping, Truman worked with Congress to reach a settlement to satisfy the strikers, many of whom would be valuable votes needed by the President for 1948. The settlements managed to quell strife and improve the image of the President as a leader and consensus-builder, despite Republican accusations of the President being "beholden to labor" and "dictatorial" as evidenced by his successful vetoing of the Taft-Hartley Act and the death of an attempt to create presidential term limits.

Peace on the foreign front lasted nearly as long as peace on the home front had. The Soviet Union, allies during the war, soon came into conflict with the United States. The infamous X Article, an American analysis of the Soviet Union, concluded that the communists, indeed, could not be trusted to be an ally in the long run. The Soviet Union was not a nation like other nations. Its Marxist ideology and paranoia would inevitably lead it to conflict with the United States, and the Americans should act to contain them accordingly and avoid letting them gain footholds in Western Europe, East Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Truman agreed, and the contents of the article would help formulate American foreign policy against the Soviet Union for the immediate future. Theory would soon come to match reality, as the Soviet reaction to American actions would reinforce the image of an antagonistic state. American aid to Europe, as employed under the Marshall Plan, was rejected wholesale by the Soviet-occupied regions of Eastern and Central Europe under the orders of Stalin, who saw it at a mechanism of American imperialism. All sense of goodwill went out the window following the Soviet blockade of Berlin and subsequent Western airlift.

With the situation deteriorating abroad, American attention shifted towards the 1948 election. Incumbent President Harry Truman chose Kentucky Senator Alben Barkley as his running mate in what was expected to be a close election, with many viewing Republican nominee Thomas Dewey as being the Republicans' best shot at the White House since their last victory in 1928. President Truman ran a tireless nationwide campaign, travelling across the country in his Whistle Stop train tour. The President unveiled an ambitious plan for his second term, calling for a "Fair Deal", a series of programs designed to help bring wealth to the millions of Americans who still lived in poverty. The Dewey campaign largely accepted the New Deal, marking a major concession by the Republicans, but rejected Truman's plans for government expansion as wasteful spending. The States' Rights Democratic ticket, under segregationists Strom Thurmond and Fielding Wright, failed to make as large an impact as many had expected, despite Truman's support for civil rights and his executive order to integrate the military.

In the end, the election was nowhere near as close as the media had predicted it to be. All major components of the New Deal Coalition that had delivered four terms for President Roosevelt had come out in force to give Truman a second. In the North, unionized workers and ethnic whites voted in droves for the President. Jews, enamored with the President for his defeat of Hitler and his instrumental role in the foundation of Israel, came out for Truman in record numbers. In the South, the President's support for civil rights failed to convince many party bosses to break ranks with their leader. Despite this, the States' Rights Democrats had managed to achieve what no third party had done since 1852; pass the Republicans in the electoral college. Down ballot, the Republicans likewise suffered devastating losses as the Democrats inflated their majority in the House and increased their total in the Senate to 68 seats.

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President Harry Truman (D-MO) / Senator Alben Barkley (D-KY) 53.4% PV 467 EV
Governor Strom Thurmond (SR-SC) / Governor Fielding Wright (SR-MS) 2.3% PV 38 EV
Governor Thomas Dewey (R-NY) / Governor Earl Warren (R-CA) 41.3% PV 26 EV​

The Republicans were devastated. The loss was not unexpected, especially after four straight electoral defeats, but the sheer magnitude of the shellacking was a major wake up call for the party, leading to introspection and calls for reform. Many Republicans blamed Dewey and his liberal running mate for the lackluster campaign. Newspapers around the country speculated about the death of the Republicans after their fifth, decisive, electoral defeat. As Truman prepared to begin his second term, few were able to predict the subsequent developments which would transform American politics forever.
 

Deleted member 67076

Excellent start. I look forward to see what becomes of Europe.
 

d32123

Banned
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​
President Truman's second term began with his approval rating higher than it had been at any point since the end of the war. In addition, the American public appeared to be broadly supportive of the President's vast agenda, and while the "Fair Deal" had far from universal backing within with the Democratic Party, Truman hoped that his party's wide majorities in the House and Senate would help get his plans through. Truman detailed his extensive plan during his inauguration speech, the first one to be televised across the country. The President hoped to use this new technology to maintain support for himself and his ideas. For years, Truman had lived in the shadow of Roosevelt, and now he had a chance to make a name for himself as a great American leader.

Truman's Fair Deal was vast and expansive. It received all-around condemnation from the Republicans, but ultimately only the President's own party could kill his agenda. The major centerpiece of this agenda was the National Health Care Act, a plan to create a universal health care system in the mold of the one enacted in the United Kingdom the year before. Despite vast increases in American gross domestic product, many citizens still could not afford health care. Many of the returning soldiers who had gone on strike in 1947 had called for improving health care for veterans, but soon sectors of the American public began to call for a government health care system for all Americans. Southern Democrats opposed the bill alongside Republicans, and there was a threat of a filibuster in the Senate. Eventually a compromise was reached, allowing the bill to be passed on the provision that implementation of the plan be delegated to the states. Southern states would infamously use this provision to deny access to African Americans.

Another major goal of Truman's was to expand Social Security to include a greater number of Americans. Once again, Southern and conservative Democrats attempted to amend Truman's proposals, but a new Social Security Act as well as over thirty amendments to it were passed through Congress, increasing welfare and expanding coverage to 15 million Americans and raising the federal minimum wage. Further labor protections were passed, increasing the entrenchment of labor unions into the American system, while new price controls were passed to fight growing costs.

Education, another main part of Truman's electoral platform, saw reform as well. In Truman's second term, large amounts of federal aid were given to both public and private schools in an attempt to make America's education system the "best in the world". Federal funding for over a million new units of public housing was passed in addition to extensions and increases of veterans benefits. The Brannan Plan, which established a guaranteed income for farmers, a major Truman base of support, was passed as well. In addition, many of the public works passed under the New Deal were extended and expanded under the Fair Deal in an attempt to reach full employment.

Most of these pieces of legislation passed with overwhelming support from the general public. American gross domestic product was increasing at an alarming rate, and concern about overspending was mostly limited. Labor unions, once villainized as cartels, were now seen as an essential part of the American democratic political establishment. With union density growing and the American middle class swelling to new heights, self confidence was at an all-time high.

This, however, was not true for all Americans. Despite making noise about it on the campaign trail, Truman had failed to deliver on his civil rights promises. African Americans, many of them veterans of the war, were left behind and kept down even as the rest of America took off. Southern blacks were subject to institutionalized racism through Jim Crow laws and violent campaigns designed to limit mobility and keep the cost of black labor low in the face of the growing cost of white labor. In the north, blacks remained an impoverished and isolated underclass despite not facing the same level of institutional discrimination as their southern kin. African Americans, many of whom had helped get Truman re-elected, grew in frustration as Fair Deal policies continued to exclude them. Civil rights and African American liberation would continue to be an issue that would haunt the American political scene.

With the focus on domestic affairs, few Americans looked outwards into the greater world. The Truman Administration, however, had to remain vigilant. New measures were enacted to contain the looming Soviet threat. The creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a defensive alliance created to protect against Soviet expansion into Western Europe, signalled that America intended to keep recovering Europe militarized. The Berlin blockade incident had culminated in the formalized division of Germany into two states. All across the Soviet sphere of influence, the Kremlin worked to establish communist dictatorships. In Czechoslovakia, the elected government was crushed in favor of a pro-Moscow consensus. In areas within the American sphere of influence, communists were actively undermined. The strong socialist movements in France, West Germany, Italy, and Japan were attacked as the Americans looked to back pro-capitalist parties and prevent allies from backsliding into the tyranny of communism.

And communism was spreading. Not even the Soviet testing of a nuclear bomb in 1950 could overshadow the blow that was the fall of China to the communists. Despite extensive American support, the nationalists had been routed in the civil war and driven off the mainland. Only with American naval intervention under the orders of Truman was the communist takeover of Taiwan prevented. Decolonization around the world was giving rise to all sorts of indigenous nationalist movements, some of which had a red tinge that made Washington uncomfortable. Southeast Asia, who had been liberated from Japanese imperialism, now sought to rid themselves of European rule. One particular area of conflict was Vietnam, where the indigenous communists were well on their way to throwing out the French. America used its influence to pressure its European allies into tactful decolonization though there was much foot dragging all around.

The midterm elections were once again disappointing for the Republicans. They made moderate gains in the House, mainly a reversion to the mean after their devastating defeat two years earlier. The Senate also yielded disappointing returns, as the Republicans failed to dent the solid Democratic majority. Among the notable election results was the election of Republican Richard Nixon for the Senate seat in California. The wily young visionary would become a major figure in American politics in the years ahead.

America was finally beginning to settle into a peacetime economy. With the demobilization process complete, President Truman oversaw the cutting of the military budget. While he was under no illusions of returning to pre-war lows, especially with the presence of the Soviets in Europe, he also had no intention of maintaining the bloated nature of the military industrial complex as it stood. In 1951, the draft was abolished, marking a definitive break from wartime to peacetime. This was coupled with an extension of the requirement for men to register for selective service in case America should ever need their service.

If four terms was good enough for President Roosevelt, at least three would certainly be good enough for his successor. With the precedent of American presidents running for more than two terms already set, only the most partisan Republicans cried foul when the popular Truman announced that he was running for a third term. The Republicans, meanwhile, scrambled for a candidate to put an end to the Truman Administration and prevent the Democrats from getting a sixth term in the White House. Many conservative Republicans reasoned that the repeated losses faced by the party was the result of failing to differentiate themselves from the Democrats. They needed someone who would stand up to the socialism and aggressive internationalism of Roosevelt and Truman. With the liberal wing still dormant following the devastating loss of 1948, the Republicans nominated conservative Ohio Senator Robert Taft as their candidate. Despite a push among some Southern Democrats to run their own candidate, the decision among higher ups within the party was the unite behind the President and prevent the possible election of the radical Taft.

A major victory for the President occurred when war hero Dwight Eisenhower announced his endorsement of the Truman/Barkley ticket over Taft. Eisenhower had been wooed by Republican leaders to run himself against Truman, but the general declined, citing his approval of the President's leadership. Seeing a moderate and non-partisan figure like Eisenhower endorse Truman helped paint Taft as out of touch and extreme. Taft, meanwhile, relentlessly attacked President Truman, calling him corrupt and out of touch. Taft actively campaigned against the Fair Deal, and called for a return to isolationism on the foreign front. He became the first Republican in decades to seriously campaign in the South, hoping to tap into possible disillusionment with the President. In the end, the results were not anywhere near what the Ohioan had hoped for.

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President Harry Truman (D-MO) / Vice President Alben Barkley (D-KY) 52.6% PV 403 EV
Senator Robert Taft (R-OH) / Governor Alfred Driscoll (R-NJ) 46.1% 128 EV​

The sixth straight victory for the Democrats caused even more speculation about the collapse of the Republicans. The conservative theory about the need to run an ideological campaign against the big government policies of the Democrats was resoundingly discredited and would lead to major changes in the years ahead. The precedent of Truman running for and winning a third term put a decisive end to the stigma around the practice. In Congress, Democrats maintained their hold on both Houses, as Truman promised to continue to enact Fair Deal policies that were to guide America through the second half of the 20th century.
 

Deleted member 67076

Wow, over 20 years of Democrats. Won't voter fatigue kick in soon?
 
Plumber

Plumber

Soverihn said:
Wow, over 20 years of Democrats. Won't voter fatigue kick in soon?
Click to expand...

When Americans have never had it so good?

Excellent work. I don't think Taft would do nearly that well in the inferior West, though. And yes, that is my only criticism. I hope you make a lot more TLs in the future.

Here's hoping LBJ leads the USA in '56 and beyond!
 
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ObssesedNuker

Why did the Soviet atom bomb program take an extra-year? Assuming Germany was finished at the same time as IOTL, the Soviets would turn their modest nuclear program into a full-scale crash one as per IOTL and would likely follow the same pattern. Stalin knew about the atomic bomb test even before Truman alluded to the weapon at Potsdam.

And with the war in East Asia lasting another year, did the Soviets invade Hokkaido?
 

Tsao

Banned
Nice to see this finally up, d3! :)

I'll be sure to go through the whole thing when it's done.
 

d32123

Banned
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During his campaign for a third term, President Truman had claimed that Americans had never had it so good. And he was right. Many young white American men were entering an era when they could graduate from a good school, get a good unionized job, marry a good Christian woman, and raise 2.5 children in their nice suburban home. Moreover, they and their sons would not have to worry about getting drafted into the military and sent to fight in some awful war halfway across the globe. The Russians? Who cares! Moscow was far away and well out of the worries for the Average Joe. No, for many Americans, things were better than ever. President Truman made a point to repeat this point over and over in his inauguration speech.

The bliss would not last. The recession of 1953 exposed gaping holes in the fabric of American society. With unions stronger than ever, labor strikes across the country were more coordinated than ever. Democratic governors across the country were put in an awkward position of having to fight against the very unions that had put them in power. Truman felt betrayed, but at the same time looked to weather the crisis with a settlement like the one that had worked out in 1947. But this time wasn't so easy. The unions were stronger than ever, and were making demands that the President knew he couldn't fulfill. Truman's approval rating began to fall as the American economy ground to a halt.

Abroad, the situation was changing as well. The death of Joseph Stalin brought hope among some within the Truman Administration that American-Soviet relations could be thawed. This hope was soon thrown out the window as it became clear that the new leadership in the Kremlin would be no more amiable towards the United States. The fall of Vietnam to the communists was a clear sign to the President that America needed to engage more actively abroad if containment were to succeed. Establishment of positive relations with Iran and the bringing of Franco's Spain into the American fold soon followed as Truman sought more friends abroad. Even if he had been dealt a poor hand at home for his third term, he would try his best to make his foreign policy a success.

The Supreme Court ruling in Lewis v. Board of Education further stoked the flames of disunity at home. The 7-2 ruling was a major blow to the Southern segregationist wing of the Democratic Party. Plessy v. Ferguson had been overturned, the court declaring that "separate but equal" was unconstitutional, and ordering an end to de jure segregation. While the ruling specifically referred to public schools, the social implications were much more vast. For Southern Democrats, the ruling was an attack on their way of life. Most Southern states refused to enforce the ruling, and Truman, though he offered praise for the decision, refused to actively intervene to cause change in the status quo. So while the ruling was a major landmark, many public schools in the South remain de facto segregated for the time being.

While the ruling stirred up controversy in the South, the vast majority of Americans were still focused on economic recovery. As labor strife continued and Truman failed to act decisively, his approvals continued to drop. Truman talked about launching an "even fairer deal" which would involve stimulus to alleviate the recession, but Congress refused to implement something that had little public backing. Truman was forced to find alternative ways to attempt to satiate the American public. In the summer of 1954, President Truman launched Operation Wetback, targeting thousands of illegal Mexican immigrants who were supposedly driving down American wages. At the time, the Truman Administration announced that "one million" illegals had been deported back to Mexico, though historians mark the figure significantly lower.

The bold initiative did little to fix the economy or alleviate Republican criticism. Riding a wave of anti-incumbent sentiment, the Republicans were swept into Washington, taking the House back for the first time since 1931, gaining nearly one hundred seats. The Senate majority proved a bridge too far, but the Republicans still managed to gain a dozen seats and put a serious dent in the Democratic stranglehold. In the fall of 1954, Truman was beginning to look like a lame duck.

If the last Congress seemed unwilling to implement Truman's ideas, this Congress seemed to be militantly opposed to the President. Repeated calls for the President to break the strikes and curb the power of unions were heard in the halls of the Capitol building. Several anti-labor laws were passed by the new Congress and subsequently vetoed by the President. Eventually, Truman and the new Congress agreed to a leaner budget with across the board cuts to government programs deemed wasteful by those in power. As the economy continued to slump, the new Congress soon became as unpopular as the President himself.

One Republican Senator managed to make a star of himself in the meantime. California Senator Richard Nixon managed to achieve fame within Republican circles when he published Our American Dream, a personal manifesto on his vision for America. In the book, Nixon offered stark criticism for both parties and the totality of the American system, calling for drastic reform. He accused American political leadership of "bowing to Marxism" and called for a new, consensus-driven system that could bring America to its full potential. He described the American system as being based on "class struggle" and instead claimed that the worker and the business owner must be encouraged to work closer together so that their interests more closely align, accusing "demagogues" of stoking up class conflict rather than collaboration.

Nixon's book also focused on his vision for the Republican Party, attacking both the liberals and conservatives within the party for its failures over the past two decades. According to Nixon, the Republican Party had let their politics be defined by Democratic policy, either basing their campaign on completely supporting or completely rejecting the New and Fair Deals. Nixon instead called for Republicans to make their own proposals, independent of the Democrats, and in doing so build their own party structure. Nixon criticized the divisive and antagonistic nature of the two-party system, instead claiming that the Republicans should aim to win over all Americans and unite them under one banner.

Finally, Nixon's vision of the Republican Party was one that would be involved in all aspects of American life. The Republican Party should have strong ties to communities and foster lifelong loyalty. The party "shouldn't just be something that people vote for every other year". It should "stand for something greater". In the divisive era of the mid-1950's, Senator Nixon's book sold like hotcakes, becoming a bestseller in 1954. The Republicans, long divided, now had a collective vision to light them forward.

It came to no surprise when Senator Nixon announced his run for the Presidency in 1955. While the economy had, slowly, begun to recover, President Truman remained unpopular. Richard Nixon went on a fifty state speaking tour, attacking the President and articulating his new vision of America. Truman, too busy being President, was unable to respond to the multitude of criticisms being put forward. The Republican primaries had yet to even begin and the Republicans already had their nominee.

The 1956 Republican convention in San Francisco, California, was one of the great ones in history. Many conservative and liberal Republicans alike had come into the Cow Palace with the intention of voting against Nixon, but would leave the convention hall new men. Nixon's followers, often disparagingly called "Nixonites" or "Nixonians", flooded the hall. Many young Republican delegates carried pocket versions of Our American Dream on their person with the religious devotion that a Christian might hold a bible. Pictures of the California Senator were unfurled across the hall. It was clear who had home field advantage. The Republican establishment fully embraced Nixonism or "Richard Nixon Thought", with speakers quoting Our American Dream in their speeches and offering full support for their nominee. Maryland Governor and devoted Nixonite Theodore McKeldin was named running mate as few delegates dissented against the ticket.

The Democratic convention, in comparison, was a mess. Lewis v. Board of Education had inflamed the issue of civil rights within the party, and the two sides had nobody to unite behind. President Truman, with an abysmal approval rating, decided against running for a fourth term, and there were few candidates that both sides would be willing to support. After the nomination of G. Mennen Williams, the young pro-civil rights Governor of Michigan, for President, the Southern delegation walked out of the convention. With the Democrats so far behind in the polls, the Southern faction looked to punish the Northern partisans for their failure to address Southern lifestyle concerns. The States' Rights ticket would be revived and subsequently nominated a Thurmond/Kennon ticket.

In the run-up to the general election, Truman's popularity continued to slip. Nixon called the administration "weak on communism" as America sat on the sidelines while the Hungarian revolution was crushed by the Soviets. Republicans attacked Truman for "abandoning America's allies" as he actively opposed the attempt by the British, French, and Israelis to intervene in Egypt as the Suez Canal was nationalized. While Williams attempted to distance himself from the President, his unpopularity managed to damage the rump Democratic ticket. While Nixon probably would have won against a united Democratic Party, the divided opposition allowed Nixon to win in a landslide.

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Senator Richard Nixon (R-CA) / Governor Theodore McKeldin (R-MD) 53% PV 402 EV
Senator Strom Thurmond (SR-SC) / Governor Robert Kennon (SR-LA) 5.9% PV 71 EV
Governor G. Mennen Williams (D-MI) / Governor LeRoy Collins (D-FL) 40.5% PV 58 EV​

The Republicans came roaring back in 1956, and after 24 years in the wilderness had managed to claim back the White House. In addition, the Republican Party succeeded in taking the Senate and increasing their majority in the House. The young California Senator was now President-Elect and would soon have a chance to take the reins of Washington and remake America in his image. Nixon would not let the opportunity go to waste.
 

d32123

Banned
And with that, I think I'm done for the night. I was hoping to update throughout the night and finish within 24 hours, but I was struggling to even coherently type out portions of that last update. :eek:

I hope to get the rest of this thing posted tomorrow, but at the very least expect this to be done by MLK Day. :)
 

Deleted member 67076

Well I didn't expect Tricky Dick become president.

LendleAlba said:
Given that it's titled "American Emperors" (unless I'm reading the title horribly wrong)...

...looks like voter fatigue won't be of concern very longer.
Click to expand...
Hehehehehe
 
Plumber

Plumber

I disagree with the idea that Truman would reconcile with Francoist Spain (which he saw as fascist, fascist, fascist) and would copy Ike on desegregation. He criticized Eisenhower for both things heavily IOTL, as well as the creation of South Vietnam (which I note you avoided! :) Truman supported the French, but didn't see the point after Dien Bien Phu.) However, Truman also had an intense personal dislike of Eisenhower, so it's possible that he would have been softer on desegregation at least. I don't buy it, personally, but you can look at his backing of Sparkman as VP 1952 to counteract his civil rights moves, I suppose. But the Democrats had to close ranks in the face of an Eisenhower onslaught that year. A President elected to his final term comfortably will have more intraparty leeway to push for civil rights than in OTL 1948. Of course, unless LBJ helps Truman out, actual legislation isn't gonna happen. Just a lot more Little Rocks, immediate executive action. So there's still going to be discontent.

Additionally, there's probably room for detente. After Stalin's death, Eisenhower refused to entertain Churchill's ideas of a coolingkf relations, shouting that "Russia is a whore!" Truman wouldn't trust the Russians either, but I think the fact that Eisenhower was to the right of Churchill of all people here shows that a detente is a distinct possibility with Truman in the White House. Particularly with no Korean War. Eisenhower would later regret his obstinacy, but his attempt to salvage his legacy with a Four Powers Summit ended with the U2 Incident.

The work is quite excellent, despite those quibbles. The 1953 strikes were a really nice touch! And I was afraid of this. Not that it wasn't unexpected. Emperor Nixon. I was hoping for LBJ, the other good choice for Emperor, but we got Tricky Dick. Fuck. :( But storytime fun.
 
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