TLIAM: The Red Eagle Soars


Okay, what the hell is this?
It's a Timeline in A Month, obviously.

Oh really, about what?
Simple, it's about the Cold War, but with Russia and America's roles reversed.

Didn't Kaiser K already do that in "Hammers, Sickles, and Mushroom Clouds"?
Yeah, but I wanted to do something a bit more realistic.

Is "HSAMC" not realistic enough for you?
The main problem I have with that timeline is that its quest for historical parallelism sometimes leads to implausible events. The most glaring example is the use of Incan paganism as the stand-in for radical Islam. If you're gonna have conflicts in Latin America as ATL equivalents to post-9/11 conflicts in the Middle East, Catholic fundamentalism would be a better choice than a belief system that died out long before the 20th century.

That's a bit harsh don't you think?
It's the truth. Anyway, this TL won't consist solely of "Take something that happened to one nation or person IOTL and have it happen to another nation or person".

So, will this TL cover the entire Alt-Cold War?
Not really. It's a list of American leaders from the establishment of the American communist state to the present day. I might do a companion TL listing the Russian leadership.

So without further ado.

THE RED EAGLE SOARS
A history of the Federation of American Socialist States
By Lost Freeway

1.
CHARLES E. RUTHENBERG
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1931-1934
The father of the Second American Revolution

One cannot discuss the birth of the Federation of American Socialist States without discussing its founder and the circumstances that led him into that position.

Born on July 9, 1882 to a German immigrant family, Charles E. Ruthenberg's political career began in 1909 when he joined the Socialist Party of America. Ruthenberg ran for mayor of Cleveland in 1911; for governor of Ohio in 1912; and for the US Senate in 1914; all without success.

When the United States entered WWI in April 1917, Ruthenberg joined the rest of the Socialist Party in protesting America's involvement, for which he was sentenced to one year's hard labor.

Like all American Marxists, Ruthenberg supported the Boslshevik Revolution in Russia that began in November 1917, having high hopes for the establishment of a socialist state in Russia. These hopes would come to naught, as the initial Bolshevik advantage began to erode after Lenin was assassinated on August 30, 1918, and the Bolsheviks fell to infighting over who to replace him. By 1921, the anti-Bolshevik White faction had managed to establish a constitutional monarchy under Czar Cyril, cousin of the late Nicholas II. The last Bolshevik resistance had finally been crushed by 1923.

Meanwhile back in America, Ruthenberg found himself at odds with the leadership of the Socialist Party, who had begun to expel members who supported the Bolsheviks in an attempt to dodge the Red Scare that was growing in America. Ruthenberg and other like-minded socialists formed the Communist Party of of America in September 1919. The new party quickly attracted people who felt that the old Socialist Party was not radical enough.

At first, the CPA found few receptive ears for its ideology. The rising prosperity of the US after WWI meant that very few paid heed to the CPA's anti-capitalist screeds and promises of a worker's paradise. That all changed on October 29, 1929, the Wall Street Stock Market crashed. Immediately, the American economy went into a tailspin. Employment dropped like a rock as businesses could no longer afford to pay so many workers. The federal government reacted to the crisis by doing nothing, feeling confident that the economy would recover on its own. Many of the newly unemployed gravitated towards the CPA, angry at what they saw as abandonment of the working class by a big business-dominated American government.

On October 29, 1930-the one-year anniversary of the crash-Ruthenberg and other CPA members led a demonstration down Pennsylvania Avenue protesting the inaction of the American government and openly calling for its downfall. The demonstrators were met by armed soldiers, who called for them to disperse "before things got out of hand." Suddenly, a shot rang out, several demonstrators suddenly drew pistols, and a firefight broke out. When it ended, eight demonstrators and two soldiers were dead. Ruthenberg himself got away with a bullet in the right leg. There was no turning back. The Second American Revolution had begun.

Over the next several month, armed workers rose up against the federal and state governments. The federal government under Herbert Hoover did its best to deal with the growing insurrection, declaring martial law and deploying the US Army. But while most of the Army followed the government's will, others defected to the rebels. Also, many WWI veterans joined the uprising. By July 1931, the CPA had managed to unite the rebellion and gain control over much of the US. On August 1, Ruthenberg declared the formation of the Federation of American Socialist States, with himself as the first president. It would take another two years to finally defeat the remaining anti-communist forces. The United States government fled to Hawaii and set up a government-in-exile under Douglas MacArthur in May 1932. The last resistance to the FASS was defeated a year later.

With the old order swept away, Ruthenberg got down to the business of making a socialist state. All businesses that hadn't moved out of the country during the revolution were nationalized and their leaders either imprisoned or forced to submit to the government. The parts of the US Armed Forces that had joined the revolution were made into the American Revolutionary Armed Forces, a single service consisting of army, naval, and air force branches.

Ruthenberg himself would not get to bask in the glory of his victory long. He died on January 29, 1934 of a cerebral hemorrhage. It would be up to his successor to continue his vision and lead the FASS to its role on the global stage...


 
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2.
EARL BROWDER
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1934-1956
The despot who turned America into a superpower

With the death of Charles E. Ruthenberg, the presidency of the FASS passed to his lieutenant, Earl Browder.

Browder was born in Wichita, Kansas on May 20, 1891 to a working-class family. At age 16, Browder joined the Socialist Party of America. During WWI, Browder joined his fellow socialists in speaking out against American involvement and was sentenced to a year in prison. After the war, Browder joined Ruthenberg's CPA.

By the time revolution broke out in 1930, Browder had risen to Ruthenberg's right hand. During the conflict, Browder helped Ruthenberg set up a functioning government while dealing with the war against the anti-communist forces. When Ruthenberg died in January 1934, Browder was raised to the presidency of the FASS.

Browder's first act as president was to purge the Communist Party of those accused of "insufficient loyalty to the proletariat". In reality, many of those purged were simply people who Browder viewed as a threat to his leadership of the Party. Also, Browder established the People's Intelligence Bureau, responsible for gathering foreign and domestic intelligence, and the Bureau for the Defense of the Revolution, a secret police force charged with weeding out dissent in the populace.

And there was quite a bit of dissent. By the time Browder's reign ended in 1956, nearly ten million Americans had been executed or "disappeared" by the Bureau. Those who weren't disappeared or killed right away were thrown into "reformation camps" and subjected to hard labor until the government deemed them "free from reactionary influence". An estimated two million people died in these camps.

Meanwhile in Europe, the Nazis under Adolf Hitler had taken control of Germany and was threatening all of Europe. Things boiled over in September 1939 when Hitler invaded Poland. Britain and France declared war on Germany. Despite having the Nazis right on their border, Russia did not immediately declare war, as Czar Cyril felt that Russia was not yet ready for war. While Russia rearmed, the Nazis rampaged across Europe. By 1941, Hitler was master of Europe. In August 1941, Hitler finally invaded Russia. Despite large initial gains by the Nazis, Russia held on.

On October 31, the American destroyer ARAFS Reuben James was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat. The FASS declared war on Nazi Germany the next day. In response, Germany's allies Italy and Japan both declared war on the FASS.

At first, ARAF forces helped the British and Free French forces in North Africa. Meanwhile in the Pacific, the FASS fared poorly against Japan at first-much of the old United States Navy had been taken by the MacArthur government in Hawaii-which was working begrudgingly with the FASS. Things began to turn around in the fall of 1942, as the navy received its first Fortitude-class aircraft carriers and Unity-class battleships. Also, the Russians began to push back the Nazi advance.

Back in Europe, the ARAF made landings in western France and began pushing east. By New Year's Day 1945, the ARAF occupied all of France, northern Italy, and the Low Countries. The Americans had made it to the Rhine when Russia-which by then had liberated eastern Europe and managed to reach the Elbe river-dropped an atomic bomb on Berlin in March 1945, killing Hitler and decapitating the German government. The ARAF took this as a message from the Russians to stop where they were.

Three months later, the war in the Pacific ended with the ARAF dropping their own atomic bomb on Kyoto. Japan surrendered on July 1, 1945. The FASS made it clear that they would try Emperor Hirohito for war crimes, so the Japanese royal family fled to Russian-occupied Hokkaido. The FASS set up a communist government in the remaining Japanese Home Islands. The Second World War ended with the FASS controlling half the world.

Immediately, tension began to develop between the FASS and the rest of the Allies. Instead of allowing the pre-war governments of the countries they occupied to return, Browder set up puppet communist governments. Also, when the governments of Spain and Portugal were overthrown by communist revolution in 1947-48, the FASS covertly supported the rebels. In response to the growing communist tide, Russia, Britain, Germany, and the Nordic countries formed the Eurasian Cooperative Defense Organization in 1949. When the State of Israel was formed in 1948, both Russia and America courted the new nation. Israel eventually went over to the ECDO, causing the FASS to support their Arab enemies.

The first confrontation between the two sides came in the summer of 1950, when the communist government of North Italy invaded the royalist South. ECDO came to South Italy's defense. In turn, soldiers from communist France came to the aid of North Italy. While Browder at first supported North Italy, as the tide turned in favor of the ECDO, he began to have second thoughts and pressured the North Italians to cease their offensive. The Italian war ended in autumn 1952 with the pre-war division of Italy upheld.

Meanwhile back in the western hemisphere, Mexico underwent a communist revolution in June 1951. Over the next three years, the nations of Central America also fell to revolution, all of them covertly supported by the FASS. These nations joined under the leadership of the FASS in the League of Socialist Nations.

On August 30, 1956, Earl Browder was flying in to Asheville at night when his plane struck a tree with its right wing while on approach to the airport, severing the wing and causing the plane to roll over and strike the ground inverted. Browder, his wife, their security detail, and the plane's crew were all killed instantly. While the crash was officially attributed to pilot error-the flight crew failed to pay attention to their altitude and did not realize they were descending too fast-rumors spread that crash was due to sabotage, either by the Russians or by one of Browder's rivals in the Communist Party. Either way, Browder left behind a state that in twenty years had risen to become a world power and was dedicated to spreading communist revolution.


 
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3.
WHITTAKER CHAMBERS
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1956-1961
The successor that undid the worst of Browder's legacy

Compared to the people who came before and after him, Whittaker Chambers' presidency would be somewhat less remarkable.

Born on April 1, 1901 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as Jay Vivian Chambers, Chambers began his political career in 1925 when he joined the CPA. In 1929, he became an editor for The Daily Worker, the Party's official newspaper.

In 1934, Chambers became part of the newly-formed People's Intelligence Bureau. By the end of WWII, Chambers had risen to be the head of the organization. During his time with the PIB, Chambers was responsible for the arrests of thousands of dissidents.

When Browder died in 1956, Chambers was raised to the presidency. Chambers' first test as president came on April 18, 1957, when a Canadian airliner en route from Toronto to London via St. John's accidentally strayed too close to a ARAF air force base in Maine and was shot down. All 50 passengers, most of them Britons heading back home from Canada, and five crew members were killed. The shootdown raised a storm of protest in Ottawa and London. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan accused the FASS of deliberately killing innocent Britons and Canadians. The ARAF claimed to have mistook the airliner for a spy plane. Eventually, the FASS government duly apologized for the shootdown and paid settlements to the families of the victims.

On the domestic front, Chambers stopped the worst of Browder's abuses of power. Despite this, the FASS remained an authoritarian state.

Meanwhile in the Caribbean, Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican republic fell to communist revolution and joined the LSN, in 1957, 1959, and 1960 respectively.

Whittaker Chambers died of a heart attack on July 9, 1961. His successor would ratchet up the cold war between East and West...


 
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I have to say, for a timeline that's supposedly predicated on avoiding too many historical parallels, the fairly obvious Lenin-Stalin-Kruschev stand-ins don't really make too much sense. For that matter, neither does writing Earl Browder as the overseer of a Hitleresque genocide.

I don't doubt that if a communist revolution (as unlikely as that is in the 20th century) took place in the USA, there would be a great deal of violence. But in both the numbers presented here, and the lack of an actual target, I can't see anything believable as an alternate history. If there was to be a mass purge, maybe focus it on Southern Democrats, the KKK, or anyone that would be associated with them - certainly that would encompass a large enough portion of the population of the USA that a campaign against them would count as a "mass" action.

Overall, I don't think that transposing a cold war-era history of the USSR onto the USA - especially in a timeline in which the USSR never even came into being - meets the idea mentioned in the initial post about not having this timeline being unrealistic.
 

iddt3

Donor
I have to say, for a timeline that's supposedly predicated on avoiding too many historical parallels, the fairly obvious Lenin-Stalin-Kruschev stand-ins don't really make too much sense. For that matter, neither does writing Earl Browder as the overseer of a Hitleresque genocide.

I don't doubt that if a communist revolution (as unlikely as that is in the 20th century) took place in the USA, there would be a great deal of violence. But in both the numbers presented here, and the lack of an actual target, I can't see anything believable as an alternate history. If there was to be a mass purge, maybe focus it on Southern Democrats, the KKK, or anyone that would be associated with them - certainly that would encompass a large enough portion of the population of the USA that a campaign against them would count as a "mass" action.

Overall, I don't think that transposing a cold war-era history of the USSR onto the USA - especially in a timeline in which the USSR never even came into being - meets the idea mentioned in the initial post about not having this timeline being unrealistic.
Pretty much, plus the US simply isn't nearly as threatened or vulnerable as Russia was, and is much richer and more developed to begin with (So no need for mass gulags to help with crash industrialization). There isn't any need for a Bolshevik style Vanguard party because, unlike Russia, Industrial Workers are actually in the majority, rather than less than 10% of the population. The alt-Communist USSA is can afford to both seek Communism at home, and to promote it abroad (meaning nothing like the OTL WWII).
 
I have to say, for a timeline that's supposedly predicated on avoiding too many historical parallels, the fairly obvious Lenin-Stalin-Kruschev stand-ins don't really make too much sense. For that matter, neither does writing Earl Browder as the overseer of a Hitleresque genocide.


Overall, I don't think that transposing a cold war-era history of the USSR onto the USA - especially in a timeline in which the USSR never even came into being - meets the idea mentioned in the initial post about not having this timeline being unrealistic.

Trust me, the history of the FASS will diverge from that of the OTL USSR after Chambers.
 

iddt3

Donor
Trust me, the history of the FASS will diverge from that of the OTL USSR after Chambers.

But that's the point, having Chambers as is at all doesn't make sense, the factors the generated OTL Bolshivism (Which is essentially what you have running the US) simply aren't there.
 
But that's the point, having Chambers as is at all doesn't make sense, the factors the generated OTL Bolshivism (Which is essentially what you have running the US) simply aren't there.

Yes, that's the impression I got as well.

I should add that the timeline doesn't even seem like it's what OTL CPUSA people said that their plans were should they end up running the country. There's plenty of material out there, freely available, from people like Will Z. Foster, Harry Haywood, and other US communists from this period where they explain what they'd like to do and why they'd like to do it, and very little of it amounts to "copy exactly everything the USSR is doing right now" because even though they were pretty fond of the USSR at that time, they still realized that the two countries were different and would need different revolutions.
 
I have to say, for a timeline that's supposedly predicated on avoiding too many historical parallels, the fairly obvious Lenin-Stalin-Kruschev stand-ins don't really make too much sense. For that matter, neither does writing Earl Browder as the overseer of a Hitleresque genocide.

I don't doubt that if a communist revolution (as unlikely as that is in the 20th century) took place in the USA, there would be a great deal of violence. But in both the numbers presented here, and the lack of an actual target, I can't see anything believable as an alternate history. If there was to be a mass purge, maybe focus it on Southern Democrats, the KKK, or anyone that would be associated with them - certainly that would encompass a large enough portion of the population of the USA that a campaign against them would count as a "mass" action.

The reason the American communists are so bloodthirsty ITTL is that the failure of the Russian revolution has made them far less idealistic and far more paranoid than OTL.
 
4.
GUS HALBERG
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1961-1975
The confrontational leader
The man who succeeded Whittaker Chambers as president of the FASS would gain a reputation as a master of diplomatic brinkmanship.

Arvo Kustaa "Gus" Halberg was born on October 8, 1910 to Finnish immigrant parents. Halberg's father was a dedicated communist who instructed his son in the ways of radicalism. Halberg joined the Communist Party in 1927 and became an organizer for the Young Communist League.

During WWII, Halberg served in the naval arm of the ARAF as a machinist's mate. After the war, Halberg was appointed to the People's Legislature of Minnesota. In 1959, Halberg ascended to the Politburo of the Communist Party. When Whittaker Chambers died in July 1961, Halberg was elevated to the presidency.

Halberg's first two years as president were fairly uneventful. His first crisis came in September 1963, when the submarine ARAFS Herring sank a Russian frigate in the Bering Strait. The surviving crewmen of the frigate were interred by the Americans. The FASS claimed that the frigate had strayed into American waters. The Russians denied this, saying that the submarine had strayed into Russian waters. For two weeks, it seemed like war would break out. Eventually, the Americans backed down, releasing the sailors and apologizing.

In 1965, the ECDO and FASS formulated the Ballistic Missile Control Treaty to limit the buildup of ICBMs on both sides. The treaty fell through as neither side could agree on limits.

Another crisis came in March 1968 when it was revealed that Venezuela was attempting to start a nuclear weapons program. Halberg threatened to bring the full might of the LSN down on Venezuela if the program went any further. Ultimately, the ECDO stepped in and convinced Venezuela to stop their program. Angered, the leadership of Venezuela would convince other South American nations to join together to form their own bloc, opposed to both the LSN and the ECDO.

Domestically, Halberg continued Chambers' policies. The economy actually experienced modest growth.

Halberg died on October 15, 1975 when his limousine was rear-ended by a drunk driver in Pittsburgh. The man who came next would see the tension between the communist and democratic blocs reach its pinnacle.

 
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iddt3

Donor
Yes, that's the impression I got as well.

I should add that the timeline doesn't even seem like it's what OTL CPUSA people said that their plans were should they end up running the country. There's plenty of material out there, freely available, from people like Will Z. Foster, Harry Haywood, and other US communists from this period where they explain what they'd like to do and why they'd like to do it, and very little of it amounts to "copy exactly everything the USSR is doing right now" because even though they were pretty fond of the USSR at that time, they still realized that the two countries were different and would need different revolutions.

Here they don't even have the example of the USSR to steal from, so doubly so on looking to their pre 1918 writings for what sort of things they'd want to do.
 

iddt3

Donor
The reason the American communists are so bloodthirsty ITTL is that the failure of the Russian revolution has made them far less idealistic and far more paranoid than OTL.

Except the opposite would happen, OTL no one thought the Russians were ready for Communism (Because classic Marx looks at Russia and goes LOLNOPE), and therefore its failure would be utterly unsurprising. Plus, domestically, no USSR? No Red Scare! The Red Scare OTL happened *After* the Bolsheviks had more or less won in 1919, and had beat the strongest White Forces and kicked out the foreign expeditions. Without a sponsor in the form of the USSR, it's harder for the US to portray Communism as foreign as well, which also means less persecution, and therefore less radicalization. People don't radicalize because of what happens in a far off country, they do it because of what happens to *them* at home.
 
5.
RONALD REAGAN
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1975-1987
The penultimate "old guard" leader

After Halberg came the last of the "old guard" of the Communist Party.

Ronald Wilson Reagan was born on February 6, 1911 in Tampico, Illinois. In 1920, his family moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Upon graduating high school in 1928, Reagan met Gus Halberg, who introduced him to communism. When the Second American Revolution broke out in 1930, Reagan was among those who took up arms against the US Government.

In 1949, Reagan was appointed to the Federal People's Legislature. In 1967, he was promoted to the Politburo. When Gus Halberg died in October 1975, Reagan succeeded him as President.

The central theme of Reagan's presidency was strengthening the military. Reagan continued Halberg's military expansion policies, including investing in new and untested technologies. While this seemed like a good idea at first, many of the new weapons turned out to have flaws that needed ironing out. As a result, the improvement to the ARAF was not as great as expected.

Reagan believed the FASS could have both guns and butter. While the American economy continued to grow at first, the early 1980s brought a gradual stagnation. Living standards begin to decline and corruption grew in the government-owned businesses.

On the foreign policy front, Reagan took a hardline against enemies of communism, just like Halberg before him. When the communist government of Cameroon faced a rebellion in 1977, the ARAF was sent to help combat the insurgents. The Cameroon war would quickly become a quagmire for the American military.

On October 12, 1980, nuclear war nearly started when an ICBM silo in the Rockies received a false alarm of a Russian nuclear strike. Fortunately, the false alarm was recognized, and disaster was averted.

In 1982, the ARAF stationed ballistic missiles in the Rhineland. The Russians responded by placing their own missiles in Colombia.

In 1984, American Global Airlines Flight 191 from Miami to San Juan went down over the Turks and Caicos Islands, killing all 150 passengers and six crew. The British investigated the crash and determined that the plane had suffered structural failure of the right wing due to metal fatigue while flying through turbulence. The Americans countered by claiming that the Royal Air Force had shot down the plane. Nobody outside the LSN took this theory seriously, due to lack of evidence and motive.

During the latter years of his presidency, Reagan began showing signs of dementia. During a speech in 1985 on the fortieth anniversary of the end of WWII, Reagan got several facts about the war wrong and had to be corrected by the audience. On August 1, 1986, Reagan was preparing for a radio broadcast to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the founding of the FASS. While performing soundchecks, Reagan made a joke announcement that the FASS was preparing to bomb Russia without releasing that the microphone was still on. Reagan's blunder caused a fair amount of panic in both America and Russia before cooler heads prevailed.

Finally, on January 11, 1987, a PIB agent defected to the ECDO. In an interview with The Times, the agent revealed that Reagan had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in the autumn of 1986 and the Communist Party leadership had kept it a secret, with most of the day-to-day functions of government being conducted by bureaucrats in Reagan's stead. With his secret revealed to the world, Reagan announced his resignation on January 30. After the end of his presidency, Reagan went into seclusion. He eventually died on June 5, 2004 of pneumonia.

When he resigned, Reagan left a nation burdened by a crippled economy and a running sore in the Cameroon war. It fell it his successor to lead the nation back to prosperity.
 
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6.
BERNIE SANDERS
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1987-1997
The bold and dynamic reformist

When Ronald Reagan stepped down from the presidency, the FASS was at its lowest point. It badly needed reform, and the next president would lead the way.

Born on September 8, 1941 to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, Bernie's interest in politics began at a young age thanks to his father, who was a veteran of the Second American Revolution. In 1974, he managed to get into the New York's People's Legislature. By 1981, he had ascended to the position of Assistant Secretary of Labor. In that position, Sanders saw the growing inefficiency and corruption of the communist system.

Upon Reagan's resignation in January 1987, Sanders found himself elevated to the presidency. Sanders planned to use the opportunity to fix the broken system.

Sanders's first act as president was to order the sentences of several hundred jailed dissidents commuted to time served. Sanders began reforms to bring more political freedom to the FASS. Freedom of expression and other civil liberties ended by the revolution were brought back, and the Bureau for the Defense of the Revolution was scaled back and had its powers vastly reduced. In 1989, a law was passed allowing citizens to vote for state legislatures and governors, though in practice it amounted to deciding who the Communist Party would select to fill the offices. This reform was extended to the federal People's Legislature the next year.

On the economic front, Sanders implemented a policy he referred to as "intelligent socialism", allowing limited free enterprise and requiring more accountability and higher standards from businesses owned by the state. Also, military spending was cut back to pre-Halberg levels. Sanders's reforms succeeded in reviving the languid American economy, as productivity increased and the standard of living improved tremendously.

In terms of foreign policy, Sanders did his best to establish a rapprochement with the ECDO. In 1988, Sanders managed to secure the withdrawal of Russian missiles from Colombia in exchange for withdrawing the American missiles from the Rhineland. Also, Sanders withdrew the ARAF from Cameroon. The autocratic government of that country would fall in 1990, giving way to a multiparty democracy, albeit a rather corrupt one. One New Year's Day 1989, the FASS and Russia signed a treaty scaling back their nuclear arsenals and more importantly, banning ICBMs. Sanders's most important decision came in the spring of 1989, when he announced that the communist regimes of western Europe would no longer be propped up by the FASS. By autumn 1990, all of the LSN states in Europe had cast off their old autocratic regimes and held mulitparty elections. The biggest change was the reunification of Germany on June 18. In Asia, the communist government of Japan also fell in a bloodless revolution and the nation was reunited with the monarchy in Hokkaido.

In January 1991, Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony of East Timor. A coalition of nations led by Russia went in kick Indonesia out and restore East Timorese sovereignty. Even though Indonesia had been a LSN ally in the 1970s and 1980s, the FASS joined the coalition to free East Timor. The campaign was wrapped up by July, with the Indonesian forces having been driven away. The cooperation between Russia and the FASS is seen by many as the definitive end of the cold war between the Russian and American blocs.

The remainder of Sanders's tenure passed rather uneventfully. In the Americas, the FASS's allies in Latin America implemented identical reforms to Sanders's, mainly under pressure from the FASS itself.

In 1996, America held its first democratic presidential election in 68 years. Although the choices were between three candidates of the Communist Party as opposed to a true multiparty election, the election was still hailed as a milestone in the restoration of American democracy. Sanders himself chose not to run, feeling he had accomplished all was capable of during his presidency. The man ultimately chosen by the people as his successor would continue Sanders's successes and then some...



 
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7.
AMY KLOBUCHAR
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1997-2009
The woman who brought America into the new century

After the end of Bernie Sanders's presidency, it seemed the FASS had nowhere to go but up. The next president would see the good times continue-but not without facing some challenges.

Amy Klobuchar was born on May 25, 1960 in Plymouth, Minnesota. Her father was a writer for The Daily Worker. At first, it appeared young Amy would follow in her father's footsteps as a writer for the government's mouthpiece. However, in 1982, Klobuchar was one of several Minnesota university students arrested for protesting the FASS's war in Cameroon. The protest was an anomaly in the heavily policed society of the FASS. The protesters were all sentenced to life imprisonment.

When Sanders came to power in 1987, Klobuchar was one of many dissidents freed. After her release, Klobuchar became an advocate for political prisoners everywhere. In 1990, she wrote a book, The Black House, detailing her experiences as a prisoner.

In 1992, Klobuchar became the first democratically-elected governor of Minnesota. In 1996, Klobuchar announced her candidacy for the first democratic presidential election since the Second American Revolution. Klobuchar faced off against Ron Reagan, son of former president Ronald Reagan. Despite being a dynamic candidate with many good ideas, Reagan could not shake the baggage of his father, and Klobuchar won the election, becoming both the youngest and the first female president of the FASS on January 30, 1997.

As president, Klobuchar expanded on Sanders's reforms, further decreasing restrictions on free enterprise while ensuring the state continued to play an important role in the economy. Reparations were paid to former political prisoners and their families.

Meanwhile, trouble was brewing in Hawaii. The citizens of the US government-in-exile were noticing the increasing freedom enjoyed by the citizens of the FASS and contrasting it with the authoritarianism of their government, which was a continuation of the pre-revolution democratic US government in theory, but in reality was a dictatorship run by the military. In the spring of 1998, protests erupted in the streets of Hawaii's citis, as people demanded the end of military rule and the restoration of democracy. The government tried to put down the protests, but many soldiers ended up siding with the people. Eventually, the military ended up losing control of the government, and the president and his senior officers fled to Indonesia. A provisional government was set up, which subsequently appealed to the FASS to be allowed to join. The FASS accepted, and on September 22, Hawaii was inducted into the federation. There was much celebration across the country, as families who had been separated for over 60 years were re-united.

Riding on the wave of good feeling triggered by the re-unification, Klobuchar easily won reelection.

On October 10, 2002, something happened that would change the world forever. Several airliner flights between Europe and America were destroyed in mid-flight by bombs sneaked on board. Several hundred Russians, Americans, and people of other nationalities were killed. The bombings were eventually traced to Islamic fundamentalist groups operating out of Central Asia and the Caucasus, fighting for independence against the Russian empire. Furthermore, the government of Indonesia was found to be providing covert support to these groups as revenge for having been defeated by Russia and America in the Timor War.

The war against Islamic terrorism would become the overriding theme of the remainder of Klobuchar's presidency. Klobuchar won reelection again in 2004, riding the wave of patriotism evoked by the conflict. In 2005, Indonesia would finally be invaded by the ECDO and LSN.

After three terms as President, Klobuchar would finally stand aside in 2008. Her successor would continue the war on Islamic radicalism, while dealing with the challenges and promises of a new decade.
 
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8.
BARACK OBAMA
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2009-present
The new blood for a new decade

The first decade of the 21st century was a whirlwind period for the world, including the FASS. The next president would see the events continue into the new decade.

Barack Hussein Obama Jr. was born on August 4, 1961 in Wichita, Kansas. Obama's father was a Kenyan Communist who had been driven out of Kenya due to his views. In senior high, Obama served as an organizer in the Young Communist League.

In 1998, Obama was elected Governor of Kansas. In 2002, he was elected to the federal People's Legislature. When Amy Klobuchar announced her retirement in 2008, Obama was one of several candidates lining up to succeed in her. Obama went on the win the election.

Obama saw the war in Indonesia wrap up in autumn 2010. Meanwhile in Russia, the war against the Islamic insurgents was winding down with the death or capture of the leaders of the insurgency.

With the global situation apparently looking up and the economy continuing to be strong, Obama was reelected quite easily in 2012.

In 2013, the war on Islamism, thought to be over, flares up again with the Philippines facing an Islamic insurgency in Mindanao and civil war flaring up in Saudi Arabia between supporters of Wahhabism and those favoring liberalization. The Saudi civil war resulted in a massive spike in gas prices. As a result, Obama prodded American automakers into increasing development of electric vehicles to lessen America's dependence on gas. Obama's efforts appeared to have paid off-as of August 2015, electric cars made up a quarter of American automobile sales.

As of 2015, President Obama remains reasonably popular. It remains an open question whether he will run in 2016...

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