The Architect of a New America
Henry A. Wallace (1944-1957)
American Socialist Party
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Widely considered by many in the Executive Council and Congress to be the rightful heir to the Prime Minister-ship after Huey Long, Deputy Prime Minister Henry A. Wallace was able to outmaneuver Norman Thomas in his attempt to send the DPM to a Labor Camp, instead becoming Prime Minister himself. Entering office with a wide mandate from Congress, Wallace would affect change in every aspect of the USSA.
In the government, he would streamline and centralize many aspects of power, reducing the size of Congress by almost half, eliminating the position of Deputy Prime Minister, and expanding the Cabinet of Ministers. At the same time, he would oversee transformations within the single-party of the USSA, the American Socialist Party, that would downsize the Executive Council as well as rotate membership within the Council to prevent an effective challenge to his leadership. He officially brought the American People's Militia under control of the American Socialist Party, as a paramilitary group officially responsible for the security of government officials.
In foreign policy, Prime Minister Wallace represented a shift away from Long's isolationist approach (most controversially returning former General George Marshall from a Labor Camp to become Minister of Defense). With famine relieved, plague ended, and unemployment lowering from the massive levels it had reached during the Great Depression, the country was ready to make a stand on the world stage again. However, despite Joseph Stalin, leader of the USSR, calling his old friend Henry Wallace to repay the favor he granted the American socialists years earlier, Prime Minister Wallace was convinced for practical purposes not to aide the Soviet Union. When the Second World War ended with the detonation of a nuclear bomb in Stalingrad in 1946, the Germans and Japanese would remember the American neutrality in the conflict, and invite the Prime Minister to the Amsterdam Peace Talks, however, Wallace and Minister of Foreign Affairs Alger Hiss would not be able to make much of an impact in the talks, not trusting the Japanese or the Germans, and having the Russians and the British shun them for their neutrality in the war.
With the borders of the Old World withdrawn, Henry Wallace almost retreated America back into the isolationism of the Long-era, but a snap election in Britain that saw the defeat of Winston Churchill gave hope to Wallace that he might be able to bring America back to the world stage. Although no major diplomatic progress was made on the Atlantic front, on the Pacific front Prime Minister Wallace began supplying aide to Mao Zedong and the Communist forces in Chinese. Although Japan still held a serious hold on Northern China, this newly found source of aide from an America which had spent three years devoted to agriculture and manufacturing allowed Mao's forces to take Mongolia and push the Japanese into Manchuria by 1950. Prime Minister Wallace would then successfully come in to negotiate a peace between the Imperial Japanese and the Communist Chinese, allowing Mao Zedong to focus his efforts southward in defeating the remnants of the fascist Chinese led by Chiang Kai-Shek.
In the 1950s, Prime Minister Wallace would also see successful Socialist Revolutions in many South American countries, like Brazil and Cuba, much to the dismay of the Third Reich, who had seen to it that Argentina fell to fascist rule. Tensions further rose as Iran overthrew its German-aligned government in favor of a socialist and American-aligned government, allowing the United States a key ally in the mostly fascist and nationalist region. It was this posturing by Prime Minister Henry Wallace that made Germany grow weary of America, although, luckily for the USSA, they were still preoccupied in the Cold War with Imperial Japan.
At home, Prime Minister Henry Wallace would slowly end investment in national works projects relating to infrastructure, particularly after the completion of the Huey Long Dam in Southwestern America (previously known as the Hoover Dam). Instead, Prime Minister Wallace would see investment increase in nationalized industries, including a new focus on defense industries with the onset of the 1950s as well as the creation of the National Space Exploration Agency (NSEA) in 1954 after Germany successfully put an artificial satellite into Earth Orbit.
Perhaps what Prime Minister Wallace would become best known for in terms of domestic policy, however, would be his massive development of agricultural practices in the Great Plains states. Investing in a massive irrigation system, his efforts would see cities such as Omaha and Amarillo become major cultural centers that flourished in the arts as people of all kinds flocked there to find work as farmers and ranchers.
In 1957, however, Prime Minister Wallace would go too far. Beginning a push for Civil Rights, NBI Director (whom had also been made Minister of Justice in 1955) John E. Hoover would strong-arm the Prime Minister into resigning, threatening to reveal his strange religious beliefs. As he began preparation of his departure, he tried to set up his protege and Minister of Foreign Affairs to succeed him. However, Alger Hiss would be outmaneuvered by a man who had spent over two decades in Congress building allies, propelling the ambitious politician into the Prime Minister-ship to succeed Henry A. Wallace.
