Greetings to everyone, I am new user to the alternate history website, but I have been a long time lurker ever since I found this site a year ago.
I first want to give a quick backstory of the research done by the author in the title for the short story. The author starts his PoD by making Al Smith go third party thus splitting the Democrat party, which he was really close to doing in our TL. This split would in effect cause Hoover to be reelected for a second term because the popular vote of 57.4% that FDR received in our TL would almost be split in half, which would allow Hoover's 39.7% popular vote to just barely get him into office a second time. So we now have a republican president, who is not doing so well healthwise, with a very Democratic Congress along with an intervensionist Secretary of State, Henry Stimson. So the author puts forth the question of how would the US foreign policy in the 30s look like with Stimson in command instead of Roosevelt?
The author's short story answers the question in a very vague way. Since Hoover's programs to get the US out of the Great Depression had failed, Henry Stimson decided to take the US to war with the Japanese in 1934. Thus the Japanese-American War would last from 1934 to 1937, which in that time the presidency would be transferred from Hoover to Stimson in the 1936 election because Al Smith's third party was still taking away votes from the Democrats, essentially a Ralph Nader of the 30s in this TL. The war, according to the story, was a victory for the US, but not an unconditional surrender as in our TL in WW2. So the US was able to halt the invasion of the Japanese military into China and help get them back on their feet. This would war would have other implications later when the Nazis try to invade other countries in the late 30s. Thus in 1938 the top Nazi generals ousted and killed Hitler and took over the country. The reasoning for this was that nobody in Germany wanted to invade Czecho-Slovakia except for Hitler. Also, since the US whipped the Japanese pretty good during the Japanese-American War the other world powers, ie France and Great Britain, were looking for fight after the US made them look bad for just standing on the sidelines. So the generals had Hitler killed and installed Herman Goering as the new leader. The 1940 elections came along and the Republicans appeared to have won the election again, possibly Stimson getting reelected but it does not say. It would also appear that fascism has taken hold in many of the European and South American countries; ie Italy, Spain, Hungary, Rumania, Portugal, Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil. Another interesting item about this ATL is that for some reason, the author does not give any hint to why, Communism was thrown out of Russia and it would appear that the Czarist government has returned to power, but I cannot say for sure. Now the actual story itself is set in April of 1953 where the plot is mostly focused on the Secretary of State who is trying to find a position for Samuel Irving Rosenman who was refused as an ambassador of the US to Japan. The reasons for this can be seen on the first page of the short story where the Secretary of State says that the Japanese have possibly been listening to the Germans and/or British in regards to Zionism is a threat to world peace. Eventually after consulting the President, who the author does not name, it is decided to send Rosenman to the Philipines to be a part of the governor's staff. The author closes his short story with this quote, "And with all this fuss down South the last year or two, you can tell the governor to look on the bright side-at least we are not sending him a N-word(not sure if I should write the actual word)."
So a few questions arise from this ATL: 1. would this timeline be worthy of continuation? 2. What are the implications of Communism being thrown to the waste basket in regards to say China? Does it become firmly Nationalist or does Mao form a different kind of revolution, say a fascist one? 3. Since Nazi Germany has maintained a relative peace with its neighbors has the Holocaust(a much smaller one at that) come and gone? Have they developed the a-bomb by 1953 and other advanced weapons (ie see turning point the fall of liberty: http://www.codemasters.com/turningpoint/ 4. How does the US deal with the rising Civil Rights Movement and the large Jewish populations? 5. Also with regards to the Great Britain and France how do these countries deal with their colonies that they still have control over, do they take the route that they did in our TL or do they try to hold on? 6. And lastly with the delay of WW2 has it been completely butterflied away or will it happen sooner down the line say late 50s or earlier 60s?
If you want to see the actual short story I would suggest going to your library and checking out Crosstime Traffic by Lawrence Watt-Evans.
Thank you for your time.
I first want to give a quick backstory of the research done by the author in the title for the short story. The author starts his PoD by making Al Smith go third party thus splitting the Democrat party, which he was really close to doing in our TL. This split would in effect cause Hoover to be reelected for a second term because the popular vote of 57.4% that FDR received in our TL would almost be split in half, which would allow Hoover's 39.7% popular vote to just barely get him into office a second time. So we now have a republican president, who is not doing so well healthwise, with a very Democratic Congress along with an intervensionist Secretary of State, Henry Stimson. So the author puts forth the question of how would the US foreign policy in the 30s look like with Stimson in command instead of Roosevelt?
The author's short story answers the question in a very vague way. Since Hoover's programs to get the US out of the Great Depression had failed, Henry Stimson decided to take the US to war with the Japanese in 1934. Thus the Japanese-American War would last from 1934 to 1937, which in that time the presidency would be transferred from Hoover to Stimson in the 1936 election because Al Smith's third party was still taking away votes from the Democrats, essentially a Ralph Nader of the 30s in this TL. The war, according to the story, was a victory for the US, but not an unconditional surrender as in our TL in WW2. So the US was able to halt the invasion of the Japanese military into China and help get them back on their feet. This would war would have other implications later when the Nazis try to invade other countries in the late 30s. Thus in 1938 the top Nazi generals ousted and killed Hitler and took over the country. The reasoning for this was that nobody in Germany wanted to invade Czecho-Slovakia except for Hitler. Also, since the US whipped the Japanese pretty good during the Japanese-American War the other world powers, ie France and Great Britain, were looking for fight after the US made them look bad for just standing on the sidelines. So the generals had Hitler killed and installed Herman Goering as the new leader. The 1940 elections came along and the Republicans appeared to have won the election again, possibly Stimson getting reelected but it does not say. It would also appear that fascism has taken hold in many of the European and South American countries; ie Italy, Spain, Hungary, Rumania, Portugal, Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil. Another interesting item about this ATL is that for some reason, the author does not give any hint to why, Communism was thrown out of Russia and it would appear that the Czarist government has returned to power, but I cannot say for sure. Now the actual story itself is set in April of 1953 where the plot is mostly focused on the Secretary of State who is trying to find a position for Samuel Irving Rosenman who was refused as an ambassador of the US to Japan. The reasons for this can be seen on the first page of the short story where the Secretary of State says that the Japanese have possibly been listening to the Germans and/or British in regards to Zionism is a threat to world peace. Eventually after consulting the President, who the author does not name, it is decided to send Rosenman to the Philipines to be a part of the governor's staff. The author closes his short story with this quote, "And with all this fuss down South the last year or two, you can tell the governor to look on the bright side-at least we are not sending him a N-word(not sure if I should write the actual word)."
So a few questions arise from this ATL: 1. would this timeline be worthy of continuation? 2. What are the implications of Communism being thrown to the waste basket in regards to say China? Does it become firmly Nationalist or does Mao form a different kind of revolution, say a fascist one? 3. Since Nazi Germany has maintained a relative peace with its neighbors has the Holocaust(a much smaller one at that) come and gone? Have they developed the a-bomb by 1953 and other advanced weapons (ie see turning point the fall of liberty: http://www.codemasters.com/turningpoint/ 4. How does the US deal with the rising Civil Rights Movement and the large Jewish populations? 5. Also with regards to the Great Britain and France how do these countries deal with their colonies that they still have control over, do they take the route that they did in our TL or do they try to hold on? 6. And lastly with the delay of WW2 has it been completely butterflied away or will it happen sooner down the line say late 50s or earlier 60s?
If you want to see the actual short story I would suggest going to your library and checking out Crosstime Traffic by Lawrence Watt-Evans.
Thank you for your time.
Last edited: