When the Fog Has Cleared

Israel · Mar 25, 2016

1.

Thomas Dewey was the perfect man for postwar America, simply because most people, discounting those pesky over-the-top-radical Socialists and Southern re-secessionists, liked him. He brought sensible ideas to the table, primarily cooperation with the German Empire and order at home... besides, there was a certain charm to whom that brought back memories of better times.

The so-called "Austin Conference" was supposed to end the ever-brewing rivalry with the European victors once and for all. Hosted by the Texan government, attending were President Dewey, Kaiser Wilhelm III, Emperor Otto von Habsburg, Sultan Abdul Majid II, and their assorted staff and advisers. Britain, France, and even Japan were granted an audience, albeit as observers. Russia was quite upset at being left out, but it had to be if the conference was to take place.

However, it resolved almost nothing. Except for a formal declaration in which all participants recognized the new borders at which they stood, it did not actually bring about the peace that Dewey hoped for, leaving him disgruntled at the very least. He told his Secretary of State, Robert Taft, "I don't know what's going to happen next, all I know is that it isn't going to be good."

VidaLaVida · Mar 25, 2016

An interesting start, but a correction: Robert Taft is dead by now in TL-191. Killed by an anonymous people bomber in the middle of the Second Great War. Also, for what it's worth, there's a brief mention in "The Grapple" where it's said that Karl I is named as the Austro-Hungarion emperor, indicating that he was still alive and still on the throne as late as 1943, though it's ambiguous enough to suggest that it may be plausible if he died shortly afterward and Otto took the throne.

Unless there were PODs before the end of the SGW?

Still, looking interesting! Question: why wouldn't Russia be invited to the peace conference? Defeated power currently reeling and in chaos or not, that's a pretty important player to neglect. The other two defeated European Entente powers, Britain and France, were invited, and even Japan was, so why not Russia?

Israel · Mar 26, 2016

VidaLaVida said:
An interesting start, but a correction: Robert Taft is dead by now in TL-191. Killed by an anonymous people bomber in the middle of the Second Great War. Also, for what it's worth, there's a brief mention in "The Grapple" where it's said that Karl I is named as the Austro-Hungarion emperor, indicating that he was still alive and still on the throne as late as 1943, though it's ambiguous enough to suggest that it may be plausible if he died shortly afterward and Otto took the throne.

Unless there were PODs before the end of the SGW?

Still, looking interesting! Question: why wouldn't Russia be invited to the peace conference? Defeated power currently reeling and in chaos or not, that's a pretty important player to neglect. The other two defeated European Entente powers, Britain and France, were invited, and even Japan was, so why not Russia?

Sorry about Taft, I don't know as much about TL-191 as I should. As for Russia, I assume spite (from Germany, pretty much)

Israel · May 5, 2016

OK, sorry about not updating for so long

On the domestic front, President Dewey had to deal with reconstruction. The Socialists in Congress continued to press on him to take more radical measures in rebuilding infrastructure, such as nationalizing oil wells in Sequoya. But over and over, he refused to go so far.

But he was not one to sit around. In May of 1945, he introduced the "National Reconstruction Program," through which he increased veterans' benefits threefold, built over 1,200,000 housing units for low-income families, and restored electrical power lines in the Midwest.

There was also the subject of the rebellious South. War Department statistics estimated that as much as 15% of surviving Confederate vets were not apprehended by US troops, and it was factual by that point that they formed guerrilla bands. Dewey had no intention of allowing the Southern states to rejoin the Union anytime soon, but this made things ever more difficult.

Canada was also seeing a low-key insurgency surface. Texan and Quebecois troops did little to assist the US in restoring order, and it wasn't like Mexico was too eager to help them either. The reprisals proved ineffective, only strengthening their resolve.

Throughout the North, newly-freed black camp survivors had nowhere to go. Dewey was sympathetic, and extended to them the benefits of the NRP. But debate raged within his Cabinet on a permanent solution. Some wanted to send them to Liberia, which was created in the first place for freed slaves. Others wanted to integrate them into American society. But one thing was clear: there was not yet a solution.

VidaLaVida · May 7, 2016

Ouch. America is in for a world of hurt if the unreconstructed Confederate soldiers take to the woods and start a guerrilla campaign. It reminds me of a scenario posted in the original "What If" book;in OTL 1865, upon the surrender of the CSA, E. Porter Alexander actually advocated to Robert E. Lee that he take a band of loyal soldiers, hide in the woods, and launch a perpetual guerrilla campaign against the Union, creating a "Vietnam in America" situation, as the book put it. If this is happening here, when the continent has already suffered so much and the hatreds are so strong, things will be very painful.

Between that and Canada, the U.S. government may want to try a different avenue other than force. President Dewey introduces a reconciliatory "we are all Americans" message, perhaps?

On the topic of the Population Reduction survivors, yeah, that would be a big debate, no doubt. As much as people pick on TL-191 for its parallelism, there really is a lot of room for similarities to Israel and Zionism as a realistic solution. I can definitely imagine that this TL would see a strong revival of the OTL Back-to-Africa movement, as both black and white Americans come to the conclusion that the Freedom Party Holocaust was the ultimate proof that African-Americans would never be accepted or find a place to belong in North America, that blacks and whites had nothing left to say to each other, and that the best solution would be for the blacks to have their own independent nation. Thus, Liberia once again is revived in its original idea as the destination for freed African-Americans to have their own independent version of America where they can control their own destinies.

The parallels to Jews and Israel would be quite apt. Not all African-Americans would choose to go to Liberia; just as how there are still Jewish communities in Europe, quite a few blacks would stay in America. But many would decide to say farewell to the land where they had suffered so much and look for better opportunities in their own nation.

Of course, much like Israel, this would not be without its local conflicts. Just as how it led to conflicts between Israeli Jews and local Arabs, the flood of Americo-Liberians would cause a lot of conflict with the native African ethnic groups in the region. Also, seeing as how Germany is taking over most of the British and French African colonies, having an American client state on the continent that falls within Germany's sphere of influence may lead to some geopolitical tension.