Which one is more implausible: "USA joined the Axis" or "USA defeated by the Axis"?

The one that's more implausible?

  • USA joined the Axis

    Votes: 78 52.7%
  • USA defeated by the Axis

    Votes: 70 47.3%

  • Total voters
    148
The US being defeated by the Axis is pretty much industrially impossible.
The US joining the Axis is easy. Make it worth their while, and they will do it. Or put in place an administration that is friendly towards intervention and fascism. Nations are, by their very nature, opportunistic and amoral entities.
 
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JRScott

Banned
It is far more plausible that the United States joined the Axis, in fact there were three votes in the Congress to have the United States join the Axis.
 
Given a 1933 PoD, I hold that the US falling into chaos and virtual dictatorship is within the realm of possibility, so I hold joining the Axis would be a possibility.

The US losing the war with Japan post-Pearl Harbor is regarded, at best, as borderline ASB.

So I'll say "losing" more implausible than "joining"...
 

GarethC

Donor
Let me be absolutely clear; you could give Yamamoto copies of Incredible Victory and Shattered Sword on Dec 7th 1936 and it will still require incredible luck for Japan not to end the war as a USAAF forward air base for Korea.

Thus I would describe it as less unlikely that plausible PODs and some gambler's luck bring about a negotiated peace in the Pacific wherein the US cedes territory to Japan, than it does that the US would join the Axis to the point of going to war with Britain.
 
It depends what the rules are regarding POD.

If you're allowed a larger Axis, i could easily see them being forced to the table. Not conquered mind you, but 'defeated'.

As for joining the Axis, i can only see that happening if for some ungodly reason the allies attack them.
 
"Defeated" can mean everything from total conquest by Germany and Japan to having to accept a "white peace" armistice with Hitler in charge of Europe or Japan dominant in the far east but no reduction of US power elsewhere. It could mean anything less than the victory acheieve in OTL. With a loose definition, it is much more likely for the USA to be "defeated" in WW2 than join the Axis - which with any reasonable 20th century PoD is ASB.
 
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