Who Pays The Piper ? (The 1970s)

ELEVENTH HOUR

Who Pays The Piper ?

This thread is the 1970s thread of the timeline 'Eleventh Hour'

It follows on immediately from

Roses And Thorns (The 1960s)
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=100103

Satan's Children (The 1950s)
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=96246

A Tiime of Apprehension (The 1940s)
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=93439

The Terrible Thirties (The 1930s)
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=89160

The Restless Twenties (The 1920s)
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=88209



Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
Last edited:
1970

Peterborough, capital of Great Britain

"What is this ?" Prime Minister Raymond Johnson picked up the piece of paper and waved it in the air
Foreign Minister Victor Snaith sighed. As a fellow member of the Yorkshire-based People's Party, he had found that instead of being seen as complementing the Prime Minister's standing, he was viewed instead as being a challenge to it. The man who seemed to hold that view most strongly was seated across from him.
"As it says, Prime Minister, it is an invitation to Seattle"
"To discuss the resurrection of the World Council ?!" Johnson was scathing
"President Nixon words it 'World Congress'..."
"I can read" Johnson snapped, "And I remember my history, that whole farce in New York"

He set his fountain pen down carefully upon the blotter,
"Tell me why we should even consider such an insanity ?"
Snaith picked at a loose thread on his collar,
"Because the President of the United States has invited you to ?" he suggested
"The USA bombed the crap out of this country !" Johnson growled, "Or have you forgotten that ?"

Victor Snaith looked up and found himself looking into the hawklike eyes of his colleague,
"I have not forgotten, Prime Minister"
"Then how can you even suggest this ?!" Johnson was on his feet, "Even if I was mad enough to go, how the Hell could I explain it to parliament or to the people ?!"
"Do not tell them until afterwards ?" suggested the Foreign Secretary
"You are mad..." Johnson strode towards the window and looked out towards the spires of the cathedral in the distance, "Or you are a snake..."
"A snake, Prime Minister ?"

"Yes, a snake in the grass, man !" Johnson whirled upon him, "I go off on a secret journey to the US, and someone, oh someone in a high place, anonymously informs the nation..."
"It is a risk..."
"It is more than that.", Johnson snorted, "It is a certainty."
"I would hardly say that..."
"Yes, you would hardly say that...", he stood behind his chair, and rested his hands upon it, "You can tell President Nixon that I will not be attending"
"I think that is a mistake, Prime Minister."
"I am sure you do."

They stared at each other for a moment, then Snaith rose, and smoothed down his jacket
"Very well" he said, turning on his heel and striding out of the room
Johnson sighed and looked towards the ceiling,
"Give me strength !" he pleaded


Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
1970

Algiers, France Exterior

"Now is the time !" French Socialist Party leader Francois Mitterand stood upon a podium in the great hall that had once been occupied by the general council of the World Council.
Seated before him were the assembled delegates of the party, assembly members and prospective members for the forthcoming elections
"They will try and bespirch our name !" he roared, "They will try and associate us in the public's imagination with the Socialist Party of America. They will try and make us take the blame for the nuclear war !"
They were roars of anger and howls of outrage
He worked them up further,
"They will impugn our honour and our love for our country. They will call us traitors !"
They were on their feet now, screaming at him

He stood back and mopped his brow. Now all that was needed was for them to whip up the population enough that they would vote them a majority in the assembly


Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
1970

German Imperial Bunker, North of Berlin

"Situation Report"
General Ruger tossed a sheaf of papers into the air and watched them fall onto the cold metal of the table,
"Well, Your Majesty" he said, tired and fed up, "Apart from the Imperial Guard, and the Marines at the surviving ports, we are now running entirely on the Landswehr."
"They are being paid, aren't they ?" Wilhelm IV frowned; he had ordered it so, and it had better be so
"Yes, such as it goes"
"Such as it goes ?", the Kaiser's tone was dangerous
"Sir", General Rutger gathered himself, "Half of the economy is still running on a barter system, and the other half is seeing galloping inflation", he waved away the anticipated interruption from the Minister for Finance, "I know we have ordered no price rises, but that is not the way things work in the real world."

There was a pause, then Prinz Waldemar, the Kaiser's brother asked
"And what of the Luftstreitkrafte ? I assume that it is not being run by the Landswehr too ?"
"Why do you assume that, Your Highness ?"
"Because they are hardly qualified to fly fighter jets !"
The general sighed,
"Your Highness, Luftstreitkrafte operations are restricted to the Transport Corps and the Field Units. We have, I admit, 12 Brumner attack aircraft fuelled and ready at Malmedy, but their pilots have been seconded from the Navy."
"We are defenceless ?!" asked the young prince, in astonishment
"We have been that for a long time, Your Highness"

"What of civil order ?" asked Prinz Eitel Friedrich
Great-uncle to the Kaiser and his brother, the veteran warrior often wondered whether it would have been better to have died in the American nuclear strike, and not to have lived to see the ruin that the Reich had become
"Mostly under control, Your Highness", General Rutger sounded rather more upbeat about this aspect of things, "We have the Landswehr operating in the camps, and His Highness, the Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar has provided us with a base for central command and control. Weimar provides an excellent central location, and it was lucky and escaped direct assault in the war."
"The International Red Cross are operating alongside our own people under license", the Interior Minister put in, "It seemed a waste of resources to deny them that."
"Quite so", the Kaiser nodded

He was plainly waiting for the general to continue, so Rutger took another breath and ploughed on
"Some of the Silesian mines are operating again, close to their normal capacity, and the Baltic fishing fleet has been built back up and is bringing home the catch"
"Sufficiently irradiated, no doubt ?" snapped the Chef Scientific Advisor
"As you know, Professor Schmidt", the general frowned at him, "It is impossible for it to be otherwise."
"Suicide", the man shook his head, "Long-term suicide"
"Rather better than short-term starvation" Rutger would have none of it

"Do we have any foreign relations ?" asked the Kaiser, "Apart from Switzerland ?"
"Little to speak of, Your Majesty", the Foreign Minister took over from the general who sat back with a relieved sigh, "We have of course replenished our embassies amongst our immediate neighbours and moved to pay off the larger of our debts, but given the situation that the Reich is in, and recent events in Rome and Russia, nobody is paying much attention to anything we say"
The Kaiser nodded slowly,
"Then say nothing, or very little - that way it will not be so obvious that they are ignoring us"
"Yes Your Majesty"


Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
Winter and Spring 1970

President Richard M Nixon of the United States of America invites world leaders to Seattle for a summit aimed at recreating the World Congress (sic), a body he claims that provided an outlet for aggression short of war, and which whilst it existed prevented nations from turning on one another

The result is less than enthusiastic. Some nations make no reply at all, chief amongst them Germany and France, others such as Great Britain and Japan send outright refusals.

The Joint Alliance Council of the Pact of Rome suggests instead that if the USA wishes to address Europe, then the US Secretary of Sate should fly to Rome and talk to the Council. Nixon makes no response to that

In the event, only the nations of the Pan-American Alliance, various neutral Central American and Carribean nations, and China attend. Lots of well-meaning words are spoken, but in the circumstances little can be achieved and the best that can be spun to the public is that all attendees agree to return in a year's time, when it is hoped that other nations will also feel able to put their differences aside and work together


The relative failure impacts negatively upon Nixon's perception within the USA. Up to now, foreign policy successes have taken the heat of what many see as a slow and lacklustre drive towards rebuilding after the One Week War. Now, increased pressure is put on him within Congress to explain why his administration appears to be lagging behind what everyone wants to see in terms of returning refugees to a safe home environment


The Ottoman Empire launches the spacecraft Zafer VIII crewed by the Euro-Ottoman Space Agency, and manned by two Frenchman (one a black from Senegal), a Ukrainian woman, and two Turks. It follows its three immediate predecessors in putting a capsule safely down upon the Moon's surface and conducting a series of experiments there, before returning to Earth and a safe splashdown in the Indian Ocean


The Regent of France has himself crowned King Charles XI in Algiers, in a ceremony attended by politicians and royals from across Europe and N Africa. King Idris of Libya attends in person, but the best that an embattled Egypt can do is to send their Foreign Minister. Great Britain sends the Prince of Wales, whilst the kings of Spain and Portugal attend in person

After the coronation, and the promulgation of a series of decrees building on the Regent's plans for the borders of France, elections to the general assembly are fixed for late May

In a move towards normalisation of relations, the US Secretary of State Herbert Kahn attends the coronation, and afterwards announces that the US Marine contingent based in Algiers since the One Week War will be withdrawn to Benghazi. In secret, he asks that King Charles in turn give his blessing to next year's attempt at a World Congress in Seattle. The king agrees to consider it


East Africa explodes back into the headlines when an Egyptian army corps, complete with armoured units, is annihilated in an attempt to enter the Ugandan kingdoms

In the aftermath, the Ugandans rise up as one throwing their weight behind Idi Amin, whilst his Kenyan allies carry their fight out of their traditional lands into the Abyssinian-populated cities

Emperor Haile Selassie makes a furious speech from Addis Ababa, proclaiming that the rebels will be crushed, and that if Egypt is incapable of dealing with its own subject peoples then perhaps Abyssinia will do it for them

Watching events from Kaiser Wilhelm Stadt (Youande) Fuhrer Schellenberg of Afrika is appalled. The whole concept of his state is that it should be multi-ethnic, a unity of peoples, but this explosion of black separatism and black supremacy on his borders is having a serious destabilising effect on his interior provinces, especially those recently 'liberated' from the Belgian Congo


The immediately affected powers are not the only ones to be concerned at this state of affairs. Although the war in Liberia had largely become an irrelevance even by the time that the One Week War broke out (the international black leadership had already been wiped out by the French hydrogen bomb), West Africa remains a hotbed of revolution and rebellion.

Often proclaiming a cause of black power, and black one nationhood, the rebel movements, although often weak and disorganised in themselves, manage to remain in the fight. From Senegal to the ruins of Nigeria, civil wars rage. Britain, France and Portugal all call for some kind of international alliance to "settle the continent down"

Ottoman agents meet with Haile Selassie and agree an Ottoman arms and aid package to Abyssinia that sees Ottoman produced versions of state-of-the-art Bulgarian jet fighters on their way to Addis Ababa, along with Ottoman-manufactured tanks, and armoured vehicles, and modern automatic weapons. A cadre of Ottoman advisors also accompanies the shipments in order to best train the Abyssinians quickly in their use


News reaches the West, that Russian forces in Turkmenistan have slaughtered over a thousand civilians in crushing a demonstration. This is soon followed by detailed reports on Russian military operations where "annihilating the rebels" has become Russia's aim. Whole villages have been massacred, isolated strongholds hit by a barrage of poison gas, hostages taken and executed in large numbers

The Pact of Rome calls for both sides to draw back and agree a ceasefire

President Oumansky counters by pointing out that under treaties signed by all nations, Turkmenistan is an integral part of the Russian Empire. It may be autonomous but it has no more right to seccede than does Bearn from France or the Basque provinces from Spain.

The Joint Alliance Council of the Pact of Rome begins to see internal discord as several nations pull back from the previously stated position, and call for talks to re-establish the status quo ante, rather than for a new settlement


China launches two spacecraft in quick succession, using her own resources and manning them entirely on her own. Both circle the Earth and return safely

To Russian and Indian complaints, Peking reports that it is leaving the quadri-partite space agency and going its own way

Observers in Europe and the USA reckon that it is only a matter of time before the political alliance between the three Asian powers collapses also


The French elections return a hung parliament, with the Socialists and the National Party equal in their share of the vote. Rather than form unstable coalitions with minor parties, King Charles XI suggests that they work together, and split the cabinet between them

The meeting between the party leaderships is surprisingly amicable. It is agreed that the First Minister post shall go to Socialist leader Francois Mitterand, but that Foreign, Interior and Defence shall go to National Party members. The Socialists pick up Finance, Colonies, and Industry, whilst the National Party gets Agriculture, Health and Education.


Afrikan, South African and Australian ministers meet in Johannesburg but cannot agree anything. Schellenberg is asking for aid, money and arms, with which to fight the black nationalists in Uganda and Kenya before their influence causes the breakup of his state. This aim is shared by both the USSA and Australia, neither of whom wishes to contemplate a central Africa dominated by black majority rule. But Australia refuses to have anything to do with Schellenberg's native and mixed-race units and would require any contributions to be ring-fenced for white only spending - the Fuhrer knows that there is no way he can sell this to the national assembly, and that attempting to keep it secret would doom him and the nation when it, inevitably, came out

South Africa are less worried about finances but wish to contribute armed units. Realising that these would consist of Apartheid's greatest supporters bent on a crusade against black rule, Schellenberg is unable to accept that either. Even if he could play down their significance in the announcement, as soon as the men were on the ground in Uganda it would be obvious to his commanders just what sort of people these new allies were

In the end, the Fuhrer has to make do with a few state of the art fighter aircraft that Sydney sends as a token, reckoning that Afrika has very few pilots and only white veterans would be able to fly them, and a sum of money from Johannesburg that is welcome in itself but won't last long once fighting begins


In Cairo, General Sadat rejects pressure to send some of the units holding down Darfur South into Uganda, arguing that to do so would be to risk losing both Darfur and the kingdoms.

Egypt's greatest problem is money and eventually Sadat recognises that there is only one ready source available to him. He heads off on a secret visit to Istanbul, leaving National Security Advisor Hafiz Ismail in charge of the empire


Negotiations in Rome, see the kingdoms of Albania and Montenegro accede to the Pact of Rome

Bulgaria and the Greek Socialist Republic request Observer status, the right to sit in at general meetings, but not to vote or be present at confidential ones. The Joint Alliance Council agrees their request


Fuhrer Schellenberg of the State of Afrika flies to Algiers, leaving his nation in the temporary care of recently-promoted Field Marshal Harald Quandt

He has a public audience with King Charles XI, then meets the cabinet and the leadership of both governing parties in joint secrecy. His message is a stark one - unless Afrika succeeds, then the future will not be an integration of European and African ways but a complete and violent rejection of Europe. He reminds them that France as now constituted has a vastly greater bulk in Africa than Europe, and that if this collapsed into chaos, what would be left of the blasted ruin of the European homeland ?

He advocates involvement in the Ugandan Crisis not through any racism or desire to destroy black ambitions, but because SEPARATIST and SUPREMACIST black ambitions threaten the whole European settlement in Africa. He prophesises that either this conflict is won, or within twenty years there will remain no European foothold on the continent, except possibly an Ottoman one, if one can consider them Europeans

Shocked by such forceful talk, First Minister Mitterand requests time out to confer with his colleagues in the Socialist leadership. Granted this, they discuss whether the Afrikan leader's words are true, or just fear and paranoia, whether even if true they would ever apply to France, and whether it is against Socialist ideals to crush self-determination because it is a danger to the universal harmony they wish to see elsewhere

This latter point erupts into a furious argument, and with several ministers threatening to walk out of the government, Mitterand requests another meeting, this time with just the Socialists, the king and the Fuhrer. Sending an explanatory note to the National Party leadership, Mitterand stresses that such a meeting is the only way to convince the waverers. Realising that this means that the First Minister and several others must have accepted Schellenberg's words the two heads of state agree, whilst the National Party, also making calculations at a global rather than national level raise no objection

An all-night meeting ensues. Once again Schellenberg lays out his points, emphasising in response to criticism that the Ugandan kingdoms were neither oppressed nor foreign dominated, but autonomous within a federal empire and that any talk of freeing themselves from oppression is merely a smokescreen.

Laying out possible scenarios and asking everyone present to follow them to potential conclusions, Schellenberg effectively uses gaming strategy to win round many of his opponents. By morning, only the Finance Minister and the Junior Health minister quit the government, and Mitterand is able to go to the National Party leadership and assure them that the Socialist Party stands behind any decision to aid Afrika

Talk then turns to what exactly this aid will be, and how it will be delivered


Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
June 1970

Afrika and France sign a number of agreements in Algiers
Amongst these are a Mutual Defence Pact, a Mutual Aid Pact and an immediate and specific alliance

This alliance is termed the Stabilisation Alliance and will consist on the one hand of Afrikan support for French colonies in West Africa, and on the other hand for the dispatch of French Foreign Legion, Airforce and paratroop assets to E Africa, and a pooling of monetary resources

Schellenberg flies back exhausted to Kaiser Wilhelm Stadt where Field Marshal Quandt hands back the reins of power. Quandt asks the Fuhrer how he is going to spin the alliance when he addresses the National Assembly, but Schellenberg tells him he will have to sleep on it

Calling an evening session of the National Assembly, the 59 year-old Fuhrer assures that he is fresh and ready for the challenge. Refraining from taking alcohol beforehand, and wired by more bad news from Uganda, he pulls off one of his best speeches before the assembly. He assures them that he is dedicated to making a success of Afrika, as a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural state, a fusion of Africa and Europe, and a home for people from either culture. He points to his increasing opening up of areas of government, finance and the armed forces at senior level to natives, mixed race and immigrants alike, and to how he has granted the National Assembly powers that he could easily have kept to himself

He dares to challenge them to answer him if any of their number think that anything he has done is wrong, that his goals are misguided, or that his policies are doomed to failure. Nobody takes up the challenge. He declares therefore that surely if what Afrika means, and what it is evolving into is the RIGHT thing, then any severe threat to it must be eradicated. If there were a nation trying to stir up its whites to rebel and seize power and deny the rights of the blacks of Afrika then surely they would fight ?

In this, he is carefully skating over the internal politics of his South African allies, and instead asking whether such a pretend-hypothetical state could get away with doing this. Many in the assembly know that what he is really saying is that if the USSA was trying to crush Afrika in such a manner, would they stand idly by and let them. But Johannesburg may espouse Apartheid at home, but is pragmatic beyond its own borders - it much prefers Schellenberg's Afrika to some black independence alternative. Dodging the bullets on that one, Schellenberg declares that if it is wrong for whites to try to do this, then it is also wrong for blacks

Many watch him carefully, quietly at this juncture. Applause is low, and tension is high. This is the key moment and the speaker on the podium knows it. He takes a drink of water, and resumes. If he and they are working towards an ideal solution for Afrika, then how can they not take heed of a threat to all this ? How can they not look at black power separatism and call it wrong ? If it was just a matter of the Ugandan kingdoms rebelling against Egypt, uniting and going their own way, then that would be a local matter...BUT THAT IS NOT WHAT IT IS ! He roars and they jump. Idi Amin is trying to meld a state to be the VOICE of black Africa, to presume to speak for everyone of black origin, to demand their adherence to the cause. He intends to divide peaceful communities on racial grounds. He intends to stir neighbour to fight neighbour. He intends to destroy anything that he himself has not created.

They are warming to him now, chanting responses to his rhetoric. It is not that Schellenberg cares one hoot for Egypt, or for Abyssinia, nor do nor should Afrika. But that is not what the question is here. The question is not what should be the fate of Uganda or of Kenya, but what should be the fate of THEMSELVES ! Should they leave their Fate in this racist demagogue's hands, or should they act to protect the vision they all have for Afrika, and impose their own solution upon events ?!

The National Assembly rises to its feet as one and applauds the Fuhrer for a full ten minutes


Franco-Afrikan units soon enter the Ugandan kingdoms

Afrikan special forces aid the French in their efforts to hold down their colonies in West Africa


Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
Summer 1970

The Pan-American Space Agency puts into space the Nova I crewed by a joint US-Canadian-Mexican contingent. It orbits the Earth and splashes down successfully in the S Pacific

President Nixon makes much of this in a speech to the Pan-American Alliance at Phoenix, emphasising the return of US power on the one hand, and the co-operation and gains to be made within the alliance on the other


As if to emphasise the USA's relative weakness in the Space Race, two weeks later the Ottoman Empire puts into space both Zafer IX and Zafer X simultaneously. The first is crewed by a mixed Italian-Turkish crew, the latter by a complete hodge-podge, the commander a Tatar, the pilot of the lunar orbiter a Kurd, the crew which accompanies the commander to the Moon made up of French, Spanish and Italian astronauts

Once on the Moon, they all come under the command of the Turkish commander of Zafer IX a full general who directs them in erecting a rudimentary survival base on the lunar surface. Together with a Turkish compatriot and the Frenchman, he remains on the Moon when the two capsules take off to rendezvous with the orbiters

Istanbul announces the establishment of the first experimental Moonbase

On the lunar surface, things are as bad as they were for the early 20th century explorers of Antarctica. Only the fact that they have nowhere to go, and no need to move, allows the three pioneers to conserve food and oxygen and hope that the replenishment landers arrive on schedule


Afrikan and French forces (operating out of Afrikan bases) make good progress into the Ugandan kingdoms of Toro and Ankole in the South, but meet with fierce resistance in attempts to force entry into Buganda itself

Additionally, attempts to cross water and invade Bunyoro in the West of Uganda also meet with only limited success

Abyssinia launches an all-out campaign into Kenya, declaring the rebels en masse to be outlaws

The Federal Republic of Somalia and the Kingdom of Libya protest at such murderous language, but Haile Selassie is not to be thwarted

General Sadat, effective ruler of Egypt, having received clandestine funds from Istanbul is also able to launch an attack, pressing into the North of Uganda before being stopped at Gulu


Operating from St Louis on the Northern coast of the colony, French forces with Afrikan special forces support begin to finally retake control of Senegal. They also send 'friendly expeditions' into the Gambia, the British colony having been in anarchy since the nuclear bombing of Bathurst in the One Week War had removed its only major settlement


Chinese leaders arrive in Seattle for talks with the United States of America. Initially billed as economic discussions, they soon spill over into political matters, and President Nixon is able to announce a stunning exclusive. The Federal Republic of China is abrogating its alliance with Russia and India, and has instead signed a memorandum of understanding with the USA, subject to further talks in Peking, for which Secretary of State Herbert Kahn is already readying himself


By late Summer budgetary problems are affecting both Afrika and France. Abyssinia, now almost entirely bank-rolled by Istanbul presses on with its so-far unsuccessful campaign against the Kenyan rebels, whilst Egypt, also bankrolled by the Ottomans is stalled in Northern Uganda

Questions are now being openly asked in Cairo as to how the Empire of Egypt is able to afford a war on this scale when the previous year it could not even pay its soldiers. Suspicions of Ottoman involvement firm up when the Cairo credit market is reopened, and European banks, known to be fronts for Ottoman finance, predominate

Unrest takes to the street, and religious leaders inveigle against the false Caliph, the sin of usury and much more. General Sadat clamps down on the latter, whilst attempting to buy the former off with social programmes, again financed by Istanbul

But this is too much for Egyptian Nationalists to take. Long-accustomed to the Egyptian Economic Miracle, and to seeing their country stand as an equal to the Ottoman Empire, they can't sit idly by whilst this upstart general sells them out to Istanbul

Revolution sweeps the streets and in desperation Sadat orders back the elite units deployed to Darfur. But it is too late. By the time they reach Cairo, the emperor and royal family has fled to Libya, Sadat has been cut down by members of his own bodyguard, and civil war is raging on the streets between nationalists, populists and religious fanatics

The commander of the elite force storms the central mosque, puts the leading imams to the sword (or bayonet) and sends emissaries to the Nationalists. The Nationalist leaders gather in the killing ground and together they all march on the central administrative zone, the imperial palace and the national assembly

Cutting down the street demonstrators from helicopters and armoured cars, the makeshift alliance seizes the symbols of power, whilst an elite paratroop force takes control of the central radio and television stations. The Nationalist leader broadcasts to the nation that he is in control, and that once again Egypt for Egyptians will be the theme of the day

By this time Darfur is in open rebellion and the army in N Uganda has panicked and been driven back into the Soudan


The Ottoman spacecraft Zafer XI lands on the Moon, the capsule crew including a French commander, a Briton, an Austrian and a Syrian. They replenish the Moonbase's supplies and the Frenchman takes the place of his fellow, whilst the Briton commands the capsule launch back to the orbiter

Istanbul announces the successful replenishment of the Moonbase, thus emphasising how far ahead it is of other nations


Japan adds to its orbital space station, and conducts a series of additional launches throughout the year, testing new versions of the launch rocket and vehicle and increasing its space profile, as such things are known


Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
Very nice! A good start to the Seventies, and Afrika's intervention looks especially hopeful.

Which means, of course, that they're in for hell.
 
Going to be a long but interesting decade . . .

Bobindelaware

I predict it will last 10 years :)

Pity the alternate history version of me has no chance of being born, what with everything that's happened to London since the mid 1930s !

Any readers think they have a reasonable chance of existing in this timeline, or are most of you too young, lol ?

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
Very nice! A good start to the Seventies, and Afrika's intervention looks especially hopeful.

Which means, of course, that they're in for hell.

The main problem is money, well when is it not ? But imagine a country made up of these geographical elements :-

Cameroon, Central African Republic, half the DR Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, and half of Mozambique - in OTL its not exactly a list throbbing with financial vigour

OK, so having been a German dominion etc WILL give it a more coherent approach and better starting position, but fighting a long-term war with anything like modern weapons is going to be hugely draining on the finances

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 

Xen

Banned
I predict it will last 10 years :)

Pity the alternate history version of me has no chance of being born, what with everything that's happened to London since the mid 1930s !

Any readers think they have a reasonable chance of existing in this timeline, or are most of you too young, lol ?

Best Regards
Grey Wolf

well lets see I was born in a small town in West Virginia in 1978, however my grandfather from my dads side is likely to have fought in one of the wars and could have been killed in that conflict, so he could be the last member of my family to exist as he was born a couple years before the POD. My Grandmother was born in the 1920s, in an even smaller town, so its possible she comes into being, but with all the things happening, its very likely they dont meet, and thus my father is not born, and that means I won't be either.


No more me :(
 
Autumn-Winter 1970

Sweden announces that it wishes to accede to the Euro-Ottoman Space Agency, but declines all invitations to accede to the Pact of Rome

Since it brings a strong background economy, and substantial scientific and technical expertise, the Space Agency is pleased to welcome a new member. For its part, Sweden hopes it will now be part of something much more successful than its previous joint venture with Russia, and its annuled successor with both China and India, which China has abrogated

Delhi and Moscow begin to find themselves isolated in the world, and since neither possesses nuclear weapons, nor a source to purchase any from, both are feeling worried and concerned in the world they find themselves in

Russia
- it is faced with the Pact of Rome to its West and South, which includes nuclear IRBMs deployed in Hungary and S Poland, as well as independent albeit small Ukrainian force of air-dropped nuclear bombs, and then more Ottoman IRBMs in the Krimea, the Shamilite state, Bokhara, Khiva, Afghanistan and Baluchistan, plus nuclear missile submarines basing out of Novorrisysk in the Kuban state
- it is also faced with Japanese ICBMs based in the FER, as well as in Mongolia and Japan's territories themselves
- Persia has finally slipped completely into the Euro-Ottoman camp and now no bulwark exists between the Pact of Rome and India
- Russia is still embroiled in a deadly and difficult struggle against Turkmen separatists
- President Oumansky also has to deal with continued unrest within certain elements of the military and from certain political directions, and the knowledge that his regime is far from secure

India
- it is faced with Ottoman IRBMs in Baluchistan, Afghanistan and Bokhara
- it is also faced by Japanese ICBMs in Bengal and by Japanese carrier battlegroups with tactical nuclear weapons, and Japanese nuclear missile submarines with ICBMs both based at Chittagong
- The US retains basing rights at Madras, but is making scarce use of them since the One Week War
- The British dominion of Ceylon (with the island chains S of India) is a thorn in the flesh as far as Indian nationalists are concerned
- Hyderabad has been largely integrated, the Hindu majority population settling down though some Muslim elements fight a losing guerilla war
- Assam has been abandoned, the rebellion there crushed by Bengal and the Japanese missiles in Bengali territory a sufficient deterrent

The Nationalist government in Cairo attempts to exert control across the Egyptian Empire, but Islamist resistance, ramped up by the attacks on the main Cairo mosque, lead to terrorist attacks and risings in towns and villages across the nation.

In Darfur it is even worse, and unrest begins to spread across the border into French Wadai/Tchad, leading to calls for intervention from National Party leaders in Algiers

Prime Minister Mitterand meets with his Socialist-National Party coalition cabinet, and they agree in principle that the opening of a 'second front' in Wadai/Darfur might relieve the strain that the army of Afrika is under, and allow their allies to make greater progress in Uganda

Plans are laid for the Spring


Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
1971 - Winter/Spring

Talks in Zurich occur between representatives of the Swiss Federal government, the International Red Cross, the Ottoman Western Europe finance and relief fund, and the national governments of Belgium and the Netherlands. They agree long-term restructuring for the two Low Country kingdoms, a reduction of IRC participation with the Swiss government taking some of the strain, and the Ottomans the rest. The long-term goal is to set the two nations back on their feet

In Britain, the National Party sees a leadership election pitching the aristocrats who have held the party together since the One Week War against the new cohort of MPs led by Sir Richard Sykes. Despite the king's traditional support for the old guard, a feeling that the only way to challenge the People's Party is to have radical change and a new leadership. The 50 year old Sykes wins the party leadership and sets about reinvigorating the constituency organisations so as to present a realistic challenge at the next election

Afrikan and French military leaders meet in N'Djamena and agree a joint assault, with France pushing into rebellious Wadai and then Darfur, but flying aerial missions over Uganda for their allies, and Afrika throwing all their efforts to break Buganda from the South, abandoning the Bunyoro front

As the attacks get under way, the Nationalist government in Cairo protests vehemently against violations of Egypt's imperial borders, but such is the weakness of their position, that what army units they do control are involved in holding down the capital and the major cities of the North

Senior Ottoman officials visit Haille Selassie at Addis Ababa and get the veteran Abyssinian emperor to agree to an Ottoman expeditionary force to join with his army bogged down against the rebellious Kenyans

New weapons begin to appear, first in Kenyan hands, and then in those of their Ugandan allies, and it becomes obvious that Indian gun-runners are supplying them with weapons manufactured in the sub-continent

Idi Amin speaks of "our good friends, the Indians" and calls for more overt support from Delhi

US Secretary of State, Herbert Kahn flies to Peking to meet with Chinese leaders and firm up the Memorandum of Understanding that they had agreed at Seattle the previous year

The Euro-Ottoman Space Agency lands Zafer XII and Zafer XIII on the Moon with mixed European and Ottoman crews. The Turkish general remains in charge at the Moonbase, which is expanded by additional units brought by the landers, but the others in his party are rotated for a Tatar woman astronaut and a Swdish male.

Zafer XII makes a perfect reconnection with the orbiter and returns to Earth safely, but things go horrendously wrong for Zafer XIII. Their orbiter under a French Algerian commander develops serious problems and is unable to link up with the lander. Facing no other other choice the lander returns to the lunar surface, but a couple of hundred miles from the Moonbase.

Zafer XIV is sent up way ahead of schedule, and succeeds in linking up with the orbiter, but finds the oxygen empty and the French commander dead. They land the lunar module midway between the Moonbase and XIII's put-down and discover that of the four-man crew of the lander, two died from injuries received in the impact, but the other two survived a marathon treck to the Moonbase and are being cared for within.

Much of Europe and the Ottoman Empire remain glued to their television screens as the drama unfolds

Hardly mentioned are the Japanese space launch, adding further modules to their Asahi space station, and Nova II and III, Earth orbiters from the Pan-American Space Agency

Only when news of the signing of the Treaty of Peking breaks, do people tear themselves away from events on the Moon and refocus upon the Earth. The USA and China have signed a mutual defence treaty, as well as economic and financial agreements

Tokyo reacts angirily to this 'encirclement' and publically orders the next generation of 20 nuclear missile submarines, a spending commitment that Nixon's USA is unable to match. He does however order all remaining such vessels in Atlantic or Mediterranean waters to the Pacific


Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
Summer 1971

The US election cycle has been bumped a year by the special 1967 election, and thus Nixon's four year term is drawing to an end

It is the first time that the USA has held primaries since the One Week War, the 1967 election relying solely on the national conventions

The infrastructure for the primaries proves complicated and expensive, the situation within the vast network of refugee camps incredibly confusing. Some residents have returned, mainly to Mid-West, Appalachian and South coast states, but most of the East coast refugees remain. Of these, a number proclaim membership of minor parties, created for the 1969 Congressional elections, and since grown to national prominence through their members' voiciferous stance in the House of Representatives. Many in the camps feel happier with these minor parties, believing that they alone speak for the refugee interests against the bureaucracy and dead hand of the centre.

Petitions are raised to allow the minor parties to canvas a joint candidate for the coming election, but Nixon sends in National Guard units to prevent members of one camp journeying to another without the necessary federal permits, and makes things as difficult as possible for the minor parties to even discuss this between themselves

The minor party Congressmen lodge an appeal with the US Supreme Court, but the judges, chosen largely by the SPA neutralist Acting President Arnold Palmer, throw out the case on the grounds that it does not relate to the constitution. They aregue that anyone can stand in any state if they have the necessary support within that state, and that Nixon's actions are not doing anything to prevent this

54 year old Cyrus Vance, a veteran National Democrat who had served in Strom Thurmond's cabinet in a minor role, and thereafter returned to law in West Virginia before fleeing West in the aftermath of the nuclear attacks, becomes the national voice for the minor parties. Frustrated at finding himself confined to one particular camp in W Colorado, he had formed the Union Party and through his old Nat Dem connections had managed to get enough W Virginia votes from the camps alone to get elected to Congress in 1969

Now, he puts himself forward as the candidate for all minor parties in the wake of the USSC ruling. It is up to each state, and the declared members of each state in the camps, to raise enough names to get him on the ballot. He chooses as his running mate Jake Stephens, a Texan from the Minnesota camps who has worked slowly and carefully to build a profile as an intelligent and incisive brain

In Seattle, President Nixon is furious at this development but is advised against challenging it because it complies completely with the Supreme Court's ruling. However he receives a memorandum through his aide, John Dean from an anonymous source stating that "people from Galveston whom he knew" believed Jake Stephens to be a fake

Nixon order the Homeland Investigation Agency to look into this as a matter of urgency

Meanwhile, the Republicans look certain to renominate Nixon, whilst the SPA have gnoe with Minnesota governor Orville Freeman. The National Democratic primaries see a close race between Philippines Governor Ferdinand Marcos, and Puerto Rican Senator Aurelio Gonsalez, son of a Spanish Socialist refugee who had made his home on the island


French, Afrikan and Abyssinian-Ottoman forces launch co-ordinated attacks into East Africa, with French use of poison gas helping them break the resistance in Wadai and make inroads into Darfur before fanatical fighting halts their advance

Concentrating solely on Buganda, Afrikan forces slog their way North and finally reach Kampala, only to find mass improvised defence lines and the need for a siege. Schellenberg personally flies to Johannesburg and asks the USSA president for the loan of his army engineers who had been responsible for the fall of Leopoldville. President Vorster agrees but makes the stipulation that he can only ask for volunteers from within their ranks and not order them. Schellenberg is fine with this - it is volunteers from an open selection he worries about, not from a veteran engineering unit

Enough men volunteer to fly out to Kampala that the siege there is turned upon its head. Before he knows what is happening, Idi Amin is fleeing North, whilst the king of Buganda and his court surrender to the Afrikan general

The Ottoman forces put additional backbone into the Abyssinians and they begin to make good headway against the Kenyans, new weapons from India or not


The US National Conventions occur

- the Republican National Convention unhesitantly re-endorses President Nixon
- the Socialist Party of America National Convention comes out in grest form for Minnesota governor Orville Freeman
- the National Democratic convention controversially chooses Aurelio Gonsalez over Ferdinand Marcos, and then offers the Vice Presidential post to Peter Lawson
- the Union Party convention invites participation from all minor parties and together they nominate Cyrus Vance and Jake Stephens

The HIA inform President Nixon that "there is no credible evidence that Jake Stephens ever existed" but warn that due to the nuclear strikes on Galveston, Houston, Dallas and Washington DC, "there is no definitive proof that he does not"

This is enough for Nixon who authorises John Dean to begin a 'dirty tricks' campaign against the Union Party Vice Presidential candidate


Russia's ambassador to Rome lets it be known to the Pact of Rome's Joint Alliance Council that Moscow is prepared to have independent arbiters of a status quo ante peace with the autonomous province of Turkmenistan

The Pact of Rome leans upon the representatives of the Turkmen living in exile within Rome and Istanbul to accept this offer and agree to talks. Reluctantly, and sensing that the Pact of Rome is about to abandon them otherwise, the Turkmen do but insist that the talks be held in Tehehran


The international talks open in the rebuilt Persian capital, a strange feeling for many of the delegates and observers who reflect on the city's destruction at the start of the Satanists' dark crusade. So much has changed since, not least that the original homelands of the intellectual Satanists, Britain and Germany have been ravaged by war, and that Russia's iron rule under Zhukov cruished what was to be found there

Satanism is now a backwater organisation in Eurasia, and a dying breed in Hispaniola where King Francois' troops brutally muder anyone even associated with Voodoo-Satanism

In fact, the only real stronghold left to Satanism in any recognisable form is within the back streets of the sprawling refugee camps within the USA, and even Seattle does not realise this - in fact, due to Alger Hiss' network, only Great Britain really has an understanding of this


Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
Autumn-Winter 1971

Throughout the campaign, Dean's "Dirty Tricks" against Union Party VP nominate Jake Stephens continues to gather pace, and "unnamed sources" begin to comment that he may be a German spy

Union Party candidate Cyrus Vance is forced to take a closer look at his running mate, but Stephens holds to his story, and though Vance can find no one who knew him in Galveston, he has to admit that the city was nuked out of existence and that scattered refugees who happened to be elsewhere at the time hardly constitute a secure base for doubting the man. Nevertheless he engages a private detective to look into Jake's camp life, and see if any anomalies turn up


Afrikan and Abyssinian forces link up coming through Ugandan and Kenyan territory respectively, but Idi Amin has fled into Southern Soudan where all authority has broken down

The Nationalist government in Cairo attempts to send an army into the Soudan, thinking that if they can claim credit for Amin's demise then Egypt can make good its loss of face and demand everyone accepts its borders and acts accordingly

Coming into conflict with Islamist forces at Khartoum, the Egyptian army collapses in a general rout. The Islamist pursuit carries it up the Nile towards Cairo, with uprisings sprouting before it as it goes

Soon the capital is once more in disarray and the Nationalist government fighting for its survival


The Ottoman Empire drops a tactical nuclear device on Khartoum, stunning a world that has not seen a nuclear explosion since the One Week War

Istanbul explains that the Islamists of the Soudan are heretics, do not accept the legitimacy of the Emperor-Caliph and would have sewn the seeds of dischord throughout the Islamic world

In the wake of the collapse of the Islamist army, a Populist uprising overthrows the Nationalists in Cairo and takes power


Fuhrer Schellenberg is pleased to host an alliance meeting at Kaiser Wilhelm Stadt (*Yaounde) seeing in this the rising power of his nation.

It is attended by a high-level French delegation, a high-level Ottoman delegation, the Emperor of Abyssinia, Haille Selassie himself, and a USSA delegation at foreign ministry level

There is general agreement around the table, not only on the matter of crushing the black supremacist movements, but on the issue of Egypt having become over-stretched under Farouk and of German credit having given his empire a false position in the world, one which is now being catastrophically unravelled

Territorially, the conference agrees
- France is to annex Darfur, a poisoned chalice, but one best kept in secure control rather than left to blow up everytime there is a crisis in Cairo
- Afrika is to annex the Ugandan kingdoms
- Abyssinia is to annex Massawa, and see some border reorganisations in the Southern Soudan
- the Ottoman Empire will enjoy basing rights at Massawa and will keep 'Advisory Forces' in the field in Kenya

Spring 1972 is set for the fulfilment of these aims


The US presidential election occurs

Union Party VP candidate Jake Stephens has been badly damaged by the constant attacks on him, but Vance has kept him on in the belief that changing his choice would reflect badly on him

In the event it scarcely matters. Dean's dirty tricks may have focused negatively on Stephens, but the Republican Party machine has focused positively on Nixon's achievements, most especially playing up the alliance with China as breaking the Asian alliance, and forging a new and vibrant relationship across the Pacific.

Freeman and Gonsalez split the vote and Vance trails in a poor fourth, winning only West Virginia and New York mainly through votes from the camps

Nixon celebrates his re-election by again issuing invitations to a World Congress in Seattle, to be held in the coming New Year. This time the response is much less dismissive


Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
1972 Winter/Spring

In response to President Nixon's re-election, acceptances pour in from across the world to his invitation to a World Congress at Seattle

The Pact of Rome remains in opposition to attendance, but the Scandinavian monarchies of Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland agree.

When the invitation is discussed at Kaiser Wilhelm Stadt, Fuhrer Schellenberg is in favour of acceptance and his agreement sways the nations of the Southern Alliance to also agree to attend. After all, say Australia, what can be lost by attending ?

India also agrees, as do various neutral states from Tibet to Tahiti, Liberia to Sokoto


Ottoman representatives meet with French, Afrikan and Abyssinian at Addis Ababa and reaffirm their commitment to using nuclear weapons to achieve a high level strategic objective. Three potential strikes are tabled, though the conventional means is favoured for the coming Spring offensive. It is simply this - that Istanbul won't accept failure, especially where anti-Caliphate Islamist forces are concerned


The Space Race sees the establishment of an Euro-Ottoman orbital space station, named Sefika Gaspirali for the female Tatar reformer of her day, someone whose example has given much direction to Krim and Ottoman social development in the years after the Great War

Zafer XIV and XV put down on the lunar surface at the end of 1971, and now the last of the series Zafer XVI and XVII land to complete additions to the Moonbase, and evacuate all crew. It is intended in 1973 that the first of a new order of spacecraft and lunar modules will bring the Second Stage crew to the Moon


The World Congress opens at Seattle, opened in person by President Nixon before he hands over to Secretary of State, Herbert Kahn

With China, India, Afrika, the USSA, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Sweden all present, the Congress has much greater validity than the one of 1970. It is filled with speeches of how common interests exist, of how nuclear war must ever more be avoided, and of how nations can work together

The only firm resolution that is in 1973 all nations present will once again come together, but this is enough for Nixon to be able to portray the Congress as a resounding success


In the aftermath of the Congress, Tokyo sends emissaries to Rome to speak to the Joint Alliance Council

France vetoes a direct alliance between the Pact of Rome and Tokyo, arguing that it would set them too closely against the USA

In Algiers, the argument from this is long, but Prime Minister Mitterand convinces his cabinet that he was right - with Afrika already agreeing to attend Seattle, forming an anti-Seattle alliance would put France and the Ottoman Empire in the position of opposing their own allies.


Advances in East Africa, see Afrika and the Abyssinian-Ottomans secure their holdings, but France bogged down in Darfur

The Ottoman Empire sells Algiers 2 tactical nukes, and in accordance with the agreements from Kaiser Wilhelm Stadt, France uses them against the major Islamist/separatist strongholds in Darfur

Resistance soon falls apart


In Cairo, the Populist government, having swept to power in cities across the North, condemns the nuclear explosions on what it still views as its own territory

The Ottoman Empire sends a carrier battlegroup on a 'goodwill' mission to Alexandria

Cairo soon gets the message


Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
Summer 1972

The Space Race

- The Pan-American Space Agency continues to launch Nova Earth-orbitals
- The Southern Space Agency also launches similar orbitals
- China again launches the occasional orbital

- the Japanese are building up their Asahi space station and planning a second
- the Euro-Ottomans swiftly build up the Sefika Gaspirali space station, whilst planning a return to the Moon in 1973


French and Ottoman officials arrive in Tripoli, Libya for talks with the Egyptian imperial family in exile

Senior members refuse to talk to people they regard as having trampled Farouk's legacy into the ground, and the officials leave without ever speaking to Egyptian legitimists

In response, Istanbul opens direct talks with the Populist government in Cairo, promising finance agreements if they will accede to the Kaiser Wilhelm Stadt accords

With the Ottomans already having deployed 3 nukes, 1 large one directly, and 2 tactical via France, the Populist government does not dare refuse the invitation. Talks take place in great security in the British dominion of Cyprus


The Congressional elections of the previous November had been glossed over by the new of Nixon's re-election and then of the successful (sic) Seattle World Congress, but by Summer it is becoming obvious that increased seats for the minor parties in the House of Representatives is not something to be easily dismissed

Minor parties such as Vance's W Virginian-based Union Party have spread across state lines, whilst the New York based Victory Party has increased its representation within the state. Union Party VP nominate Jake Stephens even manages to win a seat as a Congressman for Texas by playing the emergency laws to the limit

Now in Seattle, the minor parties unite with the National Democrats, led by Senator Gonsalez within the two houses, to demand an inquiry into Nixon's administration of the decontamination and resettlement of the Eastern states which all agree is proceeding at a snail's pace

With the SPA unwilling to vote against the motion, it is carried in both houses, and a joint declaration is sent to the President


Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
well lets see I was born in a small town in West Virginia in 1978, however my grandfather from my dads side is likely to have fought in one of the wars and could have been killed in that conflict, so he could be the last member of my family to exist as he was born a couple years before the POD. My Grandmother was born in the 1920s, in an even smaller town, so its possible she comes into being, but with all the things happening, its very likely they dont meet, and thus my father is not born, and that means I won't be either.


No more me :(

Well, fighting in a war doesn't necessarily mean he won't survive - he could be a general by now !

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
hmm very interesting I must say. I like the space race as well maybe more inhabitable camps set up. A vatican led alliance never thought I'd see that
 
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