Adam, I'm going to reply to both of your previous posts at the same time as I didn't have the free moment to spare before. (luckily for me, I have the day off)
Ah, getting to the meat of things.
It would be more militarized than OTL, especially so if the Axis have a presence (or hints of one) anywhere in the Americas. Think of the 1940s on 10x rocket boosters, or the post-Eurasian War AoD from Domination trilogy.
I agree. All sides would be more militarised than what occurred IOTL during the Cold War. It's a far more unstable and frightening situation with a 3-sided cold war, especially if the factions might split further. In some ways, it's like the Pre-WW1 political atmosphere in Europe with nuclear weapons added to the mix, then expanded to a global scale. The tension would be mindboggling, like being on the verge of a Cuban Missile Crisis with the threat of global nuclear war just around the corner every year. They'd have really, really, really good diplomats and extremely nervous overworked espionage agents.
A I disagree that anything like the peace movement formed during Vietnam would arise - something smaller might develop, but it would probably not be significant enough in the American zeitgeist.
Possibly a more fanatical peace movement, even if smaller. A lot of that would be pure escapism, with fantastic utopian ideologies that are entirely impractical.
On the other hand, many would be trying to promote world government by some kind of shared assembly of nations. It wouldn't be called the United Nations as that was originally a term only for the Allies and those against the Axis nations.
More possibly, a feeling of despair and ennui combined with an inevitable fey for the "Final Struggle" would develop - its either they crush the Eurasian boogeymen when the time comes, or pay a cost beyond measure for all time.
That could be at the heart of American culture in this ATL, and definitely resonate in the rest of the Capitalist Bloc nations. It would make for some very stirring music, and be common in art films.
It's rather like the Sci-Fi universe of Warhammer 40K. I bet the USA would have truly kickass Marines in this timeline, their military would be extremely motivated.
Of course, that's not counting in factors like the aforementioned German-Italian-Japanese sphere split, or all three suffering internal breakdowns...
I suspect that they're not the only side on the edge of breakdown in such a world. The collapse of the USSR (what's left of it) would be accelerated. The USA's economic problems would accumulate much more quickly, while the environment in all of these nations would worsen more rapidly.
A bitter peace? The some effect, as I've said, would be making them more militarized (and vengeful) than OTL.
Certainly. With all the awful consequences of that, but there'd be benefits too, I'm sure (
though I can't think what they'd be yet).
There'd be far less tolerance of corruption and far less tolerance of shady treasonous actions by government officials. Criminal punishments would be harsher.
Remember, the counterculture of Vietnam era was made by the remarkable amount of freedom available to OTL 1950s-60s America thanks to victory in WWII. With a defeat in WWII, there wouldn't exist an impetus to "relax", so to speak.
Maybe the relaxation is just not out in the open so much. More alcoholism, shady bars, secretive parties behind closed doors. People would want to escape from all that tense seriousness that'd be common in public life.
I suppose that there could be some ideas from how the people of the Confederate states coped with the defeat by the North. Although very different era, and no kind of occupation or rule by the other side.
It would be straight down to a harder Cold War mentality in preparing for the "final" struggle to decide the overall geopolitical picture - not much time for easy living when 3/4 of Eurasia is under German, Italian or Japanese control, and they have nukes.
They'd be better prepared. I'd assume there would be more of the survivalist thinking. To be a "rebel", you react against it by acting blasé as if none of it mattered.
Would James Dean be a more careful driver in this ATL? Perhaps he's in the Army.