WI: War Plan Red actually happened.

Okay, I'm gonna take a crack instead of just nay-saying.

Maybe the US sits out WWI, it ends with an Entente victory but at a terrible cost, perhaps an extra six months to a year of fighting. After the war ends France and Germany are basket cases, both their economies are wrecked by the fighting even more so than OTL. Europe struggles to recover deeply affecting the economies in North America as loans are defaulted on and the roaring twenties is stunted. Britain meanwhile is dealing with growing resentment at home, trade unionists and socialists are becoming increasingly agitated as a result of a costly war and economic malaise.

Eventually a violent Socialist revolution takes place in Britain, supplanting the ruling classes who flee the nation, Royal Family heads to Canada. Canada however has been more deeply affected by a worse Depression (exacerbated by defaults from France, Germany and now the UK) and the Communist party of Canada is more popular (at least with the workers) much to the chagrin of the conservative PM Bennett who reacts more violently towards the Communists (who had some popularity in OTL). Inevitably the Canadian Communists are outlawed and this causes civil strife, agitated by the revolutionaries in Britain. The US meanwhile is dealing with a far worse economic depression but manage to avoid any serious civil strife but rhetoric becomes even more anti-socialist as Britain (and seemingly Canada) turns Red. Global trade has been severely disrupted as Europe and Germany swing to the far right and squabble among themselves. Stalin laughs as the Capitalist West continues to collapse.

Despite everything, the US manages to pull itself out of the Depression (perhaps a more comprehensive New Deal in reaction to halt what appears to European Domino effect) and by the mid to late 30's makes the decision to "intervene" in Canada (perhaps at the invitation of the Royals/conservative elements) which becomes a wider conflict with Socialist Britain? The appropriately named War Plan Red is drawn up (updated for the situation, the US has not had the experience of WWI remember) and begrudgingly, the United States and The People's Republic of Britain (and to an extent Canada) march to war.

There's a few holes, but it's the best I got :/
I like it.
Maybe the situation in 1919 was worse, but not to the extent of Valiant shelling Liverpool; a few dozens dead, more uncertainty about police and military loyalty after a few more mutinies. So the government plans for future trouble with the Civil Guard instituted and arms stockpiled for their use, with the socialists and unions also quietly preparing. So when the Great Depression analogue hits (let's call call it the Big Slump, I did in the EDC) the unions have their own 'Red Guard' (and maybe the 'Triple Alliance' of railwaymen, miners and TWF persists, they could have brought down the government in 1919) and a civil war of sorts happens.

You could then have it go either way; the purged police and army, assisted by the Civil Guard attempt to suppress the nascent revolution (which initially isn't actually a revolution). If they succeed then the UK goes "fascist" by another name (can't be using nasty foreign words). If they fail the socialists take over and anything from a social democrat republic to a communist state emerges. If the US goes in the other direction there's an ideological basis for conflict. Season perhaps with a delayed "Spanish" 'flu pandemic, conspiracy theories about biological warfare (where's Herbert George?) and more.
Maybe the US got meddlesome over Ireland in the 1918-20 period? Could a more united Irish American block have frustrated Wilson's attempt to bring the US into the Great War? Or provided overt support (the "Irish Legion" perhaps?). How about US military bases there? That'd be a suitable source of irritation.


ETA: Damn, I forgot to reference the KKK. That's the British KKK, the Kibbo Kift Kindred founded by John Hargrave[1] as a more pacifist (and more ritualised) mixed-sex version of the Scouts and Guides.
Later Hargrave founded the 'Green Shirts' (the Legion of the Unemployed or Legion of the Kibbo Kift) linked to the short-lived Social Credit party[2]. They were the largest uniformed paramilitary group in thirties Britain with all sorts of possibilities[3] should a revolution break out[4].


[1] Cartoonist, illustrator, wood carver, novelist, inventor, rock music fan and psychic healer. He also sued the British government for stealing one of his ideas and incorporating it into Concorde and forced a Public Enquiry. An interesting individual who simply begs for a bigger role in an AltHist, novel or RPG scenario.

[2] It's not a new idea.

[3] Seriously, a paramilitary street-army with links to strange woodland rituals? Founded by a man who claimed psychic powers? If you stuck them in in a CoC scenario people would complain about lack of plausibility.

[4] In my EDC timeline they have members with psionic powers, alien artefacts and links to time travellers and formed the nucleus of the resistance to the authoritarian British Republic until the Revolution came. Then things got really interesting.
 
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actually, the British red scenario is plausible. but, with the outline, that gives Hitler the Popular support he needs EARLIER, AND what happens to France, caught between the Red British state with now USSR support, though probably weaker through rebellious natives, and a Vengeful Germany with Italy and Franco's Spain gaining support in Iberia? that sounds like a really bad day.

Also, with the Civil War, Japan would LEAP at the opportunity and attack Malaya, Salawak, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and British pacific Islands. What can stop them? the british army and navy are destroying itself in civil war! or have fled with the loyalists to an area to form an Empire in Exile away from threats
 

Redcoat

Banned
actually, the British red scenario is plausible. but, with the outline, that gives Hitler the Popular support he needs EARLIER, AND what happens to France, caught between the Red British state with now USSR support, though probably weaker through rebellious natives, and a Vengeful Germany with Italy and Franco's Spain gaining support in Iberia? that sounds like a really bad day.

Also, with the Civil War, Japan would LEAP at the opportunity and attack Malaya, Salawak, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and British pacific Islands. What can stop them? the british army and navy are destroying itself in civil war! or have fled with the loyalists to an area to form an Empire in Exile away from threats
So a US-Japan alliance or at least co-belligerence. You don't see that every day!
 
yeah, in that case, since i can see France becoming a commune when influenced by Britain as well, we would see a 2 stage world war. the first is the communist war, where Japan, USA, South America, and Germany go and crush the now communist former Entente powers. as they collapse, Japan and the USA sign an agreement. the Philippines are handed over to Japan for a permanent alliance, and they then turn on Nazi Germany, resulting in Stage 2, the Nazi war. in the end, the USA and Japan divide up the World. the USA would Annex Canada, Mexico(turn communist in 1933), Entente Caribbean, the British Isles, the African Colonies, and France and the Iberian Peninsula, while Japan takes one size that gives unseen except for the british empire, as they control the ENTIRE Pacific(except for USA/South American territory), half of China, Eastern Russia, and Half of the Former Raj, give japan enormous power. a Cold war takes place, but ends 40 years after the fall of Berlin when the USA and Japan sign a alliance verses the "wild lands(area NOT taken by the superpowers)" as the smaller nations rebuild for revenge
 
yeah, in that case, since i can see France becoming a commune when influenced by Britain as well, we would see a 2 stage world war. the first is the communist war, where Japan, USA, South America, and Germany go and crush the now communist former Entente powers. as they collapse, Japan and the USA sign an agreement. the Philippines are handed over to Japan for a permanent alliance, and they then turn on Nazi Germany, resulting in Stage 2, the Nazi war. in the end, the USA and Japan divide up the World. the USA would Annex Canada, Mexico(turn communist in 1933), Entente Caribbean, the British Isles, the African Colonies, and France and the Iberian Peninsula, while Japan takes one size that gives unseen except for the british empire, as they control the ENTIRE Pacific(except for USA/South American territory), half of China, Eastern Russia, and Half of the Former Raj, give japan enormous power. a Cold war takes place, but ends 40 years after the fall of Berlin when the USA and Japan sign a alliance verses the "wild lands(area NOT taken by the superpowers)" as the smaller nations rebuild for revenge
Absolutely not. The USA's primary goal has always been Pacific trade and dominance, from the trying to reach the Pacific with "coast-to-coast" boundaries for 7 of the 13 colonies to Louisiana Purchase, Guano Act, Spanish-American War, Panama Canal, expeditionary force to China in 1900, Hawaii, Samoa, etc etc. The USA has NEVER wanted colonial interference in history to this POD in Africa or in the Atlantic (Caribbean only to protect sealanes to Panama). Second- Why does Japan care about Nazi Germany...? A Nazi Japan coalition against the USA is MUCH more likely than the US ever giving Japan dominance over East Asia and the Pacific. The USA will ALWAYS see the Pacific as an American lake as an extension of Manifest Destiny (which itself was only a means to the goal of dominance of the Pacific).
 
What's EDC?
[OT]
An alternate Doctor Who I started on the DWAITAS forum a couple of years ago (link). Moribund while I develop Version 2.0, which is currently around 450 pages of notes in Word.

It started on that forum when someone was developing a scenario that had the Doctor meeting his female and evil counterparts. It interested me and my obsessive habit did the rest. Basically I rewrote it so the Doctor was the bad guy, Britain was a fascist state opposed by the European Federation and the League of Nations, the Dalek analogues were mostly OK people (for cylindrical cyborgs) et cetera.

As the Diary puts it, "every villain needs transport, a good weapon, a trusty multi-tool and minions". Well in his first incarnation the Time Lord who called himself the Doctor has maybe two of those...

His stolen TARDIS, once a sturdy, if utterly obsolete, Type 40, had suffered badly breaking through the Transduction Barrier around Gallifrey; the navigation sub-system was shot, the internal defenses mostly gone too and the feedback through the telepathic interface had left him dazed. Even the chameleon circuit looked likely to fail at any second.
Luckily the course was engaged before the navigation system was fried. Lucky too that his escape would have caused such a feedback wave through the Vortex that the Time Lords wouldn't be able to track him, assuming they really wanted to. He was gone now, him and his "grand-daughter".
He looked over at Lara, the name assigned to her before the House Matriarch had discovered the modifications he'd incorporated into her looming. Before those idiots back home had dubbed her an 'Abomination' and sentenced her to destruction.He gripped the old-fashioned hexagonal console as a wave of pain rolled across his brain.

He'd show them...

Anyway they'd be landing soon, time to rest, let his mind recover from the feedback and repair the TARDIS. He'd chosen London on Earth in the late 1990s as they measured time there; about twenty years after the Revolution. It was a chaotic, cosmopolitan time with plenty happening as the first generation to grow up free reached adulthood and pushed the boundaries their parents had barely touched.

Plenty of intrigue too as the first generation of new politicians and bureaucrats tasted power...

Ah, they'd landed.
Without bothering to check the display or operate the scanner he opened the doors and went outside. He got three paces before stopping in shock. This was wrong.

It was supposed to be late August, but it felt colder. At first he tried to convince himself that he'd just missed his destination by a few months. But the air was wrong too, with a smoky, almost gritty, character to it. He turned around to look at the TARDIS and the shape the external shell had taken confirmed his worst suspicions.
It was a police box, in the red livery of the National Constabulary. On top was the housing for a television surveillance camera, on the front a warning about curfew violations, and their associated penalties, and on the sides were propaganda posters; Service to the State and Unity is Strength were the slogans.
He'd arrived decades early, under the fascist British Republic. Oh dear, this was bad.

Evil%20TARDIS.png
 
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