Timeline...
In Miami on February 15, 1933, Guiseppe Zangara fires five pistol shots in the direction of President-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In our timeline, he misses FDR and hits five other people. One of the bullets fatally wounds Chicago mayor Anton J. Cermak. FDR lives and is President until his natural death in 1945.
In our alternate timeline, one of Zangara’s bullets hits FDR in the heart. He quickly dies, throwing the nation into a constitutional crisis. Unpopular President Hoover, coming off his landslide defeat in the 1932 election starts pressuring Vice-President-elect John Nance Garner to continue Hoover’s policies. Garner, who did not consult with FDR about any real policy plans, agrees. The people, already shell-shocked over the Depression, mourn the loss of FDR, whom an overwhelming number of voters saw as their only hope. Unrest grows, as Garner is sworn in as President.
Garner’s first term is a disaster. The depression only gets worse and in 1935, there is an attempted coup by a Fascist group seeking to emulate Nazi Germany and Italy. General MacArthur, the Army chief of Staff in Washington, stops the coup and Garner names MacArthur as special military assistant to the President with wide-ranging powers. The people rally around the general, who quickly assumes near dictatorial control of the U.S. government. He institutes a series of surprisingly left-wing economic reforms that revitalize the U.S.
MacArthur is elected president in 1936 unopposed and continues his reforms, including the redistribution of land. The power goes to his head and his ego grows. He begins a program of massive military buildup as a means of creating jobs. When Hitler begins making aggressive moves in Europe, MacArthur sternly warns Hitler that any violation of the Versaille Treaty will not be tolerated, even though the U.S. never ratified the treaty. Hitler backs down, for now.
President Mac sees expansionist Japan as the biggest threat to the U.S. and so the biggest U.S. military buildup is in the Pacific. Mac signs defense treaties with the French in Vietnam and the Phillipines. Meanwhile, Mac brings big business into line with his economic reforms by a combination of threats and reasonable persuasion. Mac does not think Hitler will ever carry out his threats in Europe.
For his part, Hitler realizes the problem of Mac and a newly powerful U.S. so he makes a bargain with Stalin to keep the Soviet Union neutral and then bides his time. He breaks the Versailles Treaty by building up his military, but Mac can’t convince France and Britain to do anything about it. Mac cannot act alone and he becomes frustrated with the European allies.
Japan has the opposite reaction from Hitler. Feeling threatened by the U.S. in the Pacific, Japan invades China in 1937. Mac immediately begins an aid program to Nationalist China and bulks up U.S. forces in Southeast Asia, establishing bases in Vietnam and Philippines. He scrapped most of the older battleships in the Pacific fleet and built modern ones. The U.S. is on a near-war footing.
A peace movement begins in the U.S. and Mac quickly squelches it, or so he thinks. Some intellectuals leave the U.S. for the Soviet Union. Japan has success in China and invades Vietnam and the Philippines. Mac decides to commit American forces in 1938. Soon, there is full scale war in Asia and the Pacific. The military begins to chafe at Mac’s hands-on involvement, but Japan is being pushed back. The Chinese communists and nationalists are both fighting with the U.S. against Japan, but their alliance is weak and uncoordinated. Once the initial stock of supplies diminishes, the U.S. finds it hard to re-supply across the vast Pacific with Japanese naval harassment of the convoys. The war bogs down, with Japan still in possession of much of Manchuria.
Hitler wants to take advantage of the distraction and attack Poland, but German generals talk him out of it because the army is not quite ready. Germany is bold enough to occupy Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1939, to nothing but talk from France and Britain, both of whom are fighting on the U.S. side in Asia. Japan is asking Germany for help, but Hitler refuses. Tensions build in Europe. Finally, in spring 1940, Germany invades Poland and France simultaneously. Both quickly fall, driving France from the Pacific war. The Vietnamese communist party, led by Ho Chi Minh, begins a guerilla war against the U.S. Germany and the Soviet Union restate their neutrality toward each other and divide Poland between them. Britain tries to come to France’s rescue, but is repulsed. Germany invades Denmark and Norway. The Democrats run a weak peace candidate against Mac in 1940 and loses. Mac is surprised at Hitler’s actions, but commits the U.S. to a European war against Germany. On hearing this news, Hitler abandons his secret plan to invade the Soviet Union.
As 1941 dawns, World War II is on.
To sum up, Mac is in his second term and is a near dictator in the U.S. Hitler went about pretty much the same plan as in reality, only delayed. That only allowed his forces more time to prepare and build. Also, Hitler does not plan to invade the Soviet Union. The Pacific War is more land-based than ‘island-hopping’ and is logistically harder for the U.S. than in reality. There are all kinds of undercurrents in U.S. society, lots of Communist, Fascist elements operating underground.
In our alternate timeline, one of Zangara’s bullets hits FDR in the heart. He quickly dies, throwing the nation into a constitutional crisis. Unpopular President Hoover, coming off his landslide defeat in the 1932 election starts pressuring Vice-President-elect John Nance Garner to continue Hoover’s policies. Garner, who did not consult with FDR about any real policy plans, agrees. The people, already shell-shocked over the Depression, mourn the loss of FDR, whom an overwhelming number of voters saw as their only hope. Unrest grows, as Garner is sworn in as President.
Garner’s first term is a disaster. The depression only gets worse and in 1935, there is an attempted coup by a Fascist group seeking to emulate Nazi Germany and Italy. General MacArthur, the Army chief of Staff in Washington, stops the coup and Garner names MacArthur as special military assistant to the President with wide-ranging powers. The people rally around the general, who quickly assumes near dictatorial control of the U.S. government. He institutes a series of surprisingly left-wing economic reforms that revitalize the U.S.
MacArthur is elected president in 1936 unopposed and continues his reforms, including the redistribution of land. The power goes to his head and his ego grows. He begins a program of massive military buildup as a means of creating jobs. When Hitler begins making aggressive moves in Europe, MacArthur sternly warns Hitler that any violation of the Versaille Treaty will not be tolerated, even though the U.S. never ratified the treaty. Hitler backs down, for now.
President Mac sees expansionist Japan as the biggest threat to the U.S. and so the biggest U.S. military buildup is in the Pacific. Mac signs defense treaties with the French in Vietnam and the Phillipines. Meanwhile, Mac brings big business into line with his economic reforms by a combination of threats and reasonable persuasion. Mac does not think Hitler will ever carry out his threats in Europe.
For his part, Hitler realizes the problem of Mac and a newly powerful U.S. so he makes a bargain with Stalin to keep the Soviet Union neutral and then bides his time. He breaks the Versailles Treaty by building up his military, but Mac can’t convince France and Britain to do anything about it. Mac cannot act alone and he becomes frustrated with the European allies.
Japan has the opposite reaction from Hitler. Feeling threatened by the U.S. in the Pacific, Japan invades China in 1937. Mac immediately begins an aid program to Nationalist China and bulks up U.S. forces in Southeast Asia, establishing bases in Vietnam and Philippines. He scrapped most of the older battleships in the Pacific fleet and built modern ones. The U.S. is on a near-war footing.
A peace movement begins in the U.S. and Mac quickly squelches it, or so he thinks. Some intellectuals leave the U.S. for the Soviet Union. Japan has success in China and invades Vietnam and the Philippines. Mac decides to commit American forces in 1938. Soon, there is full scale war in Asia and the Pacific. The military begins to chafe at Mac’s hands-on involvement, but Japan is being pushed back. The Chinese communists and nationalists are both fighting with the U.S. against Japan, but their alliance is weak and uncoordinated. Once the initial stock of supplies diminishes, the U.S. finds it hard to re-supply across the vast Pacific with Japanese naval harassment of the convoys. The war bogs down, with Japan still in possession of much of Manchuria.
Hitler wants to take advantage of the distraction and attack Poland, but German generals talk him out of it because the army is not quite ready. Germany is bold enough to occupy Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1939, to nothing but talk from France and Britain, both of whom are fighting on the U.S. side in Asia. Japan is asking Germany for help, but Hitler refuses. Tensions build in Europe. Finally, in spring 1940, Germany invades Poland and France simultaneously. Both quickly fall, driving France from the Pacific war. The Vietnamese communist party, led by Ho Chi Minh, begins a guerilla war against the U.S. Germany and the Soviet Union restate their neutrality toward each other and divide Poland between them. Britain tries to come to France’s rescue, but is repulsed. Germany invades Denmark and Norway. The Democrats run a weak peace candidate against Mac in 1940 and loses. Mac is surprised at Hitler’s actions, but commits the U.S. to a European war against Germany. On hearing this news, Hitler abandons his secret plan to invade the Soviet Union.
As 1941 dawns, World War II is on.
To sum up, Mac is in his second term and is a near dictator in the U.S. Hitler went about pretty much the same plan as in reality, only delayed. That only allowed his forces more time to prepare and build. Also, Hitler does not plan to invade the Soviet Union. The Pacific War is more land-based than ‘island-hopping’ and is logistically harder for the U.S. than in reality. There are all kinds of undercurrents in U.S. society, lots of Communist, Fascist elements operating underground.
posted by Scott Roche at 10:26 AM
1 Comments:
Bear said he was busy but would get to it ASAP.
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