(OOC: the main information on the post is below, this is a sort of introduction to the world.)
All news clippings taken from the National Post as chronicled in the Library of Congress, National Archives, and Department of Justice Investigative Records Branch.
August 25, 1944
PARIS, FRANCE - Members of the French Resistance unveiled the Tricolor flag and red banners from the Arc de Triomphe today, as after more than four years of occupation the Nazi forces have been driven from the city. The advancing Allied army and the strains on the Wehrmacht had given the Resistance a perfect opportunity to rise up, and after a period of street fighting, had reclaimed their capitol. A provisional government under Maurice Thorez, Secretary-General of the French Communist Party, has been declared, and already denounced by Charles de Gaulle. General de Gaulle and his forces were unable to take part in the liberation of Paris for reasons unknown. Rumors indicate the aging conservative was recovering from a hangover gained at a press gala the night before...
January 10, 1945
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The nation was shocked today with the announced death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States. The body will be laid in state at the Capitol Rotunda later this week. Per the order of precedence, Chief Justice Harlan Fiske Stone administered the oath of office to Vice President Henry Agard Wallace within an hour of President Roosevelt's death. Representatives of the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union expressed their deepest sympathies for the loss of the leader who has carried us through the Depression and our current struggle for Freedom against fascism...
February 4, 1945
YALTA, RUSSIA - The wartime conference among Allied leaders began today in this Black Sea resort. President Henry Wallace, who arrived several days ago with the host, Soviet Premier Josef Stalin, was joined with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The meeting is widely seen as an attempt to plan for a post-war settlement of Europe. President Wallace has stated that he is willing to compensate the Soviet Union for its heroic stand against the Nazi invaders, a stance that has pointedly not been repeated by Prime Minister Churchill. Free French leader Charles de Gaulle has expressed dissatisfaction at not being invited to the conference, as have the governments-in-exile of Greece and Yugoslavia...
March 22, 1945
ATHENS, GREECE - Armed forces of the ELAS group have taken control of the government district of Athens after fierce fighting earlier this morning. Unconfirmed reports state that forces of the British Army came under attack when they were engaged in removing the newly-instated royalist government-in-exile. ELAS is a Communist movement that fought against the Nazi occupiers of Greece and is seen by the populace in more favorable light than the conservative royal government which fled the country. Soviet Foreign Minister V.I. Molotov has denied Soviet involvement in the group's activities. Meanwhile, President Wallace has urged for calm and unity among the Allied forces while delivering a veiled warning against British imperialism in the Mediterranean...
May 2, 1945
BERLIN, GERMANY - Soviet troops entering Berlin have confirmed that Adolf Hitler has been killed, by his own hand. The news was greeted by cheering throngs across the capitols of Europe. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made a speech declaring the Nazi dictator's death to be "the heralding of a new era of freedom for Europe and the world," and called upon "this new age to be respected by all Powers" and "the swift removal of the armed forces of liberation from the capitols of Free Europe," a dig at Soviet Premier Josef Stalin, whose Red Army occupies nearly all of Eastern Europe. The Soviet government has denied that their soldiers will remain as anything more than temporary wartime peacekeepers. President Wallace will make a statement from the Rose Garden today at noon.
Meanwhile, French Provisional President Maurice Thorez has convened a tribunal to oversee the conduct of French collaborationists and officials prior to the collapse of the French government in 1940. One of the main officials to be called before it is General Charles de Gaulle, who sources say will be accused of cowardice, opportunism, and of actively undermining Resistance forces now allied to Thorez's Communist- and Socialist-dominated government...
February 19, 1946
TOKYO, JAPAN - The Second World War ended today as General Douglas MacArthur signed the peace accord with Japanese Premier General Okitsugu Arao. Despite the use of two atomic weapons, the government of General Okitsugu - who took power in August in a coup against Emperor Hirohito - refused to negotiate a surrender, necessitating an Allied invasion of the Japanese Home Island under General MacArthur. MacArthur has called for "a peaceful, democratic, united occupation," a dig at General Aleksandr Vasilevsky, whose Red Army forces led the invasion of the northern island of Hokkaido after securing the mainland provinces of Korea and Manchuria.
President Wallace is preparing to fly to Tokyo to personally congratulate General MacArthur, despite rumors the latter may be seeking the Republican Presidential nomination.
In Europe, preliminary election results show Italy's first democratic postwar government will contain a strong Communist presence...
June 26, 1948
BERLIN, GERMANY - Four-way talks between British Prime Minister Clement Attlee, French President Maurice Thorez, Soviet Premier Josef Stalin, and President Wallace have resulted in a decision to reunify Germany under a single administration, similar to earlier decisions regarding Japan and Austria. Under the agreement, American and British forces would gradually be withdrawn, replaced with French, Soviet, and European troops in order to reduce tensions among those who view the Anglophone nations as maintaining 'cultural imperialist backgrounds.' President Wallace hoped to link the deal with the Soviet blockade of fascist Spain at the next United Nations summit in Geneva.
The move was denounced in the Senate by Mr. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wisconsin), whose rhetoric has fueled his rise from an unknown two-term senator to what is viewed as the front runner for the Republican nomination next month.
In other news, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia has thrown its full support to the decision of President Edvard Bene� to suspend all political parties not allied with the National Front...
November 2, 1948
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Results just coming from the Western states have confirmed that Joseph Raymond "Bomber Joe" McCarthy is the 34th President of the United State of America. His election came with an upset that saw the Republican Party reclaim both houses of Congress for the first time since Reconstruction. President Wallace scored single digits in several states, a record low brought on by public dissatisfaction over what is seen as his prolonging the war through micromanagement of the Armed Forces, interference in the economy, and appeasement to the Soviet Union.
An amendment to limit the Presidency to two terms was overruled by filibuster by Congressional Republicans led by President-Elect McCarthy himself, denouncing it as a "Democratic cheap trick to stifle the choice of the people of this great land and ensure that their mascot Roosevelt goes down in history as the longest, most autocratic President our America has ever had."
According to press releases, in addition to President-elect McCarthy and Vice President-elect General Douglas MacArthur, the Cabinet will include Senator Richard Milhous Nixon (R-California) as Secretary of State, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover as Attorney-General, General George S. Patton as the first Secretary of Defense, and Governor Strom Thurmond (R-South Carolina) as Secretary of the Interior.
November 4, 1952
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The administration of President Joseph McCarthy was re-elected in a landslide this evening, with the Republican Party increasing its majority in both houses of Congress, nearing the ability to give the Republican Party a vital amendment-assuring supermajority in both chambers. Voter polls show that the public has responded positively to the administration's tough stance on Soviet aggression, refusal to bow to extremists seeking to integrate the Negro race into white society, and reducing the government's interference in economic affairs.
Democratic nominee Adlai Stevenson continues to maintain that his headquarters was raided by FBI agents and not Soviet collaborators as the Department of Justice inquiry concluded.
Defense Secretary General George S. Patton has stated that the election was a mandate to continue the military's controversial plan to dispatch several thousand advisors to the Central American nations of Guatemala and Nicaragua...
December 6, 1955
MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA - Department of Justice agents arrested members of an extremist Negro political group suspected of being a Soviet front here today. The group was one day in to a plot to disrupt the local economy in an attempt to further the Negro agenda. Attorney-General J. Edgar Hoover has released the identity of the ringleader, a Negro named Martin King whose claim to be a Baptist minister was a front for his Communist Party membership.
The cost of negligence against the Red Threat was shown today in the United Kingdom, when the British Workers' Alliance won a majority in the House of Commons, placing known Red Harry Pollitt as new Prime Minister. He has assured that his first priority will be to devalue the worldwide British colonial presence. According to insiders, this will likely serve as a front for Soviet expansionism...
April 5, 1964
WASHINGTON, D.C. - President General Douglas MacArthur died this morning of heart failure. Richard Milhous Nixon, widely seen as the power behind the throne of the Presidency since the historic 1948 election that saved America from the Communist threat, will become the 36th President of God's United States of America. He has promised to continue his plan, approved by the late President General MacArthur, to withdraw the United States from the United Nations, citing it as a "front for the communist infiltration of the remaining free nations of Earth and a column for military aggression by the Reds." He has also stated that he will approve the draft law passed by Congress that he has called "vital for the continued defense of our country from internal and external enemies."
The news of President General MacArthur's death is made all the more tragic in that it comes on the heels of the announcement that the Air Force will give up its search for the Gemini 14 capsule, concluding that it and its crew were incinerated in re-entry.
In other news, a Department of Justice report allegedly linking officials in the Democratic Party to radical Negro attacks throughout the South will be released later this week...
October 5, 1979
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Richard Nixon has stepped down from the presidency due to ill health, with Vice President Barry Goldwater issuing a statement by proxy that he will step down along with his president. Congress has passed an emergency resolution approving the bypassing of the order of preference and allowing Attorney-General George Bush to fulfill the functions of President and Vice President until next year's election. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld made the journey to the J. Edgar Hoover Department of Justice Building to pledge the support of the Armed Forces to the Attorney-General.
Rumors that the resignation of President Nixon and Vice President Goldwater were done under duress by threat of a coup by the Departments of Justice and Defense were scoffed at during a recent press conference, although it has been noted that the two issued rare criticism of a president after Nixon's withdrawal of forces from Indonesia in August and the downturn of the economy which occurred under his tenure...
November 4, 1980
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Attorney-General George Bush was elected President in an uncontested election this evening, with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld the new Vice President. President Bush has been maintaining the powers of the Presidency since Richard Nixon's voluntary resignation for health reasons last year. President Bush has seen a boost in his approval ratings since deciding to dispatch several thousand military advisors to our brother nation of South Africa, similarly isolated and under verbal, economic, and military attack from Communist forces due to misperceptions over its separate-but-equal treatment of the Negro race...
July 17, 1984
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Just three months after the strategic removal of US military advisors from South Africa in a campaign that allowed thousands of American boys to give their lives for God and freedom, and two days after Cape Town was overrun by the Red horde, Vice President and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld voluntarily stepped down from his position due to health reasons. President Bush has approved the decision, applauding the years of service Mr. Rumsfeld has given to God's United States, and appointing him as Investigative Attache to Outer Alaska. Mr. Rumsfeld was reported to have been glad to continue to serve this great nation in his new capacity.
President Bush has signed an executive bill authorizing him to take on the position of Secretary of Defense along with his roles of President and Attorney-General, and appointed Ronald Reagan, the Secretary of State and former Governor of California, as new Vice President.
The Quebec uprising has claimed another five American and two Canadian lives this morning...
June 12, 1987
JU�REZ, MEXICO - Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev arrived at this town across the border of El Paso on the thirty-fifth anniversary of the construction of the Texas Border Security Barrier, the so-called 'Texican Wall.' In a speech attracting thousands of visitors and international press, in accented but proficient Spanish he exhorted President Reagan to remove the symbolic physical barrier between the Communist and democratic worlds, to abandon censorship of the press, heavy-handed police tactics, racial segregation, and the closing of trade to the worldwide Communist economy. In a highlight of the speech that drew thunderous applause, Premier Gorbachev shouted, 'Mr. Reagan, tear down this wall!'
Reagan, in the fifth month of his surprise Presidency, has refused to allow foreign pressure to dominate his planned economic and social reforms. However, he has agreed to meet face-to-face with Premier Gorbachev in the Cuban capitol of Habana, an unheard-of breakthrough in diplomatic relations that affirms the wisdom of the merciful God who chose Reagan to lead our nation in this troubled time.
March 29, 1989
PHILADELPHIA - For the first time since the National Defense Act of 1950, Federal observers were mandated to leave the offices of radio, television, and print media throughout the country, as President Reagan bent to popular pressure and an unprecedented 500,000-man march on the White House. The President reportedly ordered guard forces under Central Commander General Norman Schwarzkopf to fire, but for unknown reasons, the troops refused. The President was left with no choice but to bow to the demands of the people.
This development comes on the heal of the executive order for racial integration and opening the borders to trade with the outside world once more, and agreements on military detente signed with Premier Gorbachev earlier this month. This reporter cannot but hope that, at long last, the shadow that has befallen this country since 1948 will at long last be lifted.
December 20, 1991
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Alaskan state legislature officially voted to secede from the Union today, bringing to seventeen the number of states that have left in the past year. The move by Alaska comes in the middle of the excavation of a number of mass graves found outside several FBI prisons dating from the 1950s. Alaskan authorities say that the independence will not affect the investigations, nor will a possible union with the USSR.
In related news, the Deep South has ordered the eviction of all Negros from white areas they had been settled in during the brief period of Integration, a move that promises a resumption of the Black Panther campaign largely suppressed in the mid-80s. In a stunning dismissal of the gradual liberalization of Reaganomics, the Federation of New York and New England has been accepted into the United Nations and COMECON.
In America Proper news, the disputed Congressional election recount has finally ended. A majority has been given to the Together Alliance of Democrats, Liberals, Progressives, Socialists and 'Old' Republicans, while the Patriots' Christian Front, headlined by the 'True' Republicans, Libertarians, Dixiecrats, and Ku Klux Klan have, for the first time since 1948 been relegated to minority status in both chambers of Congress and a majority of state bodies.
Senator Colin Powell (B-New York) has stated his intention is to assure the passage of the Religious Freedom Act which will repel the Christian Defense Bill originally proposed by Senator McCarthy...
December 25, 1991
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Senator Newton Gingrich (TR-Pennsylvania) and General Norman Schwarzkopf occupied Capitol Hill today with troops loyal to Secretary of Defense Oliver North. President Reagan announced from the White House that he was taking action against what he termed a "runaway Congress deemed at accepting the moral and physical disintegration of the United States." The remaining governors have largely denounced this illegal and anti-democratic move as an illegitimate government, and have threatened to send National Guard forces to restore the Congressional authority if the Republican government does not accept its relegation into minority status.
January 2, 1992
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Eight Days Coup collapsed as President Reagan made a teary announcement from the Rose Garden today, accepting full responsibility for the coup and announcing that, while "done with the best of intentions by the grace of Our Lord," he had failed as president and as steward of the nation. He announced that he and his administration would be stepping down, and urged remaining Republican diehards across the nation to accept the rule of Congress to prevent further bloodshed and splintering.
In the first Joint Session of Congress following the coup, following the formal impeachment of President Reagan and his administration, Speaker of the House Richard Gephardt (OR-Missouri) was elected to fulfill the duties of President until the November election, which he shortly later accepted the unanimous Together Alliance nomination for. Congressman Gephardt had been out of Washington during the coup and organized the pro-democracy forces that opposed Reagan. The Marine regiment ordered to take him into custody refused to comply with the Secretary of Defense's orders.
Senator Newton Gingrich, appointed Vice President during the coup, has already promised to participate in the campaign.
November 3, 1992
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congressman Richard Gephardt won with a landslide today, becoming the legitimately-elected President of the United State and first freely-elected President since 1932. President Gephardt had just returned from the first speech of an American President to the United Nations which the United States was just accepted into. In it, he urged the developed nations of the world to help relieve the beleaguered American economy, while calling for United Nations peacekeepers to be sent to prevent the ethnic cleansing of the Deep South nation.
January 20, 1995
WASHINGTON, D.C. - A deputation from the European Union and Soviet Union will be visiting Washington later this week, in an attempt to shore up support for President Gephardt. Although largely popular even a year ago, his ratings have fallen sharply due to the disastrous economic straits the nation has befallen, the rising causalities in the occupations of Utah and the Indian territories, and the feelings of international impotence resulting in the inability to prevent United Nations members from intervening politically and economically in former American states, specifically New England and the Deep South.
This dissatisfaction resulted in the resurgence of the Republican Party and its allies in the recent Congressional elections, causing Gephardt's Together Alliance to lose its majority to the Patriots' Christian Front of Senate Majority Leader and Presidential contender Newton Gingrich.
The Euro-Soviet delegation, planned in response to the United States finally recognizing all of its former states' independence, will arrive during the annual Commonwealth of Northern America summit, and include...
The basic scenario is that the Cold War is reversed, that America stood increasingly isolated an unable to cope with the success of Soviet Communism until, finally, the 'fall of Capitalism' occurred in the early 1990s. The fact that the Republican Party became a dictatorial force in the US isn't a specific slight against it, just that I wanted as diametrically-opposed ideology in the US as possible. Likewise, some of the historical characters may seem badly used, but I'm a believer that circumstances make the man, and with circumstances this altered, it stands to reason that the movers and shakers would, as well.
The US government isn't majorly different, just in a few areas. The space program is a section of the Defense Department, and the Justice Department, similar to Homeland Security today, includes the CIA, Secret Service, Coast Guard, and Border Guard. Congress gave the President a wide range of additional authority through acts and amendments, although I suppose most or all of them have, at least legally if not de facto, been repealed.
The National Post is a The New York Times-esque paper based in Philadelphia. Established in 1897, it came under Federal 'observation' from 1950-1989.
The Soviet Union of this era is one where I envision Khrushchev's reforms were not only carried through, but soon followed by glastnost and perestroika-type movements. Essentially, a shift from heavy industry to market goods, encouragement of small-scale capitalism, the stamping out of corruption and inefficiency, the growth of a middle class of technocrats, and the loosening of state control and censorship. Still not a Western democracy, but far from the 'Evil Empire' and probably better than current Russia as well.
The European Union here I envision as essentially a cross between the real EU and the Warsaw Pact. The United Nations, save for being based in Geneva, is basically the same, except that the United States and its few close allies left and did not rejoin until the fall of Capitalism. The Commonwealth of North American States (CNA) is similar to the real-world CIS and NAFTA, consisting of the United States and Canada and their breakaway nations. For Canada, it would be Quebec and the Maritime Republic (the union of the Maritime provinces).
For the United States, the New Confederate States (aka, the Deep South) would be North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi (Florida would remain an American exclave). It is run by the States' Rights Party which maintains apartheid, limits the rights of women, outlaws liberalism, and maintains an official state religion of Christianity (specifically, Protestantism). I imagine at this time it would be an analog of Yugoslavia/the Balkans.
The Federation of New England and New York would (obviously) consist of those seven states. Along with the Bear Flag Republic (California) it would be basically the same as those current areas are, restoring government social programs and going good off of industry and the new information technology. They would probably be the first to join the UN/COMECON. Alaska would be considering joining the Soviet Union, Hawaii would reinstate the monarchy (probably a popular native politician or popstar), and Texas I haven't considered much. The Republic of Puerto Rico would probably be similar to Cuba or former Central American banana republics, save overcoming half a century of Anglicization and semi-state-sponsored Protestant proselytism. Utah with its Mormon separatists is Chechnya.
As for the rest of the world...Israel doesn't exist, and much of the Middle East and North Africa in the United Arab Republic. India is essentially the same, a strong democracy but officially allied with the USSR. In light of the theme, China would similarly be in a better light than it is today, and now that the Cold War is over, is starting to drift from the USSR. Taiwan and Hong Kong are integral parts of China. Korea is a single Communist nation, as is Japan and Indochina. The US military intervention in Indonesia and South Africa would each be Korea/Vietnam equivalents.
As for the rest of the world, I haven't given it much thought. There are still democracies, they just (for the most part) know which side is the winning one. For example, in Britain, instead of the Labour/Conservative/Liberal split we see today, it might instead be something like Communist/(Old-school) Labour/Liberal. Or, like India in our timeline, there could be countries that are governed democratically and with no major Communist/Socialist parties that still maintained strong Soviet ties.
This is set in late January, 1995, in Washington D.C., during the annual Commonwealth of Northern America summit and the arrival of a group of European/Soviet dignitaries to observe. Feel free to make your character from anywhere and do anything. If you want to join, please PM me with a brief character idea/details, I promise not to bite. I don't mean to be a snob, but please be prepared to write more than a sentence or two for each post. A huge understanding of history and politics is not necessary but at least a very rudimentary knowledge of recent/post-Cold War events might be good.
All news clippings taken from the National Post as chronicled in the Library of Congress, National Archives, and Department of Justice Investigative Records Branch.
August 25, 1944
PARIS, FRANCE - Members of the French Resistance unveiled the Tricolor flag and red banners from the Arc de Triomphe today, as after more than four years of occupation the Nazi forces have been driven from the city. The advancing Allied army and the strains on the Wehrmacht had given the Resistance a perfect opportunity to rise up, and after a period of street fighting, had reclaimed their capitol. A provisional government under Maurice Thorez, Secretary-General of the French Communist Party, has been declared, and already denounced by Charles de Gaulle. General de Gaulle and his forces were unable to take part in the liberation of Paris for reasons unknown. Rumors indicate the aging conservative was recovering from a hangover gained at a press gala the night before...
January 10, 1945
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The nation was shocked today with the announced death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States. The body will be laid in state at the Capitol Rotunda later this week. Per the order of precedence, Chief Justice Harlan Fiske Stone administered the oath of office to Vice President Henry Agard Wallace within an hour of President Roosevelt's death. Representatives of the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union expressed their deepest sympathies for the loss of the leader who has carried us through the Depression and our current struggle for Freedom against fascism...
February 4, 1945
YALTA, RUSSIA - The wartime conference among Allied leaders began today in this Black Sea resort. President Henry Wallace, who arrived several days ago with the host, Soviet Premier Josef Stalin, was joined with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The meeting is widely seen as an attempt to plan for a post-war settlement of Europe. President Wallace has stated that he is willing to compensate the Soviet Union for its heroic stand against the Nazi invaders, a stance that has pointedly not been repeated by Prime Minister Churchill. Free French leader Charles de Gaulle has expressed dissatisfaction at not being invited to the conference, as have the governments-in-exile of Greece and Yugoslavia...
March 22, 1945
ATHENS, GREECE - Armed forces of the ELAS group have taken control of the government district of Athens after fierce fighting earlier this morning. Unconfirmed reports state that forces of the British Army came under attack when they were engaged in removing the newly-instated royalist government-in-exile. ELAS is a Communist movement that fought against the Nazi occupiers of Greece and is seen by the populace in more favorable light than the conservative royal government which fled the country. Soviet Foreign Minister V.I. Molotov has denied Soviet involvement in the group's activities. Meanwhile, President Wallace has urged for calm and unity among the Allied forces while delivering a veiled warning against British imperialism in the Mediterranean...
May 2, 1945
BERLIN, GERMANY - Soviet troops entering Berlin have confirmed that Adolf Hitler has been killed, by his own hand. The news was greeted by cheering throngs across the capitols of Europe. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made a speech declaring the Nazi dictator's death to be "the heralding of a new era of freedom for Europe and the world," and called upon "this new age to be respected by all Powers" and "the swift removal of the armed forces of liberation from the capitols of Free Europe," a dig at Soviet Premier Josef Stalin, whose Red Army occupies nearly all of Eastern Europe. The Soviet government has denied that their soldiers will remain as anything more than temporary wartime peacekeepers. President Wallace will make a statement from the Rose Garden today at noon.
Meanwhile, French Provisional President Maurice Thorez has convened a tribunal to oversee the conduct of French collaborationists and officials prior to the collapse of the French government in 1940. One of the main officials to be called before it is General Charles de Gaulle, who sources say will be accused of cowardice, opportunism, and of actively undermining Resistance forces now allied to Thorez's Communist- and Socialist-dominated government...
February 19, 1946
TOKYO, JAPAN - The Second World War ended today as General Douglas MacArthur signed the peace accord with Japanese Premier General Okitsugu Arao. Despite the use of two atomic weapons, the government of General Okitsugu - who took power in August in a coup against Emperor Hirohito - refused to negotiate a surrender, necessitating an Allied invasion of the Japanese Home Island under General MacArthur. MacArthur has called for "a peaceful, democratic, united occupation," a dig at General Aleksandr Vasilevsky, whose Red Army forces led the invasion of the northern island of Hokkaido after securing the mainland provinces of Korea and Manchuria.
President Wallace is preparing to fly to Tokyo to personally congratulate General MacArthur, despite rumors the latter may be seeking the Republican Presidential nomination.
In Europe, preliminary election results show Italy's first democratic postwar government will contain a strong Communist presence...
June 26, 1948
BERLIN, GERMANY - Four-way talks between British Prime Minister Clement Attlee, French President Maurice Thorez, Soviet Premier Josef Stalin, and President Wallace have resulted in a decision to reunify Germany under a single administration, similar to earlier decisions regarding Japan and Austria. Under the agreement, American and British forces would gradually be withdrawn, replaced with French, Soviet, and European troops in order to reduce tensions among those who view the Anglophone nations as maintaining 'cultural imperialist backgrounds.' President Wallace hoped to link the deal with the Soviet blockade of fascist Spain at the next United Nations summit in Geneva.
The move was denounced in the Senate by Mr. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wisconsin), whose rhetoric has fueled his rise from an unknown two-term senator to what is viewed as the front runner for the Republican nomination next month.
In other news, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia has thrown its full support to the decision of President Edvard Bene� to suspend all political parties not allied with the National Front...
November 2, 1948
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Results just coming from the Western states have confirmed that Joseph Raymond "Bomber Joe" McCarthy is the 34th President of the United State of America. His election came with an upset that saw the Republican Party reclaim both houses of Congress for the first time since Reconstruction. President Wallace scored single digits in several states, a record low brought on by public dissatisfaction over what is seen as his prolonging the war through micromanagement of the Armed Forces, interference in the economy, and appeasement to the Soviet Union.
An amendment to limit the Presidency to two terms was overruled by filibuster by Congressional Republicans led by President-Elect McCarthy himself, denouncing it as a "Democratic cheap trick to stifle the choice of the people of this great land and ensure that their mascot Roosevelt goes down in history as the longest, most autocratic President our America has ever had."
According to press releases, in addition to President-elect McCarthy and Vice President-elect General Douglas MacArthur, the Cabinet will include Senator Richard Milhous Nixon (R-California) as Secretary of State, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover as Attorney-General, General George S. Patton as the first Secretary of Defense, and Governor Strom Thurmond (R-South Carolina) as Secretary of the Interior.
November 4, 1952
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The administration of President Joseph McCarthy was re-elected in a landslide this evening, with the Republican Party increasing its majority in both houses of Congress, nearing the ability to give the Republican Party a vital amendment-assuring supermajority in both chambers. Voter polls show that the public has responded positively to the administration's tough stance on Soviet aggression, refusal to bow to extremists seeking to integrate the Negro race into white society, and reducing the government's interference in economic affairs.
Democratic nominee Adlai Stevenson continues to maintain that his headquarters was raided by FBI agents and not Soviet collaborators as the Department of Justice inquiry concluded.
Defense Secretary General George S. Patton has stated that the election was a mandate to continue the military's controversial plan to dispatch several thousand advisors to the Central American nations of Guatemala and Nicaragua...
December 6, 1955
MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA - Department of Justice agents arrested members of an extremist Negro political group suspected of being a Soviet front here today. The group was one day in to a plot to disrupt the local economy in an attempt to further the Negro agenda. Attorney-General J. Edgar Hoover has released the identity of the ringleader, a Negro named Martin King whose claim to be a Baptist minister was a front for his Communist Party membership.
The cost of negligence against the Red Threat was shown today in the United Kingdom, when the British Workers' Alliance won a majority in the House of Commons, placing known Red Harry Pollitt as new Prime Minister. He has assured that his first priority will be to devalue the worldwide British colonial presence. According to insiders, this will likely serve as a front for Soviet expansionism...
April 5, 1964
WASHINGTON, D.C. - President General Douglas MacArthur died this morning of heart failure. Richard Milhous Nixon, widely seen as the power behind the throne of the Presidency since the historic 1948 election that saved America from the Communist threat, will become the 36th President of God's United States of America. He has promised to continue his plan, approved by the late President General MacArthur, to withdraw the United States from the United Nations, citing it as a "front for the communist infiltration of the remaining free nations of Earth and a column for military aggression by the Reds." He has also stated that he will approve the draft law passed by Congress that he has called "vital for the continued defense of our country from internal and external enemies."
The news of President General MacArthur's death is made all the more tragic in that it comes on the heels of the announcement that the Air Force will give up its search for the Gemini 14 capsule, concluding that it and its crew were incinerated in re-entry.
In other news, a Department of Justice report allegedly linking officials in the Democratic Party to radical Negro attacks throughout the South will be released later this week...
October 5, 1979
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Richard Nixon has stepped down from the presidency due to ill health, with Vice President Barry Goldwater issuing a statement by proxy that he will step down along with his president. Congress has passed an emergency resolution approving the bypassing of the order of preference and allowing Attorney-General George Bush to fulfill the functions of President and Vice President until next year's election. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld made the journey to the J. Edgar Hoover Department of Justice Building to pledge the support of the Armed Forces to the Attorney-General.
Rumors that the resignation of President Nixon and Vice President Goldwater were done under duress by threat of a coup by the Departments of Justice and Defense were scoffed at during a recent press conference, although it has been noted that the two issued rare criticism of a president after Nixon's withdrawal of forces from Indonesia in August and the downturn of the economy which occurred under his tenure...
November 4, 1980
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Attorney-General George Bush was elected President in an uncontested election this evening, with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld the new Vice President. President Bush has been maintaining the powers of the Presidency since Richard Nixon's voluntary resignation for health reasons last year. President Bush has seen a boost in his approval ratings since deciding to dispatch several thousand military advisors to our brother nation of South Africa, similarly isolated and under verbal, economic, and military attack from Communist forces due to misperceptions over its separate-but-equal treatment of the Negro race...
July 17, 1984
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Just three months after the strategic removal of US military advisors from South Africa in a campaign that allowed thousands of American boys to give their lives for God and freedom, and two days after Cape Town was overrun by the Red horde, Vice President and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld voluntarily stepped down from his position due to health reasons. President Bush has approved the decision, applauding the years of service Mr. Rumsfeld has given to God's United States, and appointing him as Investigative Attache to Outer Alaska. Mr. Rumsfeld was reported to have been glad to continue to serve this great nation in his new capacity.
President Bush has signed an executive bill authorizing him to take on the position of Secretary of Defense along with his roles of President and Attorney-General, and appointed Ronald Reagan, the Secretary of State and former Governor of California, as new Vice President.
The Quebec uprising has claimed another five American and two Canadian lives this morning...
June 12, 1987
JU�REZ, MEXICO - Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev arrived at this town across the border of El Paso on the thirty-fifth anniversary of the construction of the Texas Border Security Barrier, the so-called 'Texican Wall.' In a speech attracting thousands of visitors and international press, in accented but proficient Spanish he exhorted President Reagan to remove the symbolic physical barrier between the Communist and democratic worlds, to abandon censorship of the press, heavy-handed police tactics, racial segregation, and the closing of trade to the worldwide Communist economy. In a highlight of the speech that drew thunderous applause, Premier Gorbachev shouted, 'Mr. Reagan, tear down this wall!'
Reagan, in the fifth month of his surprise Presidency, has refused to allow foreign pressure to dominate his planned economic and social reforms. However, he has agreed to meet face-to-face with Premier Gorbachev in the Cuban capitol of Habana, an unheard-of breakthrough in diplomatic relations that affirms the wisdom of the merciful God who chose Reagan to lead our nation in this troubled time.
March 29, 1989
PHILADELPHIA - For the first time since the National Defense Act of 1950, Federal observers were mandated to leave the offices of radio, television, and print media throughout the country, as President Reagan bent to popular pressure and an unprecedented 500,000-man march on the White House. The President reportedly ordered guard forces under Central Commander General Norman Schwarzkopf to fire, but for unknown reasons, the troops refused. The President was left with no choice but to bow to the demands of the people.
This development comes on the heal of the executive order for racial integration and opening the borders to trade with the outside world once more, and agreements on military detente signed with Premier Gorbachev earlier this month. This reporter cannot but hope that, at long last, the shadow that has befallen this country since 1948 will at long last be lifted.
December 20, 1991
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Alaskan state legislature officially voted to secede from the Union today, bringing to seventeen the number of states that have left in the past year. The move by Alaska comes in the middle of the excavation of a number of mass graves found outside several FBI prisons dating from the 1950s. Alaskan authorities say that the independence will not affect the investigations, nor will a possible union with the USSR.
In related news, the Deep South has ordered the eviction of all Negros from white areas they had been settled in during the brief period of Integration, a move that promises a resumption of the Black Panther campaign largely suppressed in the mid-80s. In a stunning dismissal of the gradual liberalization of Reaganomics, the Federation of New York and New England has been accepted into the United Nations and COMECON.
In America Proper news, the disputed Congressional election recount has finally ended. A majority has been given to the Together Alliance of Democrats, Liberals, Progressives, Socialists and 'Old' Republicans, while the Patriots' Christian Front, headlined by the 'True' Republicans, Libertarians, Dixiecrats, and Ku Klux Klan have, for the first time since 1948 been relegated to minority status in both chambers of Congress and a majority of state bodies.
Senator Colin Powell (B-New York) has stated his intention is to assure the passage of the Religious Freedom Act which will repel the Christian Defense Bill originally proposed by Senator McCarthy...
December 25, 1991
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Senator Newton Gingrich (TR-Pennsylvania) and General Norman Schwarzkopf occupied Capitol Hill today with troops loyal to Secretary of Defense Oliver North. President Reagan announced from the White House that he was taking action against what he termed a "runaway Congress deemed at accepting the moral and physical disintegration of the United States." The remaining governors have largely denounced this illegal and anti-democratic move as an illegitimate government, and have threatened to send National Guard forces to restore the Congressional authority if the Republican government does not accept its relegation into minority status.
January 2, 1992
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Eight Days Coup collapsed as President Reagan made a teary announcement from the Rose Garden today, accepting full responsibility for the coup and announcing that, while "done with the best of intentions by the grace of Our Lord," he had failed as president and as steward of the nation. He announced that he and his administration would be stepping down, and urged remaining Republican diehards across the nation to accept the rule of Congress to prevent further bloodshed and splintering.
In the first Joint Session of Congress following the coup, following the formal impeachment of President Reagan and his administration, Speaker of the House Richard Gephardt (OR-Missouri) was elected to fulfill the duties of President until the November election, which he shortly later accepted the unanimous Together Alliance nomination for. Congressman Gephardt had been out of Washington during the coup and organized the pro-democracy forces that opposed Reagan. The Marine regiment ordered to take him into custody refused to comply with the Secretary of Defense's orders.
Senator Newton Gingrich, appointed Vice President during the coup, has already promised to participate in the campaign.
November 3, 1992
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congressman Richard Gephardt won with a landslide today, becoming the legitimately-elected President of the United State and first freely-elected President since 1932. President Gephardt had just returned from the first speech of an American President to the United Nations which the United States was just accepted into. In it, he urged the developed nations of the world to help relieve the beleaguered American economy, while calling for United Nations peacekeepers to be sent to prevent the ethnic cleansing of the Deep South nation.
January 20, 1995
WASHINGTON, D.C. - A deputation from the European Union and Soviet Union will be visiting Washington later this week, in an attempt to shore up support for President Gephardt. Although largely popular even a year ago, his ratings have fallen sharply due to the disastrous economic straits the nation has befallen, the rising causalities in the occupations of Utah and the Indian territories, and the feelings of international impotence resulting in the inability to prevent United Nations members from intervening politically and economically in former American states, specifically New England and the Deep South.
This dissatisfaction resulted in the resurgence of the Republican Party and its allies in the recent Congressional elections, causing Gephardt's Together Alliance to lose its majority to the Patriots' Christian Front of Senate Majority Leader and Presidential contender Newton Gingrich.
The Euro-Soviet delegation, planned in response to the United States finally recognizing all of its former states' independence, will arrive during the annual Commonwealth of Northern America summit, and include...
* * * * * * *
The basic scenario is that the Cold War is reversed, that America stood increasingly isolated an unable to cope with the success of Soviet Communism until, finally, the 'fall of Capitalism' occurred in the early 1990s. The fact that the Republican Party became a dictatorial force in the US isn't a specific slight against it, just that I wanted as diametrically-opposed ideology in the US as possible. Likewise, some of the historical characters may seem badly used, but I'm a believer that circumstances make the man, and with circumstances this altered, it stands to reason that the movers and shakers would, as well.
The US government isn't majorly different, just in a few areas. The space program is a section of the Defense Department, and the Justice Department, similar to Homeland Security today, includes the CIA, Secret Service, Coast Guard, and Border Guard. Congress gave the President a wide range of additional authority through acts and amendments, although I suppose most or all of them have, at least legally if not de facto, been repealed.
The National Post is a The New York Times-esque paper based in Philadelphia. Established in 1897, it came under Federal 'observation' from 1950-1989.
The Soviet Union of this era is one where I envision Khrushchev's reforms were not only carried through, but soon followed by glastnost and perestroika-type movements. Essentially, a shift from heavy industry to market goods, encouragement of small-scale capitalism, the stamping out of corruption and inefficiency, the growth of a middle class of technocrats, and the loosening of state control and censorship. Still not a Western democracy, but far from the 'Evil Empire' and probably better than current Russia as well.
The European Union here I envision as essentially a cross between the real EU and the Warsaw Pact. The United Nations, save for being based in Geneva, is basically the same, except that the United States and its few close allies left and did not rejoin until the fall of Capitalism. The Commonwealth of North American States (CNA) is similar to the real-world CIS and NAFTA, consisting of the United States and Canada and their breakaway nations. For Canada, it would be Quebec and the Maritime Republic (the union of the Maritime provinces).
For the United States, the New Confederate States (aka, the Deep South) would be North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi (Florida would remain an American exclave). It is run by the States' Rights Party which maintains apartheid, limits the rights of women, outlaws liberalism, and maintains an official state religion of Christianity (specifically, Protestantism). I imagine at this time it would be an analog of Yugoslavia/the Balkans.
The Federation of New England and New York would (obviously) consist of those seven states. Along with the Bear Flag Republic (California) it would be basically the same as those current areas are, restoring government social programs and going good off of industry and the new information technology. They would probably be the first to join the UN/COMECON. Alaska would be considering joining the Soviet Union, Hawaii would reinstate the monarchy (probably a popular native politician or popstar), and Texas I haven't considered much. The Republic of Puerto Rico would probably be similar to Cuba or former Central American banana republics, save overcoming half a century of Anglicization and semi-state-sponsored Protestant proselytism. Utah with its Mormon separatists is Chechnya.
As for the rest of the world...Israel doesn't exist, and much of the Middle East and North Africa in the United Arab Republic. India is essentially the same, a strong democracy but officially allied with the USSR. In light of the theme, China would similarly be in a better light than it is today, and now that the Cold War is over, is starting to drift from the USSR. Taiwan and Hong Kong are integral parts of China. Korea is a single Communist nation, as is Japan and Indochina. The US military intervention in Indonesia and South Africa would each be Korea/Vietnam equivalents.
As for the rest of the world, I haven't given it much thought. There are still democracies, they just (for the most part) know which side is the winning one. For example, in Britain, instead of the Labour/Conservative/Liberal split we see today, it might instead be something like Communist/(Old-school) Labour/Liberal. Or, like India in our timeline, there could be countries that are governed democratically and with no major Communist/Socialist parties that still maintained strong Soviet ties.
This is set in late January, 1995, in Washington D.C., during the annual Commonwealth of Northern America summit and the arrival of a group of European/Soviet dignitaries to observe. Feel free to make your character from anywhere and do anything. If you want to join, please PM me with a brief character idea/details, I promise not to bite. I don't mean to be a snob, but please be prepared to write more than a sentence or two for each post. A huge understanding of history and politics is not necessary but at least a very rudimentary knowledge of recent/post-Cold War events might be good.
