| May 26 |  |
Editor says, what if President Andrew Johnson was Removed from Office? muses Jeff Provine on the This Day in Alternate History web site. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the June 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1868, on this day President Andrew Johnson was removed from Office. The American Civil War was coming to a close with Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House, but a new crisis gripped the government as Tennessee Democrat Andrew Johnson came into the highest office in the US following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
President Andrew Johnson Removed from OfficeWhile the Radical Republicans dominated Congress, Lincoln had filled his cabinet with men he hoped would heal the nation: his own rivals among the Republicans, Democrat-turned-Republican Edwin Stanton, and, as his new vice-president in 1864, National Unionist Andrew Johnson. Johnson had been the only Southern senator to refuse to leave his position, being a strong believer in the Union despite his political stances favoring slavery and limited government.
After Lincoln's death, Johnson became Commander-in-Chief and effective ruler of the conquered South. The Radical Congress called for stiff punishments for the former rebels and support for the Freedman's Bureau, enabling the African Americans who had gained their liberty to live better independent lives. Johnson was an adamant War Democrat and had served as Military Governor of Tennessee from 1862, instituting some of the first Reconstruction policies and setting groundwork for a post-emancipation government, although he himself was a believer in white supremacy. As president, however, he saw the war as over and determined to continue Lincoln's lenient Reconstruction in which Southern states would be quickly reintegrated. The Radical Republicans balked and passed bills toward protecting freedmen's rights. State governments under Johnson's Reconstruction, however, had instituted Black Codes to keep white legal supremacy, which Johnson protected with presidential veto.
The Executive and Legislative branches in Washington thus began a struggle for power. Congress passed the original Civil Rights Act and the Freedmen's Bureau Act, both of which Johnson vetoed, citing them too vengeful toward Southern whites. The Republicans maneuvered around him by making much of the Civil Rights Act into the Fourteenth Amendment, which would be ratified by the states and thus never cross the president's desk. Johnson fought against the Republicans, launching a speaking tour of the North before the 1866 elections that turned disastrous as he painted himself as the savior of the white race and became a figure Democrat Representative Samuel S. Cox described " .. as ugly as the devil. He was regularly mad and couldn't talk like a reasonable being". The Republicans made great gains with 37 new seats in the House and 18 in the Senate.
Johnson worked against the Republicans, who could easily override his veto with a two-thirds vote, by any means necessary, such as using bureaucratic legal issues to stop implementation of voting regulations put forth in Congress's Reconstruction Acts. Tensions grew until Johnson was at last impeached for removing Secretary of War Stanton, a violation of the Tenure of Office Act passed shortly before. The impeachment trial before the Senate lasted for months with Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase presiding and nearly all of Washington involved. It became something of a circus with bets being placed in gambling houses, Representative Thaddeus Stevens demanding to be carried to the trial in a chair despite being deathly ill, a para-political acquittal committee established with $150,000 of "influence" money, and Johnson meeting with several decisive senators with offers of political favors. After the political dust settled, Johnson was removed from office with just one vote over the two-thirds required.
Under the Presidential Succession Act of 1792, President pro tempore of the Senate Benjamin Wade came into the White House. Wade was radical even by measure of the Republicans, calling not only for racial equality but also women's suffrage and political support for trade unions against rampant capitalism. Rallying his allies in Congress, Wade put forth aggressive policies with Reconstruction, seizing and parceling up plantations, reinforcing the Freedmen's Bureau at the expense of former slave-owners, and maintaining military governments to ensure control while the Southern economy readjusted. States would only be allowed back into the Union after a majority of its citizens had taken loyalty oaths, which had been a bill created by Wade in 1864 that Lincoln nullified by pocket veto. His actions were widely unpopular in the South and enough to cause a "white flight" as crowds headed north or west and settled under the Homestead Act (interestingly, one of Andrew Johnson's main works as a senator). Other Southerners stayed and resumed fighting incognito through organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan, which was deemed illegal and seditious by Wade, who hired the Pinkerton Detective Agency to aid Union soldiers in rooting out the movement.
Many Republicans found Wade too extreme for the presidency, such as James Garfield, who referred to him as "a man of violent passions, extreme opinions and narrow views who was surrounded by the worst and most violent elements in the Republican Party". He was replaced by General Ulysses S. Grant with the 1868 election under the promise of women's suffrage (1870, with the Fifteenth Amendment), but many of Wade's policies continued, if in a lighter fashion. Reconstruction would forever change the shape of the South, destroying the aristocracy and contributing to the establishment of African American rights there. Few African Americans moved to settle in the North and Midwest, which maintained racial notions for generations to come. One hundred years after the Civil War, a new movement began in the South calling for nationalized civil rights, and many in South Carolina with its Black majority suggesting secession if segregation was not ended.
Entry posted by
Jeff Provine
© Jeff Provine, 2010-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Jeff Provine Blog Source: Jeff Provine’s Blog Labels: Andrew Johnson, Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, America, United States. Editor says, in reality Johnson's presidency was saved, the vote falling one short of the requirement for the removal from office. He continued to fight the Republicans, but their majority in the Senate made his vetoes impotent. As a last act on Christmas Day, 1868, he proclaimed unconditional, universal amnesty for the South, eliminating loyalty oath requirements and hastening Reconstruction. Without widespread support, freedmen became victims of Jim Crow laws, beginning the Great Migration of African Americans to cities in the North and Midwest. Unfortunately, segregation followed them there, too.
~ Misses a couple of key points. Breaking up the plantations would not have resulted in that much white flight. The Black Belts/old Plantation zones were mostly coastal and river valleys. The bulk of the whites lived in hill country less suited to plantation agriculture. Indeed if the new farms were also offered to white Union veterans, especially the mountain Tories, it would have been popular. What would have caused white flight was black civic and even more political equality. Blacks were a majority in LA, MS, SC and a quite large minority in AL and FL. Whites were NOT happy under black rule even when the office holders they elected were white. So the big pressure would have been for redrawing state boundaries to make the black majority areas into black supermajority states. This in turn would have led to the races some what sorting themselves out by who held power where. Also the protracted use of the Army as internal constabulary in Dixie would probably have cost Grant his second term. A large part of the white North was not prepared to keep on an army as permanent electoral police in Dixie. In OTL Grant let the Redeemers retake MS 1870 to hold Ohio in 1872. The radicals were more popular than Johnson's Copperhead northern allies but the public preferred neither given a third choice.
~ This would have permanently weakened the Presidency.
~ In theory one could impeach judges or pack the court. In practice the political constellation was only there for a brief window. What could not be done before 1870 was not going to happen because northern white opinion, especially in the key Midwestern swing states of the Ohio Valley, simply would not support that level of executive tyranny over white men for blacks and carpet baggers. The War Democrats and moderates were willing to fight for the Union but not willing to keep fighting for anything approaching equality. We could have done better than we did but 1970 was not going to happen in 1870.
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Editor says, what if Hitler had swapped von Paulus and Rommel after Tobruk? muses Scott Palter. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the November 2011 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1941, serving for the last time under the inspirational command of the "Desert Fox" Colonel-General Erwin Rommel, the Panzer Army Afrika launched a daring strike at the British armour in the rear of the Allied defences at Gazala near the Libyan City of Tobruk.
Fox on the Volga By Ed and Scott PalterWith the Eighth Army retreating into Egypt, Hitler decided the time was right to pull Rommel out of the Western Desert Campaign. His replacement Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus obeyed orders by halting the advance at the Egyptian border, a cautious decision which ultimately set-up Operation Hercules for success, enabling Kesselring to take Malta.
Instead of chasing the Desert Rats into Egypt, Rommel was to deploy his prodigious talents in a theater of far greater strategic importance to the Third Reich. And rather than face the British General Wavell, his new adversary was the altogether more impressive Russian military genius Marshal Zhukov. Nevertheless he prevailed, defeating Zhukov at Mars.
The prize for this latest success was a new mission of epic proportions. To mastermind Operation Winter Storm instead of the brilliant, but out of favour Prussian General Erich Von Manstein. The relief of Stalingrad.
Entry posted by
Scott Palter
© Scott Palter, 2009-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Rommel, Stalingrad, Tobruk, Afrika Corps, Eastern Front. Editor says, in this article we explore a point of divergence proposed by the Strategy Page, toy with the novel "Fox on the Rhine" by Douglas Niles and Michael Dobson (2000) and have repurposed a significant amount of content from Wikipedia.
~ Meanwhile, what's going on in North Africa? good point in first draft VP surrounded at El Alemein (like Stalingrad) but here we have a less belligerent Desert Campaign..
~ Sounds as if this alteration would have kept Germany fighting longer. Perhaps just long enough that Nuremberg and Berlin would be the first cities incinerated by A-bombs. (Actually, it would have had to be two other cities: Hiroshima aand Nagasaki were chosen because they had *not* previously been hit, sparing military analysts the problem of sorting out the damage caused by the Bomb from that done previously by conventional munitions. Berlin and Nuremberg had already been heavily bombed by early 1945.)
~ It would have spared Eastern Europe a good deal of oppression behind the Iron Curtain.
~ Um, Stalingrad was put under seige in 1942. and Manstein did have a plan to break Paulus out of stalingrad, a good plan too. But Paulus would have none of it since Hitler said to hold stalingrad at all costs. Theoretically, if Hitler had given the go ahead in late december or early january, Manstein could have broken the germans out of stalingrad. They would have lost a lot of heavy equipment, but it couldf have been done.
Sadly though, this has a net loss for the germans, since it frees up the Soviet troops encircling stalingrad. With the extra addition of troops, the russkies smash through the weakened army Group Southerns front, and kick them out of the caucasus earlier than OTL. No Miracle on the Donetz, And the war ends in early 1944, most likely. Things do not end up better for the allies at all.
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Editor says, what if the USSR had survived long enough for the Soviet Mars Mission to go ahead as planned? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the June 2011 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 2002, having exercised de facto power of sovereignty over the surface of the Planet Mars for almost five years the USSR committed a blatant abrogatation of the UN Outer Space Treaty by declaring supreme, independent authority over the Cydonia Region in the name of the sixteenth Soviet Socialist Republic.
Conquest of the Red PlanetThe "Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies" was opened for signature in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union on January 27, 1967, and entered into force on October 10, 1967.
The key provisions of the Treaty formed the basic legal framework of international space law prohibiting space-faring nations from:
- Placing nuclear weapons or any other weapons of mass destruction in orbit of Earth, installing them on the Moon or any other celestial body, or to otherwise station them in outer space
- Claiming a celestial resource such as the Moon or a planet, since they are considered to be the Common heritage of mankind
- Exploring outer space for any purposes other than the benefit of all countries and use by all States
The extension of the Iron Curtain into Outer Space, also the abrogration of a thirty-five year old Treaty became the language of diplomatic posturing at the United Nations. And yet the rising panic inside the White House was fuelled by uncertainty as to how the Soviet Union had accelerated their space programme in such a short space of time. And precisely what led them to the mysterious Cydonia Region famously known as the "face on Mars". And indeed what the Soviet engineers might have discovered there.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Mars, Cydonia, Russia, Cold War, America. Editor says, many thanks to Chris Oakley, Jeff Provine, Eric Oppen and Robbie Taylor for this contributions to the development of this article
~ I read about this treaty.I think.It was too draconian and controlling.
~ I think the treaty allows them to claim a region on a planet - just not the whole planet itself. Of course, what does a treaty matter compared to the secrets of Cydonia...
~ The treaty definitely took the pressure off of "Beat 'em to it" colonization. Otherwise, we could've seen a celestial land-grab ala 1900s Africa or Asia. Space: 1999, 2001: A Space Odyssey, etc... all gone.
~ There have been plenty of people in the USA who've suggested that the United States should rip up the treaty, claim the moon as U.S. territory and dare the rest of the world to do something about it. Fortunately cooler heads have prevailed, for all that there is a U.S. flag planted in the lunar soil. If the USSR had survived and maintained its space program, we might have seen a confrontation on thr moon as early as the 1970s, let alone Mars.
As for the "secrets of Cydonia," that's a pig in a poke if ever there was one. Mars has value as a colonization site without any hypothetical (and, more likely than not, nonexistent) alien secrets it might hide.
~ If the Soviets controlled Cydonia, would Richard Hoagland have moved there? Let's hope so!
I would like to see the author explain exactly how the Soviets managed to survive at least another eleven years. They were essentially bankrupt by the early 80's.
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Editor says, in this post we pursue our speculation what if things were radically different, yet the outcome was much the same. In so doing we examine the Southern Rhodesia government referendum of October 27, 1922 which saw the voters of the colony of Southern Rhodesia by a comfortable majority reject the chance to join the Union of South Africa in favour of establishing a "responsible" government within the colony. Prime Minister Ian Smith believed Smuts could have won the 1948 election (which brought in the National Party's policy of apartheid) if Rhodesia had joined the Union of South Africa. What if Rhodesians had voted otherwise in 1922, as conjectured by Smith in his autobiography and would the end-game have been so very different?
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In 1948, on this day in South Africa, the Government of Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts (pictured) was returned following victory at a third successive general election.1
Bitter Fruit in the fifth provinceHis opponent Daniel Francois Malan's defeated National Party had campaigned for the prohibition of mixed marriages, for the banning of black trade unions and for stricter enforcement of job reservation. Instead voters chose Smut's policy of encouraging immigration from europeans - who were either weary of post-war Europe, or attracted by their war-time service in Southern Africa. And the rapid arrival of europeans would mean that inside of twenty years, the ratio of whites to all other races in South Africa would narrow to just 2:1.
The victory of Smuts' United Party was directly attributable to another long-term strategy of the General's. Because in the 1922 referendum, Smuts had convinced Rhodesia elected to join the Union of South Africa instead of establishing their own "responsible government". And those votes would prove crucial in the 1948 election.
One of Smut's successors as Prime Minister, Ian Smith2 would later note that "In 1922 the choice was put to the Rhodesian people through a referendum. Due to the personal intervention of General Jan Smuts, then Prime Minister of South Africa, who visited the country and addressed meetings, using his great wisdom and personal charm in an effort to convince Rhodesians to opt for joining the Union, Rhodesians voted by a majority of 2:1 to become the fifth province of the Union of South Africa .. The practical and economic benefits of joining the Union, obvious at that time, materialised and even exceeded predictions. With the advantages of being part of a larger and more diversified economy, access to transport and harbour facilities, eliminiation of customs and trade barriers, retaining Commonwealth preferences - because South Africa was part of the British Empire - things could only improve".
And yet Southern Africa's commercial success would bear bitter fruit. Identifying the Union of South Africa as a vulnerable citadel of capitalism, the Soviet Union and Cuba would pump immense resources into the South African Communist Party in order to overturn white majority rule. In his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom, President Nelson Mandela conceded "There will always be those who say that the Communists were using us. But who is to say that we were not using them?".3
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Ian Smith, "The Great Betrayal - Memoirs of Africa's most controversial leader" (1997), Nelson Mandela, "Long Walk to Freedom" (1999)Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Beasts Source: Wikipedia Labels: Jan Smuts, Ian Smith, Rhodesia, South Africa, Africa. Editor says, 1) Smith suggests Smuts could have won the 1948 election if Rhodesia had joined the Union of South Africa.
2) we imagine that Ian Smith becomes Prime Minister of South Africa.
3) the quote is unchanged all the context is somewhat different as we imagine an ultimate victory for the Communist Party, and not an African National Congress in this post.
~ Things would have turned out much the same...and I'm not sure that a Boer-run SA would have been happy about more "English" voters.
~ Stealing from Communists is okay because they don't believe in private property in the first place.
~ Barring something resembling Jim Crow (for which there would be little objective need if there is an absolute White Majority), there would be little real traction for a SACP... of course odds are there would be something resembling Jim Crow.
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In 1941, on this day Soviet ground forces in Germany began advancing on Stettin. | |
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| Joseph Stalin |
Variant entry posted by
Chris Oakley
original content has been repurposed to celebrate the author's genius © Chris Oakley,2008-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Blackpool40 Source: Wikipedia Labels: Blackpool, Adolf Hitler, Normandy, Britain, France.comments powered by Disqus
In 2009, on this day the New England states demand that the state and US Goverment provide help so that parents can go back to work. The UN asks the russian goverment to please evaluate everything it is doing in its military and to help with dealing with H1N1. | |
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Entry posted by
David Cryan
© David Cryan, 2009-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Swine Flu Source: Wikipedia Labels: Swine Fever, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Swine Fever, America.comments powered by Disqus
On this day in 1968, Soviet defense minister Andrei Grechko resigned; previously one of the strongest players in the Kremlin, Grechko had seen his political position sharply deteriorate in the aftermath of the Anglo-Soviet nuclear conflict. | |
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| Andrei Grechko |
Entry posted by
Chris Oakley
© Chris Oakley,2008-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Ground Zero Murmansk Source: Wikipedia Labels: Levi Eshkol, Andrei_Grechko, Middle East, Israel, Egypt.comments powered by Disqus
In 2002, in Pakistan, military and internal-security officers loyal to hard-line Islamist Lt. General Mehmood Ahmed, head of the country's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency, launch a coup against President Pervez al-Musharraf. | |
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| Pervez al-Musharraf |
He will announce that new laws will be drafted to bring the country's legal and political systems 'into line with the will of Allah as expressed through the Holy Koran,' and will warn that dissent will be punished as an offense not only against the state but against the faith. |
Entry posted by
Eric Lipps
© Eric Lipps,2007-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Gore Wins Source: Wikipedia Labels: Al Gore, Tony Blair, Desert Storm, September 11, War on Terror.comments powered by Disqus
On this day in 1967, Gamal Abdel Nasser angrily denounced Jordan's King Hussein as a 'cowardly traitor' for urging Nasser to agree to a cease-fire with Israel. | |
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| Gamal Nasser |
Entry posted by
Chris Oakley
© Chris Oakley,2008-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Meast67 Source: Wikipedia Labels: Gamal Nasser, Gamal Abdul Nasser, Middle East, Israel, Egypt.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor
© Robbie Taylor, 2004-Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Arthur II Source: Robbie Taylors Blog Labels: Arthur Pendragon, Robbie A. Taylor, Camelot Redux, Merlin, England.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor
© Robbie Taylor, 2004-Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Soviet America Source: Robbie Taylors Blog Labels: Joel Rosenberg, Robbie A. Taylor, Comrade, Soviet States of America, Communism.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor
© Robbie Taylor, 2004-Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Mlosh Source: Robbie Taylors Blog Labels: Mlosh, 1720, Robbie A. Taylor, Warp, Alien.comments powered by Disqus
In 1930, Adolf Hitler head of the German National Socialist Worker's (Nazi) Party, dies in a car crash south of Berlin. Citing emergency, Hermann Goering seizes control of the party. Hitlers death and Goerings ascension bitterly split the party, which had already suffered from divisions between its right, led by Hitler before his death, and its left, whose champion is Ernst Roehm, chief of the partys Sturmabteilung storm troopers. The charismatic Hitler had been able to unite the two factions, in part due to his personal friendship with Roehm; Goering, however, is unable to do so. | |
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| Adolf Hitler |
Entry posted by
Eric Lipps
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Alternate Nations Source: Wikipedia Labels: Nazi Party, National Socialist German Workers Party, Germany, Third Reich, Weimar Republic.comments powered by Disqus
On this day in 2011, CBS aired the series finale of CSI: Miami. Fittingly the spinoff series, which had started with two of Gil Grissom's forensic investigators coming to Miami to look for the killer of an ex-Las Vegas police chief, ended with former Miami-Dade crime lab boss Horatio Caine (in a much- hyped guest appearance by David Caruso) moving to Vegas to take over that city's CSI unit in the aftermath of Grissom's death. | |
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| David Caruso |
Entry posted by
Chris Oakley
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: CSI:Crime Scene Investiga Source: Wikipedia Labels: CSI, Crime Scene Investigations, Finale, William Petersen, Gil Grissom.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Washington Irving, 1819.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Alternate Nations Source: Wikipedia Labels: Rip Van Winkle, America, Dutch Win through, Peter Stuyvesant, Dutch North America.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor
© Robbie Taylor, 2004-Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Beasts Source: Today in Alternate History Labels: Bram Stoker, Dracula, Vampire, Blood, Horror.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor
© Robbie Taylor, 2004-Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Religion Source: Wikipedia Labels: Mohicans, Inca , Mayan, Inca , Pequot.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor
© Robbie Taylor, 2004-Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Alternate Nations Source: Wikipedia Labels: Napoleon Buonaparte, France, Italy, Europe, Mastery of Europe.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor
© Robbie Taylor, 2004-Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Chdo Democracy Source: Wikipedia Labels: Chdo_Democracy, Robbie A. Taylor, China, 4648, Emperor Dao-Ming.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor
© Robbie Taylor, 2004-Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Inventions Source: Wikipedia Labels: Computers, Difference Engine, Thomas Eddison, Element: Maestro row: 2, Computing Devices.comments powered by Disqus
May 25
Editor says, what if the faked Apollo moon landing was exposed? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the August 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1961, needing a distraction to fire the public imagination in the wake of the Bay of Pigs fiasco, President Kennedy announced the goal of landing a man on the Moon in a speech to a Joint Session of Congress.
Apollo XI Triumph
by Ed & Jackie Speer"First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, within the next ten years1, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish". In a cabinet meeting with NASA administrator James E. Webb and other officials, Kennedy explained that the moon shot was important for reasons of international prestige, and that the expense was justified. Johnson assured him that lessons learned from the space program had military value as well. Costs for the Apollo program were expected to reach $40 billion.
Of course it was a timescale safely out of reach of Kennedy's term of office, but it was an irrevelance at least for him because he was assassinated. Of course for his less photogenic successors it was a delivery problem of frightening proportion. And so five years after the cabinet meeting, Johnson and Webb met privately in the Oval Office. The progress report was bleak; both the US, and the Soviet Union, had independently calculated very high risks for the mission. And public sentiment had changed dramatically, the likely death of the astronauts would almost certainly lead to calls to cancel the Apollo program. Caught between a rock and a hard place, they decided to fake the moon landing.
Twelve months later, both Johnson and Webb had left office and their successors Richard Nixon and Thomas O. Paine were confronted with a series of security leaks that forced them to cancel those plans. Another factor in the decision was that the progress reports were more upbeat, and during Nixon's first term, he was able to deliver on Kennedy's dream when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched down on the lunar surface on 20 July 1971. This is a reversal of Eric Lipps article Apollo XI Tragedy.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: NASA, Touchdown, Neil Armstrong, Apollo XI, Buzz Aldrin. Editor says, in reality he actually said "before this decade is out". In authoring this post with Jackie Speer, we have repurposed content from Wikipedia.
~ And in what TL was Von Braun's advice heeded?He would have buitl a space station and assembled a ferry to travel it and the moon.Not a dramatic onme shot.The ten year goal would have taken pressure of nasa.
~ Oh yes,that was what I had forgotten. Von Braun was regarded as having almost legendary authority and said the only way it could be done was to build a space station, refuel a spaceship in space there,and go to the moon that way.
For some reason his advice was ignored.
~ They'd need a different crew. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wcrkxOgzhU
~ The reason von Braun's advice was inored is simple: time. Building a space station "pit stop" would have added several years (at least) to the time needed to land men on the moon, years the U.S. wasn't sure it had with the Soviet Union supposedly hard on its heels.
~ The big trouble with the whole "moon landing hoax" thing is that it would literally depend on thousands of people keeping silence, and that never, never happens.
~ Google "greenbriare hotel bunker." People can keep quite for some time. The reason the "Moon Landing Hoax" is redonkulous is because not only would thousands of Americans had to keep the secret, the British (who tracked Apollo XI all the way to the Moon and back) would have to be in on it, and the Soviet Union (who tracked Apollo XI all the way to the Moon and back) would have had to be in on it also. Which means that not only would the landing have to be a hoax, but the entire Cold War would have had to be a hoax as well.
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Editor says, what if Martin Luther had been assassinated? muses Jeff Provine on the This Day in Alternate History web site. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the June 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1521, on this day Martin Luther was assassinated. The success of the printing press hastened the spread ideas, particularly theology. Lawyer-turned-monk Martin Luther published Disputation of Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences in 1517, which became known as The Ninety-Five Theses. It formed a list of what he felt was wrong with Church practices, particularly the selling of indulgences: writs of forgiveness for sins that could be purchased (even in advance of committing a sin).
Martin Luther AssassinatedLuther had suffered through his own understanding of forgiveness while in the monastery and finally relied solely on God's power rather than Dominican friar Johann Tetzel's salesmanship, "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, The soul from Purgatory springs".
The letter spread through much of Northern Europe and found many like-minded supporters. Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz and Magdeburg, who had initiated much of the surge of indulgence sales (and received half of the profits to pay debts, the other half going to pay for the construction of St. Peter's Basilica), sent a copy to Pope Leo X, who responded with orders that Luther be arrested. Luther, however, had won the support of Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, who protected him politically. The Pope excommunicated Luther in with a bull in December of 1520 and ordered him to recant at a diet in Worms under Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Luther prayed for guidance and finally admitted before the emperor, "I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen".
Luther was released as he had been guaranteed safe passage through Frederick the Elector, but deliberations continued five more days until May 25 when Emperor Charles announced, "We want him to be apprehended and punished as a notorious heretic". Luther's literature was banned. He himself was declared an outlaw, forbidding anyone to give him shelter or even food, requiring his arrest, and legalizing his murder. As Luther traveled homeward, he was met by armed men in the forest. Thinking they were his escort from Frederick, Luther and his party peacefully approached them. These men, however, were zealous supporters of the Church who had been waiting for the emperor's word. Frederick's soldiers arrived shortly after Luther had been killed and were able to win back his body before the bandits could escape with it in hopes of a bounty.
An uproar rang through Germany, taking Luther as a martyr. Faced with a wave of rebellion among Luther's supporters outraged by actions blamed on the Church as well as incursions by the Turks besieging Vienna, Charles decided to separate himself from Rome's stalwart rejections. Pope Leo X shifted blame to Bishop Albrecht, who was replaced and forced to pay his debts.
Without Luther, the Reformation settled onto the shoulders of Philipp Melanchthon, who distinguished himself from the violence associated with radicals such as Zwingli and the Zwickau prophets. Melanchthon had long kept correspondence with Luther, and the monk had even invited Melanchthon to a professorship at the University of Wittenberg after his liberal theology was dismissed at T?bingen. He determined to work with the Church in gradual reforms, such as the end of indulgences as outlined in the 1530 Augsburg Confession. Melanchthon's use of reason won him great fame and calls for lectures across northern Europe. His student Flacius carried on after him, working alongside the Church for reforms throughout north and eastern Europe. Centers like Spain and the Italian states were slower to take to reform, but eager to trade. Seeing bloody violence in England after Henry VIII's forcible creation of the Church of England in 1529 discouraged Scandinavian crowns from separating outright, instead slowly asserting political authority as the Continent shifted toward humanism.
Capitalism and technology outpaced spiritualism as the centuries progressed. The Holy Roman Empire, a model of the balance of power between the First, Second, and Third Estates brought on by waves of reform, became the "Hinge of Europe" as Habsburg power waned due to excessive inbreeding. Instead, Congresses of dukes, princes, and elected representatives, all joined together by the Catholic religion across nationalities, ruled. The Ottoman Empire began to wane as Austria looked to the Atlantic for trade through Spain and Portugal rather than eastward. With Dutch mariners joined by German innovators and ample settlers from among the myriad of Austrian-Hungarian peoples, Roman colonies spread into North America to balance French Canada and Louisiana, the Caribbean, Africa, India, and the Pacific until a third of the world was under imperial power.
Entry posted by
Jeff Provine
© Jeff Provine, 2010-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Jeff Provine Blog Source: Jeff Provine’s Blog Labels: Martin Luther, Assassination, Religion, Protestant, Catholic. Editor says, in reality Frederick III successfully "kidnapped" Luther and hid him in Wartburg Castle. Luther continued to write, translating the New Testament into German and solidifying his ideas of grace. Melanchthon continued to be a leader, but Luther ensured that the movement would not make concessions to the Church. Lutheranism would become its own major denomination with some 70 million participants worldwide in 2005.
~ It could have gone this way or could have gone even worse than in OTL, with Luther seen as a martyr and his martyrdom basically giving _carte blanche_ to anything done to the Catholic Church. Oh, and I think you mean "spirituality," not "spiritualism." Spiritualism is the pretense of being able to speak to the spirits of the dead.
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Editor says, what if Gordon Brown had tried to cling to power? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 2010, after a four week period of clinging to power witheringly described by Nick Clegg as "squatting in 10 Downing Street", Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown finally reached his "Ceaușescu moment" when Conservatives and Liberal-Democrats voted down the Queen's Speech at the start of the new session of Parliament.
Gordon Brown reaches his "Ceaușescu" momentThis unexpected event threw the leadership of the British political class into complete confusion. Having interpreted the indecisive result of the May 6th election as a rejection of the Conservative Party, Gordon Brown had subsequently assured the Queen that he could muster sufficient votes to ratify Her Majesty's Most Gracious Speech.
And the imperturbable Conservative Leader "Cool Hand Dave" Cameron had not only expected to win, but had toured British with his Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne, acting as if his rightful turn had arrived. And now the right-wing of the party, having been uncharacteristically quiet to give its moderate leadership the one-shot chance to pursue the "Change to Win" strategy now swung behind a re-appointment of former leader William Hague, this time without a fifth column.
Nick Clegg, having mastered the television debates, and having stated that his ambition was to become Prime Minister, then delivered a desperately disappointingly poor result for the Liberal Democrats.
The Queen herself was unable to suggest a next step for the so-called balanced parliament, declaring that "the British constitution has always been puzzling and always will be".
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© "Can Mr Cameron hang tough?" by James Forsyth published in the Spectator Magazine, May 1st 2010Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Spectator Magazine Labels: Gordon Brown, Nick Clegg, David Cameron, Queen Elizabeth II, Coalition. ~ The piece missing here is the reaction of the financial markets. Faced with this sort of an impasse the flight from the pound would have made the Suez financial debacle look like a child's playground fight. UK would have lost its AAA rating and the City of London would have twisted arms with all three parties to get a government, ANY government.
~ I wouldn't be at all surprised.
It wou;ld be as if, in the U.S., the Supreme Court had deadlocked 4 to 4 on Bush v. Gore (due to an abstention, or perhaps a sudden death), forcing the matter back to Florida and reopening the recount, and after a narrow Gore victory the Republican majority in that state's legislature had made good on its threat to ignore the count and picked its own slate of Bush electors--and then the Electoral College had been unable to decide begween the rival slates, and then the House of Representatives had bogged down, uinable to quite muster the votes to put Bush over the top (possible because the House vote would be by states rather than by individdual members) but unable to do it for Gore either (imagine a 25-25 split by states).
The S would hit the F on Wall Street in that case, just as it would in London in the case described above.
~ I don't know enough about the British constitution (so-called) to be able to comment very coherently, but this would definitely open up a giant can of worms. HM herself might have to step on in...
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Editor says, what if Churchill had refused to accept defeat at Dunkirk? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1940, heavy bombardment by the Luftwaffe joined German cannon in saturating would-be evacuation beaches. By midnight May 25, the Navy reported that the Germans were on all the beaches and were preventing the BEF from leaving them.
Slaughter at Dunkirk by Raymond SpeerChurchill suggested that a major raid be made for the purpose of clearing at least one Dunkirk port. "It will be a complete surprise for the foe". The general's comment to the Prime Minister was that his project would be a slaughter.
Entry posted by
Raymond Speer
© Raymond SpeerStory Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Fall of Britain Source: Wikipedia Labels: Winston Churchill, Siege of Calais, Dunkirk, Battle of France, World War 2.comments powered by Disqus
Editor says, what if Hitler had ordered Guderian to advance at Dunkirk? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1940, on this day the commander of the British Expedition Force, Gort, decided that his Army woulld evacuate from Dunkirk and he requested full assistance in that task from his country.
Disaster at Dunkirk by Raymond SpeerThe previous day, French General Weygand had noted that the British were fleeing lines they had promised to hold, falling back twenty five miles in order to reach the ports.
Also that Friday, Adolf Hitler had radioed from von Rundstedt's headquarters a question to Hans Gunderian, chief of the Panzers which spearheaded the German offensive. Did Gunderian feel confident in his forces' present order, or would he want to delay his advance and re-organize? Gunderian wanted to go ahead at full speed and Hitler instantly ordered that.
In the coming week, the Nazi armor and infantry arrived at the shore, usually in place before the British came upon them. Brave British units lost heavily trying to brush the enemy away from their only hope of evacuation.
Entry posted by
Raymond Speer
© Raymond SpeerStory Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Fall of Britain Source: Wikipedia Labels: Lord Gort, Siege of Calais, Dunkirk, Battle of France, World War 2. ~ This could have been very much the case, but would Hitler actually do this? Afterall Goring wanted to show off the Luftwaffe, whilst Hitler himself had this stupid idea that the British are Germans too nonsence.
~ There's no telling what Hitler might have done; he was notorious for changing his mind, sometimes repeatedly and for vague reasons.
As for the Fuehrer's views re: the British, he didn't actually believe they were Germans. He believed they were fellow "HNordics" and "Aryans"--which, of course, was still nonsense, but of a different sort.
~ If Hitler had not been so foolish as to send Britain a Peace Gesture by letting them get their army away back to Britain, The Germans would have cut off and destroyed or captured the BEF. Thus depriving Britain the needed regular troops it would need to hold back any German invasion. Even without their heavy weapons, Experienced troops are always formidable. I would say with the inexperienced territorials and raw recruits it had Germany landing any troops on British soil or simply flying them in would result in Britain's immediate collapse with Sealion in something just a little bit more bloody than what happened when Germany occupied the Channel islands. The brits would be Blitz shocked and the Germans well motivated with Final Victory well within their reach. Still, Britain would probably rely upon the Pond (the English Channel) there would be strong belief in resistence being possible but taht would collapse with German troops arriving.
~ If the BEF had been destroyed in France, that would have been it---"game over," as that guy in the movie kept saying. Germany might not be able to invade Britain, but they could consolidate their position in France for several years.
~ Possible but bear in mind that the halt order on the Aa Canal was only the last of several that Hitler, Halder and Rundstedt had tried to impose on Guderian. Everyone was worried about the panzer spearhead getting chopped off in part because everyone over estimated the French army [presuming that the French army would have a worse OODA loop than 1916-18 was simply not credible until after the fact - the defects of French command and doctrine were only clear in retrospect]. Plus on the German situation maps the BEF showed a having a considerable reserve grouped around the Channel Ports. The Germans were quite unaware just how unprepared the second line territorial divisions were. Gort had been using them as labor forces not military units. The German situation maps showed three divisions, lesser units and at least as many a ferry ride away in southern England. That said if Guderian is allowed to make the push he bags the entire BEF at the cost of the second phase of the French campaign being pushed back by 10 days or so.
~ I think Dave raises an interesting question...
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Editor says, what if the Stamp Act was voted down, muses Eric Lipps? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1765, Patrick Henry spoke before the Virginia House of Burgesses in praise of the British Parliament?s defeat of the Stamp Act.
The Defeat of the Stamp Act by Eric LippsThe first direct tax to be levied on the American colonies, it would have required that all newspapers, pamphlets, legal documents, commercial bills, advertisements, and other papers issued in the colonies bear a stamp.
Although the revenue to be raised from the stamps was earmarked for colonial defense, the proposal was hugely unpopular in America, where it was seen as a crippling blow to all sorts of ordinary activities, from the publication of newspapers to such legal documents as birth and marriage certificates.
The defeat of the Stamp Act was a serious blow to the ministry of George Grenville, which contributed to his fall from power of July 10, 1765 following a dispute with King George III on a separate matter involving the composition of the regency council.
Entry posted by
Eric Lipps
© Eric Lipps,2007-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Liberty Fails Source: Wikipedia Labels: Stamp Act, War of Independence, America, Patrick Henry, George Henry. ~ Got any more where this came from?
~ This might have postponed things, but as f'd up as the UK government was at the time, sooner or later things would have come to a head.
~ I'm toying with the notion of there being a series of colonial reforms leading to American representation in the House of Commons and perhaps (although this might be less plausible) the creation of American peers who could, in time, sit in the Lords.
If the American colonies had been integrated into Britain proper by being granted representation, it might have taken the wind out of the sails of independence advocates. The biggest problem I see (assuming the British were willing to go along, which is a whole other issue) is logistical: any American representatives would have to journey to England, which took weeks at the time, aand so would all too easily lose touch with their constituents back home.
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Editor says, what if Truman rather than Marshall had backed down over the recognition of Israel? We're grateful to my colleague David Atwell for his input into the development of this thread. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not reflect the Editor's own views.
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In 1951, following the conclusion of a ceasefire with its Arab neighbours, the State of Israel finally emerged from a three-year "war of independence" - but unexpectedly, as a communist client state of the Soviet Union.
A Communist Israel, Part 1 - the Victims of Hitler's MadnessOtherwise Israel stood alone, and most likely would have been defeated by the overwhelming Arab forces that had been secretly supported by a sympathetic Great Britain.
And President Harry S. Truman had been forced to heed the advice of George Marshall (pictured). Because his Secretary of State had stated "If you (recognize the state of Israel) and if I were to vote in the election, I would vote against you".
Truman had been inclined to give the "victims of Hitler's madness" the opportunity to "build new lives". But the level-headed Marshall had publicly declared that "We are in the midst of a very critical situation. We should therefore carefully avoid approach international problems on an emotional basis". And on May 12th 1948, two days before the end of the British Mandate, Truman summoned Marshall to the White House to confirm that he was nevertheless planning to recognise the State of Israel. Marshall, who had already given assurances to Arab rulers that America would not, and exploded, accusing Truman of "a transparent dodge to win the Jewish Vote" and insisting "they don't need a state, they don't deserve a state, it isn't theres, its stolen that land". Click 
to watch PBS - 50 years war Israel and the Arab Episode One
In the midst of this fracture in the US leadership, Stalin now saw an opportunity to recognise Israel first. Only later did US foreign policy makers realise that America had "Lost Israel" giving the Soviet Union an unwelcome entry into the Middle East. And the weapons that would be used to defend Tel Aviv would arrive from Czechoslakia.
It would take three years of bitter fighting to win the war of independence. And ultimately, the actions of irregular forces, operating out of their Kibbutz communities who would imbue a genuinely Marxist-Leninist perspective into the victorious Zionist's psyche.
Meanwhile on the Zionists western flank, the huge military bases of the British Army would be repurposed - to protect the Suez Canal from this terrifying new communist threat to Western oil supplies..
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Communist Israel Source: American Heritage Labels: George Marshall, Israel, Palestine, America, Harry S. Truman. ~ If Israel had been a Soviet client state, the US would have backed the
Arabs, all the way. The repercussions on US domestic politics would have
been very interesting.
~ And what, out of interest, did Isreal get exactly out of all this arm twisting? Or, more to the point, what did the USSR get out of all this?
~ Israel has no choice thats the purpose of the 'vein of life' comment that Sadat made, but in OTL about America. Soviet Union possibly still pursuing detente in this scenario avoid the Israelis dragging them into a war with America.
~ The Isrealis will want more because if they've developed anything akin to the OTL, ie they have nukes, then the vein of life isn't all that threatening. So they'll want guarrentees of peace akin to the OTL. The USSR will want far more than merely detente. They'll want something tangable & significant - either something in return for North Korea, akin to the Isreal deal, for instance, or cheap oil for the next 25 years. Otherwise they have no need to twist the arm of Isreal if, by having Isreal as a close ally in the region, they gain more by keeping to the status quo.
~ Surely according to your logic, they wouldnt get nukes in this ATL because France was friendly with the Arab nations e.g. its former colonies of Syria and Lebanon?
~ There's no reason why the Isrealis wouldn't get a Soviet reactor instead of the French one. Afterall the WARSAW Pact allies of the USSR were supplied with nuclear reactors. Given what the USSR can get in return, by having a strong ally in the Mediterranean & Middle East such as Isreal, the cost of giving Isreal a small reactor, at the height of the Cold War, would be cheap in comparision. And if it pissed off the Americans, so much the better... ;)
~ I wonder what impact such a realignment of Middle Eastern politics will have over the years to come...
~ This would throw the cat among the pigeons in American politics, for sure!
~ Yeah, it would certainly make for interesting domestic US politics... so would the US become more liberal or conservative I wonder?
~ Ironically, some members of the Soviet government were as anti-Semitic as the Nazis; in fact, anti-Semitism has been a problem in Russia since the days of the Tsars.
~ FDR could have done such a thing and gotten away with it. Truman was by no means the God-Emperor that FDR had been with the American people, and was much too practical a politician to voluntarily alienate a large part of the Democratic coalition.
~ Does the US just not recognize Israel or does the USG take actual steps to keep American Jews from bankrolling and to a fair extent arming Israel? The first doesn't matter. The second probably results in Israel being stillborn.
~ The point is that the key for Israel wasn't the PR victory of recoignition. Now had we lobbied the UN against Partition that matters. Had we actually enforced the Neutrality Acts against the US Jewish Community that is decisive.
Comment from an Brian Keith Burgess on Facebook: It is argued by some that the US has always supported Isreal because of so called Zionists in the US government. If this is the case, then the US, being both financially able and religiously convicted, made it their business to support Isreal. I think it is important to remember that Marshall under the Marshall Plan sought to protect Europe from ... Read Morethe Communists. If he had known that the Czecs had their eyes on Isreal, he would never had been against supporting them. Isreal was, I think, already poised to ally itself with the US and accept US support because of US actions in WWII.
Comment from an Brian Keith Burgess on Facebook: A Russian allied Israel could have happened, but I think only if the US had not provided support. I don't see how US Jewish supportr alone would have made a signifcant difference.
~ US politics undoubtably played a large part in Truman's decision but US officialdom in that era was pro-British and anti-IUsraeli. The push was from the political operatives looking at ethnic votes in NYC, LA and a few other major cities. The Czech arms deals started before the Communist Coup and were motivated by cash. Czechs had the skoda ... Read Morecomplex and a pile of ex-Nazi weapons the Soviets had no use for. Israelis were offering dollars which is where the US Neutrality Acts come into play. What happened was nominally illegal but the USG chose not to make it an enforcement prioirty. There were a few arrests but nothing compared to the depth of support. Israeli politics are tricky. There was a quite pro-Soviet left wing of the Labor Movement. Beyond that good feeling for the US was a matter of Tel aviv sweet talking the US Jews out of more cash. Israel tried to be neutral until Korea when we did twist arms and Israel geeked. This in turn led to the Soviet arms sales to Egypt.
Comment from an Brian Keith Burgess on Facebook: Thats a lot of details about communist envolvement that I was unaware of. Still its hard for me to understand how Marshall could have been opposed to US support had he thought that Russia could really get a hold in Israel. Perhaps he thought a communist Israel did not matter. I think too that one should look real close at Truman and his personal feelings about Israel as well as other politicians at that time.
Comment from an Brian Keith Burgess on Facebook: One thing is for sure. Marshall was afraid of the destablization that a US backed Israel might create.
~ Marshal as with most of the US diplomatic and military establishment expected Israel to lose the independence war. Beyond that, even if they won all they would have is a bankrupt ghetto on some worthless land. The Arabs had oil, numbers and the Suez Canal. The Muslim world as a whole had still more oil, vastly more numbers and a lot of Cold War real estate bordering the USSR. From his POV it was a simple equation.
~ Truman recognised Israel but declared an arms embargo which almost destroyed it since he knew full well France and Briain were supplying the arabs. But tehre will be consequences to him delaying his recognition 1. Soviets get a strong foothold in the middle east that they would exploit until they decide to swap allies during which we coudl get Israel back into the western fold but that will cost us. What happens next depends on if Israel goes communist or tries to develpe a socialist democracy. 2.I would say a lot of America's politics would be well messed up. In some quarters anti semitism would become more fashionable than usual but mostly it is going to be bad on how Marshall sold out the victims of Hitler and would likely be seen as either a very opportunist politician or worse. Of courese, I never thought much of Marshall. He was more politician than soldier . Might even cost Truman and the democrats badly with Jewish voters questionign their reasons for their political support for him and his party while evangelical voters would certainly be looking twice at him qith many many questions.
~ To keep balance, the US would need to back Arab states. Also, the Red Scare fallout from the Jewish community in America would cut even more deeply.
~ Since the left follows the Soviet Union's lead, the left would now be enthusiastically supporting Israel, and for good reason: the socialist Israelis, with their kibbutzes, kept defeating the feudal Arabs...which is exactly what Marx had in mind. The right, on the other hand, would denounce Israel for its socialist and feminist tendencies. Which was, incidentally, exactly the alignment before the Soviet Union turned against Israel.
~ Since the left follows the Soviet Union's lead, the left would now be enthusiastically supporting Israel, and for good reason: the socialist Israelis, with their kibbutzes, kept defeating the feudal Arabs...which is exactly what Marx had in mind. The right, on the other hand, would denounce Israel for its socialist and feminist tendencies. Which was, incidentally, exactly the alignment before the Soviet Union turned against Israel.
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Editor says, what if the movie bombed? muses Robbie Taylor Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1977, the cult film "A New Hope" opens in US theaters to general critical disappointment.
Cult film "New Hope" premieres Twentieth Century Fox, the studio that finally gave filmmaker Luke Walton the green light to make his space opera is pleased to find out that the public doesn't share the critics' opinions, and the movie makes a reasonable $50 million in its theatrical release.
A few years later, though, it enjoys a second life as it becomes a hugely popular rental at video stores across the English-speaking world. It earns enough, in fact, for Walton to film 2 sequels to the campy original, fleshing out his story of a young man's fight against an evil that turns out to be closer to him than he originally thought. These direct-to-video sequels brought Walton enough money to retire on, although there are persistent rumors that he still plans to do something more with the Darth Vader character someday.
Entry posted by Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor
© Robbie Taylor, 2004-Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Movies Source: Wikipedia Labels: Star Wars, Geeks, George Lucas, Hollywood, Cult Film. ~ Comment from Simon Medhurst: It Nearly Did cause no cinema's in america wanted to screen it, it was only because of a small fan base Who did the Rounds at the conventions :)
~ Maybe a different filmmaker could have avoided a lot of the huge plot and story holes in the originals? Naah, never happen!
~ And what happens to George Lucas and his Lucasfilm productions in this timeline?
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In 1965, on this day former British Prime Minister and defeated War Leader Winston Churchill died in the cell that had been his home in Spandau Prison, Germany for over twenty years.
The Death of ChurchillWord of his demise reached the Fuerher in Bechtesgarden that evening.
Terminally ill himself, Hitler outlived Churchill by five weeks, describing him as a "remarkable adversary" and a "remarkable drain on the Reich Treasury" in reference to the extravagant quantities of alcohol and cigars consumed by the Old Lion in his Prison Cell.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Winston Churchill, Spandau Prison, Rudolf Hess Crossover, Britain Defeated, Hitler Victorious.comments powered by Disqus
In 1977, Sex Pistols' manager Malcolm McLaren fired bassist Sid Vicious.
Sid Vicious gets fired from the Sex PistolsGlen Matlock who had left in February was reinstated.
Writing thirty years later Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day sympathised with McLaren's dilemma. "It wasn't necessarily a mistake to replace Glen Matlock with Sid Vicious. Matlock was cool, but Sid was everything that's cool about punk rock: a skinny rocker who had a ton of attitude, sort of an Elvis, James Dean kind of guy. That said, there's nothing romantic about being addicted to heroin. He was capable of playing his instrument, but he was too messed up to do it".
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Rolling Stones MagazineStory Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Personalities Source: Rolling Stone Labels: Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious, Glen Matlock, Billie Joe Armstrong, Malcolm McLaren.comments powered by Disqus
In 2009, on this day all New England states end the school year for all students. More then 700 school children have died in the past week. | |
| |
Entry posted by
David Cryan
© David Cryan, 2009-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Swine Flu Source: Wikipedia Labels: Swine Fever, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Swine Fever, America.comments powered by Disqus
On this day in 1967, the Israeli air force shot down dozens of Syrian fighter jets during a massive air battle over Damascus. | |
 | |
| King Hussein |
Entry posted by
Chris Oakley
© Chris Oakley,2008-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Meast67 Source: Wikipedia Labels: Gamal Nasser, King Hussein, Middle East, Israel, Egypt.comments powered by Disqus
In 1961, following a huge explosion at the White Sands Proving Ground where the boosters for the Dyna-Soar space plane are being developed, President Kennedy decides to postpone a planned speech in which he was to have pledged to 'place a man on the moon and return him safely to earth' before the end of the decade. | |
 | |
| Dyna-soar |
Wernher von Braun had persuaded the new President that the boosters could be used not only on the orbital plane but for lunar missions as well. The accident at White Sands had called that into question. Worse still, von Braun himself was badly injured, and will be hospitalized for over a month. |
Entry posted by
Eric Lipps
© Eric Lipps,2007-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Dyna-soar, Space Race, Soviet Union, America, Cold War.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor
© Robbie Taylor, 2004-Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Arthur II Source: Robbie Taylors Blog Labels: Arthur Pendragon, Robbie A. Taylor, Camelot Redux, Merlin, England.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor
© Robbie Taylor, 2004-Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Sockless Source: Robbie Taylors Blog Labels: Jerry Simpson, Robbie A. Taylor, Topeka, Grover Cleveland, 1861.comments powered by Disqus
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© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
