| November 6 |  |
Editor says, what if Gustavus Adolphus had lived? 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 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1632, on this day Gustavus the Great led a glorious charge at the defining moment of the Swedish Protestant Union's victory at Lützen.
Famous Protestant Victory at LützenThe Thirty Years' War now entered a new phase; not only was the Imperial onslaught on Saxony halted but the energies of the German Protestants began to further crystallize around around this talismanic figure who had now fully emerged as a a fearsome enemy to the Catholic Habsburgs.
But of course the famous victory itself was not without cost. Having been forced to assault an entrenched position, Sweden lost about six thousand men including badly wounded and deserters, many of whom may have drifted back to the ranks in the following weeks. The Imperial army lost slightly fewer men than the Swedes on the field; but more significantly the loss of the battlefield and general theatre of operations to the Swedes meant that fewer of the wounded and stragglers were able to rejoin the ranks.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Gustavus Adolphus, Sweden, Lutzen, Protestant, Prince Joseph of Saxe-Hildburghausen. Editor says, in authoring this post we have repurpose content from Wikipedia which reports ~ t was a Protestant victory, but cost the life of one of the most important leaders of the Protestant alliance, Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, which caused the Protestant campaign to lose direction.
~ Still, it could have weakened Sweden's prowess on the field, which could have served to take Sweden out of its warlike stance that lasted, I believe, another century. I doubt that most anyone in modern Sweden would have minded if the boys had been brought home sooner.
~ He'd at least been there to solidify Swedish holdings. They could've been even more of a major European power.
~ Yes, Jeff, and therefore the Protestant movement miight have been even stronger.
~ Gustaf Adolf's opposing commander at Lützen was the notorious Albrecht von Wallenstein. If Gustaf Adolf lives, does this make Wallenstein's apparent desire to force "a just peace" on the Emperor a reality by using the Swedish threat as a lever, or even by allying with them? (He was in negotiation with several of the Protestant powers at the time of his assassination.)
~ If he'd lived, would Christina have succeeded to the throne? Or would he have had a son and made him heir? I don't know how Swedish law worked on that point.
Editor says, what if the eldest son of King James I had lived? 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 December 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1612, proving once again a dashing hero, the eighteen-year-old Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, recovered from typhoid fever to great acclaim.
Henry Frederick Recovers FeverThe eldest son of King James I of England (VI of Scotland) had already made a name for himself as the handsome, athletic, witty, just, and inspiring next leader of the British Isles.
Henry had been born at Stirling Castle February 19, 1594, and spent his early years in Scotland under the care of the Earl of Mar. His father, James, had worried about the boy being too near his mother Anne of Denmark's Catholic tendencies and so placed Henry among staunch Protestants despite the division it caused in his marriage. In 1603, James was called to London to be crowned, and he brought his family south with him. As Henry grew, his father created an environment that, according to Sir Thomas Chaloner, was a "courtly college or a collegiate court". James himself acted as lecturer and wrote tracts for his son such as The True Law of Free Monarchies, which detailed James' understanding of monarchy as Heavenly mandated absolute rule.
A new article by Jeff ProvineAt 11 years old, Henry entered Magdalen College at Oxford. There, he learned sportsmanship and became interested in politicking and the tactics of warfare. He also became fastidious in his Protestantism, even to the point of fining anyone who uttered a swear, for which an alms box was always on hand for forced contributions. His small court was required to attend church services, and Henry himself became entranced in in the steely argumentation of Calvinism, whose sermons seemed to say to him, "Sir, you must hear me diligently: you must have a care to observe what I say".
In his teen years, Henry began to break with his family. He did not care for his increasingly extravagent younger brother, Charles, who seemed to emulate his father's ideals of autocracy. Henry had already rejected many of his father's values, especially James' sense of royal spending. The two very nearly rose to blows when James admonished Henry for not being energetic on a hunt, and Henry lifted his cane to strike his father out of rage but instead rode away. Most of the hunting party followed after the ever-increasingly popular Henry and left his father behind with a few loyals.
At the age of 18, Henry became ill during a typhoid fever epidemic but managed to recover. Upon the death of his father in 1625, Henry ascended the throne of England as Henry IX and the throne of Scotland as Henry I. James had spent the last years of his reign bickering with Parliament, and Henry began his rule by establishing an effective chain of command as well as respecting the right to free speech within the Commons. He approved the sanctions against Catholics and encouraged the increasing Protestantism of the country. Henry had made good on an old teasing promise to make his younger brother Archbishop of Canterbury, though Charles would constantly be admonished for overspending and, in truth, become a whipping boy for the perceived problems of the Anglican Church. Gradually over Henry's tenure, the strength of bishops would decline to favor a more Presbyterian system as seen in Scotland.
While Henry's domains seemed peaceable enough (although a campaign through Ireland to pacify the Catholic population became necessary in 1650), issues in foreign policy took up the majority of his reign. His deep sense of Protestantism caused war with Spain, and he agreed with Parliament on using naval tactics to undercut their flow of income from colonies. Through the seventeenth century, English and Dutch Protestant navies would seize much of the Caribbean. Henry also attempted to become involved in the Dutch War of Independence and the Thirty Years' War in the Germanies (especially since he married a Protestant German princess and his sister married Frederick V, Elector Palatine), but advisers such as Parliamentarian Oliver Cromwell encouraged him not to become tied up with the Continent. Instead, Henry focused on empire-building, as had been the dreams of Sir Walter Raleigh, whom Henry deeply admired and considered a friend. Henry fought bitterly with his father over the execution of Raleigh in 1618 after an illegal attack on a Spanish outpost, but the opinion of Spain's ambassador won out. He never forgave his father.
Following Raleigh's ideals, Henry widely encouraged settlement in the New World. Not only did his fleets seize islands from Spain, but he also created new colonies along the northern coast of South America and dispatched explorers and colonists to affirm English control of the Mississippi. His policies set precedent for colonial taxation through the Ship Tax, and taxation was reaffirmed in the next century by referrenda from the American colonies, who requested and were granted seats in Parliament.
Entry posted by
Jeff Provine
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Jeff Provine Blog Source: Jeff Provine’s Blog Labels: Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, King James, Scotland, England. Editor says, in reality Henry Frederick died at the age of 18, and his younger brother Charles ascended the throne in 1625. Charles bickered with Parliament, eventually leading to the English Civil War and his own beheading in 1649.
Editor says, what if the Hungarian Uprising crossed over into the Suez Crises? 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 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1956, with cynical timing French-Israeli forces launch an invasion of the Suez Canal just one hour after the polls close for the US Presidential election.
Conjoined Crisis Part 2
Suez Canal Invasion LaunchedUnbeknown to the International Community, the British Government had co-authored the Protocol of Sévres, a secret tripartite agreement that Israel would invade the Sinai. Britain and France would then intervene, purportedly to separate the warring Israeli and Egyptian forces, instructing both to withdraw to a distance of sixteen kilometres from either side of the canal. The reasons to desire to topple Nasser were various; for British Prime Minister Eden, ghosts of Munich, France, meddling in their colony of Algeria, and for Israel, collaborative opportunity to diminsh a local rival.
The rational voices in London and Paris argued that the Canal could not be held by force, and noted also that the modern oil tankers were becoming too big to travel through it. However, the debate was then transformed by a secret request for refuge at the British Embassy from Hungarian Premier Imre Nagy. The secret service urged Eden to betray Nagy and trade his liberty with a pledge of non-interference from the Soviet Union. But in the event, the British Government decided to grant refuge and withdraw from the Suez Canal, venture privately telling France and Israel that its position within the Commonwealth would become diplomatically untenable if London was seen to overtly support one head of state whilst seeking to oust another. However, as a sign of tacit support, London did allow the French to use Cyprus as a staging area and the operation proceeded without Britain.
An article from the Conjoined Crisis thread..
Entry posted by
Jackie Speel
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Conjoined Crisis Source: Wikipedia Labels: Imre Nagy, Egypt, Suez, Hungary, Israel. Editor says, in reality the two crises were not directly connected and the time sequences have been adjusted to suite the story line. By Ed, Jackie Speel and Scott Palter.
~ Things really could be different in the Middle East, but the basic problems seem as though they would persist throughout, anyway.
~ I wonder how this would play internationally?
~ Well, one thing is sure. Israel would have gotten a lot more sympathy in 1956...because the left loved Israel then. You can see that in the movie Exodus, made in 1960, with the script written by Dalton Trumbo, who was a Communist. Any real Marxist must have said that the socialist Israelis are SUPPOSED to defeat the feudal Arabs: That's how it WORKS. But then, alas, the Six Day War happened in 1967, the Soviet Union backed the Arabs, so the rest of the left had to follow suit...and now it does not seem to notice that the Soviet Union no longer exists. So now the right tends to support Israel instead, led by the Evangelicals, who support Israel more strongly than the Jews do. I don't get it either.
~ Jackie -- I have written on this extensively. The left indeed supported Israel until it received orders from Moscow to support the Arabs, but this was in 1955 or so, not 1967. For several years, many found it difficult to go along, but after 1967, they fell into lockstep, even supporting mass genocide. The USSR is gone, but the totalitarian left is still running on autopilot. Check out some of the Communist front groups that remain, such as the institute for Policy Studies -- still shameless anti-Israel bigots, rumor-mongers, and witch-hunters.
~ By the way, Eisenhower won the election. It would never have mattered when the israelis attacked, given the insanity of John Foster Dulles.
~ Stan, one real watershed came in 1978, when Vanessa Redgrave made "Zionist" a dirty word while accepting the Academy Award, after it had been an honored term on the left. Another sign of the times came soon afterwards when she was given every part for a woman over 40...while Anita Bryant, who had denounced gay rights, was left blacklisted and bankrupt. Please note that I do not share Anita's anti-gay views, but I do see the double standard. More recently, I have also seen three or four movies and miniseries about Bobby Kennedy, including "Bobby" "The Kennedys" and "Ethel"...and not one saw fit to mention that Bobby was killed by a Palestinian terrorist. So much for that other canard, that the Jews rule Hollywood. If you say that the LEFT rules Hollywood, that may be closer to the mark.
~ Non-intererence from the SU would've been the only way it didn't spark WWIII in the middle east. What a war that would've been.
~ Jackie -- My father was at the Ambassador Hotel, perhaps 50 feet away, when Sirhan Sirhan made his idiotic move. But he remained a liberal. He went crazy for the late George McGovern -- both were active in the slimey Henry Wallace campaign of 1948. That's never talked about in George's obits, neither are the criminal tricks he used to steal the 1972 nomination.
~ Well, Stan, it made perfect sense to Sirhan. As he later explained, the night befoe he had heard a televised debate where Bobby had sworn to stand with Israel. His Democratic oppoenents said the same thing, but Sirhan knew that Bobby was the most likely to get elected and thus the biggest threat.
Editor says, what if style mattered over substance? muses Jackie Rose. 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 October 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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It is 2012, and although he lost the Presidential election, Mitt Romney did go on to be chosen as the winner of the Mr. America male beauty contest.
Mitt loses election but wins Mr. America crown"His good looks, charm, charisma, high spirits and great big smile made him the obvious winner," the pageant chairwoman said. "Those qualities all showed up in the debate, and they would have made him president...if it had not been for Obama's startling confession".
She was referring to Obama's actions after that first debate. He had gone through the country on a pilgrimage of penitence equalled only by King Henry II letting the monks flog him for killing Thomas a Becket. His low point came when he said that he was honored to be speaking in an arena where Stevie Wonder and Jon Bon Jovi had provided great performances...even though he himself had given such a bad one. He finally won the election by a narrow victory, after confessing that he had not been up to par during the debate because he had been up all night dealing with an international crisis...namely, the Battle of Armageddon, which was averted when Jesus finally agreed to give everyone another chance, because, as he put it, "Mr. Obama is such a good family man , as the Republicans like to say".. But, as the new Mr. America put it, he expected to be elected next time, when Obama was no longer eligible...and when he himself would have an even better hair style.
Entry posted by
Jackie Rose
© Jackie Rose, 2011-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Mitt Romney, Barack Obama, Presidency, Mr America, Election. ~ The whole thing reminded me of Churchill's famous quote..."Democracy is the worst possible form government...except for all the others."
~ lol
~ LOL.
~ George Clooney.
~ *Snerk*
Editor says, what if Arthur Prince of Wales had married the other fertile Sister Queen and lived? 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 1479, on this day future Queen Joanna of England was born in Toledo, Spain. She was the third child and second daughter of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon of the royal House of Trastámara.
Happy Endings Part 10
Many blessings of Joanna and ArthurBy the time she was of age to be married, the dynastic wars in England were over. To move the country forward in the face of renewed threats from France, King Henry VII decided to build upon the Tudor and Yorkish alliance. His primary aim was to prevent the French from supporting potential pretenders (most notably Perkin Warbeck) to the throne. And so he sought the support of Queen Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon ("Ferdinand the Catholic"). When his son Arthur was two years old, a marriage with their second youngest daughter, Catherine of Aragon was arranged for him as part of the Treaty of Medina del Campo.
Yet Isabella and Ferdinand were in no hurry to have their daughter married, and, although the treaty had been made, they were open to other options. Ferdinand was especially aware that Tudor rule was threatened and sent Pedro de Ayala as ambassador in Scotland, where Warbeck had found support. After Warbeck had been hanged and the Earl of Warwick, another potential threat, beheaded in 1499, the rule of Henry VII stabilised. The marriage to Prince Arthur could then proceed although these carefully laid plans were almost destroyed when the Prince of Wales almost perished from consumption. Fortunately, Joanna saved his life, and while their marriage was blessed with children, her younger sister Katherine was not so fortunate. She suffered from infertility and a tortured marriage. Her megalomaniac husband Philip the Handsome would dominate everyone on the continent reducing the power of Catholic England to a mere vassal state within a truly global Spanish Empire.
An article from the Happy Endings series conceived by Jackie Rose.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Happy Endings Source: Wikipedia Labels: Joanna, Arthur, Henry VIII, England, Spain. Editor says, in reality her sister Katherine married Arthur and after his death, his brother Henry VIII. Joanna's marriage to Philip the Handsome initiated the rule of the Habsburgs in Spain. However, throughout her long reign, she was under the regency of her husband, father, inquisitor, or son and she was long confined to a nunnery for reasons of mental illness that are (according to Wikipedia) disputed.
~ Spanish wars with the Dutch independence would still spark, leading up to an overall Protestant-Catholic war in Germany with Sweden backing the north. The Scots broke with the Papacy in 1560, just after the Thirty Years' War, but I wonder if it could've spilled into Britain as well.
~ I think of her as the 15th Century version of Zelda Fitzgerald, who was also branded with insanity by the men in her life...in Juana's case, her, father, husband and son, all eager to seize her royal power. For me, the tipoff is that, once Juana had been confined in the nunnery, her own loyal servants were replaced by guess whose. The only bright spot is that she apparently lived pretty royally there. This whole issue was the subject of a well-known historical novel called "The Prisoner of Tordesillas." The reason I am thinking about this now is that I recently wrote an AH where Zelda gets her husband, F. Scott Fitzgerald, sent to the asylum before he can do it to her, because I always like a happy ending.
~ I think this should read "By the time she was of age to be married, the dynastic wars in England were over." 1479 was before Bosworth. Thanks - changed. Ed
Editor says, what if Bob Griffin had succeeded Richard Nixon? muses David Tenner. 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 March 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1923, on this day the thirty-eighth President of the United States Robert P. ("Bob") Griffin was born in Detroit, Michigan.
Robert P. Griffin
38th US PresidentDuring the Second World War he enlisted in the 71st Infantry Division and spent fourteen months in Europe. After the war, he graduated from Central Michigan College (now Central Michigan University) at Mount Pleasant in 1947. He received a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1950. He commenced the practice of law in Traverse City.
Griffin was elected as a Republican to U.S. House of Representatives from the Michigan's 9th congressional district in 1956, unseating incumbent Ruth Thompson in the Republican primary. He served in the Eighty-fifth United States Congress and to the four succeeding Congresses, serving from January 3, 1957, until his resignation May 10, 1966. He was appointed by Governor George Romney on May 11, 1966, to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Patrick V. McNamara. He was elected November 8, 1966, to a full six-year term, defeating former Governor "Soapy" Williams.
Only two years later, he was the surprise third choice choice for Richard Nixon's running mate. The original candidates were Maryland governor Spiro T. Agnew and fellow Michiganer George Romney who were both forced to withdraw from the the due race for very different reasons. Griffin played almost no meaningful role in the White House until the Watergate Crisis engulfed the Nixon Administration.
This post is a variant ending to two posts Death of President George Romney and President George W. Romney, Reboot.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Robert Griffin, Bob Griffin, George Romney, Richard Nixon, Presidency. Editor says, in this post we repurpose content from Wikipedia and expore an idea on the Discussion Groups.
~ Griffin is in many ways similar to Ford, both ideologically and in being from Michigan. But perhaps (assuming he beats Reagan in the primaries) he has a slightly better chance of winning the 1976 general election than Ford, since he is unlikely to prematurely liberate Poland...
~ I'm not familiar with Griffin, but these alternate histories sure do illustrate how people most of us have never seriously considered for the presidency could have ended up in the office.
~ Never heard of the guy, but he'd probably be less prone to shooting off his mouth than Agnew.
Please click hyperlink for Google Groups Discussion comments.
Editor says, what if Israel was wiped off the map? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 2011, suddenly, and without any warning from the world's astronomers, four heavenly bodies converge into a shining new Star of Bethlehem which bathes in God's holy light the nuclear-armed Jericho missiles being readied for the cowardly destruction of Iran's atomic research facilities. And the unmistakeable sound of a trumpet is heard across the entire region by the millions who pray for peace in the Middle East.
Mullah-edThe God-fearing Israeli service men are shaken out of the destructive madness of their mission by these SIGNS. They CHOOSE to break themselves out of a senseless cycle of hatred, reprogramming the flight paths to the Old City of Jerusalem. Transformed into "Fishers of men", they replace the doomsday payloads with crates containing thousands of white doves that fill up the Autumn sky with joy and hope.
Sensing deliverance from God's divine intervention, Christians, Jews and Muslims embrace each other in holy dread. United together for the first time, they overthrow the regimes of the haters, the false prophets who plugged their ears while the world screamed in fear. Instead they CHOOSE to painfully set about building a new multi-faith nation of Canaan based upon the principle of brotherhood. And write a new constitution that forever enshrines the love of our common humanity, beginning with the deep truth that "Life is a beautiful poem written by the hand of God".
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Stirling Bridge, William Wallace, Andrew de Moray, Hugh de Cressingham, Scottish Rebellion. ~ REMEMBER DEIR YASSIN
~ What?
~ Astrophysicists and astronomers worldwide would stare agog.
~ Mike - remember the Hadassah convoy massacre
~ So the idea is that the Israeli military sets the missiles on course towards Jerusalem? And then God magically turns the nuclear weapons into white doves? This is beyond ASB territory.
Editor says, what if Nixon's dirty tricks had been exposed a decade earlier? 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 1962, on this day, former Vice President Richard M. Nixon won the gubernatorial race in his home state by the narrowest of margins (less than tenth of a percentage of the electorate) due to the unexpectedly poor voter turnout from Californian Democrats.
A Thousand Days
By Ed, Matt Dattilo, Scott Palter & Stan BrinHis losing opponent was the incumbent Governor, Pat Brown. During the campaign, certain discrediting facts had been leaked about a series of unreported felonies committed by men who were convicted murderers that Brown had seen fit to pardon. Also discredited in the eyes of Californian Democrats was Nixon's opponent in the 1960 Presidential Election. But in this case, the fall in popularity was due to actions committed by the opposite sex.
With the 1964 election on the horizon, the President visited California, but tragically, was assassinated in San Diego on 6th June 1963. Nixon revealed some of his frustration with the events of the previous three years by speaking some sharp words into a "hot mike". Having adressed the media and wrongly believing that the microphone was switched off, he added, "You won't have Jack Kennedy to kick around anymore because, gentlemen, this is his last press conference". continues in Part 2
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Richard Nixon, John F Kennedy, Pat Brown, California, San Diego. ~ A lot of those evil shenanigans were, I am told, pretty much SOP for politicians. Watergate grew so big partly because of Nixon's clumsy attempts at a cover-up, partly because the news media was manned top-to-bottom by people who instinctively disliked him the way Dracula does the True Cross, and partly because most people weren't aware of how things really worked, so reacted with shock and horror.
~ Oh, please. Nixon as victim of the "liberal media" won't fly, not when in the 1972 election a poll of the American Society of Newspaper Editors revealed that *90 percent* of them favored Nixon over McGovern. Granted, JFK was no McGovern--but seriously, isn't it time Nixo admirers faced up to how deeply flawed their man was?
Watergate grew so big because more ad more kept coming out about illegal activity by the President's men--but the media were, in fact, initially reluctant to cover the story. It was Nixon's own actios which convinced the press corp to pursue the matter, and Nixon's own actions, and those he tolerated or encouraged by subordinates, which did him in.
Editor says, what if Howell Cobb had been elected CSA President? muses Jeff Provine on This Day in Alternate History 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 2010 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1861, on this day Howell Cobb was elected President of the Confederate States of America.
Howell Cobb Elected CSA PresidentA misspoken word about the wisdom of secession in a speech by former US Secretary of War Jefferson Davis turned sentiment against him and caused former US Secretary of the Treasury Howell Cobb to be elected to the presidency of the newly formed Confederate States of America. The past years had been full of strife for the nation: economic turmoil, cultural diversion, and, especially, the growing political sentiment among Northern states that slavery was an all-out evil. Fearing suppression by the election of the Republican Abraham Lincoln, the South moved to secede.
Native Georgian Howell Cobb had been a leader throughout his life. After a career as a lawyer, he moved onto politics, serving as Congressman from Georgia from 1843 to 1851, as well as a stint as Speaker of the House from '49 to '51. He moved into the executive branch, serving as governor of Georgia, before returning to Washington as Secretary of the Treasury. Cobb had long been a supporter of the right of slavery, campaigning for its allowance into any territory before becoming a strong adherent to the Compromise of 1850. In 1860, it became obvious that states' rights would lose against federal tyranny, and so Cobb gave up Unionism and campaigned for secession.
A new story by Jeff ProvineDavis, meanwhile, had been a soldier working his way through the ranks until being appointed as senator from Mississippi. A capable administrator, he moved forward as Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce. When the notion of secession arose, Davis fought against it, though he finally gave way when the majority ruled. Cobb, one of the greatest leaders of the movement, had served as president of the provisional Confederacy government, and Davis was given the official head of state soon after. With reiterated words from his warnings about secession, however, public opinion turned against Davis, and Cobb would be inaugurated February 22, 1862.
Cobb reportedly admired Davis's skills and affirmed his loyalty to the South, making him general-in-chief of the Southern armies. While Davis worked to defend the homeland, Cobb rallied his people and relied on his talents in diplomacy. Campaigns of "Let Us Go" circulated throughout the South and into the North (where they were attempted to be contained). Davis and Lee argued to be allowed to march north to scare the Yankees into peace, but Cobb refused, saying it would undermine their position as innocents. Instead, he reinforced defenses particularly in the west, giving way to the bloody victory at Vicksburg in 1863, taking some 50,000 Union troops captive and securing the Mississippi.
Cobb also worked to win international recognition, which he was able to gain from Napoleon III in France, exchanging support for Maximilian I in Mexico. In 1864, Lincoln would lose the election to General George B. McClellan, and the Democrat's peace platform would put into works the Treaty of Washington in 1866 that would end the War of Secession. While provisions would invite the Confederacy to rejoin the Union, or vice-versa, the two became politically disunited. Having successfully ended the war within his six-year term, Cobb retired, endorsing Lee in the election of 1867.
The two Americas would go separate ways with the North focusing on industrial growth while the South hoped for imperialism. Over the latter part of the nineteenth century, slavery would give way to fiscal sense of large-scale machine farming in an industrial economy. When France collapsed in 1870, the CSA pushed southward for new colonial influence, but the resulting wars would prove to dishearten and weaken the South. In the push for New Nationalism in the 1890s, fueled by newspapermen such as Hearst, a revolution rose up to rejoin the USA. In the Organic Act of 1899, the Confederacy (with the exception of the Republic of Texas) voted to return to citizenship under the US Constitution and officially ending slavery.
Entry posted by
Jeff Provine
© Jeff Provine, 2010-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Jeff Provine Blog Source: Jeff Provine’s Blog Labels: Howell Cobb, Jefferson Davis, Confederacy, America, CSA. Editor says, in reality Jefferson Davis won the election. Cobb went on to become a brigadier general in Northern Virginia, working his diplomacy to exchange prisoners. He later served as major general in Georgia and Florida, where he fought a desperate defense against Sherman until surrendering at Macon on April 16, 1865. After the war, Cobb worked until his death in 1868 to oppose Reconstruction.
~ Plausible twist.
~ Davis would have lost the war by 1862 - even as compared to Bragg he did not work well with others and high command in this era required people handling skills beyond those that Davis possessed. Better to make him General-in-chief of the Mississippi State Forces - a corps level command.
~ There's no way in hell any United States government will ever allow anybody else to control one inch of the Mississippi-Missouri-Ohio rivers---we nearly went to war with Spain over that in the early 1800s, before the Louisiana Purchase.
~ And as I understand it that was one sore point after the 1783 Treaty of Paris which ended the Revolution: Britain got to keep bases on the Mississippi, which allowed it to harass U.S. riverine shipping and arm the native tribes.
More than likely, too, if Lincoln had lost in 1864 it wouldn't have taken until 1866 for a peace treaty to be signed.
Editor says, what if Lincoln had been cheated out of office in 1860? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1861, United States Senator Abraham Lincoln met in confidence with the general of the Illinois State Militia at Lincoln's home in Illinois' capitol, Springfield. The military man advised Lincoln that the State of Egypt (Illinois' neighbor to the immediate South) had preemptively mobilized to form a defensive force against possible aggressive action by Illinois' volunteer amateur soldiers.
A slaveowner's republicThe instigation behind the unprecedented action was the presidential election of 1860, which was being settled that day. Lincoln was the vice presidential running mate to Salmon P. Chase, and passed on to Chase news about slave power advocates readying themselves in Egypt for striking the first blow in a war for the creation of a slaveowner's republic.
A new story by Raymond SpeerEgypt was the northernmost of the Slave Border states, and brawls and riots over the legal status of Negroes were commonplace events there. In the previous decade, politics in Cairo had grown steadily more frothy with the approach of the War Over Slavery. And now Lincoln heard that an invasion of Egyptians was being planned. Supposedly, there was to be an invasion of Springfield with an aim to kidnap Abraham Lincoln and bring him into Egypt as a prisoner.
Lincoln several times said that he felt there was no substance to the speculation that he was planned as a target of violence. "I've been in Washington these last two years and know that the secessionists are not going to start bloodshed when they plan to avoid such trouble all together," said Lincoln. Even so, Lincoln consulted with his friends and they mobilized "Wide Awakes," volunteer marchers who planned to mount guard around Lincoln's House and stand discreetly alongside the Lincolns.
Late that evening, as the telegraph showed the Republicans (Chase and Lincoln) defeated the Democrats (Breckingridge and Seymour), there was a gunshot at the Lincoln's and a man who was a stranger to Lincoln was fatally wounded. That man, a military retiree named Grant, was accused of trying to barge into Lincoln's home at roughly ten PM that night, carrying a loaded revolver and smelling of the consumption of liquor. Whether or not ex-Captain Grant had been an emissary from Egypt has never been settled.
Before the time of the Chase and Lincoln inauguration came about in the following March, horse and foot soldiers of both Illinois and Egypt fought in confrontations that grew in size to the actions of battalions. On the advice of Pinkerton's security detectives, President-Elect Chase chose not to go to Washington but to take his oath of office in Philadelphia, PA, (A reluctant Lincoln obeyed his instructions from Chase, and also failed to show in Washington DC.) As an outcome of that security decision, the secessionist executive (Breckingridge, supplemented now by new VP Stephens) took up their offices in Washington DC and awaited a challenge from the legal government.
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Raymond Speer
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Abraham Lincoln, 1860, Slavery, America, Presidency. Comment from Tom Loy on Facebook: If Lincoln was cheated out of the Republican nomination in 1860 then that man would have inherited the Civil war. Sorry! That's what you get for cheating! The U.S would have been cheated out of being a union and divided in a least 2 different countries. We, the citizens would have been cheated out of a great president. Just as we were cheated out of a great president in 1964 when Barry Goldwater lost. Just my opinion.
~ Grant as a confederate / slavery die hard is absurd. He was quite agnostic on the issue.
~ If the cheating was wide-open, there'd have been bloodshed on that issue alone. By 1860 the whole situation was becoming increasingly volatile, and open cheating on the Presidential election would have been like a fireworks display in an oil refinery.
~ Ah . . . "Egypt"? I find that an unlikely name for a U.S. state, no matter what towns and cities might be called.
And if President-elect Chase allowed himself to be intimidated out of taking the oath in Washington, his administration would never recover, and neither would his personal reputation--and the Confederacy would have won an important symbolic victory right at the start.
Nor would Lincoln have had to be "cheated" out of the Republican nomination. His selection came as a surprise (shock, really) to many people, considering his previous obscurity.
Re Scott Palter's remark: in this scenario, it isn't clear that Grant is a "Confederate/slavery diehard." His motivation for attempting to shoot VP-elect Lincoln remains obscure. (To me, anyway.)
~ The alteration in history was the allocation of southern Illinois land into a Slave Border State named Egypt, whose capitol was Cairo (a town pronounced as Kay-row in our timeline). Eric Lipps is correct in assuming that US Grant is more likely to be a misunderstood stranger than a handy man for the Slave Power. The dominant feature of the Slave State feature about southern Illinois is that suspicions run rampant about down staters in residents of Free State Illinois and that brings about random silly violence, which in the alternative history foiled up the federal gov't's right to occupy from the first.
~ A little of a Bloody Kansas, but farther east where it might've sparked something bigger and faster.
Editor says, What if Barack Obama's father had survived his 1982 car crash in Nairobi? We explore an even more stellar career, examining the importance of fatherhood in our development.
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In 1995, on this day Times Books published "Dreams from My Grandmother: A Story of Race and Inheritance" by a little known but upcoming Kenyan Government Minister called Barack Hussein Obama II (pictured). The autobiography describes an unhappy, confused period of his life in the continental United States before the author returned to his father's home in Nyang'oma Kogelo, Siaya District and reconnected with his African identity.
The Barack Obama Story, Part 2 - Dreams from my GrandmotherFollowing an unremarkable record of educational achievement, he entered North America's premier professional men's basketball league where he signed for the Chicago Bulls.
His father had been shocked to discover him suffering a profound identity crisis, addressing himself by the anglicized name Barry.
Despite this sadness, the author described his profound sense of love for his white grandmother, Madelyn Payne Dunham (pictured in 1979).
The strength of his transracial family would ultimately power this African icon to the pinnacles of global leadership. Elected as Kenya's first dual heritage President in 2008, Obama would be uniquely qualified to serve as UN Secretary General, an appointment he received in 2015.
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© Dreams From My Father by Barack ObamaStory Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Obama Source: Wikipedia Labels: Barack Obama, Kenya, America, Chicago Bulls, Presidency. Editor says, The death of Obama's grandmother the day before the election broke our hearts, so we wrote this story to celebrate a grandmother's unquestioning love for her grandson.
~ Fascinating! Hillary 08 in Obama's abscence then?
~ Interesting, and rather timely.... :)
~ As Chris says, very timely. Plus I too want to know, does this mean Hillary in 08?
~ It'd be interesting to see how Obama would have done in Kenyan politics. I think his mixed-race ancestry would tell against him heavily---African politics are often tribal-based to an extent that Americans, particularly American blacks, just don't get.
~ Good concept; I can see him becoming Secretary General in OTL after he finishes his term(s) in office.
~ Ah, so this is Obama Part 2--I had thought the "parts" had to be in chronological sequence on the same timeline.
Interesting. I'd been contemplating a version in which Obama was born in Hawaii, as he actually was--but a Hawaii which received its independence in 1946 just as the Philippines did in our history. In that case, he'd have been ineligible for the U.S. presidency, but might have risen to the heights in Hawaii instead.
Editor says, what if Richard Nixon won the 1962 California Gubernatorial race? muses Robbie Taylor. 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 May 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1962, Richard Nixon won the governor's race in California against Democratic incumbent Edmond Brown.
Kicked to the KerbHe was reelected in 1966, and used the office for another unsuccessful run at the presidency in 1968. After the loss in '68, he remarked to reporters, "you won't have Nixon to kick around anymore".
He left public life after this and devoted himself to memoirs of his life as Vice-President and Governor.
Entry posted by Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Richard Nixon, California, Governor, Presidency, Vice President. Michael McNeil commented on Facebook: Why, he might have been elected President in 1968!
~ He might have been a good governor...but as unpopular as he was on the left side of the aisle, he'd have been a very polarizing figure during the upheavals of the 1960s. When did the FSM movement start?
~ The so-called "Free Speech Movement" (which was never about free speech) started in 1964. The reason those miserable bastards (radicals burned my dorm, with me in it, in 1967) were able to cause so much trouble in California was Reagan's habit of running against his own record. I personally believe that a competent governor would have clamped down on their habit of embezzling their way to power while I was a freshman. (Reagan, on the other hand, belonged in prison as an accessory.
~ Regarding Nixon against Pat Brown, I honestly don't think he stood a chance. He was too hated, for good reason. But as effective as he was as an administrator, Brown was much too weak on campus thugs, and opened the door to Reagan's effective attack ads.
~ If Nixon had served as a "tough on radicals" California governor, he might have been able to win in '68 just as he did in our history, and perhaps by more than the narrow margin we saw. One of the weaknesses of his 1968 campaign was his loss in 1962, and the ill grace with which he took it.
As for Reagan belonging in prison as an accessory, he belonged there anyway for his connections with the Mob during his Screen Actors Guld days--but Hollywood was so mobbed up in the fifties and sixties that pulling on that string might have brought the whole movie industry down.
~ Interesting idea on a '60s Hollywood mob-hunt. It would be way messier than the Red Scare blacklisting days.
~ I attended AFI -- no one there ever mentioned the "mob" in Hollywood. The LA mob was a petty affair mostly involving gambling. Regarding "tough on radicals" -- enforcement the state non-profit corporations code would have easily landed most radicals I knew in prison. They were astonishingly greedy.
| Winnipeg Blue | In 1971, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers were eliminated in the first round of the CFL playoffs for the fourth straight year as they lost 23-20 in overtime to the Medicine Hat Red Dragons, who were making only their third CFL Western Division postseason appearance in franchise history. |
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Grey Cup Overtime Source: Wikipedia Labels: Blue Bombers, Canada, America, Sports, Football.On this day in 1941, Japanese resistance in Nemuro collapsed. | |
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Chris Oakley
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Barbarossa41 Source: Wikipedia Labels: World War 2, Operation Barbarossa, Fascism, Europe of the Dictators, Axis Powers.In 1977, Gov. James Earl Carter of Georgia was elected President of the Confederate States of America on the Democratic ticket, defeating the Confederate Party candidate, Texas Sen. Lloyd Bentsen. | CSA President |
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| Jimmy Carter |
Jefferson Davis, for example, was elected in November 1861 after serving as 'provisional president' of the CSA. By tradition, the Confederate presidential election is held on Nov. 6, as the original had been, unless that date falls on a Sunday, in which case the vote occurs on the following Monday. |
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Jimmy Carter, Confederacy, Richmond, CSA, Presidency.| Wildfire | On this day in 1982, Tommy Rich, now dubbing himself 'Psycho', appeared at his first WWF live card; he defeated Antiguan grappler S.D. 'Special Delivery' Jones on the undercard of a matinee at the Igloo in Pittsburgh. |
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| Tommy Rich |
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Chris Oakley
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: The Tommy Rich Story Source: Wikipedia Labels: Tommy Rich, Wildfire, Wrestling, NWA, Boxing.In 1804, Congress meets to elect the President. The two main candidates are Vice-President Thomas Jefferson, who has been serving as acting President since Hamilton?s demise in July, and James Madison. Jefferson prevails, and Madison becomes vice-president. Jefferson will serve for more than twenty years, until his death on July 4, 1826. | |
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| US Congress |
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Lifeterm Source: Wikipedia Labels: US Congress, America, Constitution , Bill of Rights, US.In 1984, Senator Gary Hart is elected President, defeating Republican opponent Senator Robert Dole of Kansas. | |
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| Gary Hart |
Entry posted by
Eric Lipps
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Gary Hart, Jesse Jackson, John Glenn, America, Presidency.In 1979, after initial efforts to persuade the Khomeini regime to order the release of the captive personnel of America's Tehran embassy fail, President Rockefeller confers with the National Security Council regarding his next options. Defense Secretary Haig recommends a tough stance, beginning with the immediate freezing of all Iranian government assets within the United States and a warning to Tehran that unless the hostages are quickly released, the U.S. will take military action. | |
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The President is reluctant to use force, fearing that such a move will result in the killing of the hostages, but agrees to order a freeze on Iran's US holdings. CIA Director George H. W. Bush suggests that a covert operation to 'extract' the hostages may be possible. The President directs him to draw up an action plan for consideration as soon as possible. |
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Ford Killed Source: Wikipedia Labels: Hostage Crisis, Iran, Tehran, Khomeini, Iranian Revolution.In 1962, the Democrats recapture control of the Senate after ten years in the minority. However, many of the new Democratic senators are hard-line Southern and Midwestern conservatives hostile to the Kennedy administration and the Supreme Court's civil rights rulings. They will quickly ally themselves with holdover conservatives of both parties. Republicans keep control of the House of Representatives. It will be a fateful development. Despite the departure of Joseph McCarthy, the new Congress will be dominated by people holding bitter grudges against both President Kennedy and Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, and will lose no time in acting upon their hostility. | |
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Beasts Source: Wikipedia Labels: Anti-integration, Civil, America, African Americans, Presidency.In 1812, Tsar Alexander I of Russia concludes a peace treaty with Napoleon. | |
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The British will regard these developments with fear and anger. Russia's 'betrayal,' as it will be called in London, inspires some reckless souls to call for a new war with that country. Common sense prevails, however, as it is pointed out that fighting Russia would require British armies to pass through territory now controlled by Napoleon's France. |
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Napoleon, America, Britain, British Empire, France.Entry posted by Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Beasts Source: Wikipedia Labels: Andre Dallaire, Jean Chretien, Assassination, First Nations, 24 Sussex Drive residence.Variant entry posted by Todayinah Editor
original content has been repurposed to celebrate the author's genius © Susan Shwartz, 1990.
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Editor says, what if Darius had been captured at the Battle of Issus? 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 December 2011 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 333 BC, on this day the last King of Achaemenid Persia, Darius III was captured by soldiers of the invading Macedonian forces near the mouth of the Pinarus River in southern Anatolia.
Battle of IssusAfter Alexander's forces had successfully forced a crossing of the Hellespont, Persian satraps led by a Greek mercenary, Memnon of Rhodes had been defeated in a prior encounter at the Battle of the Granicus. And so in this second great battle for primacy in Asia, Darius chose to take personal charge of his army, gathering a large army from the depths of the empire. He maneuvered to cut the Macedonian line of supply, requiring Alexander to countermarch his forces, setting the stage for the battle near the mouth of the Pinarus River and south of the village of Issus.
The prospects for Persian victory seemed reasonable. Initially, Alexander chose what was apparently unfavorable ground to attack across which was in fact a feint meant to pin and hold the Persian forces. But this tactic surprised Darius who mistakenly elected to hold position while Alexander then led the true attack personally on the right while instructing the Macedonian phalanx trained infantry, his main body, to make contact and just hold the main Persian army in check; thus in essence he advanced to take up a defensive posture. Meanwhile Alexander personally led the elite Macedonian Companion cavalry against the Persian left up against the hills, and cut up the enemy on the less encumbering terrain generating a quick rout. After achieving a breakthrough, Alexander demonstrated he could achieve the difficult task of holding the cavalry successfully in check after it broke the Persian right. Alexander regrouped, then turned the body into the right flank of the Persian center, butchering Darius' body guard and under generals, provoking a panic and flight
Sensing defeat, Darius hesistated to flee the battlefield due to his reluctance to abandon many family members and a huge amount of treasure. And his departure was impeded by a general rout of fleeing Persian troops that led to a short chariot chase ending in his capture shortly before dark.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Issus, Darius, Alexander the Great, Persia, Macedonia. Editor says, in this article we have repurposed significant amounts of content from Wikipedia.
~ The war against Persia might be shorter...or it might go on and on, since IIRC there were more Achaemenid princes out there, some of whom may have had more force of character than Darius.
~ Typo: should be "rospects", not "prospecs". Fixed - thanks. Ed
~ Court chaos might've ended the war faster, but it might've also limited the expanse that Alexander could have conquered so quickly. He could have been out in India for years before turning back toward Babylon.
Editor says, what if Robert Taft had run against Harry Truman in 1952? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1952, on this day Senator Robert Alphonso Taft of Cincinnati was declared the winner of the U.S. presidential election.
President TaftHe had campaigned on an isolationist platform, correctly calculating the shift in national sentiment that had been brought about by the Korean War.
America was no longer a nation in uniform. And so his Democratic opponent General Dwight Eisenhower was seen as a man likely to keep America entangled in world affairs, an anachronistic throwback to his glory days of Second World War.
But more worrying still was his choice of running mate, the fervent anti-communist Richard Milhous Nixon. The possibility that Ike might threaten to bring nuclear weapons into the conflict was a real concern. A much larger concern was that prospect that the inexperienced Nixon might do so should Ike's faltering health collapse unexpectedly. Ironically, within eighteen months Taft himself was dead and Joseph McCarthy entered the White House.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Alternate Nations Source: Wikipedia Labels: Harry Truman, 1952, Presidency, Robert Taft, General Election. Editor says, in this post we explore a variant prequel of three semi-convergent articles "President Taft Dies" and "Truman triumphs in '52" by Robbie Taylor and Eric Lipps, respectively. We also weave in our recent article of "Nixon the Democrat".
~ Eisenhower promised to "go to Korea and end the war there" during the 1952 Presidential campaign. The war had been stalled since the Chinese came into the conflict at the end of 1950; in addition, the war had never been 'popular' with the American public and by 1952 it was seen as a grass fire half a world away by those who did not participate in it. Eisenhower's approach to ending the war was very conciliatory during the campaign---it was not until after he was in office that he began to push the Chinese on the issues of POW exchange, borders, etc.
Much has been made of Ike's supposed threat to use nuclear weapons in Korea. This was never official policy of any kind, but rather a whisper campaign intentionally started in the hope that it would end up in Chinese ears, which it did. There is NO way an American president would have used a nuclear weapon, even a tactical one, in Korea. The baggage was just too heavy, even in the 1950's.
~ President Eisenhower threat to use nuclear weapons may not have been "official policy," but had the peace negotiations remained stalled after Eisenhower passed on the threat through diplomatic channels (by way of India, as I've read), Ike might have felt forced to go through with it or risk looking weak in the eyes of the Communists, baggage or no baggage.
~ Eisenhower had a lot of veterans' votes in the bag, and voters were sick of the Democrats.
~ McCarthy would turn into a dictatorship, if we let him. Could've seen a revolution in the '60s.
~ Americans have proven ourselves more than willing to go beyond the ordinary rules of war, Matthew - we're still the only country to drop the bomb on another in war.
That said, Taft's isolationism and McCarthy's interventionism would probably have eaten each other, resulting in an ineffectual, one-term presidency
Editor says, what if America voted for a bridge to the past in 1996? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1996, on this day President Robert Joseph ("Bob") Dole was elected with his running mate Jack Kemp, ending Bill Clinton's bid to become the first Democrat since FDR to gain re-election to the White House.
Bob Dole
43rd President of the United States
January 3, 1997 - January 3, 2001When 1996 began it seemed incumbent president Bill Clinton would have a better - than-even shot in the upcoming presidential election. An economic boom in the USA was largely attributed to Clinton by the public, that combined with his folksy and down to Earth appeal had given him higher than expected approval ratings. The Republican Primaries saw three strong contenders for the Presidential Nomination: Senator Bob Dole, Pat Buchanan and the respected writer Steve Forbes.
Also expected to contend was Texas billionaire and former presidential candidate, Ross Perot.
A new article from Althistory WikiaThough Buchanan would make strong showings, they were ultimately trounced by Dale who went on to become the nominee. Dole then used the expected fiscal conservative stance when compared to Clinton's economic platform.
In June, Clinton was caught off guard when Ross Perot decided he would drop out of the race. Perot quickly made a speech in which he professed having little hope in achieving a win come November. This exit of a conservative leaning vote splitter came to Doles advantage giving him a boost in the polls. Clinton tried to dilute this effect by running a string of adds on national television attacking Dole's ability to lead. Many elderly voters were offended by the adds believing them to be an attack on Dole's age.
Clinton's attack-add gaffe and Perot's exit aided Doles campaign and concerns combined with the positive reaction of Dole choosing choosing Kemp caused Clinton's original 8 point lead to evaporate.
The Republican National Convention took place from August 12 to 15. It was seen as a great success for the party. Kemp gave an energetic speech where he promised to bring a new wave of conservatism to Washington.
Dole gave a lighter, but well received speech where he promised to fight for the middle class through tax cuts, and proposed less intervention in a more secure world with a more humble policy.
Near the end of August the Democratic National Convention was held. It was highlighted symbols of economic growth and peace for America's future. Clinton and his running mate Al Gore, saw their led bump back up to 5 points.
The Presidential Debates followed, Dole won the first narrowly. Clinton was attacked routinely during the debates and was forced to go on the defensive and downplay questions about attacks on Dole. The second debate was a clear win for the president, while the third went again narrowly towards Dole.
For the first time in the campaign the Dole-Kemp ticket took a lead.
The Vice-Presidential debate was much closure with both sides declaring victory. Kemp stated that Dole was a true leader with a record and a clear economic plan while Gore was associated with "The failed health care debacle". Gore counterattacked staunchly.
As Election Day came closure the Clinton campaign released "ads" which were designed to show off the Clinton/Gore adminstration had done for U.S abroad through great foreign policy achievements. The also released an ad showing the disagreements Dole had with Kemp.
The Dole team quickly struck back attacking president Clinton on a wide range of topics.
The polls became even as the election neared. Ultimately Dole/Kemp, with a coalition of red states edged Clinton winning with 279 electoral votes.
America prepared for the dawn of a new administration. This period was called the "Dawn of the Dole".
Economic Policy
As part of his "growth plan" Bob Dole instituted the largest tax cuts in American history. This yielded the expected results. The economic growth seen under the Clinton administration more than doubled, and unemployment decreased to less than 4 percent. The budget deficit closed.
Foreign Policy
In 1999 after talks fail to resolve the crisis in Kosovo and end the genocide President Dole supports NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in spite of some opposition from Democrats and even a few conservatives.
2000 Election
The Democratic Party nominated Bill Bradley with Bob Kerry for his running mate. Dole decided for health resons not to run for re-election. First Lady Elizabeth Dole briefly considerd running but soon drooped the idea. The Republicans nominated Vice President Kemp with Florida Governor Jeb Bush as his running-mate. Since the economy had soured under Dole, Kemp won the election with 52 percent of the popular vote and 300 electoral votes.
Kemp's First Term
President Kemp increased the tax cuts of the Dole administration. He also pushes a program through Congress to create a Flat Tax of 15 percent.
2001 Terrorist Attempt
In August of 2001 President Kemp receives a document titled "Osama bin Laden Determined to Strike in the United States". He immediately orders an investigation, and heightened security at airports and prominent buildings. At the beginning of September 10 people are arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit terrorism. A plot is revealed that would've targeted the World Trade Centers, the Pentagon, and the White House. President Kemp asks Congress for authorization to go to invade Afghanistan.
Afghan War
In October the first American forces arrive. Within a few months the Taliban had been defeated. While there is an insurgency in Afghanistan President Kemp concentrates American forces there and Afghanistan has a stable, democratic government by 2004.
2004 Election
The Republican Party renominated Kemp. The Democrats in an attempt to appeal to the moderates, nominated Senator Evan Bayh. However, Kemp won by a landslide due to a mostly positive experience over the last 4 years.
2006 Mid-Term Elections
Republicans gain seats in both houses brining their total to 61 Senate seats and 259 House seats.
2008 Election
The Republican's nominate Vice President Jeb Bush with Arizona Senator John McCain as his running-mate. The Democrats are in disarray and nominate New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson with Massachusetts Senator John Kerry as his VP. That November, Richardson does better than expected but is unable to overcome Bush's commanding lead. The Democrats make gains in the congressional elections but the Republicans retain both houses.
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Althistory Wikia Labels: Bob Dole, Bill Clinton, Presidency, Nineties, Election. ~ Not bad. One thing that might have really hurt Clinton would have been a "bimbo eruption"---like, say, in particular, Juanita Broadderick going public and daring Bubba to sue her. The public can tolerate a lot of things, but a rapist President---no.
~ Clinton won this election FAR more than Dole losing it. Once beyond the rightwing echo chamber public was generally satisfied with the 1995-96 triangulating Clinton. Public [or the 20 percentage in the middle] was comfortable enough with a Clinton hobbled by a GOP Congress and the reverse. All Dole did at the margin was run up Clinton's score because beyond it being 'his turn' he never offered a compelling case for why the public should choose a grumpy old man who was clearly bored with the chore of campaigning.
~ What would REALLY have hurt Clinton would have been for him to cave during the 1995 budget confrontation. That would have destroyed his chances of re-election.
As for the rest, I envision the author's alt-obit for Dole: "And then, on the third day, he arose, and ascended unto heaven. . . ." Dole was a decent man, but I doubt things would have gone as swimmingly as envisioned.
~ Stable, democratic government in Afghanistan through simple troop concentration? It'd be a generation-long process at least.
Editor says, what if Guido Fawkes had ignited a gunpowder demonstration? muses Jeff Provine on This Day in Alternate History 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 2010 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1605, on this day Guido Fawkes ignited a Gunpowder Demonstration in London, England.
Fawkes Ignites Gunpowder Demonstration With the end of Elizabeth's reign as the Virgin Queen without an heir, James VI of Scotland was given the throne of England. Along with the change of ruler, the policies of the nation would change, specifically Elizabeth's noted religious toleration. James I, as he would be known in England, was staunchly Protestant and planned to establish renewed restrictions on Catholics. Sir Robert Catesby, a prominent recusant Catholic who had taken part in the botched Essex Rebellion of 1601, decided on violent revolt once more to overthrow James.
A new story by Jeff ProvineAmong Catesby's cohorts was a soldier named Guy Fawkes who had served nearly a decade fighting in Europe. "Guido," as was the Italian version of his name that he sometimes took, was a staunch Catholic after converting to follow his step-father. He fought in the Eighty Years' War as a mercenary for Spain against the Dutch and French. In 1603, after several honors for bravery and fighting skill, Fawkes was recommended as a captain. With his new rank, he headed to Spain to call for support from Philip III for a Catholic rebellion in England to overthrow the new Scot king. Philip refused, and Fawkes went to England unsupported for his own revolution.
In England, Fawkes fell in with Catesby's crew. As early as May of 1604, they planned to blow up Parliament with gunpowder, cutting the head from the snake and allowing the Catholic leaders of the nation, such as Catesby, to assume command. Fawkes, being the most knowledgeable in the ways of war, was to man the explosives. The conspirators made an attempt at digging a tunnel, but serendipity ended the action when they learned an undercroft beneath the House of Lords was being cleared out. Securing the lease, the men stored the gunpowder and waited for the opening of Parliament, delayed by plague until November 5.
During July, Fawkes chanced to meet an old school friend that had now become a Jesuit priest, Oswald Tesimond. The priest noted that Fawkes had maintained his cheerful manner, but that he now seemed too eager to turn to quarrels and strife. The wars in Europe had changed him, though not his loyalties. Fawkes took Tesimond into his confidence and confessed his plot to kill so many. Normally Tesimond would have followed typical recognition of man's will, but he became agitated and disgusted with Fawkes' new being. He asked Fawkes what good such wars had done in the Netherlands, where the soldier had seen so much innocent blood shed without abolition of the revolt. The brutal days of trading between Henry VIII's Anglican church and Mary's Catholicism were still fresh. Tesimond asked him to imagine Fawkes' native Yorkshire under the same brutality that had reigned on the Continent.
The image frightened Fawkes, and the confession changed him. Tesimond pronounced forgiveness even to the point he would not mention the affair to his superior, Father Henry Garnet, until that autumn. When Fawkes returned to Catesby, he began to demand a new strategy for the conspiracy. Instead of killing, he said that the power of the Catholics simply needed to be recognized. After accusations of cowardice and resulting fist-thrown duels to prove he was not, Fawkes took charge with a new scheme.
On November 5, 1605, a barge in the Thames erupted with a massive explosion of gunpowder. Following the blast, fireworks sprung out of the smoke into the sky over London. Parliament was interrupted while going through its ceremony of opening by James, and attention turned toward a solemn, peaceful, though armed, parade of Catholics approached led by Tesimond and Garnet. They waited outside of Parliament until invited to speak, and Catesby read a speech from a written letter signed, "Catholics of Englande".
Impressed by the bravado of the demonstration as well as the obvious power the demonstrators held, James recognized the significance of Catholics to his new kingdom. He would broker a political balance, focusing on unifying forces rather than rooting out potential dissidents. In his 1611 translation of the Bible to clarify troubling translations by Puritans, James would include several Catholic priests.
Since the enforced religious harmony of the early 1600s, uprisings would be primarily political, as in the Roundhead Revolution to establish a constitution for both monarch and Parliament to follow, penned in part by reformist Sir Oliver Cromwell.
Entry posted by
Jeff Provine
© Jeff Provine, 2010-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Jeff Provine Blog Source: Jeff Provine’s Blog Labels: Guy Fawkes, Gunpowder, Catholic, England, London. Editor says, in reality Fawkes was a champion for the military overthrow of the Protestant King James. The Gunpowder Treason Plot would be discovered on October 26 in an anonymous letter and a search conducted. In the wee hours of November 5, just before Parliament was to be opened, Guy Fawkes would be discovered with 36 barrels of gunpowder, more than enough explosives to destroy the whole area. Fawkes was caught and interrogated through torture, and he endured much before breaking. The rest of the plotters, including the arguably inactive members of Fathers Garnet and Tesimond, were captured, tried, and executed for treason. In the wake of relief and renewed loyalty for the King and Parliament, harsh new restrictions were placed upon English Catholics.
~ This could have backfired (ha ha) nearly as badly as the actual Plot did. The extreme Protestants would see it as a threat (which it was) and would scream for the Catholics to be put down, HARD.
~ And the result might have been scheming to overthrow James as a "traitor to the faith" and replace him with someone who would treat the Catholics (and everyone else the extremists disliked) "properly."
Editor says, what if Frederick's trap had failed at Rossbach? 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 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1757, the allied armies of France and the Holy Roman Empire defeated the Prussians at the Battle of ßossbach, in the Electorate of Saxony.
Prussians crash to defeat at Battle of RossbachThe victory was largely due to the vigilance of Charles, Prince de Soubise who had correctly anticipated the springing of a deadly trap by his dastardly Prussian counterpart, King Frederick II. Because the Prussian army broke camp and moved leaving a handful of light troops (pictured) to oppose the French advanced post, the flank guard on the Schartau hill. Half an hour after the King gave the order, they attacked but found the enemy prepared for a robust response.
General von Seydlitz and Prince Henry of Prussia were both killed in the intense fighting. And despite their valiant the Prussian force of three thousand five hundred horsemen was simply too small to defeat an entire Army of two combined European powers - once the element of surprise was neutralized.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Rossbach, Frederick the Great, Prussia, Charles, prince de Soubise, Prince Joseph of Saxe-Hildburghausen. Editor says, in authoring this post we have repurpose content from Wikipedia which reports ~ this battle is considered one of his [Frederick the Great's] greatest masterpieces due to his exploitation of rapid movement to achieve the element of complete surprise and destroying an enemy army with negligible casualties..
~ Gets a name-change: Frederick the Pretty Good.
Editor says, what if Gene Debs had made it to the White House and lived for another decade? muses Robbie Taylor. 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 December 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1855, on this day the twenty-ninth President of the United States Eugene Victor ("Gene") Debs was born in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Birth of President Gene DebsIn the early part of his political career, Debs was a member of the Democratic Party. He was elected as a Democrat to the Indiana General Assembly in 1884. After working with several smaller unions, including the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, Debs was instrumental in the founding of the American Railway Union (ARU), the nation's first industrial union. When the ARU struck the Pullman Palace Car Company over pay cuts, President Grover Cleveland used the United States Army to break the strike. As a leader of the ARU, Debs was later imprisoned for failing to obey an injunction against the strike.
Debs was noted for his oratory, and a speech denouncing American participation in World War I led to his second arrest in 1918. But the working class had been radicalized by increased militarization and unionization, and when the government turned troops on strikers they had unwittingly opened the door for his Socialist Party of America.
In 1920, he ran a successful presidential run on the campaign slogan of "In Labor We Trust". Re-elected in 1924, he was actually selected for a third term as U.S. president at the Communist Party National Convention, but lost in the general election against Socialist candidate Clarence Darrow. Debs, ever the activist, moved to Russia and begins organizing labor there in unions, called soviets. The soviet was such a hit that many American unions and organizations begin using the name to describe themselves; indeed, even some states renamed themselves soviets to show their solidarity with the working man. This move might never have happened if Debs had won the 1928 election.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Eugene Debs, Soviet America, Thirties, Presidency, America. Editor says, in this post we explore an original idea by Robbie Taylor and repurpose content from Wikipedia.
Editor says, what if Charles Lindbergh ran as a Republican Candidate? 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 1940, Americans went to the polls bitterly divided. Roosevelt had the support of liberals and many moderates, but Lindbergh was far more popular with conservatives, especially in the South, where he had made a point of campaigning on assurances that he would not meddle with white supremacy or listen to "advisers whose background is alien to our Christian American traditions", a thinly veiled reference to Jews.
Lucky Lindy, Part TwoLindbergh also had the backing of powerful industrialists, among them the aging Henry Ford, who had been feted in Germany shortly after the candidate, and Thomas B. Watson of International Business Machines, whose company had established a booming business providing the third Reich's bureaucracy with tabulating machines. Lindbergh's slogan, "Real Jobs for a Strong America", was both a slam at the make-wok character of many of the jobs provided by such New Deal agencies as the Civilian Conservation Corps and an advertisement for his "America Invincible" program, a massive military buildup aimed at making the U.S. too strong militarily for any foreign power to dare attack, and this free to remain isolated from the growing storm abroad.
That this program was likely to cost as least as much as the New Deal and result in even greater expansion of governmental power counted less with many on the right than getting "That Man," as they called FDR, out of the Oval Office. Lindbergh also shrewdly appealed to those, mainly but not exclusively on the right, who were troubled by Roosevelt's decision to break the two-term tradition George Washington had begun, stoking fear and anger by asking repeatedly whether FDR ever intended to leave office at all. FDR's refusal to take the bait by promising that this would be his last race only seemed to make the aviator-hero's point for him.
It would be six A.M. the following morning before the results were in: Lindbergh had eked out a narrow victory, and would become the thirty-third President of the United States of America. In the euphoria of the moment, "Lucky Lindy" had no idea that his cherished dream of an invulnerable America standing aloof from the world was already under siege, on an island named Peenemunde and in the work of German physicists exploring the frightening implications of a discovery made in late December of 1938.
Continued from Part One.
Entry posted by
Eric Lipps
© Eric Lipps,2007-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Pres Lindy Source: Wikipedia Labels: Lindbergh, Roosvelt, America, War World II, Germany. ~ Republicans tend to lose when they run canidates who are little better than watered down versions o f their democrat opponants. If LIndbbergh were to run a solid campain and show his strong differences then he would win. Many were becoming disalusioned with Roosevelt and his New Deal that Roosevelt was sackaing many of his own starry eyed socialist supporters and replacing them with Conservatives and Republicans to preserve what he had. Indeed such was society's racial attitudes that Roosevelt refused to support efforts in Congress to put a stop to lynching and other racially isnpred acts of domestic terrorism. Then we must ask what will Congress look like?
~ FDR's administration was never as socialist as its opponents pretended. He specifically excluded agriculture from his minimum wage regulations, for example, to keep Southern senators on board: at that time, most African-Americans worked in agricultural occupations, and Southerners lkke the (then young) Strom Thurmond were dead set against having to pay them a penny more than could be gotten away with. The same logic lay behind his refusal to back anti-lynching measures. By his second term, however, he was indeed tacking rightward--to the displeasure of many liberals, but not to the satisfaction of conservatives, who saw him as a mortal enemy no matter what no matter whom he hired or fired.
One doesn't need to imagine a Congress any more conservative than actually existed. In 1936 a coalition of Soithern conservative Democrats and Republicans won control of the legislative branch; they did everything possible for several years to frustrate everything FDR tried to do--including preparation for war. Only when "the little yellow monkey men of Nippon" bombed Pear Harbor, allowing them to recast fighting the Axis as a race war to put "the Japs" in their place did they relent.
~ republican party does not drop support for anti-lynching laws and does not crack the solid south. The crack came later and was based not on white supremacy but at ending social engineering beyond legal equality. See what nixon did and and did not offer - hint the Southern strategy was not Wallaceite.
~ The Democrats, and the people who considered FDR a god-on-earth, would be as dead-set against Lindy as a lot of Lindy's supporters ever were against FDR. They'd be against Lindy if he cured cancer, healed the sick, raised the dead, and walked barefoot on the Potomac, just for having had the temerity to bring down their god-king.
Comment from Ben Camo on Facebook: His father needed to run as Republican in 1908 or 1912, he would have refused to sign the Federal Reserve Act and thus, saved the United States of America.
Comment from Seth Fornerette on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/We-support-Arizona-and-their-fight-against-illegal-immigration/121592941204721
Comment from Terri DeWerff on Facebook: Charles Lindbergh was privately a very troubled man. The history books refuse to discuss this or much about his pro-Hitler, pro-Nazi sympathies during WWII. In any event he was no hero in my book and flying an airplane does not make anyone a good presidential candidate. I'm just saying...
Comment from Chris Schultz on Facebook: His views on race were probably not too dissimilar for many in his time (look up Woodrow Wilson). He was the most visible "isolationist" but he was only articulating what Americans had traditionally believed and what many believed even then. Quite frankly, Russia and Japan were the only major threats that would even be able to gain a foothold in ... See MoreAlaska or Hawaii. We are protected by two large oceans from foreign invasion that would at least deter the Nazis. There is no way an alliance between Hitler and the yellow-skinned Japanese could have lasted long. We profited the most out of WWII because we sacrificed the least, yet we still sent thousands of our soldiers to die on a foreign beach to "liberate" a continent that later threatened nuclear Armageddon. If we would have listened to Lindbergh then, we might not be stuck policing the world now.
Comment from Margo Barotta on Facebook: in 1940,it was the begining of WWII if LINDBERGH lead his campain and we suppose he win what will be his reaction for what's happing in europe soil ,what he will do ,what will be the popinion of USA ,his first point is assurances we are seeing like a kind of Monro doctrine :the interrior issue of USA only ,with lindbergh the american act in war it will be different ,not like Roosvelt .
Editor says, what if Harry Truman ran for re-election in 1952, and won muses Eric Lipps?
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In 1952, at 3:15 A.M., incumbent Harry S. Truman is declared the winner of the U.S. presidential election, embarrassing, among others, the Chicago Tribune newspaper, which incredibly had repeated its humiliating blunder of 1948 by once again prematurely calling the race for Truman's opponent in print.
Truman triumphs in '52 by Eric LippsRepublican nominee Dwight D. Eisenhower, like Thomas E. Dewey four years earlier, is gracious in defeat, although the popular World War II general's running mate, Sen. Richard M. Nixon of California, is less so, hinting darkly of fraud to reporters.
Truman's victory is, if anything, an even more stunning surprise this time around than it had been in 1948. The President's popularity had improved somewhat since then, especially in the South, where his hints four years earlier that he favored desegregation of the armed forces had led to threats by Southerners to mount a third-party challenge. The President's decision to heed military advisers who had warned that desegregation would undermine "unit cohesion" at a time when it appeared the U.S. might, despite its nuclear monopoly, have to intervene militarily in several overseas trouble spots, had defused that threat, but his refusal to take a strong stand with segregationists against such civil-rights liberals as Minnesota Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey had left lingering suspicions among Southern whites. On the other hand, his apparent unwillingness to take on the Dixiecrats had undermined black support for the Democratic Party. And the rise of Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, whose charge of "twenty years of treason" on the part of the Democrats, worked against him as well: McCarthy blamed Truman for the Soviets' development of their own atomic bomb in 1949 and the "loss" of mainland China to the Communists that same year. To stem the slide, the President had resorted to steadily harsher anti-Communist rhetoric and had supported hard-line measures such as the National Security Act of 1950, which had declared the Communist Party an illegal foreign conspiracy and authorized the reactivation of six of the internment camps used to hold Japanese-Americans during World War II, this time to hold "Communists and Communist sympathizers" should the order for a roundup be given during a national emergency.
Arguably, it was the Republicans themselves who rescued Truman. Backbiting within the GOP between isolationists led by Sen. Robert A. Taft and interventionists, who favored Eisenhower, weakened partisan unity when Eisenhower received the party's nomination in exchange for agreeing to take the Taft faction's man, Nixon, as his VP. The uncomfortable relationship between the two men was worsened when, following the Republican convention, Sen. McCarthy expressed the view that Nixon himself--a vigorous McCarthy backer--would have been a better pick for the top spot.
In the end, it had come down to turnout, with Southern whites going narrowly for Truman, a Missouri native, over Eisenhower despite their reservations about the Democrat, while many Republicans dissatisfied with Ike, Nixon or both simply stayed home.
Ironically, Truman had almost decided not to run in '52, considering that his partial term as FDR's replacement after the latter's death in April 1945 meant that his re-election in 1952 would violate the two-term tradition. After FDR's three and a fraction terms, Truman had believed the country needed to resume the two-term rule to avoid a slide toward a banana-republic-style lifetime presidency. He had been persuaded to seek re-election only when advisers warned that if he did not, the nomination would likely go to a liberal such as Illinois' Adlai Stevenson, which would guarantee a Republican win.
A further irony was that although under the Twenty-second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, pushed through Congress and the state legislatures by Republicans in 1951, no one could seek more than two terms as president, the amendment was not retroactive, so that Truman was free to seek additional terms in the White House while Eisenhower, had he won, would have been limited to no more eight years in office. Once conservatives realized this, furious accusations would fly within the GOP and an "Amend the Amendment" drive would be organized by the Republican National Committee.
Entry posted by
Eric Lipps
© Eric Lipps,2007-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Alternate Nations Source: Wikipedia Labels: Harry Truman, 1952, Presidency, Election, General Election. ~ 1. Nixon has not a Tafite
2. It would have taken the nomination of Taft and a victorious end to the Korean War for Truman to win. Now if Macarthur had been dumped after retaking Seoul and the advance had been halted at the Korean waist by Ridgeway it isn possible the Chinese would have taken a new partition and actually ended the war.
Comment from Jeff Mayers on Facebook: If Truman ran for re-election and won in 1952, then I think that the outcome of the Korean War would not have changed since by that time it was an unpopular war and the people wanted it to end(basicially no diffrent than what Ike did). Also, there may have been an effect on the McCarthy-type hearings that were going on at the time, although what is subjective and would have been hard to tell which way it would have gone...
~ This doesn't sound like Truman...IIUC he always saw the Presidency as more of a burden and a trust than a blessing. I think that by 1952 he was well and truly ready to retire.
~ My understanding is that, for whatever reason, Nixon was supported by Taft, and that his inclusion on the ticket was the price Taft's faction exacted for supporting Ike's nomination at the 1952 convention.
Editor says, what if the 1787 Constitutional Convention had broken up without agreement? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1863, at the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on this day the Governor of Kentucky, Thomas Lincoln, Jr. (pictured) delivered one of the greatest speeches in American history.
The Gettysburg Address by Ed & Scott PalterIn just over two minutes, Lincoln invoked the principles of human equality espoused by the Declaration of Independence, redefining the Civil War as a struggle not merely against the insidious forces of Federalism, but as "a new birth of freedom" that would bring true equality to all of its citizens by protecting the primacy of the states' rights. "We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this Confederation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that the state's government: of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth".Because hundreds of thousands of conscripts and European mercenaries had given their lives in the bloodiest war in human history in order to defend the Jeffersonian, confederalist system of states' rights.
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal".The defeat of the United States had forced the dissolution of the bastard rump state which emerged from the failed Constitutional Convention in 1787. Now Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and Delware were liberated states which enjoyed in full measure the freedoms bequeathed them by the founding fathers.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Traitors to the American Revolution, Posted on 04 November 2009 by Thomas J. DiLorenzo, Lew, Rockwell.com
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Beasts Source: Tenth Amendment Center Labels: Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg, States Rights, America, Federacy. Editor says, please note that extensive amounts of content have been repurposed from the source article and also from Wikipedia.
Comment from Stan Brin on Facebook: The problem in 1787 was very real, and if it broke up in that year, the Constitutional Convention would have reconvened the next. Everyone knew the problems with the wartime Articles of Permanent Confederation were intractable. In another year, they might have been more desperate, and established a more centralized state, even a crown.
~ POD?
~ a) Congressional Convention Fails (Scotts idea) plus b) Some butterflies around AL childhood like he never leaves Kentucky a slave state
~ Cute.
~ I agree with Stan Brin. Sooner or later the Articles would have had to be replaced, and if the U.S. political situation had been worse by then, there'd have been a strong temptation to establish some sort of autocracy. The alternative would have been the breakup of the Union, perhaps as early as the 1790s.
Editor says, what if Sergeant Donny Donovitz, and not Lieutnent Aldo "the Appache" Raines had escaped with SS Colonel Hans Landa?. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 2008, on this day the German Board of Film Censors prohibited the distribution of Quentin Tarantino's Jewish revenge movie "Inglorious Basterds", classifying both of the two "Bear Jew Execution Scenes" as gratuitously violent.
Watch Bear Jew Scene on Youtube
Dead LetterThe final reel of the movie depicts "Operation Kino", a successful mission by a team of Jewish American OSS soldiers which barbeques the entire Nazi High Command in a Parisian cinema whilst they are watching the propaganda movie "Nation's Pride".
Recognising an unmissable opportunity to save his own skin, the anti-hero SS Colonel Hans Landa allows the plot to proceed, permitting the "Bear Jew" Sergeant Donny Donovitz (pictured, played by Eli Roth) to escape in exchange for his own amnesty from the Holocaust war-crimes he has committed throughout the movie. However, Donovitz double crosses Landa, and executes him in the forest just before reaching Allied Lines, realising that the deal is a dead letter now that the war is over.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor Watch the Video
© "Inglorious Basterds", Quentin Tarantino (2009).Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Movies Source: Wikipedia Labels: Quentin Tarantino, Christoph Waltz, Brad Pitt, Inglorious Basterds, Eli Roth. Editor says, In the original cut, we see members of the Jewish Community in Boston signing Donowitz' Nazi killing bat, so we imagine that scene is left in and the plot developes more in that direction than the equally notorious swastika carving in the forehead.
~ Had the joy of seeing one of the Terminator movies on a Frankfort layoff once. To say the Germans sliced the hell out of it is an understatement so none of this rates impossible in my book.
~ In any case, this is not a movie for the faint of heart...
When Kevin hit the Austin city limits, he started fighting against people who were starting to use the inbound lanes of I-35 as outbound. Up till then, the traffic on his side had been pretty light; now, cars were coming at him at high speed, driven by people in a high panic.
Not that he really blamed them. He was kind of panicky, himself. According to the lady on the EBS, Waco had been completely evacuated from fear of nuclear fallout, and citizens were being urged to stay home unless the National Guard requested that you leave.
Requested. Sure.
He found the downtown-only lane and slid into line behind several hundred cars. Since he was at a virtual stop, he pulled out the lottery ticket he had come to redeem. 3 million bucks, after taxes. The little orange and white slip had seemed like pure gold last night when he read the numbers from the lottery web site. Now, it just seemed like an unimportant scrap of paper; worse, it was bait that had lured him from a fairly safe location to what was probably a huge terrorist target.
He pulled out his cell phone and dialed the only person he still knew in Austin. The phone lines, unsurprisingly, were very busy, so he hung up and tried to dial his mother in Bryan. That was busy, too. So were his sister, his brother, all of his friends and his job, now. He wondered who had called him earlier, and checked the call log on his phone. It was a number he didn't know, so he tried to call it, expecting failure.
Instead, he got a clear line. "KBE Enterprises, this is Lilly, may I help you?"
"Uh, yeah, someone called me from this number a couple of hours ago. My name is Kevin Bradley".
There was a clacking of fingers on computer keys. "Yes, Mr. Bradley, please hold for a moment".
The line of cars ahead of him wasn't moving at any great pace, so Kevin shrugged and held on. Thinking that it might be a while, he plugged the cell phone's battery charger into the cigarette lighter and hit the loudspeaker option. The sound of the light muzak filled the cab of his truck.
Janice filled up the last empty jug she could find and capped it. She filled up the tub again and left the water standing. She could use that if the water was cut off. She had tried to call her parents, but the lines were all down, now.
The EBS was still broadcasting vague warnings to stay home and obey any orders the governor or National Guard might issue, but no real news on why martial law had been declared. She gathered that something had happened to Crawford, the president's ranch, but there was some doubt as to whether he had been there or not. That worried her a little bit; while she had voted for the man, she didn't like his vice-president, and didn't trust him like she trusted the president.
She looked around the house to see if there was anything else she could do. She wished that she had gone to the store last night; there wasn't a lot of food on her shelves, and if power went out, the fridge only had a few hours before it stopped holding cool air in.
She also pulled out the gun she kept by her bed and loaded it. If somebody decided that this house looked like a nice looting target, they'd be getting a big surprise.
Entry posted by Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor
© Todayinah, 2004-Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Telka Source: Robbie Taylors Blog Labels: Speakers Line, Robbie A. Taylor, The Dreaming, Conspiracy, Speakers.Entry posted by Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor
© Todayinah, 2004-Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Protocols Source: Robbie Taylors Blog Labels: Elders of Protocols of Zion, Robbie A. Taylor, Greater Zionist Resistence, GZR, Nazi.Older Posts 
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
