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Editor says, what if Martians landed in New Jersey and offered humans an alliance? muses Chris Oakley Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1938, on this day Martian diplomatic envoys landed in the British town of Woking for a historic meeting with British prime minister Neville Chamberlain and his inner circle.
Part Two of Parley There was a certain irony in the locale for this meeting, given that in H.G. Wells' classic novel War Of The Worlds Woking was the site where Martian war machines had launched their first attack on Earth; journalists covering the meeting were quick to note the contrast between that violent fictional confrontation and the more cordial actual summit between the Martian diplomats and Chamberlain's cabinet.
For one man present at the summit, the event had a special personal significance -- H.G. Wells had agreed to write a commentary on the Woking conference for the London Times. In later years his article would come to be regarded as the definitive journalistic account of Great Britain's first direct encounter with extraterrestrials. Back in the United States, meanwhile, President Roosevelt and his Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, were debriefing selected members of Congress on FDR's discussions with the Martian delegation that had landed in Grover's Mill the previous night.
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Chris Oakley
© Chris Oakley,2008-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Parley Source: Wikipedia Labels: War of the Worlds, Mars, Martians, Alliance, New Jersey.
~ And again--the Martian Manhunter?
Seriously, though, although this wasn't known in 1938, Mars looks to have been unlikely ever to have been capable of supporting complex native life, let alone a native intelligent species. The POD to change that would have to go back millions, maybe billions, of years.
Unless, of course, the "Martians" weren't native, but had arrived as colonists frm somewhere else, perhaps a long time earlier, and lived in artificial environments on Mars just as human colonists would have to.
~ My learned friend's comments above are all true, but a life-supporting Mars would not impinge on Earth until one side or the other achieved space travel.
~ Oh, good grief... And why would green Martians have humanoid faces?
~ Maybe aliens would be enough to overcome Chamberlain's "Peace for our time" cowardice allowing overwhelming Nazi build-up. Maybe.
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
