Editor's Postbag Feed from Today In Alternate History - A Daily Updating Blog of Important Events In History That Never Occurred Today.

Energy Secure Nation

Todayinah Editor

In 2010 speaking from an underground bunker in an undisclosed location, life-term US President Jimmy Carter denied that the environmental catastrophe caused by geo-thermal drilling was the direct result of his thirty-year "self-sufficient" energy policy outlined to the American people in his "malaise speech" of July 15th, 1979.

Since that time, the new "energy-secure nation" had dramatically reduced its reliance on imported oil, largely withdrawing itself from unnecessary security commitments in the Middle East and Western Europe which of course the Soviet Union now occupied. However an explosion on the 20th April had caused catastrophic damage to the environment in the northern hemisphere, with speculation rife that an extinction-level event had only narrowly been averted.

And the problem was that the alleged success of the self-sufficiency program meant that the US could no longer shut down domestic facilities as environmentalists were demanding. To do so would turn off supply, bringing the country to the very standstill it had set out to avoid. Instead, Carter announced an acceleration of the second track of the policy, to move to a new platform of clean, renewable energy sources by 2025. By which time, it was hoped that the ecosphere would have returned to something approaching normal and peanut farming might again become viable.

Man of Principle

Todayinah Editor

In 1940 on this day a coded message issued by the Luftwaffe from Normandy was intercepted by the Government Code and Cipher School at Bletchey, England, That particular message reused a code combination broken by the British in the period from March 1 to April 30.

In is underground bunker in the City of London, Churchill was told of the communication. "Confirmed target 23 JUNE at 13 30 to 14 00, map coords 1422 54 White Lodge. Monarch and brothers present."

It took a moment for the Prime Minister to ascertain that the Royal Family had planned a Sunday luncheon at the White Lodge. When Churchill conveyed the news to his service chiefs, he was sunk to gloom.

"Is this the apogee of good fortune, or a dilemnia fashioned by the Devil at one of Infernal Majesty's factories in Berlin?" Churchill asked his wise men.

The intercepted message showed that the Royal Family's schedule was read at least this once by the enemy, and it showed that the brutality brought to the air by Goering and Hitler was planned to rain down in ruin on the luncheoners.

Eden said that "we can hardly let His Majesty and his kin be unwitting targets this Sunday."

"Conceded," agreed Churchill. "When the bombers leave White Lodge a rubble strewn basement, won't our enemy question why none of our Royals were in attendence for their loathesome preset trap? Is not this whole experience going to reveal to them our ULTRA operation?"

"Are we now secure in our ULTRA ability?" asked the chief of MI5, codenamed "M" in all correspondence. "The Germans have had the free run in Paris of endless files of security related matters. It is easy to imagine that several such files are on the ENIGMA code machines and show that British Intelligence was expecing imminent breakthroughs in those codes."

A scientist at Bletchey participated in the discussion. "It is interesting that this is a revival of an old code booklet which has no reason to be re-used. Why frame that particular message in a German code that the enemy ought to suspect may be compromised."

"Nastie arrogance," growled Churchill.

"I hope so," said the scientist. "Or it is a deliberate trap to see if we are catching and translating their ENIGMA messages. If we spare His and Her Majesty from that prearranged bombing, we tell Hitler that we are picking up his mail."

Air Marshal Dowding stated that a couple of extra command wings of fighters would greatly toughen the job of the Germans in bombing White Lodge. "We'll play a trick on those devils," said the military man.

"And very covertly we must find the traitor who lets Goering know enough to test us," Churchill said. "Maybe the best outcome we can have here is a deceptive announcement that the King risked injury this Sunday but fotunately escaped tragedy."

"How sad this all is," said Churchill. "We opt for the proper tactic to defend ourselves but we risk revealing to the enemy our best source of information on his plans and intents."

Vampire Hunter

Todayinah Editor

In 2010 on this day the novel "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" was published in hardcover. This alternate (and also secret) history by Seth Grahame-Smith, the author of "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies", starts off quite promisingly with the contemporary discovery of ten volumes beginning "This is the journal of Abraham Lincoln".
Click either to watch the Trailer or to watch the Documentary

In the following three hundred and fifty pages, the central purpose of Abe's life is revealed to be vampire hunting, a pursuit which neatly dovetails with his role in US history because we learn that that the Civil War was, gasp! actually an attempt to enslave all Americans for the purposes of bloodsucking.

Unfortunately, my interest didn't quite last that long...
Good points:

Overarching concept for the novel is very innovative
Context setting
Confederate vampires turn the tide at the first Bull Run (best scene in the novel)

Bad points:

Limited surprise factor / lack of suspense (I certainly wasn't scared which is kinda of a pre-req for Vampire novels?)
No meaningful story development or integration with the first person reader (he could have meet the undead Lincoln)
Black and White Photos great idea in thoery but ultimately dissapointing because of poor quality
Rushed Civil War section
Portrayal as a political leader (appears too fake especially the Cabinet meetings which have no atmosphere)

In 1963 on this day, Douglas Harkness confronted Dieffenbaker directly at a Cabinet session. Ostensibly, the question was whether BOMARC ought to be acquired if it did not have nuclear warheads. Within minutes, Dieffenbaker was shouting at Harkess that this matter was really a vote of confidence in his leadership.

"It is more like a referendum on your sanity," a long-frustrated Harkness shouted back. "Are you crazy or simply a backstabbing bastard?"

Diieffenbaker announced that he had total confidence in the people of Canada. "I''ll be awarded the greatest majority ever when they get the chance to repudiate you and your friend Pearson." Shaking his fist at Harkness, the PM said he would see the Governor General by lunch and resign. Thereupon half the Cabinet said they would join their chief in resignations.

When the Cabinet meeting broke up into small groups, a secretary noted that (if verbal assertions of quitting were enough) three quarters of the Cabinet (including all major officers) had quit office. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister was on the phone and in meeings all that day, trying to hold a majority together in the House of Commons.

AMERICAN DELEGATION TO OTTAWA

A dozen members of the North Plains Agricultural Association visited Ottawa today, asking Parliament to work with willing American allies as partners for the reconstruction of the continent.

They had an audience with Liberal leader Lester Pearson, who told them that the Liberals acknowledged American independence and would work closely with President Rusk in any policy that would be followed.

News filtered through the capitol that controversy had rocked a Cabinet meeting on the BOMARC issue and that the Government had split on it. Tomorrow would be the test on whether the Government would fall.

Eric Lipps

In 1981 President Ronald Reagan was shot and fatally wounded by former mental patient John Hinckley, who had decided to assassinate him as a way to impress the actress Jodie Foster, on whom Hinckley had developed a fixation after seeing her in the movie Taxi Driver.

Reagan became the eighth victim of the so-called "zero curse," in which U.S.presidents elected in years ending with zero died in office. The others, in order, were:

William Henry Harrison, elected 1840, died 1841 of pneumonia after only a month in office
Abraham Lincoln, elected 1860, assassinated 1865
Grover Cleveland, elected 1880, assassinated 1881
William McKinley, (re)elected 1900, assassinated 1901
Warren Harding, elected 1920, died 1923
Franklin Delano Rooseelt, elected 1940 (3rd term), died 1945 (fourth term; cerebral hemorrhage)
John F. Kennedy, elected 1960, assassinated 1963.

Vice-President George Herbert Walker Bush was sworn in as the forty-first U.S. President March 31. His would be a troubled presidency, assailed from left and right alike. Only the Democrats' unwise choice of the colorless Walter Mondale as their nominee in 1984 would enable him to secure a second term.

In the 1990s, speculation would run rampant as to what would happen to the winner of the approaching 2000 election.

Fresh Air

Todayinah Editor

In 1983 an expression of deviationalist thought ruined the political career of Mikhail Gorbachev after he unwisely conducted an impromptu one-to-one meeting on this day with a radical free thinker, the so-called "godfather of glasnost" Alexander Yakovlev.

Gorbachev had flown to Ottawa ostensibly in his role as the Minister of Agriculture for bilateral discussions with his Canadian counterpart Eugene Whelan. But as a rising star in the politburo, Gorbachev had conducted a rather more high profile meeting with the Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Also present was Yakolev; formerly the Soviet Propaganda Minister he had been sidelined into his current role as the Ambassador to Ottawa.

Matters of protocol became somewhat confused after an invitation to Whelan's family farm overlooking the Detroit River in Amherstburg, Southern Ontario. Whelan was running very late, leaving the Soviet delegation alone with his wife Elizabeth.

To the great displeasure of both the KGB and RCMP, Gorbachev and Yakolev chose to go for a three hour walk. The fresh air encouraged them to conduct a brutally frank discussion about the parlous state of the Soviet Union. They also reached some rather startling conclusions on the main points of a plan to change the face of Euope.

But due to KGB eavesdropping, those plans came to nought. And on his return to Moscow, Gorbachev would be discreetly advised that he had received a new appointment as the Soviet Ambassador to Finland. His seat in the politburo would be occupied by another rising star in the Communist Party known as Boris Yeltsin.

Lincoln Impeached

Todayinah Editor

In 1867 the House of Representatives ended a furious debate by narrowly voting to impeach Abraham Lincoln after the House Judiciary committee had produced a damning bill consisting of a vast collection of complaints against him.

In order to "bind the wounds" of the Civil War, the sixteenth President's vision for Reconstruction had been a quick and lenient re-uniting of the nation, centered on forgiving most Confederates and quickly bringing their states back to full participation in the Union.

By April of 1865, it had become clear that his plans were no more imaginative than passing control to the former Whigs who had been reluctant secessionists. And in fact the control of the entire Federal Government itself had very nearly passed to Andrew Johnson, an Independent South politician on Good Friday. However, the assassin John Wilkes Booth had misfired at the Ford Theatre, killing Mary Lincoln instead.

The emerging prospect of a confrontation with Congress had become a near certainty when Lincoln refused to sign the Wade-Davis Bill. In so doing, he had rejected a series of far more stringent conditions for the creation of State Governments which had been laid down by Congress.

The underlying issue was that Lincoln did not have a overarching plan, rather than an inclination to use his political genius to move matters forward along a roadmap of his own choosing. His undeclared intention of working with the States on an individual basis was plainly evident in his encouragement of the election of Michael Hahn as a pro-Union Governor to head a loyal government in Louisiana. And by 1867, the US Congress had decided that matters were completely out of control and the legislature must re-establish its authority on Reconstruction by terminating the recalcitrant Lincoln's scheming Presidency.

Dishonest Confession

Todayinah Editor

In 1758 following the discovery of his love letter to Sally Cary Fairfax, disgraced twenty-six year-old Colonel George Washington fled Virginia with the angry family members of his jilted fiancee Martha Dandridge Custis on his heels.

A notorious society climber who had been engaged for just four months to the richest widow in Virginia, Washington had pursued a decidedly inappopriate relationship with the wife of his close friend and neighbor at Mount Vernon, George William Fairfax. And he had rather unwisely confessed the crime in writing with the damning words "You have drawn me, dear Madame, or rather have I drawn myself into an honest confession of a simple fact". Unsurprisingly, the view of the Curtis family was that this secret letter was anything but an honest confession.

A social outcaste, Washington found his way to England. Ironically, he would later return to the Americas as a mercenary in the forces of King George III sent to stamp down on another form of disloyalty known as the troubles in the Colonies.

Marse Robert

Todayinah Editor

In 1865 on this day Confederate General Robert E. Lee mounted his horse Traveler and with a deep sigh ordered the dissolution of the Army of North Virginia.

This informal cessation of hostilities between regular forces marked a new phase in the American Civil War. By ordering his troops to continue the fight as guerrillas in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the General had played the trump card that President Abraham Lincoln most dreaded.

But in a sense, he was only following the orders of the fleeing Confederate President Jefferson Davis who had issued his own call for guerrilla struggle. In anticipation of that order, hundreds of Lee's men had already vanished into the hills on their own initiative. And yet Lee had not taken the decision lightly, he had convened a council of war in which he had been advised that "a little more blood more or less makes no difference now". Nevertheless events in Virginia would soon mirror those in Missouri, where a full-scale guerrilla war of terrifying ferocity had dragged the state into a whirlpool of vengeance.

In his diary, Union General Ulysses S. Grant had noted "I was afraid every morning that I would wake up from my sleep to hear the Lee had gone .. and the war was prolonged". He was absolutely right, Even a cursory review of Lee's record indicates that he would never surrender to the abolitionists, despite his own fear that "we would bring on a state of affairs that would take the country years to recover from".

As a Brevet Colonel of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry, shooting John Brown dead at the climax of the Harper's Ferry Raid
Refusing to honour the terms of his father-in-law's will which would have freed the slaves under his control
After entering Pennsylvania, permitting his men to round up many former slaves and free blacks and send them south into slavery
Refusing President Lincoln's offer of the Command of Union Forces at the outbreak of war

In 1865 at 10.30pm on this day a southern sympathiser by the name of John Wilkes Booth sneaked into the presidential box at Ford's theatre in Washington. Although Booth had a clear shot, he tripped up and missed his target Abraham Lincoln who took a bullet in the shoulder. The wound was attended to in a lodging house across the street. However, his devoted wife Mary was killed and playgoers witnessed the well-built, but small assassin being lifted up and thrown onto the stage real hard to be arrested.

The Good Friday assassination attempt marked a sharp reversal in Lincoln's fortunes. Indeed, historians would speculate whether his reputation might not have been improved had Booth been successful. Because just six months before, General Carl Schurz had made "a prophecy which may perhaps sound strange at this moment. In fifty years, perhaps much sooner, Lincoln's name will stand written upon the honor roll of the American Republic next to that of Washington, and there it will remain for all time. The children of those who now disparage him will bless him".

"I believe I have no lawful right to [abolish slavery], and I have no inclination to do so"Just five days after the conclusion of the Civil War, Lincoln had reached a high water mark in popularity, even if it wasn't recognised at the time. His challenge now was to come up with a plan that would resolve the unanswered questions from the Emancipation Proclamation. And it was a problem that was simply beyond his ability to solve.

"Send them to Liberia, to their own native land"Which isn't to say that the President didnt devise a plan, or attempt to implement it. Lincoln persisted with his plan of repatriating former slavers to Liberia in West Africa. It was a brutal proposal that would fatally undermine his claim to be the "great emancipator" One man would rise up in leadership to challenge the chilling indifference of this proposal; the radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens of Pennyslvania, the individual who would ultimately steal Lincoln's credit for "freeing the slaves". Because along with Charles Sumner of Massachussets, the pair would drive Reconstruction Legislation through Congress that would force the South into line.

"I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and the black races"After his death in 1868, Stevens' coffin lay in state inside the Capitol Rotunda, flanked by a Black Honor Guard from Massachusetts. Twenty thousand people, one-half of whom were African-American, attended his funeral in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. "I cannot make it better known than it already is, that I favor colonization"He chose to be buried in the Shreiner-Concord Cemetery because it was the only cemetery that would accept people without regard to race. Stevens wrote the inscription on his head stone that reads: "I repose in this quiet and secluded spot, not from any natural preference for solitude, but finding other cemeteries limited as to race, by charter rules, I have chosen this that I might illustrate in my death the principles which I advocated through a long life, equality of man before his Creator".

Ironically, the comedy that Lincoln was watching that Good Friday was called "Our American Cousin", a fateful reference to the African Americans he had sought to expel from the United States.