TLIAW - Democratic regime - conservative US in the alternate Cold War

[Imielin]

Henry A. Wallace
33rd President of the United States (April 12, 1945 – January 20, 1949)
​

Henry A. Wallace's tenure began on April 12, 1945, after the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt after serving more than four years as the US vice president. After four years of serving in the White House, he stepped down from re-election attempts, allowing a Democratic-Republican Coalition to form under a war hero, General Dwight David Eisenhower. Wallace's Presidency is often seen as a turning point in US foreign relations - after the end of World War II, he campaigned on the end of US isolationism, making the American country an Arsenal of Democracy, supporting capitalist countries all over the world in a fight against communism. During the first months of his Presidency, Wallace authorized the nuclear bombing of Festung Munich, wiping out Hitler's government and forcing Wehrmacht's surrender across Germany and occupied territories. Similar operations in Japan (Hiroshima - August 6, Kokura - August 9, and Kyoto - August 18) caused a month-long Japanese Crisis that ended World War II in the Pacific Area. In the aftermath of World War II, Wallace was one of the Big Three that decided the postwar reality - together with Clement Attlee and Joseph Stalin they agreed on a denazification of the postwar Germany and its allied countries (Austria, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslav breakaway countries, France, Bulgaria and Finland). As a President, Wallace maintained strong links with anti-colonial groups, recognizing Israel, Vietnam, Syria, and other countries wishing to break from their colonizer nations.

Henry Wallace's relations with European countries are mixed. Soon after the European armistice, the Free French forces were sent to occupy the French-speaking Italian border region of Val d'Aoste - where American troops were present. Disagreement between American and French commanders resulted in the French forces opening fire on Americans - an action met with the harsh resolve escalating in the US conducting an air strike against the French artillery positions - a series of events now called by historians as the Aostan Crisis. On July 28, 1945, Wallace ordered the immediate end of all arms shipments to France. By August, he pushed through the idea of enforcing the Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories - using the pretext that Vichy France allowed military access to southern railroads during the German-led Fall Blau - 1941 invasion of Republican Spain. During the Levant Crisis, American military commanders took over the decolonization process in Syria after stopping the clash between the French Army of the Levant and the British Ninth Army. By September 2, 1945, the US was the first country to recognize the independence of Vietnam. During the 1948 election campaign, Republicans blamed Wallace for allowing the expansion of communism - recognition of anti-colonialist governments, inadequate support for Chiang's government that led to Mao's regime taking over mainland China, and US support to Spanish and Yugoslavian governments.

Domestically, Wallace's legacy is also mixed - the 80th Congress overridden his veto, forcing him to adopt the Taft-Hartley Act reversing some of the pro-labor union legislation enacted as part of New Deal programs. Wallace strongly supported war veterans' rights, integrating the Women's Army Corps, United States Naval Reserve (Women's Reserve), United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve, and United States Coast Guard (USCG) Women's Reserve as parts of the US Armed Forces. Wallace desegregated the military forces based on race and fought for the end of racial discrimination for the G.I. Bill, triggering the Democratic split in 1948 between the mainstream Democratic Party and the States' Rights Democratic Party. Revelations about Wallace's past contacts with Russian mystics effectively ended his stillborn re-election campaign, while the rise of Republican isolationism convinced the party elites to enter into a Fusion ticket destined to stop the isolationists and white supremacist political forces. In November, an apolitical ticket headed by General of the Army Eisenhower was elected as the President with Brigadier General Oveta Culp Hobby becoming the first female Vice-President. Both espoused ideas of American nationalism, fierce opposition to communism, and collectivist ideologies of "fascism, racism, and sex discrimination".

Major events of Wallace's Presidency:

July 16, 1945 - The nuking of Munich results in the collapse of Festung Munich - a place that Hitler evacuated to two weeks earlier after the Soviet Army captured Berlin. End of Festung Munich, the death of the German Chancellor and most of the major generals disintegrated Wehrmacht - Western Allied forces broke through the Rhine river and rapidly advanced eastwards, while the Eastern Allied forces broke through Elbe river, marching westwards.

September 2, 1945 - surrender of Japan - after receiving three nuclear bombs, the Japanese emperor tries to surrender but is imprisoned by the Army putschists and placed under house arrest. After the third nuclear bombing, the Japanese junior officers rebelled and stormed the Tokyo governmental compounds, killing Prime Minister Korechika Anami and triggering a short-lived civil war that ended with the suicidal death of the Emperor and surrender to the Americans.

October 28 - November 11, 1945 - Potsdam Conference establishes the Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories in Germany and Austria where the Allied Control Council would work to denazify the political apparatus of former Nazis and their allies. Germany and Austria are to be restored as neutral, demilitarized states after a five-year joint occupation, with the Allied supervisors remaining for ten years in the country to monitor the changes made to the political, economic, and social life after the fall of Nazism. Korea is divided between Soviet and American zones, Japan is made a republic, with General Douglas MacArthur serving as a Chairman of AMGOT.

July 26, 1946 - Executive Order 9981 created the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services, ending the policy of racial segregation in the US Armed Forces. The decision to send black forces to Naval Air Station Keflavik would aid the anti-American propaganda in Iceland during the future 1949 riots.

August 1, 1946 - The McMahon Act shares the nuclear secrets with the United Kingdom.

May 1947 - May crises - US-supported political move to expel communist ministers in France and Italy backfires - in France, a general strike forces a new election that gives a slight majority for a left-wing coalition led by Maurice Thorez (who then becomes a Prime Minister). In Italy, strikes led to the fall of Alcide de Gasperi's government and a political crisis that would result in a socialist-communist victory in the 1948 general election.

November 2, 1948 - Dwight David Eisenhower wins the presidential election, campaigning as an independent supported by the Democratic and Republican parties. Independent ticket defeats States Rights' Democratic Party presidential ticket.​

 

[Imielin]

Dwight D. Eisenhower
34th President of the United States (January 20, 1949 - January 21, 1957)​

General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower was chosen as the presidential candidate by both Democratic and Republican National Conventions, but a question remained - who would be chosen as the Vice-presidential candidate? In the event of a presidential death, a president would become the next President, just like it did happen in 1945. FDR's death resulted in a power transition from moderate Democrats to progressives - an event that did backfire badly as it split the ruling party in the crucial years of 1946-1947. Many political commentators blamed failures of foreign policy on that split - it made presidential attempts to balance economy, military, and diplomacy less successful - and led to the communist victories in France and Italy. Divided Congress failed to approve necessary help to save China - and 1948 saw the Nationalist frontlines collapsing rapidly. Accusations of communist infiltration of the major parties became common - Robert Taft stopped economic help to the United Kingdom, still-capitalist France and Italy, Republican groups influenced by Robert R. McCormick attacked Douglas MacArthur for bringing socialism to Japan, while Southern Democrats generally hampered Wallace's actions after 1947. Actions taken to the benefit of war veterans brought WAC and other forms of women serving in the military to the national spotlight - Oveta Culp Hobby became the first female Brigadier General. Handpicked by Eisenhower for apolitical Vice-presidency, she was supported by Republicans, who since 1940, included the Equal Rights Amendment in their electoral campaigns.

Eisenhower/Hobby ticket won 40 million of a popular vote and 480 electoral votes, winning in a landslide against States Rights' Party which won 8 million popular votes and 41 electoral votes. States Rights party won electoral votes only in the Deep South, but they gained a sizeable number of popular votes in the North where their members toned down the issue of racial segregation and focused on stopping the expansion of federal powers. Nevertheless, National Coalition won a confident victory - with Republicans and Democrats being the two largest parties in the US Congress. The first tests for a new administration would soon arise - in August, the Soviet Union exploded its first nuclear weapon. In September, the Venona project identified Klaus Fuchs as a spy for the Soviet Union, inadvertently triggering a Red Scare - interrogated by British intelligence, Fuchs named Julius and Ethel Rosenbergs as spies of nuclear secrets. Their highly publicized trial would result in a 1951 death sentence being carried in 1953. Many others, including Alger Hiss and Harry Dexter White, would receive prison sentences. The hunt for communists expanded after Kenneth Wherry accused the Soviets of having a list of homosexuals in the government, leading to the Lavender Scare that saw the enaction of a series of executive orders that forced the lay off of thousands of gay men and lesbian women from federal employment. The campaign expanded in state and local governments that expanded prohibitions of employment of homosexual people to other branches of the national economy deemed crucial to the strategic interest - to cover more than twenty million workers - who were forced to sign oaths attesting to their moral purity to get or to keep their jobs. Under the anti-communist, independent president, bi-partisan efforts led to the rise of socially conservative 1950s but with a slow erosion of racial and sex discrimination being supported by the presidential efforts.

At dawn on 25 June 1950, the North Korean Army crossed the 38th parallel behind artillery fire. Two days later, Seoul fell. Three days later, ROK forces were reduced to a mere 22,000 (from 95,000 at the start of the war), retreating to protect the Busan Perimeter. Eisenhower's attempts at organizing a UN-led coalition failed when the French representative to the Security Council vetoed the anti-North resolution. Unable to find the UN acceptance for police action, the President turned to Congress, which voted in favor of a declaration of war against North Korea. In July, the 24th Infantry Division landed in Korea to prevent the fall of the South regime. By September, General Douglas MacArthur led troops to the battle of Incheon and saw an amphibious landing behind KPA frontlines to capture Seoul and sever communist logistical lines. As Northern forces were withdrawing at a rapid pace, US-led forces pushed northwards, triggering the Chinese intervention in October. Sino-Korean forces recaptured Seoul in December and even made some gains southwards during the next two months. These setbacks convinced Douglas MacArthur that the use of nuclear weapons was necessary to stop communists - and Eisenhower agreed after being refused by the UK (and other major anti-communist countries) to join the war. Ten nuclear weapons were dropped on the Sino-Korean troops and logistical lines inside the Korean Peninsula - leading to the rapid advance of US troops but also a rise of guerilla forces behind the lines. As the Chinese refused to sign an armistice, Mao mobilized more 'volunteers' to be sent to Korea. Eisenhower made a fateful decision to nuke the Manchurian military bases, expanding nuclear warfare against the Chinese mainland. With Mao being sidelined for political incompetence, Zhou Enlai accepted an armistice, withdrawing from Korea.

A 'short war in Korea' was popular among the Americans - coupled with the governmental propaganda showing nuclear weapons as a means of reducing US casualties but also Sino-Korean civilian casualties by targeting the military targets. Internal Security Act of 1950 required Communist organizations to register with the federal government - and once registered, members could be persecuted due to CPUSA membership under the Smith Act. The Act allowed for the detention of dangerous, disloyal, or subversive persons in times of war or "internal security emergency" - with local military commanders being able to set distance around military bases or strategic industries from which these persons could be forcibly expelled for a duration of the war and placed in internment places. A short period of war energized the House Un-American Activities Committee which expanded its activities, using laws on wartime censorship to blacklist activists, actors, and trade union leaders deemed to be espousing subversive ideas or a lifestyle, which expanded the Red Scare to the point of using psychiatry - with Christine Jorgensen being arrested for indecent behavior in February 1953 and occasionally forced to undergo series of psychiatric tests until she had decided to leave the US for Europe. Simultaneously, the pre-1945 hunt of isolationists and fascists continued - even if they did not belong to leftist organizations. Right-wing anti-federal radicalism was added to the things deemed anti-American, despite Dixiecrat's vehement opposition.

Emboldened by the Korean victory and very high approval rates, the Eisenhower administration embarked on the internationalist policy destined to stop the rise of the world's communism. The nuclear stockpile was greatly expanded to deter any nation willing to attack the US, diversifying the means of delivery between the strategic bombers, intercontinental missiles, submarines equipped with the SLBM launchers, and the land-based nuclear artillery (both towed and self-propelled) capable of shelling enemy troops with small, miniaturized tactical warheads. USAF conducted a series of spy flights over devastated Manchurian bases to see the aftermath of nuking. Analysis of Manchurian sites, Japanese cities, and Munich allowed the National Security Resources Board to draft a 162-page document outlining a model civil defense structure for the US that influenced every other Cold War administration. In 1952, the Department of Civil Defence (which famously employed Herman Kahn to draft scenarios for survivable nuclear wars) was created to coordinate efforts drafted by NSRB - beginning with the education reforms that prepared people for the realities of a nuclear war - with the most famous being Duck and Cover short film that was included in schools across the United States to instruct children on how to react to the nukes falling nearby. Survival Under Atomic Attack - produced in both film and print, gave directions for millions of Americans to recognize the nuclear sirens, preparing first aid kits, clean water, and food with long duration dates. Young women were to be trained at schools to prepare for the eventuality of a lack of food and fresh water after the attack, child care, and first aid procedures - blending nuclear survival with existing societal norms - and strengthening these norms for postwar stability. The Civil Defence school courses promoted gendered assigned roles, with women being prepared to dominate kitchen work after the apocalypse. The Crisis Relocation Program provided a necessity to construct more nuclear shelters to save up to 27 million Americans from fallout and evacuate the cities as soon as possible before the bombs could hit their targets. Use of the tactical nuclear weapons by the British during the Abadan War of 1952-1953 prompted the President to empower the Atomic Energy Commission in their support of constructing nuclear power plants and making the United States less dependent on oil (with its prices being seen as unstable due to possibility of the Middle Eastern resource wars). By 1955, the Atomic Energy Commission was replaced by the Department of Nuclear Energy taking care of the development and safety of nuclear technologies in the US. Both departments started organizing Operation Alert - annual national civil defense exercises held across the US, culminating in a one-day public drill simulating a nuclear attack. Department of Civil Defence organized a peacetime draft of married men (exempted from military conscription) and female nurses (in 1958 expanded to all unmarried women aged 19-26) in the Civil Defence Forces for a nine-month service where they were used to deal with the natural disasters and trained to be a civilian force supporting National Guard in event of a post-nuclear war America.

Eisenhower America was also changed in terms of societal norms. In 1954, in the case of Brown vs. Board of Education, the Supreme Court decided to desegregate schools. One year later, a Supreme Court verdict banned the anti-miscegenation laws in the US - following the 1948 California Supreme Court ruling. Despite that, Eisenhower's approval ratings were high during his presidency - the 1950s saw rapid economic growth, the construction of the first highway system, increase in the quality of life for common Americans. Marriage rates were the highest in US history, with the Baby boom expanding birth rates. In 1956, the United States sent the first artificial satellite of Earth - Vanguard but waited with a more sophisticated mission until the Soviets launched their own satellite to prevent accusations of breaking international law with flights over Soviet territory (Vanguard had a trajectory that prevented a flight over the Soviet territories). As the Soviets seemed to be leading in space science (as the Sputnik flights discovered Vernov Radiation Belts around Earth), President Eisenhower formed the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in collaboration with the industry and academia to spearhead the research and design of the strategic technologies.

Other major events:

June 1951 - Elizabeth Gurney Flynn is arrested under the Smith Act for advocating a violent regime change in the US and for maintaining homosexual contacts with Dr. Marie Equi, fuelling anti-communist and anti-LGBT movements across the United States. She would be released from prison after four years, only to be imprisoned in 1957 after running for New York City Council as a communist and again in 1961 after she became a national chairwoman of CPUSA. She would die in prison in 1962.

August 19, 1953 - The US government recognize Hamid Mirza as a Shah of Iran. A Qajar prince was installed on the throne after thirty years old Pahlavi dynasty was overthrown by the Iranian insurgents supported by the British forces during the Abadan War.

April 1954 - with a final defeat of the Bricker Amendment, the Republican Old Right splits to form the National Republican Party.

September 28, 1955 - Dorothy Day is sentenced to six months in prison for organizing a group of pacifists to refuse to participate in civil defense drills.

October 11, 1956 - Vanguard becomes the first artificial satellite of Earth.

October 29 - November 7, 1956 - Suez Canal War - United States stops the Israeli-British forces from overthrowing Gamal Abdel Nasser's government, antagonizing the Jewish American vote for the National Coalition and making inroads for a future alliance with the Nasserist Arabs (who were opposed to communist Iraqis since 1958).

 

[Imielin]

Oveta Culp Hobby
35th President of the United States (January 21, 1957 - January 20, 1961)
​

Oveta Culp Hobby was the first female Vice-president and President of the United States, a member of the National Coalition serving as one of the General-Presidents. In the 1920s she was a parliamentarian of the Texas House of Representatives and turned to journalism after a failed campaign for the legislature in 1930. During World War II, she led the Women's Interest Section in the War Department's Bureau of Public Relations - later she became a director of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) which was created to fill gaps in the Army left by a shortage of men. Commissioned a colonel in the U.S. Army on 5 July 1943, she ended the war as the first female Brigadier General leading the efforts to integrate WAC as a part of the United States Army. She fought with the stereotypes accusing WAC soldiers of dubious morality during the "Image Controversy" of 1943-1944 with the support from Vice-president (and later President) Henry Wallace - both claiming that discrimination of female soldiers by their male counterparts was showing the United States in a bad light internationally, especially after the Operation Torch and Peninsual Campaign during which soldiers encountered women serving in combat roles in the Spanish People's Army of the Republic. The socio-political campaign turned Hobby into a national spotlight, with Thomas Dewey using the bad treatment of WAC soldiers in his 1944 presidential campaign as a "New Deal waste organized by the male-dominated labor unions" and Vice-president Wallace promising to take care of "the wellbeing of every boy or gal fighting in the Armed Forces".

General popularity among the women, military outlook, history of enforcing a morality-based Code of Conduct in WAC, and the Republicans centering on the Equal Rights Amendment to regain the White House after 16 years of Democratic presidents led to the selection of Culp Hobby as a Vice-presidential candidate for the 1948 election. Afterward, she served as Vice-president for eight years, becoming active in the nation-wide politics. Unlike previous presidents, Eisenhower radically altered the role of his running mate by presenting him with critical assignments in both foreign and domestic affairs once he assumed office. Culp Hobby strongly supported and actively encouraged the learning of survival skills to minimize civilian casualties in case of World War III - including changes in the school courses and the first female conscription for the United States Civil Defence in the 1950s. On September 24, 1955, President Eisenhower suffered a heart attack, and his condition was initially believed to be life-threatening - leading to the Culp Hobby acting in Eisenhower's stead during this period, presiding over Cabinet meetings and ensuring that aides and Cabinet officers did not seek power. During the 1956 electoral campaign, she was strongly supported by President Eisenhower, leading to her selection as a Democratic-Republican candidate.

As a President, she had largely continued Eisenhower's policies on limiting the presidential impact of national policies and instead focusing on the nation's security. Fulfilling this role, she had sent the 101st Airborne Division to protect African American students trying to enroll at Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas barred from doing so by Governor Orval Faubus in September 1957. A year later, the Equal Rights Amendment was accepted by the necessary number of states, leading to the expansion of the Civil Defence draft to include unmarried women. Civil Rights of 1957 and 1960 did little to expand black Americans' voting powers but they did strengthen the Civil Rights Commission. Attempts to enforce constitutional rights for racial minorities and women led to the break in the National Coalition as the northern Democrats supported civil rights but not women's rights (due to a strong prevalence of male-dominated labor unions), while the Republicans supported women's rights more. For the 1960 election, the National Coalition couldn't decide on the presidential candidate - with Democrats refusing to support Culp Hobby's ticket, they split.

In foreign terms, Oveta Culp Hobby intervened directly in international affairs, helping to invade communist Cuba, maintaining the Guatemalan regime, and ordering the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the premier of Congo. After the Khrushchevite reputation of Stalinism and the expansion of the communist soft power in the world, she supported an army putsch to overthrow Salvador Allende in Chile in 1959. She had continued support for the French Army in Algeria (a breakaway faction that rebelled after the PCF government extended French citizenship to Algerians in 1954) allowing the conflict to escalate and supporting Pied-noirs over native Algerians. The First Algerian War would start in 1956 and end in a negotiated settlement in 1959 agreeing on a power-sharing federation of Algerians and Pied-noirs. During the OCH presidency, the American influence expanded by opening Vietnam to American business to counter the Chinese influences in the region, with similar developments being made with Sukarno's Indonesia in exchange for the political purges being made against Maoists. To stop the growing anti-American insurgencies in Japan, the National Coalition administration agreed to Japanize the Japanese armed forces and limit direct American presence in the country to a collection of the most crucial military bases, with most of the military personnel being transferred to Korea.

The last days of her Presidency saw the first human spaceflight being undertaken by Alan Shepard onboard a Mercury 7 suborbital flight - an event that later triggered the creation of the European Space Agency by France, Spain, Italy, USSR, and its satellites to counter-act the US efforts.

Other major events:

March 5, 1957 - Culp formulates the Culp Doctrine saying that any Middle Eastern country could request American economic or military aid if it was being threatened by armed aggression. The Culp Doctrine would strengthen Nasserist movements across the Arab nations, leading to the unification of Egypt and Syria into the United Arab Republic. Since 1959, the Culp Doctrine has centered on opposing the rise of communist Iraq by strengthening Arab nations - inadvertently harming international relations with Israel.

April 13, 1957 - Jordan falls to the Nasserist revolution, strengthening the US interests in stopping revolutions in the Arab countries.

July 15, 1958 - US Marines land in Lebanon, beginning the presence of American troops in the Middle East.

October 13, 1960 - US Marines aid the Cuba exiles in the invasion of the island, prolonging the Cuban Civil War by one year until the US airstrikes wiped out the most ardent conventional opposition, leaving guerilla forces to be fought by the pro-Western government until the late 1960s.​

 

[Imielin]

Scott W. Lucas
President of the United States (January 21, 1961 - February 22, 1968)​

The Equal Rights Amendment broke the National Coalition - it was opposed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans for Democratic Action, the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Teachers, and other labor unions involved with the Democratic Party. Political figures like Eleanor Roosevelt and most of the old New Dealers opposed ERA, saying that it would undercut the male-dominated labor unions and stop providing government protection for working-class women. By 1958, Democratic-dominated legislatures were already refusing to ratify the Amendment, clashing against the influence of the Republican Party and, ironically States' Rights Party, a former Southern wind of Democrats that since 1948 was slowly rebranding to all-American party favoring increase of the state-level governments at the expense of federal power. To propose the Equal Rights Amendment, Republicans used congressional support from the States' Rights Party and the Progressive Party - a fact that displeased Democrats allied with the GOP against Dixiecrats and Progressives. National Woman's Party, a women's liberation movement, supported the Republican conservative feminism as a counterpart for the Marxist feminism that was becoming popular among the Western European communist parties in their countries' governments and the Soviet Union. Just like the desegregation of the 1940s and 1950s, proponents of equal rights used the fact that the US was losing international standing while still allowing discrimination of women, feeding the Socialist Bloc's anti-capitalist propaganda. As Republicans endorsed Oveta Culp Hobby for a second term, NWP rallied for her, triggering the rise of Second Wave Feminism, centered on workplace equality and the enforcement of legal rights - as opposed to free sexuality promoted by the scattered New Left organizations.

The free Love movement and sex-positive feminism both received a serious blow in the late 1950s. Since the end of the war, there were rumors about a new sexually transmitted disease that came to America being carried by soldiers returning from the West African Front - similar developments did occur in France, as both Free French and Vichy veterans returned from that front, carrying new human immunodeficiency viruses with them. A new virus found its way to the United States medical books in mid-1955 when a group of doctors described clusters of Kaposi's sarcoma and pneumocystis pneumonia among prostitutes and homosexual men in New York, giving it the nickname the Streetwalker-Related Immune Deficiency. Soon, stories were leaked to the press, describing an exotic new disease attacking gays, lesbians, and sexually promiscuous people. Soon the public perception was reinvigorated by conservative churches, claiming SRID to be a punishment for extramarital sexual contact. The booming epidemic of the late 1950s and 1960s caused LGBTQ+ communities to be further stigmatized as they became the focus of mass hysteria, isolation, and marginalization, sometimes escalating to acts of violence. National Coalition responded slowly as the disease targeted mostly people deemed to be a margin of society - prostitutes and homosexual people and largely let the hysteria continue. Only when SRID found a way into common American households, did the Department of Health start to ring an alarm about possible dangers to the wider society. The Surgeon General formulated a campaign against SRID, mailing millions of brochures "Understanding SRID", advocating sexual abstinence, restraint from using the services of prostitutes, and sodomy, understood as anal or oral intercourse. Despite advising a calm reaction to the newly developing situation, the brochure widened the section of the population targetted by mass hysteria. Southern representatives of the States' Rights' Party used the stereotype of black men's sexuality to combat desegregation, with Ku Klux Klan reviving and starting a morality campaign across the Deep South - culminating in the expulsions of prostitutes and women accused of extramarital sex (or just happening to wear "too revealing clothes" for social norms of the 1950s) from the smaller towns and cities. National Woman's Party attacked campaigns for unjustly targeting only women, but not men engaging in affairs and adultery - their campaign led to a series of publicized scandals that shook the American political landscape in the early 1960s.

National Venereal Disease Control Act of 1960 was a final act of the National Coalition - Democratic and Republican parties were joined by the States' Rights Party (which argued that the act was too soft) and even parts of the Progressive Party. The act used existing state laws on adultery and sodomy to declare both as a federal felony, punishable by a fine or jail time up to 5 years (with the highest sentences reserved for activities that included venereal diseases). Police rights were extended for actions undertaken against prostitutes and homosexual communities, with the state governors being given a right to call a National Guard to enforce the Internal Security Act of 1950 (which often ended in the formation of internment camps). People diagnosed with SRID were barred from certain jobs, like nursery, medical professions, teaching, and military roles - they also faced obstacles when trying to obtain marriage certificates and in case of extramarital affairs, were sent straight to jail, instead of paying a fine. Immigration offices were obliged to run tests for venereal disease of immigrants to send away those suffering from them. As a result, many people tried to hide their symptoms of SRID, leading to many unnecessary deaths occurring in the 1960-1969 time period. NVDCA also imposed a childlessness tax against men between 25 and 45 and women between 20 and 40 - income-based, set at 20% of the income (similarly to the Polish bykowe tax).

Scott Lucas inherited a troubled nation - white supremacist gangs were spreading in the South, forcing blacks and women out of the towns, and rates of a new venereal disease were skyrocketing. National Woman Party launched the Silent Sentinels once again, this time targeting male politicians accused of having extramarital affairs. Since Lester C. Hunt's suicide, congressional immunity for slander and crimes of morality was rescinded - and finally used in the 1960s, when the Senate majority leader, John F. Kennedy was sued by his wife for divorce, disclosing his infidelity and adultery with many women. The most shocking was an affair with Ellen Rometsch, a German model who was accused of being a KGB spy - a fact never found true but spread by the FBI (coincidentally, Kennedy was a political rival of Scott Lucas and a liberal who was a possible threat for the superpower of J. Edgar Hoover) leading to a group of Silent Sentinels protesting against Kennedy's actions and further publicizing the case of men infecting their wives with STDs acquired from lovers and prostitutes. William O. Douglas was physically attacked by a 31-years activist woman named Emma Logan (ATL fictional character) with an umbrella - accusing the 62-years man of the moral corruption of his 21-years lover Joan "Joanie" Martin - resulting in the impeachment of Douglas two years later, in 1963 from his position as a Supreme Court Justice. The Moral Revolution of the 1960s reached its zenith of power in 1966 when Scott Lucas tried to fire FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. FBI agents leaked news of alleged presidential infidelity to the press, with the first recipients being women's magazines. Until the end of the election cycle, the Silent Sentinels harassed Lucas' campaign going as far as following him on tours and interrupting his meetings. Images of police officers beating and dragging away women protesting presidential infidelity reached the national news and created an outrage among the common Americans. Bipartisan efforts coordinated by California Representative Helen Gahagan Douglas succeeded in impeaching Lucas, but the Senate failed to vote for the motion.

Despite all the scandals about Lucas, Lucas' family, and Lucas' political collaborators being revealed by the FBI that crushed his political chances, his Presidency is often praised for his support to civil rights expansion and domestic reforms. The Wilderness Act established a system of adding new lands to the National Wilderness Preservation System and banned using of mechanized vehicles and timber harvests in these areas. Clean Air Acts established human health and welfare standards and started a shift away from the use of leaded fuel in cars, promoted the use of nuclear energy instead of coal or oil-powered power stations, and introduced taxes on high-emission cars. Contagious Diseases Act created the first rudimentary national healthcare system in the US that evolved during the next decade into a National Healthcare System. Lucas reduced the number of American soldiers serving overseas and reduced the military expenditures to finance his social projects. In 1963, he nationalized the Alabama National Guard to enforce school desegregations against the wishes of Governor George Wallace. His 1965 professional handling of Viola Liuzzo's murder conflicted with FBI actions, becoming the first stage of his political downfall. In terms of foreign policy, Lucas conflicted with Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol after the Liberty incident when the Israeli Navy clashed with the US Navy during the Third Israeli-Arab War (the event saw a brief aerial dogfight between American and French-produced jets) that caused Israelis turn to the Western European countries for help. Further diplomatic relations were strained after the 1968 Olympic Games in Detroit when the US police apprehended members of Eliyahu Giladi's Gang trying to produce makeshift explosives. Another major event of foreign policy was the creation of the Southeast Asian Economic Community that strengthened links between American business and markets in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, and Australia. Lucas's 1965 visit to Paris, France opened possibilities of a short detente period between the two blocs.

Scott Lucas appointed Frances P. Bolton as Undersecretary of the Civil Defence who expanded a number of courses for women conscripted to the CD forces, promoting family and moral values among the troops.

Other major events:
​

July 1, 1961 - Operation Vantage - US-British forces land in Kuwait to support the newly independent state of Kuwait against territorial claims by its neighbour, Iraq.

August 5, 1963 - the US and its allies refuse to sign a Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (unlike the Soviets, Western European countries except for France and most of the third world countries).

June 7, 1965 - Griswold v. Connecticut - the risk of the nation's public risk supersede marital privacy but contraceptives should be available for married couples with their doctor's prescription. Supreme Court condemns the use of contraceptives by unmarried people due to existing adultery laws.

June 5-28, 1967 - The closure of the straits of Tiran provokes Israel to launch a pre-emptive strike, triggering the Third Israeli-Arab War. USN and Israeli Navy clash due to the USS Liberty Incident. After a Jordanian attack and the break of the Israeli frontlines, the United Nations enforced an armistice in the region.

July 4, 1968 - Skylab-1 mission - the first space station becomes operational, after docking of the first manned mission with astronauts - Alan Shepard, Neil Armstrong, and Gus Grissom.​

 

[Imielin]

Margaret Chase Smith
President of the United States (January 20, 1969 - January 20, 1977)​

Margaret Chase Smith entered politics at the age of 43, after winning a special election to fill her husband's seat in Maine in 1940. Three months after the special election, she was elected to a full two-year term in the House in her own right, defeating a Democratic contender 65–35%. During World War II, she served in the House Naval Affairs Committee in 1943 where she was assigned to the investigation of the production of destroyers, making a tour of bases in the South Pacific during late 1944. A strong supporter of women in the armed services, she had aided both Vice-president Wallace and Brigadier General Culp in making the women's presence in the military permanent. Strongly opposed to the formation of permanent HUAC, she won the 1948 election for the Senate, where she was most remembered for her Conscience speech, protesting breaking constitutional laws by Joseph McCarthy's actions and leading to the removal of the congressional immunity for slander and moral crimes. During her twenty years' Senate career, she was often at odds against the Culp and Lucas governments, protesting against most of the most oppressional legislations made in the 1950s - in fact, she welcomed some of the changes made in the 1960s that started liberalizing the social laws in the United States regarding freedom of speech. In 1963, she became a Chairwoman of the United States Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, strongly supporting the expansion of funding to NASA, favouring manned exploration of space and the development of nuclear space propulsion. A strong anti-communist, she was a proponent of the nuclear forces' expansion to counter a rising threat of the Soviet Union and advised various presidents to use the American arsenal if needed to save the lives of common people living on US soil. A member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, she was a strong proponent of the expansion of Civil Defense to deal with natural disaster and relief actions, as well as preparation for national survival in the event of World War III. Chase mounted a powerful campaign in 1964, almost winning the Republican nomination.

1968 was sometimes called a year of women's election. National Woman's Party used the Lucas affairs scandal to highlight the inequality in the societal perception of men and female sexuality. Former actress and now Californian representative Helen Gahagan Douglas doomed the Democratic administration by spearheading the impeachment in the House of Representatives. As the FBI unravelled more and more dirt on the liberals and progressives in the Democratic administration, Chase, despite being 71 years old at the time, joined the energetic electoral campaign and won the Republican nomination, rebranding the name of the campaign into the National Coalition - mirroring 1950s campaign of national unity and 1860s Abraham Lincoln attempts at unifying the political forces behind the idea of the Union and federalism. Contrary to other candidates, Chase campaigned on a national reconciliation while maintaining Law and Order after the chaotic end of Lucas' presidency. She continued, despite the assassination attempt made by Sirhan Sirhan at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968, and won a favourable victory against George Wallace of the States' Rights' Party and Acting President Hubert Humphrey (Democrats came third after Republicans and Dixiecrats). Progressives and National Republicans occupied fringes of a political spectrum, winning only a small influence over the House of Representatives. During the election, she attacked SR's efforts to weaken the federal government, accusing Wallace of being a moral spokesperson for the slaveholders of the Antebellum South (and not supporting civil rights for African Americans), while attacking Hubert Humphrey for breaking the National Coalition in the late 1950s and becoming a spokesperson of labour aristocracy that opposed civil rights for women. Both of these conditions harmed the United States' standing on the international stage, making it appear in a bad light when compared to the socialist bloc that used blacks and feminism for propaganda purposes.

Margaret Chase Smith's presidency saw an increased international presence undertaken by the United States. After the liberalization of Chile brought to power Salvador Allende (again), the US support once again caused a fall of his government. This time, however, the Civil Defence troops were sent to the country, training local civil defense and disaster relief forces to take care of the country's ailing infrastructure. In 1971, the Bangladesh Liberation War brought millions of deaths and tens of millions of refugees - since the 1950s, the United States was entertaining India to prevent the fall of the second most populous country in the world to communism. While the US remained neutral during the 1965 war, in 1971, Chase joined forces with the Soviet fleets to force the Pakistani junta to stop the genocide. Civil Defence troops (now drafting childless married women too) were sent to Bangladesh to aid the international humanitarian efforts. When Israel went nuclear in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, divisions of CD forces were taking care of the reconstruction of devastated Palestinian cities on both Israeli and Arab land, making it one of the most important US foreign missions - an attempt to bring peace in the Middle East and turn Israel away from the European influence. On the other hand, the United States still supported questionable organizations around the world - French Algiers! formed by Captain Jean Graziani conducted systematic terrorist attacks against Algerian authorities and French collaborators, triggering the Algerian Troubles of the 1970s where the Chase administration was presented with a troubled choice - whether to support allies of their Arab allies or support right-wingers who opposed a socialist government of France The Algerian Troubles continued until 1980s with changing luck. In Italy, covert support provided by the CIA to far-right groups like National Vanguard and the New Order and left-wing groups like the Red Army Brigades nearly quadrupled, fueling the already tense social situation to explode in the Years of Lead. In Portugal, the Salazar government was overthrown - Estado Nuevo's systematic oppression was seen as too dangerous for the international standing of the United States, so a group of generals overthrew a proto-Fascist state in 1970. After a failed communist revolution (many still say that it was provoked by the pro-US forces to deal with the communists) and a few years of social turmoil, the Christian Democracy Party arose, winning the Portuguese election of 1973. Germany was once again a site for intersectional troubles - the Red Army Faction started an anti-governmental, anti-capitalist crusade, countered by the far-right Neue Werwolf units, with both of them fought by the ineffectual German police. The strategy of tension paid off, resulting in the collapse of the CDU-SPD coalition government and the rise of the right-wing section of the Christian Democracy. In France, the US supported right-wing populist Poujadist political organizations and covertly aided left-communist Trotskyite political forces that were vehemently opposed to the ongoing alliance with Marxist-Leninist states. During her last year as a President, Chase supported Thorbjörn Fälldin's Non-Socialist Coalition in Sweden and the formation of the Aldo Moro government in Italy which saw an increase in the number of non-communist ministers. The US formulated an alliance with the Greek "controlled democracy" but ultimately failed to woo Turkey which brokered a series of agreements with the European countries that de facto gave the Soviets maritime access to the Mediterranean Sea.

Thanks to the troubles everywhere in the world, the United States seemed to be one of the most stable nations - 1960s Lucas' reforms strengthened the labour unions, weakening the Taft-Hartley Act and increasing the working people's share in the national wealth. Inflation was low during the period - new nuclear power plants were opened each year, and the oil was flowing freely from the American-invested companies in Kuwait and the pro-British puppet government of Qajar Iran. Executive orders overcame the resistance to desegregation of schools - many of the Southern states privatized their schools as part of the massive resistance but the Lucas administration already invested in the public schools' system available for blacks - Chase administration reaped fruits of the Democratic policies. In terms of national defence, the US decreased expenditures for overseas missions, increasing other nations' share of payments for holding soldiers that were intended to defend their sovereignties in case of Soviet attacks. Morality campaigns were lessened, banning vigilante actions against adulterers, gays, and prostitutes - however, the leaders of progressive movements were increasingly targetted by J. Edgar Hoover's all-powerful FBI. Contraceptives were still illegal for unmarried people, married couples still had to have a prescription, and the Pill was still banned by the Food and Drug Administration on the pretext of having too many side effects. As more and more people struggled with SRID, the Contagious Diseases Act was used to establish the first National Healthcare System, providing taxpayer-funded medical treatments for people who weren't previously punished for adultery of same-sex relations. Civil conscription was enlarged by including married women who were childless and the number of courses was expanded during the Chase administration - women were to be taught being truck drivers, military nurses, and radio and radar operators. In fact, the start of the Civil Defense overseas missions triggered a spike in pregnancies, births, and marriages, as married men and women with children were exempted from the service. In terms of taxation, Chase followed Eisenhower's policy of favouring balanced budgets over tax cuts, meaning that the taxes on the richest remained at their 1950s level. With the push to eliminate various loopholes, the national revenue increased.

A former Chairwoman of the Senate Aeronautical and Space Committee, she continued her support for space exploration during her presidency. To gain popular support, NASA drafted a program of placing school teachers in space, leading to the Teacher In Space Program that saw three missions to Skylab space stations - in 1971, 1973, and 1975 where millions of American children could watch "lessons from space" on a live TV. During The Fireside Chats, the Lady from Maine was explaining how an average American profits from increased space efforts by having satellite TV, greater scientific knowledge, and new medical techniques (she invited various scientists and science fiction writers like Robert Heinlein who explained a vascular bypass operation being possible thanks to NASA efforts). Space Race was popularized as a means of showing the technological and moral superiority of the American nation over the other competitors - the European Space Agency, dominated by socialists and communists. Soviet unmanned exploration of the Outer planets of the Solar System was seen as a security risk for American space efforts and a bad image for NASA, leading to the rise of the Selene program, which led to the American manned lunar landing in 1976, a few months before the presidential election. While the Soviets were first on the Moon, the bipartisan push from both the National Coalition and the Democratic Party allowed the Congres to pass the "Draft for the 21st Century" that envisioned the opening of space to private enterprises, development of the second-generation of the nuclear space propulsion, construction of the manned scientific base on the Moon and the first human spaceflight to Mars.

Rose became a national flower of the United States

Other major events:

September 11, 1971 - the death of Nikita Khrushchev allows for a division of the Premier and the General Secretary roles in the country, allowing more plurality in the Soviet system of governance. A known opponent of President Chase, she often named her as "the devil in disguise of a woman" whose position exceeded "all records of savagery".

1972/1973 - Santiago Carrillo, Enrico Berlinguer, and Georges Marchais establish an idea of Eurocommunism, breaking with the idea of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Approaches with other left-wing and centrist parties allow for the liberalization of the anti-capitalist ideologies of their respective countries. As a side effect, the popularity of reformist communism rises, increasing the extraparliamentarian opposition in the UK and other US-aligned countries. In the Netherlands and Belgium, the left-wing coalition won national elections in the 1970s, leading to uneasy relations with the US.

1972 - in exchange for the US humanitarian aid for the Bangladeshi refugee crisis, India increased military aid to Tatmadaw, allowing the United States military advisors to train the counter-insurgency Burmese units on Indian soil.

November 7, 1972 - US presidential election - States Rights make gains among people opposed to a National Coalition administration and those who don't want to see a woman as a president. Democratic Party is displaced, winning a smaller share of electoral votes than Dixiecrats and Progressives (while still maintaining a good showing of a popular vote). George Wallace's campaign sweeps the South and divides votes enough for Democrats to cripple Humphrey's campaign. While Democrats are increasingly dependent on the labour unions' voting, Progressives sweep the vote among liberal intellectuals and advocates of social change. Republicans win with 295 EVs, States Rights achieve 157 EVs, Progressives 46 EVs while Democrats only 40 EVs.

The 1970s - a wave of liberalization sweeps through the Eastern bloc, weakening the Soviet monopoly on power and freeing the satellite countries to establish normal diplomatic relations with other socialist countries of Europe.

1973-1976 - In the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War and the Soviet open support to Israel, Arab countries, Nigeria, and Venezuela in cooperation with the US rapidly increased oil production, depressing the oil export-oriented economy of the Soviet Union while enforcing a short trade embargo on France, Italy and Spain (oil-importing countries). As a side effect, West Europe becomes more dependent on Soviet oil but the transition is costly for a few years, creating a window of opportunity for the US trade wars of the 1970s.

September 5, 1975 - Squeaky Fromme fails to assassinate President Chase in Sacramento.

September 22, 1975 - Sara Jane Moore fails to assassinate President Chase in San Francisco. FBI starts a hunt against the Hippie Racist groups across America.

1976 - after the electoral victory of non-communist Workers' Solidarity in Poland, Chase visits the country, meeting with the first non-communist government in Poland since 1939, praising the electoral, peaceful overthrow of communists and promising to back the Polish way to freedom.

December 12, 1976 - The 94th US Congress voted to make the rose the national flower of the United States, fulfilling a thirty-year of Margaret Chase Smith's campaign.​

 

[SomeGuyOnline]

Who served as the U.S. president between President Lucas' passing in Feb 1968 and President Smith's inauguration in 1969?

 

[Imielin]

Who served as the U.S. president between President Lucas' passing in Feb 1968 and President Smith's inauguration in 1969?

Hubert Humphrey, Lucas' VP.

 

[Imielin]

George C. Wallace
President of the United States (January 20, 1977 – January 20, 1981)
​

Maverick of the American political sphere, George Wallace espoused various views during his lifetime. In 1948, he was a delegate at the Democratic National Convention and refused to join the Dixiecrat walkout, supporting Eisenhower's ticket instead. In 1952, he became the Circuit Judge of the Third Judicial Circuit in Alabama, gaining a reputation for fairness regardless of the race of the plaintiff. An outspoken opponent of the Ku Klux Klan, he ran the 1958 gubernatorial election as a moderate supported by NAACP - an event that caused him to lose the election and a final shift of Alabamian powers from the Democratic to the States Rights party. By 1962, he adopted a hardline segregationist view, promising to stop the integration with the Massive Resistance of the South - and won the election, clashing with the Democratic president Scott W. Lucas on the issue of school desegregation. Use of the U.S. Army's 2nd Infantry Division from Fort Benning, Georgia to enforce desegregation of the University of Alabama galvanized the society, making Wallace the most popular governor in the South - despite Lucas forcing the University to desegregate, Wallace was seen as a defender of the states' rights against the federal overreach of powers. Countering the moderate Democratic opposition to ERA, Wallace supported the women's liberation movements, courting the National Woman's Party as part of his Northern strategy devised to make the SR party more popular in the North - where local politicians did not use the racial card in politics, focusing instead of maintaining peace and order among the society. He was the first governor to travel to the northern corporate headquarters to invite them to Alabama, promising tax abatements and other incentives. A populist politician, he often attacked the Democratic administration for not investing the scientific knowledge gained from the continued space race (Alabama was hosting MacArthur Space Flight Center since the 1960s). Wallace lost the 1964 national primaries - and thus wasn't associated with the electoral defeat of the same year. His 1968 energetic campaign swayed more Northern votes than any SR candidate before and split the vote enough to ensure Hubert Humphrey's defeat - for the first time, SR displaced Democrats as the second party in a number of electoral votes. In 1971, he returned as a governor of Alabama. In 1972, his electoral result pushed Democrats more into the fringes of American politics as a fourth party, behind Progressives - running against a popular incumbent (whose results according to the Gallup research were harmed by the different genitals) he still maintained a strong result, despite toning down the issue of segregation.

George Wallace won the 1976 general election against a former Ambassador to Italy (1953), a Republican representative (1943-1951) and senator (1951-1963, 1969-1975) of Connecticut, a Secretary of State (1975-1977) and a member of the National Woman's Party, Clare Boothe Luce. Up to this day, 1976 remains one of the fiercest presidential campaigns in history, with a charismatic and forceful public speaker born as an illegitimate child clashing against the Southern populist with lawyering background. By election day, Wallace barely won the electoral vote thanks to the support of male-dominated labour unions - and almost causing the disappearance of the Democratic Party as a viable presidential contender. In domestic terms, Wallace's presidency was mixed. He had fulfilled some of his electoral promises by eliminating forced busing and repealing the Housing Act that prohibited discrimination based on race. As a general economic downturn occurred in the late 1970s in the world, Wallace tried to save the situation by providing an economic stimulus to reduce unemployment and stimulate the strategic industries - most importantly the Alabamian space industry that bloomed under his wife's second governorship. Wallace supported the elimination of tax shelters and the use of tax havens through the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (that ordered foreign financial institutions of broad scope – banks, stock brokers, hedge funds, pension funds, insurance companies, trusts – to report directly to the US Internal Revenue Service all clients who are U.S. persons) and creating the Tax Haven Blacklist. A supporter of environmentalism, Wallace promoted the use of green energy as a means to support nuclear power generation and increased the number of regulations concerning mining to stop environmental degradation (Mountaintop removal mining) and risks to human health (like shifting out the use of freon refrigerants too stop the ozone depletion and finally banning the use of leaded fuels). Wallace was the first president to warn about carbon dioxide being a harmful side effect of unrestricted industrial production and mass consumption. During the 1970s, the States Rights Party invited many environmentalist leaders, former Progressives and liberal economists, leading to the rise of the socially conservative, economically liberal, Green faction named Wallace Dixiecrats. Critics say that it was a political move against the oil-driven economies of socialist countries like the Soviet Union or Iraq.

Wallace increased funding for the development of nuclear fusion and space propulsion, increasing investments over the quotas set by the "Draft for the 21st Century". Contrary to his previous racist policies, Wallace increased the number of black federal workers and encouraged NASA to send the first African American into space (as part of his policies claiming not to be racist, but focused on law and order instead). During his presidency, the first Themis space station was assembled in space, holding nuclear weapons ready to be delivered against targets scattered from Yalu to Bug rivers, triggering the space race against the Soviet Union in the number of sophisticated orbital nuclear platforms. In 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, triggering the Pakistani raised alertness on the Indian border (Soviets were allies to Pakistani, while India was an ally to the US), triggering the Indo-Pakistani War of 1979 that was stopped after a week by the George Wallace's threat of launching nuclear weapons from Themis space station if Pakistan launched nukes against India. Wallace visited European countries a few times, making amends with Aldo Moro's Italy (and opening the country to the US business interests), Mitterand France and Gonzalez Spain during the series of events now known as Wallace's detente that caused the European-Soviet split.

After serving four years in the White House, ailing George Wallace refused to accept his party's nomination for re-election and returned to Alabama, where he was elected in 1982 (with most of the black vote) and served as a popular Governor until he died in 1998 (Alabama ratified the constitution and removed term limits), lobbying for the development of a local economy and the rise of the Green States' Rights' Faction. His long-divorced (over the issue of Wallace's hiding her cancer diagnosis) wife, Lurleen Burns served in the US Congress since 1970 (as a representative) and 1974 (as a Senator) until her death in 2001.

There are rumours that 85-year-old J. Edgar Hoover threatened Wallace not to run again in 1980.

War on Drugs has led to the rapid expansion of the internment camps in the US, "accidentally" targeting racial minorities more than their white counterparts. War on Adultery continued during Wallace's presidency, as well as the war on SRID.

Other major events:

September 17, 1978 - Camp David Declaration - George Wallace condemns the British junta ruling the country since 1974 (despite Hoover's FBI support to the pro-junta groups in the US political sphere).

March 28, 1979 - Themis incident almost leads to the detonation of a nuclear stockpile in the Earth's orbit. The accident would lead to an increased human presence in space, as the detachments of the US Armed Forces (since 1980, the US Space Force) would be stationed onboard Themis to ensure regular repairs and early prevention of possible malfunction.

August 27, 1979 - Prime Minister of the National Government Lord Mountbatten is assassinated by the IRA, leading to the declaration of martial law in North Ireland by the junta government and more restrictions on civil liberties on the British Isles.

March 10, 1980 - Elizabeth Adams is arrested and placed in the internment camp. A group of prominent Saudi figures are also arrested for using her clients for sexual purposes, creating a brief diplomatic incident and a short spike of a moral campaign.​

 

[Imielin]

If that man really (IRL) didn't tell his wife about her cancer in the 1960s, he deserved hell (if it exists).

 

[Imielin]

Emma Logan
President of the United States (January 20, 1981 - January 20, 1989)​

The 1950s to 1980s are often named the Glorious Decades - unprecedented growth brought many changes in America - coming out from the Great Depression and brutal war that saw the first use of weapons of mass destruction, American society experienced a rise in the standards of life never seen before. Women worked in factories during wartime and while the first female conscription occurred in the 1950s, during the late 1940s, nurses were drafted for the US Nurse Corps in 1944, serving on the battlefields of Spain, France, Italy, Norway and Germany - as well as the most dangerous Pacific archipelagos where the Japanese mounted the fiercest resistance. Women's draft resumed during a short Korean War, where drafted nurses were often treating the wounds of irradiated soldiers, with some of these medical caretakers dying themselves in the irradiated hellholes. Sacrifice and influence from the female war veterans brought a change in the US social laws - by elevating the first female Brigadier general to the rank of a Vice-president - and then a President, who led efforts to make the Equal Rights Amendment work. Similarly, black veterans led the Civil Rights movement - at first to desegregate the military, then to desegregate federal places - and finally, convincing the federal government to enforce the 14th Amendment on the states.

By 1980, black Americans lived a way better life than their grandparents, even in the Deep South (as the States' Rights Party downplayed the segregation issue to gain nationwide support from anti-federalists) - although they mostly congregated in the separate districts and often faced discrimination when it came to business, employment and housing - leading to the appearance of black-dominated companies and the black-majority voting districts. Women's liberation movements tend to be more conservative, with feminist organizations fighting against prostitution and pornography after achieving legal rights in the 1950s and fighting against discrimination in business and employment (but some banks and employers still demand the signature of a husband/male relative on contracts). Decades-long propaganda made Americans more conservative despite some liberal upheavals - anti-nuclear drills are common instilling a sense of fear against European foreigners wanting to change the American way of life, school students are taught how to recognize a communist by their clothing, and music they like, style of speaking and social life - and after finishing schools, they're drafted for national service - young men conduct a short period of the military service to learn discipline and defence skills, while young women are trained in the Civil Defence practical skills of driving, basic electronic and mechanic repairs, cooking and housework. Sexual minorities are oppressed - the most outspoken gays and lesbians are sent to the internment camps to undergo resocialization to abandon "the anti-social behaviours". The overwhelming majority remains in the closet as the police or far-right militias conduct usual raids against the gay clubs and other meeting places, while the conservative-dominated branches of the National Woman's Party organize demonstrations against them. Those who underwent resocialization or jail time are prohibited from working at schools, hospitals, federal and state-level offices and the military and no law prevents discrimination based on sexual orientation. In fact, the most conservative counties and states encourage it. Blue laws are still strong, with public television being controlled not to espouse radicalism. Knowledge about SRID increased, with the specific term changing to AIDS - but still, it is closely associated with free love, promiscuity, sex work and adultery.

By the 1980s, it became clear that the current lifestyle was fundamentally unsustainable. No longer America is the country that held supremacy over the world's economy - other competitors appeared, weakening the US dominance and dooming the possibility of the 1950s idyllic lifestyle imagined by many Americans. Soviets rebuilt after the war and diversified their economy - being forced to do so by President Chase's scheme to weaken their oil industry. Europe, dominated by Soviet-friendly governments also succeeded in their economic recovery programs, creating a European Common Market in 1970, and disestablishing the trade barriers from Seville to Vladivostok and Canton. While Europeans and Soviets soon did a political split, they remained friendly in terms of economics - despite the increased trade between the US and countries like Italy or France. Early openings were partially rescinded after the appearance of goods "Made in USSR" on American shelves, bringing trade barriers on Soviet and Chinese-produced goods. By 1980, the GDP of the European Common Market overtook the US GDP. Politically, the US was also retreating - the Soviets took over Islamist Iran in 1979 and even though the new government was officially neutral, it had lost Khuzestan to Iraq and was forced to recognize the independence of a pro-Soviet Kurdistan. War in Afghanistan raged on, despite the Wallace Nuclear Diplomacy stopping the outbreak of an atomic war in the region. The change was needed in America to regain its confidence and international standing as the most powerful country on Earth.

In 1980, Republicans and Democrats made yet another unification attempt to prevent the States' Rights Party from winning again. During George Wallace's presidency, the States' Rights Party became dominated by the proponents of environmentalism, stronger trade unions, industrial regulations and the elimination of tax shelters. Corporate America didn't like the partial return of segregation as the rise of housing discrimination caused parts of a skilled black workforce to move out to more friendly environments. By 1980, the largest corporations were funnelling significant aid to the pro-market Republican candidates. One of them was Emma Logan, a woman known for causing the fall of William O. Douglas from the Supreme Court. One of the most recognizable activists of the 1960s, she was elected as the New York representative with support from the National Woman's Party in 1962, before being elected to the US Senate in 1970 to represent the Conservative Party of New York as part of Senate Republicans. A charismatic speaker, she moderated in national politics and criticized the most oppressive social laws in the United States, while using the fact of being a mother to 5 children to evoke conservative values. By 1976, she almost won the Republican nomination for the presidency, making a strong appeal to the centre of politics - the SIlent Majority willing to live a standard American lifestyle while not being afraid of the oppressive regulations being made against the average Joe or Jane. The 1980 election brought the vision of the Centrist Revolution which won the national election for the National Coalition.

On March 30, 1981, Emma Logan was shot by John Hickley Jr., but underwent surgery and recovered quickly from a broken rib, gaining popularity and sympathy among the common Americans. She proceeded to continue with her liberalization reforms, signing the moratorium on the death penalty for most of the crimes (except for murder, espionage and sexual assault). Contraceptives for married couples became legal without prescription as long as they weren't hormonal. The Law Reform Act of 1981 removed adultery from the list of felony crimes and lessened sentences for sodomy, replacing the most severe punishments (like being sent to internment camps) with psychiatric care in mental asylums. In August 1981, PATCO went on strike, violating the federal law prohibiting government unions from striking. Logan fired roughly 12,000 striking air traffic controllers who ignored her order, sending military controllers and supervisors to handle the nation's commercial air traffic. Subsequent Labour Relations Act of 1982 rolled back some of Scott Lucas' and Gorge Wallace's reforms, bringing back most of the Taft-Hartley anti-union regulations. As Logan's presidency grew more popular, she used it to pass tax cuts for corporations as part of stimulating the economy, supported the expansion of nuclear energy and the US oil production while lessening most of the regulations of the car emissions to stimulate the demand on a growing production of American cars and American oil. Development of the medical sciences in the 1970s allowed for the creation of cheaper testing methods for AIDS - the Public Health Act of 1984 made testing mandatory for marriage applicants, with no fine or any penalties being imposed if they had done so voluntarily - a break for a twenty-years long policy of restrictions for the infected people. In terms of space policy, Logan largely followed her predecessors' policies but financed manned exploration of space and the orbital assembly of the nuclear launch sites.
In foreign politics, Logan began the 1980s escalation of the Cold War - she had supported the anti-Soviet Afghans, and increased aid to the Republic of Iran, leading to the country's break with neutrality and alliance with the US by the late 1980s, the rise of revanchism against Iraqis, Soviets and Kurds. Her invasion of Grenada was popular among the US public, but not for the UN community that grew more critical of the US policies since the constant vetoes prohibiting the People's Republic of China from joining the organization. American Free Trade Agreement allowed American corporations to enter the markets of Canada, Mexico and later the Latin American countries without trade barriers, extracting local wealth to fuel the American Dream. US troops were present in South Africa as a part of the UN Peacekeeping Force following the South African Civil War that saw the first use of nuclear weapons on African soil. The exploitation of the third-world workforce and natural resources allowed for a short-lived economic boom of the 1980s, bringing more stability to American society and allowing Logan to be re-elected by a landslide in 1984.

As part of the Military Service Reform Law of 1986, the military draft became equalized to include unmarried women, resulting in a short spike in new marriages and births near the end of a decade. The age of draft was moved to 19 for everyone subjected to it and shortened to 12 months - both to save money and make military conscription less time-consuming for young adult people. During her presidency, Logan presided over the decommissioning of Themis nuclear space station - on January 28, 1986, one of three stations caught fire, killing two soldiers of the US Space Force and triggering a congressional inquiry about the NASA-USF cooperation that resulted in shifting stations out of service. USF would assemble in space already planned Athena space station - without NASA's participation to minimize the civilian involvement in the process and prevent a civilian oversight of the enterprise. A new station was larger and designed to be safer, with both manual and automatic ways to shut down nuclear launch - two highest-ranking officers could stop the launch at any time, while all seven could authorize self-destruction of the station in case of the most extreme event of failing to stop nuclear launch procedures. Electronics were hardened against possible EMP weaponry, with the new generation of vacuum tubes being used to make it safer. The station would be equipped with the first generation of anti-space guns designed to stop the possible assault on the station. Launch of Athena stations (three, to cover the whole world with nuking capabilities) would reinvigorate the Nuclear space race - by the 1990s, the Western European countries banded together to launch the Europa space station, holding the French nukes at the disposal of the Eurocorps. In the 2000s, the Chinese would launch their own nuclear space station - independently from the Soviet-operated stations since the 1970s.

Other major events:

December 13, 1981 - Social Democracy (Poland) wins the election, creating a government dominated by the former communist members of the Polish United Workers' Party in coalition with agrarian politicians. President Logan makes diplomatic overtures to prevent Poland from falling into the Soviet sphere of influence again.

January 15, 1984 - upon reaching 60, Soviet Premier Vladimir Semichastny resigns from his office and retires while remaining a political advisor to his successors. During his 13 years in office, he had shifted many powers from the General Secretary and the Communist Party, making the office of Premier the most powerful executive organ in the Soviet system. His protege, Mikhail Gorbachev becomes a new Premier, intending to reorganize the internal Soviet system to make it more productive and free for its citizens.

January 28, 1986 - Themis disaster - one of three orbital nuclear stations catches fire onboard, killing two soldiers of the US Space Force. As a result of the congressional inquiry into the safety of nuclear stations, two Themis orbital launch sites are shifted out of service by 1989.

April 26, 1986 - Chernobyl catastrophe - Soviet Premier Gorbachev dies in a plane crash over the Pripyat city. His political reforms would introduce a limited political plurality, causing the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to abandon its ban on factionalism, while still banning other political groups. Economic reforms would fail to bring down Khrushchevite decentralization and workplace democracy in favour of free enterprises. However, the economic law would allow some market flexibility in business contacts of the state-owned, workers-controlled enterprises.

July 3, 1988 - Athena nuclear space station goes online, with the first crew of seven US Space Force officers arriving at the base.

 

[Imielin]

If anyone is reading this thread - I made some changes to the previous chapters, like adding Lord Mountbatten as a Prime Minister of the junta movement and reprisals after the IRA killed him in 1979. In the 1960s chapter, I added the tax on childlessness modelled after the Polish bachelor tax of the same time period.
Also, a more conservative turn in the liberation movements - women's liberation and black civil rights are coming from the establishment, as opposed to the OTL activist groups, allowing for a more conservative turn of both feminist and black organizations. Also, both major parties supported civil rights (the 1948 split became permanent), leading to the bipartisan liberation - branding it as enforcement of constitutional rights, instead of changing laws. Most of the actions are done by the Supreme Court striking down racist laws and the presidential executive orders. When States' Rights come to power, these laws are already set in stone, meaning that they have limited ability to strike them down without antagonizing even their socially conservative base from the North. South is still racist but they can't do much legally - and in case of civil disturbances, federal/state troops are often ready to restore stability.

Office of the President is seen as more bipartisan than OTL - 1948, 1952, 1956, and 1980 elections are done by the alliance of Republicans and Democrats, and 1968 is claiming to be one of the bipartisan elections. Presidents are more ready to work with opposed political parties and politicians who aren't directly opposed to federal power.

And there's no Vietnam War, nor any major war that the US has participated in since nuking of Manchuria. Billions of money that OTL went to Vietnam are used to reinvest in the American mainland to increase the American standard of living to prevent socialist propaganda (Western Europe, established democracies had fallen to the communists by the 1940s so there's a fear that too much trouble for common Americans can turn them communist). Trade unions are stronger, wages are higher and women's participation in labour is smaller than OTL as the government supports larger families, and punishes childless people with big taxes (Chinese, Soviets and French coupled together have very big birthrates as they pursue natalist policies). Singles are drafted into the military, as are childless men, making life simpler (and preventing being sent overseas) by marrying and having a kid - and the government-supported trade unions protect mostly married men and children (making it way harder to fire married men with children than singles). Also, old bachelors and spinsters are often accused of being gay. And being gay is a crime that can cause you to be sent to prison and be prevented from taking many responsible jobs. There are no contraceptives for you, unless you come with your wife/husband who can co-sign that you bought it.