Vanguard Against Syndicalism: A New EnglandAAR

Rockefeller knew that it was during extraordinary times, that extraordinary men would rise to the occasion. He had no doubt in his mind that he was such a man. While the Kaiser sat idly by as the world turned upside down, it would take a tiny nation of 12 million to make things right.

He had only taken the helm for the last 48 hours, and true nature of the situation was growing dangerously apparent. The national guards of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont had been mustered to service and were already marching on New York.
However much three Militias would be able to accomplish was unknown, but what was known was how much worse it could be if those Syndicalists were marching on Hartford.

Technology and strategic plans were already gifted to New England military planners from Canada and National France, however, many New Englanders still remembered the horrors of trench warfare during the Weltskrieg and they were not at all enthusiastic about following the British and French methods of warfare. However, time was of the essence and it could not be spent re-writing volumes of tried and proven (albeit poorly) military doctrine. For now, it would have to do.

Many in America had little clue as to how the rest of the world was taking this situation and nor did they really care. But one interesting development did occur. The Argentines had declared open War upon the AFU and the CSA. Rumors had it that they were even attempting to propose an alliance with the Garner government. Whether or not they would accept was not known to the New England diplomats, nor the Canadians.

Rockefeller finally sat down and began reading a brief status report on the state of military affairs, as written out by Major General Hasey.

Strategically, New England holds a brief advantage to the CSA,
1. The CSA has only one division bordering New England at the moment
2. New England has mobilized our three National Guard divisions headed for the border
3. The CSA has only 11 total divisions, intelligence suspects they are mostly militias. New England could technically catch up to the CSA with a more modern and professional fighting force in the near future.

4. Canadian troops are also mobilized and headed for Combat alongside the National Guard, hence-forth renamed to the Minutemen. The AFU’s use of the term is insulting and they too will be dealt with.
5. Manpower is short and our population is small to begin with. We should focus exclusively on a small quality fighting force. The Minute Men should be down graded to a rear guard role as soon as quality troops are trained and ready to fight. Some in the staff are optimistic that refugees from other parts of the former US will flock here and join our cause, however, until that is proven true, we should base our strategy around a limited number of able bodied recruits.
6. The Draft while useful at the moment, should be abandoned as soon as allowable, there are many in the High Command who feel that an All-Volunteer force will be more beneficial towards the goal of a Small QUALITY military.

Rockefeller nodded silently towards the points made by the young general. Hopefully New England will last long enough to implement these plans.

Next Update: Forging a Nation

Sir Humphrey, BritishImperial: Hopefully I don't disappoint!

Milites: Oh I will, don't worry about that! >:3

Nathan Madien: This is for all of you New Englanders out there! \o/

Minarchist: I play as New England in Vicky a lot as well, the problem I have with them however is the utter lack of useful resources, LIKE COAL! AND IRON! They have too much industry for their own good, and to be honest, the only time I envy Japan's resource situation, its when I'm playing as New England!

robw963: As much as I would love to see Yankee Stadium burned to the ground, I think the AUS(Fascist Faction) bombed it to the ground first



As the Second American Civil War raged onward for the next six months, New England worked tirelessly to prepare for the inevitable invasion from the CSA. The Canadian Royalist government insisted that New England not get involved until the time was right. For many in the government, this was a hard pill to swallow, especially when American cities were being bombed, burned, and plundered on a near daily basis. Many wondered if there would be much of an America left to save before the year was out. Ultimately, New England was still weak and would not be able to sustain itself during an open war for very long.

In the march of 1937, the first elections for a legitimate government were run and completed six months later. Rockefeller had little in the way of competition and was elected as Prime Minister in a landslide election, despite his youth, few doubted that what New England needed was a man with fresh ideas and energy, and Rockefeller had both in spades.

For his Deputy P.M. Rockefeller selected Henry Styles Bridges[1], a staunch anti-syndicalist from New Hampshire. (Supported McCarthyism in the 1950s OTL, Corporate Suit)

During the campaign months, other politicians and notable New Englanders began outlining a New England Constitution and Central Government. It is important to note that for many living outside New England, the region is often seen as being six states with a single ideology. This however, is far from the reality. New Englanders are fiercely independent and have for a long time been caught up in their own petty rivalries. Some of the more notable being the political rivalry of New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and during many of the Constitutional assemblies verbal brawls would break out between the representatives of both states. Many of the other New England states did in fact side with New Hampshire however, as they all feared a New England run solely by Massachusetts, who out-populated all five other states combined. Ultimately a government based largely on the original U.S. Government was installed; while also putting emphasis on the importance of the New England Governors Conference [2], a new political body that would serve to promote a singular New England governing philosophy and help to improve cooperation by and by.

One of the first laws enacted by the New England National Congress (NENC henceforth) was a formal Declaration of Independence, not just from the United States, but also Canada. For many during the opening stages of Canada’s seizure of the New England states, it was feared that they would create powerless puppet regime based along royalist lines. This move by the NENC was viewed upon dimly by both governments internally, but outwardly they voiced their “support”. Canada because they wanted a strong ally more than a puppet, and the US because they ultimately had little choice.

For those aligned to MittelEuropa, this was an interesting development, as it was not lost on the Kaiser that a free-market New England, while still officially allied to the Entente would in fact create a very interesting new avenue towards strengthening their own position against the Syndicalists. New Englanders too, were more enthusiastic over the thought of an alliance to Germany than Canada, but for the moment, Canada was their protector. Regardless, all of the nations of MittelEuropa and the Entente sent diplomatic missions to Boston to officially recognize the new state. Japan, Siam and the free market nations of Latin America also sent their own missions as well.

What of the Third Internationale? They condemned the New England State outright, claiming it to be the singular greatest example of Capitalist treachery. The Commune of France and Union of Britian were especially damning in their language. But none more so than John Reed of the CSA, while not attacking the New England nation directly, he stated rather plainly that Canada’s actions in preventing the creation of a unified American Socialist State, were beyond grotesque and violated over a hundred years of good will between both countries, socialist or not.

The silence from Canada was deafening.

The rantings and ravings abroad were of little concern to Rockefeller however. Upon realizing that the CSA was unwilling to invade New England outright gave him extra breathing room and gave him the chance to entertain the creative notions coming from his cabinet. All of whom were fully dedicated towards the cause of erasing the CSA from the map forever.

The Rockefeller chose his cabinet based on the goal of New England unity, and political ideals had little bearing in his decision. In reality, he found that when people disagree, it often leads to better ideas and solutions than would normally be reached if all members simply agreed with one another.

For his Chief Foreign Minister, Rockefeller chose John Hay Whitney [3], a savagely brilliant capitalist who had strong ties to Canada’s Exile government and would be instrumental in giving New England all the breathing room they would need to create a stable base from which carry out their own ends. (General Staffer, none were better, RFK was a choice, but he would be 12 in 1938! So I just pretended I didn’t see him there.)

The Armaments Minister would be the resource industrialist from Vermont, Ralph Flanders [4]. Flanders while not vehemently opposed to Unions or Workers Rights, was still opposed to the other anti-liberty policies often carried out by the Syndicalist States, and was level headed enough to keep the hardcore anti-syndicalists from running roughshod over New England government policy. Rockefeller chose him specifically for what he called “loyal-opposition”. (Headed a Committee to Censure McCarthy OTL, Industrial Research +5, IC Efficiency +5)

Burton M. Cross [5] had been serving in Maine’s Board of Aldermen and was selected for his fair dealings with internal legal matters. As a free society, New England would have little use for anyone more involved that that. (Consumer Goods Need -5)

Groves [6] was serving in the US Army Corps of Engineers before the Second Civil war but decided his loyalties were with New England, his great energy, administrative skills, and sense of duty would more than likely take him beyond the world of Military Intelligence. (Army Intelligence +30)

The decision to place Margaret Chase Smith [7] as Chief of Staff was seen at first as unusual, but as the military community soon found agreement with her objections to Trench Warfare as prescribed by the Canadian Royalists. With weapons becoming more and more advanced, Chase Smith quickly became one of the loudest proponents to the “War of Maneuver” philosophy. (Mobility +10)

General Gaffey [8] was one of Smith’s strongest supporters and further enhanced her case with is own promotion of a powerful Armored Corps, to provide the Infantry a means to break the lines and morale of the enemy while preserving the lives and morale of friendly troops. (Armored Spearhead Proponent)

Wallace H. White promoted the creation of a small but potent navy, advocating the use of Marines, Base Control and Aircraft Carriers. (Base Control)

Stuart Symington [9] is an aircraft manufacturing industrialist, while not particularly interested in aircraft doctrine, he is the best New England has at the moment. (Undistinguished Suit, utterly worthless)



Next Update: Making Policy


Outside Notes:
I must admit, before I jump headlong into the game, I decided to take a close look at the OTL histories of each of my Ministers, Some of them don’t exactly have OTL careers that match their positions in game, however, I’ve tried my best to get them to fit into their new shoes. Some of the ministers I would have rather chosen, (RFK for example) but were either too young in 1938 or would have created an ideological steam roller in TTL politics. And because Nelson Rockefeller was already a pretty charismatic and influential individual (even at the young age of 29!) I decided that his cabinet should have a broad spectrum of ideologies. (From Social Democrat, to Social Conservative) I really want New England to be the last best hope for American style democracy in this dark, dark world of KaiserReich, and by that I mean, fair and rational. Much unlike New England’s Canadian overlords!

[1] While I personally hate McCarthyists, Bridges has plenty of other good qualities that should make him a fine Head of Government, not that I had much of a choice however. Wiki

[2] The NEGC is a real organization OTL and while its real-life effect on New England politics is debatable, I wanted to give it a plug anyways. NEGC Website

[3] This guy is probably one of the most important Venture Capitalists in American History, not just New England, hell, one of his friends invented the term! The only reason he’s my foreign minister instead of my Armaments Minister is because Daboo put him there WIKI
Someone should remind me to tell Daboo to fix that.

[4] Of all the people on this list, I think I like Ralph Flanders the most. He is probably the finest example of a rational politician, and I wish there were more like him in American politics. You guys REALLY need to checkout his Wikilink. WIKI
Oh, and that “loyal-opposition” term is a wonderful plug to an excellent alt-history series that I hold dear in my heart. Want to guess which one? >_>

[5] Not much to go on for this guy, even in wikipedia. New England has little use for a security minister anyways, LIBERTY is our national value, not security! WIKI

[6] Leslie Groves is a really interesting officer, he was in charge of the Manhattan project OTL and I bet he’ll be doing something similar for New England later on. >:3 WIKI

[7] Chase Smith is another extremely famous New Englander, she is the first woman to ever serve in the US House or the Senate OTL and she also has one of the longest political careers in the history of the State of Maine, however, nothing in her Wikipedia article suggests that she was a mobility warfare proponent, infact, she was more involved with the Navy than the Army, but whatever, I made her fit. WIKI

[8] I have a lot in store for General Gaffey, while OTL he was Patton’s Chief of Staff in Europe, I think I’ll go ahead and turn the tables in game. As a matter of fact, I’ve wanted to know, from you, the readers. If it would be fair to write an event for some of the USA’s officer corps to defect to New England after the CSA wins the war. New England is in terrible need of Generals, and most of the ones I have suck. Like, they really suck. So I would definitely like a response on this one.

Ultimately, what I’m getting at is, I’m going to make Patton Gaffey’s chief of staff, in this timeline. I think it would be really awesome! And this time, Patton’s ballsy attitude won’t be neutered by politics! WIKI

[9] The AAR description for this guy says it all. New England has no good Airforce Chiefs yet. The only good one on the list isn’t old enough yet. (He’s 18 in 1938, and an 18 year old Air Chief is just silly). WIKI

Maj. von Mauser said:

Good AAR, I will follow.

In response to your General's question. You should use all the Generals you have first.

After you have used them all up you may make an event which gives you some of the Generals form the USA. Make ita random even't though, meaning you don't get to pick what Generals you get form the USA, you just get a certain percentage of their Generals, Admirals, and Air Leaders.

Click to expand...

Yeah about that, i've been looking at the list of commands, there doesn't seem to be a command type to allow any of those things. Unless one exists that isn't listed in the wiki, i think that very idea may be dead in the water. I guess we will have to see what i can do with 17 mj. generals. >_>