• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Ooh nice to see this back, with Eternal Emperor-President Truman benevolently ruling all until the glorious mushroom cloud will take us to the Mid-Western farm in the sky. I say that as a Truman fan of course. :D

I imagine in this 1960, de Gaulle would settle for a VW with a full tank of gas for Cambodia!
 
There is always Halleck of Indiana.... At least for VP.

I'd offer Reagan, but he could be a Conservative Democrat here for all we know due to the PoD.

People have suggested Reagan before but there are two problems with that. First, He would historically not have entered politics at this point. While that could be explained away by the point of divergence, there is another challenge. That challenge is that he was still a Democrat in 1960, and actually endorsed Nixon's candidacy for President.

First: Cambodia is worth $15,000. I find that funny for some reason. :laugh:

Second: I nominate Nelson Rockefeller to be the Republican who will lose to President Truman.

Please let me know what you decide to do about the election via PM and I will gladly make you another election map. :)

I myself am considering either going semi-historical and using Nixon or going with an alternate scenario and using Rockefeller. The main problem with Nixon is that his main claim to fame in this timeline is his stint in the senate and two failed VP runs.

Ooh nice to see this back, with Eternal Emperor-President Truman benevolently ruling all until the glorious mushroom cloud will take us to the Mid-Western farm in the sky. I say that as a Truman fan of course. :D

I imagine in this 1960, de Gaulle would settle for a VW with a full tank of gas for Cambodia!

I think his people might have a few issues with that trade though.

General Patton was experiencing something he had not experienced since the beginning of the European Campaign: Defeat. In a few short weeks, he had watched his brilliant campaign North of the Yellow River fall apart. What had started as a brilliant campaign aimed at breaking the stalemate on the Yellow River had now become a fight for survival, as he and his men were now cut off behind enemy lines and in danger of being destroyed. They had been informed that Stillwell was ordering a transport fleet to the area so they would be able to retreat if they had to but the indignity of it all still grated on Patton. For a man who had gone from strength to strength and from victory to victory ever since the breakout from Spain, this was not how he believed his campaigns were supposed to go. This campaign was his brainchild and thus the failure was all the more personal. to make matters worse, Bradley, his longtime rival, had seized upon this and had started making statements that either his victories in the war in Europe had made him overconfident or that maybe he was not the military genius people seemed to believe he was. Normally, this would not have bothered him too much except the allocations of overconfidence had actually hit a little to close to home. The truth of the matter was, since he had finally managed to break out of Spain, the war had largely gone his way and he had not had to face any real adversity. Patton was beginning to think that this had caused him to get to used to victory and to just expect his efforts to always bare fruit. The only way to silence both his own concerns and the accusations of Bradley was to come up with a way to fix this disaster. However, in his zeal to reach the coast during the opening months of the campaign, his men were tired and demoralized. They needed a break and he could ill afford to give them one. Therefore, it was incredibly likely that he and his men would have to be evacuated before long. If that happened, the city of Tianjin might fall back into Japanese hands and the Americans would lose any chance at preventing the Japanese forces in Yucheng from escaping North. If, however, fresh troops could be brought into replace his, the Americans might be able to buy enough time for the forces advancing towards them from the southwest to break through the encirclement, thus salvaging his plan. It was a gamble, but Patton had never been afraid of such moves. Still, he determined to hold on as long as possible in hopes that he would not need to enact this plan.
As it turned out, the back up plan would prove very necessary not long after, as he and his men were soon under a brutal attack by the Japanese. Outnumbered and exhausted from the long march, it soon became apparent that they would not be able to hold and Patton gave the order to retreat to the ships.
6rljk3.jpg

Patton could only hope that Stillwell would give him one more chance to salvage his campaign and thus endorse his plan b.
While the campaign in China hung in the balance, the eyes of everyone would being to fix on the Japanese Home Islands. This was because the Americans had managed to secure the Nagoya region. That meant that the Americans were now in a position to march on the beating heart of the Japanese Empire, the city of Tokyo itself. MacArthur, not wanting to give the Japanese any more time to fortify the capital then was absolutely necessary, ordered the attack to commence immediately. What followed was a battle that would rival the battle of Hiroshima in ferocity. The Japanese soliders, while outnumbered, were fighting under the eyes of their emperor and were fighting to defend not only their capital, but their emperor as well. As such, they were determined to hold the city no matter what. Thus, the Japanese soldiers fought like demons spawned from hell, refusing to give up a single inch of ground. The Japanese would not retreat or fall back for anything and there were even rumors of Japanese soldiers to weak to stand having themselves propped up against the nearest wall, strapped to light posts, or just leaning against the nearest upright object and continuing to fire against the Americans. This led to wild, but false rumors, of dead men who continued to fire their weapons like vengeful spirits. The Japanese soldiers in general would keep shooting until they had run out of ammo and even then, they would refuse to give up their positions, either launching devastating banzai charges against the American lines or an even more devious solution. The Japanese soldiers would all fall silent, attempting to sucker the Americans into believing that they had killed them. Then, when the Americans approached the position and got close enough, the Japanese, who would often play dead to enhance the illusion, would spring up and attack, using the momentary shock of the American soldiers to close the distance and try and kill them with bayonets. Some units even reported Japanese forces allowing the Americans to pass by them, only to get up after the Americans had taken up new positions and attack them from behind with bayonets. As the Americans got closer and closer to the heart of Tokyo and the Imperial Palace itself, the resistance only got more and more fierce. The Japanese were determined not to let the Imperial Palace be "desecrated by the footsteps of the accursed American devils", and thus they fought with dogged resistance. Soon, American forces began to quip that it was not enough to kill the Japanese soldiers, you then had to go up and knock them over, so determined was the Japanese defense of the palace. As the battle engulfed the halls of the Imperial Palace, the Japanese would conduct brutal ambushes, hiding behind every corner and generally anything large enough for them to hide behind, popping out only when the Americans were at point blank range in order to conserve ammo and maximize casualties. The Japanese considered it an honor to die defending the Palace and had been told by their commanders that any soldier who fell defending the palace would gain high favor with the Gods and would thus live like Kings in the afterlife and telling them that the Emperor had promised to build and dedicate a shrine to every soldier who died defending the Palace (He hadn't, but the soldiers did not know that). However, despite the heroism of the Japanese soldiers, the battle was never going to end in anything other then a victory. There were simply too many Americans and not enough Japanese to hold the city and they had not had enough time to fortify the city to compensate for their lack of numbers. Thus, after several hours of the most brutal fighting that the Americans had seen, they finally managed to seize the city of Tokyo. This news was greeted with massive amounts of fanfare throughout the country. Truman himself, upon hearing of the capture of the city, proclaimed the war won and the rest of the fighting to be "clean up". However, if the war was over, no one had told the Japanese, as they continued to fight with just as much ferocity. Apparantly, the fact that they no longer had any hope of winning the war was completely lost on them. Their, was however, one exception: The Emperor himself. The Emperor of Japan was becoming more and more disillusioned with the war with each passing day. Time after time he watched the flower of Japanese youth sacrifice itself on the altar of Japanese pride and ambitions to no avail. To him, if to no one else in his government, it was glaringly obvious that Japan was not going to win the war and that all of the brave Japanese soldiers dying in the battles with the Americans were dying for nothing. Tired of watching his people get slaughtered in a war that was clearly going to end in a defeat, he made an announcement to his government shortly after the defeat in Tokyo that he would be seeking a peace with the Americans. "Enough men have died for this hopeless war and I will no longer sit by and watch my people get killed over and over for nothing. This war has got to end and I will be the one to end it." These were the words he delivered to his shocked cabinet from his provisional capital in Sendai. However, the Emperor had made a critical error. Given the huge amount of respect and reverence placed on the position of Emperor, Hirohito had assumed that his cabinet members would all fall in line once he made a clear statement of his will. He had been wrong. While they all proclaimed that they would do as he asked, they began plotting stop him. While the battle for Japan was likely going to be lost, these men still hoped the Japanese Army would be able to fight on in China. In addition, they believed, to a man, that the only surrender the Americans would accept would be an unconditional surrender, and that was simply something they were unwilling to give. To them, to accept peace under such circumstances would be the very height of humiliation and it would render all the sacrifices of the soldiers who had fought and died for the empire meaningless. Surely, they believed, these men would rather die honorably fighting to defend their emperor then have themselves be betrayed like this by the person they trusted most. Furthermore, they also feared the reaction of the Japanese people. Several decades of propaganda meant that an entire generation had grown up absolutely believing the Japanese to be a superior people and being extremely distrustful, even downright hating and fearing in some cases, foreigners. They had been repeatedly told that they could expect nothing but horribly painful death at the hands of the Americans for so long that many, if not most, Japanese, came to believe that they were the spawn of the devil himself. Now, after all that propaganda had poisoned them into thinking that being defeated by the Americans was a fate worse then death, they would be told that their government was going to simply give up, basically abandoning them to their fates. To them, this might seem like the ultimate betrayal from the man they had been taught to worship as a God, who was now selling them out to the devil. Given this, it would not be hard to imagine that they might chose to reject the surrender and, quite possibly, turn on the government. That the Emperor seemed to be completely blind to the very real possibility of the monster they had intentionally created now trying to eat them alive shocked them. Whether this would have actually happened has since become a matter of some debate, but what mattered was that, to the Japanese Cabinet, it was a threat that was all too real. In order to save themselves, and the Emperor, from what they perceived to be his own ignorance, they began plotting against him. The plan was simple. Before the Emperor could communicate his wish to surrender to the Allies and the Japanese people, the Japanese High Command would marshal a select force of troops, whose loyalty they could count on absolutely. They would then storm the temporary residence of the Emperor, putting him under house arrest. Unfortunately for them, the Emperor got word of their intentions by way of a soldier who still remained loyal to him. Realizing that their was no time to stop the coup, the Emperor fled the city, escaping just moments before the lead elements of the rebels entered his compound. Realizing that the Emperor had escaped, the plotters realized they had to act fast. If the Emperor managed to get to a broadcasting station or find his way to a unit sympathetic to their cause, he could inform the nation of what had happened. If that happened, one of two things would happen. The first was that the people would rally behind their emperor, which would see all the plotters quickly parted with their heads. The second was that the people, outraged that the Emperor would even consider surrender, in which case, he had just signed his own death warrant. While the plotters could assuredly use the rancor against surrender to their advantage, they still did not relish the idea of the Emperor, who they still professed loyalty to, being murdered by his people. Furthermore, letting the Emperor make such a proclamation would be finding out the hard way which of them was right and none of them liked the idea of suddenly being shorter by a head if they lost that particular gamble. In order to prevent this, therefore, they circulated a message to all army units and radio stations stating that their had been a coup against the emperor and that the Emperor had, unfortunately been killed. They further stated that the plotters had planned to install an imposter on the throne and use him as their puppet and that the imposter had escaped. When the Emperor, who was traveling incognito to try and reach an army unit he believed still remained loyal, heard the broadcast, he immediately realized that any hope of taking back control of the country from the instigators of the coup was now gone. Without any way of proving his identity as the Emperor, any army units he might approach would assume he was the imposter, as would any radio station he attempted to broadcast from. However, he had no intention of turning himself in. Thus, he decided that he would lay low and see if an opportunity presented itself to retake his country, or at least exact revenge on those who had stolen it from him.
While the capture of Tokyo briefly drew the attention of the American people, the attention of General Stilwell and Patton remained fixed on the city of Tianjin. With the retreat from the city, they would have to hold out by any means necessary, but no one knew how best to do that. While Patton wanted to personally lead his men back into the city by sea, his men were to exhausted to do it. Thus, it was decided that Admiral Leahy would take General Shepherd back into the city. soon after, he arrived, Shepherd went on the offensive, marching on Shijizhuang to try and break out of the encirclement.
oqdh8h.jpg

Meanwhile, back in Japan, MacArthur's men, after taking a brief rest, are ordered to commence an attack against the Fukushima region. Despite valiant resistance from the Japanese, they lose the battle and they are forced to withdraw.
35l5lky.jpg

However, soon after the attack succeeds in driving off the Japanese, American lead elements make a remarkable discovery. While in the process of securing the province, they stumble across the fugitive Emperor Hirohito. Mistaking him for a Japanese officer, they send him back to be interrogated. During interrogation, he reveals his identity to the Americans. The Americans are of course skeptical, so they send for a member of the diplomatic corps that had met with the Emperor shortly before to confirm or deny it. Upon meeting him, he confirms that it is indeed the Emperor. Shocked and unsure on what to do with the man, they send word back to MacArthur and the President inquiring on what to do with him. Instantly, the two men have a meeting to determine what to do with their windfall. They had heard the announcement of the Emperor's death, and this could definitely be used to embarrass the Japanese government. Furthermore, a direct appeal from the Emperor to the people in the conquered territories might be enough to calm them and get them to stop causing problems. Still, the attraction to have the Emperor put on trial was strong. Eventually, they decided to see if they could make use of the Emperor. Thus, MacArthur summons him to a meeting in the Imperial Palace, which he had appropriated as his headquarters. The irony of having the Emperor summoned to a meeting in his former home was not lost on either of them. It is then that the General tells the Emperor that if he will make an appeal to his people not to resist the Americans, then he will be given immunity from prosecution after the war. The Emperor then states that he would be more then willing to do so and also states that he will actually do more then that, by urging them to reject the Japanese Government. Curious as to how vehemently he seemed to hate his former Cabinet and as to why they lied about his death, MacArthur asked why the Emperor had found himself hiding out in Fukushima. The Emperor then relates the tale about the coup attempt and how he had planned to surrender to the Americans and end the war. MacArthur asks him to tell the people just that, to which the Emperor wholeheartedly agrees.
Soon thereafter, the announcement is made. The people meet the announcement with mixed emotions. Here is the man they had been brought up to worship as a god telling them of his plan to surrender to the hated Americans. Many are resentful of the thought of the Japanese even considering surrender. However, many still are outraged that the Cabinet would actually attempt to kill him (They hadn't, but he had told them they had) outraged many at the Cabinet. However, another factor that causes many to rally behind the Emperor is that the thumping lie of the Cabinet is now revealed to them. This blatant lie endears many to the Emperor. Thus, there are now few who remain willing to fight for the government that, either was willing to abandon them if they disagreed with the Emperors decision, or blatantly lied to them, if they agreed with the Emperor. However, while the announcement proves a great help in reducing partisan attacks, it has little effect in the areas still under Japanese control, as the Cabinet jams the broadcast hard after receiving it and then loudly proclaims that it is the imposter who has somehow taken in the Americans. On the Mainland, where some soldiers in areas that signals from Japan cannot reach had not even heard of the coup, the announcement also goes unheard as the Americans see no need in trying to project it into Japanese held territory when the locals are already sympathetic to the Americans.
While all of this is happening in Japan, the campaign in China continues to rage. After meeting surprising success early in his attack, General Shepherd now finds himself on the wrong end of a massive Japanese counterattack, forcing him to withdraw.
291nac1.jpg

Determined to hold out until the forces advancing from the interior can break through to the city of Tianjin, the Americans hurredly make arrangements to bring in yet more reinforcements.
Back in Japan, The Japanese seem to now be totally unable to stop the Americans, no unencumbered by having to put down the once massive partisan activity taking place in their rears. a whirlwind offensive sees both the regions of Niigata and Shikoku fall to the Americans.
e7f59w.jpg

With this success, the Japanese holdouts on the Island of Honshu are driven into the rugged Tohoku region. The Japanese are now driven to the fringes of the largest of the main islands, hoping to make use of the rugged mountainous terrain to allow them to hold off the Americans, or even be able to carry out guerrilla attacks in the area. However, MacArthur, unwilling to give the Japanese time to dig in and prepare their troops for these two eventualities, does not even stop the offensive to give his troops a rest after the fall of Niigata and Fukushima. First, the area of Akita is assaulted. Despite making excellent use of the Mountains to hold off the Americans, carrying out hit and run attacks. However, without having time to set up proper defenses, the only thing this succeeds in doing is putting off the inevitable, as the Japanese defenders are eventually hunted down and destroyed.
2ez0bjs.jpg

This then left the Japanese forces in the city of Sendai as the only Japanese forces left on the Island of Honshu. As such, MacArthur decides to not leave anything to chance, throws everything he has available into the attack. Despite the Japanese proving to be adept at urban warfare, they simply don't have the manpower or the firepower to hold out and the defenders are eventually destroyed.
xkosxk.jpg

With the success of these offensives, their now remain no Japanese soldiers left on the Islands of Honshu or Shikoku. This means that once the regions of Shikoku, Akita, and Sendai are secured, Japanese presence on the Islands will be totally confined to the island of Hokkaido, which is not expected to hold out long. The Americans have thus largely succeeded in cutting the beating heart out of the Japanese empire, now all that remains is to see if the Japanese soldiers can maintain their will to fight with their homeland lost.
While MacArthur goes from success to success in the Campaign for the Home Islands, Stillwell and Patton finally get some good news when the Americans finally manage to take the region of Shijizhuang, thus managing to break the through to the beleaguered city of Tianjin. Further, since the Japanese in Yucheng had not had time to escape before this happened, 32 divisions of Japanese soldiers are now trapped in the Yucheng region. Not wanting to waste this opportunity, an attack is immediately ordered, with Stillwell and Patton throwing everything they have at the Japanese defenders. The Japanese fight desperately to hold onto the city, knowing that there can be no escape and determined to sell their lives as dearly as possible. Despite mounting casualties to the fanatical Japanese soldiers, Stillwell refuses to let this opportunity escape him and thus resists all requests to call off the attack. Finally, after several hours of brutal street to street combat, the Japanese soldiers, now completely out of ammunition, are wiped out. The Japanese forces have lost 32 divisions that they could not afford to lose. This is a massive blow to Japanese forces. The only question that remains is whether it will be the fatal blow to the Japanese forces in China.
 
Awesome! A new update, and one just as superb as the others!
 
I'm a bit surprised at how effectively the Japanese can still fight the Allies. Because Japan's army is mostly composed of regular infantry, I had thought that the Americans, with large numbers of armored, mechanized, and marine divisions, would have a distinct advantage in land combat. Those infantry are more effective at fighting even twelve-tank-division stacks than I had thought. (and extremely advanced tanks at that) :laugh:
 
Awesome! A new update, and one just as superb as the others!

your compliment is appreciated as always

That was great stuff. You were very creative in describing the whole Emperor situation. :)

thank you. I revised that like 2 or 3 times before I settled on something that I liked.

I'm a bit surprised at how effectively the Japanese can still fight the Allies. Because Japan's army is mostly composed of regular infantry, I had thought that the Americans, with large numbers of armored, mechanized, and marine divisions, would have a distinct advantage in land combat. Those infantry are more effective at fighting even twelve-tank-division stacks than I had thought. (and extremely advanced tanks at that) :laugh:

It is rather surprising. I had thought at one point that the war might be over by the election, but that is just not going to happen.

General Stillwell was, for the first time in months, genuinely pleased with the progress of the campaign in China. After a near disaster in Tianjin, the sheer tenacity of both himself and Patton had managed to hold on and, not only prevent disaster, but actually manage to turn the tables on the Japanese. The end result was the loss of 32 divisions of Japanese soldiers. To a Japan that was quite visibly on the ropes, this was a loss they could not afford. Indeed, with the Home Islands almost completely fallen away, many Japanese units had simply lost their will to fight. What point was there in fighting to the death when your home had been taken from you already? Sure, you could try to avenge the loss of your home land, but to many, the desire to do this warred with their worry of their families. Most of the men had not seen there families in months and none of them had heard from them since the fall of Tokyo. The anxiety of not knowing what had happened to their families and if they would even have a home or family to go back to, even if they did manage to win, caused many to question why it was that they continued to fight.
While the Japanese forces began to become rapidly demoralized, the exact opposite was happening for the Americans. For the Americans, this war had been a defining moment for their country. When America had embarked on this war 12 long years ago, many thought it to be suicide. Indeed, many soldiers went off to war certain that they would never return. For men such as these, some of whom had been fighting since the beginning, the idea of being able to see victory off in the distance was a incredibly euphoric experience. As a result, morale among the American forces began to soar. Indeed, some among the American high command worried that the soldiers might become a little too overconfident.
For Stillwell, this was especially true. When he had landed in China, the Japanese had offered the staunchest of resistance. Indeed, their had been numerous occasions when the campaign had threatened to devolve into a stalemate. Now, he had the Japanese on the run and he intended to chase them right out of China. Not wanting to waste the initiative gained with the fall of Yucheng, Stillwell immediately ordered an attack on the cities of Beiping and Changde. The Japanese defenders of both regions, woefully outnumbered, outgunned, and with failing morale, were easily brushed aside.
ejzyg9.jpg

This was followed up rather soon with attacks on the cities of Tangshan and Erenhot, which also met with almost immediate success.
33451s2.jpg

117qtmp.jpg

The attack would then continue with a successful advance into the Jingxi region, pushing the Japanese ever closer to being driven out of Manchuria.
10y2mpw.jpg

While the campaign in China continued to go from success to success, the same held true of the campaign in Japan. The entire island of Honshu had no fallen to the Americans, putting the Japanese decidedly on the ropes.
2jfdlkp.jpg

That left only the island of Hokkaido to be taken. Not wanting to give the Japanese any time to set up defenses on the island, MacArthur ordered an immediate assault on the island. The attacking force landed near the Sapporo region and commenced their attack on the 25 of October. Despite fierce resistance, the Japanese simply no longer had the numbers to hold back the American onslaught and the region quickly fell to the Americans.
29y4cxe.jpg

However, a small setback was about to hit the Americans. Apparently, during the fast paced advance north, the Americans had allowed a single unit of Japanese troops evade detection during their capture of the Niigata region. These men had then retreated East towards Fukushima and found the region completely unguarded. Attempting to seize whatever opportunity presented itself, they quickly seized control of the region. However, their success was short lived, for as soon as the Americans heard about what had happened, they ordered a small unit of Nigerians to divert to the area and take back the region. The tired and ill equipped stragglers were no match for the fresh troops and they were all quickly slaughtered, thus bringing an end to that particular annoyance.
v5h1ko.jpg

However, despite the success of the Japanese and Chinese campaigns, attentions was soon drawn further south to the Southeast Asian campaign. After months of slow, but steady progress, the Americans had finally managed to corner the last Japanese forces in the are in the region of Qui Non. The fighting was brutal as the 130,000 Japanese soldiers remaining in the region rallied for one last stand. The Japanese fought to the last man and bullet, forcing the Americans to pay dearly for every inch of ground. Then, as the Japanese forces finally ran out of ammo, their commander ordered them all to one final banzai charge, personally taking the lead in the charge. Despite the tenacity and bravery of the Japanese soldiers, the result was never really in doubt as they were woefully outnumbered from the beginning and now completely without any ammo.
w03oqt.jpg

Shortly thereafter, The President also saw fit to announce the liberation of the nation of Laos.
2v1ojk7.jpg

However, all of this would pale in comparison to what was about to occur. The Presidential election was only 3 days away and this election had been a very odd one from the beginning. Given his slim victory in the previous election, Truman had noticed that the people were clearly becoming wary at his extended stay in the White House. Thus, he had begun to worry about his re-election prospects. He knew that the war would not end before his term did. Truman knew full well that this war would be his legacy and thus he wanted to be able to see it through to the end. As such, he had stated his desire to run for a fourth term. "This is my war, I should get to finish it and by God I should be the one to sort out what comes after." he had said. However, it quickly became apparent that the President, despite his wild popularity both at home and abroad, may have overstayed his welcome. While his approval ratings were through the roof, people were beginning to worry at the precedent that electing two four term presidents in a row might set. For a while, he had been at a loss on how to quiet those fears. Then, he had an idea. The fact of the matter was that the only reason he was running for reelection was to be permitted to finish out the war and shape its aftermath. However, there was no way the war would last the remainder of his term in office. Therefore, there seemed to him to be no real reason he would need to serve out the full term. Therefore, he decided on a rather unorthodox solution to his problem. He would run for reelection and, if he won, he would finish out the war, sort out the aftermath, and then he would resign and allow his vice-president to take over the job. When he first pitched the idea, most of his advisers thought the idea to be crazy. However, the more he explained it, the more it made sense. Promising not to serve the full term would quiet many fears of him overstaying his welcome and it would also silence charges of him simply being unwilling to give up power. The task then became one of finding a suitable person to take over after he stepped down. Originally, Truman supported the idea of having Adlai Stevenson take the job. Stevenson had served as Governor of Illinois for many years and he was a close ally of Truman's. However, Stevenson had no interest in becoming President, being perfectly content with remaining Governor of Illinois. Deprived of the most obvious candidate to him, Truman was at a loss of who to pick. That was when several people in his party began proposing the young senator John F. Kennedy to run for VP. Truman was vehemently opposed to the idea. Truman had never gotten along with the Kennedy family, once remarking that he had been tempted to throw Joseph Kennedy out a window during a meeting with him. Furthermore, while he did admit that he might have been a good choice in the future, given his natural charisma, he was simply too young and inexperienced to serve as President as is. The boy had entered politics at around the beginning of the war in 1947, largely due to his father's influence helping him get elected. While His father had initially slated his brother, Joseph Jr., to be the one to carry on the family political career, Joseph Jr. Instead opted to join the military when the war was declared and had been shot down in the skies over Germany during Patton's invasion of the country. Since then, JFK had proved himself to be a remarkable public speaker and a very competent politician. Still, Truman did not believe he had the experience necessary to run for President. However, after further attempts to persuade Stevenson to run failed, there was no candidate within the Democratic Party who could command enough support to beat Kennedy. Eventually, Kennedy would win the nomination on the 5th ballot, thus forcing Truman to reluctantly acknowledge him as Vice President.
While the Democrats found it relatively easy to pick their Presidential Candidate, with a little more difficulty in picking his running mate, the Republicans were a completely different story. After having been out of power for 27 years, the Republicans were incredibly disorganized. Furthermore, Truman's monolithic approval and reputation meant that there were relatively few men in the party who could stand a chance at beating him. While they might have had a chance if he had decided to serve out his full fourth term, the decision to resign after he had finished with the war had taken away the mightiest weapon they had; The wariness and belief of many that, While Truman was a great man and a great president, he had now overstayed his welcome. Furthermore, the failures of both MacArthur and Clark to win against Truman had convinced the Republicans that running generals was not an effective way to beat Truman. Indeed, even if they had decided to do so, There remained no one general who really was in a position to make such a run. Clark, the obvious choice given his near victory against Truman, was unwilling to make another run. While he was hailed as the liberator of the Middle East, the fact of the matter remained that he had been relatively devoid of any great accomplishments since and that others, such as Stillwell and MacArthur, had managed to outshine him in the process. McArthur and Stillwell, the next choices, were too busy with their own campaigns and Patton, despite courting the idea of a Presidential run, refused the offer to run for President, citing his advanced age as the reason. That left the Republicans without a clear and obvious choice for their candidate. As the convention progressed, however, three candidates would eventually emerge. The first was Senator from California, Richard Nixon. Nixon was a popular choice due to his political savvy and his high profile from having been the Vice Presidential candidate in both of the previous elections. However, that last fact also worked against him as he still represented one half of two failing tickets. To this, he responded that while the McArthur-Nixon and Clark-Nixon tickets had been failures, he had never been the frontrunner before, and thus, there was no way to be sure how well he would do in that spot. The second candidate was Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York. Rockefeller was known as a moderate in the Republican party and was currently serving as the governor of the nations most populous state. However, he had only been governor for a year, so there was debate on whether he would be able to deliver the electoral votes of his state. The final candidate was Barry Goldwater, who was considered the dark horse candidate. The race eventually came down to a race between Nixon and Rockefeller, with neither having a clear lead. However, after 5 inconclusive ballots, Nixon approached Rockefeller with an offer to nominate him as his vice President. Given that Rockefeller had been steadily losing support with each passing ballot, the New York governor remained wary of losing the convention vote outright and, deciding he would rather have something then nothing, accepted. Thus, the stage was set for the upcoming Presidential election.

Alright, there you have the set up for the next election. I have caught up to where I am in game, so I will have to play more before I can update again. However, I will hold off untill after the election is over. I shall close the election off on Wednesday of Next week, which should give plenty of time for voting.
 
DEATH TO THE KENNEDYS!!!

*blink*

I meant, Kennedy would be a novel choice.
 
Nixon here.
 
I would have said Goldwater, but Kennedy over Tricky Dick. Always Kennedy.
 
I would have said Goldwater, but Kennedy over Tricky Dick. Always Kennedy.

Nixon was turned to the Dark Side by Kennedy, Johnson and Daley's collusion.
 
It is rather surprising. I had thought at one point that the war might be over by the election, but that is just not going to happen.

Seeing all those Level 8 tank divisions with near zero org was pretty surprising. The Japanese must have finally developed good anti-tank weapons. ;)

On the election side, I'll vote for Truman/Kennedy.
 
Truman/Kennedy. Truman started this war and should be the one to finish it.
 
Alright, so an old problem is once again rearing its ugly head. The election event I edited is not firing and I cannot edit Kennedy into my government as Vice President. So If anyone has a solution, I would greatly appreciate the help
 
We could have Truman/Kennedy win, but then an early Kennedy assassination and have Truman keep his current VP
 
We could have Truman/Kennedy win, but then an early Kennedy assassination and have Truman keep his current VP
That I could, but I don't want to especially because it is Alben Barkley, who is dead. I haven't had an election actually fire since Truman beat Dewey at the beginning of this AAR. It is just fortunate that He has also happened to win every one.
 
That I could, but I don't want to especially because it is Alben Barkley, who is dead. I haven't had an election actually fire since Truman beat Dewey at the beginning of this AAR. It is just fortunate that He has also happened to win every one.

Considering you have "dead" officers fighting the enemy, having Alben Barkley be a zombie President wouldn't be that far-fetched. :laugh:
 
ok, so I have decided to ignore the little problem that I had and pretend that JFK is the Vice President. Then, I will write an event to make him take over and pray that it actually fires. A new update should come soon since I have played through to the end of the war and am now encountering a new problem. Apparantly, I cannot, for some reason, release Nationalist China and Russia despite the fact that I have modded the last date they can be released to the Armageddon end date.
 
When the election began, it looked like it would be a landslide. Truman was wildly popular with the people and most popularity polls had him as the most popular president in recent memory. Furthermore, his promise to resign after he finished the war and sorting out the aftermath of the same, he had managed to remove one of the main points of contention that Nixon could use to oppose him, that of his long tenure as President setting a bad precedent and possibly weakening the 22nd Amendment. Furthermore, it let Truman's own side play him up as a modern day Cincinnatus, just as had been done with George Washington after he declined to run for a third term. Here was a man who was quite easily the most powerful man in the world and he was deciding to walk away from it before he was even required to. In Truman's own words, he had accomplished everything he had set out to do as President after the war and its aftermath had been sorted out so what reason did he have to stay in office? Furthermore, there was his Vice Presidential candidate, John F. Kennedy. The man was a incredibly charismatic and a very savvy politician and everyone thought he would make an excellent replacement for the much beloved Truman. At appearance after appearance, he spellbinded the crowds of people who came to hear him speak and in the televised debates with his opposite Republican vice presidential candidate, he easily managed to blow Rockefeller out of the water. Everyone knew he would make a far better Vice President and an even better president.
However, Nixon himself ensured that it would not be an easy victory. The man, despite failing to win two Vice Presidential elections, he was now proving himself to be quite the competent politician in his own right. In debates with Truman, he showed himself to be the equal of his opponent and every single debate was a close one. The race would remain close till the very end, with neither man being quite sure who would come out on top. Eventually though, Truman's soaring popularity was simply too much for Nixon to overcome and Truman would beat Nixon with 293 electoral votes to Nixon's 244.
b7065i.jpg

Despite winning another election, there was still a war to be won. Indeed, victory looked more and more certain with each passing day. In China, Stillwell had ordered a fresh offensive against the force of Mengkuko, ordering an attack on the province of Jining.
5mwg00.jpg

his hope was that by seizing the Jining province, he could begin to close the lid on the pocket of troops that stretched from Jining in the North to Baoding in the South, which the Mengkuko and Japanese troops often treatened to break out of, especially after they managed to force American forces to retreat from Erenhot. The attack was launched from several fronts and the Mengkuko troops were quickly overrun, being forced to retreat to their capital of Kalgan.
Ultimately, however, Kalgan would be the first of the regions to fall, with the Mengkuko troops there foolishly returning to Jining only to be defeated once again. Left with no retreat, what was left of the Mengkuko army promptly surrendered, the nation being annexed without much fanfare shortly thereafter. The Japanese soldiers among them, however, chose, as was now the norm, to continue to fight to the death.
301knwn.jpg

When it was all over, 400,000 Japanese and Mengkuko troops, a full 40 divisions, had either been killed or captured. This was a loss that the Japanese army, now struggling to stay afloat could ill afford. This was especially so considering the earlier fall of Baoding, which had been attacked shortly after the fall of Kalgan left the city completely surrounded. 160,000 Japanese soldiers, realizing there could be no escape had fought to the death to hold back the American tide, but there were simply too many Americans and too few Japanese, a story that was oft being repeated at this stage of the war, and the city would fall.
nwiweb.jpg

While all of this was going on, Patton had not been idle. While he had been fighting in China, he had still technically maintained his position as head of the American war effort in Siberia. However, that particular theater had shown a noted lack of action and had basically been running itself for quite sometime, meaning that Patton, while still technically in charge of the forces in that area, had not really been executing his authority, perferring to focus on his war in China. Now, however, he decided to use both positions to bring the war in that theater a little closer to its conclusion. Since he viewed the march through Siberia as taking too long, he decided that maybe the best idea might be to land a force on the coast. These men could then link up with the troops advancing through Siberia from the West and begin to push south, further helping to tighten the noose that was rapidly beginning to form around the Japanese forces necks. In order to do this, he decided to use his position as deputy Supreme Commander of China to earmark several divisions that were located on the coast of China and not seeing any use to be transported north to the province of Okhotsk. He then used his authority as Supreme Allied Commander of Europe (whose jurisdiction also included Siberia at this point) to order the invasion. The troops arrived on November 29th, facing no resistance in their landing.
15hj50j.jpg

Upon seizing control of the province, the men were immediately ordered to seize the Khandyga region, which would allow for a link up with the American troops advancing from the West. Then, they were to proceed south, hopefully catching the Japanese defenders of Manchuria in the rear. time would tell if this plan would succeed.
2dujyol.jpg

Meanwhile, back in Japan, Clark, having seized control of Southern Hokkaido, began preparing his final assault on the Japanese positions in Northern Hokkaido. Waiting to receive him were 10 divisions of the Imperial Japanese Army. These were men trying desperately to hold onto the last vestiges homeland and there was no way they were going to relinquish it without a fight. However, they were outnumbered, outgunned, and running low on ammo. They all knew the Americans would take the city, though none of them would say so out loud, but they were determined to make them pay in blood for every scrap of ground they took. In the end, the Japanese forces made the Americans pay a steep price in blood despite their numbers, even causing Clark himself to commend them on their bravery. However, the outcome was never in doubt and when the battle was over, all 100,000 Japanese soldiers were dead and the last portion of the Japanese home islands remaining outside of American hands had fallen.
9fmhzs.jpg

In light of this development, Truman decided to announce that MacArthur would serve as military governor of the islands until the war's end, after which time, the Americans promised to call a Convention to allow the Japanese to write up a new, democratic constitution to govern themselves. Though it was not really needed at this point, the Emperor officially gave his blessing to this act, helping to calm tensions in the area, but it was debatable how much that really meant, with American MPs now liberally dispersed throughout the country.
With the fall of Japan, the Americans now planned to redeploy McArthur and his men. plans were soon drawn up by McArthur for an invasion of the Korean peninsula in an attempt to liberate the area, which had been under Japanese control since 1904. The first attempt was made at Busan, but the Japanese soldiers holding the province were able to drive back the attack.
oa54qa.jpg

As such, McArthur instead decided to land his forces at Inchon, not far from the city of Pyongyang. His forces were able to come ashore with no resistance and quickly got about the task of securing the region, being greated as liberators in every town they passed through. These people had suffered for 56 years under Japanese control and were now ecstatic to finally be freed.
1073yc6.jpg

Shortly thereafter, the Americans had finally been able to end the farce that was the Axis ally of Portugal. The nation had survived this long only because it had been given the lowest priority in its capture and thus no forces had been detailed to capture the last few remaining Atlantic islands it still laid claim to. That had changed, however, and the Americans finally announced the nations annexation. Seeing as the nation had effectively been being run by an American friendly civilian government for years now, the reins of government were handed over almost immediately after.
2euha1t.jpg

While Japanese resistance continued to collapse in Manchuria, with region after region falling to the advancing American forces, McArthur looked to step up his campaign to liberate Korea and link up with the American advance from the Northwest. As such, after securing control of Pyongyang, he ordered his men forward to liberate the cities of Wonsan and Sinuijiu.
1195na1.jpg

Wonsan would fall soon after, effectively trapping the Japanese forces in Korea in the southern part of the peninsula. Indeed, even that was soon to be rendered unsafe for the Japanese soldiers. The Americans landed another force at Busan, which was now undefended after the Japanese forces there had marched north in a futile attempt at escape. With no Japanese soldiers to offer resistance, the Americans quickly established a foothold in the region, much to the joy of the native Koreans. They then immediately struck out in all directions, quickly forcing the Japanese soldiers to retreat.
11tn4gp.jpg

Soon after this, Hyesan fell to the American advance. Not wanting to waste time, McArthur ordered an immediate assault on Hamhung, which no occupied a salient in the American lines, from both Hyesan and Wonsan.
2rz5kwp.jpg

Despite a putting up a valiant fight against the Americans and their allies, The Japanese forces simply didn't have the manpower to hold the Americans back for long and the area soon fell to the American advance.
With the resistance all but collapsing in Manchuria and the Korean campaign going well, The Stillwell decided to remove the thorn in his side that had been the Japanese forces in the island of Hainan. The island remained the only Japanese hold out in Southern China and had resisted all attempts to take it, despite being completely cut off from any form of aid or reinforcement. Stillwell decided to lead the final assault himself, transferring the forces under his personal command to the the area. Soon after his arrival, he gave the order to begin the attack.
2rnfss0.jpg

While the Japanese forces had set up impressive defenses in the area in their numerous successful defenses of the island, but in the face of the increased American numbers, they were simply overwhelmed. The Americans were able to land at too many places at once and their simply were not enough men to man all of the landing points. eventually, one of the landing forces managed to gain a foothold. Once that happened, the Americans started flooding the area with reinforcements and they managed to help the other landing forces break out of their beachheads. The Japanese put up a valiant last stand in the center of the island, but in the end, they were wiped out, thus removing the last Japanese hold out in Southern China
In addition to the final capture of Hainan, Stillwell also earmarked additional troops for the task of liberating the island of Taiwan form the Japanese.
307x3r7.jpg

The Americans landed in the area around Kaohsuing, swiftly encountering resistance from the islands Japanese defenders. However, The Japanese did not have sufficient troops to hold back the American advance, only having about 10,000 men on the island, and were swiftly overrun.
While the regions of Hainan and Kaohsuing were being secured, Stillwell received good news from Korea. apparantly, after a quick campaign to liberate the south of the Country, the Americans had managed to corner the Japanese defenders of the area in the region of Daegu. The Americans attacked from all sides, quickly overruning the Japanese defenses and forcing them to make a doomed final stand in the center of the city. Thus, the final Japanese presence in the southern part of the peninsula was thus wiped out. Indeed, the Japanese only retained Chongyin in the peninsula, and were holding on doggedly to their last sliver of land south of the Yalu.
While this was happening, the troops advancing east through Manchuria finally managed to link up with McArthur's forces advancing North through Korea. After briefly stopping to great the forces that had completed the link up, McArthur and the Manchurian forces began a joint attack on the region of Liaoyuan, managing to attack the province from three sides.
ibz12d.jpg

The Japanese were unable to coop with the mulitfront attack and were soon forced to withdraw to the North.
Not wanting to lose his momentum, McArthur then immediately ordered an attack on Chongyin, which had become the seat of the Japanese government after the homeland fell
wmbvb.jpg

much to McArthur's shock, however, the Japanese had prepared extensively for the American attack. This combined with dogged resistance meant that casualties quickly began to mount, forcing McArthur to call off the attack. McArthur thus decided to hold off on trying to take the region until the Liaoyuan region fell, thus turning the Chongyin region into a salient and allowing the Americans to attack the Japanese in the region from three sides.