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Nathan Madien

Field Marshal
Mar 24, 2006
4.523
555
Presidential Timeline
31.) Herbert Hoover; Republican-California (1929-1933)
32.) Franklin D. Roosevelt; Democratic-New York (1933-1941)
33.) Wendell Willkie; Republican-Indiana (1941-1944)
34.) Arthur H. Vandenberg; Republican-Michigan (1944-1945)
35.) Thomas E. Dewey; Republican-New York (1945-1953)
36.) Adlai Stevenson II; Democratic-Illinois (1953-1954)
37.) John Sparkman; Democratic-Alabama (1954-1961)
38.) Henry M. Jackson; Democratic-Washington (1961- )

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Prologue
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For the United States, four major wars defined the 20th Century: World War One, World War Two, the Vietnam War, and the Iraqi Conflicts of the 1990s. Of these four, the Vietnam War was the longest in regards to American involvement. Several Presidents sought to prevent Communism from taking over Vietnam. The first to do so was Republican Thomas E. Dewey of New York (1945-1953).
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The road to the Vietnam War begins in the aftermath of World War Two (1939-1947). On February 2nd, 1947, the Imperial Japanese Government formally surrendered aboard the Iowa-class battleship USS Missouri in Hong Kong. With the stroke of a pen, the global war which had begun seven-and-a-half-years earlier in the Polish countryside was finally over.
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After the war, Dewey initially paid little attention to the French effort to move back into Southeast Asia (they had been booted out of the region by the Japanese in 1940). He had a very full plate at the time, and there was simply no room for the situation unfolding in Vietnam. With the Second World War over, America underwent a rocky transition back to peacetime. The Dewey Administration was determined to tackle postwar issues head on; however, they ran into a roadblock. Even though the President’s political party controlled both houses of Congress, those in charge on Capitol Hill (most notably Ohio Senator Robert Taft) were in a Conservative mood and were in no mood to rubberstamp comprehensive and sweeping proposals. As a result, postwar problems that could have been addressed were allowed to get worse…such as the biggest housing shortage in American history. To quickly provide affordable homes for returning veterans and their baby-booming families, an ingenious Navy veteran named William Levitt transformed fields into mass-produced planned communities known as “suburbs”.
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Starting in the spring of 1947, labor unions, no longer bound to wartime promises not to strike, demanded “catch-up” pay hikes. To ensure that their demands were met, strikes erupted across the United States. For instance, 15,000 New York City elevator operators walked off their jobs, 175,000 employees of General Motors walked out of plants in nineteen states, and 800,000 steel workers walked away from over 1,000 mills scattered across the country.
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Meanwhile in Europe, the alliance between Democracy and Communism collapsed as both sides set about implementing their conflicting visions of the postwar world. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1940-1948) spoke of the developing Cold War between East and West at the University of Michigan in August 1947:
“From Petsamo in the Barents to Varna in the Black Sea, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Eastern Europe. Helsinki, Warsaw, Bratislava, Budapest, Bucharest, and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow.”
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Over in Asia, the map of the continent was being dramatically redrawn. Japan, her days of Imperialism clearly over, was placed under American occupation – supervised by Douglas MacArthur, one of the key architects of Japan’s defeat – and was transformed into a Western-style Democracy. In the New Japan, Emperor Hirohito was nothing more than a ceremonial figurehead and the landlord power structure was dismantled in favor of allowing farmers to purchase their own land instead. The Korean Peninsula underwent a transformation from being a Japanese colony to being a Democracy with a strong focus on the President – who was indirectly elected by the National Assembly. Syngman Rhee, an anti-Communist strongman, was elected the first President of the Republic of Korea. The Iron Curtain was installed in China, dividing the land into two spheres. Chiang Kai-shek (who had been forced into exile when the Japanese conquered China in 1939) returned to power in Nationalist China and established a socially conservative government. The other sphere became Red China, a coalition of puppet states whose borders were drawn by Moscow.
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With all this and more going on, Dewey (who was also up for re-election as President in 1948) had no time to pay attention to Vietnam. That would all change during his second term.
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Introduction
Welcome to The Presidents: The Vietnam War Edition. The sequel to The Presidents: Hoover to Dewey (1929-1953) Version 2.0, The Vietnam War picks up where the previous AAR left off. In this sequel, we will see America navigate her way through the 1950s and 1960s (and perhaps the 1970s). We will see America participate in an ideological duel with the Soviet Union, with places like Cuba and even Outer Space serving as battlefronts. Domestically, America will be openly challenged by the growing Civil Rights Movement and the rise of the youth culture. As these events unfold, the United States will be drawn into a war in a place called Vietnam.

This AAR will start off with nomonhan’s Cold War Tech Tree Extension Project (thanks for pointing it out, c0d5579), which greatly expands the tech tree for Armageddon. Once I get to fight the Vietnam War itself (which will be the mid-1960s), I will switch over to frvp’s The Vietnam War. In fact, I think this will be the first AAR using that mod. So not only does this AAR continue the Hoover to Dewey storyline, it is also unique in the sense that it is showcasing the Vietnam mod for the first time.

So off to Vietnam we go!
 
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No problem, I'm just glad to see the ball rolling!
 
Awesome, very interesting era to follow! I'm on board.
 
Just noticed this one, looking forward to it immensely. If you can keep up the high standards of your last opus this will be a treat.

Can I recommend that you put a link in your last AAR. That way the readers can jump straight here rather than having to stumble on it like I did.
 
So based on the map, I see a Mongolian War Korea-analogue possibly, obviously no Berlin Wall (and hence no bait-and-switch where Stalin either gets China or Germany no matter what), and obviously no Prague Spring. "Bratislava Spring" just doesn't sound as good. I am surprised that Hungary was allowed to keep that tail province in Slovakia, though. Would have thought as one of the "aggressive imperialistic powers" that Hungarian Ruthenia, and the last bits of Romanian Bessarabia, would have been incorporated into the USSR.
 
So, once Moscow has control over all of Mainland China, will they split it between Communist China and the Green Chinese nation? Or will the new territory be split into multiple different states?
 
Asalto: Thank you.

quaazi: I plan to update regularly...although the pacing will be a bit more laid back than with the previous AAR.

El Pip: Given that my writing has improved as a result of doing the revision, I think the quality should be good.

Good idea, El Pip. I will do that.

Van5: Thank you. :eek:o

Will we get to see the end of the Cold War? Probably not. I only plan on writing this AAR until I either win or lose the Vietnam War.

c0d5579: I am not really sure what "Mongolian War Korea-analogue" means. Sorry. :eek:o

Correct. There's no Berlin Wall. After the Berlin Airlift controversy in the previous AAR (I agree that was a bad idea), I decided to keep Berlin intact and have it administered by the Federal Republic of Germany. I plan on talking about Berlin somewhere down the road.

The Czech split happens decades earlier in this timeline than it did historically. The reason has to do with how Czechoslovakia was occupied when the war in Europe ended. The Americans just happened to occupy the Czech Republic area and the Soviets just happened to occupy the Slovakia area. None of it was planned by me.

To be honest, I don't remember why Hungary has that tail province.

yourworstnightm: Bulgaria is the benefactor of this game's weird postwar mapping. I mean, look at her border with Greece.

As for Yugoslavia, she is pro-Western. In fact, the United States is spending a lot of money to ensure that Yugoslavia stays that way. I think her government is Market Liberal, if I recall correctly.

The problem I have is that I don't have the original game file (an oops on my part :eek:o). In order to do this AAR, I am playing the Cold War Extension mod's The Cold War (1945) scenario. Since they are two different scenarios, I am cherry-picking the 1945 scenario, only using what will apply to my storyline and discarding the rest.

soulking: The Balkanization of China after the war is permanent. How the map of China looks in the first update is pretty much how China looks today.

Look on the bright side: no North Korea problem. :D
 
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Is Yugoslavia monarchy then? And how did Slovenia become independent? I didn't notice all those details at first. Eagerly waiting for more.
 
You answered my "Mongolian War" question elsewhere. I figure the logical point of contention for the Communists in Asia, since Korea and even Manchuria are well-defined borders, is a proxy war between the US and the USSR involving two Chinas along the Inner Mongolia frontier. I'm curious as to how Vietnam's going to play out with no easy line of supply between any communist country and Vietnam.
 
Looks interesting, playing in a time very few AARs are set in. I will be following this.
Guess the whole Bulgaria thingy is an effect of the event forcing them to switch sides from the Germans to the Soviets. The game obviously forgot to take any conquered provinces into account.
 
And so it begins! *YES!* This will certainly be most interesting! :cool:
 
I am just getting in early to note my interest in this, instead of trying to play catch up with the prequel.

I wonder how the insurgents will go without a secure line of supply to a sympathetic (or at least not hostile) China.
 
Asalto: Yugoslavia is indeed a monarchy. King Petar II's government-in-exile was restored to power after the war.

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As for Slovenia, she became independent because I released her. At the time, I didn't think Yugoslavia would go Market Liberal and I wanted to save some of the people from Communism. It turns out I didn't need to.

I am pretty sure Albania is also Market Liberal.

soulking: Vietnam will be a bit of both until I get to actually fighting the war in 1963-64. Then, it is anything goes.

Fortunately, I got a good Vietnam War book with me for guidance.

c0d5579: Both points will be covered soon.

FlyingDutchie: Thanks.

That’s exactly right. It’s also the reason why I don’t like the surrender events for the games. They try to be one size fits all, leading to very awkward maps.

Volksmarschall: Thanks. I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the politics of the period – especially the Presidential elections. We will have 1952, 1956, 1960, 1964, 1968, and maybe 1972 or even 1976 to look at.

Davout: The prequel really won’t be much of a factor for this AAR, except for setting up the foundation.

As for a secure line of supply for the insurgents, I think Kai-shek might be willing to cut a deal if it benefits him (regardless of whatever the United States thinks).

The United States put Kai-shek into power to be their guy; as we have seen time and again, things then tend to not work out well for America.