The Presidents: The Vietnam War Edition

El Pip: You have absolutely no faith in the Vietnamese leadership? Well, that would put you in good company then.

Speaking of Rickover, I found a biography about him at Barnes and Noble yesterday. It was completely by chance.
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New Direction in Cuba (1959-1962)
On January 22nd, 1962, Jackson embarked on his first overseas trip of the year. He flew to Cuba, America’s leading ally in the Caribbean. Stepping off of Air Force One in Havana, the President received the full red carpet treatment. The Cuban government, mindful of the support it had received from the US in their revolution against the oppressive Batista regime, was anxious to make the President feel welcomed in their country. Waiting for Jackson at the foot of the stairs was the beaming bearded face of Prime Minister Fidel Castro. Castro, who had President John Sparkman to thank for helping him get this far, shook Scoop’s hand and gave a welcoming speech reminding everyone of the special relationship between their two countries. “Every time we have sought freedom from oppression,” he declared while the entourage of government officials and military officers stood alert behind him, “We have always received a supportive hand from the United States of America.”
Castro then handed Jackson a box of fine Cuban cigars as “a gift to you from the gracious people of Cuba.”
Although Jackson himself didn’t smoke, he nonetheless accepted the box as a gesture of goodwill between their two nations. The two men then entered a car for a motorcade ride through the streets of Havana. Along the entire route, women threw flowers onto the road and children energetically waved Cuban and American flags. The entire spectacle had been arranged by the government for maximum visual impact since the media would be covering it all. Their first stop was the Monument to the Victims of the USS Maine; built in 1926, the monument had been erected to honor the 261 crew members of the battleship USS Maine who were killed when their ship mysteriously exploded in Havana Harbor on February 15th, 1898. Although the explosion was most likely the result of an onboard accident, hawks such as newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst exploited the incident to push the United States into war with Spain. In the resulting Spanish-American War, America forced Spain to relinquish their colonial control over Cuba and cede control of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam to the US. Jackson and Castro jointly placed a wreath of flowers at the base of the imposing Maine Monument as a reflection of the fact that the Maine explosion became the catalyst for US-Cuba relations.

On the steps of the Neo-Classical Presidential Palace, Jackson was warmly received by President Manuel Urrutia Lleó. A social liberal who practiced the Christian faith, Urrutia had spent his tenure as President of Cuba working to build a strong relationship with his country’s northern neighbor. Indeed, a major reason for Jackson’s state visit to Cuba was to sign a trade deal. Sitting together in the classically ornate palace ballroom before the cameras of the US and Cuban media, Jackson and Urrutia signed a trade deal in which the United States would give Cuba 0.3 Metal, 0.2 Rare Materials, and 1.0 Energy in exchange for 0.5 Supplies. While it didn’t look like much, the trade’s real impact was that it would help maintain the +181 diplomatic relations that the two nations enjoyed. That evening at the state dinner, Urrutia graciously toasted Jackson and thanked his country for supporting the Cuban Revolution against the tightly-fisted authoritarian regime of Fulgencio Batista. When the Cuban people rose up against the blatant corruption and rampant poverty of the Batista regime in the late 1950s, the Sparkman Administration – feeling uneasy about supporting such a horrible leader – responded by breaking off relations with Havana and covertly aiding anti-Batista rebels exiled in Mexico. The CIA provided the rebels – led by Castro – with weapons and money, which was spent on a pair of US WWII-era naval crash rescue boats. The boats enabled Castro’s forces to return to Cuba and carry out a guerilla campaign in the Sierra Maestra Mountains against the government. When Batista tried to go after them, Sparkman reacted by imposing an economic embargo on Cuba and completely cutting off weapon supplies to the Cuban military. This forced Batista into a corner; with Castro’s rebels steadily gaining ground and resentment to his government growing throughout the country, Batista fled Cuba in April 1959. With the Cuban Revolution won, a new government was formed with Urrutia as the next Head of State.

Urrutia and Castro had been all smiles during the state dinner. The reality was that relations between the two men were reaching a breaking point. Although the President of Cuba and his Prime Minister agreed that getting rid of Batista was the best thing that could happen to Cuba, they had been at odds over what to do next. Their first major disagreement had been on what to do with hundreds of Batista-era government workers, police officers, and soldiers. Urrutia had wanted to set up a special judicial committee to screen them and determine who could stay at their posts and who should be expelled on the grounds of questionable loyalties. In contrast to Urrutia’s leniency approach, Castro had wanted to take a much harder line. Part of the reason was that he wanted to get his revenge for the death of his brother Raúl, who had been killed by Batista’s forces during the struggle. The two men ultimately settled on a compromise: public tribunals would decide the fate of Batista loyalists. Those found guilty of murder and torture would be put to death or imprisoned while others found not to have blood on their hands would be simply dismissed from their posts. It was more grisly than Urrutia had wanted, but Castro had insisted on being harsh in order to send a signal to the country that Batista's rule was truly gone forever.

(Batista-era soldiers being rounded up for public trial)
Their next major disagreement was over the ideological direction that post-Batista Cuba should take. Urrutia was a social liberal who wanted to restore many of the freedoms that had been curtailed under the previous regime. Castro on the other hand was a socialist who wanted his fellow Cubans to take greater social ownership over their country through the nationalization of private property. Urrutia never wanted to go that far to the left, fearing that it would alienate outside support which he considered to be important for Cuba’s future. The result was constant friction between the President of Cuba and his Prime Minister. Under Urrutia’s leadership, between 1959 and 1962, Havana implemented a massive program of progressive social reforms. Blacks and women were granted greater equality in Cuban society, to the point that they actually enjoyed more freedom than their American brethren. The government made investments in improving and expanding communications, health care, housing, and education. The Cuban arts scene flourished as the construction of movie theaters, art gallerias, and concert halls boomed. In 1958, less than half of all Cuban children were in school; by 1962 that number had increased by 25%. Unemployment fell, corruption was rooted out, and improvements in the sanitation system led to cleaner water and better sanitation. With Cuba making strides across the board, Urrutia was riding a wave of popularity in the winter of 1962.

(The music scene in Cuba flourished in the early 1960s, reflected in the emergence of several bands like this one)
None of this was good news for Castro. The more popular Urrutia and his policies were, the less likely it seemed that Castro could get his socialist ideas enacted. Adding pressure to Castro's plight was the fact that legislative elections were scheduled to be held in May 1962. Given Urrutia’s widespread support, it was a foregone conclusion that his political party would benefit from it at the polls. With Urrutia’s hand strengthen at the legislative level, his hold on power would be cemented for the foreseeable future. Growing desperate, Castro realized that if he ever wanted to see his socialist vision for Cuba become a reality, he would have to stop the legislative elections from taking place. There was only one way to accomplish that. On May 8th, a week before the elections were due to be held, Castro used his position as Army Chief of Staff to launch a military coup. Claiming that the political parties were corrupt and that he had evidence that the balloting was going to be fraudulent, Castro had the Army seize control of the Presidential Palace. Urrutia was then arrested under the allegation that he planned to betray the Cuban Revolution and become the new Batista by consolidating executive and legislative power into an unchallengeable dictatorial force. Proclaiming himself to be the new President of Cuba, Castro quickly consolidated power by abolishing the office of Prime Minister and implementing one-man rule. He defended his power grab by declaring that the country was in a state of political emergency and therefore his actions were justified. He immediately canceled the legislative elections and banned all political parties, arguing that they had a diminutive effect on Cuban society by dividing the people instead of uniting them. From here on, the only interest that would dominate Havana would be the interest of the people...as determined by Castro of course.

(Castro takes to the television airwaves to justify his dramatic overthrow of the popular Urrutia)
Now ruling by decree, Castro moved quickly to implement his socialist agenda. He justified his actions by claiming that Urrutia hadn’t done enough to improve the welfare of the Cuban people and that he was merely doing what Urrutia had steadfastly refused to do. Urrutia, who suddenly felt powerless, was branded by Castro a traitor to the spirit of the revolution. After a sham trial set up by his successor found him guilty of trying to make himself the new Batista, Urrutia was executed by a firing squad. Castro then used the Army and a new state police force loyal to him to quell protests against his take-over of the government. With Urrutia gone, Castro began to put into place his socialist agenda. At the top of that agenda was agricultural reform. Claiming that 75% of Cuba’s arable land was owned by foreigners, Castro’s new government moved to nationalize those farms along with farms owned by Cubans. Under his agricultural policy, Cubans could only own 993 acres of farm land and foreign individuals could no longer own any. This resulted in the creation of 200,000 small farms across Cuba. Those who had previously been too poor to own farm land of their own now could earn themselves a living tending to their own land. Of course, those who had owned large amounts of farm land became angry at the government’s seizure of their property...often done without any compensation. In all, $25 billion worth of farm land would be nationalized "for the peoples' good".

(A tobacco farm that was created through nationalization)
Urrutia’s overthrow and Castro’s leftward push greatly alarmed the United States. After all, she had supported Castro in his war against the Batista regime and regarded him as an ally. Now Castro seemed to be turning against them. The obvious question was what to do now. Those Americans who had owned farm land in Cuba and were now without land howled for the Jackson Administration to take action against the nationalization. However, like President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Mexican nationalization of American oil refineries in 1938, Jackson refrained from taking any knee-jerk actions despite whatever criticism he would get for doing nothing. Having lost Laos to the Chinese, he was afraid that moving against Cuba might throw her into the arms of the Soviet Union – who would certainly welcome any American-spurned leader with open arms. Believing that having alliances with nations outweighed what actually went on inside those nations, Scoop signaled both publically and privately that he might be willing to accept the loss of corporate profits as long as Cuba didn’t drive too far to the left. In November 1962, he dispatched Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson to Havana to meet with Castro and assess for himself the situation on the ground. Johnson was chosen for the critical assignment because of his well-known ability of knowing how to deal with people. LBJ reported back that Castro “feels that he has no choice but to nationalize these farms for the sake of the Cuban people.”
Castro had justified his action by claiming that doing so would raise their standard of living by allowing them to produce their own supply of food. Despite seizing farm land from the Americans, Castro had insisted to Johnson that he still regarded America as “a good and loyal friend of Cuba.”
The President of Cuba then went on to emphatically deny being a closet Communist:
“I know what some of your people think of me. They think I am a Communist. I have to say very clearly that I am not a Communist. I want that to be very clear.”
He added that he had no love for the Soviet Union, who had done nothing to help his people. “You Americans on the other hand,” he had declared, “We would not be free without your assistance. For that we are grateful.”
The Vice President gave Jackson Castro’s assurance that he wouldn’t completely nationalize American businesses in Cuba as long as they didn’t “unfairly exploit” the Cubans the way the farms allegedly had. “We don’t mind having Americans on our soil as long as there is mutual respect between us,” the Cuban leader was quoted as saying. He insisted that he didn’t wish to “create hostility between Cuba and the United States” since it was both “unnatural and unnecessary.”
Castro concluded the meeting by stating that if Scoop ever wanted to return to “our tropical paradise”, he was more than welcomed to do so “since we are partners.”
Like Sparkman before him, Jackson decided to take Castro at his word and try to work with him in order to prevent a damaging break in relations. He adopted a policy of “wait and see”: he would maintain normal diplomatic and economic relations with Cuba while keeping a close eye on Castro to make sure that he kept his word about not seizing additional American assets in Cuba. Scoop’s relationship with his Cuban counterpart became friendly but cautious – he never entirely trusted him the way he trusted John Diefenbaker of Canada and Rab Butler of the United Kingdom but he didn’t let it show either. Jackson stood on the sidelines ninety miles away and watched social liberal Cuba become a left-wing radical state led by a man claiming to know what was best for the wellbeing of the Cuban people.

(California Senator Richard Nixon awkwardly meets Castro during a personal fact-finding visit to Cuba in 1963. Seeking the Republican Presidential nomination a year later, Nixon would accuse the Democrats of being “naïve” in thinking that they could trust the socialist Cuban leader. “This man isn’t Ricky Ricardo,” the Senator would quip in reference to the Cuban character on the hugely popular 1950s sitcom “I Love Lucy”)

volksmarschall: I have never seen any of the Godfather movies to be honest.

Of course, the irony of that sentence is that this is the same Nixon who established detente with the Soviet Union and sent George H.W. Bush to represent the US in Communist China.

El Pip: It's funny how government is supposed to make life better and yet they just find ways to make a bad situation worse. It reminds me of what Ronald Reagan said once:

"The scariest sentence in the English language is 'I'm with the government and I'm here to help you.'"

NickRooz: I will do a Middle East update at some point.

Historically Jackson was a strong supporter of Israel, so that might complicate things if he has to make a choice between Israel and the Arabs.

volksmarschall: I did not know that.

Kurt_Steiner: As long as Castro is friendly towards the US (I think he would be, given how much help he got from the US TTL), Washington will be willing to look the other way. At least there's no American embargo against Cuba TTL, if that helps any.
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[video=youtube;M-wWS8tpHlw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-wWS8tpHlw[/video]

Remembering Pearl Harbor
Like many Americans of that era, Scoop Jackson remembered exactly where he was on Sunday, February 15th, 1942. At the time the future President was a first-term Representative from Washington’s Second District. It was early afternoon in Washington, D.C. and Jackson was having lunch with his administrative assistant – and future White House Chief of Staff – John Salter at a popular local restaurant. The dining room was filled with chatter, each table producing talk from people who were in their own little world. Everyone’s little world came to an abrupt end when the manager of the restaurant shouted loudly above the chatter that he needed everyone’s attention. The conversations died down and everyone turned their heads to see what was going on. Looking agitated, the manager announced that he had just heard breaking news on the radio that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Jackson was stunned. Pearl Harbor was the major US naval base in the Pacific; for the Japanese to attack it was an overt act of war.

At the White House, the news was received with total shock. Republican President Wendell Willkie had been in the middle of lunch with Secretary of the Treasury Alf M. Landon. Landon, the 1936 GOP Presidential candidate, had been discussing fiscal matters with his boss when Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox (his running mate and a FDR hold-over) called. Knox grimly reported over the phone that Japanese planes had bombed Pearl Harbor and that the damage looked pretty severe. Landon remembered being speechless after Willkie shakily relayed the news to him. Elected the 33rd President in 1940, Willkie had spent the better part of 1941 trying to negotiate a settlement with the Japanese government concerning her empire in Asia. Believing that it was in the best interest of the United States to stop the Nazi conquest of Europe, the new President wanted to keep Japan quiet while he focused on keeping England alive militarily and looking for a way to get America into the war against Adolf Hitler. After months of diplomatic discussions with Tokyo, Willkie offered what he considered to be a win-win deal:

• Japan would cease her empire building, limiting herself to her control over Korea, China, and Indochina.
• In return, the United States would recognize the Japanese Empire, lift the limited embargo placed against Japan by the Roosevelt Administration in 1940, and supply the country with whatever resources she needed in order to sustain herself.

Willkie was willing to appease Japan because he wanted to have peace in Asia so he could focus entirely on Europe. "Germany wants to destroy freedom anywhere they can reach," he argued, "Japan has no such ambitions."
The problem with Willkie's handling of Japan was that he didn't understand the Japanese perspective. The Japanese considered themselves to be the masters of Asia whose divine duty it was to unite the continent under a single ruler. They weren't content with simply ruling Korea or China. With that in mind, it is hardly surprising therefore that Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo scoffed at the deal. It was incompatible with Tojo's desire to expand the Japanese Empire into the resource-rich European colonies of Malaysia and Indonesia in order to make his country self-sufficient. If he agreed to maintain the status quo, Japan not only wouldn't be true to herself but she would still be reliant on the United States for obtaining resources. That was unacceptable for a people who felt that they shouldn't be beholden to anyone. By trying to put an American mindset inside the Japanese head, Willkie was setting himself up for failure when Tojo rejected the proposal on the grounds that it wasn’t good enough for his country to accept. Not understanding what was wrong with what he had to offer, Willkie tried to persuade Tojo to reconsider by offering a summit meeting for them to discuss the deal face-to-face. He was summarily rebuffed. Willkie wanted peace; Tojo wanted dominance.

While Willkie tried vainly to salvage the peace negotiations, Tojo moved his country towards war with the West. He ordered the military to plan for the expansion of the perimeter of the Japanese Empire southward and eastward (instead of northward into the Soviet Union as some wanted). US intelligence, led by William J. Donovan, picked up signals that the Japanese were planning to go on the offensive, but they couldn’t quite pinpoint exactly where and when. In early February 1942, American forces in the Philippines and on island bases scattered across the Pacific were put on alert to be prepared for Japanese aggression at any time. At Pearl Harbor, the warning was dismissed by a complacent attitude that the main US naval base was too far away from Japan to be attacked and that they therefore had nothing to worry about. They didn’t expect the Japanese to send six carriers deep into the Pacific with the mission of carrying out a preemptive strike against them...which is exactly what the Japanese decided to do. On the morning of February 15th, 353 carrier warplanes – divided into two waves – took off from the carriers bound for the Hawaiian island of Oahu with the goal of knocking out the bulk of the US Pacific Fleet before it could be used against the Imperial Japanese Navy. At 7:48 AM local time, the first bombs fell on an unsuspecting Pearl Harbor. Torpedo bombers pounded the seven battleships moored alongside Ford Island while dive bombers decimated the air bases scattered across Oahu. American servicemen caught off guard were awoken by the sounds of alarms blaring, bombs exploding, and gunfire strafing the men on the ground. A stunning message was quickly transmitted:
“Air raid Pearl Harbor. This is not drill.”
Ninety minutes after the first wave commenced its’ attack, the second wave broke off its’ attack and returned to the waiting carriers. What they left behind was a scene of utter devastation. The seven battleships had been transformed into sunken wrecks of twisted steel and pure carnage. The battleship USS Arizona had capsized, trapping panicked men inside her overturned hull. Over three hundred warplanes had been blown to pieces. Over two thousand Americans were either dead or wounded. Hospitals were flooded with causalities, overwhelming the staff and turning the sorting of bodies into a literal life-or-death struggle. The smell of death hung in the air, accompanied by dark black smoke rising up from the burning oil in what had been calm waters. The Pearl Harbor attack was a major tactical victory for the Japanese, having succeeded in knocking out the bulk of the US Pacific Fleet. However, the planner of the attack knew instinctively that there would be hell to pay for this victory. Understanding the Americans better than most of his colleagues, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto lamented after the attack that they had just made an enemy out of a country possessing a massive and seemingly inexhaustible industrial power. He is said to have remarked:
“I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”

Once the numbing shock of the news had worn off, Americans became filled with the burning desire for revenge. Even isolationists demanded that action be taken against Japan. War, which Willkie had spent the past year trying to avert, became the inevitable response to this unprovoked surprise attack on the United States. The day after Pearl Harbor, Jackson sat in the packed House chamber with his fellow Representatives and Senators and listened intently as the President stood before them to ask for a declaration of war. “We had in good faith,” he recounted in a speech broadcast to the nation over radio, “Offered the Japanese government a plan for peace which would have made the Pacific Ocean a sea of tranquility in a world of hostility. Acting in bad faith, the Japanese government rejected that peace and forced war upon us in such a despicable manner.”
Despite the fact that the naval and air forces on Oahu had been devastated, Willkie – in his Midwestern accent – vowed before an applauding audience that the United States would wage an unrelenting war against her Asian aggressor:
“It is now clear that the only way to restore peace in the Pacific is to completely destroy Japan’s power to make war. No matter how long it may take us, we will press the Japanese hard by land, sea, and air. We shall capture their bases. We shall sink their ships. We shall destroy their airplanes. We shall deny Japan the ability to threaten any neighbor anywhere. These are not boasts. This is simply the way it is going to be.”
The Senate responded immediately, unanimously passing a declaration of war within a half-hour of the speech. It then went to the House, where Jackson and almost every member voted for it. The only “No” vote came from Montana Republican Jeannette Rankin, who had also voted against America’s entry into World War One in April 1917. Sitting at his desk in the Oval Office surrounded by Congressional leaders and photographers, Willkie signed the declaration of war:
“Declaring that a state of war exists between the Imperial Government of Japan and the Government and the people of the United States and making provisions to prosecute the same.
Whereas the Imperial Government of Japan has committed unprovoked acts of war against the Government and the people of the United States of America:
Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the state of war between the United States and the Imperial Government of Japan which has thus been thrust upon the United States is hereby formally declared; and the President is hereby authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the Imperial Government of Japan; and, to bring the conflict to a successful termination, all the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States.”
Secretary of State Arthur Vandenberg, who had worked hard to find a peaceful agreement with Tokyo, wrote in his diary on the day of the declaration of war:
“Japan began this war in treachery; we shall end it in victory!”

In addition to Pearl Harbor, the Japanese had also attacked the British colonies of Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong. London responded by declaring war on Tokyo nine hours before D.C. did. On February 19th, Imperial Japan’s Axis allies Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy declared war on the United States. With her battleships knocked out for the time being, the only naval power the US had in her war with Japan was her fleet of Pacific-based carriers. By a lucky twist of timing, those carriers had been sailing from San Diego, California to Pearl Harbor on the day of the attack and had been only three hours away when the second wave ended its bombing run. Now those carriers would be the focus of the next battle in the Pacific. The Imperial Japanese Navy, realizing that they had failed to secure a total victory at Pearl Harbor, was eager to sink those carriers and completely destroy the power of the United States Navy in the Pacific. Yamamoto came up with a trap which he believed would finish the job. He would attack the US naval and air base at Wake Island, forcing the US to come to her rescue. He would then pounce on those carriers - which were certain to show up - and sink them. Once they were sunk, the Japanese would capture Wake Island and use it as a base of operations against Midway Atoll and the Hawaiian Islands. With those islands gone, the Americans would have no bases left in the Pacific and would therefore have no choice but to accept Japanese dominance of the world's largest ocean. Unfortunately for Yamamoto, Admiral Chester Nimitz - whom Chief of Naval Operations Robert L. Ghormley had assigned the tough-looking task of turning the dire situation around in the Pacific - had learned of the plan through intelligence and proceeded to set up a trap of his own. In the June 1942 Battle of Wake Island, American carrier planes furiously assaulted the surprised Japanese task force and sank four of their carriers. It became the first naval battle in history in which the two opposing fleets never actually saw each other during combat. The decisive American victory at Wake Island destroyed Japan’s ability to mount offensive operations in the Pacific, allowing General Douglas MacArthur to invade the Japanese-held Marshall Islands shortly thereafter. From the Marshalls, the Americans island-hopped their way across the Pacific to Formosa and Okinawa. Japanese efforts to hold onto major islands like Truk and Iwo Jima failed every time, resulting in their forces being completely wiped out by the enemy. From Okinawa, MacArthur's forces carried out the invasion of Japan itself in August 1945. The Japanese government retreated to Hong Kong and stubbornly held out until February 1947, when it finally agreed to surrender after losing the very empire it had wanted to expand. The Americans suffered a million causalities destroying Japanese imperialism. The Japanese suffered even worse: five million causalities and the igominy of their home islands being occupied by a foreign power.

(Thanks in large part to the fanatical "fight to the death" mentality of the Japanese defenders, more Americans were killed or wounded in World War Two than in the American Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the American Civil War, and World War One combined)
On the twentieth anniversary of the worst attack in American history, President Jackson traveled to the place where it all began. He flew out to Oahu to speak at the dedication of the Pearl Harbor National Memorial. In 1949, President Thomas E. Dewey - who oversaw the invasion of Japan - officially designated February 15th as a day of national remembrance. “On the fifteen day of each February,” he declared, “Every American should take time to remember our sons who were suddenly called upon to defend our country in an hour of darkness. We owe it to them never to forget their sacrifices.”
A year later, Chief of Naval Operations Thomas C. Hart began the annual tradition of the CNO hoisting the American flag on Pearl Harbor Day on Ford Island near the site of Battleship Row. On the tenth anniversary of the attack in 1952, the suggestion was first made that there should be a national memorial honoring all those who lost their lives on that day. After all, the July 1863 Battle of Gettysburg was honored with a national cemetery. Why shouldn’t Pearl Harbor be honored as well? In 1955, Pearl Harbor finally got a memorial when a ten-foot-tall basalt stone tower was erected overlooking Battleship Row. Three years later, President John Sparkman signed legislation authorizing the construction of a permanent national memorial on Ford Island. According to the legislation, the Federal Government would contribute half of the $500,000 price tag and the rest would be raised by private sources. $250,000 was raised in a variety of ways, most famously through an Elvis Presley benefit concert which raked in $64,000. The original basalt stone tower was replaced by a serene white chapel which could accommodate two hundred visitors at a time. The chapel housed a marble wall bearing the names of all those who were killed during the attack. Outside the chapel, seven small floating platforms with a flagpole in the middle marked the spots where the battleships had been moored that fateful morning and where the bulk of the Japanese attack had been concentrated. Since US battleships are traditionally named after states, each flagpole fluttered the flags of their respective states:

• Nevada
• Arizona
• Pennsylvania
• Oklahoma
• Tennessee
• California
• Colorado

The dedication ceremony began when the President and the First Lady solemnly laid a memorial wreath at the marble wall. They then went out an open doorway leading to an outdoor promenade overlooking Battleship Row. From his position, Scoop could easily see the seven state flags fluttering in the breeze on what was a beautiful clear day. Gripping the railing with both hands, he closed his eyes and tried to imagine what it must have been like to be here twenty years earlier when sailors sleeping soundly in their bunks were rudely awaken by the reality that Japanese planes were bombing the hell out of their battleships. After taking a few moments to reflect on the violent past, Jackson was escorted to a special platform erected in front of the chapel. Major political and naval figures sat in seats on the platform, flanking the speaker podium which was adorned with the Presidential seal on the front. Chief of Naval Operations Hyman Rickover, heading up the delegation of naval officers, sat near the podium. Also in attendance were the Republican Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs and the Ranking Democratic Member Olin E. Teague of Texas. Hawaii Governor John A. Burns sat next to Japanese Ambassador to the United States Koichiro Asakai in a symbolic display of the two former enemy nations coming together. This symbolism was reflected more pointedly in the crowd sitting in front of the platform. American and Japanese veterans of the Pearl Harbor attack – many now in their early 40s – sat together for the dedication ceremony, seemingly able to put the past behind them for this special occasion.
“Twenty years ago,” Jackson said in his speech, “The people of Oahu were exposed to the horrors of war which until then had always been reported on from somewhere else. They had read stories in the newspapers and heard stories on the radio and seen stories in the newsreels about what a military attack looks like and sounds like. They never expected that they would themselves be exposed to the pain and suffering and confusion brought on by the explosion of bombs dropped from up above them. The people of Oahu were enjoying the fruits of peace and had no reason to expect otherwise.”
The Pearl Harbor attack wasn’t just an event that happened; it was the event that forever changed America. The President compared Pearl Harbor to the signing of the Declaration of Independence in July 1776 and the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in April 1865, noting that the country was never the same afterwards:
“On February 14th, we Americans believed that since we wanted peace in a world at war, we would get that peace. On February 16th, we knew that in order to return to the peace that we cherished, we would have to defeat those countries who only wanted to experience the lust of war. On February 14th, we believed that our military could be small and weak because we would never have a reason to deploy our military outside our shores. On February 16th, we knew that our military needed to be strong and be deployed abroad. On February 14th, we believed that the world didn’t need input from the United States of America. On February 16th, we knew that the United States of America had to be an actor on the world stage. On February 14th, we didn’t believe that what happened in one part of the world would have any impact on us. On February 16th, we knew that what happened in one part of the world affected us tremendously.”
Jackson noted that America’s entry into World War Two shifted the tide of war in favor of the Allies. Two-and-a-half years after Germany and Italy declared war on the United States, both Axis powers had been defeated and peace had been restored in Europe. It would take five long and painful years to defeat Japan and restore peace in Asia. After all that, Scoop observed, a funny thing happened:
“Those three nations, who had been so united in their vision of conquering the world and dividing it between themselves, actually became our allies against further aggression.”
Germany, which had once sought to dominate all of Europe, was now working as a Democratic bulwark against the expansionist aims of the Communists. Likewise in Asia, the same Japan which had sought to dominate the entire continent was now working with her neighbors in halting China’s dream of imperialism. Referring to the American and Japanese veterans sitting in the audience, Jackson said it was amazing to see the two sides act not as enemies but as mutual partners in the cause of freedom. Despite never mentioning China by name during his speech, the President was obviously referring to her when he spoke of how “our two nations are standing shoulder-to-shoulder to defend the free people of Asia from those who see them as nothing more than subjects to rule at a whim.”
That China wanted to build an empire in Asia was known to everybody. However, within weeks of the Pearl Harbor National Memorial dedication, it was revealed that China wasn’t the only Asian nation eyeing the territory of her neighbors.

volksmarschall: The next few updates are going to deal with South Vietnam and Indonesia.

I actually enjoyed "Pearl Harbor" for the most part. I know people hate Michael Bay, but I thought "Pearl Harbor" was a decent-enough depiction of history to be enjoyable for me. I picked that clip because it was the only one I could find that could fit my alternate history.

You're right about white-washing history. I never see this information in any of the "Stand Up For Israel" right-wing mail that I get all the time. It's always "The Democrats are determined to destroy Israel in order to appease the Arabs! Please send us money so we can put a stop to this Democrat madness! Also, Sharia Law is evil! Don't forget that!"

volksmarschall: That's true. It is always more nuanced than people looking for money present it.

volksmarschall: That's why I don't watch Fox News and MSNBC. Their presentation of the "news" is always through the lens of the political agendas their networks are pushing. If you watch Fox News, you get a heavy dose of rightwing ideology. If you watch MSNBC, you get a heavy dose of leftwing ideology. They both sound utterly ridiculous.

Jape: The update of course reflects how my HOI game played out. Despite the fact that I rejected the Oil Embargo Event and kept giving Japan good trade deals, the Pearl Harbor Event happened anyways. The Japanese AI for some reason never advanced beyond Singapore, allowing me to focus on taking all the Japanese Islands in the Pacific. I never had to divert forces to the historical battlegrounds of Guadalcanal and New Guinea. I think I ended up reaching Okinawa in 1944. I waited until August 1945 to invade Kyushu to stimulate the months of planning that the invasion obviously would have entailed. I did a lot of research on the projected casualty figures an invasion of Japan would have generated and went with a conservative estimate. Unfortunately, because of how the Japanese AI is, I had to take all their victory points before I could defeat them. Not even nuking Nagoya (Hiroshima and Nagaski get spared) had any effect on the AI other than the province and division damages.

As for Willkie's efforts at appeasement, the view is that he was very naive at doing so. He completely didn't understand the Imperial Japanese mindset and that is why his appeasement effort failed. I don't think he can be personally blamed for the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor because of the general attitude on the American side that Pearl Harbor was invulenerable to such an attack.

I plan on covering both West Irian and East Timor.

volksmarschall: If you really want to find some stupidly scary stuff on the internet, look up members of the Bush family on Google images.

Australian troops would be helpful in the field.