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The Presidents: 1836-1936 - An Interactive US AAR

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Riccardo93 said:
When this says 'free nations' is it instantly barring the Soviet Union from membership? If it is, I can see how such an institution could be viewed as a means to garner anti-Soviet support, and lead to hostilities between our two nations.
Click to expand...

Well I believe the institution by nature makes itself incompatible with planned economy of the Soviet Union, that's a purely economic and not a political fact. As an aside granting the Soviet Union membership would prevent it from being able to promote democratic governance.

Aye to the IEU Act.
 
((I'm going to go ahead a vote no to the IEU))

I vote no to the IEU
 
Emerson: The Price of Peace​

As expected, Calvin Emerson’s victory proved to not be as wide as his predecessor’s in 1941, but the failure of the Republican Party to lower the Liberal candidate’s victory margin to even below 10% seemed a disturbing omen to much of that party’s leadership. However, their fears were slightly alleviated, and the Liberal Party’s exuberance slightly tempered by the results for the Congressional Elections. There, the Republican Party had picked up a Senate seat, and strengthened its plurality in the House to 238 seats. This left the new President with a House composed of 272 Liberals and friendly independents, and 263 seats in opposition, and a Senate composed of 48 Liberals, 9 Independents and 43 Republicans.

election1945.jpg

1. Results for the Election of 1945.​

Emerson’s landslide was largely based on the promise to continue McCahill’s policies, and he was given a chance to follow through on that campaign promise by supporting Secretary of the Interior Amanda Shaw’s International Economic Union, proposed late in McCahill’s last term. Despite opposition by fiscally conservative Republicans, who had become increasingly isolated since the 1929 election as the budget expanded a breakneck speed, the decision to join IEU passed Congress with flying colors, and the organization itself was set up in New York on March 3rd 1945, next to the new United Nations [1].
The IEU and lack of action against any McCahill era domestic policies were the easy parts of following the former President’s legacy. It was in the foreign sphere that it would prove nigh impossible for Emerson to live up to the expectations of late-war optimism about international co-operation. This optimism proved premature most obviously in Europe, where the end of the war brought to the fore old rivalries and the realities of the continent’s suffering almost immediately.
Europe had been thoroughly destroyed by the war. Its infrastructure was in most places flaming rubble, especially in Germany and areas east of it. The utter obliteration of the bank balances of the combatant nations’ governments, and of their people’s, threatened any hope for an economic recovery. And of course, the immense human cost of the war, nearly 65 million in Europe, hung like a shadow over the Old World.
To combat this, Emerson proposed the European Recovery Act, colloquially known as the Emerson Plan, to Congress. It promised $200 billion dollars in donations and loans to European governments and charities over the next decade [2]. The plan passed by a thin margin of 296-239 and 53-47, but the fight to pass the EURA drained much of the energy of the shaky new coalition of the Liberal Party in Congress. When the Act finally passed in June after three months of debate, the President was left with a congress that had utterly exhausted its post-election goodwill towards him. In future, any controversial bills would face a tough fight.

emersoneura.jpg

2. President Emerson signs the EURA, June 12th, 1945.​

Unfortunately, circumstance and his campaign platform dictated that Emerson could propose little but controversial action, as the fragile post-war lull in tensions crumbled to pieces in the latter half of 1945. Contrary to expectations, it was not in Germany where the first post-war crisis arose, but just to the east, in the newly restored country of Poland. Having become a regional power in Eastern Europe during the 1920s and early 30s [3], the people of Poland had little taste for becoming a Soviet satellite.
The Warsaw Uprising began on August 12th, 1945, after a protest against the supposedly provisional Soviet puppet government turned violent. The crowd, supported by the meager troops of the reformed Polish Army, soon took control of central Warsaw, driving the provisional government out and setting to the task of creating a new government for Poland. Led by Wladyslaw Szpilman, a composer and famous resistance fighter during the German occupation, the new government succeeded in its calls for a more general uprising throughout the country.
The provisional government’s representatives soon defected or fled, and by August 21st the new government effectively controlled all Polish territory not under the direct control of the Red Army. This freedom however, was short-lived, as Stalin ordered Soviet forces stationed in the country to crack down on the “traitors” on behalf of the provisional government, which he recognized as the legitimate, and indefinite, representative of Poland on August 22nd. For the British and French, the Warsaw Uprising was a warning of Soviet intentions for Europe, for Emerson, it was a chance to prove the UN could achieve peace.

warsawuprising.jpg

3. A Polish Army soldier in the ruins of Warsaw, September 1945.​

The issue was finally brought up by the Security Council on September 1st, and immediately it became clear that the Soviets would accept nothing less than recognition of the Provisional Government, now known as the People’s Republic of Poland. The Americans, beginning talks at the center, were thus pushed further to the British and French demands for recognition of the Polish Republic. By October, it had become clear that, with the Soviets threatening to veto any action in favor of the Polish rebels, the United Nations had failed its first test.
In late 1945 in fact, it seemed as though the entire world order created by the Second World War was coming crashing down in favor of the USSR. Coups in the Serbian Federation and Croatian Republic both brought to power allies of Stalin, and allied the last Eastern European countries to the increasingly frightening Soviet behemoth. Only Greece, embroiled in a brutal civil war that Emerson and his aides suspected was almost fully funded by Stalin on the communist side, remained.
An even more worrying development however, was the hardening of the border between Soviet-occupied Germany and Western-occupied Germany as the Polish crisis escalated. Emerson confided in British Prime Minister Winston Churchill that he felt as though he was “watching a steel cage spring up around Eastern Europe, and I am powerless to prevent it.” [4] That steel cage was especially tight around Berlin, where the Soviets instituted a blockade on all goods coming by land into the Western-occupied section in January 1946.
By then, the Polish crisis had ended in the bloody deaths of some 300,000 Poles through combat and oppression, and Stalin was intent on finalizing his “consolidation of Russia’s buffer,” a goal he had been working toward since at least the beginning of the German invasion. This included total control of Berlin, and he seemed to be about to achieve this. He evidently suspected that Emerson would continue to attempt to negotiate through the UN, as he had with Poland, Serbia and Croatia, but by early 1946 the continued failure of the UN and the urge to curb Soviet expansion had forced the administration to consider more direct action.

airlift.jpg

4. The first US plane arrives over Berlin.​

Based off a strategy devised by Secretary of Defense Nightmore, which advocated doing everything short of firing on the Soviets to keep Berlin supplied, the US 5th Air Fleet opened the Berlin Airlift on February 1st, 1946. Over the next two weeks, the rest of American planes stationed in Germany would be temporarily relived of their guns, and divert to flying supplies such as food and coal. The Airlift was also accompanied by a strengthening of the border on the Western side, as Emerson announced his support for a West German State on February 12th [5].
As the crisis in Berlin settled into a more steady state of affairs, with the airlift continuing and the West Germans slowly organizing their promised government, Emerson was finally able to focus on the rest of the world, if not the United States. His first act was to move toward creating a counterweight for Soviet pressure in the eastern Mediterranean, specifically in Greece.
Top administration officials, including Vice-President Horshington and Secretary of State Henry Greene, believed that if Greece fell, the Soviets could exert pressure, or even support a communist take-over in Turkey. Either one of these outcomes would result in a pathway to taking over Persian oilfields through a Turkish invasion or giving in to Soviet pressure after becoming surrounded. This, Emerson agreed, was not an option, as Turkey and Persia would likely be the first steps in placing all of the Middle-East, which provided the oil of America’s European allies, under Soviet domination.
On March 3rd, Emerson held a speech on the floor of the Senate, in which he outlined his reasons for monetary and military aid to Greece; a speech that would form the cornerstone of American foreign policy for the foreseeable future. The “Emerson Doctrine” essentially expanded the Monroe Doctrine to include the entire world not already under Soviet control. It would be the “duty of the United States to support any and all peoples fighting oppression by an armed minority,” a bold-faced euphemism for Communism.
The Greek Aid Act was approved with an absolute majority, and soon after the Turkish Aid Act, which acted as an unofficial alliance with NATO. In Asia, Emerson began unofficial support for factions in China that opposed Mao Zedong’s ascendant Democratic People’s Republic, however unlikely it seemed that they could oppose the regime that now controlled half the Chinese coast. In Korea, Emerson, whether by design or by accident, accelerated a descent into small-scale civil war by supporting the Republic of Korea, one of the numerous provisional governments seeking international acceptance in the wake Japan’s withdrawal from the peninsula.

japaneseconst.jpg

5. Signing of the Japanese Constitution.​

The greatest two events in Asia in the latter half of the 1940s though, were two recoveries of independence. The first, on January 3rd 1947, was that of Japan’s, which signed into law its new constitution that established it as a Constitutional Monarchy, one which renounced its right to wage offensive war. The Japanese would become invaluable allies to the USA as the withering away of the European powers and Chinese Civil War accelerated. The second was that of India’s.
The British had long ago begun to see India as a liability; a drain on London’s finances that would never pay itself back as the cost of protecting and governing the colony skyrocketed. On May 1st 1947, 200 years of British colonial rule ended with the creation of the Republics of India, Burma and Pakistan. Of these three, only the first would not face a large scale civil war in the next decade. Decolonization, and the instability that followed it, had kicked off.
For Europe though, the long crisis of Imperial Collapse was still but a specter on the horizon in early 1947. The end of another, shorter crisis, was on the minds of Britain, France and the USA two weeks before Indian Independence. The Soviet Union had reopened the borders to the Soviet-occupied zone on April 20th and the Greek Civil War seemed to be coming to at least a stalemate in favor of the Republican faction. With their objective achieved, NATO had to face the consequence of what they had done to achieve it; the United States was now well and truly committed to the outside world, and NATO was well and truly committed to a West German State.
The Federal Republic of Germany was indeed proclaimed on January 21st 1948, after a long constitutional creation process, which hinged largely on whether or not Germany would include a clause similar to the Japanese, renouncing the country’s right to an offensive war. What eventually tipped the scales against such a clause was a Soviet-supported crackdown of dissent by the new Czechoslovakian government; the USSR was clearly not cowed, and to handicap the nation that would be the lynchpin of NATO’s defense of Europe against Soviet invasion was supremely stupid.

czechoslovakia1947.jpg

6. The Czechoslovak Communist Party demonstrates its power before Soviet intervention, c. December 1947.​

The Soviet response of declaring a Democratic German Republic seemed to be little but a formality, as the geopolitical situation already called the Cold War became a terrifying reality two days later when the Soviet Union announced that it had tested its first atomic bomb. It took seven days, and another test, before Emerson officially announced the Soviet Union’s nuclear capabilities to the American public.
That public, though undoubtedly fearful of the Soviet Union and deteriorating international situation, was largely concentrated on domestic affairs. On an economic boom that had followed a short recession in 1945, and brought GDP growth to 13% during 1945-49, and on more general prosperity brought by the end of the Great Depression. In fact, it was the most prosperous decade in American history.
US manufacturing accounted for 50.1% of all manufacturing, and American GDP was 38.7% of world GDP. The riches afforded by being the only country not devastated by bombing and combat were showering down upon the United States. Veterans, with the help of the GI Bill, were reintegrating into society in their millions, and the demands that they and their new families had were the fuel on which the American machine run. The next decade and a half would be called the “Golden Age of the Middle Class” for a reason.

[1] – The IEU and its exclusion of the Soviet Union is seen by many historians as the cut-off point between the “War-Time” lead-up to, and the “Peace-Time” lead-up to the Cold War. Other such cut-off points include the surrender of Germany, surrender of Japan, and the beginning of the Warsaw Uprising.

[2] - $75 billion would eventually be claimed in 1945-6, and accounted for almost half of the GDP of Western Europe.

[3] – The peak of Polish power has generally been defined as 1926, after the Lithuanian-Polish War of 1924-5, when Polish troops seized territories on the Poland-Alexandrist Russia border after a short border war, and even coordinated an intervention in East Prussia, making Poland the only foreign power with troops engaged in the German Civil War.

[4] – Months later, during a speech in Fulton, Missouri, Churchill would rework Emerson’s steel cage into the famous “Iron Curtain.”

[5] – Originally a bid to bluff Stalin into reopening the border in order to prevent such a state, the Federal Republic of Germany became a real political goal once it became clear that Stalin was not backing down.

--------------------------------

Exceptional Situation(s):

The Presidents: It always comes back, like an enjoyable version of herpes.

Elections will be held. The parties are:

Republican, Liberal and Independent.

Praying that someone’s still out there,

BBB
 
I, Christina J. Blancharde-Fredrick is deeply concerned with the Soviets intervention in Eastern European nations, and their brutality in crushing the Polish fighters is despicable. We must deal with these Soviets diplomatically, as they are a danger to peace.

I, would also like to announce my candidacy for leader of the Liberal Party.

~ Christina J. Blancharde-Fredrick, Congresswoman

(( I am glad Presidents is not dead! ))
 
((We never lost faith!))

I am indeed saddened that we have not been able to make more progress diplomatically this year, but neither this administration nor the United Nations is to blame for this. The Soviet Union is intent on working against a congress of nations and obstructing diplomatic business. I hope lessons will be learned and we can work better together in the future for the betterment of us all.

I will of course be standing by the President should he choose to stand again.

~ Philip JJ McCahill, Former President of the United States and Representative of the United States to the United Nations
 
((YAY! This is like the most enjoyable case of herpes! :D))

I, former Secretary of Defence Richard A. Jarvis, announce my candidacy for President on the Republican Ticket. As before, I campaign on fiscal responsibility, a strong defence, and warmer relations with the Soviet Union.
 
If the Soviet Union will not work for peace and world cooperation, then we must work without them. We must work with every free government of this planet, to prevent the creation of new dictatorships and extremist governments around the world. If the Soviet Union and those like her see the benefits of a free and peaceful world, they can stand beside us - let us use the United Nations to its fullest extent. If those in control see only their own 'benefits' from conquest and empire, then they can let us work alone. It is the difficult work of peace.

Peace. We relished the word just a few years ago, but now in some ways it is unsettling as war. Peace, as desperate bloody struggles erupt in the small scale in all corners of the world. Peace, in a deadlock. Peace, by the atomic bomb. Peace, by mutually assured destruction. It is a new reality we are waking to. But we should not fear peace. We simply must work hard in peace, as we worked in war - perhaps even harder, for in peace we fight for the hearts and minds of the world. We fight in Greece, in China, and in the new nations enfolding throughout the world.

To those new nations, I would say this: We are here to help you. We will stand against minority overthrows and support the ability of the people to choose their governments without the chains of extremist ideologies. We are the arsenal for peace -

- and so we must be, not distracted by the ambitions of warlike nations, but committed fully to the betterment of mankind. We fight not only with tanks, used to stop the advance of hostile militaries, but with schools and bread and kitchen stoves.

To the American people, I ask for the same cooperation and goodwill that we showed in the darkest hours of war. We must be the torch of liberty in the world.

For that purpose, I will be running for the Republican nomination once more. If elected, I will pursue closer support to free nations around the world. At home, I will do my best to ensure the continued excellence of personal liberties and government fiscal responsibility as we go into an era full of uncertainties. The free world must be strong against the many kinds of threats that can attack governments from within and without, but without sacrificing her liberty or the engines of peace.
 
I will be seeking the Liberal Party's nomination for President.

Under a continued Emerson administration, we will continue to do whatever it takes to preserve peace and liberty at home and abroad. We will continue to support our allies in Europe and Asia. We shall support them with words in the UN and in our embassies. We shall support them with money for their coffers. We shall support them with guns for their hands. We shall support them with the full muscle of the United States on air, land and sea. Until Germany is reunited as the peaceful, sovereign nation it was meant to be. Until the wounds of the World Wars are healed. Until the Poles are allowed to declare their own government without being murdered for it. Until the Greeks and Chinese can live without fear of their governments falling to oppression and tyranny. Until the Iron Curtain comes crashing down and even Russia breathes free.

The expansion of communism, and the death and destruction it brings, ends here.

Domestically, I will continue the dismantlement of the final war-time regulations on industry, and continue the sound economic policies of my predecessors.
 
The Soviet juggernaut is indeed a threat. During the war, closer ties with Moscow was necessary, since we needed their help. Now we pay the prize for needing a Rabid Wolf to put down the devil. I have been Ambassador in Moscow. I know the Soviet Union has tremendous potential. I also know Stalin is a master of Realpolitik, who will use all means necessary to advance the position of Communism and the Soviet Union.
 
I find myself concerned about the situation in the former British Raj, these new three new states are practically an invitation for Communist expansion, the massive populations of these nations, of Africa and the other European colonies in Asia would add insurmountable power to the Soviet Union if apprehended. It thus becomes an utmost priority to see our fellow democracies hold strong, particularly Great Britain, France, Portugal and the Netherlands. Both in politics and in economics we must provide assistance and we must diplomatically oppose any further extractions from their duties, and we as the leaders of the free world must take up guardianship of those areas already independent, in Latin America, Europe, and India.

We must make it the policy of the United States that without reservation or exception the Empires of Justice will not be allowed to fall and in its place rise any Red Empire.
 
I just realized that, excluding the last 3-4 months, I've been running "The Presidents" pretty much non-stop, at least once-a-month (and more often before WWII) since April... two years ago.

Christ. :eek:

Anyway, I'm gonna wait until tomorrow to end the primary sign-up.
 
BigBadBob said:
I just realized that, excluding the last 3-4 months, I've been running "The Presidents" pretty much non-stop, at least once-a-month (and more often before WWII) since April... two years ago.

Christ. :eek:

Anyway, I'm gonna wait until tomorrow to end the primary sign-up.
Click to expand...

((Tis impressive, and your resolve is truly inspiring. Love you :D ))
 
The Primary of 1948​

Liberal Candidate(s)

Calvin Emerson (b. 1901), Incumbent President of the Republic ((BigBadBob)). Having spent four years in the top executive position, Emerson is now more willing to use avenues of influence outside the UN to oppose the USSR. Economically he supports continuing down the path of McCahill’s non-war-time policies.

Christina Blancharde-Fredrick (b. ????), Congresswoman ((NikoHoI3)). Blancharde-Fredrick is a veteran of many an administration, and is now seeking the chance to become America’s first female president.

Republican Candidate(s)

Richard A. Jarvis (b. 1890), Republican politician ((Riccardo93)). One of the most experienced politicians in Washington, Jarvis is running on a campaign of fiscal responsibility, a strong defence, and warmer relations with the Soviet Union.

William Gallatin (b. 1894), Former Vice-President of the Republic ((Gloa)). The man who served as vice-president of the Republic throughout the war, has become acknowledged as one of the leading experts on “the Politics of Peace.” The man who coined the phrase “hearts and minds” now runs on a platform of doing everything to preserve peace through a campaign of winning them.

--------------------------------

Exceptional Situation(s):

None that I can think of right now.

Primary voting is thus open for the first time in 2013.
 
I cast my vote for President Emerson, though only because of his domestic policies; I am skeptical of his increasingly confrontational attitude.

~ President Philip JJ McCahill, US Representative at the United Nations
 
I stand behind Emerson.

((Can I just say about the AAR in general, I do think it's better when we don't follow our history with different names, I think the best moments of the AAR are those that have been unique to it.))
 
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This "Emerson Doctrine" is utterly unacceptable; the United States can not, and should not, act as the policeman of the entire world. By acting in such a manner, not only will we continue to sour relations with the Soviets, we will incur the wrath of people all over the word. This policy is foolish, brash, and completely unenforceable. Under a Jarvis Administration, a policy of peace will be followed; however, the United States government will work both improve relations with the Soviet Union, and expand democracy through diplomatic and non-violent means.

In terms of economic policy, this administration has not been horrendous, but I believe that a gradual decrease of government will help promote growth. Prior to the Great Depression, my father encouraged fiscal responsibility and means to keep the economy afloat without massive bureaucracy; we chose to follow a different path suffered over a decade of economic turmoil. By keeping the effective reforms passed during the Depression and engaging in a policy of market liberalism, we can help propel growth forward and keep our country strong. These government programmes endorsed by the president, whilst secure and moderately effective now, will become greater burdens on our grandchildren and cause terrible problems in the market; we must work to avert this.

~ General Richard A. Jarvis, Former Secretary of Defence
 
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