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One Wargame to rule them all?The Yogi said:But in the end, I will always return to my Dark Master, Hearts of Iron!
Seriously, though, I will praise you on the one hand for your ability to simultaneously manage TWO AARs of the highest quality while juggling the rest of life while, with on the other hand, pestering you to update said AARs more often.
All right, esteemed readership, it's that time again; time for an update! If you find this summary somewhat shorthanded, it's because it's a relatively uneventful period; just wait until 1948, when all hell breaks loose in world politics...
CHAPTER III
1946-1947
1946 - King Umberto II of Italy votes in the referendum that would decide his future as Head of State
1946-1947
1946 - King Umberto II of Italy votes in the referendum that would decide his future as Head of State
Political impact of the Sino-Soviet war
Communist discredit
The reminder of 1946 saw the Soviet Union and it’s Maoist proxies gradually halt the nationalist advance in Manchuria and edge forward in Central Asia, while the Chinese advance in Mongolia reached threatening proportions. Communist parties around the world competed in launching vitriolic denouncements of the Kuomintang regime, but because world opinion was already so solidly with China, this proved a public relations disaster. Even the Italian Communist Party, the proportionally largest among the western-aligned nations lost a significant part of it’s support. This played a crucial role in the preservation of Italian Monarchy in the referendum of autumn of 1946, where the new King Umberto II of Piemonte-Savoy was endorsed to remain as Head of State with a slim margin. In German-occupied Europe, however, Communist guerrilla groups grew more dominant as relations between Germany and the United States thawed under the perceived shared Soviet threat.
American-German détente
While the new British Labour government of Clement Atlee was clearly less belligerent and anti-communist than it’s Tory predecessor, Britain remained steadfastly anti-German and continued to provide covert support for resistance fighters in Europe. In sharp contrast, the US defeat in the Manchurian war led to a thawing of US-German relations which even if they would never grow warm at least led to a lifting of the post-war embargo on trade and an unofficial but “realpolitik” partnership, based on the old truth about “my enemy’s enemy”. German Europe was thus re-integrated into the world economy. The growing nuclear arsenal of the Reich did cause strain to relations, although neither side mentioned them in openly for fear of giving away free information to the USSR, which was not believed to posses any A-bombs at the time. Still, from early 1947 on, both sides forced production of uranium fission bombs. Germany had now developed a small fleet of strategic jet bombers capable of delivering the bulky weapons to target, but research into both rocketry and bomb design was forced. The Reich would not rest secure until it possessed nuclear-tipped Rocket bombs.
Atlantic rift and colonial troubles
Since the Franco-Algerian state naturally also retained it’s WW2 outlook on world affairs, a rift began to appear between the Anglo-French camp and it’s United States backers. Still, Soviet support for anti-colonialist movements in the European Empires was considered threatening enough that it would never be complete. The French Empire especially, fatally weakened by the loss of the mother country and the consequent shortage of military manpower, was in turmoil. In Indochina, which had been liberated by Free French forces shipped to Cambodia after the Siamese change of sides, the Communist-led Vietminh guerrillas began to harass the colonial authorities. Even in Algeria itself there were stirrings of nationalist dissent, now that the French masters seemed so fatally weakened. The tottering French Empire was maintained, for the moment, with American funds and weapons and native manpower.
Truman’s troubles
At the conclusion of the Manchurian war in 1946, Harry Truman was arguably the most loathed President in the history of the United States. The victory over Japan was by and large credited to his great predecessor Franklin D. Roosevelt, but the failure to defeat Germany, the disastrous intervention in China and the outright military defeat it resulted in were generally considered to be Truman’s fault. After the Soviet invasion of China and the initially successful Chinese defence however, the President’s popularity began to pick up again. The Democrats maintained, with some success, that America had played for time in Manchuria, and had won the necessary breather for China to prepare – in essence, they said, America had NOT lost the war, but indeed achieved it’s war aims; a strong China, which was obviously well able to defend even against the Soviet bear. But as the USSR gradually gained the upper hand during 1947, this boast began to sound ever more hollow. The further course of the Sino-Soviet war in 1948 would have disastrous consequences for the Democrats in the 1948 Presidential elections.
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The Cold War... How is Germany doing, by the way? Not in the international context, but in some more close detail, so to speak.
Damn how can these great stories start without me seeing? Do I suffer from teporary blindness? Cause the next time that happens I'll be sure to check the forums.
Great story so far. This is a style of writing I personally admire the most, since the author must have an intricate understanding of the whys and hows of foreign policy. That can come with maturity and somewhat with learning political studies.
I'll be following this.
Great story so far. This is a style of writing I personally admire the most, since the author must have an intricate understanding of the whys and hows of foreign policy. That can come with maturity and somewhat with learning political studies.
I'll be following this.
It sounds like things are going to rapidly start going downhill in China...
Still, the Chinese state left probably won't have much popular support and will be but Stalin's puppet...
Still, the Chinese state left probably won't have much popular support and will be but Stalin's puppet...
WunderbAAR!
Tänk om jag besatt sådana engelskakunskaper och inte den förbannade svengelskan man tvingas skriva med jämt och ständigt.o
Jättebra, är allt jag kan säga. Sträckläst dina AAR's de senaste dagarna (man får ta det pö om pö... Så mycket text!
And a question; I got the impression that you're going to release the modifications you've done to the game? I'm very interested of those!
Keep it up!
Tänk om jag besatt sådana engelskakunskaper och inte den förbannade svengelskan man tvingas skriva med jämt och ständigt.
o Jättebra, är allt jag kan säga. Sträckläst dina AAR's de senaste dagarna (man får ta det pö om pö... Så mycket text!
And a question; I got the impression that you're going to release the modifications you've done to the game? I'm very interested of those!
Keep it up!
Yes, an update!!! Very nice overview, Yogi, although it will never be enough for your readers, as you already know.
It seems that in this tripartite world, somehow the remaining democracies are more conservative than IRL - Italy remains a monarchy, a more decisive aid is being given to Kuomintang, a stronger american support for french colonial holdings and so on.
It seems that in this tripartite world, somehow the remaining democracies are more conservative than IRL - Italy remains a monarchy, a more decisive aid is being given to Kuomintang, a stronger american support for french colonial holdings and so on.
I, for one, am hoping that China'll emerge victorious. Now that'd be interesting. Communist Taiwan, anybody?
While a working relationship with Himmler is unikely, he was pretty despised in the West after all, there's nothing to preclude the possibility of one with Germany. Authoritarian or not, the US is bound to be even more anxious about the spread of Communism than IRL. During the Cold War we backed a lot petty dictators, to our discredit, in an effort to contain the Red tide. Just think of LBJ's comment about the leader of South Vietnam: "He's an SOB, but he's our SOB." I can see something similar in future US relation with Germany, viewing it as the necessary lesser of two evils.
A bigger question is who's going to replace Truman in '49? Anyone but MacArthur, please!
A bigger question is who's going to replace Truman in '49? Anyone but MacArthur, please!
Disastrous consequences in 1948? Please, dear God let it be Dewey and not Taft.
Nice to finally have an update- I hope it's the first of many more.
Nice to finally have an update- I hope it's the first of many more.
A Republican, I'd suppose. WWII leader, too. Perhaps Eisenhower? I can't remember if he was a conservative or not, but I think so...
Dewey was the historical candidate against Truman, and Truman won, but very very closely. Newspapers wrote that Dewey won but the actual results were different.
But nothing says he'll be the nominee is this Timeline...
But nothing says he'll be the nominee is this Timeline...
There will be some mention of this in an upcoming update.Kurt_Steiner said:
They already did, they sent them some old Panthers.Viden said:
Don't get your hopes up; it's not the big one quite yet - but it was a very eventful year...Murmurandus said:*waits for the hell to break loose*
Thanks for your kind words Deus, hope you'll enjoy the rest of the story.Deus said:
Not rapidly no... the new war starts in late summer of 1946, and well into 1947 China is still on the offensive on some fronts. It's a grueling, drawn out agony - but for whom?GeneralHannibal said:
I'm happy you like my work! Which one have you been reading besides this one, if I might ask? Regarding the mod, I didn't at first realise how many events needed to be redone for this thing to work; in many, many of them, world history is put on hold until Germany ceases to exist. All of them need to be put to sleep and replaced with clones, and that is a work in progress, since I discover these as I go. This means not only that I can't release a working mod just yet - it also means the next update will take some time while I sort out event strangeness.TeutonburgerW said:WunderbAAR!
Tänk om jag besatt sådana engelskakunskaper och inte den förbannade svengelskan man tvingas skriva med jämt och ständigt.
Jättebra, är allt jag kan säga. Sträckläst dina AAR's de senaste dagarna (man får ta det pö om pö... Så mycket text!
And a question; I got the impression that you're going to release the modifications you've done to the game? I'm very interested of those!
Keep it up!
Comes naturally from a world were the Soviets make deals with the Nazis and attack America, methinks.latinsword said:Yes, an update!!! Very nice overview, Yogi, although it will never be enough for your readers, as you already know.
It seems that in this tripartite world, somehow the remaining democracies are more conservative than IRL - Italy remains a monarchy, a more decisive aid is being given to Kuomintang, a stronger american support for french colonial holdings and so on.
Why not? America dealt with Franco, Salazar, Mao, Pinochet, Saddam Hussein... why not Himmler if geopolitics demanded it? In the context of having lost a shooting war against the USSR I don't see it as too unlikely.Faeelin said:
Nothing official, mind you. Just business and trade as usual.
I wonder how Mao will make it there though... float on his fat, maybe?Pirate Z said:
I belive the next presidentials are due in 1948. Eisenhower, as far as I can see will not be a viable candidate - after all he directed Allied failure to defeat Germany and is probably regarded as somewhat of a loser, rather than a brilliant and victorious commander. Mac on the other hand shone during the defeat of Japan... but he was also in command over the Manchurian war, and that surely hasn't made him any more Presidentiable...VILenin said:
Whadda you have against Taft?Evil Capitalist said:
As mentioned, I need to sort out some event issues first, so it might be a little while.Ike ran for the Republicans, yes. Although in 1948 both sides wooed him and he stayed out of it. MacArthur ran though.likk9922 said:
Yep, and the question here is... will Dewey still win the primaries and will Truman still defeat him given the changes to history as known to us which have taken place in this AAR? Stay tuned to find out!GeneralHannibal said: