Dividing the World

Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM

This was influenced by Jerry Pournelle’s co-dominion books and by Scott’s Dark America. It’s not completely realistic (Scott, you can start sniggering now), so I started to rewrite it, but than I thought people might want to see the original.

I started to wonder, a few weeks back, about what might be required to create a more cynical US that would divide the world formally up between itself and the USSR, starting in 1945. Sadly, I need to start a bit earlier, as FDR could not be that kind of president, Truman could be, but was not in power long enough in an emergency situation to completely shake off FDR’s legacy. Therefore, lets go with Scott’s basic POD of Truman coming in as VP one term earlier.

Truman will push for a bigger army as his price for serving under FDR. This creates jobs and helps to deter aggression, so FDR will probably go along with it. Money gets placed in military research and some economic planning to increase the size of the US armed forces within a year. Plans for all sorts of new technologies are developed, but few of them are really built and tested.

There is some evidence that FDR believed the Japanese to be rational, e.g. they would not launch a suicidal war against the American giant. This may have pushed him to ‘punish’ the Japanese for their aggression in China, leading to Pearl Harbour. That won’t change, and therefore FDR will make his famous ‘Day of Infamy’ speech so beloved by American politicos. However, in ATL, just as he is making his concluding remarks, he realizes that he is responsible for the catastrophe, and when Germany declares war, he has a heart attack. This does not kill him, but it renders him unable to carry the burden of office and the effective leadership of America falls to Truman.

I won’t repeat all the nice things Scott said about Truman. I will note that he is very rational and experienced as an army man and sees no need to fight for islands that the US will be able to recapture. The US main fleet and the British Pacific Fleet (excepting the Prince of Wales and Repulse, which would have been sunk before Truman took over the reigns) pulls back to Pearl Harbour and Ceylon respectfully, while the US army is deployed in Australia and the British forces are concentrated in Burma, Truman having clearly seen that Singapore is indefensible. Percival goes back to Britain to complain about this, leaving the few remaining empire troopers to mount a tough, bitter, defence.

This does provoke some problems in the US political scene. Macarthur goes back to the US (ordered out by Truman) to protect at the abandonment of the Philippines, vows to run as a presidential candidate in the 1944 election. Hoover tried to help him out with the sex details he had on FDR, but Truman uses the great reputation of FDR as a weapon to break Hoover and divide the FBI’s powers up among a number of competing departments. OSS and Special Circumstances (SC) founded, SC to act as Truman’s personal agents in the world at large, accountable only to him.

Truman talks tough on foreign affairs. He pushes Churchill into embracing a plan to unite the British Empire with America, claiming that this is the way to save Britain and her empire. He orders preparations of a mid-1943 invasion of France to coincide with the big naval push at the Japanese home islands. He smoothes ruffled feeling by giving Wavell command of the combined forces in the India/Burma/Singapore (which fell in march 1942 after a heroic and desperate defence) region. Hasley and Sprunce share command of the Australian regain, using submarines to hamper Japs until new carrier fleet is ready. American money soon starts shoring up the British Empire and currency union soon follows.

He talks tough to Stalin as well, placing a grudging respect for himself in the mind of the soviet leader, while lead-lease is sent, there is no attempt to portray Stalin as a friend. Stalin is unhappy, but plans to double-cross Truman at the earliest possible moment.

He also tries to push Vichy France to declare war on Hitler. Hitler learns of this and talks tough, while planning to invade as soon as he can (the campaign in Russia is reaching a crucial point) and preparing to send more help to Rommel. Darlen believes that the Germans will win so offers Germany an alliance, Vichy forces split, British navy shells Toulon, knocks out most of the remaining French fleet. Some French troops appear in North Africa, some fight with the Germans, while others desert to the allies when they get a chance. French Fascists establish control of French African empire.

Truman declares war on Vichy France and ordains the forfeit of her colonies. US armed forces invade French empire and rapidly take it over, treating most French as POWs, while bringing in black Americans (this is one of the attacks on racism in America) to run the empire and bringing the benefits of American civilisation to the natives. Martin Luther King becomes governor later and finally concludes the work of preparing the whole of North Africa for statehood. Rommel finally called out of Africa by Hitler who needs him to build an Atlantic wall for when the Americans invade.

Despite British stonewalling, the invasion of France goes ahead in 1943, just before the Germans get to far towards Stalingrad. American troops are well equipped, but their experience leaves much to be desired and conflicts between Truman, Churchill and Deguale make the invasion a political nightmare. The French actions lead to Rommel being able to break up the invasion force and shove most of the allies back into the sea. Germany, having lost a great deal of material, goes on to the strategic defensive, although Hitler wants to continue operations somewhere, Speer convinces him to wait until the Germans have built up their armies again.

The loss of approximately one-third of the British army and its material lead to a political crisis in Britain. Churchill is sacked, replaced by Attlee, as the British Public are panicking and rumours that the Americans are going to desert them spread, Truman offers an aligamation of the US and the British Empire at once, rather than just in the foreseeable future. This is accepted and America lays claim to all of Britain’s colonies.

There is good news from the pacific, however, the US/British fleet had sortied direct from pearl harbour and headed straight for the Japanese home islands. Despite rumours (which fooled the Japanese) that it was an invasion fleet, the idea is to bring out the Japanese navy, which is vastly over-confident, and sink it in battle. The battle of Japan, as it becomes known as, is an American victory, sinking all of the Japanese capital ships and most of their smaller vessels. The sub blockade accounted for the remainder. The fleet bombs most of the important Japanese cities (although Truman orders the imperial palace to be untouched) and occupies many of the small Japanese islands to serve as airbases.

The declaration that they were now part of an expanded US did not sit well in all of the British territories. India, for example, was strongly against any arrangement that did not have them serving as equals, although the US aid had helped enormously, there were so many ships, tanks, and planes than Indians had full equality with British for the first time in the armed forces. The more economically minded Indians saw the great advantage of free trade within a block, and they did not care if it was a Stirling or Dollar block. A number of people do agitate against the union, but SC manages to kill Jinnah, Nehru and Gandhi, and blame it on the Japanese. This remains undiscovered until 1970.

Truman has to face up to a few facts through, and one of them is that Soviet Russia will be a great power after the war and even his tame congress (which almost baulked at absorbing the British Empire) would object to a declaration of war. Therefore, when he meets Stalin as part of the conference in Iran, early 1944, he proposes dividing the world up between the two powers. Seeing small powers as causing most of the world problems, he convinces Stalin to accept a division of the world. Loosely, the US gets the entire American continent, Britain and her empire (aside from north Iran), the north Arfican Empire that was France or Italy’s, South Africa, Japan and half of Korea. Stalin gets Eastern Europe, most of the Balkans, Finland, northern Norway, Greece, and Afghanistan. China, Turkey, middle Africa and Siam are left up for grabs.

Truman was a souilers leader. Unlike FDR, he is able to have a Man-to-man talk with Stilwell (In OTL, Stilwell stuttered when introduced to FDR.). Stilwell’s report will be ultra-realistic: China has done bugger-all, will do bugger-all and they keep demanding more supplies. Chiang expects the US to win and wants to keep his forces available for the civil war with Mao. Stilwell supports helping Mao instead, but Truman expects that Stalin will then claim most of China after the war ends if there is a substancal communist presence. He plays both ends against the middle, supplying Chiang in exchange for parmarment ownership of Hong Kong, Tibet and the rights to build airbases in Chinese territory, he arms Mao in exchange for attacks against the Japanese. Stilwell is given a wide brief to pressure Chiang and full support.

The British/American forces attack down from Burma and liberate Singapore and Siam, denouncing the King of Siam as a collaborator (SC having killed the king on a ‘botched’ mission to rescue him so he can’t discuss his side) and liberate Indochina. The French forces there either assist the Japanese or go underground. Ho Cho Minh spends a great deal of time digging them out, but later attempts to join the USSR.

The invasion of early 1944 is basically a repeat of the same plan that was a disaster in OTL. However, the allies have better tanks, far more experience and the soviets launched an operation to push the Germans back ten days before D-Day, causing the Germans to send most of their supplies to the eastern front. Germany bleeds the soviets white, but they are evicted from the Russian SSR by late 1944, and early 1945 see them out of the old USSR entirely.

The allies liberate France, and then face a problem. DeGualle has become far more anti-American and the union between Britain and America has increased those fears, perticuly since France will not have much of an empire remaining, if any. Truman has ordered operations against small French holdings in order to add them to his new empire. He resents American dominance, but sees no way to escape it, but he will never forgive the quiet invasion. Truman sees the writing on the wall and orders SC to kill him, but the free Frenchman is lucky and escapes into the French country. He is uncertain who ordered the attack and blames it on the Germans at first, but later becomes convinced that it was Truman.

Mid-1945 sees the allies attacking the Rhine in what was planned as the final battle of the war. Truman has made the final agreements with Stalin, including territory division and a promise not to interfere in either’s sphere of influence. Nether side intends to keep that promise, as Truman supplies arms to the Finns and Swedes (still neutral, but probably next on Stalin’s list). June 1945 sees the fall of Berlin, the collapse of the third Reich, the attempts by SC to kill or kidnap the leading German scientists and the sun rises on a world at peace. Japan never surrendered, but starved to death, while the Red Army crushed the Japanese forces in Manchuria. Truman sends the millions of refugees to Japan as new colonisers, intermarrying with the remaining Japanese.

The world is far different from OTL through. The United States (America having been dropped off the list) covers the original USA, Canada, India, Britain, Australia, over three-fourths of Africa, and much of the Middle East. The USSR covers the entire OTL eastern block, Finland (invaded in late 1944 and crushed by mid-1945), upper Iran and Manchuria. Stalin invades Afghanistan in the year 1945 and the brutal tactics manage to wipe out much of the Afghani people, or send them into India as refugees.

Truman held off the 1944 election until after the war. He is comfortably elected for a second term, defeating Douglas Macarthur, and works to integrate the empire more closely. There is no Israel. Most of the Jews who wish to leave Europe go either to Japan or to Africa. Refugees from the soviet block talk of forced-resettlements are Stalin ruthlessly purges the poles, the interference of SC keeping a viscous guerrilla war going until 1960.

The US ecomany keeps going up, as there are all the projects to build roads, railways and other details that need to be done. The space program is not a competition, as the US and USSR work together most of the time, launching join moon base missions in 1970, after the death of Stalin.

The racial base of the political life is changed considerably. The first president from India appears in 1970, while there is less racial strife as most of the blacks have gone to Africa. A black president appears in 1990 and spearheads the movement to develop and take over Latin America after the crushing of the Cuba rebellion (1960) left the region in chaos.

The USSR does not collapse so much as fade away. The full details of the genocide worked by Stalin on the poles, East Germans, Afghanis, Finns and Manchurians will never be know for sure. China ended up being forcibly divided between the north and south and Stalin crushed most of the Chinese people.