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Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM |
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This Day in Alternate History Blog
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How
many divisions have the French (v.2)? By: Christopher G. Nuttall
“How many divisions has the Pope?” Stalin to Molotov
As the big three, Stalin,
Churchill and Roosevelt, met to discuss the shape of the post-war world, Stalin
presented them with a surprising demand that, for different reasons, they were
inclined to support. Why, he asked
them, should a nation, which was defeated due to its own incompetence, nearly
dragging another down with it, and then collaborating shamelessly with their
mutual enemy until it became clear who was going to win, be allowed a share of
the spoils of war? The nation
discussed, of course, was France, which was demanding a share in the government
of Germany and assistance in a return to it becoming a great power. Stalin, needless to say, was not
pushing this idea out of his sense of natural justice.
Studying the strategic position of the war, he concluded that the west
would unite to some degree against the USSR.
Having concluded that, he decided to damage any concept of European unity
– and if the allies would help him with that, so much the better. So, the allied invasion plan for
North Africa goes ahead, but with new orders – disarm and intern all the
French troops and arrest the French collaborators.
The allies land and start arresting the French troops, while preparing to
hold off Rommel (who is being chased backwards by Montgomery).
Once the French troops realise what is happening, there is some
resistance, but the allied equipment is better and they have no popular support
from the Arabs. By the end of 1942,
the allies have occupied French Africa and, by the end of March 1943, the allies
have defeated Rommel and ended the war in Africa. The allies set up a local
council of Arabs to run Algeria and the other nations, and promise them full
sovenity after the war. American
businesses take the chance to invest in the new nations. Meanwhile, the Americans have
made contact with Ho Chi Minh. In a
real difference from OTL, the Americans agree to support him in exchange for
repatriating the French troops (Ho wanted to kill them outright or use them as
cannon fodder). Ho becomes the new
ruler of Indochina after the Japanese surrender. The reminder of the war proceeds
pretty much as in OTL, but at the end of it, France has no colonies left.
From this flow vast changes: There is no war in Vietnam to
bedevil either the French or Americans. Ho
continues to admire the US and becomes an ally of the US.
The investment of American business improves the economic status of
Vietnam and the nearby nations, bringing peace to the region. There is no war in Algeria.
The French have more resources and can feel that they have lost the part
of their nation that shamefully collaborated with the Germans.
However, there is a strong anti-American trend running through French
politics, causing them to concentrate on developing their nuclear capabilities
and their relations with Europe.
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