Alternate Wikipedia Infoboxes VII (Do Not Post Current Politics or Political Figures Here)
- Thread starter BigVic
- Start date
Light of the Nations - Part 14: The Whirlwind
Jimmy Carter entered office aiming to put his own spin on Mondale’s foreign policy. Maintain an active American Foreign policy, but avoid the sort of quagmires that had dogged Presidents in Vietnam.
Carter worked to rebuild the détente that had been broken by the Iranian Civil War. He was helped by the fact that said war was beginning to stabilize in favor of American backed factions. Battered by the Pre-War Military and American weapons the Left was falling back. The American backed National Salvation Front was a pretty standard military junta, but portrayed itself as Islamist, Shia. This gave it trappings of legitimacy and legitimate popular support that the Shah had lacked, allowing the forces on the right to advance again. Most surprising was the response from Iraq, where despite linguistic and cultural differences, thousands of young Shiite men flocked across the border to support their cause, getting away from the secular but Sunni Hussein.
The Reds were not gone yet, but Moscow was willing to draw back, which Carter appreciated and reciprocated. He used more human rights based approach to diplomacy. Where Mondale had been hesitant about some allies, Carter was willing to lean on them to reduce oppression except when he wasn’t. Take, for example, Somalia. Siad Barre had taken power in a military coup in 1969, and embraced a Marxist dictatorship. Until he picked a fight with Ethiopia’s similarly Marxist Junta and the Soviets backed Addis Ababa. Barre looked around for a new patron the US was the only real alternative. Dropping the “People’s” from the Republic of Somalia, Barre embraced America. And fearful of a Communist Horn, America embraced him. For the average Somali though, things didn’t change much. Services were privatized, but they were still conscripted and lacked basic rights. Barre reasserted his shaky control of the country brutally, using American weapons to near-genocidal effect in Somaliland.
Carter’s crowning achievement were the Camp David accords. There he brought together two sides with a bloody history of war and partition. Despite religious differences, he hammered out an agreement.
That’s right, he started the Indio-Pakistani Peace Process.
It was said only Nixon could go to China. Carter needed two. Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, President of Pakistan had come to power in a military coup, and had been aggressive in Islamization. To say nothing of his Nuclear ambitions and sly diplomacy. He was a dictator no doubt. Indira Gandhi’s status was murkier. She had remained in power and had a habit of using the arm of the state to beat down opponents. But her second time in office had never reached the hights of The Emergency, although it seemed unlikely anything but death would stop her. Zia was facing refugee crisis from Afghanistan and Iran, which being a military hammer he saw as a nail, thus needing a way to lessen the threat from the East. Gandhi was increasingly concerned with her legacy and saw talks as a way to gain domestic leverage.
It was Carter who helped turn these cynical, situational, peace initiatives into something more tangible and long lasting. Working non-stop at the Presidential retreat in Maryland, Carter crafted an agreement featuring arms reduction (nuclear and conventional), a hotline etc. The trickiest element was, unsurprisingly, Kashmir. The Line of Control was formalized, but Pakistan was recognized as having an “exceptional interest” in Kashmir, helping to write a new state constitution enshrining power sharing and eased border crossings. No deal is perfect, and this one faced backlash in both countries. Zia faced attacks for giving up without a fight and prioritizing peace in Kashmir for national honor. Gandhi was seen as selling out India’s military and sovereignty for vague promises.
Yet the General had military and Islamic credentials to back him up (and a secret police) while the Prime Minister had the memory of ‘71. As the countries got used to peace they found it agreeable and the thaw held. Pakistan would get the bomb, but never feel the need to test it. India and Pakistan were never going to be friends, but perhaps they could be rivals in Cricket without the threat of nuclear war. And Jimmy Carter, while he did not share Zia and Gandhi’s Nobel Peace Prize, deserves plenty of credit for that.
If it is Habsburg Empire in 3024, haven't they done any census in over 1000 years?
I take either the Civil War didn't happen, or the Supreme Court said that West Virginia is unconstitutional.
They have, I just didn't want to do all the math of figuring out plausible population figures for all their territories (including extraterrestrial territory).
an alt-civil war happened, with virginia remaining in the union. slavery was still abolished though
Why is Dakota not split in two and still has Wyoming? What is the name of the fusion between Utah and Nevada? When were Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Puerto Rico admitted into the Union? Is DC a state?
- because it was funny at the moment; in canon, the in power toleration party didnt want the anti-masons to have 6 senate seats when they could have 2
- Utah
- late 1800s
- no
Does this mean that aliens have embraced human religion and can reproduce with humans or that homo sapiens born off-world are regarded as something other than human?
Yes to the former. Catholicism is the single largest (and majority) religion of the Milky Way. (Fun fact: First contact occurred when the Kingodm of Ruttia, the local galactic power at the time, observed Earth as part of some xenological studies and became convinced that Jesus Christ was the Saviour spoken of in their major prophecies and that the Catholic Church was the one that He founded. Humanity was quite surprised when the King of Ruttia landed in Rome and requested baptism from the Pope.) Most extraterrestrials are also of the humanoid variety and can produce viable offspring with humans and each other. Due to this and the universalising influence of Catholicism, your species has become increasingly less important except for e.g., medical reasons and the like, which is why the census is more generic than species-specific. As separation between species declines, interspecies marriage has become increasingly more common and the lines between different ones become more blurred. This is especially prominent on Earth which is one of the most cosmopolitan worlds as the home of the largest religion, the capital of the Galactic League, and one of the few intersections between multiple hyperlanes. The Habsburgs for example have married into multiple extraterrestrial royal families by now (and still have their signature luck in inheritances) and there's hardly a place left on Earth where a human isn't at least acquainted one or more extraterrestrials and/or mixed species people.
As Brasidas marched from Corinth he immediately discovered a slight issue on the way into Attica and from thence to Thassalay and Macedon. Namely, the city of Megara, complete with its own long walls, had been seized by the Athenians. With aid from Megarian Democrats they had seized the city for themselves, as well as both of the ports the city. Brasidas made an effort to storm the walls, but as with most such efforts, the Spartans failed spectacularly when confronted with basic fortifications. Fatefully, he made the decision to continue on his original mission northward following this failure, rather than turning back towards Sparta. The Athenians were then able to expand the walls of Megara and her ports on both the Corinthian and Saronic Gulfs. Attica was now doubly secure against ravaging. They still held the hostages from Pylos-Sphacteria politically, and possession of Megara now made years raids from Corinth a much riskier endeavor. The Peloponnesus was now cut off, leaving Sparta’s allies further afield isolated and vulnerable…
This is awesome. Would honestly make an entertaining movie. Starting off with how he gets into it, then Wolf of Wall Street style time skips as he grows richer and richer off getting paid in ROLEXES AND DIAMONDS by the Soviets, and then focusing on his ATL escape with his wife to Kaliningrad.
I can imagine this manhunt being the defining news story of this generation (although of course there's the other big thing that happened in 2001).
Some sketches for my new TL, based on the idea "What if there was no Cold War after the WWII".
Key points of TL:
Sergey Kirov survived his 1934 assasination.
Last years of WWII goes more succesful for the Western Allies, lead to Americans arrived on Berlin at the same time with the Soviets.
Also, Free French forces took Hanoi before Ho Chi Minh partisans.
Soviets were more succesful at the Far East, lead to all of Korea put under Communist rule, and Chinese Communists took Taiwan.
Stalin died in 1948, sucessed by Kirov
Germany was united and neutralised in 1950 (as OTL Austria). Czechoslovakia and Hungary were finlandized instead of placed directly under Communist Rule.
So, there was no Cold War in our sence. American and Soviet troops were withdrawn from Germany in 1950. NATO is more USA-UK alliance (France exit NATO in 1960, as OTL). Warsaw Pact was much smaller.
Without Stalin post-war paranoia, USSR stay a very Jewish-friendly. Because of that, Israel became pro-Soviet. Not Communist, but like OTL India - some kind of socialist and Soviet-friendly.
And now - some wikiboxes, illustrating one interesting fact - a lot of TTL second half of the twentieth century leaders were WWII veterans.
And TTL World Map.
Key points of TL:
Sergey Kirov survived his 1934 assasination.
Last years of WWII goes more succesful for the Western Allies, lead to Americans arrived on Berlin at the same time with the Soviets.
Also, Free French forces took Hanoi before Ho Chi Minh partisans.
Soviets were more succesful at the Far East, lead to all of Korea put under Communist rule, and Chinese Communists took Taiwan.
Stalin died in 1948, sucessed by Kirov
Germany was united and neutralised in 1950 (as OTL Austria). Czechoslovakia and Hungary were finlandized instead of placed directly under Communist Rule.
So, there was no Cold War in our sence. American and Soviet troops were withdrawn from Germany in 1950. NATO is more USA-UK alliance (France exit NATO in 1960, as OTL). Warsaw Pact was much smaller.
Without Stalin post-war paranoia, USSR stay a very Jewish-friendly. Because of that, Israel became pro-Soviet. Not Communist, but like OTL India - some kind of socialist and Soviet-friendly.
And now - some wikiboxes, illustrating one interesting fact - a lot of TTL second half of the twentieth century leaders were WWII veterans.
And TTL World Map.
Given that Gora seems to be at the centre of TTL’s kosovo analogue (though given that it contains none or basically none of Kosovo Field maybe it’s called Dardania instead), I certainly hope the ethnic Albanians ITTL treat the Gorani people better than IOTL.
Is there any lore behind China, Iran, Ex Yugoslavia, and the middle eastern borders or are they mainly changed for divergence’s sake?
I imagine Yugoslavia would have been more strongly in the Soviet sphere. Given their lack of Poland & Czechoslovakia, I imagine they
1) are more interested in the Balkans since it’s a much larger part of their sphere of influence
2) have more resources to promote/force loyalty, resources that would otherwise be spent on Poland and Czechoslovakia (though they weren’t dealing with much resistance in those countries so soon after WWII when the Tito-Stalin split happened IIRC)