The Iron Eagle II - Days of Strife
- Thread starter Kaiser of Brazil
- Start date
Deleted member 191087
Jeez, quite the bleak view. I hope not, considering how much Jango suffered iotl. Leave the poor guy alone!
Committed suicide with three shots to the back or broke his neck falling off a ladder, went swimming and drowned. So sad.
He is a strong leftist in a country that is integralist, maybe he runs away to the USA or Mexico. but in Brazil he will be killed. Considering TTL I would say he did well in OTL.
Deleted member 191087
Or alternatively the man could just keep his views for himself and live an unremarkable life, either that or move to maybe Argentina or Uruguay.
In this case he is irrelevant and should not even be discussed.
Uruguay and Argentina are in a block with Brazil. accepting enemies of the state is not a good way to maintain this relationship.
Deleted member 191087
Maybe so. Anyways, another Latino “icon” I’m curious about also is Che since Kaiser has implied that he could maybe show up sometime in this story:
X - YOU BELONG TO ME
THE IRON EAGLE
DAYS OF STRIFE
"YOU BELONG TO ME"
DAYS OF STRIFE
"YOU BELONG TO ME"
Louisiana had a weather much like Washington's during the Winter, Winnfield being a prosperous little town which right now was sitting on an enjoyable evening at 44 Fahrenheit, it was comfortable for the old man walking for a stroll. Huey Long enjoyed these walks, it made him feel healthy at this age, it made him feel some vigor and an enjoyable fresh air better than the one in his humble propriety. Of course there was the fact he was a living tourist attraction in the town, the mayor was overjoyed with the news he would be returning here and made sure everything was in order, he was a Democrat, one who was just too old to care for changing parties, besides, everyone who came to him claimed to be a Populist anyways. As the former President of the United States was walking down the street, dressed up with his trademark white hat and suit, he was accompanied by a man just a little younger than him who seemed to take more time writing in his bloc of notes than admiring the calmness of the humble county. It was a professor of the State University, one who Huey was beginning to wonder if he had a life of his own after a whole year.
Writing a biography for a man like him is not a small task, his life was so eventful and there was always one detail he would later recall and then a whole chapter would have to be added or changed. So far it was so big that Williams doubted it would fit a single volume and they just reached the time of the 1956 election, when the 2-term tradition was broken, and the professor was sounding more like a damned reporter than an academic. "Why did you run" was the obvious question and Huey has had to answer it at least three times in these last weeks, each time there was a little change in the difference. He did not mind, after all the professor was paying to do him a service, the former POTUS was being paid by the professor for these almost daily sessions but eventually Long would waiver the payment, he already had plenty of money, what concerned him was that the writer should be a friend, should be someone he could trust to write down his legacy. It was hardly the first biographer who approached him, but at least those were the polite ones, the unpolite ones just wrote down hearsays to paint him as the American version of Adolf Hitler.
Huey then stopped at the park, taking a seat on a bench to rest his leg while watching the occasional car passing by the street, staying under a tree as the professor took a seat by his side and followed up with another question. He did not pay much attention, rather he interrupted him with a question of his own. "Tom, how many chapters you think are left?" The professor thought that question well, he was thinking of an ending but how to end the biography of a person who was alive and sitting right besides him? He did not want to sound morbid, adjusting his glasses to give a response as he closed the note bloc. "With the end of your Presidency, Mr. Long, and add an epilogue of your retirement." That was the safe answer, ending on a high note with his achievements and finish in an epilogue of Winnfield, Louisiana with the President living peacefully in a manor, it was the same challenge that biographers of former Presidents Wheeler and Patton faced, at least it was not as bad as Hoover's as the man still had a relatively eventful life after leaving Washington. But this was not an answer that Mr. Long really seemed to like, it just felt like he was a ghost listening to his own story, he did not want to reach this end. He lost two brothers within months of one another, Rose kept saying how the retirement was for his good and yet he never felt more dead as when he was "out". He loved the crowds, the speeches, the rallies, the politics, to feel like he was the boss, that is why his best moments were when Russell or one of his contacts returned to speak about how things were in Washington, or when a politician came to his "pilgrimage" to Winnfield to pay tribute to him.
But this? All this damned year was a waste, an epilogue, the end of his history, his achievements, his life, and even with a high note to end it, of succeeding in all odds and leaving in his terms with a strong legacy to never be forgotten, it was still an ending. No, this could not be his end, he was never a man made to just sit down and take a beating from someone even if that was death itself, he could not end like an old man in a glorified retirement home, he would end in his own terms. "I would not write an epilogue just yet if I were you, Tom, you never know what the next chapter will be". Huey would then stand up on his own feet, a little faster than usual, his posturing more straightened up, he had letters to write, calls to make, it was just a year away from the election and he would be damned if he let that trucker keep running the country like he did not exist. "You know why I ran in '56? Because I see America as my child, no matter how grown up she is, how much you can see'em walking around and doing everything right, you don't leave'em hanging if she gets hurt, you are there for her. Well, I don't leave my kid in need when I can do something about it."
Between 1962 and 1964, America would see a turbulence unseen since the mid 1940s, if not since the Civil War, as the country would witness transformative years under the Hoffa Presidency that ranged from Civil Rights, Labor Rights, Mafia Wars, Foreign Crisis, Economic Turmoil and Political Crisis, much of it could be blamed on long-standing problems since the foundations of America, other problems could be blamed on something as recent as Hoffa and Long themselves, two men wrestling for control of an enormous Political organization, the Populist Party. Two personalities who were practically equal in ambition, ruthlessness, corruption and charisma, two men who came from nothing and used of their own oratory and political gifts to rise up. It is not hard to see why these two, when working together, held a strong grip on America in the late 1950s with one praising the other's deeds, publicly being the best of friends and now the worst of enemies.
Hoffa despised the idea that he was restricted, that he was controlled and had to hear and obey the whims of the Kingfish in Louisiana after he became President, he looked around and saw many in his cabinet to be Long's stooges, especially FBI Director Morrison, that is still less pervasive than Long's manipulation of the Supreme Court. Huey, as a Lawyer, was described as the most talented attorney to ever come before the SCOTUS by Supreme Justice and Former President Taft, no wonder that once he was President, Long spent his entire rule making sure the Supreme Court was filled with cronies who were, as he once said in private, "the best judges money could buy". Not necessarily because they were just corrupt, but they also had personal loyalty towards Long, at least 4 of them, including Supreme Justice John B. Fournet, was from Louisiana. Out of 11 justices, 9 were appointed by the Kingfish. Still, there was the legislature to consider as the House held a Populist Majority and that party was outspokenly defining itself as "Longist", in the Senate, much of the Party was under the sway of LBJ, one of Long's Protegees and President Pro-Tempore of the Senate, thanks to Huey of course. Even his Vice-President was a man so devoted to Long that he had portraits of him in his house and always included him in his prayers.
Hoffa had his own allies, and soon enough he planned to have his own clique and expand it, the elections of 1962 were fast approaching and Hoffa saw it less as a chance for the Populists to retain their majority and more as a chance to rid himself of those disloyal to him in the party and to endorse backers, mainly labor-friendly candidates and others who adopted his style across the Steel Belt where his electoral base was located. No doubt Hoffa's greatest win was in having Bufalino as Attorney-General, a man with shady connections who was also the leading attorney of the Teamster's Union during Hoffa's rise. With the ongoing war in the criminal underworld, the rising violence seen in major urban centers would put under pressure the Federal Government and investigation agencies such as James H. Morrison's FBI, which despite being nominally under Bufalino, was controlled by one of Long's "Louisiana Boys", which was also the problem of the Supreme Court, several government agencies and departments. "Huey came to Washington and brought in the whole Bayou" was a joke that many credited to Hoffa himself at the time.
But Jimmy was still the President of the United States, and while behind the scenes his power and authority had to constantly clash within his own party, publicly he was still THE President, not Huey Long, not Lyndon Johnson, not George Wallace or anyone else but himself. He traveled around the country with his own style, being close and in contact with the people, even going to a rally in San Francisco where he and his supporters went through the Golden Gate bridge with a convoy of trucks and it ended with him making a speech on top of the truck on the 15th of June of 1962, in the 19-year anniversary of the San Francisco raid which included one of the three Japanese planes hitting the bridge. It was a common theme that, no matter the place, if Hoffa had a rally, there would be truckers following him, it served as a show of force and popularity that worked well in urban areas and impressed those in rural areas when a convoy of trucks passed by.
1962 did not start as a bad year, but from there forwards it would only become worse and the crime spree was only the start of it. The war between Giancana and the Commission divided many families from Maine to Hawaii, there were reports of shootouts even in Anchorage that involved a hit from backers of one side against backers of another, the murder of Joe Profaci in Cleveland also raised worries in Washington that the situation was outside of an usual dispute between mobsters, the hit on the head of a family was a declaration of total war for Giancana and the Commission answered in turn with the brutal assassination of Carlo Gambino in May when a bomb exploded his car in the middle of New York City, which also killed two "civilians" and wounded ten more. There were even calls for the National Guard to be mobilized following that incident, although the Attorney-General recommended caution to Rockefeller.
Most of all, the Civil Rights movement caused worries to the Populists, perhaps the greatest threat to the unity of the party was the conflict over Segregation and the rights of black communities in the South, a point of dispute which put Alabama "First-Gentleman" George Wallace in one extreme and Arkansas "Farmer" Sid McMath on the other extreme, it was almost baffling that both belonged to the same political party and even more so that there was a reasonable consistency of both wings voting for the same issues. Truth is that the Populists were a hodgepodge of different sectors of society which were all gathered up by Huey Long and all defined themselves as "Longists" above any political divide, as to what Longism is? That is complicated, even Long himself defined his ideology as "Sui Generis".
As 1962 started, the Presidential agenda for Hoffa was busy with new proposals for Congress, in his "State of the Union" address to Congress, the President would speak of the great achievement of his first year, not the Coalition of Nations or the handling of the Guyana crisis, not the negotiations with the Japanese government or the commercial agreement with Britain, but rather of his labor reform which greatly empowered the unions and ensured better rights for his voters, the average workingman in the urban centers. He did not give the same primacy to the countryside that Long did, instead, in the first State of the Union delivered by Hoffa, he was seeking more to campaign for himself than to speak of the future struggles in America. He dedicated almost no time to speak of the Civil Rights movement building up in the south other than giving a nod to avoid violence, his State of the Union was considered by many Republicans to be propagandistic, with Senator Reagan declaring that "Even Mao doesn't have such a red tongue", which gained the attention of the American right as the skepticism of Hoffa's Union background was flared up with the POTUS spending more time on live TV talking about the "Worker's struggle" than your average Socialist.
The State of the Union was just the start as the new budget for 1962 showed a growth in spending which continued to worry many economists, Huey Long's era, despite the considerable growth in the tax rates for the top levels of American society and in corporations, also saw the highest level of spending during peace time in American history. Between 1949 and 1961, there was not one year where the country was not in a deficit, and while the GDP growth and the cuts in military spending after the Thurmond government did well to starve off a crisis, Hoffa promised only increased debts while growing the burden on companies with his minimum wage proposal. There was the cyclical effect that a larger inflation-adjusted minimum wage would lead to a general growth of inflation, which in turn would increase minimum wage. Hoffa also would begin to subsidize Unions with a considerable amount to support the "maintenance costs" which were not fully covered by membership fees (or so he alleged). Furthermore, the Bank of America, which has managed to carefully manipulate interest rates during the Long Era to avoid the growth of inflation, but now with Hoffa's Secretary of Treasure having hands on it, the fiscal policy was changed. Hoffa pushed for higher interest rates in order to offset the inflationary costs that his deficit spending policies would bring, bringing them to new heights, which was also a way to balance his own protectionist policies.
Despite his agreements with the United Kingdom and a few other nations such as Canada and Russia, Hoffa was in essence as much of a protectionist as Long was, if not more, his Union background brought with it a worry of prioritizing American industry and workers over foreign products. Dean Rusk, Secretary of State since Long's second term, would face many frustrations with the policies of the Populist Party that ran opposite to his warnings that economic protectionism would distance America from it's natural allies, especially Britain, and while he came close to resigning several times in Long's government, he saw more of an opportunity with the far more inexperienced Hoffa, who gave Rusk more of a leeway in foreign affairs such as in allowing the creation of the Coalition of Nations and being convinced on the need of a "Friendly Nation Agreement" with Britain, an economic agreement which exempted several products from London's sphere of influence from American tariffs. To many Republicans, these policies were half measures of a constrained and stubborn government that refused to engage with the outside world despite the hostile reality that many countries, even in the American Continent itself, had distanced themselves from the US and saw little benefit in partnerships with Washington.
Naturally, Hoffa cared little for that compared to the real ambition of the ambitious Union man, which was to take over the Populist Party and forge his own legacy free of Long's shadow. As described before, the Party was an amalgamation of factions united mostly by their common admiration for Huey Long and his own political skills in gathering them together under a general banner of social welfare, protectionism, anti-corporatism and varying degrees of opportunism. It was naturally unstable, however it was not as if their opposition was faring much better, as without Huey Long, their "Anti-Longism" agenda lacked a common man to attack and the differences grew between the Republican right, represented by the increasingly influential "Society for the Defense of Liberty" which in turn included from relative liberals like Goldwater to more authoritarian figures, and the Republican left, represented by men like Governor Kennedy.
All of Hoffa's policies had the ultimate goal, at least in the internal arena, to build his own coalition based around the American left, specifically the Labor left represented by Unionists and Urban workers, that brought many fears in the right wing of both the Populists (represented by Wallace and even Hoffa's VP, Gerald Smith) and of the Republicans (which ranged from Goldwater to Knowland and Reagan) that Hoffa had links to communist groups. It is true that there were many communist figures in the American Labor movement, as expected of a Labor movement, but Hoffa never described himself as a Communist, although the ambiguity was kept so he would not lose the support of the existing left-wing forces to other figures of the Populist left such as McMath who were gaining momentum thanks to the Civil Rights movement. Hoffa attempted his best to divert the attention from the Civil Rights movement as Long did, but as he did not have a fully dedicated political apparatus centered around his will, he would have to do so by further pushing the issues of organized labor to the forefront, which only heightened the fears of the Anti-Communist American right which spent years being brutalized by Huey Long's administration through the FBI, the Far-Right having to readapt to the destruction of the Klan in the early 1950s and the end of the Moral crusade over Prohibition.
1962 was an active year in the international scene, from the breaking of South Africa from the Commonwealth, the fall of Almirante's regime, the Catholic schism, the wars in Sudan and Yemen threatening the little hold the Coalition held over the Red Sea in the Straits of Aden, the announcement of the 3rd 5-Year Plan in China and of course the effects of the Neumann Conspiracy over Europe. America abstained from several of these matters other than issue general statements against the advance of Nazism and promissing support for the British forces in Sudan where a Proxy war against the UAR was being fought. Attempting to win over the votes of Catholics, Hoffa offered Pope Stephen to relocate to America, some suggesting the city of Saint Louis due to it's central position and a substantial Catholic population. Stephen thanked for the offer however he would establish himself firmly in Brazil, a Catholic Nation with a government that heavily emphasized it's Catholic identity and was not under immediate threat from the Reich, plus it's connections with the overwhelmingly Catholic Latin America. Still, Hoffa would announce that Stephen was under the protection of the United States of America, with the American Dioceses unanimously condemning Eugene as an Antipope.
More controversially, Hoffa did offer moral support to the Irish against Britain in private statements which were deemed extremely controversial by the Mountbatten government, however both that and the support for Stephen had one goal in mind: John Fitzgerald Kennedy. The Governor of Massachusetts was one of the leading figures of the Republican Party, representing a breath of fresh air compared to the previous control of the Roosevelts. A former Democrat, Kennedy would join the Republicans following the disastrous 1954 midterms, a man who was known as a national celebrity who would later easily win the election and re-election as Governor, being famed for killing Emperor Hirohito, avenging his brother's death at the hands of the Japanese during Operation Sunset. Kennedy represented a liberal wave that broke several taboos, such as the fact he was a Catholic and that many knew him to be a womanizer, with whispers of affairs with actresses and models. He was charismatic and a rising star, who was heavily endorsed to run for President in 1960, which he refused as he did not expect that a victory against Long's candidate, whoever it may be, was possible with the POTUS still in charge. Kennedy condemned Long for many authoritarian measures and executive overreach, claiming he broke the balance of powers in the Republic. Despite that, he refused to associate with the Society for the Defense of Liberty like Goldwater and Reagan did, and despite endorsing Reagan, he did so believing the actor would be more of an adequate spokesman for a greater cause rather than having a serious chance at victory.
Kennedy heavily hinted that he would seek the Presidency in 1964, competing with Senator Goldwater for that mainly due to their division of the Civil Rights matter, because while Kennedy was openly endorsing it, Goldwater rejected it out of Principle due to his belief that the authority of the Federal government has already reached "Dictatorial levels" and a return to a proper "Federal System" was in order by strengthening the 10th amendment, which was mostly ignored or weakened by the Long Presidency. Hoffa, who also planned a re-election, expected Kennedy to be his future rival, he believed that Goldwater would be an opponent easier to defeat due to his radical positions and lack of a proper "Political Touch" such as the fact Barry openly spoke about fighting all the measures made by Long and Hoffa to expand the authority of Washington, even if it meant striking the American Healthcare System and the Bank of America. As such, Hoffa planned to co-opt a large part of the urban supporters of Kennedy through the strengthening of the labor movement while painting the Irish-American governor as elitist, using the example of his father's fortune and claiming him to be out of touch with the common American.
It also helped the fact that New England was struck by the crime wave caused by the Mafia War, which Hoffa, through his Attorney-General Bill Bufalino, was stroking the fires of in order to show Kennedy as a weak candidate who could not properly command his own State. The Mob in the State was strictly under the control of the Patriarca Family which was attempting to stay out of troubles in the ongoing conflict only to be dragged into it as Joe Gallo, known as "Crazy Joe", would commit an assassination in the family territory in June of that year, killing the prominent boss Joseph Bonnano, known as "Joe Bananas", who was visiting the State incognito for unknown reasons, although many believe the information of his location was leaked directly from the office of the Attorney-General through the Bufalino family in order to provoke a bloodbath in Massachusetts and mine Kennedy's momentum in his home area. The Mafia Wars not only were spreading without intervention from the government, as the Attorney-General was literally a cousin of a crime boss, but Hoffa quietly encouraged the conflict, something which the mob did not appreciate either as any form of intervention from the government other than to continuously deny the existence of the Mafia was considered a breach into their interests.
The Civil Rights movement, however, refused to be ignored and soon would begin another event to bring awareness, this time by a march to Washington itself on the 22nd of September, to celebrate the 100 years of the Emancipation Proclamation (although the law was only effective on the 1st of January). While the march on Atlanta made in 1960 was considered the birth of the mass movement in the Civil Rights marches, including it's composition that included from civic leaders to high-level politicians, the one at Washington attracted thrice it's number and the enormous rally calling for an end to Racial Segregation, support for Black Communities, and a vast array of other issues which included from Women's rights to general Anti-Nazism statements, would be finished with speeches of Sid McMath, Adam Clayton Powell, Henry Wallace, Joseph Kennedy, George McGovern and finally Martin Luther King Jr. which all called for active government measures against Racial injustice, claiming that America had "No right to judge Goebbels on his crimes when they do the same to their Black Citizens", an obvious hyperbole for anyone who knew anything of what the Reich was truly implementing in it's Lebensraum, however it was a phrase used by Malcom X during his own speech.
That march so close to the Midterms hurt Hoffa's hopes of sidelining the Civil Rights movement and it's candidates, but the President's efforts were not in vain either, the Labor movement was stronger and many expected that the left in general would push for a great victory in this election both for Kennedy's Republican left and Hoffa/McMath's Populist left. The Republican right was also not yet recovered from it's defeat in the 1960 election, but the Populist Right would actually grow stronger due to the Civil Rights movement. Polarization was the natural outcome of such conflict and George Wallace planned to collect the prizes as he strengthened his anti-segregationist rhetoric, added in with the Populist ideas which appealed to the White poor population of the Deep South and other areas. Wallace also planned to be more than just the "First Gentleman" of Alabama, running for a seat in the Senate where he expected an easy victory, because while Long's measures did strengthen the Populist gerrymandering and the fight against the poll tax meant that the White Poor could vote, the literacy tests which were biased against black communities remained.
However, all of these matters were dwarfed in Hoffa's eyes compared to the shock he would receive when the results came in.
Speaker of the House, this was the first time Huey Long actually served in the House of Representatives after his "surprise" election in Louisiana, all by the spontaneous vote of write-in ballots which gained him a seat as an Independent, the first Independent candidate to serve as Speaker of the House. Huey was not surprised, although one can't help but feel a sense of satisfaction after any victory, he knew that this was already the expected result, the Kingfish always wins. Not only the vote was unanimous among the Populists, but there were Democrats and Republican defectors who all helped increase his margin to a safe victory against the Republican... what was his name again? He couldn't even be bothered to know the name of his opponent, perhaps it was a lapse in judgment, complacency, but he was so joyful that he was back in Congress, back in Washington, that his election as Speaker was an afterthought.
Now he was there, announcing the name of James Riddle Hoffa as part of the formal invitation for the State of the Union Address, it felt different to be in a different seat announcing someone else's name, but even if the President was meant to be the center of attention, everyone knew that Hoffa was a secondary character, and when Hoffa came in he knew it. When Hoffa came in and spoke, waiting applauses after each pause, after each achievement, something inside him made him want to explode. He noticed that the members of his party, or at least most of them, all looked just slightly behind him rather than at him, he noticed that they all awaited just the slightest second, they awaited for Long to start applauding behind Hoffa before they would applaud by themselves. It took every ounce of sanity he had to not lash out and yell "I am the President here, you cocksuckers" at the US Congress. There were those among the Populists who did applaud him instantly, but even the Republicans would give applause just the slightest moment before the rest of his party did. To most the pause was almost imperceptive, certainly it was like that for the Television, but for him, that pause felt like an eternity, it felt like a reminder that he was only a puppet.
Hoffa had not spoken to Long until that day, in fact since his election he had wanted to forget Huey Long even existed, but that was no longer something he could ignore. As the session ended, he wanted to leave immediately, but even at his age, Long was fast enough to come limping with his cane and come greet Hoffa. There were smiles and pictures all around, the picture of Jimmy and Huey was the front page of every single newspaper in America reporting that speech, no pictures of him, only him with Long, as if he was nothing without the Kingfish, it was as if this was the return of the King to Washington. "I had hoped to retire from Politics", Long said in his speech following his victory, "but I believe I still have the energy for my country", some joked to say he did not refer to his country as in him being a part of America, but as in America belonging to him.
"You drive Frank", Hoffa would say as he went to the car, practically shoving aside the rest of the Secret Service so he could be having a private talk with his long-time bodyguard. The talk became more of a rant, Hoffa was furious, so much so that all other achievements of the election were ignored. He did get a third of the Populists in congress to be his supporters from the left of the party, he did not see wins, he only saw defeats, he only saw Long undermining his own authority and that was killing him inside. "Is it too much to ask for a geriatric cripple to stay in his nursery house?!" Hoffa asked Frank, and he would have to be calmed down, being reassured that he was not the only man who could "see through" what Long truly was and what he was doing in Washington. But they would have to be cautious, as Speaker of the House, Huey Long could call for an Impeachment, that is what frightened the POTUS, and it was made worse by the fact his vice-President was so loyal to Huey Long that he had a portrait of the man on his desk.
Now he was there, announcing the name of James Riddle Hoffa as part of the formal invitation for the State of the Union Address, it felt different to be in a different seat announcing someone else's name, but even if the President was meant to be the center of attention, everyone knew that Hoffa was a secondary character, and when Hoffa came in he knew it. When Hoffa came in and spoke, waiting applauses after each pause, after each achievement, something inside him made him want to explode. He noticed that the members of his party, or at least most of them, all looked just slightly behind him rather than at him, he noticed that they all awaited just the slightest second, they awaited for Long to start applauding behind Hoffa before they would applaud by themselves. It took every ounce of sanity he had to not lash out and yell "I am the President here, you cocksuckers" at the US Congress. There were those among the Populists who did applaud him instantly, but even the Republicans would give applause just the slightest moment before the rest of his party did. To most the pause was almost imperceptive, certainly it was like that for the Television, but for him, that pause felt like an eternity, it felt like a reminder that he was only a puppet.
Hoffa had not spoken to Long until that day, in fact since his election he had wanted to forget Huey Long even existed, but that was no longer something he could ignore. As the session ended, he wanted to leave immediately, but even at his age, Long was fast enough to come limping with his cane and come greet Hoffa. There were smiles and pictures all around, the picture of Jimmy and Huey was the front page of every single newspaper in America reporting that speech, no pictures of him, only him with Long, as if he was nothing without the Kingfish, it was as if this was the return of the King to Washington. "I had hoped to retire from Politics", Long said in his speech following his victory, "but I believe I still have the energy for my country", some joked to say he did not refer to his country as in him being a part of America, but as in America belonging to him.
"You drive Frank", Hoffa would say as he went to the car, practically shoving aside the rest of the Secret Service so he could be having a private talk with his long-time bodyguard. The talk became more of a rant, Hoffa was furious, so much so that all other achievements of the election were ignored. He did get a third of the Populists in congress to be his supporters from the left of the party, he did not see wins, he only saw defeats, he only saw Long undermining his own authority and that was killing him inside. "Is it too much to ask for a geriatric cripple to stay in his nursery house?!" Hoffa asked Frank, and he would have to be calmed down, being reassured that he was not the only man who could "see through" what Long truly was and what he was doing in Washington. But they would have to be cautious, as Speaker of the House, Huey Long could call for an Impeachment, that is what frightened the POTUS, and it was made worse by the fact his vice-President was so loyal to Huey Long that he had a portrait of the man on his desk.
The year of 1962 was a calm breeze before the storm of 1963 and 1964, because until the election, from the foreign arena to the domestic one, there would not be a single moment of truce or break for the United States Government.
The Baron's Putsch in Japan that led to the Imperial Restoration would bring back the specter of war while throwing a bomb into the delicately built balance of power in the Far East. Germany and Europe as a whole would go through a radio silence of sorts as the Angriff accelerated and the news that came out was atrocious, from the destruction of monuments to a wave of devastation and destruction unseen in the Continent since the War, with a new wave of refugees which would also include German citizens, even members of the NSDAP itself would risk their lives in boats to cross the channel, all while the Wehrmacht began to mobilize itself for the looming war. In Africa, Free France would see new developments as the fighting against rebels within it's borders reached a climax that threatened to collapse the enormous French colonial juggernaut. In the American continent itself, new developments in South America would place the United States at odds with the Platine pact as Uruguay fell to Brazilian forces within hours, challenging openly the Roosevelt Corollary and the Monroe Doctrine.
Within America itself, the President would begin to fight against the influence of the returned Huey Long within his own Party while rallying the forces of the American left against his supposed "enemies". The Civil Rights movement would escalate into a battle in Congress for the approval of the Civil Rights Act which tested the limits of the Longist Status Quo while blood flowed in the streets and both sides grew more radicalized following brutal assassinations, shootouts and lynchings that led to an State of Emergency. The Economy would be shaken as the enormous debt and the inflationary policies of the Longist system finally put enough pressure to leave the country in a technical recession while it's government fought against itself as Hoffa would resort to Executive Orders to push his policies. To make matters worse, the wave of criminality of the Mafia War would lead to a sense of insecurity and a loose end would begin to lay a trail of evidence leading directly to the Department of Justice.
How can one start to study these chaotic two years? Better to start from the beginning and explain the reason as to why the US government would be shut down in the fight between two ambitious and egomaniac men. Hoffa and Long had two very similar personalities if one looked from afar, both had this rousing and flamboyant style of calling the attention of enormous crowds through speeches on social causes, both had their own niche bases of strong supporters, both painted themselves as common men fighting the good fight against a powerful elitist establishment that threatened to return. And yet one could not bear to see the other having "their" country, in fact they could barely see an America without them, most of all being Huey Long. The two were powerful figures that gained popularity by acting like the underdog and fighting the good fight for the American people, but there can only be one champion. Hoffa believed Long's time to be over, he was a relic who joined politics 4 decades ago and was now an old man walking with a cane. Long deeply regretted making Hoffa his successor, he regretted ever retiring and not running for a fourth term, he came to love the politics, the legal fights, the authority, the victories against an elitist establishment that he has been fighting since his younger years as a lawyer, he could never retire, he was not a man who could be satisfied away from politics after so many years in Washington, not ever since the early 40s did he feel so miserable as in the time of his retirement, and he would do anything so that the epilogue of his life was not rotting in some fancy manor in Winnfield Louisiana.
There was a dinner following the State of the Union address between Hoffa and Long, who was now the Speaker of the house after Rayburn's retirement due to his old age, the contents of the conversation are less known but one witness was Robert Maestri, although a biased account considering he was Long's ally since his days as Governor, serving as Mayor of New Orleans in the 1940s and was part of Long's inner circle alongside his Chief of Staff Seymour Weiss and Secretary of Treasure James A. Noe. Maestri was a millionaire, like all men that surrounded the Kingfish for so long, and he was certainly loyal to him, although his accent never made him very popular in Washington. Robert was present at the dinner and he did say the climate was "tense" once Hoffa arrived, Huey expected him to be upset as his return would naturally upstage much attention, but he planned to reassure Hoffa that he had no intentions of running for the Presidency in 1964. Together with Long was also the National Secretary of the Populist Party, who received this position after giving up the race for Presidency, Lyndon Baynes Johnson, a man with his own ambition but wise enough to not attempt to sideline Long. Hoffa thought the meeting was meant to be an ultimatum, that the dinner would end with him out of the White House and he was going to fight to keep it. Despite this initial worry being pushed away, the situation did not get any better as Hoffa acted with a certain level of paranoia, then he said he would "allow" Long in Congress so long as he could reshuffle the Cabinet with his supporters and especially remove the FBI from Morrison's hands. The mention that Hoffa was meant to "allow" Long to be in Congress irritated the Kingfish, although he kept that to himself at the time, he did come to see Hoffa as an enemy. Long was willing to give Hoffa some concessions such as replacing the Secretary of the Interior with an Union man, but he absolutely refused to give up the FBI which held considerable information about the enormous "War Chest" system. The meeting ended with Hoffa almost coming into a fist fight with Long out of sheer frustration before his bodyguard, Frank Sheeran, calmed him and led him back to the car. "Jimmy is our enemy here", Weiss would say, and the other three men were all in agreement.
What followed were several conflicting attempts of one side to interfere at the other's job, Long many times came to be the voice of figures of the Party across America when asking Hoffa for an intervention, Hoffa delayed them or never did them, all on purpose. In return, when one of Hoffa's congressmen proposed a bill that was meant to easily pass Congress, the filibusters would take in hours and hours until the bill was either rejected or other matters which had nothing to do with the original content were included for approval, that is if the law was not neutered to the point of irrelevance. It would take five months for one of the Supreme Court seats to be filled after the death of one of it's Justices as the process was deliberately delayed in the Congress, which was not helped at all with Hoffa refusing to compromise on his choices. When Hoffa attempted to replace the Secretary of Agriculture, his appointment was rejected by Congress for being considered "Unqualified and Unprofessional", all just one of many examples of the kind of stagnation that the feud of the two men generated. When interviewed, the two rejected the idea that there was a dispute, even if it became obvious to the Republicans and Democrats, especially to the Populists who received conflicting instructions between following the Party line or the Presidential line, although both were dubious in a democratic context.
Perhaps it was a symptom of that political stagnation that led to the economic stagnation, or arguably it was the Longist style of economic policies which skyrocketed the spending of the US government to a level unmatched before in peacetime. The GDP figures have been slowing down from the average of 6-7% per year in the previous decade, to only 1% in 1962, which was blamed on foreign developments after the Ural War. The Bank of America has pushed for an enormous interest rate that grew steadily in the previous years and only increased following the Ural War in an attempt to contain the inflation brought both by Long's protectionism but also by the deficit spending. The rising spending was only partially remedied by the higher taxes but the programs could not be fully sustained without a Tax reform, as advocated by Long's son Russell, who was successfully implementing these needed, although unpopular, changes in Louisiana. The use of the Bank of America for political purposes also mined the trust passed to the private sector, as if Long's anti-business rhetoric and Hoffa's left-wing rallies did not scare investors enough, the interest rates certainly did as spending was curtailed in favor of savings. The Economy was cooling down into a recession and while inflation was under control, unemployment would end up rising, affecting mostly black communities in the Deep South, and Hoffa's push for a higher minimum wage would also help in increasing the unemployment rate to a record not seen since the Post-War recession.
Naturally that increased the volatile environment domestically, that would add up to the fires of the Civil Rights movement to a worrying level. The rising unemployment among black communities left many even more marginalized not only in the South, but on large urban centers. In Detroit, a protest against unemployment, which had nothing to do with the Civil Rights movement at the start, would start to grow into a local movement that mostly consisted of black citizens who went to the region during the Industrial boom of the Gilded Age. The response was a counter-march made up by White radicals denouncing the so-called "Black Communists", forming a local militia and many of them dressing up as Klansmen. The situation would escalate into the Detroit Riots of 1963 in April as the White League spread around rumors that the blacks planned a rebellion on the May Day, leading to a raid and a shootout. Governor Swainson, a supporter of Hoffa who was elected by the backing of the Labor Unions, deployed the National Guard and Declared an State of Emergency, and despite his instructions to suppress and prosecute the White League as the aggressors, many of the mostly White National Guard would launch indiscriminate acts of repression even against Black bystanders. Cries of "Gestapo" were thrown and Governor Swainson almost resigned due to his failure in properly controlling the riots which ravaged Detroit for a week.
That was hardly the worst case, merely the first of many as similar marches and riots, which spread from places such as San Francisco all the way to the Harlem in New York, the riots would only worsen and the peak of them would follow the 1964 elections. But for now it is important to consider that such riots were more than just the expression of an economic dissatisfaction, although the unemployment and economic stagnation served to provoke the riots, the long-standing issues of racial zoning in cities, racial segregation, socio-economic marginalization and the growth in further hostile racial atitudes not only nationally but internationally would lead to the conflicts. Soon would come a proposal in Congress that was as a nuclear bomb, the Civil Rights Act of 1963, drafted in the weeks following the Detroit riots. Huey Long, as well as Lyndon Johnson and several senior members of the Populist Party would meet in June to discuss the proposal and the need for an urgent measure to calm down the nation with the prospects of the 1964 election in mind. Hoffa was not invited to the meeting, in which Long and Johnson would see the bill, pushed by the Republicans, as a bomb made to further the divisions of the Populist Party, which was in fact one of the reasons why the Republicans desired to capitalize on the current crisis. The Proposal would be passed in the House with Long presiding the session, however in the Senate, Long and Johnson would cripple the Act by having the Populists introduce an amendment to retract and essentially cripple the provisions which enforced the equal rights clauses, it would make the amendment a "Toothless Tiger" as Senator Powell, ironically a Populist, described. Still, Johnson and Long would run a strong campaign to enforce discipline within the Populist ranks, the result was that the amendment was passed despite the opposition of the Republicans due to the abstention of several left-wing Senators of the Populist party.
Everything was on it's tracks for approval when suddenly, as the Act came to Hoffa's table, the division between the President and the Speaker became obvious. The Act was vetoed, and in a televised interview, Hoffa would claim that he would never pass the Act with what he called the "Crippling Amendment". Instead, he said, he was planning an offensive with the Attorney General to use the same SCOTUS precedent which subjected Gerrymandering to Judicial Review over "Inequality" to argue that voting restrictions that led to such unequal treatment of citizens was unconstitutional. Long knew that Hoffa could use the White House's legal team and the Federal Government's enormous weight to bring down the hammer on the courts of the Southern States. Hoffa also said he was open to sign a Civil Rights Act which gave true equality and was willing to address the matter head on instead of giving empty words. It was a surprisingly progressive move from Hoffa that suddenly put the President at the forefront of the legal Battle for the Civil Rights act, and in order to pass this act, Hoffa knew he had to win over Johnson in order to approve the Act against Long's wishes.
It was a bold move, but Hoffa was eager to jump into the fight for Civil Rights for sake of spitting Huey Long even if it would dynamite the Populist Party. And he was not alone, he did have the support of the left-wing of the Populists, of the Labor Unions, of the Republican Party and even a few southerners. Obviously Wallace would see the threat in Hoffa, and also the opportunity as such an open split had exposed the divisions within the Party, George Wallace would use that to approach Huey Long, to be closer to him in hopes of winning over the primary for 1964. Meanwhile, Johnson was divided, he admired Long but he saw that the country was becoming increasingly polarized over the Civil Rights matter, and that it was better to solve the matter now than let it linger and tear the Populist party to shreds. There was still time to run a campaign for fire damage within the Populists, but either way, the process of approving the amendment to the Civil Rights act already almost tore the Populist left away from the Party, and to reject them again when they now had the open support of the President was going to cause chaos as soon the date was approaching for the Senate to override the veto or not. They did not have the votes to override Hoffa unless an even greater scheme of bribery and extortion was used, and while he was no stranger to that kind of Politics, Johnson did not want to bring in more heat for sake of keeping Wallace in check. He knew the only alternative for the right wing of the Party was to join the Democrats, and while that would be a loss, it was also very much possible it would not happen due to Wallace's feud with the Dixiecrats over his populist policies and his betrayal of them for sake of Long.
A meeting was made between LBJ and Hoffa, but before that Hoffa would invite Reverend Martin Luther King to the White House, inviting the de facto leader and public face of the Civil Rights movement into the White House, shaking hands and openly speaking of how much he had in common with a black man was an even bolder move typical of Hoffa. This would happen in September, exactly a year after the march on Washington of 1962, and while that time the Movement was attempting to gain a voice, this time they had one and it was speaking with the President himself. Hoffa spoke of his disappointment with the work in the Senate and even implied that there were shady movements to suppress Senators who would vote against the travesty that the "Crippling Amendment" was. He spoke of how his legal team planned an offensive on the Southern States if the Senate were to override his veto, and how he planned to send the act back in again and actively lobby for it's approval. The message was given, he merely repeated in more vulgar terms to Johnson behind doors and the two strongmen would make an agreement. In return for the position of Vice-President in the next election, Johnson was willing to back the Presidential Veto, everything was in order but Long did not stay idle.
The day of the voting started with a shocking move in American History, because right before the session started, Vice-President Gerald Smith was in the Congress building and, in his position as President of the Senate, he took the chair from Johnson, an unspoken signal for both LBJ and the Populists that Huey Long was taking personal charge of this situation to preserve the unity of his party. Then, Republican senators began to call for an override of the veto, especially from the Republican Right, who claimed Hoffa was imposing his authority in an almost dictatorial way and attempting to intimidate Congress. Then there were many Senators from the Populists who backed the override when LBJ expected them to vote against, including Powell who argued that "It is better for the Congress to make an Statement and further work on enforcement measures than to leave our citizens with nothing for another cycle". Johnson would see Republicans, Populists and Democrats all agreeing in overriding the veto as a grand statement against Hoffa, against executive overreach, against inaction on the Civil Rights matter, others argued it was even a favor for Hoffa, claiming that the act would make it easier for his so-called "legal team" to go on the offensive. The Veto was overridden and Johnson's back was broken, all while the Kingfish, once again, prevailed, through his enormous coffers and the FBI's files under Morrison, Long was able to extort the votes from 2/3rds of the Senate, keep the unity of the Party, approve a Civil Rights Act, and embarrass Jimmy Hoffa in front of the whole nation, as well as the traitorous Lyndon Johnson.
The reactions in the nation were lukewarm at best, no substantial changes came from it, it was considered too radical by White Supremacists and Segregationists, it was considered toothless by the Civil Rights leaders and an insult by Black Supremacists. If anything that would only provoke further divisions in a country already dealing with several internal problems that were only made worse by the news across the Pacific in November. After years of build up and consolidation of it's powers, the Japanese government would tear apart it's own Constitution through a self-coup, with the military being back in power through the leadership of Baron Takeishi Nishi and Emperor Akihito, who both refuted the very idea of a Constitution by instead granting all powers to the Emperor, with the Baron becoming essentially a Shogun in his name. Panic spread once the news arrived of the coup in Japan and the CIA grew concerned that the new government would seek to reclaim it's Imperial possessions. The Japanese embassy in Washington would be closed down and the new government in Japan, which installed radical leaders once considered as terrorists, demanded the retreat of all foreign delegations, consulates and embassies from Japan, as well as seizing the assets of all foreign companies. The US Navy at Guam and Okinawa was put on high alert and Hoffa began to worry that, when America was at it's most divided, an old enemy would rise again to seize the opportunity, and after the defeat in Congress, he could not afford to look weak.
He is on Guatemala,he doesn't like Brazil so he might try to train militias against the country. But before that he has to have a good power base. Colombia or Venezuela would be a good choice (or both.)
Nothing unites a nation like an old enemy. But the way things are the country is very polarized, if the president and congress don't calm down the country could end up in flames.
Europe in its era of culture revolution (the Angriff) . A new war in the middle east is near. Free France is staggering towards collapse probably. Brazil invaded Uruguay, it will be curious to see the response of neighbors in this country due to this aggression.
Depends if you think a Union Leader who supports protectionism and is part of a Party with anti-Corporation rhetoric and policies would want to throw his country at war over companies that lobby his rivals losing assets overseas. Mind you, they were seized by the same country that was such a tough nut to Crack last time that it traumatized Americans into not going to war with literally Nazi Germany over fears of another amphibious invasion.
A war is less likely than you think.
Deleted member 191087
(Sooooo I’m I the only one who immediately thought of The Police’s “Every Breath You Take”? Quite ironic considering the band’s name and Hoffa being, y’know, Hoffa).
Anyways, I have to say that while it’s definitely pretty bad and chaotic in America, it isn’t as bad as I thought I’d be soooo I guess there’s that? And it also looks like the crisis with Japan is going be this timeline’s equivalent of the Iranian-America diplomatic crisis following the Iranian Revolution. Which is crazy to consider Post-war Japan being a hostile pariah state.
The thing that most shocked me with this chapter was the mention of Brazil invading Uruguay. Like, there was talk of Brazil obviously exerting its influence and all, but full on war on another neighbouring country? That must be starting quite the firestorm within the Platine Pact and South America as a whole.
Oh, and I’m really, really scared for what’s going to happen to the German refugees, with the Nazis having ruined the image of Germans so fucking hard and with the aforementioned crimes against humanity they committed makes me imagine their going to face an absolute maelstrom of hate, especially from a lot of Slavic- and Jewish American and refugees who fled during the war.
Anyways, I have to say that while it’s definitely pretty bad and chaotic in America, it isn’t as bad as I thought I’d be soooo I guess there’s that? And it also looks like the crisis with Japan is going be this timeline’s equivalent of the Iranian-America diplomatic crisis following the Iranian Revolution. Which is crazy to consider Post-war Japan being a hostile pariah state.
The thing that most shocked me with this chapter was the mention of Brazil invading Uruguay. Like, there was talk of Brazil obviously exerting its influence and all, but full on war on another neighbouring country? That must be starting quite the firestorm within the Platine Pact and South America as a whole.
Oh, and I’m really, really scared for what’s going to happen to the German refugees, with the Nazis having ruined the image of Germans so fucking hard and with the aforementioned crimes against humanity they committed makes me imagine their going to face an absolute maelstrom of hate, especially from a lot of Slavic- and Jewish American and refugees who fled during the war.
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Yes, I know the title says "to" instead of "with", but I couldn't pass up the obvious.
Man the economy must be smaller since American products don't have access to European markets. And all the current policies that just hurting it isn't helpful.
Nice to see Long kicking Hoffa around and the Hoffa is probably having one of the worse Presidency in this TL.
Well Imperial Japan is back and likely not ready to make any big moves yet. Gonna need to rearm and rebuild the military for that.
The Pacific countries are probably losing their minds that the Bloody Samurai is rising again.
Nice to see Long kicking Hoffa around and the Hoffa is probably having one of the worse Presidency in this TL.
Well Imperial Japan is back and likely not ready to make any big moves yet. Gonna need to rearm and rebuild the military for that.
The Pacific countries are probably losing their minds that the Bloody Samurai is rising again.
This alternate 1964 election is gonna be fun. And the hints for future chapters are chilling too...
Matador de Lagartos
Banned
Why did Brazil invaded Uruguay? Was this made with Buenos Aires' consent?
Deleted member 191087
Probably because of Uruguay’s good relations with Britain and because the Integralists want to exert more influence on the continent as a whole. Whether Peron was either ok, apathetic or became angry with this is going to be interesting to see.
Yes its true, the US cannot really "export inflation" without the Breton-Woods system in place. There is a general stagnation in the Market brought by WWII that never truly went away as the European Continent isolated itself with Autarky policies and the Reich basically destroyed the financial systems.
Hoffa certainly has the most frustrating Presidency so far, the Court is packed with Longists, Huey is the Speaker of the House, Johnson wasn't enough to take the Senate (Long is willing to play way more dirty than Lyndon) and he has to resort to executive orders.
The Japanese Imperials now are not as idiotic as in the past, they know they would need to be better prepared and play defensively to give the Americans the idea that taking them down is more trouble than it's worth. It certainly helps that Operation Sunset was the most traumatic attack in US history on a foreign soil, the Americans lost more men than in the Civil War to take down Japan.
The Philippines and the Koreas in specific fear a Japanese invasion the most, Russia and China fear more the damage the Japanese can do and see that as a decline of the US influence in the Pacific with the fear that it can lead to a Nazi influence instead.
It will be, complete with scandals and chicanery.
Similar reason as to why the Brazilian military did plan to do so in the 70s (Operation 30-Hours), they did not turn Uruguay into Cisplatina, this is more to secure the Plate basin from foreign influence and Communists.
Especially with the GOP circling like a vulture with the Populist infighting and all that.