MOSCOW, RUSSIA, SOVIET UNION

A show of force has been held today in Moscow during the annual May Day Parade. Attended by General Secretary Lukashenko, Chairman Prigozhin, and President Nikonov. The speeches by the Soviet troika were relatively moderate, in contrast to the usual hardline and aggressive rhetoric spoken by Soviet leaders. This comes only weaks after Chairman Yevgeny Prigozhin's fiery speech threatening Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev following reports of further Azeri attempts of infiltration of the Nagorno-Karabakh of the Armenian S.S.R., which is claimed by Azerbaijan.

Also in attendance for the May Day parade were respresentatives from the Soviet Union's allies in the Warsaw Pact, further heeding Western fears of Soviet military build-up in the Byelorussian S.S.R. and Russian S.F.S.R. on the border of the Baltic states. N.A.T.O. leaders have further denounced the military build-up by Soviet Union and other "neo-Warsaw" states, fearing that the Soviet Union may be preparing to invade Azerbaijan in the near future.

BHARAT EPILOGUE PART 1

(In this post: Beef Bans, Ethnic Tensions, Recession, and Elections)

More than a decade of independence, the 50s in Bharat was a time of prosperity and growth for the country. With the death of Nehru, the INC undertook a massive shift away from his Fabian vision for the country. After a number of contingencies, the Liberal C. Rajagopalachari was selected as the Prime Minister of Bharat. His tenure in the first few years was shaky, but PM Rajaji was able to pass his trophy legislation, The Swatantra Act, releasing Bharati citizens from the possibility of a “Permit Raj” as described by Rajaji. The economy expanded almost three-fold in the following years, with the government developing transportation and capital goods manufacturing to facilitate the movement of money.

The Roaring 50s, as it has been called, was a time of great change and relative stability in Bharat. While the country was developing, the secessionist neighbor, Pakistan, was developing alongside Bharat. The Indus River development, mediated by the United States, facilitated the building of state-of-the-art hydroelectric and irrigation dams along the Indus River and its tributaries, providing electricity to Punjab and irrigating the arid lands on either side. Indo-Pak relations were unwavering in this time, with more development projects cooperatively supporting both economies. In the late 50s, the Union of Hindustan was established, building upon the Customs Union put to law at partition and allowing other states to join. Though it was limited in scope for much time, it was the first big leap in the cementing of friendship between the two brotherly nations.

The end of the 1950s would serve as the prologue to a time of crisis in the 1960s both economically and politically. The first struggles were clear when the CM of Uttar Pradesh signed into law a ban on the slaughter of cattle for beef, violating the implicitly secular nature of the constitution of Bharat. Ethnic tensions, especially in the south of Bharat would prove to be a flashpoint for political change, while the supercharged economy was much overdue for a slowdown. These issues would define the 60s for the country and for the INC.

Uttar Pradesh Parliamentary Crisis, 1959

The riots in UP and the scandal in Chief Minister Sampurnanand’s government caused a strong anger in the office of the Prime Minister. Rajaji ordered a federal investigation into the actions of the police in failing to contain sectarian riots against Muslims, claiming a necessity to enforce the Rule of Law and ensure that public servants will serve the entire public. Sampurnanand criticized this move by Delhi as overreach by the government, but the investigation continued as planned.

Meanwhile, the legislature in UP stirred with talk of replacing Sampurnanand, with the Socialists taking the strongest stance against him and his allies in the INC. His INC rivals too, in reaction to the investigation and the criticism of him from the INC leadership, began negotiating with INC MPs in UP to mutiny against the CM and remove him from power. His popularity, though, limits the success of these negotiations, but the triumvirate of Charan Singh, Kamlapati Tripathi, and Chandra Bhanu Gupta succeeds in rallying under half of the INC MPs to their side. The Socialists, already united against the CM, make for natural allies in this maneuver, and they agree to vote together on any motion to remove Sampurnanand from his position.

The federal investigation, which lasted for three weeks, found that the police chief did in fact have private sympathies for the riots against Muslims and did not deploy riot control as necessary or call on help from Federal forces. The investigatory committee ruled that the police chief was at fault for the excess deaths of Muslims in the riots and advised for his removal and replacement. At this news, the Triumvirate and their Socialist allies moved for a vote of no confidence against Sampurnanand to remove him from his position as Chief Minister, succeeding with just two votes for removal.

This move was previously unprecedented in Bharati history since independence, creating new precedents in politics, that the national leadership can interfere with the politics of the states, and that the INC may successfully mutiny against itself. The dangers of such a precedent were clear to the triumvirate and the Prime Minister, but to them the precedent of allowing the state to be ruled by a nationalistic and vigilante government was more dangerous. After the fact, the INC in conjunction with the socialists negotiated to elect Charan Singh to the position of Chief Minister, where he spearheaded land reform efforts in the state and conceded some political favors to the Socialists and to the industrialists led by Tripathi. Additionally, the Singh government reversed the Beef Ban put in place by Sampurnanand.

Ethnic Tensions, 1959-1961

The South of Bharat was ethnically diverse, and several movements for autonomy and even secession were followed and advocated for, though typically by a minority of people. However, in the 1960s, this trend would grow to political relevance. Particularly Tamils in the south were particularly strongly for the reorganization of states for the creation of ‘Tamil Nadu,’ a state made entirely of Tamil people. Similarly, Marathas, Telugu, and – in the northeast – Assamese movements were on the rise and calling for autonomy. For the most part, the INC leadership saw this as inefficient and only leading to further bloat of the Bharati state. However, Delhi knew the dangers of keeping the status quo as it is. The 1953 Andhra movement led to a clash that killed several and injured thousands, something that did not bode well for the future of the country. As such, the parliament passed an act that mandated the printing of all literature in states in the local language as well as English – rather than Hindi – so that the local populace could live and work with their native language and understand a shared national tongue in the form of English.

Of course, this did not solve all problems. The multilingual state governments had linguistic roadblocks as well, leading to frustration for voters and MPs alike. In an attempt to solve this issue, New Delhi provided resources for the hiring and use of translators and new translation methodologies in state parliaments, though there was trouble in their implementation which did not fully assuage the concerns of the delegates. This frustration manifested itself as protests for the reorganization of states, though not of an unprecedented size.

Prime Minister Rajaji, a Tamil native, made speeches in Chennai and other Tamil cities advocating against the linguistic division of Bharat, recalling the British use of divide and conquer to keep the Bharatis subjugated and fighting amongst themselves. However, he recognized the importance of not subjugating one language or people to another simply due to their residing in that state. He spoke in full support of the linguistic and cultural freedom of people within the states, especially directing the audience’s attention towards the Telugu in the north of Madras as brothers and fellow Bharatis. He received a standing ovation from the crowd, but his efforts were still in vain to maintain Madras as it was.

Madras was not the only problem area with linguistic issues. Bombay, the city and the state, was feeling its own movement for reorganization. The movement came to a head when protests in Bombay led to the deaths of 100 people in riots when they were shot by police. The various Marathi samitis, which advocated for the annexation of Bombay into the union state as its capital, staged various protests burning effigies of Chief Minister S.K. Patil, – a disciple of Morarji Desai – Minister Desai, and Prime Minister Rajaji in the streets, and the momentum against the INC in Marathi-speaking portions of Bombay has grown.

This police violence has been to the detriment of S.K. Patil, a man who was considered to be a candidate for top political office for the next generation of political leaders in Bharat. He has been pinned as a potential leader of Rajaji’s pro-free market, liberal caucus in the INC and has made a name for himself in this regard. He as well as Desai and Rajaji have been vocally against the incorporation of Bombay city into the wider state, citing the cosmopolitan nature of the city and the various benefits that independence has had for the city. In fact, Marathi first-language speakers do not make up a majority of residents of Bombay, with only 40% of people using it in the home on a daily basis. 27% of people use Hindustani – either Hindi or Urdu – on a daily basis, and 15% of people use Gujarati primarily. The remaining 18% of residents speak languages ranging from Tamil to Assamese to Kashmiri and even foreign languages like Arabic. English and Hindustani make up the vast majority of second languages in Bombay city. This fact, they claim, more than justifies its union territory status in Bharat and makes its incorporation into a theoretical Marathi linguistic state unnecessary.

Socialists in Bombay state and city have allied with the Marathi advocates, mostly due to the potential of unseating the pro-capitalist Patil from his influential position in the city. Though the image of Bombay city independence has not been helped by the endorsement by the Bharata Jana Sangh and M.S. Golwalkar, claiming that linguistically organized states would “sap the soul of the Hindu people and divide them among themselves,” though not explicitly for the benefit of the pro-reorganization peoples. Patil, Desai, and even Rajaji to some extent, denounced the BJS and Golwalkar as motivated by impure and unfounded positions, and denies their backing for the independence of Bombay.

Patil is strongly for the independence of Bombay city, and in his tenure so far improved Bombay with the intention of making it a model city. For the most part, this has come true, with tens of thousands of Bharatis and foreign workers moving every year. He presided over one of the largest growth periods of the city’s history, gaining almost 50% new residents in the course of the 1950s with the help of national developments in transportation to facilitate it and the importance of Bombay as an industrial and commercial hub. His influence on the city has weight, and his camp has the support of several national INC leaders.

In January 1961 the State Reorganization Committee was formed with the task of devising a reorganization of the administrative divisions in Bharat. It was clear that some reorganization needed to be done, and this was the decisive moment that the divisions would be redrawn. First, the enclaves and exclaves were simplified, leading to an enlarged Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh. Bombay state remained mostly unchanged save for a few adjustments. Bombay city remained an independent union territory, to the dismay of Marathi activists. Most significantly, Andhra Pradesh was split from Madras, creating a mostly Telugu state. Andhra Pradesh was decided to be split mostly due to the overextension of Madras, and the increased autonomy would allow for greater development at the cost of more bureaucratic red tape.

Assam was treated differently. Instead of splitting it into many small states, the autonomist regions were granted a special status that allowed for a degree of autonomy without the de facto division of the state. Nagaland and other tribes were granted autonomy within Assam, allowing for the central organization of the state alongside linguistic and semi-political autonomy.

Protests inevitably followed the State Reorganization but subsided in due time.

Economic Stagnation, 1960-1962

Though it was monumental in the post-independence history of Bharat, the Roaring 50s had to come to an end at some point. The release of the Bharati market after the Swatantra Act led to an explosion in economic activity, especially in the region of manufacturing. Though the government made efforts to ensure the continued functioning of the economy and its access to resources to build high-value-added products, the unprecedented growth in Bharat forced enterprises to import much of their needed goods to maintain production. This increased costs of goods produced domestically, in turn incentivizing the purchase of goods made abroad. The Bharati economy, which to this point enjoyed a significant ~15% yearly GDP growth on average, had effectively slowed down to a crawl.

It was not the high-end goods that were being imported in mass per-say, but the raw industrial goods that domestic production simply could not keep up with. Iron and food for canning, copper for electrical components, coal and oil for energy and manufacturing; all of these were for the most part imported from elsewhere since the domestic extraction industries could not keep up with the pace of growth so far. Bharati steel manufacturing more than sextupled in the course of the 1950s, allowing for the export of steel to other countries like Ceylon, the Philippines, Nepal, and Pakistan, and capital goods like heavy machinery and precision milling tools had begun manufacture and grown healthily for years. However, the resources that these machines were made of were in desperate shortage, necessitating the import from abroad.

The Partition-enabled Customs Union with Pakistan allowed for economic expansion in Bharat to continue, with raw resources from Pakistan fueling the creation of high-value goods to be brought back to Pakistan. However, this would not be enough. Pakistani extraction operations were less efficient than Bharati ones simply due to the red tape not present in Bharat, and the expansion of operations was not nearly as fast as necessary to fuel the exponentially growing economy of Bharat.

Stagnation led to the depressing of wages and the increase in the price of good in Bharat, which many began to blame the INC leadership in New Delhi for causing. Some criticized the government for not having the foresight to speed up resource extraction while others railed against the free market as a whole, advocating for the nationalization of industries to be better planned by the government so as to not run into problems of shortage. Prime Minister Rajaji, the pioneer of the free-market caucus in the INC, was a true believer in the ability of the free market to correct itself, which in this case would mean the expansion of domestic extraction enterprises to fulfil a niche in the Bharati market, but this did not come to pass fast enough.

Already embroiled in a sectarian crisis in UP and a communalist uprising elsewhere, the economic crisis only exacerbated the protests and movements of the early 60s. People who once saw the country going in a good direction now were cynical and saw the INC as not doing enough for the people. Additionally, this sentiment only enflamed the right-wing of the INC, which had Hindu Nationalist sympathies as seen in UP.

1961 Election

1961 was an election year, right as the crises were at their inflection points. Prime Minister Rajaji had announced in December of 1960 that he would not be seeking reelection in 1961, choosing to retire after an eventful decade of governance. In his announcement, Rajaji cited his age as the primary reason for stepping down, saying that he could not in good conscience continue leading any longer and hoping that this would set a precedent for future leaders of Bharat to limit their terms as Prime Minister. In his speech, he mentioned the development that Bharat had experienced under his watch and emphasized the dear necessity for the government to respect the freedom and dignity of all people, privately, politically, and economically.

The Socialist Praja Party and Hindu Nationalist splitters took this announcement in stride and began ramping up their campaigning efforts across Bharat. Jayaprakash Narayan, the leading figure behind the Socialist Praja Party, began his tour across the country visiting major rural centers and rapidly expanding industrial cities being hurt by the overheating economy. In February of 1961, Narayan announced an electoral coalition of left-wing and Hindu parties for the unseating of the Indian National Congress from power. This coalition was based in the unrest surrounding the heightened income inequality, difficulty for smallholders to effectively sell their goods on the market, and the frustration from Hindus following the INC’s crackdown on the Uttar Pradesh Beef Ban. Political spectators and media figures commenting on the coalition wrote that the various views expressed by politicians in the alliance have little in common other than a unity against the INC, serving as a point of attack for INC nominees.

As the date of the election was coming around, some political scientists in universities around Bharat wrote pieces critical of the INC and the corruption that plagued many electoral districts around the country. Some pointed out the machine-like nature of some local party organizations, receiving bribes from individuals, companies, and even criminal organizations in return for looking the other way on illegal activity or regulatory oversight. However, a change in power via the election of the anti-INC coalition, they wrote, would not be the solution to the problem of corruption. They predict that entrenched patronage networks have two likely futures in the event of an INC unseating: first, the patronage collapses and takes whichever local economy it was propping up, and second, the newly elected government continues the system of patronage. These academics were almost universally criticized by political figures on the whole political spectrum, but their theories would live up to scrutiny in the future, almost certainly too late.

The election came and went in a particularly hot August. It was a troubling election cycle, with protests across the country aligned with both sides of the electoral battle. However, to the surprise of some, the Narayan-led coalition won a majority of the seats in the Lok Sabha. The election was not a fully left-wing victory. The Narayan coalition required the support of some BJS MPs in order to ensure an uncontested government, meaning it would be at the whims of local Hindu policymakers. This was not ultimately an issue for Narayan since he was not publicly against Hindu lawmaking as the INC had been.

For the next four years, the Narayan Coalition would be responsible for the future of Bharat. Globally the 60s was a critical and chaotic time, and Bharat would certainly not be spared from this fate.

January-April, 1961 - United States of America

After a bruising election cycle that saw the first dual contingent election in American history, the coming Nixon Administration was coming together. With Nixon being effectively guaranteed as President after the election thanks to the House stacking favorably for the Republicans, he began assembling nominees for the Cabinet. Nixon’s initial Cabinet appointments spanned the ideological width of the Republican Party, though had an expected moderate bend. The last pick to be announced, Attorney General William P. Rogers, was noted as a confirmation of Nixon’s expected wide-ranging Republican civil rights agenda, with Rogers having been a crusader for enforcing Brown during the Dewey Administration. After Ford was confirmed as Vice President and the Senate seemed favorable to working with him, Nixon felt the pressure slightly lower. While the kooks had tried to deliver a devastating blow by nearly embarrassing him in November, he had fought back and secured a stable pool of political power heading into the inauguration. The feelings of paranoia, though ever present, receded little by little as he began to set the narrative of what the moderate, in-tune Nixon Administration would look like. An immediate bevy of civil rights action from the White House to continue the promise Lincoln made to America’s blacks, Federal funds for school construction & expanding post-secondary education, and expanded funding for basic scientific research, missile development, and NASA, a new farm bill. Those basic goals would comprise the goals of the Administration in the “first hundred days” (an attempt to emulate FDR’s first hundred days, in order to play up Nixon as a man of action compared to Eisenhower) and more broadly consume the priorities of the Nixon Administration for the first term. More privately, Nixon also plans to pursue welfare reform and reforms to Social Security, though these efforts are best not publicized.

Inauguration day came and went without any problems, with Nixon promising America will close the “missile gap” and stating that the United States will launch the first man into space. After all the festivities ended, Nixon immediately began signing executive orders reorganizing the executive. He tore down Eisenhower’s governing structure in favor of one that will ensure the President is making all major decisions, instead of the hands off policy of his predecessor. As was known in the Senate, Nixon was a man who liked to play his cards close to his chest, consulting only with a few trusted advisors instead of building a wide array of close supporters. He continued this trend into the White House, which was expected to rely wholly on Nixon. However, most outside observers did not realize his close friendship with the man on the bottom of the ticket. While back at the 1960 Republican National Convention, Gerald Ford was chosen for his appeal to the Midwest and inoffensive nature, he also was a personal friend of Nixon. During the Eisenhower Administration, Ford was one of Nixon’s insiders in the House, helping him coordinate a Republican united front on both Civil Rights Acts and keeping tabs on House leadership. Though kept a good distance from the personal Nixon, a man unable to open up to anyone except his wife and, when drunk, his closest friends, Ford was one of his closest friends in politics. This afforded Ford a degree of trust that Nixon scarcely handed out and, when paired with his deep knowledge of House politics, gave Ford the chance to make history. After they had won the election off the back of good returns in the Midwest (despite their opponent being from the region), Nixon ensured Ford that he would win the contingent election and promised him an active role in the Administration. After the contingent election was finished, Nixon more thoroughly discussed with Ford what his role would be. Unlike Vice Presidents of the past, Ford would be given an office in the West Wing and a full staff at the White House, lead the Administration’s outlook on women’s rights and conservation, be in regular contact with Nixon, and would be consulted on any interactions the Administration has with the House. This strong set of responsibilities and office in the West Wing would see future historians label Ford’s Vice Presidency as groundbreaking and made Ford’s time in the office a template for future President-Vice President power sharing. In the time of Nixon’s presidency this power sharing resulted in the Administration being closely affiliated with the mainstream push for women’s rights and pioneering the Federal Government’s role in environmental protection.

After ensuring the executive was set-up in a way that allowed for coordinated, quick decision making, Nixon immediately began work on accomplishing his ambitious domestic agenda. While promises, speeches, and internal plans are one thing, actually executing them or getting them passed through Congress is another. House Republicans and Ford’s guidance will likely push through Administration-friendly House bills with ease, but getting them past the Senate is another challenge altogether. While individual Senate Republicans will have their own issues with Nixon, they are not the issue. Senate Democrats, ever consumed with trying to preserve party unity, win back the White House, and present a strong record on preserving and expanding the New Deal, will be a difficult group to work with. While Senate Majority Leader Johnson and Nixon have a cordial relationship (largely revolving over their shared backgrounds and mutual dislike of then Vice President Kennedy), Johnson is assuredly eying the White House in 1964 and has little incentive to hand Nixon easy policy wins. However, as Nixon and Ford both are insiders from Congress, and have a good command of both branches, they are perhaps the best President-Vice President duo for a divided Congress. Using some of Ford’s recommendations, the Nixon White House assembled the best Congressional staff in modern American history. Every phone call from a Congressman was returned within the hour, every patronage recommendation by Republican Congressmen is accommodated or thoroughly explained away, and the White House regularly goes above and beyond to create events to ensure no Congressman feels left out of White House events. To ensure Republican unity, the White House also hosts frequent “consultative” sessions with House and Senate Republicans to ensure every wing of the Party feels respected and heard by the Administration, while both Nixon and Ford worked to expand Republican leadership roles and personally talk to Congressman from both parties on a regular basis. Compared to Eisenhower or Dewey, this level of work to ensure Congress stays greased and pliable to work with Nixon is far above his predecessors.

To test the waters and begin achieving parts of the Republican agenda, the Nixon Administration crafted and sent two bills to Congress, the Consolidated Farmers Home Administration Act to reward the Plains for their loyalty, as well as the American Education Act (A mix of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and Higher Education Act minus the ESEA’s Title 1, but with subsequent inclusion of a 50% increase in school construction grants in the education budget & applying HEA funding for vocational schools) which would massively overhaul teaching & American education, while preserving local control over education. Both combined would prove Nixon’s legislative prowess, deliver results for the base of the Republican Party (which won off the backs of rural voters and the college educated in the North), and also greatly enhance America’s ability to continue being the world leader in innovation. As expected, House Republicans supported the President and passed both bills with broad bi-partisan support, but the Senate took some work. Senate Democrats were by-and-large against the farm bill, though excellent whipping by Republicans saw the GOP unanimously support it, while both sides of the aisle had issues with the AEA for different reasons. A coalition of moderate Republicans and Democrats could easily pass both, but Senate Majority Leader Johnson had reservations about AEA’s lack of specific funding for low-income families, and had had to balance Southern resistance to the Farm Bill, referring both to committee to be hashed out. After extensive negotiation with Northern Democrats, the Nixon Administration got both out of committee before the end of March, managed to prevent unwanted major amendments to the AEA, and worked with Senator Johnson to add minor provisions about expanding state Departments of Education to address underperforming, low-income schools.

In an early Administration highlight, Nixon signed the AEA and the Farm Bill of 1961 in a televised event in April. The Administration had made hay out of the AEA especially, calling it a response to the continued overcrowding of schools across America unaddressed by the prior administration. The AEA’s passage impacting trade schools also promised much needed logistical support for hastening construction of quality, affordable housing & community buildings, which played into the Republican platform’s promises of rapid construction to make up for shortfalls in the 1950s. Republicans across the country also locally publicized their support of the Farm Bill, reaffirming the Republican Party’s support for farmers. Their swift passage also quickly moved Nixon past the near disastrous election and shifted perspective of him immediately as a President who can deliver, something the 1950s largely lacked.

While Nixon on the campaign trail voiced strong support for civil rights legislation (despite his own misgivings on the true electoral viability of enforcing civil rights and personal racism towards America’s minorities), he was not under any illusion of passing substantive civil rights legislation through a Democratic Senate. Any bills with teeth would be immediately held up in committee or made as powerless as the Civil Rights Acts under Eisenhower, if that. Instead, any action taken would have to be purely through the Executive, with Nixon issuing Executive Order 10925 only two months into his term, appointing Secretary of Labor George Shultz to lead the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. When the Freedom Riders began organizing early into 1961, Nixon directed Attorney General William P. Rogers to assign Federal Marshals to protect them, rather than risk the political fallout of sending Federal troops to protect them. Nixon also worked with Congressional Republicans to secure several Federal judicial appointments for African-Americans, with Bill Coleman being nominated and appointed via recess appointment to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit as the first African-American Federal appellate court judge (Dewey’s election would butterfly Hastie’s appointment) and Maryland Republican Harry A. Cole becoming the first African-American district court judge after receiving a recess appointment to the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. Both would face severe delays in actual confirmation in the Senate owing to Southern Democrats refusing to hold hearings, but pressure from the White House and Senate colleagues would eventually see both confirmed after grueling hearings. After these initial appointments, the Nixon Administration continued to appoint African-Americans to various judicial and governmental positions throughout the Administration, with an additional six black Circuit court judges appointed throughout the term. This effort had two positive effects, making every black federal judge* a Republican (creating great inroads with African-Americans of all stripes) and developing a pool of Black judges with the experience necessary to be appointed to the Supreme Court later. To make good a promise on pushing for substantive civil rights legislation (within the previously mentioned confines of Congress), Nixon and Ford worked with Congressional Republicans to present and pass legislation to propose an amendment to the US Constitution that would abolish poll taxes. The Administration put the odds of the Amendment eventually passing as almost certain, but believed it would take over a year to work its way through Congress and would probably not be ratified until the end of the presidential term.

With two major legislative accomplishments under his belt, nominal action on Civil Rights, and making history appointing African-Americans to Federal Circuit and Appeals courts, as well as additional legislation coming through in the wake of other events occurring outside the United States, Nixon has firmly planted himself as a President who gets things done. Despite the relatively weak position he faced at first, his quick work has boosted national perception of him, while his delivery of positive legislation for farmers and the college educated/middle class has assured Republicans he will solidify the Republican base. As 1961 carries on and midterms come near, Nixon is looking to show the American people a strong return on their support for the Republicans. Though his initial actions have caused grumbling from conservatives, believing he is continuing a trend of liberal Republicanism from the East Coast, which will need addressing.

[M] As this post is very, very domestic focused, I will note I plan on addressing Nixon’s foreign policy in its own post, using broad strokes to paint an image of a decently successful foreign policy that is broadly popular at home, focused on diligent anti-communism, and restoring the USA’s respect in global diplomacy after the disastrous Eisenhower (and, honestly, Dewey) debacles at the UN. As Nixon was never Vice President and spent the 1950s as Senate Majority Leader, he has a far greater appreciation for, and ability to craft, domestic policy. [/M]

*Irvin C. Mollison was appointed to the Customs Court in 1945, but that goes against the Nixon Administration’s narrative.

Mid-Late 1960 - United States of America

As the Republican Party emerges from its relatively successful National Convention and the Democrats came out of their own primary divided worse than 1960, the stage was set for America to really enter into election season. The Republican Party has largely stuck to its 1959 plan on who to target [M] I am retconning parts of the domestic policy focus, Republicans are still facing a nation very supportive of the New Deal, after all [/M]. Republicans were hitting on Democrats being weak on defense via the construction of a “missile gap” narrative, while Nixon himself continued to associate himself with civil rights and campaigned heavily with VP nominee Gerald Ford throughout the Midwest and Northeast (Nixon made no promise to visit all 50 states, seeing as the South was a lost cause). Democrats, led by the unabashed liberal that was Senator Hubert Humphrey, attached his campaign to the idea of repealing Taft-Hartley, passing a universal health insurance program ( heavily promoting his history and Democratic oversight of civil rights), and a drastic federal expansion of aid to the states and American people to overcome the plight of hunger, lack of access to education, and low-income support for families. Both campaigns tried to make a case to forgive the previous foreign policy failings of the 1950s. While Dewey had many failings in foreign policy: Korea, Vietnam, China’s islands, Guatemala, and numerous smaller events, Eisenhower had his own failures which made any Democratic efforts to attack the Republicans more tenuous. Nixon had a reputation as a hardline anti-communist with the voting record and committee assignments to back it up, while Humphrey was considered weaker on his anti-communist record. While both endorsed the domestic accomplishments of their respective predecessors, Humphrey and Nixon made sure to downplay any involvement in the foreign policy decisions of the White House for the whole past decade, instead focusing on the future.

These initial arguments would continue to form the basis of both campaigns until election day, but it was a series of outside events that heavily impacted polling. President Eisenhower personally thought Humphrey’s liberalism went too far and only endorsed him off-handedly at a press conference, while privately declining to do any campaigning on behalf of the Humprey campaign. Eisenhower even quipped that he couldn’t remember a single time Humphrey had impacted his Administration’s civil rights policies or, for that matter, any policies. This rebuke of Humphrey both hurt the Senator personally (to be called weak on civil rights after all the pain he had endured in the Senate) and caused much hurt to the campaign itself. The Nixon campaign, itself facing problems caused by the last incumbent from the Party, downplayed President Dewey’s endorsement owing to his unpopularity and limited appearances with him to a couple joint events in New York. A more defining part of the campaign, and one that saw Nixon’s slight polling lead solidified, had Nixon and Humphrey face off in a series of four debates, with the refined Nixon (helped by advice and preparation from his media consultants before appearing on TV) being deemed the winner three times, with the fourth (and last) debate being deemed a draw.

One cannot talk about the 1960 elections without mentioning the insurgent State Freedom Party (SFP) and the state of civil rights in the country. Since bolting from the convention and forming their party, the segregationist has consistently polled high in the former Confederacy, with the entire Deep South + Tennessee and North Carolina expected to be carried relatively easily by the ticket. Intense vote splitting in East Texas and Virginia have also brought the Republicans up to contention in both states, which isn’t helped by Humphrey’s own abandonment of the South. Whipping Southern whites into a frenzy over the betrayal of the South by the Democratic Party, the Deep South is threatening to rapidly flash over into a phase of militancy not seen in 100 years. In state legislatures across the South, many Democrats are running primarily off their allegiance to the SFP rather than the Democratic Party, while the state parties that seceded begin entrenching themselves as parties of the South, not the Democrats. As this tension increased, so too did the civil rights movement. In October, Martin Luther King, Jr. (a noted civil rights activist and soon to become the public face of the march for equality) was arrested for participating in a non-violent sit-in in Georgia. After a perfunctory trial, he was sentenced to four months of hard labor, which caused great uproar across the nation. Humphrey, while publicly condemning the sentence, tried to get Eisenhower to intervene and lobbied other Democrats to Georgia to release King, but owing to the SFP and fears of backlash, the Georgian government refused to back down. Nixon was far more forceful, issuing a press statement calling for the state government to immediately release King, calling King’s wife to offer any help he or the Republican Party can be in releasing him immediately, and holding a public press conference with famous African-American Jackie Robinson just before November condemning Georgia’s decision not to release King and reiterating his support for the enforcement of desegregation in the South. All of these measures combined saw Martin Luther King Sr. endorse Richard Nixon over Humphrey and allowed Nixon to firmly outflank Humphrey on the civil rights front (while not alienating Northern whites in the process). The SFP, for its part, condemned King’s “rabble rousing,” with the press at one rally capturing an effigy of the minister lynched and burned, something quickly ingrained into American popular consciousness.

Despite Nixon’s strong campaign, the fact that Humphrey didn’t have to defend or mend fences with the Southern Democrats blunted much of the potential spillover of Democratic voters to the Nixon campaign. While Nixon led in most polls and was expected to secure an outright victory in the Electoral College, continuing doubts over the Northeast and three way splits in the border states left it just as likely that Humphrey could squeak out a win or that there would be no clear majority in the Electoral College. With the South expected to take around 80-100 electoral votes and Humphrey’s personal popularity with labor (despite suffering general setbacks on the campaign trail) it is believed that the border states and much of the Steel Belt will be decided by margins of less than half a percent.

In down ballot races, “Dewey” Republicans were busy recapturing the Northern electorate, while Republicans in the West and the border states mounted serious campaigns in light of a weakened, split Democratic congressional warchest. Polls seriously suggested a Republican takeover of the House and coming close to taking the Senate, though as November approached, Humphrey re-energizing a somewhat deflated Democratic core electorate who were discouraged by the lack of progress by the Eisenhower Administration was seen as helping in down ballot races. Going into November, Republicans still had the polling advantage, but it was seen as slim. Of course, given that the American people have only elected a Republican House once in the past 30 years, even that slight edge might be enough to make history.

Results

As November 8th came and over 70,000,000 Americans went to the polls to decide what path they wanted the country to go down, both sides were hopeful for a surprise landslide or, at least, the avoidance of a contingent election. Given that Nixon and Humphrey were likely splitting the Northeast and Midwest, the news covering the election had begun discussing the possibility of a contingent election and how pivotal the Senate and House races of today might impact who will become the president. CBS and NBC even covered party control of House delegations to keep audiences informed on the likely outcome of any contingent election. As polls in the East began to close, the first returns revealed that Nixon and Humphrey would be in a dead heat for the votes of the Northeast, with them trading places several times in New York, though Pennsylvania and New Jersey were quickly seen as the closest states by far. In the South, Byrd led the entire Deep South with counties averaging 80% to 90% for Byrd across the Deep South. Humphrey overtook Nixon in the popular vote temporarily before the Midwest and Plains returned strong results for Nixon, while Nixon picked up a small lead in Virginia due to vote splitting. New York was declared for Humphrey while the Nixon campaign appeared to be in a position to sweep the Midwest outside of Missouri and Minnesota. At this point, many pundits began to speculate that due to Humphrey’s strong performance in the Northeast, he might be able to deny the Nixon campaign an electoral college victory, though Nixon’s lead in Kentucky, Delaware, and Virginia dispelled some speculation. By the time the final polls closed in the West, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and New Jersey were too close to call, with Humphrey and Nixon being within a few thousand votes of each other in each. Byrd also had a chance to win Virginia as he was only 1% below Nixon and Humphrey. New Jersey was called for Nixon on the morning of November 9th, with a strong nationwide farmer vote for Nixon being credited for his 1,749 vote lead in the state. Most papers, radio stations, and television broadcasts were now speculating that a contingent election, the first in over a century and only one to feature both the House and Senate, was becoming increasingly likely. Byrd proved the South’s strength by getting near 100 electoral votes, though did not stop Humphrey from winning Texas nor Nixon from edging out both in Virginia. Pennsylvania would become the pivotal state, being too close to call as a strong union vote for Humphrey fights against a very strong rural and college educated turnout for Nixon. Humphrey took a slight lead by the afternoon, which would guarantee a contingent election, then he was determined to have won the state by a mere 221 votes. Many across the nation were shocked as no one candidate won the electoral college and the President would be determined in January. Nixon was the leader with a plurality of the popular vote, Electoral College vote, and having carried the majority of the states, but a strong union turnout in the Northeast thwarted an outright win. Less talked about was the loss of Nevada by less than .2%, which if it had gone to the Senator would have allowed him to have a majority of the Electoral College.

Electoral College Votes

Just as followed were the House and Senate races across the country, with the Republicans having an unusually strong performance in a seeming rebuke to the lack of major domestic accomplishments outside of civil rights across the Eisenhower Administration. By midnight of election night, the Republicans were projected to have a 30+ seat majority in the House, while flipping at least half a dozen Senate seats. Vice President Kennedy was also confirmed to have won the Massachusetts Gubernatorial race. As November 9th came, the few uncalled races, especially the closely contested two seats in Utah as well as Delaware’s sole seat, became especially important as it appeared the Republicans might be able to command a majority of state House delegations with victories in both states. Indeed, the Republicans were able to come away with a majority of delegations due to Northern fears of America’s “faltering” missile development and the West’s rebuke of the Eisenhower Administration’s lackluster support for farmers and natural resource development. As long as no House Republicans broke from Nixon, he would sail through the first ballot of the House contingent election, which due to the Republican Party’s unity was essentially assured. The Humphrey campaign, on the other hand, was expected to barely scrape ahead of Byrd in the contingent election, with most Southerners expected to vote for the Byrd ticket in protest of Humphrey’s forceful policy ideas on desegregation.

The Senate was another matter entirely, as Senate Democrats, though battered, maintained a 4 seat majority. The issue, however, was that segregationists controlled 17 of those seats and a majority of them declared they would never vote in favor of avowed anti-segregationist Stuart Symington. This led to an uncomfortable situation where neither Ford or Symington had the 51 needed Senate votes (with the Constitution specifying a majority of the whole Senate must elect the Vice President, any absence or abstention effectively counts as a vote against both candidates). As November turned to December and eventually January, Nixon worked with Senate Majority Leader Johnson and others in the Senate to come to an agreement on what to do with the contingent election. Symington’s candidacy was effectively dead on arrival, as Democrats would need over a dozen Republicans (when all were firmly behind the idea of the Nixon/Ford ticket being robbed) due to Dixiecrat opposition, while Ford only needed five Democrats to cross the aisle. For Nixon, the talks also delayed his resignation from his Senate seat until at least early January to minimize issues in the contingent election, much to the consternation of Pat Brown, who wanted his pick to have seniority. Democrats themselves were facing overwhelming pressure to end the contingent election on the first ballot as Republicans and the press began to frame the issue as 9 states holding 41 hostage in a bid to end civil rights and weaken the Presidency, causing many letters of support for Ford to come even from traditional Democratic constituencies. Given their situation, most accepted that Ford being elected over Symington was an inevitability, but Senate Democrats still sought concessions from the coming Administration in return for “letting” five Democrats cross the aisle to vote for Ford. In a secret agreement with Senator Johnson, the Nixon Administration agreed to place a massive spaceflight laboratory in Texas, not interrupt the awarding of pork barrel spending projects to Democratic strongholds, and give “fair review” to judicial nominees from Senate Democrats in traditionally Democratic strongholds. Such a deal would allow Nixon to save face by not outright changing policy, while providing Senate Democrats (and their House colleagues, to a smaller extent) some relief in providing for their constituents even as Democrats lose the White House.

So it came to pass that on January 3rd, after the 87th Congress had been sworn in and well after the electoral votes had been certified as producing no clear winner, the House of Representatives voted by a margin of one state delegation to elect Richard Milhouse Nixon to the Presidency of the United States and the Senate voted by a margin of two Senators (6 Democrats ultimately “defected” out of “patriotic duty and to protect national security”) to elect Gerald Ford to the Vice Presidency. All throughout the process, from election night to January 3rd, Nixon had been stewing. This was no 1956, the kooks and communists hadn’t prevented him from winning, but how could so much of America still not see? He could feel the weakness that emanated across the world, where the incoming Leader of the Free World could not even pass muster with a majority of the country. He may have scraped by, just barely, but he still had to give up some concessions to the opposition and be made a laughing stock of by political cartoonists. Even when Senator Humphrey offered his concession to Nixon in the Senate after his election by the House had been confirmed, he felt weak and exposed. But, as he did in 1956 and before, he steeled himself, vowing to ensure this mess never happens again and that he never face such a humiliation again in his life. He would make sure of it.

Presidential Results

Senate Results

House Results

Political Spreadsheet

葉隠入門 | Hagakure Nyūmon | The Old Man | Epilogue: Japan

^(January 1999, Chiyoda, Tokyo)

“When I was twenty years old Japan was less than the shell of a nation, it is more accurate to say it was less than the shell of a clam. Now I am seventy-five and Japan is the finest nation on earth; a leader in bioscience and technology, with a robust economy and a deep respect for human rights. Now at last I feel I can rest easy, alongside the Emeritus Emperor, and let a new generation lead us into the 21st century. Thank you Japan, thank you all the people of Japan. Now I can proudly announce I am stepping down from the Office of Prime Minister and leaving the Diet.” Prime Minister Mishima Yukio, Resignation Speech

Theme Music: 1980's Japanese City Pop Playlist

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Contents

1. The Old Man: Mishima Yukio's Resignation
2. Kuril Islands Dispute, 1964
3. Computing Technology, 1970
4. Defence Rearmament, 1976
5. Emperor Akihito Abdication, 1983
6. The Economy Collapses, 1993
7. Post-Cold War, 1999 onwards: Inluding, Bharat, South Korea, Anime, HSR, Latin America

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The Old Man

Mishima Yukio had been young when the bomb had brought hell on earth to Hiroshima and Nagaski. He was not young any more. He had held his father's seat, the Tokyo 3rd District, since the early 80’s, the same year as his father’s passing. He knew at nearly seventy-five he could no longer keep ruling Japan, he had been her Prime Minister for nearly twelve years. There was a time and place for all men, and it was his time to step down. The opening of the new Imperial Museum of Japan had been the perfect opportunity. Now in front of a class of eager eyed under graduates from the Emperor’s College Gakushuin, he was being asked to reflect on his years.

He stood at the podium, Minister for Foreign Affairs Koike Yuriko and new Prime Minister Koizumi Ichiro sitting in the crowd before him. Mishima’s determined eyes looked at the young graduates behind his friends. He had never been a shy man, he had demanded obedience from all those who worked for him. Now he commanded the room just by standing at a podium, even as a retired old man he had this power. It started when he was Prosecutor-General, staring down Yakuza leaders like Omori Shogen and his Black Dragon society in the wake of the failure in the Korean War. It continued when he was the deputy for Prime Minister Nakasone Yasuhiro, The Shogun, and the liaison between Nakasone and Reagan.

Prime Minister Mishima had been a hard man, with hard eyes, but now he was also an old man, with old eyes. Once he had seen people his own age, now he saw a new generation sprouting through the ground, and ready to take their place in the sun.

His hands gripped the podium in front of the old Tokyo Station. It was a beautiful building, black scallop-tile roof, crimson brick facade, and white detailing on the columns, and accents. It served the city well as the Marunouchi-side train station. It had seen just about everything from post-war recovery, to mid-year boom. The Government had elected to make it a museum, and open a new station directly opposite. It was a trillion yen project, but it would ensure smooth operation of the train lines beneath Tokyo for decades to come. It was the site of his resignation.

Mishima cleared his throat and returned to the great lecture hall of Gakushuin. Koike started the applause, she had been the youngest Foreign Minister in Japanese history, and first woman. Prime Minister Koizumi joined her, his silver mane of hair catching the light and reminding Japan why he was called Lionheart. The applause caught on like a gust of wind and Mishima raised his hand to thank them and quiet the room down. He smiled and tapped the mic.

“Thank you, it has been some time since my resignation, and I am surprised that anyone cares what I have to say. Thank you to Gakushuin, thank you to the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, and thank you to all the freshmen of the class of 2008 who are just starting their university degrees. Today I am proud to give my special lecture on the History of Japan. As many of you know, I have been involved with the Government since the early 50s, and today will be a highlight reel of sorts. I encourage you to be critical, to view my moments with an analytical mind and a poetic heart. I am an old man with an old man’s memories and fondness.”

He smiled and pressed the clicker in his hand, the slide behind him flicking off the title screen and onto his first moment.

Kuril Islands, 1964

Yoshida looked down at the islands from aboard the Prime Ministerial plane, smoke billowing from several areas of the city even as the plane began to descend.

“Is this a good idea?”

He turned to his advisor.

“It is not an idea, it is a plan.”

He replied coolly.

The local population had risen up in riots against the Soviet forces, a dozen Soviet soldiers were dead, many more had fled the four islands that Japan had once called its own. Self governance had been the objective of the rioters, Japan had been forced to respond, the Soviet Union had massed a police force in response. Yoshida had called on the Self Defence Force mobilised in Hokkaido. Escalation after escalation was occurring, a spiral of chaos Japan and the Soviet Union were on the brink of war.

The plan landed with a jarring thud and Yoshida re-read through his speech once again. It made no reference to the referendum that Japan had stoked on the islands. It made no mention of the census Japan had conducted with the support of the coast guard. It was silent on the old treaties which referenced the islands.

Yoshida’s mouth was a thin line, they were playing a dangerous game. Behind him Omori Shogen, the Architect, sat with his high collared black suit, his mouth a smirk.

Hours later Omori sniffed and breathed out a blast of frosty air, his smirk turned into a smile. The trap had been laid, set, and then sprung perfectly. The Black Dragon Society had weaved Japanese flags through the crowd gathered to hear the Prime Minister speak.

The critical line of the speech had sent the crowd into a roar of support - The Kurils are Japan, Japan is the Kurils, and Japan will not leave her sons and daughters of the north alone any more.

The Soviet call had come not an hour later, the police force had withdrawn, and an American aircraft carrier force had sailed through the straits.

Omori had moved his pieces, entraping the Soviets and the Americans. Japan would gain the Kurils back, America beholden to the San Francisco Treaty, and the Soviets forced to back down else risk American involvement in North-Asian Atlantic affairs. History would record this day as the day that Prime Minister Yoshida started the path of Japan back to full territorial integrity.

Computing, 1970

As the Japanese economy surged in the 1960s and 70s, it leapt ahead in technological advancement on the back of Sony's groundbreaking development of transistors. If Sony was the leading goose, then Hitachi, NEC, and Sharp were closely following. Together the four companies competed against one another and their US competitors. The result was the formation of the eight-bit gosanke personal computers. They were the formation of the Japanese second wave technological revolution, and the mass transition away from old style business and by the late 70’s Japan was on the cutting edge of global innovation. The widespread adoption of Sony computers, particularly by the elite in India and Latin America, not only strengthened Japan's economic ties with these regions but also positioned the nation as a technological powerhouse with a profound impact on global markets.

The personal computer uptake in Japan was miraculous and in large part led by the forge-ahead doctrine of the Sato Administration. Sato with his fascination for all things technologically advanced pushed all government agencies, at great cost, to transition off paper based reporting and onto modern computers. Computing power became the overriding objective of the newly formed Ministry of Technology which was headed up by Ohga Norio. Computer programming was added into the national curriculum, and computer engineers were brought in from the United States and Europe to deliver university courses. Technology literacy across the country soared and with it a demand for computer based mass entertainment. Enter the video game. Nintendo and Sony entered the home entertainment market with colour TV connected consoles in the late 1970s and kicked off the great console wars. By early 1980 the NES had taken over as the dominant video game console, and by mid 1980 Sony had released their Playstation to roaring success.

The age of the computer had arrived and for Japan there was no going back. As home computing took primacy for most Japanese, the Soviet Union and America took to the stars and the Space race of the 1970s kicked off properly. Not to be left behind, Japan was the fourth country to put a satellite into orbit, and with American help the third nationality into space. As the Americans put the space race front of mind, their minds reaching for a lunar landing ahead of the soviets, Japan turned to more earthly affairs and the pursuit of smaller more powerful computing. A dream was born in Japan amongst this surge in technological innovation, a series of interconnected computers, a web of sorts between the universities of the country, to share research and academic papers.

Defence, 1976

Admiral Uruhara stood on the deck of the JSDN Fuji, the first aircraft carrier to be put to sea by the country since the early 1940’s. In front of him sat the heads of state from a collection of nations calling themselves ASEAN. The American Ambassador had joined them, along with Australia, India, and a handful of South American partners. Japanese ship building was back at full capacity after a decade of rebuilding, the Kure Naval Arsenal leading the way for construction of ship building facilities from Sapporo down to Chishima Rettou. Japan was now the largest ship builder in the world, her naval self defence force rebuilding the hights of the Japanese navy.

The Americans had been forced to accede to rearmament demands following Chinese nuclear tests in 1964. The Kuril Islands affair spurred Soviet Support for North Korea’s and Communist China’s development risk taking.

Admiral Uruhara in his maiden speech declared that Japan would support all free and independent south east Asian countries to construct complementary navies. ASEAN would be free, fair, and independent. Japanese naval capacity would ensure that the region never felt the pressure of the Communists. Japanese manufacturing would elevate Indonesian, Thai, and Singaporean manufacturing through complementary programs, to new heights. Japan as the leading goose would ensure South Korea was supported in its struggle against the dangerous north, and the Republic of China would forever resist the cross-strait tension.

Japan in rearmament would ensure East Asian and Southeast Asian security from the forces best upon them. Japan in rearmament would be the single most important partner for the United States in weighing the scales of world peace in democratic favour.

The media afterwards had been dramatic, the Soviet Union and China had lodged a protest in the UN. The Admiral was called to speak before the Security Council, and the Japanese ambassador to the United Nations had been called on to explain Japanese civilian control to a body of democratic nations styling themselves as the Democracy-10. The frost had formed and the world had held its breath while the JSDF had recovered its strength. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Nishikawa Motors, and others came online, Japanese manufacturing roared to life.

Across the Pacific Australia under the fear of communism embraced this new Japan, and a free trade agreement set the stage for a North-South channel of trade in raw materials from the southern continent. Democratic ASEAN with the same fear embraced the supply of easy to manufacture parts in exchange for economic uplift. As the US and Japan turned their engines towards the high end, ASEAN took up the slack in cheap and easy manufacturing, and the motorcycle entered Southeast Asia. The Pacific under the fear of Chinese military potential, and Soviet expansion of the Pacific Fleet coalesced into an economic machine. Fears of a renewed Japanese military were eclipsed by economic growth through the early 80’s and into the 90’s. Japan surged upwards into the highest echelons of GDP growth, democratic ASEAN empowered by the US Washington consensus followed suit.

Years later the Admiral would reflect that perhaps his speech went too far, that he had forced a wedge wider which had been opened by the Chinese. But he had been unapologetic, the crisis spawned from that day were the result of chain events no reasonable man would have foreseen. His tomb bears the phrase “From the Kurils to Bangkok, from Tokyo to Canberra, Japan will ensure peace across the sea.”

Emperor Akihito, 1983

The Emperor was not all that old, but he wasn’t young, he had three sons who he loved, and a country he had seen returned to prosperity from destitution. He had seen the world, studied at Harvard, and Cambridge, visited more countries than any Japanese monarch before him. He had delivered speeches in Wellington, Sydney, Washington, Paris, and Delhi. Akihito had become affectionately called The Boy. He had guided a half dozen Prime Ministers through their challenges, and befriended world monarchs from Brunei to England. He had a particular affection for Elizabeth II. They were not that different in age, and royals had a tendency to find comfort with one another.

Akihito sat and listened to the Imperial Household doctor, a man he had graduated from college with. The diagnosis was bleak, not dangerous, but bleak, the cancer was spreading.

Beside and around him sat more than two dozen advisors and half his close family. His wife, and his lover looked at one another. The shadowy back rooms of the Imperial Palace had reconciled the Emperor’s sexuality long ago. The Empress had managed the daily affairs for months ahead of this diagnosis. The Imperial Lawyer was the official title, but in truth the handsome man had been close to the Emperor well before then. The Empress has ascended only on ground that she be given control of the affairs of the children.

The decisions had been considered and then decided after that meeting. Akihito would, like his father, abdicate for his son. Ahead of the word of his cancer, and his lover spread into the public, because no secret could hold forever in the age of modern communications.

The abdication was announced on 1 April 1983, the 35th anniversary of Akihito’s ascent, it would take effect on 1 April 1988 the 40th anniversary. It would preserve the dignity of the Imperial office, the Emperor would take up his late father’s title Emperor Emeritus. Akihito would then retreat to a life out of sight of the public on the Izu Peninsula and the so-called Blue Palace where the last Korean King had lived out his days. Empress Yume would take to life behind her son, the incoming Emperor Naruhito, as an expert advisor on media matters, and women’s affairs. There she would ensure continuity of the Imperial line in the search for a wife of suitable stature.

In his retirement Akihito was visited by many former friends, the closest of which, the Kennedys and Kissingers came more than once. He published more than two dozen journal articles on medical research in his retirement. He is most famous for his pioneering new ideas in mental health for Japanese businessmen including paternity leave, and yearly mandatory cancer tests for men over forty. At the time of his death in the mid nineties Akihito held the highest approval rating of any leader in Japan, save his wife. His scandals had leaked of course; his male lover, his escapades at Harvard, and these had hurt his image, but in the end it was hard to hate a man who stepped in at the right time, and stepped out before his welcome had expired.

The Emperor had an autobiography published under the moniker Momotaro. In it he covered geopolitical struggles, Imperial Household operations, his time abroad, and his hopes for the future including same-sex marriage. It was published after his death, and public sentiment on his scandals turned around soon afterwards. The second print was retitled to his name, and a forward was added by his wife expressing her deep love of him, and his love for the new Japan that was coming into its own.

The Economy, 1993

The early 1990s brought an unprecedented milestone for Japan's economy when, for a brief period, it surpassed the United States as the world's largest economy. This moment of economic triumph, however, proved ephemeral as Japan witnessed the burst of its economic bubble. The subsequent three-year recession tested the resilience of the Japanese economy, ultimately leading to a return to limited growth. The Japanese miracle of annual 10% growth through the 70’s and 80’s was floated on the back of speculation, anti-competitive mergers, outrageous land valuations and unregulated banking practices. So hilariously out of touch had Japanese firms become before the burst that at one stage the land valuation of just the Imperial Palace in Tokyo alone was more than that of the entirety of California. The Emperor of Japan was the richest man in the world for all of 3 minutes before the markets corrected.

The bubble burst was spectacular. It started with a failed bank in Hokkaido, over leveraged to high risk ventures in Northern Pacific tuna, Hokkaido dairy, and grain. A drought crippled the entire northern agricultural market, and warmed sea water halved the amount of tuna caught in a single season. The bank collapsed overnight, and under the weight of its debts brought a dozen large firms with it. The market was spooked, and across Japan people went to withdraw their yen. A bank run formed, markets reevaluated their debt, and realised the entire structure was over leveraged both domestically and internationally.

In 1993 at the height of the economic period Japan had some 300+ banks, by 1994 it was 230, at the end of 1995 it had shrunk to just 70. The recession was severe, and a total contraction of 20% forced many of Japan’s best and brightest out of work. International reputation was their only saving grace and across the Pacific Japanese talent found new employment. Into Southeast Asia, Bharat, Australia, and the Pacific they went. What precious little work remained in the Home Islands was swallowed up quickly. Major firms consolidated and a return to Zaibatsu was on the cards, the Government stepped in to force large banks to keep companies separate, selling instead to preferred international firms. The Japanese market was at last broken open and with Microsoft, JP Morgan, Shell, and the European majors came English and French language skills. Despite the setback, Japan retained its position as the second-largest economy globally, solidifying its reputation as an economic powerhouse if also a warning sign of hubris and unregulated behaviour.

English became the second most spoken language in the country, with over 50% of Japanese citizens speaking limited English and 30% speaking confident conversational English. The French took a romantic third place. On account of the high school language programs set up in schools the Japanese English accent is heavily skewed to Australian English. Japanese-English as it came to be known follows British spelling traditions much to the chagrin of the American companies who entered the country. By the turn of the 20th century almost all university courses had made English a compulsory language for completion.

Post-Cold War, 1999 onwards

In 1999, Japan celebrated its 20th anniversary as a key development partner for ASEAN, marking two decades of collaborative efforts and shared growth. As the leading force in the region, Japan's commitment to ASEAN strengthened diplomatic ties and positioned the nation as a vital contributor to the bloc's economic and strategic development. Beyond ASEAN, Japan's role as a moderating voice within Western alliances' strategic thinking against the Soviet Union garnered international recognition, establishing the nation as a pivotal player in global diplomacy.

Latin America

Japanese relations with South America were a tumultuous affair. Privately, Washington had warned Japan against further investments on the continent. These warnings were countered by the free trade bloc Japan had formed at the start of the cold war. What South America gained in access to Japanese markets though, was tempered by Japanese revulsion for Latin Socialism. As the continent went through cyclical embraces of left wing socialism, Japan went through cyclical distance making. This included refusal to allow defence contracts to empower the regimes that came and went. The South Americans once again started looking north for their economic future. All except Peru that is, and today the largest proportion of overseas Japanese live and work in the country.

Bharat

The subcontinent became to Japan the closest of possible friends, it was Bharat who moved the UN to allow Japan entry. A geopolitical melting pot of issues, Bharat faced concerns both neighbourly and trans-oceanic that it could not tackle alone. The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and International Cooperation Agency put Bharat in the highest of engagement echelons. From Mumbai and Delhi to Gujarat and Sri Lanka, Japanese firms found cheap land, and labour to mass produce for the booming population. Across Bharat Yamaha, Suzuki, and Toyota sold their cars and motorcycles. Along with this came the great road network, and the engineering power of Japanese rail.

Indians with all their creativity, and culture were the first group to be given longer term VISA status in Japan. Ethnic tensions followed, Japanese xenophobia was a constant complaint, but it did not stop the migration. Shibuya 3rd ward became India town, and like the China towns found across the world in the 80s and 90s, Japan helped Bharat export this cultural phenomena. In time Japan embarrassed certain elements of the sub continental culture, Japanese Golden Curry foremost amongst this, but so too fashion, and art. Across Japan desi-culture found its niche, and colour exploded through women's fashion in a vibrancy not seen ever before.

The High Speed Rail

Japanese development through the Cold War was miraculous, but infrastructure was where things made the developed world stop and take note. The Japanese rail network from Tokyo north to Sendai and onto Hokkaido, and south to Osaka and then down to Shimonoseki was the envy of the world by the late 1970’s. The establishment of a unified rail gauge worked miracles in streamlining development costs and planning. The crowning jewel was truly the Type-0 shinkansen, the fastest train in the world when it launched in 1963, travelling from Tokyo to Osaka at 220km/h. Built specifically for the Tokyo 1964 Olympics the shinkansen took the rail world by storm.

As Japan electrified its rail network during the rebuild of the 1950s so did it progress the expansion of it. If the Pacific coast was the original rebuild and the planned construction path of the shinkansen, the Sea of Japan coast was the luxury line. The so-called Blue trains and their sleeper cars took on new meaning and the eponymous ‘blue’ name came to reflect the floor to ceiling views of the Sea of Japan possible on the carriages.

These trains through the 1990s were taken up by developed countries, first in Australia, and then Canada. It was on the back of rail technology that Japan escaped her economic conundrum, and the export of this technology saved manufacturing and industry jobs in the millions. Eventually Japan came to fully dominate the high speed rail network until France entered the foray and then China afterwards. By the time of the early 2000s while she was head and shoulders above the competition, competitors had commenced the catch up in Europe and Eurasia.

Anime

In the late 1980s Japanese animation took a leap forward that launched it from a local domestic production of Mega-man and Sailor moon, to global prominence. Dragon Ball burst onto the TV scene in 1986 and captured the hearts and minds of a generation of young men across Japan and the English version across America, UK and Australia. Its sequel series Dragon Ball Z in 1992 was a cultural touchstone and translated into some 38 different languages for broadcast around the globe. This success though was just the precursor, these were Japanese manga transformed into tv cartoons for children. April 1 1997 changed the world forever when across Japan, the United States, Europe and Australia a new anime captured such a vast swath of children it sparked security concerns inside the CIA and MI5, it was called Pocket Monsters, or Pokemon.

In the original airing wake came the portable handheld gaming device explosion, the Gameboy and the headline games, Pokemon Red and Pokemon Blue. Catch ‘em All Fever consumed children across the planet, Nintendo was forced to front Senate hearings and submit technical specifications of the Gameboy to security agencies. Perhaps one of the most ludicrous moments of the late 90’s though was during the 1998 election in Australia where Mr John Howard dressed up as the character Pikachu. It was an effort to sell his vision of new investments in children’s programming, early childhood education, and regional relations. Unfortunately technical issues with his suit caused a power malfunction, and he was electrocuted to death. Kim Beazley went on to win the election, Paulin Hanson’s One Nation Party stealing away for the first time the balance of power in the federal House of Representatives. Until she too was felled by a pokemon scandal, an illegal trading card ring smuggling drugs in so called “booster packs”.

South Korea

The peninsula and the failure of the Korean War haunted Japan well after the cessation of hostilities. It bubbled away problematically between South and North for 50 years, the South moving its capital to Busan, a bastion of Japanese culture in the new nation. From military dictatorship to democracy, the Miracle of the Floating Port, and the formation of chaebols by the late 2000’s South Korea was well ahead of its languishing partner in the North. Japan’s role was the signature and leading trade partner, the older brother, and until the exposure of Japanese interventions in the Korean war, the former colonial master.

Tensions were never resolved between the two, but Mishima’s overtures and compensation to comfort women, and the ethnic Koreans who had called Japan home helped. The death spiral of post Cold-War Peace was on the peninsula though, a series of miscalculations, miscommunications, and accidents leading to the resumption of hostilities between South and North; Japan was quick to send aid, the Japan Self Defence Force learning the lessons of the First Korean War, joining only second behind the United States.

The Beating Heart of Asia

By the turn of the century Japan had retained its position as the second largest economy, become the central trade hub for Asia, and occupied a pivotal position in regional affairs. Following the bust of the mid 90’s the economy buckled but it did not break. France, Germany, and most impressively China were all on the surge towards Japan’s lofty second place. Storm clouds on the horizon though in the US debt market and Russia’s view on Georgia threatened the global economy though. Action on the Korean peninsula had put nerves to just about every major market across the globe. The Nikkei however was in recovery mode as the countdown ticked over to the year 2000 and in classic Japanese fashion, there was no issue to talk about, until the house was on fire.

Regionally Japan was the lead development partner for ASEAN and partnered with New Zealand and Australia for the Pacific. The US had retreated inward during the term of President Weinstein, made in America had brought manufacturing back to the mid-west. The cost had been ASEAN cooperation with the regional power to start up their own manufacturing and progression towards advanced production lines. The durability of these programs was unclear but incoming President Jobs had made strong commitments to return to free market economics. ASEAN, and the Pacific, looked to Japan to negotiate new deals.

The trading giants of PO-TEPCO, Nippon Yusen, and Port Authority Terminal set the standard for Asian trade. Together they controlled more than 60% of all incoming shipping containers in Japan, and a combined 15% of all global shipping trade. The ports of South Korea, China, Taiwan, and southeast Asia all adhered to Japanese monopolistic demands. Japan had once again become the beating heart of Asia.

Early-Mid 1960 - United States of America

As the United States continues to tackle issues of inequality and voting rights, the issue of nearly one million Americans in the capital city of the United States not being represented nor able to vote for any federal office has become a pressing matter. Residents of Washington, D.C. have long called for increased autonomy from Congress and the ability to vote in national elections, though their calls until recently had scantly been taken seriously. However, freshman Republican Senator Kenneth Keating of New York offered a thorough amendment to an unrelated act of Senator Kefauver to completely overhaul the way Washington, D.C. operates, utilizing the little known power granted to Congress to allow the citizens of the federal district to vote in state the land was retroceded from, as seen in the 1801 Organic Act to completely restore the voting rights of Washington, D.C. residents as if they were residents of Maryland, allowing for Washington D.C. to be made its own House district as part of Maryland, and giving residents of Washington, D.C. the ability to run for federal office (but not any state offices) as if they were inhabitants of Maryland. This legislation would remove the need for modifying the Constitution, keep Congress in control of Washington, D.C., and restore the voting rights of residents of the capital for national office. It would also nearly ensure a citizen of D.C. would be elected to the House, as the capital had more than enough residents to have one House seat wholly located in the capital, while also being the majority of the electorate for a second seat. Combined with being able to vote in Maryland's Senate elections, this will wholly restore the representation of residents of the district. [M] For specifics on the way this would work, I will co-opt the relevant parts of the 2004 proposal. [/M]

Following some back and forth with amendments, eventually the DC voting retrocession was passed in both chambers of Congress by itself, with the resolution to take effect immediately, with an additional two Representative temporarily given to Maryland (bringing the House total to 437) to reflect the capital's population, with the additional members to be removed after apportionment following the 1960 census. Both House seats would invariably be dominated by Democrats, while the Senate seats all of a sudden had a massively Democratic tilt; though Senator Beall was already planning on retiring from office after his term, it was now all but a certainty his replacement would be a Democrat. State offices weren't impacted, but the Maryland Republican Party lamented its newfound irrelevance in federal politics outside of a few House seats. In Washington, D.C. itself the residents were ecstatic to finally be able to vote for President and have Congressional representation, though the goal of home rule still had yet to come, at least oversight of the District would now have the input of DC. In Maryland, the response was muted, though Maryland's state government did not fight the legislation, most saw the intrusion of DC's voters as an unwelcome surprise.

Early-Mid 1960 - United States of America

After President Eisenhower announced he would not seek or accept the nomination of his party to serve a second term a year before the 1960 National Convention, the Democratic Party has been abuzz about possible replacements. After the bruising midterms decreased the Democratic House majority to barely 20 seats and the eagerness of Republicans to make civil rights a major issue in 1960 became apparent, many congressional Democrats were bracing for a tough election. After several public foreign policy missteps further hampered the credibility of Democrats and Southern Democrats became increasingly frustrated and militant at President Eisenhower’s attempts to force through civil rights enforcement, the number of Democrats who were looking for the nomination seemed slim. Few Congressional Democrats appeared to have interest in seeking the nomination for 1960, with Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson (at one time considered the most likely nominee owing to his “moderate” stance on segregation and decent relationship with all sides of the Party) bowing out of consideration early. His thinking, along with that of other Democratic incumbents, seems to be a lack of confidence in the Democratic Party’s electability and lack of desire to try and prevent a split with the South.

As December rolled around to January, speculation and internal Democratic discussions had become centered on three men, Vice President John F. Kennedy, Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey, and Secretary of State Adlai Stevenson II, with some discussion also put on an ongoing Draft Russell movement from disaffected Southerners. For his own part, ever since he learned that Eisenhower wasn’t going to be running for a second term (something he only learned about in a news flash, since Eisenhower rarely informed the Vice President of his business) Kennedy had been in consultation with his father and brothers on if a run for President was advisable. He was only 43 and had made many connections over the past four years, running in a year where Democrats seemed poised for defeat and the South seemed likely to split like it had in 1948 did not seem necessary. Even more so when, unlike Nixon, he had little to gain from it. While he couldn’t immediately go back to the Senate, with Saltonstall all but certain to win re-election, he could make a run for Governor of Massachusetts and likely win it with ease. Furcolo couldn’t run again and he would not face serious opposition for the nomination, while the Kennedy machine could likely overcome even the best Republican challenger. Still, Kennedy was internally debating the merits of going for the nomination on the off chance he could emerge victorious.

After much debate with Robert, Ted, and his father over the winter, as well as a frank conversation with Jacqueline, Kennedy called a press conference in Washington to announce he would not seek the Democratic nomination and instead stated he was planning on running for Governor of Massachusetts. He refused any questions, but most Democratic insiders saw the move as a purely strategic decision. The Kennedy clan were known for their cunning and strategy, if they deemed the presidential race as a doomed cause, there was no need to rush a nomination. Contenting themselves with dominance in Massachusetts and biding their time for a more favorable shot at the White House was doubtlessly the decision of Joseph, though the Kennedy brothers seemed relieved to not have to fight a losing battle on the national stage.

With Kennedy and Johnson both officially out of contention, that left Secretary of State (and former Governor of Illinois) Adlai Stevenson II and Senator Hubert Humphrey, as well as an insurgent Southern run by Richard Russell. Unlike 1948, the Dixiecrats seemed more organized and ready to wage a real fight for the South, in the aftermath of the Southern Manifesto and Eisenhower “betraying” the South, many insiders feared that the whole South could bolt unless they were placated at the convention. Senior party officials and insiders, though, found such a compromise hard to implement in 1960, with Republicans already touting their record on civil rights and promising more legislation. Thus, as the primaries began in March, there was unease over what the convention would bring, especially as there were talks of state parties seceding from the Democratic National Committee and forming a more cohesive successor to their successful 1948 break away party.

As campaigning for the primary began, the Stevenson campaign was trying to strike a moderate tone on civil rights to appease the South, while the cash strapped Humphrey campaign came out swinging in favor wide ranging civil rights legislation and repealing Taft-Hartley in a bid to overcome Stevenson in grassroots support. This gambit partially paid off, as the South endorsed favorite sons or Richard Russell outright, while Humphrey won several contests in the Midwest off the back of heavy union support and black turnout. Stevenson, for his part, won the Illinois primary and those in New England, as well as winning delegates in all other non-Southern contests. Though this did weaken his position going into the convention, he still held out hopes of coming up with a compromise with the Southern Democrats to preserve party unity.

the 1960 Democratic National Convention

By the time the Democratic National Convention met in July, all hopes of compromise with the South had died. After the last primary in early June, President Eisenhower, with Republican support, managed to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1960. On top of the volatile situation in the South prior, the suddenness of the Civil Rights Act passing and its proximity to the Democratic National Convention caused immediate chaos (as predicted by Republican agents). President Eisenhower did not even attend, saying ill health forced him to stay in Washington, while many other senior Democrats looked on in horror at what now seemed like an inevitable split. Humphrey’s delegate slate was made up of New Deal progressives, who began clashing with the “Fire-Eaters” from the Southern delegations. Stevenson, for his part, was desperately trying to put out the fire by trying to play up his moderation on civil rights to his Southern counterparts, though it was a losing battle as the embattled Secretary of State was already being threatened with the hemorrhaging of Northern support to Humphrey’s floor managers.

On the first ballot, Stevenson led with 508 ballots to Humphrey’s 348 and Russell’s 330, with a smattering of favorite sons taking up the rest of the ballot. Well short of the 762 votes needed to win the nomination, Stevenson’s floor managers tried to strike a bargain with the South by promising to place Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas on the ticket and working to moderate the civil rights plank on the platform, which seemed to be on the path to perhaps finding a temporary accord with the South, but an unknown (presumed Stevenson-affiliated) delegate leaked details of the bargain to the floor, which caused a Northern revolt against Stevenson. By the second ballot, shifts had seen Humphrey leading with 674.5 delegates to Stevenson’s 321 and Russell’s 280 (with most of Stevenson’s newfound support coming from Arkansas and some Southern delegates switching over). Party bosses figured Stevenson’s bid was now dead and tried to cobble together a dark horse candidate, but the newly invigorated Humphrey campaign continued appealing to Northern and Western Democrats. By the third ballot, Humphrey got 803.5 votes to Richard Russell’s 318 and Stevenson’s 270, with a late attempt by some party officials to get “Happy” Chandler the nomination as a compromise candidate soaking up most of the rest of the delegates. Despite coming in with a fundraising disadvantage and against a divided group of party insiders, Humphrey had managed to clinch the nomination by outmaneuvering Stevenson’s moderation and the South’s discontent.

the State Freedom Party

The fallout of this turn of events was immediately apparent, with the entire Deep South bolting from the convention amidst near brawls between delegates. Party officials were now projecting that, outside of the border states and Texas, the entire Solid South would likely vote for a Dixiecrat ticket. Shortly after the convention ended, the state parties of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia all voted to sever ties with the national Democratic Party and instead created the State Freedom Party. The Florida Democratic Party suffered a serious split even as loyalists were able to prevent severing ties, as several local branches left to join the newly made Florida State Freedom Party. The SFP also opened party branches in Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and Oklahoma, though with only varying levels of support from local Democratic apparatus.

As with its predecessor in 1948, the State Freedom Party was created largely as a vehicle to allow for a Southern presidential run, but unlike in 1948, dozens of Democrats in the South (outside of those running for federal office) adopted the branding and imagery of the SFP in addition to the state Democratic Party, mostly to boost turnout statewide. Governor Orval Faubus rejoined the Arkansas Democratic Party after it split with the national party and ran largely under the SFP’s banner. Federal incumbents and primary winners who had supported the Southern Manifesto offered token support to the SFP, though most were conscious of their committee assignments & seniority and didn’t heavily commit to the SFP. Internally, many Southerners saw the Democratic Party as having twice over betrayed the “loyal” South and there was a growing bed of grassroots support of forming some kind of regional party divorced from either the Republicans or Democrats, at the impromptu convention for the SFP there were several speeches endorsing such a position, though largely coming from state officials. The Southern Freedom Party backed a segregationist platform decrying the Republicans and Democrats for “totalitarian attempts to unconstitutionally centralize the country” while nominating Senators Harry F. Byrd and Herman Talmadge for President.

the 1960 Democratic National Convention, Continued

Following the South bolting from the convention, remaining Democrats began crafting one of the most liberal party platforms ever seen, with repealing Taft-Hartley, passing civil rights legislation protecting voting rights, passing legislation to adopt universal healthcare, and a plethora of similar liberal ideals giving Humphrey plenty to campaign on in the North. Humphrey for his part tried to mend fences with the Stevenson campaign, securing a strong endorsement from Stevenson, ever the party man. Of course, much of the platform was buried under chatter about the South’s walkout and the fallout such a situation could have. Humphrey seemed fine removing the segregationist vote from contention, as it was not an impossible task to sweep the Midwest and Northeast while carrying the border states and still walk out with a victory. While Truman had failed a similar feat in 1948, he also had to deal with northern progressives walking out and supporting Henry Wallace, something Humphrey was thankful not to have to repeat.

While the Republicans were still the heavy favorites due to 1958-1959 recession and foreign policy missteps, Humphrey did overwhelmingly lead with the labor and black vote (though polling suggests Republican attempts to appeal to civil rights has worked to a minor degree, many black voters still back the Democratic Party for their recent civil rights track record and economic interventionism, leading to ~2/3rds of black voters planning to back Humphrey) and believed he had a chance to prove naysayers wrong in a comeback. Other Democrats did not share such optimism, remembering Truman’s defeat despite his constant mantra of victory being around the corner, but all corners of the Democrats outside of the South still came out strongly in favor of Humphrey. The Humphrey campaign doubled down on its civil rights platform by bringing on Senator Stuart Symington as Humphrey’s running mate, making the 1960 presidential election the most Senate-heavy one in memory, with all but Gerald Ford being incumbent Senators. With the stage set, Humphrey began his acceptance speech, a crowning moment for the little known pharmacist from South Dakota.

Early-Mid 1960 - United States of America

Since announcing his candidacy in January, Richard Nixon has consistently led every poll of Republican voters. To pollsters, his opponents seemed doomed, with the Senate Majority Leader having a steady ~70% of the Republican electorate supporting him with around an even split going for Rockefeller and Goldwater. Though he had failed to convince either to drop out, his consistent support of the Republican Party and years of effort had captured the endorsement of much the Party and convinced most Republicans that 1956 was a fluke. Everyone from Alf Landon to President Dewey himself had either outright endorsed Nixon or were working to ensure he had a smooth ride to the nomination. While this did little to dissuade Goldwater, who was running to both boost his own national profile and reinvigorate the Republican Party’s right-wing, it did much pain to Rockefeller. Since announcing his campaign, he had styled himself as a liberal Republican who would go further than Dewey while attacking Eisenhower for not doing enough to support the nation’s vulnerable. While useful in some areas (and certainly not as bad as it was for Rockefeller in real life), it simply could not match the influence of Nixon nor shake the perception of Rockefeller as too liberal to unite the Republican Party.

As March rolled around and the few actual primaries of the Republican Party began, things did not improve for Rockefeller. Whatever popularity he might enjoy with the liberal intellectuals in the East Coast Establishment, the rank and file Republicans nationwide saw him as simply a worse alternative to Nixon, one that would make the conservatives stay at home in November while trying to out-promise New Deal Democrats on domestic policy. With Nixon they found a true party man who was an internationalist with moderate credentials, but with connections and friendships to keep the conservative wing in order. Seeing the writing on the wall after being handed a couple major defeats, Rockefeller bowed out of the race and instead started courting party insiders in order to gain influence at the convention. Nixon even reached out via intermediaries to discuss the possibility of Rockefeller getting on the ticket, but a man as ambitious as Rockefeller would not play second fiddle to the likes of Nixon. He would support Nixon when he became the nominee, but was more concerned about lining himself up for his next chance at the presidency.

With the only real threat from his left defeated, Nixon now had the task of taking down a serious threat from the right. While Goldwater had virtually no chance of getting the nomination, both he and Nixon knew he could throw a spanner into the works at the convention. Nixon himself had no love lost for Goldwater, his ideas would see the Republican Party doomed to obscurity for all time in a country that has clearly shifted its opinion towards a more moderate path. Still, the man whose name is on The Conscience of a Conservative and has spent the better part of a year rebuilding the grassroots conservative movement was not someone to simply be forgotten. Meeting with Goldwater privately with a few other party insiders before the convention, Nixon managed to convince Goldwater to drop out and endorse him to make the presidential nomination unanimous at the convention. This concession would cost Nixon, however, with Goldwater getting a prime speaking time at the convention and token concessions on some parts of the platform. This suited Goldwater nicely, as he would be able to boost his national platform and tout to the right-wing of the Republicans that he had moderated the overall platform, while for Nixon it ensured a much smoother convention.

the 1960 Republican National Convention

As Nixon rode to overwhelming victories in the primary and came into the convention the pre-selected choice of both the rank-and-file Republicans as well as senior party insiders, much of the speculation about the Republicans would be how they try to court members of the New Deal Coalition without losing the conservative vote and who Nixon would choose as his vice president. The first was quickly answered when the Republican platform adopted measures calling for a national health insurance system, comprehensive expansion of rural development measures, federal funding for education, overhauls of national defense, and the strongest civil rights plank in the Republican Party’s history. These measures are all differentiated from the Democratic Party’s proposals by both their scale and focus, with Republican messaging focusing on enhancing people’s choice and building communities, while disparaging their opponents for wanting to rule from Washington.

However, above all else the two strongest messages the Republicans are sending to voters are their ideas on civil rights and national defense. Decrying a “missile gap” with the Soviets evidenced by their victories in the Space Race, Nixon and the Republican Party promised a strong stance against communism, an end to the Middle Eastern oil embargo, and a rapid expansion of the US military and nuclear deterrence. With Nixon’s existing foreign policy experience in the Senate Foreign Affair Committee and the ongoing blunders by the Eisenhower Administration, this made for a strong rebuke of the status quo and proved most popular with voters. Domestically, while giving some respect to the proposed changes to welfare (which Nixon himself thought was a waste of time, as the Democrats could always out-promise Republicans on government handouts and programs), Nixon adopted a hardline outlook on civil rights. Touting the Civil Rights Act of 1960, freshly passed and having been associated with him by the press [M] without the Vice Presidency and the expense scandal having been avoided due to Democrats not wanting to expose their own practices, Nixon has maintained a much more cordial relationship with the press [/M], Nixon promised that under a Republican Administration that poll taxes would be made illegal, the strongest civil rights in history would be passed, and that the injustices done to the black community in the Deep South would be rectified.

While the missile gap and defense planks were par for the course, Nixon and his managers had worked with delegates to hammer out the most progressive civil rights policy plank in American history, with hopes that a very strong showing here would outmaneuver Northern Democrats and either force them to confront their Southern compatriots or lose part of the black vote to the Republicans. While Dewey had peeled some of the New Deal black vote away from Harriman, Nixon was making a gamble that he could really dent the shift of black voters to the Democratic Party or at least cause a further fracture of Democratic unity. With the utter destructiveness of Eisenhower’s own push for civil rights and the walkout of Southern Democrats at the Democratic National Convention, this could be the push needed to see Republicans win across the North.

As for the second question, who Nixon would pick, he was mindful of both the national atmosphere and the need for party unity. Rockefeller would never kow-tow to Nixon and play second fiddle (even if Nixon had wanted him, which he did not), while an out and out conservative like Goldwater would be a step too far. Still, as Nixon was now firmly planted on the liberal end of the Republican Party in the eyes of conservative insiders, a candidate from outside the Northeast and who could be acceptable to both wings of the Republican Party was needed. Nixon also needed an internationalist and someone who could assist him in getting Congress to pass his planned legislative agenda. This already eliminated many of the big names who were being floated around in the press, as well as Nixon’s own personal choice of Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. Instead, Nixon convened a council of 38 Republicans to assist him in choosing a candidate broadly acceptable to the Republican Party and Nixon himself. Unlike in 1956, when Nixon was hard pressed to find anyone willing to sign on to the ticket, this election season has many figures coming out of the woodworks to canvas and attempt to influence party figures of their viability, giving this committee’s men extra power. After Nixon issued a de facto veto of any figures the public or conservatives would perceive as close members of the “Northeast establishment,” discussions quickly closed in on choosing someone from the Midwest to help carry the region this election.

After five hours of discussion between themselves and Nixon, they selected one of their own, Representative Gerald R. Ford of Michigan, to complement Nixon. Heavily supported by Michigan’s delegation and pushed for more generally by the Midwest (initially, some had wanted to nominate Everett Dirksen of Illinois, but his Senate seat was seen as vulnerable should he leave to serve as Vice President), Ford had been mentioned several times in discussions about future Republican leadership in the House and had made a name for himself as a negotiator and moderate among party colleagues. While generally considered to hail more from the moderate, Dewey-supporting side, he had not made enemies of anyone from the conservative wing nor was overly associated with liberal Republicans. Some concern was expressed about his name recognition and lack of experience, but to mention that to Nixon, who himself had been in politics only two years longer than Ford, was seen as foolhardy. After some discussion on the convention floor, no one had any strong feelings against Ford, though some conservatives were noted as unenthusiastic that their primary performance didn’t get a more thoroughly conservative candidate. Such discussion was ignored in favor of a moderate national outlook, but Ford’s floor manager did advise him to play up elements of fiscal conservatism in his acceptance speech.

With all major opposition dealt with, the platform adjusted to maximize popularity, and a non-controversial vice presidential nominee, Nixon finally felt good about his chances in November. Unlike in 1956, when the crooks and Communists had threatened to end his career and he was almost written off in the wake of Eisenhower’s success, he now had an upper hand. In 1956, he had tried to thread the needle on the boiling issue of civil rights, didn’t connect with voters how he wanted, and didn’t pay nearly enough attention to the media, all of which cost him dearly against the titan of the Eisenhower campaign. Not in 1960. He would expose the cracks in the Democrat’s coalition, decisively come out in favor of civil rights to rub salt in the wound of the Democratic split, and campaign heavily on the ever more apparent failings of the Eisenhower Administration’s foreign and defense failures. Never again would he suffer the sting of defeat like in 1956, he would make sure of that. As he looked into the adoring crowd of Republicans before he started his acceptance he knew one thing for certain. Everything’s coming up Milhouse.

[M] Massive credit to the book 1960: LBJ Vs. JFK Vs. Nixon : the Epic Campaign that Forged Three Presidencies by David Pietrusza for giving me a treasure trove of information on the 1960 Republican National Convention and giving me plenty of pointers on how the Republicans of the 1950s were operating! Also, I’ll be writing a (hopefully) short summary of the Democratic Primary next. [/M]

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In 1961, King Muhammad V, who had ruled as sultan since 1927, and king since 1950, died during a minor surgery. He had led the nation to independence and beyond. The streets were filled with mourners and foreign dignitaries, and his funeral remains a touchpoint in Moroccan cultural memory to this day.

At the age of just 31, his firstborn son, Hassan, was crowned Hassan II, King of Morocco, Commander of the Faithful. He immediately ordered new general elections, both in Morocco proper, and in the Trust Territory of the Former Spanish Sahara. The elections in Morocco ousted the left-wing coalition that had governed since 1959 and installed a right-wing, pro-Darija coalition of the Nahda and Istiqlal parties. This suited Hassan II, who, in his twelve-year reign, favored America, Europe, and the west over pan-Arabism and the Soviet Union.

The elections in the Trust Territory of the Former Spanish Sahara returned another pro-Moroccan Djema’a, albeit under dubious circumstances. In 1962, this would be confirmed with a referendum that endorsed annexation by Morocco. The UN Trust Territory Council rubber-stamped immediate Moroccan annexation. In truth, the true results of the referendum are disputed. Sahrawi nationalists alleged large-scale voter intimidation, if not all-out vote rigging. Whatever the true results were, few allege that the genuine Sahrawi population, as opposed to Moroccan settlers (termed “returnees” by the Moroccan government) actually voted for annexation. In response, Sahrawi nationalists launched the “Sahrawi Intifada” in 1962, backed by the nascent state of Algeria, which despised Morocco for its colonial annexation of Tindouf, and coveted its return. After two months of brutal street fighting, Sahrawi rebels were pushed out of the towns of the Saharan coast, and retreated to an increasingly desperate guerrilla struggle in the desert, which would persist for ten years without success. Moroccan troops used extreme tactics against them, including the forced settlement of tribes.

Government repression under Hassan II was not limited to the Sahara. The Royal Guard of Morocco established the “Musta’arif” in 1963, a computerized secret service that tracked politicians, labor unionists, journalists, intellectuals, military officers, and dissidents in a vast database held in a secure facility in Meknes. A New York Times report of this operation reportedly inspired a young novelist in California named Philip Kindred Dick.

If there is one thing Hassan II was known for, however, it was his bizarre and relentless pursuit of a policy known as “Darijization.” Inspired by the linguistic polices of Ataturk, Darijization declared colloquial Moroccan Arabic, Darija, to be a separate language, and the sole national language of Morocco. Businesses, schools, and the army were forcibly “Darijized,” which is to say brought under the auspices of the new language and its latin alphabet. Never popular, public support for Darijization collapsed over its ten year reign, with widespread public apathy turning to hostility and anger, which in turn was suppressed all the more ruthlessly by Hassan II and his Musta’arif.

This culminated on June 19th, 1972, when pan-Arabist elements of the Air Force (one of the least Darijized branches of the military) launched a daring coup against Hassan II. Mohamed Amekrane, an Air Force officer, was proclaimed President of the Arab Republic of Morocco. Hassan II was flying from Dakhla back to Meknes during the coup, when his airplane was shot at by rebel fighter jets. Remarkably, Hassan II grabbed the radio and convinced the pilots of the rebel jets that the king was dead and the plane should be allowed to land. Upon his emergency landing in Marrakech, and the revelation that the king was still alive, support for the coup collapsed, and the Royal Guard executed rebel officers.

But the Royal Guard was privately sympathetic to certain criticisms of Hassan II. When Hassan II returned to Meknes on June 26th, 1972, he was privately informed that if he did not want to be executed, he should abdicate. Reluctantly (reportedly at the barrel of a gun and in the presence of the American ambassador, for whom the Darijization project had gone from a quirky local project to a threat to the stability of America’s chief ally in North Africa), Hassan II abdicated and retired to exile in France. At the age of ten, his son, Muhammad VI, was crowned king, under the regency of Hassan II’s younger brother, Moulay Abdallah. The regency council immediately announced the end to Darijization, and the restoration of Arabic as the sole official language, with recognized minority languages for the Amazigh, as well as some political liberalization, which allowed the free election of a conservative and semi-Islamist government under former cabinet minister and general, Mohamed Oufkir.

Hassan II occupies a split memory in Moroccan public consciousness. On the one hand, his formal annexation of the Western Sahara, and his defeat of Sahrawi and Algerian forces is widely celebrated as the final step towards the creation of the promised “Greater Morocco.” He also inaugurated close relations with Mauritania, which during his rule operated almost as a vassal of Morocco, and many of Morocco’s former enemies in the Mediterranean, such as Portugal, which welcomed Morocco into the European Free Trade Agreement (EFTA), in which Morocco remains to this day (despite three failed bids for EU membership). Under Hassan II, Morocco’s economy boomed to upper-middle income status, thanks to generous American and European aid and easy access to European markets. On the other hand, few Moroccans can forget his brutal repression in pursuit of Darijization, a policy that still baffles most Moroccans. He is neither publicly celebrated, nor condemned. When he died in 1999, there was no public mourning or funeral, but a private state affair attended only by his relatives.

Despite its eccentricity, Darijization enjoys a strange half-life in Moroccan politics. After more than ten years in which even mentioning Darijization was taboo, in 1985 a small pro-Darija party, Hizb Tshari (The Regionalist Party) won representation in parliament, though it was shunned by other parties. In 2000, parliament was deadlocked between rival Islamist-Nationalist and Liberal-Socialist camps. Abderrahmane Youssoufi, who led a coalition of the secular center and the left, controversially turned to Hizb Tshari to supply him with a crucial majority in exchange for establishing the “Institute for Darija Studies.” Despite sustained criticism, the Institute for Darija Studies has survived and thrived, publishing a comprehensive Darija dictionary, several Darija grammars, and numerous apologetics for Darijization. As memories of the repression of Hassan II fade, and alienation from the Arab world during regular flare-ups with Algeria grows, a signifiant minority, especially prominent in younger Moroccans, favor a limited return to Darijzation, including its recognition as a co-equal national language. Only time will tell if they will be successful.

Some historians argue that the Estado Novo ended with the election of Humberto Delgado in 1959 as President. This is, however, false. Delgado continued to work with Caetano in all 10 years of him being President, and reportedly even sought counsel from Salazar. Him never arresting Salazar or any other agents of the Estado Novo is itself telling, but his furtherance of the colonialist policies (albeit with a liberal-reformist bent) of the Estado Novo proved that he was only ever a nominal opponent of that regime.

Whilst Delgado did manage to prevent large-scale colonial war from breaking out, and Portugal never lost colonies apart from its say-so, the social order in Portugal (and its colonies) remained fundamentally unchanged until the Revolution. When Delgado declined to run for a third term in 1973, all hell broke loose. What was expected to be a peaceful transition to power ended in a brutal civil war.

Ultimately, the Maoists won, and Portugal's neocolonial enterprise was scattered on the wind, and all of its former neo-colonies plunged themselves into a civil war. Portugal became a light of China and the People's Great Savior in Europe as the green on her flag was subsumed by red. A great cultural revolution swept the entire nation, even spreading to some of her former colonies like Angola and Mozambique. Now, both the East and West were Red. NATO was, by this point, deprived of a founding member and Portugal became an outcast in Western Europe.

As the Soviet Union fell apart, the People's Republic of Portugal remained resolute in its support for the People's Republic of China, and continued to subsist off of foreign aid from it. But Portugal would remain Europe's Hermit Kingdom.

I'm back losers!! I finally have some free time and I'm excited to get back into CWP! Bulgaria is going to navigate the aftermath of the Yugoslav crisis and my ultimate goal will be to explore cybernetics and maybe some sort of uniquely Bulgarian communism under the aegis of the Soviet Union.

I also have several posts planned about the Pomaks and minority policies inspired by the stuff going on in the USSR

And I will invade Greece.

1st November 1959

Berlin, Germany

Following extensive investigation by German security forces, the government has today announced that the KPD has been outlawed in Germany and many of its leaders arrested as a result of collusion with an outside government.

During the dawn raids to arrest the leadership 5 people where killed across Berlin however the Chancellor has hailed the arrests as a success and "the first step towards restoration of true democracy in Germany".

No further statements have been made at this time.

Buenos Aires, Novemeber 3rd 1959

LAS MALVINAS SON ARGENTINA!

Screamed a protester in front of the national congress or rather a banner of support he carried with him. The rebirth of Argentine nationalism that initially came with Peron before his disgrace had not left and many wished assurances of the nationalist pretenstions which came with it.

With the recent British occupation of the Suez, many more left-wing leaders within Argentine politics had likewise adopted the position with the British seemingly distracted and intending to hold their terriories by force or even still expand them the beast had to be put down.

Then there was Frondizi watching this madness march forward which would place his own ambitions at risk. For once there would be no leaving his offices besides watching the results of the Congress's resolution come up.

A vote pushed forward by nationalists across bipartisan lines, an issue Frondizi could not accept nor could he challenge the gutteral roar of nationalism which had enflamed the nation. The Islands are Argentine.

As he listened to the radio powerless and the speeches of with some random individuals: Developmentalists, Peaceniks, disinterested nationalists etc. God knows where they got a Argentinan with a pro-British position for that peace. He couldn't stop it and the threat of a assertive Britain was definetly against Argentine interests.

Frondizi had to preempt it, the Argentine republic would file an appeal to the ICJ on the matter of the territory of the Falklands.

There was at least an upside Argentina has acted respectfully unlike the UK aligned with the goals of the international community and the decline of the wool trade had affected the Islands negatively alongside the declining British empire meanwhile Argentina's economy had seemingly begun roaring to life which if it came to a referendum could secure Argentine sovereignty of the archipelago.

(OOC) IF the mods want to rp it can it be NPC'D as I do not want to sit through a multiple day trial (/OOC)

The Republic of Costa Rica is a nation with great agricultural, and perhaps industrial potential, however it suffers from a lack of connectivity. Without adequate road, rail and shipping links, Costa Rican products cannot hope to compete on the global market, let alone serve the broader population. This needs to change, and President Mario Echandi Jiménez has a plan to do just that.

The Plan Nacional de Conectividad

The Plan Nacional de Conectividad envisions the Costa Rica of 1970 as a modern, interconnected and prosperous nation. This vision, however, will not be achieved through wishes and good ideas alone. It will require blood, sweat, money and labor drawn from across Costa Rican society in order to manifest successfully. While much money will be spent on roads, given their flexible nature, significant investment will also be made in railway lines for industrial applications.

The first of these lines will connect the Atlantic side-city of Guacimo through to the capital, San Jose, via the path cut through the mountains by the Chirripó River. This line, featuring two parallel tracks, will connect the Atlantic and Pacific lines allowing cargo to be transhippied from the Caribbean Coasta to the Pacific. While not initially electrified, space will be left to facilitate future upgrades, should the money become available. In total, the track is estimated to cost around $3.6mn USD dollars to construct, with work to be completed by 1965.

The second will connect and upgrade the two southern railroads, originally built for Banana transportation, to enable other kinds of cargo services. While the actual new line being constructed is minimal, around 20 kilometers, upgrades to the remainder will cost almost as much as a new line. In total the dual tracked line will cost $3 million USD, with work to be completed in 1963.

In terms of roads, four main highways will be built, crisscrossing the country and meeting in San Jose. This process shall take time, however, and is more of a vision than a concrete plan. In the short-to-medium term, $15 million will be allocated towards upgrading various primary and secondary roads, mainly through the addition of asphalt to major ones, and grating to minor ones.

The plan also calls for the consolidation of the major ports on both coasts to enable greater efficiency and economies of scale when importing and exporting products. This process shall be a gradual one, with money invested in upgrading the Ports of Limón and Caldera on the Pacific and Caribbean coasts respectively. This work will focus on improving connectivity within the ports, increasing the number of modern vehicles operated,and expanding facilities specifically designed to handle containerised, rather than loose, cargo. More than $5 million will be invested in each port with initial work to be completed in 1966.

1 OCTOBER 1959

This presidential election has, to put it mildly, been a crisis of sorts for the Estado Novo.

In the first place, it will be an actual election. There appears to be a legitimate possibility that Salazar will lose, as he seems to be unpopular amongst not only the youth but also pretty much every segment of society which is not ardent hardliners. His opponent, Humberto Delgado, has managed to marshal an impressive coalition of reformists, moderates, communists, liberals and military men. Salazar, on the other hand, has suffered from what some call a lack of charisma. His seeming inability (or perhaps unwillingness) to connect with the population on any significant level does him no favors in this regard.

It seems entirely possible also that Mr. Caetano has struck some sort of agreement with Delgado, as Mr. Delgado has pointed all of his criticism at Salazar, even though Salazar is technically out of office right now. Mr. Delgado also claims to have the support of the armed forces moreso than Salazar, which could very well be true. After all, memory of the Nuno Affair is still fresh in the high command's minds. Some are claiming that Caetano went as far as to promise that the PIDE and the Internal Ministry will not interfere in the election, much like the previous Presidential elections. Caetano denies this and promises that all elections can be expected to be conducted no differently than they have in the past.

Meanwhile, the Portuguese Communist Party (Suslovist) has withdrawn from the ballot in tacit support of Mr. Delgado. General Secretary Ruy Gomes announced that a popular front must be built against fascism, even if not all non-fascists are willing to work together formally.

The mainline (read: Maoist) Portuguese Communist Party remains resolute in its advocacy for armed struggle and in its opposition to participation in "bourgeois politics".

With just a few weeks until election day, it remains to be seen whether the New State is in any actual danger of collapse.

Sometime in 1958 during the civil war

Sukarno, the man who controls Indonesia alone could be seen cracking, he had given the PKI control over certain ministries for example the ministry of the economy, however The glorious and brilliant chairmen of the communist party Dipa N Aidit could tell this was just a temporary measure of Sukarno who would likely oust the communist the minute he re-consolidated rule. Sukarno was pragmatic like that, it's what made him a good leader and a difficult man to get rid of. However, at this time Sumatra, Sulawesi and even Java itself was undergoing rebellion and this would be a perfect time to strike the PKI was the party of the people with it being the largest party in all if Indonesia. Although it would not go into this alone

Dipa N Aidit would secretly organize meetings with leaders from the two small Murba and Acoma parties, two national communist parties which whilst split off form the PKI were still fellow left-wing revolutionaries who could be instrumental in this national struggle, While not all members of the PKI would want a violent struggle the smaller and more extreme Murba and Acoma parties were perfect to help fill those numbers, this needs to be a struggle with leftwing unity not just the PKI seeking out a power grab. And with that PSI leaders in Java would be sought out and talked with, many of them understand that Sukarno has purposefully pushed them out of government even though they are one of the larger parties in Indonesia. And this has likely made many of them dissatisfied with the regime. And so a with that a Secret United Front would be made between the PKI-PSI-Acoma-Murba parties with the PKI as the primary party the PSI as the secondary and the Acoma and Murba as two attached members. Leaders in the party were promised ministry positions once leftist rule can be established and true free and fair elections held.

Now as for the military, the policies of Sukarno with the rapid expansion of the airforce, army, and navy as well as the training by Soviets and assistance by the PRC has not only caused a bloated and gigantic army, this has also caused a situation where many of the senior officers in the army may be from the time of the Japanese but many of the new soldiers have communist sympathies and the airforce is even more communist with all the pilots having been trained by soviet flight instructors to utilize MIGs. Should it come to it we will likely see a situation where the vast majority of young soldiers side the communists. However we cannot expect that to be enough, this needs to be a revolution lead by the people for the people and whilst the Military we have turn for us may be the core of our new army we will need to see to it that a proper revolution upon rising up is given support by the common people and will have to be supported by large people’s militias. Efforts will be put in to begin gathering the basis of these peoples militias and stockpiling excess rifles in warehouses along Java, Sumatra, borneo, Various islands and Sulawesi.

In late 1958, the elections of the Bet Haam would take place. Unlike previously, Israel was currently at war during these elections, but because of the overwhelming victories, the war had not really effected the active daily life of most of the citizens. Many of the men and some of the women were not at home though, however, the IDF made sure to collect the vote of the soldiers who were on the frontline.

The 120 seats would need to be elected, which means a new Prime Minister could potentially be selected. However, despite the controversy of Ben-Gurion's Hula Valley War, Sharett's actions as Prime Minister has seen significant economic growth, and a largely successful war that could end with great success for Israel. From this, it was expected that the UWF would have a resounding victory, especially with the re-alignment of the IPRP, which saw the split of the Communist Party of Israel, and several of the members joining with the UWF.

Bet Haam Elections, 1958

As predicted, the UWF is able to securely take the Bet Haam, with 62.5% of the total seats under the coalition's control. The ZLF took thee second highest coalition votes, while LUC received the third most number of votes.

Hesnat Hafderli Elections, 1958

In the Hesnat Hafderli, there is almost half the number of seats with only 54. With there being 2 representatives from each of the 27 districts resulted in strong battles in each district for these seats. However, the UWF was able to achieve 36 seats split across several districts with some of the districts being a UWF sweep. 18 seats went to the opposition, but with 66.66% of the seats in favor of UWF they would have full control of the Knesset.

After discussion among the UWF there were several questions regarding if Sharett would retain Prime Minister or would Ben-Gurion who despite having retired, remained fairly active in the political landscape. It was then decided that Sharett would retain Prime Minister and form the 2nd Sharett Cabinet, and the 6th Cabinet of Israel.

2nd Sharett Cabinet, 6th Cabinet of Israel

President of Israel, 1959

Finally, a new President of Israel was elected to a 5-year term. Yitzhak Ben-Zvi became the 2nd President of Israel after replacing Yosef Sprinzak who had served from 1954-1959. Unfortunately, Sprinzak died in January of 1959, preventing him from running for his second term. Ben-Zvi would take office beginning his term as President of Israel.

Gentlemen, I have returned.

Anyhow yeah I'm basically just back to handle military stuff, mainly Algeria and the occasional warcrime for export. I'll be around so ping me.

Anyhow, I need to fill out the next hundred words for the bot to not neutralize me... so here is de Gaulle's speech on Algeria, Oct. 1958.

Last Sunday, three and a half million men and women of Algeria, without distinction of community, in complete equality, gave France and myself their vote of confidence. They did this quite simply without any constraint and in spite of the threats that certain fanatics brought to bear against them, their families and their property. This is a fact, as clear as the bright light of clay. And this fact is fundamental not only because it mutually and forever pledges, one to the other, Algeria and France, but also because it ties in with what happened that same day in Metropolitan France, in the Overseas Departments, in the Territories of the Community.

The least that can be said of this great demonstration is that the French people proved to themselves and to the entire world their determination for renovation, and that, at the same time, a hundred million men decided to build their future together in Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.

With regard to Algeria, what is the future to which France is calling her? Women and men of Algeria, I have come here to tell you what it is.

What must be achieved is the basic transformation of this country, so brave, so alive, but also so full of difficulties and suffering. This means that it is necessary for the living conditions of each man and woman to improve from day to day. This means that, for the benefit of the inhabitants, the resources of the earth and the ability of the elites must be brought to light and developed. This means that children must be taught. This means that all Algeria must have her share in what modern civilization can and must bring to men in terms of well-being and dignity.

But the loftiest plans call for practical measures. Here are the measures that my Government intends to take in the near future covering the next five years by virtue of the full powers that the new Constitution has just conferred upon it.

During these five years, of the young people in Metropolitan France - yes, I say in Metropolitan France-that enter the service of the State, in the Administration, in the Army, in education and in the public services, at least a tenth of these young people must be recruited from the Arab, the Kabyle and Mozabite communities, and that without prejudice to an increased proportion of Algerians serving in Algeria.

In the course of these five years, salaries and wages in Algeria will be raised to a level comparable to what they are in Metropolitan France.

Before the end of these five years, 250,000 hectares [617,500 acres] of new land will be allotted to Moslem farmers.

Before the end of these five years, the first phase of the plan for the agricultural and industrial development of Algeria will be brought to its conclusion. This phase includes, in particular, the delivery and the distribution of the oil and gas of the Sahara, the setting up, on this soil, of great metallurgical and chemical complexes, the construction of housing for a million people, the corresponding development of health services, of roads, ports, means of communication-in short, the regular employment of 400,000 new workers.

Gradually in the course of these five years, two-thirds of the girls and boys will be enrolled in school and, during the three years after that, complete school enrollment of all Algerian youth will be achieved.

During these five years, the human contact that has been made especially by the French Army-by its career officers, its reserve officers, its fighting men, its young conscripts-will be continued and developed and, in Metropolitan France, the same must be true, in Paris and n our provinces.

What will be the political Consequences of this evolution which calls for very extensive and prolonged efforts? I believe it is quite useless to freeze in advance, in words, that which, in any event, is going to take shape, little by little, as it is undertaken. But, in any case, two things arc certain as of now: the first concerns the present.

In two months, Algeria will elect her representatives under the same conditions as will Metropolitan France. But at least two thirds of her representatives will have to be Moslem citizens.

The other refers to the future. The future of Algeria will in any event - because that is the nature of things-be built on a double foundation: her personality and her close solidarity with Metropolitan France.

In any case, it is absolutely essential that this fruitful transformation be accomplished. This is necessary for the good of the men of Algeria, for the good of the women, for the good of the children who live here; but it is also necessary for the honor of mankind. It is necessary for the peace of the world. For no one has any interest in the stagnation of a people, except the kind of people, who, to serve their ambitions, gamble on the spirit of revolt and the poverty of others.

This transformation, this immense political, economic, social and cultural task-who could effect this transformation, if not France?

Now it happens that France has the will and the means to do so. It also happens that the vote of the Algerians has just proved that they desire this transformation and that it should be carried out with France.

Therefore, turning toward those who are prolonging a fratricidal conflict, who are organizing lamentable attacks in Metropolitan France, or who are spreading through the chancelleries, through underground dens, by means of the radios and the newspapers of certain foreign capitals-vilifications of France, to those I say: Why kill? We must enable people to live. Why destroy? Our duty is to build. Why hate? We must cooperate.

Stop this absurd fighting and you will at once see a new blossoming of hope over all the land of Algeria. You will see the prisons emptying; you will see the opening up of a future big enough for everybody, and for you yourselves in particular. And then, speaking to those States which are throwing oil on the fire here while their unhappy peoples writhe under dictatorships, I say: Could you do what France is in a position to do here, what only France is capable of doing? Could you people do it? No. Then let France carry on, unless you deliberately decide to envenom the conflict in order to distract attention from your own difficulties. But in the present state of the world, where can these bitter incitements lead if not to a universal cataclysm? Only two paths lie open to the human race today: war or brotherhood. In Algeria as everywhere, France, for her part, has chosen brotherhood.

#Long live the Republic! Long live Algeria and long live France!

"Of course it wouldn't be this easy. Democracy's restoration would have allowed them to return and we waited too long. It was all neccessary.", all of these thoughts rocked Frondizi's head as he opened a newspaper and found that calls for impeachment had entered the National Congress.

Calls of Frondizi being a socialist, irony in those calling him a plutocrat, the worst was one calling him the second coming of Peron.

Meanwhile in congress according to the paper several members of his own party had rallied against him, likely bribed and by no means a signifigant portion. Their seats will likely be made void by this effort. The Paper Machievlli would set out to work ever more revitalized, as what could these oligarchs hope to do?

The army was defanged and hell more likely to side with him over them. The Neo-Peronists backed him and assumedly so did the people. Meanwhile these oligarchs were still weak despite their renewed strength compared to prior and many of these reforms had already been carried out in the USA with only more cushioning done by Frondizi. Their arguments would dissolve in mere days with only the corrupt exposed, at least Frondizi hoped.

Frondizi would not go, only the oligarchs and the "unproductive" members of the assembly.

The 1954 Plan was a resounding success, part of that success being due to Molotov’s proposal to begin a transition of collective farms (kolkhoz) into state farms (sovkhoz), proletarianizing the peasantry, following the path of Stalin. With Molotov now Chairman of the Council of Ministers, he has a much clearer directive to work on agricultural policy. The eventual goal of the CPSU in the field of agricultural is the eventual abolition of all collective agriculture and the abolition of the peasantry as a class. To ensure the survival of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the proletariat must be strengthened.

Transformation of kolkhoz into sovkhoz brings many benefits, such as actual stable wages, pensions, and other other social benefits of proletarian employment. Smaller and less economically viable kolkhoz will also be abolished, combined, and transformed into sovkhoz. These larger state farms will allow the Soviet government to better plan its agricultural produce, specifically when it comes to specialized farms that require more know-how than general crop farming. Due to the sheer massive size of Soviet heavy industries, the utilization of sovkhoz will make it easier to ensure that state farms are more properly equipped, something which was a challenge under collectivized farming. As previously stated, farms deemed ineffective will be shut down, with their labor redistributed and their equipment and tractors provided to more proven sovkhoz.

Hey so Canada is a little boring and I’m struggling of ideas, I saw Indonesia is in a civil war and I’d like to have a chance to fight in a civil war. I saw that the previous player allied with the communists? Which is okay I had some other ideas though and would like to be incharge of Indonesia as I navigate it through this crisis. I was reading the Posts from the precious player and saw I’ve got a large military and talk with the Soviets and Chinese sometimes also so maybe they’ll help me.

October 15th, 1959 - Washington, D.C., United States of America

While many are fretting over who will be the next Republican nominee, the Republican National Committee and various Republican advocacy groups have started plotting a comeback in the federal legislature. Currently, the Republican Party is at a 22 seat disadvantage in the Senate and a 23 seat deficit in the House, both of which can be significantly improved upon for the Party. With the numbers in the House, it might even be possible for the Republicans to take back control of the House for the first time since 1948. For this to be possible, however, a solid strategy and plan on what seats to target and how to go about a national campaign must take place. While President Eisenhower and the Democrats continue to fumble the ball on Suez and languish without solutions domestically, the Republican Party can show itself off as a party that got domestic results and one that can recover the international situation the United States finds itself in.

National Campaign Focuses

For the starting parts of a national campaign, the Republican Party is targeting getting a fundraising advantage early on and keeping it, as well as working hard to get competitive candidates to announce for target seats. In this role, President Dewey, Senator Nixon, and a myriad of other GOP heavyweights have ramped up fundraising events in earnest, while the RNC is hitting the rolodex in a myriad of states to begin recruiting good men for the Class II Senate elections, House elections, and gubernatorial elections coming up. In addition to this fundraising effort, the RNC has bankrolled a partnership with the advertising firm Ted Bates, Incorporated to craft a full spectrum media campaign, from the television to the paper to the campaign poster. Several other companies, from Walt Disney to local advertising firms, have been tapped for future content creation and assistance for specific campaigns.

The RNC has also begun building up campaigning infrastructure across the country in target seats, with the following Senate seats being especially targeted:

With such a number of first term Senators up for reelection in competitive states, the Republican Party has a chance to slim down the Senate Democrats from 61 seats to 54 if it doesn’t lose a seat itself, a good start to flipping the Senate in the future. It will also make it much easier to pass legislation if a Republican takes the White House, especially since every seat targeted is inhabited by New Deal progressives. While good candidates will still need to be found, the RNC has already begun injecting cash into the state parties of each targeted seat to begin building up 1960’s campaign apparatus.

In terms of topics of discussion, the Republican Party will be targeting fears of Soviet nuclear superiority, lackluster economic growth, the Eisenhower Administration’s diplomatic blunders, and exploiting the Northern-Southern split in the Democratic Party. Already, Richard Nixon has begun talking about a “missile gap” between the United States and Soviet Union, pointing to the USSR’s fast-paced and rapidly expanding space program, as well as the recent confrontation in the Mediterranean.

For domestic issues, the Republican Party has started coordinating on blaming Democratic deficits and an over-reliance on the state to solve problems, comparing the Eisenhower Administration’s relatively unsuccessful efforts to the market-based approaches of Dewey. Defense spending is also a target, with the Republicans gathering comments from senior military officials about the President’s policies regarding defense spending. With Republican oversight, the space race can be won, America can ensure the Soviet Union’s advantages in missile development don’t spiral out of control, and the economy can be reinvigorated to bring prosperity to all.

On civil rights, the Republican Party has a two-pronged approach. Congressional Republicans and the Party overall agree with the push of civil rights and will most likely vote for any civil rights legislation, but the Party can still exploit divisions in the Democratic Party to hamper the Democrats in the border states and potentially make some Southern states competitive for the presidential election. With rumors that the Eisenhower Administration is looking to get another civil rights act passed in 1960, and with the Southern Democrats already chafing under the Civil Rights Act of 1957, a wedge can be had in the Democratic Party. While the Republicans can’t directly cause a split in the Party, it would seemingly be inevitable that the South would walk out of the convention if the Democrats passed two civil rights acts and nominated anyone but a Southerner as their nominee. What the Republicans can do, however, is run serious house campaigns in states like Virginia, Maryland, Missouri, and Kentucky, where House Democrats may be hampered by having to defend their record on civil rights to unreceptive audiences.

An Update on the Nixon Campaign

While Richard Nixon has yet to formally announce, he has started to prepare heavily for the campaign. In addition to gathering support from Republicans across the Party, the Senator has made use of the RNC’s partnership with Ted Bates, with the media group sending Rooster Reeves personally to counsel the Senate Majority Leader on improving his speech and public image. As Nixon is a man reviled by the DC press corps and a somewhat oddball speaker, much of 1959 has been spent improving his speech to produce good, brief sound bites for advertising, and refining it to work for a larger audience.

In addition, Nixon tried his best to clear the field of major candidates, to very mixed success. An attempt to stave off Barry Goldwater from running an insurgent conservative campaign fell flat, with the Senator seemingly dead-set on at least showing the conservative wing of the Party still has some life in it. Still, Goldwater didn’t seem opposed to Nixon as the nominee should he win. A talk with Governor Rockefeller went similarly, with the Governor seemingly convinced he can be an effective challenge to Nixon. As they’re both relatively moderate Republicans, such a campaign could prove damaging if Nixon is unable to make decisive wins in the actual primaries. Nixon’s conversation with Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. went much better in comparison, with the Secretary of State saying he stands with Senator Nixon and will work with Nixon in earnest to get the GOP back into the White House. An odd visit to Pennsylvania also yielded results, with Nixon convincing the Governor that his campaign ultimately hurt his chances of being re-elected as Governor of Pennsylvania. As such, Stassen quietly stopped campaigning and eventually terminated his campaign.

Thus, the stage was set for a showdown between Richard Nixon and Nelson Rockefeller, with Barry Goldwater as a third party who could potentially wreak havoc if unchecked. Nixon, of course, starts with a significant amount of political capital, fundraising, and campaign infrastructure, but Rocky’s popularity could see him overcome these obstacles. Nixon has also seemingly once again gained the favor of President Dewey once again, as the President has seen Nixon’s earnest campaigning in 1958 and his fundraising efforts for 1960 as proof that he’s a true party man, especially compared to a radical like Goldwater or the political acolyte that is Rockefeller. This support is mostly limited to the occasional appearance at a fundraiser or putting in a good word with Republican figures in the Eastern Establishment, thus dulling Rockefeller’s advantage with the liberal Republicans.

Top Military Generals and Former Prime Minister Arrested for Conspiracy!

August 2nd, 1959; Baghdad

The commander of the Mosul garrison and co-revolutionary in the 14th of July Revolution to overthrow the debauched monarchy, Abd al-Wahab al-Shawaf, has been arrested for conspiracy to overthrow the Sole Leader in the early morning hours of yesterday.

Al-Shawaf had a private rivalry with Prime Minister Abd al-Karim Qasim, the true leader of the 14th of July Revolution, and Abdul Salam Arif.

The coup plot however goes much deeper, as Qasim has also arrested the director of military intelligence, Rifkat al-Hajj al-Sirri, and former Prime Minister and leader of the 1941 Revolution, Rashid Ali al-Gaylani!

The involvement of al-Gaylani has been especially noted, as he lead the great revolution against the reviled British puppet monarchy. Abd al-Karim Qasim, in a radio address stating the arrest of the traitors around mid-afternoon, said that his government was making moves to take down monuments commissioned to him and revise Iraq's history textbooks to, "Show who he was: a traitor!"

Al-Shawaf and al-Sirri are to be brought before the newly created Mahdawi Court, which was specifically created to put to trial traitors in the military. Rashid Ali al-Gaylani is to be brought before a civil trial in Baghdad however.

Let it be known, any conspiracy against the lawful government of Abd al-Karim Qasim is debauched, deviant, and wrong! We stand with the sole government of Iraq, and the Sole Leader!

Long live the Iraqi Republic! Long live our great leader Qasim!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

!SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM THE GOVERNMENT OF ABD AL-KARIM QASIM!<

!WITH THE ARREST OF THE TRAITORS YESTERDAY, IT HAS BEEN CONFIRMED THAT THEIR ARE IMPERIALIST DESIGNS UPON US.!<

!AS SUCH, A SHORT-TERM REORGANIZATION OF THE GOVERNMENT AND INTRODUCTION OF NEW POLICY IS REQUIRED, AND SHALL BE LISTED BELOW:!<

1. !REORGANIZATION OF THE MILITARY INTELLIGENCE BRANCH!<

   1. !THE MILITARY INTELLIGENCE OF THE IRAQI STATE IS TO BE COMPLETELY REORGANIZED WITH AL-SIRRI OUTED AS A TRAITOR.!<

   2. !A PROBE IS TO BE LAUNCHED INTO THE MILITARY INTELLIGENCE ARM BY THE DIRECTORATE OF GENERAL SECURITY INTO THE MILITARY INTELLIGENCE ARM.!<

   3. !TOP SECRET (ONLY KNOWN TO ABD-AL KARIM QASIM, DGS, AND TOP-LEVEL OFFICIALS):!<

      1. !THE DGS PROBE SHALL ALSO BEGIN A LOOK INTO THE GENERAL ARMED FORCES OF THE IRAQI MILITARY, AND ENSURE THEIR ARE NO FURHTER TRAITORS WITHIN OUR OWN RANKS.!<

2. !MORATORIUM ON IRAQI TROOP MOVEMENTS THROUGH BAGHDAD!<

   1. !NO IRAQI DIVISION IS TO EVER ENTER BAGHDAD OR GO WITHIN A 10 MILES OF ITS VICINITY.!<

   2. !IF AN IRAQI DIVISION DOES THIS, ITS COMMANDER AND THE UNITS PARTICIPATING IN IT ARE TO BE CONSIDERED TRAITORS.!<

   3. !THIS WILL OF COURSE BE LIFTED UNDER SPECIAL WRITTEN ORDERS BY THE PRIME MINISTER.!<

3. !EXPANSION OF THE DIRECTORATE OF GENERAL SECURITY!<

   1. !THE DIRECTORTE OF GENERAL SECURITY SHALL BE ISSUED SPECIAL FUNDING TO EXPAND ITS DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE PROGRAM TO ENSURE THEIR ARE NO TRAITORS WITHIN OUR COUNTRY!!<

      1. !THIS STIPEND SHALL BE VALUED AT $1,500,000.!<

4. !SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON POLICE RE-ORGANIZATION AND REFORM (SPPROR)!<

   1. !A SPECIAL COMMITTEE SHALL BE FORMED UNDER THE MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR TO INVESTIGATE POSSIBLE REFORMS AND EXPANSIONS OF THE NATION'S POLICE ARM.!<

   2. !SPECIAL EMPHASIS IS TO BE ADDED TO THE BAGHDAD REGION.!<

   3. !TOP SECRET (ONLY KNOWN TO ABD AL-KARIM QASIM, DGS, AND TOP-LEVEL OFFICIALS):!<

      1. !THE DGS SHALL COOPERATE WITH THIS COMMITTEE AND SHALL PARTNER UP WITH IT TO ISSUE SPECIAL ADVICE AND LAUNCH PROBES ON BEHALF OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE.!<

5. !SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON THE REVIEW OF THE EDUCATION OF IRAQI HISTORY (SPREIH)!<

   1. !A SPECIAL COMMITTEE SHALL BE FORMED UNDER THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION TO REVIEW THE TEACHING OF IRAQI HISTORY IN SCHOOLS.!<

   2. !A SPECIFIC POINT OF THE SPREIH SHALL BE TO ISSUE NEW HISTORY TEXTBOOKS TO GIVE AN UPDATED VIEW ON IRAQI HISTORY.!<

   3. !TOP-SECRET MEMORANDUM FROM ABD AL-KARIM QASIM TO THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION:!<

      1. !"ENSURE THE COMMITTEE HAS A 'PROPER' VIEW OF THE GOVERNMENT AND THE REVOLUTION. GO BY ALL MEANS TO SHOW THE EVILS PERPETRATED BY THE OLD MONARCHY. BEGIN A COMPLETE REVISION OF THE LEGACY OF RASHID ALI AL-GAYLANI AND DEMONIZE 'VILLANOUS' IDEOLOGIES WITHIN IRAQ."!<

September 1959

Long ago back in the days before written text had graced humankind the greatest predator to ever exist wandered the jungles of Borneo, however, they had gone extinct according to science long before the white man came to these Jungles. This Predator was the Borneo Tiger. Worldwide the Tiger has seen her population decline and plummet more and more ranging from Siberia to India, and in the archipelago of southeast Asia only Sumatra barely clinging to life in Java being hunted and their land turned into far land, still has tigers of its own. However, the tiger is an important symbol of the Dayak people traditionally and thus stands as an important symbol of Borneo itself.

However not all hope is lost, in these jungles the people of Borneo claim that the tigers still roam, hidden away having figured out how to avoid people and protect themselves, and these jungles are ever so deep and ever so vast that these rumors may yet be true. However, should these tigers exist they are without a doubt few and far between and have dwindled to such a population it may not even be possible for them to continue past a few generations. And this is where The Confederation will step in.

The Call for Capture

Indonesia has no love for nature and as such in her rapid and uncontrolled expansion into the beautiful jungle, the source of all our beauty and wealth and the reason our glorious land prospers she is being destroyed. And along with that are her guardians. Thus The Sultan has put out a call that every Tiger in Java and Sumatra which is set to be killed, rather than be exterminated the sultanate of Brunei will pay double its price dead for it to be captured and delivered alive. As both Javan and Sumatran tigers are the closest living relatives to the Borneo tiger we wish to gather as many of them as we possibly can. This is simply and open call and will not close once a number is reached, however we will have biologists hired and zoologists hired from England to be able to confirm if a tiger is of Javan or Sumatran origin so that other tigers cannot be snuck into us and played off as the correct ones.

The Breed program

As well to begin with we will purchase an initial target of 15 Female Sumatran/Javan Tigers and 5 Male Sumatran/Javan Tigers, These will be the initial breeding stock of the “New Borneo Tiger” project

A 750 sanctuary will be built and made with each tiger given its own 3.5 Acre Main habitat, this is more than enough space (a single tiger irl is recommended to have at minimum 2.5 acres). Goals will be made to select the healthiest specimens among these for breeding however every female will be used for breeding.

On this facility a veterinarian hospital for the tigers will be built, a research lab for the tigers built, and 55 cages built for the time being, with each cage given a proper 4-meter wall around it and in that wall, each will have the tigers habitats surrounded by a moat to further prevent escape.

The goal is to begin being able to get captive breeding efforts up and running and cubs born as soon as possible. We wish to begin working on rebuilding populations of tigers in Borneo as soon as possible.

The side project…

However a side project also existed, and among these tigers was a plan a plan to utilize them for military, guard, and hunting use. Tigers were by all accounts the ultimate hunter, having amazing hunting skills, great at navigating the forest, and blending in as well as amazing scent skills, and rather than a dog they could absolutely defend themselves against an enemy combatant. So Once tigers would begin being born in the project a call has been put out for ⅓ of the new babies to be given to the tiger Domestication project, a project that would see the calmest tigers and the ones who seemed to enjoy human interaction the most used for a domestication, this may take several generations but could possibly have potential.

The Sultan’s Guard

However a side project also existed, and among these tigers was a plan a plan to utilize them for military, guard, and hunting use. Tigers were by all accounts the ultimate hunter, having amazing hunting skills, great at navigating the forest, and blending in as well as amazing scent skills, and rather than a dog they could absolutely defend themselves against an enemy combatant. So Once tigers began being born in the project a call was put out for ⅓ of the new babies to be given to the tiger Domestication project, a project that would see the calmest tigers and the ones who seemed to enjoy human interaction the most used for a domestication, this may take several generations but could possibly have potential.

February 10th, 1959

ORGANIZACION DE SEGURIDAD Y CONTRAINTELIGENCIA DOCUMENT BEGINNING ————

FRANCISCO FRANCO BAHAMONDE:

After a month with no leads, and a major discovery we found out at New Year’s Day that resulted in finding a new lead, we can say that we have found enough evidence that Francisco Franco is guilty of corruption. His arrest will be on [REDACTED]. With Franco's investigation over, we will divert our attention to the INI instead of the Movimiento Nacional, and will wait for all investigations to be done so the state can strike at the corrupt bureaucrats decisively and simultaneously.

On another note, we recommend choosing the OSCE for arresting the bureaucrats, and either limiting the Guardia Civil's power or dismantling them. We urge you, Alfonso XIV, to do this as they have possible connections to Franco and his ideology, and are an influential part of Spain's law enforcement agency. We cannot risk him escaping with the Guardia Civil's help, and cannot under any circumstance allow a coup to happen.

VIVA LA CORONA, LARGA VIDA AL REY, VIVA ESPANA!

———— ORGANIZACION DE SEGURIDAD Y CONTRAINTELIGENCIA DOCUMENT ENDING

Frondizi's developmentalism stood at last poised to bring about an Argentine National Revival, while milliions went about their day as if nothing had changed the signs had begun to appear. Parents would buy slightly more food or take the bus more often with some upticks in visits to zoos and the like. But greater stood yet which could ensure Argentina's rise as the titan of Latin America could no longer be blocked. The destruction of monopolies which would outside of state monopolies open the path forward to encourage greater innovation and competion driving prices down while opening more jobs. Clearing the way of the old guard, those believers in Peron as well as those still supportive of milk and coffee politics had to go this was the only way forward for Argentina regardless of their desire.

1. President Frondizi via nationwide television broadcast has announced the creation of the Argentine Fair Trade Commission which would be nominated by the presidency but appointed by parliament. The goal of the commision is to avoid the major dramatic anti-trust actions as carried out in the young USA and the redistribution of oligarchic wealth to new oligarchs as seen in the early republic. Instead the commitee would ensure companies avoid abusing their position and ensure the maintance of competition within the Argentine economy with proper consumer protections. Explicit bans within its framework are unfair methods of competition, and unfair or deceptive acts.
2. Introduction of several anti-trust laws outlawing contracts, combination or conspiracy in restraint of trade outside of that of the government(in defense of state monopolies). Additionally it would ban private efforts towards monopolization, attempted monopolization, conspiracy or combination to monopolize. Additional bans on interlocking directorates, bans on mergers(of sizable companies) without the approval of the Free Trade Commission, bans on discriminatory pricing, services and allowances between merchants. Companies attempting mergers or acquistions must notify the Argentine Free Trade commision of their intentions ahead of time. Further bans between businesses or private individuals to fix pricing, split markets or to rig bidding. The final articles of these various laws would outline private lawsuits to uphold these laws. These laws would not include professional/vocational monpolies with regards to education or professional associations.
3. To ensure these laws don't cause a sudden vaccum, they will be implimented gradually with the Argentine government sponsoring several up and coming entrepenuers in these sectors dominated by the monopolies in order to provide a second competitor who would be able to partially fill in the vaccum and avoid a sudden crisis. Additionally the government would begin a conversation with these private monopolies in order to ensure these laws are upheld without signifigant economic disruption.

##1959 January, Ethiopia, Addis Ababa

The Chairman of the Derg Mulugeta Buli made a speech today, after announcing the decision of the Ethiopian government to increase mobilization and begin further recruitment efforts in the wake of the Italian invasion. Emergency war taxes and other measures are being put in place as Ethiopian prepares for a war of survival.

Below is the transcript from the speech of the leader of the Ethiopian nation:

Today the Ethiopian people find themselves for the fourth time in a century beset by a foreign force. Some have called the war we have embarked upon unnecessary, but is it unnecessary to protect our children? Is it unnecessary to protect our loved ones? Is it unnecessary to stand against evil? We do this not because we need to but because we must! Because if we let the Italians win they will deny us every freedom, every liberty we have worked tirelessly to obtain.

The Italians if they triumph here will deny us even the right to breathe, their racialism and fascistic tendencies leads them ever onwards to try and loot and pillage the wealth of these lands. They view us as fit only for killing and subjugation. In their diplomatic communiques they adopt the tone of the high handed and civilized. All the while, however, they act as deceitful and brutal as the lowest savage warlord of yesteryear.

The Italians expect an easy victory, they expect this because the three prior invasions Italy has launched has been a war against not Ethiopia, but a war against the Monarchy. But this time the Italians are not at war with some distant monarch, no, they are at war with the people of Ethiopia itself. And I can tell you this, it will never be the Ethiopian people that break. The question is not if we can win, for that is assured. The question is for the Italians, how many lives will need to be lost and how much money spent in this doomed cause of theirs.

The last time the Italians tried to conquer this land they could only achieve true gains through the usage of inhuman and illegal chemical weapons. We warn Italy never to try these despicable and barbaric acts again, as we are just people, and we believe that Italy will receive its retribution in said justice.

My people, look upon this land, and gaze upon the shores and opportunities once we have dealt with the Italians and their puppets. We are not the monsters that the Italians claim, but to them we shall be worse than their worst nightmares. The Italians have after all stolen Eritrea from our fathers and now they intend to steal Ethiopia itself. But know that as you walk under the Ethiopian banner, that you are protected by it, because the banner is held aloft by all the millions of Ethiopians. And we are not afraid, fear is born of uncertainty, we fear nothing because our purpose is clear and our path is certain. The Italians call us tyrants but their coming here has done nothing but prove themselves to be agents of tyranny. Are they Self appointed defenders of justice? For what right do they have to tell us how to live? What authority do they have over our very lives? We are a free people and we will command our lands and our families as we see fit! We, Ethiopians have always been a resilient people: we toil while others complain, we persevere when others give up and when evil stares us in the eyes we stare right back!

Hardship and sorrow add focus and give one’s existence meaning. We will help the Italians find meaning. With our hands we built this country up from nothing, our sweat and blood is as much a part of this land as the air we breathe, and the Italians think they can take it away from us? They are either fools or madmen! There is no understanding without weapons, there can be no dialogue without bloodshed. The Italians will be made to understand and that knowledge will be paid for, with their lives! The Italians come into our home under the auspices of liberty and freedom, killing and pillaging in the name of their laws and then dare lecture us on morality! They will be held accountable for their crimes, this I swear to you! The Italians speak of innocence but in war there are no innocents. The Italian public support their leaders, they elect them into power and they send their children to fight against us. They are all guilty and as any civil nation will agree: the guilty must be punished! As before, we stand alone, but we stand as one – united. As the combined forces of the Italian Alliance rises against us, we will stamp them back down!

With cybernetics no longer being considered a taboo, bourgeois pseudoscience, the Soviet Union has been making leaps and advancements in computer technology, with pioneers such as Anatoly Kitov making gigantic leaps in cybernetics, creating systems for radars, ballistic missiles and other military applications. While cybernetics have been primarily focused on military affairs, many researchers and scientists have been touting the civilian applications of such technologies as well.

With this in mind, the Politburo of the PZPR has decided to found a state-owned computer company, and will allocate state resources towards the development and creation of computing in Poland. At the request of the PPR, the CCCP has authorized a limited technology-sharing program with the Poles. While limited resources will be allocated to the Polish company, the invaluable technical knowledge the Soviets have amassed over the last few years will be indispensable to the Polish company, which will get a significant head start, coupled with their own technological developments domestically.

This change has marked a start shift in policy, especially since the early 50s, where cybernetics were not as widely accepted in the CCCP as they are today. The cooperation between the CCCP and PPR will ideally create a competitive advantage in the Eastern Bloc, and create new technologies which are not available in Western nations. This cooperation is also planned to bring significant technological leaps to other COMECON nations.

“I call upon The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to respect the charter of the United Nations, of which it is a critical founding member, and bring forth its disputes with the Republic of Egypt and Syrian Arab Republic to that body for mediation and ultimate resolution.”

“The United Kingdom's decision to pursue the use of military force against Egypt and Syria contravenes the United Nations charter as well as international rules and norms. It has raised the specter of a much greater war, the horrors of which have not been seen since 1945, and undermines peace and prosperity around the world.”

“The international system only works at persevering peace when all countries, great and small, security council members and the newest states respect one another and the institutions that have been established to provide for peace.”

“We cannot afford another Second World War.”

“The United Kingdom should withdraw from Egypt and Syria immediately and pursue other means of resolving this dispute.”