United States of America

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The United States of America (USA), simply known as the United States (US), is a country located in North America. The contiguous US is bordered to the south by the United Mexican States, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the north by Canada, and to the west by the Pacific Ocean. Alaska, which is located in the northwestern part of North America, borders Canada to the east and shares a maritime boundary with the Japanese-occupied Aleutian Islands in the west, being separated by the Bering Strait. It should be noted that the Empire of Japan has two very small land borders with the USA, via the occupied shipping ports of Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The US is a federal presidential constitutional republic of 49 states, technically 50 [1], with the head of state and government being an elected president that serves for a term of four years, with the possibility of more if they are re-elected. The president in 1962 is Richard Nixon, a Republican who is almost a year into his first term. The second in command of the USA is the vice president who generally serves the same amount of time as the president. The vice president in 1962 is John F. Kennedy, a member of the Democratic Party.

Note that the president is the head of government as well, not the vice president. The vice president is responsible to the president not congress.

History

Pre-war and Great Depression (1929-1939)

The United States going through the 1920s was not too dissimilar from OTL. The Roaring Twenties, the Wall Street Crash, and the Great Depression occurred. During the 1932 Democratic National Convention, the Governor of New York Franklin D. Roosevelt emerged as a prominent candidate, putting his hat in the ring. He took to the stage, passionately arguing for the adoption of a New Deal, to stave off the effects of the Depression. Despite unfavourable comparisons to Premier Bukharin and his ill-fated New Economic Plan, Roosevelt won the election and assumed office on March 4th, 1933. When Roosevelt took office, the American economy was at rock bottom as the Great Depression gripped the nation; a quarter of the population was unemployed, and over two million people were homeless. Determined to revive the nation, Roosevelt initiated the New Deal in an attempt to fix the country's economy.

During his second term, Roosevelt faced a growing conservative backlash that viewed his New Deal as leading the United States down the same dangerous path as Russia. Afraid that another term might bring political ruin, Roosevelt decided not to run for a third term. Instead, he convinced the party to nominate his close friend and one-time Administrator of the Works Progress Administration, Harry Hopkins. To ensure his friend's election, Roosevelt tacked on to the center and made concessions to isolationists. Meanwhile, conservative Republicans, including Ohio Senator Robert A. Taft rallied behind the charismatic but inexperienced Manhattan District Attorney, Thomas E. Dewey[1]. Unfortunately for Hopkins he was diagnosed with stomach cancer and left bedridden. Despite his determined effort, with rumors swirling about his condition in the press, Hopkins narrowly lost to Dewey by less than 0.4% of the national vote. Thomas Dewey was inaugurated as the 33rd President on January 20th, 1941.

Dewey presidency and the Second World War (1939-1945)

Following his inauguration, President Thomas Dewey rewarded his isolationist backers by appointing many officials who were allied with Senator Robert A. Taft. He then embarked on a campaign of dismantling Roosevelt's New Deal, while his cabinet dismantled the United States' military capacity to avoid direct confrontation with the rising German Reich and Japanese Empire. Under Dewey's presidency, America watched as the fires of war consumed the world. That all changed on December 7th, 1941, a date that has lived in infamy. The United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. Seven battleships and two aircraft carriers were sunk by IJN planes, and the Pearl Harbor oil reserves were destroyed, crippling the US Pacific fleet. America, still struggling through the Depression and with a hampered military, was suddenly thrust into World War Two.

Thanks to Dewey's demilitarization policies, Japan was able to run roughshod throughout the Pacific because the US Navy was powerless to stop them. Critically short on ships and fuel, the Navy avoided engaging Japanese ships, while Japanese marines raised the Rising Sun over Midway and German shock troopers raised the Swastika over the Kremlin.

And then the unthinkable happened.

Just as the first American troops were arriving in Britain, German troops landed on the shores of England. German forces smashed through British defenses, seizing the south and west of the country with speed practiced in France and Russia. Under the command of General Eisenhower, American troops formed defensive lines alongside the last of the Allies. Americans, British, French, Belgians, Dutch, Polish, Soviets all held the line, but the German hordes poured in endlessly. When one Panzer was destroyed, two more would take its place. Allied pilots became aces in an hour and then a grave marker in the next. As the 1944 elections approached, Dewey's hopes for re-election were saved by Gen. Eisenhower's defense of Scotland, as well as a split in his opposition between the moderate party insider James Farley and Progressive Republican Henry Wallace. As Thomas Dewey entered his second term, the war effort continued to collapse despite Eisenhower's valiant defense of Scotland. By April 1945, preparations were being made to evacuate all remaining Allied troops from the British Isles.

President Dewey limped into a second term, and any remaining hope for an allied victory was dashed when, on July 4th, 1945, a flash of light in Hawaii destroyed Pearl Harbor, along with the remaining support for the war. The attack resulted in fifty thousand deaths and the destruction of a significant portion of the rebuilt Pacific Fleet, leaving the realization that the war could not be won. The very next day, on July 5th, President Dewey received word from New Mexico that the Manhattan Project had successfully tested a nuclear device. However, it was too little, too late. With the country unraveling, the President announced that night the United States would seek a conditional surrender with Japan and Germany.

In late August 1945, President Dewey signed the Official Peace Accords Ending the State of War Between the United States, Japan, and Germany, commonly known as the Akagi Accords, aboard the Akagi. These Accords required the United States to surrender the territory of Hawaii to Japan, along with almost all of its Pacific possessions under a 100-year lease. Additionally, Japan would have perpetual leases on the major ports and naval bases in Los Angeles and San Francisco. As part of the agreement, the US had to pay substantial reparations and lift its oil embargo on both Germany and Japan. While many Americans viewed this as an end to the war that had needlessly claimed so many lives, an equal number were enraged that the United States had suffered its first-ever defeat in history.

Post-war (1945-1962)

The Republican Party faced landslide defeat in 1946, but many Americans blamed the "socialistic" policies of Roosevelt for weakening America and making the war inevitable. The 1948 Election tested these attitudes, matching isolationist Republican Robert Taft against internationalist Democratic Dwight D. Eisenhower. Ike would win, but not before exposing deep dissatisfaction with the Establishment.

Ike attempted to complete Roosevelt's unfinished work.However, a rift with progressive Vice President Burton Wheeler over an intervention to defend Portuguese Angola from Germany sabotaged his presidency. In 1952, he only narrowly won re-election.

Ike's second term was disappointing. Wheeler proved unable to guide the Senate to popular policy and Eisenhower resorted to executive orders to pass his agenda. As dissatisfaction grew, a new Nationalist Party formed to support Gen. George S. Patton in 1952.

After Ike, the Establishment was unwilling to support his progressive Vice President Burton Wheeler. Instead Democrats nominated moderate Estes Kefauver while Republicans nominated moderate Everett M. Dirksen. The Nationalists and a revived Progressive Party became home for those disaffected by the mainstream.

Kefauver barely triumphed but the backlash was swift. In the midterms, dozens of new parties forced themselves on the ballot. Chaos reigned-with senators elected with a third of the popular vote and allegations of fraud and corruption.

The Nationalists, Progressives, and others realized they could vanquish the Establishment if they worked together. They formed an alliance of convenience, the National Progressive Pact, led by Progressive Scoop Jackson and States Rights leader James Fullbright. Republicans and Democrats, seeing an existential threat, formed a coalition of their own led by conservative Richard Nixon and liberal John F. Kennedy. During the 1960 election Nixon would go on to beat the NPP’s candidate Henry Jackson. Nixon would be inaugurated on January 20th, 1961

In 1960 President Kefauver tore up the Akagi Accords and resumed a total embargo against the Japanese Empire, as a result America and Japan are in a tense international standoff known as the Hawaiian Missile Crisis. With Japanese missiles on Hawaii, threatening the West Coast of the US. Vice-President Kennedy and Japanese Prime Minister Ino engaged in tense negotiations defusing the conflict and rolling back the doomsday clock. While Kennedy is being praised by the R-D core, Nixon is attacked for his lack of action on the issue.

List of presidents in the past 30 years

(Note that the president starts or continues his/her term from the inauguration on January 20th the following year after the November presidential election the previous year.)

Trivia

  • Despite Franklin D. Roosevelt never serving 3 complete terms (and thus, the 22nd amendment never being ratified), no presidential candidate that is electable under normal circumstances can serve more than 2 terms (the exceptions being candidates elected in 1968 or 1972, only because there is no content past 1972).
  • This is due to the fact that, prior to FDR, George Washington's 2 terms were the standard precedent set for every president to follow (while Ulysses Grant wanted to run for a third term, the Republican Party said no, citing Washington as an example).

Cultures:

Floridian, Dixie, Louisianian, Texan, Oklahoman, Native American, Old Immigrants, Mexican Americans, Old Americans, African-Americans, French-Louisianian, Appalachian, Frontier, Mormon, Missourian, Steel Belt, Midwestern, Tidewater, Mid-Atlantic, New Immigrants, New Yorker, New Englander, Asian American, Pacific Northwestern, Alaskan, Alaskan Native, Boricua


  1. ↑ President Kefauver tore up the treaty formulating the ceding of the ports and the islands of Hawaii to the Empire of Japan. By technicality, the United States has 50 states.
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