The American Monarchy

[Lief 🗽]

If it isn't too much work for you, could you tell me who are the current councillors from Upper Columbia, Madison, Winnipeg, Ontario, Quebec, NB, and Nova Scotia?

Who is Governor of Ontario? Quebec?

Thanks

Royal Councilor:
UC: W. A. C. Bennett (Lib)
      A member of the conservative wing of the Liberal party, and former Premier of the state.
MN: Ted Gardland (SDP)
      SDP Senator in the 20s and 30s, who retired and ran for the Royal Council.
WG: William Irvine (SDP)
      A member of the SDP old guard, and former Senator. Retired from the Senate before the '47 election, and then ran for the Royal Council.
ON: Arthur Meighen (Lib)
      Has been serving in the Royal Council since the early 30s, and is seen as the de facto Liberal leader in the body.
QC: Maurice Duplessis (Lib)
      Served as Governor of Quebec from 1938-1952, when he ran for and won the Quebec Royal Council seat. His political machine continued to control the seat until the 1954 elections, when the SDP took control of the State House and defeated Duplessis' candidate in the Liberal gubernatorial primary.
NB: John B. McNair (Lib)
      Former Governor, McNair retired from electoral politics in the 30s to serve as an adviser to the king. After King Henry's death he ran for the NB Royal Council seat.
NS: Henry D. Hicks (Lib)
      A lawyer and former State Senator.

State Executive:
Ontario: Speaker Ted Jolliffe (SDP)
      The SDP won state elections in 1936, and have been in power since then, though Ontario remains Liberal on the national level.
Quebec: Governor Jean Lesage (Lib)
      Succeeded Maurice Duplessis, and defeated the Duplessis-backed candidate in the Liberal primary. Though the SDP gained the state house, Lesage has been able to work well with them.

Also, please no one ask me to do this for other states, because it takes hours.

[Lief 🗽]

Thanks for all the love, haha. Since I have some time, and I no longer have writer's block, I've decided to update this again. The format of my updates will be a little different though, somewhat inspired by some alternate histories I've read on the internets since I put this on unofficial hiatus. I'm kind of aiming for a sort of "scrap book" vibe, with excerpts from newspapers and books and documentaries and stuff from the alternate world I've made up. There'll still be all the politics and what have you, along with maps, but there'll also be more of a focus on world building, I guess you'd call it, and more biography about some of the big political figures. I'll still be picking up from where I left off though, in 1957.

So I should have an update by tomorrow, I think. And thanks again for all the encouragement.

[Lief 🗽]

The American Monarchy: 1957

If you had told your average American, twenty years ago, that the country was on the verge of the greatest social and political upheaval since maybe the War of Secession, they would have laughed you off as a kook. Henry Wallace—not “Pancho” but pretty damn close—was Prime Minister, an avalanche of very bipartisan, very groovy legislation was coming out of the Royal District, and for the first time since 1776, the Brits and us Yanks weren’t at each other’s throats. Sure, the world wasn’t perfect, but in America at least, it looked like the second half of the 20th century might turn out pretty good. And then some red North Africans went and screwed everything up.

-Editorial in Rolling Stone, January 1977


The revolution in Germany, though in the short term quite demoralizing for the Jihad, would eventually prove to be the turning point in our fight for independence. You see, in 1957 the Fascist Powers became increasingly afraid that the German uprising would be the beginning of a whole wave of revolutions. So, in January and February, Franco, Mussolini (who was quite senile by 1957), all of them, passed new laws, restricting freedom of speech and press and the freedom to peaceably assemble.

There is an Arabic saying that translates, not literally of course, but more or less, to “Do not hate misfortune, for maybe there is fortune for you in it.” Soon after these series of laws were passed, we came into contact with some young and very angry fellow believers in Algeria and Libya, and soon after that, we brought them into contact with the very generous Soviet regime. At the time I had no idea of this, as I was a grunt, a recruit, and this was all very high-level and secret. But by the end of the year my comrades and I would be in Algeria, fighting the imperialist oppressors.

-Frmr. President Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti, interviewed for the documentary Hammer and Crescent: Arab Socialism in the Land of Muhammad, 2005


ANARCHY IN NORTH AFRICA;
REBELS IN “FULL CONTROL” OF MAJOR CITIES,
ADMIT STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS
-The New York Times, July 9th 1957


Today our brave soldiers, led by General Charles de Gaulle, an upstanding and loyal member of the Party, a veteran of the Great War, and a Hero of the German War, have landed in the French department of Algeria, to aid the brave garrisons in their fight to defeat a number of communist terrorist groups. De Gaulle, as you listeners no doubt remember, was the brilliant commander who liberated Belgium and Netherlands from the Kaiser’s rule. He also played an integral part in conquering Berlin and toppling the Kaiser once and for all. General de Gaulle has promised to crush the illegal uprising and help the majority of patriotic French Algerians in restoring order. Long live His Majesty, King Henri! France above all!

-From a translated French state radio broadcast, July 11th, 1957


SOVIET PREMIER ADDRESSES LEAGUE OF NATIONS,
DENOUNCES “HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES” IN N. AFRICA
-The New York Times, July 19th, 1957


Henry,

I must once again implore you to lead the Senate in taking some action with regards to the North African situation. Every day I read in the papers of new reports of French or Italian or Spanish atrocities. I know you have your apprehensions about aiding, even indirectly, the Soviets (and Soviet Premier Rakosi getting in front of the League last week has made it clear that they are very much on the side of the rebels), but it’s imperative that we don’t sit idly by. I’m also going to try and talk with Senator Adlai Stevenson, and see if the Liberals can be brought around on this issue as well.

-Letter from His Majesty King Robert III to Prime Minister Henry Wallace, dated July 27th, 1957

[Lief 🗽]

thoughts, comments, etc?

[Lief 🗽]

Whose side to intervene on is a pretty difficult question. Neither fascism nor authoritarian communism is really that great of an option. The ACU and the FLP are both very isolationist, and there are large non-interventionist segments in the Liberals and SDP as well. As for your Maryland question, I'll have to answer that later when I have more time. But here's an update!


CHET HUNTLEY: Turning to the situation in North Africa…

RICHARD NIXON: Uh, yes, yes…

HUNTLEY: Well, as both Deputy Leader of the Liberals and Shadow War Secretary, I’m curious if your party has any response to the very serious conflict currently going on over there.

NIXON: I think it would be, uh, improper to speak for Party Leader Stevenson or for the party as whole, that isn’t for me to say, but I’ll tell you what I know. I know that the age of brutal, heavy-handed colonialism is fast coming to an end. I know that backwards and authoritarian regimes, like those you find in France, Spain, Italy, and Portugal must realize that they cannot preserve this system at gunpoint.

HUNTLEY: So what should the United States do?

NIXON: Well, I would suggest, Mr. Huntley, that we monitor the situation and keep all options on the table.

HUNTLEY: Does that include using the military, sir?

NIXON: All options must be kept on the table.

-From Richard Nixon’s famous interview on the ABC Evening News, August 18th, 1957


My staff liked to joke that I was an “egghead”, this caricature of a bureaucratic, boring old academic. So after the Nixon interview, they were rather surprised that I was yelling and cursing and slamming doors shut. I was furious though. Nixon had pulled the rug from right up under us. I was carefully deliberating the issue, with His Majesty, my advisors, the cabinet, and then Nixon goes on the Evening News, practically declares war on the Tripartite powers, and suddenly we have phone calls and letters from the grassroots all over the country in support of the guy. The response forced our hand, and Wallace’s, and soon the Senate would pass the aid bill.

I would have loved to get rid of him, but he was without a doubt the most popular Liberal Senator. I often think that if I had sacked him, right then and there, I might have been Prime Minister in ’58. Then again, maybe I would have lost even worse. The Liberal grassroots loved him fanatically, right up until the end.

However, the election was still a year off in August 1957. After his speech, the Soviets (and the rebels in Africa) became significantly more aggressive. Soviet troops began massing along the Italian border and rebellion would soon spread to Italian-controlled Ethiopia.

And then the Russians detonated their first atomic bomb. The world was falling apart—but at least, remarked one of my interns (a man by the name of Patrick Buchanan), Wallace’s poll numbers were still dropping. I got a macabre little chuckle out of that. Later on I would have to fire the kid, after he wrote some nutty far-right memo and circulated it around my office. He is still in politics though, and from what I am told he’s something of a big shot working for the man serving as Prime Minister as I write this book.

-From A Man from Libertyville, Illinois: The Autobiography of Adlai Stevenson, 1968


The Senate today approved the African Economic Aid Act after weeks of contentious debate. The act, expected to easily pass through the Royal Council, will authorize His Majesty to send a small contingent of American ships to North Africa to distribute aid, provided they act in a neutral manner.

Hawks in the Senate, led by Liberal Senator Richard Nixon of California, had pressed for the United States to intervene militarily. Senators in the American Christian Union and Farmer-Labor Party had bitterly opposed any intervention. The final bill was a compromise drafted largely by Wallace and the Social Democratic leadership.

As the bill was debated, it was forcefully condemned by both the Tripartite Pact and Soviet bloc, both of whom have accused the United States of meddling in other nations’ affairs.

-From the ABC Evening News, September 26th, 1957


Voting on the African Economic Aid Act by Party
SDP: 161 Ayes, 73 Nays
Lib: 81 Ayes, 56 Nays
ACU: 1 Ayes, 55 Nays
FLP: 12 Ayes, 37 Nays
Total: 274 Ayes, 222 Nays

-From the Congressional Record


SENATOR MCCARTHY BOLTS FROM FLP
The Senator announced his resignation from the party today, attributing it to the passage of the African Aid Act. He plans to run for re-election as an independent, in opposition to what he calls the “dangerous interventionist” policies of both the Liberals and the SDP/FLP coalition.

-From the Star Tribune, September 27th, 1957


When the Aid Act passed, I was still a staffer with Stevenson; the Pinko hadn’t fired me yet for trying to expose the truth of the Nig...um, militant black problem. I was a Liberal at the time because my father and my mother were Liberals. Good, upstanding Americans, even through the 30s, when their friends and neighbors turned to the communists and elected Villa and Thomas. But during the debate on the Aid Act, while I was taking notes for Stevenson in the Senate chamber, one of the ACU Senators started talking and I thought, “You know, this guy makes a heck of a lot of sense.” That man was George Wallace.

His entire party voted against the act, but not him. You see, back then, the ACU was still full of limp-wristed isolationists, who thought it was just fine to hide in our homes while the whole world was turned against us. But Wallace, see, he knew. He was a first termer, elected from Mississippi, in a by election actually, so that might as well have been his first real Senate speech. He got up in front of the Senate and he said, if America does not lead, then the world will turn to fascists or communists or maybe even the Brits again, and liberty and justice, all those uniquely American values, would die out.

I didn’t officially leave the Liberal Party until ’61, when that traitor Stevenson fired me. But after hearing Wallace speak, and seeing him cast the lone ACU vote for the act, watered down thought it might have been, in my heart I knew I wasn’t a Liberal anymore. Of course, I was never a follower of the ACU either. No, I followed one man, and one man alone: Senator George C. Wallace.

-Patrick Buchanan, interviewed for the documentary Right From the Beginning: The Life of Patrick Buchanan, 2002

[Lief 🗽]

What's the scoop on Portugal at the present time (in your timeline, so the late 50s)?  (And could you give a brief rundown on its history?)  Is/has António de Oliveira Salazar reigning/reigned as dictator?  Is Portugal alligned with the Tripartite Pact (Italy, France and Spain).  Is Portugal alligned with England?  (The Anglo-Portuguese Alliance signed in 1373 is still enforced today OTL although Portugal didn't enter WWII and entered WWI rather late in the game IIRC.)  Did it take part in the last big war?

Salazar came to power roughly at the same time and with the same circumstances as in our history, and Portugal signed on to the Tripartite Pact after the 1943 German War. They've committed troops to fighting the insurgency in Africa, as they too have African colonies, and are worried of losing them. Both Britain and Portugal have pretty much ignored the Anglo-Portuguese treaty and are really focused on different things: Britain on its empire in Asia and the Pacific (and Africa, to an extent) and Portugal on Europe.

Is Germany largely a puppet state of France as suggested in your last world map or has Italian influence grown since Italian troops were largely involved in putting down the German revolution?  Or could you have used any of France's, Italy's or Spain's colors as an outline for Germany to show its puppet state status, and just chose France's.  What if any efforts did Hungary engage in during that uprising?  I forget whether the revolutionaries were communists (or at least not anti-authoritarian socialists) or of a liberal democratic nature (in which case Hungary might not have seen them as worth provoking the fascist alliance.  How are relations between Italy, France and Spain and any other not clearly puppet regimes largely alligned with them?

Germany is under mostly French and Italian influence, depending on where in the country you are, though there are also some Spanish and Portuguese troops stationed there. The German government is a very decentralized federal system, with only nominal central control from the capital. Tripartite soldiers occupy most of the country. Regarding Hungary, they were widely believed to have behind the uprising, at least in part. Both alliances engage in propaganda activities against one another, funneling money and support to resistance movements and the like. Relations between the four fascist powers are relatively good. Each leader mostly deals with his own domestic matters, though they do coordinate quite a bit on military things. There's some resentment in the Iberian countries against France and Italy, who are seen as very aggressive and militaristic and sort of poking their noses into places they shouldn't be and starting trouble, while Franco and Salazar would prefer to just rule and defend their countries.

I prefer the old format personally but I really like the whole thing about George Wallace.

Oh yeah, I have big plans for old George (and by extension, Mr. Buchanan).

[Lief 🗽]

Great updates Lief. You've proven once again why this timeline along with Fluke of the Gods are the biggest influences on my writing.

Thanks man. It's cool to know that people are influenced by what I write.


Prime Minister Eden announces plan for gradual “decentralisation” of the Empire
Australia, New Zealand, South Africa to be recognised as autonomous states
Eden promises to “work towards” Indian home rule

-The Times, February 9th, 1958


The Eden Declaration, as it is now known, was an insult to us. The Prime Minister certainly had much to say about China, and India, and Australia, but did he say a single word about the Middle-East or Africa? No! It was then that I knew, though I was not yet twenty-one, that the British would only be driven out by force. Once our brothers in North Africa were liberated, we would have to turn our eyes back to Arabia.  Of course, the struggle in North Africa would continue into the 60s. In ’58, if I recall, the Fascists had made major gains. De Gaulle, “The Butcher” we called him, had been rather effective. But we knew that our Jihad was just and righteous, and we continued on.

-Frmr. President Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti, interviewed for the documentary Hammer and Crescent: Arab Socialism in the Land of Muhammad, 2005


HAWAII TO BECOME 55TH STATE
-The New York Times, June 3rd, 1958


I was in Hawaii, at the statehood celebration with the king and Prime Minister Wallace when we were first told of the incident. I was eating lunch when an aide rushed into the room. “Senator Stevenson, Senator Stevenson”, he was yelling, “We’re at war sir!” The aide was just a kid, so I forgave him his hyperbole. He was, though, by and large correct. American men were dead, we would later found out an American destroyer had sunk, and suddenly the whole expedition was over with.

That evening we were briefed and I was told the story that will one day be in every American history textbook, under the bold heading “The Maddox Incident.” The Maddox, a destroyer outside Algiers aiding in supplying the city, had triggered a French naval mine. The resulting explosion, which would sink the ship, was thought to be an attack by other American ships, which then opened fire on the harbor. A skirmish ensued and a lot of lives were lost due to a stupid mistake.

After that, the public outcry was enormous. The public never really understood what we were doing there or why, so after they heard that Americans were dead, they wanted out, immediately. Secretary of State Glen Taylor had to fly to France, to apologize. The King withdrew most ships from the Mediterranean. And a few weeks later Prime Minister Wallace would announce that he would not be running for re-election, and called for fall elections.

-From A Man from Libertyville, Illinois: The Autobiography of Adlai Stevenson, 1968


UNITED STATES TAKES THIRD PLACE IN FOOTBALL WORLD CUP
DEFEATS FRANCE 4-2; BRAZIL TO FACE ITALY TOMORROW
-New York Times, June 28th, 1958


October election could go either way

The numbers for the coalition Social Democratic Party/Farmer-Labor Party governing coalition have, for much of the year, been rather poor. However, following Wallace’s announcement that he would be resigning as Party Leader following the Maddox Incident, it looks like the coalition’s numbers have rebounded. Some have also speculated that the American football team's strong showing has helped the government's poll numbers.

During the fall campaign season, the SDP/FLP will need to keep its base energized. Many of the FLP’s traditionally dovish supporters were turned off by their party’s role in the African Aid Act. The SDP, no matter who is eventually elected as the new party’s leader, will need to vigorously and forcefully defend its economic, social and foreign record.

The Liberals, meanwhile, face another bitter convention fight. Already, Deputy Leader Richard Nixon, the conservative from California, has indicated that he will challenge Senator Stevenson for the leadership. Rumors abound that Royal Councilor Prescott Bush of Connecticut, the unofficial leader of the progressive wing of the Liberal Party, will also challenge Stevenson. Either one of the three men could emerge victorious. No matter who wins, however, the Liberals will likely seek to focus the debate on foreign rather than economic policy, where they are seen to have an advantage.

-Editorial in The Capital Post, July 1958

[Lief 🗽]

Ernest:

You're right that the history in my timeline would mean that Mr. Maddox could not have come to prominence in the same he did in our timeline. Perhaps Mr. Maddox did something similarly noteworthy during his time in the armed forces in the mid-19th century, or perhaps the ship is named after a wholly different man with the surname Maddox. It's not, after all, that uncommon a last name.

Historico:

Robert E. Lee (King Robert I) married into the royal family through marriage with Princess Maria, the daughter of King George II (George Washington's (King George's) adopted son). So their sons, King William and King Robert II would be the first divergences.

I'll try to talk about African-American history and civil rights issues more in later installments, as they'll become rather important. Neither party is really going to nominate or try to nominate an African-American for Prime Minister for a while. The SDP got by with a Catholic (in Villa) a little earlier than we did in our time line, but the United States also has a larger Catholic population than in our timeline, with the addition of Cuba, Sonora, Lincoln, Hamilton, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, so it's not so much a taboo. Black voters generally support the SDP, especially in the South (when they can vote) and in urban areas, though the Liberals get a fair chunk (30-40%).

Rocket technology has been pushed back a little bit, mostly because the Germany of the 1930s and 1940s, has been in pretty poor shape, facing recurring budget crises through the 30s and under military occupation since 1943. Most of the German scientists and physicists left after the invasion for Britain or the United States (and a handful to Russia or Hungary). Technology is probably about 5-10 years behind our own, for two main reasons: First, there was never a large scale, truly global second world war that would have necessitated technological development, and, somewhat related to the first point, the world is pretty fractured and multipolar, with a number of competing blocs (the British, the Americans, the Russians, the Soviets, the Fascists), which means that the technological advances that do happen are not easily traded and do not easily spread. That said, a major plank of the Liberal platform in the next election will be establishing a space program.

[Lief 🗽]

SECRETARY OF STATE GLEN TAYLOR WINS PARTY LEADERSHIP

Secretary of State Glen Taylor of Lakota was elected to be his party’s standard bearer heading into the October election last night on the first ballot. With the support of five hundred and four delegates out of a total of one thousand, Mr. Taylor, widely seen as the establishment pick and supported by Prime Minister Wallace, defeated challenges from Senators Tommy Douglas of Madison and Walter Reuther of Michigan, as well as Speaker Frank P. Zeidler of Wisconsin.

After the vote had concluded, Mr. Taylor, in his acceptance speech, stressed the need to continue the important social and economic reforms of his predecessor. Mr. Taylor did not however touch on foreign affairs in his speech, despite having largely been in charge of them as Secretary of State. Polls have shown the government’s foreign policy to be increasingly unpopular.

-New York Times, July 24th, 1958


Going in to the convention, the Social Democrats had managed to close the gap in the polls and everything was tied up again, but I had bigger worries. In New York I’d be challenged from the right and the left, and no one wanted to vote for the plain old Midwestern moderate.

-From A Man from Libertyville, Illinois: The Autobiography of Adlai Stevenson, 1968


The two challengers for the Liberal leadership could not be more different. Senator Richard Nixon is a veteran of the Third Anglo-American War, while Royal Councilor Prescott Bush fought in the Great War. Nixon recounts his upbringing as a humble one, as he worked his way through college and law school. Bush, on the other hand, was born to wealthy industrialists, educated in expensive northeastern private schools. Nixon is a social conservative, and an economic protégée of the late Senator Robert Taft. Bush, meanwhile, is quite progressive and supports a woman’s right to abortion and some of the Wallace administration’s economic policies.

In between these two men sits the hapless Senator Adlai Stevenson, who, though well respected and the incumbent, has a shallow base of support. The convention will likely come to a battle between the left and right wings of the Liberal Party and either Nixon or Bush could emerge victorious.

-From Time Magazine, August 1958


The ’58 convention in New York was when I first realized the power of the conservative movement. For decades we had been told to shut up, sit down, and follow our progressive, liberal elitist masters. Bob Taft, a great American, had been backstabbed by these idiots, replaced with that out of touch big city politician Dewey, and we’d lost handily. That was ’51. Seven years later, the conservatives in the party were ready to take it back.

At the time I was still working for Stevenson, and it was thanks to him that I was even attending the convention in the first place. So I went through the actions, of course, holding up my big STEVENSON sign, cheering, but of the three candidates there, Nixon was the only one who wasn’t an idiot. So I didn’t feel too bad when my boss came in third place and dropped out on the first ballot. Of course, I was worried that that baby-killer from Connecticut would get the nod, but Nixon took care of him on the next ballot. And the rest is history, you could say.

-Patrick Buchanan, interviewed for the documentary Right From the Beginning: The Life of Patrick Buchanan, 2002


POLLS BETWEEN COALITION AND LIBERALS REMAIN CLOSE
-From The New York Times, August 30th, 1958


The Maddox Incident, as the media is now calling it, and its handling by the Wallace administration was one of the worst events in this nation’s proud history. Withdrawing from Africa, retreating with our tail’s between our legs as innocents die by the thousand… well, it was a humiliating retreat from the world stage and Glen Taylor and the Social Democrats should be ashamed!

[applause, cheering]

I’ll tell you this: when I am Prime Minister—

[cheers]

—when I am Prime Minister and the Liberals are back in the capital running things, we still restore America’s honor and we will make sure the march of democracy is not halted!

[cheers, applause]

-From a stump speech delivered in by Richard Nixon, September 1958

[Lief 🗽]

The fact that you guys are so fond of this that you refuse to believe that it'll never be updated again, to the point of threatening basically writing fan fiction extending my internet forum timeline, might just have convinced me to maybe update it again.

Maybe. I'm very busy with other things that need writing (things that actually affect my life and my future), but I'll try and devote some energies to this. I'll probably be using the format in the most recent updates, instead of the textbook format, just because I the new way is closer to entertaining creative writing than the very boring (after having written for a century and a half of history) textbook way of doing things. But there will be maps, because I like maps, you like maps, and elections suck without them.

Also I still think it's strange that Richard Nixon and other historical figures would even exist at this point in my timeline, after so much history has been changed, but maybe I can imagine that the Richard Nixon in this timeline is not our Richard Nixon or even named Richard Nixon, but has a similar sort of character and world view, and we only refer to him as Richard Nixon as a sort of shorthand to make the story readable and understandable.

Also I have to re-read stuff because I've forgotten most of what happened.

[Lief 🗽]

SOVIETS INVADE ITALY, GERMANY
-From The New York Times, September 12th, 1958


They attacked in the early morning. September the 12th. I still remember it. I was at my post, bored, smoking a cigarette, still depressed over the World Cup results, when I hear the sound of planes above me and the rumbling of tanks in the distance. Before I could report it, there were explosions, fire, smoke everywhere. The next few weeks were constant retreat. Before September ended we lost Venezia—eh, I guess they call it Velence now, right? Heh. Of course there was little the army could do. Before the Soviets invaded we were mostly focused in Libya and Ethiopia, or helping the French in their colonies, or “peacekeeping” in Germany.

And then, you know the Americans, they turn our fight into their politics.

-Saviero Esposito, interviewed for the documentary The European War of 1958, 2001


Nixon’s shtick—and you really only could call it shtick—about American honor and spreading democracy, all those vague platitudes, they had little effect on the campaign until the war in Europe broke out. Suddenly, somewhat unfortunately in my opinion, no one cared about the issues affecting them, the issues I was really passionate about, the issues I knew we could debate the Social Democrats on, head to head. Instead, every newspaper, every radio broadcast, every television broadcast, was WAR, WAR, WAR. And, just as suddenly as the war had begun, we had a double-digit lead in the polls.

-From A Man from Libertyville, Illinois: The Autobiography of Adlai Stevenson, 1968


Liberal Party: 42%
Social Democratic Party: 26%
American Christian Union: 14%
Farmer-Labor Party: 7%
Undecided/Other: 11%

-From Gallup nationwide poll results, released in late September, 1958


NED BROOKS: The election is tomorrow, in fact polls are opening in the North Atlantic in less than twenty-four hours. Who is going to be in charge of this country two days from now? Mr. Reuther, does the SDP have any chance?

WALTER REUTHER: Well my union’s going to be doing everything we can to turn out our members tomorrow, to deliver Glen Taylor the mandate he needs to keep this country on the right track. I think it’s shameful the way the media has hidden the real bread and butter issues of the campaign to gawk at the violence happening in Europe.

PRESCOTT BUSH: Excuse me sir, but that’s been precisely the problem with the SDP campaign. They seem content to stick their heads in the sand and ignore the international situation that they have so completely bungled! And now Europe is turning into a bloodbath. The American people are scared, and rightly so, and in these times of international turmoil they’re turning to the party of strength and leadership, and I believe we will see a large Liberal plurality or perhaps even majority tomorrow night. While the other parties were content to run away from the world, Nixon and the Liberals have from the beginning of the campaign presented a brave, pro-democracy foreign policy. And the American people are about to fully embrace it tomorrow.

-Meet the Press, October 5th, 1958


LIBERALS WIN PLURALITY IN THE SENATE
GAIN NEARLY ONE HUNDRED SEATS
-From The New York Times, October 7th, 1958


EUGENE MCCARTHY KEEPS SEAT
Senator McCarthy, after leaving the Farmer-Labor Party last year over its “dangerous” foreign policy, won re-election as an Independent yesterday, with fifty-eight percent of the vote, defeating Liberal and FLP opponents. He has indicated he will continue to caucus with the FLP.
-From the Star Tribune, October 7th, 1958


On election day, most pundits forecasted that the Liberals would win a comfortable 10-point popular vote victory over the combined SDP/FLP. When the results started coming in, however, it became clear that the SDP had closed the gap on Election Day, as the economy was still relatively strong, and most undecided voters broke to the SDP because of it. SDP numbers held up in the Liberal stronghold of the Northeast, as some moderates in the region were unwilling to vote for Nixon as Prime Minister, and Glen Taylor and the SDP were seen as a more moderate, safe choice. However, SDP numbers collapsed in the South, to the advantage of the Liberals and ACU. What doomed the SDP/FLP coalition were the results in the Midwest and West, however. The FLP’s base, still angry about its involvement (as part of the government coalition) in the government’s interventionist policy, didn’t turn out in sufficient numbers, causing the FLP to under-poll, its vote nearly dipping below the 5% threshold. By midnight, it had become clear that the Liberals had won, barely edging out the SDP/FLP with a plurality of +31 seats. The next day, Mr. Nixon would meet with Harry F. Byrd, the leader of the ACU, and negotiate a coalition agreement. Mr. Byrd, whose party had been out of government for nearly a decade, agreed, even promising to not oppose Mr. Nixon’s foreign policy, if his ACU had input on social and civil rights issues. Mr. Nixon agreed and announced his coalition cabinet in mid-October.


(shading based on percentage of seats won)

The Senate after the Election of 1958:
Liberal Party: 41.7% PV  (+11.9%) 
116 CS; 107 PLS; 223 Total Seats (+85)
Social Democratic Party: 33.6% PV (-11.6%)
86 CS; 86 PLS; 172 Total Seats (-85)
Farmer-Labor Party: 5.3% PV (-5.8%)
6 CS; 14 PLS; 20 Total Seats (-29)
American Christian Union: 17.3% PV (+4.1%)
 42 CS; 44 PLS; 86 Total Seats (+30)
Other Parties: 2.1% PV (+1.4%)
   1 CS; 0 PLS; 1 Total Seat
Total: 502 Seats

-From The American Encyclopedia of Politics, 2009

[Lief 🗽]

By the way, what are the Kennedys doing? It's hard to imagine Northern Catholics choosing between the Southern Protestant Party, the Northern Protestant Party, and the Western Protestant Party.

I haven't decided what to do with the Kennedy's but I doubt I'll make them very important. Presumably one or two of them were killed in the Anglo-American War.

Catholics, with the exception of French Catholics, mostly support the SDP.

Is Indiana a swing state in this tl?

At the moment, yes. The SDP has a historical base of support in the state since Eugene Debs, though that's beginning to weaken and the Liberals and ACU are finding success.

[Lief 🗽]

NIXON ANNOUNCES CABINET
FORMER LIB LEADER STEVENSON TO BECOME STATE SEC
-The New York Times, October 25th, 1958


The First Nixon Cabinet (October 1958):
Prime Minister: Richard Nixon (Lib-CA)
Deputy Prime Minister: Harry F. Byrd (ACU-VA)
Majority Whip: William F. Knowland (Lib-CA)
Secretary of State: Adlai Stevenson (Lib-IL)
Secretary of the Treasury: Fred A. Hartley, Jr. (Lib-NJ)
Secretary of Defense: Harry F. Byrd (ACU-VA)
Attorney General: James Eastland (ACU-MS)
Secretary of Agriculture & Food: Russell B. Long (ACU-LA)
Secretary of Labor & Industry: Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. (Lib-MA)
Secretary of Business & Commerce: John Diefenbaker (Lib-ON)
Secretary of Health & Welfare: Margaret Chase Smith (Lib-ME)
Secretary of Transportation & Infrastructure: A. Willis Robertson (ACU-VA)
Secretary of the Interior & Environment: Charles A. Halleck(Lib-IN)

-From The American Encyclopedia of Politics, 2009


Accepting Nixon’s offer to become Secretary of State was in no way easy. First of all, the man angered me to no end: he was a slick, western reactionary, and of course I still felt betrayed by the party after the convention. Looking back now, though it was the best and most fulfilling job I have ever had, though maybe if I had been Attorney General or Secretary of Defense, our nation wouldn’t be in this mess we are currently in. 

-From A Man from Libertyville, Illinois: The Autobiography of Adlai Stevenson, 1968


His Majesty brought me on to his team, as chief advisor no less, only a week before the Soviet bombs started dropping in Italy and Germany. Christ, I thought when I heard the news, what the hell have I gotten myself into? Of course, over the years, a lot’s been said about me… and His Majesty, a lot of lies and rumors and innuendo have gotten out. So I’d like to set the record straight here.

-Former Chief Advisor to King Robert III Robert McNamara, interviewed in the documentary Robert III, 2001
 

By November of 1958, combined Soviet forces had reached as far as the Po River in Italy. The advance was incredibly rapid, genuinely surprising both Soviet and Tripartite Pact leaders. However, in retrospect, the Soviet soldiers, at least through 1958 and 1959, were clearly the superior soldiers in training, equipment, leadership, and even numbers. French, Spanish and Portuguese troops did not start arriving in force in Northern Italy until December, as large numbers were tied up in Africa and Germany.

By January, the front had stabilized, and would remain roughly along the Po River until the spring, when a renewed Soviet offensive would begin. As winter stalemate ensued in Italy, and Soviet forces became bogged down in the mountains of Austria and southern Germany, the attention of both sides was turned to Africa. Soviet support for the rebel movements, which had been fairly covert through 1957 and early 1958, was redoubled after the war began, with Soviet troops taking beachheads on the Libyan coast in January of 1958. With beachheads secured, more troops (mostly from Hungarian allies and puppet states, with few of the more disciplined, more highly trained Hungarian units ever fighting in Africa) and more supplies for the rebels began arriving.

-From The Last Great European War, by Harry Hinsley


NIXON, HARTLEY RELEASE BUDGET

Prime Minister Richard M. Nixon and Secretary of Treasury Fred A. Hartley released the preliminary draft of the government’s budget today. The budget is considerably smaller than the budgets passed under former Prime Minister Henry Wallace. Many of the popular social programs enacted during Mr. Wallace’s governments will be retained however, including the national health insurance program.

“This budget, released today, calls for much needed cuts in wasteful spending, while also lowering the tax burden on American families and businesses,” Mr. Nixon said in brief remarks to the press.

“If we want the American economy to grow, if we want every American to have a job and every American family to own a home, the answer is not a government handout, but smart policies that promote responsibility and growth,” Mr. Hartley added in his own remarks. “This Liberal government aims to give Americans the tools necessary for economic success, but those tools don’t require crippling tax rates or an inefficient welfare apparatus.”

Opposition Leader Glen Taylor was quick to voice the disproval of both his party and the Farmer Labor Party to the new budget. Despite opposition protests, the budget is expected to pass within the next month.

-The New York Times, March 12th, 1959


While Nixon and Hartley were passing their budget back in the United States, I had been sent to Switzerland, to address the League of Nations and hopefully broker some sort of ceasefire. Both the Prime Minister and His Majesty had no desire for this conflict to spread out of control, and, frankly, none of us wanted either side, whether the fascists or the communists, to be in total control of the European continent.

There are probably some out there who blame me for killing the League. Let me assure you, dear reader, I had no desire to destroy the League of Nations. When I arrived there, it was clear that no one really believed in the institution anymore. The Hungarians accused me of “imperialist meddling” and a week later they and their allies—a significant bloc of states in a world where countries like the United States and Great Britain still own vast tracts of colonial lands—walked out. And a week after that the French and Italians and the rest of the Tripartite Pact were gone. After that, it was basically just us, the British and the Russians, and by the end of the year we had quietly dissolved the League.

After the disaster in Geneva, I refused to give up, so I flew straight to Rome. The war hadn’t yet reached the capital, so the city was still relatively peaceful. I was taken to meet with Mussolini, though I’m not sure why. It’s no secret by this point that the man was basically an invalid by then, kept alive with drugs and constant bed rest, while his incompetent and corrupt cronies plundered the treasury and ran the country into the ground. I met with some of the Italian government ministers, no one seemed to really be in control of the country, and I got on a plane for home.

-From A Man from Libertyville, Illinois: The Autobiography of Adlai Stevenson, 1968


Winter was a nice little rest, but later on we came to realize it was only the calm before the storm. Once the spring flowers had begun to bloom, the Soviet tanks and artillery and jet bombers began pounding our lines again, and we retreated once more. The reinforcements of our allies were helpful, yes, but the Soviets, they just kept coming. Then we began to hear word that the Soviets had landed in the South, at Bari and Taranto. Once I heard that, I knew that we had lost. And then Il Duce died. Heh, I was sure then that not only had we lost, but God himself had turned against us.

-Saviero Esposito, interviewed for the documentary The European War of 1958, 2001

[Lief 🗽]

lol, glad you guys enjoy it.