< World War II - The Ti of Upheaval (1) >
October 6, 1940
US East Coast, New York
The US Presidential Election was just around the corner on November 5.
After Washington, the first President of the United States, served two terms and retired, there was an unwritten rule that a US president would not run for a third term.
However, FDR (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) decided to break this tradition and run for a third term as war approached.
His actions were criticized from all quarters for undermining the tradition of democracy, but due to the special circumstances of warti, he was ultimately chosen as the Democratic Party's presidential candidate.
A significant number of Aricans, rather than risk the chaos of changing the administration in an unstable situation where war was engulfing the European continent, were thinking of electing FDR, who had proven his ability so far.
As the aftereffects of the Great Depression, which had seed to be easing due to the New Deal, gradually resurfaced, FDR's approval rating was not what it used to be, but it was still a ti when his election seed entirely possible.
An unexpected entity was creating a variable just ahead of the US presidential election.
In front of the crowd gathered in New York City's Central Park, a man was speaking with fervor.
"While everyone sings of the Arican Dream, the workers who built Arica's dazzling progress are naked and starving! Did the jobs promised by the President truly bring salvation to the workers? No!"
"Hear, hear!"
At the cry of the man, Martin Abern, the party leader of the Workers Party of the United States (WPUS), the crowd shouted with utmost enthusiasm.
"Look around you! While Arican workers are naked and starving, the munitions companies and conglorates are plotting to fatten their pockets by selling off supplies to a war-torn Europe!"
"The despicable bastards!"
In the original history, the United States played the role of a limited arms supplier in the early days of World War II, and with the election looming, Arica should have been secretly intervening in WWII, shaking off the effects of the Great Depression.
However, the altered history of World War II began in a way that made it look like a localized war centered around Germany, and the warti boom that the United States should have enjoyed was largely taken over by Britain.
That difference caused the effects of the New Deal to wear off earlier than in the original history, and the shadow of the Great Depression still lood large over the United States.
"While Arican workers suffer like this, FDR makes no secret of his intention to secretly intervene in that war in Europe! If Arica enters the war, it is the workers who will spill their blood all over Europe, just like in the last great war!"
The crowd grew ever more indignant at Abern's cry.
"They emphasize patriotism under the pretext of serving the fatherland, but we all know the truth! What reward did those who shed blood and fought for their country and its allies in the last great war receive!"
Abern, after capturing the crowd's attention, deliberately paused before speaking.
"Sixty dollars! The only reward the governnt gave to the war veterans was a re sixty dollars! Even those who fought in the Revolutionary War received more than that! While Arica rose to beco a great power after the last war, that's all that remained in the hands of the people who were its foundation!"
The crowd responded to Abern, showering the governnt with jeers.
"They are the ones who pacified those protesting the unjust treatnt with promises of a future bonus pay, and then, as they were dying in poverty during the Great Depression, they browbeat them, saying they couldn't pay, and finally crushed them with the military! They are the politicians of Arica, who claim to be the heart of liberal democracy!"
The Bonus Army incident, where veterans of the last great war and their families, unable to bear the poverty of the Great Depression, gathered to protest for their promised bonus pay, only to be labeled as commies by the Herbert Hoover administration and crushed by the military, was still fresh in the mory of Aricans.
"The Democratic Party is no different! Roosevelt, who sent the First Lady to appease the people, stood firm against paying the bonus, even after hundreds died in a hurricane at the jobs he gave them instead!"
"Roosevelt is no different!"
"The Arican political scene is rotten!"
Aricans, who had suffered from the effects of the Great Depression for a long decade, were exhausted.
"Why should the workers who achieved Arica's dazzling developnt be treated like this! Why should they live in shanty towns because they can't find jobs, and be sacrificed for the interests of politicians and businessn who live in luxury!"
The nation of Arica had beco a great power, but the Aricans who were alienated amidst the extre wealth gap and the Great Depression needed soone to bla.
"It is because the Arican Communist Party, which should be fighting for the rights of workers more than anyone, is nothing but a puppet of that degenerate workers' state, the corrupt Soviet Union!"
At this point, a slight murmur arose.
"We must change this situation where the blood and sweat of the workers only serve to fatten the pockets of the haves! The workers of Arica need a true representative!"
But a significant number did not care and shouted that he was right.
"Bolshevism-Leninism is the true alternative to that corrupt capitalism! The Workers Party of the United States stands with you! Workers of all Arica, unite!"
Leon Trotsky stood in a corner of the rally, watching the scene as so shook their heads and others cheered at the speech of his follower, Martin Abern.
Max Shachtman and Jas Burnham, who had once assisted him alongside Martin Abern, were no longer there.
His supporters in the Soviet Union had all disappeared in the Great Purge, and Trotsky was soberly aware that he no longer had the power to overthrow the Soviet Union.
When he was expelled from the Soviet Union he had built with Lenin and wandered from place to place, even the United States, which he thought was the optimal environnt for communism to flourish due to its highly developed capitalism, rejected his request for asylum.
He had chosen to live in seclusion in xico.
But in retrospect, communism was an ideology far removed from things like legal struggle from the very beginning.
Trotsky, who had nearly been killed by Stalin, finally ca to his senses, and his anger towards Stalin made it unbearable for him to remain a re communist who had lost a power struggle and faded into obscurity.
He wanted to be rembered in history as a communist as great as Lenin.
So, before his death, he sought to leave a legacy by illegally entering the United States and gathering his few remaining followers.
Not only was Arica a place where many of his followers remained, but it was also the country with the potential to beco the greatest communist nation, one that could overco the limits of the Soviet Union, which had degenerated into a workers' state surrounded by enemy nations.
Of course, Trotsky himself was skeptical whether this would imdiately turn the United States into a communist country.
But if, on the corpse of the great Arican capitalism that would one day be consud by its own contradictions and collapse, the seed he planted could blossom into the most brilliant fruit of communism…
That would be the proof that his Bolshevism-Leninism was superior to the corrupt and decadent bureaucratic communism of that degenerate workers' state, of Stalin.
The old man, once a hero who had organized the Red Army and was considered Lenin's heir as the most zealous of communists, engraved into his mory the future communists who would beco his legacy, his eyes blazing.
-
October 6, 1940
Washington D.
C., Capital of the United States - The White House
US President FDR faced his Vice President with a tired expression.
Trotsky's Workers Party of the United States and the Fourth International had not thrown the United States into great chaos or pushed it into a real communist threat.
Their organization was too ager, the period of their activity too short, and they did not have enough impact to shake the values of liberal democracy and capitalism that had been built up in the US over a long ti.
But their influence was sufficient to put Roosevelt, who was already challenging for a third term by breaking the unwritten rule set by the nation's founder Washington, to the test.
"The protests in New York are spreading, Mr. President. You must take so sort of action."
At the words of Vice President John Nance Garner, which sounded more like an interrogation, Roosevelt gave a bitter smile.
"What action do you want to take? Should I have the police forcibly disperse them? Or should I call in the military like the Republican Party suggests? Do you want a repeat of the Bonus Army incident?"
"They are not the veterans of the Bonus Army. They are subversive, dangerous elents and the malcontents who sympathize with them."
At the Vice President's retort, Roosevelt let out a small laugh.
"Just say commies."
"Yes, they're commies. If we leave them be, it will give a bad impression to the businessn who sponsor us."
"Even so, our governnt, which should be at the forefront of defending liberal democracy, cannot just brand its people, who are protesting out of suffering from the Great Depression, as commies and crack down on them."
The positions of President and Vice President of the Democratic Party were supposed to be like political partners, but the relationship between Roosevelt and Garner was far from good.
Unlike Roosevelt, who was supported by the northern states and the liberal class, Garner was supported by the southern states and the conservative class, and thus there was a considerable difference in their political philosophies.
Moreover, Garner was already full of dissatisfaction, as he had wanted to beco president this ti, only for Roosevelt to challenge for a third term, breaking the unwritten rule.
"According to the polls, your approval rating is not much different from the Republican, Wendell Willkie. If we continue to be a bystander to this situation until the election, there is no guarantee that we will win."
"I am well aware of that. I am thinking of counterasures, even without you coming at with your thorns out."
Hearing Roosevelt's words alluding to his nickna, 'Cactus Jack,' Garner's lips twitched, and he said,
"The election is not far off, Roosevelt. Rember that if things continue this way, we will have no choice but to consider other options."
After Garner left, Secretary of State Cordell Hull, who had been silent, spoke up.
"I suppose we'll have to give up on the loans and equipnt support for Britain and Germany."
"…I suppose we have no choice."
Roosevelt replied bitterly.
Although the election had not yet been held, Roosevelt had intended to indirectly support the Allied Powers who were fighting fiercely on the European continent.
But with the election just ahead, the Republican Party fiercely criticized the President for violating the Neutrality Acts, and the people, weary of the Great Depression, did not want to get involved in Europe's war.
As if that wasn't enough, the conservatives within the Democratic Party, led by Garner, were already in opposition, and with the machinations of the communists making the division with them apparent, it was now a completely lost cause.
Roosevelt, rubbing his eyes with a tired face, spoke with an exhausted air.
"It would be difficult to ask Eleanor to persuade the protesters this ti, wouldn't it?"
FDR's First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, had personally spent ti with the veterans of the last great war, the very people from the Bonus Army incident, when they were protesting for their bonus pay. She shared in their hardships and had them accept FDR's New Deal as compensation.
"The First Lady is a wonderful person, but I don't think the disgruntled workers will be placated by the sa thod twice."
Her great performance, compared to the Hoover Administration's harsh crackdown, had further boosted Roosevelt's support, but that too had begun to fade as the effects of the New Deal wore off.
But whatever the conservatives in the Democratic Party said, Roosevelt could not choose the option of forcibly suppressing the workers' protest now.
Not only did it go against his political beliefs, but it was also an act of kicking away the political assets he had built with his own feet.
Hearing Hull's words, Roosevelt let out a sigh and spoke.
"In Germany, which was ruled by the Nazis, the governnt that ca to power through a coup d'état confronted the people's protests head-on and achieved a rather democratic resolution instead of suppressing them. But here, the politicians of Arica, the very heart of liberal democracy, are calling for the forcible dispersal of protesters. It's quite a spectacle."
"Hmm, the German Vice-Chancellor's speech and his propaganda war through the public were certainly quite impressive, even to us."
Roosevelt nodded as well.
"It's to the point where I'd really like to et him. I can hardly bear my curiosity about whether the young man who appeared like a cot in Hitler's country and srized the people is truly a democratic fighter, or the seed of a dictator with a fancy exterior."
"Well, to do that, we must first solve the problem at hand.
Why don't you try to emulate him? You're a good speaker, aren't you?"
At Hull's half-joking, half-serious remark, Roosevelt also chuckled and played along.
"Oh my, I don't know if I'll end up losing face by trying to copy him."
-
Vice President John Nance Garner, after leaving the President's office and entering his own, paced the room with a very impatient look on his face, then picked up the telephone.
A mont later, when the call connected, Garner began to speak.
"It seems this won't do. Roosevelt has no intention of making a proper move. At this rate, the commies will only get more emboldened, and the Democratic Party will lose the election."
The extre anti-communism, McCarthyism, which would be unleashed by Joseph McCarthy to throw Arican society into chaos, had not yet occurred, but Arican society already contained its precursors.
And that was a useful ans for Garner, who held a sense of victimhood at having his place taken by Roosevelt and a sense of crisis that this would be his last chance to beco president.
"If we delay any longer, it will be irreversible. We must oust the disabled presidential candidate who is conciliatory to the commies and change our presidential candidate now."
The thought that splitting the Democratic Party right before the election would do no good was not in Garner's mind.
Or perhaps, even if it was, the low possibility that he might beco president was more appealing to Garner than the high possibility that Roosevelt, not he, would beco president.
In the eyes of the politician pushing for the unprecedented move of changing a presidential candidate right before an election, only the greed for power glittered.
The seed sown by an old man who held the belief that capitalism would eventually collapse and communism would blossom had, in a strange twist, divided the Democratic Party in the US Presidential Election.
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