Basically this is a TL where most things that could have been better do go better compared to OTL after 1941. Stalin and Hitler both die in 1942 and the USSR is taken over by a more moderate faction led by a military junta while Germany is run by Goering who stops the genocide of Jews. The Allies are a bit more successful (for instance earlier D-Day) but the Soviets get bogged down and when the Allies enter Germany, it surrenders. In the East Japan surrenders before the atomic bombs are dropped or the Soviets invade Manchuria. Germany is united under a democratic government and Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Poland all remain free. In China the Nationalists win and Korea remains united. The United States less paranoid of a weaker Communism helps France strike a deal with Ho Chi Minh and a united India transitions to independence in a far more orderly fashion. Once the Cold War begins the Soviet Union finds itself with only a few allies and massively outgunned and overwhelmed. Without fear of Communism the CIA does not overthrow reformist politicians in Latin America and the Middle East. Decolonization does happen but far more slowly than OTL being pared with social and economic development. Scientists manage to identify HIV/AIDS in the 1950s and limits the spread of that disease. In the United States President Eisenhower builds a modern national railway system which helps prevent the decay of the inner cities and the white flight to the suburbs. Civil rights are achieved somewhat faster and black leaders on the whole are less radical than OTL. Without Vietnam, and urban riots the Hippie revolution is a curiosity comparable to that of the utopianists of the XIXth Century and the Sexual revolution on the whole is prevented. As a result in the US is more socially conservative with abortion remaining illegal although increasing affluence means that birth control is readily accessible for most married couples although birth rates do not fall below replacement level in the West. Some social legislation is achieved far ahead of our OTL for instance universal health care being enacted in the 1960s but welfare programs are more limited. Incidentally America sees more immigration from Asia (due to liberal immigration laws) while relatively less from Latin America. The space race is won by the Americans with a satellite in 1954, a man on the Moon in 1967, and a man on Mars in 1975. The Cold War ends in the mid 1970s with communism being overthrown peacefully although the Soviet Union transitions into a democratic Union of Eurasiatic States. China’s economy booms through the 1960s and '70s, thirty years ahead of reality. Technology continues to advance far ahead of OTL with earlier Internet and bases on Moon and Mars. By 2010 world population is around eight billion.
Presidents and Vice Presidents of the United States of America.
Harry Truman/Alban Barkley (Democratic) 1945-1953
Dwight D Eisenhower/Richard Nixon (Republican) 1953-1961
Richard Nixon/Henry Cabot Lodge (Republican) 1961-1969
Robert F Kennedy/Henry M Jackson (Democratic) 1969-1977
Henry M Jackson/Lloyd Bentsen (Democratic) 1977-1981
George HW Bush/Bob Dole (Republican) 1981-1989
Al Gore/Dick Gephardt (Democratic) 1989-1997
Dick Gephardt/Joe Lieberman (Democratic) 1997-2001
My understanding is the hippie movement was also born out of the economic security that came from the 1960s. The hippie generation was supposedly the first that could spend years doing self exploration and not have to worry about having enough money to eat and live (because decent paying jobs were plentiful back then). So even w/o vietnam there still would’ve been a cultural revolution. Also Strauss & Howe predicted a cultural revolution during this period too.
A lot of this seems based on the idea that w/o communism everything would’ve worked out better. I really don’t know. Communism was a push for economic justice and anti-colonial nationalism and it provided (at least somewhat) an alternative to the plutocratic rule that ran much of the world. I don’t know what would’ve or could’ve replaced that during the last century because those impulses would still exist.
Maybe w/o the distraction of communism vs capitalism it would’ve been easier to push reforms. Because in our timeline any reform can be labeled ‘communist’ and attacked. The civil rights movement, labor movement, gay rights movement, women’s rights movement, environmental movement, etc. have all been labeled communist plots by at least some people.
But if communism never existed would that have made those movements better or worse? I really don’t know.
Good point. It’s not capital itself that makes our system stronger and it’s not the social contract that makes communism weaker; the key difference is that our system contemplates opposing viewpoints struggling against each other and provides a mechanism for some degree of political change to result from this competition.
In completely stifling opposing viewpoints and not permitting one iota of political change, communism (as practiced to date) stultifies and ultimately paralyzes itself.
But that stems more from power structures and peoples’ expectations than from universal health care or long lines for toilet paper.
It would almost have to be a better timeline than our own - basically nothing bad happens in complete and utter opposition to pretty much all of human history. What’s not to like?
You seem right about that. However still without Vietnam the Hippies should make less of an impact.
My personal opinion is that communism poisoned American opinion about reformist movements in Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East which is why in this world such reformist movements are not overthrown by American backed coups.
Even better, he should build the railroad in a race against a steam-powered hammer to demonstrate that machines can never replace the can-do of a hard-working man.
A proposal such as this is almost impossible to evaluate. Instead of one or two specific changes to dwell upon, you’ve given us dozens, quite a few of which would not naturally follow each other in real life. Your thoughts on what the “hippie movement” consisted of and what their influence was is naive, and you seem to think that American presidents have the power of kings.
As I see it, the big plus in this timeline is that tens of millions of Chinese, Russian and other peoples don’t have to die (and hundred of millions more suffer) under communism.
Unfortunately, without that vivid example of inhuman failure, *even more *misguided souls will spend their alternate-timeline lives arguing that “real communism hadn’t been tried yet.” So you’re probably just postponing the reckoning to some later decade/century.
Without a fear of Communism, the U.S. space race would have proceeded MUCH more slowly, not more quickly. While a few visionaries anticipated the economic potential of satellites, most of advances of the 50’s and 60’s were driven by fears that the Soviets would seize the “high ground” and use that advantage to dominate the United States. (The Soviets, of course, were driven by similar fears.)
Without exaggerated Cold War tensions to spur missile research, I doubt we would have launched our first satellite before the late 60’s. The first man in space would have followed sometime in the 70’s or 80’s. We still wouldn’t have a man on the Moon – that was an extreme stunt that pushed the technology of the day right to its limits. There’s no way it ever would have been green-lit without the fear of the Russians to goad Congress into blowing that much money.
I don’t think you’ve fully explored the effects of not nuking Japan. One of these effects would be the benefits the US has derived from being the only country to nuke another country (i.e., a very blatant demonstration of “don’t tread on me”). Also, surely Japan would have been a different place post-war if several thousand of its citizens weren’t killed and two of its cities weren’t destroyed.
Also who knows how the US economy would’ve panned out post WW2 if Japan, Germany and to a lesser degree France & Germany had not been bombed and demolished (because Hitler & Stalin died in 42), giving the US a head start in fields like manufacturing.
Out of curiousity, why did Robert Kennedy get elected President in 1968? He didn’t have a record of having served as Attorney General in his brother’s administration and there was no Vietnam War issue to propel him into public notice.
Japan is still carpet-bombed and is forced to do an unconditional surrender by the Americans. For that matter most people know how devestating biological weapons would be although it has never been used it combat.
The Kennedy political family is still in existence and both Joseph Jr. (who’d probably survive in this world) and John suffered from miscellaneous problems (aligations of anti-Semitism for instance) to be a nationally safe choice.
Israel and Palestine both became independent states with Jerusalem as a jointly held city. There is still some violence but overall things are calmer.
What is the purpose of this exercise, again? You ask us if the world you’ve invented would be a better place, but if we see a problem , you immediately add a new scenario that supposedly takes care of the problem. We cannot evaluate your scenario accurately if you keep revising it.