lordroel
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Post by lordroel on Apr 24, 2018 15:17:50 GMT
Now this is a hard decision. At this time, with the current political situation, going for a full war will be difficult and incredibly expensive. The Vietnam trauma is still too recent. But not acting also isn't much of an option. Not with communists on the border. It would be political dynamite. Kennedy would lose his base for the upcoming election. He is stuck and about to get major distracted but this time without the hand of Moscow. I wonder what would have happen if the generals got what they wanted and had boots on the ground and increase B-52s missions. Vietnam X10 from the Rio Grande to the Panama Canal! Is Vietnam X10 not better still than the war that is almost here. |
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lordbyron
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Post by lordbyron on Apr 24, 2018 17:31:58 GMT
Even if Kennedy did that and it went well (which it wouldn't), he'd still get the blame for doing basically nothing beforehand and would lose in a landslide...
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Ted Kennedy will probably be remembered as not just the worst US president, but one of the worst leaders of all time before this TL is through...
Hell, his successor will probably be remembered as one of the better presidents...
Waiting for more...
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lordroel
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Post by lordroel on Apr 24, 2018 17:38:45 GMT
Even if Kennedy did that and it went well (which it wouldn't), he'd still get the blame for doing basically nothing beforehand and would lose in a landslide... I've said it before and I'll say it again: Ted Kennedy will probably be remembered as not just the worst US president, but one of the worst leaders of all time before this TL is through... Hell, his successor will probably be remembered as one of the better presidents... Waiting for more... War time presidents always do good in the polls, especially if the mange to win the war. |
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James G
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Post by James G on Apr 24, 2018 17:57:10 GMT
It would be political dynamite. Kennedy would lose his base for the upcoming election. He is stuck and about to get major distracted but this time without the hand of Moscow. Vietnam X10 from the Rio Grande to the Panama Canal! Is Vietnam X10 not better still than the war that is almost here. That is true in a way. Even if Kennedy did that and it went well (which it wouldn't), he'd still get the blame for doing basically nothing beforehand and would lose in a landslide... I've said it before and I'll say it again: Ted Kennedy will probably be remembered as not just the worst US president, but one of the worst leaders of all time before this TL is through... Hell, his successor will probably be remembered as one of the better presidents... Waiting for more... Kennedy's pre-war reputation is about to take one heck of a hit. What does he do after previous domestic crisis' though? Act / lash out abroad. War time presidents always do good in the polls, especially if the mange to win the war. We are a long way from that! I can't dispute the logic there though: everyone likes a winner. |
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James G
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Post by James G on Apr 24, 2018 17:57:24 GMT
(136)
Late August 1984:
Since before his election in November 1980, newspapers across the United States had been sitting on stories alleging personal misbehaviour of President Kennedy. They knew about his extramarital affairs, the façade of his marriage and his drinking. He was a Kennedy though. He was a champion of women’s rights and minority empowerment. He was the president. These were the excuses that editorial boards gave to journalists who dug deep but were refused permission to see printed the truth. Only the tabloid the National Enquirer had printed allegations and those had been rubbished as lies afterwards. The respectable media organisations, the big boys, hadn’t done so. There had been no intention to do so either before or after 1984’s election. That was his personal life and his policies – universal healthcare insurance, passing the Equal Rights Amendment, revolutionary positions on gay rights – were different. Many journalists had fumed while patiently waiting for one day things to change; others had been bought off with friendly relations with the White House in the form of access and off-the-record briefings where they ‘forgot’ what they knew. Some newspaper columnists made allusions to what was known and editors allowed that but there was no front page blockbuster exposure. Kennedy had friends and those friends were often involved with the media who favoured what Kennedy stood for in public; there was no mood to bring him down.
The economy had tanked though. The country was in recession and people were losing their jobs. Last Christmas’ Wall Street Crash was really starting to bite. Kennedy was regarded as having done nothing to fix that. Congress was deadlocked with the last two years seeing his domestic agenda forestalled and while that wasn’t seen as being his fault all of the time, he was in the White House when this happened. The Hope of 1980 was now a Malaise by 1984. Adding to this, Kennedy had sat back and let the communists take over Mexico. Late, far too late, in the day, he had made a big show of intervening: news coming out of Mexico said that American bombs had killed civilians there instead of stopping the onwards march of Castro’s puppets. Kennedy was the president when this all happened. People were blaming him nationwide and Kemp had a stellar lead in polling for November. He was going to take the White House. From there, Kennedy had become cold and isolated to his usual friends as there was crisis after crisis internationally which he was said to be attending to rather than focusing on the domestic concerns of ordinary Americans. Still popular among many, his faithful followers were always there, he had lost the respect of many other Americans.
At one of those big newspapers, the initial journalist who had worked hard to collate a lot of information on Kennedy’s personal behaviour had bugged her editor over and over again throughout the summer to finally see her story in print. She was a noted liberal and previously a strong Kennedy supporter. She had started looking into her story first to rubbish the rumours… only to find them true. She had been refused permission to publish what she had and then offended by the offer of friendship from the White House via an intermediary. All she wanted was to publish her story and expose Kennedy for the fraud that he was. Finally, her editor gave permission. That had come from above, higher up with the newspaper’s owners who didn’t share her personal views but whom had made a judgement call on Kennedy when it came to how their readers would respond to a story like this at this this time. They deserved to know the truth about their president so came the justification: in other words, their readers wouldn’t punish them by not buying the newspaper afterwards in protest.
The New York Times ran a front page story about an affair of the president’s which had taken place during the campaign in ’80. The full details, plus the moral outrage – oh and pictures; everyone likes pictures –, where there in print. That journalist had had several years to work on the side confirming details and getting more than she had back in ’81. President Kennedy was married man who’d been running for the White House back in ’80 and using his wife and family man image to help with that… having allies squishing Chappaquiddick comments along the way. During that time, he had been doing what he had with the woman working for his campaign. The cover-up was exposed too with how people in the know while that was going on silenced. The woman involved was spoken to as well and she had her piece to say about how Kennedy had duped her and used her. The story itself was kept under tight wraps until right before it ran as well with Kennedy supporters at the newspaper not being aware until the last minute that it was going to run: they didn’t get the chance to protest openly nor make calls to friends in the White House, who might have made a last ditch effort to kill this story. The story went out, surprising everyone in its detail and the shock of seeing all of this in print. It was to be the first of several: the floodgates were about to open with further stories to follow, some true yet others not. An October Surprise this might not be but this was going to hurt the re-election campaign of the president a lot.
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lordroel
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Post by lordroel on Apr 24, 2018 18:53:48 GMT
(136)Late August 1984: Since before his election in November 1980, newspapers across the United States had been sitting on stories alleging personal misbehaviour of President Kennedy. They knew about his extramarital affairs, the façade of his marriage and his drinking. He was a Kennedy though. He was a champion of women’s rights and minority empowerment. He was the president. These were the excuses that editorial boards gave to journalists who dug deep but were refused permission to see printed the truth. Only the tabloid the National Enquirer had printed allegations and those had been rubbished as lies afterwards. The respectable media organisations, the big boys, hadn’t done so. There had been no intention to do so either before or after 1984’s election. That was his personal life and his policies – universal healthcare insurance, passing the Equal Rights Amendment, revolutionary positions on gay rights – were different. Many journalists had fumed while patiently waiting for one day things to change; others had been bought off with friendly relations with the White House in the form of access and off-the-record briefings where they ‘forgot’ what they knew. Some newspaper columnists made allusions to what was known and editors allowed that but there was no front page blockbuster exposure. Kennedy had friends and those friends were often involved with the media who favoured what Kennedy stood for in public; there was no mood to bring him down. The economy had tanked though. The country was in recession and people were losing their jobs. Last Christmas’ Wall Street Crash was really starting to bite. Kennedy was regarded as having done nothing to fix that. Congress was deadlocked with the last two years seeing his domestic agenda forestalled and while that wasn’t seen as being his fault all of the time, he was in the White House when this happened. The Hope of 1980 was now a Malaise by 1984. Adding to this, Kennedy had sat back and let the communists take over Mexico. Late, far too late, in the day, he had made a big show of intervening: news coming out of Mexico said that American bombs had killed civilians there instead of stopping the onwards march of Castro’s puppets. Kennedy was the president when this all happened. People were blaming him nationwide and Kemp had a stellar lead in polling for November. He was going to take the White House. From there, Kennedy had become cold and isolated to his usual friends as there was crisis after crisis internationally which he was said to be attending to rather than focusing on the domestic concerns of ordinary Americans. Still popular among many, his faithful followers were always there, he had lost the respect of many other Americans. At one of those big newspapers, the initial journalist who had worked hard to collate a lot of information on Kennedy’s personal behaviour had bugged her editor over and over again throughout the summer to finally see her story in print. She was a noted liberal and previously a strong Kennedy supporter. She had started looking into her story first to rubbish the rumours… only to find them true. She had been refused permission to publish what she had and then offended by the offer of friendship from the White House via an intermediary. All she wanted was to publish her story and expose Kennedy for the fraud that he was. Finally, her editor gave permission. That had come from above, higher up with the newspaper’s owners who didn’t share her personal views but whom had made a judgement call on Kennedy when it came to how their readers would respond to a story like this at this this time. They deserved to know the truth about their president so came the justification: in other words, their readers wouldn’t punish them by not buying the newspaper afterwards in protest. The New York Times ran a front page story about an affair of the president’s which had taken place during the campaign in ’80. The full details, plus the moral outrage – oh and pictures; everyone likes pictures –, where there in print. That journalist had had several years to work on the side confirming details and getting more than she had back in ’81. President Kennedy was married man who’d been running for the White House back in ’80 and using his wife and family man image to help with that… having allies squishing Chappaquiddick comments along the way. During that time, he had been doing what he had with the woman working for his campaign. The cover-up was exposed too with how people in the know while that was going on silenced. The woman involved was spoken to as well and she had her piece to say about how Kennedy had duped her and used her. The story itself was kept under tight wraps until right before it ran as well with Kennedy supporters at the newspaper not being aware until the last minute that it was going to run: they didn’t get the chance to protest openly nor make calls to friends in the White House, who might have made a last ditch effort to kill this story. The story went out, surprising everyone in its detail and the shock of seeing all of this in print. It was to be the first of several: the floodgates were about to open with further stories to follow, some true yet others not. An October Surprise this might not be but this was going to hurt the re-election campaign of the president a lot. This is going to distract Kennedy from what is more important, the thread hiding and waiting in Mexico. |
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raunchel
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Post by raunchel on Apr 24, 2018 19:19:35 GMT
There goes any and all hope for the re-election of the last American superpower president.
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Post by redrobin65 on Apr 24, 2018 19:37:37 GMT
Shitstorm detected. Hold on Ted.
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James G
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Post by James G on Apr 24, 2018 20:19:41 GMT
(136)Late August 1984: Since before his election in November 1980, newspapers across the United States had been sitting on stories alleging personal misbehaviour of President Kennedy. They knew about his extramarital affairs, the façade of his marriage and his drinking. He was a Kennedy though. He was a champion of women’s rights and minority empowerment. He was the president. These were the excuses that editorial boards gave to journalists who dug deep but were refused permission to see printed the truth. Only the tabloid the National Enquirer had printed allegations and those had been rubbished as lies afterwards. The respectable media organisations, the big boys, hadn’t done so. There had been no intention to do so either before or after 1984’s election. That was his personal life and his policies – universal healthcare insurance, passing the Equal Rights Amendment, revolutionary positions on gay rights – were different. Many journalists had fumed while patiently waiting for one day things to change; others had been bought off with friendly relations with the White House in the form of access and off-the-record briefings where they ‘forgot’ what they knew. Some newspaper columnists made allusions to what was known and editors allowed that but there was no front page blockbuster exposure. Kennedy had friends and those friends were often involved with the media who favoured what Kennedy stood for in public; there was no mood to bring him down. The economy had tanked though. The country was in recession and people were losing their jobs. Last Christmas’ Wall Street Crash was really starting to bite. Kennedy was regarded as having done nothing to fix that. Congress was deadlocked with the last two years seeing his domestic agenda forestalled and while that wasn’t seen as being his fault all of the time, he was in the White House when this happened. The Hope of 1980 was now a Malaise by 1984. Adding to this, Kennedy had sat back and let the communists take over Mexico. Late, far too late, in the day, he had made a big show of intervening: news coming out of Mexico said that American bombs had killed civilians there instead of stopping the onwards march of Castro’s puppets. Kennedy was the president when this all happened. People were blaming him nationwide and Kemp had a stellar lead in polling for November. He was going to take the White House. From there, Kennedy had become cold and isolated to his usual friends as there was crisis after crisis internationally which he was said to be attending to rather than focusing on the domestic concerns of ordinary Americans. Still popular among many, his faithful followers were always there, he had lost the respect of many other Americans. At one of those big newspapers, the initial journalist who had worked hard to collate a lot of information on Kennedy’s personal behaviour had bugged her editor over and over again throughout the summer to finally see her story in print. She was a noted liberal and previously a strong Kennedy supporter. She had started looking into her story first to rubbish the rumours… only to find them true. She had been refused permission to publish what she had and then offended by the offer of friendship from the White House via an intermediary. All she wanted was to publish her story and expose Kennedy for the fraud that he was. Finally, her editor gave permission. That had come from above, higher up with the newspaper’s owners who didn’t share her personal views but whom had made a judgement call on Kennedy when it came to how their readers would respond to a story like this at this this time. They deserved to know the truth about their president so came the justification: in other words, their readers wouldn’t punish them by not buying the newspaper afterwards in protest. The New York Times ran a front page story about an affair of the president’s which had taken place during the campaign in ’80. The full details, plus the moral outrage – oh and pictures; everyone likes pictures –, where there in print. That journalist had had several years to work on the side confirming details and getting more than she had back in ’81. President Kennedy was married man who’d been running for the White House back in ’80 and using his wife and family man image to help with that… having allies squishing Chappaquiddick comments along the way. During that time, he had been doing what he had with the woman working for his campaign. The cover-up was exposed too with how people in the know while that was going on silenced. The woman involved was spoken to as well and she had her piece to say about how Kennedy had duped her and used her. The story itself was kept under tight wraps until right before it ran as well with Kennedy supporters at the newspaper not being aware until the last minute that it was going to run: they didn’t get the chance to protest openly nor make calls to friends in the White House, who might have made a last ditch effort to kill this story. The story went out, surprising everyone in its detail and the shock of seeing all of this in print. It was to be the first of several: the floodgates were about to open with further stories to follow, some true yet others not. An October Surprise this might not be but this was going to hurt the re-election campaign of the president a lot. This is going to distract Kennedy from what is more important, the thread hiding and waiting in Mexico. It is indeed. More distractions coming though. There goes any and all hope for the re-election of the last American superpower president. Once one story is out, more will follow. They don't all have to be true either. Shitstorm detected. Hold on Ted. By his fingernails that will have to be. |
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James G
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Post by James G on Apr 24, 2018 20:19:58 GMT
(137)
Late August 1984:
The fall of Monterrey really had been the key to unlocking the last resistance in Mexico away from Baja California (which was a different beast entirely). Across the four states through the north and northeast – Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas – the Northern Alliance crumbled when their capital was lost. Soldiers deserted en mass, there were surrenders and there were retreats which turned into bloody routs. The last week of August saw the Rio Grande reached. Ciudad Victoria was finally in communist hands and so was Monclova as well: two cities away from that river where there had long been strong resistance. It was the border towns and cities where the attention fell though. First it was Reynosa then Matamoros in the lower reaches of the river’s valley. Then Acuna and Piedras Negras further upstream were taken. Nuevo Laredo, which lay between them and to where President Herzog Flores had fled to, was then taken: the president went across the river into Texas. Heading upstream, Ojinaga was taken next. Attention moved to Juárez, opposite El Paso. There was a major fight on the edges of and then inside Juárez. Northern Alliance soldiers here fought and they didn’t run. Why hadn’t they done that elsewhere, it was asked. They had and had done so successfully at times; it was just the case that defeats had come in the end. Juárez went the same way. The communists brought up troops, lots of them, and overcome the defenders. They then went into the city after the defenders had bought an extra for those in the city. Up ahead was the river and it was over there that tens upon tens of thousands of Mexicans – civilians and soldiers – tried to flee. Across the bridges or through the water they tried to go; the latter not forming much of a barrier at all. US Border Patrol agents were joined by the El Paso Police Department in trying to stop those crossing and there was assistance too from national guardsmen from Texas and New Mexico. Like before elsewhere, when the final rush of people came, there was no stopping them. These people wanted to get away from what they had been told would happen to them under the communists. The Monterrey Government had spent a lot of effort playing up the terrors of communist rule and the people in Juárez had heard about the Red Terror elsewhere. There was safety in the United States and there was no stopping them getting there.
Once Juárez was taken, there were only a very few isolated crossing spots left along the Rio Grande and elsewhere west of Juárez through the desert where communist control didn’t extend. People still crossed the border though their numbers were tiny; so many died in the attempt as well, killed by the desert. Communist control of the frontier cut off the flow of refugees which had so long been a source of hot contention. On the other side of the border, national guardsmen from Arizona, New Mexico and Texas monitored the presence of what they regarded as the enemy over there. There were refugee camps where FEMA was active and into them the majority of refugees were located. Others though hadn’t gone to them and headed further into the United States, far away from the border as they still didn’t feel safe being that close. Other states had sent help to the Border States with national guardsmen arriving from Colorado, Oklahoma and Arkansas due to agreements between governors. Everyone was waiting for those in Washington to wake up though and see the threat that they did. The regular US Armed Forces, soldiers & marines, were needed on the border. Everyone would tell you that the communists wouldn’t stop when they gotten this far. Why couldn’t they see that in Washington?
Baja California was still holding out. The Tijuana Government refused permission for Herzog Flores to come there with the five-man ruling council in-charge denying him position to come to their city and set up a government. No, thank you, Mister Former President. Communist troops backed by Nicaraguan ‘volunteers’ were applying the pressure on Baja California. They were active at the tip right at the southern end of the peninsula and also pushing towards the Mexicali Valley at the top too. In the skies above, there were American aircraft though few in number. They attacked ‘high priority’ targets: artillery & armoured vehicles at the top and ships at the bottom. It was communist infantry which was the problem though. A military liaison team was in Tijuana though there was a disagreement between Tijuana and Washington over their exact role but also the wider role and mission of American air power above Mexico. Senior generals in Tijuana had never been in agreement with how things had been done with the Monterrey Government willing to allow the Americans to do what they wanted. If American aircraft were going to drop bombs, they would say where but they would also want to see it done properly and not in the stupid way it had been done before. The dispute went on, harming the motives of both sides. Tijuana also wanted recognition as the successor government of Monterrey. Herzog Flores claimed to be the legitimate president even though he was in involuntary exile in the United States now. That council in Tijuana denied his legitimacy and claimed their own. While these arguments raged, the Mexicali Valley came under attack while up through the Gulf of Mexico, there were ships everywhere who flew flags from many different far away countries making use of harbours on that waterway’s eastern side while waiting to go further north. Cuban troops, not Nicaraguan so-called volunteers, were arriving in this area south of (US) California.
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lordroel
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Post by lordroel on Apr 25, 2018 3:12:22 GMT
(137)Late August 1984: The fall of Monterrey really had been the key to unlocking the last resistance in Mexico away from Baja California (which was a different beast entirely). Across the four states through the north and northeast – Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas – the Northern Alliance crumbled when their capital was lost. Soldiers deserted en mass, there were surrenders and there were retreats which turned into bloody routs. The last week of August saw the Rio Grande reached. Ciudad Victoria was finally in communist hands and so was Monclova as well: two cities away from that river where there had long been strong resistance. It was the border towns and cities where the attention fell though. First it was Reynosa then Matamoros in the lower reaches of the river’s valley. Then Acuna and Piedras Negras further upstream were taken. Nuevo Laredo, which lay between them and to where President Herzog Flores had fled to, was then taken: the president went across the river into Texas. Heading upstream, Ojinaga was taken next. Attention moved to Juárez, opposite El Paso. There was a major fight on the edges of and then inside Juárez. Northern Alliance soldiers here fought and they didn’t run. Why hadn’t they done that elsewhere, it was asked. They had and had done so successfully at times; it was just the case that defeats had come in the end. Juárez went the same way. The communists brought up troops, lots of them, and overcome the defenders. They then went into the city after the defenders had bought an extra for those in the city. Up ahead was the river and it was over there that tens upon tens of thousands of Mexicans – civilians and soldiers – tried to flee. Across the bridges or through the water they tried to go; the latter not forming much of a barrier at all. US Border Patrol agents were joined by the El Paso Police Department in trying to stop those crossing and there was assistance too from national guardsmen from Texas and New Mexico. Like before elsewhere, when the final rush of people came, there was no stopping them. These people wanted to get away from what they had been told would happen to them under the communists. The Monterrey Government had spent a lot of effort playing up the terrors of communist rule and the people in Juárez had heard about the Red Terror elsewhere. There was safety in the United States and there was no stopping them getting there. Once Juárez was taken, there were only a very few isolated crossing spots left along the Rio Grande and elsewhere west of Juárez through the desert where communist control didn’t extend. People still crossed the border though their numbers were tiny; so many died in the attempt as well, killed by the desert. Communist control of the frontier cut off the flow of refugees which had so long been a source of hot contention. On the other side of the border, national guardsmen from Arizona, New Mexico and Texas monitored the presence of what they regarded as the enemy over there. There were refugee camps where FEMA was active and into them the majority of refugees were located. Others though hadn’t gone to them and headed further into the United States, far away from the border as they still didn’t feel safe being that close. Other states had sent help to the Border States with national guardsmen arriving from Colorado, Oklahoma and Arkansas due to agreements between governors. Everyone was waiting for those in Washington to wake up though and see the threat that they did. The regular US Armed Forces, soldiers & marines, were needed on the border. Everyone would tell you that the communists wouldn’t stop when they gotten this far. Why couldn’t they see that in Washington? Baja California was still holding out. The Tijuana Government refused permission for Herzog Flores to come there with the five-man ruling council in-charge denying him position to come to their city and set up a government. No, thank you, Mister Former President. Communist troops backed by Nicaraguan ‘volunteers’ were applying the pressure on Baja California. They were active at the tip right at the southern end of the peninsula and also pushing towards the Mexicali Valley at the top too. In the skies above, there were American aircraft though few in number. They attacked ‘high priority’ targets: artillery & armoured vehicles at the top and ships at the bottom. It was communist infantry which was the problem though. A military liaison team was in Tijuana though there was a disagreement between Tijuana and Washington over their exact role but also the wider role and mission of American air power above Mexico. Senior generals in Tijuana had never been in agreement with how things had been done with the Monterrey Government willing to allow the Americans to do what they wanted. If American aircraft were going to drop bombs, they would say where but they would also want to see it done properly and not in the stupid way it had been done before. The dispute went on, harming the motives of both sides. Tijuana also wanted recognition as the successor government of Monterrey. Herzog Flores claimed to be the legitimate president even though he was in involuntary exile in the United States now. That council in Tijuana denied his legitimacy and claimed their own. While these arguments raged, the Mexicali Valley came under attack while up through the Gulf of Mexico, there were ships everywhere who flew flags from many different far away countries making use of harbours on that waterway’s eastern side while waiting to go further north. Cuban troops, not Nicaraguan so-called volunteers, were arriving in this area south of (US) California. So is the Battle for Baja California going to be the last major battle in the Mexican Civil War. |
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James G
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Post by James G on Apr 25, 2018 6:04:14 GMT
(137)Late August 1984: The fall of Monterrey really had been the key to unlocking the last resistance in Mexico away from Baja California (which was a different beast entirely). Across the four states through the north and northeast – Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas – the Northern Alliance crumbled when their capital was lost. Soldiers deserted en mass, there were surrenders and there were retreats which turned into bloody routs. The last week of August saw the Rio Grande reached. Ciudad Victoria was finally in communist hands and so was Monclova as well: two cities away from that river where there had long been strong resistance. It was the border towns and cities where the attention fell though. First it was Reynosa then Matamoros in the lower reaches of the river’s valley. Then Acuna and Piedras Negras further upstream were taken. Nuevo Laredo, which lay between them and to where President Herzog Flores had fled to, was then taken: the president went across the river into Texas. Heading upstream, Ojinaga was taken next. Attention moved to Juárez, opposite El Paso. There was a major fight on the edges of and then inside Juárez. Northern Alliance soldiers here fought and they didn’t run. Why hadn’t they done that elsewhere, it was asked. They had and had done so successfully at times; it was just the case that defeats had come in the end. Juárez went the same way. The communists brought up troops, lots of them, and overcome the defenders. They then went into the city after the defenders had bought an extra for those in the city. Up ahead was the river and it was over there that tens upon tens of thousands of Mexicans – civilians and soldiers – tried to flee. Across the bridges or through the water they tried to go; the latter not forming much of a barrier at all. US Border Patrol agents were joined by the El Paso Police Department in trying to stop those crossing and there was assistance too from national guardsmen from Texas and New Mexico. Like before elsewhere, when the final rush of people came, there was no stopping them. These people wanted to get away from what they had been told would happen to them under the communists. The Monterrey Government had spent a lot of effort playing up the terrors of communist rule and the people in Juárez had heard about the Red Terror elsewhere. There was safety in the United States and there was no stopping them getting there. Once Juárez was taken, there were only a very few isolated crossing spots left along the Rio Grande and elsewhere west of Juárez through the desert where communist control didn’t extend. People still crossed the border though their numbers were tiny; so many died in the attempt as well, killed by the desert. Communist control of the frontier cut off the flow of refugees which had so long been a source of hot contention. On the other side of the border, national guardsmen from Arizona, New Mexico and Texas monitored the presence of what they regarded as the enemy over there. There were refugee camps where FEMA was active and into them the majority of refugees were located. Others though hadn’t gone to them and headed further into the United States, far away from the border as they still didn’t feel safe being that close. Other states had sent help to the Border States with national guardsmen arriving from Colorado, Oklahoma and Arkansas due to agreements between governors. Everyone was waiting for those in Washington to wake up though and see the threat that they did. The regular US Armed Forces, soldiers & marines, were needed on the border. Everyone would tell you that the communists wouldn’t stop when they gotten this far. Why couldn’t they see that in Washington? Baja California was still holding out. The Tijuana Government refused permission for Herzog Flores to come there with the five-man ruling council in-charge denying him position to come to their city and set up a government. No, thank you, Mister Former President. Communist troops backed by Nicaraguan ‘volunteers’ were applying the pressure on Baja California. They were active at the tip right at the southern end of the peninsula and also pushing towards the Mexicali Valley at the top too. In the skies above, there were American aircraft though few in number. They attacked ‘high priority’ targets: artillery & armoured vehicles at the top and ships at the bottom. It was communist infantry which was the problem though. A military liaison team was in Tijuana though there was a disagreement between Tijuana and Washington over their exact role but also the wider role and mission of American air power above Mexico. Senior generals in Tijuana had never been in agreement with how things had been done with the Monterrey Government willing to allow the Americans to do what they wanted. If American aircraft were going to drop bombs, they would say where but they would also want to see it done properly and not in the stupid way it had been done before. The dispute went on, harming the motives of both sides. Tijuana also wanted recognition as the successor government of Monterrey. Herzog Flores claimed to be the legitimate president even though he was in involuntary exile in the United States now. That council in Tijuana denied his legitimacy and claimed their own. While these arguments raged, the Mexicali Valley came under attack while up through the Gulf of Mexico, there were ships everywhere who flew flags from many different far away countries making use of harbours on that waterway’s eastern side while waiting to go further north. Cuban troops, not Nicaraguan so-called volunteers, were arriving in this area south of (US) California. So is the Battle for Baja California going to be the last major battle in the Mexican Civil War. That it will be though something not completed before the war starts: harming the attack in one way but aiding it in another. |
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on Apr 25, 2018 18:17:08 GMT
(138)
Late August 1984:
An Italian lawyer turned politician who’d been making a big deal out of the Gladio revelations in his country was shot dead outside the offices of his former law firm in Milan. The murder was an execution which took place in daylight and in front of witnesses; his killer sped away as a passenger on a motorcycle. Across in Spain, there was another killing, this time that of a member of the Spanish Cortes who was investigating Spain’s own Gladio scandal. The parliamentarian was run down in the street right in heart of Madrid by a vehicle which was later found abandoned and burning. Both murders took place days apart and were hardly anything but deliberate assassinations. There were other attempts elsewhere across Western Europe to take the lives of high-profile people who were making a big deal about the secret network of guerrillas answerable to the CIA and with major links to terrorist groups. In Sweden, the Netherlands and again in Italy, another trio of politicians and journalists (two for the former; one of the latter) were lucky to escape with their lives when faced with failed killers. These were again attacks made out in the open and in front of witnesses by those who afterwards evaded capture.
Gladio (despite that name being Italian-specific) was a name being spoken of across Western Europe through NATO and non-NATO countries. There were investigations starting as well as a lot of speculation. Facts, real solid information were something hard to come by yet there was a lot to talk about. Parliaments were in summer recesses at this time. When they returned, there was certain to be a lot more to talk about. Some governments knew beforehand yet others were surprised: most pleaded innocence in public regardless. Outrage came from political figures on the left, on the right and in the centre. Troublemakers popped up, making a scene and getting their name in the news where they were able to jump on the bandwagon. This was something that had to be stopped! There needed to be investigations! Whoever was responsible for all of this needed to be named! The CIA cannot be allowed to get away with this! And so on. Whether ordinary people, citizens across the continent really cared, was something not yet apparent. They weren’t out protesting in the streets about all of this.
Separate from the Gladio issue, there was the biggest ever anti-nuclear march in West Germany the last weekend before the end of the month. This took place on a warm Sunday in Bonn where tens of thousands of people converged upon the city for a demonstration against nuclear power and nuclear weapons. Coaches, buses and trains brought the people to the federal capital and there was a good atmosphere for the main event. Families were there in number with images for the news of children holding homemade signs calling for neither to be present in West Germany: no power stations and no bombs. This was a popular nationwide cause across the country and no longer something for just extremists. Events at Unterweser last year were remembered for the fear which they had spread across the nation and there was too the concern that the country should be free of nuclear weapons. The Americans had withdrawn many of them yet others remained in their hands plus those of other countries – Britain and France – who it was said had theirs in the country too. Moreover, West German military forces would have access to other nuclear weapons at times of crisis and war. These were immoral weapons, designed to kill civilians, and the protesters wanted them removed from their country just like they wanted the nuclear power plants to be shut down.
The Greens remained taking advantage of all of this. Unterweser had propelled them into the position of power that they had and they weren’t going to let that go by ignoring what motivated people to vote for them. Their Bundestag members were an odd bunch, a mix of all sorts. There was a lot of arguments between them and division when it came to a lot of domestic issues yet the anti-nuclear thing was what united them better than other aspects of public policy. Many of them were in Bonn for the demonstration. Fischer was present and made a big show of himself; so was Bastian. The retired general had something to say about his murdered former partner too. Petra Kelly, Bastian said, had been killed by the CIA. That was a terrorist organisation as evident by what was going on elsewhere across Western Europe. His public statements on this declared that the CIA was killing those who were asking the difficult questions and finding out the truth about Gladio. There was a Gladio in West Germany too. He would expose that… with help from his fellow countrymen. He then proceeded to hi-jack the protest march as best he and some dedicated followers could and lead a march towards the American Embassy. The CIA should be thrown out of West Germany, he announced, and the Americans could take the rest of their nuclear weapons too! The impromptu march was peaceful and when the West German police moved to stop it, there was no violence. Bastian’s sudden followers had no hardcore members. The embassy was somewhere that they got nowhere near. Frustrated in his attempt, when stopped, Bastian was back in front of the cameras and taking to journalists again. He spoke for his party and the West German people he said when he repeated his demands. ‘Geh raus, geh raus, geh raus!’ He was speaking for neither but sure did make out like he was demanding that the Americans ‘get out, get out, get out’.
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Dan
Warrant Officer
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Post by Dan on Apr 25, 2018 19:44:24 GMT
How close are the German Green party ITTL to being Watermelon Greens?
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on Apr 25, 2018 19:52:11 GMT
How close are the German Green party ITTL to being Watermelon Greens? Close enough. The red inside shows through some easily. They are in partnership with the SPD in the Bundestag and have been pushing for a lot of green causes there in public. However, as the party's result at the election the year before was so unexpected, many members who won seats (party lists rather than constituencies) weren't 'vetted' for lack of a better term by the press to expose what they stood for. A lot of the party was hi-jacked and there are watermelons there, those who the SPD wouldn't have in their respectable party. Bastian is a different beast altogether though. |
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