What if Huey Long escape assassination while Roosevelt failed to avoid his assassination? What if Chamberlain advised the king to pick Lord Halifax instead Churchill become the Prime Minister? What if Trotsky win over Stalin in the power struggle of USSR?
Another Big Three: Long, Trotsky, Lord Halifax
- Thread starter the man in the fly castle
- Start date
Long was a dedicated isolationist. I find it unlikely that he would lead the US to become part of the “Big 3” of world affairs.
I don't have an answer, though I like the prompt, but I do love that you photoshopped it.
I don't think when Japanese threaten US in Pacific he will back down, and if Japanese still bomb pearl harbor, well, giant awakening.
Plus, he wouldn't be declaring the war, congress would be, so his opinion isn't the be-all-end-all.
That being said, he may try to get them not to fight in Europe, since Japan was the aggressor (and also there's a good chance Long had Nazi sympathies, and even if he didn't his voter base did).
For Long: Knock! Knock! It is Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor! And are you been a coward?
For Trotsky: Well, it is Five-Years plan, not Five-Minutes plan, and military still need time to reform, and there still have some opposition party members need to purge, and there still have famine. Maybe can make some support to other revolutionary around world, it not much, but better than nothing.
For Halifax: Only want to keep Italian in neutral to make sure have less enemy to fight, but if that is not possible, then there have no choice but war.
Well, a good Populist knew what is good to make people support him, and if Germany still declare war on US first like OTL, I don't think Long has much choice just like Wilson. And Long not really like Hitler, in particular, he hated the anti-Semitic ideology of the Nazis.
ahmedali
Banned
In fact, Trotsky's approach to the world revolution was that he would support any socialist revolution
It means that we will see Britain and France give Hitler what he wants in exchange for destroying the Soviet Union
And the more aggressive Soviet Union led by Trotsky means Poland becomes a member of the Axis
(The Poles hated the Germans as much as the Soviets, but here the Reds were much worse than Junkers and Nazi maniacs.)
This is basically the scenario of victory for the axis
But would Pearl Harbor even happen? A major factor behind Japan attacking the US was because of the embargoes Roosevelt pushed to implement on steel and other resources, and the freezing of Japanese assets in America. With Long not wanting to get involved in foreign conflicts like that and actively pushing for the US to get rid of Pacific possessions like the Philippines, is Japan going to feel driven to attack the US like OTL?
Yes, his idea is support world revolution, but it is not mean that he will always use one method. In his life, he changed his mind many times before he finally stand with Lenin. And I don't think when he seats on the leadership of USSR, he will not going to do industrialization first, and not go to reform military, and not go to purge those opposition, and just go to a "world revolution" in this bad situation.
Imperial Japan want to dominated entire Asia-Pacific no matter what, and they already showing their hostile to the United States even before US had been implement on resources in OTL, unless US give up all the islands in Pacific (include Hawaii), there will have a war between these two to decide who will control over Pacific.
Oh yeah, I forgot that it was Germany who declared on the US in response to the US declaring war on Japan. Who knows if that still happens, of course, but if it does then yeah, he has no choice.
And I suppose it's more accurate to say that, while I've seen no evidence that Long was antisemitic, he was willing to work with people who were, so it's all sort of confusing and vague. Huey Long is a weird guy, hence why he's interesting.
I agree on Trotsky. He's aggressive and more ideological than Stalin, meaning that he's likely to piss people off and maybe strengthen Western support for the Nazis fighting the USSR.
Halifax probably doesn't get involved at all. I'm not an expert on the man, but he'd likely stay isolated and not pursue a policy to contain Germany.
ahmedali
Banned
All of this was the work of Stalin mainly, and it is for the paradox that the principle of communism in one country.
Even after he turned the Balkans to the Community, he did not try to convert Finland, Greece and Italy to the Communists, despite the great support for fear of the West's reaction.
For this reason, he did not support any communist revolution before the second world war
Trotsky will support Republicans in the Spanish civil war, which means red Spain
The red Portugal may mean if the Spaniards launched a invasion of Portugal in retaliation for their national support
In addition, it may finance coups and communists in Poland, Norway, Italy, Finland, Baltic, France, China, United States, Mexico, Afghanistan, Iran and the British Raj
This will be an alarm to Europe and makes everyone turn a blind eye to Hitler's madness to stop the aggressive Communists
In addition, Trotsky was not pragmatic and incompetent
(Only military was efficient)
That is why the alternative history scenarios choose it
When the topic is about making the Soviets detonate the second world war
I'm inclined towards this. Not that Hitler won't do anything, of course, but Trotsky's likely to become the adversary in WWII instead. It's thus more unlikely that Long's America gets involved in Europe.
I have no idea what position the Soviets would be in to take on the West, though I assume they'll probably lose in the end.