Replies and Italian Draft (Since this was to supposedly be about Italy and the South of the World)
TheRejectionist
TheRejectionist
Good stuff. I think you've nailed Stassen's character - certainly he must have not only been idealistic, but a pretty stubborn guy too, what with him running for president 13 times IRL. I'll guess that the Puerto Rican nationalists didn't launch an attack on the Capitol in your timeline as they did historically, both since you didn't mention it and because it would've invited a much harsher response from Washington than the relatively conciliatory one Stassen advocated.
As far as the hard-line French leadership goes, my suggestion would be to look to the leaders of the 1958 and 1961 military coups. Although they may have been pretty brutal colonialists and counterinsurgency pioneers, the generals involved were aligned with Free France during WW2 and celebrated for it (Raoul Salan for example was the most decorated soldier in the French Army until he tried to overthrow De Gaulle IRL), so they should theoretically be a little less offensive to Stassen's and Eisenhower's sensibilities than straight up Vichy dudes would be. If they need a civilian puppet for legitimacy purposes, I would recommend looking up politicians with a pro-colonial record such as Georges Bidault.
Only other recommendation I can think of at this time is that the new French regime should probably be called something other than the 'French State', since that was literally the official name of Vichy France. 'French Nation', perhaps, or 'French National State' just to distinguish it a little from the old collaborator state? Maybe even 'French Social Republic', there's an association with the Republic of Salò (AKA the Italian Social Republic) to worry about but maybe that's an obscure enough topic for the anti-De Gaulle plotters to get away with it.
- I reasoned that to save KMT China he had to do take troops somewhere. PR doesn't have a large force of US soldiers but if Ike's intention is to use all manpower available and the PRNP probably (if they would have been smart enough to be tactically sound) take the oppurtunity before even think hitting the Capitol. This approximately happens between 1948-1949. Can't find Stassen promoting nuclear energy though.
- Thanks for the comments on Stassen.
- Thanks for feedback on France.
It actually could happen.In that situation,soviets could react to Poznań crisis like that.I see many commies running from Poland here - even if they are not banned,nobody would vote for them for next generation.
And,Poland actually could become soviet ally on its own later,if they continue to be reasonable,and USA continue to be inneficient.
Yeah it made sense.
Now. About Italy :
THE ITALIAN SITUATION
The former Royal Italian Army wasn’t in the best shape to defend a country, in fact it was a miracle they had managed to defend Nizza, Savoy and Lubiana, Dalmatia,Istria and Cattaro. There was a general wish from the Prime Minister to rearm Italy for the potential conflict with the nations bordering them, namely the State of Croatia, the Kingdom of Serbia, the State of Montenegro and the Socialist Republic of Slovenia-Carinthia in the east, while on the North there was Soviet occupied Germany and on the west laid France itching for a rematch to take back the lost lands and Corsica.
De Gasperi, but also controversially Togliatti, wanted to avoid another potential mutilated victory scenario which could form another Mussolini, gave a general amnesty to former royalists and fascists had a similar “treatment”, their crimes before taking up arms against the House of Savoy pardoned but not forgotten, which is why they were given few roles in the new governments, with only specials cases permitted to have participation such as Ettore Muti taking care of the military aviation (1) and Junio Valerio Borghese (2) taking care of the Navy instead, all the while being monitored by the previously monarchist Amedeo Guillet (3) who had become Minister of Defense.
The order of the day was restoring the Bel Paese armed forces, so they three began with haste, with Muti having to rely on the few remaining Italian and former Luftwaffe planes and pilots, meanwhile Guillet could rely on a more vast assortment of both Italian and (surrendered) German veterans (including the notorious Rommel), the latter which brought a an enormous quantity of weapons, tanks, trucks and many other goods, both theirs and from the Soviets and Allies, which they could use and hopefully, reverse engineer what was feasible to do so.
The “aeronautical” inventory from Germany :
50 Messerschmitt Me 262
10 Arado Ar 234 Blitz
2 Messerschmitt Me P 08.01 (4)
1 Horten Ho 229 , one of the only ten that survived which wasn’t captured by either by the Western Allies, as well as Horten Ho XVIII Amerikabomber prototype, who also
The human capital for aviation, besides the many pilots, consisted of Hans Guido Mutke, Germany’s notorious fighter pilot, along with the Horten brothers, who didn’t want to surrender to or get captured by the USSR like many brilliant minds had tried; joining their newfound Italian benefactors was also Woldemar Voigt designed the Me 262 and P.1101 jet aircraft at Messerschmidt. Before the war's end he had redesigned the Me 262 by placing the turbines in the wing roots in Ultimate 262 HGII
The army also had a plethora of tens of thousands of German equipment like MG43s, STG44s, MP40s, Mausers,
Meanwhile the vehicles included mostly : Sonderkraftfahrzeug 251, Bergepanther,Panzer VI Ausf. B "Königstiger", Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B Schwimmwagen, Flammpanzer VI , Sd.Kfz.231 8-Rad, Sd.Kfz.263 6-Rad , Sd.Kfz.234 Puma,
Borghese unlike the army, had to work with much less numerous leftovers, he had what had survived intact of the Regia Marina, but he got lucky during a diplomatic mission to establish ties with Free India just a little over Bhose’s liberation of his country. He suggested to De Gasperi to send Italian orientalist, Indologist and scholar of East Asian studies Giuseppe Vincenzo Tucci as an unofficial ambassador and the result was an unintended stroke of luck for him and Muti, since the Netajii had still a morbid fascination with the deceased Duce. It turned out just as Italy had many leftover German combatants in his country, so did Free India had Japanese sailors, soldiers, planes and ships, including the famous Yamato and Musashi, who docked in India just as the atomic bombs were about to be dropped.