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Lists of Heads of Government and Heads of State

Inspired by Glen's Dominion of Southern America TL, I decided to do a list of PMs of an alternate DSA like that one.

Prime Ministers of the Dominion of Southern America
Alexander H. Stephens (Liberal) 1867-1876
1867: def. Wade Hampton III (Conservative) and Andrew Johnson (Workingmen's)
1871: def. P. G.T. Beauregard (Conservative)
John Tyler Morgan (Conservative) 1876-1889

1876: def. Alexander H. Stephens (Liberal)
1881: def. Joseph E. Brown (Liberal)
1885: def. John H. Reagan (Liberal)
John Brown Gordon (Conservative) 1889-1891
1889: def. John H. Reagan (Liberal)
Robert Love Taylor (Liberal) 1891-1903
1891: def. John Brown Gordon (Conservative) and Jim Hogg (Labour Committee)
1895: def. Benjamin Tillman (Conservative) and Jim Hogg (Labour Committee)
1899: def. John Newton Pharr (Conservative), Frank Burkitt (Labour) and Benjamin Tillman (Constitutional)
Joseph Weldon Bailey (Conservative) 1903-1907
1903: def. Robert Love Taylor (Liberal) and Marion Butler (Labour)
John Sharp Williams (Liberal, then Liberal-led National Government) 1907-1919
1907: def. Joseph Weldon Bailey (Conservative), Thomas E. Watson (Labour) and Octaviano Larrazolo (Hispanic Parliamentary)
1911: def. Joseph Weldon Bailey (Conservative), James K. Vardaman (Labour) and Octaviano Larrazolo (Hispanic Parliamentary)
Morris Sheppard (Liberal-led National Government, then Liberal) 1919-1921
1919: def. Thomas Campbell (Conservative), James K. Vardaman (Labour) and Sidney J. Catts (Constitutional)
Thomas Campbell (Conservative) 1921-1928
1921: def. Morris Sheppard (Liberal) and William H. Murray (Labour)
1923: def. William H. Murray (Labour), Morris Sheppard (Liberal) and M. Hoke Smith (Independent Liberal)
William H. Murray (Labour-Liberal coalition) 1928-1931
1928: def. Thomas Campbell (Conservative) and Robert L. Owen (Liberal)
George Berry (Labour-Liberal coalition) 1931-1933
James F. Byrnes (Conservative-National Liberal coalition, then Conservative-led Wartime Coalition) 1933-1945
1933: def. George Berry (Labour), Robert L. Owen (Liberal), Kenneth McKellar (National Liberal) and Huey Long (Common Wealth)
1938: def. William Bankhead (Labour), Kenneth McKellar (National Liberal), Pat Harrison (Liberal) and Huey Long (Common Wealth)
Burnet Maybank (Conservative-led Wartime Coalition) 1945-1946
Sam Rayburn (Labour) 1946-1953
1946: def. Burnet Maybank (Conservative) and Allen J. Ellender (Liberal)
1951: def. Spessard Holland (Conservative) and Allen J. Ellender (Liberal)
Jim Folsom (Labour) 1953-1955
Spessard Holland (Conservative) 1955-1963
1955: def. Jim Folsom (Labour) and Allen J. Ellender (Liberal)
1959: def. Jim Folsom (Labour) and Carl Albert (Liberal)
Lyndon B. Johnson (Labour, then Labour-Democratic Congress coalition) 1963-1975
1963: def. Spessard Holland (Conservative) and Carl Albert (Liberal)
1967: def. John Sparkman (Conservative), Orval Faubus (Southron Labour) and Carl Albert (Liberal)
1971: def. Michael King (Democratic Congress), John Connally (Conservative), Orval Faubus (Southron Labour) and Carl Albert (Liberal)
Lane Kirkland (Labour-Democratic Congress coalition) 1975-1977
John Connally (Conservative minority with support from Southron, then Conservative) 1977-1985
1977: def. Lane Kirkland (Labour), Michael King (Democratic Congress), Lloyd Bentsen (Liberal) and Lester Maddox (Southron)
1981: def. Fred Harris (Labour), Ralph Abernathy (Democratic Congress), Lloyd Bentsen (Liberal) and Larry McDonald (Southron)
1984: def. George Wallace (Labour), Ralph Abernathy (Democratic Congress), Lloyd Bentsen (Liberal) and Larry McDonald (Southron)
Lamar Alexander (Conservative) 1985-1991
1987: def. Jeane Jordan (Labour), Ralph Abernathy (Democratic Congress), Lloyd Bentsen (Liberal) and Larry McDonald (Southron)
Edwin Edwards (Labour-Liberal coalition, then Labour) 1991-2002
1991: def. Lamar Alexander (Conservative), John Lewis (Democratic Congress), Al Gore (Liberal) and Larry McDonald (Southron)
1995: def. Lamar Alexander (Conservative), John Lewis (Democratic Congress), David Duke (Southron) and Al Gore (Liberal)
1999: def. John Lewis (Democratic Congress), Richard Shelby (Conservative), Bruce Babbitt (Liberal) and Evan Mecham (Southron)
Fidel Castro (Labour) 2002-2003
Phil Bredesen (Conservative minority with support from Southron, then Conservative) 2003-2010
2003: def. John Lewis (Democratic Congress), Fidel Castro (Labour), Bruce Babbitt (Liberal) and Jeff Sessions (Southron)
2007: def. Mickey Leland (Labour), John Lewis (Democratic Congress), Bruce Babbitt (Liberal) and Jeff Sessions (Southron)
Abel Maldonado (Conservative, then Conservative minority) 2010-2015
2011: def. Chris Bell (Labour), John Lewis (Democratic Congress), and Alex Sink (Liberal)
2015: def. Ben Ray Luján (Labour), Jim Clyburn (Democratic Congress), Cindy Hyde-Smith (Southron Values) and Alex Sink (Liberal)
Bill Frist (Conservative-Southron Values coalition) 2015-2019
Kamala Harris (Labour-Democratic Congress-Liberal coalition) 2019-present
2019: def. Bill Frist (Conservative), Jim Clyburn (Democratic Congress), Alex Sink (Liberal) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (Southron Values)
 
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In the spirit of some of the “Real Name Meaning Translation” Lists before, I present you a slight variation on that theme —

President of the People’s Commission of the United Council Socialist States
1922-1924: Donald E. Yukon (American Communist Party (Majoritarian))
1924-1930: Edmund J. Cryer (American Communist Party (Majoritarian)/Unionwide Communist Party)
1930-1941: Euclid M. Hammerson (Unionwide Communist Party)
1941-1946: Joseph G. Steele (Unionwide Communist Party)


President of the Cabinet of the United Council Socialist States
1946-1953: Joseph G. Steele (Unionwide Communist Party/Communist Party of the Council Union)
1953-1955: George M. Smalls (Communist Party of the Council Union)
1955-1958: Nicholas A. Wexford (Communist Party of the Council Union)

1958-1964: Victor D. Beetle (Communist Party of the Council Union)
1964-1980: Edmund N. Braid (Communist Party of the Council Union)

1980-1985: Nicholas A. Felix (Communist Party of the Council Union)
1985-1991: Nicholas J. Rowan (Communist Party of the Council Union)

Chairman of the Communist National Committee of the United Council Socialist States
1922-1952: Joseph G. Steele
1953-1964: Victor D. Beetle

1964-1982: Leonard E. Hill
1982-1984: Geordie D. Brentwood

1984-1985: Amnon Z. Dressler
1985-1991: Michael D. Crumb

President of the American Federation
1991-1999: Conan N. Evergreen (Independent)
1999-2008: Donald D. Waye (National Union, then Independent)
2008-2012: Adam S.
Baer (Independent, then Americans United)
2012-0000: Donald D. Waye (All-American Popular Front)
 
Heaven knows how the LRC has lasted so long with so many entrenched factions dependent on the political patronage they are bestowed on the rare occasions when Labour comes to power. At this point, the factions are so institutionalised that there is barely a cigarette paper to slide between them on the ideological front - the Coops are supposed to be slightly to the left of the other major wing, the Fabians, but in practice the only conflict between the two is tribal. Every sub-party signs up hundreds or thousands of members per constituency in various slightly dodgy ways, just to be sure of having their candidate selected in a seat which has already been allocated to them in a smoke-filled room in Transport House.

As will be readily apparent, the Labour Leader's task of assembling a Front Bench is an unenviable one, with not only talent to consider, but also the optimum factional balance. This is doubly important when coming into Government, hence some of the unpromising choices made by Mr Balls for fear of sowing dissent - see, for instance, the hiving off of the kooky Georgists to a meaningless Department as distant as humanly possible from the Treasury. Cabinet selections, however, shed an invaluable light for onlookers into the often opaque internal wrangles of the LRC: last time Labour were in Government, the ILP looked much healthier, Common Wealth only merited a smattering of Junior Ministers, and the balance within the NDP now bends much more towards the new gang of working-class-adjacent modernisers than the old array of Old Right has-beens.

Prime MinisterEd Balls (Co-operative Party)
Chancellor of the ExchequerDavid Miliband (Fabian Society)
Home Secretary Ed Miliband (Co-operative Party)
Foreign SecretaryDouglas Alexander (Fabian Society)
Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jon Cruddas (National Democratic Party)
Chief Secretary to the TreasuryChuka Umunna (Co-operative Party)
Secretary of State for Social Development Jon Trickett (Independent Labour Party)
Secretary of State for DefenceDan Jarvis (Fabian Society)
Secretary of State for Primary Industries and Rural AffairsMary Creagh (Co-operative Party)
Secretary of State for Families Hazel Blears (National Democratic Party)
Secretary of State for HealthLiz Kendall (National Democratic Party)
Secretary of State for TransportChristian Wolmar (Co-operative Party)
Secretary of State for Housing James Purnell (Fabian Society)
Secretary of State for Energy and the EnvironmentNatalie Bennett (Common Wealth)
Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Fabian Society)
Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs Chris Huhne (Justice!)
Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of CommonsDave Nellist (Social Democratic Federation)
Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of LordsThe Lord Adonis (Fabian Society)
Chancellor of the Duchy of LancasterOwen Jones (Common Wealth)
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Emily Thornberry (Co-operative Party)
Secretary of State for ScotlandGeorge Galloway (Independent Labour Party)
Secretary of State for WalesVaughan Gething (Fabian Society)
Chief Whip Tom Watson (Co-operative Party)
Attorney General The Lord Bach (Fabian Society)
 
Great list, Mazda!
I assume Justice! is the Georgist group?
Oh, and what's the deal with the National Democratic Party?
Indeed, by analogy with the Justice Party of Denmark and general Georgist rhetoric.

The NDP is a relic of the old National Democratic and Labour Party (which usually dropped the 'and Labour') which was a Liberal-funded minor party which made a big thing of being in favour of the First World War. ITTL, they return to the Labour Representation Committee and become the home of Old Right thought, which slowly dies away after Not!Thatcher. After years of irrelevance, it is reinvigorated by the people behind OTL's Blue Labour.
 
The Truce

The rise of Communism, spread across Eastern and Central Europe by the Red Army, frightens the British Establishment into retaining the War Government - and the wartime electoral truce - until the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Tories grow militarily atavistic and politically authoritarian (although Keith Joseph is an exception, liberalising the economy to the extent of abolishing rationing) while their 'Block Parties' atrophy into corrupt vehicles for careerists. The only challenges facing these parties are the occasional by-elections resulting from the death or retirement of an existing MP, in which pro-democratic campaigners often smash the War Government. But it's never quite enough to deny them a majority.

At the end of the Cold War, the Government can no longer find any excuses for failing to hold a general election (with PR). Britain rejoices, sending their governing parties to oblivion - but before long, they come to regret it.

1940-1955: Winston Churchill (War Government: Conservative, Labour, National Liberal, Liberal, National Labour)
1955-1961: Anthony Eden (War Government: Conservative, Labour, National Liberal, Liberal, National Labour)

1961-1972: Duncan Sandys (War Government: Conservative, Labour, National Liberal, Liberal, National Labour)
1972-1982: William Whitelaw (War Government: Conservative, Labour, National Liberal, Liberal, National Labour)
1982-1985: Keith Joseph (War Government: Conservative, Labour, National Liberal, Liberal, National Labour)

1985-1990: Christopher Soames (War Government: Conservative, Labour, National Liberal, Liberal, National Labour)
1990-1993: Vince Cable (Democratic Coalition: Radical Action, Common Wealth, Independent Labour)

1990 def: Martin Webster (British Social Movement), Tony Benn (Common Wealth), Christopher Soames (Conservative), Dennis Canavan (Independent Labour), David Nicholson (Communist), Jack Cunningham (Labour), Michael Heseltine (National Liberal), Geraint Howells (Liberal), Adam Nicolson (National Labour)
1993-1994: Tony Benn (Democratic Coalition: Social Democrat, Radical Action)
1994-1997: Nick Griffin (Third Way Coalition: British Social Movement, Conservative, United Labour)

1994 def: Tony Benn (Social Democrat), Vince Cable (Radical Action), David Nicholson (Communist), Nigel Lawson (Conservative), Michael Heseltine (Liberal and National Liberal), Jack Cunningham (United Labour)
1997-2013: Nick Griffin (British Social Movement)
2013-0000: Mark Collett (British Social Movement)
 
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The Truce

The rise of Communism, spread across Eastern and Central Europe by the Red Army, frightens the British Establishment into retaining the War Government - and the wartime electoral truce - until the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Tories grow militarily atavistic and politically authoritarian (although Keith Joseph is an exception, liberalising the economy to the extent of abolishing rationing) while their 'Block Parties' atrophy into corrupt vehicles for careerists. The only challenges facing these parties are the occasional by-elections resulting from the death or retirement of an existing MP, in which pro-democratic campaigners often smash the War Government. But it's never quite enough to deny them a majority.

At the end of the Cold War, the Government can no longer find any excuses for failing to hold a general election (with PR). Britain rejoices, sending their governing parties to oblivion - but before long, they come to regret it.

[MY COMPUTER IS SCREAMING AS I TRY TO SNORT THIS LIST]

liberal and national liberal

sweet jesus what a grim timeline
 
Me too. All I know of him was that he did a documentary about the King James Bible that I quite appreciated.

Oh, so his grandfather was a National Labour MP, and what with the dynastic-... Ah. One of the few National Labour MPs that first entered the House of Commons after the 1935 election, no less.
You're thinking of Adam Nicolson, who I have as leader of National Labour which is now just a dynastic piece of nonsense. David Nicholson is a faceless and incompetent civil servant who joined the CPGB as a young man, and I wanted to get across a kind of John Reid vibe of Ossified Opposition Party With Seats But No Actual Prospects but without using John Reid.

Amusingly, I was going to give this one an extremely long write-up and thought "Ooh, and I can include a reference to voters getting confused between Nicholson and Nicolson and that being the only thing that saves National Labour in 1990" and then immediately concluded that this would just get eye-rolls and I was overthinking everything and oh fuck it I'll just tell them the fucking premise of the List.
 
You're thinking of Adam Nicolson, who I have as leader of National Labour which is now just a dynastic piece of nonsense. David Nicholson is a faceless and incompetent civil servant who joined the CPGB as a young man, and I wanted to get across a kind of John Reid vibe of Ossified Opposition Party With Seats But No Actual Prospects but without using John Reid.

Amusingly, I was going to give this one an extremely long write-up and thought "Ooh, and I can include a reference to voters getting confused between Nicholson and Nicolson and that being the only thing that saves National Labour in 1990" and then immediately concluded that this would just get eye-rolls and I was overthinking everything and oh fuck it I'll just tell them the fucking premise of the List.

I must admit that I am a little disappointed that you didn't go for a Bonham-Carter as leader of the Liberals.
 
Fretful Sleepers

"New Zealanders may well wake up one day to find a military dictator riding them and wonder how he got there..."

Prime Ministers of New Zealand
1960-1971: Keith Holyoake (National)
1971-1974:
Jack Marshall (National)
March 1974 coup d'état
1974: Arthur Volkner (National, then Independent)
September 1974 referendum:
YES 68.8% NO 31.2%

Protectors of New Zealand
1974-1977: Arthur Volkner (Special X Movement)
1977
(Dec): Colin King-Ansell (interim) (Special X Movement)
1977-1978:
Charles Jespersen (Special X Movement) [1]

Executive Councillors of the Provisional Government of National Liberation
1975 (Jun-Aug): Bill Sutch (Independent (suspected Socialist Unity)) [2]
1975-1976 (May): Bill Andersen (Socialist Unity with Labour support)
1976-1977 (April): John A. Lee [3], Robert Muldoon, and Ken Douglas (Popular Front for the Restoration of Democracy between National, Labour, Democratic, Socialist Unity, and others)
1977 (Apr-Aug): John A. Lee, Winston Peters, and Ken Douglas[4] (Popular Front)
1977-1978: Winston Peters, The Rt. Rev. Paul Reeves, and Hone Harawira (Popular Front)
1978-1979:
Transitional Government (Executive Council headed by George Gair, The Rt Rev Paul Reeves, and Roger Douglas) (Popular Front)

February 1979 Government Referenda [5]
Restoration of Democracy: YES 96% NO 4%
Establishment of a Republic: YES 51.4% NO 48.6%
Truth and Reconciliation Tribunal: YES 74% NO 26%
Proportional Representation: Yes 37% NO 63%


Presidents of New Zealand
1979-1984: Edmund Hillary (Independent) [6]
1984-1989: Paul Reeves (Independent)
1989-1994: Winston Peters (Continuity National)
1994-1996: Bruce Beetham (Democratic)
[7]
1996-1999: Michael Hardie Boys (Independent)
1999-
0000: Margaret Wilson (Labour)

Prime Ministers of New Zealand
1979-1981: Roger Douglas (Popular Front-Labour) [8]
1981-1987: Roger Douglas (Labour)
1987-1994: Don McKinnon (Reform-Country coalition)
1994
(Jan-Jul): Wayne Shelford (interim) (Reform-Country coalition) [9]
1994-1995: Don McKinnon (Reform-Country coalition)
1995-1999: Jim Anderton
(Labour-Democratic coalition)
1999-2003: Simon Upton (Reform)
2003-0000: Nigel Neill (Labour)


[1] Although Number One on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Most Wanted list, Jespersen would escape both revolutionary and post-revolutionary justice, fleeing on an Air Force Hercules for parts unknown. Pictures from Rhodesia, Panama, and South Africa surfaced over the years, but he has never been run to ground.
[2] Bill Sutch was an unlikely revolutionary, and his holing up in the Soviet Embassy after being declared head of the Provisional Government would no doubt have caused a diplomatic incident had he not died shortly after.
[3] Agreeable to Labour leftists, Socialist Unity, and the SoCred defectors who formed a centrist grouping under the Democratic label, John A. Lee was the international face of the Provisional Government from his exile in Melbourne, though sickness and advancing age forced him to retire shortly before the end of the dictatorship.
[4] The last gasp of the Socialist Unity Party, Douglas stayed in Auckland to direct urban insurgency actions against the regime even after Bill Andersen was confirmed dead in the Coromandel. Like Andersen, he was eventually killed by the regime, his hanging in Aotea Square sparking the Second Battle of Queen Street and turning American public opinion sharply against support for the War in New Zealand.
[5] Unlike the 1974 Referendum, the Transitional Government made sure to saturate the voters with information about all the options before them, and then add some more for good measure. The only surprising result was the republican referendum; not because it passed, but because opposition was so strong - a phenomenon credited to the Benn Ministry's policy of "all aid short of help" in the dark days after Coromandel which rehabilitated Britain's image with New Zealanders and led the Republic to maintain a number of symbolic ties to Britain, which caused no end of internal contradictions later on.
[6] Reportedly, the first President of New Zealand's first words upon being told he had been appointed interim President were "Fuck off, they want to make me what?" This set the tone for what can generously be termed a hands-off approach to the executive and, somewhat ironically, to the nature of the Presidency in general, with the notion of embodying the spirit and dignity of New Zealand becoming accepted as convention.
[7] Beetham led most of Social Credit into the New Democratic Party, and would later attain a measure of leitimacy as an elder statesman of the Rebellion. This would propel him to the Presidency in the five-way election of 1994, being succeeded upon his death by noted anti-Volkner dissident and former head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Michael Hardie Boys.
[8] Escaping his father and brother's fates of "shot while resisting arrest", "Red Roger" became the eminence grise and chief administrator of the Rebellion and, in the all-but-uncontested election of 1979, a shoo-in for PM. Even after the Front dissolved with the two-year power-sharing arrangement's expiration date, Douglas and the reborn Labour Party maintained a majority.
Inspired by the contemporary Bennite Model of British economics and Kosygin's reform proposals, Douglas restructured the economy along mixed-market lines in what detractors, and later all New Zealanders, called Roger Douglas Thought.
[9] New Zealand's first Maori head of government would be one of its shortest-serving as, during Don McKinnon's illness, the Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the more rural of the two parties to burst from the corpse of the National Party - a taciturn war hero and veteran of the Rotorua Resistance who as a teenager had thrown grenades into windows during the Buck's Motel Massacre and garrotted Special X sentries in the redwoods - would sit for five uneasy months as Prime Minister. New Zealand's sportsmen saw a number of world-stage victories during his brief tenure, giving birth to a cult following who continue to wave signs bearing his name and likeness at sports events to this day.

All that most New Zealanders noticed of the coup of '74, besides the warship in Auckland Harbour and the occasional armed soldier escorting a local politician into a black car, was that the paper didn't get delivered and there was nothing on TV or radio besides a test pattern and military music.

And then, when Volkner came over the airwaves and began giving one of his customary speeches about the Failure of the Establishment and the need for his beloved Creative Thinking, it all seemed reasonable enough. The economy had gone to the dogs since the Poms joined the EEC in '68, and National and Labour alike had failed to do anything to stop it. If a defector from the Government's ranks had decided to chase the bastards out and start again with a clean slate, why not at least give him a chance?

The referendum later that year was democratic in the sense that people were allowed to vote and, on the face of it, well-managed in that there was no impediment to people's right to vote. The real issue was that the media blackout from the coup in March to the vote in September blocked out anything deemed 'political', and did this so effectively (including by taking all of Parliament, Government and Opposition, into custody) that most people had little idea of what they were voting for or against beyond 'Volkner and the black-suited Special X continue to have control'.

Be it through ignorance or a sense that the new order was delivering actual solutions to the country's problems - and to be fair, the jobs programme and financial voodoo arising from Volkner's fondness for Social Credit (and a great deal of American aid) did seem to have pulled the country out of its depression - Volkner got over two-thirds of the vote and an apparent mandate to rule, and never mind the depressed turnout. The capital moved to Auckland, the bureaucracy in Wellington was shuttered, and the nation was encouraged to look to the future.

As the 1970s rolled on, it dawned upon people that an unhinged crypto-fascist might have a less-than-pleasant set of ideas in mind when he talked about 'Creative Thinking'. If the jackbooted crackdown on dissent hadn't communicated that clearly enough, the clearest signal came with the bloody crackdown on the May Day march of '75, where (now-illegal) trade unionists and peaceful (and a few less-than-peaceful) protesters were set upon by paramilitary Special X goons and militarised policemen. An attempted watersiders' strike was broken up, this time with bayonets. This was the final straw for the left and a good deal of the right, and a number of self-proclaimed resistance cells sprung up in the many rugged and hard-to-reach parts of rural New Zealand.

Throughout 1975 the Communists, who Volkner had routinely demonised, were in the ascendant. The Socialist Unity Party had proved the only one of the pre-coup parties to have escaped the initial seizure and imprisonment of political figures, and a trickle of arms from the Eastern Bloc begun making their way to isolated harbours along the East Coast in the dead of night.

The SUP dominance of the rebel government proved short-lived, as the early attempts at an insurgency in the Coromandel were smoked out with napalm and shot down from helicopters. Instead, it would be a motley collection of concerned citizens, long-haired weirdoes, clergy, members of the banned political parties, and a handful of pre-regime figures who had escaped captivity which would form the Popular Front under a rotating cast of leaders, figureheads, and exiles who did the diplomatic circuit in an effort to gain foreign support.

As the pace of the rebellion sped up, a series of ever-stranger bedfellows found themselves fighting the regime. If Rob Muldoon cut an unlikely figure in guerrilla jungle camo, the image of one-armed octogenarian John A. Lee shaking hands with Giscard in Tahiti was bizarre and that of the Bishop of Waiapu with an Armalite was outlandish. These were supplemented by what was called the 'quiet' resistance, the network of citizens who went about their lives without any outward signs of discontent while quietly sheltering, supplying, or otherwise abetting the activities of the insurgents.

Despite the growth of the resistance, it was arguably President Connally's decision to quietly withdraw American 'advisors', as part of his efforts to smooth out the rougher parts of Nixon-era foreign policy, which doomed the Volkner regime. Despite increased material support, as the U.S. military drained from the country like water from a bathtub the resistance gained ground rapidly, and by mid-1977 the situation had descended to a rough stalemate in which Volkner controlled little beyond his capital in Auckland and the other main centres, while the Popular Front remained too bruised by the Coromandel Campaign to risk a stand-up battle.

Nevertheless, the no-go areas expanded as guerrilla attacks grew bolder. Where the 1974-'76 period had been characterised by the regime disappearing from their homes in the middle of the night, now it was those aligned with Special X who were going missing. An entire Army patrol went missing without a trace in the Hunuas. A patrol boat exploded off Banks Peninsula. A parcel full of severed fingers was received at Special X headquarters. Vehicle radiators across the country were seemingly awash with urine.

Volkner's sudden death at the end of 1977 (thunderstorm, mossy steps, cranial haemorrhage) broke the spirit of the regime. The trickle of deserters became a flood, and even Volkner's chief lieutenants were unable to maintain the unity of Special X. Newly-elected Labour Governments in Australia and Britain expelled the regime's High Commissioners to Canberra and London and turned on the aid taps, and besides a few firefights in the CBD, the rebel convoy which rode back into Auckland did so unopposed.

After a transitional period involving more referenda than you could shake a stick at, the new Republic set about the messy business of building a future.

Twenty-five years on from the Volkner Period, as the post-Volkner generation comes of age and people say 'Never Again' on rainy March mornings before memorials to dead heroes, Zealand continues to try and engage with its past.
 
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