There Is Only One Force Left In The World And That Is Planned Capitalism:
Presidents of the U.S.A:
1941-1944: Wendall Wilkie (Republican)
1940 (With John L.Lewis) def: Paul V. McNutt (Democrat), Charles Lindbergh (America First)
1944-1953: John L. Lewis (Republican)
1944 (With Earl Warren) def: Culbert Olson (Democrat)
1948 (With Earl Warren) def: James F. Byrnes (Democrat), Vito Marcantonio (American Labor)
1953-1961: Jerry Voorhis (Democratic)
1952 (With Mike Monroney) def: Earl Warren (Republican), Joseph McCarthy (Anti-Communist)
1956 (With Mike Monroney) def: Douglas McArthur (Republican)
1961-1965: Mike Monroney (Democratic)
1960 (With Joseph S. Clark Jr.) def: Hugh Cabot Lodge Jr. (Republican), Strom Thurmond (American)
1965-1973: William Scranton (Republican)
1964 (With Margaret Chase Smith) def: Mike Monroney (Democratic), George Wallace (American)
1968 (With Margaret Chase Smith) def: Joseph S. Clark Jr. (Democratic), James L. Buckley (Conservative)
1973-1977: Larry McDonald (Conservative endorsed by ‘Right Republicans’)
1972 (With John G. Schmitz) def: Tom McCall (Liberal-Republican), Sam Yorty (Democratic), Benjamin Spock (People’s)
1977-: John Lindsay (Democratic)
1976 (With Walter Reuther) def: Larry McDonald (Conservative), Howard Baker (Republican), John Rarick (America First)
Prime Minister of Great Britain:
1942-1945: Stafford Cripps (Independent leading War Goverment)
1945-1954: Anthony Eden (Conservative)
1945 (Majority) def: Herbert Morrison (Labour), William Beveridge (Liberal), C.A.Smith (CommonWealth)
1950 (Majority) def: Herbert Morrison (Labour), Megan Lloyd George (Liberal), Ernest Bader (CommonWealth)
1954-1966: Evan Durbin (Labour)
1954 (Majority) def: Anthony Eden (Conservative), Megan Lloyd George-Ernest Bader (Liberal-CommonWealth Alliance), Ernest Millington (Ind. CommonWealth)
1958 (Majority) def: Rab Butler (Conservative), Honour Balfour (Radicals), John Freeman-Ernest Millington (Socialist Labour-Ind. CommonWealth), Andrew Foutaine (Citizens)
1962 (Majority) def: Duncan Sandys (Conservative), Ivor Davies (Radicals), John Freeman (CommonWealth)
1966-1971: John Profumo (Conservative)
1966 (Majority) def: Evan Durbin (Labour), Eric Lubbock (Radicals), Ian Mikardo (CommonWealth)
1970 (Majority) def: James Callaghan (Labour), Eric Lubbock (Radical), Ian Mikardo (CommonWealth)
1971-1975: Peter Walker (Conservative)
1975-: Eric Varley (Labour)
1975 (Majority) def: Peter Walker (Conservative), Richard Wainwright (Radical), Ian Mikardo (CommonWealth)
1979 (Coalition with Radicals) def: Francis Pym (Conservative), Richard Wainwright (Radical), John Peck-Audery Wise (CommonWealth), Andrew Foutaine (National Front)
General Secretary of the Soviet Union:
1922-1945: Joseph Stalin (CPSU)
1945-1949: Andrei Zhdanov (CPSU)
1949-1954: Leningrad Troika of Rodionov, Voznesensky and Kosygin (CPSU)
1954-1967: Nikolai Voznesensky (CPSU)
1967-1977: Alexi Kosygin (CPSU)
1977-: Pyotr Masherov (CPSU)
Paramount Leaders of the PRC:
1949-1962: Mao Zedong (CCP)
1962-1965: Zhou Enlai (CCP)
1965-1974: Liu Shaoqi (CCP)
1974-1977: Lin Bao (Military)
1977-1978: Gang of Five (Yun, Hongwen, Dongxing, Jianying and Ching-ling)
1978-: Chen Yun (CCP-Reformist Clique)
1978 def: Wang Hongwen (CCP-Left Clique), Wang Dongxing (CCP-Military)
Presidents of the Chinese Republic:
1949-1970: Chiang Kai-shek (KMT)
1970-1977: Chiang Ching-kuo (KMT)
1977-1978: National Democratic Coalition of Reconciliation
1978-: Liang Su-yung (KMT)
1978 (With Lee Yuan-tsu) def: Lin Yi-hsiung (Solidarity), Lee Teng-hui (Tangwai), Chien Hsi-chieh (Labor Party)
The Year is 1979 and despite nearly 35 years of constant ups and downs and those last four which were very squeaky bum time (remember when we were all going to die in Nuclear Hellfire over China, those were the days) the world has managed to keep spinning despite it all.
In the U.S.A. it seems that the great experiment in Paleoconservatism...umm...went poorly. Larry MacDonald thought that by simply setting fire to the glorious (and wheezing) Industrial Consumer Cooperative Democracy set up by the Lewis-Voorhis administrations and replacing it with Milton Friedman’s wet dreams, that America would become a great country again. This went poorly, leaving America at the mercy of Market Forces was a terrible idea with the Dollar at one point being worth less than the Warsaw Rouble as a Global Recession occurred. The Conservative project ripped itself to shreds as the State Righters left, grumpy at MacDonald’s lack of reinstalling the idea of Jim Crow or the fact that he didn’t use machine guns to dispose of rioters in Harlem. Meanwhile Left and Right Wing Militias battled each other, as Striking Miners re-enacted the Coal Wars of the 1910s and AIM battled Neo-Nazi’s at Wounded Knee as America looked like it would rip itself to shreds.
John Lindsay’s victory in 76’ for many symbolised the victory of Common Sense, of American Liberalism triumphant return after it blooded itself over the argument between Yorty, McCall and Spock in 72’. The New Left would grit there teeth, salved slightly by the appearance of Walter Reuther as the Vice President as he advocates for the creation of a Social Democracy which is slightly out of step with Lindsay's Liberal, New Deal, Social Market ideas. Whilst John Lindsay seeks to rectify the chaos created in Larry MacDonald's wake the Conservative movement wonders where to go next, with some advocating for a reunification to oust Lindsay whilst other's advocate more...direct means to say the least.
Meanwhile in Britain the remains of the Cripps Consensus shuffle onwards, the War and Cripps created it, Eden conserved it and Durbin extended it as British Christian Social Democracy became the talk of Europe. Profumo was in many respects a reaction to State Management and Fabianism of the previous Governments, an attempt to turn Britain into a Social Market nation occurred, but the Trade Unions would battle Profumo at every turn and eventually ghosts from his past would come back to haunt him. Walker tried to continue Profumo's work, but a global recession in the wake of MacDonald's appearance on the scene followed by chaos over a possible thermonuclear war would lead to Walker being left holding the bag when Varley gained a landslide victory.
But Varley is being presented with an awkward Britain, the Cripps Consensus is beginning to feel it's age and Britain never really recovered from the recession as well as other nations. The raise of the Syndicalist/Democratic Socialist CommonWealth on the Left and the raise of the once moribund National Front on the Right has meant that Varley has become reliant on the Radicals for support, which may not be a bad thing. Labour has lagged behind on the Civil Rights and the Radicals ideas on spreading the Cripps Consensus outwards through decentralisation instead of routing everything back to Westminster may bring new life to a wheezing system.
The Soviet Union isn't your grandad's Soviet Union, one of constant Famines, Stalinist rule and an economy heavily tied to Heavy Industry, Stalin's death in 45 would pave the way for the eventual victory of the Leningrad Group of Technocrats, Market Socialists and the raise of 'Capitalist Communism' because whilst the Zhdanov Doctrine would unify the Warsaw Pact culturally, the Voznesensky-Koysgin doctrine would unify the Warsaw Pact economically as it went from being the puppet states of the Soviet Union, to being an economic trading pact which openly competes with Europe and America. The Soviet Union no longer extends it's reach via force, but via a system of elaborate projects and economic pacts with developing nations reliant on support as America spasmed during the late 60s and 70s.
But all is not right in the Soviet Union, just because it has a vibrant economy doesn't mean it's not experiencing it's own problems, corruption is rife and battles between Farmers and Gangsters in the early 70s lead to the raise of Pyotr Masherov, a member of the supposed Left of the CPSU, he has advocated reform away from just being an Market Socialist system but to one that could be called a Social Democracy if you squinted very hard and ignored the Authoritarian aspects to it. Whilst Pytor symbolises a supposed new step in the Soviet program of modernisation, the same old aspects of it remain, dissidents still arrested, free speech stifled and any form of democracy outside of the monitored workplace democracies scrubbed clean from the earth.
China has been the bubbling pot for the past 35 years, if Wendall Wilkie did anything of note outside of being America's Brief War President and dying it was his fascination with China brought about by a late night stand with the Madame Chiang Kai-shek that meant that the Republic of China managed to cling on to some territory on the Chinese Mainland, even if being an ROC official in Guangdong is the equivalent of playing Russian Roulette but with car bombs instead of revolver bullets. Meanwhile the PRC tried to continue the ideals of Stalinism under Mao, but the Great Leap Forward nearly lead to a China so depopulated that the ROC could have just rolled tanks in and drove all the way to Beijing. The Soviets decided that this wasn't to be the case and Mao would be sent to a small guarded Dacha in Siberia to live out the rest of his days with his wife. In his place, Zhou Enlai would step in but his stubborn refusal to join the Soviet Economy would see his removal within in three years to be replaced by a reformer in the shape of Li Shaoqi who managed to keep China humming until the global recession graced the PRC's door in 1974.
To Lin Bao this was the sign of failure within the Chinese system and he would perform a coup. The next 3 years would see the China's preparing for war as Lin Bao and Chiang Ching-kuo macho waved there nuclear ICBM's at each other supported by an ailing Kosygin and Larry MacDonald in full Anti-Communist mode. In the end American and the Soviet Union had enough, Lin Bao would be deposed in a palace coup as the Gang of Five (a coalition of the CCP's Right and Left) united to overthrow the Bonaparte that was Lin, supported by the Soviet Union. Meanwhile America would support the National Democratic Coalition of Reconciliation, part of a wave of Pro-Democracy revolts that swept across the globe as everywhere from Portugal to Egypt to India would see Pro-Democracy Revolts. As the Reformers in the PRC establish there grip and finally join the Warsaw Economic Pact and the ROC embraces Democracy for the first time, it seems the world whilst not perfect is managing to stabilise itself.
Well for now at least, who knows what the next year will bring as the new Muslim Democracy of Egypt stares at Israel intently...