History Literature / TheNorthStarIsRed

* PyrrhicVictory: England, the US and Israel invade Egypt in 1952 to stop the Free Officers' coup and protect the monarchy. While successful, king Farouk dies in the process and the following brutal British occupation of the country ends up destroying the monarchy's reputation among the Egyptians, leading to open rebellion. [[spoiler: By 1964 the war is considered unwinnable by the new British government that simply decides to abandon the country, leaving the nation in the hands of a hybrid Islamist/communist government.]]

** Beria. He is a sadist as much as OTL, but he opposes Stalin's antisemitic purges simply to protect the USSR's reputation abroad and avoid damaging Moscow's relationship with the West. He also starts a series of political and economic reforms to protect his power after becoming premier of the Soviet Union.

* SaltingTheEarth: [[spoiler: Among Amin's tactics is to utterly destroy the countryside of Tanganyika his forces retreat from with famine, hoping to destabilize his enemies. However, he not only makes himself look like a monster, but even his African allies turn on him when his policies affect them]].

* GeneralRipper: General Emile Janssens is presented as a violent BloodKnight, who constantly needs to be kept in check by his American counterparts during the war in Congo. His solution to the anti-war protests in Belgium is to violently crush them, killing thousands of people in the process.

* SpiritualAntithesis: Although the two timelines started around the same time, some readers have pointed out that The North Star can be considered the spiritual antithesis of WebOriginal/TheFootprintOfMussolini in its depiction of Henry Wallace and decolonisation:

** The situation of the Space Race is inverted. The Americans managed to launch the first satellite and man in space, but it is Beria's Soviet Union who landed first on the Moon

** Jordan collapses in civil war and is divided between Israel, Saudi Arabia and Syria.

** Ian Smith and other white supremacists in the Central African Federation offer free passage to North China's soldiers sent to assist Tanganyika against Idi Amin's invasion both to avenge the British soldiers killed by his army and in the hope that a communist victory in East Africa will persuade England that [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain black mayority rule for the CAF is a bad idea.]]
** The trope is gradualy [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] with the US and Europe regarding the decolonisation process. While America initially favors the preservation of the European colonial powers, France and England's failures coupled with the increasing deteriorating situation in their colonies cause the US to support indipendence movements that are against both Europe and the Soviets.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: North China is a brutal communist dictatorship, but its government seems to really believe the equality message of Communism, welcoming Jewish refugees from the USSR, breaking all contacts with Syria after its genocidal intentions against Israel became clear and refusing to give up on anti-Apartheid rebels in South Africa unlike Moscow.

* ObfuscatingInsanity: It is suggested that while Idi Amin has all the characteristics of TheCaligula, he acts crazy to led his enemies into understimating him.The fact he is smart enough to cede parts of his territory to Somalia to ensure its neutrality and he starts targetting British soldier only after making sure England won't retilate seems to confirm this.

** North China and North Japan are the only two members of the Warsaw's Pact ready to welcome the jewish refugees sent by Beria from Russia.

** President Kennedy likewise openly threatens to use military force to protect the democratic governments of the US' allies in South America against the members of their armed forces.
** While mostly based on pragmatic reasons, UsefulNotes/FranciscoFranco recognised the indipendence of the Spanish colony of Morocco earlier than OTL in gratitude for the natives' support during the Spanish Civil War.
* PyrrhicVictory: England, the US and Israel invade Egypt in 1952 to stop the Free Officers' coup and protect the monarchy. While succesful, king Farouk dies in the process and the following brutal british occupation of the country ends up destroying the monarchy's reputation among the Egyptians, leading to open rebellion. [[spoiler: By 1964 the war is considered unwinnable by the new British government that simply decides to abandon the country, leaving the nation in the hands of an hybrid islamist/communist goverment.]]

** The government of West Austria restores the royal government of the Habsburgs after The Three Years War. Likewise, Hungary recognizes Otto Habsburg as its head of state (albeit not as monarch, as a result of still being a communist state ).

** Deconstructed with the British empire. After 1963 the new British government decides that the colonial wars are too expensive and useless and to let the colonies go. However there are no plans to actually leave behind stable governments, causing even more chaos and widespread destruction in Africa and the Middle East.

** Both timelines depict a Henry Wallace's precidency but their portrayals are completely different. In FOM Wallace is presented as TooDumbToLive, being utterly unable to understand or accept the true nature of Stalin's rule while in The Red Star he is presented as a misguided but ReasonableAuthorityFigure who like his OTL self ultimately realises his mistakes and does anything in his power to remedy them. While in bothy cases Wallace's actions profundly impacts the future events of the timeline, [[spoiler: FOM has him impeached and killed while The Red Star has him losing the 1948 election but still being respected as a former president, albeit a very controversial one.]]
** In both timelines the process of decolonisation significantly diverges from OTL thanks to the Soviets being more focused on their internal issues and the US being partially supportive of the Eurupean Powers. FOM however has a more positive portrayal of surviving European colonial empires, with the author stating that FOM's Asia and Africa are mostly in a much better shape than OTL thanks to this, while The Red Star has a much more cynical outlook with both the rebels and the colonial governments adopting increasingly brutal tactics to get rid of each other, with widespread destruction and chaos spreading in Asia and Africa. The North Star is also far more cynical in its depiction of the Francophonie and the idea of former colonies remaning under European influence, often presenting these countries as puppet states that desperately want to get rid of Europeam domination. Likewise in the North Star the US' support of the colonial governments has numerous negative consequence with many African-Americans symphatising with the anticolonial struggle and identyfing the centuries of persecution they suffered with Washington's wars against the rebels of Congo, compared to FOM's more neutral stance.
** In FOM Italy is a fascist dictatorship ruled by a PuppetKing and it is a superpower thanks to a international alliance of fascist governments. In The North Star the country is a costitunional monarchy whose third position consists in creating a stable series of alliances of countries who have good reasons to dislike both the United States and the Soviet Union.

*** Syria is able to expand its borders by taking over parts of Jordan and Iraq, conquering Hatay from Turkey and succesfully invading north Israel. However this isn't a case of AdaptationalBadass as Syria still suffers the same issues of its OTL counterpart and its successes are caused by external factors. The syrian government is forced to give up on its ambitions against Israel the moment North China stops supporting its war effort, effectively recognising Judeo-Palestine as an indipendent country, and the costant warfare takes a serious toll on its army to the point Damascus has no choice but to accept the partition of Iraq to protect the territories it already owns.
*** Likewise Idi Amin is able to conquer large parts of former British East Africa thanks to the chaos caused by England's policies in the region. However his brutality turns everyone against him, leading to [[EnemyMine an improbable alliance of former British colonial troops, North China, white supremacists in the Central African Federation and the Tanganyikans]]. Likewise his army suffers as a consequence of [[GeneralFailure his poor leadership]] and Portugal's decision to fight with him against the rebels is the only reason why his government is still around.

* TheFundamentalist: Washington starts supporting islamist fundamentalists in the Middle East and Indonesia first against governments supported by the Soviets and North China and later against governments backed by the European colonial powers.

** Surprsingly downplayed with UsefulNotes/JosephStalin at least initially. Unlike Literature/TwilightOfTheRedTsar he is smart enough to not target members of Soviet armed forces and scientific comunity, having learnt his lesson from UsefulNotes/WW2, and accepts Beria's suggestion to have the russian jews "simply" deported to North China and North Japan rather than having them killed or imprisoned in the gulags.
** Played straight with Finland. After the Soviet conquers it during the Three Years War, the NKVD starts to hunt down and kill any member of the Finnish political, military and civilian sphere who was responsable for the Soviet Union's defeat during the Winter War or simply is a suspected threath to Soviet dominance.

** Idi Amin has all his potential rivals killed and in some cases [[IAmAHumanitarian eaten]] to make sure the US and Portugal will support only him in Uganda.

* PyrrhicVictory: England, the US and Israel invade Egypt in the 50s to stop the Free Officers' coup and protect the monarchy. While succesful, king Farouk dies in the process and the following brutal british occupation of the country ends up destroying the monarchy's reputation among the Egyptians, leading to open rebellion. [[spoiler: By 1964 the war is considered unwinnable by the new British government that simply decides to abandon the country, leaving the nation in the hands of an hybrid islamist/communist goverment.]]

*** Syria is able to expand its borders by taking over parts of Jordan and Iraq, conquering Hatay from Turkey and succesfully invading south Israel. However this isn't a case of AdaptationalBadass as Syria still suffers the same issues of its OTL counterpart and its successes are caused by external factors. The syrian government is forced to give up on its ambitions against Israel the moment North China stops supporting its war effort, effectively recognising Judeo-Palestine as an indipendent country, and the costant warfare takes a serious toll on its army to the point Damascus has no choice but to accept the partition of Iraq to protect the territories it already owns.

*** Syria is able to expand its borders by taking over parts of Jordan, Iraq, conquering Hatay from Turkey and succesfully invading south Israel. However this isn't a case of AdaptationalBadass as Syria still suffers the same issues of its OTL counterpart and its successes are caused by external factors. The syrian government is forced to give up on its ambitions against Israel the moment North China stops supporting its war effort, effectively recognising Judeo-Palestine as an indipendent country, and the costant warfare takes a serious toll on its army to the point Damascus has no choice but to accept the partition of Iraq to protect the territories it already owns.

** The timeline also shows the issues a country sibjected to AlternateHistoryWank would face:

*** Likewise Idi Amin is able to conquer large parts of former British East Africa thanks to the chaos caused ny England's policies in the region. However his brutality turns everyone against him, leading to [[EnemyMine an improbable alliance of former British colonial troops, North China, white supremacists in the Central Adrican Federation and the Tanganyikans]]. Likewise his army suffers as a consequence of [[GeneralFailure his poor leadership skills]] and Portugal's decision to fight with him against the rebels is the only reason why his government is still around.

** Absolutely nobody likes Idi Amin. His men follows him either because they are terrorised of him or simply because [[RapePillageAndBurn he let them do what they want in the conquered territories]], and Portugal and the US support him simply because [[ThePurge he has murdered any other potential leader in Kenya, Northern Uganda, and occupied Tanganyika]].

** Absolutely nobody likes Idi Amin. His men follows him either because they are terrorised of him or simply because [[RapePillageAndBurn he let them do what they want in the conquered territories]], and Portugal and the US supports him simply because [[ThePurge he has murdered any other potential leader in Kenya, Northern Uganda, and occupied Tanganyika]].

** Absolutely nobody likes Idi Amin. His men follows him either because they are terrorised of him or simply because [[RapePillageAndBurn he let them do what they want in the conquered territories]], and Portugal and the US supports him simply because [[ThePurge he has murdered any other potential leader of Uganda]].

* PyrrhicVictory: England, the US and Israel invade Egypt in the 50s to stop the Free Officers' coup and protect the monarchy. While succesfull, king Farouk dies in the process and the following brutal british occupation of the country ends up destroying the monarchy's reputation among the Egyptians, leading to open rebellion. [[spoiler: By 1964 the war is considered unwinnable by the new British government that simply decides to abandon the country, leaving the nation in the hans of an hybrid islamist/communist goverment.]]