Literature / The North Star Is Red

The North Star is Red: a Wallace Presidency, KMT Victory, Alternate Cold War TL is a timeline on AlternateHistory.com written by TastySpam. As the title suggests, the timeline features a scenario where Henry Wallace, the second Vice President of FDR from 1940 to 1944, isn't replaced by Henry Truman and becomes president after FDR's death in 1945.

While he ends up being a one-term president, Wallace's actions end up significantly changing the ending of World War II from our timeline: only one nuke is dropped on Japan and the island ends up split between the capitalist south and the communist north. In a similar way, China ends up divided in two after the partial victory of the KMT in the civil war, thus significantly changing the course of history for most of the Cold War.

Tropes found in this timeline include:

• 0% Approval Rating:
  • One of the key reasons behind Beria's downfall. Even after the failure of the military coup, the rest of the Politburo despises him for being a sadist and Stalin's former henchman and even the students who sided with him dislike him for being too moderate with his reforms.
  • Downplayed with Joseph McCarthy. He is popular as president but his willingness to use nuclear weapons during the Three Years' War led to a military coup by the US Navy.
  • Both Labour and the Conservative Parties suffer this during the 1963 British elections. The former is despised for selling the Falklands to Argentina and being incapable of defending the British Empire, while the latter is hit by the Profumo scandal exactly like OTL. It leads to the election of the Libertarians as result.
  • The Egyptian monarchy is so unpopular that even the kingdoms of Libya and Tunisia prefer to recognize the communist and Islamist rebels as the legitimate government of Egypt rather than the British-backed royals.
  • Absolutely nobody likes Idi Amin. His men follow him either because they are terrified of him or simply because he let them do what they want in the conquered territories, and Portugal and the US support him simply because he has murdered any other potential leader in Kenya, Northern Uganda, and occupied Tanganyika.
• Allohistorical Allusion:
  • Like in OTL a nationalist government is forced to flee to a small island after the mainland is overrun by communist forces, but in this TL it happens to the government of South Korea rather than to the KMT.
  • JFK being McCarthy's Vice President in 1956 is probably a reference to him almost becoming Adlai Stevenson's running mate during the same time period in OTL.
  • JFK actually rises to the presidency only after McCarthy's death, similarly to what happened with LBJ after Kennedy's assassination.
  • 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 that landed first on the Moon
• Balkanise Me:
  • As the title suggests, both China and Japan are divided between a communist state in the North and a capitalist state in the South.
  • Germany is initially broken up in the aftermath of the Second World War but it is quietly reversed.
  • Subverted with Korea. It is originally divided like OTL (albeit North Korea ended up bigger than OTL), but it is reunified under communist rule at the end of The Three Years War.
  • Indonesia is slowly collapsing and being divided between what is left of the Dutch colonial administration, the Communists and the Islamists.
  • Algeria is divided between a French Territory in Oran, an independent Algerian communist state and a Tuareg state that is still under Paris' rule.
  • Iran is a weird example of this. It originally lost territories to the Soviet Union at the end of World War 2, but after its government decides to side with Moscow, these territories are technically given back to Tehran, while being still de facto independents.
  • Islamists backed by Washington manages to create an independent state in the southern part of Saudi Arabia
  • Turkey, Iran and Iraq lost their Kurdish provinces as a result of The Three Years War, World War 2 and a civil war respectively, but none of these territories are known as "Kurdistan" and are ruled mostly by Turkish, Iraqi and Iranian communists rather than by members of the local Kurdish communities.
  • North Israel is successfully invaded by Syria and it is turned into the North Chinese-backed state of Judeo-Palestine.
  • Yugoslavia loses Macedonia to Bulgaria after the Soviet invasion of The Three Years War, but successfully annexes Albania.
  • Jordan collapses in a civil war and is divided between Israel, Saudi Arabia and Syria.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Beria meets his end with Soviet activists surgically removing his brain from his skull.
• Deal with the Devil:
  • De Gaulle's decision to cut a deal with the Soviet Union to peacefully solve the Algerian crisis and start a new series of trade accords with Moscow shortly after the end of the Three Years War is seen as this by many members of the French military and politics. It leads to his death and a worsening of the situation in the French colonies.
  • Italy quickly signs a peace deal with Moscow during the Three Years War in exchange for Trieste.
• Enemy Mine:
  • Stalin ends supporting the royal forces in the Greek civil war after their communist rivals ended up siding with Yugoslavia after Tito split from Moscow (it is however a downplayed example as the alliance is kept secret for fear of demoralizing the royal army). As a consequence of this President Wallace decides to send weapons to the communist forces.
  • The Kingdom of Laos collaborates with communist guerrillas in Vietnam to get rid of French influence in the region.
  • President Kennedy is perfectly okay with South American leftist governments as long as they are not communists and are ready to help the US against the Soviet Union.
  • Iran, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan become Russian allies as a result of their common rivalry against the US and/or Israel.
  • According to the author, the conspirators who ended De Gaulle's life included some of his former supporters, socialists, Jews and even former collaborators of the Vichy regime, all united by their hatred against the Soviet Union and De Gaulle's deals with Beria.
  • Even if Yugoslavia and Hungary are still two communist countries, the US still accepts their request to join the United Nations as a result of their shared hatred against the Soviet Union.
  • While it is a relationship with England isn't friendly, the government of South Africa chooses to remain a British dominion as both nations look at the US' support for decolonisation with suspicion. Capetown gladly accepts South China's help to combat local communist rebels.
    • Averted however with Yugoslavia. Tito still refuses to start diplomatic ties with South Africa even after the Three Years War.
  • 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 black majority rule for the CAF is a bad idea.
  • The trope is gradually 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 increasingly deteriorating situation in their colonies cause the US to support independence movements that are against both Europe and the Soviets.
• Even Evil Has Standards: 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.
• Everyone Has Standards: The Belgian King is distrustful of communists, but he refuses to allow Emile Janssens to overthrow Belgium's democracy, driving the man into exile.
• General Ripper: General Emile Janssens is presented as a violent Blood Knight, 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.
• Morality Kitchen Sink: Oh boy, the morality of this world is ridiculously complicated. You have democratic nations that do shady things like supporting colonialism and a cannibalistic warlord. You have communist states that do decent things like social equality.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Even if he quickly abandoned it, President Wallace's original friendliness to Moscow is one of the key reasons behind the prolonged Greek civil war, the earlier than OTL development of the Russian nuclear arsenal and Beria's successful moon landing in 1959.
• Nuke 'em:
  • Subverted with Japan. After its government refuses to surrender after the first nuke is dropped, a horrified President Wallace opts to invade the island with Soviet assistance
  • Both Washington and Moscow end up using nukes against North China and Sweden respectively during The Three Years War.
• Obfuscating Insanity: It is suggested that while Idi Amin has all the characteristics of The Caligula, he acts crazy to lead his enemies into underestimating him. The fact he is smart enough to cede parts of his territory to Somalia to ensure its neutrality and he starts targetting British soldiers only after making sure England won't retaliate seems to confirm this.
• Pet the Dog:
  • North China and North Japan are the only two members of the Warsaw Pact ready to welcome the Jewish refugees sent by Beria from Russia.
  • While partially based on Insane Troll Logic president Joseph McCarthy openly considers racism unamerican and pushes for an earlier version of the Civil Rights Bill.
  • President Kennedy likewise openly threatens to use military force to protect the democratic governments of US allies in South America against the members of their armed forces.
  • While mostly based on pragmatic reasons, Francisco Franco recognised the independence of the Spanish colony of Morocco earlier than OTL in gratitude for the natives' support during the Spanish Civil War.
• Pyrrhic Victory: 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. 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.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • Beria. He is as much of a sadist 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.
  • Even if it is under Apartheid like OTL, South Africa prefers to support the liberal Roy Welensky as leader of the Central African Federation rather than the white supremacist Ian Smith to assure the stability of its neighbour.
• Rightful King Returns:
  • 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 a monarch, as a result of still being a communist state ).
  • With President Wallace's assistance both the Kingdom of Italy and the Kingdom of South Germany are restored after World War 2.
• Salt the Earth: 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.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • After discovering Stalin is planning to purge him, Molotov decides to prolong his diplomatic visit to North China indefinitely.
  • Hungary abandons the Warsaw Pact, using the chaos of The Tree Years War to kick the Soviets out
  • 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.
• Spiritual Antithesis: 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 The Footprint of Mussolini in its depiction of Henry Wallace and decolonisation:
  • Both timelines depict a Henry Wallace presidency but their portrayals are completely different. In FOM Wallace is presented as Too Dumb to Live, 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 Reasonable Authority Figure 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 profoundly impact the future events of the timeline, 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 European 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 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 remaining under European influence, often presenting these countries as puppet states that desperately want to get rid of European domination. Likewise in the North Star, the US' support of the colonial governments has numerous negative consequences with many African-Americans sympathising with the anticolonial struggle and identifying the centuries of persecution they suffered from 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 Puppet King and it is a superpower thanks to an international alliance of fascist governments. In The North Star, the country is a constitutional 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.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • In a fit of paranoia Stalin fakes his own death during the Three Years War, governing the Soviet Union in secret. This however allows Beria to expand his power and take control of the Soviet Union after killing Stalin.
  • This timeline quickly points out that neither the French Army nor the Algerians would be happy with an eventual division of Algeria. This division quickly causes the assassination of De Gaulle and a civil war between the Algerian Communist Party and the FLN.
  • Japan almost immediately surrender after the Soviets began their invasion of the Island in 1945, quickly dropping the idea of fighting to the bitter end.
  • Even with partial American support and the Soviets having almost no interest in supporting decolonization, it is becoming increasingly clear the European empires aren't going to survive the second half of the 20th century. Not only the colonial wars are destroying their economies, but they have also to deal with popular protests and many internal problems caused by the Cold War.
  • It is stated numerous times that Kennedy assumes huge amounts of drugs to hide his health problems and deal with the pressure caused by his job.This causes his sudden death in 1964.
  • The timeline also shows the issues a country subjected to Alternate History Wank would face:
    • Syria is able to expand its borders by taking over parts of Jordan and Iraq, conquering Hatay from Turkey and successfully invading north Israel. However, this isn't a case of Adaptational Badass as Syria still suffers the same issues as 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 independent country, and the constant 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 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 his poor leadership and Portugal's decision to fight with him against the rebels is the only reason why his government is still around.
• Team Switzerland: Italy ends up creating this timeline's version of the Non-Aligned Movement.
• The Fundamentalist: 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.
• The Purge:
  • Surprisingly downplayed with Joseph Stalin at least initially. Unlike Twilight Of The Red Tsar he is smart enough to not target members of Soviet armed forces and scientific community, having learnt his lesson from 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 Soviets conquer 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 responsible for the Soviet Union's defeat during the Winter War or simply is a suspected threat to Soviet dominance.
  • Idi Amin has all his potential rivals killed and in some cases eaten to make sure the US and Portugal will support only him in Kenya.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist:
  • Douglas MacArthur planned his coup against President Joseph Mac Carthy simply to prevent the start of World War 3 and he had no intentions to take power for himself. Too bad the President dies in the process and his VP used the situation to take power for himself.
  • President Kennedy is a mix of this and Reluctant Monster. He believes that the spread of communism must be stopped and neither morality nor legality should stop him from protecting the rest of the world from Moscow
  • Horribly deconstructed with Andrei Snezhnevsky. His goal to defend the students' revolution is admirable, but his beliefs are utterly insane and result in bands of Moscow's students assaulting and killing random people who are deemed "psychologically impure"