Title: Promises
Author: Looktomybookshelf
Rating: PG-13
Prompt: Stalemate
Summary: America's experiences the beginnings of the Cold War while sending Soviet Soldiers off to their deaths. (Not getting any better.)
Alfred looked at those scared soldiers who were afraid to go home, afraid of Stalin and his regime- there were about two hundred of them, these Soviets in German uniforms. His Russian wasn't very good; he had only spoken it sparingly in the last half of the nineteenth century and had let it fall into disuse after Lenin rose to power.
Most of them were anti-communist, and knew that they wouldn't be treated kindly back at home. It was sad that these soldiers were afraid of going home, afraid because of the reparations that would follow after the war- almost all of them remembered Stalin's purges and were seeking freedom. Alfred looked them in the eye and told them, he promised them, that they could stay in America that he wouldn't make them go back to Russia. He promised on his word as Alfred F. Jones, representative of the United States of America that they would be safe here, in the land of freedom. He couldn't promise them anything more than a chance to live among his children, with tensions rising between Russia (no Alfred, don't call him that anymore, he is the Soviet Union now) and himself.
Time moved forward; Yalta was bad.
"Give them back Amerika. They are not your children, they are mine." The Soviet growled at America.
"Your children don't wanna go back, if they go back they die. They will be starved or jailed or sent to the frozen hell of Siberia! And you have no room to talk! What about me and Arthur's children? You and Uncle Joe seem damn reluctant to send our boys home!" Alfred yelled, stepping closer to Soviet and pointing a finger in his face. "You don't know how scared they looked. I promised them they would be safe, that they wouldn't have to go back and I will damn well not turn back on my promise!"
"You will return them to me or every soldier that we liberated will be thrown into the Bering Sea and all of your children will blame you. Either return my children to their proper homes or let your own die. I can tell you this," Soviet said, leaning in close and whispering in Alfred's ear, "This is not a choice you can sneak out of." He pulled back, still looking Alfred in the eye.
"I'm not going to let you win."
"There are no winners in this game little Amerika. There is only the strong and the weak, and I know that I am the strongest." Neither of them backed down, the tensions rising between the two eye-locked countries. For now, it was a stalemate.
Alfred sat next to Arthur the both of them downing drinks; Alfred had never really been a heavy drinker, Arthur couldn't remember when he wasn't. "Rooze'velt may 'ave said that he was gonna send the troops back, but 'n British borders, they stay. I dunno what that commie's gonna do, but I can't do that to 'em." Arthur slurred. Alfred leaned back in a drunken haze and said nothing. His boss had said that they were sending them back, no matter what the cost. Tomorrow throughout Europe, and even that small ragtag group that was at Fort Dix, and all the Soviets that were looking for hope were out of luck.
He tried not to remember- it was something he was getting very good at. Didn't remember the faces, the tear gas, the drugs. Shut out the thoughts of those he watched commit suicide, seeing an easier way out than in the hands of the people that they were being sent to. He and Russia used to be friends, it's best to forget that now too. Alfred wasn't going to let this go by, it was time for him to step up and take down the Soviet Union.
A/N:
1.) "Operation Keelhaul was carried out in Northern Italy by British and American forces to repatriate Soviet Armed Forces POWs of the Nazis to the Soviet Union between August 14, 1946 and May 9, 1947. The term has been later applied - specifically after the publication of Julius Epstein's eponymous book - to other Allied acts of often forced repatriation of former residents of the USSR after the ending of World War II that sealed the fate of millions of post-war refugees fleeing Eastern Europe."- Wiki
I've read excerpts of Epstein's book, but not all of it which is why this is so vague. I do know that about 200 soldiers were sent from United States soil back to the Soviet Union, eventually they had to be drugged to actually get them on the ship. Many soldiers committed suicide rather than be sent back. Pretty nasty stuff. I don't think Alfred would tolerate that at all.
2.) "On the other side of the exchange, the Soviet leadership found out that despite the demands set forth by Stalin, British intelligence was retaining a number of anti-Communist prisoners with the intention of reviving "anti-Soviet operations" under orders from Churchill. In response, the Soviets did not complete the repatriation of the Allied prisoners of war in their possession, leaving roughly 23,500 American and 30,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers in Soviet hands." –Wiki
Churchill was far less tolerant of Stalin than FDR and Truman, combined. That's all there is too it. Many think that the Truman era is where America ramped up it's Cold War belligerency, but it won't be until Eisenhower that true movements are made against the Soviet Union.
3.) I took some creative licensing with my timelines here, since I wasn't sure about when everyone was captured. I do know that this would have taken place before the 1950's though.
4.) Ah, I want to revisit this after the event. Comments and reviews would be lovely and a great help to my editing process!