The following fanfic/alternate history is not my own, but a collaboration between Tanner 151 and HongCanucker, the original version of which can be found on Alternate History .com (to access it, delete the spaces in the following for the link www. alternate history discussion/ show thread. php?t=319250 I choose to post a spoiler free, edited version for fans of the Southern Victory series/TL-191 who have not yet finished the series.
The Presbyterian Butcher:
A History of President Gordon McSweeney
Chapter 1: The Formation Of Evil
By the end of the Year of Our Lord 1947 the world had changed quite radically. Nearly eighty-three million lives were lost in the Second Great War from all across the Earth, although some historians predict it was over ninety million. The horrors the Axis Powers committed against the countries and peoples of the Allied Nations and the Comintern were unspeakable and horrifying. It is estimated nearly thirty million people died in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany and Patriotic United States alone during the conflict. With the devastation having ended, the Confederate States of America, the British Empire, the Japanese Empire, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics had become the world's superpowers, with the CSA and Britain attaining nuclear capabilities by war's end.
The names of Adolf Hitler, Führer und Reichskanzler of the Greater German Reich and Gordon McSweeney, President of the United States and Party Chairman of the National Patriotic Party of America, would be etched into history as the two biggest mass murderers to ever have lived not only in the 20th century, but in the entirety of world history. Their actions still leave scars on the minds of men and women throughout the world. The history and background of Adolf Hitler is well documented and perhaps more well known by the world, especially Europe, but the life and story of Gordon McSweeney holds more attention in North America for obvious reasons. I intend to dissect and understand why McSweeney did what he did and to showcase how he created the NPPA and came to power.
Gordon McSweeney was born on a small farm near Eureka, Kansas on August 2nd, 1893. Growing up in a time of heightened patriotic fervor following the Second Mexican War, McSweeney become very nationalistic at a young age as well as deeply religious. Interviews with surviving family members during the 1950s and 1960s show that McSweeney's mind warped religion and nationalism into a single entity. That his duty on Earth, given to him by God Himself, was to fight for and protect the United States of America from any foe, external or internal.
Several months after turning eighteen McSweeney voluntarily joined the United States Army, a somewhat rare occurrence as the majority of the American military at the time, barring officers and non-coms, were conscripts. After basic training and before the Great War McSweeney traveled much of the United States ranging from San Diego to Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia. McSweeney excelled at being a soldier in those early years yet his performance was also the problem. He followed the rules too closely and considered any deviation from them near-criminal. His overbearing and zealot attitude brought him into conflict with fellow soldiers and his lack of success with others made him an outcast and therefore exempt from any promotion in the peacetime military. In official dispatches McSweeney's officers noted his fierce patriotism, his zealotry and his commitment and loyalty to the U.S. Army but past this he was nothing more than a mere soldier and was assumed that he would not go far in life.
This would change when the Great War started.
When the war began on August 6th, 1914, just four days after the future President-Dictator's birthday, McSweeney was on station in Kentucky with the aging General George Armstrong Custer's First Army. During the Invasion of Kentucky, and during his later service in Utah and Arkansas, McSweeney performed admirably, and in many instances bravely. His dedication to defeating the Confederacy was noticed by those around him and seen to be near fanatical. Nevertheless. during the war McSweeney would be promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, obtain the Medal of Honor for taking out a Confederate tank singlehandedly (a medal which he would wear on him at all times when he created the NPPA) and various other awards and commendations.
Despite the United States numerical and industrial superiority against the Confederate States, the U.S. once again lost to its southern cousins. This ranged from blunders within the American military, the poor use of manpower, and of waging a two front war (three if you include the Pacific). The United States' failure to use the tank properly, called a "barrel" by the Yankees, contributed greatly to their losing the war. The Confederate offensive Operation Longsword (spearheaded by tanks), launched in late 1916 saw the encirclement of Philadelphia, the de jure capital of the U.S. similar to what General Lee performed in the War of Secession. This was followed by a multitude of failures on the frontline as wellas the home front with an outright Socialist rebellion flaring up in the Northeast, the Midwest and the West Coast in mid 1917. These events followed by the assassination of President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt along with much of his Cabinet by Socialist extremists shortly after the encirclement of Philadelphia led to their subsequent sue for peace in June of 1917.[1]
The future dictator took the loss hard and is rumored he became homeless in the streets of Philadelphia after his military discharge. Whether he became homeless or not the facts are that in November of 1917, with his beloved country facing another civil war, McSweeney joined the right-wing Soldiers' Circle (SC). The Soldiers' Circle was a organization made up of former conscripts before the war. But after the third defeat to the CSA the Soldiers' Circle opened its ranks to any former veteran as long as said veteran was at least second generation American, white, and non-Socialist.
When he first joined McSweeney was dispatched to the organization's Security Battalions and fought in the streets of New York City for almost four months, quickly reaching the rank of captain, before the the higher echelons of the Soldiers' Circle realized they had an American Hero on their hands.
Quickly pulled from the front, McSweeney became the poster boy for some months for the organization, nicknamed Captain America by the American public. He was chosen due to his previous experience in the war and his vast assortment of medals, rewards, recommendations, his well known bravado and fearlessness in combat showcased him as a selfless hero. The Medal of Honor is what really convinced the SC leaders that McSweeney could be a propaganda boon to them.
And he was... for a time. Eventually the Socialist extremists lost the rebellion they created. Surprising many, acting President Walter McKenna, the Vice President under Roosevelt, did not ban the Socialist Party. He defended this stance as the Socialist Party had come under new leadership with Hosea Blackford, a Socialist Congressman who was well respected and considered an astute politician, and had come to lead the Party.
Blackford's principal goal in the years following the Red Uprising of 1917 was to restore the legitimacy and image of the Socialist Party among the American populace. He would face little success for the next decade until the Great Depression. McSweeney, an ardent Democrat, was disgusted by the acts of the Democrat Administration post-Red Uprising. He viewed the acts of the Government and the lack of persecution of the Socialists after the Uprising was over as traitorous and practically heretical. Shortly after this, McSweeney would leave the Democrat Party.
With the Uprising over there was no need to have McSweeney as "Captain America" and was quickly moved over to become a propaganda speaker that would tour the defeated country to raise money for the Soldiers' Circle. And tour he did from mid 1918 to late 1919, visiting whole swathes of the large country. It was during this time McSweeney met his future wife Abigail Wilkerson in Chicago, Illinois. She was a woman of twenty-four years who had lost two brothers, a father and a fiancee in the Great War as well as her sister during the Uprising in New York. From city to city McSweeney would make speeches, quickly finding he could direct his anger and nationalistic fervor into words that appealed to the masses quite easily. Whether it was a town hall or a city park or even an abandoned warehouse, McSweeney made many a speech in his time as a Soldiers' Circle propagandist.
However the topic of his speeches quickly turned from supporting and donating to the Soldiers' Circle to revolving around ardent racism against Jews, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, and hate of certain religions and religious sects such as the Church of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons). But hatred of these minorities were only a part of the speeches he made. His virulent hatred of Socialism, the Socialist Party (contributing to his hatred of Jews as the SP had a large number of Jewish members, many of them high ranking leaders in the Party), his disdain for the current, weak willed Democrat Party and above all his burning hatred for the Confederate States of America.
These speeches, well documented in written form, with a few caught on primitive video cameras, were infectious and he quickly garnered himself a following. The Soldiers' Circle, seeing a threat and wanting to remain loyal to the Democrat Party, forced McSweeney out of the organization, stripped of all titles and duties. They thought this would stop the rising popularity he was obtaining.
They were wrong.
Despite Soldiers' Circle leaders predictions, the opposite held true. McSweeney's popularity grew in leaps and bounds by like minded individuals and by late 1920 the Kansas native was ready to create a new political party. He promoted it as a far right-wing, anti-Democrat, anti-Republican, anti-Semite, anti-racial minorities, anti-Socialist, anti-Communist, anti-Canadian and above all anti-Confederate. It was an extremely pro-nationalistic, pro-Christian, pro-national expansion and pro-United States political doctrine.
On September 27th, 1920 the National Patriotic Party of America was formed by McSweeney, who would become its first member and Party Chairman along with another couple hundred disgruntled veterans joining. The nations of the Earth would soon tremble.
[1]It should be noted that alternate history authors have speculated on what might have happened if General Custer had lived to see the deployment of tanks, as he was a proponent of mass cavalry charges and tanks have truly become the modern cavalry, albeit armored. Alas, he died on June 25, 1916 from a heart attack.