Here and right now on the all-holy Bible, I will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth:
This story is inspired by the following tales written by other authors: Strange Surroundings by PaladinDelta, Days of Fire by ghost company, Resistance by Jay Simpson, and Star Wars: A New Ally by Wolf2.
However, this is not a conventional Earth in the Star Wars universe fic because this story takes place in an alternate 1960s/70s where JFK survived his assassination attempt among other repercussions for good and for ill. Additionally, there is the fact that Earth in the story is intentionally set in the Cold War era because it makes sense for the sake of the setting and in a way to make the story unique from the other fics.
Furthermore, this story has contributions and/or input from the following individuals: OfficerDonNZ, Mandalore the Survivor, BraveSeeker3, JSailer, Squasher, and even the aforementioned PaladinDelta, the writer of Strange Surroundings.
Oh, and the Vietnam War ended by the Summer of 1967 just to let you know. I will not get into too much detail about it here in the main story since it is still a sore subject even today and there will be a prequel in the future centered around the conflict. In short, Vietnam was reunified but with Hanoi being renamed instead of Saigon.
With the above disclaimer out of the way, I hope you enjoy this unique take on an Earth in Star Wars fanfic :)
Happening in an alternate time
And with a galaxy not so far away...
[*Cue the Star Wars theme immediately followed by Dawn of Instruction by The Jayhawkers*]
Earth: A Rendezvous with Destiny
The 1960s as a decade was just as memorable:
The Thirty-Fifth President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, was never assassinated and Uncle Sam as well as his allies were victorious in Vietnam.
But not all was well on Planet Earth: The United Nations and the Congolese alike had retreated from the breakaway State of Katanga. France also endured a significant loss of face and the New Frontier agenda had imploded in the wake of civil unrest.
Despite the lack of public confidence, President Kennedy was gradually redeeming himself by engaging with the Galactic Republic yet diplomacy in time brought attention, including those with malicious aims.
Now with the intent of conquest by the Sith Empire disclosed, the nations of the world were dragged into a war, one which was not sought, and circumstantially became co-belligerents of the Republic for the inevitable confrontation with the 'SPACE NAZIS', in a collision course that became a rendezvous with destiny.
Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies. Absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect and must be opposed.
- Quoted from Barry Morris Goldwater's Address Accepting the Presidential Nomination at the Republican National Convention in San Francisco, Thursday, July 16th, 1964
I have been called a Fascist and almost a Hitlerite - actually, I have one earnest conviction in this war. It is that no other war in history has so definitely lined up the forces of arbitrary oppression and dictatorship against those of human rights and individual liberty.
- In a letter from Dwight David Eisenhower to his second son John Sheldon Doud Eisenhower, Thursday, April 8th, 1943
In patriotism, loyalty, and combat, there are no moderates.
- Major General Edwin Anderson Walker
I know the case is desperate; but, sir, we must either quit the country or attack Mister Hamilton. No time is to be lost. Were I sure of a reinforcement, I should not attempt it. Who knows what fortune will do for us? Great things have been effected by a few men well conducted. Perhaps we may be fortunate. We have this consolation, that our cause is just, and that our country will be grateful and not condemn our conduct in case we fall through. If we fail, the Illinois as well as Kentucky, I believe, is lost.
- From a letter written by Lieutenant Colonel George Rogers Clark, the Washington of the West, to Governor Patrick Henry of Virginia
About an hour by sun we got near the river Embarras. Found the country all overflown with water. We strove to find the Wabash. Traveled till eight o'clock in mud and water, but could find no place to encamp on. Still kept marching on. Found it impossible to cross Embarras river. We found the water falling from a small spot of ground; staid there the remainder of the night. Drizzly and dark weather.
- From a journal entry written by Captain Joseph Bowman during the grueling march from Kaskaskia to retake Fort Sackville near Vincennes in present-day Knox County, Indiana, Wednesday, February 17th, 1779
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.
If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.
If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.
- From Sun Tzu's The Art of War
Those who would trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state have told us they have a utopian solution of peace without victory. They call their policy "accommodation." And they say if we'll only avoid any direct confrontation with the enemy, he'll forget his evil ways and learn to love us. All who oppose them are indicted as warmongers. They say we offer simple answers to complex problems. Well, perhaps there is a simple answer - not an easy answer - but simple: If you and I have the courage to tell our elected officials that we want our national policy based on what we know in our hearts is morally right."
We cannot buy our security, our freedom from the threat of the bomb by committing an immorality so great as saying to a billion human beings now enslaved behind the Iron Curtain, "Give up your dreams of freedom because to save our own skins, we're willing to make a deal with your slave masters." Alexander Hamilton said, "A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one." Now let's set the record straight. There's no argument over the choice between peace and war, but there's only one guaranteed way you can have peace - and you can have it in the next second - surrender."
Admittedly, there's a risk in any course we follow other than this, but every lesson of history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement, and this is the specter our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face - that their policy of accommodation is appeasement, and it gives no choice between peace and war, only between fight or surrender. If we continue to accommodate, continue to back and retreat, eventually we have to face the final demand - the ultimatum. And what then - when Nikita Khrushchev has told his people he knows what our answer will be? He has told them that we're retreating under the pressure of the Cold War, and someday when the time comes to deliver the final ultimatum, our surrender will be voluntary, because by that time we will have been weakened from within spiritually, morally, and economically. He believes this because from our side he's heard voices pleading for "peace at any price" or "better Red than dead," or as one commentator put it, he'd rather "live on his knees than die on his feet." And therein lies the road to war, because those voices don't speak for the rest of us.
You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery. If nothing in life is worth dying for, when did this begin - just in the face of this enemy? Or should Moses have told the Children of Israel to live in slavery under the Pharaohs? Should Christ have refused the Cross? Should the Patriots at Concord Bridge have thrown down their guns and refused to fire the shot heard 'round the world? The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn't die in vain. Where, then, is the road to peace? Well it's a simple answer after all.
You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, "There is a price we will not pay." "There is a point beyond which they must not advance." And this - this is the meaning in the phrase of Barry Goldwater's "peace through strength." Winston Churchill said, "The destiny of man is not measured by material computations. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we're spirits - not animals." And he said, "There's something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty."
You and I have a rendezvous with destiny.
We'll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we'll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.
We will keep in mind and remember that Barry Goldwater has faith in us. He has faith that you and I have the ability and the dignity and the right to make our own decisions and determine our own destiny.
- Excerpt from Ronald Wilson Reagan's A Time of Choosing Speech, Tuesday, October 27th, 1964