The United States of America (USA or U.S.A.), more commonly referred to as the United States (US), is a country and one of the main superpowers in the Cold War and world of TNO. The United States is comprised of 49 (Claimed 50) states, bordering Canada and Mexico on the mainland and sharing a maritime boundary with the Japanese-occupied Aleutian Islands. It is also worth noting that the Empire of Japan occupies Hawai'i and the ports of San Francisco and Long Beach, California.
Founded in 1776 during the American Revolution against the British Empire, the United States rose to prominence throughout the 1800s, expanding across North America. Following the American Civil War, slavery was abolished, but relations between races remains problematic. Industrialization took place in the late 19th and early 20th century, resulting in America emerging as a great power. However, the loss to the Axis Powers in World War II set America back, having lost numerous territories and allies in the post-war. Despite this, America has emerged back to superpower status, vying for international and ideological dominance with the German Reich and Japanese Empire.
The United States Government is a multi-party federal presidential constitutional republic and liberal democracy. Each President is elected for four years, with the potential for an additional four years of service provided the incumbent wins re-election. The United States is the leader of the Organization of Free Nations. In 1962, the current President is Richard Nixon, while the Vice President is John. F. Kennedy.
Unemployed men queued outside a Depression-era soup kitchen opened in Chicago
Following the end of World War I, America entered an era of economic and cultural prosperity. New areas of development such as electric power, housing, gasoline, and highway construction rapidly developed and flourished, while new music and art forms spread across the United States. Despite this, in 1929, the stock market crashed, triggering the Great Depression. In the United States, unemployment jumped from 3% in 1929 to 24% by 1933. For most Americans, their next meal was not found at a dinner table, but at an overcrowded soup kitchen. This hunger was exacerbated by the Dust Bowl - caused by decades of damaging farming practices - leading to massive topsoil erosion in the Midwest and Great Plains, and a decline in agricultural production.
The mismanagement of the Great Depression by Republican President Herbert Hoover left many to blame the Republican Party for the severity of the crisis. Due to this, Democratic nominee Franklin. D. Roosevelt, despite Republicans comparing his New Deal policies to Premier Bukharin's New Economic Policy in the Soviet Union, won the 1932 presidential election in a landslide. Upon assuming office in March of 1933, FDR launched numerous economic relief programs, including the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which aimed to tackle a myriad of issues caused by the Great Depression.
Dewey on the campaign trail in Bakersfield, California, September 1940
Despite Roosevelt winning a second term, a growing conservative backlash, which described the New Deal as the same path that brought down the USSR, worried Roosevelt about the potential political fallout that could befall the US if he were to run for a third term. As a result, he instead recommended Harry Hopkins, a close friend of FDR and the one-time administrator of the WPA, as the Democratic nominee for the 1940 presidential election. Elsewhere, the Republican party chose Thomas E. Dewey for their bid for the 1940 election. In that same year, Hopkins was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Despite this, Hopkins put up stiff resistance to Dewey and the Republican party. Dewey managed to secure the election by 0.4% of the national vote, being sworn in as the 33rd President of the United States on January 20th, 1941.
Dewey spent the 10 months of peacetime dismantling the economic reforms of FDR and pursuing an isolationist foreign policy. The Dewey Administrations approach towards the ever expanding Axis powers was to scale back the size and power of the armed forces, hoping that the powers of the Empire of Japan and Nazi Germany would feel no need to attack the US.
On December 7th, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, sinking twenty-three ships, including two of the US Navy's four carriers (USS Lexington and USS Enterprise). Ill-prepared for war under the policies of the Dewey Administration, the United States Armed forces could not muster a significant response to the Axis powers. What little they could do was sending divisions to Australia and the British Isles to build up defenses in preparation for invasion. The Japanese, emboldened by their success, would then go on to capture American islands and European Colonial holdings one by one, expanding their empire.
The USS Yorktown on fire after attempting an escape from Pearl Harbor
In 1942, the United States Navy suffered a crippling blow at the Battle of Midway, destroying the remainder of the US Pacific Fleet. This, combined with the loss of the Philippines and British holdings in the Pacific, proved to be a decisive blow to American morale. However, the US military-industrial complex was able to produce more vehicles, weapons, aircraft, and ships faster than their Japanese opponents. Whenever the Japanese engaged the United States from 1942 onward, they would be outgunned and outnumbered in nearly every engagement. Soon, the US Navy would begin to turn the tides blindingly fast, outnumbering the IJN by a large amount by the time 1943 rolled around.
US Soldiers near Edinburgh hear about Peace in Europe on a radio, August 1945
With the Soviet Union successfully defeated, Nazi Germany turned its eyes to Great Britain. Britain had resisted the Axis onslaught fiercely, and guarded by the armies of fallen Allied nations, the chances of a successful invasion of the home isles seemed impossible. That was until Nazi high command realized the potential of a neighboring nation: the neutral Republic of Ireland. Due to a long history of British occupation of Ireland up until 1921, Ireland felt strong resentment towards England and agreed to aid Germany in their attempt at the invasion of Britain. In 1943, Ireland would invade Northern Ireland and grant the German Kriegsmarine access to Irish ports, thus blockading the isles completely to US shipping. Simultaneously, Germany launched Operation Sealion. A combined-armed assault commenced, with the Kriegsmarine, Luftwaffe, and Heer all storming the channel and rushing the beaches. Paratrooper units captured airfields, supply depots, AA, radar installations and towns while Marines landed on the coast. Combined with the Luftwaffe successfully asserting air dominance and the Kriegsmarine facing little opposition, the invasion of Britain had begun. Despite a stiff resistance from the Allied forces, London would fall by 1944 and Allied forces would leave the British Isles fully by 1945, thus ending Allied Operation in Europe totally. The Treaty of Westminster would cement this withdrawal later on at the end of the war as Germany declared Victory over Europe.
Dewey limped into a second term, his Presidency in shambles, having only been re-elected due to Eisenhower's defense of Scotland and a fractured Democratic Party. The war had been going poorly for the United States, and the American public thought it would only get worse.
In the Pacific, things were not nearly as bleak. Having recovered fully from the decimating attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States began a campaign of island hopping, recapturing Guadalcanal, Saipan, Guam, and Peleliu. In the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the US Navy dealt a crippling blow to the IJN, sinking four carriers and dozens of destroyers and cruisers. In February of 1945, the Battle of Iwo Jima began. The Japanese Navy tricked the US Navy into overcommitting ships away from the island, with the biggest naval battle of World War II beginning. The US Navy lost over half of their fleet in the battle, while the Japanese lost almost all of their fleet. The US Marines evacuated Iwo Jima shortly thereafter.
Despite this loss, the American public still believed that they could still win, having also decimated the Japanese fleet in the battle.
On July 4th, 1945, Pearl Harbor, having most of the US Pacific fleet moored in harbor, a German Messerschmitt Me.264 bomber took off from Iwo Jima, evading US radar on Saipan and Midway, dropped a new weapon on the harbor below: the Atomic bomb. At 8:39AM, the Heisenberg Device (the Nazi codename for the Atomic bomb used on Pearl Harbor) detonated over Pearl Harbor and Honolulu. 50,000 people were killed within the initial detonation, with more succumbing to burns and radiation. The remainder of Pacific Fleet was annihilated by the bomb, and President Dewey soon sued for peace.
In late August, aboard the IJN Akagi, President Dewey signed the Akagi Accords. Hawai'i was surrendered to Japan, alongside nearly all of their Pacific holdings. In addition, the ports of San Francisco and Los Angeles were to be leased to Japan. For Germany, the US was to sign a non-aggression pact with the German Reich for 100 years.
The first American Atomic test, Trinity, at the Los Alamos site in New Mexico
While reeling from the nuclear bombing of Pearl Harbor and their loss in World War II, the US successfully detonated their own nuclear bomb at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. While this came too late to change the course of the war, Germany and the United States now both possessed the ability to annihilate each other, thus starting the Cold War and nuclear arms race. In 1947, the United States Air Force was created to aid the air capabilities of the US Military and to enhance the capabilities of the US Nuclear Arsenal. When the Japanese detonated their own Nuclear weapon in 1949, America had entered a three-way arms race between the Greater Germanic Reich and the Empire of Japan. In 1958, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) was established between the United States and Canada to improve the early warning and missile defense capabilities against German and Japanese nuclear weaponry.
Domestically, the Republican Party faced a landslide defeat in the 1946 Midterms, forcing President Dewey to use executive orders to get any sort of Legislation passed. For his remaining two years in office, Dewey passed bills regarding desegregating the armed forces, granting Canada economic aid, reducing the power of Labor Unions, and the Mundt-Nixon Act, requiring members of Fascist and Nazi Parties to register with the Attorney General and NSA.
In the 1948 election, the Democratic Party decided to nominate Dwight D. Eisenhower, a former Army General renowned for his defense of Scotland during World War II, as their candidate for President, facing the Republican nominee Howard Taft. In a landslide election, Dwight D. Eisenhower defeated Taft by over 300 electoral votes, well over the 266 needed to secure the Presidency.
Presidential Portrait of Dwight. D. Eisenhower
A staunch internationalist and former Army General, the newly inaugurated Eisenhower made his first of many landmark acts in March of 1949. The remaining Democratic nations of the world were invited to the city of New York to sign the New York Charter, forming the Organization of Free Nations or OFN.
As for his domestic policy, Eisenhower spent his first term dismantling the isolationist restrictions put on the military by Dewey, reassembling the New Deal, and expanding the role of the federal government in housing, electricity, transportation, and more.
As the United States entered the 1950s, Eisenhower ramped up the foreign activities of the United States. In 1954, Eisenhower approved an NSC document mandating the United States maintain a nuclear arsenal capable of countering both Germany and Japan. Utilizing the Central Intelligence Agency, America began funding various rebellions across the world, such as Hawaiian resistance movements, Russian Warlord states, and the United Malaysian Anti-Japanese Front, which would rebel against the Japanese colony of Shonan-Marai in 1957. Additionally, Eisenhower spoke about the "domino theory" targeted against the expansion of Fascism. The domino theory would be used as the justification for most of Americas future foreign interventions.
In the 1952 election, the DNC not only faced the Republican Party, but also the Nationalist Bloc, led by George S. Patton. Eisenhower won re-election handily, but his growing unpopularity amongst those dissatisfied with the two-party system would drive those people to form new movements to upset the system
Civil Rights protesters march about segregation in schools, October 1957Color photograph of Estes Kefauver attending the 1958 OFN Summit
In 1956, following the arrest of Rosa Parks in Montgomery, a wave of protests over racial and system segregation would ensure across the nation, with the Montgomery Bus Boycott becoming notorious in Civil Rights history. In the summer of that year, the Supreme Court would rule that bus segregation was unconstitutional. Despite proving to be a victory for people of color in the US, the issues of racism would prove to be more persistent.
The 1956 election would prove to be the most chaotic election in the past century, with the Democratic, Republican, Nationalist, and Progressive parties all competing. In the end, Democratic nominee Estes Kefauver managed to defeat Republican nominee Everett Dirksen, Nationalist nominee Albert Chandler, and Progressive nominee Claude Pepper. The 1958 Midterms were no better, with additional parties forcing themselves on the ballot, causing confusion, rumors of corruption, and furthering political division.
Now the 35th President of the United States, Kefauver first landmark act was the Civil Rights Act of 1957, expanding upon the rights of minorities. Kefauver also sent the 101st Airborne into Little Rock, Arkansas to escort a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School.
In the ongoing Space Race, Congress created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, in 1958 in a bid to compete with the German RLR program. While the RLR primarily served as a tool for the German Wehrmacht to test ICBMs, NASAs main goal was the scientific exploration of space. As his final act as President, Kefauver tore up the Akagi Accords, declaring that Hawaii was a US State under the occupation of the Japanese Empire. Kefauver also resumed a total oil embargo on Japan. This was the key turning point in increasing Japanese-American tensions.
As the 1960 Presidential Election approached, the Nationalists and Progressives realized that if they were to join forces against the Republicans and Democrats, they could destroy the two parties, thus forming the National Progressive Pact, led by Progressive Henry M. Jackson and Nationalist J. William Fulbright. Although seen as an unholy alliance, the Republicans and Democrats realized the threat the NPP posed, and decided to form the Republican-Democrat Coalition, or RDC, led by Conservative Richard Nixon and Liberal John F. Kennedy. The RDC handily won the election against the NPP, making it clear that the two parties would not be dying out.
In November of 1961, a U-2 spy plane flying over Hawaii took photographs of Japanese ICBM encampments on the island of Kauai. Nixon called an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss the presence of the missiles, thus forming EXCOMM. In December of 1961, Nixon announced the existence of Japanese ICBMs on Hawaii, and authorized the 1st Fleet to launch a quarantine of Hawaii. In response, the Imperial Japanese Navy sent their own ships to tail the US warships, resulting in a tense standoff. Japan stated the hypocrisy of the demands of the Nixon Administration, citing the location of American ICBMs in Australia. While the Joint Chiefs urged President Nixon to invade the islands and destroy the ICBMs, Vice President Kennedy, anxious about the potential for World War III, advised proceeding with caution and recommended opening negotiations with the Japanese. Despite Nixon doubting the willingness of the Japanese to negotiate, Nixon approved Kennedy to enter into negotiations while Nixon oversaw military preparations.
The crisis is still ongoing as of 1962, but Kennedy has made significant headway in negotiations over the course of four months. Despite this, the very real threat of nuclear war is still a potential, and a nuclear conflict would very well be mankind's last.
The United States is a federal republic and liberal representative democracy, with its Capital, Washington D.C, located in a federal district. It is the worlds oldest surviving federation and the oldest surviving Democracy and is considered to be a "bastion of freedom" in the world and ongoing Cold War. The Constitution of the United States serves as the country's supreme legal document and the establishing structure of how the US manages itself.
The US Government is composed of three branches in line with a system of Checks and Balances.
Richard Nixon, the current sitting PresidentThe US Congress consists of the Senate and House of Representatives. Congress has the power to declare war, make federal laws, approve treaties, impach the president, keep the Executive and Judicial Branches in line, and more. The Senate has 98 members (2 from each state) elected for a six-year term with no limts on how long they can serve. The House of Representatives has 433 members from single member congressional districts allocated to each state on the basis of population, elected for a two-year term once again with no term limits.
The US President represents the US Government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Military. The President can veto bills proposed by Congress, appoint Judges to the Supreme Court, sign off on proposals, etc. The President and Vice President are elected or re-elected every four years for a maximum of two terms. The election, instead of being one of a popular vote as it is in other nations and in Congress, is instead based off of an electoral college, with a 266 out of 532 elector votes required to become the President.
The U.S. federal judiciary, whose judges are all appointed for life by the President (with Senate approval), consists primarily of the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. courts of appeals, and the U.S. district courts. The U.S. Supreme Court is in charge of interpereting laws presented by Congress and the President, or acts of the Presidents, and whether they are unconstitutional. The Supreme Court can also impeach a President if they find the acts of the President to be illegal. It has nine members, led by a Chief Justice, who all serve until death. New justices are appointed by the President if a justice dies to fill the vacancy.
The two main parties of the United States are the Republican-Democratic Coalition, comprised of two formerly opposing parties now allied against another party: the National Progressive Pact, a hodgepodge of voters who felt tired of the Conservative-Liberal back-and-forth of the prior decades. While the RDC voting block consists of Republicans and Democrats, the NPP is composed of a whole slew of ideologies, from Progressives and Communists to Fascists and Nationalists. At the start of the game, the RDC has total dominance over the US Government, having won the 1960 election handily in all aspects, controlling both the Presidency and Congress. However, the NPP has been growing in size since their formation in 1959 and could upend the two-party chokehold over the nation if they win a Presidential election.
The United States has a solid Foreign Policy doctrine. It leads the Organization of Free Nations and has one of the largest economic spheres. It is locked in a three-way Cold War with the Greater Germanic Reich to the East and Empire of Japan to the West. The US consistently employs various means to undermine the two, most notably propping up resistance groups in their respective empires with the Central Intelligence Agency. Leading the OFN, the US regularly involves itself in foreign conflicts, regularly deploying troops inmanyareas.
The US maintains relations with nations such as Canada, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Uruguay, Venezuela, Liberia, Haiti, Guyana, the West Indies, Honduras, the Faroe Islands, Suriname, and even Spain and Italy. The US currently blockades Japan and Germany due to the Cold War and World War II, although the US is more open to talks and relations with Germany than Japan due to boths distate for said Empire.
U.S. Soldiers during the West African War, 1966F-4B Phantom II opens fire on Afrika-Schild positions, August 1964
The United States presides over the best fighting force in the world: The United States Armed Forces. Comprised of Five Branches; The U.S. Army, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Marines, and the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Department of Defense manages the fighting capabilites of the United States of America and makes sure the U.S. is always able to fight in wars and combat threats. The U.S. Army is the landforce of the Armed Forces, fighting on the ground with Infantry, Artillery, Helicopters, Tanks, Armored Personnel Carriers, and more all designed to engage forces in a fast manner. The U.S. Navy is the maritime force of the Armed Forces, in charge of engaging opposing forces on the seas, asserting maritime soverignty, and supporting the Army, Marines, Coast Guard Guard, and Air Force wherever it can. The U.S. Marines are a sort-of extension of the Navy, and engages in amphibious warfare, conducting naval landings. The Marine Corps is regarded as being the "Axe" of the U.S. due to its ability to strike wherever and whenever with efficiency. The U.S. Air Force coordinates aerial warfare and supply, conducting Air Superiority, Close Air Support, Air Supply, Aerial Refueling, Transport, Naval Strike, and Sortie missions. The U.S. Navy also has a smaller detachment of aircraft at their own disposal alongside the U.S.M.C. The U.S. Coast Guard protects the territorial boundaries of the U.S. stakes on the sea and primarily serves as a "home defense" branch, rarely going beyond U.S. territorial waters.
The United States starts the game engaged in the Hawaiian Missile Crisis, although by the time the player starts, the outcome of the crisis is already predetermined.
The US also starts off with a very powerful military, able to project the most power out of the other two superpowers, the ability to involve itself with foreign wars, and up-to-date fighters, infantry equipment, and naval craft. Domestically, the issue of Civil Rights will be a recurring issue, becoming a key part of the players playthrough.
The issue of Foreign Policy will also be a heated topic in election cycles, with the player having to keep a high internationalist mindset amongst voters to uphold the willingness of the public to involve themselves with foreign entanglements.
As the United States is a democratic power, elections will take place frequently. Midterm elections (those focusing on Congress and Governor elections), occur in 1962, 1964, 1966, 1968, 1970, and 1972, while Presidential Elections occur in 1964, 1968, and 1972.
The United States political world is divided between the Republican-Democratic Coaliton, a coalition between Republican and Democrat parties, and the National Progressive Pact, comprised of those disillusioned with the two-party system in the wake of the 1958 Midterm Elections. The player can pick which party to run for each election season, utilizing the election GUI and choosing which regions to campaign in. In November of that year, the Presidential or Senatorial elections will be held and, depending on how the campaigning conducted by the players party of choice was conducted and the path of foreign events around the world, one of the two parties will win.
The economy of the United States of America is the strongest in the game, with the highest GDP amongst all the nations of the world, a Triple-A credit rating, and a large economic sphere. While the other superpowers struggle with rampant corruption, high poverty, low credit ratings, or a GDP deficit, none of those will be an immediate issue for the player.
That said, if the US performs poorly in foreign conflicts, or the player poorly manages the economy, America could potentially enter a Fiscal crisis. However, this is highly unlikely, being extremely difficult to achieve a Fiscal crisis on purpose, nevertheless on accident.
Being the leader of the Organization of Free Nations, the United States maintains a strong foreign policy at the start of the game, almost immediately getting involved with the Malayan Emergency, with the potential for involvement in South Africa, West Africa, Britain, Dominica, and more. Most foreign policy related decision will be handled in the Foreign Policy tab, but some will be handled through the intelligence subtab and decision tab.
If the player successfully wins a foreign conflict, the US will gain score in the Cold War GUI and America will trend more Internationalist, contributing to the level of Hawkishness and Trust in Government the player has achieved. If the player loses a foreign conflict, the other Superpower backing the opponent will gain score, while the US will lose some. America will also trend more Isolationist instead of Internationalist, making future foreign conflicts difficult to win on the home front.
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Republican-Democratic Coalition - (Republican)
American Sphere
Leader of the Free World, OFN
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American Capitalism
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