Thus, the invasion of England by the Spanish armada certainly had its probability.  After all, Spain held the blessing of the pope and a strong veteran army soaked in war.  Elizabeth sat on the throne of a bankrupt kingdom with an army of conscripts and militias.  Thus, a firestorm amongst the Armada and horrible weather seemed to be the gods favoring England.  But if these disasters did not take place, a landing on England would have likely lead to another principality for Philip II to rule in his empire.

The results would have ended the oppression of English Catholics and the destruction of the Anglican Church.  Not only that, but English colonization of North America would have came to an end.  Spanish missionaries would have expanded north of Florida into Virginia and possibly further North while the French made their way South.  Independent nations to arise in the Americas would have certainly been postponed if not diminished.

This largely due to Spain’s version of colonization which only required male conquerors to exploit the land.  Instead of bringing brides from Spain, they bred with the native populations resulting in the Mestizo races.  English colonization relied on entire families immigrating to the Americas and thus bringing every aspect of home with them.  Including the notion of taxation with representation in parliament.  A notion just popular enough to tick off a bunch of Anglo-Saxons if it were taken away.  Latin America was certainly oppressed, but without some sort of inspiration, independence may have been delayed.  The French revolution would have certainly lost a match to light its own fire if the United States were never formed.  Canada would probably not have existed, but instead, a  French dominion that makes Quebec look like a villa, possibly joining with the Louisiana territory by the time Napoleon came to power.  All in all, the idea of rule by a republic may have simply been Roman history.

But the slaves at Santo Domingo rebelled against European dominion and established a republic.  France sent troops and put down the rebellion while a second expedition force was being mobilized to officially take possession of Louisiana.  However, the port the expedition force was stationed had froze over winter and unable to make the trip to the New World as another war with Britain was just on the horizon.  Meanwhile, the colonial forces in the West Indies were mostly annihilated by Yellow Fever, allowing the liberated slaves to create their own nation.

Without the riches of sugar coming from Caribbean colonies, Napoleon decided to give up claims to Louisiana and sold the territory to the United States.  Given that Yellow Fever had not destroyed the colonial forces and the Louisiana Expeditionary Force was not stuck in a Dutch port, America may have been colonized further by the French.  Creating a great obstacle to the United States and her dreams of Manifest Destiny.  Imagine an America governed by French Imperialists and fortifications in New Orleans and along the Mississippi to pose a barrier to American trade and expansion.

Such a situation could have sparked a war with the young nation, but with an enemy like Napoleon, it is dreadfully difficult to predict if Americans would have the will, might, and leadership to find victory.  America barely made it out of the War of 1812 with any spoils; a war with Napoleon could have been devastating.  And if the French Empire were victorious, it would certainly put a dent in US expansion into the West for quite some time, if not indefinitely.  After all, it took nearly the entire collective force of Europe to defeat Napoleon after he was struck by the Russian Winter.

Conjoining with this international teasing, ten US M-48 tanks were pulled up to Checkpoint Charlie on the West’s side.  In response to the American enforcement of international agreements, thirty-three soviet tanks mobilized in front of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate.  Ten of these tanks met the American M-48s at Checkpoint Charlie.

For the first time in history, Soviet and American tanks had canons loaded and aimed at each other. 

Instructions were given to our tank commander that he was to roll up and confront the Soviet tank, which was at the identical distance across from Checkpoint Charlie.  The tension escalated very rapidly for the one reason that this was Americans confronting Russians.  It wasn’t East Germans.  There was live ammunition in both tanks of the Russians and the Americans.  It was an unexpected, sudden confrontation that that in my opinion was the closest that the Russian and the Allies came to going to war in the entire Cold War period. 

 Colonel Jim Atwood

The West Berlin US Garrison was put on full alert.  Nato was primed into alertness.  The Strategic Air Command was on high alert.  Khrushchev gave the Soviet commanders authority to use full force if the Americans took a shot. 

So what if some nervous doughboy accidentally squeezed off a round?  Or if a trigger-wrecked Soviet popped off a shot?  World War III aflame in the city where the Second World War ended.  It is all too obvious the immediate outcome.  The Soviet in their strategic superiority in Berlin would cut the city off from the Allies and eradicate the remaining Americans. 

Worse case scenario would have Nato forces in West Germany initiate a rescue attempt of Berlin.  This would have full-heartedly led to a nuclear war.   Especially since Khrushchev was obsessed with Berlin and Kennedy still needed to make his mark as a formidable leader.

This first target to be hit would have been West Germany as it held the largest armies to actually pose a defense against the Soviet might.  Surely the allies would have struck back on East Germany with their own nukes, though they may have come from France or the UK.  Whatever arsenal Turkey had at its disposal would have been launched against the USSR reaching whatever formidable targets within a 1,500 mile radius.  If Italy had US nukes at this point, her targets would most likely lay around the Warsaw Pact nations, especially in Yugoslavia and Poland.  After this initial outbreak, the American B52s and Soviet TU95s would have exchanged payloads as they crossed each others path over the Arctic to their perspective targets.  Intercontinental rockets were still in the beginning stages at this point and not ready for widespread combat—so civilization would have at least a few minutes instead of a few seconds before total Armageddon.

So what would happen if Operation Ajax was not green-lighted by Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower?  Would the Iranian Revolution ever occur?  Hard to predict, but not likely.

This shift away from democracy and national pride certainly allowed for the Islamic revolution to gain popularity in Iran.  The Shaw was seen as nothing more than a puppet for the Americans, and not a true Iranian ruler.  After the revolution, the military and economic structure was in shambles.

In response to Shi’a religious fervor, Saddam being a Sunni, and the disorganization of the Iranian government, Saddam Hussein launched his invasion of Iran, sparking the Iran-Iraq War.  This eight- year war would leave both nations in economic shambles.  Both sides were supported by Western and Eastern nations alike.  Iraq was broke from the war and in need of economic rejuvenation.

After failing to coerce Kuwait into forgiving their war loans, Iraq launched an invasion of the small monarchy and thus started the Gulf War.  Obviously Kuwait was protected chiefly for its supply of oil.  Yet another reason Iraq annexed the tiny kingdom.  The UN forces, led by the United States, launched the liberation of Kuwait through Saudi Arabia.  What the U.S. didn’t realize was that using Saudi Arabian lands was a desecration of the holy country according to religious fanatic, Osama bin Laden.

So after a decade of orchestrating terrorist attacks against American citizens across the globe, bin Laden got attention through the attack on 9/11.  This prompted the U.S. to overthrow the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.  After Osama bin Laden’s capture still unsuccessful, the U.S. under the Bush 43 launched the invasion, Iraqi Freedom.  Saddam Hussein was a perfect scapegoat for all America’s ills, having a failed nuclear program and ruling a Muslim nation.

Thus, a swift war was won, and a long occupation begun.  Even as Saddam was eventually executed, Osama remains at large while Iran threatens nuclear development under the same theocratic regime and war continues to rage in Afghanistan.

Perhaps all of this could have been avoided if the U.S. had more faith in Iranian democracy.  A democratic, proud Iran may have never succumbed to fanaticism.  This would have kept the nation strong and help deter Iraq from ever waging war against Iran, which would, in theory, prevent to the Gulf War, the War in Afghanistan, and the Iraq War.

If perhaps the Russians were able to stop the Japanese from marching on Korea, the war might have turned out differently.  A more ambitious Russian fleet may have attempted to break through the Japanese navy and blockade the landing at Incheon in Korea.  This would limit the access the Japanese would have had in Manchuria.  From there, predicting the battles may become more randomized.  However, maintaining Korean independence may have been the tide that turned in favor of the Russians.  After all, if Russian troops engulfed the peninsula, Japan’s access would have been wide open for penetration.  Often times, the Korean Kingdom had been described by the Japanese as a dagger pointed at Japan.

A Russian victory would have certainly handicapped any prestige Japan had won in victory.  Their status as a modern imperial nation would have been sunk into the racist depths of just being another oriental tribe that couldn’t compete with European superiority.  As was the Western beliefs at the time, especially since the majority of Pacific Islands were colonized and China divided into spheres of economic exploitation.  The US owned the Philippines as spoils from the Spanish American War.  France conquered Indochina containing Vietnam, Loas, and Cambodia.  The Dutch maintained the islands of Indonesia.  The British Empire expanded through Malaya, Thailand, Burma, and India after decades of gradual overseas acquisitions.

With Japan out of the race for imperialism, Russia would be free to maintain the warm-water port of Port Arthur along with dominance in Manchuria, the security of the Trans-Siberian railroad, and a Korean protectorate to boot.  Most importantly would be the mythological perpetuation of the Tsar’s invincible imperial army.  A military that has a history of defeating Asiatic peoples such as the Ottoman Turks, the Caucasians in Persia, Kazakhs and other Asian Moslems.  Though with mass conquest comes mass resentment.  Much of these people resisted imperial rule and with the advent of the industrial revolution, more and more laborers, along with the peasantry who recently gained insurrection from serfdom, were becoming dissident.  All these factors, combined with military strain by the Japanese and later by Germany’s superior might led to revolution.

With a Russian victory over Japan, however, Tsar Nicolas II could have maintained much of the military’s prowess and divine-like appearance.  It may have also kept much of the insurgents from uprising during the 1905 revolution that resulted in representative government by establishing a Duma.  Without a Duma that only caused the tsar strain of which he later disbanded, it is less likely that the people would have had the inflamed spirit to revolt.

By the time of the Great War, the Kaiser’s own imperial aspirations may have been thwarted.  The Schlieffen Plan called for a quick conquest of France while the Russians mobilized their military.  In six week times, France would be under occupation as the German Army turned Eastward to march toward to St. Petersburg.  If Russia was not so humiliated by the Japanese, perhaps Germany would not believe the Tsar so slow in mobilization.  Without a German entrance into the Great War, the Great War would have simply been the Russo-Austrian War.  Such a war would have resulted in the Russian conquest of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and the preservation of Serbian independence.  Perhaps European and Asian affairs would have been dominated by the Tsarist Slavs instead of the Soviet communists.

Of course, if France could not be liberated, then the war would have turned out quite different.  Now, the Third Reich would have never managed to win the war.  Though they have caused much damage to the entire continent, the Third Reich’s campaign against the USSR sealed Germany’s fate.  Despite the well trained soldiers and strategists that came from the German Wehrmacht, Russia’s resources were so vast and endless in nature, that it rendered the mere concept of blitzkrieg useless.  Really, a proper metaphor is someone taking a bat to a bee hive.  The swinger might bust open the hive pretty bad, but the stingers will eventually engulf the offender.    So what would have transpired at the close of a war that ended with only an Eastern Front?  A communist Europe.  If Operation Overlord had failed on D-Day, the window for a Soviet dominated Europe would have opened up.  If the Allied forces were unable to break into the European theater, the Soviets would have no doubt impose their own brand of socialism over the entirety of Germany and a newly liberated France.  Of course, this liberate France would have also have been liberated from the capitalists as was Poland.

Thus the Cold War would have turned out quite different than what had transpired in our time.  For starters, Europe would have never truly recovered from the war.  The Soviet Union would have left Germany in chaos and impose heavy reparations on the nation while the other liberated nations would be left with only the ideals of Lenin and Stalinism to guide their economic policies.  There would have been no Marshall Plan to rejuvenate the continental economy which was a driving force in defeating communism on an economic basis.  The North Atlantic Treaty Organization would have been nonexistent, except maybe for a loose association between the US, England, and perhaps Italy.  Other than these cooperative nations, however, there would be no juggernaut pact to stem the red tide.  From there, things can only be speculated.  It is probably safe to say that Soviet influence across the rest of the world would be archaic at best.  Sure, there would be dozens of African and Asian nations freed from colonial rule, but any sort of Soviet association would most likely be curtailed by the USSR’s burden in occupying Europe.

Cuba, for instance, would doubtfully become a threat to US prestige.  After all, if we did not have the ability to give nuclear weapons to Turkey due to Soviet influence, it is doubtful that Khrushchev would have risked such a gesture with Fidel Castro.  And if the Soviet Premier did begin to export nuclear arms to an island nation that is still considered a subject of the Monroe Doctrine’s sphere of American influence, the US president would have responded in kind.  Missiles to Castro were originally intended to balance the nuclear arms threat, but without US influence in Turkey, this would have provoked war.  The US president, whether it be JFK or Nixon, would not only blockade the Caribbean state, but order a full out invasion that would have made the Bay of Pigs look like a mere training exercise.  Khrushchev was smarter than that.

Then there is the possibility of Vietnam.   If the French had never attempted to reclaim colonial rule over Indochina, with American assistance, who is to say that a Vietnam War could have been averted entirely?  It is certainly a fascinating prospect. Without the memory of Western Colonial rule,  a more united Vietnam may have emerged.  After all, America’s OSS and Ho Chi Minh’s army were bed partners against Imperial Japan during the Second World War.

Despite these intriguing thoughts on averting American disaster that occurred during the Cold War, I have a feeling that the Soviets would have attempted to keep control over their zone of influence in Iran for quite some time.  The British and Soviets colonized Iran for the duration of the war against the Nazis to safeguard the oil.  If the Soviets were in a better standing in Europe, they might have just been cocky enough to remain an occupying force in Iran after the war’s end.  This occupation may have allowed for better Iranian relations with the US than the religious and cultural backlash suffered after supporting the Shah.  But much of these are mere speculations.  Still, the world would be quite different as the Cold War would have emerged with a more tyrannical USSR.

Settling Accounts: In At the Death, is the fourth novel in a tetralogy of books portraying a collage of warfare in an alternative universe where the Confederate States of America survived the Civil War and have existed up until the 1940s. The tetralogy is also apart of a series of novels that depicts the evolution of this alternative universe, starting from the Second Mexican War (Which never existed) to the Great War series, in which trench warfare ravaged the Eastern American continent, and ending at Settling Accounts. This series takes place during an unnamed World War II. The Confederate States has elected a bitter and very racist veteran, Jake Featherstone, to the presidency. President Featherstone was in the Great War and believes that the USA should not have been victorious. Thus he ignited hostilities again with technologies such as armored mobile artillery units known as “barrels,” metal-skinned planes that can drop bombs, and machine guns that are small enough to be carried single-handily by the average grunt.

And though the USA was caught by surprised by Featherstone’s offensive, the Confederate States have been on the losing side in this fourth novel. The writing style produced by the author is also on the losing side. The style is very generic; the author doesn’t seem to know about imagery or emotionally-provoking writing. The dialogue wasn’t very good either. Too often, soldiers from the United States read like Southern Confederates when the spoke. Not to mention the fact that there was a surplus of phrases that seemed just as distracting as they were generic, such as…

“…by God.”

“Superbomb.”

“Tell me another one,” apparently U.S. soldiers were really into sarcastic jokes by the end of the war. Then there was the surplus of swear words that I find questionable for an era that takes place during the 1940s. Did people really swear that much back then or is this a twenty-first century adaptation?

I still enjoyed reading the novel, as well as others in the series, mostly because of the wild speculation and imagination brought to an alternate history in the world. In this world, the United States under the Socialist party are allied with the German Empire against the Confederate States, Great Britain, and Tsarist Russia. Of course, most of the perspectives are on the American front. The end of the war leaves America with nuked cities, and a war-torn continent. The downfall of the alternate history ideas is that they usually parallel too closely to real history.

Jake Featherstone obviously represents Adolf Hitler as he sends African-Americans to death camps by the millions. He is stubborn in his ways and would rather die than admit defeat. Which he does, as an African-American guerrilla snipes the CSA fuhrer during an escape attempt by Jake Featherstone and his henchmen. At least he didn’t commit suicide. By the end of the book, and the war, the CSA has been reunited with the USA under military jurisdiction. A couple of  main characters are tried for war crimes. Some soldiers go back to their families and some have to quell Confederate uprisings. Though the novel ends the war, it could also be left open for a cold war between the nuclear powers such as the United States, Great Britain and the German Empire. But I’m not sure if the series could survive a timeline like that. Regardless, I enjoyed this book to a degree. If you enjoy history and questions of what could have been, but are not too obsessed with writing style, I would recommend reading this book.

The most intriguing aspect of this film is the real possibility of a Confederate victory during the Civil War. The fictional documentary explains that British and French were persuaded to support the Grey Army in the name of liberation against a union that has imposed a blockade around a region that is bountiful in cotton exports. Because of this, Robert E. Lee was able to force a peace onto Grant as President Lincoln fled the capitol. With a leaderless Union and a defeated Blue Army, President Davis of the CSA annexed the United States and banished dishonest Abe to Canada. In order to repair the economy of the northern states, Davis reintroduces slavery to those regions to fill in as industrial and construction labor. In conjunction with this, the CSA wages war against Spain that unites the North and South once again as a single nation. With a swift victory, the CSA continues to engulf the whole of Latin America as a Tropical Empire. An idea conceived in reality by the South for South America’s cotton and sugar plantations.

When Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany, the United States and the Third Reich maintained a healthy friendship. At CS request, Germany did not deport Jews to death camps, but declared them slaves like CSA slaves. Then war broke out.

Of course, before the film gets to some of these significant points in history, it may be time for e a commercial break. Commercials that advertise shows like Runaways, where CBI agents hunt down runaway slaves. Ironically, if it weren’t for the title, it’s exactly like watching an episode of Cops. And of course, there is always the home-shopping commercial where people can purchase an electronic shackle that will alert the homeowners if their slave is making an escape. But now back to the documentary review and the outbreak of war.

The CSA declared war on Japan in order to protect Asian economic interests. Especially the immigration of Asians since they too were declared slaves of corporations as soon as they applied for employment in the CSA. Japan was an underrated enemy however, and the CSA deployed black slaves as marines while Asians remained in force labor within the states. When the war ended with the atomic bomb, the slaves were not granted freedom and returned to their masters.

Then the rebellion of the status quo began to take place with music like rock ‘n roll taking the stage, broadcasted from Canada. This sparked a cold war between the CSA and Canada. Eventually a wall was built along the border, much like that of the Berlin Wall. Then the liberal JFK became president and began the process of emancipation. Unfortunately he was assassinated before he could achieve such goals. More modern politicians are depicted as conservative and ready to tighten a grip on the slave population. Thus the film ends with a superpower that continues to implement one of the most archaic economic labor forces and the most insulting institution in American history. It is both disturbing and well researched to meet a sense of realism with a dash of humor.

The lack of westward expansion by the North had made the nation like that of a Third World Nation. The Confederate States of America, on the other hand, went on to wage a war of conquest over Mexico, eventually creating an economic superpower, rivaled only by the German Union. Because of the alternative history, certain technologies have never been discovered, like the electric light bulb, but things like steam-powered automobiles rule the roads. Typically, though, these roads were only in the South, where transcontinental transportation is possible.

Hodge eventually takes work from the New Yorker, who is a bookstore owner. This man allows the knowledge-starved pupil to work at the store in exchange for free study of any book. What Hodge comes to realize is that the store owner is a member of a terrorist organization known as the Grand Army. Similiar to the Klu Klux Klan, the Grand Army is built on racism and extreme nationalism for a nation that barely exists. Its members are disgruntled urbanites of the US who want another war with the South. Though typically they try to get nations like the Spanish Empire or the German Union to spark a war with the Confederate States. This is something Hodge witnesses as he is conned into transporting weapons for terrorist syndicate.

Hodge eventually leaves this life of underground strife for the intellectual commune of Hagershaven. He is recruited by a future lover who specializes in physics and time/space theories. His journey to the commune also introduces him to his future Spanish wife of whom he rescues from a bandit raid. The arrival at Hagershaven leads Hodge to a life of marriage and scholarly authorship of the Civil War. His relationship with scientist-fellows also gives him access to a time-machine that only Einstein could dream of manufacturing. The engine in time allows Hodge to fulfill one of his most insatiable desires for knowledge, to be a witness of history itself. To discover once and for all if his theory on the Confederate victory is indeed true. He does this, but in the process, he ruptures time by interacting with Gray soldiers who win the war and are kin to the time engine’s creator. Hodge is thus stranded in the past and watches as the Confederate States are reabsorbed into the Union after a Federal victory.

I enjoyed this tale as much as an adventure story as a speculation on what could have been. Though I question Southern post-war economic wealth with the lack of an industrial base compared to the North. At the same time, I can imagine the cultish racism and anti-immigration terrorists of the Grand Army being an underground power in the North. And that curiosity of worldly and timely things is something that man starves for, such as Hodge, and can lead mankind to do miraculous things, such as travel through time and change the history itself, for better or worse. Typically I’m not a fan of alternate history stories being a direct result of time travel, but this story seemed to pull it off very well, despite the creation of such a sophisticated engine in the 1950s. The way in which the story was written allowed me to suspend my belief in scientific improbabilities. The character’s journey is what mattered.

The world this character lives in is on an island in Alaska, the Federal District of Sitka. This place has acted as a refugee sanctuary for the descendents of Holocaust survivors. Since the State of Israel was whipped off the map in a war with Arabs in 1948, Sitka has become a Yiddish-speaking metropolis in America’s last frontier. But not all is well, since the one thing that most Jews didn’t plan for is about to occur. Reversion. Soon, the District of Sitka will be reabsorbed into the Union as American Territory. The day was coming and they always knew, but for people like Landsman, it just seems a bit too much like old news for the Jews.

Regardless, Detective Landsman has a homicide to resolve with his trustworthy, half Tlingit, half Jewish partner, Detective Berko. The homicide occurred at Landsman’s own hotel, of which he is a resident, and after so rudely being interrupted from yet another night of drinking, Landsman decides he must take on the case. But he must solve it before reversion occurs, otherwise the case will be thrown out. The new commanding officer of the homicide department is an American educated woman named Bina, who also just happens to be Landsman’s ex-wife.

If things weren’t awkward enough, they would become detrimental later. The victim of the murder turns out to be a Mendel Shpilman, son to a Hassidic crime boss, the Verbover reb, Mendel has also been hoped to be the Tzaddik Ha-Dor by most Hassidic Verbovers. A potential messiah who may be the coming prophecy of a reestablished Jewish state. Future investigations lead Landsman to his own dead sister’s involvement with Mendel. Turns out that many of the Verbover’s have been training to destroy the Islamic shrine, the Dome of the Rock, and once again carve out a state of Israel in the Middle East. They were planning on using their ordained messiah to lead the cause. They also do this with a sympathetic US government, supportive of Zionism.

Landsman just wants to find the murderer. It’s discovered that Mendel did nothing more but beg for a mercy killing for all the hardship he was releasing onto the world. With Mendel, the Verbover’s were going to use the ordained messiah to lead Jews into the new state of Israel built on the blood of the Muslims. But what cross-dressing chess player wants that responsibility? No, all Mendel really wanted was to make a living off playing chess and to find himself a nice Jewish man to settle down with. The Verbover’s didn’t take to kindly to such a plan or lifestyle.

Overall the novel is written in a classic detective noir style. But the setting changes the mood of many things. Mixing Yiddish words and Alaskan landscapes becomes quite a treat for the imagery and the dialogue bestowed to the reader. I definitely recommend this for anyone interested in crime, detective, noir tales, suspense, anything like that. But this novel also becomes a love story between the reunited Landsman and Bina who care little for a reestablished state of Israel. Their nation is the Yiddish Policemen’s Union.