Che Guevara and Perón were sympathetic to each other. Pacho O'Donnell states that Che Guevara, as Cuban minister, attempted to arrange for the return of Perón to Argentina in the 1960s and sent financial support for that end. However, Perón disapproved of Guevara's advocacy of guerrilla warfare as antiquated.[92] In Madrid, Perón and Guevara met twice.[93] These meetings, as the meetings Perón held with other leftists in Madrid (such as Salvador Allende), were arranged with great secrecy to avoid complaints or expulsion from Francoist Spain.[93] According to Enrique Pavón Pereyra, who was present at the second meeting between Guevara and Perón in Madrid, Perón would have discouraged and warned Guevara of his guerrilla plans in Bolivia: "you will not survive in Bolivia. Suspend that plan. Search for alternatives. [...] Do not commit suicide."[92]
Enrique Pavón Pereyra was only present for the first part of the meeting; he then served mate so that Perón and Guevara could drink together and left the meeting room to provide them with some privacy. Pavón Pereyra speculated about the conversation that followed in his absence: according to him, Perón would likely have explained to Guevara that he could not compromise support for his planned operations, but that "when" Guevara "moved activities" to Argentina he would provide Peronist support.[93] After the encounter, Perón commented to a friend in a letter about meeting Guevara, calling him "an immature utopian – but one of us – I am happy for it to be so because he is giving the yankees a real headache."[92]
The divergence happens in the '60's, during Perón's exile. Che Guevara introduces him to various other Latin American socialists, including one J. Posadas in this timeline. Perón and Posadas somehow manage to strike up an unlikely friendship and maintain a regular correspondence. Perón, in an act that's mostly pure opportunism rather than an actual change in ideological beliefs, begins espousing more leftist ideas than during his presidency.
General elections were held on 11 March 1973. Perón was banned from running, but a stand-in, Dr. Héctor Cámpora, a left-wing Peronist and his personal representative, won the election and took office on 25 May. On 20 June 1973, Perón returned from Spain to end his 18-year exile. According to Página 12 newspaper, Licio Gelli, master of Propaganda Due, had provided an Alitalia plane to return Perón to his native country.[94] Gelli was part of a committee supporting Perón, along with Carlos Saúl Menem (future President of Argentina, 1989–1999).[94] The former Italian Premier Giulio Andreotti recalled an encounter between Perón, his wife, Isabel, and Gelli, saying that Perón knelt before Licio Gelli to salute him.[94]
On the day of Perón's return, a crowd of left-wing Peronists (estimated at 3.5 million according to police) gathered at the Ezeiza Airport in Buenos Aires to welcome him. Perón was accompanied by Cámpora, whose first measures were to grant amnesty to all political prisoners and re-establish relations with Cuba, helping Fidel Castro break the United States embargo against Cuba. This, along with his social policies, had earned him the opposition of right-wing Peronists, including the trade-unionist bureaucracy.
Camouflaged snipers opened fire on the crowd at the airport. The left-wing Peronist Youth Organization and the Montoneros had been trapped. At least 13 people were killed and 365 injured in this episode, which became known as the Ezeiza massacre.[95]
Cámpora and Vice President Vicente Solano Lima resigned in July 1973, paving the way for new elections, this time with Perón's participation as the Justicialist Party nominee.
Perón still wins the (second) 1973 election, this time by forming an alliance with the Posadists and a couple other minor socialist groups, much to the chagrin of the Right-Peronists. A couple months before his OTL death, Perón is assassinated by a disgruntled Right-Peronist who thinks that the President has betrayed them and sold out the nation to the communists. A civil war breaks out. By 1979, a United Front consisting of Left-Peronists, Posadists and various other socialists has formed the Socialist Republic of Argentina, guided by the infallible science of Marxism-Trotskyism-Peronism-Posadism!
Out of curiosity who would you have replacing her as John Major isn't a major figure in the time period and her only real rival for the position within the party had just lost two elections?
Honestly I'd probably have to invent someone new to fill the role, for precisely that reason.
The fact that there isn't really an obvious alternate candidate to Thatcher would be one of the reasons I'd portray the party as having a weaker mandate, though - whoever ends up in charge would have more or less been shoved unprepared into the spotlight without that built up momentum.
(I just don't want to play Thatcher. Historically important woman but it would be genuinely kinda soul-destroying to play her properly.)
1. Commonwealth of Australia - 60,000 years of continuous settlement by the continent's first inhabitants, and a tiny scratch of centuries where whitefellas arrived with their policemen and pastoralists and their murder parties to call the land their own. Now, the Commonwealth of Australia have to grapple with a sudden arrival of strange beings on bizarre ships, arriving and killing with impunity for the culture they are erasing. Wild to imagine. Althistory - Australia is currently still administering Papua New Guinea, giving them a land-border with Indonesia. Aside from this, I'm just going to nudge the occasional politician into different roles, though I'd challenge someone to notice without googling.
2. Republic of Indonesia
3. Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Ok I have done some very preliminary thought on the final nation roster. But given the sheer number of claims, be forewarned that some of you might have to sit out for a bit. In my experience a lot of players drop in the first two turns, often major powers, so there's good odds you can join later if you don't get in yet.
That said if you have some really cool idea for a country feel free to stake your claim and you still might get considered. Yugoslavia is a very noticeable gap at the moment.
Honestly I'd probably have to invent someone new to fill the role, for precisely that reason.
The fact that there isn't really an obvious alternate candidate to Thatcher would be one of the reasons I'd portray the party as having a weaker mandate, though - whoever ends up in charge would have more or less been shoved unprepared into the spotlight without that built up momentum.
(I just don't want to play Thatcher. Historically important woman but it would be genuinely kinda soul-destroying to play her properly.)
Thats absolutely fair if I somehow manage to get it my plan is to off her ASAP and then have Labour win the subsequent general election. Though if its allowed I'd probably just skip a few steps and have Labour in power at the start by shifting a couple of events around.
1. Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
2. Czechoslovak Socialist Republic
3. Fourth Republic of Venezuela
No alt-hist for any: let's play the hand we're given.
My knowledge for all three is somewhat lacking, but I have some good resources to tap on Yugoslavia (i actually just happen to be reading Black Lamb and Grey Falcon ATM, which isn't directly relevant but'll set the mood or context or something I dunno), and I'm excited to see if there can be a Yugo without Tito.
1. FRG
After the red autum and without the double tract decision looming over him playing Helmut would certainly be interesting , even if I would assume that his designs will change but I would argue that I have a reasonable easy way to understand him and would continue to aim to thaw relations with east Germany despite the CDU opposition
2. Türkiye as they currently stand on some interesting crossroads where nothing is yet set into stone .
3. GDR
similar and I am thinking about some AU changes in regards to who is currently ruling but nothing to dramatic I feel
Alt-hist: The Junta survives losing Cyprus (which seems to have happened this TL as well) and gets started on patching up the military to stand up to Turkey.
Background knowledge: A bit, mostly on the 60s and before.
To beef up my low effort post to show I'm not a total floozy.
Jumhūrīyat as-Sūdān ad-Dīmuqrāṭīyah
The fall of Ismail al-Azhari's unity government by the hand of Col. Ja'far Muhammad Numayri's Free Officer's Clique in '69 opened up the Sudanese Republic to the strength and well being inherent of a distinctly leftist, collective approach. Perhaps inspired by the Bolsheviks of the previous generation, Numayri forsook the easy and expected path of Ba'athism for a more orthodox Communist system that was post-ethnic in nature and collectivist by design. This allowed an ease of negotiations with the Christian rebels of the South, with promises of autonomy within the system and allowing power to Christians persuading the rebels to incorporate their arms into the police and military in '72 as part of the Khartoum Accords.
This national strengthening would continue through dedicated electrification efforts throughout the nation, as well as developing a domestic armaments production centre with help from their comrades in arms. However all is not pleasant, in spite of government propaganda concerning Sudan's entrance into Numayri's second decade of service. Prem. Joseph Lagu has centralized his powerbase in the South, while the Cde. Fld. Msl. Abdel Rahman Suwar al-Dahab has begun protesting about the lack of Sharia enforced in upon Christians and Animists. Worse, Egypt, forever a foe, continues to grow in strength.
Apologies for the butchered claims, but I will write up a little bit of lore in addon when I get home from work!
1. Colombia — A Missing Mugshot (1976)
Sometime in June, 1976
"What the fuck do you mean the office burned down?" The minister barked on the phone. "Hugo is going to kill me. And you!"
"I'm telling you, sir- the office, the Marxists burned them down." Stuttering, the police captain's sweat beaded down his face. Knowing he was about to get a whipping of his life from the Justice Minister, the editor-in-chief of El Espectador.
"Do you understand how much of a fuck-up this is?" He heard the shouty man on the other end of the line. "That office in Medellin had everything we needed to bring down the fucking mafiosos! And you're saying some up-jumped hippies rode up and just torched the place, especially all the archives?"
"Yes, sir. This is a colossal fuckup."
"If they can cut ten million from your department, they will. Fuck's sake. We have nothing, now."
"But sir, the Americans---"
"Americans? Are you stupid? They're the ones giving the mafiosos the money to run their business!"
"This is going to ruin us. I'm going to have to tell the President. And he'll be ruined too."
MEDELLIN POLICE STATION BURNED DOWN IN ARSON; OPPOSITION BLAMED
It is possible I will decide I can take more players depending on what the workload is actually like. I already took on more than I normally would. In the meantime the rest of you are on the replacement queue. I especially like the idea of a Sudan and Colombia players so if I do end up taking more on before the first turn I'll probably ask @Dadarian and @Karen. Thanks everyone for signing up!
For now players should iron out their alternate timeline and work out a bit how they interact with each other. I was originally anticipating signups to take a week or so but I guess that's just me coming from taleworlds where the player base was dead, so I'm still prepping some stuff for the game and it might take a few days. Feel free to hit me up with any althist or lore questions though.
Apart from figuring out the althist, the options for the Xenonaut Charter are up for discussion in the discord. You can also propose your own solutions. They'll officially be put to vote when the game starts, together with the votes for UNSC seats.
I'm not making a scene, just wanna know if not assigning me Hungary despite no other claims to it apart from mine was a conscious decision or just an oversight.
It is possible I will decide I can take more players depending on what the workload is actually like. I already took on more than I normally would. In the meantime the rest of you are on the replacement queue. I especially like the idea of a Sudan and Colombia players so if I do end up taking more on before the first turn I'll probably ask @Dadarian and @Karen. Thanks everyone for signing up!
For now players should iron out their alternate timeline and work out a bit how they interact with each other. I was originally anticipating signups to take a week or so but I guess that's just me coming from taleworlds where the player base was dead, so I'm still prepping some stuff for the game and it might take a few days. Feel free to hit me up with any althist or lore questions though.
Apart from figuring out the althist, the options for the Xenonaut Charter are up for discussion in the discord. You can also propose your own solutions. They'll officially be put to vote when the game starts, together with the votes for UNSC seats.
Darn, I wanted too long to apply for a nation. That's on me for delaying on it.
If a slot does open up, I'd like to claim Polish People's Republic. I didn't see anyone else claim it, so hopefully it's available.
I have a reasonable academic knowledge of the Cold War, including a history degree, though I did not cover Poland in much detail during that time. I did focus on modern Europe for most of my degree, so I know stuff going on around Poland and bits inside of it.
I would imagine joint planning and ICing, insofar as one person is a military expert and one person more interested in politics. That's how I've seen it done previously
(Since I didn't want to share my Country Sheet through a google docs like the other players are doing, I'm just posting it here in the thread.)
Socialist Republic of Argentina
"Atomic war is inevitable. It will destroy half of humanity: it is going to destroy immense human riches. It is very possible. The atomic war is going to provoke a true inferno on Earth. But it will not impede Communism."
- J. Posadas
Government type: Socialist republic Capital: Buenos Aires Head of State: Chairman Héctor José Cámpora (United Front - Left-Peronist)
Head of Govt: Secretary J. Posadas (United Front - Posadist)
Economic policy: Central planning
Trade policy: Protectionism
Cold war alignment: Non-Aligned
Friends: The Soviet Bloc? China? Cuba? Yugoslavia? Vietnam? North Korea? Albania? Others??? (The various factions that make up the United Front have differing views on which socialist nations are worth allying with, and which ones are vile revisionist scum. Please call back in a year or two.) Enemies: Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay. ("We shall spread the revolution to the entire continent!") The United Kingdom. ("Imperialists squatting on our islands!") The USA. ("The arch-imperialists!") The USSR? ("Wait, aren't they potential allies?" "No, they're social imperialist revisionists!")
Population: 25.6 million? (The last census data that the government has is from before the civil war, so it's highly likely to be less than this. But by how much?)
Military service: Not yet determined by the new government.
Army: ??? (Officially, the Argentinian Liberation Army currently has around 400,000 men under arms. Officially. While it has a professional and decently armed core, the majority of these are barely trained and poorly equipped militias and guerillas mobilized during the civil war however. The new government is drawing up plans for demobilization and discussion is taking place between the various factions on the ALA's future make-up.)
Air Force: Around 20,000 airmen, with around 200 combat aircraft. (The Left-Peronists managed to convince the majority of the air force to side with the Front. As such, the level of training and experience is relatively high, though a number of planes are inferior models received from foreign allies.)
Navy: Around 8,000 sailors, including around 2,000 marines. 2 major surface combat ships, 4 minor surface combat ships, 2 submarines. (Sadly, the Navy was riddled with reactionaries and a majority sided with the coupists.)
Minor power
How The Fuck Did We Get Here? A short overview of Argentina's implausible history from 1946 until 1979
The story of how the Socialist Republic of Argentina came to be begins on 24 February 1946, when Argentina held democratic elections nearly three years after a military coup. These elections were won by the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, the former colonel, former Secretary of Labour, former Minister of War and former Vice President, Juan Perón.
Perón's rule was marked by supreme opportunism. One moment he'd support the labour unions, then he'd repress them. He would turn Argentina into a haven for Nazis fleeing Europe, yet also expand rights for Jews. He'd court conservatives, then piss them off by passing progressive reforms to legalize divorce and prostitution. Whatever he thought was best for Argentina (and for Perón) at the moment. This would last for 9 years.
But in September 1955, after losing the support of both the military and the Church, a powerful institution in Argentina, Perón was overthrown in a military coup. He would seek asylum in Paraguay and from there move to Madrid where he'd spend the next years in exile. Argentina would spend the next 17 years going through a period marked by a revolving door between democratic governments and military juntas, one which was even worse than OTL. Greater instability led to far more anemic economic growth, which in turn led to socialist movements growing in strength.
While this was going on, Perón did not remain idle during his years of exile. To the surprise of many, Perón would have several meetings with Che Guevara, the two somewhat respecting each other over their mutual opposition to the United States of America. (That Perón opportunistically dropped his early anti-US foreign policy in favor of rapprochement during his later years as President was but a minor detail.) Guevara would introduce him to several prominent Latin American socialists, including a certain J. Posadas, an Argentinian communist who fled the country to avoid persecution from the latest military junta. Perón, being his usual charming self, somehow managed to strike up an unlikely friendship with Posadas and the two remained in regular contact with each other.
Perón still had many allies in Argentina who kept him up to date on the evolving situation, and the increasing growth of the socialists convinced him to take his rhetoric and ideas a couple steps to the left, even going so far as to court the same socialists that he repressed during his time as President.
Then came the year 1973. The latest military government decided to step down and hold new elections in March, which the Peronists were allowed to participate in this time, having been banned after the coup of 1955. Perón himself would not be allowed to participate however. Running as his stand-in was Dr. Héctor Cámpora, from the left-wing of the party. Cámpora would end up winning handily due to a combination of Perón's massive popularity, many Argentinians still had fond memories of the Perón years, and managing to form an electoral bloc with a number of socialist groups including, by some miracle that only a handful people understood how it came to be, the Revolutionary Workers' Party Posadist of J. Posadas.
Upon the victory of his ally, Perón would finally return to Argentina after more than a decade-and-a-half of exile. Then Cámpora resigned in July, new elections were held and this time Perón was allowed to participate. Just as was always planned, Perón once again became president. He immediately set about to implement a program that was radically to the left of his first tenure, which greatly angered the right-wing faction of the Peronists who saw this as a betrayal of the nation and everything that Peronism was supposed to stand for. And on 16 February 1974, a young Right-Peronist fatally shot the President.
In the chaos, a group of military officers tried to coup the government, but a hastily formed United Front between the Left-Peronists led by Cámpora and the Posadists managed to keep control over most of the capital, calling up supporters and other leftist groups who had remained neutral until now to rise up. The country began to splinter apart; the Argentinian civil war had begun.
The civil war would last 5 years and devastate Argentina, but the result was a clear victory for the United Front which now seeks to transform Argentina along socialist lines. Just as news of aliens is spreading, signals are heard above Earth, and J. Posadas looks up at the starry sky, wondering if finally…
People's Republic of China 中华人民共和国 (Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó) "Comrades! Thirty years have passed since the establishment of our People's Republic. In this time, we have resolutely followed the road of genuine Marxism-Leninism by earnestly studying Mao Zedong's genius, creative, and comprehensive thought, and have built a great and modern socialist state and allowed the people to live and work in peace and contentment. Holding high our great red banner, the whole people stands united, the whole party stands united, and the whole country stands united! Today, the revolutionary movement is surging in all corners of the world, and our people's united fleet heroically carries forth the People's War for peace, liberation, and socialism. US imperialism and Soviet revisionism is temporary, but the invincible revolutionary spirit of the people's resistance is absolute! The people of the world will certainly be victorious!" - General Lin Liguo
Government type: Socialist Republic Capital: Beijing Largest city: Beijing Head of State: Chairman Lin Biao (CCP) Head of Government: Premier Chen Boda (CCP) Economic policy: Central Planning Trade policy: Protectionism Cold war alignment: Independent (Maoist Third Worldist) Friends: North Korea, Tanzania, some other countries in Africa Enemies: Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, India Population: 969 million (Extreme population base) Military service: 2-5 years; varies by branch of service. Army: 3,600,000 soldiers; the largest standing army in the world. There are another several million more in a group of reserve categories ranging from organized militia divisions to ad-hoc armed civilian formations. (Mostly geared toward the doctrine of "People's War" and less so for small-scale intervention in regional conflicts.) Air Force: 56,000 airmen, including strategic forces and 120,000 air defense personnel. 5,400 combat aircraft. (Expanded relative to IOTL due to political changes.) Navy: 360,000 sailors, including 38,000 in naval aviation, and 38,000 marines. 25 major surface combat ships, 91 attack and cruise missile submarines. (Again, this navy is best suited toward defense of China's waters.) Strategic forces: Around 200 nuclear warheads configured for deployment at intermediate and tactical range. Intercontinental capabilities are emerging and production of warheads is accelerating. Presently in possession of the fifth largest nuclear arsenal.
Great Power, has two traits. History: Mao Zedong's untimely death via heart attack before the Second Plenum of the Ninth Congress in 1970 thrust his named successor Lin Biao into power just as tensions had begun to brew between his supporters and the Gang of Four. Now empowered, Lin's PLA faction wasted no time in consolidating their support, with Chen Boda's attacks on Zhang Chunqiao at the 9th Congress quickly segueing into a purge of the Gang and their radical supporters, to the quiet (and sometimes not-so-quiet) enthusiasm of most of the party. Zhou Enlai's "retirement" under the excuse of poor health soon followed, allowing Lin and his supporters to consolidate full control of the state.
The Lin-Chen regime has largely continued the policies that were ascendant in the last phase of the Cultural Revolution before Mao's death. The militarization of the country and the government has continued, with school and work cadres reorganized into pseudo-military structures and local political activities largely being brought under the control of the PLA. The propaganda sphere has likewise reflected this trend, promoting a national spirit of discipline and self-sacrifice in the name of the eternal, permanent revolution to carry forth Mao's historical genius. Economically, decentralized agrarian industrialization and self-sufficiency of both local units and the country continues to be emphasized--hopes of economic reform or rapprochement with the west were largely dashed with the purge of Zhou's faction, and many urban industries continue to languish even despite some partial reforms in the mid-1970s. In contrast, small-scale rural industry for building items such as tools or fertilizer or energy continues to grow with the support of the government, sacrificing efficiency for self-sufficiency and military resilience.
None the less, many of the worst excesses of the revolution have been pulled back from after Lin's consolidation of power (with Lin himself never always having some private reservations towards them, although content to slavishly follow Mao's line)--notably, the sent-down youth have been returned from the countryside, and the remaining party, PLA elders have largely been allowed to live out the rest of their lives in peace, and in the last few years increasing efforts at economic reform and rehabilitation of some purged cadres from the cultural revolution with necessary managerial experience have been made largely in recognition of necessity.
On the foreign policy front, attempts were made to reconcile with the Soviet Union but were largely scuttled with the ascendance of Kosgyin's reformist group in Moscow, seen as a despised neo-Kruschevite clique. China has thus remained distant from both the US and USSR, throwing itself enthusiastically into militarization at home, through increased arms and nuclear production and construction of great networks of bunkers and fortifications, and a non-aligned posture abroad, promoting the third worldist doctrine first elaborated by Lin in his 1967 speech. Chinese support still flows to Maoist radical groups across the world, even as the enthusiasm for such ideological fervor wanes at home.
Lin rules with theoretically absolute power, as the worthy inheritor of a now-effectively defied Mao. However, although canny and clever, he is in perpetually poor health and grows more lethargic and passive by the day. Increasingly, many of the power elite from the PLA and Chen Boda's faction suspect that he has become a mouthpiece for his wife Ye Qun (an important political figure in her own right) and especially his impetuous son Lin Liguo, whose self-aggrandizing and heterodox attitude and wild promotion through the military ranks, culminating in being made General and de facto director of the PLAAF, has attracted many resentments. The history of internal power struggles under Mao's late reign may well repeat itself as the elder Lin continues to decline... well, that is, unless something ridiculous like an alien invasion happens.
Cards are out and the IC thread ( located here Xenonauts 1979: IC IC ) has started with the Xenonauts Charter drafting event.
It's at this point I just want to briefly call attention to the fact I have a patreon (which has now been set up for this game apart from the banner and pfp). I have a somewhat different model than my last game, as this one is much more centered on the global. In particular though, if you really want to play and don't wanna wait in line until the game dies before you even get a chance, there is a tier for that.
I'm very late to this posting wise, and I fear that there's just too many applications for me to feasibly get in. So what I offer instead is to help with hosting if its desired.
Alright, I have edited the information for the UNSC election into the OP of the IC Thread. Since much of the debate for the Xenonauts Charter was already worked out in the discord, I have decided on a week-long deadline for everyone to submit their votes on the Charter and to fill the UNSC seats. With time for any discussion that might take place around that.
So get me your votes (not orders) by the 7th.
Any matters like Egypt's proposal to extend the UNEF mandate should probably go to the discord in the meantime.
