Alternative history, part II

This would make a good novel.

FDR, criminalized the possession of gold on April 5, 1933 with Executive Order 6102, thus infuriating wealthy industrialists.  Meanwhile, 500,000 unemployed WWI vets were upset because FDR was cutting their promised bonuses.


Secretary of General Affairs Smedley Butler

General Smedley Butler riles up the bonus army with a speech on the gold standard. He recruits them into an organization called the American Liberty League. He then leads his bonus army to Washington, and with the assistance of the wealthy industrialists, forces FDR to step aside and become a figurehead like Paul von Hindenburg, President of Germany, and King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy.  He takes the title "Secretary of General Affairs", but is more popularly known simply as "General Butler", since he was already a Marine Corps general. He makes famed aviator Charles Lindbergh his Secretary of War.

Francois de la Rocque leads a similar organization in France, called the Croix-de-Feu, and becomes Premier after a coup d'etat on February 6, 1934.  Butler and de la Rocque form an alliance with Mussolini and Hitler, called the Axis, which later includes Japan.

Germany invades Poland in 1939, and the United States invades Canada.  Gen. Douglas MacArthur then leads a successful invasion of Australia and New Zealand, and later India.  France invades London, and UK leader Neville Chamberlain signs a peace treaty, although occupying French forces remain.  The main battle front then shifts to China, where the allies support Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek, who defeats the Communists lead by Mao Zedong.  Without a western front to worry about, the Germans invade the Soviet Union, starting with Ukraine, and then capturing Stalingrad and finally the coveted oil fields in Azerbaijan.  With the oil fields secure, the Germans focus on making sure their logistics are in place.  In the summer of 1942, without any oil, the Red Army collapse, and the Nazis easily conquer Leningrad and Moscow.  The Japanese invade Russia from the east, capturing Siberia.

The League of Nations is reconstituted and maintains its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.  Its major organ is the Security Council, with a membership of the United States, Germany, France, Italy, China and Japan.  It divides the world into spheres of influence, with the United States controlling North and South America, Australia, India and the Middle East; Germany controlling most of Europe and Russia; France controlling the United Kingdom and most of Africa, except for East Africa;  Italy controlling Greece, Yugoslavia, Albania, and most of East Africa, and Japan controlling all of Asia and the Pacific, except for China, the Philippines and Australia.

It could have been, but for the patriotism of Gen. Butler, who stopped the whole thing.

See also:   The Plot To Seize the White House