March 27 (UPI) -- Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries.
They include:

-- Singer Mariah Carey in 1969 (age 55)

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https://preview.redd.it/nf4rs5phzwqc1.jpg?width=768&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1b018615eff3c0a3a4073e0c2cb4814859b5a3ae

-- Singeactor Halle Bailey in 2000 (age 24)

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https://preview.redd.it/tp102911zwqc1.jpg?width=768&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=686ba3a7476b66eeceb67f11197199c78e699632

- Singer Fergie, born Stacy Ann Ferguson, in 1975 (age 49)
-- Singer Jessie J, born Jessica Ellen Cornish, in 1988 (age 36)
-- Actor Brenda Song in 1988 (age 36)
-- Singer Kimbra Lee Johnson in 1990 (age 34)
-- K-pop singer Lalisa "Lisa" Manoban, in 1997 (age 27)
-- Actor Sophie Nélisse in 2000 (age 24)
-- Printmaker Nathaniel Currier of Currier and Ives in 1813
-- Schoolteacher Patty Smith Hill, who wrote the words for "Happy Birthday to You," in 1868
-- Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1886
-- Actor Gloria Swanson in 1899
-- Nobel Peace Prize laureate Eisaku Sato in 1901
-- Jazz singer Sarah Vaughan in 1924
-- Race car driver Cale Yarborough in 1939
-- Actor Michael York in 1942 (age 82)
-- Musician Tony Banks (Genesis) in 1950 (age 74)
-- Actor Maria Schneider in 1952
-- Musician Andrew Farriss (INXS) in 1959 (age 65)
-- Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino in 1963 (age 61)
-- Musician Johnny April (Staind) in 1965 (age 59)
-- Actor Pauley Perrette in 1969 (age 55)
-- Musician Brendan Hill (Blues Traveler) in 1970 (age 54)
-- Actor Elizabeth Mitchell in 1970 (age 54)
-- Actor Nathan Fillion in 1971 (age 53)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/othefamous-birthdays-for-march-27-sophie-n%C3%A9lisse-nathan-fillion/ar-BB1kBDWX

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Alvin York, the 36th President of the United States
Cabinet
Vice President:

• Charles Edward Merriam (1947-1948)

Secretary of State:

• W. Averell Harriman (1947-1948, resigned),
• Joseph Grew (1948, acting)

Secretary of the Treasury:

• Dean Acheson (1947-1948, resigned),
• Franklin W. Hancock (1948, acting)

Secretary of War:

• Kenneth C. Royall (1947-1948)

Attorney General:

• Jack Tenney (1947-1948, resigned)
• Charles Fahy (1948, acting)

Secretary of the Navy:

• James V. Forrestal (1947-1948)

Postmaster General:

• Thomas Perkins Henderson (1947-1948)

Secretary of the Interior:

• Edwin W. Pauley (1947-1948, resigned)
• Charles W. Jewett (1948, acting)

Secretary of Education:

• Orland K. Armstrong (1947, resigned),
• Jay Bryan Nash (1947-1948)

Secretary of Labor:

• Howard W. Smith (1947, resigned)
• John L. Lewis (1947, acting, appointment rejected)
• William Morris Leiserson (1947-1948)

Secretary of Agriculture:

• Chester C. Davis (1947, resigned)
• John Marvin Jones (1947-1948)

Secretary of Commerce:

• Leon Henderson (1947-1948)

Changing of the Guard
When Alvin York finally assumed the presidency after weeks of national debate, he found himself the heir to an administration in chaos. In the twilight of the Hughes presidency, scandals had sunk two of his former colleagues and left their cabinet positions vacant, while another was vacated at the beginning of York’s term when Secretary of Commerce Jesse H. Jones resigned in protest at the public treatment of former President Howard Hughes. Seeing what remained of the cabinet as a pit of vipers that might consume him the same way it had Hughes, York drew an old ally from Tennessee into his administration by appointing state party chairman Thomas Perkins Henderson as his Postmaster General. In a similar move to earn more allies in the administration, York promoted Assistant Secretary of War Kenneth C. Royall as his Secretary of War ahead of several more senior officials in the War Department. To round out his selection of new cabinet officers, York appointed Price Administrator Leon Henderson as his Secretary of Commerce in a bid to build a base of support among Federalist Reformists skeptical of the pro-trust majority in the party. But one more glaring vacancy would remain after this reshuffling: the Vice Presidency. Seeking a respectable figure who could help to unify the party after its factional turmoil and help him navigate Washington, York turned to the elder statesman Charles Edward Merriam to fill this crucial position. Merriam, who had privately hoped that he would be called back into service since the end of his term as Censor, readily accepted the position.
However, these initial appointments would hardly spell the end of the turnover within York’s new administration. It soon became apparent that much like his predecessor, York was a chronic micromanager who frequently interfered with the responsibilities of his subordinates. Struggling to operate under a president who remained deeply invested in educational issues Secretary of Education Orland K. Armstrong would be the first of his administration to resign, albeit justifying it by accepting a university presidency. Almost as soon as York had replaced Armstrong, he found himself bereft of a Secretary of Agriculture as Chester C. Davis resigned amid his frustrations at York’s insistence on personally managing the details of a farm credit program passed by Congress. When Davis publicly criticized York as unreasonably inserting himself into areas he had no serious expertise in, it was initially dismissed as the musings of a resentful cabinet member. Yet the report of the Council of Censors in the summer of 1947 painted a picture of gross mismanagement in the York administration that helped to confirm Davis’s statement, with the administration being riddled by redundant committees constructed by a President apparently unaware of the complexities of a government mobilized for war.
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Secretary of War Kenneth C. Royall during his confirmation hearings before the Senate.
An End to War?
For more details, see The Second World War, Part XI .
After seven and a half long years at war, the American people placed their hope in President York to finally bring them victory. While York hoped that nuclear fire would be the ultimate weapon to bring the fearsome Russian State to its knees and commissioned the atomic bombing of four of its cities, the reality proved to be far less simple. Unbeknownst to the outside world as virtually all diplomatic missions had been withdrawn from Moscow amid the failure of the Russian government to protect them from violent bread riots, the Russian government had in fact collapsed and the county had disintegrated into warlordism in the aftermath. With the truth only revealed upon the surrender of forces under the command of General Andrey Vlasov, President York was quick to present this development to the American people as a point of victory in the war and began the withdrawal of the American Expeditionary Force from the Russian frontlines much to the chagrin of his German allies. Instead concentrating on securing the final defeat of Imperial Japan, York oversaw the implementation of an enormous firebombing campaign to level its cities while campaigns stretching across the many islands of the Asian continent provided victory after victory on the battlefield. Once sufficient air supremacy and nearby staging bases had been secured, President York dealt the final coup de grâce by ordering the atomic bombing of four Japanese cities to trade the lives of the millions of civilians therein for an immediate surrender by the Imperial Japanese government.
While President York declared victory abroad, the end of the Second World War created as many new problems as it did solutions. For nearly a decade the American economy had been mobilized for war and millions of its young men who had been sent abroad to die for their country were now returning in droves to a deeply uncertain future. To help address their plight as the war was in its final months, President York successfully shepherded the passage of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act through Congress providing all returning soldiers with an immediate and very generous cash payment alongside substantial benefits in securing low-interest loans from the federal government for starting businesses and purchasing homes as well as assistance with pursuing educational opportunities. Yet even this monumental act only touched on one of the myriad issues of the demobilizing economy. The federal debt had rapidly ballooned in the war years to hundreds of billions of dollars and efforts to alleviate the burden of wartime taxation were deeply frustrated by the competing priorities of the deeply divided House of Representatives. Wielding more executive control over the matter of price controls, President York opted not to lift most of the controls in order to avoid further financial stresses on the American people amid persistent inflation stemming from the war years. But a more hopeful note came for the Congolese people as their appointed day of independence had finally arrived and President York presided over the proclamation of the United States of the Congo.
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Advice pamphlet distributed as part of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act
The Red Summer
Throughout the two terms of President Howard Hughes, labor relations throughout the country had gradually unraveled with the federal government resorting to increasingly coercive measures to ensure the cooperation of the national workforce in the war effort. In particular, a clause in the 24th amendment allowed the federal government to curtail the right to strike during times of war, which President Hughes had used to force binding pro-business arbitrations on defense-related workers throughout the country. Although President York initially continued these policies, the end of the war undermined the constitutional basis of his actions and resulted in a surge of unemployment and labor demands that presaged a tidal wave of strikes throughout the country. Despite his efforts to take to the bully pulpit and demand the passage of the full Federalist Reform economic agenda, the House remained too divided to make any consensus on the brewing labor crisis. Thus, cities across the United States became embroiled in seemingly interminable general strikes ranging from those calling for reduced working hours and higher pay to those espousing overtly syndicalist rhetoric, with violent clashes between strikers, veterans, and local authorities becoming par for the course. In a clumsy attempt to assuage labor concerns, President York requested the resignation of the unpopular wartime Secretary of Labor Howard Y. Smith and attempted to nominate sympathetic labor leader John L. Lewis in his place. Such an ambition was quickly dashed in the Senate, where Senate Leader Sherman Minton decried Lewis’s lack of patriotism due to his well-documented opposition to the war and openly questioned whether this might be a corrupt racketeering deal and engineered the rejection of his nomination. In the end, York was forced to appoint the moderately conservative William Morris Leiserson instead which hardly abated the ongoing strikes.
With the pressure from the strikes increasing over several months, Speaker of the House Wright Patman was successful in crossing party lines to pass several bills including a federal commitment to full employment, additional federal assistance towards the creation of credit unions, and regulations on anti-competitive practices, all of which easily passed through the Senate as well. Yet one bill would stand above all others passed by Congress during President York’s Term: the National Labor Arbitration Act of 1947. Claiming the domestic situation to be a national crisis warranting restrictions on the right to strike, the act extended many wartime powers to forcibly arbitrate labor disputes until the passage of a resolution by Congress declaring the crisis resolved. Although wide sections of the labor movement reviled this Act, an insurgent faction within the American Federation of Labor led by George Meany seeking to bring the AFL behind the Federalist Reform Party scored an upset victory in the union’s leadership elections. Yet this victory would soon prove hollow as Walter Reuther staged a split with many pro-Social Democratic unions walking out to form the Congress of Industrial Organizations in opposition to the York administration. Meanwhile, as the Council of Censors failed to pass a motion to declare the Act unconstitutional, the Supreme Court took up the issue in the United States vs. Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. Despite the court’s ostensible Social Democratic majority, Associate Justice Marcus C. Sloss shocked the country by concurring with the Federalist Reform minority in upholding the constitutionality of the act in a refusal to expand the power of the court at the expense of the legislature.
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Associate Justice Marcus C. Sloss, lauded by some as the epitome of judicial integrity and reviled by others as a betrayer of the workers.
A New Enemy
For more details, see Gotterdammerung.
While citizens around the world rejoiced at the end of the all-consuming Second World War, the chessboard of world politics had shifted from the battlefield to the diplomatic arena. During the twilight years of the war, Secretary of State W. Averell Harriman had grown increasingly skeptical of the intentions of the country’s German allies and pivoted towards a policy of containing their rampant expansionism. Such a policy was further buttressed by George F. Kennan’s analysis in his so-called “Long Telegram” which suggested that the Kaiser and the Junker class supporting him were motivated into a highly bellicose foreign policy in order to maintain their political power amidst severe domestic unpopularity. However, the increasingly brazen provocations of the German Empire in dismantling the Kingdom of Hungary, annexing Czechia, and creating a puppet state to manage the ethnic colonization of its occupied Russian lands drew the personal attention of President Alvin York. While York commissioned the reconstruction of Japan and the creation of a Manchurian state without consultation of the German Empire, he more harshly expressed his reaction in a scathing rebuke in his 1948 State of the Union Address declaring “we have to take a firm stand with Germany. We found out what appeasement got us from Japan and we cannot allow it to happen again.”
Thus, when the Greek King Constantine II and his heir presumptive Prince Paul were assassinated by a communist rebel, York plunged the United States headfirst into the ensuing civil war despite the protestations of his diplomatic advisors. Ruling out support for either the German-backed government of Prime Minister Konstantinos Kotzias or the leftist resistance of Alexandros Svolos, York ordered diplomatic and military assets to back the Venezelist resistance movement led by Colonel Dimitrios Psarros in a direct confrontation against the German Empire. In retribution, Kaiser Wilhelm III ordered the release of leftist political prisoners from France and Italy with arms in order to foment rebellion against American occupation forces in both countries and weaken their position in long-stalled negotiations for a final peace with both countries. Furious at what he saw as a direct attack on the American people, York was growing convinced that this was the final trial in his God-given mission to rid the Earth of the Old World’s corruption. His cabinet got the first inkling of what was to come when he stated “I wouldn’t give one American boy for everything I’ve seen in Europe. We have to let the atomic bomb do the job,” but only his Secretary of War Kenneth C. Royall and a circle of high-level military officials were truly in-the-know about his future plans.
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Greek partisans during its Civil War.
The Winds of Winter
On April 17th, 1948, President Alvin York privately spoke to General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of American forces in Europe, and told him that “we must wipe the Germans from the face of the Earth in one terrific blow and let’s do it in time to save ourselves. Start at Wilhelm’s and go on down until we burn ‘em all up — atomic bomb and all.” When MacArthur attempted to convince the President that the tactical use of nuclear weapons against the Germans in a more conventional war would be a sufficient show of force, York simply replied: “If you can’t find anyone else to push the button, I will.” With such a direct order from his commander-in-chief, General MacArthur had no choice but to put Operation Halfmoon, the planned annihilation of all major German cities using 243 atomic bombs, into motion. Despite the acquiescence of MacArthur and the relevant officer corps, the effort ran into serious opposition in the enlisted ranks. Under the influences of military justice policies of President Tasker H. Bliss calling for resistance against unlawful orders and the educational principles promulgated by President John Dewey urging critical action against unjust social orders, many enlisted men refused to carry their orders and some even went so far as to actively sabotage bombing missions to ensure they could not go forward. Yet despite these efforts, many warplanes still managed to get into their air with their nuclear payloads. Thus, in a monstrous demonstration of the raw power of splitting the atom and the willingness of the American government to use it, 37 atomic bombs struck cities across Germany and reduced everything and everyone therein to ashes.
While President York was successful in ensuring the total surrender of what authorities still remained in Germany, whether such a horrific act could be declared a victory for America remained deeply in doubt. In one stroke, the United States of America had simultaneously cowed the world into submission while making itself a global pariah excoriated for its wanton slaughter of the German people. Brave enough to stand as the international leader of the denunciation of America’s conduct was newly elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Aneurin Bevan and his Foreign Minister Harold Nicolson, though the most pertinent opposition would come from within the United States itself. Throughout its history, the United States had become home to a large number of German immigrants and its ethnic tradition remained proud and strong within the country. Thus, the total destruction of their homeland shocked and horrified many German-Americans into action, with nationwide demonstrations led by former General Herbert C. Heitke and many German-American politicians joining hands with other opponents of the York administration to demand his impeachment and removal. Yet perhaps most concerning of all would be the response of the Earth itself, with scientists across the world recording a substantial drop in global temperatures as the sky itself visibly darkened after the bombings.
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The apocalypse, as wrought on the city of Dresden.
God’s Instrument No More
In the days immediately following the bombing, it quickly became apparent that the York administration was rapidly collapsing. Secretary of State W. Averell Harriman and several other cabinet members resigned in a collective move, no longer holding confidence in a President who had failed to consult his whole cabinet on such a momentous decision. Shortly thereafter, the Council of Censors unanimously passed a resolution spearheaded by William Simon U’Ren and John Dewey to censure President York and denounce him for crimes against humanity. Although the Censors held the power to impeach, they opted to allow the House of Representatives to proceed with its own articles of impeachment in order to further shatter York’s credibility. Amidst all of this, President York suffered a major stroke that left him bedridden and partially paralyzed, no doubt aggravated by the severe stress of the government crashing in around him. With an impending Senate trial seeming likely to convict him and May Day heralding the greatest yet wave of protests and strikes during his term, it became clear to the ill President that his time in office was quickly coming to a close. Thus, hoping to preserve what remained of his legacy, York signed a letter to acting Secretary of State Joseph Grew announcing his immediate resignation on grounds of ill-health and bringing an end to his ignominious presidency.
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Charles Edward Merriam, the elder statesman handed the poisoned chalice of becoming the 37th President of the United States.
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Howard Hughes, the 35th President of the United States
Cabinet
Vice President:

• Alvin York (1945-1947)

Secretary of State:

• Owen D. Young (1945, died),
• W. Averell Harriman (1945-1947)

Secretary of the Treasury:

• Dean Acheson (1945-1947)

Secretary of War:

• Robert S. Kerr (1945-1947, fired),
• Elliott Roosevelt (1947, resigned),
• Lawrence A. Hyland (1947, acting)

Attorney General:

• Jack Tenney (1945-1947)

Secretary of the Navy:

• James V. Forrestal (1945-1947)

Postmaster General:

• Elliott Roosevelt (1945-1947, promoted),
• William P. MacCracken Jr. (1947, acting, appointment rejected)
• William Washington Howes (1947, acting)

Secretary of the Interior:

• Edwin W. Pauley (1945-1947)

Secretary of Education:

• Allan Nevins (1945, resigned)
• Orland K. Armstrong (1945-1947)

Secretary of Labor:

• William Hammatt Davis (1945-1946, fired),
• Howard W. Smith (1946-1947)

Secretary of Agriculture:

• Chester C. Davis (1945-1947)

Secretary of Commerce:

• Jesse H. Jones (1945-1947)

The Flight of Icarus
Howard Hughes’s reelection campaign proved to be a triumphant vindication of his first term in office, as he batted away the anti-war challenge of Norman Thomas and his party secured a narrow majority in the Senate. With this newfound flexibility in his appointments, Hughes asked for the resignation of Attorney General Newbold Morris who he had only reluctantly put up as a compromise choice after the consecutive rejection of several of his previous nominees. Hughes would replace Morris with former acting Attorney General Jack Tenney, while Undersecretary of Education Allan Nevins was promoted to fill Vice President Alvin York’s former position and General Electric President Owen D. Young was surprisingly chosen to succeed Louis Brownlow as Secretary of State. Although allegedly planning to also replace Secretary of Labor William Hammatt Davis, Hughes soon became caught up in a different matter. Despite his age, Secretary of State Young proved much more vigorous than his predecessor in seeking to establish answers to questions surrounding the post-war world order and organized a major conference in Caracas between the “Big Three” powers of the United Kingdom, the German Empire, and the United States. Not only insisting on personally attending the conference, Hughes demanded that he personally fly the American delegation to Caracas in an experimental plane developed by his aircraft company. Thus, several high-ranking American officers, political officials, and various aides boarded Hughes’s plane on a fateful March day in 1945.
Just over an hour into the flight, disaster struck as a fluid leak in the starboard engine suddenly severed Hughes’s ability to steer the aircraft. Initially just listing to one side, the plane suddenly pitched downward and began rapidly losing altitude. Despite attempting several different measures such as variously cutting power to different engines, Hughes found himself unable to regain control of the aircraft and instead prepared for a controlled crash landing on the coast of North Carolina. Unfortunately, while passing over the resort town of Nags Head in an attempt to land on a nearby beach, the plane suddenly dipped and crashed into a beach house instead. The impact caused the fuel tanks to explode, leaving a scene of chaos as the entire surrounding area became consumed in a fiery inferno. Among those killed in the crash were the new Secretary of State Owen D. Young, Hughes’s trusted confidante Assistant Secretary of War Glenn Odekirk, accomplished Admiral Ernest J. King, and Air Force General Laurence S. Kuter, while most others on board the plane suffered injuries ranging from the superficial to the serious. President Hughes, having been knocked unconscious, may have died too had it not been for the split-second decision of Ambassador to Germany W. Averell Harriman to pull Hughes from the flaming wreckage and thus save his life. Yet with several broken bones, a collapsed left lung, and third degree burns across much of his body, Hughes’s survival was hardly guaranteed.
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President Hughes in the hospital not long after the disastrous crash at Nags Head
Pandemonium
The weeks following the crash proved tumultuous as the Hughes administration scrambled to deal with the fact that their President could perish at any moment. Holding out hope that Hughes would recover and refusing to be seen as usurping any authority, Vice President Alvin York declined to exercise presidential powers beyond the bare necessities in the days immediately following the crash and repeatedly rejected calls that he invoke the 35th Amendment to remove Hughes from office. Defying all expectations, Hughes’s condition steadily improved and he attempted to govern from his hospital bed by appointing W. Averell Harriman as his new Secretary of State and signing several executive orders related to wartime administration. Yet the reality was that Hughes remained seriously incapacitated and his cabinet officers took over much of the responsibility for administering the federal government. However, such an environment proved a fertile breeding ground for personal and factional rivalries. Coming from starkly different backgrounds with strongly different approaches to the war effort, Secretary of War Robert S. Kerr and Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal were among the first to come to blows as Kerr sought to prioritize the war in Russia while Forrestal sought a decisive defeat of the Japanese. But a larger conflict loomed over the cabinet between more independently-minded figures pressing their own agenda such as Secretary of the Treasury Dean Acheson, Secretary of State W. Averell Harriman, and Secretary of Labor William Hammatt Davis against the loyalists of the President such as Postmaster General Elliott Roosevelt, Secretary of the Interior Edwin W. Pauley, and Secretary of Commerce Jesse H. Jones.
As President Hughes recovered, he came to rely on his hard-nosed personal secretary Nadine Henley to become his personal representative to the cabinet. Fighting through bias against her gender and ridicule at her lack of an official position by seizing control of the flow of information to the President, Henley became a powerful force in the government instrumental in decisions as momentous as that to use the atomic bomb on three Russian cities in an attempt to secure their surrender. Although President Hughes managed a full recovery by the autumn of 1945, it was little secret that he had been changed both by the ordeal of the crash and the heavy prescription of codeine and valium by his doctors during his recovery. Already known for his personal eccentricities and said to be cracking under the intense stress of a wartime presidency, Hughes’s notorious reclusivity was only amplified and according to leaks from the State Department he refused to meet with anyone but a small number of confidantes who could be trusted with adhering to his rigorous requirements set forth by his lengthy memos regarding personal meetings. Thus, little changed after Hughes’s official return to governmental affairs, as despite the public insistence of Vice President York and other loyalists that President Hughes’s mind remained as sharp as ever, Nadine Henley continued to serve as the executor of his duties while Hughes was said to lock himself away for days at a time in the White House movie theater.
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President Howard Hughes during his convalescence
Fish Out of Water
While the American people could hardly look to the executive branch for clear leadership, Congress was even more wracked with conflict. Although a comfortable plurality in the popular vote had guaranteed the Federalist Reform Party control over the Senate, the House lacked any clear governing coalition. Forced to acquiesce to another term as Speaker of the House, independent Murray Seasongood remained the only glue sufficiently strong to allow Congress to continue to pass war budgets amid torturous tripartisan negotiations in the face of obstinate obstructionism by Socialist Workers floor leader Darlington Hoopes. Any other serious legislation found itself cast aside time after time, ranging from a Social Democratic proposal for a socialized healthcare system to a Federalist Reform proposal for a corporatist economic system to a Solidarist effort to require the award of a percentage of war contracts to small businesses. Even attempts at a veteran’s bill which ostensibly held tripartisan support failed to achieve compromise as the various party delegations squabbled over the extent of the benefits, their form, and which types of service members to provide them to. One of the few measures of distinct policy that emerged from the deeply divided House would be the Fulbright Resolution penned by Solidarist Arkansas Representative J. William Fulbright announcing the House in favor of a world government after the conclusion of the war. Yet the vague nature of the wording, its lack of force in law, and the ridicule subjected to it by the Hughes administration made even this accomplishment a limited one.
Yet with a commanding absolute majority under the leadership of firebrand Indiana Senator Sherman Minton, the Federalist Reform Party had little trouble airing its agenda in the Senate. In addition to its own proposed veteran’s benefits bill, the Senate also passed a bill permanently enshrining a system of universal military training for young men. In reaction to a wave of strikes ushered in by the summary firing of Secretary of Labor William Hammatt Davis and his replacement by the unpopular Howard W. Smith, the Senate also passed criminal syndicalism bills and several corollary bills restricting wartime strikes as well as political contributions by unions. Also seeking to address their long-standing program of political reform, the Senate passed several bills granting the President the power of the line item veto, creating an Executive Office of the President with expanded staffing, granting the President sole discretion to reorganize the executive branch, and even expanding the size of the Supreme Court. But time after time, when presented with each of these bills passed by the Senate, the opposition parties in the House of Representatives ensured that none of them gained the force of law. Ultimately, such obstructionism would become widely denounced by the Federalist Reform-aligned media and was a crucial factor in the victory of the Federalist Reform Party in the 1946 midterms despite the crisis consuming the executive branch.
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Arkansas Representative J. William Fulbright, the author of the Fulbright Resolution calling for the formation of a world government
The Grey Eminence
Once distrusted by President Hughes as a threat to his power even if he was indispensable due to his diplomatic skill and strong connections, following the crash at Nags Head former Ambassador to Germany W. Averell Harriman was elevated to Secretary of State and found himself in near total control of the foreign policy direction of the country at the critical juncture of the Second World War. As little groundwork had been laid by his predecessor Louis Brownlow, Harriman was free to carve his path towards a new world order without significant domestic interference. Instead, his greatest obstacle would be the Foreign Minister of the German Empire: Herbert von Dirksen. Where Harriman sought a balance of four major powers between the United States, the United Kingdom, the German Empire, and the Chinese Republic, von Dirksen sought to ensure Germany’s place in the sun as the premier global superpower. Where Harriman was a believer in a world order based on peace and international cooperation, von Dirksen was an unabashed advocate of his country’s expansionist military-industrial complex. And where Harriman hoped to achieve the spread of democracy around the globe, von Dirksen was a zealous defender of his country’s traditionalist and authoritarian monarchy. Already distrustful of the intentions of the German aristocracy during his time as ambassador, as Harriman established himself as Secretary of State he became convinced that Germany would be an obstacle to his geopolitical aims.
Thus, Harriman began to develop a policy of containing the rampant expansionism of Germany while currying favor with the other major global powers. Beginning first with the United Kingdom, Harriman developed a strong working relationship with Foreign Minister Anthony Eden and established a joint statement of principles opposing territorial expansionism, supporting self-determination of the European people, and coming out in favor of international cooperation through some type of global organization. In distant China where the tide of war was finally turning against Japan after a decade-long fight for survival, Harriman negotiated the arrangement of a coalition government recognizing Chiang Kai-Shek as the Premier of China and Feng Yuxiang as the Vice Premier with a melding of their followers in important ministerial posts to help address the persistent infighting that had dogged the Chinese war effort. Also securing the diplomatic backing of much of Latin America with his promises of cooperation on matters of trade and global rebuilding, Harriman then turned his focus towards challenging the ambitions of Germany. Although no friend of either the King of France or the integralist Italian regime, Harriman propped up both to counter German efforts to abolish the French and Italian states wholesale and pilfer their colonies. Likewise, Harriman supported the reestablishment of the Tsardom of Bulgaria and the transfer of occupational duties away from Germany to weaken its position in the Balkans while creating international commissions to study issues of ethnicity and statehood to challenge German claims to the Austrian crownlands. Perhaps most crucially, Harriman blocked von Dirksen’s calls to achieve the Drang Nach Osten through the annexation of wide swathes of Russian territory by demanding that a legitimate Russian government be identified to secure an instrument of surrender.
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Secretary of State W. Averell Harriman, the driving foreign policy force in the Hughes administration in the President’s absence.
Intrigue at Court
As more and more news made its way out of the White House regarding the President’s bizarre conduct and apparent inability to manage the government, the mood within the Federalist Reform Party was beginning to swing against Howard Hughes. The inciting incident would come with the turn of the new year, when Secretary of War Robert S. Kerr demanded a personal meeting with the President to force him to accept the nuclear bombing of Japan which Nadine Henley had reported Hughes opposed out of concern for the effect of nuclear fallout. Coercing two military attendants to allow him into the White House movie theater that Hughes had allegedly been locked in for the past week, Kerr was said to have stumbled in to find Hughes completely in the nude save for a loosely-tied bathrobe and tissue boxes on his feet. Enraged at the violation of his privacy and accusing Kerr of violating safety protocols amid continued waves of bubonic plague, President Hughes fired Kerr on the spot. In what many saw as a tactless power grab in the aftermath, Postmaster General Elliott Roosevelt successfully urged Hughes to appoint him as the next Secretary of War but thanks to intra-party opposition led by Hughes’s old enemy Maine Senator Owen Brewster, Roosevelt only barely survived his confirmation vote.
Roosevelt soon found himself overwhelmed by the demands of the office and was quickly embroiled in a scandal of his own when it was revealed by a publication from Secretary of the Treasury Dean Acheson that several prospective defense contractors paid thousands of dollars for Roosevelt to enjoy the pleasures of several Washington nightclubs. Not long after, the President’s own party rejected the nomination of William P. MacCracken Jr. as Postmaster General after the confirmation hearings revealed that in his prior work on airmail contracts he had orchestrated the illicit award of contracts to high bidders including the Hughes Aircraft Company. By then, it was apparent that the Federalist Reform Party was in open revolt against the president with his detractors now rapidly outnumbering and outmaneuvering his remaining loyalists. The next revelation would come from the Council of Censors, which subpoenaed a report from the presidential doctor Verne Mason that had been suppressed by the president’s secretary Nadine Henley. The report discussed at length the President’s crippling pain, addiction to opiates, mental fog, and extreme germaphobia among a litany of other serious disabilities for a chief executive to have. Once published, this proved to be the final nail in the coffin for the President’s credibility.
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Postmaster General turned Secretary of War Elliott Roosevelt testifying before Congress on his war purchasing scandal before his resignation.
The President Deposed
Yet by the clauses of the 35th Amendment to the Constitution passed after the similar incapacitation of President Howard P. Lovecraft, there was only one man who could invoke the process to remove Howard Hughes from office: Vice President Alvin York. Still feeling obligated to the man who had done so much for his political career and reluctant to take on the powers and responsibilities of the presidency, York had spent nearly two years resisting pressure to dethrone Hughes. But as the administration of Howard Hughes continued to crumble amid more and more revelations about the extent of his mental and physical incapacity, it became impossible for York to ignore his duty as Vice President. The inflection point came during a private meeting with Secretary of State W. Averell Harriman regarding the state of the executive branch. Harriman, who was already said to have used his contacts in Congress to stall a prospective veteran’s bill to avoid good press for President Hughes, intimated to York that the country could not continue to function amid the challenges of the imminent end of a global war without strong leadership and assuaged York’s concerns about assuming the position. Thus, York penned a letter to Congress declaring his opinion that Howard Hughes was no longer able to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Within a few days, Congress completed a perfunctory debate on what was already a foregone conclusion. By stark majorities in both chambers, Howard Hughes was declared incapable and removed from the office of President. Seeking to preserve what dignity remained to Hughes, York had him quietly removed from the White House away from the prying eyes of reporters to return to the same obscurity he had emerged from so suddenly seven years ago.
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Vice President Alvin York, the man reluctantly assuming the title of 36th President of the United States.
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Trasmesso il 07/02/2024 alle 21:20 su Rai 2 HD
SERIE TV POLIZIESCO (45') USA, 2022. Regia di Donald P. Bellisario, Don McGill. Con: Mark Harmon, Sasha Alexander, Michael Weatherly, Pauley Perrette - La serie segue le vicende della principale squadra di agenti speciali dell'agenzia federale Naval Criminal Investigative Service. L'NCIS si occupa dei reati più gravi che vedono coinvolti membri o persone legate alla marina degli Stati Uniti o al corpo dei Marines. Il Major Case Response Team, in particolare, si occupa dei casi più difficili e delicati, quali ad esempio l'omicidio di uomini vicini al Presidente, morti di celebrità all'interno di basi della marina, minacce terroristiche e rapimenti - S20 Ep.10 "Gioco di squadra" - A Washington arrivano la Tennant e Boone dalle Hawaii e Callen e Hannah da Los Angeles, per partecipare alla festa di pensionamento dell'istruttore Dale Harding, ma Harding viene trovato morto.
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