Untimely Excursions

by Hall, Gerald

  “It also helped us that former Vice-President Bricker ran such a spirited campaign against the President during the Republican primaries. That divided the Republican vote and convinced a decisive number to sit out the November election according to the polls. Bricker’s people were the ones who exposed the scandal within the Taft administration that doomed it.”

  “Vice-President Bricker was pretty bitter over losing to Taft in the previous primary campaign. He certainly wanted President Taft to pay for the humiliation that he felt as a result of certain unsavory comments that President Taft made during the campaign.”

  “A win is still a win though, Sir. Even so, it is not going to be particularly easy for you though. You have only a tiny majority in the House to work with.”

  “That is true. But the Republicans have an equally small majority in the Senate. They will have no choice but to compromise with each other. This will mean that we will have the advantage in getting our agenda put forth since almost all of the compromises will be in our favor, of course. We have many friends among the news media and the entertainment industry. They will certainly help shape the views of many Americans who have not yet signed on to our agenda, even in spite of certain conservative actors who supported blacklisting men and women who they felt were allied to the Bolsheviks. Hopefully, we can convince the industry to ‘rehabilitate’ these progressive voices so that they may be able to work again with their wonderful gifts and talents.”

  “Sir, the House Un-American Activities Committee will need to have a leash put on them first before that can happen, I’m afraid. In addition, the Republicans under Dewey and then Taft rolled back much of FDR’s New Deal during the past twelve years. We will have to work very hard to redistribute the wealth of this nation to those who are at the bottom of our economic ladder, Sir.” Alan noted.

  “Of course. It is only fair that the Federal Government provides assistance to everyone who needs help.” The President-elect replied.

  “We will have to find the money to reestablish the social welfare programs that FDR championed during his time at President, Sir. The Republicans have slashed those programs to the bone.”

  “Obviously, we are going to have to raise taxes on the wealthy again to acquire the additional revenue. After all, they have benefited greatly from the Republican tax cuts. We will also have to cut spending on the military as well. We have no real threats any longer. The Germans and Japanese are too busy trying to rebuild their countries from the destruction of the war to be a threat against anyone. Even the Soviet Union is no more, so we can stop worrying about the Red Threat as well.”

  “I don’t know, Mister President. There are still a lot of people on the West Coast who are still trying to recover after the Japanese germ missile attacks. They may not be quite so willing to accept that there is no more enemies to worry about. They lost a lot of people before the Japanese were finally defeated.”

  “When I sign an executive order ending the military draft, I’m sure that the folks in California, Oregon and Washington State will come around afterwards though. We don’t need their sons in uniform any longer since we are no longer sending them in harm’s way. We must turn inward once again to take care of our own people.”

  “What will we do if there is an unexpected crisis overseas? You know that the day that you start believing that nothing can go wrong, is the day where the world works hardest to prove otherwise.”

  “We will have to reinvigorate President Wilson’s idea of the League of Nations. If we work together in unison, there is no problem on Earth that we cannot cope with. Of course, we may have to give this organization a new name. Perhaps we will call it the United Nations or something similar.”

  “Such an organization will have to possess some teeth this time if we are going stop any future madmen like Hitler, Tojo and Mussolini from threatening their neighbors again.”

  “We will have to see about that. We have to tread carefully because there are still a lot of people who are afraid of more foreign involvements. They also worry that such an armed organization could be used against Americans sometime in the future.”

  “You think that we could have another American Civil War over something like this, Sir?” Alan asked.

  “I don’t know, Alan. President Dewey cut the legs out from under the gangs during his administration. The border wall that he started and President Taft finished shut down much of the smuggling and illegal immigration. They also slammed the door on their money flow. At the same time, one of the last things that President Dewey did was repeal most of the elements of the 1935 National Firearms Act. Crime didn’t skyrocket like we had feared after that however. Pretty much anyone could purchase a firearm because the Republicans pushed to have so many of the state and local gun-control laws repealed. That includes a great many laws that were meant to disarm certain minority groups.”

  “Sounds like you are talking about formation of militias having happened as a result of President Dewey’s actions, Sir.”

  “Yes, but they don’t all belong to the groups that you might imagine. There are a lot of these groups that have been formed by groups of Negros and even legal immigrants too. They have been protecting their communities very successfully too, even when law enforcement hasn’t been. There has been a burgeoning sense of mutual respect among the various communities too after the criminal elements had been culled out on all sides. That mutual respect seems to have come out of common values as well.”

  “It sounds like Dewey has managed to help the civil rights movement, even if that wasn’t his intent.”

  “I know. The bad part is that I don’t dare give the Republicans credit for this result. We have always fought to reduce the number of privately owned firearms to start with. I have had to step carefully concerning promoting Federal civil rights legislation because I worried about losing the Southern vote. But with the Republicans controlling the levers of powers for so long, the judiciary is now strongly leaning conservative with all of the judges that they appointed during that time.”

  “I remember, Sir. Something tells me that we should have been paying closer attention to what the real problems were down there. We may have won those states in spite of our platform, not because of it.”

  “We still run the risk of alienating our traditional progressive support though if we don’t do something to fulfill the campaign promises that we made to them.”

  “Then we will have to focus on the other elements of our platform and pray that no one notices our lack of focus on this particular arena.”

  “We are going to have to find something to focus peoples’ attention though if we are going to avoid this being a one-term Presidency. It needs to be a big concept, something that we can get people to get passionate about and support.

  “What about space exploration, Sir? I’m sure that you have read about what they are doing in Australia with their space rocketry and satellite programs.” Alan asked.

  “You have been talking to my running mate some more, it sounds like, Alan.” Adlai said with a chuckle.

  “Yes, I have. But Vice President-elect Kennedy does have some very interesting ideas about how technologies like space flight can ultimately provide significant benefits for the American people as a whole.”

  The Democrat President-elect thought for a few moments before responding.

  “Joseph has told me much the same thing, I must admit. He pointed out that the Australians have done some astounding things during the past couple of decades, especially considering their small population. Apparently, he had met with some of them previously during his time as a Congressman. My worry is if we put our focus and resources towards such a program that we would soon encounter considerable opposition from others in our party. They would consider it a waste of money that could be spent on social welfare programs instead.” Adlai replied.

  “I’m afraid that you might be right, Sir. But if we don’t go beyond focusing merely on social welfare programs, we will soon accus
ed of being socialists or even worse, communists. That will open the door for conservative Republicans like Robert Taft to crush us in the next election. Moreover, the American taxpayer may not want to endorse your proposed level of increased taxation merely to hand their money to people that they perceive as being unwilling to earn their own way through life.”

  “That is certainly a real danger, politically. I’m sure that we can find some money somewhere to pay for a real space program. I understand that most of Australia’s space program is being operated by a single corporation without much participation at all by the Australian government. If this corporation can manage such a feat, I’m sure that this great nation of ours with all of its wealth can manage to do at least as much. I will have to talk to my new secretary of defense about this. The US Army is doubtlessly working on rockets after what the Germans did with their rockets just before the Armistice. We can simply have the Army focus on making rockets to go into space rather than have their toys simply throw high explosives at someone on the ground.”

  “What will our goal be then, Sir?”

  “We should see if we can inspire the American people to try to put men on the moon first as a national goal. Then let’s see where we can go from there. I’m sure that our own scientists will come up with ideas that will benefit us on the ground along the way. Of course, the Bell Telephone Company would like to have its phone calls go through American space satellites rather than having to rent use of those new Australian communications satellites, of course.”

  Alan knew that Bell Telephone had made a number of campaign contributions to the Stevenson campaign, even if Adlai himself would not openly admit it.

  “That is a good theme for your inaugural address, Sir. It will give us something that might appeal to Americans who want to increase the prestige of our country and our people, both domestically and internationally. It might even draw some investment dollars back here to the United States to help improve our economy and create additional jobs at the same time.”

  “We can always use that. More money invested in the American economy will give us an even larger tax base to help pay for our social welfare programs.” Adlai replied.

  “There is a national security element here that we much consider as well, Sir. The Australians have already launched at least one satellite with a television camera in it. It orbits directly over the heartland of the United States in addition to many other parts of the world. I don’t know how sharp of an image that camera can see, but we have to consider the possibility that they can see every military installation that we have from above. We will have a hell of a time keeping any military secrets with that orbiting camera up there, according to my connections in the Department of Defense.

  We also know that Doctor Werner von Braun is working for an Australian company now. He was the scientist in charge of developing the German V-2 rocket that was used to bombard the Allies during the latter part of the war. We don’t know for sure, but there is a possibility that Doctor von Braun could be developing an improved version of the V-2 with a much longer range for the Australians.”

  “Last time that I saw, the Australians were still friends of ours. Besides, using a big rocket seems to me to be a pretty expensive way to send a thousand pounds of high explosives to someplace close to a target. It might scare a bunch of people, but it hardly is a threat to a real military target though.” Stevenson chided his advisor.

  “Perhaps so, Sir. But if someone manages to create some sort of super bomb to put on top of one of von Braun’s rockets, it could be a much bigger threat to us or anyone else if an aggressor can master that technology and obtain some of von Braun’s rockets.”

  “That is why we have intelligence services, Alan. If someone starts building a super bomb, our people will sniff it out and let us know so that we can decide what to do about it. Until then, we focus on our primary objectives first.

  Now, I will concede that we should build our own military rockets. But they should be used to launch satellites of our own into orbit. Then we can use those rockets to send up communications relay satellites to help level the playing field for Bell Telephone. But we can also use the same rockets to put television cameras of our own into orbit. That way, we can spy on what everyone else is doing. That will be easy to sell to the American public. We will just remind that that if we had such satellites during the war, we could have prevented the destruction of the Pacific Fleet by observing the Japanese long before they sprung their ambush on us. Do you see any problem with that, Alan?”

  “Except for the billions of dollars that we will probably end up spending on rockets that could be applied to domestic programs, I don’t see any problem at all, Sir.”

  “Maybe we can neutralize the Australian space program by proposing that all exploration be an international effort under the auspices of the new United Nations. We could claim that all long range rockets would have military applications and therefore should be under international control. That would force the Australians to share their rocket and other space technology with everyone else.”

  “That is an interesting idea, Sir. We would have to discuss with our new United Nations ambassador once he takes his place at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.”

  “President Dewey may have supported the formation of the United Nations to replace the League of Nations. But his successor President Taft very strongly opposed the United Nations. He wanted us to pull out of any international governing body instead. Taft felt that belonging to the United Nations compromised our national sovereignty by subjecting our foreign and national policies to the approval of foreigners.”

  “Well, Robert Taft was a bit of a reactionary, Sir. That made it very easy for you to attack him during the campaign. But his illness that his staff had kept hidden for so long also hurt him during the campaign. My sources say that if it were not for the tireless work by the White House doctors, he would have died by the beginning of his Presidency.”

  “He did warn us that America needed to stay out of the Chinese civil war. I’m not completely sure that he was wrong in his views on this subject.”

  “Shouldn’t we try to stop the bloodshed if we can? I know that the conflict within China has been brewing since well before the Japanese surrender. Mao Zedong and Chang Kai-shek could have peacefully come to a power-sharing arrangement, according to the analysts at the State Department.

  But instead, they went right back to fighting each other. The Nationalists may have killed Mao, but in doing so, they weakened themselves so badly that the entire country had broken down into loose alliances of warlords. One faction has its power base in the south and is largely Cantonese. The other is based in the north and is largely Mandarin ethnically. The western part of China and Tibet is basically a no-man’s land full of outlaws. We have to do something, Alan.”

  “I know, Sir. But what can we do? The fighting has gotten even worse with some spilling out all the way into the South China Sea.”

  “We may be forced to become much more active out there with our navy and our brand new Air Force. I wonder how it might impact the combatants to see some of Jack Northrop’s new jet-powered flying wings cruising overhead and a couple of our aircraft carriers sailing just off their coast?”

  “It is hard to say, Sir. But I think that a battalion or two of US Marines would probably make an even bigger impression though, if they are given enough support.

  Chapter Seventeen:

  Cavill Aerospace Test Hangar

  Outskirts of Derby, Western Australia

  March 5, 1957

  The light-grey painted transport gently landed on his short, sturdy landing gear that extended from sponsons in the lower sides of the fuselage. Then the boxy transport taxied up to the hangar before shutting its engines down. Finally, a door below the cockpit popped open, lowering down to provide a set of steps for personnel to walk down.

  One of the passengers, Major Derwin Durham, got our first and walked over to a waiti
ng Theodore Rosewood, the longtime program manager and chief engineer for Cavill Aviation.

  “It looks like you have stretched your ‘flying boxcar’ transport aircraft quite a bit, Mister Rosewood.” The visiting test pilot from Darwin noted.

  “Yes, we have. With the new turboshaft technology coming available, we thought that we would take advantage of it. The old radial piston engines were running into their practical limits in terms of available horsepower. But, there are some very interesting possibilities now.” Theo replied.

  “Those are very unusual engines that you have replaced each of the old Wright Cyclone radial engines with. Those engines look like that they have four bladed, counter-rotating propellers on them too.”

  “You’re right, Major Durham. There are actually two engines attached to each of those propellers. Each of those engines produces about four thousand shaft horsepower. That gives us enough power to double our aircraft’s original payload. Of course, we had to stretch the wings and cargo compartment to match.”

  “Why didn’t you just put four separate engines instead?” Derwin asked.

  “Because we wanted to keep things relatively simple with the redesign and reduce the amount of parasitic drag. We did do design studies with four separate engine nacelles as well. But we not only want to use the transport for cargo purposes, but also to use potentially for other special missions like maritime reconnaissance. With the combined engines, we believe that the aircraft can shut down one engine core on each side to reduce fuel consumption for long endurance patrols.”

  “That is very interesting. I can certainly see how that can work too. But didn’t the Germans try something similar for one of their bombers?”

  “Yes, but there were some significant differences. First, the Germans were combining two piston engines to drive one propeller. We are using two gas turbines that are geared down to drive two contrarotating sets of propellers. The German piston engines had tremendous issues with cooling, materials, the gearbox, among a variety of other things. We have managed to learn from their lessons, principally by using turboshaft engines instead trying to cram a pair of piston engines.”