Only Anderson Could Go To Brazil

The state of TIAH

February 21st, 2007

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Alternate Historian's Note: Our Guest Historian, Stephen Payne, had a great suggestion – we haven't had a good contest in a while, so we're going to have an April Fool's Day Contest! Email us up to 3 entries for an alternate April 1st and we will post the best 10, with your own credit and link to your website (if you have one). We'll also see if we have enough credit for an ultimate winner to get a complimentary TIAH mug, but we can't promise anything on that yet. Get researching those alternate histories now, folks! The deadline will be March 29th.

in 1972, Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America, sets down in Air Force One on the tarmac of the Beijing Airport. Denounced by his opponents back home as a campaign stunt, the trip resulted in little real progress between the two giant nations because of the intransigence of the two ideological leaders – Mao refused to even entertain the notion of rapprochement with the US, and Nixon wouldn't bend without some kind of economic reform in China. Nixon came back to the US without any agreements, and privately lamented that the trip had been a failure. He lost the presidential election in the fall, and wags made up a new phrase about the trip: “Nixon can't go to China.”

in 1978, Comrade President John Anderson arrives in Brasilia, the capitalist super-city built in the previous decade to thumb its nose at the communist bloc control of the Americas. Comrade Anderson, one of the staunchest anti-capitalists of the Soviet States of America, was the only one capable of making that historic first step of approaching the western hemisphere's only capitalist power, because his socialist credentials were so impeccable. It even became a catchphrase - “Only Anderson could go to Brazil.”

Anthony Eden	In 1996 Harry Turtledove published the counter-history novel East of Eden in which he posed the Suez Question – what would have ..
.. happened if British Prime Minister Anthony Eden had weakened in the face of US opposition to the occupation of the Canal Zone? The outcome would be the loss of Anglo-French authority in the Middle East at a crucial time for the Western World as it sought to maintain a grip on oil supplies.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 2026 a consortium of open source developers buy the controlling shares of Microsoft, Inc for a nominal $1. The once great incorporation had collapsed as its business model had proven unsustainable at a time when Internet resources were universally considered free. The obsolescence of ..	Free Internet
.. fat client computers that were superseded by network-centric computing was the final nail in the coffin. George Bush had said as much when he announced the Communications Age in 1990, proving that perhaps he had 'the vision thing' after all.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Ross Perot	In 1992 Ross Perot was assassinated by agents of the profiteering military-industrial complex after announcing his intention to run in the 1992 U.S. presidential election on CNN's Larry King Live. His promise to get under the hood and fix the engine would have been an end to their racket ..
.. and they had firmly warned Perot that such an announcement would shorten his lifespan considerably.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1965 at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City agents of the Nation of Islam including Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson attempt to assassinate Al-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz formerly known by the various names Malcolm Little, Detroit Red and Malcolm X. They fail, and Brother Malcolm ..	Malcolm X
.. developed the new strategy of inclusiveness he had embarked upon since the Hajj in April 1964. The trip proved to be life-altering. Malcolm met many devout Muslims of a number of different races, whose faith and practice of Islam he came to respect. He believed that racial barriers could potentially be overcome, and that Islam was the one religion that conceivably could erase all racial problems. Today America is no longer a country at war with itself, mostly due to the giant known as Little.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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