List of fictional United States presidencies of historical figures (P–R)

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Lists of fictional presidents of the United States
A–B C–D E–F
G–H I–J K–M
N–R S–T U–Z
Fictional presidencies of
historical figures
A–B C–D E–G
H–J K–L M–O
P–R S–U V–Z

The following is a list of real or historical people who have been portrayed as President of the United States in fiction, although they did not hold the office in real life. This is done either as an alternate history scenario, or occasionally for humorous purposes. Also included are actual US presidents with a fictional presidency at a different time and/or under different circumstances than the one in actual history.

P[edit]

Thomas Paine[edit]

  • President in Margaret Klein's story "Paine's Pain"
  • The story starts in 1776, with conspirators led by the turncoat Thomas Hickey managing to kidnap George Washington and deliver him to the British commander, Sir William Howe. Transported by a British warship, Washington was taken to the Tower of London, to await trial on charges of High treason. However, the revolutionary Thomas Paine secretly traveled to England and with the help of British radicals effected a dramatic prison break. Paine and the freed Washington boarded a ship captained by John Paul Jones, which eluded the Royal Navy and arrived triumphantly at Boston. Paine was venerated as a hero and appointed as Washington's second in command. Throughout the rest of the Revolutionary War the two of them together led the American forces. There was, however, a fundamental difference between Washington's conservatism and Paine's radical ideas, which came into the open once independence was achieved. Eventually, Washington and Paine became bitter political foes. Following the first presidential election in 1789, Washington was elected President and Paine – Vice President, but there was increasing friction between them which culminated in a violent clash in August 1790. Washington was killed by a militia supporting Paine. He himself denied responsibility and expressed "great regret" at Washington's death. In the aftermath, Paine assumed the Presidency but was regarded as an illegal usurper by a considerable part of the American public. Paine initially sought to mollify his opponents and reach a compromise, but in vain. After surviving three assassination attempts and facing several armed insurrections, Paine saw no alternative but resorting to increasingly harsh measures against his opponents. These tarnished his reputation and earned him the nickname "The American Robespierre". In the face of mounting opposition, Paine tried to rally his followers, including radical intellectuals and working-class crowds, around a program of thorough social and political reform. He had some successes but was assassinated in November 1792, after issuing a Proclamation for Emancipation of the Slaves which he did not live to implement. After Paine's death, there was a sharp conservative backlash, Paine's main supporters being arrested or fleeing to exile in Revolutionary France. The Electoral College, recalled into Emergency Session, elected Alexander Hamilton as president. Hamilton swiftly proceeded to annul Paine's reforms and was re-elected president in 1793. Thomas Paine remained one of the most controversial figures in American history, some venerating him as a great hero and martyr while others regarded him as the most black of villains. At every crisis point in American history over the next centuries, from the Civil War to the Vietnam War and the Gulf War, Paine's name and heritage were inevitably evoked yet again.

Nancy Pelosi[edit]

  • In the comic series The Boys, created by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, after Victor K. "Vic the Veep" Neuman, formerly Vice President to Robert "Dakota Bob" Shaefer, was killed by Homelander as part of his ultimately unsuccessful coup against the United States in issue #65, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi became Acting President in issue #66, serving until after the 2008 elections.

Mike Pence[edit]

  • In a flashback episode of the Fox post-apocalyptic series The Last Man on Earth, Mike Pence is mentioned in news broadcasts as being the 46th President of the United States. During his presidency he creates the Federal Pandemic Agency in a last-ditch attempt to prevent the spread of the mysterious deadly virus sweeping across the planet. However, Pence himself eventually succumbs to the virus, and his entire line of succession is quickly eliminated by the virus along with nearly everyone else on earth.
  • President in the television series Years and Years. Mike Pence wins the 2024 U.S. presidential election, succeeding Donald Trump after he won re-election in 2020. He becomes president at a time of heightened tensions with China, after President Trump authorized a nuclear strike against the Chinese artificial island Hong Sha Dao days before Pence had entered office. During his presidency the U.S. faces international sanctions after the nuclear attack, and the United Nations threaten to withdraw their headquarters from New York. Former President Trump is mentioned as still holding some influence in the Pence administration, with Pence being regarded as a puppet. Due to being isolated on the world stage, the U.S. and the Republican Party drift further to the right, with Roe v. Wade and Obergefell v. Hodges both being overturned and the speaking of Spanish being banned in public spaces by 2027 (in addition to Trump's likeness being carved into Mount Rushmore).
  • In the anthology And the Last Trump Shall Sound by Harry Turtledove, James Morrow and Cat Rambo, Mike Pence succeeded Donald Trump as President in 2024 after his death during a second coronavirus pandemic. During his presidency, Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2026 with abortion being criminalized and thousands of women dying as a result of illegal procedures; concentration camps were established near the US-Mexican border to imprison migrants, illegal immigrants and political opponents; non-Christians including Jews, Muslims and Sikhs fell victim to fatal religious and racist attacks; and LGBTQ+ peoples were persecuted and eventually classified as sex offenders. Congress became a Republican-dominated rubber stamp, state autonomy in Democratic states was undermined with state governments being removed and replaced with right-wing puppets for non-compliance with federal orders, Christian fundamentalism was endorsed by the federal government, and news broadcasters including CNN and MSNBC became right-wing subsidiaries of Fox as part of restrictions on freedom of the press. Pence's Vice President was Lindsey Graham. In The Breaking of Nations by Harry Turtledove, Pence unsuccessfully opposed the secession of the West Coast states of California, Washington and Oregon as Pacifica and the northeastern states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont as Newtopia, the last states to be controlled by Democrats. And in The Purloined Republic by James Morrow, Pence managed to serve a third term as President by serving as Devin Nunes's running mate in 2032, whereupon Nunes resigned the presidency to allow Pence to succeed him, either sidestepping or manipulating the Twenty-second Amendment. Pacifican porn star Polly Nightingale attempted to sabotage Pence's presidency by impersonating his spiritual advisor.

Frederic Courtland Penfield[edit]

In The Land Leviathan by Michael Moorcock[1] Frederic Courtland Penfield becomes a nominal 'president' over a de facto, skeletal 'United States', in Washington, D.C. - in an alternate history world devastated by titanic wars and with the US having turned to violent racism an re-introduced Black Slavery. Penfield's capital has been surprisingly immune from bombing and missile attack, as the government had fled into subterranean shelters at the beginning of the Great War. Penfield's rule is challenged by rebellious Black slaves led by Paul Robeson.

Frances Perkins[edit]

In Amerika Strikes Back! by Paul Lally, on December 8, 1941 Nazi Germany reveals its possession of secretly developed nuclear weapons, destroying Washington D.C. and Manhattan in a sudden devastating attack. President Roosevelt and most of his cabinet perish, along with Congress and the Supreme Court. With the federal government effectively decapitated, the US is thrown into chaos, each state acting on its own. Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, sole survivor of the Executive Branch, is sworn as the first female President - an honor which she would have greatly liked to avoid. Germany threatens further attacks which would destroy Chicago, Miami, Pittsburgh and other major American cities. President Perkins has no choice but to give in and sign a Pact of Neutrality, the US obliging itself to stand aside as the Nazis take over the rest of the world. However, with President Perkins' tacit support General George Patton puts together an underground group called the “Sons of Liberty” and formulates a daring and desperate plot which may yet save something from the jaws of this colossal defeat.

Ross Perot[edit]

George S. Patton[edit]

  • President Patton, presumably George S., is mentioned in The Number of the Beast by Robert A. Heinlein. In reading an almanac from our universe, it is noted that Dwight D. Eisenhower served two terms but only one of them corresponded with his terms in the parallel universe, meaning that he either served from 1949–1957 or 1957–1965.
  • In the novel Patton's Spaceship (part of the Timeline Wars series by John Barnes), General George Patton was one of the American commanders who in 1945 valiantly resisted the invading armies which Nazi Germany sent across the Atlantic, but were overwhelmed. After being defeated by Rommel's armored columns at the Second Battle of Gettysburg, Patton led the remnants of his forces in a fighting retreat all the way to the West Coast and embarked them on boats across the Pacific, meeting in Australia with Field Marshal Montgomery at the head of surviving British troops. The Nazis proceeded to establish a collaborator Nazi regime in the US, which between 1952 and 1960 murdered no less than 14,000,000 American citizens. A further German attack overwhelmed Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines, but Patton and other exile generals managed to hold together the Free Zone in much of East Asia, where all who continued to resist the Nazis congregated - Americans, British, Soviets, Chinese, French, Jews, Blacks and numerous other nationalities and ethnic groups - together with the country's own Vietnamese population. Hanoi became the political and military headquarters of the Free Zone, where Patton established a strong working partnership and personal friendship with the Vietnamese General Giap, while keeping contact by submarine with the anti-Nazi Resistance active in the US and other countries. In 1961 the Free Zone seemed on the verge of defeat, with a heavy German invasion sowing destruction at Singapore, one of its main bases, and the Germans deploying devastating new technologies. However, Edward Teller had been building up a secret Nuclear Program, based at the village of Điện Biên Phủ, while Wernher von Braun - who defected from the Nazis and came over to Patton's side - developed Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. The Nazi spy satellite, launched from Cape Canavral, discovered the base and the Nazis launched a heavy attack on Điện Biên Phủ and were breaten off with difficulty. However, Teller obtained an unexpected plentiful source of Plutonium, making it possible for the Free Zone to launch its deadly surprise in the last moment before the Nazis could fully bring their own new weapons into play. ICBMs shot from Vietanam, loaded with hydrogen bombs, traveled around the world, destroyed Berlin and turned Germany into a radioactive wasteland. With the Nazis destroyed, their dependent Fascist regimes in various countries collapsed and underground groups took power. Patton, leading his forces to retake the United States, declared he would not use nuclear arms on American soil, but was intransigent in insisting that the 18,000,000 members of the American Nazi Party "would never be allowed to vote, hold office or own property" and that their properties would be handed to Blacks who had been re-enslaved under the Nazi regime. This stiffened the American Nazis' resolve not to surrender, but in a whirlwind campaign Patton utterly defeated the American Nazi army within less than a hundred days of his landing. A year later Patton won the first free elections and became President, defeating the opposing candidate John F. Kennedy who had been the captain of a Free Zone submarine.

William Dudley Pelley[edit]

Colin Powell[edit]

  • Colin Powell is president of a post-Communist United States in Kim Newman and Eugene Byrne's Back in the USSA, serving as a parallel to Boris Yeltsin.
  • Collin Powell is also mentioned to have been president in an episode of SeaQuest 2032.
  • Colin Powell was also mentioned as having been president in the 2000 movie Deterrence set in the then future year 2008. An aircraft carrier had been named after him, and he was mentioned to have taken heroic action in a crisis involving Venezuela.
  • In the story "The Unexpected Peacemaker" by Israeli writer Michael Vardi,[2] in 2002 Secretary of State Colin Powell breaks publicly with President George W. Bush over Bush approving of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon launching a devastating attack on the Palestinian cities in the West Bank. Powell resigns and becomes an outspoken critic of Bush. In 2003 Powell leaves the Republican Party and joins the Democrats, wins the Democratic Party primaries and defeats Bush in the 2004 presidential election, with John Kerry as his running mate. Barack Obama strongly supports the Powell candidacy and is appointed Secretary of State. With the help of Kerry and Obama, Powell embarks on intensive Middle East mediation. After a prolonged crisis in which Powel demands total Israeli stop to settlements on the West Bank and threatens to stop US aid to Israel, an agreement is finally achieved. The Israelis agree to withdraw from the West Bank, the Palestinians agree to end any kind of hostile acts against Israel, and the future of Jerusalem is deferred for further negotiations. For brokering this agreement, Powell gets the Nobel Peace Prize.

Elvis Presley[edit]

Q[edit]

Dan Quayle[edit]

R[edit]

Ayn Rand[edit]

Nancy Reagan[edit]

Ronald Reagan[edit]

Robert Redford[edit]

Thomas Brackett Reed[edit]

  • In the alternate novel The Great War: American Front as part of the Southern Victory Series by Harry Turtledove, it was mentioned that Thomas Brackett Reed was elected president as a Democrat during the late 19th century. The timeframe of his term(s) is never disclosed. However, evidence in the book supports that Reed served from 1897 to 1902, which would make one of the four presidents in the timeline to die in office. The first and second presidents to die in office were William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor (who both died the same way they did in real life) and Al Smith was killed during a Confederate bombing raid on Philadelphia in 1942. He was lionized as a hero of the Remembrance culture that controlled the country in the period between the Second Mexican War (1881–1882) and the Great War (1914–1917). President Reed pledged to support Haiti's continued independence, refusing to allow the Confederate States of America to invade the island by entering into a treaty to protect Haiti from any Confederate attack. In the 20th century, Reed's profile appeared on the United States half dollar coin.

Keanu Reeves[edit]

Condoleezza Rice[edit]

Nelson Rockefeller[edit]

  • In a parallel universe, designated Earth-712 featured in the comic book The Avengers No. 147 (May 1976), Nelson Rockefeller was president in 1976. His immediate predecessor was Hubert Humphrey. In this universe, Richard Nixon never had a political career.
  • Nelson Rockefeller is mentioned as the sitting president's immediate predecessor in Michael P. Kube-McDowell's novel Alternities. He is described as having had a difficult term in office.
  • In Nancy Wilder's short story "Battle Hymn of the Second Republic", Nelson Rockefeller won the Republican primaries of 1968, defeating Richard Nixon. Calling for an end to the Vietnam War, Rockefeller "scrambled" the voters, drawing away a considerable number of traditional Democrat voters while losing many Republican ones. Being elected, Rockefeller promised in his inauguration speech to begin immediately the process of evacuating US troops from Vietnam, but was assassinated two weeks later by an extreme right group. His assassination was one of the catalysts for the outbreak of the Second American Civil War.

Eleanor Roosevelt[edit]

  • Margaret H. Harrison's short story, "Love and Politics" begins in 1918, when Eleanor Roosevelt found love letters revealing a long-lasting affair between her husband Franklin D. Roosevelt and her social secretary Lucy Mercer. This led to the Roosevelts divorcing, Franklin marrying Lucy a year later. Though some found Franklin Roosevelt's conduct romantic and praised him for sticking to his love, more conservative parts of the public condemned him as "immoral". He was unable to get elected to public office and withdrew to private business. Conversely, his ex-wife Eleanor - who never remarried - went into politics and was elected to the House of Representatives and later to the Senate. In 1932 she tried to contest the Democratic Party Presidential nomination and failed, but in 1936 she won both the Democratic Primaries and the general election and became the first woman President of the US. She was very successful, being elected to three consecutive terms and being President from 1936 to 1948, guiding the US through economic recovery and later through war with Germany and Japan. In 1940 she was reconciled with her ex-husband Franklin and appointed him US Ambassador to Britain, a position he fulfilled with great success until being killed in a German bombing in May 1943. At his funeral the grieving President embraced Franklin's widow, Lucy, and said "In all these years I never stopped loving him".
  • In the alternate history comic DC Comics Bombshells Annual 1, Amanda Waller mentions that Eleanor Roosevelt is President, but has the polio her husband had in the real world.

Franklin D. Roosevelt[edit]

  • In H. G. Wells' The Shape of Things to Come (published 1934), Franklin Roosevelt was elected in 1932, valiantly but hopelessly tried to end the Great Depression. Roosevelt's New Deal proved a total failure and the country's depression steadily increased. In foreign policy, Roosevelt granted independence to the Philippines, accompanied by guarantees against aggression by other countries. This led the US to a short and inconclusive naval war with Japan; the US Navy broke through a Japanese blockade and got to Manila. Later on, both the US and Japan broke off fighting due to their increasing economic disintegration, no longer able to wage external war and hardly able to keep control over their own national territories. Roosevelt, in charge of a country disintegrating into chaos, was in no condition to involve the US in the European War between Germany and Poland which broke in January 1940. He was the last US president to hold any real power over the entire territory between the Atlantic and the Pacific, with later presidents having real authority only in the environs of Washington, D.C.
  • In The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick, Franklin Roosevelt was elected in 1932 but, before he could take office, he was assassinated by Giuseppe Zangara on February 15, 1933. Consequently, the vice president-elect, John Nance Garner, took office as the 32nd president on March 4, 1933. President Garner was re-elected in 1936, but failed to combat the Great Depression and the US remained strongly isolationist. He was succeeded in by John W. Bricker as the 33rd president in the 1940 election, a Republican who also failed to confront the economic and foreign policy issues. As a result of their combined presidencies, the Axis powers won World War II and proceeded to invade and conquer the United States in 1948. In the alternate history novel-within-a-novel The Grasshopper Lies Heavy by Hawthorne Abendsen, Roosevelt was not assassinated and went on to serve two terms. When he declined to run for a third term in 1940, his fellow Democrat Rexford Tugwell was elected as the 33rd president.
  • In The Trinity Paradox by Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason, the well-intentioned interference of a time traveller caused the boosting of Nazi Germany's nuclear program, and New York City was devastated in June 1944 by a radioactive dust missile fired from a German U-boat—with the result that voters lost confidence in Franklin Roosevelt, who lost the 1944 election to Thomas E. Dewey. In his term, President Dewey instituted the policy of regularly using nuclear arms in whatever war the US was involved in, first against Germany and later against the Soviet Union and North Korea.
  • In Robert Heinlein's "For Us, The Living: A Comedy of Customs"—written in the direct aftermath of the Democrats' heavy losses in the 1938 mid-term elections—by 1938–39 Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal is hopelessly derailed, with his own party failing to defend the president's economic policies against the constant attacks by his opponents. By the 1940 election Roosevelt proves unelectable, and his downfall drags the Democratic Party to ruin; Roosevelt is then killed in an accident in 1944. In politics, there is a sharp drift to the Right, culminating in an extreme-right dictatorship in the late 1940s — which, however, proves short-lived and after which the pendulum would swings sharply to the Left again, with Fiorello H. La Guardia—at the time of writing a reformer Mayor of New York City and outspoken supporter of Roosevelt, despite being nominally a Republican—picking up FDR's torch. Several decades later, a John Delano Roosevelt is mentioned among the six highly regarded reformers who revise the US Constitution and institute a new Libertarian regime.
  • In the short story "A Fireside Chat" by Jack Nimersheim contained in the anthology Alternate Presidents edited by Mike Resnick, Franklin Roosevelt was elected as vice president on a ticket with James M. Cox in 1920 after his Republican opponent Warren G. Harding died of a stroke. Five weeks after the election, however, President-elect Cox was assassinated by an anti-League of Nations activist, meaning that Roosevelt took office as the 29th president on March 4, 1921. At only 38 years old, he was the youngest man to ever serve as president. Shortly after the Nazi Party rose to power as a result of the Burgerbrau Putsch in 1922, Roosevelt and the Chancellor of Germany, Adolf Hitler, established an alliance in order to maintain the balance of power.
  • In the short story "Truth, Justice, and the American Way" by Lawrence Watt-Evans, also contained in Alternate Presidents edited by Mike Resnick, Franklin Roosevelt lost the 1932 election to the Republican incumbent Herbert Hoover as a result of Al Smith, the Democratic nominee in 1928, running as a third party candidate and splitting the Democratic Party votes. He ran again in 1936 and 1940, losing both times to Henry L. Stimson. Consequently, the Munich Agreement prevented World War II. In 1948, Adolf Hitler was overthrown and killed by a cabal of generals and Hermann Göring succeeded him as the second Führer, continuing to serve in that position until at least 1953. Due to the survival of Nazi Germany, totalitarianism and antisemitism grew stronger across the world well into the 1950s.
  • In the short story "Kingfish" by Barry N. Malzberg, another story contained in Mike Resnick's edited anthology Alternate Presidents, Franklin Roosevelt was defeated in 1936 by his fellow Democrat, Senator Huey Long of Louisiana, who ran as an independent with Roosevelt's vice president, John Nance Garner, as his running mate. In 1938, President Long invited Adolf Hitler to visit Washington, D.C. and allowed for him to be assassinated via a bomb, triggering war with Nazi Germany.
  • In "No Other Choice" by Barbara Delaplace, also contained in the anthology Alternate Presidents edited by Mike Resnick, an ill Franklin Roosevelt loses the 1944 election to the Governor of New York, Thomas E. Dewey, who became the 33rd president. In 1945, President Dewey eventually decided to drop the atomic bomb on Tokyo rather than Hiroshima, leading to the deaths of eight million Japanese civilians.
  • In the Worldwar series by Harry Turtledove, Franklin Roosevelt led the United States into World War II, declaring war on the Empire of Japan and Nazi Germany, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. However, the war was disrupted by the invasion of Earth by the Race on June 5, 1942. Roosevelt escaped the destruction of Washington, D.C. by one of the Race's atomic bombs and provided his country with strong and inspiring leadership as it desperately battled the Race. While his location was kept secret, he was able to broadcast speeches via radio and film. He was also able to visit the crucial explosive-metal bomb project located in Denver, Colorado, where he discussed fighting the Race with General Leslie Groves at length. However, the grueling conditions which he endured while the United States fought off the invading Race and the stress of leading his country at such a desperate time took a great toll on his health and he died in 1944. As Vice President Henry A. Wallace had been killed when the Race destroyed Seattle, Washington earlier that year, Roosevelt was succeeded as the 33rd president by Cordell Hull, the Secretary of State.
  • In the Elseworlds one-shot comic book Superman: War of the Worlds, Franklin Roosevelt was killed in the Martian invasion of 1938. He was succeeded as the 33rd president by John Nance Garner, who had been his vice president. Garner's own vice president was Lex Luthor.
  • In Fredric Brown's What Mad Universe?, Franklin Roosevelt—like everybody else in the world—was faced with the most crucial crisis in human history—a total Space War against the monstrous, insectoid Arcturians (usually nicknamed "Arcs") with whom no negotiation or compromise was possible and whose manifest aim was to completely exterminate every last human being. The crisis broke out in the very beginning of Roosevelt's first term, and the acute danger was brought home to Americans when in June 1933 Chicago was totally destroyed in an Arcturian raid, with the loss of five million lives. As Roosevelt made clear to the American public, there was no question that the US, like all other countries, had to give up some of its sovereignty to the World War Council and give generously to the Common War Effort of Humanity—especially to maintain the Space Navy commanded by the Space Hero Dopelle, which was all that stood between Humanity and total extinction. The destruction of Rome in the same year propelled Italian Americans and Catholics in general to be especially vehement in calling for "Bloody Revenge on The Arcs!", and both were prominently represented among recruits crowding the Space Navy recruitment centers. The US kept considerable autonomy in its internal affairs, with the Constitution, Presidency and Congress intact (more or less). The US did agree to let the WBI (World Bureau of Investigation) have jurisdiction in its territory, including the right to arrest American citizens—needed in order to maintain global security against the common dire threat. And a relaxation of Constitutional guarantees was inevitable due to the Arcturians' ability to take over the body of a human being and infiltrate such spies into the human population. Bitter experience had shown that due to the Arcturians' mental and physical powers, it was difficult to capture such spies and if captured they could easily escape—and that a single loose Arcturian spy might well cause the loss of millions of human lives. Therefore, Roosevelt obtained the authorization for law enforcement agents—and even for private citizens—to shoot to kill at any suspected Arcturian spy. The loss of hundreds of innocent lives, every time a spy scare broke out, was considered a regretable lesser evil. Another unpalatable but necessary war measure which Roosevelt implemented was the imposition of "Mistout", a completely impenetrable artificial darkness spread overnight all throughout the main cities—since ordinary blackout was not enough to hide them from raiding Arcturian ships. The Mistout did prevent other cities from sharing the fate of Chicago and Rome, but at the price of making it impossible to police city streets at night; the totally dark night streets became the haunt of murderous criminal gangs, forcing law abiding citizens to barricade themselves at home until first light and putting a complete end to any kind of night life. As the President patiently explained, all that was a necessary sacrifice, vitally needed in order to survive and eventually win the war. Finally, there was the major worldwide economic crisis precipitated when the Arcturians flooded Earth with enormous quantities of perfectly forged money, causing a galloping inflation. It was solved by creating a new kind of paper notes which the Arcturians were unable to duplicate. All the world currencies were replaced by the Credit—with each country backing its own currency but all of them being in Credits and all kept at par and globally interchangeable. Fred M. Vinson, placed by Rooselvelt in charge of the transition from Dollars and Cents to Credits, did it smoothly and effectively. Altogether, Franklin Roosevelt was a highly successful war leader, inspiring confidence and getting Americans used to the hitherto unimaginable situation of being totally involved in a war of survival against murderous extraterrestrials. Roosevelt did not live to see the end of the Arcturian War, which at the time of his death entered a long tense stalemate which would only be broken in 1954.
  • In the 2003 alternate history short story "Joe Steele" by Harry Turtledove, Franklin Roosevelt, the Governor of New York, was one of the two front runners for the Democratic presidential candidate in 1932. The other was Congressman Joe Steele of California. After two days of voting at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, neither candidate had the necessary two-thirds majority to secure the nomination. Steele arranged for the Governor's Mansion in Albany, New York to be set on fire. Governor Roosevelt was killed in the blaze. Nothing tied the fire to Steele, who secured his party's nomination. Steele defeated the extremely unpopular Republican incumbent Herbert Hoover with John Nance Garner as his running mate. He was inaugurated as the 32nd president on March 4, 1933, and went on to create a brutal dictatorship in the United States. He was elected to an unprecedented six terms from 1932 to 1952 before dying in office on March 5, 1953. The 84-year-old Garner briefly succeeded him as the 34th president but was soon overthrown and executed at the order of J. Edgar Hoover, whose reign proved to be even more tyrannical than Steele's.
  • In the 2015 alternate history novel Joe Steele, also by Turtledove and an expansion to the 2003 short story, New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt and California Congressman Joe Steele became the front runners for the party's presidential nomination. Roosevelt pledged his New Deal plan. Steele touted his Four Year Plan, which included collectivizing farms, updating the country's power grid, and nationalizing the banks. Steele secretly attended the convention in Chicago, a fact known only to his close advisers: Vince Scriabin, Lazar Kagan, and Stas Mikoian. AP reporter Charlie Sullivan also knew after running into Steele and Scriabin in a hotel elevator. As Sullivan backed Steele over Roosevelt, he kept his peace. Conversely, Roosevelt remained in Albany, New York as was the custom. After the first day of balloting, Roosevelt held a press conference in Albany, during which he extolled the virtues of his proposed New Deal. He also implied Steele's Four Year Plan was proof of Steele's authoritarian tendencies, and that as the child of Russian immigrants, Steele didn't truly understand how America worked. Meanwhile, in Chicago, after two days of votes, although Roosevelt had a slight lead, neither candidate had the needed two-thirds majority. Realizing he might lose after another day of voting, Steele directed Scriabin to have Roosevelt burned alive at Executive Mansion in Albany. As Roosevelt's legs were rendered useless by polio, he was unable to escape the building in time and was killed. Roosevelt's wife, Eleanor and several members of the mansion's staff are also killed in the fire. With his primary opponent gone, Steele became the party's presidential nominee, choose John Nance Garner as his running mate, and won the election against Herbert Hoover later in November. The Roosevelt's would be buried in Hyde Park.
  • In the alternate history short story "News from the Front" by Harry Turtledove, Franklin Roosevelt faced harsh criticism from and strict scrutiny by the American press following the United States' entry into World War II on December 11, 1941. The press attacked the Roosevelt administration for not being prepared for the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, as well as bringing on the attack by ignorantly imposing an oil embargo on the Empire of Japan. As the war progressed, the press began to constantly second-guess the Roosevelt administration and to ponder the value of the war. Furthermore, the press revealed important American military secrets, questioning the morality of spying on the Axis powers, decrying the poor state of American technology and giving away planned attacks days before there were to take place, leading to their failures. More importantly, the Battle of Midway (June 4–7, 1942) proved to be a complete disaster. During the first half of 1942, protests against the war began to appear throughout the country and a group of celebrities took it upon themselves to sale to Japan and Nazi Germany to offer peace. The British Prime Minister Winston Churchill faced similar problems in his own country. Matters came to a head when Vice President Henry A. Wallace broke with the administration and publicly attacked Roosevelt's honesty and competence. Calls for impeachment grew louder throughout the United States and, finally, Congress began the impeachment process in June 1942. Although the story ends while Roosevelt is still president, it is heavily implied that he will be impeached and removed from office and that Wallace will succeed him as the 33rd president.
  • In the Days of Infamy alternate history series by Harry Turtledove, Franklin Roosevelt received a declaration of war against the Empire of Japan after Japanese forces attacked and conquered the territory of Hawaii from December 1941 to February 1942. Roosevelt also received such a declaration against Nazi Germany. Although Roosevelt saw Germany as a greater threat, Japan was the more immediate one and so he was forced to abandon his "Germany first" policy, instead directing the military to retake Hawaii. The Japanese occupation of Hawaii was harsh particularly for American prisoners of war who were imprisoned in camps, where they were worked to death. The citizenry was subject to the whims of the occupiers. Curfews were imposed, rationing was at a bare minimum, and civilians and POWs alike were expected to bow to Japanese soldiers as they passed on the street. The Japanese created a puppet government, ruling through a member of the Hawaiian Royal Family installed as King in the 'Iolani Palace. The United States eventually retook Hawaii in 1943. Consequently, Roosevelt was widely expected to win a fourth term in 1944 in spite of his declining health.
  • In the alternative timeline featured in the Star Trek: The Original Series novel Provence of Shadows by David R. George III, a sequel to the television episode "The City on the Edge of Forever", in which the 23rd century Starfleet officer Dr. Leonard McCoy saved the social worker Edith Keeler from being killed in a traffic accident in 1930, Keeler went on to found the American Pacifist Movement, a large and influential peace organisation. On February 23, 1936, Franklin Roosevelt met with Keeler during a visit to New York City, where they discussed both the social issues of the day, as well as importance of maintaining the United States' neutrality toward the military conflicts then spreading through Europe. The growth of Keeler's organization in the following years managed to influence Roosevelt's foreign and military policies, forcing him to assume a less aggressive stance against the Axis powers in the early years of World War II. Because of these changes, the Empire of Japan did not attack Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 as in the original timeline, and the United States' entry into the war was delayed by several years. On December 29, 1941, Roosevelt paid an official visit to Atlanta, Georgia. In response, the Republican Governor of Georgia invited the American Pacifist Movement to hold a rally at the state capitol on the same day. Roosevelt was eventually succeeded by Harry S. Truman, presumably under the circumstances as in reality. By 1944, the United Kingdom had been invaded and conquered by Nazi Germany whereas Australia and New Zealand were conquered by Japan. The Axis powers subsequently attacked the Territory of Hawaii and other territories in the Pacific, finally drawing the United States into the war. The war continued until well into the 1950s. The Nazis dropped an atomic bomb in Atlanta in 1954. As Spock told Captain James T. Kirk in "The City on the Edge of Forever", Nazi Germany would eventually defeat the United States, securing the Axis' ultimate victory in the war. Consequently, the United Federation of Planets was never founded, as it had been in 2161 of the original timeline. Against this background unfolds the story of Dr. Leonard McCoy: resigned to being abandoned by his crewmates from the USS Enterprise, McCoy had planned to settle in his native Georgia in 1932—but was accosted by two other vagabonds on the train and found himself in Hayden, South Carolina. After performing an emergency tracheotomy later that year, he revealed himself to be a physician and was offered a partnership in the practice of Dr. William Lyles. He became Hayden's sole physician following Lyle's death in 1934. In the war of the 1950s, a Nazi fighter plane was shot down over Hayden and crashed on the edge of town—whereupon McCoy was stabbed and killed by the pilot, to whom he had been attempting to render medical aid.
  • In the alternate history novels Settling Accounts: Drive to the East, Settling Accounts: The Grapple and Settling Accounts: In at the Death, all part of the Southern Victory Series by Harry Turtledove, Franklin Roosevelt was a lifelong Socialist politician in spite of being a relative of the staunch Democratic president, Theodore Roosevelt. He lost the use of his legs when he contracted poliomyelitis in the 1920s. If not for this, some speculated, Roosevelt might have become president himself. Nonetheless, he served as Secretary of War from 1933 to 1937 and as Assistant Secretary of War from 1937 to 1945. He oversaw the project to build a superbomb as well as intelligence on other countries' own superbomb projects during the Second Great War (1941–1944). Roosevelt first rose to prominence, ironically, as Secretary of War in Democrat President Herbert Hoover's cabinet. His Socialist views on domestic policy were out of step with Hoover's laissez-faire approach to government. However, Roosevelt's views on foreign policy were perfectly aligned with the Democrats, particularly as it applied to the Confederate States of America. Upon the election of Socialist Al Smith as the 32nd President in 1936, Roosevelt was, to all appearances, demoted to Assistant Secretary of War. In fact, however, he willingly embraced relative obscurity as a kind of disguise, hiding from the Confederate States the importance of what he was engaged on. As Jake Featherston, the President of the Confederate States of America, began sabre-rattling and war seemed imminent, Roosevelt was given the responsibility of overseeing the United States superbomb project in Hanford, Washington. Roosevelt maintained that position throughout the Second Great War, even after Smith was killed and Charles W. La Follette succeeded him as president. Although the CS was the first country in North America to use a superbomb, detonating it on the outskirts of Philadelphia, Roosevelt's programme produced two such bombs for the US, accelerating the victory of the United States and the German Empire on July 14, 1944.
  • In Harry Turtledove's The War That Came Early, President Franklin Roosevelt was faced in October 1938 with the outbreak of the Second World War, when the Munich Conference failed, Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia and Britain and France declared war on Germany. The United States remained neutral when but Roosevelt began to slowly guide the country towards re-armament. In October 1939, with Germany retreating on the Western Front and stalled out on the Eastern Front, Roosevelt proposed a general cease-fire, all boundaries be returned to the status quo ante bellum, but Hitler rebuffed Roosevelt's suggestion. While the U.S. remained neutral, Roosevelt, viewing the war in Europe at least as one against liberty on the part of the Germans, sent arms to Britain and France, including a fleet of obsolete destroyers. He also offered to mediate an end to the war between the Soviet Union and Japan, but while the USSR readily accepted the offer, Japan did not, and the Japanese went on to conquer Vladivostok and eastern Siberia. In mid-1940, while Roosevelt began his campaign for an unprecedented third term, Britain and France reached a peace with Germany, and joined Germany in a war against the USSR. Disgusted, Roosevelt announced at a speech in Philadelphia in October 1940 that the U.S. would no longer ship arms to Britain and France, and would additionally stop shipping scrap metal and oil to Japan until Japan left China. Despite the break with the two-term tradition, Roosevelt was able to win the presidential election of 1940 handily, defeating Republican Wendell Willkie and isolationist candidate Alf Landon. While it appeared the United States had a brief reprieve from the war, on January 12, 1941, just over a week before Roosevelt was inaugurated for a third time, Japanese forces attacked United States possessions, including the Philippines and Hawaii. The next day, Roosevelt asked for, and received, a declaration of war. On January 20, Roosevelt addressed the country immediately after his third swearing-in. He reminded the country of his pledge that no Americans would die in foreign wars, but that Japan had made that decision for the U.S. He also reminded the country that whoever won in Europe, liberty would be the loser. After that statement drew a cry of "No European war!", Roosevelt reiterated that there would be no American involvement in the war in Europe, but that the U.S. would achieve victory in the Far East and become strong enough to defeat any other enemy. The so-called big switch didn't last. In London the pro-German government of Horace Wilson was toppled by the British military in the spring of 1941, and the new government re-declared war on Germany immediately.] France followed suit at the end of the year, withdrawing its troops from the Soviet Union and relaunching its war against Germany. Roosevelt resumed sending them supplies, and for their part the French supplied the Spanish Republicans who started winning the ongoing Spanish Civil War in which the US was not directly involved. On some occasions German U-boats attacked American ships. Nevertheless, American public opinion and Congress would not accept direct involvement in the European War, feeling that the war against Japan was quite enough. On that front, things went badly for the U.S. throughout 1941 and into 1942. The Japanese Navy mauled the US fleet in the Philippines, an attack that also claimed the life of General Douglas MacArthur. The surviving ships were forced to flee and they headed south to Java, making Surabaya their port of operations. Ships from the US and the UK also gathered at the port, creating an allied fleet. By mid-February, the fleet was called into action when Japanese forces landed on eastern Borneo, in order to capture the military bases there. However, the subsequent Battle of the Java Sea was a terrific defeat for the over-confident and badly coordinated allies. Japan was able to consolidate its hold in Southeast Asia, and began to redouble it attacks on Hawaii. Determined to regain momentum, the U.S. launched the largest task force the world had ever seen against in an attempt to retake Wake Island. That subsequent battle proved an even greater disaster for the U.S. than Java Sea, with the US losing all of its aircraft carriers. Midway fell shortly after, leaving Hawaii as the USA's most forward defense post. Despite this series of set backs, the Democrats were able to hold a majority with some losses in the 1942 Congressional election. In the top secret realm of military affairs, Roosevelt met another setback when a project for a new and powerful bomb was declared a boondoggle and cancelled. As this remained a secret, Roosevelt avoided criticism from opponents. 1944 proved to be the turning point in the Pacific. While Japan began the year with free rein to bomb Hawaii with relative impunity throughout 1942 and into 1943, even using biological weapons, by early 1944, a dramatic raid on Midway succeeded in driving the Japanese out. Meanwhile, after months of tension Hitler decided to declare war on the United States when German U-boats attacked several American merchant ships in March, 1944. Now Roosevelt had the complete justification to enter the European war he sent US troops across the Atlantic, but when he barely began preparations several German military leaders—considering Hitler's act to be mad and suicidal—formed the Committee for the Salvation of the German Nation, with General Heinz Guderian as their leader, and assassinated Hitler in April. Guderian and the Committee triumphed in the subsequent civil war, and fighting ceased on all fronts in Europe, with no American troops having taken part. As the war in Europe ended before the U.S. could involve itself, Roosevelt remained an observer of the European peace process. He established an alliance with the Soviet Union to facilitate a quick end to the war with Japan. For his part, Joseph Stalin was eager to get American help in regaining Vladivostok and eastern Siberia, and possibly moving further into Japanese territory. Meanwhile, with the Spanish Civil War having ended with the total victory of the Republicans, left-wing American volunteers of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade who had been fighting in Spain since 1937 started coming home—though some remained in Spain, married Spanish wives and gained the citizenship of the grateful Spanish Republic. At Roosevelt's direction, the State Department took no position towards them, neither approving nor disapproving.
  • In the alternate history novel Dominion by C. J. Sansom, World War II ended in June 1940 when the British government, under the leadership of the Prime Minister Lord Halifax, signed the Treaty of Berlin with Nazi Germany. Franklin Roosevelt was steadfast in his opposition to the Nazis and the Treaty, which resulted in him losing the 1940 election to his Republican opponent Robert A. Taft, who became the 33rd president. Taft pursued a policy of non-intervention, signing a peace treaty with the Empire of Japan in 1941. He was re-elected in 1944 and 1948 but was defeated by his Democratic opponent Adlai Stevenson in 1952. Shortly after his election in November 1952, The Times, which was owned by the pro-Nazi British Prime Minister Lord Beaverbrook, speculated that Stevenson would follow in Roosevelt's footsteps and pursue an interventionist foreign policy when it came to European affairs.
  • In Franz Ferdinand Lives! A World Without World War I (2014) by Richard Ned Lebow in which neither World War I nor World War II took place, Franklin Roosevelt was elected in 1936 and served two unremarkable terms. He was succeeded by Thomas E. Dewey.
  • Clash of Eagles by Leo Rutman, in December, 1941. Nazi Germany has vanquished the United Kingdom and launches a major invasion across the Atlantic. German forces under Erwin Rommel land in Quebec and sweep down Canada, New England, and the Ohio Valley to New York City and declared the eastern United States an occupied territory. The rest of the United States remains unoccupied but perilously exposed to further attacks. President Franklin Roosevelt and the government administration evacuate the endangered Washington, D.C. and flee westward to California. Eventually, he would be able to return victoriously after a courageous rebellion in New York has driven the Nazis out.
  • In David Mason's The Shores of Tomorrow, the slave-holding South dominated a technologically backward US from its foundation until the 1940s, when a series of Northern rebellions broke out. Admiral Franklin Roosevelt, leading a Northern Rebel naval force, was killed in the Battle of Long Island Sound. His sacrifice was not in vain, eventually the Northern secessionists won and established three Free Republics.
  • In another timeline featured in the same David Mason book, the United States in the early 20th century went through turbulent upheavals, civil strife and coups with various Presidents rapidly rising and soon being overthrown and executed. Franklin Roosevelt, nicknamed "The Quiet Dutchman", was a major power broker and kingmaker who made and broke Presidents and did not seek or need the formal title himself.
  • In Len Deighton's novel SS-GB (and the TV miniseries based on it), Nazi Germany successfully invaded and occupied Britain in 1940–1941—harsh news for US President Franklin Roosevelt. Roosevelt allowed the exile Rear Admiral Connolly to create a British government-in-exile in Washington DC, after Winston Churchill was captured and executed by the Germans. However, Roosevelt dithered about granting Connolly's government full diplomatic recognition. There was a long judicial battle before Connolly's people were given possession of the British Embassy in Washington, with the Nazi-collaborating government in London employing some of the best lawyers in America—and Roosevelt retained the US Embassy in London, in charge of the Nazi-friendly Ambassador Joseph Kennedy. Later on, Roosevelt welcomed in Washington the exile teenage Queen Elizabeth II, who was crowned in New Zealand at the age of fifteen after her father, King George VI was killed when the British Underground tried to get him out of the Tower of London. Roosevelt also authorized the secret sending of American Marines to raid and destroy the British nuclear bomb research laboratory at Bringle Sands in Devon - both to keep it out of Nazi hands and to gain vital nuclear information for the Americans' own program. The British Underground, in contact with the Americans, hoped that eventually the US would go to war with Germany and Britain would be liberated. This seemed to be also Roosevelt's long-term intention, but in 1941 (when the story is set) this seemed quite far off. Though the Bringle Sands raid could be considered an act of war, the Nazis—involved in a complicated power struggle among themselves—chose to ignore it. At the end of the book Roosevelt was biding his time, preparing for a war with Tojo's Japan and in the meantime keeping a facade of cordial relations with Germany—Hermann Göring and Joseph Goebbels being on board the first non-stop Lufthansa flight from London to New York. Meanwhile, the Manhattan project (possibly under a different code name in this history) is progressing.
  • In Newt Gingrich and William Forstchen's book "1945", Hitler did not declare war on the United States after Pearl Harbor. As a result, President Franklin Roosevelt had no pretext to take the US into the European war—much as he would have liked to do it. In the following years, the US concentrated its full military potential on Japan alone, achieving a complete victory by conventional means. At the same time, Roosevelt downgraded the Manhattan Project and in 1945 the US was still far from possessing a nuclear bomb. Meanwhile, Nazi Germany decisively defeated the Soviet Union and forced Britain to sign a peace recognizing German domination of Europe. Having won the war against Japan in 1944, Roosevelt declined to run again, and surprisingly designated as his heir Andrew Harrison, the (fictional) Junior Senator from Nebraska (the book does not explain why Harrison was preferred over Harry Truman). It was Harrison who had to bear the dire results of the above developments - when Hitler launched a surprise invasion of Britain, sent commandos under Otto Skorzeny to destroy the nuclear facility at Oak Ridge, Tennessee and seemed ahead of the US in the race to gain a nuclear bomb.
  • David Green's story The Nuclear Doctor is written in the form of the memoirs of the (fictional) Dr. Oscar Klein, a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany who by chance became in 1943 the personal physician of President Franklin Roosevelt and eventually his personal friend and unofficial adviser also on matters unrelated to medicine. In 1944, Dr. Klein became increasingly concerned about the President's health and managed to pressure him into taking more vacations and lessening his workload, sternly telling Roosevelt: "It is either that—or the Republic will have to do without you permanently, and I am not joking!". In the early months of 1945 Dr. Klein noted a gradual improvement in the President's health. The need for Roosevelt to attend the Potsdam Conference made his doctor worried, but by having many stopovers on the way to Europe and back the President made it. However, with the Japanese war still active, the President became increasingly restive and worried about a terrible super-weapon whose details he could not disclose to Dr. Klein—on one occasion blurting out "Hundreds of thousands killed by one bomb! By one bomb! God, such power was not meant to be given in human hands, why did it have to be me?" Then asking Klein to "Forget everything I said". A month later Klein was present when the President invited ten experts from Hollywood, asking them to erect "speedily and in complete secrecy" an exact replica of central Tokyo in a New Mexico desert—assuring them that "Though I can't tell you why, this could help us win the war and save very many lives". Noticing a new deterioration in the President's health, Dr. Klein insisted on accompanying him when Roosevelt flew to New Mexico—where a hundred high-ranking Japanese POW's were conducted through the mock Tokyo, then taken into shelter while an atomic bomb was exploded and then conducted again through the charred remains. The POW's were then sent back to Japan, bearing films of the explosion and an ultimatum that unless Japan surrendered within two weeks the same fate would be visited on the real Tokyo. While American planes day after day threw enormous quantities of leaflets on Tokyo, Prime Minister Tojo was reported adamant and intransigent—rejecting the ultimatum, blocking all exits from Tokyo with armed troops preventing the population's escape from the city, and also keeping Emperor Hirohito and the Imperial Family in Tokyo. As the deadline approached, the President was on his knees in the Oval Office, again and again crying out "Oh God, let this cup pass from me!". With half an hour to go, the Swiss Ambassador arrived urgently at the White House, bearing the message that the Japanese Army had staged a coup, Tojo was executed and the new Japanese government was willing to surrender on condition that the Emperor would not be harmed. The totally exhausted Roosevelt went to bed immediately. A few hours later Dr. Klein—himself exhausted—was urgently called by a Presidential aide, finding the President dead in bed. Eleanor Roosevelt, standing at the bedside, told the doctor: "In all our years of marriage, I never saw such a happy smile on his face".
  • Barbara Glenn's novelette "Forward, Brave Mariners!" takes place in an alternate history timeline in which the 17th Century British agreed to let New Amsterdam remain in Dutch hands, rather than turn it into New York City. In the following centuries, New Amsterdam developed into a highly prosperous independent city state, which kept its neutrality in the American War of Independence, American Civil War and First World War and profitably traded with all parties. In 1941, Franklin Roosevelt, the Mayor of New Amsterdam, strives to break this long tradition of neutrality and throw New Amsterdam's economic and naval resources into the struggle to defeat Hitler—finally succeeding despite strong opposition from conservatives on the city council and assassination attempts by Nazi agents.
  • In Evelyn Kremmer's novelette No More Hitler! And then..., the German generals' 20 July plot succeeded. Hitler was killed by the bomb placed in his headquarters, Joseph Goebbels committed suicide when the conspirators arrived to arrest him, wavering generals came over and within less than 24 hours the conspirators were in complete control of Berlin. They swiftly moved to arrest Nazi leaders, disband the Gestapo and S.S., halt the killing of Jews and Roma, close down concentration camps and release their inmates. Thereupon, the new German government conveyed to the Americans and British a proposal to immediately cease all fighting on the Western and Italian fronts, evacuate German troops from France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Italy, and hand over the Siegfried Line fortifications to the allies. At the same time, they proposed to continue the war with the Soviets and move all German troops from France and Italy to reinforce the Eastern Front—which they believed could be stabilized and an eventual German counter-offensive be launched. This caused a sharp rift between British PM Winston Churchill and his ally, US President Franklin Roosevelt. Churchill, a staunch anti-Communist, had been forced by circumstances into an alliance with Stalin which he never really liked. With Hitler gone, Churchill considered that the Soviet alliance had served its purpose and that the Soviets should be prevented from taking over Central Europe. Moreover, Churchill looked forward to working with the German aristocrats, men of his own social class, who held many positions in the new German cabinet. Conversely, Roosevelt felt that the Soviets—whatever one may think of their regime—had proven very valiant and reliable allies, and Western public opinion would not like leaving them in the lurch. Moreover, while the Nazis had been eliminated, the German Conservative generals were heirs to the tradition of Prussian Militarism from which the US was asked to save Europe in 1917. The differences needed to be hammered out in person, and Roosevelt swiftly set out across the ocean, meeting Churchill at the port of Cardiff. Despite an attempt to keep the meeting secret, it was leaked and the Soviet Ambassador arrived in Wales, bearing a very sharply-worded message from Stalin. After two days of heated debate, Churchill was forced to give in—since without the Americans, no separate peace with Germany could be made. Then, the two leaders set out to mend fences with Stalin, meeting the Soviet leader at the Black Sea port of Sevastopol. As a not subtle hint, the highly suspicious Stalin let his guests pass through a mighty concentration of Soviet naval and land military power before they sat down in the conference hall. At first rejecting the idea of negotiations with "The German Fascist Reactionaries" and seeing little difference between them and Hitler, Stalin eventually consented to start negotiations on German surrender terms at Lausanne. On September 18, a general ceasefire on all fronts came into effect. A month and half of tense negotiations followed, branching out to various locations in Switzerland. The Germans knew that, should the war resume, they faced a complete and crushing defeat—but also that the American and British public would not relish the prospect of losing many more soldiers. To begin with, the Soviets demanded the complete territorial cession of Eastern Prussia, which the Germans rejected out of hand. This was finally reduced to Germany having to give up the city of Konigsberg, all German inhabitants to be evacuated by the German Army. Additionally, the Polish Corridor was considerably widened compared to its pre-1939 size, and the former Free City of Danzig annexed to Poland; in this case, German inhabitants were allowed to stay provided they accepted Polish citizenship. The restored Poland was placed under a highly uneasy coalition of Communists and anti-Communist Nationalists. Under the surrender terms Germany was not occupied and the German Army remained in being, but had to hand over all tanks, artillery, fighter planes and surface and underwater vessels. Allied garrisons, with an equal number of American, Soviet, British and French troops were to be installed in all main German cities and the German government—to which three Communist ministers were admitted—required to "consult" on all major decisions with an Allied Commission installed in Berlin. In Austria, an internationally-supervised referendum was to be held within a year, to determine whether to retain the Anchluss with Germany or resume Austrian independence. Limitations on German sovereignty were to be re-negotiated in 1952, and then at regular five-year intervals. President Roosevelt remained in Europe throughout the negotiations. In his absence, he was re-elected to an unprecedented fourth term, by a larger majority than ever before—the American public buoyed by the prospect of an end to the war. After taking part in the victory celebrations in London, addressing an enormous crowd at the side of Churchill and King George, Roosevelt authorized Swiss and Swedish mediators to pass on to the Japanese government a proposal for a surrender modeled on the German one. He then set out back across the ocean—but was doomed never to see America again. The constant strain of confrontations with Churchill and Stalin, followed by the tense crisis-ridden negotiations with the Germans, proved too much for Roosevelt's frail body. On the first night at sea, the President died in his sleep—at his bedside desk the draft of an Inauguration Speech he would never deliver.
  • Given the high number of World War II-centered alternate history fiction, Franklin Roosevelt appears in many stories as president and his presidency is usually altered accordingly.

Theodore Roosevelt[edit]

  • In And Having Writ... by Donald R. Bensen, Theodore Roosevelt was re-elected in 1912 and 1916, succeeding the 27th president, Thomas Edison, who served one term. As with Grover Cleveland, he was counted twice in the numbering of the presidents: as the 26th president from 1901 to 1909 and the 28th president from 1913 to 1921. In 1909, he helps the four aliens Raf, Ari, Valmis, and Dark to escape house arrest in New York, all four which were placed under house arrest under the orders of President Thomas Edison earlier that year. While attending the demonstration of an experimental Moon rocket in 1925, Roosevelt was killed when the device's engines exploded.
  • In the alternate history short story "The Bull Moose at Bay" by Mike Resnick contained in his edited anthology Alternate Presidents, Theodore Roosevelt was the subject of an assassination attempt carried out by John Flammang Schrank in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on October 14, 1912, as he was in reality. Whereas he was shot in the chest on that occasion in real life, Schrank's bullet missed him in the story. Running as the Progressive Party candidate, Roosevelt went on to defeat both the extremely unpopular incumbent Republican president, William Howard Taft, and their Democratic opponent, Woodrow Wilson, in the 1912 election. He therefore became the 28th president, having previously served as the 26th president from 1901 to 1909. He entered office as the most popular president since Abraham Lincoln or perhaps even Thomas Jefferson. During his second presidency, Roosevelt was a strong supporter of civil rights and women's suffrage, arguing that he could not be the president of all the people when six out of ten adults in the United States could not vote either for him or his opponent as they saw fit. Shortly after the sinking of the passenger liner RMS Lusitania by the German U-boat U-20 on May 7, 1915, Roosevelt brought the United States into the Great War, resulting in the defeat of Germany by the US and its allies within less than a year. This made the United States a world power. In spite of this and the fact that the economy was experiencing a boom, Roosevelt was widely expected to lose the 1916 election to Wilson. At his 58th birthday party on October 27, 1916, Roosevelt attributed his consistently poor performance in the polls to the fact that his erstwhile colleagues in the Republican Party were bitter that he had run as a Progressive Party candidate in 1912 and defeated Taft. He claimed that the Republicans owned three-quarters of the newspapers in the United States whereas the Democrats owned the remaining quarter, meaning that the vast majority of the press coverage was hostile. He expressed regret that his vice president, Charles Evans Hughes, would be voted out of office along with him as he believed that Hughes would have otherwise been elected president in 1920 and would have done an excellent job.
  • In the alternate history novel 1901 by Robert Conroy, President William McKinley died of a sudden heart attack in 1901 after being overwhelmed by the invasion of Long Island by Germany. Theodore Roosevelt succeeded him as the 26th president and went on to win the war against Germany that results in Kaiser Wilhelm II getting overthrown and replaced by his son Wilhelm III as a puppet ruler.
  • In the short story "Ten Days That Shook the World" by Kim Newman and Eugene Byrne contained in the anthology Back in the USSA, Theodore Roosevelt was re-elected in 1912 as the Progressive Party candidate. He became the last democratically elected President of the United States. Before he could take office, he was assassinated in Chicago, Illinois, on December 19, 1912, by the sharpshooter and exhibition shooter Annie Oakley when personally attempting to break up a labor strike with the help of the Rough Riders at the Union Stockyards. Consequently, Vice President-elect Charles Foster Kane, an extremely wealthy newspaper mogul, was inaugurated as the 28th president on March 4, 1913. Although Kane was a Progressive, his vice president, William Jennings Bryan, was a Democrat whereas his Secretary of War, Warren G. Harding, was a Republican. During his presidency, Kane led the United States into greater levels of oppression, class division and bureaucratic incompetence and corruption. President Kane brought the United States into the Great War following the sinking of the passenger liner RMS Titanic on October 9, 1914, an extremely unpopular decision among the American public. Kane rigged the 1916 election, defeating the Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson and the Republican candidate former president William Howard Taft as Roosevelt had done in 1912. By February 1917, Wilson had been assassinated and many believed that Kane's agents were responsible. Wilson came to be regarded as a martyr by those opposed to Kane's regime. Within months of his re-election, the United States had become politically and socially unstable with overwhelming civil unrest, stemming from the massive and seemingly pointless loss of American lives in the mud of the Western Front and the increasingly gap between the "robber barons" and the workers as well as the massive corruption and the resulting exploitation of ordinary people. The Socialist Party of America, led by Eugene V. Debs, gained considerable report among the disenfranchised populace and soon the unrest led to outright civil war. After the storming of the White House by the Socialist faction on July 4, 1917, Kane was shot and killed by Oakley, as Roosevelt had been four and a half years earlier. This resulted in the establishment of the United Socialist States of America (USSA) with Debs as its first president. Washington, D.C. was renamed "Debs, D.C." in his honor. After Debs' death in 1926, he was succeeded by Al Capone, who proceeded to turn the USSA into a brutal dictatorship, creating a cult of personality around himself and executing his rivals.
  • In the Southern Victory alternate history series by Harry Turtledove, Theodore Roosevelt was the 28th president of the United States, serving from March 4, 1913, to March 4, 1921. He is best remembered as being the president during the Great War (1914–1917), and is one of the most highly esteemed presidents in US history. Not long after his 20th birthday in 1878, Roosevelt headed west, reinventing himself as a rancher in the Montana Territory. He was engaged to Alice Hathaway Lee at the time. In time, Roosevelt acquired a substantial ranch. When the Second Mexican War (1881–1882) began, Roosevelt attempted to join a volunteer regiment, only to learn the territory was not raising any. He raised a cavalry regiment of his own, Roosevelt's Unauthorized Regiment, which he equipped and fed his own expense until they were provisionally accepted into the US Regular Army as the First Montana Volunteer Cavalry. He patrolled the border with the Dominion of Canada until British General Charles George Gordon invaded Montana. Roosevelt took part in the Battle of the Teton River, which saw Gordon's defeat. He and Colonel George Armstrong Custer competed for coverage of their respective heroics in the newspapers, touching off a lifelong rivalry between the two. During the ceasefire, Roosevelt had a one-night stand with a widow near Fort Benton. Roosevelt was elected president in 1912, defeating the Socialist candidate Senator Eugene V. Debs. When Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir apparent to Austria-Hungary, was assassinated in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, Roosevelt vowed to support his Central Powers allies, leading to a declaration of war against the Confederate States of America. During the war, Roosevelt made frequent visits to military positions. On the Roanoke Front, he once narrowly had his life saved by Chester Martin. He was re-elected by a huge margin in the wartime election of 1916, once again defeating Debs. Roosevelt led the United States to its first wartime victory since the First Mexican War (1846–1848) and altered the balance of power on the North American continent by expelling the British from Canada, creating the Republic of Quebec, and placing severe arms and economic restrictions on the Confederate States. After the war, labor unrest broke out across the country, and Roosevelt's Democratic Party was seen as a part of the problem rather than of the solution. In 1918, control of Congress passed to the Socialists for the first time. In 1920, Socialist candidate Upton Sinclair defeated Roosevelt's unprecedented bid for a third presidential term. Sinclair became the 29th president as well as the first member of his party to hold the office. Roosevelt quietly left the political stage while his successor rolled back many of his policies and pursued a wide variety of personal interests, including aviation and big game hunting. He died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage while golfing in 1924. Upon his request, he was buried in Arlington County, West Virginia, the former estate of Robert E. Lee. Arlington had been in Confederate territory until Roosevelt avenged the United States' defeat in the War of Secession (1861–1862), making the interment site a fitting one. Roosevelt is considered the greatest, most beloved, and most memorable president in US history. In the last category, he is approached by only George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. Of the four, he is the only one remembered in an entirely positive light as Washington and Jefferson were from Virginia and Lincoln lost the War of Succession. In the Confederacy, Roosevelt was remembered as a fearsome enemy, but the memory was wreathed in a healthy respect. Roosevelt's burial in Lee's onetime home offended many Confederates, especially in the Freedom Party. Confederate States President Jake Featherston frequently reflected on how "another Theodore Roosevelt" would make "a dangerous enemy," and was relieved that such presidents as Hosea Blackford, Herbert Hoover, Al Smith and Charles W. La Follette were considerably less formidable. In the 1930s, a film based on the exploits of Roosevelt's famous Unauthorized Regiment during the Second Mexican War was released to critical acclaim. Roosevelt was played by Marion Morrison. Despite being a staunch Democrat, he was a relative of the lifelong Socialist politician Franklin D. Roosevelt, who served as Secretary of War from 1933 to 1937 and Assistant Secretary of War from 1937 to 1945.
  • In Mike Resnick's story Over there, Theodore Roosevelt in 1917 managed implement his to plan of raising volunteers to fight in World War I (which came to naught in actual history). Roosevelt blackmailed President Woodrow Wilson, threatening to run again for the Presidency in 1920 and/or to go to France under a British or French commission, if not getting an American one. With the President's reluctant authorization, Roosevelt did raise a revived force of Rough Riders and took it to France, but Wilson ordered General Pershing keep them away from the front and avoid any chance of Roosevelt getting killed. Disobeying orders and determined to recreate his glorious moment of San Juan Hill, Roosevelt led his men to a completely futile and suicidal head-on attack on entrenched German machine-gun positions, getting all of them (including himself) killed. On hearing of his end, President Wilson said "He was either a Hero or a Fool, either way I hope we have no more like him".
  • Malcolm Wide's novel "The Liberator" takes place in an Alternative History timeline in which Napoleon Bonaparte conquered England in 1804 and his son Napoleon II launched a cross-Atlantic invasion and conquered the United States in 1829. Theodore Roosevelt, growing up as a loyal subject of the Napoleonic Emperors, takes a career in the French Imperial Army, distinguishes himself in African colonial wars, and rises to general. However, the premature death of Napoleon VI in 1903 leaves a hotly disputed succession, precipitating a civil war and battles in the streets of Paris—and the English speaking peoples break out in rebellion against Imperial rule. Roosevelt decides to cast in his lot with the rebels, leading a large contingent of dissident Imperial soldiers—mostly English speakers, but also some French, Germans and Slavs—across the channel. His arrival tips the scales and the Imperial garrison in London is overcome, many of its soldiers coming over to the charismatic General Roosevelt. Roosevelt personally heads the troops capturing the Tower of London and freeing the 21-year old Princess Alexandra, Rightful Heir to the British Throne, who had been held there since babyhood. With Britain secure Roosevelt leads his troops across the ocean, landing at Boston where ill-equipped rebels had been holding out against vastly superior Imperial troops, and tips the balance in North America, too. Though having an excellent chance to be elected President of the restored United States, Roosevelt prefers to go back to England, marry Queen Alexandra with whom he had fallen in love at first sight, and become Royal Consort and the progenitor of future British royalty.
  • In the alternate history world state depicted in H.G. Wells' A Modern Utopia, Theodore Roosevelt is arrested by police for his "disruptive influence". The rulers of this Utopian society consider Roosevelt to be "unstable" and unfit to be entrusted with any position of authority.
  • On the online timeline of the 2004 mockumentary CSA: The Confederate States of America, Theodore Roosevelt served in the Spanish–American War in the Battle of San Juan Hill as part of the Rough Riders much like he does in reality. A journal excerpt describes the assault he led up Kettle Hill, "With a pistol in one hand an a saber in the other, he spurred his mount forward. His face grew flushed; his glasses clouded with steam; a wide grin covered his face. He saw the Spanish fleeing before him. He fired at one of them, who fell as neatly as a jackrabbit". The alternate version of the Spanish–American War would spark a resurgence in the Manifest Destiny and the Confederacy's continued expansion south that would continue well into the 1920s and would include all of the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America as part of the nation's conquered territories. Theodore Roosevelt would eventually become Confederate President after 1901.[8]
  • In S.M. Stirling's series Tales From the Black Chamber, Theodore Roosevelt is elected again to the Presidency in 1916, and it is him rather than Woodrow Wilson who takes the United States into World War I. Also, in this alternative history, Imperial Germany has far more powerful weapons that those it had in actual history, with a real ability to strike across the Atlantic and kill tens of thousands of American citizens. To foil such plots, President Roosevelt relies especially on the band of dedicated secret agents known as The Black Circle.[9]
  • In the alternate history short story "Compadres" by S.M. Stirling collected in the anthology Alternate Generals II (2002) edited by Harry Turtledove, The American territory of annexation following the end of the Mexican–American War in 1848 included Chihuahua. Decades later, Pancho Villa would become a Senator of the State of Chihuahua and is later the running mate of President Theodore Roosevelt (who still served as president as he did in reality) in the 1904 presidential election.[10]
  • In the Alternative History of The Klondike Wars, co-written by Caroline Ward and Harald Nealson, the US did not purchase Alaska in 1867 and it remained until the end of the 19th Century a backward Russian outpost. The Klondike Gold Rush brought into Alaska an enormous number of adventurous gold miners, mostly Americans but also British, Irish, French, Germans and other nationalities. These soon came into friction with the Tsarist authorities, culminating with their breaking into open rebellion and proclaiming the Republic of Alaska. They were, however, suppressed by the Russian Army with extreme brutality, many of the rebels being shot out of hand and the reminder imprisoned in horrendous conditions. With American public opinion outraged and the popular press crying out for a Revenge on Russia, President Theodore Roosevelt gained an overwhelming majority in Congress for a declaration of war. An American Expeditionary Force easily overcame the Russian garrison of Alaska, which proved completely unprepared for serious warfare. The Americans then sailed across the Bering Strait and in a swift campaign occupied a thousand-mile wide strip of Eastern Siberia. Arriving personally at Vladivostok, President Roosevelt announced the annexation of all the captured Siberian territory and the opening of "The New Frontier", American citizens being offered the option of homesteading on Siberian land. Americans flocked in great numbers across the Pacific. The annexed Siberian land was divided into fourteen Territories and it was expected that within a few years the first Siberian States would be admitted to the Union. Vladivostok, renamed as Teddystown, became a great American metropolis, its population passing the million mark within a few years, and Roosevelt was elected to three consecutive terms and might have won a fourth had he not decided to step down. However, in Russia the loss of Eastern Siberia caused a revolution, overthrowing the Czar. The new Russian Republic embarked on intensive industrialization and modernization of its army, and forged a firm alliance with Japan, scandalized by the US declaring a protectorate over Korea. In the War of 1913, the Russo-Japanese Alliance proved a much tougher opponent than the Americans expected, and the new mechanised Russian Army broke deep into American Siberia, American settlers fleeing in panic. Former President Roosevelt offered his services to the nation, forming a volunteer company known as "The New Rough Riders". In the hard-fought Battle of Sakhalin, Roosevelt and most of his men perished in a heroic last stand against an overwhelming tide of furious Japanese troops. The coup de grace was delivered by the new Chinese Republic joining the fray and overwhelming the American garrisons in Manchuria, depleted by reinforcements sent to the fighting fronts. The US was forced to sign a humiliating treaty, ceding a 300-mile Siberian swathe to Russia and Sakhalin to Japan. However, the US immediately started building up its armed forces with a view to a new war, paralleled by a military buildup also by the Russians and Japanese. Meanwhile, with both Russia and the US devoting all their resources to the Far East and paying little attention to European affairs, Imperial Germany easily won a one-sided, six month long war against France and Britain, establishing itself as the unquestioned dominant power in Europe for the rest of the 20th Century.

Richard Russell, Jr.[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Land Leviathan on Fantastic Fiction
  2. ^ Published 2010 in Hebrew in Tel Aviv, English and French translation 2011
  3. ^ Dan Quayle: President Archived 2012-10-22 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "'Watchmen' Trailer: HBO's Damon Lindelof Drama Stands Revealed" by Josh Wigler, Hollywood Reporter, July 20, 2019
  5. ^ "Damon Lindelof explains why Watchmen isn't just another dark superhero deconstruction" by Matthew Jackson, SyFy Wire, September 18, 2019
  6. ^ Watchmen (TV series) episode "Martial Feats of Comanche Horsemanship"
  7. ^ "Every last Watchmen Easter egg and comic reference in episode 3 of the HBO show" by James Grebey, SyFy Wire, November 3, 2019
  8. ^ "C.S.A. The Movie Website". Archived from the original on 2007-10-26.
  9. ^ "Black Chamber (Tales from the Black Chamber #1)".
  10. ^ "Uchronia: Compadres".
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