President Welles

This Alternate History is based on a POD in the late 1940s when actor-director Orson Welles decided to quit the movie business and turn to politics as he always wanted. He served as a U.S. Senator of the Democratic Party and later got elected to President of the United States.

1948-1956

 * 1948: After the failure of The Lady from Shanghai Welles leaves Columbia Pictures. He turns down Charles Chaplin's offer to sell his screenplay for a movie based on the life of serial killer Henri Désiré Landru. (A few months later Chaplin dies in a car accident near his home). He also turns down an offer from low-budget studio Republic Pictures for making an adaptation of Macbeth.
 * Welles published the statement to the press and radio that he retires from making films and doing theatre jobs completely.
 * Welles also divorces from his wife, actress Rita Hayworth.
 * Welles befriends with Sheridan Downey from the Democratic Party, then U.S. Senator Class 3 of California.


 * 1949: Welles uses some of his connections and Downey to gain support in the Democratic Party in California. He progresses very fast and makes friends among high ranking members of the political elite.


 * 1950: After the end of Downey's service as a Senator, Welles defeats Republician candidate Richard M. Nixon and wins a seat in the Senate. Nixon turns away from politics and goes into oil business but cannot succeed over the years.


 * 1952: Welles marries Janet McHenry, daughter of a big New York-based industrialist. This gives him huge monetary backup and connections among the industrial and commercial elite.
 * He also uses his media talent and experience to gain support to him among the people and the political elite.


 * 1953: George Welles, Jr. is born as the first child of the Welles-McHenry couple.


 * 1955: Charles Welles, second son of Welles and Janet is born.


 * 1956: Welles runs against then-President Dwight Eisenhower in the elections. The liberal, young, good-looking Welles is popular among young people and intellectuals much more than the military-background Eisenhower. The whole liberal media stands out for him, including CBS television reporter Edward R. Murrow and his staff.

1957-1960

 * 1957: Welles is elected to President of the United States. At the age of 42 he is the youngest President to date. His first year in office is a fruitful one. He is generally popular among the public.
 * 1959: President Welles visits Fidel Castro and the newly formed Communist Cuba. Castro promises him peace if the United States does not bother with their government and politics.
 * Welles gains popularity among the American youth when he organizes a concert in the garden of the White House featuring rock 'n' roll idols Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and others in February.


 * 1960: Welles wins on the elections and is re-elected to President.

1961-1964

 * 1961: After the breakthrough space flight of Yuri Gagarin President Welles announces his plans to create a successful and highly professional American space program and to send a man to the Moon until the end of the decade. He states that the nation's goal is "To reach the Cosmos and Beyond" which becomes NASA's motto.


 * 1962: Welles meets with Martin Luther King in the White House. Later that year Welles campaigns against racial segregation and for the civil rights movement.
 * 1963: Open conflict breaks out between Cuba and the United States after the missile crisis of late-1962. President Welles concentrates the military force on Cuba instead of helping the conflict in Vietnam.
 * Charles Welles dies at the age of 8 in a sailing accident. The President is deeply touched by the event.


 * 1964: Fidel Castro is murdered by an unknown assassin. Suspicion goes on the U.S. government in the case. His brother, Raúl and Ernesto "Che" Guevara rivals for the leadership of the country.

1965-1970s

 * 1965: Republican candidate Spiro Agnew wins the elections and becomes President of the United States winning over Welles's ex-vice president, John F. Kennedy.
 * After the sudden death of Raúl Castro at his home Guevara takes charge of the Cuban military and declares the continuation of the fights (some say that he ordered the murder of Raúl).
 * President Agnew orders more US troops to handle the Cuban conflict.


 * 1966: Some protests from the youth are held this year against the Cuban conflict, but they are minor and unnoticed.
 * 1968: Without enough American support the North Vietnamese forces quickly gain power in South Vietnam and form the united Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The Western powers decide not to interfere in order not to provoke a Third World War.
 * Presidental candidate John F. Kennedy is murdered by a psychopathic young man named John Michael Osbourne while making a visit in London. His brother, Robert who's also running for President gains huge support from the public and wins against then-President Agnew.
 * 1969: Robert Kennedy becomes President.
 * The five-year conflict between the United States and Cuba ends, with a peace treaty between the two. Guevara agrees to stay out of the US's ways if they let him and the Communist regime in charge.


 * 1970: The Soviet space program successfully sends Soyuz 5 to the Moon. Vladimir Komarov is the first man to walk on the Moon.
 * 1972: Red China and Vietnam unite in a Communist state known as the United Socialist Republics of China and Vietnam (USRCV), which soon becomes the third major power, and enters a Cold War with both the United States and the Soviet Union.
 * 1976: An American-sponsored revolution overtakes the Communist regime of Cuba. Guevara is captured and imprisoned for political charges.
 * President Robert Kennedy announces that the United States will help the newly formed Cuban democracy.
 * Democrat Jimmy Carter wins the elections, mainly due to the popularity of former President Kennedy.
 * Mao Zedong dies, and is followed by Hua Goufeng as the leader of the USRCV.

1980s

 * 1980: Ronald Reagan is elected president in a landslide over incumbent Jimmy Carter.
 * 1981: Two American reporters, while doing investigative work in Beijing are captured, and severly tortured by the USRCV secret police. The event creates an outrage in US diplomatic relations. Finally, the reporters are returned free, in change for ten Chinese/Vietnamese political prisoners in the US.
 * 1983: The USRCV invades Hong Kong, and expresses the intention to annex it as a province-state. The British government sends forces to protect the country. However, after five months of stationary situation, they withdraw. Prime minister Margaret Thatcher resigns soon afterwards.
 * 1984: Ronald Reagan is electred president for his second term.
 * 1989: Osama bin Laden, and several leaders of a terrorist group fighting against the Soviet opression in Afghanistan, are captured and later executed by USSR forces.

1990s

 * 1992: Republician candidate George H.W. Bush wins the elections and becomes President of the United States.
 * 1995: Chinese film director Zhang Yimou is captured when trying to disside to the West, and executed for treason in May. In response, the Cannes Film Festival shuts down as a sign of protest.
 * 1996: George H.W. Bush wins the presidental elections with a small majority, and begins his second term as president. Some controversy arises over the polls, which results in recounting the votes.
 * 1997: The USRCV space program sends it's first spaceship, the Red Star to orbit.
 * Huge public outrage against the Bush administration's CSA (Communications Security Act), which allows the goverment to search into private web contents in search for Soviet or USRCV infiltration, and block websites of possible "suspicious contents".

2000s

 * 2000: Lamar Alexander is elected to President, continuing the Republician majority in the United States. Although much more liberal than the preceeding Bush administration, Alexander fails to make larger changes during his term.
 * 2003: The Garry Kasparov affair makes a break in US - USSR diplomatic relations.
 * 2004: Democrat John Kerry wins the elections, ending 12 years of Republician presidency. One of his most radical changes is opening much friendlier relations to the Soviet Union, and ending the "Second Red Scare".
 * 2005: Kerry makes his historical visit to Moscow. In return, Soviet Premier Vladimir Putin visits Washington D.C. and New York City.
 * 2007: Milan Novcek, a Yugoslavian immigrant scientist (who left his homeland because of Communism in 1995) discovers the cure for cancer on Harvard University. (In OT Novcek died in the Yugoslav wars in the early 1990s!)
 * 2008: USRCV leader Hua Guofeng dies. His right-hand man, Hsiao-Peng takes over his position.
 * Republician John McCain wins the elections and becomes president.
 * Serial killer Dean Gatz is caught, and charged with the murder of eleven young women in New York City.

To be continued!

Presidents of the United States

 * 1953-1957: Dwight Eisenhower (Republican)
 * 1957-1965: Orson Welles (Democrat)
 * 1965-1969: Spiro Agnew (Republican)
 * 1969-1977: Robert F. Kennedy (Democrat)
 * 1977-1981: Jimmy Carter (Democrat)
 * 1981-1989: Ronald Reagan (Republican)
 * 1989-1993: Walter Mondale (Democrat)
 * 1993-2001: George H.W. Bush (Republican)
 * 2001-2005: Lamar Alexander (Republican)
 * 2005-2009: John Kerry (Democrat)
 * 2009-: John McCain (Republican)

'Note, that in this timeline, the US is much more conservative and patriotic, like in the 1950s. There was no JFK assassination (well, at least not the "real one"), Vietnam, counter-culture, Watergate, 9/11... They're much less disillusioned. Also, the cold war is around as "heated" as in the 1960s. There was no Glasnosty, and China-Vietnam is there are a dangerous enemy with the possibility of a Third World War.'

The Warsaw Pact

 * Soviet Union
 * Bulgaria
 * East Germany
 * Czechoslovakia
 * Hungary
 * Poland
 * Romania
 * Yugoslavia

European Communities

 * Austria
 * Belgium
 * Denmark
 * Finland
 * France
 * Greece
 * Ireland
 * Italy
 * Luxembourg
 * Netherlands
 * Norway
 * Portugal
 * Spain
 * Sweden
 * United Kingdom
 * West Germany

Socialist Federation of Asian Nations

 * United Socialist Republics of China and Vietnam
 * North Korea

To be continued...

Thanks for all those who edited this timeline! It's been quite a while since I've been here, and I've nearly all forgotten about it. I'll try to continue it in the future. -- Neonknights