Howard Scott (Four-way Cold War)

Huey Long chose Howard Scott to be his running mate in order to balance the ticket to help with the 'Yankee' vote and bring with him the various experts who had a command and control and meliorist approach to economic policy, much like Long himself. While Long's administration benefited in the immediate term by obtaining the services of the experts associated with Scott, Scott mimicked Long's behaviour in filling many posts within the executive bureaucracy with 'his people', ie. in Howard Scott's case, the 'Technocrats'. Scott brought with him to the Vice-Presidency a team of academics who had worked with him on the Energy Survey of North America, including economist and engineer Stuart Chase (who coined the term 'New Deal' OTL), planner and conservationist Benton MacKaye, economist Leland Olds, mathematician and electrical engineer Charles Proteus Steinmetz and mathematical physicist and physical chemist Richard Chace Tolman. Geophysicist and cofounder of Technocracy Inc., Marion King Hubbert, also became associated with the administration. Scott soon learned from Long how this cronyism could be used to bypass Congress to implement his own pet projects and agenda. Scott is often thought of as one of the most influential Vice Presidents in U.S. history. The Technocrats within the administration never relinquished their dreams of North American energy self-sufficiency and the creation of a North American Technate. Though largely ignored by the public, their lobbying had some effect on Long's decision-making. Whether Long reached the conclusion of a plan to invade Canada from the Technocrats' rhetoric in good faith or whether he was merely using it as a pretext to provide the economic stimulus to the American economy he needed to make good on election promises is still the subject of intense debate. When Long was assassinated, Scott inherited a highly centralised presidency and much of the territory (though much infrastructure had been damaged through warfare) prescribed for the implementation of a North American Technate.There is still a theory popular in conspiracy theory circles that Scott planted the idea of an invasion of Canada in Long's head, knowing that he would be assassinated in retaliation, bringing Scott to the presidency.