Thanks for giving it a read!
Circle of Willis
A very good ride and still some interesting times ahead. Both in the US with a change of leadership and the question of whether the new President can ride two separate if not diverging horses. [Since he has selected JF Kennedy as his VP I assume he's not going to suddenly become a wolf in sheep's clothing and seek to turn back to Jim Crow]. Also elsewhere with France facing continued opposition in Algeria and taking a very dark path and the situation far from clear in Burma and Vietnam. S Sudan I would love to see win independence earlier, especially with the religious region in charge of Egypt/N Sudan but with the former's resources that's going to be a big task, even with some indirect British support. It could also prompt greater religious tension in Africa and possibly elsewhere earlier.
Anyway looking forward to what you come up with next.
Steve
And thank you for sticking around from the beginning & always raising interesting points in your replies! Yes - if Smathers thought threading the moderate needle while campaigning was hard enough, he's in for an even harder ride throughout the '60s. IOTL he doesn't seem to have
actually been a racist in his heart of hearts (just played the part of one to remain in office), and was genuinely supportive of quite a few civil rights advances being pushed by JFK and LBJ, in particular on voting rights; so while it's unlikely that he'd attempt anything on the level of, say, the Great Society, you can count on him to not reverse the progress Dewey & Halleck have made and to especially try to build on their voting legislation. It's just that as the US enters the 1960s, so too will the demands of civil rights activists and progressives in general escalate, and the point at which Smathers will become unwilling to appease them is likely going to be lower (perhaps much lower) than Johnson's. That's probably going to really put the 'Stormy' in 'Stormy Sixties'...
As for the colonies: indeed, South Sudan is one place where British intervention can do a lot of good, and is likely to draw a glaring contrast to France's (even more) ruthless turns in Algeria. It further helps that Al-Hudaybi, as leader of the united Egypt & Sudan, is about as reasonable & peaceable as can be expected of an Islamist, and will be a lot easier to bring to the negotiation table than pretty much any other Muslim Brotherhood figure of note. Unfortunately for him, having such pacifistic leanings is also what paints a giant target on his back in the eyes of figures like Qutb, who wouldn't be nearly as easy - in fact probably downright impossible - for the Christians of South Sudan and their British backers to deal with.
I hope to see you (and everyone else who's taken the trouble to read through this thread) in my next timeline