Joe Steele (story)

"Joe Steele" is an alternate history short story by Harry Turtledove. It was published in In Stars: Original Stories Based on the Songs of Janis Ian (eds. Janis Ian and Mike Resnick), DAW 2003 (0756401771); and The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-first Annual Collection (ed. Gardner Dozois), St. Martin's/Griffin 2004 (0312324782, 0312324790).

The story's (based on a line from a Janis Ian song "god & the fbi" which says that "Stalin was a Democrat") point of departure is that Joseph Stalin's parents (as well as the parents of several of Stalin's OTL] cronies, evidentally) immigrated to the [[United States. Stalin, here called "Joe Steele", grows up to become a congressman from Fresno, following the fiery death of Franklin D. Roosevelt (engineered by Steele) becomes the president of the United States in 1933, trouncing Herbert Hoover with the promise of his four-year plan.  Steele begins to slowly take power, much as Stalin did in the Soviet Union, eliminating opposition with the enthusiastic help of J. Edgar Hoover.  Purges of the Supreme Court, the military, and various other professions follow.  In his second term, Steele begins collective farms in Alaska, North Dakota and other isolated regions.

Meanwhile, events in Europe spiral towards war, as Adolf Hitler rises to power in Germany, and Leon Trotsky retains power in the Soviet Union. Steele hates both with equal fervor, despising Nazism and communism as twin evils. He refuses to enter the war, although he financially supports Britain and then Russia after Hitler invades the Soviet Union. [Japan]] attacks the United States, and Steele takes his country to war. The Normandy invasion takes place as Steele sees the possibility of Trotsky becoming dominant in Europe. Late in 1945, the United States and the Soviet Union jointly invade Japan, a very costly invasion which leaves Japan divided into North and South Japan. North Japan attacks South Japan in 1949.

About this time, Steele learns of Germany's atomic bomb project. When Steele interrogates Alber Einstein about this technology, Einstein admits that he'd kept Steele in the dark fearing that Steele would use the bomb. A purge of Jewish physicists follows, until Edward Teller pledges to build the bomb in three years. Steele allows him to do so, with the end result that the Japanese War is ended with a mutual exchange of atomic bombs in Japan.

The story ends with Steele's death shortly after being elected to this sixth term. His vice president, John Nance Garner, who'd kept his head down for over two decades, immediately orders the death of Steele's allies, J. Edgar Hoover and the Hammer. The Hammer orders Garner's and Hoover's deaths. Hoover order the deaths of Garner and the Hammer. Hoover wins, and proves to be an even more brutal dictator than Steele.

Critique
While hardly one of Turtledove's most plausible alternate histories (Stalin, Molotov, Lazar Kaganovich, and Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan all manage to be Americans; it also presumes that Stalin was born evil), it is one of his more stirring short stories. Turtledove's frequent use of parallels to OTL particularly serve this story well, as Stalin's policies are rather easily and believably implemented in the depressed United States. Furthermore, Turtledove twists history in come clever ways, as Einstein realizes what Steele is, and refuses to tell him about the atomic bomb, resulting in a very different Pacific War and a very grim parallel to the Korean War.

Stylistically, the story is experimental for Turtledove. The story is in a very informal third-person, with frequent use of one-word sentences and frequent asides to the reader. It lends a greater sense of authenticity to the story, while making excellent use of the shorter format.