Alaska

Alaska is a state in the United States of America, in the extreme northwest portion of the North American continent. It is the largest U.S. state by area (by a substantial margin), and one of the wealthiest and most racially diverse. Situated between the Pacific and Arctic Oceans, Alaska has land borders with the Canadia's British Columbia province and Yukon territory. One western peninsula of Alaska is only 80 miles away from Russia's Siberia region.

The native population probably crossed over from Asia sometime between 16,000 BC and 10,000 BC. The first European contact came from the Russian Empire in the early 1700s. After over a century of settlement, Russia sold the territory to the United States in 1867. Subsequently, Alaska was discovered to be quite rich in minerals, including gold and oil.

Alaska became the 49th state on January 3, 1959.

Alaska in The Hot War
Alaska was the home of Elemendorf Air Force Base until February 7, 1951 when the base was destroyed by the Soviet Union with an atomic bomb. This attack came in response to the USA's destruction of the Soviet base at Pechenga three days before. The destruction of Elemndorf was particularly galling as President Harry Truman had ordered Alaska be on alert.

Literary comment
In the short story, the territory of Alaska is one of the many isolated places American President Joe Steele exiles opponents of his Second Four Year Plan. In the novel, Alaska is mentioned exclusively in its limited ability to help select a presidential nominee, but it is not specified as the location of any prison camps.

Alaska in Southern Victory
Alaska was a substantial Russian territory located on the northwest edge of North America, bordering Canada.

In the late 1860s, Russia offered the United States the opportunity to purchase Alaska after the War of Secession, but the $7 million price tag was too much for the United States' depressed post-war economy.

Despite the fact that a formal state of war existed between the United States and Russia during both the Great War and the Second Great War, and that after 1917 Alaska shared a border with U.S.-occupied Canada, Russia's presence in Alaska did not cause any real conflict with the U.S., nor did it become a theater of war. Both the USA and Russia were engaged with other enemies and saw no reason to divert resources to an inhospitable territory of no value.

While some Americans suggested (half-heartedly) that the U.S. should buy or conquer Alaska from the Russians, neither country placed any value on the region, each viewing it as a frozen wasteland. No serious mineral survey of Alaska was ever conducted - the Russian authorities neither conducting one themselves nor allowing anyone else to do it - thus, any potential minerals hidden in its soil remained undiscovered.

Alaska in The Disunited States of America
Russian Alaska was one of two of oil-rich spots in North America in the late 21st Century. The other was the country of Texas.

Alaska in The Guns of the South
Alaska had been a Russian territory during the Second American Revolution. After the fall of Vancouver to the US Army, the Washington Evening Star reported that Russia, alarmed at the US military progress in the Canadas had offered to sell Alaska to the US rather than seeing it conquered like the rest of North America. When he read this news, Robert Lee couldn't help but wonder just what the US could do with all that empty frozen land.

Alaska in The Two Georges
Alaska was a Russian possession in North America, bordering the North American Union. Skirmishes between Russian troops and NAU forces were not unheard of. However, both sides viewed the elements as even more dangerous. It was also not unheard of for Russian areoplanes to land on NAU airfields if they had engine trouble and the NAU to do the same on Russian airfields.

The British Empire had made frequent offers to Russia to purchase Alaska beginnng in the reign of Victoria, offers Russia routinely declined.

Alaska in Worldwar
Alaska was a US territory when the Race arrived in mid-1942. After the death of US President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, the US agreed to assign a physicist, Max Kagan, to the USSR's atomic bomb project. Kagan journeyed to the USSR via Alaska due to the Race's increased attacks on shipping.

Soviet leader Joseph Stalin hated the sale of Alaska to the US, and believed that it was another sign of the decadence of the Russian Czars.