51st State

By Peter Goodwill

In 1940, Ambassador Joseph P Kennedy gave an interview. It could have ended his political career. It didn't. It ended a war and an empire instead.

Now the most powerful man in Britain, Kennedy has his sights set on an even bigger prize. As Kennedy and his sons Joe and Jack settle into London, the distance between peace and war is not as great as he may think.

In the shadows enemies are hard at work and Britain is in more danger than ever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jun 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781326680237

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51st State

51st State

Published by Lulu Books.

Lulu Books, Raleigh, N.C. USA.

www.lulu.com

First published by Peter Goodwill in 2016.

Copyright © P Goodwill, 2016. All rights reserved.

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Except in the United States, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any binding form of binding cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

ISBN: 978-1-326-68023-7

Dedicated to my dearest Cath,

Your inspiration and support is as boundless as it is crucial.

Thank you.

Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total; of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.

Robert F Kennedy

1. History

It is often said that history is only written by the winners of battles. It is not. It is written accidentally by people that do not realise what they are writing. People like Louis Lyons.

Louis Lyons was a journalist from Boston. Lyons had no desire to write history or to be part of it. Little did he know that one day in November, 1940, history had a chapter for him.

He walked breezily into his office with his typical regularity at 8.00 am. The short walk from his home to the Boston Globe offices was unusually pleasant for the time of year. The unseasonably mild November weather was enough to warm his mood.

Lyons spoke in his typically quiet and thoughtful manner.

Any calls Bea? he asked.

Not one, came the reply. Just a quiet Armistice Day in Boston.

Could you try to get hold of London? See if there’s any news on the other side of the Atlantic?

Lyons was always in search of a good story. The war in Europe had become a regular start for any such search. Lyons had managed to accumulate a number of high level contacts in Britain. From the outbreak of war, these contacts had given him many stories. The most prolific source of ‘non attributable’ leads was the US Ambassador to the United Kingdom, the indomitable Joseph P Kennedy.

German air raids had decimated towns and cities across Britain. The rest of Western Europe had fallen to the Nazi forces. These events had the American people concerned about Europe and anxious for themselves. The possibility of America entering the war was never far from people’s lips. Memories of the first ‘Great War’ were still fresh. Becoming sucked into another European quagmire was the last thing anyone wanted.

Sir, called Bea after a few hours, it’s London.

Thank you Bea, replied Lyons. There was a sense of quiet anticipation like a fisherman hoping to land a catch.

This is the Ambassador, started a rather serious voice. Joseph Kennedy had been Ambassador for two years. There were rumours that President Roosevelt was keen to keep Kennedy as far from Washington as possible. The main issue Roosevelt had was that Britain was not far enough away. This meant that Kennedy was still too close. The Atlantic Ocean was not broad enough to halt Kennedy’s ability to gossip or plot.

Lyons differed from Roosevelt. Kennedy’s ability to gossip or plot had become something that he valued very highly indeed. The fact that Kennedy would send him a fine bottle of Scotch at Christmas was an ancillary, but very welcome, benefit.

Joe! How are things in London? The raids haven’t made it to the Ritz-Carlton then I see?

Not yet Louis, but things are not great here I can tell you.

What are the chances of us getting sucked in? Louis asked brazenly.

I would say that they were less than they were three months ago. ‘The Blitz’ will not defeat the British. But any movement of troops would be a different matter. From where I sit, we have a brief window for thoughts and for decisions. It is imperative that we keep our boys from ending up in another war.

Kennedy was usually direct but Lyons was surprised how candid the Ambassador had started. Lyons’ journalistic instincts began to tingle.

America needs to wake up, continued Kennedy. If we went in, we’d just be holding the bag. We can send them munitions whilst they can pay for them, but there will come a point soon when that will change. There’s no point selling something they can’t pay for. There’s no point in them buying guns if there’s no one there to fire them, Kennedy continued.

You sound like you think the British will be defeated, Lyons stated.

I have not said that Louis, but we are at a time of crucial decisions- and that means we have to be asking the right questions. The big questions. And think bigger solutions. Otherwise we will sleep walk our boys back across the Atlantic to slaughter without any thought as to why.

What are the questions, Joe? And who has the solutions?

Well it won’t be the Prime Minister, that’s for sure. That man doesn’t need to worry about hubris preceding nemesis. He is well beyond that. Churchill has nothing to offer apart from astonishing arrogance. The future of Britain is tied to the ego of one man. The danger is that we shall shackle ourselves to this man, and tie our future to him as well. I have to ask, is that worth sacrificing our boys for?

What about democracy? Is that not worth it? Lyons asked.

Democracy! snorted Kennedy, Democracy is finished in England. It may be here, because it comes to a question of feeding people. It’s all an economic question. I told the President last Sunday - don’t send me fifty Admirals and Generals, send me a dozen real economists. Given the choice, I prefer prosperity of peace than the business of war.

I am struggling to see how business is the big solution you mentioned, Louis probed.

Look at it this way. Do you think that we would not trade with Europe if Hitler wins? That’s nonsensical. Of course we shall. Can the mighty British Empire stand alone without help from good old Uncle Sam again? Of course not. Churchill wants our army to maintain his ego. Is that in our national interest? The truth is Chancellor Hitler is here to stay. My Joe has been to Germany and was impressed with many things he saw. We will do business with Nazi Germany, for sure. I would just prefer to do it without it costing the blood of millions of our good young men, without crippling our economy or pandering to an old man’s desire to fight the last great war. A brief silence fell over the line in Boston.

What are you saying Mr. Ambassador? Louis asked. There was a sense of disbelief within his calm voice.

"The choice for the British people is a simple and stark one in my opinion. If the flag from Buckingham Palace is due to change, would the British rather it be scarlet red with a Swastika or with stars and stripes? If the currency is to change, is the Dollar preferable to the Mark? Would the Royal family enjoy a higher quality of life if the President, or the Chancellor, was running Britain? What about the language, the way of life, the culture, the values and democracy? Which of these two options would the British people prefer do you think?

But never mind the British. What would be better for us? Would this not be preferable to national interest of the United States of America? And would a strong Germany in continental Europe help to protect us from the dangers of Stalin and the Communist Russia? The question is no longer ‘can Britain win?’ It is not even ‘will Britain lose?’ The only question that matters now is ‘who will Britain lose to?’ I strongly believe that they would prefer to lose to us. And I think that we will be a good friend and allow that to happen".

So that’s your big solution? asked Louis in a state of shock. I have to say Joe; it is more than big!

I call it ‘Solution 51’. Stick another star on the spangled banner, stop the war in Europe and let’s sit down for business.

Solution 51? Lyons gasped incredulously. Are you being serious?

Serious? It’s the decision of a sensible businessman. Not a warmonger. More sensible than sentencing our fine young men to death and crippling an economy. And what for? What? Habit?

I have to ask, are happy for me to run this story? Are we on the record here Mr. Ambassador?

If someone doesn’t say something, the unthinkable remains unthinkable and the inevitable remains inevitable, Kennedy replied.

Are we on the record, Joe?

What do you think Louis? the Ambassador teased.

Joe, I need to press you on this. It’s too big. Are we on the record?

We are on the damn record Louis. Write your story. Just write it well!

Ok Mr. Ambassador, thank you. I shall.

The line went silent. Lyons leant back in his chair and exhaled loudly. He knew that he was about to write a big story. He didn’t realise he was about to write a new chapter of history.

2. A star

The staircase that cascaded into the hallway at the Ambassadors’ residence was as impressive as it was ornate. The lady that walked up the stairs early every morning was neither of these things. Mrs Stephenson may not have been particularly impressive or ornate but she was industrious. She was also discrete; a characteristic that was welcomed by her employer.

Mrs Stephenson’s day started at half past five. By five forty five she would begin her slow walk up the staircase. She would carry a large tray upon which sat an ornate bone china tea pot, a matching cup and saucer and other accessories required to make the all important first cup of tea of the morning. Ambassador Kennedy always needed something caffeinated to start his day.

Good morning Margaret, came the greeting from the bed.

Good morning, Sir, came the reply from the doorway.

Kennedy had a near permanent glint in his eyes. On this January morning the glint was more pronounced than ever.

A very good morning. Today is quite a day, smiled Kennedy. He waved at the newspaper sitting in front of him as Mrs Stephenson placed her laden tray down on the bedside table.

Indeed, nodded Mrs Stephenson in agreement, although with distinctly less enthusiasm. Do you require anything else, Sir?

I think I have enough already today Margaret, continued the effusive Kennedy. He began to read out the front page headline. Great Britain becomes the 51st State. Ambassador to become Senator today.

Very good, Sir, acknowledged Mrs Stephenson.

At which point the she turned around and left Kennedy to his paper and early morning refreshments.

The atmosphere at Kennedys’ residence had been considerably less sanguine three months earlier. More precisely; on the morning of November 11th. Joe Kennedy had not been greeted with an early morning cup of tea on the 11th. He had been woken by telephone call many hours earlier from Washington. It may have been Monday morning in London, but in Washington it was still Sunday evening. However, events dictated what constituted a working day rather than convention. Events that were the making of Kennedy.

The person that had called Kennedy was Henry Stimson. Stimson was serving as Secretary of War for the second time, having originally taken the post within the Taft presidency back in 1911. Despite his aging years, Stimson remained mentally sharp and had a tongue that could be as equally pointed. Politically he had little common ground with the Kennedy. He shared even less with him of a personal nature. Such natural antipathy proved helpful on this occasion.

Kennedy had reacted to the telephone call in a manner that suggested he had not been particularly asleep. Neither was the call wholly unexpected.

Good evening, Mr. Secretary, Kennedy said formally.

What the hell have you done you son of a bitch? stormed Stimson furiously.

I’m sorry, Mr. Secretary, I’m afraid I don’t follow, replied Kennedy.

Joe Kennedy did follow. He followed perfectly well in fact.

Don’t you play dumb with me- you treacherous shit! continued Stimson blustering. "You know exactly what I am talking about and why I am speaking to you now. The only reason I am speaking to you and not the President is because he is too angry. You haven’t seen todays’ Globe have you? Well I have. And so has the President. What on earth were you thinking?"

There was a pause as Kennedy begun to compose his reply.

What on earth do you think I should have said Henry? started Kennedy, his voice taking a more firm tone. The British are on their knees here. What’s your grand plan? Leave them and their empire to Hitler? Or is your grand plan to commit millions of our fine young men to slaughter again back in France? Neither sounds like a master plan to me Henry. It’s obvious that it’s time to think about our options.

The tsunami of rage continued from Washington.

Obvious? Obvious! You really are something Kennedy. But you’ve gone too far this time. You’ve managed to go from Presidential wannabe to former Ambassador with one interview. Don’t go far Joe – the President will soon be in touch.

Henry Stimson had been totally correct. He had also been almost entirely wrong. Joe Kennedy was to become a former Ambassador following his interview with Louis Lyons. However, his political fortunes had not plummeted. They had soared.

After drinking his morning cup of tea and reading the newspaper several times, Kennedy made his merry way down the impressive staircase. It required all Kennedys’ self control to prevent himself from humming a few lines from ‘America the Beautiful’. Self control had never been Kennedys’ forte granted, but it was sufficient to keep him from bursting into song as he entered his office.

How long do I have Margaret? he asked.

Mrs Stephenson was once again fully loaded with a tray of tea. One of her key daily functions was ply caffeine into Kennedy in a quasi intravenous manner.

The car is due to pick you up at half past nine, she replied.

Shortly afterwards another cup of steaming tea was placed in front of Kennedy. Kennedy barely motioned any sort of response. He had already begun to delve into his eternal pile of correspondence and hoped that the phone would not ring before he had to leave.

The phone rang. The phone had been ringing none stop since the Sunday when Louis Lyons wrote his front page exclusive in the Boston Globe. Joe Kennedy had long since established that it was perfectly possible for someone to accomplish an awful lot without doing a great deal. During the first couple of weeks in November 1940, it had begun to appear like Joe Kennedy was accomplishing quite a lot indeed.

Every time Kennedy spoke to someone in Washington the conversation would have two distinct themes. The first was to see if Kennedy had taken leave of his senses entirely. The second was to see what he had planned after his political career, a career which was clearly about to be finalised.

The greatest vitriol and anger within the political circles of Washington had been reserved by Henry Stimson and the President himself. They were beside themselves with fury. One of their key diplomats, Kennedy, had created a monstrous diplomatic crisis that they were having to try to manage and extinguish

When they spoke to Kennedy, their conversations had three distinct themes. The first was to ensure Joe Kennedy knew exactly how much damage he had caused. The second was to tell him just how great a leave of senses he must have had. Finally, they made it abundantly clear they cared little for what he was planning on doing after politics, but that period would be coming very soon indeed. 

The conversations Kennedy was having within London were of a similar nature. Predictably, Winston Churchill verbalised fury that made Stimson and Roosevelt sound meek. A near berserk Churchill labelled Kennedy as a ‘cowardly isolationist’ and a ‘pathetic appeaser’, along with many other insults in volley after volley of anger. Even the thickest of Kennedy skin was beginning to become bruised.

Kennedy had begun to think his greatest gamble had also been his greatest miscalculation. However, much to everyone’s surprise, communication from the Royal Family had been much more circumspect. They simply relayed through the appropriate back channels that the King and Queen were both ‘surprised and severely disappointed’ by the Ambassadors’ comments. They also suggested that should the comments have been taken out of context the Ambassador would be very welcome to make that clear at the nearest moment that would be available to him. Given the level of wrath that surrounded him, this felt like a considerable coup for the embattled Kennedy.

Kennedy had started to reflect on his actions with an uncharacteristic degree of self doubt. He wondered whether his observations been overly candid. The idea that he could have been spectacularly wrong had even crossed his mind. Not that such introspection was ever made public. Kennedy took pride in his broad Irish shoulders and thick Catholic skin. There were fleeting moments when the idea of failure entered his head but outwardly he was always supremely calm and, crucially, correct.

The political situation did seem bleak for Kennedy. Despite this, Kennedy felt that he had a majority of the public on his side.

The anger of Churchill and Roosevelt was notably different to the tone of the American people. The public had greeted the interview with a mixture of surprise and curiosity. The politicians may have been angry, but the people on the streets were not. The average American appeared to reason that they nothing to lose and seemingly everything to gain by Kennedy’s idea of the ‘51st State’. In Britain, it was an entirely different set of decisions being made. 

The door to the office burst open and two young men entered with the exuberance of a pair of Labradors. In this instance the two pups were Kennedys’ two oldest sons, Joe Junior and Jack.

Are you all set Pop? beamed Joe Junior enthusiastically.

A wry smile greeted the question from the other side of the wooden desk. Peering from behind his spectacles, Joe Senior replied calmly.

Now boys, he started, today is a very good day for the Kennedy family. But just you two wait until we are back home in a few years time for the real celebration.

What do you mean Pop? asked Jack.

Don’t you think we stop with today. Do you think FDR will be any match for me in a couple of years time? How will he be able to beat the man that kept us out of that damned war and acquired the Great British Empire for old Uncle Sam? I am the most popular Democrat in America right now, and I’ll be the most popular politician before the next Presidential elections. So no, we don’t stop boys. We don’t stop until there is a Kennedy in the White House!

There was often little difference between Joe Kennedy speaking to his sons and Joe Kennedy delivering a stump speech. At that moment the distinction was even finer. So much so that it felt as if that Kennedy looked expectantly towards his sons awaiting a resounding applause as soon as he had finished his rhetoric. Whilst there was no applause, the audience did look back excitedly.

The office door opened once more. This time with less enthusiasm. Mrs Stephenson entered with her usual calm demeanour to tell the Ambassador that his car had arrived. Margaret’s calm persona was one of the few constants around the hyperactive residence. There had been only one occasion, during her years working for Joe Kennedy that she had lost her poise.

You mean my Bill will be able to come home? shrieked Margaret Stephenson.

There was a sense of joy and glee in her voice she hadn’t felt for years. Any sense of fun had been lost when her son, William, had enlisted in the British Navy at the very start of the war. Her steady footsteps up and down the staircase at the Kennedy residence masked a deep sense of foreboding and dread. Every knock at the door or letter in the post made her heart race in the worst imaginable way. Living in fear was not much of a life. Permanently fearing the worst had become her life.

All of the sons and husbands will be coming home! replied Kennedy triumphantly. It’s the end to all this awful war business.

It was mid January and an incredible amount had happened since November. It had taken just eight weeks to reshape the whole world, to end the latest war and the greatest global empire since Roman times. Kennedy always admired his ability to productive but this far exceeded even his lofty standards. If Kennedy initially felt shocked by the impact of his interview, the events that had followed astounded him.

After the interview with Lyons there were a number of furious phone calls. These were proceeded by an even greater number of phone conversations that were more cordial. For every meeting that followed, there were many more secret communications and back channels used as the British establishment considered the unthinkable and the Americans negotiated the deal of the century. However, before there could be any deal discussed openly, there was another country with a considerable amount of chips in play on the table. The third corner of the triangle was Germany and at some point they needed to be part of the conversation.

Joachim Von Ribbentropp was the former Ambassador for Germany in Britain. Ribbentropp had enjoyed a warm relationship with his American counterpart, Kennedy during their shared time in London. The pair had enjoyed many hours talking about various business interests and drinking Scotch before the outbreak of war. The time spent over a dram began to yield some dividends as November became ever more dark and cold.

Ribbentropp had not set foot in England since 1938 but he had maintained many of his contacts. One of those contacts was a journalist at The Daily Mail called George Price. Ribbentropp, via Price, told Kennedy that the ‘51st State solution’ would not be dismissed out of hand by Chancellor Hitler. Price said that Chancellor Hitler had not considered either Britain or America as natural enemies and an agreement along the lines intimated could merit discussion.

Germany may have been open to the ‘51st State solution’ but there remained hurdles. The British establishment had remained less keen. Winston Churchill continued his hyperbole in private discussions and could not countenance such a retrograde step. To Churchill this was a return to a policy of appeasement. His judgement was that at some point in the future war would return but against an enemy even more fearsome than the one they currently faced.

Churchill considered himself to be the bridge between the aristocracy and the British public. However, within weeks, one side of that divide had begun to shift. The initial response from Buckingham Palace had been diplomatically circumspect, but they started to become far more