Rogue Generals: A Different Post-EDSA Uno Philippines TL

I wouldn’t say that the Philippines managed to repel a Chinese invasion easily. Rather, it was more along the lines of guerrilla campaigns, but the US might be forced to intervene heavily.

And even with the ban on the sale of weapons by Japan, there may be a few customers who would be open to the idea. Perhaps it will be Canada who may end up purchasing Japanese or Korean weapons ITTL.

The effects of the War in Cuba and Nicaragua will be covered in either the next update, or another update. However, let's say the murder of Bill Clinton will have a huge effect on Hillary Clinton's political career ITTL. I would think that there could be a civil war that would arise if the US withdrew from Cuba. I would say that the invasion of Cuba and Nicaragua might be as bad, or worse than the OTL invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. And we might also have to touch base with the US forces that are on the peacekeeping mission in Iraq right now, and there are a few years left before Russia's own Kemp-esque invasion of Kazakhstan.

I think the US opinion on the ICJ might approach the level of 'for me, not for thee' kind of mindset. Given that we would see Kemp get involved in the Second Korean War, just before his term is up (spoilers: he is re-elected in 2000, but who his challenger would be will be a major foil), I would think that Kemp ITTL has embodied the worst aspects of OTL George W. Bush, and Donald Rumsfeld of the TL, "Rumsfeldia".

Another area that China could do besides attack the Philippines would probably be the seizure of the islands of Quemoy and Matsu. Given that IOTL, they are under Taiwanese control, those islands are essentially symbolic in Taiwan's claiming of mainland China as the representative of the Republic of China. However, the loss of those islands might propel a more assertive Taiwanese nationalist movement that would be stridently anti-unification in nature.

Neoconservatism ITTL would be far more hated than IOTL, thanks to Kemp. However, there is one other guy who could potentially be a thorn in Jack Kemp's side, and that is James Traficant. ITTL, he'd probably avoid getting sent to prison and dying in the tractor accident. I might also have to touch base with what's happening in the Balkans as well.

Already a given that Quemoy (Kinmen) and Matsu would fall. The Taiwanese have more or less accepted that.

I'm curious how Kemp will push for Taiwan to declare independence while telling China there's not a jackshit they can do about it.

Chapter Sixty-Four: Wounds of a Different Nature/Ang Malaking Sugat

MANAGUA UNDER HEAVY INTENSE AERIAL BOMBARDMENT AS MEXICAN GOVERNMENT FORCES SEIZE CONTROL OF EASTERN BORDERS WITH GUATEMALA AND BELIZE
Dallas Morning Tribune
December 10, 1998

(Chetumal, MEXICO) - Intense American aerial bombardment against military and civilian targets throughout Nicaragua had continued to its fifth day in a row, as Mexican government forces launch new offensives into eastern Chiapas to seize control of all border crossing points, as well as landing troops in eastern Tabasco, Campeche, and Quintana Roo, where they proceeded to seize control of the rest of the border crossing points. The depleted Zapatista and Popular Revolutionary Army militias continued to fight and stage raids against government forces, but official spokespersons representing the Mexican Armed Forces have stated that it will take at least three additional months to mop up all resistance forces in the area. Two months, if General Mario Chaparro gives his consent to the dropping of certain bombs that could destroy all hiding spots that the anti-government forces have used.

"We have managed to establish two beachheads in the towns of Corinto on the Pacific coast, and Puerto Cabezas on the Caribbean coast, and are now in the process of pushing some of our troops towards the Nicaraguan capital of Managua," announces US Supreme Commander Richard Nantonski, who leads the US forces tasked with the capture of Nicaragua. "In addition, President Kemp has restored military aid to the Nicaraguan Resistance movements seeking to overthrow the Sadinista government, which continues to resist our forces."

It was widely expected that the US forces will take around a year and a half to capture all of Nicaragua in its current condition. However, US Air Force bombardments against Nicaraguan and Cuban military targets have not only intensified, but it has also started attacking civilian targets as well. In addition, US naval vessels have begun bombarding the coasts of both nations, with the carrier strike groups taking out any anti-ship missiles that are present on the coasts, as well as on small frigates operated by the Nicaraguan and Cuban Navies. Yet, President Kemp's liberal policy of approving the use of napalm and other kinds of bombs have come under fire from other US military commanders, who feared the repeat of the Vietnam War's most destructive legacy, which would be the rise of handicapped children born from the toxic effects of chemical defoliation. At the same time, Puerto Rican officials have reported a mutiny that broke out in the Fort Allen base operated by the Puerto Rico National Guard, over the orders to help ship out chemical defoliants that would be used by the US Air Force, which would be dropped on civilian targets in Cuba.

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Portions from the Interview With Former US Marine Corps Master Corporal Denzel Morris
Sky News AU
October 23, 2018

Discussing the Rise of PTSD Among Cuban and Nicaraguan War Veterans

INTERVIEWER: Since the end of the conflict between the United States on one side, and Cuba and Nicaragua on the other side in June of 2001, you have emerged as the leading voice in the movement for mental health recovery programs among active and former soldiers who fought in those wars. What was your position like?

MORRIS: Well, many people whom I knew from when we fought in Cuba have confided to me that they'd have nightmares, and flashbacks. I knew this Private who would often faint from the sight of someone else's blood, as a result of a grenade attack that injured his shoulder. Unfortunately, approximately 5% of the servicemen who fought in both countries were exposed to chemical defoliants. Having read up the stories of how Vietnamese children were born in their deformed condition, many of them refused to get married and have children, for fear that the newborn babies would have the same kind of form.

INTERVIEWER: (sighs) I know that this has been a hard topic for you to cover, but I'm glad that you've stepped forward to tell us these things.

MORRIS: (laughs lightly) You could say that it was General Paul Van Riper himself who encouraged me to become the pillar for those soldiers whose trauma was larger than others. He knew what PTSD was like; he fought in Vietnam himself.

INTERVIEWER: Suicides have also become tragically common within the veterans of those conflicts, and in fact, a psychology essay published by incumbent Member of Parliament for LaSalle-Verdun Hélène David, had revealed that in 2004 alone, war trauma-related suicides was the largest cause of deaths in the United States, at the rate of 18%, with disease-related deaths being at second. It is also important that the war trauma-related suicides in the United States had coincided with the deadly Zambezi Flu pandemic that broke out in Namibia, but it has not infected the rest of the world at that time. Is the date accurate, Mr. Morris?

MORRIS: Unfortunately, it is true. At one point, I almost took my own life, but my mom and brother managed to snap me out of it by hugging me. It was truly terrifying. I still recall the vivid memory of the time I tried to save a wounded female Cuban soldier who was bleeding badly, before an artillery shell had knocked me sideways. By the time I got to that Cuban soldier, she was already dead.

INTERVIEWER: The issue of war trauma was one of the reasons why there was a bit more of a pushback against former President Jack Kemp's decision to intervene in the 2002-2004 Second Korean War. Yet, the US-Republic of Korea Defense Treaty was activated the moment the former North Korean naval vessels had ambushed the former South Korean warships, and this was only after it was admitted on live radio that it was the former South Korean Navy that fired the first shot, after almost getting hit by a North Korean warning shot. At what point did you decide to file a medical discharge from the Marine Corps?

MORRIS: Just before the 2002-2004 Second Korean War broke out, I reported to the military psychologist, and I told him about my mental condition. He advised me to not get involved in combat, and he helped me file the medical discharge papers. Luckily, my commander in Camp Pendleton had agreed to sign the discharge papers. In fact, he was busy signing those medical discharge papers because he wanted to stop a potential mutiny from breaking out in San Diego, like the incident in Puerto Rico during the war.

INTERVIEWER: If I may recall, one of the strongest critics of the war in Cuba and Nicaragua was former Governor Bill Clinton's wife, Hillary. In fact, it was because of her late husband's death that Hillary Clinton started her political career as a reform-minded Democrat, before leaving the Democratic Party to form the American Unity Party. It was clear by the beginning of the 21st century, the way former President Kemp has conducted those expansionist policies had alienated a good chunk of the American public. Did your activism played a role in it?

MORRIS: I wouldn't say that I played a direct role, but the effects of Jack Kemp's military adventurism had resulted in us being lumped with the likes of Wang Dongxing and Mykola Azarov. No minor nation had trusted the superpowers for a while, and it didn't help us that by 2006, with the sanctions on the Philippines lifted, the East Slavic Federation and China began to mend relations with each other. The election of Carol Moseley-Braun was a welcome change for us.

INTERVIEWER: Ms. Moseley-Braun's popularity only started to grow after she criticized the Kemp administration's failure in their intervention in Venezuela when Ramon Rodriguez Chacin won the civil war against the exiled Venezuelan President in Rafael Caldera. As you know by now, Kemp had won less electoral votes in 2000, than he did in 1996. Was it the rise of a new brand of activism the main cause?

MORRIS: Yeah. We have more of our soldiers coming home from Cuba and Nicaragua, and the deplorable condition in those nations had made them a bit more disillusioned. In any world dreamed by the neocons, the veterans would be viewed as domestic terrorists by any tyrannical government, because they saw first hand the effects of their government's aggression on those countries. I would say though, that these same veterans emerged as the backbone of not only the Libertarian Party, but some of them would vote for the American Unity Party, while a few disillusioned veterans were stupid enough to vote for the National Revival Party. Honestly, even after the end of Jack Kemp's second term, there were still support among the Republicans for their party. Honestly, if I hadn't spoke up on mental health issues facing the military, we wouldn't have played a key role in taking away some of the electoral votes from Jack Kemp in the 2000 election.

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HAVANA FALLS TO US FORCES AS ANTI-CASTRO REBELS CONTINUE TO TAKE CONTROL OF NEARBY TOWNS, CASTRO CONTINES TO GIVE RESISTANCE IN MOUNTAINS
Miami Herald
December 25, 1998

(Havana, US-OCCUPIED CUBA) - For the first time since the Cuban Revolution, the citizens of the Cuban capital have awoken to see their city fallen to US forces as they continue to mop up any resistance given to them by what remained of the Cuban military. Although Cuban pro-government militias have sprung up to commence guerrilla warfare, they are also distracted by rebel paramilitary forces who have come back to their homeland with only one thing in mind: revenge. In addition, the fall of the Cuban capital had galvanized the American people, as their Christmas will be something that they would tell their children and grandchildren for years to come, recalling tales of how the bastion of communism in the Americas had fallen to the might of the US military, redeeming themselves after years of humiliation at the hands of other left-wing forces that continue to operate in the region, with Nicaragua being the most notable.

"I cannot believe it. It looks like the end of Castro's dictatorship is coming, and we will be there when he receives the punishment he deserves!" yells a Cuban political dissident who was freed from a labor camp by anti-Castro rebel forces. "America, we thank you and President Jack Kemp for liberating us from the nightmare of communism!"

Elsewhere, other American troops have continued to take significant casualties, although large numbers of Cuban troops have started to surrender in droves when it became apparent that they were running low on food and other supplies. General Paul Van Riper, the US military's Supreme Commander of the Cuba invasion force, had authorized the construction of POW camps throughout the southern and western United States, with camps like Memphis, Mobile in Alabama, and Chattanooga among the most prominent. In contrast, Cuban government soldiers who surrendered to anti-Castro rebels were summarily shot, violating the Geneva Convention on the treatment of the POWs, something that General Van Riper has paid attention to.

"We have already arrested a dozen rebel paramilitary officers on charges of abusing POWs and other various human rights violations," reports Van Riper after he finished giving a briefing to President Kemp. "We intend to fully de-program the Cuban soldiers who spent years being indoctrinated with the communist ideology, and with the help of the Cuban exile community in Florida, we will help ensure their safe reintegration into what would become a capitalist society in a free and democratic Cuba."

Although the Kemp administration has expressed interest in building a new Cuban democratic government, they have acknowledged the faults and errors committed by the previous dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, which was one of the main reasons for the Cuban Revolution and the rise of another dictatorship, this time led by Fidel Castro. In his proposal, he would turn Cuba into a US territory, with the same rights and responsibilities that neighboring Puerto Rico had, and at the same time it would also create a plan for a proposed Caribbean Federation that will consist of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands, with a possible invitation given to the Dominican Republic for admission. The Kemp administration insists that a closer integration of the Caribbean region will also allow the US to exercise undue influence, and to crush any potential ascension of an anti-American rival in the Western Hemisphere.

"Although we have done a magnificent job in integrating Puerto Rico into the American system, there are still some deficiencies that have to be addressed. In addition, as a former US colony, Cuba could theoretically have been admitted into the Union, but external events had forced us to treat it as an ally," President Kemp said in his Christmas speech. "The establishment of a Caribbean Federation will not only increase trade and commerce between Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands, but they will also act as trapwires that will be triggered by any hostile outside power."

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"The War in Cuba and Nicaragua had ironically given the anti-American left-wing movements in Latin America a second chance at defending their revolution in a way that President Kemp did not anticipate. Venezuelan left-wing exiles, led by the future dictator of Venezuela named Ramon Rodriguez Chacin, had proven themselves to be more fanatical than their Cuban and Nicaraguan counterparts. However, Chacin was not sent to Cuba to fight the Americans, but rather in Nicaragua, where he saw first hand of American air power in ruthlessly destroying the Nicaraguan countryside. While many battle hardened men would rather surrender in the face of overwhelming brutality, Chacin had instead chose to watch as the US air force bombers continued to drop their payload, until he issued a general invitation for any Latin American revolutionary who wishes to continue their struggle to join him and his comrades in launching another revolution in Venezuela. To many Latin Americans, Fidel Castro had gradually been replaced by Ramon Rodriguez Chacin as the new revolutionary figure that they could rally around. In addition, Chacin had not only looked to Castro for his inspiration, but he also looked to Syria under Basel al-Assad for guidance. Between 1999 and 2001, Chacin and his followers would gradually create a revolutionary officer class that combined the many aspects of revolutionary socialism with pan-Hispanic nationalism in a sense that would have looked a lot like the early Ba'athist regimes of the 1960s. President Kemp however, paid attention to what was happening in Venezuela and even tried to use the CIA to find and install their own puppet military dictator to do their bidding. However, Chacin would emerge as the darker, left-wing alter ego of the Philippine dictator in Artemio Tadiar. Chacin did not hide his desire to not only revolutionize Venezuela, but to recreate the South American superstate once called Gran Colombia, or a super sized Colombian state. To this end, he would insert his agents into the notorious Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and to weed out the Maoists and other anti-nationalist elements within that movement, and transform it into the Colombian clone of the Venezuelan Social Nationalist Front. It was how the Gran Colombian Social Nationalist Front would emerge as the most dangerous enemy of the Kemp administration, and the one foe that President Kemp had failed to defeat, for the War in Cuba and Nicaragua had also resulted in the resurgence of anti-American sentiment in Latin America, though by now President Kemp did not care for the reactions of the Latin American population. He once boasted that 'Latin America can either be more than just banana republics, or become a devastated hell hole', and his words would come back to haunt him, as the 2000 Presidential election saw his popularity plummet, but he made up for it with increased votes from the middle class and the Asian American vote, which was dominated by Filipinos and Vietnamese." Felipe Andres Coronel, on the documentary "Chacin: The Revolutionary Icon Latin America Needed"

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"Fellow Americans, I have but one message that I will say tonight: we got him. At 1900 hours, Havana time, US Marines, accompanied by Cuban rebel forces and US special forces, have stormed the mountain holdout that was used by Fidel Castro and his followers. After only an hour and a half of fighting, we managed to neutralize Castro's guards before capturing him alive only after the rebel paramilitary member had seized the poison he held in case he was captured. Now that we have captured the infamous Fidel Castro, we have arrested him for various war crimes and crimes against humanity. I will, as promised, send Fidel Castro and the other members of his government to the Hague, to be placed on trial for those charges. I assure you, fellow Americans, and allies of human freedom, we will not rest, until we wipe off every single trace of revolutionary left-wing attitudes from the Americas, to never again appear as a threat to American democracy, freedom, and the rule of law. However, you may ask me, what is at stake here? Cuba and Nicaragua are more than just two nations. It is a grand idea: a new world order will come to this planet, and we will build that new world order. Where regional blocs consisting of sovereign nations work together for the cause of peace, and where the rule of law will prevail, instead of the rule of the jungle. We shall be successful in this endeavor, for the idea of the new world order is not just a lofty dream: it is a goal in which all nations must endeavor themselves to. In this new world order, there will be many regional leaders, but one single collective leadership. There shall be no world policeman to carry the burden of the world's problems, but a collection of nations willing to accept and share the burden that America bears. This, I promise you, will succeed." Jack Kemp's 'New World Order Speech in Congress', January 6, 1999.

True, and keep in mind that this might have been more sensible, if that happened in 1898 instead of TTL’s 1998. However, Kemp is not in a mood to listen to the Cubans now under American occupation, seeing them as responsible for Bill Clinton’s murder ITTL. Nicaragua on the other hand, might end up worse than Cambodia and Vietnam after the Vietnam War.