Richmond Agreement

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The Richmond Agreement was a fictional analog to the Munich Agreement of 1938 between Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler. It appears in author Harry Turtledove's American Empire trilogy. The two signatories of this June 1940 agreement were US President Al Smith and CS President Jake Featherston, and the territories in question were the former Confederate states of Houston (west Texas), Kentucky, and Sequoyah (Oklahoma).

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Summary of Agreement

For years the Freedom Party had campaigned for the return of these three states to CSA rule, using methods of terrorism and rioting to undermine local authorities and sicken the mainstream US population, while using proto-Freedom parties elected by the citizens to the US Congress to annoy the US government into agreeing to Confederate demands. Smith finally agreed to talk to Featherston and met him inside the executive mansion in Richmond; this was the first time in the history of the two nations that sitting Presidents met. Provided that he won the November 1940 election before doing anything, Smith agreed to hold the plebiscites as long as Featherston promised to:

  • Quit asking for more territory.
  • Allow the blacks in each state to vote on how their future will turn out. (Featherston turned pale at hearing this, but swallowed his pride.)
  • Leave demilitarized for 25 years any state that returns to the Confederacy.

[edit] Outcome

Smith returned to Washington and was declared the candidate who "kept us out of war." After defeating Robert Taft in November, Smith held the plebiscites on January 7, 1941. Kentucky and western Texas voted to return to the CSA, the former too close for Featherston's taste, and Sequoyah remained in the Union.

Barely a month later (and well before 25 years were up), Jake Featherston ordered elements of the Confederate Army to occupy positions along the Ohio River, thus violating the third tenet of the Agreement. Al Smith realized who he was dealing with, and sealed the border with the Confederacy in protest. The US Army was mobilized, and Smith refused to deal with Featherston on any matter - thus pushing the Confederate president toward a more drastic solution: war, which had been his ultimate goal all along. On June 22, 1941, Featherston launched Operation Blackbeard, a surprise attack on the United States.

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