We were a little perplexed when we found a full-blown peace movement rolling through San Francisco in the 1990s. Being cultural anthropologists, we avoided the temptation of easy drugs and easier women and did a little digging into the annals of history.
During World War II, the United States lost the Battle of the Coral Sea and Japan invaded Australia. After Germany’s surrender, the Russians liberated North Australia and defeated the Japanese while the Americans liberated South Australia. While the United States rebuilt their portion of Australia a la West Germany on Earth Prime, the Soviet Union decided to remain in North Australia and peddle their filthy communist nonsense.
The trouble started again when Communist North Australia attacked Democratic South Australia. U.S. President Oliver North joined the war unofficially to prevent the fall of South Australia. It’s unknown what strategic placement South Australia had to provoke animosity on the part of the U.S., although if this is anything like the Vietnam War here on Earth Prime, you can bet the President manufactured some Gulf of Tonkin incident to propel American forces in to protect our interests.