Quote:BTW: I wouldn't ask, except we're underway so I can't DL the eBook... Any idea who the President/Prophet of the LDS Church is? If it's not known, then I'll just supply a suitably militant version of the one from our world during that time frame.
Oof, that's a tough question. Turtledove doesn't name an official President, since up until 1937 the LDS had been declared an illegal organization by the military administrators of Utah. During the occupation era the de facto head of the LDS was Heber Young, a (fictional, I think) great-grandson of Brigham and probably the only moderate Mormon left in the entire state. Once Utah reverts to statehood he's elected governor, but as far as the ban on the LDS I don't know if it was lifted (probably, all things considered) or if the reconstituted church elected Young to the office of President (possibly, but maybe not; Utah at this point is filled with radicals).
And then once the next war starts, they start throwing stuff like car bombs and suicide bombers around in addition to the usual insurgent tactics. Mormon suicide bombers. Yeah. Turtledove was kinda reaching here a bit, but... *shrug* when you make the kind of bank he does I guess nobody can tell you no.
To: Benjamin Rhodes (blackrider@roughriders.fen)
From: General Fnord (fnord@sovietairforce.fen)
Date: November 24, 2016
Subj: Re: Your mission, should you choose to accept it
> If it's that bad then they definitely don't want to relocate - too
> much blood spilt for that land for them to just up and leave. Think
> we can grant them total protection from either side? I know it may
> not be a good idea, but I may be able to get them to sign a
> non-aggression pact if we can give them that much. And if they're not
> the ones throwing the punches we might just get the USA and CSA guys
> to leave 'em the hell alone.
I think we can convince them to stay the hell out of the fight in exchange for a guarantee to put pressure on the US to leave them alone. Maybe. They've been spoiling for this fight just as long and just as much as the Confederates have; it's just that much more doomed from the start since all the Mormons have is Utah. Either way, it's a cost in bloodshed on both sides I'd like to see minimized or even eliminated before Featherston starts his war.
Abandoning Utah in favor of, say, Juno should be our preferred gambit here. The Temple's a sticking point, but we ought to be able to Grover's Corners that if we need to. It won't be an *easy* sell, but the opportunity to build a New Deseret out far beyond any American influence might be enough for them to abandon the Confederates & pull up stakes.
--Mal
***
From: General Fnord (fnord@sovietairforce.fen)
To: Bob Schroeck (rms@ourtown.fen)
Date: November 24, 2016
Subj: Information Needed - Urgent
Bob:
If you have it available, we need a HOWTO file on how you guys managed to put together the Corners. Procedures, methods, amount of handwavium necessary, etc. We might need it for Contingency Case TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT.
If it's available, package it up and hand it off to Benjamin *after* he's completed the diplomatic mission to Richmond. He'll be needing it for his next assignment.
--Fnord
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
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