In this timeline, Leon Trotsky is left as Lenin's heir, but Hitler's rise in postwar Germany commences with the same rapidity as in the real world. When World War II in Europe begins, only grudgingly does Steele commit to help Winston Churchill and Trotsky with the Lend Lease Act. When Japan attacks Pearl Harbor in 1941, Steele sets up tribunals to demand answers from commanders General Short and Admiral Kimmel, and has them executed for incompetence. When the Philippines suffers much the same fate, Douglas MacArthur is evacuated to Australia and then the United States, whereupon he is additionally charged with incompetence. Furious, MacArthur denies all allegations, but submits to execution to spare his family.