why turn to alternate history when actual history works just fine?

His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.

https://phdn.org/archives/www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/documents/osssection3pt1.htm