DBWI: No World War III!
- Thread starter Pericles
- Start date
Easy, just don't have the Kennedys cheat their way into the White House.
The same gangster mentality which they used against Nixon they tried against the Soviets with the disasterous consequences that we know.
Nixon knew how to deal with the Soviets.
The same gangster mentality which they used against Nixon they tried against the Soviets with the disasterous consequences that we know.
Nixon knew how to deal with the Soviets.
Perhaps typewriters and international mail delivery would be obsolete. I was just thinking about such mass communication possibilities the other day in fact.
We will never know. His death in 1964 from radiation sickness was a very sad day.
For a start, I'd probably be writing this on some sort of advanced electronic device that provides almost instantaneous communication though some sort of global data network, instead of endlessly writing these missives in response to figments of my fractured imagination, driven insane by the horrors of the post-apocalyptic nightmare in which we exist.
You write with paper still? I am writing to the dead man next to me with charcoal on wood. At least i think it's charcoal....
birdboy2000
Banned
OOC: A 1980s PoD based on Able Archer and we might still have an internet to discuss the post-apocalyptic future on. 
Have Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK before the crisis? He always brags how he could have killed him to save the world. Still, it's likely just his Red America propaganda, as he was only a 23 years old and Red America hadn't been found back then, it's very unlikely for a known defector to even get a gun and outright impossible for him to be able to approach the American president while carrying a gun.
Another plausible case is that he was indeed a Soviet spy contrary to what he has been denying in almost every speech. But in this case he and his Soviet friends would have to cover his tracks else the war would just start sooner.
Another plausible case is that he was indeed a Soviet spy contrary to what he has been denying in almost every speech. But in this case he and his Soviet friends would have to cover his tracks else the war would just start sooner.
Perhaps if Ambassador Joseph Kennedy hadn't been so tight with the Nazis the "discovered" MEMCON from that last Kennedy-Ribbentrop meeting would have been dismissed out of hand and would not have garnered such Soviet suspicions.
I think they were forgeries. But JFK's "calm down, that was a long time ago" was not the response that Khrushchev was looking for. Besides, subsequent access to Ambassador Kennedy's Day Planner put him nowhere near the Eastern Front, watching the executions, and holding that glass of wine. It was not the first time photos had been faked and it won't be the last.
Too bad all that came out after Atomic Tuesday.
I think they were forgeries. But JFK's "calm down, that was a long time ago" was not the response that Khrushchev was looking for. Besides, subsequent access to Ambassador Kennedy's Day Planner put him nowhere near the Eastern Front, watching the executions, and holding that glass of wine. It was not the first time photos had been faked and it won't be the last.
Too bad all that came out after Atomic Tuesday.
The Centrality of WW3 to the last half of the 21st century makes this very difficult to determine. We live in a second industrial era, a reconstruction of this country and the devastated former Canada*, as well as trying to healing damage caused by heavy damage to American cities, the near collapse of Western Europe and the creation of the Great European Forest**
The issues of those times seem so remote to us. In those fires of national reconstruction, who would refuse the help of highly motivated Blacks, Native Americans or Asians? Hunger and privation were the common threat, that racial stupidity was a luxury we couldn't afford. People debated the role of government in society and espoused a deregulated libertarian utopia that is no longer possible--without the Cabinet Department of National Reconstruction, government rationing, government jobs and government projects would be TINY compared to today.
We'd be less religious. In those dark days, churches of all stripes joined in a massive humanitarian effort to save as many people from radiation, hunger and despair as they could. There would be no great religious revival in the 1970s.
We'd be wealthier, no doubts. The computer is finally emerging as a household item; Oil would be purchasable without a ration card and public aviation might be mainstream.
The Cultural effects would be harder to describe. Without WWIII, Women would still be expected to stay at home and raise children as opposed to the post-war system that required them to work. Female Laborers, Soldiers, Sailors and Miners were all very rare prewar; the aftermath required them to serve in these roles.
Buildings of the 60s and 70s reflect either a temporary shelter turned permanent residence look or a survivalist "ready for the world" style quasi-fortification. Even to this day, those few glass and steel skyscrapers seem to harken to a different day; a time of many more people***, where vast expenses were worthwhile in an urban center and before it was well understood that it as a complete deathtrap in a nuclear war.
Even more recent designs are squat, solid and largely present stone faces to the world; an improvement over enlarged bunkers but still echoing the fear of more nuclear weapons.
I think the hardest blow, though, is that it could all have be prevented. I was born twenty years after the war began; it was just a large playground with very interesting stuff still around. My Parents were small children when it happened, and they barely remember much more than being terrified in a small shelter. But the Grandparents--so much pain in their eyes and hearts. That they'd had something and lost it; and not just them, but the hundreds of millions of people after it ended.
For myself, I don't know how I'd be different. There would probably not be a female electrician (the same trade as my own) I'd marry. Her story, a daughter of two human French Emigrants leaving their ancestral home to make a hard living as farmers, would be out the window. Maybe I'd have attended one of those universities--but theoretical knowledge is still less of a priority and our country needs workers, not dreamers. But I'm happy, I work hard and make a decent living, and we're long past the worst.
BM's Calculations:
*Well within range of Soviet Bombers, Canada would suffer quite badly from a Soviet nuclear barrage. I'm thinking they're so badly off that they've outright fallen into the status of a US Protectorate.
**Losses in Eastern Europe are so heavy that the region reverts to nature. Although tens of millions survive the initial hit, the destruction of food supply, at least a short term hard freeze, starvation and massive fire, as well as lingering radiation dangers. Fifty Years later, Eastern Europe is dungeon country--too few people, too many ruins.
***Does population boom in the aftermath? No--Women are required to work for the difficult duties of national reconstruction, which reduces the number of children they have. The United States takes in many Canadians and Western Europeans, but the losses of many metropolitan areas leave them tens of millions behind. The Pill predates the PoD, and if women are desperately needed to work in 1962-5, they can't afford to become pregnant either.
Paper? What's that? I'm using a rusty pairing knife to scratch this in to the skin of this corpse that I found in the petrified forest last night. When I'm finished I'll pop the corpse in to the river and send it downstream, hopefully someone will read it.
Dirk_Pitt
Banned
Sorry to hear that, but you're not missing anything. Even in the least hit areas the sky is still a dull grayish brown with the sun hidden by a semi thick haze.
Anyway, my family was relatively lucky to be in the least hit midwest*. I'm better off than most. Both my parents are in the military(Dad's in the Navy; Mom's the Army), so my family gets priority rations and I'll most likely join the military as well. I'm thinking the air force, the only people that get to see the blue sky and the sun. I envy them so much!
OOC: *I'm assuming the Soviets didn't have the range to hit the Midwest?
Fortunately the US Counterstrike did eradicate the communist countries from earth while the Western European States managhed to survive almost without damage. (OK London and paris are now only a distant memory).
I shudder at the thought of an US dominated Europe - the years between 1945 and thebigbang were bad enough.
Well there might not be a world encompassing electronic data net - as some scientist say would exist, but the Euronet is coming close.
I wounder if Red China would be a dominating power if it would not have to constantly war with the Indian Commonwealth. I have heared that most Chuinese line division now use the Crossbow as main weapon while the use of automatic weapons is reserved for elite units. That gives the indians a definite edge now in technology. - I hope that the technology embargo holds for a few more decades, until we finally can suppress the African anti colonial movements. Those Africans multiply despite our best efforts.
I shudder at the thought of an US dominated Europe - the years between 1945 and thebigbang were bad enough.
Well there might not be a world encompassing electronic data net - as some scientist say would exist, but the Euronet is coming close.
I wounder if Red China would be a dominating power if it would not have to constantly war with the Indian Commonwealth. I have heared that most Chuinese line division now use the Crossbow as main weapon while the use of automatic weapons is reserved for elite units. That gives the indians a definite edge now in technology.
- I hope that the technology embargo holds for a few more decades, until we finally can suppress the African anti colonial movements. Those Africans multiply despite our best efforts.