Icarus Falls (An Alternate 1960s)
- Thread starter AnywhereButOTL
- Start date
Smart play by Spain.
Testing the weapon in Western Sahara, in the French style, would have been a disastrous idea: the last thing Spain wants is to turn the low-level Polisario conflict into a full blown one, with an alliance with the jihadists to the south as a result.
So, ITTL, the Vela Incident is Spain's doing.
Wow. I really wasn't expecting that. Well done!
If we were not talking alternate history, I could almost buy this as a conspiracy theory in OTL.
Of course, that any Spanish government could ever keep that secret for two weeks, let alone 40 years... now that's unbelievable.
Which brings the question:
How long can Spain keep this secret?
Luckily for them, the CIA seems to be looking at the wrong place.
The gas cooled reactor referred, Vandellós, was built in cooperation with the French... so surely, the French SDECE knows what's going on.
Which means the KGB has decent chance to know as well. Although they probably have a severe funding problem and more pressing things they need to know about.
The Mossad knows, for sure. They won't be telling though.
I find it deliciously ironic that given Franco's insistence that all the evils of Spain can be squarely blamed on a Jewish-Masonic-Communist conspiracy, would have their secrets known first by the French (a lot of whom would happen to be Masons), the KGB and the Mossad.
The sand in Franco's clock is running out.
The old war wound from the Rif campaign, that was never treated properly, is bound to bring him down to the grave soon anyway.
And when that happens, the Moroccans might try moving south as in OTL (even if Mauritania is in no condition to do so now).
However, if that happens and panic hits, instead of a hurried flight, the Green March could lead to a midnight sun.
In any case: this is great stuff. You keep beating my expectations, and they are high.
Thank you. Many, many times.
Testing the weapon in Western Sahara, in the French style, would have been a disastrous idea: the last thing Spain wants is to turn the low-level Polisario conflict into a full blown one, with an alliance with the jihadists to the south as a result.
So, ITTL, the Vela Incident is Spain's doing.
Wow. I really wasn't expecting that. Well done!
If we were not talking alternate history, I could almost buy this as a conspiracy theory in OTL.
Of course, that any Spanish government could ever keep that secret for two weeks, let alone 40 years... now that's unbelievable.
Which brings the question:
How long can Spain keep this secret?
Luckily for them, the CIA seems to be looking at the wrong place.
The gas cooled reactor referred, Vandellós, was built in cooperation with the French... so surely, the French SDECE knows what's going on.
Which means the KGB has decent chance to know as well. Although they probably have a severe funding problem and more pressing things they need to know about.
The Mossad knows, for sure. They won't be telling though.
I find it deliciously ironic that given Franco's insistence that all the evils of Spain can be squarely blamed on a Jewish-Masonic-Communist conspiracy, would have their secrets known first by the French (a lot of whom would happen to be Masons), the KGB and the Mossad.
The sand in Franco's clock is running out.
The old war wound from the Rif campaign, that was never treated properly, is bound to bring him down to the grave soon anyway.
And when that happens, the Moroccans might try moving south as in OTL (even if Mauritania is in no condition to do so now).
However, if that happens and panic hits, instead of a hurried flight, the Green March could lead to a midnight sun.
In any case: this is great stuff. You keep beating my expectations, and they are high.
Thank you. Many, many times.
The way the US has been expanding its space operations so incredibly aggressively ITTL makes me seriously worried about the orbital debris that's inevitably being created, whether from the failed launches that nobody is paying much attention to (both from the failure rate being inevitably higher from the aggressive push and the higher number of them), or the larger number of satellites and rocket stage bodies in orbits, especially large projects that may have had corners cut on shielding compared to what we're used to today (people didn't take space debris very seriously IOTL until Kessler's seminal work in the late 70s/early 80s.) Explosions and failures in the Delta rocket system (heavily used during this time period) are in fact one of the greatest contributors to space debris IOTL. And the profusion of large weapons platforms in space means that the failure of a single one could easily start a slow orbital cascade.
Mind you, this isn't going to be relevant in this TL's near future anytime soon; I'd expect the much larger issues (and potential Kessler cascade) to have a timescale of decades.
Mind you, this isn't going to be relevant in this TL's near future anytime soon; I'd expect the much larger issues (and potential Kessler cascade) to have a timescale of decades.
The Sequel Has Begun
Over the past two weeks I have finished my initial round of edits, clearing away confusions, sequential errors and all sorts of other stuff. Now that that is done with I can start with the sequel, as I have been wanting to do for a while. It can be found here
Over the past two weeks I have finished my initial round of edits, clearing away confusions, sequential errors and all sorts of other stuff. Now that that is done with I can start with the sequel, as I have been wanting to do for a while. It can be found here
Oh yeah, that. That was one of the many, many, maaaaaaaaany errors I fixed while doing rewrites. I really wish that I could go back and edit posts that are more than a month old because I would go back and fix that stuff. But unfortunately, I cannot, so the errors remain. I'll probably have to place the rewritten timeline in Finished Timelines at some point so that the people don't have to read the original timeline in all of its poorly written, implausible glory.
Asami
Banned
This TL got really hard to read after the nuclear wars, man. I never finished it, I trailed off b/c it was so hard to read.
Hard to read in terms of quality of writing or subject matter? I'd be happy to rewrite it further and re-upload it if my style of writing is difficult to comprehend.
Asami
Banned
Hard to read in terms of the subject. It was painful to see how bloody bad America was, even with a nicer space program. You should do a rewrite anyway, as a way to give it a final touch-up to correct any anachronisms and stuff like that.
Well, mission accomplished then. The story took many forms as I wrote it. When I started it out I was trying to figure out how to get LBJ a second term, then the 1968 coin flip determined that Reagan won so I decided to fire up my (not so subtle) commentary on why police militarization and mass surveillance are bad. Then I just picked it up and ran with it. Sorry that it was too dark for you, I guess nine hundred odd pages of ever increasing grimness with almost no feel good additions has that effect.
You should do a rewrite anyway, as a way to give it a final touch-up to correct any anachronisms and stuff like that.
I'm going to put up a download for a PDF once I finish tweaking it and determine that I'm happy with the final result. I've sent rewritten but still not perfect drafts off to some people but Icarus Falls is still not entirely finished as of right now.
Asami
Banned
I eagerly await your concluded and refined product. This is a really good timeline, It's something I wish I could write, considering all of my TLs have been half-assed or horribly inaccurate/borderline ASB, while you seem to have a brilliant TL!
I did like it though. Makes me appreciate Richard Nixon a bit more, even though I really dislike him.
Don't be so hard on yourself, I'm sure that you've got that spark of literary brilliance within you. Most everyone has it, how deeply it's buried is the only difference.
I did like it though. Makes me appreciate Richard Nixon a bit more, even though I really dislike him.
Thank you. Nixon is my favorite 'bad' President, and perhaps it shows through my writing.
I regret making the Reagan/Wallace pairing simply because it was ASB (though I have had no shortage of people ask me to keep it in the final draft for whatever reason), but aside from that I don't regret much of anything besides maybe being too easy on the space program.
I have to agree with Nixon being the best 'bad' President. I hate his social policy, I hate the way he played on white fears to win the election, and I hate his blatant poor personality traits (paranoia being the biggest), but goddammit I can't help but respect the guy, even if I do like him. The Republican ('modern' Republican, that is) I like the most is definitely Ford.
ThePest179
Banned
Just finished this TL. IT was God damn glorious.
I had a few issues though, specifically with Vietnam, the Second Russian Civil War, and... well I think that's it really. With Vietnam, I have my own headcannon that everything went as it did OTL, with the exception of Nixon's fall (obviously) and the assassination attempt on RFK. So Reagan still gets in the WH with Wallace as his running mate (which I actually thought could work if Red-baiting got out of control and with a little hand waving) and Reagan's war plan in Vietnam is a "total war" strategy (expanding strategic bombing by bombing the dams, dikes, civilian infrastructure, and bombing North Vietnam's cities Dresden style). After the Sino-Soviet exchange, North Vietnam gets invaded, and uses a lose Chinese nuke as a mine outside Hanoi, but still fall anyway.
As for the Second Russian Civil War, I pondered whether or not it was possible, but accepted it nonetheless.
All in all, great TL, going to read the sequel soon.
I had a few issues though, specifically with Vietnam, the Second Russian Civil War, and... well I think that's it really. With Vietnam, I have my own headcannon that everything went as it did OTL, with the exception of Nixon's fall (obviously) and the assassination attempt on RFK. So Reagan still gets in the WH with Wallace as his running mate (which I actually thought could work if Red-baiting got out of control and with a little hand waving) and Reagan's war plan in Vietnam is a "total war" strategy (expanding strategic bombing by bombing the dams, dikes, civilian infrastructure, and bombing North Vietnam's cities Dresden style). After the Sino-Soviet exchange, North Vietnam gets invaded, and uses a lose Chinese nuke as a mine outside Hanoi, but still fall anyway.
As for the Second Russian Civil War, I pondered whether or not it was possible, but accepted it nonetheless.
All in all, great TL, going to read the sequel soon.
Just finished this TL. IT was God damn glorious.
I had a few issues though, specifically with Vietnam, the Second Russian Civil War, and... well I think that's it really. With Vietnam, I have my own headcannon that everything went as it did OTL, with the exception of Nixon's fall (obviously) and the assassination attempt on RFK. So Reagan still gets in the WH with Wallace as his running mate (which I actually thought could work if Red-baiting got out of control and with a little hand waving) and Reagan's war plan in Vietnam is a "total war" strategy (expanding strategic bombing by bombing the dams, dikes, civilian infrastructure, and bombing North Vietnam's cities Dresden style). After the Sino-Soviet exchange, North Vietnam gets invaded, and uses a lose Chinese nuke as a mine outside Hanoi, but still fall anyway.
As for the Second Russian Civil War, I pondered whether or not it was possible, but accepted it nonetheless.
All in all, great TL, going to read the sequel soon.
Thank you very much, I'm glad to hear that you liked it. I did make some pretty extreme decisions regarding what did and didn't happen but I'm glad that it all mostly held up and I didn't strain your suspension of disbelief too badly.
Have fun with the sequel.