Recent content by Asp

As for the OP's original question, it seems impossible that the USSR could have done this, because as a middle income country they would not have had comparative advantage in the sort of labor-intensive, low-skilled industries that Communist countries like Vietnam and China were able to excel...

The idea that Stalin and his obsessive focus on heavy industry and military buildup at the expense of everything else saved the USSR is something that you hear sometimes, especially in the former USSR. It's false, and it's also really problematic IMO because it can be taken as justifying the...

I don't see that happening, even today Massachusetts is FAR more blue than California. Every single county in recent elections has voted for the Democrat in the past couple elections by a minimum of ten plus points. This is one of those things that people assume is inevitable IMO that really...

Dang it, what a typo lol

Other effects on California—it took until 2000 for the Democrats to get enough support to pass major hun control IOTL, that isn’t likely to happen here. If Pete Wilson doesn’t get elected, the energy de-regulation and chain of events that led to Enron and the recall election might be butterflied.

There are obviously overriding factors that would keep that from happening, but it would definitely prevent the CA GOP from being seen as first and foremost anti-immigrant with Hispanic voters, who in a lot of ways are kind of predisposed to be Republicans (heavily religious, patriotic, socially...

This is an interesting and under-talked about POD on ah.com in my opinion. So for anyone who doesn't know, in 1990 Senator Pete Wilson (R) and former San Francisco mayor Dianne Feinstein (D) faced off for the governorship of California. It was a barnburner, and Pete Wilson ended up edging out...

The biggest change to the U.S.’s throw weight would be that the F-22 would get a full production run, and something like an F-22B might become reality. There might also be enough money to properly fill the mission requirements for which the LCS was intended. I was actually just about to...

Pretty much sums it up.

The politics are significant enough that Chiang might send an expeditionary force like he did to Burma , although given that he’ll probably be worried about the Soviets taking those areas also maybe not. The vast majority of supplies, dwarfing anything sent via road, would be through the...

Yeah that’s definitely true. You raise a good point about how Chiang might not want to use his troops that way, although then again if the war in China is going way better because of years of U.S. aid, he might have things with Mao pretty well in hand. I completely agree. Another big reason...

Agreed. Why on Earth would you spike it with that instead of, say, cyanide?

I was super busy with finals, so I’m just getting back to this now. I would be very surprised if these things didn’t happen. Even with ROC forces wrecked from seven years of fighting and almost completely cut off from WAllied aid, Ichi-Go barely worked. The Japanese lost 20% of their force...

Another fact that adds more flavor to the story is that in real life, Stalin’s former personal doctor was literally sent to the gulag in 1951 for recommending that he work less and rest more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-death-stalin-180965119/ None of them were the...

I mean I don’t strictly disagree, they wanted them IOTL but quite logically decided it wasn’t worth risking WWIII for them. Since they’re invading here, though, it’s clear that they decided IATL that it was worth the risk. I can’t see any other motivation for them to do this, though it’s your...