The premise is this: a P.O.D. in the 1920s leads to a rather troublesome (but not ultimately apocalyptic) Third World War. Rather than write this in timeline format, or even in simple prose, this is going to be presented, little by little, in the form of speeches, essays, newspapers, etc. I will try to write this in a way that will keep you guessing about both what happened in the war itself
and how the nations of the world ended up at each others' throats in the first place. I expect blatant speculation, and I hope no one correctly guesses what happened right away.
Here's the first installment:
Lecture by Dustin McMurray, Professor of Modern History at the University of Phoenix, 7 May 2025
"The Third World War and its Causes, Course, and Consequences"
In just a year's time, those born after the terrors of the Third World War will enter adulthood. These young men and women will not have experienced firsthand that which their parents and grandparents have. They will not have heard the first news reports of the fall of Vera Cruz. They will not have watched embedded journalists issue their reports of the landings on Formosa. They will not have been saddened every time another country entered the fray, every time a new theater of war opened up, every time thousands of more lives somewhere in the world were committed to the fight that never seemed to end. They will not have constantly felt deep down inside as if their nation was on the wrong side of the conflict. They will not have been sickened and horrified by the actions of their enemies, of their allies, and of their own country. They will never have the opportunity to personally see the White House, the Statue of Liberty, the Golden Gate Bridge, Christ the Redeemer, Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, the Kremlin, the Hagia Sophia, or countless other great structures which were snuffed out by the war…