Yes, Cambodia is the hard part. Their issues with Vietnam would make an Indochinese Union rather difficult. Though, what do you mean by “stop gap”? My apologies but I just woke up and my brains fuzzy
A Red Shrimp Among Whales-a North Korean Victory TL
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I think once the UN/Western power realizes they can't win Indochina trying to empower and forge Cambodia into a stop gap buffer zone to protect Thailand and further Asian expansion will be attempted.
Granted I'm not sure it will work but ''feeding'' bits of Vietnam to them they lost would mean their stronger and ensure Communist Vietnam will be there enemy for decades.
Okay yes, makes sense. I could totally see this. The protection of the Thai border would be mandatory, and their ties with the US will certainly be even greater than they already were OTL.
Great to see you back. And your writing is looking as great as ever.
The Western Allies, and by extension the UN, defending outright colonialism is going to be quite a bad look for them, but I can certainly see why they would with all the paranoia about Communism. In OTL, one of the unexpected side effects of the establishment of the United Nations was that it became a vehicle for decolonization, by giving the newly independent countries a voice. I wonder how that would turn out here.
The Western Allies, and by extension the UN, defending outright colonialism is going to be quite a bad look for them, but I can certainly see why they would with all the paranoia about Communism. In OTL, one of the unexpected side effects of the establishment of the United Nations was that it became a vehicle for decolonization, by giving the newly independent countries a voice. I wonder how that would turn out here.
thinking about it I think this scenario makes a Molotov-led USSR post-stalin more likely. With a larger scale indochina war Molotov is going to be busy and his role is going to be much larger than OTL. I could see Stalin being satisfied with the way things are going causing Molotov and Mikoyan to not fall out of favor like they did in real life. This will no doubt lead to a hotter Cold War and someone with foreign expertise as leader will become essential post stalin which is why I think he’d take the lead while sharing power with Mikoyan and Malenkov
Hmmm, interesting idea! I hadn’t even thought about Molotov during all of this. I’ll keep this in mind, a Molotov led USSR would definitely be quite fascinating. The problem is-Joe is already dead. Could Molotov be able to rebound in a post-Stalin USSR?
Wait a minute if Stalin is dead I need to reread the timeline because the year he dies is crucial. If he’s dead pre-1950 then Molotov is the defacto leader at the ussr.
We are in April 1953. I had Stalin die on time, in March 53…… saw no real reason he’d live any longer. Don’t feel bad if you’ve forgotten anything-my writing and research could be sloppy in the earlier chapters, I’ve improved significantly on both as this went on.
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The indochina war happening while Kruschev is ruling changes a shit ton. Kruschev is going to be much more heavy handed with his support to the Vietnamese than Stalin was with North Korea in the Korean War. The viet cong would get as much support possible barring Soviet troops on the ground, no doubt Kruschev would use it as an opportunity to strengthen his power
Yeah, I already had this idea. Kruschev will see Indochina as a major opportunity to show his power off, as losing Indochina would be a major blow to his much needed early image. Plus, with ultimate communist victory in Asia seemingly being inevitable at this point, he’ll want the nations to be friendly towards them. Especially with the rising tensions with China.
thinking on it the issue is that in real life Kruschev doesn’t get to full power until 1956 since he was basically sharing power with Molotov. Beria got ousted in 1953 because Molotov essentially co-signs his ouster because Beria was seen as too soft on foreign policy particularly in Eastern Europe. Beria wasn’t ousted till July of 1953. You could right that Beria for the first couple months being reluctant to help the viet cong leads to his ouster but it would lead to Molotov being the de-facto ruler with Kruschev being the main foreign policy guy and Mikoyan being Molotov’s chief advisor.
Edit: this is my guess as how things would go.
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Thanks for the info. I’ll need to do more research on the post-Stalin struggle for power, i remember I had a chapter planned for it but I scrapped it for….. some reason.
The post-Stalin succession battle years was a bit of a mess lol. But I think with this indochina war happening while Stalin is dying and Beria the current leader (when the war starts) being seen as weak on foreign policy the politburo is going to be way more comfortable with Molotov than Kruschev at the top of the food chain.
I’m curious to see if you have any butterflies for the Iran and the Middle East
I have plans. Won’t spoil them, though I will tell you the 1953 coup in Iran will still happen. But it’s effects may be a bit different.
(I was asleep when you replied but whatever)
I honestly think Cambodia will be hated by all of South Asian countries except for Thailand and Pro-Western countries, Indonesia will be Pro-Soviets since the U.S supports the Netherlands so they can have control over what's left of non-communist countries in Asia, but once they get their freedom (don't know when) they will hate the West and may or may not trade anything with them for a while...