1948: A Soviet Aircraft crashes into an American Aircraft during the Berlin Airlift. Curtis LeMay's idea of sending a military convoy to Berlin and daring the Soviets to Fire on them goes forward--and gets fired upon.
The Soviets suffer Withering Nuclear Attack against their armed forces in Central Europe, as well as hits to Moscow, Leningrad and other cities, in desperation the Politburo kills Stalin, and is forced out of Eastern Europe ala-Brest-Litovsk, while similar losses are inflicted against the ChiComs in the Far East and against North Korea.
The Soviet Union is in no position to challenge American Might, Cold War over by 1950.
The convoy wasn't LeMay's idea, the convoy was General Lucius Clay's idea.
LeMay's only part in it was to fly air cover in the event of the convoy taking fire, something even LeMay didn't figure the Soviets would do.
LeMay and Bradley had it figured out, the Soviets wouldn't need to fire on the convoy to stop it; they could simply close a road in front of it, raise drawbridge behind it and then where would the convoy be?