Ah challenge: Sweden and Austria in NATO during the Cold War

General Zod

Banned
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find a way to have both Sweden and Austria enter the NATO preferably by the time West Germany becomes a member, or soon afterwards. You are allowed to keep Austria and Vienna permanently divided in Western and Soviet political entities and sectors until 1989, and only have the Western political entity join NATO.
 
OK.

PoD: Germany invades Sweden along with Norway in 1940. Germany fights a more effective war in the Eastern Front, lasting until 1946 when the United States smashes the Germany Wehrmacht with tactical nukes. Europe is divided with half of Poland, the Baltic States and Romania, as well as Manchuria in the Soviet Sphere of influence, while the allies create "Austria" and "Federal Republic of Poland".

This results in a cold war as Stalin attempts to grab more territory in Eastern Europe, forcing Finland into his sphere of influence and turning it into a Communist Vassal. Sweden is therefore eager to join NATO, as is Austria. There you have it.
 
I still don't understand why Austria wasn't a member of NATO IOTL.
It was one of the conditions for the unification of Austria. Originally it was split between Allied and Soviet spheres of influence, just like Germany, but the Russians pulled out 1955, on the condition that the united Austria would become "permanently neutral".

To get Austria all you need is a more successful Allied advance, occupying all of Austria and avoiding what happened above. Sweden is harder, as they had maintained neutrality for a long time. It would need to believe it was under a direct threat from the Soviets, possibly something to do with a Soviet occupation of Finland and/or Norway?
 
I still don't understand why Austria wasn't a member of NATO IOTL.
For this we need `separeted Austria-Soviet Union didnt take out eAst austria its forces, maybe? One part is in NATO, another-in WP:D
 

General Zod

Banned
Just for reference, these were the occupation zones of Austria during 1945-1955, in case we need to set up the Federal Republic of Austria and the People's Republic of Austria. Or would the Western sections of Austria just petition for union with West Germany ? This would still fufill the criteria of the challenge (Austria must be in the NATO, even if not necessarily as a separate country).

Austria_1945-55.png
 
having the allies advance just a little bit farther in April and May of 1945 will do the trick for Austria.

If Sweden is occupied by the Germans any time between 1940 and 1944, then it's likely it will be occupied by the Americans and British after the Germans surrender, after which, like Norway and Denmark, it would be put on track to join NATO. Can't say why the Germans would have done this, but if they were flush with victory after overrunning Western Europe, I don't see why not.

Another possibility is if some crisis between Sweden and the USSR occurs in the late 40s or early 50s, which could push the Swedes to decide that NATO membership is a good idea.
 
To get Austria all you need is a more successful Allied advance, occupying all of Austria and avoiding what happened above. Sweden is harder, as they had maintained neutrality for a long time. It would need to believe it was under a direct threat from the Soviets, possibly something to do with a Soviet occupation of Finland and/or Norway?

The Soviets make a breakthrough against the Finnish forces on the Karelian Isthmus in late June 1944. For a while, the Finnish government refuses to cave to Soviet demands even as the Finnish forces fall back towards Helsinki. July 10th the lead Soviet elements are at the outskirts of the capital when Finland finally accepts unconditional surrender.

The fighting in Finland ties up for weeks several Red Army divisions that IOTL were transferred to the German front. The Soviet offensive is therefore slower in gaining ground against Germany and the Allies advance is more successful. Even if the Americans would not beat the Russians to Berlin (for political reasons, etc.), whole of Austria is liberated by the Allies, as well as big parts of the Czech lands.

After the war, Finland is incorporated into a *Warsaw Pact and Austria and Sweden into *Nato, the latter as a direct consequense of Finnish membership in the Pact.
 
Beeing neutral acomplished what every non-axis power wanted, to avoid the war but I think another reason was that alliances didn't seemed to work. Poland got the short end of the straw after all so the great powers didn't appeared all that trustworthy. All while Finland showed it was possible to defend oneself.

So a better support for Poland or worse preformance by Finland might do the trick but one wonder what the cold war would have looked like.
 
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