AHC Great War in Africa

kernals12

Banned
Is it plausible to have a giant war in Africa in the 70s or 80s that draws in all the continent's biggest nations without starting World War 3?
 
It depends what kind of war you want really. Africa's perfectly capable of giving you long running wars with lots of people dying but they won't look like western wars - they'll basically be tribal raids with 20th Century weapons with a very occasional appearance by some 1950s/60s armour and aircraft (unless one of the factions has current backing from a more modern nation).

African armies jut aren't set up for long wars in the way western armies are - they don't have the logistic organisation that you need to keep an army in the field as a proper army for months or years on end (admittedly many western armies would struggle with that too now given the years of cuts by most nations since the end of the Cold War). You're not going to get sweeping armoured warfare across the Savannah like a sunnier Cold War gone hot scenario.
 
South Africa's intrervention in Namibia and Angola escalates where the USSR supports Cuba and their activities in Angola which further escalates the situation.
 
The South Africans doing more to prop up Rhodesia and Portugal instead of recognizing them as lost causes in the 1970's would be one start, but I'm not really sure how it would happen. Maybe a more stable domestic situation in South Africa?

I think a different Congo is probably the best catalyst, whether it's a more protracted Simba rebellion (though the U.S. would probably have been drawn into a Vietnam-like situation if the Simbas had been less of a joke) or maybe Lumumba remaining in power and having to fight a South African/Rhodesian-backed Katangan government? I've looked through the Congo Crisis for PODs in the past and the problem you have there is that the U.S. is going to weigh in against any leftist government. Maybe get rid of Mobutu to prevent strong central government from forming and keep the pot bubbling? Something like the initial Congo Crisis in 1970 instead of 1960 is going to see a very different Africa, with Rhodesia as a pariah state instead of a solid part of the Western bloc and a United States that's much more shy about getting involved in jungle insurgencies.

I don't know how you could drag West African powers into a war that starts in the Congo, though.
 
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