AHC: No cold war with a POD of 1941

How can the cold war be prevented with a POD of December 11th, 1941, the German declaration of war on the US. Any Cold War must be prevented, not just one with the Soviets. This means that you can't just have the Germans win, unless you can do it without a cold war between the USA and Germans.
 
Kill off Roosevelt shortly afterwards. Have Wallace be the popular war-winning president who establishes the direction of post-war foreign policy. A friendlier attitude toward the Soviets is pretty much a given.
 
Maybe you could roll back your start date by about six months to June 22, 1941, when the Nazis did their surprise invasion of the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa?

Stalin had a nervous breakdown of at least some length and, rather incredibly, at first ordered Soviet military units not to fight back hoping upon hope that the whole thing was all a mistake.

Sounds like a perfect time for a military coup. Yes, the new guy will still be a communist because that's the existing system but he'll more likely be reasonable and middle-of-the-road about it.

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According to the following source, Stalin had periodic bouts with mental breakdown. So, maybe later opportunities for coup as well.

https://books.google.com/books?id=l...m periodic bouts of mental breakdown"&f=false
 

Deleted member 97083

How can the cold war be prevented with a POD of December 11th, 1941, the German declaration of war on the US. Any Cold War must be prevented, not just one with the Soviets. This means that you can't just have the Germans win, unless you can do it without a cold war between the USA and Germans.
Get Georgy Zhukov as the leader of the Soviet Union in 1946 or earlier (maybe Stalin gets taken out in 1945, by Beria, who is found out. Zhukov takes out Beria, Zhukov then takes power).

Also get Dwight Eisenhower to run for President in 1948, which he will win in a landslide.

Zhukov and Eisenhower had a personal friendship and agreed the US and USSR should be at peace, so if both of them are in control it could prevent the Cold War.
 
Have Roosevelt take a Japan first policy. Stalin gets angry and threatens to sign a seperate peace with Germany, but Stalin is either bluffing or the Germans reject any offer because of Hitler. Relations get strained with the West either way. The extent of Soviet spies infiltration get discovered in the US, and relations further deteriorate. All US trust in the Soviets is removed. Roosevelt ultimately removes Lend Lease in early 44, as he believes the Soviets are no longer needed and allowing them to advance too far is dangerous.

Militarily, the Germans do much better against the Soviets in 42, capturing Leningrad and avoiding total disaster at Stalingrad.

The US and Britain launch a failed invasion of France in 43 while largely ignoring Italy, failing to take any pressure off the Soviets through land fronts in Europe.

In early 44, the Soviets are still on the defensive in Europe. Italy falls to Western invasion in the Spring and Greece in the early Sumner. Japan surrenders unconditionally in the early fall and Manchuria is handed over to the Nationalists. The Soviets begin to finally make major push backs against the Germans in the fall, but exhaustion and Winter slow them down.

In Spring 45 the Western allies take Northern France and secure Bulgaria defection to their side. By early Summer the Soviets are still struggling through Western Ukraine and Belarus while the West secures all of France, the Low Countries, and gets Romania to surrender to the West. During the mid Summer the West makes it into Austria and Germany while the Soviets make it to the prewar Polish border. Hungary gets invaded.

By the end of August, Germany gets nuked twice outside Berlin and surrenders unconditionally with Western forces in Prague and Budapest. The German forces in Poland surrender to the West and Polish rebels.

Postwar, the Soviets keep their 1939 gains at the expense of Poland and Finland along with the annexation of the Baltic trio. Even Bessarabia gets away. Not a single Uropean satellite state for te Skviets. China and Korea also escape their influence. The Soviets also have to deal with an extra 4 million dead due to famine without lend lease in the last year and a half, millions more civilians mursred by the Germans, nearly ten million extra military killed and crippled, and far more war on their own soil damaging their infrastructure.

The Soviets just aren't very intimidating post war here. Britain, France, Germany, Japan, and China all have bigger economies within 25 years. The entirety of Europe is anti-Soviet and begins developing post war. An economic community in Europe along with military alliances and UN membership are fostered to preserve peace, and the Soviets (who were pretty much broken and bleed white by 45 here) can't do anything to intimidate the alliance overall.

The Soviet's don't get the bomb until the early 50s here after their spies have been caught, giving the US a huge leg up. By the time the Soviet's get the bomb Europe is rebuilt on net (still behind in many ways but ahead in others) and firmly committed to the US. By the time the Soviets have enough bombs to poss a serious threat Europe, China, Japan, and united Korea are economically surging with Britain, France and China having their own nukes. By 1965 it becomes debately whether the Soviets are even capable of beating China in a one on one conventional war. Even without most of Europe heavily militarized the combined conventional strength of the rest of the continent exceeds the Soviets by the 60s. America doesn't even keep much of a presence in Europe by the 60s here.

No Korean or Vietnam wars happen. Castro dies and Cuba uneventfully becomes a a Democratic Capitalist state. Communists are largely locked out of every region here without Chinese, Cuban, Eastern European, or other infamous regimes backing.

India also somehow has the right people fall down staircases so that Liscence Raj is avoided and they begin developing sooner. Brazil likewise does better here with more competent strongmen.

No oil shock crisis happens.

There is still rivalry post war between the US/West vs Soviets/Communists, but no major flash points ever pop up and the Soviets are generally viewed as outright weak compared to the West and its alliance bloc. To the point that the Soviets are not generally taken seriously by the public at large. By the 70s China is a bigger power, and India, Japan, Britain, France, and Germany are not far off while Italy and Brazil aren't really that far off.

The Soviet Union goes bankrupt over a decade earlier here and collapses spectacularly again. It goes down as a more short lived, unimpressive country without much memory in the American mind.
 
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I have a few ideas.

Have FDR decide to keep Henry Wallace as his VP in 1944. After FDR dies the next year he becomes President, continuing the New Deal at home and pursuing friendly relation with the USSR. He runs again in 1948 and wins re-election. Martial Aid is expanded to the Soviet Union and its satellites. In 1952 the Republicans win supporting a return to isolationism. Postwar foreign policy would be defined as a struggle between right-leaning isolationists and left-leaning internationalists who support cooperating with the great powers. Right-wing internationalism is derailed as a significant political movement.

Winston Churchill along with Clement Atlee both get assassinated in 1942, resulting in Stafford Cripps (far-left Labourite who supported closer ties with the Soviet Union despite his criticisms of it). After the war he would lead Labour to their 1945 landslide victory. Labour are able to eke out a stronger majority in the 1950 election and continue their pro-Soviet foreign policy and support for decolonisation.

Charles de Gaulle dies shortly before or after the liberation of France, meaning that the Republican right aren't able to rally round him as a unifying symbol meaning Gaullism is butterflied/significantly weakened. As a result the Communists are stronger, and whilst they can't Communist up everything they can influence foreign policy towards greater cooperation with the USSR.

In the USSR Beria succeeds Stalin. Whilst he was a viscous evil bastard, he also supported greater cooperation with the West and much needed economic reforms (in part because as head of the secret police he had access to accurate data as to how fucked the USSR actually was after the war). Germany is reunified and demilitarised, which Beria also supported IOTL. After Beria dies he is replaced by reformers who decide to slowly open up the USSR whilst maintaining cooperation with the West. During the 60s the Green Revolution is expanded to the USSR boosting any alt-Virgin Land campign they might be doing, going a long way to ensuring that the USSR has a much stronger agricultural base and making them much less dependent on food imports (a major factor in their OTS collapse).

Japan is invaded by a join Allied/Soviet force. There is a joint occupation and after Japan gains its independence it becomes staunchly non-aligned and completely demilitarised.

Korea is peacefully reunified with a non-aligned government. Vietnam is peacefully reunified and in the post-unification election the Viet Mihn come to power.

The UN decides that partitioning Palestine might not be a good idea after all and instead favours creating a single multinational state. Whilst not everyone is happy with this arrangement, a little luck and a lot of UN peacekeepers means that it works out in the end.

In Iran the lack of British and American support for a coup means that the Monarchists get crushed in 1956. The oil issue is diplomatically resolved and Iran becomes a non-aligned power.

In the Greek Civil War neither the British nor the Americans are willing to back up the Monarchists, and prior agreement means that Greece is acknowledged as part of the Soviet sphere of influence. As a result Greece goes Communist, though as was often the case with indigenous Communist revolutions they are able to remain significantly independent from Moscow.

Turkey, surrounded by Communists to north, and under pressure from the great powers, agrees to the creation of an independent Kurdish state, along with Iraq and Syria.

In Italy the Popular Front win the postwar elections, resulting in Italy becoming a USSR friendly non-aligned country.

In China the USSR and the USA attempt to negotiate a peace settlement and power sharing agreement between the CCP and KMT, but talks break down due to Mao and Chiang. After both leader suffer unfortunate accidents cooler heads take over and negotiate some sort of agreement.

In South Africa in 1948 the Nationalists lose the election. Following redistricting, greater immigration and a nominal commitment to long-term black majority rule, South Africa completely avoids apartheid.

If and when Castro comes to power in Cuba, the US decides to work with him instead of pushing him into the Soviet camp.

As a result you now have a world with fewer flashpoints for the major powers to fight each other over, and international political consensus that leans significantly to the left and a legacy of extensive political and economic cooperation between the great powers making further conflict unlikely.
 
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