AHC: Post-WWII major(conventional) US-USSR war

With a POD in the 1930s, make a scenario where the US and the USSR engage in a major, conventional war against each other, either in China, Europe, or elsewhere. My personal scenario is (although largely impossible) Einstein remaining in Germany, and the Manhattan Project never occurring due to both Germany and Japan losing quicker than OTL - and then a superiority in conventional arms leading Stalin to launch an all-out war against the United States in Europe and in other regions around the world.
 
You could probably do it by having the Western Allies publicly denounce the Soviet Union at the very start of Barbarosa noting their former alliance with the Nazis, but also say that they unfortunately have to prop the Soviets up to stop the Germans from taking their oil fields and resources, and to create a second front.

The Soviets only get enough resources to tie the Germans up a little bit or only push them partway back while hating the West, while the West only thinks of them as allies of convenience.

Once the Nazis are defeated the West will very quickly tun its eyes to the new threat of the Reds.
 
A simpler PoD is just have Einstein killed in a tussle with SA thugs some time in the late 1920s. So Nuke is either butterflied away or delayed by a number of years.

Then, have the UK and France either DoW on USSR after they invade east Poland OR have USSR curb stomp Finland enough to gauge a similar DoW response.

US jumps in after pearl Harbor and fights USSR in Vladivostok 1944-45 :)
 
With a POD in the 1930s, make a scenario where the US and the USSR engage in a major, conventional war against each other, either in China, Europe, or elsewhere. My personal scenario is (although largely impossible) Einstein remaining in Germany, and the Manhattan Project never occurring due to both Germany and Japan losing quicker than OTL - and then a superiority in conventional arms leading Stalin to launch an all-out war against the United States in Europe and in other regions around the world.

Not going to happen.

Nukes will exist with any reasonable variant of WWII, and nukes WILL be used in any major US/USSR war post WWII.

The US/NATO feels they're needed to counter the Soviet numerical superiority, the Soviets/WarPac feels they're needed to counter the Western technical superiority.
 
Korea goes on to become a full-on World War

Only a few nuclear bombs per year could be made by the USSR in the early 50s, the US would have an excuse to wipe the production facilities off the map and probably would hesitate to use more than that elsewhere (the Mark 17 would be a game-changer once operational as well). Russian tank offensives would probably see Soviet flags flying everywhere north of the Pyrenees, but with a war against the Commie threat on then expect another massive call-up. Perhaps Mao Tze-Dung has a different set of experiences in the 1930s and decides that Chinese military power should push the Americans off of the Peninsula *at all costs* during the Pusan perimeter. MacArthur notes this and publically asks for use of nuclear weapons. I could see a four-to-five year war with a resurgent Japan, separate Siberia, and depopulated but capitalist China as a result. Also the US will be hated - and feared - as it will still be the only nation to have used nuclear weapons but instead of two it will likely number over two dozen.
 
Top