AHC: Stronger US AND stronger USSR

With a POD in 1919, put both the US and the USSR in stronger positions after WWII(or whenever the geopolitics allows for a bipolar cold war).
 
USSR is easy: have Barbarossa happen in mid-1942 instead of mid-1941 without achieving any surprise. That way it crashes against a Red Army that is actually fully ready to wage war instead of one that is caught by surprise mid-transition. They'll halt the Germans short of the 1939 border and then steamroll all the way into Berlin by mid-44, at the latest, while avoiding the disproportionate military and economic losses of IOTL.

The USA is much more difficult, mainly because it's really hard to conceive of a outcome that leaves it in any more powerful of a position compared to IOTL. I mean, sure you can reduce the casualties but the US paid such a pittance in that category anyways that, as tragic as the loss of life may have been on a individual scale, it really had no effect on the countries economic and military potential. And the only economic damage they suffered stemmed from opportunity costs inherent in producing guns instead of butter. There really isn't any way to make the US that any more powerful then IOTL... the flip side to that is it's really hard to make the US any less powerful then IOTL as well (and pretty much the only way to do that is to force the US to pay the butcher's bill for defeating Germany instead of the Soviets).
 
Last edited:

Remark

Banned
If Stalin dies during the war (but after the most critical periods have past) and FDR doesn't, you could see better higher-level relations between the superpowers, maybe even Soviet and E European participation in Marshall. No idea how to reverse those events though.

Or perhaps there could be significant fighting in South America that the USA gets involved in, allowing it to create even more pliant regimes after V-S day. This could drive up the already considerable anti-US sentiment and drive other countries into the Soviet Sphere. Maybe an Iron curtain could stretch from Stettin to Quito.
 

codyorr

Banned
Well, in my original reality. The US cut it's forces significantly and the USSR declared war. There were some nukes dropped but the USA fell. Most of central Iowa escaped. A couple hundred thousand of us through Camp Dodge. They were after me to use as a symbol of Crimes Against Humanity but what the Soviets failed to realize is that America saves its own.
 
Well, in my original reality. The US cut it's forces significantly and the USSR declared war. There were some nukes dropped but the USA fell. Most of central Iowa escaped. A couple hundred thousand of us through Camp Dodge. They were after me to use as a symbol of Crimes Against Humanity but what the Soviets failed to realize is that America saves its own.

Are people from alternate universes connecting to AH.com? :eek:
 
This should be called Uncle Sam's dilemma(hard to get a wank, hard to get a screw either). :p

Actually the dilemma is that it's hard to avoid a wank and nigh impossible to get a screw. After all: OTL was pretty much an Americawank up until Vietnam and likely through and beyond it as well.
 
Actually the dilemma is that it's hard to avoid a wank and nigh impossible to get a screw. After all: OTL was pretty much an Americawank up until Vietnam and likely through and beyond it as well.
OTL is still an Americawank. The US is the world's largest economy and has the world's strongest military, and it dominates the cultural world. It's just less blatant than it was 70 years ago.
 
OTL is still an Americawank. The US is the world's largest economy and has the world's strongest military, and it dominates the cultural world. It's just less blatant than it was 70 years ago.

Agreed. America's relative position may have slightly declined, but that is a function of others getting stronger and not the US getting weaker.
 
With a POD in 1919, put both the US and the USSR in stronger positions after WWII(or whenever the geopolitics allows for a bipolar cold war).

Well avoiding the sharp curtailing of immigration after WWI would have an effect. A larger population, which I am sure American industry could utilize, means a proportionally stronger economy.
 
Top