AHC: Vietnam in Central Amercia

...or more generally speaking in the Western Hemisphere south of the U.S. border.

Instead of Vietnam escalating or even occurring at all, create a similar Communist wave of revolution to take place in Central America, the Caribbean, Mexico, and/or South America that America sends troops to combat. POD of your choosing, but perhaps the situation is irritated or initiated by Guevara, an exiled Castro, or an analog.

Bonus points if the conflict truly mirrors Vietnam and extra bonus points if the conflict even if only very briefly reaches American soil.
 
Well, the obvious one here is Cuba, but there's a real limit in terms of Vietnam analogies for any nation in the Western Hemisphere -- remember, a big part of what made Vietnam "Vietnam" was their geographic proximity to supply lines...
 
Nicaragua and Guatemala seem the best choices, especially if significantly backed by Cuba.
There's a novel by Lucius Shepard about a similar scenario in the future (it was written in the eighties I think).
 

The Vulture

Banned
It'd be interested to see the USMC pitted against the Sandinistas, but what kind of casus belli could we have for Nicaragua?
 
All good ideas. I remember reading that Che was attempting many Vietnams across the globe and that Latin America was his most likely direction. I was kind of hoping for some sort of logical scenario in which this is successful enough to cause a VW analog.

Anyway, keep 'em coming and good work. I would contribute more if I knew anything whatsoever about Latin America in the sixties...

Are all of these ideas plausible and if so... how plausible?
 
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