Another 50 Years: A Collaborative TL

[Mr_ Bondoc]

Hey True Believers!! It's time for another ATL. This time we are aiming for the big enchilada, the Cuban Missile Crisis! The POD is October 27th, 1962:

"Black Saturday," -the U.S. Navy dropped a series of "signaling depth charges" (practice depth charges the size of hand grenades) on a Soviet submarine (B-59) at the quarantine line, unaware that it was armed with a nuclear-tipped torpedo with orders that allowed it to be used if the submarine was "hulled" (a hole in the hull from depth charges or surface fire). On the same day, a U.S. U-2 spy plane made an accidental, unauthorized ninety-minute overflight of the Soviet Union's far eastern coast. The Soviets scrambled MIG fighters from Wrangel Island and in response the American sent aloft F-102 fighters armed with nuclear air-to-air missiles over the Bering Sea

The POD is that the B-59 Soviet submarine under Captain Valentin Savitsky with the nuclear-tipped torpedo fires its weapon, sinking the USS Essex, the USS Gearing, and ironically, the USS Kennedy, in response to the depth charges being dropped on it.

The guidelines are that this is not going to be an extiction event, nor an attempt to force humnity back to the Dark Ages. Please don't have any PODs of The Valley-Westside War by Harry Turtledove, or the Dies the Fire TL. The idea is to see how mankind rebuilds in the face of the crisis...

 

[jmill]

A nuclear torpedo would be aimed at a formation of ships, and the Soviets had only about 20 to 40 ICBMs that could reach the USA, and the US had more plus plenty of IRBMs to turn the Soviet Union into sheet of glass.
OCTOBER 31, 1962: US fighter planes drop a 2.5 MT nuclear device on Havana, from a B-52, in retaliation for the Sub attack and a Cuban nuclear attack against the US facility at Guantanamo Bay. 2 million Cubans lay dead including the Castro brothers.

 

[jmberry]

Hold your horse jmill, we don't want to get ahead of ourselves. The US isn't going to just launch a nuke the next day, it will take at least a couple days trying to figure out what happened. And they're not going to toss nukes around like confetti - no one wanted that to happen.

 

[Mr_ Bondoc]

A nuclear torpedo would be aimed at a formation of ships, and the Soviets had only about 20 to 40 ICBMs that could reach the USA, and the US had more plus plenty of IRBMs to turn the Soviet Union into sheet of glass.

I will make the proper corrections, to insure that it is the blockade fleet that gets hit by the nuclear torpedo...

 

[Mr_ Bondoc]

Hold your horse jmill, we don't want to get ahead of ourselves. The US isn't going to just launch a nuke the next day, it will take at least a couple days trying to figure out what happened. And they're not going to toss nukes around like confetti - no one wanted that to happen.

Any ideas? Just remember several U.S. ships have been sunk, the mood is that the Soviets have committed an act similar to Pearl Harbor (1941), or at the least the U.S.S. Maine (1896)...

 

[jmberry]

Any ideas? Just remember several U.S. ships have been sunk, the mood is that the Soviets have committed an act similar to Pearl Harbor (1941), or at the least the U.S.S. Maine (1896)...

Kennedy and Khruschev were in negotiations (which concluded the 28th) to remove the missiles from Cuba and Turkey. As long as a civilian target hasn't been struck, I believe cooler heads would still prevail. Of course, the real wild card here is Castro. He might see the attack as "Oh, the war's already started" and invade Guantanamo (though he wouldn't nuke it - those are the Soviet Union's nukes, not Cuba's, to use). Also, the immediate US forces might begin firing on Cuba before Washington has a chance to do anything - it ultimately depends on whether or not we want a worse-case scenario (and a realistic one still won't see a Apocalyptic-style nuclear war, as nuking civilians was a good way to turn you into a pariah) or not.

 

[jmill]

Any ideas? Just remember several U.S. ships have been sunk, the mood is that the Soviets have committed an act similar to Pearl Harbor (1941), or at the least the U.S.S. Maine (1896)...

We(Americans) would be PISSED.
Also pushed back the Havana thing to the 31st.

 

[jmberry]

Something that might be interesting (and is often overloooked), would be the effects on Congo-Leopoldville during becuase of this. At the very least, Operation Grand Slam would be delayed as the UN races around trying to stave off WWIII, so Katanga might solidify it's independence, though it's too late to save South Kasai.

 

[jmberry]

To help get things rolling, here's an event:

November 6th, 1962: The US midterm elections are held. Notable races include the California Gubernatorial (won by former VP Richard Nixon), the Massachusets Senatorial (won by Republican George C. Lodge in a massive upset), and the Illinois 13th (A victory by Donald Rumsfeld). In the end, the GOP gains 7 represantatives, 5 senate seats, and two governorships (Richard Nixon of California, and William Scranton of Pennsylvania).

 

[jmberry]

Also, here's a map of the world at the time of the POD, for reference's sake.

 

[Mr_ Bondoc]

Something that might be interesting (and is often overloooked), would be the effects on Congo-Leopoldville during becuase of this. At the very least, Operation Grand Slam would be delayed as the UN races around trying to stave off WWIII, so Katanga might solidify it's independence, though it's too late to save South Kasai.

I can certainly buy that.. Also this is definitely a POD that I would have never expected. Some other PODs that might arise is that civil unrest would certainly rise in South Africa, with the independence movements gaining ground throughout Sub-Saharan Africa...

 

[jmberry]

I can certainly buy that.. Also this is definitely a POD that I would have never expected. Some other PODs that might arise is that civil unrest would certainly rise in South Africa, with the independence movements gaining ground throughout Sub-Saharan Africa...

The way I see it, the most likely outcome would be a three-way partition:

1. An American-backed Mobutu in Leopoldville
2. A kinda sorta pro-Soviet government in Stanleyville, which I'll call Zaire for lack of a better name
3. Katanga, backed by the Belgians and possibly other right-wing European governments (Gaullist France, Salazarist Portugal, etc.), South Africa, and Rhodesia, as well as corporations

This is becuase even with a peaceful resolution to the crisis, the US and UN will have other priorities than keeping Congo-Leopoldville a unified nation. I'm bringing this up mainly because looking back we really didn't do the Congo Crisis justice - which was really weird because it was supposed to be that TL's Vietnam.

As for South Africa, that's possible, but most of Africa is independent already, with Kenya and Botswana just a few years down the line OTL, I personally don't see it being any worse than OTL unless the Russians nuke Pretoria (at which point you'd have to ask, why would they?)

 

[Mr_ Bondoc]

Considering the Congo Crisis, one item that would certainly happen is that the "Black Power" movement in the United States would certainly have an event to prove the "racist intent" of American foreign policy. It is easy to imagine Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Bobby Seale or Huey P. Newton speaking out against the war...

 

[President Al Bundy]

October 28th, 1962 - Following the sinking of several US Nayv ships, the United States go on DEFCON 1. All armed forces in Europe and Asia are put under high alert, while President Kennedy calls for a (highly controversial) draft. The NATO-allies in Western Europe also put their troops under high alert. The German Bundeswehr for example places their troops along the inner-German border.

As a reaction to DEFCON 1, the Soviet Union announces that they will blocade West-Berlin, this time also with anti-air missiles, to prevent a supply of West-Berlin by air (As seen in 1948). The Warsaw Pact troops also gather on the border between West and East Germany.

The American people react in panic, as they either try to buy as much food as possible or flee to the seemingly safer countryside. As a result, riots sweep through the major cities, with many state governors declaring a state of emergency in their states. In some cities, the police even shoots on rioters, such as in Atlanta, Georgia or in Birmingham, Alabama. Similiar scenes can also be witnessed in European cities.

 

[Emperor Norton I]

OCTOBER 31, 1962: US fighter planes drop a 2.5 MT nuclear device on Havana, from a B-52, in retaliation for the Sub attack and a Cuban nuclear attack against the US facility at Guantanamo Bay. 2 million Cubans lay dead including the Castro brothers.

Who told you about my timeline!?

 

[Mr_ Bondoc]

Who told you about my timeline!?

Well, if you want, you can add PODs to insure that the ATLs don't converge. With your experience, it would certainly be appreciated....

 

[jmberry]

October 30th, 1962: The United Nations calls for a conference at their secondary headquarters in Geneva to resolve the conflict brewing in the Caribbean.

 

[jmberry]

October 27th, 1962: At 1800 hours, Task Force Essex receives word from the Pentagon to seek and destroy the offending submarine "with all convenient speed." At 2000 hours, Ambassador Anatoly Dobrinin arrives at the embassy and relays back to Msocow that they, not the Americans, fired first. 12 minutes after Task Force Essex intercepts and destroys Submarine B-59.

 

[Mr_ Bondoc]

October 28th, 1962: Premier Nikita Krushchev accuses the United States of taking "aggressive and provocative action" citing the use of depth charges against the Soviet B-59 submarine. He also cites Hungarian and Soviet vessels that carry humanitarian aid that have been prevented entry by the U.S. Navy...

 

[Prometheus_2300]

So where have Nukes been fired by October 31, 1962?