Challenge: U.S.A breaks up after WWII without nukes

Very simple, tell me how the U.S. could have fallen apart after World War 2 without being nuked to oblivion

The USA doesn't have to entirely vaporized in the nuclear attack. If the USA suffers major but not total losses in a nuclear exchange and is then finished off opportunistically by another power, that closes the books on the USA. I figure that leaving something like 10% of the USA alive, perhaps Hawaii survives the attack, and then the USA is dismantled shortly thereafter, along with the Soviet Union. A Vestigial USA might continue to survive.
 
I think only an ASB scenario could split up the USA at this time, as it was not particularly unstable.
 
I think only an ASB scenario could split up the USA at this time, as it was not particularly unstable.
 
But that would affect the entire world.

That's not excluded by the OP.

A less dramatic method would be internal political division but difficult to see how. Possibly US involvement in a KMT-Communist struggle in China leading to a mega Vietnam. Occurring earlier so entered with more confidence by the US and going on a lot longer. Also means that resources and attention are so concentrated on this that other factors such as segregation are left to brew. AS such a US riven by a long and expensive war, high taxes, possibly throw in anti-communist feeling means intervention in bitter occupation wars in Latin America and things start coming apart at the seams.

Very, very difficult post-45 but very few things not illegal under physical laws are actually impossible.

Steve
 
Natural Disasters

The United States might dissolve if it suffered a severe natural disaster: a comet strike, a tsunami, a series of volcanic eruptions sufficient to block out sunlight and produce an endless winter. An epidemic might claim enough lives to cause our society to collapse (assuming the rest of the world could quarantine the US and save themselves). How many of a country's people have to die in order for the society to fall apart? The Black Death killed many millions, yet the medieval European nations survived.
 
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