How could the history of American involvement in Indochina mirror its involvement in the Maghreb? Could you map out all of the players and polities? To the extent that Cambodia is Tunisia or Libya or Morocco? Maybe the Montagnards are the Berbers or Tuaregs or something. Also, perhaps we'll need to partition it earlier on to get the North/South Vietnam split.
I think if the U.S. could fall for the Domino theory nonsense over French Indochina, a part of the world that previously had nothing to do with American foreign policy ever ever ever (it's neither close to the Philippines nor related to Open Door in China), and later in Mesopotamia (which we only got into because of oil interests), it could probably get sucked into fighting in North Africa for some reason. But figuring out the reason is important. Why are we so opposed to Algerian independence? Are they supported by the Soviets- who are atheistic? This predates Maoist efforts in liberation movements. Why is the U.S. so focused on fighting in the desert, and what external support allows the FLN to hold on?
One crazy idea I have is that the Soviet Union is more influenced by the Muslim National Communism of Mirsaid Sultan-Galiev, a Tatar Bolshevik who was executed by Stalin in 1940. In this timeline, he lives and his work actually gains support as a means to win over Islamic countries to communism. And thus the FLN aren't just Algerian nationalist or just Communist in a setting where it follows the path of Vietnam exactly, but of a form of Communist that is tailor-made for the Arab liberation movements.
Another fanciful approach is to include an extant Ottoman Empire that's an international rival to the U.S. for some reason. Maybe the twist is it's not so much all of NATO vs. the Turks so much as it is say a smaller Anglo-American entente against them. (Though then why would resurgent Ottomans want to fight the France?)
A somehow pan-Arab nationalist project that succeeded under Nasser could potentially work as the Soviets in this scenario, but it feels almost more unlikely than the Ottoman idea even.
Or, you can ignore the three ideas and just try to recast it in a smaller sense. Like Libya is China and Egypt is the Soviet Union, but I don't know if the timeframes would work. Or maybe Egypt is China and the Soviet Union is still the Soviet Union.
I think if the U.S. could fall for the Domino theory nonsense over French Indochina, a part of the world that previously had nothing to do with American foreign policy ever ever ever (it's neither close to the Philippines nor related to Open Door in China), and later in Mesopotamia (which we only got into because of oil interests), it could probably get sucked into fighting in North Africa for some reason. But figuring out the reason is important. Why are we so opposed to Algerian independence? Are they supported by the Soviets- who are atheistic? This predates Maoist efforts in liberation movements. Why is the U.S. so focused on fighting in the desert, and what external support allows the FLN to hold on?
One crazy idea I have is that the Soviet Union is more influenced by the Muslim National Communism of Mirsaid Sultan-Galiev, a Tatar Bolshevik who was executed by Stalin in 1940. In this timeline, he lives and his work actually gains support as a means to win over Islamic countries to communism. And thus the FLN aren't just Algerian nationalist or just Communist in a setting where it follows the path of Vietnam exactly, but of a form of Communist that is tailor-made for the Arab liberation movements.
Another fanciful approach is to include an extant Ottoman Empire that's an international rival to the U.S. for some reason. Maybe the twist is it's not so much all of NATO vs. the Turks so much as it is say a smaller Anglo-American entente against them. (Though then why would resurgent Ottomans want to fight the France?)
A somehow pan-Arab nationalist project that succeeded under Nasser could potentially work as the Soviets in this scenario, but it feels almost more unlikely than the Ottoman idea even.
Or, you can ignore the three ideas and just try to recast it in a smaller sense. Like Libya is China and Egypt is the Soviet Union, but I don't know if the timeframes would work. Or maybe Egypt is China and the Soviet Union is still the Soviet Union.