Cold War alternative mini-scenarios thread

Can USSR retaliate by making trouble in French African areas ?
Maybe, though I can't really see many more former French colonies going communist than OTL as a result. Certainly not Algeria as that didn't really have a solid communist force as far as I'm concerned.
 
Maybe, though I can't really see many more former French colonies going communist than OTL as a result. Certainly not Algeria as that didn't really have a solid communist force as far as I'm concerned.
Maybe destabilize the regimes friendly to France if not make them out right communist
 
That isn't a mini scenario :hushedface:
Depends if it actually detonates or not. As long as the actual arming system doesn't fire, you just get a radioactive mess of varying magnitude, or at worst a sub-kiloton fizzle. Was there anything particularly different about Palomares compared to the Thule or Goldsboro incidents? From a quick search it looks like the exact "failsafe" scenario happened with the ones that hit the ground, conventional explosive parts detonated and splattered plutonium all over 500 acres or so but didn't actually fire the nuclear component.

Couple Cold War mini-ideas I've had over the years:
  • Project Azorian successfully recovers K-129 intact, instead of just the front thirty-odd feet (supposedly). What does the US learn from the crypto equipment onboard, and the one intact missile? How do the Soviets react? Does the "Red Star Rogue" theory end up being correct? That last one alone could probably be expanded out into a whole TL of its own.
  • South African government sees the writing on the wall, dismantles apartheid early but pivots to a nationalistic and heavily anti-communist attitude (possibly with external help). Would take some very savvy politicians, but you might sell it by pointing to Zimbabwe and the war in Angola. End result, by the late '80s you've got a nuclear-capable fortress state that likely becomes a major economic power as well.
  • Non-neutral Austria. How exactly that one happens I don't know, but the most consequential possibilities are a German-type partition or full Warsaw Pact alignment. The latter will make NATO in West Germany rather nervous, I suspect. Also has potential issues with Italy and South Tyrol.
 
Strasserism in Austria ? Aka beefsteak Notzis
Nationalists on the outside and socialist on the inside pivot towards USSR by the late 60s
 

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- Henry Wallace is kept on the ticket in '44 and subsequently becomes President following FDR's death
- The May '68 Protests in France escalate into a full-on communist revolution
- René Schneider survives his kidnapping attempt
- Richard Nixon is assassinated by Arthur Bremer
- Gerald Ford is assassinated by Squeeky Fromme
- Ronald Reagan is assassinated by John Hinckley Jr.
- Grigori Romanov succeeds Chernenko instead of Gorbachev
 
What if no SS-20 is developed or deployed ? USSR relies on SLBM which are of intermediate range , the Yankees getting old by early 80s could be used as the platform
 
Project 571 (PLA coup against Mao during the Cultural Revolution) goes ahead? Ok, prolly not a mini-scenario per-say...
Like this a lot! Wonderful hothouse for butterflies....the Gang of Four are successful in removing Mao and Jiang Qing becomes de facto premier Mao dies while trying to escape.. There is a counter coup by PLA and party factions supporting Hua Goufeng and civil war breaks out.....
 
Like this a lot! Wonderful hothouse for butterflies....the Gang of Four are successful in removing Mao and Jiang Qing becomes de facto premier Mao dies while trying to escape.. There is a counter coup by PLA and party factions supporting Hua Goufeng and civil war breaks out.....
The Second Chinese Civil War would be messier. There will be multiple factions claiming legitimacy. Think of it as Syria with some nuclear weapons in the mix.
 

CalBear

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Olaf Palme evades his CIA assasin. Then goes all-in on the Meidner plan. A new era of democratic socialism opens up.
You have been a member here for a decade. That is more than enough time to have learned the Board's policies, including those against flogging (in this case really outlandish and oft disproved) conspiracy theories.

Kicked for a week.
 
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