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I had a rather dystopian dream last night where this happened, but it was vague and ASB (involved Charlemagne I think too ).
If you guys don't know, the Soviets were going to nuke China until Nixon told them to sod off.
Outline (complete sentences are so postpostmodern):
Different/incompetent/whatever POTUS doesn't care as long as it's not nuclear
The Soviets abide by this until a losing Mao pushes the button
The Soviets, under pressure from the US, only retaliate on major military bases or where the Chinese nukes are (I don't know where they are)
Basically, how much damage would be done to China, the USSR, Mongolia and the far East in terms of millions killed, infastructure damage, radiation, etc.? I've heard that US fears that Korea and Japan would be damaged by radiation wouldn't happen if the USSR mainly concentrated on major military bases. The Soviets are restraining themselves not to kill too many civilians in China (which from an amoral realist perspective they should since now China is going to hate them forever). I'm not a military expert AT ALL, so I don't really know where to begin finding out about this.