DBWI: No Euro-American Split

America was always a tad leftier than most of the Anti-Communist Alliance, and eventually it just couldn't stomach allying with the fascist states of the Mediterranean and Latin America any longer, even if the UK and France were democracies. One can just say that if the Rome anti-Jewish riots didn't happen, perhaps the US would have remained but a rift was about happen unless you get the right-wing to take control in the 1970s. The crushing of leftist protesters by the Chinese state in 1977 just cemented the split. Perhaps the Cold War would have lasted longer (after America split, the ACA realized it would be a tough ride from here on out, and eventually they just gave up in 1990 and made peace with the Comintern).
 
That's not quite how I remembered it.

The problem was always geography - America saw the Pacific as its backyard and Europe was on the wrong side. For administration after administration, it was all about Asia, not Europe. First, it was Vietnam and Cambodia in which of course the Europeans refuse to participate and later Thailand and the India/Pakistan conflicts which, as we all know, put American, Russian and Chinese troops not far apart in North India and the Khyber Pass. The Soviet occupation of Afghanistan after 1973 combined with American intervention in Pakistan to support General Zia and you had the superpowers eyeballing each other along the Khyber Pass just as Sino-Indian tensions rose in Bhutan.

Europe was a bit player and when the new President unilaterally began to withdraw troops from West Germany to send to Pakistan, the political impact on the NATO Alliance was devastating.

You also had growing European integration starting with the Coal & Steel Union and this gathered pace with Britain and France growing closer after Suez and the rift with Washington. The European Economic Community was the natural precursor to EuroFed but plenty of us in Europe thought the Americans liked dealing with Europe in piecemeal rather than one which spoke with one voice. The filial ties with the UK had been weakened by Suez, Vietnam and Washington's ham-fisted attempt at neutrality in Ulster. The problem was too many prominent Senators and Congressmen were financed by those who backed the IRA and when one became President and actively spoke of supporting a United Ireland - well, that was the parting of the ways.

So NATO became the WEU and APTO (featuring Canada, Australia and New Zealand). The only thing the WEU had in its favour was Moscow getting bogged down in Afghanistan, Indo-China, North Korea and Africa and as we all know the combination of all those engagements proved too much and the whole Communist House of Cards came down following the Korean Unification War and the subsequent Indo-Pakistani War. It was only thanks to providence we all avoided Armageddon during the latter conflict but Moscow's decision not to actively intervene to support India saved us all - thank you, Mikhail Gorbachev !!

So we have a multi-polar world once again - America dominates the Western Hemisphere, EuroFed is building its new defensive glacis to the south (occupying the remains of post-Gaddafi Libya and overthrowing the corrupt Eritrean regime) and, in alliance with Turkey, keeping an eye on the Middle East which simmers as always. Then we have China in alliance with Korea and Japan dominating Eastern Asia. Some have claimed this is the world of which Orwell spoke but there is no "Ingsoc" - rather, capitalism is triumphant worldwide.

The new concern is Russia - the rapprochement with EuroFed has seen WEU troops alongside Russian forces on the Kazakhstan border with Chinese troops not far away. With vast quantities of natural gas in Kazakhstan, it's easy to see why this is the new flashpoint.
 
To prevent the Euro-American split, you're going to need a weaker Europe more dependent on the US.

Maybe Mussolini isn't assassinated in Albania in 1941 and Balbo doesn't move Italy over towards the allies? Italy would be more damaged and its possible the Soviets would dominate Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania Yugoslavia, and Albania - as opposed to just Poland and East Germany.

Adenaur succeeding in exchanging West Berlin for Thuringia pissed of the Americans incredibly, but it solved the Falda Gap dilemma for Europe. The Elbe-Carpathian-Prut line meant that Europe was more or less geographically secure from the Soviets and with that the question became "what do we need these Americans for again?"
 
Then we have China in alliance with Korea and Japan dominating Eastern Asia. Some have claimed this is the world of which Orwell spoke but there is no "Ingsoc" - rather, capitalism is triumphant worldwide.

The new concern is Russia - the rapprochement with EuroFed has seen WEU troops alongside Russian forces on the Kazakhstan border with Chinese troops not far away. With vast quantities of natural gas in Kazakhstan, it's easy to see why this is the new flashpoint.

I wouldn't really describe Japan as being in alliance with China. They've been consistently neutral since the Americans and Soviets withdrew from the archipelago and demilitarized the country after the war. There's a difference between occasionally getting testy with the US over the continued presence in the Commonwealth of Okinawa and being allied with China.


There was talk of rapprochement after the collapse of the USSR, but the European drive to, well, dominate Europe got in the way of that. Ireland is stubborn about its independence. Portugal claims its Pluricontinental rather than European (and the Europeans want them to abandon Angola and Sofalaland, integrated overseas provinces, which they aren't big on). Poland and the Baltics, after two centuries of German and Russian domination, want to remain independent. And the US has soldiers in all of them.
 
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