alternatehistory.com

One of those PODs that keeps cropping up is: what if America keeps out of WWII/ D Day fails? One of the usual answers is that the Iron Curtain is raised on the Rhine, and that all of Germany falls under communist control.

My question is this. How will the Cold War progress if this happens (presume that D-Day fails, but another allied assault-in the South, say, or from Italy-manages to take France and Italy) and the DDR is all of Germany, rather than just East Germany? And, just as importantly, what will life be like inside this new, expanded DDR? Just like the old DDR? Or better, thanks to the wonderful Ruhr industry that the communists have just captured?

(Note: for the purposes of this, you can the two questions as seperate ones. If the consensus is that Stalin rolls over Europe in one of those Massive Russian Invasions that rarely ever materialise, but everyone on AH.com seems to think that exists, then it will be a very dull answer to conclude that life in the super DDR will consist of getting anthraxed, nuked, bombed, and pounded into oblivion... again.)
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