John F. Kennedy Assassinated in Berlin, June 1963
- Thread starter wolverinethad
- Start date
-
- Tags
- america berlin cold war jfk soviet union
without the USSR, and a diminished China the "threat" of Vietnam going communist is gone (domino theory). Plus, even though the USA has gotten off "lightly" lots of deaths, damage to repair, and needs to help NATO recover. No money or stuff for Vietnam, since it does not matter any more.
One has to wonder if Germany, after reunification, becomes vehemently neutral because it was destroyed during the WWII, rebuilt, only to have good portions of it destroyed again.
I would not be surprised if as many of the people that can afford to move elsewhere just leave. Not much point in trying to rebuild a ruined country when round two between nuclear powers could kick off again and your stuck in the middle. The border should be leaking refugees like a busted dam.
That could be an interesting option, like Swiss Neutrality on steroids.
Infact you could end up with a Neutrality belt through Europe of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, with potentially Italy and Sweden joining acting like a giant wall across Europe.
Lost Freeway
Banned
Hell, all of Europe could end up being hostile to both the Soviet Union and the United States.
The USSR yes, the US... I dunno. Their president got shot, by the Soviets, no less, them retalliating is a given.
Lost Freeway
Banned
But the US only got slightly damaged while Europe got totally @**raped. That could lead to a lot of resentment.
Not really, the US did lose people as well, and they'll be helping out Europe, I reckon.
EXCEPT that the Soviets were the first to launch nuclear weapons, hitting Lemnitzer's army with three tactical SRBM's. They started the nuclear war. History won't forget that.
An update will be posted this morning, after I recreate (as best as possible) my disappeared draft.
July 2-3, 1963: At Raven Rock, Justice Hugo Black swore in Speaker John McCormack as the 37th President of the United States. It had to be a record, the old Justice thought, that would never be broken. Three Presidents within such a short period of time that it could be counted on fingers. He himself was unsure, Constitutionally, of whether Johnson could reclaim the Presidency when and if he recovered. His family was with him now, but he was still unconscious, and they hoped he would recover. McCormack had never aspired to this position, not the way his fellow Massachusetts politician or his former Majority Leader counterpart had. He was a ruthlessly pragmatic man, with few ideals guiding him beyond helping the poor and winning votes. Now, he was facing a flood of information, more than he had received at the Greenbrier, which was limited to who had ordered what and what had been hit. He grieved for his home state, which was facing a massive amount of deaths and a cleanup that would take months, but he had to push that out of his mind and focus on the now.
Walking into the conference room, McCormack sat down and rapped the table with his knuckles. He saw the looks of the Cabinet men, who were frazzled and stricken looking. He knew that wasn't good, knew that almost all of them had been in worse straits than him. "Okay, gentlemen, what's our status? What's happening with the Soviets?" Taylor took the question. "Mr. President, we know that we hit most of our targets in the Soviet Union. We lost an estimated two-three dozen bombers that were shot down by Soviet airplanes, but the vast majority of their air bases were destroyed, and we hit almost all of their naval and army bases, except those within the city limits of Moscow and Leningrad, per President Johnson's orders. We've not heard from the Politburo since the Radio Moscow broadcast that aired after we'd launched the retaliatory Titan missile strike against Soviet cities. We have sent out air sampling missions using WC-130 aircraft along the borders of the country, and two of the prototype A-12 high-altitude supersonic reconnaissance jets inside the borders to the north. The A-12 mission was launched from Elmendorf in Alaska, while the WC-130's came from Incirlik in Turkey and Kadena in Japan. They've stayed outside of Soviet borders, so they've radioed back to us early results. The A-12's will return in some hours, maintaining radio silence until they clear Soviet airspace. The WC-130's are reporting hundreds of rads in the air, but the direction of drift seems to be northward, which means the North Pole. Our research over the past decade has indicated that fallout that far north will freeze and fall to the ground, which is good for us and Canada, but the North Pole will likely be radioactive for some months or years to come, even in the frozen condition that the fallout will be in. The fallout from the strikes in Ukraine and the Baltics are drifting towards Sweden, where the Swedes have been hunkered down anyway ever since our army was struck in Germany. There will be a very large amount of cleanup to do, and this will likely have a massive effect on harvests throughout Asia and Europe. I strongly suspect, sir, we will be feeding the world again, just as we did after World War II."
Taylor continued, "As for America, you're aware of what was hit. SAC has been destroyed, and while the bunker is probably intact, I don't believe we'll be able to reach General Power and his staff. They have protective suits in there, provided they could escape through their tunnel, but if that were cut off, there's just no way to get them out in time. We've likely lost it for good. That strike will likely cause some crops and cattle to be poisoned, but it was only one, and the effects will not be as widespread as Asia and Europe. I believe Secretary Freeman can better answer that. Meanwhile, we've sent Lawrence Livermore physicists with Army reservists to San Francisco and Los Angeles to assess those situations and begin cleanup and containment. Los Alamos has sent a contingent to Miami to take care of fallout blowing from the Everglades. Our models don't show it being overly heavy, given the swampy composition of that area. We have Oak Ridge teams headed to western Massachusetts, New York City, and Washington, DC to handle matters there. The major issue in New York and Washington is electrical grid damage, and Oak Ridge also has a contingent of TVA engineers, so we hope that the grid can be up and running again soon. Barring any further actions, we can probably return within a couple of days. That is where we stand right now, Mr. President."
McCormack nodded. "Thank you, General. Listen, there has been very little sleep in the past two days, and I think everyone needs some. There is an excellent military staff here, and they will wake us if needed, but I think all of you could use with a shower and sleep. That is an order from your President. Also, General Taylor, get these men some fresh clothes to change into. I don't care if it's fatigues or flight suits, they need some clean clothes too. I am depending on everyone in this room to be able to make good decisions. I certainly hope that President Johnson recovers, because to be frank, I would rather be Speaker. This is the hand that the Good Lord has dealt me, though, so I need all of you to be alert and functioning. This meeting is adjourned."
*****
Hours later, in Sharapovo, the Politburo awakened from their sleep to a fuller picture, and some surprising news. The 106th Guards Airborne Division, on orders of their commander, had moved to Moscow from their base outside the city after the general alert had been issued. The general, lacking orders from STAVKA, had taken initiative, and had his men utilizing protective suits handling cleanup of fallout from the city streets. Radio Moscow was continuing to tell people to stay indoors and avoid the water supply for the time being. The city was there, standing, but its fresh water supply was incredibly limited, and dehydration was an issue. Leningrad, meanwhile, was being cleaned by the 156th Motor Rifle Division, whose base inside the city had been untouched. The initial belief that all large Soviet forces inside the nation's borders had been destroyed was proven to be incorrect. The headquarters of Sixth Army, at Petrosavodsk, had been emptied out with its troops sent to the Finnish border to guard against any ground forces hoping to take some of the Soviet border areas once bombers were spotted on radar. This saved several divisions, which were sent south to help with internal security. Leningrad was further helped by the presence of the Neva River flowing through it, and there was less fallout in this area, Kronstadt's and Vilnius' detonations having blown northwest, away from the waters running through the city. The river could be tapped for water trucks to send to Moscow, and in the following few days, that would indeed come to pass.
Much of the rest of the nation was in poor shape. Siberia was relatively untouched, with not many bases for the military in its interior. The Caucausus region, with its oil wells, had taken a beating, and oil would also be in short supply. Mercifully, for the cities that had survived, their electric plants were coal, and the Soviet government had a substantial reserve of that. Much of the Russian SSR was covered in fallout, as was Ukraine. The Arctic was not even touchable. The Soviets would have to concentrate its fishing in the Gulf of Finland, and the Black Sea as well, fallout again having blown away from there as opposed to towards it. The Pacific Ocean was essentially closed to the Soviet Union with large chunks of the Trans-Siberian railroad being broken up and the airfields largely destroyed. While there were many small fishing towns along the coast unharmed, there would be no way to transport the fish without a repaired railroad or fuel for many flights, which didn't have airfields to use. The destruction of Chelyabinsk and Kazan had stripped much of the Soviet manufacturing capability. The USSR was, for all intents and purposes, a rump state centered around Moscow. The divisions abroad in Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and elsewhere would help keep matters in line. The Warsaw Pact was bloodied, but it wasn't dead. After surveying all of the reports, the remaining Politburo members submitted to reality. They authorized Kosygin to speak on Radio Moscow, offering an armistice with peace negotiations to be handled by Anatoly Dobrynin, the ambassador in Washington, D.C. That offer was immediately succeeded by exhortations to the survivors.
"Comrades! We have endured a terrible catastrophe. I sincerely regret to inform you that the General Secretary, Leonid Brezhnev, was behind the assassination of the American president Kennedy. It fills me with sorrow that his actions spawned the Third World War. Mr. Brezhnev has been executed by order of the Politburo after confessing his heinous crimes. We have arrested his co-conspirators as well, and they will be tried by the Supreme Soviet in an open trial." This was a reference to Semichastny, who'd been thrown in a cell after a vote was taken, and his predecessor, Alexander Shelepin, was voted back to his position as KGB chairman. "Now, we face a daunting challenge ahead, but I am confident in the fighting spirit of the Soviet people! We rebuilt after Hitler's armies possessed much of our land, and we will rebuild once more. The Soviet Union's peoples are the strongest in the world, the most resilient, and we shall be whole again one day. It may take many years, but we will survive this dark period in our history. I urge all of you to give your best, and we shall give you our best. We offer our sincerest pledge that we will do our utmost to maintain the peace, that capitalist and communist will live harmoniously in the times ahead of us. This must be the end of war, for the terrible weapons of our times have nearly destroyed all of us. May the spirit of Marxism-Leninism live for a thousand years!"
Raven Rock's antennae was fully tuned in for shortwave broadcasts, and picked up Kosygin's speech, relaying it to the Cabinet. A massive sigh of relief was breathed in the room. They could return to Washington. The war was over. Building the peace, and ironing out the Constitutional issues, would be a daunting challenge. Lyndon Johnson was awake, but he was not speaking, just staring at the floor. At the White House, inside the East Wing bunker, Pierre Salinger, George Reedy, and Ted Sorensen began drafting a speech for President McCormack, preparing the nation for yet another shock to its battered psyche. For now, though, the EBS sent out a notice that hostilities had ceased, and Americans all over the nation emerged into the light for the first time in days.
Above is the Soviet Union and its internal control after the nuclear exchange with America. The red area is under firm control, with limited fallout damage. The black areas are severely damaged, with heavier fallout. The yellow area is under some degree of control, with fallout especially affecting the western section. The green areas mainly were unscathed, with little nuclear damage or fallout, but have virtually no control from Moscow, save for small KGB detachments in towns and smaller cities. These areas will be most at risk in the years to come from Chinese invasion.
Walking into the conference room, McCormack sat down and rapped the table with his knuckles. He saw the looks of the Cabinet men, who were frazzled and stricken looking. He knew that wasn't good, knew that almost all of them had been in worse straits than him. "Okay, gentlemen, what's our status? What's happening with the Soviets?" Taylor took the question. "Mr. President, we know that we hit most of our targets in the Soviet Union. We lost an estimated two-three dozen bombers that were shot down by Soviet airplanes, but the vast majority of their air bases were destroyed, and we hit almost all of their naval and army bases, except those within the city limits of Moscow and Leningrad, per President Johnson's orders. We've not heard from the Politburo since the Radio Moscow broadcast that aired after we'd launched the retaliatory Titan missile strike against Soviet cities. We have sent out air sampling missions using WC-130 aircraft along the borders of the country, and two of the prototype A-12 high-altitude supersonic reconnaissance jets inside the borders to the north. The A-12 mission was launched from Elmendorf in Alaska, while the WC-130's came from Incirlik in Turkey and Kadena in Japan. They've stayed outside of Soviet borders, so they've radioed back to us early results. The A-12's will return in some hours, maintaining radio silence until they clear Soviet airspace. The WC-130's are reporting hundreds of rads in the air, but the direction of drift seems to be northward, which means the North Pole. Our research over the past decade has indicated that fallout that far north will freeze and fall to the ground, which is good for us and Canada, but the North Pole will likely be radioactive for some months or years to come, even in the frozen condition that the fallout will be in. The fallout from the strikes in Ukraine and the Baltics are drifting towards Sweden, where the Swedes have been hunkered down anyway ever since our army was struck in Germany. There will be a very large amount of cleanup to do, and this will likely have a massive effect on harvests throughout Asia and Europe. I strongly suspect, sir, we will be feeding the world again, just as we did after World War II."
Taylor continued, "As for America, you're aware of what was hit. SAC has been destroyed, and while the bunker is probably intact, I don't believe we'll be able to reach General Power and his staff. They have protective suits in there, provided they could escape through their tunnel, but if that were cut off, there's just no way to get them out in time. We've likely lost it for good. That strike will likely cause some crops and cattle to be poisoned, but it was only one, and the effects will not be as widespread as Asia and Europe. I believe Secretary Freeman can better answer that. Meanwhile, we've sent Lawrence Livermore physicists with Army reservists to San Francisco and Los Angeles to assess those situations and begin cleanup and containment. Los Alamos has sent a contingent to Miami to take care of fallout blowing from the Everglades. Our models don't show it being overly heavy, given the swampy composition of that area. We have Oak Ridge teams headed to western Massachusetts, New York City, and Washington, DC to handle matters there. The major issue in New York and Washington is electrical grid damage, and Oak Ridge also has a contingent of TVA engineers, so we hope that the grid can be up and running again soon. Barring any further actions, we can probably return within a couple of days. That is where we stand right now, Mr. President."
McCormack nodded. "Thank you, General. Listen, there has been very little sleep in the past two days, and I think everyone needs some. There is an excellent military staff here, and they will wake us if needed, but I think all of you could use with a shower and sleep. That is an order from your President. Also, General Taylor, get these men some fresh clothes to change into. I don't care if it's fatigues or flight suits, they need some clean clothes too. I am depending on everyone in this room to be able to make good decisions. I certainly hope that President Johnson recovers, because to be frank, I would rather be Speaker. This is the hand that the Good Lord has dealt me, though, so I need all of you to be alert and functioning. This meeting is adjourned."
*****
Hours later, in Sharapovo, the Politburo awakened from their sleep to a fuller picture, and some surprising news. The 106th Guards Airborne Division, on orders of their commander, had moved to Moscow from their base outside the city after the general alert had been issued. The general, lacking orders from STAVKA, had taken initiative, and had his men utilizing protective suits handling cleanup of fallout from the city streets. Radio Moscow was continuing to tell people to stay indoors and avoid the water supply for the time being. The city was there, standing, but its fresh water supply was incredibly limited, and dehydration was an issue. Leningrad, meanwhile, was being cleaned by the 156th Motor Rifle Division, whose base inside the city had been untouched. The initial belief that all large Soviet forces inside the nation's borders had been destroyed was proven to be incorrect. The headquarters of Sixth Army, at Petrosavodsk, had been emptied out with its troops sent to the Finnish border to guard against any ground forces hoping to take some of the Soviet border areas once bombers were spotted on radar. This saved several divisions, which were sent south to help with internal security. Leningrad was further helped by the presence of the Neva River flowing through it, and there was less fallout in this area, Kronstadt's and Vilnius' detonations having blown northwest, away from the waters running through the city. The river could be tapped for water trucks to send to Moscow, and in the following few days, that would indeed come to pass.
Much of the rest of the nation was in poor shape. Siberia was relatively untouched, with not many bases for the military in its interior. The Caucausus region, with its oil wells, had taken a beating, and oil would also be in short supply. Mercifully, for the cities that had survived, their electric plants were coal, and the Soviet government had a substantial reserve of that. Much of the Russian SSR was covered in fallout, as was Ukraine. The Arctic was not even touchable. The Soviets would have to concentrate its fishing in the Gulf of Finland, and the Black Sea as well, fallout again having blown away from there as opposed to towards it. The Pacific Ocean was essentially closed to the Soviet Union with large chunks of the Trans-Siberian railroad being broken up and the airfields largely destroyed. While there were many small fishing towns along the coast unharmed, there would be no way to transport the fish without a repaired railroad or fuel for many flights, which didn't have airfields to use. The destruction of Chelyabinsk and Kazan had stripped much of the Soviet manufacturing capability. The USSR was, for all intents and purposes, a rump state centered around Moscow. The divisions abroad in Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and elsewhere would help keep matters in line. The Warsaw Pact was bloodied, but it wasn't dead. After surveying all of the reports, the remaining Politburo members submitted to reality. They authorized Kosygin to speak on Radio Moscow, offering an armistice with peace negotiations to be handled by Anatoly Dobrynin, the ambassador in Washington, D.C. That offer was immediately succeeded by exhortations to the survivors.
"Comrades! We have endured a terrible catastrophe. I sincerely regret to inform you that the General Secretary, Leonid Brezhnev, was behind the assassination of the American president Kennedy. It fills me with sorrow that his actions spawned the Third World War. Mr. Brezhnev has been executed by order of the Politburo after confessing his heinous crimes. We have arrested his co-conspirators as well, and they will be tried by the Supreme Soviet in an open trial." This was a reference to Semichastny, who'd been thrown in a cell after a vote was taken, and his predecessor, Alexander Shelepin, was voted back to his position as KGB chairman. "Now, we face a daunting challenge ahead, but I am confident in the fighting spirit of the Soviet people! We rebuilt after Hitler's armies possessed much of our land, and we will rebuild once more. The Soviet Union's peoples are the strongest in the world, the most resilient, and we shall be whole again one day. It may take many years, but we will survive this dark period in our history. I urge all of you to give your best, and we shall give you our best. We offer our sincerest pledge that we will do our utmost to maintain the peace, that capitalist and communist will live harmoniously in the times ahead of us. This must be the end of war, for the terrible weapons of our times have nearly destroyed all of us. May the spirit of Marxism-Leninism live for a thousand years!"
Raven Rock's antennae was fully tuned in for shortwave broadcasts, and picked up Kosygin's speech, relaying it to the Cabinet. A massive sigh of relief was breathed in the room. They could return to Washington. The war was over. Building the peace, and ironing out the Constitutional issues, would be a daunting challenge. Lyndon Johnson was awake, but he was not speaking, just staring at the floor. At the White House, inside the East Wing bunker, Pierre Salinger, George Reedy, and Ted Sorensen began drafting a speech for President McCormack, preparing the nation for yet another shock to its battered psyche. For now, though, the EBS sent out a notice that hostilities had ceased, and Americans all over the nation emerged into the light for the first time in days.
Above is the Soviet Union and its internal control after the nuclear exchange with America. The red area is under firm control, with limited fallout damage. The black areas are severely damaged, with heavier fallout. The yellow area is under some degree of control, with fallout especially affecting the western section. The green areas mainly were unscathed, with little nuclear damage or fallout, but have virtually no control from Moscow, save for small KGB detachments in towns and smaller cities. These areas will be most at risk in the years to come from Chinese invasion.
Well it atleast the war is over, but the whole world will struggle to recover for many years to come.
USSR is for a horrible decade and several more of painful recovery.
Hopefully the USA pulls together and recovers well enough, as well as helping everyone else back up.
Hopefully the USA pulls together and recovers well enough, as well as helping everyone else back up.