Nationalist Victory TL:

[BlackDragon98]

World War III- Part Two
"We Chinese have 600,000,000 people. Is sacrificing a few million of them so that the American genie may be released from its bottle a fair trade? I think so." Chiang Kai-shek to his son, upon hearing of the destruction of Beijing.

For the third time in forty-seven years, the United States Congress met in a joint session convened by the President. Mincing no words, Lyndon Johnson asked for a declaration of war on the Soviet Union, "for the good and freedom of all the peoples of Asia and the world." He was quickly granted the request, and on October 27, 1964, the United States declared war on the Soviet Union. Now, this raised an important dilemma: namely, that while the ROC was an American ally on decent terms with all of the West, it was not a NATO member, and as such, NATO was not bound by Article V to come to its defence. Many in Western Europe were adamantly opposed to joining an East Asian war on the other side of the planet just because the USA wanted to get involved- one commentator in Holland compared it to the idea of Sweden declaring war on Hitler after Pearl Harbour to keep relations with America good. It was pointed out by many that western Europe would have to face the Red Army and tactical nuclear weapons, and would be suffering civilian casualties. The first one to opt out was France. "We have no desire to bleed for the Chinaman.", declared Charles de Gaulle. While de Gaulle did not make any moves to leave NATO or expel foreign troops, he did make it clear that the Allies would be forbidden to use French ports or rail lines, for fear that such behaviour would invite pre-emptive Soviet nuclear strikes. Tiny Denmark, fearful of being conquered in a day, was on the verge of proclaiming neutrality when the Americans and British pledged to rush additional troops to the country to protect against the Red Army. In the Far East, the still unpopular (and not particularly trusted by the Americans) Japanese government refused to join the war, although it did permit the transit of US forces through its territory. Turkey and Italy also refrained from joining the war.

NATO (excluding France) had very approximately 2.5 million (1) forces ready in western Europe, including naval and air personnel, while the Warsaw Pact had roughly 3 million. (2) Brezhnev was aware that the commitment in China meant that there was simply no way for the Warsaw Pact to win an attritional war in Europe-- it just couldn't be done. Therefore, as he conferred with the Stavka, a new Soviet strategy took shape. The Red Army was to advance through the Fulda and Kassel gaps, aided by tactical nuclear weapons, and from there converge at Marburg. From Marburg, it was a straight shot to the French border. That was the essence of it. On October 28, 1964 (3), the defenders of Fulda and Kassel- including a young soldier by the name of Colin Powell (4)- were awoken by a terrific artillery bombardment, creating chaos as commanders attempted to co-ordinate a response. The panic only lasted for perhaps fifteen minutes, as first Kassel, then Fulda, felt the brunt of tactical nuclear weapons. As soon as it was safe to do so, Warsaw Pact troops- mostly Russians, with satellite states supplying cannon fodder- advanced west. The greatest gamble had begun.

October 28, 1964: All along the front line, the Soviet Union advances against the NATO armies, driving deep into West Germany. Two East German battalions, meanwhile, overwhelm West Berlin. Although many Western units fight long and hard, they are overwhelmed by the first shock of the Soviet offensive.

November 1, 1964: The last Chinese units in Beijing surrender to the Russians, who now begin planning for a drive south. However, their own casualties in the Battle of Beijing were not inconsiderable. Although the sheer size of Beijing meant that much of the city survived the initial blast, radiation now creeps through the city, infecting Soviet troops.

Chiang, meanwhile, is harbouring plans for an offensive of his own…

November 3, 1964: Running on a platform of patriotism and support for the new war, Lyndon Johnson is easily elected as President in his own right, defeating Barry Goldwater by an even larger margin than OTL

November 4, 1964: In a move designed to please the West, new Saudi king Faisal announces drastic cuts in the price of Saudi oil to neutral nations. The hope is that they will buy cheaper Saudi oil instead of Soviet supplies, which Moscow cannot afford to cut right now owing to the cost of maintaining the war effort.

November 4, 1964: The last pocket of South Korean troops surrender in Busan. General Park is found dead amongst the ruins of the city. The Korean Civil War- as it will come to be known- is now over. The outpost of Jeju Island surrenders upon hearing the news.

November 12, 1964: After a long fight, Soviet troops capture Wolfsburg from the West Germans. The city is largely in ruins, with its famed auto works no more.

That same day, the two Soviet armies which set out from Fulda and Kassel achieve their rendezvous at Marburg. Two West German divisions remain encircled at Alsfield, and will be mopped up by Polish troops over the next week.

November 15, 1964: The Soviet armies invading from Xinjiang and Mongolia link up at the Qinghai town of Hainan. In spite of the symbolism of this defeat for the Chinese, on one level it is a good thing for Nanjing: the Soviets are now in some places thirteen hundred kilometres from their supply bases, and that distance will only increase. (5) Nonetheless, the Chinese high command now realises that a threat to Xian exists, and that plans must be drawn up to defend the city.

November 19, 1964: Sun Lijen (6) is appointed commander of the forces in the Beijing theatre. Although he has previously had a rocky history with Chiang, the KMT army’s need for a good commander, plus Chiang’s vulnerability to bribes, mean that Sun now finds himself in Chiang’s graces. Sun has roughly a million men at his command, giving him a considerable numerical advantage over the Soviets. However, many of the best KMT troops have been chewed up and obliterated in the Beijing battle, and as such these units are of poorer quality.

November 24, 1964: The Battle of Frankfurt commences. Soviet armoured forces clash with American tanks. The first day ends in a draw, and only human wave attacks and massive air and artillery support- all accomplished at very high cost in Russian casualties- are sufficient to push the Americans out.

November 29, 1964: Operation Eagle Liberty is launched by the Americans. Commanded by General William Westmoreland, it incorporates two American corps and three British divisions, along with one regiment from both Holland and Belgium. Westmoreland's target is Magdeburg, which is to be liberated by means of a drive from the south-east. Eagle Liberty catches the Soviets off-guard, but they soon manage to draw the Allied forces into a stalemate battle inside Magdeburg itself. Fearful that his forces will fall victim to a Soviet tactical nuclear weapon, Westmoreland decides to cancel the operation on December 2, abandoning the ruins of Magdeburg to the Soviets once more.

December 5, 1964: Commanded by General Creighton Abrams, Jr, six US infantry divisions land in Nanjing harbour, the first of many. They will travel by rail to the Beijing theatre. Additionally, several squadrons of US B-52 bombers land in Nanjing, from where they will strategically bomb-- using only conventional weapons-- rail lines and infrastructure behind the Soviet lines.

December 12, 1964: After a long push forward, Soviet troops capture Karlsruhe, very close to the French border. West Germany is now almost completely divided in two. Brezhnev- running the war from Moscow and giving the Stavka limited freedom- now hopes to capture Hanover and Hamburg, and from there, overrun Denmark.

However, the strategic situation is slowly slipping out of Soviet control. Their advance into West Germany has more or less taken the shape of a salient 200 kilometres long, one which, though frightening on paper, is a logistical nightmare for supplies, given that the two largest cities at its base have been nuked. This congests the remaining roads, which are in turn prime targets for Allied conventional bombing. The Red Air Force can protect these roads, but only at the cost of sacrificing combat air superiority.

The body count is also piling up. The density of forces is much higher than in World War II, and weaponry all that much more advanced, meaning that combat is far more intense and casualties are much higher. (6) While this certainly generates a fair amount of resistance to the war in Western countries (7), they have the advantage of an almost bottomless reservoir of American men and industry to feed into Germany. Meanwhile, the Soviets are fighting a two-front war and are dependent in large part on their Warsaw Pact “allies” for cannon-fodder. In Warsaw, Bucharest, Sofia, Budapest, and even Berlin, there are whisperings of revolt, as the Russians send more and more of their young men to die while still finding the manpower to occupy their homelands…

December 19, 1964: In a telephone call between Lyndon Johnson and Chiang Kai-shek, the US President gives the Chinese his tacit permission to use tactical nuclear weapons, and hints that he may do the same himself…

December 25, 1964: In what will be dubbed “Santa’s gift to Chiang” by one New York Times columnist, a joint Sino-American offensive opens up against the Soviets in the city of Cangzhou. Although the Russian troops in the city fight hard, the Allies are surprised by the numbers of Polish and Hungarian troops who are all too eager to defect to the Americans.

However, in a harbinger of things to come, one ethnic Latvian regiment which defects en masse to the Chinese on the 27th, expecting to be treated well, is instead summarily massacred. General Sun manages to keep the incident hushed up, but word leaks to the Americans. After this, although Warsaw Pact troops are still willing to surrender to the USA, they almost universally fight to the death against the Chinese. Many put this down to the fury and hatred the Chinese feel for the Soviets after the nuclear attack on Beijing.

January 1, 1965: Assisted by several American divisions, the Pakistanis make a fresh attempt to achieve a breakthrough in Kashmir. The mountainous town of Leh is reduced to rubble, but little ground changes hands. America now begins to consider the possibility of using tactical nuclear weapons of its own to achieve a breakthrough in the high mountains…

January 6, 1965: The Allies commence Operation Scorpion, a pincer attack on Mannheim designed to cut off the Soviet forces at the tip of their long salient. This time, their attack meets with success, as the poorly-supplied, tired Soviet forces- who are hindered, as always, by the willingness of the Warsaw Pact troops to go over to the Americans or British (8), give way. After ten days of heavy fighting, Mannheim falls, along with Heidelberg.

The news that tens of thousands of Soviet troops are now cut off sends Brezhnev into a fit of rage, and he decides to take the ultimate step, one from which he has until now refrained for fear of retaliation.

On January 7, 1965, Norwich, Ipswitch, Amsterdam, Brussels (9), and Suzhou joined the list of cities to meet nuclear death. The next day, a furious America, using its ICBMs stationed in England, added Kiev, Kharkov, Minsk, Leningrad, and Smolensk to the list, bringing the total to seventeen cities to meet firey nuclear death.

(1) Again, a very rough number. Bear in mind that this excludes French troops
(2) See above
(3) October 28 German time, October 27 US time
(4) No Vietnam War means that Powell would be stationed in Germany for longer
(5) For comparison purposes, just slightly over the distance between the current front in Europe and Minsk, Belarus
(6)This is not a guerilla war like Vietnam-- combat is direct, and out in the open, with no real places to hide on the flat North German Plain
(7) Although things like draft-card-burning have not come around yet, there are plenty of young hippies passionately opposed to this war. However, there are plenty more people who view this as a "good-vs-evil" fight, like WWII, and anti-war dissidents have a lot less respect amongst the mainstream of society, especially those who fought in WWII.
(8) Given that the war is being fought on their soil and that the Soviets have nuked two of their cities, the West Germans were not known for their kindness towards prisoners, either. This includes East Germans, who are typically sent to the Chinese front for fear that they will be disloyal.
(9) After this, the Americans were pretty much the only ones taking prisoners

Looks like cancer rates are going up all across the world.
Maybe after the commies are done in, the world will dispose of all their nukes.
And what are the final casualties of the nuke attacks? What was the size in KT/MT of the nukes used?
And it looks like the commies are getting the Japan treatment in WW2.
I wonder if my grandfather would be leading a Chinese army engineer battalion ITTL?
One last question: How big was the nuke that hit Suzhou?

 

[Baldrick]

The anti-nuclear movement will be far stronger ITTL, as will funding for cancer research
However, the US, Britain, France, and China will not be giving up all of their nukes
India's nuclear programme, however, will be butterflied away ITTL

Without giving too much away, the dissolution of the USSR, while it will not occur in 1965, will be far bloodier, like a far larger Yugoslavia OTL

The Suzhou nuke was a Tsar Bomba. All of the others, however, were RDS-37s. The reason for this is that Brezhnev was afraid that the Tsars would kill too many Soviet troops, but since Suzhou is nowhere near the front...

Edit: the Ipswitch, Norwich, Amsterdam, and Brussels bombs were Tsars as well

 

[BlackDragon98]

The anti-nuclear movement will be far stronger ITTL, as will funding for cancer research
However, the US, Britain, France, and China will not be giving up all of their nukes
India's nuclear programme, however, will be butterflied away ITTL

Without giving too much away, the dissolution of the USSR, while it will not occur in 1965, will be far bloodier, like a far larger Yugoslavia OTL

The Suzhou nuke was a Tsar Bomba. All of the others, however, were RDS-37s. The reason for this is that Brezhnev was afraid that the Tsars would kill too many Soviet troops, but since Suzhou is nowhere near the front...

Edit: the Ipswitch, Norwich, Amsterdam, and Brussels bombs were Tsars as well

Oh shit.
I did a few calculations and the Suzhou nuke probably killed at least 5-7 million Chinese civilians.
Looks like China's going to go for Revenge Royale.
Do you think that China might occupy Vladivostok and the nearby area after the USSR enter a civil war?

 

[Baldrick]

The death toll in Suzhou was 6.5 million

Almost nobody in Ipswitch, Norwich, Amsterdam, or Brussels survived
Or for that matter, Kiev, Smolensk, Minsk, Leningrad, or Kharkov

 

[Baldrick]

World War III- Part 3

When the smoke cleared from the ruined cities, the situation had profoundly changed. Before this, it had been acceptable to use nuclear weapons in a tactical setting. The bombings of Beijing, Fulda, and Kessel had infuriated the Chinese and West Germans but had not come as a great moral offence to the rest of the world. Going back further, while the world was shocked by the ruthlessness of Truman as he nuked three Asian cities to get his way, and while some had been horrified by Eisenhower's destruction of Sapporo, these were all seen as within the accepted rules of modern war. But indiscriminately destroying city after city as a means of blackmailing the enemy into submission, without any clear purpose save to create terror... that was something else again. Of course, the brutal new strategy had its defenders. People pointed to the Allied strategic bombing of Germany in World War II, and especially to the destruction of Dresden, as examples of a precedent for this sort of action. The Americans, furthermore, were able to say, "well, Brezhnev started it." Yet, there was a moral red line which, in the eyes of the world, both Brezhnev and Johnson had crossed. Lastly, on January 6 and 7, 1965, a new meaning was given to the phrase "playing with fire." On those two days, the human race had come perilously close to extinction, in a day which made the Cuban Missile Crisis seem pale by comparison. (1) Everyone was conscious that, unlike all of the other times when nuclear weapons had been deployed, the human race had truly been brought to the brink. That was no doubt one of the reasons why World War III remained the last nuclear conflict on Earth- everyone became aware of the deadly potential of the weapons they held in their hands in a way they had not been for the past 20 years.

However, little of this was obvious on January 8, 1965. All throughout Europe, China, and the Soviet Union, people lived in fear that they would be obliterated in a nuclear strike. Not just civilians, but soldiers in the field were fair game. Yet... hours lengthened into days, and nuclear death didn't come. Although Brezhnev and Johnson kept their fingers on the nuclear buttons, they didn't push them again. This was because Brezhnev, rage-filled though he was, had figured out what the Americans were doing. Five Allied cities had been indiscriminately targeted for long-range destruction simply for terror purposes, in retaliation, five Soviet cities had met the same fate. Johnson's plan was to deter Brezhnev from destroying any more cities by destroying a Soviet city with ICBMs for every Allied one to fall: Stalingrad was next on the list, followed by Alma-Ata. The reason for not placing Moscow on the list for destruction was that, although it would've slaked the Western thirst for revenge to wipe out the Soviet government, to do so might send the USSR collapsing into warlordism, and no-one in the West was too keen on the notion of warlords going around indiscriminately with nuclear weapons and the ICBM capacity to hit anywhere east of the Prime Meridian with them...

Nonetheless, although the tide was rapidly turning, the war would continue until the Soviets gave in...

January 9- 16, 1965: Allied intelligence tricks the Soviets into thinking that an offensive aimed against Frankfurt is coming, through the newly reopened (albeit tenuous) corridor between southern and northern West Germany. Allied radio communications allowed to fall into Soviet hands discuss a concentration of troops in Saarbrucken and Heidelberg, for an offensive presumably targeted at Frankfurt. The Stavka also picks up the name "Operation Gettysburg"...

January 13, 1965: Sun Lijen's troops commence a siege of Tianjin. Fearful of what the Chinese will do to them, most of the Soviet troops fight to the death. However, many of the Manchurian troops (at least, the Mandarin-speaking ones), are all too eager to discard their Communist uniforms for Nationalist ones and cross over to the enemy lines. General Sun is aided by a timely uprising amongst the city's populace.

January 16, 1965: Operation Gettysburg commences. Contrary to the expectations of the Stavka, it is located nowhere near Frankfurt. Instead, it is a powerful thrust towards Gottingen, in central Germany. Gettysburg is accompanied by massive Allied air support to prevent a Soviet tactical nuclear weapon being used, however, the Stavka do not utilise the ultimate weapon here. Gottingen is liberated on the twenty-fifth by the West German Second Panzergrenadier Division. The Soviet positions in Wolfsburg and Brunswick are now increasingly vulnerable...

January 22, 1965: Although this will not be revealed until the brief Occupation of Moscow later in the year, on this date Leonid Brezhnev orders state premier Alexsei Kosygin executed. With Kosygin dead, there is now no-one left to oppose Brezhnev's will, which will make for a dangerous situation once the Soviet leader's already fragile mental health begins to tumble further...

February 1, 1965: Sino-American troops liberate the city of Langfang, placing them within range of a strike against Beijing.

February 5-17, 1965: Another Indian offensive into Tibet bogs down, causing nothing more than higher piles of bodies on both sides. Some within India begin to consider removing Prime Minister Kandispal Vispoot and the Communist Party from power, although no-one presently has the means for such a coup.

February 12, 1965: The largest Allied attack of the German war thus far- Operation Skeleton- opens with all armies attacking the perimeter of the great Soviet salient from Bayreuth to Frankfurt to just south of Kassel created by the Scorpion and Gettysburg operations. Many are quick to compare this attack to Operation Citadel of 1943, especially those West Germans and Soviets whose fathers fought in that battle, or indeed, those officers who were mere infantrymen at Kursk.

The going is long, slow, and hard, with the Russians giving ground very slowly and inflicting the highest casualties of any battle in WWIII- for that matter, since day one of the Battle of the Somme in 1916 (if nuclear attacks are discounted, that is.) An astounding 63,000 Warsaw Pact troops alone are killed on day one alone, while the Allies lose approximately 38,000 dead. One reason for the (comparatively) lower Allied casualties, from an army of only slightly larger size, is the fact that their tactics place less emphasis on human wave attacks. It need not be said that prisoners are not being taken here. Every day, the weakened Soviets retreat just enough that the Allies retain the will to keep going, but do not for one moment fold. Both sides commit huge numbers of fighters to ward off enemy nuclear bombers, and dogfights become common sights in the skies above. Perilously, Russian resistance is weakest (although that is very much a relative term here) at the base of the salient.

February 21, 1965: The Second Battle of Beijing commences. It's the largest action in either theatre of WWIII so far, with 1.2 million Chinese troops and nine American divisions taking part. Weakened by the conventional bombing of supply lines (as well as the near-constant carpet-bombing runs by both Chinese and US bombers), conditions rapidly become hellish for the Soviet defenders. Over the course of three weeks, the city is combed of Warsaw Pact troops in a battle every bit as vicious as Stalingrad. The radiation in Beijing only makes things worse, and an astounding 90% of soldiers who survived the battle will develop cancer at some point in the next five years. By the time Beijing is liberated, it will be in complete ruins, with quite literally not one building left fully intact. Almost all of the city's residents are dead, with only a handful having been able to get away before the Soviet occupation, after which there was no escape.

February 27, 1965: After fifteen days of fierce fighting, the Allies and Soviets have a climactic clash at the Second Battle of Jena, which will put its Napoleonic counterpart in the shade. For much of the day, it seems to be simply one of the largest land battles in history, however, the Allies retreat from their pincer assault unexpectedly at four PM, seemingly ceding the whole base of the salient to the Soviets. The Warsaw Pact commanders should have realised the danger and dispersed their force into several packets. Instead, they attempt to switch over to the offensive, thinking that the Allied retreat was conducted out of weakness. However, only fifteen minutes after their "victory", the first mushroom cloud goes up...

The loss to attrition and nuclear fire at Jena of such a huge chunk of the Red Army- to say nothing of the Warsaw Pact cannon fodder so necessary to provide a buffer- sends Brezhnev into a rage, and he quite literally "shoots the messenger"- that is, he orders the execution of the man who tells him. However, a lick of sense remains in his brain, as he does not order more strategic nuclear strikes against Allied cities, as he knows that Soviet ones will be destroyed in retaliation. Nonetheless, more than ever, Brezhnev remains determined to win the war, even as the odds lengthen...

The next post will conclude World War III

Comments? Suggestions?

(1) Indeed, TTL's view of the Cuban Missile Crisis will be far less extreme than in our world

 

[BlackDragon98]

World War III- Part 3

When the smoke cleared from the ruined cities, the situation had profoundly changed. Before this, it had been acceptable to use nuclear weapons in a tactical setting. The bombings of Beijing, Fulda, and Kessel had infuriated the Chinese and West Germans but had not come as a great moral offence to the rest of the world. Going back further, while the world was shocked by the ruthlessness of Truman as he nuked three Asian cities to get his way, and while some had been horrified by Eisenhower's destruction of Sapporo, these were all seen as within the accepted rules of modern war. But indiscriminately destroying city after city as a means of blackmailing the enemy into submission, without any clear purpose save to create terror... that was something else again. Of course, the brutal new strategy had its defenders. People pointed to the Allied strategic bombing of Germany in World War II, and especially to the destruction of Dresden, as examples of a precedent for this sort of action. The Americans, furthermore, were able to say, "well, Brezhnev started it." Yet, there was a moral red line which, in the eyes of the world, both Brezhnev and Johnson had crossed. Lastly, on January 6 and 7, 1965, a new meaning was given to the phrase "playing with fire." On those two days, the human race had come perilously close to extinction, in a day which made the Cuban Missile Crisis seem pale by comparison. (1) Everyone was conscious that, unlike all of the other times when nuclear weapons had been deployed, the human race had truly been brought to the brink. That was no doubt one of the reasons why World War III remained the last nuclear conflict on Earth- everyone became aware of the deadly potential of the weapons they held in their hands in a way they had not been for the past 20 years.

However, little of this was obvious on January 8, 1965. All throughout Europe, China, and the Soviet Union, people lived in fear that they would be obliterated in a nuclear strike. Not just civilians, but soldiers in the field were fair game. Yet... hours lengthened into days, and nuclear death didn't come. Although Brezhnev and Johnson kept their fingers on the nuclear buttons, they didn't push them again. This was because Brezhnev, rage-filled though he was, had figured out what the Americans were doing. Five Allied cities had been indiscriminately targeted for long-range destruction simply for terror purposes, in retaliation, five Soviet cities had met the same fate. Johnson's plan was to deter Brezhnev from destroying any more cities by destroying a Soviet city with ICBMs for every Allied one to fall: Stalingrad was next on the list, followed by Alma-Ata. The reason for not placing Moscow on the list for destruction was that, although it would've slaked the Western thirst for revenge to wipe out the Soviet government, to do so might send the USSR collapsing into warlordism, and no-one in the West was too keen on the notion of warlords going around indiscriminately with nuclear weapons and the ICBM capacity to hit anywhere east of the Prime Meridian with them...

Nonetheless, although the tide was rapidly turning, the war would continue until the Soviets gave in...

January 9- 16, 1965: Allied intelligence tricks the Soviets into thinking that an offensive aimed against Frankfurt is coming, through the newly reopened (albeit tenuous) corridor between southern and northern West Germany. Allied radio communications allowed to fall into Soviet hands discuss a concentration of troops in Saarbrucken and Heidelberg, for an offensive presumably targeted at Frankfurt. The Stavka also picks up the name "Operation Gettysburg"...

January 13, 1965: Sun Lijen's troops commence a siege of Tianjin. Fearful of what the Chinese will do to them, most of the Soviet troops fight to the death. However, many of the Manchurian troops (at least, the Mandarin-speaking ones), are all too eager to discard their Communist uniforms for Nationalist ones and cross over to the enemy lines. General Sun is aided by a timely uprising amongst the city's populace.

January 16, 1965: Operation Gettysburg commences. Contrary to the expectations of the Stavka, it is located nowhere near Frankfurt. Instead, it is a powerful thrust towards Gottingen, in central Germany. Gettysburg is accompanied by massive Allied air support to prevent a Soviet tactical nuclear weapon being used, however, the Stavka do not utilise the ultimate weapon here. Gottingen is liberated on the twenty-fifth by the West German Second Panzergrenadier Division. The Soviet positions in Wolfsburg and Brunswick are now increasingly vulnerable...

January 22, 1965: Although this will not be revealed until the brief Occupation of Moscow later in the year, on this date Leonid Brezhnev orders state premier Alexsei Kosygin executed. With Kosygin dead, there is now no-one left to oppose Brezhnev's will, which will make for a dangerous situation once the Soviet leader's already fragile mental health begins to tumble further...

February 1, 1965: Sino-American troops liberate the city of Langfang, placing them within range of a strike against Beijing.

February 5-17, 1965: Another Indian offensive into Tibet bogs down, causing nothing more than higher piles of bodies on both sides. Some within India begin to consider removing Prime Minister Kandispal Vispoot and the Communist Party from power, although no-one presently has the means for such a coup.

February 12, 1965: The largest Allied attack of the German war thus far- Operation Skeleton- opens with all armies attacking the perimeter of the great Soviet salient from Bayreuth to Frankfurt to just south of Kassel created by the Scorpion and Gettysburg operations. Many are quick to compare this attack to Operation Citadel of 1943, especially those West Germans and Soviets whose fathers fought in that battle, or indeed, those officers who were mere infantrymen at Kursk.

The going is long, slow, and hard, with the Russians giving ground very slowly and inflicting the highest casualties of any battle in WWIII- for that matter, since day one of the Battle of the Somme in 1916 (if nuclear attacks are discounted, that is.) An astounding 63,000 Warsaw Pact troops alone are killed on day one alone, while the Allies lose approximately 38,000 dead. One reason for the (comparatively) lower Allied casualties, from an army of only slightly larger size, is the fact that their tactics place less emphasis on human wave attacks. It need not be said that prisoners are not being taken here. Every day, the weakened Soviets retreat just enough that the Allies retain the will to keep going, but do not for one moment fold. Both sides commit huge numbers of fighters to ward off enemy nuclear bombers, and dogfights become common sights in the skies above. Perilously, Russian resistance is weakest (although that is very much a relative term here) at the base of the salient.

February 21, 1965: The Second Battle of Beijing commences. It's the largest action in either theatre of WWIII so far, with 1.2 million Chinese troops and nine American divisions taking part. Weakened by the conventional bombing of supply lines (as well as the near-constant carpet-bombing runs by both Chinese and US bombers), conditions rapidly become hellish for the Soviet defenders. Over the course of three weeks, the city is combed of Warsaw Pact troops in a battle every bit as vicious as Stalingrad. The radiation in Beijing only makes things worse, and an astounding 90% of soldiers who survived the battle will develop cancer at some point in the next five years. By the time Beijing is liberated, it will be in complete ruins, with quite literally not one building left fully intact. Almost all of the city's residents are dead, with only a handful having been able to get away before the Soviet occupation, after which there was no escape.

February 27, 1965: After fifteen days of fierce fighting, the Allies and Soviets have a climactic clash at the Second Battle of Jena, which will put its Napoleonic counterpart in the shade. For much of the day, it seems to be simply one of the largest land battles in history, however, the Allies retreat from their pincer assault unexpectedly at four PM, seemingly ceding the whole base of the salient to the Soviets. The Warsaw Pact commanders should have realised the danger and dispersed their force into several packets. Instead, they attempt to switch over to the offensive, thinking that the Allied retreat was conducted out of weakness. However, only fifteen minutes after their "victory", the first mushroom cloud goes up...

The loss to attrition and nuclear fire at Jena of such a huge chunk of the Red Army- to say nothing of the Warsaw Pact cannon fodder so necessary to provide a buffer- sends Brezhnev into a rage, and he quite literally "shoots the messenger"- that is, he orders the execution of the man who tells him. However, a lick of sense remains in his brain, as he does not order more strategic nuclear strikes against Allied cities, as he knows that Soviet ones will be destroyed in retaliation. Nonetheless, more than ever, Brezhnev remains determined to win the war, even as the odds lengthen...

The next post will conclude World War III

Comments? Suggestions?

(1) Indeed, TTL's view of the Cuban Missile Crisis will be far less extreme than in our world

I hope Otto Warbug cures cancer ITTL.
Does Brez get forcibly removed from power eventually?
It seems the USSR is scraping the barrel. And a very angry Nationalist China sitting south of it doesn't make anything better.
Also, do the ChiComs get hounded into extinction? It seems communism is very, very unpopular in China and pretty much everywhere around the world.
One last question: What does the (rightful) vilification of communism do for right wing nationalism? Will it be more acceptable and popular or still the same?
I except that right wing nationalists will be pushing for the extinction of communism.

 

[Unknown]

I'd love to see what the Johnson tapes are like ITTL--right now, I'm concerned he might suffer a severe or even fatal heart attack (he suffered one in 1955 IOTL) due to the stress he is undoubtedly under...

 

[Baldrick]

I hope Otto Warbug cures cancer ITTL.
Does Brez get forcibly removed from power eventually?
It seems the USSR is scraping the barrel. And a very angry Nationalist China sitting south of it doesn't make anything better.
Also, do the ChiComs get hounded into extinction? It seems communism is very, very unpopular in China and pretty much everywhere around the world.
One last question: What does the (rightful) vilification of communism do for right wing nationalism? Will it be more acceptable and popular or still the same?
I except that right wing nationalists will be pushing for the extinction of communism.

Cancer research will be the subject of massive funding by both the UN and individual governments in the decades following the war, as cancer rates in China, Russia, and Western Europe will be orders of magnitude higher than OTL.

Brezhnev will be the victim of a coup in the last update. Western historians will generally place him in the same category as Hitler and Stalin postwar

Communism will be illegal in China until the democratisation of the RoC under Chiang Ching-kuo in the 1980s. Even then, the Worker's Party of China will be a fringe party which wins no seats in any major body

ITTL, right-wing nationalists don't have a monopoly on the vilification of communism- everyone on the political spectrum places it in the same category as Nazism. After the (much more violent than OTL) collapse of the USSR and Warsaw Pact, communism never really revives

 

[Unknown]

One of the most popular WIs in TTL's AH.com: WI Kennedy Isn't Assassinated In Dallas?

I can see Oliver Stone making TTL's JFK about how Kennedy was assassinated so that the South Chinese and US could attack North China and the Soviet Union (however much that theory is BS)...

 

[Baldrick]

One of the most popular WIs in TTL's AH.com: WI Kennedy Isn't Assassinated In Dallas?

I can see Oliver Stone making TTL's JFK about how Kennedy was assassinated so that the South Chinese and US could attack North China and the Soviet Union (however much that theory is BS)...

There, you have just summed up the bedrock upon which TTL's National Enquirer is based

 

[tomasqs]

What's happening in the Middle East and South America?

 

[Femto]

What's happening in the Middle East and South America?

The Middle East is probably in upheaval right now, SA is chilling.

 

[Guardonion]

Turkey's neutrality surprised me, though then the nukes started dropping and I was no longer surprised.

Will we see another last minute entry into the war from them I wonder, they could quickly cut off the Soviet oil supply on Baku and help liberate the Balkans with another front.

 

[Baldrick]

In the Middle East, Israel, Turkey, and the various Arabian countries are all neutral, although pro-Allied and using their economic weight against the USSR
I haven't decided on whether or not to butterfly the Six-Day War away

 

[tomasqs]

In the Middle East, Israel, Turkey, and the various Arabian countries are all neutral, although pro-Allied and using their economic weight against the USSR
I haven't decided on whether or not to butterfly the Six-Day War away

On one hand I think Nasser would believe it is the right moment to attack.

On the other hand the US might threaten with retaliation and the USSR wouldnt have equipment to give to the Arabs.

 

[BlackDragon98]

On one hand I think Nasser would believe it is the right moment to attack.

On the other hand the US might threaten with retaliation and the USSR wouldnt have equipment to give to the Arabs.

I think Nasser is smarter than that.
He going to stay neutral until the situation becomes clear and then side with the winners.

 

[Baldrick]

I don't know that much about the Cold War-era Middle East, so I'm open to any and all suggestions

 

[Unknown]

PM @TastySpam and @JSilvy for ideas...

 

[Baldrick]

World War III- Part Four

"He who defends everything defends nothing."- Frederick the Great

Following the nuclear defeat at the Second Battle of Jena, the already precarious Soviet position tipped over the edge into the abyss of inevitable defeat. Everywhere one looked, the dam was bursting. The Chinese had liberated the ruins of Beijing, India was proving a useless ally, and the German front was on the verge of being cracked open. Nonetheless, Brezhnev refused to even admit that defeat might be imminent, fighting on at mounting cost and in spite of ever-increasing odds...

March 1, 1965: Once the full scale of the losses at the Second Battle of Jena become apparent to the Soviet public, a series of protests and demonstrations of varying degrees of violence break out in the cities of the USSR. They're viciously subdued by the Soviet police, but constitute an unwelcome symbol of what is to come...

Over the course of the first week of March 1965, similar protests break out in the Warsaw Pact capitals, which are suppressed with even greater brutality by the Soviet occupying forces.

While these protests carry on, the broken Communist armies are pushed back all along the front, as there are no effective substitutes for those units put into the Jena gamble from other sectors of the front.

In the Allied camp, there is now a debate on the best way to exploit the Jena victory. With the Soviet salient in West Germany collapsing by the day, opinion is divided on whether to advance to Berlin or Prague. The West Germans favour the former, while the British feel that the latter will be a softer target. In the end, the Americans side with the West Germans, and plans are drawn up to capture the East German capital.

March 6, 1965: Wolfsburg is liberated by the British, who are pleasantly surprised at the comparatively low casualties which they suffer

March 12, 1965: Operation Thumbtack is launched by the Americans and West Germans, an offensive designed to begin the process of isolating Berlin. Leipzig and Halle both fall after four days, and by the 20th, the West German-American force is situated 35 km from Potsdam.

Operation Thumbtack is accompanied by a smaller British offensive in northern Germany, which crosses the Elbe between Luneburg and Salzwedel, with the end goal of taking Rostock, both to divert Soviet troops and isolate still further the German capital

March 16, 1965: All along the Chinese front, a general offensive codenamed "Imperial Dragon" commences, designed to throw back the weary Red Army with waves upon waves of inexhaustible Chinese manpower. The exhausted Soviets fall back quickly, seeking only to retire to the pre-prepared positions in Manchuria which were built by Khruschev and Mao for the People's Republic of North China in the 1950s. More than one correspondent compares the Red Army's situation to that of the Wehrmacht following its catastrophic defeat in Operation Citadel. Zhangjiakou, Chengde, and Qinhuangdao all fall in short order, with remarkably low Chinese casualties, especially when compared to the losses in earlier battles.

April 1, 1965: In a stunning blow (dubbed in later years "the last Allied defeat of the war"), President Lyndon Johnson suffers a heart attack in the middle of the day, and rapidly slides into critical condition. He is hospitalised, and Vice-President Hubert Humphrey takes over the day-to-day running of both the government and the war. (1)

April 9, 1965: With the Anglo-American-West German force rapidly approaching Berlin, the first domino in the collapse of the Warsaw Pact falls. East German dictator Walter Ulbricht is arrested en route to a meeting of East German military leaders. He and several other major regime figures are thrown into prison, and attacks on the Russian garrisons of both East and West Berlin begin, the people all too glad to have a try at liberating themselves before the Allies arrive. Willi Stoph, Chairman of the Council of Ministers, declaring his intent to "pull a Donitz", proclaims himself leader, and calls on the East German army to placidly surrender. Although many are fearful of the reprisals of Allied troops for the various nuclear attacks on Allied cities, a decent number are willing to go over, especially to their Western brethren. However, these East Germans are not treated as co-belligerents, instead, they're thrown into prison camps. However, the treatment they receive is markedly better than that meted out to captured Russians...

In a fit of fury, Brezhnev has the various rubber-stamps left in Moscow declare war on East Germany, and fighting breaks out all over the country between East German and Soviet troops. He also gives orders that Berlin be destroyed with nuclear weapons as punishment. However, this order is deliberately "lost", and the Soviet dictator is informed that the city has been destroyed, later being shown a film of Beijing's destruction to fool him. Those left alive in the USSR who aren't total yes-men realise, now more than ever, that Brezhnev will have to be destroyed, or else a sea of nuclear fire will consume Russia...

Meanwhile, following East Germany's example, revolts break out in Poland, Hungary, Albania, Bulgaria, and Romania, as well as in the Baltic provinces of the USSR. Russian troops clash with those of their erstwhile puppets, and for the rest of the war, a guerilla fight will be waged between the Russians and the people to their rear, although the communist governments themselves will remain theoretically loyal. The East German fiasco prompts the Soviets to increase their troop presence in Shenyang, Changchun, and especially Harbin, to prevent Deng Xiaoping or anyone else attempting to do something similar in the Soviet Republic of Manchuria.

April 11, 1965: After the short, anticlimactic Second Battle of Berlin sees the Allies and people of Berlin expel the last Soviets remaining, East Germany formally surrenders to the Allies. Stoph is arrested, along with all of the regime heads, and- much against the will of plenty of Britons, West Germans, and Benelux- an amnesty for all East Germans who lay down their arms is announced. This last point is mostly acting President Humphrey's doing.

That same day, Lyndon Johnson experiences a small revival- he is able to make a televised five-minute announcement from his hospital bed, declaring his faith in Humphrey as acting president and praising the nation for fighting on. However, he is in no state to return to office, at least not yet.

April 14, 1965: In a daring move, US General Maxwell D. Taylor lands five divisions behind enemy lines at the Chinese port of Dalian, from where they rapidly advance to Shenyang. The Dalian bridgehead is rapidly reinforced with both American and Chinese troops, and the Allies stand poised to advance either into Korea to topple the Kim regime, or into the heart of Manchuria.

April 16, 1965: Italy, Yugoslavia, and Turkey all declare war on the Warsaw Pact, rushing troops into the Balkans and Caucasus

News of this is enough to provoke further the barely controlled turmoil in Moscow and other Soviet cities, with fresh rounds of riots breaking out. In the cities of the Warsaw Pact satellites, meanwhile, the chaos is far less controlled, with Soviet troops battling locals in the streets. The satellite armies, meanwhile, are in varying states of mutiny.

April 20, 1965: Following a long, hard month of advances after the Second Battle of Jena, the Allies pause to regroup on the Oder River. Now, a version of the old "broad front/narrow front" argument from World War II is resurrected, with some Allied commanders wanting to conquer Poland as the prelude to an advance into the USSR's heartland itself, while others want to remove the flanking threat posed by Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Proponents of the latter point to the need to relieve Yugoslavia, which is presently fighting on a wide front indeed.

April 23, 1965: Even as Italian and British troops stream into the country, Austria declares war on the Warsaw Pact.

April 28- May 18, 1965: Operation Sunrise is launched by a joint American-Chinese force, designed to utterly cripple the Soviet Republic of Manchuria. Over the course of three weeks, the pre-prepared defences are utterly swept away, as one city after another falls to the Chinese and Americans. When Harbin falls on May 10, Chairman Wang Ming has already fled to Russia, and Zhu De takes over the Soviet Republic of Manchuria, now little more than a guerilla force operating on the Russian border- just like the Chinese Communists just prior to the Second Manchurian Storm. State president (2) Deng Xiaoping, meanwhile, is captured and taken back to Nanjing.

May 3, 1965: After a long struggle, Lyndon Johnson finally expires, dying in his sleep at two AM. The next day, Hubert Humphrey is formally inaugurated as the 37th POTUS, with David Rusk as vice-president. In his inaugural address, President Humphrey calls on Brezhnev to surrender and pledges to "continue the fight until all the people of Eastern Europe and China are free"

May 7, 1965: In New Delhi, an important development occurs. Kandispal Vispoot is forcibly removed from power and a civilian government dominated by the Swatantra Party and the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, two covertly Chinese-backed pre-communism parties which went underground at the start of the Vispoot era, takes power. Within hours, an armistice with the Chinese and Pakistanis is requested and granted, with a peace treaty to be signed later on.

May 14, 1965: Operation Frederick (3) is launched. Frederick consists of a massive Allied assault across the Oder into Poland. The Red Army is driven back closer and closer to their homeland, and by this point, the Polish army is fighting pretty much on the side of the Allies. Insurgents have already liberated Warsaw by the time the Allies reach it, on May 20.

Meanwhile, the Baltic states go into revolt, as do the republics of the South Caucasus. Soviet troops are pulled from the now-forgotten Xinjiang front to quell the uprisings, with the result that Ma Bufang's troops are poised to enter Soviet Central Asia by the start of June.

With the Soviet Union collapsing in a way far more thorough than in the summer of 1941, and riots visible from the windows of their Kremlin offices, a certain cabal of Soviet apparatchiks have finally had enough...

On May 18, 1965, a clique of Soviet leaders who Brezhnev hadn't purged (and who weren't mindless yes-men)- Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers Dimitry Polyansky, Prime Minister of the Russian Soviet Federal Republic Gennady Voronov, and Yuri Andropov, together with a unit in the Moscow garrison willing to defect and a hefty helping of local rioters, mount a coup, arresting Brezhnev and several others major figures in the regime. The Allies are immediately contacted through the Swedish embassy, and a request for an armistice is granted...

World War III is over

Thoughts? Comments?
(1) As a great fan of David bar Elias' TL-191: After the End, I was quite pleased to find out that, as Johnson's VP, Humphrey (something of a hero in that TL) would get the presidency in TTL as well!
(2) Former state president Liu Shaoqi had died only a few weeks prior to the outbreak of WWIII, the result of his suffering in the Cultural Revolution
(3) Named after the medieval German prince Frederick Barbarossa, whose name Hitler used for his own invasion of the USSR. The Allies doing this in TTL is a way of casting two fingers at the Soviets, so to speak

 

[BlackDragon98]

World War III- Part Four

"He who defends everything defends nothing."- Frederick the Great

Following the nuclear defeat at the Second Battle of Jena, the already precarious Soviet position tipped over the edge into the abyss of inevitable defeat. Everywhere one looked, the dam was bursting. The Chinese had liberated the ruins of Beijing, India was proving a useless ally, and the German front was on the verge of being cracked open. Nonetheless, Brezhnev refused to even admit that defeat might be imminent, fighting on at mounting cost and in spite of ever-increasing odds...

March 1, 1965: Once the full scale of the losses at the Second Battle of Jena become apparent to the Soviet public, a series of protests and demonstrations of varying degrees of violence break out in the cities of the USSR. They're viciously subdued by the Soviet police, but constitute an unwelcome symbol of what is to come...

Over the course of the first week of March 1965, similar protests break out in the Warsaw Pact capitals, which are suppressed with even greater brutality by the Soviet occupying forces.

While these protests carry on, the broken Communist armies are pushed back all along the front, as there are no effective substitutes for those units put into the Jena gamble from other sectors of the front.

In the Allied camp, there is now a debate on the best way to exploit the Jena victory. With the Soviet salient in West Germany collapsing by the day, opinion is divided on whether to advance to Berlin or Prague. The West Germans favour the former, while the British feel that the latter will be a softer target. In the end, the Americans side with the West Germans, and plans are drawn up to capture the East German capital.

March 6, 1965: Wolfsburg is liberated by the British, who are pleasantly surprised at the comparatively low casualties which they suffer

March 12, 1965: Operation Thumbtack is launched by the Americans and West Germans, an offensive designed to begin the process of isolating Berlin. Leipzig and Halle both fall after four days, and by the 20th, the West German-American force is situated 35 km from Potsdam.

Operation Thumbtack is accompanied by a smaller British offensive in northern Germany, which crosses the Elbe between Luneburg and Salzwedel, with the end goal of taking Rostock, both to divert Soviet troops and isolate still further the German capital

March 16, 1965: All along the Chinese front, a general offensive codenamed "Imperial Dragon" commences, designed to throw back the weary Red Army with waves upon waves of inexhaustible Chinese manpower. The exhausted Soviets fall back quickly, seeking only to retire to the pre-prepared positions in Manchuria which were built by Khruschev and Mao for the People's Republic of North China in the 1950s. More than one correspondent compares the Red Army's situation to that of the Wehrmacht following its catastrophic defeat in Operation Citadel. Zhangjiakou, Chengde, and Qinhuangdao all fall in short order, with remarkably low Chinese casualties, especially when compared to the losses in earlier battles.

April 1, 1965: In a stunning blow (dubbed in later years "the last Allied defeat of the war"), President Lyndon Johnson suffers a heart attack in the middle of the day, and rapidly slides into critical condition. He is hospitalised, and Vice-President Hubert Humphrey takes over the day-to-day running of both the government and the war. (1)

April 9, 1965: With the Anglo-American-West German force rapidly approaching Berlin, the first domino in the collapse of the Warsaw Pact falls. East German dictator Walter Ulbricht is arrested en route to a meeting of East German military leaders. He and several other major regime figures are thrown into prison, and attacks on the Russian garrisons of both East and West Berlin begin, the people all too glad to have a try at liberating themselves before the Allies arrive. Willi Stoph, Chairman of the Council of Ministers, declaring his intent to "pull a Donitz", proclaims himself leader, and calls on the East German army to placidly surrender. Although many are fearful of the reprisals of Allied troops for the various nuclear attacks on Allied cities, a decent number are willing to go over, especially to their Western brethren. However, these East Germans are not treated as co-belligerents, instead, they're thrown into prison camps. However, the treatment they receive is markedly better than that meted out to captured Russians...

In a fit of fury, Brezhnev has the various rubber-stamps left in Moscow declare war on East Germany, and fighting breaks out all over the country between East German and Soviet troops. He also gives orders that Berlin be destroyed with nuclear weapons as punishment. However, this order is deliberately "lost", and the Soviet dictator is informed that the city has been destroyed, later being shown a film of Beijing's destruction to fool him. Those left alive in the USSR who aren't total yes-men realise, now more than ever, that Brezhnev will have to be destroyed, or else a sea of nuclear fire will consume Russia...

Meanwhile, following East Germany's example, revolts break out in Poland, Hungary, Albania, Bulgaria, and Romania, as well as in the Baltic provinces of the USSR. Russian troops clash with those of their erstwhile puppets, and for the rest of the war, a guerilla fight will be waged between the Russians and the people to their rear, although the communist governments themselves will remain theoretically loyal. The East German fiasco prompts the Soviets to increase their troop presence in Shenyang, Changchun, and especially Harbin, to prevent Deng Xiaoping or anyone else attempting to do something similar in the Soviet Republic of Manchuria.

April 11, 1965: After the short, anticlimactic Second Battle of Berlin sees the Allies and people of Berlin expel the last Soviets remaining, East Germany formally surrenders to the Allies. Stoph is arrested, along with all of the regime heads, and- much against the will of plenty of Britons, West Germans, and Benelux- an amnesty for all East Germans who lay down their arms is announced. This last point is mostly acting President Humphrey's doing.

That same day, Lyndon Johnson experiences a small revival- he is able to make a televised five-minute announcement from his hospital bed, declaring his faith in Humphrey as acting president and praising the nation for fighting on. However, he is in no state to return to office, at least not yet.

April 14, 1965: In a daring move, US General Maxwell D. Taylor lands five divisions behind enemy lines at the Chinese port of Dalian, from where they rapidly advance to Shenyang. The Dalian bridgehead is rapidly reinforced with both American and Chinese troops, and the Allies stand poised to advance either into Korea to topple the Kim regime, or into the heart of Manchuria.

April 16, 1965: Italy, Yugoslavia, and Turkey all declare war on the Warsaw Pact, rushing troops into the Balkans and Caucasus

News of this is enough to provoke further the barely controlled turmoil in Moscow and other Soviet cities, with fresh rounds of riots breaking out. In the cities of the Warsaw Pact satellites, meanwhile, the chaos is far less controlled, with Soviet troops battling locals in the streets. The satellite armies, meanwhile, are in varying states of mutiny.

April 20, 1965: Following a long, hard month of advances after the Second Battle of Jena, the Allies pause to regroup on the Oder River. Now, a version of the old "broad front/narrow front" argument from World War II is resurrected, with some Allied commanders wanting to conquer Poland as the prelude to an advance into the USSR's heartland itself, while others want to remove the flanking threat posed by Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Proponents of the latter point to the need to relieve Yugoslavia, which is presently fighting on a wide front indeed.

April 23, 1965: Even as Italian and British troops stream into the country, Austria declares war on the Warsaw Pact.

April 28- May 18, 1965: Operation Sunrise is launched by a joint American-Chinese force, designed to utterly cripple the Soviet Republic of Manchuria. Over the course of three weeks, the pre-prepared defences are utterly swept away, as one city after another falls to the Chinese and Americans. When Harbin falls on May 10, Chairman Wang Ming has already fled to Russia, and Zhu De takes over the Soviet Republic of Manchuria, now little more than a guerilla force operating on the Russian border- just like the Chinese Communists just prior to the Second Manchurian Storm. State president (2) Deng Xiaoping, meanwhile, is captured and taken back to Nanjing.

May 3, 1965: After a long struggle, Lyndon Johnson finally expires, dying in his sleep at two AM. The next day, Hubert Humphrey is formally inaugurated as the 37th POTUS, with David Rusk as vice-president. In his inaugural address, President Humphrey calls on Brezhnev to surrender and pledges to "continue the fight until all the people of Eastern Europe and China are free"

May 7, 1965: In New Delhi, an important development occurs. Kandispal Vispoot is forcibly removed from power and a civilian government dominated by the Swatantra Party and the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, two covertly Chinese-backed pre-communism parties which went underground at the start of the Vispoot era, takes power. Within hours, an armistice with the Chinese and Pakistanis is requested and granted, with a peace treaty to be signed later on.

May 14, 1965: Operation Frederick (2) is launched. Frederick consists of a massive Allied assault across the Oder into Poland. The Red Army is driven back closer and closer to their homeland, and by this point, the Polish army is fighting pretty much on the side of the Allies. Insurgents have already liberated Warsaw by the time the Allies reach it, on May 20.

Meanwhile, the Baltic states go into revolt, as do the republics of the South Caucasus. Soviet troops are pulled from the now-forgotten Xinjiang front to quell the uprisings, with the result that Ma Bufang's troops are poised to enter Soviet Central Asia by the start of June.

With the Soviet Union collapsing in a way far more thorough than in the summer of 1941, and riots visible from the windows of their Kremlin offices, a certain cabal of Soviet apparatchiks have finally had enough...

On May 18, 1965, a clique of Soviet leaders who Brezhnev hadn't purged (and who weren't mindless yes-men)- Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers Dimitry Polyansky, Prime Minister of the Russian Soviet Federal Republic Gennady Voronov, and Yuri Andropov, together with a unit in the Moscow garrison willing to defect and a hefty helping of local rioters, mount a coup, arresting Brezhnev and several others major figures in the regime. The Allies are immediately contacted through the Swedish embassy, and a request for an armistice is granted...

World War III is over

Thoughts? Comments?
(1) As a great fan of David bar Elias' TL-191: After the End, I was quite pleased to find out that, as Johnson's VP, Humphrey (something of a hero in that TL) would get the presidency in TTL as well!
(2) Named after the medieval German prince Frederick Barbarossa, whose name Hitler used for his own invasion of the USSR. The Allies doing this in TTL is a way of casting two fingers at the Soviets, so to speak

That was awesome.
It was similar in some aspects to the Red Dawn fic when Soviet control over the Warsaw Pact collapsed.
East Germany going down in 2 minutes and the WP armies in full mutiny.
At last, China's free!
That Dalian landing seems like a ITTL version of the Inchon landing though...