No Soviet collapse in 1991, but a stronger USA

ninebucks

Banned
Iran disliked the Soviet true, but they hated the USA.

I assure you, it was the other way round.

Well, except for the Iranian Communists, who were actually quite a big force in the '70s, but as far as most everyone else was concerned, it was Russia that was the natural enemy of the Iranian state.
 
the US decided that the production models of the F-23 Black Widow II

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I assure you, it was the other way round.

Well, except for the Iranian Communists, who were actually quite a big force in the '70s, but as far as most everyone else was concerned, it was Russia that was the natural enemy of the Iranian state.

Um no ever since the 1953 CIA planned coup d'état the USA has been the ''Great Satan'' the USA was to Iran what the U.S.S.R was to the Warsaw Pact the puppet master.

Once the Shah was booted out it was the stars and stripes not the red banner getting burned in public. I had it right the first time.;)
 
If you read the declassified sections of Star Wars it seems pretty clear that particle beams (be them charged or neutral), lasers, x-ray bomb-pumped lasers, and so forth were all on a time horizon for the 21st century.

On the other hand ground based weapons plus orbiting Brilliant Pebbles would be eminently feasible (the ground based stuff, actually, would have been doable in the late '50s—see MKSheppard's The Big One timeline elsewhere for technical detail) and it wouldn't have been too much work for stuff for Project Thor.

So, yeah, I'll shoot holes in the energy weapons but Brilliant Pebbles would suffice for your needs. You're certainly not going to put an energy weapon in the F-23, though. (Ooh, do we get a naval F-23 to replace the F-14 instead of the lousy Super Hornet?)


If you want to save the USSR in some form beyond a broken down Gibson Neuromancer style shell, they really need a lot of work. I'm not sure they could be saved, starting in 1979, but 1987 is certainly too late.
 

ninebucks

Banned
Um no ever since the 1953 CIA planned coup d'état the USA has been the ''Great Satan'' the USA was to Iran what the U.S.S.R was to the Warsaw Pact the puppet master.

Once the Shah was booted out it was the stars and stripes not the red banner getting burned in public. I had it right the first time.;)

You have to realise that Iran shared a border with the USSR. The reason there were no red flags burnt in 1979 was because everyone was scared shitless of the Soviets. People demonstrated their anger against the USA because they knew the USA wouldn't be able to do anything, but when countries neighbouring the USSR voiced opposition they got invaded, and very brutally repressed.

Anti-Americanism was an elite vice in Iran, espoused only by the hardline Islamists. But fear and loathing of the Soviet Bear was universal.
 
You have to realise that Iran shared a border with the USSR. The reason there were no red flags burnt in 1979 was because everyone was scared shitless of the Soviets. People demonstrated their anger against the USA because they knew the USA wouldn't be able to do anything, but when countries neighbouring the USSR voiced opposition they got invaded, and very brutally repressed.

Anti-Americanism was an elite vice in Iran, espoused only by the hardline Islamists. But fear and loathing of the Soviet Bear was universal.

Seems like an irrational fear the Soviets weren’t likely to move into Iran unless there was a successful communist coup (KGB backed or not), and powerful neighbours like the USSR tend to be resented by weaker nations,

But it was the USA who had actively interfered in Iran’s government by aiding in the overthrow of a democratically elected government in 1953
 

Dr.Hyde

Banned
I've been gone for a very very long time, sorry about the hiatus. (The then girlfriend arrived back from her rotation in Mexico and my mind was on other things than AH) I return triumphantly, now unemployed, happily single, and loafing around until law school starts (Hooray!)

Here goes with a continuation of this timeline...

Attempts by the US President to reach the Premier of the Soviet Union via the hot line have failed so far. No incursions by Soviet forces beyond the Iron Curtain have been reported, but all NATO forces remain on high alert. Iranian forces have advanced as far as Al Kut and Arab League forces fear an attempted breakout towards Baghdad. The US has launched all 8 space shuttles to deploy brilliant pebbles into orbit to defend its space-based assets with highest priority assigned to all SDI stations. Sattelite recon data suggests heavy activity near Baikonour and an unusually large launch vehicle. Flights of F-15's equipped with ASM-135 missiles are on airborne alert being in-air refuelled in nearly all friendly territories to deliver retaliatory strikes on Soviet space assets should another attack occour. The Soviet Union stuns the world with the announcement that a new Premier has come to power: Vladimir Putin. Premier Putin has announced that the recent attacks in orbit are not the work of the Soviet Union's current government and that the guilty parties have been liquidated. Putin has demanded that the Supreme Ayatollah of Iran meet him in Switzerland to discuss precisely what happened with the Iranian cosmonaut on board the Almaz station.
 
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