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one of the well known themes for AH is the Cuban Missile Crisis blowing up into full scale war (the novel "Resurrection Day" is a fine example). Was it a given that the war would go nuclear? I've often wondered just how the war would go if it did come to blows... would the USSR automatically throw their country into the fire over Cuba? Is it a given that the US would send in the Marines to try to take them out (it seems unlikely that anyone would think they could move fast enough)? The POD I have in mind here is that the (presumed) US air strikes take out all the missile sites in Cuba (something extremely hard to do, but not an impossibility). What then? Does the USSR automatically go nuclear, or swallow their losses, or maybe decide to negotiate now, and try it again later after things have calmed down?
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