Pacific Ordeal

Your TL's are always top class and this is no exception, although I can't really see what the Soviet strategy is here. They can (rightfully) deride the Japanese for their poor grasp of strategy but at the same time their entering into a relationship with an ally of convenience with an all too dubious paper trail. Even if they don't know the Japanese are having their mail read it would seem rather too risky for the potential reward.

That's the risk. The United States and britain *are* reading a lot of Japanese mail, especially diplomatic.

The Soviets had penetrated both governments to some degree, though it is less clear to me how much of MAGIC or PURPLE they knew about.
 

CalBear

Moderator
Donor
Monthly Donor
Your TL's are always top class and this is no exception, although I can't really see what the Soviet strategy is here. They can (rightfully) deride the Japanese for their poor grasp of strategy but at the same time their entering into a relationship with an ally of convenience with an all too dubious paper trail. Even if they don't know the Japanese are having their mail read it would seem rather too risky for the potential reward.
To a degree it is. Stalin is acting out of a sense of vengeance and anger more than anything logical. That, however, is far from unusual for him. He is angered beyond words at the fact that the Allies would accept a surrender without consulting him first and more angered in that he lost a significant portion of the territory and treasure he had hoped to acquire, including good portion of Germany itself (which, as an aside, the Russians retain to this day in Kaliningrad aka East Prussia). He sees the Japanese as a perfect scourge to use against the Westerners. He isn't thinking about blowback, and nobody who has thought of it would dare to say anything
 
:mad: I thought there was an update

Edit: Just use the search function to find posts by Calbear. I don't think there'll be a story-only thread until the timeline is finished.
 
We have a ban on necroing threads. Maybe there should be a ban on posts like this as well. Very similar to a necro...
 

BlondieBC

Banned
Question for Calbear. Will MacArthur be promoted posthumously to the grade of general of the army? There's precedent for this in OTL. At least three lieutenant generals (Lesley McNair, Simon Buckner and Alexander Patch) were posthumously promoted to four star rank in 1954, some years after their passing. I figure there would be a movement to elevate MacArthur, if only in death.

Also Admiral McCain in 1949. My best guess is that FDR/Congress would most likely promote both one rank within the year for domestic morale. After all, they both died in enemy action, in brave ways.
 
how is that necroing this thread is less than six months old and was last updated slightly less than 2 months ago by the arthur
 
To a degree it is. Stalin is acting out of a sense of vengeance and anger more than anything logical. That, however, is far from unusual for him. He is angered beyond words at the fact that the Allies would accept a surrender without consulting him first and more angered in that he lost a significant portion of the territory and treasure he had hoped to acquire, including good portion of Germany itself (which, as an aside, the Russians retain to this day in Kaliningrad aka East Prussia). He sees the Japanese as a perfect scourge to use against the Westerners. He isn't thinking about blowback, and nobody who has thought of it would dare to say anything

On the basis of how the German surrender was dealt with I can see why he'd want to undermine the Allies on this basis and perhaps even see the Japanese as the best way. You'd think that leveraging Soviet entry into the Pacific War against concessions in the Europe as in OTL would be the better way of doing so but I guess the Allies aren't to be trusted anymore. It's just that the methods seem a bit blunt in regards to handing over German weapons, too much of a paper trail for dubious impact as I mentioned rather than other roads that would arguably help the Japanese more; resources, industial machinery, intelligence, etc.
 
Top