Plausibility Check: Soviet-American War breaks out during the Truman years.

Exactly what it says on the tin, how plausible is a war between the Soviet Union and the United States that begins sometime in the period we know as the Truman years? If the prerequisite is someone other than Harry Truman in the White House that's fine so long as the war begins in the time he was President historically.

Two possibilities come to mind immediately, but I'm unsure as to their plausibility.

1. Somehow, the Berlin Crisis leads to war.
2. Some sort of ultra escalated Korean War, in which the USSR officially enters the war on the side of the Chinese and North Koreans. This seems to verge on unbelievable implausibility, and if this idea is stupid I apologize.

Again both these ideas may be a bit unlikely, but I'm just testing the waters
 
Berlin crisis is a possibility, I think there is a TL about it somewhere on the site.

WW3 starting aver the Korean War is an unlikely hood.
 
Berlin crisis is a possibility, I think there is a TL about it somewhere on the site.

WW3 starting aver the Korean War is an unlikely hood.

The Korean War option was me pulling an ASB idea out of a hat, so I'm not going to attempt to argue that that outcome was ever in the cards, still I thought I'd test the waters to see just how absurdly unlikely that outcome is.
 
THe Korean war idea is interesting, but borderline implausible at best. The Berlin crisis idea is interesting, and easier, but I'm not sure it's probable either.
 
THe Korean war idea is interesting, but borderline implausible at best. The Berlin crisis idea is interesting, and easier, but I'm not sure it's probable either.

Change the Kremlin's leadership to someone less cautious about the whole "let's cause a third world war right after the second one" thing, other than that cooler heads will probably prevail. The Allies were flying within their designated air zones and intercepting their vessels is a ticket to a huge shit storm for the Soviet Union.
 
Just a quick question on Korea, how would the USSR react if General MacArthur was given a complete blank check to deal with China and North Korea as he saw fit? How does Stalin react to Mao getting nuked repeatedly? Though it's hard to see Stalin going to war to save Mao unless he was fearful that MacArthur and the American military were on the verge of invading the USSR itself.
 
Just a quick question on Korea, how would the USSR react if General MacArthur was given a complete blank check to deal with China and North Korea as he saw fit? How does Stalin react to Mao getting nuked repeatedly? Though it's hard to see Stalin going to war to save Mao unless he was fearful that MacArthur and the American military were on the verge of invading the USSR itself.

Stalin won't attack the US if America. There were already rifts starting to appear between the USSR and the PRC. If Mao gets himself nuked Stalin won't go looking to make war with the US. In my TL here, I have Stalin looking to canabalize the western regions of the PRC, of course this is not during the Truman years it is is a year later with MacArthur as President. But if the PRC falls apart Stalin will want to pick up some of the peices and their won't be much that the US or the RoC can do about it.
 
Stalin won't attack the US if America. There were already rifts starting to appear between the USSR and the PRC. If Mao gets himself nuked Stalin won't go looking to make war with the US. In my TL here, I have Stalin looking to canabalize the western regions of the PRC, of course this is not during the Truman years it is is a year later with MacArthur as President. But if the PRC falls apart Stalin will want to pick up some of the peices and their won't be much that the US or the RoC can do about it.

They can drop nukes on Stalin. Tell me the thought wouldn't go through President Mac's head. :rolleyes:
 
Have Roosevelt die six months earlier. Have Truman properly briefed for the Potsdam conference, so Stalin doesn't handle him like a puppet.

Alternatively, have Churchill win the 1945 election and retain his seat instead of being replaced by Clement Attlee. Stalin turned Attlee into his bitch too.

Instead of acquiring all of Eastern Europe with a few minutes of scowling and a raised eyebrow, he might have seen non-Soviet troops hanging around to ensure free elections. Add to that the fact that some countries had three governments - the one recognized by the West, the one recognized by the Soviets, and one or more elected locally.

Of them all, Poland would have been a key factor. Churchill openly criticized Attlee's performance at Potsdam. He said Britain had entered WWII to liberate Poland, and now they'd just turned them over to a different invader.
 
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