Potential Conflicts Following WWIII in 1962?

Vaporized

Banned
Civil disorder is the most prominent. China collapses back into civil war after the communist regime in Beijing is destroyed by American nuclear weapons. Military warlords fight for control of various nations. Juntas take over many parts of the planet taken up in the war.

Israel is probably destroyed and overrun. Most of the nations in the southern hemisphere remain intact. Civil disorder in the United States is curtailed by harsh military crackdown and martial law. I imagine federal troops having to stop riots, militias, armed gangs, and similar to restore order along main corridors of the nation.
 
My understanding is that the most likely outcome of the Cuban Missile Crisis going nuclear is a world war where the United States mainland gets through largely or completely unscathed, Western Europe ends up fairly badly mauled, and that the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact are knocked back to the Stone Age. With that in mind, there are several possibilities...
  • The People’s Republic of China will descend into chaos, and possibly another open civil war. Assuming that the Taipei government was not hit too badly, I could see the KMT making a move to recover at least some of the mainland with heavy US backing.
  • Certain hostile powers are going to pick at the edges of surviving European colonial empires sooner or later. Argentina will probably still try to invade the Falklands at some point, and quite possibly more successfully.
  • Other European colonies, such as Rhodesia and Portuguese Africa, could very well end up flooded with refugees. Along with the fact that the Soviets will not be around to support communist forces in the Third World, this will fundamentally alter the nature of the colonial conflicts in the coming decades. White minority regimes (albeit with a somewhat larger minority than in our timeline) may survive in Southern Africa until the present.
  • Postwar conflict in the ruins of the Eastern Bloc will quickly devolve into ethnic warfare by those desperate to claim the remaining good land for their kin - Croats against Serbs, Germans against Poles, Hungarians against Romanians. In the Soviet Union itself, though, many nationalities will probably just default into independence without a Moscow to stop them.
  • American-backed South Vietnam survives and potentially even conquers the north, as there are no significant communist powers to fund Hanoi or the Viet Cong.
  • North Korea collapses and the peninsula is reunited.
  • Arab states in the Middle East and North Africa perform even worse against Israel going forward.
 

marathag

Banned
Croats against Serbs, Germans against Poles, Hungarians against Romanians. In the Soviet Union itself, though, many nationalities will probably just default into independence without a Moscow to stop them.
From what I could determine, SAC and USN were not planning anything for Yugoslavia. Rest of the Warsaw Pact, you bet, but not them.
And the Germany, both East and West, would be in no shape to do anything except die in juge numbers, given how WWIII would pan out. survivors would try to flee, it would be far worse than what had gone on with the 30 years War.
Al that said, I believe the US would try to evac those from Europe but the size of that job is just stunning
 
There is no longer a United States capable of defending it.
Not in a 1962 War, USSR has very limited ability to hit the US in 1962, even in the worse case for the US, it is still intact, in the absolute best case the US may not have any nuclear detonations in the lower 48

Also Israel needed no help from the US in 1948, and in 1973 US aid din't arrive until after the Israeli's had achieved most of their goals and was countered by Soviet Aid
 
There is no longer a United States capable of defending it.

The Isreali's quite handily defeated in the Arabs even without US aid. Even in 73 the Isreali's weren't in any true danger of being driven into the sea and that was with the Arabs having 6 years to digest the lessons of 67 and a metric crap-ton of Soviet gear and advisors
 

Vaporized

Banned
Who takes control of the former nuclear stockpiles of the Soviet Union? After the war there probably is a call to eliminate all such weapons on the planet. Rogue groups find what remains of the Soviet arsenal and use them for terrorist attacks or political control. Watch former parts of the Soviet Union using nuclear weapons on each other to gain control over what remains of that nation or in China also when it's taken over by warlords.

Chinese expansion after the war into Siberia prompts India to develop nuclear weapons of its own as a check on China.
 

marathag

Banned
Busy conquering East and West Pakistan.
US is the sole Hyperpower who just finished dispatching most any country that had an overabundance of Red in it, and in 1962, They were still part of SEATO.
I wouldn't push it too far, givein that Nehru was playing a little too much Footsies with the USSR.
Fun Fact: the USSR transferred more Military gear to India, than they did to Mao. India could build the MiG-21 with Moscow's assistance, while Mao got the cold shoulder
Washington noticed that.

I think on November 1,1962, the US would let Nehru know that they were now on double secret probation
 

marathag

Banned
Who takes control of the former nuclear stockpiles of the Soviet Union? After the war there probably is a call to eliminate all such weapons on the planet. Rogue groups find what remains of the Soviet arsenal and use them for terrorist attacks or political control. Watch former parts of the Soviet Union using nuclear weapons on each other to gain control over what remains of that nation or in China also when it's taken over by warlords.

I think the USA would be 'inspecting' suspected Soviet stockpiles with H-Bombs for years to come. Just to make sure.

as it was, the Overkill was just crazy high, even with the modified SIOP in place.
 
Something I've long thought is that, given the realities of the geography and U.S. Air Defenses, Canada would probably eat several nukes while, as others have pointed out, the U.S. would at most take a handful. Wouldn't be surprised if, after the Winter of 1962-1963, the U.S. Army rolls North to re-establish order in Canada; might annex the place outright.
 
Something I've long thought is that, given the realities of the geography and U.S. Air Defenses, Canada would probably eat several nukes while, as others have pointed out, the U.S. would at most take a handful. Wouldn't be surprised if, after the Winter of 1962-1963, the U.S. Army rolls North to re-establish order in Canada; might annex the place outright.

If USSR is unable to cause serious damage to USA why they would have any better luck with Canada?
 
Argentina will probably still try to invade the Falklands at some point, and quite possibly more successfully.

The UK is likely to come out of the war pretty intact and still in possession of nuclear weapons. Not to mention that the Nuclear Genie just got let out of its bottle in a massive way. They try this and it will be getting quite hot in BA.

Something I've long thought is that, given the realities of the geography and U.S. Air Defenses, Canada would probably eat several nukes while, as others have pointed out, the U.S. would at most take a handful.

It would be more accurate, perhaps to say that the Soviets have a limited ability to hit North America, rather than the USA. In all likelihood the only nuclear weapons initiating over Canada will probably be AIR-2 Genie rockets.
 

marathag

Banned
Something I've long thought is that, given the realities of the geography and U.S. Air Defenses, Canada would probably eat several nukes while, as others have pointed out, the U.S. would at most take a handful. Wouldn't be surprised if, after the Winter of 1962-1963, the U.S. Army rolls North to re-establish order in Canada; might annex the place outright.
Nah, I don't think the USSR could get thru enough to knock out the Diefenbunker, though they might try.

And come on, they are Canadians-they would behave themselves:openedeyewink:
bomarc Sorry.jpg
 

Lusitania

Donor
What people Are not discussing is that while US will probably evade major destruction from nuclear bombs or missiles they will still be dealing with several coastal cities being destroyed. Then nuclear winter will descend on all of northern hemisphere. Radiation will be blown by winds and make its way to wards North America.
Secondly American, European harvest be devastated and fail for next decade. US and Canada, southern hemisphere be swamped by millions refugees.

remnants of Soviet Union and its vast army would seek refuge south into Iran, Iraq and so forth. The US be overwealned with its own internal security issues and dealing with refugees in North America, Japan snd Europe to fo anything about the rest of world problems.
 
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