Slow Drift to War Europe 1984

RAUNCHEL All three factions will play politics from now all through the whole crisis mostly take the low road. Sooner or later all sides will out of maneuver room.
 
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Sorry about not replying sooner work got in the way, your right sooner or later maneuver no one will have any room to maneuver the question is how soon.
 
May 10th Moscow

Gorbachev was in a good mood Ogarkov article in the Red Army paper the Red Star. It had much of the rest of the Soviet army up in arms. He was planning to go after Ogarkov for his unsoviet like tendencies. Gorbachev was going to accuse Ogarkov of attempting to turn the Soviet into an elitist organization by reducing the overall size of the military. But most importantly he would gut that bastard Romanov for once and for all. It was a pity that Ogarkov was an ally of Romanov is he had any sense he would be his ally. They both wanted to reform the system but reformer or not he had to go. Then he would turn his attention to removing Grishin as a rival for power.

Grishin had also spoken to Chernenko about Ogarkov but while he wanted the position of General Secretary. He also knew perfectly well that if Ogarkov was removed then Romanov would not be a player and Gorbachev would then go after him and for the moment he was not ready to be Gorbachev sole rival for the position of General Secretary. He needed more time to build up his strength; later on he would help Gorbachev get Ogarkov. But for now he needed Romanov strong enough to keep Gorbachev mind on Romanov and not on him. He was a patient man and he remembered his mother always preaching that patience was always a virtue.



As he left the meeting of the Politburo Gorbachev was feeling very frustrated, Grishin who should have back him to remove Ogarkov had instead merely criticized Ogarkov article. While Ustinov had made it quite clear that while he did not agree with Ogarkov’s article, he did make it quite clear that in general he had the same desire to modernize but in a different fashion. The truth was that while Chernenko leaned to supporting Gorbachev as the next General Secretary, he was not willing remove Ogarkov just because Gorbachev wanted him removed. What Gorbachev did not know was that Ustinov’s and Grishin’s warnings about Gorbachev machinations had made Chernenko paranoid as hell about what Gorbachev was up to. So Chernenko made it clear to Gorbachev that he was still the Parties General Secretary and that Gorbachev needed to remember that.

So Gorbachev resolved that the next time he had a chance to take down Ogarkov. He would be able to prove that Ogarkov had really done something wrong. Such as Ogarkov not accepting the decision by Chernenko to spend more on civilian goods and not on military spending. Gorbachev also had a hunch that despite being friendly Chernenko really did not trust him totally either. Gorbachev decided hewould do well not to do anything that might cause Chernenko to become paranoid about him. If he did then he and not Romanov would be the one to go.



Grigory Romanov was in a better mood; his most important ally had not been removed. But he did not believe for a second that Gorbachev would stop his efforts to get Ogarkov. Grigory was a bit annoyed that his ally had put himself in a position that made a target out of him. But what was done was done, what was surprising was that Grishin had not gone after Ogarkov to but Romanov also knew that Grishin would go after Ogarkov when it suited him. For the time being he would continue to find allies and prepare of his grab for power.



Ogarkov was not so happy he wanted to reform the Soviet Military give the technology necessary to protect it from the Americans and their allies. Sooner or later their technological advantage would be so great that the Soviet Union would not be able to defend itself. He had tried by getting the military budget increased and he had been blocked. Then he had proposed reducing the size of the Soviet army and he had been blocked again. He resolved to continue his fight to reform and improve the Soviet Military even if it meant the end of his career. But for now his chosen approach would be to support Romanov in his quest to become the next General Secretary of the Soviet communist party. Romanov had promised to give him the money he needed.

Berlin
Various ideas had been considered to show the inevitability of the German Democratic Republic. To have a massive rally with thousands of participants and displays of military power had been done. They wanted something different they wanted to also intimidate people on both sides of the Berlin Wall and Inner Border. They decided that emphasizing the discipline of East Germany and the chaos of West Germany. They would emphasize that the internal dissidents were no match for the Stasi. They would show that the Stasi controlled East Germany for the communist party. Then Honecker would emphasize the divisions inside West Germany and the groups of dissidents opposed to the new American Nuclear weapons being based in West Germany.

He would tell the world and both Germany’s that in the end the West German government would collapse to their demands. Then West Germany would see the light and join both Germany’s together in the benevolent protection of the Soviet Union. Now they had to pick a site for the speech but they did not necessarily need a large number of people to be there. All they really needed was to have the story appear on both East and West Germany TV. The idea was to intimidate the troublemakerss But Honecker and Meilke both felt that doing this event in sight of the Berlin Wall was important since they wanted to make sure everyone understood that the Berlin Wall would still be standing when West Germany was in collapse. The question now was where to hold the event.
 
May 13
It was like any other day in Murmansk the city was going about its business and the Northern Fleet was engaged in its usual routine. Then a massive blast occurred tons of debris flying skyward and as a thunderous blast shattered windows across the city with a massive black cloud going skyward. The sound and the sight of the black cloud caused many people in the city to think that a nuclear weapon had went off. It was not a nuclear blast but something much worse for the Northern Fleet. The storage facilities for the surface to air anti-aircraft missiles of the nine hundred stored in the site almost six hundred were destroyed along with most of their spare parts. Of the four hundred or so anti-ship missiles stored in that facility near three hundred were destroyed and over two hundred were dead and many more were wounded. The Northern Fleet was effectively defanged.

May 15 Moscow

It had taken a day or two for the full ramifications of what had happened up in Murmansk but now the Politburo knew just how bad the explosion had been. The Politburo was looking for blood they wanted someone punished. But as Gorbachev had pointed out the person responsible for the catastrophe was most likely dead. But he agreed that an inquiry should be done to find out what had happened. Washington

Ronald Reagan was listening to a very important briefing about the democratic primary, Mondale and Hart were going at it hammer and tongs. The odds were that Mondale would win but his weakness in the primaries had not gone unnoticed by the Reagans campaign staff. Hart should have be taken out early on and the fact that he had lasted so long made it clear to them that Mondale was much more vulnerable than a lot of people on the democratic side would like to admit.

Huron South Dakota
Ed was in a good mood the wheat and barley were in the ground and he was starting on the corn. But what really put him in a good mood was that John would be flying in to Sioux Falls on Saturday he would catch a plane out of Frankfurt for JFK and from there to Minneapolis and then to Sioux Falls. Ed was just short of being midway through his deployment, he could have taken his leave in Europe but he had decided to come home for his leave. Then he would be headed back to rejoin his unit for the next year of his tour. Ed had been a grunt in the Eight ID, when he was in Germany back in fifty-six and seven. So he was going to quiz John on what Germany was like now compared to them. The fact that the Krauts were being allowed to form an army had not been very popular when he had been serving in Europe with a lot of them men in his unit had lost family to the Germans during the war include Ed’s family.



Kansas
Mike Harper had a phone call the date he was to testify before the House Agricultural Committee on June 19th and on the 20th he had been invite to a party being held by the National Association of Famers COOPS were holding for some visiting members farmers that same evening. A variety of Congressmen and Senators would be attending and the Farmers National COOP had decided that having the people who testified also coming to the meeting would be a good idea and Mike agreed to stay for the added days. A hotel room had been arranged for him from the 18th of Jun to his leaving on the 21st.
 

Raunchel

Banned
A great update. The loss of all those missiles can make some people very paranoid about their current weakness.
 
16/17 May Washington DC President Reagan listened to the daily intelligence briefing and the news about the explosion in Murmansk had been the highpoint of the briefing. The question was just how much damage had been done the word was the brits thought it would crippled the Northern Fleet for months while his own intelligence people thought it would be a matter of a month or two. But the problem was that no one in NATO knew the answer and the Russian were obviously not talking.

Then the briefing turned to another problem the hunt for a spy ring inside the United States Army someone highly placed was handing over critical secret documents of such a sensitive nature the whole NATO defensive posture was threatened. The CIA had received reports that the NATO War Plans has been in the hands of the Soviet Union possibly since nineteen-seventy-nine. They knew the Hungarians were running the ring that bit of information had come from a new informant in the Hungarian Military who had been involved in studying the intelligence gathered by an Hungarian Spy Ring. They also knew that the source had to be in Seventh Corp but who they did not know exactly who. But the degree of paranoia over who to trust was making the investigation a slow effort. But slowly but surely the list of potential traitors were being narrowed down.

Leningrad

The Frunze leaves the port of Leningrad on its way to Vladivostok with stops at Luanda Angola and Maputo Mozambique.

18 May Brussels Belgium
Supreme Allied Command Europe, Gen Bernard Rogers was listening to a briefing that was extremely disturbing. The CIA had someone who had informed them that a spy one who had been operation for nearly a decade. The reports were that the agent had access to all sorts of classified information. Top Secret and even Cosmic that meant nuclear secrets had been handed over to the Soviet Union.

What was worse that the traitor had given the Hungarians all of the NATO War Plan’s. They had been told the reason the Hungarian informant decided to betray his side was because he was afraid that in case of war NATO would have the choice to either use nuclear weapons or surrender.

So the informant had decided to let the Americans know just how bad the situation was for them. General Rogers considered what he had been told and he looked at the senior officers in the room they were from France, West Germany and the United Kingdom. They looked like they had been hit in the stomach. But one thing was fore sure they had to come up with a complete new set of War Plans in short notice.

So the mood to say the least was grim, then General Rogers told the men, **We have no choice but to do what we as fast as we can. But with the current leaks we don’t dare let to many people into the secret. We don’t want the Soviet Union finding out that we know that they know our War Plans. Major General Archibald Bertram who was also a movie buff commented, **Well sir, we know that they know but we don’t want them to know we know.** General Rogers sat looking at him and he smiled and he replied, **That is the general idea, General.**

Then a smiling General Bertram commented, **We don’t need a complete plan since our plans our based on our initial setup and if we vary our initial setup then all of our forces will have to shift positions. So what we need to do if figure out where we want the divisions setup. Then we can do a rough outline of where the support units will setup. Then we can go back and figure out how the brigades will setup. After that we can start on the battalions. It will only take a few weeks to get the first part of the plan done. For the time being we will have to allow them the liberty to setup their forces as the unit commander see fit.**

General Bertram paused for a breath before going on, **But for the moment I suggest that if a crisis happens before the new plan is completed. Until then we plan on having our troops setup on the fallback position immediately behind of current main line of resistance. That is the position that our rearguard would hold while our main force falls back to the next main line of resistance. It is true that we have no set plans for the positions but it would surprise the hell out the Russians and make them think twice. Besides our boys should be good enough to put together a pretty good defense in a short time and the longer the crisis lasts the better the positions will be. I know it’s a gamble but what choice do we have. **

Then Bertram pulled up a map of the Seventh Corp with the first fallback position marked out. Then he told the other offices in the room, **Yes I know that all we have is a line of circles telling us the general area each individual brigade rear guard is supposed to hold. But for the moment this is what our war plan should be.**

The other officers in the room looking more than a little upset looked at the map and considered what General Bertram suggested. General Rogers considered what Bertram was suggested, **In the original plan every position right down to the location of every single foxhole had been previously designated with regular studies to see if it was necessary to move a foxhole or a support weapon. To really on the competence of a second lieutenant on his first tour was a bit unsettling.

Finally General Rogers replied, **Well World War Three will not breakout anytime soon. But we must have at least some sort of a plan. General Bertram if we will do what you suggest the first fallback position will be our new front line.** General Rogers considered what General Bertram had said the first fallback position was not a prepared position it was just series of circles on a map that formed a line. But he was the man in charge and he was supposed to make the big decisions and this was a big one.

General Rogers took a deep breath and he told the officers in the room, **As far as I can see it we have no choice the first fallback position is the temporary frontline of the Central Front if it comes to war. General Bertram, I expect that senior and trusted officers from the various nations in NATO are to be included in the planning. All they need to be told at this time is that we are considering a complete revamp of the old War Plans. So this is the first phase of a study to carry out the plan. Is that clear to everyone in the room. We need to avoid causing a panic, but we will need to brief the most senior political leaders of NATO. But we are going to have a new plan, it may take a while to put it together but at least the current one will be a surprise to the Russians as well as just about everyone else in our command structure.**
 
19 May
Betty Simkowsky was looking at the rest of the people in the room, with the warmer weather she and the rest of her group getting ready to protest that fascist Reagan and his war mongering policies. Winter was not a good time of the year for Anti-Nuclear Protests but as summer approached the weather would much be better for outdoor protests. She was here with several people to discuss their part in a demonstration to be held on Memorial Day. The plan was simple a few speeches, then they would march from the Governor Tom McCall Waterfront park to the Edith Green Wendell Wyatt Federal Building and then they would stage a die in. Everyone agreed to the plan and the meeting broke up.

Pentagon
Lt. General McCook frowned as he went over the details of the practice mobilization they were holding. He had made a change from the original plans, the Sealift command ships located in Charleston harbor were to be brought into service five day before the Army / National Guard were too showed up. His hypothesis was that the President had activated the Sealift command before going so far as to order Reforger. Some people disagreed with his decision but he was the general in charge and it was going to be done his way. That way the Guard would arrive to the sight of the 24th being shipped off. It would make the drill look and feel like the real thing. He had also gotten authorization to pay overtime to the Longshoreman. This drill was going to look as realistic as possible. He had a good feeling that Neap Tide the convoy side of Slam Dunk would be a success.

May 23rd Huron South Dakota
Ed and Martha were waiting when flight came in and John was wearing his dress uniform and he looked good in it. Ed had to admit his boy looked a lot more like a man. During the trip home Martha and the children brought John up to date with local gossip and news. Ed would wait for another time to find out about Germany.
 
May 25/26 East Berlin East Germany
General Secretary Honecker looked at his itinerary, on Friday the Fifteenth of June, Erich Mielke the minister of State Security had an event planned at a location within sight of the Berlin Wall several members of the Stasi and the Border Guards were to be decorated and he had agreed to give some of the decorations. He had insisted that both the Economic Secretary Gunther Mittag and Joachim Herrman the Agitation and Propaganda Secretary would be there. Also the senior KGB officer in East Germany Lt General Alexander Sabitov would there to put the seal approval from the Soviet Union. Several hundred enthusiastic supports of the regime as well as the senior leadership of the Stasi were on hand, it would be an impressive event. Locating the event so close to the Berlin Wall was also a message to everyone on both sides that it and the German Democratic Republic was there to stay. There had been some comments about not being able to properly secure the other side of the border. But Honecker and Mielke would not hear about changing the location. Honecker wanted that border in sight so that when he gave his speech he could point to it and tell East Germany how the Berlin Wall and the Inner Border protected them from a hostile west. At the same time letting them know who was in charge. While Mielke thought the celebration just on this side of the Wall, would show the West Germans who were in charge in East Germany. Besides both Honecker and Mielke were quite sure no one dare try anything.



East Berlin Stasi Headquarters
To say the West Berlin police were unhappy was putting it mildly the East Germans in their mania for secrecy had not even told anyone about Honecker handing out decorations at a location so near the wall. The East German had picked what they called an appropriate open area for the people attending. What was worse was that the East Germans had announced where and when the event was being held before even telling them. None of the West Berlin police were impolite enough to comment that the Stasi should have told them sooner about the plan so that they could have looked the area over before press report.

After the meeting while the West Berlin Police were leaving Stasi Headquarters, two of the Stasi briefers were quietly talking. They had seen the reaction of the West Berlin Police and one of them took a quick look around and he told the other officer who was a good friend.** I have to admit that they are right, this is just the sort of event that could blow up in our faces. As for being an event that will intimidate anyone in either West Berlin or West Germany is laughable. As for our own population they have been so beat down it is hard to see how we can beat them down any more.**

The other officer took another look around and he replied, **True but who is going to tell Honecker or Milche for that matter that this event is a waste of time. You? ** The other officer just shook his head and walked away. To stand around talking together for too long might get someone suspicious and that would be an even closer level of surveillance. Something no one in his right mind in East Germany would encourage that. Especially since the investigators might get bored and create evidence to show that the mission had indeed discovered some sort of conspiracy.

West Berlin
Gunther Myers had been only twelve when his family had fled across the border when they crossed the border guards and fired on then and his little sister Anna had been the only one hit. She had died in his arms crying, he had promised to her that nothing would happen to her when they crossed the border and he had allowed her to die. He had kept that guilt buried deep inside of him looking for a release now he had it. The East German Government had announced that Honecker would be decorating members of the Stasi for breaking up conspiracies against the state. At a location within sight of the Berlin Wall, they press report had stated where and Gunther was now considering his options.

Gunther had done a little hunting prior to his service in the Bundeswehr during training he had shown his superiors just how good a shot he was. He impressed them so much that had been trained to become a sniper. He had in fact been trained by some of the best snipers in the US Marine Corp. That had been a privilege since at the time the Americans had the most current combat experience. After his service in the Bundeswhehr he picked up a hunters permit and he had just one rifle and one pistol in his possession. He did not want to arouse any suspicion of what he had planned.

He had a K98K, it was accurate and reliable, and especially with the scope he had mounted on it. He had five shots for one or maybe two targets was enough, to make sure that no one would be incline to suspect him he only kept at most one box of ammo with maybe a few extra rounds in the apartment. Then a thought occurred to him Dieter Bohn also had the same burning hatred of the communists that ran East Germany. Maybe he would want to help get Honecker and maybe a few others.

When Gunther talked to Dieter and he was immediately enthusiastic. So much so that he actually told Gunther, **You’re being too conservative we can kill a lot more of those bastards. The first shots we can take our time on but after that we do a mad minute or mad however long as a living body of one of those STASI bastards in sight or until we run out of ammo.** Gunther sat back in his chair as he considered what Dieter had told him and he liked the idea. The only problem was that they needed a place from which to carry out the sniper attack. That night Gunther went home and he prayed to God asking for him to intervene. He asked God to allow him to be Gods instrument of destruction of the Satan spawn who ran East Germany.
 
May 27th Huron South Dakota

The day before Memorial day Ed was sitting in back of the house under a large tree with family and friends gathered around. The men and boys were outside talking about crops, weather, sports, and politics. Or the old days whether it was from the dirty thirties or maybe later. They talked and drank beer waiting for the food to be ready and then they would eat roast beef and fried chicken not to mention various other casseroles and salads made by the women as well as several pies. John talked about Germany while Ed and some of the other men who had served in the military at one time or another nodded and talked about their experiences. The only man here who had actually seen any combat was Great Uncle Ralph, he had served in the First World War. He had seen plenty of combat at St. Mihiel and later in the Meuse-Argonne. He had seen plenty of action and he talked about having in in several gas attacks. He had no lost love the Huns as he called them. Even less for them since world war two when his eldest boy, had died in Normandy.

The one subject the farmers came around to was would the Russians be buying grain this year. If they did then it would be a good year. Even the hard core democrats cursed Carter and his damned embargo. Friends and relatives had lost farms over that and such memories died hard with them. The hard core democrats might vote democratic this year but none of the rest of the Farmers there were in mood for that.

Despite all of his talk about the Russians, Reagan had done nothing to discourage them from buying grain from America. That alone made him even more popular with many in the farming community, now it was wait and see about what the Russian would do next. The hope was that they would by a lot of grain. One man commented that if the damned Russians just behaved themselves then things would be good. That comment gained a note of agreement, while they did not mind selling the Russian grain but at the same time they all knew that Russia was not a friend of the United States.
 
May 28TH Portland Oregon

Betty Simkowsky was a little disappointed it the number of attendees it was fewer than they had hope for but still the people who were there made up for it with enthusiasm. While the TV reporters made sure that their point of view was relayed to the local population. The die in had been carried out with plenty of enthusiasm and the leaders of this protest were already talking about another in a few weeks.

Pretoria South Africa
At the American embassy in South Africa, they were holding a memorial day celebration. Ericka was not going to be at the party apparently her uncle had let her father know that she was running around with an American diplomat so she was keeping a low profile for a while. So Alan was mixing with the crowd and he stopped to talk to Conrad Els he had met through Erika, he was now supposedly a diplomat but he had served up north in the fighting a few years before. He had some interesting stories to tell nothing earth shattering but interesting. Conrad was smiling when he saw Alan and he told him that he had heard about Erika’s uncle telling her father about Alan. Conrad had found out that Ericka being of a marriageable age and her father not liking the crop of young men living in near the farm had decided to send Ericka to Pretoria find a more suitable husband. Instead she had taken up with an American Diplomat and her uncle was not one bit happy about it.



Conrad was both a member of the diplomatic service and the security service so he had been happy to encourage the relationship. While he had no expectation of turning Alan into a spy or anything like that, he was a useful contact. He had found out that Alan like to talk about his job and the people inside now while none of the information was classified much less secret but it was interesting. The person he told was Erika and since Conrad had shown nothing but a brotherly interest in her and had not been judgmental about her relationship with Alan. She had been quite open about what Alan had said and when she was around Alan was a bit more open to gossiping with Conrad. Conrad liked to talk gossip especially with someone who did not exaggerate what was happening.
But at the same time Conrad had been feeding accurate information to Alan so that Alan would look good. It gave Conrad a point of view about what was happening the inside of the Embassy who was and who was out, as well as who was or was not a real friend of South Africa. Unfortunately Alan was not a friend of South Africa but Conrad could live with that fact. But unlike a lot of the diplomats he had no bad habits that allowed Conrad to use against him and that actually made Conrad happy. He did not like to associate with some of the diplomats since they had tastes that repulsed him.

Since Erika had been keeping her distance from Alan he had been less forth coming about what was going on inside the embassy. Conrad smiled and leaned closer to Alan and he commented, “You know a mutual acquaintance of ours is going to be at that bar down the street tonight after ten.” Alex immediately lit up and he thanked Conrad for that bit of information. Then the two men started to talk small talk at first, later on Conrad commented about the the pending arrival of the Frunze and the fact that members of the ANC would be in Luanda Angola to welcome Russian warship. Alan first asked, **Is my comment off the record.** Conrad replied, **I will not mention your name at all or your comments specifically.** Strangely enough Alan trusted Conrad to keep his word. **The State department is pissed, they have told the ANC that they need to steer a more neutral course in world affairs. That we want majority black rule and they need to be patient.** Conrad nodded his head as he considered what he had been told, his interpretation was that the ANC was making it easier for the Reagan Administration to make nice with the South African government in order to keep the flow of strategic materials to the United States.

Conrad then commented, **So Reagan’s policy of Constructive Engagement will continue.** Alan nodded his head but he said nothing but Conrad was right Reagan could claim that the close relationship that the ANC and Russians had was a sure sign of its communist tendencies. So a gradual approach to the transfer of power to the black majority under the guidelines of Constructive Engagement. Those state department officials that supported more drastic measures to bring about the end of Apartheid would have to shut up for a while. At least until the memory of the Frunze’s visit faded somewhat. But for Conrad it was clear that the white South African government had gained more time to find a way to keep control. For Conrad the idea of black majority rule was anathema to him.



Then Alan commented he needed to do a bit of mingling along the way he paused to say a few nice things to another South African officials wife, Alan was a whiz a noticing little things like hairdos and the like. He could have a woman smiling ever so happily that he had noticed it and complimented her on it.

Conrad resolved that Ericka was going to have an American boyfriend at least until Alan was reassigned. An uncle would have to understand that it was for the good of South Africa even if it meant her losing her cherry. Her father would be told that she involved in security operations and what she was involved in was for the good South Africa or Conrad assumed she and Alan were doing. For a variety of reasons he had not bugged either her or Alan’s apartment.



Ericka sat in the bar she was in a rebellious mood, her Uncles’ attitude about her dating the American annoyed her. He had accused her of sleeping with Alan. She was not a little girl and she could take care of herself. She was nobody’s fool. As for sleeping with Alan well that would come if and when she felt like it and not one minute before she decided to. She valued her virginity and she was not going to give to just anyone and that man would have to jump through more than a few hoops for her before she would let them have it.

West Berlin
Gunter met Dieter at a bar and while having a beer with him Dieter confided in Gunter. An Aunt of his was going to visit family in West Germany. So she needed someone to stop by and feed her fish and Dieter had volunteered. The apartment she lived in was one street back from and on the third floor of the building. There had been a building in front of it but it had burned down and from the apartment they had a good view of where to event would be held. Furthermore while the house had a good view of the site, the Guard Towers. The building that should have kept apartment from seeing the location of the event had burned down. So the ability of the Border Police to shot back would be limited now they had a perfect spot to carry out the attack. Now it was looking more and more likely that Honecker and his allies would pay a price for their crimes against humanity and their families. Dieter paused for a second as he considered a thought, then he spoke, “Honecker must be getting unbelievably arrogant if I was a security officer I would be telling him this is a very bad idea.” Gunther smiled and he replied, “I don’t care why he making the speech here all I care about is putting a bullet through his thick skull.

May 31st

The Frunze arrives in Luanda Angola to the enthusiastic welcome from the Angolans, the ANC and the Cubans. The next three days hundreds of people would see the proof of the power of the Soviet Union. Newspapers and Radio in Angola proclaimed that the South Africans days were numbered. While in South Africa on TV, the radio and newspaper’s there were virulent news stories, commentary and editorials. All decrying the communist threat to southern Africa with the America and the wests refusal to face the facts. All the front pages of all the papers in South Africa showing photos of the Frunze at anchor in the port of Luanda, Angola.
 
Peace Happiness PART 3

June 1st Washington
Ronald Reagan started his trip to Europe, going first to Ireland to visit his ancestral home and to speak to the Irish parliament. The trip is designed to build up his foreign affairs credentials. But also he is going to show off his ancestral roots to his fellow Americans of Irish ancestry.

Pretoria South Africa
Ericka was in a really good mood apparently for some reason her uncle had mellowed out about Ericka and Alex. She was not quite sure why but she commented that she was sure that Conrad had something to do with it. Alex was a bit concerned that Conrad was taking such an interest in his relationship with Ericka. But he decided not to worry her but he would talk to Jake about his relationship with Ericka and Conrad’s apparent interest in it.


Huron South Dakota
Ed watched John drive off in the family car, he and Martha had pretty much turned him loose with it. They had decided that since he had been gone for so long would need to make up for lost time by seeing all of his friends who were still around. But they had had some quality time with the family. John had become a bit of a shuttle bug so he had brought back a ton of pictures. Ed had recognized some of the locations as places he had been to during maneuvers. He had even recognized the some of the bars he had been to back when he had been in Germany.

That had brought back old memories of his German girlfriend Anja, she had been a blast and that brought back pleasant memories. But he did not comment on them since, Martha would not have been too happy about his old girlfriends. Especially since he had been going with Martha before he left for Germany and she had written him all the while he had been over in Germany.

June 2nd Pretoria South Africa


Jake considered what he had been told by Alan, He knew that Conrad was not just a diplomat he was also a member of the South Africa’s internal security. His job was to keep an eye on the activities of diplomats and if possible suborn them. Apparently Conrad had good reasons to keep Alan’s relationship with Ericka going. Jake smiled to himself, he have a feeling that one way or another he is getting information about what going on inside the Embassy. Like any two people they talked about work and while Alan was probably not telling her classified information. Any good agent did not mind knowing the gossip about what was happening in the embassy. Jake considered telling Alan to break off his relationship with Ericka but in the end he decided to not interfere so much as warn Alan about being careful about what he said in front of Ericka.
 
3rd June India
Indira Ghandi ordered operation Blue Star to be carried out. The mission objective was to capture a group of Sikh militants who were hold up in the Golden Temple. The holiest temple of the Sikh religion, she knew that the raid would not go down well with the Sikh community but she felt she had no choice in the decision. To take no action meant the radical Sikhs would not stop in their terroristic activities. This was a decision that she was not happy to have to make but one that she felt she had no choice but to carry out.

4th June
Ronald Reagan arrived in London for an economic conference and to assure the NATO of Americas steadfast loyalty to that same alliance. At the same time he show cased the America’s economic recovery something that was being disputed by the Democratic Party.

The Frunze leaves Luanda Angola for Maputo Mozambique

June 5th
Senator Mondale wins the California Primaries and now he is only forty votes away from having the Democratic Presidential nomination locked up. But Senator Hart promised to fight for the nomination all the way to the Democratic National Convention.

June 6th Normandy
Ronald Reagans honors the Boys of Pointe du Hoc and all American and Allied soldiers, sailors and airmen who took part in the Normandy Invasion.


Indian news reports tell of continued rioting and fighting between the Sikh militants and the Indian Army.

June 8th India
Operation Blue Star is completed with over eighty dead and two hundred wounded for the Indian army and over four hundred dead Sikhs. But rioting between the Sikh population and the rest of the Indian population is still ongoing. Indira Ghandi was not celebrating the crushing of the radical Sikh’s. Her advisors noticed that seemed to be depressed.
 
It seems that you made a double post.

Is this one all otl?
Midway through the first post I decided to change some of the wording so i stopped what I was doing and went to the chapter in question on my computer and made a few few minor changes. The end result was I did not catch that I had made the original post, I blame it on fact I am on Codeine right now, I slipped on some ice and landed on my back. So I was put on Codeine to handle the pain.
 

Raunchel

Banned
Midway through the first post I decided to change some of the wording so i stopped what I was doing and went to the chapter in question on my computer and made a few few minor changes. The end result was I did not catch that I had made the original post, I blame it on fact I am on Codeine right now, I slipped on some ice and landed on my back. So I was put on Codeine to handle the pain.

Oh, that's terrible! I hope that you will recover quickly.
 
June 8TH United States
Operation Slam Dunk began as various National Guard troops began to showed up at their Armories, they had been told by their superiors that the United States Senate and Congress did not think they could pull off this operation that they were not capable of being ready for duty in a such a short period of time. Their pride as soldiers had been insulted and the Guard troops were going to do their best to show those candy assed politicians in the House and Senate had put them down just what the United States Army National Guard could do.

10/9 Jun
The Frunze arrives in Maputo Mozambique for a four day visit.


Washington
Ronald Reagan returns to the United States happy with the overall success of the trip. Both diplomatically and politically the trip showed him as an effective president going about his business while the current democratic candidates were still shooting holes in each other campaigns.


Huron South Dakota
Ed and Martha as well as the rest of the kids see John off to Fort Riley where he was reporting for duty with the 1st Infantry. He was driving down in a car he had purchased. Ed went out and did some more cultivating and then they headed to Huron to have supper and then to see the movie Moscow on the Hudson.

Omaha Nebraska

Rr. Admiral Striet was getting more used to the hours of his new mission, but despite the fact that nothing had happened. There still was a lot of stress that went with the job than he had felt when he had commanded a Boomer. He was expected to launch the counterstrike if no one else was able to do so. While it was unlikely he was going to have to launch that strike, it still bothered him a little bit. He had to power to destroy the world. But on the other hand he was well on his way to becoming a Vice Admiral.

Savannah Georgia

Seal lift command began the process of putting sixteen ships into operational condition and the crew for the ships had been gathered. The ships were the newest of the ships in the Sealift command. When the Rapid Deployment Force had been organized these ships had been contracted by the Sealift command to transport the 24th mech. General McCook was very pleased with the first day’s activity the ships were right on schedule for being ready within ninety-six hours. This part of Operation Slam Dunk was called Neap Tide it was designed to be a dog and pony show using the best of the current Sealift Commands ships. Then the ships would be loaded with the two regular army brigades of the 24th mech and the divisions support units, virtually the entire division except for the Georgia National Guards 44th mechanized brigade would be sent out on a short cruise. They had an even dozen ships ready for operation but two more had been activated at Norfolk and they were being sent down, just in case some of the other ships based in Charleston broke down

West Berlin

Dieter had become a little more informative about his aunt, she hated the Russians and their East Germany allies with burning passion. She had been in Berlin from May of 1945 to August of 1948 she had been raped repeatedly by Soviet soldiers. Because of those rapes she had lost the ability to reproduce and the ability to have a relationship with a man. She had seen friends of hers who had been raped to death by the Soviet troops and others who had committed suicide. Once a year without fail she went and spit on the Monument to the Unknown Soviet Soldier or as she put it the Monument to the Unknown Soviet Rapist. When Dieter had asked to use her apartment for the attack she had gleefully agreed to the whole plan. She wanted to be there when it happened but Dieter had convinced her that not being there was a better idea. He had initially not told Gunther the whole truth since he was afraid that Gunther might have developed cold feet. But upon hearing the whole story it just made Gunther even happier since he was also helping Dieters aunt get revenge on the boot licking lackeys of the Soviet Union.


She was going to visit a sister in West Germany and Dieter would feed her fish that way Dieter would have an excuse to visit her apartment. But the day before she left Dieter and Gunther had carried in her new rug. Inside the new rug were the two rifles to be used. The rifles were hidden between the bedsprings and the mattress and she herself had made the bed. There were no signs that the rifles were there. Dieter had carried the ammunition in his briefcase on his next visit. The plan was simple and easy, on the day in question the two of them would show up to feed the fish if the police asked what was happening. They would tell the police that Dieter had to feed the fish and Gunther was along so that they could hit the bars right after that. The only problem was that if the West Berlin police got suspicious and they decided to tear the apartment apart then rifles and ammunition would be found. So a bit of luck was necessary.

The West Berlin police began to increase their presence in the West Berlin neighborhood by where Honecker was giving his speech. They had even managed to get search warrants for a few of the apartments. But the Judges were loath to allow the police to search just anywhere. The Police had to show at the person was a genuine threat to Honecker. Dieter’s Aunt was not on any list as being one of those threats.
 

Raunchel

Banned
I have to say, I like the assassination angle to raise tensions. Especially because this is a very well-motivated one.
 
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