the affects of nuclear war

if during the cuban misslie crisis things went completely wrong and the nukes go flying what affect humanity besides nuclear fallout

If humanity survived what countries would survive.
What countries would arrise as the next power of the world
and how would human society be different then before.
 
Like everything, it depends.

The USSR was reckoned to have some 340 warheads capable of reaching the US on bombers and missiles, but had a much more comprehensive reach closer to home and could cover Europe, Asia and the Mid East with thousands of nukes. The US, UK and France could hit every inch of the Communist Bloc with thousands of warheads.

No matter what I think Australia, Sth America and sub-saharan Africa would not get nuked at all, the US has no need and the USSR lacks the comprehensive reach and less warheads so needs them all for important targets closer to hand.

If NATO struck first they'd have a good shot at limiting the damage done to them, but there'd still be massive damage. If the USSR struck first I thin there'd be more damage but the destruction would be close to equal. That said the fall out, radiation and the rest would kill billions, bearing in mind the population of the world only reach 3 billion in 1965.
 
I recall there being a pretty nicely thought out an detailed timeline on the site about the Cuban Missile Crisis going hot. Sadly, the Search function is not co-operating with me at the moment.

Going off memory, Europe and the USSR are torn to shreds, the US is devastated but still functional, the rest of the world is more or less unscathed in the short term beyond the economic blowback from the war itself.
 
I recall there being a pretty nicely thought out an detailed timeline on the site about the Cuban Missile Crisis going hot. Sadly, the Search function is not co-operating with me at the moment.

Going off memory, Europe and the USSR are torn to shreds, the US is devastated but still functional, the rest of the world is more or less unscathed in the short term beyond the economic blowback from the war itself.
Here it is:
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=65071
 
while The USSR had some 340 warheads capable of reaching the US
on bombers and missiles (one operational R-7 ICBM on standby during CM !)
the US had 5000 Warhead and SAC planed overkill
like drop over 100 MT Nukes on Moscow alone ! (IRBM, ICBM, Bombers, SLBM)
most of communist Block targes are hit minimum 3 time with a Nuke
thats Warsaw pact member (except Hungary) USSR and China also !

but more on that here
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=65071
one of best TL i read :cool:
 
Yes, SAC assumed it would be able to destroy 90% of the weapons targeting the US if it struck first. But even with all weapons targetted there would still be plenty of Soviet weapons left to devastate Europe, Mid East and Asia.
 
But would the USSR flail around firing/dropping nukes on anything in range?
Asia, apart from USSR might be fine. China might keep its head down.

Did the USSR have enough missiles to devastate Western Europe? Or would it be bomber based? If so, would they get through?

Who strikes first?
Do the cuban missiles launch? Is the eastern coast aglow in the dark?
 
"Resurrection Day" by Brendan DuBois, was a novel set a few years after the Cuban Crisis went hot.

Not too bad
 
Loved that TL-the War itself was the best, most detailed, most in-depth look at a Cuban Missile War we've ever had. I think he may have bungled the post-war USA though-LBJ as a dictator?

Circumstances dictate actions. (pun intended :D) I've been doing research for a bit more detailed look at what life would be like on the DEWline during the war, and it's a pretty interesting idea, if I can find time for it.

Going back to the original question: It depends on what sort of war develops. In 1962, there aren't enough nuclear weapons to "destroy the world," like folks predicted in the 1980s. The Southern Hemisphere will get away pretty much unscathed, but it's tough for me to imagine Europe doing so, as DuBois suggests in Resurrection Day. A lot of the situation in that book can be attributed to plot devices, I think, and it's all the more interesting because of it.
 
But would the USSR flail around firing/dropping nukes on anything in range?
Asia, apart from USSR might be fine. China might keep its head down.

Did the USSR have enough missiles to devastate Western Europe? Or would it be bomber based? If so, would they get through?

Who strikes first?
Do the cuban missiles launch? Is the eastern coast aglow in the dark?


The US nukes were forward deployed all over the world, and powerful US military assets and targets were also all over the world, so Asia would cop it in attacks on American forward targets.

The USSR had hundeds of shorter range missiles and over 1000 medium and short range bombers. Assuming the ss4s and ss5s and Tu16s were reserved for deeper targets then yes the USSR could easily drop 1000+ nukes onto Europe and still have hundreds left for Asia and the Mid East.

There were no missiles emplaced in Cuba, there were some tactical nukes and gravity bombs which could reach Florida.

As for who strikes first, that is impossible to tell since both sides had excellent reasons for doing so.
 

MacCaulay

Banned
I've been doing research for a bit more detailed look at what life would be like on the DEWline during the war, and it's a pretty interesting idea, if I can find time for it.

The DEW line is a very underused plot device. It originally played a much larger part in Hondo, this is CFB Cold Lake calling..., with the Canadians restarting it in the mid-2010s to guard against Russian aircraft as part of their war over the Northwest Passage.

Anyone that uses that should do it.
 
Yes, SAC assumed it would be able to destroy 90% of the weapons targeting the US if it struck first. But even with all weapons targetted there would still be plenty of Soviet weapons left to devastate Europe, Mid East and Asia.

here a Map i made for CMW TL
attachment.php


Red dots are Targets of Nuclear attack
yellow dot are Targets in Neutral Coutry
(include Hungary because the 1953 uprise against USSR!)
i don't have imformation Targets on right side of map
that's beyond Ural mountain range
the Orange fields are Fallout with 450 Rad
means they have a 50 % chance to survive the Radiation !
and show fallout spread from 30 October to 31 October.

Source:
Wikipedia about Military base in Coldwar Europe
and Weather map of october 1962
 
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Nice map. Germany looks ratshit, but I suppose that is due to being in range of things like scuds and Il28s. Italy gets of lightly apart from the Jupiter base, especially compared to Greece which really cops it.
 

Cook

Banned
An American attack on the Soviet Union at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis would have involved unleashing the Single Integrated Operational Plan and all of its massively appalling overkill.
The Soviet Union lost some 26 million in the four years following the Nazi attack in ’41. A nuclear attack in ’62 would have resulted in that number of deaths before lunchtime on the first day! Strategic bombing using nuclear weapons isn’t so much warfare as genocide. Delivering a nuclear warhead over a city is a sort of instant Auschwitz in a box.
By the time the missiles stopped falling and the bombers ceased roaming Soviet airspace looking for targets that hadn’t already been hit the Soviets would be lucky if half of their population were still alive, and most those that did survive the initial attack would shortly die from massive radiation poisoning. For those that question this assessment consider that the Chernobyl Reactor explosion released a radioactive plume equal to a single midrange warhead, and didn’t involve any of the effects of blast and fire that would have resulted from a warhead.
The fallout would not have shortly thereafter begun to blanket neighbouring nations and eventually making it to the continental United States.
 
An American attack on the Soviet Union at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis would have involved unleashing the Single Integrated Operational Plan and all of its massively appalling overkill.
The Soviet Union lost some 26 million in the four years following the Nazi attack in ’41. A nuclear attack in ’62 would have resulted in that number of deaths before lunchtime on the first day! Strategic bombing using nuclear weapons isn’t so much warfare as genocide. Delivering a nuclear warhead over a city is a sort of instant Auschwitz in a box.

the attack on USSR in CMW TL happen during night local time
most people sleeps in there beds while SAC "weapon delivery to Desired Grond Zero".
(how they belittlement the use of Nuclear weapons in SIOP-62 Plans.)
From 220 milion people after Nuclear attack, fallout and winter
there will be only 8 million survivors spread over 22,402,200 km2
so most part it will be nuclear wasteland with isolated Medieval village...
the surviver of Sovjet Union are not russian, but Turkic, Paleo-Siberian and Altaik peoples...
 
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