The Death of Hitler and the Triumph of Goering

Weren't "Reign of the Swastika" and "The Fall of Goering and Udet's Mediterranean Strategy of 1940-41" also both three-way cold wars? Could one day we get a Cliff's Notes version of your voluminous timelines?

Those two, however, didn't really have an intact Soviet Union which made it secondary in the Cold War. TTL does feature an intact USSR since the war was going back and forth a little without German troops on Soviet soil.
 
Another nitpick.
Using nerve agents would really hamper the speed of operations for the Germans as well. You can't protect from nerve agents by simply putting on a gas mask. You have to wear an NBC suit.
Now, while modern NBC suits are made so you can put them on quickly, and allow some sweat and air to get through a filter, early ones were very cumbersome, and very hot. As in, extremely hot. Since this is a summer offensive, the German troops will be exhausted quickly after having started their march, and that's even without taking into account fighting any battles.

On the other hand, nerve agents, or even chemical agents like mustard gas, would be very effective in slowing down the initial Soviet offensive.
 
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Hmmm, I didn't know that. Thanks for the info. Could use that in future TLs. Last update btw ;).



Chapter V: Final Peace and Cold War, 1946 – 2010.


The last major conflict of the 1940s was over and the two archrivals, Germany and the Soviet Union, needed to make peace. Foreign commissar Molotov flew to Stockholm where he met with Goering. The latter had long since assumed control over foreign affairs and had sidetracked Von Ribbentrop. The two parties signed the Peace of Stockholm in which they agreed to return to pre-war borders which signalled the start of the Cold War. Relations between the Soviet Union and Germany would remain bitter for decades to come and relations with Britain weren’t good either because Stalin correctly assumed that Britain had had a hand in playing Berlin and Moscow out against each other. The borders of Germany and the USSR would become the most heavily militarized zones on Earth and an armed peace started.

Goering consolidated the rule of the Empire of Germany as it was now known while Stalin turned inward for another wave of purges to rid himself of the ones who he blamed for his perceived loss in the war. Nonetheless, the war had shown that the Red Army was capable of fighting a major war with the massive industrial base that had been built in the Five Year Plans. The Soviet Union was now a force to be reckoned with. This showed in Asia where Mao Zedong, Stalin’s Chinese ally, defeated Kuomintang forces under Chiang Kai-Shek in mainland China and proclaimed the People’s Republic of China in Beijing in 1948. Mao, due to his land reform, was much more popular than Chiang who was seen as a corrupt western puppet. Indeed, Germany propped him up with weapons, training and funding. The Soviet Union and the PRC signed an alliance in which Mongolia, North Japan and Korea were also included. These two countries combined were a strong geopolitical force which dominated much of Eurasia. It would be especially strong once Soviet aid to industrialize China bore fruit. Mao Zedong issued his own Five Year Plan to industrialize China in the same way Stalin had done in his country while Soviet advisors averted some of his more wacky economic policies. Stalin made him accept these in spite of his distrust of intellectuals. This led to spectacular growth in the production of coal, steel, iron ore, pig iron, electricity, weaponry and oil, and the heavy industry sector in general, but at the cost of many lives, often those of slave labourers. In the meantime, nuclear research continued and was sped up. The Soviet Union finally tested a nuclear weapon successfully in November 1948 as a fitting tribute to the celebration of the 1917 revolution. Stalin did not use his weapon as he knew that Germany would retaliate massively with nerve gas and other chemical weapons against Soviet cities. Germany had succeeded in building warheads capable of carrying poison gas and its missiles had advanced far enough to be able to hit western Soviet cities like Leningrad, Moscow, Minsk, Smolensk and Kiev (from Germany and bases in Sweden, eastern Europe and Turkey) because Goering had increased funding to Von Braun massively, giving him the means to build bigger and better ballistic missiles to which Sergei Korolyov, who was the leader of the new Soviet missile program, was struggling to find an answer. The issue was rendered mute when Germany tested an atomic bomb in 1949. This added a new dimension to the arms race as there were now three countries with atomic bombs. The Soviet Union discovered domestic uranium supplies which enhanced their production capacity. Germany increased production in Bohemia and imports from Bulgaria and French Niger. They also increased their number of heavy water reactors to produce plutonium. The US responded by increasing production to maintain their lead while Britain sped up its program. Mussolini, jealous of Goering, started a nuclear program for Italy while crushing colonial uprisings in his empire.

All three sides launched proxy wars to weaken the other. The Soviet Union supported independence movements in Asia. French Indochina, Malaysia, Burma and the Dutch East Indies were faced with rebellions. They were brutally squashed with terror tactics learned from the Germans, but low-level guerrilla war would simmer on for much longer. Germany, in the meantime, tried to support independence movements in the Ukraine, the Caucasus, Finland and the Baltic states which Stalin also crushed in his usual fashion with deportations, executions, rape, pillage and murder. The US and Britain concentrated on keeping South America, the Middle East and mainly India out of communist and fascist hands. India was given independence in 1948, but on the condition that they accepted dominion status to which they agreed after long negotiations. They were easily convinced of the necessity as the undeclared Sino-Indian War (1949-1952) erupted a year later. Border skirmishes soon erupted into major battles as the Chinese tried to settle border claims. The People’s Liberation Army using armour, jet aircraft, trucks and the new AK-47s bought from their Soviet benefactor invaded and occupied the disputed territories on the Indian border. Indian, British and later American forces aided the Indians in pushing the Chinese back in a brutal three year conflict in the Himalayas which cost five million lives. An armistice was signed in which Mao Zedong agreed to return to pre-war borders although China didn’t relinquish its claims. India was decisively in the western camp, especially after Pakistan and Bengal broke away in 1949 and leaned toward the communist bloc along with Afghanistan which was squeezed between the USSR and a Pakistan friendly to Moscow. All three became secular states with socialist elements incorporated into them. The west also propped up the Shah in Persia and the Kingdoms of Iraq, Saudi-Arabia, and newly independent Palestine and Jordan. Fortunately, communism and fascism were rather alien to Muslims and would remain so until the rise of Arab Socialism and Arab Nationalism. In the meantime, Burma was given independence and a military dictatorship quickly took hold of the country. It alternatively sided with fascist Europe or the Anglo-American bloc, depending on who was more willing to prop the regime up against a hostile China and ignore its human rights violations (which was mostly Europe although Burma refused to make any overtly anti-American moves). French Indochina and the Dutch East Indies remained stuck in colonial wars for the early 1950s.

The EDI/EEZ bloc was the first of its kind followed by the Sverdlovsk Pact consisting of the USSR, China, Mongolia, North Japan and Korea for now. America was under an isolationist President, Thomas E. Dewey, but his Republican party urged for a counter-alliance against fascism and communism to prevent them from encroaching on America’s sphere of influence. The United States broke neutrality to protect its markets and spheres of influence. The US, Britain, Canada, India, South Japan, Australia and New Zealand formed the “Democratic Alliance” and dictators propped up by them in South America would soon join. Any efforts by mainly communism to overthrow these juntas would fail miserably. Nonetheless, sour relations between all three blocs was there to stay. All three sides increased their conventional armies and navies as well as their nuclear deterrents, especially Germany which led efforts to create ICMBs and SLBMs. Their navies danced a deadly dance on the oceans and sometimes war came very close.

Germany launched the new H-40-class battleships with their eight 406 mm guns and thickened deck armour, better torpedo protection, placement of fire control systems underground and a thicker armour belt. In the age of aircraft carriers they were rather obsolete, but six were finished as prestige objects while Bismarck and Tirpitz were sold to Spain. They remain in service today, but have since been upgraded with cruise missiles, anti-aircraft defences, modern radar and sonar. With Goering in control of Germany and thus the navy, he also finally allowed for construction of four aircraft carriers based on the American Essex-class. Goering continued to build newer classes of submarines which could now remain submerged permanently with their diesel-electric engines and a chemical reaction that could form oxygen. This made them the most advanced of the world although they were soon to be made obsolete by America’s nuclear powered submarines. The Soviet Union followed suit with Stalin ordering the four Sovietsky Soyuz-class battleships to be finished while two aircraft carriers based on captured Japanese designs were laid down while captured Imperial Japanese officers were used to provide the new crews with instructions and training. Britain saw itself increasingly strained to maintain its navy at the strength of before the war while fighting colonial wars and financing a nuclear weapons project. Britain, however, had to because it was on the frontline in the struggle against fascism and eventually succeeded and tested an atomic bomb in 1954. The strain on finances would lead to a deep economic depression in the late 1950s and defence spending was cut, with the navy and army suffering the most as the nuclear program was considered paramount. Germany, however, already possessed 180 nuclear weapons and the USSR had 200 by then although the US fortunately possessed some 2000 atomic bombs and had tested a 10.4 megaton fusion weapon in 1952. It was more of a thermonuclear installation than a weapon due to its size. In 1955 they would deploy a useable version without the cryogenic deuterium-tritium fuel which had made Ivy Mike so enormous (70-80 tonnes). The Soviet Union tested a 400 kiloton boosted fission weapon in 1953 and a hydrogen bomb in 1955. Germany followed with a hydrogen bomb in 1957.

The 1950s were also the era of the passing of a number of dictators. Goering passed in 1951 at the age of 58 due to a heart attack. The strains of leadership such as balancing the neo-Wilhelmine and more radical factions in the party, keeping the Emperor under tabs, satisfying the needs of the armed forces, aristocracy and landed elites, maintaining Germany’s dominant position and so on had strained his obese body and his addiction to morphine had only made things worse. A brief struggle for succession erupted within the Nazi party which was quickly won by the only one with a shot at succeeding Goering: Reinhard Heydrich. Bormann and Hess had both been sidelined by Goering long ago while Goebbels had been neutralized with Goering enjoying support from the landed elites, the army and the air force. Heydrich controlled the Gestapo, the SD and Germany’s police forces which together were a strong powerbase. He was declared the new Führer of Germany, de jure subservient to the Emperor but in reality the de facto ruler of Germany. He was ruthless, but also pragmatic and would balance the interests of the various groups in the Reich well while liberalizing the economy as there was no more need for government intervention. The result would be an economic boom in the 1950s which complemented Germany’s achievements in space. Another dictator that passed away was Stalin who died in 1954 at the age of 75 with the knowledge that his rival was already dead and that his country was strong. Very few had escaped his purges of the late 1940s which had cost the lives of Beria and Molotov among others. He was succeeded the more liberal but still ruthless Nikita Khrushchev. He would usher in an era of intellectual thaw, a period of relative freedom compared to Stalinist rule. Stalin’s many excesses like the purges and his personality cult were denounced and Khrushchev embarked on a new path for the Soviet Union. The last of the “great dictators” to die was Benito Mussolini who would be succeeded by Italo Balbo. He would complete Mussolini’s Italianization of Libya, making it the Fourth Shore. Italian East Africa saw similar ruthless policies of deportation, slave labour, cultural imperialism and genocide. Balbo would also oversee the detonation of Italy’s first atomic bomb in 1965. He would give nuclear technology to Spain too which would test a nuclear weapon in 1970. This allowed both countries to reaffirm themselves on the international stage. A fourth lesser, but still (in)famous dictator to die was Mao Zedong who died in 1957 and was succeeded by a triumvirate of Deng Xiaoping, Zhou Enlai and General Peng. They would reaffirm friendly relations with Moscow after rather frigid relations in the years after Stalin’s death (as Mao did not respect Khrushchev the way he did Stalin). They would also initiate economic liberalization and make China a nuclear power with Soviet assistance. Due to the reforms, China would be one of the world’s premier powers by the 1970s due to the rapid economic growth, the modernization of China and rising affluence for the Chinese people. China by itself become a potent economic and military power by any standards.

A major battlefield for the future was outer space. Germany launched a satellite in 1955 and a manned mission in 1958. Both the US and the Soviet Union struggled to catch up. Between the Anglo-American and Sino-Soviet bloc, a notable détente took place during the 1950s so they could focus on their space programs. They copied German successes although they failed to reach the moon before Germany did in 1964. The space race had begun and it would continue into the 21st century with lunar bases and the first manned mission to Mars in 1978 by America.

The Cold War continued unabated. In 1963, an Arab Socialist revolution took place in Iraq which overthrew the monarchy with the military’s support. This opened up a new dimension as Arab Socialist ideology was anti-colonial. The Italians soon found that Egypt was too large to control even as a ‘protectorate’. The Italians had been fighting a fierce struggle in Egypt since the late 1940s with the Soviets sponsoring the freedom fighters. Unlike Libya, Egypt had a quite large population and simply overwhelming the Egyptians with Italian settlers wasn’t a viable strategy. By the early 1960s, the struggle was all but won by the Egyptians under Nasser who established a regime based on Arab Socialism and Arab Nationalism with Soviet, Iraqi, Jordanian, Saudi and Palestine support. This regime wasn’t recognised by Italy until 1969, by which time its independence was irreversible due to its allegiance to Moscow anyway. This was part of the wider struggle of decolonization. Britain let go the quickest because its democratic government was subject to public scrutiny and could therefore not afford the atrocities the French and Italians were committing far from home. The siren call for independence was heard and France had lost its colonial empire by the early 1970s after fierce, brutal colonial wars. This opened up Africa for more proxy wars as each country sought a sponsor, be it the Anglo-American bloc, fascist Europe or the Sino-Soviet bloc (depending on who was the most helpful, tolerant and closest in ideology). Due to the wealth in diamonds and oil, Africa would also be the scene of numerous civil wars and revolutions. One of them is the Congo Civil War between the ruling military junta, communist guerrillas and a number of separatist groups which was funded with foreign money and blood diamonds, a conflict that tore up the Congo during the 1970s and 80s. Congo had been annexed by Britain after the dissolution of Belgium and received independence in 1966. A military dictatorship took over and established a regime far worse than British colonial rule, complete with ethnic cleansing, deportation and slave labour. Sierra Leone and Liberia are similar examples of how Africa became another playground of the great powers in spite of decolonization. Asia was similarly split along ideological lines with Japan still split in two, Indochina now divided into three communist states, Malaysia a Muslim state, Indonesia independent as an anti-communist and anti-European military dictatorship and Burma also under a military junta.

In the meantime, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany reformed. In the USSR, Khrushchev was succeeded by Kosygin who oriented the planned economy to a partially liberal and more consumer/light industry oriented economy. Like China, the USSR experienced an economic boom starting in the mid 1970s with increases in foreign investment, diversification of the economy and rising consumption by internal markets. The result would be that economies would become more and more intertwined, reducing the threat of nuclear war as arsenals now numbered thousands of warheads. This also led to democratization. The USSR evolved to a more confederal model much like China did while in Germany the Nazi party official split in two factions (a moderate neo-Wilhelmine and a more radical one) after Heydrich’s death in 1984, thus creating a two party system. With the advent of computers, internet and telecommunications, the world was more connected than ever and could thus enter the 21st century.
 
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