The Nucliad - A 1983 Nuclear Apocalypse timeline

[Rah!?]

I’m definitely looking forward to reading more about these various factions. Especially the various military remnants.

And I see that the Church Universal and Triumphant is a lot less successful without quasi-demonic/eldritch forces at their beck and call.

1. Why would anyone call a statelet “Los Pollos Hermanos”?
2. Why are some nations labelled with people’s names like “Mary Vegara” or “John Johnson?”?

All in all, this is already shaping up to be very interesting!

CUT is an interesting faction, I had a lot of fun looking into various cults and religious movements popular during the 1980s. While they don't have a faction on the map the Rajneesh movement has also been involved in some of the events in Oregon.

A lot of the smaller factions are minor warlords and gangs, so some of the strange faction names are gang names. (for Los Polos Hermanos I think I just ran out of minor warlord names and decided to add a jokey one). This is also the case with the factions that are just people's names.

 

[Rah!?]

Southern California

All the leaves are brown
And the sky is gray
I went for a walk
On a winter's day
I'd be safe and warm
If I was in LA
California dreamin'
On such a winter's day

The State of California was one of the states that faced division between surviving state authorities after the collapse of the Taylor Administration. A decade after the war, there are different major factions claiming to be the rightful Californian government.

Before the 1st Great Crisis, California was the most populated and largest economy of the U.S states, which led it to being nuked very heavily. The L.A and Bay areas were destroyed, along with the state's military bases in other areas. The state lost a bit under 3/4s of its population in the initial attacks. Most of the state government died in the nuking of Sacramento and the Lt. Governor died in the nuking of San Diego.

Ironically, California was one of the few states to have a plan in case of a nuclear war. Its division instead was due to political instability. The State Constitution declared that if the rest of the line of succession was killed in some disaster, then a disaster acting governor who had been previously appointed by the governor would take power. With Fresno surviving the initial attacks through a miss, Earl Smittcamp would become Acting Governor. Smittcamp's government didn't last long before Fresno was hit in a secondary strike, but he appointed local politicians in other surviving cities to fill in the disaster acting governor list.

When he died, Bakersfield mayor Mary Shell became acting governor. Her Bakersfield government was in a good position to survive the Twilight, being in the agricultural Kern County and controlling neighboring Tulare and King Counties.

A map for reference, because I don't expect anyone to know California county names off the top of their head.

However the Bakersfield government couldn't effectively control outside of that. Due to the decentralized nature of 1st Great Crisis governments [1], the other surviving counties either recognized Bakersfield but mostly ran themselves or fell to warlords or Medford. And unlike Bakersfield, the Twilight hit these areas much harder.

A nuke struck the Hoover Dam, causing flooding from Lake Mead down the Colorado River, destroying several towns on the Arizona border down to the already destroyed city of Yuma. The people living in the towns along the region and the Colorado River Reservation would be left scattered, those that survived at least.

It was incredibly fortunate that the flooding didn't overflow into the Coachella Valley. There lay several large surviving cities; Indio, Palm Springs, and Palm Desert. But flooding of the Colorado still doomed the region. The Coachella Valley had farms but it was reliant on California's large irrigation system, the California Aqueducts. The water from Lake Mead flowed down and also destroyed the Imperial Dam downriver, which prevented the All-American Canal and the Coachella Canal from bringing water to the Coachella Valley. While damage to the California Aqueducts also affected Bakersfield, it was less reliant on them.

Another map for reference.

National Guard units and soldiers from Fort Irwin created a military government in the region. The military was able to stockpile food from the pre-war harvest, which helped keep a large part of the population from starvation during the first winter. But the region had a large influx of refugees from the coast, which the military struggled to feed. As the Twilight began the harvest failed in the Coachella Valley worse than in many other places.

Starvation began, and unrest grew. In response the Military government began to become increasingly authoritarian, using the rationing system to control its population and prioritizing rations for the soldiers. This clashed with Bakersfield's attempts to reassert control in the region. Bakersfield sent some famine relief in the first few months but this was lessened when the Twilight began to intensify. Still, the Bakersfield government retained a large amount of influence in the region due to proximity.

The military began to suggest draconian measures to make it through the Twilight, which Bakersfield pushed back on. As famine intensified the military went with their plans anyway, expelling thousands of people from the region, an action which was condemned by Bakersfield. It's unknown what Bakersfield planned to do, if they even could do anything, but the military government felt like they had no choice but to act.

On October 30th, 1984, there was a large-scale mutiny of troops in the Inland Empire region. Colonel William L. Shackelford [2] declared that the Bakersfield government was out of touch, unfit to handle the crisis, and that he was now Adjutants-General of the California Military Administration. His forces almost took Bakersfield but were pushed back.

The CMA, despite having failed to overthrow the government, remained a major power in the region for a few years due to their professional army. At their peak, they controlled a region stretching from Nevada, to Baja California where they resettled refugee populations and people they couldn't feed. But over the years being stuck in the desert and as their military equipment broke down they slowly declined into a raiding army. The "State of Baja" declared independence in 1989 and in 1990 they lost control of their core territories in the Coachella Valley, forced to retreat to Fort Irwin. Since then they've forced a large gang that took over the region to pay tribute, but failed to reassert control. Nowadays they rely on launching raids from a strip of land along the Mojave to other factions. Because of this they're now more commonly known as the Mojave Army. As they weaken and factions around them get tired of their raids, Bakersfield plans to end the remnants of the mutiny for good.

Bakersfield, meanwhile, had a much more fortunate situation. The Southern San Joaquin Valley had a large agricultural base, a supply of oil, and were fortunate enough that most radiation was blown to the North or East of them. Still, there was a massive influx of refugees from the suburbs of L.A that strained the region's ability to feed. This wasn't helped by the damage to the California Aqueducts. Rations kept the population fed through the first winter, but by the 2nd winter of the Twilight after a crop failure rations became harder to maintain. There were several Neo-McCarthyist protests at this time, in response to which Governor Shell made the controversial decision to prioritize rations for non-refugees. This caused a short-lived rebellion in January of 1985.

Many of the people arrested in the rebellion and related riots were used as forced labor to rebuild the California irrigation system. The process had started in the previous year, with quite brutal working conditions and many people dying due to exposure or disease worsened by starvation. Sections of damaged canals were rebuilt, contaminated water was redirected and partial stretches of new canals were built. While the rebuilding wouldn't be completed entirely until later, it was still significant.

I feel like it isn't discussed enough how the United States built a massive canal system just to sustain cities of millions in the desert. There's stuff like this in Arizona for Phoenix too.

Because fall of that year the harvest was under pre-war levels but much larger than the previous year; the Twilight was coming to an end. With food diminishing as an issue, Bakersfield was in a good position to expand into the rest of California. They defeated a small warlord in Coalinga and linked up with a government in Merced that had recognized their rule.

The San Joaquin Intercounty Authority, (more commonly known as San Joaquin or The Intercounty) was an emergency government that under skilled leadership managed to keep a large amount of the population in the Northern San Joaquin valley fed through the Twilight. It's also an example of where the line between surviving government and warlord gets blurred.

San Joaquin started out as an emergency government for Merced County under the leadership of Fredrick Wack, Chair of the County Board of Supervisors. The region faced a massive influx of refugees and radiation from the Bay Area alongside the typical effects of the Twilight, which the multiple disunified county governments could not handle. Authority collapsed or weakened in the region as militias and gangs formed began fighting each other over food.

In this situation, Frederick Wack launched a soft-coup, arresting the other members of the board and reasserting control of the region. He allied with Merced's sizable Hmong population, around 6% of the city. The Hmong were refugees from war in Southeast Asia and so they were quite well prepared to handle internal conflict. [3] Facing racial violence as the conditions worsened they had formed their own militia, under the leadership of exiled general Vang Pao. With a capable army Wack was able to restore order to Merced, and parts of Fresno and Madera County, creating the Intercounty.

Here's the controversy with Wack. He arrested his political opponents and overthrew the mayors of several towns simply for refusing to recognize his authority, replacing them with his allies. Wack claimed it was necessary for the time and that democracy would return later. While this promise was made in many places thousands of times this was one of the rare times that it was fulfilled. Wack was quite competent, kept rationing uncorrupt and managed to feed the population equally through the Nuclear Twilight. And when Bakersfield held its first elections he did too and stepped down, refusing to support either party.

But Wack ended up creating an authoritarian political structure in the region. setting a precedent for using force to stop political opponents. While it was more subtle now, democracy in the region is quite flawed, and many of the leaders' allies during the dictatorship still control local government in the region. The Intercounty rejoined Bakersfield which moderated this but remains de-facto quite autonomous.

San Joaquin isn't the only part of the Bakersfield government that remains autonomous. The rural Inyo County, to the east of Bakersfield never stopped recognizing it's authority but distance and a lack of roads across the Sierra Nevadas has made it so they mostly run themselves. California isn't able to do much about the conflict with Bridgeport, but they've arranged a deal about water use and the Los Angeles Aqueduct.

In 1992, After 9 years of emergency rule Mary Shell officially stepped down and held elections for governor and the State Senate. Shell over the years had regretted many of her decisions during the Twilight. Politically was a fan of Reagan and supporter of smaller government, and disliked how powerful the government had become. So she significantly lessened the power of the position of governor, assigning more powers to the Senate (which also included the powers of the State Assembly that hadn't been restored yet).

The result of this was that California accidentally created a parliamentary system. While the Republican candidate Joseph Shell (yes, her husband) was elected governor in a near landslide, the Senate elections were the more important ones and quite different.

While the region had been quite Republican pre-war the political parties had shifted a lot in the past few years even if they kept their names.

The Democrats won 14 out of 40 seats, despite being the party of the now destroyed cities. They had shifted into a party for military expansion. They supported a stronger focus on the reunification of California, a more centralized government, and the proto-forms of Californian nationalism. This won them seats in the north and the regions in the east that still faced raids from the Mojave Army. Republicans won 13 seats, while still in favor of reunification they were more in favor of diplomatic means, believing that the petty dictatorships of America will collapse by themselves. The emerging Rationalist movement won quite a few seats, others were won by independents and a few by the Christian Farmers Party which is a minor local party led by a self-declared prophet.

The Democrats entered a coalition with the Rationalists and some of the Independents to elect Cal Dooley as President of the California Senate. Often shortened to "President of California" it is now a much stronger position, de-facto the leader of the Bakersfield government.

A few months after the election Bakersfield launched an invasion of the State Transitional Authority. The Warlord centered in Sonora - which had formed in the same chaos in the region as San Joaquin - had declined significantly. At one point it threatened Merced and controlled South Lake Tahoe, but after the death of the first warlord his successor Cary Stayner was incredibly brutal even for warlord standards and caused several parts of the state to break off. As of now, Californian troops have easily taken Mariposa and have stopped at the Merced River momentarily. Two minor factions, a sheriff in charge of a petty dictatorship in Hollister and a Vigilante gang in Gilroy have recently agreed to hold local elections and join Bakersfield instead of inevitably being conquered.

The State of California (Bakersfield) is emerging as a powerful faction in the former United States. Its population of over a million makes it the most populous faction on the West Coast. As outside powers like the Pacific States of America and Mexico begin to exert influence in the region, the early stages of the California nationalist movement have emerged.

This isn't unique to California, because of a complete shattering of political authority, division, conflict and wars between Americans, regional identities have become much more important.

For California, the proto-nationalist movement uses as a symbol not the bear of the old flag, but a cornucopia.

Unofficial flag of the State of California (Bakersfield), and increasingly a symbol of the proto-Californian nationalist movement.

The Cornucopia is a symbol that's on the Bakersfield flag itself, and it fits the idea of Bakersfield surviving the apocalypse through its agriculture to expand into other regions, saving them with the light of the cornucopia which will feed their families and end the tyrants. Which the proto-Californian nationalists and the California Democratic Party promoting Californian expansion support.

As of now the Bakersfield government does not recognize any Federal Government claimant. They are openly hostile with the Medford States of America and unfriendly with the Rio Grande States of America. They have considered the idea of recognizing the Rocky Mountain States of America. Relations with the Pacific States of America are more complex, especially after the start of the Restoration.

There are some that see the government in Hawaii as a puppet of the Commonwealth, others hope that an alliance would connect California to outside trade. Both governments have communicated, the PSA has said that they'd hand over their holdings in Southern California if Bakersfield recognizes them, but the PSA's negotiations with the Federation of Three Counties has caused concerns that they will split North California as a a separate state. Right now, the PSA is operating as a Federal Government with one state, and how a Federal government where one state has 5 times the population of the other would function is uncertain. The California Senate recently passed a bill that would require a plebiscite for recognizing a Federal Government, so it will be interesting how the future holds. [4]

On the Southern Coast of California are two areas controlled by the PSA. The Channel Islands came under the control of the Navy and was a spot where many surviving U.S ships arrived at. The Naval Government took a relatively small amount of refugees from L.A but even that was too much for the lightly-populated region to handle, and in desperation they began to attack Mexican coastal towns for food.

There was a period in time where there was a mini US navy pirate empire fighting Mexican communists, but it was pretty short lived, and the naval government collapsed. In its place were three petty dictatorships that lasted until the Restoration.

The Pacific States of America was one of many factions claiming to be the real US government. While the Hawaii based faction had a large navy until recently they controlled none of the mainland US and were only recognized by East and West Alaska. So, the PSA launched what they ambitiously called "The Restoration".

The PSA navy easily conquered the three factions in the Channel Islands and also defeated a minor warlord in San Simeon. Now the PSA hopes to expand further diplomatically, seeking alliances with Bakersfield, the Federation of Three Counties, and local governments in Oregon.

Other than those three there are also several minor factions.

In the power vacuum caused by the decline of the Mojave Army a familiarly named warlord took control of parts of the Imperial Valley. There's also the "King Division", a faction in the Salinas Valley founded by soldiers from Fort Hunter Liggett that overthrew their Commander when the Mojave mutiny occurred. The minor warlord in San Simeon that the PSA conquered used to be a tributary of them.

North of Inyo there's the U.S Marines Bridgeport, formed by the Marines at the Mountain Warfare Training Center who essentially replaced the county government. They have a territorial dispute with Inyo County, who ended up administrating southern parts of Mono County during the Twilight. While the dispute hasn't been violent yet it's uncertain how it will play out in the future. Bridgeport is a pretty minor faction but it doesn't recognize the Bakersfield government and has recently arranged a diplomatic meeting with Medford. To their East is a minor government founded by park rangers in Yosemite National Park. Finally, the Ta'hoes are a gang from Reno that took over South Lake Tahoe, had been conquered by the Transitional State Authority and then broke off.

[1] I meant to cover how warlords and surviving governments (they aren't that different in their structure) worked but I kinda got demotivated with that update and wanted to start on more specific updates already.

[2] I feel like I'm slandering random old people because I like to use real people for leaders of factions and warlords in this scenario, but it adds a fun bit of detail. This guy specifically was Chief of Operations of Fort Irwin in 1983.

[3] While looking into this I came across this section from a NYT interview
He added that many of the Hmong had moved to Merced for ''survival reasons.'' ''We never know about war,'' he said in English. ''Many Hmong thought that if they were in the East or the North and there was a war, the freeways might fold. They wanted to move to an area where the crops are.''
This was four months before the war happened, quite prophetic.

[4] I will say other factions probably won't be covered in as much detail as the State of California. I kinda went down a rabbit hole here because well, I do have a bit of a hometown bias.

 

[Rah!?]

I decided to seperate Southern California as its own update cause the events in Northern California are connected to the events in Oregon quite a lot, so I'll cover them together.

 

[Alex1guy]

This is really interesting. How far are you intending to go time wise?

 

[Rah!?]

This is really interesting. How far are you intending to go time wise?

Well ideally I'd like to continue until the modern day, but like my hopes on covering the entire world we'll see how far I actually get.

At the moment I plan on covering all the different American regions in 1994 and then talk about reunification that happens before the 2nd Great Crisis.

 

[245]

Was Iran targeted or did it survive?

There was a video recently talking about nuclear war, and one of the ideas for that scenario was that other starving nations during the first crisis invaded the well-off nations. So I am wondering if that has happened in this world as well?

Is MAD broken and new nations create and use nukes and WMDs in wars, or is it more informed after the first crisis?

 

[Rah!?]

The American Warlord Period was doomed to happen, but the lack of a centralized American government sped up the process. Remnants of American state governments had been clinging on barely, struggling to house and feed the refugee populations from cities. They issued rationing efforts, taking control of food supplies and working with farmers to try to scrape by. This worked in some cases; states like Nebraska or Hawaii made it through the Nuclear Twilight hungry but with little starvation.

But these were the exceptions. Some states faced mismanagement and corruption, others faced internal division, and most commonly a lot just didn't have enough agriculture or other food sources. Even for those that were successful, most state governments couldn't control the entirety of their state which left a power vacuum in the rest. As starvation hit people lost faith in their leaders and became desperate. Opportunistic leaders took advantage of the situation promising people that they could feed everyone. The first warlords.

In the rest of the world, the warlords of the First Great Crisis were thought of as barbaric cannibal gangs roving around in bikes, killing and eating anyone they saw and raiding surviving remnants of civilization. [1] While partially accurate for the Early Warlord Period, this image was false in several ways.

Even in the more unstable regions where the most powerful authorities were gangs, this wasn't the case. Cannibalism isn't a stable food source long term and most gangs stopped when the Twilight ended. After the first few years supplies of fuel became rare which limited vehicle use significantly.

The line between "emergency government" and "warlord" was not exact, and more of a blurred line. The structure and often actions of emergency governments weren't that different from warlords. Despite being the rightful governor of Wisconsin according to the state constitution [2], Wisconsin Acting Governor Terry Kohler created a brutal class system where refugee populations were used as forced labor. Often for smaller governments, it was hard to tell how someone came into power. Is that an emergency leader elected by the county board or someone who marched into city hall and seized power forcefully? Is the opposing faction claiming the latter telling the truth or a warlord state themselves who just wants to delegitimize a surviving government? And the decentralized system of government was common in almost all large factions.

Most warlords were originally well meaning individuals who wanted to help people. Circumstances, however, would make that difficult. Even if they managed to seize control of a region, these proto-warlords faced the realization that in many cases, they simply couldn't feed their population. Political upheaval only worsened the situation.

Now, warlords formed originally as political authority fractured. Many state governments collapsed and the federal government no longer existed. Of course, there were also surviving state governments but they had difficulty exerting control over distant areas.

Highways and most large roads passed through the now-destroyed cities so transportation was difficult and often took winding paths, not to mention the danger of bandits. This made, say, transporting food supplies across distant regions difficult and not worth it. You would need an armed patrol to prevent them from being stolen and use up quite a bit of fuel taking an indirect route. Certainly not impossible, but why do that when there are people starving in your core territories too?

As a result, many state governments focused on feeding the region around their new capital and planning taking back the rest of the state after the crisis ended. In cases where the government tried to keep control of the entire state it often collapsed, like in Oregon. And of course, there were also plenty of states where there was no state government or competing state governments.

Either way, the end result was that outside of some regions, government was reduced to the county/city level. But county governments were inexperienced for a crisis and had low legitimacy in the eyes of their people. While they were elected officials pre-war, local elections had had low turnout rates as people cared more about state and federal elections. So most people didn't know who the Chair of their County Board of Supervisors was and were unlikely to listen to their orders if they didn't want to, especially when the County Government often had no way of enforcing their orders. When food began to run out, people were a lot more willing and able to overthrow local governments.

Where state authority was weak there were various police departments, farmers militias, refuge groups, gangs, religious cults, national guard units, surviving county governments and others that controlled minor factions and refused to work with each other. In such a situation, warfare was inevitable.

For the first few years warfare was a conflict almost entirely over food supplies. Conflict centered around the mass use of resources like fuel, vehicles, guns and manpower which there were a surplus of. There were often too many people for one faction to feed, so losing manpower wasn't a concern. Fuel, vehicles, and guns were things that were difficult to produce post-war but were quite common in pre-war America. Some people realized that these resources were limited, but conserving them wasn't an option if the army attacking you was going all in. This didn't result in some factions growing more influential and creating a tributary system like the Late Warlord Period. Instead of convincing a town to send some supplies in exchange for not attacking, it was easier and incentivized to just fight and take all their supplies.

This period of warfare was incredibly destructive, with large armies of mobile, previously civilian trucks that were modified to mount heavy weaponry [3]. They focused not on taking land but seizing supplies from other factions in raids that would bring resources to support the core of the faction. For factions that were agricultural and had stockpiles of food from the previous year's harvest, it was focused on defending their stockpiles from said raids.

So this may look a lot like the outside stereotype of warlords, minus the cannibalism and blurred line between warlords and emergency governments, but it was a short lived period.

When the weapons, fuel, and manpower that were necessary for this type of warfare to function ran out, things shifted rapidly. This was also when the effects of the Twilight began to recede, and agriculture became significantly more important [4]. Agriculture - with limited fertilizer and tractors - that was very labor intensive. What in the Early Warlord Period were the most common resources were now severely limited, and farming made controlling land important. With manpower becoming an important and rare resource, slavery became common. It was almost never officially slavery, but the 13th Amendment allowed forced labor as a punishment for a crime and many factions interpreted that broadly.

Starting in 1985 this shift - the Late Warlord Period - made warfare too costly to be worth it. Many factions that were in less agriculturally viable regions but had able to survive through raiding collapsed. The few like the Mojave Army or the State of Estacado that survived only did so due to specific circumstances and are in decline.

The factions that survived the shift maintained control of a core region, the land they annexed when another warlord collapsed that they were able to take over without losing much and sometimes important agricultural land. But other stable factions or minor towns remained more loosely controlled, sending in taxes/tribute but mostly running themselves. A faction could pressure a smaller faction to recognize it without using force, but actually conquering wasn't worth it for the larger faction.

This system of indirect control is sometimes compared to feudalism, but a more accurate historical comparison would be the Mandala system of Southeast Asia or the Moroccan idea of Bled es-Siba. There was a large area of direct control and an outer region of smaller factions that recognized the central government that expanded and shrunk depending on how powerful the larger faction was. These relationships were often based on personal connections, and a warlord's successor often couldn't command the same loyalty from its tributaries as their predecessor.

A good example of how this works is the Free States of America (another Federal government claimant btw)

Most surviving state governments also ended up following this pattern with the local governments that still recognized them. However it's not universal, while the State of California (Bakersfield) is decentralized in some ways it's in an oil-rich region and has a large population allowing it to maintain the mobile style of warfare of the Early Warlord Period. Many factions like the State of Wisconsin (Green Bay), the Central States of America retained a relatively high population to make warfare still cost effective.

Underpopulation still remains a significant concern, and many wonder how this system will change in the coming years. Factions growing more powerful seems like it would end the decentralized system of government, but also, people have noticed…

There seems to be barely any children under the age of 10.

[1] This image is partially due to the Mad Max movies, as Mad Max 1 and 2 were released before the war. The franchise would become massively popular, getting 3 more follow up movies and creating a whole genre in the growing Australian film industry.

[2] Wisconsin Secretary of State Doug La Follette was injured but survived the nuking of Madison, declared himself Acting Governor and then appointed Kohler Lt. Governor, which was approved by a rump State Legislature. When La Follette died of radiation poisoning in December Kohler became Acting Governor.

[3] The word technical originated from the Somali Civil War, so they're not called that in universe. Haven't decided what in-universe name I'll choose, maybe Portée.

[4] I don't think I've specifically mentioned this, but in my interpretation of nuclear winter (there's quite a bit of debate on how major the Nuclear Winter would be) the return to normal temperatures happens gradually, it peaks in around August of 1984 before dropping slowly. Another thing I haven't been able to mention cause of the in-universe style of updates but this is pre-GMO's

 

[Rah!?]

Was Iran targeted or did it survive?

There was a video recently talking about nuclear war, and one of the ideas for that scenario was that other starving nations during the first crisis invaded the well-off nations. So I am wondering if that has happened in this world as well?

Is MAD broken and new nations create and use nukes and WMDs in wars, or is it more informed after the first crisis?

Iran wasn't involved in the war, the Iran-Iraq war stayed seperate from the nuclear war.

Starving nations attacking well-off nations for food happened internally inside divided countries (a faction in high-population Northern Colorado invaded Kansas) but not between countries. Since most times the nuked countries were too weak to successfully invade a neutral country.

 

[Neoteros]

There seems to be barely any children under the age of 10.

Too much radiation and not enough medical supplies might mean that way too many children are born dead or with severe birth defects, I doubt people are making long pork out of children.

 

[Gillan1220]

Too much radiation and not enough medical supplies might mean that way too many children are born dead or with severe birth defects, I doubt people are making long pork out of children.

That reminds me of that scene from The Day After:

A nurse tells a mother who gives birth after the nuclear war to be hopeful. The mother just reponds with the following:

• Dr. Russell Oakes: I think you've got to be willing to let your baby come whether you like it or not. You're holding back hope.
• Alison Ransom: Hope for what? What do you think is going to happen out there? You think we're going to sweep up the dead and fill in a couple of holes and build some supermarkets? You think all those people left alive out there are going to say, "Oh, I'm sorry. It wasn't my fault. Let's kiss and make up"? We knew the score. We knew all about bombs, we knew all about fallout. We knew this could happen for forty years. But nobody was interested.
• Dr. Russell Oakes: [turns to leave] I can't argue with you.
• Alison Ransom: [pulls him back] Argue with me. Please... give me a reason. Tell me about hope. Tell me why you work so hard in here.
• Dr. Russell Oakes: ...I don't know.

That alone states that babies born or children that survived the nuclear war will have a very bleak future.

 

[Rah!?]

The Central West Coast

Map of the Central West Coast in 1994.

In defense of Larry Anderson he really did try his best.

He was an African-American man who was working as a staffer to an Oregon State Senator when the war broke out. With the Oregon Legislature in recess, said State Senator survived and found himself becoming Acting President of the State Senate and then Acting Governor of the Oregon government in Eugene. The Acting Governor appointed one of his staffers as Secretary of State and sent him to Medford as a contingency plan for secondary strikes but seemed to not have given the decision much thought, more concerned about rationing and managing the refugee crisis. But then Eugene ended up the capital of a short-lived Federal Government, before being hit by a secondary strike.

So Larry Anderson ended up Acting Governor of Oregon, and he was completely out of his depth.

One of his biggest mistakes was trying to keep full control of the entire state. Usually during the twilight an emergency government would focus on feeding and controlling a small part of the state, retaking the rest when things stabilized. As Anderson would learn, keeping control of the entire state was costly and also faced resistance from Neo-McCarthyist elements.

Like many of the new ideologies of the 1st Great Crisis, Neo-McCarthyism is a broad movement with differing beliefs but its core component is opposition towards rationing and other things seen as Communist. Emerging from hatred of the Soviet Union for killing millions of Americans, it was quite popular in communities that didn’t want to share their food with outsiders.

While it wasn’t difficult to pressure a Neo-McCarthyist government close to Medford to cooperate with rationing efforts, it was much harder to do that for local governments on the other side of the state. Anderson’s attempts to make a state-wide rationing system hurt its actual effectiveness. Resources were spent fighting rebellious counties and local militias in Northeast Oregon that could’ve been used elsewhere, and it ended up alienating local governments that would’ve been friendly to Medford at a distance. Anderson also attempted to influence Northern California. With the Bakersfield government focusing on the South, he organized a meeting of local governments in Redding that created a unified “Association of Northern California” that would work with Medford to handle the refugee crisis and the Twilight.

Anderson’s government also faced an issue of legitimacy. This was a common issue during the 1st Great Crisis where due to secondary strikes many of the emergency leaders were just someone who some minor state official had appointed. In Anderson’s case he was an unelected official. If his leadership had been more effective or popular this wouldn’t have been an issue, but after his mistakes many didn’t respect his authority. Considering the rise of the Northwest American Republic it should be noted that racism was a factor in this.

A surviving state legislator in Corvallis and Congressman Denny Smith both opposed Anderson’s decisions and wanted him to step down. Denny Smith was one of the few surviving members of Congress, having been in Portland during the start of the war and ending up a refugee [1]. Weary of secondary strikes, he left Eugene when it hosted a brief Federal Government. He recognized the Federal Government in Grand Rapids until its collapse when he laid low for a bit.

Anderson’s attempts at controlling the whole state ended when National Guard troops in the Northeast backing him were defeated and pushed back to Bend. Due to the failed rationing efforts, riots broke out in Corvallis and the state legislator there, Darlene Hooley, decided to join the rebellion rather than risk them attacking her. She declared herself Acting Governor of Oregon, at which point Congressman Smith declared himself Acting President and launched a coup against Anderson. Anderson was killed trying to escape Medford, and while Hooley retained control of Corvallis she failed to take Medford.

The Oregon Civil War caused the collapse of the rationing system and widespread starvation in the state. The Medford government - now the Medford States of America - lost control of everything except then a small portion around the capital. Their one advantage was that the new government was recognized by the Association of Northern California in Redding, who then declared themselves the real California state government.

The government had originally been intended to host rationing efforts where Bakersfield couldn’t have but had become very corrupt. Its attempts to manage rationing heavily favored the families of soldiers and government officials. This was common all throughout America - people weren’t malevolent but wanted to keep their families safe throughout the crisis - but it was a much larger problem in Northern California. The outbreak of the Oregon Civil War and inspired several rebellions against their corruption, so the Medford States of America was reduced to a vertical stretch of land on both sides of the California-Oregon border.

Medford States of America in 1989. Governments that recognized Medford but were de-facto independent are not shown.

In 1989, Acting President Smith died of cancer, having failed to create a new universally recognized Federal Government. Despite having couped his way into power Denny Smith wanted to eventually work with allied governments to restore Democracy, but his successor had different intentions. Through several assassinations, covert deals and some military force he centralized control over allied factions in Northern California, although the three coastal counties broke off. Despite controlling much less territory than other Federal government claimants like the Rocky Mountain States, the land Medford does control is quite centralized and high in population. Medford is currently recognized by the State of Nevada (Yerington), the State of Baja, the Christmas Valley Authority, the Washington Emergency Government, the Utah Emergency Government, the City of Page, and the Nueces County Association.

Factions recognizing the Medford States of America in 1994

After centralizing power Medford has recently launched an ongoing invasion of the Free American Army. The Free American Army was formed from a rebellion of hungry refugees in Chico who declared a government that would liberate all of America. Of course the FAA isn’t anything free at all, it turned into a very authoritarian state under the pressures of famine, the Twilight and competing interests. The FAA has been unable to hold serious resistance to the Medford invasion due to their internal division. Plumas County declared independence a while ago and then when the invasion began Butte County also broke off and recognized Bakersfield as a ploy to stop Medford from invading them. Bakersfield is yet to decide whether they’ll recognize Butte County back or not.

To the East of those counties is Lassen County, in which the unpopular county government was overthrown by the Police Department with the support of some (but not all) of its people.

As for the other factions, there is a large and strange cult state in Santa Rosa named the Children of the Atom. Atomism is a diverse and varying set of beliefs that probably shouldn’t be grouped together, and most can be classified at most as sects of Christianity focused on the survivors of the bombs. However “Atomism” is often stereotyped as maniac cultists worshiping the bombs and ancient satanic gods of death. The Children of the Atom is where a lot of those negative stereotypes come from. To their North is Lake County, where a militia leader “convinced” the county government to elect him Chair of the County Board of Supervisors. Along the Pitt River is the California Anti-Communist Militia, a few Neo-McCarthyist towns that Medford mostly ignores.

The final Californian faction is the Federation of Three Counties. Del Norte, Humboldt, and Mendocino County were the last to break off from the government in Medford, during its attempts to centralize. While having held elections, they still have a serious corruption issue. The Three Counties didn’t recognize the State government in Bakersfield as they wanted to keep their autonomy, but when Medford began to expand they needed allies.

The Federation of the Three Counties, alongside Tillamook County and the City of Long Beach, is the one of the only factions in the lower 48 to recognize the Pacific States of America. Pacific trade has boosted the local economy and while still poor, the Three Counties are more prosperous than most factions in the region. There is a growing movement to create a separate “State of Jefferson” centered in the Three Counties. Such a plan would require approval from the Federal Government in Hilo, who would be hesitant on something that would alienate Bakersfield. So it remains theoretical for now.

To the north of Medford is the “True” State of Oregon. In the power vacuum left behind by the decline of Medford various county governments, militias, and refugee groups fought each other. There was at one point a large raiding state centered in Bend which was the most dominant faction in the region until its large Portée Army ran out of fuel. When it collapsed Bend fell to the Northwest American Republic. In Roseburg a militia leader declared himself Acting Governor of Oregon and managed to pressure the various minor factions of Southwest Oregon to recognize him by using the threat of Medford and the Rationalists as a unifying force. However he has been frustrated by being unable to centralize his state despite several attempts, as he can’t risk a rebellion lest the Rationalists or Medford take advantage of it to invade.

The factions that recognize the True State of Oregon are varied and often have disputes with one another.

Curry County is a surviving county government that’s thinking of joining the Federation of Three Counties. The Coos Authority is a warlord who overthrew the county government, while the Sheriff of Reedsport is what the name says, a group of Police Officers who seized control of the town. The Conway Self-Defense Militia is very Neo-McCarthyist but recognizes the True State for convenience, while the Rogue River Rovers and New Eugene (north of Sutherlin, too small to name on the map) are your typical gangs. The Sanity Army is a survivalist militia led by a 73 year old WW2 veteran who believes it's his life’s goal to destroy the NAR.

There’s a few minor factions in Southeast Oregon. The Christmas Valley Authority is an alliance of isolated small agricultural towns that recognizes Medford, while Harney County is under the control of a strongman. Lakeview is one of the stranger factions, as it claims to be the true Federal government under the justification that its leader is actually Ronald Reagan [2]. Fake-Reagan claims that he didn’t die in New York, and instead traveled to Oregon through a secret tunnel system. Most people consider him to be insane but to be fair Fake-Reagan does look a lot like Real-Reagan. Fake-Reagan has also divided Lakeview and its nearby towns into 50 “states”, named after the former American States, with his house being the District of Columbia. His government holds (rigged) elections using the pre-war electoral college system with his 50 “states”.

In Northwest Oregon there is the “Rationalist” State of Oregon, originating from when State Legislator Darlene Hooley decided to support a rebellion in Corvallis and declared herself Acting Governor. However after she failed to take Medford and as starvation worsened she was overthrown by the Rationalist Army.

Rationalism is a complicated and sometimes self-conflicting ideology that’s probably best covered separately. It has similarities to left-wing ideologies like liberation theology and libertarian socialism but it’s also very explicitly anti-socialist and anti-communist. The base concept is that food should be commonly held by the people, an ideal democratic version of the rationing systems of the 1st Great Crisis. It has some other beliefs, that government other than rationing should be very limited and pacifist, with religious organizations given some of the power the government no longer has.

The Rationalist Army emerged as people in the highly populated Benton and Linn Counties became frustrated that after the collapse of the Oregon rationing system many local governments refused to share their food while they starved. The Rationalist Army didn’t invent the ideology, like many 1st Great Crisis ideologies it emerged independently in several regions, but they did come up with the name. As people grew dissatisfied with the Hooley’s government, the Rationalist Army grew in followers. After Hooley tried to crack down on them they launched a coup and overthrew her.

The “Rationalist” State of Oregon that the Rationalist Army formed is much more radical than other Rationalists due to seizing control violently, but is still somewhat democratic. Elections have been held since 1987 but the Rationalist Party has won all of them in a landslide. There are legal opposition parties, the main one being the Republican-Democrats, but they’ve never gotten more than 30% of the vote. And these elections are only for the position of Governor, the state legislature hasn’t been restored so the governor has no checks and balances, making Rationalist Oregon de-facto a one party state. It’s also strayed from its pacifist ideology by quite a bit due to necessity. Originally the Rationalist Army wanted to disband itself after taking power, but then decided that having a defensive army was okay. They then decided that since Rationalist Oregon was the government for all of Oregon, invading other Oregon factions was still defensive.

Benton Hall of the Oregon State University, now the Capitol Building of the "Rationalist" State of Oregon. (the Corvallis City Hall was damaged by a fire during the riots)

Despite this, Tillamook County in the North has remained staunchly independent. They have used clever diplomacy to prevent Rationalist Oregon from conquering them, first allying with the Washington Emergency Government. Tillamook then recognized the True State of Oregon, and most recently switched their allegiance to the Pacific States of America. They have not held elections claiming that with the threat of the Rationalists it’s not safe to do so.

The rest of Oregon is controlled by the Northwest American Republic, which will be covered separately.

[1] Entirely made up by the way, this isn’t a case where I’ve found where someone was on the exact date of the war, unfortunately. Congress had a meeting on September 23rd, and they also and also had a meeting on September 26th, presumably because between those days was the weekend. I can’t find mentions of Smith in congressional records of either date, so maybe he was out of D.C then or he just didn’t speak those days.

[2] You should remember these guys from the first chapter.

 

[BigVic]

Good start. In sports, Australia II and Liberty would've been lost with the 1983 America's Cup unclaimed. Race 7 was due to start later in the day at Rhode Island where it would've been a target.

 

[Rah!?]

Heirs - Pacific States of America

The Pacific States of America in 1994

At first glance, the United States of America (Hilo), often called the Pacific States of America, seems like one of the less powerful contenders for rightful American government. Their core territory in Hawaii only has 200k people and their claim to legitimacy is weak. However their true power lies in outside diplomacy.

The nuclear war heavily targeted the island of Oahu where most of the state's population lived, due to it being the headquarters for the US Pacific Fleet. But those outside of Oahu were able to survive the nuclear winter pretty easily through fishing and ranching. While sheer distance limited things, Hawaii was able to take in some refugees from the West Coast [1]. As the Hawaii Legislature was in recess a few surviving State Senators elected a new President of the Senate who became Acting Governor.

The islands also became a place where many surviving American naval forces in the Pacific regrouped, which is why by 1994 the PSA has the most powerful navy of any American faction. In the early days however, some naval officials began to suggest that a state government didn't have the authority to command U.S Navy Ships. This was part of why in December 1984 the Acting Governor appointed two people to fill in Hawaii's empty House of Representative seats, who then selected one of themselves as Speaker of the House, who then became Acting President. This was a somewhat weak claim, as any state government could do this (other than the few states with only one House seat), but it was meant to be a powerless position, only done to solve a few grumblings from becoming a larger issue. Hawaii had no intention of becoming a new federal government.

Politics would change that. Herbert Matayoshi - formerly the mayor of Hawaii County - was the man appointed to be Acting President and he wanted to gain power. While the position was meant to be powerless and Matayoshi had no control of what happened in Hawaii itself, he could conduct diplomacy with foreign countries. He would use this to his advantage, traveling across the Pacific, securing recognition from various nations. He recognized Western Samoa's reunification with American Samoa, recognized most of the newly independent countries in Micronesia, and gifted many of the ships Hawaii couldn't maintain to various countries. All in exchange for trade deals and alliances. The Acting Governor's attempts to limit Matayoshi's power failed due to his popularity and de-jure legal authority, and he ended up resigning. In 1988, Matayoshi held both Federal and State elections for the Pacific States of America, in which he solidified his power, reducing the role of the State government significantly.

Herbert Matayoshi, First President of the Pacific States of America

Due to Matayoshi's diplomacy, the Pacific States of America is a close ally of Australia and the Commonwealth. While the PSA isn't a member of the Commonwealth, they have revived the ANZUS treaty that had been suspended since Australia and New Zealand declared neutrality in the war [2]. The PSA has also conducted diplomacy with former U.S possessions in the Pacific. American Samoa reunified with Western Samoa to form the Independent State of Samoa, and the PSA was fine with letting them go. Guam meanwhile had several U.S military bases so the island was targeted heavily and is now uninhabited.

The Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands was moving towards independence before the war, with its 7 districts unsure on whether to become one united Micronesian state, become independent separately, or stay with the U.S. However the war would prevent that, as Trust Territory's capital of Saipan was nuked, and with America and the central government gone the various districts just ran themselves.

Successor States of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands

The new countries ranged from small democracies to dictatorships but were generally peaceful, with the one exception of the Northern Mariana District. The population outside the island of Saipan was only in the thousands, and couldn't handle the influx of refugees from Saipan and Guam. The region fell into infighting and briefly piracy, before the PSA sent a fleet and took control of the inhabited parts of the islands. Currently they're run as a territory without local democracy. The PSA is yet to decide what to do with the islands long term, and it's part of a larger question of whether to incorporate the Micronesian states or not. The idea of joining the PSA is supported by some in the region, and while various proposals have been made on the topic, nothing concrete has happened yet. Part of the reason is that it conflicts with the proposals for creating a united Micronesian nation that have been revived. Should Micronesia join together as one US state, or should they join as separate autonomous regions, or become one independent allied country?

As for the United States Minor Outlying Islands, they all lacked a civilian population. Johnston Atoll was nuked due to its military base, while some of the others were sold to Kiribati for fishing rights reasons. While Matayoshi's diplomacy was largely focused in Oceania he also secured recognition from East and West Alaska. The PSA's attempts to formalize the split between the two Alaskas resulted in pushback from both and so the situation remains in limbo.

Despite all this, the PSA had no influence in the lower 48. So, in 1991 they launched "the Restoration" and conquered parts of the California coastline from several small warlords. The PSA's land in California is run as a territory similar to the Northern Mariana Islands. However the Restoration was quite controversial in the PSA, as it was costly and many didn't see the point in trying to restore control of the mainland. There were some who wanted the PSA to give up trying to be the American government and just become an independent Hawaii.

So recently, the PSA has shifted back to a more diplomatic approach, enticing the factions on the West Coast with lucrative connections to outside trade if they recognize them. Currently, the Federation of the Three Counties, Tillamook County, and the City of Long Beach have recognized the PSA. But all of these factions did so because they feared being invaded by another faction, which risks the PSA getting involved in an unpopular mainland war.

The State of California (Bakersfield) isn't under threat from another faction and has had a better position to negotiate from. The annexation of parts of California's coastline caused tension with Bakersfield, even if the PSA offered to give it to Bakersfield in exchange for recognition. Both sides are in a situation where they would benefit from recognition; the PSA would gain one of the most powerful factions on the West Coast as its ally while California would gain important trade connections. But the question of who would be in control of a union has prevented this so far. Regionalists in both Hawaii and California fear being ruled by an outside power.

Currently, the PSA's government functions as a Federal government with one state (the places that recognize them run themselves but don't vote in Federal elections), and the Bakersfield government has made it clear that they would want to participate in PSA elections if they recognize them. However, Bakersfield has 5 times the population of Hawaii (and growing), meaning that election results would be completely determined by Bakersfield using the electoral college and almost entirely determined by Bakersfield using popular vote.

With the idea of the Restoration already controversial in Hawaii and California growing its own nationalist movement, neither side is willing enough for a compromise at the moment. Some in the PSA suggest using their connections in Canada - due to the Commonwealth most major factions in Canada other than the Acadian Confederation and the Republic of Canada recognize the PSA as the real American government - to secure connections with factions near the Canadian border.

While Matayoshi won his second term in another landslide, it was less of a landslide than the first election. The Restoration, while still ongoing, is dependent on support from Hawaii, and it wouldn't take much to end the island's accidental Federal Government.

[1] These are a bit different from refugees we've talked about earlier, those refugees being survivors of nuclear attacks who fled cities. These are more people that weren't in a targeted city, and instead fled outside of the Continental United States to escape famine. Because your average city survivor isn't going to have a boat or a plane handy.

[2] There was a lot of anti-nuclear sentiment at the time that caused tensions between Australia in New Zealand. OTL, New Zealand would be suspended from the ANZUS a few years later because of this.

 

[Gillan1220]

So American Samoa is the only U.S. territory left that was unharmed. Guam, Marianas, and Hawaii would definitely eat a nuke or two because Guam has a naval base that could support submarines and aircraft carriers as well as Andersen AFB which has B-52s in it. The Marianas would be a secondary target as the island of Tinian also has runways enough to support B-52s if Andersen AFB was taken out.

If we follow the path of 1983: Doomsday which Hawaii becomes independent and joins the ANZC as an associated state, here Hawaii can be the Pacific Remnant just like how the USVI became the Atlantic Remnant.

 

[Pax_Nihil]

This is awesome and I am eagerly awaiting the next installment :3

 

[Rah!?]

Alaska and West Washington

The Twilight might have been a lot more devastating in Alaska if there'd actually been anyone living there.

While partially an exaggeration, it is true that with Anchorage, Juneau, and Fairbanks destroyed alongside several scattered military bases, the entire state's population was reduced under 200k people in the initial attacks. So while agriculture was impossible for several years after the war, people were able to avoid starvation through fishing and hunting. It was in some ways a return to the lifestyle indigenous hunter-gatherers had been living (or still were living in the more isolated communities), occurring in both indigenous and non-indigenous communities. The climate shift affected the ecosystem, and it should be clear that many did starve. And in the cold also killed more directly through hyperthermia.

The governor and much of the state government died in the initial strikes, so it was former governor Jay Hammond who returned from his homestead on Lake Clark to Wasilla to declare himself the new governor. While the retired governor was still popular, he didn't have any legal claim to the position of governor. So it was no surprise that a group of state legislatures to the East in Sitka declared their own rival state government. And so formed the East-West Alaska division

Both state governments decided to take this up with the then Acting President, Robert Taylor. Taylor likely didn't understand the situation that well, but he did send a vague statement back saying that both state governments should cooperate and that both had a legitimate claim as long as they helped their people. The result of that message, even after the destruction of Grand Rapids, was that while both claimed to be the real state government both East and West Alaska continued to be rather friendly to each other and focused on their individual region. This worked well as a system as it avoided a power vacuum being left in one of the regions.

The government in Sitka, "East Alaska" has been much more prosperous than the West. They faced much less unrest, able to maintain rationing efforts amongst the small population of the Alaskan Panhandle without too much difficulty. The only issue was when Annette Island Indian Reservation refused to recognize the authority of East Alaska. They then invaded Annette Island and forcibly disbanded the native government. East Alaska has not yet held elections, and they are run by a group of pre-war state legislatures. While the Pacific States of America and as a result most of the Commonwealth hasn't picked a side on the East-West Alaska dispute, the Skeena-Queen Charlotte Regional District has recognized the East as the true Alaskan government.

West Alaska however, faced major difficulties. The Matanuska-Susitna Borough had a high population density by current Alaskan standards, especially after the influx of refugees from Anchorage. Acting Governor Hammond made the decision to abandon the region temporarily, moving the State capital to Kalifornsky on the Kenai Peninsula. He also made the controversial decision to seize stockpiles of food and take them south which left Matanuska-Susitna worse off than it had been before. The locals felt (rightly) that they had been abandoned by their state government and declared a third Alaskan government in Palmer.

Map for reference

The Palmer government launched an invasion of West Alaska, which after brutal winter fighting was repelled. The conflict continued for the next few years, with Palmer raiding and destroying a West Alaska-allied government in Glennallen. Eventually the Palmer government collapsed into infighting, allowing West Alaska to retake part of Matanuska-Susitna. Their advance has been hampered by the locals still disliking them. Part of the Palmer government lives on, and after West Alaska recognized the PSA they declared themselves to be an independent Republic not part of the U.S.

West Alaska also controls Kodiak Island. Unlike the East, they did hold elections, when Hammond retired. Many of their actions have left them with a negative reputation, but they are the largest democratic faction in Alaska.

There had already been contact between Hawaii and Alaska in the previous years through trade, so when Acting President Matayoshi of the Pacific States of America sought out recognition both Alaskas were open to the offer. It was the fear that their rival would secure recognition before them that resulted in both Alaskas being so friendly with the PSA. In a continuation of the strange cooperative rivalry, both Alaskas recognize the Pacific States of America. The PSA also recognizes both as being rightful controllers of their side of the state. Their attempts to turn the two separate governments into the two states of East and West Alaska have received severe pushback, however. While they might cooperate, both Alaskas consider themselves to be the true Alaska and aren't going to give that up.

Other than the two state governments, there are many minor factions in Alaska. A large chunk of the state's interior was part of the Unorganized Borough, which lacked local government, and those areas that did have boroughs were small in population. So there's a bunch of small factions led by whoever was charismatic enough to take power during the collapse.

The town of Cordova runs itself semi-democratically but is rather hostile to outsiders. They do not recognize either Alaska. Valdez had an unpopular city government overthrown by a militia leader. The Copper River Census Area was originally run by an expanded government of the town of Glennallen before being devastated by raiding from Palmer. The current government is more of a loose alliance of towns.

The town of Tok is run by a strange figure known as the "Man of Miracles of the North". He claimed to be able to heal people's illness with just his touch and gathered a large following to take over the town. Delta Junction meanwhile was the site of an attempted agricultural project by the Alaska State government before the war. While agriculture was impossible for several years, stockpiles from the previous years' harvest went a long way in the small town, and it's one of the more prosperous inland places.

A survivalist militia led by a man named Jacob Emmons controls a few towns in Denali Borough. Lake and Peninsula Borough is run by a small isolationist government that recognized West Alaska until they held elections. Lake and Peninsula's leaders feared losing power so they refused to hold elections and declared West Alaska illegitimate. The Dillingham Emergency Government meanwhile is a small dictatorship and their allies.

The westernmost parts of Alaska and the United States as a whole were the site of warfare with the Soviet Union. Soviet troops launched an attack on the Aleutian Islands during the first weeks of the war, which America responded to with a counterattack that took back the islands. This was during the period where some semblance of a united American government remained, and the troops in the Aleutian Islands continued to administer the region following the orders of Acting President Watt and Taylor. They even annexed the Commander Islands from the Soviet Union.

And even when America fully shattered, the soldiers in the Aleutian Islands continued to administer the region in the name of a non-existent commander-in-chief. The Aleutian Islands Military Administration, as it's known, faced an issue of conflict between outside soldiers and the native population. The difference wasn't there from the start, many of the troops that make up the Military Administration are soldiers that were stationed on the islands before the war and retreated during the Soviet attack. But a disparity emerged, as the military administration forced conscription on the native Aleut population out of fear of another Soviet invasion.

This unpopularity has limited the military administration's power, and why the Alutiiq Nation resisted attempts from the Military Administration to take over their region and still remains quite hostile. They recognize the West Alaskan government, as a result the Aleutian Islands Military Administration rejects both West and East Alaska's claims to legitimacy.

To the north there are more native governments, as the region here was isolated and with a small white population the weak boroughs were replaced by traditional authorities. The Yup'ik Nation is the largest one of these. They recognize both West and East Alaska in a similar way to the PSA but largely run themselves, through a semi-democratic system that's a mix of American reservation governments and traditional Yup'ik kinship structures. The Koyukun Nation functions similarly albeit at a much smaller scale.

The Village of Venetie is somewhat similar, although they recognize the authority of both the East Alaskan government and the Gwich'in Nation in Canada. Speaking of Canada, the village of Eagle on the border is run by the town of Dawson City, which has expanded to be essentially a Hän Confederation.

There are two native factions to officially declare independence from the United States. The First, the Yupik Republic, is a small dictatorship that controls St. Lawrence Island and the Diomede Islands. An ambitious local leader took control of the region with the help of the Chukotkha and some (like the Yup'ik Nation) consider them to be a Chukotkhan puppet.

The Inupiaq Confederation is rather different, starting off as an alliance of pre-war local governments. Their reason for independence is simply that they think the United States no longer exists, and that both Alaska's abandoned them to focus on helping the white parts of the state. This view of America not existing anymore while accurate is less common in areas that had a stronger American identity who viewed America and the old world as a precious thing to be preserved. [1]

When the nukes first fell and Seattle and Portland were reduced to ashes, several county governments in West Washington met up to figure out how to organize a response to the crisis. They created the Association of Western Washington, an organization meant to respond to the refugee crisis and follow orders from the new state government in Walla Walla. They set up tents and shelters in Centralia for people fleeing from former cities and tried to organize rationing.

Immediately though, the Association of Western Washington faced infighting amongst the countries that backed it, with some wanting to abandon the project and focus their resources on feeding their own region. This went on and off for a while, until a coup in Aberdeen resulted in the whole project collapsing. But the refugee population in Centralia wasn't content to starve, and as the situation deteriorated there many fled to the coastal regions.

So began a conflict, where armed groups attempted to march to the coast and fought against local police organizations and other militias. At first these various refugee groups were unorganized, but they were unified under the leadership of a man named Vincent Howard. Vincent took control of Centralia, managed to set up agriculture there when the weather cooled down, and then pressured the coastal factions to recognize his rule. Howard declared himself Acting Governor of Washington and set up the Washington Emergency Government. The Quinault Reservation recognized his government simply to avoid having to deal with them, but they largely ran themselves.

West Washington has three other factions. The State of Olympia was formed by the police government of Clallam County that opposed the Washington Emergency Government and declared the Olympic Peninsula to be its own separate state. Long Beach was originally one of the factions that recognized the Washington Emergency Government before they allied with the Pacific States of America to break off.

The Egg Army is a militia controlling the town of Winlock. A bunch of locals gathered at the World's Largest Egg located in town and made the decision to create the militia to, in their eyes, defend the town from outsiders, hence the name.

The Statue of Liberty and the Golden Gate Bridge may be gone, but at least we have this.

[1] While North Slope Borough has a large non-native population today, this was different before operations began at Prudhoe Bay.

 

[Pax_Nihil]

How many warheads hit Juneau?

 

[245]

What’s the situation with the AIDs/HIV in this world?

How is Ireland doing?

 

[oldfussnfeathers]

I wonder how the internet is doing. ARPANET and MILNET were standardized in January of 1983. The Domain Name System is just starting too.

(https://www.computerhistory.org/internethistory/1980s/)

However, Apple's Macintosh wasn't released until 1984 and the internet is mostly limited to a few academic and military sites. Many of these sites are going to be hit in the blast, or lose electricity, or simply can't spare the manpower to maintain and operate them. I'm no expert on the subject, but it would be interesting to see where it goes ITTL. Especially because the internet was partially created in case of a nuclear attack.