Dark Days Part 4
The war between the Soviet Union and United States would drag on for two years before finally being settled. It would cost millions of lives, and would cement the power of the Soviet Union. Most of all though, by the end of it, and World War 2 with it, Totalitarianism came to be a force to stay, even if a branch of it had been wiped out.
In 1944, the front in the Soviet Union had been going badly. The Soviet military had more experience, and was able to counter the tactics the United States was utilizing. In combination with fortifications, a good usage of the climate, and having only two fronts, the Soviets were able to rapidly beat US forces out of Siberia.
What kept the Democratic Totalitarians losing immense popularity from this defeat was the ability shift blame, and other military victories. Operation Downfall, implemented to defeat Japan, ended up being an immense success. Despite the tenacity of Japanese defenders, through strategic and tactical genius, along with air superiority, and naval dominance, they were able to take Japan in a period of six months. It did cost 100,000 men, however, these deaths had been made miniscule.
To shift the blame, the Democratic Totalitarians were able to blame the opposition for many of their failures. Claiming the conservatives were working with Fascists, and the Democratic Socialists with Communists to undermine the war effort, they were able to keep popular power. However, even with that, they knew they needed either a faster victory against the Soviet Union, or find a way to withdrawal.
To further distract from events, the United States, through Italy and through a naval invasion over British protests, liberated France. Charles De Gaul had become a quick convert to Democratic Totalitarianism, after the fall of traditional liberalism, in combination with his distrust of Blair's Democratic Socialism. Because of his importance in the French resistance, France would end up joining the Democratic Totalitarian block once again.
While all this occurred, England launched a successful invasion of Norway, working with Swedish military forces. Nazi Germany had been significantly militarily weakened, hence why this operation was even attempted. This was followed by operations in Denmark that had similar success. Nazi Germany had been incredibly weakened by the Soviet Union, and US forces pushing from both Italy and France. So they lacked the forces to stop UK forces in Norway, and later on, Denmark, or to protest Sweden joining the UK in the new Anti-Totalitarian alliance.
During this whole time, the UK was researching nuclear weapons, seeing as how the US had decided against it from it being a, "blue sky project," while the Soviet Union was able to, but research was slow going. The United Kingdom however, by 1945, had been able to get nuclear weapons. Germany was rapidly falling, but the US and the USSR were looking to fight each other now. More importantly, the Anti-Totalitarian alliance needed a bargaining chip in order to preserve themselves.
At the beginning of the year, a single strike would occur. Berlin was nuked, killing Hitler, and virtually the entire command staff of Nazi Germany. Immediately afterwards, the Soviet Union, the United States, and the Radical Socialist Alliance raced to take Germany. However, now all the sides knew nuclear bombs worked, and with it, all three factions were locked into a Cold War of sorts.
Germany would end up being split three ways, with Northern Germany going to the Radical Socialists, Eastern Germany to the Soviet Union, and Western Germany to the United States. Each one adopted that side's ideology, and in time, would come to have barriers built to prevent any faction from seeing the others. In 1946, the Soviet Union would get its first nuclear bomb. In 1947, the United States would follow. At that, the Cold War, which still continues to this day, was in full swing...