Unfortunate Sons: A Post Nuclear Timeline

Prologue: The Sins of Our Fathers
"When this whole mess started, I talked with Bobby and told him this. 'Bobby, we're old. The world doesnt need us anymore. But if this mess with the Russians ends badly, our kids are going to die Bobby, our hope for the future will die, and I can't let that happen' It happened anyway."

-John Fitzgerald Kennedy in his last televised address to the United States, October 27th 1962.

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On October 27th 1962, the world ended. At the height of the Cuban Missile Crises, it seemed as if it was about to die down, the US and USSR both willing to enter negotiations to move the missiles. This was not meant to be. Following the launching of a Nuclear Torpedo by the Soviet Patrol Submarine B-59, Nuclear War began. In a public address, John F. Kennedy informed the nation of what was going on, before being whisked away to Mount Weather, while the missiles began bombarding the country. The Legislative Branch of Government, along with Vice President, was relocated to the Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia [1], while the Judicial Branch, along with the Department of Defense, was relocated to Raven Rock [2]
After hours of nuclear bombardment all over the world, from Canada to Australia, the world grew silent. Few realized what was happening as the sirens roared across america, and the few who survived did so in Fallout Shelters they had built, thinking they'd need them. They were right. With the death of an era, those unfortunate sons would need to work together to rebuild, as much as is possible in the new era, or watch as the world they were promised dies before there eyes.

[1] Part of the POD is that some members of congress had been taken there earlier in the week, after several close calls
[2] The Judicial Branch was relocated here in order to divide the government so that if one area went down, the other two would still be up and running.
 
On October 27th 1962, the world ended.
Uhhh, the world might end for the Soviet Union and most of Europe, but not the United States. The whole reason why the Soviets stationed nuclear weapons in Cuba in the first place is that they had very few nuclear ordnance capable of reaching the United States.
 
Exactly correct. The Soviets had a small handful of unreliable inaccurate ICBM's, primitive propeller-driven bombers, not much in terms of Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs) and the war would not have been Mutual Assured Destruction. It would have been the assured destruction of the USSR, and the US would have taken, probably roughly a dozen hits from nuke. One dozen nukes would not destroy a continent-spanning nation of 50 states, most of whom would be largely unaffected by the nuclear exchange. Mutual Assured Destruction (if it ever truly existed at all) existed from, say 1972-1986 or so, and even in that time period a LOT of Soviet missiles would fail to launch, veer wildly of course, many warheads would detonate partially or not at all. . .
 
Whenever I read these timelines, I think about the novel the "Forbidden Area" by Pat Frank. There was a scene toward the end where the President of the USA is deciding on if they should launch a nuclear attack on the USSR is response to the Soviets submarine fleet off the American shore and Soviet agents sabotaging new modern USAF bombers. The military is basically telling him they need to do an all out attack to guarantee success. However the AEC has sent a memo warning that a nuclear exchange will result in at least one radioactive chemical that would lead to widespread cancers for generations.

I often wonder if anyone would really win a nuclear war even one as lopsided as this one.
 
This was just the prologue, itll be clear pretty early on literally all the damage done to the US occured on the east coast.

"The world ended" is just exaggeration, for the people living at this time, it would very much seem as if the world was ending.
 
This was just the prologue, itll be clear pretty early on literally all the damage done to the US occured on the east coast.

"The world ended" is just exaggeration, for the people living at this time, it would very much seem as if the world was ending.
Ah, I understand now.
 
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