WI: Berlin crisis of '61 led to conventional Sov-US war?

Former sec of state Dean Acheson argued beforehand that a potential Berlin conflict would lead to a conventional ground war as neither power would be willing to risk millions of its own population's lives through MAD. What if he was right and a conventional war had blown up over Berlin? How would it play out? Who would win? What would the aftermath be like?
 
Impossible. The US had only just started moving away from the policy of massive retaliation, which means their conventional forces are still moribund and the armed forces are still geared towards nuclear ordinance as the primary means of stopping the Soviets. Either they go nuclear, the Europeans do, or Ivan cools his tank treads in the channel.
 
Impossible. The US had only just started moving away from the policy of massive retaliation, which means their conventional forces are still moribund and the armed forces are still geared towards nuclear ordinance as the primary means of stopping the Soviets. Either they go nuclear, the Europeans do, or Ivan cools his tank treads in the channel.

There were actual plans installed in case Khrushchev went about and ordered another Berlin blockade that would send a few divisions worth of ground troops down the autobahn to West Berlin.
 
But ObsessedNuker's point is that avoiding nukes is only possible if NATO isn't losing a ground war, and given the balance of forces at the time, that's unlikely.
 

TinyTartar

Banned
We know that even if the US does not go nuclear, and West Germany gets overrun, which it would, the French would just glass the region and things would go from there.
 
We know that even if the US does not go nuclear, and West Germany gets overrun, which it would, the French would just glass the region and things would go from there.

The French only tested their first weapon the previous year, so they don't have enough bombs to glass any regions yet. Not that it much matters; the US war plan at this point is still Massive Retaliation, at least in practice. The war will consist of SAC burning Russian cities until there aren't any cities left to burn.
 
The war will consist of SAC burning Russian cities until there aren't any cities left to burn.

You forgot "and Russian armies". Not that the Soviets won't retaliate though, although it will be Western Europe who gets the worst of that. We can still expect a handful of bombs to reach the US though.
 
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