WI: Cold War gets Hot in 1974

Make a TL in which NATO and the Warsaw Pact have a hot conflict, but not necessarily of large scale, with the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 as its premise, the POD being no earlier than 1950 and no later than 1960.

Try to avoid the following:
  • Unjustifiable backstabbing of alliances (such as France joining WP war effort, or Poland joining NATO for that matter.)
  • Use as little butterflies as possible.
  • Try to keep the neutral countries neutral, if the conflict remains small.
A reminder for the direct territorial control of the two coalitions:
nato.gif
 
Make a TL in which NATO and the Warsaw Pact have a hot conflict, but not necessarily of large scale, with the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 as its premise, the POD being no earlier than 1950 and no later than 1960.

Try to avoid the following:
  • Unjustifiable backstabbing of alliances (such as France joining WP war effort, or Poland joining NATO for that matter.)
  • Use as little butterflies as possible.
  • Try to keep the neutral countries neutral, if the conflict remains small.
A reminder for the direct territorial control of the two coalitions:
nato.gif

Only thing I can think of is a military incident involving the USA and USSR turing the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
 
1950-60 is too late for either Greece or Turkey to go Communist- with a 1945 POD, you could have a Communist victory in the Greek Civil War, in which case Greece would probably be a Yugoslavia-analog. They would then support AKEL rather than EOKA, so the independent Cyprus would be Communist, or at least Socialist. When attacked by NATO Turkey, you have a WP-NATO conflict that could get bigger.
 
I know, thus the challenge by starting it in 1950. When Turkey invaded Cyprus, there was almost war with Greece, a fellow NATO member, and Greek units actually did get involved in Cyprus fighting (ELDYK/Greek forces in Cyprus.)

The idea here is a timeline that can somehow enlarge the incident to a direct hot war between WP and NATO, not necessarily being a large-scale war however. I will most likely be submitting one of my own soon but I am curious to see what other members will present.
 
I know, thus the challenge by starting it in 1950. When Turkey invaded Cyprus, there was almost war with Greece, a fellow NATO member, and Greek units actually did get involved in Cyprus fighting (ELDYK/Greek forces in Cyprus.)

The idea here is a timeline that can somehow enlarge the incident to a direct hot war between WP and NATO, not necessarily being a large-scale war however. I will most likely be submitting one of my own soon but I am curious to see what other members will present.
Yes, but how do you turn a war within NATO into a war between NATO and the WP?
 
Yes, but how do you turn a war within NATO into a war between NATO and the WP?

The obvious solution is that one of the countries turns to the USSR for help, and they agree. This opens up a can of worms, however, and may make this scenario far less likely. I suppose that the first question is why whichever nation we pick to ask for Warsaw Pact aid does it (scratch that, make it question #2; question 1 is which country defects).
 
The obvious solution is that one of the countries turns to the USSR for help, and they agree. This opens up a can of worms, however, and may make this scenario far less likely. I suppose that the first question is why whichever nation we pick to ask for Warsaw Pact aid does it (scratch that, make it question #2; question 1 is which country defects).
Why not exploit the Cyprus independent movement, 1950-1960?
 
One of the scary things about the Cold War is how very close each side got to an accidental nuclear war--Able Archer and such. So, if you have Greek Airplanes flying in large numbers across the Black Sea, you could scare the Soviets enough for them to launch a nuclear response, even a limited one, which would provoke a nuclear response from NATO.

There you have it--an accidentally provoked nuclear war. That these things turn out badly is a great example of why fighting a nuclear war is a terrible proposition.

Winner: Cockroaches.
 
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