The Cuban Missile Crisis is said to be when the world was closest to World War III. Lets say that Vasili Arkhipov was to ill to be at his station, and his replacement gave in to the Captain and the Commissar's pressure, and agreed to the nuke-launch, setting off WWIII.
How bad is it likely to be? I've heard some claims that the Earth would have been rendered uninhabitable, and others that even the US, USSR, and the European nations would still have largish habitable areas, and be able to continue as functioning governments, albeit rather reduced ones, with little military effectiveness (and one claim that the USSR would have been unable to hit any/many targets in the continental US), and quite a bit in-between.
How long would the war be likely to have lasted?
How long would it have taken to recover?
How bad is it likely to be? I've heard some claims that the Earth would have been rendered uninhabitable, and others that even the US, USSR, and the European nations would still have largish habitable areas, and be able to continue as functioning governments, albeit rather reduced ones, with little military effectiveness (and one claim that the USSR would have been unable to hit any/many targets in the continental US), and quite a bit in-between.
How long would the war be likely to have lasted?
How long would it have taken to recover?