Here's the scenario:
Britain, France and Israel refuse to back down during the Suez Crisis and duly triumph, deposing Nasser and reclaiming the Suez Canal. However, the US goes ahead with its threat of sanctions and sells off its Sterling Bond holdings, while multiple countries impose oil sanctions on Britain and France. However, Britain and France are able to escape said sanctions through securing oil from other sources (Britain planned to occupy Qatar and Kuwait if oil sanctions went ahead), yet the effect of this is that a major split has emerged in NATO, with the US having punished two of its closest allies for having taken action against an anti-Western state. Several further diplomatic incidents then take place which results in both Britain and France withdrawing from NATO and focusing on their own spheres of influence (with Britain forging a stronger Commonwealth - which in turn leads to Canada, prioritising her ties with Britain over ties with the US, also leaving NATO - and Baghdad Pact, while France focuses on the EEC like in our timeline).
Fast forward to 1962 (assuming minimal divergences have taken place outside of Britain, France and their colonies) and the Cuban Missile Crisis goes hot, with a brief conventional war taking place between NATO and the Warsaw Pact before nuclear weapons are launched. The end result of this exchange, which lasts only a few hours, is that the US and the other NATO member states sustain damage, with multiple major cities and military bases being destroyed yet governments of each nation still existing and being able to maintain control over their territory, while massive damage is inflicted on the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, with no functional government existing in Eastern Europe. Britain and France, however, have sustained no damage from the conflict - having withdrawn from NATO beforehand, they remained neutral throughout the brief war and consequently were not a target of Soviet warheads.
What would the impact of this be?
Britain, France and Israel refuse to back down during the Suez Crisis and duly triumph, deposing Nasser and reclaiming the Suez Canal. However, the US goes ahead with its threat of sanctions and sells off its Sterling Bond holdings, while multiple countries impose oil sanctions on Britain and France. However, Britain and France are able to escape said sanctions through securing oil from other sources (Britain planned to occupy Qatar and Kuwait if oil sanctions went ahead), yet the effect of this is that a major split has emerged in NATO, with the US having punished two of its closest allies for having taken action against an anti-Western state. Several further diplomatic incidents then take place which results in both Britain and France withdrawing from NATO and focusing on their own spheres of influence (with Britain forging a stronger Commonwealth - which in turn leads to Canada, prioritising her ties with Britain over ties with the US, also leaving NATO - and Baghdad Pact, while France focuses on the EEC like in our timeline).
Fast forward to 1962 (assuming minimal divergences have taken place outside of Britain, France and their colonies) and the Cuban Missile Crisis goes hot, with a brief conventional war taking place between NATO and the Warsaw Pact before nuclear weapons are launched. The end result of this exchange, which lasts only a few hours, is that the US and the other NATO member states sustain damage, with multiple major cities and military bases being destroyed yet governments of each nation still existing and being able to maintain control over their territory, while massive damage is inflicted on the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, with no functional government existing in Eastern Europe. Britain and France, however, have sustained no damage from the conflict - having withdrawn from NATO beforehand, they remained neutral throughout the brief war and consequently were not a target of Soviet warheads.
What would the impact of this be?
