WI Krushchev and Eisenhower die in helicopter crash in 1959

I've read that during Krushchev's 1959 visit to the USA, when Eisenhower and Krushchev were going for a ride in a helicopter over Washington, workers building a fish ladder in the Potomac had been blasting rock out of the riverbed sending large chunks of rock into the air, which could have hit the helicopter but didn't.
What if it had, killing both of them?
I've read that the Soviets had promised nuclear war if Krushchev was killed during his trip to the USA. Given the circumstances is nuclear war avoidable?
If not, how much damage will be done? MAD?

I read about this in the book "K Blows Top" by Peter Carlson if anyone is curious.
 
Well, given they'd both die I'd think we'd have a good argument against the USSR doing anything.


Now, that said their is an interesting idea to be considered here;

Both sides thinking it's the result of a third party, either as a result of them honestly not knowing what happened, or someone actively making it look like it was'nt an accident, leading to some sort of American-Soviet Alliance against whoever was around at the time that did'nt like the USSR or America.


Another interesting idea could be Eisenhower dies, but Krushchev survives, albeit badly hurt, either with the same above results or something different.
 
I can see some anti-Communist elements in the U.S. deciding this is a good way to drive a wedge betweent he USSR and China, who ISTR were still on pretty good terms. So, they might "find" evidence that the Chinese were behind it.
 
Almost no chance of war over this. If both die, its clearly not an anti-Soviet plot. Who would have taken over at that stage? Mikoyan?
 
Conspiracy theorists are very capable of sounding plausable. Some from the far right did feel that Ike's line on the Soviets were too soft.

People could well believe that certain elements in FBI/CIA John Birch society or whatever wanted to damage the USSR and remove a moderate from power in the US

By the way what happens to Cuba. I assume that in this scenario the California Crook gets elected in November 1960
 
Hmmm what if something silly like as before mentioned only Eisenhower dies, but Krushchev claims Eisenhower saved his life or something... leading to relations warming more?
 
Conspiracy theorists are very capable of sounding plausable. Some from the far right did feel that Ike's line on the Soviets were too soft.

Yeah but i would take years before they could have been *researched* and spread to a large enough population. You could have somebody like in a big agency of course...
 
Well, firstly, any chance at a Detente and Cooling/End to the Cold war as both had been working toward is thrown out the window (though the U2 in 1960 eventually ended that possibility anyway, it did feel like it was going to happen for a while). Secondly, you remove many of the reforms which Khrushchev put in place. Not all were effective, but overall, they were a benefit for the Soviet people (then again, those would also get curtailed or removed by Brezhnev). So to the people of this TL, it would feel like a lot of opportunities and dreams were killed, but those things would have been ended anyway so it wouldn't have made much of a difference.
 
Top