WI: the Cuban Missile Crisis...

stalkere

Banned
I'm not sure what to put in here. I've studied this timeframe a lot, especially since I was a child living on a military base when the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred.

As a SAC officer, we studied the Crisis- a lot, and considered how it might be done if something like it happened again.

It was a critical time, since the Minuteman I was JUST going on Operational status, and the Titans and Atlas were just not as reliable as some of the historical records would seem to indicate.

There is the story the official records and the history book tells us...and the stories I heard from launch Officers who were there. But you're right. It was "Launch or lose" - particularly in the liquid fueled rockets. Once you started the fueling process, defueling and recertifying for flight was a several week process.

Retargeting the ICBMs was also a several day process, from what I was told. Over time it got faster, and now it can be done in minutes...but not in 1962.

Retargeting and recall was only slightly better in the bomber force, where there was a lot of fear that false messages would cause aircraft to uncover their targets.

The problem of returning with bombs from previously destroyed targets was covered by multiple target sets in the bombers.

Killing the entire NCA in Washington in one shot is either ASB or a severe violation of policy - depending on who you talk to, LBJ was already at either the Greenbriar or Weather Mountain during the Crisis, and communicating via speaker phone., not at the White House, as commonly reported.

But, in any event CINCSAC "owns the birds" if the NCA goes down, anyway.
 
See the alternate history collection "What If 2".

The entry is called IIRC "The Second Holocaust".

A Soviet diesel submarine armed with a nuclear torpedo in the Atlantic destroys a U.S. aircraft carrier (this actually came close to happening reportedly).

In response, the U.S. launches a series of nuclear strikes against Cuba.

The Soviet commander in Cuba launches nuclear strikes against Quantanomo Bay Naval Base, against approaching U.S. warships, and most importantly, manages to get off two missiles at the mainland U.S, one of which vaporizes Washington D.C. taking the entire national command authority with it.

This happens so quickly and communications are so spotty with Cuba anyway that the Soviets in Moscow have no real idea what has happened.

With all contact with Washington D.C gone after the nuclear blast, the general commanding SAC orders an all out nuclear strike on the Soviet Union and its European satellite nations (except for Hungary).

Over the course of two days, more than 1300 U.S. nuclear weapons detonate in the Soviet Union.

The U.S. loses about 250,000 from three nuclear weapons that detonate on the mainland U.S. plus the various losses in and around Cuba.

90% of the Cuban population dies.

90% of the Soviet population dies.

30% of the population of Eastern Europe dies.

Several million more die near Soviet borders due to fallout and disruptions associated with the blasts.

The United States is made a global pariah and largely shunned by the rest of the world for its overreaction.

Interesting post. I can see this possibly happening in For Want of a Nail or Decades of Darkness, btw(especially the latter!).
 
Top