Wider Iranian Hostage Crisis

OK, lemme try this then:

May 7-9th, 1980: A summit meeting is held at Camp David between Brezhnev and Carter. An extraordinary proposal is made whereby the Soviets propose a joint operation to invade and occupy Iran along the lines of the Anglo-Soviet intervention in Iran in 1941. Carter agrees in principle and comes away with a Soviet recognition of the "Carter doctrine" and that they will in no way, threaten the Gulf Arab states and the West's supply of Oil. In return, the United States will cease assistance to the Afghan Mujaheddin.

The plan is that the Soviets will invade from the North with 1 Tank Army (5th Guards) and 3 Combined Arms Armies (40th, 7th Guards and 45th). Both the 103rd and 106th Guards Airborne will also participate. The Soviets are also committing some 1500 tactical aircraft to overwhelm the IRIAF.

In the South, a combined US and UK force will consist of 1st Marine Division coming ashore at Bandar Abbas, and 82nd Airborne's DRB seizing the local airfield. As soon as that is accomplished, the 3rd Marine Division will reinforce the landings, along with UK 40th Commando Brigade, US 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) and US 101st Air Assault Division. This force, organized around 18th Airborne Corps, will then link up with the Iraqis who will drive overland from the border near Avhaz. They will then meet the Soviets just north of the Zagros Mountains.

9th Air Force and 3 CVBG (Nimitz, Eisenhower and Midway) will fly sorties in support of the landings and the drive north. There is concern over the small size of the US and UK force, but it is felt that most of the attention of the Iranian Army and RG will be focused to the North and West.

The US JCS and Soviet STAVKA spend the next three months hammering out the concrete details of the plan, as well as the coordination and joint planning agreements. Meanwhile, around Iran, forces are on the move. The go date is set for October 17th.

May 23rd, 1980: A group of ten Soviet and Cuban freighters arrive in Basra harbor. They offload some 12,000 "agracultural specialists" and thousands of tons of "specialist farm equipment".

June 8th, 1980: Iran protests to the UNSC as to the combined US-Soviet troop movements in Soviet Central Asia and Saudi Arabia. Suffice to say, Iran's protests fall on deaf ears, as both the Soviet Union and US block any motion by the UNSC.
 
OK, lemme try this then:

May 7-9th, 1980: A summit meeting is held at Camp David between Brezhnev and Carter. An extraordinary proposal is made whereby the Soviets propose a joint operation to invade and occupy Iran along the lines of the Anglo-Soviet intervention in Iran in 1941. Carter agrees in principle and comes away with a Soviet recognition of the "Carter doctrine" and that they will in no way, threaten the Gulf Arab states and the West's supply of Oil. In return, the United States will cease assistance to the Afghan Mujaheddin.

The plan is that the Soviets will invade from the North with 1 Tank Army (5th Guards) and 3 Combined Arms Armies (40th, 7th Guards and 45th). Both the 103rd and 106th Guards Airborne will also participate. The Soviets are also committing some 1500 tactical aircraft to overwhelm the IRIAF.

In the South, a combined US and UK force will consist of 1st Marine Division coming ashore at Bandar Abbas, and 82nd Airborne's DRB seizing the local airfield. As soon as that is accomplished, the 3rd Marine Division will reinforce the landings, along with UK 40th Commando Brigade, US 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) and US 101st Air Assault Division. This force, organized around 18th Airborne Corps, will then link up with the Iraqis who will drive overland from the border near Avhaz. They will then meet the Soviets just north of the Zagros Mountains.

9th Air Force and 3 CVBG (Nimitz, Eisenhower and Midway) will fly sorties in support of the landings and the drive north. There is concern over the small size of the US and UK force, but it is felt that most of the attention of the Iranian Army and RG will be focused to the North and West.

The US JCS and Soviet STAVKA spend the next three months hammering out the concrete details of the plan, as well as the coordination and joint planning agreements. Meanwhile, around Iran, forces are on the move. The go date is set for October 17th.

May 23rd, 1980: A group of ten Soviet and Cuban freighters arrive in Basra harbor. They offload some 12,000 "agracultural specialists" and thousands of tons of "specialist farm equipment".

June 8th, 1980: Iran protests to the UNSC as to the combined US-Soviet troop movements in Soviet Central Asia and Saudi Arabia. Suffice to say, Iran's protests fall on deaf ears, as both the Soviet Union and US block any motion by the UNSC.

Why would the Americans use Saudi Arabia when ally Pakistan shares a border with the target country?
 
This is a really interesting WI with interesting implications for the development of fundamentalism and the world as a whole. In fact, this could cause highly unlikely butterflies which could lead to the USSR surviving being propped up by the US.

Carry on please!
 
if WWII wasn't enough to get the US and USSR to get all cozy afterward, why would this(by comparison) small incident? I could see friendlier relations, but not enough to get the US to prop up the Soviet economy(besides I don't think that even the massive american economy can give enough to save the USSR.)
 
couple of things

An Aeroflot flight from Helsinki to Leningrad is hijacked by a faction of Hizbullah. Brezhnev and Ustinov begin to really get ulcers and the lights burn long in the Defense Minstry.

Hezbollah is still 2-3 years away from being formed so it's a bit early for people to start splitnering away

Jan-Feb 1980: Two Soviet Armies, the 7th Guards Army and the 5th Guards Tank Army begin to mass along the Iranian border. The 103rd and 106th Guards Airborne Divisions are massing in airfields near Baku. All of this is explained to the United States as "routine exercises".

the question is can Soviets afford to keep those forces in Gulf and not Germany? Remember that in Afghanistan it was msotly regular troops with old equipment (T-55s and -62s instead of T-72s and -80s), with few exceptions of elite troops like paratroopers, Spetsnaz and naval infantry

And after invasion of afghansitan US naturally believes that such massing of troops is perfectly normal exercise and don't fret about it

March 10th, 1980: A Soviet hand picked force of Desant troops and and a assualt force made up of Spetznaz, Kaskad and Muslim Battalion (The folks who took down the Afghani Presidential Palace) veterans and and a element of KGB's Alpha Group are inserted into Tehran by air landing from IL-76s (Namely, Spetsnaz took over the airport ala Prague 1968) and the troops head off to liberate the international hostages. The orders to the Soviet commander is to bring out ALL hostages. The order is obeyed, but at a high price, 1/2 the assault force is killed and the Desant Brigade holding the Airport takes 30% casualties as the Iranian Army shows up to back the RG human wave assaults. Worse, 10 American and 20 other Western hostages either die in the assault or are killed in Iranian reprisals. Furthermore, the Soviet Airforce is forced to intervene against Iranian F-4s that attempt to interfere with the assault force's egress, in the air battle, 10 aircraft, 6 Soviet and 4 Iranian are lost. The US awakens to the next day with Brezhnev promising "terrible retribution for the loss of so many innocent lives" and demands the US does something or that it will. The tempo of exercises in Central Asia increase and soon, border incidents between Iran and the Soviets begin to occur.

Soviets didn't believe in pussying around, they'd go either full blast or not (if they expected a fight) so Soviet AF would intervene in alrge numbers, not just a few planes
 
Soviet Union Military doesn't know the meaning of restraints, its pretty much were we got the strategies for the Zerg in Starcraft :D So he's right on that.
Point in case the Red Army relied on large numbers of undrestrength divisions for military strategy
 
OK, lemme try this then:

May 7-9th, 1980: A summit meeting is held at Camp David between Brezhnev and Carter. An extraordinary proposal is made whereby the Soviets propose a joint operation to invade and occupy Iran along the lines of the Anglo-Soviet intervention in Iran in 1941. Carter agrees in principle and comes away with a Soviet recognition of the "Carter doctrine" and that they will in no way, threaten the Gulf Arab states and the West's supply of Oil. In return, the United States will cease assistance to the Afghan Mujaheddin.

The plan is that the Soviets will invade from the North with 1 Tank Army (5th Guards) and 3 Combined Arms Armies (40th, 7th Guards and 45th). Both the 103rd and 106th Guards Airborne will also participate. The Soviets are also committing some 1500 tactical aircraft to overwhelm the IRIAF.

In the South, a combined US and UK force will consist of 1st Marine Division coming ashore at Bandar Abbas, and 82nd Airborne's DRB seizing the local airfield. As soon as that is accomplished, the 3rd Marine Division will reinforce the landings, along with UK 40th Commando Brigade, US 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) and US 101st Air Assault Division. This force, organized around 18th Airborne Corps, will then link up with the Iraqis who will drive overland from the border near Avhaz. They will then meet the Soviets just north of the Zagros Mountains.

9th Air Force and 3 CVBG (Nimitz, Eisenhower and Midway) will fly sorties in support of the landings and the drive north. There is concern over the small size of the US and UK force, but it is felt that most of the attention of the Iranian Army and RG will be focused to the North and West.

The US JCS and Soviet STAVKA spend the next three months hammering out the concrete details of the plan, as well as the coordination and joint planning agreements. Meanwhile, around Iran, forces are on the move. The go date is set for October 17th.

May 23rd, 1980: A group of ten Soviet and Cuban freighters arrive in Basra harbor. They offload some 12,000 "agracultural specialists" and thousands of tons of "specialist farm equipment".

June 8th, 1980: Iran protests to the UNSC as to the combined US-Soviet troop movements in Soviet Central Asia and Saudi Arabia. Suffice to say, Iran's protests fall on deaf ears, as both the Soviet Union and US block any motion by the UNSC.

Any Chance this tl might be continued till the present day? I think if you set it up right and had Carter barely come out with a win against Reagan, It could have some very interesting consequences.
 
Brezhnev would never have made such a proposal to Carter.

You have Carter doing some interesting things in this scenario. However, if you want an accurate picture of how the general American public would robably respond to his saber rattling and attempts at being a warrior president, especially in an election year, just look at the way George W. Bush's critics have portrayed him (Read Doonsbury and substitute Carter for Bush). Reagan will run circles around Carter for trying to divert attention away from his failure to solve worsening economic problems here at home.
 
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