... okay maybe
The Americans would be involved, but only covertly and diplomatically in my opinion.
... okay maybe
I'll definetly agree they would be involved in those ways, but I think they would still be involved further... perhaps even militarilyThe Americans would be involved, but only covertly and diplomatically in my opinion.
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.
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.
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".
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.
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.