WW3 in the 70s?
- Thread starter Joseph Weaver
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ferdi254
Banned
And just 6 of them would be enough to gut Australia. Just looked it up. In the 70s 13% of the GDP was imported with number 2-4 in importance motor vehicles and parts, oil and motive power machinery with half of the exports being agrarian.
Classical Colony economy. With only 150k students.
Classical Colony economy. With only 150k students.
Thing is the thinking behind it doesn't have to be just "fuck you". In a general exchange any large industrial country (especially one with a big army and nuclear weapons) who is left relativity* untouched will have such a massive leg up in the aftermath it will likely be teh new dominant power quite possibly over whats left of your own nation.
*relative being the operative word!
So our continent with two countries serves as a semi hegemon. Some attempt to recapitulate Red Dawn without teen guerrillas and brainwashing.
Australia is far more than just the capital cities. 13% is not a large proportion of the economy. As I said we were largely self-sufficient in most goods. And as exports would be curtailed, what is the problem? 150k students are not a small number.
I’m imagining various 1970s era serial killers roaming the wasteland (Bundy, Gacy, Rader, Kraft, Lucas, Kemper, Berkowitz etc).
I’m aware of the logic behind “fuck you too” strikes. I just call them that to be irreverent. And it’s funnier. The thing is, warheads being expended against a neutral third-party are warheads which aren’t being expended against the enemy you are at war with, so the logic to not indulge in such is just as powerful as the too indulge in them. So it could go either way.
ferdi254
Banned
Rickshaw today it is 20%. And the 13 at that time was critical to infrastructure.
And just those 6 nukes would kill off 50% of the population but 80% plus of all university educated staff like engineers and medicine people, it would destroy 80% plus of electricity, manufacturing sites.
But even without this. Sorry, too few people and according to the statistics definitely not self reliant. Will not answer further to this, if even the facts cannot change your opinion further discussion makes no sense.
But alas by digging this up I learned more about the Australian economy now and in the 70s so thanks mate.
btw my father was one of those engineers who had to fly down three to four times in a year to keep the textile industry running,
And just those 6 nukes would kill off 50% of the population but 80% plus of all university educated staff like engineers and medicine people, it would destroy 80% plus of electricity, manufacturing sites.
But even without this. Sorry, too few people and according to the statistics definitely not self reliant. Will not answer further to this, if even the facts cannot change your opinion further discussion makes no sense.
But alas by digging this up I learned more about the Australian economy now and in the 70s so thanks mate.
btw my father was one of those engineers who had to fly down three to four times in a year to keep the textile industry running,
Textiles are not crucial to the functioning of the economy. Australia was basically self-sufficient in most other aspects which are crucial to the economy. The fUSSR would be too busy concentrating on the USA to worry about a small nation in the opposite hemisphere. I am not saying things wouldn't be tough but they would be a lot better than what was happening in the northern hemisphere. We generally are too small to worry about.
Yes
One could treat it as akin to a massive ISOT but to a devastated world rather than a Virgin Earth. Australia would survive IF it were unscathed (or even with the probable Soviet strikes) but it would have to downshift. Maybe to 1920s technology, possibly 1880s?
Guess it depends on how much redundancy you have (or believe you have) on your primary targets
Still leaves the industrial centres of Kalgoorlie, Elizabeth, Whyalla, Woolongong, Newcastle...
Coivara
Banned
Based and taking on the commies single-handedly pilled.
Tens of thousands are better than billions, no?
Probably.
If this war happens before 1974, maybe even before the Portuguese forces pull out (I think they finished it by early 1975? Lead up to the war may abort the Carnation Revolution), we also have the Portuguese Colonies in the game. They just got cut off from support by the motherland, but so did their enemies lose their foreign support. The colonies also have a quite decent infrastructure, which was mainly in Portuguese hands. They might abandon some colonies, consolidate on others.
A South Africa-Rhodesia-Portuguese alliance block is looking good to me, at least on paper.
In case of a WW3 wiping out Europe/US/USSR? Could happen. If both sides of the colonial war lost their home base, the rebels would be in worse situation, support-wise.
Ofc, all this is academic. Nuclear winter, even if afecting more the northern hemisphere, would wreck havoc with worldwide weather & sun cover paterns. Not to mention possible radioactive clouds traveling south. And I'm fairly certain the US and USSR would spread a few nukes around Africa as well...
Coivara
Banned
That's what it seems like, to me. Comes down to the side with most infrastructure, and the Portuguese forces still controlled most of the colonies by the time the war ended.
I wonder who would take charge after that? Civilian or Military Rule?
I wonder what the Cubans would do? Africa then was full of Cubans fighting in those wars.
AFAIK Nuclear Winter is overestimated and not as bad as some people thought it would be.
Well, a lot of things would be happening for sure, but I don't think it makes it academic. If anything, conditions on the ground are very important, they determine what will come next.
Assimalaos here we go! Ian Smith will hopefully have the sense to make an alliance with Chirau and Muzorewa. A bulwark of anti communist civilization.
As to who would take charge, my edsaros is on An alliance, between Savabimi, and Spinola.