The above titled basically describes the Pentagon's plans for nuclear war when Kennedy took off in 1961.
Bearing that in mind yesterday I read a chilling alternate history from Robert Cowley's 'What If' a collection of essays on alternate history scenarios.
The scenario in question is Robert L. O'Connell '2nd Holocaust' imagining the Cuban Missile Crisis resulted in a nuclear exchange.
Its not what your thinking, we launch, they launch, Armageddon ensues. Oh no. The story hinges upon the fact that 1-the Pentagon and SAC basically had a 'dead hand' plan in case the national command authority was destroyed, and 2-Soviet commanders had permission to use nukes as needed.
So the Soviets in Cuba wipe out the American base at Gitmo and then bombard the marine landing areas at Matanzas and Mariel. A sub commander off the Virginia coast fires on and destroys Washington, Kennedy, and the entire cabinet. For several hours there is no national command authority until the Speaker of the House, Mike McCormick is found in Boston in sworn in.
In the meantime SAC throws everything it has against the Soviet Union, winning a crushing military victory. Because the Soviets manage to get off a few missiles the next day, SAC launches another massive attack leaving every city and military base in the USSR a smoldering ruin. Bomber pilots fly around the country looking for targets only to find said target has already been hit.
After a nuclear 'twilight' its found that 9/10s of the Soviet Union's population, 233 million people, is dead. America becomes an international pariah.
Those interested in such things will like that Nixon is defiantly elected in 1964 declaring 'nothing to be ashamed if' but is defeated in 1968 by Eugene McCarthy.
Chilling stuff, and well executed.
Over on the Warships board in their fiction section they have a series that expands upon that story. They've made a few changes, like having Russian subs that were at sea fire at various targets and the British V force, but keep to the spirit of the original.
ReplyDeleteHere's the 1st part but you can do a search for the rest. http://warships1discussionboards.yuku.com/topic/14463/t/The-Cuban-War-Part-1a-A-Tale-of-Two-Silos.html
Appreciate it, thanks. In Castro's Folly, we'll see s full on invasion of Cuba, with some surprises. Its basically Op-Plan-316.
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