[combatmedic]

Emir is way cool, yes.

:)

Now for one that takes a different look at a mid 60s nuclear war:



Nuked (working title, will likely change)


Current year 1986 A.D.


POD Cuban Missile Crisis goes hot.

Massive retaliation wiped out the Soviets.

Western Europe took a beating, which accelerated the collapse of colonial empires and a loss of power for France and the UK.

In the chaos, North Korea invaded South Korea, renewing the Korean War at the worst possible time. Short on bombs because so many had been used/were being used on Russia, SAC hit the main population centers of China and North Korea in an attempt to break the Communists at a stroke.

It worked.

Now, more than twenty years later, much of Eurasia remains an irradiated wilderness dotted with cratered ruins. Thinly populated patches of semi-civilization hold on in the “safe” zones.

After the Fortnight War, the USA found itself a pariah nation, blamed it for the fallout, the genocide, the cold winters, and the worldwide economic depression. Political recriminations and factionalism grew harsher in the US, as extremists grew stronger. Economic recovery came slowly under high federal taxes for reconstruction efforts and the added pressure of United Nations sanctions.

In 1968, riots ripped through the States, the inner cities burned under a rain of petrol bombs while National Guard gunfire left dead students all over college campuses from Berkeley to Columbia. The Gun Control Act of 1968 established universal registration of firearms and a federal database (which turned out to be a big mess).

President John Lindsay declined to seek the nomination of his party for a second term.

Lyndon Baines Johnson was elected on promise of national reconciliation, but his famous skill at backroom dealings faltered in the radicalized atmosphere of the new politics. His proposed anti-poverty and civil rights policies imploded in Congress. He left office four years later, an old man with a broken spirit.

Nixon came out of retirement and won the White House. Early in office he set about creating an expanded national security apparatus with minimal overnight/interference from Congress, while asserting US interests abroad.
No president after Tricky Dick really understood how the byzantine Nixonian system worked, so power fell into the collective laps of the security/intel/military-industrial complex chiefs. The executive agencies and military pay lip service to Congress, but they always get the funding they want; uncooperative congressmen seem accident prone, these days.

Every federal agency maintains its own strike teams.
EPA eco-cops carry a reputation as thugs and bullies, but easy to bribe.

Neo-colonial wars in Mexico and the Caribbean have given the US an expanded set of territories. US corporations exploit these countries and rely on mercenaries and US military forces to smash labor and nationalist movements.

The welfare programs Nixon created continue growing. To offset the rising costs of feeding and housing America’s teeming urban proletariat, the feds have laid heavy taxation onto the colonies.

Nixon started a gun confiscation policy aimed at the poor and at political extremists (right and left). Gun control laws have tightened since then.

Tech lags a bit behind Homeline at the same period, perhaps due to economic distortions and smaller R&D budgets.


Great Powers;


USA
 CF Western, Latin American in occupied zones
 Representative Democracy/oligarchy
 CR 4, CR 5 in subjugated territories and for citizens coded PR (politically unreliable) or CB (criminal background)
 TL 7

Australian Republic
 CF Western, Chinese
 Representative democracy
 CR 4, CR 5 boat people/’fugees
 TL 7

Australia absorbed East Asian refugees after the nuclear war, mostly Chinese. But these refuges have not been granted citizenship. Many work as day laborers, menials, and criminals, harassed by the police if they enter the wrong neighborhoods or behave in an “uppity” fashion. Some political groups work to better the status of these immigrants.


Japan
 CF Japanese
 Representative democracy
 CR 3, 4 for weapons
 TL 7

American forces withdrew in the late 60s, while the US was weak. Public opinion in Japan leans against the American government, but elements of American pop culture remain popular. Fallout umbrellas and lower face masks have stayed popular after they were no longer needed (to the extent they ever worked). Japan leads the world in biotech, and is pushing into TL 8 medicine, esp. cancer fighting drugs and radiation treatment and new GMO rice strains.

La Plata Confederation
 CF Latin American/Western
 Representative Democracy/Socialist
 CR 4
 TL 7
Uruguay, Argentine, and Chile joined together in the 1970s to form a mutual defense pact and economic union. Socialist (but not Marxist-Leninist) parties hold power in all three countries. The Confederation pursues a policy of subversion and agitation against US imperialism in Latin America/Caribbean, without offering direct provocation to war (thus far).