Search results

Would Asia/the world of the twentieth century have been better off if Japan lost the Russo-Japan War, was stalemated, or deterred from attacking Russia in 1904 or later? Why so, or why not? In our world Japan, although regarded as an upstart, and the underdog, won this war, taking northeast...

What if post-Feb 1917 revolution/Provisional Government Russia is ISOT *forward* in time? Imagine if it is pretty much the entirety of Russia, those parts unoccupied by Central Powers, from May 1st 1917. The "governance" situation, such as it is, actually "dual power" between the Provisional...

OTL, Hainan hosted air bases and naval bases from which attacks were launched on Borneo and Brunei in the opening stages of the Pacific War. It also was the origination point of some of the invasion convoys that went there. If the Japanese had been better established on the island from the...

Sanctions *before* shooting? I doubt it. Pulling shipping contracts *before* shooting? Maybe by the Dutch, hardly anyone else. Neutral Norwegians and Greeks would ship apolitically even after shooting until it became too dangerous, in addition to native Japanese Japanese shippers. The Dutch...

That's kind of a weakly reductionist political answer to a technological question, that should still have technological consequences, and consequences on military and diplomatic timing.

What if Oppenheimer's consciousness from July 21, 1945 was transferred back to July 21st, 1943? How many months can this shave off getting to a bomb? July 21st 1945 was five days after the successful Trinity test in New Mexico. July 21st 1943 was the day after Leslie Groves gave Oppenheimer...

If Japan did launched this fight in, for example, December 1936, and completed its invasion occupation of the DEI in about 10 weeks or three months, which seems a generous amount of time for Dutch resistance if Japan is focused on this one objective, Britain's Australian Dominion would be the...

What if Japan had attacked the Dutch East Indies in 1936, based on lobbying from the Navy to gain the valuable archipelago located at the strategic maritime crossroads of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, offering Japan a position outflanking Singapore and Manila Bay, and providing already...

Could Japan have seized/kept Hainan island from 1931-33, without it turning into near-term all-out China War? Or more? Could that island have been an additional territorial morsel, seized for the glory of the Imperial Japanese Navy more than the Army, complementing the the contemporaneous...

Could Japan have had its carrier decks and carrier wings up to their Nov 1941 levels by Nov '40 or Nov '39 with earlier plausible investments? How far back would Japan had to have performed the designed work, allocated the steel, allocated the workers and engineers for the decks, the raw...

Why do Greater Mideast soldiers and leaders function and fight so much better in Party/Sect/Militia format than State/Army format? The combat record Arab armies in the 20th century was consistently poor despite individual instances of bravery, tenacity, and sometimes creativity. Very often...

One could quibble with your particular items of advice and specific numbers, but I think I correctly understand your argument as wait to be too aggressive or too much control control on buffer states until getting a good strategic nuclear weapons advantage and invasion capability, do not bog...

For the longer-term scenario - Things would go a little differently. Stalin would not be able to "reset the table" for a different ending to WWII as much as in the scenario where he went back to March 1943 right after Stalingrad. Forces and preparations are well underway the Allied...

I will consider the smaller scale scenario first: If Stalin from the late Korean War era has his mind and memories pop in to his mind and body ten years earlier, in March 1943, shortly after the Stalingrad victory, how can he increase Soviet success in WWII? Can he direct the front in a...

What if an ASB genie granted Stalin in April 1944 acquired all the memories and historical and political knowledge of every Soviet or Russian leader until April 2024? The usual caveats apply, that this doesn't make him insane, say crazy things, have a nervous breakdown. He's able to appear to...

The idea that Chinese tactics in the Korean War were simply 'human wave' and nothing more is myth and particularly unrepresentative of their tactics and operations in their 1st and 2nd phase operations which relied heavily on outflanking, maneuver, and skillful use of off-road maneuver, night...

Against Vietnam, China didn’t seem to be trying very hard. It did slap India silly in 1962, which would have surprised everyone if you asked in 1942: “Hey, Indian Army vs. Chinese Army, how would that go?”. India would have been odds on favorite in the betting markets then.

Communist China *at least* has to win a “most improved national military performance in five years award” for its Korean War performance compared to the entire national Chinese performance in WWII, unable , despite fighting *inside* its geographic borders and with a massive numerical advantage...

That might or might not still happen here. People in India at first in the 60s thought she was a mere figurehead or lightweight, but turned out to be wrong in the long run, politically she became a baller, eventually a Mama Dictatrix for awhile. When Dick and Hank ridiculed her, they were...

Here are some notable events in its 37 year history: 1988 - The covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement is published. The group presents itself as an alternative to the PLO. 1989 - An Israeli court convicts Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin of ordering Hamas members to kidnap and kill two...