Alternate History World War III: 1988, aka "The War of '88"

[Captain X]

Well, I mean, the story is about a World War, right?

 

[Tiamat]

Actually killing him is likely to set off a military response that could set the whole Middle East aflame.

Now, would I go do THAT...? 😈

 

[The Whispering Monk]

Now, would I go do THAT...? 😈

<Raises hand really high> "Ooo! Oo! I know! I KNOW!"

 

[CurtisLemay]

<Raises hand really high> "Ooo! Oo! I know! I KNOW!"

And to think, I am a consultant on this little tale....

 

[Kujo]

Tiamat, in the midst of high political/ethnic/economic tensions I am sure that the religious one is at most a 'side show' I am certain that the Shia, Sunni and Kurds will be happy with the status quo ante and that no upheavals will occur. No one will try to unite the 'faithful' against the 'infidel' and we can get back to the 11th Cav preparing to chew on the 3rd Guards and 8th Shock armies.

Great 'part' of a chapter!!! Thank you!

 

[Sobek]

Interested to know why Yugoslavia bit the bullet early. Butterflies or something more direct?

 

[Tiamat]

Interested to know why Yugoslavia bit the bullet early. Butterflies or something more direct?

Considering that Yugoslavia was already becoming increasingly unstable since the death of Josip Tito? I would say a few minor butterfly effects more than anything.

Josip Broz Tito - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Tito wasn’t just respected and revered by a lot of Yugoslavians, he was the object of a personality cult and became sort of a “secular saint”, for lack of a better word. He still revered today to the point that people will still write letters to him today long after his death and kiss statues commemorating him.

The problem though is like with any other dictatorship that’s built around a strong central charismatic figure, once you take out the central pillar the whole foundation has a way of becoming unstable as hell. And that’s what happened with Yugoslavia, though in this timeline I would say Slovenia, Kosovo and Croatia sought their independence a bit more aggressively with the storm clouds hanging over Europe, Serbia responded in kind with more iron-handed tactics, and matters escalated. True, Yugoslavia was a proponent of the “third way,” independent of the Soviet combloc, but the history of the Balkan’s is a bit rather complex to put it mildly, with memories of some (not all) of the Croats allying with the Nazis during WW2, and the Serbians copying their version of communism after the Soviets before the 1948 split.

In the end, in this timeline, the nationalist sentiments reached a fever pitch and spilled out into open warfare a bit sooner. A series of events would then eventually begin to gradually pull in its other larger, more powerful neighbors, including the United States and the Soviet Union.

After that, the rest was history.

 

[Tiamat]

Sorry for the long wait folks, recent events, plus issues at the hospital I work in have been sapping my energy, but I aim to offer some (twisted) Christmas cheer, I hope to have the rest of "Persian Twilight" up this weekend.

After that, a few more notes on additional armaments both sides are developing and procuring, and then we'll turn our attention to another region, where....well, let's just say August tends to be a crappy month overall in regards to overall historical trends, doesn't it? That, and this rather prophetic quote by Otto Von Bismarck that came true once before:


“One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans.”– Otto von Bismarck (1888)

 

[ATP]

Sorry for the long wait folks, recent events, plus issues at the hospital I work in have been sapping my energy, but I aim to offer some (twisted) Christmas cheer, I hope to have the rest of "Persian Twilight" up this weekend.

After that, a few more notes on additional armaments both sides are developing and procuring, and then we'll turn our attention to another region, where....well, let's just say August tends to be a crappy month overall in regards to overall historical trends, doesn't it? That, and this rather prophetic quote by Otto Von Bismarck that came true once before:


“One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans.”– Otto von Bismarck (1888)

RL is always more important,thonk about yourself first.
Bismarck - Well,world war over Balkans almost happened in 1878 and Bismarck tried to start it with his british allies,so everybody knew that.
Back to topic - soviet plan was to start with 600+ tactical nukes against germans and sometimes danish targets.If that happen,we have WW3 which end in both sides getting destroyed.
Could you prevent that from happening?

 

[Tiamat]

RL is always more important,thonk about yourself first.
Bismarck - Well,world war over Balkans almost happened in 1878 and Bismarck tried to start it with his british allies,so everybody knew that.
Back to topic - soviet plan was to start with 600+ tactical nukes against germans and sometimes danish targets.If that happen,we have WW3 which end in both sides getting destroyed.
Could you prevent that from happening?

The Soviets had different plans, depending on the decade, who was in charge and who you talked to. Beyond that, all will be revealed….

 

[Tiamat]

Hey folks, so, as you know, things have gone to shit in the Crimea, in real life. Kind of in unknown territory here. Anyone who's read my posts on the subject know how I feel about the situation. NO, please do not debate it here, there are other threads for that.

I am, or was still working on the story. Kept getting sidelined with hospital work due to Covid which has been exhausting, and I really do want to apologize to all of you for that, but it's finally starting to slack off now. Was going to finish up the Iranian chapter and move next to the chapter on Yugoslavia where it all goes down, and then this happens.

I'll keep at this tale and put out more chapters, if everyone's okay with that. I'm writing about a FICTIONAL war, not a real one...although I admit I am seeing some uncomfortable parallels. And it's also a bit closer than I'd like to see, proverbially speaking.

But I earnestly want to hear everyone's thoughts on this? If you don't feel comfortable about me continuing the story let me know, and I perfectly understand. If you are okay with me continuing and want to send me words of encouragement, please do that too. Just know that, well the war I am/was going to write about, I am going to get more viewpoints from the boots on the ground, meaning said war is going to be massive fudge ugly...but it is theoretical WW3 we're talking about, not a border dispute. All the European theaters including Central Europe, North Cape, Balkans and the Mediterranean, plus North Africa, Iran/Middle East/Lebanon/Syria, Cuba, Indonesia/PNG, Korean Peninsula, etc.

But I would like to hear feedback, on this and anything else in the story thus far, thanks.

 

[The Whispering Monk]

I'd rather you kept writing.

 

[LordSunhawk]

Keep on writing, this too shall pass

 

[Tiamat]

I admit I may have given away some spoilers with those theaters I mentioned. Crap, ah well. Guess it might've been obvious anyway with the hints I was dropping...

 

[Circle of Willis]

I concur with the other posters in support of continuing

 

[Tiamat]

Thing is, when I started writing this? I admit it's been a VERY slow burn, literary wise, with all the events within the fictional timeline taking place starting with the October coup against Gorbachev in 1986, leading up to what will be seen as the "Guns of August" incident in late summer of 1988. The current situation in the Ukraine IRL is something that's been simmering and building quite a bit longer.

My point that while I know some just want me to jump immediately into the war itself, many tend to neglect the foundations of why such wars start in the first place. They don't just exist in vacuums. Look at the backgrounds and causes of any war and you'll see, regardless of the politics involved which I'd rather not get into.

A decade after WW3 ends, historians will argue at what point did the Cold War finally run off the damn rails and go hot? While others may simply ask "If there was a point we could have seen, could we have done anything to stop it...?"

 

[LordSunhawk]

If you write it, we'll read it. It's your story so tell it the way you want to, I'm enjoying the slow burn and ambiguous details

 

[gral]

I'd rather you keep on writing.

 

[Airedale260]

I'd also prefer to see you continue the story. I'm interested to see what happens.

 

[ATP]

Keep writing,but remember to either find good excuse why soviets do not burn the world when they start loosing,or show how they did so.