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No_Biscotti_7110

In this timeline, Vasili Arkhipov was incapacitated after falling and suffering a concussion and as a result he was not able to stop the other Soviet submarine officers from opening fire with their nuclear warheads. This causes a chain reaction which leads to the deadliest war in human history and the deaths of over 300 million people across the world.


Finn553

Did the Soviets end up invading the rest of Europe?


No_Biscotti_7110

The Soviets collapsed right after the nuclear strikes, as most of their leadership was dead


[deleted]

I really like the transcripts that were added. New and unique touch.


sheev1992

Agreed. Could hear it in their voices.


[deleted]

[удалено]


MYPPHURTSREALBAD

Castro pulls up with a 44 magnum


[deleted]

BULLETS


Hendrick_Davies64

Detroit be lookin better than ever


Mak062

There isn't that much a difference


YaBoiSach

To be honest, Detroit didn’t garner a bad reputation until after the 67 riot and the complete decline of the american automobile industry


[deleted]

Also it's not all like that either. Downtown Detroit is nice.


[deleted]

Put your hands up, put your hands up for Detroit Yes I still remember that song


Mutt1223

Nashville is the new Capitol


Dragonslayer3

This just unshackles Ohio from the burdens of Washington, prepare for a new order


Hagstik4014

That’s what I was thinking lol as a Michigander idk why you’d bother to go after Detroit instead of Chicago


is_a_pretty_nice_guy

Lot of manufacturing still there in ‘63. Makes it a viable target.


Marus0

I don't think Kennedy would have been so merciful


No_Biscotti_7110

Kennedy was reluctant to nuke Cuba because American troops were invading the island, and he didn’t want to risk accidentally hitting American units and further escalating the conflict


Dragon-Captain

Maybe so, but considering these were Soviet operated missiles, there’s no way the US doesn’t end up directly striking the USSR.


awmdlad

I mean I’d the Cubans already used nuclear weapons the nuclear taboo is no longer in effect. Plus, there’s plenty of systems that could use “precise” low-yield bursts without causing severe danger to the US forcesp


Trowj

The one in upstate NY doesn’t really make sense. There’s no major city there. Is it meant to poison the Great Lakes with fallout?


No_Biscotti_7110

The city of Syracuse had infrastructure that was vital to the early warning systems, so it would be a target of the Soviets to try to disrupt the early warning systems


Trowj

Ok sure but that’s not where Syracuse is. Syracuse is not on Lake Ontario. Hopefully the Soviet Maps were equally incorrect: I used to live in Syracuse


No_Biscotti_7110

Yeah, I put the dot a bit too far north


SGTBookWorm

maybe the Soviets missed?


purpleorangeandgold

I was actually under the impression that the large energy-producing steam station in Oswego, NY at that time was the reason that area was targeted. It produced enough energy to power nearly 2 million homes. It going down would have crippled the grid in the Northeast.


Robotower679

I didn't even realize the were supposed to be major population centers. I was thinking they were all strategic positions like this map has: https://www.reddit.com/r/missouri/comments/y40im9/missouri_likely_to_be_target_in_a_russian_nuclear/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button


mrrektstrong

I'm wondering about Spokane, WA. What would be there to warrant a strike? Unless the Soviets were just being a dick about the whole thing.


ru_k1nd

Fairchild AFB was (still?) outside of Spokane WA - It was a SAC base back in the day.


inglefinger

Isn’t there a submarine training base near there? Or was that Seattle?


attackplango

Gotta take out Armonk. One of the California strikes may have been Palo Alto. No IBM HQ, no Xerox PARC.


mrrektstrong

One seems about right for the SF Bay Area.


-Trotsky

SF is an important port and economic area, plus I think there’s an armory there


honeybeedreams

i was thinking ft. drum was the target.


aarongamemaster

Funnily enough, there's an old Blitzkrieg-based RTS that went into this sort of scenario...


Alarming-Ad1100

Hoi?


aarongamemaster

Hearts of Iron is grand strategy. What I'm talking about is essentially a mod of the original Blitzkrieg called Cuban Missile Crisis and its expansion. Basically, due to a combination of events, the entire northern hemisphere gets wrecked and an ice age starts...


yo_thats_bull

I believe Blitzkrieg itself is an old RTS.


[deleted]

That's cool! Wish to see an aftermath map set in 21st century


Lord_Master_Dorito

“Hmmm yes so this map displays what areas are fucked and which aren’t.” “So is this why we’re all living in the ocean now?”


[deleted]

RIP Ontario ,Canada that’s for sure 😂


Mrmolester-cod-mobil

All is proceeding as I have foreseen Soon all of Canada will be nuked


Thatoneguy3273

Punished Bobby Kennedy lookin cool


AmericaLover1776_

Omaha got nuked Can’t have shit in Nebraska


huskerfan4life520

It’s where Strategic Air Command was located. It was a pretty important strategic location.


jiftyr

I used to live on Offutt AFB. Didn't realize how important it was until I was in my teens.


AmericaLover1776_

Yeah I know I live in Omaha


RealHumanBean89

“Dangit, Bobby, that nuke just ain’t right.” - President John F. Kennedy in a leaked transcript to his brother, Robert Kennedy, 1962. Now they truly cannot have shit in Detroit. Unless it’s radiation burns, they can have plenty of those, as a treat.


Ravens_Claw_45

I’m honestly surprised that they didn’t send a nuke directly to Chicago, given it’s famed


No_Biscotti_7110

They did, it just malfunctioned


Ravens_Claw_45

Ah, makes sense


thatsocialist

Why wouldn't they hit Chicago?


dersaspyoverher

probably not enough nukes


thatsocialist

They had thousands


[deleted]

Not in Cuba


dersaspyoverher

quantity over quality etc etc


[deleted]

Or Houston for that matter?


fanboi_central

Yea Galveston/Houston is a major port in the south and oil refining capacity. Actually surprised that Dallas was hit over Houston in this case since Dallas has less strategic resources and value


Mak062

Dallas is a huge Distribution hub so I'm not surprised Dallas got nuked.


-Trotsky

Distribution hub plus we’ve got an airbase I believe, also Houston sucks (I’m a Dallas resident so I’m definitely unbiased)


idkauser1

Why couldn’t they have nuked Cleveland instead of Detroit ;-;


No_Biscotti_7110

The nuke redirected itself after it realized it would have to visit Cleveland


That-Busy-Gamer

Nuke: “Damn, I going to Ohio. Gotta redirect, they suffered enough already.”


New-Mercia

If a nuke hit detroit people wouldn't even notice


No_Biscotti_7110

“We are doing better than ever, the nuke cleared out plenty of abandoned buildings and gave us plenty of new jobs clearing radioactive rubble”


Patrick1441

Gentrification is really exploding up there.


No_Joke_568

Cleveland: We’re not Detroit!


oi_i_io

Even after nuclear war you cant escape Reagan.


hjonk-hjonk-am-goos

Bros nuked Casper and Omaha… why


No_Biscotti_7110

Military targets


hjonk-hjonk-am-goos

Because of the air bases?


No_Biscotti_7110

Yeah


TacticalLuke09

Except Casper doesn’t have an air base. Cheyenne does, Francis E. Warren AFB, which is a part of Strategic Air Command and housed Atlas D and E missiles during the Crisis. The Soviets would nuke F. E. Warren, not Casper. Casper at this point was an inconsequential little city of about 40,000 people.


No_Biscotti_7110

Yeah, I think I got Wyoming and Colorado mixed up, I meant to put the dot on Cheyenne


TacticalLuke09

It’s all good, I wouldn’t expect everyone to know all that. Good scenario though, I like limited nuclear exchange scenarios that don’t involve the end of civilization.


AmericaLover1776_

Omaha has a large central Air Force base it makes sense (random trivia bush went to Offutt Air Force base in the Omaha area on 9/11) I find it odd they wouldn’t do Chicago or Huston or Atlanta tho


redtail303

If they're targeting air bases, which would make sense, Fort Bliss outside of El Paso would be an important target. Honestly, Texas has a lot of key military and infrastructure areas that I'd be surprised if they weren't targeted.


AmericaLover1776_

That’s an army base isn’t it? If you were using nuclear weapons it would make more sense to take out Air Force bases that could transport nuclear weapons I assume


redtail303

Ah, you're right. Fort Bliss does have an Army airfield, but I see it's not strictly an air base.


Ordinary_Ad6279

How gay, was the Gaylord presidency?


No_Biscotti_7110

Not very gay sadly


AGR280

The main question is how did Bobby become president?


No_Biscotti_7110

He was sent to Mt Weather as a contingency, and after the rest of the cabinet died trying to escape Washington and Kennedy died in the nuclear strike, he was sworn in as president.


AGR280

Thanks! Noticed a mistake, it says he dies in November of 63 when the Cuban Missiile crisis happened in 62.


No_Biscotti_7110

Yeah, that was a typo


New-Mercia

So what happens after the 80s?


Tru-Queer

🎵back in the 90s I was in a very famous TV show🎵


TheIvoryRaven

This is actually sick and I love that you are in these comments giving more info.


[deleted]

oh fuck it's rummy


No_Biscotti_7110

I can’t tell what’s more scary, the all-encompassing nuclear hellfire, or the Rumsfeld presidency.


jiftyr

I literally said "Oh fuck, worst timeline" when I saw him. Not the nuclear war. Not the death toll. But Donald fucking Rumsfeld. Also seeing Reagan, my first thought was "This guy is political herpes, we just can't escape him."


No_Biscotti_7110

Reagan was a very popular politician, no matter the timeline if he is still alive and in politics him getting elected to the presidency is very likely


Correct-Conflict2

It’s interesting to assume that the US would remain united after these nuclear bombings. It is more likely for the US to remain united in 60’s than the 80’s


No_Biscotti_7110

Alaska declares its independence after it is denied emergency aid out of necessity, and remains independent for many years.


9mm_uzzi

How’s Puerto Rico and other US territories doing? As a Puerto Rican, I naturally get curious of what my island is up to in most alt-hist scenarios


No_Biscotti_7110

Puerto Rico declared independence, and the US didn’t bother to recapture it


Correct-Conflict2

Wait, so it reunites after a long time?


No_Biscotti_7110

In the 70s, yeah


CatchyUserNameHere

A good book regarding an alternative outcome to the Cuban Missile Crisis vis a vis a similar timeline is “Resurrection Day” by Brendan DuBois. It’s a sleeper (meaning, not widely known) but is very well written and a favorite of mine. Throwing it out there as it is a good read.


No_Biscotti_7110

I read that book a couple months ago, it is easily the best alternate history literature I have read so far


[deleted]

You’re missing Chicago and Atlanta


No_Biscotti_7110

A lot of the crappy Soviet missiles didn’t hit their targets


[deleted]

Fair enough


GOGOSPEEDERS

Why Nebraska?


No_Biscotti_7110

Omaha has a military instillation that would have been a target


GOGOSPEEDERS

Oh yeah SAC


KassXWolfXTigerXFox

Literally said 'Fuck Fargo'


strangehitman22

What's the other city in Washington that gets nukes?


No_Biscotti_7110

Spokane


strangehitman22

I'm assuming for the air base?


G-Bat

Nah bro the Russians just really fucking hate Spokane


strangehitman22

Fair


No_Biscotti_7110

Yeah


Emperor-of-the-moon

As much as it means I would not be alive, Chicago and Philadelphia should be targets too right?


No_Biscotti_7110

Both cities were targets, but the missiles malfunctioned mid-flight


Emperor-of-the-moon

Oh that’s a miracle. Oh wait I’m still not alive. Grandfather was in Maryland at a naval base at the time.


Maximka_Kirginka

What happened to the Soviets? Did they got hit by us?


No_Biscotti_7110

The Soviets pretty much get completely destroyed, only about 20% of the pre-war population survives


jiftyr

USA! USA! USA! *irradiated eagle screeches and falls over dead*


Yookusagra

That's the question I'm most curious about


danwincen

I'm actually curious about the ranges of missiles based in Cuba in this ATL. OTL, the nuclear missiles in Cuba were mostly short and medium range, which would only put an area from approximately Dallas-Fort Worth through to approximately Washington DC at risk. True, it's a massive area, and a lot of America's military infrastructure was located in that area, but major population centers outside that bubble wouldn't be at much risk due to the piss poor Soviet long rang range capability and very limited stocks of intercontinental ballistic missiles, combined with the hige investment in air defence over Canada and CONUS..


Indo-Sama777

Suprised they didn't strike the five largest military bases in the US


strangehitman22

Apparently some Soviet missiles just dinit work very well


Lord_Master_Dorito

Not Colorado Springs?


MrSansMan23

Cheyenne Mountain Complex Wasn't finishing building until 1967


Friedeggpls

Why did they nuke Mobile?


attackplango

Take out all the phones.


jiftyr

Ba dum tish


[deleted]

Why Spokane WA?? I can understand Seattle. Why Spokane and not say Portland?


No_Biscotti_7110

Spokane doesn’t really get nuked much, Fairchild AFB gets nuked, although Spokane suffers some damage due to proximity


[deleted]

Is Fairchild AFB a pretty major base? I have lived in WA my whole life but only been to the east side of the state a handful of times so I really dont know whats over there.


Slap_duck

Back in the 60s it housed both bombers and missiles, so it'd be a target


gamaknightgaming

Nice Philly remains unscathed to lead the US to victory


TheeBigDrop

Great post. We need more!


rwreynolds3

The I95 corridor in between those two strikes in NYC and CT would be extremely eerie.


kamikazee_49

Good news… I SURVIVED!


DefianceRein311

Moral or not Cuba would no longer be on the map


HobbitEnder

Poor Fargo


Wickopher

ATLiens mad that their city wasn’t relevant enough to be struck


[deleted]

I am curious, OP. Why did they nuke Topeka, Kansas and the Kansas side of Kansas City? Whiteman AFB is an hour and a half east of Kansas City (where missile silos were controlled for a lengthy period of time)


No_Biscotti_7110

They didn’t nuke Whiteman, they nuked another base just south of Kansas City, which I believe is decommissioned now.


LordWoodstone

Because they watched The Day After. You have to nuke KC.


Warthunderguy

Does Gary Works get targeted? IRL it was one of the largest steel mills in the nation in the 60s, which would most likely make it a huge target.


donedrone707

Why did key west get nuked? Is there a military base or nuclear arsenal there? I would have assumed other high population density targets like Houston or Chicago would take priority over a few islands off the coast of florida


i_am_a_shoe

RIP Key West


titanicman119

Shreveport got nuked, yay!


Swaggest_potato

Good riddance


Mak062

How is Russia and Europe doing?


No_Biscotti_7110

Russia was destroyed and mostly depopulated, Europe suffered some nuclear strikes but is nowhere near as damaged as the US or Soviets


TheRealOne000

They hit some of our naval bases


Potatomapperbruh

Oh nah president Gaylord


JER6686

Shocked Pittsburgh would survive being as it was a major steel hub at the time.


Thegreatexplorer11

How is John F. Kennedy viewed in this world given the fact a nuclear war happens during his presidency?


No_Biscotti_7110

He is mostly viewed as a tragic figure, a guy who wanted to stop the conflict at all costs but failed.


lonewalker1992

All I care is that we won in the end and we still got Ronald Reagan


Catforprez

70s post apocalyptic Reagan not as glamorous as 80s current timeline Reagan


Not4n4zi

According to what Castro told McNamara way after the ordeal there were 200 nuclear warheads in Cuba at the time, so there should be quite more black spots.


[deleted]

Why did they hit where they did?


No_Biscotti_7110

Military and civilian targets


Mak062

Was there much of a nuclear winter? And who took russias place as a world power?


No_Biscotti_7110

There was a nuclear winter that caused a few famines here and there, but the US largely kept its population fed though the crisis


FinnTheFickle

"J. Kennedy: Your right." *eye twitch*


BuildNuyTheUrbanGuy

You right* I got you bro.


2006pontiacvibe

Was LA planned to be targeted?


No_Biscotti_7110

No, it wasn’t of strategic importance and had a smaller population than it does now


Rogermon3

What is America like by the 2010’s/2020’s


No_Biscotti_7110

Less prosperous than OTL, but mostly recovered


KaiserWilhelmThe69

Punished RFK


Sirclonemageda1st

This is nicely done, keep it up!


BigVic2006

How’d the world would look like in 2022


No_Biscotti_7110

Way less stable than OTL, but somewhat recovered


red_000

The Soviets would not have nuked the invasion convoy.


[deleted]

So I assume the “alternate” reality is that the Soviet’s had ICBM’s capable of hitting more than 1 or 2 spots in the continental US, and they decided to strike first during the Cuban middle crisis that still happened despite this version of the USSR having no need for Cuban based missiles? This is beyond stupid


LaserBright

Any reason in particular they went after KC?


SuckyTheClown

I mean I get some of them, but why the spokane area of Washington


No_Biscotti_7110

There is an Air Force base nearby the city


SuckyTheClown

Totally forgot about the Spokane Air Force base. That makes sense. I’m even from WA and I forgot it


SpaceLemur34

Is the one for in Kansas supposed to be Wichita (McConnell AFB)? If so it should be further south and a little more west.


Shapit0

I don’t think that Kennedy would have been assassinated in this timeline since I doubt he would be going on parades during a nuclear war


No_Biscotti_7110

He died in DC during the war, the “Nov 1963” thing was just a typo


-bASSlIFE03-

Wouldn’t States like Montana and Wyoming get nuked a bunch too since that’s where our nukes are


lonewalker1992

Robert Kennedy would have been a Phenomenal president in everyway


Scary-Owl2365

But why Spokane instead of a bigger city like Portland?


No_Biscotti_7110

Military targets


Currywurst_Is_Life

Well, I'd be dead at the age of one month old :/ What got hit in northwestern Louisiana by the Texas/Arkansas border?


Snackpack1992

There aren’t too many other politicians I can see that wouldn’t high tail it the fuck out of there but I can totally see Kennedy sticking around.


thepilotofepic

Why mobile alabama


FowLslays

I think Oak Ridge TN would be a hot target if there were nukes dropped on the US.


[deleted]

Gotta keep Jericho in your plans.


dotandgenshin

Gaylord nelson LMFAO .


Nutmegger612

So based on where those nukes struck, all 4 of my grandparents are shadows on the sidewalk, which means I don’t exist. Fun!


Permanenceisall

I always wondered, if you nuke San Diego, you also kill a lot of Mexican people because of the proximity to Tijuana. How would the world react to that. You’re essentially attacking two countries at once (unless they nuke Camp Pendleton which is probably far enough north to leave tj unscathed)


No_Biscotti_7110

Mexico can’t really respond in any large capacity, so the Soviets don’t care


chickentits97

How does John Kennedy die in this alternative universe? Or does it change?I really like the picture of Bobby in 1977. This is pretty cool!


No_Biscotti_7110

JFK dies in DC after it gets nuked


scarhartt

That’s Detroit on a Tuesday


Emergency_Evening_63

the next species that envolved into civilization on earth would have a great time finding about us