WI Dystopian Valkyrie?

[ae597]

POD Assassination succeeds on first attempt

7th July, 1944

On this day the Führer Adolf Hitler was assassinated by General
Helmuth Stieff at a display of new uniforms in Klessheim castle near
Salzburg. His conspiratorial group of officers had determined that the
preservation of a self-governing German state demanded immediate
action. Unfortunately, their bungled plan was based on a number of
misjudgements and false assumptions.

With the D-Day landings a month old, the Western Allies were bogged
down in hedgrow fighting. And even though they had put a million men
ashore in France, by no means could they be trusted to reach Berlin
ahead of the Russians. Because two weeks after D-Day, the Red Army
launched Bagration, an Operation that was striking deep into German
occupied territory...

Article continues at
http://www.todayinah.co.uk/index.php?story=39636-O

[Rich Rostrom]

ae597 wrote:
> POD Assassination succeeds on first attempt
>
> 7th July, 1944
>
> On this day the Führer Adolf Hitler was assassinated by General

> Helmuth Stieff ...

The follow-on strikes me as exceptionally feeble.

Here is a more extended scenario with a really dystopian present.

PoD as above.

The VALKYRIE coup succeed; with Hitler dead, the Nazis fold
like a cheap suit.

The post-coup regime tries to negotiate with the Allies, is stiffed.

All Axis allies defect or surrender within a month.

Germany surrenders in early September.

With Nazi Germany eliminated, a substantial bloc of Manhattan
District scientists refuse to continue work on the atomic bomb.
They are supported by 'conventional' armed forces leaders, who
want the budget redirected. Bomb development stops in October.

Soviet forces overrun all North China and Korea.

Japan massacres Allied PoWs and civilian internees.

US forces capture Tokyo at immense cost. The Emperor and
leadership are killed. US forces bog down in slow, incredibly
bloody subjugation of the rest of Japan, extermination of
die-hard Japanese forces overseas, lasting till 1950.

With the US still burdened by the Pacific War, there is no
Marshall Plan. Afterwrds, the exhausted US turns isolationist.

Soviet-sponsored Communist forces gain control of most
countries in Europe, including France with its colonies
(which all become independent Communist states)
and China, in addition to the countries occupied by the
Soviet forces during the war.

The USSR starts its own Bomb project in early 1945.
Information purloined or leaked from the Manhattan
District includes key technology, but not the full
recipe, as that was not completed. Soviet scientists
replicate US work, then finish the job in 1949. The
USSR builds up a large nuclear arsenal in secret.

The Manhattan District continues research into
atomic fission for power - the possibllity of
atomic bombs becomes a public question. The
US finally resumes Bomb development in 1954.

In 1955, the USSR announces that it has the
Bomb - lots of Bombs. However, the USSR
proposes that the Bomb be handed to the UN
exclusively, and that nations be prohibited from
building or developing the Bomb. This proposal
is backed by an implicit threat of war if the US
tries to build its own Bomb.

The US agrees. By this time, though, the UN
has a pro-Soviet majority - almost half explicitly
Communist states, several more "finlandized",
and some nominal neutrals leaning Soviet.

The UN "Peace Force" which takes control of
the Bomb is effectively Communist controlled.

The "Peace Force" adds ground forces for
"peace-keeping" duties in "trouble zones".

With the Peace Force as a "Trojan horse",
Communists take control of the rest of Africa
and most of the rest of Asia. The Peace
Force assumes the occupation of still-restive
Japan from the US.

The US has not even thought about re-arming.
Conventional arms seem irrelevant in face of
the Bomb. The US has no network of overseas
allies and bases. Thus the remaining independent
neutral nations in the Old World must submit to
Communist subversion and intimidation.

By 1965, Communism controls everything from the
English Channel to New Zealand, and much of Latin
America.

The US has determined that without nuclear weapons,
it is at the mercy of the Communists. The US starts
a secret project to build its own Bombs and deter the
Communists.

Unfortunately, the project is exposed before it is
completed. This attempt is justification for Communist
takeover of the US under UN colors in 1968.

(Arrest of all US leaders concerned, Peace Force
garrisons to control the facilities involved.)

With the US fallen, the UN dictates similar terms
to the remaining independent countries. The UN
adds a World Police force, ostensibly to suppress
crime and enforce nuclear prohibition - but in
practice to entrench Communist control and
maintain subjection to Moscow.

The next 150 years are not pretty at all. The global
Soviet state is corrupt, hidebound, increasingly
incompetent at everything but maintaining control.
It has wiped out any possible external base for
dissent or rebellion, any recorded memory of a
real previous state of the world.

The population, stripped of its root cultures,
terrorized by political police and informers,
falls into demoralized passivity. Life becomes
a negative-sum game, where the object is to
gain extra comforts through black-marketing,
crime, or entry into the Party elite. Everyone
lies, steals, informs, toadies. There is
nowhere to escape to. Alcoholism and drug
usage are rampant. Birth rates are very low,
and birth defects are common, also increasing
levels of mental illness.

By 2050, whole neighborhoods, towns, and
cities are being abandoned, and fall into ruin.
Infrastructure of all sorts is breaking down,
and severe pollution is omnipresent.

The core elite cling ruthlessly to the remaining
functional goods as tools of power. But the
systematic culling of anyone who doesn't place
regime loyalty above all - who values, for
instance, technical competence for itself,
has degraded the workforce. The mediocrities
at the top fear competence below. Ability is
viewed as dangerous.

Despite the declining population, food has
become seriously short. There are occasional
spontaneous riots against the regime, or just to
seize food - they are put down with increasingly
extreme brutality.

No organized resistance is possible. The regime
has destroyed every scrap of social organization
outside itself: churches, tribes, clans, clubs - all
gone.

By 2100, the manufacturing plants are all breaking
down. "High" tech (vacuum-tube electronics and
IC engines) are the privilege of the elite and the
security forces.

At this point, central control slips. Regional
centers begin to fight over the remaining goods,
destroying much.

Finally, some natural disaster triggers a general
collapse - a solar storm or viral epidemic. About
2/3 of the human race dies. The survivors live
in the ruins.

[bill]

I don't see a Communist tyranny lasting that long.

It would fall to bits quite quickly without an external enemy as the
Marxist theorists started muttering about the end of the 'dictatorship of
the proletariat'.

Your problem is that the Communists see their world as being rational and
coherent and when stuff doesn't happen when 'the science of history'
demands it the whole lots starts to fall to bits because of internal
contradictions, in much the same way that China is at the moment.


--
William Black

Free men have open minds
If you want loyalty, buy a dog...

[Bradipus]

Rich Rostrom, 20:13, giovedě 19 gennaio 2012:

> By 1965, Communism controls everything from the
> English Channel to New Zealand, and much of Latin
> America.

And Ireland?


--
o o

[The Horny Goat]

On Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:27:42 +0100, Bradipus <ahem...@never.mind.it>
wrote:

>Rich Rostrom, 20:13, giovedì 19 gennaio 2012:

>
>> By 1965, Communism controls everything from the
>> English Channel to New Zealand, and much of Latin
>> America.
>
>
>And Ireland?
>

Sounds to me a lot like Orwell's 1984 scenario

[Bradipus]

The Horny Goat, 00:25, lunedě 23 gennaio 2012:

> On Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:27:42 +0100, Bradipus
> <ahem...@never.mind.it> wrote:
>

>>Rich Rostrom, 20:13, giovedě 19 gennaio 2012:

>>
>>> By 1965, Communism controls everything from the
>>> English Channel to New Zealand, and much of Latin
>>> America.
>>
>>And Ireland?
>>
> Sounds to me a lot like Orwell's 1984 scenario

Change "Communism" with "Capitalism" and you live in it.
:-)


--
o o

[Rich Rostrom]

On Jan 19, 3:56 pm, bill <blackuse...@gmail.com> wrote:

> I don't see a Communist tyranny lasting that long.
>
> It would fall to bits quite quickly without an external enemy as the
> Marxist theorists started muttering about the end of the 'dictatorship of
> the proletariat'.

This is incredibly naive.

The USSR was a total tyranny. All scholars were
servants of the regime. The "Marxist theorists"
would explain how the Soviet world state embodied
the dictatorship of the proletariat.

> Your problem is that the Communists see their world as being rational and
> coherent and when stuff doesn't happen when 'the science of history'
> demands it the whole lots starts to fall to bits because of internal
> contradictions, in much the same way that China is at the moment.

Your problem is that you imagine the nomenklatura
would be seriously troubled by such issues, or that
any serious discussion would take place, or that
any challenge to control by the Party elite through
the security forces would ever be allowed to develop.

[bill]

On Sun, 22 Jan 2012 17:02:30 -0800, Rich Rostrom wrote:

> On Jan 19, 3:56 pm, bill <blackuse...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I don't see a Communist tyranny lasting that long.
>>
>> It would fall to bits quite quickly without an external enemy as the
>> Marxist theorists started muttering about the end of the 'dictatorship
>> of the proletariat'.
>
> This is incredibly naive.
>
> The USSR was a total tyranny.

Actually it wasn't.

A number of political parties always existed, although always subject to
Communist Party discipline.

> All scholars were servants of the regime.
> The "Marxist theorists" would explain how the Soviet world state
> embodied the dictatorship of the proletariat.

No. That's rather the point about their academic system. Its political
theorists look forwards and think they know what will happen.

>
>> Your problem is that the Communists see their world as being rational
>> and coherent and when stuff doesn't happen when 'the science of
>> history' demands it the whole lots starts to fall to bits because of
>> internal contradictions, in much the same way that China is at the
>> moment.
>
> Your problem is that you imagine the nomenklatura would be seriously
> troubled by such issues, or that any serious discussion would take
> place, or that any challenge to control by the Party elite through the
> security forces would ever be allowed to develop.

Where do you think the party members came from?

They most certainly were not the children of other party members.

Anyone could join the party and take part in political activities.

Now within a one-party state that is really that and not an aristocracy
pretending to do politics there is always discussion within the party
about doctrine.

The Soviet Union wasn't an aristocracy like North Korea, their party was
a real political party.

[Bradipus]

The Horny Goat, 00:25, lunedě 23 gennaio 2012:

> On Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:27:42 +0100, Bradipus
> <ahem...@never.mind.it> wrote:
>

>>Rich Rostrom, 20:13, giovedě 19 gennaio 2012:

>>
>>> By 1965, Communism controls everything from the
>>> English Channel to New Zealand, and much of Latin
>>> America.
>>
>>And Ireland?
>>
> Sounds to me a lot like Orwell's 1984 scenario

Try replace "Communism" with "Capitalism"...


--
o o