HOME | DD

Description
Not the most plausible scenario, but one I've wanted to do for a while: the US "wins" in Vietnam, winning here being the maintenance of South Vietnamese independence.

The PoD is 1975, when Nixon and his goons are a bit more careful and what we know as the Watergate scandal never happens. When the North Vietnamese attack South Vietnam, Nixon sends the USAF to bomb the North Vietnamese armies, which retreat back across the border. Nixon asks the Chinese to keep the North Vietnamese on a leash, and no further attempts are made before the South Vietnamese, with Western economic support, actually manage to get their act together.

The repercussions are widespread. While the United States is still bitter about its Vietnam experience, the idea that aid short of boots on the ground to anti-communist groups is viable spreads. Greater American aid helps the anti-communists triumph in newly-independent Mozambique and Angola, the Lebanese Civil War grinds to a stalemate, and perhaps most importantly the Iranian Revolution is stopped when American helicopters move in on the Shah's side. President Ford manages to cobble together a "Cairo-Jerusalem-Tehran" alliance in the Middle East after failed Iranian revolt. The Soviet Union, having invaded Afghanistan earlier thanks to increased confidence that a superpower could easily win a guerrilla war and more desperation to appear powerful, also left the country earlier when it became clear that that war was lost.

By 2012, the world is familiar yet different in many respects. In China, less reform-minded people took control and the economic miracle we see in our history doesn't happen. China still liberalizes and is somewhat friendly with the United States, but it's much poorer and less open than our China. The Soviet Union suffered from a brief civil war that saw the Baltic states leave and the military take control; by 2012 the Soviet Union is a repressive military dictatorship but it has relinquished its claims to eastern Europe and is slowly beginning to approach the United States. Similarly, South Africa remains under apartheid, but this system is being challenged by growing unrest. India is more closely tied to the Soviet Union, with Pakistan more confident that it could receive American aid. It has its own sphere of influence poised to challenge the American-led SEATO. Europe still "unifies" after the fall of the Eastern Bloc, but under a more economically-minded European Community. American troops have been slowly pulling out of the Baltics after a series of agreements with the Soviets.

Description
Not the most plausible scenario, but one I've wanted to do for a while: the US "wins" in Vietnam, winning here being the maintenance of South Vietnamese independence.

The PoD is 1975, when Nixon and his goons are a bit more careful and what we know as the Watergate scandal never happens. When the North Vietnamese attack South Vietnam, Nixon sends the USAF to bomb the North Vietnamese armies, which retreat back across the border. Nixon asks the Chinese to keep the North Vietnamese on a leash, and no further attempts are made before the South Vietnamese, with Western economic support, actually manage to get their act together.

The repercussions are widespread. While the United States is still bitter about its Vietnam experience, the idea that aid short of boots on the ground to anti-communist groups is viable spreads. Greater American aid helps the anti-communists triumph in newly-independent Mozambique and Angola, the Lebanese Civil War grinds to a stalemate, and perhaps most importantly the Iranian Revolution is stopped when American helicopters move in on the Shah's side. President Ford manages to cobble together a "Cairo-Jerusalem-Tehran" alliance in the Middle East after failed Iranian revolt. The Soviet Union, having invaded Afghanistan earlier thanks to increased confidence that a superpower could easily win a guerrilla war and more desperation to appear powerful, also left the country earlier when it became clear that that war was lost.

By 2012, the world is familiar yet different in many respects. In China, less reform-minded people took control and the economic miracle we see in our history doesn't happen. China still liberalizes and is somewhat friendly with the United States, but it's much poorer and less open than our China. The Soviet Union suffered from a brief civil war that saw the Baltic states leave and the military take control; by 2012 the Soviet Union is a repressive military dictatorship but it has relinquished its claims to eastern Europe and is slowly beginning to approach the United States. Similarly, South Africa remains under apartheid, but this system is being challenged by growing unrest. India is more closely tied to the Soviet Union, with Pakistan more confident that it could receive American aid. It has its own sphere of influence poised to challenge the American-led SEATO. Europe still "unifies" after the fall of the Eastern Bloc, but under a more economically-minded European Community. American troops have been slowly pulling out of the Baltics after a series of agreements with the Soviets.