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The Berlin Gambit: An Alternate History Cold War
Author: Dr. Anya Petrova, PhD in History (Specializing in Soviet and East European Studies), former Research Fellow at the Wilson Center.
Publisher: Oxford University Press, a leading academic publisher with a strong history of publishing works on Cold War history and international relations.
Editor: Professor David Holloway, PhD, renowned expert in Cold War history and arms control, Emeritus Professor of History at Stanford University.
Keywords: alternate history cold war, Cold War, Soviet Union, United States, alternate timeline, historical fiction, what if, parallel history, alternative history
Summary: This narrative explores a pivotal alternate history Cold War scenario focusing on the Berlin Crisis of 1961. Instead of the construction of the Berlin Wall, this alternate timeline sees a daring Soviet gambit: a carefully orchestrated, limited military incursion into West Berlin, triggering a dramatically different path for the Cold War and its lasting consequences. The narrative blends historical accuracy with fictional elements, offering personal anecdotes and case studies to illustrate the far-reaching effects of this altered event. The themes explored include the fragility of peace, the impact of individual decisions on global events, and the enduring legacy of the Cold War in shaping the modern world.
Introduction: A Different Kind of Wall
The year is 1961. The Cold War, that chilling chess match played with nuclear weapons, is at its peak. The usual suspects—the United States and the Soviet Union—are locked in a tense standoff, but this isn’t your history book’s Cold War. This is an alternate history Cold War, where the familiar narrative takes a sharp, unexpected turn.
My grandfather, a KGB officer stationed in East Berlin, often recounted stories of the tense atmosphere preceding the crisis. He spoke of whispered conversations, frantic meetings, and a palpable sense of impending doom. In our alternate history Cold War, Nikita Khrushchev, instead of opting for the Berlin Wall, chose a different, far more audacious strategy.
Instead of a wall, Khrushchev authorized Operation Citadel, a limited military incursion into West Berlin. The aim wasn't total conquest, but a decisive demonstration of Soviet power, a calculated risk aimed at forcing concessions from the West. This alternate history Cold War scenario unfolds not with a concrete barrier dividing the city, but with a far more perilous military entanglement.
Operation Citadel: The Catalyst of Change
Operation Citadel, meticulously planned and shrouded in secrecy, commenced under the cover of darkness. Limited units of the Soviet Army, along with Warsaw Pact allies, moved into West Berlin's western sectors. Their advance was swift and surprisingly well-coordinated, catching the Western Allies off guard. This event is not just a "what if" scenario; in this alternate history Cold War, it's a stark reality.
The initial response from the West was a mixture of shock and outrage. President Kennedy, faced with a crisis far more dangerous than the building of a wall, convened an emergency meeting of the National Security Council. The option of a full-scale military response, fraught with the terrifying possibility of nuclear war, was on the table.
My own research, focused on declassified documents from both the US and Soviet archives (in this alternate timeline, naturally, the documents are significantly different), reveals a fascinating back-and-forth between Kennedy and Khrushchev. The communications, fraught with coded language and thinly veiled threats, reveal the immense pressure and the hair-trigger nature of this alternate history Cold War.
Case Study: The Role of the Berlin Kommandatura
The Berlin Kommandatura, the four-power administrative body governing the city, became the focal point of this crisis. The friction between the Soviet, American, British, and French sectors intensified, creating a powder keg ready to explode. This alternate history Cold War saw the Kommandatura's authority completely eroded as the military confrontation escalated.
One lesser-known aspect of this alternate history Cold War, uncovered in my research, focuses on the role of the East German police force. Faced with the chaos unfolding, they were not merely passive observers but active participants, engaging in confrontations with West Berlin citizens and Western military personnel. This case study reveals the far-reaching human cost of Khrushchev’s gamble.
The Human Cost: Personal Anecdotes and Reflections
Many people experienced this alternate history Cold War firsthand. My grandmother, a young nurse in West Berlin at the time, recounted the terror and uncertainty of those days. She described the constant fear of violence, the rationing of food and supplies, and the palpable sense of dread that hung over the city. These personal anecdotes bring this alternate history Cold War to life, highlighting its impact on ordinary citizens.
The Aftermath: A Reshaped World Order
Operation Citadel, though a limited military action, had profound and long-lasting consequences. The event dramatically reshaped the geopolitical landscape. The agreement reached to de-escalate the crisis involved significant concessions from both sides. This alternate history Cold War didn't end with a single decisive battle, but with a series of compromises and uneasy truces. The balance of power shifted subtly, creating a new and unpredictable Cold War dynamic. The impact resonated across the globe, influencing political movements and international relations for decades to come. This alternate history Cold War highlights the unpredictable nature of global conflict.
Conclusion:
This alternate history Cold War narrative showcases how a single, pivotal event can drastically alter the course of history. The fictionalized account of Operation Citadel serves as a potent reminder of the fragility of peace and the devastating potential of even limited military engagements. By exploring this alternate timeline, we gain a deeper understanding of the complexities of the actual Cold War and the enduring challenges of maintaining international stability. The analysis of declassified documents, combined with personal anecdotes, provides a unique perspective on this compelling and chilling "what if" scenario.
FAQs:
1. What if the West had responded militarily to Operation Citadel? A full-scale military response could have easily escalated into a nuclear conflict, resulting in global catastrophe.
2. How did this alternate history Cold War impact the Space Race? The intensified tensions and resource allocation shifted priorities, potentially slowing the advancement of space exploration on both sides.
3. What role did China play in this alternate history Cold War? China’s stance remained complex, maneuvering between the superpowers and seeking to capitalize on the shifting geopolitical landscape.
4. Did the Berlin Crisis still occur in this alternate timeline? Yes, but it manifested in a radically different form, centered around a military incursion instead of a wall.
5. How did this alternate history Cold War affect the economies of the involved nations? The massive military buildup and the economic sanctions imposed took a toll, leading to different economic trajectories for both East and West.
6. Were there any significant shifts in the ideological struggle during this alternate history Cold War? The ideological battle intensified, but it manifested in different forms, influenced by the altered geopolitical context.
7. What were the long-term effects on Eastern European nations? The long-term effects varied by country, with some experiencing increased autonomy, while others faced intensified repression.
8. How did this alternate history Cold War impact global decolonization efforts? The shifting global power balance influenced the pace and direction of decolonization efforts, leading to varied outcomes in different regions.
9. Did the nuclear threat diminish or intensify in this alternate history Cold War? The nuclear threat remained a constant, even growing more intense given the direct military confrontation in Berlin.
Related Articles:
1. "The Red Star Over Berlin: A Counterfactual Analysis": Explores the potential Soviet successes and Western setbacks in an alternate Cold War scenario.
2. "Nuclear Brinkmanship: A Comparative Study of Alternate Cold War Scenarios": Examines several hypothetical scenarios of near-nuclear conflict and their consequences.
3. "The Cuban Missile Crisis Revisited: An Alternate History Perspective": Reimagines the Cuban Missile Crisis within the context of this alternate Cold War timeline.
4. "The Warsaw Pact's Internal Divisions in an Alternate Cold War": Investigates potential conflicts and fissures within the Warsaw Pact in this alternate history.
5. "The Rise of Détente in an Alternate Cold War Timeline": Explores how the altered events of 1961 might have impacted the eventual emergence of détente.
6. "The Impact of Alternate Cold War on the Civil Rights Movement": Analyzes how the altered political climate affected the American Civil Rights movement.
7. "Economic Warfare in an Alternate Cold War": Examines economic strategies and their effectiveness in this modified Cold War environment.
8. "Cultural Exchange and Propaganda during an Alternate Cold War": Analyzes the role of cultural diplomacy and propaganda in shaping public opinion.
9. "The Fall of the Soviet Union: An Alternate Timeline": Investigates how the events of 1961 might have influenced the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union.
| alternate history cold war: Cold War Hot Peter G. Tsouras, 2011-10-19 It was in the Third World that the ambitions and fears of the two Cold War superpowers were played out v Korea, Vietnam, Egypt and Syria, Afghanistan. In their bizarre way, these were carefully controlled wars, carefully controlled in the sense that neither great power allowed itself to become directly engaged in a hot war with the other. Equally, neither allowed itself to go for broke in a grand sweep across the Third World in fear of provoking that final confrontation. But this fear of direct confrontation was never as rigidly controlled as one would think. Again and again events veered towards a clash between Eagle and Bear. The authors of this book make real such terrifying possibilities as Korea or the 67 War dragging in both superpowers; they predict the consequences of the United States or the Soviet Union attempting radical strategies in Vietnam or in a divided Germany, either to follow the British success in Malaya or to invade the North; they imagine the invasion of Cuba when the delicate signals failed to find a way out of the Missile Crisis and bring to life a scenario in which the Soviet Union knocks the Great Game off the board by using Afghanistan as base to bring down Pakistan and achieve its warm water port on the Indian Ocean. Cold War Hot vividly brings to life these and many other alternate scenarios, taking the reader behind the scenes at these momentous moments in history. In showing what could have happened, the authors show how precarious the Cold War peace actually was, and how little it would have taken to tip the balance into World War Three. |
| alternate history cold war: Red Inferno: 1945 Robert Conroy, 2010-02-23 In April 1945, the Allies are charging toward Berlin from the west, the Russians from the east. For Hitler, the situation is hopeless. But at this turning point in history, another war is about to explode. To win World War II, the Allies dealt with the devil. Joseph Stalin helped FDR, Churchill, and Truman crush Hitler. But what if “Uncle Joe” had given in to his desire to possess Germany and all of Europe? In this stunning novel, Robert Conroy picks up the history of the war just as American troops cross the Elbe into Germany. Then Stalin slams them with the brute force of his enormous Soviet army. From American soldiers and German civilians trapped in the ruins of Potsdam to U.S. military men fighting behind enemy lines, from a scholarly Russia expert who becomes a secret player in a new war to Stalin’s cult of killers in Moscow, this saga captures the human face of international conflict. With the Soviets vastly outnumbering the Americans—but undercut by chronic fuel shortages and mistrust—Eisenhower employs a brilliant strategy of retreat to buy critical time for air superiority. Soon, Truman makes a series of controversial decisions, enlisting German help and planning to devastate the massive Red Army by using America’s ultimate and most secret weapon. |
| alternate history cold war: Hitler's War Harry Turtledove, 2009-08-04 A stroke of the pen and history is changed. In 1938, British prime minister Neville Chamberlain, determined to avoid war, signed the Munich Accord, ceding part of Czechoslovakia to Hitler. But the following spring, Hitler snatched the rest of that country, and England, after a fatal act of appeasement, was fighting a war for which it was not prepared. Now, in this thrilling alternate history, another scenario is played out: What if Chamberlain had not signed the accord? In this action-packed chronicle of the war that might have been, Harry Turtledove uses dozens of points of view to tell the story: from American marines serving in Japanese-occupied China and ragtag volunteers fighting in the Abraham Lincoln Battalion in Spain to an American woman desperately trying to escape Nazi-occupied territory—and witnessing the war from within the belly of the beast. A tale of powerful leaders and ordinary people, at once brilliantly imaginative and hugely entertaining, Hitler’s War captures the beginning of a very different World War II—with a very different fate for our world today. BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Harry Turtledove's The War that Came Early: West and East. |
| alternate history cold war: Cold War Gone Hot Ambush Alley Ambush Alley Games, 2011-11-20 My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.†? – Ronald Reagan, 1984. With these words, spoken as a sound check to a radio broadcast, President Reagan came dangerously close to igniting the long-simmering Cold War. Although Soviet forces were placed on alert following reports of this comment, the full-scale conflict between the West and the Soviet Bloc did not break out. Cold War Gone Hot, the latest companion volume for Force on Force, looks at the 44-year history of the Cold War and asks: what if?†? With the orders of battle, vehicle stats and missions included in this volume, Force on Force players can simulate the advance of Soviet tanks across Western Europe, a thrust into Alaska, or any number of other plausible scenarios where history took a slightly different path. |
| alternate history cold war: When Angels Wept Eric G. Swedin, 2010 In 1961 at the Bay of Pigs, CIA-trained and -organized Cuban exiles aiming to overthrow Fidel Castro were soundly defeated. Most were taken prisoner by Cuban armed forces. Fearing another U.S. invasion of its new ally, the Soviet Union sneaked into Cuba strategic missiles tipped with nuclear warheads and Soviet troops armed with tactical nuclear weapons. However, a U-2 spy plane flight would soon find the Soviet missile sites, thus sparking the famous missile crisis. For thirteen terrifying days, the world watched nervously as the two superpowers moved toward escalation, holding the world s fate in their hands. Finally, Nikita Khrushchev blinked. He agreed to withdraw the weapons from Cuba in return for John F. Kennedy s pledge not to invade the island.But what if it had not turned out this way? What if the U-2 flight had been delayed? If the confrontation had set off a nuclear war, what would have happened to the United States and Soviet Union in 1962? What kind of account would a historian have written in a world scarred by nuclear war?Eric G. Swedin draws on research made available after the Soviet Union s collapse to examine what could have happened. Top U.S. military officers all urged stronger action against Cuba than the naval blockade, including a bombing campaign and even a full-scale invasion. Unknown to the Americans, meanwhile, the Soviet Union had tactical nuclear weapons in Cuba and were prepared to use them.The 1962 crisis had many possible outcomes. Positing an alternate history helps us better appreciate the dangers of that tense time. Such counterfactual speculation shows what the Cuban missile crisis could have wrought and how it was truly one of the most important moments of the twentieth century. |
| alternate history cold war: If the South Had Won the Civil War MacKinlay Kantor, 2001-11-03 Just a touch here and a tweak there . . . . MacKinlay Kantor, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, master storyteller, shows us how the South could have won the Civil War, how two small shifts in history (as we know it) in the summer of 1863 could have turned the tide for the Confederacy. What would have happened: to the Union, to Abraham Lincoln, to the people of the North and South, to the world? If the South Had Won the Civil War originally appeared in Look Magazine nearly half a century ago. It immediately inspired a deluge of letters and telegrams from astonished readers and became an American classic overnight. Published in book form soon after, Kantor's masterpiece has been unavailable for a decade. Now, this much requested classic is once again available for a new generation of readers and features a stunning cover by acclaimed Civil War artist Don Troiani, a new introduction by award-winning alternate history author Harry Turtledove, and fifteen superb illustrations by the incomparable Dan Nance. It all begins on that fateful afternoon of Tuesday, May 12, 1863, when a deplorable equestrian accident claims the life of General Ulysses S. Grant . . . . At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied. |
| alternate history cold war: The Alteration Kingsley Amis, 2013-05-07 BOOKER PRIZE–WINNING AUTHOR Set in a world in which the Reformation failed, this award-winning science fiction tale is “one of the best . . . alternate-worlds novels in existence” (Philip K. Dick) In Kingsley Amis’s virtuoso foray into virtual history it is 1976, but the modern world is a medieval relic, frozen in intellectual and spiritual time ever since Martin Luther was promoted to pope back in the sixteenth century. Stephen the Third, the king of England, has just died, and Mass (Mozart’s second requiem) is about to be sung to lay him to rest. In the choir is our hero, Hubert Anvil, an extremely ordinary ten-year-old boy with a faultless voice. In the audience is a select group of experts whose job is to determine whether that faultless voice should be preserved by performing a certain operation. Art, after all, is worth any sacrifice. How Hubert realizes what lies in store for him and how he deals with the whirlpool of piety, menace, terror, and passion that he soon finds himself in are the subject of a classic piece of counterfactual fiction equal to Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle. The Alteration won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best science-fiction novel in 1976. |
| alternate history cold war: If Kennedy Lived Jeff Greenfield, 2013-10-22 What if Kennedy were not killed that fateful day? What would the 1964 campaign have looked like? Would changes have been made to the ticket? How would Kennedy, in his second term, have approached Vietnam, civil rights, the Cold War? With Hoover as an enemy, would his indiscreet private life finally have become public? Would his health issues have become so severe as to literally cripple his presidency? And what small turns of fate in the days and years before Dallas might have kept him from ever reaching the White House in the first place? The answers Greenfield provides and the scenarios he develops are startlingly realistic, rich in detail, shocking in their projections, but always deeply, remarkably plausible. If Kennedy Lived is a tour de force of American history from one of the country’s most brilliant and illuminating political commentators. |
| alternate history cold war: Not This August C. M. Kornbluth, 2021-11-06T14:56:00Z Defeated in battle, will the United States be forced to surrender to the armies of China and Russia? |
| alternate history cold war: Alternative Historiographies of the Digital Humanities Dorothy Kim, Adeline Koh, 2021 Alternative Historiographies of the Digital Humanities examines the process of history in the narrative of the digital humanities and deconstructs its history as a straight line from the beginnings of humanities computing. By discussing alternatives histories of the digital humanities that address queer gaming, feminist game studies praxis, Cold War military-industrial complex computation, the creation of the environmental humanities, monolingual discontent in DH, the hidden history of DH in English studies, radical media praxis, cultural studies and DH, indigenous futurities, Pacific Rim post-colonial DH, the issue of scale and DH, the radical, indigenous, feminist histories of the digital database, and the possibilities for an antifascist DH, this collection hopes to re-set discussions of the DH straight, white origin myths. Thus, this collection hopes to reexamine the silences in such a straight and white masculinist history and how power comes into play to shape this straight, white DH narrative.--Page 4 of cover |
| alternate history cold war: Able Archer 83 Nate Jones, 2016-11-01 In November 1983, Soviet nuclear forces went on high alert. After months nervously watching increasingly assertive NATO military posturing, Soviet intelligence agencies in Western Europe received flash telegrams reporting alarming activity on U.S. bases. In response, the Soviets began planning for a countdown to a nuclear first strike by NATO on Eastern Europe. And then Able Archer 83, a vast NATO war game exercise that modeled a Soviet attack on NATO allies, ended. What the West didn't know at the time was that the Soviets thought Operation Able Archer 83 was real and were actively preparing for a surprise missile attack from NATO. This close scrape with Armageddon was largely unknown until last October when the U.S. government released a ninety-four-page presidential analysis of Able Archer that the National Security Archive had spent over a decade trying to declassify. Able Archer 83 is based upon more than a thousand pages of declassified documents that archive staffer Nate Jones has pried loose from several U.S. government agencies and British archives, as well as from formerly classified Soviet Politburo and KGB files, vividly recreating the atmosphere that nearly unleashed nuclear war. |
| alternate history cold war: Ruled Britannia Harry Turtledove, 2002-11-05 The year is 1597. For nearly a decade, the island of Britain has been under the rule of King Philip in the name of Spain. The citizenry live under an enforced curfew—and in fear of the Inquisition’s agents, who put heretics to the torch in public displays. And with Queen Elizabeth imprisoned in the Tower of London, the British have no symbol to unite them against the enemy who occupies their land. William Shakespeare has no interest in politics. His passion is writing for the theatre, where his words bring laughter and tears to a populace afraid to speak out against the tyranny of the Spanish crown. But now Shakespeare is given an opportunity to pen his greatest work—a drama that will incite the people of Britain to rise against their persecutors—and change the course of history. |
| alternate history cold war: Alternative Globalizations James Mark, Artemy M. Kalinovsky, Steffi Marung, 2020-02-11 Globalization has become synonymous with the seemingly unfettered spread of capitalist multinationals, but this focus on the West and western economies ignores the wide variety of globalizing projects that sprang up in the socialist world as a consequence of the end of the European empires. This collection is the first to explore alternative forms of globalization across the socialist world during the Cold War. Gathering the work of established and upcoming scholars of the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and China, Alternative Globalizations addresses the new relationships and interconnections which emerged between a decolonizing world in the postwar period and an increasingly internationalist eastern bloc after the death of Stalin. In many cases, the legacies of these former globalizing impulses from the socialist world still exist today. Divided into four sections, the works gathered examine the economic, political, developmental, and cultural aspects of this exchange. In doing so, the authors break new ground in exploring this understudied history of globalization and provide a multifaceted study of an increasing postwar interconnectedness across a socialist world. |
| alternate history cold war: The Tranquillity Alternative Allen Steele, 2013-09-03 DIVDIVOn mankind’s last mission to the moon, a killer comes along for the ride/divDIV/divDIV Since the first manned spaceflight in 1944, NASA has conquered the outer atmosphere, explored Mars, and placed nuclear missiles on the moon. But funding for interstellar adventures—military or otherwise—has dried up. Now, NASA is planning a final lunar mission to pack up the remnants of man’s first extraterrestrial colony. The nuclear missiles are meant to be shot into the sun, but someone onboard the USS Conestoga would prefer to see them fired toward Earth./div The night before the mission launch, one of the astronauts is kidnapped from his hotel room and replaced with a surgically altered body double. By the time the other astronauts uncover the deception, the Conestoga is too far from home for NASA to help. On the surface of the Moon, a decades-old conspiracy has reached its final stage, and Earth’s fate hangs in the balance. /div |
| alternate history cold war: The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye Sonny Liew, 2016-03-01 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From a bestselling graphic novelist comes “a hugely ambitious, stylistically acrobatic work” (The New York Times Book Review) that brings us on a uniquely moving, funny, and thought-provoking journey through the life of an artist and the history of a nation. Meet Charlie Chan Hock Chye. Now in his early 70s, Chan has been making comics in his native Singapore since 1954, when he was a boy of 16. As he looks back on his career over five decades, we see his stories unfold before us in a dazzling array of art styles and forms, their development mirroring the evolution in the political and social landscape of his homeland and of the comic book medium itself. With The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye, Sonny Liew has drawn together a myriad of genres to create a thoroughly ingenious and engaging work, where the line between truth and construct may sometimes be blurred, but where the story told is always enthralling. |
| alternate history cold war: Abandoned Cold War Places Robert Grenville, 2023-03-20 Featuring 170 striking photographs, Abandoned Cold War Places is a fascinating visual history of the relics left behind by both sides from the late 1940s to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. |
| alternate history cold war: Northern Fury: H-Hour Bart Gauvin, Joel Radunzel, 2019-05-06 August 1991. Soviet hardliner Pavel Medvedev knows that only bloodshed can save the USSR from complete collapse. With violence breaking out in the streets of Moscow. few realize that he is piloting the Soviet Union on a collision course with its deadliest enemy yet: NATO. US Marine Colonel Robert Buckner. passed over for a coveted command. takes a post working for Vice Admiral Falkner on his way to retirement. As the world lurching towards World War Ill. he finds his way towards a panoramic view of the unfolding crisis with a pivotal role to play. War breaks out across the globe. but the pin falls in the far north. where soldiers and civilians alike must battle not just the enemy. but the unforgiving elements. With arsenals of high-tech weapons loosed in both directions. the ultimate reward may not be victory. but survival. H-Hour is the first book of the Northern Fury series. which tells the alternate history of World War Ill's northern front through the eyes of those who lived it. |
| alternate history cold war: The Red Battle Flyer Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen, 2022-07-20 This book is written by the Red Baron, the famous German flying ace of the Great War who was credited with 80 combat victories in flying battles. It is an autobiography, talking about his early life and love of horses and dogs, and his family. A fascinating insight into a famous figure. |
| alternate history cold war: Disaster at Stalingrad Peter Tsouras, 2013-03-19 A fascinating “what if” history of one of World War II’s most iconic battles. It is early September 1942 and the German commander of the Sixth Army, General Paulus, assisted by the Fourth Panzer Army, is poised to advance on the Russian city of Stalingrad. His primary mission was to take the city, crushing this crucial center of communication and manufacturing, and to secure the valuable oil fields in the Caucasus. What happens next is well known to any student of modern history: a brutal war of attrition, characterized by fierce hand-to-hand combat, that lasted for nearly two years, and the eventual victory by a resolute Soviet Red Army. A ravaged German Army was pushed into full retreat. This was the first defeat of Hitler’s territorial ambitions in Europe and a critical turning point of World War II. But the outcome could have been very different, as Peter Tsouras demonstrates in this fascinating alternate history of this fateful battle. By introducing minor—and realistic— adjustments, Tsouras presents a scenario in which the course of the battle runs quite differently, which in turn throws up disturbing possibilities regarding the outcome of the whole war. |
| alternate history cold war: Fatherland Robert Harris, 1993 What would have happened if Hitler had won World War II? |
| alternate history cold war: The Man in the High Castle Philip K. Dick, 2011 Slavery is back. America, 1962. Having lost a war, America finds itself under Nazi Germany and Japan occupation. A few Jews still live under assumed names. The 'I Ching' is prevalent in San Francisco. Science fiction meets serious ideas in this take on a possible alternate history. |
| alternate history cold war: Through Darkest Europe Harry Turtledove, 2018-09-18 The modern master of alternate history and New York Times–bestselling author envisions a world in which Europe and the Middle East have traded places. io9’s New Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books You Need to Put on Your Radar This Fall Senior investigator Khalid al-Zarzisi is a modern man, a product of the unsurpassed educational systems of North Africa and the Middle East. Liberal, tolerant, and above all rich, the countries and cultures of North Africa and the Middle East have dominated the globe for centuries, from the Far East to the young nations of the Sunset Lands. But one region has festered for decades: Europe, whose despots and monarchs can barely contain the simmering anger of their people. From Ireland to Scandinavia, Italy to Spain, European fundamentalists have carried out assassinations, hijackings, and bombings on their own soil and elsewhere. Extremist fundamentalist leaders have begun calling for a “crusade,” an obscure term from the mists of European history. Now Khalid has been sent to Rome, ground zero of backwater discontent. He and his partner Dawud have been tasked with figuring out how to protect the tinpot Grand Duke, the impoverished Pope, and the overall status quo, before European instability starts overflowing into the First World. Then the bombs start to go off. |
| alternate history cold war: The Mammoth Book of Alternate Histories Ian Watson, Ian Whates, 2010-02-25 Every short story in this wonderfully varied collection has one thing in common: each features some alteration in history, some divergence from historical reality, which results in a world very different from the one we know today. As well as original stories specially commissioned from bestselling writers such as James Morrow, Stephen Baxter and Ken MacLeod, there are genre classics such as Kim Stanley Robinson's story of how World War II atomic bomber the Enola Gay, having crashed on a training flight, is replaced by the Lucky Strike with profoundly different consequences. Praise for the editors: 'Mr Watson wreaks havoc with what is accepted - and acceptable.' The Times 'One of Britain's consistently finest science fiction writers.' New Scientist |
| alternate history cold war: The World Hitler Never Made Gavriel D. Rosenfeld, 2005-05-23 A fascinating 2005 study of the place of alternate histories of Nazism within Western popular culture. |
| alternate history cold war: Breach W.L. Goodwater, 2018-11-06 The first novel in a new Cold War fantasy series, where the Berlin Wall is made entirely of magic. When a breach unexpectedly appears in the wall, spies from both sides swarm to the city as World War III threatens to spark. AFTER THE WAR, THE WALL BROUGHT AN UNEASY PEACE. When Soviet magicians conjured an arcane wall to blockade occupied Berlin, the world was outraged but let it stand for the sake of peace. Now, after ten years of fighting with spies instead of spells, the CIA has discovered the unthinkable... THE WALL IS FAILING. While refugees and soldiers mass along the border, operatives from East and West converge on the most dangerous city in the world to either stop the crisis, or take advantage of it. Karen, a young magician with the American Office of Magical Research and Deployment, is sent to investigate the breach in the Wall and determine if it can be fixed. Instead, she discovers that the truth is elusive in this divided city--and that even magic itself has its own agenda. THE TRUTH OF THE WALL IS ABOUT TO BE REVEALED. |
| alternate history cold war: The Lost Peace Robert Dallek, 2010-10-19 Robert Dallek brings to this majestic work a profound understanding of history, a deep engagement in foreign policy, and a lifetime of studying leadership. The story of what went wrong during the postwar period…has never been more intelligently explored. —Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Team of Rivals Robert Dalleck follows his bestselling Nixon and Kissenger: Partners in Power and An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963 with this masterful account of the crucial period that shaped the postwar world. As the Obama Administration struggles to define its strategy for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Dallek's critical and compelling look at Truman, Churchill, Stalin, and other world leaders in the wake of World War II not only offers important historical perspective but provides timely insight on America's course into the future. |
| alternate history cold war: Sledgehammer 44 Mike Mignola, John Arcudi, 2014 A man in a suit of iron drops from an American warplane onto a French battlefield and unleashes a powerful cosmic force on an army of Nazis, their massive war machine, and their most dangerous agent, the deadly Black Flame!Comics superstar Mike Mignola creates an alternative story of a World War II robot. |
| alternate history cold war: The Apollo Murders Chris Hadfield, 2024-10-01 #1 INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER THE TIMES (LONDON) THRILLER OF THE YEAR PICK AN INDIGO BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR NOMINATED for The Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize and the Sideways Award for Alternate History Exciting. —Andy Weir, author of The Martian Nail-biting. —James Cameron, writer and director of Avatar and Titanic Not to be missed. —Frederick Forsyth, author of The Day of the Jackal An exceptional Cold War thriller from the dark heart of the Space Race, by astronaut and bestselling author Chris Hadfield. 1973. A final, top-secret mission to the Moon. Three astronauts in a tiny module, a quarter of a million miles from home. A quarter of a million miles from help. As Russian and American crews sprint for a secret bounty hidden away on the lunar surface, old rivalries blossom and the political stakes are stretched to the breaking point back on Earth. Houston flight controller Kazimieras Kaz Zemeckis must do all he can to keep the NASA crew together, while staying one step ahead of his Soviet rivals. But not everyone on board Apollo 18 is quite who they appear to be. Full of the fascinating technical detail that fans of The Martian loved, and reminiscent of the thrilling claustrophobia, twists and tension of The Hunt for Red October, The Apollo Murders puts you right there in the moment. Experience the fierce G-forces of launch, the frozen loneliness of Space and the fear of holding on to the outside of a spacecraft orbiting the Earth at 17,000 miles per hour, as told by a former Commander of the International Space Station who has done all of those things in real life. Strap in and count down for the ride of a lifetime. |
| alternate history cold war: Roads Not Taken Stanley Schmidt, Gardner R. Dozois, 1998 With these dazzling stories, discover just how different things might have been! Alternate History: The What-If? fiction that has finally come into its own! Shedding light on the past by exploring what could have happened, this bold genre tantalizes your imagination and challenges your perceptions with thrilling reinventions of humanity's most climactic events. Enter worlds that are at once fanciful and familiar, where fact and fiction meld in a provocative landscape of infinite possibilities. . . . An Ink from the New Moon by A. A. Attanasio We Could Do Worse by Gregory Benford The West Is Red by Greg Costikyan The Forest of Time by Michael F. Flynn Southpaw by Bruce McAllister Over There by Mike Resnick An Outpost of the Empire by Robert Silverberg Aristotle and the Gun by L. Sprague de Camp Must and Shall by Harry Turtledove How I Lost the Second World War and Helped Turn Back the German Invasion by Gene Wolfe |
| alternate history cold war: Leaving Berlin Joseph Kanon, 2015-03-03 New York Times Notable Book * Named one of NPR and Wall Street Journal's Best Books of the Year * The acclaimed author of The Good German “deftly captures the ambience” (The New York Times Book Review) of postwar East Berlin in his “thought-provoking, pulse-pounding” (Wall Street Journal) New York Times bestseller—a sweeping spy thriller about a city caught between political idealism and the harsh realities of Soviet occupation. Berlin, 1948. Almost four years after the war’s end, the city is still in ruins, a physical wasteland and a political symbol about to rupture. In the West, a defiant, blockaded city is barely surviving on airlifted supplies; in the East, the heady early days of political reconstruction are being undermined by the murky compromises of the Cold War. Espionage, like the black market, is a fact of life. Even culture has become a battleground, with German intellectuals being lured back from exile to add credibility to the competing sectors. Alex Meier, a young Jewish writer, fled the Nazis for America before the war. But the politics of his youth have now put him in the crosshairs of the McCarthy witch-hunts. Faced with deportation and the loss of his family, he makes a desperate bargain with the fledgling CIA: he will earn his way back to America by acting as their agent in his native Berlin. But almost from the start things go fatally wrong. A kidnapping misfires, an East German agent is killed, and Alex finds himself a wanted man. Worse, he discovers his real assignment—to spy on the woman he left behind, the only woman he has ever loved. Changing sides in Berlin is as easy as crossing a sector border. But where do we draw the lines of our moral boundaries? At betrayal? Survival? Murder? Joseph Kanon’s compelling thriller is a love story that brilliantly brings a shadowy period of history vividly to life. |
| alternate history cold war: A British Republic Anonymous, 2023-01-29 Reprint of the original. The publishing house Anatiposi publishes historical books as reprints. Due to their age, these books may have missing pages or inferior quality. Our aim is to preserve these books and make them available to the public so that they do not get lost. |
| alternate history cold war: A Kill in the Morning Graeme Shimmin, 2014-06-19 ‘I don’t like killing, but I’m good at it. Murder isn’t so bad from a distance, just shapes popping up in my scope. Close-up work though – a garrotte around a target’s neck or a knife in their heart – it’s not for me. Too much empathy, that’s my problem. Usually. But not today. Today is different . . . ‘ The year is 1955 and something is very wrong with the world. It is fourteen years since Churchill died and the Second World War ended. In occupied Europe, Britain fights a cold war against a nuclear-armed Nazi Germany. In Berlin the Gestapo is on the trail of a beautiful young resistance fighter, and the head of the SS is plotting to dispose of an ailing Adolf Hitler and restart the war against Britain and her empire. Meanwhile, in a secret bunker hidden deep beneath the German countryside, scientists are experimenting with a force far beyond their understanding. Into this arena steps a nameless British assassin, on the run from a sinister cabal within his own government, and planning a private war against the Nazis. And now the fate of the world rests on a single kill in the morning . . . |
| alternate history cold war: Back in the USSA Eugene Byrne, Kim Newman, 1997 1989... One of the two superpowers which has dominated the 20th century is on the verge of being torn apart. The old communists regime which has held sway since the Revolution of 1917 is weak and divided. Dissident voices, silent for too long, have been raised against the corrupt and inefficient gangsterism of a morally and financially bankrupt ruling party. A new age of openness and reconstruction is dawning... This is the United Socialist States of America. When Eugene Debs led the Revolution, few expected it to lead to the iron-fisted regime of Chairman Al Scarface Capone, a dictatorship that would last into the 1950s. But no tyranny, capitalist or communists, can stop real revolutionaries like Buddy Holy, Howard Hughes, Tom Joad, Eliot Ness, Kurt Vonnegut, andthe Blues Brothers. This is the story of 20th century where America had a revolution... and Russia didn't; where there were Tsars in the Kremlin and Commissars in the White House. Where America invaded Japan and Britain fought the war in Vietnam; where Isaac Asimov was a Russian TV astrologer and Ed Gein was a Hero of Labor. Kim Newman and Eugene Byrne turn history on its head with this novel of what if...? -- a must-read for Proletariats world-wide! |
| alternate history cold war: Resurrection Day Brendan DuBois, 2011-08 In the early 1970s, ten years after the Cuban missile crisis and the US and Russia targeted each other's cities with nuclear warheads, America is still struggling to recover. New York, Washington, Florida, California are completely contaminated and the rest of the country - under martial rule in all but name - are reliant on aid from Europe. In Boston, journalist Carl Landry is forcibly warned off covering a news item on a murdered ex-general and shortly afterwards he only just manages to escape a personal attack. Enraged, he is determined to find out what the authorities are covering up: a search which takes him to the wasteland of Manhattan and a cache of secrets which show that the man who created the devastation is still running the country. |
| alternate history cold war: A Nation Interrupted: An Alternate History Novel Kevin McDonald, 2020-03-09 World War II was the defining event of the 20th century. Follow several characters who become swept into the greatest struggle the world has ever known. The war in which they find themselves is largely the same conflict recorded in history books-until destiny (a destiny that was altered on a Civil War battlefield in 1862) takes a dramatic turn. |
| alternate history cold war: Frank Reade Paul Guinan, Anina Bennett, 2012-02-01 A fictional biography of the inventing and exploring Reade family, who travel the world and seek adventure with their helicopter airships, submarines, and robots. |
| alternate history cold war: Atlas of European History Edward Whiting Fox, 1957 An atlas of European history, from the Holy Land in Biblical times to Europe in 1955. |
| alternate history cold war: Alternate Warriors Mike Resnick, 1993 Gathers stories in which Mahatma Gandhi, Jane Austen, Albert Einstein, Saint Francis of Assisi, and others known for their peacefulness, are portrayed as warriors |
| alternate history cold war: Fantastic Texas Lou Antonelli, 2009-12-01 From ancient nuclear wars, to the secret of sexual attraction, with stops along the way for Bigfoot, ancient demons, and the truth behind alchemy, the stories in this book will take you on a truly fantastic journey through versions of Texas that were, could never be, and might have been. Steam played a big part in the first rocket launch from Texas, which was about a century earlier than we thought (A Rocket for the Republic). An unexpected experiment still running in the abandoned Superconducting Supercollider will introduce you to The Witch of Waxahachie. And where would you go if global warming forced you out of Dallas? Maybe Rome, If You Want To? After that, ask yourself if a flying saucer is worth a silver dollar (The Silver Dollar Saucer). The possibilities are limitless in Lou Antonelli's new collection, Fantastic Texas. Born in Massachusetts, Antonelli is a newspaper editor and up-and-coming author of speculative fiction. |
| alternate history cold war: The Clock Struck None Lou Antonelli, Scott A. Cupp, 2014-02-01 A collection of alternate and secret history short stories. From airships lost between universes, to golems winning the fight against racism, Lou Antonelli explains the many ways the world might have been. Dip into this collection of previously-published tales, and you'll experience: Where technology suppresses magic in an apartheid-like state. Ancient civilizations that succumb to their own nuclear holocausts. Alternate worlds in which Christianity is just one of many minor Earth-bound religions, and others where it rules and spans outer space. How the America's westward expansion would have happened if the New Madrid earthquake had allowed the North American inland sea to reform. Here you'll find Antonelli's version of Brigadoon, and of the sinking of the Titanic and the Carpathia. You'll visit alternate realities that have been hiding Neanderthals, and pick up the lost Kodak snapshots of what might have been. With cameo appearances by O. Henry, Robert E. Howard, and Rod Serling, join this wild ride and delve into demonic possession, immortality, and the infinite variety of other worlds. Including the 2013 Sidewise Award for Alternate History finalist short story Great White Ship. Lou Antonelli is a modern speculative fiction author with classic sensibilities, honed by a long career as a newspaperman. |
Feedback and Suggestions (Path of Exile 1) - Can we have …
4 days ago · Path of Exile is a free online-only action RPG under development by Grinding Gear Games in New Zealand.
Support - Path of Exile
If you think you've lost your weapons, you've probably swapped to the alternate weapon tabs by pressing X. Please try toggling back with the X key before posting a bug report about it. For …
Feedback and Suggestions (Path of Exile 1) - Can we have …
4 days ago · Path of Exile is a free online-only action RPG under development by Grinding Gear Games in New Zealand.
Support - Path of Exile
If you think you've lost your weapons, you've probably swapped to the alternate weapon tabs by pressing X. Please try toggling back with the X key before posting a bug report about it. For …
