| rdfs:comment
| - The "Twilight War" falls in the category of "alternative history" now. In the Twilight War world, Gorbechev died in the 1980s and the Soviet Union did not fall apart at the beginning of the last decade. Instead, the Soviet Union drifted into a war with China. This war went badly, and an attempt at German reunification lead to war in the West as well. In 1997, the war went nuclear, not a massive exchange but a gradual escalation. The U.S. government was devastated by a strike on Washington that took out both the President and the Vice-President.
- In 1995 a series of Sino-Soviet border conflicts expanded into general war between the Soviet Union and China. The Sino-Soviet war rapidly escalated from conventional warfare into exchanges of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. In 1996 a cabal of East German and West German military officers seek to reunify their country. Unified German forces stage a coup d'état against the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany. The US and NATO allies initially attempt to stay out of the war, but are quickly drawn into the European conflict.
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| abstract
| - The "Twilight War" falls in the category of "alternative history" now. In the Twilight War world, Gorbechev died in the 1980s and the Soviet Union did not fall apart at the beginning of the last decade. Instead, the Soviet Union drifted into a war with China. This war went badly, and an attempt at German reunification lead to war in the West as well. In 1997, the war went nuclear, not a massive exchange but a gradual escalation. The U.S. government was devastated by a strike on Washington that took out both the President and the Vice-President. The war sputtered on until the spring of 2000 when the last NATO offensive in Europe was crushed by a Soviet counterattack. Remaining US forces were evacuated the following year; the war was effectively over. By this time the typical military unit in Europe and the Middle East was primarily interested in maintaining itself, and feudalism returned for awhile. While the big war was over, there were many little wars to fight to settle small but important issues such as who gets enough food to live through the next winter. It was common for forces to make up their losses through local recruiting, and not unheard of for prisoners-of-war to be enlisted. Meanwhile, the US was being split into three governments:
* Civgov, headed by President Broward, whose election was not recognized by the Joint Chiefs.
* The Joint Chiefs formed Milgov.
* A right-wing movement called New America took power in enclaves in the South, the Rocky Mountains, and even parts of the Alleghenies for awhile.
- In 1995 a series of Sino-Soviet border conflicts expanded into general war between the Soviet Union and China. The Sino-Soviet war rapidly escalated from conventional warfare into exchanges of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. In 1996 a cabal of East German and West German military officers seek to reunify their country. Unified German forces stage a coup d'état against the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany. The US and NATO allies initially attempt to stay out of the war, but are quickly drawn into the European conflict. Between 1996 and 1997 a largely conventional war is fought between NATO and Warsaw Pact forces throughout Europe. There are limited exchanges of battlefield nuclear weapons, and chemical and biological weapons. During Thanksgiving 1997, the Soviet Union launches a surprise first strike against targets in the United States and Europe. The U.S. and Great Britain launch retaliatory nuclear strikes against the Soviet Union. In the aftermath of the nuclear exchanges, both blocs struggle to recover from the damage. The war continues - despite increasing shortages of men, equipment, and fuel. In the United States there is a breach between the civilian government and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. An open rift develops between "Civgov" (the civilian government) and "Milgov" (the military government), which leads to a low-intensity civil war. By the summer of 2000, the European theatre of operations had been fought to a near stalemate. In one final effort to break the deadlock and end the war NATO forces planned a summer offensive across Northern Poland and into the Baltics, but the offensive ground to a halt in the face of a Warsaw Pact counter-attack. Several divisions & corps on each side were virtually eliminated. In the chaotic aftermath, supply lines are lost, high level command breaks down and armies in the European theatre lose cohesion beyond the platoon unit. Some go "native" and integrated with the militias of independent "free cities", others turned into gangs of marauding bandits and some small groups of surviving soldiers sought to find their way home.
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