INVASION USA: NORTH
Following the collapse of national authority, there was a period where the borders became porous, and for the first time since 1812, foreign powers were on the soil of America. In early 1963, the Russians invaded Alaska from the sea. This was not anywhere near a WWII-style amphibious operation, but rather a piecemeal landing of scratched-together troops and scavenged equipment. The reason for the Russian push was more to escape the radioactive devastation of the Pacific coast of Russia than any grand military planning. The invasion went well initially, with the Russians capturing Juneau and Anchorage and driving towards Vancouver, before the Americans could counterattack. By late 1963, the invaders had been stopped and isolated in small enclaves throughout the state. Over time, the Russians gave up their plans of conquest and settled down to find wives and raise crops. Other than these paragraphs, I will make no attempt to detail the two (north and south) invasions any further. What happened and why are beyond the scope of this document, having taken place in the past, and only the present consequences of the invasions need be included. The GM is free to flesh the invasions out to his liking.
INVASION USA: SOUTH
On the southern borders came another enemy, the Mexicans. Egged on by Marxist elements in the Mexican government, the Mexican army stormed across the border in the first day of May, 1964, just six months before game-time, aiming to reclaim the territory lost to America in the Mexican-American war in the 19th century. In retrospect, the invasion had more to do with the horrible conditions in Mexico in 1964 than any dreams of renewing Mexico's glory years. The Mexican economy collapsed when the US did, leaving the nation full of starving refugees and seething discord. The best way to keep the nation from dissolving into civil war was to focus efforts to the north. A four-pronged effort was mounted, one into each of the border states. Forget visions of grand armies marching north, the Mexican drive was more shotgun-toting peasants in trucks and VW Beetles led by ill-armed and ill-trained army units. There were initial successes, perhaps mainly because the lingering EMP effects over the US continued to severely limit US troop’s ability to coordinate large-scale defenses and communicate with the front. The US military was tied down with transportation problems, ammunition, equipment, troop shortages, and home industry in ruins, and disaster relief. The southern border is quite long and units and towns are naturally quite isolated. Even with the limited mobility of the Mexican Army, many American units and militias were easily flanked and had a hard time getting the word of the invasion through to the command structures. The Mexican army had no idea what they were doing and as soon as the Americans got over the shock of being invaded and mounted counterattacks, the drives quickly stalled and the front stagnated. The Mexicans had strategic surprise but no real strategic goal. They wanted to capture the food-growing areas of the American Southwest but had no defined stop-line. The invasion was more a political device to unite the country--from that standpoint, the move worked, at least for a time. But the Mexicans never had a good shot at capturing the Central Valley in California--the richest prizes were either heavily defended by the Americans or sabotaged (like the water supply for the Imperial Valley). Aside from a few well-watered areas in Texas and in mountain valleys throughout the Southwest, the Mexicans have found themselves in charge of a lot of useless desert. In California, they reached as far as Los Angeles before stopping. In Arizona, they managed only Tucson. In New Mexico they were smashed south of Albuquerque and nearly driven out of the state. In Texas they fared better where the open plains and the large numbers of sympathetic Hispanic civilians helped the drive. They were aided by the Division Cuba, a unit of Cuban and Russian soldiers from Cuba. The push finally was stopped along a Lubbock-Waco-Houston line, in part due to the use of tactical nuclear weapons by the US Army. Back home, the pressures of mounting such an extensive military operation taxed the feeble Mexican economy and infrastructure past the breaking point and Mexico slid into civil war by the end of the fall of 1964. Several factions rose up claiming power in Mexico, and the scattered military units in America chose one or the other to follow, or just gave up and went marauder. By today, the Mexicans are still strong in south Texas and southern California, but are really just trying to survive more than anything. The main result of these two invasions was that Army units that were once keeping civil order throughout the country were sent to the front lines to fight. Without their authority and security, many areas left behind quickly descended further into chaos and anarchy.
THE KLAN GOES POLITITCAL
Maybe one of the most disturbing aspects of the collapse of civil society is that the racists and bigots of the nation were now free to act without fear of legal prosecution. Across much of the south, and really in every state, the KKK has been reborn as a frighteningly effective and powerful force. Calling themselves "New Americans", the Klan leadership has reorganized into cells and has spread across the nation with the goal of taking it over. In some areas--Northern Arkansas, West Virginia, Tampa etc…---the NA cells have complete control over the population. The remaining governments and the military have been pressed to deal with these flare-ups but so far attempts have been largely unsuccessful, often due to a sympathetic military. In the next decade or so, unless something is done to prevent it, New America might just turn the clock back to 1864.
THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN
The rest of the world? Who cares? Just know that there is no one left strong enough or stupid enough to try and invade us anymore, so don't worry about it. Over most of Europe, World War III still smoulders. NATO, led by West Germany and Britain stormed across the borders to "liberate the oppressed citizens" of the former Warsaw Pact block. The Soviet forces left in these nations, with no home to return to, fought savagely and reduced nearly all of Europe to a horrible wreck. Russia might have been short of strategic nuclear weapons, but they had thousands of small tactical nukes that devastated the cities of Europe. General LeMay finally broke the Russians by sending every available SAC bomber to nuke Eastern Europe into the dark ages once again. On April 6, 1964, LeMay announced to the world that he had managed to reach an armistice agreement with Marshal Sergei Lavenkov of the Strategic Rocket Forces, the highest surviving authority--either civilian or military--left alive in the ruins of Russia. World War III was officially over and the troops could finally come home. Since the end of active hostilities in Europe, nearly all the Americans overseas, civilians and military alike, who wanted to come home have and brought everything they could carry with them. The largest military evacuation was in early 1964 in Operation Omega. International trade and travel is a thing of the past and the radio is generally your only link to the outside world, but there are interesting things afoot on other continents. In North America, Canada is still our ally, but unable to help much because of their own problems feeding their people. Cuba is a radioactive heap and Mexico has dissolved into civil war following their ill-fated invasion of us. Perhaps at a later date I'll try to detail some other parts of the world.
Rough Timeline:
October 27, 1962--The branch point. US planes bomb a SAM site in Cuba in the evening after it shot down a U-2 that morning.
October 28, 1962--Black Sunday. US forces invade Cuba and are repulsed by the use of nuclear weaponry. Late that evening, the first ICBMs lift off from Russia bound for the USA.
November 1, 1962--By this day the nuclear exchanges are over and the world is demolished.
January 3, 1963--First Russian troops invade Alaska
The last two months of 1962, all of 1963, and the first third of 1964--The world rages with WWIII. US troops are fed into the war and are destroyed at alarming rates. At home, the fabric of society collapses and violence is the order of the day in most areas.
April 6, 1964--WWIII is official ended by an armistice.
May 1, 1964--The Mexican Army storms across the southern border.
May 20, 1964--Operation Omega brings the troops home from Europe.
October 28, 1964--Game time.
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