As you know, we in (or formerly in) DC are slowly working on fleshing out the v1 canon, using the vast amount of information that has been declassified or otherwise come to light in the 25 or so years since the original timeline was written. We've tried to use canon, whenever possible, as a guide, and worked on how to make canon work with what we know know. We are working on a replacement for/supplement to
Howling Wilderness, which we are calling the
Survivor's Guide to the USA.
The two big deviations from canon we are basing this work on are the EMP effects of the nuclear exchange and the drought. We feel these variations, while making the situation less grim for the US, reflect a much more realistic interpretation of the information we have now. Briefly, while EMP damage is widespread in the line of sight of both air and ground bursts throughout the US target list, there was no high-altitude EMP strikes against CONUs by the USSR. Likewise, the scale of the nuclear exchange (we are in the range of 400-600 warheads each against the US & USSR, hundreds or probably over 1000 tactical warheads in the active fighting fronts) was not sufficient to induce widespread climate change of the scale described in
Howling Wilderness. Both these subjects have come up among this group multiple times in the past, and while no final consensus has been reached we feel that the assumptions we make are not too far from the realm of accepted in here.
While we are quite some ways from having a finished supplement to put out, I thought I could at least release some of what I've been working on the last few months. Accordingly, I give you the first part of the US Recovery Plan. I'll try to release an additional section each week.
Enjoy...
Recovery Plan: America Crawls Back
America's recovery from the Third World War was a long, difficult and violent struggle over a period of decades. The devastation wrought by Soviet nuclear weapons, a breakdown in civil order, foreign invasion, destruction of most of the military's conventional firepower and a three-sided Second Civil War resulted in a United States, by the end of 2000, that bore little resemblance to the world power of just five years before. This is the story of how America began the long climb back from those dark days.
The July 15 JCS Conference
The failure of NATO's spring-summer 2000 offensive in Europe, in which the German Third Army's attempt to clear Warsaw Pact forces from the Baltic coast and drive Pact forces back from the German border ended with the loss of two U.S. infantry divisions (the 5th in the town of Kalisz and the 8th cut off and immobile in Latvia), convinced American military leaders that the war in Europe was un-winnable and in fact that further American military effort in Europe was a pointless waste of lives. The Red Army, disintegrating even as the wrecks burned in Kalisz, no longer posed a threat to Germany, a loyal ally that was overrun with combatants and short on resources to support them. Likewise, organized combat in the Korean peninsula had effectively ceased, with units on all sides occupying small cantonments in the mountains and trying to maintain some semblance of effectiveness and discipline. In the meantime, the U.S. governments, both military and civilian, struggling to maintain security and keep their citizens alive and fed, were unable to repel the foreign invaders and suppress the nefarious New America movement. The considerable U.S. forces remaining overseas could help the governments get America back on its feet.
In the months following the nuclear exchange the Joint Chief of Staff's ability to communicate with (and hence command and control) its subordinate commands deteriorated drastically, from physical damage, lack of electrical power, unavailability spare parts for communications gear, EMP, the continuing war in space and disintegration or rebellion of communications units. Consequently, the Joint Chiefs were forced to cede day to day control of military forces to theater commanders and provide general strategic guidance in bi-monthly conference calls with joint commanders worldwide. Usual participants included CINCEUR, CINCLANT, CINCCENT, CINCPAC and CINCUSFK. Each conference was conducted as a discussion among equals, as the Joint Chiefs were unable to force subordinate commanders to obey their orders - in fact CINCCENT refused to declare his subordination to MILGOV while continuing to coordinate with it and his fellow commanders worldwide (many of which he had worked with for years before and during the war). Unity among U.S. forces in the CENTCOM AOR was all that had allowed CENTCOM to continue to exist, and cooperation with U.S. forces worldwide offered the greatest possibility of some sort of rescue and recovery.
The July 15, 2000 conference call reported on the destruction of the 5th Infantry Division and withdrawal of Third German Army back to its start lines. XI U.S. Corps would remain in place due to lack of fuel, while much of the rest of U.S. Army Europe faced another poor harvest following attacks on its cantonments by counterattacking Pact forces. All the participants agreed that further reinforcement of American forces in Europe was not only impossible but pointless, but also that America's troops were no longer required to secure Germany and Western Europe from a Soviet threat and were too weak to free the occupied areas of Germany and the Netherlands from French occupation. (In addition, CENTCOM received important but unofficial and covert support from the French in the Persian Gulf.)
CENTCOM reported that Soviet forces in Iran, like America's, were unable to undertake offensive action and were in a deteriorating strategic situation as chaos in the Caucasus and Soviet Central Asia precluded reinforcement, resupply or replacement of losses. In the meantime, CENTCOM had control of a small petroleum production and refining capability which allowed it to continue operating military forces across the full spectrum of military operations - a small but operable air force, naval fleet, nuclear strike capability (from bombers operating from bases in the CENTCOM AOR and cruise missiles from the 487th Missile Wing recently recovered from Turkey) and experienced and tough ground troops.
CINCPAC reported that his forces were scattered across the Pacific, mostly immobile due to lack of fuel and incapable of significant military action beyond control of their local area. CINCUSFK, effectively independent from CINCPAC, was watching his subordinate commands disintegrate after years of tough combat, harsh weather and no resupply or support from home. CINCLANT, suffering from cancer throughout his body due to radiation from the strikes on Norfolk, was barely responsive during the conference, although his forces were no longer under his effective control and unable to move or fight. Other commanders in the U.S. were incommunicado, reinforcing the seriousness of their situation.
The strategic situation worldwide, the consensus held, was of continued decline and disintegration if the status quo continued. America's deployed forces, with the exception of CENTCOM, were serving no useful purpose where they were while vitally needed at home. CENTCOM, on the other hand, was still militarily effective and could provide small quantities of oil but was in desperate need of spare parts for its aircraft and ships, high technology munitions and manpower. As a result, the participants in the conference decided to evacuate U.S. troops from Korea and Europe, redeploying the troops either back home to restore order and rebuild or to reinforce CENTCOM in an attempt to secure petroleum to help the recovery effort in the U.S. Operation Omega was born.