I think it's great that each of you seem to make little adjustments or modifications to your game's history, to better fit what you and your players want to incorporate in it...whether it's starting the historical divergence earlier, say, in the 70s or by making up your own divergence or alteration to the events of the Twilight War.
For my own campaign back in The Day, I was more than a little unduly influenced by the extensive target list of the Morrow Project and devised my own target list that was a helluva lot more encompassing than the several dozen (listed) hits reflected in the 2nd Edition yellow core rulebook. And the backstory of my campaign world was modified to reflect events diverging from real-life dating from a second assassination attempt upon President Reagan in May of 1982, with substantial player input (many of whom were much more creative than myself). Subsequent events led to increasing military expenditures, many military programs being expanded and accelerated (120 B-1 and 40 B-2 bombers fictionally built, as opposed to 100 B-1s and 20 B-2s actually constructed; 25 Ohio-class SSBNs and 75 Los Angeles-class SSNs, instead of the 18 and 62 built in real-life; a few more Nimitz-class carriers, et al), many installations realigned and even a few new ones constructed (LeMay AFB...).
Additionally, the European theater of the Twilight War took place in 1988 in my modified backstory and did involve some theater chemical warfare but stopped shy of tactical nuclear war and events unfolded which led to a European Union and the downfall of the Soviet Union in late 1988 and the installation of Mikhail Gorbachev as President of Russia...at least, until he died in an attempted coup in August of 1991, that is. Also, an India-Pakistan war in early 1990 involved limited nuclear strikes by both sides, as well as a United Islamic Republic revealing a hidden nuclear capability (after the failure of the Israeli airstrike on the Osirak site in Iraq in 1981) during a modified Desert Storm. Most of the above was orchestrated to maneuver geopolitics and alliances into what I needed to achieve in order to have my backstory work out and providing the setting I was looking for.
I'd be interested to hear more from you folks on how you changed your campaign to differ from what history was posted in the rulebooks.
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