Hey Webstral, I honestly do think that there can be a reconciliation between various novels/treatises about WW3 and the T2k timeline because overall, the end goal should be to create a gameworld that embodies the original idea - create a military themed game that lets the PCs adventure just like a D&D game does.
While a post-apocalyptic world readily allows that, it could just as easily be the kind of situation that China was in during the late 1800s/early 1900s with various factions and warlords controlling different parts of the nation and various foreign powers trying to get a slice of the pie - just applied on a much larger scale. I believe this was the sort of gameworld that GDW was trying to create for the then upcoming Armor21 game but it's also quite apparent in their Dark Conspiracy game (the corporations are the warlords in this instance!)
Ultimately, the timeline history isn't as important to many players as it should be. It can be summed up in a conversation reported here many years back (but similar conversations have been had everywhere) when one of the forum members (Gen X) hosted a game for some new players (Gen Y). When detailing the history of the conflict, one of the new players said something along the lines of "That's all very interesting but we just want to play".
I'm not saying the timeline is unimportant but I am saying that the timeline can easily be shaped to contain the more accurate info available to us now = as long as the end result is still the kind of gameworld envisioned by GDW because ultimately, many of your players won't pay it too much mind.
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