Nuking Mexico's Oil

[Webstral]

I tried to find an old thread to resurrect, but I couldn't find the original discussion on nuking Mexico's oil. In the shower today, I reconsidered a position someone else presented--namely, that France hit the Mexican oil refineries in order to have the US and USSR blaming each other and get Mexico and the US to fighting. Consider it the Talleyrand Telegram.

A late December 1997 strike on Mexican oil by France probably would be preceded by some sort of nuclear action against France. I've beaten the reasons for such an attack into the ground, so I won't repeat them here other than to say that both the US and the USSR have their reasons--especially after the surgical East-West exhcange of late 1997. Such an attack would have been from boomers. The attacker would have positioned his boomer to create doubt as to the launcher of the attack; i.e., the US would have launched missiles from a boomer in the Arctic, while the Soviets would have launched from a boomer in the Atlantic. The inevitable French retaliation against whoever they thought was the culprit would have earned counter-retaliation from land-based systems, in all likelihood.

Getting to Mexico, France would have been infuriated after being dragged into the nuclear exchange. The French leadership would have wanted some way to further injure the likely culprits. Nuking Mexico's oil would serve several purposes. First, blame naturally would descend on the US and the USSR. With luck, the two great powers might have another nuclear exchange over it. If not, the blame game still would be useful to France in the long term. Perhaps France could even create closer ties with Mexico in the long run if relations with the US and the USSR could be poisoned. A weaker Mexico would be in a poor position to be of use to the US. A Mexican-American war, while unilkely, still would be useful in that American forces would be further tied down in North America. Fewer Yanks would make French forces in Europe and the Middle East relatively stronger. Whether the US or the USSR took the blame for the nuclear attack, France would stand to gain.

Mo, I'm sorry if this seems to characterize France in an excessively negative light. I like exciting story-telling, and this possibility makes for exciting story-telling.