Alternate Timeline of 1989 for T2k (all editions)

[stilleto69]

I've included the Gulf War as well as Operation Urgent Fury and Operation Gothic Serpent as explanations for the increase in US defense spending as well as the overhaul of US Army light infantry units, i.e. the continuing creation of the US 9th ID (Motorized) to include LAV-75s as well as M8 Bufords.

[Tegyrius]

Originally Posted by stilleto69

I've included the Gulf War as well as Operation Urgent Fury and Operation Gothic Serpent as explanations for the increase in US defense spending as well as the overhaul of US Army light infantry units, i.e. the continuing creation of the US 9th ID (Motorized) to include LAV-75s as well as M8 Bufords.

Given the LAV-75's design intent as deployable light armor for a Middle Eastern intervention force, the Gulf War happening in-timeline is an elegant and appropriate rationalization for its in-game existence.

(It does raise the question of how a T2k with a Gulf War remains compatible with RDF Sourcebook and King's Ransom.)

- C.

[Louied]

Does anyone remember @Webstral ‘s alternate timeline? I think I have a copy somewhere. Very similar in that the POD is 1989, the Wall doesn’t fall however the Gulf War does happen while the Soviets are putting down insurrections in the Baltics and Caucuses.

[kato13]

Originally Posted by Louied

Does anyone remember @Webstral ‘s alternate timeline? I think I have a copy somewhere. Very similar in that the POD is 1989, the Wall doesn’t fall however the Gulf War does happen while the Soviets are putting down insurrections in the Baltics and Caucuses.

I think this is the most up to date version.

Link
https://www.docdroid.net/2l9eEus/the...y-webstral-pdf

PDF Attachment here in case the above dies.
https://forum.juhlin.com/attachment....1&d=1613321392

[Adm.Lee]

This is a pretty good place to bridge from 1989 to 1995.

I'm kicking around the idea of a similar coup pre-1985, but don't let me derail the discussion here.

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by Adm.Lee

This is a pretty good place to bridge from 1989 to 1995.

Thanks. I figured that incorporating some of the more recognizable elements of the death knell of the Warsaw Pact and USSR, like the protests at the Berlin Wall, might help lessen cognitive dissonance for those of us T2k'ers who remember that time period, or younger T2k'ers who learned about it in school.

As someone who grew up with and still prefers the v1 History Chronology, I've been completely ignoring the IRL end of the [First] Cold War in my head canon for many years, but that hand-waving approach never quite felt right. I don't like how either v2 or 4e handled it so I decided to take matters into my own hands. I like having a temporal point- in this case a single year- that I can point to and say, "Here is where the T2kU branches off from our own." A clear, clean break, if you will.

Including the pro-democracy protests in Eastern Europe and the Baltic SSRs also creates more space for anti-Soviet Eastern European partisan and/or turncoat PCs.

Originally Posted by Adm.Lee

I'm kicking around the idea of a similar coup pre-1985, but don't let me derail the discussion here.

No worries. There's definitely a case for placing the temporal rift earlier. Doing so in 1985 would circumvent the various pro-democracy/anti-Soviet movements that occurred late in the decade, creating a very smooth segue right into the canonical v1 timeline.

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[Raellus]

Originally Posted by Tegyrius

Given the LAV-75's design intent as deployable light armor for a Middle Eastern intervention force, the Gulf War happening in-timeline is an elegant and appropriate rationalization for its in-game existence.

(It does raise the question of how a T2k with a Gulf War remains compatible with RDF Sourcebook and King's Ransom.)

I've often thought that Saddam Hussein would not have ordered the invasion of Kuwait if the USSR, one of Iraq's main military suppliers, had disapproved*.

Then again, I've wondered whether, in an alternate timeline, if perhaps Moscow would have encouraged Saddam's plan to conquer Kuwait, hoping that it would raise global oil prices, giving the Soviet energy industry a much-needed boost. It seems plausible, but then I started looking into the USSR's IRL relationship with Kuwait, c.1990.

Apparently Kuwait was one of only two Gulf oil states to maintain diplomatic relations with the USSR. The Kuwaiti government apparently saw the Soviets as a stabilizing force in the region, and a guarantor against Iraqi or Iranian aggression. I still need some corroborating evidence but, if true, this information would lead me conclude that Moscow would in no uncertain terms dissuade Saddam Hussein as soon as the KGB became aware of his intentions (in an alternate Cold War continuation timeline).

I'm going to have to think on this some more. Maybe Hussein ignores Moscow and acts unilaterally, putting the new Soviet leaders in a bit of a pickle. What then?


*Similarly, I'm not sure if Yugoslavia would have disintegrated as violently as it did if the Soviet Union had still existed.

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