China in October 1996

[Jason Weiser]

Originally Posted by raketenjagdpanzer

I wonder if the thousands of E. German POWs getting nuked in such a cavalier fashion didn't help foment the mutinies in the WarPac.

The first nuclear use in China according to the Twilight 2000 timeline on Wikia is in July 1997. This is after the events of May-June 1996, where the Spring Offensive occurs, and October 1996, when German reunification occurs at the end of a rifle.

I am going to make the following assumptions on that score:

a) Those POWs have long since been repatriated. Either to West Germany before the war to take advantage of the near-certain unrest in the East, or to a united Germany once war breaks out in Europe.

b) From all accounts that I can glean from, the East Germans sound to me like they were left to fight a rear guard to extricate the Soviets from a Red Willow-style encirclement. I assume they were instead, encircled themselves and forced to capitulate. This will not play well back home at all.

c) What happens between June 1996 and July 1997? That is 11 months we cannot account for. Do the Soviets allow a stalemate to set in, rightly believing that the decisive theatre is now the West? Do the Chinese build up for their own offensive, that fatefully kicks off in the Summer of 1997, and so overwhelm the remaining Soviet units that the Soviets "hold the trigger down and empty the magazine" with regards to the nuclear option in China, as we see the Soviets basically practicing wholesale genocide with regards to their use of nuclear weapons (Not that using nukes in any format is easy on the surrounding life forms).

In short, that 11 month period is really in my mind, the key. This to me, is when the war reaches it's zenith of violence, both in Asia and Europe..before that, it's a regional conflict, after, it's a slow slide to barbarism.

But, YMMV.