Slow Drift to War Europe 1984

[Farmer12]

Yes yet another timeline involving World War 3, I will look a certain assumptions what would be targeted during a nuclear strike. I will look at targeting and what factors could drive that targeting. I also am going to look at the struggle that was going on behind the scenes of the Politburo during this time and show how it could affect the Soviet Union during a crisis. As well as the pushing and shoving going on between the Republican and Democratic parties when a major crisis erupts during an election year as well as other factors all hopefully will push the story in the right direction. This is a first effort show we hope to produce a good alternate time line. i would like to hear what people think about what i write and the direction its going.




TIMELINE ALTERNATE HISTORY A STRATEGIC DECISION CHAPTER 1



A STRATEGIC DECISION CHAPTER 1



May 12th 1983 A voice in Russian was reading a transcript of Reagan speaking to a group of military officers and an assortment of civilian specialists, ”Ladies and Gentlemen, I appreciate the effort you have went to in going over the current strategic doctrine and the modifications that you decided were absolutely necessary. This review has been necessary for a long time and your group stood up to the challenges. The idea of having a reserve located our land base missile silos, has been obsolete since the deployment of the SS-18 Satan’s. Now with guidance from your group we have finally faced the reality. Transferring our strategic reserve to the submarine forces is the best way to go and using those submarines that have been converted to the Trident missile the right decision we will be converting the missiles over to their new missions over the next few months. We all know that the Tridents are not as accurate as the Minutemen but it will be so very much harder to find and that also to kill. While at the same time we will be changing the targeting of missiles in the former strategic reserve to other strategic missions.”

The voice ceased speaking for a moment and then it began again,”We must attempt to keep our decisions secret so that the Soviet Union does not retarget it’s missiles from our silos to other targets. Imagine the untold additional millions of victims of World War 3 there would be if the Soviet Union shifted the warheads targeted on those silos to other targets. I do regret the decision to keep this plan secret and in doing so guaranteeing the deaths of all those good and loyal citizens but this must the path we take. But we must make it clear that from now on a bolt from the blue like the Soviet Union has contemplated from time to time will not have quite the success they envision. Because our missiles will be in the air by the time thier missiles arrive. With that the very short speech came to an end.

Yuri Andropov, could not believe the gall of that man Reagan, angrily he commented, “He accuses us of plotting to launch a bolt out of the blue while their hands are clean. He tells the world we are the dangerous ones but we know that he is the first president in my memory that is fully capable of launching a bolt out of the blue. Even Nixon with all of his sly maneuvering would not contemplate such an act. Then in an explosion of rage Andropov slammed his hand on the table. Some feared that Andropov would have an heart attack others were sort of hoping he would so that they could begin to maneuver for who would be the next First Secretary. It was no secret that Andropov favored Gorbachev the hardliners were less enthused about him.

Just who should replace Andropov no one was sure but the hardliners were of the opinion that anyone other than Gorbachev were in the ascendance. Everyone noted how Andropov pulled a bottle out of his pocket and watched him take a pill and then a drink to wash it down. The big question was whether he would last a year or would it be two. No one was certain but everyone was pretty sure it would not be three. Another member of the Politburo, asked a question of Andropov, “Comrade First Andropov how reliable are the sources that provided the transcript we were read today?” Andropov had no problem with the question the reliability of the people who gathered intelligence for them. The reliability of the agent who gathered the intelligence was always in question to one degree or another.

Then without really thinking he replied, “Both are very good and both are in the White House, they both stole the same information. They just did not realized that they had done that since neither one realizes that the other exists. Andropov suddenly laughed, that caught everyone by surprise. What he did not realize that the pills were strong and really quick acting. Suddenly Andropov commented the one is an agent planted inside the Republican party he an party apparatchik planted in the sixties. The other is extremely reliable.” Then Victor Chebrikov started to cough and Andropov realized that the pill had loosened him tongue a bit too much. Angry at himself for allowing the drug to open his mouth, he commented, “We don’t need to tell anyone that we have two agents planted inside the White House. I am sure that you all understand.”

Then the briefing officer from the Strategic Rocket Force was shown in. He was direct and to the point, one of the younger members of the Politburo wondered if someone had spoken to the briefer about the Politburo lack of ability to engage in long meetings. The officer went to the heart of the matter, Comrade Chairman and members of the Politburo; with the Americans decision to launch their land base ICBM’s on warning essentially renders the missiles we have targeted against the missile silos to state of useless. The only way an attack on their missile silos would succeed would be that the entire American warning system is render useless or for the president in charge to fail to launch on warning. But we feel that the US military would then take matters into their own hands.

With that Minister of Defense Ustinov asked to be allowed to bring in a briefer to talk about the new intelligences. The briefer had been told to go straight to the heart of the matter. So he immediately started his briefing. “The new reality is that we will launch our strike force and the Americans will launch theirs and we will destroy a lot of empty holes in the ground. Our silos that have a cold launch system that we can repair and reuse after a few days. But the American silos after launching their missiles will have to be rebuilt and that takes a lot of time. So while it makes sense for the Americans to hit our silo full or empty for us. For our missiles if the missile is not in the silo then what is the point of targeting the silo in the first place. The fact of the matter is if the American missile is already launch the silo rendered useless until it has been refitted which takes a considerable degree of time if it could be done in a post nuclear situation.”

This means that our primary silo killer is the R-36; it was designed to destroy hardened targets like missile silos. With two R-36 missiles working in tandem using the twenty warheads, they carry between them. They can target ten silos with a high degree of confidence in destroying at least eight out of ten silos. With the Americans decision to shift the location of their strategic reserve to their submarine forces and with the launch on warning of the their ground force missiles we now have the capability to destroy eight out of ten empty smoking holes in the ground with the odd American missile that failed to launch. Now possibly future president of the United States might not be capable of launching the missiles but who believes that Reagan will not do so. “The members of the Central Committee grimly considered that bit of information. Then the briefer went on to say, “We also know that with their Looking Glass in the air at all times that officer can take action if he loses contact with the President. I imagine the ground for loss of contact is pretty broad.”

Then the briefer paused for a breath,” Now the bulk of our R-36 missile force to test them out in a few war-gaming scenarios. “ He paused for a second to judge the reaction of the listening members of the Central Committee, some looked interested, others bored and a few looked like they were nodding off but on the bright side Chief Marshall of Artillery Vladimir Tolubko looked pleased and he was not a member of the Central Committee but he was the briefer’s commander and if he was happy so was the briefer. But he decided to bring the briefing to a quick end. “So the Central Committee has two choices one keep the current battle plan as is and hope we catch the American missile force on the ground, it is the considered opinion of the Strategic Rocket Forces as very unlikely.

The second is to change our plans and cease targeting all or most of the American ground based missile forces. If you do the latter we would need to come up with a new attack plan. So we propose that the Strategic Rocket force with the aid of the officers from both the bomber forces and the Navy we will study a few plans and test them out in few war games for the next three months so that we can assess which battle plan would work the best. That is should the Central Committee decided to change the current plans.” Then the briefer sat down.

Chief Marshall of Artillery Tolubko looked around at the members of the Politburo and he decided to make a point. “Let me tell you just how much it affects us, the bolt from the blue attack cannot be considered to be nearly as effective as it would have been before this new policy of the Americans. While we must still fear such an assault upon Rodina Mat. There are now no American strategic reserve on land and the Americans can maintain at least a ninety-six or seven percent of their thousand plus minuteman missiles on full alert. The Titan missiles are vulnerable but the Americans are slowly but surely taking them out of service. If we were to launch an out of the blue, of the minutemen missile about forty missile will be nonoperational for repair and refurbishment and perhaps another forty or so missile will fail to launch for one reason or another, but about nine hundred and twenty missile will launch instead of the six or seven hundred before.

We will still catch up to two thirds of the B-52 and FB-111’s on the ground and between one half and a third of the American missile subs in port as well as any of the missiles that failed to launch. But the day the new American plan went into effect, the bolt out of the blue attack was three hundred fewer missiles and the warheads that they carry will be targeted on targets here in the Soviet Union. That is no small number of missiles. One other little point the retaliatory of the Americans will be that much more accurate than the trident missiles that would have been launched from the missile boats. While the submarine launched missiles in the American strategic reserve will be less accurate. The other fact to consider is if the Americans launch a bolt out of the blue of their own. We would still be facing the same situation only with only a handful of bombers on the Ground and only submarines we will catch will be the ones that were under repair or refit.”

Then another member of the Poliburo commented that perhaps it would be best that they have the officers of the Strategic Missile Force do a study and come up with some proposals for the Politburo to study. That comment was well received but it for him a more practical goal, bringing this meeting to an end so that he could go home and rest.

In the end it was the consensus of the Politburo that they wait to see what kind of plan would replace the current war plans. General Secretary Andropov considered the request and he decided to light a fire under the General Staffs asses. He commented, “With a considerable proportion of the Soviet Missile Forces were now targeting what will be empty smoking holes in the ground before our missiles arrive to make those holes even larger smoking holes in the ground. For that reason alone I believe that our targeting the American Missile Silos is a total waste of time.

Then he went on to say, “But to have the some of the best officers in the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces sitting around playing games for three months was ridiculous.” But at the same time they did need some time to plan and he suspected that they had in the past two week already done some planning already that is if they were somewhat competent. No one else was speaking; they were waiting so see what he was going to do. He paused for a second as spasm of pain hit his body; it was not all that bad so he did not reach for a pain pill.

He did not want to show any more weakness, since all that would cause was even more maneuvering amongst the men seeking to replace him. He gathered his strength and then he spoke, “With so much of our strategic nuclear strike forces aimed at silos when we launch but be empty holes when our missiles arrive. We don’t have three months or even one month. But I do recognize that this planning will take some time so I will suggest that the General Staff has months to come up with good plan. BUT FOR THE TIME BEING WE NEED SOMETHING THAT WILL DO THE JOB UNTIL A BETTER PLAN IS READY. I realize that it will not be the best plan. But one that will work well enough while the planners continue to look for the best plan. While your engaged in producing a new plan the Politburo will be waiting for you to tell us what your knew plan is.”

Andropov looked around the room at the other member of the Politburo and they all nodded their heads and his suggestion was agreed to. He looked at the briefer and he told him,” You will have a month.” All the briefer could do nod his head and return to the rest of the officers in his department then he would tell them what had happened. After that they all would go to the bar and drink a lot of vodka. Then tomorrow they would start coming up with good temporary plan. As he walked out he decided that Yuri Antipov, had already put a plan of sorts together and it was not in his mind not half bad. He had not really talked about with anyone else about the plan, but he decided that he and Yuri would try to sell the plan to the others in their group. That way they could at least have something more or less ready in a month.

Gorbachev watched as various members of the Poliburo were helped out of their chairs by staff members the Soviet Union was being run by a bunch of Geriatric men whose time had past. It was no wonder that while everyone knew that change had to happen no one was willing to actually make any changes. One he became General Secretary he was going to do what was needed to reform the system and of that he had no doubt.

 

[Raunchel]

This looks like a very interesting start, but if I can give one bit of advice, I would split up the text a little more, it is a little hard to read as it is right now.

 

[King Augeas]

I would split up the text a little more, it is a little hard to read as it is right now.

Er, this.

 

[Farmer12]

I do apologize that the paragraphs have all run together i put used PDF files. But I don't do a lot of with PDF files. In the original PDF file looked fine when I originally set it up. This happened and i don't have a clue why. But I am going to try couple of ideas to see if i can correct the flaw I just ran out of time to work on it last night. Real life stepped in needed sleep to go to work

 

[Farmer12]

June 2nd 1983 The briefer was back with an outline of the plan and as the briefer stated the logic behind the plan, Antipov already had a plan so all they had to do was to fine-tune Antipov’s plan so they had a much better plan than the Politburo might have expected. The Politburo had decided that they wanted to hear his plan before making a final decision on what to do, keep the old plan or go with a new plan. Hopefully the Politburo would like the plan. He stood up and General Secretary was looking at him, the briefer had heard stories that he was not in the best of health and he did not look well at all but that was not his concern. It was to get this briefing completed in as short of time as possible.

The Briefer began speaking again, “General Secretary and members of the Politburo as per your instructions we have put a temporary plan together. With the reality that the Americans have shifted their strategic reserve to their submarine forces, well this has left us with a definite problem. We now have about two thousand eighty warheads aimed at what will be empty holes in the ground when our missiles arrive. First not totally the American Titan missiles are still vulnerable to our attack by American estimations so we will still aim eighty warheads at those Titan sites and as those sites are closed down we can shift those warheads to different targets.”

That leaves us with two thousand warheads left. We suggest that it might be a good idea that we add four hundred warheads to our strategic reserve. To do this we would suggest that we keep charge the missions of some of our ICBM submarines on patrol with the desired number warhead available to cover that number of warheads and hand the targets those warheads on the submarine forces over to our ground based missiles. This will give us a missile reserve based using elements of our submarine forces. This drops us down number of warheads sixteen hundred warheads left over.

Then the question is what to do with those warheads; the rest of the United States is pretty well covered to the extent that hitting the rest of the United States with all of the warheads makes no sense. “That comment received a generally positive response. The briefer feeling a bit of relief went on, “So we propose that we split up the warheads to take care of other future potential problems based on historical past problems “That comment caught the attention of everyone in the room.

The briefer paused for a second and then he went on speaking, “ We feel that using an additional six hundred warheads with proper targeting will make the recovery of the United States that much more difficult. Next we also advise that six hundred additional warheads be targeted China. With her population of over a billion, the current attack planned would cripple china and reduce the population of china by at least three hundred million or so. But China would be able to recover at a much more rapid rate than Russia could. So that she could like in the past be a threat Russia. New hordes could spring forth from China hordes looking for revenge against those nations that destroyed their country. Yellow Hordes could come and ravage Russian in future as they did in the past. These attacks could come at a time that Russia will still be recovering from the hammer blows of four separate powers.

Those hordes could come swarming over the steppes and again ravage Russia, who knows what can happen, will our descendants have to pay tribute to them like our ancestors did. So it is the suggestion that you the members of the politburo take those possibilities into consideration

The truth is that the Chinese are our enemy today as her ancestors were in the past. Even today she opposes us by supplying weapons to the Afghan terrorists as well as supply Iran in its current war of aggression against Iraq. China competes with us for influence in Africa. Not to mention even now her eyes are looking north to the riches of Siberia. They scheme with the Americans while they tell us they are holding their hands out in friendship to us. So the additional six hundred warheads will push that day even further back. Giving Rodina Mat that much more time to recover and to be prepared to repulse them when that time comes.”

The briefer paused for a second and he quickly found out that his comments had hit nerves with several members of the Politburo. The comments came fast and furious, then one of the Politburo commented, “The Americans will be far away and the Chinese will be on our borders maybe we should consider reducing the number of additional warheads targeted on the Americans and shift them over to the China. After all the Chinese can walk here while the Americans cannot.” Then another retorted they will come in horses like before.” Andropov replied, “We can consider modifications of the warhead totals after the briefing is completed. You can continue your briefing. “The briefer smiled to himself the hordes had been Mongol but whatever worked, it was obvious his comments had carried the day. He had lost his favorite Uncle during the fighting in the sixties so today he was making sure that if war with China happened he was going to make sure that the rubble would bounce even more.

Then briefer went on, “Then we also believe that given the close proximity of our borders to the Islamic world we should considered assigning an additional two hundred warheads to targets in the Middle East and North Africa. Russia spent a great number of centuries battling the Moslems repulsing invasion after invasion before Russia was finally forced to go on the offensive to drive the Moslem threat back away from the borders and even into the twentieth century we still have to fight them. Even now we have the Afghans fighting us and Iran who refers to us as the lesser Satan while Turkey is a close ally of Americans.

Much of the rest of the Moslem world are sending men, material and money to fight in Afghanistan. Egypt betrayed our, Iraq with its war on Iran is like a millstone around our neck as for Syria well the less said the better. The Moslem world is not our friend. If Russia is too badly weakened they might try to take advantage of the situation. They too can walk ride horses or camels into Mother Russian.” That comment brought another series of agreements from the members of the Politburo. The briefer was beginning to realize that in American terms he had hit a home run, he did enjoy certain of the American expressions and this was one of them.

The briefer went on speaking,” We left two hundred warheads left. Right now our planned strikes in the southern hemisphere are extremely limited. These warheads could be used to make sure of our lessor enemies in the southern hemisphere, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Latin America, parts of Africa and Southeast Asia. This attack will tie up resources that might otherwise be used by the West to recover more quickly. While we might not use all of the warheads left over but we can at least use some of the warheads against those countries deserving our special attention. As for the leftover warheads we can look at other ways to utilize them.”

Andropov leaned back in his chair, he was very happy with the plan that had just been outline. He also had a feeling that the planners would have a hard time to find a better plan than the one just presented. He just had one question, “Colonel just how long will it take for us to implement this plan?” The briefer responded with the comment, “Colonel?” Andropov liked to reward good effort and he replied, “Well I like your plan and we will probably accept your plan with some exceptions so you and all the officers in your group will go up by one grade in rank to show my pleasure at your hard work.” Andropov looked around the room at the other members of the Politburo and none of them raised and objection. Now how long will it take to implement this plan?”

The briefer responded, “We would have to go over all of our targeting plans and then go about reprogramming the missiles whose targets have change and setup any new patrol boxes for our sub forces. It not just as simple as retargeting the missiles from one target to another it also involves switching other missiles around and doing all of the new targeting calculations and that will take time. I would say possibly ten months at most, we don’t want to push too hard since we don’t want errors creeping into our targeting calculations” Gorbachev suddenly commented, “So until then we probably should not engage in a nuclear war?”

The briefer reply was simple enough, “We could after all a good portion will be targeted at those same empty holes but those missiles will be fewer and fewer as time goes on. But we would still have more than enough firepower to really hurt the enemy. “Andropov stepped into the conversation, “We will consider your plan and make our final decision as whether we will or will not abandon our previous plans. ***



Andropov sat staring at the rest of the Politburo and he told them, “I have no doubt that the reorientation by the Americans of their strategic reserves is but another step in Ronald Reagans plans for a first strike on the Soviet Union. A first strike that renders any targeting of their missiles completely useless. To just sit here and do nothing is gross negligence. The change in our attack plans on the Americans is necessary; the truth is that their change in policy has dealt a serious blow to our attack plans. We needed to modify the attack plans since as of that policy change by the American’s means that all we will hit is the missiles that failed to launch and nearly a thousand smoking holes in the ground unable to further strike back at us even before our missiles hit.

Ogarkov stood up before the Politburo and spoke, “The Americans have a phrase Use it or Lose it, the facts are that the Americans recognized that their ground based ICBM’s are extremely vulnerable to our attack and therefore their land based strategic reserve would decimated. They have a phrase for it trying to ride out the strike and they know what will happen if they try. So they are making the kind of decision that the current reality demand. They see the problem and they have come up with a solution not perfect but it is a solution. Now we must come up with a reaction to their action and this new plan is not perfect but we can make it work and fine tune it over time but for now it will do.” He could see that some of the Politburo were not convinced but he knew in the end General Secretary Andropov would get his way. But he through in one more comment, the Americans can now launch a bolt out of the blue and they will still have a strategic reserve to do nothing is not the answer. But this is the best answer that we can come up with at this time.

Andropov sat down at his chair the meeting had gone on longer than he had anticipated and in the end he got what he wanted. Even though some of the hard liners were furious about not having the missiles attack the silos. Besides the truth of the matter was also that the Americans would be the ones to launch that bolt out of the blue and Mother Russian would be at the receiving end of it. While at the same time some of the more reform minded of the Politburo was appalled about the idea of going after the cities throughout the world just to make sure that everyone else was so badly damaged that at least for the short term the countries they were in would not be a threat to the Soviet Union during her postwar reconstruction. In the end both sides went along with the logic of the new missile-targeting plan. But he was still so very tired so he leaned forward resting his elbows on the desk to support his body.

Now he had another meeting, this time was a meeting with a group of economists from the Soviet National Academy of Sciences. He had complained about the lack of good information from the academy so that he could make decisions on the economy. The Academy had responded with the statement that without access to all the available all the economic information as well as being allowed to look at the actual budget. They could not produce that kind of information.

Andropov pulled out a pill and he swallowed it in a couple of minutes it would take an effect. Members of the Academy had asked for this information before and he had refused to do it. Now he had the feeling of having his back against the wall. He did not like what he was going to do but he needed better information so that he could better decided what to do. At the same time he had a feeling he did not really want to hear what they would tell him.

 

[Unknown]

Hope this doesn't lead to nuclear war (and, if you want to read a TL on that, read Protect and Survive and its spinoffs)...

 

[Farmer12]

I have read the Protect and Survive timeline and it spin offs and it is good. But i am writing a timeline from a different perspective and vision. A timeline that i hope will entertain the reader and give them something to think about.

 

[Farmer12]

June 27th 1983 It had taken time to assemble the necessary men and a few women to carry out this mission but now they were gathered. Maj. Gen. Georgy Garin stood in front of the officers who would do the retargeting for the whole Soviet Nuclear force, the Soviet Rocket Force, Soviet Air Force and the Soviet Navy. This was a much larger group than usual since they were doing a major retargeting in the sense additional warheads previously targeted on missile silos were not being targeted on less hardened targets and a certain reassessment of current and potential targets was being done.

He also knew that a considerable number of the officers were not happy about the retargeting plan. They argued that this was a disinformation operation by the Americans and that the Soviet Union was making a major error. Garin did not agree he had long realized that all their missiles would hit would be empty holes and this decision mere confirmed what he had long believed. So he had decided to target the northern plains region of the United State himself just to make sure that everyone knew just what he expect as well as where he stood on the new directives. A few years ago it would have been an impossible task for just one person with the new targeting plan it was simple and easy.



Maj. Gen. Garin, spoke “Men we are here to carry out a mission for the Soviet Union, this new targeting plan recognizes the basic realities of the current abilities of our missile versus their decision launch all of their ground base missiles on warning or as the Americans say USE IT OR LOSE IT. Only a fool would allow a massive portion of his missile forces to come under the attack of our R-36 missile or as the Americans call them Satan missiles.” He paused to see that his words had some effect on the officers before him but others were still not convinced. He considered spending some more time trying to convince those doubters but he had better things to do. The original plan had six hundred warheads to be used against targets in the United States. That had been paired down to one hundred and fifty warheads due to certain strategic considerations.

One hundred and fifty warheads were to be used in special project by Colonel General Yudon just what was Major General Garin had no idea. He also had not asked Yudon was not the kind of person to tolerate being questioned by his junior officers. Garin did know that two hundred additional warheads were to hit China and after some debate it had been decided to make sure that India would not be a future threat. One hundred warheads had been designated to be added on to the fifty already targeted on India. India’s friendship had been considered but the reality was that the Soviet Union had no real friends and it could only rely upon itself for protection and its future.



The General began to speak again, “We all know the mission at hand, but I am going show you just what I want to see done.” In the back of his mind he was also making sure that no one tried anything funny with these four missile fields. Like targeting silos behind his back he had also made sure that the other two fields were done by a groups in which the senior officer who agreed with the new policy. But in the end he decided to have one last go at being a targeter he was going to show these kids he had not lost his touch.



He then announced, “I am going to do the Northern Plains of the United States Targeting area. This will cover the states of North and South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming north of the forty-third parallel.” Before targeting areas had been designated there had been some embarrassing mistakes and critical target had been over looked not they had on region to look at and they would target everything in that area than later on you could go back and rationalize your targeting as needed. The men doing the targeting for the Soviet Union had setup a policy that a group of targeters would do one area at a time. So as to not overlook any targets and it worked to a degree sometimes you had to cross over the boundaries of target areas. But that was done during the rationalization period when you looked for more efficient targeting solutions. Also remember that the First Strike is coming in two waves to reduce the chances of fratricide by our warheads. Maj. Gen. Garin was sure that no one would need to do rationalization of his targeting. ***



A couple of minutes later Garin pointed at a map of the northern plains, “Once you take the missiles out of the equation. You have a problem with the northern plains, that problem is the lack of good targets. Look at the map wide stretches of nothing but small towns and even smaller villages with a few scattered cities barely worth a missile. If the Americans did not have a few missile bases you might not even think about targeting the northern plains. But those few cities and bases will all be targeted. We will go over the plan of attack for the northern plains first my assistant will ready the slides and maps for you to see the targets and how the attack will be done.



The first targets will be Grand Forks AFB, CAVALIER AFS and the cities of Grand Forks, and Fargo. Because I need a warhead with a hard kill capacity for the base, so I have assigned one missile a UR-100MR with four warheads at these targets. One warhead will be targeted at the air base and it will be set for airburst. Then one warhead set for airburst at the Cavalier AFS and one warhead each at the cities of Grand Forks and Fargo also set for airburst. Now I have the problem that I don’t have another city in the area worth hitting with a warhead that I have not targeted. Nor are any of the targets outside of the air force base worth hitting twice remember we only have so many missile and all to many targets out there.”

The general paused for a second, then he went on speaking, “In the second wave of the first strike a UR-100 mod 1 will be targeted on the Grand Forks AFB, and I admit that it is an older missile that we are taking out of service. But the High Command regards it as a reliable weapon that we will use it as part of our current targeting plans until it is removed from service.” The targeting specialists involve in the mission now knew that the High Command expected them to using the UR-100 mod 1’s in the current target planning. Despite fact that it was a fairly old piece of technology as far as Soviet missile systems went. But senior leadership of the Soviet Rocket Force had made their attitudes quite clear and Maj. Gen Garin intended to make Lieutenant General and you did not do that by ignoring the decisions made by your superiors.

“The UR-100 mod 1 will use it to make sure of the target and follow also follow the proper procedure of targeting warheads from two separate missiles to make sure of a critical strategic target. Due to the size of this missiles warhead it will be set for ground burst. That way I increase the probability that any underground bunkers located at the base will be destroyed The second wave will strike five minutes after the first wave that way there will be less chance of the first warhead taking the second one out during our strike. Of course if the warhead on the first wave missed or failed in any way then the second wave of the first strike should take care of it. Remember the rule of thumb is that in most situations two warheads hitting the same target will take that target out. If we miss on the First Strike remember we always have a Second Strike”



Then the general paused for a breath before going to then next targets. The next target is Minot AFB; if you thought our targeting problems were bad with the last location this is worse. Minot and the capital of North Dakota a city called Bismarck the only missile worthy targets in the immediate area. I decided to go with a single missile the UR-100MR with four warheads and all will be airbursts to increase the radius of the area of damage. I could use missiles with singles warheads and since we have a shortage of that type of missile and most are already assigned to American command centers or the Special project bureau, so I have decide to go this route.



General looked down at his notes for a second to refresh his memory and then he went to the next target. The next target is Malstrom AFB and other targets in the area in this part of the northern plain we have our best cluster of targets such as they are. The first missile used will be a UR-100MR, one warhead groundburst on the Malstrom AFB, the second war head will be targeted at Helena the capital of Montana, the third will hit Butte, Montana the fourth will targeted on Billings Mt. where there are oil refineries in operation. Except for the warhead targeted at Malstrom, all the warheads will be airbursts. During the second wave a UR-100 mod 3 and its three warheads will be targeted respectively on Malmstrom AFB as well as Helena and Missoula Mt all set for airburst. In this case we have fulfilled the two warheads from two separate missiles for targeting one critical target the airbase and one strategic target Helena and the state government located there. The third target does not really meet the minimal population to be targeted but add on that interstate 90 as well as major railroad line passes through it and a major university makes the city an acceptable target. ”



“In the part of Wyoming in this targeting zone, only one city is worthy of being struck and that is the city of Casper, while the population is borderline it does have operating oil refineries and I have targeted a single UR-100 mod 1 to destroy it. Next is Ellsworth AFB, Pierre the state capital of South Dakota and the second largest city in the state Rapid City which is also a state National Guard training center. First missile will be a UR-100 mod 3 with three warheads these warheads will be targeted at Pierre SD the state capital of South Dakota the second will be airburst targeted on Ellsworth AFB. The third warhead will be an airburst targeted at Rapid City South Dakota. Then during the second wave UR-100 mod 1 one warhead will also be targeted at Ellsworth AFB but it will be set for groundburst.” The general smiled at the group and he commented, “Once again targeting limitations interfere with what missiles we can use.”

The General paused for a breath, before going on. Then he commented, ”Has for the town of Pierre South Dakota if it was not the state capital we would not have considered looking at it as a target for the first warhead. But since it is the capital of South Dakota it will get its second warhead from a second wave of missiles especially since two other targets are in range. One UR-100 mod 3, all warheads set for airburst Pierre and Sioux Falls South Dakota and also Sioux City Iowa. Which is also in a different targeting area but this is the most efficient targeting set up for these three targets.

When the General was ready he spoke again, “The next target is an old abandoned Air Force base called Glasgow AFB, at one time the Americans operated B-52’s out of it. Since we are no longer targeting any of the missile silos in the region. There is now a chance that the Americans might take advantage of the situation to base B-52 bombers there on a temporary basis. Since this target is a best a tertiary level target I am assigning a KH-20 cruise missile to destroy it with a ground burst. In that way I am denying the use by the Americans of a possible bomber strip that they could operate B-52 bombers from that location on at least a limited basis.

Then the last target to be assigned is both the most important target of the strike in this region and yet the most totally under rated strategic target in America the Fort Peck Dam in Montana” He watched as many of the officers and other assorted personnel gathered for the creation of a new RSIOP plan looked a little bewildered. The General was well known for his disdain for targeting Dams and the like he considered a lot of foolishness. So for him to target a dam meant that there was something different about the target.



He turned to his assistant and nodded his head and a slide appeared it was a satellite photo of a dam everyone had looked at satellite photos so they knew what they were looking after all it did not take an expert to figure that out.

The General smiled and he looked at his audience and he asked them it does not look like much just another dam. Well nothing could further from the truth. “Then the General paused for a second finally he told his assistant to show the next slide. Then the General explained,” The Americans have a total of six dams on the Missouri river and all produce electricity and if they are not destroyed you will give the Americans a solid core to rebuild itself around. The Americans will have all the hydroelectricity that it needs to start its recovery. Very little coal or oil will have to be diverted to produce electric power locally. So those resources can be diverted to other regions to be used to help rebuild American. But that is not the most important reason for striking here. “



He paused for a second before going on, “Now you’re probably asking yourself why I have not targeted nuclear missile at each dam?” He could see the nods from the people in front of him, and then he replied, “I am going to target this dam with two K-55 cruise missiles that have a CEP of thirty meters at Fort Peck. I want a weapon that will hit the dam and will destroy the dam the new K-55’s will achieve that mission. Now I admit that they are not yet operational but I am assured by officers of Dal’naya Aviatsiya the K-55’s will be operational by the end of the year and that these missile would be available for such an attack by say April or May.”

The general tapped the first dam with his pointer,” When the K-55’s take out that dam, the water from that dam will go down river to the next dam, ooh by the way Fort Peck is the fifth largest manmade lake in the United States and the water from her will hit the Garrison dam, the Generals pointer,” rested on it for a moment, “which should take out that dam, which happens to be the third largest manmade lake in the United State and then the water from both lakes will hit lake Oahe and it’s the fourth largest manmade lake in the United State and from there three more smaller dams Big Bend, Fort Randall and Gavin’s Point dams.” His pointer tapping on each successive damn as he spoke, that information cause a stir in the crowd the image of a massive wall of water heading down the river.”

The General paused for a breath then he went on speaking “So by taking out the Fort Peck dam with two cruise missiles we will create a wall of water thundering down the Missouri to the Mississippi and down to the Gulf of Mexico. I believe we will destroy or at the very least damage so severely at to render useless every bridge both highway and railroad bridge below it. We will flood innumerable villages, towns and cities destroying farmland all the way to the mouth of the Mississippi. As well as destroy all flood control measures currently in existence. Also every boat and barge on the Missouri and lower Mississippi will be destroyed. This one attack alone has the potential to cut the lines of communication for America in two with the minor exception of this area just north of the Missouri river to the Canadian border.” The pointer drifted across the one area of land.

“I feel that if it works this will be the most economical attack of the war and at the same time the most decisive attacks of the war.” Then the general used his pointer to show the one piece of ground not affected by his planned flood it was maybe sixty or seventy miles across on the very northern edge of the United States. Running from the Missouri river to the Canadian border. One comment if the water from the Fort Peck Dam does not take out Garrison dam then a second attack will be made on the Garrison dam to finish the job. This will make the Garrison Dam a priority second strike target. Once the dams are gone, I firmly believe that nothing man made will be left standing down river from these to dams. We will have effectively cut the United States into two parts with the use of a few cruise missiles.

As the men and a handful women went off to carry out their part of the targeting programs, the Colonel General left some final instructions. Remember we have allocate only some many of each missile type to each of your regions stick with in the allocations and don’t ask for more or different missile you will not get them.” He was sure that after how he had handle the North Plains region. They do the job that they had been assigned to carryout. “***

 

[Farmer12]

5 July 1983

Col Gen. Mikhail Yudon frown at the setup for the Northern Plains of the United States Targeting Area. Garin had done a pretty good job, he had used the UR-100 mod 1’s like Field Marshall Tolubko wanted him to. He had used a total of three of them one at the Grand Forks AFB and one at the Ellsworth AFB. Yudon was a little annoyed that Tolubko has insisted on using the UR-100 mod 1’s on frontline targets, Casper made sense it was a target that justified the use of a UR-100 mod 1. The fact that Garin took the risk of not using two separate missile for the Minot AFB instead of using one of those older missiles. Yudon and Garin were making sure one of UR-100MR mod 3’s had the job that missile system was new and since none of the missiles were over three years old so the chances missile or warhead failure would be relatively small.

As for the UR-100 mod 1’s the gradual replacement of those missiles would assure the change to more up to date attack systems. Yudon wanted to become wanted to eventually be the commander of the Soviet Rocket Forces and annoying Marshall of Artillery Tolubko was a sure way of making sure that never happened.

Col. Gen Yudon, turned his attention to his latest nuclear strike plan, it would never had been possible if the Americans had not change their strategy. Continuity of government was what the Americans called it and he was planning to rip it to pieces. Soviet Union had some very good spies and over the years they had ferreted out just about every hidden piece of the Federal government. At the same time they had targeted the fifty state capitals. But if this part of the plan worked he would ensure that little or nothing would remain of the fifty individual state governments. He considered the idea of the president and the vice president of the United States would be flying around and no government would exist between them and the three thousand plus county government and the thousands of city, town and village governments. That would make America's ability to fight back over a long period of time impossible and slow down its recovery.

The plan was to go after the alternate state government locations, the American continuity of government planners with the aid of the state government Civil defense agencies had over the years had quietly tried put together a series of sites that the state government could retreat to in advent of Nuclear war. A few were well built and maintained, but most were a government building or a college or university campus. The Americans realized early on that they would not get king of money to build a large enough bunker to hold the people needed to run a state government. A university had dorms for large numbers of people to sleep in and school rooms could be converted to government offices and the campus food service could keep the government bureaucrats fed. All you to do send the students home and you could always draft teachers and universities workers to fill in whatever empty holes in the staff you had. A lot of the university had steam tunnels connecting the various building. Those steam tunnels would make a usable air raid bunker. You just retreated into the tunnels before the radiation hit and stay inside for a week or two and then come out and start running the state government again. Col Gen. Yubon had admit that the Americans had made the best they could out of a bad situation and they had come up with a pretty good solution all things considered.

Col Gen. Yudon had written a book on how to win an all-out nuclear exchange between the west and the Soviet Union. It had been publishing in a limited edition and was now used as a training aide for the Soviet Rocket Forces on war planning. He was proud of that book and the plan he had put forth in that book. Now he was taking every opportunity to bring his plan into being. This was just one more piece in his plan. Then all he would need was the right crisis at the right time and prove he was right. His dedication to his work had made him the number three man in the Soviet Rocket Forces and in time he hoped to command it himself. To be in that position to influence that crisis.

Col Gen Yudon decided to start with North Dakota they had two missile fields and two Air Force bases, so the American planners had decided the location with the best chance of not being totally irradiated. The was Fargo North Dakota it was as far east as you could go in that state and not leave it. It was also to the south of the Missile fields located in northern North Dakota. While it was north of the Missile Field in South Dakota and the final Missile Field was well to the west it was not much but it was the best that they could do.

Fargo had one warhead had already been targeted on it, as for the second they had assorted missiles designed to take out hardened command centers but not all that many of those missiles and Fargo was not a hardened site by any stretch of the imagination. Yudon considered his dilemma and he decided to combine his targeting of North and South Dakota together. South Dakota had a slightly more robust program they had decided that two university towns could be made into alternate capitals. Their plan was simple two groups of bureaucrats and assorted political leaders include the state legislature as well as the state supreme court would be sent to one or the other. One town was Brooking and the other was Vermillion. Outside of a stockpiling of additional food and medical supplies not much else had been done.

General Yudon looked at missile strikes that had already been planned. Suddenly he had a plan, he would target one UR-100 mod 3 on Fargo North Dakota, Brooking and Sioux Falls South Dakota. That set of warheads would strike during the second wave. While UR-100 mod 3 that was targeting Pierre and Sioux Falls SD as well as Sioux City Iowa. He would move it to the first wave and drop Pierre and Sioux Falls from its list of targets and those two warheads would hit Brookings and Vermillion South Dakota while leaving Sioux City Iowa as a target. Then he decided to take one of the numerous nuclear warheads targeted on Omaha specifically Council Bluffs Iowa so one less would do no harm. He decided that for Council Bluffs Iowa only one warhead would be needed. After that the fallout from a blasted Omaha would cover the city. Later on the flood would hit and finish the job. For a minute he considered going with only one warhead for Vermillion. Then he decided against it, he wanted to make sure of state government officials and politicians. Then he considered replacing the warhead that was supposed to strike Pierre with another but then he decided against that idea. With the State government in hiding else where and one warhead targeted on it as well a massive nuclear bomb induced flood on its way one more warhead did not make any sense.

Ironically Lt. Gen. Garin had already targeted the alternate capital of Montana, Missoula. So they just needed to send on more warhead. To make it easy he simply took the warhead targeted at Billing on the first way and changed its target to Missoula and he replaced that warhead with a S-11 Mod 1 with its single warhead to hit Billings Mt. Col Gen Yudon sat back for a second the Northern Plains Targeting Area was done. With just a little luck the state governments of those state would disappear under swarm of mushroom clouds.

 

[Raunchel]

I love the detail, it really gives the feeling that something very bad is going to happen. Will we also get to see things from the Western side?

 

[Farmer12]

Yes you will, you needs both sides to show what is happening. I am attempting to produce a story that shows what happens and why. This is the prologue the real story starts in winter 1984. I will introduce some characters who are not even thinking about a crisis. They are people focused on their lives. I am going to bore you a little bit with their lives. But they will react to what is happening almost no one will be gung ho about the situation. But West will be playing its side of the story.

 

[Farmer12]

Aug 11th, 1983 Politburo sat in waiting for Defense Minister Ustinov to brief them on reorientation of the Soviet Union Nuclear Forces. Ustinov stood up and he spoke, “The first stage is completed the targeting lists are ready with the types and numbers of missiles are completed. Now we can begin the reorientation of our Nuclear Forces will take some time the calculations for all for the changes in target and or modification calculations for previous targets would take some time.

The original planners had put in a timetable so that while some of the strength of the Soviet Nuclear Force might not be available or still targeted against silos. It had been decided that only a small percentage of the forces would be offline at anyone time during the reorientation and at time targets would have more warheads targeted on them than would be warranted. But that was necessary since they did not wanted any gaps, also that they would be changing targeting on upwards of two hundred warheads a month plus doing the targeting for any new warheads that come into service during that same period and retargeting any missile that mission was taken over one of the missile that had been targeted at a missile silo.

Still he recommended that the Soviet Union take a cautious approach to all situations until that reorientation was completed.” Ustinov paused for a breath and one of the Central Committee member asked, “When will this process be over?” Ustinov smiled and he replied, “Well the original estimate by our briefer from planning was remarkably accurate. We estimate that the reorientation will be completed by May of 1984 about nine months from now. Are there any questions and no one had any. Now I would like to talk a bit about our bases in the Peoples Republic of Bougainville.

 

[Farmer12]

Maj. General Anatoly Veselov was senior officer operations officer of the Dal’naya Aviatsiya. Last week the new SIOP plan had been completed. Now his job was to take all of the locations suggested for attack by cruise missiles and come up with a plan and assign the actual bombers to take care of the individual missions. The problem was that everyone wanted to use the new K-55 and it was not even in service yet. So a little realism had to injected into the whole targeting process. Take General Garin’s request for two of the new K-55’S to take out the Fort Peck dam. It was a pleasure to have a new weapon thought of so highly of by a missile officer and it was a very important target.

But the Dal’Aviatsiya had other targets to consider first, like South Africa, that mission had been dropped into the bomber forces lap. Navy pointed out that with at most ten or twelve targets sending a missile sub made no sense at all. Plus the distance alone made operating missile boat that far out for any length of time a logistics nightmare, As for the Rocket forces people, General Yudon had been at the meeting when decisions on who was supposed to nuke South Africa as of last month. Previously two of the old SS-13 mod1’s had the job of hitting the two primary targets in South Africa Pretoria the capital and Johannesburg the economic center of South Africa.

Col. Gen. Mikhail Yudon of the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces in a sudden show of generosity had dumped the whole country into the Dal’naya Aviasiya lap. Truth was that Yudon despised anyone who was not a Slav and blacks especially.. Gen. Veselov snorted with Yudon a blue eyed blonde with a really deep dark tan might qualify for the title black in his mind.

So he had dumped South Africa on Dal’Aviatsiya so that it would be responsible for handing South Africa over to the blacks. His excuse was the brand new K-55‘s that everyone was so excited about could do the job. Let Dal’Aviatsiya help hand South Africa over to the blacks and leave his beloved Soviet Rocket forces out of the picture. Unlike the Air Force which was a mostly Slav organization, the Strategic Rocket force was an all Slav show. So anyone who was not a Slav could not be trusted and since the white South Africans looked more like Slav than Russia’ African allies did, well that enough for the Rocket force boys. Irrespective of what Politburo thought, besides the Politburo would never hear about this since Dal’Aviatsiya leadership liked the idea of the rocket force boys begging off on a mission.

So the attack on Fort Peck would have to wait its turn to have the K-55’s assigned to that mission. That would be well the first two K-55 built should be handed over on the last day of December of 1983, then for the next five months two K-55 would be produced a month, then in june the production line would go up to three for six months. Then in January of 85 the production line would go to building four a month which would be full production. So you had the twelve K-55’s for the attack on South Africa, then command had decided that they needed eighteen of the new K-55’s to blast a hole through the American and Canadian air defenses to let rest of the bomber force in. Then after that a stock pile of six of the K-55’s were to be used to fill in for nonoperational cruise missiles. Then as soon as they had a fresh load of six missiles to arm one more bomber they could then allocate the K-55’s to take out that dam amongst other targets.

That would be forty-two missiles, Veselov did a few mental calculations twelve and eighteen was thirty then strategic reserve six and then six more was forty-two. The production totals of missiles by June of 84 twelve missiles would be ready for South Africa. By the end of November 84 another eighteen missiles would be ready. That meant the attack on the Air Defense would be at full strength. At full product in four more months March of 85, they would have produce the last of the strategic reserve missiles and enough missiles to strike the Fort Peck dam. But then allow for changes of plans or delays in production say two more months. By May of 85 they would be targeting the Fort Peck dam with the new K-55’s.
So until then the obsolete Raduga KH-20 would be assigned to carry out that mission. The idea of telling the other services that the Dal’naya Aviatsiya would not be able to carry out the mission with the K-55’s until June 1985 did not cross Veselov’s mind. This mission was assigned to the Soviet Air Forces bombers and it would stay assigned to that same bombers forces. He did decide to tack on a third bomber since taking out the Fort Peck dam would be a significant strategic blow to the United States. So he move the bomber that was targeted on that old abandoned Glasgow AFB not far from Fort Peck dam Then Maj. Gen Veselev remind himself to put the Fort Peck dam under special watch so that if Fort Peck was missed for some reason in the initial bombing runs or it did not take out the dam below it the Dal’naya Aviatsiya would be ready to go in again to finish the job. This dam and the one downstream was just too important of a target to not make sure of it.

Then Veselov turned his attention to the South African mission it had been decided that rather than just concentrate on the two city target by the Strategic Rocket Force. Their attack would be much more through and decisive. The targeting plan for the first bomber would be simple enough, two K-55’s each would be targeted at three targets, Pretoria, Johannesburg and the Advena Central Laboratories where South Africa Nuclear program was locate and where it produced its Nuclear’s weapons. When the second bomber had enough K-55 the target list was both modified and expanded. When the attack was at full strength, those three targets would still have two K-55’s targeted at them one from each bomber. Then the remaining targets would have one K-55 targeted on each one.

Those targets would be Cape Town, Port Victoria, Durban, Walvis Bay, Windhoek and Bloemfontein. The plan would decapitate the South African government as well as its only nuclear weapons production center then destroy its financial center and ports. If all went well the South African government would be overthrown by the blacks. If that did not happen then that no supplies could flow out of the country to potentially support the west alliance and the South Africans would build no more nuclear weapons. Not a complicated plan in the slightest.

 

[Farmer12]

Lieutenant General Daniel Allen US Army was in a good mood and his senior aide Major Richard Rodney was planning to stroke his ego just a bit more after all his fitness report was coming up soon. “Well General you called their bluff.” General Ackroy smiled and leaned back in his chair then he replied, “What bluff I just asked them to put the US governments money where their mouths were and they agreed. So now we will put together an exercise, and it’s not all that expensive. After all we will activate all these their for their two week summer drill. We are just sending them farther than we usually do in some cases.

The 155th Armored brigade to drill with the 1 Cav. The 256th with the 5th mech and the 48th infantry brigade with the 24th mech as well as the roundout battalions. The 2-252nd armor with 2nd Armor division, the 2-136th infantry with the 5th ID, the 2-120th infantry with the 4th ID. We will be just activating all three brigades and the three National Guard battalions that are in REFORGER all at the same time and having them train with the divisions they are assigned to. As for the readiness drill for the 24th we are paying the troops so we just have to cough up some money."

The general paused for a second and then he went on,“We pay for activating the ships and crews in the Sealift command, for the transportation of the two active duty brigades and assorted support units from Fort Stewart to Charleston and the loading of those units on board and a short four or five day cruise to show that we can do it and that the ships in good condition and that our plans are indeed feasible. Then unload the ships and send the equipment back to Fort Stewart. By setting the starting date for this exercise on the 8th of June the 24th Mech will plenty of time to prepare for Reforger84. The second part will be a little tough but that will allow us to see just how good the 24th mech really is. While at the same time the 48th mech is training at Fort Stewart. But the primary reason for carrying out Operation Slam Dunk is to show that the United States Army can mobilize its Reforger Force and run the Guard Units through the wringer. We will show that those units will be capable of fighting in Europe in a reasonable amount of time thus silencing our critics. “

The major smiled and told the General, “Well anyway you look at it General this is a feather in your cap for getting the money for the exercise in the first place.” The General smiled to himself, he knew that the major was sucking up but that was what aides were supposed to do. Rodney was more of a politician than a soldier and the General knew it. But at the same time he was West Point and we ring knockers had to stick together. The problem was that Rodney had missed Vietnam by the simple fact that he had been sent to Germany instead of Vietnam in seventy and after two years in Germany commanding an infantry platoon he had been promoted to 1ST Lieutenant and assigned to the pentagon by the time that two year assignment was over Vietnam was over. He did two years as an infantry captain in the Fourth ID and two more years staff duty with the 1st ID and that included some training now he was a major.

Some of General Allen’s fellow general officers were not very enthusiastic about promoting the Rodney to Lt. Colonel. They cited his lack of service in Vietnam when other deserving officer who had served in Vietnam that were also up for promotion. The other problem was that he was considered by some to be too much of a politician. But Ackroy considered Rodney to be a protégé so he had opened the way. While it was true he was more of politician than a soldier the Army needed officers who could talk to politicians and who understood how politicians think. That was important in this day and age, he looked at Rodney and he told him, You will be going to the School for Command Preparation in the fall and a light colonel in the spring and by June you will be commanding a battalion in Europe. Rodney could not have been more pleased, ass kissing and politics had taken him a lot farther and faster than most of his fellow classmates hard work in the field.

 

[Farmer12]

I just wanted to state that most of the information on the Armies and Air Force was well as the various reserve forces for Belgium, Canada, France, the Federal Republic of Germany,Great Britain, Luxembourg, Netherlands, United States as well as Denmark are from the book Armies of NATO Central Front by David C Ishy and Charles Kapmus Jr.. The fact is if you want information on what the order of battle of country is and where the units are located in 84 and 85 it is about as good as it gets as a source of information.

 

[Farmer12]

Chapter 2 The Quest for Power Mar 1st 1984

With the death of Yuri Andropov, Constantin Chernenko had been elected to become the next General Secretary of the Communist party. Mikhail Gorbachev had been Andropov’s chosen successor but the hardliners on the Presidium had not supported that plan. Gorbachev had to accept the decision of the Politburo but he was confident with a year or two at the most he would be General Secretary and then the reforms that were necessary for the Soviet Union to survive could be undertaken. The reason for his confidence was that first Chernenko was a very sick man the only question was how long they doctors would keep him alive. The two men completing for the position of General Secretary was in his mind no real threat to him. The ambassador for the German Democratic Republic had arrived with a request it was simple enough Premier Honecker wanted permission to visit West German as a show of friendship between East Germany and West Germany.

Chernenko looked around at the Central Committee and then he looked at the East German ambassador who had been summoned to appear before the Central Committee, then he spoke, “I can understand why Premiere Honecker wishes to visit with West Germany but the Politburo has a much wider number of things to consider before we will allow that to happen we will take a week or so to consider our decision.” With that comment the East German Ambassador left the room, he had a feeling that Chernenko would say no. The Russians were always very paranoid about Germany and Germans in general.

Romanov was the first to object he was not one bit happy, he commented, “I fought them once before and our fathers fought them before that and I don’t want our children fighting them again. Consider the idea of Honecker and Kohl sitting together in the same room. Who knows what ideas those two will come up with in the privacy of that room?” That comment was gravely considered and then Griskin spoke up, he had made the mistake of not speaking first so he was going to make sure that his comments would be of an even harder line, “Most of us understand what it means if we allow the two Germany’s reunite, Russia has suffered terribly from two invasions by Germany in the last century. This could be that first to reunion. We must make sure that a united Germany never happens again.”

That comment brought even more visible reactions from the other members of the Politburo. Gorbachov sat quietly, personally he had no such fear and he was sure that a number of the other members of the Politburo agreed with him. He also knew that that comment had been pointed straight at him. So if he was to take control of the Soviet Union he could not appear to be soft on the subject but on the other hand he was not going to be so rabid about the subject as his two men before him. He smiled and commented, “I agree that allowing the leaders of the two Germany’s to meet is a bad idea at this time. Chernenko had been opposed to the idea from the first and with all of the competitors to replace him lined up against the idea simply reinforced his attitude. After all like Griskin had said twice in a century was enough. Now all they had to do was have the ambassador come back next Thursday to hear the Politburo’s decision. Constantin Chernenko by making them wait to hear the Poliburo’s he making sure that the Germans remember just who was in charge.

Then the meeting went on as various items of the agenda were studied, discussed and decisions made. Finally it was time to set the agenda for the Politburo Meeting on the 14th of June. Gorbachev offered his suggestion, “That the Politburo takes the time to listen to a report on a study ordered by General Secretary Andropov by the Academy of Sciences on the Economy of the Soviet Union with projections on what would happen if there was no change as well as possible suggestions for reforms to the current methods of operation. Chernenko was too tired to argue about the idea besides if he let the briefing happen maybe for at least a while he would get a little peace and quiet from the reformers. Then there was a request from Viktor Chebrikov Chairman for State Security or to the rest of the world outside the Soviet Union the head of the KGB. He had some concerns about an internal security matter. Over the last couple of years the population had been fed an unending stream of virulent anti-western propaganda.

So much so that there had been some rather nasty incidences in the last few months and Chebrikov had wanted to tone down the propaganda just a bit. But rather than make a decision today it was decided that they would take a serious look at the situation on the fourteenth of June.

 

[Farmer12]

Mar 8th /9th, 1984 The Central Committee sat looking at the Minister of Defense Ustinov and Marshal Ogarkov they were briefing the Central Committee. They were going over a few modifications in the SIOP. The changes were relatively minor. First Kim Il Sung wanted to make sure that no nuclear weapons were targeted on any cities or other targets. The Politburo had listened to his requests and ordered that any nuclear targets that were South Korea were to be taken off the SIOP. While the other was to make sure that Taiwan was on the SIOP. The target planners had done a little creative targeting and the Politburo had found out. The targeting board had decided to not target Taiwan so that if nuclear war would happen and China did not hit Taiwan and the evidence was pretty good that it was not a target.

So with an intact Taiwan the Nationalist Chinese could engage in campaign to reconquer the China. That campaign would hopefully leave China in a state of civil war, hopefully for a couple decades or so. The Politburo did not see it that way, they had decided that the Targeting board had been too clever. So they were checking to see if their orders had been carried out. The representative from the Targeting board assured the Politburo. That their orders had been carried out The Taipei and two sets of command bunkers were all going to be hit twice. That the two missiles targeted on South Korea could be shifted to Taiwan with no need to scramble the current targeting setups for other missiles. That made the Politburo was happy, a simple easy modification to the current targeting plans with no ripples.

All the while the briefing on the final changes to the targeting plan went on. Victor Griskin looked around the room considering his rivals for the position of First Secretary. Grigory Romanov was contender and he had the support of Marshal of the Soviet Union Ogarkov. Griskin also knew that Gorbachev was looking for a way to get Ogarkov. But Griskin was not about to make an alliance with Gorbachev to get Ogarkov unless it was to him advantage. But for the moment all three of them were waiting for Chernenko to die. All the time the three of them were maneuvering to capture the prize. Then one of them would become the next leader of the Soviet Union. As for the other two, a nice comfortable retirement to a small dacha, after all that was the way things were done in the Soviet Union

Then it was Ustinov turn to speak and he had good news for the Central Committee; the reorientation of the missile force was going to be complete ahead of schedule. In just a few weeks the Nuclear Forces of the Soviet Union would be at full retargeted and ready to carry out the current SIOP when the last Navaga class sub would be in place. That bit of news was well received, even if Andropov’s decision had been somewhat unpopular. The fact that the reorientation had be carried out so quickly had pleased everyone. It was good to know in these troubled times that at least one part of the Soviet Union’s military was up to carrying out its mission.

If he had not felt it necessary to tell the Politburo that process of retargeting was over he would not have mentioned the Navaga class submarine. That was a sore point with some of the members of the Politburo. When the Rocket Force sold the Politburo on the reorientation of the missile force include sending submarine to positions where those subs could attack various allies of the Americans. They had not realized some of the problems inherent to the new missions. The submarines were going longer distances to get to their patrol boxes. So to maintain one sub on patrol for these Patrol boxes, you needed an average offour submarines per box.. So the three new missile boxes tied up twelve submarines.

Since there was a finite supply of Navaga class submarines the number of missile submarine on duty in the Patrol boxes of the east and west coast of the United States had to be reduces. That meant the number of warheads that could be used by the Navy to attack the United States was less. Ustinov had been will to call the missile submarine part of the plan a mistake, he had told Andropov at the time that it was understandable that the people who came up with the plan had not properly consulted with the navy about its part in the plan. At the same time with the security constraints and the fact that they had been given so little to work out the problems that dropping that part of the plan made sense. Andropov did not see it that way he was more focused on the fact that members of the Politburo were out to scrap the whole plan. His attitude had been give an millimeter and they would take ten kilometers. So he would not back down and he had been absolutely adamant about not changing the plan in even the smallest detail.

So now instead of five or six missile boats patrolling off the east and west coasts of the United States the numbers were going to drop. One the east coast the norm would be four to five submarines. While on the west coast it would be three to four submarines. The question Ustinov had was how long would it take the Americans to figure out that something had happened and figure out what had happened. He had a hunch that the Americans would realize something was up pretty quick when the number of contact went down. But what they were doing and where well that would be more problematic for the Americans. Despite all their technology and SOSUS soviet submarine still operated with some impunity they would be looking for two missile boats in the pacific and one in the Atlantic going to the new Patrol boxes.

Ustinov had remembered an intelligence report on the ANZUS alliance, the Australian expected limited number of nuclear strikes three at the US communication centers one on Canberra, with tow possible strike on Sidney and Melbourne. While New Zealand did not even expect to be hit, what the Soviet Union had instore for them, South Africa and South America would knock them right on their heels. In a way he sort of wanted the information to get out. They would fear the Soviet Union even more and fear intimidated your enemy.

Next on the agenda was to tell the East German Ambassador that Honecker’s request to be allowed to visit West Germany was denied. The ambassador had from the first realized that it would be an uphill battle from the beginning. Many members of the Politburo had lived during and fought during World War II and they were badly scarred by that war. A few were even old enough to remember the first invasion during World War I. East Germany had to take care not to arouse animosities from that time period. East Germany had similar problems with the Czechs and the Poles. Hungary, Bulgaria and Rumania all past allies of the Germans, did not have similar knee jerk reactions. But still it was always a good idea to not stir up bad old memories. So when Chernenko looked coldly at him with the majority of the Politburo just as stone-faced he knew what the answer would be. But he still tried to appear to be as pleasant as possible when Chernenko told him no.

But what surprised him was the vehemence of Chernenko’s comment he spoke of two previous invasions and that he would not tolerate even the suggestion that the partition of Germany might come to an end. The East German Ambassador assured Chernenko of the loyalty of Honecker to the Soviet Union, and his high regard for General Secretary Chernenko.

The General Secretary smiled and replied with a somewhat sarcastic tone that he appreciated Honecker’s loyalty. As the East German Ambassador left the room he consider the fact that in certain circumstances that antiGerman paranoia could be used to against them. But for the moment that fact was filed away to be recalled at the appropriate time.

Col. Edward Butch Witofsky was doing a quick fly by in his SR-71 by the Shortland Islands. The Soviet base was located in the Peoples Republic of Bougainville so, every now and then they did a mission to check up on what the Soviets were up to when a satellite was not overhead. The sudden appearance of the SR-71 allow a sort of tactical advantage. The Russkie’s had the flyover times for the satellites down to the second so using the SR-71 to make an occasional flyby kept them a bit off balance. The base commander had caused some concerns that photos of the special cargo being stockpiled at the base in the advent of a war breaking out had been photographed.

He was assured that the special cargo had still been in the cargo hold when the flyover happened. But the Juliet class submarine which was surfaced at the time had to have been seen but that was shrugged off on the theory that sooner or later they would have been seen. While the cargo from the freighter was there to be used to inflict even more damage to the Australians and New Zealanders both from a weapons system they would not expect to be hit by.

 

[Baron Bizarre]

This is good stuff!

 

[Farmer12]

Thank you I am trying my best

 

[Farmer12]

Ed Blake walked back into the house from doing chores the house was quiet, Martha had a job in town to make her a little money and the children were at school. He was going to change and head into town. He would have lunch at the Livestock auction he would check the price of fattened steers. He was thinking of selling the yearlings he had be fattening up. So he was checking out the prices, the odd were that next week he would ship the yearlings off to auction. It would make for one less chore in the morning but then he would probably be checking out the price of hogs since he raised them to. He had some weaned pigs he was getting ready to sell. He’d sell them as fattening pigs but that would be next week or the week after. During the winter there was more time for a farmer to think about what to do next. Come spring he would be off and running and things would not really slow down until after the corn was harvested.

The Major General Dubois sat across the table he was in charge of Looking Glass, the decision to include the Navy in the mission had been shoved down SAC and the Air Forces throat but he had no choice in the matter so he was going to do his best to make sure that Rear Admiral Striet tour with Looking Glass got started right. He hand Striet a briefing book. He was told to read it and when he was done to let the general know. Then if he had any questions, the Major General would answer them. When the Major General returned he looked at Rr. Adm. Striet and asked do you have any questions? Striet nodded and he asked, “I thought that we still kept a third of our ICBM’S as a strategic reserve?”

The Dubois frowned for a second before replying, “When the Soviets deployed those SS-18 it became apparent to everyone that keeping the primary strategic reserve as an SAC mission was no longer possible so the reserve was shifted over to the new Trident missiles. While the Tridents are not as accurate they are a lot harder to find and kill so that is why you are here now. Striet smiled to himself it was obvious that the reason he was here was that the Air Force had lost control of the strategic reserve force so now the Navy had taken the opportunity to move in on Looking Glass. He had a feeling that the Air Force and SAC in particular were sort of pissed off about it. But Striet did not care, he would be in command of the plane which while it was not a boomer it was a command of sorts and it was not the staff position he had been dreading. Not to mention he had to be on the short list to Vice Admiral now.

Mark Harper stood looking down at his wife grave; her death had left a void in his life. They had never had any children so it had been just the two of them. Together they had built as thriving Agricultural consultant firm specializing in advising farmer’s coops on good management practices and potential new business opportunities. Now she was dead because drunk driver had ran her off the road. The pastor of his church came over and told Mark, if you need anything let us know we will be there for you. But for the moment he was so very tired and he was feeling oh so very alone. He felt more pain right now than he had possibly imagined. That was why when he felt too lonely he came and visited her.

Brigadier General Arthur Talbot was sitting down looking over the readiness reports for the 28th Bomb Wing and the 44TH Missile Wing assigned to Ellsworth AFB. They were okay but not what he wanted to see, he had a feeling that the two wings going through the motions and that was not how SAC operated. It was going to be his job to light a fire under their collective Asses. As a new base commander he planned on making this command his pathway to major general. He needed to get these two wings giving him the maximum effort, so starting today he was going to start lighting a bonfire under the two wings collective asses. ***

Alan Van Kamp Alan was in a state of anticipation he had joined the Foreign Service so see the world and hopefully make the world a better place. Now he had received the letter that was telling him where he would be posted. His hands felt a little jittery when he opened the letter and he began to read it. Then he had a feeling of shocked surprised, South Africa, the land of apartheid. When he had gone to Harvard he had protested against the Apartheid Regime ruling South Africa. Now he was headed to a country whose political system he despised and now he had to pretend to support the policy of Constructive Engagement. He knew all about it and he thought it was the worst policy that the United States government could have come up with.

In the end he had joined the Foreign Service despite President Reagan and his policies, he hope that this year that a democrat would take control of the American foreign policy. That way a much more aggressive policy could be undertaken. But he remember the advice of one of his professor and it had been to join the foreign service despite what you felt about Reagan’s foreign policy bide your time. After all sooner or later a democrat would take control of the presidency and they would hopefully would lead the United States in the right direction. ***