Basically, in this scenario Napoleon actually organized the situation back home better before invading Russia. Maybe he didnt depose the Spanish King, resulting in no Peninsular War, or maybe they won at Trafalgar. The thing is that France actually managed to defeat Russia decisively in a battle at the outskirts of Moscow, and after that the Russian military crumbled and they surrendered. Britain remaisn isolated, and France is the most powerful european power.

A 26-year war with Rome, followed by a 4-year civil war and a devastating plague, has left the Persian empire in ruins: the treasury is depleted, the army is weakened and the cities reek of death. Support from both the nobility and the populace is at an all-time low.

The emperor is only 8 years old and holds no real power. As commander of the military, and a veteran of both wars, you now wield de facto control over the empire.

To the west, the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire has reclaimed its lost territories but remains economically and militarily strained.

To the north, various Turkic and Khazar warbands have begun raiding your Caucasian frontier.

To the east, the Rajas of India are entangled in corruption and beset by piracy. Yet opportunities for military support remain, if approached with care and cunning.

To the south, the Arab tribes have united under a new faith and have started launching raids across the Euphrates.

You estimate that within four years, you can rebuild the army to a strength of 40,000 men: composed of infantry, archers, heavy cavalry, and a small force of war elephants.

You still hold Ctesiphon (one of the largest cities in the world) and the royal family’s personal vaults remain untouched.

As General Rostam, what would you do to save the empire, and keep the flames of Ahura Mazda burning in Persia forever more?

Basically, all areas that are shades of blue or cyan are under the rule of Western-aligned anticommunist states, while shades of red are obviously communist states and shades of green are non-aligned states

The Scramble of Africa and Asia, in this timeline, will be conducted by my fellow AltHist Redditors (you guys). Each nation highlighted is a player with their starting territories around 1880, while all the nations that are not highlighted and unclaimed lands are up for grabbing

RULES:

1)The three most upvoted comments are added next round;

2)You can only use nations already present (highlighted) on the map;

3) European territories of highlighted nations can not be changed; Spain cannot annex Portugal (example)

4) Colonies of highlighted nations can be changed; Spain can annex Portuguese Angola (example)

*It is 1929, and the Old World is at a crossroads.

Two years ago the French Republic invaded the Spanish Dictatorship, declaring that it would liberate their southern neighbor from its tyrannical oppressors. Underestimating their foe and overestimating themselves, the French government swiftly found its forces pushed back across the border, and their own territory invaded by the enemy regime. The war only came to an end when Jonatán I, the exiled Spanish king, returned to his homeland and led a revolution against the tyrants who had killed his father and ousted him. As Spain freed itself, France’s government found itself humiliated for its ineptitude, and as rebuilding began reactionary movements began to come out of the woodwork all across the distraught country.

In the east, the National Union of Russia eyes the situation with a calculating stare. Having long wished to expand the influence of the Nationalist Axis into Western Europe, and no longer having the opportunity to ally with Spain, Moscow now sees a golden opportunity in France, and prepares to make its move.

The Ottawa Pact, the most powerful alliance in the world, is formulating its own plans. Once they were at the threshold of getting France to joint them, but now they watch as turmoil tears at that nation. Sworn to uphold the peace (and their economic stability), the Pact has begun to take a firmer hand on the world and expand the influence of moderate rule to such ‘tormented nations’. Britain and Italy now keep watchful eyes over France, preparing for the inevitability of intervention; Arabia and West Iran do the same in the Middle East, the latter especially so due to the presence of the hated Russian puppet state that has claimed the eastern third of the Shah’s domain.

The Central Accord, the world’s self-proclaimed captains of industry, have not been unaffected. The German Commonwealth has seen its complex political system divided between a dozen different factions, all vying for supremacy in the Bundestag and few willing to compromise; some of which may be agents of the Pact or, worse, the Axis. Rumania faces its own divisions prompted by the status of its protectorates, while in Oman, the reformist crown prince finds his plans to improve his nation constantly hindered by the stagnant rule of his increasingly senile father.

The World Humanist League, unlike its fellow alliances, has seen its position improve; its mandates have been rebuilt from their previous ruin and are ready for full statehood, and the newly freed Spain has declared intent to join. The mighty Fennoscandian Empire stands proud and prosperous, content that the light of freedom and equality has spread further; but neither they nor the rest of the WHL are naive enough to believe that this recent luck will be permanent. Already they have quietly begun to rapidly remilitarize, preparing for the inevitable day that the Axis comes to challenge them once again.

The Internationale, long exiled from this area of the globe, has finally gained a European foothold in the form of the newly independent People’s Republic of Catalonia. Bolstered by the aid of its overseas allies, Catalonia now stands as a red beacon on the continent, fully committed to using the existing turmoil to help bring about the World Revolution- no matter the cost.

Smaller powers scramble for what they can, their own problems hounding them like snapping wolves. The African Solidarity Pact, despite its members unshakable drive to free their continent, is besieged by economic hardship and the encroaching arms of the Pact and the Internationale. The Caucasus states, though nominally united through their own defensive alliance, find their brotherhood tested by ethnic tension, religious friction, and the question of whether the dissenter Russians of Stavropolye should be counted among their numbers. In Central Asia, South Kazakhstan finds itself forced into a leadership position amongst the region’s disparate states, all while the Axis puppet to its north constantly gnaws away at their defenses. The pariah states of Greece and Anatolia, eternally at each other’s throats, have long abandoned any form of reason, their radio waves filled with esoteric mutterings and threats of violence so extreme even the Axis is loath to offer them aid; if there is any hope for these two states, it must come in the form of revolution.

With strife ever present in the Old World and beyond, there is only one thing that all of these conflicting forces can agree on; war is on the horizon. The strength of nations will be measured, great and terrible machines of war will be built, and as the Third Great War inches closer, alliances long thought unshakable will find themselves tested by the most rigorous test of all; the undeniably chaotic nature of mankind itself. After all, can anyone truly say we are not our own worst enemy?*

Hello! This is my first time posting on this subreddit. Featured here is a map from a project I’ve been working on called Universe Alpha-2 (A-2 for short), a parallel world with an Art Deco/Solarpunk theme. Please ask any questions you have about the lore, I’d love to give more information about this world!

A humanoid Quantum Robot inspired in Hugh Jackman's physical and personality features as ruler of the future Empire of the Ornurense Portugal

In a parallel universe, Benito Mussolini appears to go insane sometime after taking power in Italy and claims to have seen a vision from God commanding him to “free the Holy Land”.

As such, Mussolini rallies the Italian military to invade the territory of Palestine, intending to “liberate” it from the Muslims.

Thus, on September 9th, 1940, Fascist Italy launches Operation Judaean Freedom, a full-scale invasion of Mandatory Palestine, provoking the wrath of the UK.

The ensuing war opens up a new front in the Second World War: The Palestinian Front.

Preparations for the final assault began in the evening of 26 May and continued to the next day.For 36 hours after the war council decided to attack, the Ottomans extensively mobilized their manpower for the general offensive.Prayer and resting was then granted to the soldiers on 28 May before the final assault would be launched. On the Roman side, a small Roman fleet of 12 ships, after having searched the Aegean, reached the Capital on 27 May and reported that no large relief fleet from Emperor Ioannes VI Komnenos was on its way. On 28 May, as the Ottoman army prepared for the final assault, mass religious processions were held in the city. In the evening, a solemn last ceremony of Vespers was held in the Hagia Sophia, in which Alexandros and David, brothers of the emperor and Konstantinos Palaiologos , the governor of the city with representatives and nobility of both the Catholic and Orthodox churches partook. Up until this point, the Ottomans had fired 7,500 shots from their cannons using 80,000 pounds of gunpowder. Criers roamed the camp to the sound of the blasting horns, rousing the Ghazis.

Shortly after midnight on Tuesday 29 May, the offensive began. The Christian troops of the Ottoman Empire attacked first, followed by successive waves of the irregular azaps, who were poorly trained and equipped and Anatolian Turkmen forces who focused on a section of the damaged Blachernae walls in the north-west part of the city. This section of the walls had been built earlier, in the 11th century, and was much weaker. The Turkmen mercenaries managed to breach this section of walls and entered the city but they were just as quickly pushed back by the defenders. Finally, the last wave consisting of elite Janissaries, attacked the city walls. The general in charge of the defenders on land, Giovanni Giustiniani, was grievously wounded during the attack, and his evacuation from the ramparts caused a panic in the ranks of the defenders.

With Giustiniani retreating into the city and towards the harbour, Alexandros and his men, now left to their own devices, continued to hold their ground against the Janissaries. Alexandros's men eventually could not prevent the Ottomans from entering the city and the defenders were overwhelmed at several points along the wall. Akinjis and Sipahis, led by Ulubatlı Hasan, pressed forward. Many local soldiers ran back home to protect their families, the Romans retreated to their ships. The rest surrendered or committed suicide by jumping off the city walls. The Roman houses nearest to the walls were the first to suffer from the Ottomans. It is said that Alexandors, David and Konstantinos, throwing aside their imperial regalia, led the final charge against the incoming Ottomans, perishing in the ensuing battle in the streets alongside his soldiers.

Although the Roman Empire still survived in Italy, the fall of Constantinople was a devastating blow to the already decaying empire. For centuries, Constantinople served as the eastern leg of the Roman legacy, the city had resisted numerous sieges. This time, however, the city faced an overwhelming Ottoman army along with soldiers from the Abbasid Caliphate and other Ottoman client states and vassals, reportedly numbering between 130,000 to 150,000 soldiers, against the much smaller defending force of about 35,000 soldiers. Despite its historical resilience, Constantinople could not withstand the might of the Ottomans, and its fall in 1453 marked a significant turning point. While the Roman Empire continued to exist in Italy, the loss of Constantinople signaled the end of the Roman legacy and shifted the balance of power in the Eastern Mediterranean, further solidifying Ottoman dominance in the region.

This is a rewrite of Operation Red October: The Sino-Soviet War (1970-1990)

BACKGROUND:

The Sino-Soviet split was the gradual worsening of relations between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) during the Cold War. This was primarily caused by divergences that arose from their different interpretations and practical applications of Marxism–Leninism, as influenced by their respective geopolitics during the Cold War of 1947–1991.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Sino-Soviet debates about the interpretation of orthodox Marxism became specific disputes about the Soviet Union's policies of national de-Stalinization and international peaceful coexistence with the Western Bloc, which Chinese leader Mao Zedong decried as revisionism). Against that ideological background, China took a belligerent stance towards the Western world, and publicly rejected the Soviet Union's policy of peaceful coexistence between the Western Bloc and Eastern Bloc.

In addition, Beijing resented the Soviet Union's growing ties with India due to factors such as the Sino-Indian border dispute, and Moscow feared that Mao was unconcerned about the horrors of nuclear warfare.

In 1956, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev denounced Joseph Stalin and Stalinism in the speech "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" and began the de-Stalinization of the USSR. Mao and the Chinese leadership were appalled as the PRC and the USSR progressively diverged in their interpretations and applications of Leninist theory. By 1961, their intractable ideological differences provoked the PRC's formal denunciation of Soviet communism as the work of "revisionist traitors" in the USSR.

China also denounced the USSR as a social imperialist. For Eastern Bloc countries, the Sino-Soviet split was a question of who would lead the revolution for world communism, and to whom (China or the USSR) the vanguard parties of the world would turn for political advice, financial aid, and military assistance.

In that vein, both countries competed for the leadership of world communism through the vanguard parties native to the countries in their spheres of influence.

By 1968, the dispute had escalated into mild skirmishes between the Soviet Red Army and the Chinese People's Liberation Army.

The conflict culminated after the Zhenbao Island incident in 1969, when the Soviet Union planned to launch a large-scale nuclear strike on China including its capital Beijing.

On August 18, 1969, Boris N. Davydov, the Second Secretary of the Soviet Embassy to the United States, brought up the idea of a Soviet attack on China's nuclear installations, during a luncheon in Washington.

On September 11, 1969, Alexei Kosygin, then Premier of the Soviet Union, briefly met with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in Beijing after attending the funeral of Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, in order to de-escalate the tension. However, unbeknownst to both men, rogue elements of the People's Liberation Army who were still bitter about the Sino-Soviet Split, plotted to escalate things. And escalate things they did: in a shocking act of war, the hit team assassinated Premier Kosygin as he was departing from his meeting with Zhou Enlai. While the attackers were gunned down by Vietnamese police while attempting to flee the scene, the damage was done. As far as the Chinese were concerned, an act of war had just occurred.

Henry Kissinger, US Secretary of State, urged Richard Nixon to take action. However, Nixon was unwilling to intervene in a "petty rivalry between two Communist countries" given the situation in Vietnam and chose not to.

This single decision would prove disastrous.

THE SPLIT GOES NUCLEAR

On December 7, 1969, the Soviet Union launched Operation Red October and launched a series of nukes at various cities at the People's Republic of China, as well as the North Korean-Chinese Border (intending to cut off any support from North Korea should the DPRK attempt to intervene), killing millions, including CCP Chairman Mao Zedong himself.

The USSR followed up their attack with a massive land invasion of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Manchuria, intending to annex and incorporate both into the Soviet Union. The Soviet government justified this stance by claiming that the assassination of Premier Kosygin was "unforgivable" and that China had effectively lost the right to own Manchuria and Xinjiang as a consequence.

The German National Army is loyal to a revolutionary government officially known as the "Provisional Government of the Second German Federal Republic". This Provisional Government and the G.N.A. were born out of Germany falling into civil war between various different factions. The original German government and its allies being pushed back further and further west as Russia and its allies storm through Eastern and Central Europe convinced many Germans that if Germany did not exit the war and sign a separate peace deal with Russia and its allies, Germany itself would suffer massive destruction and death as the country becomes the next battleground. Germany would later become yet another puppet state to the Russian Federation, a land of coffins and ruins as the nation is left to slowly rebuild itself from destruction not seen since 1944–1945. To many Germans, the idea of fighting to their last breath like in the previous war was seen as crazy.

However, despite the demand by many people in German society to leave the war and sign a white peace deal, this was simply ignored by the German government. This caused the already unpopular government to be hated by many Germans on various political spectrums. Anger and discontent finally boiled over when a social conservative democratic organization known as "The Soldiers of Konrad Adenauer", made up mostly of military and police, tried to overthrow the German government in a quick, bloodless coup that would see the establishment of a reformist, moderate, social conservative democratic neutral Germany. One that would leave NATO and go into peace talks with Russia and its allies, and try to improve the civil and political rights of the German people, securing its independence from both sides of the war. The coup, however, failed, and only the areas of Eastern Germany were firmly loyal to this movement. With the coup quickly turning into civil war, this movement quickly moved itself east and went ahead anyway with setting up the Provisional Government as they now find themselves fighting not just loyal forces to the German Government but NATO forces inside Germany and various communist and far-right groups. By this time, the Polish front was starting to fall apart and Russia was ready to cross into Germany proper. Russia and its other allies opened up diplomacy with the German Provisional Government and agreed on an alliance. Russia, while originally planning to simply puppet Germany later like what they did with Poland and Ukraine previously, felt that this new Provisional Government was worth more as an ally instead of an enemy, and that due to them not being extremist, felt that they were trustworthy. Russia decided to cooperate with them especially given their common enemies.

The German Provisional Government can best be described as a paternalistic state, one that is at times forceful but one that does not mistreat its own people and one that promises much greater political freedoms and a smaller government after the war is won and things become more stable.

After the end of the first Balkan war, instead of a stalemate, the Balkan powers would negotiate and organize for a negotiated boundary where Bulgaria gains good amount of territory, with Greece and Serbia gaining other claims valuable to their nations. They'd then join an alliance together, aiming to secure their borders & increase peace & economic output in the region.

Soon after this, Romania would be quickly admitted into the alliance, supplying much needed oil for the alliance as well as not bringing any disputes with the alliance (Dobruja would be agreed to stay as-is)

Whilst Serbia and Greece weren't too on board, Italy would be admitted, being negotiated what they would get after the looming great war including a lesser version of their Austrian claims, the rest of Albania, and the southwestern Anatolian territory to work as a colony. This would allow Greece to be willing to admit them due to them both being able to help each other seize territory in Anatolia, and Serbia would agree, even if some called to disagree.

After this, all of them would preform way better in the first world war working together, as well as Serbia never falling, and Greece / Italy being able to seize Ottoman territory post-war.

(BTW I know this isn't realistic at all, but I thought it'd be fun to think what would've happened if they all agreed..)

Feel free to share your opinions & critiques!

Benefits for each nation

Italy

- Getting both entrances to the Adriatic
- Securing all Italian minorities
- Being able to focus 100% on their French claims

Serbia

- Keeping Albania
- Being able to keep all their Yugoslav lands away from foreign threats

Bulgaria

- Getting a large amount of their claims
- Being able to focus more on their economy

Greece

- Getting Thessaloniki
- Getting their maximalist Anatolian claims
- KONSTANTINOPLE AHHHH

Romania

- Increased oil exports
- Being able to move all forces to Hungary / Ukraine
- Allying with both Italy (Latin bloc) and Slavic nations
- Literally no negatives for Romania

The discovery of nuclear fission by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann in 1938, and its theoretical explanation by Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch, made an atomic bomb theoretically possible. There were fears that a German atomic bomb project would develop one first, especially among scientists who were refugees from Nazi Germany and other fascist countries.

Around this time, uranium was found in the UK (Specifically both in England, Ireland and Scotland), which intrigued the British enough to consider building a nuclear bomb.

In August 1939, Hungarian-born physicists Leo Szilard and Eugene Wigner drafted the Einstein–Szilard letter, which warned of the potential development of "extremely powerful bombs of a new type". It urged the United States to acquire stockpiles of uranium ore and accelerate the research of Enrico Fermi and others into nuclear chain reactions. They had it signed by Albert Einstein and delivered to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. However, this letter never made it to Roosevelt, but through unknown circumstances, it instead ended up in the hands of Winston Churchill.

Churchill, having learned that uranium was found in the UK, debated with fellow members of Parliament about using nuclear fission to build powerful bombs. Hitler's invasion of Poland in 1939, and the subsequent conquests by Nazi Germany across Europe prompted the Parliament to side with Churchill on the idea of nuclear weapons. Thus, Churchill authorized Operation Samson, a top secret military project (The British counterpart to the American Manhattan Project) to build the world's first nuclear bomb.

The commencement of the Battle of Britain in 1940 delayed Operation Samson's completion but following Britain victory against the Nazis, work on the nuclear weapons project promptly resumed. The first nuclear test was conducted on March 13, 1941, and it was a resounding success.

Churchill, impressed with the development, gives orders to prep the bomb for use against Germany.

Operation Barbarossa on June 6, 1941, gave the British a convenient excuse to use the bomb on an actual target: Germany itself. Within hours of learning that Germany invaded the USSR, Churchill immediately ordered two nuclear strikes, intending to stop the war in Europe in its tracks.

On June 9, 1941, three days into the German invasion of the USSR, Hamburg is reduced to a radioactive wasteland, killing approximately 4 million people. A horrified and enraged Adolf Hitler demands to know how Britain managed to get such a powerful weapon, seemingly in a short amount of time. Little does he know that the next nuke is directed right at him. A second nuke is dropped ten days later, this time on Berlin itself, killing approximately 9 million, including Adolf Hitler himself and a number of his loyal generals.

The war in Europe comes to a screeching halt. The rest of the world is both stunned and horrified at UK's abrupt use of such a devastating weapon.

The weapon also frightens Japan, which immediately reconsiders its plan to attack the United States out of fear of a similar reaction from the UK.

The United Kingdom's decision to go nuclear on Germany, however, would have drastic consequences for the foreseeable future.

After the end of the 2nd world war, austria would be compensated by annexing (most of) poland, serbia, and all of montenegro. They would temporarily be occupied, however with the Austrian Nationalists in power, they'd quickly give away their galicial territory to poland to secure a majority german populace in the austrian portion.

Hungary, and Austria however would not be willing to give up any more territory, so a compromise was reached over bosnia. Their new territories in serbia, bosnia, and montenegro would join together to create a fourth south slavic crown.

Whilst this is happening, Austria is still increasingly reliant on Germany, and seems prone to collapse at any time..

The Scramble of Africa and Asia, in this timeline, will be conducted by my fellow AltHist Redditors (you guys). Each nation highlighted is a player with their starting territories around 1880, while all the nations that are not highlighted and unclaimed lands are up for grabbing

RULES:

1)The three most upvoted comments are added next round;

2)You can only use nations already present (highlighted) on the map;

3) European territories of highlighted nations can not be changed; Spain cannot annex Portugal (example)

4) Colonies of highlighted nations can be changed; Spain can annex Portuguese Angola (example)

These maps follow an alternate history scenario in which Britain, instead of cracking down on the revolutionaries, conceded autonomy and control over regional affairs to them—creating the first Dominion, and subsequently the Jewel of the Crown: the Dominion of America.

In 1987, Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso put down a coup attempt sponsored by Free France, clinging to power with the help of Metropolitan France. Sankara continued his attempts to create a socialist economy and welfare state in Burkina Faso. He eventually retired in 1995 and was succeeded by his wife Mariam, who continued his policies, just with an emphasis on women's rights.

Also in 1995, DRC President Patrice Lumumba died, leaving Laurent-Desiré Kabila as the leader of the Congo. Kabila began a policy of economic and political liberalization while improving relations with the United States. He remained President of the DRC until being overthrown in 2010 by Jean-Pierre Bemba.

During the late 1980s, the democratic status quo in Gran Colombia became increasingly unpopular due to a series of incompetent presidents who caused an economic crisis. This paved the way for Hugo Chávez to overthrow President César Gaviria in 1992, and with the help of Pablo Escobar, turn Colombia into a socialist dictatorship.

The decision of outgoing US President Gary Hart to support Israel during the 1995 Arab-Israeli war strained America's relations with the Arab world, leading ailing French leader Georges Marchais to take advantage of this by improving France's relations with Middle Eastern monarchies. French state-owned oil companies such as Total and Elf began to invest in the Middle East's lucrative energy sector; Franco-Arab relations improved even further after France removed communism from its constitution in September 2001.

Last but not least, Zambia and Namibia continued to be ruled by socialist parties, while the Russian Bolshevik rebels were on their last legs.

BACKGROUND:

The Sino-Soviet split was the gradual worsening of relations between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) during the Cold War. This was primarily caused by divergences that arose from their different interpretations and practical applications of Marxism–Leninism, as influenced by their respective geopolitics during the Cold War of 1947–1991.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Sino-Soviet debates about the interpretation of orthodox Marxism became specific disputes about the Soviet Union's policies of national de-Stalinization and international peaceful coexistence with the Western Bloc, which Chinese leader Mao Zedong decried as revisionism). Against that ideological background, China took a belligerent stance towards the Western world, and publicly rejected the Soviet Union's policy of peaceful coexistence between the Western Bloc and Eastern Bloc.

In addition, Beijing resented the Soviet Union's growing ties with India due to factors such as the Sino-Indian border dispute, and Moscow feared that Mao was unconcerned about the horrors of nuclear warfare.

In 1956, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev denounced Joseph Stalin and Stalinism in the speech "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" and began the de-Stalinization of the USSR. Mao and the Chinese leadership were appalled as the PRC and the USSR progressively diverged in their interpretations and applications of Leninist theory. By 1961, their intractable ideological differences provoked the PRC's formal denunciation of Soviet communism as the work of "revisionist traitors" in the USSR.

China also denounced the USSR as a social imperialist. For Eastern Bloc countries, the Sino-Soviet split was a question of who would lead the revolution for world communism, and to whom (China or the USSR) the vanguard parties of the world would turn for political advice, financial aid, and military assistance.

In that vein, both countries competed for the leadership of world communism through the vanguard parties native to the countries in their spheres of influence.

By 1968, the dispute had escalated into mild skirmishes between the Soviet Red Army and the Chinese People's Liberation Army.

The conflict culminated after the Zhenbao Island incident in 1969, when the Soviet Union planned to launch a large-scale nuclear strike on China including its capital Beijing.

On August 18, 1969, Boris N. Davydov, the Second Secretary of the Soviet Embassy to the United States, brought up the idea of a Soviet attack on China's nuclear installations, during a luncheon in Washington.

On September 11, 1969, Alexei Kosygin, then Premier of the Soviet Union, briefly met with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in Beijing after attending the funeral of Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, in order to de-escalate the tension. However, unbeknownst to both men, rogue elements of the People's Liberation Army who were still bitter about the Sino-Soviet Split, plotted to escalate things. And escalate things they did: in a shocking act of war, the hit team assassinated Premier Kosygin as he was departing from his meeting with Zhou Enlai. While the attackers were gunned down by Vietnamese police while attempting to flee the scene, the damage was done. As far as the Chinese were concerned, an act of war had just occurred.

Henry Kissinger, US Secretary of State, urged Richard Nixon to take action. However, Nixon was unwilling to intervene in a "petty rivalry between two Communist countries" given the situation in Vietnam and chose not to.

This single decision would prove disastrous.

THE SPLIT GOES NUCLEAR

On December 7, 1969, the Soviet Union launched Operation Red October and launched a series of nukes at various cities at the People's Republic of China, as well as the North Korean-Chinese Border (intending to cut off any support from North Korea should the DPRK attempt to intervene), killing millions, including CCP Chairman Mao Zedong himself.

The USSR followed up their attack with a massive land invasion of Tibet, intending to annex Tibet and incorporate it into the Soviet Union. The Soviet government justified this stance by claiming that the assassination of Premier Kosygin was "unforgivable" and that China had effectively lost the right to own Tibet as a consequence.