Stubborn Stalin

History has revealed that a single emotion could alter the timeline in such a way, that our textbooks in school or other forms of world education could change. Like what if Pontius Pilate did not get pressured into presecuting Jesus Christ? What if Adolf Hitler took more of an initiative to get in the front lines of World War I? This alternate timeline will cover the emotion of stubborness and one of history's famous dictators, Joseph Stalin.

Joseph Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union from 1923 to 1953, which feature World War II and the beginnings of the Cold War. After World War II, the leaders of the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union met to discuss what to make of Germany. The allies settled and choose to divide Germany into four different areas, for the United States, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and France. The United States, France, and the United Kingdom decided to form West Germany under there idealogies of democracy and capitalism while the Soviet Union formed East Germany under the Soviet's idealogy of communism. But what was to make of Berlin, located in East Germany. The Western countries wanted it to divide it equally again. In O.T.L. this was agreed upon, however; in this timeline it was not.

Now back to our history, Stalin was stubborn. By what the Western countries described him, he seemed hard to talk to and very overpowering for communism. Toward the end of Stalin's life, he revealed his biggest mistake was dividing Berlin. So what if he said "NO"?

1949: The Paris Debate
In April of that year, countries like France, the United Kingdom, and the United States formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). But the Soviet Union was not in the organization. Already a divide between East and West was forming. So at the Potsdam Conferance in the fall of that 1945, the Big Three of Europe met to discuss what to do with Germany. So East and West Germany was formed. But what about Berlin? After countless threats and negotiations, Stalin would not give in the allies plea for a divided Berlin.

So on December 28th, members of NATO met in Paris, France and try to come to an understanding of how to deal with the Soviet Union. Out of all the ideas, three came down to the end: An invasion of the Soviet Union from Germany, Alaska and the Middle East, a series of air raids on Soviet military bases, or the most feared, a series of nuclear attacks on the Soviet Union. Harry S. Truman stood up and said to the other members, "Using the (atom) bomb on Hiroshima was tough. Using it again (on Nagasaki), was even harder. But having a series of bombs and killing millions upon millions, will not happen!" It was agreed that no nuclear war will come about. And many members felt Europe, and the world for that matter, was not ready for a another Great War and so an invasion was out. It came down to the bombings of Sovet military bases and was quickly agreed. Air raids were set to begin on January 2, 1950. The meeting is now known as the "Paris Debate."

The Divided German Bombings
2 January, 1950, NATO stationed 10,000 troops, 250 tanks, 1,000 fighter plans and 750 bombers on the Iron Curtain borders, mainly the two German borders. At first, a mere 100 bombers fly off over the Iron Curtain, each with a set of instructions, take down a Soviet military base. In a matter of a day 77 Soviet miltary personnel is killed and injured 356. Now NATO waits, seeing what the Soviets would do next. Eight hours after the NATO bombings, the Soviets order a series of relalitory bombings.

The bombings proved to not work. Stalin, in an address to the Supreme Soviet, mocked the West's attempt to persuade him calling it, "Useless and plan funny." The Soviet's bombings killed just 19 people and injured 243. This bombings would go on and off because of many wars, like in Korea and Vietnam, and because of false hope.

1953: The Death of Stalin
With the bombings raging on and words being exchanged, it shocked the world no orders of a nuclear strike or an invasion was made. The reason behind this as written in a 1965 biography of the newly elected U.S. president Dwight Eisenhower, it was revealed, "No man, including myself was that insane to make such an order. An invasion would cripple the economy's of both superpowers and would the world even heal from this world war?" It appeared the bombings were just threats with an extra punch. Just a series of fear games of who would blink first.

The bombings paused as the General Secretary of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin died. With the war in Korea, the United States and NATO put there effort into the small country, trying to reunite it under democracy. Two candidates for the next General Secretary were Lavrentiy Beria and Nikita Khrushchev. But to NATO, it made no difference. The bombings continued, not at the level as before Stalin's death. even before a decision was made. In order to win the General Secretary, Khrushchev had his oppurtunity in June. Khrushchev gained the upper hand and Beria was arrested.

Accounts of Beria's demise were contradictory. He was, reportedly, taken first to the Lefortovo prison and then to the headquarters of General Kirill Moskalenko, commander of Moscow District Air defense and a friend from war of Khrushchev's. Pravada announced Beria's arrest on July 10, crediting it to Malenkov and referring to Beria's "criminal activities against the Party and the State." In December, it was announced that Beria and six accomplices, "in the pay of foreign intelligence agencies," had been "conspiring for many years to seize power in the Soviet Union and restore capitalism." Beria was tried by a "special tribunal" with no defense counsel and no right of appeal. He and his subordinates were immediately executed on December 23, 1953. His location is still unknown to this day.

The Korean War
The Korean War in our timeline's main focus was driving out the communists in North Korea out of South Korea. In this timeline, the UN and NATO's main objective is reuniting Korea (they still would of love doing this in our timeline.) With the death of Stalin in the Soviet Union, bombings in the Germanys stopped for somewhere around six weeks. This gave time for NATO and the UN to begin the war in Korea. In North Korea, the communists were supported by the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.

When U.S. Marines and the UN crossed the 38th parallel to enter North Korea in May, 1950, the goal was to completely reunite the Koreas under a democratic government. The reason for this is they did not want to loose Korea the same way they lost Berlin. Before the UN invasion of Korea, it was almost reunited but under communism in 1951 when the Chinese intervened.

In November, 1950, the UN was so close to completing their goal of Korean Unifacation that they were at the border of China and Korea. But 'at' was to close for the Chinese government that they staged their own invasion of Korea in November of the same year. The allies almost lost Korea to the communists. An armistice was proposed by China and North Korea at around the 38th parallel but the UN denied.

In December of 1953, the United States and NATO, in a daring move, stationed a Naval fleet of about 25 boats in the East China Sea and began bombing raids on Chinese cities in the Manchuria region. The attacks proved useful as many Chinese soldiers quickly returned home out of a fear of a United States invasion. It didn't take until August of 1954 for the conflict in Korea to end for a democratic victory as the Republic of Korea, a country once divided and now one.

At the end of the Korean War, the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) formed with Korea, Japan, Australia, France, the United States, and a few other countries formed. With the war in Korea over, United States and Chinese relations turn hot during the First Taiwan Strait Crisis. But the situation cools over a couple days. This situation prompts the People's Republic of China to begin building a nuclear bomb. On October 16, the Chinese sucessfully tested their first nuclear weapon.

The German Riots
Rioting has been going on and off in East Germany since it's inception but once the bombings started in 1950 it went to a whole new level. On June 19th, Soviet military beat and arrested a man for peacefully protesting in front of the Soviet Embassy in East Germany. Many historians point to this as the inciting incident that raised the violence of the riots. Thousands of protesters stormed the streets begging and pleading for reunification with West Germany under a democratic government. In an address to East Germans on June 25th, 1954, United States President Dwight Eisenhower at a conferance with Theodor Heuss, the West German President, tells the protesters to "...make your way across the border. Our men and NATO's will accompany you to safety."

A day after the address by Eisenhower, hundreds of East Germans crossed the border. At Checkpoint Bravo, unauthorized shootings between Soviet and American soldiers start sometime in the early hours of November of 1954. The two leaders Eisenhower and Khrushchev had no idea of the shootings. Eisenhower, over a phone call on June 26, says he did not authorize any order to shoot and blames Khrushchev. Khruschev, however; denies the president of his claim. As the two leaders try to sort out the conflict and avoid starting a Great War by accident, they order all of the bombings to pause until further notice. Soon the shootings stop with only 32 people injured. No one to this day understands why the shootings started and who started them.

With many of the East German protests moving to Soviet military bases and hundreds of civilians at American-West German military bases, the bombings were halted for another year until things can get settled and for NATO and the Soviet Union to turn their attention toward Vietnam.

The Warsaw Pact
On 14 May, 1955, the Soviet Union and it's satelites agreed to sign the Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance, or for short the Warsaw Pact. The Soviet Union proposed the treaty as a Soviet oppostie of NATO. It was made up all the communist countries on the east side of the Iron Curtain, except for Yugoslavia.

Countries



 * United States of America


 * Union of Soviet Socialists Republics


 * Republic of Korea