| World War III | |||||||
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| https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c9/Tsar_photo11.jpg It was during early on in the conflict that both sides officially declared a No First Use policy that prevented them from escalating into a world-ending Nuclear World War. | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 NATO:
Allies and Partners
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 Warsaw Pact:
Allies and Partners
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
 John F. Kennedy
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 Nikita Khrushchev
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Military dead: Over 32 million Civilian dead: Over 23 million Total dead: Over 60 million |
Military dead: Over 40 million Civilian dead: Over 15 million Total dead: Over 55 million | ||||||
Soviet assault.
World War III (also known as the Third World War or WWIII / WW3) was a global war lasting from 1962 to 1970 and involving the vast majority of the world's nations. It pitted the United States of America, its NATO allies and their partners against the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies, as well as other Communist countries and insurgent groups worldwide. It was the most widespread conflict in human history. Fighting took place in nearly every region of the globe including the Arctic and Antarctic and on every continent except Antarctica, and the war directly involved an estimated 500 million people from more than 50 countries and numerous insurgent groups. It surpassed World War II as the deadliest war in human history, with an estimated 63 million to 120 million people dead as a result of it.
The war began in October 1962 as a result of a dispute of Soviet nuclear missile bases in Cuba. Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev had been shipping nuclear missiles to Cuba's Communist regime in the wake of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and in response to the presence of American Jupiter ballistic missiles in Italy and Turkey. US intelligence had discovered the missiles and their launch sites, and President Kennedy ordered the Soviets to remove the missiles leading to a standoff blockade. On October 27th, an American U-2 spy plane was shot down observing Cuba and another was intercepted and shot down over Far East Siberia. In response, this led President Kennedy to order a lightning air raid on Cuba and thus World War 3 had begun, followed by a full-on military assault/offensive by the seaborne landings from the same point sites. Premier Khrushchev then ordered his armies to lay siege to and capture West Berlin and to attack NATO aircraft patrolling above the Eastern border. The two powers exchanged declarations of war, followed by their allies, and the war quickly spread to almost every region of the world.
American armed forces had mostly successfully occupied Cuba by November 5th though a Communist insurgency continued in the mountainous forests until at least around near the end of the decade, taking over nuclear bases there while the Cuban Communist government fled into exile with the tactical retreating Soviet fleet from the Caribbean Sea. Latter on same day, After a short encirclement pocket siege-like attack the Warsaw Pact forces successfully captured West Berlin after five days of heavy fighting in which the Western Allies had fought bravely in a final last stand but in vain as they were quickly overwhelmed by Soviet/Eastern Bloc's numerically superior forces and launched their military onslaught invasion of Europe, initiating one of the most brutal theatres of the war. After heavy fighting, the NATO forces were driven back to the West German capital of Bonn, where they just barely successfully defended the city from Communist Bloc forces as so they besieged the city. Soviet aircraft engaged NATO aircraft and anti-air defense over West Germany, Low Countries, France, Italy, Britain and particularly Turkey, before ground attacks in an attempt to gain air superiority and destroy Allied nuclear bases in the countries, Air raids on Europe but were defeated. However, they did have more success in the land-based operations including battles in the Balkan Peninsula with the main thrust of attack on Yugoslavia and along side with the Dardanelles regional area in and around the city of Istanbul.
The war also raged in East Asia, The Middle East and to a lesser extent the Central and Southern Africa and Americas. As for after an initial brief period of Non-belligerence the Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong initially decided to align with the Soviet Bloc in attempt to help mend strained relations with the rival powers and Soviet-supported Communist forces attempted to defeat Western-supported countries and gain dominance particularly in the struggle for control of Hong Kong and other western colonial outposts alongside the invasion and partial occupation of Taiwan. Fighting raged in Korea, Vietnam, and the Pacific Islands etc, also with military forces seeing combat action in the East Indies including parts of the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia especially in Singapore and on the Indian Subcontinent in Himalayan/Tibetan Plateau region when China broke a temporary ceasefire with India and attack their forward positions. Around the same time the Arab nationalist states with Soviet economic aid and support mobilized their armies for war in response to the threat with full western backing Israel launched a series of pre-emptive strikes on important targets like military bases soon Soviet forces come to their aid to help successfully counter-attack against Israel's raids with the military offensive rapidly losing ground as the elite Soviet Spetsnaz component of the joint Eastern Bloc/Arab task force continued to regain territories under brief Israeli occupation meanwhile the US sends special forces units to help relieve the struggling IDF soldiers tremendously peril in the face of the overwhelming foreign military intervention onslaughts as the NATO-led allied coalition eventually helped tip the balance back in favour of Israelis as the conflict zone soon started to reach a stalemate then as well as in Central and Southern Africa against the Soviet-supported Socialist Republic of the Congo having arisen in the crisis and in addition to the various other Nationalist/Communist rebel forces in Africa like in the newly declared independent country of Rhodesia. The Soviets also attempted an partially successful Invasion of Alaska with the Soviet expeditionary forces gaining a fairly significant foothold from which to launch attacks on much of the rest US Mainland of America, Meanwhile, there were Soviet supported uprisings and rebellions throughout the Latin American continent like in the socialist Guatemala and including the Caribbean in populace reaction to the widespread outrage at the US intervention and the US/UK and Soviet navies fought each other all across the world's oceans throughout the war especially in the Atlantic naval operations with the largest battles including the Battle of English Channel, the Battle of Baltic Sea, Battle of Black Sea, the Battles of the Suez and Panama Canals, the Battle of Bering Strait and others.
In Autumn 1963, the Soviets attempted to break the stalemate on the Western Front by launching another blitz-like offensive of the West front with them reaching across line as far as Normandy to Alsace, By encircling Allied NATO forces along the River Seine but they were defeated in the decisive Battle of Paris and thus were never being able to push that far again while de Gaulle's France nearly resorted to order the using of their nuclear weapons but pressure from the JFK's US government to wait to see if the capital city could be held prevented it. Meanwhile, The opening of large attacks on Mediterranean Sea Coastlines of Southern European Islands the with the Soviet military assault on the Central Alps after quickly overrunning Austria's frontline positions then pushing though to between the northern part of the Italian Peninsula and Apennine Mountains defensive line of contact to the south as any remaining military resistance in Southern/Central European occupation zone is easily subdued. At Around the same time, The Soviet forces began to launch their attack the northern part of Norway and pushing though to Sweden later as then the Soviets pressured and finally forced neutral Finland to accept an ultimatum concessions of allowing their troops to use territory land as passage way staging point for the invasion of Scandinavia and supplies route in occupied zones eventually led them to after few months they refusing give in to any more demands leading to turning on them and quickly pushing aside in attack and taking over the country and its provisional emergency government with the occupation of almost all of Scandinavia. They were also losing ground in Africa and Alaska at the Battle of Anchorage as the rest of the remaining forces get pushed back to the ocean for withdrawing back the Soviet mainland. Anti-Communist insurgent groups had started to arisen in many Warsaw Pact states by this point, and the Communist forces were facing an increasingly low morale and manpower shortage.
In July 1964, the Soviets assaulted the west defense line yet again once final time more, but were decisively defeated at the Battle of Luxembourg in one of the largest-scale battles in the history of war. There are other major battles of the war like at Arnhem, Zeeland, Hamburg, Frankfurt, The Hague, Hannover, Munich, Vienna, Jutland, Brussels and attacks over London, Rome, Barcelona and other major cities just out of reach of Soviet forces. With this victory, and the growing strength of anti-Communist groups in the Eastern Bloc, the Allies were finally able to break through the stalemate and invade East Germany and liberating occupied countries from Soviet/Warsaw Eastern control including Allied landings in Scandinavia to help the dwindling resistance push them back to the border of Finnmark to from the Finnish lands. They recaptured Berlin in mid-1965, granting the Free German Army the authority there acting as the provisional government. In Central Asia with the Soviet-supported coup in Afghanistan leading to declaration of a new Republic opened up military operations in the wider region, the Soviet's opportunities soon faltered as they became bogged down in a long campaign in Iran and Pakistan,thus further draining their resources and supplies. In and By the year of 1967, Communist forces in central and southern Africa surrendered, and South Korean forces scored a major victories over the North Koreans at Wonsan, as well as Seoul, Pyeongchang, Pohang, Gyeonggi, Incheon and Pyongyang. The North Vietnamese forces also suffered a major defeats at Khe Sanh along with Huế, Saigon, Da Nang, Quảng Trị and Mekong/Tây Nguyên and Communist insurgents in Southeast Asia were rapidly losing ground fast.
From mid-1964, the Allies began talks with the People's Republic of China for terms of switch entry on the western side into the war as the Sino-Soviet split reared its not so pretty head once more and China began providing direct support like financial aid to the Allies after withdrawal of their troops from Korea, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Taiwan along side occupied Indian border territories as the Soviets cut off military aid for Chinese themselves that same year. After a deal was reached in which China would make large territorial gains after the war, Chairman Mao Zedong declared war on the Soviets in June 1965. This front on the border between Soviet/Chinese line of Contact and with Mongolia stuck in the middle of it would prove to be the most brutal of the war, with millions of troops dying for small initial territorial gains. However, forced into a two-front war, the Soviets began to lose ground quickly, with their economy and society taking incredible strain. Popular resistance with widespread protests with protesting in Warsaw Pact countries led to the usurping and ousting of the Party hardliners and soon after the defection of most of their newly rebellious governments by the end of 1968, and a NATO-Allied invasion of Soviet Russia in the spring that year soon after leading to the Liberation of the Baltic states and an other score of major victories on the Eastern Front's Soviet national territories. With their military strength crippled and becoming an increasingly more desperate situation, the Soviets nearly resorted to allow using their nuclear arsenal as their last ditch final option luckily. However, split second decision by dissident Party/Red Army officials to ignore the orders and launching successful coup attempt that forced the Soviet Premier to resign as the government and military commanders removes the remaining members of the Party loyal to him from power and newly set up the emergency government were forced in negotiation to sue for peace in the face increasing political unrest push them to the brink of civil war as NATO Allied forces were approaching outlying areas surrounding Moscow, which at the war's end was peacefully concluded the following year in the Treaty of Kiev (1970).
World War III irreversible altered and changed the of the world and its political structure forever. Communist regimes were overthrown worldwide and democratic elections were held. The reformed UN was strengthened after the withdrawal of the Soviet Union and their allies to prevent all out war from happening ever again, and it led a massive reconstruction effort to rebuild large parts of the world that were devastated by the war. With the fall of Communism, economic integration and globalization emerged, and the North American, European, African and Asian Unions were formed in an effort to create common identities.
Prelude to War[]
US-Soviet tensions[]
during the Yalta Conference in Feb of 1945 President FDR,Prime Minister Winston Churchill,and Premier Josef Stalin discussed what was to be done to post-war Europe after WW2. The Western Allies agreed for Eastern Europe to be under Soviet sphere of influence but they said that the Soviets must have free and fair elections in those nations. But the Soviets did not do that they instead made puppet governments.This caused relations between the United States,United Kingdom and the Soviet Union to get tense. In 1947 U.S President Harry Truman created the Truman Doctrine which stated Communism must be contained at all cost which started the Cold War Between the Soviet Union and the United States. tensions reached a all time high when the Soviet Union made a Blockade of East Berlin but the Western Allies responded by doing the Berlin Airlift which in 1949 the blockade was removed. Also in 1949 the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO was founded to oppose Soviet aggression. at the same time the Soviets made their first Atomic Bomb which meant that the world could be destroyed at the press of a button. in 1950-1953 the Korean War occurred which did not end in a victory or a defeat for both sides but the Korean peninsula was divided into North Korea and South Korea. in 1952 the Soviet Union created the Warsaw Pact to oppose NATO. in 1954 the 1st Indochina War ended and Indochina was divided between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. In 1956 the Suez crisis occurred which WW3 could have happened if the situation wasn't rapidly cooled down. In 1957 The Soviet Union Launched the satellite Sputnik which began the Space Race.In 1959 a Communist revolution in Cuba occurred where the Communist took power in Cuba.This was alarming to the United States because of Communism became close to home.In responds to this the CIA backed a invasion by 14,000 Cuban exiles which was called the Bay of Pigs Landing in 1961 but it failed.also at this time the Berlin Wall is built
Pre-war events[]
Cuban Missile Crisis[]
On Oct 18 1962 a American U-2 spy plane flew over Cuba and spotted Soviet missiles in Cuba pointed toward the United States. U.S President John F Kennedy was notified about this and he kept it a secret so the American public wont panic. On Oct 21 1962 the United States Navy blockaded Cuba to prevent any soviet ships from getting into Cuba. U.S media picked this up and wanted answers.So on Oct 22 1962 President John F Kennedy addresses the nation saying that Soviet Missiles in Cuba are being pointed at the United States. On Oct 23 Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev Responded in a televised address saying that they will pull out missiles from Cuba if the U.S pulls out their missiles in Turkey. The United States refuses saying it would be a threat to Turkey. On Oct 25 1962 the United Nations Security Council holds an emergency summit to stop the possibility of World War 3 but they fail.though they do get a Nuclear weapons treaty that means if war breaks out Nuclear Weapons will not be involved. the crisis reaches its boiling point on Oct 27 1962 when 2 American U-2 Spy planes are shot down, one over Cuba and another over Siberia. after this in retaliation the United States starts air raids over Cuba. This is the last straw and the Soviet Union declares War on the United States starting World War 3.