I'll make sure to not be immediately critical then next time
Hey, someone has to do quality control, I'm not going to
Stars and Sickles - An Alternative Cold War
- Thread starter Hrvatskiwi
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Hey, someone has to do quality control, I'm not going to
Wouldn't India annex both Pakistan and Bangladesh since both are part of greater India or at the very least carve out a Hindu state in Bangladesh
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangabhumi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangabhumi
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India has watched Pakistan fall apart and would not want to try to occupy and rebuild this mess. The various groups that fought the Pakistanis would turn their guns on the Indians without any hesitation. India just played the 'We are liberating the Bengalis from oppression card' to the US/UN and received aid from the West for it. It is better for India to be surrounded by smaller states that dislike each other and is economically dominated by New Delhi but the day to day affairs are handled by the locals. Plus India has enough problems with their own population and economic growth.
Also the last thing that Hindu nationalists want is to integrate vast tracts of heavily Muslim land...unless its Kashmir.
Lots of Regimes have done stuff for ideological reasons and Pakistani insurgency wouldn't last that long, given they are Muslim ,Rss would fairly brutal to them and Could just kill, expel and forcibly convert large portions of the population.
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Deleted member 67076
India intervening in Bangladesh and Pakistan being unstable? Some things never change.
The results seem to be interesting. Bharat is setting itself up for rapid growth in the next decade as a result of economic hegemony, US aid and breaking apart the gatekeeper state through privatization. I suspect the balkanized Pakistan might actually be pound for pound stronger than OTL given these new units are more natural and are being linked up with China and Central Asia much earlier.
Bangladesh though, not in a good spot. Land reform and social development projects will aid, but focusing on ruralism and the constant instability will hurt itself. I do wonder though if by building ties with the Islamic world we might see a Bengali diaspora migrating to the UAR, Turkey, etc.
The results seem to be interesting. Bharat is setting itself up for rapid growth in the next decade as a result of economic hegemony, US aid and breaking apart the gatekeeper state through privatization. I suspect the balkanized Pakistan might actually be pound for pound stronger than OTL given these new units are more natural and are being linked up with China and Central Asia much earlier.
Bangladesh though, not in a good spot. Land reform and social development projects will aid, but focusing on ruralism and the constant instability will hurt itself. I do wonder though if by building ties with the Islamic world we might see a Bengali diaspora migrating to the UAR, Turkey, etc.
Chapter 70: The Great Game - Afghanistan (to 1980)
Last Badishah of Afghanistan, Mohammad Zahir Shah
Nestled amongst the mountains of the Hindu Kush, the Kingdom of Afghanistan had grown accustomed to sitting between major powers. Situated at the confluence of Persia, India and Turkestan, the region had a long and bloody history. Fought over since time immemorial, from the Achaemenid Empire to the modern day, the peoples of Afghanistan were accustomed to conflict and intrigue, both from within and without. Achieving ascendancy under the Durrani Empire, Afghanistan's frontiers gradually receded under the rule of the Barakzai dynasty, whose borders were redrawn as a result of British and Russian competition for dominance of Central Asia. Briefly coming under the British aegis, the Afghans won their sovereignty in the Third Anglo-Afghan War. Nevertheless, the Afghans had never accepted the validity of the Durand Line, an arbitrary line drawn by the British in order to separate British India from Russian Turkestan. The British would not budge from this delineation of the frontier, however, hoping to maintain Afghanistan as a buffer between their Indian possessions and Russia. This policy was continued with the success of the Russian Revolution and the consolidation of power under the Bolsheviks.
Mohammad Zahir Shah was the last Badishah of the Barakzai dynasty, ruling over his nation since acceding to the throne in 1933. Despite temptation to take action against the British, Mohammad Zahir Shah wisely rejected German overtures to join the Axis Powers through the Second World War, as his predecessor and co-dynast Habibullah Khan had resisted German and Ottoman calls to arms in the First World War. In 1946, in the aftermath of WWII, during which the Kingdom of Afghanistan had stayed neutral, Sardar Shah Mahmud Khan was appointed as Prime Minister. Recognising the feudal backwardness of Afghanistan may have dire consequences in an era of nuclear war, Shah Mahmud Khan began to experiment with a more open political system. The results worried Shah Mahmud Khan, who worried that the proliferation of new political ideas, whether Islamist, socialist or democratic, threatened the ancien regime in Afghanistan. From 1953, Shah Mahmud Khan was replaced by Mohammad Daoud Khan, Zahir Shah's cousin and brother-in-law. Daoud sought a closer relationship with the USSR to weaken dependence on Pakistani ties for interaction with the outside world. Disputes with their neighbour to the south prompted a temporary embargo by Pakistan and resultant economic dislocation, forcing Daoud Khan to resign. A number of politicians served as Prime Minister in the following years, but Afghan politics remained dominated by Zahir Shah.
In 1964, Zahir Shah promulgated a liberal constitution, providing for a bicameral legislature to which the King would appoint third of deputies, with another third elected by the people and the last third selected indirectly by provincial assemblies. The democratic experiment resulting from this opening of the political system (and the introduction of a political franchise for commoners) resulted in few lasting reforms, largely due to the widespread poverty and backwardness of Afghanistan. Nevertheless, it permitted the growth of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). Soviet historian Alexander Tarasov[171] sought to explain the development of a radical Communist party in the feudal Afghan environment by suggesting that the lack of a "national bourgeoisie" in the form of a significant commercial or burgher class. Instead, the vanguard of the party became the relatively educated students and military officers, who sought a radical overturn of the monarchical system. In 1967, the PDPA split into two factions, the Parcham (Banner) faction, led by Babrak Karmal, which was dominant amongst middle class students and sought a gradual move to socialism, recognising that Afghanistan was not industrialised enough to enact a genuine proletarian revolution along Marxist-Leninist lines; and the Khalq (Masses) faction, led by Nur Mohammad Taraki and Hafizullah Amin, composed of military officers, largely of tribal extraction, who believed revolution could be achieved through the close coordination of a vanguard party and the forceful creation of the socialism. In many ways, the divide between the Parchamis and the Khalqists reflected the ongoing debate between Soviet-style Marxist-Leninism and the more radical Maoist strain in Communist parties worldwide. Throughout the 1970s the Soviets maintained contact with both wings of the PDPA, doing all that they could to prevent the tension between the two factions erupting into violence.
Mohammad Daoud Khan, first and only President of the Republic of Afghanistan
Soon the royal family were faced with corruption and malfeasance allegations in the wake of the severe 1970-71 drought. Whilst Zahir Shah was overseas receiving medical treatment, Daoud Khan seized power in a bloodless coup on July 17th 1973. Daoud abolished the monarchy, abrogated the 1964 constitution, and declared Afghanistan a republic with himself as both Prime Minister and first President. His attempts to reform Afghanistan met with little success, and despite Daoud Khan's best efforts, the new constitution promulgated in February 1977 failed to quell chronic instability. Daoud Khan had turned to repressive measures to maintain his authority, outlawing all political parties except for his National Revolutionary Party (NRP). Daoud Khan had, however, managed to quell an Islamist uprising backed by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan. Many leaders of the insurrectionists were executed or imprisoned, such as Hekmatyar and Ahmad Shah Massoud, who were handed over to Daoud Khan's forces by the Pashtunistan government upon its accession to Afghanistan[172]. The Soviets remained Daoud Khan's primary backers, supporting him not only with arms and education, allowing Afghan army officers to study in the USSR, but through development, education and medical projects also. Daoud Khan sought to receive aid from the United States, which refused, citing Afghanistan's ties with the USSR. Nevertheless, the Shah of Iran and a number of Western European countries such as West Germany began to send aid and participate in development projects.
During the 1970s, despite Daoud Khan's occasional repressions, Afghanistan had begun to resemble a modern state. The campuses of the large cities were teeming with young men, beardless and wearing jeans, with their miniskirt-clad girlfriends. Kabul's skyline, whilst still dominated by the Arg and Dar-ul Aman palaces, was dotted with modern buildings sitting next to ancient bazaars and medieval mosques. But just outside of the cities, the villages of the countryside still lived by the old ways. The simple, otherwise hospitable villagers settled disputes with blood feuds, the dark side of the ancient honour code of Pashtunwali. The attempts to drag these villagers into the twentieth century would prove the most significant challenge for the Communist forces which seized control of the government from Daoud Khan. The Khalq faction's position was strengthened by Col. Kadyr, who had participated in the coup that overthrew Zahir Shah. Kadyr established a covert group within the Afghan military, the United Front of Afghan Communists. In July 1977, under Soviet pressure, the two factions of the PDPA agreed to reunite. The PDPA elected a new Central Committee and Politburo, and appointed Taraki as their General Secretary and Babrak Karmal as his deputy. Amin's candidacy was contested. His opponents accused him of having connections to the CIA while he was studying in New York. He responded by stating that he was in dire straits financially and fed the CIA disinformation. Daoud Khan grew increasingly paranoid of the PDPA, and rightfully so. Col. Kadyr had advocated a coup, and had the support of the Khalqists. On 17th April, Parchami ideologue Mir Akbar Khaibar was murdered, either by the government or on the order of Hafizullah Amin. Khaibar's funeral saw a demonstration of tens of thousands of PDPA sympathisers. The demonstration was brutally suppressed by riot police. Daud had a number of PDPA leaders arrested, including Karmal and Taraki, on 25th April. The next day the Khalqists in the army commenced the coup. Officers sympathetic to the PDPA moved the 4th Tank Brigade into Kabul, arriving outside the Arg (the presidential palace which was also designed as an old fortress) at around midday. Troops loyal to the Khalq seized key position throughout the city, and were joined by commando forces in the evening. The putschist troops neutralised loyalist troops, liberated the PDPA leadership, and aircraft from nearby Bagram air base began bombing the Arg. That night a commando force breached the palace and demanded Daud's surrender. Refusing to lay down his arms, Daud shot and wounded their commander. The commandoes responded by slaughtering Daud and his family. Resistance in Kabul had ceased by the next morning. 43 military deaths were recorded, with some civilian casualties.
Afghan Communists marching in support of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan
The coup presented a surprising fait accompli for the Soviets. Whilst most of the international community (understandably) presumed Moscow was behind the coup, the Soviet government had strongly promoted peaceful coexistence between the PDPA and Daoud Khan's government. The PDPA, aware that the Soviets would not approve, and fearful that they would in fact tip off the coup attempt to Daoud Khan, had launched the coup without informing their local KGB contacts. The new government immediately established a Revolutionary Council to govern the new Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA). On 9th May, the new government issued a radical programme of reform. The government proclaimed as their goals the eradication of illiteracy; women's equality; an end to ethnic discrimination (the Pashtuns had traditionally been favoured as the expense of Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras); a state-directed economy; and the "abolition of feudal and pre-feudal social relations" (i.e. the power of landowners, traditional leaders and mullahs). The DRA government immediately began to purge political opposition, including Islamists as well as Daoud supporters. Tribal leaders, members of influential clans and clergy were also targeted. On 15th May 1979, an uprising in Herat targeted Soviet construction workers. The men and their families were rescued from the angry mob by Afghan special forces at the request of senior Soviet military advisor Stanislav Katichev. They were flown to Kabul and housed in the embassy school until it was safe to send them back home. A handful of Soviets in the city (believed to have numbered three) were killed in the uprising, however. Amongst these dead was Maj. Nikolai Bizyukov, a military advisor with the 17th Afghan Division, who was killed in a mutiny. Amin irritated the Soviets when they contacted him demanding an explanation around the rioting and mutiny in Herat. Amin dismissed the seriousness of the situation, flippantly claiming that the governors had the situation under control. Nevertheless, Kosygin in particular was irritated at the fact that the Afghan leaders were being evasive when pressed for information about the situation on the ground. Podgorny was enraged by the gall of the Afghans, who responded to criticism of their extrajudicial killings of political opponents by stating that it had worked for Lenin and Stalin. Despite having the "situation under control", Amin requested the intervention of Soviet troops to fight increasing numbers of mutineers. When the Politburo refused, he suggested that the Soviets send tank crews with Afghan markings and staffed by Uzbek and Tajik troops. The Soviets refused, although in the end they accepted Amin's request to send military materiel and a small number of Central Asian spetsnaz units for training and specialised combat purposes.
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[171] Alexander Tarasov is an OTL Russian Marxist academic. IOTL he hasn't (as far as I'm aware) written anything on Afghanistan, so this is a fictionalised version of him.
[172] IOTL these men would become major mujahideen leaders supported by Pakistan. With the dissolution of Pakistan, they are unable to escape to safety and are 'gotten rid of'.
Well, how timely is the new update? (I will say though, it is mostly OTL, although not entirely, and definitely won't be in the 1980s)
So it seen that in ttl, Afghanistan still fall to the communist, though it seen that the mujahideen might not come into being, let hope that someone similar does not come later.
Tarasov in general is a fan of Guevarism and Maoism. In his sociological works he endorses individual terror.
As far as I understand the situation in Afghanistan is still unstable - if it gets out of control ... then I'm not sure that the Russians will just look.
PS - Greece is strongly influenced by Byzantium and Hellas. I am sure that they will make a magnificent mosaic!
And what happened to Taraki? Was he again deposed?
As for Amin, according to the memoirs of former Politburo member of the Central Committee of the PDPA, Sharai Dzhauzzjani, he planned to create a constitution that would contain the thesis of the dictatorship of the proletariat, would make Afghanistan a union state modeled on the USSR, with the Pashtun, Tajik, Baluchi and other union republics. What do you think about it?
PS - I'm not sure that Daud was so progressive. On the eve of the April Revolution almost 86% of the population lived in the countryside, and 2.5 million inhabitants of the country, according to official data, led a nomadic and semi-nomadic way of life. About one-third of the peasant farms did not have land, and a considerable part of the peasant proprietors was burdened with heavy usurious debts, paying the lenders up to 45% per annum. Up to 88% of the country's population remained illiterate (only 28.8% of school-age children were enrolled in school), and 16 million had only 71 hospitals with 3,600 beds, and 84% of 1,027 doctors living in the country worked in Kabul itself.
What happens to Taraki will be explored once we get to the 1980s.
That "Afghanistan as a federal state" idea probably isn't half-bad, and would do a lot to limit Tajik and others' fears about Pashtun dominance, which would only be more pronounced in an Afghanistan which includes the Pashtun areas of Pakistan.
And of course Daud was not particularly progressive. Usually when I use such a term, it's relative to their context. Particularly in basically-feudal Afghanistan.
Chapter 71: The French Connection - France (to the mid-1970s)
For more information on France, see: https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...ternative-cold-war.280530/page-3#post-8549239
and
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...ernative-cold-war.280530/page-11#post-9802091
===
The seizure of power by the French junta was a pivotal moment in European politics. The bullet holes which pocked the surface of the Arc du Triomphe in the immediate aftermath of Red Monday symbolised an assault on liberal democracy in Paris, the city which had been the cradle of the French Revolution, a revolt against absolutism and oppression. The bodies of young socialists littered the streets. The scene paralleled the fate of the Paris Commune nearly a century earlier. De Gaulle stood trial on counts of treason, but was sentenced to house arrest at his estate at La Boisserie in Colombey-les-Deux-Églises. In the days after the putsch, the bullet holes in the Arc du Triomphe were covered up. The junta attempted the same fiction with regards to democratic representation. The Parti Communiste Français (PCF) was outlawed, and immediately a "Council for National Rejuvenation" was appointed as the supreme executive body. By early 1963, the Council was disbanded, but reforms to the French Senate and Council of Ministers enabled the generals to continue to dominate appointments to the legislative bodies. Nevertheless, the banning of the PCF prompted another challenge to the putschists. Unwilling to go as far as to ban the Socialist Party, the generals found the Socialists, who received an upsurge of support from Communists unwilling to go underground, difficult to control. Thus the junta sought a means to intellectually legitimise their policies. They found this in the Nouvelle Droite movement. Emerging in the mid 1960s as a response to increasingly frequent and provocative industrial action [173], the Nouvelle Droite was staunchly anti-Communist and anti-multiculturalist. Whilst encompassing a variety of viewpoints, they generally saw a need for a united European civilisation to reverse the decline of European power. As such, they were staunch supporters of the federal European project.
With support from the French junta and members of the German elite, Nouvelle Droite commentators became increasingly frequent contributors to publications such as Le Figaro and Der Spiegel. A top-down implementation of a number of Nouvelle Droite ideas became increasingly common in France, the Netherlands and Germany. As European integration, pushed ahead in particular by the governments of France, Germany and Italy gained momentum, these nations began to parallel each other in a number of fields: labour relations, corporate law, investment grants and even police cooperation. Whilst initially ignored by American policymakers, who were largely concerned with maintaining the suppression of Communist agitation on the continent, declarations by French and German leaders of the need for Europe to be "self-sufficient" began to concern Washington. The French in particular had been arguing since the Gaullist period that the United States was not a reliable defense patron. They were concerned that the United States would commit to a policy on 'sanctuarisation' upon Moscow's creation of a large ICBM arsenal: that the United States and the USSR would come to an agreement limiting any future conflagration to European soil. Such a policy would make war more likely and virtually doom Europe. De Gaulle had thus build a Force de Frappe, an independent nuclear deterrent. Under the regime of the generals, France would be the centre of a European defence agreement encompassing Italy, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal. The Ligue de défense occidentale (LDO), known colloquially as the 'Paris Pact' split from the NATO command structure in 1971, essentially ousting the United States from continental Europe. A number of defense treaties were drafted up with the United States allowing the basing of nuclear bombers by the US, but requiring joint sign-offs on any flight missions by both the USAF and the air force of the respective host country.
One of the considerations that prompted the creation of the LDO was the perceived need by right-wing European leaders of the 'Turkicisation' of Western Europe. Recognising that the primary battlefield for preeminence between the superpowers had shifted from Europe to the Third World, the French generals and the German leadership decided that independence from US military presence would actually increase European security. Furthermore, they were free to maintain economic ties with the Soviet Union, which would discourage the USSR from attempting to undermine Western European regimes. As a result, many of the left-wing terrorist attacks which plagued Europe throughout the 1970s were from Maoist groups. These groups emerged in an environment which had saw the consistent forceful suppression of mass action, such as the 1968 protests throughout France, the May 1970 Wallonie Riots, and the BMW massacre, where 11 automotive workers were shot dead when security forces opened fire during a strike at the BMW motor plant at Dingolfing in 1973.
French policeman taking aim with tear gas launcher, 1968 riots.
===
[173] IOTL, the Nouvelle Droite emerged in 1968. ITTL, it emerges a few years earlier as a more polarised European political situation, and more aggressive Communist expansion worldwide, provokes reactionary sentiments.
and
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...ernative-cold-war.280530/page-11#post-9802091
===
The seizure of power by the French junta was a pivotal moment in European politics. The bullet holes which pocked the surface of the Arc du Triomphe in the immediate aftermath of Red Monday symbolised an assault on liberal democracy in Paris, the city which had been the cradle of the French Revolution, a revolt against absolutism and oppression. The bodies of young socialists littered the streets. The scene paralleled the fate of the Paris Commune nearly a century earlier. De Gaulle stood trial on counts of treason, but was sentenced to house arrest at his estate at La Boisserie in Colombey-les-Deux-Églises. In the days after the putsch, the bullet holes in the Arc du Triomphe were covered up. The junta attempted the same fiction with regards to democratic representation. The Parti Communiste Français (PCF) was outlawed, and immediately a "Council for National Rejuvenation" was appointed as the supreme executive body. By early 1963, the Council was disbanded, but reforms to the French Senate and Council of Ministers enabled the generals to continue to dominate appointments to the legislative bodies. Nevertheless, the banning of the PCF prompted another challenge to the putschists. Unwilling to go as far as to ban the Socialist Party, the generals found the Socialists, who received an upsurge of support from Communists unwilling to go underground, difficult to control. Thus the junta sought a means to intellectually legitimise their policies. They found this in the Nouvelle Droite movement. Emerging in the mid 1960s as a response to increasingly frequent and provocative industrial action [173], the Nouvelle Droite was staunchly anti-Communist and anti-multiculturalist. Whilst encompassing a variety of viewpoints, they generally saw a need for a united European civilisation to reverse the decline of European power. As such, they were staunch supporters of the federal European project.
Alain de Benoist, most prominent of Nouvelle Droite theorists (right), next to Ernst Junger
With support from the French junta and members of the German elite, Nouvelle Droite commentators became increasingly frequent contributors to publications such as Le Figaro and Der Spiegel. A top-down implementation of a number of Nouvelle Droite ideas became increasingly common in France, the Netherlands and Germany. As European integration, pushed ahead in particular by the governments of France, Germany and Italy gained momentum, these nations began to parallel each other in a number of fields: labour relations, corporate law, investment grants and even police cooperation. Whilst initially ignored by American policymakers, who were largely concerned with maintaining the suppression of Communist agitation on the continent, declarations by French and German leaders of the need for Europe to be "self-sufficient" began to concern Washington. The French in particular had been arguing since the Gaullist period that the United States was not a reliable defense patron. They were concerned that the United States would commit to a policy on 'sanctuarisation' upon Moscow's creation of a large ICBM arsenal: that the United States and the USSR would come to an agreement limiting any future conflagration to European soil. Such a policy would make war more likely and virtually doom Europe. De Gaulle had thus build a Force de Frappe, an independent nuclear deterrent. Under the regime of the generals, France would be the centre of a European defence agreement encompassing Italy, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal. The Ligue de défense occidentale (LDO), known colloquially as the 'Paris Pact' split from the NATO command structure in 1971, essentially ousting the United States from continental Europe. A number of defense treaties were drafted up with the United States allowing the basing of nuclear bombers by the US, but requiring joint sign-offs on any flight missions by both the USAF and the air force of the respective host country.
One of the considerations that prompted the creation of the LDO was the perceived need by right-wing European leaders of the 'Turkicisation' of Western Europe. Recognising that the primary battlefield for preeminence between the superpowers had shifted from Europe to the Third World, the French generals and the German leadership decided that independence from US military presence would actually increase European security. Furthermore, they were free to maintain economic ties with the Soviet Union, which would discourage the USSR from attempting to undermine Western European regimes. As a result, many of the left-wing terrorist attacks which plagued Europe throughout the 1970s were from Maoist groups. These groups emerged in an environment which had saw the consistent forceful suppression of mass action, such as the 1968 protests throughout France, the May 1970 Wallonie Riots, and the BMW massacre, where 11 automotive workers were shot dead when security forces opened fire during a strike at the BMW motor plant at Dingolfing in 1973.
French policeman taking aim with tear gas launcher, 1968 riots.
===
[173] IOTL, the Nouvelle Droite emerged in 1968. ITTL, it emerges a few years earlier as a more polarised European political situation, and more aggressive Communist expansion worldwide, provokes reactionary sentiments.
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Continental Western Europe being dominated by a French junta? Sounds like a reversal of the OTL 68er outbreaks of political change, with the West losing its supposed moral high ground over the eastern bloc. Like the Greek junta from ‘67-‘74, only on a wider scale.
I’d hope to see that system start to fray apart with the passing of Franco, leaving Spain a weak link in the Nouvelle Droite.
I’d hope to see that system start to fray apart with the passing of Franco, leaving Spain a weak link in the Nouvelle Droite.
At last! Waited! Hoооооoray!
I hope sooner or later the fascists will know the wrath of the people!
And yes - I have a question.
The fact is that now I have another peak of fascination with old horror films, and I'm worried about what has become of the Hammer studio and the Italian Gothic.
Still - once in France dictatorship, does it mean that the "New Wave" is covered?
I hope sooner or later the fascists will know the wrath of the people!
And yes - I have a question.
The fact is that now I have another peak of fascination with old horror films, and I'm worried about what has become of the Hammer studio and the Italian Gothic.
Still - once in France dictatorship, does it mean that the "New Wave" is covered?