Post by redsycorax on Feb 22, 2023 3:18:45 GMT
About thirty years ago, there was a British comedy film called Peter's Friends, dealing with the reunion of a group of old law student revue friends ten years after graduation. As for how that's relevant here, well, Earth-Four's timeline is set in the 1980s and I thought it might be instructive to deal with how the film's opening newsreel of eighties news events might differ from OTL:
The opening scene, dated 1982, is Mrs Thatcher, cutting to Ms Pac-Man eating several ghosts and the Falklands War, which the United Kingdom won, insuring Thatcher's re-election. Then a breakdancing scene, then Sylvester Stallone winning an Oscar for Rocky. Then a shot of Ronald and Nancy Reagan and a pole vaulter from the 1984 Olympics, a shot of Fidel Castro, an anti-Thatcher mask from the UK miner's strike of the mid-eighties, Boy George...
...and here comes a divergence. The next scene reflects OTL's rapid changeover of Soviet leaders 1982-84, with Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko and Gorbachev. As we know, given the Silver Ladies have intervened to prolong Brezhnev's life and improve the Soviet economy's efficiency and technological impetus, this will look very different. Perhaps reference to the accelerated US SDI "Star Wars" programme and probable Soviet successes in Afghanistan and a Polish invasion compared to OTL might be useful here. Would whoever succeeded Brezhnev be as willing to sign new SALT agreements, or would the Silver Ladies encourage whoever succeeded Brezhnev to do so, given they'd probably want a more stable international security environment because it would assist the advance of spaceflight technology in their own interests to reduce expenditure on the Soviet nuclear arsenal?
Michael Jackson makes an appearance, followed by Rock Hudson, a pro-choice march, Pope John Paul II kissing the ground beneath his feet, the Ayatollah Khomeini, [but would the Iranian Revolution have been allowed to succeed here?] Nancy Reagan greeting Raisa Gorbachev, the overthrow of the Marcos regime in the Philippines, high fashion, a Christies London art auction, jazzercise, a bulky cellphone, a filofax, the Gulf War, George H. Bush, the Exxon Valdez environmental disaster, Tianenmen Square, the Satanic Verses, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the UK Golden Jubilee, Saddam Hussein, Madonna, and a final newsreel shot of the new British Prime Minister John Major unexpectedly winning the 1992 UK General Election.
Okay, there would need to be some differences when it came to the current affairs aspect, obviously. Would John Paul II's survival be guaranteed, given Soviet concerns about the unstable situation in Poland, particularly if a more aggressive and confident USSR, free of entanglement in Afghanistan, intervened in Poland and crushed Solidarity? Would the assassination of the Pope have succeeded here and been carried out by a Soviet dupe? I've already referred to the likelihood that given the newfound stability, economic progress and confidence of the USSR, the Iranian Revolution wouldn't have been allowed to go ahead and the United States Operation Eagle Claw intervention in 1979 might have succeeded, causing the fall of the Islamic Republic and the restoration of the Shah. Would Reagan have been convivial to the overthrow of the Marcos regime in the Philippines? Might there have been increased US pressure for Marcos to step down beforehand to insure that the situation didn't deteriorate to the point where an anti-American regime was a real threat? And without an Iranian Revolution, would there have been a covert operation in Baghdad against Saddam Hussein to prevent the situation in the Persian Gulf deteriorating to the point where an Iran-Iraq War occurred, and where Iraq emerged as a major threat to regional security after that war? Without the Gulf War, would George H. Bush's situation in 1992 have been even direr than on our Earth? Would the Chinese have intervened to suppress dissent before Tianenmen Square, or would that degree of liberalisation even have happened without the fall of the USSR in 1991 on Earth-Four?
So, I've provided a look at the possible international situation on Earth-Four during the eighties. Any thoughts or suggestions?
The opening scene, dated 1982, is Mrs Thatcher, cutting to Ms Pac-Man eating several ghosts and the Falklands War, which the United Kingdom won, insuring Thatcher's re-election. Then a breakdancing scene, then Sylvester Stallone winning an Oscar for Rocky. Then a shot of Ronald and Nancy Reagan and a pole vaulter from the 1984 Olympics, a shot of Fidel Castro, an anti-Thatcher mask from the UK miner's strike of the mid-eighties, Boy George...
...and here comes a divergence. The next scene reflects OTL's rapid changeover of Soviet leaders 1982-84, with Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko and Gorbachev. As we know, given the Silver Ladies have intervened to prolong Brezhnev's life and improve the Soviet economy's efficiency and technological impetus, this will look very different. Perhaps reference to the accelerated US SDI "Star Wars" programme and probable Soviet successes in Afghanistan and a Polish invasion compared to OTL might be useful here. Would whoever succeeded Brezhnev be as willing to sign new SALT agreements, or would the Silver Ladies encourage whoever succeeded Brezhnev to do so, given they'd probably want a more stable international security environment because it would assist the advance of spaceflight technology in their own interests to reduce expenditure on the Soviet nuclear arsenal?
Michael Jackson makes an appearance, followed by Rock Hudson, a pro-choice march, Pope John Paul II kissing the ground beneath his feet, the Ayatollah Khomeini, [but would the Iranian Revolution have been allowed to succeed here?] Nancy Reagan greeting Raisa Gorbachev, the overthrow of the Marcos regime in the Philippines, high fashion, a Christies London art auction, jazzercise, a bulky cellphone, a filofax, the Gulf War, George H. Bush, the Exxon Valdez environmental disaster, Tianenmen Square, the Satanic Verses, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the UK Golden Jubilee, Saddam Hussein, Madonna, and a final newsreel shot of the new British Prime Minister John Major unexpectedly winning the 1992 UK General Election.
Okay, there would need to be some differences when it came to the current affairs aspect, obviously. Would John Paul II's survival be guaranteed, given Soviet concerns about the unstable situation in Poland, particularly if a more aggressive and confident USSR, free of entanglement in Afghanistan, intervened in Poland and crushed Solidarity? Would the assassination of the Pope have succeeded here and been carried out by a Soviet dupe? I've already referred to the likelihood that given the newfound stability, economic progress and confidence of the USSR, the Iranian Revolution wouldn't have been allowed to go ahead and the United States Operation Eagle Claw intervention in 1979 might have succeeded, causing the fall of the Islamic Republic and the restoration of the Shah. Would Reagan have been convivial to the overthrow of the Marcos regime in the Philippines? Might there have been increased US pressure for Marcos to step down beforehand to insure that the situation didn't deteriorate to the point where an anti-American regime was a real threat? And without an Iranian Revolution, would there have been a covert operation in Baghdad against Saddam Hussein to prevent the situation in the Persian Gulf deteriorating to the point where an Iran-Iraq War occurred, and where Iraq emerged as a major threat to regional security after that war? Without the Gulf War, would George H. Bush's situation in 1992 have been even direr than on our Earth? Would the Chinese have intervened to suppress dissent before Tianenmen Square, or would that degree of liberalisation even have happened without the fall of the USSR in 1991 on Earth-Four?
So, I've provided a look at the possible international situation on Earth-Four during the eighties. Any thoughts or suggestions?
