twilight 1964

[Cpl. Kalkwarf]

Does anyone remember this website alternate for twilight or have it archived

My archive hardrive crashed realy bad and no longer have my archived copy or the info that was on it.

If you have it archived I would very much like to get it again, since the original website is down.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Here's a dead link to the place that maybe you are thinking of, unfortunately it's a geocities site and I have no idea if the owner transported it to another site.

http://www.geocities.com/nmdecke/Twilight1964.html

I believe Decke was the persons last name

[Graebarde]

Yep, remember it, but Nope, don't have the archived info you need. Lot's of good sites have pissadeared in the past few years for one reason or another.

[Adm.Lee]

I didn't know about this one-- is it an alternate timeline wherein the Cuban Missile Crisis went wrong

[RN7]

Does anyone remember this website alternate for twilight or have it archived

The guys name is Nathan Decke, but unfortunately his webpage is now gone along with Geocities.

If you have it archived I would very much like to get it again, since the original website is down.

I think I have archived it onto disk along with his morrow project work. If you want it I can e-mail it to you once I find it.

[General Pain]

The guys name is Nathan Decke, but unfortunately his webpage is now gone along with Geocities.




I think I have archived it onto disk along with his morrow project work. If you want it I can e-mail it to you once I find it.

I'd like a copy too,.

[Cpl. Kalkwarf]

I found mine archived on a memory stick. While looking for something completely different.

[Cpl. Kalkwarf]

The file size is approximately 2.4 meg by the way. If some one wants to archive it also. Let me know how to send it too ya.

[Cpl. Kalkwarf]

I didn't know about this one-- is it an alternate timeline wherein the Cuban Missile Crisis went wrong

Yes it is.

[RN7]

I've actually pasted the whole lot onto a word file. If anybody wants I could just post it on here in segments.

[Legbreaker]

Absolutely! Love to see it.

[Rainbow Six]

I've actually pasted the whole lot onto a word file. If anybody wants I could just post it on here in segments.

Go for it!

Cheers

[RN7]

Here we go with Nathan's work. Its very long but a great read. Just think that he actually became ashamed of it in the end as nobody seemed interested in it.


TWILIGHT: 1964 An alternate history expansion module for Twilight: 2000, that excellent game of post-apocalypse role playing in the aftermath of a nuclear WWIII.

A special note about blatant plagiarism, intellectual property and copyright thievery: While most of what follows is my own imagination, there is much that is not. As you read this you will see that in some places I have out-and-out stolen ideas, names, whole sentences, and everything in between from a variety of sources. These include a lot of websites, literally hundreds of books, movies, and articles. As this is all based on Twilight: 2000, I have of course robbed from the modules with reckless abandon. Why, you ask Because there is such a wealth of good post-nuke stuff out there on the net and in the media that it would be a shame not to use it. The challenge is adapting it all to my 1964 timeframe, and good lord what a challenge that has been. If I tried to footnote and document every stolen concept and co-opted idea this project would be totally unreadable. Therefore, if you read something in here and say, "Hey, what the hell!!!! That's my idea!!!!" then please don't sue me. In fact, if you have any other ideas to add, let me know and I'll work them in. Thanks for not bankrupting me.

PROLOGUE
The premise here is that the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 went terribly, terribly wrong. Russia nuked us, we nuked them and the whole world fell apart. The game time is late October of 1964, near exactly two years since the bombs fell. The last two years in the USA have seen the collapse of the government and social structure, a schism between the military and the civilian governments and invasion on two fronts, and it will be many decades (if ever) before America is anywhere near normal again. Not as many nukes hit America as you might expect, nothing like the tens of thousands of warheads in a 1980s-era exchange, but they were certainly enough to devastate the nation. The projected nuclear winter, blessedly, turned out to be more of a nuclear autumn and the skies cleared rapidly and the radiation was soon contained to the immediate craters. While the nuclear bombs and the two terrible winters that followed killed off approximately 65% of the population of America, the War had a deleterious effect upon modern society far beyond the already unimaginable annihilation of millions and destruction of property. Following the collapse of civil authority, widespread violence swept through the land in a dog-eat-dog frenzy of looting, rape, theft, and murder. With the availability of firearms and general decline in order, large parts of the nation are positively chaotic and there are areas that are completely lost. There are many areas that are still functioning, though at very different levels than before the war. Nearly everything can be had-for a price, though currency is of limited use with barter being carried out with food, ammunition, gold nuggets, drugs and fuel. To cope with this disaster, local strong men and women, sometimes someone with pre-existing authority like a mayor, a police chief, or the commander of an army post, and sometimes just a person of natural authority would take charge of an area. Organizing, protecting, and controlling food supplies was the key to an area's success or failure and from those group who succeeded came the new social and political entities that dominate the post-nuclear world of 1964. These nuclei take many forms: military governments, local strong man dictatorships, small local democracies, slave-owning aristocracies, and even criminal and biker gangs. Groups with pre-existing social cohesion, such as the Mormons and other religious groups, those with popular leaders, and military bases that were not attacked, all have a considerable edge in survival. Early attempts to consolidate the United States failed due to poor communications, total discrediting of the federal government that fought the war and the lack of a leader with political legitimacy. As the nation's power bases split themselves between the civilian government and military leadership camps, endemic warfare between them began as they jockeyed for scarce resources. This cycle of small-scale warfare and needless destruction helped continue the downward slide of population levels and the loss of technological and economic capabilities. Much like a hundred years ago, the individual states wield the most power in the remaining cities and the relationship between federal and state parliaments is one more of mutual distrust than cooperation. However, the federal government still largely controls the armed forces and communications so they have an advantage over the states. The Road Warrior is a bad analogy; things are only that bad out in the hinterlands. The rest of the nation is a mix of The Day After and Whitley Streiber's War Day. Watch the British movie Threads from the mid-eighties, it will put you in the right mood. But that doesn"t do it justice, either, you'll just have to form your own vision in your mind after you begin reading all this.

GET IN THERE
This gazetteer is organized into nine generalized geographic regions, with some helpful appendices at the end. The exclusion of a city from these state-by-state lists does not mean that it is intact. Civil unrest, hostile military action, and other factors have caused severe damage in regions otherwise untouched by the war. There are many open-ended descriptions and entire cities and areas left blank to allow you to use your imagination. This is exclusively a "where to go, things to see, people to kill" sort of document, basically selected plot ideas within a general framework. It is not an attempt to explore the social dynamics of the world or the politics of those in control; it is just a travel guide, pure and simple. I won't go into the details and philosophy of such common post-apocalyptic terms such as marauders, radiation, air bursts and the likeif you don't already know them then you are reading the wrong document. Go read Jane Austin. For the rest of you, enjoy

[RN7]

HISTORY REDUX
Nikita put missiles in Cuba in 1962 to give us a taste of our own medicine, and things took on a life of their own. First the word of the missiles, the speech by Kennedy, all those meetings by the UN. The U-2 photos and the blockade around Cuba. Troops being sent south to Florida and reserve units activated. A very scary time. Then, on October 27, Cuba shoots down one of our U-2s. Kennedy had several days earlier made plans to retaliate with air strikes against any SAM site that fired on a US plane. However, diplomacy was working by this time and Kennedy sought to resend that retaliation order to preserve the chance for peace. A call was placed to Air Force General Curtis "bomb them back to the stone age" LeMay to ensure that his planes would not attack Cuba without a direct order from the President. But General LeMay had other ideas and his own hawkish views of America's place in the world. Over the president's wishes, he ordered his planes to attack the SAM site, along with several others. The ball started rolling. Kennedy burned the midnight oil to get a cease-fire, but it was to no avail, the invasion was on. By the next day, the Marines were storming ashore in the biggest amphibious operation since Inchon, and the units of the 82nd and 101st Airborne were dropping in and around Havana, trying to secure airfields. Bombs were being dropped on the Cuban missile sites and our blockade fleet started sinking the Soviet subs that had been shadowing the blockade line. Total victory over the Cubans was projected to take only a few days. Surprise! The Cubans put up a ferocious fight, and even had some small-scale tactical nukes on Frog missiles, which they used on our landing forces and navy support vessels, inflicting horrific casualties. Once the Frogs let go then hell came for a visit in that October. As soon as the nuclear genie was released in Cuba, our SAC began a response against selected military targets in the Soviet Union in retaliation for the Frogs. Our naval forces in the Mediterranean clashed with Soviet ships and Soviet troops marched into West Berlin. Cuba was in chaos, with no real news coming out of that burning island. Kennedy was on the air continuously, speaking to the nation and the world. He was offering an immediate armistice and stand-down, a summit meeting, trade concessions, anything and everything to stop the war, to stop the war from hitting America. But it was too late.

FULL SCALE ATTACK
Russia had decided that a massive first strike was the only way to survive the rapidly coming global war and late on October 28, Nikita pushed the button. At least a dozen of the medium range missiles in Cuba had become operational and were flying north towards America. Soviet nuclear-armed bombers took to the air and headed over the pole. Soviet submarines began firing SLBMs at coastal cities and ICBMs began blasting off from pads all over Russia. With our nation under attack, SAC engaged in a full, retaliatory response on civilian targets in the Soviet Union. Then a nuclear missile found the White House in Washington DC and the civilian government was destroyed. As acting chairman of the Military Joint Chiefs, General LeMay stepped into the power void and led the nation out of the dark. Despite the little known fact that he started the war by disobeying Kennedy, LeMay to his credit ended the war quickly by launching every bomber, ICBM and SLBM we had and utterly destroying the Soviet Union with thousands of nuclear warheads and bombs, some 30,000,000,000 tons of TNT all told. The so-called "missile gap" was a myth (see Appendix 2) and the Russian first strike was barely an eighth of the US counterattack. Nuclear weapons, and especially missile technology, of the early 1960s was a science in its infancy. Many rockets malfunctioned as soon as they were launched, others landed hundreds of miles off course, and still others failed to explode with the expected force or even were duds. But enough worked as designed to ruin our nation (see Appendix 1). The fledgling ABM systems were proven to be utterly useless in anything less than perfect laboratory conditions and the conventional air defense network relied too heavily on fragile radars and vulnerable electronics. With the first few nuclear explosions over the nation, both from Russian attacks and from US nuclear ABM and anti-aircraft weapons, the majority of the radar networks collapsed. With the Air Force virtually blind, the waves of over-the-pole Russian bombers found the going much easier than they had dreamed possible. USAF and Canadian interceptors took a heavy toll on the bombers, but on many occasions were having to hunt for their targets visually, and many Russian planes escaped. For days after the start of the exchanges, individual Mi-4 Bisons and Tu-95 Bears managed to slip into cracks in the failing radar coverage and drop their atomic bombs on targets. The Russians had a number of ballistic missile submarines, several of them even lurking off the coast of Cuba, and these were responsible for much of damage to the coastal areas of the country. In many cases, their strikes came days after the ICBM and bomber raids, as it took longer for them to get into position. As the exchanges wound down by the last day of October, General LeMay ordered the US Navy to pull the remnants of the invasion force off the beaches and brought hundreds of them home. LeMay then assumed control of the US government "until such time as a lawful civilian government could be reconvened", though he perhaps knew that such a time might not come again in his lifetime. In Europe and the Far East, WWIII was in full swing. Despite the desperate conditions here at home, numerous US military units (both regular army and National Guard) were shipped overseas to shore up the fronts in Europe and Korea. For nearly sixteen months the NATO countries in Europe waging a nasty, brutal war to liberate the former Warsaw Pact nations from the remaining Soviet forces.

THE BOTTOM LINE
The missiles and bombs came quick, but their effects last until today. The physical damage to the nuclear target sites was horrific and the initial loss of life was shocking, but it was the epidemics, famines and the social disruption that by far has claimed the most lives in the last two years. Total casualties since 1962 are 124.2 million, or 70% of the population of the United States in 1962. Again, this includes both initial fatalities and subsequent deaths from injuries, in addition to deaths from disease, starvation, and civil unrest up to the winter of 1964. Over the next thirty years, cancer and leukaemia cases in the United States will increase by over 2,500%. There will also be a dramatic increase in deformities at birth and failed pregnancies. Not a pleasant place to live. There will not be, however, any radiation-spawned mutants or forty-foot tall spiders running around. This is not science fiction, this is science fact.

LEADERSHIP IN DOUBT
With its government left powerless and its economy destroyed, America quickly slipped into chaos. In late 1962, the surviving civilian leadership attempted to regain control, the military wouldn't give it up. There has, therefore, been a schism at the federal government level, with the remains of the elected civilian government (CivGov) and the military hierarchy (MilGov) both claiming rightful authority. Roughly speaking, CivGov controls most of the Northeast and the Great Lakes states from the new capital at Mount Weather and MilGov controls the rest from their new capital at Colorado Springs. Some state governments often were left on their own and have done well, but most quickly collapsed under the burden. It can generally be said that "government" of any form in America exists only as far as a bullet will travel. Outside of that, everyone is on their own in this brave new world.

BE ALL YOU CAN BE IN THE ARMY
The only cohesive force on the entire continent anymore is the US military and it is rare that any large organized survivor community is not connected with the army somehow. The military took over after the collapse of society, as the strong and well-armed often do, though ostensibly the military was there to serve and protect the citizens. The army filled the vacuum of power and became the de facto government in most areas and this state of affairs still largely exists today. Troops established cantonments in strategic areas and regulated food production and distribution inside their cantonments but abandoned the regions outside. Even with the Cold War build-up of the early 1960s, there were still only about twenty active US Army divisions which were in full strength, spread all over the world. While many other Reserve and National Guard divisions were raised following the start of the war, these new units frequently were pitifully short of men and material from the start. Soon after the war started, LeMay ordered all National Guard units mobilized, both for homeland security and to be sent overseas to fight WWIII. Quickly seeing what a meat grinder the war in Europe was shaping up to be, many states refused to let their troops leave their states where they were needed. As well, in many areas mobilization was not even possible due to the chaos and destruction of the nuclear attacks. Rates of desertion have been high, especially amongst those National Guard and Reserve units that were organized after the war started, as soldiers drifted off to find family and loved ones. Many others, sometimes entire units, turned marauder and lived on banditry. Central control is virtually nonexistent with most units, especially those in isolated or rural areas, largely operating on their own. By the fall of 1964, most military units are practicing extensive local recruiting in an attempt to keep up to strength, and stragglers are often incorporated into units regardless of past record. Nominal titles of units (brigades, divisions, etc.), too, have little bearing on the actual size of the unit. Most large units are down to approximately 15-30% of pre-wartime strengths. Most intact divisions are still clinging to their pre-war TOE's, and are probably down to 2-3 battalions per division, and 3 companies per battalion. Usually it was at the battalion level that the units were consolidated, so that you would still have standard sized companies and platoons, but it could also likely that the battalions are under staffed. As troops settle into areas and begin farming and small-scale manufacturing to meet their supply requirements, local civilians are hired to farm and carry out many administrative functions in return for security from the increasing numbers of marauders roaming the countryside. In other areas, the security the military unit provides to its civilians is from the unit itself, a post-nuclear version of the ancient "protection" racket. Most smaller military bases have been abandoned in favor of concentrating forces in more strategically placed areas and many of these bases today are virtually Medieval castles.

SEE THE WORLD IN THE NAVY
The US Navy in 1964 is still strong, despite having taken horrifying losses during the battles in Europe and by tactical nuclear weapons at sea. While Russia's war machine took a large toll on the navy, it has been the lack of fuel and maintenance that has done in the navy. Most ships still in existence by 1964 are not at all fully operational, but most are at least afloat and capable of generating internal power. As many of the nation's naval bases were nuked, there is a critical shortage of electronics spares, missile reloads, and dry docks for repairs. The lack of necessity for a large navy is also apparent now with the Russians destroyed. Men that might otherwise be on ships are needed ashore in reconstruction and recovery efforts. In most harbors there are any number of warships and auxiliaries rusting at anchor with the barest of skeleton crews.

AIM HIGH IN THE AIRFORCE
World War III saw incredibly high attrition rates amongst US Air Force units. The Russian Frontal Aviation in Eastern Europe was qualitatively a match for Western air forces and quantitatively far more than a match. By the end of the war in April of 1963, most USAF and Air National Guard units available had been thrown into the fire in Europe. Today, though there are a lot of remaining aircraft in America that are capable of flight operations, in many cases the lack of regular maintenance has degraded radar and electronics to the point that they are dangerous to fly. For example, the F-4 Phantom II jet fighter (typical of USAF jets) is a very complex, maintenance-intensive aircraft, requiring 135 man-hours of maintenance in the shop for each hour in the air. The lack of spare parts caused by the collapsed transportation and manufacturing systems, the horrible attrition in battle, plus the general lack of adequate numbers of trained maintenance personnel make keeping sophisticated airplanes flying almost impossible. Jets can't run on alcohol fuel, so aviation fuel is a vital commodity, severely limiting flying operations. Most airbases in America have numbers of stranded jets rusting away on aprons and in hangers. In addition, the USAF is woefully short of missile reloads and guided munitions for the aircraft, another result of the war in Europe, but retains a steady supply of crude iron bombs and cannon reloads for those planes still airworthy. Over the past year, several of the Air Force ICBM missiles that were offline or damaged during the nuclear strikes have been reactivated by MilGov.

GOING HOME
The continental forces have been augmented by the withdrawal of most (though not all) US forces from Europe early in 1964. With WWIII winding down in Europe and the obvious need for troops at home for reconstruction, the choice was clear for General LeMay, despite the protests of his NATO allies. Operation Omega was conducted to bring them home, mostly landing them at Savannah, Georgia on May 20, 1964. Task Force 34 was formed of what was left of the US Navy's Atlantic Fleet, a few dozen ships at best, and thirty or forty assorted merchant ships--mostly the remnants of the West German Merchant fleet--that were scraped together and used to evacuate US military assets from Europe and given to the US in exchange for most of the units' armor and heavy weapons. Most of the forces evacuated from Europe were released from service upon arrival in the US. However, at least 30% of the returnees opted to remain in US service, many being career soldiers without any place to go. As well, most surviving US naval and air assets in Europe were withdrawn with the ground forces, helping to rearm America. As nearly all the overseas units were strongly MilGov (as the evacuation was ordered by LeMay) this influx of men and material will surely shift the balance of power firmly to Colorado Springs in the coming years. A similar, but less organized, plan has been ongoing to bring men back from Korea and other Far East and Middle East theatres.

HOW MUCH A GALLON
One of the most crippling effects of the 1962 attack was the destruction of over 70% of the country's oil refining capacity. This, in combination with the EMP bursts, effectively eliminated electrical power generation and all but the most crude industrial facilities. Without fuel and lubrication, the modern mechanical age ground to a halt. Oil facilities not affected by the nuclear strikes or conventional military attacks were fought over by numerous rivals (former national governments, marauders, "new" national governments, and tin-pot local dictators). Those lucky enough to avoid the ravages of war suffered from the forces of nature--workers don't tend to shut things up properly when fleeing for their lives. Dirt, wind, rain, and rust are finishing the job started by plutonium and TNT. Petroleum is available in some areas due to operating oil wells, which are mostly closely guarded by the military. Refinery capability, however, is limited and transport of oil by road is subject to attack and is not often carried out. The main limiting factor for the US military currently is this lack of fuel. Many vehicles have been converted to grain alcohol and the wood-burning still has become a common sight in army enclaves as units seek to keep their armored vehicles operating. Aircraft, however, cannot run on alcohol and by 1964 they are mostly grounded or used only sparingly. The same goes for fuel oil for the navy, and while strong US Navy forces still exist, they are often unable to leave port.

FEED ME!
As the smoke from the bombs rose into the atmosphere, impairing sunlight, a limited nuclear winter affected the climate throughout the northern hemisphere to this day, although the climactic changes were not as calamitous as some scientists had feared. These problems are further increased by lingering radiation, the lack of fuel, spare parts for farm machinery, and fertilizer, all of which are required by the heavily mechanized farming practiced in North America. Those farms that were once heavily specialized, such as poultry or beef, now must produce their own feed, thus reducing their output. Those farming communities that have managed to retain enough production to support themselves face even more problems. The massive numbers of refugees from the abandoned cities demanded a share of the meagre supplies of food. These refugees tended to be armed, and they often appeared in sufficient numbers to overwhelm the farmers defending their food stocks. Some farmers have had all their crops stolen, including the seeds, and their livestock slaughtered, preventing them from rebuilding their farms. The net result is that by 1964 most farming communities are hostile to outsiders, refusing entry to even small bands of starving refugees. Some farming towns have had to accept rule by larger bands of refugees and marauders, or even the US military, paying for protection with food. The farmers may suffer under this overlordship, but at least they are relatively safe from outside attacks. Most of the nation's transportation network collapsed immediately after the bombs fell. Modern civilization requires food to be moved from areas of production to areas of consumption, and with the railroad hubs destroyed, roads and bridges rendered unusable, and ports flattened, some areas had massive stocks of food, while most went short. Roads between major cities are often kept open but travel is hazardous at best. The especially cold winters of 1962 and 63, the radiation, the famines, the marauders, the epidemics, and the invasions all reduced the number of mouths to feed to the point that by 1964 the food situation has stabilized and people are eating well again in most areas. Since you can't grow crops in urban areas that well, most of the larger cities have been abandoned to the scum and scavengers. It's all about food. The drought in the eastern half of the nation is growing worse by the day and its long term effects won't be known until next planting season.

COVER YOUR MOUTH
Disease is perhaps the biggest and most deadly problem in America today. Most of the dead were left unburied during that first winter and began to decompose when the snow melted, leading to an immediate outbreak of cholera and typhoid and even a resurgence of black plague in many areas. The breakdown of a central medical system and the loss of many public services only fuelled the fire. In some areas, especially in urban areas and in the deep south, the epidemics killed off tens of thousands each month, drastically thinning the population of the nation like nothing ever before. Most of the worst epidemics have burned themselves out by 1964, but medical supplies and personnel are extremely rare and thus valuable today.

EMP
Even in the areas not directly affected by the attack, there was severe consequences. EMP effects from high-altitude airbursts ruined electricity supplies and normal communication lines for some time, although some areas--particularly in the central and northeastern United States--largely escaped this disruption. EMP proved to be more powerful than the most conservative pre-war estimates, affecting even the supposedly shielded military and government equipment. Enough was on standby, and enough adequately shielded, to enable the Joint Chiefs of Staff to remain in touch with their scattered forces (for a time).

THE BLIGHT
Between late 1962 and the middle of 1963, close to a thousand nuclear weapons of various sizes were detonated by various warring sides in WWIII. Beyond the tangible destruction of the blasts, scientists warned of more far-reaching effects, such as the postulated "nuclear winter" or fatal damage to the ozone layer. Speaking specifically of North America, in the immediate aftermath, the "nuclear winter" turned out to be more of a "nuclear autumn", with nationwide temperature variation, but nothing like the deep-freeze conditions expected. The ozone layer has been damaged, but it is assumed that its own natural ability to reassemble with render that problem harmless in a decade or so. Until then an increased likelihood of skin cancers should be expected. And then 1964 came. Beginning in this year, noticeable discrepancies in aggregate rainfall have been noted throughout North America. These events are difficult to measure and their ramifications are difficult to predict because of a lack of data and a dearth of experts and equipment. However, it has become apparent that there has been a definite shift in rainfall patterns, and a very dry spring of 1964 was experienced in those areas. From the data that can be gathered and assimilated, several remaining meteorologists agree that the jet stream has shifted out of its normal position. This, combined with a slight increase in certain particulate atmospheric contaminants, has caused the small-scale shift in rain fall patterns in the USA. It will perhaps take up to a decade for the jet stream to drift back to its original position.

[RN7]

INVASION USA: NORTH
Following the collapse of national authority, there was a period where the borders became porous, and for the first time since 1812, foreign powers were on the soil of America. In early 1963, the Russians invaded Alaska from the sea. This was not anywhere near a WWII-style amphibious operation, but rather a piecemeal landing of scratched-together troops and scavenged equipment. The reason for the Russian push was more to escape the radioactive devastation of the Pacific coast of Russia than any grand military planning. The invasion went well initially, with the Russians capturing Juneau and Anchorage and driving towards Vancouver, before the Americans could counterattack. By late 1963, the invaders had been stopped and isolated in small enclaves throughout the state. Over time, the Russians gave up their plans of conquest and settled down to find wives and raise crops. Other than these paragraphs, I will make no attempt to detail the two (north and south) invasions any further. What happened and why are beyond the scope of this document, having taken place in the past, and only the present consequences of the invasions need be included. The GM is free to flesh the invasions out to his liking.

INVASION USA: SOUTH
On the southern borders came another enemy, the Mexicans. Egged on by Marxist elements in the Mexican government, the Mexican army stormed across the border in the first day of May, 1964, just six months before game-time, aiming to reclaim the territory lost to America in the Mexican-American war in the 19th century. In retrospect, the invasion had more to do with the horrible conditions in Mexico in 1964 than any dreams of renewing Mexico's glory years. The Mexican economy collapsed when the US did, leaving the nation full of starving refugees and seething discord. The best way to keep the nation from dissolving into civil war was to focus efforts to the north. A four-pronged effort was mounted, one into each of the border states. Forget visions of grand armies marching north, the Mexican drive was more shotgun-toting peasants in trucks and VW Beetles led by ill-armed and ill-trained army units. There were initial successes, perhaps mainly because the lingering EMP effects over the US continued to severely limit US troop"s ability to coordinate large-scale defenses and communicate with the front. The US military was tied down with transportation problems, ammunition, equipment, troop shortages, and home industry in ruins, and disaster relief. The southern border is quite long and units and towns are naturally quite isolated. Even with the limited mobility of the Mexican Army, many American units and militias were easily flanked and had a hard time getting the word of the invasion through to the command structures. The Mexican army had no idea what they were doing and as soon as the Americans got over the shock of being invaded and mounted counterattacks, the drives quickly stalled and the front stagnated. The Mexicans had strategic surprise but no real strategic goal. They wanted to capture the food-growing areas of the American Southwest but had no defined stop-line. The invasion was more a political device to unite the country--from that standpoint, the move worked, at least for a time. But the Mexicans never had a good shot at capturing the Central Valley in California--the richest prizes were either heavily defended by the Americans or sabotaged (like the water supply for the Imperial Valley). Aside from a few well-watered areas in Texas and in mountain valleys throughout the Southwest, the Mexicans have found themselves in charge of a lot of useless desert. In California, they reached as far as Los Angeles before stopping. In Arizona, they managed only Tucson. In New Mexico they were smashed south of Albuquerque and nearly driven out of the state. In Texas they fared better where the open plains and the large numbers of sympathetic Hispanic civilians helped the drive. They were aided by the Division Cuba, a unit of Cuban and Russian soldiers from Cuba. The push finally was stopped along a Lubbock-Waco-Houston line, in part due to the use of tactical nuclear weapons by the US Army. Back home, the pressures of mounting such an extensive military operation taxed the feeble Mexican economy and infrastructure past the breaking point and Mexico slid into civil war by the end of the fall of 1964. Several factions rose up claiming power in Mexico, and the scattered military units in America chose one or the other to follow, or just gave up and went marauder. By today, the Mexicans are still strong in south Texas and southern California, but are really just trying to survive more than anything. The main result of these two invasions was that Army units that were once keeping civil order throughout the country were sent to the front lines to fight. Without their authority and security, many areas left behind quickly descended further into chaos and anarchy.

THE KLAN GOES POLITITCAL
Maybe one of the most disturbing aspects of the collapse of civil society is that the racists and bigots of the nation were now free to act without fear of legal prosecution. Across much of the south, and really in every state, the KKK has been reborn as a frighteningly effective and powerful force. Calling themselves "New Americans", the Klan leadership has reorganized into cells and has spread across the nation with the goal of taking it over. In some areas--Northern Arkansas, West Virginia, Tampa etc---the NA cells have complete control over the population. The remaining governments and the military have been pressed to deal with these flare-ups but so far attempts have been largely unsuccessful, often due to a sympathetic military. In the next decade or so, unless something is done to prevent it, New America might just turn the clock back to 1864.

THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN
The rest of the world Who cares Just know that there is no one left strong enough or stupid enough to try and invade us anymore, so don't worry about it. Over most of Europe, World War III still smoulders. NATO, led by West Germany and Britain stormed across the borders to "liberate the oppressed citizens" of the former Warsaw Pact block. The Soviet forces left in these nations, with no home to return to, fought savagely and reduced nearly all of Europe to a horrible wreck. Russia might have been short of strategic nuclear weapons, but they had thousands of small tactical nukes that devastated the cities of Europe. General LeMay finally broke the Russians by sending every available SAC bomber to nuke Eastern Europe into the dark ages once again. On April 6, 1964, LeMay announced to the world that he had managed to reach an armistice agreement with Marshal Sergei Lavenkov of the Strategic Rocket Forces, the highest surviving authority--either civilian or military--left alive in the ruins of Russia. World War III was officially over and the troops could finally come home. Since the end of active hostilities in Europe, nearly all the Americans overseas, civilians and military alike, who wanted to come home have and brought everything they could carry with them. The largest military evacuation was in early 1964 in Operation Omega. International trade and travel is a thing of the past and the radio is generally your only link to the outside world, but there are interesting things afoot on other continents. In North America, Canada is still our ally, but unable to help much because of their own problems feeding their people. Cuba is a radioactive heap and Mexico has dissolved into civil war following their ill-fated invasion of us. Perhaps at a later date I'll try to detail some other parts of the world.

Rough Timeline:
October 27, 1962--The branch point. US planes bomb a SAM site in Cuba in the evening after it shot down a U-2 that morning.
October 28, 1962--Black Sunday. US forces invade Cuba and are repulsed by the use of nuclear weaponry. Late that evening, the first ICBMs lift off from Russia bound for the USA.
November 1, 1962--By this day the nuclear exchanges are over and the world is demolished.
January 3, 1963--First Russian troops invade Alaska
The last two months of 1962, all of 1963, and the first third of 1964--The world rages with WWIII. US troops are fed into the war and are destroyed at alarming rates. At home, the fabric of society collapses and violence is the order of the day in most areas.
April 6, 1964--WWIII is official ended by an armistice.
May 1, 1964--The Mexican Army storms across the southern border.
May 20, 1964--Operation Omega brings the troops home from Europe.
October 28, 1964--Game time.