Who would have won?

During my younger years, when I couldnt possibly have comprehended this, my father would tell me about how WW3 was just around the corner. I never knew what he meant until I got a bit older and started finding out about the potential conflict between Warsaw Pact forces and NATO forces. I always wondered, in such a conflict without the use any kind of nukes, tactical or otherwise, who would have won? My dad always seemed a bit paranoid about it, but understandably since when he was in the airforce from 72-77 he was stationed for 2 of those years at the Rhein-Main AFB outside of Frankfurt. Not far from where hostilities would have began. So what is everyones opinion on this?

Oh, and does anyone know if there are any other books depicting a fictitious conflict between WP and NATO forces besides Red Storm Rising?

Well, we would have won, of course. I stood guard from '82 to '90, which is why the Red Army did not attack during those years; they knew better!

Hey sorry to be off topic, but was curious if your father ever had any UFO experiences?
Any storys to tell?

No worries if not.....

I think it really depends on when this war would have started. If it was started any year 1950 to 1970 it would be a push. 1970-1980, a slight american advantage. 1980 on it would have resulted in an american victory, although at a massive price. In hindsight, i am sure the ussr would have preferred they had picked a fight with the us in the 50's or 60's. they would stand a good chance of owning europe and several other areas now. However, the way the cold war was won was by th US outspending and outbuilding the USSR.

...without knowing the reasons for the conflict and where the conflict was taking place. Impossible to determine. If it was the two of them just going at each other for world conquest and control, it would have been a total disaster reguardless if nukes were used or not. Besides, its impossible for a war like this to take place without WMD being used.. it would take forever for the conflict to finish naturally.. so they'd have to use them eventually, and which ever side would have started losing first would have been the first to go unconventional.

No way to say man, really.. we gotta know if the conflict is in Europe or whatever, and besides.. we still don't know what secret weapons and technologies would have been revealed to the public if a war had taken place.. perhaps we would have seen the stealth a lot earlier and who knows how Russia would have dealt with the stealth.. or vice versa if you concider that Russia could have had something that we still to this day do not know about. So who knows.

excellent book. as a former tank driver from the 1st G.W. I highly recommed it.

www.amazon.com...

I own and have read General Sir John Hackett's "The Third World War: August 1985" twice; it is as accurate as any such story could be.

I also have and have read both of Ralph Peters' stories, "Red Army" which is all right, and "The War of 2020" which is pretty weak.

If you have to get one book, I'd suggest Hackett's.

Thanks for the books links guys, I'll have to check them out. Mr. Crowne that is just what my father said haha. And to my knowlege denied, no he has never spoken of one I could ask, I know he believes they are real but I dont know if hes ever had any experiences. If I find out I will U2U what I find out to you or if anyone else wants to know I'll just post it.

But ok, Vis Mege, I guess I could come up with a scenario for you. Its gonna take me a bit seeing as this was a very complicated political time. Once again, thanks for the links guys and books guys I will find out what I can when I can ad get anything I can find out from him to you.

Originally posted by Off_The_Street
I own and have read General Sir John Hackett's "The Third World War: August 1985" twice; it is as accurate as any such story could be.

If you have to get one book, I'd suggest Hackett's.

Have to agree on Hackett's "The Third World War".

An interesting side book is "The Threat: Inside the Soviet Military Machine" by Cockburn. One of the things I remember from that book is that we were constantly told in the media about how the Soviets had something like 50,000 tanks poised to overwhelm us. When, in fact, about half of them weren't running at any given time. Same was true for a lot of the Soviet military hardware. I have to feel that this must have been true, or the Soviets would have used their advantage when they had it.

I don't think that anyone would have won. Wars tend to do a lot of damage to everyone and everything involved--having put the preaching out of the way...

The continents of north and south america would probably have been left pretty much alone. Most of the battles would probably have been fought in Europe and Asia as in the First and Second world wars, with significant battles in Africa. Bombing missions could damage major cities in North and South America, due to the longer range of the airplanes after WWII. But I think the majority of the damage would have been in Europe because that is where the 2 political groups meet. If China and USSR united forces, Asia would have been pretty much theirs. The Middle East would probably have been a highly contested area due to the rich oil supplies. If the USSR got control of the Middle East, they could have starved Europe out of its oil supply and taken them over economically, and then politically.
If nuclear weapons were not used I think that Europe would have been taken over by Asia. Africa would have been pocketed with areas of resistance to an Asian take over unless they were in the midst of a civil war or an opportunistic war against European powers trying to exert colonial control. Australia might also be able to keep its political independence as it has a separation from the Eurasian Continent.
Once the USSR/China alliance had the whole continent they would probably not be interested or able to expand as inner forces and unrest would have kept them unable to advance overseas.

Just my opinion

Interesting, never thought about it that way. But China and Russia would not have joined forces at that time. They were strategic allies with the US at the time. Russia and China did not see eye to eye on very much.

en.wikipedia.org...-Soviet_Split