America after the nuclear war: The John Glenn administration

[Person Man]

I have always wanted to see what would happen to the United States' history in the event of a nuclear war. I wonder if the constitution would even survive.

[Person Man]

Well, yeah. Not just to our constitution, but our territorial integrity.

[Person Man]

So, if we were to lose 180 million people, we would still have about 50 million left. I would think if it did come to it, we would ultimately bottom out around 25 million. Great Britian would probably bottom out around 5 million, Continental NATO would bottom out around 30 million and th Warsaw Pact would bottom out around 60 million. The Planet's population would probably go to about 400 million as the world is plunged into an atomic ice age the especially devestates Third-World countries that though do not recieve any blasts, are unable to deal with the fall out that spreads across the planet and the famines that poverty brings.

My verdict of a nuclear war- it would probably have a definite conclusion and some sort of civilization would survive. However, that's probably the only things that could be guaranteed. I can see civilization taking anywhere from 10 years to 500 years to fully rebound....and gross population levels will probably not be reattained for about 5 or 6 generations, provided that the Industrial Revolution is not reversed. Hell, we could go Canticle for Liebowitz where much of the world is destroyed and the surviving nations renounce their civilization and live like native peoples until the course of human events catches back up on a natural timeframe- in this book in particular, its about 1200-1500 years, only for them to repeat the nuclear war a few hundred years after that.

[Person Man]

I would have Joseph B. Leibowitz (D-NM) and Lenina A. Huxley (R-NY) win against Bush/Danforth in 1984 in this scenario.

[Person Man]

Then again, we were able to conquer Western Europe in a year...we still haven't conquered Afghanistan in 8...then again, were fighting hard enough.

[Person Man]

Well, we could have a middle option where it is just scaled down to the point that there is an aftermath, but still quite bad. More than what's going on now, but maybe less than Fallout. Perhaps something out of "The Day After" would be good.

[Person Man]

The middle option where it is scaled down and there is an aftermath seems like a good idea. The 1984 election can still occur while this is all happening.

Exactly. We can have an Atomic event where out of 200,000,000 people in the US and the 4 500 000 000 in the world,  about 50 mil die in the US and about a Billion die in the world in the initial war and another 50 mil in the US and Billion die in the aftermath. Basically, its armageddon, but civilization hangs on....barely. Perhaps a few states simply cease to exist and become unorganized Federal Territory. Perhaps a couple of states try to succeed and fail. Perhaps there is moderate trouble maintaining the territorial integrity of the United States proper. This way, there will be a 1984 election and a conclusion of WWIII. Perhaps the United States loses, wins or wins the war, but power shifts away from the US and back to Europe or into some sort of super state.

[Person Man]

That's probably what happens. Are you going to give us an aftermath?

[Person Man]

Can we see a map of impacted, destroyed and survived cities? How did everyone in Vault 101 make out?

[Person Man]

Well, I see some states that have been totally destroyed while a few major cities... Indianapolis, San Deigo, Des Moines, Toledo, Albuquerque, Orlando, Jacksonville, El Paso and Oklahoma City and Nashville weren't hit. It would be cool if Vegas was missed.

Didn't even make it to Christmas.....

[Person Man]

Its probably easier to tell us how many survived than died. I am guessing it was half the population and of that half, half will not make it?

[Person Man]

I hope to hear more of this.

[Person Man]

Very good so far. Here is what the time period between 1983-1997 will probably look like-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threads

[Person Man]

I am guessing Civil-War Levels is what is expected. That would be the same as Mideval levels in Europe. I am guessing that out of a population of 4.5 Billion that the world's population is now 900 million, with much of the Industrialized world destroyed and most of the Third World's population starved to death in Nuclear Winter and loss of aid.

[Person Man]

bump. Well, I think there would be some conflict between Reagan leading us into a war and Reagan winning a war that only 12% of the population survived.

[Person Man]

It would probably really go the way of the Fallout series, where even 140 years after the war, there is only 700,000 people in California....and if the population changes are uniform, that would put the entire world's population at like 100,000,000....basically back to Bronze Age population levels.

The war in Threads was a war in the 1980s by BBC and the UKs population was reduced by 90%, back to 5th/14th century population levels.

In the Steven King book, the biological accident killed 99.4% of the population...that would give us a global population around 25 million....like what it was in the neolithic era.

In other words, "The Apocalypse" can be the death of 50%, 80%, 90%, 99% or even 99.9% of the population.

[Person Man]

I think he wants to know how the legislature and states are....though most of the OTL congresspeople and guvs were probably vaporized.

[Person Man]

This is sorta a Day After TL. Cathcon is good at post-apocalyptic fiction, so it could be pretty cool to see Cathcon do a TL that briefly describes the atomic war and goes more into depth over the aftermath.

[Person Man]

this thread is Naso's erotica

It is pretty hot...

[Person Man]

Actually...

[Person Man]

Do you the massive buildup they did in the late 70s and 80s was because they thought they could under Carter then thought they must under Reagan and ultimately the build-up helped lead to the Malthusian catastrophe that lead to the dissolution of the Soviet Union?

Though in the defense of those who are not super-hawks, at the point that they were in the 70s and 80s, the amount became inconsequential. I wonder how many armed and ready to deploy weapons each side had.

[Person Man]

Do you the massive buildup they did in the late 70s and 80s was because they thought they could under Carter then thought they must under Reagan and ultimately the build-up helped lead to the Malthusian catastrophe that lead to the dissolution of the Soviet Union?

Though in the defense of those who are not super-hawks, at the point that they were in the 70s and 80s, the amount became inconsequential. I wonder how many armed and ready to deploy weapons each side had.

Just for clarification, whom are you addressing?

I am agreeing with you yet disagreeing in part and then asking a general question.