Editor says, what if an act of terror set the world right? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the August 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.

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Editor says, in authoring this article we have received some valued advice and guidance from Scott and also repurposed content from Wikipedia.

Robbie Taylor commented on 2012-08-08 04:15:49 ~ The East will stand united against the West!

Eric Oppen commented on 2012-08-08 06:23:34 ~ This would have been interesting, but there might have been an implosion in the USSR as generals and Party leaders fought for power.

Jeff Provine commented on 2012-08-08 13:51:15 ~ FDR, Churchill, Stalin: none of them made it. Wonder how long the next generation can hold on to peace.

Scott Palter commented on 2012-08-09 03:57:06 ~ Beria would have assumed control but his hold would be weaker than Khrushchev-Malenkov in 1953. Reunited Germany would have come but some years later. Important part is Cold War does not happen. Beria would need a decade of peace at least to consolidate power.

Jackie Rose commented on 2012-08-12 16:56:47 ~ Just to start with, the Ukrainians would have been slaughtered.

Eric Lipps commented on 2012-08-12 17:26:44 ~ Too many independent divergences. I prefer scenarios in which all subsequent changes flow clearly from a single altered event. That aside, it's unlikely that the West would have tolerated a Finlandlized Germany. Very likely the U.S. would all too soon have been holding its nose and supporting hard-right elements, including former Nazis, in postwar Germany to force something like the division we saw in our own history. Meanwhile, as Jacie Rose suggests, the Soviets probably would have launched a brutal reprisal campaign against the Ukrainians. As for Japan, at Yalta in our history the Soviets agreed on May 8 to enter the war against the Japanese in three months--and honored that commitment, declaring war on August 8, three months to the day later (and two days after Hiroshima). Assuming development of the A-bomb were delayed, we might have ended up with a Communist North Japan and a pro-Western South Japan, on the lines of Korea (except that the DMZ might have been a stretch of ocean).

Scott Palter commented on 2012-08-12 20:31:20 ~ Timing is everything. 1945-1946 Truman administration was preoccupied with domestic problems. If Beria's SU is semi-cooperative Bizonia never forms and Germany sometime in the 50's is reunited on the Austrian model. In this ATL NATO also never forms.