Last Broadcast Parts 1-4
by Chris Oakley and Steve Payne
Author
says: this timeline is based on a Canadian student-made radio play
titled The Last
Broadcast. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not
necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
On July 17th 1983,
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icon to follow us on Facebook.the horror of global nuclear war was
unleashed on Canada when a pair of multi-megaton Soviet ICBM warheads were
airburst over the city of Toronto, destroying the entire metropolitan
Toronto area and most of the neighboring city of York.
This attack followed twelve uninterrupted hours of armed hostilities
between NATO and the Warsaw Pact which started with a Soviet invasion of
West Germany, continued with three tactical nuclear strikes against East
Germany, and ultimately led to retaliatory tactical nuclear attacks by the
Soviets on two West German cities as well as on London, England.
A new thread by Chris OakleyCanadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau, who
was being evacuated to an emergency command bunker in an undisclosed
location when the ICBMs hit Toronto, quickly declared martial law in an
effort to prevent further civil unrest from erupting among the citizens of
Ontario, where massive protests had been going on since the news came of
U.S. cruise missiles being deployed against Soviet military assets in
eastern Europe. On reaching his command bunker, Prime Minister Trudeau
tried to make contact with U.S. President Ronald Reagan only to be told
Reagan and most of his advisors had perished in a Soviet nuclear strike on
Washington, D.C.
On July 18th 1983,
Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau was given his first detailed
debriefing on the nuclear attacks that wiped out Toronto and leveled most
of York.
According to the information given to Trudeau by his top defense advisors,
ground zero for the detonation of the first Soviet nuclear warhead had
been approximately two blocks south of the Royal Ontario Museum; the
extent of the destruction inflicted on metropolitan Toronto was made all
too clear when Trudeau's defense secretary showed him an RCAF
reconnaissance photo of the ruins of the CN Tower. The tower, once
Canada's tallest building, had been reduced to a scorched heap of twisted
metal and shattered glass by the blast wave from the first Soviet ICBM
strike (the Royal Ontario Museum was vaporized in the Soviet attack).
That evening Prime Minister Trudeau finally re-established communications
with the U.S. government and was informed by acting President of the
United States Malcolm Baldrige that shortly after the Soviet ICBM strike
on Toronto American nuclear missiles had destroyed Moscow, Leningrad, and
Kiev; Baldrige, previously Ronald Reagan's secretary of commerce, had been
sworn in as chief executive upon confirmation the deaths of Reagan and
Reagan's vice-president George H.W. Bush. The new president also notified
Trudeau that he was negotiating a cease-fire accord with the provisional
Soviet government and working to secure the withdrawal of surviving Soviet
combat troops from West Germany.

On July 19th 1983,
the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to a cease-fire, ending
the short but catastrophic superpower conflict which had started just 48
hours earlier with the Soviet invasion of West Germany.
The Last Broadcast Part 3: CeasefireUnfortunately for millions of
Europeans and North Americans, the cease-fire came too late: dozens of
cities on both sides of the Iron Curtain had been vaporized in the
exchange of nuclear missiles between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, and many
others were so thoroughly contaminated by radioactive fallout as to be
rendered uninhabitable. New York City was particularly devastated in the
holocaust; at least ten Soviet nuclear warheads were detonated in the
metropolitan New York area in a span of less than thirty seconds.
An article by Chris OakleyBut for all the horrors they'd suffered, the
United States and the Soviet Union had at least been able to retain some
semblance of a national government -- which was more than could be said
for many of their allies. To cite just two examples, Czechoslovakia
collapsed into anarchy within just hours of the first NATO missile
strikes on East Germany and Belgium was literally wiped off the map by
multiple Soviet tactical nuclear weapons. Even China had not been spared
from nuclear destruction -- just before the cease-fire pact was reached,
Beijing and Shanghai were annihilated by what US intelligence believed
to be Soviet submarine-launched missiles.
On July 20th 1983,
in a red hot-line conversation with his fellow Head of State, the Canadian
Prime Minister, President René Lévesque (pictured) verified intelligence
reports received by Pierre Trudeau that the two multi-megaton Soviet ICBM
warheads were launched from the island of Cuba before crossing the
sovereign airspace of the Republic of Quebec and then devastating the
Greater Toronto Area.
Even though the world had reached the very brink of destruction before
stepping back, this shocking discovery was just one of a number of such
revelations that threatened the fragile ceasefire brokered by Acting US
President Malcolm Baldridge. In particular, the destruction of the cities
of Beijing and Shanghai by Soviet submarine-launched missiles just moments
before the ceasefire took effect left White China acutely vulnerable to a
fresh conventional assault from its Communist neighbour Manchuria.
At this critical moment, Canada once again demonstrated its reputation for
international leadership by inviting the heads of government to an
international peace conference in the West Canadian City of Vancouver.
More than a little relieved to escape the madness of their own nations,
these world leaders had hardly settled into the plenary session when they
were shocked by a radical suggestion from Trudeau. If World War One
spawned the League of Nations, and World War Two the United Nations,
perhaps World War Three was the catalist for a World Government based
right here in the only part of the world unaffected by the nuclear
holocause - Vancouver, or "Peace City" as he proposed to rename it.
Author
says to view guest historian's comments on this post please visit the
Today in Alternate History web site.
Chris Oakley, Guest Historian of
Today in Alternate History, a Daily Updating Blog of Important Events In
History That Never Occurred Today. Follow us on
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Imagine what would be, if history had occurred a bit
differently. Who says it didn't, somewhere? These fictional news items
explore that possibility. Possibilities such as America becoming a Marxist
superpower, aliens influencing human history in the 18th century and Teddy
Roosevelt winning his 3rd term as president abound in this interesting
fictional blog.

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