What if the Soviets won the Cold War: Part five, the peaceful war

     Yanayev's new plan for the destruction of the NATO allies was different than his predecessor. Whilst Malenkov planned to destroy NATO militarily, Yanayev planned to militarily crush the USA, Yanayev planned on destroying their economy to the point of either communist control or total civil war. When he got sworn in by the Supreme Soviet, Yanayev immediately announced a 2 billion dollar increase in the military budget. This then meant that the Kenedy administration, already struggling with a debt crisis, now had to take out lots more money to match the communists. Not only that, but the Soviets announced on March 10th, 1971, that before the year ended, the communists would create a permanent manned military base on the moon by 1980. Now Kenedy had to promise the same, right before the new election.

   

     The 1971 war between Hindustan and Pakistan led to a quagmire, leading to a four-year-long war, resulting in the Pakistanis losing East Pakistan, and the region of Kashmir being secured by the Revolutionary Hindu Army. However, no land could be gained in mainland Pakistan, resulting in the 1975 peace of Karachi led to Hindustan securing Bengal and Kashmir, and Pakistan gaining large amounts of debt. Shripad Amrit Dange, leader of the CPI, after the war, decided to join the Warsaw pact. For Pakistan, their government flipped to radical Jihadism, resulting in a radical Islamic state.

    In 1972, JFK lost his bid for re-election to the libertarian-conservative Barry Goldwater. Goldwater was strongly anti-communist and supported total government overthrow of the Soviet Union, as well as the combination of France and Japan under their capitalist regime. This led to the 1973 failed coup of NATO-backed tsarists revolted in Kazan, resulting in 400,000 executions and the first time DEFCON had been raised to 2 since the Cuban missile crisis. Yanayev took a far more ambitious plan in the NATO allies, resulting in the Marxist coup of Portugal in 1973 (lasting two days), and the communist party winning the election of 73' in Brazil, resulting in a permanent socialist state in the area.

   

    This new communist Brazil was able to achieve "revolution by the ballot box" resulting in the PCB winning the 1973 election. The new nation immediately joined Moscow and started spreading its influence throughout Central America, via collaboration with Shining Path. Now, with a hotbed of Marxist-Leninism in their back yard, Goldwater had to start worrying. This was heavily elevated when Panama was facing strong socialist tendencies, resulting in an American declaration of war, leaving a new friendly administration near the Panama canal.

    The strongly unpopular Goldwater, who was wildly hated due to the removal of social security and Medicare, as well as reduced spending overall, left to him getting assassinated by a revolutionary Marxist in a visit to Detroit over the floundering car business. The Soviets became ecstatic when the far less radical David Hertson, a southern senator from Alabama who was very anti-interventionist. This meant that A.) the Soviets could meddle more in foreign policy, and B.) the strongly anti-conservative left now went from Anarchist socialism to Communism. In polls from the era, 38% of all Americans were in the CPUSA, with 5 Senate seats and 57 representatives being in the party. The new head of the party Earl Browder, pushed very hard into urban areas and the steel belt, resulting in the mass strike of May 4th, 1973, leading to almost a million steel, gas, and transport workers going on strike. This resounding catastrophe resulted in the oil crisis of 73', with gasoline going up to $6.40 a gallon.

    In the 1974 midterms, Hertson stepped down from office, naming his VP, Ronald Regan as his replacement. The democratic candidate was unpopular, and Regan won with a narrow majority. Regan then started cutting taxes and increasing American foreign power. This led to the second space race over putting a permanent base on the moon. On February 9th, the American Space Agency would land a lunar mission on the moon. The same year, the Soviets would host their third and would proclaim that every may-day, a lunar mission would occur. And on May 5th, 1975, the USSR launched the first permanent base on the moon, manned by 12 people at the same time. The Americans would do something similar the following year.

   

    On January 12th, the Irish Civil War officially broke out throughout the Irish island. The IRA, now officially a Communist organization, occupied much of the island, and would inevitably win the war by 1976. This resulted in New Labour being elected in the UK and resulted in Scottish independence. New Labour granted independence to all English colonies and abolished the monarchy. Both of these new nations would go towards radical Socialism, leading to them both leaving NATO.

    After this fall-out, the Americans immediately banned their Communist party. This looked terrible for the Regan administration getting shot down by the Foster vs. Regan administration, resulting in the ban of the CPUSA being deemed unconstitutional. This led to the greatest growth in Communist party membership, leading to 39% support. On May 18th, Regan got shot four times by a communist extremist. One of these shots punctured his lung, leading to his death just two days later. 

    In 1976, the Democrat Jimmy Carter got elected to the presidency, he was unpopular but pushed for a unification of the two political parties in his platform. The issue was, no one could decide on who to leave, resulting in the idea getting shot down. A day after his inauguration, a giant riot in Philidelphia left 210 dead, including the mayor. This was shown by the new administration as an act of communist aggression trying to set the new administration up to fail (in all fairness, it probably was). Nevertheless, Carter was a very unpopular leader, being seen as a failure on economic and social policy.

    On June 5th, 1979, the Soviets tested the Molot revolyutsi, the most powerful atomic bomb ever detonated. It flattened so much land in the Siberian wilderness, people in Vladivostok could hear it, and the reaction could be seen from space. This event was much propagandized, and was seen as the beginning of the end for American super-power status.