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- World War III for the Layperson
- by Dr. Nhoj Ihcis, New Yale University, Psychohistory Department
-
- In order to understand why the world was engulfed in thermonuclear flames
- on that fateful day of June 5, 2013, we must delve back into the last decade
- of the last millenium, when the two superpowers of the day, the United States
- of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics had finally broken
- through the ideological barrier that had separated them since the short
- lived "Grand Alliance" of the Second World War. In 1997, the two nations
- linked the strategic defense systems they had been developing under the
- MAD (Mutual Assured Defense) Act, and by the year 2000 had reached the
- START II levels of nuclear warheads--500 each. In this atmosphere of
- cooperation, the superpowers forged ahead with their plan to bring the planet
- together under the flag of United Earth. Most of the third and fourth world
- countries of the day gladly joined them in order to get the needed economic
- aid to rebuild their nations after decades of Cold War bickering. The oil
- rich Middle Eastern states, however, unwilling to yield their energy
- supplies to a centralized government, formed the Independent Resistance, and
- announced the possession of a nuclear arsenal captured from Israel after it
- crumbled in 1992 due to a cutoff of U.S. support.
- The world again polarized, with many nations being forced to the IR side by
- depleted United Earth energy supplies. Then, in 2010, UE scientists
- completed the first efficient fusion reactor. The IR found that its main
- economic weapon had become impotent, and in a burst of frustration launched
- all of its nuclear missiles at the largest population centers of the UE.
- The space-based defense system performed admirably, but enough missiles
- reached their targets that the damage was irreversible. Both the UE and the
- IR collapsed to internecine squabbles over the shortage of agricultural
- resources brought on by high radiation levels and a mild nuclear winter.
- The resulting civil wars were nearly as devastating as the nuclear
- attack had been. Vast portions of the world lived for years under terrible
- conditions of starvation, cold, and petty despots. Needless to say, global
- transportation and communication had broken down, so that the centralized
- government was unable to do anything to help, and soon broke down under its
- own beauracratic weight. By the early thirties, in fact, the prewar population
- of 6 billion had dwindled to less than half a million. These years, known
- now simply as the Hungry Time, represent the lowest point in postwar history.
- From then on, industrial and technological production was able to revive to
- approximately the level of the early 1990's. Now, in 2048, the 20 nations of
- the world are ready to make a new start.