The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest humanity came to nuclear war. One of the reasons that the crisis did not erupt into war was because the Americans had time. The Americans were able to diffuse the situation thanks to this time. However, what if the bomber that spotted the nukes was delayed by a week? With such little time, the world would erupt into war between the USSR and the USA.
Aftermath
Nukes sent mainly affected the Warsaw Pact, as at this point, the USSR had not yet reached nuclear parity with the US. China and the USSR were decimated, while the US was hit with similar devastation as the USSR during WWII. Western Europe was hit with a lot of short-range nukes. The world was partially destroyed. The rebuilding is still occurring half a century later.
This TL is a community timeline. Create a proposal with the {{prop}} template. The world has been devastated, but the US has been the least devastated.