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The Fight for Supremacy[]

Vietnam-war-soldier

American soldiers in Argentina

The fight for supremacy between the free world and the unified world continued into the late 1970s and 1980s. Neither side was willing to allow the other an inch of territory, and as tempers flared, it became incredibly dangerous for the world. The nuclear stockpile of both sides continued to grow, and the free world and unified world looked across their borders with increasing antagonism, especially in South America.

Withdrawal from Argentina[]

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Unificadors in an Argentine village

The conflict in Argentina was becoming increasingly unpopular with the American public, especially with President William Colby's escalation of the conflict. Over 400,000 American troops were sent to aid the military junta rulers of Argentina, with Colby issuing a draft to make it happen. Colby's belief that as long as military aid flowed to the Argentine government, the Argentine government would stay in power, didn't take into account that the government was becoming more and more hated by the citizens of Argentina, and the American public's attempts to bring an end to American involvement. Waves of Argentine peasants and workers flocked to the banner of the Argentina Unification Party, known as the Unificadors. The main supplier of aid to the Unificadors was Russia, along with a small coalition of South American nations. The American military forced the rebels to wage a guerrilla war in the forests and pampas of Argentina. With their soldiers struggling to defeat these underground guerrillas, Colby ordered a large scale bombing campaign. Millions of bombs were dropped on suspected locations of rebel camps and villages. Most of the Unificadors escaped this air campaign, and more citizens joined the rebels due to their anger at this campaign.

Protests spread across America to bring an end to American involvement. The Nationalists, under Bob Dole, took victory in the 1980 election and fulfilled his campaign promise of ending the war. The Americans began to withdraw, finishing by 1983. As the Americans left, the Unificadors gained the upper hand. Russia began to limit their aid as well, due to losing interest in the conflict and the struggles following Premier Konev's death. Venezuela soon took over as the main supplier of the Unificadors, and in 1984 declared war on Argentina. The combined armies of the Unificadors and Venezuelans took Buenos Aires and toppled the junta, replacing it with a democratically elected government. Venezuela issued huge loans to rebuild Argentina, and Argentina became heavily reliant on Venezuela. Venezuela soon became the top power in Latin America, and the governments of these nations came to look to Caracas for guidance.

Death of Konev[]

The Middle East in Flames[]

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Anwar Sadat

President Nasser of the Republic of Egypt-Syria passed away in 1975, and many Arabs believed the West was possibly behind his death. Military strongman Anwar Sadat came to power in the Republic soon after, and rode a wave of popular as anti-Western feelings across the Middle East spread. Sadat was incredibly bellicose, and many political experts began to believe a war was brewing in the Middle East. In 1980, Sadat met with President Saddam Hussein of Iraq and Shah Mohammed of Iran and discussed plans to finally remove the West from the Middle East, with or without the backing of Moscow. The armies of these nations had been update and modernized, with Egypt-Syria and Iraq both packing seriously powerful armies, while Iran had a top-notch air force.

The Start of The First Arabian War[]

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Destroyed Palestinian tank in the West Bank

The First Egyptian War began on October 12, 1981 with a massive series of co-ordinated strikes on US-allied nations by the Arabian Alliance, as it came to be called. The Alliance gambled that the United States would be too war-weary from the Argentine War to intervene in the conflict. It worked for a time, as the new American President, Bob Dole, was limited to only aid and not soldiers by Congress. Western attempts to get a UN peacekeeping mission for defense was blocked by the Russians, who were interested in how the war would turn out.

Sadat nationalized the Suez Canal to limit the West's abilities to send aid to their allies. Egypt-Syrian tank armies and infantry's rolled over Palestine's borders in the first weeks of conflict, while Syria maintained a strong defensive border against Turkey and launched missile and aerial strikes at Turkish military bases. Expecting a strong Palestinian tank counteroffensive, the Egypt-Syrian armies were equipped with anti-tank missiles and other rocketry. Egyptian forces took over the West Bank in the first week of conflict, while the much-weaker Syrians had suffered tremendous losses as the Palestinian Air Force and tank divisions overwhelmed the less-equipped Syrian armies. The Palestinians secured the Golan Heights within weeks, and now had a strong defensive border with Syria, allowing it to transport troops to the Egyptian front lines, which were rapidly approaching Jerusalem.

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Iraqi tanks next to a Saudi oil field set ablaze

While the somewhat weak Egyptian air force had trouble with Palestinian and Turkish fighters, the strong Persian air force decimated the Saudi Arabian air force before it could even leave the ground. The Alliance offensive into Saudi Arabia seemed unstoppable at first, as its tanks employed lightning war style tactics to race across Arabian desert. The northern oil fields came under Alliance control in the first month, and from there, the army was split into two, with one group sent to capture the capital of Riyadh, while the other were to capture the important cities of Mecca and Medina. The Battle of Riyadh resulted in an Alliance victory in late November after intense street fighting. King Faisal and his government had fled Riyadh, and now made their office in Mecca, which became one of the last strongholds of Saudi Arabia following the capture of Medina.

Counterattacks[]

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Iranian fighters over Saudi Arabia

One of the things that Egypt-Syria failed to account for was a navy, which allowed the Turkish to quickly establish dominance in the Mediterranean. Most of Turkey was left unharmed, resulting in its modern military quickly mobilizing. The Turks quickly established air superiority in Syria, and began bombing military bases and cities. The Turkish Navy sent troops and supplies to the Palestinians, who managed to stall the Egyptian offensive just outside of Jerusalem. Constant Turkish bombing of the Suez Canal began to prevent Egyptian reinforcements from reaching the front, and the Egyptians were slowly pushed back. By December, the fighting was out of Palestine and now into the Sinai Peninsula. The Egyptians were now on the defensive, and in a daring attack on December 17, the Suez Canal was taken by Turkish/Palestinian forces.

In America, President Dole finally reached a deal with Congress to send peacekeeping troops to Saudi Arabia. Landing in Mecca, the American troops helped hold the stronghold against the Alliance siege. The USAF quickly destroyed the Iranian Air Force, and the undefended Alliance troops didn't bring enough anti-aircraft weaponry due to their belief that they would have total air superiority for the war.

The Alliance Defeated[]

Saudi Arabian with American forces pushed out from Mecca in December, reclaiming Medina in January. A massive tank battle in the desert of Saudi Arabia smashed the Alliance armor and put an end to their lightning war tactics. Riyadh was retaken in January, and Hussein and the Shah realized that the fighting would soon be inside their territories. The Russians hadn't been able to help their Middle Eastern allies, due to the fact that Russian Premier Andrei Kirilenko was busy securing his own reign. Realizing defeat was inevitable, and with Turkish forces breaking into Syria, the Arab Alliance agreed to peace talks in late January. Over 23,000 lay dead, with more than 50,000 wounded.

The Italians hosted the Venice Conference in 1982, and terms were hammered out. Egypt-Syria was to be dismantled, and all four Arab Alliance nations were forced to pay for the destruction they caused. The Arab world responded with anger toward the failure of their leaders, with the assassination of Sadat, unrest in Syria, the near overthrow of Hussein, and a revolution in Iran. Islamic fundamentalism grew even stronger as the defeat was also blamed on the West due to their interference. Anti-Western terrorist groups and armed bands grew even more popular, and terrorists attacks were being carried out in Turkey, Palestine, and Saudi Arabia.

The Recession of 1981[]

Russian Resurgence[]

The "Awakened Bear"[]

Boris Yeltsin

Premier Boris Yeltsin of Russia

Following Kirilenko's death in 1988, a young aspiring politician named Boris Yelstin was chosen as the next Premier of the unified Russian world. Yelstin initially resided over one of the strongest periods in Unitarian history, as the untapped riches of Siberia fueled Russia's economy. Trading and exports boomed, and the income for the average Russian increased tenfold. Yelstin claimed Russia's vast and diverse army could go toe-to-toe with the armies of America, and Yelstin initiated programs with the new wealth to modernize the air force and design more powerful versions of the aging T-72 tank. Yelstin believed the Unitarians were closing in on finally achieving the dream of unifying the world.

Unifying the World[]

After a few decades of Russianization in Eastern Europe and parts of Central Asia, Yelstin believed it was finally time to expand the nation, the first time countries were actually unified to the main Unitarian state. Starting in eastern Europe, Romania was the first nation to be added to the Unified World, as Yelstin called it, in 1990. This was met with alarm in Washington DC, with leaders fearing the loss of buffer states between Russia and the western European members of the Northern Defensive Alliance.

After a "successful" unification, Poland and Hungary were added in 1991, Austria in 1992, and North Germany in 1993. With the borders of Russia proper approaching the Alliance, Western military bases were strengthened, the garrison of American troops in each nation was expanded, and air and navy patrols were increased. Yelstin also expanded Russia's Asian territory, uniting Mongolia in 1992, and the remnants of Iran joined in order to be protected from Iraq's growing power.

The Nationalist Storm[]

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The aftermath of nationalist bombing in Bucharest

The unity of the nations was not at all peaceful, with a resurgence of nationalism in the 1990s. During the first unification with Romania, riots erupted across the nation, which were quickly cracked down by the Unity Forces, which began to grow in power as they needed more men and equipment to crack down on the rising rebel groups. The underground Romanian Front attempted to launch a guerrilla campaign against the new Russian government, but the Unity Forces quickly wiped out the rebellion before it could begin. The Forces executed anyone they found in raids against the Romanian Front, while those who were at the slightest suspicion of being a member of the Front was thrown in jail. Underground movements soon spread across Eastern Europe, resulting in the Warsaw Rebellion of late 1991, where angry nationalists attempting to storm the government offices of Warsaw. The Unity Forces locked down the city and martial law was declared, and a series of mass executions and imprisonments was launched. The Warsaw Rebellion was destroyed quickly by the Unity Forces led by Colonel Vladimir Putin. While information about the rebellion was prevented from reaching the public, across the military, Putin became an important name. Still, despite this crackdown, liberation and nationalist movements were growing. The Russians were also opposed in the Middle East, with several independence groups forming in Iran.

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Khamenei fighters in Afghanistan, 1992

The largest group, led by Ali Khamenei, fought for independence and eventually forming enough power to take back the territories from Iraq. Known as Khamenei's Militia the Western World after the new Governor of Iran proclaiming it was only a "small militia", the Militia quickly expanded across eastern Iran. Moscow denounced the Militia as a terrorist group, and in some eyes it could be seen as such, as they began bombings of civilian targets. The Unity Forces had much less success in the foreign, unwelcoming deserts and mountains of Iran. However, a series of military strikes forced the Militia to relocate to Afghanistan, where they continued to launch strikes across the border. The Afghan was more than welcome to the Militia, and began to fund and supply them, as was feared the Russians would turn their eyes to Afghanistan as a new nation to unify. And Moscow did.

After a refusal by the Afghan government to remove the terrorist group from within their borders, Russian troops rolled over the border in a "peacekeeping mission" in 1991. A week into the invasion, unidentified, masked men wielding Russian equipment and weaponry assassinated the Afghan president and proclaimed themselves to be the new government in charge, and asked to be immediately unified in order to "quell the terrorists inside our borders". The Afghans and the West easily saw through this gambit, and denounced Russia. Yeltsin attempted to ignore the West, and continue the campaign. Funding flooded into the growing rebellion in Afghanistan, from the local nations of Saudi Arabia and Palestine all the way to America itself. The Mujihadeen rebels launched a long guerrilla campaign against the Russians as they attempted to pacify the region. This guerrilla war would last the entire decade as the Unity Forces and Russian army tried to put an end to the rebels. A coalition of rebel forces came together with the Militia to form the Islamic State.

The Second Arabian War[]

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Fundamentalist terrorists in Saudi Arabia

Islamic fundamentalism had been on the rise in the 1980s. Pan-Arabism had grown as well, with the West being blamed for their intervention in the first conflict from a unified Arabian state being created. Terrorist organizations, the most well-known being al-Qaeda, formed, with the goal of pushing out the west. The Ba'ath Party continued to grow as well, preaching anti-western beliefs. The center of all of this was Saddam Hussein, dictator of Iraq. As Egypt declined, Iraq came to the forefront of the Arabian world, boasting new weaponry and tanks supplied by the Russians. Hussein distrusted most of the terrorist groups, instead supplying ones directly loyal to him. Tensions rose between the Western backed nations and Russian backed, especially as terrorist attacks increased. Saudi Arabia was on the verge of breakdown, as Islamic fundamentalists and traditionalists rioted and protested against the modernizing government, with terrorist groups discreetly whipping the crowds into frenzies. In late 1989, Saudi soldiers crossed the border into Iraq to capture terrorist bases suspected of aiding the internal rebels, leading to a confrontation with Iraqi soldiers. War was breaking soon, with the members of the new Arabian League beginning to mobilize their armies.

Early Campaigns[]

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Iraqi tank in Saudi Arabia

The first strike came on June 11, 1990, when Iraq invaded neighboring Kuwait, seizing the small country in a matter of days. The League of Nations condemned the invasion, but Russia blocked any effort to send an intervention against Iraq. The next week, Iraq invaded Saudi Arabia, smashing their outdated armor and weapons. Iraqi planes established superiority, and Iraqi tanks raced across the desert. At the same time, Egypt launched its invasion of Palestine, with Syria and Jordan sent its troops into Turkey. At the same time, Iraqi funded terrorist groups, along with several independent terrorist groups, executed bombings and rocket strikes into civilian centers. Law broke down in Saudi Arabia as civil war broke out between government forces and fundamentalists. In September Iraq captured Riyadh, though pockets of resistance still existed.

The Tech Boom[]

Balkans Crisis[]

The nationalist storm continued to grow as the economy of eastern Europe weakened. The Balkan Union was once tighly unified under the firm grip of Josip Broz Tito, but following his death in 1980, the country had seen the rise of ethnic nationalism by the many ethnics group that inhabited it. The Serbs, led by Slobodan Milošević, had seen the writing on the wall, and began to infiltrate positions of leadership in politics and the military of the Balkan Union. This angered the other groups in the Union, leading to an emergency meeting in September 1996. After much arguing, the Slovenian and Croatian delegates stormed out of the meeting, and a few days later Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence.

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A Balkan People's Army M-84 MBT operating in Slovenia in the opening days of the Balkans War

Backed by the Russians, Milošević assumed powers as the "interim president" of the Union until the crisis could be resolved. Due to its distance, Slovenia managed to slip away, but fierce fighting broke out in Croatia between the Croats and the Balkan People's Army (BPA) which was now run by the Serbs. Russian support soon arrived to support the Serbs, but in October, Bosnia attempted to seceed as well, resulting in a three way civil war between the Muslim Bosniaks, Muslim Serbs, and Catholic Croats. Ethnic cleansing was widespread as men and boys were murdered and men and women were deported from neighborhoods in every state. 

With the backing of Russia, the Union aka Serbia was gaining territory every day, resulting in the Northern Defensive Alliance discreetly sending supplies to aid the rebels. Yelstin authorized the aerial bombing of Croat and Bosniak-held towns, resulting in a massive amount of civilian deaths. To the many nationalist groups forming in Eastern Europe, it was nearing the final straw.

The Collapse[]

The Winter Coup[]

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