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[Twilight Struggle] - Game 8 - Game Over - Reagan Accepts Resignation From The Soviets

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  • PhyphorPhyphor Building Planet Busters Tasting FruitRegistered User regular
    Very annoying

  • stever777stever777 AFK most Saturdays Registered User regular
    Cards dumped by the Shah. 1 returned to the deck, which is reshuffled.

    blockade.jpg?w=640

    The Soviets attempted to increase pressure on the Western allies to dissuade them from creating an independent “West” German government in their zones. The primary pressure point was a blockade of West Berlin. In response, the UK and US launched the Berlin Airlift, which at its peak during the “Easter Parade,” had a cargo plane landing in Berlin every minute.

    missile-envy.jpg?w=640

    A term coined by Dr. Helen Caldicott, it reflects the general feminist critique that the Cold War was driven by male ego with very Freudian undercurrents. When one examines the terminology of “deep penetration” and “multiple reentry” one wonders if she had a point. Caldicott went on to found Physicians for Social Responsibility, and her book became a rallying point within the anti-nuclear movement.

    iranian-hostage-crisis.jpg?w=640

    A violent reaction to traditional US support for the repressive regime of the Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, 65 Americans were held for 444 days after Islamic revolutionaries stormed the US embassy. The newly installed leader of the Iran’s theocracy, Ayatollah Khomeini, was rabidly anti-American and had urged his followers to take action against Western influences. President Carter undertook two scrubbed rescue missions, one of which resulted in a humiliating accident for the US military and for the Carter Administration. Carter’s failure to secure the release of the hostages prior to the end of the 1980 campaign season is often credited with his sizable electoral defeat. Ultimately, Iraq’s invasion of Iran in 1980 made Iran more amenable to ending the crisis. Through the use of Algerian intermediaries, negotiations were finally successful. In a final slap to Carter, the hostages were formally relinquished to US custody on January 21, 1981, minutes after Reagan’s inauguration.

    aldrich-ames-remix.jpg?w=640

    The first known successful penetration of the CIA by the KGB, Aldrich Ames compromised hundreds of CIA operations and provided information that resulted in the execution of 10 US sources. The CIA spent years looking for another explanation for the leaks—in particular the possibility that the KGB had bugged CIA headquarters. Ames’ motivation was not ideological, and he and his wife enjoyed the extravagance that his $2.5 million in bribes provided. Ames first walked into the Soviet embassy in 1985. At that time, he oversaw the analysis of Soviet intelligence operations in Europe.

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  • stever777stever777 AFK most Saturdays Registered User regular
    south-african-unrest.jpg?w=640

    The racist, minority government of South Africa began to be challenged by the African National Congress with Soviet and Cuban assistance from bases in Tanzania and Zambia and other “front-line” states. The era of peaceful resistance formally ended with the massacres in Sharpeville and Langa. For its part, South Africa sought to destabilize its neighbors, and undertook an invasion of Namibia, while also supporting UNITA in Angola and FRELIMO in Mozambique. However, increasing black population, more powerful black trade unions, and hostility from other western nations eventually placed South Africa on the defensive. While the Reagan Administration pursued a policy of “constructive engagement” with the Apartheid government, it remained a controversial proposition. Ultimately, the collapse of the eastern bloc made P.W. Botha’s release of Nelson Mandela inevitable.

    duck-and-cover.jpg?w=640

    The US Congress passed into law the Federal Civil Defense Act, in reaction to the first Soviet tests of nuclear weapons in 1949. Duck and Cover is perhaps the most memorable of a variety of civil defense efforts to raise awareness of nuclear attack. Ironically, such films may have assisted in increasing the possibility of nuclear war by making the possibility of such a conflict “thinkable” by the general public.

    captured-nazi-scientist.jpg?w=640

    Code named “Project Paperclip” in the United States, the victors of World War II scrambled to “recruit” former Nazi scientists into their own research establishments. In the West, such efforts involved shielding scientists from war crime investigations. Perhaps the most famous case is Wernher von Braun who is thought of as the father of America’s rocketry program. Stalin was reportedly confounded by Soviet failure to grab this knowledge base first.

    the-voice-of-america.jpg?w=640

    Formed in 1942 under the War Information Office, the VOA initially broadcast war news into Nazi occupied Europe. In 1947, it altered its mission to begin broadcasting into the Soviet Union. Voice of America has become one of the best known international broadcast efforts in the world. It provided a powerful outside link to the state-controlled media systems of the Eastern Bloc. Together with Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia, Voice of America became a hallmark of US public diplomacy efforts during the Cold War.

    the-china-card.jpg?w=640

    The People’s Republic of China played a pivotal role during the Cold War. While the PRC’s influence was largely limited to satellites in Asia, the country was important to the uneasy balance of power that ultimately descended upon the post-WWII world. While beginning as an ally of the USSR, China became a counter-balance to Soviet influence in Asia during the later stages of the Cold War.

    an-evil-empire.jpg?w=640

    First used by President Ronald Reagan before the National Association of Evangelicals, conservatives applied the term “evil empire” to the Soviet Union. This change in terminology encapsulated the conservative movement’s rejection of Nixon’s morally ambiguous policy of detente. The speech sparked controversy within the NATO alliance, as many European leaders found the speech unnecessarily provocative. Domestically, the left argued that the United States had no room to criticize Soviet actions during the Cold War, and pointed to CIA involvement in places like Chile. The speech gave further indication that the last phase of the Cold War would be a confrontational one.

    our-man-in-tehran.jpg?w=640

    Replacing his deposed father, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi was central to first British and then American plans for the Middle East. While Pahlavi undertook the mantle of western reformer, he often chafed under neo-imperialist economic relationships, particularly where oil was concerned. Nevertheless, Iran’s oil wealth spurred Pahlavi into the center of global geopolitics and his association with the United States was vital for both nation’s positions in the region. However, whatever outward elements of reform Iran projected, Pahlavi also used a brutal internal police force, the SAVAK, and turned despotic and megalomaniacal in the later years of his reign. This was all the opening required for Iran’s seething revolutionary elements.

    aFLUobm.jpg
    * DefCon to 3.
    * Coups and realignments now allowed in MiddleEast.


    PM me your Headline cards for the Reagan turn.

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  • stever777stever777 AFK most Saturdays Registered User regular
    Headlines chosen. U.S. has higher Ops so American event goes first:

    grain-sales-to-soviets.jpg?w=640

    In 1973, difficult climatic circumstances and dramatic crop failures prompted President Nixon to allow for massive grain sales to the Soviet Union. While a blow to Russian pride, the program was nevertheless a step towards normalized relations between the superpowers. Additionally, it provided an enduring domestic lobby to pressure for continued thawing in economic relations between the two countries. In 1980, President Carter suspended the program in retaliation for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Shipments were resumed a year later under President Reagan. This culminated in a treaty with the Soviets, with the Soviets promising to buy 9 million tons of US grains per year.

    europe-scoring.jpg

    Some Cold War historians view the entire struggle, costing millions of lives, untold trillions of dollars, and conflict around the globe, as a struggle for the future of Germany. While that view may be too myopic, it is clear that Europe always remained in the forefront of strategy and emphasis. Defeat in Europe ultimately meant defeat in the Cold War.



    Card drawn.


    muslim-revolution.jpg?w=640

    As secular Arab and Muslim states throughout the Middle East displayed corruption, repression and incompetence, more radical forms of Islam began to come to the fore. The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt, sought to topple the secular regime there and in Syria. This led to further cycles of repression and authoritarian rule within these countries. A similar cycle took place in Iran under Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. A long standing regional ally of the United States, and the West generally, the Shah was deposed by a popular revolution led by the anti-western Ayatollah Khomeini. This ushered in the world’s first contemporary theocracy. Iran’s Mullahs would spend the rest of the 20th Century in efforts to export their revolution to other Shia Muslim communities.

    Americans to decide what to do with the Muslims.

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  • PredaPreda Registered User regular
    I send the muslims back home and use the 2 grain ops to Coup Nigeria

  • PredaPreda Registered User regular
    Geth, roll 1d6

    1d6 1 [1d6=1]

  • PredaPreda Registered User regular
    1 inf less for URSS there, 5 points to me for europe, and @Phyphor‌ first AR

  • stever777stever777 AFK most Saturdays Registered User regular
    nScm8mj.jpg

    Soviet AR 1

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  • PhyphorPhyphor Building Planet Busters Tasting FruitRegistered User regular
    edited August 2014
    Oh wait you didnt use it. NEvermind

    Phyphor on
  • PhyphorPhyphor Building Planet Busters Tasting FruitRegistered User regular
    Yeah, USSR resigns

  • PhyphorPhyphor Building Planet Busters Tasting FruitRegistered User regular
    The best I can hope for at the end of this turn is to put SA scoring even and prevent your africa domination, but I barely have the ops for the first and I still lose final scoring overall at -3/4

  • stever777stever777 AFK most Saturdays Registered User regular
    Russian hand -

    wR62qhC.png

    US hand -

    zFf4LB0.png

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  • stever777stever777 AFK most Saturdays Registered User regular
    GG, guys!

    Poor Soviets.
    Gorby couldn't make Glastnost work.

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  • PhyphorPhyphor Building Planet Busters Tasting FruitRegistered User regular
    My hands:

    pifly1F.png
    OFbC89R.png
    pFegM9b.png
    TiZ6Pg7.png
    GBzUrnx.png
    fagHsvS.png
    YN8FUaO.png
    ZBmq2Js.png

    You can see where it started to go downhill

  • PredaPreda Registered User regular
    GG @Phyphor‌ , but heavily influenced by luck. Excluding turn 4 and 5 I always had point heavy hands of card (the last one was scandalous...) and while I had my share of red card, I never got the ones hard to dispose of, while your hands...

    As always thanks to @stever777‌ for hosting!

  • PhyphorPhyphor Building Planet Busters Tasting FruitRegistered User regular
    Yeah, I think I worked it out to be consistently 2-4 raw ops per hand more and I always had many more cards that needed spacing, you had one bad hand that I could see but you could ask not that one

    Thanks stever, I guess I didn't do too terrible for my first game

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