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* TitleDrop: On the eve of the Fire, the writer recalls something his father said.
--> ''My father had come home to watch the president with my mother. I remember that my parents looked very somber, even sad, and my father said, “the angels are weeping now.” We regularly went to the Presbyterian Church, but I do not remember my father mentioning angels before that—or ever again''
--> ''My father had come home to watch the president with my mother. I remember that my parents looked very somber, even sad, and my father said, “the angels are weeping now.” We regularly went to the Presbyterian Church, but I do not remember my father mentioning angels before that—or ever again''
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Changed line(s) 8,9 (click to see context) from:
In the novel, the fateful U-2 spy mission is delayed due to poor weather, leaving the Cubans and Soviets more time to build up their missile sites. The result is a far more dire situation, where Kennedy and his generals feel forced to act much swifter and more harshly, leading to a military invasion and, ultimately, [[NuclearOption a global nuclear exchange]], referred to the writer as "The Fire". Written from the perspective of an unnamed American-born Australian historian decades later, it details how these events happened, the aftermath and how the world can hopefully learn from them.
to:
In the novel, the fateful U-2 spy mission is delayed due to poor weather, leaving the Cubans and Soviets more time to build up their missile sites. The result is a far more dire situation, where Kennedy and his generals feel forced to act much swifter and more harshly, leading to a military invasion and, ultimately, [[NuclearOption a global nuclear exchange]], referred to the writer as "The Fire". Written from the perspective of an unnamed American-born Australian historian decades later, it details how these events happened, the aftermath and how the world can hopefully learn from them.
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[[quoteright:667:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wap.jpg]]
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Changed line(s) 5,6 (click to see context) from:
In the novel, the fateful U-2 spy mission is delayed due to poor weather, leaving the Cubans and Soviets more time to build up their missile sites. The result is a far more dire situation, where Kennedy and his generals feel forced to act much swifter and more harshly, leading to a military invasion and, ultimately, [[NuclearOption a global nuclear exchange]], referred to the writer as "The Fire". Written from the perspective of an unnamed Australian historian decades later, it details how these events happened and how the world can hopefully learn from these events.
to:
In the novel, the fateful U-2 spy mission is delayed due to poor weather, leaving the Cubans and Soviets more time to build up their missile sites. The result is a far more dire situation, where Kennedy and his generals feel forced to act much swifter and more harshly, leading to a military invasion and, ultimately, [[NuclearOption a global nuclear exchange]], referred to the writer as "The Fire". Written from the perspective of an unnamed American-born Australian historian decades later, it details how these events happened happened, the aftermath and how the world can hopefully learn from these events.
them.
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* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The story is told through a textbook written in 1996.
* AllohistoricalAllusion: The United States remains as the world's sole superpower after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It just came decades earlier and took a nuclear war to occur.
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* ApocalypseNot: As devastating as the Fire is, it doesn't prove to be the end of humanity or even civilization itself. Reconstruction takes place not long afterward, and many nations escape nuclear destruction entirely. The United States returns to its pre-Fire GDP by 1976 and its prewar population by 1984.
to:
* ApocalypseNot: As devastating as the Fire is, it doesn't prove to be the end of humanity or even civilization itself. Reconstruction takes place not long afterward, and many nations escape nuclear destruction entirely. The United States returns to its pre-Fire GDP by 1976 Even cities like Chicago, which took several direct hits, are rebuilt and its prewar population by 1984.repopulated.
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* BuryYourDisabled: There's speculation that people in the former Soviet Union kill children born with lower I.Q.'s because they're too much of a burden on the community.
to:
* BittersweetEnding: While hundreds of millions died in the Fire and the consequences are still being felt decades later, the Cold War is long over and the world is recovering.
* BuryYourDisabled: There's speculation that people in the former Soviet Union kill childrenborn with lower I.Q.'s because they're too much of a burden on the community.their communities.
* BuryYourDisabled: There's speculation that people in the former Soviet Union kill children
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* DistantFinale: The story is told through a textbook written in 1996.
* FallenStatesOfAmerica: Averted. While badly damaged, the United States manages to survive as a political entity and remains an important player in global politics, albeit with its position greatly reduced.
* FallenStatesOfAmerica: Averted. While badly damaged, the United States manages to survive as a political entity and remains an important player in global politics, albeit with its position greatly reduced.
to:
* DistantFinale: DoubleBlindWhatIf: The story ends with speculation about what would've happened if the U-2 mission had occurred as planned, and given more time for Kennedy's decision-making. The writer muses on whether the crisis could've been averted and maybe shocked the world away from nuclear war, [[ItWillNeverCatchOn though he remains skeptical of the idea that the Cold War could've ever ended peacefully.]]
-->''To assume such a scenario requires more faith in humanity than I have.''
** Nuclear winter, a term coined in our world in 1983, istold through an obscure concept and only discussed as a textbook written in 1996.
theoretical possibility should the arms race have continued and the war come later.
* EpicFail: A note is made that, out of all the bombs fired at the U.S., only about 10% of them actually reached their targets.
* FallenStatesOfAmerica: Averted. While badlydamaged, damaged by the Fire and a second civil war, the United States manages to survive as a political entity and remains an important player in global politics, albeit with recover, returning to its position greatly reduced. pre-Fire GDP by 1976 and population by 1984. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, it's now become the world's sole superpower, and has dismantled its remaining nuclear stockpile.
-->''To assume such a scenario requires more faith in humanity than I have.''
** Nuclear winter, a term coined in our world in 1983, is
* EpicFail: A note is made that, out of all the bombs fired at the U.S., only about 10% of them actually reached their targets.
* FallenStatesOfAmerica: Averted. While badly
** Despite a brutal nuclear war and outside pressure from the New Commonwealth, Apartheid in South Africa still comes to an end in 1991.
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* LandDownUnder: Australia becomes the new global power after the Fire, with Sydney becoming the new home of the United Nations Headquarters and millions of immigrants from the Northern Hemisphere moving in, including the American-born writer.
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* LandDownUnder: Australia becomes the a new global power after the Fire, with Sydney becoming the new home of the United Nations Headquarters and millions of immigrants from the Northern Hemisphere moving in, including the American-born writer.
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* NuclearMutant: Referenced but ultimately averted. While there exist rumors of children born after the Fire with four legs or psychic powers, there's no evidence for it; fetuses with severe mutations simply don't survive.
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* NuclearMutant: Referenced but ultimately averted. While there exist rumors of children born after the Fire with four legs or psychic powers, there's no evidence for it; fetuses with such severe mutations simply don't survive.survive.
* NuclearWeaponsTaboo: In-universe, understandably. After the Fire, America completely dismantled her remaining arsenal and the United Nations Nuclear Control Commission is on the lookout to ensure no one ever creates another nuclear weapon again.
* NuclearWeaponsTaboo: In-universe, understandably. After the Fire, America completely dismantled her remaining arsenal and the United Nations Nuclear Control Commission is on the lookout to ensure no one ever creates another nuclear weapon again.
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* RapidAging: One of the unforeseen consequences of the Fire was a disease known as Accelerated Growth Syndrome (AGS), which causes people to prematurely age, reaching full maturity around age ten, also causing intellectual disability as the brain fails to fully develop. The results are people who are much YoungerThanTheyLook with I.Q.'s around 60-70.
to:
* RapidAging: One of the unforeseen consequences of the Fire was is a disease known as Accelerated Growth Syndrome (AGS), which causes people to prematurely age, reaching full maturity around age ten, also causing intellectual disability as the brain fails to fully develop. The results are people who are much YoungerThanTheyLook with I.Q.'s around 60-70.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: While unflinching in its depictions of the horrors of a nuclear war and its aftermath, the story falls closer to the idealistic end, as the world recovers and humanity works together to ensure nothing like the Fire ever happens again.
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--> ''There is nothing like a conspiracy theorist to make a professional historian chew on the edge of his or her desk like a beaver driven mad.''
to:
--> ''There is nothing like a conspiracy theorist to make a professional historian chew on the edge of his or her desk like a beaver driven mad.''''
* AWorldHalfFull: On the one hand, the world is still scarred by the Fire, hundreds of millions have died, many cities and cultural treasures have been lost, diseases and genetic disorders are rampant and some hostile factions- such as the white minority government of Rhodesia- still cling to power. On the other hand, the Cold War is long over, nuclear winter didn't happen, humanity has survived and managed to recover, and the United Nations is committed to ensuring nuclear war never happens again. The writer muses that humanity is lucky that nuclear war happened in 1962. Had it come after a bit more proliferation, the damage would've been ''far'' worse.
* WorldWarIII: Natch.
* AWorldHalfFull: On the one hand, the world is still scarred by the Fire, hundreds of millions have died, many cities and cultural treasures have been lost, diseases and genetic disorders are rampant and some hostile factions- such as the white minority government of Rhodesia- still cling to power. On the other hand, the Cold War is long over, nuclear winter didn't happen, humanity has survived and managed to recover, and the United Nations is committed to ensuring nuclear war never happens again. The writer muses that humanity is lucky that nuclear war happened in 1962. Had it come after a bit more proliferation, the damage would've been ''far'' worse.
* WorldWarIII: Natch.
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* BuryYourDisabled: There's speculation that people in the former Soviet Union kill children born with lower I.Q.'s because they're too much of a burden on the community.
* ForWantOfANail: Due to bad weather, the U-2 mission that would've revealed the Cuban missile sites is launched a week late, on October 21.
* ForegoneConclusion: It's made clear from the premise alone that nuclear war is going to happen. We can only learn the chain of events that lead up to it.
* ForegoneConclusion: It's made clear from the premise alone that nuclear war is going to happen. We can only learn the chain of events that lead up to it.
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** While the world manages to recover, large areas of North America, Europe and Northern Asia are still too radioactive to be safely habitable.
to:
** While the world manages to recover, large areas of North America, Europe and Northern Asia are still too radioactive to be safely habitable.habitable for humans. Nature, on the other hand, recovers fairly quickly.
* GiantWallOfWateryDoom: The fate of Pearl Harbor when a Soviet submarine fires a nuclear torpedo at its entrance. This results in a tsunami with fifty-foot waves, not only destroying the harbor facilities but damaging shorelines across the coast for six miles in both directions. The resulting fallout also reaches into Honolulu and kills half the population within two months.
* GiantWallOfWateryDoom: The fate of Pearl Harbor when a Soviet submarine fires a nuclear torpedo at its entrance. This results in a tsunami with fifty-foot waves, not only destroying the harbor facilities but damaging shorelines across the coast for six miles in both directions. The resulting fallout also reaches into Honolulu and kills half the population within two months.
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* ForWantOfANail: Due to bad weather, the U-2 mission that would've revealed the Cuban missile sites is launched a week late, on October 21.
* ForegoneConclusion: It's made clear from the premise alone that nuclear war is going to happen. We can only learn the chain of events that lead up to it.
* GiantWallOfWateryDoom: The fate of Pearl Harbor when a Soviet submarine fires a nuclear torpedo at its entrance. This results in a tsunami with fifty-foot waves, not only destroying the harbor facilities but damaging shorelines across the coast for six miles in both directions. The resulting fallout also reaches into Honolulu and kills half the population within two months.
* ForegoneConclusion: It's made clear from the premise alone that nuclear war is going to happen. We can only learn the chain of events that lead up to it.
* GiantWallOfWateryDoom: The fate of Pearl Harbor when a Soviet submarine fires a nuclear torpedo at its entrance. This results in a tsunami with fifty-foot waves, not only destroying the harbor facilities but damaging shorelines across the coast for six miles in both directions. The resulting fallout also reaches into Honolulu and kills half the population within two months.
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* PersonAsVerb: After the Fire, "Kennedy" and "Khruschev" have both become expletives in their own right.
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* RapidAging: One of the unforeseen consequences of the Fire was a disease known as Accelerated Growth Syndrome (AGS), which causes people to prematurely age, reaching full maturity around age ten, also causing intellectual disability as the brain fails to fully develop. The results are people who are much YoungerThanTheyLook with I.Q.'s around 60-70.
* ReclaimedByNature: Ten years after the Fire, United Nations commissioned teams are sent to investigate the damage in the former Soviet Union. They find large areas of Europe and Northern Asia, while still radioactive, are teaming with plants and wildlife, including bears, fish, and new species of radiotrophic fungi. The writer gets to visit the ruins of Yekaterinburg and sees it overtaken by greenery, now home to moose and birds.
* ReclaimedByNature: Ten years after the Fire, United Nations commissioned teams are sent to investigate the damage in the former Soviet Union. They find large areas of Europe and Northern Asia, while still radioactive, are teaming with plants and wildlife, including bears, fish, and new species of radiotrophic fungi. The writer gets to visit the ruins of Yekaterinburg and sees it overtaken by greenery, now home to moose and birds.
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''When Angels Wept: A What-If History of the Cuban Missile Crisis'' is a 2010 AlternateHistory novel written by Eric Swedin. It posits a simple question: what if the titular crisis had spun out of control?
In 1961, following the failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Fidel Castro feared an invasion by the U.S. was imminent. With the help of his new ally, the Soviet Union, they sneaked into Cuba strategic missiles tipped with nuclear warheads and Soviet troops armed with tactical nuclear weapons. However, an American U-2 spy plane flight would soon find the Soviet missile sites in October 1962, thus sparking the famous missile crisis. For thirteen terrifying days, the world watched nervously as the two superpowers moved toward escalation, holding the world’s fate in their hands. Finally, Nikita Khrushchev blinked. He agreed to withdraw the weapons from Cuba in return for John F. Kennedy’s pledge not to invade the island.
In the novel, the fateful U-2 spy mission is delayed due to poor weather, leaving the Cubans and Soviets more time to build up their missile sites. The result is a far more dire situation, where Kennedy and his generals feel forced to act much swifter and more harshly, leading to a military invasion and, ultimately, [[NuclearOption a global nuclear exchange]], referred to the writer as "The Fire". Written from the perspective of an unnamed Australian historian decades later, it details how these events happened and how the world can hopefully learn from these events.
----
!!''When Angels Wept'' provides examples of:
* TheAlliance: A New Commonwealth is established after the Fire, now including the United States, which petitions to join the United Nations in 1975.
* ApocalypseHow: The Fire is a [[ApocalypseHow/Class0 Class 0]] for most of the Northern Hemisphere. The worst of the damage is in Russia, where it borders on [[ApocalypseHow/Class1 Class 1]]: over ''134 cities'' are nuked, the population is shrunken and starving, and their industrial base is utterly demolished.
* ApocalypseNot: As devastating as the Fire is, it doesn't prove to be the end of humanity or even civilization itself. Reconstruction takes place not long afterward, and many nations escape nuclear destruction entirely. The United States returns to its pre-Fire GDP by 1976 and its prewar population by 1984.
* BalkanizeMe: After the Fire, the Soviet Union's member states break away, while Russia itself fractures into Muscovy and the Siberian Federation.
** With the destruction of Beijing during the Fire, China splinters into a handful of warlord states. The Nationalists launch an invasion from Taiwan and reconquer the Fujian Province, but find themselves unable to press further.
** Inverted with South Korea, who manages to conquer the North after it's hit with 35 American bombs.
* DepopulationBomb: The United States loses 31.5 million- 16.4% of its population- in the two years after the Fire. The Soviet population, meanwhile, drops from 218 million to 74 million- a loss of ''66%''- within five years. Globally, thanks to additional nuclear strikes, famine, disease, radiation sickness and the resulting nuclear cooling, it's estimated that nearly a billion people died.
* DistantFinale: The story is told through a textbook written in 1996.
* FallenStatesOfAmerica: Averted. While badly damaged, the United States manages to survive as a political entity and remains an important player in global politics, albeit with its position greatly reduced.
* TheFederation: Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland unite as the Scandinavian Federation after the Fire.
* ForbiddenZone: In he post-Fire U.S., exclusion zones have been established in a large portion of North Dakota, Amarillo, Texas; and New York City and Long Island, all of which were sites of groundburst nuclear weapons.
* GaiasLament: The environment takes a serious beating during the Fire. The worst of the damage is actually in the stratosphere, where nitrous oxides in the smoke and debris damage the ozone layer, causing it to degrade by 52% in the Northern Hemisphere and 12% in the Southern. Greater exposure to UV rays cause rates of skin cancer in humans and animals to shoot up a thousand fold, and also makes it difficult for plants to grow. In the decades since, it's shown substantial recovery.
** While the world manages to recover, large areas of North America, Europe and Northern Asia are still too radioactive to be safely habitable.
* HistoricalFiction: How the story actually starts out, detailing the real history behind everything from Castro's takeover of Cuba to the early days of the Crisis. It's only in October 1962 that the story moves into AlternateHistory.
* HistoryRepeats: Once Mao and the Chinese Communist Party are wiped out, China enters another Warlord Era.
--> ''Once again Chiang Kai-shek was only one warlord in a country of many, yet this time he did not have a legitimate claim to central power, other than his own claims, which fell on deaf ears.''
* InSpiteOfANail: Lyndon Johnson becomes the 36th president, succeeding the deceased John F. Kennedy.
* {{Irony}}: The Soviet Union is destroyed on November 7, 1962, the forty-fifth anniversary of the end of the Bolshevik Revolution.
* ForWantOfANail: Due to bad weather, the U-2 mission that would've revealed the Cuban missile sites is launched a week late, on October 21.
* ForegoneConclusion: It's made clear from the premise alone that nuclear war is going to happen. We can only learn the chain of events that lead up to it.
* GiantWallOfWateryDoom: The fate of Pearl Harbor when a Soviet submarine fires a nuclear torpedo at its entrance. This results in a tsunami with fifty-foot waves, not only destroying the harbor facilities but damaging shorelines across the coast for six miles in both directions. The resulting fallout also reaches into Honolulu and kills half the population within two months.
* LandDownUnder: Australia becomes the new global power after the Fire, with Sydney becoming the new home of the United Nations Headquarters and millions of immigrants from the Northern Hemisphere moving in, including the American-born writer.
* MonumentalDamage: Inevitably so. During the destruction of Washington, D.C., every building at the National Mall- the White House, the Capitol, the Smithsonian museums, and the presidential monuments- are all obliterated.
* NeverFoundTheBody: Both Kennedy and Khruschev are thought to have died in the destruction of their respective capitals, as their bodies were never recovered.
* NuclearMutant: Referenced but ultimately averted. While there exist rumors of children born after the Fire with four legs or psychic powers, there's no evidence for it; fetuses with severe mutations simply don't survive.
* PoorCommunicationKills: Quite literally in many cases, as Khruschev fails to notify the Warsaw Pact members or China that a nuclear war is underway until bombs start dropping on them.
* SecondAmericanCivilWar: A brief one occurred a year after the Fire, where a highly reactionary New Confederacy emerged in opposition to the pre-Fire Civil Rights Movement. While the world worries the Neo-Confederates might get their hands on any remaining nukes, they're ultimately crushed within three years.
* ShownTheirWork: Swedin himself is a history professor and the story is presented as a legitimate historical textbook, complete with references and cited sources.
* SlidingScaleOfAlternateHistoryPlausibility: A hard-as-diamond Type I. Swedin has said his work is closer to actual history than speculative fiction.
* TakeThat: The writer mentions how, after the Fire, [[ConspiracyTheorist conspiracy theorists]] have accused the United States of being the aggressor and attacking the Soviet Union first, even though the evidence says otherwise, and that any attempt to correct them only leads to you getting accused of being part of the conspiracy.
--> ''There is nothing like a conspiracy theorist to make a professional historian chew on the edge of his or her desk like a beaver driven mad.''
In 1961, following the failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Fidel Castro feared an invasion by the U.S. was imminent. With the help of his new ally, the Soviet Union, they sneaked into Cuba strategic missiles tipped with nuclear warheads and Soviet troops armed with tactical nuclear weapons. However, an American U-2 spy plane flight would soon find the Soviet missile sites in October 1962, thus sparking the famous missile crisis. For thirteen terrifying days, the world watched nervously as the two superpowers moved toward escalation, holding the world’s fate in their hands. Finally, Nikita Khrushchev blinked. He agreed to withdraw the weapons from Cuba in return for John F. Kennedy’s pledge not to invade the island.
In the novel, the fateful U-2 spy mission is delayed due to poor weather, leaving the Cubans and Soviets more time to build up their missile sites. The result is a far more dire situation, where Kennedy and his generals feel forced to act much swifter and more harshly, leading to a military invasion and, ultimately, [[NuclearOption a global nuclear exchange]], referred to the writer as "The Fire". Written from the perspective of an unnamed Australian historian decades later, it details how these events happened and how the world can hopefully learn from these events.
----
!!''When Angels Wept'' provides examples of:
* TheAlliance: A New Commonwealth is established after the Fire, now including the United States, which petitions to join the United Nations in 1975.
* ApocalypseHow: The Fire is a [[ApocalypseHow/Class0 Class 0]] for most of the Northern Hemisphere. The worst of the damage is in Russia, where it borders on [[ApocalypseHow/Class1 Class 1]]: over ''134 cities'' are nuked, the population is shrunken and starving, and their industrial base is utterly demolished.
* ApocalypseNot: As devastating as the Fire is, it doesn't prove to be the end of humanity or even civilization itself. Reconstruction takes place not long afterward, and many nations escape nuclear destruction entirely. The United States returns to its pre-Fire GDP by 1976 and its prewar population by 1984.
* BalkanizeMe: After the Fire, the Soviet Union's member states break away, while Russia itself fractures into Muscovy and the Siberian Federation.
** With the destruction of Beijing during the Fire, China splinters into a handful of warlord states. The Nationalists launch an invasion from Taiwan and reconquer the Fujian Province, but find themselves unable to press further.
** Inverted with South Korea, who manages to conquer the North after it's hit with 35 American bombs.
* DepopulationBomb: The United States loses 31.5 million- 16.4% of its population- in the two years after the Fire. The Soviet population, meanwhile, drops from 218 million to 74 million- a loss of ''66%''- within five years. Globally, thanks to additional nuclear strikes, famine, disease, radiation sickness and the resulting nuclear cooling, it's estimated that nearly a billion people died.
* DistantFinale: The story is told through a textbook written in 1996.
* FallenStatesOfAmerica: Averted. While badly damaged, the United States manages to survive as a political entity and remains an important player in global politics, albeit with its position greatly reduced.
* TheFederation: Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland unite as the Scandinavian Federation after the Fire.
* ForbiddenZone: In he post-Fire U.S., exclusion zones have been established in a large portion of North Dakota, Amarillo, Texas; and New York City and Long Island, all of which were sites of groundburst nuclear weapons.
* GaiasLament: The environment takes a serious beating during the Fire. The worst of the damage is actually in the stratosphere, where nitrous oxides in the smoke and debris damage the ozone layer, causing it to degrade by 52% in the Northern Hemisphere and 12% in the Southern. Greater exposure to UV rays cause rates of skin cancer in humans and animals to shoot up a thousand fold, and also makes it difficult for plants to grow. In the decades since, it's shown substantial recovery.
** While the world manages to recover, large areas of North America, Europe and Northern Asia are still too radioactive to be safely habitable.
* HistoricalFiction: How the story actually starts out, detailing the real history behind everything from Castro's takeover of Cuba to the early days of the Crisis. It's only in October 1962 that the story moves into AlternateHistory.
* HistoryRepeats: Once Mao and the Chinese Communist Party are wiped out, China enters another Warlord Era.
--> ''Once again Chiang Kai-shek was only one warlord in a country of many, yet this time he did not have a legitimate claim to central power, other than his own claims, which fell on deaf ears.''
* InSpiteOfANail: Lyndon Johnson becomes the 36th president, succeeding the deceased John F. Kennedy.
* {{Irony}}: The Soviet Union is destroyed on November 7, 1962, the forty-fifth anniversary of the end of the Bolshevik Revolution.
* ForWantOfANail: Due to bad weather, the U-2 mission that would've revealed the Cuban missile sites is launched a week late, on October 21.
* ForegoneConclusion: It's made clear from the premise alone that nuclear war is going to happen. We can only learn the chain of events that lead up to it.
* GiantWallOfWateryDoom: The fate of Pearl Harbor when a Soviet submarine fires a nuclear torpedo at its entrance. This results in a tsunami with fifty-foot waves, not only destroying the harbor facilities but damaging shorelines across the coast for six miles in both directions. The resulting fallout also reaches into Honolulu and kills half the population within two months.
* LandDownUnder: Australia becomes the new global power after the Fire, with Sydney becoming the new home of the United Nations Headquarters and millions of immigrants from the Northern Hemisphere moving in, including the American-born writer.
* MonumentalDamage: Inevitably so. During the destruction of Washington, D.C., every building at the National Mall- the White House, the Capitol, the Smithsonian museums, and the presidential monuments- are all obliterated.
* NeverFoundTheBody: Both Kennedy and Khruschev are thought to have died in the destruction of their respective capitals, as their bodies were never recovered.
* NuclearMutant: Referenced but ultimately averted. While there exist rumors of children born after the Fire with four legs or psychic powers, there's no evidence for it; fetuses with severe mutations simply don't survive.
* PoorCommunicationKills: Quite literally in many cases, as Khruschev fails to notify the Warsaw Pact members or China that a nuclear war is underway until bombs start dropping on them.
* SecondAmericanCivilWar: A brief one occurred a year after the Fire, where a highly reactionary New Confederacy emerged in opposition to the pre-Fire Civil Rights Movement. While the world worries the Neo-Confederates might get their hands on any remaining nukes, they're ultimately crushed within three years.
* ShownTheirWork: Swedin himself is a history professor and the story is presented as a legitimate historical textbook, complete with references and cited sources.
* SlidingScaleOfAlternateHistoryPlausibility: A hard-as-diamond Type I. Swedin has said his work is closer to actual history than speculative fiction.
* TakeThat: The writer mentions how, after the Fire, [[ConspiracyTheorist conspiracy theorists]] have accused the United States of being the aggressor and attacking the Soviet Union first, even though the evidence says otherwise, and that any attempt to correct them only leads to you getting accused of being part of the conspiracy.
--> ''There is nothing like a conspiracy theorist to make a professional historian chew on the edge of his or her desk like a beaver driven mad.''
