AH challenge: Keep the Cold War as small as possible

[Wolery]

Even in 1945, one could probably see that in any lengthy battle between the USSR and the US, hot or cold, America would almost certainly win. Maybe this made the West complacent, maybe not.

So here's the deal. It is September 3, 1945, and World War II was 24 hours ago. Your goal is to hem in the Red Tide as best you can without the Cold War going hot. In practice this means keeping as many countries out of Soviet orbit or Communist insurgency as possible. For this purpose, say you are more the 'guiding spirit' than actual president, so policies can be implemented as late as the 1990s, assuming either it is neccessary to keep the Russians un-Communist or that somehow a better played Cold War would somehow keep the Communists in the game longer.

I have no idea of what could have been done versus what did happen, so I am not going to comment, but look forward to hearing the ideas of others. Good Luck!

[The Exorcist]

Get Chang to leave Mao alone in Manchuria.

No Korea, no Vietnam, he saves his best troops and pens Mao up in Manchuria... which withers on the vine like East Germany did.

Millions of lives are saved, far less tension all around, and the economic re-birth of Asia happens faster and on a much larger scale than what happened in Taiwan.

How's that?

[Wolery]

That's good but could you explain how A. Chang's move into manchuria was a mistake (pleading igniorance here) and how that would prevent the other many Communist inspired conflicts in Asia.

Also, any ideas on how to make the Commies leave parts of Eastern Europe before the Iron curtain solidifies?

[T. A. Gardner]

1. Reduce lend-lease to the Soviets in certain areas. These would include: Motor vehicles. Send about 25% less.
Discontinue sending any AFV by the end of 1944.
Send no advanced electronics whatsoever like radar. Reduce the amount of high tech resources supplied also.
Supply nothing in the way of small naval vessels and those that do get supplied have no advanced electronics fitted.
Advise late war air crews not to land in Russia under any circumstances. Ditching at sea near a US sub or other ship is made the preferable choice. This prevents the Soviets from getting the B-29 and reverse engineering it. This will greatly slow the Soviet development of long range bombers.
Basically, make the East front move West much slower than it historically did. This won't change things much for the Germans but it makes the front move West far slower. This will also prevent the end of the war in Europe giving the Soviets time to enter the war in the Pacific. Without their invasion of Manchuria the US could end the war there using nuclear weapons.
At the same time it inhibits the Soviets in a number of critical post war technologies.

With the materials not shipped to the Soviets make these available to the Stillwell mission in China. Post war keep Stillwell and the US trained forces intact as a counter to Chinese Maoist forces. This also puts the Japanese in a worse position in China for the late war period.

Guarrentee Polish sovierngty. That is, back a free Polish government. Basically come to no agreement on where the final lines of advance will be. This allows the West to penetrate far deeper into Germany when combined with a slower moving East Front.

The combination result is that Russia plays technological catch up big time with the West. Having pro-Western or neutral states on their border like Yugoslavia and Poland makes their position more tenious and requires maintaining a larger standing army.
In the East, China remains friendly to the West and does not go through the disaster of Mao. Instead, it becomes more of an economic partner to the West in general and a competitor with Japan economically.
Without many advanced technologies the Soviets are scrambling to catch the West and put all their resources into this endevor. They become more of an economic basket case alot quicker.
Even states like Czechslovika and Hungary that might fall under their control will be more likely to revolt and do so successfully.

[The Exorcist]

That's good but could you explain how A. Chang's move into manchuria was a mistake (pleading igniorance here) and how that would prevent the other many Communist inspired conflicts in Asia.
?

Chaing went in and surprised Mao's men before they were ready for a general war. The Soviets had also stripped the infrastructure that the Japanese had spent years building, so all the Comminists had to fight with was Russian cast-offs and what the Japanese had left.

Then George Marshal stepped in and tried to mediate a truce. He forced Chaing to stop and the pause put hsi troops in a terrible position. They were ground down in a war of attrition, and hte war for China was decided in Manchuria.

Without the encouragment of Mao's victory, I doubt Kim In Sung would have gone after South Korea, and without Direct support from just over the border, Ho chi Minh would have a hard time just surviving.

I think the main arena for conflict in this scenario would be India v Pakistan. It might nto take much to make that a much hotter war, or series of wars, or maybe without a Red China just over the mountains, they might have resolved it more quietly.

[bubblehead]

One thing that must be done is that the west must purge itself of communists and socialists in media, academia, press and political spheres. These enablers are the primary reason the Soviet Union was able to co-opt so many other countries without any reasonable western response!

In addition to that, the west (and especially America) needs to do a better job of catching spies. It does no good to try to develop different scenarios if the Soviets steal the atomic weapons secrets anyway. Nuclear USSR scenarios all lead down the same stalemate road, littered with nasty little proxy wars all over the place.