If major nuclear war between NATO and WTO broke out between 1980-84, what countries would have survived? Obviously not every nation would have been nuked deliberately, unless some truly crazy person tries to ensure that humanity never rises from the ashes.
I think that while small pockets of survivors would exist pretty much anywhere (except in extremely hard-hit areas, where practically every square km is nuked), many 3rd-world nations would live on. The amount of conflict in those nations would skyrocket, however, due to radiation, the lack of foreign aid, and influence.
The Middle East, if it does not fight (though its likely that WW3 would've started here), will suffer similar turmoil. Being a desert region, it would starve, with its oil useless. I can see the Middle Eastern people uniting under Islam, however, if put in such a situation. They could end up quite powerful in a postwar environment.
If China does not participate in the conflict, it would suffer from radioactive winds and famine on a scale at least ten times worse than that sustained during the "great leap forward." It is very likely that the entire nation would break up into warring states.
Developed nations that aren't particularly aligned, such as Singapore, Taiwan (not really a developed nation back then but...), Switzerland, or Sweden, might be spared the nuclear attacks but they too would suffer greatly. I can see Japan surviving as well, with maybe the hosted US bases wiped out. But such highly-populated nations like Japan and Singapore would fall into anarchy very quickly, considering they could hope to feed themselves in such a situation.
South America seems like the best place to be during an 80's WW3, since it is not so populated as opposed to most continents, its nations aren't all impoverished, and it would be far away from most of the nuking.
What do you guys think? Pick a country and describe what it looks like after the war, or comment on my statements.
I think that while small pockets of survivors would exist pretty much anywhere (except in extremely hard-hit areas, where practically every square km is nuked), many 3rd-world nations would live on. The amount of conflict in those nations would skyrocket, however, due to radiation, the lack of foreign aid, and influence.
The Middle East, if it does not fight (though its likely that WW3 would've started here), will suffer similar turmoil. Being a desert region, it would starve, with its oil useless. I can see the Middle Eastern people uniting under Islam, however, if put in such a situation. They could end up quite powerful in a postwar environment.
If China does not participate in the conflict, it would suffer from radioactive winds and famine on a scale at least ten times worse than that sustained during the "great leap forward." It is very likely that the entire nation would break up into warring states.
Developed nations that aren't particularly aligned, such as Singapore, Taiwan (not really a developed nation back then but...), Switzerland, or Sweden, might be spared the nuclear attacks but they too would suffer greatly. I can see Japan surviving as well, with maybe the hosted US bases wiped out. But such highly-populated nations like Japan and Singapore would fall into anarchy very quickly, considering they could hope to feed themselves in such a situation.
South America seems like the best place to be during an 80's WW3, since it is not so populated as opposed to most continents, its nations aren't all impoverished, and it would be far away from most of the nuking.
What do you guys think? Pick a country and describe what it looks like after the war, or comment on my statements.