inb4 "OTL"
The world being split between two extremes of the political spectrum who consider the other to be pure evil will certainly be a more interesting Cold War than the OTL one was. I'm not really interested in the *how*, though that is obviously important (the question of "do the far-right take control of their countries during the Cold War or before it?" being obviously the most important), of this question as I am in how the consequences of it will be. Obviously, we're going to see a lot less negotiations between the two (nothing like SALT or Detente, unless pragmatism manages to take control of both sides which seems like it needs a lot of luck to do so), a lot more proxy wars and military interventions, and chances of a nuclear war will increase. There is also the question of "Who wins?" Fascists unlike Communists won't embark on radical changes to their countries' economy, or any type of radical reform really, and thus can rely on maintaining some sort of support. Furthermore with their only real opponent being Communists, along with the lack of a Democratic bloc to support liberal movements, it allows them to suppress dissidents with the claim that they were Communists, not being as wrong as IOTL, and with this political suppression means that Communists can't really overthrow the governments of these fascist states. Soviet Communism obviously did have problems - which is why it collapsed - and it can reasonably be said that there is a chance of a Soviet collapse ITTL as well. But with the rising threat of Fascism looming I can imagine that there would be a lot more loyalty towards the Communist system than IOTL, which can probably do well in staving off a collapse for some time if not lasting until today. What is your take on this?
The world being split between two extremes of the political spectrum who consider the other to be pure evil will certainly be a more interesting Cold War than the OTL one was. I'm not really interested in the *how*, though that is obviously important (the question of "do the far-right take control of their countries during the Cold War or before it?" being obviously the most important), of this question as I am in how the consequences of it will be. Obviously, we're going to see a lot less negotiations between the two (nothing like SALT or Detente, unless pragmatism manages to take control of both sides which seems like it needs a lot of luck to do so), a lot more proxy wars and military interventions, and chances of a nuclear war will increase. There is also the question of "Who wins?" Fascists unlike Communists won't embark on radical changes to their countries' economy, or any type of radical reform really, and thus can rely on maintaining some sort of support. Furthermore with their only real opponent being Communists, along with the lack of a Democratic bloc to support liberal movements, it allows them to suppress dissidents with the claim that they were Communists, not being as wrong as IOTL, and with this political suppression means that Communists can't really overthrow the governments of these fascist states. Soviet Communism obviously did have problems - which is why it collapsed - and it can reasonably be said that there is a chance of a Soviet collapse ITTL as well. But with the rising threat of Fascism looming I can imagine that there would be a lot more loyalty towards the Communist system than IOTL, which can probably do well in staving off a collapse for some time if not lasting until today. What is your take on this?