In
Bethesda's has created a surprisingly compelling 'verse with it's
Fallout franchise; About which players like to think and speculate. Below is speculation on the events that lead up to what became the second
Great War. I call it the second, because it had very little to do with either phase of the first.
Hypothetically, the main divergence in
Fallout's history is from the end of the second phase of the first Great War, feel do I. The only reason for the U.S. society to be stuck in the 1950s-60s is if around that time
U.S.S.R.'s
Project Venona was experiencing major success in turning the
U.S. into a statist empire. The factions in America that cherish liberty, would then chose to 'evolve' China into what is their
ideal home.
In a world where they were fully successful, they likely would have amended a new Bill of Rights to include prohibiting the government from claiming 'property' from private citizens and enterprises. They wanted to the first time, but they were afraid it would encourage 'slavery' to last longer in the Americas.
That would leave
China in a problematic situation, as their government would be 'changing' much too slowly to allow for a
Free Market to solve their energy, or later their war'time economic, crisis. However, the changes would exacerbate the 'demand' and thus the prices would be artificially, though temporarily, inflated.
This scenario is only true because governments generically abhor 'giving up' power, after they take it. MoreOver, it would be very ironic if the last president was turned into a ghoul❗️😅
The reason this hypothesis is favored by me, is because it is very ironic to have the U.S. become its own antithesis.
A reason for the U.S. to have start the second Great War is pure arrogance. The
Enclave could have just convinced their
P.o.t.U.S. that their technology would 'prevent' any of China's
I.C.B.M.'s from landing a nuke on American soil. Where as, similar to the war with Japan, nuking key areas of China could make the job of taking mainland China a lot less costly in American lives. The Enclave already convinced P.o.t.U.S. Richardson to sequester himself in their own private "vault" a full year before the nuclear exchange occurred. {An oil platform in the Pacific off the coast of California.}
Another sign of America being 'changed' is the level of
Cronyism of major companies such as
Vault'tec and
Nuka'Cola, think do I. Sure our reality has Cronyism too, but to the level of building hundreds of Vaults? Only a limited portion of the population in a Free Market could afford such an insurance policy. And consumers would have a lot more control over their 'insurance policy' than the what Bethesda has displayed in their
Fallout games and life in the
Vaults.
A basic rule of thumb, is it would take
13k-39k humans to maintain a gene pool of sufficient size to insure a future for the species. Any less introduces a risk to systemic failure of the end populations'
gene pool, and that is far from pretty. Far from a world you want to leave for your great grand children to inherit. Predictably, Hollywood is unable to accept approaching the question with the scientific method, and thus the latest number they like to throw around is 160. Which is outrageously funny because it is horrendously and comically erroneous, think do I.
