From Regional Bomber War to NATO Escalation and Settlement

Soviet attacks on Britain, France, or their West German bases would make American neutrality very difficult to sustain. Flights and strikes involving Germany would pull more NATO members into the conflict and turn a regional intervention into a general European war. Eisenhower and Khrushchev would probably seek peace before nuclear thresholds were crossed. Damaged and constrained road and rail networks in Eastern Europe would slow Soviet concentration and expose it to air attack, making a rapid decisive advance less plausible. The settlement imagined here removes Nasser and the principal European leaders, places the canal under international control, and leaves the United States with greater influence over both NATO allies and Middle Eastern strategy.